Haiti - Politic : The UN ready to help with the elections Following the presentation by Helen La Lime, head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), of the report on the situation in Haiti, she declared to the members of the Security Council by videoconference "[...] The polarization that has defined much of President Jovenel Moise's tenure has become even more acute, because civic space shrinks and acute food insecurity grows. Haiti has been in the throes of a new crisis since Parliament ceased to function in January 2020, leaving the President to postpone the elections and rule by decree [...]" stressing that "Only a renewal democratic process, resulting from the rapid holding of credible, transparent and participatory elections, can give Haiti the opportunity to overcome its protracted political crisis. This would allow Haitian society and leaders to focus their attention on implementing the economic and governance reforms that are necessary to put the country back on the path to sustainable development [...]" Participating in the meeting from Port-au-Prince, President Moise defended his administration https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33083-haiti-flash-intervention-of-president-moise-before-the-un-security-council.html claiming that it was facing not only the Covid-19 pandemic, but also "corrupt oligarchs" and a "radical and violent opposition" who tried on several occasions a coup, adding however that "the legislative elections which should have taken place originally in October 2019 will take place in September 2021." Moise, said his presidential term ends in 2022, five years after taking office. But his opponents, citing the Constitution, say his tenure began in the 2016 election and the time has come for him to step down. La Lime, said the opposition has failed to mobilize a large audience in its campaign to oust the President. But she noted that a series of presidential decrees prompted judges to go on strike and threatened civic space by an overly broad definition of terrorism at a time when approximately 4.4 million Haitians will need humanitarian aid this year. In this volatile environment, preparations for this years elections and a constitutional referendum continue. But the UN envoy warned that much remains to be done and the vote could be delayed due to a lack of international funding "[...] Above all, minimal consensus among the political actors concerned would go a long way in creating an environment conducive to the holding of the constitutional referendum and subsequent elections" adding that the United Nations stood ready to assist. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33101-haiti-un-declaration-by-france-to-the-security-council-on-the-situation-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33095-haiti-un-intervention-of-the-united-states-at-the-security-council-on-the-situation-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33083-haiti-flash-intervention-of-president-moise-before-the-un-security-council.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33058-haiti-un-human-rights-violation-very-concerning-indicates-the-binuh-report-on-the-situation-in-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33046-haiti-un-mounting-insecurity-indicates-binuh-report-on-the-situation-in-haiti.html HL/ HaitiLibre Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Updated: Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. The Oregon Health Authority reported 437 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday. The agency also reported 32 new deaths. The new figures were announced as two restaurants on the Oregon coast were fined for willfully exposing their workers to the virus, as well as other COVID-19 violations. The restaurants, both in Florence, face a combined total of nearly $36,000 in fines. A state investigation found that The Little Brown Hen, a Florence cafe, had been operating indoor dining since at least Dec. 26, despite being in an extreme risk county at the time. Several protesters, including one carrying a gun, threatened inspectors at the door on Jan. 4 and followed them to their cars, a state news release on Tuesday said. The restaurant was fined $17,800. The state also announced Wednesday that it had fined the Firehouse Restaurant for similar conduct, placing its employees at risk despite a temporary ban on indoor dining in Lane County. Inspectors also found some residents were encouraging people to threaten or harm compliance officers if they inspected the restaurant, according to a news release from Oregons Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The restaurant was fined $18,150. Where the new cases are by county: Baker (6), Benton (22), Clackamas (38), Clatsop (6), Columbia (10), Coos (16), Crook (8), Curry (1), Deschutes (28), Douglas (28), Jackson (27), Jefferson (7), Josephine (20), Klamath (4), Lane (33), Lincoln (2), Linn (6), Malheur (3), Marion (33), Morrow (5), Multnomah (55), Polk (11), Sherman (1), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (15), Union (1), Wasco (1), Washington (41) and Yamhill (6). Who died: Oregons 2,163rd death linked to coronavirus is a 69-year-old Clackamas County man who tested positive Dec. 21 and died Jan. 6 at Providence Portland Medical Center. The 2,164th fatality is an 89-year-old Clackamas County woman who tested positive Jan. 19 and died Jan. 30 at her residence. The 2,165th fatality is a 67-year-old Clackamas County woman who tested positive Jan. 19 and died Feb. 2 at Providence Portland Medical Center. The 2,166th fatality is an 89-year-old Clackamas County woman who tested positive Jan.9 and died Jan. 28 at her residence. The 2,167th fatality is a 51-year-old Clackamas County woman who tested positive Jan. 11 and died Jan. 29 at Providence Portland Medical Center. The 2,168th fatality is a 71-year-old Coos County woman who tested positive Feb. 1 and died Feb. 17 at PeaceHealth Sacred Health Medical Center at Riverbend. The 2,169 fatality is a 74-year-old Douglas County woman who tested positive Feb. 1 and died Feb. 17 at her residence. The 2,170th fatality is a 93-year-old Jackson County man who tested positive Jan. 13 and died Feb. 3 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. The 2,171st fatality is an 87-year-old Jackson County woman who tested positive Dec. 30 and died Feb. 23 at her residence. The 2,172nd fatality is a 91-year-old Lane County woman who tested positive Feb. 23 and died the same day at her residence. The 2,173rd fatality is a 68-year-old Lane County woman who tested positive Dec. 24 and died Jan. 28 at her residence. The 2,174th fatality is a 58-year-old Marion County woman who died Jan. 23 at Oregon Health & Science University. Her death certificate listed COVID-19 as a cause or significant contributing factor in her death. The 2,175th fatality is an 86-year-old Marion County woman who tested positive Jan. 2 and died Jan. 23 at her residence. The 2,176th fatality is a 77-year-old Morrow County woman who tested positive Jan. 30 and died Feb. 6 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. The 2,177th fatality is an 80-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Jan. 4 and died Jan. 22 at his residence. The 2,178th fatality is a 67-year-old Multnomah County woman who tested positive Jan. 5 and died Feb. 16 at her residence. The 2,179th fatality is a 74-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Jan. 15 and died Jan. 21 at his residence. The 2,180th fatality is an 82-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Jan. 12 and died Feb. 5. Officials were working to confirm where he died. The 2,181st fatality is a 77-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Jan. 11 and died Jan. 31 at Providence Portland Medical Center. The 2,182nd fatality is a 90-year-old Multnomah County woman who tested positive Jan. 7 and died Jan. 24 at her residence. The 2,183rd fatality is an 82-year-old Multnomah County woman who tested positive Dec. 31 and died Jan. 10 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. The 2,184th fatality is a 90-year-old Multnomah County woman who tested positive Dec. 18 and died Feb. 5 at her residence. The 2,185th fatality is an 88-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Nov. 4 and died Dec. 31 at her residence. Officials were working to confirm where he died. The 2,186th fatality is an 89-year-old Linn County man who tested positive Jan. 24 and died Feb. 5 at his residence. The 2,187th fatality is a 77-year-old Washington County man who died Feb. 2 at his residence. His death certificate listed COVID-19 as a cause or significant contributing factor in his death. The 2,188th fatality is a 97-year-old Multnomah County man who became symptomatic Dec. 29 after contact with a confirmed case and died Jan. 6 at his residence. The 2,189th fatality is a 92-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Jan. 28 and died Feb. 4 at Providence Portland Medical Center. The 2,190th fatality is an 83-year-old Wasco County man who tested positive Nov. 18 and died Feb. 17 at Mid-Columbia Medical Center. The 2,191st fatality is an 84-year-old Washington County woman who tested positive Dec. 9 and died Dec. 31 at her residence. The 2,192nd fatality is a 93-year-old Washington County man who tested positive Jan. 12 and died Jan. 26 at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center. The 2,193rd fatality is an 88-year-old Yamhill County woman who died Jan. 7 at her residence. Her death certificate listed COVID-19 as a cause or significant contributing factor in her death. The 2,194th fatality is a 91-year-old Yamhill County woman who tested positive Feb. 15 and died Feb. 20 at her residence. Unless noted above, each person who died had underlying health conditions or state officials were working to determine if the person had underlying medical conditions. Prevalence of infections: The state reported 417 new positive tests out of 15,528 new tests performed Wednesday. Thats a 2.6% positivity rate. Who got infected: New confirmed or presumed infections grew among the following age groups: 0-9 (34); 10-19 (63); 20-29 (86); 30-39 (64); 40-49 (58); 50-59 (42); 60-69 (39); 70-79 (21); 80 and older (8). Whos in the hospital: The state reported 162 Oregonians are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, three fewer than Tuesday. There are 46 coronavirus patients in intensive care, two more than the previous day. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close HARTFORD An individual suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a shooting Wednesday night, according to police. Patrol officers responded to Winter Street around 7:20 p.m. for a ShotSpotter gunfire activation. Police said while officers were en route, a hospital reported the arrival of a gunshot wound victim, who had been privately transported. The victim suffered apparent non-life-threatening injuries and was listed in stable condition later Wednesday night, police said. Investigators are still piecing together what led up to the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call the tips line at 860-722-8477. The on Thursday slammed the Centre saying that on the one hand it called for a boycott of Chinese products and banned some apps of that country after the border standoff, on the other hand the neighbouring country emerged as India's top trading partner in 2020. The party also said that while the government is once again laying a red carpet for Chinese firms, it should not forget that is an "untrustworthy and unreliable" neighbour. "The border tension between India and de- escalated last week. The tension in trade ties between the two countries also looks set to reduce. There is a possibility that 45 Chinese companies will be given permission to work in India. In short, the tough stand taken by the Modi government after the COVID-19 outbreak towards the Chinese companies and their investment seems to be easing," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. Politics and diplomatic relations with other countries keep changing as per the circumstances, it said. "But is it a just coincidence that the Centre has softened its stand towards the Chinese trade after the de- escalation of tension on the border?" it asked. Over the last eight months, the border conflict had turned severe. After the Chineseaggression, fierce conflict in the Galwan Valley, India and reached an agreement on disengagement in eastern Ladakh last week. But soon after that it emerged that the trade ties between the two countries are thawing, it said. The Uddhav Thackeray-party said that China is the most "unreliable and untrustworthy" neighbour and though it has taken a soft stand on the border for its trade, it can again start its troublesome actions on the border once its purpose is achieved. Last year, India banned 59 Chinese apps including Tik-Tok. Some trade agreements with China were cancelled, curbs were imposed on the Chinese investment in India and 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and nationalism were promoted, it said. "The Modi government blew its trumpet about how they blocked China...So what exactly happened in the last eight months that red carpet is being laid for 45 Chinese firms now?" it asked. Citing the provisional data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Sena said it is a fact that China has returned as the top trade partner of India in 2020. "So after the ministry's data, it is now clear that big balloons filled with nationalistic air about banning Chinese products, apps, call for Swadeshi, have now burst," the editorial said. "In a nutshell, as soon as China pulls back from the border, our government gives it a go-ahead (to do business in India). But the Centre should not forget that China is an untrustworthy neighbour," the Sena said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pretoria (South Africa) Feb 24, 2021 (SPS) - African movements of solidarity with the Sahrawi people organized an African Virtual Conference to Commemorate the 45th Anniversary of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on Wednesday called the AU to quickly intervene to protect Sahrawi civilians from Moroccan violations and put an end to the Moroccan illegal occupation of Western Sahara. Composed of African dignitaries and representatives of political parties, trade unions, civil society and academics from 45 countries, the participants expressed their steadfast and unwavering support to the legitimate struggle of the people of the Sahrawi Republic for freedom and independence. They called on all Pan-Africanists, who love freedom and peace, to stand by the people of this last colony because Africa will never be free as long as one of our nations is occupied and brutalized. They urged all African countries, political parties, trade unions, civil society, NGOs, Academia, youth and women organizations and the media to give more visibility and shed light on the heroic resistance of the Sahrawi people. The Virtual Conference supports the decision of the 34th AU Summit of Heads of States and Government held on 6 February 2021 that maintains the issue of Western Sahara as a standing item on its agenda. They also called the United Nations (UN) to fulfill its promise to the people of Western Sahara 60 years ago, and organize the long-awaited referendum on self-determination so that the Sahrawi people can decide their future.SPS The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Top leaders in the Colorado Republican Party are doubling down on the baseless idea that voter fraud cost former President Trump the 2020 election. Why it matters: The Colorado GOP is embracing the same debunked claims of a stolen election that helped propel a mob of Trump supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Republican state lawmakers cited the potential for fraud as the reason they introduced a handful of bills that would make it harder to vote. The top contenders for Colorado GOP chair, former Secretary of State Scott Gessler and current party vice chair Kristi Burton Brown, are advocating for a recount of the 2020 vote and review of the Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Colorado. Gessler, who worked with the Trump campaign on legal challenges in Nevada and Pennsylvania, recently wrote on Facebook that "a full and complete investigation will prove widespread election fraud. And maybe show that President Trump rightfully won the election!" Reality check: Colorado's voting system is considered one of the safest in the nation because it conducts risk-limiting audits that double-check the vote counts and machine integrity. Outgoing Colorado GOP chair Ken Buck, a Windsor congressman, says Trump deserves some blame for the riot and doesn't believe fraud altered the state's election results. Outgoing Colorado U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, who was appointed by Trump, told The Colorado Sun he had concerns about misinformation from the president's team about the election. Our thought bubble: The state's most fervent Republican activists remain loyal to Trump, according to polls, so it's no surprise to see the issue define the race for the Colorado party's next leader. "It will be dominated by Trump loyalists who believe the election was stolen, including here in Colorado, and (this) plays into their most basic fears and conspiracy theories," said Dick Wadhams, a former state party chair. Flashback: In December, an internal GOP investigation led by Gessler dismissed a complaint about its party caucuses in despite evidence of fraud. This story first appeared in the Axios Denver newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster on the most consequential news unfolding in their own backyard. Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. The Canadian Press As COVID-19 vaccine supplies ramp up across the country, most provinces and territories have begun planning to give second doses in the coming weeks. More than 23 million people across Canada have now had at least one dose of a vaccine. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says by the summer, Canada will have enough vaccines so that every eligible resident will have gotten their first dose, and by September, it will have enough doses for everyone to be fully vaccinated. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has recommended that Canada turn toward the ultimate goal of fully immunizing the population, now that supplies of COVID-19 shots are increasing. The advisory panel said those at highest risk of dying or becoming severely ill should be prioritized for second shots, either after or alongside first doses for anyone else who is eligible for a vaccine. Since the novel coronavirus is still circulating in Canada, NACI is still recommending that the second dose be received up to four months after the first dose, in order to maximize the number of people who get at least one shot. Here's a list of the inoculation plans throughout Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador All people in the province aged 12 and older can now book an appointment for a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. So far 2.19 per cent (11,446) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Nova Scotia Appointments for an initial COVID-19 vaccine shot are now open to people 12 years of age and older. Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is the only one approved for use in children aged 12 and up. The Moderna vaccine is only available for those 18 and older. Under the province's accelerated vaccine plan, someone who received their first dose of vaccine on March 22 and is due for a second dose on July 5 will now be able to reschedule their second appointment for as early as the week of June 20. The province has stopped the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine as a first dose. The Health Department says the decision was based on "an abundance of caution'' due to an observed increase in the rare blood-clotting condition linked to this vaccine. The department also says it will reschedule anyone who was to receive AstraZeneca to instead be inoculated with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna "in a timely manner." --- Prince Edward Island In Prince Edward Island, residents as young as 16 can book a COVID-19 vaccine. People 16 years and older who have certain underlying medical conditions, pregnant woman and eligible members of their household can also get a vaccine. So far 8.11 per cent (12,868) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- New Brunswick Residents in New Brunswick aged 12 to 17 are now eligible to book an appointment for a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Officials also say residents 55 and older who received an Astra-Zenaca vaccine for the first dose at least eight weeks ago can now get a second dose of the vaccine with informed consent. So far 5.08 per cent (39,633) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Quebec In Quebec, all residents 12 and older can book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment. The province's health minister says Quebecers 12 to 17 years old will be fully vaccinated by the time they return to school in September. Quebec also says it will shorten the delay between first and second doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to eight weeks from 16 weeks. The province says more than 5.8 million doses of vaccine have now been administered, with more than 58.1 per cent of the population having received at least one dose. --- Ontario All adults in Ontario can now book COVID-19 vaccine appointments. People turning 18 in 2021 can book Pfizer-BioNTech shots. Youth aged 12 and older can also book appointments across Ontario. They can book through the provincial online portal, call centre and through pharmacies offering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the only shot authorized by Health Canada for use in youth aged 12 and older. Ontarians, meanwhile, are getting the option to shorten the interval between COVID-19 vaccine doses. Most people are being scheduled for doses four months apart, but officials say the new interval could be as short as 28 days. The plan will start with seniors aged 80 and older this week and the province will later offer second shots based on when people received their first. People will keep their original appointments if they dont re-book. The province aims to see all eligible Ontarians fully vaccinated by the end of September. Ontario is also resuming use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine but only as a second dose. Those who received the first dose of AstraZeneca between March 10 and March 19 during a pilot project at pharmacies and some doctor's offices in several Ontario communities will be first in line to receive their second dose. Ontario says more than 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered across the province. So far 4.68 per cent (687,894) of the population has been fully vaccinated --- Manitoba Manitoba is using the Pfizer vaccine for everyone aged 12 and up, and the Moderna vaccines for people aged 18 and up. These are available through a few channels including so-called supersites in larger communities. The province is also allowing anyone 40 and over to get an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through pharmacies and medical clinics, subject to availability. People 30-39 can get a shot if they have certain underlying health conditions such as chronic liver failure or severe obesity. The province has opened up second-dose appointments to all Indigenous people aged 12 and up, to people with certain medical conditions such as severe heart failure and Down syndrome, and anyone who received their first dose on or before March 29. Provincial health officials say they now expect 70 per cent of Manitobans aged 12 and older to get a dose by the end of June. So far 7.75 per cent (106,678) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Saskatchewan Saskatchewan says it reached the step two threshold of its reopening roadmap released last week, with over 70 per cent of residents age 30 and older having received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That means restrictions will begin to be relaxed June 20, which includes easing capacity limits on retail, personal care services, restaurants and bars, although they must still maintain physical distancing among occupants or have barriers in place. The rules also raise caps on private indoor gatherings to 15, while capacity limits jump to 150 for both public indoor gatherings and all outdoor assemblies, whether public or private. Premier Scott Moe says once 70 per cent of the entire adult population is vaccinated, Saskatchewan can move to the third step of its plan and remove almost all of the remaining public health orders. Saskatchewan residents aged 12 and older are now eligible to book their first COVID-19 vaccine appointment. A school immunization program for those aged 12 to 18 will be introduced in June, but eligible residents of that age can also be immunized at clinics offering the Pfizer vaccine. Anyone 85 and older or anyone who received their first vaccine dose before February 15 can now book their second dose. Anyone diagnosed with cancer and solid organ transplant recipients will be receiving a letter of eligibility in the mail which will allow them priority access to a second dose. There are drive-thru and walk-in vaccination clinics in communities across the province. The province says 6.60 per cent (77,767) of the population has now been fully vaccinated. --- Alberta Every Albertan aged 12 and older is now eligible for a vaccine. As of May 27, 60.3 per cent of Albertans over the age of 12 had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The milestone means the province's second stage of easing restrictions can begin on June 10. It is subject to hospitalizations being below 500 and trending downwards. Some of the restrictions that would be lifted include allowing outdoor gatherings including weddings and funerals with up to 20 people. Restaurants would be allowed to seat tables with up to six people, indoors or outdoors. Retail capacity would also increase, and gyms could open for solo or drop-in activities with three metres of distancing. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, has said people who are immunocompromised can book a second dose three or four weeks after their first shot. All other Albertans are eligible to get their second dose three to four months after the first. For the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the province lowered the minimum age to 30. They are, however, reserving the remaining supply for second doses when people are eligible. More than 250 pharmacies are offering immunizations. So far 8.82 per cent (388,200) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- British Columbia British Columbia is setting an end-of-summer target for everyone in the province to receive their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has also announced a decrease in the time between the first and second dose of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, cutting the interval to eight weeks from 16 weeks. But the interval for people who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose and are waiting for their second AstraZeneca shot may take longer. Henry said the province is waiting for results from international data on AstraZeneca, including the effectiveness of mixing vaccine shots and ongoing concerns about rare blood clots. Henry said the rollout of second doses will be similar to the first dose, with those at the greatest risk at the top of the list. Seniors, Indigenous people and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable were to start getting their invitations to book a second shot by the end of May. The province will try to ensure that everyone gets the same vaccine they were first administered, but a shortage of the Moderna vaccine may mean people will have to substitute it for a Pfizer shot. Henry said the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has reviewed the evidence on using different vaccines and has updated the guidance, confirming that while it is preferable to have the same product, it's not always possible. Pfizer and Moderna are the same type of vaccines. Families can get vaccinated together in B.C. as the government allows youth between the ages of 12 and 17 to get their COVID-19 shot. The shots will be administered at community clinics instead of in schools based on feedback from families, with 310,000 children in B.C. eligible to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been approved for that age group. As of Friday, about 3.1 million doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines had been administered in B.C., which means about 63 per cent of those eligible have got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. So far 3.14 per cent (160,885) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Nunavut Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson says Nunavut has placed an order for doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with the federal government to vaccinate people ages 12 to 17 in the territory. The Moderna vaccine is currently the only one available in Nunavut. Nunavut has opened vaccinations to anyone 18 and older. It is also offering shots to rotational workers coming from Southern Canada. In the territory, 36.44 per cent (14,113) of the population has now been fully vaccinated. --- Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is now offering vaccinations against COVID-19 to young people between 12 and 17. The territory, which has only been using the Moderna vaccine, recently exchanged some of that for doses of the Pfizer product, which Health Canada has now approved for anyone as young as 12. So far 51.74 per cent (23,344) of the territory's population has been fully vaccinated. --- Yukon The territory is now vaccinating children aged 12 to 17. The government says clinics in most communities will be held in schools, while those in Whitehorse can get their shot at the Coast High Country Inn Convention Centre. The children will be getting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The territory says because of limited supply and stricter handling requirements, the vaccine will only be available for a short time. It says second doses for those 12 to 17 will start on June 23 and medical travel will be supported for youth who aren't able to make the clinic date in their community. The Moderna vaccine is available to adults 18 years of age and older. The government says 59.34 per cent (24,763) of the population has now been fully vaccinated. --- This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2021. The Canadian Press State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation Bern, 25.02.2021 - The Dispatch on the Promotion of Education, Research and Innovation for the years 20212024 provides for a continuation of the bilateral cooperation programmes with non-European partner countries launched in 2008. An international assessment conducted in 2020 confirmed that these programmes play an important role in the diversification of international research collaborations and result in a significant increase in the number of scientific co-publications by Swiss and non-European partners. The funding instrument has now been confirmed for another four years and performance agreements signed with five Leading Houses. An evaluation published by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) in March 2020 shows that the federal bilateral R&I cooperation programmes launched in 2008 generate considerable added value for Swiss researchers and their institutions. In the light of this report, the Federal Council, in consultation with the Swiss Rectors' Conference swissuniversities, decided to continue the programmes and renew the mandates with five Leading Houses for the funding period 20212024. ETH Zurich remains the Leading House for East and Southeast Asia, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) for South Asia and Iran, the University of St Gallen for Latin America and the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO) for the Middle East and North Africa region; the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (SwissTPH), in collaboration with the University of Basel, is the Leading House for Sub-Saharan Africa. The performance agreements between SERI and the Leading Houses were signed in February 2021. The Leading Houses primary task is to promote new research collaborations with regions with high scientific potential. This includes developing instruments that meet the interests of the Swiss scientific community, such as start-up funding for new bilateral research projects, support for international workshops/seminars or small mobility grants. Joint research projects Along with the five Leading Houses, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is responsible for implementing bilateral programmes at national level. With its counterparts abroad, it funds joint research projects (JRPs) for larger bilateral science projects. The Leading Houses award complementary grants for smaller pilot activities; these are open to the entire Swiss research community. Both JRPs and Leading House grants are selected in a competitive peer review process based on the quality of the projects put forward. Projects must also always have appropriate counterpart funding from the partner country. Success so far more going forward In the 20172020 funding period, over 500 grants (including for bilateral research projects or for mobility programmes) were awarded under the federal government's bilateral cooperation programmes in research and innovation. In 85 per cent of the cases, the grant is expected to lead to a scientific publication, and in 70 per cent it is expected that an application for a larger international cooperation project will be made. The programme has enabled 80 per cent of grant holders to establish new long-term partnerships and networks in the respective regions. Over half of the projects have led to student exchanges even after funding has come to an end. Address for enquiries State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI Communications medien@sbfi.admin.ch Publisher State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation http://www.sbfi.admin.ch You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close 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. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 12:52:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Farmers pick megranates in Pishan County of Hotan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 8, 2020. (Photo by Adil Nadir/Xinhua) "What they have done has only fully exposed the fact that, for them, human rights are nothing but a tool for political manipulation," said Chen Xu, head of the Chinese Mission to UN at Geneva. GENEVA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Turning a blind eye to facts, certain countries fabricated and spread lies about Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong in vicious vilification of China, a Chinese diplomat said here Wednesday. "What they have done has only fully exposed the fact that, for them, human rights are nothing but a tool for political manipulation," Chen Xu, head of the Chinese Mission to UN at Geneva, said at the high-level Segment of the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council. During the session, Britain, the European Union, Germany, the United States, Canada and a few others made groundless accusations against China, which China strongly opposes and rejects, he said. People protest against the United States' intervention in Hong Kong affairs in front of the U.S. Consulate General, south China's Hong Kong, Dec. 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Shen) If these countries truly intend to promote and protect human rights, they should not have started wars around the world that caused countless civilian casualties and displacement, and broken families, Chen noted. They should not have shielded soldiers who committed war crimes overseas and incessant killings of innocent civilians, nor should they have interfered in the internal affairs of other countries and undermined the peaceful life of their people, the Chinese diplomat stressed. If they truly intend to promote and protect human rights, they should provide adequate technical and financial assistance to developing countries to help them achieve sustainable development, narrow the North-South divide, and eradicate poverty and hunger on a global scale, he said. If they truly intend to promote and protect human rights, they should put life first and take effective measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than pass the buck and shift the blame, he said. Students have a class at the Qamdo Experimental Primary School in Qamdo, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Oct. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) They should also address the deep-rooted human rights problems, such as racial discrimination, wealth disparity, social injustice and police violence, protect the rights of refugees and migrants, and close immigration detention centers where migrants are subjected to inhumane treatment. "China urges these countries to make real efforts to solve their own human rights problems, take part in international human rights dialogue and cooperation in a fair, objective and constructive manner, and stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs only to serve their own political agenda under the pretext of human rights," Chen said. The Massachusetts House, including all members of the Berkshire delegation, voted to reject a rules change that would have made committee votes and testimony public. Among others, state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, argued that making testimony public would dissuade people with sensitive information from coming forward. OLYMPIA, Wash. The Washington State Capitol will receive a new monument honoring the states first Black pioneer George Bush and his son, William Owen Bush, who was the states first Black lawmaker. The state Department of Enterprise Services, which oversees the Capitol Campus, announced Tuesday that the monument is a collaboration between the department and the Washington State Historical Society, KUOW-FM reported. This is a great step forward in recognizing and celebrating the diversity and spirit that shaped Washington, department Director Chris Liu said. Bush, who was biracial, helped lead white families that left Missouri in 1844 along the Oregon Trail. Missouri was a slave state at the time and was forcing free Black people like Bush to leave. Bush and his fellow pioneers known as the Bush-Simmons party intended to stay in present-day Oregon but learned there were Black exclusionary laws. The group instead settled in 1845 along the Deschutes River in what is now Tumwater, Washington. The Bush family found success and prosperity in their new home. They worked the land as farmers and raised award-winning wheat, traded with local Indigenous people, built (a) sawmill and began a small logging operation, according to online history records from the department. The Bush family and their companions were the first non-Indigenous people to settle in the area, more than 40 years before Washington became a state. Bush died in 1863. He was 73. His oldest son William, who went by his middle name Owen, became a member of the inaugural state Legislature in 1889. He helped found Washington State University. The monument, dedicated to Bush and his son, will include a bronze plaque mounted on a 30-inch tall granite pedestal. The plaque credits Bush with helping to establish the first non-Indigenous American settlement in Washington. The monument is expected to receive funding through an appropriation made by the state Legislature last year to celebrate Black history in Washington state. The installment could happen as early as this summer. An advisory committee is guiding the monuments progress. Black Heritage Society of Washington State president Stephanie Johnson-Toliver said having Bush and his family recognized at the state level in this way is huge. --The Associated Press Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv ordered Internet providers to close access to Telegram channels Resident, Legitimate, Cartel and Gossip Girl, which, according to the SBU, were used to destabilize the situation in Ukraine by order of Russian special services. According to the website of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization, the information was provided by the Department of Counterintelligence Protection of the State's Interests in the Sphere of Information Security of the Security Service of Ukraine. "To seize intellectual property rights that arise from Internet users when using Telegram-channels Resident [..],Legitimate [..], Cartel [..] and Gossip Girl [..], by the obligation of Internet providers, operators, telecommunications providers operating in Ukraine, in accordance with Part 2 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine On Telecommunications, included in the register of operators, telecommunications providers and the list of which is contained on the official website of the National Commission for State Regulation of Communications and Informatization, to close access to them," the Commission quotes an excerpt from the decision of the investigating judge Svitlana Kolesnyk. The document also says that access to the listed Telegram channels must be closed until the seizure of property in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine. The decision of the court is subject to immediate execution, but can be appealed directly to the Kharkiv Court of Appeal within five days from the date of its announcement. As reported, on February 1, the SBU said that the cyber specialists of the special services exposed a large-scale intelligence network, which was engaged in intelligence and subversive activities commissioned by the special services of the Russian Federation. The network included residents of Kharkiv and Odesa, so-called "Russian Spring" activists. According to the SBU, the special services of the Russian Federation involved Ukrainian citizens in creation and administration of a number of Telegram channels: Legitimate, Resident, Cartel, Gossip Girl, Black Quarter, Political Arrangement, Atypical Zaporizhia, Trempel Kharkiv, Odesa guy, Dnipro live, Mykolaiv live, Kherson live. The SBU found out that the "main manager" of the intelligence network is a resident of Odesa, one of the organizers of the riots during the Odesa Antymaidan. Now he is wanted by law enforcement agencies under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. SBU officers detained a Ukrainian citizen in Kyiv, one of the key participants in the proceeding. She and another member of the intelligence network were declared suspected of committing a crime under Article 111 (Treason) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The head of the network, who is hiding from the investigation abroad, has also been declared in absentia on suspicion of treason. 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. Police, prosecutor's office do not support Kyiv court ruling that providers obliged to block access to website of Russian RBC, another 425 resources source The police and the prosecutor's office will appeal the decision of Holosiivsky District Court of Kyiv, which obliges all telecommunications operators and providers entered in the relevant register on the website of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization to block user access to 426 sites, a law enforcement source told Interfax-Ukraine. "At the request of the citizen, the police entered the information into the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization in the prescribed manner. The applicant appealed independently to the court. The court, without the participation of the police and the prosecutor's office, issued a ruling and sent it to the police," the agency's interlocutor said. It is noted that the prosecutor's office and the National Police of Ukraine did not apply to the court on this matter. "They will appeal against this ruling in the manner prescribed by law," the source said, adding that the judge made the ruling without the participation of the investigator and the prosecutor's office. New Delhi, Feb 25 : In its biggest fight against 'hidden hunger', the Narendra Modi-led government has chalked out a mega plan to alleviate malnutrition through biofortified food crops. As more than 38 per cent of children in the country suffer from stunting, and over 58 per cent of them are affected by anaemia, the government has finally geared up to fix the curse of malnutrition. For the first time, top officials from more then a dozen Central ministries will hold a brainstorming session on Friday to overcome the major problem which impacts human health, particularly that of children under five years of age. Hidden hunger or malnutrition not only affects the human health, but also hinders the growth of the nation. However, the biofortified crops have the potential to fight hunger and alleviate malnutrition. From protein packed rice to zinc fortified lentil, the new varieties developed in the country would serve as "sanjeevani" for the overall health of the children and their parents living in poverty. On Friday, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and over a dozen secretaries of various ministries, ranging from Commerce to MSME and Food Processing to Education, would meet to expedite the plan to alleviate malnutrition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier dedicated 17 biofortified crop varieties to address India's food and nutritional security. The Modi government plans to involve the Department of School Education and the Department of Women and Child Development to execute the distribution of such health food at the ground level. The government has also included the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) to promote the biofortified varieties in the food matrix. "We no longer need medicines to fight protein or vitamin deficiency. If biofortfied varieties of cereals or pulses are provided to the children, they would overcome such deficiency. The Department of Food and Public Distribution is also being included in the plan so that such food is delivered to the remote areas," an official said. Sources said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had expressed its concern over the problem of malnutrition, which leads to poor health and increased susceptibility to various diseases. A report of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) reveals that biofortified food crops help in preventing diseases besides maintaining the body metabolism for physical and mental well-being. Backed by the Centre, the scientists at ICAR have developed improved nutritional quality in cereals, pulses, vegetables and fruits. For example, a new variety of potato(Kufri Manik) contains anthocyanin, which possess antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity effects. Similarly, a new variety of cauliflower contains Provitamin A, essentially required for normal functioning of eyes and the immune system. The ICAR report says that 21.9 per cent of Indian population still lives in extreme poverty where malnutrition results in major health issues. As many as 38.4 per cent of children are stunted, and 21 per cent are wasted (thin). Besides, 58.4 per cent of children and 53 per cent of adult woman are affected by anaemia. The report says that 70 per cent of children in the country are estimated to be iron deficient. The one prominent way to address these health issues is to provide biofortified food to the children. The report says that ICAR and the state agriculture universities have made significant progress in developing 71 biofortified varieties of 16 different crops. Advocating the need for"Akhand Bharat" (undivided India), RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said countries such as Pakistan which broke away from India are now in distress. Speaking at a book launch here, Bhagwat said "Akhand Bharat" is possible through "Hindu Dharma" but not through force. "There is a need to make glorious"Akhand Bharat" for the welfare of the universe. That's why there is a need to awaken patriotism....as truncated India has a need to be united (once again), all the divided parts of India which no longer call themselves as India, they need more," he said. Stressing that the concept of"Akhand Bharat" is possible, Bhagwat said some people had expressed serious doubts before the partition of the country whether it would be divided, but it happened. "If you ask six months before the partition of this country, nobody would have guessed. People asked Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that there was a new topic coming up about the formation of Pakistan." "What is it? (Replying to that) he said that it (the partition) was a dream of fools," the RSS chief said. According to him, Lord Wavell (during British rule) also said in British Parliament that God has made India one and who is going to divide it. "But ultimately it (partition) happened. What seemed to be impossible happened, so it cannot be ruled out that "Akhand Bharat" which may seem to be impossible, will not happen..because, there is a need for Akhand Bharat," he said. Bhagwat said separated regions of India which don't call themselves as Bharat any longer, for them it is much more a necessity of reuniting with "Bharat". According to him, there is unhappiness in the terrains of "Akhand Bharat" which now do not call themselves as Bharat. "There is unhappiness.They did all they could, but did not find any remedy.And remedy is only one which is reunification (with Bharat) and all their problems will get resolved." "We talk of uniting them, not to suppress them.When we talk of "Akhand Bharat" our intention is not with power (to achieve it) but to unite through dharma which is 'Sanatan' (eternal) which is humanity's dharma and of the entire world and today it is called as Hindu dharma," the RSS chief said. "Gandhar became Afghanistan. Is there peace and tranquility in Afghanistan since then? Pakistan was formed. From that date till now is there peace and tranquility?" he asked. He said India has the endurance to overcome several challenges and the world looks towards it to overcome difficulties. With "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (world is one family) belief, India can again offer happiness and peace to the world, he added. (@FahadShabbir) KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :As many as 170 confirmed cases of dengue recorded in the current year across Sindh, that include highest occurrence with 155 cases reported in Karachi while six cases were reported in Hyderabad, five in Sukkur and one each in Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad. This was told by Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare Sindh, Dr. Azra Pechuho, in a meeting on the spread and prevention of Vector Borne Diseases (VBDs) in the province, said a statement. The meeting focused on reviewing the number of cases of dengue, malaria and leishmaniasis and the needs and requirements of the areas with rising numbers of reported cases for each. The meeting was also attended by Secretary Health, Dr. Kazim Jatoi, DG Health Sindh, Dr. Irshad Memon, and Deputy DG Health Services, Dr. Mehmood Iqbal. Highest occurrence was reported in Karachi, with 155 cases. 6 in Hyderabad, 5 in Sukkur and 1 in both Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad. The participants of the meeting were told that currently 1125 fully functional public diagnostic facilities can test against VBD's. The Health Minister prioritized the monitoring and containment regarding dengue hot spots in the province, while all DHO's were advised to utilize public and private diagnostic facilities to communicate all the details of the reported dengue cases to the Sindh Health Department. Lady Health Workers efforts will be employed to take measures to safeguard against and monitor the spread of dengue. It was further noted that larvae for dengue thrives in badly constructed buildings and tyre shops so special precautions must be enforced therein. The Health minister also advised officials to lead awareness campaigns regarding dengue and other vector borne diseases. The areas that are hotspots of VBDs in the province must be provided with mosquito extermination sprays and repellents to curb further infections. From 2019 to 2020 the ratio of malaria infections increased by 13 percent. Karachi had the highest instances of reported cases for both malaria and dengue, in the east district. It was also discussed in the meeting that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had 30,000 recorded cases of Leishmaniasis, a type of VBD transferred from a mosquito type fly, usually found in mountainous and desert regions. It was told that the highest cases for leishmaniasis were recorded in Sindh at Jacobabad which are 321. Jamshoro and Tharparkar also had a few reported cases. The Health Minister also decreed that protective and preventative measures against this virus must be taken immediately and it was advised that 30,000 injections of Antimoniate Meglumine be procured in preparation in the instance of any influx in its cases. It was further discussed that the Global Fund (against malaria) facilities would be reduced from 13 to 8 to focus on the regions with the highest cases of VBDs reported. The Health Minister also advised the Secretary of Health to document the participation efforts of the Global Fund in order to ensure transparency. 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. Bharat Bandh on Friday: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said all commercial markets will remain shut across the country in view of the nationwide shutdown on February 26. CAIT General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal said, "All commercial markets across the country will remain closed and protest dharnas will be organised in different cities of all states." He added that around 40,000 traders' associations in India including All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) will support this Bandh. The AITWA will also hold a 'Chakka jam' on February 26. These protests will be held in 1,500 places demanding the Centre, the state governments and the GST Council take back the 'draconian' GST provisions. Since the AITWA has urged all transport companies to park their vehicles between 06:00 am and 08:00 pm on Friday, 40 lakh vehicles will remain off-road and booking and movement of bill-oriented goods will be hit. While acknowledging the importance of voluntary compliance in ensuring a successful GST regime, Khandelwal also talked about almost 950 amendments made so far to the GST rules in the past 4 years. Demands CAIT has called for a review of the GST system and tax slabs under it to ensure easier compliance for traders. Transporters are demanding a rollback of the e-way bill laws. An e-way bill refers to the permit transporters have to carry while moving goods from one place to another. The recent amendment to the GST laws has narrowed the validity of the e-way bill by increasing the distance from 100km per day to 200km per day. Under Section 129 of the CGST Act, 2017, transporters will have to pay penalties amounting to 200 per cent of the tax value or 100 per cent of the invoice value for a truck carrying a consignment with an expired or faulty e-way bill. Transporters are also protesting against the constant rise in fuel prices. Also read: Are you over 45? Here's how you can get vaccine from March 1 Also read: PM Modi to visit Tamil Nadu, Puducherry ahead of polls; inaugurate multiple projects A medical marijuana bill advanced in Alabama. The state Senate approved the bill by Sen. Tim Melson of Florence Wednesday afternoon. Melson calls his bill "The Compassion Act." It sets up guidelines for who can get medical marijuana, as well as how it is grown, processed and dispensed. The 21-8 vote in the Senate now sends the medical marijuana bill to the state House for consideration. NEW YORK & SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Early Warning Services, LLC and The Clearing House (TCH) today announced Zelle transactions can now be cleared and settled over the RTP network. "Demand for faster payments has never been higher, and today's integration milestone eliminates lengthy and costly legacy processes that have long been barriers to many real-time payment settlements between financial institutions," said Lou Anne Alexander, chief product officer, Early Warning Services. "Our combined foundation will provide all financial institutions an easy solution for new and emerging business use cases, including bill pay." Bank of America and PNC Bank are the first to send Zelle payments over the RTP network, providing consumers and businesses a fully digital payment experience with improved efficiency by leveraging the emerging global ISO 20022 message standard. By sending Zelle payments over the RTP network, financial institutions can enable instant settlement and simpler back-office processing, improving efficiency and reducing costs. "Bank of America and PNC Bank are trailblazing a path to integrated real-time payments capabilities that will soon benefit individual account holders and corporate customers," said Steve Ledford, senior vice president of product strategy and development, The Clearing House. "The integration of Zelle payments over the RTP network means that financial institutions will soon realize the benefits of future technology synergies between the Zelle and RTP networks." Businesses to Have a Fully Digital Bill Payment Experience Moving to a real-time bill presentment and payment experience will allow businesses to increase customer satisfaction and decrease cost of collections. In the future, when leveraging the two networks' combined capabilities, businesses can send bills electronically, reducing the amount spent on paper and postage while enhancing the customer service experience. By utilizing Zelle to request a payment, corporate customers will not need to store and transmit a customer's bank account information, increasing the level of safety and security during a transaction. "This is a great example of technology advancing the way we and our clients do business. Combining the speed of Zelle and the RTP network will create new powerful opportunities for companies to seamlessly and efficiently interact with consumers and small businesses," said Chris Ward, executive vice president and head of product & operations, PNC Treasury Management. "Corporate customers will no longer need to collect bank account information. Instead, they can focus on transacting through the U.S. banking system with a customer's email address or U.S. mobile number they use to enroll with Zelle." Consumers to Have Greater Control Over Payment Timing With these future advancements, consumers will benefit from full transparency and control of their digital payments, including immediate insight into account balances and real-time payment confirmations. "This effort continues to advance the speed, security, and efficiency of payments for consumers," said Mark Monaco, head of enterprise payments at Bank of America. "The powerful combination of Zelle along with the robust messaging and settlement capabilities of the RTP network will help consumers better manage their money and reduce the potential for late payments by giving them more control over the timing of payments and the immediate confirmation of receipt. We're pleased to partner in these important innovations to improve the payments system." About Bank of America Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,300 retail financial centers, including approximately 2,700 lending centers, 2,600 financial centers with a Consumer Investment Financial Solutions Advisor and approximately 2,400 business centers; approximately 17,000 ATMs; and award-winning digital banking with approximately 39 million active users, including approximately 31 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. About Early Warning Services, LLC Early Warning Services, LLC, is a fintech company owned by seven of the country's largest banks. For almost three decades, our identity, authentication and payment solutions have been empowering financial institutions to make confident decisions, enable payments and mitigate fraud. Today, Early Warning is best known as the owner and operator of the Zelle Network, a financial services network focused on transforming payment experiences. The combination of Early Warning's risk and payment solutions enable the financial services industry to move money fast, safe and easy, so people can live their best financial lives. To learn more about Early Warning, visit www.earlywarning.com About PNC Bank PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com About The Clearing House The Clearing House operates U.S-based payments networks that clear and settle more than $2 trillion each day through wire, ACH, check image, and the RTP network. It is the nation's most experienced payments company, with a long track record of providing secure and reliable systems, payments innovation, and strategic thought leadership to financial institutions. Most recently, The Clearing House has revolutionized U.S. payments infrastructure with the RTP network, which supports the immediate clearing and settlement of payments, along with the ability to exchange related payment information across the same secure channel. These RTP capabilities enable all financial institutions to offer safer, faster, and smarter digital transaction services for their corporate and retail customers. Learn more at www.theclearinghouse.org. SOURCE Early Warning Services, LLC Related Links http://www.earlywarning.com West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has urged resources giants to lift their standards on the back of revelations two Aboriginal sites had been impacted by mining operations in the Pilbara. Fortescue Metals Group has apologised to an Aboriginal group for clearing land on a sacred site in the Pilbara just days after it was revealed a rock shelter had been damaged near one of BHPs mines. The land was cleared at WAs Weelmurra Creek. Credit:Brendon Thorne/File The miners need to learn from what happened at Juukan Gorge and make sure very high standards are in place to protect the ancient history of this state, Mr McGowan said. Well seek reports on that to work out what exactly has gone on. The Ukrainian soldier had to use a firearm to detain the intruder. A member of Russia-led troops has been detained amid an attempt to sneak into Ukrainian positions in Donbas and stab a Ukrainian soldier on duty. The incident happened near the village of Chermalyk, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters reported in an evening update on February 24. Read alsoCivilian killed in Luhansk region as Russian proxies' mine explodes in his backyard "Not far from the village of Chermalyk, a Ukrainian soldier, who was on duty at an observation post, detained a serviceman of the Russian Federation's occupation forces who was trying to sneak into the Ukrainian positions," it said. According to the update, "during the detention, the enemy fighter inflicted a minor wound on our soldier, using a bladed weapon." In response, the Ukrainian soldier used a firearm and detained the intruder. Other related news reports Reporting by UNIAN New Delhi: In a mid-air scare, a Naval officer on board Air Indias Delhi-Jodhpur-Jaipur flight threatened crew that he had planted a bomb in the aircraft. The crew and other people on board went into a tizzy after hearing about the bomb but after the inquiry, it was found hoax. The Naval officer booked a ticket from Delhi to Jaipur but when the flight landed in Jodhpur, he insisted to de-board. The staff, however, didnt allow him on de board on which he started threatening when the crew stopped him from disembarking. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. [February 25, 2021] INVESTIGATION REMINDER: The Schall Law Firm Announces it is Investigating Claims Against Sonic Automotive, Inc. and Encourages Investors with Losses of $100,000 to Contact the Firm The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Sonic Automotive, Inc. ("Sonic" or "the Company") (NYSE: SAH) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Sonic is the subject of a report published by Bloomberg (News - Alert) on February 18, 2021. In the article titled "CEO Charged With Choking Woman Garners Board Support, Not Rebuke: Governance watchdogs say a firmer response is needed after Sonic Automotive's David Sith was charged with assaulting a woman," Bloomberg reported that "barely 24 hours after his release, Sonic's board - more than a quarter of which is made up of Smith family members, including the CEO's father and 93-year-old founder O. Bruton Smith - said it believed he was innocent and pledged its 'steadfast' support." Bloomberg added that "Sonic's ownership structure gives the company more room to shrug off any potential backlash, The Smith family has about 80% of the voting power despite holding only a third of the shares outstanding because of a dual-class structure with supervoting stock." If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005718/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Purdue University-affiliated startup NutraMaize is currently featured in a national advertising campaign presented by GoDaddy. Evan Rocheford, CEO of NutraMaize, appears in the campaign. (Image provided) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue University-affiliated startup NutraMaize is featured in a current national advertising campaign called Make a Different Future. The campaign, presented by GoDaddy, champions real customers, like NutraMaize CEO Evan Rocheford and the companys brand Professor Torberts Orange Corn, driving change to "Make a Different Future" for themselves and for others. Following the challenges of 2020, the campaign states, The future isnt decided yet. Its still ours to win. We are so excited to be a part of spreading this message of hope for the future. As a company, we were founded on the belief that a better future is possible, Rocheford said. We are on a mission to improve the nutritional quality of common foods people eat every day, so to have a platform like this to tell our story is just incredible. NutraMaize was co-founded by Evan and his father, Torbert Rocheford, Purdues Patterson Endowed Chair and professor of agronomy, to bring the benefits of Orange Corn to the United States. More than 20 years ago, Professor Torbert started naturally selecting varieties of Orange Corn to help alleviate malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa as part of an international humanitarian effort called HarvestPlus. The bright orange color of the corn comes from high levels of natural antioxidant pigments called carotenoids, the same compounds that give carrots their orange color and health-benefiting reputation. Orange Corn is grown in more than 10 African countries and is now available to Americans through NutraMaizes line of premium milled products, including grits, corn meal and corn flour, marketed under the brand Professor Torberts Orange Corn. Most Americans are at an increased risk of losing their vision as they age because they dont eat enough carotenoids, so Orange Corn doesnt just have the power to save lives in Africa it also has the potential to improve the well-being of Americans, Rocheford said. Through its partnership with GoDaddy, NutraMaize has launched its next phase with a new, leading-edge website (professortorberts.com), where consumers can buy Professor Torberts Orange Corn directly from the company. The website also features creative recipe ideas and detailed information about the origins of Orange Corn. Working with GoDaddy has been amazing. Not only are they helping us tell our story, theyve also equipped us with the tools to take our online presence to the next level and reach more Americans who can benefit from our products, Rocheford said. When people think of GoDaddy, they usually think of domain names, but they actually offer a full suite of digital products designed to help businesses create more meaningful interactions with their audience. More information about the campaign can be found at GoDaddy. The national TV ad featuring Evan and Professor Torberts Orange Corn can be found here on YouTube. The Orange Corn variety is licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. NutraMaize also received guidance from the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub. OTC and the Purdue Foundry are both now located in the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration in Discovery Park District, adjacent to the Purdue campus. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. About Purdue Research Foundation Purdue Research Foundation supports Purdue Universitys land-grant mission by helping the university improve the world through its technologies and graduates. Established in 1930, PRF is a private, nonprofit foundation. The foundation helps patent and commercialize Purdue technologies; builds places to encourage innovation, invention, investment, commercialization and entrepreneurship; and makes equity available to students to finance their Purdue education. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about involvement and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. Purdue Research Foundation contact: Chris Adam, cladam@prf.org Source: Evan Rocheford, evan@nutramaize.com Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, called Pakistan an important partner with whom we share many interests, including in Afghanistan and in preventing militants from crossing the Line of Control to launch attacks in India. Obviously, Pakistan has an important role to play when it comes to Afghanistan and what takes place across its other border, Mr. Price told reporters on Thursday. So, clearly, we will be paying close attention, and we urge the Pakistanis to play a constructive role in all of these areas of mutual interest, including with Afghanistan, including with Kashmir and including with our other shared interests. He did not answer a question about the Biden administrations relationship with Pakistan or how it would be balanced with American diplomacy toward India. Tensions have been particularly high between India and Pakistan since a suicide bombing killed dozens of Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir in 2019. India accused Pakistan of nurturing the terrorists who carried out the bombing, and conducted airstrikes within Pakistan. Pakistan responded with airstrikes of its own, and then shot down an Indian fighter jet, briefly detaining the pilot and then releasing him in an effort to lower tensions. Since then, smaller, though sometimes deadly, skirmishes have frequently broken out along the border despite a cease-fire agreement in 2003. Last year saw the highest number of violations, with about 5,000 incidents recorded between the countries, which have a long history of war and mutual antagonism. This is a massive development in South Asia. India-Pakistan relations have been teetering on the brink of major conflict, said Asfandyar Mir, a fellow at Stanford Universitys Center for International Security and Cooperation, nothing that the year 2020 was a violent one around the border. To pull back from that point is major and a surprising turnaround. The news of a renewed commitment to the cease-fire was particularly welcomed by communities living along the border who have borne the brunt of the skirmishes and mortar shelling from both sides. Nifty, Sensex may continue to head higher Thursday closing report To bookmark you need to sign in We had mentioned in Tuesdays closing report that Nifty, Sensex may head higher. On Thursday, the indices opened higher and ended with decent gains. On the NSE, there were 1,264 advances, 622 declines and 86 unchanged. The trends of the major indices in the course of Thursdays trading are given in the table below: The IRDAI gave its nod to Max Financial Services for the acquisition of up to 12% stake in Max Life Insurance by Axis Bank and its subsidiaries. IIFL Finance has won the bid to acquire about 1.1 million demat accounts held by Karvy Stock Broking, while Axis Securities emerged as the successful bidder for trading accounts (broking accounts) held by Karvy. Ashok Leyland has entered into a share purchase agreement with Nissan International Holding BV to acquire 58,500,000 shares constituting 38% in the paid-up share capital of Hinduja Tech Limited. Bharti Airtel said it had raised USD 1.25 billion through debt instruments. Hatsun Agro Product with brands 'Arokya', 'Hatsun', 'Arun Icecreams', "Ibaco" has announced commercial production at its newly set up modern greenfield dairy processing plant in Solapur, Maharashtra. The total milk processing capacity of the company now stands at 52.50 LLPD across all its manufacturing locations in 5 states. Rain Industries reported 167% rise in net profit in Oct-Dec quarter to Rs 307 crore compared to Rs 115 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income has grown 4% YoY to Rs 3,044 crore. Gujarat Alkalies has entered into an agreement for availing external commercial borrowing facility of USD 70 million from State Bank of India. Dredging Corporation has signed an MoU to construct the first-ever trailing suction hopper dredger in an Indian shipyard with Cochin Shipyard. Cadila Healthcare received final approval from USFDA to market Nortriptyline Hydrochloride Capsules USP, 10 mg, 25 mg, 50 mg and 75 mg. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Corey Casagrande, 34, and Jemma Connor, 27, stopped while driving to Newport A couple boxed in by police cars during a 200-mile drug smuggling mission were caught with a kilo of cocaine worth 48,000 in the passenger's footwell. Corey Casagrande, 34, and Jemma Connor, 27, were stopped by cops while driving from Liverpool to Newport in South Wales. Prosecutor Peter Donnison said Casagrande had been driving while his girlfriend, Connor, sat in the passenger seat with the Class A drug by her feet. Police also found 900 in cash when they stopped the Ford Escort on December 9 last year. Corey Casagrande, 34, and Jemma Connor (both pictured above), 27, were stopped by cops while driving from Liverpool to Newport in South Wales on December 9 last year Prosecutor Peter Donnison said Casagrande had been driving with his girlfriend, Connor (pictured), sat in the passenger seat with the Class A drug by her feet Cardiff Crown Court heard officers received a tip off about the smuggling trip and stopped the car near Abergavenny, South Wales. The couple, both from Duffryn, Newport, admitted possession of a class A drug with intent to supply. Ieuan Bennett, representing Connor, said she agreed to the smuggling mission after being 'put under pressure by a family member'. He said: 'She was persuaded against her better judgement to do this. 'One can only hope the person or people who were putting pressure on her will get their comeuppance at some time in the future.' Mr Bennett added: 'She is terrified and will never do anything like this again. She is literally shaking like a leaf and is almost hyperventilating at the prospect of prison.' Father-of-three Casagrande, above, was jailed for two years and eight months and Connor was handed a two-year suspended sentence at Cardiff Crown Court The couple, pictured together, both from Duffryn, Newport, admitted possession of a class A drug with intent to supply. Officers stopped the car after receiving a tip off, the court heard Tim Evans, representing Casagrande, said he was a father-of-three who had acted 'stupidly' and had to explain his crime to his children. Judge Daniel Williams told the pair: 'You knew what you were doing. 'You did it for money and because you thought you could get away with it. You were being remarkably foolish, not naive.' Casagrande was jailed for two years and eight months and Connor was handed a two-year suspended sentence. She was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and pay costs. Critical care societies, including the American Thoracic Society, address burnout and clinician well-being. Credit: ATS A new paper published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society provides a roadmap that critical care clinicians' professional societies can use to address burnout. While strongly needed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the roadmap has taken on even greater urgency due to reports of increasing pandemic-related burnout. In "Professional Societies' Role in Addressing Member Burnout and Promoting Well-Being," Seppo T. Rinne, MD, Ph.D., of The Pulmonary Center, Boston University School of Medicine, and co-authors from a task force created by the Critical Care Societies Collaborative (CCSC) describe a rigorous process they used to document 17 major professional societies' efforts to address burnout among health care professionals working in critical care, such as ICU physicians, physician assistants and nurses. The task force explored perspectives on the role of these societies to address burnout and developed a 'roadmap' that the societies can use to guide their efforts to promote critical care clinicians' well-being. The CCSC, which has taken a number of actions to raise awareness of and address clinician burnout, consists of four major U.S.-based critical care professional societies: American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). "The ATS has focused on clinician well-being for several years now," said Karen Collishaw, CAE, executive director of the American Thoracic Society and a co-author of this study. "Activities have ranged from holding live and virtual sessions discussing the problem and encouraging people to share experiences and ideas, hosting a wellness center (with dogs!) in the exhibit hall at our international conference, and collaborating with our peer critical care societies on projects such as this one looking at the role professional societies can play in tackling this issue." ATS President Juan Celedon, MD, DrPH, ATSF, added, "The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the need for more of these activities and the ATS is committed to helping the pulmonary and critical care community stay well wherever we can." Previous studies have explored individual and organizational solutions to address burnout, which is common among clinicians who deal with the many stressors of the critical care environment. This is the first peer-reviewed paper to discuss the role of professional societies in preventing or reducing burnout. "High clinician burnout rates threaten the quality, safety and efficiency of clinical care, and research has shown that critical care clinicians are especially at risk," said Dr. Rinne. "Professional societies can play a key role in addressing burnout by promoting practices, policies, and norms that value clinician well-being." He added, "Promoting clinician well-being is good for patients, and it is also the right thing to do. Clinicians suffering from burnout have higher rates of substance abuse, depression and suicidal ideation. The health and well-being of patients is directly tied to the health and well-being of clinicians and the health system at large." The researchers conducted a multi-phased project from March to December 2019. First, they identified professional societies in critical care-related fields and documented their existing well-being initiatives. Next, they conducted interviews with representatives of selected societies in order to explore their perspectives on the role of professional societies in addressing burnout. Finally, they reviewed results from the first two phases and engaged all task force members in a group discussion in order to develop a strategic roadmap that could guide critical care professional societies and inform professional societies in related fields. The task force attempted to relate all findings to a framework of factors influencing clinician burnout and well-being developed by CCSC and the National Academy of Medicine. The roadmap created based on this research includes the following recommendations: Professional societies should acknowledge the problem of burnout among their members. In order to do this, the societies should first conduct internal research to assess the extent of burnout and any unique factors affecting members. Leadership of each society must determine how well-being initiatives fit into their organizational structure and strategic priorities. Organizational leadership may want to embed well-being efforts into other strategic initiatives, or may focus separately on well-being. Partnerships with other organizationsnational and local professional societies, health care organizations, academic institutions, advocacy groupsworking in the same field may help promote member well-being and provide useful resources. The National Academy of Medicine and other organizations can help facilitate these partnerships. Professional societies can play an important role in educating and supporting members, and advocating for change. Members' health care institutions do not consistently address burnout, and may not even be supportive of such efforts; professional societies can meet this need. By encouraging research focused on improving clinician well-being, societies can help foster innovation and collaboration. Recent scientific literature has identified effective organizational and individual solutions to reduce clinician burnout, and these remedies should be supported. While both types of solutions are valuable, professional societies should emphasize the importance of organizational approaches, as these methods tend to be more effective at reducing burnout. "We have outlined a number of steps that societies can take to address burnout, based on a rigorous process that led us to these targeted recommendations," concluded Dr. Rinne. "The first and most important step is that leadership must acknowledge the burden of burnout and promoting clinician well-being through taking measures that can contribute to a culture shift that supports well-being and values the humanity of clinical care." Explore further Consensus report shows burnout prevalent in health care community More information: Seppo T Rinne et al. Professional Societies' Role in Addressing Member Burnout and Promoting Well-being, Annals of the American Thoracic Society (2021). Seppo T Rinne et al. Professional Societies' Role in Addressing Member Burnout and Promoting Well-being,(2021). DOI: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202012-1506OC 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. Home insurer Hippo is partnering with ADT to add smart home services and discounts for home insurance customers. Hippo customers in select states who enroll in its smart home program will be offered free installation of an ADT smart home security system and a range of smart devices with their home insurance policy and will be eligible for Hippo smart home discounts. Meanwhile, ADTs existing customers in some states may be eligible to receive home insurance premium discounts from Hippo. Customers new to both ADT and Hippo can receive ADTs security system complete with burglary, life safety and water intrusion monitoring devices, a video doorbell camera, and two months of ADT professional monitoring, rolling out later this year. Buckle Tech-driven auto insurer Buckle says it continues to champion for gig drivers by utilizing non-traditional data sources from location-based traffic analytics firm TNEDICCA to underwrite auto policies for transportation network company or ride-hail drivers. Buckle said it is using non-traditional data sources, not credit scores geared for salaried employees, to underwrite its insurance policies. Insurance companies underwrite policies for gig drivers based on traditional credit scoring, leaving them with only high premiums, said Sharon Fernandez, head of Buckles Insurance Division. Buckles mission is to champion TNC drivers by assessing risk in better ways, which allows us to provide comprehensive auto insurance, whether drivers are on or off the clock, at fair prices. TNEDICCAs location-based crash risk score calculates risk based on actual accident hotspots around a specific location. It is based on more than 30 million crashes generating average loss ratio lift of 38 percent. Its usage-based risk score is also helping Buckle account for telematics data beyond driving behaviors by assessing crash risk of actual route coordinates by date and time of trips. Buckle said expects to expand its relationship with Ohio-based TNEDICCA to utilize its risk avoidance, enhanced safety, and improved driver engagement capabilities. Monte Carlo Monte Carlo, a technology startup focused on helping organizations obtain more reliable data, has raised $25 million in new Series B financing. The San Francisco-based companys business model is built around data observability, which involves the use of technology tools that help monitor enterprise data systems and troubleshoot any problems that arise. Monte Carlo will use the venture money to develop its expertise and reach, and also help organizations accelerate their adoption of data and analytics. The company currently works with several Fortune 500 companies and has customers including Hippo Insurance. It also operates in the fintech, e-commerce, media, B2B software and retail industries. Monte Carlo describes its data observability platform as allowing data engineers and analysts to seamlessly monitor the health and dependencies of their data assets across the entire data stack, from ingestion to analytics all in one collaborative interface. Simultaneously, Monte Carlo provides a holistic view of a companys data health and reliability across critical business use cases. Monte Carlo has now raised more than $40 million to date. Redpoint Ventures, backers of Snowflake and Looker, and GGV Capital, investors of HashiCorp and Slack, co-led the Series B round with participation from Series A investor Accel. Monte Carlo is also backed by DJ Patil, the former Chief Data Scientist for the U.S., as well as top executives from Cloudera, eBay, Google and VMWare. Vertafore Insurance technology provider Vertafore unveiled a client communications and reputation management program for independent agencies that are using its AMS360. Vertafore Client Communications will help independent agencies build stronger relationships with their clients by equipping them with tools that enable more active and meaningful client engagement, directly from their agency management system, says the company. Eligible AMS 360 customers will gain access starting March 1 at no additional cost. Vertafore Client Communications brings integrated email, campaign and reputation management tools into agents daily workflows. AMS360 users will now be able to: Send one-time or automated client emails based on events or date-driven rules, such as birthdays or renewals, from their own email domain Create custom segments of users to better target their messaging Manage their agencys online reputation and client satisfaction Provide thought leadership content to help clients manage risks Identify at-risk revenue and opportunities Track client satisfaction metrics by office and individual employees over time Marble New York-based insurtech Marble raised $2.5 million in early-stage funding that will help launch what it bills as the first digital wallet and loyalty rewards platform for insurance. Marbles investors in the seed round include IA Capital Group, MS&AD Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, Fintech Ventures Fund, The Takoma Group, and HU Investments. Marble, founded and launched in private beta in 2020, describes itself as a one-hub, digital wallet where customers can seamlessly manage all of their personal insurance details and payments. The company also claims to be the first and only platform that allows you to earn rewards on your insurance, which you can redeem in a variety of ways, including towards premium payments. Marble said it is currently in beta and plans to open its platform to any U.S. personal insurance policyholder in March 2021. Using the system, Marble members insured by the nations largest insurance agencies can link to their healthcare, automotive, home, renters, pet, or any other type of personal insurance. Vesttoo Silicon Valley-based investor and global innovation platform Plug and Play has become an equity investor in Vesttoo, an Israel-based startup that specializes in data-driven risk management products and services for insurers and reinsurers. Neither side disclosed investment specifics. Vesttoos proprietary technologies use AI and machine learning to forecast and price long-tail risks such as longevity, excess mortality, lapse, as well as Value-in-Force (VIF) monetization and excess mortality Industry Loss Warranties (ILW) and transfer them to the capital markets, allowing insurers, reinsurers and pension funds to adopt proactive strategic risk and capital management. Using proprietary AI and machine learning stochastic algorithms, Vesttoo creates what it said are highly accurate risk models and forecasts. Coterie Insurance agency technology firm Coterie pulled in $11.5 million in new venture funding it will use to fuel further expansion of its business, which is designed to integrate insurance purchasing into existing small businesses processes. The Cincinnati-based insurtech bills the funding as a Series A-1 financing, a follow-on to an an oversubscribed $8.5 million Series A financing in March 2020. Intact Ventures led the new round, with with participation from Alpha Edison, Lackawanna Insurance Group a subsidiary of Group1001, and previous investors RPM Ventures, Allos Ventures, and several others. Licensed producer Coterie provides general liability, professional liability and business owners policy insurance to businesses (including freelancers) in a process it bills as quick, efficient and cheap through the automatic leveraging of relevant data. Coteries technology is designed to integrate with existing business tools and data such as payroll, revenue and location to ensure the best rates for users. The company partners digitally with agents and brokers, is a licensed insurance producer in all 50 states, and is backed by A-rated licensed insurers and reinsurers. Since its initial funding in March, Coterie said it has teamed up with platforms including Intuit Quickbooks and Thryv in order to deliver business insurance through tools customers are already using. The company has also partnered with Independent Market Solutions and First Market Connect to help expand their capabilities to insurance agents already serving small businesses. A woman who is accused of attempting to murder a man she allegedly met on Tinder will not stand trial for over two years due to the backlog of cases that has arisen during the pandemic. Inita Romanovska (34), with an address at Cahercalla, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, is charged with attempted murder during an incident at an apartment complex at Henry Street, Limerick on March 11 2020. Ms Romanovska, who is originally from Latvia, did not appear at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Wednesday where Mr Justice Michael White scheduled her trial to begin on March 6, 2023. It is expected to take two weeks and, Mr Justice White said, may be held in Limerick rather than Dublin. A previous district court hearing heard that Ms Romanovska met the alleged injured party on Tinder and while they had been on a number of dates they were not in a relationship. A backlog of cases has been created in the Central Criminal Court where measures to tackle the spread of Covid-19 have put jury trials on hold. The Central Criminal Court is prioritising cases where the accused person is in custody. Ms Romanovska was granted bail last March. English Lithuanian The Competition Council of Latvia has adopted a resolution allowing Linas Agro Group to implement the concentration and acquire the companies belonging to KG Group. The decision was made by the Latvian Competition institution after examining an application received on 20th January 2021 from AB Linas Agro Group about the intention to acquire AB Kauno Grudai, AB Vilniaus Paukstynas, AB Kaisiadoriu Paukstynas and related companies. The Competition Council of Latvia states in their decision that the market, where Lithuanian groups of enterprises are operating is larger than the territory of Latvia, therefore, the acquisition will not substantially change the structure of the Latvian market, reduce competition or strengthen the dominant position of the companies involved. AB Linas Agro Group has signed share purchase agreements for acquisition of controlling stakes in AB Kauno Grudai, AB Kaisiadoriu Paukstynas, AB Vilniaus Paukstynas and related companies on 2nd October 2020. The decision of the Lithuanian Competition Council regarding the implementation of the concentration is still to be made. For the transaction to go ahead, it must also be approved by the competition authorities in Russia, Poland and Estonia. About AB Linas Agro Group AB Linas Agro Group, together with its subsidiaries makes the Group of Companies established in 1991 and operates in four countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. All companies within the Group employ more than 2,100 people. The consolidated revenue of the Group during the previous financial year (2019/2020) amounted to 658 million euros. The companies of the Group produce, handle and merchandise agricultural and food products, also provide products and services for farming. The Group is the leading exporter of Lithuanian and Latvian grain and has own network of 13 grain elevators. It is also one of the leaders in supplies of agricultural inputs (such as certified seeds, fertilizers and agricultural machinery) in Lithuania and has a seed processing plant. The Group owns seven agricultural companies in Lithuania and is a major milk producer. It is the biggest poultry producer in Latvia and has four poultry companies there: AS Putnu fabrika Kekava, CIA Lielzeltini, SIA Broileks, SIA Cerova. Mazvydas Sileika, Finance Director of AB Linas Agro Group Mob. +370 619 19 403 E-mail m.sileika@linasagro.lt ADVERTISEMENT Ahead of the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) is set to train health workers who will be involved in the nationwide vaccination. According to a statement signed by Mohammad Ohitoto Head, Public Relations of the NPHCDA, over 13,000 health care workers have been trained at the national training of trainers in the first phase. This training involves participants from the national, state and local government levels. By March, 1 2021, the training will be cascaded to the ward and facility levels where over 100,000 health workers will be trained. The training, he said, is aimed at updating the skills of the health care workers in the effective handling, storage and administration of COVID-19 vaccines ahead of their arrival. Also, as part of preparations to ensure efficient and effective vaccination activities, a self e-registration link that will enable Nigerians to personally register themselves, obtain their pre-vaccination numbers and schedule their preferred date and time for vaccination has been created, the statement read, adding that the e-registration link will be provided in the coming days. Nigeria is set to receive four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines as the first batch of vaccines expected in the country. The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, while speaking at Mondays weekly briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, said the four million is part of the 16 million doses initially expected in the country. The Nigerian government had announced it was expecting an initial 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX) by the end of February. Paris, TX (75460) Today Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible. WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans rallied solidly against Democrats proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill as lawmakers awaited a decision by the Senates parliamentarian that could bolster or potentially kill a pivotal provision hiking the federal minimum wage. Despite their paper-thin congressional majorities, Democratic leaders were poised to push the sweeping package through the House on Friday. They were hoping the Senate, where changes seem likely, would follow quickly enough to have legislation on President Joe Bidens desk by mid-March. By late Wednesday, not one Republican in either chamber had publicly said he or she would back the legislation. GOP leaders were honing attacks on the package as a job killer that does too little to reopen schools or businesses shuttered for the coronavirus pandemic and that was not only wasteful but also even unscrupulous. I havent seen a Republican yet thats found something in there that they agree with, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. I think all Republicans believe in three simple things: They want a bill that puts us back to work, back to school and back to health. This bill is too costly, too corrupt and too liberal. The hardening opposition suggested that Bidens first major legislative initiative could encounter unanimous GOP opposition. That was a counterpoint to the new presidents refrain during his campaign about bringing the country together and a replay of the Republican wall that new President Barack Obama encountered in 2009 and most of his administration. Democrats showed no signs of backing down, citing the assistance the measure would spread to people, businesses and state and local governments. If congressional Republicans want to oppose all that, my response is: Good luck, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor. By Wednesday evening, the most suspense was over a decision anticipated from Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senates nonpartisan arbiter of its rules, that promised enormous political and legislative consequences. The relief bill includes a provision that over five years would hike the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The parliamentarian is involved because Democrats are pushing the overall $1.9 trillion measure through Congress under special rules that will let them avoid a Senate filibuster by Republicans. Those same rules prohibit provisions with only an incidental impact on the federal budget because they are chiefly driven by other policy purposes. The parliamentarian decides if a provision passes that test. With Republicans strongly against a minimum wage increase, the only way for it to survive is by including it in a filibuster-proof bill like the COVID-19 relief measure. To end a filibuster, Democrats would need 60 votes, an impossibility for them in the evenly divided 50-50 Senate. If the parliamentarian decides the minimum wage provision can remain in the bill, it would be a major boost for its proponents. But there would be no guarantee the measure would survive because some moderates oppose it or want it dialed back. That suggests grueling bargaining on its final form would lie ahead. A decision by the parliamentarian that the minimum wage hike must fall from the bill could be fatal, but not necessarily. Democrats could employ a rarely used procedural move to muscle the minimum wage provision into the bill with just 51 votes anyway, but it was unclear if they could muster enough support to do that. The minimum wage has stood at $7.25 since 2009. Winning the increase is a top priority for progressives at a time when Democrats control Congress and the White House. The overall bill would provide millions of Americans with $1,400 direct payments to help them weather the pandemic thats stalled much of the economy for a year and killed half a million people. It contains billions of dollars for vaccines and COVID-19 testing, schools, state and local governments and emergency jobless benefits while providing tax cuts or payments for many families with children. In a sign of hardball politics ahead, top Republicans suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer squeezed money into the bill for their own states. McCarthy said the bill had $100 million to help extend the San Francisco areas BART commuter rail system south to San Jose. That project was approved previously by the Trump administration and is not in Pelosis San Francisco district, a top Democratic aide said. McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested Schumer had won money for a bridge connecting upstate New York to Canada. A senior Democratic aide said the bill contains $1.5 million for the bridge, which is in the district of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. The aide said it was requested in 2020 by the Trump administrations Transportation Department, which was headed by Elaine Chao, McConnells wife. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company In what is poised to be an interesting face-off, former Chief Justice David Maraga has dragged lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi to court over a tweet he claims is libelous. In an 80-page application, Maraga is accusing the outspoken city lawyer of defaming his character in a tweet shared on January 12. The defendant posted, published and circulated a defamatory, libelous, and scandalous tweet on his account. The said tweet attracted 565 comments, 381 retweets and 2500 retweets, the plaint reads in part. Maraga further notes that the tweet still appears on AhmedNassirs Twitter account and is accessible to millions of Twitter subscribers throughout the world. True to his word, the tweet was still on the senior counsels account as of Wednesday, February. In the tweet, Ahmednassir Abdullah also known by his nickname Grand Mullah accused Maraga of turning a blind eye to an unnamed supreme court judge who allegedly received a Ksh200 million bribe. Grand Mullahs tweet reads: If CJ Maraga is a decent and honest Kenyan, he should come clean on the issue of the SENIOR judge of the SUPREME COURT who took Kshs 220 million BRIBE. Me and CJ Maraga know the judgeintelligent Kenyans must read A LOT on Maragas astute silence on this matter! According to Maraga, the words contained in the tweet were intended, calculated, contrived, and designed to mean and were in fact understood to mean that; a) The plaintiff was not a decent Kenyan b) The plaintiff was not an honest Kenyan c) The plaintiff was aware of and had knowledge of a Senior Judge of the Supreme Court who had collected a bribe of Sh220, 000,000. The words were presented as the absolute truth designed and intended to disparage, belittle, and injure the plaintiffs character and reputation as a retired Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya, President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, Maraga avers through his lawyers, TripleOKLaw Advocates. The former Chief Justice also notes that Ahmednassir did not file a complaint with relevant authorities or initiate proceedings for the removal of the said judge but opted to tweet about the allegations. The said publication was both reckless and malicious in the extreme and was designed and intended to inflict maximum reputational damage on the plaintiff (Maraga), read the suit papers. Maraga wants the court to declare that the tweet is indeed defamatory. He is also seeking orders compelling Grand Mullah to apologize for the tweet in the Daily Nation and Standard newspapers. The former chief justice further wants Ahmednassir Abdullahi barred permanently from making any defamatory statements against him and compensate him for damages already caused by the tweet. Maraga argues he is an elder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a position that requires a person of high moral character and unquestionable integrity. If CJ Maraga is a decent and honest Kenyan, he should come clean on the issue of the SENIOR judge of the SUPREME COURT who took Kshs 220 million BRIBE. Me and CJ Maraga know the judgeintelligent Kenyans must read A LOT on Maragas astute silence on this matter! Ahmednasir Abdullahi SC (@ahmednasirlaw) January 12, 2021 The law on the burden of proof is vast and complexthe burden shifted after my first tweet few months ago Ahmednasir Abdullahi SC (@ahmednasirlaw) January 12, 2021 Very true. AAs obsession with @dkmaraga started after nullification of presidential results. It seems he has not recovered from that ruling while everyone else has moved on. Just petition the JSC. If you claim you know the judge who took a bride why bother CJ Maraga? Witchhunt Kinyaone (@KenyaOn70901895) January 12, 2021 You are fighting for a cut. Kiberenge Jnr (@RobertKiberenge) January 12, 2021 We know the judge,A Kalenjin by the name Tunoi Chelimo Cosmas (@ChelimoJr) January 12, 2021 True that. GM is knecking out a judge who is still in the corridors and probably aspiring for bigger things. And GM is not about to let this go. Ole Thutmose (@DavidKirembu) January 12, 2021 I concur with you sir, he left and retired with this tag on his forehead pic.twitter.com/KyEl6BfRAw Charles Njeru Kigoro (@CKigoro) January 12, 2021 ..Me and CJ Maraga know the Judge You have admitted. Do for us a Favour SC. Name the Judge and meet in Court. The Court will decide. It is that Simple. Stop blaming Maragas astute Silence. Move the Court Julius Okuto. (@JuliusOtienoOku) January 12, 2021 Justice Tunoi Eric Ochanji II (@ochanjieric) January 12, 2021 You are fighting for a cut. Kiberenge Jnr (@RobertKiberenge) January 12, 2021 The COVAX compensation program will start on March 31, 2021 through its web portal ( www.covaxclaims.com ). Individuals who have been injured may apply for compensation for a COVAX vaccine administered before March 31, 2021. [6] The funding will come from a levy on all distributed COVAX-19 vaccines. During the Ebola outbreaks in Western Africa, some nations refused to accept liability for vaccine injuries. The dilemma for these nations and others that are considered low income involves whether to continue to refuse to offer manufacturers liability protection or to go without vaccines. In the current situation, that means going without COVID-19 vaccines. Is the end game for this collaboration, to allow pharmaceutical industry to remove itself from any liability and member nations to cede away their citizens and the nations right to sue for damages? The world has attempted to control other epidemics through the use of vaccines to mitigate the spread of the disease. During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, one specific vaccine used in the UK and Northern Europe caused an increase in narcolepsy, which resulted in substantial compensation claims. As early as 2006, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, the global pharmaceutical-industry lobbying group, publicly demanded that manufacturers be granted liability protection from vaccine-related adverse events if they were going to participate in pandemic response initiatives. [5] Creating a compensation program is not a new process for the WHO or United Nations. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations created the UN Compensation Commission in 1991, evaluating nearly 2.7 million claims and issuing 1.5 million awards, totaling over $50 billion dollars. [4] With this announcement, WHO is promoting this compensation program as the worlds first global program to provide for those who have suffered allegedly rare, serious adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines. In the COVAX announcement, it appears that the cutoff date, or statute of limitations to file a petition, is June 30, 2022. Gavi, created in 2000 with start-up funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is an international organization -- a global Vaccine Alliance, bringing together public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world's poorest countries. [3] The COVAX Facility is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations and alongside key delivery partner UNICEF. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world. [2] On Monday, Feb 22, 2021, The World Health Organization (WHO) announced a no-fault injury compensation program for COVID-19 vaccines. WHO has designated 92 low- and middle-income countries and economies eligible for support via the GAVI COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) of the COVAX Facility. [1] In the US, the White House committed $2 Billion for 2021 and another $2 billion for 2022 for the purchases and development of COVID vaccines for the COVAX facility . The levy to create the compensation fund will be on vaccines paid for by taxpayers from several nations. No liability for the manufacturers, just as under existing US law. Nor do the WHO, GAVI, or the UN expend any resources. This is a global consumer tax to pay for vaccine injuries. The COVAX cutoff date seems arbitrary. They give no reason why. But it does raise some serious questions. The COVID facility released a forecast of vaccination for these 92 nations . The forecast calls to vaccinate one-third of the population of all eligible nations by the end of 2021.[7] If that holds true, will they be able to vaccinate the remaining two-thirds or approximately 67% by the end of 2022? Highly doubtful. whereas on Friday, February 19, 2021, leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers said they would accelerate global vaccine development and deployment and support affordable and equitable access to vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. They cited a collective $7.5 billion from the G-7 to U.N.-backed efforts.[8] WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked the G-7 countries for their significant pledges. But he said after talks Monday with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that even if you have the money, if you cannot use the money to buy vaccines having the money does not mean anything.[9] He said some rich countries approaches to manufacturers to secure more vaccines are affecting the deals with COVAX, and even the amount that was allocated for COVAX was reduced because of this.[10] Will citizens of these low income nations be ineligible for compensation because of the cutoff date? Will this compensation program be transparent with reporting and data? It seems highly unlikely, given that the gold standard for this new COVAX Facility, according to three prominent authors, is the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) of the United States. The authors published their proposal specifically for the WHO in the New England Journal of Medicine December 2020.[11] The CICP is notorious as a program in which you can file and lose, according to attorney Renee Gentry.[12] Robert Krakow, a New York City attorney and former prosecutor who represents persons injured by vaccines said in an interview, The most notable feature of The Who announcement about a no-fault vaccine injury compensation program for low and middle income countries touted as a fast, fair, robust and transparent process, it its lack of transparency. The program is presented as a way to reduce the need for recourse to the law courts, a potentially lengthy and costly process. What the WHO announcement fails to mention is the primary purpose of the program is to pave the way for massive distribution of vaccines by insulating vaccine manufacturers from liability for serious vaccine injuries - injuries that everyone agrees will inevitably happen. The WHO program is likely modeled after the U.S. PREP Act Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which uses an opaque process that severely limits the access vaccine injury victims have to compensation for serious injuries.[13] In announcing its vaccine injury compensation program, the WHO also announced its partnership with Chubb, a Swiss insurance company. Chubb promotes itself as the worlds largest publicly traded Property & Casualty Insurance Company, located in over 54 countries worldwide. Yet another public-private partnership, with the clear implication that other insurance companies will also be involved. Tied with the Chubb announcement, its subsidiary , Inc. signed an agreement to administer the compensation program.[14] ESIS provides claim and risk management services to a wide variety of commercial clients.[15] So will ESIS have the medical expertise to interpret a flood of COVID-related injury claims? Is there a known COVID injury profile? We probably will not know the answer to that question for some time, maybe longer, if the promised transparency of the program is opaque. In the US, the CICP already is receiving many petitions for alleged injuries related to COVID vaccines and also from other countermeasures, including medical devices and drugs. Among other glaring deficiencies of the CICP system is that the petitioner may not call on medical experts to testify to their injury and the mechanism of harm. Since the CICP does not reimburse attorneys and medical experts, very few will have the resources to assemble convincing proof of causation. Without experts to help guide petitioners through the administrative process, to evaluate their injury, and to help provide a course of medical treatment for future needs, most petitioners will be lost and completely unable to recover any compensation. COVID vaccines, which many regard to be more aptly described as gene therapies, are completely novel, thus the injuries related to them will likely be unique, hard to prove, and sadly, also hard to treat. How will ESIS handle these COVAX petitions? The proposed structure appears to be solely administrative, with no appeal to a judicial system of any sort. Thus, it is extremely like the CICP in the United States, which many consider to be unconstitutional .[16] Who will have access to the decisions granting or denying compensation? We must ask questions about the other nations contributing funds and other resources to the COVAX facility. Most do not have compensation programs for injuries from COVID-19 vaccines. For those countries that have already begun vaccination programs, how are they handling injury claims? Canada announced a program nationwide in early December 2020 for COVID-19 vaccine injuries but did not release details. And a few personal injury attorneys have said they are unaware of any details. Did Canada make an announcement just too calm legitimate fears without a program in place? The nations of Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Nepal have COVID vaccine injury compensation programs. Several others have announced they will review how their existing medical systems can deliver proper care. Is that another way of saying that if you get injured, we will take care of your medical needs, and that is it? No compensation for any injury? Sounds more and more like people are being induced and coerced into playing COVID-19 vaccine roulette. The overall concerning issue is the establishment and implementation of a global compensation program. Last fall, I wrote about how The PREP Act took the first step of federalizing vaccination policy by allowing pharmacists to administer the childhood vaccination schedule.[17] Now we have a partial-global compensation program for 92 countries to be run by the WHO, UN, GAVI, and UNICEF collaboration. Will countries with existing compensation programs eventually merge with this new compensation program? Will Pharma along with WHO/GAVI/UN/UNICEF apply coercive pressure to nations to join up or wait at the end of the line for vaccines? Will we see in a few years a complete indemnified pharmaceutical industry and countries and their citizens unable to sue for damages? Truly, a global compensation program with a global liability free pharmaceutical industry. Wayne Rohde is the author of The Vaccine Court-Dark Truth of Americas Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and The Vaccine Court 2.0. He is also the host of the Right On Point podcast, a candid legal discussion of your civil liberties, the NVICP, The PREP Act, and the CICP. www.thevaccinecourt.com www.rightonpoint.online [1] https://www.who.int/news/item/22-02-2021-no-fault-compensation-programme-for-covid-19-vaccines-is-a-world-first [2] https://www.gavi.org/covax-facility [3] https://www.gavi.org/ [4] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2030600 [5] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2030600 [6] https://www.who.int/news/item/22-02-2021-no-fault-compensation-programme-for-covid-19-vaccines-is-a-world-first [7] https://www.who.int/news/item/03-02-2021-covax-publishes-first-interim-distribution-forecast [8] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/rich-nations-undermine-covax-vaccine-program-76041521 [9] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/rich-nations-undermine-covax-vaccine-program-76041521 [10] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/rich-nations-undermine-covax-vaccine-program-76041521 [11] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2030600 [12] https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2020/08/21/298910.htm [13] Phone Interview with Robert Krakow, Feb 23, 2021 [14] https://www.livemint.com/science/health/who-inks-pact-with-esis-for-no-fault-compensation-for-vaccine-saes-under-covax-11614018985125.html [15] https://www.who.int/news/item/22-02-2021-no-fault-compensation-programme-for-covid-19-vaccines-is-a-world-first [16] https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=elj [17] https://vaccineimpact.com/2020/did-the-federal-government-just-secretly-take-over-vaccine-policy-usurping-the-authority-of-the-states/ 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. BRIDGEPORT Local restaurateur John Vazzano, accused of offering a bribe to a teenage girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted in his Bridgeport restaurant, applied for a special probation program on Thursday. This is the first step in getting the charges against Mr. Vazzano dismissed, which is the remedy that is appropriate, Vazzanos lawyer, Edward Gavin, said following the brief court hearing in the Golden Hill Street courthouse. We look forward to returning to court for our hearing on the application. Vazzano, owner of restaurants in Bridgeport, Stratford, Fairfield and Monroe, is charged with bribery of a witness, third-degree hindering prosecution and interfering with an officer. Bribery and hindering are felonies while interfering is a misdemeanor charge. Vazzano, who took a leave from his role as a Trumbull police commissioner after his arrest, applied for accelerated rehabilitation, a pretrial program in which a defendant does not plead guilty to the charges but is placed on up to two years of probation. If a defendant completes that probation successfully, the charges against him are dismissed. During Thursdays hearing, Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton pointed out that Vazzano would not normally be eligible for the program because he is charged with a C felony. However, Senior Assistant States Attorney Christopher Alexy, who is prosecuting the case for the Office of the Chief States Attorney, told the judge he was not objecting to Vazzano applying for the program. The judge then continued the case for a hearing on March 25. At that hearing, the victim in the case can object to Vazzano getting accelerated rehabilitation. Alexy declined comment as he left the courthouse. Vazzanos arrest comes after an investigation, initially begun by the Bridgeport Police Departments Detective Bureau, into allegations that in November and December 2019, a longtime dish washer at Bridgeports Vazzys Restaurant and another kitchen employee sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl who was working in the restaurant. In February 2020, the dishwasher, Jaime Sena, 56, was charged with third-degree sexual assault and second-degree unlawful restraint. His case is pending in Superior Court. The second employee fled before he could be arrested and is still being sought. According to the arrest warrant, the girls father filed a complaint about the alleged assault with the Police Department on Jan. 11, 2020. The affidavit, which consists of detailed witness statements, states that Vazzano told a Bridgeport detective that he would provide the names of the employees in the assault but did not do so. The restaurants manager told the detective she did not know the last names of the employees. Witness accounts in the affidavit state that in February 2020, during the funeral service of an unrelated person, Vazzano approached the father of the girl and allegedly told the father that the arrest of the sexual assault suspect is not a good idea. He then allegedly offered to give the victim a job at another of his restaurants and a $1,000 gift card to Macys, the affidavit states. The conversation between the father and Vazzano was overheard by an off-duty police officer, the affidavit states. The investigator states in the affidavit that Vazzano later lied to members of the U.S. Marshals Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force on the whereabouts of the two employees and that Vazzanos cell phone call logs showed he had often texted the two men. The warrant affidavit also goes into great detail regarding allegations that then-Police Chief Armando Perez attempted to stop his detectives from pursuing an investigation of the sex assault complaint. Chief Perez also stated again that John Vazzano is a good guy and that he (Perez) does not want Vazzano hurt, the affidavit states. Perez, who is being sentenced in federal court in April for fixing the process that made him police chief and lying to the FBI about it, has not been charged in the Vazzano case. Neither he nor his attorney has replied to requests for comment. 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. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Wednesday she expects the city to enter the less restrictive red tier next week meaning restaurants, movies and other businesses could open with limits and exit purple, the most restrictive of Californias four-tier system for reopening the economy. With the continued improvement of our COVID-19 health indicators, we could move to the states red tier by next Wednesday, March 3rd, Breed said in a Twitter post. This is a big step forward but we still need to keep up our progress. Only nine of Californias 58 counties are in the red tier, including Marin and San Mateo in the Bay Area. The red tier allows more people to shop indoors, and lets other businesses open with reduced numbers of customers. Museums may open at 25% capacity, gyms at 10%, and movie theaters and restaurants at 25% or 100 people, whichever is fewer. Just two counties, Sierra and Alpine, have reached the orange tier, allowing even fewer restrictions. The news came as deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 50,000 across the state Wednesday, county data shows. New coronavirus cases continue to fall across the state, however, and more Californians are becoming eligible to be vaccinated. In San Francisco, teachers, grocery workers and emergency responders who live or work in the city became eligible to be vaccinated for the first time on Wednesday. But not everyone was able to make an appointment. Thats because San Francisco, like many health departments and providers across the state, is prioritizing second shots for people who got their first doses a few weeks ago. About 91,000 San Franciscans are due to get their second doses in the next few weeks, according to the Department of Public Health, and many newly eligible people will have to wait two or three weeks until more vaccines arrive. Craig MacLellan, a worker at a San Francisco Whole Foods market, was one of thousands who became eligible for the vaccine Wednesday. Around 9 a.m., he looked at an online vaccine appointment system. He expected to click on his job category, food and agricultural workers, to indicate he was eligible. But he said the category wasnt listed. MacLellan checked about an hour later, and while food and agriculture workers was now listed, the appointments were fully booked. MacLellan said that since hes young and has no underlying health conditions, he feels safe at work. But he is concerned about some of his coworkers. Although Im very excited to be in a group thats able to get it, I understand this is one of the biggest logistical challenges in American history, MacLellan said. I imagine theres tens of thousands of people logging onto these websites today. Still, some got lucky Wednesday. Its a huge relief, said Frank Lara, a fifth-grade teacher at Buena Vista Horace Mann school in San Francisco. He received his first shot Wednesday afternoon. Its obviously stressful trying to get there, and hopefully everything is organized. But its a step closer to being in the classroom. Vaccinating educators has been a huge point of contention for the citys teachers union, which has said it will not allow unvaccinated teachers back in the classroom until San Francisco reaches the orange tier, meaning there is just moderate spread of the virus. San Francisco delivered up to 6,000 shots a day before the winter storm that slammed the Midwest caused supply delays and mass vaccination sites to shut down in the city and across California. So far, 80% of the citys health care workers and people 65 and older who are in Phase 1A health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities have been vaccinated, Mayor London Breed said on Twitter Wednesday. We can do more than 10,000 doses per day right now, as soon as we get more supply, Breed added. The status of the delayed vaccinations in San Francisco remained unclear Wednesday, and city officials did not respond to questions. But three other Bay Area counties that reported delays last week Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa said Wednesday that thousands of vaccine doses have now arrived. The Marin County health department said Wednesday that educators, food service workers and other essential workers could start making appointments for vaccinations immediately. The agency said it was ready to open up its supply after vaccinating more than 60% of all county residents above age 65. Weve made a lot of progress in vaccinating our health care workers and older residents, and its time to move ahead to protect our essential workers, Dr. Matt Willis, Marin Countys public health officer, said in a statement. Santa Clara Countys health department announced Wednesday that a large vaccination site at Gilroy High School will open Sunday. The site, established with the Gilroy Unified School District, will offer up to 2,000 vaccine doses a day to county residents who qualify under Phase 1B of the states vaccine rollout plan, which includes educators and food workers. Im hopeful many of our residents and employees sign up in the near future, said Dr. Deborah Flores, the Gilroy school superintendent. Please sign up and get vaccinated as soon as possible. Both vaccines currently available in the United States, made by Pfizer and Moderna, are given in two shots, 21 days or 28 days apart. Meanwhile, some Sonoma County elementary schools can start to reopen since coronavirus case counts have dropped enough, and other requirements have been met, Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County's health officer, said at a news conference Wednesday. Schools that want to reopen can submit a reopening plan, with middle and high schools on hold until the county moves from the purple tier to the red tier. While the number of new coronavirus cases, hospital admissions and deaths from COVID-19 continue to decline, medical experts still warn about the danger of asymptomatic spread. Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSFs Department of Medicine, said Monday on Twitter that 1.1% of the coronavirus tests at his hospital are positive even though the patient showed no symptoms. That means roughly 1 out of 100 San Franciscans may be walking around with the virus without knowing it. So dont let your guard down, particularly since if you havent been vaccinated yet youll get a chance in the next 3 months, Wachter said. The White House anticipates allocating 3 million to 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of next week if it gets emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, President Bidens COVID-19 coordinator, Jeff Zients, said Wednesday. The FDA is expected to make a final decision within days. Michael Williams, Aidin Vaziri and Catherine Ho are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: michael.williams@sfchronicle.com, avaziri@sfchronicle.com, cho@sfchronicle.com Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. Dubai, Feb 25 : A plea for exemption from mandatory Covid tests by the UAE-based Indian expats before travelling to India is gaining momentum as social workers and community groups have recently joined the bandwagon. As reported by the Gulf News, Indian expats here have raised concerns over making RT-PCR tests mandatory for all the passengers, including the infants and sought government funding for on-arrival confirmatory molecular tests. The plea seeking government funding for the Covid tests on arrival in India and exemption for children below 12 years from getting tested twice is gathering the steam. Since February 23, India has made pre-departure RT-PCR negative test report taken within 72 hours prior to the flight mandatory for boarding flights to India. All passengers from here should also undergo "self-paid confirmatory molecular test" on arrival in India. Indian airports are charging different rates for the on-arrival test as per the cost capped by the respective state governments. Expats have taken exception to paying for a second test and concerns were also raised about not exempting young children from Covid-19 tests from the UAE and India. Several expats are also seeking an exemption from both the tests for children below 12 years. Ashraf Thamarassery, a prominent social worker and winner of India's Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award for NRIs, said the on-arrival test cost would be an additional burden for several Indian families flying home. "There are many people, who have lost jobs, flying back home. There are families with four or five members leaving the UAE. Also, how can people, who are leaving after staying without any documents and financial cases, pay this amount? Those who came on visit visa looking for jobs will also be affected." He said the Indian government should urgently address the issue and help fund the tests like its counterpart in the UAE. "People coming to the UAE are also tested on arrival. But the UAE government is bearing the cost of testing passengers of all nationalities. The Indian government should bear the cost of testing its own citizens travelling home during the pandemic." K.V. Shamsudheen, who runs Sharjah-based Pravasi Bandhu Welafre Trust, said he has written a letter to Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan to stop the "self-paid" test on arrival. He said many NRIs are financially struggling after salary cut, job loss and business failures during the Covid-19 pandemic. "It will be an additional burden for the passengers arriving from abroad with financial struggle. So, I appeal to the authorities to stop the paid PCR test in the airport." Meanwhile, some expats are delaying their journey to India hoping that the government would revise the rules following pressure from community organisations and social workers. 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. "Go with the flow" has always been King William Halikman's philosophy on life and it has paid off for him. A telemetry engineer for RCA at the beginning of his career, he met an 18-year-old Brazilian beauty at a dance in Recife, Brazil. He was 25 and hadn't planned to be there. She was born in Brazil but hadn't planned to be there either (in that country, that is). Her grandparents came to South America in hopes of reaching their dream to come to America from Europe, not realizing there is a North and South America. But here they were, "A Pearl and her King," finding each other. Could anyt... It's official: all three of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos' children are adults. On Wednesday, the couple paid tribute to their youngest, Joaquin, on social media to mark his 18th birthday. The Live With Kelly And Ryan host, 50, posted a video montage of photos of her boy taken through the years, while the Riverdale star, 49, shared a similar series of photos that chronicled his childhood. Scroll down for video Happy birthday! Kelly Ripa took to Instagram to wish her son Joaquin a happy 18th birthday with a montage of photos in a video Birthday wishes! Ripa's husband, Mark Consuelos, shared a series of photos on his Instagram page to mark his son becoming an official adult Coming in at just over three minutes, Ripa's post included an array of photos of the family as her son grew into the young man he is today. 'Joaquin 18!!!!' she wrote in the caption of the clip, which included orchestral music the began quietly and ended in a crescendo. 'Happy birthday to the light of our lives! You fill everyday with joy, and make everything better! We love you to the moon and beyond.' Proud mama: Ripa's birthday montage to her son Joaquin included an array of photos taken throughout the years with the family Beaming: Mother and son are pictured when Joaquin was a youngster Mother and her young men: Ripa posed with her two sons: Michael and Joaquin, in a photo that appears to be a few years old Family: The montage also showed Consuelos enjoying ice cream with his son many years ago Consuelos paid tribute to his boy with nine pictures, dating back to when he was young boy. 'Happy 18th Birthday Quino! @kellyripa our little guy is all grown up. We love you Joaquin!' he gushed in the caption. The pair are also the proud parents to their oldest son Michael, 23, and daughter Loa, 19. Three weeks earlier, Ripa shared about her pride in Joaquin for being on the verge of starting his first year of college, despite his struggles with dyslexia and dysgraphia, which affect a person's reading and writing abilities, respectively. The men: Father and son are seen arm-in-arm in a photo Siblings: With Joaquin now 18, the couple's three kids are now all official adults: the birthday boy is pictured with his brother Michael, now 23, and sister Lola, now 19 Proud mama: Earlier this month on Live With Kelly And Ryan, Ripa shared about her pride in Joaquin for being on the verge of starting his first year of college, despite his struggles with dyslexia and dysgraphia, which affect a person's reading and writing abilities, respectively 'Joaquin is trying to decide on a college right now, and he's got lots of options,' Ripa revealed during an episode of her hit morning talk show. 'Mark and I were FaceTiming the other night ... Mark got very emotional, and very choked up, because he said, "You know, I never thought he would be able to go to college." Because he was profoundly dyslexic and dysgraphic,' she added. The New Jersey native said he son has been able to overcome his difficulties through 'hard work, determination, [and] remediation,' and that the 'misunderstood learning difference,' has actually been a 'blessing' for their family. The couple will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary on May 1. Through the years: Consuelos paid tribute to his boy with a series of nine pictures Cute: Ripa planted a kiss on her son with the family's dog snuggled next to them Boys to men: The couple's two sons got chummy in a more recent photo Making memories: The proud father and son often do outdoor activities together Off to college: Joaquin's sister Lola began her college career last year Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy M62 exists, and that it will be released for the first time on March 3, 2021. It will do so through Lazada in the Malaysian market. The OEM has revealed that it will have the same 7,000mAh battery as its rumored alternate form, the F62. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 5G , Accessory , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel Evo / Project Athena , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Linux / Unix , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) Ticker The Galaxy F62 finally launched in India earlier in February 2021 as Samsung's latest "battery monster" phone. It is rumored to have an M-series version with largely the same specs, although this has never been confirmed outright. Now, Samsung has finally offered a sign of its existence by supplying a date for its debut in Malaysia. The Galaxy M62 is thought to have the same specs as the F62, which is powered by the Exynos 9825 processor and has a 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display. Then again, Samsung has yet to confirm this outright prior to its first launch. On the other hand, as it is now being teased in terms of its huge 7,000mAh battery, the rest of it will probably fall in line with its probable F-series twin. Similarly, the OEM will hold off on its cost to Malaysian customers until its debut on Lazada. Then again, should it be anywhere around the F62's Indian price of around US$330, it might prove attractive indeed in the country. Buy the Galaxy M21 on Amazon.in INDIANAPOLIS The Indiana Department of Health announced today that 1,109 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at state and private laboratories. That brings to 659,127 the number of Indiana residents now known to have had the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous days dashboard. A total of 12,065 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 26 from the previous day. Another 429 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record. Indiana COVID-19 Dashboard & Map To date, 3,100,111 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 3,093,689 on Wednesday. A total of 7,902,509 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26, 2020. To find testing sites around the state, click here. Hoosiers age 60 and older, along with healthcare workers, long-term care residents, and first responders who are regularly called to the scene of an emergency to render medical assistance, are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. To schedule, visit https://ourshot.in.gov or call 211. As of today, 941,291 Hoosiers have received the first dose of vaccine, and 507,155 are fully vaccinated. The state and its partners are adding more locations for you to get vaccinated including select Meijer, Kroger, & Walmart pharmacies across the state. Vigo Countys three Kroger locations are included. All locations will show up on the state's vaccination website. It's important to note Meijer and Kroger will have their own appointment sign-up areas on their websites. In 2015, the world witnessed a major international accord that was adopted by all nations across the globe. This was the Paris Agreement in France designed to address climate change and its negative impacts. The agreement includes commitments from all major emitting countries to cut their climate pollution and to strengthen those commitments over time. The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016. Against this background, Ghana has taken a giant leap towards dealing with climate and environmental pollution through the use of Electric Buses for its public transport system. According to the Minister-designate for the Ministry of Transport, Kweku Ofori Asiamah at his vetting before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday 23rd February 2021, Ghana is on the move to secure electric buses. He explained that Ghana as a signatory to the PARIS AGREEMENT is on the path to ensure that better climate standards are put in place. With the Electric Buses, we will have reduced harmful exhaust emissions, which is good news for our health. The better air quality will lead to less health problems and costs caused by air pollution. Electric vehicles (EVs) themselves emit no greenhouse gases (GHGs). Electric cars run very quietly, especially when running fully on battery power. Electric cars can be powered naturally with renewable resources like solar, wind, and water power. Gasoline, however, is created using oil, which is a natural resource, but not renewable. Electricity is also cheaper than gas. Electric cars typically cost one-third the cost of gas-powered vehicles to run. Many electric vehicles also use regenerative braking to add to the energy the car needs to run, which is completely cost-free, the minister explained. He further disclosed that Ghana is in talks with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to fund the procurement of electric buses. The GCF is a unique global platform to respond to climate change by investing in low-emission and climate-resilient development. GCF was established by 194 governments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developing countries, and to help vulnerable societies adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 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. [February 24, 2021] NASA to Honor 'Hidden Figure' Mary W. Jackson During Headquarters Naming Ceremony WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk will lead a ceremony at 1 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 26, officially naming the NASA Headquarters building in Washington in honor of Mary W. Jackson. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website and will livestream on the agency's Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as the NASA app. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA, began her career with the agency in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The mathematician and aerospace engineer went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal. The work of Jackson and others in the West Area Computing Unit caught widespread national attention in the 2016 Margot Lee Shetterly book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race." The book was made into a popular movie that same year, and award-winning actress Janelle Monae portrayed Jackson. Members of Jackson's family and other guests will join Jurczyk for the ceremony, including: Clayton Turner , NASA Langley center director , NASA Langley center director Christine Darden , retired NASA engineer and "Hidden Figure," as profiled in Shetterly's book , retired NASA engineer and "Hidden Figure," as profiled in Shetterly's book Artist Tenbeete Solomon, also known as Trap Bob Wanda Jackson , granddaughter of Mary W. Jackson In addition to unveiling a building sign with Jackson's name, the event will feature video tributes with reflections on Jackson's career and legacy from a variety of individuals, including William R. Harvey, the president of Hampton University, Jackson's alma mater, as well as family and friends, current and former NASA employees and astronauts, celebrities, elected officials and others. The event also will feature a video of poet Nikki Giovanni reading an excerpt from her poem "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea," which is about space and civil rights. With the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, on-site attendance will be limited to participants and invited guests, with no accreditation for in-person media. Members of the media are encouraged to attend the event remotely and take advantage of the resources available virtually. Learn more about NASA's Hidden and Modern Figures, at: https://www.nasa.gov/modernfigures Content about Mary W. Jackson for use by journalists and media outlets is available online at: https://www.nasa.gov/mediaresources Photos from the Friday, Feb. 26, naming ceremony will be available following the event at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/ View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-to-honor-hidden-figure-mary-w-jackson-during-headquarters-naming-ceremony-301235085.html SOURCE NASA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Respiratory particles containing the coronavirus can sometimes linger in the air for hours after leaving a host, floating menacingly through the air, waiting to be inhaled through a warm nostrils or mouth. A new device being installed at some southeast Michigan jail facilities was designed to stop that from happening. Twenty-two machines purchased for $240,000 by the Wayne County Sheriffs Office for use in administrative buildings and jails are built to vacuum and detour contaminated air through a filter that ensnares the coronavirus and zaps it into oblivion with at least 248 degrees of heat. The technology developed by Integrated Viral Protection in Houston is being used in schools, gyms and hospitals, but the Wayne County Jail this week became the first in Michigan to install them, and the first correctional facility in the nation to put them to use, said Wayne County officials Thursday. Its the hope of jail administrators that the machines will help reduce outbreaks among confines that have proven to be a breeding ground for the virus. Nearly 175 inmates and 260-plus Wayne County Jail workers have tested positive for the virus over the last year, said Sheriff Raphael Washington. While data shows the coronavirus thrives in enclosed prisons and jails across Michigan, Wayne County has had an especially tragic ordeal with the pandemic, with several employees, including Sheriff Benny Napoleon, dying after contracting the virus. Sadly, Sheriff (Benny) Napoleon succumbed to COVID-19 in December, said Washington, who was appointed to replace Napoleon in January. But prior to his passing, he continuously researched options for increasing health safety and I know he would have insisted this groundbreaking technology be installed to enhance mitigation efforts throughout the organization. Washington said Napoleon was involved when his agency first began looking into the purchase of the filtration machines for the 1,018-inmate jail system that includes three jail facilities and administrative offices. The two-year contract with Integrated Viral Protection includes round-the-clock maintenance. Currently, there are 12 machines in use with 10 more slated for delivery in the near future, Washington said. Among them are larger machines that stand about 6 feet tall and smaller mobile units that can be placed on desks, Washington said. How it works The filters can be installed directly in HVAC systems or used in mobile, stand-alone machines that light up and buzz like refrigerators as they inhale and exhale up to 1,300 cubic feet of air per minute, according to manufacturers. It captures not only the coronavirus, but all particles larger than .3 microns, said Dr. Zhifeng Ren, cofounder of Integrated Viral Protection and director of the Superconductivity Center of Texas at the University of Houston. Ren said that means the devices are useful for filtering and killing many other viruses and bacteria, including influenza or anthrax, as well as pollen that causes allergies. The filters trap and kill 99.8% of bacteria that pass through it, according to Ren, who led a peer-reviewed research study of the product that was published in a science journal he edits. The University of Houston also receives royalties for sale of the products. The unique aspect of the filter is its ability to withstand unusually high temperatures at which traditional filter could catch fire. Ren said testing involved use of a controlled sample of coronavirus-contaminated air that was analyzed prior to and after being filtered. Tests were conducted by third parties and Ren said there is an unpublished study that involved testing the air in hospital rooms of coronavirus patients. While samples initially showed presence of the virus, three hours after machines were installed, no virus was detectable. The machines cost between $6,000 and $20,000, with three models ranging in size and capacity. Larger models are capable of cleaning all air within a 1,000-square-foot room within 10 minutes, Ren said. So far, machines are predominantly being used in commercial, office, school and now jail settings, but Ren said theyre useful in any enclosed space, including homes. Filters last about a year, Ren said. Crush NTX gym in Witchita Falls, Texas, implemented one of the first commercial applications of the technology, purchasing four separate filtration machines. An Integrated Viral Protection machine at Crush NTX Fitness in Wichita Falls, Texas Gym owner Melissa Whitmer, who noted shes not related to the Michigan governor, said the filters seem to be working. While some area gyms have been deemed hot spots, weve had no COVID-reported cases, Whitmer said. I cant tell you how well they work, I can just tell you we havent had any cases since Nov. 1, the date the gym opened with the air purifiers in place. Whitmer said the machines, which are placed in locker rooms, waiting and workout areas, emit a slight burning smell and are a tad loud, like a refrigerator, but also have bright lights that are really cool to look at. The machines havent made her electricity bills significantly higher, she said. Ren said the smaller mobile units use up to 3 kwh per day. It does work and it gives us peace of mind, Whitmer said. ... Ive been very happy with it. More on Mlive: Michigan approves $2.5 million for vaccine distribution Michigan House clears $3.5B coronavirus spending plan over objections from Democrats Read Whitmers $5.6B plan to fund coronavirus recovery for Michigan schools, economy Michigan Republicans worry Whitmers budget creates long-term costs, falls short on in-person school Michigan Senate Republicans unveil $2B plan for spending federal coronavirus money Democrats introduce Whitmers $5.6 billion pandemic spending plan in House 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. Exploring exposure to superbacteria, researchers at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital got unexpected results from an international collaborative study conducted in real time among 20 travelers to Southeast Asia. All the participants were found to contract superbacteria within a week after arriving in the destination. A detailed sequence analysis showed that the traveler group acquired a variety of superbacteria comprising over 80 different strains altogether. Before the corona pandemic, tens of millions international travelers annually headed to the tropics, getting exposed to local intestinal bacteria. A total of 20-70% of those returning from the tropics carry - for the most unknowingly - ESBL-producing bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics. The likelihood of acquiring such superbacteria depends on destination and health behavior abroad. The risk is greatest in South and Southeast Asia, and a substantial increase is associated with contracting travelers' diarrhea and taking antibiotics while abroad. An investigation led by professor of Infectious diseases Anu Kantele at Helsinki University together with MD Esther Kuenzli from Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute involved a real-time scrutiny of superbacteria acquisition among a group of 20 Europeans over a three-week visit to Laos. The participants' daily stool samples were initially screened on site in Vientiane, Laos, and later, in Europe, the superbacteria strains isolated were analyzed in detail by whole-genome sequencing. The study was recently published in the Lancet Microbe. It belongs to a series of Kantele's studies exploring the spread of antimicrobial resistance by international travel. Our study revealed that travelers to the tropics are much more predisposed to acquiring superbacteria than previously thought. In conventional studies, stool samples are only collected before and after travel, not while abroad as we did now. travelers to the tropics are known to be exposed to superbacteria, but the extent of the risk revealed by our real-time sampling was unexpected." Anu Kantele, Professor, Helsinki University Travelers contracted superbacteria within the first week abroad In Laos, daily stool samples from the participants were analyzed locally in the Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital-Wellcome Trust -Research laboratory. Had samples only been collected before and after travel, the proportion of superbacteria carriers had been approximately 70%. Daily real-time scrutiny already while abroad revealed, however, that all travelers had contracted a superbacter within a week after arrival. The findings varied day by day. While some participants carried superbacteria for several days, others had a couple of days' breaks after which superbacteria were found again. Part of the travelers acquired several strains. "It became evident that acquisition of superbacteria is a dynamic process: bacteria come and go, some strains persisting for a lengthy period of time," Kantele says. Whole-genome sequencing revealed the great variety among strains of superbacteria After returning home, to explore the isolated superbacteria strains in more detail, the researchers established a collaboration with Jukka Corander, professor of Statistics at the Universities of Helsinki and Oslo, and Alan McNally, professor of Microbial genetics at the University of Birmingham, England. Whole-genome sequencing and analyses proved colonization to be a dynamic process involving constant switches between the various strains. Indeed, all the travelers had been exposed to a much wider range of superbacteria than generally thought. Applying the traditional approach, about 20 new strains would have been detected after travel, but daily sampling abroad and whole-genome sequencing enabled the researchers to unravel that the participants acquired 83 different strains altogether. Only in four cases did two travelers share the same strains, indicating that the bacteria were not in general transmitted from one to another. None of the participants developed a clinical infection caused by the superbacteria. Had they not been delivered their screening results on a daily basis, the study participants would have remained totally unaware of them carrying superbugs. "It was wonderful to see how our intestinal bacteria stand up to the incomers: the great majority of all alien strains disappeared already before the end of the journey," Kantele rejoices. Professor Jukka Corander points out that the study provides a completely new perspective to the bacterial colonization diversity in geographic regions where superbugs are endemic. "We have earlier obtained robust modelling results concerning the stability of E. coli colonization in populations with low levels of antibiotic resistance, however, the new study conducted in Laos implies that we need to start building the model anew, so that we gain thorough understanding about the role of superbugs also in those circumstances where they colonize the majority of the people," Corander says. Antibiotic resistance increases at an alarming rate in the tropics The worldwide growth of antibiotic resistance is particularly alarming in tropical regions with inadequate hygiene and uncontrolled use of antibiotics. Multidrug-resistant bacteria are carried both by animals and local inhabitants. Returning from such environments, many visitors carry superbacteria to their home countries. Increasing resistance is also being witnessed by research: the proportion of travelers carrying these bacteria is growing. Usually acquisition of ESBL or other superbacteria does not cause any symptoms. After travelers return home, the strains usually disappear over time. Carriers can, however, pass these bacteria on to others. Among a small proportion, the superbacteria cause a symptomatic infection, most typically a urinary tract infection. Treatment of infections caused by superbacteria is more challenging than of those caused by sensitive bacteria. In some cases, the infection may even turn out life-threatening. Antibiotic use during travel further adds to the risk of carriage: favouring the resistant bacteria, antibiotic treatment makes space for newcomers. Kantele stresses the grave threat increasing resistance poses to healthcare worldwide. "Antibiotics are not only needed to treat infections, but they also enable high-risk operations such as major surgery and organ transplants, where they are given to prevent infections," she says. EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Hart caught on camera texting while driving his vintage Mustang 'erratically' on an LA highway https://t.co/vOh5N1Kzdm Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) February 24, 2021 A recent report claims the actor is in dire need of reevaluating his driving behavior: one Sunday, he took one of his vintage cars, a 1965 Mustang GT Covertible restomodded by Revology (thanks, Sean!), out for a drive on the freeway in Long Beach, California, and spent considerable time on his phone. Moreover, an eyewitness says he was driving erratically, weaving in and out of traffic, though not speeding.The eyewitness also has several photos of Hart at the wheel of a black, first-gen Mustang while on his phone, which they sold to British tab the Daily Mail. There are a couple of slightly different angles and backdrops, so either Hart pulled over a couple of times to be on his phone, or he was really texting and driving.Texting and driving is illegal in most places, but, more importantly, it is dangerous. Distracted driving remains a leading cause of car crashes, and youd think someone who was nearly killed one year and a half ago in one would pay more attention. At least, thats what the eyewitness says.He was on the freeway between Irvine and Long Beach. It was so erratic he kept speeding up, slowing down and weaving in and out of traffic, the tipster shares. Kevin was there on the phone talking and texting. I just thought given all the accidents he's had, Dude, what are you doing?Hart never went above the legal 65 mph (105 kph), but still. The Mail tried to contact him for a comment but to no avail.In September 2019, Hart was a passenger in his one-off 1970 Plymouth Barracuda restomod, which hed bought for himself as a birthday present just months earlier. His friend was at the wheel and, though inexperienced, floored it, losing traction and sending the Cuda down an embankment. Both driver and Hart, but not the rear seat passenger, suffered considerable back injuries. In the actors case, they required extensive surgery and months of therapy.Kevin Hart, also known as the hardest working man in showbiz, is a known car collector and vintage muscle car lover . After the Cuda was totaled, he treated himself to a new ride, a 1970 Dodge Charger dubbed Hellraiser and customized by SpeedKore, which also did the Cuda. Anvisa, The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency has granted a permit to import the Company's iMicrodose Pack by way of the Country's 'named patient import process' for prescribed medical use Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP) (FSE: 4YX) (OTC: TRUFF) ("Red Light Holland" or the "Company"), an Ontario-based corporation engaged in the production, growth and sale of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, is extremely pleased to announce that Anvisa, Brazil's National Health Regulatory Agency, has granted authorization for the Company's iMicrodose packs, which contain 15g of Psilocybin Truffles, to be legally imported to Brazil via the 'named patient import process' for prescribed medical patient use. "We are grateful for our collaborative relationship with Disruptive Pharma who worked closely with the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency to secure authorization to import Red Light Holland's iMicrodose packs, with our natural-occurring branded Psilocybin Truffles, to be imported and sold in Brazil for Medical use, as our branded iMicrodose packs have officially been prescribed by a doctor to a patient in Brazil," said Todd Shapiro, CEO and Director of Red Light Holland. "This is a monumental day for the Company, and we are so proud to be a part of providing legal access of psilocybin to Brazil and for the first time having our product prescribed by a physician for medical use." Red Light Holland's iMicrodose packs have been shipped to Disruptive Pharma's MyPharma2Go logistics hub in the Netherlands to start their journey to Brazil. Once landed in Brazil, MyPharma2Go is expected to deliver the iMicrodose packs to a Brazilian patient as they have been pre-prescribed by a physician, before the end of March 2021. This approval and shipment represent a significant advancement in opening the legal and medically approved market for psilocybin in Brazil, a country with a population of over 200 million people. Shapiro added: "This early process working alongside Disruptive Pharma's MyPharma2Go.com, a large Brazilian online pharmaceutical and supplement distributor, has been an absolute pleasure and one we are thankful for. We are pleased to do our part to potentially be a part of positive change in Brazil, and to steal a line from Neil Armstrong: This is one micro step for man, one macro leap for mankind." Red Light Holland and Disruptive Pharma continue to work towards finalizing their proposed joint venture structure and agreement, as previously disclosed in the Company's news release dated December 14, 2020. In consideration for Disruptive Pharma having met these initial milestones, the Company has agreed to issue to Disruptive Pharma, 3,000,000 common share purchase warrants, each warrant is exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.50 per share for a period of 2 years. 750,000 of these warrants have vested immediately based on Disruptive Pharma having fulfilled these milestones, the balance vest upon future milestones being met. These warrants and any underlying shares issued upon exercise, are subject to a statutory hold period of 4 months and 1 day. About MyPharma2GO In Brazil and other LatAm countries, specific legislation permits consumers to import medicines, medical devices, OTCs and health products. Established in 2018 and headquartered in the US, Mundihealth / MyPharma2Go uses this legislation to bring HCP-focused pharmaceuticals and/or B2C supplements towards the region. By contracting MP2Go's business services, companies can launch products within 30 days following agreement, legally sidestepping a 1-3 year registration process with Health Authorities, anticipating revenue and testing the market without committing high monetary investment. Once the prescription has been generated and the product purchased, MP2Go dispatches it from its FDA-approved warehouse in Florida, Netherlands or Israel via its proprietary courier service. This permits full tracking of the items, which are delivered directly to the consumer in 7-10 business days under full compliance of Health Authorities and Customs. Customer Care is also a priority for the company, covering all aspects of the HCP and patient/consumer journeys aiming recurrence and solid growth for all brands allied to great user experience. About Red Light Holland Corp. The Company is an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale (through existing Smart Shops operators and an advanced e-commerce platform) of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal market within the Netherlands, in accordance with the highest standards, in compliance with all applicable laws. For additional information on the Company: Todd Shapiro Chief Executive Officer & Director Tel: 647-204-7129 Email: todd@redlighttruffles.com Website: https://redlighttruffles.com/ Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Red Light Holland's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward- looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, information on the timing and other details of the importation into Brazil of the iMicrodose packs and their subsequent use, the reception of the iMicrodose packs in Brazil and any information regarding future sales, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, perception of the medical-use psilocybin industry, competition, and other factors or developments that may hinder market growth. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company, including risks regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, market conditions, economic factors, and management's inability to manage and to operate the business and the equity markets generally. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Although each of Red Light Holland believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward- looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75444 Zimbabwe Vice-President Kembo Mohadi has fended off accusations of sexual impropriety in a press briefing. He said he was a victim of hacking and voice cloning after an online newspaper published lurid phone call recordings with several women allegedly including a subordinate. Barely audible and behind a face mask, the 71-year-old told reporters that the recordings were concocted and that he was innocent of the allegations. I am innocent and a victim of political machinations being peddled through hacking and voice cloning." He added that the allegations were not only false but choreographed to soil his image as a national leader. The government spokesman shared a video of Mr Mohadi's statement. In a series of phone calls published by local media, a man is heard arranging for sex including in his government office and a hotel. The Womens Coalition, a rights group, has petitioned the state Zimbabwe Gender Commission to investigate possible illicit relations with subordinates and sexual harassment within the office of the vice-president. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum voiced concern about the allegations and a culture of abuse of office and power by a public official for sexual advantage. The main opposition called for his resignation. Mr Mohadi was appointed one of two vice-presidents in 2017 following the ousting of former leader Robert Mugabe. Source: BBC 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 Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 25 : For the second day in succession, senior Left leaders in Kerala on Thursday made an all-out attack against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against the state's Pinarayi Vijayan government. The first to attack Gandhi on Thursday was CPI-M Politburo member and former state minister M.A. Baby who said if this is the way Gandhi is going to campaign in Kerala for the Congress-led United Democratic Front, it would be an easy victory for the Left in the Assembly elections. "If nonsense is going to be said by Rahul and (Congress General Secretary) Priyanka (Gandhi) during the Assembly election campaign, it would be easy for the Left. We all saw (Rahul) Gandhi driving a tractor in Wayanad the other day... what he should have done was, using that time, he should have gone to Puducherry and try to save his party's government," he said. The CPI-M state Secretariat had slammed Gandhi on Wednesday, saying he was speaking "like a recruiting agent of the BJP". Gandhi slammed the CPI-M and linked the gold smuggling case to the office of Chief Minister Pinarayi and also said if one carries a CPI-M flag, then they will get jobs through the backdoor. On Thursday, senior CPI Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam, who is currently leading an election campaign yatra of the Left, said that the Gandhi "show" in the Kollam seas on Wednesday, where he travelled on a fishing boat, jumping into the sea and his interaction with the fisherfolk was one which had no sum and substance and was one that lacked any serious concern for the fishing community. "If he really had any real concern for the fishing community he would have visited the house of the fishermen (at Kollam) who while fishing in the high seas, was shot dead by two Italian naval officers. It was the then Congress government in the Centre which saved them because they were Italians," he alleged. The Congress, however, made light of the Left's attack/ AICC General Secretary and Rajya Sabha member K.C.Venugopal on Thursday told the media here that the CPI-M in Kerala is feeling jittery of Gandhi and the way he has entered into the hearts of people of Kerala. "Like the BJP, the CPI-M in Kerala is losing its sleep, the way Gandhi is moving forward. None will agree to the statement that Gandhi is an agent of the BJP and he does not require a certificate from the CPI-M. It would be good for the CPI-M not to forget that in Tamil Nadu, their candidates used the picture of Gandhi and won the Lok Sabha polls there," he said. 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 Scripture declares a certain reality of life. This reality centers upon the activity of God within the world. God is not removed from creation. In the Old Testament, we see God choosing and journeying with the nation of Israel. The Lords presence brings with it the manifestation of Gods power. God acts in mighty and miraculous ways. These events are not put forward as metaphorical tales or mythological exaggerations. The Old Testament declares a reality of life; a reality in which God is present and active. To deny this reality is to deny the very veracity of the Old Testament. This reality of the world is carried over into the New Testament. The Gospels focus on the power of God working through the incarnation of God: Jesus of Nazareth. It is thus no surprise that Jesus is often seen performing miracle after miracle. He heals illnesses, controls nature, and even raises the dead. Surprisingly, Jesus extends his divine power to his own followers. As Jesus sends the disciples out for their evangelistic mission, he gives them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, sending them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick (Luke 9:1-2). The disciples are called to express the presence and power of Gods kingdom, made available in Christ Jesus. The Book of Acts continues this witness of Gods power in human life. With the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we see the Christian community engage in the miraculous healing in Acts. The disciples continue to cast out demons and heal the sick. Thus, the same reality of life illuminated through the Old Testament and the Gospels is present in the Book of Acts. An interesting question to ask is: Is this our reality today? When we read about the miraculous healings occurring through the Christian community, is this something we can claim for ourselves? Do we have the same power and authority given to Christs early followers? To put it bluntly, do we still live in a time where Christs apostles can engage in the miraculous? The Book of Acts contains deep truths regarding the very reality in which we live and the availability of Gods miraculous power. To fully uncover this, we need to explore three questions about the miraculous healings we see in the book of Acts: Signs and Wonders in Acts Healings abound throughout the Book of Acts. The first mention of healing occurs in the description of the church community following the descent of the Spirit. In describing the nature of this newly empowered Christian community, the Book of Acts records that Awe came upon everyone, because many signs and wonders were being done by the Apostles (2:43). Such signs and wonders naturally included acts of miraculous healing. This same description occurs in chapter 5:12. From here, acts of healing are peppered throughout the rest of the book. Peter and John, for example, heal a crippled man as they journey to the temple. Looking intently at the man, Peter responds, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk (3:6). The man takes his mat and enters the temple with two apostles. Similarly, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is described as full of grace and power, a man who did many great wonders and signs among the people (6:8). Philip, Ananias, Paul, and Barnabas, are all described as engaging in healing ministry. This association with signs and wonders seems to be that which identified the Christian community and set them apart from other religious sects. Acts 4:23-30 records a prayer for the boldness of the Christian community. Here the church prays; grant your servants to speak your word with boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed. Signs and wonders were understood to be a natural and expected part of Christian life and ministry. Do we have a similar expectation within the Christian community today? What Was the Purpose behind the Healing in Acts? Acts of healing occur in many different situations and are mediated through a variety of people. Even though these healings are termed miraculous there is a sense of normalcy to these events. They are not seen to be surprising or out of place. Acts of healing, as a function of the life and witness of the Christian community, declare the powerful reality of Gods kingdom. This reality was so recognized by others that, in certain instances, individuals outside the Christian community attempted to claim this reality for themselves. Acts 8 records Peters dealing with Simon the Sorcerer. Having witnessed healings occur through the prayers of the disciples, Simon is quickly baptized and joins the Christian community. When Simon makes the connection between the laying on of hands and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, he vainly attempts to purchase this power. For Simon, acts of healing were simply a way to bolster his own ego. Simon focuses not on peoples experience of the Spirit, but on his own selfish desire to be heralded as someone great and powerful (8:9-10). Similarly, in Acts chapter 19, we meet the seven sons of Sceva, a group of Jewish men who attempted to drive out evil spirts by appealing to the name of Jesus who Paul preaches (19:14). Cleary there is no personal connection with the gospel, or the Christian community. The sons of Sceva care not for the kingdom of God. Instead, they attempt to use the name of Jesus simply to further their personal goals. Due to their lack of association with the Christ, the demon-possessed man overpowers the seven sons of Sceva, leaving them bloody and naked (19:16). The difference between these accounts and the disciples own ministry of healing is clear. For the Christian community, the working of the Holy Spirit is always connected to the proclamation of the gospel. Acts of healing are never ends in and of themselves. Physical healings necessarily point to the reality of Christs lordship, and the power of Gods kingdom on earth. The disciples did not seek a glorified or exalted status among others. Their focus was never on themselves. In such places where miraculous healing occurs, regardless of whom the Spirit works through, the acknowledgment of Christs own power is the significant point. As we saw earlier, the healing of the lame man in Acts 3 occurred to testify to the name of Jesus Christ. It is significant that the man leaps up, praises God, and joins Peter and John in temple worship. Simon the Sorcerer. and the seven sons of Sceva, focus not on the exaltation of Jesus Christ, but rather on the promotion of their own power and mastery in healing. Their eye was on themselves, and the money and fame they could achieve through divine healing. Contrary to the viewpoint of the disciples, these people see the Holy Spirit as nothing more than a tool they can use for their own purposes. Such an attitude is contrary to the kingdom of God, and the Lordship of Jesus. Does the Holy Spirit Give Power to Christians Today? To answer this question, it is best to explore the consequences of believing that the Holy Spirit does not give power to Christians today? If miraculous healings do not occur, then we are declaring that Christians do not abide in the same reality as the early apostles. It would be to declare that the reality of life illumined in the scriptural witness is not our reality. Furthermore, such a belief would assume then that the power of the Holy Spirit is limited in the contemporary age. Even if we give full weight to the scriptural witness, an inability to see the biblical reality as pertaining to our own life, is to separate ourselves from the power of God. But what if the reality of life declared in Scripture is unchanged? What if life today is still rooted in the powerful presence of God? Could this possibly mean that the same acts of healing that occurred then, can occur now? Perhaps it is our own doubt as to this reality that creates a stumbling block today. Throughout the Book of Acts, the disciples embody a radical boldness in how they engage in ministry. They were fearless in how they presented the implications of Christs Lordship for peoples lives. Simply put, the disciples were zealously committed to embodying and sharing, the reality of Gods kingdom to any they came across. They did not sit in their silos of private spiritual devotion. They were thrust into the world with the call to make disciples. The Book of Acts illustrates that the power of God was continually revealed as the disciples stepped out in faith. Do we embody the same zeal as the early Christians did? Do we believe that the reality presented in Scripture is reflective of the reality of our lives? Perhaps the age of healings seems past simply because we do not risk living as if it were true. For many, faith has become a private matter. Many feel uncomfortable speaking about their spiritual lives, particularly with other people. Therefore, praying for ones healing is simply out of the question. Has the boldness of the disciples then become the reasoned wariness of disciples today? Yet the call remains. James encourages: Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them upThe prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:14-16). Such a statement speaks to the availability of Gods power to heal, restore, and save. Scripture does not make such statements out of lofty idealism or fanciful wish-dreams. The prevalence of Gods healing throughout the biblical witness points to a reality of the world in which we live. God is present. God is active. Healings can occur. Only one question remains: Do we believe it enough to act upon it? Photo credit: Unsplash/Jon Tyson Reverend Kyle Norman is the Rector of the Anglican Parish of Holy Cross in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has a doctorate in Spiritual Formation and is often asked to write or speak on the nature of Christian community, and the role of Spiritual disciplines in Christian life. His personal blog can be found here. Chinas first Mars exploration mission Tianwen-1 successfully slowed down for the third time near Mars at 06:29 a.m. on Feb. 24 Beijing time and entered the Mars parking orbit. The Mars probe will spend about three months conducting scientific surveys in the parking orbit. Earlier on Feb. 10 Beijing time, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe reached the orbit around Mars after traveling in space for 202 days, becoming the countrys first man-made satellite of Mars. Tianwen-1 probe embarked on its journey to Mars on July 23, 2020. After flying 475 million km in space, the spacecraft conducted a braking operation to decelerate and make sure it would be captured by Mars gravity, and then started to orbit the red planet. The successful completion of such key steps during the space voyage laid a solid foundation for the Mars exploration mission of China. As a prime target for planetary exploration, Mars bears great significance to humanitys dream of searching for extraterrestrial life and exploring mysteries of the universe. The successful launch of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe marked Chinas first step in independent planetary exploration as well as a key step of Chinese toward deeper space. From endeavoring to establish its space station hundreds of kilometers above Earths surface to deepening exploration of the moon which is more than 380,000 km away from Earth and sparing no pains to explore Mars in spite of a long and arduous interstellar journey of several hundred million kilometers, China has achieved steady and solid progress in deep space exploration through persistent endeavors. Braking in space is vital for the Tianwen-1 Mars mission. The successful arrival of the Tianwen-1 probe in Mars orbit has not only proven Chinese space scientists technical competence, but also demonstrated their aspiration and courage to make innovations despite high risks. Space activities are known for being challenging, and planetary exploration is particularly featured by high risks and extreme difficulties. Mars exploration missions, which have been launched since the 1960s, only have an about 50 percent chance of success so far. For every Mars exploration mission, mankind needs to tackle a great number of challenges and cope with various unknown hazards through technological innovations, including challenges posed by the fact that missions are only allowed to make one direct trip from Earth to Mars every 26 months due to the ever-changing positions of the planets, long space journeys of hundreds of millions of kilometers, delay in extremely long-distance communications, as well as a complex and alien environment that is entirely different from that of the Earth. China, after a series of space endeavors, such as flying out of Earth, staying in space, and lunar exploration, has accumulated important technological breakthroughs, which help pave the way for the countrys Mars exploration and other deep space missions. While dealing with new problems and new challenges through creative thinking and innovative technologies, the country has opened up new paths to innovations and breakthroughs in such fields as space technology and space science. Motivated by curiosity and driven by the development needs of humanity, Chinas magnificent feats of escaping from Earths gravity and moving toward deep space wouldnt have been realized without its independent innovations. China has witnessed continuous progress in scientific and technological projects in recent years, making heartening breakthroughs and record-breaking achivements in a considerable number of major projects. Remarkable achievements of the country in recent years include scientific and technological innovations in the Tianwen-1 Mars exploration mission, Change-5 lunar missions success in retrieving moon samples, the successful maiden flight of Chinas new large carrier rocket Long March-5B, which was launched for the countrys space station program, new deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe, or Striver, setting a national diving record of 10,909 meters, and quantum computer prototype Jiuzhang helping China realizing a computational advantage, also known as quantum supremacy. All these fruits have proven that as long as China maintains its determination and courage to make innovations and unswervingly march forward along its own path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics, the country is bound to master core technologies in key fields and underpin high-quality development with scientific and technological strength. New Delhi, Feb 25 : After fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi faced a setback on Thursday after a UK court ordered his extradition in connection with the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, it became the second major order that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has managed to secure from the overseas court months after now defunct Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya lost his appeal too. According to CBI sources, in the Nirav Modi case which the agency registered in January 2018 the pressure was kept up in the court with all the evidence. A source said that senior officers like then Additional Director Praveen Sinha, who is currently the acting CBI Director, visited the UK and attended court hearings on two important dates when crucial evidence was being presented. The source informed that the Director of Prosecution of CBI had also visited the UK and had met with the Crown Prosecution Service, UK. The source said that constant communication between the CBI and the Crown Prosecution Service officials showed in the result. The CPS was presenting evidence before the UK judge on CBI's behalf. Another CBI source said that this is a result of meticulous and painstaking investigation involving different governments and their agencies and the complex issues concerning the case. The source said that Nirav Modi's firm utilized LOU's fraudulently between 2011 and 2017. In the case of Nirav Modi, the investigating agencies were hopeful as a UK court in November 2020 ruled in favour of the Indian government by allowing the admissibility of evidence against him. Nirav Modi is wanted in India along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, who headed the Gitanjali group, in connection with the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. Currently, Nirav Modi is lodged in a London prison after his arrest by UK police in March 2019, while his uncle Choksi has become a citizen of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Meanwhile, the CBI and ED, which are fighting the legal battle in the United Kingdom for the extradition of Mallya, are sure about his extradition after he lost an appeal in the Supreme Court on May 14 last year. Mallya, who is wanted in India for a Rs 9,000-crore loan defraud, had approached the UK High Court which dismissed his appeal against extradition on April 20. Last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in an affidavit informed the Supreme Court of India that following the refusal of leave to appeal to Mallya, his extradition to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days. However, the UK Home Office intimated that there is a further legal issue involved, which needs to be resolved before the extradition takes place. The MHA said that the UK has informed it that this separate legal issue is judicial and confidential in nature. On May 14, in a major setback, Mallya's application for leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court was rejected as the High Court declined to entertain his appeal against his extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering in connection with the unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The liquor baron has been living in the UK since he fled India on March 2, 2016. Mallya is also the first accused in India to be booked under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. In 2019, a Mumbai court named Mallya as an offender under the Act, empowering the probe agencies to seize his properties and assets spread across the world. In December 2018, the CBI also managed to get the extradition of alleged middleman Christian Michel James, a British national, in connection with its probe into the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). M-30 route from Stryi of Lviv region to Izvaryne of Luhansk region to be definitely built in 2021 Zelensky President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the completion of the construction of the longest highway in the country, M-30, this year. "We will build the M-30, we will definitely build it in 2021, although the task has been set to build it by August of 2024 - this is an important symbol that will unite our country together with the transport junction in Khmelnytsky region. All 1,400 kilometers," Zelensky said at a meeting of the Council on Development of Communities and Territories in Kyiv on Thursday. At the same time, the President clarified that part of this road runs in the temporarily occupied territory, so its real length is just over 1,200 kilometers. Building Mongolia's premier precious metals company Flagship mine already generating strong cash flow Advancing Phase 2 expansion plans What Steppe Gold does: Mining is nothing new in Mongolia but it was not until the 1990s, and the transition of the country to a free-market democracy, that the industry was opened up to foreign investment. The famous Oyu Tolgoi property in the country, operated by London-listed major Rio Tinto ( ), is one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world, in which the Mongolian government also owns a 34% stake. The Mongolian economy is growing rapidly and the government knows that mining is a key to sustaining growth. The country's mineral riches are valued at between US$1 trillion and US$3 trillion across coal, copper and gold. Against this backdrop, Steppe Gold Ltd ( ) ( ) (FRA:2J9) began producing gold at its flagship Altan Tsaagan Ovoo (ATO) mine in the country in March 2020. The ATO mine was built in just 14 months with less than US$20 million of capex and is now ramping up output. Steppe also has the Uudam Khundii (UK) gold project, which is an 80:20 joint venture between Steppe and the Bayankhongor provincial government. At ATO, Steppe is targeting annual production in 2021 and 2022 of between 50,000 and 60,000 ounces. It is also now bidding to expand production via a Phase 2 sulphide project, which will see it mine fresh rock ores to generate 150,000 ounces equivalent a year from 2023. How is it doing: Steppe hit a key milestone at its ATO operation in February 2021, with the release of an updated resource estimate that nearly doubled the ounces in the deposit. According to the report, measured and indicated (M&I) resources increased to 41.6 million tons, or 2.2 million ounces, at an average grade of 1.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent ounces 1.4 million gold ounces and 20.5 million silver ounces. That doubled the amount of resources represented at the ATO Gold Mine to 2.45 million ounces of gold equivalent, up from 1.2 million ounces in the previous resource statement. According to the company, the increase in the M&I resource was due primarily to significant expansion through drilling at the ATO 4 Deposit and incorporation of a maiden resource at the Mungu deposit. The ATO 4 Deposit, where mining recently started, shows an M&I resource of 15.7 million tons at 1.6 g/t for a total of 819,000 gold equivalent ounces, while the maiden resource at the Mungu discovery shows an M&I resource of 7.6 million tons at 1.7 g/t for 424,000 gold equivalent ounces. Then on March 24, the group said it had begun procuring major long lead items and was continuing talks on a multi-tranche project debt facility for its Phase 2 expansion project into fresh rock. The aim is to lift output from the ATO mine to 150,000 ounces of gold equivalent a year in 2023. The company said it bought a new crushing plant from a leading international supplier for US$5 million, including its installation and construction, which has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per hour (t/hr), more than three times' the current capacity. Construction of the foundation of the new plant is set to begin in early April this year, and it is scheduled to be operational by July. Alongside the procurement of capital items, the company said it was continuing discussions with Mongolian and international lenders on a multi-tranche project debt facility to finance this Phase 2 expansion, which is expected to include a grinding circuit, a leach/CIP plant, and a flotation circuit. On the financial front, for the first quarter of 2021, the miner said COVID-19 challenges and the cold weather had impacted output in the three months but that the feasibility study into expanding the project remains on track to be finalized this summer. In the three months to March 31, the company mined 179,130 tonnes versus 291,455 tonnes in the previous quarter to December 31, 2020. Revenue for the three months was US$1.634 million (Q4: US$13.2 million) on sales of 945 gold ounces and 861 silver ounces, with average realized prices per ounce of US$1,938 and US$26 respectively. Steppe also noted that it had filed a prospectus to list its shares on the Mongolian Stock Exchange. The miner is targeting at ATO annual production in 2021 and 2022 of 50,000 ounces and then to transition to the fresh rock ores in 2023. Inflection points: New crusher in place Completion of bankable feasibility and project financing for expansion at ATO Uplift in output from ATO What the broker says: Following the first-quarter results, Stifel GMP repeated a 'Buy' rating and put a C$4 price target on the stock. "As expected, ATO did not have any production through Q1. However, stacking activities continued with grades stacked from the low strip ratio open pit remaining strong (1.91 g/t Au + 10.1 g/t Ag) and the company finishing the quarter in a durable liquidity position," the analysts said in a note. "Leaching resumed in early April, and we expect Q2 and Q3 production to benefit from the tonnes stacked through Q1. Steppe Gold put a $1m deposit down on a new crusher that will quadruple capacity and is the first step in the construction of the Phase 2 Sulphide expansion. The Bankable Feasibility Study for the expansion remains on track to be delivered this summer." What the boss says: In its statement with the 1Q results, Steppe CEO Bataa Tumur-Ochir told investors: "There has been a slow start to production in 2021 and the achievement of full year production forecasts are dependent on no further delays on procurement due to COVID 19. Reagent supplies are currently unpredictable and any further delays will reduce production forecasts for 2021. We have now mined over 1.8 million tonnes of ore with 1.4 million tonnes stacked on the leach pad." He added; "With a new fixed crusher in place this summer, we are planning a record year for stacking in 2021. We paused production in the first quarter with prevailing cold weather conditions and we resumed leaching in early April with a successful gold pour in late April." Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com The non-profit human rights organization Amnesty International is urging the Pakistan government to release a Christian husband and wife, who have been in prison since 2014 for allegedly sending "blasphemous" text messages, and are awaiting death sentences after their appeal was delayed. Christian couple Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel are facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan, where the punishment for their alleged crime of sending "blasphemous texts" is death penalty. The pair were imprisoned in 2013 and were found guilty by a court in April 2014 in Toba Tek Singh. According to Independent, the pair have been waiting on death row since. The Christian couple accused of sending "blasphemous texts'' in Pakistan were allegedly sending messages to a mosque cleric containing insults to the Prophet Mohammad. These messages originated from a phone containing the SIM card registered to Kausar, but the pair deny any involvement and believe that the SIM card was purchased by someone else who had obtained her national identity card. Amnesty International is now calling upon the Pakistan government to release the pair. According to The Guardian, six years have passed since the Christian couple's first appeal was launched However, the court kept delaying the hearing, which was most recently set for April 2020. It was once again delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Christian couple's lawyer, Saiful Malook, was critical of the Islamabad judge assigned to the case, saying that the judge was "avoiding hearing the case out of fear" as blasphemy cases are "highly controversial and often dangerous" for those involved. Malook insisted, "Judges in Pakistan will rarely hear cases of blasphemy until there is political or international pressure. There is no substantive proof against my clients, and they should have been released long ago." The Christian couple accused of sending "blasphemous texts" in Pakistan are being kept in two separate prisons in different Punjab province districts. They are confined to isolated cells, away from other prisoners who may harm them. The couple's families are also reportedly feeling the stress and pressures of the lengthy prosecution process. Some of their relatives have already fled for Europe for fear of their safety. Amnesty International is now stepping in to push for the release of Kausar and Emmanuel so they can finally safely reunite with their families. In line with the Christian couple's persecution, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for South Asia Samira Hamidi criticized Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, which have caused cases of violence and unjust executions. He said, "The mandatory death sentences for Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel are emblematic of the dangers faced by the country's religious minorities as long as the blasphemy laws remain in place. The Government of Pakistan must urgently repeal its blasphemy laws that have been flagrantly abused and caused an immeasurable amount of harm." Amnesty International believes that Pakistan's blasphemy laws have long been used to "target religious minorities, pursue personal vendettas, and carry out vigilante violence." Judges and lawyers are afraid of defending the accused for fear of persecution themselves. In recent years, there has been a rise in "blasphemy" accusations in the country, specifically targeting Christians, artists, human rights defenders and journalists. 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. Alongside the crusade and vaccination of the COVID-19 vaccine across the United States is the continuous surge and rise of the COVID new variant that rattles humanity. Because of the new variant's existence, questions regarding the current vaccine's efficacy are on the rise. Those questions will slowly go off the charts as pharmaceutical companies take on the challenge of formulating vaccines geared to eliminate the virus's new variant. Recently, Moderna announced that their vaccine for the South African variant is ready for clinical testing. The Wall Stress Journal shared on MSN that the company has made the initial batch of doses geared to protect people from the specific strain of the virus that has shown resistance to their original vaccine. Read also: Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Data for Young Children Unavailable Until 2022, CEO Says Moderna's New Strain Vaccine Also called mRNA-1273.351, Moderna mentioned with CNBC that it is ready to be tested for trials to determine if it can be used as a booster shot against the South African strain, which is known to be B.1.351. CNBC added that the pharmaceutical company also shipped their vaccine to the National Institutes of Health. The Market Watch notes that the sent doses of vaccines to NIH will be utilized in a first human study which can start within weeks. The Wall Street Journal shared with MSN that Moderna might be the first vaccine maker to finish the laboratory work of designing a shot focusing on the variants that started spreading rapidly late last year. It added that the chase for the newest phase in vaccine research to counter coronavirus indicates that the effort can change into a long-running contest between the mutating virus and vaccines that can keep up. CNBC shared Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel's words from a press release, saying that their company is committed to making as many updates in their vaccine as necessary until the global pandemic is under control. Bancel added that their company hopes to demonstrate that booster doses if needed, can be done at a lower amount which can allow them to offer many more quantities in the global community in late 2021 and 2022. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that COVID-19 vaccines from other companies have expressed reduced effectiveness against the South African variant. Yet, Moderna showed muted effects against the variants in lab tests. Furthermore, people who previously received two doses of Moderna's original vaccines will be given the new shot. Simultaneously, researchers track the vaccine's safety and ability to stimulate an immune response against the new variant. A quick fix According to The Scientist, the standard approaches in designing or redesigning a vaccine are the most swift. The Scientist explained that this is because the vaccines pack the genetic recipe for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is inside the nanoparticle, then engulfed by cells and teach the immune system to recognize them. Sarah Caddy, an immunologist from the University of Cambridge, shared with The Scientist that the companies will be using chemically synthesized mRNA, making it no cells needed, much quicker to make and purify. Related article: Fauci Warns of 'More Ominous' Strains of COVID-19 Emerging in South Africa, Brazil WATCH: Moderna CEO talks Covid vaccine for new South African variant from CNBC Television Resolution Copper will maintain public access to areas within Oak Flat including the campground and recreational trails. Tweet this Resolution Copper has contracted with 4 Winds, a local small business part-owned by members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, to maintain the campground areas infrastructure and access trails. Resolution Copper project director Andrew Lye said: "Resolution Copper will maintain public access to areas within Oak Flat including the campground, recreational trails and climbing after the land exchange is complete, as permitting and studies to shape the project continue. We will continue to consult and seek community input as we refine and shape the Resolution Copper project over the coming years, to minimize any impacts on Oak Flat. "Resolution Copper is committed to fostering constructive relationships with the local community and Native American Tribes in Arizona, especially those with a historical connection to the land in and around the project area. We are encouraged by the direct and positive engagement of the local community and many Tribes throughout the permitting process. Resolution Copper will continue to engage with the local community and seek the consent of all 11 Native American Tribes that have historical connections with the land involved in the project before any decision on development, consistent with the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Statement on Indigenous Peoples and Mining." Completion of the land exchange is expected in March, transferring 5,459 acres of high-value conservation land to the Federal Government in return for Resolution Copper taking ownership of approximately 2,422 acres around the project site. The land exchange requires Resolution Copper to maintain public access to the Oak Flat Campground for as long as it is safe. The US Forest Service is currently undertaking a public review and comment period on its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Resolution Copper project. Its final record of decision is expected in the second half of 2021. More information can be found on the Forest Service's website at www.resolutionmineeis.us. After the US Forest Service process, further permitting will be progressed with other authorities and a detailed feasibility study completed over several years to inform investment considerations on the project. When an investment decision is made, Resolution Copper is expected to take around 10 years to build infrastructure to prepare for mining. About Resolution Copper The Resolution Copper Project is operated by Resolution Copper Mining, which is a limited liability company owned 55 percent by Resolution Copper Company (a Rio Tinto PLC subsidiary) and 45 percent by BHP Copper Inc. (a BHP PLC subsidiary). Contacts Dan Blondeau T +1 520-827-9037 [email protected] resolutioncopper.com Follow @resolutioncu on Twitter SOURCE Resolution Copper Related Links https://www.resolutioncopper.com/ STAMFORD A New York man accused of being part of an identity theft ring faces up to 40 years in prison if he fails to pay back more than $10,000 in restitution and fines. Wai Chung Khoong, 38, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree larceny and first-degree identity theft at Stamford Superior Court Monday. Khoong was arrested by Greenwich police in September 2019 on accusations that he ordered more than $41,000 of merchandise using a stolen identity. Greenwich Police Police said Khoong obtained a persons identity, then began making phone orders to have merchandise shipped to various locations. The calls aroused suspicion, authorities said, and a stakeout was set up, leading to the arrest. One package was scheduled to be delivered in Port Chester, N.Y. Officers responded to the area and located Khoong accepting delivery of the package, police said at the time. He was subsequently taken into custody by New York officers. Greenwich investigators then obtained a warrant for his arrest on the Greenwich violations. Deputy Assistant States Attorney Thai Chhay said that during the ensuing investigation, Khoong confessed to being a part of an identity theft and larceny ring that uses stolen identities to ship expensive items from places like Saks Fifth Avenue to various different locations. As a part of the plea deal, Khoong was given six months to pay $3,260 in restitution, a $10,000 fine and his court fees. Judge Gary White said Khoong needs to have the money ready by his next court date on Aug. 23, or he faces up to 20 years per charge. Hartselle City Schools is dismissing early on Friday, March 5, so employees can get their second doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Breakfast and lunch will still be served to students. The dismissal schedule is below: Elementary 11:45 a.m. Intermediate 11:55 a.m. Junior High 12 p.m. High School 12:10 p.m. Beijings New Policy Reveals Poverty, Food Security Are Top Concerns for 2021 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Feb. 21 released its first main policy document of the year, known as Document No. 1. Poverty alleviation and food security are the Chinese regimes top concerns for 2021. A press conference was held on Feb. 22 about Document No. 1. Chinas minister of agriculture, Tang Renjian, said two things must not go wrong for China in 2021, according to a report by Radio Free Asia (RFA). He emphasized that poverty and a food shortage crisis must be prevented. Food Shortage Crisis Hu Ping, honorary editor-in-chief of Beijing Spring, a popular China-based political magazine, told RFA: There are two major problems [that China is facing]: one is the tight supply of food which is not ample; the other is the rural revitalization, which shows that there are many fundamental and serious problems in rural areas. In the past, the rural areas were self-contained and self-sustained, now they no longer are, and it was directly related to Chinas economic development strategy. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, major grain countries have restricted exports. This has alarmed the regime, as China relies heavily on imported grains. At the Feb. 22 press conference, Tang stressed the importance of increasing the volume of agricultural output by citing a popular Chinese saying: If you have surplus grain in your hand, you will not panic in your heart. He said: The international situation is increasingly uncertain and unstable. So, on the issue of food security, we cannot take it lightly. Last year, The Epoch Times reported that China could face a food shortage crisis due to various natural disasters hitting its main agriculture areas, as well as COVID-19 lockdowns. Two men listen to a portable radio near a cornfield in Weijian Village, in Chinas Henan Province on July 30, 2014. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images) Poverty Alleviation Document No. 1 states that counties that have been lifted out of poverty will be given a five-year transition period from the date that they were officially deemed to be out of poverty. This statement baffled Chinese netizens, according to Chinese media reports. One asked on Chinese social media: Didnt [the CCP] announce that [poor counties] are no longer in poverty? What is the transition for? At the end of 2020, when the Chinese regime announced that its goal of alleviating poverty had been achieved, some netizens expressed their disbelief. Chinese-language radio network Sound of Hope interviewed a Chinese official in July 2020, who said the CCPs poverty alleviation is largely based on its loose definition of poverty and manipulating data. The Chinese official wished to remain anonymous due to security concerns. Most of Chinas poverty-stricken areas are rural counties. According to public data, Chinas rural population as of 2019 was around 554.7 million. The Chinese regime predicted that by 2025, the proportion of the rural population over the age of 60 will reach 25.3 percent, or about 124 million people. Many rural residents cant make a living in their hometowns and have moved to cities as migrant workers. With low wages and a lack of labor protection, most migrant workers struggle to make ends meet. All health departments are out of first-round doses of coronavirus vaccines in Colbert, Lauderdale and Franklin Counties. The North Alabama Medical Center in Florence has a vaccination clinic this week, but it's not open to the public. It's only for first responders and teachers. Helen Keller Hospital hasn't had a shipment of new first-round doses in over a month. "Jan. 18 was our last shipment of first-round doses," said Helen Keller Hospital President, Kyle Buchanan, on Wednesday. Buchanan said they have enough doses to complete second rounds for people 75 years and older, but they just don't know when they will get more vaccines. "We share in the public's frustration. I mean, put yourselves in our shoes. There are no groups of people who are more excited to see this pandemic squashed," said Buchanan. To make matters worse, last week's winter storm stopped vaccination efforts for second-round doses in their tracks. "Almost every time we received an updated forecast and realized it would be unsafe to ask 500 75+ year olds to venture out in the ice and snow, we'd say, 'sorry, Mr. Johnson, we're going to have to move your appointment back,'" said Buchanan. Buchanan said right now, they have over 11,000 people on their waiting list for the vaccine. He said once they get doses, they can vaccinate close to 1,000 people a day. For people across the state with underlying conditions, they are still waiting to be eligible for the vaccine because of the state's phase restrictions. "I understand the state's dilemma. We haven't received enough doses to push through Phase 1B yet, so I could understand why they would be hesitant to open up a new category and take our waiting list from 11,000 to 26,000 with no new doses," said Buchanan. Some health departments in the Shoals said they hope to get a new shipment of first-round doses at the beginning of March. All appointments in the Shoals for Walmart vaccine clinics are full and don't give you an option to schedule one because they're booked. In some good news, Helen Keller Hospital only has 10 patients hospitalized with coronavirus. Just six weeks ago, the hospital had 68 coronavirus patients, which pushed the limits of staff and the hospital. Hospital officials believe there are many factors that go into this decline. They said last week's winter storm forced people in Franklin, Colbert and Lauderdale Counties to social distance. They said it's unlikely that vaccinations have helped drive down infections, because enough people still haven't been vaccinated. Buchanan said he believes another factor is people who have had the virus and successfully fought it off, and now, they have antibodies. "I do think the story-telling aspect of it is a factor. Now, we continue to hear people say up until last month, 'I didn't know anyone that had it, and now, I know two people in my church who passed away,' and so it's hitting closer to home for more people now to a degree that I think individuals are shifting behaviors to reduce the spread," said Buchanan. Buchanan said Helen Keller Hospital is equipped to handle coronavirus for the long-run. They still encourage people to wear masks, social distance and wash their hands to help combat the virus. The Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos would be totally reopened to traffic this weekend, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Fashola, who gave the assurance during a radio phone-in programme Thursday, did not specify which day of the weekend to expect the reopening. I can tell you now that this weekend, it will be opened definitely; my directors are still in Lagos; the major works have now been finished, so let me say that again by way of information. Definitely this weekend it will be reopened. I will announce the date toward Friday and the reason why I am holding back the exact date is that we are government. Any time we say something, people must reliably be able to plan their lives around what we say, he said. Mr Fashola said lane markings and finishing touches would be done within the next 48 to 72 hours, adding that the total shutdown of the bridge to happen at midnight on Friday would be the last before the total reopening. Mr Fasholas statement came a day after the Lagos State government announced that the bridge would be shut between midnight Friday and midnight Saturday to enable contractors move the equipment used during the rehabilitation process of the bridge. The major works have now been finished, the piles, all the joints, all the bearings, everything is done. The last miles now are the works which were not in the contract but we insisted must be done, the minister said. We are asphalting some of the places on the pavement that have been affected by erosion; some of the lane markings have worn away so we want to do that, he said. Mr Fashola explained that some of the repairs being concluded were not visible because they were underwater, adding that some diversion angles created had to be rebuilt within 48 to 72 hours. The minister said that some time was lost on the project during the #EndSARS protests in Lagos, adding that the bridge was now safer and better for use, assuring motorists of a smooth driving experience. He urged Nigerians to visit the ministrys Twitter handle to get details of construction activities carried out so far on the bridge. NAN reports that the Third Mainland Bridge, which was going through a series of repairs, was partially shut on July 24, 2020, for another round of rehabilitation. The repairs, expected to last six months, were extended from January to February because of the #EndSARS protests. The construction was initially divided into two phases of three months on each carriageway, starting with the Oworonsoki-bound carriageway whose completion dragged to four months. Traffic was partially diverted on a stretch of 3.5km where construction was on-going between Adeniji Adele Ramp and Ebute Meta, while different time belts were allotted for traffic diversions on the bridge. The 11.8km bridge is the longest of the three bridges linking Lagos Island and the Mainland. The bridge starts from Oworonshoki, which is linked to the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island. ADVERTISEMENT Constructed in 1990, the bridge was the longest in Africa; until 1996 when the Oct. 6Bridge in Cairo was completed. (NAN) Gov. Brian Kemp introduced a legislation that would ensure people of Georgia with religious freedom. Kemp's Faith Protection Act is meant to protect the state's houses of worship from shutdown and restrictions, as a result of government's effort to reduce virus transmission through lockdowns and other restrictive measures, Breitbart wrote. Speaking to Radio Host Alex Marlow of SiriusXM, the governor said that he wants the state "to be known as a sanctuary state for people of faith." "I think we've seen around the country there have been a lot of people in power, especially governors around the country, that have denied people that right of religious freedom, if you will, to be able to worship," he added. Marlow asked the governor about his perspective on the government's inconsistent orders of lockdowns and restrictions, wherein churches are targeted while liquor and marijuana stores are considered essential. Kemp replied, "It's very frustrating for a lot of people in Georgia, including myself. We never shut churches down. We asked our pastors and faith leaders across all denominations to work with us and help us flatten the curve and stop the spread, but we also know, and even with a pandemic, it's important for us to be able to worship." The governor added that the freedom to worship is a "fundamental right" in America and Georgia and that the bill will protect the churches in the state from shutdown orders. The governor was also asked by the host about his opinion on the Congress' "COVID-19 relief" packages. Kemp responded saying that the relief package is not sensible, adding that the states who are doing well and "have been fiscally conservative" until pandemic hit "are being punished," while those states that have not done such are "being rewarded." "This thing is just a Christmas tree to help their buddies in liberal states that have not been fiscally conservative and have financial issues. This is a bailout for them. ... That's not what the people of Georgia want," he continued. He further said that the congressional relief funding should instead be appropriated for vaccine programs and testing, and be given to industries that have been badly hit such as the airline, tourism and service industry. Relative to his announcement of the legislation, the governor also issued a statement dated Feb. 19, saying: "During the COVID-19 pandemic, people of all faiths across America were told by state governments how, where, when, or even if they could worship at all. Not in Georgia. We chose to work alongside congregations across our state to ensure they practiced their faith safely and in accordance with public health guidance. The Faith Protection Act will ensure the emergency powers of any governor of Georgia in the years to come are not used to limit the God-given right to worship. In Georgia, we never shuttered churches, synagogues, or other places of worship because we value faith, family, and freedom. With the Faith Protection Act signed into law, Georgia will be a sanctuary state for people of faith." Kemp is a businessman and Georgia's 83rd Governor, winning with most votes among all other gubernatorial candidates in the history of the state. The governor, his wife Marty and their three daughters are active members of Emmanuel Episcopal Church. Partners at McKinsey & Co. voted out the consulting firms top executive, Kevin Sneader, this week as it continues to face blowback over its role in fuelling Americas opioid crisis. The decision to deny Sneader a second three-year term as global managing partner came in a vote by more than 600 senior partners, according to a company executive. Earlier this month, McKinsey had agreed to pay 49 states a historic settlement of almost $US600 million ($753 million) because of sales advice the company had given to pharma companies. It is highly unusual for a sitting managing partner at McKinsey to be refused a follow-on term. The last time a firm leader was denied a second term was in 1976, according to the companys internal history book. And hes out: Recent scandals had tarnished Kevin Sneaders shine at the helm of the consultancy. Credit:Janie Barrett Sneader, 54, did not even make it to the final round of balloting, according to the company executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The final candidates for Sneaders replacement are Bob Sternfels, based in San Francisco, and Sven Smit, based in Amsterdam. The shake-up at the prestigious consulting firm was first reported by The Financial Times. Drilling Highlights from hole O3AL-20-326 1.2 g/t Au over 28.2 metres Au over incl. 2.0 g/t Au over 5.1 metres Au over incl. 8.0 g/t Au over 0.5 metres Au over incl. 4.4 g/t Au over 2.7 metres Au over 2.2 g/t Au over 5.1 metres Au over incl. 17.8 g/t Au over 0.5 metres A 3D-model of the Alpha property is available on the Company's website at https://o3mining.com/presentations/drill-results. The Simkar sector comprises several East-West trending iron-rich gabbros and basalts covering an area of 5 kilometres by 2 kilometres. The main dyke hosts the former Simkar mine. The drill holes reported today aimed to test the extensions of multiple zones known from historical surface exploration work and shallow drill holes extending over an area of roughly 1.2 square kilometres, located approximately 700 metres south of the historical Simkar mine. O3 Mining's 2020 trenching program helped improve the geological understanding of the controls of these zones in preparation for drilling this winter. The encouraging results received from this initial drilling program support a decision to continue drilling to further explore for mineralized extensions of the VD-L17 zone, which remains partially open laterally and fully open at depth. "Drilling at Simkar is successfully intercepting gold mineralization at relatively shallow depths and advancing the possibility of developing another potential ore body with good grade and width. The success of these holes further validates the multi-exploration technique approach we are taking to developing drill targets, which bodes well for future success of finding extensions to these zones as our drilling program continues," said President and CEO Jose Vizquerra. O3 Mining's 2020-2021 drilling program includes 100,000 metres for the Alpha property, which hosts multiple mineralized systems over an approximate 20 kilometres strike length. The program is focused on expanding known deposits at depth at the Bulldog-Orenada, Simkar, and Akasaba sectors, as well as follow-up on the significant previous drill, intercepts to prove the continuity of grades and widths to define new deposits and to make new discoveries in the vicinity of those deposits or in the Omega sector. These targets were generated in 2020 from a combination of in-house geological compilation data, a summer trenching program, and the use of Artificial intelligence ("AI") targeting study by Mira Geoscience (See Press Release December 02nd, 2020). Table 1 includes additional intercepts of interest from the VD zones. A further interpretation is required to understand their significance and decide on potential follow-up drilling. A total of seven drill holes totalling 3,282 metres have been drilled in 2020 in this part of the Simkar sector. Assay results from three drill holes are pending. Now that winter conditions allow access to wetlands the drilling focus has shifted to other areas of the Alpha property. Follow-up drilling on the intercepts reported here will occur during the summer months. Table 1: Drill Hole Intercepts from Simkar sector (only intercepts above 5 g/t Au * m are reported) Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au uncut (g/t) Ag (g/t) Zone O3AL-20-324 75.0 83.3 8.3 0.7 VD-L10 O3AL-20-324 239.0 240.0 1.0 7.2 VD-L17 O3AL-20-325 18.0 28.5 10.5 0.8 VD-L17 O3AL-20-326 174.8 203.0 28.2 1.2 VD-L17 including 175.4 180.5 5.1 2.0 4.2 183.0 183.5 0.5 8.0 4.8 193.6 199.2 2.7 4.4 O3AL-20-326 218.6 223.7 5.1 2.2 including 218.6 219.1 0.5 17.8 1.0 O3AL-20-327 39.0 47.4 8.4 0.9 VD-L17 O3AL-20-327 212.0 215.0 3.0 6.0 - O3AL-20-327 332.0 333.0 1.0 5.2 - O3AL-20-331 185.6 193.7 8.1 0.7 VD-PN O3AL-20-333 153.0 153.6 0.6 17.0 2.6 - NOTE: True width determination is currently unknown but is estimated at 65-80% of the reported core length interval for the zones. Table 2: Drill Hole Details Drill Hole ID Azimuth () Dip () Length (m) UTM E UTM N O3AL-20-324 358 -60 468 308300 5325675 O3AL-20-325 358 -55 431 308400 5325800 O3AL-20-326 358 -50 395 308650 5325750 O3AL-20-327 358 -60 372 308550 5325825 O3AL-20-331 358 -60 414 308389 5325486 O3AL-20-333 358 -55 666 308395 5325216 Hole O3AL-20-326 intersected VD-L17 at approximately 150 metres below channels O3AL-D20-01-015 that returned 9.0 g/t Au over 1.3 metres and O3AL-D20-01-008 cut 7.8 g/t Au over 0.7 metres (See Press Release August 27th, 2020). Historical shallow drill holes 50 metres underneath the trench returned 1.5 g/t Au over 13.7 metres and 3.4 g/t Au over 4.6 metres. The intercept in hole O3AL-20-326 expanded the VD-L17 zone a further 100 metres vertically. The zone corresponds to a shear zone affecting an iron-rich gabbroic dyke and the surrounding mafic volcanic rocks. The first interval extends from the upper contact to the middle of the dyke and yielded 1.2 g/t Au over 28.2 metres, including three higher-grade intervals. The upper-contact returned 2.0 g/t Au and 4.2 g/t Ag over 5.1 metres where the mafic brecciated volcanic rocks are strongly sheared. Mineralization consists of up to 2% sphalerite stringers, contrary to the gabbro where mineralization consists of the percolation of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. The gabbro is further cross-cut by a tourmaline-rich fault-fill vein yielding 8.0 g/t Au and 4.8 g/t Ag over 0.5 metres. Mineralization near the middle of the gabbro consists of fracture filling pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and calcite, yielding 4.4 g/t Au over 2.7 metres. The lower contact with the mafic volcanic rocks returned an interval of 2.2 g/t Au over 5.1 metres. This contact is also strongly sheared and contains up to 5% quartz veinlets locally containing visible gold and returning 17.8 g/t Au over 0.5 m. Hole O3AL-20-324 returned 7.2 g/t Au over 1.0 metres located 300 metres west of O3AL-20-326 at 200 metres vertical depth. Even though low grade, this intercept confirms the continuity of the VD-L17 zone. Figure 1: Alpha Property Map Figure 2: Simkar Sector Drilling Map Qualified Person The scientific and technical content of this news release has been reviewed, prepared, and approved by Mr. Louis Gariepy. (OIQ #107538), VP Exploration, who is a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). Quality Control and Reporting Protocols True width determination is currently unknown but is estimated at 65-80% of the reported core length interval for the zones. Assays are uncut except where indicated. Intercepts occur within geological confines of major zones but have not been correlated to individual vein domains at this time. Half-core samples are shipped to Agat laboratory in Val-d'Or, Quebec and Mississauga, Ontario for assaying. The core is crushed to 75% passing -2 mm (10 mesh), a 250 g split of this material is pulverized to 85% passing 75 microns (200 mesh) and 50 g is analyzed by Fire Assay (FA) with an Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) finish. Samples assaying >10.0 g/t Au are re-analyzed with a gravimetric finish using a 50 g charge. Commercial certified standard material and blanks are systematically inserted by O3 Mining's geologists into the sample chain after every 18 core samples as part of the QA/QC program. Third-party assays are submitted to other designated laboratories for 5% of all samples. Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC") and interpretation of results are performed by qualified persons employing a QA/QC program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices. About O3 Mining Inc. O3 Mining Inc., an Osisko Group company, is a gold explorer and mine developer ready to produce from its highly prospective gold camps in Quebec, Canada. O3 Mining benefits from the support, previous mine-building success, and expertise of the Osisko team as it grows towards being a gold producer with several multi-million ounce deposits in Quebec. O3 Mining is well-capitalized and owns a 100% interest in all its properties (137,000 hectares) in Quebec. O3 Mining trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX.V: OIII) and OTC Markets (OTCQX: OIIIF). The company is focused on delivering superior returns to its shareholders and long-term benefits to its stakeholders. Further information can be found on our website at https://o3mining.com/ Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates, projections, and interpretations as at the date of this news release. The information in this news release about the transaction; and any other information herein that is not a historical fact may be "forward-looking information". Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, interpretations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "interpreted", "management's view", "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 information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Corporation, at the time it was made, involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the companies to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks relating to the restart of operations; further steps that might be taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19; the impact of COVID-19 related disruptions in relation to the Corporation's business operations including upon its employees, suppliers, facilities and other stakeholders; uncertainties and risk that have arisen and may arise in relation to travel, and other financial market and social impacts from COVID-19 and responses to COVID 19. Although the forward-looking information contained in this news release is based upon what management believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the parties cannot assure shareholders and prospective purchasers of securities that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking information, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, and neither the Corporation nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any such forward-looking information. The Corporation does not undertake, and assumes no obligation, to update or revise any such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information contained herein to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. SOURCE O3 Mining Inc. Related Links https://o3mining.com/ 'Tandav' case: Allahabad HC rejects anticipatory bail plea of senior Amazon Prime executive India pti-Deepika S Allahabad, Feb 25: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by the head of Amazon Prime Video's India Originals Aparna Purohit, who has been accused of inappropriate depiction of Uttar Pradesh police personnel, Hindu deities and an adverse portrayal of a character playing the prime minister in the web series 'Tandav'. While rejecting the application, a single-judge bench of Justice Sidharth said that the applicant was earlier granted interim protection from arrest by another bench in a similar case but she was not cooperating with the investigation. The petitioner's plea was that the web series was a work of fiction. There was no intention of the applicant to outrage the religious feeling of any community. The court observed, "The fact remains that the applicant had not been vigilant and has acted irresponsibly making her open to criminal prosecution in permitting streaming of a movie which is against the fundamental rights of the majority of citizens of this country. 'Therefore, her fundamental right of life and liberty cannot be protected by grant of anticipatory bail to her in the exercise of discretionary powers of this Court,' the court further said. "It has come to the notice of this Court that the applicant has filed another anticipatory bail application before this Court with regard to another such FIR lodged at PS Hazratganj, Lucknow. She was granted interim protection from arrest by the order dated 11.02.2021 by a co-ordinate Bench, but she was not co-operating with the investigation," the court said. 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 The US state of Texas has this month experienced some of its coldest weather on record. Houston recorded a temperature of -10.6, which is around 20 below average. And Dallas-Fort Worth recorded its lowest-ever temperature of -18.9. It appears Texas infrastructure was not designed to deal with such extreme low temperatures. The cold snap caused chronic electricity and water shortages, and a major disaster has been declared. The consequences have been bleak. Dozens of people have died and others, especially the vulnerable, have been left shivering in their homes. Australia does not generally experience such cold winter temperatures. Yet our electricity systems are also vulnerable to climate change, extreme weather and power outages. So, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the Texan disaster. What happened to the power system in Texas? Essentially, the freezing temperatures appear to have caused power generators to fail while, at the same time, electricity demand reached a new record winter peak of 69 gigawatts. It's understood that due to the extreme weather, up to 46 gigawatts of electricity generation was unavailable, spread across many types of generators including thermal (coal, gas, and nuclear) and renewable (wind). With record demand and failing generators, the system operator was forced to cut power to homes and businesses on a rotating basis. Up to 20 gigawatts of customer demand was unmet due to these outages. The Texas power grid is not well connected to those in neighbouring states, and so could not draw electricity from those power systems. For millions of people in Texas, this meant they were without power in freezing conditions and essential services such as hospitals experienced critical issues, including water outages and hospital bed shortages. The combination of high power demand and low supply meant prices skyrocketed on the wholesale electricity market, where electricity generators sell power to retailers. The average daily price during the extreme weather was close to the US$9,000 per megawatt hour price cap. For a point of reference, the average daily price in Australia's market in recent months has been between A$20/MWh and A$40/MWh. The Texas crisis serves as a warning to the world. Here are three lessons for Australia. Lesson 1: We must prepare our electricity system for climate change Australia must further acknowledge that climate change will bring severe weather events which threaten our power systems. We may not experience extreme cold weather events, but increasingly challenging summers will bring high temperatures, heatwaves, floods and bushfires. We only have to think of last summer and the extreme stress put on our power system due to bushfires, which led to blackouts in various towns across the east coast. As US-based energy expert Fereidoon Sioshansi noted to us this week: "With climate change, we need to revisit our outdated assumptions about resilient grid planning in Texas and places such as Australia." Australia's energy regulators should consider climate change when approving new transmission investments. And greater interconnection between the states would provide more resilience to extreme weather, allowing states to provide energy to other states whose power supplies are damaged by extreme weather. ERCOT, the Q&A thread [so far]. Q: What is going on? A: The current weather event in Texas is beyond anything that we have experienced in modern memory. I don't recall another time when all 254 counties in TX were under a winter storm warning. 1/ pic.twitter.com/nOiasWgeeO Joshua D. Rhodes (@joshdr83) February 17, 2021 Lesson 2: Don't support the technologies of yesterday Like Texas, Australia's east coast marketcalled the national electricity market (NEM)is an "energy-only market". This means generators get paid only for the energy they produce, not the capacity they make available to supply electricity in the future. The issues in Texas have led to discussion among economists and politicians about whether Texas needs a "capacity market", where generators get paid for the capacity they make available. They say a capacity market would make the system more reliable. But we believe this is misguided for three reasons. First, a capacity market would not have changed the outcome in Texas because no one anticipated a scenario like this (see Lesson 1!). Second, a capacity market in Australia is likely to be used to support existing, ageing, unreliable coal-fired plants, because they are already in the electricity system. Coal-fired plants are inflexiblethey're slow to respond to signals to produce more electricity. This means they're more likely to detract, rather than add, resilience to our system. Instead, we need flexible options that respond much faster to high electricity demand. These include technologies like battery storage, gas-fired peaking units (which run only at peak demand) and pumped hydro. But this flexibility isn't rewarded under a capacity market, because capacity would be paid for irrespective of whether electricity production can be turned on quickly (or not). Third, there's a better option for creating a more resilient, reliable system: a so-called "operating reserve" market. This involves providing incentives to customers to reduce electricity use at short notice when power supplies are low. Generators and customers that can rapidly respond to challenging conditions are paid in this separate market (but only when necessary). Australia's regulators are currently considering whether to introduce this type of market. While Texas has a similar scheme, it focuses on creating higher prices to encourage spare capacity, rather than paying consumers and generators to make electricity available if needed. Lesson 3: We need to do our fair share and decarbonise our electricity system rapidly To prevent extreme weather from becoming a bigger problem, it's critical Australia implements an enduring policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The simplest way of doing this would be transitioning the existing renewable energy target into an emissions intensity scheme. Essentially, this is where lower emissions generation (such as renewables) gets rewarded, while higher emissions generation (such as coal) gets penalised. Allowing renewable energy generators to export their greenhouse abatement to other sectors would underpin faster decarbonisation and greater investment in new electricity supply. Australia has always been one of the most fragile continents when it comes to the effects of climate change. We need to prepare our electricity system to be resilient to more extreme weather. But we also need to rapidly scale up the decarbonisation of our electricity supply to ensure Australia plays its part in reducing global greenhouse emissions. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. DHL Express and SmartLynx Malta have signed a new partnership agreement for the introduction of two freshly converted Airbus A321-200 freighters to DHLs European air fleet. ') } // --> ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> DHL says the technically advanced narrow-body fleet type will add capacity to meet the increasing demand for express cargo transportation worldwide combined with further improving its unit CO 2 emissions by introducing the most fuel-efficient narrow-body aircraft in its class. The companies note that increasing demand for e-commerce shipments, and also protective and medical goods, requires additional air cargo capacity. ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> We at DHL pride ourselves as the global industry pioneer when it comes to introducing new generation conversion freighter types to the market says Geoff Kehr, SVP, global air fleet management, at DHL Express. Continually modernizing our fleet with the most efficient and reliable cargo aircraft produced is vital to our success. Having led the world with the A330-300P2F development and successful implementation, it is only natural we would follow on by adding the smaller A321 family aircraft to our global freighter fleet. A pair of glasses belonging to a man who was fatally struck by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was found in the Republican official's car by detectives investigating the September crash, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, a revelation that led the state's governor to call for his resignation. Ravnsborg struck and killed 55-year-old Joseph Boever on September 12. He initially told police he had hit a deer, but he discovered Boever's body the following morning after returning to the scene of the collision. "They're Joe's glasses, so that means his face came through your windshield," one of the detectives told Ravnsborg during an interview that was released by the state on Tuesday, according to the Post. "His face was in your windshield, Jason. Think about that," a detective with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation said to Ravnsborg, according to the Post, which said the official "denied seeing the pair of glasses inside his vehicle or on the man's body." The newspaper said the newly released interviews were recorded on September 14 and September 30. Prosecutors in the state announced three misdemeanor charges against Ravnsborg last week, the Post said -- charges that could result in up to 90 days in jail and $1,500 in damages if the state's top law enforcement official is found guilty of all of them. After the police interviews were released, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, called on Ravnsborg to step down, writing in a tweet: "Now that the investigation has closed and charges have been filed, I believe the Attorney General should resign." "I have reviewed the material we are releasing, starting today, and I encourage others to review it as well," she wrote. But Ravnsborg does not plan to resign, according to Mike Deaver, his private spokesman, who told the Argus Leader that "at no time has this issue impeded his ability to do the work of the office." Last year, the state released a toxicology report stating that a blood sample given by Ravnsborg the day after the crash showed his blood alcohol content was 0%. Officials also released last year the 911 call made by Ravnsborg the night of the crash in which he told dispatchers, "I hit something" that was in the middle of the road. The dispatcher asked, "Are you injured at all, Jason?" To which Ravnsborg responded, "I am not, but my car sure as hell is." Ravnsborg, a Republican, was elected South Dakota attorney general in 2018, according to his office's website. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Jerusalem, Feb 26 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he has accepted an invitation by Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to visit the Gulf state. The prime minister's office issued a statement saying the two leaders agreed that Netanyahu will travel to Bahrain "as soon as possible," once Covid-19 restrictions would allow it. Bahrain was also looking into a possible investment in a planned Covid-19 vaccine factory that is expected to be built in Israel, according to the statement. "The crown prince noted he is interested in examining a possibility of Bahrain joining an investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant that is planned to be established in Israel together with other countries," the statement read. Netanyahu announced earlier in February that he postponed his first official visits to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to Israel's coronavirus lockdown. Some of the lockdown's restrictions have been lifted but a ban on outgoing and incoming flights is still in effect, the Xinhua news agency reported. Israel has signed the US-brokered agreements to normalize ties with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 25 Feb 2021: The Report Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Workflow, By Technology (WGS, WES), By Application (Screening, Companion Diagnostics), By End-use, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028 The global clinical oncology next generation sequencing market size is expected to reach USD 892.61 million by 2028 registering a CAGR of 14.70%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Technological advancements in next-generation sequencing coupled with high adoption of companion diagnostics and personalized medicine drive the global market growth. In addition, a rise in the utility of next generation sequencing (NGS) for liquid biopsy is expected to increase revenue generation in the market. NGS is employed to sequence circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for the analysis of liquid biopsy samples. This leads to efficient molecular profiling of tumors, which, in turn, facilitates real-time, non-invasive monitoring of tumors. Moreover, a rise in market competitiveness, growth in oncology diagnostics spending, and increasing research activities to develop solutions that can potentially be used for clinical oncology drive market progression. For instance, in January 2021, Spectrum Solutions, LLC collaborated with the UCLA School of Dentistry on saliva-based NGS liquid biopsy research, which would be used for early diagnosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). North America dominated the global market in 2020 owing to multiple initiatives taken by various government bodies in the region to screen and prevent cancer, such as Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network, a flagship program by the CDC. Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing regional market over the forecast period owing to continuous reforms in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries in the region. Key players in this market have undertaken strategic alliances to strengthen their market position. For example, in March 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific signed an agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. for the development of CDx for tumor management. Under the agreement, Janssen Research & Development, LLC would validate multiple biomarkers to be used with Thermo Fisher's Oncomine Dx target test for identification of patients with NSCLC Access Research Report of Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/clinical-oncology-next-generation-sequencing-ngs-market Clinical Oncology NGS Market Report Highlights Targeted sequencing & resequencing accounted for the largest market share in 2020 owing to the high adoption of targeted gene panels for oncology diagnostics Moreover, the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers further boosts the development of targeted sequencing oncology panels Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS) is projected to register the fastest growth rate from 2021 to 2028 as the technology offers a complete genomic survey of the tumor genome This helps in the generation of a detailed map of indels, copy number changes, Single Nucleotide Variations (SNV), and complex structural rearrangements with a single assay Companion diagnostics is projected to be the fastest-growing application segment from 2021 to 2028 owing to the high adoption and benefits offered by the technology Therefore, major market participants focus on innovative R&D in companion diagnostics to gain approval for novel tests For instance, in August 2020, the FDA approved Guardant360 CDx assay; an NGS-based liquid biopsy CDx to identify Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) gene mutations in metastatic NSCLC List of Key Players of Clinical Oncology NGS Market Illumina, Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Agilent Technologies Myriad Genetics Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) Perkin Elmer Foundation Medicine Pacific Bioscience Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd. Paradigm Diagnostics Caris Life Sciences Partek, Inc. Eurofins Scientific S.E. Qiagen N.V. Access Press Release of Clinical Oncology Next Generation Sequencing Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-clinical-oncology-next-generation-sequencing-ngs-market Paxton, IL (60957) Today Cloudy. Low around 55F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. Low around 55F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. 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. Trillium Gold Completes Agreement to acquire 80% of Gold Centre Property in Red Lake Posted by Publisher Internet Trillium Gold Mines Inc. (TSXV:TGM) (?Trillium? or the ?Company? https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/trillium-gold-mines-inc/) announced today that the TSX Venture Exchange has approved, and the Company has closed, the definitive joint venture agreement with Rupert Resources Ltd. that entitles Trillium to acquire 80% interest in the Gold Centre Property located immediately adjacent to, and along strike of Evolution Mining?s Campbell-Red Lake Mine.? The terms of the Joint Venture Agreement are set out in Trillium?s News Release dated August 31, 2020. The Company has issued 500,000 common shares to Rupert Resources on closing of the Agreement which shares are subject to a four month hold period expiring June 24, 2021. On February 9, 2021 Trillium announced receipt of a drill permit for the Gold Centre property. The Company has planned a combination of new holes to target the shallower sulphide-style mineralization, similar to that of the Far East Zone at the Red Lake Operations, as well as deeper drilling holes designed to target both high-grade and sulphide mineralization. For further information, please contact Donna Yoshimatsu, VP Corporate Development and Investor Relations at dyoshimatsu@trilliumgold.com, (416) 722-2456, or info@trilliumgold.com, 604-688-9588. Visit our website at?www.trilliumgold.com. ? About Trillium Gold Mines Inc. Trillium Gold Mines Inc. is a growth focused British Columbia based company engaged in the business of acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties located in the Red Lake Mining District of Northern Ontario. The Company recently extended its holdings in the Confederation Lake and Birch-Uchi greenstone belts, as well as in highly prospective properties in Larder Lake, Ontario and the Matagami and Chibougamou areas of Quebec. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on Tuesday applauded Vietnams achievements in its fight against COVID-19 while also stressing a high likelihood of future pathogen emergence in the country. Dams statements were made during his chairmanship of a meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control. During the meeting, Nguyen Dac Vinh, deputy chief of the Party Central Committee's Office, pointed out that early detection is key to successful epidemic prevention efforts, as seen from the quelling of recent outbreaks at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City and in Hai Phong at the end of January. Vinh also emphasized the importance of tactical medical screenings to identify transmission sources and contain the pathogen. He noted that the Ministry of Health should reflect on its contact tracing programs and identify optimal isolation plans in order to inform efforts in other provinces. The upcoming COVID-19 inoculation plan should be rolled out in sync with other epidemic prevention efforts, he added. Meanwhile, Deputy PM Dam pointed out that Vietnam ranked 173rd in the world in terms of patient tallies and 213th on the ratio of COVID-19 cases to population, an impressive achievement considering the relatively low cost that the country spent on COVID-19 prevention. With all due humility, it can be said that Vietnam is ranked one of the most successful countries in the world when it comes to COVID-19 prevention," he said. "For that reason, we must stay loyal to the principles and strategies that were employed in the early days. According to Dam, those strategies involve five steps: prevention, detection, isolation, eradication, and treatment, all of which have been maintained through different phases of the epidemic. Large-scale testing Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son asked that Hai Duong Province, the countrys current COVID-19 epicenter, continue its large-scale COVID-19 testing for workers in industrial zones, which involves determining optimal sample sizes and the demographic for medical screening. Do Xuan Tuyen, another Deputy Minister of Health, also noted that testing in Hai Duong should only be rolled out at factories at high risk of transmission instead of being mandated at all plants. Eradication out of reach After hearing the reports of attending officials, Deputy Prime Minister Dam commended Hai Duongs contribution to the nationwide effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since the outbreak in the province, only three cases of transmission have been detected outside the isolated areas or quarantine wards, all of whom completed contact tracing to help curb further transmission. The deputy PM has asked Hai Duong to keep up contact tracing and mass medical screenings in the community as instructed by the Ministry of Health. Currently, a real-time PCR test costs as much as two jabs," Dam stated. A circumstance where factories must test all of their workers before they are allowed to resume operations should be avoided, as it is not only costly but also enkindles skepticism about the test results. Additionally, busy locations such as beverage stalls near industrial parks, hospitals, bus stations, and wet markets should be closely monitored. Dam also underlined the necessity of Hai Duongs vigilant stance against the epidemic even after the isolation mandate is lifted, as Vietnams dense population, long border, and demand for foreign experts will continue underpin risks of future outbreaks. No one can be sure that Vietnam is completely freed from the pathogen," Dam warned. "We must stay vigilant." A total of 820 local cases have been detected in 13 provinces and cities since since January 28, when the Ministry of Health confirmed the first community-based infections after Vietnam had gone almost two months without local transmission. The current outbreak is considered the most serious wave to have struck Vietnam after the first-ever COVID-19 patient was recorded in the country on January 23, 2020. Hai Duong Province is the hardest-hit locale, with 636 cases logged in this round of infections. The national tally stood at 2,412 coronavirus cases, including 1,513 domestic infections, as of Wednesday night, with 1,790 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths, according to the Ministry of Healths data. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Lands and Natural Resources Minister-designate, Samuel Abu Jinapor has received rapturous applause from lots of Ghanaians following his vetting by the Appointments Committee on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor was grilled by the Committee on various issues regarding the sector he has been appointed to. The Committee bombarded him with a barrage of questions bordering on alleged corruption acts he perpetrated, lands, mining, natural resources, his duties, goals, objectives and other related issues concerning his Ministry. The Minister-designate, who before his appointment was the Deputy Chief of Staff, delivered accurate responses which have endeared him to many Ghanaians. Lands & Natural Resources On lands and natural resources, Mr. Abu Jinapor threw his weight behind the implementation of the new Lands Act (Act 1036). Parliament passed the Land Bill last year to reform land administration in Ghana. It is aimed at revising and consolidating the laws on land. The sector Minister-designate strongly believed the Act will address all land entitlement issues and therefore pledged to work with it when approved by the Committe. ''Mr. Chairman, I want to submit that [the implementation] the effective implementation of this new Lands Act (Act 1036) will go a great way of improving the administration of land in our country...We will require to make sure that we publicize it. 1. We have to get the country to be aware of it, to know about the implications of the provisions of this Act. We must have a strategy and a policy to ensure that this Act is well implemented. " . . literally all the funny difficult issues relating to land administration [seems to have been], this Act seems to have intervened in almost all of them'', he said. He further said he will reduce the timeframe for the acquisition of land title emphasizing that the Act answers all land title challenges. He further pledged commitment to protect the country's lands and natural resources, indicating "by all intents and purposes, the lands and natural resources of Ghana constitute the property of the Ghanaian people vested in their President to be held in trust for the benefit of the Ghanaian people and therefore Mr. Chairman, Article 268, in my view, then ensures that given that the lands and natural resources constitute the property of this country; Parliament becomes the accountable body for the utilization and management of the lands and natural resources of our country which is why the grant of a mineral right will require Parliamentary ratification''. " . . my conceptual interpretation of it is that the natural resources belong to the Ghanaian people. It's their property. It's vested in their President to deal with or deal in for their benefit," he added. Mining He also took into cognizance the mining challenges in the country and assured Ghanaians he will apply the right solutions to resolve the challenges. He was of a strong view that the government's Community Mining Scheme, a mining model introduced last year, is the surest way to nip illegal mining in the bud. ''We need to pursue this concept of community mining. I think it's very important. I've looked at the literature. I've taken a lot of briefings. I've examined the situation and I'm more than fully persuaded that the perfection...of community mining in our country will go a long way in dealing with the incidences of illegal small-scale mining. ''We have gotten to a point where we require a bi-partisan broad-based multi-sectoral effort in dealing with illegal small-scale mining. We need a broad-based support for the national policy on illegal small-scale mining. So, what's the policy? The policy is that we build here in Ghana a sustainable viable regulated small-scale mining which has regard for the environment and do away with illegal small-scale mining which degrade the environment.'' Other Minerals A question on the exploitation of natural resources was also posed to him and in response, he made reference to the importance of salt development in Ghana. The Minister-designate called for the establishment of a Salt Development Authority in Ghana. ''The full value chain of salt has to be established here in Ghana. Mr. Chairman, for instance, you cannot build an integrated aluminium industry without salt. You cannot build the integrated iron and steel industry in Ghana without salt. The petrochemical industry cannot actually thrive without salt. So, salt is extremely important'', he said. He highlighted the mandate of the Salt Development Authority saying ''I think that it's gotten to a time where we probably should consider the establishment of a Salt Development Authority in Ghana whose mandate will be responsible for building the full value chain of salt in Ghana...I believe if we get this Authority in place where we can have a refinery for salt and a terminal for salt, it will help a great deal''. Mr. Abu Jinapor tackled other matters relating to his Ministry. Thorny Issue Another knotty issue that cropped up was why the Ghana Boundary Commission has been placed under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. Some Ghanaians are of the view that the Boundary Commission shares similar functions with the Immigration Service. In response, Hon. Abu Jinapor highlighted the vast difference between the roles of the two organizations. "...the Ghana Boundary Commission's mandate essentially is to determine, negotiate and/or delineate the boundaries as they relate to Ghana and its neighbouring countries. Where does the borders of Ghana begin; where do they end? That is essentially their work, both on land and on our seas. Now, they do so for purposes of [1] determining the landmarks of Ghana. So this is why it is under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. [2] They do so also in the sea to determine the natural resources of our country''. ''I think that the placement of the Ghana Boundaries Commission under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is perfect. It's absolutely normal. There's nothing wrong because they're dealing with the lands of Ghana as well as the natural resources of Ghana in the sea," he strongly held. He expounded on how different the Ghana Immigration Service and the Boundary Commission are, hence making it right for the Commission to be under the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry. "I don't see any conflict at all. To my mind, I respectfully think the Ghana Boundaries Commission's mandate is exclusively for purposes of determining what are the borders of Ghana whereas the Ghana Immigration Service, their mandate is border security; protecting the borders of Ghana," he said. Elaborate Answers One of the highlights of the nominee's vettimg was when Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak lightedly expressed concern over the latter's desire to give comprehensive answers to every question. This was after Hon Jinapor extensively quoted some Supreme Court rulings to back his point in answer to questions from the Member of Parliament for Odododiodio Constituency, Nii Lante Vanderpuye on some land issues. The Odododiodio MP had sought to know why government has find it difficult to return lands to its allodial owners after it has been used for the purpose for which it was leased. Muntaka, who is a member of the Appointments Committee observed that the nominee's penchant for elaborate answers instead of concise ones might result in a marathon vetting session. The way the nominee wants to elaborately answer questions, we may do 24 hours on him alone. So if he can reduce the answers, it will be good. If he answers the questions this way, we are likely to vet only him today. Hon Jinapor, in reply stated that his elaborate responses on the matter is due to the delicate nature of the topic. Performance Rating In all, the Lands and Natural Resources Minister-designate's vetting has elicited some interesting feedback from the general public regarding his performance. His answers have received lots of positive comments as some Ghanaians, speaking to Peacefmonline, have vouched for him to be approved by the Committee. They share a common idea that Mr. Abu Jinapor is the right person for the job. They however expect him to honor his pledges when approved to be the sector Minister. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video LOS ANGELESAVN Media Network is pleased to announce the launch of the Luscious Lips Contest on AVN Stars. Do you have the most irresistible, delectable lips on AVN Stars? Show your fans in a personal photo this weekendand win cash. Please be sure that youre in the image that you submit. This three-day, 72-hour, fan-voting contest starts at midnight PDT on Friday, Feb. 26 and goes until 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, Feb. 28. All AVN Stars are eligible to enter and the Top 10 vote-getters will each receive cash prizes with the winner getting $750! 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Built for adult entertainers, AVN Stars is a subscription-based community where creators can monetize their content without the worry of censorship, discrimination, shadow-banning or suspensions. Creators may charge a subscription fee or make their posts available for free. AN outdated combined sewer system means Winnipeg will continue pumping millions of litres of raw sewage into its rivers every year. AN outdated combined sewer system means Winnipeg will continue pumping millions of litres of raw sewage into its rivers every year. After an overflow left foul black sludge coating a section of the Assiniboine River dedicated to winter fun Monday, organizers and city councillors say its time to get creative, find provincial funding, and pick up the pace on reducing sewage overflow. "We should be clear this is happening and its going to continue happening because, like other cities, we have this combined sewer network in older parts of the city," said Coun. Brian Mayes, water and waste committee chairman. Mayes said the city presented the province with several options to address the issue of sewage overflows: one would have completely separated the sewer system at a cost of $4 billion, and cheaper options that would reduce overflows over a period of several decades. Ultimately, the province opted for a $2.3-billion program which is intended to reduce untreated sewer overflows by about 15 per cent over more than a quarter-century. Mayes said he has long supported that plan which costs the city $30 million annually but to reach the 2045 target, the city will need to pick up the pace. "Thirty million a year over 27 (years) doesnt get you to the finish line, so at some point, the pace needs to accelerate," he said Wednesday. "It would help us speed up the pace if we got some provincial funding." Modernizing the pipes is a "grinding process" that requires tearing up large strips of road at a steep price, Mayes said. Sewer separation projects are underway at three locations in the city. Lake Winnipeg Foundation executive director Alexis Kanu said other cities such as Ottawa have come up with creative solutions to reduce sewage overflow in the interim. With provincial funding support, Winnipeg could and should be looking at those options, too. "We probably need to shake ourselves up a little bit, take a look at this multi-(decade) projects that weve got in front of us, acknowledge that we have limited capacity and resources, and start looking for smart, strategic solutions that we can implement right away," Kanu said Wednesday. Mayes said Winnipeg could be looking at more "inventive" options, including incorporating green infrastructure along the modernization process. So far, the city has worked to bolster its sewer-monitoring system, and now monitors 39 of the 77 sewer outfalls to report both monthly and yearly overflow data. Under the provincial Environment Act, the city is also meant to report overflows on its website both those that occur as a result of mechanical failures (such as power outages) and those that have likely occurred as a result of wet weather events (heavy rain or snowmelts). Mondays overflow was not updated on either information page. The city noted the overflow was not caused by a mechanical failure. As for the likely overflow tracker, a city representative said the page "is used to report probable (combined sewer overflow) occurrences during periods of significant rainfall based on high-water-level alarms." "Because snowmelt occurs at a much lesser volume than rainfall, it doesnt necessarily trigger those alarms, and therefore we arent able to offer an estimate," the city added. "I think transparency about these issues is really important," Kanu said. "People are concerned, people care about these waterways in Winnipeg and the beautiful lake that we get to enjoy just downstream... Its important that we dont get caught up in this out-of-sight, out-of-mind idea." Meanwhile, Mayes said there hasnt been much public pressure to pick up the pace on sewer modernization, though this years low river level and increased attention on to the waterways are drawing the public eye. "I dont blame anybody for being upset," he said. "If people are insisting that were going to have to pick up the pace, the next time were talking about water and sewer rates, thats going to have to be part of it." julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jsrutgers State Secretariat for Economic Affairs Bern, 25.02.2021 - Switzerland and Indonesia renewed their development cooperation on 25 February 2021 by jointly launching SECOs new Economic Development Cooperation Program with Indonesia 2021-2024. The SECO will provide USD 65 million in grant funding to support Indonesia in becoming a more competitive, resilient and equitable economy. Switzerland intends to support Indonesia on a more sustainable and inclusive development path. To do so, the new program focuses on two main priorities: fostering effective public institutions, namely in urban areas, and strengthening private sector competitiveness. Special attention will be given to small and medium-sized enterprises, as they are the main drivers of employment. The Swiss technical assistance will work in areas like skills development, decent work, tourism, urban development, as well as sustainability, including in commodity sectors such as palm oil. Gender equality, climate change and efficient use of resources will be transversal themes guiding the Swiss engagement. Over the four years, SECO will provide USD 65 million in support of the Programme. Conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Indonesia has been a priority country for Switzerlands development cooperation since the 1970s. Over time, the two countries have become close economic and political partners, celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations this year. These close relations have, inter alia, led to the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the EFTA States and Indonesia, which will be subject to the popular vote in Switzerland on 7 March 2021. The CEPA will substantially improve market access conditions on both sides, deepen bilateral economic relations in a manner consistent with the objective of sustainable development and further strengthen the economic development cooperation. The new cooperation program builds on SECOs preceding cooperation programme achievements and is closely aligned with the Indonesian National Medium-Term Development Plan 2020-2024 and the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030. It focuses on high quality technical assistance, particularly in sectors where Switzerland has proven expertise and where Indonesian demand is high. Commitment to a more sustainable Indonesian palm oil sector While Indonesias palm oil sector is a major driver of exports and economic development, the rapid increase of production has also come at a high social and environmental cost. The Indonesian Government recognises the need to strengthen the environmental and social sustainability of palm oil production in line with its commitments under the CEPA. Under the new Cooperation Programme, SECO will remain committed to support these efforts. Together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), SECO supports the Indonesian Government to take the lead in creating an environment where palm oil is produced more sustainably and inclusive. A dialogue among all relevant public and private stakeholders has resulted in a national action plan for sustainable palm oil production. This action plan was signed into law by President Joko Widodo in 2019, demonstrating Indonesias commitment. In addition, through the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), SECO is promoting greater sustainability, also in palm oil supply chains. IDH is active in six provinces to promote sustainable economic development at the regional level. This with a focus on sustainable production, forest conservation and social inclusion of indigenous populations. Direct beneficiaries are especially smallholder oil palm farmers and their families, who are trained in better and more sustainable production methods. Address for enquiries State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO Holzikofenweg 36 CH-3003 Bern Tel. +41 58 462 56 56 Fax +41 58 462 56 00 Publisher State Secretariat for Economic Affairs http://www.seco.admin.ch Renewed rocket attacks on US targets in Iraq show Iran-aligned factions are heaping pressure on the government while Tehran may be seeking leverage over America's new administration, analysts say. Iraq, scarred by decades of war and insurgency, has been a strategic battleground for arch-foes the United States and Iran, both allies of Baghdad who remain sharply at odds over Iran's nuclear programme. Analysts and officials in Iraq say the resumption of attacks after four months of relative calm shows that Iran and its Iraqi allies are now abandoning de-escalation and seeking leverage over their rivals. "It seems we're back to last year," a senior US military official in Iraq told AFP, referring to several months in 2020 when rockets rained down on American sites once a week or more. On Monday, two rockets hit near the US embassy in Baghdad, days after a volley hit an airbase further north where a US military contractor is maintaining F-16 fighter-jets purchased from Washington. Rockets also hit a military complex in the Kurdish region's capital Arbil on February 15, killing a civilian and a foreign contractor working with US-led troops. Damage outside the Zawraa park in Baghdad after a volley of rockets slammed into the Iraqi capital in mid-November / AFP/File The incidents were consistent with the dozens of attacks last year, which usually involved a score of 107mm rockets fired from a truck, security officials said. This year, the pro-Iran groups typically blamed for such attacks -- including Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq -- have been quick to condemn the strikes. Security sources, however, are not convinced. "All indications are it's the same style of attacks," said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And intelligence shared with us says there are more to come." - 'Boosting leverage' - Both local and international dynamics may have prompted the resumed attacks. It remains to be seen how US President Joe Biden will respond to the new attacks / AFP/File There are "domestic considerations" as Iraqi armed groups are keen to challenge Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi's assertion that he can rein them in, said Aniseh Bassiri of the Royal United Service Institute. "They want to remind everyone they have not disappeared and show the PM they have not been restrained," she told AFP. With parliamentary elections scheduled for October, these factions, whose political branches are running at the polls, are flexing their muscles, Bassiri added. But the rockets may also carry a message from Tehran to Washington, which under US President Joe Biden is offering to revive the Iran nuclear deal which predecessor Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. Iran is demanding Washington lift sanctions immediately, while the US wants Iran to move first by returning to all its previous nuclear commitments. Iran has struck a tough tone this week, restricting some nuclear site inspections and warning it could further step up uranium enrichment. "The renewed attacks could be an attempt by those close to Iran to increase Tehran's leverage in light of looming talks with the US," Bassiri said. - Blocked cash - Geopolitical considerations aside, Iran may also have purely financial reasons to pressure Baghdad, local and Western officials told AFP. With its economy squeezed, Tehran is desperate for unfettered access to an account at the state-owned Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI), where Baghdad has been paying for imported Iranian gas. Iraq has been unwilling to disburse the equivalent of around $2 billion freely, fearing it would anger the US. Rockets hit the complex in the Kurdish region's capital Arbil on February 15, killing a civilian and a foreign contractor working with US-led troops / KURDISTAN 24 CHANNEL/AFP/File In January, Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and the premier's chief of staff Raed Juhi travelled to Tehran with a message from Kadhemi asking Tehran to restrain armed groups in Iraq, after three rocket attacks. They met Esmail Qaani, who became head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force after a US drone strike in Baghdad last year killed his predecessor Qasem Soleimani. "Qaani told them that unless they get money out of the TBI account, they wouldn't be able to control the activities of armed groups in Iraq," a senior Iraqi official with close knowledge of the trip told AFP. Another Iraqi official and a Western diplomat said their discussions in Baghdad confirmed links between the TBI account and the rocket attacks. For now it remains to be seen how Biden will respond to the new attacks. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday the US would "hold Iran responsible for the actions of its proxies that attack Americans" but would not "lash out" and risk destabilising Iraq. It was an apparent reference to Trump's warning that any attack against US interests in Iraq could unleash a hail of American strikes on armed groups. A firm US military reaction, however, may not be off the table. The US military official said that, in talks with Washington, "we've provided options, including striking inside and outside of Iraq, but we haven't heard yet from the new administration". 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. Rachel Levine, nominee for assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services, testifies during a Senate hearing in Washington on Feb. 25, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/Pool/Getty Images) Biden Health Nominee Pressed on Support for Genital Surgery for Children One of President Joe Bidens top health nominees on Thursday was pressed about stating in the past support for children getting puberty blockers and genital surgery. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioned Dr. Rachel Levine on the past support, noting that data from the American College of Pediatricians shows that 80 percent to 95 percent of children who believe theyre a gender different from their birth sex will see a dissolution of those feelings by late adolescence, if theyre not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation. American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics. Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty as well as surgical reconstruction of a minors genitalia, Paul, a physician, said, noting that the latter can permanently alter a persons body, comparing it to genital mutilation. Do you believe minors are capable of making such a life changing decision of changing ones sex? he asked during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. Senator, thank you for your interest in this question. Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. If Im fortunate enough to be confirmed as the assistant secretary of health, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine, answered Levine, who was born a male but presents as a female. Paul noted that he had asked specifically about minors. Lets be a little more specific since you evaded the question, he said. Do you support the government intervening to override the parents consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia? Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 25, 2021. (Tom Brenner/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field and if confirmed to the position of assistant secretary of health I would certainly will be pleased to come to your office and talk with you and your staff about the standards of care and the complexity of the field, Levine said. Let it go into the record that the witness refused to answer the question. The question is a very specific one: should minors be making these momentous decisions, Paul said. He wrote on Twitter after the hearing, Biden nominee refuses to answer my question about whether the government should override a parents consent to allow a minor to receive puberty blockers or surgical amputation of breasts or genitalia. Paul referenced Keira Bell, who got an operation as a teenager but later regretted it. I made a brash decision as a teenager, as a lot of teenagers do, trying to find confidence and happiness, except now the rest of my life will be negatively affected, Bell told a court in the UK last year. Paul said that he was concerned about the drugs being prescribed to children and cited possible infertility and the inability to get puberty back if the drugs and operations are used. Theres no longterm studies. We dont know what happens to them. We do know that there are dozens and dozens of people who have been through this who regret that this happened. And a permanent change happened to them. And if youve ever been around children, 14-year-olds cant make this decision. In the gender dysphoria clinic in England, 10 percent of the kids are between the ages of 3 and 10. We should be outraged that someone is talking to a 3-year-old about changing their sex, Paul told Levine. Levine said during a lecture in 2017 that some children, if they received counseling, could start receiving hormones and puberty blockers. Levine has also said that some surgical treatments could be done before the age of 18. Levines views and decision to present as a different gender have drawn scrutiny from some lawmakers but others say Levines confirmation would show how barriers are being overcome by transgender individuals. Dr. Levine would make history as the highest ranking openly transgender official in the U.S. government, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the committee, said during the hearing. Levines nomination showed the Biden administration values the voices and leadership of our community, Equality Caucus Co-Chair Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) said last month. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 14:46:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Cao Kai NAIROBI, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- With the timely arrival of China's Sinopharm vaccine, Senegal on Tuesday officially began the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, taking one step further in its fight against the pandemic. The delivery once again showed not only the solid friendship between China and Africa, but also China's honoring of its commitment to making Chinese COVID-19 vaccines a "global public good" accessible and affordable to people around the world. During the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 held last year, China pledged that African countries will be "among the first to benefit" from Chinese vaccines. It has walked the talk indeed -- China has donated to Zimbabwe a batch of Sinopharm vaccine, and will offer another batch soon. Other African countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Egypt and Morocco have also received Chinese vaccines which enabled them to launch their vaccination campaigns. So far, China has provided vaccine assistance to 53 developing countries in need, and exported vaccines to 22 countries. It has also decided to provide 10 million vaccine doses to multilateral vaccine alliance COVAX to meet the urgent needs of developing countries, many of which are in Africa. "These vaccines are certainly providing a new light of positivity for the people of Zimbabwe in these tough times ... a light at the end of a dark tunnel," said Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa. In fact, China, a country that firmly believes that solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon against the virus, has been fulfilling its responsibilities as a major country and fighting shoulder to shoulder with African countries against the common threat facing mankind ever since the outbreak. Apart from delivering anti-epidemic materials and sending medical teams to African countries, China has also become the biggest helper among the Group of 20 in terms of relieving African debt. By the end of 2020, it had signed debt service suspension agreements with 12 African countries, and reduced or waived the interest-free loans of 15 African nations. As Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo put it, China's longstanding support to Africa's fight against the pandemic is a testament to the friendship between the two peoples. Viruses know no borders. Leaving the world's least developed areas unvaccinated will inevitably perpetuate more infections and deaths across the world, and prolong the global fight against the pandemic. Sadly, it is happening -- despite efforts by countries like China, there is still a huge disparity in global vaccine distribution as some rich countries are hoarding vaccines. According to Duke University's Global Health Innovation Center, as of mid-January, high-income countries, which represent only 16 percent of the world's population, had taken 60 percent of available doses. The world faces a "catastrophic moral failure" because of unequal COVID-19 vaccine policies, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned, adding it is not fair for younger, healthy people in richer countries to get injections before vulnerable people in poorer ones. Vaccination is not a race among countries, but rather a race against time. As COVID-19 infections and deaths are still surging in Africa and other less developed areas, it is urgent for the international community to come together to reject vaccine nationalism and promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, so as to make them accessible and affordable to all. Enditem The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company by Nirmala Carvalho The complaint filed after a school suspension for harassment. The bishop speaks of "lies" fabricated out of revenge". It all started with the reaction of a Hindu teacher who instigated the complainant because of the delayed payment of her salary. Mumbai (AsiaNews) Attempted conversion charges made by an assistant against Sister Bhagya, Sisters of the Destitute (SD), principal of Sacred Heart Convent High School (SHCS) are "a bunch of lies" made up out of "revenge" says the diocese of Satna, in India. The bishop of Satna, Joseph Kodakallil, told AsiaNews: This is unfounded, fabricated and a lot of lies. It is a persecution against Christians who adhere to the New Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020". The first briefing report (FIR) against the nun was filed at Khajuraho Police Station on February 22, 2021 at 1.48 pm, by Ms. Ruby Singh, who claims that the principal nun harassed her to force her to join the Christian faith. Ms. Ruby Singh worked in the school as a kindergarten assistant teacher from 2016 to 2017. Sister Bhagya assumed the position of principal of the SHCS in July 2019. At that time Ms. Ruby Singh was working as a substitute for teachers. She couldn't handle any lessons. She usually screamed, got angry and made so much noise in her class that the principal moved her to the office assistant job. When the principal suggested that Ms. Ruby take up the office assistant job, Ms. Usha, a senior Hindi teacher, began to mislead Ms. Ruby Singh. So Ms. Ruby sat in the office room for about three months, October, November and December 2019 without doing any work. She would not take the salary of these months. From January 2020 onwards, she began accepting to work as an office assistant. But she did it only to take the substitute book or to bring the attendance register. She then asked for the money for the previous three months, creating great problems. Often she would enter and sit in the principal's office even when the principal has had to meet parents and students. She looked like an abnormal person. She sometimes laughed, sometimes she cried loudly and sometimes she yelled at the principal. After the lockdown she went back to school to ask for work and money. So the principal gave her some library work in June until July 17, 2020. During that time, no students, no staff, or her support staff came to school. The principal told her to find a job somewhere else. She asked for a letter, but the principal did not give her any letter. After July 17th she came to school to ask for the full money for the month of July. She was only given 17 days. After that until January 31, 2021, there were no problems on her part. She had forcibly taken the salary of October, November and December 2019. In December 2020 the principal informed the teachers that the salary thereafter will be linked to the collection of the school fee. After sending the message, one of the senior teachers, Ms. Usha, created problems. On the 5th of each month the salary is distributed to the staff. As there was insufficient collection of fees, salary payments were delayed for a few days. Mrs. Usha spoke to Mrs. Ruth Mary; On February 10, 2021, something will happen in the school. All the media will come. I met many parents at the market and they said they paid the tuition (only 74 students out of a thousand paid). Mrs. Ruby stood in front of the main gate of the school (pictured) and she banged on the gate loudly, she shouted that she would die here. She would come to school around 9.30 or 10 and return around 1.30 and 2.30. On the 10th she came in front of the convent, she stayed until half past one and banged on the gate. Other teachers told the principal to file a report at the police station for security reasons. Then, along with a few men and women on the staff, the principal delivered a letter to the Khajuraho Police Station. SDM and BRC came to the school on February 17, 2021, and on the 19 the police came for verification. The statements were made by a few staff members, the gate attendant and the principal. On the same day at 10.30 pm Vinod Media published news of the conversion attempts. On the same date the authorities formulated the notice - DEO, BEO, BRC and Gvt. The principal of the school and the Chhattarpur DIG came and asked about Ms. Ruby and Ms. Usha and they asked the teachers and the principal a few questions. On February 22, 2021, the FIR was registered against the principal sister at the Khajuraho Police Station on charges of conversion on two acts of the 2020 Madhya Pradesh Religion Freedom Ordinance Section 3/5. A declaration from the diocese, signed by Fr Paul Vargheses reconstructs that The problem began to arise when the principal announced in December 2020 that the salary thereafter will be paid based on the collection of school fees. The salary was paid on the 5th of each month. When there was a delay in paying her salary for January 2021, Ms. Usha, a senior Hindi teacher, reacted. The audio recording of her was presented at the police station. She instigated and misled Mrs. Ruby Singh to do all of this. The accusation against Sr Bhagya, the principal, is just a revenge by Mrs. Usha and Ruby Singh. " 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. You might think that the $17,000 bills that Texas electricity providers are sending to customers who kept their lights on during last weeks historic storm reflect red state libertarian ideology run amuck. But you would be wrong. They are actually the product of the exact same approach to markets reflected in the congestion-pricing plan for midtown Manhattan adopted by the New York State legislature in 2019, in the way Broadway priced tickets for shows like The Lion King and Wicked before the pandemic, and the way airlines have been pricing seats for years. Advertisement The problem is not ideological but intellectual, and has its roots in something a Democratic appointee to the New York Public Service Commission did to the pricing of electricity in New York State back in 1975. That thing is called marginal-cost pricing, and it became part of American life thanks largely to the efforts of one man: economist Alfred Kahn. Advertisement Advertisement The idea behind marginal-cost pricing is simple enough. If you have a resource like electricity that is in short supply because, say, all your natural gas pipelines and wind turbines have frozen over, then you need to ration the resource. One way to do that is to leave prices alone and just let the resource run out, effectively rationing access to those who use it first. But anotherthe marginal-cost approachis to raise prices and ration the resource to those who are willing to pay the most for it. Thats what electricity companies like Griddy did in Texas, and why we saw such mind-boggling bills. Advertisement Kahn liked that kind of approach because it seemed to encourage conservation while preserving freedom of choice: The high prices encourage those who place a low value on the resource to use less of it, while maintainingat least in theorythe option for those who really need it to get access in a pinch by opening their pocketbooks. As Thomas K. McCraw relates in a mini-biography of the great deregulator, Kahn took control of New Yorks utilities at a time1974when the hallmark of American business had, for three post-war decades, been abundance, not shortage, and pricing structures reflected that. Electricity pricing in particular was dominated by the declining-block rate structure, which today reads like a fever dream: It was designed to encourage consumption of plentiful electricity by reducing the price per kilowatt the more electricity you used. Advertisement The oil shocks and stagflation of the 1970s, not to mention growing awareness of the environmental costs of electricity, put an end to the postwar plenty. People would need to conserve, and Kahns answer was that those who cannot afford to pay higher prices should be the ones to do it. It is hard to understand how such an obviously inequitable approach to rationing ever got off the ground. Put that way, it is hard to understand how such an obviously inequitable approach to rationing ever got off the ground. But those were the Watergate years, and the approach had something powerful going for it, which also explains its continued bipartisan appeal: It takes the rationing process out of the hands of government. When you ration with price, no one decides who gets to keep the lights on and who doesnt. The impersonal market decides. Advertisement So it was none other than President Jimmy Carter, riding a wave of deregulatory fervor stoked by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and his star staffer, future Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who brought Kahn to Washington in 1977 and put him in charge of deregulating the airlines. Advertisement Kahn succeeded, and one of the first things the airlines did with their new freedom was to build marginal-cost pricing into their nascent computer reservations systems, giving rise to the enormous fares charged for seats on full planes that fliers today know and detest so well. From there, the marginal-cost pricing ethos spread, and today it has become the default rationing mechanism for businesses and governments alike, from Uber surge-pricing your rides to states surge-pricing your highway tolls. Advertisement The only problem, as the Public Utility Commission of Texas found out last week, is that it doesnt actually workat least not in situations of extreme shortage when rationing is most neededand thats before considering the inequity associated with allocating access based on ability to pay. As the storm hit on Feb. 13, Griddy, a firm that sold many of the contracts that led to astronomical prices, urged customers to find other providers. The company knew its prices would spike because it had taken advantage of Texass almost completely deregulated electricity market to implement the ultimate in marginal-cost pricing for residential customers: wholesale rates that would soon be driven by market forces to levels at which those who could afford to pay the most would have all the electricity they wanted, and everyone else none. Advertisement Advertisement But only if freezing customers made heating decisions with their finances in mind. Some did, and bailed out of Griddys contracts or kept the heat off, but many kept the heat on, even if they knew they couldnt afford it. So much for the magical power of price to ration without government intervention. The disconnect between the reality and Kahns theory, which is second nature now to regulators, is almost too painful to read. Two days after Griddy anticipated the tsunami of overcharges, the Public Utility Commission of Texas chastised the nonprofit that manages Texass electricity markets for not doing more to raise prices for all Texans, not just those contracting with Griddy. If scarcity is at its maximum, wrote the Commission on Feb. 15, the market price for electricity should also be at its highest. Advertisement Texas was already experiencing blackouts and, unfortunately in the Commissions eyes, they were striking randomly rather than affecting only those too poor to pay. In fact, Griddys higher prices were not keeping demand down anyway, only cleaning out Texans life savings. But the problem with marginalism goes deeper than just the fact that people dont always respond to price signals. Even when they do respond, theres no reason to suppose that those who choose to conserve really place a lower value on the resource than those who choose to spend. It is a point almost too obvious to repeat: We all know that being able to afford something, and really wanting or needing it, are two very different things. How that basic fact could have been forgotten over 50 years of regulatory policy is hard to understand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fortunately, we are starting to return to our senses. Just as dazed Texans were getting their electricity bills last week, lawyers and economists from around the world were meeting at Inframarginalism & Internet, a conference devoted to developing an alternative to Kahns approach. Kahns marginalism (and that of the Chicago School that informed his thinking) holds that price should be set equal to the cost of producing the next unit of output. When there is a shortage, that cost is infinite, which is why prices can go sky-high, as the graph I sketched out below shows. Inframarginalism holds that price should be set equal to the cost of all the other unitsthe inframarginal unitsto keep profits low and consumer welfare high. Advertisement Advertisement That means that access to a scarce resource must be rationed based on something other than ability to pay. Need is a good alternative, and big data and the internet make it easier than ever for regulators to identify the needy and route resources to them. Its not hard to imagine a smart Texas power grid that would have used data to ration power to the coldest hours of the night, the snowiest regions of the state, or even the towns with the least firewood to burn. Advertisement When need cant easily be determined, the principle of first-come-first-served, which many supermarkets implemented for online ordering during pandemic lockdowns, works just fine. So long as price covers production cost (including a reasonable return on investment) there is no effect on output, but markets become a whole lot more equitable. Defenders of marginal-cost pricing sometimes argue that high prices send a signal to sellers that there is money to be made by ramping up output to end the shortage. But they cant mean a true shortagelike the one Texas facedbecause by definition output cant be ramped up in the short term. And anyway, selling out sends the same signal: If rolling blackouts didnt clue Texas power companies into the possibility of selling more power if they could find it, probably nothing could. Advertisement Advertisement So does Kahns work on the New York Public Service Commission mean that what happened in red state Texas could also happen in blue state New York, or elsewhere for that matter? Fortunately, the general answer is no. Although Kahn did succeed at getting New York to embrace marginal-cost pricing in principle, and most other states have followed suit, few have taken it to the extreme Kahn had in mind. In states such as New York, commercial and industrial customers do pay higher prices when electricity supply runs short (and residential customers can opt in to plans that have that effect), but the magnitude of price increases is fixed in advance, so in the case of an extreme shortage, the power will go out before prices can go through the roof. Which is the way it should be. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The federal governments independent infrastructure adviser wants a massive expansion of renewable energy zones across Victoria, NSW and Queensland, saying more large-scale wind, solar and hydro projects are needed to secure the nations future energy needs. In its latest priority list, released on Friday, Infrastructure Australia has itself added as high priorities both more renewable energy zones and a ramp-up in spending on dispatchable energy that includes batteries and large-scale pumped hydro. Infrastructure Australia says there is scope for a huge increase in investment in renewable energy zones to help offset the retirement of coal-fired power stations in coming years. Credit:Fairfax Media Every year, the agency lists what it sees as the major infrastructure needs of the country. This year, it has expanded its list by a record 44 new proposals, covering everything from wastewater treatment to social housing and railway crossings. The total list of projects now has a combined value of at least $59 billion. [February 25, 2021] DaySmart Appoints Patrick Shanahan Chief Executive Officer to Accelerate Growth DaySmart Software, the leading provider of business management software empowering small business growth, has appointed Patrick Shanahan as its chief executive officer (CEO). He steps into the role following more than a year as a member of DaySmart's board of managers. Since joining CardConnect in 2008, Shanahan's career has focused on helping small business customers utilize integrated payments to improve their businesses. That focus helped CardConnect, where Shanahan served as chief operating officer (COO), grow to more than 67,000 customers before being acquired by Fiserv (formerly First Data) in July 2017 for $750 million. In his role as COO, Shanahan managed many of CardConnect's key partner relationships - including DaySmart Software. Shanahan joined DaySmart's board of managers in 2019 after the recapitalization by LLR Partners and Parthenon Capital and has since advised DaySmart on its growth strategy. "We are thrilled to announce Pat's appointment as CEO of DaySmart," said Brian Golson, Co-CEO an managing partner at Parthenon Capital. "DaySmart will benefit from Pat's deep experience building exceptional products and customer experiences." "Pat has been a core member of the DaySmart team since the day we invested," added Mitchell Hollin, partner at LLR Partners, "Pat is a seasoned leader and we are confident he will help position the company to grow, innovate and thrive." Shanahan joins DaySmart as CEO amid significant growth, helping the company usher in two strategic acquisitions, AppointmentPlus and Vetter Software, in the last two months. In his role, Shanahan directs the company's M&A strategy as it aims to expand its share of the business management software market. "I'm excited to join a great leadership team at DaySmart and help grow the business while continuing to improve the value we deliver to our small business customers, who all need modern solutions to help them operate more efficiently and profitably," said Shanahan. "In addition to building on DaySmart's payments strategy, there are excellent growth opportunities in a number of markets, and I will work with the leadership team to be aggressive on the acquisition front to deliver solutions that meet the needs of more businesses worldwide." About DaySmart Software DaySmart Software provides industry-specific business management tools designed to make it easier for entrepreneurs to operate and grow their businesses. Since 1999, DaySmart has been offering desktop software, payment processing solutions and cloud-based applications to businesses across various industries. DaySmart's reach has been extended in recent months with solutions like AppointmentPlus, Vetter Software and OpenDock. Privately held, DaySmart is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices throughout the U.S., and has been named to the Inc. 5000 list for ten consecutive years. For more information about the company and its suite of solutions, visit www.DaySmart.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005721/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Violinist Kim Bomsori / Korea Times file By Do Je-hae Violinist Kim Bomsori has signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG), according to the prestigious recording company earlier this week. Her debut solo recording "Violin on Stage," recorded in Poland with the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, will be released in June, according to Universal Music. The recording features pieces written for ballet and opera. "I feel truly honored to join Deutsche Grammophon and follow in the footsteps of so many legendary artists," Kim said in a statement. "The Yellow Label stands for excellence and the best of tradition. I hope my new album for DG will touch and inspire listeners of all ages." DG expressed its excitement in signing a deal with the star violinist. "Her extraordinary virtuosity is matched by an ability to make the violin sing. We love the way she's prepared to take risks in the moment of performance and the heartfelt poetry of her playing," said Clemens Trautmann, president of Deutsche Grammophon. "Bomsori's DG debut solo album is a tremendous showcase for her artistry and we look forward to creating many more recordings with her in the future." A handful of musicians from Korea have signed with the company, such as star pianist Cho Seong-jin, a Chopin competition laureate. But Kim is the first Korean female violinist to sign with the company. The 31-year-old violinist has won many prizes and rose to international stardom with her phenomenal interpretations of Shostakovich and other major violin concerti at the 2016 International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, one of the most coveted violin prizes in the world. Since then, she has become a fixture in the world's most celebrated concert halls. Born in Daegu in 1989, she was trained at the Juilliard School in New York and received the 2018 Young Artist Award from the culture ministry. She is the winner of the 62nd ARD International Music Competition and has also won prizes at the Tchaikovsky International Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, among others. Kim plays a 1774 violin by Joannes Baptista Guadagnini. Mgr. Bibi (left) takes canonical possession of Buea Diocese Joyce Mbong Monsignor Michael Miabesue Bibi has taken canonical possession of the Diocese of Buea at a thickly attended ceremony Thursday, February 25, 2021. Archbishop Julio Murat, Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea was the chief celebrant of Thursdays ceremony attended by Archbishop Andrew Nkea of the Bamenda Archdiocese, Bishops, and high-ranking Members of Government. The installation and canonical possession of the fifth Diocesan Bishop of Buea took place at the Divine Mercy Co-cathedral in line with Canon 382 1 which states, One promoted as bishop cannot assume the exercise of the office entrusted to him before he has taken canonical possession of the diocese. Nevertheless, he is able to exercise offices which he already had in the same diocese at the time of promotion, without prejudice to the prescript of Can. 409, 2. Canon 382 2 adds that: Unless he is prevented by a legitimate impediment, one promoted to the office of a diocesan bishop must take canonical possession of his diocese within four months of receipt of the apostolic letter if he has not already been consecrated a bishop; if he has already been consecrated, within two months from receipt of this letter. In the present case, Bishop Michael was already consecrated Bishop on March 25, 2017, and thus it is in line with canon law that he takes possession on Thursday, February 25, 2020, since he received his letter on January 5, 2021. Despite the soaring positive cases of COVID-19 in the country, the ceremony still went on in a bid to respect Canon 3824 which states that: It is strongly recommended that the taking of canonical possession be done within a liturgical act in the cathedral church with the clergy and people gathered together. Finally, Can. 383 1 states: In exercising the function of a pastor, a diocesan bishop is to show himself concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to his care, of whatever age, condition, or nationality they are, whether living in the territory or staying there temporarily; he is also to extend an apostolic spirit to those who are not able to make sufficient use of ordinary pastoral care because of the condition of their life and to those who no longer practice their religion. As Apostolic Administrator of Buea Diocese, Bishop Michael Bibi had already begun to show concern for all the Christians faithful of Buea Diocese to the extent that some are already calling him the Travelling Bishop, An appellation that depicts his zeal to be close to all the faithful having visited all the parishes even those in crisis-hit areas. Some he has visited more than twice. I am definitely sure that he will continue with that pastoral zeal. Who is Bishop Bibi? Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi was born on July 28, 1971, at Bamessing, in the Archdiocese of Bamenda. He is presently 49. He has been a priest for 20 years, and a bishop for 3 years. On April 26, 2000, at 28, he was ordained Priest for the Archdiocese of Bamenda at St. Joseph, Cathedral, Bamenda by the then Archbishop of Bamenda: Archbishop Paul Verdzekov. He holds a masters degree in Theology, with a specialization in Catechetic from Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England. He is also an alumnus of St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary of Bambui in Bamenda where he studied Philosophy and Theology. As a priest, he served as Chaplain of the Sacred Heart College, Mankon, Assistant Archdiocesan Financial Secretary, and Special Assistant to the Archbishop and Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Bamenda. On January 24, 2017, at 45, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda, Cameroon, and Titular Bishop of Amudarsa, by Pope Francis at the request of the then Archbishop of Bamenda, Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua in congruence with the Code of Canon Law, Can. 403 1 which states: When the pastoral needs of a diocese suggest it, one or more auxiliary bishops are to be appointed at the request of the diocesan bishop. An auxiliary bishop does not possess the right of succession. On March 25, 2017, at 45, he was consecrated as the Titular Bishop of Amudarsa and Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda, Cameroon. Canon 375 2 states: Through episcopal consecration itself, bishops receive with the function of sanctifying also the functions of teaching and governing; by their nature, however, these can only be exercised in hierarchical communion with the head and members of the college. At his Episcopal Consecration, the Principal Consecrator was Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua, Archbishop of Bamenda, while the Principal Co- Consecrators were Bishop Agapitus Enuyehnyoh Nfon, Bishop of Kumba, and Bishop George Nkuo, Bishop of Kumbo. Canon 375 1 states: Bishops, who by divine institution succeed to the place of the Apostles through the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, are constituted pastors in the Church so that they are teachers of doctrine, priests of sacred worship, and ministers of governance. On December 28, 2019, at the age of 48, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Buea, and he zealously served until January 5, 2021. On January 5, 2021, at the age of 49, he was appointed Diocesan Bishop of Buea, Cameroon by the Holy Father Pope Francis. Canon 376 states: Bishops to whom the care of some diocese is entrusted are called diocesan; others are called titular. The appointment was published by the Holy See Press Office on Tuesday, January 5 as follows: Resignations and Appointments, 05.01.2021. Appointment of the bishop of Buea, Cameroon. The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi, until now titular of Amudarsa and auxiliary of the metropolitan archdiocese of Bamenda, as bishop of the diocese of Buea, Cameroon. Canon 377 1states: The Supreme Pontiff freely appoints bishops or confirms those legitimately elected. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Advertisement Angela Merkel has said she will not take the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine because she is too old, despite Europe begging its citizens to take the shot to speed up its floundering jab roll-out - as regulators continue to limit access for over-65s in spite of real-world proof that it works. The German chancellor, 66, was asked if she would take the jab to set an example to a country where many are refusing to take the Oxford jab and 1.2million of the shots are lying unused in storage. It comes after a host of EU figures including Emmanuel Macron questioned the jab's effectiveness and lashed out at AstraZeneca to save face in a row over procurement last month. But Merkel told FAZ that she was not eligible because German regulators have restricted the jab to under-65s, a move which has yet to be reversed even after data from Scotland showed it is highly effective in the elderly. 'I am 66 years old and do not belong to the recommended group for AstraZeneca,' Merkel said, after describing the vaccine as 'reliable, effective and safe' for others to take. 'All the authorities tell us that you can trust this vaccine. As long as vaccine supplies are as limited as they are at the moment, you don't get to choose which one you get,' she added. France, which was one of several other countries to block older people from getting the jab, is having similar problems after Macron rubbished the Oxford vaccine - with French experts saying the pace of the roll-out is too slow to halt a third wave without new lockdown measures. While France has taken delivery of 7.7 million doses since the roll-out began in December, it has distributed only half - 3.97million - with just four per cent of the population getting any immunity at all. Now, scientists at the prestigious Institut Pasteur say France's current pace of around 100,000 jabs a day is 'insufficient' to rein in the effects of the highly contagious UK variant which is spreading rapidly in France. They say the country faces a new wave of severe cases in April and May - at the same time the UK expects to ease its restrictions after all over-50s have been vaccinated. While infections in the UK will likely also rise when restrictions are lifted, hospital cases should remain low after the successful vaccination drive. It is hoped that the vaccine's reduction of transmission will also limit a UK resurgence of the virus. But the third wave of hospital cases expected in France could be reduced by up to a third if the nation can catch up to the UK and start vaccinating more than 400,000 people per day. In other EU developments: Pictures emerged of empty Belgian vaccination centres, with people disparaging the AstraZeneca shot as a low-budget 'Aldi vaccine'; EU officials are locked in talks about vaccine passports for summer re-opening, with one official warning that the bloc wants to avoid 'a new death season'; A Greek minister said British tourists would be allowed to go on holiday this summer with either a vaccination or a negative test; Austria was set to perform a U-turn by approving the Oxford jab for over-65s after new data offered further proof that it is effective; The Czech Republic is poised to impose tougher new lockdown measures amid warnings that hospitals face 'catastrophe' with few people vaccinated so far. France's vaccine roll-out is among the slowest of major EU countries, falling not only well behind Britain's but also below than the EU average and other underperforming countries such as Germany and Italy This graph shows infection rates in six European countries. The UK (in red) was the problem child of Europe at the start of 2021 but has since seen cases plummet and is leading the continent in terms of vaccinations Germany's Angela Merkel is also under fire over the vaccine chaos, with more than a million AstraZeneca shots lying unused in the country A man sits in a largely deserted waiting area as he waits to receive a vaccine in a terminal of Zaventem airport in Brussels earlier this week How EU raised doubts over AstraZeneca jab... and what the science says French president Emmanuel Macron : Claimed that the jab was 'quasi-ineffective' among over-65s and said UK had taken a risk with quick approval German vaccine committee: Was the first EU regulator to limit the jab to younger people, on January 28 Dutch Health Council: Refused to approve the vaccine for over-65s because 'the immune system starts to function less well with increasing age' Austrian health ministry: Said that 'no confident statements are possible' about efficacy in older people French minister Clement Beaune : Said there were 'doubts about the efficacy' in over-65s German newspaper Handelsblatt: Published a sensational but widely-debunked report claiming the jab had just 8% efficacy among older people Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain and Poland: Also refused to approve the vaccine for over-65s Italy and Belgium: Would not even give it to over-55s And what the science says: Real-world data from Scotland shows one dose of AstraZeneca reducing hospitalisation risk by 94 per cent among the mainly older people who have had it among the mainly older people who have had it Clinical trials last year showed 100 per cent of older adults generating the necessary antibodies of older adults generating the necessary antibodies Only 1 out of 341 volunteers aged over 65 caught Covid-19 after receiving the jab, and four separate trials showed the vaccine to be safe volunteers aged over 65 caught Covid-19 after receiving the jab, and four separate trials showed the vaccine to be safe A separate Oxford study showed 76 per cent protection in the three months between the first and second doses protection in the three months between the first and second doses The same study also shows a possible 67 per cent cut in transmission of the virus Advertisement France is now aiming to 'rehabilitate' the AstraZeneca jab after Macron wrongly claimed it was 'quasi-ineffective' in older people. Macron was challenged by EU leaders over his comments, it emerged today - after Ursula von der Leyen sought to boost support for the jab by saying that she herself would be willing to take it. According to the Daily Telegraph, an EU official said leaders had questioned Macron about whether his claims on the AstraZeneca jab were 'true or not'. In Germany, the chair of a government vaccine committee said that more than a million AstraZeneca doses were lying in storage amid public reluctance to take the jab, despite real-world studies showing it is effective. 'We are working quite hard at this point trying to convince people to accept the vaccine,' Thomas Mertens told BBC Radio 4's Today programme - after his own panel refused to recommend the vaccine for older people. A Berlin official has even called for unused doses to be given to the 3,000 homeless people living in the city's emergency accommodation. France is also among the countries to have denied the AstraZeneca jab to older people because of the small sample size of over-65s in clinical trial data, while Belgium and Italy have restricted it to over-55s. A Belgian medical advisor told BBC News that people in the country had nicknamed the jab the 'Aldi vaccine' because it is seen as the low-budget option. But real-world data from Scotland has shown the AstraZeneca shot cutting hospital cases by 94 per cent among the mainly elderly people who have had it so far - a higher figure than among those who received the Pfizer jab. Austria is now set to perform a U-turn by approving the AstraZeneca shot for over-65s, while the French health ministry has admitted that the jab has an 'image deficit' with only around 126,000 doses of it administered so far. But progress has also been slow with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in France, with only 3.8million jabs handed out overall in France compared to 18.6million in Britain. That gap is growing every day, with Britain currently at around 350,000 jabs per day and France well behind on 118,000, according to Our World In Data. Even among second doses, which the UK has virtually abandoned for the time being, France has covered only two per cent of its population next to Britain's one per cent. Experts at the Institut Pasteur say that only 10 per cent of the French population is expected to have been vaccinated by mid-March, making 'little impact on the dynamics of infection'. They warn that the feared British variant will likely make up 56 per cent of France's virus cases by March 1, rising to 91 per cent by the start of April. The UK strain is believed to be more contagious, meaning that the transmission rate is expected to be 55 per cent higher by April than it would have been before. French virus infections are on the rise again, with more than 31,000 new cases added to the tally on Wednesday - the biggest one-day jump since November Daily deaths are down to just over 300 per day, but experts warn that the British variant could cause a new peak in hospitalisations and deaths French president Emmanuel Macron, pictured, was questioned by EU leaders after wrongly raising doubts about the AstraZeneca vaccine France has used only half its doses while 1.2million AstraZeneca shots are unused in Germany France has used only around half the doses it has received since the EU roll-out began in late December, according to the website CovidTracker.fr. More than 7.7million doses have been delivered since December 26, but only 3.97 million have found their way to patients, of which half are second doses. It means that only 2.66million people have received any kind of injection at all, compared to 18.69million in the UK where second doses are being delayed. Only 126,000 AstraZeneca doses have been handed out since the jab was approved last month. Meanwhile in Germany, vaccine committee chair Prof Thomas Mertens said the country had a stockpile of 1.2million AstraZeneca jabs it was struggling to use up. 'It is a problem, no doubt at the moment. We have about 1.4million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in store and only about 240,000 have been given to people,' he said. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether his committee's decision not to recommend the jab for under-65s was to blame for this, he admitted: 'It may be part of the problem.' He added: 'Although we always stated that it had nothing to do with the safety of the vaccine - we never criticised the vaccine to be unsafe - we stated, and it's correct, that the amount of data on this group of elderly people was not really great. 'But I don't think that was a major problem. The major problem was all the news that had been spread about the efficacy of the vaccine being much lower than the efficacy of the mRNA vaccines [Pfizer and Moderna].' Advertisement Although vaccinations will have some impact, the French scientists say that daily hospital admissions could return to levels of 4,500 per day not seen since the first wave. 'We expect that the vaccination may help delay the rise in hospital admissions by about two weeks,' the Pasteur scientists said. 'However, its impact may not be sufficient to balance the effect of the increased transmissibility of [the British variant]. 'Indeed, the number of hospital admissions might reach in the second half of April 2021 levels observed at the peak of the French second wave and more than 4,500 daily hospital admissions at the peak which would likely overwhelm the healthcare system.' The experts said that if France could speed up to a rate of more than 400,000 jabs per day and reach 90 per cent vaccine coverage in over-75s, the number of hospital cases at the peak could be reduced by up to 33 per cent. But they warned that 'additional control measures' may be needed in the meantime, with French ministers already signalling that extra curbs are looming, at least in some hard-hit regions of France. Strengthening restrictions with 'strong intensity' for six weeks could 'reduce the growth in hospital admissions further than in other scenarios,' the scientists said. France has been under a nationwide curfew since December 15, but Macron has so far held out against ordering a third national lockdown. But after a period of stagnation, cases are now on the rise again - with 31,519 new infections reported on Wednesday, the most since mid-November. French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the national situation was deteriorating, speaking of a 'source of worry in about 10 regional departments'. Some of those regions would need 'rapid and strong' containment measures, Attal said. On Monday, the Alpes-Maritimes department - a Mediterranean coastal region around Nice - announced a partial lockdown over the next two weekends. Hospital cases in Alpes-Maritimes are at an all time high with more than 700 people currently being treated, of whom more than 100 are in intensive care. On Wednesday, French health minister Olivier Veran announced similar measures for Dunkirk where the infection rate has reached 900 per 100,000. Like on the Riviera, the 250,000 people who live in Dunkirk and surrounding areas will be allowed to leave their homes only for specific reasons. Attal, the government spokesman, said that 'we must continue all our efforts to avoid having to impose another national lockdown'. But there was 'obviously' no certainty that such a drastic measure could be avoided, he said, warning that the government would order a new confinement if necessary. French prime minister Jean Castex will host a news conference to update the country on the Covid situation on Thursday, Attal said. A nearly deserted Belgian vaccine centre on Monday as countries struggle to ramp up vaccinations EU faces split on travel as tourism-reliant nations push for vaccine passports EU nations are facing a split over opening up travel as tourism-reliant nations pile pressure on Brussels to give the green light to so-called 'vaccine passports' while others including Germany are scolded for imposing border closures. European leaders were locked in virtual talks today on and speeding up a stuttering vaccine roll-out which is moving far slower than Britain's. Greece has already struck a bilateral deal with the world's vaccination champion Israel and says that British tourists will be welcome this summer if they have a vaccine or a negative test. Austria has also called for an EU-wide 'green passport' which would allow people to go on holiday and 'enjoy gastronomy, culture, events and other things again'. But other countries including Germany have been lectured by EU officials for imposing unilateral border closures to keep out the feared new variants of Covid-19. One EU official gave a blunt assessment of the risks of opening up - saying that the bloc wants to avoid 'a new death season'. The virtual meeting today comes with many EU countries still mired in second or third waves of the pandemic and all of them struggling to dish out vaccines. The UK is way ahead in the vaccine race and could allow Britons to travel abroad from May 17, but whether European countries will be open by then is less clear. Several EU officials and diplomats warn that, while they back a verifiable vaccination record, it is too early to look at using them to permit easier travel. They said it was still not clear whether vaccinated people can infect others, and worried that it could open a travel schism between a minority of vaccinated haves and a majority of unvaccinated have-nots. Many young people have voiced anger at the prospect of seeing their elders enjoy foreign holidays while they themselves are still stuck at home. Advertisement The British variant has also been blamed for rising cases in the Czech Republic, where the government is set to agree tougher new restrictions on Thursday. Prime minister Andrej Babis said on Wednesday that hospitals faced 'catastrophe' if no action is taken. The country has been in varying levels of lockdown since October, with non-essential shops and restaurants almost continuously closed since then. But industry has remained running, limiting the economic hit unlike after the initial outbreak a year ago. Over the past week, the country has had the highest per capita infection rate in the world and second highest death rate, according to Our World In Data. The overall tally of 1.2million infections and 19,835 deaths - rising from 700 at the start of October - are also among the highest in the world on a per-capita basis. In Germany, Angela Merkel has warned of a looming 'third wave' after a weeks-long decline in cases came to an alarming halt. Cases are up to 54,081 in the last week from 50,373 in the previous seven days, and the closely-watched R rate has been as high as 1.25 in recent days. Merkel, who has long been cautious about re-opening, is set to meet state premiers again on March 3 to discuss possible routes out of a two-month lockdown. As the UK's roadmap out of lockdown raises the prospect of foreign holidays, Greece's tourism minister said vaccinated Britons would be allowed in this summer. Haris Theoharis said those who had not been vaccinated would need a negative test, telling ITV News that 'it doesn't mean that only vaccinated people can travel'. 'We feel that the vaccination programmes is a game changer, together with rapid tests and alongside PCR tests,' he said. Foreign holidays could theoretically be permitted by the UK government from May 17, but it remains to be seen how other countries will treat arriving Britons. Home secretary Priti Patel said on Wednesday that it was 'far too early' for people to book holidays abroad. Boris Johnson said during his 'roadmap' announcement in the House of Commons on Monday that a government taskforce will produce a report by April 12 recommending how international trips can resume for people in England. In the hours after the announcement, easyJet said bookings by UK customers for the summer season were more than four times higher than last week. The most popular destinations for this summer are beach resorts including Malaga, Alicante and Palma in Spain, Faro in Portugal, and the Greek island of Crete. A woman gets the vaccine at a cultural centre turned into a vaccination headquarters in Paris - with scientists warning that new measures may be needed if too few jabs are given out Israel reveals Pfizer vaccine has stopped 94% of recipients getting symptoms in huge peer-reviewed study of 1.2m people - as restrictions are relaxed to allow 500 'green pass' holders to attend concerts The Pfizer vaccine has prevented 94 per cent of recipients in Israel from getting symptoms in a huge peer-reviewed study of 1.2 million people. The experiment took place between December 20 and February 1 - a period when the British mutant strain of Covid was rampant, making the vaccine's performance all the more impressive. The paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine marks the latest victory for Israel whose world-beating vaccine rollout has given Pfizer jabs to more than 50 per cent of its 9 million population - more than a third have received both doses. The country ended draconian lockdown restrictions earlier this month and started to reopen its economy over the weekend with concert halls, gyms, hotels and theatres welcoming vaccine passport holders. The 'green pass' is valid for six months from the time of full vaccination (two doses) or for those who have recovered from Covid-19 and are immune. The Health Ministry has recorded more than 763,000 cases and 5,660 Covid deaths since the pandemic started. The country started easing out of its winter lockdown on February 7 and over the weekend started to breathe life into the economy Data from the study of 1.2 million people shows the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 among the unvaccinated (red line) and the vaccinated (blue line) Those who were found to be at severe risk of Covid-19 in the study (blue line = vaccinated; red line = unvaccinated) 'Green pass' holders attending a concert by the singer Nurit Galron in Tel Aviv last night. Restrictions have been eased to allow for up to 500 to attend an outdoor venue and up to 300 indoors A concert by Israeli singer Nurit Galron is taking place for people with a 'Green Pass', who are vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or those with presumed immunity, at Yarkon park, in Tel Aviv last night Up to 500 passport holders can attend outdoor cultural venues, while crowds of 300 are permitted indoors at theatres, museums and cinemas. Restaurants and cafes remain restricted to takeaway service and schools kids are back in class only in areas where infection rates are low. The scheme is being closely watched abroad, with Boris Johnson saying that Britain was looking at the idea of 'Covid-status certification' while adding that there were 'many concerns surrounding exclusion, discrimination and privacy'. Despite Israel's cautious unlocking, academics have been buoyed by Wednesday's study and it will raise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hopes of cruising to election victory on March 23 after the successful vaccination drive. 'The fact that the vaccines worked so well in the real world... really does suggest that if the nations of the world can find the will, we now have the means to end Covid-19 forever,' said Ben Neuman, a virologist from Texas A&M University who was not involved in the research. The study took around 1.2 million Israelis and divided them into equal groups of vaccinated and unvaccinated. Each vaccinated participant was matched to an unvaccinated 'control' person of similar age, sex, geographic, medical and other characteristics. Lead author Noam Barda, head of epidemiology and research at the Clalit Research Institute, told AFP the matching process was highly robust. An elderly Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man from a particular neighbourhood with a particular set of comorbidities and flu vaccination history would be matched for another person fitting that precise profile, for example. The researchers then recorded outcomes at days 14-20 after the first of the two doses and day seven or more after the second. The efficacy against symptomatic infections was 57 percent between 14-20 days after the first dose, but rose to 94 percent seven days after the second dose - very close to the 95 percent achieved during Phase 3 clinical trials. People who received second doses were also highly protected against hospitalisation and death - though the precise numbers here are less significant and had a wider statistical range because of the relatively lower number of cases. More than a third of Israel's population has been fully vaccinated in the world's quickest immunisation programme against Covid-19, meaning nearly three million people are eligible for the pass. Pictured: A graph showing Covid vaccine doses per 100 people in various countries, with Israel vaccinating well over over 80 people per 100 The woeful European vaccine rollout has been exemplified by France which has only managed to administer doses to 5.88 per 100 people. This compares to 27.3 per 100 Britons, 6.41 Germans, 6.77 Spaniards and 6.12 Italians The study also found people who received their second dose had a 92 percent lower chance of getting any form of infection at all compared to those who were unvaccinated. While this finding was considered encouraging, the researchers and outside experts said it needs more confirming evidence. That's because the participants weren't being systematically tested at regular intervals; rather, they were getting a test when they wanted one. The authors attempted to correct for this with statistical methods but the result is still likely imperfect. 'Unless you are testing everyone all the time, this will miss some infections,' said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida. She added she was certain there was a strong protective benefit, but 'nailing down this number more precisely will require specialised study designs with frequent testing.' More than three million Israelis are now eligible for the Green Pass having either had both doses of the Pfizer jab or been infected by Covid already. Israel, which has one of the world's most sophisticated medical data systems, secured a substantial stock of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by paying above market price and by striking a data-sharing deal with the drug giant. Shopping malls and stores with street access re-opened to the general public on Sunday, with certain limitations on crowd size. But gyms, swimming pools, hotels and some cultural facilities are re-opening only to those who have been fully vaccinated and obtained the so-called green pass. Lifting weights at a gym in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv late Saturday, Mr Netanyahu insisted Israel was moving ahead 'with caution', while imploring 'everyone to get vaccinated'. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured on Tuesday at the Khan Theatre) is hoping that the vaccine success and the end of Israel's third lockdown will propel him to victory in March 23 elections A holder of the 'green pass' (proof of being fully vaccinated against the coronavirus), trains at a gym in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, on February 21 Standing at the entrance of a posh Tel Aviv gym, 90-year-old Ora Davidovicz said she 'couldn't wait' to go swimming. 'It's been almost a year since I went to the pool,' she said. 'I've been counting the days. All I have to do is put on my swim suit,' she said, before heading in. Tom John, a muscular 33-year-old, said he'd been training at home for months but felt safe being back at the gym with the protection systems in place. 'Everyone here has a green badge,' he said, surveying the gym. At the family owned Katalina shoe store in central Tel Aviv, Mordechai Nazarian said his business had been closed for eight of the last 12 months, with 'little openings here and there' as Israel lifted restrictions between lockdowns. 'We hope this one is the right one,' he said. Israel has given more does people per-100 people than any other country in the world. As of February 25, 88.77 people out of 100 have had at least one dose. By comparison, 27.34 people per 100 have been given at least one dose in Britain, which is still the third highest rate in the world. At the Third Ear record store in Tel Aviv, 32-year-old Itay Shimon said he hadn't been in a record store in many months, but was enjoying just browsing the aisles. Describing himself as a vaccine supporter, he also voiced caution about compelling people to get the jab. 'We cannot force those who don't want it to do it,' he said. A visitor presents a coronavirus vaccination certificate at the entrance to the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem, Israel, 23 February 2021 Despite the successful vaccination Israel's government has approved a night-time curfew from Thursday until Sunday to prevent the spread of the coronavirus over the Purim holiday. The Prime Minister's Office and Health Ministry said a curfew from 8.30pm until 5am would be in force starting Purim eve. Purim, a Jewish holiday traditionally marked with carnivals and gatherings, begins Thursday at sunset. The holiday lockdown prohibits any large gatherings of more than 10 people indoors at concerts, parades or parties typical of the holiday's observances. Israel reopened its economy last week after a nearly two-month lockdown, the country's third since the start of the pandemic. But recent days have seen a slight uptick in new infections. It has one of the highest immunisation rates per capita, with over 4.5 million of its citizens having received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The Health Ministry has recorded more than 763,000 cases and 5,660 Covid deaths since the pandemic started. Human Rights Lawyer, Mary Ohenewah Afful has revealed that she has been attracted to married men at an early age just when she had fully developed heavy beasts, buttocks and hips. The worried lawyer said this persistent attraction has been her problem since she turned 15 though she developed an interest in a relationship with a single man and got married at the age of 24. Narrating her ordeal, Lawyer Ohenewaa said, I have a problem. I am attracted to married men from age 15 when I had fully developed with heavy beasts, buttocks and hips. However, I entered into a sexual relationship at age 21 then I married same person at age 24. According to her, though married men kept proposing love to her even when she was legally married, the situation has exacerbated following her divorce in 2016. Now am divorced after so many years of marriage and separation. I had my divorce in June 2016 even when I had divorced a lot of marriages from 2010 in the law courts, mine was hanging around my neck like a stethoscope. Now that I am very single and free and a single struggling mother, I still get attracted to fully married men even when I was married, they never stopped proposing to me in my wedding band, she shares. Sharing her experience, the Human rights advocate said dating single and divorced men is difficult because she believes they are play boys whose nonsense she can hardly tolerate. She said, I wont lie that I have not dated married men. They are very good. Good giving, I mean they respond to money issues swiftly. But they are still married. How long can you hang around a married manits just a total waste of time. The single Lawyer who is ready to marry in the next two months, prays that God brings along her path, a wealthy man with chains of businesses, mansions and cars. So to come to my biggest issue right nowMary wants to marry in 2 months. Obviously a single or divorced man. But I dont have a man right now. I just want God to drop a good man to me with a beautiful mansion, a fleet of cars, a group of companies, and the rest. Not forgetting a strong energetic man, with a good performing dick, very neat, good manners, and respectful, the lawyer shared her deep thoughts. Read the full write up I have a problem. I am attracted to married men from age 15 when I had fully developed with heavy beasts, buttocks and hips. However I entered into a sexual relationship at age 21 then I married same person at age 24. Now am divorced after so many years of marriage and separation. I had my divorce in June 2016 even when I had divorced alot of marriages from 2010 in the law courts, mine was hanging around my neck like a stethoscope. Now that I am very single and free and a single struggling mother, I still get attracted to fully married men even when I was married, they never stopped proposing to me in my wedding band. Now my biggest problem right now is that dating a single or divorced man is a very difficult task. Very difficult to handle such creatures. They are play boys. Its hard to tolerate their nonsense. I wont lie that I have not dated married men. They are very good. Good giving I mean. They respond to money issues swiftly. But they are still married. How long can you hang around a married manits just a total waste of time. So to come to my biggest issue right nowMary wants to marry in 2 months. Obviously a single or divorced man. But I dont have a man right now. I just want God to drop a good man to me with a beautiful mansion, fleet of cars, group of companies and the rest. Not forgetting a strong energetic man, with a good performing dick, very neat, good manners and respectful. Lawyer Mary Ohenewaa Afful. Ohenewaa Human Rights Advocacy Source: TopStories.com.gh 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 Robin Davidson entered the lobby of Houston Methodist Hospital, where her 89-year-old father, Joe, was being treated for a flare-up of congestive heart failure. Before her stretched a line of people waiting to get COVID-19 vaccines. It was agonizing to know that I couldnt get in that line, said Davidson, 50, who is devoted to her father and usually cares for him full time. If I get sick, what would happen to him? Tens of thousands of middle-aged sons and daughters caring for older relatives with serious ailments but too young to qualify for a vaccine themselves are similarly terrified of becoming ill and wondering when they can get protected against the coronavirus. Like aides and other workers in nursing homes, these family caregivers routinely administer medications, monitor blood pressure, cook, clean and help relatives wash, get dressed and use the toilet, among many other responsibilities. But they do so in apartments and houses, not in long-term care institutions and theyre not paid. In all but name, theyre essential health care workers, taking care of patients who are very sick, many of whom are completely reliant upon them, some of whom are dying, said Katherine Ornstein, a caregiving expert and associate professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Mount Sinais medical school in New York City. Yet, we dont recognize or support them as such, and thats a tragedy. The distinction is critically important because health care workers have been prioritized for COVID vaccines, along with vulnerable older adults in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. But family members caring for equally vulnerable seniors living in the community are grouped with the general population in most states and may not get vaccines for months. The exception: Older caregivers can qualify for vaccines by virtue of their age as states approve vaccines for adults ages 65, 70 or 75 and above. A few states have moved family caregivers into phase 1a of their vaccine rollouts, the top priority tier. Notably, South Carolina has done so for families caring for medically fragile children, and Illinois has given that designation to families caring for relatives of all ages with significant disabilities. Arizona is also trying to accommodate caregivers who accompany older residents to vaccination sites, Dr. Cara Christ, director of the states Department of Health Services, said Monday during a Zoom briefing for President Joe Biden. Comprehensive data about which states are granting priority status to family caregivers is not available. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced plans to offer vaccines to people participating in its Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers. That initiative gives financial stipends to family members caring for veterans with serious injuries; 21,612 veterans are enrolled, including 2,310 age 65 or older, according to the VA. Family members can be vaccinated when the veterans they look after become eligible, a spokesperson said. The current pandemic has amplified the importance of our caregivers whom we recognize as valuable members of Veterans health care teams, Dr. Richard Stone, VA acting undersecretary for health, said in the announcement. An estimated 53 million Americans are caregivers, according to a 2020 report. Nearly one-third spend 21 hours or more each week helping older adults and people with disabilities with personal care, household tasks and nursing-style care (giving injections, tending wounds, administering oxygen and more). An estimated 40 percent are providing high-intensity care, a measure of complicated, time-consuming caregiving demands. This is the group that should be getting vaccines, not caregivers who live at a distance or who dont provide direct, hands-on care, said Carol Levine, a senior fellow and former director of the Families and Health Care Project at the United Hospital Fund in New York City. Rosanne Corcoran, 53, is among them. Her 92-year-old mother, Rose, who has advanced dementia, lives with Corcoran and her family in Collegeville, Pa., on the second floor of their house. She hasnt come down the stairs in three years. I wouldnt be able to take her somewhere to get the vaccine. She doesnt have any stamina, said Corcoran, who arranges for doctors to make house calls when her mother needs attention. When she called their medical practice recently, an administrator said they didnt have access to the vaccines. Corcoran said she does everything for her mother, including bathing her, dressing her, feeding her, giving her medications, monitoring her medical needs and responding to her emotional needs. Before the pandemic, a companion came for five hours a day, offering some relief. But last March, Corcoran let the companion go and took on all her mothers care herself. Corcoran wishes she could get a vaccination sooner, rather than later. If I got sick, God forbid, my mother would wind up in a nursing home, she said. The thought of my mother having to leave here, where she knows shes safe and loved, and go to a place like that makes me sick to my stomach. Although COVID cases are dropping in nursing homes and assisted living facilities as residents and staff members receive vaccines, 36 percent of deaths during the pandemic have occurred in these settings. In Tomball, Robin Davidsons father was independent before the pandemic, but he began declining as he stopped going out and became more sedentary. For almost a year, Davidson has driven every day to his 11-acre ranch, 5 miles from where she lives, and spent hours tending to him and the propertys upkeep. Every day, when I would come in, I would wonder, was I careful enough to avoid the virus? Could I have picked something up at the store or getting gas? Am I going to be the reason that he dies? My constant proximity to him and my care for him is terrifying, she said. Since her fathers hospitalization, Davidsons goal is to stabilize him so he can enroll in a clinical trial for congestive heart failure. Medications for that condition no longer work for him, and fluid retention has become a major issue. Hes now home on the ranch after spending more than a week in the hospital and hes gotten two doses of vaccine an indescribable relief, Davidson said. Out of the blue, she received a text from the Harris County health department earlier this month, after putting herself on a vaccine wait-list. Vaccines were available, it read, and she quickly signed up and got a shot. Davidson ended up being eligible because she has two chronic medical conditions that raise her risk of COVID; Harris County doesnt officially recognize family caregivers in its vaccine allocation plan, a spokesperson said. 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 Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda on 25th February, Thursday alleged that the people of West Bengal have blessed the party's 'Poriborton Yatra' and have vowed to force the Mamata Banerjee government to retreat from the state. The saffron party's 'Poriborton Yatra' of Nabadwip zone culminated in Anandapuri of Barrackpore district. It was launched ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Elections. Addressing Nabadwip zone #PoribortonYatra culmination rally in Anandapuri, West Bengal. https://t.co/aYq3yCF9XJ Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) February 25, 2021 While addressing the Nabadwip zone Poriborton Yatra culmination rally in Anandapuri, Nadda said, "The people of Bengal have strengthened the voice of Yatra. I am happy that the people of Bengal have supported this visit and have vowed to uproot Mamata Didi's government." Nadda took the opportunity to list PM Modi's contribution to the state of Bengal. He highlighted that the PM has contributed Rs 8,575 crore for the East-West Corridor, and has further given Rs 721 crore for India's connectivity with Nepal and Bangladesh. READ: Amit Shah's Dig At Mamata: 'Poriborton Yatra Not To Change CM But To Build Sonar Bangla' BJP's Nadda Launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' For Manifesto Suggestions On Thursday, Nadda also launched the 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' campaign along with an election manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in West Bengal. He said suggestion boxes and digital raths (vehicle) will be used to collect suggestions of the people ahead of Assembly elections in the state. BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh and the party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were also present on the occasion. Before the start of the event, Actor Payel Sarkar joined the party. JP Nadda tweeted, "Launched the Lokkho Sonar Bangla campaign in Kolkata, West Bengal today. Through this campaign, I welcome the valuable suggestions and ideas of the enlightened people of Bengal. Our resolution is to make Bengal development-oriented and corruption-free." 2 30,000 9727294294 , https://t.co/zI0mCTN5GX pic.twitter.com/nKUhw1A1Mc Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) February 25, 2021 During his visit to the state, Nadda had lunch at the house of a jute mill worker in the Gouripur area of Naihati, North 24 Parganas district. READ: BJP's Nadda Launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' For Manifesto Suggestions; Adds Digital Raths READ: Mamata Banerjee Rides Electric Scooter To Bengal Secretariat In Protest Against Fuel Rates West Bengal Polls The West Bengal Assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats at present. However, BJP has made major inroads in the state in the Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats out of 42 and establishing itself as the major opposition force in the state. Recently, TMC trumped BJP in all 3 polls, but the BJP is using its booth-level strategy and has regularly dispatched its top leaders including Amit Shah and JP Nadda in the state for winning the upcoming elections. READ: Amit Shah Promises Bengal 'Mamata Didi Will Chant Jai Shri Ram'; Gets Thunderous Response (Inputs from ANI) "Thousands of USAA members and many of our 36,000 USAA employees felt the impact of last week's storms either firsthand or through helping members impacted by the winter storms that surged across Texas," said Harriet Dominique, Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Corporate Responsibility Officer at USAA. "We want to continue to support those in need, including those facing homelessness and food insecurity." Six local and national nonprofit organizations will receive grants to assist families, including Team Rubicon, San Antonio Food Bank, Haven for Hope (San Antonio), Minnie's Food Pantry (Dallas), Harmony Community Development Corporation (Dallas) and Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. "Our National Operations Center and ongoing Houston Rebuild program are based out of Texas so this storm hit home for many of our Team Rubicon employees and volunteers. As soon as it was safe, these same teams were on the ground assisting those in their communities," says William Porter, Deputy Director of Operational Support for Team Rubicon based out of Dallas. "This investment from USAA allows us to ensure our neighbors get back into their homes safely and help our communities recover." In 2020, USAA and The USAA Foundation, Inc. committed $87 million to nonprofit organizations in support of pandemic-related relief, racial equality, and other critical needs across our communities. Additionally, USAA employees gave more than $10 million to nonprofit organizations and logged more than 185,000 volunteer hours to support our communities and those in need. USAA Founded in 1922 by a group of military officers, USAA is among the leading providers of insurance, banking and investment and retirement solutions to more than 13 million members of the U.S. military, veterans who have honorably served and their families. Headquartered in San Antonio, Tex., USAA has offices in seven U.S. cities and three overseas locations and employs approximately 36,000 people worldwide. Each year, the company contributes to national and local nonprofits in support of military families and communities where employees live and work. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@USAA), or visit usaa.com. Contact: USAA Media Relations [email protected] 210-498-0940 USAA on Twitter: @usaa SOURCE USAA Related Links http://www.usaa.com Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Special Election to Recall Gov. Newsom Likely to Be Held This Fall: Adviser to Recall Effort An effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom will likely succeed in getting a special election by fall this year, according to Randy Economy, senior adviser to the Recall Gavin 2020 effort. The process has begun, Economy told Fox on Thursday. Were going to continue to work as hard as we can and to make sure [Newsom] is held accountable and to make sure our rights as an electorate are granted because weve done the heavy lifting to make sure that this special election is going to go ahead and move forward. Recall Gavin 2020 surpassed the 1.5 million signatures needed to trigger the recall. The deadline is March 17, but, as of Thursday, they had already reached 1,825,000 signatures. The effort isnt promoting another candidate for the position. He said that their organization is only aiming at holding Newsom accountable for the lockdown policies along with the damage caused to small businesses. Some legislators have voiced concerns about ballot manipulation, which could threaten the effort. Even though there is over 1.5 million signatures and continuingin other wordsmore than what is legally needed, it is pretty clear that theyre going to be scrutinized and thrown out in large number by the Democrat establishment in California, Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) said on Wednesday. It takes a little bit of a while to go through the process to having the 58 different county registrar voters to verify the signatures and then the last one to tally them all is the secretary of state, Economy told Fox. But I feel pretty darn confident that were going to get this thing on the ballot this summer. Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee contributed $250,000 to the cause. Half of the money was allocated to Rescue California, which it put toward signature gathering, organizers said on Feb. 13. We were thrilled to learn that Rescue California had deployed signature gatherers, said Orrin Heatlie, chairman of the original committee Recall Gavin 2020, said in a press release. My volunteers are thrilled that everything that can be done is being done to successfully finish the effort we started nearly a year ago. Meanwhile, another $100,000 contribution was made to Rescue California by the political action committee (PAC) of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican. The PAC money arrived via a $25,000 donation on Feb. 4, followed by a larger $75,000 donation on Feb. 12, Rescue California campaign manager Dunsmore told The Epoch Times. Michelle Thompson contributed to this report. Din Jenkins, Founder at Supply The Why I am very proud that we are able to facilitate these difficult conversations, and make them happen from a place of trust and respect it gives me great hope. Din Jenkins, CEO, founder, and chief facilitator of Supply The Why, will be recognized as a Black Excellence Honoree by the Massachusetts Black & Latino Legislative Caucus during the Black Excellence on the Hill event on Friday, February 26. Supply The Why focuses on enabling teams and organizations of all sizes to have difficult conversations around diversity, inclusion, and equity in the workplace, and other hot-button issues of the day. State Representative William C. Galvin nominated Din for this honor in recognition of his work both as an Administrative Sergeant in the Stoughton Police Department and with Supply The Why. According to Rep. Galvin, I was proud to nominate Din to be an Honoree for the MBLLCs 2021 Black Excellence on the Hill celebration. Din has been a strong leader in the Town of Stoughton and is very deserving of this recognition. Through Supply the Why and his role in the Stoughton Police Department, he has proven to be a great asset to the community. Supply The Why started in June in response to the killing of George Floyd, when a group of youth approached Din, who they knew from his time as an SRO at Stoughton High School, to discuss the killing and the Movement for Black Lives. Through these talks, he came to see a need for a safe place to have difficult conversations and Supply The Why was born. Today, in addition to a weekly podcast and other multimedia conversations, Supply The Why also provides customized Diversity & Inclusion training to municipal organizations, companies, and community groups. Weve only been at this for less than a year and to be recognized for our impact is truly exciting, said Din Jenkins, CEO and Chief Facilitator, Supply The Why. I am very proud that we are able to facilitate these difficult conversations, and make them happen from a place of trust and respect it gives me great hope. I truly appreciate the Massachusetts Black & Latino Legislative Caucus recognizing and celebrating what we have been able to do. About The 2021 Black Excellence on the Hill Event The 2021 Black Excellence on the Hill event is an annual event hosted by the Massachusetts Black & Latino Legislative Caucus to commemorate Black community leaders and trailblazers that are moving the needle forward in their respective communities. Our 2021 nominees are activists, teachers, musicians, chocolatiers, and more -- demonstrating that the excellence inherent to Blackness emulates from how expansive it is. Learn more about the MBLLC at http://www.mablacklatinocaucus.com About Supply The Why Supply The Why focuses on enabling teams and organizations of all sizes to have difficult conversations around diversity, inclusion, and equity in the workplace, and other hot-button issues of the day. Supply The Why provides customized Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity training, facilitation, and moderation to organizations struggling with strategy and action around diversity and inclusion. Supply The Why's weekly "Difficult Conversations" webcast and podcast airs on Mondays at 7:00pm Eastern U.S. Replays are always available. Learn more at http://www.supplythewhy.com. LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Appellants challenging the removal of a trust manager have prevailed in a first-of-its-kind decision that sets new standards in California contract law. The defendant successfully asked the Second Appellate District to overturn an order from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gregory W. Alarcon that allowed plaintiff and co-trustee Harry Roussos to hand select a replacement in favor of the proper fund-appointed director. The dispute was between several entities and trusts that invest in residential real estate. The decision marks a major victory for RMO LLP counsel to beneficiaries of the trust filing as amicus. RMO Attorney David Greco, amicus' counsel, said the decision blocks the plaintiff's improper attempt to skirt the court system. "The opposition argued that a years-old contract bound Ted to arbitrate all issues, forever into the future, in front of a specific arbitrator," Greco said. "We're thrilled the panel saw through this deception." The successful appeal, brought by Harry's brother and co-trustee Theodosios Roussos, seemingly invalidates the newly installed director's actions, which include the selling of properties below market value to the detriment of the business and the beneficiaries of the trusts where the business keeps its profits. The panel found the lower court improperly granted an arbitrator's award favoring the plaintiff and conflicted with state mandatory disqualification provisions. The defendant's request to qualify the arbitrator was timely filed and disclosed. The case holds that a party may not sign a contract that purports to waive a party's right to challenge an arbitrator before arbitration commences. The opinionwhich is the first published opinion to rule on this specific issueheld that such a contract is void because it violates California's public policy of ensuring arbitrator neutrality. RMO LLP provides personal, cost-effective litigation services to individual and institutional clients. The firm's trust attorneys and probate lawyers focus on beneficiary disputes, contested inheritance rights, disputed creditor claims, breaches of fiduciary duty, will and trust contests, capacity issues, claims of undue influence, financial elder abuse, contested powers of attorney, contested accountings, fraudulent transfers, partition actions, trustee theft, securities and business litigation. RMO has offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Ventura, Miami and Kansas City. For more information, please visit https://rmolawyers.com. SOURCE RMO LLP Related Links https://rmolawyers.com 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. KEENE, N.H., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mountain announces the International Women's Day Collection which showcases twelve new original t-shirt designs with three artistic themes (watercolor, line drawing and collage) and a variety of color palettes created by an all-female team of designers at The Mountain. Recognized on March 8th, International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of all women. International Women T-shirts, The Mountain Female Concentric Faces T-shirts, The Mountain "As the definition of what it means to be a woman or a feminist evolve, so do our visual representations of these concepts. The designs explore themes of positivity, strength through simplicity, and visual diversity. This art honors all genders and anyone who chooses to love and support women." - Meg, Mountain Designer "My goal with these designs, especially the collage style, was to create representation through recognition. Anyone can view this art and see a piece of themselves or someone they care about. All of the designs depict human forms without focusing specifically on gender, race, or age in order to create a welcoming and supportive space for all." - Kate, Mountain Designer "To me, the most prominent message in this collection is strength through diversity. And as you can see, when we combine all of our differences and unify, it truly creates a thing of beauty." - Jenn, Mountain Designer Musicians, Fashion Influencers, Fitness Gurus, Actors, Activists will be celebrating on March 8th with The Mountain in social media via #Mountain4Women and on our website with the IWD sweepstakes which runs March 4-10 where 25 people will win a prize from the International Women's Day collection. Please visit here to see all of the unique designs that celebrate all women, all of the time. ABOUT THE MOUNTAIN The Mountain is an eco-friendly Artwear brand where art and apparel successfully intersect to become a powerful vehicle of personal expression for The Mountain's enthusiastic consumers, the #MountainCrew. Founded in 1972 in New Hampshire by two best friends, The Mountain today is sold in over 100 countries and territories around the world and celebrates a collaboration with over 75 global artists who, with The Mountain's 100 employees, help the organization stay challenged yet humble through each creative and differing view. For more information about The Mountain, please join us on our website and in social media (@mountainartwear). Media Contact: Valorie Luther (866) 475-5191 x709 [email protected] SOURCE The Mountain Winter 2020-21 brought the largest irruption of evening grosbeaks in over 20 years, a massive movement out of the boreal forest, according to David Yeany II, avian ecologist with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. That declaration during a recent WPC webinar on its developing study of evening grosbeaks will come as confirmation to backyard birders in many spots across Pennsylvania. Theyve seen flocks of the bright yellow birds with the outsized beaks at their backyard feeders in the past several weeks, often for the first time. An irruption is when we have species that migrate in large numbers out of their typical range due to some lack of resources, explained Yeany, who runs the evening grosbeak research station in Marienville, Forest County. The grosbeak irruption is part of a superflight the third in nearly a quarter century that also has brought south flocks of pine grosbeak, hoary redpoll, common redpoll, pine siskin, white-winged crossbill, red crossbill and purple finch. All are species that spend most of their lives in the boreal forests far north in Canada but move south when the evergreen cone crops there fail. Of course, these days even a superflight is not what it once was. Nearly all bird species in North America has experienced significant declines in recent years. The evening grosbeak has lost an estimated 92 percent of its population since 1970. Its the most declined land bird species in the east. In the 1960s through the 1990s, huge numbers of evening grosbeaks irrupted south into Pennsylvania each year. There appears to have been some resident birds as well, as evidenced by confirmed breeding in Wyoming County in 1994. The birds were a widely anticipated phenomenon at feeders, where backyard birders were among the first to observe the first winters that the grosbeaks no longer visited Pennsylvania. The irruptions have been less frequent since then. But in and around Marienville and the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania the drop-off was not as drastic. According to Yeany, that area has seen irruptions in 7 of the past 14 years. That unusual consistency led him to launch the Marienville Research Station, which is supported by the WPC, Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program, Powdermill Nature Reserve of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Frick Research Network and Nuttall Ornithological Club. Since winter 2016-17, nearly 100 evening grosbeaks have been banded at the station and more than 50 have been fitted with small, lightweight tags that can be tracked by the international Motus Wildlife Tracking System. Data on the movements of those birds has begun to build, including 4 of them that traveled to the Saguenay area of Quebec in summer 2019. That area has been experiencing an outbreak of spruce budworms, another primary food source for evening grosbeaks. Yeany said preliminary results of the study to date indicate that the grosbeaks travel quite a bit within the Allegheny National Forest and are in the area in larger numbers that previously indicated by observation-based projects like eBird citizen-science project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. For more information visit the WPC website. Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Opponents of Harvard College's affirmative action policies asked the Supreme Court to bar colleges from using race as an admissions factor, setting up what could be a defining showdown for higher education and the court's conservative majority. The appeal by Students for Fair Admissions asks the court to overturn the 2003 ruling that let universities keep using race-conscious admissions to diversify their student bodies. A federal appeals court rejected the group's lawsuit, which contends Harvard is violating federal civil rights laws by intentionally discriminating against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions. The case arrives at a high court likely to be far more skeptical of race-based admissions than it was in 2003. Chief Justice John Roberts has repeatedly criticized what he sees as special protections for racial minorities, writing in a 2006 redistricting case, "It is a sordid business, this divvying up by race." The 2003 decision, Grutter v. Bollinger, upheld a University of Michigan Law School policy that considered race as part of a holistic look at a student's application. The Grutter ruling came a quarter century after the court backed university affirmative action for the first time in the Bakke ruling, which upheld an earlier Harvard admissions policy. The new appeal called the Grutter decision "grievously wrong" and said the decision had reinforced policies that discriminate against other historically oppressed minorities. "Harvard is where this court's approval of race-based admissions began, and it is a fitting place for that approval to end," argued Students for Fair Admissions, a group run by longtime racial-preference foe Edward Blum. In a statement, Harvard said it "remains deeply committed" to creating a diverse campus community. "As earlier court decisions have confirmed, our admissions policies are consistent with Supreme Court precedent," Harvard said. "We will continue to vigorously defend the right of Harvard College, and every other college and university in the nation, to seek the educational benefits that come from bringing together a diverse group of students." Should the Supreme Court agree to hear the case, the justices would probably hear arguments and rule during the nine-month term that starts in October. The use of race as an admission factor is widespread among selective universities, though several states, including California, bar the practice at public colleges. Students for Fair Admissions is also suing to challenge admissions policies at the University of North Carolina and the University of Texas. Yale Suit Students for Fair Admissions also said Thursday it is suing to end the use of race in admissions at Yale University. The suit alleges that Yale removed most Asian applicants from its list of racially-favored groups, which include applicants who identify, at least in part, as Black, Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander. The suit was filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale was sued in October by then-President Donald Trump's Justice Department, which claimed the Ivy League college was violating federal civil rights law by using an applicant's racial and ethnic information as "the determinative factor" in hundreds of admissions decisions each year. President Joe Biden's administration dropped the suit in February. Karen Peart, a spokeswoman for Yale, didn't immediately return an email seeking comment about the new suit. Yale has argued its race-conscious policy follows years of Supreme Court rulings. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Harvard policy on a 2-0 vote. The appeals court said that for each class of 1,600 freshman, the school receives about 35,000 applications and can't admit all who would succeed academically. "Harvard has determined that academic excellence alone is not sufficient for admission," the panel said, but seeks applicants who are "compelling candidates on many dimensions." Restaurant owners demanded on Tuesday that Peru allow them to open their establishments in March after two closures in a year led to the layoff of a million workers and the closure of 65,000 restaurants. Peru began its second business closure in February, including restaurants, to stop the spread of COVID-19. Local authorities of the Miraflores district in Lima said that almost 50% of the restaurants closed after the multiple restrictions, including a lockdown that lasted more than 100 days in 2020. Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, a Peruvian owner of a Japanese-inspired food restaurant "Maido," said in a meeting with other restaurant owners that a continued closure for this March would be devastating for everyone. The crisis caused by the pandemic is responsible for Peru to drop 12 points in its gross domestic product in 2020. Thousands of businesses have gone bankrupt and the restaurant business has also been severely affected. According to the National Society of Industries, Peru had about 200,000 restaurants before the pandemic and some 65,000 have closed. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Lisa Moran, Pearse View, Longford Town, Longford / Edgeworthstown, Longford The death occurred, peacefully, in the presence of her family and in loving care of the staff of the I.C.U. Mullingar Regional Hospital, on Sunday, February 21 of Lisa Moran, Pearse View, Longford and formerly of Killsallagh, Edgeworthstown. Sadly missed by her loving partner Patrick and son James, her parents Seamus and Moira, brother Damian, sister Paula, grandmother Kathleen, Damian's partner Madeleine, Paula's partner Gary, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, relatives, friends and neighbours. Rest in Peace. Lisa's funeral cortege will leave her mother's residence at Killsallagh, Edgeworthstown, at 11.40am on Friday, February 26 to arrive at St. Mary's Church, Edgeworthstown, for funeral Mass at 12 noon. Cremation afterwards in Lakelands Crematorium, Cavan. Funeral Mass will be streamed live on https://churchtv.ie/edgeworthstown.html Given the current exceptional circumstances and in accordance with government guidelines and social distancing protocols, and to protect the welfare of everyone dear to Lisa and her family, her funeral service will be restricted to family only. Those who would have liked to attend but are unable to, may leave a personal message for Lisa's family in the condolences section below. The family appreciates your support and sympathy at this time. Donations if desired in lieu of flowers to Diabetes Ireland at https://www.diabetes.ie/ Brigid Catherine Gordon (nee Connaughton), Kilmovee, Mayo / Newtowncashel, Longford / Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon The death occurred, peacefully at her home, surrounded by her loving family, on Sunday, February 7 of Brigid Catherine Gordon (nee Connaughton), Oldfield Road, London and formerly Elfeet, Newtowncashel, Co Longford. Sadly missed but remembered with love by her husband Andy, daughters Louise, Brenda and Hannah, granddaughter Evie, brothers Gerry, Pat and Fr. Vincent (Ardagh), extended family, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. May She Rest in Peace. Catherine will be removed from The Sharkey Funeral Home, Ballaghaderreen on Monday (March 1, 2021) at 11.30am to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kilmovee arriving for Mass of the Resurrection at 12noon followed by interment in Naomh Mobhi cemetery. However, in line with Government and H.S.E advice regarding public gatherings, a small private funeral will be held. The Gordon family would ask that over the coming days, everyone who knew her would take some time to light a candle or say a prayer in her memory. For those who would have liked to attend the Mass but cannot due to the current restrictions, Funeral Mass can be viewed here Kilmovee Parish church webcam or via Facebook. Family flowers only, please. The Gordon family understands and appreciates that people would like to offer their condolences, we would suggest you use the private on-line condolence page https://www.sharkeyfuneraldirectors.ie/bgordon In keeping with HSE, NPHET and Public Health guidelines, attendance at funerals is limited. Please respect the privacy of the family during this difficult time. If you would like to pay your respects along the way, please join the static Guards of Honour as the funeral cortege makes its way. Please ensure you maintain the recommended social distancing at all times keeping to the 2-metre apart guideline. Eddie Clouder, Rathcline, Lanesboro, Longford / Newcastle, Dublin The death occurred, in the loving care of the staff of Tallaght Hospital, on Tuesday, February 16 of Eddie Clouder, Rathcline, Lanesboro, Co Longford and late of Peamount Hospital, Newcastle, Co Dublin. Deeply regretted and sadly missed by his loving family Carmel, Pat, Marian, Dolores and Seamus (Reilly) extended family, friends and the wonderful staff of Peamount Hospital. May he rest in Peace. Funeral Mass on Thursday, February 25 at 12 noon in St Marys Church, Lanesboro, burial afterwards in Rathcline Cemetery. Due to government and HSE restrictions Eddies Funeral Mass will be private to family only. Those of you who would like to attend Eddies funeral but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message in his memory in the condolences section on RIP.ie. Sue Lynch (nee Gilroy), Lacken Cross, Ballinagh, Cavan The death occurred, peacefully at Wexford General Hospital with her three girls by her side, on Wednesday, February 24 of Sue Lynch (nee Gilroy), Lacken Cross, Ballinagh, Cavan. Beloved wife of the late Mel and loving and much loved mother of Jackie, Sharon and Aoife. Sue will be sadly missed by her heart broken daughters, sons-in-law, Colm and John, Aoife's partner Cormac, her beloved grandchildren Eoin, Sean, Amy, Diarmuid and Liam, her brother, Sean, sisters Rose, Patricia, Bernie, Gabrielle and Geraldine, sisters-in-law, Bernadette, and Lily, her brother-in-law, P.J. nieces,nephews and her wonderful neighbours and friends. May her gentle soul rest in peace. Sue will arrive home to her beloved Lacken on Thursday, February 25. Funeral Mass on Saturday at 12 noon in St. Michael's Church, Potahee, Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Family flowers only please. Those who wish to leave a message for Sue's family may do so on the condolence link on RIP.ie. In keeping with government guidelines Sue Funeral Mass will be family only please. and will streamed live on https://vimeo.com/516424573 Ray Harwood, London and formerly Main Street, Ballinagh, Cavan The death occurred, peacefully in the loving care of his Family and the staff at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, on Wednesday, February 24 of Ray Harwood, London and formerly Main Street, Ballinagh, Co Cavan. Predeceased by his beloved father Jim, brother Barry and his nephew Kevin. Will be very sadly missed by his loving Mother Esther, sisters Mar and Clare, brothers Jim and Niall, sisters-in-law Mary and Deirdre, brother-in-law John, nephews, nieces, grandnephew and grandnieces, all his family circle and many friends. May he rest in peace. The Funeral cortege will travel via Ballinagh on Friday, February 26, turning right to Crossdoney and then continue to St Patricks Church, Drumcor arriving for Funeral Mass at 12 noon. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Due to Government restrictions regarding public gatherings and the real threat of Covid 19, Rays Funeral Mass will be celebrated privately with his Family of 10 people. The Harwood Family are very grateful for your cooperation and support at this sensitive time. Please leave your personal messages on the condolence page on RIP.ie. House strictly private please. If you wish to have a death notice published on www.longfordleader.ie you can email it to newsroom@longfordleader.ie And if you wish to submit an obituary for publication in the Longford Leader, you can submit it along with a photograph of the deceased to newsroom@longfordleader.ie To sign up for the FREE Longford Leader daily newsletter CLICK HERE or on the image below; Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Internationally renowned humanitarian and physician Bernard Kouchner has arrived to Armenia at the invitation of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative that continues to bring the world humanitarian leaders to Armenia and Artsakh, exploring new opportunities to help the local population and to support Artsakhs international standing, IDeA Foundation told Armenpress. Mr. Kouchner, co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres, former French Foreign Minister and member of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee, is accompanied by humanitarians Alain Boinet, Founder of Solidarites International, and Patrice Franceschi, former Chairman of the Societe des Explorateurs Francais. Together, they will have a chance to take a closer look at the regional humanitarian projects supported by Aurora and focused on promoting micro and small enterprises, restoring infrastructure, and boosting economy. Bernard Kouchner co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in 1971 and co-founded Medecins du Monde in 1980. He organized humanitarian operations to Somalia, El Salvador, Lebanon and Vietnam. In 2018, Mr. Kouchner joined the Aurora Prize Selection Committee comprised of Nobel Laureates, former presidents, prominent political figures, highly respected humanitarians and well-known human rights activists dedicated to recognizing modern-day heroes and the exceptional impact their actions have made on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes in the face of adversity. After arriving to Armenia, Mr. Kouchner went to the Genocide Memorial Complex to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide and had an opportunity to pay respect to the doctors who volunteered in Artsakh during the war. The next day, the delegation went to Artsakh to show their solidarity and support local humanitarian efforts, including those assisted by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. In Stepanakert, Mr. Kouchner and others visited the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center to meet with wounded soldiers in treatment. Aurora supports the infrastructure improvement of the Center within the framework of the Initiatives aid program for Artsakh, focused on assisting projects that facilitate the regions long-term social development. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has already allocated a total of $581,740 (300,660,500) to aid fifty-seven local and international projects implemented by its numerous partners. Im grateful for the opportunity to come to Armenia and Artsakh and show my solidarity to those affected by the war. I was impressed by the philosophy of the Lady Cox Center to integrate the whole family and environment in the therapeutic process. The whole place had a quiet and positive atmosphere, and I am happy that Aurora supports this institution that is so much needed in Artsakh, Dr. Kouchner said after the visit. On February 24, Mr. Kouchners delegation toured the areas of Stepanakert that had been most affected by the war and talked to the representatives of the projects assisted by Aurora, including The HALO Trusts operation to clear cluster munitions and other explosives in civilian areas to allow the safe return of displaced people to Artsakh. People [here] know very well that their existence depends, first of all, on a secured environment, and we understand now how important it is to create the proper structure for their health to respond to the needs of this strong and courageous population, Mr. Boinet remarked upon leaving the Stepanakert Republican Hospital. On their way to Yerevan, Mr. Kouchner and his group will travel to Dilijan to tour the UWC Dilijan school and town. On Friday, before concluding his visit, Bernard Kouchner plans to take part in a moderated discussion at the Yerevan State Medical University and to go to the Matenadaran, Armenias national repository of ancient manuscripts supported by Aurora Grants. Mai Xa village in Gio Linh district in the central province of Quang Tri is the only one in Vietnam that makes banh hoc rice cake. Banh hoc has been customary for Mai Xa villagers for holidays, particularly the Tet holiday. It is to serve their guests and a gift for those far from home. The cakes taste great with tea. You can hear the sound of pounding cakes throughout the village if you visit Mai Xa. Following the sound, we visit the family of Mr. Truong Khac Luyen and Mrs. Ta Thi Thanh. Their family has made this special cake for 15 years. Luyen explained that the cake was named after the rectangular wooden mold frame with the length of 30cm, the width of 12cm, and the depth of 6-7cm. This Tet (lunar New Year), my family made 100 cakes mostly for gifts and for our own use. We could only make cakes in our spare time out of working hours, hence cant make a lot, said Luyen. The ingredients for the cake are glutinous rice and flour, fresh ginger, sugar, and peanuts. Though they are easy to find, the preparation takes a lot of time and energy. The glutinous rice is dry roasted with sand and under high heat. Ginger is peeled off and crushed into small pieces. Sugar is simmered over small heat to make it sticky. Peanuts are dry roasted. All prepared ingredients are mixed well and poured into the mold frame. The hardest part is the pounding which requires a strong person. Cake markers have to use both hands for two wooden pestles to press down the mixture until the ingredients are well blended. It takes seven to 10 minutes for the pounding. The cake has a good combination of the smooth glutinous rice, the sweet of sugar, the zing of ginger, and the peanut flavor. All make the cake savory and interesting. The middle-aged people often have this cake when drinking tea. Four generations making banh hoc In Mai Xa village, everyone knows about the family of Mr. Truong Van Thang and Mrs. Le Thi Dung whose four generations have made the cake. Every lunar December, we begin to dry-roast glutinous rice and clean up all rice husks. It takes long time; hence we have to start from the beginning of the month. We have to ask the help from our children and grandchildren and hire more people. Our family has made the cake since my grandfather. My grandchild continues. This is our family profession. Every Tet, we are all busy making it. We make about 500 cakes every year, said Dung. Truong Khac Phuc, Dungs son, revealed: The pounding is hard and tiring, requiring the physical strength. However, our clients didnt accept when we intended to use the pounding machine to make them faster and save our energy. For it is traditional, they prefer it handmade. Making banh hoc in Mai Xa village: Huong Lai Organic Tet cakes become a hit Organic banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) sold in Ho Chi Minh City for the first time for Tet (Lunar New Year) has become very popular. THIS WEEKEND Join Broadway's groundbreaking Tony Award-winning performer Ali Stroker for an intimate live-streamed concert from the stage of Kean University's Enlow Recital Hall on February 27 at 7:30pm. The evening will feature songs from the Great American Songbook from such composers as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Sondheim, Carole King, Stephen Schwartz, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more! For tickets and more information, click here. Bill Camp ( Michael Creagh) Emmy and Tony nominee Bill Camp (The Queen's Gambit) will star in a filmed production of Samuel Beckett's First Love, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis. Theatre for a New Audience will premiere the work on Vimeo February 25-March 1. It was recorded remotely over Zoom at Camp's home in Vermont. Admission is free, but registration is required. You can find out more and register here. Adrian Zmed, Sandy Duncan, Didi Conn, and Don Most in Middletown (image via the Strand Theatre) Middletown, a new play by Dan Clancy, is currently streaming through April 4. The production stars Didi Conn (Grease), Sandy Duncan (My One and Only), Adrian Zmed (T.J. Hooker), and Don Most (Happy Days). The play is presented as a reading, with the actors standing at four podiums with scripts. Middletown tells the story of two couples, Peg and Tom, and Dotty and Don, as they "endure the roller coaster of life together in this exhilarating and universal depiction of love, life, and friendship." For tickets, click here. ON THE HORIZON A scene from Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake ( Johan Persson) New York City Center will present a streaming festival of ballets by choreographer Matthew Bourne, running March 5-April 4. Tickets are $15 per production, with a package including the full lineup for $50. The lineup will include Bourne's iconic Swan Lake, available March 5-14; The Car Man, a loose adaptation of Bizet's Carmen, available March 12-21; Cinderella, with a score by Prokofiev, available March 19-28; and Romeo and Juliet, also featuring a score by Prokofiev, available March 26-April 4. Each title will be remain on demand for 10 days. For more information, click here. NNR - New Normal Rep has announced its inaugural four-play season, featuring works by playwrights Julia Blauvelt, Jack Canfora, Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated playwright Nilo Cruz, and Obie winner and Pulitzer nominee Nikkole Salter. Jericho, the first play, which streams March 4-April 4, will be directed by four-time Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason and feature Golden Globe and an Obie Award winner and Emmy nominee Jill Eikenberry. For tickets and more information, click here. Japan Society, in association with PlayCo, presents the virtual production of Ludic Proxy: Fukushima, written and directed by the Brooklyn-based theater-maker Aya Ogawa. Based on her own play Ludic Proxy, it is a virtual reimagining of the original play's second act commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. This online iteration will stream March 6 at 9:30pm ET, March 7 at 4:30pm ET, and March 11 at 8pm ET. For tickets and more information, click here. Annie Golden, Jonathan Hadary, Debra Monk, Terrence Mann, Victor Garber, Lee Wilkof, Eddie Korbich, Greg Germann, and William Parry in Assassins at Playwrights Horizons, circa 1990 ( Martha Swope) Patrick Cassidy will reunite the original cast and creative team of Assassins to mark the show's 30th anniversary, with a free event taking place on March 8 at 8pm ET. Cassidy and fellow original cast members Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, William Parry, and Lee Wilkof will be joined by writers Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, director Jerry Zaks, musical director Paul Gemignani, and orchestrator Michael Starobin for a conversation about the show's creation, complete with rarely seen clips and images. Read our appraisal of Assassins at 30 here. The Assassins reunion event will be available here. Patricia Clarkson and John Slattery ( David Gordon) Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain will stream on demand March 11-21, and feature original stars Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery, and Bradley Whitford. Evan Yionoulis directs the Manhattan Theatre Club presentation. For tickets and more information, click here. In celebration of International Women's Day, Disney on Broadway has announced free registration, programming, and participants for the 4th annual Women's Day on Broadway virtual event on March 12 at 1pm ET. All gender identities and expressions are welcome. To learn more about the event's programming and to register for free, click here. 1010 is back to shake those winter blues away, from the comfort of your own home! Filmed live on Barrington Stage Company's Boyd-Quinson Stage, this year's selection of ten 10-minute plays is sure to delight. For tickets and more information, click here. In the tradition of the "one man composer shows" adding operatic voices when called for, Puccini Live From Florence, starring Hershey Felder, will take place on March 14 at 8pm ET. The show tells the story of the great composer's deliciously scandalous life, his female characters, and how the real women in his life affected the women he created onstage. Filmed live on location in the places where these events and these compositions and premieres actually took place, Puccini will include music from La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, and more. Purchase includes the live stream and a week of ON DEMAND viewing access to the recording of the live stream (through 3/21). For tickets and more information, click here. Irish Repertory Theatre will stream The Aran Islands: A Performance on Screen March 16-28. The play by J.M. Synge is a haunting and visceral experience built around "a hypnotic performance" by Brendan Conroy, one of Ireland's finest actors, as he captures the spirit of Synge in Joe O'Bryne's theatrical adaptation. Tickets are free, but donations are welcome. For tickets and more information, click here. The cast of The Picture of Dorian Gray (images provided by the production) A starry cast headed by Fionn Whitehead will perform a contemporary adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, streaming March 16-31. Whitehead will take on the title role, alongside Alfred Enoch as Harry Wotton, Joanna Lumley as Lady Narborough, Emma McDonald as Sibyl Vane, Russell Tovey as Basil Hallward, and Stephen Fry as the Interviewer. The play is written by Henry Filloux-Bennett and directed by Tamara Harvey. For tickets and more information, click here. Maulik Pancholy ( Tricia Baron) Maulik Pancholy will star in George Street Playhouse's streaming production of Becky Mode's solo show Fully Committed, available March 23-April 11. Fully Committed is based on characters created by Mode and original star Mark Setlock. Pancholy will play more than 40 characters in the work, which follows a day in the life of Sam, a reservation-line receptionist at one of New York's trendiest restaurants. For tickets and more information, click here. Maestra Music will hold its first annual concert event on March 29 at 8 pm, with an interactive pre-show beginning at 7 pm. Directed by Kate Baldwin and produced by Baldwin, Georgia Stitt, and Laura Ivey, Amplify 2021 is hosted by Brooks Ashmanskas and Andrea Burns. This eclectic concert will feature stories, conversations and musical performances from Ashley Park, Nikki M. James, Brandon Victor Dixon, Tanya Birl, Kenita Miller, Shelley Thomas, Eva Noblezada, and Reeve Carney, along with appearances from Anais Mitchell, Kirsten Childs, Helen Park, Rona Siddiqui, Britt Bonney, Kristy Norter, Dionne McClain-Freeney, Meg Zervoulis, Kat Sherrell, Nicole Rebolledo, Maestra founder Georgia Stitt, and a special appearance by Bernadette Peters'''. For tickets and more information, click here. Patrice Johnson Chevannes and David Harbour ( David Gordon) American Conservatory Theatre has announced casting for its upcoming filmed reading of Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind, directed by Awoye Timpo and streaming on demand March 29-April 4. The company will be led by Patrice Johnson Chevannes, alongside David Harbour as Al Manners, Lauren Spencer as Millie Davis, Anthony Fusco as Bill O'Wray, Kadeem Ali Harris as John Nevins, Dakin Matthews as Henry, Steven Anthony Jones as Sheldon Forrester, Eliza Kaye as Judy Sears, and Johnny Rice as Eddie Fenton. Childress's masterpiece would have been the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway if she had agreed to the producers' demands that she soften its message. For tickets and more information, click here. Jenn Colella and Jay Armstrong Johnson ( Tricia Baron/David Gordon) Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has announced casting for its 2021 Broadway Backwards benefit, streaming for free March 30-April 3. In this virtual production, Jay Armstrong Johnson will star as an isolated New Yorker who dreams a fantastical journey guided by a late-night television host, portrayed by Jenn Colella. This year's streaming event also includes a special opening number featuring Stephanie J. Block, Deborah Cox, and Lea Salonga, plus performances and appearances by Matt Bomer, Darren Criss, Ariana DeBose, Robin De Jesus, Cynthia Erivo, Joshua Henry, Cherry Jones, Kelli O'Hara, and Jim Parsons. More of this year's special guests will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, click here. CURRENTLY RUNNING (image provided by Disney Plus) Jim Henson's The Muppet Show will begin airing on Disney Plus on February 19. The variety show, which introduced the world to characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, and more, feature weekly guests culled from the world of Hollywood and Broadway. You can sign up for Disney Plus here. Actors from Broadway and London's West End team up for the [email protected] Home, all-free radio play Julius Caesar, which launches February 22 at 7pm ET. Tony-nominated actor Patrick Page (Hadestown) stars in the title role with Jordan Barbour (Broadway's The Inheritance) as Brutus, Sky Lakota Lynch (Dear Evan Hansen) as Lucius, and Keith Hamilton Cobb (American Moor) as Cassius. Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare's best known and most often quoted plays, chronicling the political and moral crisis of Brutus and his fellow conspirators as they plot to murder Caesar to prevent a dictatorship. Debut dates for parts 2, 3, and 4 of Julius Caesar are subsequent Mondays at 7pm EST on March 1 and 8. The final episode will premiere on March 15. Tickets are free, and donations are welcome. Find out more here Brandy and Whitney Houston in Cinderella ( Disney) The much-loved 1997 Wonderful World of Disney presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring Brandy and Whitney Houston, will come to Disney Plus beginning Friday, February 12. Cinderella stars Brandy in the title role and Houston as her Fairy Godmother, alongside Whoopie Goldberg as Queen Constantina, Bernadette Peters as the evil Stepmother, Paolo Montalban as Prince Christopher, Victor Garber as King Maximillian, Jason Alexander as Lionel, Natalie Desselle as Minerva, and Veanne Cox as Calliope. To watch, sign up for Disney Plus here. Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn in Angels in America ( Helen Maybanks) The Tony-winning revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America has joined the lineup of National Theatre at Home, the official streaming service of London's National Theatre. Marianne Elliott's production was filmed during its 2017 run at the National, prior to its Broadway engagement the next year. The filmed Angels in America features nearly the exact same cast lineup as the New York run, led by Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield as Roy Cohn and Prior Walter, respectively, roles for which they would eventually win Tonys. To watch, subscribe here. The full production is also available as an audio play, which you can purchase here. The Geffen Theatre is streaming Bollywood Kitchen now through March 6. In this interactive production, filmmaker and cookbook author Sri Rao invites us to prepare a homemade Indian meal along with him, drawing on the recipes that were staples at his family's table. As we join him in cooking these delicious dishes in our very own kitchens, Sri interweaves the story of his parents immigrating to America, the joy and nourishment that Bollywood musicals brought to his whole family, and the culinary traditions they shared. To read our review, click here. For tickets and more information, click here and watch the video above. MasterVoices is presenting a new digital film series inspired by Adam Guettel's song cycle Myths and Hymns. Conceived by artistic director Ted Sperling, Myths and Hymns is divided into four chapters. The first edition of the digital series, titled "Flight," premieres January 13 at 6:30pm ET on the MasterVoices YouTube channel and will be available through June 30. It will include the songs "Prometheus," performed by Anderson & Roe; "Saturn Returns: The Flight," performed by Joshua Henry; "Icarus," performed by Mykal Kilgore and Norm Lewis; "Migratory V," performed by Julia Bullock, Renee Fleming, and Kelli O'Hara; "Pegasus," performed by Jose Llana, Capathia Jenkins, and Elizabeth Stanley; and "Jesus, the Mighty Conqueror," performed by Take 6. Watch the video above. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is streaming Hi, Are You Single? through February 28. The show is described as follows: "Ryan has a higher sex drive than you. He also has cerebral palsy. You can often find him on Grindr or at your local inaccessible gay bar. Join writer/performer Ryan J. Haddad on his search to find love." For tickets and more information, click here. The Al Hirschfeld Foundation celebrates Black History Month with its latest online exhibition, Amplified Dignity: Black Dancers Drawn by Hirschfeld. The exhibition, which will be available though March 13, features Hirschfeld's reflections of legendary 20th-century artists including Sammy Davis Jr., Josephine Baker, Nicholas Brothers, Bunny Briggs, Judith Jamison, Hinton Battle, Maurice Hines, and Honi Coles. To view the collection, click here. Shakespeare Theatre Company is streaming Tony nominee Patrick Page's All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain through July 28. Page explores how Shakespeare created the treacherous characters we all love to hate. Read our interview with the Hadestown star here, and watch the show's trailer above. For tickets and more information, click here. 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. Parliament recently approved new amendments to Traffic Law 66/1972 proposed by the government. According to a report issued by the parliaments Transport Committee, the new amendments aim to support the smart transport system which President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi urged officials to adopt in June 2020. The amendments aim to reduce car accidents, improve road quality, and cut fuel consumption and pollution, the report said. It added that it would help traffic authorities impose automatic control on the movement of vehicles on all kinds of roads. The newly-amended law includes stricter penalties for traffic violations in addition to adopting a new framework, a point system, to be applied for the first time on Egypts streets. Major General Yehia Al-Kedwani, a member of parliaments Defence and National Security Committee, told MBC Masr TV that the new law would not be implemented until after the presidents ratification in two to three years and its publishing in the official gazette. The streets lack the needed infrastructure that would help in applying the laws, Al-Kedwani said, pointing out that 14 government ministries are working to prepare for the actual implementation of the law during this two-to-three-year transitional period. Only annual fees on vehicle licensing will be currently imposed to provide a budget to establish the necessary infrastructure to execute the newly-amended law, the MP said. According to the law, fees will cover all private, public, and diplomatic vehicles and will depend on engine size. A private car with less than a 1,300 litre capacity will pay an annual fee of LE60 and those with a litre capacity of between 1,300 and 1,600 will pay LE75. In addition, all kinds of buses, motorcycles and tok-toks will also be required to pay fees ranging from LE20 to LE600 while commercial vehicles will pay a fee of LE2,500 annually. The law covers 75 violations divided into five categories in which fines vary from LE100 to LE8,000. In addition to the fine, points would be deducted from the 50 points drivers are granted annually. A deduction of one point is for violations classified in the first segment and reaches five points in the fifth. If all 50 points are deducted before the end of the year, the drivers licence will be suspended for three months, and the driver will undergo a rehabilitation traffic course before taking a driving test. The bill stipulates that when applying for a drivers licence the first time, an applicant must pass a training course on safe driving in a driving education centre approved by the Ministry of Interior. The law also obliges the education and higher education ministries to include a traffic awareness subject to be taught. In the laws first category of traffic violations, a point is deducted and a fine of between LE100 and LE200 imposed. Among the first segments violations are not carrying a driving licence, and the absence of a stop sign, a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher. When a second category violation is committed, two points are deducted and a fine ranging from LE200 to LE400 is issued. The second segment violations include using a mobile phone while driving, not wearing seat belts, parking in restricted areas, not wearing a helmet, exceeding the speed limit by no more than 10 km/h, and allowing children under seven to ride in the passenger seat or having children under two without a special chair fixed in the back seat. Unlike the rest of the categories, it is permissible in the first and second segments for a violator to reconcile within seven days by paying half the fine at the Traffic Department or by post. Fines in the third degree range between LE500 and LE1,000 and can mean jail time for one month. It is up to the judge to decide whether to fine or imprison the violator. This categorys violations include driving a vehicle with an expired or suspended drivers or car licence, exceeding the speed limit by no more than 30 km/h, not having, destroying or hiding the electronic sticker, driving a vehicle in a motorcade without a permit, not turning on headlamps and tail lights while driving, not giving priority to emergency, police, traffic, ambulance and fire fighting vehicles, tinting windshields and not following the signals, instructions or orders issued by traffic officers. The Interior Ministry earlier extended the deadline for installing the new electronic stickers, which can be read by special infrared devices at traffic lights and by traffic officers on the streets, to 31 March. Meanwhile, violations including using a vehicle for a purpose other than that stated in its licence, exceeding the speed limit by no more than 50 km/h, and failing to comply with safety distances on highways would lead to deducting four points in addition to paying a fine of LE2,000 to LE4,000 or imprisonment for three months. Violations included in the fifth category can lead to a five-point deduction in addition to a fine of LE4,000 to LE8,000, or imprisonment for six months. These include driving in the opposite direction, driving a vehicle without licence plates or hiding or changing some or all of its plate numbers, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, committing an act contrary to public morals inside the car, using devices that detect or affect the operation of radar or electronic stickers, and assaulting a policeman by word or deed while performing his duty. The amendments are good and I think imposing such harsher fines will restore discipline to the streets, Ahmed Zaki, a 40-year-old engineer, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Mohamed Hossam, 32, believes that it is not reasonable to be fined LE1,000 or be imprisoned for a month for a violation like tinting windshields. It is illegal, I know, but the fine is exaggerated, Hossam said, adding that some fines need to be reconsidered. Yasmine Ali, 30, points out that the general public is unaware of the law and that the violations and fines are still vague to the majority of citizens. We need more clarification and more time to get used to such amendments, she said. In June 2020, Al-Sisi ordered the implementation of a smart system for roads nationwide as part of a government plan aimed at improving road safety in the country. The president at the time urged officials to adopt modern technology to monitor roads, including the use of cameras to curb violations, ensure smooth traffic and improve road safety. He said a new system for recording driving violations will be adopted, whereby messages will be instantly sent to drivers on their mobile phones to notify them about their violations. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: 7 day print subscribers enjoy unlimited access to yakimaherald.com Enter the LAST NAME and the 7 DIGIT phone number on your print subscription account to connect your print subscription to your yakimaherald.com account. WASHIINGTON, D.C. - It took seven weeks for a 10-by-12 envelope mailed in Cleveland on Jan. 5 to arrive at its destination in Columbus. A five-figure check that an Ohio veterans services center sent by certified mail to Falls Church, Virginia, on Dec. 9 wasnt delivered until Jan. 9. And a third constituent of Holmes County GOP Rep. Bob Gibbs told him it took five weeks for the U.S. Postal Service to deliver a letter between the communities of Navarre and Massillon, which are five miles apart. Gibbs got the opportunity Wednesday to ask Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to explain long delivery delays around the country, telling DeJoy he wont send payments through the mail anymore because hes lost confidence in the system. Personally, my goal is to be able to get the point where I put my mailbox in the garbage can, Gibbs declared at a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing. Thats how I feel about service thats been horrible. DeJoy told Gibbs the postal service has delivered mail to 161 million addresses around the nation six days a week in a timely fashion over 96 percent of the time, even through the pandemic. He attributed delays to factors caused by the coronavirus, including reduced capacity to send mail on airplanes because of canceled flights, and unprecedented demand to mail parcels at a time when absences were high because of the pandemic. In addition, he said there was a 100 percent increase in the mailing of boxes too large for post office machines to handle. This was the environment, DeJoy said. We had a 650,000-person organization that hired 200,000 people last year. That was turnover because of the environment and the stress and historical lack of concern of good tactical procedures with regard to our workforce. Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan used his time to contrast the polite tone of Wednesdays hearing with past political pressure directed at DeJoy. The last time you were here, you had protesters banging on pots and pans outside your house, you had 90 some people calling for you to resign, you were the worst guy on the planet last time you were here, I just want to know whats changed, Jordan asked DeJoy, who answered the election, after repeated prodding by Jordan. Jordan called criticism directed at DeJoy last year a charade and giant conspiracy theory meant to lay the groundwork for mail-in balloting and all the chaos and confusion the Democrats wanted and the laws that I think they passed in many states, frankly, in an unconstitutional fashion. It was all about politics. It was all about the election. Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly accused Jordan of gaslighting, observing that former President Donald Trump was the one who publicly and falsely claimed that voting by mail would lead to massive fraud. It was Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, who was planting the idea, aided and abetted by disruptive changes proposed by a new postmaster general and a compliant board of governors, that actually eroded public confidence in the ability to vote by mail, said Connolly. That wasnt a Democratic narrative, that was a Republican narrative by the President of the United States. Facts are stubborn things. And despite all the gaslighting from enablers of the former president, the facts here aren't up for debate. Louis DeJoy, and the Board of Governors that hired him, oversaw a political crusade to undermine the Postal Service before an election. pic.twitter.com/wPrQZH3A0k Rep. Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) February 24, 2021 DeJoy said he is devising a 10-year strategy to restore the postal service to the level of services that people expect. He said the plan he hopes to release next month will reinforce the postal services strengths and address its weaknesses. He said it will include mail delivery every day of the week and service to every address in the nation not just because its the law but because it is the key ingredient to our future success. He also said it will give employees the tools, training and support they need to enjoy a long-term career with the postal service, and a commitment to investing in infrastructure such as electric vehicles. He applauded Congress for working on legislation to address unfair and unaffordable health benefit costs for its workforce that will give the postal service a fighting chance for financial sustainability. I see a bright future ahead for the postal service and the public we serve if we have the collective courage to act, said DeJoy. He said the postal service lost $9.2 billion last year, has around $80 billion in unfunded liabilities, and hasnt operated at a profit in years, and could run out of cash tomorrow if we paid our bills. Postal authorities at the hearing attributed its longterm decline to decreasing first-class mail volume and revenue, a continually growing number of delivery points, and large retirement-related expenses. USPS Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb told the committee that even before the challenges associated with COVID-19 arose, the postal services processing network wasnt operating efficiently, and efforts to push mail through the system to meet service targets actually led to costly inefficiencies caused by the lack of coordination between mail processing, delivery and transportation operations. When the pandemic hit, she said it brought a perfect storm of postal challenges, including declines in mail volume and revenue; a surge in parcel volume, which offset the revenue loss from mail, but required costly operational shifts; and further reduced employee availability due to illness and quarantine. She said it effectively handled a surge in mail-in ballots during the election, but performance was severely challenged during the peak holiday mailing season. She said her office is examining service performance in a number of low-performing districts, evaluating recent embargoes where overwhelmed postal facilities stopped accepting mail, and is currently finalizing a project specifically focused on the Cleveland, Ohio plant, where commercial drivers experienced excessive wait times. While there are no easy answers, there are potential reforms that can help move towards financial solvency, said Whitcomb. Read more: Capitol Hill police blame intelligence failures for Jan. 6 riot breaches, Sen. Rob Portman cites training failures Jane Timkens Senate bid gains endorsement from Rep. Bob Gibbs Sen. Sherrod Brown wants pension fix included in coronavirus relief bill Senate to hold hearing on security failures behind U.S. Capitol riot Rep. Jim Jordan, in move dismissed by Democrats, questions whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should shoulder blame for Capitol Hill riot security failures Rob Portman votes to acquit Trump, Sherrod Brown votes to convict: Read their statements Ohios U.S. Senators speak out on Donald Trumps impeachment trial Ohios Rob Portman backs argument that its not constitutional to impeach a former president, votes with most GOP senators Senate banking chair Sherrod Brown would like to couple bank access for cannabis businesses with drug sentencing reforms Ohios Sen. Sherrod Brown chides Sen. Rand Paul for not wearing a mask on the Senate floor 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. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) A secretive Israeli nuclear facility at the center of the nation's undeclared atomic weapons program is undergoing what appears to be its biggest construction project in decades, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show. A dig about the size of a soccer field and likely several stories deep now sits just meters (yards) from the aging reactor at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona. The facility is already home to decades-old underground laboratories that reprocess the reactor's spent rods to obtain weapons-grade plutonium for Israel's nuclear bomb program. What the construction is for, however, remains unclear. The Israeli government did not respond to detailed questions from the AP about the work. Under its policy of nuclear ambiguity, Israel neither confirms nor denies having atomic weapons. It is among just four countries that have never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a landmark international accord meant to stop the spread of nuclear arms. The construction comes as Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains its scathing criticism of Iran's nuclear program, which remains under the watch of United Nations inspectors unlike its own. That has renewed calls among experts for Israel to publicly declare details of its program. This Sept. 29, 1971, spy satellite photograph later declassified by the U.S. government, shows what now is known as the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, Israel. A long-secretive Israeli nuclear facility that gave birth to its undeclared atomic weapons program is undergoing what appears to be its biggest construction project in decades, according to newly taken satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press. (U.S. Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science/U.S. Geological Survey, via AP) What the Israeli government is doing at this secret nuclear weapons plant is something for the Israeli government to come clean about," said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association. With French assistance, Israel began secretly building the nuclear site in the late 1950s in empty desert near Dimona, a city some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Jerusalem. It hid the military purpose of the site for years from America, now Israel's chief ally, even referring to it as a textile factory. With plutonium from Dimona, Israel is widely believed to have become one of only nine nuclear-armed countries in the world. Given the secrecy surrounding its program, it remains unclear how many weapons it possesses. Analysts estimate Israel has material for at least 80 bombs. Those weapons likely could be delivered by land-based ballistic missiles, fighter jets or submarines. For decades, the Dimona facility's layout has remained the same. However, last week, the International Panel on Fissile Materials at Princeton University noted it had seen significant new construction at the site via commercially available satellite photos, though few details could be made out. Satellite images captured Monday by Planet Labs Inc. after a request from the AP provide the clearest view yet of the activity. Just southwest of the reactor, workers have dug a hole some 150 meters (165 yards) long and 60 meters (65 yards) wide. Tailings from the dig can be seen next to the site. A trench some 330 meters (360 yards) runs near the dig. Some 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) west of the reactor, boxes are stacked in two rectangular holes that appear to have concrete bases. Tailings from the dig can be seen nearby. Similar concrete pads are often used to entomb nuclear waste. This Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. shows construction at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, Israel. A long-secretive Israeli nuclear facility that gave birth to its undeclared atomic weapons program is undergoing what appears to be its biggest construction project in decades, according to satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP) Other images from Planet Labs suggest the dig near the reactor began in early 2019 and has progressed slowly since then. Analysts who spoke to the AP offered several suggestions about what could be happening there. The centers heavy-water reactor has been operational since the 1960s, far longer than most reactors of the same era. That raises both effectiveness and safety questions. In 2004, Israeli soldiers even began handing out iodine pills in Dimona in case of a radioactive leak from the facility. Iodine helps block the body from absorbing radiation. Those safety concerns could see authorities decommission or otherwise retrofit the reactor, analysts say. I believe that the Israeli government is concerned to preserve and maintain the nation's current nuclear capabilities, said Avner Cohen, a professor of nonproliferation studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who has written extensively on Dimona. If indeed the Dimona reactor is getting closer to decommissioned, as I believe it is, one would expect Israel to make sure that certain functions of the reactor, which are still indispensable, will be fully replaced." Kimball, of the Arms Control Association, suggested Israel may want to produce more tritium, a relatively faster-decaying radioactive byproduct used to boost the explosive yield of some nuclear warheads. It also could want fresh plutonium "to replace or extend the life of warheads already in the Israeli nuclear arsenal, he added. Israel built its nuclear weapons as it faced several wars with its Arab neighbors since its founding in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust. An atomic weapons program, even undeclared, provided it an edge to deter enemies. As Peres, who led the nuclear program and later served as prime minister and president of Israel, said in 1998: We have built a nuclear option, not in order to have a Hiroshima, but to have an Oslo, referring both to the first U.S. nuclear bomb drop in World War II and Israel's efforts to reach a peace deal with Palestinians. 'Any talk about concern about Iran's nuclear program is absolute nonsense' But Israel's strategy of opacity also draws criticism from opponents. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seized on the work at Dimona this week as his country prepared to limit access by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency amid tensions with the West over its collapsing 2015 nuclear deal. Any talk about concern about Iran's nuclear program is absolute nonsense," Zarif told Iranian state televisions English-language arm Press TV. Let's be clear on that: It's hypocrisy. The timing of the Dimona construction surprised Valerie Lincy, executive director of the Washington-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. I think the most puzzling thing is ... you have a country that is very aware of the power of satellite imagery and particularly the way proliferation targets are monitored using that imagery," Lincy said. "In Israel, you have one known nuclear target for monitoring, which is the Dimona reactor. So you would think that anything that they wanted to keep under the radar would be kept under the radar. In the 1960s, Israel used its claims about adversary Egypts missile and nuclear efforts to divert attention from its work at Dimona and may choose to do the same with Iran now. If youre Israel and you are going to have to undertake a major construction project at Dimona that will draw attention, thats probably the time that you would scream the most about the Iranians," said Jeffrey Lewis, a professor also teaching nonproliferation issues at Middlebury. The National Audubon Society has merged Audubon Pennsylvania and Audubon Maryland-DC into the Audubon Mid-Atlantic regional office, under new executive director Suzanne Biemiller. Biemiller, who is now also vice president at the national organization, joined Audubon after founding the policy-focused consulting firm Highland Strategies and serving as first deputy chief of staff in the administration of former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. According to Audubon, in her new post Biemiller will build on the successful on-the-ground efforts in Pennsylvania and Maryland to develop a large-scale conservation vision for the Mid-Atlantic, a critically important region for bird species traveling along the Atlantic Flyway. She brings more than two decades of experience in the philanthropic, non-profit, and government sectors. The merger of Audubon Pennsylvania and Audubon Maryland-DC unites a robust grassroots network of 26 local chapters and more than 150,000 members as advocates for Mid-Atlantic birds. Thew new unit will continue to champion community-based initiatives, partnerships and Bird-friendly Community programs in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C., including at Audubons nature centers like The Discovery Center in Philadelphia and the Patterson Park Audubon Center in Baltimore. The Delaware River Watershed spans across multiple Mid-Atlantic states, encompassing more than 13,500 square miles of land and vast forests as well as 400 miles of designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers. As our regional presence grows, so does our capacity to protect and restore a watershed that provides clean water for more than 400 bird species and 13.3 million people, said Beth Brown, director of the Delaware River Watershed program at Audubon. From improving the management of headwater forests to ensuring the survival of the tidal marshes in the face of sea level rise, Audubon Mid-Atlantic expands our work across the Chesapeake watershed to restore vital bird habitats and improve the regions first line of defense against the impacts of climate change its natural infrastructure, said David Curson, director of bird conservation at Audubon. Audubons nature centers in Maryland and Pennsylvania are excited for the opportunity to scale up community engagement initiatives in partnership with our local neighbors, growing environmental leadership and greening our cities for birds and communities, said Susie Creamer, center director of the Patterson Park Audubon Center, and Damien Ruffner, center manager at The Discovery Center. Founded in 1905 the National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke: A Legacy of First in LA Politics 1st Black Woman Elected To The CA Assembly. 1st Black Woman Elected To Congress. 1st Black & Woman Elected Supervisor !!! Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is well acquainted with being the first. Throughout her extensive public service career, she garnered multiple firsts as she spearheaded initiatives for the betterment of minorities, women and all people. African Americans in greater Los Angeles and hundreds of thousands across the U.S. benefitted from Burkes actions in her positions as the first. They include her being one of the first Black women admitted to the University of California School of Law in the mid-1950s, her election as Californias first African American assemblywoman in 1966, becoming the states first Black female Congresswoman in 1973, and elected in 1992 as the first African American woman to serve as a Los Angeles County supervisor and later as the first Black woman to chair the Board of Supervisors. In addition, Burke has held leading roles on several local, state and national commissions and committees such as vice chair of the 1972 Democratic National Convention and vice chair of the 1984 U.S. Olympics Organizing Committee. She also served as Californias deputy corporation commissioner and as a hearing officer for the Los Angeles Police Commission. No matter what position she held, Burke was always consistent in advocating for civil rights and equal opportunities for women and minorities. She demonstrated her commitment to those causes as a state legislator while chairing the Assemblys Committee on Urban Development. Her dedication continued in Congress where she served on the Public Works and the Interior and Insular Affairs Committees before securing a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. While serving in Congress from 1972 to 1978, Burke was determined to address the myriad levels of discrimination that African Americans endured. According to an article in the March 1974 issue of Ebony magazine, she said, The kinds of things we faced in my generation were easy to understand, she explained. Your parents said, They dont let you sit down here, they dont let you go to that place. Everybody knew. But now it is so complex, so frustrating to young people when they are led to believe that everything is fine, yet at the same time, it is not fine. Burke strived to combat inequalities by fighting for minority-owned businesses to obtain contracts on the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline, a nearly 800-mile project; and sought to assist womens rights by introducing the Displaced Homemakers Act, which created job-training centers for women entering the labor market. Burke also presented a bill to ban pregnancy-related bias in the workplace and strongly disapproved of the Hyde Amendment, which outlawed using Medicaid funds for abortions. ADVERTISEMENT She referred to her Congressional interests as an effort to address the needs of three constituencies, she explained in an oral history interview in 2015. I had a constituency of African Americans, a constituency of women, and a constituency that elected me. Also, Burke amassed a huge public following after she became the first congresswoman to give birth while in office and according to Wikipedia, the first elected official to be granted maternity leave by the Speaker of the House. For 18 years, Burke served as a county supervisor. She was appointed by the governor to represent the Fourth District from 1979 to 1980. From 1992 to 2008, she was the Second District supervisor and she never wavered from promoting those issues that defined her public service career helping minorities and the underserved. For example, she worked to establish several child care centers in her district, created a foundation to award scholarships to students, developed small business centers in unincorporated areas and championed improvements at parks around the county. Burke retired as county supervisor in 2008 and at the age of 76, she became a mediator with the Alternative Resolution Centers, focusing on state and local regulatory issues, commercial disputes, medical malpractice, labor and employment, land use and environmental law. Also, she currently serves on the California Transportation Commission and on the Amtrak Board of Directors, an appointment made by President Barack Obama in 2012. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Burke graduated from Manual Arts High School, earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Southern California (USC). She was admitted to the California State Bar in 1956. Burke is married to William A. Burke, a Los Angeles businessman and chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. She has a daughter, Autumn, who is a California Assembly member, and a stepdaughter, Christine Burke. KYODO NEWS - Feb 25, 2021 - 17:45 | World, All, Japan China has lodged a protest with Japan after two planes of the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force flew near disputed Mischief Reef in the South China Sea in August 2018, Japanese government sources said Thursday. The protest came with the Communist-led Chinese government of President Xi Jinping claiming sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea and rapidly building artificial islands with military infrastructure in the maritime area. Beijing was quoted by the sources as telling Tokyo that the P-3C patrol planes "passed without permission" near the reef in the Spratly Islands, which lies within the Philippine exclusive economic zone but has been occupied China since 1995. Japan counter-argued that China attempted to restrict "freedom of flight," the sources said, underscoring how the two Asian powers have been at odds not only over the East China Sea but also over the South China Sea. Sino-Japanese relations have been often frayed by a territorial row over the group of uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing as Diaoyu. Rejecting China's unilateral claim, P-3C patrol planes flew near Mischief Reef several times for the past three years, the sources said. When the two planes, which engaged in anti-piracy operations off Somalia in Africa, returned via the South China Sea to Japan in August 2018, they flew near the reef to keep away from a cumulonimbus cloud that produces lightning and thunder. Japan had obtained flight approval from the Philippines in advance. Tokyo was quoted by the sources as telling Beijing that Mischief Reef does not generate entitlement to a territorial sea and that the freedom of flight above it "should be guaranteed." Moreover, Japan explained that weather conditions had forced the P-3C planes to fly near the reef, but China did not accept the claims, the sources added. The South China Sea is also a source of tensions between Beijing and Washington U.S. warships have carried out "freedom of navigation" operations there in an apparent bid to challenge Chinese claims and actions in the sea -- a strategic waterway through which more than one-third of global trade passes. Last year, the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump said it would take a tougher stance against Beijing's maritime assertiveness in the South China Sea, calling its claims to offshore resources across most of the waters "completely unlawful." In July 2016, meanwhile, the arbitration court concluded that Mischief Reef is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide, so it does not generate entitlement to a territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. Restaurants will no longer be allowed to sell pre-packaged meals through arrangements with supermarkets and other outlets, as Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley definitively closed this loophole yesterday. Rowley said this would not be allowed to continue, as it defeats the purpose of the public health regulations. Restaurants and street food vendors were among those businesses ordered to close to limit the movement of people and curb the spread of Covid-19. They meet on a weekly basis for dinner at Hollywood hotspot Craig's. And Kylie Jenner looked nothing short of sensational as she headed to join her dad Caitlyn Jenner at the swanky restaurant on Wednesday evening. The make-up mogul, 23, cut a glamorous figure as she sported a semi-sheer nude blouse, with feathered detailing along the neckline of the garment. Glam: Kylie Jenner looked nothing short of sensational as she headed to join her dad Caitlyn Jenner at the swanky restaurant on Wednesday evening Kylie styled her top with a pair of sexy form-fitting black PVC trousers, while boosting her petite frame with a pair of shiny black stilettos. The billionaire businesswoman wore her raven locks in a loose sleek style and opted for a nude pallet of make-up, which she had no doubt expertly-applied. She simply accessorised the ensemble with a pair of diamond stud earrings. Style sensation: The make-up mogul, 23, cut a glamorous figure as she sported a semi-sheer nude blouse, with feathered detailing along the neckline of the stylish garment Daddy-daughter time: While at dinner, Kylie gave fans an insight into their evening sipped on a delicious looking cocktail before clanking glasses with Caitlyn. While at dinner, Kylie gave fans an insight into their evening sipped on a delicious looking cocktail before clinking glasses with Caitlyn. Kylie teased her 217million followers by sharing photos and videos of their delectable dinner. In one Instagram Story post, the KUWTK star zoomed in on a garlic bread basket that she tagged Craig's in. Cheers! Taking to her Instagram Story, Kylie sipped on a delicious looking cocktail before clanking glasses with Caitlyn Dinner time! Kylie teased her 217million followers by sharing photos and videos of their delectable dinner Caitlyn looked fashion forward in a Moschino trench coat that she styled with a black tank top and black fitted trousers. She slipped her feet into a pair of black leather knee-high boots that coordinated with the designer handbag in her clutches. Meanwhile, the Olympic gold medalist wore her long golden brown hair in a middle part and accentuated her features with a bit of makeup. Yummy! In one Instagram Story post, the KUWTK star zoomed in on a garlic bread basket that she tagged Craig's in After catching up with her daughter and dining on delicious food, Caitlyn was photographed exiting Craig's before making her way back to her parked vehicle. Adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols, Caitlyn kept her mouth and nose concealed behind a mask that just happened to coordinate with her high end get-up. She zoomed out of the Craig's parking lot in her incredible yellow and black Ferrari. The father-daughter duo's evening outing comes after Kylie made a guest appearance on Caitlyn's YouTube channel. A pregnant Victorian woman accused of inciting people to protest against the coronavirus lockdown intends to fight the charge. Zoe Buhler is accused of encouraging others to attend a freedom day protest held in Ballarat in September last year. Police allege her social media post incited people to breach public health laws by leaving their homes. Zoe Buhler is charged with incitement. Credit:Nine News A court hearing last month was told Ms Buhler, 28, was keen to finalise her case before she was due to give birth to her third child in April and that a resolution could have involved her admitting wrongdoing in exchange for being spared a criminal record. But defence counsel Hugo Moodie told Ballarat Magistrates Court on Thursday his client now wanted to contest the charge in a hearing before a magistrate. Dear Amy: Im in my 60s and undergoing cancer treatment, therefore immunocompromised. At both of my appointments with my surgeon, she has worn a loose fitting, thin, cloth mask. She has to get very close to me face to face to examine me. This has made me extremely uncomfortable, and frankly angry. She has unnecessarily caused me additional stress during the most stressful period of my life. I didnt say anything to her either time, because it felt too awkward. In about a month she will have my life in her hands, and I dont want her having any potential negative feelings toward me when I go under the knife. Ive written an anonymous letter about this, which I havent sent. I want to report her primarily so she will use adequate PPE, but I dont want repercussions. How should I handle this? Cautious in Colorado Dear Cautious: Dear Cautious: Your question reveals that the trust you should have may be missing with this surgeon. I shared your question with a friend who is a cancer surgeon with 30 years of experience at a major cancer center. He and I share concern about you, and his response follows: Patient safety is paramount, not just during surgery, but also before and after. Almost everyone is nervous before surgery, but you should not also carry the anxiety of mistrust with you into the operating room. You should be cautious, because no matter how many operations your surgeon has done, this is your one. Since COVID, I always wear a surgical mask and will frequently add a face shield when seeing patients. Your surgeon should create an environment where you are able to express your concerns and ask questions. Ideally, you should raise your concern directly to her. How she responds will be very revealing. If she apologizes and thanks you for bringing this to her attention; thats a good sign. If she is defensive, you should seek another surgeon. You and your loved ones are your best advocates, but if your hospital has a patients advocates office, report your concern to them. They may not be surprised by your report, and if needed, can help you to change surgeons. They may help with either having a family member join for a critical in-person conversation with your surgeon, or if thats not possible, listen to the consultation over the phone. Many patients are stressed and will not remember what their doctor says, so that extra pair of ears helps. There are many fine cancer surgeons out there. For critical and important insights, read reviews of them. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS.gov) is working to make this information more transparent with star ratings and many hospitals advertise these scores. Surgeons are professionals with extensive training and a team to help them give you the best possible care. At the end of the day the surgeon should be there for YOU, not the other way around. Never forget that! Dear Amy: A recent letter [Joyful Libby User in Rochester, NY] included the advice to listen to audio books while on a walk. You endorsed this idea. Please dont! Please leave your ears open! As a longtime user of bike paths for biking, I cant tell you how many walkers will step in front of me even after I call out to them. The ones with earbuds or headphones often do not hear my warning that I am about to pass them. This is even more important in an urban setting, where walkers have been known to walk into traffic while listening, instead of paying attention to their surroundings. On group runs and rides, we are always advised not to wear listening devices. Playing it Safe Dear Playing it Safe: You are absolutely right! A study I looked at found that injuries among pedestrians wearing headphones tripled between 2004 and 2011, with most accidents occurring in urban areas. These injuries can be catastrophic. (I live in a rural area and dont use earphones; I just stick my phone in my pocket and play audio, transistor radio-style. This carries risks, too.) Dear Amy: Your response to Deathly Afraid was kind and supportive, but this new mom reported that she thinks about death every day. You should have suggested that she see her physician immediately. She might have serious postpartum depression. Concerned Dear Concerned: Thank you for alerting me to this omission. I agree. PPD can affect mothers even up to a year after giving birth. (You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.) Bill Minick announces retirement from PartnerSource Bill Minick today announced his decision to retire as chairman of PartnerSource at the end of March 2021. Jennifer Hurless, president of PartnerSource, will continue in her current role leading this company that has proven better business comes from caring for injured workers. One major result of Bills efforts is a profound shift in how to deliver prompt, outstanding medical care and better benefits to injured employees, and work through any concerns they may have, noted Hurless. We are honored to continue his legacy as PartnerSource moves toward its fourth decade in business with a strong position in the industry. Bill Minick began his professional career as a corporate and tax attorney for nine years with major law firms, developed many of the first alternative dispute resolution programs for employment-related claims, and led the Dallas property and casualty insurance operation for a global insurance broker. But Minick is best known for pioneering Texas injury benefit plans and growing PartnerSource into the leading consulting firm for competitive alternatives to traditional workers compensation. Minick has a track record of individual and team successes, advising dozens of Fortune 500 companies in retail, food service, healthcare and transportation on their workers compensation programs. He has fostered industry partnerships to deliver best-in-class benefits and liability insurance coverage, better medical outcomes for over one million injured workers, and billions of dollars in economic development. Minick has multiple law and insurance licenses, with degrees from Abilene Christian University, Pepperdine University and Southern Methodist University. He has worked extensively in state and federal government affairs and public relations, developed trade groups (see ARAWC.org) and program designations (see QCARE.org), participated in university-led and other independent research initiatives, written new laws and regulations, and motivated workers comp system improvements in multiple states. He has written extensively for national publications (like Risk & Insurance, WorkCompCentral, WorkersCompensation.com, Business Insurance and Insurance Thought Leadership) and been a featured presenter at major insurance, legal and workers compensation industry conferences (like the National Workers Compensation & Disability Conference, Workers Compensation Institute, Workers Compensation Research Institute, Risk & Insurance Management Society, CLM, State Bar of Texas, National Academy of Social Insurance and Self-Insurance Institute of America). I am grateful for all the client and industry relationships developed over the years, Minick said. And Im most grateful for having worked with an incredibly talented PartnerSource team of attorneys and claim, information service and administrative professionals. They will continue to innovate and deliver outstanding service under the highly capable leadership of PartnerSource President Jennifer Hurless. Although retiring from PartnerSource, Bill is active in many charitable and civic causes, including service as secretary of Kids Chance of Texas, a judge of the Comp Laude Awards, a trustee of Abilene Christian University, and a board member of the Mens Advocacy Group of New Friends New Life. He will also remain active in writing, speaking, and serving within the injury benefit and workers compensation industries through collaborations that advance better outcomes for injured workers and employers. About PartnerSource PartnerSource is the leading provider of a responsible alternative to traditional workers compensation for businesses operating in the state of Texas. The company dedicates deep talent from a team of more than 30 experienced employees to provide end-to-end strategies that are easy to use, fiscally responsible, and driven by the purpose that better business comes from caring for injured workers. Based in Dallas, Texas, PartnerSource provides industry leadership and education through its annual conference and participation in numerous workers compensation industry events, awards and associations that support people injured on the job. PartnerSource is also a proud supporter of the Kids Chance of Texas scholarship fund, which is dedicated to bettering the lives of injured workers and their families. More information about PartnerSource is available at PartnerSource.com or by calling (214) 239-4586. (Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, Toronto)--Results of a world-first Canadian pilot study on patients treated with gene therapy for Fabry disease show that the treatment is working and safe. The Canadian research team was the first to use gene therapy in 2017 to treat patients with Fabry disease, a rare, chronic illness that can damage major organs and shorten lives. They report their findings today in the journal Nature Communications. "Being one of the first people in the world to receive this treatment, and seeing how much better I felt afterward, it definitely gives me hope that this can help many other Fabry patients and potentially those with other single gene mutation disorders," says Ryan Deveau, one of the participating patients in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. "Now that I don't have to get the replacement therapy every two weeks, I have more time to spend with my family." Fabry patients currently must undergo enzyme therapy infusions every two weeks. Gene therapy would enable them to receive a single treatment that could prove to be more effective clinically since the modified blood stem cells continuously produce corrected versions of the defective enzyme. "To date, we can say that the gene therapy has either partially or fully restored enzyme levels to a point where they are no longer considered deficient," says Dr. Aneal Khan, the Alberta Health Services medical geneticist and member of the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, who is leading the experimental trial in Calgary. "These results show that just one treatment of gene therapy was enough to benefit patients. Now we need to see whether this single dose can last for the long term." Five men participated in the study and were treated at Alberta Health Services' Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, and Nova Scotia Health's Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. As a result of the gene therapy, all patients began producing the corrected version of the enzyme to near normal levels within one week. With these initial results, all five patients are approved by Health Canada to stop their intravenous enzyme therapy. So far, three patients have chosen to do so, and are stable. "This really was a ground-breaking study, given current therapies are not cures," says Dr. Michael West, nephrologist and Nova Scotia Health co-investigator, with Dr. Stephen Couban, a hematologist. "This is the next step in moving toward a better therapy and hopefully a cure for this disease, which can really cause patients a lot of pain and suffering. It's promising that the participating patients are still seeing benefit from the treatment several years after the procedure was completed." Patients were followed from January 2017 to February 2020 for this study, and ongoing follow-up will extend until February 2024. Clinicians emphasize it will take many years of further testing before this experimental treatment becomes a clinically available standard of care. "To actually see that this therapy was working in patients was humbling," says Dr. Jeffrey Medin, who pioneered the treatment while he was a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network (UHN). Dr. Medin is now the MACC Fund Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Affiliate Scientist, UHN. "After 20 years of working on this treatment, to see that patients could end up making their own enzyme, and that the treatment effect was sustained is satisfying. We are elated!" Darren Bidulka, 52, was the first patient treated in the study on January 11, 2017, at Alberta Health Services' Foothills Medical Centre. He was diagnosed with Fabry disease in 2005, and was on enzyme therapy for years. "I'm really happy that this worked," he says. "What an amazing result in an utterly fascinating experience. I consider this a great success. "I can lead a more normal life now without scheduling enzyme therapy every two weeks. This research is also incredibly important for many patients all over the world, who will benefit from these findings." In the study, researchers collected a quantity of a Fabry patient's own blood stem cells, then used a specially engineered virus to inject those cells with copies of the fully functional gene that is responsible for the enzyme. The modified stem cells were then transplanted back into each patient. People with Fabry disease have a gene called GLA that does not function correctly. As a result, their bodies are unable to make the correct version of an enzyme that breaks down a fat. A buildup of that can lead to problems in the kidneys, heart and brain. The treatment, which was approved by Health Canada for experimental purposes, was the first trial in Canada to use a lentivirus in gene therapy. In this case, the specially modified virus was created at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, stripped of its disease-causing capability and augmented with a working copy of the gene that's responsible for the missing enzyme. Lentiviruses are a family of viruses that can cause diseases like acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and are used world-wide in many clinical trials because of the ease with which they can enter and insert genetic material into cells. They are well understood by the research community, and easy to manufacture in large quantities, which was required for this study. The trial focused on men because the gene for Fabry disease is on the X-chromosome, so it is inherited as an X-linked disorder. Men are therefore more severely affected than women, because each man carries only one X chromosome. Men therefore present with more severe symptoms, such as burning in hands and feet, kidney failure, or gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal cramping, frequent bowel movements, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Untreated, men have an average lifespan of 58 years and women, 75 years. An estimated one person in 40,000 to 60,000 has Fabry disease. There are more than 500 people in Canada known to have this illness, although exact numbers are not known due to the difficulty in identifying all those with the disease. "Studies such as this can pave the way for additional clinical trials in Fabry disease and for many other metabolic disorders. It also shows that it is possible to coordinate such a complex study at multiple sites, even across international borders, as some analyses were done at the Medical College of Wisconsin," says Dr. Medin, who has been working on the project since he was at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. ### Competing Interests UHN has a financial interest in a licensing agreement with AVROBIO, Inc., granting AVROBIO exclusive rights to manufacture and commercialize the gene therapy studied in this Phase 1 clinical trial. Aneal Khan: AVROBIO: consulting fees, grants, revenue distribution agreement, speaker fees and travel support; University Health Network: revenue distribution agreement. Anthony Rupar: AVROBIO: service contract. Christiane Auray-Blais: AVROBIO: honoraria and service contract. Armand Keating: AVROBIO: consulting fees unrelated to this study. Michael L. West: Amicus Therapeutics: consulting fees, grants, speaker fees and travel support; Protalix: consulting fees, grants, speaker fees and travel support; Sanofi-Genzyme: consulting fees, grants, speaker fees and travel support; Takeda Pharmaceuticals: consulting fees, grants, speaker fees and travel support; and University Health Network: revenue distribution agreement. Jeffrey A. Medin: AVROBIO: scientific co-founder and shareholder; Rapa Therapeutics: scientific advisory board; Sanofi-Genzyme: honorarium, Shire: honorarium. Support for this study provided by: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Kidney Foundation of Canada and the MACC Fund, and AVROBIO, Inc. Juravinski Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre and Universite de Sherbrooke provided critical laboratory support in stem and progenitor cell isolation, assay of enzymatic activity and metabolite levels, respectively. About Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Princess Margaret Cancer Centre has achieved an international reputation as a global leader in the fight against cancer and delivering personalized cancer medicine. The Princess Margaret, one of the top five international cancer research centres, is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the Michener Institute for Education at UHN. All are research hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. For more information: http://www. theprincessmargaret. ca About Alberta Health Services Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority responsible for planning and delivering health supports and services for more than four million adults and children living in Alberta. Its mission is to provide a patient-focused, quality health system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans. About Nova Scotia Health Nova Scotia Health provides health services to Nova Scotians and a wide array of specialized services to Maritimers and Atlantic Canadians. Nova Scotia Health operates hospitals, health centres and community-based programs across the province. Our team of health professionals includes employees, doctors, researchers, learners and volunteers. We work in partnership with community groups, schools, governments, foundations and auxiliaries and community health boards. (Newser) Pennsylvania man Richard Michetti argued with his ex-girlfriend and sent her videos from the scene as he stormed the Capitol with a mob of Trump supporters last month, according to court filingsand he was the one who called her a "moron." The man's ex told the FBI the next day that Michetti had been at the riot and provided them with the videos and messages he had sent her from the scene, the Washington Post reports. She also helped identify the Ridley Park man in other photos and videos, including some taken in the Capitol rotunda. Michetti faces charges including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and obstruction of Congress and could face up to 20 years in prison. story continues below Authorities say Michettiwho was seen using his phone on the Capitol stepsargued with his ex about the former president's election fraud claims. "If you can't see the election was stolen, you're a moron," Michetti wrote in a message quoted in court filings released Wednesday, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. "This is tyranny. They told us 'We rigged the election and there's nuthin [sic] you can do about it' What do you think should be done?" In another message, he wrote: "It's going down here. We stormed the building they held us back with spray and teargas and paintballs." Michetti, who was released on bail with electronic monitoring, is one of at least 246 people charged in connection with the riot. (Read more Capitol attack stories.) NEW YORK (AP) A New York prosecutor has obtained copies of Donald Trumps tax records after the Supreme Court this week rejected the former presidents last-ditch effort to prevent them from being handed over. The Manhattan district attorneys office enforced a subpoena on Trumps accounting firm within hours of the Supreme Courts ruling on Monday and now has the documents in hand, a spokesperson for the office, Danny Frost, said Thursday. District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. had been fighting for a year and a half for access to Trumps tax records for a criminal grand jury investigation into his business dealings. The documents are protected by grand jury secrecy rules and are not expected to be made public. Vance, a Democrat, is conducting a wide-ranging investigation that includes an examination of whether Trump or his businesses lied about the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits. The district attorney is also scrutinizing hush-money payments paid to women on Trumps behalf. Vances office issued a subpoena to Trumps accounting firm, Mazars USA, in August 2019 seeking eight years of his tax returns and related documents. Trumps lawyers immediately went to court to block its enforcement, first arguing that he was immune from being investigated while president. When the Supreme Court rejected that argument 7-2 last July, Trumps lawyers returned to a lower court and argued the subpoena was issued in bad faith, overly broad, might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment. An appellate court rejected that argument and the Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene. In a three-word statement after the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, Vance said only: The work continues. Trump has called Vances investigation a fishing expedition and a continuation of the witch hunt the greatest witch hunt in history. Vance is leading the investigation along with his general counsel, Carey Dunne, who made arguments on behalf of the office at various appellate court hearings. Vance recently hired former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz as a special assistant district attorney to assist in the probe. Vance, whose term expires at the end of the year, hasnt announced if he will seek reelection, leaving questions about who will lead any Trump-related prosecutions in the future. Vances subpoena sought from Mazars USA not only the final versions of Trumps tax returns, but also draft versions of those returns and any and all statements of financial condition, annual statements, periodic financial reports, and independent auditors reports held by the company. Mazars did not object to the subpoena and, in a statement at the time, said it would respect the legal process and fully comply with its legal obligations. The Mazars subpoena also sought engagement agreements that define the accountants role in creating the tax returns and financial statements; source documents providing the accountants with raw financial data; and work papers and communications between the firm and Trump representatives. Those would include communications showing how the raw data was analyzed and treated in the preparation of the records. The New York Times separately obtained years of Trumps tax data and published stories last year detailing some of his finances, including that he paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2017 and no income tax in 11 of 18 years because of major losses. Gleolan is an imaging agent that makes high-grade gliomas fluoresce under blue light, helping neurosurgeons better visualize these gliomas for more complete removal (TSXV:MDP) ( ) (FRA:P731) has initiated the Canadian commercial launch of Gleolan, a powder-based optical imaging agent taken orally by patients to help surgeons identify brain and spinal cord tumors called gliomas. Gleolan is an imaging agent that makes high-grade gliomas fluoresce under blue light, helping neurosurgeons better visualize these gliomas for more complete removal, the company said. After administration, areas within the tumour glow pink or red, and healthy brain tissue appears blue when exposed to a special blue light during surgery. The product had previously only been distributed under the Health Canada Special Access Program. There are currently no other optical imaging agents approved in Canada for the purpose of visualization of malignant tissue during glioma surgery, the company said. Shipping the first Gleolan units to Canada last week was truly an important milestone, not only for us at photonamic and for Medexus, but most importantly for patients and neurosurgeons in the country, Ulrich Kosciessa, CEO of Medexus licensing partner Photonamic said. Many neurosurgeons have already been trained on the product by Medexus so that they can immediately start using it. Gleolan has already been used in over 100,000 cases worldwide, providing hope for patients with these certain types of brain tumours. A pivotal Phase III study published in The Lancet Oncology Medical Journal showed that using Gliolan during brain tumour surgery nearly doubled the rate of achieving a complete tumor resection (65% vs. 36%). This, in turn, resulted in double the number of patients who did not see brain tumor progression six months after surgery (41% vs. 21%). According to the Brain Tumour Registry of Canada, the incidence of glioblastoma is 4 per 100,000 people in Canada and about 1,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with glioblastoma every year, Medexus VP of Specialty markets Kerry Bakewell said. For this reason, we are extremely pleased to be able to expand the accessibility of Gleolan in Canada beyond the Health Canada Special Access Program. This allows us to provide Gleolan to more institutions and neurosurgeons, many of which have already been trained, and therefore they are educated on the product and immediate use is possible. John Sinclair, a neurosurgeon and Director of Neurosurgical Oncology at The Ottawa Hospital has seen Gleolan work first hand. When I first read European journal articles outlining the use of 5-ALA / Gleolan, I felt strongly that this represented an innovative surgical technique that would benefit our patients diagnosed with malignant gliomas, Sinclair said. With the support of Medexus, we have been able to bring Gleolan to Canada and help to develop its use across the country. To date, I have used this technique for approximately 75 patients and have directly observed its outstanding benefits during surgery which allow for enhanced optimal safe tumour resection. This research demonstrated that surgery done with 5-ALA led to an extended length of time to tumour recurrence and improved patient outcomes in comparison to traditional white light surgery. Health Canada had previously granted Medexus authorization to distribute Gleolan in Canada under the Special Access Program, which provides healthcare practitioners with access to non-marketed drugs to treat patients with serious or life-threatening conditions when conventional therapies have failed, are unsuitable or unavailable, the company said. Then in March 2020, the Quality business unit at Ontario Health, based on guidance from the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee, recommended publicly funding Gleolan, which was conditional on Health Canada approval. Medexus is awaiting final funding approval from the Ontario Ministry of Health, the company said. Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel Almost 100 academics have demanded the University of Melbourne take swift and decisive action in response to a website created by one of its lecturers that has been labelled transphobic and potentially in breach of the universitys own guidelines on research integrity and inclusion. On Tuesday, Holly Lawford-Smith, an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Melbourne, launched www.noconflicttheysaid.org in response to legislation in Australia and elsewhere designed to be inclusive to transgender people but which, she says, replaces sex with gender identity. The website invites cis women to share their encounters with trans women. Credit:Screengrab The site calls for women assigned female at birth (cis women) to anonymously share stories about any time they have felt threatened by transgender women. Were worried about the impacts on women of men using women-only spaces, the website introduction says, including but not limited to: changing rooms, fitting rooms, bathrooms ... rape and domestic violence shelters. Tis funny about th constitution, said Mr. Dooley, the legendary, philosophical Irish bartender created by Finley Peter Dunne. It reads plain, but no wan can undherstant it without an interpreter. The Supreme Court is the final interpreter of the Constitution, but since the dawn of the republic, Americans have engaged in spirited, often heated, debates constitutional conversations about how it should interpret the Constitution. This is not surprising for a nation whose revolutionary origins lay in fundamental disputes with England about the nature, conception and purpo... DETROIT -- A man accused of arson has died in the Wayne County Jail after he couldnt afford bond and was unable to get a court hearing until April. According to the Associated Press, Tinyko Preuitt, 48, was found dead last week at the jail and police said there were no signs of obvious trauma. The results of an autopsy are expected soon. Preuitt had been locked up since Oct. 14 when he was charged with with preparing to burn a Detroit house and his bond was set at $50,000. When Preuitts defense attorney, James Humphries asked for an in-person hearing to determine if there was enough evidence to send the case to trial, Judge Ronald Giles set one for April 16. Humphries requested the in-person hearing because he felt a traditional court hearing is a better setting to challenge evidence and witness testimony, the AP reports. Courtrooms around Michigan have scaled back the number of in-person hearings in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. READ MORE: Brother, 14, charged in homicide of 10-year-old sister 35,000 pounds of rolled steel spills on I-94 near Ann Arbor Downtown apartment building deemed total loss after overnight fire in Kalamazoo Netflix Inc. plans to spend $500 million on original movies and TV shows in South Korea this year, boosting investment in content thats been key to the streaming giants success in one of its fastest-growing markets. Since entering the country in 2016, the US company has invested $700 million in local content, creating about 80 original series and films in South Korea, co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said at a virtual event on Thursday. Disclosing the markets user numbers for the first time, Netflix said it had 3.8 million paid subscribers in South Korea at the end of 2020. Over the last two years, weve seen the world falling in love with the incredible Korean content," Sarandos said. Made in Korea and watched by the world on Netflix." The Los Gatos, California-based company has identified South Korea as one of the keys to its success in Asia, a vast region home to more than half of the worlds population. Asia is Netflixs smallest region at the moment, trailing North America, Latin America and Europe. But Netflix has signed up more than half of the available customers in many of its largest markets. Adding customers in Asia is also crucial in the years ahead if it has to sustain its recent growth amid increasing competition in the region from rivals such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime, which are also spending more on producing content. Netflix, which just started to crack Asia over the past couple years, has created more than 200 original films and series in Asia, Sarandos said. The service added 9.2 million customers in the region last year, bringing its overall total to more than 25 million. Most of that growth has come from four territories: Australia, Japan, India and South Korea. Expanding Share South Korea is Netflixs third-biggest market in Asia by sales, following Australia and Japan, according to consultancy Media Partners Asia, which estimates the platforms subscriber base in South Korea could grow to more than 5 million in 2021. The country accounted for 15% of Netflixs revenue from the Asia Pacific region last year and the share is predicted to expand to 17% this year, according to the consultant. South Korea also has outsized importance because it doubles as a cultural hub for the broader region. Shows that are popular in South Korea, including Netflix original series Kingdom" and Love Alarm," have caught on across Southeast Asia and Japan. They have a lot of upside to grow," said Vivek Couto, the head of Media Partners Asia. Netflix attributes most of its recent growth to investment in local programming. After opening a regional office in the country in 2016, it released Okja," a film by Oscar-winning Korean director Bong Joon Ho. StudioDragon Deal Netflix has since acquired the rights to many popular Korean shows for other markets through a deal with StudioDragon, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate CJ ENM Co. CJ ENM airs those shows on its own TV networks, while Netflix offers the show everywhere else as an original. This deal has given Netflix the rights to Its Okay to Not Be Okay," one of the most successful dramas of last year. Before Netflix landed in Korea, the quality of Korean content as well as its influence on the audience were already highly renowned," said Minyoung Kim, Netflixs vice president of content. Our role is to help Korean content creators enjoy greater creative freedom." Netflix is now hoping to build up its pipeline of original series it owns, and will use the $500 million to also fund a growing slate of dramas, reality TV, documentaries and Netflixs first Korean sitcom, So Not Worth It." This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Tech Leadership Hiring In The Healthcare Sector At An All Time High, As Redwood City, California-headquartered Suki.AI Steps Foot In India BANGALORE, India, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Few sectors have seen growth post-pandemic on a scale at which the healthcare sector has seen. Most companies in the healthcare sector are ramping up their technology and hiring top technologists to cater to the increasing demand. Conversely, there is an emerging interest in technologists to join the healthcare sector. An increasing number of US and European companies are looking to set up tech centers or R&D centers in India owing to the economical infrastructure and abundant tech talent. Suki.AI, a US-based Series B startup is also capitalizing on this trend, setting up an office in Bangalore. Suki is an AI-powered, voice-enabled digital assistant for doctors. They sought the help of Bangalore-based Tech-Head search firm Purple Quarter, to find Nitin Gupta as their Site Leader. Nitin was previously a Director of Engineering at AppDynamics; prior to that, he has worked at reputed companies like InMobi and Microsoft. In a recent blog post, Punit Soni, the Founder & CEO of Suki.AI, talks about setting up an office in India and hiring Nitin as the Site Leader: "I'm really excited to share that we'll be opening an office in Bangalore, India. No major technology company in today's era can achieve greatness without an India story. And we are glad to kick this off with a major investment in a world-class engineering and customer success center that will complement our US team. To lead the office, I'm very thrilled to welcome Nitin Gupta to Suki. Nitin is a seasoned engineering leader with 20 years of experience building software solutions across a variety of industries." Nitin Gupta is equally excited about joining the company: "I am super excited about joining Suki as Site lead for their India office. Healthcare tech is a very interesting space and am really looking forward to Suki creating a major disruption through awesome product experiences." He goes on to thank Purple Quarter for facilitating the search process: "Also, I want to give my special thanks to Purple Quarter for making my connection with Suki. Folks at Purple Quarter were truly professional, always available, and really helped me navigate the process. I would highly recommend Purple Quarter for all Tech Leadership hiring." Purple Quarter is no stranger to the healthtech space, as they worked with Pharmeasy to find their Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO). Additionally, they have closed mandates in currently trending spaces like EdTech, finding the Head of Engineering for Vedantu. About Purple Quarter: Purple Quarter is a Bangalore based tech-head search firm based that has propelled to being industry leaders in less than 3 years of their existence. Their unidimensional approach of sticking to just tech executive search has given them an insight into the tech leadership domain few others can boast of. They have been instrumental in the search of several leaders of tech-first companies like Swiggy, Walmart Labs, Acko, Hike, Proptiger, Pharmeasy, and more. SOURCE Purple Quarter AZ Partsmaster, a distributor of maintenance supplies to the multifamily housing industry, leased 68,342 square feet in Waypoint Business Park, at 411 Cravens Road near Beltway 8 and U.S. 90 in Missouri City. Justin Robinson, Matteson Hamilton and Woody Hillyer of Stream Realty represented the landlord, 4M Investments and Clarion Partners. Payson MacWilliam, Jon Lindenberger and Paul Dominique of Colliers International represented the tenant. The Phoenix-based company, which has other Texas locations in Garland and New Braunfels, will occupy Building 1. The General Services Administration leased 22,809 square feet at Interwood Business Park, at 15109 Heathrow Forest Parkway in north Houston. Kurt Kistler of Moody Rambin represented the landlord, Heathrow Forest LLC. Kelly Winn with Savills represented the the tenant. CCJ Collaborations purchased 4.65 acres in the Tomball Business and Technology Park, a development at the northwest corner of Holderrieth and Hufsmith-Kohrville in Tomball, from Tomball Economic Development Corp. for the site of a 10,500-square-foot brewery and restaurant. Ryan Hutson of the J. Beard Co. represented Chris Juergen and Joshua Schwaiger of CCJ. Tom Condon Jr. of Colliers International represented the seller. On HoustonChronicle.com: More commercial real estate transactions Tomball Economic Development Corp. reacquired 10.6 acres at the southeast corner of Spell Road and South Persimmon Road from Packers Plus Energy Services. The lot, along with an adjacent tract, will provide 18.4 acres of contiguous available land. Kristian Nielsen of Newmark represented the seller. Tom Condon Jr. of Colliers International represented TEDC. Floor and Decor Outlets of America purchased 99.3 acres in Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown where it is building a 1.5-million square foot regional distribution center. The land is at Cedarport Parkway and Fisher Road near the Port of Houston. John Simons of NAI Partners represented the seller, TGS Cedar Port Partners. Arch-Con Construction is the general contractor for the project, which is targeting completion by year end. Atlanta-based Floor & Decor sells hard surface flooring products at more than 120 warehouse-style stores averaging 77,000 square feet each. Nine stores are in the Houston area. Cook Legal Group, LRC & Associates and Hack Anti-Aging & Human Wellness leased office space totaling 8,922 square feet at Memorial Green, a development of Houston-based Midway at 12525 Memorial Drive. Loren Cook is founder and CEO of all three companies. Cook Legal Group is a business-consulting firm with 600 clients in the medical, real estate, financial, retail and professional services industries. LRC & Associates is a tax preparation firm specializing in closely held businesses.Memorial Greens 50,000 square feet of office and 25,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space is almost fully leased. Yes Prep Public Schools purchased 8.24 acres at 441 Little York Road from BRI Investment. John Nguyen of NewQuest Properties represented the seller. Tami Pearson of Waterman Steele represented the buyer. My Favorite Quilt Store leased 7,500 square feet at 1240 Wilson Road Court, Humble. Olesya Korneva of CXRE represented the building owner, Clapp Properties. Joshua Marcell and Ryan Fassett of Moody Rambin represented the tenant. Gordon Creekside purchased Dynamic Glass Industrial Park, a 160,778-square-foot complex at 9419 Windfern Road, from Diamond Glass. TCI Properties of California represented the buyer. David L. Carter and John Nicholson of Colliers International represented the seller. Dynamic Glass will continue to occupy the four-building industrial complex under a 15-year lease. Moonshot Compost, a company specializing in food waste diversion, relocated to a 1,500-square-foot headquarters at 1001 W. 18th St. in Houston Heights. The move allows for growth as the company adds commercial and resident clients. Kinghaven Counseling Group leased 2,839 square feet of medical office space at 3425 Texas 6 in Sugar Land. Jason Gaines and Zach Leger of NAI Partners represented the landlord. Meritage Homes acquired 88 acres off U.S. 90, east of downtown Richmond, for Mandola Farms. The community is planned for 156 houses ranging from 1,831 to 2,991 square feet with prices starting in the mid $200,000s. Opening is planned in May. katherine.feser@chron.com twitter.com/kfeser Blair Heagerty / SFGATE On March 3, San Francisco is expected to follow San Mateo and Marin counties in jumping from the purple tier to red tier, allowing indoor dining to reopen at 25% capacity. "We are pleased to hear that San Francisco expects to move into the state's red tier next week," read a statement from the Golden Gate Restaurant Association (GGRA). "... We appreciate the thoughtful way that the updated guidance looks clearly at the distinctions between indoor and outdoor dining, and provides clear information on both. We are thrilled to receive this new guidance almost a week in advance of reopening, which will allow our businesses to implement what is needed and be able to bring back staff in a timely manner." Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Taiwan rejected residency applications by a famous Hong Kong entertainment tycoon and his son, who are vocally pro-Beijing Taiwan has refused to grant residency to a famous Hong Kong entertainment tycoon -- whose family are vocally pro-Beijing -- on "national security" grounds, the government and media said Thursday. The National Immigration Agency said it denied residency applications by China Star Entertainment chairman Charles Heung and his son Jackie, citing a law barring residency for Hong Kongers who raise "national welfare, public safety and order" concerns. The agency declined to elaborate on the precise reason for the rejection when reached by AFP, saying it was based on "overall considerations". However, multiple local media outlets reported that the two Heungs were considered potential national security risks because of their close ties with Chinese authorities. Heung senior applied for residency last year on grounds that his wife, Tiffany Chan, is Taiwanese. Heung became a successful actor and producer during the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the mid-80s and 90s when its film industry was a global powerhouse. His entertainment group played a key role in building the careers of film stars such as Stephen Chow, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat. He and his family are vocally pro-Beijing and have been critical of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. Heung was among a group of entertainment figures who gave a cheque to the families of seven police officers who were convicted of beating a pro-democracy activist in 2014. His wife Chan publicly criticised the huge and often violent democracy protests that broke out in 2019. Jackie Heung is also a national committee member of the All-China Youth Federation, which is linked to the Chinese Communist Youth League. Taiwan has emerged as something of a sanctuary for Hong Kong's beleaguered democracy protesters. Last year, nearly 11,000 Hong Kongers moved to Taiwan -- almost double the number of 2019 -- after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city. Beijing, which regards Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, loathes President Tsai Ing-wen. aw/jta/am/mtp Dhaka, Feb 26 : The Police on Thursday charged baton on students of Home Economics College for blocking road from Nilkhet to Azimpur in Dhaka. The students were demonstrating demanding resumption of postponed exams. The students at around 11:00 a.m. blocked the road raising their demands and then entered the college premises. The students said the suspension of exams has troubled many examinees who rented houses as the residential halls in Dhaka remain shut. In view of the protest, additional police forces were deployed in front of the college to avoid any unwanted situation. But some students alleged that without any provocation the police charged baton on them. Meanwhile, College Principal Ismat Rumina met the agitating students but she failed to pacify them. "The students started demonstration without consulting us. They want directives from the Education Minister, said Rumina. The police, however, denied the charges. "We've asked them to file their complaints in writing," said Sub-Inspector Firoz deployed at Lalbagh police station. The BSS final year exams were scheduled to start from Thursday but the government on Monday decided to postponed them. (Sumi Khan can be contacted at sumikhan29bdj@gmail.com) Mike has reported on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's wildlife, wildlands and the agencies that manage them since 2012. A native Minnesotan, he arrived in the West to study environmental journalism at the University of Colorado. She lived in a gated complex with CCTV and had called police for help just hours before she died. None of it was enough to save her. It should have been, though she should still be with us. Ms Langhams death came two days after the anniversary of the Clarke family murders. Hannah Clarke was driving her three young children to school on a typical Wednesday morning when her estranged husband doused his family in petrol and lit them on fire. Ms Clarke and her three children Laianah, Aaliyah and Trey all died. The Brisbane mother had taken out a DVO against her killer a few months before her murder, which he breached. Pregnant Gold Coast woman Fabiana Palhares was so afraid of her ex-partner Brock Wall she slept with a shovel beside her bed and arranged for security cameras to be installed at her home. Wall is serving a life sentence after bludgeoning the Ms Palhares to death with an axe and jumping on her stomach to kill their unborn child. She had taken out a domestic violence order, which Wall breached when he broke into her home a few weeks before she was murdered. Six months after the brutal killing, Tara Brown was bludgeoned to death by the father of her child, Lionel Patea, with a 7.8-kilogram metal fire hydrant cover. Five days before her death, police dismissed Ms Browns fears for her life and her initial request for a domestic violence protection order. One officer involved later told an internal investigation it was commonplace for women to make false allegations to further their position in Family Court matters. Ms Brown had been hiding from him at a safe house and friends homes after she was eventfully granted a DVO, which he breached. LNP domestic violence spokeswoman Amanda Camm said a DVO was just a piece of paper that meant nothing unless it was enforced. She said more powers needed to be given to police and courts to crack down on people who broke the restraining orders. Time and time again we hear about people who have breached multiple orders with no consequences, she said. Perpetrators who breach orders or who have already committed acts of violence need to be held to account. I mean, an order is just a piece of paper it only means something if it is enacted by the police force. Ms Camm said GPS tracking devices should be clamped on those who showed an escalating pattern of DVO breaches. GPS tracking is a practical and proactive way we could be starting to manage risk, she said. Every day people are losing their lives to something that is preventable. This is not a virus or a disease it is people making choices about terrorising another individual. LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates, a victim of domestic violence herself, said more than 520 domestic violence applications were made each week in Queensland on average last year. Doreen Langham is believed to have died in the unit fire at Browns Plains. Credit:Facebook According to Queensland court data there were 7206 DVO breaches across the state between July and September last year, representing a 30.5 per cent increase on the same period last year, she told Parliament. Earlier this week we saw another tragic case, a woman killed in a house fire by her partner after she called the police reporting a breach of a DVO taken out against that same person. We must do more, we have to do more, more women are dying. What is the government doing? The state Labor government has tasked former Court of Appeal judge Margaret McMurdo with drawing up draft laws to criminalise coercive control. Known as intimate terrorism, coercive control is a pattern of emotional abuse that can be a precursor to physical violence. A taskforce headed by Ms McMurdo will draw a line in the sand between an unhealthy relationship and controlling behaviour that should be outlawed. Loading The taskforce will report to government by October and Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman hopes to introduce legislation to Parliament in 2022. She said only four countries in the world Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England had criminalised coercive control. Nowhere in this country has there been legislation to tackle this incredibly dangerous behaviour, we have to get this right. Ms Fentiman has also flagged a major review into the way the criminal justice system deals with victims of sexual and domestic violence would be launched in coming months. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Vanderbilt paleoclimatologists using pioneering research have uncovered evidence of ancient climate "whiplash" in California that exceeded even the extremes the state has weathered in the past decade. Their findings present a long-term picture of what regional climate change may look like in the state that supplies the U.S. with more than a third of its vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. "We hope this is useful to planners who are seeking more information on recurrence intervals of climate events like droughts, storms and floods," said Jessica Oster, associate professor of Earth and environmental sciences. Working with a stalagmite that grew from 8,600 to 6,900 years ago, Oster and a team of researchers set out to identify climate patterns beyond the scope of human records. Their article, "Semiquantitative Estimates of Rainfall Variability During the 8.2kyr Event in California Using Speleothem Calcium Isotope Ratios," was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on Dec. 28. The researchers included graduate student Cameron de Wet and undergraduate Yiruo Xu. Measuring calcium isotopes in stalagmites allows scientists to estimate actual quantities of past rainfall. Other markers, like trace element ratios and carbon, are affected by other factors and do not provide this level of clarity. Uniquely, calcium within speleothemsstalactites or stalagmitesis controlled by how quickly the water moves from the surface of rock above a cave to the cave itself. To make sense of the calcium isotopes, the researchers analyzed 69 samples from a stalagmite in White Moon Cave in the Santa Cruz Mountains and from modern samples of calcite grown in the cave. "Analyzing calcium isotopes is a growing field," de Wet said. "It has already proven to generate more robust and reliable estimates of how rainfall varied in the past." This research is the first known to use calcium isotope analysis for speleothems in North America and the third known worldwide. The records the team measured bookend an abrupt cold snap noted in global climate records 8,200 years ago. The event may have been triggered by the final phases of a melting ice sheet in Canada that dumped cold, fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean. With the Greenland ice sheet melting in a similar way today, Oster said that their research period could have functional relevance to what's happening with our current climate system. By comparing measurements of rainfall thousands of years ago with modern rainfall amounts, the researchers found that the magnitude of rainfall variability during and surrounding the early cold snap in some cases exceeded the climate whiplash experienced in California today. Combined, these records indicate that the Santa Cruz region may experience more wet and dry extremes in the future. "We can say climate extremes have happened in the past and that we've seen once-in-a-lifetime events, but understanding the frequency of events can be helpful looking forward," de Wet said. "The way we currently look at climate change is through big-picture models, but it has been harder to get a local picture of what climate change might look like on the ground," Oster said. "The records we now have tell us what happened in this place, at a time that may have similarities to where we're going." Explore further Geochemical analysis from the last ice age may hold clues for future climate change and preparedness strategies More information: Cameron B. de Wet et al. Semiquantitative Estimates of Rainfall Variability During the 8.2 kyr Event in California Using Speleothem Calcium Isotope Ratios, Geophysical Research Letters (2020). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Cameron B. de Wet et al. Semiquantitative Estimates of Rainfall Variability During the 8.2 kyr Event in California Using Speleothem Calcium Isotope Ratios,(2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020GL089154 Libya: PM Dbeibah sends list of ministers to parliament Spokesperson says confidence vote expected 'afterwards' (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 25 - The list of ministers in the new Libyan National Unity Government led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is expected to be presented Thursday in the Libyan House of Representatives, said the site Al Wasat. It said the announcement came Wednesday evening from the press office of the new transition government and was confirmed by House of Representatives spokesperson Abdullah Bliheg. Bliheg said the date for the vote of confidence, with a session expected in Sirte, will be set "afterwards". The new government, called to substitute that of the Government of National Accord led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, is tasked with bringing Libya to elections scheduled by the UN for 24 December. Dbeibah was nominated on 5 February by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, composed of MPs and members of civil society chosen by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). By presenting his list of ministers Thursday, he is respecting the 21-day deadline established at the time of his nomination for the presentation to the House of Representatives of the executive branch and his programme. Based on the timeline decided upon by the Forum in Geneva, the House of Representatives then has another 21 days to express its confidence.(ANSAmed). One of the most inspiring businesses on the East Coast will be expanding into the Lehigh Valley. The business in question is Bitty & Beaus Coffee, your friendly neighborhood coffee shop. Whats unique about the small chain, however, is that its four operating locations are staffed by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The business was started by Amy Wright, whose two youngest children, Bitty & Beau, have Down syndrome. Five years after opening, theyll open a new location in Bethlehem. The timeline is still up in the air, but Wright said via email that theyve circled later this year as their target for opening. Wright and Co. are actively looking for a site in the citys Downtown. The Christmas City will join Wilmington, North Carolina, which was the flagship store opened in January of 2016; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and Annapolis, Maryland, as well as two other locations in corporate offices, in Bitty & Beaus expansion. Wright, her husband Ben and, of course, Bitty and Beau announced the new location in a video posted to the companys Facebook page. The company employs 120 people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, advocating for the inclusion and acceptance of the disabled. Wright was named the 2017 CNN Hero of the Year award for her work, and in her acceptance speech directed a mantra to her two youngest kids watching at home: I would not change you for the world, but I would change the world for you. That aptly sums up the coffee business mission. FLORENCE, Ore. A pair of restaurants in the coastal city of Florence face staggering fines from Oregon OSHA for "willful" violations of the state's coronavirus guidelines while Lane County was under "Extreme Risk" restrictions. The Little Brown Hen Cafe faces a fine of $17,800. OSHA sent inspectors to the location after multiple complaints that the restaurant was continuing to allow indoor dining beginning around the end of December. When inspectors visited the restaurant on January 4, OSHA said that they were met by a group of people standing outside the entrance, "one of whom carried a firearm." The inspectors were threatened and told to leave. "The officers politely left. As the officers walked to their cars, the people outside the entrance followed them," OSHA said. "The people shouted at the officers as the officers left the parking lot." OSHA administrator Michael Wood hit the restaurant with a $17,800 penalty twice the minimum for a willful violation as a deterrent for employers who "insist on disregarding public health measures," putting employees at risk and giving the employer an advantage over compliant businesses. Most employers are choosing to do the right thing, Wood said, even as they face very real economic hardships. As for those relatively few employers who are working against our shared project to defeat this disease, we will continue our enforcement work in the interest of accountability. Around the same time as the Little Brown Hen investigation, OSHA received complaints about The Firehouse Restaurant. Inspectors conducted interviews over the phone because of social media posts showing the "potential for armed people to block access to the business." "Moreover, the investigation showed that some extremist groups were encouraging people to engage in violence against Oregon OSHA compliance officers if they visited the site," the agency said. Wood also imposed a $17,800 fine on The Firehouse for the apparent willful violation, but added two smaller penalties because the owners did not develop an infection control plan or COVID-19 risk assessment bringing the total fine to $18,150. "The inspection of The Firehouse Restaurant found the business committing the violations on or about Dec. 26 and continuing to do so afterward. The inspection included an interview with Kylie McKenzie, manager of the restaurant," OSHA said. "McKenzie said she originally closed the business to the public, but later decided to re-open it, even though she was aware the decision went against measures to prevent the spread of the disease in an extreme-risk county." Employers have 30 days to appeal the citations from OSHA. Lane County is set to step down from Extreme to High Risk on Friday. Siya and Rachel Kolisi have come on board the gender-based violence-themed short film, "#WeAreDyingHere", as executive producers. Siphokazi Jonas, Hope Netshivhambe, Babalwa Makwetu Siphokazi Jonas I am tired of feeling helpless and afraid as a woman in South Africa, Jonas insists. Before work began on creating #WeAreDyingHere, I felt as if art has no real place in terms of true change in the world; a film is not going to change murderous intent. But a fellow writer reminded me that our work gives us language and helps us to articulate ourselves and thats what we hope #WeAreDyingHere will elicit. GOOD NEWS! #WeAreDyingHere film will be in competition for Best Short Narrative at this years Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles. The film will have its US premier at the festival which runs from 28 February - 14 March 2021. #PAFF2021 #iampaff More info @PAFFNOW pic.twitter.com/nvFGV8EkYJ Siphokazi Jonas (@Siphokazi_J) February 25, 2021 One of the most beautiful results of this film is that it causes people to stop, think and more so encourages men and women to have conversations. Like the title, it gets straight to the point, explained Rachel.There are many things that need to be unpacked in this film, and there is a lot that can be explained, Siya added. The narrative of the film also teaches you that gender-based violence doesnt start with the violence, but the whole thought process; the film encompasses a lot of educational learnings for us as men.Produced by Bianca Schmitz of Optical Films and Siphokazi Jonas of Wrestling Dawn Arts, in association with the Kolisi Foundation, #WeAreDyingHere chronicles the journey of three soldiers forced to survive a war that they did not choose. In this war against womens bodies, they attempt to find solace by telling their stories under the constant watch of a relentless enemy. #WeAreDyingHere is an intimate reflection on the impact of violence, harassment, abuse, rape and femicide on everyday life. While the film never depicts any violence, the psychological and emotional trauma on these soldiers is evident. It is a necessary insight into the experience of living in South Africa where names of missing or murdered women trend frequently.#WeAreDyingHere is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed stage performance of the same name created by writer and performer Siphokazi Jonas who directed the original stage production. In July 2020, the stage production was mentioned in TimeOut New York as one of the best productions to stream during the lockdown. This production was co-written and performed by poet Hope Netshivhambe, and musician Babalwa Makwetu, who all reprise their roles in the film.Director Shane Vermooten says about the production: During the initial lockdown in South Africa, I watched a recording of the stage production, and when the performance finished, I sat in my living room with tears streaming down my face. I couldnt think of anything else for days. I knew we had to adapt this incredible production for the screen.He continues: #WeAreDyingHere is a unique combination of spoken word poetry, theatre and film and this distinctive combination helps deliver a powerful and poignant message in a visually rich way, which I havent seen on screen before.#WeAreDyingHere will have its global premiere at The Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in February 2021. PAFF is the largest Black History Month event in the US, a nexus for emerging Black voices looking to be seen, felt and heard.Although the film title is, #WeAreDyingHere, the producers want the film to leave everyone with an overwhelming sense of how much women want to live: to thrive, fearlessly and as freely as possible. A professor at the University of Ilorin, Mahfouz Adedimeji, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the newly-approved Ahman Pategi University, Kwara State. The pro-chancellor and chairman of the council of the new university, Aliyu Pategi, presented an appointment letter to Mr Adedimeji on Tuesday at the universitys permanent site. The ceremony was attended by the universitys board of trustees chairman, Isah Mohammed, and the acting registrar, Mustapha Abdullahi. Mr Adedimeji, a professor of pragmatics and applied linguistics, was until his appointment a lecturer and was regarded as one of the most respected academic figures at the University of Ilorin. He holds a B.A. (Honours), M.A. and Ph.D. in English Language from the University of Ilorin. He studied Media and Communications at Governors State University, Illinois, USA. He also received training in peace studies at Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame University, Indiana, USA. He is a former Director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies of the University of Ilorin and ex-member of the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association. Mr Adedimeji is also a Fulbright scholar who holds a certificate of the Virtual Institute for Higher Education Pedagogy (VIHEP) of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigeria. He is also a UNDP consultant, columnist and public speaker. The new vice-chancellor started his academic career in 2000 at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, before joining the University of Ilorin where he rose to become a professor in 2019. A well-published scholar, he has attended scores of academic conferences across Nigeria and within Africa, Europe, Asia, and the United States Reactions In his reaction to the new appointment, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Sulyman Abdulkareem, commended Mr Adedimeji. In a statement signed on his behalf by the Director of Corporate Affairs, Kunle Akogun, the official said Mr Adedimejis appointment did not come to him and most members of the university community as a surprise, considering his track records. ALSO READ: 2 UNILORIN lecturers win international research grants Mr Abdulkareem, a professor, described the new VC as a renowned wordsmith and one of the most promising alumni of the University of Ilorin. He said he had followed the stimulating career trajectory of the new vice-chancellor, especially his sterling service delivery endeavours as a teacher, researcher, writer and administrator. He said he had always believed the foremost newspaper columnist has greater days ahead of him. He described Mr Adedimeji as a very brilliant academic, hard working administrator and a painstaking researcher. He also expressed the belief that the appointee possesses every quality needed to succeed in his new task of assisting the new university to lay a healthy, strong and sustainable foundation, which will stand the test of time. He urged the former National Secretary of the University of Ilorin Alumni Association, to ensure he brings to bear his glowing erudition and exciting exposure to his new assignment. ADVERTISEMENT Ahman Pategi University is one of the 20 new private universities recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari. The institution is located in Patigi, Kwara State. CHICAGO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cook County Board of Commissioners has enacted an ordinance that would increase disclosure in an area where it is long overdue Tax Increment Financing districts, Treasurer Maria Pappas said today. The Board approved an amendment to the Debt Disclosure Ordinance, which allows the Treasurer's Office to gather vital financial data for the county's 547 primary taxing districts and publish it on cookcountytreasurer.com. The amendment would give taxpayers the opportunity to examine how TIF dollars have been spent and to whom. This information also would be posted to cookcountytreasurer.com for taxpayers to view and download. Pappas suggested the idea to the board and helped draft the amendment. "The County Board took ground-breaking action regarding transparency when it passed the Debt Disclosure Ordinance in 2009 at my request," Pappas said. "I am grateful to the Board for doing the same with TIFs." Commissioners John P. Daley (11th) and Larry Suffredin (13th) were lead sponsors of the amendment, which had 13 cosponsors: Alma E. Anaya (7th), Luis Arroyo Jr. (8th), Dennis Deer (2nd), Bridget Degnen (12th), Bridget Gainer (10th), Brandon Johnson (1st), Bill Lowry (3rd), Donna Miller (6th), Stanley Moore (4th), Sean M. Morrison (17th), Kevin B. Morrison (15th), Peter N. Silvestri (9th), Deborah Sims (5th). Two commissioners voted no: Frank J. Aguilar (16th) and Scott R. Britton (14th). In Cook County, 444 TIF Districts across 96 municipalities accounted for more than $1.3 billion in property tax revenue last year or 8.4% of the entire $15.6 billion billed. SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office Related Links http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com Drilling work expected to get underway in April, investors were told Great Western Mining PLC (LON:GWMO, Euronext Growth:8GW) is gearing up for a busy year on the ground in Nevada, with drilling work expected to get underway in April. It said it will also continue its work assessing the production potential from spoil heap material as it noted that a simple technique called gravity separation has yielded commercial gold and silver in lab testing. The company is focused on gold and silver exploration and production in the aptly named Mineral County, an area that has been prolific for gold and silver. Its 14,900 acres-worth of concessions all lie within the Walker Lane trend, which has yielded significant discoveries such as Comstock Lode, Yerington, Pumpkin Hollow and Isabella Pearl. Historic geological reports have identified seven lodes, prospectives for gold and silver on Mineral Jackpot, where previous exploration work has uncovered grades of up to 95.6 grams per tonne of the yellow metal. It also has the Rock House ( ) gold-silver targets, where early exploration work has identified three new, unexplored mineralised zones. At the Olympic Gold Project, over which Great Western has a four-year option to purchase, is an area that houses a now-disused mine that was prolific with some good gold grades. GWR also has copper assets in the M2 and M4 projects and the M1 and M8 targets. The 2021 drill programme, covering 10,000 feet, will target the Olympic project, and specifically the OMCO mine extension and Trafalgar Hill Prospect. Work will also be carried out on the group, the M4 copper-gold prospects and the Mineral Jackpot area. Away from exploration, a sample load from Mineral Jackpot has been analysed and the early data suggest spoil heap (waste) material can be processed using a simple and cheap method called gravity separation to produce commercial levels of gold and silver. GWM is also assessing whether to use cyanide leaching with tests expected to be completed next month. Gravity separation offers an interim solution, but a decision to construct a stand-alone leaching project would need to take account of exploiting new veins in addition to processing existing spoil heaps in order to be viable, investors were told. The company produced a dore bar as a pilot exercise using material from test spoil heaps on the Mineral Jackpot. The success of the trial proves the concept of being able to extract gold and silver from up to 12,000 tons of material available from 38 spoil heaps on the property. GWM said promising new material has been collected in the last two weeks from and near the trenching carried on the RH area, which will also be processed. Flash You already know about the cosmopolitan glitz of Shanghai and the ancient treasures of the Forbidden City in Beijing, but here's why you should head to China's off-the-beaten-path destinations. There are many great things about living in China, but surely one of the best is that you can hop on a high-speed train or plane and easily explore the country. With the coronavirus greatly curtailing foreign travel, I've been appreciative of the freedom to explore this diverse part of the world. From the advanced metropolises of the coast to the parched sand dunes of the Tarim Basin, China has no shortage of incredible places to visit. But this year, I wanted to travel to some lesser-known parts of the country. Sure, it is worth seeing the Great Wall, and the Terracotta Army is awe inspiring, but to fully appreciate the country it's best to combine these world-famous sites with something a little out of the ordinary. Doing so presents travelers with the opportunity to learn more about local culture, support local communities and even save money. During this Spring Festival, with people discouraged from traveling outside the province in which they are living due to the coronavirus, my girlfriend and I searched for interesting destinations within Guangdong. We were spoilt for choice. The province boasts a spectacular 4,300km coastline and hundreds of small islands scattered throughout the northern waters of the South China Sea. We searched up and down the coast on Baidu Maps. Eventually our curiosity was piqued by a little island jutting out from the northernmost point of Guangdong's coast near the city of Shantou: Nan'ao Island. Nan'ao county, which is part of Shantou City, consists of Nan'ao Island and 33 surrounding islands. The main island is covered in dense tropical forests and dotted with small fishing communities and sheltered beaches. Like many people, I'd never heard of it until I booked the trip. Venturing off the beaten path, I was instantly immersed in the local culture. Many of the hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions on the island are owned by locals and the streets of its towns were filled with independent stores. Everybody had a story to tell. In one restaurant, a waitress told us about how local residents still searched for ancient treasure said to have been buried there by the infamous pirate, Wu Ping, in 1565. There were also plenty of opportunities to participate in local activities and benefit the local community too. One morning, we took a boat out into the shallow waters surrounding the island to hunt for sea life with a local fisherman. Like many fishermen on the island, he explained that he made more money taking tourists out to experience traditional fishing than he did from actually catching fish. "My family have fished off these shores for generations. But in recent years, weve made most of our living from tourists coming to experience our way of life," he said. In an international first, a former Syrian intelligence service member has been found guilty of crimes against humanity, writes Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. A German court on Wednesday convicted a former Syrian intelligence service agent for complicity in crimes against humanity, in the first court case of its kind. Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was found guilty for helping to arrest protesters and deliver them to a detention center in Damascus in autumn 2011. It is the first-ever time an individual connected to the Syrian government has been tried for his role in state-sponsored torture in Syria. The accused is sentenced to four years and six months for aiding and abetting a crime against humanity in the form of torture and deprivation of liberty, judge Anne Kerber said. Gharib hid his face from the cameras with a folder as the verdict was read out, arms folded and wearing a medical mask. Almost 10 years since the Arab Spring reached Syria on Mar. 15, 2011, the judgment is the first in the world related to the brutal repression of protesters by the regime in Damascus. Gharib, a former low-ranking member of the intelligence service, is accused of helping to arrest at least 30 protesters and deliver them to the Al-Khatib detention center in Damascus after a rally in Duma. He is the first of two defendants on trial since April 23 to be sentenced by the court in Koblenz, after judges decided to split the proceedings in two. The second defendant, Anwar Raslan, 58, is accused directly of crimes against humanity, including overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of 4,000 others. Raslans trial is expected to last until at least the end of October. The two men are being tried on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity, including war crimes and genocide, regardless of where they were committed. Cog in the machine Other such cases have also sprung up in Germany, France, and Sweden, as Syrians who have sought refuge in Europe turn to the only legal means currently available to them due to paralysis in the international justice system. Prosecutors in Koblenz had been seeking five and a half years for Gharib, who defected in 2012 before finally fleeing Syria in February 2013. After spending time in Turkey and then Greece, Gharib arrived in Germany on April 25, 2018. He has never denied his past, and in fact, it was his stories told to German authorities in charge of his asylum application that eventually led to his arrest in February 2019. Prosecutors accused him of being a cog in the machine of a system where torture was practiced on an almost industrial scale. During the trial, Gharib wrote a letter read out by his lawyers in which he expressed his sorrow for the victims. And it was with tears streaming down his face that he listened to his lawyers call for his acquittal, arguing that he and his family could have been killed if he had not carried out the orders of the regime. But Patrick Kroker, a lawyer representing the joint plaintiffs, argued that Gharib could have been more forthcoming during the trial, rather than keeping silent throughout the hearings. People like him can be very important in informing us about the [Syrian officials] we are really targeting, but it is something he chose not to do, said Kroker. During the trial, more than a dozen Syrian men and women took the stand to testify about the appalling abuses they endured in the Al-Khatib detention center, also named Branch 251. Some witnesses were heard anonymously, with their faces concealed or wearing wigs for fear of reprisals against their relatives still in Syria. The trial also marked the first time that photos from the so-called Caesar files were presented in a court of law. The 50,000 images taken by Syrian military police defector Caesar show the corpses of 6,786 Syrians who had been starved or tortured to death inside the Assad regimes detention centers. They were scrutinized during the trial by forensic scientist Markus Rothschild, whose analysis constituted overwhelming material evidence. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Gold Fields Limited (Gold Fields) (JSE: GFI) (NYSE: GFI) welcomes the electricity generation licence approved today by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) for the construction of a 40MW solar power plant at its South Deep mine. The acting CEO of NERSA now has to authorise the license, a decision that should be forthcoming over the next two weeks. All the regulatory approvals to proceed with the project are then in place. Gold Fields will update its definitive costings and finalise all the required internal processes to commence the project as soon as possible. The solar plant has the potential to provide around 20% of South Deep's average electricity consumption. Says Nick Holland, Gold Fields' CEO: "The solar power plant will increase the reliability and affordability of power supply to South Deep, ultimately enhancing the long-term sustainability of the mine. "The approval of this licence sends a strong, positive message to mining companies and their investors, potentially leading to decisions being taken to sustain and grow mining operations in the country, especially in deep-level, underground, marginal mines. Enabling companies to generate their own power also gives Eskom room to address operational issues at its power plants." Gold Fields' energy objectives are based on four pillars energy must be reliable, available, cost-effective and clean which promote a shift to self-generation using renewable energy sources. "We are fully committed to making our contribution towards net-zero emissions," says Holland. During 2020, Gold Fields successfully implemented solar and wind power plants, backed by battery storage, at two of its Australian mines, Agnew and Granny Smith, and committed to renewables at its other Australian mines, Gruyere and St Ives, as well as the Salares Norte project in Chile when it starts operations in 2023. All its other mines are also reviewing renewable energy options. Since full commissioning of the Agnew microgrid, renewable electricity averages over 55% of total supply at the mine. During 2020, renewable electricity averaged 8% for the Australia region and 3% of total Group electricity. Once the South Deep project is commissioned, renewable's contribution to the Group total will rise to approximately 11%. Holland says: "We expect our investment in renewable and low-carbon energy sources to contribute significantly to our carbon emission reductions over the next few years. Power from the South Deep solar plant will partially replace coal-fired electricity from Eskom, enabling us to significantly reduce our Scope 2 carbon emissions." Notes to editors About Gold Fields Gold Fields is a globally diversified gold producer with nine operating mines in Australia, Peru, South Africa and West Africa (including the Asanko JV), as well as one project in Chile. We have total attributable annual gold-equivalent production of 2.2Moz, attributable gold-equivalent Mineral Reserves of 51.3Moz and Mineral Resources of 115.7Moz. Our shares are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and our American depositary shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Enquiries Investors Avishkar Nagaser Tel: +27 11 562-9775 Mobile: +27 82 312 8692 Email: [email protected] Thomas Mengel Tel: +27 11 562-9849 Mobile: +27 72 493 5170 Email: [email protected] Media Sven Lunsche Tel: +27 11 562-9763 Mobile: +27 83 260 9279 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Gold Fields Limited Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 09:58:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- A report said Australians spend billions of dollars every year on illicit drugs. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) on Thursday published the 12th report from the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program (NWDMP), which has measured Australian drug use since 2017. It estimated that Australians consumed 11,147 kg of methylamphetamine, known colloquially as ice, in the fourth year of the survey, down from 11,516 kg in year three. Cocaine consumption increased from 4,636 kg to 5,675 kg while that of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, increased by 400 kg. According to the report, Australians spent 8.9 billion Australian dollars (7.09 billion U.S. dollars) on illicit drugs, 78 percent of which, or 6.96 billion AUD (5.55 billion U.S. dollars), was spent on ice. "Illicit drugs are debilitating, they are destroying lives and the fabric of many communities in Australia," Michael Phelan, the chief executive of ACIC, said in a media release. "Organized crime groups make money through whatever illegal means they can and profit from the importation, manufacture, trafficking and sale of drugs that cause harm to the community," he said. "By measuring the level of consumption of illicit drugs and legal drugs with abuse potential, the NWDMP can identify new sources of threat and be used as a key indicator of the harm posed by these substances." Wastewater samples were taken from sites covering 56 percent of Australia's population, approximately 13.2 million people, for the study. Enditem Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has delineated the roles of the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Boundary Commission in an attempt to dismiss the misconceptions surrounding the duties of the two public organizations. Samuel Abu Jinapor was on Wednesday, February 24 vetted by the Appointments Committee in Parliament. During his vetting, the Minister-designate who was a former Deputy Chief of Staff highlighted reasons why the Ghana Boundary Commission has been placed under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. The issue of the placement of the Ghana Boundary Commission under the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry became a matter of concern to the Appointments Committee and a question was raised on why it should be under such Ministry. Some Ghanaians are of the view that the Boundary Commission shares similar functions with the Immigration Service. Responding before the Committee, Hon. Abu Jinapor noted that there is a vast difference between the roles of the two organizations. He explained that, "the Ghana Boundary Commission's mandate essentially is to determine, negotiate and/or delineate the boundaries as they relate to Ghana and its neighbouring countries. Where does the borders of Ghana begin; where do they end? That is essentially their work, both on land and on our seas. Now, they do so for purposes of [1] determining the landmarks of Ghana. So this is why it is under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. [2] They do so also in the sea to determine the natural resources of our country''. ''I think that the placement of the Ghana Boundaries Commission under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is perfect. It's absolutely normal. There's nothing wrong because they're dealing with the lands of Ghana as well as the natural resources of Ghana in the sea," he strongly held. He expounded on how different the Ghana Immigration Service and the Boundary Commission are, hence making it right for the Commission to be under the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry. "I don't see any conflict at all. To my mind, I respectfully think the Ghana Boundaries Commission's mandate is exclusively for purposes of determining what are the borders of Ghana whereas the Ghana Immigration Service, their mandate is border security; protecting the borders of Ghana," he said. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Nothing, founded by ex-co-founder OnePlus, Carl Pei, has announced a partnership with Stockholm-based teenage engineering, a company known for unique craftsmanship and industrial design prowess. To reiterate, teenage engineering has been developing highly acclaimed products for people who love sound, music, and design. The companys emblematic first product, the portable wonder synthesizer OP-1, was launched in 2010 and is still used by world-famous musicians today. Notably, Nothing will be releasing its first products in the coming months, which is expected to be headphones, according to various rumors. The company recently announced that it is opening up for its community to invest as part of its Series A. So far, over 20,000 people have signed up for early access with a registered interest of close to $30 million in total. This community funding round will be carried out through a crowdfunding campaign starting on March 2nd. Jesper Kouthoofd, co-founder & CEO of teenage engineering, is the Creative Lead and the visionary behind Nothings design world, while Tom Howard has been appointed as Head of Design of Nothing. Carl Pei, CEO & co-founder of Nothing, said: Im really excited to welcome teenage engineering to the growing Nothing family. They consist of some of the best designers and creatives that Ive had the pleasure of working with. Together, weve created a product roadmap thats unique and true to Nothings vision. Jesper Kouthoofd, Founding Partner & Creative Lead of Nothing, said: 'Captured alive on May 8, killed on May 17 in alleged clash with Sabah police' FIVE ABU Sayyaf terrorists were killed following an a... Polyplex USA today announced plans for a $90.6 million production expansion at its Decatur facility, with the additional hiring of 100 workers. Construction at the facility is scheduled to begin during the first half of this year, with production beginning by the end of 2022. The expansion will increase the capacity to produce BOPET, a material used in packaging, electrical and industrial applications. The expansion will give Polyplexs Decatur facility the largest capacity BOPET film line in the world. Polyplex USA President Amit Kalra said the expansion will tap into the growing shift towards local supply in regional markets. It will also make Polyplex USAs cost structure more efficient with a two-line configuration. We are eager to leverage our existing operations, our strong ties to our customers, to our communities and of course to the expertise of our operations team as evidenced by our successful expansions in other locations, Kalra said. We have a well-established sales and distribution system and hope to continue to provide additional value to our customers with a cost effective, faster turnaround and increased reliability of supplies. Founded in India in 1984, Polyplex operates manufacturing and distribution facilities in India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. Polyplexs reinvestment in its Decatur facility shows that the company has a high level of confidence in its Alabama workforce and in the future prospects of its Morgan County operation, Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said. The project was supported by the State of Alabama, TVA, the City of Decatur, the Morgan County Commission and other local officials. Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:46 pm Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler and California Democrat Katie Porter reintroduced their Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act this week after the bill made little progress in the 116th Congress, which ended last January. Named after advocate Charlotte Woodward, who has Down syndrome and received a heart transplant in 2012, the bill would prohibit discrimination based on mental or physical disability for organ transplants. If an individual needs access to a life-saving organ transplant, they shouldnt be denied based on their disability either physical or mental, Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Battle Ground, said in a press release. Im proud to reintroduce this important legislation today named after Charlotte Woodward, a relentless advocate against discrimination who has Down syndrome, to help ensure people with disabilities receive the same treatment and access to life-saving organ transplants. Woodward has previously championed the bill as one to ensure people with disabilities have the same opportunity for lifesaving care that she was given in 2012. Last year, the bill was introduced in December and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Im proud to renew my push with Congresswoman Herrera Beutler to prevent discrimination against Americans with disabilities in getting necessary transplants, Porter said. Discrimination has no place in our healthcare system. Facebook said on Wednesday that it had barred Myanmars military from its platforms, weeks after the countrys fragile democratic government was overthrown in a military coup. The move, which also bars military-owned businesses from advertising on Facebook, plunged the social network more directly into Myanmars post-coup politics. The decision left little question that the company was taking the side of a pro-democracy movement against a military government that had abruptly seized power. Facebook acted after years of criticism over how Myanmars military has used the site, including to incite hatred against the countrys Muslim Rohingya minority group. Since the coup early this month, which ousted the civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and returned Myanmar to full military rule, the military has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut access to major social media sites. A red-alert for toxic cyanobacterial blooms has been issued for almost the entire Lower Darling River, with fears another big fish kill is imminent without significant new flows. Popularly known as blue-green algae, the toxic blooms along the Lower Darling, between the Menindee Lakes to the Murray River, also have become a major problem for other parts of the state, including the Burrinjuck Dam, near Canberra, and Malpas Dam in north-east NSW. Noah Hindmarsh looks at a cyanobacterial bloom near Menindee on the Darling River earlier this month. Credit:Michael Minns Human exposure to high levels of the algae and their toxins can cause diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting as well as skin, eye or throat irritation and allergic reactions or breathing difficulties. The blooms make the water undrinkable, unswimmable and unsuitable for bathing, which are huge problems for the communities along the Lower Darling. Fishing and stock watering also should be avoided. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. A 17-year-old male was shot in the head Wednesday night and then left at a local hospital, San Antonio police said. The teenager later died. The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office identified the teenager as Domanic Thatcher. Starting at a Black Newspaper, Dana White is the First Black Woman Chief Communication Officer at a Major Automaker As Hyundai North Americas first Black Chief Communications Officer, Dana W. White knows what it is like to have two feet in two worlds. Growing up, I always knew about the power of communication, the power of words, she said, talking about her childhood in Charlottesville, Virginia. My grandfather, who was born in 1896, founded the oldest Black newspaper in the state. I used to cut ad sheets every month and write copy and process black-and-white photos [at the paper]. The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in me and my family. While the weekly Black newspaper, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune, is gone, the familys entrepreneurial spirit lives on. The environment I grew up in, my family, was that there was never just a pot of gold waiting for me at the end of the tunnel, she said. Its in my DNA to make it happen for yourself. ADVERTISEMENT Dr. Ben Chavis runs the trade group for African American newspaper publishers. The National Newspapers Publishers Association salutes Hyundai for its decision to elevate an African American woman leader to the position of chief communications officer. In this year, where the focus is on the empowerment of all women, Dana White represents and embodies the best of Black America, he told Zenger News of White. She studied hard in college, taking the toughest courses on purpose even if they were scheduled early in the morning and required long walks across Chicago wind-chilled campus. Those courses included learning to read, write and speak Mandarin, the mostly widely used of the Chinese-language dialects. She majored in Chinese history at the University of Chicago. After college, she moved to Washington, DC without a job and worked as an intern and a temp to pay the bills while she applied for jobs on Capitol Hill. Now, Dana White runs North American communications for Hyundai Motor Company, a South Korean car maker that builds more than half of its vehicles at its plant in Alabama and employs some 25,000 people in the United States. She joined the Zenger News advisory board in 2019. White sees herself as a cross-cultural bridge. At Hyundai Motor North America, she is the chief communications officera first for Korean automaker in the U.S. She oversees communications for Hyundai Motor North America headquarters and all of Hyundais North America Affiliates including Canada and Mexico, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Glovis (Hyundais Logistics Operations), Mobis (Hyundai Parts Operations), Hyundai Capital and the Washington, DC Office. White also has strategic oversight of Hyundais luxury automotive brand Genesis, the first SUV for the industrys newest luxury brand. When I joined Hyundai a year ago, I knew I needed someone who understood decision making at the highest levels, storytelling and how to work across cultures seamlessly to deliver results. So, I called Dana, said Jose Munoz, Global COO of Hyundai Motor Company and Pres. & CEO of Hyundai Motor North America. Its rare to find one person with all the skills, talents and experiences that she has. And she has proven track record of success. In a few short months, Dana has already made a big difference in how we operate, communicate and tell the Hyundai story. ADVERTISEMENT Ultimately for White, she said her passions are education, excellence and empowerment. I can still hear my grandfathers gruff voice saying, Mouse, I want you to be a smart little girl. Learn everything you can. I think about everything he survived, all the limits placed on his life and how if he could see me nowa man who was proud to put pictures of my nursery school graduation in the paperI know hed saySo, Mousewhats next? The thing about me is that Im propelled by history and obsessed with the future. Im passionate about ideas and a mission. I want to see people move forwardknow their past and explore their future, she said. Its in my familythis spirit of perseverance. I feel like they handed me a baton. They ran hard and ran fast. They carried the baton as far as they could go. Now, its my turn to run faster and farther and pass the baton to the next generation. I say, When you stand on the shoulders of slaves, theres no slouching. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) A deaf former employee of a South Florida Costco store wont be collecting $775,000 a federal jury awarded her in a discrimination and wrongful termination case. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to reconsider a judges decision to overturn the 2018 verdict in favor of Christine DOnofrio. An appellate court also declined to reinstate the award. DOnofrio had worked for Costco for 24 years, and said she never had issues communicating with managers until one arrived who mumbled, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. She requested an interpreter or to have communications written down for her. Instead, Costco provided her with a video phone with online interpretation services. Managers then wrote her up for yelling too loudly into the phone. She sent a letter to the companys CEO complaining about her treatment. Shortly after, she was suspended for a week, then terminated in October 2013, the lawsuit said. Jurors in the Fort Lauderdale trial agreed with DOnofrios claim that Costco didnt provide a reasonable accommodation as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, but decided she wasnt terminated because of her disability and in retaliation for her complaints. Jurors awarded her $750,000 for mental anguish and $25,000 in punitive damages, the newspaper reported. U.S. District Judge William Zloch overturned the verdict, finding that no reasonable jury could have found in favor of (the) plaintiff. Zloch ruled that DOnofrio had rejected the video phone and online interpretation services provided by Costco. DOnofrios lawyers appealed, arguing that the phone and online services did not overcome communication problems that arose during her final year at Costco, the newspaper reported. The company argued that it went beyond its legal responsibilities in providing the interpretive services and equipment to DOnofrio. In January 2019, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision found that Costco did provide reasonable accommodation to DOnofrio and declined to overturn Zlochs ruling, the newspaper reported. The petition to the Supreme Court asked justices to consider whether the appellate court failed to apply the correct standard of review. Her lawyer, William J. Butler in Miami Beach, said he had no insight into the Supreme Courts decision. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 20:35:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Macao's total merchandise export amounted to 1.42 billion patacas in January 2021, up 29 percent year-on-year, the special administrative region's (SAR) statistic department said here on Thursday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the value of re-exports expanded 32.4 percent to 1.26 billion patacas in January, with that of diamond and diamond jewelery and electronic components soaring by 206.6 percent and 202.5 percent respectively. Meanwhile, the value of domestic exports went up 8.7 percent to 169 million patacas in the month, the DSEC report added. External merchandise trade totaled 12.12 billion patacas in January, up 28.5 percent from a year earlier. Merchandise trade deficit last month totaled 9.27 billion patacas. Analyzed by destination, merchandise export to the mainland rose 59.1 percent year-on-year to 151 million patacas. On the other hand, exports to the Hong Kong SAR and the United States grew 57.1 percent and 3.9 percent respectively to 1.09 billion patacas and 52 million patacas, whereas exports to the European Union (EU) slid 2.3 percent to 17 million patacas. Exports of textiles and garments fell 10.5 percent year-on-year to 114 million patacas, while exports of non-textiles went up 34.2 percent to 1.31 billion patacas, showed the report. (1 pataca equals 0.1252 U.S. dollar) Enditem New Delhi: Indias covid-19 caseload continued to rise even on Thursday with 16,738 fresh cases recorded in the last 24 hours. Over 89.57% of the new cases are from seven states. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,807. It is followed by Kerala with 4,106 while Punjab reported 558 new cases. Indias Active Caseload is 1,51,708 on Thursday comprising 1.37% of the total positive cases. This is largely attributable to the upsurge in daily new cases in some States. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have recorded a rise in daily new cases," union health ministry said in a statement. According to the government data, over 141 deaths due to covid-19 were also recorded in India. While the total tally of covid-19 cases crawled to 1,10, 47,440 and the toll climbed to 156,746. Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Rajeev Gauba is scheduling a review meeting with 7 States The Centre has already deputed high-level multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (UT) to ascertain reasons for the surge and coordinate with the State Health Departments in covid-19 control and containment measures. The Centre has also written to States/UTs to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission. The States/UT have been advised to increase testing in a focussed manner in the affected districts with the appropriate split of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests and to also ensure that all symptomatic negatives of antigen tests are compulsorily tested via RT-PCR tests. The positive persons are to be promptly isolated/hospitalised, all their close contacts be traced and also tested without delay. They have been advised to critical review the emerging situation on a regular basis with concerned District officials to ensure that gains made so far in COVID management are not lost. India has administered over 1.30 Crore vaccine doses so far. A total of 1,30,67,047 vaccine doses have been given through 2,77,303 sessions, as per the provisional report till 6 pm on Thursday. These include 65,82,007 HCWs (75.5%) who have taken the 1st dose and 18,60,859 HCWs (63.6%) who have taken the 2nd dose, along with 46,24,181 frontline workers (FLWs) (1st dose) (45.1%). While the countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on 16th Jan 2021, vaccination of the FLWs started from 2nd Feb 2021, the health ministry said. Eight States account for more than 56% of the total vaccine doses. Each of them has administered more than 6 lakh doses. Uttar Pradesh have vaccinated 9.68% of the total doses (12,26,775). According to the data available with the union health ministry, eight States account for 61% of the total second vaccine doses. Karnataka vaccinated maximum number of healthcare workers (HCWs) for second dose i.e. 11.08% (1,79,124). 12 States/UTs have administered second vaccine dose to more than 80% of the eligible HCWs. These are Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, D&D, A&N Islands, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Gujarat, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Sikkim. 10 States/UTs have vaccinated more than 60% of registered FLWs. These are D&N, Rajasthan, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. DETROIT A Detroit firefighter is suspended from duty after allegedly driving drunk and crashing a fire truck into a parked vehicle while responding to an emergency call, multiple news outlets reported. The incident happened on Sunday, Feb. 21, WDIV Local 4 reports. Firefighters some of whom were on duty attended a dinner, which included alcohol, in celebration of promotions at Engine 50 on the citys east side, FOX 2 Detroit reports. During the event, a squad was called to a medical emergency, WDIV reports. The 26-year-old firefighter driving the fire engine had allegedly been drinking at the event and crashed into a parked car upon arrival at the scene of the medical emergency. Despite the incident, the person in need did receive medical assistance, FOX 2 reports. The firefighter has been suspended and an internal investigation into the event is underway, Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones told WDIV. The firefighter who was driving could be arrested for drunken driving, he said. The investigation could result in terminations and other discipline for those who witnessed the firefighter consume alcohol and looked the other way, and for those who supplied alcohol, Jones told FOX 2. We know one firefighter consumed alcohol, Jones told WDIV. We need to follow the facts and where they lead. We are outraged someone would consume alcohol and drive an emergency response vehicle. The Detroit Fire Fighters Association said in a statement that the unfortunate incident is not a true representation of the department. These men and women are responding to more runs than ever before, Thomas Gehart, president of Detroit Fire Fighters Association Local 344, said in the statement. This pandemic has added an increased stress on our first responders, not only on the job, but they are taking these new stresses home with them. Unfortunately, we all deal with these stresses differently. We will continue to work with our members and the city of Detroit to keep all our responders and the citizens of Detroit safe and healthy. READ MORE: Michigan police officer on unpaid leave for racist social media post What he did is inexcusable, mom says as father is sentenced for shooting toddler son in face Brother, 14, charged in homicide of 10-year-old sister Waiting for court hearing since October, man dies in Michigan jail Whitmer hints at relaxing some COVID-19 restrictions in coming days SPRINGFIELD, Ore. The man sought by Springfield Police in connection with a homicide has been found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The body of Christopher Wilcox, 46, was found early Thursday morning in a rural area east of Springfield. Officials told KEZI 9 News Thursday afternoon that Christopher's car and body were found near Deerhorn Road in Springfield. Christopher Wilcox Christopher Wilcox Police said Christopher Wilcox shot and killed his son Spencer Wilcox, 17, during an argument Wednesday evening. The two were involved in a verbal dispute when Christopher Wilcox shot and killed Spencer Wilcox with a handgun, police said. Thurston resident Jeremiah Perkins said he remembers Christopher as a down-to-earth guy and was shocked when finding out what had happened. Its sad for everyone involved, Perkins said. He still has a daughter, a wife and family. A lot of things happen behind closed doors that people don't know about, I guess. Several others shared they had positive experiences working with Christopher at the Albertsons in Thurston, saying he was fun to be around, cracked a lot of jokes and was nice to everyone. The incident happened at about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday in a house at 68th Place and Forsythia Street in Springfield. Police arrived to find Spencer Wilcox dead inside the house. There were multiple people inside the house. Police had said Wednesday night that they were looking for Christopher Wilcox and that he was considered armed and dangerous. They had warned people not to approach him. His vehicle, a black 2006 Mazda Tribute with Oregon license plate "012 DBT," was also located Thursday morning, police said. On February 8, a Sri Lanka wage board approved an utterly inadequate wage rise for estate workers proposed by the Rajapakse government in collaboration with the plantation unions. It consists of an increase in the daily wage to 1,000 rupees ($US5.09), comprising a 900-rupee basic wage and a 100-rupee allowance. While union and labor ministry representatives, who hold a majority on the board, voted for the proposal, the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC), Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association (SLTFOA) and the Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) voted against the tiny increase. Uda Rathalla Estate workers picketing last September against austerity measures (WSWS Media) The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), which is part of the Rajapakse government, the National Union of Workers (NUW), Democratic Workers Congress (DWC), Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) and the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union (LJEWU) all participated in the wage board meeting. While the boards decision is pending because of the objections of the plantation companies, the labour commissioner told the media that the wage increase will be gazetted because it was a government-determined proposal. The commissioner, however, is due to hold another discussion with the plantation company representatives on March 1. The Rajapakse government made the proposal, not out of any sympathy for the low-paid workers but to defuse growing opposition over the surging cost of living and growing poverty. The government fears that a major pay fight in the estates will draw in broader layers of the working class facing similar attacks. Sporadic strikes and protests over low pay and increased workloads continue to erupt in the plantations (see: Eight Sri Lankan plantation workers arrested in company-police attack). On February 5, around 200,000 estate workers participated in a one-day national strike. The walkout won broad support from teachers in estate schools and small traders in the plantation districts. The plantation unions have hailed the wage boards pay rise decision as a victory. This is a lie. CWC leader Jeevan Thondaman, who is currently Rajapakses minister of estate infrastructure, along with other estate union leaders who have served in previous governments, serve the interests of the plantation owners. The unions initial demand of a 1,000-rupee basic daily wage, which was first made in 2015, is grossly inadequate due to sharp increases in the cost of living. In comparison with 2015 figures, the real wage of agricultural workers, according to the Central Bank data in 2019, has dropped by about 16 percent. While plantation workers have participated in numerous strikes and protests since 2015 to demand a 1,000-rupee basic daily wage, these struggles have been consistently betrayed by the unions. In December 2018, hundreds of thousands workers went on strike for 11 days over this demand. The unions, led by the CWC, sold out the strike agreeing to a 700-rupee daily wage. Many estate workers have voiced their anger and concerns about the latest proposed pay increase. As one female worker Ushananthini, from Gartmore Estate in Maskeliya told the WSWS: The cost of living has increased terribly since we first asked for a 1,000-rupee wage. Even if we were paid 1,500 rupees per day it would not be enough to meet ends. And if we do get a small wage increase, they [the companies] will use it to increase our workload. According to some news reports, the companies want to reduce our working days to just 13 a month. We will not accept it and even if it the increase is implemented we will oppose it. Im an NUW member but all the trade unions are useless. They only come to see us during the election time and thats to get our vote with false promises. The Rajapakse government with the assistance of the unions wants to restructure the Sri Lankan plantation industry, including by dismantling some estates and diverting tea production into more commercial crops. Plans are also being prepared to further develop the tourist industry and boost garment production using cheap labor. This so-called restructuring will see further attacks on jobs and social rights. While specific details have not been released, future plans along these lines were indicated in last Novembers annual budget. The Regional Plantation Companies (RPC) have consistently and vehemently opposed the latest wage increase proposal. According to Planters Association (PA) spokesman Roshan Rajadurai, almost 200 objections to the increase have been filed by RPCs, small holders, factory owners and others. Instead, the RPCs are proposing two wage formulas, both based on driving up productivity. The first, a so-called revenue-share system, is for workers to be given a plot of land with a certain number of tea bushes and provided with fertiliser and agro-chemicals. Workers must maintain the bushes and harvest the leaves. They would receive an income from the sale of the leaves, following the deduction of expenses for the fertiliser and other supplies provided by the plantation companies. The other RPC proposal is for plantation employees to work three days for a 1,000-rupee daily wage and for three days at 50 rupees per kilo of plucked tea leaves, or 125 rupees per kilo of extracted rubber milk (in the rubber plantations). Opposing the wage boards latest pay rise proposal, PA spokesperson Rajadurai declared that the payment of 1,000 rupees was unsustainable and claimed that the industry had no capacity to earn the additional 12.5 billion [rupees] needed to pay for the increase. If the RPCs were compelled to accept the new wage proposal, he added, we will cut the coat according to the cloth, and if we cannot fertilise we wont [and] a vast majority of people will suffer eventually. In other words, thousands of workers will lose their jobs and those that remain will face increased workloads, longer workdays and the abolition of the limited social rights won in previous struggles. In fact, the RPCs, with government and union support, have already implemented the revenue-share system in some estates, as well as increasing workloads and cutting wages in others. While the RPCs claim that a higher wages increase would drive up the cost of production, export earnings by tea and rubber companies increased during 2020 despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the January export development board report, tea export income increased by 6.78 percent in comparison to 2019 while rubber and rubber finished product export income increased by 6.22 percent in the same period. Plantation companies in Sri Lanka maintain a network of brokers and export companies in their own right or through joint ventures with giant multinationals, such as Unilever and Tetley, which manipulate world market prices in order to maximise profits. Wherever they happen to live, plantation workers are among the lowest paid and most heavily exploited workers in the world. TEL AVIV/DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, in a phone call, discussed the Israeli leader's prospective visit to the Gulf state and the production of coronavirus vaccines, Netanyahu's office said on Thursday. The prime minister's tour in the Gulf countries has been repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic and internal political issues that Israel faces. In early February, Netanyahu's landmark visit to the UAE and Bahrain was postponed over quarantine restrictions imposed in Israel. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. The Crown Prince renewed his invitation for the PM to visit Bahrain; the leaders determined that at the first opportunity that morbidity permits, PM Netanyahu will visit Bahrain," the office wrote on Twitter. During the talks, the crown prince expressed interest in "examining the possibility of Bahrain joining the initiative to produce vaccines that is being planned to be established in Israel together with other countries," the office added. Among other things, the two leaders also discussed the latest developments at the regional and international levels, as well as the situation over the Iranian nuclear deal, state-run Bahrain News Agency reported on Thursday. According to the news outlet, Netanyahu and Al Khalifa stressed the importance of the participation of regional powers in any negotiations on the nuclear deal to ensure the region's security and stability. The Abraham Accords establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain and Israel were signed in Washington last September. Morocco and Sudan later followed suit, inking similar agreements with Israel. The rapprochement met harsh criticism in Palestine. Israel lifted the third lockdown on February 7 but kept many restrictions in place. A new round of quarantine easing, which will loosen the operation of shopping centers and markets, took effect on Sunday. Reporter Heather Bellow, a member of the investigations team, joined The Eagle in 2017. She is based in the South Berkshire County bureau in Great Barrington. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the U.S. MASON CITY, Iowa - Fire crews risk their lives to save yours. Now, some new training could help mason city firefighters sharpen their skills when it comes to rescuing someone trapped in a burning building. This week, firefighters are utililizing a simulation trailer provided by the Iowa Fire Service Training Bureau for search and rescue drills. The course inside the trailer can be modified like a maze, complete with ramps and stairs, and the levels of simulated smoke can be adjusted. Using a self-contained breathing apparatus, thermal imagine camera and other equipment, firefighters are tasked with finding a trapped victim while crawling through the maze in smoky conditions, with a rope and hose attached. Firefighter Scott Kreitzer has been part of the squad for roughly 17 years, and took part in today's training. "We always have two people in with the hoseline to put out the fire and encounter any victims. we also send in a search crew to do another sweep and they don't have that hoseline, so they use search rope if conditions are so smoky that they can't see each other." No matter how many years one has been a first responder, training is always valuable. "Every house fire is different that we go into. There's no house that has the same rooms and walls, so this is good." Moscow court detains two ex-bankers in $14 mln embezzlement case RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 14:36 25/02/2021 MOSCOW, February 25 (RAPSI) Moscows Tverskoy District Court has placed two former top managers of a commercial bank charged with embezzling over 1 billion rubles (about $14 million) in detention, the Interior Ministrys press service has told RAPSI. They were earlier arrested by Moscow police, the statement reads. Allegedly, they embezzled assets of the credit organization acting as an organized group in conspiracy. According to the police, in 2016, the defendants organized the transfer of the banks rights to property and land plots to structures under their control. Damage allegedly caused by them is estimated at more than 1 billion rubles, the statement reads. More than 40 searches were conducted in the Republic of Tatarstan and Moscow as part of the case. Rod Simpson: "I was surrounded by fire in three directions." Credit: Australian National University When the bushfires hit the town of Drake in NSW, Rod Simpson says he became one of Australia's first climate refugees. He's traveled across States, and the Tasman waters in search of a place to settle. More than a year on, he's still searching. A small business owner and animal conservationist, Rod has a passion for wildlife rescue and supporting the community. His off-the-grid property provided the perfect habitat for the countless animals he's rescued. And it's no surprise that even after losing his property to the fires, he was at the coalface caring for the animals and manning a local support center for the affected community. "Caring for animals is the only way I've ever made sense of my life. It's usually wombats, koalas and horses... mostly orphaned or injured by cars," Rod said. Rod is a resilient individual with his fair share of challenges that he is bravely overcoming, but there is a side to this story which is often untold, and it's for this reason that Rod has offered to share his story. "I was once a counselor so I know what works, but what used to work doesn't work for me anymore. Sure, I was a little damaged prior to the fires but losing your sense of home and place and the trauma of what I saw and had to do to survive the fires, particularly for the animals, it stays with you," he says. "I stood there staring at the Long Gully mountain, the whole thing was just aglow. I was surrounded by fire in three directions, and was the first to lose my home that night. "At one point it was so hot I felt like I was actually cooking and someone explained to me afterwards that I probably was.The temperatures were so hot that when the leaves of the Eucalypts disintegrate the oil is left suspended in the air like a fine mist. The oil was all over us. I found comfort in that though. When I felt overwhelmed, I'd stroke my beard for the scent of the Eucalypt." Rod's story is inspiring, although it is just one of thousands who were affected by the bushfires. The "Black Summer' bushfires of late 2019 and 2020 are one of the most severe bushfire seasons in recorded history, with 2,400 homes destroyed in NSW alone, and displacing thousands more, many of whom are still seeking refuge and grappling with the impacts, both visible and invisible. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) say individuals, families and communities affected by bushfire and smoke exposure experience significant distress as a result of danger, evacuation, displacement and lossof life, property, livelihood. They are also at increased risk of acute and long-term psychological and behavioral health problems. Experts are calling for an urgent need to address evidence gaps relating to key risk factors for psychological ill-health. ANU researchers are tackling this in a nationwide survey on the impacts of bushfire on health and wellbeing. ANU researcher and clinical pscyhologist Dr. Emily Macloed said bushfires impact the health and wellbeing of people in many ways, and the impacts can last for years. "Experts agree that bushfire threat is increasing. We are trying to identify the factors that help people and communities be prepared for and resilient to future bushfires. The results will be used to shape strategies to support individuals and communities in the face of future bushfires, and improve patient care," she said. Social connectedness and community resilience are important in facilitating recovery from natural disaster; however, dramatic changes to the environment and social landscape following bushfires mean that community structures may become fragmented or displaced. Rod says: "One of the hardest things was not having connections and support. I lived alone and had no friends or family there. It's always been me, the animals, and for a while, my partner. At the Lunatic pub where we'd gather each morning, you'd hear the catch cry 'go and be with your family, go and be with your friends, or leave the area if you have somewhere to go.' That's something I felt I didn't have. "Someone labeled me Australia's first climate refugee," says Rod. "I don't know if that's true but I wear it with pride. Since the fires, I've moved around a bit. I've tried to settle and build my business. I bought a place in St Helens in Tasmania, but I'm not sure now if that's where I'll stay." Associate Professor Tegan Cruwys, from the ANU Research School of Psychology, says that a large part of the answer to loneliness lies in feeling connected to a community. "It doesn't have to be neighborsit can be belonging to your family or your workplace. What is most important is that people feel a sense of belonging," she said. Rod says: "I would say loneliness is the difference between me being the way I am now and fully functional in society. "There's a thing called climate griefI have it, and it's not really being discussed. Life has gone on and it's all business as usual but people like me, we're still here. We're still living it everyday." Experts say in a warming continent, more fires will start, and there is much to be done to prevent and respond to the fires and the needs of those affected. As a self-confessed man of the land Rod feels strongly about the grave impact that climate change is having. "We're not actually asking the questions we need to be asking. We need to have an honest conversation about the problems we face, climate change, its impacts, and what we can do to help mitigate it," he said. The ANU researchers are seeking perspectives from all Australians to support this important research into bushfire impacts on health and wellbeing, affected and unaffected. "We are very grateful for Rod and others that have already participated in the survey," Emily said. "Our approach is sensitive and respectful to the experiences of affected people and communities, and the responses will offer important insights and contribute to an important conversation." Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 19:48:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he has accepted an invitation by Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to visit the Gulf state. The prime minister's office issued a statement saying the two leaders agreed that Netanyahu will travel to Bahrain "as soon as possible," once COVID-19 restrictions would allow it. Bahrain was also looking into a possible investment in a planned COVID-19 vaccine factory that is expected to be built in Israel, according to the statement. "The crown prince noted he is interested in examining a possibility of Bahrain joining an investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant that is planned to be established in Israel together with other countries," the statement read. Netanyahu announced earlier in February that he postponed his first official visits to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to Israel's coronavirus lockdown. Some of the lockdown's restrictions have been lifted but a ban on outgoing and incoming flights is still in effect. Israel has signed the U.S.-brokered agreements to normalize ties with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020. Enditem Netherlands SHV Energy and Indias quasi-sovereign wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) are separately looking to buy a stake in Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy (4PEL) for about $150 million, two people aware of the development said. Fourth Partner Energy focuses on the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment and has an operational portfolio of 400MW. It is building solar parks in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Mint reported on 29 September 2020 about the company appointing Investec to raise about $150 million through a stake sale. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Fourth Partner Energy is working towards aggressive growth and expansion targets in coming months. Fund-raising is an ongoing process. However, we will not be able to comment further on any particular development," a company spokesperson said. This comes in the backdrop of distributed renewable energy generation attracting strong investor interest as the market has few developers with large portfolios. C&I projects are generally insulated from risks such as power procurement curtailment and tariff-shopping by state-owned distribution companies as seen in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. They supply electricity to third-party and captive consumers who buy power from them, instead of depending on an expensive grid. Fourth Partner Energys investors include TPG Capital, which has invested through its impact investment arm The RISE Fund, and a European impact investment fund consortium led by Symbiotics, and responsAbility Investments. As per NIIF policy, we do not comment on market speculation and information gathered from third-party sources," an external spokesperson for NIIF said. Queries emailed to SHV Energy on 23 February remained unanswered. An external spokesperson for TPG Capital also declined to comment. Queries emailed to Ajeeth Narayan, head, Investec India, and EverSource Capital spokesperson on 18 February remained unanswered. SHV Energy is part of privately-owned SHV Holdings, one of the largest global private trading groups. With $4.5 billion of equity capital commitments across its three funds, NIIF is the majority shareholder in Ayana Renewable Power, which operates in India and neighbouring nations. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. 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. WOMAN have been disproportionately hit by the effects of the Covid pandemic and are bearing the burden of homeschooling and caring, according to Dr Rhona Mahony. When Dr Mahony stepped down as master of the National Maternity Hospital in 2018, she was hailed as a leading voice for Irish women by colleagues. She will now turn her attention to the elderly after being appointed to the board of HaloCare, a healthcare company which helps older people to live safely and independently in their own homes. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Dr Mahony believes both women and the elderly have suffered a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic as she reflected on a difficult year on the frontline. Women have been disproportionately affected in terms of childcare and homeschooling as around 70pc of healthcare workers are female, she said. Personally I work in maternity and weve been lucky in that we havent had a huge problem with Covid infections, so thats been extraordinarily fortunate. We have only had 88 cases to date in Holles Street, the majority of which have been incidental. We have not seen a lot of very ill women as pregnant women are cocooning and the visual bump means people keep their distance a lot more, so its been remarkable how fortunate we have been in terms of a low-incidence rate. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in some women having to give birth alone. Partners were also not allowed to attend the 20-week anatomy scan for most of 2020 due to restrictions and high case numbers. Holles Street is one of the few hospitals which did not stop Covid-19 positive women from having a designated person at their labour and birth. While Dr Mahony said its heartbreaking how family and friends cant visit expectant mothers, perspective is important. When you put it into context and compare it to people who cant see their relative who is dying, we do feel very fortunate in the maternity care area. Im very conscious of people who have lost husbands, wives, mums and dads and havent been able to visit them. I think that for all of us, our lives have changed and theres a fear of what will come, hence why Ive become so interested in technology. HaloCare is an Irish start-up based in Co Carlow that uses a range of assistive technologies to provide 24/7 support for older adults, their carers and family. Dr Mahony said the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the burden of isolation and how devastating it can be for elderly people. Its not about providing acute care in a nursing home. Its about living well, living as long as possible and living safely in your own home. Safety is one of the main components as we know for elderly people falling is a big issue, so HaloCare has developed really hi-tech sensors which allow us to sense the movement of a person, so you can tell if they stumble or fall. "There are also motion detectors which can detect gas such as carbon monoxide and temperature. Its not a case of big brother watching you as there are no cameras or videos, the technology uses radar and microwave technology to sense falls in a way that is really unobtrusive. "In addition there are also social elements which will use digital technology to help people connect with their families. Dr Mahony also currently serves on the boards of the St Vincents Healthcare Group and the Little Museum of Dublin, while working as a consultant obstetrician at the National Maternity Hospital. When asked for her thoughts on the vaccine roll-out across the country, she said there were always going to be glitches but shes remaining positive about the future after a stressful year. I think its brilliant that vaccines are starting to arrive. It will help us get over this pandemic and I think it will allow us to live better. We can see in frontline workers already there has been a massive drop in infections. I think Covid will end up being an accelerator to better healthcare and delivering healthcare better in Ireland. One of the great things about digital technology is it does open up opportunities. "It can take out unnecessary steps and make treatment about the patient themselves and not the system. Throughout her career, Dr Mahony has always advocated for womens rights. She was outspoken in her support for repealing the Eighth Amendment in the lead up to the referendum and has actively sought improved healthcare for women. She said the recent report by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission which laid bare the horrific treatment of women who gave birth outside marriage was difficult to fathom. I think it is heartbreaking what women went through. It is so awful to think of women having babies in a country that rejected them and who were incarcerated at such a vulnerable time. One of the worst elements was the lack of education about contraception and their bodies. That was State policy influenced by the church. It was used to disempower women and we must be very glad that times have changed. COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio State University scientists have developed a unique approach to fighting COVID-19: tricking the coronavirus into thinking its causing an infection. The OSU scientists have designed protein fragments, called peptides, that mimic the receptors the coronavirus uses to cause an infection. The idea is to fool the virus into binding to the peptides before it reaches the human body. OSU scientists published the findings in last months issue of the journal Bioconjugate Chemistry. Scientists are still studying the technology but believe it could be useful in nasal sprays and disinfectants that could help prevent someone from contracting COVID-19, said Amit Sharma, an assistant professor of veterinary biosciences at OSU and co-lead author of the study. While experts say the vaccine is the best way to prevent an infection, the OSU technology could be added to the many tools being used to limit the risk. When I speak to my team, the words we use are an all-of-the-above approach, Sharma said. Certainly, technologies like these constitute an added arsenal to the vaccines and other approaches we already have or are coming along. Sharmas lab had prior experience studying viruses and how they interact with cells. When the pandemic struck, they realized that expertise could be used in the fight against COVID-19. The virus that causes COVID-19 attaches to cells using its spike protein. More specifically, the spike protein binds to the ACE2 receptor on the surface of cells that are often found in the nasal cavity and lungs, according to the National Institutes of Health. The OSU team designed peptides that mimic the ACE2 receptor. They trick the coronavirus into binding with them before the virus reaches the human body, according to the study. Its unclear how long it could take to bring a nasal spray or a disinfectant that uses the technology to market, but Sharma said the OSU team is ready to work with manufacturers. We think we can make progress quickly, but that depends how quickly we can find a commercial partner, he said. Its also unclear how long a nasal spray or a disinfectant could provide protection against the virus. More research is needed to provide a definitive answer, Sharma said. Its possible the OSU technology could be adapted to fight another virus in the future. Sharma said scientists could use the same approach to design additional peptides or inhibitors. It increases our readiness and preparedness the next time something like this comes around, Sharma said. We can draw from this knowledge base and quickly adapt at that point, and draw from this particular technology for a new virus or a new disease or pathogen. ITHACA, N.Y. - In many cases, unions in Europe have helped nonunionized workers whose jobs are precarious, according to new Cornell University research. In "Dualism or Solidarity? Conditions for Union Success in Regulating Precarious Work," published in December in the European Journal of Industrial Relations, the researchers surveyed academic articles to see how often they would find evidence of unions helping nonunionized workers or helping only their own members, and which conditions were associated with each outcome. The paper was co-authored by Laura Carver, M.S. 20, and Virginia Doellgast, associate professor of international and comparative labor in the ILR School. Unions respond to growing worker insecurity in different ways, Carver said. In some cases, unions work with management to protect their own members while allowing management to cut pay or otherwise increase insecurity for nonunionized workers, she said. This is called dualism, because it creates a dual labor market where unionized insiders are still paid relatively well and have some job security, and nonunionized outsiders are subjected to increasing insecurity. Unions also can act in solidarity with nonunion workers by proactively extending union protections and increasing security for precarious workers. Examples of union support include the Unite union support of the "Justice for Cleaners" protests in the United Kingdom and support by the French union CGT for the "sans papiers" movement for undocumented immigrant workers in France. A third union response is described as "failed solidarity" by Carver and Doellgast. "Unions' attempts at inclusivity are not always successful - in other words, attempts to stand in solidarity with nonunion workers sometimes do not actually reduce their experiences of precarity," Carver said. After surveying 56 case study-based articles published between 2008 and 2019, they found that: In 46% of cases, solidarity was practiced when unions improved working conditions for the peripheral workforce. This includes cases in which the union simultaneously improved conditions for the core workforce, as well as those in which the conditions for the core workforce remained stable or even declined. In 26% of cases, the unions practiced dualism by maintaining or improving working conditions for the core, unionized workforce, with either no attempt to address precarity for peripheral workers or increased precarity for these workers. In 12% of the cases, solidarity failed - there was no reduction in precarity in spite of union attempts to regulate or improve conditions for peripheral workers. In 16% of cases, there were no clear outcomes of dualism, solidarity or failed solidarity. "The fact that successful solidarity was the most common outcome is notable," Carver said. "This suggests there is cause for optimism, or that increased precarity is not the inevitable outcome." ### Taking friendly exes too far? Joe Giudice gifted ex-wife Teresa Giudice with a special something to keep her satisfied amid the coronavirus quarantine. Read article During the Wednesday, February 24, episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Teresa, 48, told her costars that her ex-husband, also 48, sent her a sex toy from his new line of products. Its pretty amazing, she confessed. The former couple were married for 20 years before announcing in December 2019 that they were going their separate ways. News of their split came after Joe finished his 41-month prison stint for fraud charges and was released into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. He has been residing in Italy since October 2019. Courtesy Joe Giudice/Instagram; MediaPunch/Shutterstock Teresa and the businessman who share daughters Gia, 20, Gabriella, 16, Milania, 15, and Audriana, 11 finalized their divorce in September 2020. At the time, a source told Us Weekly exclusively that the duo were supporting each other 100 percent as they each pursue their happiness and that their primary focus is and will remain their four beautiful daughters. Read article While in Italy, Joe made an unexpected addition to his resume when he began selling vibrators to his social media followers. In May 2020, he announced a partnership with sex toy brand Zalo USA by shouting them out in his Instagram bio and teasing promo codes in his posts. Give her a Mothers Day gift she wont forget, he wrote via his Instagram Story at the time, featuring a link to the high-end products. The NSFW venture came shortly before Joe hinted that he was already taking big strides in his love life after ending his marriage. During an October interview with Wendy Williams, he hinted that he was seeing a lawyer, and he later revealed that his new Italian flame was a big fan of Teresas work. Us confirmed two months later that Joe has been dating Daniela Fittipaldi since the summer and that shed met two of his daughters during their Thanksgiving visit to Italy. They all bonded really well, a source said of the introduction. Read article Teresa, for her part, moved on with boyfriend Luis Louie Ruelas two months after her divorce from Joe was made final. Ruelas gushed over the Standing Strong author in a sweet post after they took a romantic trip to California together in January. Everyone has a journey and a path in life and we all have to go thru the pain in order to find the JOY , he wrote at the time. JOY is a constant feeling of happiness and thats what I feel when Im with you XO. Siren Socks continuously track foot temperature and were developed to help patients living with diabetes manage their foot health more effectively. Temperature monitoring has been clinically established as an important physiologic marker of injury and is recommended as a tool to detect and prevent diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). DFUs occur in 25% of people with diabetes, accounting for over $43 billion in annual healthcare costs in the U.S., and are the leading cause of amputations. Siren Staffing builds on the benefits of Siren Socks by utilizing licensed practical nurses to coordinate RPM activities with podiatric practices. Program nurses monitor temperature data collected by Siren Socks and contact patients who may be at risk of developing injuries to evaluate the status of their feet. "With Siren Staffing, we now offer the first fully integrated remote patient monitoring solution in podiatry," said Ran Ma, Siren co-founder and CEO. "We have combined an easy to use monitoring device, continuous data recording and analysis using proprietary algorithms, and a staff of trained nurses into a cohesive, end-to-end offering that allows any podiatric practice to successfully implement RPM and help patients avoid complications arising from foot ulcers." "Implementing Siren Staffing has made my practice more efficient and effective," said Dr. Gavin Ripp, DPM, of Premier Podiatry & Orthopedics in Northern California. "The team works closely together to monitor patients and coordinate care with our systems. The result is that I am able to quickly act with greater information. This comprehensive solution allows us to monitor more patients to detect signs of inflammation and injury earlier and intervene effectively." About Siren Siren is a health technology company that uses novel medical devices and remote patient monitoring to improve patient outcomes. The company developed Neurofabric, the first of its kind microsensor-embedded textile, to enable a new type of medical devices. These devices integrate seamlessly into users' everyday lives and allow patients and doctors to make more accurate, real-time treatment decisions. Siren Socks, the company's first commercialized product, is an FDA-registered temperature monitoring sock for the early detection of inflammation that leads to foot ulcers in people with diabetes. Siren was founded in 2015 and is backed by top-tier institutional investors, including Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, DCM Ventures, and others. More about the company at https://siren.care About Premier Podiatry & Orthopedics Premier Podiatry & Orthopedics is a multispeciality practice of expert podiatric and orthopedic physicians based in North California with office locations in Roseville and Carmichael. Learn more at https://pposac.com/ SOURCE Siren Care Related Links www.siren.care State Bank of India (SBI), and Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, one of Indias marquee builders, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable an improved and more seamless experience for homebuyers across India. As part of the agreement, which includes various co-promotional activities and outreach initiatives, customers of SBI and Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate will be able to avail the benefits of faster processing of home loans and approvals along with other unique value add schemes. The MoU was signed by Mr. Shreekant, head and Chief General Manager of Real Estate & Housing Business Unit (REHBU) vertical of State Bank of India, and Mr. Venkatesh Gopalkrishnan (CEO, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate). Mr. Shreekant, CGM, REHBU, SBI said, This collaboration with Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate will create win-win business opportunities for all stakeholders. We sanction Home Loan in five days in all our approved projects, which is the key benefit for the customers apart from complete waiver of legal and valuation charges. Our tailor-made Home Loan products, dedicated Home Loan processing centers, door-step banking services, robust feet on the street, strong networks, usages of cutting-edge technology among others, have made us the preferred choice amongst Home Loan customers. Bank will roll out Retail Loan Management System (RLMS), a technological platform providing an end-to-end solution for Home Loans, as early as March 2021 that will further streamline the Home Loan acquiring and processing by significantly reducing turnaround time". Mr. Venkatesh Gopalkrishnan, CEO, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, said, We are delighted to partner with State Bank of India to offer specially designed products to the customers serviced by both the companies. For our customers, it would mean more choice to avail innovative offerings, including attractive home loan rates and faster approvals while buying homes. The new tie-up will cover our new and existing housing projects across key markets." The bank has a total Home Loan customers of a staggering 42 lakh. On average, SBI onboards more than 1000 Home Loan customers per day. The bank that commands a market share of 22% in the Home Loan business, offers Home Loan starting at as low as 6.80% p.a. which is one of the lowest in the market. Dedicated Central Processing Centres have been set up by the bank across the top 215 centers of the country that cater to the ever-rising demand of the customers besides expeditiously sanctioning Home Loans. SBI has the distinction of being the only bank, designated by MoHUA as the Central Nodal Agency (CNA) for processing PMAY subsidy. To support Govts flagship program of Housing for all by 2022", the Bank has been aggressively lending Home Loans under PMAY. The Bank has so far sanctioned 1,94,582 Home Loans under PMAY as on end of Dec 2020. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Advertisement Several protesters were arrested in New York City on Wednesday night after a grand jury in Rochester announced that it cleared seven cops of criminal charges in the death of Daniel Prude. At least nine people were arrested as dozens of protesters marched through McCarren Park in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn around 7pm, witnesses told the New York Post, and police confirmed some arrests were made. Protesters allegedly began attacking pedestrians and were seen spray painting a taxi cab and street cafes, witnesses told the outlet. One picture shows an American flag on fire after it was burned by protesters. The NYPD said it was a 'scheduled protest' and the department had 'plenty of resources at McCarren Park,' noting that no additional units were necessary. The protest comes a day after seven Rochester cops were cleared in the death of Prude, 41, who was handcuffed while he was naked and had a spit hood placed over his head until he stopped breathing last March during a mental health crisis. Video of his arrest was only made public six months later after city officials deliberately delayed its release. An NYPD officer arrests a protester who grips onto the handle of a bicycle after a small group marched in Brooklyn on Wednesday A protester is seen with his hands in zip tie handcuffs after he was arrested by NYPD officers with the Strategic Response Group A Black Lives Matter protester is pictured spray painting the side of a street cafe set up amid the coronavirus pandemic during a protest in Brooklyn An American flag was burned by Black Lives Matter protesters in Brooklyn on Wednesday after no charges were found in relation to Daniel Prude's death Officers with the NYPD respond to McCarren Park after a group of BLM protesters took streets after a Rochester grand jur found no charges for the death of Daniel Prude Officers with the NYPD's Strategic Response Group wear face shields as they responded to a small group of protesters in Brooklyn on Wednesday NYPD officers carrying zip ties are pictures lining up while responding to a small protest in Brooklyn on Wednesday night Citizen App users noted that helicopters were heard flying overhead and that specialized police were on the scene for the protest. According to the New York Post, more than 300 cops responded to the protest. 'There were twenty cops for every protester,' one Citizen App user claimed on the platform. Another small group of protesters was also pictured demonstrating in Rochester for the second night, the Democrat & Chronicle reported. In one image, a protester tapes flyers on the front doors of the Public Safety Building. On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters marched on police stations and public buildings upstate after a grand jury announced that it cleared seven cops of criminal charges in the death of Daniel Prude. Prude, 41, was handcuffed while he was naked and had a spit hood placed over his head until he stopped breathing last March during a mental health crisis. He died a week after the ordeal and a medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by 'complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint'. On March 23, Prude was in the throes of a mental health crisis when his family requested help from police. Bodycam footage of the incident, where Prude can be heard saying, 'You're trying to kill me', was only made public six months later after city officials deliberately delayed its release. It sparked nightly protests in the New York town. Officers Troy Taladay, Paul Ricotta, Francisco Santiago, Andrew Specksgoor, Josiah Harris and Mark Vaughn, along with Sgt. Michael Magri, were suspended after Prude's death became public. The protesters had gathered around 7.30pm at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Samuel McCree Way, where Daniel Prude met police, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. An officer with the NYPD arrests a protester in Brooklyn on Wednesday, center, as one is seen putting his hands up, left Passersby are stuck at a police line after people protested Daniel Prude's death and march through Williamsburg, Brooklyn, spray painting and moving street furniture into the road to slow down police before several arrests were made Officers with the NYPD Strategic Response Group put handcuffs on a protester as they grip a railing in Brooklyn on Wednesday Protesters were seen picking up street barricades during a protest in Brooklyn on Wednesday, during which several people were arrested A Black Lives Matter protester marches with a 'no justice in a racist capitalist system' sign in Brooklyn on Wednesday A protester marches with a painting of Daniel Prude after no charges were found by a grand jury upstate in relation to Prude's death The March 23 video made public on Sept. 4 was released in the wake of street demonstrations around the nation over George Floyds death. It shows Prude handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head Stanley Martin, organizer of Free the People and a candidate for City Council, addressed the crowd. 'White supremacy protects white supremacists,' she said. '(The system) is not meant to protect us. The system did exactly what it was meant to do.' She continued: 'We keep marching; we keep fighting; we keep reimaging what the future looks like. The future does not include the RPD and I know that for a fact.' Protesters were caught on video climbing over police barricades near a police station and coming face-to-face with cops as the department warned people on Twitter to avoid the area. Daniel Prude's death last March and the release of the video six months later sparked nightly protests in Rochester, New York Eventually, officers retreated into the station station receiving cheers from the crowd, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. By 9.45pm, the remaining crowd marched on interstate highway I-490 to the Public Safety Building, where protesters clashed with cops throughout 2020. The protest ended just before midnight with the crowd vowing to return, according to the outlet. There were no arrests reported and no apparent physical clashes with law enforcement. State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office took over the prosecution and impaneled a grand jury, said her office 'presented the strongest case possible' and she was 'extremely disappointed' by the decision not to charge the seven officers involved. 'The criminal justice system has frustrated efforts to hold law enforcement officers accountable for the unjustified killing of African Americans. And what binds these cases is a tragic loss of life in circumstances in which the death could have been avoided,' James said at the Aenon Missionary Baptist Church in Rochester. 'One recognizes the influences of race, from the slave codes to Jim Crow to lynching to the war on crime to the overincarceration of people of color: Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. And now Daniel Prude,' James later added. Barricades were placed in front of the Public Safety Building in downtown Rochester in anticipation for the decision on Tuesday. Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended over Prude's death have said the officers were strictly following their training that night, employing a restraining technique known as 'segmenting.' They claimed Prude's use of PCP, which caused irrational behavior, was 'the root cause' of his death. Prude's family filed a federal lawsuit in September alleging the police department sought to cover up the true nature of his death. Protesters surround a police substation in Rochester on Tuesday after a grand jury voted not to charge officers for the death of Daniel Prude A protester was seen with a Justice 4 Daniel Prude shirt while wearing a ski mask that did not cover their mouth on Tuesday Protesters walk against traffic on Interstate 490, headed toward the Public Safety Building on Tuesday in Rochester Pictured: People block streets with a road barrier in Brooklyn in protest of Daniel Prude's death leading to no charge for the police. New York City, February 24 Pictured: People working in a diner watch as protesters and police move through the area, Williamsburg, Brooklyn The county medical examiner listed the manner of death as homicide caused by 'complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint' and cited PCP as a contributing factor. James recommended that officers and other responders be trained to recognize the symptoms of excited delirium syndrome, which can make people vulnerable to cardiac arrest. The medical examiner and the attorney generals expert both concluded that Prude was in a state of excited delirium. The attorney general also called for communities to minimize or eliminate police responses to mental health calls and to find alternatives to the type of 'spit sock' officers placed over Prudes head. She said the mesh hood clearly added to Prudes stress and agitation. Democratic Mayor Lovely Warren fired police chief La'Ron Singletary shortly after the video's release, while rejecting calls from demonstrators that she resign. Barricades were placed in front of the Public Safety Building in anticipation for the decision in Rochester on Tuesday More barricades placed around the front of the Public Safety Building in anticipation for the grand jury decision on Tuesday The city halted its investigation into Prude's death when James' office began its own investigation in April. Under New York law, deaths of unarmed people in police custody are typically turned over to the attorney generals office, rather than handled by local officials. James planned to meet with Prude's brother, criminal justice advocates and faith leaders in Rochester to devise a plan to fight for a more just system. 'The voices of individuals of good will must be heard and they are marching and crying out for a criminal justice system that is fair and just,' James said Tuesday. 'And so we must use boulders of righteousness, and hammers of intentional activism and mallets of moral clarity to bend the arc, the moral arc, towards justice and bring real equality in our time for all Gods people.' The Logins are the first married couple in the world to reach this level of accomplishment in businesscreating a true "unicorn" in such a short time. This spring they are releasing a book called 7 Unicorn Drive on March 1, 2021 (Hardback: $25; E-book: $9.99), which explores how their unique approach to business and leadership paved the way to financial success. 7 Unicorn Drive shares Outfit7's rise to unicorn statushow a scrappy startup of 8 people evolved into the inventors of the popular Talking Tom mobile app. From its creation to its status as a global hit, the app has been downloaded over 13 billion times and engages hundreds of millions active users daily. Throughout the book, it's crystal clear how the couple's unconditional values and love were the backbone of the success of their company. Readers will learn about the Logins' management philosophy, which includes using spirituality as a tool for leadership. But most importantly, it transforms from a classic business story about how to make a billion dollars to an immersive memoir about why to pursue the billion in the first place. About Influenced by the Giving Pledge, Iza and Samo Login established the Login5 Foundation in 2013. The Foundation is focused on philanthropic projects, from sustainable organic large-scale farming to brain neural research centers for tastier plant-based food, all in an effort to battle climate change. For more information visit: https://www.login5.org SOURCE Login5 Foundation Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Pesticides Market is forecast to reach $70.89 billion by 2025, after growing at a CAGR of 3.67% during 2020-2025. Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests, including weeds. The term pesticide includes herbicide, insecticides, termiticides, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, fungicide, and others. Pesticides are applied to crops before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage and transport. The application of pesticides provides better farm yield and storage and distribution of obtained output due to which the pesticides market is expected to grow during the forecast period. Report Coverage The report: Pesticides Market Forecast (2020-2025), by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Pesticides Market. Request Sample Key Takeaways The importance of pesticides has increased significantly over the last few decades, catalyzed by the need to enhance agricultural output and ensure adequate food availability for the growing global population. Asia- Pacific is accounted for significant share in market, as it is one of the major producers of key crops like rice, corn and cotton. Synthetic pesticides have been widely used in India to reduce approximately 45% gross crop loss owing to the pest and disease infestation. Toxicologists and horticulturists globally are adopting nanotechnology and nanoparticles in the development of new, environmentally friendly insecticides By Type - Segment Analysis Synthetic pesticides segment held a significant share of the pesticides market in 2019. The global synthetic pesticides market has been increasing during the forecast period due to the improved efficiency in the utilization of pesticides. Factors that drive the usage of synthetic pesticides are decreasing in cultivable land, increasing demand for food, increasing adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops, and acceptance of new farming practices. According to an article published from the Proceedings of the International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IAEES), restraining the use of pesticide during the production of fruits, vegetable, and cereals may lead to a loss of 78%, 54% and 32% of total loss in the yield. Whereas, using pesticides reduced the loss of around 35% of the total production. Inquiry Before Buying By Crop Type - Segment Analysis Cereals and grains segment held a significant share in the pesticides market in 2019. The growing need to increase food security, along with the onset of climate change and the prospect of increased drought, have played a key role in increasing the usage of pesticides in cereal cultivation. Various global agencies have launched programs to educate farmers on the usage of pesticides in cereal cultivation. For instance, in Lesotho, the United Nations launched Strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers, extension staff and agro-dealers on judicious use of herbicides, to increase farmers knowledge on the safe use of herbicides and other pesticides, and protect the health of communities and prevent damage to the environment. The growing cereal exports, supported by initiatives launched by government agencies to promote the usage of pesticides, which will further boost the pesticides market. Geography - Segment Analysis Asia Pacific dominated the pesticides market with a share of more than 48% during the forecast period. Developing economies such as China and India are focusing extensively on increasing crop yield and efficiency in rural areas, owing to the high growth potential. Variation in the climatic condition in Asia-Pacific enables the production of wide variety of crops which is expected to have a positive impact on the agricultural sector over the forecast period. Asia Pacific is a prominent producer of wheat, rice and vegetables. Hence, the requirement for pesticides is high in this region, and crop-based pesticides are expected to drive the pesticide market in the region. Schedule a Call Drivers Pesticides Market Intensive Farming Techniques Farmers globally are adopting intensive farming techniques to increase productivity per hectare, driving the demand for pesticides. Intensive farming is an agricultural intensification and mechanization system that aims to maximize yields from available land through means such as the heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. These techniques help to meet the rising demand for food from the growing population and prevent food shortages. Intensive farming techniques such as monoculture drive the demand for pesticides. Monoculture is a practice of growing one type of crop intensively over a large area, depleting the nutrients in the soil and making it heavily dependent on pesticides. Challenges Pesticides Market Alternative Techniques Use of alternative techniques such as integrated pest management (IPM) and crop rotation have reduced the use of pesticides in farms. IPM farms may grow pest-resistant crop varieties, use predatory insects to kill plant-eating pests, employ mechanical pest traps, and eliminate pest nesting areas by ploughing under harvested crops. Due to the rise in awareness of the effects caused by the use of pesticides, techniques such as these were implemented widely, restricting the markets growth. Market Landscape Technology launches, acquisitions and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the pesticides market. In 2019, the market of pesticides has been consolidated by the top five players accounting for xx% of the pesticides market share. Major top 10 companies of pesticides market are BASF SE, Nufarm Ltd, FMC Corp, BioWorks, DuPont, Monsanto, Natural Industries, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta AG, and Sumitomo Chemical among others. Buy Now Acquisition/ Product Launch Guwahati, Feb 25 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that without peace in northeast no development is possible and without arms and violence, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has been fulfilling all demands and requirements. Addressing an impressive gathering in the hill district of central Assam's Karbi Anglong, Shah said that the Union and Assam government had already successfully convinced hundreds of extremists belonging to nine outlawed outfits to shun violence and just on Tuesday 1,040 more terrorists of five outfits led by wanted terrorist leader Ingti Kathar Songbijit surrendered to the Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. "The tribal guerillas have deposited 338 sophisticated arms including AK series rifles, LMGs, rocket launchers and over 11,000 various types of ammunition," the home minister said, ensuring the surrendered militants to fulfil the promises given to them by the Assam government within one year. "If you want education, health and other sectors to develop then peace is the foremost condition. Development cannot happen at the cost of weapons. AWe have successfully signed agreements with Bodoland based militants, resolving decades old Reang ethnic community problems in Tripura. Bring BJP once again to power in Assam, Karbi Anglong would become the most developed region," Shah said. While praising the surrendered extremists for their decision to lay down arms, who assembled in the gatherings, the home minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said : "You have the same rights in India as I am enjoying. Assam would be most developed state if you voted BJP for the second time." Hitting out at Congress, he said the party (Congress) ruled Assam for so many years but there was no development and when the BJP came to power in Assam in 2017, it has progressed. Criticising the Congress for "neglecting Assam'', Shah said that the NDA government has given Bharat Ratna award to Bhupen Hazarika, who according to him, took Assamese culture and India's songs across the world. Detailing many projects worth thousands of crores being implemented or under implementation, the Home Minister said that students of the northeast region need not to go out of the region for their education, now all kinds of education including medical and engineering are available in the region. Home Minister said that a lot of work has been done by the BJP government in Assam and in the last central budget also, "Modiji has given Rs 53,000 crore special package to Assam". Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, state's Finance, Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also addressed the gatherings. Shah earlier in the day spoke in a gathering in Nagaon district's Batadrava Than, where he launched the work of a state-funded Rs 188-crore project for its beautification.The Batadrava Than in central Assam's Nagaon district is the birthplace of social reformer Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva, who was a 15th-16th century Assamese saint, scholar, poet, playwright, social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in Assam's cultural and religious history. Hrithik Roshan in 2016 had filed a complaint against an imposter who had allegedly emailed actress Kangana Ranaut over 950 times through an email ID similar to his. Back in December 2020, Hrithik's counsel had approached the Mumbai police commissioner about the pending investigation. Now that the case has been transferred to the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the crime branch, Hrithik will be summoned for questioning. According to Free Press Journal report, the officers will be questioning Hrithik Roshan, the police officer who registered the case in 2016 and the then investigation officer who was working on the case. The report also quoted an officer as saying, "We are in the process of issuing summons to him and he will be called for recording his statement this week." The report also revealed that the emails were sent "between April-June 2014 and some were obscene in nature." Out of 950 such emails, around 350 were under the police scanner. According to police, Ranaut could also be called once again to record her statement during the CIU investigation. While the case was being investigated by the Mumbai Police in 2016, around 35 statements were recorded including those of Hrithik and Ranaut. Hrithik had filed the case against an unknown imposter under the IPC section of 419 (cheating by personation), along with section 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act. However, the police were unable to track the email id user and in June 2017 a 'Nil' report was submitted. Forensic experts had failed to establish more details about the email ID as it originated from a US server. The report said that in the absence of data from the US, no user could be identified. ALSO READ: Hrithik Roshan Opts Out Of OTT Debut Project; Hindi Remake Of The Night Manager Now Shelved ALSO READ: Hrithik Roshan Will Be Seen As Raavan And Not Ram In Madhu Mantena's 3D Ramayana 18/02/2021 Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, pictured this evening (Thursday 18th February) at a Covid -19 update press conference at the Department of Health...Pic Stephen Collins/Collins Photos The first Irish case of a new B1525 variant of Covid-19 has been confirmed by health officials. Dr Cillian de Gascun of Nphet said tonight that while little is known about the variant, it may be more transmissible and may not be as responsive to a vaccine. The variant has been discovered in various countries around the world, including in Australia, Denmark, the US, and Canada. The case in Canada was linked to travel from Nigeria and some cases have linked it to travel from Sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is still unknown what its country of origin is. The origin of the Irish case is still under investigation. The reason were potentially concerned about it is because it possesses the E484 amino acid change which has been associated with reduced response to utilising antibodies - so, potential impact on vaccine effectiveness, he told Independent.ie. It also possesses a deletion of a spike protein which has been associated with increased transmissibility. The B117 variant, responsible for 92pc of cases in the country, also features this same trait. There have also been four new cases of the South African variant, totalling 15. The majority of these 15 cases are associated with travel. It comes as Professor Philip Nolan reported an increase in the reproductive R number, which was estimated to range from 0.4 to 0.7 at the end of January and is now between 0.6 and 0.9, despite the same level of lockdown restrictions. He said this was due to the British, or B117 variant. I think the major contribution to that is the B117 variant going from 50pc of our cases to now being 90pc of cases, he said. That of itself is going to increase the R number by 0.1, if not a little bit more. He said mobility or social contact would form smaller factors in the R number increase. I think the dominance of the variant of the virus more than the changes in people's behaviour. There doesnt seem to be a great deal more mobility. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said he expects Ireland to reach herd immunity certainly by the end of the year, maybe even by September. He said if vaccine rollouts go according to plan worldwide, if new variants of concern do not emerge and if vaccine uptake remains high, people can be optimistic. If all of those things play out, we will be in a very good position by the last quarter of this year. But there is a lot of ifs there. He said that if all goes to plan, we should be in a very good place by the end of the summer. A likely scenario is that vaccination will rollout and the virus will become endemic and that there will be pockets of infection in parts of the world and every so often this will blow up and cause outbreaks and cases. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close A police officer was battered by a man despite using his Taser in a quiet Surrey cul-de-sac. A man was later charged with assaulting a police officer after the dramatic incident at 11.30am in Horley on Saturday. Footage shot by a passer-by showed a man lash out at the officer, hitting him around the head a number of times. The passer-by, who was sat in the car filming on his phone, could be heard gasping as the police officer pulled out his Taser and fired at the suspect. The male passenger said to the female driver: 'Has he just Tasered him? Go on. Go forward. Go forward.' A man was later charged with assaulting a police officer after the dramatic incident at 11.30am in Horley on Saturday But the Taser appeared to suffer a malfunction because it failed to stop the man throwing his fist at the officer. He seemed to shout: 'You missed though didn't you, you p***k.' The video jumped to a second scene where police sirens could be heard in the background as an officer held out a Taser and shouted 'get down'. The man refused to drop to the floor and sauntered towards the officer, shouting obscene words. The officer was forced to get out his baton to hit the man, before a second officer felled him with his Taser. Footage shot by a passer-by showed the man lash out at the officer, hitting him around the head a number of times The man was then handcuffed as he lay writhing on the ground in pain. Surrey Police said: 'We have charged someone with assaulting an emergency worker. 'A 34 year old male, of no fixed address, is due to appear at Staines Magistrates' Court on 8 March.' 'This was following an incident which is alleged to have taken place around 11.30am on 20 February in Priestmans Road, Horley.' Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott says the Australian government needs to urgently boost its diplomatic and foreign aid footprint across the Indo-Pacific region to keep up with Chinas growing influence and avoid becoming a second-order economy. Ms Westacott has warned developing countries in the region are increasingly turning to Beijings controversial Belt and Road Initiative to finance infrastructure projects, which should be a wake-up call for Australia. BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott says a proposed Chinese fishing park in PNG should be a wake-up call. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In a speech to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday, Ms Westacott said a memorandum of understanding between a Chinese company and the Papua New Guinea government to build a $132 million fishery park on the island of Daru even if speculative should be a wake-up call. The Morrison government has been facing criticism from Labor and national security experts for not stepping in soon enough to stop the proposed facility on Australias doorstep. The warning came as the State Department doubled down on its designation of genocide in the region. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken addresses the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva via video link, Feb. 24, 2021. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington will hold China to account for atrocities committed in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) during an address to the United Nations rights agency, as other nations piled on Beijing for its treatment of the Uyghur people. Speaking by video link to the 46th regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Blinken upbraided China for attempts to subvert the values upon which the United Nations is founded, including the rights to fundamental freedoms that states are obliged to protect. Those who hide under the mantle of promoting economic development while seeking to undermine human rights will be held to account, including for their own human rights violations, he said. We will speak out for universal values when atrocities are committed in Xinjiang or when fundamental freedoms are undermined in Hong Kong, Blinken added. Hong Kong joined Xinjiang and Tibet last year as major rights trouble spots in China after Beijing imposed a draconian security law that led to widespread arrests of democratic politicians. In Washington, meanwhile, the State Department affirmed an earlier judgement that mass internment camps, forced sterilizations and other harsh measures imposed on Uyghurs and other Muslims in the XUAR meet the definitions of genocide and crimes against humanity. Blinkens speech declared the intention of the newly minted Biden administration to rejoin the UNHRC after his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the body in 2018, in part for what it has said are membership rules that allow the election of the worlds worst human rights abusers to seats on the Council. China narrowly won a seat on the UNHRC in October, prompting New York-based Human Rights Watch to call the vote embarrassing for a country that has spent billions to burnish its image and used its growing power to stifle criticism of its treatment of ethnic Uyghurs. The Asian power secured only 139 votes during a secret ballot at the 75th U.N. General Assembly in Geneva from among 193 member-nations, placing fourth out of five countries vying for four seats in the Asia-Pacific region, and beating out only Saudi Arabia, which has faced wide condemnation over its rights record. The United States is fully committed to the universal protection and promotion of human rights, Blinken told the session, which runs from Feb. 22 to March 23. France also chimed in on China at the UNHRC Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian slamming what he termed institutionalized repression of the Uyghurs. He cited witness testimonies and documents as evidence of unjustifiable practices towards Uyghurs, and a system of large-scale surveillance and institutionalized repression. Uyghurs rally to press the State Department to fight for the freedom of Uyghurs unjustly imprisoned in Chinese internment camps, at the US Mission to the United Nations, in a file photo. RFA Genocide designation reaffirmed On the last day of the Trump administration last month, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the situation in the XUAR as genocide and crimes against humanity. The Biden administration has embraced the label, suggesting that it will pursue a more forceful approach in holding China accountable for its abuses in the region. Authorities in the XUAR are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017 as part of a counter-terrorism campaign. Chinese officials have said the camps are centers for vocational training, but reporting by RFAs Uyghur Service and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in cramped and unsanitary conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination. Female former detainees have said they were subjected to systemic rape in the camps and injected with sterilization drugs or had intrauterine devices (IUDs) forcibly inserted to end their fertility. On Wednesday, the State Department doubled down on its decision regarding the XUAR. We have been very clear that Secretary Blinken has determined that what has taken place in Xinjiang was genocide, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a press briefing on Wednesday. Weve also been very clear that it constitutes crimes against humanity. Trump slapped sanctions on several top Chinese officials deemed responsible for rights violations in the XUAR, including regional party secretary Chen Quanguo, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The move, which marked the first time Washington had sanctioned a member of Chinas powerful Politburo, followed Trumps enactment in June of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (UHRPA). The legislation highlights arbitrary incarceration, forced labor, and other abuses in the XUAR and provides for sanctions against the Chinese officials who enforce them. Speaking to RFAs Uyghur Service on Wednesday, Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) exile group, welcomed Blinkens speech and the reaffirmation of the genocide designation by his State Department. China is attempting to deny this 21st century genocide through lies and disinformation and also through pressure tactics and threats to Western governments not to recognize it as such, he said, adding that the international community will not be fooled by such a strategy. Isa also expressed gratitude to Canadas House of Commons for its unanimous vote Monday recognizing the situation in the XUAR as genocide, and called on the European Union to follow suit. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet speaks at the COP25 Climate summit in Madrid, Spain, in a file photo. AP Photo Call for access A day earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on China to grant meaningful access to U.N. investigators to probe reports of abuses against Uyghurs in the region. We urge China to allow meaningful access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including High Commissioner [for Human Rights Michelle] Bachelet, Borrell told the UNHRC. This is key to enable an independent, impartial and transparent assessment of the grave concerns that the international community has, he said. The EU has faced criticism over a tentative trade agreement with China that observers say ignores the situation in the region. China in 2019 organized two visits to monitor internment camps in the XUARone for a small group of foreign journalists, and another for diplomats from non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Thailandduring which officials dismissed claims about mistreatment and poor conditions in the facilities as slanderous lies. During the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September last year, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan told the gathering that these trips and the China-friendly accounts they produced were Potemkin tours in a failed attempt to prove that the camps were humane training centers. In July 2019, after Chinas ambassador to the U.N. invited its human rights czar Michelle Bachelet to visit the XUAR to see for herself what he called education training centers in the region, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told RFA that she would not accept unless given access to the camps on her own terms. Reported and translated by Alim Seytoff for RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Berger said when he read the findings of the first probe, "it was pretty clear to me we needed to do a follow-on... The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. DUP leader Arlene Foster has met with a representative group for loyalist paramilitaries to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol amid rising anger at post-Brexit border checks. The implementation of the protocol since January 1 of this year has caused community tensions to increase. Loyalists are angry at the new checks on goods arriving at ports, claiming an economic wedge has been driven between the region and the rest of the UK, undermining the Union. Meanwhile, the European Research Group of Brexiteer Tory MPs is now calling on Boris Johnson to scrap the arrangements, warning the protocol has had a 'profound and negative effect'. DUP leader Arlene Foster has called for the Northern Ireland Protocol, set out in the Brexit divorce deal, to be scrapped The protocol was designed by the EU and UK to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and it achieves this by effectively creating a regulatory and customs border in the Irish Sea. Goods imported into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK are now subject to a range of new processes which has caused friction at the border and disruption. There are fears that friction could get worse on April 1 when a grace period currently limiting the bureaucracy applied to imported supermarket goods is due to come to an end. The UK and the EU are currently trying to negotiate solutions to the problems. Rising community tensions in Northern Ireland have been illustrated by the emergence of graffiti at ports expressing opposition to a border in the Irish Sea. Mrs Foster, along with her party's deputy leader Nigel Dodds and East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson, discussed opposition to the protocol with the Loyalist Communities Council. It represents loyalists groups including the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando. A party spokesman said afterwards: 'We listened to the views expressed and the need for political and constitutional methods to safeguard the United Kingdom single market and ensure there is an unfettered flow of trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.' The DUP has urged the UK Government to ditch the protocol, with Mrs Foster previously arguing it had 'completely ruptured the flow of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland'. The ERG is also now calling for the protocol to be ditched. The protocol, which involves checks being carried out on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, has caused rising community tensions at ports The group said in a new report that the EU's 'bungled' attempt to suspend parts of the agreement during a row over coronavirus vaccine supplies in January a move which was hastily abandoned by Brussels created a 'unique political opportunity' to renegotiate the deal. The document said the UK Government should tell Brussels that it intends to pass a new law to 'redress the trade diversion and societal pressures' created by the protocol. Mr Johnson should make a 'generous offer' to help meet the concerns of the EU around the Ireland-Northern Ireland border, suggesting 'mutual enforcement' would ensure exporters abide by the rules on the other side of the frontier. That would mean a reciprocal guarantee by each party that it will prevent the export of goods that do not meet the other side's regulatory requirements. [February 25, 2021] PRP Invests in the New Global Headquarters for AmerisourceBergen in Conshohocken, Pa. PRP announced today that it closed on a preferred equity investment in the new headquarters for AmerisourceBergen in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006129/en/ AmerisourceBergen's future headquarters at SORA West in Conshohocken. (Photo: Business Wire) Located in a booming submarket of Philadelphia, this 429,122-SF trophy office building is part of the 520,000-SF SORA West project being developed by Keystone Property Group. AmerisourceBergen will be consolidating from two nearby office buildings in Conshohocken as well as its current headquarter spaces in Chesterbrook. Serving as an anchor for the SORA West mixed-use development, the 11-story building includes office and amenity space and two lower levels of parking. With spaces designed to strengthen collaboration, the new headquarters is expected to house approximately 1,500 AmerisourceBergen associates. The new headquarters will offer many amenities, including a fitness center, on-site dining services, a training facility, and a community plaza on the lower floors. To promote sustainability, the project will be pursuing LEED Silver Certification. "PRP was provided the opportunity to participate in this transaction with Keystone Property Group through a preferred equity investment," stated Paul Dougherty, President of PRP. "Building upon our existing $2.5B net lease portfolio, the Gensler-designed AmerisourceBergen building is literally the finest building in the state of Pennsylvania. We are thrilled to be part of such a terrific development." Once complete, the SORA West development will consist of the AmerisourceBergen headquarters, a 127-key Tapestry Collection by Hilton hote called Hotel West + Main, the repurposed 146-year-old historic firehouse with a first-floor dining experience and second-floor gastropub, a sweeping amphitheater and public plaza for events and live music, and a 1,500-space public and private parking garage. SORA West is located at One West First Avenue, approximately 14 miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia and 23 miles north of the Philadelphia International Airport. It is situated at the key intersection of I-76 and I-476 which are important arterials in the Greater Philadelphia region. Furthermore, the property is located 0.3 miles from SEPTA's Conshohocken Regional Station, providing access to and from Center City Philadelphia and the Philadelphia International Airport. "PRP's investment underscores Keystone's ability to envision the corporate headquarters of the future, and create a workplace that meets the demands of a post-COVID world," said Bill Glazer, Founder and CEO of Keystone Property Group. "Our ability to partner with a top 10 Fortune-100 company and deliver on their expectations attracted an investment that sets the market not only for suburban Philadelphia but corporate centers throughout the country." About AmerisourceBergen AmerisourceBergen fosters a positive impact on the health of people and communities around the world by advancing the development and delivery of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. As a leading global healthcare company, with a foundation in pharmaceutical distribution and solutions for manufacturers, pharmacies and providers, we create unparalleled access, efficiency and reliability for human and animal health. Our 22,000 global team members power our purpose: We are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. AmerisourceBergen is ranked #10 on the Fortune 500 with more than $185 billion in annual revenue. Learn more at www.amerisourcebergen.com. About PRP PRP is a real estate investment management company with a focus on value-add multifamily apartments, office and mission-critical corporate headquarters facilities leased to investment-grade companies on a long-term basis. Founded in 2005, PRP executes value add strategies and asset manages a national portfolio of assets on behalf of its institutional investors, family offices and financial institutions. PRP manages its apartment investments through PRP REM, its property management subsidiary which is solely focused on PRP's portfolio of apartment properties. PRP has proven expertise in selecting and managing attractive risk adjusted real estate investments located in major markets throughout the United States. Since its formation, the company has invested in 42 assets with a value in excess of $4 Billion in all property sectors. PRP is privately held and is headquartered in Washington, DC. PRP is a creative buyer and seller of real estate and considers a variety of equity and debt investment structures. For more information on PRP, please visit www.prprei.com. About Keystone Property Group Keystone is a vertically integrated commercial real estate development and investment company. It delivers value for investors and tenants by creating mixed-use developments that revitalize neighborhoods, empower people, and drive productivity and collaboration. Headquartered in Conshohocken, Pa., its portfolio of iconic projects attracting world-class companies includes 10 million square feet of office and mixed-use properties with 2 million square feet under development, and spans thriving locations along the East Coast. Keystone has offices in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Miami, Fla. For more information, please visit www.keystonepropertygroup.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006129/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain, Rutters, will add a new, delightful savory treat to its shelves starting next month. Called the Philly Cheesesteak Traveller, the on-the-go treat is the brainchild of Patties Food Groups Inc., the same company behind the just-as-tasty FourN Twenty Beef and Cheese Traveller. The new Philly Cheesesteak Traveller is packed with shaved beef and American cheese, all lovingly enveloped in a flaky, golden pastry. Rutters was actually the first convenience store to ever introduce the Australian companys products to the American food market, and is now continuing to deliver such wonderful-tasting food to hungry stomachs everywhere. After the success of the Beef and Cheese Traveller last year, we were very excited to continue expanding the FourN Twenty offering as part of our award-winning food service, said Rutters Vice President of Marketing, Robert Perkins. The partnership weve built has been great because both companies have the same goal of continuing food innovation to meet customer demands. Being the first retailer to sell this great product will keep customers saying, Why go anywhere else? Patties Food Groups, in turn, is very pleased that their FourN Twenty meat pies were so readily embraced by the American public. We are extremely proud that the FourN Twenty has been embraced by Rutters customers, stated Anand Surujpal, the brands General Manager of Marketing & Innovation. The generous-hearted people of Philadelphia have really welcomed our Aussie beef pies and Travellers since we launched in 2018.The New FourN Twenty Philly Cheesesteak Traveller is the perfect combination of something quintessentially Aussie and a Philadelphia classic, and we know our fans will really love the new flavor. The Philly Cheesesteak Traveller will be available at Rutters locations beginning March 2. Queenslanders are rejoicing after receiving the most rainfall they have seen in months, with more showers forecast for the south-east over coming days. Thursday will be the wettest day for the week for Brisbane, before the system moves to the Gold Coast. Rain is forecast for south-east Queensland on February 25. Credit:Bureau of Meteorology Parts of the Brisbane region were hit with up to 70 millimetres on Wednesday night. The Bureau of Meteorology said rainfall across the CBD and in central Queensland saw significant totals, with areas around Mt Glorious, west of the city, receiving almost 80 millimetres. 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. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Standard Chartered Plc (SCBFF.PK, STAC.L, STAN.L) reported Thursday that its fourth-quarter statutory loss before taxation was $449 million, compared to last year's profit of $194 million. On a per share basis, the company's loss was 19.4 cents, wider than last year's loss of 3.9 cents. Underlying loss before taxation was $192 million, compared to a profit of $325 million. Underlying loss per share was 13.5 cents, compared to a loss of 0.4 cents a year ago. Net interest income declined 7 percent to $1.76 billion from $1.90 billion last year. Net interest margin fell to 1.24 percent from 1.54 percent last year. Underlying operating income was $3.20 billion, down from $3.60 billion last year. Standard Chartered Board said it will restart dividend and recommending the payment of a full-year ordinary dividend of $284 million or 9 cents per share. The Board has also decided to carry out a share buy-back for up to a maximum consideration of $254 million to further reduce the number of ordinary shares in issue by cancelling the repurchased shares. The company specified that the terms of the buy-back will be announced and the programme will start shortly and is expected to reduce the Group's CET1 ratio in the first quarter of 2021 by approximately 10 basis points. Looking ahead, the company expects 2021 overall income to be similar to that achieved in 2020 at constant currency. The FY'21 net interest margin should stabilise at marginally below the 4Q'20 level of 1.24 per cent. The company expects income to return to 5 to 7 per cent growth per annum from 2022. Further, the company said confident that to achieve its ambition to deliver a double-digit RoTE. By 2023, the company expects to deliver at least 7 per cent RoTE. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX STANDARD CHARTERED-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de (Newser) Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm won Senate confirmation Thursday to be President Joe Bidens energy secretary, per the AP. The vote was 64-35. Granholm, who served two terms as governor in a state dominated by the auto industry, will be a key player in Biden's vision for a green economy as the United States fights to slow climate change. Michigan was devastated by the 2008 recession, and Granholm has promoted emerging clean energy technologies, such as electric vehicles and battery manufacturing as an answer for jobs that will be lost as the US transitions away from oil, coal, and other fossil fuels. During her confirmation hearing last month, Granholm, pushed her plans to embrace new wind and solar technologies. But her position caused tension with some Republicans who fear for the future of fossil fuels. story continues below We can buy electric car batteries from Asia or we can make them in America, Granholm, 62, told senators. We can install wind turbines from Denmark or we can make them in America.'' Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy committee, said the Obama administration went on a regulatory rampage to slow or stop energy production. Barrasso and other Republicans have complained that a freeze imposed by Biden on oil and gas leases on federal lands is taking a sledgehammer to Western states economies. Granholm assured lawmakers that creating jobs was her top priorityand Biden's. In West Virginia, and in other fossil fuel states, there is an opportunity for us to specialize in the technologies that reduce carbon emissions," she said at her Jan. 27 hearing. (Read more Jennifer Granholm stories.) VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) -- Over the past several years, teachers across Indiana have promoted Red for Ed. it's an initiative to get attention from legislators and local leaders to put funding back into public schools and support public school teachers. They would wear red a certain day of the week, rally in front of the statehouse in a sea of red and write and call local legislators. Now, across the state, they are taking a different approach to the movement. "Going from that bright red to this black shows mourning for what is happening," Jodie Buckallew, a special education teacher and executive board member for the Vigo County teachers association said. "That black just symbolizes where teachers are." They call it blackout for ed. "It's almost a sober feeling that we're still not being heard and what further action do we need for our legislators to listen," Buckallew said. She said the frustration comes after years of losing funding, bills making it harder for teachers to bargain their salaries and benefits, and the lack of priority to get teachers a COVID-19 vaccine. Buckallew said any state or local leader who is voting against public schools is voting against their community. "When over 90% of Indiana's eligible students K through 12 attend public schools and you are not willing to fully fund them, then you're not willing to help your community grow," Buckallew said. She said you can help by reaching out to local legislators and voicing your opposition to multiple bills going through the House and Senate right now. You can find your local legislator, here. You can learn more about House Bill 1005, Senate Bill 412, and Senate Bill 413, here. About 10 days after the central government iterated on the floor of Parliament its resolve to privatize businesses owned by it on a scale and sweep never done before, Anil Agarwal announced his Vedanta Group would set up a $10 billion fund to invest in them. Another week later, the mining and metals major was placing full-page ads in papers that, while promoting itself, alluded to themes dear to this governmentnation building, economic self-sufficiency and value creation. The association between Anil Agarwal and disinvestment runs long. In the early part of this century, Agarwal did with Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) and Hindustan Zinc what he would like to do an encore of now: buy a government asset, with all its complexities, and create value for all stakeholders. In oil major Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Vedanta is among the three preliminary bidders. Going by this governments words, BPCL is the start of a long process that will alter the philosophy and landscape of government companies. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the governments thinking. The government has no business to remain in business," he said. Under an umbrella entity called the National Asset Monetisation Pipeline, the government is looking to sell about 100 underutilized and unutilized assets" and raise 2.5 trillion. While this is a broader, longer-term exercise, Budget 2021 has set the disinvestment target for 2021-22 at 1.75 trillion. The plan is to sell majority stakes in select companies and two of its 12 banks, and a minority stake in the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). However, getting buyers to joust for these assets and pay top bucks isnt that straight-forward. Tucked away in the governments grand design are three hard truths, show data on businesses owned by the government. One, the realizable potential of disinvestmentcrucial to the government from the perspective of revenuesis significant, but comes with limits. Two, the value offered by government companies is concentrated in about one-third of the 290-odd businesses, perhaps even less. Three, there are only a handful of sectors where a disproportionate market share and the nature of business gives government companies a case to command a premium over market prices. The backdrop It is valuable to understand the larger context of disinvestment policies pursued by various regimes since 1991. Businesses owned and operated by central governments are referred to as central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). Then, in the financial sector, there are public sector banks and insurance companies. As part of the larger economic liberalization policy changes which were adopted in 1991, the number of industries reserved for the public sector was reduced to 8 in 1991, 6 in 1993 and 4 in 1998-99. Further, a dilution of the Centres equity was sanctioned in select CPSEs: up to 49% in sectors reserved for the public sector, and up to 74% or 100% in other sectors. The Congress-led government at the time started offloading small stakes in CPSEs, primarily with the objectives of listing them on the stock market and monetizing value that was politically palatable. In 1998-99, during the first tenure of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Budget announced that government shareholding would be reduced to 26% in the generality of the cases". Further, it initiated a policy of strategic saleselling a large chunk of equity along with management control. Between 1999-2000 and 2003-04, the government made strategic sales in several businesses. This included Balco and Hindustan Zinc in metals and mining to the Anil Agarwal Group, IPCL in petrochemicals to the Reliance Group, and VSNL in telecom and CMC in information technology to the Tatas. This was the last time any central government truly pursued a policy of privatizationtill now. In 2004, disinvestment ground to a halt due to the UPA-Is common minimum programme with its Left allies. It was revived in 2009, with a new disinvestment policy that allowed minority stake sale (up to 51%, with the government retaining management control). When the NDA returned in 2014, another shift in policy followed: sale of majority stakes in CPSEs not of strategic interest. However, this stake wasnt sold to private players, but to other CPSEs. So, for instance, ONGC bought the governments stake in HPCL, for 36,915 crore. The Centre met its short-term objective of raising funds for itself. However, it was debatable if this strategy contributed to the larger objective of fully unshackling these CPSEs as businesses and unlocking value. Given this backdrop, the NDA-IIs disinvestment policy that is being enunciated now represents a paradigm shift. The government gave an in-principle" agreement for disinvestment in 34 CPSEs, and minority stake sales in several others. It set an ambitious divestment target of 2.1 trillion for 2020-21, but in the backdrop of the covid-19, raised only 18,534 crore, or about 8.8% of the target amount. The announcements in the latest Budget, while not fully new, are therefore crucial. The new strategic sector policy entails the government retain at least one CPSE in four sectors: atomic energy, space and defence; transport and telecommunications; power, petroleum, coal and other minerals; and banking, insurance and financial services. In non-strategic sectors, all CPSEs will be privatized or merged or closed. The market value The governments portfolio contains 274 CPSEs, plus 12 public sector banks and seven insurance companies (LIC in life insurance and 6 others in general insurance). A good starting point to estimate how much the government can realize from the disinvestment of CPSEs is the market valuation of 54 CPSEs listed on stock exchanges. As on 20 February, the governments stake in these 54 CPSEs was valued at about 7.3 trillion, according to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, which manages the disinvestment process. These 54 listed CPSEs represent the cream. In 2018-19, they accounted for 80% of turnover and 92% of net profit of all CPSEs, according to data from the Department of Public Enterprises. If the Centre makes strategic sales in all these listed CPSEs and pares its holding to 26%, it will realize 2.6 trillion at current prices (or a little over the target for this year alone). In other words, there are limits to the revenues from disinvestment. A majority stake sale in BPCL and Air India are first up. Further, an initial public offering (IPO) is proposed for LIC, and two public sector banks are to be privatized. The current market value of the governments 53% holding in BPCL is 45,000 crore. Further, a 10% IPO of LIC is reportedly estimated at between 80,000- 110,000 crore. It is farfetched to extrapolate that such sums would also be realized for other entities. As one goes down the list of CPSEs, business performance dips. Of the 274 CPSEs, 178 reported a net profit in 2018-19. Of this, 32 reported a net profit above 1,000 crore. View Full Image Narrow pickings A majority of revenues and profits are generated by a small set of CPSEs, which embody the most value. The top 10 CPSEs, ranked by turnover, account for around 73% of the total turnover of CPSEs and 54% of the total net profit (see Chart 1). Seven of these 10 companies are in the oil and gas sector, which is battling economic headwinds in the short term and a shift to renewable energy in the long term. Beyond the CPSEs, theres the set of 12 public sector banks. Over the past decade, they have been mired by bad loans and a capital crunch. As of 20 February, their cumulative market worth was around 5.9 trillion. The governments shareholding in them ranges from 58% to 96%. Back in the mid-2020, the central bank had suggested the government trim its holding to 51%, as a precursor to their eventual sale. At current rates, a dilution to 51% would fetch it 1.02 trillion (see Chart 3). Strategic premium? Be it CPSEs or banks, the government is hoping to price a premium for their size and assets, and the value that a private buyer can unlock by making operations more efficient. ONGC paid a 15% premium for HPCL over market price. HPCL was one of the better government assets and this was a sale where the government was both the parties. When the counterparty is the private sector, premiums get harder unless an asset is valuable or strategic. CPSEs have been dominant in certain crucial sectors of the Indian economy such as oil and gas and mining, and it is from the disinvestment of companies in these sectors that the government is likely to realize maximum revenues. Access to strategic assets such as mines and oilfields is a likely draw for potential buyers. However, even in these sectors, the clout of CPSEs has decreased in the past decade. For instance, in 2008-09, CPSEs accounted for about 75% of net sales in the oil and gas sector. This share had fallen to 67% in 2018-19. A similar decline in observed in fertilizers and mining sectors, where CPSEs have been important historically. The most dramatic fall is seen in the telecom sector, where the capitulation of BSNL and the rise of private players has led to the revenue share of CPSEs dropping from 26% to 8% over the past decade (see Chart 2). Even as it articulates a significant shift in its disinvestment policy, and sets ambitious targets, the government will face these variables in its revenue maximization efforts. How it manages the sale of BPCL and the IPO of LIC this fiscal, and how much it realizes, will lay down a significant marker for the new disinvestment regime. Arjun Srinivas is with www.howindialives.com, a search engine for public data. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Dear Editor: I was interested in seeing how the Heritage would cover the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Would the stories on the week of the Senate hearings address all the incriminating evidence being presented? Would articles highlight the memorable job Rep. Jaimie Raskin, a Jew who had just lost his son to suicide, did in overseeing the trial? Would articles cover how the events on January 6, 2021, were repugnant without justifying them as the paper had in the previous issue? Would the Heritage opine that what happened on that horrible day were at least admittedly in part a r... Hyderabad, February 24: Ukraine's Health Minister Maksym Stepanov on Wednesday visited Bharat Biotech's manufacturing facility here and held discussions on supplies of the company's Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin for his country. A three-member led by the minister took a tour of the world-class Bio-Safety Level 3 manufacturing facility of Bharat Biotech, which has developed India's first indigenous vaccine for Covid-19. Bharat Biotech Soon to Conduct Trials of Nasal Vaccine Against COVID-19; What Is an Intranasal Vaccine? All You Need to Know. The delegation, that included Deputy Health Minister Igor Ivashchenko, and Ukraine Embassy's Head of Trade and Economic Department Ivan Konovalov had discussions with Bharat Biotech's leadership to secure the supplies of Covaxin to Ukraine. Bharat Biotech International Limited Chairman & Managing Director Dr Krishna Ella said it was privilege to host the Health Minister from Ukraine "at our state-of-the-art facility and showcase our world-class capabilities in the manufacture and supply of vaccines and research and product development". "We discussed potential timelines for the supply of Covaxin to Ukraine on a priority and the prospects of a partnership for our BBV 154 intranasal vaccine. There is a lot of interest in Covaxin worldwide," he said. COVID-19 Vaccine Covaxin, Developed by Bharat Biotech, Cleared For Phase 3 Clinical Trials. Stepanov said that his nation and India have a long history of cooperation in various fields. "We look forward to benefiting from India's vast capability in the manufacture of vaccines to effectively combat the Covid-19 pandemic at home. We had a very good interaction with the team at Bharat Biotech and it was a great experience to take a tour of the facility and inspect its impressive manufacturing capabilities. We will soon firm up the Covaxin delivery plan for the mass vaccination of our people, and further strengthen our partnership on intranasal vaccine supplies after initial results from its phase 1 trials," he said. Bharat Biotech is India's leading vaccines and bio-therapeutics manufacturer. It has more than 145 global patents, a wide product portfolio of more than 16 vaccines, four bio-therapeutics, registrations in more than 123 countries and WHO Pre-qualifications. Located in Hyderabad's Genome Valley, the hub for the global biotech industry, Bharat Biotech has delivered more than 4 billion doses of various vaccines around the world till now. It continues to lead innovation and has developed vaccines for influenza H1N1, rotavirus, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, chikungunya, zika and the world's first tetanus-toxoid conjugated vaccine for typhoid. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 25, 2021 11:08 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). The National Industrial Court in Akure has ordered the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, to reinstate 85 non-teaching staff members sacked by the institution in December 2019. The judge, Kiyersohot Damulak, also gave the university a 30-day ultimatum to pay the reinstated workers their salaries, emoluments, and allowances from the date of their unlawful disengagement till date. In the judgement delivered on January 28, a copy of which was seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday, the court also directed the university to pay the workers the three months salary they were being owed before they unlawfully disengaged. Mr Damulak also ordered the university to pay each of the sacked workers N50,000 as the cost of prosecuting the case. The award totaled N4,250,000 for the 85 workers who had sued the university for wrongful and illegal termination of their employment. Mr Damulak, in quashing their sacking, held that the universitys governing council failed to comply with the provisions of the institutions employment regulations in disengaging them. Claimants case The claimants, Mary Fajembola and 84 others, had through their lawyer, O. O Ayenakin, filed their suit with the university, its Vice-Chancellor and the Governing Council, joined as the defendants. The plaintiffs, who claimed to be non-teaching staff members of the institution, alleged in their suit that their appointments were terminated on December 5, 2019, without any offence. They claimed in the suit filed on February 27, 2020 that they were neither queried nor made to face any disciplinary panel prior to their disengagement. They added that the procedure adopted in disengaging them from service was unknown to their conditions of service. Universitys defence In their defence through their lawyer, Oluwatosin Olanipekun, the defendants claimed they sacked the claimants because the university could no longer cope with staffs humongous wage bill. They said the responsibilities to ensure the sustainability of the university were becoming overwhelming, hence the need to sack the 85 claimants. They added that the sacking was in conformity with the governing regulations and the provisions for termination of employment. But Mr Ayenakin, the claimants lawyer, said the condition that either party could terminate the appointment by notice was applicable to the category of staff of his clients. He insisted that the disengagement ran foul of the law and urged the court to grant his clients prayers. Court orders Delivering judgment, Mr Damulak held that the disengagement violated the regulations governing the service of the senior/junior staff of the university. The implication of all these is that since the claimants employment enjoys statutory flavour, the claimants are entitled to an order of reinstatement and any amount owed them before their disengagement and thereafter till retirement and I so order, the judge ruled. Summarising his findings in the judgment, Mr Damulak, said among others, The employment of the claimants with the defendants is regulated by the defendants statute, Regulations and the claimants letters of employment. ADVERTISEMENT The claimants employments with statutory flavour cannot be terminated for services not required. Disengagement of the claimants by notice or salary in lieu of notice for services not required is incompatible with their status of statutory employment. The provision of paragraph 2.46(ii) of the Regulations is incompatible with the provision of paragraph 2.19 of the Regulations, same is hereby struck out. The defendants did not comply with the provisions of the Regulations in disengaging the claimants. The judge reiterated that the disengagement of the claimants in the manner it was done was unlawful, null and void, adding, the claimants are hereby reinstated to their erstwhile positions. The court ordered the university to pay the claimants their three months salaries owed them before their unlawful disengagement. It also ordered the institution to pay the claimants their salaries, emoluments and allowance from the date of their unlawful termination till reinstatement today January 28, 2021 and subsequently till retirement. He ruled that the claimants were not entitled to general damages, but ordered the defendants are to pay to each claimant cost of N50, 000. The salaries and cost are to be paid within 30 days of this judgment or the amounts will attract 10 per cent interest per annum, the judge ordered. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Besides being a well-known actor on television and in films, actor Sharad Kelkar is also known for his skills as a dubbing artiste. Despite his busy schedule as an actor, Sharad says he never ignores his dubbing duties. "I consider dubbing an integral and important part of acting. Practice makes a man perfect and it helps my craft as well. I make money, I dub and learn, too. It enhances my craft and it feels like an added advantage," Sharad told IANS. The actor has lent his voice to the dubbing of several Hollywood and regional films in Hindi, including Dawn Of The Planet Of Apes, Guardians Of Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Baahubali The Beginning. He is very particular about the project he associates himself with as a dubbing artiste. "I choose projects on different parameters. I don't dub for everything. Recently there was 'The Legend Of Hanuman', and it is the highest rated show on OTT. So, I go for good projects instead of randomly picking things," shares Sharad. The actor will also be seen in The Family Man 2, which is scheduled to release in May this year. For Sharad, the method of acting remains the same irrespective of whether the medium is film, TV or OTT. "Shooting for OTT is fun and quick. The waiting period is less. My acting doesn't change. I don't change my acting pattern according to the medium. Whatever medium you give me, I act as I act. I don't differentiate if it is a film or an OTT show," shares Sharad. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. Embattled Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, has urgently sought reassurance on Covid vaccine supplies at an EU leaders online summit. The 26 EU leaders will on Friday resume talks amid growing frustration about vaccine supply breakdowns, which are compounding national administrative problems slowing down inoculation rollouts in many countries. The leaders meeting came amid popular dissatisfaction about continuing lockdowns, approaching the anniversary of the first Covid 19 curbs, and frustration about the EUs vaccine poor delivery performance which lags behind Israel, the UK, and the USA. EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has come in for criticism over the procurement plan earlier this year. Read More But at this leaders summit many of them supported her efforts and criticised big pharmaceutical companies failure to deliver on contractual commitments. Italys new prime minister Mario Draghi the former EU Central Bank governor credited with saving the Euro - questioned why the EU was not imposing stricter vaccine export controls like those used by the USA. Brussels last month blundered badly in introducing a mechanism to stop vaccine shipments by companies deemed not to be meeting delivery obligations to the EU. The move, which was reversed within hours, impacted on Northern Irelands special post-Brexit trade status and triggered off renewed EU-UK rows. A spokesman for the Taoiseach said Mr Martin had "stressed that the EU must do all it can to ensure vaccine supplies are maximised in the coming weeks and months." Brussels officials said the Taoiseach's views were shared by the majority of his counterparts which are facing many vaccine problems. The EUs current inoculation rate of 6.6 shots per 100 residents is well behind the 20.3 in the US and the 28.3 seen in the UK, according to data from the Financial Times newspaper. Five EU leaders have combined ahead of this summit to demand that more vaccines are manufactured inside the European Union. But hopes remain that current supply problems likely to continue up to the end of March can be reversed in the following three months April to June. Kathmandu, February 25 Nepal is all set to receive the first lot of chemical fertiliser it is importing from Bangladesh next week, almost six months after it began a procedure for that. The government is purchasing 50,000 metric tonnes of urea from Bangladesh as per a government-to-government agreement. Of that, 22,500 metric tonnes have reached the Kolkata port now, and they will be here next week, according to the Krishi Samagri Company Limited, the governments company assigned with the task. Nepal will receive the fertiliser at three points, namely: Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, and Birgunj. The two countries had initially discussed borrowing fertiliser from Bangladesh in September last year. Later, the government decided to buy it under a government-to-government agreement. Nepal is suffering from the chemical fertiliser crisis since early last year due to different factors including the Covid-19 pandemic and the contractors failure to keep their promises. The moment a gang left a 16-year-old schoolboy to die after stabbing him repeatedly was caught on harrowing CCTV footage. Drekwon Patterson was ambushed by four hooded attackers in Brent, northwest London, around 11.30pm last Thursday. Police believe the thugs drove the black Ford Mondeo into the teenager before chasing him down Preston Street and knifing him. In a horrific onslaught, the gang took turns stabbing the Harrow College schoolboy on CCTV obtained by MailOnline Drekwon Patterson, 16, was left for dead by the attackers who ambushed him in Brent, northwest London, last Thursday night The harrowing footage is also said to show Drekwon desperately trying to get the attention of passing motorists - but tragically going unanswered. A local shopkeeper said: 'The boy was waving for help but no one stopped. It is heartbreaking.' The gang were later caught on camera piling back into the car, which was later found burned out by officers in a nearby park. Drekwon, a twin and one of eight children from the Wembley area, was found with stab wounds and pronounced dead the next day, sparking London's 15th murder probe of the year so far. Scotland Yard has not yet made any arrests and have launched a hunt for Drekwon's killers, releasing images of a car and a van in relation to their investigation. They are appealing for information about a car seen driving from the scene which was later discovered burnt out. Police believe the four hooded thugs drove the black Ford Mondeo into the teenager before chasing him down Preston Street and knifing him The officer said police are also keen to trace the driver of a van which was seen on CCTV stopping briefly near the scene Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard, from the Metropolitan Police, said: 'I need to hear from any witnesses or anyone with information about this tragic murder - if you know anything that may be significant, please get in touch. 'In particular, I need to find out more information about a car - a black Ford Mondeo, using registration number YR54 NHN - which was seen on CCTV driving away from the scene and found burnt out in Silver Jubilee Park, NW9 on Friday 19 February. 'I believe this car was used in an initial attempt to injure Drekwon in a collision on Preston Road. 'After the Mondeo had been driven at him, Drekwon ran away and was chased by four suspects who had got out of the car, before being caught and fatally stabbed.' He said the car is a 'key line of inquiry' and described it as 'a fairly large vehicle and quite old, so it would have been noticed'. The officer said police are also keen to trace the driver of a van which was seen on CCTV stopping briefly near the scene. He said: 'I am appealing for that driver to please come forward as a witness.' According to The Sun, Drekwon pleaded with a stationary van driver for help after the thugs had made off, but was ignored. Police are braced for a spike in violent crime this summer as lockdown is eased and society gets back to normal. We went into this fully expecting the Porsche to demolish its American rival. The 991.2 Turbo S is generally more than quick enough, even without any mods. This one, though, features upgraded turbos to the tune of 900 whp, according to the uploader.That could mean nearly 1,100 hp at the crank, we guestimate, seeing as how this is an all-wheel drive car. Thats an unbeatable combo to us. Youd need a freaking Koenigsegg in order to get the jump on this Porsche, right?Well, not so fast, said the Corvette C7 ZR1, as if looking to avenge the death of its Z06 sibling at the hands of that stock Turbo S the other day. This Vette definitely means business thanks to its head cam/FBO mods. Its playing with 950 whp, so probably still around 1,100 hp at the crank.One thing to keep in mind here is that even as stock, the Corvette C7 ZR1 has way more torque than a 991.2 Turbo S. The latters flat-six unit is good for 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) out the gate, whereas the ZR1s supercharged 6.2-liter LT5 V8 engine packs 715 lb-ft (969 Nm) of torque, before any alterations.This discrepancy should remain in effect even after these modifications were made, meaning the Corvette could be the one to beat from a roll. That would, of course, mean betting against a tuned 911 Turbo S, which is a tough ask.The two supercars raced each other twice, although the second time the Porsche may have jumped the gun. The absence or delay of vaccination against coronavirus anywhere in the world could lead to the spread of new types of infection on the planet and nullify the effectiveness of existing vaccines, said WHO Director General Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus. According to him, if vaccination is not carried out in some places or is delayed, they will become a field for the multiplication of new varieties of coronavirus, and the vaccines used may become useless. In the South Caucasus, this seems to be realized only in Azerbaijan, where vaccination is in full swing. In Georgia and Armenia, it has not actually started yet. Georgia The Georgian Ministry of Health does not name a specific date when the first vaccination will be given in the country. The problem is that at first the vaccines chosen by Georgian officials are difficult to transport and store - they need expensive refrigerators that provide temperatures down to minus 80 degrees, and there are very few of them in Georgia. Now they say that mass vaccinations will take place in the summer or early fall. Experts associate the delay in vaccination with ineffective actions of the authorities. Against this background, the plan announced by the government to vaccinate 60% of the population by the end of the year is unattainable. Today, there is even no exact data on which vaccine will be used. They will probably be the British AstraZeneca and the American Pfizer. Health Minister Yekaterina Tikaradze says: At this stage, we are talking about the Pfizer vaccine, which does not exclude that other vaccines will be added in the near future. In particular, we expect our citizens to have access to AstraZeneca. There is not enough information about the Chinese vaccine and it is difficult to talk about guarantees. Therefore, the Ministry of Health is definitely not considering this vaccine. " These statements are contradicted by the position of Tengiz Tsertsvadze, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology, who claims that one of the five Chinese vaccines has a rather high world rating. Since the beginning of the pandemic in Georgia, 268,502 people have been infected with the coronavirus (147 in the last day). Died 3447 people (over the last day 12). Armenia In Armenia, the situation is even more strange - the commission of the Ministry of Health approved three vaccines against coronavirus - Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Several vaccinations have already been made, but only at the expense of doses donated by Russia. A small consignment of Sputnik V was brought back by the Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko during his visit to Armenia in November. The first to be vaccinated were doctors, including the then Minister of Health of Armenia Arsen Torosyan. By the way, Torosyan's departure from the ministerial post is associated with the fact that Armenia has suffered the most from the coronavirus in Eurasia, if not in the world. The authorities failed to explain to the public the severity of the pandemic, which led to a sharp increase in mortality. One way or another, vaccinations are planned to begin in March. However, it is likely to be paid. The price is still unknown. Armenias new health minister, Anahit Avanesyan, says that the vaccine on a "private basis" should be available in Armenia, and those people who are not included in the state-guaranteed groups have the opportunity to get vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 170,506 people have been infected with the coronavirus in Armenia (104 over the last day). Died 3167 people (in the last 24 hours - three). Azerbaijan Against the background of the two neighboring republics, the situation with vaccinations in Azerbaijan looks encouraging. Actually, vaccination is already in full swing here. As of February 23, more than two hundred thousand people have been vaccinated in Azerbaijan. While people from 50 years and older are vaccinated. Moreover, the registration for vaccination is carried out online. Everything is simple and clear - you can select the vaccination point, date, time and enter your mobile phone number. This number receives a message that the registration has been completed - you are welcome. You can also make an appointment by phone. They are vaccinated in Azerbaijan with the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac from the Sinovac company. The awareness of the need for vaccination in the country is also high. Reputable doctors are vaccinated and tell people about it, including on social networks. The grafted professor of the Azerbaijan Medical University, Adil Geybulla, writes: Today I was vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Educational-Surgical Building of the Azerbaijan Medical University on schedule - with an interval of 28 days. and more important than treatment. " Since the beginning of the pandemic in Azerbaijan, 233,201 people have been infected with the coronavirus (over the last day 72). Died 3202 people (in the last day - four). By Prossy Kisakye Internal Affairs minister, Jeje Odong is this afternoon expected to present to Parliament a list of all Ugandans said to have been kidnapped by security agencies during and after the January general elections. The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga yesterday tasked the Odong to present this list saying the continued refusal to make it public is a violation of rights of all these people. The Speakers directive followed a concern raised by Kawempe North MP Latiff Ssebagala, urging her to reign on security agencies that have failed to respond to the presidential directive to publish the list. Meanwhile, Defence and Veteran Affairs Minister Adolf Mwesige denied knowledge of such a list saying that all the said all persons arrested by security agencies had been handed over to police. National Unity Platform leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, recently released a list of at least 243 people he claims were abducted by the government. On Twitter, Bobi Wine said his team had hundreds of other names that were still being verified before they could be published. In the run-up to the January general election a crackdown on government critics by security operations, left scores of people missing after armed groups reportedly picked them up from various places across the country. Earlier in November at least 54 people were shot dead over two days of street protests following Bobi Wines arrest. Tacloban City (CNN Philippines, February 25) This city has reported a case of African Swine Fever, a local official has confirmed. Angel Enriquez, regional executive director of Department of Agriculture - Eastern Visayas, met with Mayor Alfred Romualdez on Wednesday and presented the confirmatory result of the sample collected from Barangay 84 in Tacloban City. However, she did not specify how many pigs were infected by the hog disease, but barangay chair Dexter Bahin noted that they have 17 backyard hog raisers in the community. Bahin added that the possible source of the ASF virus was a private veterinarian who visited a piggery in their village. The virus cannot affect humans, but this can also spread through contaminating objects like farm equipment, vehicles, clothing, and feeds. Prior to Tacloban City, cases were recorded in La Paz, Abuyog, McArthur, Javier, Burauen, Palo, Tanauan, and Pastrana. Local officials also discussed containment measures to be implemented by the city government through the local veterinary office to contain the spread of the hog disease, which will include culling of hogs within a 500-meter radius from the infected zone and the payment to the culled hogs' owners. Enriquez also urged local authorities to strengthen border control, investigation, and surveillance activities to protect ASF-free villages. The DA and City Veterinarian's Office are also set to visit the affected village for inspection. Transporting of pork and live pigs coming from outside the city is currently prohibited resulting in supply problems. Some lechon sellers and meat shop stores in Tacloban are already affected by the disease outbreak, leaving them no choice but to temporarily close their business. CNN Philippines' Tacloban correspondent Wil Mark Amazona contributed to this report. The final defendant in a $7 billion investment fraud scheme involving Stanford International Bank was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday in Houston, according a Justice Department news release. Leroy King, the former chief of Antiguas Financial Services Regulatory Commission, was extradited to the U.S. in 2019 after being a fugitive since 2009. The 74-year-old pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice for getting in the way of the Securities and Exchange Commissions investigation of the Ponzi scheme. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered King to serve 10 years in prison, which is an upward departure from the statutory maximum sentence of five years. Kings attorney, Marc Carter, called the sentence unusually harsh and said he plans to appeal. He said King is old and in ill health and he already served 10 years under house arrest in Antigua while awaiting a ruling on his extradition. He was unaware of Stanfords scheme, which already was in full motion when he assumed his government post, but co-defendant James Davis, the architect of the Ponzi scheme was sentenced to half that time in prison, Carter said. He thanked the Justice Department lawyers for honoring their end of the painstakingly negotiated plea deal by not asking the judge to hand down a sentence above the guideline range. King, of Dickerson Bay, Antigua, is a dual citizen of the United States and Antigua. In 2002, he was administrator and CEO of a government agency in Antigua where he had regulatory oversight of Stanford International Bank Limiteds investment portfolio, including its financial reports and its responses to requests by foreign regulators, including requests from the SEC for information and documents about the companys operations. The SEC in 2005 began investigating R. Allen Stanford, the former chairman of the banks board of directors, and his financial group and sought documents and information about investments from the Antiguan government agency King oversaw. King was charged along with Stanford with accepting more than $100,000 in bribes from Stanford in exchange for ignoring the actual value of the banks assets and aiding in the obstruction of the SEC investigation, officials said. King admitted in his plea that Stanford paid him more than $500,000 in bribes in the course of the conspiracy. The bank tycoon also gave King multiple flights on jets he and his entities owned. He also gave King tickets to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston in 2004 and Super Bowl XL in Detroit in 2006. When the SEC asked for his help, King wrote that his agency had no authority to act in the manner requested and would itself be in breach of law if it were to accede to your request, according to the news release. But the agency did have authority to aid the SEC. Stanford was convicted by a federal jury in June 2012 of orchestrating the scheme over a 20-year period, misappropriating $7 billion to pay for his personal business. He is serving a 110-year prison term. Five others were convicted for participating in the scheme and received federal prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years. gabrielle.banks@chron.com Suthep among PDRC leaders jailed for Shutdown Bangkok protests, current serving ministers sacked BANGKOK: A major reshuffle is on the cards after three Cabinet ministers were among 26 people who were on Wednesday (Feb 24) given varying jail sentences for their roles in street protests that ousted the Yingluck administration. politics By Bangkok Post Thursday 25 February 2021, 12:22PM Former Peoples Democratic Reform Committee members, led by Suthep Thaugsuban, (centre) arrive at the Criminal Court on Wednesday (Feb 24) to hear the ruling on their street rallies to oust the Yingluck Shinawatra government. Photo: Chanat Katanyu / Bangkok Post Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, both from the ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), and Deputy Transport Minister Thaworn Senneam from the Democrat Party were found guilty by the Criminal Court of charges relating to demonstrations led by the now-defunct Peoples Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC). They were indicted on several charges including insurrection, criminal association, illegal assembly and obstructing others from casting votes during street protests between November 2013 and May 2014 to oust the Yingluck Shinawatra government, reports the Bangkok Post. Mr Buddhipongse was sentenced to seven years; Mr Nataphol received seven years and four months and Mr Thaworn received five years. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Wednesday the Cabinet ministers lost their posts as soon as the jail sentences were handed down, citing Section 160 (7) of the 2017 constitution. The section says that a Cabinet minister must not be a person who is sentenced to prison, regardless of whether the case is finalised or the jail term is suspended, except in cases where the charge is a minor one or involves defamation. Asked if the three Cabinet ministers would also lose their MP status, Mr Wissanu said they would keep their parliamentary status if the court did not slap a political ban. Reports emerged that Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thamanat Prompow and Deputy Labour Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat are eyeing the posts left vacant by Mr Buddhiponse and Mr Nataphol. The trio were among 39 people who were indicted on multiple charges and who pleaded not guilty during their arraignment at the Criminal Court in 2018. The treason charge against the 39 defendants was dropped. As the trial proceeded, one of the defendants, Gen Preecha Iamsupan, died. All defendants, apart from one, turned up for the ruling yesterday. Pol Lt Col Pattarapong Supiyapanich, who was detained in another case, heard the ruling via a video conference. Of the remaining 38 defendants, 26 were given varying jail sentences. The court suspended the terms for 12 while not doing so for the remaining 14. The court started reading the ruling shortly before 11am and finished at 5:20pm. Besides the Cabinet ministers, former PDRC leader Suthep Thaugsuban received five years; Democrat MP for Chumphon, Chumpol Julasai, received 11 years and Democrat list-MP Isara Somchai received eight years and four months. Suvit Thongprasert, formerly known as Luang Pu Buddha Isara, was sentenced to four years and eight months while activist Samran Rodpetch was given three years and four months. In its ruling, the court revoked the political rights of six people Mr Nataphol, Ms Taya Teepsuwan, Mr Chumpol, Mr Isara, Mr Suvit and Mr Samran. Among those who received suspended jail terms were TV host Anchalee Paireerak, Thai-Indian businessman Satish Sehgal, Mr Nataphols wife Taya, and former Democrat MP Witthaya Kaewparadai. Those who were acquitted included Democrat MPs Sathit Wongnongtoey and Rangsima Rodrassamee, PPRP MP and deputy leader Paiboon Nititawan, and senator Thawil Pliensri. Mr Suthep wrote on his Facebook that even though key PDRC leaders and supporters were sentenced to prison, they remain committed to upholding the nation, religion and the monarchy. After the ruling, eight people were escorted to prison including Mr Suthep, Mr Chumpol and the three Cabinet ministers. In any Indo-Pak talks, Kashmir will be off the table Ceasefire being observed by India-Pak along LoC from February 24 midnight India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: The Director Generals of Military Operations of India and Pakistan held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. It was announced that both sides had begun observing a ceasefire along the Line of Control from the midnight of February. The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere, a joint statement read. The statement issued by the armies of both countries said that the move followed a discussion between India's DGMO, Lt. General Paramjit Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Major General Nauman Zakaria. Complete Statement: The Director Generals of Military Operations of India and Pakistan held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere. In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGsMO agreed to address each other's core issues and concerns which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence.Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control and all other sectors with effect from midnight 24/25 Feb 2021. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News Both sides reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding. What the fuck! Reply Thread Link what the actual fuck, who does that Reply Thread Link There's a girl I've been keeping an eye on on Instagram, about a month ago she was assaulted and her French Bulldog puppy was stolen. They still haven't found her :(. It's so horrific. Reply Parent Thread Link i saw that on deuxmoi, didnt that happen in la too? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link that's so awful, honestly I hope they find whoever is behind this and the other cases too. and what kind of complete psychopath is willing to kill someone in order to steal some puppies. Seriously, I hope they catch this guy, he's clearly extremely dangerous. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link whaaaat the fuck Reply Thread Link This is horrific. Sending out positive thoughts to the dog walker and everyone involved. If someone did this to MY dog, I would go on "I have a particular set of skills" and devote my life to absolutely ruining these people. Reply Thread Link See, the kidnapper would have their whole world burning messing with my babies. You kidnap my babies and there is no place on Earth you could be safe from me. Reply Parent Thread Link I would lose it on anyone who stole my beloved pet. Their grandmother wouldnt even be safe. Reply Parent Thread Link Same. Add some John Wick for spice. Reply Parent Thread Link My friends joke that Rufus and I have a murder/suicide pact. I would fucking neuter the guy with a dull knife after I had repeatedly stomped on his balls. Reply Parent Thread Link Same, I would go full "I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you" if someone took my dog. Reply Parent Thread Link No lie Id probably be dead because Id be fighting hard. My dog is super attached to me and we both be heartbroken Reply Parent Thread Link seriously if someone got my dogs i'd probably kill them idgaf Reply Parent Thread Link Oh yeah I would totally turn into Liam Neeson in Taken Reply Parent Thread Link just went to post this! it's so fucking awful wtf is wrong with people? Reply Thread Link Holy fucking shit this is AWFUL Reply Thread Link omg, wtf?? was this targeted, like did they know these were gaga's dogs? those poor babies! Reply Thread Link it isn't clear but apparently ppl can sell french bulldogs for as much as U$10K Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah a woman in SF was attacked while walking her dog recently and iirc she had a French bulldog that was stolen and they havent found it Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Whoa. That says a lot about our society tbh "let me risk a murder charge to get 10k." like most americans would have to work for what, 4 months to get that in underpaying jobs. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link their popularity has been skyrocketing over the past few years since celebrities and influencers have all adopyed frenchies. quintuple the value in a little under 5 years. Please adopt. Reply Parent Thread Link yep i came to this post to say that! i saw in al rojo vivo last week that thugs stole 2 french dogs from a family i think in LA and the dogs are worth 10k each apparently. they haven't found the dogs. this is all horrific Reply Parent Thread Link I would think it was targeted. They SHOT at the dog-walker, they didn't just hit them with a blunt object. It screams premeditated to me. God, this is so awful. Who could have thought walking french bulldogs would be such a dangerous job? Reply Parent Thread Link This was probably planned. And targeting. The thing is is that I feel like a celebrity like Gaga they will find the person because her dogs are probably easily identified Reply Parent Thread Expand Link We are having this happen in Houston. Reply Parent Thread Link Insane. I hope the dog walker is fine. I hope the doggies are found. Jfc this is evil Reply Thread Link what the FUCK?? getting shot while walking dogs??? that poor dogwalker. jesus. Reply Thread Link WHAT THE FUCK Im glad the walker is okay! Who does that?! Reply Thread Link What the fuck Reply Thread Link How do you even come up with the idea? Jiminy Cricket. Reply Thread Link There is a special VIP section of Hell for people who think they can separate pets from their owners Reply Parent Thread Link ......but not those who attempt to kill someone? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link That's so sad... I'm glad the dogwalker is going to recover. wtf... Reply Thread Link Damn, seems to me they knew Gaga was the owner and kidnapped the dogs to get some cash Reply Thread Link I had no idea she had 3 dogs but I know Ive seen or heard of Asia before. I bet they at least because shes posted pics on IG. They mustve been stalking out her locations to figure out who the dog walker was. Reply Parent Thread Link It's not uncommon for people to steal certain breeds to sell them but it's usually more, out of a yard, not shooting someone to get them. Reply Parent Thread Link same, i was like, why would they do all of this just to steal some dogs? Reply Parent Thread Link Possibly, but french bulldogs specifically get stolen like this a lot. Reply Parent Thread Link Oh, i did not know that. Reply Parent Thread Link D: Gaga is lucky she herself wasnt around cause if theyre willing to do harm dogstheyre not above much else. Glad the dog-walker made it out fine!! Reply Thread Link fr! they shot the dogwalker 4x in the chest apparently? like holy shit, i'm glad somehow everyone made it out of there okay and i hope the 2 pups get found :( Reply Parent Thread Link How do you even survive it? Did they miss? That's just a totally different level of fuckeduppery. Reply Parent Thread Link 4 times in the chest???? jfc Reply Parent Thread Link Houston streets, car accident law firms, and their corresponding car wreck lawyers frequently see fatal car accidents, sometimes multiple in one day alone. But did you know that Interstate 45, a busy interstate that runs through Houston, has been claimed as one of the most dangerous interstates in the country? According to Popular Mechanics, as stated by the Houston Culture Map, I-45 in Houston ranks as the most dangerous road in the United States. The article elaborates on this claim with the following statistics: Popular Mechanics went on to say that I-45 had 56.5 fatal accidents for every 100 miles of roadway, and the scariest part exists in Houston. In one recent 14-year study, the U.S. Department of Transportation recorded 288 crashes and 320 deaths. In 2016, the United States estimated number of traffic deaths were nearly 40,000, and the state of Texas made a large contribution to that-- not only did I-45 make the list, but so did U.S. 83 and Route 175 in Dallas. The article further states that many of the deaths on I-45 are caused by drivers not obeying traffic laws. For instance, congestion, texting while driving, driving while drunk, and driving at high speeds are some of the reasons why there are excessive deaths on this highway, and why Texas car accident lawyers are frequently dialed. We must always stay vigilant while driving. Now that I-45 is considered one of the worst roads to drive on in Texas, being a defensive driver, rather than a negligent one, will prevent unlawful accidents in the future. If you or a loved one were involved in an accident on I-45, Sutliff & Stout Law Firm, one of the best accident attorneys in Houston and Austin, is here to help. A car accident attorney can handle your personal injury claim, deal with insurance adjusters for you, negotiate settlements, and represent your best interests if a lawsuit is needed. Call car injury lawyers Sutliff & Stout at (713) 987-7111 or search car accident attorney near me, car wreck lawyer near me, auto accident attorney near me, or best car accident lawyer for your fatal accident case. @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. 'Captured alive on May 8, killed on May 17 in alleged clash with Sabah police' FIVE ABU Sayyaf terrorists were killed following an a... Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan ordered the military to "address their business" and defend the countrys borders. He gave the order at a rally in his support at the Republic Square. "I order all soldiers, officers, generals to engage in the protection of the countrys borders and territorial integrity. This is my order, and no one will dare disobey," the PM said. He added that certain forces have tried to involve the Armed Forces in an anti-constitutional process. Pashinyan reiterated his earlier assessment that the statement of the General Staff of the Armed Forces was an "attempted military coup." He added that people will not allow a military coup in the country. The Prime Minister voiced confidence that the many generals and high-ranking officers signed the statement under pressure from their superiors. Pashinyan urged his supporters to come to Republic Square after the General Staff of the Armed Forces issued a statement demanding the Prime Ministers resignation. Fewer churches are holding in-person services than did last summer as pandemic wears on: poll Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A new Lifeway Research survey has found a significant decrease in in-person attendance among Protestant churches since last fall as nearly six times as many pastors say someone in their congregation has died of the coronavirus compared to last summer. Seventy-six percent of United States Protestant pastors said their churches met in-person in January, which is down from 87% of churches meeting in-person in September. The online survey is based on interviews with 430 U.S. Protestant pastors and was conducted between Feb. 1 and Feb. 11, with a margin of error of around 6 percentage points. Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell told The Christian Post the level of in-person attendance in churches has fluctuated due to the pandemic's changing nature. Its not a clean rebound of we closed when the nation shut down last spring and then reopened after that, McConnell said. It really is much like the pandemic itself, a bit of a roller coaster where churches are having to respond to this situation week to week. As the pandemic has forced churches to innovate and adapt to reach spiritual needs in a new landscape of lockdowns, the new study shows just how deeply the pandemic has impacted in-person church attendance and church activities nearly a year after the initial mid-March lockdowns in the U.S. Only 2% of U.S. Protestant pastors report growth in in-person attendance than from before the pandemic. Nearly a third (31%) of the pastors say church attendance is less than 50% of what it was last January. However, 30% of pastors reported their churches attendance was between 70% to 100% of their attendance in January 2020. Churches continue to evaluate when to meet in-person based on local conditions and cases within their congregation, McConnell said in a statement. Even when a church determines its safe to meet, their individual members will return on their own timetable. With a winter spike in COVID-19 cases, pastors have seen an uptick in COVID-19 diagnoses in their own churches and are learning to shepherd those suffering from the sickness or grieving from a loss. In February 2021, over 88% of pastors said their church had attendees diagnosed with COVID-19, compared to only 28% in July 2020. Now, 29% of pastors say their churches have lost an attendee to the virus, compared to only 5% who said the same when surveyed last summer. Despite this, McConnell said churches are still rising to meet needs and that the core activities and mission of individual churches will continue. Churches have not stopped serving each other, and they have not stopped serving in their community, he said. Theyve continued to press forward with meeting tangible needs but also checking in on each other relationally, even if it is over the phone or over Zoom. The digital landscape has also provided opportunities to reach more people outside of the church. The study reported 88% of pastors said they saw new people attend or connect with their church online since the onset of the pandemic. Small groups, youth and childrens ministries have also shifted drastically. Pastors report over 60% of church small groups are still meeting in some format, whether in-person or virtually, with about a third of small groups meeting in-person. In nearly one-third of churches, youth activity is completely in-person, and childrens ministry is in-person for a quarter of the churches. Roughly four in five student ministries are still meeting in some way. Over 50% of all youth and childrens ministry, however, has transitioned to either meeting in a completely virtual setting or not at all. The churches are still being cautious, McConnell explained. Theyre still kind of working off a limited menu, so to speak, kind of like many of the restaurants that are open, and I think theres growing desire among church leaders as well as congregations to be increasing that menu. New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday (February 25) announced that people over 60 years and those above 45 with comorbidities can get COVID-19 vaccine from March 1 even as it cautioned states and union territories that any laxity in implementing stringent curbs, especially in view of new virus strain observed in certain countries, could "compound the situation". As new coronavirus cases crossed the 13,000 mark for the third time in six days on Wednesday, the Centre rushed multi-disciplinary teams to nine states and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir most of whom are witnessing a surge to support them in effectively tackling the pandemic. The nine states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. COVID-19 cases rose sharply in Maharashtra with the state reporting 8,807 new infections, taking its total count to 21,21,119, the state health department said. The western state had reported 6,218 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. A decision on the next phase of COVID-19 vaccination was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The vaccine will be offered free at government facilities and for a charge at many private hospitals, it stated in the notification. The citizens who want to register themselves for the vaccination drive will be required to keep identification documents such as an Aadhaar card, driving licence, voter ID, PAN card, passport, job card or pension document can be submitted. Amid the additional documents the beneficiaries can also submit Health Insurance Smart Card, MGNREGA card, official IDs issued by MPs, MLAs or MLCs. As per the government notification citizens can register themselves on the Co-Win app for Covid-19 vaccination. After the successful registration, the eligible user will receive an SMS on their registered mobile number disclosing the due date, venue and time of vaccination. Live TV The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. Photo: The Canadian Press Canadian and American flags fly in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. A lawyer for prospective refugee claimants says a judge was correct in finding an agreement between Ottawa and Washington results in people being imprisoned by U.S. authorities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke A lawyer for prospective refugee claimants says a federal judge was correct in finding an agreement between Ottawa and Washington results in people being imprisoned by U.S. authorities. Lawyer Michael Bossin argued in an appeal hearing Wednesday there was enough evidence for Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald to conclude the Safe Third Country Agreement leads to the detention of people turned away by Canada. "The grounds upon which people can be detained in the U.S. are much broader than in Canada," Bossin told a three-judge panel of the Federal Court of Appeal. Under the refugee agreement, which took effect in 2004, Canada and the U.S. recognize each other as safe places to seek protection. It means Canada can turn back a potential refugee who arrives at a land port of entry along the Canada-U.S. border on the basis the person must pursue their claim in the U.S., the country where they first arrived. Canadian refugee advocates have steadfastly fought the asylum agreement, arguing the U.S. is not always a safe country for people fleeing persecution. Several people seeking protection took the case to court along with the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches and Amnesty International, which participated in the proceedings as public-interest parties. In each case the applicants, who are citizens of El Salvador, Ethiopia and Syria, arrived at Canadian land entry ports from the U.S. and sought refugee protection. They argued in Federal Court that by returning refugee claimants to the U.S., Canada exposes them to risks in the form of detention and other rights violations. In her decision last year, McDonald concluded the Safe Third Country Agreement results in ineligible claimants being imprisoned by U.S. authorities. Detention and the consequences flowing from it are "inconsistent with the spirit and objective" of the refugee agreement and amount to a violation of the life, liberty and security rights guaranteed by Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "The evidence clearly demonstrates that those returned to the U.S. by Canadian officials are detained as a penalty." After hearing two days of arguments on the federal government's challenge of McDonald's decision, the appeal court decided Wednesday to reserve its ruling until a later date. Canada's lawyers say neither U.S. asylum law nor practice means automatic detention for those determined to be ineligible to claim refugee status in Canada under the bilateral agreement. Rather, the government says, detention is discretionary and for those held there is a robust review scheme. In her ruling, McDonald noted one of the would-be refugee claimants in the case, Ethiopian national Nedira Jemal Mustefa, was returned to the U.S. by Canadian officials and immediately taken into custody by American authorities. She was held for a month at a correctional facility, including a week in solitary confinement pending results of a tuberculosis test. Mustefa and others who provided the court with sworn evidence about their time in U.S. detention described the facilities as "abnormally cold." During the appeal hearing Wednesday, Justice David Stratas said he was not belittling the detainees' experiences, but asked if it was "logically possible to take individual incidents and draw inferences about a systemic problem in the United States?" Bossin said McDonald had more than just anecdotal evidence before her. "She had evidence of people who were working with multiple returnees experts on U.S. immigration law who were basing their statements on their own research and on what they knew was going on," Bossin said. "That points to a systemic problem, where those experts say that the default is detention." Jammu & Kashmir police opened criminal investigations against two journalists on January 30, while the Jammu & Kashmir administration filed another case against a third journalist on February 12. The International Federation of Journalists condemns the misuse of power and law against journalists in the region and calls on the J&K administration to immediately withdraw its case. The journalists targeted are Kashmirwalla reporter Yashraj Sharma; Kashmiriyat reporter Mir Junaid; and freelance journalist Sajad Gul. Police opened criminal investigations into Sharma and Junaid on January 30 for alleged incitement, while the regions administration filed a First Information Report (FIR) against freelance journalist Sajad Gul on February 12 for rioting, trespassing, and assault accusing the journalist of taking part in a so-called illegal demonstration against home demolitions. Sharma and Juniad were charged for their stories Shopian school alleges pressure from army to hold R-Day function and We Were Forced to Celebrate the Republic Day Event by Forces respectively. Published on January 27, both reports revealed that schools in the Shopian district were heavied by the army to lend school space to mark a Republic Day function on January 26. Both quoted the founder and chairperson of Jamia Siraj-ul-Uloom, a private school based in Shopians Imamsahib as saying that army also pressured the school administration to put the school banner in front. The army however claims the news report is fake and baseless. According to police, the (FIR) against Sharma and Juniad were filed under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code. This was based on a complaint by unnamed army officials in the local army camp. If convicted, Sharma and Junaid may face up to three years in prison. Police booked freelance journalist Sajad Gul, from northern Kashmirs Bandipora district, under Sections 147, 447 and 353 of the Indian Penal Code based on complaints by a land revenue tax officer (tehsildar) Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, from Hajin town, for a report published on February 9 which included quotes from locals alleging the officer was harassing and threatening and using abusive language against them during the demolition drive. The journalist was also accused of taking part in anti-demolition drive protests. If convicted, he faces up to two years of imprisonment . The IFJ said: This is the latest in the series of incidents of the misuse of power and law to criminalise journalists by J&K police and its administration. The IFJ urges the Indian authorizes to withdraw the cases against the journalists Sharma, Junaid and Gul and respect the medias right to report stories of critical public interest. Editor Darren Marcy, a journalist since 1992, is the editor of the Manchester Journal. A New Mexico native, he previously worked for newspapers in the Land of Enchantment before moving to Vermont in 2004. He joined the Journal in October 2018. However, since it took US President Joe Biden almost a month following his inauguration to make time for a phone conversation with Netanyahu, this made headlines in the Israeli media. By early February, Biden had already contacted several world leaders, including those of NATO, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Japan. It was hard to believe Netanyahu, who congratulated Biden on his electoral triumph against Donald Trump only two hours after it was declared on 7 November, had waited so long to speak to the new US president despite the historical strategic alliance between both states. It had come to a point when Israeli reporters were making comparisons with how previous US presidents acted on this issue. According to a Haaretz report published on 2 February, former president Barack Obama with whom Biden worked as vice president called then Israeli premier Ehud Olmert only two days after he entered the White House. Trump too had a conversation with Netanyahu 48 hours after his inauguration, even inviting him for talks in the White House. But there is bad blood between the two men, according to Ian Lustick, political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, for Biden was personally insulted by Netanyahu during the Obama administration when a large expansion of settlement was declared precisely during his visit to Jerusalem. Lustick, author of new book called Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality, added that Bidens team has more doubt about whether the two-state solution is even worth trying to implement and will therefore keep its distance from Israel, expecting that Netanyahu will not be prime minister after the next election. Even if, like Obama, Biden considers Netanyahu a double-dealing political opportunist, he will not clash with him in the same way, by calling for a settlement freeze and trying hard for productive peace talks, which proved ineffective. Daniel Serwer, an ex-US State Department official and scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said that Biden would prefer to deal with an Israeli centrist or leftist premier, although even such an option has its own problems. Yes, but that isnt likely. Some of the alternatives to Netanyahu are worse than he is. I dont think however that Biden will back opponents to Netanyahu, Serwer stressed. An arguably similar line of argument was shared by Joel Beinin, Stanfords emeritus professor of Mideastern history, who explained that Bidens preference of Israeli prime minister is of no consequence. Beinin added that Biden will not even obliquely express it before the 23 March election. In any case, its possible that either Netanyahu or someone just as right-wing or more so (Gideon Saar or Naftali Bennett) will lead the next Israeli government, he expected. Beinin, meanwhile, highlighted that Bidens highest foreign policy priorities are China, Russia and restoring Irans nuclear deal. Unlike a resolution to the question of Palestine, he argued, this is doable in the short run. So Bidens regional policy will focus on that. Netanyahu wont like it. But Biden will probably ignore him on this. Surprisingly enough, Israels long-serving prime minister expressed zero anger about the delay in receiving a call from the US head of state. In early February, Netanyahu said in a press briefing that the US-Israeli alliance remains strong, nonetheless noting that it doesnt mean we will agree on everything. [President Biden] calls leaders in the order that he finds acceptable, North America, then Europe, Netanyahu said. He hasnt reached the Middle East yet. I presume he will call me. Believe me, I have no doubt about it. Even before the call took place, policy agreements and differences between the leaders seemed to be sufficiently clear. The Biden administration said it supports the recent Arab-Israeli normalisation agreements that were sponsored by Trump, and emphasised it will not reverse the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Washingtons recognition of the latter as the capital of Israel. But both sides do not seem to have the exact same views on the Golan Heights. Asked by CNN in early February on whether Biden sees the Golan Heights as part of Israel, the new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said over time, if the situation were to change in Syria, thats something we would look at. We are nowhere near that. Leaving aside the legalities, as a practical matter, the Golan is very important to Israel's security as long as Assad is in power in Syria, as long as Iran is present in Syria, militia groups backed by Iran, the Assad regime itself, said the top US diplomat. One day later, in an angry response, Netanyahu said with an agreement or without an agreement, we are not leaving the Golan. It will remain under the sovereignty of the State of Israel. Netanyahu tweeted last Wednesday that his hour-long call with Biden was very warm and friendly, and his office said they tackled the Iranian threat of building nuclear weapons, Covid-19 and Israels desire to establish normalisation deals with further Arab states. Biden said we had a good conversation in which he discussed the need for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Khaled Elgindy, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI), told Al-Ahram Weekly that Biden will probably seek to minimise any differences with Netanyahu over the Palestinian issue, both because it is not a major priority for the new administration and because of Bidens interest in returning to the Iran nuclear deal, which Netanyahu opposes. There is no doubt that Biden would rather deal with a less right-wing government in Israel. However, he is unlikely to openly back Netanyahus opponents or do anything that might look like outside interference in Israeli elections, Elgindy pointed out. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Since the beginning of the year, the number of illegal migrants arriving on Italian shores from Tunisia has increased remarkably, reaching at least 558, compared to 94 immigrants in the same period of 2020 and 31 in the same period of 2019, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) revealed A former cleaner has revealed how her life was transformed after being scouted in the street and landelling a modelling gig with Gucci. Clara Louise, 24, was spotted in Hackney, east London, in June 2019 by FOMO Models director Rob Wilson, who then put her forward for castings with international brands. Her life changed overnight, going from barely making ends meet as a cleaner to landing a campaign for Gucci Beauty and appearing on the front cover of magazines, as well as working with other household names, such as Gymshark, Boots and Primark. Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Clara said: 'Rob saw me in the street on my way to the gym and asked me if I'd ever modelled. I said "no", I was blase about it, but we had a conversation, the rest is history.' FOMO owner Rob, from London, who has worked with models including Kendall Jenner, told the Sun he targeted 'black and curve models' because he felt the industry was 'so backwards'. A former cleaner, pictured, has revealed how her life was transformed after being scouted in the street and landelling a modelling gig with Gucci Clara Louise (pictured), 24, was spotted in Hackney, east London, in June 2019 by FOMO Models director Rob Wilson who then put her forward for castings with international brands FOMO's Rob Wilson (pictured), from London, who has worked with models including Kendall Jenner, told the Sun that backing underdogs such as Clara was the key to his successful business Recalling her modelling gigs, Clara revealed: 'I'm so grateful because it's been an amazing experience and it just shows how you should take every opportunity that comes your way in life.' Clara was flown out to Rome twice last year to meet with leading models and Alessandro Michele, Italian fashion house Gucci's creative director. Meanwhile, FOMO's Rob confessed that backing underdogs such as Clara was the key to his successful business. Rob, who lost both his parents at a young age, said he aimed to help others who were struggling as he witnessed Clara's life 'change overnight'. The model's (pictured) life changed overnight, going from barely making ends meet as a cleaner to landing a campaign for Gucci Beauty and appearing on the front cover of magazines, as well as working with other household names, such as Gymshark, Boots and Primark Clara (pictured) was flown out to Rome twice last year to meet with leading models and Alessandro Michele, the Italian fashion house's creative director 'Now she flies around the world staying in nice hotels and working as hard as she can. Life is what you make it and if you work hard you can achieve whatever you like,' he added. The agency owner explained that he aimed for diversity when first starting his business because he felt the industry was 'so backwards'. 'We targeted a lot of black models and curve models and now we've got hundreds on our books who're working more than anyone else in the market,' he said. He admitted that when he first started scouting models for big agencies, they wouldnt show much interest, but now the young models signed to his company are making a fortune. Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Clara (above) said: 'Rob saw me in the street on my way to the gym and asked me if I'd ever modelled. I said "no", I was blase about it, but we had a conversation, the rest is history' Speaking about her experiences in the modelling world, Clara said it wasn't anything like the catty experiences people witness on TV dramas and movies and was a 'whole new world'. Clara, who graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2015, explained that her family were thrilled with her success but kept her grounded and made sure she stayed a 'regular girl'. However, Clara, who also worked as a freelance garment technologist, said she was worried her look 'didn't fit that world' and feels she's paving the way for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) models. WASHINGTON Neera Tanden, you might have heard, has a Twitter problem. Ms. Tanden, President Bidens choice to run the Office of Management and Budget, has a yearslong trail of problematic tweets, many aimed at certain key senators who control the increasingly precarious fate of her nomination. A procession of these senators Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and the Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah have indicated that they are unlikely to support Ms. Tanden, in part because of the divisive and overly partisan nature of her tweets. This has set the stage for the still-undecided Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, who was asked on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a real-time update on her own thinking. As a visual aid, a Washington Post reporter, Seung Min Kim, showed Ms. Murkowski one tweet from 2017 in which Ms. Tanden had been critical of Ms. Murkowski after the senator praised Republican efforts to cut corporate taxes. No offense, but this sounds like youre high on your own supply, Ms. Tanden wrote. You know, we know, and everyone knows this is all just garbage. Just stop. Opinion: Living in a traditional dorm is the best option for residents CLEVELAND, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fairport Wealth is pleased to announce that the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization in Northeast Ohio, is its 2021 Community Beacon recipient. According to Managing Partner Kenneth J. Coleman, "The pandemic has made fighting hunger an even more pressing issue and we are happy to lend a hand to the Food Bank. Its mission closely aligns with our goal of helping families." Supporting the Harvest for Hunger Campaign This year, the Food Bank is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Harvest for Hunger relief campaign to help combat food insecurity. Fairport Wealth Managing Partner Heather R. Ettinger says, "We are proud to be a part of this effort because, at Fairport Wealth, we emphasize community. We believe it's important to help support those around us, and we're eager to help our neighbors get back on their feet." Helping Families Fairport Wealth's team members wholeheartedly agree on the value of assisting the Food Bank and community and look forward to being part of its Hunger for Harvest campaign. In addition to providing financial support, the firm will volunteer at the Food Bank's weekly distribution center, assist with a virtual Harvest for Hunger food drive, and raise money for the organization through events such as a virtual cooking class. About Fairport Wealth Fairport Wealth inspires families by providing comprehensive wealth management solutions to high net worth individuals and guides them through life's transitions. Clients value our depth of talent and experience, along with our collaborative and approachable style. For more information, visit https://www.fairportwealth.com/. About Luma Wealth Luma Wealth Advisors is a division of Fairport Wealth that provides women and their families with personalized wealth planning, experienced investment management, and a supportive, enriching community where they can learn, connect, and celebrate with other women. For more information, visit https://www.lumawealth.com/. About Hightower Hightower is a national wealth management firm that provides growth capital and front- to back-end support services to independent-minded financial advisory businesses and operates as a Registered Investment Advisor. For more information, visit https://www.hightoweradvisors.com/. Securities offered through Hightower Securities, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC, Hightower Advisors, LLC is a SEC Registered Investment Adviser. More information: https://www.fairportwealth.com/index This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE Fairport Wealth Ten schools brought students back into classrooms either full- or part-time this week, as schools continue to change learning formats during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As of Monday, 517 districts were hybrid, 162 remote, and 103 fully in-person. Five districts made the switch to hybrid learning this week, while the number of fully in-person districts increased by five. Twenty-nine districts have different educational formats for different schools. This is the fourth week in a row to see more schools opt for some form of in-person learning, as President Joe Biden pushes to see most K-8 students back in the classroom by April. The list provided by the Department of Education does not take into account any format changes due to snow days and is self-reported, spokesman Mike Yaple said. Districts have cited concerns about the viruss spread as the main reason for choosing to remain remote; at least one district has said it intends to stay virtual through the end of the year, and a number of large districts say they will remain remote until mid-April. Some schools have remained entirely remote since last March, while other districts have changed formats as virus conditions have changed. There have been 152 outbreaks and 737 cases of the coronavirus linked to schools in New Jersey. For cases to qualify as an outbreak, they must be confirmed to have been transmitted in the classroom or during academic activities. All 21 counties have seen an in-school outbreak. How districts handle return-to-school plans has been a contentious issue, with protests, threats of violence, and lawsuits playing out across the state. The split between in-person and remote districts is not even across the state, with counties in the northwest part of the state having mostly in-person or hybrid options. Murphy said educators are next in line to receive the coronavirus vaccine, but did not give a time frame. Eligibility remains limited to healthcare workers, first responders, those over 65 years of age and people with certain health conditions. There is not currently a vaccine approved for children under 16. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said there is strong evidence younger students can safely return to schools, without teachers needing to be vaccinated first. As coronavirus case rates have dropped around the state, three of New Jerseys six regions have been dropped from high to moderate risk levels, according to data released weekly by the state. Three more regions remain high. Should cases rise and a region become very high, schools would be forced to switch to remote learning. Is the table not displaying? Click here. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Nick Devlin may be reached at ndevlin@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. (Reuters) - Indonesia is holding intensive talks with both the Myanmar military and representatives of the ousted elected government in a bid to end a crisis over a Feb. 1 military coup, Indonesia's foreign minister said on Wednesday. Indonesia has taken the lead within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in efforts to resolve Myanmar's turmoil. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met Myanmar's military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, for talks in the Thai capital earlier on Wednesday. The Myanmar army seized power after alleging fraud in a Nov. 8 election swept by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), detaining her and much of the party leadership. Opponents of the coup have staged days of demonstrations in towns and cities across Myanmar and three protesters and one policeman have been killed in violence. The Indonesian effort to resolve the crisis has raised suspicion among Myanmar democracy activists who fear dealing with the junta would confer legitimacy on it and its bid to scrap the November election. They insist the election result should be respected. Retno, speaking to reporters in Bangkok, said the wellbeing of the people of Myanmar was the number one priority. "We ask for everybody to use restraint and not resort to violence ... to avoid casualties and bloodshed," Retno said after her talks with the Myanmar minister and her Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwinai. Retno said she had "intensive" communications with both sides, including ousted lawmakers from the parliament, known as Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. Members of the lawmakers' group, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), were not immediately available for comment. A Reuters report this week cited sources as saying Indonesia was proposing that ASEAN members send monitors to ensure the generals stick to their promise of fair new elections. That added to suspicion among some pro-democracy activists that Indonesia's intervention would undermine their demand that last year's election must stand. Story continues The military has not given a time frame for the new election it has promised, although it imposed a one-year state of emergency when it seized power. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Thai embassy in the main city of Yangon with signs reading: "Respect our vote" and "We voted NLD". "Our foreign minister is Aung San Suu Kyi," the protesters chanted, referring to the post she held in the government she led after winning a 2015 election in a landslide. Retno did not mention the issue of the election but said Indonesia emphasised "the importance of an inclusive democratic transition process". "We need a conducive condition ... in the form of dialogue, reconciliation, trust building," she said. "Indonesia will be with the people of Myanmar." 'OFFER SUPPORT' Retno had been expected to fly to Myanmar earlier on Wednesday but the plan was dropped, her ministry said. Later, Thailand announced that Wunna Maung Lwin, making the first foreign trip by a member of Myanmar's new military government, had come to Thailand. A Thai source said the Myanmar minister also had a meeting scheduled with Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Prayuth, a former army chief who seized power in a 2014 coup, declined to confirm that he met the Myanmar minister. "Some things are not official," he told reporters. "We offer support as an ASEAN country that has to cooperate and offer well-wishes that everything works out smoothly." Earlier, the Myanmar-based Future Nation Alliance activist group said in a statement a visit to Myanmar by Retno would be tantamount to recognising the military junta. The group instead demanded foreign officials meet Htin Lin Aung, a member of the CRPH who was the sole responsible official for foreign relations. Protesters, some leading a procession of elephants, marched in Myanmar's second biggest city, Mandalay, in support of the ousted parliamentarians on Wednesday. Myanmar's security forces have shown more restraint compared with earlier crackdowns against people who pushed for democracy during almost half a century of direct military rule. Military chief General Min Aung Hlaing has said this week authorities were following a democratic path in dealing with the protests and police were using minimal force, such as rubber bullets, state media reported. The crisis has restored Myanmar's reputation as the problem member of the 10-country ASEAN and the diplomatic scramble by its neighbours comes as wider international concern is growing. The Group of Seven (G7) rich nations on Tuesday condemned intimidation and oppression of those opposing the coup. The United States, Britain and others have imposed limited sanctions, aimed at members of the junta and military businesses. China has traditionally taken a softer line on Myanmar as have ASEAN neighbours. (Reporting by Tom Allard and Stanely Widianto in JAKARTA, and Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-um and Fanny Potkin in BANGKOK; Writing by Ed Davies and Robert Birsel; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Simon Cameron-Moore and Peter Graff) SPRINGFIELD MassMutual is committing $50 million to investments in businesses across the state, with half designated for Black-owned, founded or managed businesses. The MassMutual Catalyst Fund fund will be divided evenly between two targeted programs, MassMutual said. The company has earmarked $25 million in a community growth sleeve called MMCF Growth that will target equity and debt investments in businesses with Black principals. Meanwhile, a $25 million technology sleeve MMCF Tech will target equity investments in Massachusetts technology companies based outside Boston. MMCF Tech is designed to help companies in areas of the state that dont get as much attention from investors who support technology companies. That includes Springfield, said MassMutual spokeswoman Julie Staadecker. With the equity investments, MassMutual will buy a piece of the companies. Debt investments are loans. MassMutual said the Catalyst Fund will build a portfolio of early and mid-stage companies with investments of $250,000 to $2.5 million each. It said investment decisions will also take strong leadership teams into account and place an emphasis on racial diversity for those in the growth sleeve to increase access to capital for the Black community. The initiative will serve as a catalyst to strengthen Massachusetts in less economically developed areas of the state through employment and business growth, the company said in a news release. It will focus on strong and sustainable investment outcomes for entrepreneurs, in addition to social and community goals. Impact investing at MassMutual seeks to create a positive social and environmental impact that is measurable while also making market rate financial returns, said Rilwan Meeran, the impact investment portfolio manager at MassMutual, who runs the Catalyst Fund. Philanthropy alone cannot solve our societys problems; institutional capital investment should also play a role. MassMutual launched an online funding application to create a level playing field to access its capital with the goal of funding parity. The application page is at: massmutual.com/lp/catalyst. MassMutual said its fund managers will implement and set goals to track diversity outcomes, to identify underrepresented groups missing in its pipeline, deal selection and portfolio. This will allow for the development of strategies that address the gaps, the company said. The MMCFs commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is at the core of its investment and operational practices with a belief that inclusion drives innovation, creativity and financial performance. This isnt the first time MassMutual has used its investment clout to aid local companies. The Springfield Venture Fund, announced in 2014, finished investing the balance of its $5 million commitment in 2020. Springfield Venture Fund portfolio companies continue to receive operational support from the Catalyst Fund team, Staadecker said. Founded in Springfield in 1851, MassMutual is owned by participating policy holders and has its headquarters on State Street. MassMutual is number 76 on the Fortune 500. Related Content Ouagadougou, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :Burkina Faso's armed forces said Thursday they had killed 11 "terrorists" during an operation in the country's jihadist-plagued north after a recent surge in attacks. The ground and air operation was launched "in the forest of Bangao and in the areas of Tasmakat, Fourkoussou and Bidy in Oudalan province on February 23 and 24," the armed forces in a statement. "The toll was 11 terrorists neutralised and one captured," the statement said, adding that there were no military losses. The military also seized weapons, ammunition, and transport and communications equipment. "Following recent recurring attacks against the civilian population in Oudalan province, the national armed forces planned and carried out search operations to find the terrorists and secure the population," the statement added. Nine civilians were killed and nine more wounded in an attack on a convoy of vehicles travelling in Oudalan province on February 18. Two women were killed by an improvised bomb in Yagha province on Tuesday. Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries, is struggling with a jihadist insurgency that began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and spread into its territory in 2015. More than 1,200 people have died and a million have fled their homes. All five flavours of the Companys KOIOS nootropic beverage product are now being carried by Jensens, a regional supermarket chain operating in the San Diego, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs areas of Southern California. This placement of KOIOS follows several other recent placements of the Companys beverage products in regional supermarket chains across the United States as part of a strategy to passively build market share in specific geographical areas. DENVER and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Koios Beverage Corp. (CSE: KBEV; OTC: KBEVF) (the "Company" or "Koios") is pleased to announce that the full range of five flavours of its KOIOS nootropic beverages can now be purchased at all grocery stores operated by Jensens Foods (Jensens), a long-established family-owned grocery chain operating in the San Diego, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs areas of Southern California. In a press release dated February 19, 2021 , the Company announced another chain-wide placement of KOIOS nootropic beverages on the west coast of the United States with Market of Choice in Oregon. With this placement of KOIOS in Jensens supermarkets, the Companys beverage products are now carried in approximately 180 retail stores on the west coast, out of a total of more than 4,000 retail stores nationwide. The first Jensens market was established in California in 1940 in Blue Jay (San Bernardino county), later expanding into a 25,000 square foot building which allowed for the addition of a bakery using traditional Danish recipes. The growth of Jensens into a regional chain was led by its current President Gene Fulton, who began working at Jensens as a cleaner at age 17 in 1957, and in 1970 arranged to purchase the market from its current owner Einer Jensen upon his retirement. In 1981, this acquisition was completed and Mr. Fulton promptly opened a new store in Cedar Glen, CA named Jensens Minute Shoppe; a convenience store concept which is still in operation today along with another location in Rancho Mirage, CA. Throughout the remainder of the 20th century, 2000s and 2010s, Jensens continued to open new supermarkets across Southern California, including locations in mountain communities such as Wrightwood and Running Springs. Jensens now operates a total of eight grocery stores, which have proven to be remarkably desirable workplaces with several employees having worked for the Jensens chain for nearly 40 years. More information about Jensens can be found on its website: http://jensensfoods.com/ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d9c55e45-c3e6-4884-a9ec-2e6b532766f0 Image Source: Jensens Foods (Facebook) Readers using news aggregation services may be unable to view the media above. Please access the Companys profile on SEDAR for a version of this press release containing all published media. To date in 2021, the Company has added its KOIOS nootropic beverage and Fit Soda functional beverage products to numerous regional grocery chains across the United States as part of a strategy to passively build market share and gather sales performance data of its products in specific geographical areas. Based on outcomes from these placements, the Company and its distribution partners can shape near-term and long-term decisions for a given region using such results as a baseline. Additionally, the Company anticipates that it could leverage these regional market placements to potentially secure shelf space in larger grocery chains in the United States. Koios Chief Executive Officer Chris Miller commented, California is a unique market when it comes to beverages because there have been numerous efforts by lawmakers to impose a statewide Soda Tax or Sugary Drink Tax, and such taxes have been put into effect by several California municipalities to include San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. At Koios, we pride ourselves in producing sugar-free beverages that have been shown to provide unique benefits which are relevant to a wide range of consumers. In the 80 years that Jensens has been in business under family ownership, it goes without saying that they know a thing or two about picking products that are relevant to their client base in Southern California, and it is an honour for KOIOS to be among the latest additions to their product mix. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company, KOIOS BEVERAGE CORP. Chris Miller Chris Miller, CEO, and Director For further information, please contact: Gina Burrus 844-255-6467 gina@koiosbeveragecorp.com THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (CSE) HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE. About Koios Beverage Corp. The Company is an emerging functional beverage company which has an available distribution network of more than 4,400 retail locations across the United States in which to sell its products. Koios has relationships with some of the largest and most reputable distributors in the United States, including Europa Sports, Muscle Foods USA, KeHE, and Wishing-U-Well. Koios uses a proprietary blend of nootropics and natural organic compounds to enhance human productivity without using harmful chemicals or stimulants. Koios products have been shown to enhance focus, concentration, mental capacity, memory retention, cognitive function, alertness, brain capacity and create all day mental clarity. Its ingredients are specifically designed to target brain function by increasing blood flow, oxygen levels and neural connections in the brain. Koios produces one of the only drinks in the world infused with MCT oil. MCT oil is derived from coconuts and has been shown to help the body burn fat more effectively, create lasting energy from a natural food source, produce ketones in the brain, allowing for greater brain function and clarity, support healthy hormone production and improve immunity. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.koiosbeveragecorp.com . Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking information 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 information in this news release includes statements regarding: Potential outcomes from KOIOS being carried by Jensens grocery stores in Southern California. The forward-looking information reflects management's current expectations based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information 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. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) changes to the growth and size of the functional beverage markets; and (iii) other factors beyond the control of the Company. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Companys management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The statements in this news release have not been evaluated by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As each individual is different, the benefits, if any, of taking the Companys products will vary from person to person. No claims or guarantees can be made as to the effects of the Companys products on an individual's health and well-being. The Companys products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This news release may contain trademarked names of third-party entities (or their respective offerings with trademarked names) typically in reference to (i) relationships had by Koios with such third-party entities as referred to in this release and/or (ii) client/vendor/service provider parties whose relationship with Koios is/are referred to in this release. All rights to such trademarks are reserved by their respective owners or licensees. ALBANY When he speaks to young people, Lester W. Young Jr. has said he hopes they know that "when I look at them, I see a bit of myself. And I hope when they look at me, they see a bit of themselves." As the first Black chancellor of the New York Board of Regents, Young says one of his priorities is to ensure that the state's education workforce reflects the diversity of its public school students. But talking about equity and hiring teachers of color is only half the battle, according to Young. Educators must be "in sync" with their students; they should forge connections to their pupils and understand differences in how they learn. "Education is more than just knowledge and skills; it's knowledge, skills and dispositions," Young said during a conversation on teacher diversity hosted by the New York State United Teachers on Wednesday. "What young people are like determines what they do with what they know. " In his first public appearance since he was elected to the position by the Board of Regents earlier this month, Young took questions virtually from educators of color from across the state. For students of color, having a teacher of the same race has been shown to boost academic performance and improve their chances of being identified as gifted. There is also evidence that it improves students' chances of graduating and attending college. Young, who has been an at-large member of the Board of Regents since 2008, has dedicated his 50 years of public service to educational equity and improving outcomes for students of color and those living in poverty. "It's difficult to put yourself in the shoes of another person. You have to really work at that," he told teachers at the NYSUT event honoring Black History Month. To address the statewide shortage of teachers of color, Young proposes removing financial barriers and educating young people about the profession. "Lots of young people don't see the school as a self-affirming, self-esteem-building place. So for many young people, the last place they want to be is in school, or to be a teacher ... if we really want more young people to go into teaching, we need to give them good reasons," he said. The chancellor seat had been vacant since the summer when former chancellor Betty A. Rosa stepped down to take on the role of interim state education commissioner. The state Education Department had not had a permanent chief since MaryEllen Elia resigned in 2019. When the board made Rosa's commissioner position permanent this month, she became the first Latina woman to head the agency that oversees more than 700 school districts and the education of more than 2.6 million schoolchildren. Rosa and Young make an historic team; for the first time, the state's diversity is reflected at the highest level of educational leadership. Born in Brooklyn, Young is the son of the late Lester Young, an influential jazz musician. He began his teaching career in 1968, amidst the civil rights movement, a period of hope and excitement for Black communities. Young's introduction to the New York City public school system, a teaching job in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy area, was a formative experience, according to an oral history Young recorded with Sady Sullivan for the Brooklyn Historical Society in 2008. During the job interview, the principal spoke to him for two hours and then led him down a hallway to a room full of parents and said "I'll be back," according to Young. The parents grilled him intensely for an hour and a half. "Here is a principal that, long before people talked about parent involvement ... felt it was important enough, that before she would hire someone, the parents had to feel comfortable with that person," Young told Sullivan. "So I have always considered myself a product of community control and decentralization and it's an experience that I've taken with me throughout my career." Young, who holds a doctorate in education from Fordham University, has worked as a guidance counselor, supervisor of special education, principal, and superintendent, according to the state Education Department. He has also held leadership roles in the state Education Department and taught at Long Island Universitys School of Education. The Board of Regents and state Education Department work together to set standards and policies for the entire state. Rosa has worked alongside Young in multiple capacities as they climbed the ranks in the New York City public school system and they both joined the Board of Regents in 2008. "Time and time again, Regent Young has demonstrated his courage, determination and steadfast obligation to helping our underserved populations rise above their circumstances and thrive in life," Rosa said in a statement after his appointment. The regents' selection of Rosa as chancellor in 2016 was seen as a turning point for public education in New York. Rosa was an outspoken critic of the state's controversial Common Core learning standards and other policies supported by her predecessor. She and Young are now tasked with guiding the regents and the Education Department through unprecedented challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted communities of color and exacerbated educational inequities. Connecting with students on a personal level rather than focusing solely on testing and benchmarks is especially important during the health crisis, according to Young. Students should know "education is not just a vehicle out of this mess, but it is your way to change this situation ... which means we have to have a more holistic approach, a more global approach," Young said. MOSCOW -- An assassination attempt made Aleksei Navalny into a globally recognized dissident, a Russian opposition leader whom German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited in his Berlin hospital room and who collaborated with leading Western news outlets in investigating the near-fatal poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. But the man who for more than a decade has challenged President Vladimir Putin and deftly exposed corruption among officials, earning widespread support in Russia and sparking repeated waves of anti-government protests, has also faced criticism in the country and abroad for nationalist comments that he has repeatedly declined to disavow. On February 23, the prominent NGO Amnesty International withdrew Navalny from its list of "prisoners of conscience," a designation reserved for people imprisoned for who they are or what they believe. Amnesty said Navalny, who is in prison on what he and his supporters call trumped-up charges aimed at silencing him, fell short of its criteria because of past statements the rights watchdog perceived as reaching the "threshold of advocacy of hatred." Amnesty's recent probe into Navalny, who has come under scrutiny for his association with Russian nationalists and statements seen as racist and xenophobic, was prompted by a wave of complaints that appeared part of "a coordinated campaign" to discredit him after he was named a "prisoner of conscience" in January. One anonymous Amnesty employee told Russian media that a Twitter thread about Navalny by Katya Kazbek -- a U.S.-based freelance columnist and translator who has written for Russia's state-funded media outlet RT and for RFE/RL -- lists examples of objectionable comments made by Navalny and was cited by a wave of e-mails sent to the organization. Kazbek, whose real name is Yekaterina Dubovitskaya, told RFE/RL she has "never been knowingly in touch with anyone connected to Amnesty International." Amnesty maintains that Navalny's persecution is politically motivated and says its recent decision "does not change our resolve to fight for his immediate release." But its decision, influenced by strict classification criteria, prompted widespread criticism and shined a spotlight on the Kremlin critic's supposed beliefs. 'Certified Nationalist' Much of the attention focuses on Navalny's unabashed endorsement of nationalist causes in the late 2000s, including his appearances at the Russian March, an annual event that gathers ultranationalists of all stripes in Moscow but has dwindled in size in recent years. In response, the liberal Yabloko party expelled Navalny from its ranks, but under the banner of a new group called the National Russian Liberation Movement in 2007 he released YouTube videos describing himself as a "certified nationalist" and advancing thinly veiled xenophobia. In one clip, Navalny is shown in a dentist's outfit as footage of migrants in Moscow is interspersed with his references to harmful tooth cavities. "I recommend full sanitization," he says. "Everything in our way should be carefully but decisively be removed through deportation." In subsequent years Navalny publicly softened his tone but continued promoting conservative immigration policies, campaigning to introduce a visa regime with Central Asia, a major source of labor migrants to Russia, ahead of the 2018 presidential election from which the Kremlin ultimately barred him. He also railed against "Islamism" in posts to his blog as late as 2015. Navalny has repeatedly stated in interviews that he doesn't regret his past comments or videos, and suggested that an ability to engage both liberals and nationalists is part of his strength as a politician. In the 2000s, a loose alliance with ethnonationalism was seen by some Russian opposition figures marginalized by an increasingly centralized system as a way to get a foothold in politics and ultimately create a unified movement to challenge Putin, who has also referred to himself as a nationalist and has played on nostalgia for the Soviet Union. In 2011 and 2012, for example, a huge wave of protests against Putins rule saw active involvement among nationalists. Navalny hinted at this idea in an interview with Polish journalist Adam Michnik that formed part of a co-authored book released in Russian with the title Mikhnik. Navalny. Dialogues in 2015. "The basis of my approach is that you have to communicate with nationalists and educate them," Navalny said. "I think it's very important to explain to them that the problem of illegal immigration is not solved by beating up migrants but by other, democratic means: a return to competitive elections that would help us to get rid of the crooks and thieves getting rich off of illegal immigration." Leftward Shift? More recently, Navalny's political activism appears to have undergone a leftward shift, with the anti-corruption crusader championing new trade unions and promising to help Russia's workers secure higher salaries after years of falling real wages. "I see no contradiction in promoting trade unions while at the same time demanding a visa requirement for migrants from Central Asia," he told the news magazine Der Spiegel as he recovered in Germany after being poisoned in Siberia in August last year. Pro-Kremlin media have for years seized on Navalny's nationalist past, and ratcheted up a campaign to discredit him and his allies ahead of protests he instigated after his January 17 arrest upon arrival at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport from Berlin. On February 2, Navalny was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for violating parole conditions while recuperating abroad. State TV has sought to discredit him as a neo-Nazi, and comparisons with Hitler have been shown to university students during lectures and broadcast on government channels. The majority of such claims have exaggerated Navalny's stance or twisted episodes of his past to besmirch his name. But his opponents have been given ample fodder. Navalny's controversial videos and statements are still easily accessible online, including the 2007 clips. Employees of his Anti-Corruption Foundation in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article. But Leonid Volkov, who heads Navalny's network of regional political offices in Russia, told The New Yorker earlier this month that Navalny continues to advocate dialogue with Russia's nationalists, and while he regrets the 2007 video about deporting migrants he hasn't deleted it from YouTube "because it's a historical fact." The ultimate aim for Navalny, Volkov suggested, is for opposition to Putin in Russia to achieve critical mass. "He believes that if you don't talk to the kind of people who attend these marches, they will all become skinheads," Volkov said. "But, if you talk to them, you may be able to convince them that their real enemy is Putin." A poster is displayed in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 2020, during a global day of action called by "Resist China" (#ResistChina), an international campaign to expose the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) It Robs Us of Our Humanity: Speakers at International Conference Condemn Beijings Illicit Organ Harvesting, Call for Action Over 100 organizations from around the world came together this week in an online conference to shine a light on one of the Chinese Communist Partys most egregious crimeskilling prisoners of conscience to supply Chinas lucrative organ transplantation industry. According to the organizers of the Feb. 24 event, which was co-hosted by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, for the last two decades the CCP has been systematically executing people on demand to provide organs for transplantation. For the victims, which include political prisoners, Falun Gong practitioners, and Uyghurs, it is not just the harvesting of their organs, it is also a harvesting of their life, the organizers said in announcing the conference. For the rest of us, it robs us of our humanity and forever poisons our capacity of being human. The conference brought together officials and dignitaries from over 25 countries, 117 organizations, and 12 universities worldwide. The keynote speaker was Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who led the prosecution of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic at the UN and more recently chaired the China Tribunal, a peoples tribunal looking into forced organ harvesting. Among the guest speakers were Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas; Sean Lin, the communications director for the Falun Dafa Association in Washington, D.C.; and Wendy Rogers, a professor of Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Clearly, the Chinese Communist Party bears ultimate responsibility for forced organ harvesting. It is the CCP which has sanctioned the persecution of victim groups and permitted the development of industrial scale organ transplantation in China, Rogers said at the conference. Calls for International Actions Against CCP The CCPs organ harvesting crimes were first exposed by Matas and former cabinet minister David Kilgour in the early 2000s, when they investigated allegations of forced harvesting of organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China. Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a traditional meditation practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, and its adherents have been subjected to a persecution campaign by the CCP since 1999. Their investigation culminated in a report titled published in 2006, which found that the allegations were true and that the organ harvesting was sanctioned by the state. It was followed by a book (pdf) titled Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs. Lin, a survivor of 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, told the panel that it is time for the international community to take direct action against the Beijing regime. If you do not deal with the Chinese Communist Party directly, the [practice] of forced organ harvesting in China wont stop, said Lin. A man jogs past Falun Gong practitioners using a mock organ harvesting display as part of their protest against Chinas persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Friday May 2, 2008. The protesters claim that China illegally harvests organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press) Matas said countries around the world should enact laws to prohibit their citizens from going to China for transplants, since the CCP runs the Chinese legal system and its own laws cannot be expected to prosecute forced organ harvesting crimes. Right now, for many countries, if a person kills someone in their own country for their organs, the person will have committed a crime. But if the person goes to China for organs harvested from a prisoner of conscience, the person has committed no crime in their own country, and whatever crime they may have committed in China will not be prosecuted, he said. Matas also suggested using Magnitsky legislation, with which a country can publicly name a person for being complicit in human rights violations, ban the individual from entry, and freeze their assets in that country. Several countries have their own version of a Magnitsky law, including Canada and the United States. It has not been used for those identified as complicit in forced organ harvesting in China, Matas said. Authorities of various countries which have this legislation have been asked to add perpetrators of forced organ harvesting in China to their Magnitsky Act list. Kilgour urged the conference participants to push their governments to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as well as businesses that could be using products made by forced labour from Chinas Xinjiang region. Any deal with China on any matter must include an insistence that this barbaric practice stop immediately, coupled with a mechanism whereby such stoppage is verifiable, Kilgour said. Responsible governments and businesses worldwide, including Canada and, I hope, all of your countries, to join the U.S. and Australia in boycotting anyone doing business in Xinjiang, for slavery in its internment camps is poisoning the supply chains of numerous well-known companies from democratic nations, he said. Canadas Subcommittee on International Human Rights estimates that roughly 2 million Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims are held in concentration camps in Xinjiang, making it the largest mass detention since the Holocaust. Actions in Canada On Feb. 22, 2021, Canadian MPs voted unanimously in favour of a Conservative motion declaring Beijings oppression of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims an act of genocide. Sen. Marilou McPhedran said at the conference that Canada has introduced a bill in the Senate that would amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in relation to trafficking in human organs. The new offence created in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act would be to make it very clear that any evidence of trafficking in human organs or humans would be an automatic refusal for any entry to Canada, McPhedran said. MP Sameer Zuberi said he had heard from a Uyghur survivor of Xinjiangs concentration camps about how he was subjected to a physical exam. This Uyghur individual, this individual who had committed no crime, was apprehended without any charge, didnt know why he was there, but this was the exam that he was subject to. He thought that he would be dissected there on the table, Zuberi said. He also noted that there have been media reports of students, who are of Uyghur or other minority origins, being called to the Chinese Embassy and consulates in Canada to give blood samples. Why? Its a good question. But we know that blood samples, when theyre given pave the way to allow for organs to be harvested more easily, he said. In December 2020, U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation to sanction forced organ harvesting. It was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Cotton and in the House by Reps. Chris Smith and Tom Suozzi. COVID-19 restrictions similar to those that were in place at Christmas are set to return, with the government expected to relax rules that have lingered since the end of the five-day lockdown. Nine senior Victorian ministers will meet on Friday morning to finalise a plan to ease mask restrictions and allow more people inside homes, provided there are no new locally-acquired cases. Thursday was the sixth day in a row with no new local cases. Premier Daniel Andrews with (L-R) COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar, Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Credit:Chris Hopkins The intention, according to two government sources familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details are subject to change, is to revert to a set of rules resembling the COVID-safe summer restrictions that were in place before an outbreak in late December that was traced to a Thai restaurant in Black Rock. Before that cluster which stemmed from NSW 30 people could gather inside a home. This number was cut to 15 before New Years Eve and has been limited to five indoors and 20 people outdoors since last Wednesday as health officials have attempted to transition out of the snap lockdown without risking more infections. Prince Harry losing his honorary military titles because he has quit royal life will be a 'big ordeal' for him, a war hero friend said today. Burns victim Martyn Compton, who has known Harry for 15 years, said he hopes his friend's decision to build a new life for himself, Meghan and Archie in Los Angeles will be 'worth it for him'. But Mr Compton hinted he can understand why the Queen has cut him loose, saying: 'I guess it comes down to you can't be a royal and cash in on it - and the royal family have said that, which is why everything had happened'. Mr Compton, who was speaking to ITV's Lorraine, is a former British soldier from the Household Cavalry Regiment who suffered his injuries after an RPG set his vehicle alight in Afghanistan. Last week he said his friend, who calls a 'genuinely nice bloke', may come to 'regret' his decision to step back from his royal responsibilities. Burns victim Martyn Compton, who has known Harry for 15 years, said he hopes his friend's decision to build a new life for himself and his family will be 'worth it for him' Prince Harry speaks to Martyn Compton in 2007, and the pair have enjoyed a long friendship Prince Harry won't be allowed to wear the dress uniform he wore on his wedding day (left) and the Royal Marines dress uniform he wore to the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020 with Meghan Mr Compton was speaking to Lorraine Kelly on ITV1 today where he paid tribute to his 'kind' and 'caring' friend When asked about the Queen's decision to ensure Harry is forbidden by tradition from wearing full military regalia after suffering the bitter blow of losing his honorary appointments with the Armed Forces, Mr Compton said: 'It's a big ordeal for him to be able to do that - but he's obviously looking out for his family.' Harry is Commodore in Chief of Little Ships no more: The prince's lost titles The honorary military titles that Prince Harry has lost: Captain General, Royal Marines As the ceremonial head of the Royal Marines, Harry was appointed in December 2017, succeeding the Duke of Edinburgh. He made numerous visits to the Commando Training Centre in Devon and to Norway for arctic warfare drills. He made his last appearance in Royal Marines uniform at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020. Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington Appointed by the Queen in 2008 and visited the base on at least three occasions in his formal role. In 2010 he presented the families of two servicemen killed in Afghanistan with the Elizabeth Cross. Royal Air Force Honington, near Bury St Edmunds, is the RAF's centre of Force Protection. Commodore-in-Chief, Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving Appointed in August 2006 in recognition of the links between the Navy and the Royals. Opened the 30million Amphibious Centre of Excellence at Devonport Naval Base in 2013. Advertisement When asked if Harry would wish things were different, he said: 'I guess it comes down to you can't be a royal and cash in on it - and the royal family have said that which is why everything had happened.' He added: 'I'll watch it [the Oprah interview] out of interest of what's been said, but yeah it's going to be a big thing that comes out and there's obviously a reason why he's done it by himself.' Martyn Compton was in hospital for a year after he suffered horrific burns to 75 per cent of his body when his armoured vehicle was blown up by a Taliban in 2006. He was then shot twice in the leg as he scrambled away from the burning wreckage. As he lay on the ground, his colleague Corporal Of Horse Andrew Radford thought he was an enemy soldier and raised his rifle to shoot him. But CoH Radford realised his mistake just before he squeezed the trigger and dashed through enemy gunfire to carry his comrade to safety. On their return to the UK, Lance Cpl Compton lay in a coma for three months and his saviour was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his heroics. Martyn has scars all over his body but with some help from a leading surgeon in Harley Street, and has dedicated himself to raising money for charity since his recovery. Paying tribute to Harry he said: 'He does a lot for military charities. It comes back to the sort of guy he is. He's just a normal, caring guy who just so happens to be a royal. He's supported me in various charities and ventures I've done.' His friend Prince Harry will now be forbidden by tradition from wearing full military regalia after suffering the bitter blow of losing his honorary appointments with the Armed Forces. With the duke no longer returning as a working member of the Royal Family, his honorary roles, such as Captain General of the Royal Marines, will be returned to Her Majesty before being redistributed among other senior royals. Harry, 36, will be prevented if only by tradition from wearing full military regalia. Should he attend a Remembrance Sunday event he could wear his medals and a regimental beret but not a uniform. Harry, 36, will be prevented from wearing full military regalia and stripped of royal patronages Garments he should no longer wear are understood to include the Blues and Royals frockcoat worn on his wedding day in May 2018 and the Royal Marines dress uniform he wore to the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020, shortly before he stepped down as a senior royal. His former commander General Lord Dannatt paid a glowing personal tribute to Prince Harry, saying his heart would always be with Britain's military community even though he may never be seen in uniform again. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail Lord Dannatt, a former head of the UK's Armed Forces, sounded a defiant note on his behalf after the prince's 16 years of service. He said: 'It was a privilege to have enjoyed Prince Harry's comradeship during the years that he has served his country in uniform. As we say, 'You can take someone out of the Army, but you can never take the Army out of them'. 'I am sure the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force would say the same. I have no doubt that this will be Prince Harry's emotion. 'The announcement from Buckingham Palace is welcome in so far as it clears the air about the Duke of Sussex's future intentions. I fully respect and support the decision that he has made in the best interests of his wife and growing family. 'The military community will miss his official connections and contributions but I am in no doubt that he will continue to support our serving and veteran soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in a private capacity, especially through the Invictus Games and service charities.' Back in 2005 Prince Harry, then aged only 20, climbed the ornate steps of the Old College at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) to begin his officer training. It was widely remarked in the following years that the Army became his family. He subsequently served his country with distinction on the frontline in Afghanistan, both as a soldier on the ground and later as a helicopter pilot. After Sandhurst Prince Harry commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Blues and Royals, a regiment of the Household Cavalry, in 2006. A debate soon began about whether he could deploy with his unit to Iraq. As he was not directly in line to the throne many senior army figures thought he should go. Eventually the Ministry of Defence, after drawn-out discussions with Buckingham Palace, was persuaded that he would be a high profile target whose presence would endanger those deployed with him. Lord Dannatt then personally arranged for Prince Harry to serve in Afghanistan. He struck a deal with media outlets for them not to report his presence in return for interviews to be published and broadcast on his return. The deal held for ten weeks, allowing Harry to experience the brutal realities of warfare. He served as a Forward Air Controller with a desert reconnaissance unit. In doing so he became the first member of the Royal Family to serve on the frontline since Prince Andrew took part in the Falklands War in 1982 as a helicopter pilot. While Lord Dannatt offered Prince Harry his best wishes, he also sounded a note of caution as the Duke of Sussex starts a new chapter in his life. He added: 'Prince Harry will have had to weigh up very carefully everything that was important in his life. Although he cares deeply for the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines that he has served with and our veterans, especially those who have been wounded, his priority is with his wife and growing family. 'I fully respect and support the very difficult decision that he has had to make. 'I wish him well for the future and know that his heart will always be with the British military.' On his return to the UK from Afghanistan Prince Harry was advised to retrain as a helicopter pilot should he wish to go back to the conflict though secretly few senior officers expected him to pass the necessary selection tests. But he defied their low expectations, qualifying as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner. He returned to Helmand Province in September 2012 with the Army Air Corps and duly completed a four-month operational tour. Harry then focused on veterans' welfare and helped set up the Invictus Games, a version of the Paralympics for injured military personnel, before retiring from the Army in June 2015. In December 2017, Harry accepted the role of Captain General of the Royal Marines from his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had served in this capacity for a remarkable 64 years. The prince made a number of visits to the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) in Lympstone, Devon, and to Norway where Marines practise arctic warfare. It has been speculated that the Captain General's role could pass to Prince William or the Princess Royal. Harry will also relinquish his roles as honorary commandant of RAF Honington and Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's Small Ships and Diving. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Paris, TX (75460) Today Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible. (Natural News) Two Florida women dressed up as elderly citizens in order to get vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus. Reports said the two wore bonnets, gloves and glasses to disguise their age before going to the vaccination site for Orange County. The gimmick managed to work the first time they tried it, but authorities caught the two as they tried to get their second and last dose. People aged 65 years old and above are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccines in the state of Florida. Given this requirement, the two women a 34-year-old and a 44-year-old dressed up like grandmothers before going to the Orange County Convention Center for their scheduled immunization. Florida Department of Health Orange County Director Dr. Raul Pino said in a Feb. 18 press briefing: We realized that a couple of young ladies came dressed up as grannies to get vaccinated for the second time. I dont know how they escaped the first time, but they came [to get] vaccinated. There were some issues with their IDs and their drivers licenses, but I dont know all the details about them, he said. The health director said he did not know how the women managed to get their first shot. According to Pino, vaccinators noticed the pair looked funny and stopped them immediately. Authorities were then informed of the two womens disguises. The Daily Caller reported that the Orange County Sheriffs Office sent deputies to the site and issued trespass warnings to both women. The womens real names were on the vaccination cards but the dates of birth were incorrect, the site added. Meanwhile, Click Orlando reported that further investigation will be conducted to find out if the two women actually received the first dose of the vaccine. It also mentioned that there are no charges pending from the sheriffs office. Pino confirmed the investigation, saying: Part of the findings we have to do is [if they] were really vaccinated by us, when [were they] vaccinated, and what date [and] time. [This is] to figure out if there are any holes [or] loopholes in the process that are allowing people to do that. The health director lamented the incident. Its kind of hilarious to a sense, but its also disappointing because they are taking the place that someone else in much higher need could have had. Security has been bolstered in vaccination sites following the incident As a result of the ruse and other weird things happening, Pino explained that security has been increased at the Orange County Convention Center. The venue, used as a COVID-19 vaccination site, has been seeing more than 2,500 shots being administered every day. The health director elaborated: We have seen an increase in weird things happening, [such as] people walking in suspicious [and] people monitoring the site. So thats why we requested additional security that was provided. We installed cameras and other security features in the vaccine room. The two women wearing disguises just to get COVID-19 vaccines is not an isolated case. Pino commented that attempts by different individuals to cut the line when it comes to vaccinations were all different and creative. He shared one instance: There was another individual that had the same name of his father. [He] came with a card, but a different birthday. But you know, we have access to a lot of information so we can verify who is who [and] where they were born. Anything that you can imagine, we have access to. Pino pointed out that had the women entered their correct birth dates when registering for an appointment, they would have been blocked by the system as they were too young. He surmised that they could have either used false details or obtained help from someone working at the site. Some residents have also taken a direct approach to getting vaccinated. Nurses have reported strangers accosting them as they finish their shift at 10 p.m., asking if they have any extra vaccine doses to spare. The health director thought there might be more people who managed to get the jab ahead of their turn. I think its higher than we suspect, to be honest with you. As we are engaged in this process and [are] trying to move people quickly, some people could squeeze in, so its probably higher than we suspect, he said. Ultimately, Pino exhorted residents to be more patient with the process. While many are anxious about when they would get immunized against the Wuhan coronavirus, the most vulnerable to COVID-19 would get their shots first. (Related: Florida man develops and dies from rare autoimmune disorder days after receiving Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.) Visit Vaccines.news to learn more about vaccination programs in Florida and other places amid the ongoing pandemic. Sources include: DailyWire.com ClickOrlando.com DailyCaller.com Ukraines Security Service announced on February 25 that it has put a pro-Kremlin blogger and politician on its wanted list after he failed to show up for questioning. Anatoliy Shariy was charged earlier this month with high treason and hate speech and ordered to come in for questioning on February 22. The SBU, as the service is known, claims he helped organize pro-Russia media campaigns. Shariy denies the accusations. Shariy is a former journalist who fled Ukraine for Spain in 2012 after authorities opened a criminal case against him for assault. He received asylum in Spain, where he currently lives. Though his initial investigative reporting targeted the government of pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych, he wrote critically about the revolution that deposed him and spoke out against the Western-leaning governments that followed. In 2019, he launched the Party of Shariy, whose candidates won a few local elections in 2020. Shariy is the latest pro-Russian politician to face trouble in recent weeks. Ukraine earlier this month sanctioned lawmakers Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak, who are considered to be close to the Kremlin. Maximus Resources believes the Wattle Dam Project in the prolific Kambalda region of WA is a potential company-maker. The Wattle Dam story of Resources Limited (ASX: MXR) comes with a bit of history. I actually made a weak attempt to bid for the project way back in 2009 on some of the adjacent tenements but that never came to pass. In my opinion, within the Kambalda region, comparatively, the Wattle Dam area is one of the least active. There is no doubt that this whole region has been one of the best nickel hunting places. The Widgiemooltha Dome has been a classic hunting ground for nickel and this sits just south of the tenements held by Maximus Resources Limited. In 2020, the mineral exploration sector experienced one of the best years for capital funding. If I am not wrong, I could go as far as saying that this is one of the best years of capital allocation in this sector for many decades. I feel that this rush for good projects has allowed companies to finally drill projects that could unearth the next bag of mines. Broad zones of intercept confirms that the area has the potential to produce another Wattle Dam. The latest drill results of 16m @ 9.3 g/t and 5.8m @ 10.1 g/t confirms that there is another Wattle Dam to be discovered. In this episode, Tim Wither tells us what is happening with the company and why he believes that the projects within the company are geared for better things to come. The exciting part is the potential for gold and nickel in a portfolio of tenements that have not had a lot of work done. PODCAST About Tim Wither Managing director, Maximus Resources Tim Wither is a mining executive with over 20 years experience in the resource sector, both domestically and internationally, with key involvement in the development of several greenfield base metal projects. Mr Wither has held various senior executive and strategic leadership roles in Australia, India, Africa, South America, with publicly listed companies on both the ASX and TSX. Tim is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds an MBA from Curtin Graduate School of Business, Graduate Diploma of Mining, Graduate Diploma in Natural Resource Law, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Mine Engineering and Surveying from the WA School of Mines. He is also a candidate for Master of Commercial and Resources Law at University of WA. About Maximus Resources Maximus Resources ( ) is a junior mining explorer with tenements located 20km from Kambalda, Western Australias premier gold and nickel mining district. Maximus Resources' Spargoville tenements are located in the heart of Australias premiere gold and nickel mining district just 25km from Kambalda, Western Australia. Home of the very high-grade historic Wattle Dam Gold Mine, the Spargoville tenements are readily accessible and are located less than 50km from six gold processing plants and just 25km from BHPs Kambalda Nickel Concentrator. Mined until 2012, the Wattle Dam Gold Mine was one of Australias highest-grade gold mines, producing ~286,000 oz gold @ 10.1 g/t gold. The focus of Maximus Resources is the discovery of the next Wattle Dam Gold Mine. Maximus Resources has been granted 48 sq km of mining licences and has gold rights across a further 60 sq km along the very fertile Spargoville Shear Zone, hosting multiple significant gold and nickel deposits. Wattle Dam Gold Mine Project The Wattle Dam gold deposit is one of Australias highest-grade gold mines, hosted in sheared and metamorphosed ultramafic rocks and interflow sedimentary units. Historical production from Ramelius Resources ( ) at Wattle Dam from 2008-12: Open Pit 52,700oz gold @ 5.3g/t gold Underground 213,650oz gold @ 14.9g/t gold Total 266,350oz gold @ 10.6g/t gold The high-grade ore zones at the site are vertically plunging, 80-100m in strike length and 8-15m wide. Shallow operations have mined to 365m below the surface but the finding of coarse gold veins resulted in the geological modelling under-calling contained gold. High-grade mineralisation High-grade mineralisation within the Wattle Dam pit is associated with intense biotite alteration within komatiitic ultramafics. Chlorite / biotite / amphibole sulphide alteration surrounding main ore zone 40-70m wide. During mining operations at Wattle Dam areas of strong alteration and low assays were observed to contain coarse-free gold and subsequently mined to a geological envelope. Deep drilling suggests the alteration associated with the Main Zone mineralisation extends to the Spargoville shear zone. This was modelled but never drill tested. Other references https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/MXR/02341081.pdf Please let us know your thoughts and send us any comment to info@ .com.au. Remember to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Samso Media and our mail list to stay informed and make comments where appropriate. Other than that, you can also give us a Review on Google. For further information about Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talks visit: www.samso.com.au Samso is primarily a consulting company that delivers digital information to the market in terms of creating organic content. Samso simplifies your story to customers or investors. Samso creates organic content for you to engage your audience and BRAND yourself to them. Samso provides bespoke research and presentation for clients to engage their customers or investors. Organic content allows audiences to feel a real sense of sincerity when you share your business strategy, allowing your business to stand out among the sea of social media traffic. Working with allows exposing our Insights to over 1.2 million monthly unique views internationally. 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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 Feb. 24 , 2021 (EIRNS)Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder and international leader of the international Schiller Institute and widow of the renowned American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, announced today that, through counsel, she has issued a letter to the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) and its Treasurer, Barbara Boyd, demanding that they immediately cease and desist, both now and in the future from using Mr. LaRouches name, likeness, and potentially other confusingly similar terms. The letter states that such use is likely to cause confusion among consumers since they may believe that you [Boyd] (as an individual), LPAC, and/or the goods and services being offered are somehow associated with, licensed by, or authorized by our Client [Helga Zepp-LaRouche]. Among the remedies required are that Boyd and LPAC Immediately take all necessary actions to change the name of your political action committee, and the name of any Affiliated Entities, to one that does not include the term Lyndon, LaRouche, or any formative or iteration thereof, and agree to refrain from using the infringing terms now and in the future on any website, company e-mails, letter head, advertisements, or other marketing literature or correspondence. To provide the background and context for this action, Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche issued the following statement: What had been since 2004 the official website of the political action committee founded by my late husband Lyndon LaRouche, the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC), has had its content taken over by a group of individuals associated with Barbara Boyd, the Treasurer of that PAC, in a direction which I consider contrary to the central policies that my husband stood for. While my husband was still alive, he was responsible for the overall policy direction of the PAC. But since he passed away in February 2019, Mrs. Boyd and her associates, without my permission, have taken over the content of the website and the PACs activities as a whole and have embarked on a path that I believe misrepresents both my and Mr. LaRouches positions. My requests for the PAC to adhere to the policies of the LaRouche movement and to not associate the LaRouche name with policies that were inconsistent with our views, which started to occur within the PAC immediately after the death of Mr. LaRouche, were rebuked to such an extent that Mrs. Boyd and a group of individuals sharing her views issued a document in November 2020 proclaiming their irrevocable independence from the leadership of the LaRouche movement, myself included, founded by my husband over 50 years ago. While paying lip service to some of Lyndon LaRouches ideas, and using video footage of him, in reality the political positions of the PAC increasingly diverged from the policies of the LaRouche movement and my late husband by, for example, excluding any substantive evaluation of the international strategic situation, in favor of focusing almost entirely on internal U.S. politics, principally on issues that were in line with the policies of Donald Trump. They increasingly failed to publish articles and videos that were critical of Trump on topics on which Lyndon LaRouche had personally frequently criticized Trump, such as his praise of the Wall Street financial bubble; the anti-China policies that came to dominate his presidency; and so on. For example: In a Jan. 26, 2021 video posted on the LPAC site under the headline Make Impeachment Drive Backfire, Build Movement to Rescue Republic, Barbara Boyd stated: If you believe they [people] are beasts and that you can have a social credit system, which is really what were putting into place here with the cancel cultureif you behave certain ways, you get social credits for doing x, y, z, and w; if youre nasty or make stupid comments, or step out of line, you get negative credits. Thats what they do in China. Thats what they do in any totalitarian society. These positions reflect the beliefs of Mrs. Boyd, not Mr. LaRouche or the LaRouche movement. I disagree fully with that characterization of China, and Lyndon LaRouche expressed beliefs to the contrary of this characterization repeatedly throughout his life. As the mischaracterizations of Mr. LaRouches political positions grew, I and the vast majority of the members of the LaRouche movement, both in the United States and internationally, felt we had no other choice than to support the creation of a new organization and associated website: The LaRouche Organization (TLO), founded in December 2020, to ensure Mr. LaRouches name and likeness are only associated with his true policies and positions. The difference between TLO and the PAC becomes clear if, as one example, one compares the intention expressed in the TLO founding statement Who We Are, which says: The sole purpose of The LaRouche Organization (TLO) is the dissemination of the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche and the spread of his lifes work, his analytical and scientific method of thinking, with the intention of realizing the solutions he offered to the many crises now facing mankind. Contrast this to the February 14 marching orders expressed on the LPAC site under the rubric Your Role in the New Politics : Do battle for the Republican Party; force the traitors and the weak ones out, and restore it to the tradition of Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Boyd and her associates launched a redesigned website for the PAC in February 2021, which notably excludes two pages or topics which were formerly there: First, the extremely rich documentation of the 40 years of organizing activities that Lyndon LaRouche and his international associates were involved in across five continents of the planet. Intentionally or not, I believe that removing that history gives the false impression that Mr. LaRouche was only concerned about matters in the U.S. This negates his passionate commitment to mankind as a whole. Second, the new PAC website also omits the record of the role of Mr. LaRouche and his international movement in the evolution of a new paradigm around the New Silk Road. Mr. LaRouche wrote numerous economic programs for Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe beginning in the 1970s, and he spent a good portion of his life working and campaigning in and for the development of these countries. Mrs. Boyd and her associates have every right to establish a political action committee to express the views of Mrs. Boyd; but I believe they do a grave disservice to the late Lyndon LaRouche by misrepresentingby commission and omissionhis views by associating his name with their endeavor. For all of these reasons, we have hired legal counsel to stop all use of Lyndon LaRouches name and likeness by the PAC and to preserve the integrity of his vast work. Nearly two-thirds of white evangelicals don't believe Biden's election was 'legitimate,' poll finds Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants do not believe that President Joe Biden was legitimately elected, according to data from the public policy research organization American Enterprise Institute. Recently, AEIs Survey Center on American Life released findings from its January 2021 American Perspectives Survey. The research is based on interviews with 2,016 adults from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey focused on the post-election political views of Americans and was announced earlier this month. When asked if they think President Bidens victory in the 2020 presidential election was legitimate or not legitimate, 63% of white evangelical Protestant respondents responded that his victory was "not legitimate." For white evangelicals who identified as Republican, the percentage of those who did not view Bidens win as legitimate grew to 75%, according to a spokesman for the center. The spokesman also told The Christian Post that the total number of white evangelicals surveyed for the report was 343. There were not enough white evangelical respondents who identified as Democrats to draw any conclusions about that subset. The centers director, Daniel A. Cox, a former research director of the Public Religion Research Institute, wrote an analysis of the survey's findings, published Feb. 11. The January 2021 American Perspectives Survey finds evidence that Americans are divided over not only how they feel about the 2020 election but also how they perceive the legitimacy of Bidens win, Cox explained. Political conspiracy theories, including QAnon, have not disappeared after Trumps defeat, and a significant number of Americans condone the use of violence in the face of political failures. The survey found that 66% of Republicans surveyed don't believe Biden's election was legitimate, while 24% of Independents and 2% of Democrats said the same. The survey data drew attention from NPR, which ran with the headline: New Survey Shows 3 In 5 White Evangelicals Say Joe Biden Wasn't Legitimately Elected. There has been much emphasis placed on white evangelicals' views in recent years because conservative evangelicals were a major voting bloc for President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. The AEI data comes after Trump pushed claims that targeted voter fraud impacted the outcome of the 2020 race, a claim many of his supporters believe. According to Cox, the survey found that 65% of all respondents believed that Bidens election win was legitimate, while 31% of respondents did not believe it was legitimate. Amid ongoing false claims that the 2020 election was rife with voting irregularities, a large share of the public believes there was widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, wrote Cox. This included 29% of respondents saying that the statement there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election is either mostly or completely accurate. The survey found a partisan divide, with 65% of Republican respondents saying they believe widespread voter fraud occurred, while 22% of independents and 2% of Democrats agreed. There has been much debate recently about how influential Christian nationalism, a term used to describe advocates for fusing a conservative cultural version Christianity with American civic life, is in conservative Christian circles. According to notable academic researcher Andrew Whitehead, while Christian nationalists can be found in all sectors of society, evangelical Protestants are the most likely to support its goals. In a webinar held last month, Whitehead expanded on research he conducted with Samuel L. Perry, a sociology professor at the University of Oklahoma. We see that almost 80% of evangelical Protestants are at least accommodators or ambassadors of Christian nationalism, so very prevalent, said Whitehead at the time. But even in mainline Protestantism, we see that over 30% are accommodators and just under 20% are ambassadors. So half of mainline Protestants in the U.S. are, again, friendly towards Christian nationalism. But John Stonestreet and Timothy D. Padgett of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview argued that Christian nationalism is being used as a scare label to dismiss any policy or person more conservative than whoever is using the term. were all but guaranteed for the near future that anything vaguely traditional or moral, and any appeal to anything higher than the latest cultural fad, will be smeared with this label, they wrote in a column for BreakPoint. Its silly. Even more, its dangerous. Even so, Christians must not abandon the public square just because people say mean things about us. Farmers have been encouraged by the government to 'look east' to capitalise on untapped markets now that the UK has left the EU. The International Trade Minister Liz Truss told the virtual NFU Conference that farmers needed to look further afield. Ms Truss said that the UK was coming out of 50 years of anti-innovation, high tariff wars and 150% tariffs on whisky going to India. She said that the UK now had the opportunity to build resilience to future economic shocks by setting its own tariffs. By the end of this decade, 66% of the worlds middle-class consumers are expected to be found in Asia," she said. "They are hungry for top-quality food and drink, where they know from farm to fork that high standards have been at the heart. "I want more farmers and food producers to grasp these sorts of opportunities. Ms Truss said a benefit of market diversity was the opportunity to achieve carcass balance with countries who preferred alternative cuts of meat. She added that Britain produced some of the best food and drink in the world and she was keen to see it 'out there'. Ms Truss said: I want to make it clear that I will never compromise our standards when signing a trade deal, I will never sign a deal that is bad for British farming. At the conference, the Department for International Trade (DIT) unveiled its new 'Open Doors' campaign to encourage UK exports by providing mentoring and funding advice. DiT is also looking at more diverse range of markets to make UK suppliers less dependent upon others, for example, Halal certification to sell lamb to the Middle East. ATLANTA, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the continued COVID-19 pandemic, cancer screening remains a public health priority. Existing disparities will likely increase without deliberate focus to address known barriers to cancer screening along with additional challenges related to the pandemic. During Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the American Cancer Society (ACS) is encouraging people to talk to their doctor about colorectal cancer screening tests. Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States when men and women are combined. "Research shows that screening can prevent colorectal cancer through the detection and removal of precancerous growths (polyps), as well as detect cancer at an early stage when treatment is likely to work best," said Laura Makaroff, DO, Senior Vice President, Prevention & Early Detection, American Cancer Society. "We know the pandemic has disrupted cancer screening, and we are urging people to talk to their doctor about getting back on track with colorectal cancer screening now." This year, an estimated 149,500 cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S., and about 52,980 people will die from the disease. Black Americans have the highest colorectal cancer incidence and mortality rates of all racial groups in the U.S. Reasons for racial/ethnic disparities in colorectal cancer are complex, but largely reflect differences in risk factor prevalence and health care access, both of which are related to socioeconomic status. The ACS recommends that individuals at average risk for colorectal cancer begin screening at age 45 years and continue through age 75 years, with more individualized decision making from ages 76 to 85 years based on health status/life expectancy, patient preferences, and prior screening history. Regular adherence to screening with either stool testing (fecal immunochemical tests, highly sensitive guaiac-based tests, or a multi-target stool DNA test) or structural exams (e.g., colonoscopy or computed tomography colonography) results in a similar reduction in premature colorectal cancer death over a lifetime. More than half (55%) of colorectal cancers in the U.S. are attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors, including excess body weight, physical inactivity, long-term smoking, high consumption of red or processed meat, low calcium intake, heavy alcohol consumption, and very low intake of fruits and vegetables and whole-grain fiber. Hereditary/genetic and medical factors that increase risk include a personal or family history of colorectal cancer, certain inherited genetic syndromes, a personal history of inflammatory bowel disease, and type 2 diabetes. A recently published ACS study finds that long-term aspirin use before a diagnosis of colorectal cancer may be associated with lower colorectal cancer-specific mortality. "Cancer screening disparities are evident and are likely to increase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," said William Cance, MD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, American Cancer Society. "Healthcare providers must continue to make cancer screening a priority and efforts to overcome barriers for populations with low screening prevalence must be at the forefront of our focus as we continue to provide the public with safe opportunities to prevent cancer or detect it early." For more information on colorectal cancer, visit cancer.org. SOURCE American Cancer Society Related Links www.cancer.org ADVERTISEMENT A student in the sociology department of the University of Ibadan (UI), Odetunde Emmanuel, has been abducted by gunmen. Mr Emmanuel was abducted around 5 p.m. on Monday while working at his fathers poultry farm in Oke Odan, Apete area of Ibadan, Oyo capital. Family sources told PREMIUM TIMES that those who perpetrated the act were four suspected herders who stormed the farm with guns. They kidnapped Mr Emmanuel following information by workers on the farm that his father, who owns the poultry, was not around. The victims brother, Odetunde Samuel, who spoke with journalists, said the kidnappers have reached out to the family, demanding N100 million ransom. He said the safety of his brother is paramount but noted that the family is finding it difficult to raise the ransom. When contacted, the state police public relations officer, Olugbenga Fadeyi, said the police is working alongside other security operatives to ensure that the victim returns safely from the den of his abductors. We have been informed about the incident and we are working together with other security operatives to ensure the young man is rescued. We will also ensure that the kidnappers are captured having deployed a police tactical team, including an anti-kidnapping squad, that will help in the rescue mission. He urged members of the public to help with credible information on the activities of criminal elements in the state. This newspaper has repeatedly reported how killings and kidnappings for ransom have become rampant in Nigeria and the seeming helplessness of security operatives to tackle rising insecurity. An 11-year-old boy has been stuck in France since visiting his father at Christmas after being caught out by confusion around Covid travel testing rules. Eric Lemire, 36, who lives in France, had planned to accompany his son Dean on the Eurostar until it reached Folkestone, where he would immediately turn back and return home as the boy made the onward journey to Shropshire with a relative. Both father and son had proof of a negative Covid test taken three days before departure - as required by the rules. But they were also asked by guards to provide proof they had already booked a 210 testing kit to be delivered to their home in Britain for use during their 10-day period of self-isolation. Given that Eric would not be self-isolating he decided it was not necessary to order one of these kits - which Border Force said meant he could not enter the UK. He did not want to leave his son accompanied so they both stayed in France. Dean Lemire, 11, (right) had tried to travel back home to Britain with his father, who lives in France. He is pictured with his mother, Clair Dean's mother, Clair Chetwood, said that because Eric would not be remaining on British soil he should not be forced to pay for a quarantine test kit at a cost of 210 which he would not be using. 'We did everything that was required, and followed the guidance to the letter,' she said. What do travellers require to enter the UK It is currently illegal to travel abroad for holidays and other leisure purposes. But for people already abroad who have to return to the UK, a number of rules are now in place. You must provide evidence of a negative Covid test result taken up to 3 days before departure. Before you return to the UK you must provide your journey and contact details. You must self-isolate for 10 days when you enter the UK from any foreign country except Ireland, unless you have a valid exemption. You must take a test on day two and eight of your quarantine period. You should book your test before you travel to England. This is so you can enter details of the test when you opt into the scheme on the passenger locator form. Otherwise you can be turned away by Border Force. Advertisement 'They both arrived at the border with negative tests which have now expired. They will need to do further tests before attempting to travel again. 'Eric was told he could not enter the UK without proof of purchase of the travel testing kit, and even though he will not be here to do the tests on day two and day eight, he would need to put my home address for the tests to be delivered and to say he will be isolating at my home. 'The border staff wouldn't let them board even though everyone else is saying he didn't need a kit as he'd got the negative tests.' Ms Chetwood said the father and son had paid 750 for Covid tests before leaving France in addition to the cost of travelling to the Eurostar terminal. Dean had left his home in Telford, Shropshire, to spend the Christmas holidays with his father in Arras. However, the UK went into lockdown on January 4 before Dean was due to return to his home and it was decided that he should stay there until this week. Telford MP Lucy Allan said: 'My office is working with the family to see how we can help them navigate the restrictions and secure the safe return of Dean to the UK. 'It is understandably a very worrying time for them. The rules are complex and testing arrangements are expensive making it difficult for people to comply.' The Home Office said: 'The regulations are clear - all travellers arriving in the UK must take a Covid-19 test and get a negative result during the three days before travel into the UK. Every single check prevents the spread of coronavirus. 'If an individual feels they are facing a set of circumstances which is not covered by our published guidance, they can get in touch with the customer feedback team who will aim to offer further clarity on their situation.' For the former hedge-fund boss now running the worlds largest sovereign investment vehicle, there are some obvious parallels between todays market for sustainable assets, and tech stocks just before the dot-com bubble burst. Nicolai Tangen, whos been chief executive of Norways $US1.3 trillion ($1.7 trillion) wealth fund since September, says worrying about bubbles comes with the job. But he also suggests that todays frothy prices for climate friendly assets might reflect their longer-term potential, as was ultimately the case with tech stocks. Nicolai Tangen suggested that suggests that while ESG stocks might be in for a correction in the short term, but have significant potential in the longer term. Credit:AP What is interesting is, if you compare the situation now with, for example, the situation before the year 2000, then the stockmarket was right that technology companies were going to do well in the future, Tangen said. But the valuation went a little high, so it came down again, but the technological development continued. The Holos political party intends to visit settlements in different parts of Ukraine by the end of March as part of a tour-presentation of its national plan, leader of the political force, MP Kira Rudyk told Interfax-Ukraine in an exclusive interview. "Part of our strategy for 2021 is field work. Two weeks ago, as part of the all-Ukrainian tour-presentation of the national plan of the Holos party, we visited western Ukraine. And from February 22 to 27, we will ply in southern Ukraine. We visit cities, villages, district centers [] We talk to people about how they see the national plan of the Holos and develop programs for local deputies that will deal with education, energy efficiency and IT. The tour will last until the end of March," Rudyk said. Also, according to her, within the framework of this tour, the Holos team plans a big trip to the east of Ukraine, where their candidate in the 50th constituency for the by-elections to the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Hakova, runs. "There is another part of western Ukraine that we have not reached - Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions. But due to the outbreak of coronavirus now it is recommended to refrain from meetings, so we will return there as soon as the situation stabilizes," the politician said. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Actress Swara Bhasker played the role of Payal in Aanand L. Rai's Tanu Weds Manu, which released a decade ago on this day. She recalls having a great time on the set with her colleagues while shooting the film. Among anecdotes she recalls are her conversations with R. Madhavan, the lead actor of the film. "I remember really enjoying my conversations with Maddy sir, being awestruck by Jimmy (Shergill) sir's swag, and getting pranked all the time by Deepak Dobriyal, Eijaz Khan and the ADs (assistant directors)," shares Swara. She spoken in glowing terms about filmmaker Rai, too. "Aanand sir is one of the most wonderful directors for an actor to work with, because he allows actors to discover nuances in their character. Relationships between characters are his strength and it's a pleasure to be directed by him. Plus he runs really happy sets with very positive energy, and spoils his actors silly, so it's a real pleasure to work with him," she told IANS. Post Tanu Weds Manu, Swara went on to collaborate with Rai in Raanjhanaa and Tanu Weds Manu Returns. Madhavan, too, took to social media to rejoice 10 years of the film on Thursday, and wrote: "Thank you Aanand ...for giving us all our own little piece of history and fondest of memories . God bless you mere bhai." New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. 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. Coronavirus vaccination for people with disabilities aged 18-64 is set to begin during Phase 1C of Michigans prioritization plan, but disability advocates say thats a problem. Its not soon enough, nor inclusive enough, advocates argue. One of the frustrations is that, well, bluntly, theyre more likely to die, said Theresa Metzmaker, executive director of the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition based in East Lansing. Those with developmental disabilities are three times more likely to die in connection with COVID-19, according to a white paper analysis from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. While those with Down Syndrome are 10 times as likely, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Under phase 1C, they will likely be waiting until May or later for a vaccine. Alethea Mshar has two children with Down Syndrome. Alex, 18, will become eligible for a vaccine in phase 1C, but Benjamin, 15, will not. Mshar, of Lewiston, went on leave from her job last fall to prioritize her sons educational needs. This month, she resigned because she cannot return to work until Alex and Benjamin can go back to school, Mshar said. Benjamin receives socially distant, in-person homebound instruction one to two hours a week, and Alex relies on remote learning. Mshar has taught Alex about wearing a mask and social distancing, so a vaccine would be his ticket back to school, she said. I dont think very many people recognize that some very vulnerable people are quite young, Mshar said. ... We have no way to protect them other than to hustle our butts. And if my husband or I were to get sick, its almost devastating. Mshars husband has received a vaccine as a front-line worker, but she and the children have not. Benjamin has been hospitalized almost 30 times, Mshar said. Her familys biggest concern is exposure to COVID-19. RELATED: Loopholes in COVID-19 vaccine rollout creates haves and have nots scenario in Michigan In a Feb. 17 letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Metzmaker requested that all disabled Michiganders and their caregivers be moved from Phase 1C to Phase 1B. Metzmakers requests were echoed by the Michigan Disability Network and Detroit Disability Power. Detroit opened up vaccination for those with intellectual or developmental disabilities in a Feb. 11 announcement. To be vaccinated, patients will have to provide evidence of their condition, such as a prescription or doctors note. Detroit has also prioritized vaccines for in-home caregivers as long as they arrive to their appointment together. Michiganders with disabilities living outside of Detroit, however, will have to wait. Ashley Friesen, of Muskegon, doubles as a caregiver and a person with a disability. Friesen has a rare condition, Klippel Feil Syndrome, which mainly affects her spine, but could affect her heart and lungs as well. Her son is 6 years old and suffers from Cornelia de Lange Syndrome, which compromises his immune system and causes cognitive delays. While vaccines are not available for children under 16, Friesen has not been able to get a vaccine either. She worries about who would take care of her son if she were exposed to COVID-19, Friesen said. Friesen said she has noticed her son feeling isolated. The family only leaves home when necessary. They take drives just to get out of the house. As soon as we pull up to the house, he starts melting down, Friesen said. And its not a behavior he did before this. RELATED: Remote learning not sustainable, Whitmer says, praising schools for going back in person Marnie May, of Grand Haven, cares for her 24-year-old daughter, Catherine, who has a developmental disability. To avoid exposure to COVID-19, Catherine has left their home only six times in the past year. May said she worries who would take care of Catherine if she or her husband were to end up in the hospital. The family moved to Michigan two years ago and they do not have an extended support system, she said. Despite Catherines underlying conditions, she is under the same vaccine priority as her mother, who has asthma. Shes been unable to establish an estimated timeframe for when the family might be eligible for vaccination. Ive asked many different entities from hospitals, to doctors, to the school, and nobody knows anything, May said. And its a little disconcerting. UMC pushes back General Conference, will tackle homosexuality debate in 2022 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The United Methodist Church has again decided to postpone its next General Conference, which is expected to center on the debate over the denominations stance on homosexuality, to 2022. Initially, the UMC General Conference was going to be held in May 2020, however, the novel coronavirus pandemic prompted the denomination to postpone it to 2021. The UMC Commission on the General Conference released a statement Thursday announcing that the churchwide legislative meeting will be held Aug. 29 Sept. 6, 2022. The General Conference location will be Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was the same city scheduled to originally host the legislative gathering in 2020 and then in 2021. According to the Commissions announcement, they reached the decision to again postpone the General Conference for multiple reasons, including COVID-19, the expectation that the vaccine will not be widely available in 2021 in many countries, and ongoing travel complications stemming from lockdowns. There were also concerns about making the 2021 General Conference at least partially virtual, with a Technology Study Team report concluding that that option was not viable. In response, the UMC Council of Bishops released a statement calling for an online special session to take place on May 8, mainly to resolve the question of using paper ballots. The exclusive use of paper ballots will allow for the fullest participation of delegates from across the denomination, explained COB President Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey in the statement. Full participation on the part of all elected delegates is a justice issue that must not be ignored or sacrificed. This is why the convened session online must be confined solely to gaining permission for the mailed in paper ballots. In late May 2020, the UMC Commission announced that the 2020 General Conference would be pushed back to Aug. 29, 2021Sept. 7, 2021. This was due to the pandemic, as the General Conference was scheduled to bring around 900 delegates to Minnesota at a time when in-person gatherings were limited to 250 people. Last October, it was announced that, as part of the postponed legislative meeting, the Commission was going to look into possibly making the proceedings be partially virtual. With the proper preparation and training, I believe a General Conference could be held virtually, Bishop Harvey told UM News in an interview at the time. There are new technological developments every day that could make traversing the globe, languages and time zones possible. The next General Conference is expected to tackle the debate over the denomination adhering to biblical teachings on homosexuality and banning the blessing of same-sex unions. Although every General Conference has failed to change the UMC's position over the past few decades, the ongoing debate has led many to consider schism as a solution. Since midnight, enemy forces have not attacked Ukrainian troops. The Command of Ukraine's Armed Forces has reported one wounded in action (WIA) amid six violations of the latest ceasefire agreement committed by Russia-controlled armed groups in the Donbas warzone on Wednesday, February 24. "In the past day, February 24, six ceasefire violations were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone," the press center of the Ukrainian JFO Command said on Facebook in an update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on February 25, 2021. In particular, the enemy fired automatic rifles near the villages of Pivdenne and Talakivka. "A serviceman with Ukraine's Armed Forces was wounded as a result of the shelling. He was rushed to the hospital where he received medical assistance," the report says. Also, the occupiers used grenade launchers of various systems and automatic rifles near the town of Avdiyivka and the village of Vodiane, as well as automatic grenade launchers near the town of Maryinka. "A Ukrainian soldier while being on duty at an observation post near the village of Chermalyk detained a member of the Russian occupation troops who was trying to penetrate the Ukrainian positions. During the detention, the enemy inflicted a slight wound on our soldier with a bladed weapon. In response, the soldier used standard weapons and detained the occupier," the JFO HQ said. The violations were reported to OSCE representatives through the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of the ceasefire in Donbas. Read alsoRussia poses "existential threat" to U.S. PentagonSince midnight, enemy forces have not attacked Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainian Army Command says the situation remains fully controlled. Donbas ceasefire: Background Participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on a full and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27. On the very first day of the newly-agreed truce, Russia's hybrid military forces mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Reporting by UNIAN Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Laundry and boilers services play an important role in sterilization and maintains contamination free environment in hospitals. Laundry service is responsible for delivery of adequate amount of clean and sterile linen to patients and healthcare professionals. The major tasks of laundry service include collection of linen, washing, drying and delivery to users. Boilers are used for steam and hot waters for vital needs, such as space heating and sterilization of linen and provide hygienic conditions for patients. Want Insights To North American Hospital Laundry Boilers Market? Ask For Sample! https://www.persistencemarketresearch.co/samples/3389 The U.S. and Canada dominates the North American hospital and laundry boilers market due to improved healthcare infrastructure in the region. For instance, in 2012, American Hospital Association (AHA), a national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals and healthcare networks conducted an annual survey of total number of registered hospitals in the U.S. This number was 5,723 in 2012. Registered hospitals are those hospitals that fulfill all the AHA criteria. This improved healthcare system in the U.S. has resulted in significant rise in demand of laundry and boiler services to main hygienic conditions for the patients and healthcare professionals. Would Like To Know What North American Hospital Laundry Boilers Market Has In Store? Look Through The Table of Content Of North American Hospital Laundry Boilers Market Report! https://www.persistencemarketresearch.co/toc/3389 In recent time, rising number of hospital admissions is key driver for the North American hospital and laundry boilers market. For instance, in 2010, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2, 58,000 hospital admissions had registered for hip fractures among people aged 65 and above and the number is expected to reach 2, 89, 000 by 2030. This increasing number of hospital admissions requires sterile linen for their better comfort in hospitals. However, the high energy cost to operate boilers in hospitals is key restraint for the North American hospital and laundry boilers market. In addition, strict regulation associated with the generation of steam through boilers also obstructs growth of the North American Hospital and laundry boilers market. For instance, hospitals require accreditation from Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for steam generation. How About Knowing The Product / Technology Driving The North American Hospital Laundry Boilers Market Before Investing Therein? Click The Purchase Now Button Of Our North American Hospital Laundry Boilers Market Report! https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/3389 Some of the major companies operating in the North American hospital and laundry boilers market are Parker Boiler Co., Indeck Power Equipment Co., Fulton, Powerhouse Equipment & Engineering Co., Inc., Smith Hughes Co., Nationwide Boiler, Inc., Energy Equipment Co., Inc., Reagan-Riter Boiler Works, Inc. and Energy Products Co .. About Us: - A French-made Mirage F1B fighter crashed at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida on Thursday morning, officials with the base said. The aircraft belongs to Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, known as ATAC, the Air Force said. According to a base statement, the incident took place at approximately 11:25 a.m. at the end of a flightline. The two-seat F1B crashed after it slid off the runway, and "one of the pilots ejected," ATAC officials said in an email to Military.com. "ATAC is still gathering information on the incident and we will work with relevant authorities to determine the cause. We ask for your patience and understanding as we work through all the details," a company statement said. Col. Gregory Moseley, 325th Fighter Wing commander, said in a statement that the unit's "thoughts and prayers are with the pilots and their families." Read Next: Pioneering Female Ranger School Grad: Lowering Fitness Standards for Women Is a Bad Idea First responders were dispatched to the scene, Moseley said, and both pilots were taken to a hospital in Panama City "to assess injuries sustained during the crash." "Tyndall is working closely with ATAC to ensure a thorough and timely investigation of the incident occurs," he said. Local news sites first reported that "multiple agencies" had responded to the flightline earlier in the day. The Air Force contracts out its aggressor training, in which its pilots simulate fighting against enemy "red air" forces in air-to-air training. In 2019, the service issued an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the program to ATAC, a subsidiary of Textron Airborne Solutions; Air USA Inc.; Blue Air Training; Coastal Defense; Draken International; Tactical Air Support, known as TacAir; and Top Aces Corp. Outsourcing the service's assault and combat training to these companies cost $6.4 billion, according to the contract announcement. As a result, a number of the red air companies have been expanding their aggressor fleets. In 2017, ATAC bought upgraded F1 fighters from France; the company flew its first Mirage in August 2019. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: Air Force Will Use Older F-35s to Simulate Enemy Fighters Egypt's Housing Minister Assam El-Gazzar announced that 60 floors of the 78-floor Iconic Tower in the Central Business District (CBD) in Egypt's New Administrative Capital have been constructed so far, a statement by the ministry said on Wednesday. Once finished, the almost 400-metre-high Iconic Tower will be the tallest building in Africa, El-Gazzar said. Work on the tower officially began in May 2018 with the digging of the land for the tower, while construction of the building itself started in February 2019. The CBD, which will be home to 20 towers, is being built in cooperation between the Ministry of Housing, represented by the New Urban Communities Authority, and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), one of the largest construction companies in the world. El-Gazzar explained in Wednesday's statement that the investments in the CBD project are estimated at $3 billion. In an earlier statement, El-Gazzar said "the CBD project is one of the largest projects undertaken by the Egyptian Ministry of Housing and Urban Communities, which would be a milestone for Egypt-China cooperation and a starting point for many cooperation projects between the two countries." The 700-square-kilometre New Administrative Capital, located 60km from Cairo in the area between the Cairo-Suez and Cairo-Ain Sokhna roads, was launched in 2015 by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and is set to house 6.5 million people. The government had planned to relocate ministries and 52,300 government employees to the new capital by mid-2020, but the coronavirus pandemic forced it to delay the move till mid-2021. In April, El-Sisi instructed the government to reschedule the inauguration of all national mega-projects planned for last year, including the new capital and the Grand Egyptian Museum. On 8 February, the housing ministry signed an agreement via video conference with the CSCEC, which has been working in Egypt for more than 30 years, to build Egypts New Alamein Downtown Towers Project. According to a statement by CSCEC, the Alamein Downtown Towers Project includes one high-rise apartment building of about 300 metres and four high-rise apartment buildings of about 200 metres, in addition to commercial district facilities, with a total construction area of about 1.1 million square metres. The New Alamein and the New Administrative Capital cities are two of 14 Fourth Generation Cities that are being constructed in Egypt. According to the Ministry of Housing, such smart cities will be serviced electronically, in line with Egypts Vision 2030. Sustainable development standards are being applied in their construction: renewable and recyclable materials are being used, reducing energy consumption and waste and protecting the environment. Building fourth generation cities is not a luxury but is essential to help disperse the large population and double the countrys inhabitable area instead of overcrowding the Nile Valley and Delta, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said earlier. Short link: Mexico's cement exports up 11% in 11M20 ICR Newsroom By 25 February 2021 Mexico's exports of cement advanced 11 per cent YoY in the 11M20, according to Market Data Mexico. Exports rose from US$168m in the 11M19 to US$186m in the 11M20. The main destination for Mexican cement exports was the USA, which reported sales of US$141m, followed by Guatemala, which bought cement to a value of US$10m. Exports to Belize accounted for a further US$8m while Mexican cement producers sold cement to the value of US$5m. When compared with the equivalent period of the previous year, export sales to the USA increased by 13 per cent while sales to Guatemala were up by 14 per cent. However, exports to Belize and Peru saw a drop of 15 and 25 per cent, respectively. Published under Inside, we were getting overrun. The teams of two ended up getting separated. Now were just one-man units. It was so confusing because everybody was everywhere. They didnt just come through the doors; they came through the windows. We were just outmatched. This fight starts going on for hours. Youve got a mask on. Theres OC spray [a kind of pepper spray] in the air. All these factors are contributing to officer fatigue. Everybodys just running on adrenaline, just pure adrenaline. At one point, I confronted a group of terrorists in the crypt. There were downed officers behind me, and, Im like, I have to hold this hallway. Im tired, but I said, Yall not coming through here. They said, Were coming. This is our house. Were taking over. Thats when I said, Weve got dozens of downed officers here. Why are yall doing this? Get out! I guess it was a group of the Oath Keepers and they appeared to be concerned. Officers are hurt? Thats when one guy said, Were doing this for you, and showed me his badge. He was an officer. But they didnt get through me. Only one person attempted to get through me at that time, and he met the floor. He met the floor. Finally, officers with armored gear responded and held that area. Now, there was a moment when racist slurs were used against you. So I run up the stairwell. Theres people freaking everywhere. They saw I came from an area that wasnt occupied by terrorists. So they tried to go down the steps. I said, No, youre not going down there. And Im exhausted. Theyre saying, Trump is our rightful president. Nobody voted for Joe Biden. I needed to catch my breath. So I said, I voted for Joe Biden. What? My vote doesnt matter? A woman responded, This [slur] voted for Joe Biden! Everybody that was there started joining in. Hey, [slur]! It was over 20 people who said it. Later, you broke down in the Rotunda. Once the F.B.I. and all these other officers arrived, the Capitol started getting cleared out and more secure. The officers who had been fighting from the start, a lot of us just sat down on the floor. There was trash everywhere. The smoke was thick. I saw one of my buddies who Ive known basically since Ive been on the department, and we just looked at each other. And we just started talking about the day and how we were hurting. A war is made up of 100 battles. We were all in the war, but we all had different battles. A lot of us Black officers fought a different battle than everybody else fought. I said to my buddy, I got called [slur] a couple dozen times today. Im looking at him. Hes got blood on him. Ive got bloody knuckles. Were hurting. Thats when I said, Is this America? and I started crying. Tears are coming down my face. Is this America? I know you want to stay away from politics, but how did you feel when your experience was referenced in the impeachment trial? At that time, I hadnt gone public yet. But a lot of people knew my story. I was in the middle of the Rotunda crying. I was loud. I didnt hide it. I was starting to heal, and it kind of brought me back there all over again. It was a rough time. How has the impact of the violence of Jan. 6 been on officers mental health? It took a horrific toll on us. Counselors have been available, but I think a lot of people are reluctant to use them. Mental health has always been a stigma. Nobody wants to talk about it. If you appear to be broken or hurt, youre weak. Now people are wondering, Can I even go tell them that Im not OK without them taking my gun from me and losing my job? I want people to know its OK and its normal to feel a certain kind of way. From baking banana bread to painting the house, we all sought ways to keep ourselves busy in lockdown. Catriona Doherty hears from four local people who turned to the internet for entertainment and watched as their pages became overnight success stories. Bambi the snake, Peter the rabbit and Radish the crested gecko are but a few of Hannah McSorley's pets. However, it's her passion for tadpoles that leapfrogged the Omagh teenager to social media success during lockdown. During a walk with her younger brother, Paul (10), last March, Hannah (17) came across a little puddle of frogspawn in a field. She decided to bring the eggs home in a jam jar as she thought it would be lovely for her brother to watch them develop. Little did she know how many others would be interested in following the journey from spawn to tadpole and eventually frog - an incredible 1.6 million people tracked proceedings via Hannah's Baby Frogs TikTok page. "I was on a walk in the middle of the first lockdown, just trying to get out of the house for a wee bit," the sixth-year secondary school student explains. She was surprised to spot the frogspawn as she had not seen any for years. "I thought it would be lovely for Paul to watch it grow into frogs because it was something I used to always do when I was young. I used to watch it grow into tadpoles. Now, it never turned into frogs because obviously I was just a wee kid and I wasn't doing it properly, but I just thought, 'I'll do this for Paul'," Hannah says. "I did a lot of research and I was able to find a good bit of information online. I pieced together things from different people and made my own tadpole care guide. "I thought frogspawn was so unusual. I hadn't really posted on TikTok yet. I thought, 'I wonder what people will think this is?'" Hannah made a very brief clip and shared it online with the note, 'Follow to watch it grow'. Much to her amazement, the amount of interest her post generated was "absolutely crazy", she recalls. "I couldn't get over the interest in it, so I continued the series on day two, day three I just kept going and I think I got to day almost 200," she explains. "It was a lovely journey. As it developed, it became about more than growing tadpoles. We had things like tadpoles with disabilities - Riley had no tail. We had to bury a few tadpoles because we lost them and we had an albino president called Nugget. It was an emotional journey." As much as Paul and Hannah enjoyed watching the frogspawn progress, the teenager remembers a period where it seemed as if the tadpoles were never going to turn into frogs, "but they did" she says with a note of pride in her voice. In a learning process that involved "trial and error along the way", Hannah discovered her pets' love for fish. "I started off feeding the tadpoles iceberg lettuce, but whenever I switched to spinach and kale, their growth was a lot faster," she explains. "I fed them boiled cod too. They loved it and (you can see) from some of the footage I have that the cod is by far their favourite. "When they were baby frogs, I fed them live fruit flies that I ordered online. Watching them eat them was the funniest thing. "After a couple of weeks, once they had a good few meals and put on a wee bit of weight, they were ready to be released back in to the wild in similar places to where I found them. "It was lovely to see them go. It was the end of their journey - their journey with me anyway." With the support and encouragement of her parents, Paul and Joni, and her brother and sister, Rebecca (16), Hannah plans to run 'tadpole series two' this spring. At the moment she has "branched out" to post about her impressive reptile and amphibian collection, which includes an orchid mantis, two leopard geckos and a giant African bullfrog. For now, the Loreto Grammar School student is busy home-schooling, with her lifelong dream of becoming a vet firmly in mind. For more from Hannah, visit www.tiktok.com/@.baby.frogs 'Conor is more like a son than a grandson to me' West Belfast duo Conor Captain (30) and his 83-year-old grandmother, Joanie McCoubrey, have been entertaining viewers with their homemade videos since the start of lockdown. Expand Close Conor and grandmother Joanie / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Conor and grandmother Joanie With 54,000 followers on TikTok and a sizeable Facebook and Instagram following, the pair caught the attention of Translink last summer and joined in the company's Play Your Part and Don't BeA Melter campaign, which encouraged people to adhere to social distancing rules when using public transport. "I have had videos of my granny on my phone, just being funny, just being her, since 2015," Conor begins. "I had uploaded the odd one to Facebook over the years, but once lockdown came and people were raving about TikTok, I thought, 'I'll download it and see what the fuss is about'. "On the Friday, I uploaded a video and by the Monday there were thousands of likes and views. I was just going, 'This is crazy', so then I uploaded another one and another one. The rest is history. It's been mad." Over the past 11 months, it hasn't always been easy for Conor and Joanie to meet considering the Covid-19 restrictions. "Last year, there was a time when I was sitting on the back porch roof, speaking to my granny through the window because I couldn't go in. That was the closest I could get to her. It was quite nice. Now, I have Covid and I'm still in the 10-day isolation (period)," said Conor, when he spoke to the Belfast Telegraph a few weeks ago. "I live at home with my mum, dad and brother. I'm in my bedroom all the time because I don't want to put them at risk." While Conor was dealing with flu-like symptoms, aches and pains, no sense of taste and a fluctuating temperature, his positive attitude helped him get through the illness. He sees himself as fortunate not to be counted amongst those who are in hospital "fighting for their life on ventilators". "Nonetheless, I'm ready to stand outside again and get some fresh air," he said. He is also looking forward to visiting his grandmother down the line: "I'm really looking forward to getting around to see her properly and to making more videos because people are missing her too. "My granny is a very sociable person. Before this, she would always meet my aunts every Monday and go up to Sainsbury's and Greggs. My granny would sit in Greggs with her sausage roll and her coffee and talk to people. "She loves getting out for that social direction. She goes to bingo and Mass, but obviously that has all stopped. Being in the house and having people come around to see her and keep their distance, that kept her going." Although Joanie describes the pandemic as "dire" she has enjoyed making videos with her grandson. "I love it," she says. "It's good and it might give people a wee bit of heart. That's the way I am - I'm mad anyway. I enjoy whatever life I've got." In addition to Conor, Joanie has 35 other grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren, aged from three months to 41. Her husband, Joseph, passed away in 1994. When asked what he would think of her social media fame, she quips, "I think he would be jealous of me". Joanie's sense of humour comes across in the clips, and Conor believes it's one of the reasons why their posts are so popular. "When we were live on TikTok, people would ask her questions, like, 'Can I be your grand-daughter-in-law?' and 'Is Conor single?'" he says. "My granny would say, 'Aye, he is, but you'll have to meet me first'. It was funny, but people wouldn't mind having to meet her first because they love her." Joanie adds: "We are close. Conor is more like my son than my grandson. He's a great wee fella - he's awful good." When the rules ease, the grandmother is looking forward to going to Greggs and "the big stores". She adds: "I don't go for messages because my son, his wife and three children live with me, so I get fed morning, noon and night. Before this is over, I'll be like Humpty Dumpty." For more from Conor and Joanie, see @conorcaptain on TikTok, @conorjoanie on Instagram and @irishgranny1 on Facebook 'It was all really surreal' Sinead Tummon (31) started the We Started Out Normal Instagram page last May, posting photos of her 18-month-old son Austin's meals. Before long, the Enniskillen mum counted celebrities Mrs Hinch and Stacey Solomon amongst her followers. Expand Close Enniskillen mum Sinead Tummon and her son Austin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Enniskillen mum Sinead Tummon and her son Austin "I had only had my page for a month when Mrs Hinch shared it, so it was all really surreal," Sinead recalls. "When Stacey followed me a couple of months later, it was really exciting. It felt like I was getting somewhere with my page. If they are liking it, it's going somewhere. "I set it up during the first lockdown, just because I was bored. I was on maternity leave at the time. I had been putting up pictures of Austin's meals on my personal Instagram and I was getting messages from friends asking for recipes, so I thought I would start a separate page. "It is mostly about baby-led weaning, where you feed your baby the same meals as the rest of the family but make a few adaptations such as no salt, not so spicy and things like that. I also like patisserie, so I have some desserts on there and people really seem to like them too." The new mum found blogging a great way to connect with like-minded people. "One thing I really enjoyed about it was getting to meet quite a few people. It helps when you are not meeting your own friends, just to combat that loneliness during the pandemic," she explains. With more than 11,000 followers eager for more tasty recipes, has Sinead any plans to release a book? "I do actually get quite a few people asking if I'm going to bring out a cookbook, and it is something that I've thought about," she says. "My sister messages me often saying, 'Have you got that book sorted yet?' But I don't know. I will do something along those lines, but I just don't have anything concrete at the moment." For the time being, Sinead is busy trying out new recipes on Austin and her husband, Stephen, before they make the final cut to be shared online. For more from Sinead, see @westartedoutnormal on Instagram 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. DETROIT PETA says it plans to place a billboard near the scene where a semi-truck carrying 38 cows crashed, forcing police to euthanize several of the animals. Michigan State Police say the semi-truck rolled over on the ramp from westbound I-94 to southbound I-75 in Detroit at 3:10 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22. Twenty of the cows needed to be euthanized because of their injuries while those that survived were returned to their owners. PETA says it will place the billboard proclaiming, See the Individual. Go Vegan near the crash site in honor of the cows who were shot dead after being severely injured. RELATED: I-94 to I-75 ramp closed after semi-truck carrying 38 cows overturns in Detroit The well-traveled ramp was closed for several hours while crews removed the living cows from the overturned trailer and into a new one. The crash was likely due to speeding, Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw told the Detroit Free Press. The driver of the semi-truck was not injured. GRAND RAPIDS, MI After announcing a shortened, digital format last month, Gildas LaughFest released a list of headliners Thursday morning for its March 11-14 festival. This years lineup features 30 events with headlining acts from comedians Ron Funches, Tom Papa, Justin Willman and Michelle Wolf. Funches, a comedian and actor, will stream his podcast, Gettin Better with Ron Funches, on March 13. Funches has had roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Blackish, New Girl, as well as a portfolio of stand-up comedy credits to match. Papa, a veteran funnyman, will take the stage March 12 on the heels of his 2020 Netflix special, Tom Papa: Youre Doing Great. Papa also has stake in National Public Radios Wait WaitDont Tell Me, as well as his own podcast, Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. Willman, a host, comedian and magician, will bring magic to homes March 11 with Magic for Humans @ Home, a riff on his 2018 Netflix series Netflix for Humans. Willman is popularly seen as host of Food Networks Cupcake Wars, as well as a guest on talk shows like Conan and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Wolf, a writer and comedian, is hosting An Evening of Laughter and Conversation with Michelle Wolf March 13, which will feature all new material. Wolf is coming off a Netflix special, Michelle Wolf: Joke Show, and touts acclaim for a Primetime Emmy-nominated debut standup special, headlining the 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner and writing on shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers. Headlining events also include 3 Mics & a Movie!, a roast of the 1953 film noir The Hitch-Hiker, by The Comedy Project. The March 12 roast will include alternative dialogue and additional sound effects from comedians. Closing the festival is live stage play Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner, on March 14. The play explores the relationship between Saturday Night Lives Gilda Radner Gildas Clubs namesake and SNL writer Alan Zweibel, with whom Gilda wrote a plethora of iconic characters. LaughFest is selling premium passes, which will give people access to all the live performances by the 2021 headliners. The cost is $40 for a premium pass. Visit the LaughFest website here to purchase premium passes. Much of LaughFest will continue to be free in this digital format, with donations to Gildas Club welcome. Gildas LaughFest will continue to raise money for its cancer, grief and emotional support programs it offers. This years festivities mark its 20-year anniversary of doing so. Read more: ESPNs Mel Kiper has the Detroit Lions trading back in most recent mock draft Hurricane Season 2021: La Nina expected to end this spring; What that could mean for hurricanes Thursday, Feb. 25, coronavirus data by Michigan county: Case, positivity rates up slightly again 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. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/02/24 After having gone through all of 2020 without a single new project, fans of Song Joong-ki have been treated to two very different visions of the actor over the course of only a few weeks. In "Space Sweepers" Song Joong-ki played a largely archetypal leading role as the main perspective character with a tragic backstory in the space opera setting. But in "Vincenzo" Song Joong-ki plays an Italian mafia lawyer whose initially serious storyline quickly descends into farce when he arrives on Korean soil. The contrasting visions are also noteworthy for being exposed to an international audience. Starting with "Arthdal Chronicles" in 2019 Song Joong-ki appears to have made a conscious decision to expand his brand worldwide, with "Vincenzo" now being his third project having been made easily available to international audiences. However, despite its overseas popularity, "Arthdal Chronicles" was well-liked more for its unusual prehistoric setting than for the work of any one actor. Hence why "Space Sweepers" and "Vincenzo" have a much narrower focus. The more compact, four-person crew of "Space Sweepers" allowed Song Joong-ki more distinction compared to his co-stars, particularly as he had by far the most detailed backstory of the four. But with "Vincenzo" Song Joong-ki is the title character and center of all the action- what's more, the sheer quantity of spoken Italian required by the role gives Song Joong-ki a very cosmopolitan air. Still, much as was the case with "Arthdal Chronicles", commentary on "Space Sweepers" and "Vincenzo" has largely centered on the projects as a whole rather than Song Joong-ki's own performance. Nevertheless, the actor has proved himself as a solid anchor around which a whole concept can be easily steadied. This may play to his benefit for future career moves, although for now fans both foreign and domestic are eagerly awaiting the next twists "Vincenzo" has in store. Written by William Schwartz Vermont House Bill H.273 calls for $10,000,000 to assist BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) people to purchase land in every Vermont town. As justification, Vermont's farming community, and generations of dirt-poor White farmers, are denigrated in a cascade of blatant falsehoods that allege their complicity in Indian genocide and sharecropping. The bill could have been about helping poor Black people; instead, it is about condemning poor White ones. H.273 alleges: Prior to Vermont self-declaring its occupation of the land in 1777, it is estimated that at least 10,000 Indigenous persons were living in the region, specifically upwards of 4,000 Abenaki living in the Champlain Valley. Thus begins an endless tirade against Vermont's indigenous white dairymen, invoking the Dawes Act, Jim Crow laws, "federal land policies," "redlining," the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act," and even sharecropping: Sharecropping was the federal government prohibiting Black farmers from owning property and as a result they were forced to rent land from White landlords. Many Black farmers at this time experienced unfair terms and agreements. The 1910 U.S. Census (Table 1, p. 577) identified 34 Indians residing in Vermont in 1890; 5 in 1900; 26 in 1910, and fewer than 1,000 "Negroes" in 1890 and 1900; 1,621 by 1910. The 1960 Census (Table 15) reflects 572 Black residents in 1920, 568 in 1930, 584 in 1940, 443 in 1950, and 519 in 1960. Hundreds of thousands of white Vermonters have endured a crushing poverty that "native" Vermonters well know, but which those who condemn them recast as "white privilege." Mr. Isadore Lavictoire, French Canadian dairy farmer near Rutland, Vermont (Library of Congress photo). H.273 claims that BIPOC people with no connection to Vermont, or farming, or the land, or Abenakis, or resources, must be given land because of a historic oppression that never occurred. For 100 years, Vermont's dairy farms and communities have steadily declined. White children starved and were crippled or killed in farm accidents on white farms. They rarely had health care, usually lacked decent clothing or shoes, often lacked teeth. There was no Abenaki genocide and no sharecropping oppression on Vermont's dairy farms. H.273 rewrites this suffering, as oppression: During and since these early days of colonization and slavery, due to local, State, and federal policies that were intentionally developed to economically, socially, and racially discriminate against members of the BIPOC community, multi-generational poverty has created a disturbing disproportionate wealth gap for land and home ownership in what we now know as Vermont and the United States[.] ... The foundation of our current economic system was built on land that was taken from Abenaki and other Indigenous persons, and the structures of our economic system were constructed with the labor of enslaved persons. The legacy of settler colonialism and chattel slavery has been systemic racism and discrimination embedded into many aspects of our modern way of life on this land. There were 32,709 farms per the 1910 Census (Supplement Table 1): 28,968 "Native white," 3,721 "Foreign-born white," and 20 "Negro and other nonwhite." Today, barely 600 of those 32,709 dairy farms remain. Following the Spanish Flu, "many rural Vermonters ... left the grinding poverty of hill farms and moved to urban areas of southern New England and elsewhere to work in war production factories." Then the Great Depression descended, followed by continuing decline...ever since! The dairy industry is worse than ever COVID hurt dairy farmers, and milk prices remain abysmal. H.273 legislates an alternate reality: The laws and policies of our State and nation severed Indigenous persons from their land while denying them, Black persons, and other Persons of Color from having the opportunity to access and to own land. These actions of the State led to systemic racism that has impacted all Vermonters who have historically suffered from discrimination and who have not had equal access to public or private economic benefits due to race, ethnicity, sex, geography, language preference, immigrant or citizen status, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, or disability status[.] ... In order to offer repair for the systemic discrimination faced by many persons throughout the State over the past four centuries, the State of Vermont must engage in a just transition to an economic system that systemically undoes racism instead of reinforcing it. H.273, like its upside-down perversion of Vermont history, does the opposite: it transitions to an economic system that systemically reinforces racism that the Vermont and federal constitutions have sought to undo. It justifies racism using racist labels, manipulates statistics, and rewrites history, while ignoring constitutional law that prohibits such race-only legislation, in an open attack on an impoverished, long-suffering, decent culture and people. This is legislative exploitation of long marginalized rural white people. Subscribe to John Klar's commentaries at vtliberty.net. 5 things you need to know Monday News Burundian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation Albert Shingiro reiterated, Thursday in Rabat, his countrys support for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco and its national unity in accordance with the UN Charter, and reaffirmed Burundis support for the exclusive settlement of the Sahara issue by the United Nations through the autonomy plan, as the only solution to this dispute. The Burundian official was speaking at a press briefing, held at the end of his meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad Nasser Bourita, which was also an opportunity to welcome the unwavering position of the Republic of Burundi to keep its diplomatic representation in Rabat and its consulate general in Laayoune. In this context, a Consul General of the Republic of Burundi will be installed shortly in Laayoune, said Shingiro. The meeting of the two ministers was also an occasion to laud the decision of the Kingdom of Morocco to open a resident embassy in Bujumbura in order to strengthen the dynamic of cooperation in the various fields between the two countries. Welcoming the opening of this embassy, the Burundian minister said that it will serve as a diplomatic bridge between the two capitals and will play the role of local diplomacy. Thus, a technical team will go to Burundi next week to begin the procedures for opening an embassy of the Kingdom in the Burundian capital, announced, for his part, Bourita. The minister also stressed the steadfast support of the Republic of Burundi on the Moroccan Sahara issue, stressing that Burundi always stood by the side of Morocco in a framework of sincere and active solidarity. This position has manifested itself on several occasions and in different ways, he said. Bourita and Shingiro signed a cooperation roadmap over the period of 2021-2024, which reflects the common will to intensify the existing relations between the two countries to give them a new impetus. Gen. Kenneth "'Frank" McKenzie warned Iran in the boldest statement yet from the Biden administration over the attacks. The top commander of US military forces in the Middle East issued a subtle but unmistakable warning to Iran today over recent projectile attacks on Iraqs Kurdistan region and Saudi Arabia. Ohio Representative Bill Johnson condemned the Democrats' efforts to silence dissident media and called it "eerily similar" to the Chinese Communist Party's actions during the House Committee hearing on Wednesday. Breitbart reported that Johnson spoke at the House Committee hearing on "Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media" that California Representatives Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney were part of. Eshoo and McNerney wrote a letter to dozen of cable providers questioning them for carrying "right-wing media outlets" Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network. "Demanding private companies to stop broadcasting television channels is a direct attack on free speech. And the Democrats know it," Johnson tweeted on Wednesday. Johnson said during the hearing that the letter the said representative sent resembled what China did when they banned BBC World News in China due to "misinformation," Breitbart said. China alleged that BBC World News' reporting abroad hurt "China's national interests and ethnic solidarity." "Just two weeks ago, China's national radio and television administration banned BBC World News from broadcasting in China, because it found BBC's reports, I quote, 'seriously violate' broadcast guidelines, including, and I quote again, 'the requirement that news should be truthful, and fair, and not harm China's national interests,'" Johnson raised during the hearing. "So I have to say, I am disappointed and seriously blown away by my House Democrat colleagues' letter to the broadcasters, pressuring them to remove conservative news channels from their networks - a letter that looks eerily similar to the statement released by the CCP when it banned BBC," he pointed out. "So, this begs the question. Does the American government have the authority to dictate what can and cannot be broadcast to the American people? I suggest it does not, but Democrats here on this committee seem to think that it should," he stressed before he asked George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley on the constitutionality of what the Democrats did recently. As per Breitbart, Turley acknowledged that the Democrats' actions are "an attack on free speech" and should cause alarm to co-legislators. "Well, it's constitutional in the sense that it isn't expressly prohibited by the First Amendment. But it is an attack on free speech. We should be concerned when members are trying to do indirectly what they cannot do directly," Professor Turley said. The professor added that these actions create a "little brother problem" and cited Big Tech Twitter and Facebook's effect on hampering free speech and impairing Democratic institutions. "And this creates what is sometimes referred to as the 'little brother problem'. We do have a really good system in dealing with 'big brother', and avoiding state media. But what we've seen in the last few years is that the use of private companies like Twitter and Facebook is far more damaging to free speech. It's no accident that recently Vladimir Putin called out Twitter and Facebook, and said, 'You're endangering Democratic institutions'," he stressed. Adding that, "This is one of the most authoritarian figures in the world, he obviously cares nothing about Democratic institutions, but he seemed to indicate an almost begrudgingly respectful view that Twitter and these companies could achieve this level of control, something that exceeds his own abilities." Johnson pointed out that asking the ban of Fox News and Newsmax from cable providers due to the violence that resulted in January 6 U.S. Capitol riots as purported by Eshoo and McNerney was purely unfounded since intelligence report showed the riots were "predominantly" planned on social media. "From the other side of the aisle, if I didn't know better, I would think that Fox News or Newsmax issued a direct rallying call to storm the Capitol on January 6," he said, "But all of us know nothing even close to that happened. In fact, all of the intelligence suggests that any planning for the riots occurred predominantly on social media, including on Facebook." The final defendant in a $7 billion investment fraud scheme involving Stanford International Bank was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday in Houston, according a Justice Department news release. Leroy King, the former chief of Antiguas Financial Services Regulatory Commission, was extradited to the U.S. in 2019 after being a fugitive since 2009. The 74-year-old pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice for getting in the way of the Securities and Exchange Commissions investigation of the Ponzi scheme. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered King to serve 10 years in prison, which is an upward departure from the statutory maximum sentence of five years. Kings attorney, Marc Carter, called the sentence unusually harsh and said he plans to appeal. He said King is old and in ill health and he already served 10 years under house arrest in Antigua while awaiting a ruling on his extradition. He was unaware of Stanfords scheme, which already was in full motion when he assumed his government post, but co-defendant James Davis, the architect of the Ponzi scheme was sentenced to half that time in prison, Carter said. He thanked the Justice Department lawyers for honoring their end of the painstakingly negotiated plea deal by not asking the judge to hand down a sentence above the guideline range. King, of Dickerson Bay, Antigua, is a dual citizen of the United States and Antigua. In 2002, he was administrator and CEO of a government agency in Antigua where he had regulatory oversight of Stanford International Bank Limiteds investment portfolio, including its financial reports and its responses to requests by foreign regulators, including requests from the SEC for information and documents about the companys operations. The SEC in 2005 began investigating R. Allen Stanford, the former chairman of the banks board of directors, and his financial group and sought documents and information about investments from the Antiguan government agency King oversaw. King was charged along with Stanford with accepting more than $100,000 in bribes from Stanford in exchange for ignoring the actual value of the banks assets and aiding in the obstruction of the SEC investigation, officials said. King admitted in his plea that Stanford paid him more than $500,000 in bribes in the course of the conspiracy. The bank tycoon also gave King multiple flights on jets he and his entities owned. He also gave King tickets to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston in 2004 and Super Bowl XL in Detroit in 2006. When the SEC asked for his help, King wrote that his agency had no authority to act in the manner requested and would itself be in breach of law if it were to accede to your request, according to the news release. But the agency did have authority to aid the SEC. Stanford was convicted by a federal jury in June 2012 of orchestrating the scheme over a 20-year period, misappropriating $7 billion to pay for his personal business. He is serving a 110-year prison term. Five others were convicted for participating in the scheme and received federal prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years. gabrielle.banks@chron.com After a 50 year absence, Ferrari will return to Le Mans in the world endurance series' top category in 2023. Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche and Audi have also committed to the new Hypercar category, which according to the FIA was created to be "equally appealing to both global automotive brands as well as specialist firms building road-going supercars". "I believe in the concept of road relevant Hypercars competing in the WEC and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans," said FIA president and former Ferrari boss Jean Todt. "I'm looking forward to seeing this legendary brand taking on this ambitious project." Ferrari last won Le Mans outright in 1965. Meanwhile, Italian media report that Ferrari's Formula 1 car for 2021 will feature two tones of red - lighter at the bottom and darker towards the top. It is also believed that Mattia Binotto will not attend many races this season, with the Maranello team to instead be headed at the circuits by Laurent Mekies. (GMM) Darren Bidulka rests after his modified blood stem cells were transplanted into him at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary in 2017, allowing him to stop his enzyme therapy. (From left): Dr. Jeffrey Medin, Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Aneal Khan, the experimental trial lead in Calgary, and Darren Bidulka. Credit: Darren Bidulka Results of a world-first Canadian pilot study on patients treated with gene therapy for Fabry disease show that the treatment is working and safe. The Canadian research team was the first to use gene therapy in 2017 to treat patients with Fabry disease, a rare, chronic illness that can damage major organs and shorten lives. They report their findings today in the journal Nature Communications. "Being one of the first people in the world to receive this treatment, and seeing how much better I felt afterward, it definitely gives me hope that this can help many other Fabry patients and potentially those with other single gene mutation disorders," says Ryan Deveau, one of the participating patients in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. "Now that I don't have to get the replacement therapy every two weeks, I have more time to spend with my family." Fabry patients currently must undergo enzyme therapy infusions every two weeks. Gene therapy would enable them to receive a single treatment that could prove to be more effective clinically since the modified blood stem cells continuously produce corrected versions of the defective enzyme. "To date, we can say that the gene therapy has either partially or fully restored enzyme levels to a point where they are no longer considered deficient," says Dr. Aneal Khan, the Alberta Health Services medical geneticist and member of the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, who is leading the experimental trial in Calgary. "These results show that just one treatment of gene therapy was enough to benefit patients. Now we need to see whether this single dose can last for the long term." Five men participated in the study and were treated at Alberta Health Services' Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, and Nova Scotia Health's Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. As a result of the gene therapy, all patients began producing the corrected version of the enzyme to near normal levels within one week. With these initial results, all five patients are approved by Health Canada to stop their intravenous enzyme therapy. So far, three patients have chosen to do so, and are stable. "This really was a ground-breaking study, given current therapies are not cures," says Dr. Michael West, nephrologist and Nova Scotia Health co-investigator, with Dr. Stephen Couban, a hematologist. "This is the next step in moving toward a better therapy and hopefully a cure for this disease, which can really cause patients a lot of pain and suffering. It's promising that the participating patients are still seeing benefit from the treatment several years after the procedure was completed." Patients were followed from January 2017 to February 2020 for this study, and ongoing follow-up will extend until February 2024. Clinicians emphasize it will take many years of further testing before this experimental treatment becomes a clinically available standard of care. "To actually see that this therapy was working in patients was humbling," says Dr. Jeffrey Medin, who pioneered the treatment while he was a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network (UHN). Dr. Medin is now the MACC Fund Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Affiliate Scientist, UHN. "After 20 years of working on this treatment, to see that patients could end up making their own enzyme, and that the treatment effect was sustained is satisfying. We are elated!" Darren Bidulka, 52, was the first patient treated in the study on January 11, 2017, at Alberta Health Services' Foothills Medical Centre. He was diagnosed with Fabry disease in 2005, and was on enzyme therapy for years. "I'm really happy that this worked," he says. "What an amazing result in an utterly fascinating experience. I consider this a great success. "I can lead a more normal life now without scheduling enzyme therapy every two weeks. This research is also incredibly important for many patients all over the world, who will benefit from these findings." In the study, researchers collected a quantity of a Fabry patient's own blood stem cells, then used a specially engineered virus to inject those cells with copies of the fully functional gene that is responsible for the enzyme. The modified stem cells were then transplanted back into each patient. People with Fabry disease have a gene called GLA that does not function correctly. As a result, their bodies are unable to make the correct version of an enzyme that breaks down a fat. A buildup of that can lead to problems in the kidneys, heart and brain. The treatment, which was approved by Health Canada for experimental purposes, was the first trial in Canada to use a lentivirus in gene therapy. In this case, the specially modified virus was created at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, stripped of its disease-causing capability and augmented with a working copy of the gene that's responsible for the missing enzyme. Lentiviruses are a family of viruses that can cause diseases like acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and are used world-wide in many clinical trials because of the ease with which they can enter and insert genetic material into cells. They are well understood by the research community, and easy to manufacture in large quantities, which was required for this study. The trial focused on men because the gene for Fabry disease is on the X-chromosome, so it is inherited as an X-linked disorder. Men are therefore more severely affected than women, because each man carries only one X chromosome. Men therefore present with more severe symptoms, such as burning in hands and feet, kidney failure, or gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal cramping, frequent bowel movements, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Untreated, men have an average lifespan of 58 years and women, 75 years. An estimated one person in 40,000 to 60,000 has Fabry disease. There are more than 500 people in Canada known to have this illness, although exact numbers are not known due to the difficulty in identifying all those with the disease. "Studies such as this can pave the way for additional clinical trials in Fabry disease and for many other metabolic disorders. It also shows that it is possible to coordinate such a complex study at multiple sites, even across international borders, as some analyses were done at the Medical College of Wisconsin," says Dr. Medin, who has been working on the project since he was at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Explore further Gene therapy used to treat Fabry diseasea world first More information: Aneal Khan et al. Lentivirus-mediated gene therapy for Fabry disease, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Aneal Khan et al. Lentivirus-mediated gene therapy for Fabry disease,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21371-5 After being handed a series of antitrust fines over its apparent abuse of power, Qualcomm is now facing a consumer lawsuit that could see it forced to compensate UK phone owners. The country's leading consumer association Which? is suing the Snapdragon chip maker to the tune of 482.5 million ($683 million) in damages for allegedly breaching competition law. Which? claims Qualcomm used its dominance in the patent-licensing and processor markets by charging Apple and Samsung inflated fees for its tech licenses, which were then passed on to consumers in the form of higher smartphone prices. It estimates that individuals who purchased Apple or Samsung handsets since 2015 could be entitled to between 17 to 30 ($24 to $42) depending on the number and type of smartphones they bought. Qualcomm has rubbished the allegations. "As the plaintiffs are well aware, their claims were effectively put to rest last summer by a unanimous panel of judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States," a company spokesman told BBC News, referencing the FTC suit for unfair practices from 2017 that was dismissed last year. The latest challenge echoes the legal actions that have haunted the beleaguered chip giant over the past several years. While $683 million represents little more than 2.8 percent of Qualcomm's revenue in 2020, the company has struggled to free itself from the resulting bad publicity of fines and litigation woes. In Asia alone, it has previously been slapped with antitrust penalties in China, Korea and Taiwan that amounted to over $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, the European Commission fined it 997 million ($1.23 billion) in 2018 for paying Apple to secure an exclusive modem deal. And again in 2019, when it was struck with a 242 million fine ($271 million at the time) for alleged price dumping on 3G chips. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Students, staff and faculty stood in solidarity Wednesday with John F. Kennedy Middle School Principal Desmond Caldwell after a Facebook page targeted him and his efforts to educate the school community about the history of racism associated with the Confederate flag. Nearly 200 people assembled outside the Northampton school to denounce white supremacy in a demonstration organized by students Cecelia Ripley, Julia Albro-Fisher and Julian Clark. Caldwell, who became principal last fall, said he heard from students who felt unsafe when Confederate flags and other symbols started appearing in other students backgrounds during remote learning. To address those concerns, Caldwell created a video asking that the Confederate flag not be present during virtual or in-person learning. In the video, Caldwell described how he had recently dealt with multiple cases of people wearing, posting and sharing imagery that contained the Confederate flag. He said he had no intention of debating that the Confederate flag is protected under the First Amendment, but said he also would not debate that the flag has ties to racist beliefs and organizations. What complicates the Confederate flag is that not all who carry or fly the flag do so from a place of hate. Yet many hate groups fly the Confederate flag, he said, while providing background on the flags history. In explaining his request to not display the Confederate flag, Caldwell said he was not doing so to step on anyones rights, but to help create a safer and less-distracting learning environment. He further asserted that he wasnt accusing anyone of intentionally hurting others, but asked members of the school community to consider why they felt it necessary to display the flag when it carries hurtful connotations. Thank you to Principal Caldwell for your beautiful words and to the NPS community for coming out to support our colleague and eachother. pic.twitter.com/iWV7aaVN8s John Provost (@john_provost) February 24, 2021 On Monday a Facebook page called JFK White Student Union appeared and accused Caldwell of being an anti-American tyrant. The page also claimed, Across the U.S. whites are under attack. In order to maintain our civil liberties we must resist. We cannot allow these individuals to erode our constitutional rights, the page read. The page has since disappeared from Facebook. The district contacted the Northampton Police Department and it is being investigated, according to Superintendent John Provost. While the creator of the JFK White Student Union page claimed to be a student, Provost said he could not verify that. Northampton Public Schools have many anti-discrimination policies, and displaying a Confederate flag is contrary to the districts values, Provost in an interview. But there is no formal policy regarding the Confederate flag, he said. As superintendent, I wholeheartedly support Principal Caldwells work to interrupt the racism inherent in displays of the Confederate flag, Provost said in a statement. With a teachers heart, he has approached this issue with empathy, respect, and love for his students. He has sought to build a school culture where community and dialogue can flourish. At this time when so many have withdrawn literally and intellectually into their own echo chambers, young people need places where they can be in community with others who hold different identities and adhere to different beliefs, Provost wrote. Indeed, our public schools may provide one of the last remaining spaces in our increasingly polarized and segregated society where young people have the opportunity to develop an appreciation for the humanity of others unlike themselves. The district has been working with volunteer group Racial Equity And Learning (REAL) Northampton to develop an intentionally anti-racist school culture and curriculum. Deborah Keisch, one of the groups co-founders, said the group has been discussing hiring practices in the school district, anti-bias training and creating a digital story collection where people in the district discuss experiences of race and racism. Whether or not someone in our community created this, I dont know, Keisch said of the JFK White Student Union page. But do people in our community have racist beliefs? Yes. And we have to acknowledge that if we are going to move to a true, anti-racist community and really address it head-on (it must be) with compassion and dialogue. REAL Northampton is also encouraging members of the community to attend Thursdays online School Committee meeting to speak out and demand that the Confederate flag be banned throughout the district. The public comment period starts at 6:50 p.m. Related Content: [February 25, 2021] Haptik announces launch of Buzzo: Voice Assistant for eCommerce - One of the world's largest conversational AI companies announces new product to serve e-commerce brands globally - Buzzo is a multilingual voice assistant enabling better search, discovery and purchase for e-commerce websites and apps - First implementation is for JioMart - one of India's largest grocery platforms with more than 3 million orders a month MUMBAI, India, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jio Haptik Technologies Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Platforms, today announced the launch of its new product - Buzzo, an AI-powered voice assistant to improve the digital shopping experience. With Buzzo, Haptik brings the simplicity of an in-store assisted experience to apps and websites, navigating through the variety of product choices using a voice enabled interface. In the post pandemic era, e-commerce sales have grown by 7-8% in India (as stated by Forrester Research) and digital is now the default way of shopping for most millennials. However, searching through long product catalogs and finding the most suitable products continues to remain a cumbersome experience. According to Statistica, 61% people feel that search and navigation and the subsequent ease of findingproducts is one of the most important factors of the online shopping experience. Buzzo uses Haptik's cutting edge NLU combined with product meta data such as filters, reviews, pricing, tags, etc. to understand a user's requirements spoken in colloquial language and provide recommendations similar to an in store sales agent. The AI assistant also knows how to nudge relevant upsells & cross sells within the natural flow of an interaction, add multiple items to cart in a single voice command and overall make the checkout process 3x faster than the traditional menu driven interface. Buzzo's first implementation is in JioMart - one of India's largest e-grocery platforms. Over a million end customers have used the AI assistant already with a 50% increase in conversion rate from browsing to purchase. "Voice search has shown a lot of promise but has been limited in its ability to really drive transactions," said Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder & CEO of Haptik. "The primary reason for this is the lack of domain expertise in the AI models along with a natural UX workflow. With Buzzo, we have taken close to a year to perfect this experience through multiple iterations. The initial results we are seeing with JioMart are extremely promising, and we are excited to take this product to other brands globally." Buzzo is now generally available for e-commerce brands across shopping categories, including grocery, electronics, apparel, beauty, furniture and more. Earlier this year, Haptik also launched another voice solution with Conversational IVR, enabling better customer experience and automation within the contact center. About Haptik Haptik is one of the world's largest Conversational AI companies, having reached over 100 million devices, and processed over 3 billion conversations. Part of the $65 billion Internet conglomerate Reliance Jio Platforms, Haptik Intelligent virtual assistants enable Fortune 500 brands globally to enhance customer experience while saving costs and increasing revenue. The company has been featured as a leader in the category across many platforms including Garnter, AI Time Journal, Opus Research & more. Haptik's leading clients and partners include KFC, Oyo Rooms, Starhub, HP, Tata Group, Disney Hotstar, OLA, and Zurich Insurance among others. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXJ6-DjwXys Image: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1444566/Haptik_Launches_Buzzo.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1317248/Haptik_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] "Judas and the Black Messiah" was an excellent movie. So excellent I'll probably never watch it again. I think there's a collection of movies that I can only give one watch"Fruitvale Station," "The Secret Life of Bees," "The Lovely Bones." The list goes on, and Judas and the Black Messiah has just been added. A STUDY IN UGLINESS: 'Malcom & Marie' approaches toxic relationships in the worst way I want to note that its taken me days to form thoughts in my mind about how I felt about this movie. I've been in a deep state of love/hate. The film, in my opinion, largely represents itself as the new testament proverb, "What shall a man profit if he loses his soul?" Judas and the Black Messiah opens with the FBI informant, Bill O'neal in his PBS special, "Eyes on the Prize 2," where he talks about his experience infiltrating the Black Panther Party and what he will tell his son when the time comes. Via Youtube Despite the movies multiple storylines, another overarching theme I found in the film was that J. Edgar Hoover was quite literally despicable, and viewed the Black Panther Partymen and women who united to have free healthcare programs and offered free meals to childrenas one of the largest threats in America. A threat so large, that the only way to stop the movement, was death. Interestingly enough, the movie foreshadows itself early on in the film. Stanfield, playing O'neal, walks into a bar impersonating an FBI agent with the intent to steal someone's car. Before he's able to get away with it, a man in the bar says, "Man what's the FBI doing looking for a stolen car anyway? Ran out of people to assassinate?" In fact, before we're even introduced to Fred Hampton, the movie is filled with significant one-liners that add to the greatness of the film, like "a badge is scarier than a gun." Daniel Kaluuya plays the role of a young fiery Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. His role is focused on the latter years of Hampton's life, as he was only 21 when he was killed in 1969 by Chicago police in a raid orchestrated by the FBI. Via Glen Wilson / Warner Bros. Kaluuya does an excellent job embodying the role of Hampton. "The Chairman," as his comrades affectionately called him, had a real knack for public speaking, and it shows in the film. O'neal even mentions that Hampton's charisma is so strong, that Fred "could sell salt to a snail." The beauty in Kaluuya playing Hampton is that we're able to see his unifying spirit. Despite the landscape of Chicago at the time, he was able to bring together so many different groups of people: The Chicago Crowns, The Disciples, the Puerto Rican community, and even white southern migrants. Somewhere down the line, you can see that the guilt is eating O'neal alive, once he realizes what's going to happen to Fred. Via Warner Bros. Quite honestly, there aren't many (if any) flaws that I can immediately pick up on in the film, I think my biggest gripe with Judas and the Black Messiah is although it's important for generations to come to know important stories such as Fred Hampton and Huey P. Newton, I would to see more of their accomplishments and leadership work glorified, versus an FBI informant's mission to have a man assassinated by the FBI. The film struck a very ugly cord for me. I left the movie feeling very conflicted. Despite the American government committing conspicuous, heinous acts, the journey of a Black man aiding the FBI in taking another Black man down was very disheartening as a Black woman. But, it's history. I will commend Lakeith Stanfield for his role in the film as O'neal, the titular Judas, but he went on to admit that he had to seek therapy after playing such a reprehensible role. Via Warner Bros. All in all, the film delivers exactly what it's supposed to. It's a cinematic masterpiece, that can only be watched once. Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will not resign immediately and implement the Supreme Court's verdict against him by facing Parliament that is due to convene within two weeks, an official representing the PM said on Wednesday. "The Supreme Court's verdict is controversial, however, it should be accepted and implemented. Its effects will be seen in the future as the decision has not provided any solution to the political problems," Oli's Press Advisor Surya Thapa said. 'Oli will not tender his resignation as of now' He claimed that the apex court's verdict will further fuel instability and pave way for power-play. "The Prime Minister will face the House of Representatives to implement the verdict but will not tender his resignation as of now," Thapa was quoted as saying by The Himalayan Times. Oli's Chief Advisor Bishnu Rimal, mirroring Thapa's sentiments, said that all will have to accept the court's decision. "However, it provides no solution to existing political complications," Rimal said. Thapa's reaction comes amid mounting pressure on the Prime Minister to step down following the court verdict, according to a PTI report. Nepal Communist Party (NCP) chair, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, has called the standing committee meeting of leaders close to his faction. The meeting has been called for 11:00 am on Thursday at Oli's official residence in Baluwatar, according to The Himalayan Times. On the other hand, co-chairs of the Dahal-Nepal faction of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) met with Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Wednesday. READ | 'Either do politics or stay with our Morcha': Kisan Manch President slams Rakesh Tikait READ | Phase 2 of COVID vaccination to start from March 1; inoculation at private hospitals too To form a new government, keeping in mind the present scenario, no single party can comfortably garner a majority, unilaterally. The backing of the main opposition Nepali Congress appears vital to either side. Therefore, Thursday's meeting between NC President Deuba and NCP faction leaders Dahal and Nepal will be viewed through an analytical lens, the daily reported. In a landmark ruling, a five-member constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher on Tuesday annulled the Oli government's "unconstitutional" decision to dissolve the 275-member lower house of Parliament. The court also ordered the government to summon the House session within the next 13 days. Nepal plunged into a political crisis on December 20 after President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House and announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 at the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli, amidst a tussle for power within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). READ | Ahmedabad's giant Motera named 'Narendra Modi Stadium' before 3rd India-England Test READ | Congress in damage control post Rahul's 'North-South' politics; asks Wayanad MP to clarify (With PTI inputs) ALBANY, N.Y. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers wants an independent investigation into allegations by a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo that he sexually harassed her from 2016 through 2018. Lindsey Boylan, a former economic development aide, posted an essay online Wednesday that contends Cuomo kissed her on the lips during a one-on-one meeting in his office in 2018 and asked her to play strip poker. Cuomo's office denied the claims. Assemblyman Harry Bronson, D-Rochester, said he's a former employee rights attorney, and "I have represented far too many women who have been subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace." In a statement, he said, "Now that Ms. Boylan has put these claims forward, she deserves the opportunity to have her allegations thoroughly reviewed by an independent body and any appropriate steps taken upon those findings." Who would do an "independent" investigation? Government watchdogs have derided New York for not having a strong independent watchdog body to investigate potential wrongdoings at the state Capitol. When Cuomo took office in 2011, he vowed to clean up Albany in the shadow of Eliot Spitzer's resignation in 2008 for soliciting prostitutes. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics was established under Cuomo. JCOPE has been criticized for being beholden to the political leaders who appoint its members, including Cuomo, whose former aides have long led the commission. "All credible allegations of sexual harassment must be taken seriously and given a thorough, transparent, and independent investigation," Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the most obvious body to undertake such an investigation JCOPE is compromised and ineffective." More: Ex-aide accuses Andrew Cuomo of unwanted kiss, sexual harassment Calls for an independent investigation of Cuomo grow New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office denies accusations that he sexually harassed an aide. JCOPE, whose members are appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, has investigated sexual harassment allegations in Albany, levying a $330,000 fine in 2013 against Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn, who died in 2015. Story continues Other cases have languished, including allegations that former state Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, forcibly kissed a former aide outside an Albany bar. The case was brought forward three years ago, and the agency has never made any findings public. "New York State's total failure to have an independent ethics enforcement agency is a fundamental obstacle to government accountability," the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany wrote Wednesday on Twitter. "There are no independent, effective, ethics police in #Albany and it shows." If not JCOPE, the state Legislature has subpoena power and could launch its own investigation into Boylan's charges. Five Republican senators wrote a letter Wednesday to state Attorney General Letitia James asking for a formal investigation into the allegations against Cuomo. "At a minimum, the seriousness of these allegations clearly warrant a comprehensive, immediate investigation by an independent special prosecutor," the senators wrote. More: NY Assemblyman Ron Kim says Cuomo impeachment should be discussed over nursing home deaths More: Cuomo on nursing home deaths after critical AG report: 'Everyone did the best they could' What happens next? "All credible allegations of sexual harassment must be taken seriously and given a thorough, transparent, and independent investigation," Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from James' office about what role it could play in looking into the charges brought by Boylan. Her role could be limited. The office has a civil rights bureau that could look into it and a public integrity unit that investigates any potential criminal wrongdoing against public officials. Yet the attorney general, though independently elected, is also the "state's attorney," representing the executive branch and state government in all lawsuits or claims. For James' to do a full investigation, she would probably need a referral from Cuomo to investigate his office. Cuomo knows the law all too well: He's the former attorney general and investigated the administrations of Spitzer and his successor, David Paterson, after receiving referrals from their offices. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Boylan wrote Wednesday, "Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected." Cuomo's office said Boylan's descriptions were not true. "As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false," press secretary Caitlin Girouard said in a statement. In December, Boylan tweeted about being harassed by Cuomo, who denied the allegations. "Look, I fought for and I believe a woman has a right to come forward and express her opinion and express issues and concerns that she has, but its just not true," he said. Zephyr Teachout, a constitutional attorney who ran against Cuomo in a Democratic primary in 2014, said the Boylan case shows that lawmakers should give the Attorney General's Office a blanket referral to investigate the executive branch. "This story should be a spur to lawmakers: New York should give the AG's office the power to investigate and prosecute cases of sexual misconduct in government," she wrote Wednesday on Twitter. "There is no serious existing investigative agency." Cuomo was a national star for COVID-19 response. How that was upended by nursing home deaths Joseph Spector is the government and politics editor for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Group, overseeing coverage in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. He can be reached at JSPECTOR@Gannett.com or followed on Twitter: @GannettAlbany This article originally appeared on New York State Team: NY lawmakers call for Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment accusation probe 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. Buy-now pay-later has grown fourfold across the last year of Covid lockdowns Sophie Edwards, from Sussex, used Klarna's 'buy now and pay in 30 days' feature Gabriella said the ease of 'buy-now pay-later' also lured her into the spending Feeling bored in lockdown, Gabriella Alberti logged on to her computer and began browsing online shopping sites. Many will empathise with her feelings of listlessness and isolation brought about by being cooped up at home. Gabriella thought a few home improvements and some new clothes would give her a harmless boost. But her spending quickly got rather more out of control than she'd intended. During the autumn lockdown she estimates she spent 1,600 on clothes and 700 on homeware. 'Each time I went on to buy something, it seemed like I'd be able to afford it easily, especially as some things were in the sale, but now, looking at it, I got myself in a bit of difficulty,' she admits. Sophie Edwards, 26, from West Sussex, (pictured) used Klarna's 'buy now and pay in 30 days' feature despite already having credit-card debt and ended up spending a total of 3,619.40 It wasn't only the sale she thinks lured her in. The reason it was so easy for Gabriella's lockdown splurge to become a financial headache was the ease with which she could buy now and pay later. Used by five million people and responsible for 2.7 billion in sales, buy-now pay-later has grown fourfold over the past year of lockdowns. Available at most retailers from Marks & Spencer to Asos and many more in between, the idea is that the bill is split into three or four payments. These are then debited at later intervals, sometimes weeks and sometimes months after the purchase. Klarna, which launched in the UK six years ago and encourages users to 'Shop Like A Queen' in adverts, is the best-known provider but others include Clearpay, Laybuy and Afterpay. Last Autumn Paypal also launched its Pay in 3 facility. As Gabriella, a 26-year-old former nurse who lives in Wiltshire with her serviceman husband, found, it makes the initial amount seem very low, but can soon add up. She used Paypal and Klarna for her purchases. 'Each time I was spending about 250-300. But it was only about 70 up front. When I was purchasing, I was just thinking 'Do I have enough money to pay that right now?' You don't think about the figure as a whole.' Sometimes, there is an option to pay the total a month later. Because these services don't charge interest, though some incur late-payment fees, they're not considered credit and have escaped regulation. Campaigners argue buy-now pay-later is debt by another name and is leading young people into spending more than they can afford. The decision to have Clearpay as the headline sponsor for this month's London Fashion Week caused controversy recently, with more than 60 MPs calling for debt warnings to be displayed alongside event promotions for the firm. While some have used buy-now pay-later to ease financial difficulties through the pandemic, relieving boredom and stress, like Gabriella did, has been a major factor, sometimes fuelled by the firms. Last year, Klarna was criticised for an influencer advertising campaign that encouraged people to use its services to cheer themselves up during lockdown. The decision to have Clearpay as the sponsor for London Fashion Week (above) has caused controversy, with MPs calling for debt warnings to be displayed alongside promotions One influencer wrote on Instagram: 'Thank you @klarna.uk for the simple reminder that getting dressed up can be a total mood booster', while another said: '@klarna.uk helping me get ready for the day ahead in lockdown and lifting my mood!' Klarna admitted the posts 'missed the mark'. Nevertheless, a survey by financial advice provider OpenMoney found 21 per cent were tempted into buy-now pay-later by social media advertising and reality TV influencers. Meanwhile, 33 per cent admitted they were tackling boredom and 35 per cent admitted they use the schemes because they couldn't afford the items they want to buy. For Tamara Gray, the pandemic has seen her buy-now pay-later spending boom. In the last ten months the mature student from Devon, 30, estimates she's spent well over 3,000 this way. 'In the last week or so I spent 300 on clothes from Asos and 100 on jewellery from Pandora, as well as 200 on homewares from Shein.' She admits one of the drivers has been the tedium of lockdown scrolling through shopping websites in the evening with a glass of wine, when previously she would have been out with friends. While the hours of her student supermarket job have increased, earlier in the pandemic things were tougher financially, so buy-now pay-later was the only way she could afford new things. Still, she confesses she regularly buys things she doesn't need. 'Recently, I spent 200 on a North Face coat. I did need a warm coat, but then I also bought socks, jeans, pyjamas and a new top. 'Buy-now pay-later definitely does entice me into shopping.' These services are used mostly by younger women 75 per cent of users are female and half are aged 25-36. Some 90 per cent of transactions involve clothes and shoes. One survey suggests nearly two- fifths of people have struggled to repay these companies. According to the Woolard Review, which recently finished an investigation, one in ten users already has debt somewhere else when they start using buy-now pay-later. While not behind on her payments, Sophie Edwards, 26, an online content creator and food stylist, did have credit-card debt in the low four figures when she discovered Klarna in 2018. It appealed partly because her credit cards were maxed out. Sophie, from West Sussex, used Klarna's 'buy now and pay in 30 days' feature, where the entire bill is deferred for a month. 'I've never really been a fan of changing rooms and I fell for the fact I could buy five pairs of jeans or dresses and try them all on in the comfort of my own home,' she says. Buy-now pay-later has grown fourfold across the last year of lockdown and is responsible for 2.7 billion in sales (stock image) 'Because you get a certain amount of time to send things back the idea is that you only pay for what you keep.' The problem was that more often than not she kept everything. 'I held on to things I wouldn't necessarily have kept because they were already in my home and I liked them,' she explains. 'I bought so many clothes using it that they all blend into one.' Given her credit card debt, she now admits she shouldn't have been using the service. 'From what I remember it was as easy as putting in your email address and a few details. If I'd had to go through a longer process it would have rung more warning bells,' she says. 'Every month I was spending something like 150. Not horrible amounts but it's still quite a chunk when you're in your first job.' While employed, Sophie could keep on top of her repayments. But in April 2019 she was made redundant. 'That was when I realised how much I'd been spending, about 1,000 over the year, and how much I had been using shopping as therapy,' Sophie says. 'I had about 300 on my Klarna account when I was made redundant, and the 30-day payment deadline was coming up. I was thinking about how I was going to pay for it when I don't have any money coming in. 'That's when it hit me that I'd been shopping wrong and spending really badly.' Sophie scraped money together to pay off her Klarna account and rethought her shopping habits. 'I thought I had to be on top of all the trends to fit in, or to be cool. Buy-now pay-later also feeds into fast fashion because it makes it so easy to buy so much and I've really tried to cut back on the amount of clothes I buy.' Her story is echoed by Anna Shaw, 22, from Glasgow, who started using buy-now pay-later two years ago as a student. Like Sophie, part of the attraction was that her credit cards were maxed out, with 2,000 owing over two cards. She was also at the limit of her 1,000 overdraft. She says she spent a total of 3,619.40 on Klarna, shopping online for clothes, shoes and make-up at least once a week. 'I know it sounds daft,' she says, 'but Klarna felt as if it was free because I didn't need to pay it there and then. 'Eventually I realised I was chasing the high of when you know a parcel is coming for you, and it's like Christmas.' Klarna, which launched in the UK six years ago, is the best-known provider but others include Clearpay, Laybuy and Afterpay (stock image) Anna, a make-up artist, vowed to change her habits and through working in a call centre she finally paid off her credit-card debt this summer, before clearing her Klarna account and deleting the shopping apps on her phone. But both she and Sophie empathise with those spending their way through lockdown and admit they'd be in a similar situation if they hadn't already had a wake-up call. Campaigners like Alice Tapper have long argued buy-now pay-later products should be under greater regulation. 'People just aren't aware that this is debt,' she says. 'It's available on impulse with no wording about the risk. It feeds into a 'buy now, worry about it later' mindset especially concerning when there is so much job insecurity. 'Without wording about the risks or protection via services like the Financial Ombudsman, the odds of things going wrong are stacked against the consumer. 'There are often strong incentives to take it up, too. For example, in September there was Clearpay Day, where chunky discounts were only available to people if they shopped with Clearpay.' Klarna boasts on its website you need 'never pay full price again'. Alice is delighted that as a result of the Woolard Review, the Financial Conduct Authority recently announced plans for regulation. 'Until now there has been no recourse to complain if things go wrong,' she says. Sophie, who is still paying off her credit-card debt, says: 'I do still use it but for the right reasons. If I need to buy a pair of jeans I might buy them in two sizes to see which fits best and send the other back. I'll make sure I have enough money in my account first too.' Gabriella is trying to curb future sprees and looking for ways to keep on top of repayments. 'I'm selling my Pandora jewellery collection and my Michael Kors bags gifts from before I got together with my husband, to fund the repayments.' If that doesn't help she says she'll have to ask her husband, serving abroad and yet to find out the extent of her spending, for help. As for Tamara, she's aware that her supermarket shifts will be cut back at some point and she'll need to rein in her spending. How easy she'll find it is another matter. LIMA, Peru The hope brought by the arrival of the first vaccines in South America is hardening into anger as inoculation campaigns have spiraled into scandal, cronyism and corruption, rocking national governments and sapping trust in the political establishment. Two ministers in Peru and one in Argentina have resigned for receiving or giving preferential access to scarce vaccines. A minister in Ecuador is being investigated for doing the same. Prosecutors in those countries, and in Brazil, are examining thousands more accusations of irregularities in inoculation drives, most of them involving local politicians and their families cutting in line. As accusations of wrongdoing ensnare more dignitaries, tension is building in a region where popular outrage with graft and inequality has spilled in recent years into raucous protests against the political status quo. The frustration could find an outlet in the streets again or at the polls, shaping voter decisions in upcoming races such as Perus elections in April. 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. Lucknow, Feb 25 : The first India Toy Fair will be held virtually from February 27 to March 2 and toymakers from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, will display their toys. Fifteen craftsmen of Varanasi are going to showcase their products in the India Toy Fair which keeping with the 'Vocal for Local' concept of the government. According to officials, this is the first ever digitally accessible exhibition and platform which will provide an opportunity to explore and buy a variety of toys from over 1,000 exhibitors across states and union territories, and participate in insightful webinars, panel discussions and activities, and network with various stakeholders from the toy industry. The idea for promoting Indian toys, according to the government spokesman, came after it was found that cheap toys being imported into the country, were not only adversely affecting the Indian toy industry but also the health of the children since they were having large amounts of chemicals and heavy metals, way beyond the prescribed levels. The main attractions of the fair include a virtual exhibition with over 1,000 stalls, knowledge sessions with engaging panel discussions and webinars on diverse topics by experts on areas including toy-based learning, craft demonstrations, competitions, quizzes, virtual tours, product launches, etc. The website for the India Toy Fair 2021 will enable children, parents, teachers and exhibitors to register themselves to participate in the virtual fair which will showcase various facets of the Indian toy ecosphere. For the education sector, in particular, the knowledge sessions involving various experts, will focus on areas emphasized in the NEP 2020 such as play-based and activity-based learning, indoor and outdoor play, use of puzzles and games to promote critical thinking and overall, on how to make learning more engaging and enjoyable. The exhibitors include Indian businesses engaged in creating happy childhoods and educating children through play as well as NCERT, SCERTs, CBSE along with their schools and teachers, IIT-Gandhinagar, National Institute of Design, and Children University in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', last year, had appealed to get "vocal" for local toys and had mentioned the rich tradition of toys in the country. Varanasi has a great history of wooden toys also and the city was once the largest toy producing centre in India. Godavari Singh, head of the Khilona Udyog Sahkari Samiti which has more than 500 members, said that the future of the toy industry in Varanasi is changing because of the Prime Minister. Joint Director industries in Varanasi, Umesh Singh, told reporters that this fair will help in preserving as well as promoting the traditional art of the region. Lacquerware and wooden toys made in Varanasi have got GI tag also and are made without any joints and adhere to all safety standards. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2020, Sammons Financial Group, Inc. continued its ongoing support in its corporate site locations by donating $3.5 million to local, charitable organizations. Sammons Financial Group maintains four corporate site offices Chicago, Fargo, Sioux Falls, and the greater Des Moines area and has employee-led committees in each city to direct all local service and financial outreach. The company also contributed more than 2,175 hours in volunteer service. "We have a workforce of 1,600 people who are standing ready to roll up their sleeves in support of the work projects facing our communities," said Sammons Financial Group Chief Executive Officer Esfand Dinshaw. "Due to social-distancing protocols throughout 2020, we could not donate nearly the number of volunteer hours we are accustomed to. That is the single-largest disappointment we faced, as we want to be present in the communities where we live and work." Sammons Financial Group partners with and supports local not-for-profit and charitable organizations across a broad range of issues and needs. In 2020, the company focused on meeting critical needs like homelessness, education, hunger, health-based causes, children and adults with special needs, COVID-19 relief, and diversity and inclusion efforts. "The need to support our community was greater than ever in 2020. Many organizations that relied on special events involving large community gatherings to raise funds were forced to cancel those events or move to a virtual format," said Tom Nucaro, chair of Sammons Financial Group's Des Moines-area Community Involvement Committee. "We made a decision early on to maintain our giving levels to nearly all of our charitable partners and increased a few based upon critical needs, such as food insecurity, which were magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic." The largest amount of employee and company contributions were to three United Way chapters. United Way is a nonprofit organization focused on improving education, financial stability, and health in local communities. In 2020, Sammons Financial Group donated a combined total of $260,709 to the United Way of Cass-Clay (Fargo, ND), Sioux Empire United Way (Sioux Falls, SD), and United Way of Central Iowa (Des Moines, IA). Company employees separately donated an additional $336,427 to United Way programs. In 2020, Sammons Financial Group earned the Spirit of Central Iowa award from United Way of Central Iowa. In addition to United Way, the company's four sites made considerable contributions to local community partners. A few 2020 community service highlights include: Central Iowa area: From its West Des Moines office, Sammons Financial Group donated more than $1 million to organizations in the community, including United Way, through the Principal Charity Classic , Special Olympics Iowa, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Orchard Place, and Dorothy's House. Employees volunteered more than 1,200 hours for these causes, despite the limitations of in-person gatherings. From its office, Sammons Financial Group donated more than to organizations in the community, including United Way, through the Principal , Special Olympics Iowa, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Orchard Place, and Dorothy's House. Employees volunteered more than 1,200 hours for these causes, despite the limitations of in-person gatherings. Sioux Falls area: Sioux Falls -area charities received more than $1 million , including donations made through the Employee Community Impact Challenge. Funding went to the United Way, Community Foundation (for COVID-19 support), South Dakota Special Olympics, LifeScape, Junior Achievement, Help Line Center, and Great Plains Zoo. Employees also logged more than 700 volunteer hours. -area charities received more than , including donations made through the Employee Community Impact Challenge. Funding went to the United Way, Community Foundation (for COVID-19 support), South Dakota Special Olympics, LifeScape, Junior Achievement, Help Line Center, and Great Plains Zoo. Employees also logged more than 700 volunteer hours. Fargo area: In Fargo , nearly $450,000 went to key organizations, such as Fraser LTD, YWCA of Cass -Clay, United Way, and Great Plains Food Bank. Employees tallied more than 250 volunteer service hours. Sammons Financial Group was also named one of United Way of Cass -Clay's Most Generous Workplaces . In , nearly went to key organizations, such as Fraser LTD, YWCA of -Clay, United Way, and Great Plains Food Bank. Employees tallied more than 250 volunteer service hours. Sammons Financial Group was also named one of United Way of -Clay's Chicago area: Chicago charities received more than $500,000 for area not-for-profit organizations. Key partners included Marillac St. Vincent Family Services, The Boulevard, Deborah's Place, Cal's All-Star Angel Foundation , and St. Anthony Hospital. In 2020, Sammons Financial Group adjusted its focus on specific efforts to advance social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Directors Council and One Economy Financial Development Corp. in Des Moines, Conscious Youth Solutions in Sioux Falls, Legacy Children's Foundation in Fargo, and 100 Black Men of Chicago were among the funding priorities. "In each corporate city, we hand-picked organizations where we knew our dollars would make a difference," said Dinshaw. "We love to see the lives changed by putting these dollars to work, and look forward to the great results ahead in 2021." For more information on Sammons Financial Group's community involvement and regular community partners, visit us at www.sammonsfinancialgroup.com . About Sammons Financial Group, Inc. The companies of Sammons Financial Group, Inc. help families and businesses protect their future to enjoy life's moments today. A subsidiary of Sammons Enterprises, Inc., Sammons Financial Group is privately owned with member companies that are among the most enduring and stable in the financial services industry. Our companies include Midland National Life Insurance Company (including Sammons Corporate Markets); North American Company for Life and Health Insurance; and Sammons Institutional Group (including Midland Retirement Distributors and Sammons Retirement Solutions). Together, we offer today's most sought-after life insurance, annuity, and retirement planning products. Sammons Financial Group: With You for Every Moment. SOURCE Sammons Financial Group, Inc. Related Links www.sammonsfinancialgroup.com .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. Navajo Nation police officers fatally shot an armed suspect who allegedly pointed a gun at them, the police department said. The incident occurred Wednesday in St. Michaels, Arizona, after officers responded to a report of an armed suspect, the department said in a statement. According to the statement, the suspect drove off, prompting a pursuit that ended when police used a tire-deflation device to disable the suspects vehicle. The suspect got of the vehicle and then was shot after pointing a gun at the officers, the statement said. No identities were released. The incident was being investigated by the tribal Department of Criminal Investigation and the FBI, the statement said. St. Michaels is 22 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Gallup, New Mexico. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ (JNS) The little blue box is no longer ubiquitous in Jewish households the way it once was. The symbolic pushke into which coins were collected in the homes of both the rich and the poor to help the Jewish National Fund redeem the land of Israel has been replaced by websites where you can pay to have trees planted in Israel and other conventional fundraisers. But the work of the JNF, which was founded in 1901 by Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl and his associates in order to start making their dream of a state for the Jews a reality, is ongoing as it continues the work of building... Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-24 13:46:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ABUJA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian troops killed some Boko Haram militants while retaking a town "lost" to them earlier in the country's northeast region, said a spokesman for the army on Tuesday. Mohammed Yerima, the army spokesman, told Xinhua that the town of Marte and its surrounding areas in the northern state of Borno were cleared of militants who had laid siege to the region for some days. On Sunday, Ibrahim Attahiru, the country's new army chief, ordered the troops to recover the town within 48 hours from the Boko Haram militants who reportedly had taken over the area and hoisted their flag a few days ago. The troops successfully recovered the town in less than 48 hours, said Yerima, who declined to give the exact figure of terrorists killed during the military operation. The troops, backed by air cover of the Nigerian Air Force, successfully swept through Marte, destroying several improvised explosive devices and landmines placed across their routes, he said. "The gallant troops are currently in total control of the general area," he added. The Boko Haram group has been trying to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The jihadist group has also extended its attacks to countries in the Lake Chad Basin. Enditem New Delhi: Consumers resisted buying new clothes and swapped formal, occasion wear with comfort clothing as the pandemic prompted them to spend more time indoors. As a result, Indias apparel market was down 27% from Rs4,129 billion in 2019 to 3,022 billion in 2020, according to estimates by the Boston Consulting Group released Wednesday. In apparel, comfort wear categories like athleisure are witnessing significant acceleration owing to 'work from home' and fitness needs of consumers. Role of traditional media as an influencer has got diminished in this category post-covid with social media and other online channels emerging as dominant influencer," the report said. Indian apparel market most hit by covid is making a gradual comeback, it said. Despite a 27% drop in size in 2020, market expected to come back strongly driven by a range of consumer and supply side factors, it added. BCG expects the apparel market to touch 5,781 billion by 2024. But the category is expected to witness some long-term shifts among the heightened consumer dependence on social media and e-commerce. The report said that consumer wardrobe will continue to move towards more casual wear with a greater focus on athleisure. It also highlighted the increasing influence of social media and websites on the fashion choices and buying habits of consumers. However, it said that despite increased dependence on e-commerce stores will remain relevant too. In apparel, athleisure category is seeing market-beating growth and has accelerated the ongoing trend of casualization of wardrobe. Traditional medias role as influencer has decreased significantly in this category, BCG said. It expects the athleisure category to report a CAGR of 20-25% in the next five years. BCG also reported 1.2 times jump in instances of e-commerce buyers in the category with more affluent shoppers moving to buying clothing online. Pre-pandemic, only 7% of Indias affluent shoppers bought clothes onlinethe number has now moved up to 10%. In its report, however, BCG also noted that Indias consumption trajectory has been dented by the impact of covid-19. The lockdowns and subsequent restrictions on movement is expected to delay the growth of Indias over retail market by 1 to 2 years. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions KYODO NEWS - Feb 25, 2021 - 22:56 | All, Japan Japan's farm ministry punished six senior officials on Thursday, including its top bureaucrat, for accepting expensive meals with a former head of a major egg producer who has been indicted for bribery. The development could deal a further blow to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's administration, which is already under fire over a similar scandal involving other elite bureaucrats who were wined and dined by Suga's eldest son and other businesspeople. The government has already seen its approval ratings tumble over public dissatisfaction with its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Among those punished, Vice Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masaaki Edamoto, the highest-ranking government employee at the ministry, and two others were given a 10 percent salary cut for one month. The remaining three officials were subjected to reprimands or other disciplinary actions, while a now retired official was not subject to punishment. Current farm minister Kotaro Nogami has decided to voluntarily return one month of his Cabinet salary. The penalties for the farm ministry officials came after the communications ministry on Wednesday reprimanded 11 officials for lavish meals paid for by officials of a broadcasting company including Suga's eldest son. Former farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa, who is close to Suga, was also wined and dined by Yoshiki Akita, a representative of Akita Foods Co. Last month Yoshikawa was indicted without arrest for receiving a total of 5 million yen ($47,000) from Akita. "I would like to once again sincerely apologize for making the public lose faith in the ministry's administration," Nogami said at a press conference Thursday. The ministry's internal probe found seven officials had dined with Akita in either or both October 2018 and September 2019 in violation of the national public service ethics law, which bans receiving favors from stakeholders. The ministry said Akita footed the bills for all of the meals that cost around 20,000 yen per person. While in office, Yoshikawa received money from Akita between November 2018 and August 2019. He has resigned from the House of Representatives, citing a chronic heart problem. Although some of the punished officials were aware that Akita would be present at the meals, they failed to report to the ministry in advance. Akita, who served as an industry body executive, is known for having lobbied lawmakers and farm ministry officials to ease strict international animal welfare standards and expand a government program to cover farmers' losses when egg prices fall sharply. Related coverage: Japan opposition urges resignation of elite female bureaucrat over scandal Japan elite bureaucrats punished over scandal involving Suga's son More ministry officials found to have been dined by Suga's son CMA CGM Group chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saade kicks off the TPM21 conference from his Marseille headquarters. Photo credit: CMA CGM. Rodolphe Saade, chairman and CEO of CMA CGM Group, told the virtual TPM21 conference Thursday that while he sympathized with shippers facing record-high rates and poor service, the current extreme price levels were a result of the disrupted markets. But given the historically low rates in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saade said the container shipping industry needed overall rate levels to increase, and this would be a central part of new contract negotiations. Some customers may say they do not want to renegotiate every year and want a multi-year contract, others will say they want to take advantage of the market and do a spot negotiation, he said. We will adapt to the needs of our customers, but again, we cannot work for free. The trans-Pacific container shipping system in particular has sagged under a seemingly unending deluge of imports from Asia into North America. The most severe congestion is concentrated around the US gateway ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which are expected to see terminal congestion and vessel backlogs for at least the next two to three months. Months of strong demand has led to the slow turnaround of containers within the overwhelmed US inland logistics system. The slow return of containers to Asia has led to equipment shortages in China, leaving shippers struggling to get their cargo loaded and transported. I am telling our customers I understand their frustration, but we are going through exceptional times, Saade told attendees. Volume from Asia, and from China especially, to various destinations is extremely high. We are doing our best to find equipment and going on the charter market to find vessels, but it is not easy. We are doing our best but would like them to be patient. But Saade conceded that the service levels being provided by carriers had to improve. Data from Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis shows on-time performance in January from Asia to the West Coast of North America fell to 13.8 percent, down from 68.1 percent in January 2019. We cannot say to our customers, You have to pay the price, but I am not going to give you containers, and Im going to blank sailings every week, he said. Blank sailings are not solutions. We were forced to do so during COVID, but they should not be used. As a shipping line it is more important to offer a good service. Ships, terminals are costly assets However, Saade said the CMA CGM was investing heavily in technology and assets such as terminals and vessels, and that came at a price. He hammered home the point that, despite the current spike in rate levels, prices have been too low for years. Today the period is exceptional with extremely high rates because of the COVID-19 situation, but there needs to be an understanding that we cannot lose money always, and that has been the case for many years, he said. Shipping logistics is very important to the industry, and that is why a decent price has to be agreed, otherwise we will be in trouble. Over the past decade, slow growth and a series of rate wars eroded carrier revenue and led to a series of heavy losses, sparking widespread industry consolidation and the bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping in 2016. But container shipping will certainly not be in any financial trouble this year, according to Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at ship owner association BIMCO. In a market outlook released Thursday, Sand said rates will remain elevated, especially on the contracted side of the business where the bulk of the cargo is carried. The long-term contracts currently being negotiated and fixed will provide a solid income stream for carriers throughout the year, he said. As these account for by far the largest share of transported volumes and carrier income, the current strength of the contract market paints a promising picture for carriers bottom lines this year, even if rates on the spot market start falling. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @greg_knowler. A lab worker has been allowed to bring a sexual discrimination case after his female boss allegedly told him to 'man up,' over moving some boxes, and told him she 'doesn't hire men because they are less organised'. Daniel Price says he suffered 'extreme discrimination,' at PiQ Laboratories in Ebbw Vale, Wales, which became a 'toxic environment,' after he was allegedly frozen out of conversations on several occasions. He alleges that lab manager Ashleigh Knowles told him he was 'lucky,' to have a job, as he was a man. On one occasion, he claims she told him: 'You're a man and you don't need to be listening to this'. He says that a catalogue of incidents between June 2019 and May last year at the food testing lab in Ebbw Vale, South Wales amounted to an: 'Extreme discrimination against males within the workplace, leading to a toxic work environment for myself.' Daniel Price is suing PiQ Laboratories for sexual discrimination as he claims work became a 'toxic environment,' after he was allegedly frozen out of conversations and told he was 'lucky' to have a job at the food testing lab The employment tribunal at Cardiff heard that discussing a new appointment, Ms Knowles said: 'It will more than likely be a girl because women tend to be better and more organised in the lab.' She then allegedly told Mr Price: 'You are lucky to have your job because everyone was shocked that it was a guy being employed - we normally only employ females because men are less organised.' Mr Price said on one occasion he was asked by Miss Knowles to carry boxes that had been delivered 'because you're a man.' Ashleigh Knowles, lab manager at PiQ Laboratories, allegedly told Mr Price 'we normally only employ females because men are less organised.' He also claims Ms Knowles told him to 'man up,' when he complained about moving boxes Another time when he challenged her that the tasks should not lie solely with him because he was male she threatened him with disciplinary action over his alleged insubordination, he claims. On 29 October 2019 he received a WhatsApp from her talking about a visit from a colleague from another branch in which she said: 'Use an extra set of hands when you can* He could always move boxes too', the tribunal was told. On 16 March 2020 he refused to move boxes as he was suffering from a hernia but was told by Miss Knowles: 'Man up and get on with it, it's only a few boxes.' He claims she went on to tell other staff members that he had refused which led to a 'tense' work environment. At one point when he tried to enter a room and Miss Knowles was talking to a colleague, he claims she told him: 'Go back to work, we are talking in here.' Two months later on 22 November 2019 as he tried to enter the office again he alleges Miss Knowles told him: 'Go away, we are talking about woman stuff'. He says he replied: 'It's ok, I have three sisters and I'm used to it' to which she replied: 'No, you're a man and you don't need to be listening to this.' Again in January last year as he tried to enter the office he said that Debbie Powell, who was talking to Miss Knowles and another woman told him: 'You should leave, this conversation doesn't involve you.' Mr Price was dismissed from PiQ Laboratories last May. A claim of unfair dismissal was thrown out as he had not been at the company for the requisite two years, starting in January 2019 Undeterred he stayed, but described the atmosphere as 'tense' as he did his work and nobody else talked. Lastly, on May 26 last year he was allegedly told by Miss Knowles as he tried to enter the office: 'This conversation isn't for you to hear, girls only'. Two days later he was dismissed. A claim of unfair dismissal was thrown out as he had not been at the company for the requisite two years, starting in January 2019. Allowing the sex discrimination claim to proceed, Employment Judge Rachel Harfield said in her judgement on the hearing earlier this month: 'In my judgment, the claimant's case is sufficiently arguable...[and] it should proceed to a full hearing. 'It is for the tribunal at that full hearing to hear all the evidence and then decide whether the alleged acts happened and their context.' Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 03:22:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the newly-selected prime minister of Libya, speaks during a press conference in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 25, 2021. Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Thursday presented the ministerial structure of his government to the House of Representatives. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua) TRIPOLI, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the newly-selected prime minister of Libya, on Thursday presented the ministerial structure of his government to the House of Representatives. "We presented the ministerial structure and the work program of the government, as well as the program of the selection and appointment of the ministers, to the House of Representatives," Dbeibah told a press conference in the capital Tripoli. "The announcement of the names (of the cabinet) will be done as soon as the session of the House of Representatives is held," he said, pointing out that this would be a government of "technocrats and professionals" representing all Libyans. "More than 3,000 resumes of candidates were presented to us for ministers and senior posts in the government. We viewed 2,300 resumes from all cities and areas of Libya," Dbeibah revealed. "We will form three main teams: the first will look into the challenges of the coronavirus, the second address the electricity problem, and the third work on uniting the Libyans through the national reconciliation council," the prime minister said. The UN-sponsored Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) recently selected a new executive authority for the country, which was welcomed by all Libyan parties. Mohammad Younes Menfi was appointed as the President of the new Presidency Council, along with Abdul Hamid Dbeibah as the new Prime Minister. The new executive authority's main task is to prepare Libya for the general elections on Dec. 24, as agreed by the LPDF. Enditem Hallucinating and ignorant Owusu Cobbiah Richard pops up like the Phoenix to present himself as a founding father of the NDP. Unlike all other signed district founders, Owusu Cobbiah is holding himself in the capacity of NDP constitution Art 4.1 founding fathers, namely Her Excellency Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and her late spouse Former President Rawlings, in a height of hallucination. In the process, Owusu Cobbiah is exposed as a masquerador, mercenary, and hireling of the NDC steeped deep in the characteristic modus operandi of his paymasters. So characteristically Owusu Cobbiah Richard is soaked in indolence and irresponsibility believing he can drag the NDP into his diabolical demonstration in clear violation of public order and law. Can it be that Owusu Cobbiah demonstrates mental retardation to hold himself as a founder of the NDP and so can carry the whole party in one swoop decision into an evil demonstration without recourse to NEC or Conference? His justification is simply I signed the EC registration documents as a founder and your checks at EC will prove me right. Owusu Cobbiah definitely arouses empathy as a hallucinator much more seriously than his ignorance and as a tool in the hands of the NDP avowed detractors of the NDC. Let us wish Owusu Cobbiah Richard a speedy recovery from his pernicious hallucination. Secretary-General, NDP Alhaji Mohamed Frempong. Source: Michael Akrofi/Peacefm Correspondent 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 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. KYODO NEWS - Feb 25, 2021 - 17:22 | All, Japan Opposition parties demanded Thursday the resignation of an elite female bureaucrat who was treated to a luxury dinner by the eldest son of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, but the government rejected the call. Cabinet Public Relations Secretary Makiko Yamada, 60, was found to have been treated to a meal in 2019 worth 74,000 yen ($700) by Seigo Suga and other officials of Tohokushinsha Film Corp., which runs a satellite broadcasting business. As she was then a vice minister for policy coordination at the communications ministry and Seigo Suga represented a stakeholder, the dinner violated the ethics code. "As a matter of course, she should resign," Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii said at a press conference. Kenta Izumi, policy chief of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, also said, "Being treated to a dinner worth about 70,000 yen is beyond common sense. The government (of Suga) pampers officials of its own." Yamada apologized in parliament but said she will not resign over the scandal. The government has also scrambled to keep her as a symbol of women's empowerment. Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Ryota Takeda rejected the opposition's demand for Yamada to step down, saying in parliament he will "make efforts to regain the lost trust." Prime Minister Suga suggested Wednesday that the government would not dismiss her, telling reporters she has sincerely reflected on what she has done. "I have high hopes for her as a female public relations official," he said. Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Yamada will voluntarily return 705,000 yen, or 60 percent of her monthly salary, over the 2019 dinner. "I apologize for damaging public trust in civil servants due to the violation (of the ethics code) while I was at the communications ministry," Yamada told the House of Representatives' Budget Committee, when she was summoned as a witness. But she also said, "I want to improve myself as much as possible by reflecting on it while I continue to serve in my post." Yamada became the first woman to assume her current position, which sees her manage the prime minister's press conferences, in September last year, when the elder Suga replaced Shinzo Abe as prime minister. Abe had also made her Japan's first female secretary for a prime minister in 2013 as his government sought to promote gender equality as a pillar of its growth strategy. Yamada claimed to be a "woman who never declines invitations to drinking parties" in a past video message addressed to young people. She said in the video those who decline a request to join such a session "will never be invited again," adding, "I hope all of you will try hard to increase your chances of meeting people." Yamada said Thursday she may have discussed the broadcasting industry in general with the Tohokushinsha officials, but they did not ask her for any favors. "I did not make sufficient checks about whether (the Tohokushinsha officials) were stakeholders. That was slack of me," Yamada told parliament. Other senior bureaucrats of the communications ministry who were similarly treated to expensive meals by the Tohokushinsha officials were reprimanded Wednesday for ethics code violations. But Yamada escaped a reprimand as she has already retired from the ministry and the ethics code does not cover an individual granted special status to serve in a government post. The government has been trying to contain the scandal, partly because it is seeking to avoid the exit of a woman from a government post following recent sexist comments by the former president of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee that highlighted Japan's backwardness in promoting gender equality. The remarks by Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister, on Feb. 3 that participation by women in board meetings made them "drag on" triggered a wave of criticism at home and abroad. The 83-year-old later stepped down over the sexism row. Japan consistently ranks low in the World Economic Forum's gender gap rankings, coming 121st out of 153 countries in 2020 and occupying last place among major advanced economies. The government set a goal in 2003 of filling around 30 percent of leadership positions in the country with women by 2020, but it pushed back the date to "as soon as possible within the 2020s" after failing to meet the target. Related coverage: Japan elite bureaucrats punished over scandal involving Suga's son More ministry officials found to have been dined by Suga's son NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Khaled Salem, the U.S. candidate running against Chuck Schumer in 2022, today made a policy statement about the Middle East, appealing to Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi for definitive action in urging Egyptian citizens to forget past wars and the history of bad memories with the state of Israel. Instead, Khaled Salam suggests initiating comprehensive normalization of diplomatic and humanitarian interaction between Egypt and Israel to create civilized and productive relationships between the two countries. U.S. Senate Candidate Khaled Salem U.S. Senate Candidate Khaled Salem "The President of Egypt has the power to change the dynamic between Egypt and Israel," said Khaled. "In fact, the Egyptian President must lead by example, especially when the Egyptians in their 'Arab Spring' demonstrations were sincerely advocating for a change and path to democracy. All people want freedom, yet the Egyptians are constantly afraid of oppression and retribution from their government for wanting to create harmony and modernize their society. To those who say that Israel must do its part for the sake of peace, I respond that I am confident Israel will take the necessary steps to foster a relationship based on honor and respect. People say this is a complicated situation. It is, of course. However, if both sides can agree that progress is imperative, a lot of complexity will start to sort itself out." Khaled worries that Egypt is falling behind, an issue that will affect American policy in the region more than most people realize. As he put it, there is unnecessary outrage on the part of the Egyptian government over sharing productive and creative relationships between Egypt and Israel, having nothing to do with politics. He added, "The Egyptian President must leverage relationships within the United States of America to facilitate human rights inside of Egypt, including convincing religious leaders who guide much of the Egyptian population. Human rights must be available to everyone in the Middle East." Khaled further urges those who follow the religion of Islam to vote on important issues that will change the dynamic in the Middle East. He advocates that the state of Saudi Arabia change its ruling system from a kingdom to a democracy because its Kings do not rule in the best interest of the Muslim people. Khaled again stated his primary policy positions. These include: Tourist visas to the US must require travel medical insurance for entry. Laws and procedures to reduce domestic violence nationwide. A reduction in U.S. military activity and presence in the Middle East. A policy that requires these regions pay for American military services. Free university education for American students. The establishment of a home loan program for middle class single parents. Khaled is running in the next general election, scheduled for November 8, 2022. Thirty-four of the Senate's 100 seats are being contested in these elections. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CEO_-_American_Human_Rights_Organization.jpg For more information, visit https://www.khaled2022forcongress.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Khaledforcongress/, https://twitter.com/KhaledYork, Media Contact: U.S. Senate Candidate Khaled Salem [email protected] +1 518 348 6868 SOURCE U.S. Senate Candidate Khaled Salem 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. The war crimes trial of Alieu Kosiah was thrown into turmoil on Thursday as one of the Liberian witnesses flown to Switzerland to testify on Mr Kosiahs behalf told the court he will not return to Liberia because his life is in danger following his testimony. It will be better for me to be jailed with Kosiah because my life will be protected, he told the Swiss Federal Criminal Court prosecuting Mr Kosiah for war crimes in connection with Liberias 14-year civil war. My life is not safe in Liberia. The man had arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday and was to return to Liberia on Thursday. He is one of several witnesses called by Mr Kosiah himself to help him establish his defence that he was not guilty of the war crimes for which he is accused by the seven plaintiffs in the case. Judge Jean-Luc Bacher told the 40-year-old that he had agreed to the terms and conditions of his participation before boarding the plane, which did not permit him to stay on. The judge said his protection was in the hands of the Liberian government, not that of Switzerland. But the man insisted he did not want to go back to the West African country. You say I free to go back home but I am not free to go back home, he said in verbal sparring with Mr Bacher that lasted several minutes. The witness said he was afraid people loyal to Mr Kosiah would retaliate against him for his testimony. I am evidence. Liberians are good at destroying evidence. I need to be protected. Mr Bacher asked him to talk to prosecution lawyer Andreas Muller and immediately called off the proceedings. Mr Kosiahs lawyer, Dimitri Gianoli, did not respond to a late text asking for comment. The mans actions will cast a chill on all the ongoing European investigations of Liberians accused of war crimes. Finding witnesses with strong, clear memories of the atrocities they witnessed and also the courage to testify has been a challenge for investigation teams. International governments may be less willing to undertake a case that risks witnesses claiming asylum because of their testimony. The mans actions may influence the other witnesses in the trial who are in Switzerland awaiting their turn to testify over the next two days. Should the man eventually be granted asylum that could also influence the thinking of potential witnesses in the future. None of the witnesses flown to the US in the trials of Mohammed Jabbateh and Thomas Woewiyu in Philadelphia claimed asylum. The move comes as a Finnish court has begun proceedings in Liberia against accused war criminal Gibril Massaquoi. Rather than bring the Liberian witnesses to Finland, the Finnish court decided to go to them in Liberia. But having witnesses testify on Liberian soil presents other challenges, including the fear that they will feel less free to speak. New Narratives has agreed to the plaintiffs lawyers requests to conceal the identifies of the witnesses because of their credible fear of retaliation. European media covering the trials has observed the same precaution. Kosiah initiated me In extraordinary testimony on Wednesday, the witness whom Mr Kosiah and his lawyer presumably thought would absolve Mr Kosiah of the alleged crimes, made a clear case that Mr Kosiah had recruited him as a child soldier, a war crime itself. The man, now 40, told the court that Mr Kosiah recruited him when he was a child in 1992. He said Mr Kosiah and other rebels had captured him when he was 12, in Todee, Montserrado County. Later they trained and assigned him as a bodyguard to Mr Kosiah with whom he stayed in Tubmanburg, Lofa, Bong and Monrovia between 1992 and 1998. He said he and other children had been caught up in a gun battle between Mr Kosiahs United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and their rival the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor, who later became president. He (Kosiah) was the one who initiated me in the revolution. He took me to be his son, the 40-year-old man said. He saved my life. I took him to be my second god. Everywhere he was going I had the right to be there, and everywhere I was he had the right to be there. That is why I know a lot about him, he said, adding that he tasted Mr Kosiahs meals before the commander ate them. He told the court that he and Mr Kosiah fought many battles together, surviving ambushes and mines. He showed the court scars on his limbs that he said were the result of those events. The man said he was in contact with Mr Kosiah in Switzerland before Swiss authorities began investigating him for war crimes. ADVERTISEMENT Mr Kosiah served as director of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Liberian National Police between 1995 and 1996 following a cease-fire agreement among warring factions. He fled Liberia to Switzerland in 1997 after Mr Taylor won the elections. A year later, he was granted asylum and lived there peacefully as a married resident until his arrest in November 2014. All seven Liberians who lodged the complaint against Mr Kosiah have testified to the court already, detailing all 25 counts of murder, cannibalism, rape, sexual enslavement, forced transportation, looting and recruitment of a child-soldier. Mr Kosiah, 45, who faces a maximum 20-year sentence in this mountainous, central European country, denies all of those charges. He says he was not in Lofa between the early and mid-1990s when he is accused of having committed the acts. The manthe second former ULIMO fighter to testify in the trial expected to end on March 5dismissed the charges against Mr Kosiah. He denied Mr Kosiah, killed, raped, looted and forced civilians to head-carry loot long distances. He was a good man. He was one of the commanders that saved peoples lives in Lofa, he said, answering a question from the Judge Bacher. If you go to Lofa, people will praise him. I never saw him looting, the man said. Kosiah was uncharacteristically calm throughout the mans testimony, not even seen much flipping through his papers nor chatting to his lawyer Dmitri Gianoli as he had done during previous testimony. Wednesdays witness also told the court several times that ULIMO committed crimes, something the court has heard throughout since this trial resumed on February 15. He admitted hearing about the butchering of civilians in Foya District and placing of their body parts in wheelbarrows, which the plaintiffs in this trial have spoken of. He conceded that some civilians were tied with their hands locked behind their backstorture known as duck-fowl tie bay. He said ULIMO forced villagers to transport looted goods. ULIMO looted, I will not lie to you, he said, adding that it did not have external support so had to loot to support their war. We did the transport because we needed food. After his testimony, the court heard another former ULIMO rebel. The trial will continue on Thursday with another surprising defence witness another ex-ULIMO commander who has also been charged with war crimes in connection to the Liberian Civil War. This report was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Years after the conclusion of his beloved The Andy Griffith Show, the shows star realized the hold the series had in so many fans hearts. There were fan clubs for the show and numerous honors bestowed on its actors. Griffith was protective of his program, its characters, and how they were portrayed. And so, when a well-intentioned teen made a proposal regarding The Andy Griffith Show that began to gain steam, the actor and television personality put an end to it but quick. The Andy Griffith Show stars Andy Griffith and Don Knotts attend an event in tuxedos in 1978 | Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images Griffith admitted the shows star wasnt even a person In a 1998 conversation with the Television Academy Foundation, Griffith discussed series creator Sheldon Leonards thought that the show had been misnamed. He felt the real principal character of the show wasnt Griffith; it was Mayberry. Many years later, the actor agreed. Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee, Ron Howard as Opie Taylor, and Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor in a scene from The Andy Griffith Show, 1960 | CBS via Getty Images Sheldon actually said one time, I think we misnamed this show. It shouldve been called Mayberry to start with, Griffith said. Richard Kelly in his 1981 book The Andy Griffith Show opined, The real hero of [the show] is the town of Mayberry, presided over by the sheriff without a gun, Andy Taylor. It is a small world, one that, ironically, is more colorful on simple black-and-white television sets. It is filled with wonderful characters we can all understand and care about. It is nostalgic and funny, and most important, it is timeless. Griffith nixed a statue of Don Knotts After Knotts February 2006 death at age 81 from lung cancer, Two fans from Mount Airy, Andys hometown, would commission a life-size bronze statue of Deputy Fife, Daniel de Vise wrote in his memoir of the two actors friendship, Andy and Don. The pair planned to donate it to the city once they had raised the necessary funds. The fans hoped to add the Don Knotts/Barney Fife statue alongside a current statue of Griffith that stands by the Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mount Airy. Unveiled in 2004, that statue presented the well-known image of Andy and Opie, hand in hand, fishing rods in their other hands. Its inscription reads: A Simpler Time, A Sweeter Place. Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor, Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife and Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle during season 4. | CBS Photo Archive RELATED: This Andy Griffith Show Cast Member Had No Acting Experience Before Joining the Comedy Series Once Griffith got wind of the project, he contacted Knotts widow Francey sounding hysterical. Griffith, de Vise reported, wanted the statue nipped in the bud. Though its not clear why the legendary actor was so opposed to a statue of his dear friend, especially when one had been erected of himself, he did in the end achieve his goal. He convinced Francey to withhold her blessing from the statue and eventually it was shelved. In 2016, however, Knotts was finally memorialized with a statue of his own in his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia. Griffith rejected a teens Mayberry campaign In 1984, over 20 years before the Don Knotts statue incident, another fan took it upon himself to honor the show bearing Griffiths name. De Vise stated that at that time, teenager John Meroney organized The Andy Griffith Show Appreciation Society, whose membership reportedly once included George Herbert Walker Bush. The youngster sought out an authentic town that would assume the name of Mayberry to commemorate the shows 25th anniversary. Don Knotts as Barney Fife and Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor fumble over a gun in a scene from The Andy Griffith Show, 1960 | CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images Once Griffith got wind of that plan, de Vise noted the actors reply in a statement to The Winston-Salem Sentinel: This whole idea of searching for a town to change its name to Mayberry is enormously embarrassing to me. The Matlock actor continued, I just wanted you to know that I had nothing to do with this. This all came out of [Meroneys] head. I have asked him not to pursue it further. The author observed, Slapping down a 14-year-old boy was not, perhaps, how Sheriff Taylor would have handled it. Call it quality control, or micromanagement, or simple possessiveness, but nobody was going to celebrate Mayberry without Andys blessing. Parents of a young boy are suing the Bethlehem Area School District, alleging their son was repeatedly sexually assaulted on a district school bus and that school officials did nothing to stop the attacks. The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday against the school district claims the violent, physical and sexual torture by another student took place over four months in 2019 on a bus to Farmersville Elementary School in Bethlehem Township. The school districts solicitor declined to comment about the lawsuit. The parents said problems began when an older student on the bus began bullying their son, who is now 6, in September 2019. The boys father notified school staff of the bullying, including the bus driver, teachers and the school counselor, the suit says. The two boys were still transported together after the report, and what followed were numerous instances of sexual abuse over the next two months on the bus, according to the suit. The younger boy finally told his parents of the sexual assaults at the end of 2019, and a report was made with Bethlehem Township police on Dec. 30, 2019. Bethlehem Township police Chief Dan Pancoast confirmed a complaint was filed with the department regarding inappropriate behavior on a Bethlehem Area school bus, and an investigation followed. The investigation has since concluded, but the incident involves juveniles and the chief said he could not share any additional information. The lawsuit says the older boy was interviewed by police with his mother in January 2020, and the boy confessed to the sexual assaults and incidents. A thorough investigation was conducted regarding the alleged incidents, the Northampton County District Attorney Terry Houck said. Under state law, conduct of a minor can only be delinquent, or criminal, if the minor is over the age of 10, Houck said. In this case, criminal charges could not be filed, Houck said. The school was notified and directed by police to take whatever internal corrective action they deemed appropriate. The victims attorney, Michael Shaffer, said the districts buses have surveillance cameras, and he is trying to obtain the footage. The victims parents claim the school district violated their sons civil rights by failing to protect him, and are seeking more than $150,000 in damages. The family has sought counseling for their son, but the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of available in-person counseling has made that difficult, Shaffer said. Theyve done their best to get him the help that he needs. He is significantly affected by this, Shaffer said of the boy. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close (ANSAmed) - LA VALLETTA, 25 FEB - Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, Maltese previous offenders who were arrested two days ago based on revelations from one of the assassins of Daphne Caruana Galizia, were formally charged Thursday as accomplices to murder for having provided the bomb that killed the journalist on 16 October 2017, and for participation in a criminal organisation. "With the evidence that we have, now we are able to say that all the people involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, from the instigator to the last accomplice, have been arrested or charged," said police chief Angelo Gafa. There are no politicians among those charged as accomplices to the murder. The tycoon Yorgen French is charged with ordering the murder. The perpetrators, who were arrested in December 2017, are brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio with Vince Muscat. On Tuesday, Muscat pleaded guilty and accepted a plea bargain with a sentence of 15 years in prison for Caruana's murder and a pardon for the still-unresolved murder of attorney Carmel Chircop in 2015. Caruana had also worked on the attorney's murder, with a post on her blog that reported rumours against the Agius brothers. The charge against Robert Agius and Jamie Vella as accomplices to the Caruana murder was confirmed Thursday morning by the Valletta Court, presided over by Judge Victor Axiaq, who also ordered their assets freezed. Vella, 37, and Adrian Agius, 42, Robert's brother, were also formally charged with the murder of the attorney Chircop. Formally charged along with them was George Degiorgio, 58, already incarcerated on charges of being the man who, with a text message, detonated the bomb that killed the journalist. (ANSAmed). In addition to the illegal quotas, SFFA contends that Harvard balances the percentages of each freshman class by race and has refused to implement meaningful race-neutral admissions policies that would produce a uniquely individualized student body, thus making racial preferences unnecessary. Finally, as SFFA irrefutably proved at the lower courts, Harvard's admissions officials consistently and methodically rated Asian-American students lower on personality traits such as "likability," "courage" and "kindness." After losing at the trial court in October, 2019 SFFA appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which affirmed the lower court's ruling on November 12, 2020. Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, said: "After six and one-half years of litigation, the hundreds of Asian-American students who were unfairly and illegally rejected from Harvard because of their race may soon have this lawsuit reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is our hope that the justices will accept this case and finally end the consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions." Blum added, "Americans of all races overwhelmingly disapprove of using race as a factor in college admissions. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center and others have found that 73% of Americans do not approve of colleges treating applicants differently by skin color or ethnic heritage." Blum said, "Harvard's pursuit of skin-color diversity cannot justify discrimination directed against Asian-Americans or anyone else. Most Americans think it is wrong for individuals to be defined by their race." Blum concluded, "Racial classifications and preferences in college admissions balkanizes and tribalizes campus life for students and faculty. This case gives the Supreme Court the opportunity to restore the enduring principles of our nation's civil rights laws, which proclaim that a person's race should not be used to help or harm them in their life's endeavors." Students for Fair Admissions Files Lawsuit Challenging Admissions Policies at Yale University (Washington, DC) Today, Students for Fair Admissions filed a federal lawsuit challenging Yale's discriminatory admissions policy. The complaint is attached. In October 2020, SFFA filed a request to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, which alleged that Yale's admissions practices discriminated against Asian-American and white applicants. That request was denied by the district court and the lawsuit, United States v. Yale University, was subsequently withdrawn by the Department of Justice on February 3, 2021. Edward Blum, president of SFFA said, "Yale, Harvard, the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas and many dozens of other highly competitive colleges and universities employ admissions practices that are discriminatory, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. Students applying to undergraduate and post-graduate programs should be judged on their individual talents, character, academic skills, extra-curricular achievements and socio-economic background but not the color of their skin." Contact: Edward Blum: 703-505-1922 [email protected] SOURCE Students for Fair Admissions Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probes WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of charged particles called cosmic rays sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecrafts structures after impact with those dust grains. The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured stunning views of Venus during its close flyby of the planet in July 2020. Though Parker Solar Probe's focus is the Sun, Venus plays a critical role in the mission: The spacecraft whips by Venus a total of seven times over the course of its seven-year mission, using the planet's gravity to bend the spacecraft's orbit. These Venus gravity assists allow Parker Solar Probe to fly closer and closer to the Sun on its mission to study the dynamics of the solar wind close to its source. But -- along with the orbital dynamics -- these passes can also yield some unique and even unexpected views of the inner solar system. During the mission's third Venus gravity assist on July 11, 2020, the onboard Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, or WISPR, captured a striking image of the planet's nightside from 7,693 miles away. WISPR is designed to take images of the solar corona and inner heliosphere in visible light, as well as images of the solar wind and its structures as they approach and fly by the spacecraft. At Venus, the camera detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow -- light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. The feature appears dark because of its lower temperature, about 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) cooler than its surroundings. That aspect of the image took the team by surprise, said Angelos Vourlidas, the WISPR project scientist from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, who coordinated a WISPR imaging campaign with Japan's Venus-orbiting Akatsuki mission. "WISPR is tailored and tested for visible light observations. We expected to see clouds, but the camera peered right through to the surface." "WISPR effectively captured the thermal emission of the Venusian surface," said Brian Wood, an astrophysicist and WISPR team member from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "It's very similar to images acquired by the Akatsuki spacecraft at near-infrared wavelengths." This surprising observation sent the WISPR team back to the lab to measure the instrument's sensitivity to infrared light. If WISPR can indeed pick up near-infrared wavelengths of light, the unforeseen capability would provide new opportunities to study dust around the Sun and in the inner solar system. If it can't pick up extra infrared wavelengths, then these images -- showing signatures of features on Venus' surface -- may have revealed a previously unknown "window" through the Venusian atmosphere. "Either way," Vourlidas said, "some exciting science opportunities await us." For more insight into the July 2020 images, the WISPR team planned a set of similar observations of the Venusian nightside during Parker Solar Probe's latest Venus flyby on Feb. 20, 2021. Mission team scientists expect to receive and process that data for analysis by the end of April. "We are really looking forward to these new images," said Javier Peralta, a planetary scientist from the Akatsuki team, who first suggested a Parker Solar Probe campaign with Akatsuki, which has been in orbiting Venus since 2015. "If WISPR can sense the thermal emission from the surface of Venus and nightglow -- most likely from oxygen -- at the limb of the planet, it can make valuable contributions to studies of the Venusian surface." Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA's Living with a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living with a Star program is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Johns Hopkins APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. 2021-02-23 Maeci On 23 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Luigi Di Maio held telephone talks with the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Colombia Claudia Blum. Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday indicated he may loosen COVID restrictions on businesses next week, after the state saw drops in cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks. Edwards, in a town hall with the Advocate, said the state is certainly doing better with the pandemic. He noted the share of COVID tests coming back positive has fallen to about 5%, and hospitalizations have dropped by about a third compared to six weeks ago. I anticipate based on the data I understand to be accurate...Well be making some changes with the proclamation that will become effective next Wednesday, Edwards said. Louisiana coronavirus: 68,028 more coronavirus vaccine doses administered statewide; see data There have been 68,028 more coronavirus vaccine doses administered in Louisiana since the last update on Monday, according to the Louisiana De Edwards declined to share details of what changes could be made, saying he will review the data with health leaders in the coming days. The latest order expires next Wednesday. His spokesperson, Christina Stephens, said on Twitter the governor is "reviewing data and recommendations on Monday and will look at the trends, but there has been some positive movement in our COVID hospitalizations and percent positivity." Louisiana experienced a dramatic COVID surge starting in November, prompting the governor to ratchet restrictions up at the end of that month. That move, which he called modified phase two, put occupancy restrictions of 50% on most businesses and closed bars to indoor service in most parishes. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Can't see the video below? Click here. Click here to jump to the part when John Bel Edwards addresses coronavirus restrictions. The governor also suggested he hoped to open bars sometime in the near future, with restrictions in place. Currently, parishes can open bars to indoor service if they see two consecutive weeks of test positivity under 5%, while all parishes can allow bars to open outdoors with some limitations. While the COVID numbers have improved, he also noted testing has lagged because of the winter storms and Mardi Gras. Plus, the states top health officials have warned the more transmissible U.K. variant could prompt another spike in cases in the coming weeks. I believe that things are going to steadily get better, Edwards said. The curveball out there is the UK variant. Before devoting herself fully to her artistic career, Sabine Losacker, born in 1961 in Cologne, had other lives. After studying Romance philology, as well as German language and literature, in 1989 she obtained a degree in translation. For three years she worked in the international department of the German broadcasting service of Deutsche Welle radio. That's how she earned her daily bread while cultivating her youthful passion for photography as a hobby. It was not until 1993, during an extended in Costa Rica that she discovered her artistic potential. For several semesters, she attended courses at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Costa Rica as an auditor, where she studied painting, drawing and sculpture. Back in Germany, in 2007, she took drawing classes and perfected her knowledge of painting in a private school from which she graduated in 2011, before embarking on a solo career. The starting point of her work remains the photo. Urban views whose details she reworks on the computer and then places on the canvas or paper. She invents new situations that have a mysterious or intriguing feeling. Depending on her moods, her work is figurative or abstract. She uses many materials: acrylic, oil, ink, pen, and loves to rework it all with the knife. Her goal is to tell exciting and sometimes poetic short stories of the different cities she visits. From her six years in Central America, she has kept a taste for the bright and expressive colours of Latin American artists such as the Ecuadorian Oswaldo Guayasamin (1919-1999), or the Mexican Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Those who still inspire her today are Eric Fishl, Gerhard Richter, Xenia Hausner, Franoise Nielly, Edward B. Gordon, Andrew Salgado, Andy Denzler etc... In the future, she would like to spend a little more time doing sculpture. Another of her many passions of youth. 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 Indian police found on Thursday a car with explosives near the home of Mukesh Ambani, Indias richest man and chairman of Indian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries. Reliance Industries is the most valuable company in India and has diversified operations, including oil refining. Reliance Industries owns the biggest refinery in India and the biggest refining hub in the world, Jamnagar. The refinery has a crude oil processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day, while Reliance Industries is also invested in oil exploration and production, petrochemicals, textiles, telecoms, and retail. A suspicious vehicle was found near Ambanis residence on Thursday evening, India time, the Mumbai Police said in a tweet. Police teams reached the spot immediately, examined & found some explosive material Gelatin inside. Its not an assembled explosive device. Further investigation is going on, the police said. Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh told Indian television channels that the vehicle, a Scorpio van, was found some distance away from Ambanis house. In July last year, Reliance Industries briefly surpassed Exxon as the worlds second most valuable firm doing business in energy after Saudi Arabias state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco. The Indian conglomerate, however, is not an energy firm per se, and most of the market rally in the middle of last year was thanks to its digital and retail operations, not the oil industry. However, shares in Reliance Industries slipped in the latter half of 2020, which booted Ambani out of the top ten of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in December. Earlier in 2020, Ambani sat at number four on that list, but the drop in Reliance Industries stock diminished the Indian billionaires estimated net worth. Currently, Ambani, who controls 42 percent of Reliance Industries, is number 12 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth estimated at US$80.6 billion. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The first season, which takes place in 1983, at a time of heightened East-West tension, deals with the growing fears in Moscow and East Berlin that NATO might launch a surprise nuclear attack under the guise of one of its annual military exercises. We have long known about Soviet fears of war at the time, but newly declassified documents released by the U.S. State Department last week suggest we came much closer to war than anyone realized at the time. By Nina Baker bakernin@grinnell.edu Tommy Hexter `21 became one of the only Grinnell College students to ever hold public office while still attending the College on Nov. 25, 2020 when he was elected to the Poweshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District. Since then, Hexter, along with his four fellow commissioners, has been in charge of protecting and managing the countys soil and water. Hexters upbringing on a two-acre vegetable and egg farm in Virginia led him to become environmentally- and food-conscious at a young age. Though his parents both worked as librarians rather than farmers, farming was always a central part of his childhood a part of his childhood that he didnt view as unordinary until he was much older. I guess I just didnt realize it was weird to have scooped chicken manure on my shirt from picking up six dozen eggs, said Hexter, so I didnt talk about it much in school. When he came to Grinnell in August 2017, Hexter wasnt planning to become as involved in Grinnells food culture as hed end up being. But soon after he arrived on campus, Hexter felt that there was a lack of place-based learning within Grinnell, which he characterizes as an educational approach which uses the local environment as a context for learning. In 2018, he co-founded Farm House, a residential project house for Grinnell students who are dedicated to sustainable agriculture. It soon became very clear to me how central food and agriculture is to the communities and to the landscape here, Hexter said. It was his desire to protect the Iowa environment that led him to run an independent campaign for commissioner last fall, becoming the fifth, and youngest, commissioner in the Conservation District. Hexter said that his number one priority during his four-year term is to bring more cultural diversity to the farming community in Poweshiek county and also to promote more biological diversity within the Iowa landscape. Hexter said he believes that these two goals are intertwined, since the more diverse the farming community becomes, the less monolithic its collection of crops will become as well. Hexter pointed to the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which provides grant programs like the Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant, which offers assistance to farmers from marginalized groups, as an organization which contributes to these goals. Every state receives $3 million in funding from the U.S. NRCS for the grant, but according to Hexter, the Iowa NRCS does not prioritize the administration of the grant because 99 percent of Iowa farmers are white. (The S&B could not independently verify the status of the programs administration.) Still, because the amount of funding is fixed by the U.S. NRCS, the Conservation District commissioners lack the authority to improve the availability of these programs for Poweshiek County residents. The only thing we really have power to do is to educate and connect farmers to the conservation programs, said Hexter. One thing that the Conservation District commissioners may be able to do to protect Poweshiek Countys ecosystem is monitor the nitrate levels in the English River. Last summer, McNulty Pork LLC began construction on a new Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), which will cause wastewater and hog manure into the river, Hexter said. A CAFO is an intensive farming operation in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for more than 45 days within each year, and which distributes its manure or wastewater into natural or man-made waterways. The Center for Disease Control has found that CAFOs often causes groundwater contamination which can lead to nitrate poisoning for residents. As of 2020, there are more than 50 CAFOs within Poweshiek County. McNultys is the newest one. Hexter has said he stands firmly against the creation of new CAFOs across all of Iowa, and has worked with the group Poweshiek CARES, who advocates against the creation of new CAFOs by advocating for the passage of Iowa House File 440, which would place an indefinite moratorium on the creation of CAFOs in Iowa. Ultimately, he said his inability to halt the construction of CAFOs within Poweshiek County comes from the lack of power that commissioners hold. Hexter described the primary problem of serving on the Conservation District as the lack of control the District has over its local environment. The U.S. and Iowa Department of Natural Resources have jurisdiction over the regulation of CAFOs, so any potential end to CAFOs rests within state or federal bodies not local ones. We have elected officials in each county who are meant to be the ones on the ground making sure the soil and water is healthy, Hexter said. But if you dont have any control over the introduction of a new factory farm which is going to dump millions of pounds of manure onto the ground each year then you cant actively fulfil your duty as commissioner. Hexter urged Grinnellians to take action in protection of the local ecosystem. The first step, he said, is to support local food-growers like Grinnell Heritage Farm. But more importantly, Hexter said he wants Grinnellians to realize that the ability to transform the Iowa landscape lies with them. Its a very special place. Its easy to ignore the fact that its being destroyed, but we gotta do something, he said. Get involved in the landscape and go get your hands in the soil one way or another. Former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins has designed a capsule collection for Bec Judd's activewear brand, JAGGAD. Jennifer, 37, made the announcement to her Instagram on Thursday, sharing a photo of herself wearing the glam athleisurewear. 'I've always loved JAGGAD as a brand, so it was a (big!) yes when the idea came up to collaborate and design a @teamjaggad range!,' Jen said. Fashion: Former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins, 37, (pictured) has revealed she has designed a capsule collection for Bec Judd's activewear brand JAGGAD which will be released next week 'I wanted it to be workout wear (+ #mumlife uniform) with a fashion influence - sporty, luxe, versatile!' Jen said it was a year in the making with her making the collection just right. 'It's been a year in the making and I hope you guys love it as much as i do. Thanks to the whole Jaggad team.' All business: The collaboration between JAGGAD and Jennifer Hawkins will launch next week. JAGGAD is owned by Bec Judd and business partner, Michelle Greene The collaboration will launch next week. JAGGAD is owned by Bec Judd and business partner, Michelle Greene. Bec wrote in response to the news: 'You are EPIC in every way! Welcome to the JAGGAD family.' The two women are known to be friends. Jen even took to publicly wishing Bec a happy birthday last month. Friends: The two women are known to be friends. Jen even took to publicly wishing Bec a happy birthday last month. Pictured here at a Myer event Jennifer and Bec actually have a lot in common with the two women keen entrepreneurs. Jen has Sesion Premium Tequila, J Bronze tanning and J Group Projects, which is her construction business with husband, Jake. The couple just sold their stunning Newport home for north of $20million. They now plan to renovate again in Sydney's Northern Beaches. Entrepreneur: Jen has Sesion Premium Tequila, J Bronze and J Group Projects, which is her construction business with hunky husband, Jake. Here: Sydney, 2018 In a previous interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Jennifer revealed that the property business with Jake is so enjoyable, that it feels like a hobby. 'I find it thrilling,' she said. 'In the beginning it was an investment thing, investing my money wisely, it was the right thing to do when I was jumping into this industry. 'Then the design side really attracted me and I find it really enjoyable, to be honest.' One of the strong features of Swiss science policy is its strategy for bilateral cooperation. While the early focus was on European and North American scientific cooperation, the bilateral programmes have broadened in scope. The State Secretary for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) engages ETH Zurich and other Swiss universities and institutes in Leading House mandates to support scientific cooperation and exchange programmes with focus regions in China, South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Iran. ETH Zurich has been the Leading House for China since 2003, Japan and South Korea since 2008 and for the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries since 2017. A recent external evaluation of the bilateral programmes confirmed the substantial value that the Leading Houses bring to the internationalisation efforts of Swiss researchers and institutions. As a Leading House, ETH Zurich brings many years of experience and expertise into a dynamic region that continues to display a great deal of potential for cooperation, says State Secretary Martina Hirayama. Opportunites, Grants and Exchanges In its Leading House role, ETH Zurich manages grant funding and facilitates scientific exchanges and opportunities for researchers from Swiss higher education institutions and research institutes throughout the country who wish to collaborate on a project with Asian partners. In 2020, Irina Ritsch, a recently graduated doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, spent much of the pandemic in Japan as a grant recipient of the Young Researchers Exchange Programme. A physical chemist, Ritsch worked with Professors Masahiro Shirakawa and Kenji Sugase at Kyoto University to design a project that combines Spin Labelling strategy with Rheo-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy to study the aggregation of alpha-synuclein a key protein involved in Parkinsons disease. Through an Opportunity Grant, Ian Smith, now an Emeritus Professor from EPFL, was able to collaborate with the Singapore-ETH Centres Future Cities Laboratory. He worked with ETH Zurich Professor, Stephen Cairns on the award-winning expandable house a sustainable architectural project in rural Indonesia. Dr. Isabelle Providoli, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern and her colleagues at CDE also benefited from Opportunity Grant funding spending time in Cambodia co-developing a curriculum on Sustainable Development and Sustainable Land Management. Representing CDE, she collaborated with the Royal University of Agriculture Cambodia to engage land users in more sustainable agricultural production and natural resource management. While language and culture may strike a stark contrast to life in Switzerland, researchers reveal a common thread in their experiences in Asia - the language of science and technology. Tougher rules to curb the power of tech giants are urgently needed after Facebook's news blackout in Australia, the UK competition watchdog warned. Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said the worrying move by the social media company laid bare the 'political power that comes with economic power'. He said Facebook's ban on news content in retaliation to regulation proposed by the Australian parliament that would force the tech giant to pay a fair price for news showed how the firm behaves like a monopoly. The proposed rules were meant to protect journalism but Facebook said they were 'unworkable'. Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said the worrying move by the social media company laid bare 'political power that comes with economic power' Its decision to ban all Australian news content, including pages of official Covid-19 guidance at first, prompted an international outcry but saw the government agree to water down the law. Mr Coscelli said the fiasco demonstrated exactly why the dominance of tech companies needs to be tackled urgently. The CMA is preparing to launch a digital markets unit after a probe exposed Google and Facebook's dominance over internet advertising. Mr Coscelli said the blackout in Australia was 'a symptom' of these larger competition problems. He told the BBC: 'You need monopoly-like power to feel confident that you can take this type of approach. Mr Coscelli said the fiasco demonstrated exactly why the dominance of tech companies needs to be tackled urgently 'Because it is important to bear in mind that this is a democratically elected parliament, following due process and trying to introduce specific legislation. 'So the bar for a company to decide to go against a democratically elected parliament in this way is pretty high. And certainly I would be worried if something like this happened in the UK. 'Secondly, I think you need to feel pretty confident that your customers have nowhere else to go, because there clearly was a backlash in Australia - you can assume that a number of people feel pretty strongly about it. 'But the reality is there are ecosystems today on Facebook, on Instagram, they are such that it is very difficult for people individually to switch away because all of your friends and family are there and unilaterally it is very difficult to say 'I am so unhappy about this particular action that I am going to take a stand and do something different'. 'So, for me, it's a signal that it is even more urgent, what we are saying - that we need to deal with this economic power - because in many ways I think this is now also indicative of a degree of political power that comes with economic power.' Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed "sadness and concern" over what appeared to be a misencounter between the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that led to the death of two police officers in a mall in Quezon City. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said this in his briefing on Thursday, a day after the shootout between members of the Quezon City Police District and PDEA during a drug bust near the Ever Gotesco Mall. Another police officer was injured and three PDEA agents were hospitalized following the incident. READ: Two cops dead in 'misencounter' near Quezon City mall "The President, of course, expressed both sadness and concern. Bakit nangyari nga ito na kapwa tao ng gobyerno eh nagkaputukan (Why were these members of the government get involved in a shootout?)," said Roque. Roque said Duterte wants an impartial investigation to get to the bottom of the incident, which he learned about right after his briefing with public officials on Wednesday evening. "Ang in-assure niya, gaya nung assurance na ginawa niya noong nangyari ito sa Sulu, we will get to the bottom of this incident, magkakaroon po ng impartial investigation at justice will be done," he added. [Translation: He assures, just like his assurance on the incident in Sulu, we will get to the bottom of this incident, there will be an impartial investigationa and justice will be done.] Roque was referring to the fatal shooting of four soldiers by policemen in an operation in Jolo, Sulu in July 2020, an incident which Army Chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay described as a rubout when his men were "murdered." Last month, the nine policemen who were involved in the Sulu shooting were dismissed from service. The PNP and PDEA will create a joint body to look into Wednesday's shootout, while Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra already ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a parallel investigation into the incident. 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. (CNN) The last public statue of Spain's former dictator, Francisco Franco, was removed from Spanish soil on Tuesday. Workers took away the statue, which stood on a street in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, after the local assembly approved its removal Monday, the local Socialist party (PSOE), which is part of the ruling coalition in the regional government, said on Twitter. The removal was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of an attempted coup by Franco supporters, a government source told CNN. There were 14 votes in favor, 10 abstentions and one vote against, from the right-wing Vox party, he said. "From today Melilla recovers dignity and justice," said Gloria Rojas, vice-president of Melilla and a member of the Socialist party, according to a PSOE tweet. The bronze statue was made by sculptor Enrique Novo and erected in 1978, three years after Franco's death, the government source said. It commemorated his 1921 defense of Melilla, during the Rif War against the Berber tribes of Morocco's Rif mountains, according to the source. The statue was moved in 2005 but remained in public view until Tuesday, the last statue of Franco standing on Spanish soil, he added. It is now in storage, the source said, but its removal is permanent. Tuesday was the anniversary of the 1981 attempted coup carried out by military officers who held lawmakers in Madrid hostage for 18 hours. The attempt took place just six years after Franco died, ushering in Spain's transition to democracy. Franco ruled Spain from the late 1930s and thousands of executions were carried out by his nationalist regime during the Spanish Civil War and in the years that followed. Franco's Spain was officially neutral during World War II but supported the Axis powers of Germany and Italy. After the war he was seen by many as the last surviving fascist dictator and was ostracized by the United Nations. His regime was partly rehabilitated during the Cold War because of Franco's staunch anti-communist ideology. In 2007, the Spanish government passed the Law of Historical Memory, which formally condemns the Franco regime. Symbols connected to Franco must be removed from public view, the law stipulates. In October 2019, Franco's remains were exhumed from the grand mausoleum where he was buried in 1975 to the nearby Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo, where his wife is buried. The exhumation was a key policy pledge from Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez when he came to power in 2018. Franco's family and his far-right supporters opposed the plan and the family unsuccessfully appealed the decision in the courts. This story was first published on CNN.com Last statue of dictator Francisco Franco removed from Spanish soil Cayuga County residents have the opportunity to weigh in on a draft "police reform" proposal for the county sheriff's office. Cayuga County Legislature Chair Aileen M. McNabb-Coleman on Wednesday announced the opening of a two-week public comment period on the county's Reinvention Collaborative Draft Plan, the result of community input into an assessment and review of police services in the county. The initiative was launched in response to an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2020 that every law enforcement agency in the state review their strategies, policies and practices following police brutality cases across the country, or risk their eligibility for state funding. "Over the past several months, Cayuga County and Auburn City officials have partnered with our community to conduct an assessment and review of police services provided by the Auburn City Police Department and Cayuga County Sheriffs Office," McNabb-Coleman said in a news release. "Sheriff Brian Schenck and I are asking the public to utilize the Cayuga County website to document feedback on this Draft Plan." 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. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 18:41:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Feb. 24, 2021 shows staff members unloading COVID-19 vaccines at the military airport of Boufarik, 40 km southeast of the capital Algiers, Algeria. (Xinhua) "The two friendly countries have been helping each other overcome this pandemic since its outbreak, which constitutes a solidarity model to follow for the international community," said Chinese Ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe. ALGIERS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- A donation of Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to help the North African nation combat the pandemic. A military jet of the Algerian Air Force carrying the batch of vaccines landed in the evening at the Boufarik military airport. Chinese Ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe said that the donation is a demonstration of solidarity between China and Algeria. "The two friendly countries have been helping each other overcome this pandemic since its outbreak, which constitutes a solidarity model to follow for the international community," he said. Algerian Communication Minister Ammar Belhimer handed over a gratitude letter from the Algerian government to the Chinese government for the donation to Ambassador Li, saying "the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines come to sustain our vaccination campaign ... and protect the lives of our citizens." China and Algeria have offered each other help in the fight against the pandemic. In February 2020, Algeria sent medical donations to China. China has also sent several batches of medical aid and experts to Algeria. A US intelligence dossier compiled by the CIA and others is likely to conclude that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to reports. The file, expected to be released later on Thursday, examines the killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey in 2018. Officials speaking to Reuters and NBC News said the report had concluded that the crown prince Saudi Arabias 35-year-old de-facto ruler approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi, whose Washington Post column had been critical of the countrys leadership. While the report is not new, with US intelligence agencies having worked on it since 2018, the release of a declassified summary will likely have ramifications for US-Saudi relations. Joe Biden, the US president, said he had read the report and was expected to speak with King Salman, 85, father of the crown prince, before its findings were released. Turkish officials allege Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw inside the consulate. His body has not been found. The prince denies the allegations. Saudi Arabia has admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a rogue extradition operation gone wrong, but denied any involvement by the crown prince. Prosecutors in Riyadh convicted eight people for the brutal murder, including five men who were given the death penalty but had their sentences commuted to 20 years in jail after being forgiven by Khashoggis family. Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, called the trial a parody of justice and, following a six-month investigation, said there was sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown prince to warrant further investigation. Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Show all 12 1 /12 Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul According to local media reports, Saudi consul Mohammad al-Otaibi left Turkey on 16 October. A Turkish prosecutor on 15 October has entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to investigate the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an inspection that was being carried out jointly with a Saudi team AFP/Getty Images Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Turkish forensic police officers work on the roof of the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul EPA Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Khashoggi went missing on 2 October when he entered the Saudi consulate to pick up paperwork AP Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul AFP/Getty Images Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Turkish police arrive to investigate the Saudi Arabian consulate general residence Getty Images Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Turkish forensic police search for evidence at the garden of the Saudi Arabia's Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi AFP/Getty Images Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Turkish police search the rooftop of the Saudi Arabian consulate general residence Getty Images Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Turkish police arrive at the residence of the Saudi consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi to conduct a search AP Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul AP Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Turkish forensic police search for evidence at the garden of the Saudi Arabia's Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi AFP/Getty Images Khashoggi disappearance: Forensic police investigate Saudi consul Getty Images Speaking in October, she said: The five hitmen are sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, but the high-level officials who organised and embraced the execution of Jamal Khashoggi have walked free from the start barely touched by the investigation and trial. As for the individual responsibility of the person on top of the State, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has remained well protected against any kind of meaningful scrutiny in his country. The reports release is part of Mr Bidens policy to realign ties with Riyadh after years of the US withholding criticism of its Arab ally and major oil producer for it human rights record and intervention in Yemens civil war. In 2018, the US senate passed a resolution saying the crown prince was responsible for Khashoggis murder, defying the then-president, Donald Trump, who had sought to maintain close relations with Saudi Arabia, including through lucrative weapons deals. The Independent contacted the Saudi authorities for comment. Additional reporting by Reuters Juan Velasquez never planned to attend the University of North Georgia (UNG). The Dalton, Georgia, resident had a full scholarship to a college in Kentucky. But a family situation arose, making him the sole provider and keeping him at home. Then Velasquez met Sarah (Junco) Petito, the former recruiter for UNG's College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). The federally funded program helps students from migrant and/or seasonal farm work backgrounds transition into college life for the first year. She encouraged Velasquez to enroll at UNG and join CAMP. He agreed. It's a decision that had a ripple effect throughout his college career and resulted in unexpected rewards. The most rewarding for Velasquez was he worked full time as the enrollment and retention coordinator for the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) at UNG. HEP assists migrant and/or seasonal farmworkers and members of the immediate family obtain a General Education Development diploma. "I wanted to see how I could contribute to the community," said Velasquez, who started the job in fall 2019. For the 21-year-old Guatemala native, it was just one of many ways he contributed to UNG. But his start at UNG was not easy. He struggled after arriving on UNG's Gainesville Campus in spring 2017 semester. "My first year was the hardest year for me," Velasquez said. "I'd never been away from home." He found community in his fellow CAMP students, who shared similar backgrounds and cultural traditions. He also met his close friend, Roel Aguilar, and found mentors in Christian Bello Escobar, director of migrant programs and services who leads HEP and CAMP at UNG, and Thalia Escobedo, retention coordinator for CAMP. He said all of them helped him academically and socially, providing him needed encouragement. "They kept telling me if I can't help myself, then I can't help others," he said. Their friendships led Velasquez to remain at UNG for a second year. "I really thought I would go to UNG for a year and transfer close to home," he said. "But the cosmos weren't going to let me." That year, Velasquez found himself working as a resident assistant for CAMP, which provides housing for freshmen students. They live at Hawks Nest at the Preserve near the Gainesville Campus. As a resident assistant, Velasquez connected with the apartment complex leaders. At the end of his term, Hawks Next offered him a job as a community assistant. He accepted and stayed for a third year. He then became involved with UNG's Migrant Student Union, serving as president from fall 2018 to spring 2019. Then in the 2019 fall semester, Velasquez made history with Aguilar and Carlos Garcia, who Velasquez mentored in the CAMP program. The trio were inducted as members of Lambda Theta Phi, establishing the first Latino fraternity at UNG and founding the first Greek-lettered fraternal organization on the Gainesville Campus. "I was asked to join other Greek fraternities and other honor societies, but I didn't," Velasquez said. "When I started to research the Lambdas and talked to other brothers and attended their events, it made me feel like I belonged. I knew Lambda was the way to go." He also earned a Goizueta scholarship in fall 2019. The scholarship program is designed to support the academic success and leadership development of Hispanic and Latino students at UNG. It provides financial assistance, group activities, mentorship, personalized advising, and community service opportunities. With these accomplishments, Velasquez still wanted more. The UNG alumnus with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management wanted to conduct undergraduate research focused on the declining numbers of Latino men in higher education. After he graduated in December 2020, he planned to earn a Master of Business Administration degree followed by an architectural license and certificate in civil engineering. He credited his possibilities to those who implored him to finish his education at UNG. "If it had not been for the people I met at UNG, I would have transferred out or just completed two years and been working at a carpet factory back home," Velasquez said. "To be where I am is a dream that came true." ADVERTISEMENT Nigerian stocks ended their short-lived rally Thursday with an 0.31 per cent decline, as bank equities led a N66 billion drawback that obliterated the feeble gains reported on Tuesday and Wednesday. The benchmark index fell to 40,095.49 points while market capitalisation contracted to N20.978 trillion at the end of trade. Nigerian Breweries joined big lenders Zenith, UBA, Access as well as investment banking company United Capital in the biggest losses. The banking index, worst hit by the depreciation, went down 1.44 per cent to 384.62 points. Market breadth was positive with 26 gainers emerging against 14 losers. Year to date, the index is down by 0.44 per cent. TOP FIVE GAINERS Chams led the flock of gainers, appreciating by 9.09 per cent to close at N0.24. Royal Exchange added 8 per cent to end todays trade at N0.27. Wema went up by 7.69 per cent to N0.70, following a 14.8 per cent revenue drop in its 2020 financials that also saw profit decline, in this case marginally by 2.7 per cent. Red Star Express rose to N3.30, notching up 5.77 per cent in the process. Prestige completed the top five, climbing by 4.55 per cent to N0.46. TOP FIVE LOSERS Lasaco was the worst performing stock, declining by 9.68 per cent to close at N1.12. Fidson fell to N4.90, losing 8.41 per cent. ETI dipped to N5.20, recording 6.31 per cent depreciation. Mutual Benefit shed 5.13 per cent to close at N0.37. UACN closed at N7.55, going down by 5.03 per cent. TOP FIVE TRADES In all, 326.042 million shares estimated at N3.713 billion were traded in 4,567 deals. Transcorp was the most active stock with 48.439 million units of its stocks worth N43.727 million traded in 136 deals. 33.887 million units of Dangote Sugar shares priced at N611.834 million exchanged hands in 253 transactions. UBA traded 27.468 million shares estimated at N229.570 million in 226 transactions. Zenith Bank traded 24.566 million shares valued at N637.594 million in 566 deals. United Capital had 19.239 million shares valued at N118.035 million traded in 267 deals. Well, that ended quickly. Only late last week Facebook tore down Australian news from its site completely, in response to the federal governments insistence that it pay news outlets for that content. It looked like an act of brinkmanship, forcing both the tech giant and the government into positions from which neither could retreat without humiliation. And yet, a few days later, all was resolved. Face saved, agreement reached, each claiming victory. Illustration: Simon Letch Credit:The Sydney Morning Herald How? One way to answer that question would be to crunch through the deals details to determine exactly what each party gave up. Here, youd note that the government got its wish of Facebook striking agreements with major news outlets it would rather not. Conversely, youd say this gives Facebook the right to make completely different deals with each outlet. Its not compelled to pay each one a similar amount for similar content. So it could, for instance, pay the ABC a lot less than it pays News Corp, in exchange for putting ABC content higher in its ranking algorithm meaning ABC content gets shared more across the site. This potentially puts news organisations in the familiar position of trading money for distribution. It sends a little money to the big news companies, but leaves Facebooks business model broadly undisturbed. And that suggests a better way of answering the question. Instead of looking at what the new legislation changes, consider what it doesnt even address. Because it seems to me that this whole stoush is misconceived. Its pretending to be about something its not. The government and its media backers are asking us to believe that Facebook is somehow leeching or stealing news for its own profit. Actually, theres no theft taking place here for the very simple reason that big media companies are willingly giving their content to Facebook. Theyre the ones uploading it, and frequently encouraging their audience to share it, hoping it will deliver enormous reach. Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk! You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details. Pagglait, starring Sanya Malhotra starrer, will release digitally on March 26. "So thrilled to announce this film which is very close to my heart on my special day. I essay the role of Sandhya, a character very different from what I have previously portrayed on-screen," Sanya Malhotra said. "My Pagglait journey was Pagglait indeed- and I can't wait for the world to witness this unique story very soon," she added. The film tells the story of a typical Indian middle-class family navigating a crisis. Sanya plays the recently-widowed Sandhya. As events unfold, Sandhya sets onto a path of self-discovery, attempting to find her identity and purpose in life, all this while living amidst the quirky members of her joint family. THE president of the University of Limerick has expressed her "huge disappointment" at some of the comments made by students on national radio earlier this week. Professor Kerstin Mey was reacting to a report on RTE's Drivetime during which several UL students, living in off-campus accommodation, openly admitted attending house parties and social gatherings in breach of the current Level 5 restrictions. "There is huge disappointment among both staff and students about the report on national radio yesterday evening. UL students were interviewed admitting mixing with other student households, reinforcing a growing public concern that our student body is acting irresponsibly and spreading the virus, despite the vast majority of you doing your best to abide by the current restrictions," she stated in a strongly-worded email which was sent to students this Thursday afternoon. Speaking on Drivetime this evening, she said: "I listened (to the report) and I was very disappointed that a small minority of our students continue to not heed the public health guidelines. I would like to stress that I do believe that the majority of our students are taking responsibility. They are following the public health advice, they are staying apart but we have some students who feel that they need to continue to socialise and support the spreading of the virus." Prof Mey says she was "surprised" at what some of the students said when interviewed. "The students I know take responsibility for themselves, for their families and for their neighbourhoods so I was disappointed yesterday." UL says there have been no cases of Covid-19 associated with on-campus activity and that it has been working closely with Public Health Mid West and with gardai "to suppress the spread of the virus" since an increase in infections was first identified on January 20. To the small minority of students who still believe there is no harm in continuing to gather you are endangering yourselves, your friends, your families, your community and your university. Professor Kerstin Mey (@ULPresident) February 25, 2021 Free testing is being offered to all students this week and UL is funding more than 300 hours of additional high-visibility garda patrols - particularly in housing estates in the Castletroy area. "On the spot fines will be issued for breaches of the regulations detected. A 100 fine can be issued for anyone leaving their home without a reasonable excuse, while a 500 fine can be issued to anyone arranging an event such as a house party, and 150 fines can be issued to anyone attending a house party," stated Prof Mey in her email. A small number of students have been formally sanctioned by UL in recent weeks as a result of formal complaints relating to gatherings and house parties. 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. KYODO NEWS - Feb 26, 2021 - 05:06 | All, Japan Japan, China and six other economies of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission agreed Thursday to cut their combined saury catch quota by 40 percent to 333,750 tons per year in order to address fishery resource depletion. The new catch limit, which was decided during a three-day online meeting through Thursday, will be in place until the end of 2022. Tokyo had proposed a reduction of annual catch quotas as a way to prevent overfishing in the high seas by China and Taiwan. The saury catch limit is currently set at 556,250 tons among the eight participating economies, with 330,000 tons allocated for the high seas and 226,250 tons for exclusive economic zones in Japanese and Russian waters. The members have agreed to cut both allocations by 40 percent to 198,000 tons and 135,750 tons, respectively. Fearing that Japan's poor saury catches of late have stemmed from catches in the high seas by China and Taiwan before the fish enter the country's EEZ, Tokyo had sought a reduction of saury catches in the high seas. The introduction of quotas in the high seas was agreed in the commission's annual meeting in 2019. Shingo Ota, who represented the Japanese delegation at the gathering, told a press conference that the latest move is "a step toward" curbing high-seas saury catches. According to a national saury fisheries cooperative, Japan's saury haul in 2020 fell 27 percent from the previous year to 29,566 tons, the lowest since comparable data became available. The commission's seven other participants -- Canada, China, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and Vanuatu -- have also been experiencing poor catches in recent years. According to Japan's Fisheries Agency, the combined catch of all participants excluding the United States and Canada in 2019 plunged nearly 60 percent from the previous year to 191,000 tons, far less than the new agreed limit. The newly agreed quotas are likely to help avoid excessive catches even when saury resources recover in the future. Japan also proposed country-based as well as regional-based saury quotas, but failed to win consent from other member economies. MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti has launched its Controls Excellence App built on the Celonis Execution Management System platform. Created in response to the rapidly changing business environment, the app utilizes advanced analytics, machine learning and data visualization to help business leaders identify control failures in real-time, pinpoint the root cause of the failure and make data-driven decisions to maximize not just process effectiveness but also efficiency. "There's a wealth of knowledge to be gleaned through process mining, but we found that prior to our creation of this app with Celonis there wasn't a simple way for teams responsible for risk management and internal controls to identify and close the execution gaps in their work. However, these teams at many of our clients were using process mining for exploratory analysis and process discovery and hadn't been able to unlock its potential with respect to analysis of controls performance," said Andrew Struthers-Kennedy, a Protiviti managing director and leader of the Technology Audit practice. "Our Controls Excellence app serves as a risk and controls lens providing an enterprise view into whether key controls are in place and operating effectively while arming teams with the tools necessary to quickly categorize and investigate failures when they arise. Control owners are automatically notified whenever a transaction does not follow a desired path, enabling immediate corrective action to be taken." Designed to apply to a broad range of industries and use cases, the app uses the power of process mining, combined with machine learning capabilities through the Celonis Execution Management System, to analyze not only the activities performed, but the sequence in which they are performed, plus throughput times and a view of process conformance, to create analyses that traditional data analytics tools cannot perform. The app also provides a platform to continuously monitor controls as well as key efficiency metrics. The app can be leveraged throughout all levels of an organization: At the executive level, providing heads of finance, operations, IT and internal audit with a dashboard to analyze and visualize process and controls performance Process owners who need to identify the root cause of a failed control and monitor process-level performance Operators and technicians who need to be alerted in real-time when certain activities are not completed, to allow for corrective action By enhancing core process mining capabilities with this view into controls performance, process owners and other stakeholders can take a data-driven approach to help them find the right balance between efficiency and control, ensuring processes operate within risk tolerances while also achieving desired business outcomes and KPIs. "Protiviti is among the most experienced consultancies in the process mining space, so it was an easy decision for us to deepen our existing partnership and work with them to build out one of the first partner-developed applications in our new Execution Management System," said Malhar Kamdar, Chief Ecosystem Officer at Celonis. "We are excited to see the full potential of Execution Management technology come to life through the Protiviti Controls Excellence app and to collaborate with Protiviti as we help our clients close their execution gaps and achieve their full execution capacity." The application was built in the new Celonis Studio, which allows for the creation of Execution Instruments and Execution Applications on the EMS platform to tackle unique business challenges. Access to the app can be requested from Protiviti directly or through the Celonis EMS Store. To learn more about process mining and assurance, watch the video available here. About Protiviti Protiviti ( www.protiviti.com ) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and its independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting and managed solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit through its network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries. Named to the 2020 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index. About Celonis Celonis believes that every company can unlock its full execution capacity. Powered by its market-leading process mining core, the Celonis Execution Management System provides a set of instruments, applications, and developer studio and platform capabilities for business executives and users. The Celonis EMS offerings help companies manage every facet of execution management from analytics to strategy and planning, management, actions and automation. Celonis has thousands of customers, including some of the largest global companies across a variety of industries. Celonis is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA and has 15 offices worldwide. 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 of quoted individuals available upon request. SOURCE Protiviti Related Links http://www.protiviti.com Chattanooga State Community College announces that 13 students from the first cohort of Early College Academy at Kimball are on track to graduate this May with a high school diploma and an associate degree. A new cohort, open to rising ninth graders, is scheduled to begin fall 2021. The Early College Academy at Kimball is a program offered in partnership with the Marion County Board of Education. This four-year cohort-based program begins during a students freshman year and combines a unique blend of college dual enrollment courses and high school coursework to ensure that students meet requirements for both the high school diploma and a University Parallel Associate of Arts degree. Students take virtual college classes during their first two years of high school and then travel to the Chattanooga State Kimball site in the mornings of their junior and senior year to take college classes. These students will be able to transfer those credits to most Tennessee four-year universities. If you have a rising ninth grader and would like to learn more about participation in the next cohort class of Early College Academy at Kimball, please join a virtual information session on Thursday, March 18, at 7 p.m. You may also visit chattanoogastate.edu/early-college or call 697-4498. Log in to the March 18 Information Session on Zoom: https://bit.ly/3uztVCw Meeting ID: 973 9047 5631 Passcode: 087243 One tap mobile: +16699006833,,97390475631#,,,,*087243# US (San Jose) Dial by your location: +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) The European Union remains steadfast in its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. The European Union has called on the UN Member States to consider sanctions against the Russian Federation for the occupation of Ukraine's Crimea. "Seven years on from the violent, illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, the European Union remains steadfast in its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders," according to a declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol. It is noted the European Union reiterates that it does not recognise and continues to condemn this violation of international law. It remains a direct challenge to international security, with grave implications for the international legal order that protects the territorial integrity, unity and sovereignty of all States. "The European Union remains committed to fully implementing its non-recognition policy, including through restrictive measures and cooperation in international fora. The European Union calls again on UN Member States to consider similar non-recognition measures in line with the UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 of March 27, 2014. The European Union does not and will not recognise the holding of elections by the Russian Federation in the Crimean peninsula," reads the report. Read alsoTurkey declares non-recognition of Crimea annexation"The increasing militarisation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation, including multiple military exercises and the construction of warships, continues to have a negative impact on the security situation in the Black Sea region. In violation of international humanitarian law, Russia has imposed citizenship and conscription into its armed forces on Crimean residents. In accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 75/29 of December 7, 2020, the European Union recalls the negative effects of the illegal annexation on regional stability, as shown by the unjustified use of military force by Russia against Ukraine on November 25, 2018," the declaration says. Furthermore, the Russian Federation should stop changing the demographic structure on the peninsula by the resettlement of its own civilian population to the peninsula. The European Union also condemns the construction of the Kerch Bridge and the opening of a railway section without Ukraine's consent. "These constitute further attempts to forcibly integrate the illegally annexed peninsula into Russia, and a further violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The EU expects Russia to ensure unhindered and free passage of all ships through the Kerch Strait to and from the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law. The illegal restrictions to such passage are ongoing and have negative economic consequences for Ukraine's ports in the Azov Sea, as well as for the region as a whole," it said. Russian occupation of Crimea Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia. On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin. The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced. Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began. Reporting by UNIAN AstraZeneca's Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot sought to deflect blame for a shortfall in covid-19 vaccine deliveries to Europe this year, while reassuring lawmakers that his company is working to meet targets for the second quarter. Speaking remotely to a European Parliament hearing, Soriot said his company would deliver 40 million doses to the European Union in the first quarter, with the volume set to rise in the coming months. Soriot said employees are working around the clock to increase the amount of vaccines extracted in production, but that perfecting the process takes time and isn't without setbacks. "Whether you manufacture cars, planes or indeed vaccines, you often have issues with manufacturing," Soriot said. "Typically in our industry we have years to refine the process. Here we didn't have that time, we didn't have that luxury, we had six months. The alternative would have been to be ready later. Those are the challenges we are facing." AstraZeneca will look at tapping its global supply chain to make up for some of the shortfall, including production in the U.S., Soriot said. He was repeatedly asked on the panel about doses made in the U.K. traversing over to the European Union and vice versa, as lawmakers sought reassurance that citizens in the bloc are getting the agreed supplies. The EU has come under fire for its slow vaccine roll-out, compounded by delivery delays from some of the key drugmakers, with countries like the U.K., Israel and the U.S. pushing ahead. In January, the bloc engaged in a bitter, public spat with Astra after the company said it wouldn't be able to deliver the doses promised in the first quarter because of production issues. The event led the EU to introduce tighter controls on the export of vaccines from the region to ensure other countries weren't being given preferential treatment. Relations between Astra and the EU threatened to deteriorate again this week over a cut to second-quarter delivery, but the company said it is working to increase productivity in its European supply chain to ensure that the 180 million doses promised would be delivered. Things got personal at one point in the hearing, when Finnish MEP Silvia Modig accused Soriot of being "like a piece of soap, impossible to get hold of." Despite the slow start, the EU looks to be catching up with the U.K. and U.S. and should be able to vaccinate 75% of its adult population by the end of August, about two months earlier than previously forecast, according to London-based research firm Airfinity Ltd. The bloc's supply outlook has brightened in recent weeks on new deals with Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. to secure hundreds of millions of additional doses. One hurdle the EU must counter still is public take-up. Reluctance to be vaccinated, particularly with the shot from Astra and partner the University of Oxford, has led to doses going unused. Questions around its efficacy and restrictions on its use among the elderly in many EU countries have created confusion. U.S. trial results from Astra, expected in the coming weeks, should provide more clarity. Soriot reiterated at the hearing that his vaccine dramatically cuts the rate of hospitalization. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen told lawmakers this month she expects 300 million vaccine doses to be delivered to the bloc next quarter -- a significant increase on the estimated 18 million doses delivered in January, 33 million in February and 55 million in March. The European Parliament hearing follows a similar session in Washington earlier this week, where pharma executives assured lawmakers that vaccine supply bottlenecks should soon ease. CEOs from Moderna, CureVac and Novavax were also at the EU hearing Thursday. Private-equity firm Advent International is reportedly considering an initial public offering for Sovos Brands, its US food business. News agency Bloomberg, quoting unnamed sources, said Advent is working with an adviser to weigh alternatives for California-based Sovos, which owns brands such as Raos pasta sauce, Michael Angelos frozen meals and Noosa yogurt. It said these alternatives could also include a sale of the business. Bloomberg suggested Sovos could fetch US$2bn-$3bn in a transaction. Sovos was set up in 2016 by Boston, Massachusetts-based Advent to become a scale player in the US food industry. It has done this largely through acquisitions. In September, on the back of buying local bakery business Birch Benders, Savos said it was on the look-out for more deals. Sovos posted revenue of about $800m in 2020 and is on track for 30% annual growth, according to Bloombergs sources. In September, Sovos senior vice president Jason Vieth told just-food the business had done exceptionally well during the Covid period as consumers were increasingly eating at home. Advent declined to comment about the Sovos IPO and sale speculation when approached by Bloomberg. just-food has contacted Sovos for a response to this story but a representative of the company said it did not have a comment to make. 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. NORTHBROOK, Ill., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Insurance fraud is estimated to be more than $40 billion per year, according to the FBI, and could cost the average American family between $400 and $700 each year in increased premiums. In the aftermath of last weeks' winter storms, Allstate protects customers and consumers, encouraging them to be vigilant as fraud often occurs in the wake of severe weather events. "While most home-repair contractors are honest and provide quality work, homeowners should be on the lookout for workers and companies engaging in contractor fraud," said Chip Teague, Allstate's senior claim field director of the National Catastrophe Team. "This specific type of fraud can occur when a contractor provides substandard repairs or deliberately cheats the other party." As temperatures begin to rise, Allstate shares preventative measures to help protect everyone from insurance fraud. Beware of contractors who solicit door-to-door. Only work with established, licensed contractors with a solid reputation. Ask for references to get a more thorough understanding of the quality of their work. All contractors should be licensed, bonded and insured, and they should have documentation on hand. Research fraud complaints. Victims of fraud often file a complaint. Check with the Better Business Bureau to confirm if any complaints have been filed against contractors you are considering. Never let work begin on your home or business until the contract is finalized. A contract should include the contractor's name, business, phone number, address and other essential terms. Never sign a contract with blanks. If anyone performs unauthorized work on your property and demands payment, consider contacting authorities. Don't let them pressure you. Avoid payment-in-full up front. Some contractors may require a partial upfront payment, but the amount should not exceed approximately 20% of the total estimate amount. Do not pay a contractor in full or sign a completion certificate until the job is completed, and you are satisfied with the work. Avoid making cash payments. Beware of advice to seek reimbursement for nonexistent or exaggerated losses or damages. This is insurance fraud and it's a felony. Whether you're a customer or not, Allstate wants to protect people from life's uncertainties, especially in a catastrophe. Some helpful tips include: additional fraud protection information and the Good Hands Recovery Guide, a tool for individuals, homeowners and business owners. Allstate customers impacted by the winter storms can file a claim and begin the claim process by calling 1-800-54-STORM (1-800-547-8676), using the AllstateSM Mobile app , logging on to Allstate.com or contacting their Allstate agent. About Allstate The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) protects people from life's uncertainties with a wide array of protection for cars, homes, electronic devices and identity theft. Affordable products are available through a broad distribution network including Allstate agents, independent agents, major retailers, online and at the workplace. Allstate is widely known for the slogan "You're in Good Hands with Allstate." For more information, visit www.allstate.com. SOURCE Allstate Insurance Company It has been more than a decade since academics and researchers began taking a closer look at a small, unremarkable old building on the campus of the College of William & Mary to see if maybe it had a more important story to tell. Archives were scoured. Centuries-old letters and memoirs were pored over. Archaeological digs were made. Last year, a scientific analysis of the building's original wood framing nailed down the year of its construction. With the pieces of the puzzle in place, there was no longer doubt about the building's identity. Underneath all the coats of paint and interior remodeling and exterior additions was the original Williamsburg Bray School, a school for enslaved and free Black children in Williamsburg that operated from 1760 to 1774. It is, according to William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation officials, "likely the oldest extant building in the United States dedicated to the education of Black children." Indeed, the unassuming campus building has a much more important story to tell, a story of American education, racism, religion, persecution and perseverance. And a story of the more than 400 Black students who were taught during the school's existence. Now, 261 years after it was built, William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation are expected on Thursday to announce plans to bring to the fore its forgotten history and reconnect with voices that had been silenced for centuries. "The fact that this building dedicated to the education of African American children has made it through the last two and a half centuries is miraculous," Ronald L. Hurst, the foundation's vice president for historic resources, said in an interview. "And it's an opportunity for us to talk about another whole segment of society at the time of the Revolutionary War that has been more difficult to interpret because their spaces are often not still standing." The Williamsburg Bray School Initiative, a joint venture of the university and foundation, will use the site as "a focal point for research, scholarship and dialogue regarding the complicated story of race, religion and education in Williamsburg and in America," the institutions announced in a statement. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is scheduled to speak at an event at Colonial Williamsburg commemorating the history and rediscovery of the Bray School on Thursday afternoon. A $400,000 grant from the Gladys and Franklin Clark Foundation will help fund the project. Work will soon begin to prepare the building, which was also once known as the Dudley Digges House, for its move to a nearby location on the Colonial Williamsburg grounds. There, preservationists will reclaim the original look and design of schoolhouse. Historians and interpreters will develop programming so that visitors will have some experience of how the school operated. Information and interactive opportunities will help them understand the school from a modern perspective. If all goes to plan, Hurst hopes that by 2024 the school will be open to Williamsburg's visitors. One of the challenges for presenting the school is to do it in a way that both celebrates this early example of Black education while not flinching from the reason the school was created - which was to convert African Americans to Christianity and continue to subjugate them. "Christianizing people was used as a way of controlling them to making sure that they understood their place in society," said Jody Lynn Allen, assistant professor of history at William & Mary and director of the school's Lemon Project, a program named after a man who had been enslaved at the school, to research and report on William & Mary's legacy of slavery. "The purpose of the school was a way to teach them and to establish within them an understanding of their status." But education is a hard lion to tame. What students took away from their classes may have been far more than instructors intended, Allen said. "You can't control what they may have been reading at home," she said. "They may have taught them to read the New Testament stories about slaves obeying their masters. But if they can learn to read, they can also read the Exodus story." Educating Black students at the time was considered dangerous because enslavers worried they would learn to write and forge passes that allowed them to travel freely and possibly even escape. In the 19th century, Virginia would essentially ban enslaved people from learning. The state's legal code stated: "That all meetings or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and associating with such slaves at any meeting-house or houses, &c., in the night; or at any school or schools for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly." Punishment for breaking that law was up to 20 lashes of a whip. Nicole Brown, a Colonial Williamsburg actor and scholar, has for the past four years portrayed Ann Wager, the White woman who taught at the Williamsburg Bray School for its 14-year existence. She has approached the role as a way to not simply portray how Wager would have acted as a schoolteacher, but to explain how deeply rooted notions of white superiority and colonialism fed efforts to educate Black and Native Americans in early America. "Ann's story is interesting, but ideally she's a conduit to a bigger idea, which is about the relationship or intersectionality between slavery, religion and education in our country," Brown said. Brown expects that with the addition of the school to Colonial Williamsburg, there will be an opportunity to see the classroom in action and to have the voices and stories of its Black students take a more central role in the narrative. The evidence is overwhelming, Brown said, that even while students were being taught to follow religious doctrine and know their place, they took full advantage of their education to strengthen their situation. "In spite of this education that she provided, time and time again we see examples in primary source documentation of students resisting that subjugation to inferiority," Brown said. They were taking "the education Ann gave them and rising above and beyond that to use the education to make meaning in ways that neither Ann nor the school likely ever anticipated." While plans go forward for programming and teaching around the Bray School, it's noteworthy that the discovery of the original building might never have happened had it not been for Terry L. Meyers, an English professor at William & Mary who was interested in history. In the early 2000s, Meyers learned of a building in Williamsburg that in 1930 had been moved a block onto the college campus. As he explored the reasons for the move he began to discover the connections between the building and the Bray school. That sent him down a historical rabbit hole where he eventually uncovered more evidence that the building that had been moved was possibly the original schoolhouse. Meyers consulted with architects about construction methods. He came across letters from Benjamin Franklin to the Bray Associates in England recommending Williamsburg as a site for the school. (Franklin had visited Williamsburg in 1756.) Later, Meyers found documentation mentioning Adam and Fanny, two children enslaved by William & Mary who received their education at the Bray School. Meyers said he was delighted last year when he heard that the scientific testing had confirmed the long-forgotten structure was the Bray School. And he's looking forward to a time when visitors can step inside the refurbished building. "I think there has always been in the Black community, just an overwhelming thirst, an interest and desire to be educated, and so that's part of what I hope people learn when they visit," he said. "I also think, being a teacher myself, that almost all teaching, all education is to some degree subversive. It makes people start to think; it gives them a kind of independence." As part of its ongoing commitment to promoting the importance of engineering, as well as math, science and technical skills, BASF is a premier sponsor of Chattanooga Engineers Week, which started Sunday. The local annual outreach event is part of National Engineers Week, which celebrates how engineers make a difference in the world and brings engineering to life for children, educators and parents. The spirit of Engineers Week captures BASFs continuous mission to promote science and technology in our community; particularly among our youngest engineering students, said Rob Gagliano, BASF Chattanooga site director. Its a privilege to invest in this event and in our regions institutions of higher learning that continuously create new opportunities and experiences for our students to learn. As part of the event, BASF announced $1,000 contributions to Chattanooga Engineers Week, UTCs College of Engineering and Computer Science and Chattanooga States Division of Engineering and Information Technologies. National Engineers Week was founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers. The purpose of the event is to ensure a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of engineering and technology careers. For more information about BASF in Tennessee, visit http://www.basf.us/tennessee. We've been here before. The head of a government agency fired without a bit of explanation, the firers hiding behind a hole in the states Freedom of Information Act that allows them to have private discussions about letting go of employees. This time its the director of the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, a wholly unglamorous agency that you might not have heard of unless you have a loved one who needs its help, in which case its a vital resource. The agency, which serves South Carolinians with brain and spinal injuries, autism and other intellectual disabilities, has had more than its share of problems. But beyond a COVID outbreak at a regional facility it operates and a federal audit that apparently predates her hiring, it looked to the outside world as though things had been settling down since Mary Poole became director 19 months ago. Then seemingly out of nowhere over the objection of the board chairman and to the surprise of the state senator who works most closely with it the part-time board voted 5-1 last week to fire Ms. Poole. Maybe she needed to be let go. Maybe she didnt. Beyond board member David Thomas telling The Post and Couriers Seanna Adcox it was heartbreaking but necessary and Ms. Poole telling Charlestons WCSC-TV she did nothing wrong and she turned down an invitation to resign rather than being fired, nobodys talking. Sort of like nobodys talking, a year later, about why the Charleston County Council paid County Administrator Jennifer Miller nearly a quarter-million dollars to go away. And like nobody talks so many times when local officials and even state agency directors are suddenly gone. Whats routinely ignored by the officials doing the firing is that state law doesnt require them to have these discussions about removing employees in private; it allows them to. And it in no way prevents them from explaining their reasoning after a secret discussion. But whats underappreciated in the public is that even when there is no executive session, theres also nothing in state law that requires them to explain their actions. Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! We understand why boards and councils dont want to tell us why they let people go. Look no further than what happened when Gov. Henry McMaster told us he fired State Accident Fund Executive Director Amy Cofield because of a contract her agency entered into with her husband: Within days, she had hired an attorney who wrote to the governor threatening to sue if she wasn't reinstated. Its a bizarre demand, which either misunderstands or intentionally tries to mislead about the law that, appropriately, allows him to remove the director of the agency for any reason or no reason. And we mean that literally: A governor can fire the heads of most state agencies simply because he doesnt like the way theyre doing their job. Technically, he could fire them because, say, he didnt like the way they dress. But its still a potential lawsuit, which the governors office will have to spend public resources defending in court. That's something part-time board members are not anxious to have to do, not just because they dont want to incur that sort of expense particularly when they oversee an agency thats struggling to stretch dollars to do the important work it needs to do but also because most decent people dislike confrontation. Government transparency doesn't mean just holding meetings in public and turning over records upon request. It means explaining to the public what you're doing and why you're doing it. What the board members of the disabilities agency overlook what too many elected and appointed officials overlook is that even though the law allows them to discuss sensitive information in private, they still have an obligation to be forthcoming with the public. Its that every single secret further erodes the public confidence in its government. Its that secrecy begets suspicion: Did they have a legitimate reason to fire the director, or was she resisting the unwise or self-serving or even illegal things the board was pushing her to do? We do not have any information that would lead us to believe such nefarious motivations came into play, but as long as the board remains silent, we cant rule it out. Another overlooked fact is that with a few exceptions some of which make sense, some of which absolutely do not (see: Santee Cooper) the governor also can fire the thousands of people he appoints to part-time governing boards, including the board of the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. That means the governor is appropriately in charge of those agencies. Mr. McMaster has spent his entire public career as an advocate of open government. He can and should instruct the board members that they need to tell the public why they acted. He can and should make it clear to everybody he appoints to governing boards that he expects them to be upfront with the public about what theyre doing and why. And when people refuse to do this, he needs to replace them and make sure everybody knows thats why he replaced them. 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. Check out the news you should not miss today: Society -- Vietnam on Thursday morning reported no new cases of COVID-19, keeping the countrys tally at 2,412 with 1,804 recoveries, according to the Ministry of Health. -- According to the results of genetic sequencing, the Japanese expert who died in a hotel in Hanois Tay Ho District in mid-February was identified as being infected with a new coronavirus variant circulating mainly in South Korea, Sri Lanka, India, and Taiwan, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long confirmed on Wednesday. -- Quang Ninh will allocate at least VND500 billion (US$21.6 million) to buy COVID-19 vaccines and organize inoculation for all people in the Vietnamese province, Nguyen Thi Hanh, vice-chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee said at a Wednesday meeting on COVID-19 prevention. -- Thirty-two among 82 samples taken randomly for COVID-18 tests at drinking places in Ho Chi Minh Citys Binh Thanh District on February 22 and 23 returned negative, Thai Thi Hong Nga, vice-chairman of the local People's Committee said on Wednesday. -- Police in Quang Ninh Province on Wednesday said they had broken a case of illegal coal mining with the value of around VND200 billion ($8.6 million) in the exploitation areas belonging to a local company in Quang Hanh Ward, Cam Pha City. -- The Ministry of Public Security plans to have issued chip-based ID cards to 50 million citizens by July 1 this year, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday. -- Dozens of firefighters in Binh Tan and Tan Phu Districts, Ho Chi Minh City were mobilized on Wednesday night to put out a fire at a scrap yard in Binh Tan. No casualties have been reported. -- Nearly 30 students from Vinh Thuy Elementary School in the north-central province of Quang Tri were hospitalized for vomit and abdominal pain after having lunch at school. Some 18 of them with severe symptoms are being kept at the hospital for treatment. Business -- Vietnamese airlines operated 20,944 flights during the Tet holiday season from January 19 to February 18, when travel demand rose sharply, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday, quoting the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) will shortlist bidders for Rs 5,000 crore New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment by the end of next month. The shortlisted bidders will be asked to put in a request for participation (RFP), or the financial bid for the project, by May this year. The government hopes to begin construction of the project by December this year. A railway ministry source told BusinessToday.In, "We are in the process of finalising the bidders from among the Request for Qualifications (RFQs) that we have received. By the end of March, we will shortlist bidders for financial bidding. Financial bids will be called from the shortlisted bidders by late April or May after which they will be evaluated." A total of nine bidders have submitted RFQ for the New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment plan, which envisages redevelopment of the station at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. The government plans to complete the New Delhi railway station redevelopment in the next four years. The RFQs were opened by the RLDA on February 16. According to the authority, nine global and domestic companies have submitted the RFQ for redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway station. Arabian Construction Company, Adani Railways Transport Ltd, BIF IV India Infrastructure Holding Pvt Ltd, ISQ Asia Infrastructure Investments Pte Ltd, Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Limited, Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd, GMR Highways Limited, Omaxe Limited, and Elpis Ventures Pvt Ltd have submitted the RFP. Being asked about the development, RLDA Vice-Chairman Ved Prakash Dudeja told BusinessToday.In that the process is on, but did not share a timeline on the submission of the financial bids. Dudeja, however, said that the construction of the New Delhi station redevelopment will begin by the end of this calendar year. "The construction will begin by December," he said. Sharing details on the other upcoming railway station redevelopment projects, Dudeja said, "We have opened the RFQs for Tirupati railway station development, Dehradun, Puducherry and Nellore. RFQ for redevelopment of Ernakulam railway station is to be opened. Lucknow and Puri are in the pipeline for RFQ." RLDA is currently working on 62 railway stations across the country. RFQ for Faridabad, Gaya and Panipat will also be invited in three weeks. Dudeja said that no land is needed to be acquired for the New Delhi project as the requisite land is available with the department. "The project involves development of the railway station as well as the railway station estate for a concession period of sixty years. The railway station will be on licence to the developer, wherein opportunities like retail, food and beverages, and kiosks could be utilised as the station offers an assured footfall of about half a million passengers daily. Real estate opportunity such as development of hotel, and offices, leveraging the excess floor area ratio is also clubbed in the redevelopment plan," Dudeja added. "New Delhi station will be redeveloped into a world-class station in line with global standards with dome-shaped terminal buildings with 2-Arrival and 2-Departure at the concourse level, two Multi-Modal Transport Hubs (MMTH) on its every side, 40-floor high-rise twin towers (with hotel/offices and retail at podium) and pedestrian boulevard with high-street shopping among the salient features of the proposed development," RLDA said in a release earlier. Also read: 448 infra projects hit by cost overruns worth Rs 4.02 lakh crore Also read: Piyush Goyal dedicates 88 Railway projects to nation worth Rs 1,000 crore Several European Union countries have reported offers from "alleged intermediaries" for 900 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for some 12.7 billion euros, the bloc's anti-fraud agency OLAF said on Thursday. OLAF opened an inquiry earlier this month into scam vaccine offers, underlining how fraudsters have sought to capitalise on a botched EU inoculation campaign against COVID-19 that is hampering the bloc's economic recovery. "OLAF received information from several EU member states about offers of COVID-19 vaccines by alleged intermediaries," the agency's press office said in a statement sent to Reuters. "To date, all these different offers together represent over 900 million vaccine doses for a total asking price of roughly 12.7 billion euros ($15.53 billion)." Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines against the coronavirus say they only sell directly to governments. OLAF warned last week about fraudsters seeking to sell vaccines in the 27-nation EU. EU leaders will discuss by videoconference on Thursday how to protect their 450 million citizens from new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus, ensure stable vaccine deliveries, ramp up production and update jabs to counter new strains. Two officials with the bloc's executive European Commission expressed concern about "ghost" vaccines now on the market. "There is a really large quantity," one said. "Nobody has any idea what is actually in these vials...The best case is it's just not working, in the worst case it's a very serious issue." The official, noting that most of the shots offered to EU governments by traders were purportedly the AstraZeneca vaccine, compared the situation to the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 when criminals exploited a shortage of masks and other protective equipment. A second official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Commission was worried about "ghost" vaccines. "It is unclear whether these are genuine vaccine doses or if we are just talking about salt water in small vials," the official told Reuters. ($1 = 0.8179 euros) (Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold, John Chalmers, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Mark Heinrich) Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Middle school students across New York City will be able to return to their classrooms on Thursday, after buildings were closed in mid-November due to rising coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. Public middle school buildings will reopen to students Thursday, while teachers and school staff returned Wednesday to prepare classrooms for students. A lot of work has gone into this to make sure we are ready, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a recent press conference. Our children are ready. Our parents are ready for kids to be back in school, so were very excited about this. Elementary schools, as well as District 75 schools that serve students with special needs, have been open since December. Its unclear when high schools will reopen. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** New York City closed all school buildings temporarily for teaching and learning starting Nov. 19 when the coronavirus positivity rate surpassed 3%, the threshold to close schools. At that time, all public school students transitioned to fully remote learning. Schools had only been open for in-person instruction since mid-September first to special education and preschool students on Sept. 21, followed by students in K-8 schools and middle and high schools the following week. Now, the city is following a similar phased-in approach, while enforcing more safety and health standards when middle schools reopen next week. Heres what you need to know about middle schools reopening. Only blended learners will return Middle school students will return to their buildings beginning Thursday, Feb. 25. If your child opted into blended learning, either at the start of the 2020-2021 school year or during the opt-in period that ended in November, your child will be able to return to school next week. If you didnt opt into blended learning during the allocated periods, your child will learn remotely for the rest of the school year. Your childs principal will reach out with the new blended learning schedule. Could have 5-day-a-week instruction Any school that has the space and ability to move to a five-day-a-week in-person instruction model will aim to follow this preferred model. The mayor said some middle schools will immediately return to in-person learning five days a week. But others still need increased infrastructure. City Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza said that half of the citys 471 middle schools will be able to resume in-person learning five days a week, and that other middle schools will be progressing toward that goal. Safety measures in place Students will return to school with the same safety measures in place as when they first went back at the beginning of the academic year. All students and staff are required to complete a daily health screening when attending in-person instruction. They will learn in smaller class sizes, with desks spaced apart at least six feet for social distancing. Students are asked to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer more often. Social distancing markers will be placed throughout school buildings to remind kids to keep their distance. Teachers, staff and students are required to wear a face mask or covering while inside. Students are required to stay in pods together throughout the day as much as possible, and limit contact with other classrooms to contain any potential spread of the virus to other parts of the school. Testing consent is required Students returning to campus are required to consent to mandatory weekly coronavirus testing. New York City is able to continue requiring consent from families to test students after confusion following a new directive from the state. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) said in a directive that New York schools and school districts cant require students to consent to coronavirus testing in order to attend in-person instruction. However, in a reversal the following day, the state said testing in schools could be mandatory under the direction of the local health department. If you have already submitted consent, the city Department of Education (DOE) encourages parents to submit the consent form again to ensure the latest form is on file. There are two ways to submit the consent form: New York City Schools Account (NYCSA) -- Log into your account, click your students name, click Manage Account, and when a dropdown menu appears, click Consent Forms. Read the page and choose the consent option at the end for your student. Print and sign the form and bring it to your childs school on the first day her or she is back on campus. A printable PDF file is available in 10 languages at the DOEs COVID Testing page. Exemptions to testing Exemptions are only granted in certain limited cases, including: Students who need a medical exemption due to a health condition that makes it unsafe to undergo testing. You will be able to submit a separate form for consideration. This form must be signed by a physician and you must submit medical documentation from a health-care provider. For students with disabilities who cannot be safely tested in school due to the nature of their disability, you will be able to submit a separate request for an exemption. If you dont consent You must submit consent by the day that your child returns to his or her school building, according to the DOE. This is the due date, and all students must participate. If your child comes to school on his or her first day back for in-person instruction without a consent form on file, the principal and school staff will contact you to obtain consent. After that, those students without a consent form on file who dont have a medical or disability-based exemption must move to fully remote instruction. Blended learners required to attend in-person According to the DOE, students who opted for blended learning are required to attend in-person on a consistent basis. Your school will reach out if your child isnt attending in-person regularly, and transition your child to fully remote learning if irregular in-person attendance continues. this will allow schools to maximize in-person instructional days for students who are attending in-person. Protocol for a school or classroom closure Instead of New York City closing all schools when the coronavirus positivity rate hits 3%, school buildings will only shutter if there are multiple confirmed cases. According to de Blasio, the protocol for closing individual classrooms or school buildings if there are positive coronavirus cases will remain the same. Heres a closer look at what happens if there are confirmed coronavirus cases in a school: One confirmed coronavirus case in a classroom, or at least two cases linked together in the same classroom, would be enough to quarantine the entire class of students for 10 days. The school would remain open. At least two cases in the school in separate classrooms would quarantine both classes for 10 days, with additional school members quarantined based on where exposure was in the school. The school would close for an initial 24 hours. At least two cases linked together by circumstances outside of school would close the school for an initial 24 hours, and all students would quarantine for 10 days. At least two cases not linked together, but exposure was confirmed for each one outside of the school setting, would close the school for an initial 24 hours and quarantine all students for 10 days. If a link is unable to be determined for at least two cases, the entire school building would be closed for 10 days. The city Department of Health, in partnership with the city Test & Trace Corps, will conduct an investigation into any close contacts of those who have a positive test result, and those people will be asked to quarantine and not report to school buildings. All close contacts are referred to the Test & Trace Corps for monitoring during the quarantine period. Schools will communicate to all families and students within school any time a case is laboratory-confirmed. When a school closes or a classroom quarantines, students and teachers move to remote learning. The DOE created a Daily COVID Case Map that shows all known cases of coronavirus at public schools. School Zone: A new newsletter with the updates you need as our schools try to get back to normal. Enter your email address here and hit "subscribe" to receive this weekly newsletter: FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday notified President's Rule in Puducherry, days after a Congress-led government in the union territory lost power during a vote of confidence. The notification, signed by President Ram Nath Kovind, said the decision was taken after the president received a report from the administrator of the Union Territory of Puducherry on February 22. It said after considering the report and other information received by him, the president was satisfied that a situation had arisen in which the administration of the Union Territory of Puducherry could not carry on in accordance with the provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 (20 of 1963). "Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 51 of the Act and of all other powers enabling me in that behalf, I (a) suspend, until the constitution of the 15th Legislative Assembly of Puducherry, in relation to the said Union Territory of Puducherry...," the notification said. The president also suspended the operation of various provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 (20 of 1963), thus imposing central rule in Puducherry. The notification also said the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory is placed under suspended animation. Earlier, the Union Cabinet had approved a proposal to impose President's Rule in Puducherry following Congress fall out. Announcing the Cabinet decision, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters that the decision was taken as no party came forward to stake claim to form the government in Puducherry following the resignation of the chief minister V Narayanasamy. Subsequently, the Lieutenant Governor had recommended President's Rule there and the Union Cabinet has approved the same, the minister said. Narayanasamy, who led the Congress government, resigned on Monday ahead of the confidence vote after his government was reduced to a minority following a spate of resignations of his party MLAs and a DMK legislator in recent days. Meanwhile, in Puducherry, Narayanasamy cautioned the voters against supporting the alliance comprising BJP, AINRC and AIADMK in the coming assembly polls and claimed these parties would have no qualms to merge the Union Territory with Tamil Nadu. Addressing party workers during a demonstration, he said,"my government was toppled through undemocratic and scrupulous designs and the conspiracy hatched by the BJP in coordination with the AINRC and AIADMK." Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Pune: What is the reason behind the surge of daily Covid-19 infections in Maharashtra, after a period of dip? As per a senior state health official, there is a combination of various factors that has led to a sudden spike. News agency PTI quoted Dr Subhash Salunke, technical adviser to the Maharashtra government on reasons behind the spike in Covid-19 cases in some districts of Vidarbha. He said there are three factors - the first one is the virus, its structure, mutations and capacity of transmission, the second factor is the person who harbours the virus and transmits it to others, and the third is the environment, weather, housing structure and pollution. "So, an interplay of the three factors is responsible for the transmission and its ups and downs," he said. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle The coronavirus is showing a concentrated spurt in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region and the infection is slowly getting transmitted to other places like Pune and Mumbai. If not controlled, it can spread to other states in the country too. Meanwhile, a total of 229 students of a public school hostel in Maharashtra's Washim district have tested coronavirus positive. Altogether 327 students from various districts in Vidarbha region reside at the hostel of the Bhavna Public School. Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed a significant rise in coronavirus cases, with more than 8,000 new infections coming to light in a single day after a gap of over four months. The state has so far reported a total of 21,21,119 COVID-19 cases, as per official figures. A total of 16,738 infections were reported in a day, while the death toll increased to 1,56,705 with 138 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Sorry! This content is not available in your region The Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG), on Wednesday called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to sanction diplomatic missions in Ghana pushing the LGBTQI agenda in the country. The Coalition said the attendance of the launch of the Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) Community in Ghana and the open strong support to that community by the European Union, Denmark and Australian representatives in Ghana must not only be condemned but be sanctioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The COMOG said at a press briefing to state its stance on LGBTQI and also call on government to take immediate steps to curb such activities in the country. Alhaji Abdel Manan Abdel Rahman, President of COMOG, addressing the media, said the Ghanaian Criminal Code of 1960, criminalises consensual same-sex sexual acts, adding, We are teaming up with all religious bodies including the Traditional bodies to sponsor a comprehensive bill on sexual behaviour and activities to Parliament. He added that teachings of both the Bible and the Quran, and the Traditional values system strongly abhor such abominable acts in the Ghanaian communities. Alhaji Abdel Rahman said they could not agree with some Human Rights activists who argued that the activitism of the LGBTQI were pivoted on Human Rights as Ghana had ratified the United Nations Convention on Human Rights to protect the rights of Ghanaians, promote their values and socio-cultural rights etc. He said the Australian High Commissioner, the Danish Ambassador and Head of EU Delegation to Ghana, must come out within 7 days to apologise and assure Ghanaians of their respect for their values, traditions, cultural and religious beliefs that vehemently abhor the practice of LGBTQI . Alhaji Abdel Rahman added that their failure to adhere to the above call would spur the good people of Ghana to exhibit their wrath on them through a mammoth demonstration. He called on government to support and work with various religious, traditional bodies and health agencies to establish an outfit that would serve as a Centre to help LGBTQI persons to provide them with the needed holistic treatment to curb their deviant feelings and unnatural sexual tendencies. Alhaji Abdel Rahman further urged the Parliament of Ghana to condemn the involvement of the foreign missions in the promotion of the LGBTQI agenda in Ghana. He called on all Ghanaians to rally behind the National Coalition of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values to stop this alien and forbidden culture in the country. Mr Prince Musah Zakaria COMOG representative at National Coalition of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Famiy Values, said the closure of their main office in Accra was not enough and that they must close down all satellite offices across the country. He said they did not hate those involved in such activities but their acts of lesbianism or homosexuality which were inimical to the Ghanaian values, tradition and religious beliefs. He cautioned all diplomatic missions and foreign Non-Governmental Organisations promoting the LGBTQI agenda in Ghana to desist from it as Ghanaians were keenly watching them. 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 WASHINGTON - A group opposed to affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to overturn a key precedent that allows schools to consider race when choosing an entering class. The petition from Students for Fair Admissions was the expected next step in its long-running challenge to Harvard University's admissions process. Colleges and universities across the country are watching a case with major ramifications for the world of competitive admissions. In November, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling in 2019 that Harvard does not discriminate against Asian Americans when its undergraduate college uses race and ethnicity as a factor in reviewing applicants. Students for Fair Admissions filed suit against Harvard in 2014, alleging that the university violates civil rights law in ways that penalize Asian Americans. Harvard denied the allegations. The group's new petition asks the Supreme Court to overturn a 2003 ruling that allows race-conscious admissions in higher education in the interest of achieving student body diversity. That 2003 ruling in the case known as Grutter v. Bollinger, the group says, was "grievously wrong." "After six and one-half years of litigation, the hundreds of Asian-American students who were unfairly and illegally rejected from Harvard because of their race may soon have this lawsuit reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court," the group's president, Edward Blum, said in a statement. "It is our hope that the justices will accept this case and finally end the consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions." Harvard continues to argue that creating a diverse campus community is essential to its mission. "As earlier court decisions have confirmed, our admissions policies are consistent with Supreme Court precedent," the university said in a statement. "We will continue to vigorously defend the right of Harvard College, and every other college and university in the nation, to seek the educational benefits that come from bringing together a diverse group of students." The Supreme Court upheld the limited use of race in university admissions the last time it considered the issue in 2016. In a surprise, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the University of Texas's admission program complied with the 2003 Grutter precedent. It was the first time Kennedy had voted for a race-conscious government program. He sided with the court's liberals in the 4-to-3 vote. (The court was shorthanded at the time because of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and Justice Elena Kagan recused herself because she had worked on the issue in the Obama administration.) The dissenters in the Texas case were Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito. They have since been joined by three conservative colleagues nominated by President Donald Trump whose past rulings and writings would seem to make them sympathetic to an argument that Grutter's time has passed. It could be a couple of months before the court announces whether it will hear the case. If so, it would be argued in the term that begins in October. LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pearson today released editorial guidelines that will advance the company's commitment to fighting systemic racism in education. The guidelines will serve as a resource to help content developers -- including authors, reviewers and editorscreate meaningful representations of minorities and challenge racial stereotypes and associated prejudices in all Pearson courseware, digital materials, services, qualifications and assessments. The guidelines will inform Pearson's broader Global Editorial Policy that will be re-released later this year with enhanced standards for content relating to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion and disability. Training on the guidelines is being rolled out globally to Pearson employees over the next 12 months. Specifically, the guidelines identify five main challenges that are commonly highlighted in academic sources including: underrepresentation of minorities, exaggerated negative associations, limited positive associations, missing stories, and the idea that disadvantages are personal, rather than systemic. The guidelines provide examples of each challenge and recommended solutions to guide Pearson content producers. The guidelines were created by members of Pearson's employee resource groups with consultation from Dr. Jason Arday, Deputy Executive Dean (People and Culture), Associate professor of sociology at Durham University UK and author of the Black Curriculum Report, a seminal report on curriculum inequality in the UK. Specifically, employees from Pearson PRIME (People Representing the Interests of Multiple Ethnicities) and Pearson Bold, which is dedicated to empowering employees of Black and/or African ancestry led the report. "2020 was a year of enormous change and action across the world when it comes to race and ethnic equality. It has highlighted the need for action to address systemic inequality that people from diverse backgrounds face every day," said Ebrahim Matthews, Senior Vice President, Global Schools, Pearson. "The work we do at Pearson makes a real difference in the lives of millions of people and there is more we can and should do. This is an important step to address systemic and personal bias related to race and ethnicity in academic content, and to ensure that what we produce is anti-racist, accurate and authentic." "The guidelines produced represent a cultural shift in publishing that attempts to center race and racial equality at its core," said Dr. Arday. "Pearson's commitment to changing the racialized dynamics of publishing and the contents of its books, speaks to a boarder need for the educational publishing industry to disrupt how bodies of knowledge are presented with regards to texts and learning resources. This organizational commitment reflects Pearson's attempts to engage with an anti-racist approach that embraces a global and diverse international readership and consumer base." Similar guidelines for content relating to gender, LGBTQ+ and disability from Pearson employee resource groups will inform the Global Editorial Policy and advance Pearson's commitment to being a fully inclusive and diverse organization that reflects the communities it serves. Pearson also recently announced the appointment of Dr. Florida Starks as chief diversity officer to lead a cross-functional, company wide effort to advance DEI initiatives. In another step to identify any existing bias in Pearson content or services, and to facilitate better communication with students, instructors, customers, and the public, the company created a web portal to welcome potential instances of bias. The portal can be found here. The portal was built after being recommended by the Pearson DEI Task Force and students and faculty. Pearson has recently remediated instances of biased terminology and imagery in courseware based on student feedback. One example is the use of the term "Master/Slave," commonly used in engineering and computer science fields. Pearson is now leading the industry in removing the terminology from hundreds of titles. The company has started an effort to work with engineering and computer science organizations to stop the use of the terminology in other contexts. In addition, Pearson has reviewed 100 of its top titles to find instances of bias. Remediation efforts are underway. You can read about Pearson's plan to pursue an anti-racist agenda, fight systemic racism, and create equity and opportunity through education here. About Pearson We are the world's leading learning company with more than 22,500 employees operating in 70 countries. We provide content, assessment and digital services to learners, educational institutions, employers, governments and other partners globally. We are committed to helping equip learners with the skills they need to enhance their employability prospects and to succeed in the changing world of work. We believe that wherever learning flourishes so do people. Visit www.pearson.com. Contact: Scott Overland, (202) 909-4520 [email protected] SOURCE Pearson Related Links www.pearson.com * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! The United States on Thursday welcomed a joint statement from India and Pakistan that they have agreed to maintain a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir. "This is a positive step towards greater peace and stability in South Asia, which is in our shared interest and we encourage both countries to keep building upon this progress," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news briefing. Short link: An Israeli office development project, ToHA Tower 1, located in capital Tel Aviv, has won big at The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) 2021 Awards in the Interior Design category. Located in the Israeli city's Nahalat Yitsak neighbourhood, the ToHA tower complex features three office skyscrapers. ToHA 1 is the first development on the site and a second 75-storey tower is also underway. The two buildings will be connected via an elevated walkway, and the taller will also be elevated on a slim support to maximise the open space on the ground floor. The first tower comprises 28 floors, was completed in 2019 while the second tower is slated to be inaugurated in 2024. The 'iceberg-inspired' tower - with an angular glass exterior that widens in the middle - has been designed by British-Israeli designer and architect Ron Arad and the ToHA Tower 1 was the only winner from the Middle East region in the Interior Design category. The others who made it to the winners list are: L'Oreal Headquarters Dusseldorf (Germany); Leeza SOHO - Beijing and One Excellence - Shenzhen (both China); Rosewood Bangkok Hotel (Thailand); Sixty Martin Place and UTS Central - both Sydney - (Australia); The Independent - Austin (US); The Warsaw HUB (Poland). In addition to the interior design category, the CTBUH also announced the winners of 2021 Award of Excellence in Renovation category. These are Hanwha Headquarters - Seoul (South Korea); Hudson Commons and The Woolworth Tower Residences - both New York City (US); Necker Laboratory - Paris (France); Shinjuku Sumitomo Building - Tokyo (Japan); LondonHouse - Chicago (US) and The Residences of 488 University Avenue - Toronto (Canada). Announcing the winners, CTBUH said these winning projects reflect that, in the first instance, operational and environmental requirements of tall buildings can change rapidly. The most sustainable response to a change in these requirements is to undertake a significant renovation. In the second, while a tall buildings initial appearance on the skyline grabs most of the headlines, the occupant experience of the interior is crucially important, it added. According CTBUH, the Award of Excellence Winners will now move on to the next stage of the Awards Programme, in which the owner/developers and design/engineer teams for the projects will compete in the CTBUH 2021 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference for Best in Category distinctions. The conference will take place online on a dedicated virtual portal from May 18 to 20. The conference will include several program tracks discussing hot topics in the urban development and tall building industry. Additional category winners will be announced at later dates, it added. The CTBUH is the worlds leading nonprofit organization for those interested in the future of cities. Founded in the US in 1969, the CTBUH member network embraces more than one million professionals working in all building industry sectors in almost all countries of the world: investors, owner-developers, occupier-tenants, government agencies, urban planners, architects, engineers, contractors. It has offices in Chicago, Shanghai and Venice.-TradeArabia News Service Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Rattan lal Kataria, on Thursday urged the newly inducted post-doctoral fellows of Dr Ambedkar International Centre (DAIC) to contribute to the country's progress under the government's vision of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'. During an interaction, Kataria said, "In these two years, you should understand the current social and economic issues of the country, research upon them and suggest ways for the country to fight them effectively." Kataria further added that the Central government in the last five years has made special efforts to improve research. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Dr Ambedkar International Centre on December 7, 2017 to accelerate the process of research on social and economic issues. San Antonians saw a familiar face back on their TVs Thursday morning as former KSAT anchor Leslie Mouton hopped on air. But it was with KENS 5, not KSAT. New Delhi, Feb 25 : On the line of its successful 'Mission 272+' campaign in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come up with a similar dedicated campaign for poll-bound West Bengal -- 'Modioara' -- which is a volunteer-based programme to reach out to the youth and professionals. The campaign, which was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his recent visit to West Bengal earlier this month, is designed to reach out to the youth who are politically aware but don't have any association with any political party. In the campaign, the youth and professions are being appealed to come forward, approach the common people and spread the message of the developmental politics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modipara has so far connected over 15,000 youth and professionals only in Kolkata since its launch. The drive will run parallel to the BJP's political campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal, which are expected to be held in April-May this year. As per the office-bearers of the BJP, the party members in Bengal will support the volunteers, who will be free to plan their movement in the state as per their creativity, spreading words about the works done by Prime Minister Modi. For the 2014 general elections, the BJP had launched a volunteer-based campaign titled 'Mission 272+' in which over 10 lakh people took part. BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga told IANS that people are responding to the Modipara campaign. "Lots of people are voluntarily joining the campaign and designing it themselves," Bagga said. Requesting anonymity, another BJP leader said, "Modipara is a localised volunteers' campaign for West Bengal. Through this campaign, we are appealing to the people, who are not politically affiliated to any party, to come forward and spread the message of the development politics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi." Another BJP leader said that the ideation and execution of the campaign is done by the volunteers, while the party only provides the necessary guidance. "The party will fine-tune the ideas of the volunteers. These young volunteers are not seasoned politicians, but they are full of enthusiasm and creativity. Their creative ideas are being given proper shape by the party leaders in the state," he aid. Another BJP leader associated with the campaign said that it is getting 'huge response' from the youngsters and professionals. "Large number of volunteers joined the campaign from in and around Kolkata and other urban areas of the state," he said. According to another party leader, students, professionals and party sympathisers are joining the Modipara campaign from across the state. After Kolkata, the party is planning to extensively push the campaign in other urban pockets like Siliguri, Asansol, Durgapur and Bardhaman, as well as the rest of the state. (Shashi Bhushan can be contacted at shashi.b@ians.in) Study identifies strengths and challenges of responding to dual disasters New Orleans, LA -- A new study of how the 2020 major hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic affected each other as well as disaster response found that although prior experience enabled community-based organizations to respond to the pandemic, the pandemic is also creating new challenges to preparing for and responding to natural disasters. The research is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, available here. "Two major crises hit Louisiana and coastal communities in the Southeastern United States in 2020 - a significant increase in the frequency and severity of hurricanes, and the COVID-19 pandemic," says Benjamin Springgate, MD, MPH, Chief of Community & Population Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 representatives of community-based programs in southern Louisiana. The participants ranged in age from 28 to 70. The majority (61.5%) were non-Hispanic white; 30.8% were Black; one participant (3.8%) was Latinx and one participant (3.8%) was Vietnamese. Three-fourths of the participants lived in Orleans Parish, and most represented local-level organizations. Participants represented 24 community-based agencies and organizations that provide a wide variety of services, including environmental and social justice issues impacting underserved communities, community health promotion, health and mental health services, disaster preparedness and recovery, funding of community initiatives, community development, faith-based services, affordable housing, child welfare advocacy and support, and criminal justice reform. "Local leaders noted that due to the pandemic, it is now harder to plan for evacuations in the event of a hurricane," adds Dr. Springgate. "Organizations find it is also more difficult to provide in-person client services and challenging to plan for providing food and other resources to residents who may shelter in place during a storm." The analysis also identified several strengths based on disaster preparedness experience and capabilities. "Local organizations identified several strengths based on their disaster preparedness experience - particularly that based on prior experience with hurricanes, they already had a framework for how to respond and adapt to the novel challenges presented by COVID," Dr. Springgate notes. The analysis shows that the increase in demand for disaster-related services has been accompanied by a decrease in the availability of services due to a decline in available financial resources as well as the constraints on services delivery imposed by protocols designed to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The authors conclude that despite the anticipated challenges to delivering services in response to a natural disaster, the networks of partnerships and prior experiences with disaster preparedness and response, along with certain features of the community that have fostered resilience to adverse events, represent key assets in coping with the pandemic and with the current hurricane season. Though limited to a particular setting with extensive experience with climate-related disasters and preparedness and response, the lessons for interaction with a pandemic context may have important implications for approaches in other areas to consider enhancing preparedness and response resources, training and partnerships. ### Other LSU Health New Orleans authors include Dr. Ashley Wennerstrom, Olivia Sugarman, Carter Pesson, Jessica E. Seay, and Caroline N. Stallard. Other authors were Lawrence A. Palinkas from the University of Southern California, Jill Hancock from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Diana Meyers from St. Anna's Episcopal Church, Arthur Johnson from Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, Mara Polk from National Alliance on Metal Illness-New Orleans, and Kenneth B. Wells from the University of California, Los Angeles. This research was supported by a grant from the National Academy of Sciences' Gulf Research Program (NCT03977844, B. Springgate, PI). LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's flagship health sciences university, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with branch campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www. lsuhsc. edu , http://www. twitter. com/ LSUHealthNO , or http://www. facebook. com/ LSUHSC . This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. Bats have also become victims of last week's freezing temperatures. On Wednesday, Wildlife Diversity Program with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department posted on its page that it is getting reports of large bat fatalities under bridges. The department said the deaths are related to Winter Storm Uri. The department is asking residents to help by reporting any sightings of dead animals, including bats, to them. READ ALSO: 'Uncommon' species washes up shore at Padre Island National Seashore after winter storm If you see dead bats, the department said it's extremely important to not handle them. The best course of action is to record the observation via iNaturalist a social network app for naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists to share information. Along with finding bats under bridges, TPWD said its park employees are also seeing drowned bats that were suffering from dehydration, starvation, and cold body temperatures due to the snow last week. Currently, wildlife rehabilitation groups and other organizations are being inundated with the bats that survived the storm, and doing everything they can to help, the department said. If a drowned bat is still alive, contact a wildlife rehabilitator. A list of wildlife rehabilitators can be found on the TPWD website as well as on the Bat World Sanctuary website. RELATED: Releases begin after over 9,000 cold-stunned sea turtles were rescued last week According to the National Science Foundation, bats are essential members of many ecosystems. By fulfilling their ecological roles, bats promote biodiversity and support the health of their ecosystems, the foundation stated in a report. The ecological roles of bats include pollinating and dispersing the seeds of hundreds of species of plants. For example, bats serve as major pollinators of many types of cacti that open their flowers only at night, which is when bats are active. In addition, bats eat copious quantities of insects and other arthropods. On a typical night, a bat consumes the equivalent of its own body weight in insects. Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre OTTAWA Canadas top military officer temporarily stepped aside as chief of the defense staff after military police opened an investigation into unspecified accusations against him. The top military officer, Adm. Art McDonald, stepped aside on Wednesday in the midst of a separate investigation into the previous chief of the defense staff, Jonathan Vance, a now retired army general. Reports surfaced this month that Mr. Vance behaved inappropriately with two female subordinates. Citing the police investigation, Harjit Sajjan, the defense minister, declined to offer any specifics on Admiral McDonalds decision to step aside. The Department of National Defense also did not offer any details, and Admiral McDonald has not publicly commented on the accusations. I take all allegations of misconduct seriously and continue to take strong action on any allegation of misconduct that is brought forward, Mr. Sajjan said in a statement released late Wednesday night on Twitter. No matter the rank, no matter the position. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Nothing, a London-based consumer technology company, on Thursday announced it has appointed former Samsung executive Manu Sharma, as Vice President and General Manager of Nothing India. Sharma will drive the growth, business development and operations for Nothing in the country, a new venture of OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei, in India. "Sharma is an experienced business leader with a deep knowledge and understanding of the consumer technology industry in India. With his proven track record and experience, he will play a pivotal role for our growth in India," said Pei, CEO and Co-Founder of Nothing. Sharma has earlier worked with Samsung Mobile and the Hewlett-Packard (now bifurcated) in India. He will oversee the regional product strategy, marketing and sales operations for the brand, as well as setting up the India office. "Carl's vision is inspiring and I am confident that Nothing will have a meaningful impact on the consumer technology market in India and around the world," said Sharma. The company is set to foray into next-gen consumer devices soon. It has also opened up for its community to invest in the company through a community equity funding round. Nothing will allow its community to invest a total of $1.5 million at the same valuation as their Series A funding with GV (formerly Google Ventures). The London-based startup has so far raised over $22 million. In December, the company raised $7 million in seed financing December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley. Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED, also invested in Nothing, although the amount has not been disclosed yet. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. ATHENS - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis responded Thursday to accusations that he tried to cover up a sexual abuse scandal involving a famous actor nominated by his government as the director of the national theatre. Speaking in parliament, Mitsotakis said the opposition and media close to the opposition are dragging the public discourse into a "swamp" and spreading "poison and demagogy". The debate took place while the former artistic director of the national theatre, Dimitris Lignadis, had to appear before a public prosecutor to respond to charges of rape of minors, including migrant children. Lignadis, 56, resigned on 6 February citing "a toxic climate of rumours, innuendo, and leaks". He has been in pre-trial custody since the weekend and strongly denied the accusations. The main opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, said Thursday in parliament that the case was a "large scandal that involves an attempted cover-up", accusing the prime minister of hypocrisy and other ministers of lying to the public. The Lignadis case is the most recent in a late reawakening of the #MeToo movement in Greece, which involves accusations of sexual abuse, harassment and bullying in the fields of art, sports, and education, that has shocked the country in recent weeks. 5 things you need to know Monday News The family of a teenage boy who was found upside down on a hill on the coldest day of the year are appealing for information to help work out how the youngster died. Alfie Lawton, 15, was found near the railway in New Malden, south London on Monday, February 8 shortly before 7pm. A member of the public found Alfie in the Green Lane Recreation Ground and despite the efforts of police and paramedics, he was declared dead a short time later. Alfie Lawton, 15, pictured, was found on the Green Lane Recreation Ground in New Malden, south London on February 8 The Metropolitan Police are appealing for information from the public and anyone who saw Alfie, pictured, in the hours before his death Police have launched an investigation into Alfie's death, although it is being described as 'uxexplained' rather than suspicious. The teenager had told his mother Sarah that he was going out to meet some friends. His cousin Sacha told the Mirror, the post mortem has ruled out death by drugs and suicide. He told The Mirror: 'He was upside down in the snow on a bank,' Sacha said. It was steeper than a staircase, you need to virtually crawl to get up it. We were working on the basis that he had somehow fallen down the bank. We have heard now there is no clear sign of death, so he hasn't fallen out of a tree.' The family said when paramedics measured the teenager's temperature it had dropped as low as 22C - far below the normal range of 37C. He added: 'He has gone to the park one day and he hasn't come back, and there are no visible signs of him being attacked. We think something medical has happened. We just want answers.' Police and paramedics battled to safe Alfie's life after he was found lying in a pile of snow Alfie Lawton, pictured, told his family he was going to see friends on the day he died Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Andy Griffin said: 'Alfie's family, and their community of neighbours and friends are struggling with the grief of losing such a wonderful and vibrant young man. 'Police are actively investigating the circumstances that led to Alfie's tragic death, which is currently remains unexplained. We need as much information as possible to assist our enquiries, and answer the questions the family has about what happened to Alfie on that day. 'If anyone has any information, regardless of how insignificant they think it may be, please provide it to the investigation team so it can be followed up.' Anyone with information that could help with police enquiries is asked to call 101 or tweet @MetCC quoting ref CAD5562/08FEB21. US President Joe Biden's phone call with Saudi Arabia's King Salman should take place "very soon," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Thursday. Biden's call with the king is expected to coincide with the release of a US intelligence report on the killing in October 2018 of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Psaki told reporters "there are a range of actions that are on the table" regarding Saudi Arabia as part of a shift in tone in the US-Saudi relationship after the cozy ties between US President Donald Trump's White House and Riyadh. "Our administration is focused on recalibrating the relationship," Psaki said. "And certainly there are areas where we will express concerns and leave open the option of accountability. There are also areas where we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia given the threats they face in the region." * This Story was edited by Ahram Online Short link: East Harris County Salvation Army Lt. Luis Villanueva has a message in the aftermath of the winter storm. Be mindful of other peoples needs, he said. Were still behaving like its the end of the world when we go to the grocery stores; were still getting everything that we can and not thinking about others. Families stung by burst pipes, lack of food Villanueva has been participating in efforts to distribute food and water to residents in east Harris County following the winter storm that left many without power and water. Even as cities lifted boil water notices and power has been restored to many households, many residents are still doing without essential services, he said. It didnt help when power outages caused families food to go bad, Villanueva said. That food has to be replenished, he said. We are seeing hundreds of people still asking for food and water, said Villanueva, whose home base is at 2732 Cherry Brook Lane in Pasadena. Pipes are a big issue, and not having water to cook, drink, wash dishes and to take a bath. Those are the problems were hearing over and over. In addition, Villanueva said the number of residents depending on the food pantry at the East Harris County location has doubled after the freeze, increasing a need that was already substantial. More Information Donations remain a significant part of the Salvation Army's ability to provide services and assist with distribution efforts. The primary needs right now are food and water, including milk, and monetary contributions. For information on how to donate, visit the East Harris County Salvation Army website at https://bit.ly/3sC31Zh Address: 2732 Cherry Brook Lane, Pasadena Contact information: 713-378-0020 See More Collapse The Salvation Army is accepting donations to assist those people, and the primary needs are food and water, including milk, and monetary contributions. To make a donation, visit the East Harris County Salvation Army website or call 713-378-0020. The groups service area includes Pasadena, Deer Park, La Porte, Baytown, Channelview, Webster and Friendswood. Villanueva was at Houstons Northwest Mall on Tuesday, where he said over 3,000 food packages were given out in conjunction with Operation Barbecue, a Kansas City-based nonprofit group that deploys its services in communities after disasters. Hundreds of meals delivered in Pasadena Before the freeze, the East Harris County location in Pasadena had initially been put on standby by the city as a warming center, but due to power outages and water shortages, it had to close Feb. 15 after the first wave of the freeze. But two days later in partnership with the city of Pasadena and Mayor Jeff Wagner, Salvation Army staff helped to deliver hundreds of hot meals, including water and milk, at City Hall. Through the CARES Act, a relief fund passed by Congress in 2020 in response to the pandemic fallout, the East Harris County Salvation Army was able to secure approximately $30,000 in H-E-B vouchers, which were distributed as $30 vouchers to families in east Harris County and are good at all H-E-B stores, including Joe Vs and Mi Tienda, both located in Pasadena. After the winter storm, the Salvation Army also distributed to area shelter facilities like Sarahs House, a homeless womens housing center, The Bridge, which provides living quarters for women fleeing domestic violence situations, and Interfaith Manor, a senior living facility. At Pasadena Interfaith Manor, the cases of water kept the 180-resident senior living facility operating until power and water could be restored. We always keep things stored in a hurricane closet (for emergency and disaster situations), but we didnt expect things to last for as long as they did, and so water was something we ran out of, said property manager, Mike Garcia. The Pasadena location continued its Meals on Wheels program during the winter storm, which gives between 300 to 400 hot meals to homebound seniors and the homeless in Pasadena, Deer Park and La Porte each week. Many still in need These are major efforts for our (six-member) staff who are having their own difficulties at home, and people need to know how much it cost for us to have the food, the opportunity to deliver to make sure those communities do not go without food, Villanueva said. The impact of the freeze on underserved households, Villanueva said, is highlighting how resources are not always equal, he said. People need to remember that we are still in the middle of a pandemic, and people without jobs, losing income, and the storm has made things worse, Villanueva said. Now, there are lot of people that dont have a way to pay for somebody or a plumber to come and fix issues, and it could be something as simple as replacing a pipe. When grocery store shelves are left empty by shoppers overstocking their own shelves at home, he said, those with ongoing issues due to busted, clogged pipes get left out of the recovery process. The Salvation Army can do its part with its own resources, Villanueva said, but the community has to play its part. There are people who still need to hear this message: Hey, take just one loaf of bread, one chicken or piece of meat dont take two, three or four, he said. We as a larger community need to be able to share and to think about other people because there is a big portion of the population still in need and havent been as lucky and blessed. yorozco@hcnonline.com 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. A young woman who sparked a national conversation about Australia's sexual assault crisis within schools believes single-sex education fosters unhealthy interactions between teenagers. Kambala School alumni Chanel Contos, 22, launched a petition demanding students be taught about consent on February 18 after reflecting on her own sexual assault as a youth. The petition rapidly went viral, with thousands of girls from both private and state schools across the nation since coming forward to share their own experiences. While the alarming stories hailed from all sorts of institutions, several of Australia's top same-sex schools' names were repeatedly mentioned- including Scots College, Cranbrook, Sydney Grammar, Waverley College, Kambala, Monte Sant Angelo and Pymble Ladies' College. Former Kambala student Chanel Contos, 22, (pictured) started the petition when she realised last year she and her friend were both sexually assaulted by the same person as teenagers Ms Contos believes this is not a coincidence and segregating boys and girls for learning is leading to problematic sexual encounters. 'In Australia, were in a very weird position on this because single-sex schools are way more prevalent than in other countries, she told news.com.au. 'Because they are separated at school, it means the only time they do meet is on weekends when there is often alcohol and drugs involved.' Ms Contos, who has lived in three other countries, said she has spoken to hundreds of people from around the world about rape culture in their nation but none compare to the experiences she and her friends endured growing up. Although rape culture is problematic across the globe, Ms Contos the situation in Australia was 'frustrating' given the country's affluence and ability to direct resources into tackling the issue. She called for greater education in schools about consent and for institutions to address toxic cultures like 'slut-shaming' in girls' schools and 'locker room talk' in boys schools. Several of Australia's top same-sex schools' were repeatedly mentioned among the disturbing testimonies, including Scots College (pictured), Cranbrook, Sydney Grammar, Waverley College, Kambala, Monte Sant Angelo and Pymble Ladies' College The former student's observation that Australia has a disproportionate amount of single-sex schools compared to other nations was backed by Professor Mary Louise Rasmussen, an expert in gender, sexuality and education. Professor Rasmussen, who teaches at the Australian National University, said the reason they are so prevalent is because the Federal Government has placed major investment in non-government schools. Although it is difficult to measure the impact of segregating teenagers based on sex, she said toxic cultures have been observed within single-sex institutions. 'There are problems with sexual assault and consent at all schools in Australia, but what we can see from the large amount of anecdotal evidence over the years that there appears to be a problem, particularly at all-boys schools where students are rewarded for being a stud,' Prof Rasmussen said. With a spotlight being cast over the issue this week, Professor Rasmussen said the publicity provides the ideal opportunity for education about consent to be introduced in Australian schools. Hundreds of girls who attended Sydney private schools has claimed they were sexually assaulted and raped by private school boys. Pictured: Chanel Contos is calling for better sex education As girls across the nation shared their disturbing accounts this week, one horrifying theme emerged - most of their alleged rapists were their boyfriends or close male friends. RAPE AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN AUSTRALIA - There were 374 juvenile sexual assault cases reported in NSW in 2020. - Chanel Contos gathered thousands of rape and sexual assault testimonies from private schoolgirls. - About 38 per cent of women aged 18 to 24 have experienced sexual harassment. - 66 per cent of 14-year-old boys have been exposed to sexual material within the last 12 months. - 72 per cent of children between 14 and 17 have been exposed to porn in the past six months. - About one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence. - Only 28 per cent, or 14,994 cases, of alleged rape victims come forward in NSW. - Only three per cent of rapes reported to NSW Police in 2018/19 ended in a conviction. - About 346 cases were withdrawn. Source: ABS and NSW Police Advertisement Many anonymously revealed they lost their virginity to their rapists - who went to elite Sydney boys' schools including The King's School, St Ignatius College Riverview, and Cranbrook - while they slept, or were too drunk to consent. One girl wrote that she was a 15-year-old virgin in 2016 when she met her first boyfriend who had a 'rape fetish', and assaulted her repeatedly throughout their relationship. 'On our first date I told him I didn't even want to kiss and he forced one on me... later he coerced me into losing my virginity before the legal age, which I insisted I did not want to do,' she said. The student, from Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney, claimed the Cranbrook boy 'manipulated' and 'forced' her into having sex on countless occasions, or would rape her when she was asleep or too drunk to say no. Eventually, he told her about his 'rape fetish', and joked with his friends at a party about gang raping her. Another victim, from Kincoppal in Rose Bay, said her first boyfriend went to catholic boys boarding school Saint Ignatius College Riverview and was 'obsessed' with taking her virginity. She felt pressured into sex and was worried he wouldn't like her anymore if she refused. 'I had been assaulted before and while he was trying to push himself inside me I started having flashbacks and crying,' the girl said. He only stopped because she was 'sobbing too hard'. A teenage girl from St Catherine's said her ex boyfriend from Moriah College often touched her body without asking and eventually 'coerced' her into sex, despite saying no 'literally 20 times' 'I was overwhelmed and confused, but surely it must have been fine, because he was my first love,' she wrote. 'It hurt so much that I shouted in pain, but he carried on, and said 'that was it' when he felt my hymen 'break'.' Ms Contos (pictured) said she hopes the petition will bring change to sexuality education to students across Australia Chantel Contos' petition now has signatures from close to 7,000 former and current school students across Australia The girl said one of her school friends was also raped by a boy who she considered to be her best friend. Another St Catherine's student said she woke up in complete darkness in 2017 to find her boyfriend 'inside me', despite telling him earlier that she was too tired. 'I rarely said no to sex, so he continued to ask. Eventually, sometime after I had fallen asleep, he started touching me. When I opened my eyes to find him inside of me, I felt sick,' she wrote. A victim from Kambala said her boyfriend forced her into anal sex while she was drunk on her 18th birthday, 'despite screaming no and yelling in pain'. She said he manipulated her into feeling as though she had done something wrong, adding that she only realised it was rape years later. One girl from Kincoppal said she had been dating her boyfriend, an ex Riverview student, for 11 months when she got 'really drunk' in 2020. Ms Contos said Kambala High School (pictured) gave her a 'great consent education but they gave it too late' SCHOOL RESPONSES TO THE PETITION St Catherine's School Headmistress Dr Julie Townsend said the testimonials were 'heartbreaking'. 'It is clear from these girls' testimonies that many of them have suffered in silence for years, and we need to ensure that, not only do they understand what assault is, but know their rights in reporting it and charging someone,' she said. Kambala Principal Shane Hogan said he will give information to parents about consent and respectful relationships. '[We are] commending the bravery of the young women to call out this behaviour and calling on any Kambala girls or old girls who have experienced this to contact us to access our on campus counselling support and support,.' Cranbrook School Principal Nicholas Sampson said schools 'need to take further action' and pledged to review of the school's pastoral care, including holding mixed gender education programs. 'All of us at Cranbrook need to be grateful for the courage of these young women in speaking out,' he wrote, linking to the petition. 'Society makes it very hard to raise issues of this type.' Saint Ignatius' College Riverview Principal Dr Paul Hine said the school 'fully supports' the allegations against students being referred to the police. 'Non-consensual sex is a crime and this message is given unequivocally to our students as part of their education,' he said. The Scots College Dr Ian Lambert, wrote to parents and said the school would review its education programs. 'It is a wake-up call for us all,' he said. 'They are to be commended for their bravery in standing up and speaking out. Source: Daily Mail Australia and The Guardian Advertisement While the couple often engaged sexually, they hadn't had penetrative sex because she wanted to remain a virgin. 'We had spoken about it at length,' she said. 'He proceeded to do it in the shower and I woke lying on the shower floor realising what had happened.' The morning after, he said: 'I know I didn't rape you, because I did a sexual consent course at university and what I did was not rape.' He broke up with her two months later. Ms Contos' petition now thousands of testimonies from woman aged between 13 to 50-years-old from across Australia. Pictured: Testimonies from victims Testimonials on the petition have accused unnamed students from Sydney's most exclusive all-boy schools, including St Ignatius Riverview (pictured) Chanel Contos started the petition because she was sexually abused at the age of 13. She was forced to give oral sex to a boy when she was in Year 8, but did not realise she had been raped or learn about consent until she attended a sex consent class in Year 10 that was presented by a former police officer. 'I was sexually abused and I also found out last year when I was talking with my friends that the same person who did it to me did it to another one of my friends,' she told The Project on Tuesday. The now 22-year-old said she couldn't sleep the night she found out and felt as though she could have stopped it but she didn't realise at the time that it was wrong. 'I just felt anger - why didn't I know it was wrong? Why couldn't I stop that?,' she said. Ms Contos previously told Daily Mail Australia she 'knew that something had to be done'. At least 1,500 former students have signed the petition or shared stories of their own alleged assaults. Pictured: Chantel Contos, who said she was forced to perform oral sex on a boy Chanel Contos' petition nearly has 7,000 signatures from men and women across Australia 'The realisation you've been sexually assaulted, it's a hard thing to go through'. Ms Contos said despite her school giving her a 'great consent education, they gave it too late.' 'A lot of people are already sexually active by 15 or 16, and you need to have this consent training before you become sexually active', she said. 'People who have contacted me have said they received no consent sexual education, especially boys schools said that it was minimal to none.' Ms Contos' petition now has thousands of testimonies from woman aged between 13 to 50-years-old from across Australia. Chantel Contos (pictured) is calling for schools to provide consent sexual education to students from a young age Her former school Kambala has reached out to her following the petition and asked her to work with them to help them teach consent to young students. It is estimated one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence, but only 28 per cent of alleged rape victims come forward in NSW. Of the incidents reported to NSW Police in 2018/19, only about three per cent ended in a guilty conviction. If the sexual assault charges make it to court, 34 per cent result in a guilty conviction, according to 2018/19 data provided to the Law Reform Commission. If this story has raised issues for you, please contact 1800 Respect 1800 737 732, Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 224 636, Domestic Violence Line 1800 65 64 63 OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) has officially endorsed the Missing Children Society of Canada's (MCSC) new Child Search Network, a national system designed to meet the 'gap of response' for high-risk missing children cases that do not meet the strict criteria for the AMBER Alert, thereby significantly enhancing Canada's national strategy for missing persons. Over 40,000 children go missing, run away or are abducted in Canada each year, but fewer than one per cent of those cases are broadcast to the public through AMBER Alerts. Missing persons investigations can be complex, resource intensive and very costly. The CACP is grateful to the Missing Children Society of Canada and to Microsoft and Esri Canada for making this valuable new technology available to police services across Canada, free of charge. The MCSC Child Search Network is a Canadian-made tool that has been successfully developed in consultation with, and pilot tested by, police services. Many missing children cases cross provincial, territorial and even international borders. The MCSC Child Search Network provides police services with a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to share information and collaborate with one another, as well as with the general public, to find missing children more quickly and reunite them with their families. Today, the CACP is announcing its endorsement and is urging all police services to adopt and implement the Child Search Network as a standard practice in all high-risk missing children investigations in Canada. Canadians are also invited to serve as additional eyes and ears for the police and as a voice for missing children by downloading the MCSC rescu app available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store to register to receive alerts and share any information they may have regarding a missing child or youth. The MCSC Child Search Network is about mobilizing the entire Canadian community to ensure that no missing child goes unnoticed. It is tested, proven, and ready to scale nationwide. Quotes: "The CACP welcomes the addition of the MCSC Child Search Network as another innovative tool to help support and expedite missing children investigations in Canada. Children and youth are among the most vulnerable citizens in our country. Collaborative efforts like this are key to improving public safety." - CACP President, Chief Bryan Larkin. "Today is a critical milestone that has been over a decade in the making. The Child Search Network represents a digital transformation of a search tool and public awareness platform designed to leverage technology to support police, involve the general public, and protect children across Canada." - Ms. Amanda Pick, Chief Executive Officer, Missing Children's Society of Canada. "Microsoft is proud of our ongoing work with the Missing Children Society of Canada. This partnership demonstrates the tremendous potential of technology to help tackle some of our biggest challenges - using Microsoft Azure and AI tools will help MCSC reach more people faster, to help bring missing children home. Protecting our children is our most important job as parents and as Canadians and we are committed to helping innovative organizations like MCSC achieve their goals." - Kevin Peesker, President of Microsoft Canada. Esri Canada is honoured to be supporting the Child Search Network in determining where Canada's missing children and youth might be, so we can help bring them back to where they should be, home with their family." - Alex Miller, President, Esri Canada Additional resources: Fact sheet: What is the Child Search Network? Fact sheet: The Child Search Network: Part of Canada's National Strategy for Missing Children Child Search Network video Photo gallery For further information or to arrange a media interview, please contact: Natalie Wright Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Communications Advisor communications@cacp.ca 613.838.8807 Amanda Pick Missing Children Society of Canada Chief Executive Officer apick@mcsc.ca 403.291.0705, extension 222 Dimpee Shah Esri Canada Marketing Specialist press@esri.ca 416.407.9041 Julia Perreira Veritas Communications On behalf of Microsoft Canada perreira@veritasinc.com SOURCE: Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631934/The-CACP-Endorses-the-Child-Search-Network-to-Help-Support-the-Police-and-Expedite-Missing-Children-Investigations-in-Canada Every student at Iowa State has an adviser, and those advisers play a pivotal role at Iowa State in more ways than just helping stud Boston, MA - A new approach to pooled COVID-19 testing can be a highly effective tool for curbing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, even if infections are widespread in a community, according to researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Simple pooled testing schemes could be implemented with minimal changes to current testing infrastructures in clinical and public health laboratories. "Our research adds another tool to the testing and public health toolbox," said Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and associate member of the Broad. "For public health agencies and clinical laboratories that are performing testing under resource limitations--which for COVID-19 is nearly every nation--this new research demonstrates that we can gain much more testing power for both medical and public health use with the same or even fewer resources than are currently being utilized." The team's research was published online in Science Translational Medicine. "Our work helps quantify pooled testing's tradeoffs between losses in sensitivity from sample dilution and gains in efficiency," said Brian Cleary, a Broad Fellow at the Broad and a co-corresponding author with Mina, Harvard Chan School postdoctoral research fellow James Hay, and Broad core institute member Aviv Regev (now at Genentech). "We show how to identify simple strategies that require no expertise to implement and that result in the greatest number of infections identified on a fixed budget." By identifying infected individuals so that they can be treated or isolated, SARS-CoV-2 testing is a powerful tool for curbing the COVID-19 pandemic and safely reopening schools and businesses. But limited and sometimes costly testing throughout the pandemic has hampered diagnosing individuals and has hamstrung public health efforts to curtail the virus's spread. Pooled testing, in which multiple individual samples are processed at once, could be a powerful tool to increase testing efficiency. If a pooled test comes back negative, all samples in that pool are considered negative, thus eliminating the need for further testing. If a pooled sample is positive, the individual samples within that testing group need to be tested again separately to identify which specific samples are positive. Although pooled testing has been implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, its usefulness is curtailed when the pathogen is widespread in a community. Under those circumstances, most pooled samples could be positive and require additional testing to identify the positive individuals in each pool. This confirmatory testing eliminates any efficiencies gained by pooled testing. To identify ways to make pooled testing more useful during widespread outbreaks, the team developed a model for how quantities of viral RNA--which are used to identify SARS-CoV-2 infection--vary across infected people in the population during an outbreak. This gave the researchers a very detailed picture of how test sensitivity is affected by pool size and SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. They then used the model to identify optimal pooled testing strategies under different scenarios. Using the model, testing efforts could be tailored to the available resources in a community so as to maximize the number of infections identified using as few tests as possible. Even in labs with substantial resource constraints, the team created simple pooled testing schemes that could identify as many as 20 times more infected individuals per day compared with individual testing. "Our work is a powerful study for evaluating pooled testing as a public health rather than purely clinical tool for SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, too," said Hay. Harvard Chan School researcher Madikay Senghore also contributed to the study. This research was funded by the Broad Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (#U54GM088558), National Institutes of Health (1DP5OD028145-01), Wharton School, and National Science Foundation (IIS 1837992). "Using viral load and epidemic dynamics to optimize pooled testing in resource constrained settings," Brian Cleary, James A. Hay, Brendan Blumenstiel, Maegan Harden, Michelle Cipicchio, Jon Bezney, Brooke Simonton, David Hong, Madikay Senghore, Abdul K. Sesay, Stacey Gabriel, Aviv Regev, Michael J. Mina, Science Translational Medicine, online February 23, 2021, doi: 10.1126/science.abf1568. ### A Nairobi-based tout who has since become a popular personality among Kenyans on social media has finally been sentenced. Wycliffe Aloys Orinda, 31, first went viral early last month when admitted to smoking marijuana, telling Nairobi Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku that it helps him understand the BBI. Orinda also opened up about his love for Blue Ice Vodka which he said helps him hit on old women. Watch: Nairobi Tout Tells Court He Loves Vodka Because It Makes Older Women Look More Appealing Towards the end of January, Orinda made headlines again after he protested sharing a remand cell with Lawrence Warunge, the homicide suspect who confessed to killing five members of his family. Orinda, who was facing charges of creating a disturbance at his estranged wifes place of work, finally got his reprieve on Wednesday. Milimani chief magistrate Martha Mutuku sentenced Wycliffe Orinda to three years probation, meaning he will not serve jail term. He is also required to report to his area chief to run errands for the duration of his probation. Orinda told the court hes now a preacher who will spread peace and love when released. Have you ever changed your opinion of a book based on information about the author, or anything else? Over the last few months, Ive faced a campaign of misinformation and a series of personal attacks that seem aimed at convincing readers to change their constructive opinions about my books. Ive witnessed Nikole Hannah-Jones face a similar campaign to undermine opinions about the 1619 Project. People seeking to discredit books are aggressively striving to discredit authors, knowing for many people theres no separating the author from the book (or project). It is unfortunate, but thats the reality for authors, especially authors writing against bigotry and writing for equity and justice. And so, Im sympathetic to those who argue we should not dislike a book merely because we dislike (or were led to dislike) the author. But disliking a book is one thing, liking a book is another. I often become excited to read books when I meet their authors, and those authors are clearly thoughtful or unassuming or funny or complicated or qualified or experienced or interesting in some critical way. I expect to see all that and more in their books, and often do. Has a book ever brought you closer to another person, or come between you? Without question, All About Love: New Visions, by bell hooks, brought me closer to my partner, Sadiqa, years before we met. All About Love taught me how to love; that love is a verb. Whats the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently? I finished A Peoples History of the Civil War, by David Williams recently. It was so interesting to learn in yet another book that the majority of white Southerners opposed secession and opposed the Civil War (not to mention the opposition from enslaved and free Black Southerners). But wed never know that history today, with so many Americans making ahistoric claims that Confederate monuments and memorials are commemorating Southern pride or showcasing Southern history. When the Confederacy lived, ordinary Southerners distinguished between themselves and the wealthy and well-connected Confederates waging war to maintain slavery. Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about? I feel like this is a trick question! All the subjects I think more authors should write about Im planning to write about (or I privately urge a more qualified author to do so). But that means writers should write the books we want to read. Write the books readers want written. Write the books you were nurtured to write. What moves you most in a work of literature? Originality. Originality in ideas. Originality in form. Originality in genre. Originality in the writing. Im moved by books that are original and surprising, while offering readers enough familiarity to find themselves in the work. Im also moved by books that inspire human beings to come together to fight the existential battles of our time. Im also drawn to books that were obviously hard to write and easy to read. How do you organize your books? I probably need an entire essay to explain. But in short, I spend the bulk of my time organizing the research and outlining the book from an accumulated library of research. After researching, organizing the researching and outlining the book, I probably spend the least amount of time writing. I dont believe in writers block. But I do believe there are times when Im not prepared to write. I attempt to limit those unprepared times as much as possible. Because writing is a form that needs our total attention. It is hard to write well when we are also researching and organizing our thoughts and deciding what we are going to write, and how we are going to write. Hatsun Agro Product has announced commercial production at its newly set up modern greenfield dairy processing plant in Solapur, Maharashtra. The plant is the 19 manufacturing location for HAP that has a network of plants in four states of Tamil Nadu, AP, Telangana and Karnataka. The fully automated dairy plant, one of the technologically superior plants in the country is set up in 72 acres land at a cost of 130 Crores in Solapur district in Maharashtra. The plant follows latest design philosophy and has specialized imported equipments from Germany to process 6 lakh litres milk per day (LLPD). The emphasis of the design is on employee safety, product hygiene and making products of finest quality. HAP has also set up a water pond inside the factory premises for harvesting rain water to the tune of 1.25 crore litres. This is a first in the region and the water saved can be fully treated and utilized for multiple purposes. Hatsun Agro Products will manufacture Milk, Curd, Butter Milk, Chaas, Lassi, yoghurt and Shrikhand at the new plant. HAP will market them under prestigious household brand names - 'Arokya' and 'Hatsun'. The total milk processing capacity of HAP now stands at 52.50 LLPD across all its manufacturing locations in 5 states. HAP intends to manufacture a variety of products at this Solapur facility and will provide over 3,000 direct and indirect employment oppurtunities in the state. Additionally, the setting up of this plant will help onboard dairy farmers to the mainstream network and will boost income of over 75000 to 90000 dairy farmers in Maharashtra. HAP aims to provide greater support to farmers with access to the best technology, farm inputs, animal husbandry services, specialized cattle feed and direct credit to their bank accounts for their milk supply. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) [February 25, 2021] Majesco Continues Expansion of Majesco EcoExchange Marketplace with Two New Partners Majesco, a global leader of cloud insurance platform software for insurance business transformation, today announced the expansion of two new partnerships and apps in the Majesco EcoExchange, a curated live, plug-n-play ecosystem and service hub of the Majesco Digital1st Insurance platform. These new apps will provide innovative claims capabilities for insurers to accelerate their business transformation and address the increasing demand for digital claims, which has risen as a result of COVID. "Majesco EcoExchange is a next-generation marketplace of partners apps designed to help the insurance industry meet the demands of today's digital customer," says Manish Shah, President and Chief Product Officer at Majesco. "Claims has risen in priority for digital transformation which Digital1st and the partner marketplace can rapidly respond to. We're proud to work with a growing list of partners to bring today's most innovative apps to the Majesco EcoExchange and provide customers with access to the innovative technology that can transform their business and better serve customers and agents." Majesco's EcoExchange has a variety of apps available to enable all aspects of the insurance value chain, ranging from a non-interactive service call to a comprehensive solution that can orchestrate multiple provider services. Majesco has recently executed partnership agreements with ClaimGenius and Livegenic. Claim Genius (News - Alert) Based in Iselin, New Jersey, with development centers in Nagpur and Hyderabad, Claim Genius, Inc. is a rapidly emerging leader of AI-based claims solutions for the auto insurance industry. Its patent-pending AI technology provides the industry's fastest and most accurate damage estimates, using the latest high-performance cloud frameworks. Their unique and powerful Computer Vision AI stack uses sophisticated object detection and image analysis algorithms to instantly identify vehicle damage, position, severity, and lists of damged parts, including hidden damage deep inside the vehicle. This technology is critical to allowing the company to make decisions right away and get their customer back to pre-loss condition as quickly as possible. Compared to traditional methods of inspections, its technology can save customers both time and money. "We understand how critical technology has become to consumers in the auto industry which is why we're continuing to partner with companies like Majesco who are forward thinking, market driven and committed to providing the best-in-class experience to meet customer expectations," says Raj Pofale, Founder of CEO of Claims Genius. "We're proud to join Majesco's EcoExchange and share our AI technology that helps customers reduce claims processing time, increases carrier profitability, and revolutionizes the claims experience for insurance customers worldwide." Livegenic Livegenic, a Claim Central Consolidated Company, is the industry-leading virtual collaboration platform for insurance. They provide carriers, TPAs, and other insurance organizations with a comprehensive suite of mobile and browser-based solutions that enable them to virtually inspect claims at any time, and in any environment. Livegenic's mobile platform offers a wide variety of inspection tools, each designed to support specific workflows and usecases - including real-time video streaming, asynchronous customer self-service, and professional on-site inspection. "We're thrilled to join Majesco's EcoExchange marketplace, it will enable our clients and partners to easily integrate the Majesco platform with the service suite provided by the Claim Central Ecosystem - including the full Livegenic mobile and web platform, the ClaimLogik Plus platform, and the TradesPlus network." says Olek Shestakov, CEO of Livegenic. "We're eager to help carriers across the globe deliver world-class solutions to their customers, clients and insureds." For a complete list of partners and apps on Majesco's EcoExchange, please visit: https://www.majesco.com/digital1st-insurance/ecoexchange/. About Majesco Majesco provides technology, expertise, and leadership that helps insurers modernize, innovate and connect to build the future of their business - and the future of insurance - at speed and scale. Our platforms connect people and businesses to insurance in ways that are innovative, hyper-relevant, compelling and personal. Over 200 insurance companies worldwide in P&C, L&A and Group Benefits are transforming their businesses by modernizing, optimizing or creating new business models with Majesco. Our market-leading solutions include CloudInsurer P&C Core Suite (Policy, Billing, Claims); CloudInsurer LifePlus Solutions (AdminPlus, AdvicePlus, IllustratePlus, DistributionPlus); CloudInsurer L&A and Group Core Suite (Policy, Billing, Claims); Digital1st Insurance with Digital1st eConnect, Digital1st EcoExchange and Digital1st Platform - a cloud-native, microservices and open API platform; Distribution Management, Data and Analytics and an Enterprise Data Warehouse. For more details on Majesco, please visit www.majesco.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005078/en/ [ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ] Burma Indonesia, Thailand Seek Peaceful Solution to Myanmar Crisis Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (left) talks with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin (right), as Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai listens during their meeting in Bangkok on Wednesday. / Bangkok Post BANGKOK/JAKARTA: Myanmars military-appointed Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin met his Indonesian and Thai counterparts Wednesday in Bangkok, where they discussed ways to seek a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Myanmar. Disclosing to reporters the three-way meeting that took place at Don Mueang airport, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said she asked the Myanmar official to prioritize the safety and wellbeing of his countrys people. The safety and well-being of the Myanmarese people must be protected. Their wishes must be heard, Retno told a virtual press conference upon her arrival in Jakarta from Bangkok. The minister said she spoke in the 20-minute meeting about the importance for all ASEAN member states to respect the principles stipulated in the ASEAN Charter and I keep delivering this message loudly and clearly. She was referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose charter affirms in its preamble the adherence to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, and respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Retno also stressed to him the importance to give humanitarian access and visits to [political] detainees. After the gathering of the three, the Thai Foreign Ministry said it also insists on supporting peace and stability in Myanmar, and hopes to see the situation improve for the sake of the countrys people. It was also a good opportunity for Thailand to directly listen to Myanmar about issues that Myanmar prioritizes, as well as exchanging opinions on issues important to the people for both countries, said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat. The foreign ministers from Thailand and Indonesia also discussed the possibility of holding an informal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in August, which would be the forums first in-person gathering in more than a year since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The military-appointed foreign minister of Myanmar was in Thailand on the first visit abroad by a senior Myanmar official since the military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1. His visit came as Indonesia is pushing for a special ASEAN foreign ministerial session to discuss the Myanmar situation. According to Retno, Thailand has a special position because it has a 2,400-kilometer land border with Myanmar and about 2 million people from Myanmar live in Thailand. Earlier, during her bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, both sides agreed that Myanmar is an important ASEAN member and that ASEAN can be a platform for constructive dialogue between Myanmar and other ASEAN member states. Before visiting Thailand, Retno had a series of talks in the past few days with the foreign ministers of fellow ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, as well as with those of Australia, Britain, China, India, Japan and the United States. She said she will have talks on Thursday with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. This shuttle diplomacy is surely not easy to do during the times of pandemic, but Indonesia has to do it because there are some principles that must be respectedIndonesia chooses not to stay silentTo do nothing is not an option, she said U Wunna Maung Lwin replaced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as foreign minister after the coup. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who doubled in that capacity while being Myanmars de facto leader, remains in detention The ouster of the elected government has sparked daily demonstrations across the Southeast Asian nation, with protesters demanding that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained political figures be released. A general strike on Monday shut many businesses. This article appeared in The Bangkok Post. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Foreign Minister in Bangkok to Meet Indonesian Counterpart China Says It Will Work With ASEAN to De-Escalate Situation in Myanmar The public have been urged to keep their focus in the battle against the pandemic, with the HSE warning of a potentially explosive impact on healthcare services. Health service boss Paul Reid has raised concerns over whether the public has the level of resilience needed to get through the current wave of the pandemic. At an HSE briefing on Thursday, Mr Reid said higher levels of movement have been seen across society, including people going to work and between households. It's a risk level that could quickly and ultimately turn, as we know from the past, at quite an explosive level Paul Reid, HSE He said if there is a loss of focus at this time, there is a risk to all of us, to all of our families and society and that this risk could rise to quite an explosive level in a short space of time. He told the briefing: A word of caution, because as a health system, we do remain concerned that the public hold or sustain a level of resilience thats going to be required to get us out the other end of this wave that were in. We do have a lot of concern, seeing certainly a lot higher levels of movement across society. Whether it is to get to work or whether it is to transit, or whether it is to move between households. We are seeing a lot more movement. From a health system (perspective) that does give us a cause of concern. He said there was a long way to go before hospitals return to levels safe enough to resume non-urgent care services which have been suspended because of the pandemic. He added: The risks that we do see from the HSEs perspective is that, as a society, as a population, we lose focus at this time. Losing focus at this time, we will be losing it when were at a base level of the virus thats still a risk to all of us, all of our families and society. Its a risk level that could quickly and ultimately turn, as we know from the past, at quite an explosive level. Particularly if it was to turn at the levels were at at the moment. Healthcare workers are exhausted, Mr Reid said, but have been given the fuel they need in the tank thanks to the vaccine programme. Last week 80,000 vaccine doses were administered, with 100,000 expected to be delivered this week, the briefing heard. Dr Colm Henry, the Chief Clinical Officer at the HSE, said there is really positive real world evidence of the impact vaccines are having. He said: If you look at residential care in the week ending February 14, there were 482 lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 in residential care. In the week ending February 22 there were 91. Thats a very sharp drop. COVID19 (coronavirus) update from Dr. Steevensa Hospital https://t.co/Oe92PDkWMq HSE Ireland (@HSELive) February 25, 2021 Dr Henry reference a New York Times article which showed an 80% drop in mortality in nursing home settings in the US, which is beyond what theyre seeing out in the community. He added: The reason for that supports this prioritisation framework. If you were to vaccinate everybody in this room, youre unlikely to see a significant reduction in severe disease, because youre looking at a cohort of people who are relatively low risk in relation to the vaccine. If you vaccinate its equal number of people in a residential care setting, youre much more likely to prevent a serious illness or even mortality, because theyre at much greater risk in that setting. The trend were beginning to see, a drop in reported cases in residential care settings, again is really encouraging. It certainly supports the early vaccination of this cohort, which now, as weve heard, is coming to completion. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions 3 1 of 3 Courtesy of the University of Houston / Courtesy of the University of Houston Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of the University of Houston / Courtesy of the University of Houston Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Its been more than 50 years since hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton gave $1.5 million toward building the first hospitality school in Texas, the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. This week, UH received a $10 million gift from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Funds, which create an unrestricted endowment, will be used to help the college overcome hurdles associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and fulfill its mission of training the next generation of hospitality leaders. Lecrae makes way for young Christian rapper Hulvey, release new song together Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Reach Records founder and hip-hop veteran Lecrae jumped on the latest single from his artist Hulvey, broadening the up-and-coming rapper's reach. Hulvey, a native of Brunswick, Georgia, went from being a college dropout to scrubbing toilets at Publix, to Reach Records' latest breakout artist. His mentor, Lecrae, announced last year that hed be stepping aside from full-time music to make room for other younger artists coming up in the ranks. The 20-year-old artist said he is forever grateful. Lecrae has truly been a blessing and has paved a way for me to thrive in my career as well as my ministry, Hulvey told The Christian Post of the impact the Grammy Award-winning artist has had on him. He has been so willing to share wisdom and mentor me through hard situations. Im more than grateful that he is in my corner. I know hes only a call away. The pair collaborated on Hulveys new single, Reasons,'' which also features vocals from pop music artist SVRCINA. 'Reasons' is a song that is extending hope to hurting people out there. Its hard to focus on all the reasons you have to hope or hold on when you are bogged down with pain and sadness. This song is a healthy reminder that hope is available, Lecrae told CP of the new single, which will be on Hulveys sophomore release. The music video features clips of different people who are clinging to their faith during difficult times. His label debut EP BRKNHRT, released in 2020, generated national praise. Hulvey was named Christian Artist to Watch in 2020 by Pandora. The fact that Lecrae and Reach Records chose to sign a young dude out of Brunswick, Georgia, means so much to me. God has me on a mission to point believers and non-believers back to Him and they are backing me 100% of the way, the young rapper gushed. Lecrae said Hulvey has a natural passion to lead, and he wants his bold message of faith to permeate the sound waves during these difficult times. His explicit faith-driven messages are refreshing, but then he is also a very talented craftsman. He takes the art very seriously, Lecrae explained. He has a knack for making hit records. The proud label head said Hulveys sincere talent just bleeds through everything that he does. It reminds me of the great artists who just create gold whenever they touch the microphone, Lecrae added. I think what makes him special is his humility, he continued. He's very talented, but he's an avid learner. He calls and asks for advice often. He has consistently come to Bible studies led by us veteran artists and he is always growing. He's not focused on himself and his career but on how he can help others. He doesn't want the shine; he wants to share it. It's refreshing. Hulvey said he wants his fans and followers to know that God is still completely and willing to wrap you up anytime. He has paved a way for us to be free. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 04:54:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and humanitarian partners are getting more aid to some of the 170,000 people displaced by recent intercommunal violence in West Darfur, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. "We and our partners have provided one month's worth of food rations, as well as water and sanitation services to more than 70,000 displaced people near Geneina," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "More aid will be delivered this week." The acting humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Axel Bisschop, recently visited West Darfur where he met with some of the 170,000 people displaced by the fighting last month, Dujarric said. Bisschop also held talks with community leaders, the governor of West Darfur and relief organizations. The efforts are part of the overall 1.9-billion-U.S.-dollar Humanitarian Response Plan for all Sudan, targeting 8.9 million people in need this year. Key roads into Geneina, the regional capital of West Darfur, were blocked by protesters during the unrest until an agreement was reached on Feb. 7 with a delegation from the central government in the capital of Khartoum, allowing aid to enter, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Enditem Flash Relations between China and Mongolia have entered into fast-track in recent years with fruitful results gained through practical cooperation, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with the newly-appointed Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg. China attaches great importance to the friendly neighborship with Mongolia, and always puts this relation at a specially significant place in China's neighborhood diplomacy, he noted. This year is historically meaningful for both China and Mongolia as people of each country will respectively greet the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China and Mongolian People's Party, Wang said. Both sides should jointly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of both countries, promoting greater development of the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership and bringing about more benefits to both peoples, he added. In the face of the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, governments and peoples of China and Mongolia have shared the weal and woe, and reached out to each other with assistance and support, lifting the bilateral ties to a new level, Wang said. Noting that the touching story of Mongolia donating 30,000 sheep to China is widely known in both countries and the vaccines sent by China has arrived recently in Mongolia, Wang said he expects the two sides can further strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation until the pandemic is completely defeated. Economic and trade cooperation is an important support for China-Mongolia relations, Wang said, adding that the two sides need to speed up the synergy between China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Development Road Initiative of Mongolia, expand the areas and upgrade the level of cooperation so as to compensate for the losses caused by the pandemic as soon as possible. For her part, Battsetseg thanked China for its selfless help to her country in fighting the pandemic, saying that the two countries have maintained the development momentum of bilateral ties and continuously strengthened practical cooperation amid the pandemic, setting a good example of how countries support each other in response to adversities. The new Mongolian administration attaches great importance to developing the comprehensive strategic partnership with China, hoping to enhance political mutual trust, deepen BRI cooperation and push for sustained rapid development of their bilateral ties, she said. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions PITTSBURGH, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Philadelphia has its pharmaceutical cluster, San Francisco is known for its tech startups, and Boston boasts about its investment capital. Thanks to efforts by the University of Pittsburgh, fueled by a $25 million gift from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Pittsburgh is enhancing its role as a premier life sciences cluster. The gift, announced this week, will support focused biomedical research, develop collaborations through virtual spaces and physical infrastructure, build systems for new and growing life sciences companies, and drive inclusive workforce development. "This gift is an investment in the University of Pittsburgh but also in the people and potential of our region," University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said. "It will drive innovations in vision care andeven morefuel Pittsburgh's rise as a world leader in life sciences research." This work requires a strategic alignment of facilities and resources, investment in specialized laboratories and leadership, and close coordination among key faculty, entrepreneurs, and community stakeholders. Through such partnership and investment, Southwestern Pennsylvania will become a hotbed for world-renowned patient access and care, new discoveries, and commercialization, area leaders say. "Dating back to the 1960s, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation has directed much of its attention to advancing quality of life in the region," said Foundation President David Roger. "Pittsburgh stands in a unique position to lead the world in life sciences, and this grant will help shape a corridor that will drive the post-pandemic economy and create breakthrough discoveriesto the benefit of the region's residentsfor decades to come." The University of Pittsburgh already is investing heavily in growing life sciences research and education, including bringing crucial faculty and staff to the UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Tower, funded by UPMC, rising in Pittsburgh's Uptown neighborhood. The Henry L. Hillman Foundation gift will, among other efforts, improve access to vision care for underserved communities through outreach and direct care; help build and staff a vision "street lab" to test new treatments and therapies in safe, controlled, virtual and real-life environments; and support research into breakthrough programs such as biomedical solutions to corneal blindness. The gift will also fund commercialization efforts and will, in turn, create job and training opportunities for adjacent neighborhoods and the city with an emphasis on promoting equitable access to services and employment. In all, $20 million of the gift will fund vision care research and development through The Eye & Ear Foundation, which supports Pitt's Departments of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology by advancing leading-edge academics and research to enhance patient care. As a result of the gift, The Eye & Ear Foundation has passed the halfway point in its campaign to support vision restoration breakthroughs, advance technologies and therapies addressing vision loss, lower barriers to healthcare for all Pittsburghers, and fuel the growth of the city's burgeoning biotech sector. Dr. JoseAlain Sahel, who came to Pitt in 2016 from the Institut de la Vision at Sorbonne University, Paris, to direct the Department of Ophthalmology, will lead the vision work made possible by the Henry L. Hillman Foundation gift. "We are driven by helping patients," Sahel said. "It starts with identifying conditions among patients, which flows into using research to find solutions, creating new therapies and devices, commercializing those advancements, and ultimately bringing them back to the patient by enabling access to everyone." "No one person can do this," he added. "It takes teams of clinicians, scientists, educators, rehabilitation experts, and patients themselves, all looking at questions that have not been solved. Only then can you develop answers." Vision degeneration affects nearly everyone in one form or another as they age, and the number of individuals with visual impairments is expected to triple by 2050. Pittsburgh, with its aging population, will be highly affected by this epidemic of vision loss. Finding cures for the most common eye ailments and solutions to rare diseases and impairment due to injury are equally important, Sahel said. His teams are working on nearly every aspect of blindness, from common conditions such as glaucoma and macular degeneration to regenerative therapies and engineering artificial retinas and the hardware and software that feeds them information. Further supporting an equitable regional economy, the Hillman gift includes funding for vision-related workforce developmenttraining local residents to fill jobs created by the overall project. It also provides seed funding for breakthrough research with high potential for commercialization and emerging startups working in the sector. Along with the vision-focused work, $1 million of the gift will support further life sciences planning, under the direction of Dr. Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Another $3 million is allocated to supporting the LifeX startup accelerator, and $1 million will go to vaccine research. SOURCE University of Pittsburgh The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a secret star research subject: a disembodied rubber head with fleshy eyes. These pliable elastomeric head forms were featured in the CDCs hot new paper on the benefits of wearing two masks at a time. In the study, the heads were attached to a machine that spewed aerosols from their mouthpieces and into different face coverings. The results of the research are clear: Double masking works. If two pliable elastomeric head forms are each wearing two masks, they hardly exchange any aerosols at all. Advertisement We wanted to know more about those horror movieesque dolls. Slate spoke with Chris Brown, a senior engineer at INSPEC, which is a global personal protective equipment test equipment supplier based in England and the makers of heads similar to those used in the double-mask study. (The only difference: The ones used in the study have ears, while INSPECs do not.) Advertisement Advertisement Brown told us about ways to make these heads look even more creepy, as well as why his companys current design of disembodied rubber head is on its way out the door. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Elena DeBre: In the CDC study, the heads spray out aerosols, to simulate a person breathing. How do the heads do that? Advertisement Chris Brown: Head forms themselves dont do anything. Its just a mock-up of a persons head. But the head is hollow, and it has a tube assembly that comes out of the mouth. Depending upon the test you are doing, you can attach the head to various machines, such as a breathing machine for respiratory tests. From there, you can inject CO2 or other gases into the machine themselves. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health bought heads from us many, many years ago. And theyre free to do what they want with it. What is each head made of? They tend to be an aluminum skull that is then covered with a half-inch of rubber on top to simulate the skin. Advertisement Your heads have eyes without pupils. Do all head forms have the same facial featuresor lack thereof? Sometimes the head has skin problems it will look like a tree has been tattooed onto the face. Chris Brown, a senior engineer at INSPEC It depends on what task you are doing with the head. If youre conducting a respirator test, all youre interested in is whats coming in and out of the mouth. So, the eyes and ears will have some shape but be irrelevant. However, if you are testing a respirator that covers the whole of the facelike a face shield visorand you want to study how much a person can see with the equipment on, then the eyes of the head form will be more detailed. Theyll be replaced with lightbulbs that you can hook up to another piece of equipment and use to test the eyes. Or if youre using hooded PPE and testing the sound that can travel underneath it, the ears will be replaced with microphones. It depends on the task that youre doing and what features are relevant. A lot of customization is available. Advertisement Are there ever design malfunctions when producing the heads? Yes. Sometimes the head has skin problems. If contaminants get into the rubber when you mix it, the application of the skin gets wrinkled and messed up. It will look like a tree has been tattooed onto the face. Weve got loads of those around here. Advertisement Are your heads available to the public? If you can afford it. Each head runs a price thats around 2,000 pounds [almost $3,000]. A lot of work goes into each one. How many do people typically buy in each order? A researcher will typically buy one. We recommend that a lab buys three or four of them just to ensure that they can do every test all day every day. Advertisement In COVID times, with all the PPE research going on, has their popularity skyrocketed? Definitely. At the beginning of last year, when the pandemic was starting to take hold, our company as a whole saw demand quadruple. For Sheffield heads specifically, we were having to produce 10 times the normal amount. Your head forms, which have been used in past CDC studies on PPE, are specifically called Sheffield heads. Why is that? Around 1988, researchers here in England looked at some anthropometric data and decided they needed to create a new head form standard. They didnt need to search far: Someone in the Sheffield Health and Safety Office had a head the exact right size for it. So, they took a mold from his face. All Sheffield heads produced since have been made from the exact same mold of this head Advertisement Advertisement Wow. Can you tell me more about this guy? This guy was a large, white male in his mid-40s. He required a pretty big mask to cover his face. Sheffield heads are used to batch-test masks. One out of every 1,000 masks produced in Europe are tested on a Sheffield head [as a quality control measure]. As a result, we used to produce quite large masks. Masks tended to always be oversized here. Isnt that problematic, if PPE is being designed to fit this specific guys head? It was never really an issue since the people who tended to wear PPE were typically large males. Firefighters or construction workers. But over the last 15 years, as these professions have become diversified, its really highlighted the fact that PPE is in fact the wrong size. Especially for women. Now a lot of PPE is made in China. The Chinese have their own face molds, which are smaller. Advertisement Has your company changed with the times? Going forward, we at INSPEC are going to have to change our head form standards to cover a larger range of the population. Historicallywhether for developing respirators or helmetsthe data thats defined standard head forms came from molds of males in the 1940s or 50s, particularly from army personal. New and different head form sizes have been created in recent times, but the national standards [in Europe] havent yet changed. Once more countries adopt standards that encompass different sizes, we will start making different types of heads. Advertisement Advertisement What does that new, inclusive standard look like? The international standard, or ISO, includes five different head sizes meant to represent 90 percent of the worlds population. It includes a wide range of ages, male and female heads, and different ethnicities. This is important since even within Europe, theres not just white people. So, we have to adapt. What is the future of the Sheffield head? Probably in about five years, the Sheffield head will be ripped out of the standard. And we will all be working with the ISO head forms and producing quite a lot of them. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 06:22:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BRUSSELS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- European parliamentarians demanded on Thursday clarity on COVID-19 vaccine deliveries at a hearing with representatives from six leading pharmaceutical companies, and insisted that they honor their contracts. MEPs quizzed the CEOs and representatives of AstraZeneca, Moderna, CureVac, Novavax, Pfizer and Sanofi, on how to remove obstacles to faster commercialization, manufacturing and distribution of vaccines, according to a press statement from the parliament. "Today's challenge is about how to produce extremely complex products on a scale that is absolutely unprecedented. This is an industrial challenge," said Industry, Research and Energy Committee Chairman Cristian Busoi. "We wanted to know where the production bottlenecks are and to have a clear picture about the industry's commitments and obligations. But we also want to help the industry deliver the doses, because our priority is to get vaccination done," added Busoi. In line with the European Union's vaccination strategy, COVID-19 vaccines produced by BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have been authorized for use in the bloc. Three additional contracts have been concluded and will allow vaccines to be purchased once they have proven to be safe and effective. According to information released by the World Health Organization on Tuesday, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States. Enditem Implantable, wireless catheter oximeter for real-time monitoring of cardiac physiology in the context of surgical procedures. (A) Schematic illustration of the use of an implanted device for wireless blood oximetry near the cardiac surface. The system consists of a catheter-type oximeter with sensing tip sutured onto the surface of the heart, interfaced to an electronic module that attaches to the skin for signal collection and wireless data transmission through Bluetooth protocols. A custom GUI displays and records the data on a computer and serves as a control interface to the device. (B and C) Exploded view schematic illustration of the device design. (B) The electronic module contains five layers: a bottom elastomeric substrate, a flexible PCB, a collection of electronic components, a lithium ion battery, and a top elastomeric encapsulation. (C) The enlarged image shows the sensor probe, which consists of a flexible PCB, optical stimulation and sensing components, and optical blocking modules. The probe has a diameter of 1.5 mm and is fully encapsulated with transparent, biocompatible silicone. (D) Image of a catheter oximeter wrapped around a glass rod. (E) Image of an electronic module without encapsulation. (F) Image of a catheter-type oximetry sensor. (G) Schematic block diagram of the system. Photo credit: Wei Lu and Wubin Bai, Northwestern University. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0579 The real-time monitoring of intravascular oxygen levels is important to accurately track the cardiopulmonary health of patients after cardiothoracic surgery. Existing methods use intravascular placement of glass fiber-optic catheters that pose risks of blood vessel damage, thrombosis and infection. Physical tethers to power supply systems can limit freedom of movement in the intensive care unit. In a new report now on Science Advances, Wei Lu and a team of international researchers in multidisciplinary research across the U.S., China, the Republic of Korea and Italy introduced a wireless, miniaturized and implantable optoelectronic catheter system. The device included optical components on the probe, encapsulated by soft biocompatible materials. The flexible, biocompatible construction of the probe represented key defining features to form a high-performance, patient-friendly oximeter that could monitor localized tissue oxygen, heart rate and respiratory activity in real time. The platform offered measurement accuracy and precision similarity to existing chemical standards. The cardiovascular system The cardiovascular system delivers oxygen and nutrients to tissues and cells in the body and maintains an adequate balance between oxygen delivery and consumption for cellular physiological function. The accurate and real-time monitoring process of specific intracardial and major vascular saturations after open-heart surgery is critical to treat patients suffering from cyanotic congenital heart defects. Wearable oximeters and clinical pulse oximeters can capture global oxygenation of the body. In the intensive care unit (ICU) setting, the fiber-optic oximetric catheter can be used to monitor blood oxygen saturation levels continuously. With existing fiber-optic catheter oximetry, clinicians incorporate hard glass fiber waveguides to connect to a light source and sensing module to deliver light form an external source to the blood at the tip of the catheter in order to transmit some fractions of the backscattered light back to an external unit for detection. The apparatus can be connected to an additional interface containing a display monitor and controlling software. The platform introduced in this work contained a thin, flexible catheter-type optoelectronic probe connecting to a small, wearable electronic module for wireless and continuous real-time measurements of intravascular oxygen with clinical-grade accuracy. Optical, thermal, and electronic characteristics. (A) Spectral properties of light emission from the red and NIR LEDs used for the sensor probe. These LEDs (peak wavelengths of 645 and 950 nm) cover the parts of the spectrum of reversed absorption properties for Hb and HbO2. (B) Measured photocurrent as a function of input current for red and NIR LEDs, with the sensor probe implanted into raw meat. The experimental setup appears in fig. S3. (C) Monte Carlo simulation of the spatial distribution of normalized emission intensity profiles from the NIR and red LEDs in cardiac tissue. (D) Thermal image showing the temperature distribution of the skin of an adult arm with a catheter probe placed on top. (E) Measured temperature of the oximeter sensor probe during operation, with activation at 1 min and deactivation at 4 min. The sensor induces minimal increase in temperature (less than 0.08C). (F) Measured photovoltage output from the amplifier circuit as a function of time during a driving clock sequence of red and NIR LEDs and ADC sampling. Narrowing the driving pulses for the LEDs effectively reduces the power consumption and prolongs battery lifetime. (G) Battery voltage as a function of working time. A 45-mAh lithium battery supports operation for at least 22 hours. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0579 The probe tip of the device contained high-performance, miniaturized light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodiode (PD) fully encapsulated with a medical-grade, soft, transparent silicone elastomer. The electronic module supported rechargeable powering, circuit control and wireless data communication via Bluetooth protocols. A graphical user interface (GUI) deployed on a smartphone or tablet computer of ICU monitoring display allowed real-time visualization storage and analysis of measurement data. The results represented important advances in wireless optoelectronic technologies in cardiology. The platform was fully encapsulated with a medical-grade silicone layer and contained three main components: A low modulus flexible catheter with an optoelectronic sensor that contained two light-emitting diodes with emission wavelengths of 645 and 950 nm and one silicone photodiode. A bendable, miniaturized Bluetooth electronic module for gentle mounting on the skin A custom GUI deployed on a handheld device to support real-time visualization storage and data analysis and provide a control interface for the illumination parameters for LEDs. Mechanical encapsulation and biocompatibility characteristics. (A) Measured Youngs moduli for three catheter probes (inset images; scale bar, 2 cm) encapsulated with three different biocompatible silicone elastomers (labeled: MED-1040, MED-1000, and MED-1037, respectively). The Youngs moduli of the three catheter probes range from 800 to 1700 kPa. (B) Measured bending stiffnesses for the three catheter probes in (A), a catheter probe fabricated from relatively stiff copper wire encapsulated with MED-1000, and a commercial fiber-optic catheter (Swan Ganz 777F8, Edwards LifeSciences Inc.). The bending stiffnesses are 1.6, 1.8, 2.3, 20, and 243 N/mm2, respectively. (C) Finite element modeling of the sensor probe and catheter subjected to a bending radius of 22 and 27 mm, respectively. (D) Measured photovoltage from the catheter probe as a function of cycles of compression and bending. Experimental details appear in figs. S7 and S8. The photovoltage generated from the photodetector corresponds to operation of the two LEDs (peak wavelengths of 645 and 950 nm, respectively) at the tip of the catheter probe. a.u., arbitrary units. (E) Measured photovoltage as a function of immersion time in PBS solution at 37C. Experimental details appear in figs. S10 and S11. The data indicate negligible change in performance over 8 weeks. (F) CT image of the catheter sensor after 2 weeks of implantation. (G and H) Analysis of complete blood count (G) and blood chemistry (H) for mice with an oximetry probe implanted subcutaneously for 30 days (labeled as Experiment) and for mice without device implantation (labeled as Control). Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0579 The team then wirelessly transferred data to a personal computer using Bluetooth protocols. Optical, thermal and electrical characterization The scientists provided effective estimates of blood oxygen saturation using well-known optical approaches to define the fraction of oxyhemoglobin (HbO 2 ) relative to total hemoglobin (HbO 2 + deoxyhemoglobinHb) by comparing the absorption spectra of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin in the visible and near-infrared spectral range. Using the large differences at 645 nm and 950 nm, the scientists established the basis of optical measurements of blood oxygenation. Lu et al. measured the physics of light transport in biological tissues using the Monte Carlo method. The results provided quantitative insights into the illumination distribution around the LEDs and into aspects of light detection by the photodiode based on the optical properties of human cardiac muscle tissue found in literature. While the device functioned when pressed against the skin of the fingertips, Lu et al. obtained thermal images with an IR camera, which did not show apparent increase in temperature in the region. The scientists performed measurements every five minutes for a duration of five seconds. Performance characteristics for oximetry measurements. (A) Comparisons of light emission profiles of a commercial catheter oximeter (Swan Ganz 777F8, Edwards LifeSciences Inc.) and the device introduced here. (B) Comparisons of the commercial catheter oximeter and the device introduced here in measuring the oxygen saturation in blood solutions with different ratios of HbO2 and Hb. The inset image shows a comparison of the wireless catheter probe and a commercial fiber-optic catheter (scale bar, 1 cm). (C) Measured pulse signals from the device placed on the index finger of an adult. (D) Algorithm flow chart of the calculation of pulse oximetry based on photovoltage signals. (E and F) Measured SpO2 (E) and HR (F) during a period of rest followed by a breath hold and then another period of rest. The results match those obtained with a commercial oximeter (General Electronic Inc). The results of additional experiments appear in fig. S17. (G and H) Bland-Altman plots. (G) SpO2 from finger (four subjects, 801 points). (H) HR from finger (4 subjects, 801 points). Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0579 The mechanical properties of the device minimized the mechanical forces on adjacent biological tissues for improved biocompatibility. Human skin typically maintains a Young's modulus or stiffness between 400 and 800 kPa and human cardiac tissue muscles have a Young's modulus approximating 100 kPa. The Bluetooth module contained a biocompatible silicone for encapsulation with a Young's modulus in the range of human skin. The team used three catheter oximeter probes with biocompatible silicone with diverse Young's modulus values. The resulting bending stiffness of the construct was 50 times greater than that of the probe. The probe could easily and conformally deform with the heart muscle with negligible mechanical load and without associated damage to the heart, although its modulus was greater. Lu et al. implanted the device subdermally on the back near the spine of a mouse model and conducted computed tomography two weeks later. The team then obtained complete blood count and blood chemistry for mice with implants for 30 days to indicate no evidence of organ damage or injury and without detrimental effects on electrolyte or enzyme balance. Bench tests and in vivo studies In vivo demonstration of real-time monitoring of cardiac physiology in a rodent model. (A) 3D schematic illustration of the placement of the catheter oximeter around the heart of a rat with the wireless module placed on the back. (B) Signal waveform captured with this system. Modifying the settings associated with the ventilator that supports respiration provides access to different cardiac conditions (labeled as Normal, Hypoxia, and Arrhythmia). (C) Measurements of cardiac activity (beating patterns, HR, and RR). (D) Measured oxygenation of the heart. Induced changes in cardiac pulse oximetry (SpO2) match well with the changes on the ventilator machine. (E) Measured cardiac oxygenation using the wireless catheter oximeter and using a commercial blood gas analyzer. The analyzer measures blood sampled from the left ventricle, while the wireless catheter oximeter measures the oxygen saturation from the heart surface immediately after collecting blood samples. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0579 Major cardiac surgeries rely on the monitoring of venous oxygen saturation (SvO 2 ) and central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO 2 ) measured using fiber-optic oximeters to guide care. Such devices can be implanted transvenously to support the optical transmission from external sources across to sense with detectors in a patient tethered to a bedside apparatus. The team conducted in-lab tests using horse blood at various oxygen levels and compared those with commercial systems. The results showed measurement capabilities of SvO 2 and ScvO 2 across relevant ranges. The method can be implemented in pediatric cardiac surgery and recovery to monitor oxygen saturation levels within vessels during early and critical post-operative period in real time. Lu et al. conducted experiments on rat models and the device captured changes in HR, respiration rate (RR), ischemia and arrhythmia. The team also measured the heart rate and respiration rate during the experiments. The high degree of correlation demonstrated that the device offered sufficient sensitivity and precision in real-time oxygenation monitoring. Outlook In this way, Wei Lu and colleagues used a flexible, thin, catheter-type oximeter to accurately monitor venous and cardiac oxygenation levels in real time. The results demonstrated a wireless optoelectronic platform at the millimeter-scale to detect cardiac oxygenation saturation in rats during open-heart surgery. They explored the potential of the device to monitor oxygen levels in main vessels and expect to conduct further studies on the efficiency and reliability of oxygen saturation detection in large animal models to mimic open heart surgery of patients. Explore further Can current smartphone technology tell you when a pandemic might come calling? 2021 Science X Network The Facebook logo is displayed on their website in an illustration photo taken in Bordeaux, France, Feb. 1, 2017. Reuters Facebook, following in Google's footsteps, says it plans to invest $1 billion to ''support the news industry'' over the next three years. The social networking giant, which has been tussling with Australia over a law that would make social platforms pay news organizations, said it has invested $600 million since 2018 in news. Google said in October that it would pay publishers $1 billion over the next three years. News companies want Google and Facebook to pay for the news that appears on their platforms. Governments in Europe and Australia are increasingly sympathetic to this point of view. The two tech companies suck up the majority of U.S. digital advertising dollars, which _ among other problems _ has hurt publishers. WASHINGTON, D.C.Tim Wu, the author and Columbia University professor credited with inventing the term net neutrality, appears likely to take a place in President Joe Bidens new administration, according to a report by the Washington D.C. news site Politico. Wu appears headed to join Bidens National Economic Council, where he also served in the latter days of Barack Obamas presidency. The potential appointment of Wu, experts say, signals Bidens intention to take aim at the big tech companies, such as Facebook and Google, with an eye toward breaking them upsimilar to the 1984 breakup of AT&T, which at that time held a virtual monopoly over the nations telephone service. Possible efforts to break up big tech appeared to begin in the final days of the Donald Trump administration, last December, when the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook over its acquisitions of the highly popular social media apps Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as allegations of other anti-competitive practices. Previous reports had said that Biden might appoint Wu to the FTC. But it is Wus advocacy of net neutrality, a concept which he first articulated in a 2002 academic paper titled A Proposal for Network Neutrality, that appears to indicate Bidens intention to support an open internet. Net neutrality refers to a set of rules that forbid internet service providers from discriminating against online data based on its source or a number of other factors. In other words, ISPs under net neutrality are prohibited from slowing, blocking, or for that matter granting an online fast lane to data traveling through their network. The principle is particularly important to the adult industry online, because it guarantees that data from adult sites cannot be blocked or throttled simply because it is transmitted by a porn site. The nationwide net neutrality regulations put in place under Obama were repealed in 2018 by the Federal Communications Commission then led by Trump appointee Ajit Pai. Biden sent a strong signal that he intends to support net neutrality when he named FCC board member Jessica Rosenworcel, a strong net neutrality advocate, to serve as acting FCC chair following Pais resignation on January 20. The Biden administration also dropped a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice under Trump-appointed Attorney General William Barr against the state of California. The suit was intended to stop California from enforcing its own net neutrality statute. But this week, following the Biden administrations withdrawal of the lawsuit, a judge ruled in a separate case that California may now enact the net neutrality law. Though Wu is clearly an advocate of net neutrality, he has also written papers in which he appears to say that the First Amendment, which prohibits laws restricting freedom of expression, may have become obsolete in the internet era. One possibility is simply to concede that the First Amendment, built in another era, is not suited to todays challenges. Instead, any answer must lie in the development of better social norms, adoption of journalistic ethics by private speech platforms, or action by the political branches. Perhaps constitutional law has reached its natural limit, Wu wrote in a 2017 article for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Wu has also opposed the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a law that makes accessing a computer without authorization illegal. The law is widely considered overly restrictive, and critics say that it allows tech giants like Facebook to, in effect, write their own laws defining what counts as authorization, meaning that in some circumstances even playing computer games or chatting with friends online could be deemed unauthorized. Wu has described the CFAA as the worst law in technology. Photo By New America / Wikimedia Commons The "Netherlands Life Insurance Key Trends and Opportunities to 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. 'Netherlands Life Insurance Key Trends and Opportunities to 2024' report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into the Dutch life insurance segment. This report provides a detailed outlook by product category for the Dutch life insurance segment. It provides values for key performance indicators such as direct written premium and penetration during the review period (2015-2019) and forecast period (2019-2024). The report gives a comprehensive overview of the Dutch economy and demographics, and provides detailed information on the competitive landscape in the country. The report brings together the publisher's research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and profiles of insurers operating in the country. The report also includes details of insurance regulations, and recent changes in the regulatory structure. Key Highlights Key insights and dynamics of the Dutch life insurance segment. A comprehensive overview of the Dutch economy, government initiatives and investment opportunities. Dutch insurance regulatory framework's evolution, key facts, taxation regime, licensing and capital requirements. Details of the competitive landscape and competitors' profiles. Scope It provides historical values for the Dutch life insurance segment for the report's 2015-2019 review period, and projected figures for the 2019-2024 forecast period. It offers a detailed analysis of the key categories in the Dutch life insurance segment, and market forecasts to 2024. It profiles the top life insurance companies in The Netherlands and outlines the key regulations affecting them. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Executive Summary Chapter 2 Economy Overview Key Macroeconomic Indicators Country Risk Index Chapter 3 COVID-19 Impact Assessment Chapter 4 Summary Trend and KPIs Penetration and Growth Premiums and Lines of Business Retention Assets and Investments Chapter 5 Regulatory Risk Evolution Key Facts Licensing Requirements Chapter 6 Competitive Landscape Chapter 7 Competitor Profiles Chapter 8 Insurtech Chapter 9 Consumer Insight Survey Chapter 10 Appendix Companies Mentioned Nationale-Nederlanden Levensverzekering Maatschappij NV Srlev NV Aegon Levensverzekering NV ASR Levensverzekering NV Achmea Pensioen- en Levensverzekeringen NV ASR Schadeverzekering NV Dela Natura- En Levensverzekeringen NV Achmea Schadeverzekeringen NV Nationale-Nederlanden Schadeverzekering Maatschappij NV Movir NV For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/j6o3df View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005604/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com 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 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Its a hot summer morning and Semir Imam is sitting in a Fitzroy cafe counting off on his fingers all the retailers hes applied to work for. Aldi, Coles and Myer are among them. He seldom hears back. I have applied for a lot of jobs, says the 22-year-old with a wry smile. Young Australians have been especially vulnerable to the economic impact of the pandemic and research suggests the reverberations may last for decades. Loading Victorias youth unemployment rate stood at 14.8 per cent last month a percentage point higher than the rest of the nation. At its worst in November, one in five of those aged 18 to 24 in Melbourne were without a job, while in the citys west that figure soared to 35.4 per cent. Melbourne University researcher Jenny Chesters, who has tracked school-leavers in the aftermath of 2008s global financial crisis, worries that those who have jobs are working under much worse conditions. Advertisement Employers realised, I can offer short-term contracts or part-time jobs or casual work or people on call, she says. They realised they dont need to offer full-time jobs. Its why we are in such a dire situation now. Pandemic-induced unemployment resulted in 20- to 24-year-olds losing more full-time jobs than any other age group. Between February and October last year, 123,000 jobs nationwide went from this cohort, with the unemployment rate for the group peaking in October at 20 per cent. However, the unemployment situation among middle-aged people during the pandemic was extraordinarily different. Bureau of Statistics data shows 30 per cent of young people in Melbournes inner south had no job in October 2020, while only 2 per cent of those aged 35 to 44 were out of work. Getting a job is difficult, especially when you come from a refugee background, says Imam, who was born in Eritrea. Imam arrived five years ago with his family and lives in public housing in Richmond. The family is saving to buy a house. Advertisement Loading After finishing year 12 at Reservoir High, Imam was on Youth Allowance, the Commonwealth support payment to those aged under 24, when he started a youth work course at RMIT early last year. However, when classes switched to online in March, he became despondent. Sometimes he would log in, then go back to bed, half listening to class. Occasionally hed fall asleep. Eventually he dropped out. It was impossible to focus. Loading When he stopped going to school, he was switched to a different Youth Allowance. Once he paid rent to his parents, he had about $150 a week left over. Advertisement Its not enough but you have to survive on what you have. Two years ago, he worked in a food warehouse unloading cheese and chocolate. Each morning a text would ping and if he didnt respond Yes immediately, the work would vanish. In December, he was looking for this kind of work again, even though it could be bleak. You dont want to be stuck forever unloading cartons. On the day we were due to meet for the first time, Imam had to cancel because he had been offered a second days work as a traffic controller on a building project. It pays $30 an hour, its good money. African-Australian community leader Berhan Ahmed Credit:Rebecca Hallas There are around 2000 Eritrean immigrants in Melbourne and Berhan Ahmed from youth and community service group Africause says even before the pandemic this community was labelled as welfare dependent. Advertisement Now he fears what might happen in the years ahead. Loading Imams mother looked after her children in Eritrea, but in Australia she has found work as a carer at an aged care home in South Melbourne. Imams father works as an Uber driver. Before the first lockdown last March, Imam intended to finish his study and find a job helping young people. He also planned to go back to school in 2021. Having fled a dictatorship and spent six years in Egypt waiting with his two sisters and brother to be accepted into Australia, Imam wants to make his life here count. However, it wasnt always easy for the gregarious Imam to feel optimistic through 2020 and, as others returned to work, he sometimes felt like he was being left behind. People engage in social comparison all the time, says Melbourne University psychology professor Brock Bastian. Even people who were suffering felt a bit better during lockdown, because there was a sense everyone was in the situation they were. Advertisement In October, New York City Center reimagined its popular Fall for Dance festival in digital form: Dancers made use of the stage of the empty theater, their performances broadcast to audiences at home. In honor of Black History Month, three of those presentations are streaming again Lady Swings the Blues by the brilliant tap artist Dormeshia; Kyle Abrahams to be seen, danced to Ravels Bolero by Calvin Royal III of American Ballet Theater; and Morani/Mungu (Black Warrior/Black God) by Jamar Roberts, a longtime member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and that companys resident choreographer. Each of these works is a stunning solo, but in Dormeshias case, that category doesnt quite fit; though shes the lone dancer onstage (glamorous in gold shoes), her feet converse effortlessly with the live jazz trio by her side. Royal and Roberts, too, offer profoundly musical performances. A balm for any winter blues you might be feeling, the three works can be viewed free through March 5 on City Centers website or YouTube channel. SIOBHAN BURKE Classical Music Between Despair and Hope 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. Actress America Ferrera is making her transition to a career behind the camera, lining up her feature film debut. The 36-year-old Superstore star has signed on to direct I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter adaptation for Netflix, according to Deadline. The actress-turned-filmmaker, who has previously directed episodes of Superstore and Netflix's Gentefied, also responded to the news on social media. Director: Actress America Ferrera is making her transition to a career behind the camera, lining up her feature film debut Adaptation: The 36-year-old Superstore star has signed on to direct I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter adaptation for Netflix, according to Deadline The project is adapted from Erika L. Sanchez's 2017 young adult novel, following Julia Reyes, the teenage daughter of first generation Mexican immigrants. She often clashes with her traditional parents and her sister Olga, who very much fits the mold of a 'perfect Mexican daughter.' The family is turned upside down when Olga is killed in an accident, and it's up to the rebellious Julia to hold the family together. Family: The family is turned upside down when Olga is killed in an accident, and it's up to the rebellious Julia to hold the family together 'Years ago, I fell in love with Erika L. Sanchezs stunning novel. The depth, wit and searing intelligence of her writing, and her young Latina heroine, struck me to my core and left me wanting so much more,' Ferrera said in a statement. Gentefied creator Linda Yvette Chavez is writing the screenplay adaptation, with the author Sanchez serving as a co-producer. Doreen Wilcox Little is producing for Anonymous Content with MACROs Charles D. King and Poppy Hanks and Aevitas Creative Managements David Kuhn. Statement: 'Years ago, I fell in love with Erika L. Sanchezs stunning novel. The depth, wit and searing intelligence of her writing, and her young Latina heroine, struck me to my core and left me wanting so much more,' Ferrera said in a statement Ferrera also took to Instagram to share the news, along with another heartfelt statement about how much the project means to her. 'The depth, wit and searing intelligence of @erikalsanchezs writing, and her young Latina heroine, struck me to my core and left me wanting so much more,' Ferrera said. 'I am truly honored and humbled to direct @lindayvettechavezs beautifully adapted screenplay. The opportunity to direct the work of these two incredibly talented Latina writers is a dream come true,' she added. Instagram: Ferrera also took to Instagram to share the news, along with another heartfelt statement about how much the project means to her 'I cant wait to share this film with the many fans of the novel, and to introduce this funny, profound, and resonant story to the world. Thank you @netflix @staymarco @anoncontent @aevitascreative for entrusting me with this gorgeous project. Lets Go!!' she concluded. The sixth and final season of Ferrera's hit NBC series Superstore is currently airing, and she has recently guest-starred on Gentefied, along with directing new episodes. Ferrera is also one of the co-founders of the Time's Up movement and she also worked on the Biden/Harris campaign and the Georgia Senate campaigns. She has also co-founded the social justice program Harness and She Se Puede, which provides resources to the Latina community. " " Guest Trisha just told you she's not leaving your house. How can you get her OUT? Gary Burchell/Getty Images It was supposed to be just a few weeks. That was the deal. Your college friend Trisha was blindsided by her husband filing for divorce and needed a place to crash until she could find her own apartment. She's always been a bit of a mess, but you couldn't turn your back on a friend in need, right? Now "a few weeks" has turned into eight months. In the beginning, she at least pretended to browse Craigslist for cheap sublets and part-time work, but now she doesn't do much of anything, unless binge-watching Netflix can be considered a full-time job. You finally work up the nerve to ask Trisha to leave. Your place is just too small and your boyfriend thinks she's a leech, eating all your food and never offering a dime for groceries, let alone rent. You break the news gently to Trisha; she has to be out by the end of the month. And then she breaks the news to you: Nope, she's staying. "This situation is more common than you might think," says Janet Portman, an attorney and executive editor at legal website Nolo. "And the law isn't terribly helpful to the people who are doing the kicking out." Technically, getting rid of a freeloading friend should be a cinch, says Portman, the co-author with Marcia Stewart of "Every Landlord's Legal Guide." House guests who have overstayed their welcome have no legal right to stay at your property. Nobody wants to call the cops on an old college friend, but a house guest who refuses to leave is trespassing, which is a crime. Advertisement Guest Vs. Lodger Vs. Tenant The problem, says Portman, is that police are extremely wary of forcibly removing someone from a property if there's even the slightest chance that they aren't a guest, but in fact a tenant. Because dragging a tenant out of their home without a court order is called a "self-help eviction," which is illegal and the tenant can sue both you and the cops. A tenant could also sue you if you throw their belongings out of the house or change the locks. All your freeloading house guest has to say is that they've been helping pay for groceries or watching your dog when you go away for the weekend (whether or not it's true). Even if there's no written lease and no rent has changed hands, they can claim that they are a tenant or a "lodger." A lodger is someone who rents a room in a home where the owner also lives. Tenants have their own standalone unit. If Trisha is staying in your guest room and convinces the cops that she's providing even minimal help in exchange for a place to stay, she's a lodger. And evicting a tenant or a lodger is a civil matter, which means the cops won't touch it. Congratulations, you're a landlord now! As Trisha's unwitting landlord, you then have to follow state law for evictions, which can vary. In California, where Portman practices, you first need to give Trisha a "notice to quit." This is an eviction form which notifies her in writing that she has 30 days to voluntarily leave the property. You'd probably want to have an attorney draft this document and give you instructions on how to serve it. What happens next depends on whether Trisha is a tenant or a lodger. If a lodger in California refuses to leave after 30 days, they can be kicked out without going through a court-ordered eviction process, because after the 30-day mark, they are officially trespassing. At this point, you could call the police. But if a tenant won't budge after 30 days, a California landlord has to file a lawsuit in civil court for an eviction, which can take additional weeks to finalize. Assuming you win the case, the cops can then be called in to remove the good-for-nothing from the premises, forcibly if need be. Advertisement 'They Were Scammers' All of this costs money. A savvy freeloader might do everything in their power to prolong the process to make it as painful and expensive as possible. "What often happens is the homeowner pays the guy to leave," says Portman. "And believe it or not, there are people who pull this nonsense." Portman remembers when a gas line explosion in San Bruno, California left thousands of people homeless in 2010, and big-hearted neighbors took in the displaced, only to be shocked when months later the rescued house guests refused to leave without a payout. Some turned out not to be real victims at all. "They were scammers," says Portman. The best way to protect yourself from the emotional and financial train wreck of evicting a house guest in court is to put something in writing from the start. It's awkward, yes, but it's really important for the friend to sign a statement certifying that they are indeed a guest, not a tenant or lodger, that they are not paying rent or providing services in exchange for lodging, and most importantly, that you, the owner, can ask them to leave at any time. "I can guarantee you that most people are not going to want to do that, though," says Portman. "They have a gut feeling that this person is trustworthy, then it goes south and that's how lawyers make their money." Now That's Worse As a New York couple found out in 2018, evicting a grown child is even more painful and embarrassing than evicting a house guest. They even gave their son $1,100 to get moving, but that didn't work. Taking him to court and getting an eviction order was the only solution. Originally Published: Jul 12, 2018 Bengaluru, Feb 25 : Independent MLA Sharath Bachegowda from Hosakote Assembly segment in Bengaluru Rural district has extended support to the opposition Congress in Karnataka, the party said on Thursday. "Sharath met our party's state unit president D.K. Shivakumar and extended his support to the Congress as its associate member for the development of his constituency and its people," the official told IANS here. Incidentally, Sharath, 37, is the son of BJP Lok Sabha member B.N. Bachegowda from Chikkaballapur, about 70 kms northeast of Bengaluru. Sharath won from Hosakote in the December 5, 2019 bye-election, defeating former Congress minister M.T.B. Nagaraj as an independent after the ruling BJP denied him a ticket to contest. Nagaraj, however, was made Excise Minister on January 13 after he defected to the BJP and got elected unopposed to the state Legislative Council as MLC in June 2020 biennial elections. "I will remain an independent in the Assembly but extend outside support to Congress on various issues, including its demand for repeal of the farm laws by the central and state governments," Sharath said after giving his letter of support to Shivakumar in the presence of senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Sharath blamed the BJP government for lack of development in his constituency, as funds have not been released amid the Covid pandemic. Ironically, Sharath, who was BJP's Yuva Morcha (youth wing) secretary, was expelled from the BJP when he rebelled against it for denying him a party ticket to contest the 2019 December bypolls against Nagaraj to whom he had lost in the May 2018 Assembly election as a BJP candidate. B.N. Bachegowda represented the Hoskote Assembly seat when he was in the JD-U and the BJP later. LANSING, MI Lack of investment in a portfolio of aging dams has the state on a path toward another grave situation, says a task force report thats urging the governor and legislature to overhaul Michigans regulatory program with millions in new annual funding and new licensing requirements for dam owners to avoid another flooding catastrophe. The Michigan Dam Safety Task Force advanced its final report on Thursday, Feb. 25 following five months of meetings ordered by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer following the Edenville and Sanford dam failures last spring near Midland, which unleashed flooding that displaced 10,000 people and caused an estimated $200 million worth of damage. Through a suite of 86 recommended actions, the task force urged the state to reduce the risk of more dam failures by providing adequate authority and resources for state safety inspectors and new financing for dam maintenance, repair and removal projects, as well as emergency responses. While most of Michigans 2,600 dams are in fair condition based on current inspection requirements, the report says deterioration outpaces investment at dams and more than 80 percent are older than the nominal 50-year design life. Spillway capacities are often below projected storm flows, which can lead to dam failure, the report states. There is also a lack of funding for dealing with problem dams. Therefore, the state is heading toward a grave situation with many dams if significant investments are not made in the short and medium term, the report states. Continuing the current path of underinvestment is a violation of the public trust, a path that leads to tragic losses of property and life and is ultimately more expensive to Michiganders. Related: Aging dams force a reckoning in Michigan The 19-member task force finished the report this earlier month but couldnt quite stick the landing at its final meeting on Feb. 3, when it voted to temporarily withhold the final draft to make revisions that ostensibly dialed back a more urgent portrayal of the problem. John Broschak, a vice president at Consumers Energy in charge of hydroelectricity, called the problem a ticking time bomb during the final task force meeting. Evan Pratt, a Washtenaw County water resources commissioner who chaired the task force, said theres likely a problem dam in every legislative district in Michigan. I can safely say everyone in the legislature has a problem child in their district that would benefit from the regulatory overhauls outlined in the report, Pratt said. According to the report, many dams in Michigan were built prior to regulations developed in the 1970s and the states existing regulatory program under a 1994 statue does not address the acceptable balance of risk versus utility. The dearth of state inspectors was widely criticized following the Edenville failure and the report notes that Michigan has relied on two staff engineers to oversee up to $4 billion worth of infrastructure. A third state engineer was hired by EGLE in December. As of last fall, the program operates on a total annual budget of $348,000 derived from a combination of permit fees, state general fund dollars, cross-agency funding and federal FEMA grant money. The 92 dams in Michigan that generate electricity are under oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not the state of Michigan. Top line recommendations in the report include establishing several new funds to address emergency situations as well as maintenance and removal projects. A new revolving loan and grant fund that prioritizes risk reduction should be capable of funding up to $20 million in improvement projects over a 20-year period, the report states. Another $750,000 in annual matching grants should be put toward scoping and design studies that are often necessary to determine the feasibility of certain repair projects. That was very effective in Pennsylvania, said Pratt, who said matching funds are useful to incentivize dam owners to perform rather than defer maintenance projects. A new Emergency Dam Safety Action Fund should be established with an initial $5 million from the states general fund, the report suggests. A proposal to establish a $15 million emergency dam response fund is already before the legislature as part of Whitmers fiscal 2022 budget proposal. Other recommendations include new finite period licensing rules and requirements that dam owners must maintain adequate financial security through either insurance polices or other means to address maintenance, removal or emergencies. License renewals would include a review of whether a dam should continue to exist, the report states. The state should be able to order drawdowns in emergencies, the report states. Property transactions in potential flood zones should also include written risk acknowledgements, The report also recommends amending dam hazard classifications that account for natural resources damage and tightening communication time allotments for dam owners. Pratt said tougher licensing and enforcement protocols coupled with insurance requirements are meant to ensure dams dont escape attention due to recalcitrant owners. He said such financial security requirements are common at environmentally contaminated properties and other clean energy projects. Nobody wants a giant decrepit wind turbine laying around for 50 years, he said, for example. Licensing brings that in. Its critical to financial security. And enforcement of whats been licensed is critical. Pratt pointed to several dams in Washtenaw County among those which could benefit from fixes outlined in the task force report, including the decommissioned Peninsular Paper Dam on the Huron River owned by the city of Ypsilanti, which he said has been the site of drownings. Two other dams near the former Willow Run plant no longer serve any use beyond capturing sediments and contaminated runoff, he said. Lowering or rubbilizing them would cost money that, right now, would have to be obtained through a new special assessment district. Every year, all these regulated and unregulated dams are getting a little older and a little less useful, he said. When you look at the whole state portfolio, everything is getting a little riskier every year and until a majority of these recommendations are implemented, were not even getting started on making things less risky. Related stories: FERC proposes $15M fine for Edenville Dam owner Debris removed from Sanford Dam months after flood Aging hazard dams force a reckoning in Michigan Timeline: The Edenville Dam saga (before, during and after) Dam failures, flood impact havent subsided for these families A year after emergency drawdown, Morrow Lake refill begins Michigans aging dams are a public safety issue Michigan steps up dam oversight, but much work remains 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. Northern Ireland's hospitality chiefs say they are hopeful of a post-Easter reopening in line with other parts of the UK. The Executive is set to publish its roadmap out of lockdown next Monday, with restrictions in place until April 1. It will not include dates but will instead be based on data surrounding the state of the virus in the region. In England, pubs, restaurants and other hospitality operators will be able to serve customers outside from April 12 at the earliest, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday. The following day Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a 'phased but significant reopening of the economy', including hospitality from April 26. Hospitality Ulster chief Colin Neill believes Northern Ireland's reopening should happen in line with other parts of the UK and says indicative dates are key. He added: "The last thing we need is vague timelines but ministers also need to be sitting down with us now to begin the planning process. We have to move away from this idea of being given a date and then two weeks later, a day before reopening, we get handed the rules." Bridgene Keeley, director of family-run company McKeever Hotel Group, said Mr Johnson's roadmap has given some confidence to those in the industry that lockdown will end soon. Expand Close Bridgene Keeley / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bridgene Keeley Her company, which owns the Dunadry, Corr's Corner, Dunsilly and Adair Arms in Co Antrim alongside Dillons Hotel in Letterkenny, is also hoping that Stormont will give an idea around similar timelines for reopening, given the success of the vaccination programme. "It would give much needed certainty to our teams but also to people who already have bookings - weddings couples who, at this point, are uncertain if their days will go ahead as planned," she said. In the Republic ministers will not consider reopening hospitality until mid-summer, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said. "There is some apprehension about whether the slower roll-out of vaccination in the Republic will have an impact on Northern Ireland's ability to open but we understand there are discussions happening around this point," Ms Keeley added. "The most important thing for the industry is clarity and that when we do reopen we are able to trade viably. We have spent the majority of the past year closed and the rest at reduced capacity with restrictions on trade. "For the industry to survive it is important we get a good run up to summer and have confidence that we will not be going back into lockdown again." Willie Jack, owner of the Duke of York and Harp Bar in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter, recently predicted that the earliest his business would reopen is the week after Easter, but on a limited basis and without live music. He said: "I think that we could now be looking at a week or so later than that. I would hope that we would be somewhere in between England and Scotland's dates. What Boris Johnson has outlined seems quite sensible and we should all follow that." Mr Jack also wants to see a ramping up of vaccinations. "There should be a huge effort made to get that done quicker, in tandem with hospitalisations staying low, which should then clear the way to make a definitive date," he added. Tom Hallberg covers a little bit of everything, from skiing to long-form feature stories. A Teton Valley, Idaho, transplant by way of Portland and Bend, Oregon, he spends his time outside work writing fiction, splitboarding and climbing. The Egyptian foreign ministry has briefed Arab and European ambassadors in the country on the latest developments in the decade-long dispute between Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Deputy Foreign Minister for African Affairs Hamdy Loza held a meeting with the ambassadors in the Egyptian capital on Thursday, where he reviewed Egypt's vision regarding the future of the stalled negotiations. The deputy minister asserted the necessity of reaching a fair, balanced, and legally-binding deal that details the rules for filling and operating the near-complete Ethiopian hydropower project, a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry said. Thursdays meeting comes amid efforts to revive the stalemated talks days after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially assumed the presidency of the AU, which is the current mediator of the negotiations. Loza told the ambassadors that Egypt has confidence in Congolese President Felix Tshisekedis ability to oversee and achieve progress in the talks between Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa, the statement added. He also reaffirmed Cairo's support of the Sudanese proposal to form an international quartet committee under the brokerage of the AU and with the participation of the US, the European Union, and the United Nations as observers in a bid to end the impasse. The Egyptian diplomat said the Sudanese proposal would give the negotiations political momentum reflecting the international community's interest and perception of the GERD dispute and the threat it poses to the interests of regional countries. Since last year, the AU has been mediating the talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the decade-long dispute caused by the GERD. The last round of AU negotiations, mediated by South Africa, the former president of the AU, stalled in January due to Khartoum's withdrawal from the latest meetings in objection to the methodology upon which the talks had been held. Sudan called for granting a bigger role to the experts involved in the talks instead of holding direct discussions between the three nations. Ethiopia, as well as Egypt, rejected Sudan's demand. The efforts to resolve the crisis come amid worries over controversial plans by Addis Ababa to complete the second filling in July without first reaching an agreement with Cairo and Khartoum. Ethiopia says the massive project, which it hopes will make it Africas largest power exporter, is key to its development efforts, a matter that neither Egypt nor Sudan oppose. However, Egypt fears the project will significantly cut its crucial water supplies from the River Nile, while Sudan has concerns over how the reservoir will be managed. Both downstream countries insist on reaching binding deals on rules for filling and operating the dam. Short link: 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. E-records are helping to streamline processes for medical professionals Dr. Nguyen Van Khoi, board chairman at Quang Khoi General Hospital, said that one of the hospitals new business strategies to materialise its mission is to launch a mobile check-up service, which is the result of its 10-year development efforts. COVID-19 has had significant impacts on the economy and human life, thus affecting peoples access to healthcare services. With the new service, we hope to bring health services closer and make it more convenient to people, Khoi noted. The hospital has focused investment in development of the mobile check-up service in recent years in an effort to meet growing demands for regular check-ups for workers and white-collar workers at offices and factories. This service helps ensure the quality of regular check-ups for employees of businesses, while saving travelling and waiting times for them. Looking like a mobile clinic, the mobile check-up service vehicles of Quang Khoi General Hospital are fully equipped with advanced medical equipment and machines such as 4D ultrasound machine; digital x-ray machine; ear, nose, and throat endoscopes; electrocardiogram machines; and more, thus ensuring the best possible on-site healthcare service quality. These devices are connected directly with the management software on electronic health records to facilitate the research and management of health conditions of each individual. Moreover, drawing rooms are equipped with air conditioners and ventilation to ensure fresh environment and best conditions for medical examiners. Especially, the results of health check-ups are available on mobile phones and electronic health records. In addition, the multidisciplinary team of the mobile check-up service vehicles have medical proficiency and are highly trained at home and internationally. With all of these factors, the new service has received support from labourers, with many domestic and foreign-invested enterprises selecting it. They include companies such as PTSC Thanh Hoa, Nghi Son International Port Co., Ltd., Nghi Son Thermal Power JSC, Japans TOA, Hoa Sen Group (Nghe An office), Lilama 18.1, and many others. Together with new services development, Quang Khoi General Hospital has also been paying due attention to IT application in management and operation. The management software on electronic health records applied in the mobile check-up service is one of the hospitals encouraging achievements in line with the health sectors electronic health records development plan and development of smart hospitals. With strong efforts on technology application, Quang Khoi has become the ninth hospital nationwide to receive Ministry of Health recognition as a successful performer of electronic health records. Quang Khoi was also honoured as the pioneer in digital transformation in the health sector at the E-Health Vietnam Summit 2020. As part of Quang Khois development plan, the hospital has strengthened international cooperation as a way to help improve professionalism for its health professionals, and approach new treatment methods and techniques, thus enabling it to satisfy new demands. For instance, Quang Khoi made working visits to a number of hospitals in 2020, including FV Hospital and Hanh Phuc International Hospital, both of which won Joint Commission International accreditation a global certification on hospital quality management. Also last October, Quang Khoi signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Hanoi French Hospital, with regular check-ups and hospital fee guarantee being included to ensure diversified benefits for patients depending on their demands and financial capacity. The cooperation is expected to bring about many more opportunities for Quang Khoi to further improve professionalism of its health professionals, while diversifying high-quality health services for customers, especially corporate ones. With strong investment and comprehensive and constant innovation, Quang Khoi General Hospital is winning more confidence from customers and partners, reaffirming its leading position among privately-run facilities in the central region. Criminal syndicates and opportunistic robbers are setting their sights on packages being transported by couriers in South Africa. This is according to Garry Marshall, the CEO of the South African Express Parcel Association (SAEPA), which represents a wide range of couriers operating in the country. Among SAEPAs members are large and small local companies like CourierIT, DSV, Globeflight, and RAM, as well as international players such as DHL, FedEx, and UPS. Marshall said that while there were no accurate figures available regarding robberies of couriers, anecdotal evidence from these companies suggested that the problem was on the rise. When I speak to our members, they reckon it is worse now than it has ever been, Marshall said. It has escalated over the last six months, Marshall said. A lot of these are reported as armed robberies, and some of them are reported as hijackings, and I think many of them are not reported at all. Part of the problem is that once you report it, the vehicle becomes a crime scene, and it may get impounded, therefore the courier cant continue delivering, he added. Marshall said he suspected that there were many instances in which the smaller players, in particular, would not report the incidents. Attacks becoming more violent What is even more troubling about these robberies is that they have become more violent, Marshall said. The latest trend is that not only is there an increase in the number of events, but there is also an increase in the violence around them, that much is very noticeable, he said. In many cases, they just shoot first and then help themselves [to the goods]. So its becoming more and more dangerous, Marshall stated. Marshall said that one of the obvious reasons couriers were being targeted was that they were highly visible within the public space, making them soft targets for opportunistic thieves. These criminals are aware that couriers generally carry items of high value. They tend to carry high-value commodities, many of which are attractive and able to be sold very easily, there is a ready market for them, Marshall stated. We carry a lot of electronics, and those tend to be very high risk, and very attractive [to robbers], Marshall said. In addition, Marshall said that there were likely major syndicates involved in these robberies, many of which used information gained from insiders in courier companies. In such instances, SAEPA had found that employees were often threatened to keep quiet by the criminals. A broader problem Marshall said that the problem correlated with an increase in other high-visibility crimes like crash-in-transit and jewellery store robberies across the country. We dont see this as courier-industry specific, we see it as a major national problem, he stated. He explained that courier companies were incurring major costs on all kinds of security mechanisms and controls to protect their facilities, assets, and employees. Sometimes when I visit our members it is like getting through Fort Knox just to get into their places, Marshall stated. Expenses often include costs of escort vehicles, camera systems, vehicle tracking systems, control centres, helicopters, and follow-up vehicles. Marshall said unfortunately these costs tend to get built into courier prices, so the public will pay for it at the end of the day. He added that courier companies were doing all they possibly could in co-operation with the police on the ground, but emphasised that this crime needs to be tackled at the highest level. What we would like to see is some kind of joint task force between business and the government to try and eradicate this problem, Marshall said. The Work Zone A lot of folks will go to work this morning, and not be happy about it. I hope I can give you some ideas today that will help make sure youre Read more RABAT - Morocco is getting ready to approve on Thursday a revolutionary law for the legal use of cannabis. The government of Prime Minister Salaeddine El Othmani believes the time is right to legalise light drugs for therapeutic uses. The interior minister, who presented the project, foresaw the creation of a specialised national agency, the only one with the task of issuing authorisations in this new market. The state agency will also be the only link between producers and the market. Growers must be authorised and insured, and will have to show proof of legality and provide for the creation of cooperatives to employ people, all of whom must be Moroccans of legal adult age. With the new law, the government is aiming to bring out into the open the numerous companies currently operating illegally in the sector, above all in the Rif area in the country's north. Those companies fuel the trafficking of drugs both within Morocco as well as in Europe. The Jamaican patty always makes me think about heat. Not just the heat of the beef filling flavored with Scotch bonnet peppers, though the sizzle it leaves on your tongue is significant among the handheld pastrys many pleasures. I remember tucking a bagged patty or two into my pockets during the frigid New York City winters of my childhood, using them as much for their fingertip-melting warmth as for their ability to fill a belly. The bright yellow coloring of their crusts, tinged by turmeric (and sometimes egg yolk), recalled the sunny shores of their native Jamaica, a place that seemed very far from my gray city. The Bay Area hasnt historically had as many renditions. But this winter, I came across some that made me recall why I loved the dish so much: the nontraditional, but no less compelling, versions by two Afro-Caribbean Oakland businesses, the Pleasure Principle and Bussdown. Stephen Lam / The Chronicle In its traditional form, the patty is made with a shortcrust-style pastry and filled with spiced beef, ackee or other savory ingredients; often, people make a meal of it by stuffing it into a piece of soft and buttery coco bread. Its half-circle shape and fork-crimped edge and even its utilitarian foundations faintly suggest its cousin, the Cornish pasty, although its curry powder flavoring and cayenne component are Indian and West African in origin. Produced by enslaved and indentured laborers in the sugar plantations of British colonial Jamaica, the calorie-packed patties were made to sustain the body while out on the field, much like chipped beef- and rutabaga-filled pasties were meant to feed tin miners in Britains Cornwall as they worked underground. That origin story is why Christina Wilson, chef of the Pleasure Principle, makes patties for her weekly Afro-Caribbean pop-up menu, which includes empanadas and soul food like smothered chicken thighs. Wilson has long been invested in using food to explore the history of the African diaspora the food of my bloodline, she told me. Specifically, the food cultures that sprang up out of the mixing of cultures as a result of the transatlantic slave trade. The ingenuity of Jamaican workers, who had to make the best of lives spent on foreign shores, made a huge impression on Wilson, whose take on the patty speaks to her devotion to the craft. Stephen Lam / The Chronicle Her version of the beef patty ($7) is inspired by her first taste of the pastry, late one night during a visit to New York City. It was explosively savory and super, super spicy, she said. I still remember that bite: It made my jowls water. Accordingly, her patties dont shy away from the heat. Their piquancy creeps up on you as you eat, wafting up your sinus until the corners of your eyes start to prickle. A base of ground grass-fed beef and browned onions and garlic coax you into taking more and more bites until, somehow, youve made it through. I love her puff pastry dough, which is a drastic departure from the typical shortcrust. It makes the pastry richer and exaggerates the flakiness of Jamaican patties, where brushing the crumbs off your shirt is part of the charm. Wilson gives the dough its characteristic yellow tint by brushing it with curry oil before baking. When youre reheating the patties in your home oven, the heat unleashes the oils pungency and fills your kitchen with its cumin-dominant fragrance. A blended, Scotch bonnet-packed aged jerk sauce, served on the side for dipping, clings to the flaky pastry and makes it even spicier. The Bussdown, a pan-African virtual kitchen run by chefs Solomon Johnson and Mike Woods, combines the Jamaican patty with another famed Caribbean dish: the Trinidadian double, a handheld street food consisting of fried flatbread filled with curried chickpeas. Johnson and Woods ladle the saucy chickpeas over their patties ($6), finishing them with curls of green onion and elegant pickled baby carrots and radishes. Dana Plucinski Their plated presentation is far away from the utility-focused, proletarian patty meant to feed workers on the go, but the enhancements do serve a purpose. The curried chickpeas imbue each bite with incredible moisture and vegetal richness, and now its hard to imagine a patty without them. The patties dough, on the chewier end of the crust spectrum, easily stands up to the wet legume topping. Among the Bussdowns three patty options, the vegetarian one is the tastiest. Instead of beef, the pastry is filled with a mildly sweet and deceptively meaty plantain mash, with a soft texture thats offset by the crunchy pickles. Rather than leaning into the fruits sweetness and taking the patty into a more expected dessert pie fashion, Johnson and Woods bring out the more savory flavor notes by mixing in a green garlic puree. The vegetarian patty is actually not very spicy at all, making it gentle on the stomach and palate. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. While patties abound in Caribbean diasporic strongholds like London, New York City and Miami, theyve been more of a rarity here until recent years. In the mid-2010s, native San Franciscan Shani Jones launched Peaches Patties, an homage to her Jamaican mother and one of the citys few Caribbean food businesses. And a pop-up called Tasty Tings, by Alyssa Magdaluyo, as well as a new Trinidadian restaurant in Oakland, Coco Breeze, entered the fray last year with their own takes on the patty. Even if youve never had a Jamaican patty before, I think youd still recognize them on first glimpse. It seems that many humans possess an innate craving for dough-wrapped parcels, whether were talking about fried sesame balls, empanadas or piroshki. Its likely why the patty was first carried out to the plantations of Jamaica, and why it has continued to proliferate, more than a century after it was born, to warm the pockets of people throughout the world. The Pleasure Principle To Go. Pop-up menu pickups are available via preorder 6-8 p.m. Thursdays. Private dining and in-home options are available by request. 272 14th St., Oakland. https://thepleasureprincipletogo.square.site/ The Bussdown. Takeout and delivery 2-10 p.m. daily. 2353 E. 12th St., Oakland. www.instagram.com/thebussdown510 Soleil Ho is The San Francisco Chronicles restaurant critic. Email: soleil@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hooleil 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. H.I.G. Capital, LLC ("H.I.G."), a leading global alternative investment firm with over 35 billion of equity capital under management, is pleased to announce the expansion of its European WhiteHorse Direct Lending team with the addition of Ignacio Blasco as a Managing Director. Ignacio will be based in H.I.G.'s Madrid office. Ignacio has over 28 years of experience in leveraged finance and direct lending, covering a wide range of sectors and investment strategies. Prior to joining H.I.G., he was a Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey in Madrid. Prior to that, he was a Managing Partner of Montalban Debt Funds, after a long and successful career at Societe Generale in Madrid and London. Commenting on the hire, Pascal Meysson, Head of H.I.G. WhiteHorse Europe, said, "We are delighted to welcome Ignacio to the firm. He brings a wealth of knowledge and connections within the Spanish private equity and advisory communities that will prove invaluable to the team as we continue growing our European direct lending activities." About H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. is a leading global alternative assets investment firm with over 35 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach: H.I.G.'s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. H.I.G.'s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. H.I.G.'s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of 27 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com. Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005439/en/ Contacts: Pascal Meysson Managing Director pmeysson@higcapital.com Islamabad, Feb 23 (UNI) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday on a two-day maiden visit to the country, at the invitation of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Accompanied by a high-level delegation, including members of the Cabinet and senior officials, will hold talks with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother and Prime Minister Rajapakse. They will exchange views on key regional and international issues and also discuss how to further enhance bilateral cooperation in various sectors, the Dawn reported. Mr Khan will also lead delegation-level talks, covering various areas of cooperation between the two countries, including trade, investment, health, education, agriculture, science and technology, apart from defence and culture tourism. The visiting Prime Minister will also participate in a joint 'Trade and Investment Conference,' aimed at promoting trade and investment between the two countries, following which a number of agreements to enhance bilateral cooperation are expected to be signed between the two countries. Earlier, the Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) had said that the reconstitution of the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Association will also be announced to further promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. However, it did not mention Mr Khan's speech to the Sri Lankan Parliament, which was cancelled by the Sri Lankan government, citingCOVID-19 pandemic as the official reason for the cancellation. However, diplomatic sources and Sri Lankan media have said that it was done out of concerns that Mr Imran could speak about the situation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which could further damage Colombo's already troubled relations with New Delhi. UNI XC ACL RJ 1914 The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A newly developed camera lens is reported can focus on light more accurately in a short period. This is currently a great innovation since camera lenses are used for different purposes. NASA and other space agencies usually rely on them to capture or record new discoveries in the universe. And now, MIT's engineers decided to create a new camera lens that doesn't require its operator to move the device's parts. Current cameras have lenses that need to be twisted and adjusted when the handlers want to focus on an object. But, MIT's new technology is very different from theirs since it doesn't require twisting motions. The engineers tested the new meta-lens by placing it on a stage, illuminating it with a laser beam tuned to the infrared band. After that, they used two transparent resolution charts in front of the camera lens at different distances. How efficient MIT's camera lens is? The researchers took photos of the two resolution charts. MIT's new camera lens was able to take a sharp image if the closer one at room temperature. On the other hand, it was also able to capture a detailed photo of the farther transparent resolution charts. Also Read: Huawei Turns to Pig Farming, Mining as Smartphone Sales are Expected to Dip by Up to 60% This 2021 When it comes to efficiency, MIT's new camera lens is more accurate than the current models. Why? Because it was still able to take a photo of the second object even when the researchers removed the heat or light source. "Our result shows that our ultrathin tunable lens, without moving parts, can achieve aberration-free imaging of overlapping objects positioned at different depths, rivaling traditional, bulky optical systems," said Tian Gu, MIT Materials Research Laboratory's engineer, via New Atlas. How can this camera lens capture light more efficiently? According to Extreme Tech's latest report, MIT's new camera lens has a material called GSST, which has a more ordered, crystalline structure that is just one micrometer thick. The newly developed camera lens has various microscopic structures of GSST. Each of them refracts light differently, allowing the technology to focus and capture light more accurately than the current camera lens in normal DLSRs and digicams. For more news updates about MIT's camera lens and other innovations of the agency, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Canon to Have Liquid Lens? Experts Discover New Method How to Use Water in Camera Lens This article is owned by TechTimes. Written by: Giuliano de Leon. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has urged political forces to stop all actions and start a conversation. His remarks came Thursday addressing his supporters on Republic Square in Yerevan. Continue the rally, we will also hold a rally. If you go beyond what is permitted in your political statements, you will be detained under the law. I will begin consultations with even the most ardent critics of all political forces in order to find a way out of this situation. At the same time, I remove the topic of early elections from the agenda at the request of citizens. I sent a proposal to President Armen Sarkissian to dismiss Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan, but the latter has not signed the decree yet. Today I had a telephone conversation with the president of the republic, and I said that, in my opinion, he should simply sign the proposal I submitted. If the President does not sign ... So what does this mean? Is he joining the coup? And there is a second option. Onik Gasparyan, whom I appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, whom I trusted 100% during the war, and now I understand that in many episodes I did not do everything right, let Onik Gasparyan write a statement and resign himself," he said. Pashinyan called on parliamentary and other forces to determine the day and time of political consultations. After the rally, Pashinyan and his supporters began a march along Tigran Mets Avenue. The Armenian army joint staff on Thursday issued a statement noting that the army demands the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan and his government. The statement was signed by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, his deputies, heads of departments, and commanders of all corps. The Armenian army has expressed its resolute protest over the dismissal of the First Deputy Chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff. At the suggestion of the PM, President Armen Sarkissian had dismissed Tiran Khachatryan, who had reportedly mocked PM's words about the alleged flaw of the Russia-made Iskander missile systems. Following the incident, the Armenian army noted that the PM and the government are no longer able to make proper decisions for the Armenian people. After this statement, Nikol Pashinyan made a Facebook post, noting that he had signed the necessary documents to dismiss Onik Gasparyan, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces. PM also noted that considered this statement a military coup attempt, and he urged his supporters to gather Republic Square in Yerevan. Numerous political scientists and analysts, however, called the PM's aforesaid announcement an attempt to lead to civil strife and bloodshed. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. cross the border patrolled by Guatemalan soldiers, in El Florido, Guatemala, on Jan. 16, 2021. (Sandra Sebastian/AP Photo) Why Are so Many Migrants Rushing to the Southern Border? Changes in Mexican asylum laws and modifications to U.S. immigration policy combined with exploitation by smugglers are causing an increase in migrants at the southern U.S. border seeking entry, according to reports. The Biden administration suspended the remain in Mexico program allowing some asylum seekers to enter the U.S. and ended a policy preventing unaccompanied minors from coming into the U.S., The Washington Post reported. Mexico implemented laws banning migrant families from returning if facilities are full and smugglers in Guatemala are exploiting people saying the administration is taking a softer approach towards asylum seekers. People are incredibly hopeful that this is their chance to get across, but there also is a lot of anxiety and fear that somehow if they do the wrong thing and theyre not at the right place at the right time, they might miss out, Global Response Management Spokesperson Andrea Leiner said, NBC News reported. Human smugglers in Guatemala are telling potential clients that Biden has given the green light, for them to travel to the U.S., a Central American official who was not authorized to speak on the record told the Post. The Biden administration promised to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), often referred to as remain in Mexico, The New York Times reported. President Biden deferred new entries into the program though it was not officially ended and thousands of cases remain pending in courts. At least 25 migrants seeking asylum were admitted into the U.S. and given notices to appear in court as part of the administrations end to remain in Mexico, NBC reported. Around 25 migrants who have pending MPP cases are expected to be allowed entry at San Diego, Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Family Service of San Diego Michael Hopkins said, NBC reported. Migrants hoping to reach the U.S. border walk alongside a highway in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on Jan. 16, 2021. (Sandra Sebastian/AP Photo) Migrants seeking asylum near El Paso and Brownsville are expected to be granted entry at the two Texas ports beginning this week, NBC reported. Around 25,000 migrants have pending MPP cases and hundreds of others are appealing court decisions. Around 70,000 migrants have participated in the remain in Mexico program since its inception in January 2019, NBC reported. Thousands whose cases were dismissed or who were denied entry are ineligible to return to the U.S., though they may be able to apply for relief provided by the government at a later time. U.S. officials are reportedly asking migrants with pending MPP cases not to travel to the border and to instead register with a U.N. website to receive updates on their proceedings, NBC reported. Children and families can no longer be held in Mexican immigration detention facilities and instead must remain in specific government facilities, according to a Mexican law implemented in November 2020, the Post reported. The Mexican government said it would not accept any returning children or families once those facilities reached capacity. The new policy has been applied unevenly on the Mexican border, families were returned and left on the streets of Nogales, Mexico, a town bordering Arizona, the Post reported. The Biden administration is reportedly working to increase the capacity of facilities for families in Mexico. Mexico is only accepting single adults now, not families or children, a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak on the record told the Post. Parents and children are being caught and released into the interior of the U.S., primarily in Texass Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio sectors where illegal crossings are routinely high. Family units claiming asylum are being released through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials because the agency is better equipped to test families for COVID-19 and track them as their claims go through courts, The Post reported. By Kaylee Greenlee From The Daily Callar News Foundation Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. The Biden administration is set to make public a report that blames Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post journalist was a fierce critic of the kingdom and killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang joins CBSN to discuss the report and how it could affect the U.S. relationship with the kingdom. Video Transcript - The Biden administration is set to release this new top secret intelligence report on the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The new public summary is expected to blame the Saudi Crown Prince-- his name is Mohammed bin Salman-- for approving Khashoggi's murder in Turkey. He, Khashoggi, was a prominent critic of the Kingdom and a well-known contributor at "The Washington Post." And this all comes as President Biden looks to re-evaluate America's relationship with the Kingdom. And Weijia Jiang takes a closer look. WEIJIA JIANG: A security camera captured the last time journalist Jamal Khashoggi was seen alive, entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, where he was killed and dismembered by a hit squad, his fiancee waiting unknowingly outside. HATICE CENGIZ: He was my best friend. He was the love of my life. WEIJIA JIANG: Khashoggi was a fierce critic of Saudi leadership, and the murderers were linked to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who ruled Saudi Arabia on behalf of his father, the King. He denied knowing about the operation to CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor, Norah O'Donnell, during an interview for "60 minutes." NORAH O'DONNELL: How did you not know about this operation? MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] INTERPRETER: Some think that I should know what 3 million people working for the Saudi government do daily. It's impossible that the 3 million would send their daily reports to the leader, or the second-highest person in the Saudi government. Story continues WEIJIA JIANG: But in 2018, the CIA says that not only did the Crown Prince know about the killing, he ordered Khashoggi's execution. The murder led to international outrage. Former President Trump sanctioned 17 Saudis for Khashoggi's murder, but he did not broadly punish the Crown Prince or Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally for the United States. - All right so Weijia Jiang is joining us now from the White House. Weijia, I guess the first question is, it was already accepted that the crown Prince was aware of this murder, was instrumental in the murder. So how will this new report change that narrative? What new information are we going to find out? WEIJIA JIANG: Well, that is a great question, because we haven't really been able to confirm independently what's expected to be in this report. But Reuters has said that it will draw a direct link between MBS and the murder and that he ordered it, which-- as you pointed out, the CIA already assessed that there was a medium or high chance of that happening. What was missing was any sort of smoking gun, if you will, any direct evidence, even though they were able to draw this conclusion. So if it turns out that that is in this report, it will make it even harder for President Biden not to take action against the Crown Prince and against the Kingdom in a broader sense, which we already expect, because when he was on the campaign trail, he said he was going to do exactly that. He promised that senior leaders there would, quote, "pay the price" and be made out to be the pariahs that they are. But it's a little different now, because he is president, and of course, he has to maintain the relationship with Saudi Arabia. And so he's going to have to strike that balance by making sure they are held accountable and also moving forward to work with them to continue the efforts to fight terrorism. VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: So, Weijia, let's look at the big picture. As you know, the Biden administration has already suspended military aid to the Kingdom because of the war in Yemen. And we know that the president is set to hold a call with the King this week. So are we waiting to see what the report says, and that will dictate how President Biden and the King hold this call? And what potentially could come out in the readout? I guess the president has already seen the reports. So really, report's only set to be released to us. WEIJIA JIANG: Correct. Yesterday, President Biden said that he has read it, and he expects to speak with the King soon about it. But your question, Vlad, is what we are all waiting to see, because the order seems to matter here. Because if you publicly release the data, and then you show what the president said during the conversation, there might be a lot of questions about what he didn't say. And so if he has the conversation, and then we find out what was in the report, there will be a different set of questions about, at the end of the day, whether or not he was tough enough on the King to relay the message that he was going to likely issue new sanctions against his son and against the country. So again, it's this really delicate dance, because even though, as you pointed out, Vlad, we have stopped support of the Saudis in the Yemen war, the administration has also pledged to continue to support Saudi Arabia, because it is an important base there as the US continues to try to curb terrorism, especially when it comes to Iran. And we know that President Biden is going to maintain a hard line on Iran, as he has said, and so he needs the Saudi support there. So it's a tough position for President Biden. But he has made clear, along with his press secretary and other administration officials, that they are going to take action, or they're going to send a strong message, at the least, to Saudi Arabia when it comes to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. - Well, switching gears a little bit, Weijia, we are still following the latest developments on Capitol Hill surrounding President Biden's budget chief nominee Neera Tanden. She is facing bipartisan opposition over past tweets at Republicans and even past tweets at some progressive Democrats. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed this controversy yesterday. We're going to play some sound. JEN PSAKI: We're fighting for her nomination, and she and our team remain in close contact and close touch with senators and key constituency groups. She's an expert whose qualifications are critical during this time of an unprecedented crisis. And she has rolled up her sleeves. She's very engaged and doing outreach to senators, to members on the Hill, answering any questions they have and offering to do that, and we're doing the same. - So Weijia, what's the latest on this? They need every single Democrat to support this nominee. At last check, Joe Manchin, a Democrat, was not so crazy about it. What do we know? WEIJIA JIANG: Right. So they are pointing out that all they need now is one Republican. The problem is that several moderate Republicans have already come out to say, it's not going to be me. So it looks like the only remaining one that could offer support for Tanden is Lisa Murkowski, and she is the name that everybody is focused on right now. We know that the White House has reached out to her. There have been conversations. We don't know whether President Biden himself has called the senator to ask for her support of Tanden. But as we heard, the press secretary has acknowledged that it is a numbers game. So at the end of the day, they need at least one Republican to come over, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen so far. And the chief of staff, just last night said, look, we are going to get her confirmed. And he was very confident in saying that. But when it comes to Tanden, the reason why there's so much baggage is because, as we have talked about before, the way she criticized people on Twitter. And we've also talked about how those tweets follow you. Well, there is one tweet that she did not delete along with about 1,000 others before her hearings, and that was attacking, who else, but Lisa Murkowski who tweeted-- I should say, Lisa Murkowski tweeted that lowering the corporate tax rate is a critical component of this tax legislation and will allow American businesses to compete against foreign competitors. Well, Neera Tanden retweeted that and said, no offense, but this sounds like you're high on your own supply. You know, we know, and everyone knows this is all garbage. Just stop. So she has a way with words. Perhaps that's why she deleted many of her words that are now coming back to haunt her. But that still remains on Twitter. And it's just ironic, because again, as we just said, Murkowski is the one person who could probably help her become the head of the OMB VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Yeah, so she is a very, very important constituent, and so we'll have to see how it all plays out. Wow. Weijia, thank you very much. Appreciate it. WEIJIA JIANG: Sure. Have You Seen This? Baby calmed by Imperial March For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa on Thursday discussed the Gulf state's possible involvement in establishing a vaccine plant in Israel, Netanyahu's office said. The two leaders also discussed a possible visit by Netanyahu to Bahrain once coronavirus restrictions would allow it, it said in a statement. "The Bahraini regent also stated that he was interested in examining the possibility of Bahrain joining an investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant that is planned to be established in Israel together with other countries," the statement said. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates formalised ties with Israel on Sept. 15, in a U.S.-sponsored deal forged in part over shared concerns about Iran. Netanyahu, who is seeking re-election on March 23, said on Wednesday he was in talks with the heads of Pfizer and Moderna to open facilities in Israel. Neither company responded to Reuters requests for comment. Israel has been importing Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Inc COVID-19 vaccines. Israel expects trade with Bahrain to be around $220 million in 2021, not including possible defence and tourism deals. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Short link: The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company IF you have absolutely no urgent or emergency need to be outdoors today, then remain at home. Should you take a chance and decide to tempt fate, then it may most likely result in you being stopped and questioned by police officers and members of the Defence Force, or even find yourself charged and taken before a court. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron speaks at a press conference to discuss his office's role as special prosecutor in the investigation of the death of Breanna Taylor. PHOTO:Cynthia Howe Bill Would Allow KY AG to File Protest Charges By The Associated Press FRANKFORT - A state House committee has advanced a proposal that would authorize Kentuckys attorney general to file protest-related charges even if local prosecutors declined to do so.The advancement of the bill Wednesday follows a series of moves by GOP lawmakers to expand some of Republican Attorney General Daniel Camerons authority in the state.Opponents say the bill violates free-speech rights and is being targeted against a Democratic state representative who was arrested while protesting last year.A Republican who sponsored the legislation insisted that the bill had nothing to do" with Rep. Attica Scott, who was arrested in September.The charges against Scott were dismissed in November. Accra, Ghana: Ghana has received the worlds first delivery of coronavirus vaccines from the United Nations-backed COVAX initiative the long-awaited start for a program that has thus far fallen short of hopes that it would ensure shots were given quickly to the worlds most vulnerable people. The arrival of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the West African country on Wednesday (Accra time) marks the beginning of the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, according to the World Health Organisation and UNICEF. It is a linchpin of efforts to bring the pandemic to an end and has been hailed as the first time the world has delivered a highly sought-after vaccine to poor countries during an ongoing outbreak. The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the COVAX Facility arriving at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. Credit:AP Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard. With the first shipment of doses, we can make good on the promise of the COVAX facility to ensure people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines, said Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF, which delivered the vaccines. Gov. Phil Murphy can expect to receive another strongly-worded letter Thursday from the president of the Camden County Association of School Administrators. Joseph Meloche, superintendent of the Cherry Hill public school district and president of the association, said Wednesday he was sending the letter because he was disappointed Murphy had not responded to the first letter they sent earlier this month. Were trying to urge the governor to adopt the sense of urgency we have to get our staff vaccinated, Meloche told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. We keep hearing that we need to more fully reopen schools to get more kids into schools and to continue what were doing to help with the economy, to help with parents, to help with whats going on in our world and we want to do that. A request for comment from the governor Wednesday afternoon was not immediately answered. Murphy did comment on vaccine distribution at a news conference in Trenton on Wednesday. It feels like the ground is beginning to shift into a better place, he said of the states vaccine supply. Meloche leads a district of 1,700 employees and 11,000 students. He was also one of 32 superintendents from around the county to call on the state to help get teachers and district personnel the highest priority to get the COVID-19 vaccination. Currently in New Jersey, those eligible for the vaccine include: healthcare workers, including those working in pharmacies; long-term care residents and staff, including those in prisons and psychiatric hospitals; first-responders; people aged 65 and older, individuals ages 16-64 with serious medical conditions and smokers. Being a teacher does not qualify for getting the shot now without one of the other prerequisites. Meloche and his fellow superintendents are trying to make the case that vaccinating their employees and returning to school full time benefits everyone. Camden City School Superintendent Katrina McCombs, who co-signed the first letter to Murphy, said she isnt disappointed they havent received a response yet. She said she remains hopeful. We sent the letter as a collective and we are waiting to hear a response, McCombs said Wednesday. Its just to underscore how important it is for our educators and staff working with children to be prioritized as much as possible. McCombs said getting her staff of just over 1,000 city school district employees vaccinated is not a prerequisite to returning to in-person instruction. She said the district is planning to begin a hybrid instruction plan in early April. But teachers in the city district have resisted returning to the classroom without COVID-19 vaccinations. Cherry Hill, a relatively affluent suburban district seven miles east of Camden, is already operating on a hybrid schedule with students receiving in-person instruction two days a week. Meloche said the follow-up letter to Murphy on Thursday wont be signed by the other members of CCASA but will still carry the sentiment of the group and he thinks the sentiment of educators from around the state. We want him to take action to allow the county to assign doses to us and our staff members, Meloche said. We want him to focus it on educators specifically to allow us to make this happen. There have been 1,758,979 vaccine doses administered in New Jersey as of Wednesday morning, including 1,192,364 first doses and 566,441 second doses, according to state data. Thats out of 2.1 million doses the state has received, according to a running tally by the federal Centers for Disease Control. The states goal is to vaccinate 70% of its adult population about 4.7 million people within the next few months. Staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. [February 25, 2021] Set Your Child Up For Success: Colorado Preparatory Academy Now Accepting Enrollments for 2021-2022 School Year After a school year that is unlike any other, Colorado Preparatory Academy (CPA) is now accepting enrollment applications for the 2021-2022 school year. CPA offers a tuition-free education to students statewide in kindergarten through 12th grade. Specializing in serving advanced learners, CPA offers families an alternative to the traditional brick-and-mortar learning environment by combing online instruction, a rigorous curriculum, and the support of state-licensed teachers. "As families decide where to enroll their child for next year, they should look no further than Colorado Preparatory Academy," said Nicole Tiley, Head of School. "Our team has the experience and knowledge to help students succeed online and works every day to help them achieve their full potential." CPA students across all grade levels are offered a full course load in the core subjects of English language arts, math, science, history, world languages, art and music, as well as Advanced Placement courses for high school students. Through concurrent enrollment partnerships with over 20 community colleges statewide, as well as Colorado State University Global, CPA offers students the opportunity to take tuition-free college courses along with their high school curriculum. Students choose to attend public school at home for a variety of reasons, including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to balance extracurricular pursuits or medical needs with academic priorities. CPA's online and blended approach to K-12 education gives students the opportunity to pursue academic goals in a supportive environment that recognizes their individual learning styles, academic needs, and personal goals. Resources are available to help CPA students and families navigate the online and blended learning experience. In addition to scheduled classes, teachers regularly communicate with students and families via phone and email in order to ensure they are supported and appropriately challenged. For more information and to learn about enrollment requirements visit cpa.k12.com or download the free K12 app for iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices. About Colorado Preparatory Academy Colorado Preparatory Academy (CPA) is an accredited, full-time online public school program of Education reEnvisioned BOCES that serves Colorado students statewide in kindergarten through 12th grade. As part of the Colorado public school system, CPA is tuition-free, giving parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12, a Stride company (NYSE: LRN). Stride offers learners of all ages a more effective way to learn and build their skills for the future. For more information about CPA, visit cpa.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005033/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] London exchange listed mining company and blockchain innovation group confirm funding for Korean gold mine project Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd ("BMV"), a London Stock Exchange listed mining company (LSE:BMV) is pleased to announce that it recently received a second tranche of non-dilutive funding from Auric Network Limited, ("Auric"), a Hong Kong based company, as prepayment for gold at a 20% discount to the market price of gold at the time of delivery. BMV expects a third funding tranche on the week of the 15th, March 2021 that is designated for construction at Geochang (Kochang). Aidan Bishop, Founding Director at BMV, states, "As investors continue to battle the effects of the global pandemic, demand for gold has unequivocally strengthened and Bitcoin, which is being seen as digital gold, recently climbed to new all time highs. We are excited to be in partnership with Auric Network and Mine Foundation, utilizing a next-generation investment platform with a fully decentralized currency." Focused on providing a platform that offers financial inclusion, the tokens issued on the Mine Foundation platform will be directly linked to the delivery of gold from the South Korean mines. South Korea is one of the world's largest adopters of cryptocurrency and trades substantial daily volumes on various exchanges. The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has increased from $400 billion to $1.4 trillion over the last 6 months, with companies like Tesla investing into the space and showing support for this new asset class. Currently, Auric Network is listed on Uniswap.org, a blockchain-based exchange. To learn more, follow Auric Network on Twitter at @auric_network and BMV at @bluebirdIR View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006229/en/ Contacts: Aidan Bishop Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited EMAIL: aidan@bluebirdmv.com The Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft being assembled at BAE Warton in Lancashire (BAE/PA) Defence supplier BAE Systems has said a new order of Typhoon jets will help drive it to another year of growth after posting higher sales in the face of the pandemic. Shares in the company nudged higher in early trading after it delivered earnings per share ahead of market expectations. BAE said it delivered a 2% increase in earnings per share for the past year, with this expected to rise to between 3% and 5% in 2021. It told investors that sales rose to 20.86 billion in 2020, up from 20.11 billion in the previous full year. We have delivered a strong set of results against a challenging backdrop of the global pandemic Charles Woodburn, BAE chief executive The company broadly shrugged off the impact of the pandemic, although some products it sells to commercial sectors such as aviation, cyber and transport saw a fall in demand. However, it said this this was largely offset by positive trading in its electronic systems, fighter jet and combat shipbuilding units. BAE added that it expects two acquisitions in its electronic systems business from last year to help boost its performance in the current year. Charles Woodburn, chief executive of the company, said: Thanks to the outstanding efforts of our employees and close cooperation with our customers, suppliers and trades unions, we have delivered a strong set of results against a challenging backdrop of the global pandemic. Throughout 2020 we focused on keeping our people safe and supporting our communities, whilst continuing to deliver for our customers. In 2021 we will continue to drive operational performance, progress our sustainability agenda and invest in high-end discriminating technologies to meet our customers priorities, which will ensure we are well positioned to grow the business and contribute to the economic prosperity of the countries in which we operate. Shares were 1.1% higher at 501.6p in early trading. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE (AP) A homelessness and racial-equity consultant from Atlanta has declined an offer from King County leaders to run their Regional Homelessness Authority, county officials said Wednesday. It is unclear why Regina Cannon declined the offer, The Seattle Times reported. Cannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the newspaper. . . . Im almost at a loss for words at how amazing it is and how exciting, said Dr. David Gifford, the chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents long-term-care facilities. The nursing home data add to the evidence that the vaccines dont just work in research trials they work in the real world, too. (A new study of Israel, published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine, offered the same message.) 2. Another vaccine looks excellent. The Food and Drug Administration released a report about a vaccine that it has not yet approved from Johnson & Johnson and the data were extremely positive. Like the two vaccines that are already being administered in the U.S. from Moderna and Pfizer Johnson & Johnsons eliminated both death and hospitalization in its research trial: About 20,000 people received the vaccine in the trial, and not a single one was hospitalized with Covid-19 symptoms a month later. Ill never stop being amazed at zero hospitalizations among vaccinated in study after study, Dr. Aaron Richterman of the University of Pennsylvania wrote. Its astonishing. Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert, called the results terrific. Dr. Kavita Patel wrote: I would definitely recommend it for myself and my patients. ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Findit, Inc. (OTC PINK:FDIT) owner of Findit.com, a full-service social networking platform that provides online marketing campaigns and tools for members to increase brand awareness through content creation and sharing, resulting in indexing in search engines is highlighting: Chef Paul Gerard, RateForce, and Dr. Mary Clifton. In today's release, Findit will be highlighting three featured members on Findit that have utilized Findit marketing campaigns that help improve their overall web presence through search and social media. Findit offers a full suite of marketing services to each of these clients, from content creation to social sharing to video production and more to heighten their overall online presence, aiding them in reaching the audience that is looking for them throughout the web. Our first featured member is Chef Paul Gerard. Chef Paul Gerard is a lifelong chef, restaurateur, writer, rocker, and radio host. Paul Gerard got his start early in the kitchens of Brooklyn, New York. Even after 35 years in professional kitchens, Chef Paul still "works the line" and cooks in his restaurants. Chef Paul joined ClassWorx, the newest online virtual instructor directory, to offer virtual cooking classes and events to attendees. If you want to know the secrets and techniques of professional cooks, from the prepwork to the cleanup, Chef Paul will take you through everything from basic dishes to rock-star cuisine! Visit his ClassWorx profile to see upcoming events hosted by Chef Paul. Follow Paul Gerard on Findit findit.com/chef-paul-gerard Our second featured member is RateForce. RateForce started its journey in 2014 with a mission to help deliver a better way to buy insurance. They serve auto insurance quotes from all over the country so that drivers can compare insurance quotes and buy insurance online at any time. South Carolina residents can find the lowest auto insurance rates that have the comprehensive coverage that they need by conducting online comparison. RateForce helps you compare insurance rates seamlessly by providing quotes from all the top insurance agencies in the country as well as local and regional insurance providers online with no need for long-form submission. As part of their marketing campaign with Findit, a URL has been set up for RateForce utilizing Findit's Claim Your Name feature, targeting auto insurance rates in South Carolina. In addition to content created on Findit, several videos have been produced for RateForce, highlighting the services they provide for South Carolina residents. While RateForce offers insurance rates to residents across the US, their campaign initially focused on South Carolina, and content created on Findit for RateForce will focus on this state. RateForce has expanded their marketing campaign with Findit to now include the state of Georgia. A Findit URL will be set up for this state along with photo galleries targeting the keywords RateForce looks to capture in search engines. Content will be created under this new URL to improve RateForce's overall indexing in search and exposure in social for Georgia. Follow RateForce on Findit findit.com/best-south-carolina-car-insurance-quotes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUm6N9jiCEo&ab_channel=Findit.com Our final featured member is Dr. Mary Clifton, M.D. of Iowa. Dr. Mary Clifton is an Internal Medicine doctor with 20 years of experience in both the hospital and private practice. She can provide patient consultations in all fifty states and is licensed to prescribe in twenty states. She is a recognized expert in CBD, Cannabis, and Medical Marijuana. Dr. Clifton specializes in assisting individuals in the state of Iowa get qualified for a medical marijuana or medical cannabis card. As part of her campaign, Findit has set up two Findit sites to aid in driving traffic to her website to fill out a form to receive a medical marijuana card consultation. Findit is in the process of producing two videos for Dr. Mary Clifton highlighting her services that will be used in content for Dr. Mary Clifton to further drive traffic to her website and improve overall indexing online. Iowa residents can receive their medical marijuana card consultation by filling out Dr. Mary Clifton's form online. Follow Dr. Mary Clifton M.D. on Findit findit.com/dr-mary-clifton-iowa-cannabis-card Anyone who is looking to improve their exposure online can sign up for Findit online marketing campaigns to get tailored marketing services to fit your needs or budget. Businesses or individuals can also Claim your Name on Findit with a Findit URL. Findit URLs are $9.95 per month, and each name only exists once on Findit. There is no limit to the number of URLs that you can have, and URLs that are not renewed on a monthly basis do have the ability to be claimed by other people or businesses. The videos embedded in this release were produced by Findit as part of the marketing campaigns provided to these companies. Want to be a featured member on Findit? Get in touch with us at 404-443-3224 or email clark@findit.com. youtube.com/watch?v=B-cD0x0ucv4&ab_channel=Findit.com Post on the go with the Findit App. The Findit App provides visitors and members the ability to share posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social networking sites. Be sure to Share all of Your Findit Posts to your social networking accounts. Download the Findit app today and let the world see what you have to say and share with them. Google Apple About Findit, Inc. Findit.com, which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share, and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines, which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit, Inc., is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increase in brand awareness of our members. Findit, Inc. trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTC Pinksheets. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Findit, Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed. CONTACT: Clark St. Amant 404-443-3224 SOURCE: Findit, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/632154/Findit-Highlights-Members-Chef-Paul-Gerard-RateForce-and-Dr-Mary-Clifton RIDGEFIELD Since the last year has been tough for just about everybody, East Ridge Middle School art teacher Hillary Lewis had her eighth grade students participate in a unique and fun activity: creating an ERMS-based episode of The Simpsons. Lewis had done a similar project years ago but she was inspired to do it again for another reason. Given the stress of the past year and the unusual circumstances present in school, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to let loose and have fun while learning at the same time, she said. The Simpsons ERMS Episode project was based on an artist study of the American cartoonist Matt Groening. Lewis asked her eighth grade students to list five staff members they would be interested in drawing a portrait of using Groenings Simpsons style. Once their lists was complete, she assigned each student a staff member. Lewis adapted the project and material to be accessible to all students whether they were present in class or remotely at home. Before the project began, Lewis notified the entire staff to let them know that the students would be cartooning the staff for inspiration. Almost all of her colleagues agreed to participate. As teachers, we have pretty thick skins and I'm lucky to work with people who have a really good sense of humor, she said. A newsletter about the project listed some of the pieces, Principal Raneris scooter for her bum leg, Mr. Graces signature vest, Mr. Settanis Stress Free Zone. The end result was fantastic, giving the school a morale boost after a difficult year. It was so much fun to hear people laughing and see them enjoying the exhibit, Lewis said. I am so incredibly proud of the hard work my students put into this project and their bravery in stepping out of their comfort zones. Lewis said cartooning is not an easy skill to master and walking the fine line of capturing the essence of a teacher her students see everyday is hard too, but the students showed out. East Ridge Middle School principal Patricia Raneri said the project was the creative brain child of Lewis, who was able to successfully complete the project with their hybrid instructional model. When the final results were posted you could hear laughter throughout the building, Raneri said. The staff loved it. We were very impressed with the students attention to detail and their interpretations. They were very accurate, Raneri added with a laugh. Kentucky Kingdom Sold to Dollywood Company By The Associated Press LOUISVILLE - A Kentucky amusement park that once operated as a Six Flags has been sold to a company that operates family-oriented venues around the country including Dollywood in Tennessee and Silver Dollar City in Missouri.Officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that Georgia-based Herschend Enterprises is majority partner and operator of Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay amusement and water park in Louisville.Financial terms of the deal werent disclosed.Dollywood President Craig Ross will serve as the parks interim general manager.He says the company will listen carefully to what the community wants as it develops a five-year plan to attract more visitors. It is spoken across our land in constant refrain, "We are just following the science." Unfortunately, there has been only selective reporting of the science related to COVID-19 that has led to unnecessary fear and hysteria. Major media outlets seem to pick the science that supports a narrative and ignores completely other important scientific findings. Some government health authorities seem to pick the science that supports their policies for masks, lockdowns, treatments, and testing and ignore other science that would lead to less onerous and destructive policies restricting our personal freedoms. Having a rational discussion of ALL the science would lead to much less fear and more helpful policies aimed at balancing the need to protect the vulnerable and preserving our rights, freedoms, and means to make a living. This essay comments on COVID-19 case counts being artificially high due to errors in testing. PCR testing that has been done for COVID-19 can be a faulty way, used by itself, to diagnose a case. PCR testing was mainly meant to be a research tool used to detect small amounts of a protein or chemical by amplifying the sample many times. PCR testing was not meant to be a stand alone test to define a case of COVID-19 infection. Doctors know the main diagnostic tool is to have a patient with typical symptoms and signs of the disease. Additional lab testing can confirm and support the diagnosis. The answer to a PCR test is not yes or no -- the result can depend on how many amplification cycles are used. On any given set of samples, an amplification rate of 15(small) could be negative for all samples. If the amplification rate is 40 (high) then all the samples from the same set might be positive. For our COVID test in use, it is recommended that the cycle rate be set at less than 35 and closer to 25-30 is better. The tests we are using are being run at cycle rates of 37-40. Some PCR tests using these high cycle rates are not picking up live virus, but only minute virus particles. This creates false positives and more "cases" that are not real cases. Dr. Fauci admitted this in an interview on "This Week in Virology" in July , stating that any test over cycle rate 35 is not finding live infectious virus, just virus particles. The New York Times reported in August that in their study of testing in Nevada, Massachusetts, and New York up to 90% of the tests may have been false positives detecting barely any virus. The WHO put out a bulletin 3 weeks ago warning that the PCR test for COVID-19 should be run at the proper cycle rate to get a true positive. Why warn the world in January 2021 after almost a year of pandemic? In an independent review of European testing problems, it was stated by the scientists "If someone is tested by PCR as positive above 35 cycles(as is the case in most laboratories in Europe and the United States) the probability that said person is actually infected is less than 3%, the probability that said result is false positive is 97%". Florida is the first state as of December 3, 2020 to mandate that the lab performing the PCR test report how many amplification cycles were used as a way curb false positives. Perhaps one reason Florida is now perceived to be doing well is because they are getting more accurate test results. Other RNA viruses(Mumps, Rabies, Hepatitis A) have both PCR testing and antibody/antigen testing available to confirm the clinical diagnosis. Antibody/antigen testing is in its infancy for COVID-19. New antibody tests for COVID-19 have come out recently that are more precise and can tell a patient not only if they have had the infection, but if the antibodies they are making protect them from disease. Having a falsely high COVID-19 case count due to false positives can affect peoples perception of the dangers of infection and policy decisions. Politicians and bureaucrats are either ignorant of these nuances of testing or are intentionally trying to inflate the cases to support their policies. It is very hard to tell how many tests so far have been false positives. I doubt it is the 90% that the New York Times found, but certainly not an insignificant number. In the New York Times article , the state lab of New York, the Wadsworth Center, analysed its COVID-19 testing. This found that of all people who tested positive at 40 amplification cycles, 45% would not test positive if the test was run at 35 cycles! A study in Clinical Infectious Diseases , found that virus could not be cultured in PCR cycles over 24. Many investigators believe the "second wave" that occurred in the fall around election time at a time of massive testing was due more to false positives than actual infectious cases. Please be part of the solution to this problem. If you become ill and have the occasion to have a PCR test for COVID-19, ask your health care provider or the lab to report how many amplification cycles were used. If you are asymptomatic and get a positive test with a high amplification cycle, it is more likely to be a false positive than an asymptomatic infection. Better antibody/antigen tests will be available, so ask your health care provider if there is a better test to confirm a diagnosis. If you work in health care, lobby for accurate testing. In the political arena, ask our representatives to pass a law like Florida for more transparent and accurate testing. If we continue to use the definition of a COVID-19 infection as a positive PCR test run at 37-40 cycles, we will continue down the wrong path. Apart from a rising COVID-19 case count adding to fear, anxiety, and media hysteria, persons with false positive tests do not need to quarantine, do not need contract tracing, and do not have to worry about being in the hospital. In my opinion, inaccurate testing has been one factor during the COVID-19 era that has led to more fear and anxiety for the public and over-reaction in our governmental response to this pandemic. Obtaining accurate testing and accurate reporting of true infectious cases would be a step toward being less afraid of the pandemic and less restrictive management that more accurately reflects the true risks of infection and preserves more of our freedoms. Thomas T. Siler M.D. Disclaimer: I have no financial connection to the companies mentioned in the article. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Figure 1 Location map showing Lamaque Operations. Location map showing Lamaque Operations. Figure 2 Geological map showing the surface projection of the Ormaque deposit and traces of drillholes incorporated in the new resource. Geological map showing the surface projection of the Ormaque deposit and traces of drillholes incorporated in the new resource. Figure 3 Cross section 295675E through the center of the Ormaque deposit showing the geometry of mineralized lenses used in resource estimation, localization within a corridor defined by steeply north-dipping shear zones and intrusive contact. Cross section 295675E through the center of the Ormaque deposit showing the geometry of mineralized lenses used in resource estimation, localization within a corridor defined by steeply north-dipping shear zones and intrusive contact. Figure 4 East-West longitudinal section through the Ormaque deposit looking north showing extent of mineralized lenses and areas untested by previous drilling along strike and at depth. Section represents a 70 north-dipping slice 300m wide through the center of the deposit East-West longitudinal section through the Ormaque deposit looking north showing extent of mineralized lenses and areas untested by previous drilling along strike and at depth. Section represents a 70 north-dipping slice 300m wide through the center of the deposit VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eldorado Gold Corporation, (Eldorado or the Company) is pleased to announce a maiden resource estimate for the recently-discovered Ormaque deposit near its Lamaque operations (Figure 1) in Quebec. Inferred Mineral Resources total 2,620,000 tonnes at a grade of 9.53 grams per tonne gold, for 803,000 ounces of contained gold. This early exploration success at Ormaque highlights the outstanding growth potential at Lamaque, said George Burns, President and CEO. The short time frame from initial discovery to maiden inferred resource is a testament to the drive of our team and the strong exploration potential within our land package in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The strike continuity, vein orientation and dimensions of the Ormaque deposit exhibit important similarities to parts of the nearby historically mined Sigma deposit and Mine #2. It is ideally positioned along the ore haulage decline now under construction connecting the Lamaque-Triangle Mine with the Sigma Mill. Our focus in 2021 is on in-fill and expansion drilling as the deposit remains open in multiple directions. We are encouraged by these positive results and look forward to further work to determine the ultimate scale of this exciting early stage project. Story continues Taken together with our recently-announced friendly transaction to acquire QMX, Eldorado is well-positioned in Quebec to create additional value for our stakeholders. Ormaque Deposit Geology and Inferred Mineral Resource The Ormaque deposit is located approximately midway between the Lamaque-Triangle Mine and the Sigma Processing Facility. It is immediately adjacent to the ore haulage decline currently under construction linking the two, with the upper part of the deposit at the same elevation as the decline (Figure 2). At current development rates the decline will reach a position adjacent to the Ormaque deposit in Q3 of 2021. High grade gold at Ormaque occurs within subhorizontal to gently south-dipping lenses consisting of quartz+carbonate+tourmaline extension veins and vein arrays and tourmaline-altered wallrock, similar in style to those historically mined in parts of the nearby Sigma Deposit (historical production of 4.5M ounces gold) and Mine #2 Deposit (over 237,000 ounces gold produced between 1950 and 1955). The extension veins are concentrated along an east-west corridor defined by a series of steeply north-dipping brittle-ductile shear zones. Nearly all of the deposit outlined to date occurs within an irregular diorite intrusion known locally as the C-Porphyry, which is also the dominant host rock at Sigma and Mine #2. Inferred Mineral Resources are based on results of 37 diamond drillholes totalling 22,602 meters, most of which were completed since May 2018. This drilling has outlined a volume of mineralization measuring approximately 550 metres east-west, 300 metres north-south, and extending from 150 to 600 metres depth from surface. The geological model of the mineralized lenses was generated by 1) converting individual assays to composites of drill core intervals averaging > 0.5 g/t Au and a minimum length of 0.5m; 2) creating form interpolants using vein orientations of the dominant mineralized vein sets measured from oriented drill core; and 3) employing the form interpolants to correlate composites between drillholes. This process generated 23 gently-dipping mineralized lenses, with individual lenses measuring up to 15 metres thick and up to 400 metres in lateral extent (Figure 3). Individual lenses were then trimmed to exclude volumes more than 50 metres from drillhole intercepts. A grade estimation block model was generated using ordinary kriging of drillhole assays composited into 1m lengths and capped at 70 g/t Au to limit the influence of high-grade outliers. A 3.5 g/t cut-off grade was applied to incorporate areas of mineralization with reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction. The cut-off grade was derived from actual cost and metallurgical performance of the Triangle deposit and includes the following forward-looking assumptions: Gold price = $US 1800/oz $CAD / $US exchange rate = 1.3 Minimum mining height = 3 metres Mining recovery = 95% Mining dilution = 20% with no contained gold value Metallurgical recovery = 96% Mineralized domains were edited to excluded volumes that did not meet or exceed a diluted cut-off grade of 3.5 g/t Au over the minimum mining height of 3 metres. Isolated cells above cut-off were also discarded. The resulting inferred resource totals 2,620,000 tonnes at a grade of 9.53 g/t Au, for 803,000 contained ounces of gold. Over 60% of the resource is in the upper part of the deposit within 400 metres of surface. Exploration Outlook Most of the mineralized lenses are open laterally in one or more directions, and the deposit itself is open to the east, west, and at depth. Drilling for the first half of 2021 will include infill holes within several of the upper lenses to confirm continuity of grade and thickness of the inferred resource, step-out holes targeting open extensions to these lenses, and wider step-out holes testing for longer extensions and new lenses in areas adjacent to the deposit. Some of the more prospective targets for the latter include 1) the untested area below the Fortune Zone immediately east of Ormaque, where shallow drillholes have intersected similar vein styles to those found at Ormaque, and 2) gaps in previous drilling between the Ormaque deposit and the Parallel deposit to the west (Figure 4). Lamaque Operations Background and Regional Strategy The Lamaque Operations is home to a number of large prolific gold mines, including the historic Sigma and Lamaque mines that together produced almost 10 million ounces of gold. Today, it hosts Proven and Probable gold reserves of over 1 million ounces, Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 1.8 million ounces of gold, and Inferred Mineral Resources of 2.8 million ounces of gold at the Triangle, Plug #4, Parallel, and Ormaque deposits. Our strategy in the region is designed to add a pipeline of organic opportunities within and proximal to the Lamaque-Triangle Mine, which can be exploited by leveraging existing infrastructure and Eldorados strong operational, exploration and stakeholder expertise. We aim to achieve this by increasing our footprint in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and through providing additional ore sources to optimize the Sigma Mill, which has a permitted capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day, far exceeding current usage of 2,200 tonnes per day. Figure 1: Location map showing Lamaque Operations. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b8029dbe-7918-4606-a20e-c5fcdf32bb9a Figure 2: Geological map showing the surface projection of the Ormaque deposit and traces of drillholes incorporated in the new resource. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/13f4882b-4b43-473b-8c5c-8645c8331e92 Figure 3: Cross section 295675E through the center of the Ormaque deposit showing the geometry of mineralized lenses used in resource estimation, localization within a corridor defined by steeply north-dipping shear zones and intrusive contact. https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/003653ed-d93f-447c-822e-06720d1ff41a Figure 4: East-West longitudinal section through the Ormaque deposit looking north showing extent of mineralized lenses and areas untested by previous drilling along strike and at depth. Section represents a 70 north-dipping slice 300m wide through the center of the deposit https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eb53dc53-91bd-4f08-9db8-9232688be164 About Eldorado Gold Eldorado is a gold and base metals producer with mining, development and exploration operations in Turkey, Canada, Greece, Romania, and Brazil. The Company has a highly skilled and dedicated workforce, safe and responsible operations, a portfolio of high-quality assets, and long-term partnerships with local communities. Eldorado's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: ELD) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EGO). Contacts Investor Relations Jeff Wilhoit, Interim Head of Investor Relations 604 376 1548 or 1 888 353 8166 jeff.wilhoit@eldoradogold.com Media Louise Burgess, Director Communications & Government Relations 604 616 2296 or 1 888 363 8166 louise.burgess@eldoradogold.com Qualified Persons Mr. Sean McKinley P.Geo., Eldorado Senior Geologist Resource Development and Mr. Jacques Simoneau, P.Geo., Eldorado Exploration Manager Eastern Canada are the qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") for this press release. Mr Simoneau is responsible for, and has verified and approved, the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release related to geological data collection and interpretation and QA/QC procedures. Mr McKinley is responsible for, and has approved, the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release related to resource modelling. Eldorado operates its exploration programs according to industry best practices and employs rigorous quality assurance and quality control procedures. All results are based on half-core samples of diamond drill core. Ormaque drill core samples were prepared and analyzed at Bourlamaque Laboratories in Val dOr, Quebec. All Au assays are based on fire assay analysis of a 30gm charge followed by an atomic absorption finish. Samples with Au grades above 5.0 g/t were re-assayed and completed with a gravimetric finish. Cautionary Note about Forward-looking Statements and Information Certain of the statements made and information provided in this press release are 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, these forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", continue, projected, "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 contained in this release include, but are not limited to, statements or information with respect to: 2021 plans for drilling at the Ormaque Deposit and prospective targets; development rates at the new decline at the Triangle Mine, forward looking assumptions used relating to the resources estimates; our ability to increase landholdings in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt; our expectations regarding establishment of resources through our continued exploration programs, the timing and quantity of annual gold production; our strategy with respect to non-core assets; mineral reserves and resources, our guidance and outlook, including expected production and recoveries of gold, planned capital and exploration expenditures; our expectation as to our future financial and operating performance, expected metallurgical recoveries, gold price outlook; and our strategy, plans and goals, including our proposed exploration, development, construction, permitting and operating plans and priorities, including timelines and schedules. 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, including assumptions about: the completion and results of our exploration programs,; mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries, the geopolitical, economic, permitting and legal climate that we operate in; the future price of gold and other commodities; the global concentrate market; exchange rates; anticipated costs and expenses; production, the impact of acquisitions, dispositions, suspensions or delays on our business and the ability to achieve our goals. In particular, except where otherwise stated, we have assumed a continuation of existing business operations on substantially the same basis as exists at the time of this release. 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. Many assumptions may be difficult to predict and are beyond our control. 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: global outbreaks of infectious diseases, including COVID-19; timing and cost of construction and exploration, geopolitical and economic climate (global and local), risks related to the updating of our resource and reserve models and life of mine plans; mineral tenure and permits; gold and other commodity price volatility; information technology systems risks; continued softening of the global concentrate market, recoveries of gold and other metals; results of test work; revised guidance; risks regarding potential and pending litigation and arbitration proceedings relating to the Companys, business, properties and operations; expected impact on reserves and the carrying value; mining operational and development risk; financing risks; foreign country operational risks; risks of sovereign investment; regulatory risks and liabilities including, regulatory environment and restrictions, and environmental regulatory restrictions and liability; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical testing and recoveries; additional funding requirements; currency fluctuations; community and non-governmental organization actions; speculative nature of gold exploration; dilution; share price volatility and the price of our common shares; competition; loss of key employees; and defective title to mineral claims or properties, as well as those risk factors discussed in the sections titled Forward-Looking Statements and "Risk factors in our business" in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form & Form 40-F. The reader is directed to carefully review the detailed risk discussion in our most recent Annual Information Form filed on SEDAR and EDGAR under our Company name, which discussion is incorporated by reference in this release, for a fuller understanding of the risks and uncertainties that affect the Companys business and operations. Forward-looking statements and information is designed to help you understand managements current views of our near and longer term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. 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 Company's business contained in the Company's reports filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and the U.S. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here New Delhi: Noted economist Rajiv Kumar who is now the new Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog on Sunday said that he is looking forward to serve the country as the new Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog. "Look forward to serve the nation with my role @nitiaayog @pmoindia," Kumar tweeted. In another tweet, Kumar said, "With India's simultaneous triple transition-social, political and economic-well on course, our country will be global exemplar@Niti Aayog." "Structural reforms by Govt are generating inflection point for India to achieve growth trajectory @NITIAayog will further contribute to this," he added. Rajiv Kumar was named as the new Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog on Saturday, five days after the incumbent Arvind Panagariya announced that he would quit to return to academics. The government also appointed Dr Vinod Paul, a pediatrician at the AIIMS, as a member of the NITI Aayog, an official spokesman said. Kumar, who holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford and a PhD from Lucknow University, is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). Earlier, he was Secretary General of the FICCI and had also served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He was a member of the National Security Advisory Board between 2006 and 2008. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Texas' power grid was just 4 minutes and 37 seconds away from a 'total collapse' which could have left the state in total darkness for weeks, officials have admitted. The stark revelation came during an emergency board meeting of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Wednesday, KHOU reports. More than 1.3 million people across Texas also still had issues with their water supply by Wednesday, a result of the deadly winter storm last week which killed at least two dozen people. That figure compared with Tuesday's 3.4 million, Monday's 8 million and Sunday's 9 million, or about a third of the state's population. ERCOT CEO Bill Magness called the weather and resulting blackouts 'devastating' but insisted the controlled outages were to avoid more lasting implications. He said: 'If we have a blackout of the system, the system is out for an indeterminate amount of time, and it's extraordinarily difficult to bring it back. 'We might still be talking about when's the power coming back on if we let the system get to that condition.' Texans - 4 million at its peak - were already kept in the dark for a record 70.5 hours. That came after 365 generators were knocked offline as a result of the storm. The state's House and Senate are holding hearings Thursday about the response to the bad weather. Texas' power grid was 4 minutes, 37 seconds away from a 'total collapse' which could have left the state in total darkness for weeks, officials have admitted. ERCOT CEO Bill Magness, pictured, called the weather and resulting blackouts 'devastating' but insisted the controlled outages were to avoid more lasting implications Christina Beverly and John Shearon light candles in their home after winter weather caused electricity blackouts and 'boil water' notices in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 20 Magness said Wednesday the situation could have been a lot worse if they had not triggered the rolling blackouts when they did. ERCOT board chairman Sally Talberg said: 'It created a humanitarian crisis. People in Texas should not have to endure such hardships in 2021. We've got to really roll up our sleeves and solve this problem.' As of Wednesday evening, '33 Public Water Systems are non-operational, affecting 20,689 Texans,' a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) told Reuters. A total of 204 counties were reporting issues with their public water systems (PWS), they added. The spokesman said around 853 PWSs were on a boil water notice, meaning people were being advised to boil water before consuming it, affecting 1,333,134 Texans. Some 1,176 previously issued boil water notices had been rescinded, he added. Once the current crisis is over, TCEQ plans to examine the ongoing experience to prevent such a disruption from taking place in the future, TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker told Reuters on Wednesday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott pledged on Wednesday to overhaul the state's electric grid operator after a massive blackout left residents without heat, power or water for days. ERCOT manages the flow of power to about 90% of state residents and has faced sharp criticism over its failure to prepare for severe cold. Outages caused billions of dollars of damages to homes and businesses. The greatest forced blackout in U.S. history has exposed weaknesses in Texas' unique approach to power grid management. Six ERCOT directors who live out of state have resigned and a board nominee declined a seat in the wake of sharp criticism of the group's performance. People sleep on couches while taking shelter at Gallery Furniture store which opened its door and transformed into a warming station after winter weather caused electricity blackouts on February 18 in Houston, Texas People wait in a long line to buy groceries at H-E-B in Austin, Texas, during the extreme cold snap and widespread power outage in the state last week Energy officials had seen huge amounts of supply dropping off the grid as temperatures cropped cold enough to freeze natural gas supply lines and to stop wind turbines from spinning. Plunging temperatures also caused Texans to turn up their heaters, including many inefficient electric ones. Demand spiked to levels normally seen only on the hottest summer days, when millions of air conditioners run at full tilt. Furious Texans are now also demanding answers after it emerged energy producers were warned their equipment would not withstand such a cold snap. After the state's last major freeze, during the 2011 Super Bowl held in Arlington, Texas, a federal analysis found that energy producers' procedures for winterizing their equipment 'were either inadequate or were not adequately followed' in many cases. Defending the grid, Bernadette Johnson, senior vice president of power and renewables at Enverus, told The Texas Tribune last week: 'As chaotic as it was, the whole grid could've been in blackout. ERCOT is getting a lot of heat, but the fact that it wasn't worse is because of those grid operators. 'The operators who took those actions to prevent a catastrophic blackout and much worse damage to our system, that was, I would say, the most difficult decision that had to be made throughout this whole event.' City of Austin Water Utility workers Joey Putman, left, to right, Damian Cruz and Salvador Tinajero repair a broken water main near 11th and Red River streets in Austin, Texas, on Friday, Feb. 19. More than 1.3 million people across Texas still had issues with their water supply by Wednesday, a result of the deadly winter storm last week Nancy Wilson boils water in her home Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, in Houston But Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, rejected ERCOT's claim that this week's freeze was unforeseeable. 'That's nonsense,' he said. 'Every eight to 10 years we have really bad winters. This is not a surprise.' Texas has a grid largely disconnected from others to avoid federal regulation. That means it is not linked to other states and so cannot borrow power from them, a system the state implemented in order to avoid federal regulation. The unique system, which avoids regulation in favor of market incentives, is now facing backlash for allowing power generators to shirk preparations for a once-in-a-decade winter storm. Rolling blackouts are usually triggered when reserves fall below a certain level. Witnesses testify as the Committees on State Affairs and Energy Resources holds a joint public hearing to consider the factors that led to statewide electrical blackouts, Thursday Grid operators say rolling blackouts are a last resort when power demand overwhelms supply and threatens to create a wider collapse of the whole power system. Usually, utilities black out certain blocks or zones before cutting off power to another area, then another. Often areas with hospitals, fire stations, water-treatment plants and other key facilities are spared. By rolling the blackouts, no neighborhoods are supposed to go an unfairly long period of time without power, but that was not always the case this week in Texas. Some areas never lost power, while others were blacked out for 12 hours or longer as temperatures dipped into the single digits. Research scientists at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have investigated the mechanisms by which hypertension leads to arterial damage and atherosclerosis; the results may facilitate the development of new therapies Research scientists at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have investigated the mechanisms by which hypertension leads to arterial damage and atherosclerosis. The results may facilitate the development of new therapies. Hypertension is a prevalent condition affecting approximately one third of all adults. It is also the leading global cause of morbidity and mortality. The condition is often asymptomatic, but over time it may damage arteries causing atherosclerosis and possibly leading to stroke and heart attack. Despite the prevalence of the disease and its potentially severe consequences, how hypertension leads to atherosclerosis has been poorly understood. In a study from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, an international team of researchers have identified several steps in this proces. The study was conducted in pigs, due to the similarities between the cardiovascular systems of pigs and humans. "One of our primary findings is that hypertension is able to exert its detrimental effect on the artery wall through direct mechanical pressure, without the involvement of hormones carried around the bloodstream", says the lead author behind the study, Rozh Al-Mashhadi, associate professor and radiologist at AU and AUH. He adds that the question of whether the arterial damage is caused by high pressure per se or via the involvement of hormones, has been the topic of discussion in the research community for decades. Unveiling the mechanisms behind hypertension-induced atherosclerosis has important implications: "We have several treatments for hypertension aiming at reducing blood pressure to normal levels. However, this may not be adequately maintained in all patients. In order to develop new therapies, we need to clarify the mechanisms by which hypertension damages the arterial wall," he explains. Leads to increased accumulation of bad cholesterol The researchers have also identified the fundamental step linking hypertension to atherosclerosis. The team demonstrated that hypertension leads to increased accumulation of a bad form of cholesterol - so-called LDL cholesterol - in the arterial wall. Rozh Al-Mashhadi explains that this type of cholesterol is pivotal for the development of atherosclerosis. Finally, the researchers investigated how hypertension leads to increased accumulation of cholesterol in the artery wall: "We used a technique that simultaneously quantifies all proteins in the artery wall. We found that hypertension caused structural changes in the arterial wall, reducing the transport of proteins from the blood into wall itself. Like in a sieve where the holes are too small, this may explain why we see increased cholesterol accumulation leading to atherosclerosis," says Rozh Al-Mashhadi. The results were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study may aid in developing new therapies for hypertensive individuals. "The new findings may enable us to devise treatment strategies targeting the newly discovered disease mechanisms. Hypertension and atherosclerosis are major health concerns, so there is a lot at stake," says Rozh Al-Mashhadi. ### About the study: Type of study: Translational research Collaborators: Professor Jacob Bentzon, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University; Professor Erling Falk, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University; Professor Jesus Vazquez, Spanish National Cardiovascular Research Center, Madrid, Spain. Funding: Independent Research Fund Denmark, Danish Heart Foundation, Lundbeck Foundation. Read the scientific paper here Contact: Research radiologist, Associate Professor, PhD Rozh H. Al-Mashhadi Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Radiology. rham@clin.au.dk The logo of AT&T outside of AT&T corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas on March 13, 2020. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) Former Official Accuses AT&T of Lobbying to Block Sanctions on Chinese State-Owned Telecom Firm A former official accused AT&T of lobbying the Commerce Department to keep off a blacklist a Chinese state-owned telecom company that has allegedly helped Beijing repress ethnic Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region. Former Commerce Department Undersecretary Corey Stewart told Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight on Feb. 24 that the department was on the verge of placing China Telecom on a trade blacklist known as the entity list before being contacted by an AT&T executive who urged officials not to go through with the move. American companies are barred from doing business with firms on the entity list without a license from the department. Stewarts allegations were initially reported by the National File. In response, AT&T, which has a joint venture with China Telecom for its operations in China, confirmed that it opposed potential sanctions because it would mean U.S. companies in China would have to rely on Chinese state-run telephone companies for services, instead of AT&T or other American companies. It added that Chinese law compels U.S. telephone companies to partner with Chinese communications companies if they want to operate in China. We and other companies explained this to the Commerce Department and other government officials to inform their policy decision about potential unintended consequences of placing China Telecom on the entities list, AT&T said in a statement on Wednesday. Stewart, who served during the Trump administration, said the department was moving to sanction China Telecom after receiving intelligence that it was using cell phone technology telecommunications technology to track minority populations in China to spy on them, and then to hand this information over to the China police state. The Chinese regime has detained more than 1 million Uyghur Muslim and other Muslim minorities in the far-western Xinjiang region, in a campaign that the Trump administration designated as genocide. A raft of Chinese companies and official bodies have been blacklisted by the United States over their roles in aiding the Chinese regimes persecution in the region. Stewart said the department was contacted by Ed Gillespie, executive vice president of AT&T who urged us not to place China Telecom, despite these abuses, on the entity list. Needless to say we were pretty much shocked by that, he added. The former official told the National File that as a result of the conversation the department decided to review the issue further. The career staff at the Commerce Department were clearly on a path to do this, Stewart told Fox News. If it does not happen, that will mean there was pressure from the Biden administration, put on it by AT&T to not put them on there. The Commerce Department declined to comment on the matter. China Telecom was last year placed on a Pentagon list of companies owned or controlled by the Chinese military. Former President Donald Trump later issued an executive order banning U.S. investments in companies on this list, which took effect in January. As a result, the NYSE said it will delist China Telecom and two other Chinese telecom companies affected by the order. The Chinese state-controlled company has also previously attracted scrutiny for diverting overseas internet traffic through China in several instances, raising concerns about whether the data was accessed by the Chinese regime. This article was updated to include that the Commerce Department declined to comment. (CNN) US President Joe Biden spoke with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on Thursday ahead of the release of a long-awaited US intelligence report on the killing of Saudi insider turned dissident Jamal Khashoggi. The congressionally mandated release of the report, which is expected to further implicate Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Washington Post columnist's death, is expected to take place imminently now that Biden and the King have spoken. The call "went well," according to a source close to the Saudi government. White House officials had said the Khashoggi report would not be released until that call had taken place. The report's release will be just the latest shift Biden is making, with support from Congress, in relations with US ally Saudi Arabia. Democratic lawmakers are expected to introduce a resolution on Friday to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi's death and dismemberment as well as other human rights violations. Biden and administration officials have stressed that they are committed to the kingdom's security. At the same time, the President has ended US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen launched by the crown prince six years ago. Biden has also ordered an end to some weapons sales to the kingdom and will soon release the report, which is expected to highlight the prince's lawless abuse of fundamental human rights. A signal Dennis Ross, who has worked on Middle East issues in multiple administrations, said Biden is using the report's release to send a message to Congress, where bipartisan anger about Saudi Arabia simmered over the last few years, as well as to the kingdom itself. "Apart from responding to what was a legislative mandate, it sends a signal to Congress and I think it's also the administration's way of saying to Saudi Arabia, 'We're not going to shield you from the consequences of bad behavior, and so it's best to avoid those behaviors,' " said Ross, now counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "I think the Biden administration wants to demonstrate clearly that it is a new day after the Trump administration ... also just to send a message to the Saudis that the relationship is going to be recalibrated," Ross continued. While the relationship is under strain, there continue to be areas where the US wants and needs to cooperate with the Saudis, including on regional counterterrorism, Ross noted. "It's hard to imagine any issue in the region where Saudi partnership and support doesn't play a significant role, but having said that, there have to be clear boundaries so we can temper Saudi behaviors that cross the line," Ross said. The administration may also be considering some sort of punishment for the Saudis after the report is released. When asked if the administration would consider sanctions against those found responsible for Khashoggi's murder, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday, "I expect that we will be in a position before long to speak to steps to promote accountability going forward for this horrific crime." Price added that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will have "full faith and confidence" in the findings of the report. The release of the intelligence community's report on Khashoggi's killing is mandated in the National Defense Authorization Act. That law requires the director of national intelligence to give relevant congressional committees an unclassified report that includes a "determination and presentation of evidence with respect to the advance knowledge and role of any current or former official of the Government of Saudi Arabia or any current or former Saudi political figure over the directing, ordering, or tampering of evidence in the killing." No surprise expected The report's basic conclusion is not expected to be a surprise. Shortly after Khashoggi's October 2018 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the CIA assessed with high confidence that bin Salman had personally ordered the murder. In June 2019, a United Nations investigator found that it was "inconceivable" the royal heir hadn't been aware of the operation. Then-President Donald Trump, however, refused to condemn the Saudi prince, even after it became clear that Saudi Arabia's initial claims that Khashoggi's killing was a rogue operation were baseless. Instead, Trump dismissed intelligence that the prince had had a hand in the killing, saying that "maybe he did, maybe he didn't," and stressing that billions of dollars in US arms sales to Saudi Arabia weren't worth sacrificing over the matter. In contrast, Biden declared during a November 2019 Democratic presidential candidates' debate that "Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince." Biden went on to say he "would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. There's very little social redeeming value of the -- in the present government in Saudi Arabia." Biden then drew a parallel between the Khashoggi murder and the terrible humanitarian toll in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, saying he would "end the sale of material to the Saudis, where they're going in and murdering children, and they're murdering innocent people. And so they have to be held accountable." White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week that the President is working to "recalibrate" the US relationship with Saudi Arabia and will communicate with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, instead of the crown prince. "The context here is the Trump administration approach to Saudi Arabia, which was so 'see no evil' that a recalibration was inevitable," said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy. "This doesn't mean that the crown prince is going to be in diplomatic purgatory for this administration," Satloff said. "Rather, this means there will be an early expectation of steps that need to be taken a) to define the boundaries more clearly and b) to define what constitutes 'accountability' for the Khashoggi killing that President Biden called for on its anniversary." Khashoggi's murder was "obviously an extreme example," but just one of several events that have caused real concern, Satloff said, leading the administration "to lay down the marker that for us to have the type of relationship we'd like to have, a partnership, there need to be substantial structural changes." Lawmakers are working to ensure there's structural change in the relationship as well. "It's welcome news that the White House is releasing this info on Khashoggi that my colleagues and I have requested since his brutal murder," Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California told CNN. Khanna, a co-lead on a letter from lawmakers to the administration about Yemen, said there is "widespread support in Congress for the Biden administration to uphold their campaign promises of entirely ending military support to the Saudis and the [United Arab Emirates], which is imperative for the US to support an end to hunger in Yemen and the beginning of a political solution." The letter comes as two Democratic members of Congress -- Reps. David Trone of Maryland and Gerry Connolly of Virginia -- are expected to introduce their resolution to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi's death and other human rights violations. The resolution will call "for significantly reduced US assistance to Saudi Arabia until the kingdom demonstrates true accountability on human rights, rule of law, and nuclear issues," Trone said in a letter to colleagues obtained by CNN on Thursday. It also "seeks to curtail nuclear cooperation until Saudi Arabia signs a 123 Agreement for a civil program that expressly prohibits enrichment of uranium on Saudi territory," Trone said in the letter. The resolution is expected to be introduced after Biden speaks with King Salman and following the release of the intelligence report. After she posted her theory on social media and wrote about it in The Globe and Mail, a leading national newspaper, Canadians expressed a mix of fury, commiseration and delight at a possible explanation of why their butter was so hard. Others were less empathetic. Butter too hard. First world problems, wrote one Twitter user. The Dairy Farmers of Canada, a trade group, said in a statement that there was no recent data to show that the consistency of butter had changed, and that it was not aware of any significant changes in dairy production. The group added that palm products were also used in Britain and the United States, and helped provide energy to cows. The inclusion of palm fat supplements in the cows nutrition is not a health or safety concern, it said, pledging to create a group of experts to investigate the issue. The Canadian dairy industry produced roughly 15 billion Canadian dollars worth of dairy products in 2019, according to government data, and dairy farming is part of nations social fabric. Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, the senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, stressed that there was nothing illegal about giving palm fat to cows and that it was unclear how many farmers used it as a feeding supplement. While there is a dearth of research into whether it could undermine the health of humans, he said, some studies suggested that it could potentially increase certain heart disease risk factors in some people. Nevertheless, Dr. Charlebois, who has helped fan the debate, said the dairy sector had been using palm fat for at least a decade without consumers knowledge. Palm fat, which is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, has detrimental environmental impacts such as deforestation, he added. The dairy sector is undermining the moral contract between the sector and Canadians by not being more transparent about what they are feeding the cows, he said. [February 25, 2021] Carahsoft Expands Access to IT Asset Management and Cybersecurity Solutions for U.S. Department of Defense RESTON, Va., Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, today announced that it has been awarded a new Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) blanket purchase agreement (BPA) in accordance with the companys General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule contract. This BPA (N66001-21-A-0031) joins Carahsofts previous BPA (N66001-19-A-0120) to expand the DoDs access to asset management and cybersecurity solutions. Under the agreements, Carahsoft and authorized reseller partners will jointly provide software, software maintenance support, information technology professional services and training to the DoD, U.S. intelligence community and Coast Guard from the following solutions providers: BPA N66001-19-A-0120: BeyondTrust Corporation CloudBolt Software, Inc. DataLocker Inc. HyTrust, Inc. Ivanti Micro Focus Government Solutions Nlyte Software Nutanix Oblong Industries Recorded Future, Inc. SafeNet Assured Technologies ServiceNow Splunk Inc. Veritas Technologies Zscaler, Inc. BPA N66001-21-A-0031: Decision Lens Denodo Technologies FireEye, Inc. Fornetix, Inc Flexera Sonaype Inc. PacketViper RSA Security LLC Carahsoft and our vendor partners are honored to support the DoD and intelligence sector with advanced technology to protect their data and improve performance, said Craig P. Abod, Carahsoft President. These BPAs enable our government customers to better access the critical capabilities offered by over 20 solutions providers and our reseller partners. The agreements support the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement and are intended to reduce the contracting and open market costs associated with the traditional procurement process, including searching for sources, developing technical documents and solicitations, negotiating contractual terms, and evaluating offers. Asset management software solutions are available under Blanket Purchase Agreement N66001-19-A-0120 and Blanket Purchase Agreement N66001-21-A-0031 through Carahsofts GSA Schedule No. GS-35F-0119Y. For more information, contact the Carahsoft IT Asset Management BPA team at (703) 889-9878 or ITAMBPA@Carahsoft.com . About the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative (DoD ESI) DoD ESI is an official DoD initiative sponsored by the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) to lead in the establishment and management of enterprise COTS IT agreements, assets, and policies. DoD ESI lowers the total cost of ownership across the DoD, Coast Guard and Intelligence Communities for commercial software, IT hardware, and services. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider. As a top-performing GSA Schedule, SEWP and ITES-SW2 contract holder, Carahsoft serves as the Master Government Aggregator for many of its best-of-breed technology vendors, supporting an extensive ecosystem of manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators and consulting partners committed to helping government agencies select and implement the best solution at the best possible value. The company's dedicated Solutions Divisions proactively market, sell and deliver VMware, AWS, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Veritas, McAfee, Dell, Adobe, F5 Networks, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Open Source, Micro Focus Government Solutions, SAP, Salesforce, and Innovative and Intelligence products and services, among others. Carahsoft is consistently recognized by its partners as a top revenue producer and is listed annually among the industry's fastest growing and largest firms by CRN, Inc., Forbes, Washington Technology, The Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, and Bloomberg Government. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Contact Mary Lange (703) 230-7434 pr@carahsoft.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque downplays the fact that the Philippines is the last among member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to receive COVID-19 vaccines that are critical to putting an end to the lingering public health crisis. Halos sabay-sabay po talaga dumating sa tin at halos pare-pareho pong dumating sa tin ang Sinovac, the spokesman said when asked on the matter, noting that the period between the Philippines getting doses compared to other countries in the region is only a matter of days. [Translation: The arrival of doses from Sinovac (among our neighboring countries) happened almost simultaneously.] The Philippines has yet to receive its initial supply from the Chinese company behind the CoronaVac vaccine, with the government saying that the first 600,000 doses are slated to arrive Sunday, Feb. 28. Meanwhile, multiple media reports have noted the arrival of vaccines in other countries in the ASEAN region from December to February. Indonesia was first in the region to receive its initial vaccine doses last Dec. 6, while Thailand and Vietnam got their first batch of vaccines just this Wednesday. The countrys first doses from Sinovac were supposed to arrive Feb. 23, but the Palace said that the lack of an emergency use authorization for the Chinese pharmaceutical company then will delay the process. The Food and Drug Administration eventually issued Sinovac an EUA earlier this week, with the company now able to push through with preparations for the shipment. Lawmakers and critics alike have flagged concerns about the approval issued by the regulatory agency given the products reported lower efficacy rate. The FDA earlier recommended against the inoculation of health workers with the said vaccine although a company official insists that the vaccine is good at protecting them. A restaurant owner in Kerry has defended his decision to reopen by July 1, saying the governments communication has been appalling. Paul Treyvaud, owner of Treyvauds Restaurant, said that if the government does not lift Covid-19 restrictions by July, hell be opening back up anyway. Particularly in rural Ireland, if were not open for the first of July, and if we dont get to trade for July and August - it doesnt matter if they let us open in October, November, December - theres going to be nobody in Kerry, he told Newstalk Breakfast this morning. And were going to lose anywhere from 60 to 80pc of our businesses if we are not open by the first of July. Read More However, Mr Treyvaud, who spoke earlier in the week as well, said he did recognise that the current levels of Covid-19 in the country are too high to reopen right now. I dont believe that we can open now, I believe community transmission is still way too high; I dont think its safe to open up businesses now. However, Im giving you four months guys to get your act in gear here, he said. Mr Treyvaurd first announced his plans on Twitter, saying that hes done everything Ive been told to do. 55k came in from the uk with that variant, now over 1500 from Brazil, he said. The problem is no longer us. Its an incompetent government. At least in my head I now have a date and its put everything at ease. I am prepared to be arrested if need be. I no longer care. Im not a conspiracy nut job so dont bother telling me to open up now. Ive done the maths and if Im not open by then, everything is gone. On a final note, he added that: Im not telling any business that has been forced to shut to do the same. But all Ill say is that there is strength in numbers. If this doesnt force a government to sort this shit out once and for all, I give up. Id rather fight my own battles than take another cent of state aid. The tweet was read by over two million people, with Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae also providing his perspective on the situation. Im no Master Chef but some of you may recall that I did put on an apron some time back on The Restaurant, he said. However, I have to weigh in when somebody questions the intellect of our fine Kerry people and refers to one of the finest restaurants in the tourism capital of the world as a rural restaurant. Keep up the good work Paul Treyvaud you have them all well rattled now. Speaking again on Newstalk, Mr Treyvaud said that whats particularly frighething is how hes been better able to read the room than the government. [I] understand the mentality of the people of Ireland more than an entire political system. Im not going to be an anti-vaxxer, I dont deny Covid exists, we have lost an immediate loved one in our family to Covid, he added. Yesterday, a beauty salon in Dublin reopened temporarily, although Gardai later called on it to close due to current level 5 restrictions. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. With the administration under pressure from multiple sides, Gov. Andrew Cuomos former top aide came to his defense on Thursday. Current Empire State Development Chair and former Secretary to the Governor Steven M. Cohen based a morning press briefing around the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) nursing home controversy, but used the opportunity to briefly defend Cuomo against allegations of sexual harassment. Cuomos ex-aide, Lindsey Boylan, published an essay Wednesday alleging that the governor repeatedly harassed her, going as far as an uninvited kiss on the lips, while on the job. I have known Andrew Cuomo for its got to be at least 30 years, Cohen said. I have never seen anything of the like of what Ms. Boylan has described, his conduct has always been, in my presence, with the members of other staff, appropriate. He made those comments after the press briefings first question was about those allegations, and he responded by saying it was beyond the scope of what he was addressing. Instead, Cohen said he wanted to focus on nursing homes ahead of a budget hearing later Thursday regarding the state Department of Health (DOH). He became the latest Cuomo ally to defend a March 25 DOH order that directed nursing homes to comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to (nursing homes). Like multiple other members of the state government, Cohen said the directive was consistent with earlier guidance from the federal government. Former Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator during President Trumps administration, Seema Verma, pushed back on this idea as early as May 21. Heres the answerOn March 13, CMS released guidance related to transfer of patients who had been treated for COVID-19 from a hospital to a nursing home. https://t.co/0xrMVth4wy https://t.co/ZgW7nocofW Administrator Seema Verma (@SeemaCMS) May 21, 2020 She pointed to March 13 guidance from CMS that contained a section labeled (when) should a nursing home accept a resident who was diagnosed with COVID-19 from a hospital? In the guidance, CMS specified that nursing homes should accept COVID-positive patients as long as the facility can follow (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions. If a nursing home cannot, it must wait until these precautions are discontinued, the guidance read. The states March 25 order expressed an urgent need to expand hospital capacity as the state prepared for facilities to be overrun with COVID-19 patients, and directed that nursing homes could not deny entry solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. The order specified that standard precautions must be maintained, and environmental cleaning made a priority. On March 29, the order drew quick negative feedback in a statement from three healthcare industry groups AMDA-The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine, the American Health Care Association, and the National Center for Assisted Living that urged other states not to adopt similar policies. They described the policy as a short-term and short-sighted solution that will only add to the surge in COVID-19 patients that require hospital care. During a Thursday New York Senate hearing, Dr. Howard Zucker, the DOH commissioner, continued to push back against the idea that the March 25 directive led to nursing home deaths. This is whats happening: people are not listening to the science. The fact of the matter is, first of all, it was in the facilities. It came in from the community. It was already there, Zucker said. The latest nursing home controversy facing the Cuomo administration came two weeks ago when the New York Post reported that his current top aide, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, admitted the administration delayed answering inquiries from both chambers of the state Legislature because of a possible investigation from former President Trumps Justice Department (DOJ). During a Feb. 10 conference call with legislative leaders, DeRosa addressed a question from State Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange County) about the DOHs lack of response regarding nursing home questions from both Legislative chambers on Aug. 20. She said during that call, which was supposed to remain private, that the state froze when it received a letter from the DOJ on Aug. 26, and asked the Legislature for more time to fulfill its requests. Cohen pointed to a partial transcript of the call that the state released saying the word froze had been taken out of context. In context, its clear that what Ms. DeRosa is saying is not, as some have suggested, an admission of a coverup or some kind of obstruction of justice, Cohen said. He contended that the state simply paused the Legislatures request while the it addressed the DOJ inquiry, which Cohen said was responded to. The DOJs Aug. 26 inquiry requested the information within 14 days Sept. 9. The state didnt address the Legislatures questions until earlier this month, and that was after the Cuomo administration released its latest nursing home data following a six-month battle with the conservative-leaning Empire Center think tank, which filed a lawsuit through the Freedom of Information Law. DeRosa said in a Feb. 12 statement that accompanied the partial transcript that the administration was unable to fulfill the Legislatures request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic, she said. Cuomo has yet to personally address the latest allegations from Boylan, but in December denied similar but less detailed accusations she made about him on Twitter. His office issued a statement Wednesday denying the latest allegations and shared a list of flights that attempted to refute one of Boylans allegations that the governor had invited her to play strip poker while on a flight aboard a state-owned private plane in October 2017. On the issue of nursing homes, the governor has taken responsibility for a lack of information shared with the general public but not much else. We made a mistake in creating the void, Cuomo said during a Feb. 15 press briefing. When we didnt provide information, it allowed press, people, cynics, politicians to fill the void. TymeBank recently announced that it had received R1.6 billion in new investment, positioning it for significant growth. Speaking in an interview with MyBroadband, TymeBank CEO Tauriq Keraan said the bulk of this capital will go to expanding the business in South Africa. TymeBank operates using a hybrid digital banking model, functioning as a digital bank with a widespread physical presence at Pick n Pay and Boxer stores. As part of how it will spend its newly-received funding, the bank plans to add another 500 staff to these physical distribution channels. It has reached 2.8 million users and has seen significant growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, expecting to reach 3 million users by the end of March 2021. Strategy in South Africa Keraan said that the banks strategy to compete with traditional banks and new digital-only banks is to position themselves as accessible to all South Africans. The first principle here is increasing the access to financial services and banking in this country, Keraan told MyBroadband. But equally important is that we are a bank for all South Africans so we consciously target across sectors. He said that TymeBanks proposition has been getting fuller with time and that adoption is getting better and better. One of the major differentiating attributes is that while we are a digital bank, we also make extensive use of physical touch, Keraan said. What this has allowed us to do is to allow us to scale very rapidly in a way that is broadly accessible. He added that as a result of its broad appeal, TymeBank was among the fastest-growing banks in the world at the moment. Becoming a top 3 player MyBroadband also spoke to TymeBank co-founder Coen Jonker, who said the bank aims to become a top three player in South Africa. We have always seen banking as a scale game building a bank is expensive and complex, Jonker said. He added that new digital-only banks, including those such as Bank Zero or Spot Money, run the risk of becoming stranded in a niche and limited their potential scale. The one thing that is true is that the bulk of economic value goes to the scale players, Jonker said. We want to be a top-three player in South African retail and SME banking. It is extremely difficult to do that to that in a purely digital play. He noted that while the bank was certainly monitoring newcomers to the digital banking market, it saw its future competition in South Africa as the big banks including Standard Bank, FNB, and Nedbank. Austin Nurse Refuses to Evacuate Winter-Hit Neighborhood, Stays to Care for Neighbors in Need During Power Outage Since freezing temperatures hit Texas, causing power outages and water shortages across the state, many have struggled to keep warm, wash, drink, and even flush their toilets. With neighbors in dire straights, nurse Emily Grigsby passed on the opportunity to leave her cold-stricken Austin neighborhood in favor of staying behind to help. Speaking to The Epoch Times via social media, the 39-year-old mom of two reflected, Above all, may we be reminded of the importance to love thy neighbor! At the peak of Winter Storm Uris wrath upon Emilys neighborhood, the power was out for 72 hours straight. On one of the first dark nights without power, Texas native Emily, her husband Will, and their kids made the most of it, playing piano and sleeping in a makeshift fort by the fireplace. Emily Grigsby endures the cold weather to care for her neighbors in dire straights. (Courtesy of Emily Grigsby) I started checking on my elderly neighbors once that 24-hour mark passed, and thats when I found how dire the situation really was. It made me very aware that we had to stay to help, Emily told People. Leaving was an option, she saidaround 75 percent of her neighbors did evacuatebut it was not one she would entertain. Some of Emilys elderly neighbors quickly found themselves without food or the means to stay warm. Many began boiling snow to use as drinking water and to flush toilets. But there were also casualties. Emily trudged through the biting 32-degree-Fahrenheit (zero-degree-Celsius) weather when a neighbor burned herself badly on Feb. 18 by accidentally pouring boiling water on her leg. One of Emilys neighbors who uses a wheelchair also required help. Weve been feeding her since last Thursday, three meals a day, Emily explained. Icicles hang off the State Highway 195 sign in Killeen, Texas, on Feb. 18, 2021 (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) As power outages persisted, Emily began visiting her elderly neighbors each morning. Calling it just a really sad situation, she lamented having to explain to her boys, aged 9 and 12, that she had to check their pulses to make sure they were still alive. Yet Emily suspects the situation could have been much worse had her family not stayed behind. I think that for us, it was just really important to recognize the needs around us, she said. I think knowing your community, knowing the needs, being able to respond, is really important when it comes to an event like this. To support a communal need, Emilys family built an aqueduct to collect snow melt for flushing toilets, which they shared with neighbors who lacked the means to collect water on their own. Emily Grigsby with her husband (Courtesy of Emily Grigsby) The mom of two hopes that state leaders can learn from Winter Storm Uri and make sufficient provisions for the future, so that Texans dont have to endure such horrific conditions again. She says it is the worst storm she has seen in Texas in her lifetime. Lack of water remained an issue, but power was restored in Emilys area on Feb. 17. Im literally seeing the light now, in more ways than one, so Im really grateful at this point, Emily told People. The nurse plans to continue caring for her neighbors until the situation improves for all, at which point she will return to work at the hospital. Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired Newsletter here: TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter As Texans recover from last weeks deep freeze, power and water outages and lost wages, food banks are rushing to help those running low on supplies. And H-E-B and Walmart are pitching in to support the organizations. San Antonio-based H-E-B announced Wednesday its giving $1 million to aid 18 food banks across the state, including the San Antonio Food Bank. The company is also launching a donation campaign online and in its stores. The funds will go to food banks affiliated with Feeding Texas, a statewide network of food banks. H-E-B recently delivered 23 truckloads of food and nearly $100,000 worth of Meal Simple meals to food banks and is working with its suppliers to provide more aid. Zen Water, Proud Source Water and Florida grocery chain Publix are donating truckloads of water, totaling more than 725,000 bottles. As we emerge from the bitter cold, these donations come at a critical time to help our fellow Texans get back on their feet, said Winell Herron, H-E-Bs group vice president of public affairs, diversity and environmental affairs. H-E-B is here for Texas, and we will do everything we can to support those in need across our great state. On ExpressNews.com: Nearly 7 million hungry Texans left waiting as next stimulus vote looms Walmart, Sams Club and the Walmart Foundation said Friday the group is donating up to $1 million in cash and products to support response endeavors in Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi. Some of the funds will go to Feeding Texas and its emergency response efforts in San Antonio and other cities. We gladly leverage our resources to help these hard-hit communities, and we stand with Texas and all those affected, said Dan Bartlett, Walmarts executive vice president of corporate affairs. Feeding Texas will used the donations to source food, provide water and meet other needs, said Celia Cole, CEO of the nonprofit. These big donations coming in from our retail partners like H-E-B and Walmart are going to be really critical to helping food banks keep up with the increased demand over the next month, she said. During the winter storm last week, long lines formed outside Texas grocery stores as people hurried to refill their refrigerators and find bottled water. Often, staples such as milk and eggs were gone by the time they got inside. Grocery chains closed stores, reduced hours and limited purchases of certain items because of outages and hazardous commuting conditions. Icy roads made it difficult for employees to get to work safely and for truck drivers to deliver supplies. Power and water problems also hampered food production. Stores have since reopened and returned to normal operating hours, and companies are working to restock items. Food banks were largely sidelined last week because staff couldnt get to their buildings and many distributions had to be canceled, Cole said. Orders that the organizations had placed didnt arrive. A chunk of the supplies food banks distribute are donated by retailers, manufacturers, growers and restaurants, which were struggling with supply chain disruptions last week. This week, demand at food banks is surging. What were looking at is needing to support a lot of people really just kind of put their lives back together after the storm, Cole said. That includes families who lost a weeks worth of wages and are dealing with damage to their homes and the expense of repairs, she said. Many were already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, which is disproportionately affecting low-income communities and people of color. Those are the same families we traditionally serve. In many cases, those are going to be the families most impacted by the recent storm, Cole said. I think were going to see people needing our help who didnt before, but also people who were already needing our help their need is going to get even bigger. madison.iszler@express-news.net 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. Global Bank mourns passing of Joseph K. Grieboski Our entire Global Bank Group family mourns this tragic loss. Joe devoted his career to justice and freedom for all, and he did so with tremendous leadership, passion, and wisdom. He was a very special someone I could always turn to for counsel. Ron Nechemia, President, Global Bank Group It is with great sadness that we announce the unexpected passing of Mr. Joseph K. Grieboski, Head of the Global Bank North American Representative Office, on February 24th at his home in Alexandria, VA. Under the leadership of Grieboski, the Permanent Delegations of Global Bank in North America has served as center for Global Bank activities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, strengthening relations and promoting cooperation between the Global Bank and the host countries and development partners. For Grieboski, the Global Bank was extension of both his ministry and his legacy. Ron Nechemia, President of the Global Bank Group shared this about Grieboskis untimely passing, Our entire Global Bank Group family mourns this tragic loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with Joes wife, Tracy, and his family. Our deepest sympathies go out to all who loved him, Nechemia continued, Joe devoted his career to justice and freedom for all, and he did so with tremendous leadership, passion, and wisdom. He was a very special someone I could always turn to for counsel. Bob McCarthy, Chief of Staff, Head of the Global Bank North American Representative Office added, Joe was a humble leader, caring mentor, and loyal friend. He worked tirelessly to ensure people around the globe could worship as they please. Ever the champion for downtrodden, persecuted, and underprivileged, he focused his energy to provide long-term and sustainable solutions to some of the worlds most urgent issues. Grieboskis lifelong commitment to humankind has been extraordinary. At just 24 he founded THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy, a well-respected and world-renowned non-governmental organization at the forefront of religious freedom advocacy. Many years and several Nobel Peace Prize nominations later, Grieboski became an internationally recognized expert in religious freedom, national security, counter-extremism, human rights, and conflict transformation. From confidence-building programs in Darfur to post-conflict reconstruction in Kosovo, from track-three diplomacy efforts in North Korea and Iran to minority protection and reintegration in Iraq and Afghanistan, from authoring countless laws for numerous countries to securing the successful release of hostages and prisoners, Grieboski stood at the forefront of some of the most crucial and sensitive issues in the world. While the world has lost an irreplaceable advocate and crusader, those who knew him have lost a beloved confidante, hero, and source of inspiration. We can never replace Joes brilliance or leadership, said Nechemia, but we will honor him by continuing his passion for humanity. About Global Bank Global Bank is the Global Bank Groups long-term sovereign lending institution. As a development bank with an agenda driven by G-7/G-8 and G-20-priorities, its leading priority is to promote global economic and social development. Unlike the multilateral development banks (MDBs), Global Bank is not restricted to operating only in developing countries. The Global Bank Group represents, develops, and supports the collective interests of the Global Bank and its business interests globally. Global Bank is a full-fledged private sector global development bank, in formation, the worlds second global development bank positioned next to the World Bank Group and next to the preeminent regional development banks. It combines the characteristics of a multilateral development bank with those of a private financial institution. The primary objective of the Global Bank is to reduce poverty in middle-income countries and creditworthy poorer countries by promoting sustainable development. To this end, Global Bank finances primarily public sector infrastructure projects and sustainable development through the provision of sovereign loans to developing countries. Global Banks financial objective is not to maximize profit, but to earn an adequate income to ensure its financial strength and to sustain its development activities. For information about the Global Bank, please visit http://www.global-bank.org GLOBAL BANK EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT Public Affairs Email: media.center@global-bank.org Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Centre on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that there is no fundamental right to seek recognition for same-sex marriage. The government stated this in an affidavit filed in reply to a petition by same-sex couples seeking enforcement of fundamental right of choice of partner. "Despite the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the IPC, the petitioners cannot claim a fundamental right for same-sex marriage being recognised under the laws of the country," the affidavit stated. It said that the fundamental right under Article 21 cannot be expanded to include the fundamental right for same sex marriage. "In India, marriage is not just a matter of union of two individuals but a solemn institution between a biological man and a biological woman," the affidavit read. The Centre further stated that living together as partners and having sexual relationship with same-sex individuals, which is decriminalised now, is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, wife and children. It submitted that any interference with the marriage laws framed by the Parliament in the country would cause complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws in the country. The Centre submitted that marriage in India is regarded as a sacrament and depends on age-old customs, rituals and cultural ethos and societal values. Marriage of same-sex persons would violate the existing personal as well as codified laws, the Centre claimed, while seeking dismissal of the petition. For decades, climate change researchers and activists have used dramatic forecasts to attempt to influence public perception of the problem and as a call to action on climate change. These forecasts have frequently been for events that might be called "apocalyptic," because they predict cataclysmic events resulting from climate change. In a new paper published in the International Journal of Global Warming, Carnegie Mellon University's David Rode and Paul Fischbeck argue that making such forecasts can be counterproductive. "Truly apocalyptic forecasts can only ever be observed in their failure--that is the world did not end as predicted," says Rode, adjunct research faculty with the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, "and observing a string of repeated apocalyptic forecast failures can undermine the public's trust in the underlying science." Rode and Fischbeck, professor of Social & Decision Sciences and Engineering & Public Policy, collected 79 predictions of climate-caused apocalypse going back to the first Earth Day in 1970. With the passage of time, many of these forecasts have since expired; the dates have come and gone uneventfully. In fact, 48 (61%) of the predictions have already expired as of the end of 2020. Fischbeck noted, "from a forecasting perspective, the 'problem' is not only that all of the expired forecasts were wrong, but also that so many of them never admitted to any uncertainty about the date. About 43% of the forecasts in our dataset made no mention of uncertainty." In some cases, the forecasters were both explicit and certain. For example, Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich and British environmental activist Prince Charles are serial failed forecasters, repeatedly expressing high degrees of certainty about apocalyptic climate events. Rode commented "Ehrlich has made predictions of environmental collapse going back to 1970 that he has described as having 'near certainty'. Prince Charles has similarly warned repeatedly of 'irretrievable ecosystem collapse' if actions were not taken, and when expired, repeated the prediction with a new definitive end date. Their predictions have repeatedly been apocalyptic and highly certain...and so far, they've also been wrong." The researchers noted that the average time horizon before a climate apocalypse for the 11 predictions made prior to 2000 was 22 years, while for the 68 predictions made after 2000, the average time horizon was 21 years. Despite the passage of time, little has changed--across a half a century of forecasts; the apocalypse is always about 20 years out. Fischbeck continued, "It's like the boy who repeatedly cried wolf. If I observe many successive forecast failures, I may be unwilling to take future forecasts seriously. That's a problem for climate science, say Rode and Fischbeck. "The underlying science of climate change has many solid results," says Fischbeck, "the problem is often the leap in connecting the prediction of climate events to the prediction of the consequences of those events." Human efforts at adaptation and mitigation, together with the complexity of socio-physical systems, means that the prediction of sea level rise, for example, may not necessarily lead to apocalyptic flooding. "By linking the climate event and the potential consequence for dramatic effect," noted Rode, "a failure to observe the consequence may unfairly call into question the legitimacy of the science behind the climate event." With the new Biden administration making climate change policy a top priority, trust in scientific predictions about climate change is more crucial than ever, however scientists will have to be wary in qualifying their predictions. In measuring the proliferation the forecasts through search results, the authors found that forecasts that did not mention uncertainty in their apocalyptic date tended to be more visible (i.e., have more search results available). Making sensational predictions of the doom of humanity, while scientifically dubious, has still proven tempting for those wishing to grab headlines. The trouble with this is that scientists, due to their training, tend to make more cautious statements and more often include references to uncertainty. Rode and Fischbeck found that while 81% of the forecasts made by scientists referenced uncertainty, less than half of the forecasts made by non-scientists did. "This is not surprising," said Rode, "but it is troubling when you consider that forecasts that reference uncertainty are less visible on the web. This results in the most visible voices often being the least qualified." Rode and Fischbeck argue that scientists must take extraordinary caution in communicating events of great consequence. When it comes to climate change, the authors advise "thinking small." That is, focusing on making predictions that are less grandiose and shorter in term. "If you want people to believe big predictions, you first need to convince them that you can make little predictions," says Rode. Fischbeck added, "We need forecasts of a greater variety of climate variables, we need them made on a regular basis, and we need expert assessments of their uncertainties so people can better calibrate themselves to the accuracy of the forecaster." ### The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Its an idea that she reflects on regularly and incorporates into her daily work. Her success and influence in the effectiveness of the company and its employees contributed to Garland being named Emerging Practitioner of the Year in 2020 by the Organization Development Network (ODN). Erin is the epitome of the consummate emerging organization development practitioner, Dr. Deborah ONeil, director of the program, said in her nomination letter. She believes in the power of organization development to positively transform individuals and organizations and applies that belief to everything she does. In addition to her work, Garland has also taken a volunteer role in ODN. In 2019, she joined the organizations social impact committee and helped spearhead Social Impact Day. The initiative provided pro bono consulting to nonprofit organizations by teams of experienced and emerging OD practitioners. She and members of the team published their results that demonstrated ODNs commitment to give back to public benefit organizations and to provide reciprocal learning opportunities to its members. The event was so successful that she was asked to chair the 2020 event, which ended up being a virtual event because of the pandemic. Voss said Garland exhibits three important traits that are foundational for an exceptional organization development practitioner: intellectual curiosity, devotion to our humanistic values and pursuit of personal and professional growth. She demonstrates our values by keeping people at the heart of everything she does, listening authentically, treating others with respect and advocating for equality in all spaces. Garland knows those skills are vital to any organizations culture of learning. The current pandemic environment is significantly affecting every industry, every organization and health care in particular, she said. Our folks are on the front lines, and we have to be responsive to how they are feeling. While her job is to keep the organization moving forward, she acknowledged that, especially in times of high stress with COVID-19, it is important to take some of the burden off of the frontline employees and work in alignment with their needs. Im continuously looking for ways to incorporate different facilitation techniques and tools that they can use in their own work, she said. We help shift the organization to that learning orientation and make it safe and comfortable for folks to feel like they can engage in those stretch assignments. Health care is one of our most essential industries, particularly given the current interrelated crises of public health and social justice, ONeill said. Having someone of Erins character, compassion and competence in an OD leadership position in this essential industry, should give us all a measure of confidence and comfort." From Art History to Organization Development Garlands path to organization development started, not in business, but in art history. In Washtenaw County where I live, the COVID-19 infection rate of Black residents is 13%, about the same as the percentage of Black residents int the county (12.3%). However, of the people who are hospitalized, 27% are Black and Black residents are 23% of those who die from virus. Worse yet, statewide, less than 5% of the people who have received the first shot of their two-shot vaccination are Black and fewer than 2% have received both shots. This discrepancy between the people who are most likely to be hospitalized and/or die from COVID-19 is glaring neon sign telling us that vaccine distribution is not equitable. In other words, those who most need the vaccine are less likely to vaccinated, contributing to a public health crisis that makes things worse for ALL of us. This is despite efforts to be responsive to this inequity by using the CDCs Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to determine where scarce vaccine supplies are deployed. But, as Washtenaw County proves, even with the use of the SVI, wealthy counties with pockets of poverty and underserved populations can have problems. As bad as this situation is, you wont be surprised that Michigan Republicans are working hard to make it worse. Right now, there are three competing plans in Michigan for how to spend nearly $5 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds. Governor Whitmer wants to accept all of the money and begin deploying it immediately. The House plan holds $2.1 billion in education funding hostage (along with the children it would most benefit) unless Gov. Whitmer unilaterally gives up her power to protect all Michiganders from the pandemic and holds back most of the funds to be doled out over the next year. The Senate has its own plan and, yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved language in their legislation that would prohibit using race, gender, national origin, religion, sex, or socio-economic status to determine where the limited supply of vaccines are allocated. The Senate plan, set for a floor vote as soon as Thursday, would tie $110 million in federal funds for vaccine distribution to new language that prohibits the state from using a social vulnerability index recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sens. Tom Barrett of Charlotte and Jim Runestad of White Lake proposed the amendment just one day after the state released data showing white residents in Michigan are so far twice as likely to have received the coronavirus vaccine as Black residents. The distribution model used by the state does not impact who qualifies for the vaccine seniors and frontline workers make up the initial priority groups, regardless of race. But Barrett argued that a social justice platform and biased judgment should not be a factor in distribution. Under the GOP plan, the state could only base vaccine distribution on the estimated number of individuals in each priority group who have not yet been fully vaccinated in each locality. Race, gender, national origin, religion, sex or socio-economic status could not be considered. I dont care what race they are, these are the people who are vulnerable to die, said Runestad, noting that seniors are far more likely to die from the virus than younger populations. Sen. Runestad apparently doesn't understand how the social vulnerability index works, but has no problem making racist arguments against it. This is data-driven vaccine distribution. The index helps make sure the most vulnerable among us don't fall through the cracks. https://t.co/nQhXeZeude Bayer4MISenate (@Bayer4MISenate) February 25, 2021 Runestad even argues that age should be the only factor considered and that any other metrics have no pertinence in determining who is most likely to die of COVID-19-related complications. Unsurprisingly, the lily-white community of Livingston County called on legislators to take this action. Last Monday, the Livingston County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution on an 8-0 vote demanding the the SVI no longer be used by the state. Eager to point out that their racist action was not racist, one of the commissioners, Doug Helzerman, made a statement that is, for all intents and purposes, boilerplate language used by racists everywhere to say they arent racist. He almost literally said, some of my best friends are Black: Its kind of like the old question: when did you stop beating your wife? That has been posed to our commissioners: when are you going to stop being racist? If you havent been racist, you cant stop being racist. My first boss when I moved to Lansing was a Black man. I had no problem with that. I worked in many manufacturing plants in Livingston County, and I have not seen systemic racism in our plants. Some of my best friends and best workers have been Black. I enjoy working with Black people. I enjoy engaging with Black people in conversation. My granddaughter married a person who had a Black mother. We had no problem with that, he said. You say when are we going to stop being racist, well, I dont think I have been racist. And I dont think this is a racist thing. It is definitely not meant to be that, and I think its bad if people construe wrong motives to our commission. Sure, Jan oops, I mean Doug. White Republicans arent focused on the overall health of ALL Michiganders with this move. Using classic dog whistle politics and language, they are focused on whether or not Black people and people they see as less deserving of help are getting things that White people should be getting instead. Getting through this pandemic with the least amount of death and sickness depends on us being aware of who in our society is most vulnerable and making sure they get the resources, including vaccines, that they need. This benefits ALL of us, not just those who are vaccinated. And while Washtenaw County shows how the SVI is an imperfect tool, ignoring the disparate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community is harmful to everyone. Thanks to the Trump administrations botched roll out of vaccines in America, there is currently much more demand for vaccines than we have the supply for. This has created a Hunger Games situation where residents are pitted against each other for a scarce resource. And White Republicans have stepped up to make sure that poor people of color arent taking something they believe is rightfully intended for their White constituents. It is incumbent on all of us to resist this racially-motivated attempt to keep Black Michiganders on the losing side of the war against COVID-19. Theyve already paid the ultimate price of death and illness far too often during this fraught time. Its up to us to help make sure it doesnt get any worse. A vote by the full Senate on the Senates plan may happen as early as today. UPDATED: The Senate did, indeed, pass their legislation with an amendment to prohibit the use of the SVI when considering how vaccines are distributed. Democratic Senator Ericka Geiss accurately called the bill a bunch racist bullshit. Earlier today, Democratic Senator Stephanie Chang explained in a three tweet thread what the SVI actually is and does and who its actually harming, in an apparently hopeless attempt to educate Sen. Runestad: To anyone (like Rs in #mileg) wanting MI to not use Social Vulnerability Index in vaccine distribution: Top 5 for highest poverty rate: Isabella (23.4%) Lake (22.3%) Wayne (21.7%) Luce (20.7%) Clare (20.6%) Don't let ignorance & racism get in the way of serving your residents. Stephanie Chang (@stephanielily) February 25, 2021 [For anyone unfamiliar, every single one of these 10 counties, except Wayne, are in Republican districts. By removing SVI, they would be receiving less vaccines in their own areas, all because they are concerned about also prioritizing using race, language ability as factors.] Stephanie Chang (@stephanielily) February 25, 2021 The truth is Sen. Runestad and all the rest of the White Republicans who passed this odious legislation know this. But, when you use dog whistling in this way, what you say and do doesnt have to reflect what you actually know because the reasons you are giving are not honest. They are, simply put, racist. Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. UN peacekeepers at the scene of the attack on the WFP convoy in which Italy's Ambassador to DRC was killed (ANSA) Pope Francis has joined his voice to those of the many leaders expressing shock and condolences for the brutal killing of the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, together with an Italian police officer and their Congolese driver. By Linda Bordoni The Popes telegram came as the bodies of Ambassador Luca Attanasio and his bodyguard arrived back in Rome on Tuesday aboard a military aircraft, a day after they were shot dead following an ambush in eastern DRC. The Ambassador, his bodyguard Vittorio Antonacci, and World Food Programme driver Mustapha Milambo, fell prey to an ambush by armed men as they travelled to visit a WFP school feeding project near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in DRC. No rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack but monitors say 122 armed groups are active in the four eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika, and the United Nations refugee agency says more than 2,000 civilians were killed in the region last year. Congolese President, Felix Tshisekedi, dispatched his top diplomatic adviser to Goma to support an investigation by local authorities, and Italian police investigators have flown into Congo for a mission to liaise with police there. But the scenario is complex and chronic violence persists in the DRC's east despite a huge commitment by the UN. With around 15,000 personnel and a budget close to a billion dollars, MONUSCO is the UN's biggest peacekeeping mission. DRC should be one of the richest nations on earth The region is fertile and so rich in copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, uranium, coltan and oil, it should be one of the world's richest nations. However almost 60 years of Belgian dominion, followed by instability, political upheaval and corruption, have led to widespread poverty and youth unemployment, and ignited numerous conflicts. It is estimated that millions of civilians have lost their lives in the fight over raw materials. In January 2019, President Tshisekedi took office pledging to make security in the east the cornerstone of his tenure. But analysts say his promises to transfer the army's headquarters, to improve understanding of tactics and strategy in the region, have not borne fruit, while his diplomatic attempts to weave together a regional solution, bringing in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, whose relations are historically tense, seem similarly to have come to a dead end. Meanwhile, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo continue to pay the highest price as ethnic narratives fuel fear and distrust and the legacy of colonialism and its struggles over power and resources continue to stoke violent conflict. Nirav Modi, once touted as a billionaire designer diamantaire, and now wanted on charges of fraud and money laundering in the $2-billion (Rs 14,000-crore) Bank scam case, was on Thursday ordered by a London court to be extradited to India, with the judge ruling that the 49-year-old did have a case to answer before Indian courts. The verdict will, as is the procedure in Britain, be referred to the countrys home secretary, Priti Patel, to authorise deportation at her discretion. But is permitted to appeal against the ruling to the high court. After nearly two years of proceedings since he was arrested at the British capitals well-known shopping precinct of Oxford Street, a district judge at the Westminster Magistrates Court, Samuel Goozee, ruled: I am satisfied that there is evidence upon which Mr Modi could be convicted A prima facie case is establishedHe has a case to answer for in India. The Prime Ministers Office has acknowledged it was tipped off about Nirav Modis uncle (the two had business dealings) as early as July 2016. PNB complained to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about dubious letters of undertaking (LoUs) in February 2017. Yet no action was taken. Choksi fled to the Caribbean island of Antigua, with which India does not have an arrangement. Unlike the owner of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallyas case, where there were doubts about his culpability which have since increased after the CBI and the Enforcement Directorates failure to prosecute the IDBI Bank executives who were accused of colluding with Mallya after more than four years the charges against on the face of it looked more convincing and therefore his defence comparatively weaker. The British Crown Prosecution Service barrister Helen Malcolm, appearing on behalf of the Indian government, had argued operated a Ponzi-like scheme where new LoUs were used to repay old ones. Nirav Modis counsel Clare Montgomery put the onus on the bank by saying it was ill-advised lending. Malcolm provided assurances to the court that Barrack 12 in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where Modi is to be held, meets acceptable human rights standards in terms of its conditions and facilities. A video recording of a cell where he would be incarcerated was presented to the court. As a last ditch effort, Montgomery pleaded her clients mental state (claimed to be depression) made him a suicide risk, if transported to India. She emphasised this issue did not meet the Section 91 threshold of the UKs Act 2003. The judge did not, though, feel sending him back to India would be unjust or oppressive. Nirav Modis examination by an independent specialist cannot, however, be ruled out. Nirav Modi was arrested in March 2019. Contrary to the treatment of Mallya, who was immediately granted bail, Modi has remained locked up ever since, thereby perhaps reflecting the seriousness of the matter. He appeared throughout in the case via videoconferencing from his prison in Wandworth in south-east London. He has up to 14 days to appeal against the order. Nirav Modis other option is to apply for asylum. Reacting to the development, a spokesperson for the CBI said, The todays judgmentis a significant achievement in the context of the CBIs efforts to curb corruption and is a reminder that fugitives, who have eluded the process of law after commission of large value frauds, cannot consider themselves above the process merely because they have changed jurisdictions. The judgment also vindicates the painstaking investigation by the CBI, especially since Nirav Modi had raised various issues with regard to the admissibility of evidence, the fairness of investigation, trial, prison conditions, availability of health facilities in India and extraneous consideration, with a view to divert attention from his own acts, the spokesperson said. Neighbours have told a NSW Supreme Court murder trial of the moment they heard high-pitched screams before a woman was found burned alive on their street. A high-pitched and piercing scream that lasted up to three minutes was followed by a smell a Sydney murder trial witness had never experienced before. 'It was abnormal not the usual car or fire smell, very unusual ... it certainly didn't smell like bushfire or trees or grass,' Alison Stuart told the NSW Supreme Court. 'It was something that I had never smelled before.' Kulwinder Singh (left) pleaded not guilty to murdering Parwinder Kaur (pictured right) in 2013 She had been watching Ready Steady Cook when continuous screams rang out in her Rouse Hill neighbourhood on December 2, 2013. She was giving evidence on Thursday via video link in the trial of 42-year-old Kulwinder Singh who has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 32-year-old wife Parwinder Kaur. Another neighbour Leesa Flanagan heard Singh utter the words 'fire, fire,' followed by, 'I'm a good man, I didn't mean for this to happen'. She could see a burned woman lying on the grassy area outside the house while the man was sitting on some rocks being comforted by another neighbour. Ms Kaur (pictured) was allegedly set on fire by her husband on a Sydney street Ms Flanagan said on Tuesday that he appeared distressed as his hands were moving rapidly and he was speaking very fast. She had been outside in her backyard when she first heard the screams and soon became aware of a petrol smell that reminded her of the 'Parramatta speedway'. Someone yelled for her to get blankets but with not enough time she dialled triple zero instead. Singh (right) has been accused of dousing his wife (left) with petrol before setting her alike Singh (pictured) has pleaded not guilty to his wife's murder in Rouse Hill, Sydney The Crown submits Singh poured petrol on his wife before setting her alight after arguing over money and financial issues. But Singh's barrister, Margaret Cunneen SC, said Parwinder Kaur poured the petrol and set herself on fire to create a 'drama', confident the blaze would be put out. 'There is simply no forensic evidence that supports the crown case,' she said in her opening address. Ten of her fingerprints were found on the petrol tin, but none of her husband's and only her fingerprint was found on the lighter as well as only her DNA. On a visit to India, Singh allegedly told his sister-in-law that if his wife wanted a divorce, he would not agree, saying 'we kill people and nobody can find out'. The trial continues before Justice Natalie Adams. French actor Gerard Depardieu strongly contests rape and sexual assault charges leveled against him, his lawyer said yesterday, and asked that the associated investigation be allowed to proceed away from the public eye. Mr Depardieu, one of Frances most famous and prolific actors, was placed under formal investigation on charges of rape and sexual violence in December last year, a judicial source told Reuters on Tuesday. Mr Depardieu was indicted in December 2020, information that had remained secret since then, in accordance with French law. This information became public, which is regrettable, lawyer Herve Temime said in a statement. Mr Depardieu is and remains presumed innocent. He strongly contests the accusations against him. The investigation must continue in calm, secrecy and respect for Mr Depardieus presumption of innocence. Mr Depardieu (72) has starred in some 170 movies, gaining international recognition with leading roles in the English language comedy Green Card, and in Cyrano de Bergerac. In 2019, French prosecutors said they had dropped an investigation into rape allegations against Mr Depardieu, citing insufficient evidence. Wolcott, N.Y. -- A 33-year-old Wayne County man has been arrested and charged with first-degree criminal sexual act, according to New York State Police. Matthew J. Hagar, of Newark, is accused of committing a sex act with a teen in the town of Wolcott, police said. Hagar was previously convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in 2008, according to New Yorks sex offender registry. He has been arraigned and is being held on $2,000 cash bail or $4,000 bond, police said. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 02:23:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BERLIN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Profits of German reinsurer Munich Re dropped almost 60 percent to 1.2 billion euros (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, a year "marked by high losses in connection with COVID-19," the company said on Thursday. Munich Re's operating result declined similarly as the company announced that pandemic-related losses totaled 3.4 billion euros at its reinsurance sector and 64 million euros at its subsidiary ERGO. "In spite of the tremendous challenges posed by COVID-19, Munich Re closed out 2020 with a clear profit," said Joachim Wenning, chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. Munich Re's core business, the reinsurance division, generated a profit of 694 million euros, down almost 70 percent year-on-year after reaching 2.3 billion euros in fiscal 2019. However, the CEO stressed that the company was "ideally positioned to resolutely exploit opportunities for profitable growth in the improved market environment." Claims linked to natural disasters were "far lower than expected" last year. Hurricane Laura, which devastated parts of U.S. states Texas and Louisiana, and killed 77 people back in August, became the "costliest natural catastrophe" for the company, at 280 million euros. For the fiscal year 2021, Munich Re continually targeted a profit of 2.8 billion euros. Overall, the German reinsurer anticipates financial consequences from COVID-19 to be on a "considerably smaller scale than in 2020." Following the announcement, Munich Re, listed at Germany's benchmark DAX index of the country's 30 major companies, was among the biggest winners, closing at 1.53 percent on Thursday. (1 euro = 1.22 U.S. dollars) Enditem Global automaker Stellantisformed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Frances PSA Group last monthannounced Tuesday that it had indefinitely laid off 150 workers at its Belvidere Assembly Plant in northern Illinois. The plant, roughly 70 miles northwest of Chicago, employs 3,374 hourly and 206 salaried workers across two shifts, according to the latest company data. The layoffs were carried out last Friday, February 20, said Jodi Tinson, a spokesperson for Stellantis, in a statement cited by the Detroit News. In justifying the cuts, the company said in a statement, The Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Ill., is rebalancing its staffing levels as it realigns production to meet global demand for the Jeep Cherokee. Fiat Chrysler's Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois Neither the United Auto Workers union national office nor UAW Local 1268 in Belvidere have commented publicly on the sackings. The layoffs at Belvidere are a swift exposure of the hollowness of claims by Stellantis executives that the 43 billion ($53 billion) merger of its predecessor companies, FCA and PSA, would not entail any job cuts. The company has said it is expecting 5 billion (roughly $6.1 billion) in cost savings annually from the consolidation. As the WSWS warned in an article last month, promises by corporate executives to spare jobs and factories following such a significant tie-up are worthless, as decades of shuttered plants and mass layoffs have shown. Industry analysts are already pointing to Stellantis excess production capacity, particularly at its Italian plants, and the large number of brands (14), several of which perform poorly, in the new firms portfolio. The Belvidere layoffs are an opening shot in what will inevitably be an attempt by the company to increase its profitability through mass job cuts, factory closures and other brutal cost-cutting measures, as the global automakers engage in a fierce struggle to dominate electric vehicles and other new technologies, and with the industry continuing to be roiled by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing semiconductor shortages. Stellantis is scouring its global workforce and operationswith some 410,000 employed at plants on virtually every continentfor inefficiencies, redundancies and any areas it views as performing poorly. On the same day the layoffs at Belvidere were announced, CEO Carlos Tavares, who earned a reputation as a relentless cost-cutter and turnaround specialist while helming PSA Group, met with union representatives in Italy to discuss why average labor costs at the companys Italian plants are higher than their European counterparts, according to media reports. In addition to job cuts, Stellantis is already enacting changes to work rules aimed at ratcheting up the exploitation of workers. The company is moving forward with its implementation of a brutal 12-hour, seven-day schedule for skilled trades at its Sterling Heights Assembly Plant north of Detroit in April, despite provoking an immediate outcry among workers at both SHAP and other plants when the plan was first revealed last October. For its part, Belvidere Assembly has faced years of job cuts, despite a $350 million retooling of the plant by FCA in 2017. Employment has dropped by nearly 2,000 over the last two years. The factory employed 5,464 hourly and salaried workers as recently as February 2019, compared to 3,580 in the companys latest figures. An entire shift was cut in 2019, with over 1,400 workers put out of a job or forced to relocate hundreds of miles away to one of the companys Detroit-area plants. The plant has also been hit by temporary shutdowns and slowed production in recent weeks due to the semiconductor shortage in the auto industry. Belvidere was idled the week of February 8, putting workers on temporary layoff. Workers have raised questions on Facebook about whether the plant will continue to face rolling shutdowns in the coming weeks due to the lack of parts. For several years, auto industry analysts have raised questions about the long-term future of Belvidere Assembly and whether it may eventually be targeted for shutdown, given the plants distance from Detroit, where FCA/Stellantis has consolidated much of its US production. Each round of job cuts has had an especially painful impact on the region. Belvidere Assembly is one of the largest and best-paying manufacturing employers in the Rockford metropolitan area, which has been hammered by decades of deindustrialization, with an unemployment rate regularly outpacing the average in Illinois. A worker at the plant told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, A lot of people are in shock. Theyre having a meeting tomorrow about those who will be laid off indefinitely. Temporary part-time workers (TPTs) have also recently been let go, according to the worker. We dont have part timers either. They told them not to come in until further notice. The US auto companies have brought on large numbers of TPTs and other temporary workers throughout the coronavirus pandemic, as full time workers have either been infected or taken leaves of absence to protect themselves or their families from it. The ability of Ford, General Motors, and FCA to vastly expand their temporary workforces was one of the key concessions included in the 2019 sellout contracts negotiated by the UAW, and over the last year the union has given its full backing to the widespread utilization of temps, who pay union dues but are paid less and have fewer benefits. The UAW has been instrumental in facilitating the decades-long corporate assault on autoworkers wages, benefits and working conditions, with the union working to suppress opposition and sow divisions among workers. In return, the union received millions of dollars in bribes from then-Fiat Chrysler, as revealed in the multi-year federal corruption investigation, for which Stellantis pled guilty just last month. More recently, the UAW worked with the auto companies to engineer the premature reopening of the auto industry in May 2020, in what proved to be the early stages of the deadly pandemic, after plants were forced to be shut down by a wave of wildcat strikes by autoworkers in March. The union served as PR reps for the corporations bogus claims of enacting adequate safety measures, while covering up the spread of COVID-19 throughout the plants over the past year and victimizing workers who spoke out on unsafe conditions. In response, autoworkers have increasingly sought to take matters into their own hands, initiating rank-and-file safety committees, independent of the UAW, at a number of factories in 2020. The committees have asserted that workers health and jobs are non-negotiable rights, demanding the shutdown of non-essential factories during the pandemic and full income protection for workers. To conduct a fight for job security, health, safety and all their other rights, workers at Belvidere should link up with their brothers and sisters at other plants around the country and internationally and initiate their own rank-and-file safety committee. Contact the WSWS today to learn more about forming a committee. There hasn't been much focus on green transition of construction sites, but there's a lot to be gained; a number of companies and institutions have now joined forces to establish a full-scale demo construction site as it may look in a greener future Ambitious climate plans in Denmark and a strong focus on pollution from urban construction sites call for a green transformation of the building and construction sector. The sector accounts for 2.2 per cent of total carbon emissions in Denmark, and is also responsible for a major share of the total particulate pollution from road traffic. Over the next three years, a new project funded by the Eco-Innovation programme (MUDP) under the Danish Environmental Protection Agency will be examining the effect of various climate-friendly initiatives that can promote a green transition for construction sites. The project is called the Future Green Construction Sites and is headed by the Danish Technological Institute and Per Aarsleff A/S. It involves experts from six companies as well as researchers from Aarhus University: "Among other things, we're developing an intelligent construction site model, the Digital Building Twin, that uses real-time sensor data from construction machines to document and model their movements, activity and emissions on site. This will enable us to trace the construction site resources and see if we can improve and optimise workflows to reduce emissions," says Associate Professor Jochen Teizer from the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University. Basically, the project will demonstrate elements of the green construction site of the future through modern technological solutions in interaction with efficient logistics and intelligent operations. For example, new fuels for construction machines will be tested, and this may help reduce emissions and energy consumption. Some machines will be converted to electric power, others will run on alternative fuels, and a few machines will be fitted with a particulate filter and a catalytic reductor. A sensor network will also measure the effects of these initiatives in terms of air quality and noise. "We want to present the industry with evidence of which green initiatives offer most value for money with regard to climate and environmental impact. This will provide the industry with a better basis for making decisions on the green transition," says Lars Overgaard, project manager at Danish Technological Institute. Per Aarsleff A/S is participating in the project with one or more construction sites that have yet to be decided. The building site(s) will showcase what can be achieved, primarily in terms of reductions in carbon emissions, but also reductions in dust and noise from machines, equipment and personnel. "Our projects are almost always in densely built-up urban areas. So it's extra important that we minimise our impact on the environment," says Lars Dithmer, Head of Sustainability at Per Aarsleff A/S, adding that construction site staff should be involved in the project to gain an understanding of how their behaviour affects emissions. Further initiatives to be tested in the project include smart energy infrastructure with solar cells and heat pumps on site huts, supplemented by an energy storage to even out the impacts. The project is being funded by the MUDP and it has a total budget of DKK 27 million. The project started on 1 January 2021 and will run until the end of 2023. The project participants are: Per Aarsleff A/S, Airlabs Denmark, Alumichem A/S, Purefi A/S, Katzenmark, the DCE - Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, Aarhus University, Volvo Construction Equipment and Danish Technological Institute. ### An elderly woman has been found dead and her partner rushed to hospital after a neighbour noticed two people lying motionless inside a house. Police were called to a home in Varsity Lakes, on the Gold Coast, on Thursday at around 1.30pm. Officers found the elderly woman, 82, who was pronounced dead at the scene and her partner, also 82, who was clinging to life. Police have cordoned off the Gerona Circuit home and a crime scene has been established An 82-year-old man was taken to hospital to receive treatment, where he is under police guard. Pictured Paramedics rushed the man to Gold Coast University Hospital with life-threatening injuries. He is currently receiving treatment under police guard and is conscious. Police have cordoned off the Gerona Circuit home and a crime scene has been established. Concerned neighbours were seen speaking to detectives outside the home. Police said they are treating the death as suspicious and are not looking for anybody else at this stage of the investigation. A person had visited the house to check on the elderly couple before immediately contacting police. It's unclear how long the woman had been deceased for. Anybody with information about the incident has been urged to contact police. The death has left the neighbourhood reeling in shock, with residents describing the pair as a 'typical old couple'. 'I just cant believe it, this is the sort of street where everyone says hello,' one woman told the Gold Coast Bulletin. Kamen Nepia, who lives three houses away from the couple, said her family would always wave at them as they passed their home. 'They always had the garage open and were sitting in there. Like typical old people they were always fussing over their house,' she said. More to come. Concerned neighbours were seen speaking to detectives outside the home Credit: CC0 Public Domain Most of us growing up along Canada's East Coast never worried about hurricane season. Except for those working at sea, we viewed hurricanes as extreme events in remote tropical regions, seen only through blurred footage of flailing palm trees on the six o'clock news. Today, a warming ocean spins hurricanes faster, makes them wetter and drives them towards Atlantic Canada and even further inland. Hurricanes, winter storms and rising sea levels will continue to worsen unless we slow climate change. The lifeblood of coastal economies and societies has always been the connection between land and sea, and that's become more evident with climate change. But this isn't just a coastal story anymore. The oceans moderate the world's climate through the absorption of heat and carbon. And just how much carbon the ocean will continue to absorb for us remains an open question. Whatever we do, it must be grounded in our growing wisdom of the deep connections between life on land and in the sea. As Canada commits to a net-zero future and plans its post-COVID economic recovery, innovations and investments could backfire if they reduce the ocean's ability to absorb our excesses. Links between land and sea The ocean has always directly affected the climate on land. The well-being of communities across the globe is directly linked to the ocean's capacity to continue its regulating role of heat and carbon cycles. Drought in the Prairies is tied to water temperatures in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. When temperatures are most extreme, they signal the possible arrival of a "megadrought." In Australia, the occurrence of below-average rainfall, lasting several years, can be predicted by high Indian Ocean temperatures. This dries soils and lowers river flows, resulting in major community impacts such as water restrictions, declines in agricultural production and increased frequency of bushfires. The success of Canada's climate policies will therefore hinge on understanding how ocean processes are changing and society responds. The opportunity is at hand: Canada has committed to net-zero carbon in 2050, and to economic recovery once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. The federal government's throne speech in September highlighted the oceans as critical to economic recovery post-COVID. The "blue economy," mentioned in the throne speech, includes fisheries, aquaculture and offshore wind energy. These two commitments are fundamentally linked: economic recovery and carbon neutrality both depend on the ocean's ability to continue to regulate climate through heat and carbon absorption. But the development of national policies on climate change, both in Canada and internationally, has generally ignored the ocean in climate calculations. Scientists lobbied intensely before the Paris Climate Agreement just to make sure the ocean was mentioned. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the nation after the throne speech on Sept. 23, 2020. Changes to the 'carbon sink' We dare not further neglect the most important global storage depot on Earth: the ocean stores hundreds of times the heat and 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere, and takes up more carbon than all the rainforests combined. Ocean carbon and heat absorption also provide a critical natural timescale against which we can measure our effectiveness in battling climate change. Fluctuations in the ocean "carbon sink"the amount of carbon the ocean can remove from the atmospherewill change the urgency with which we need to act. For example, a waning carbon sink shrinks our window to curb land-based carbon emissions. But a growing sink might give us more time to enact difficult but necessary carbon policies that will have disruptive economic consequences. There is no time for delay, and rewards come quickly; strong scientific evidence demonstrates that ocean processes controlling this absorption can either weaken or strengthen measurably in just a few decades. Heat is absorbed physically from the atmosphere and mixed through the ocean on the scales of millennia. But carbon is absorbed through a complex network of chemical and biological processes, including coastal ecosystems such as kelp, mangroves and seagrasses that sustain local economies. Plankton (the tiny plants and animals that feed everything from mussels to whales) store carbon, so their behaviour and biology become a critical factor in the climate discussion. We urgently need better observations of the ocean's continued role as our heat and carbon sink. Shifting carbon sink The North Atlantic Ocean is the most intense carbon sink in the world: 30 percent of the global ocean's carbon dioxide removal occurs right in Canada's backyard. If we extend Canada's net-zero calculation to our exclusive economic zone (waters within 200 nautical miles of our coast), our net carbon emissions could change significantly. Current estimates suggest including the oceans would reduce net emissions and help us get to net zero faster, but what happens if that changes? We must understand fully the processes controlling the "sink" to make the right climate policy choices. This recalculation could shift our thinking on how to rejuvenate the Canadian economy. Investment in controversial industries such as deep-sea mining, which can supply materials needed for renewable ocean-based energy technologies like those used in offshore wind, can at the same threaten the very ocean ecosystems and food systems on which we depend. Formulating effective policies in the face of these uncertainties is a major challenge. Our path forward must build on our growing understanding of the deep connections between societal and ocean well-being. Canadian researchers, including those at the Ocean Frontier Institute where we are based, are poised to address the fundamental questions about the ongoing role of the ocean in absorbing carbon, and to help develop appropriate policies. These conversations cut across traditional academic boundaries. In the past, ocean research was separated into the natural and applied, the social and human sciences. Now, we all need to work together. The role of the ocean has been neglected for too long and must be drawn to the centre of the carbon discussion as we plot our trajectory to net-zero carbon in 2050. Canada's carbon policies can lead the way internationally if they are grounded in strong, and strongly integrated, natural and social sciences. It is time for the research community to step up in their support. Explore further Fishes contribute roughly 1.65 billion tons of carbon in feces and other matter annually This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. 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. Upstate New York was a hotbed in the 19th century for the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad. Names like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith are familiar. But there were also valiant figures from the region, white and Black, who fought for the end of slavery whose names have faded into history. During this Black History Month, after searching through old newspapers and websites, we take a look back at some of Upstate New Yorks forgotten abolitionists. *** In a note to readers at the start of his 1886 memoir, Rochester abolitionist Thomas James writes, The story of my life is a simple one, perhaps hardly worth telling. With all due respect to Mr. James, he is being far too modest. When he died in 1891, his death was lamented across New York State. The commendable work he did during his long lifetime will influence to a remarkable degree the lives and characters of all with whom he came in contact, said an obituary in the Oswego Palladium.. Born as a slave in Canajoharie in eastern N.Y in 1804, James was a preacher, author, and abolitionist. When he was 17 years old, James remembers being bartered for a yolk of steers, a colt and some additional property. His new owner was brutal. My master worked me hard, and at last undertook to whip me, he wrote. This led me to seek escape from slavery. He escaped westward, using the Erie Canal to land safely near Lockport. Then he crossed the Niagara River into Canada. After three months, he moved to Rochester. He worked as a laborer and wrote that a wish to learn awoke in me. He attended a church school and learned how to read and write. Soon I had learning enough to be placed in charge of the freight business of the warehouse where he worked. James also vowed to make the cause of abolition his lifes work. He helped form an anti-slavery society in Rochester and was one of the founders of a bi-weekly abolition newspaper, The Rights of Man. I was sent out to make a tour of the country, he wrote, obtaining subscriptions for the paper and lecturing against slavery. In 1823, he became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Society and seven years later bought a site and built a small church in Rochester. In 1833, he became an ordained minister. I had been called Tom as a Slave, and they called me Jim at the warehouse, I put both together when I reached manhood, and was ordained as Rev. Thomas James. The bishop of the church of the A.M.E. Church, Christopher Rush, recognized that Syracuse had a growing Black community and was a hot bed of abolition activity. It needed a church of its own, so he sent his best man. The Peoples A.M.E. Zion Church in Syracuse was founded by Thomas James and he was active in the citys Underground Railroad. He worked in Ithaca, Sag Harbor and New Bedford, Massachusetts where he would ordain Frederick Douglass. In New York City, James aided in the case of the mutineers on the slave ship Amistad and later argued a case in front of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts which argued that assigned Blacks to second class seats on a railroad car was wrong. He won. During the Civil War, he worked as a missionary, supervising a contraband camp at Louisville, Kentucky. He started a day school and a Sunday school for the fugitives who flocked there. He continued his missionary work after the war and joined the Topeka Relief Association, helping the thousands of Black migrants settle in the state of Kansas. In 1882, James finally returned to New York and worked at a parish in Lockport before his eyesight failed. He would retire back to Rochester. He finished his short memoir, The Wonderful Eventful Life of Rev. Thomas James, in 1886. He wrote in it that he planned to spend his final years with his wife and two of his four children. With them I sing the old Liberty Minstrel songs, which carry me back to the days when the days when the conscience of the North was first awakened to the iniquities of slavery. Blessed be God that I have lived to see the liberation and the enfranchisement of the people of my color and blood! Our series See all of our profiles of Upstates forgotten abolitionists here. Black History Month Black History Month in Upstate NY: Historical sites, monuments and more Black History Month movies: 20 great films to stream right now on Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, more Peterboros Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum offers free daily videos during Black History Month CNY Jazz brings L.A. to Syracuse for Black History Month cabaret Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle at jcroyle@syracuse.com or call 315-427-3958. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) The Department of Labor and Employment on Wednesday clarified that it did not intend to treat nurses and other healthcare workers as commodities to be traded in exchange for COVID-19 vaccines from the United Kingdom and Germany. The agency stressed that it merely wants to ensure that the additional workers to be deployed would have already been vaccinated using doses from the requesting country. "Ang gusto lamang na tiyakin ay 'yung ipapadalang mga nurses ay nabakunahan na and the vaccine should come from the host country," DOLE public information head Rolly Francia told the media. "Hindi rin intensyon na ituring na commodity ang ating mga nurses para ibarter with whatever material gain that we may [get]." [Translation: We just want to make sure that the nurses who will be deployed have already been vaccinated and the vaccine should come from the host country. It was not our intention to treat our nurses as commodities that we can barter with whatever material gain we may get.] The labor official added that negotiations are still ongoing between Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III and British Ambassador to the Philippines Daniel Pruce. He said the DOLE might also ask the UK to send more vaccines that would cover overseas Filipino workers returning to the Philippines. "Considering na napakagallante or generous ng pamahalaan ng UK, baka sakali, request lang naman na 'yun, kung magbibigay, dagdagan na lang," said Francia. "Halimbawa kung 5,000 'yung request nilang nurses, alangan naman for 5,000 nurses 'yung vaccine na ibibigay nila, baka kaya magbigay na more than that to cover OFWs who have been repatriated to the Philippines." [Translation: Considering that the UK government is gallant and generous, it is only a request, but maybe they can add vaccines more than for the requested 5,000 nurses, to cover the OFWs who have been repatriated to the Philippines.] In an earlier Senate hearing, Bello said the UK and Germany have requested to remove the 5,000 deployment cap that the Philippine government imposed on its healthcare workers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two days ago, International Labor Affairs Bureau Director Alice Visperas said Bello set two conditions for this to happen one of which is for their governments to send coronavirus vaccines to the Philippines. Bello's proposal was met with fierce criticism from an organization of nurses. "We are being traded by the government like export products?" the Filipino Nurses United said in a social media post on Tuesday. Visperas added that the other condition is for the UK to revisit and renew the 2002 and 2003 bilateral labor agreements. She said the decision may be finalized this week. The Duterte administration in April 2020 barred nurses, doctors, and other medical workers from leaving the Philippines to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban was lifted in November, but the government only allowed 5,000 health workers to leave annually. The Philippines has been a labor exporting country since the 1970s, with migrant workers often hailed as modern-day heroes. Remittances from workers overseas boost the local economy and are a big source of disposable income among Filipino families. Interim financial results released today show lower revenues in the first half of FY2021 and the impact of exploration results on cash reserves and profits. The costs of the unsuccessful drilling of Ironbark have been expensed at a cost to the group of $31.4 million. The combined Ironbark exploration expenditure, the substantially unrealised foreign exchange loss and lower production revenue resulted in a loss after tax of $42.3 million, compared to a loss of $1.5 million in the prior corresponding period. The loss attributable to shareholders of New Zealand Oil & Gas was $34.3 million, equivalent to a loss per share of 20.5 cents. Net cash flow from operating activities across the group was $2.3 million, down from $4.4 million in the same period a year ago. The cash balance at 31 December 2020 was $89.8 million, down from $105.2 million a year ago, mainly due to the costs of drilling the Ironbark exploration well off Western Australia and foreign exchange losses of $7.7 million. Revenue for the period was $16.0 million, compared to $20.3 million in the prior corresponding period. The Kupe field contributed revenue of $5.9 million, compared to $5.6 million in the prior corresponding period when revenue was impacted by a planned one-month shut down for maintenance. New Zealand Oil & Gas managing director Andrew Jefferies expects revenue from Kupe to increase in the next financial year when the fruits of a compression project at Kupe will deliver. Production revenues will increase as the performance of the Kupe field returns to prior levels and production commences at the Mahato field in Indonesia following successful development there. The New Zealand Oil & Gas strategy is focused on adding production revenue with development upside. In the first half of this financial year we reported disappointing results from Ironbark. The financial results reflect that outcome, as expected. Overhead costs remain restrained. We have exited low priority Indonesian assets that were directly held a year ago. We continue to explore opportunities for growth in markets we understand. Neighbouring permits offshore in the Canterbury & Great South basins have been relinquished by the holders; reviewing our activity has now resulted in the relinquishment of the Clipper permit. Its fair to say that the future of exploration is outside New Zealand, in jurisdictions where oil and gas remains an important source of energy, including for many products that are imported into New Zealand, Mr Jefferies said. Please see the links below for details: Appendix 1 New Zealand Oil & Gas Half-Year Result Financial Statements for six months to 31 December 2020 Source: New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. 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Related News: 1st June 2021 Morning Report Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Update Following Canterbury Flooding Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 31st May 2021 Morning Report The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) Media Reporting Regarding Potential Class Action Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Forecast Milk Price Update General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Continues on Its Strong Growth Path Third Age Health Services Limited (NZX: TAH) Announces Preliminary Full Year Result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) Better Positioned for Future Growth Green Cross Health Limited (NZX: GXH) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 Legislation enforcing mandatory quarantine for travellers into Ireland from certain countries has been criticised as half-hearted (Brian Lawless/PA) The Governments mandatory quarantine legislation has been criticised by opposition parties as half-hearted and unfit for purpose. A number of parties want to see tougher legislation introduced for international travellers arriving into Ireland. The opposition has made calls for mandatory quarantining to apply to all arrivals, however this has been resisted by Government. The Health Bill will introduce mandatory quarantine at a Government-designated facility for people arriving from 20 countries where Covid-19 has been flagged as high risk. Mandatory quarantine will also apply to people arriving into Ireland without a negative PCR test. Eamon Ryan just doesn't get it. This government is losing the trust of the people and putting us all at greater risk. We need mandatory hotel quarantine for everyone who comes in for non-essential reasons. No more dithering or half measures! a @PearseDoherty #DAil pic.twitter.com/WLSmU56BKP Sinn FAin (@sinnfeinireland) February 25, 2021 Minister for Heath Stephen Donnelly told the Dail on Wednesday that 1,000-3,500 people travel into Ireland each day, with around 10,500 arriving into Dublin Airport last week. On Thursday, Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty said people would find those figures concerning and disturbing. He added: It makes no sense to people that they cant travel beyond five kilometres, yet those who travel to Ireland on their holidays can arrive in the State virtually unimpeded. Yet that is the policy that your Government intends to pursue with the legislation that is before this House, and that youre pressing this afternoon. What you intend to introduce is mandatory hotel quarantining for arrivals from 20 countries, only two of which have direct flights to Ireland. So rather than taking meaningful action to prevent the importation of new strains, or variants, youre putting in place a system that we know is unfit for purpose. Its absolutely bizarre, minister. It is a dereliction of your duty. Sinn Fein has proposed an amendment to the Bill which would see all arrivals, irrespective of which country they travel from, subject to mandatory hotel quarantine for non-essential travel. Mr Doherty also said mandatory quarantine in a home is farcical and enforceable. Expand Close A Garda checkpoint at Dublin Airport (Brian Lawless/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A Garda checkpoint at Dublin Airport (Brian Lawless/PA) Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said some 300 people have been fined at Dublin Airport for travelling for non-essential purposes. Mr Ryan repeated previous comments that gardai are carrying out checks on peoples homes to ensure they are in quarantine. But Antionette Cunningham, general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, said sergeants and inspectors have disputed that. Mr Ryan also defended the Governments attempts to clamp down on international travel, particularly those who are arriving into Ireland. He said: Were following the best advice, both World Health Organisation and ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control set out its advice last Monday week, and we are following that pretty much to the letter. I think thats appropriate. We share this island with two jurisdictions and that does present certain characteristics in terms of how we manage travel. Estimates for where we would be by the end of February was between 200-400 cases a day. But we know figure is disappointingly higher. There is a lack of strategy for reducing numbers and Govt is instead relying on people to do more of the same. @CathMurphyTD #LeadersQuestions pic.twitter.com/PEtIQxQBi0 Social Democrats (@SocDems) February 25, 2021 Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said people are not convinced by the half-hearted quarantine system which she said has been introduced at a snails pace. Ms Murphy was also critical of the Governments revised Living with Covid-19 plan announced on Tuesday. The strategy announced for reducing the numbers appears to lack a strategy and instead relies on people doing more of the same, she told the Dail. People are losing hope, theyre dejected, and increasingly feel the Government is not in control. Theres a half-hearted approach, a pat on the head keep with the Level Five strategy and its not convincing people. We need to see an actual rollout plan for the vaccine as well. I know that depends on supply, but surely there is an indicative plan, a wall planner on a weekly and a monthly basis, about who gets the vaccine and when. The wreckage of TWA Flight 800 from New York to Paris is due to be destroyed 25 years after the doomed plane exploded mid-air and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 230 people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Monday announced its decision to decommission and destroy the reconstructed Boeing 747 aircraft as the lease is set to expire on the Virginia warehouse where it is stored. TWA Flight 800 sent shockwaves around the globe when it blew up in the air just off the coast of Long Island around 10 minutes after it took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 17 1996. Federal investigators initially suggested it was the work of a bomb and eyewitnesses said they had seen a missile strike the aircraft before it burst into flames. An investigation lasted more than four years and cost $40 million making it the longest and most expensive probe in aviation history, as the wreckage was pulled from the Atlantic Ocean and pieced back together to find the answers. The NTSB ruled in 2000 that the explosion was caused by an electrical failure which had ignited a fuel tank. Ever since, the reconstructed plane has been housed in the 30,000 square foot hangar at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Virginia, where it has been used to teach aviation experts and has served as a memorial site for the families of those killed in the tragedy. The wreckage of TWA Flight 800 from New York to Paris is due to be destroyed 25 years after the doomed plane exploded mid-air and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 230 people on board. The reconstructed part of the TWA flight 800, Boeing 747 jet in a hanger at Calverton, New York The partially reconstructed plane in 1999. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Monday announced its decision to decommission and destroy the reconstructed Boeing 747 aircraft as the lease is set to expire on the Virginia warehouse where it is stored The NTSB said it plans to stop use of the wreckage from July 7 as the lease expires on the hangar and technological advances mean the reconstruction is less relevant to training purposes today. '[It] has been used in the NTSB's accident investigation training courses for nearly 20 years,' the NTSB said. 'However, advances in investigative techniques such as 3-D scanning and drone imagery, lessen the relevance of the large-scale reconstruction in teaching modern investigative techniques.' The reconstructed aircraft will be thoroughly documented using various 3-D scanning techniques to create a historical record before it is dismantled and destroyed by a federal contractor sometime before December 2022. The agency said the decision to destroy it was part of an agreement with the victims' families that the wreckage would never be put on public display and would only be used as a training resource. NTSB Managing Director Sharon Bryson said the families of the 230 people killed in the explosion had been notified. 'Our Transportation Disaster Assistance division and I have connected with representatives of TWA Flight 800 family groups to help ensure families of those who perished on TWA Flight 800 learned of our decision directly from the NTSB before our public announcement,' said Bryson. The US Coast Guard picks up debris at the scene of the crash of TWA flight 800 Part of a wing from a TWA Boeing 747 floats in the waters just off Long Island following the doomed flight Families of the 230 people killed in the crash embrace at a memorial mass for the victims of TWA Flight 800 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York in 1997 Bryson said the reconstruction had led to important changes being made to the safety of aircraft. 'The investigation of the crash of TWA Flight 800 is a seminal moment in aviation safety history,' she said. 'From that investigation we issued safety recommendations that fundamentally changed the way aircraft are designed.' Airlines are now required to pump inert gas into fuel tanks to make them less flammable. As well as being used for training, the wreckage has also been a place for the victims' families to visit to pay tribute to their loved ones over the years. The site has never been open to the public but families often visit and leave flowers, Heidi Snow Cinader told the New York Times. Cinader, whose fiance Michel Breistroff died in the crash, said the site had been 'comforting' to many family members. 'It's been a very important resource for all of us who went through it,' she said. 'And I feel like it served a very valuable purpose.' A total of 212 passengers and 18 crew members boarded TWA Flight 800 at JFK on July 17 1996. TWA Flight 800 sent shockwaves around the globe when it blew up in the air just off the coast of Long Island around 10 minutes after it took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 17 1996. The partially reconstructed plane Federal investigators initially suggested it was the work of a bomb and eyewitnesses said they had seen a missile strike the aircraft before it burst into flames. The NTSB ruled in 2000 that the explosion was caused by an electrical failure which had ignited a fuel tank The plane had landed that afternoon from Athens without incident. It took off at 8:19 p.m. from New York on the flight path to Paris. Just 12 minutes later, it exploded about 10 miles south of Long Island. There were no survivors. The recovery of the bodies began the next day, taking 10 months before all 230 victims were identified. The day after the explosion, federal officials said they believed the likely cause was an explosive device. The crash had been seen by hundreds of people enjoying a summer evening along the coast, many of whom said they had seen a missile strike the plane. A 1997 memorial for the victims. Ever since, the reconstructed plane has been housed in the 30,000 square foot hangar at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Virginia, where it has been used to teach aviation experts and has served as a memorial site for the families Of the 755 witnesses the FBI went on to interview, at least 258 described seeing a streak of light before it exploded. Almost 100 said they saw the streak if light travel from the Earth up towards the aircraft. The wreckage was pulled from the water and pieced together to determine the cause behind the tragedy. The probe finally concluded four years later that the explosion was likely caused by an electrical failure. Pregnant women may have died because their partners were banned from attending hospital when they gave birth, according to a damning report. Covid-19 was the leading indirect cause of maternal death during the first wave of the pandemic, a study by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) found. Some women had died alone in hospital, in other cases they delayed seeking care or discharged themselves early. The HSIB examined 19 deaths in England between March and May, when visitors were only allowed in later stages of labour. Covid-19 was the leading indirect cause of maternal death during the first wave of the pandemic, a study by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) found (stock photo) 'Visiting restrictions at the time meant the women were unable to be with family members during their admissions,' the authors wrote. Expectant fathers were unable to say goodbye to the mother of their child, which 'added to the families' distress'. Grieving relatives said the fact they could not visit in hospital meant they had been unable to advocate for their loved one. The visiting rules have now been relaxed. Clinical advisor Dr Louise Page said the HSIB recognised the 'extraordinary pressure on NHS maternity services'. But she added: 'The impact of a maternal death on the family is profound and devastating.' GOVERNMENT received a total of $7.37 billion from oil, gas and quarrying/mining companies in fiscal 2018, with the largest payment of $2 billion coming from majority State-owned National Gas Company (NGC). However, for the period 2019 to 2020, unaudited figures indicate a declining trend in revenue. For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit held a meeting on Monday with Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki, where they discussed means of boosting bilateral relations in different fields to serve common interests. During their ninth meeting in Cairo, Abul-Gheit and Faki tackled the AU-AL partnership and efforts to implement decisions taken at the 4th Arab-African summit held in Malabo in 2016, according to a statement issued by the two sides. They also discussed the latest developments at the Arab and African levels and agreed to intensify efforts aimed at supporting Libyan parties to resume the peaceful settlement of their country's crisis. They also voiced their support for Sudan and Somalia to complete the political transition period and restore stability, respectively. The two sides also discussed the latest developments in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and agreed to hold the tenth meeting for general cooperation between the Arab League and the AU Commission in 2022 in Addis Ababa. Abul-Gheit praised the AUs stance in support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Faki, meanwhile, said the AU will continue to support the Palestinian people to get their freedom and have an independent Palestinian state. Short link: Discussion Will Focus on Decarbonizing the Maritime Supply Chain EnTrust Global to Sponsor the Event March 1 to 5 Julian Proctor, Portfolio Manager of EnTrust Globals Blue Ocean 4Impact Fund (BO 4Impact), will join Elisabeth Munck af Rosenschold, Head of Supply Chain and Sustainability at IKEA, Sadan Kaptanoglu, President of BIMCO, Jeremy Nixon, Chief Executive of Ocean Network Express Co., and Craig Jasienski, Group Chief Executive at Wallenius Wilhelmsen at The Economist World Ocean Summit panel entitled Shipping: Collaborating across industry and supply chains to reduce emissions. Blue Ocean 4Impact is part of EnTrust Globals $2+ billion maritime investment platform and is launching one of the first companies that will own and lease environmentally-advanced vessels and other marine infrastructure assets to large corporate operators and end-users, in order to help reduce carbon emissions and other pollution generated by the ocean economy. The Summit is the pre-eminent global event bringing together the widest cross-section of ocean stakeholders each year, from business to government to civil society. Its goal is to change the way business is done in the ocean and accelerate collaboration between stakeholders to fashion the blue economy. To register for the Summit and access EnTrust Globals virtual booth, please visit https://www.woi.economist.com/events/. About EnTrust Global EnTrust Global is a leading alternative asset management firm with more than $18 billion in total assets under management. Co-founded in 1997 by Chairman and CEO Gregg S. Hymowitz following his investment career at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., the firm manages assets for over 500 institutional investors representing 47 countries and has approximately $10 billion in customized strategic partnerships. EnTrust Global offers a diverse range of alternative investment opportunities across strategies, including private debt and real assets as well as core hedge funds and co-investments. EnTrust Global has 11 offices worldwide and is headquartered in New York and London. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005745/en/ Have You Seen This? Baby calmed by Imperial March 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. 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. The San Francisco queer bar Virgils Sea Room has permanently closed after eight years in business, the latest in a string of queer-bar closures in the city. The reason for the closure was simple, said owner Lila Thirkield. At the beginning of the pandemic, she promised herself shed call it quits if her personal financial losses related to the bars expenses crossed a certain threshold. I kept hoping things would get better before we hit that number, she said. But I hit the number. Named for Thirkields godfather, Virgils was a laid-back welcoming place with nautical trappings and a large, colorful backyard, directly adjacent to another queer bar, El Rio. It was neither a fancy cocktail spot nor a dive, with drinks that were both well-made and fairly priced. That was important to Thirkield, who had seen forces of gentrification contribute to the closure of her previous bar, the Lexington Club, which closed in 2015. The loss of Virgils Sea Room is another hit for the citys LGBTQ community. Since the pandemic began, the queer bars Badlands and the Stud have shut down. Now, the SoMa drag bar Oasis has launched a telethon fundraiser; its owner says it needs $100,000 to survive. Brant Ward / The Chronicle 2014 Despite the fact that its backyard might have made sense for outdoor dining, Virgils never reopened after shelter-in-place orders forced all bars to close in March. She also had mixed feelings about the possibility of exposing her staff and her customers to the coronavirus. This whole thing is like constantly being offered this platter of bad choices, she said. She was able to renegotiate her rent three separate times, and she got her utility bills under $40 per month, down from the typical $1,000. Yet even when it looked possible in June that bars without food service might be able to reopen in San Francisco, I could not figure out a way to temporarily open and lose less money than I was losing by keeping it closed, Thirkield said. The point turned out to be moot; bars turned out not to be able to reopen after all, the result of an eleventh-hour decision. In a way, Thirkield has been through this before, with the Lexington Club. That became a national news story, since the Lex, as it was called, was at the time the last lesbian bar in San Francisco. The ending of the Lex was such a public thing, Thirkield said. They were filming a documentary about it. One thing thats nice with this is I have a minute to have my own personal experience with it. I have some space to just be really sad. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle 2015 While shes sad to see queer bars in the city closing, she also knows that the narrative isnt quite so simple as it might first appear. After the Lexington closed, people mourned the loss of queer space, but then places like Oasis and Jolenes opened, along with a new version of the Eagle Creek Saloon. Thirkield doesnt know whats next for her professionally, but she isnt leaving the Bay Area. Knowing her, there could be another bar in store a third act to follow Virgils and the Lex. When there are downturns, the people on the margins suffer the most the lesbian bar, the Latino bar, the drag bar, she continued. But at the same time Im optimistic. Because new queer spaces will always open. Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Flanagan Counselor Education Clinic answers the increased need for mental health services during the pandemic Providing mental health support during the pandemic: Clinic Faculty Director Rebecca Sheffield (top left) meets via Zoom with student directors of the Flanagan Counselor Education Clinic (clockwise from top right) Leila Warraich, Philippa Chin and Kaitlin Hinchey. Courtesy screenshot Photo - of - Hide Caption With its new name comes new changes for the Flanagan Counselor Education Clinic. Thanks to a $2 million gift in 2020 from Professor Emeritus S. Stuart Flanagan, William & Marys expanded counseling training clinic now encompasses the New Horizons Family Counseling Center, the New Leaf Clinic, and a new service called the Telehealth Team, making services more accessible than ever. The clinics updated structure is just one of the ways the clinic is becoming a one-stop shop for mental health services in the community. While New Horizons works with families, New Leaf works with undergraduate William & Mary students and clients from the greater Williamsburg community who have been referred for substance use issues. The telehealth team helps the clinics reach more people beyond the local area to serve the entire state of Virginia. Now that these projects are working together under the umbrella of the Flanagan Counselor Education Clinic, they have found ways to make the transition to telehealth more seamless and reach out to the community to spread word about their services. As an all-encompassing counselor education clinic, we are now working side-by-side to ensure successful operation of a well-established mental health service that greatly benefits the school and local community, Nathaniel Mason, student co-director of New Leaf says. The partnership between the projects has helped students and supervisors in both New Horizons and New Leaf support each other through their own pandemic experiences, problem-solve obstacles that come up in telehealth counseling and share administrative tasks, allowing student interns to have more behind-the-scenes experience that will help them in their professional development. The clinics had to adjust quickly to internal and external demands when schools and offices closed due to COVID-19 and they were no longer able to see clients in-person. At that time, New Horizons and New Leaf relied on their client base from school referrals, but as students were no longer in school it became more difficult to reach out to families and students who needed mental health services. In an effort to increase accessibility, the clinics began marketing their services more broadly and changed the traditional referral system to one that encouraged self-referrals. Not only is it easier for clients to access services, but the clinic is offering new programs tailored to people who need more support because of newfound challenges brought on by the pandemic. One of the programs is a teacher support program, which aims to serve about 50-60 teachers from Williamsburg and surrounding counties through telehealth sessions. When Rebecca Sheffield, faculty clinic director, approached Kaitlin Hinchey and Leila Warraich, the student directors of the New Horizons team, about supporting teachers and school staff during this time, they knew they had to take action, Warraich says. We had been hearing from school counselors and also from the families that we serve about how overwhelmed they saw the teachers and school staff in our community. Because we have partnerships with the local school districts, we could very much see the need. Sheffield recognized the need for teachers to get extra support because their work was changing in a big way. They also have families and homes, Sheffield says. What better stream of service than to provide help to those who are supporting us and our families during this time? The Youth and Family Program is another project that New Horizons has been offering for several years with support from the Williamsburg Health Foundation, but since the transition to telehealth counseling, the program has changed to specifically help families with pandemic-related struggles. Because many families were spending more time with each other than ever before, there were new communication problems that were fracturing families. When adapting the curriculum, Sheffield and her team asked themselves what stressors the pandemic brought on and decided to make the group for parents, where they provided strategies on how to communicate with their kids about homework and coping with isolation. We have had families from all walks of life in these group sessions, people who never would have talked to one another in another context, which creates such a strong sense of community, Sheffield says about the advantages of the online support group. Although many of the changes the clinic has made were an unforeseen response to the pandemic, the clinic wants some of those changes to stick around even after the pandemic. The community partnerships have allowed the clinic to keep its finger on the pulse of the community and its needs while the expanded services allow more William & Mary counseling students to gain experience working with diverse clients based on their interests. New Horizons has been established for a long time and the leadership has great ideas about community outreach, Mason says. New Leaf, on the other hand, focuses more on individual counseling, which provides New Horizons an opportunity to possibly refer clients requiring individual clinical attention. Talk about a comprehensive and holistic way of helping clients! As a co-director for the last two years, Warraich was involved in the clinic transition since the start of the pandemic. Not even a year since the clinic began making all of its changes, she notes the feat that it was for the clinic, which is entirely student-run, to adapt services to families in a much-needed time as well as continuing to serve clients while student interns were also adjusting to the new normal. We really made the jump to reaching families in creative ways to let them know we were here for them, Warriach says. But we also added and adapted services, including providing telehealth family counseling, groups targeted to parenting in the pandemic, and now our new service in supporting teachers and school staff. As an emerging counselor educator, this has also been an incredible learning opportunity for me making me a stronger clinician and educator." The clinic is currently open and accepting referrals for any families, teachers or school staff who need extra support. Reach out at NHFCC@wm.edu. WB elections 2021: BJP president JP Nadda visits Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's residence at Naihati India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Kolkata, Feb 25: BJP chief JP Nadda on Thursday visited the ancestral house of novelist and poet Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay at Naihati in North 24 Parganas district. Accompanied by state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, and party MP Arjun Singh, Nadda went to the house, where Chattopadhyay was born and paid floral tributes to him. Nadda said he was fortunate to visit the birthplace of the great novelist who inspired people through his works during India's quest for freedom. 'Vande Mataram', the national song of the country, was penned by Chattopadhyay. No other political party is a match to BJP: JP Nadda "His work instilled self-esteem among the people of the country and also stirred the spirit of nationalism to take out India from the clutches of colonial rule," he said. The BJP president said that the novelist's creations will inspire the saffron party to usher in 'Sonar Bangla' (golden Bengal). He also visited the museum adjacent to the house and saw the archival documents. Nadda also said icons like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, Chattopadhyay and Syama Prasad Mukherjee, had all given a sense of direction to the country. Later, he left for lunch at the residence of a jute mill worker. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News The BJP chief during his one-day visit to West Bengal on Thursday launched 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' (target to build golden Bengal) manifesto crowdsourcing campaign to seek suggestions from more than two crore people in the state ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 15:56 [IST] Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research Dubendorf, St. Gallen und Thun, 25.02.2021 - Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the partner institute Empa have started a joint initiative called SynFuels. The goal is to develop a process for producing kerosene from renewable resources. In this way liquid fuel mixtures of the highest quality, which would allow the most residue-free combustion possible and thus be suitable for aircraft propulsion, should be obtainable using carbon dioxide and hydrogen from renewable resources. Mobility without fossil fuels in aviation too: SynFuels, the new joint initiative of Empa and PSI, aims to make an important contribution towards this goal. Over the next three years, the two Swiss research institutes will jointly search for practical ways of linking carbon dioxide and hydrogen to form longer-chain molecules and thus produce synthetic fuels. An ambitious but worthwhile target is to make these fuels suitable even for an aircraft engine, explains Thomas J. Schmidt, head of the Energy and Environment Division at PSI: "Aviation fuels are the fuels with the highest quality. If we can manage to produce them from renewable resources, then we will also be able to synthesise all other kinds of fuel." For the foreseeable future, there's no way around kerosene in aviation be it fossil-based or synthetically produced. Kerosene is a mixture of hydrocarbons with very precisely specified chemical and physical properties that must be strictly maintained to ensure the economy and safety of flight operations. A synthetic fuel must of course have the same properties. "A synthesis process that produces such fuels from renewable resources is thus highly sought after," says Brigitte Buchmann, head of the Mobility, Energy, and Environment Department at Empa. The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) is funding the SynFuels programme with 6.2 million Swiss francs over the next three years. Fuels from renewable sources Carbon dioxide and hydrogen are the starting materials for the manufacturing process to be developed. The carbon dioxide comes from various sources, such as from biomass, directly from ambient air, or from industrial manufacturing processes such as cement production. The hydrogen required, in turn, is generated from water with the help of renewable electric power. The liquid fuel is not synthesized in a single step, but via one or more intermediates such as methane, carbon monoxide, methanol, ethylene, or dimethyl ether. During the course of the SynFuels initiative, the researchers want to determine the advantages these different production methods offer as well as the challenges they pose. A special focus is being placed on achieving better selectivity in the synthesis of both intermediates and products. Analyses to determine the synthesised fuel's ecological footprint, its potential contribution to greenhouse gas reduction in Switzerland, and the economic viability of the manufacturing process are also important parts of the project. Ideal partners for innovation "Empa and PSI complement each other wonderfully in working towards these ambitious goals," says Thomas J. Schmidt. PSI is mainly building on its experience with the test platform ESI, short for Energy System Integration. ESI tests renewable energy alternatives in their complex interaction. "The production of liquid fuels is a natural extension of something we have been investigating at PSI for a long time: the synthesis of renewable methane," Schmidt explains. Methane gas is the simplest hydrocarbon that can be produced from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Empa, too, has been engaged with using renewable energy to produce fuels for some time. Switzerland's first hydrogen filling station was created as part of its mobility demonstrator, called move. In addition, the plant is currently being expanded to include a new methanation process. "The collaboration of our two institutions allows us to put more emphasis on liquid hydrocarbons," says Brigitte Buchmann. "These are essential for mobility without fossil fuels especially in the air or on the water." Molecular helpers Catalysts substances that activate a chemical reaction, or make it possible in the first place, without being consumed in the process are the key to the success of the project. At Empa as well as at PSI, researchers are investigating various catalysts and processes that enable the stepwise conversion of carbon dioxide and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons on the molecular level. The catalysts are being used in chemical as well as electrochemical processes. The Swiss Light Source SLS will be an important aid in the SynFuels programme, Thomas J. Schmidt explains. "With measurements at SLS, we will precisely characterise the catalysts and the reactions carried out to understand which can deliver the best results." With this large research facility, the collaborators can gain insights into the reaction mechanisms and investigate, for example, how the catalysts change during their operation and how these changes affect the range of products. Address for enquiries Dr. Bjorn Niesen Empa Research Focus Area Energy Tel. +41 58 765 42 62 bjoern.niesen@empa.ch Dr. Peter Jansohn Paul Scherrer Institut Platform for Energy System Integration (ESI) Tel. +41 56 310 28 71 peter.jansohn@psi.ch Press Contact Stephan Kalin Communications Empa +41 58 765 49 93 redaktion@empa.ch Dr. Mirjam van Daalen Communications PSI +41 56 310 56 74 mirjam.vandaalen@psi.ch Publisher Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research http://www.empa.ch New Jersey could be on its way to barring state and county prosecutors from holding elected office until they are three years out of the job a proposal partly inspired by the careers of politicians like former Gov. Chris Christie and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. State Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, a longtime Christie critic, said his bill which passed the state Senate this week is needed because prosecutors have enormous power in deciding which cases their offices pursue and that power can be used to get the most publicity rather than justice. If you dont think this happens, you probably still accept that Chris Christie didnt know anything about Bridgegate, Codey said. Christie and Giuliani, both Republicans, saw their prominence rise as they prosecuted high-profile cases during their time as federal prosecutors. As New Jerseys U.S. attorney from 2002-08, Christie secured more than 100 corruption convictions, but some Democrats accused him of choosing and not choosing certain cases to increase his fame as he eyed the governors office. Codey, a former governor, stressed he didnt start working on this bill specifically because of the ex-governor but said Christie and Giuliani are among numerous examples. We want to get the message out: This is wrong, Codey told NJ Advance Media. A decent, honest prosecutor wants nothing to do with that. Technically, the measure wouldnt have affected Christie at all had it been around when he ran for governor, or Giuliani, for that matter. It would not prohibit federal prosecutors. The bill (S3242) would bar the state attorney general, the first assistant state attorney general, all county prosecutors, assistant prosecutors, and legal assistants to prosecutors to hold elected public office in New Jersey not only while they hold that job but for three years after they leave the post. It would also not apply to municipal prosecutors or their assistants. It also would affect current state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, the top law-enforcement official in Democratic incumbent Gov. Phil Murphys administration. Grewal has not publicly said he is interested in public office, but his name as been floated as a potential future candidate for governor. He told NJ Advance Media in January that he wants to finish out his current term as attorney general and hopes Murphy will re-nominate him for another four years if the governor is re-elected in November. Grewal also said hes not thinking about another job. Once you start thinking about your next opportunity, you lose focus of the work ahead of you, he said at the time. The Democratic-controlled state Senate passed the bill 38-0 on Monday. It must now pass the Democratic-controlled state Assembly before Murphy would decide whether to sign it into law. But Rutgers Law professor Ronald Chen questions whether such a law would even be considered constitutional if challenged in court. I dont think its a slam dunk either way, but barring someone from running for political office is a form of denial of civil rights that would, I think, at least require a heightened level of scrutiny and justification under constitutional norms to ensure the state has a compelling interest in imposing the ban, Chen told NJ Advance Media. I could understand a law barring current prosecutors from being candidates for office because of the danger of conflict of interest in misusing prosecutorial powers to advance the candidacy, but a former prosecutor no longer has those powers so that justification would not be relevant, he added. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. 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Some of the most important features of 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP are listed below: Available in CHF, EUR, and USD: FiCAS has made its ETP tradeable in EUR and USD, in addition to CHF. With the addition of the EUR and USD, investors in 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP residing outside Switzerland now have more seamless access. FiCAS has made its ETP tradeable in EUR and USD, in addition to CHF. With the addition of the EUR and USD, investors in 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP residing outside now have more seamless access. Regulated fiat environment: 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP is traded on a regulated SIX Swiss Exchange and the securities are held with regulated custodians such as Swiss banks. 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP is traded on a regulated SIX Swiss Exchange and the securities are held with regulated custodians such as Swiss banks. Accessible for everyone: 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It is intended for retail, professional, and institutional investors and can be traded through banks or brokers. 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It is intended for retail, professional, and institutional investors and can be traded through banks or brokers. Astonishing liquidity: Unlimited creation and redemption of ETPs at the indicated net asset value, regardless of the Bid/Ask value displayed. For further information on FiCAS or the 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP, visit www.ficas.com or follow us on Twitter @Ficas_ltd. About FiCAS FiCAS is an investment company that offers investors the opportunity to diversify their portfolios by gaining exposure to the new class of crypto-assets through easy-to-access, liquid, products managed 24/7. The discretionary investment strategy currently being implemented at FiCAS has proved its worth and its performance over the past 4 years has been audited. The FiCAS team is dedicated to providing its customers with outstanding performance as well as, compliance, safety, and innovation. Its objective is to provide investors with cost-effective, easy-to-access, and risk-managed crypto investment solutions, drawing on a cumulative of more than 300 years of experience in traditional finance and a total expertise of more than 100 years in crypto finance. About 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP The 15 FiCAS Active Crypto ETP is the world's first actively managed exchange-traded product (ETP) featuring cryptocurrencies as underlying assets, listed on SIX Swiss Exchange. The discretionary ETP, issued by Bitcoin Capital AG and managed by FiCAS AG, trades the top 15 cryptocurrencies with the aim to deliver enhanced returns for clients via active trading and risk management. The ETP is available to both retail and professional investors in Switzerland. Liechtenstein, and in the EU to purchase through any broker or financial institution with access to the SIX Swiss Exchange. For Media Enquiries contact [email protected] Disclaimers Past performance, returns generated through FiCAS and its founder's management strategy and correct price predictions by FiCAS's founder are not necessarily indicative of future results. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. This communication does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. Any securities pursuant to this communication have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or under the applicable securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons except pursuant to an applicable exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. The investment product described in this press release is intended for retail, professional and institutional investors in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and in the European Union. www.ficas.com SOURCE FiCAS AG Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Pretty much everyone over the age of 5 knows never to stick their fingers in an outlet or poke a fork into a toaster, but beyond that, most of us don't really expect to suffer a serious electrical shock at home. But there's no doubt those risks exist, and it's important to be aware of electrical hazards both indoors and outside. Each year, more than 300 Americans die by electrocution, while thousands more experience nonfatal electric shock and burn injuries, according to the Electrical Safety Foundation International, a nonprofit organization in Rosslyn, VA, that promotes electrical safety at home and in the workplace. Here are some of the most common electrical hazards and how to prevent them. Understand electrical shock versus electrocution Its common to use these terms interchangeably, but there is a life-and-death difference between them, says ESFI President Brett Brenner. When you say 'electrocuted,' that means it's fatal, explains Brenner. But you can be shocked or burned in many ways. People don't realize that electricity is uniquely dangerous; it can really hurt you. Levels of shock depend on the energy power, he adds. For instance, 120-volt outlets are the norm in North America. If you touch a wire, it will cause a tingling sensation in your hand, but it probably wont hurt you. But with 240 volts or higher, the situation can become more dangerous. Depending on how much energy is in the environment or the device you're touching, that will cause some people's bodies to lock up," Brenner says. "Electricity can stop your heart or mess with signals to your brain. You can't let go, because you cant control your muscles anymore. That's usually when you get electrocuted. Dont overload or overuse extension cords Extension cords are convenient, but many homeowners use them improperly, says Brenner. People think they last foreverthey plug them in and forget them. But extension cords are only intended for temporary use, which means under 30 days, cautions Brenner. Depending on the amount of energy used, extension cords can heat up and deteriorate, he adds, so avoid running them behind sofas, underneath beds, or, worse, inside wallswhich can be a fire hazard if you drive a nail through drywall and accidentally pierce that wire. Power strips, on the other hand, dont typically have a long cord and are more robust, says Brenner. But that doesn't mean you can run multiple extension cords off a power strip and leave that plugged in, he warns. Bradley Beck, owner of Alto Home Inspection in Buffalo, NY, recently found three 20-foot extension cords strung together and hard-wired to an electric garage door opener. Theyd mounted it to the ceiling and plugged into an outlet. Another homeowner did the same thing for a wood-burning stove with a fan built in, says Beck. Bottom line: If you need another outlet, call a licensed electrician and get one permanently wired and installed properly. Know the difference between grounded and ungrounded outlets One of the most common electrical hazards Beck sees are ungrounded outlets. Grounding wires protects us from getting shocked. Ungrounded outlets pose a big risk, because certain equipment such as lamps can have wiring problems. If they do, the human body acts as a path for electricity instead of the grounding wire, he explains. Beck also finds three-prong outlets that arent actually groundeda modern electrical plate hides the old setup behind the wall. He suggests spending a few dollars on an outlet tester, which can be found at most home centers. They have indicators that tell you if the outlet is wired correctly, and if there's an open ground or missing ground, says Beck. You may have noticed that your bathroom or kitchen outlets near the sink have ground-fault circuit interrupters, or GFCIs. These outlets detect and prevent excess voltage by shutting themselves down. GFCIs can wear out over time, and Beck notes that most outlet testers also have a GFCI testing function. Save your DIY skills for something else Beck has seen lots of shoddy electrical repairsoften done by DIYers or local handymenincluding reverse outlet wiring, where red and black wires were crossed instead of being paired. That could lead to metal objects or lamps being electrified, which is super dangerous, says Beck. Or you might think youre being safe when installing a ceiling fan, but accidents can happen. If you switch off a breaker, tell everyone in your household so that nobody turns it back on, which can lead to your getting shocked. And if you live in an older home with two-prong electrical outlets, dont assume you can snap off the grounding pin from a three-prong plug. People assume that because you can plug it in, you should, and that's just not the case, says Brenner. That's true even if you've done it before. If you plug something into the wall and nothing's ever happened, dont assume that the next time you do it, nothing's going to happen again, he says. One chore you can (and should) handle: replacing missing covers on electrical panels, outlets, and switches. When covers are missing, that invites little fingers to get in there, and that's a big problem. It's an easy and cheap fix to replace them, says Beck. Be extra careful around overhead power lines outside Overhead power lines might be out of sight, but keep them top of mind so you dont accidentally pull one down. When carrying things like ladders, people could run into power lines, explains Brenner. If you do, you're dealing with a lot of energy and, usually, it's a fatal electrocution. If you hear a loud noise outside and smell smoke, or you suspect wires have fallen down on your property, dont investigate yourself; call the utility or fire department. Simply walking through your lawn near a live wire can be deadly, says Brenner. With power lines, if you are within 10 feet or so, the electricity can actually jump to you. Electricity is looking for the easiest path to ground possible, and you become the conduit, he explains. Even touching someone while theyre in contact with a live wire can electrocute you, he adds. Electricity is unique because you can't smell it, taste it, or see it, so it's typical for one person to unfortunately get killed, and then the second person coming in to help also gets hurt or killed. And dont ever handle the fat service entrance cable that goes from your electric meter to the utility, cautions Beck. Those were used for homes built in the 1960s and early '70s, and were made of cloth, he explains. Cables of that era wear down, and I've seen the conductors inside of the cable exposed and visible. If someone were to grab it, they could potentially be shocked. Use common sense with outdoor electrical use Often when the weather is nice, people want to be able to use electricity outside, for lighting and other amenities. But if anything, there are more risks. If you run an extension cord outside that comes in contact with the water, you can get what's called 'electrical shock drowning.' Theres a current in the water, so when you jump in, your body locks up. You can't swim, and you can drown, says Brenner. Beck cautions against another huge no-no. I've seen very long chains of extension cords for decorative lights on patios and deckseven over a pool or hot tub, which is megadangerous, he says. Just as you would indoors, make sure to have a licensed electrician set up proper electrical outlets for your outdoor needs. Be on the lookout for abandoned wiring Beck has seen live wires sticking out of a house that were still connected to a breaker, or forgotten wires sticking out of the ground from a dismantled hot tub or outdoor lights. Take a look around the perimeter of your home, and if you see any abandoned wiring, call in an electrician to take care of it. Never touch it yourself, says Beck. Many electrical injuries and deaths can be prevented by following basic safety practices. The ESFI has many helpful resources and checklists that will help homeowners understand how to use electricity properly. The post Don't Get Zapped by These Electrical Risks Inside and Outside the Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. 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. Egypts Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, in collaboration with Facebook and Rise Up, announced on Thursday the launch of the SMEs Business Bot, a platform that aims to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The platform is the first of its kind in the MENA region. Facebook said it is keen on working with the planning ministry and Rise Up to identify the needs of the SMEs community in Egypt and adapt the platform accordingly. Rise Up will manage the initiative with its considerable expertise and knowledge of the system and requirements of SMEs. Rise Up said it is committed to providing the bot with the educational content of start-ups and ambitious entrepreneurs, guided by its seven main pillars. Meanwhile, the planning ministry is expected to play a vital role through feeding the platform with various available initiatives, such as financing and education for SMEs in Egypt. The aim of the project is to provide information and resources that support start-ups on different fronts, such as providing financial support or business support schemes to cope with the COVID-19 crisis as well as providing them with the directions for capacity-building. Hala El-Said, the planning minister, explained that the bot is one of the mechanisms for promoting a culture of entrepreneurship, boosting SMEs, and supporting youth's projects. The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development has continuously sought to provide mechanisms to support the culture of entrepreneurship, aiming to create business incubators through the Project Rowad 2030, which was launched by the ministry to promote a culture of self-employment, foster the thinking of young people, extract creative ideas from them, and strengthen their belief in their ability to develop ideas and projects that will contribute to the economic development of the state and even to the creation of employment, said the minister. She added that the launch of the platform was an important step to support digital transformation and activate modern technology mechanisms. The platform would enable the SMEs community to receive the most relevant advice and recommendations to make decisions for their firms, with an emphasis on new and innovative avenues to guide them in the Middle East. Small enterprises are currently in the survival phase. Small enterprises that operate digitally are flexible, and we are committed to providing tools and resources that will enable SMEs to drive economic growth, create jobs and strengthen communities throughout the Arab Republic of Egypt, as part of our local initiative, said Ramzi Shahadi, the CEO of the MENA region at Facebook. The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Rise Up, and Facebook are partnering to provide a programme of detailed recommendations and guidance to help companies that form the backbone of our economy get back on their feet. Meanwhile, Abdel-Hamid Sharara, the founder of Rise Up, noted that the business bot will serve as a reliable source of information and guidance to assist start-ups at each stage, linking them to the most appropriate resources needed for progress and growth. The public can access the bot by clicking on the following link: https://m.me/MPEDEGYPT Short link: Egypts ministries of international cooperation, local development, agriculture and land reclamation, and social solidarity discussed on Tuesday in a meeting with the Menghestab Haile, the Country Director and Representative of World Food Programme (WFP) in Egypt, the Decent Life initiative and future action plans for expanding WFP projects that aim to achieve agricultural and rural development in the country. The meeting comes on the heel of the success of the first phase implemented in 63 villages across five governorates in Upper Egypt. Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat reviewed during the meeting the successful partnership with the WFP in the countrys strategy from 2018 to 2023, which is based on enhancing food security, developing agricultural and rural communities, and supporting the most vulnerable groups in rural communities, such as girls, women and rural entrepreneurs, and small farmers. The second phase of the projects implemented through the WFP, in collaboration with the government of Egypt, complements the Decent Life presidential initiative, said Al-Mashat. This initiative aims to develop and reform the countrys most vulnerable villages by supporting investment in human capital through enhancing livelihoods, diversifying sources of income via livestock and poultry production projects, loans, handicrafts, improving the efficiency of using water resources, supporting the ability of farmers to adapt to climate change, achieving economic and social empowerment of women and girls, and encouraging creativity and innovation through collaborative digital knowledge platforms. She added that these projects help in achieving a wide range of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 2: Zero Hunger, SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities. She also noted that a specialised committee will be formed to pinpoint the appropriate villages and centres for the development project expansion, adding that the committee will include representatives from the relevant ministries and the WFP to discuss the precise details of the proposed plan and finalise its implementation framework. Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawi stressed during the meeting the importance of the projects in coordination with the WFP to support rural communities in Upper Egypt within the framework of the National Program for the Development of Rural Areas, which falls under the Decent Life presidential initiative. This includes ensuring the availability of important services to citizens, particularly in infrastructure and sanitation, drinking water, and job opportunities for residents, especially for youth and women. This is happening alongside other development projects implemented by other ministries: canal lining, and modernising irrigation systems and agricultural processes, said Shaarawi. Nevine El-Qabbaj, the minister of social solidarity, also applauded the strong partnership between the WFP and Egypt in several projects under the social protection framework, adding that the 1,000 days project is an essential collaboration between the ministry and the WFP, which focuses on supporting children, community schools, micro-enterprise training, the provision of loans for mothers of school children to develop their own projects, and employment support for the informal sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. El-Qabbaj explained that the Forsa program aims, as well, to widen agricultural, animal care, and crafts development to cover many villages across Upper Egypt, stressing that this is an opportunity for economic progress and empowerment, especially for women and youth, representing 32 million citizens according to the Ministry of Social Solidaritys database; adding that this is a chance to endorse the Decent Life initiative. Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El-Sayed El-Quseir said that the ministry had successful experiences with the WFP in developing agricultural and rural communities, asserting the need to identify the villages that will most benefit from the project and a list of their requirements so that an appropriate program suited for the residents can be put into action to achieve the desired results. El-Quseir also stressed the need for projects to include digital agricultural development, as well as value chain development, and cooperative marketing of agricultural products, to ensure the sustainability of achievements in the selected villages. Meanwhile, Haile praised the governments coordination through the Ministry of International Cooperation in implementing the programs framework. He noted that the WFPs national agenda has been laid out in collaboration with the concerned ministries in Egypt, explaining the good outcome and smooth workflow of previous collaborative projects. The villages development expansion project that falls under the WFPs action plan is expected to support rural communities, achieve economic and social empowerment of women, enhance livelihoods, and improve water management in Egypt, according to Haile. Short link: President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda have coordinated steps to prevent the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. "This project is, in fact, a trap for the whole of Europe. It cannot be allowed. Further boosting of sanctions against this project is a guarantee of Europe's energy security," Zelensky said during a telephone conversation with Duda, the presidents press service reports. The leaders coordinated steps to oppose the Nord Stream 2 project and agreed to involve the international community in this process as much as possible. Andrzej Duda agreed with Volodymyr Zelensky that every effort should be made to prevent the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The parties also discussed measures taken in Ukraine and Poland in the context of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Volodymyr Zelensky informed his Polish counterpart about the arrival of the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine made in India. Volodymyr Zelensky also thanked Andrzej Duda for the initiative to provide Ukraine with 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, which Poland plans to receive in the framework of joint EU procurement. The Ukrainian President stressed that this step is a strong signal of solidarity with Ukraine, and expressed hope that our state will be able to receive this vaccine in March, after the preparation and conclusion of relevant contracts. The parties also discussed the situation in Donbas. Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Polish party for its firm support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In addition, the two presidents discussed a number of infrastructure projects near the border between Ukraine and Poland. In particular, the construction and repair of roads and modernization of checkpoints. The parties agreed to continue an active political dialogue this year, paying special attention to the economic component and the implementation of joint projects. iy Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. (Jerusalem Israel) Gilda Radner is doing flips in her grave. If she were alive, the former star of Saturday Night Live (SNL) who died in 1989, would be crying, but not from laughter. Radner is one of many young comedians who got their start on SNL. She created and became famous for characters including Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Lisa Loopner, and Baba Wawa. Radner was also among a number of Jewish comics whose careers took off on and following SNL. Others include Billy Crystal, Jon Lovitz, Ben Stiller, and comedian-turned-Senator, Al Franken. Today, NBCs Saturday N... Milwaukee, United States: A real-world test of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in more than half a million people has confirmed it is very effective at preventing serious illness or death, even after one dose. Results from a mass vaccination campaign in Israel published on Thursday AEDT give strong reassurance that the benefits seen in smaller, limited testing persisted when the vaccine was used much more widely in a general population with various ages and health conditions. The vaccine was 92 per cent effective at preventing severe disease after two shots and 62 per cent after one. Its estimated effectiveness for preventing death was 72 per cent two to three weeks after the first shot, a rate that may improve as immunity builds over time. It seemed as effective in people over 70 as in younger people. Mr. Dillard, you are an adult. You are a man. You are responsible for your actions. Mr. Dillard, you are dangerous, Clymer said then, adding Dillard told his girlfriend in a jailhouse telephone call that it was the drugs. Thats a copout. The drugs didnt kill Nicole Gland. You did. The drugs didnt hold the knife. You did. No one forced you to party roughly. No one forced you to be in a haze. You had no excuse to brutally kill someone. THERE have been 39 further cases of Covid-19 reported in Limerick this Thursday evening. And, sadly, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 35 additional deaths related to the virus across the country. 21 of these deaths occurred in February, 12 occurred in January, 1 in November, while one further death is under investigation. The median age of those who died was 85 years and the age range was 53 - 102 years. As of midnight, Wednesday, the HPSC has been notified of 613 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 308 are men / 304 are women 66% are under 45 years of age The median age is 34 years old 224 in Dublin, 39 in Limerick, 37 in Meath, 34 in Westmeath, 33 in Offaly and the remaining 246 cases are spread across all other counties. There has been 536 new cases of the virus reported in Limerick in the past fortnight. The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population (to 24 February 2021) stands at 275. As of 8am today, 591 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 138 are in ICU. 20 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours. As of February 22, 359,616 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland: 226,291 people have received their first dose 133,325 people have received their second dose Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: We are making good progress and can see that many of the key indicators of disease levels in our communities are continuing to fall. This progress is the reason we are able to reopen our schools in a cautious and phased basis. However, we must remember that Covid-19 is still circulating at a high level and, we are still seeing positivity rates of around 15% in the community. As we see more of our children return to school next week, it is important that we continue to follow all of the public health guidance, including on the school run. Maintain a social distance at all times, wear a face covering, do not mix with other households other than for essential reasons, wash our hands, and most importantly, ensure that children do not attend school if they display symptoms of Covid-19, as per the HSE website, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell. If you display any of these symptoms, you should self-isolate and phone your GP or GP out-of-hours service to arrange for a test. Dr Lucy Jessop, Director, National Immunisation Office, said: In the last ten days, we have seen Irelands Covid-19 Vaccination Programme move into the community. Many of us know family and friends who are among the almost 360,000 people to have been vaccinated in recent weeks. This is cause for great hope for all of us. The vaccine is already having a significant impact on our healthcare workers. In the last week in January, almost 1,400 healthcare workers contracted Covid-19; that number was less than 300 last week. This is wonderful news and clearly demonstrates the early impact the vaccination programme is having. However, even if you have received your Covid-19 vaccine, you must continue to wash your hands, wear a face covering, maintain a social distance and keep your close contacts to a minimum." Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: We are making continued and significant progress, albeit more slowly. The reproduction number remains below 1, between 0.6 and 0.9, which is a real achievement given the higher transmissibility of the B.1.1.7 variant, which accounts for 90% of cases. Our collective efforts to suppress transmission of the virus and bring the disease to manageable levels are having a positive impact. If we continue to work together, we can keep each other safe as the vaccination programme offers wider protection. Dr Cillian De Gascun, Medical Virologist and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said: New variants of concern will continue to emerge as Covid-19 adapts to us. This highlights the importance of Irelands National Surveillance programme. This week, we will be sequencing 15% of cases at the NVRL. A Franklin County teenager is missing and could be headed to the Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania State Police said. Evan Huse Clifton, 15, was reported missing Thursday from Fort Loudon, state police said. Clifton is 5 feet, 9 inches tall; and about 140 pounds. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the state polices Chambersburg station at 717-264-5161. READ MORE: Man, 59, shot overnight in York: police 84-year-old man killed in Lebanon County fire: state police The Balbriggan woman who was arrested yesterday after breaking lockdown restrictions to reopen her beauty salon has said she does not regret her actions. Christine McTiernan was arrested and brought to Balbriggan Garda station just before noon by gardai after she reopened her C&N Beauty Rooms for the second day in a row. Despite being told by Gardai to close her salon on Tuesday morning, she reopened again yesterday and was arrested . She was later brought to Swords District Court and now faces several charges in relation to the breaking of lockdown rules. Gardai say they were also investigating a demonstration that was held in Balbriggan at around the same time, where four men and three women were arrested in relation to the protest and alleged breaches of the Health Act. Six of these arrests were dealt with by way of Fixed Penalty Notice. Another person arrested, a man aged in his 50s, has been charged in relation to this incident. Expand Close Christine McTiernan pictured at her premises / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine McTiernan pictured at her premises Meanwhile Ms McTiernan faces another hearing on March 25. I was quite shocked at the number of gardai who arrived to arrest me, she said. Im five foot, Im no threat to anybody and Ive never been in trouble in my life with the guards, ever. "It was shocking to see. If they thought I was that much of threat to have that many Gardai there, they would have handcuffed me, but they didnt. I just walked out of the salon by myself and they gave me a few minutes to lock up. Now, they were lovely, the guards, they were very sympathetic and very respectful. Expand Close Christine McTiernan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine McTiernan "They gave me a cup of tea and they sent out for biscuits for me. "I was well looked at in the Garda station. They said they understood where I was coming from but that they had a job to do. Christine said today that she would not reopen the salon again until at least after the court date but added that she did not regret her actions. Im back in court in March, she said. The main charge is for opening the salon against restrictions while the lockdown is going on. "I had to sign (a form) to say I would not open again and if I did I would be arrested and I would be locked up. Thats what I was told. But I dont regret taking a stand because I still stand by 100 per cent, that I still need to make a living. That hasnt changed. But if anything, I hope it has brought some attention (to the fact) that the Government needs to help. If youre not going to let me open my business to make a living and pay my bills, then help me. Thats the bottom line. If you want me to stay at home, then do something for me at least, and not just for me, for all the small business owners that are struggling. Read More Christine said she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received from all over the country and even across the world. The support has been unreal, it really has, she added. Somebody texted yesterday to say I was on the news in Canada. I never expected this level of attention but I appreciate it and Im very grateful for the positive comments and well wishes that are coming in. The support has been unbelievable and from other small businesses as well, she added. Some are saying we wish we had the guts to do the same as you and I understand people fear the unknown about what will happen if they reopen. I can say to other businesses that you will get arrested and you will go to court and you will probably end up having to pay a fine. "But I dont regret what I did. I was at the end of my tether, I really was. Gov. Greg Abbott is assessing when he may lift the statewide mask mandate he implemented last July to slow the spread of COVID-19. Were working right now on evaluating when were going to be able to remove all statewide orders, and we will be making announcements about that pretty soon, Abbott said at a Thursday press briefing on vaccine distribution in Corpus Christi. He had been asked when the state might end its mask requirement as more Texans receive the vaccine. Abbott has issued several other coronavirus-related orders over the course of the public health crisis, including capacity limits and business restrictions in areas where hospitalizations are high. Those mandates have earned the governor backlash from the most conservative members of his party, who criticized the orders as government overreach. TEXAS TAKE: Get the latest news on Texas politics sent directly to your inbox every weekday Experts have not yet come to a consensus on when it will be safe to end pandemic-related safety precautions, including the mask mandate. Dr. Anthony Fauci has said Americans may need to wear masks until 2022. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this week that he wouldnt consider changing the citys mask guidance until at least June, or when 5 million residents are vaccinated. Until then, he is encouraging residents to wear two masks. Nearly 1.6 million Texans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, meaning they have received two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. That represents about 5.5 percent of the Lone Star States 29 million residents. Abbott appeared hopeful about the states vaccine supply on Thursday, anticipating allocations to ramp up in the coming weeks with the expected approval of a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. Appoints Frostad as VP Exploration Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Getchell Gold Corp. (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) ("Getchell" or the "Company"), a leading Nevada focused Gold and Copper exploration company, wishes to announce the appointment of Scott Frostad as VP of Exploration. "The 2020 drill program at the Fondaway Canyon Gold Project in Nevada was highly successful and demonstrated the thickness, continuity, and high-grade nature of the near surface mineralization," states Mike Sieb, President, Getchell Gold Corp. "In preparation of Getchell being one of the most active junior mining companies in the region, the Company is establishing a seasoned and dynamic technical team to meet the increased demands that the 2021 field season will bring." Technical Team Getchell is anticipating a very active year for 2021 and as a first step in establishing a strong technical team to support the Company's increased activities is pleased to report the appointment of Scott Frostad as Vice President of Exploration. Scott was instrumental through 2020 in the assimilation of the voluminous historical dataset, the development of the geological model, and the management of the 2020 drill program at the Fondaway Canyon Gold Project. Scott and his technical team will be tasked with the ongoing exploration and advancement of the Company's Nevada projects. Scott Frostad's experience in the mining industry spans over three decades. He brings to his position as Vice President of Exploration a strong background in mineral exploration with renowned gold mining companies such as Lac Minerals, Teck and Placer Dome. Scott is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a B.Sc. in Geology, and holds a M.A.Sc. in Mining and Mineral Process Engineering from the University of British Columbia. He is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan. Investing News Network Services Agreement The Company reports that it has renewed the marketing agreement with Investing News Network ("INN"), an online source for investor-focused news and educational content on topics within the mineral resource, cannabis, tech and life science sectors. The renewal agreement with INN is for a twelve-month period until March 1, 2022. INN will be paid $3,000 per month for services it will render to the Company. INN is owned by Dig Media Inc., a private company headquartered in Vancouver, BC. About Getchell Gold Corp. The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company trading on the CSE: GTCH and OTCQB: GGLDF. Getchell Gold is primarily directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset, Fondaway Canyon, a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground historic resource estimate. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio is Dixie Comstock, a past gold producer with a historic resource and two earlier stage exploration projects, Star and Hot Springs Peak. Getchell has the option to acquire 100% of the Fondaway Canyon and Dixie Comstock properties, Churchill County, Nevada. The Company reiterates that its field activities to advance its assets have not been impacted by the COVID-19 Corona virus. The Company continues to monitor the situation and is in compliance with all government guidelines. For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company at info@getchellgold.com. Mr. William Wagener, Chairman & CEO Getchell Gold Corp. +1 303 517 8764 info@getchellgold.com The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or dissemination in the United States. Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the private placement and the completion thereof and the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, use of proceeds from the financing, capital expenditures and other costs, and financing and additional capital requirements. Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75434 Vaccination campaign for COVID in Santiago, Chile. Credit: Municipality of Santiago / Flickr , under Creative Commons 2.0 license This week, the first COVID-19 vaccine doses from the United Nations-led COVAX initiative arrived in Africa. This is a long-awaited piece of good news in a climate where vaccine procurement for developing countries has been hampered by empty promises, delays, infrastructure challenges and prejudice. While many richer countries have begun vaccinating their populations in earnest, the world's poorest have been left behind in the global vaccines arms race. This disparity was highlighted by Henrietta Fore, executive director of Unicef, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO) director general, in a joint statement. While 10 countries had secured 75% of the 128 million administered doses, "almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, are yet to administer a single dose," they said. Those differences are not a coincidence. The ten countries that have dispersed the highest number of doses so far are developed countries that account for 60% of global gross domestic product, according to the WHO. These countries, according to global research and data analysis outfit Our World in Data, are the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Russia, Germany and Spain. Canada has acquired enough doses to vaccinate every citizen five times. Explore further Over 200 million vaccine doses administered globally Provided by SciDev.Net We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. Former princess Tessy of Luxembourg has announced she is expecting her first child with her hunky Swiss businessman fiance. Taking to Instagram today, the ex royal, 34, shared a snapshot of her blossoming baby bump as she snuggled up with financier and CEO Frank Floessel, writing: 'Spring is the perfect time for delicate flowers to grow.' Tessy has spent much of the year in lockdown with her two sons Prince Gabriel of Nassau, 14, and Prince Noah of Nassau, 12, whom she shares with ex-husband Prince Louis of Luxembourg, 34, who she divorced in 2019. She is believed to have known businessman Frank for several years, and announced her engagement to him on New Year's Eve. Former princess Tessy of Luxembourg, 34, has announced she is expecting her first child with her hunky Swiss businessman boyfriend online In the photograph, Tessy and Frank could be seen cuddling up with one another, while the businessman's hands gently rested on the mother-of-two's growing baby bump. The former royal did not reveal how far along she is or when her due date is expected in her post. It comes after the couple announced their engagement to one another at the end of last year, with Tessy posting on Instagram : 'Yes to 2021 and many more years together.' Frank also shared his own joy over the big news, telling RTL Today: 'After having mastered the extraordinary and difficult last year together, I took my chance to take the next step in our relationship and I am overjoyed that Tessy said yes.' The couple, who are believed to have known each other for years, announced their engagement on New Year's Eve Tessy shares sons Prince Gabriel of Nassau, 14, and Prince Noah of Nassau, 12, with ex-husband Prince Louis of Luxembourg, 34, who she divorced in 2019 The announcement comes months after Tessy tested positive for coronavirus, with the former royal revealing in December she was suffering from symptoms weeks after the positive diagnosis. Entrepreneur Frank got his master's degree in ETH Zurich and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently CEO and president of CBA Finance. The former royal appears to have known Frank for several years, having written about his work on her blog in September 2018. He has also acted as a trustee for the organisation Professors Without Borders, which Tessy co-founded in 2016. Tessy had previously sparked speculation that she had started a new relationship after sharing snaps with Frank on her Instagram page during lockdown. Tessy became a princess in 2006 when she married Prince Louis, with the couple sharing two sons and going on to divorce in April last year The businessman was also pictured on a family hike with the proud mother and her two boys, with Tessy captioning the photos 'Family is all that matters' with two love heart emojis. Last year, she told Hello magazine that it 'took a long time' after her divorce, when she was stripped of her royal titles, explaining: 'After every relationship it takes a while to heal when the heart has been broken. It has been really, really wonderful for me to realise that I am able to trust and love again. It's nice to see that life goes on.' Tessy went on to reveal how she is 'very happy' that her ex-husband Prince Louis maintains a close bond with their sons, despite the fact they can't see each other during quarantine. She said her son's 'love and trust' with their father had 'become stronger' because of the separation during the pandemic. Tessy has previously told how her family 'suffered greatly' when she became a princess in 2006 after marrying Prince Louis, whom she met in 2004. Frank was first pictured on a family hike with the proud mother and her two boys on April 4, with Tessy captioning the photos 'Family is all that matters' with two love heart emojis 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. 'That was when I married in, and when I got divorced, oh my gosh the same.' 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 met Prince Louis, who was visiting the army. 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 met 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. 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. The couple's fairytale marriage broke down in 2016, and they were granted a decree nisi in February 2019 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 Noah, while Louis lives in Paris - though she appears to be in isolation somewhere more rural. 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. Programs operated by Hudson County and five of its municipalities that combat neighborhood and affordable housing issues have been awarded more than $20.2 million in federal funds, U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker announced Thursday. The funding, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Office of Community Planning and Development, is a portion of the $147,874,036 awarded across New Jersey in the form of grants from the Community Development Block (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), HOME program and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) programs. When we invest in our communities regardless of zip code we improve the quality of life for families across New Jersey, said Menendez, a senior member of the Senate Banking and Housing Committee. COVID-19 has taken a toll on our state and our families and communities need our support to weather this storm. And as we move forward as a state to build back better, this funding will be critical to ensuring that all New Jerseyans can take part in our economic recovery. The following Hudson County communities were awarded the following grants: Bayonne CDBG: $1,511,913 Hoboken CDBG: $1,072,812 Hudson County CDBG: $2,186,038, HOME: $2,691,335, ESG: $184,335 Jersey City CDBG: $5,818,576, HOME: $2,125,407, ESG: $498,420, HOPWA: $2,381,307 North Bergen CDBG: $715,701 Union City CDBG: $1,071,223 This federal funding will allow New Jersey communities to bolster critical housing initiatives and provide essential supportive services to the most vulnerable among us, Booker said. Efforts like these are key to strengthening the states public housing network so that our residents have access to a safe and affordable place to live during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 19:37:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DHAKA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has renewed her call for the countrymen to strictly maintain health safety guidelines even after receiving COVID-19 vaccines. She made the fresh call while addressing a program through a videoconference from Dhaka Thursday. Hasina said all should strictly follow personal protection guidelines, including using face masks and keeping their hands clean as these are essential in fighting the pandemic which is still taking its toll in the country. Bangladesh reported 410 new COVID-19 cases and 5 new deaths on Thursday, making the tally at 544,954 and death toll at 8,384, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said. The official data showed that 15,560 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh. The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 494,755 including 957 new recoveries on Thursday, said the DGHS. According to the official data, the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is now 1.54 percent and the current recovery rate is 90.79 percent. Bangladesh recorded the highest daily new cases of 4,019 on July 2 and the highest number of deaths of 64 on June 30 last year. Enditem Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Many would argue that there's never a valid reason to cheat on a partner, and that talking it through or breaking up with them would be the preferable answer. However, people from around the world have taken to anonymous sharing app Whisper to share the brutal reasons they have been unfaithful. One said that they had cheated on their boyfriend after he slept with their mother, while another said the reason was because their partner had 'gotten fat'. Amongst the very honest reasons include not receiving enough attention or because their sex life was just 'terrible.' People from around the world have taken to anonymous sharing app Whisper to share the brutal reasons they cheated on their partner, including one who said that their boyfriend slept with her mother Harsh! Another user, from an unknown location, admitted that they cheated on their partner after they put on weight Looking back: One user from Perth, Scotland, admitted the reason they were disloyal to their partner because they were still in love with their ex, adding that they 'deserve to go to hell' Working on it: A user from Washington, US, cheated on their boyfriend due to their 'terrible sex life' which they have tried to fix and said that they 'don't wanna leave him' Attention please: A user, from an unknown location, was looking for attention elsewhere because their partner didn't give them 'enough affection' Holiday first? One person admitted that their boyfriend 'wasn't giving them what they wanted in the relationship' before they cheated on him Does the punishment fit the crime? One girlfriend, from Florida, US, betrayed their boyfriend for liking another girl's photo on Instagram One girlfriend, from an unknown location, said when she was drunk her friends convinced her that she and her boyfriend had broken up A user from Queensland, Australia, said they were disloyal to their partner because they didn't make them feel 'sexy' or 'wanted' Not a valid excuse? Another person admitted they had cheated on their boyfriend because he wasn't 'appreciating' them or 'paying enough attention' to them The NDA at the Centre stands for regional aspirations and national progress. The development works launched today must be seen in that spirit. The Centre also wants to bring a paradigm shift in the sector, said Prime Minister The conventional view of development only took into account the more vocal interest groups. Because of this, two sections were ignored - Small businessmen and farmers. The NDA Government has given top priority to these two sections, said Prime Minister The Government is also working towards a system where medical and technical education would be given in local languages. After dedicating and laid foundation for new projects worth over Rs 12,000 crore at Coimbatore, he said, we do not want our small farmer to feel dependent on anyone or feel suffocated due to middlemen, said the Prime Minister, noting that the PM Kisan scheme just completed two years yesterday and 11 crore farmers have gained from this scheme. Modi started his speech quoting famous Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar lines on how on farmers need to be worshipped. From KCCs to Soil Health Cards, from e-NAM to an effective crop insurance scheme, Centre want to bring a paradigm shift in the sector, said Modi. Speaking about cooperative federalism, Modi pointed the way the NDA Government at the centre and the Tamil Nadu Government have worked is a classic example of cooperative federalism. Both Congress and DMK are suffering from internal contradictions. Both parties have tried to launch and relaunch their respective first families, but to no success. There's continuous family drama there! They cannot deliver good governance to Tamil Nadu, said Modi, adding that for Opposition, what matters is personal gain. DMK and Congress meetings are like Corruption Hackathons. Their leaders sit and brainstorm how to loot. The nation is witnessing two distinct styles of politics today. The opposition's misgovernance with corruption and NDA's governance with compassion. This will be the Prime Minister's second visit in less than two weeks to Tamil Nadu, which is gearing for assembly elections. He dedicated new projects to the nation and laid the foundation stone for multiple infrastructure projects worth over Rs 12,400 crore in Coimbatore, where BJP enjoy a good vote bank. It may be noted, BJP joined hands with ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming election. The projects includes Rs 8,000 crore 1000 MW lignite based Neyveli New Thermal Power Project, 709 MW Solar Power Project of NLCIL, laid foundation stone of the extension, renovation and modernisation of Lower Bhavani Project System, which will benefit 2 lakh farmers, among others. Earlier in the day, he visited Puducherry to launch new projects and kick start BJP's election campaign at Puducherry. He came heavily on the Congress during his public speech. "Government is working towards a system where medical and technical education would be given in local languages. Many students will gain from this," said Modi. He added that coastal development and making cooperative sectors stronger are two other key focus areas of the Government. The NDA administration believes that the road to AatmanirbharBharat will not be completed without a strong blue economy. He noted, the Government identified 575 projects worth Rs 6 lakh crore under Sagar Mala programme, which is to modernise ports, setting up new projects, development of coastal areas etc., To kick start the BJP's campaign at Puducherry, Modi said the NDA at the Centre wants to make Puducherry as the BEST (B- Business Hub, E- Education Hub, S- Spiritual Hub and T- Tourism Hub). "Congress does not believe in working for the people. There was non-cooperation from the Congress government in Puducherry towards pro-people central schemes. Puducherry deserves a government whose high command consists of the people of Puducherry, not a small group of Congress leaders sitting in Delhi," said Modi. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) today announced it has placed land under contract and plans to build a freestanding, 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Osceola County near Kissimmee, Florida. Complementing local acute care services, the future hospital will offer physical, occupational and speech therapies, and 24-hour nursing care, to restore functional ability and quality of life. It will care for patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries including strokes and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions. Care will be provided by highly specialized nurses, therapists and physicians. The hospital will feature all private patient rooms, a spacious therapy gym with advanced rehabilitation technologies and an activities of daily living suite, cafeteria, dining room, pharmacy and therapy courtyard. The planned hospital, once opened, will become part of Encompass Health's national network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health and hospice agencies. The Company's Florida footprint currently includes 12 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 19 home health locations, one hospital under construction in north Tampa, and several additional planned hospitals previously announced. About Encompass Health As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facilitybased and homebased patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 137 hospitals, 241 home health locations, and 82 hospice locations in 39 states and Puerto Rico, the Company provides highquality, cost-effective integrated healthcare. 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. Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as those relating to the likelihood, timing and effects of the completion of this hospital project, are forward-looking statements. In addition, Encompass Health may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Encompass Health's actual results or events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated include, but are not limited to, the regulatory review and approval process, any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings that may be brought by or against the Company; the possibility this project will experience unexpected delays; the ability to successfully complete and integrate this project consistent with Encompass Health's growth strategy, including realization of anticipated revenues, cost savings, and productivity improvements arising from the related operations and avoidance of unforeseen exposure to liabilities; the continued spread of COVID-19, including the speed, depth, geographic reach and duration of the spread; the actions to be taken by Encompass Health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and Encompass Health's response thereto; the hospital's ability to maintain proper local, state and federal licensing; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of Encompass Health's information systems; Encompass Health's ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages and the impact on Encompass Health's labor expenses from potential union activity and staffing shortages; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for Encompass Health's services by governmental or private payors; general conditions in the economy and capital markets; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019 and Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2020. 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 Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! The Borough Assembly awarded an equipment procurement contract for the Blind Slough Hydroelectric project to Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon, Ltd. for a total of $2,002,396 at their meeting Monday. Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon, Ltd., which is based out of the United Kingdom, was one of five companies that responded to Petersburg Municipal Power & Light's Request for Proposals. The company has agreed to defer the start of any work on the equipment until funding has been secured by the Borough. Utility Director Karl Hagerman said the department plans on using a bond sale to fund both the equipment... Irelands Valeo Foods Group has reportedly cut jobs at a confectionery plant in the UK. Local newspaper Wakefield Express said the private-equity-owned Valeo had made 37 staff at its site in the Yorkshire town of Pontefract redundant in response to falling sales. just-food has approached Valeo for comment. A spokesperson told the newspaper Valeos confectionery business had endured falling sales amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Weve therefore had to take the very difficult decision to confirm our proposals, which result in a number of our colleagues being made redundant, the spokesperson was quoted as saying. During the consultation process we have reduced the number of redundancies required. We are incredibly thankful to our colleagues for all their hard work throughout a very challenging period. The newspaper said the plant employed 162 staff. Valeo, owned by private-equity firm CapVest, took on the factory when it acquired UK sweets group Tangerine Confectionery in 2018. Tangerine had been majority-owned by private-equity firm Blackstone since 2011. Last month, Valeo snapped up German confectionery business Schluckwerder Holding. In the week before Christmas, Valeo announced it had struck a deal to buy UK snack maker Its All Good. Since the turn of the year, there has been talk Valeo could be put up for sale by CapVest. Thematic Reports Are you worried about the pace of innovation in your industry? GlobalData's TMT Themes 2021 Report tells you everything you need to know about disruptive tech themes and which companies are best placed to help you digitally transform your business. Find out more Sky News has reported London-based CapVest has appointed Goldman Sachs to oversee a sale of the company in the coming months. just-food understands Goldman Sachs has been hired to work with the company but neither CapVest nor Valeo would comment on the suggestion a sale could be on the cards. An Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced three Turks to four years and two months in prison for helping smuggle former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn in a musical instrument case to Lebanon from Japan. The court convicted two pilots and an employee of a small private airline, who moved the tycoon while he was out on bail facing financial misconduct charges in December 2019. The sentence was lighter than the maximum 12 years the pilots -- Noyan Pasin and Bahri Kutlu Somek -- and MNG Jet's Okan Kosemen faced after being charged last month with involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle a migrant. The presiding judge convicted them of "illegally smuggling foreign national Carlos Ghosn... by using a cargo plane". The court also ordered the three to each pay a 31,240 lira ($4,330, 3,570-euro) fine. The pilots told the court on Wednesday that they were innocent because they never suspected the high-profile Japanese carmaker's boss was on board their plane. "They ask us to fly the plane and that is what we do," Pasin said. The three will stay out of prison pending an appeal. The court also acquitted two other pilots and two flight attendants standing trial in the Turkish case. As regulators around the world order urgent inspections of certain Boeing Co. 777 engines after one failed dramatically over suburban Denver last Saturday, they must also wrestle with a decades-old quandary: The complex technology necessary to find cracks buried within metal parts can produce notoriously inconsistent results. Not only are the tests prone to vague readings, but the results are only as good as the training and attention span of the human examiner. Indeed, after a 2018 failure of an engine fan blade identical to the one involved in the Denver episode, investigators found inspections had twice missed a crack that began years earlier. It probably was there and they just didnt find it, James Wildey, a retired National Transportation Safety Board metallurgical expert, said of the internal imperfections that led to the most recent failure. The indications are the crack should have or could have been detected.The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday night issued an emergency order calling on United Airlines, the only U.S. operator flying 777s with the Pratt & Whitney engine that failed, to inspect each fan blade before it can carry passengers on the widebody workhorse. Other nations where the plane is based, Japan and South Korea, have issued similar directives. Preliminary evidence indicates that a fatigue crack at the base of one of the blades led to the violent failure, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said. The front section of the engine, made up mostly of lighter weight materials that smooth the flow of air, broke loose, hitting parts of the plane and showering debris over a populated area near Denver International Airport as the plane began a flight to Hawaii. The blade had flown about 3,000 times since its last inspection or from when it was installed, according to two people familiar with the preliminary results of the probe. They asked not to be named while discussing the sensitive data. That was well below the threshold required for an inspection, which was between 6,500-7,000 cycles, including flights or any time the engine is started. That could suggest the existing inspection period was inadequate, but it will take months for investigators to determine that. A Japan Airlines 777 with a Pratt & Whitney engine also had a fan blade failure on Dec. 4 near Okinawa, Japan. Pratt is a division of Raytheon Technologies Corp. The FAA ordered United to use high-technology tests employing sound waves to detect even small flaws within the hollow, 40.5-inch (103-centimeter) titanium blades. An image is created that shows potential cracks and theyre reviewed by an inspector. Any tests like this that require a human interpretation of the image are tricky, said John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The image might be fuzzy or vague, Hansman and Wildey said. The person reviewing it could be tired or under stress. And examining such images for days on end, particularly if flaws appear only rarely, can lead to complacency or inattention, they added. A general rule of thumb in the aviation industry is that there should be at least two tests conducted on a part before a crack can be expected to grow large enough to fail, Wildey said. That way, at least one of them would be expected to catch the problem. In its emergency order on Tuesday, the FAA said it was an interim step and it anticipates taking additional action. Among them will be a review of how the tests are conducted, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. The FAA always looks at human factors as part of our standard Continuous Operational Safety process, it said in the statement. Testing Pitfalls The 2018 failure of a fan blade on the same type of engine on another United flight bound for Hawaii illustrates the pitfalls of these testing techniques. The NTSB found in that case that the crack leading to the failure had been detectable for years, but it was twice missed during inspections. In March 2010, almost eight years before the failure, an inspection found indications of a crack in the spot where it originated, though it was small, the NTSB said in a report on the case. The inspector indicated it was likely paint and the blade was reinstalled. By July 2015, the crack had grown to nearly 1/10th of an inch and was visible on Pratt & Whitney testing equipment, according to the NTSB. An inspector saw the hidden flaw, but attributed it to paint used in the inspection process. The blade was returned to service, only to fail two and a half years later. In a report released on June 30, the NTSB concluded the engine failure was caused by poorly developed inspection guidelines at Pratt & Whitney and a lack of training for inspectors. Engineers at the company also didnt provide feedback to inspectors to help them differentiate between genuine flaws in the metal and false alarms, the NTSB said. The inspector who had conducted the 2015 examination told investigators he sometimes had feltpressure to get the blades out quicker because managers want to get their numbers up, according to the report. But he said hed never been forced to accept a blade with a flaw in it. Pratt & Whitney said at the time it had taken multiple corrective actions to address the cause of the failure. Metal Disk Problematic inspections have long played a role in NTSB accident investigations. A large metal disk within an engine on a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 broke on a United flight in 1989, forcing pilots to make a crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa. Of the 296 people aboard, 112 died. The NTSB concluded that the failure to spot a crack during an earlier inspection had led to the failure and cited inadequate consideration given to human factors limitations. Wildey, who became head of NTSBs Materials Laboratory, was an NTSB investigator on that case. The inspection used for the disk involved painting it with a dye to make cracks more visible. When Wildey examined the fractured remains, the dye was clearly visible on the crack that led to the failure, he said. It should have been easily identified. There are all kinds of examples, he said. 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. Kolkata, Feb 25 : Staging an unprecedented protest against the price hike of petroleum products, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday rode an electric scooter to reach her office in the state secretariat Nabanno building in Kolkata's adjoining Howrah district. Banerjee was riding a pillion while Kolkata Mayor and State Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim drove the electric scooter from south Kolkata's Hazra crossing to Nabanno. Both were seen wearing helmets while the CM was adorned with a protest banners hung from both sides of her body. "The Central government is increasing LPG and diesel prices every day. It is a serious matter of concern. The Central government will only reduce the prices for a few days when the elections are round at the corner," Banerjee said. The state's ruling Trinamool Congress has sharpened its attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre as petrol prices continue to burn hole in the common man's pocket. Petrol was sold at Rs 91.20 per litre in Kolkata on Thursday while in Mumbai, the price of petrol crossed Rs 97 mark. Mamata's protest against prevailing fuel prices came at a time when the BJP is trying to make inroads into Bengal before the crucial state assembly elections. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A suspected hitman was in garda custody last night, where he is being quizzed about threatening to kill and pulling a gun on a terrified man whom he claimed owed him a drugs debt. The 43-year-old criminal was detained at Longford garda station after the gardais armed support unit and local detectives were involved in a major arrest operation at the suspects home in Edgeworthstown yesterday. Senior sources said the arrested man is an extremely dangerous criminal who has been imprisoned in his native Lithuania for murder. Local gardai have been working with Interpol as part of their investigation. The suspect served eight years for the charge of intentional murder and was also given a sentence of two-and-a-half years in relation to a serious assault in the Baltic country. He relocated to England but was deported from the UK in 2015 after police there became aware of his dangerous background and convictions after he was arrested for handling stolen property. It is not known when he moved to Ireland, but sources say he had been living under the radar in rural Co Longford. Longford gardai were notified of this incident on Monday and the allegation is that this man threatened to kill the victim around a fortnight ago at a property in Longford in which the victim was also seriously assaulted and threatened with a firearm, a senior source said. Local officers acted quickly and the suspect was arrested within hours of detectives receiving the information. It has emerged that the male victim, who is also a foreign national, allegedly bought a small quantity of drugs from the convicted killer who then demanded he pay over 10 times the value of the drugs. When the criminal was not paid the cash, he called to the victims home and allegedly beat him up, threatened to kill him and pulled a gun on him. He told him he had 24 hours to pay or he was dead, a source pointed out. When gardai raided the suspects home yesterday, they discovered three imitation firearms including one which is suspected of being used in the crime. At one stage gardai thought that one of the fake guns was a genuine firearm, but a ballistics examination showed it to be an imitation. Officers also recovered a small amount of cannabis and suspected amphetamine paste during their searches. It has been a busy week for Longford gardai, who seized 22,500 in cash and jewellery during a search in the town on Monday evening as part of a separate investigation into a local organised crime gang. During the course of the search gardai seized 7,500 in cash and a number of pieces of high-end jewellery including two Rolex watches, and gold jewellery with an estimated value of 15,000 were also seized," said a garda spokeswoman. A woman aged in her late 40s was arrested under the Money Laundering Act 2010 and was later released without charge, A file is being prepared for the DPP. Read More Read More WASHINGTON President Biden reopened the country on Wednesday to people seeking green cards, ending a ban on legal immigration that President Donald J. Trump imposed last spring, citing what he said was the need to protect American jobs during the pandemic. In a proclamation, Mr. Biden said that the ban did not advance the interests of the United States, challenging Mr. Trumps claims that the way to protect the American economy during the health crisis was to shut the country off from the rest of the world. To the contrary, Mr. Biden said of his predecessors immigration ban, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here. It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world. The presidents action was the latest example of his efforts to roll back Mr. Trumps assault on the nations immigration system. Since taking office, Mr. Biden has issued several executive orders and directives aimed at lifting restrictions on immigrants put in place over the past four years. LAS VEGAS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Spine and Posture (www.myvegaschiropractic.com) in Las Vegas - Aliante and Midtown - has been helping hundreds of residents during the Covid-19 Pandemic live stronger, healthier, pain-free lives. As one of only a handful of clinics in the entire state of Nevada specializing in a multi-disciplinary approach to improving patients' health, it is our goal to pinpoint, and uproot the source of pain, discomfort, disease, and fatigue. At our facilities in North Las Vegas and Midtown Las Vegas, Nevada, our team of doctors and therapists offer corrective chiropractic care, physical therapy, and integrative medicine. By working together under one roof, we can ensure that our patients' health concerns are correctly addressed, diagnosed, and treated. The Advanced Spine and Posture family of clinics originated in Las Vegas, Nevada over a decade ago, and has since been expanding into different communities, including two in Las Vegas, one in Henderson Nevada, and one in Grand Rapids. "One of our specialties that we are proud of is Chiropractic BioPhysics, or CBP," explains Dr Jason Jaeger, founder and CEO at Advanced Spine and Posture. "CBP is the most published, researched, scientific, and results-oriented chiropractic technique in the world." "By addressing spinal imbalances, postural deformities, and misalignments, we are able to gradually and methodically lift pressure off the delicate nerves in the neck and back, and restarting nerve flow back to the body," explains Dr Jaeger. "This in itself restores health and vitality back to the patient." At Advanced Spine and Posture, we are also excited about being one of the only providers of ScoliBrace in the area. As the name implies, ScoliBrace is a revolutionary corrective brace for those suffering with scoliosis or postural deformities. "Unlike the regular brace or surgery, the ScoliBrace offers the best of both worlds without being intrusive or bulky," says Dr Jaeger. The ScoliBrace is the latest technology in treating Scoliosis. This brace comes backed with all the case studies to prove its effectiveness. Advanced Spine and Posture is not just a Chiropractor in Las Vegas, we are a unique chiropractic office that is offering cutting edge technology to address patients' health concerns. Contact: Dr Jason Jaeger (702) 396-4993 [email protected] SOURCE Advanced Spine and Posture By Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing-based ByteDance plans to move the chief of its Chinese news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, Zhu Wenjia, to Singapore to head global research and development for its hit short video app TikTok, two people familiar with the matter said. The role is newly created and would be the first senior R&D position for TikTok. Zhu will be in charge of the app's product and technologies including its recommendation algorithms, the people said. His position will be parallel to TikTok's interim head, Vanessa Pappas, and will report ... Credit: NASA Beyond Earth, the general scientific consensus is that the best place to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life is Mars. However, it is by no means the only place. Aside from the many extrasolar planets that have been designated as "potentially-habitable," there are plenty of other candidates right here in our solar system. These include the many icy satellites that are thought to have interior oceans that could harbor life. Among them is Titan, Saturn's largest moon that has all kinds of organic chemistry taking place between its atmosphere and surface. For some time, scientists have suspected that the study of Titan's atmosphere could yield vital clues to the early stages of the evolution of life on Earth. Thanks to new research led by tech-giant IBM, a team of researchers has managed to recreate atmospheric conditions on Titan in a laboratory. Their research is described in a paper titled "Imaging Titan's Organic Haze at Atomic Scale," which recently appeared in the Feb. 12th issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The research team was led by Dr. Fabian Schulz and Dr. Julien Maillard and included many colleagues from IBM Research-Zurich, the University of Paris-Saclay, the University of Rouen at Mont-Saint-Aignan, and Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society. Much of what we know about Titan today is owed to the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 and finished its mission by diving into Saturn's atmosphere. During this time, Cassini conducted many direct measurements of Titan's atmosphere, revealing a surprisingly Earth-like environment. Basically, Titan is the only other body in the solar system that has a dense nitrogen atmosphere and organic processes taking place. This artists concept of a lake at the north pole of Saturns moon Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features such as those seen by NASAs Cassini spacecraft around the moons Winnipeg Lacus. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech What is particularly interesting is the fact that scientists believe that roughly 2.8 billion years ago, Earth's atmosphere may have been similar. This coincides with the Mesoarchean Era, a period where photosynthetic cyanobacteria created the first reef systems and slowly converted Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide to oxygen gas (eventually leading to its current balance of nitrogen and oxygen). While the surface of Titan is believed to hold clues that could improve our understanding of how life emerged in our solar system, getting a clear look at that surface has been a problem. The reason for this has to do with Titan's atmosphere, which is permeated by a dense photochemical haze that scatters light. As Leo Gross and Nathalie Carrasco (co-authors on the study) explained in recent article posted to the IBM Research Blog: "Titan's haze consists of nanoparticles made of a wide variety of large and complex organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. These molecules form in a cascade of chemical reactions when (ultraviolet and cosmic) radiation hits the mix of methane, nitrogen and other gases in atmospheres like Titan's." As a result, there is still much that scientists don't know about the processes that drive Titan's atmosphere, which includes the exact chemical structure of the large molecules that make up this haze. For decades, astrochemists have been conducting laboratory experiments with similar organic molecules known as tholinsa term derived from the Greek word for "muddy" (or "hazy"). The experiment, PAMPRE, where the atmosphere of Titan is simulated. Credit: Nathalie Carrasco Tholins refer to a wide variety of organic carbon-containing compounds that form when exposed to solar UV or cosmic rays. These molecules are common in the outer solar system and are typically found in icy bodies, where the surface layer contains methane ice that is exposed to radiation. Their presence is indicated by surface that have a ruddy appearance, or like they have sepia-colored stains. For the sake of their study, the team led by Schulz and Maillard conducted a experiment where they observed tholins in various stages of formation in a laboratory environment. As Gross and Carrasco explained: "We flooded a stainless-steel vessel with a mixture of methane and nitrogen and then triggered chemical reactions through an electric discharge, thereby mimicking the conditions in Titan's atmosphere. We then analyzed over 100 resulting molecules composing Titan's tholins in our lab at Zurich, obtaining atomic resolution images of around a dozen of them with our home-built low-temperature atomic force microscope." By resolving molecules of different sizes, the team was provided with glimpses of the different stages through which these haze molecules grow, as well as what their chemical makeup looks like. In essence, they observed a key component in Titan's atmosphere as it formed and accumulated to create Titan's famous hazy effect. Said Conor A. Nixon, a researcher with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (who was not affiliated with the study): "This paper shows ground-breaking new work in the use of atomic-scale microscopy to investigate the structures of complex, multi-ringed organic molecules. Typical analysis of laboratory-generated compounds using techniques such as mass spectroscopy reveals the relative proportions of the various elements, but not the chemical bonding and structure. NASAs Cassini spacecraft looks toward the night side of Saturns largest moon and sees sunlight scattering through the periphery of Titans atmosphere and forming a ring of color. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute "For this first time here, we see the molecular architecture of synthetic compounds similar to those thought to cause the orange haze of Titan's atmosphere. This application now provides an exciting new tool for sample analysis of astrobiological materials, including meteorites and returned samples from planetary bodies." What's more, their results may also shed light on Titan's mysterious methane-based hydrological cycle. On Earth, this cycle consists of water transitioning between a gaseous state (water vapor) and a liquid state (rain and surface water). On Titan, the same cycle takes place with methane, which transitions from atmospheric methane gas and falls as methane rain to form Titan's famous hydrocarbon lakes. In this case, the research team's results could reveal the role that the chemical haze plays in Titan's methane cycle, including whether or not these nanoparticles can float on its methane lakes. Furthermore, these findings could reveal whether or not similar atmospheric aerosols helped life emerge on Earth billions of years ago. "The molecular structures we have now imaged are known to be good absorbers of ultraviolet light," described Gross and Carrasco. "That, in turn, means that the haze may have acted as a shield protecting DNA molecules on the early Earth's surface from damaging radiation." A proposed eight-bladed drone (aka. dragonfly) could be ideally suited for exploring Saturns moon Titan in the coming decades. Credit: APL/Michael Carroll If this theory is correct, the team's findings would not only help scientists to understand the conditions under which life emerged here on Earth, they could also point towards the possible existence of life on Titan. The mysterious nature of this satellite is something scientists first became aware of in the early 1980s, when the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes both flew through the Saturn system. Since then, scientists have pieced together By the 2030s, NASA plans to send a robotic rotorcraft called Dragonfly to Titan to explore its surface and atmosphere and search for possible signs of life. As always, the theoretical work and laboratory experiments performed in the meantime will allow scientists to narrow the focus and increase the odds that the mission (once it arrives) will find what its looking for. Manuscript Editor (English), Home Based Organization: FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Closing date: Friday, 5 March 2021 2100381 Manuscript Editor (English) Job Posting: 05/Feb/2021 Closure Date: 05/Mar/2021, 10:59:00 PM Organizational Unit : REU Job Type: Non-staff opportunities Type of Requisition : PSA (Personal Services Agreement) Grade Level : N/A Primary Location: Home-Based Duration : Up to 11 months Post Number : N/A FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions. Qualified female applicants and qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations are encouraged to apply. Persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. Organizational Setting The Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) is responsible for leading FAOs response to regional priorities for food security, agriculture and rural development through the identification, planning and implementation of FAOs priority activities in the region. It ensures a multidisciplinary approach to programmes, identifies priority areas of action for the Organization in the Region and, in collaboration with departments and divisions at Headquarters, develops, promotes and oversees FAOs strategic response to regional priorities. REU also advises on the incorporation of regional priorities into the Organizations Programme of Work and Budget and implements approved programmes and projects in the region, monitors the level of programme implementation and draws attention to problems and deficiencies. REU develops and maintains relations with region-wide institutions including the Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs). The Regional Office supports regional policy dialogue on food security, agriculture and rural development issues, facilitates the emergence of regional partnerships, and supports capacity development and resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development in the region. The aim of this call is to identify experts for the provision of editorial services. Applicants who successfully undergo a competitive selection process will be endorsed in FAOs roster of manuscript editors and can be contracted for different assignments ranging from short term to up to 11 months. Reporting Lines The Manuscript Editor will work under the overall supervision of the Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia, the overall technical guidance of the Communication Officer for Europe and Central Asia, with day-to-day supervision by the technical officers and the regional Communication Specialist, in regular consultation with the FAOs Office of Communications (OCC). and is expected to interact as needed with content originators. Technical Focus The Manuscript Editor carries out substantive editing of various draft texts produced in REU. This may involve complete or partial reorganization and rewriting of the content in order to ensure balance and accuracy of the text. The incumbent also ensures coherence of edited texts with FAOs corporate and regional communication policies and operational guidelines, FAOSTYLE, FAO Names of Countries and Terminology. Tasks and responsibilities Receive draft news releases, media advisories, web stories brochures or similar written in English by non-English mother-tongue FAO communication specialists, and review these texts with a critical eye, catching and correcting errors and inconsistencies in logic, structure, syntax, lexicon, terminology, country names, and transliteration; Interact with content authors whenever necessary to check facts, verify intended meaning, or seek additional essential information; Apply a smart, journalistic style consistent with that of REUs recent archive of news content - with special attention to the composition of headlines and leads that capture a storys essence while also appealing to editors and readers; Follow REUs standard formatting for draft news releases and web stories - headline, subhead (optional), image, photo copyright and credit, dateline, media contact, links, micro-text for regional homepage feature bar, margins, font style and size; Follow with attention regional news planning processes to maintain awareness of current context and terminology; English copy-editing of the regional flagship publication, the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition: Europe and Central Asia, and related communication materials; Review brochures, leaflets and other information materials with regional relevance upon request; English language editing of FAO governing body documents, specifically the Informal Consultations, European Commission for Agriculture, and the European Regional Conference; ensure consistency with FAOSTYLE and terminology for all texts received; ensure that country names are correct (as per FAONOCS) and in the correct order (alphabetical if no specified order or ranking); improve the flow, clarity and quality of the language; flag any problems that require decisions relating to the substance of the work and ensuring its technical accuracy; and complete two rounds of corrections of manuscript following divisional checks; Other related tasks as needed. CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements Tags biodiversity capacity development central asia climate change continuous improvement economic integration editor fisheries food security knowledge sharing livestock programme implementation resource mobilization rural development technical training transparency Relevant university degree or relevant technical training/qualification Two years of relevant experience in manuscript editing or related fields Excellent knowledge (mother tongue) of the FAO language of the manuscripts to be edited (English) FAO Core Competencies Results Focus Teamwork Communication Building Effective Relationships Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement Technical/Functional Skills Familiarity with the topics of agriculture, livestock, fisheries, nutrition, climate change, environment, biodiversity Previous work for UN agencies is desirable Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing). Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers @fao.org Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted. Only language proficiency certificates from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE, LRT) will be accepted as proof of the level of knowledge of languages indicated in the online applications. Candidates with acceptable language certificate/s should upload them when submitting their application. For details, visit http://www.fao.org/3/I8446EN/i8446en.pdf. For other issues, visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/. HOW TO APPLY To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered. Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile. We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date. If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers @fao.org Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. HOUSTON - (Feb. 25, 2021) - A new theory by Rice University scientists could boost the growing field of spintronics, devices that depend on the state of an electron as much as the brute electrical force required to push it. Materials theorist Boris Yakobson and graduate student Sunny Gupta at Rice's Brown School of Engineering describe the mechanism behind Rashba splitting, an effect seen in crystal compounds that can influence their electrons' "up" or "down" spin states, analogous to "on" or "off" in common transistors. "Spin" is a misnomer, since quantum physics constrains electrons to only two states. But that's useful, because it gives them the potential to become essential bits in next-generation quantum computers, as well as more powerful everyday electronic devices that use far less energy. However, finding the best materials to read and write these bits is a challenge. The Rice model characterizes single layers to predict heteropairs -- two-dimensional bilayers -- that enable large Rashba splitting. These would make it possible to control the spin of enough electrons to make room-temperature spin transistors, a far more advanced version of common transistors that rely on electric current. "The working principle behind information processing is based on the flow of electrons that can be either off or on," Gupta said. "But electrons also have a spin degree of freedom that can be used to process information and is the basis behind spintronics. The ability to control electron spin by optimizing the Rashba effect can bring new functionality to electronic devices. "A cellphone with spin-related memory would be much more powerful and much less energy-consuming than it is now," he said. Yakobson and Gupta would like to eliminate the trial and error of finding materials. Their theory, presented in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, aims to do just that. "Electron spins are tiny magnetic moments that usually require a magnetic field to control," Gupta said. "However, manipulating such fields on the small scales typical in computing is very difficult. The Rashba effect is the phenomenon that allows us to control the electron spin with an easy-to-apply electric field instead of a magnetic field." Yakobson's group specializes in atom-level computations that predict interactions between materials. In this case, their models helped them understand that calculating the Born effective charge of the individual material components provides a means to predict Rashba splitting in a bilayer. "Born effective charge characterizes the rate of the bond polarization change under external perturbations of the atoms," Gupta said. "When two layers are stacked together, it effectively captures the resulting change in lattices and charges, which brings about the overall interlayer polarization and interface field responsible for the Rashba splitting." Their models turned up two heterobilayers -- lattices of MoTe2|Tl2O or MoTe2|PtS2 -- that are good candidates for the manipulation of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which happens at the interface between two layers held together by the weak van der Waals force. (For the less-chemically inclined, Mo is molybdenum, Te is tellurium, Tl is thallium, O is oxygen, Pt is platinum and S is sulfur.) Gupta noted the Rashba effect is known to occur in systems with broken inversion symmetry -- where the spin of the electron is perpendicular to its momentum -- that generates a magnetic field. Its strength can be controlled by an external voltage. "The difference is that the magnetic field due to the Rashba effect depends on the electron's momentum, which means the magnetic field experienced by a left-moving and right-moving electron is different," he said. "Imagine an electron with spin pointing in the z-direction and moving in the x-direction; it will experience a momentum-dependent Rashba magnetic field in the y-direction, which will precess the electron along the y-axis and change its spin orientation." Where a traditional field-effect transistor (FET) turns on or off depending on the flow of charge across a barrier with gate voltage, spin transistors control the spin precession length by a gate electric field. If the spin orientation is the same at the transistor's source and drain, the device is on; if the orientation differs, it's off. Because a spin transistor does not require the electronic barrier found in FETs, it needs less power. "That gives spintronic devices an enormous advantage compared to conventional charge-based electronic devices," Gupta said. "Spin states can be set quickly, which makes transferring data quicker. And spin is nonvolatile. Information sent using spin remains fixed even after a loss of power. Moreover, less energy is needed to change spin than to generate current to maintain electron charges in a device, so spintronics devices use less power." "To the chemist in me," Yakobson said, "the revelation here that spin-splitting strength depends on the Born charge is, in a way, very similar to the bond ionicity versus the electronegativity of the atoms in Pauling's formula. This parallel is very intriguing and deserves further exploration." ### Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry at Rice. The Office of Naval Research and the Army Research Office supported the study. The National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, provided computing resources. Read the abstract at https:/ / pubs. acs. org/ doi/ 10. 1021/ jacs. 0c12809 . This news release can be found online at https:/ / news. rice. edu/ 2021/ 02/ 25/ theory-could-accelerate-push-for-spintronic-devices/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Yakobson Research Group: https:/ / biygroup. blogs. rice. edu Rice Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering: https:/ / msne. rice. edu George R. Brown School of Engineering: https:/ / engineering. rice. edu Images for download: https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0301_RASHBA-1-WEB. jpg The image at left shows the crystal structure of a MoTe2|PtS2 heterobilayer with isocharge plots from a model created at Rice University. When the materials are stacked together, mirror symmetry is broken and there is a charge transfer that creates an intrinsic electric field. This field is responsible for Rashba-type spin-splitting shown by the band structure at right, where the spin is perpendicular to momentum. (Credit: Sunny Gupta/Rice University) https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0301_RASHBA-2-web. jpg CAPTION: Sunny Gupta. (Credit: Rice University) 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 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 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. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Jeff Falk 713-348-6775 jfalk@rice.edu Mike Williams 713-348-6728 mikewilliams@rice.edu 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. 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. As Marc Quidit lay in a trauma unit with four bullets in his lower body, his family gathered in their living room and wrestled with an expanding crisis. Quidit and his sister were tending to his store, Dollar Plus & Party Supplies in Vallejo, where two armed robbers entered on Feb. 16. According to surveillance video obtained by KTVU, at least one of the gunman fired shots at Quidit, who may have fired back. A critically injured Quidit was airlifted to John Muir Health Medical Center in Walnut Creek. The family didnt know if Quidit, 49 and the father of three, would walk again. Then Quidits teenage daughter quietly posed a question to the room: How would the family afford her fathers medical expenses? I remember thinking, Her father was just shot today, said Joanne Pomares, Quidits niece. A young girl like her going through trauma should not have to think about how the family is going to pay for medical bills. Pomares did what a growing number of Americans do when faced with a personal financial crisis and a tattered social safety net: She turned to online donations. Pomares GoFundMe campaign raised more than $84,000 for her uncles medical expenses in six days. The Filipino American familys campaign is one of several that sprang up in recent weeks in response to a rash of attacks on people of Asian descent in the Bay Area and beyond. According to GoFundMe, campaigns started on its international platform have raised money for struggling Asian American merchants in the Bay Area and in Maryland, for Asian American advocacy groups in California and New York, and to distribute safety items to older Asian American adults across the region. These online fundraisers, benefiting an ethnic community thats long been neglected, represent the latest twist in an unintentional trend. While we do not view ourselves as a substitute for government support, the fact is that more Americans than we could ever have anticipated, turn to GoFundMe for healthcare-related expenses, a spokesperson for the Redwood City-based company said in an email. A recent report from the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that more than a third of GoFundMe campaigns in the U.S. were created to cover health-care-related costs from the platforms launch in May 2010 to December 2018. Forty-two fundraisers sought $717,125 to help with medical costs in 2010. In 2018, 119,373 campaigns sought $4.6 billion for similar expenses. Its a uniquely American problem that so many people have to rely on crowdsourcing to pay for their health care, said Laurel Lucia, director of the health care program at UC Berkeleys Labor Center. It shows how many people are left out of our system and how unaffordable care has become. The pandemic has only widened the gap, particularly for communities of color. According to a survey the California Health Care Foundation conducted from late 2020 to early 2021, more California adults worried about affording unexpected medical costs and COVID-19 treatment than they did their rent or mortgage. Health-care affordability concerns were especially common among Black, Asian American and Latinx populations and those in low-income communities. For Asian Americans, the pandemic has added heightened xenophobia to health and economic pressures. A report this month from Stop AAPI Hate tallied 2,808 anti-Asian hate incidents in the U.S. from the onset of the pandemic through December 2020. Of those, 1,226 took place in California and more than 700 in the Bay Area. A separate Stop AAPI Hate report in the fall called former President Donald Trump the greatest superspreader of anti-Asian rhetoric for frequently using racist language such as China virus and kung flu to describe COVID-19 on television and his now-defunct social media platforms. Weve been sounding the alarm of anti-Asian racism since March and even before that, said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. Theres been a rise in verbal harassment, intimidation and physical assaults, so its natural for Asian Americans to feel like they may be targeted. The crowdfunding response has sometimes been swifter than the governments. More than $184,000 has been donated to Bay Area store owners and residents, including more than $86,000 for armed security patrols in Oaklands Chinatown, which experienced a spate of attacks and robberies leading into the Lunar New Year. San Francisco residents and friends Zoe Xu, Sunny Chen and Vicki Tan raised more than $10,000 for lanyards connected to whistles and emergency contact cards in English and Chinese. Karmen Sao of South San Francisco raised more than $2,000 to distribute pepper spray and whistles in San Mateo and neighboring counties. Jenna Nguyen of San Jose raised more than $1,500 to pass out alarms to older Asian American residents in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Whats heartbreaking about the attacks is that it happened to people who cant really defend themselves, so I felt like I had to do something, Nguyen said. Choi said a focus on crime prevention was natural, but the fundraisers also highlight the failure of government institutions to effectively respond. Targeted communities shouldnt have to bear the burden of organizing their own safety, she said. The fear, anxiety and concerns are so real, Choi said. Were seeing the fervor and anger because this issue has been invisible for so long. Pomares said her family doesnt know if Quidit was the victim of a racially motivated attack or a random crime. The armed robbers are still at large. But the family has received a different dose of clarity. Six days after the shooting, Pomares uploaded a photo to her GoFundMe page. The image showed Quidit in his Napa home surrounded by family members with arms outstretched in prayer. Pomares included a message thanking the nearly 2,000 donors and telling them her uncle would walk again. Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika Instagram: @shwanika GREENWICH, Conn. and BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CrossRegional Digital Strategy invested in Abakus, an Argentine peer-to-peer financial ecosystem, in a pre-seed funding round. CrossRegional will partner with Abakus in developing an enhanced digital wallet for consumer lending App, Clave. The Abakus ecosystem is expected to offer loans, ptp payments, crypto and other services. Abakus, has recently announced their partnership with Coreledger, a Swiss company specialized in Asset Digitization and Tokenization. With CrossRegional, Abakus will develop a disruptive worldwide tokenized assets platform, as well as offer other DeFi services. Pablo Pizzimbono, CrossRegional's founder, said "We are very excited to be working with Martin, Mauro and Diego to develop the next evolution of products to serve our users. The future of Fintech has never been more promising in offering products and services to the many underserved people of Latin America". Martin Furst, CEO of Abakus, said that "the finished wallet will include real-time swap, b2b2c marketplace and offer a disruptive and innovative way to invest in worldwide tokenized assets." About CrossRegional Management CrossRegional Management LLC is an asset management firm focused on origination and funding of direct lending portfolios in Emerging Markets. Through its affiliates, CrossRegional Partners and CrossRegional Digital Strategy, the firm invests in Fintech and Consumer Finance companies and is the founder of Clave, a digital wallet bringing credit and other solutions to people in Latin America. About Abakus Abakus is an end to end, peer-to-peer worldwide financial ecosystem platform. The company is developing an innovative mobile payment solution with real-time swaps between currencies. Abakus expects to be the best and most used wallet for store of value and cross border payments focused on solving a worldwide exchange rate need. Abakus aims to simplify access to financial services for everyone bringing financial freedom to common people. About Clave Clave is a digital platform providing credit and services to ordinary people in Latin America with extraordinary ease. Clave's digital wallet provides users with an ecosystem that channels credit applicants to loan platforms based on the applicant's needs and product suitability. Clave also provides users with ptp transfers, digital payments, insurance and other services. Contact: Marcelo Pizzimbono President CrossRegional Management LLC 646-992-9980 [email protected] www.crossregional.com Pablo Pizzimbono, CEO CrossRegional Management LLC 646-992-9980 [email protected] SOURCE CrossRegional Management Related Links https://www.crossregional.com The junior senator from Texas found himself in yet another Twitter spat. This time, it's over the nomination of Xavier Becerra to head the Health and Human Services department. Ted Cruz and GOP company cried foul in a letter to President Joe Biden that Becerra was unqualified for the position because he's not a physician. CANCUN FALLOUT: Now you can take out your frustrations on Ted Cruz ... sort of Becerra famously sued the Trump administration more than 100 times as attorney general of California. He's a staunch supporter of the Affordable Care Act and would lead the department as it continues to battle through the pandemic. "(Obamacare) has been life-changing and now through this pandemic, we can all see the value in having greater access to quality health care at affordable prices," Becerra said told the New York Times in June. "Now is not the time to rip away our best tool to address very real and very deadly health disparities in our communities." On Fox News, Cruz derided Becerra as a "trial lawyer" who shouldn't be in charge of the department as the pandemic rages on. He also pointed out that Becerra, in defending people's access to contraception, wound up suing a group of litigious Catholics who intervened in a federal lawsuit. He echoed some of his comments on Twitter, which got the attention of noted historian Kevin M. Kruse. Kruse poked the senator even further, defending Becerra's reputation as former U.S. congressman and attorney general of California. Cruz doubled down. Kruse pointed out that the department's last head was also a trial lawyer, appointed by former President Donald Trump and confirmed by senators, including Cruz. "... Almost none of the HHS/HEW secretaries in US history have been scientists or doctors," Kruse tweeted. "That includes the last one you happily voted to confirm." Cruz responded by calling the historian a "lefty pundit." Kruse appears to have ended the back-and-forth and has yet to respond. Cruz has already moved on to tweeting about the gender of toy potatoes. It's a fair criticism that Bacerra is not a physician leading the department. Before Biden announced his nominee, several prominent doctors advocated for a pick who's a physician and were shocked when he was announced, according to the New York Times. But even after pushing for a doctor to lead the department, experts praised the nomination. Dr. Ada Stewart, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, told The Times that Becerra was a "good choice." "Weve already seen his commitment to health and equity, and those things cant be overlooked," Stewart said. Whether Cruz's arguments have merit is overshadowed by his rolling in the mud on Twitter, of which there's no short supply. While he and 10 other Republican senators signed off on the letter asked Biden to withdraw the nomination, Bacerra is expected to be approved without any issue, according to Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo News. Via: Vikalp Sangam Statement on The Uttarakhand Tragedy By The Core Group, Vikalp Sangam 24.02.2021 We, the Core Group members of the Vikalp Sangam, are completely shocked and anguished by the recent Uttarakhand tragedy. We do consider that the events of 7th February 2021 in the Rishi Ganga and Dhauli Ganga valleys in Uttarakhand are yet another grim reminder of the fact that Himalayas as an ecosystem are getting stressed and sick by the day. Climate Change and its impacts are no longer a matter of debate or contestations. It is here to stay. We have to learn to live with the hard facts and ugly face of Climate Change becoming worse especially in vulnerable regions like the Himalayas, the youngest and restive mountain system in the world. Within the Himalayas itself, there are regions more vulnerable than the rest due to receding glaciers, glacial lakes, steep slopes and sparse vegetation. Such vulnerable regions can do with minimum anthropogenic interventions. Against the above, the facts are that an avalanche of manmade structures like dams and hydropower projects, barrages, tunnels, wide roads and even railways are either operational, under construction or planned all across the Himalayan region in the country. This can be suicidal as has repeatedly been experienced in 2012, 2013, 2016 and again now in 2021. We cannot waste any more time before preventive and definitive steps are taken on a priority basis to reverse the damage already done to fragile Himalayas. Following the 2013 Uttarakhand disaster, an expert Body headed by Dr. Ravi Chopra was constituted which assessed the overall hydropower development in Uttarakhand and its role in the disaster. The Report Assessment of Environmental Degradation and Impact of Hydroelectric Projects during the June 2013 Disaster in Uttarakhand, dated April 2014, recommended scrapping of 23 hydropower projects in the region. There are many who believe that if the recommendations of the report had been accepted and comprehensively acted upon, the tragedy on 7th February probably could have been avoided. We, the Core Group members of Vikalp Sangam, demand the following: Scrap the two damaged hydropower projects Rishi Ganga and Tapovan and remove the debris from the river courses. Institute an immediate independent enquiry into the disaster that would throw light on possible causes of the tragedy, the lacunae in dealing with it, and the lessons learned. The committee should also fix responsibilities at various levels for the loss of innocent lives and property, institute action/s against the culprits and establish protocols and processes to prevent any recurrence of such tragedies and/or minimize their impacts. Constitute an independent multi-disciplinary expert group to carry out a comprehensive review of existing developmental programs and projects in the Himalayan region in a time bound manner on the lines of the 2014 Expert Body headed by Dr. Ravi Chopra and/or the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP). The review should be a comprehensive, cumulative, regional one (as against standalone, project-based reviews) that takes into account the combined impacts of all the projects (including roads, dams, tunnels, tourist centres, colonies, townships, and so-called afforestation) and existing threats of climate change and seismicity. Announce a moratorium on all infrastructure projects like dams and hydropower projects, barrages, tunnels, road widening and construction of new ones, railways, large scale tourism infrastructure etc., till the above mentioned review is completed and a social consensus is built around the same. Initiate a participatory process to develop an alternative development policy/strategy for the holistic protection, preservation of the Himalayan Rivers and the ecosystem and livelihood security of local people. Rampant development in the Himalayan region should be banned; instead, the Himalayan region should be protected as a natural heritage with minimum human interventions approach. The approach should incentivize protection and conservation of ecosystem services, organic and biodiverse farming, sustainable pastoralism, decentralized water systems, local/indigenous forests and biomass-based manufacturing, crafts, and community-led ecotourism, at the same time removing disincentives such as subsidies for ecologically harmful agriculture, mass tourism, etc. Core Group, Vikalp Sangam (consisting of the groups below) ACCORD (Tamil Nadu) Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (national) Alternative Law Forum (Bengaluru) Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Bengaluru) BHASHA (Gujarat) Bhoomi College (Bengaluru) Blue Ribbon Movement (Mumbai) Centre for Education and Documentation (Mumbai) Centre for Environment Education (Gujarat) Centre for Equity Studies (Delhi) CGNetSwara (Chhattisgarh) Chalakudypuzha Samrakshana Samithi / River Research Centre (Kerala) ComMutiny: The Youth Collective (Delhi) Deccan Development Society (Telangana) Deer Park (Himachal Pradesh) Development Alternatives (Delhi) Dharamitra (Maharashtra) Ekta Parishad (several states) Ektha (Chennai) EQUATIONS (Bengaluru) Extinction Rebellion India (national) Gene Campaign (Delhi) Goonj (Delhi) Greenpeace India (Bengaluru) Health Swaraaj Samvaad (national) Ideosync (Delhi) Jagori Rural (Himachal Pradesh) Kalpavriksh (Maharashtra) Knowledge in Civil Society (national) Kriti Team (Delhi) Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (Ladakh) Local Futures (Ladakh) Maadhyam (Delhi) Maati (Uttarakhand) Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (national) Mahalir Association for Literacy, Awareness and Rights (MALAR) Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (Rajasthan) Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (national) National Alliance of Peoples Movements (national) National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (national) Nirangal (Tamil Nadu) North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (Meghalaya) Peoples Resource Centre (Delhi) Peoples Science Institute (Uttarakhand) reStore (Chennai) Sahjeevan (Kachchh) Sambhaavnaa (Himachal Pradesh) Samvedana (Maharashtra) Sangama (Bengaluru) Sangat (Delhi) School for Democracy (Rajasthan) School for Rural Development and Environment (Kashmir) Shikshantar (Rajasthan) Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (Ladakh) Sikkim Indigenous Lepcha Womens Association Social Entrepreneurship Association (Tamil Nadu) SOPPECOM (Maharashtra) South Asian Dialogue on Ecological Democracy (Delhi) Students Environmental and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (Ladakh) Thanal (Kerala) Timbaktu Collective (Andhra Pradesh) Titli Trust (Uttarakhand) Tribal Health Initiative (Tamil Nadu) URMUL (Rajasthan) Vrikshamitra (Maharashtra) Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (Andhra Pradesh/Telangana) Youth Alliance (Delhi) Yugma Network (national) Let India Breathe Travellers University Dinesh Abrol Sushma Iyengar Contact: KJ Joy, joykjjoy2[at]gmail.com Crawford & Company, a publicly listed independent provider of claims management and outsourcing solutions to carriers, brokers and corporations, has appointed Robert Pageau as vice president and managing director of U.S. Loss Adjusting for the New England region. In this role, Pageau will report to Larry Milburn, chief operating officer of U.S. Loss Adjusting, and will support the development and growth of the New England region. He has more than 30 years of experience in the property/casualty adjusting fields, including inland marine claims, workers compensation and commercial general liability. Pageau began his career with Crawford in 1988 as a property/casualty claims adjuster and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the managing director of Crawfords New England service center. In 2015, he joined Dineley Claims Services as executive general adjuster. In 2019, Pageau became a director of operations for the Northeastern region at McLarens, where he managed 40 adjusters of all levels, focusing on their development at the company. Based in Massachusetts, Pageau is a licensed insurance adjuster in 15 states. Source: Crawford & Company Topics Talent Human Resources European nationalism has turned Ireland into bureaucratic losers in the race to vaccinate citizens, a Fianna Fail TD has said. Outspoken Sligo-Leitrim deputy Marc MacSharry said the EU made a balls of procuring vaccines and insisted Ireland should explore other ways to increase supply Speaking on the Floating voter podcast, Mr MacSharry also severely criticised the Governments reliance on the EU for vaccines and called on the Taoiseach to ask Prime Minister Boris Johnson for any extra supplies the UK has left over. He said the Government should extend the date between first and second vaccines so more people can be vaccinated now. There is an element of EU and nationalist pride in preventing us from reaching out because we need to be the goodie two shoes Europeans, he said. Read More The only good deal on vaccinations is a fast deal and Europe went off thinking they were procuring office supplies, played hard ball with prices and those global negotiating geniuses in Bahrain got up the queue, so did israel, so did a number of other countries while we were being good, cautious, bureaucratic, responsible losers. The long-time Fianna Fail dissident also said he expects Micheal Martin to step down as party leader before the next election and said he will be supporting Jim OCallaghan in a leadership contest. I think 12 years of a leader is enough, it needs to be refreshed and that's it. It's not personal, it's business. It's good business to change it, he said. He said there are five or six people who are prepared to step forward and replace Micheal Martin naming Dara Calleary, Darragh O'Brien, Jim O'Callaghan, Michael McGrath and Norma Foley. However, he said he will be supporting Mr OCallaghan because he is not blinded by ambition and is in politics to makes changes rather than personal gain. Is the Micheal Martin who brought in the smoking ban the Micheal Martin who is Taoiseach - I'm not so sure, he added. Mr MacSharry there is no personal animosity between himself and Mr Martin but said they do "have issues about how things are managed" in the party. "I'm not entirely risk adverse but I think the Taoiseach probably is," he said. "He's much more cautious than is necessary in my view but it is certainly not personal." He criticised what he called a highly centralised environment where the top decide and formulate policy and said he believes this is Micheal Martin's failure. If a backbencher or a senator comes up with a cure for cancer it is not going to get into the minutes unless it comes from a Tony Holohan or KPMG or Deloittes and that's a problem, he added. No matter the process, the notion persists that the Whos Who is a dinosaur from the age of print. How are you planning to counter that? Bound volumes of the Whos Who and yearly editions have been in American libraries for more than 120 years and still are very much in place. But the Marquis moved into the digital space several years ago. The idea is to make sure that it stays a part of the conversation. Thats one reason we introduced the Makers Lists. Tell us about the Makers Lists? These are digital directories, living lists of professional achievers. They will consist of written biographies, some of them supplemented with video interviews. Because the lists are digital, they can change with the times and the conversation. Who makes the cut? Weve had and Im trying to put this as delicately as possible a rough few years. American excellence has not always been highlighted in a way that we can cheer. So we are saying, Lets put a spotlight on Americans who have been change agents for us. We want to list people who impact society in a positive way. One of the listees happens to be Alexander Butterfield. He became deputy assistant to the President during the Nixon administration. He installed, and later revealed, the secret taping system in the Nixon White House. I got to actually ask him, Mr. Butterfield did you know what you had way before the rest of the world did? Its fascinating to be able to talk to someone who clearly has had an impact on history. Has the pandemic slowed you down? At the start, I was deluded into a false sense of security. In February of last year, I took a cruise with my family to benefit the American Heart Association. We finished in Florida. We got off the ship on March 1 and that day I flew to New York to open the United Nations International Womens month. When I got back to Chicago on March 9, I asked my husband, Ricardo Lugo, Whats all of this Covid talk? Three days later the whole country shut down. Russia has no plans to initiate steps to cut ties with the European Union, Russias Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said in a televised interview with Rossiya-24 news channel on Wednesday, TASS reports. "Everything that has been, regrettably, frozen in our relations with the EU until now is the result of the steps by our valiant EU counterparts and those who support them from all the sides," Chizhov said. "Therefore, there has never been any talk that Russia would sever ties with the European Union on its own initiative." The diplomat could not rule out that Russia would respond asymmetrically to any potential EU restrictions. "In case of further destructive steps from the European Union, Russia will not let grass grow under its feet, but will find corresponding ways and means to influence the situation. We can call it an asymmetric response, but those steps definitely wont go without consequences," he said. Tragedy: Naomi Lynn died along with a friend in a collision last February The family of a young Co Antrim woman who was killed in a road crash are raising funds for the Northern Ireland Air Ambulance in her memory. Naomi Lynn (21), a student at Queen's University, died in the collision near Glarryford on February 19 last year. Friend and co-worker Andy Burke (23), a passenger in the car, also died. The pair had worked in a coffee shop at Belfast International Airport. At Naomi's funeral in Portglenone First Presbyterian Church, mourners heard her described as talented, creative and sporty. She was working in Starbucks at the airport to help support her studies. She had been due to graduate with a degree in architecture last summer. To mark the first anniversary of the double tragedy, the family wanted to raise money for the Air Ambulance by raffling off a signed Ulster Rugby shirt. The emergency helicopter had attended the scene of the collision. Naomi's father Bryan said yesterday: "It's a great charity and it takes around 5,500 per day to run. "The Government doesn't support (it), and it's up to us supporters to raise money for it." Mr Lynn added that the last 12 months had been incredibly difficult for the family. "It's been a very short year. I can't believe how quickly a year has passed by, but it's been a struggle. It has been very trying," he said. "But doing something positive keeps our minds occupied. "Naomi was a fundraiser herself - one day she took the notion of shaving off her hair. "I said: 'What! You're going to shave off your hair'. She told me it was for kids' cancer. "There was a wee article in the papers as well where she got all of her hair shaved off. So we just feel that Naomi would like us to be doing something positive." Mr Lynn said he, wife Barbara, daughter Jenna, friends and loved ones would be "eternally grateful" for the support shown by the community at the funeral. There had been plans for the family to host a gala dinner and charity auction in the Tullyglass House Hotel last Friday, but that has been postponed until next year due to the pandemic. "With the current restrictions the date has been changed to February 19, 2022," Mr Lynn said. "Tickets already bought remain valid and tickets are now available for the new date as well. "We've raised around 3,000 to 4,000 so far in the past six days, which is amazing. And then we'll have funds from the gala. "And with us being in the restaurant trade ourselves, we've a lot of good contacts for auction and raffle prizes." Those who wish to enter the competition to win the Ulster Rugby shirt are being asked to make a 10 donation via JustGiving. The winner will be chosen at a live draw to be streamed on Facebook next month. Details of the competition can be found via www.justgiving.com/fundraising/inmemoryofnaomilynn The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. PORTLAND Members of the Russell Library Veterans Writing Group lost one of their own recently with the death of Eugene Sullivan, a retired Marine known as a gentleman with a twinkle of mischief, and a ready wit. He was 86. Sullivan, a Korean War veteran who had lung and thyroid cancer, according to his wife Shirley, traveled the world while in the service, and, afterward, the country, while researching entries for Grolier Encyclopedia. He joined the writing group 10 years ago. He is among the soldiers whose etchings are featured on the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C. The couple visited the memorial a few times, although she cant recall exactly how he became involved. He was very proud of it. His fellow writers traveled to the site, taking photographs of themselves beside Eugene Sullivans image, she said. So, too, did his grandchildren, who both visited the memorial in the eighth grade to take a photo next to their grandfathers image, his wife said. He was always smiling, Shirley Sullivan said. He loved people and loved doing things, being in different organizations, volunteering and boating especially sailing. He loved being on the water. For years, members have been working on a book of their stories, titled En Route, publication of which has been delayed by the pandemic, according to Christy Billings, who works in Information Services and Adult Learning at the library. Sullivans writing was very visual, said Billings, who called him a gentleman with a twinkle of mischief, and a ready wit. He put you in the place hed be writing about with a minimum of words. He was very good at taking a description and making it come alive. He would make it very interesting. He would pull you right into a scene. Youd get the feeling of what was happening immediately, Billings said. His contribution to the book was The Most Violent Image, the story of a horrific incident the veteran witnessed during wartime. Billings and co-leader Liz Petry offered a prompt for the writing that eventually made it into the book. Members were tasked with relaying a memorable image using their five senses, Billings said. Eugene Sullivan wrote wrote of an accident during which three men, while raising a 30-foot-tall antennae, brushed briefly against a high-power overhead line which came in contact with a pool across the street and were fatally electrocuted. He wrote that even today he could still recall the horrific moment. Sullivans piece was so strong that Petry asked members to begin reading their works aloud. It was just so visceral, she said. The writers group first met in March 2012 with the goal of providing an outlet for their wartime and other recollections. After two years, Eugene Sullivan warmed up to the group, Billings said. He was so happy to be a part of it its such a great group of guys and women. The guys were so wonderful helping him out of the car into the wheelchair, his wife said. He always came away with a good feeling. Her husband loved to joke. He was a talker. Thats just how he was, very outgoing. He got along with everyone. He loved life, Shirley Sullivan said. We had a very good life together. He was one special man, Petry said. He sometimes told outrageous stories, but he was the perfect gentleman, she wrote in a tribute last week. Our veterans get along well with frequent detours into heavy doses of heckling each other. Gene was the recipient of his share. The worst of it came when he suggested a writing prompt, which I had been encouraging everyone to do from the beginning, Petry wrote. Gene asked the veterans to write a letter of apology. His gave everyone a laugh as he asked forgiveness of a hostess for spilling red wine on an expensive white tablecloth, she wrote. One of her favorite moments with Gene Sullivan was a holiday meal with members, Petry said. Gene arrived with a bright red sweater. I said, Oh, how festive its got reindeer and snowflakes. I took a closer look, and, oh my God, hand grenades and crossed swords! Silly me. It said Marine Corps on the bottom in huge letters. Gene was delighted at my reaction, she said. He was a really wonderful addition to our writing group and a really good writer. I learned something pretty much every time he wrote something, Petry said, herself a published author. Eugene Sullivan had an endless curiosity about things, and would often check out books she recommended. We are old, and older, but seem to act as one, member Vance Fisher, a helicopter pilot who served in Vietnam, said about his fellow writers. What I feel is the most valuable about this group is we have become a unit, a squad, a platoon, and act as a unit should. We strive to reach the objective to complete the mission. All for one. We miss him so much, said fellow writer Jerry Augustine of Middletown, a Vietnam War veteran. It was always interesting to hear his experiences. He was very laid-back and very, very nice. Over the years, group members became very close, almost like a brotherhood, said Augustine, who is working on his own book he expects to publish within the next two months sharing his recollections of his time in the military and growing up in Middletown. Sullivan would be tickled at his story being told, his wife said. He would have cut [the article] out and put it on the refrigerator. I know hes looking down up there and laughing. Thats more than he would have expected. The writing group meets Thursdays at 2:30 p.m. on Zoom. For information, visit russelllibrary.libcal.com. A woman reacts outside a prison where inmates were killed during a riot that the government described as a concerted action by criminal organisations, in Guayaquil At least 75 people have been killed and dozens more injured in three separate prison riots in Ecuador, where officials are blaming gang rivalry for the tragedy. By Vatican News staff writer Gangs are being blamed for the tragic loss of lives in three of Ecuador's prisons on Tuesday. Officials have reported that the deaths, adding up to at least 75, and the injuries of dozens more in the cities of Guayaquil, Cuenca and Latacunga are a result of gang rivalry. Edmundo Moncayo, the director of Ecuadors prison agency stated on Tuesday that these were two groups vying for criminal leadership within the detention centres. The riots reportedly erupted on Monday night after prisoners took prison guards hostage. An additional 800 police officers were sent to help authorities "control and restore order within the detention centres" said Edmundo Moncayo. Distraught family members waited desperately for news outside the prison in Ecuadors western port city of Guayaquil, where officials said 21 people died. Another 33 died at the prison in Cuenca in the south and eight in Latacunga in the centre of the country. Deadly prison riots have happened relatively frequently in recent years in Ecuador, where prisons are designed for 27,000 inmates but house about 38,000. In December five inmates were killed in a brawl in a prison in Latacunga. DALLAS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) today announced the flexibility and value of Southwest Airlines now benefits both visitors and hometown travelers booking late spring and summer travel to DestinFort Walton Beach Airport (VPS) in Florida and Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) in Montana. Southwest service to both destinations begins in May 2021. The carrier's initial flight schedule for both regions is now available for purchase on Southwest.com. "We're adding another destination in the West, our first in Montana, and bringing additional access to the beaches of Northwest Florida just as winter-weary families begin to dream of warm summer escapes in wide-open places," said Andrew Watterson, Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer. "Our arrival in these communities with daily service also ushers a new flexibility and everyday affordability for local travelers flying Southwest for fun, family, or work." DESTIN/FT. WALTON BEACH, FLA., DAILY SERVICE BEGINS MAY 6, 2021 Beginning May 6, 2021, Southwest will commence service to an 11th airport in the Sunshine State, bringing a third option for beachcombers to access the Florida panhandle. Southwest Customers will be able to fly nonstop between Destin/Ft. Walton Beach and four destinations: Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Dallas (Love Field), and Nashville, bringing additional connecting or same-plane service to more than 50 cities, with added nonstop service to Chicago (Midway) beginning June 6, 2021. This new service is available for purchase now at Southwest.com: Fly nonstop between Destin/Ft. Walton Beach and: Initial daily service: One-way fares as low as: Baltimore/Washington (BWI) 1 flight each way $79 Chicago (Midway) (beginning June 6) 1 flight each way $79 Dallas (Love Field) 1 flight each way $69 Nashville 3 flights each way $69 The number of seats, days, and markets for these fares are limited. See a full list of fares, fare rules, and terms and conditions below and at Southwest.com. BOZEMAN, MONT., DAILY SERVICE BEGINS MAY 27, 2021 In its 50th year of service, Southwest Airlines adds another of the 50 states to its network, bringing low fares to the state of Montana on May 27, 2021. The addition of Bozeman will connect Customers with Big Sky country, bringing faster access to Yellowstone National Park, Big Sky Ski Resort, Custer Gallatin National Forest, and Montana State University. Southwest Customers may now book travel to fly nonstop between Bozeman and both Denver and Las Vegas, and reach southern Montana from more than 50 other Southwest cities on same-plane or connecting service. This new service is available for purchase now at Southwest.com: Fly nonstop between Bozeman and: Initial daily service: One-way fares as low as: Denver 2 flights each way (increases to 4 flights each way on June 6) $39 Las Vegas 2 flights each way $39 The number of seats, days, and markets for these fares are limited. See a full list of fares, fare rules, and terms and conditions below and at Southwest.com. In 2020, Southwest added new service to Hilo, Hawaii; Cozumel, Mexico; Miami; Palm Springs, Calif.; Steamboat Springs; and Montrose (Telluride), Colo., to connect Customers with places and people they love. In 2021, Southwest began service to both Chicago (O'Hare) and Sarasota/Bradenton on Feb. 14. The carrier will begin service to both Savannah/Hilton Head and Colorado Springs on March 11; both Houston (Bush) and Santa Barbara, Calif. on April 12; Fresno, Calif. on April 25; Destin/Ft. Walton Beach on May 6; Bozeman, Mont. on May 27; and Jackson, Miss. on June 6. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES SALE FARE RULES Purchase today, Feb. 25, 2021, through March 4, 2021, 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. Destin/Fort Walton Beach, to/from Nashville, Baltimore/Washington (BWI), and Dallas (Love Field) travel valid May 6, 2021, through June 30, 2021. Destin/Fort Walton Beach to/from Chicago (Midway) valid June 6, 2021, through August 16, 2021. Bozeman travel valid May 27, 2021, through Aug. 16, 2021. Except as otherwise specified, Bozeman travel is valid only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Travel to Destin/Fort Walton Beach is valid only on Sundays through Wednesdays. Travel from Destin/Fort Walton Beach is valid only on Tuesdays through Fridays. Fares not available to/from the continental U.S. to/from Hawaii. Seats and days are limited. Fares may vary by destination, flight, and day of the week and won't be available on some flights that operate during very busy travel times and holiday periods. Travel is available for one-way Wanna Get Away fares. Fares may be combined with other Southwest combinable fares. If combining with other fares, the most restrictive fare rules apply. Sale fares may be available on other days of the week, but that's not guaranteed. Fares are nonrefundable but may be applied toward future travel on Southwest, as long as reservations are canceled at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure. Failure to cancel prior to departure will result in forfeiture of remaining funds on the reservation. Any change in itinerary may result in an increase in fare. Standby travel may require an upgrade to the Anytime fare depending on Rapid Rewards tier status. Fares are subject to change until ticketed. Offer applies only to published, scheduled service. ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO. In its 50th year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. continues to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary Customer Service delivered by more than 56,000 Employees to a Customer base that topped 130 million Passengers in 2019. Southwest has a robust network of point-to-point service with a strong presence across top leisure and business markets. In peak travel seasons during 2019, Southwest operated more than 4,000 weekday departures among a network of 101 destinations in the United States and 10 additional countries. In 2020, the carrier added service to Hilo, Hawaii; Cozumel, Mexico; Miami; Palm Springs, Calif.; Steamboat Springs; and Montrose (Telluride), Colo. Thus far in 2021, Southwest began service to both Chicago (O'Hare) and Sarasota/Bradenton on Feb. 14; and will begin service to both Savannah/Hilton Head and Colorado Springs on March 11; both Houston (Bush) and Santa Barbara, Calif. on April 12; Fresno, Calif. on April 25; Destin/Ft. Walton Beach on May 6; Bozeman, Mont. on May 27; and Jackson, Miss. on June 6. The carrier issued its Southwest Promise in May 2020 to highlight new and round-the-clock efforts to support its Customers and Employees well-being and comfort. Among the changes are enhanced cleaning efforts at airports and onboard aircraft, along with a federal mandate requiring every person to wear a mask at all times throughout each flight. Additional details about the Southwest Promise are available at Southwest.com/Promise. Southwest coined Transfarency to describe its purposed philosophy of treating Customers honestly and fairly, and low fares actually staying low. Southwest is the only major U.S. airline to offer bags fly free to everyone (first and second checked pieces of luggage, size and weight limits apply, some carriers offer free checked bags on select routes or in qualified circumstances). Southwest does not charge change fees, though fare differences might apply. Southwest is one of the most honored airlines in the world, known for a triple bottom line approach that contributes to the carrier's performance and productivity, the importance of its People and the communities they serve, and an overall commitment to efficiency and the planet. Learn more about how the carrier gives back to communities across the world by visiting Southwest.com/citizenship. Book Southwest Airlines' low fares online at Southwest.com or by phone at 800-I-FLY-SWA. SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co. Related Links http://www.southwest.com 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. The Athens City Schools Board of Education voted Thursday morning to uphold Superintendent Beth Patton's decision to place Rick Carter on paid administrative leave. Carter is one of six people named in a federal grand jury indictment. He is accused of being part of a scheme to steal about $7 million in state and federal education funds. (Learn more HERE) Here is the recommendation that the board unanimously voted on from Patton: "I recommend that the Board adopt the following motion: In light of the allegations from the grand jury indictment, and related circumstances, I move that the Superintendent continue to make system employees and resources available to fully cooperate with federal and state officials, and that it is in the proper interest of the school system to affirm the Superintendent's placement of Rick Carter on administrative leave with suspension of all school system duties, expenses, and tasks, except as required by law, pending further recommendations from the Superintendent." Athens City Schools announced Carter was put on paid administrative leave on Wednesday. He was put on paid administrative leave because of the tenure law. The Work Zone A lot of folks will go to work this morning, and not be happy about it. I hope I can give you some ideas today that will help make sure youre Read more Please purchase a subscription to continue reading. If you have a subscription, please Log In . Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. If you believe you've gotten this message in error, please Log In. A woman and a little girl walk on the street in Flushing, New York on Feb. 10, 2021. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times) Chinese American Civil Rights Group Denounces Critical Race Theory: A Hateful Fraud The New York chapter of the oldest Chinese American civil rights group has denounced critical race theory (CRT) as a hateful, divisive, manipulative fraud, urging parents to identify and call out the ideology in their childrens education. In a Feb. 23 letter (pdf), the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York condemned CRT, a European Marxist outgrowth that views society through the singular lens of race-based power struggle and labels the very foundations of American social and political lifesuch as rationalism, constitutional law, and legal reasoningas tools of racial oppression. From its very roots, CRT is racist, repressive, discriminatory, and divisive, the organization wrote, noting that the CRT framework is heavily influenced by prominent communist thinkers like Marx, Lenin, and Gramsci, but with class struggle replaced by racial struggle. Chinese Americans, according to the Alliance, have come into CRTs crosshairs because the racial minority group has continued to overcome discrimination and achieve upward mobility, becoming white by adjacency. Pointing out that CRT promotes broad generalizations solely based on skin color, the Alliance argues it will inevitably collide with immigrants who are grateful to be here, work hard and educate their children hard, and believe in the American dream under the Constitutional guarantee of equal rights. When CRT eventually clashes with immigrants, we will find CRTs racism and hate against us ratcheted up another notch, the letter reads. In a call to action, the Alliance said parents should not only organize to resist CRT being taught in schools, but also speak with their children to un-doctrinate them at home. This needs to start early, because CRT indoctrination also starts early, it warned. Dont trust schools and teachers blindly. The group also urged voters to elect state legislators who represent our views on CRT, noting that it is unlikely to purge CRT at the federal level with President Joe Biden in the White House. In one of his first executive actions as president, Biden rescinded Trumps September 2020 executive order, which declared that un-American and divisive concepts should no longer be promoted in any diversity and inclusion training for federal employees. The Alliances letter was applauded by Christopher Rufo, a conservative journalist, filmmaker, and active critic of CRT. He drew parallels between CRT and Maos Cultural Revolution, noting that many Chinese-Americans fled the deadly political movement and dont want to see it reappear in the United States. Welcome to the fight, friends, Rufo wrote on Twitter. The Alliance was originally founded in 1895 in San Francisco, California, to empower Chinese immigrants during the exclusion era, when the Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration and declared immigrants of Chinese origin ineligible for naturalization. Its Greater New York chapter was re-established in 2016. [February 25, 2021] Groove Brings Sendoso Sending to the Inbox Groove, the leading sales engagement platform for enterprises using Salesforce, today announced an enhanced integration with Sendoso, the leading sending platform, that enables joint customers to send modern direct mail, personalized gifts, eGifts, and celebrity greetings to over 165 countries without leaving their inbox. Groove is unique in that it was built for the full-cycle seller and has a number of key features that support the automation needs of account executives and customer success teams. The enhanced integration announced today enables those teams to strategically leverage gifting in their daily workflows to strengthen relationships, accelerate deal cycles, and re-engage dormant accounts. Making Sendoso more easily accessible to AEs and CSMs can have a big impact on developing and deepening customer relationships. According to Sendoso, companies using its sending platform have generated the following results: 4X increase in response rates 50% faster deal cycles 20+ hours saved per campaign 450% ROI on campaign investment New features in the enhanced integration include the ability to execute Sendoso steps through Groove Actions and to send a Sendoso gift after a meeting is booked through Groove Scheduler. As a Groove customer, Sendoso is now leveraging the enhanced integration to bring the power of Sendoso sending to the inbox. Using the enhanced integration, Sendoso's customer success team incoporated a Sendoso gifting step into a targeted reactivation campaign that resulted in a 50% open rate and 21% conversion rate for booked meetings. According to Alex Miller, Sendoso's Director of Revenue Operations, AEs are also using Groove and Sendoso together to do their own prospecting and book meetings with a 10% response rate. "Unlike other sales engagement platforms that were built for prospecting, Groove seamlessly aligns with our AE and CSM workflows, making them more efficient and effective in their day-to-day workflows," said Miller. "Our teams took to it right away, and we've subsequently seen 95% percent adoption across our sales and customer success teams. Not only are our reps more effective, but we have complete visibility into pre- and post-sales activities for every prospect, customer, and partner account in Salesforce." "Sendoso is the clear market leader when it comes to gifting platforms," said Tehsin Daya, Head of Partnerships for Groove. "As we expand our partner ecosystem, we are focused on developing solutions that provide unique value, and our enhanced integration with Sendoso is no exception." "Our AEs love that they can now live in Gmail instead of a separate app and still have Salesforce data at their fingertips and add contacts with a single click," said Miller. "Whether an AE needs to jumpstart a stalled deal or a CSM needs to ensure a customer shows up for a meeting, Groove lets them easily send out a Sendoso-powered gift without ever leaving their workflow." About Sendoso Sendoso, the leading Sending Platform, is the most effective way for revenue-generating teams to stand out with new ways to engage at strategic points throughout the customer journey. By connecting digital and physical strategies, companies can engage, acquire, and retain customers easier than ever before. Founded in 2016, Sendoso is trusted by over 500 companies and has a vast global footprint, with a presence in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Learn more at sendoso.com. About Groove Groove is the leading sales engagement platform for enterprises using Salesforce, specializing in ease-of-use, ease-of-administration, and cross-team collaboration. Built for the needs of full-cycle sellers, Groove automates non-sales activities so that pre- and post-sales reps can spend more time building relationships and generating revenue. On average, Groove gives revenue teams 20% of their time back to focus on higher-value activities. Groove's Salesforce-native architecture can be customized to align with industry-specific workflows while ensuring more accurate reporting and forecasting, lower compliance risk, and streamlined administration. Over 50,000 sales representatives use Groove at some of the world's largest and fastest-growing companies, including Google (News - Alert) , Uber, and Capital One. Groove has earned the highest customer satisfaction rating on G2 in the sales engagement category for over two years in a row. Groove was named one of Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces 2020 and is one of the 2020 Inc. 5000 fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. Groove also ranks #16 on the San Francisco Business Times' "fastest-growing private companies in the Bay Area in 2020" and #191 on the Deloitte (News - Alert) 2020 Technology Fast 500 list. Founded in 2014, Groove is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in San Diego and Seattle. To learn more, visit groove.co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005215/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Summer holidays hang in the balance after the World Health Organisation urged against using vaccine passports to facilitate international travel. It said proof of a jab should not be required because there remain 'critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission'. The WHO added that inoculated passengers should not be able to sidestep existing travel restrictions designed to reduce Covid. And it also warned that scarce doses could be diverted away from vulnerable people if they suddenly become of value to travellers. Setting out the WHO stance, the interim position paper states: 'At the present time, it is WHO's position that national authorities and conveyance operators should not introduce requirements of proof of COVID-19 vaccination for international travel as a condition for departure or entry.' Summer holidays hang in the balance as the World Health Organisation urges against using vaccine passports to facilitate international travel. Pictured: Skiathos old port in Greece It is a fresh blow for both holidaymakers and tourism bosses hoping vaccine passports will pave the way for overseas trips. That people should be mandated to have a vaccine to enjoy greater freedom is a politically divisive issue being fought out in national capitals. The WHO's paper also says: 'National authorities should choose public health interventions that least infringe on individual freedom of movement.' In the UK, Boris Johnson will receive an efficacy assessment by the Department for Transport before making a decision. European Union leaders are today expected to thrash out a system of vaccine passports. Southern EU countries that depend heavily on tourism are desperate to rescue this summer's holiday season. Some governments, like Greece and Spain, are pushing for a quick adoption of an EU-wide certificate for those already inoculated so that people can travel again. But while EU members agree a vaccination certificate would be welcome, work is needed on the details, including whether it should be in digital form, be accepted globally and at what stage of the two-step inoculation process it should be issued. A woman receives the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid19 vaccine at an NHS vaccination centre in Ealing, west London 'We call for work to continue on a common approach to vaccination certificates,' a draft statement of the leaders video-conference seen by Reuters said, without setting a time-frame for a result. Officials said the EU was working with the International Air Transport Association, which is keen to revive air travel, and with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the WHO. But travel with certificates also raised legal questions, officials said, because those last in line for vaccinations could argue their freedom of movement was unjustly restricted by the often months-long queues. EU officials also point out there is no guidance yet from the WHO and EU agencies whether people who have received two shots of the COVID-19 vaccine can still carry the coronavirus and infect others, even if no longer vulnerable themselves. It was also not clear if people could be infectious having already fought off the coronavirus themselves, for how long they remained immune and if they too should get certificates. 'There are still many things we don't know,' a senior official from one of the EU countries said. 'We need more time to come to a common line.' But time is short for countries in the south, where the hospitality sector needs to know what it should prepare for in the coming months. Despite the official stance that all EU governments want to solve the issue together, some might decide to move faster individually. Earlier in February, Greece and Israel signed a deal to ease travel restrictions to Greece for Israelis with proof of COVID-19 vaccination. RZIM Americas' director apologizes for failures, furthering late apologist's false narratives Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Americas' director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and his wife are the latest to release public apologies for trusting the late apologist and furthering the false narratives he promoted, following the release of an investigative report this month detailing Zacharias' years of sexual misconduct. In a Personal Confession from Vince and Jo Vitale that was shared in a video and printed statement released Tuesday, the married couple said they were grieved beyond measure for every one of Zacharias victims, calling his actions against them appalling and reprehensible. Since the interim report was published on Dec. 23, we have been asking God to search our hearts, to reveal to us the ways in which we personally have failed. And we have recognized some extremely sobering truths: first, our confidence in our friend, Ravi, was severely misplaced; Ravi abused people in horrific ways and then repeatedly and brazenly lied to our faces, the Vitales said. Vince Vitale serves as RZIM's director for the Americas and director of the Zacharias Institute, and his wife, Jo, serves as dean of studies at the Zacharias Institute. Both also serve as speakers for the organization. On the heels of these truths came the sickening realization that by believing Ravis lies and then passing on his false narratives, we in turn deeply hurt people the very people most in need of our care and we added to their pain. We are sorry. We are so very, very sorry. The couple added that they were especially grieved that they failed in the exact areas where they felt called to minister as Vince Vitale desired to offer hope to suffering people, and Jo desired to share with women how God sees them and the value of their worth. I feel particularly convicted that although Im someone who speaks regularly about the God who sees women, when a woman was abused by someone in my own sphere, I completely and utterly failed to see her. Not only should I have listened, but given the serious nature of the claims, I should have recognized my own personal bias and weighted the victims words more heavily. As a woman with a public voice, I failed to use that voice to speak up for another when her voice was not being heard. For this, I am so ashamed and so devastatingly sorry, Jo Vitale said. We hope that the many people we have wronged might one day consider forgiving us. That would be a blessing that we would forever treasure. But we recognize that we have no right to this and that even if forgiveness is possible, it would likely take time. We also realize that earning trust is a process and depends on what we commit to and how we live in the days ahead, the couple added. Since the release of the final report, RZIM has halted all fundraising activities and public relations staffer Ruth Malhotra has come forward with an insider account of how the organization operated in a "toxic" manner. In a 26-page letter to the RZIM board of directors, Malhotra expressed how she was not given straightforward answers when she asked leadership questions that were emerging about Zacharias various misdeeds and that she felt she was unable to do her job in keeping with her moral convictions. Malhotra also recounted that RZIM leadership staged a conciliation session where she was berated and told she was nearly insane for raising objections. Allegations against Zacharias include that he had sexually groomed a Canadian woman, Lori Anne Thompson, and that he had inflated and misrepresented his credentials and academic background, which first emerged in 2017. He was also accused of engaging in serious sexual misconduct with female employees at a spa he co-owned in Georgia, which was revealed last summer, not long after his death in May 2020. Both sets of allegations were first exposed by Steve Baughman, a San Franciso Bay area attorney who documented Zacharias multi-faceted corruption in the book, Cover-Up in the Kingdom: Phone Sex, Lies, and Gods Great Apologist, Ravi Zacharias. In media interviews since the release of the final report, Baughman has stressed that the problem that enabled Zacharias to abuse so many for so long is not exclusively about him but is rooted in a broader evangelical Christian business culture. The Vitales added in their statement that they would commit to listening to survivors of sexual abuse and learn from them. Thompsons victim impact statement, they said, is a deeply moving place to start for anyone else who feels they have not listened as God asks us to. We commit to having the courage to challenge situations whenever we witness people being spoken to or about unlovingly and dishonorably. On many occasions in the past were not talking only about work situations but in the course of life generally we have not loved people enough to challenge conversations in which they have been mistreated. We repent of this and are asking God to give us the strength to be less concerned about ourselves and more concerned about others, they said. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday said it has roped in two more contract manufacturers, China's BYD and DBG, for smartphone manufacturing in India, besides hiring Radiant Appliances and Electronics in Telangana to add to its smart TV manufacturing capacity in the country. Xiaomi started smartphone manufacturing in India five years ago and smart TV manufacturing about two years ago. The DBG manufacturing facility is already operational in Haryana and the BYD facility in Tamil Nadu will be completed within the first half of this year, said Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director, Xiaomi India. Xiaomi already has three smartphone manufacturing plants in India in partnership with Foxconn and Flex spread across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. "With these two new smartphone manufacturing partners, we now have presence across northern and southern parts of the country," Jain told IANS. "With the DBG factory going live we expect our production capacity to increase by about 20 per cent within this quarter. This factory went live two months ago. The BYD factory should be operational within the first half of this year and we expect the capacity to further increase," he said. The Xiaomi India MD said that the new manufacturing facilities will help the biggest smartphone seller in the country to meet the "massive demand" and help the company stay protected in case of any future supply chain disruptions in situations like a pandemic or other such events. He said that while over 99 per cent of its smartphones are already manufactured in India, majority of the smartphone components are also now locally manufactured in the country or locally sourced, including the PCBA (printed circuit board assembly, also called the mother-board), battery, sub-board and chargers, among other components. These components are being manufactured by partners such as Sunny India, NVT, Salcomp, LY Tech and Sunvoda, among others. "If you add all of this together then approximately 75 per cent of the phone is already covered from a value perspective," he said, adding that the company is also working with partners to manufacture the camera panel locally in India. "Total number of people working in our smartphone factories as part of the Xiaomi family has gone up to 30,000." As mentioned earlier, Xiaomi also added one new TV manufacturing partner, Radiant. "We are now locally manufacturing 100 per cent of our TVs sold in India," Jain said. Xiaomi started TV manufacturing in India in partnership with Dixon Technologies about two years ago. About 1,000 people are working across these two factories, Xiaomi said. In 2020, Xiaomi India and its partners generated employment for 10,000 new individuals taking the entire workforce count to 60,000. Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:35 pm Editors Note:The Chronicle is working to assist local businesses suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 virus spread and associated government orders to close or limit commerce. There will be a feature on a local business in each edition of The Chronicle and at chronline.com moving forward. To be considered, email the newsroom at news@chronline.com. Additionally, The Chronicle will continue to offer its coverage of the coronavirus and its effects across the community, state and nation free outside of our paywall at chronline.com. Sourcing ingredients from the Pacific Northwest is a top priority for Shane and Marin Marlantes, who own Neas Ice Cream in the Fairway Center in Centralia. The duo purchased the shop in 2014 when it was a part of the Baskin-Robbins franchise. When the business was closing, they jumped at the opportunity to go independent, opening in July 2019 calling the shop Neas, a play on the popular Neapolitan ice cream flavor. Theres no shortage of options at Neas with over 40 ice cream flavors sold by the scoop, pint, half-gallon and gallon along with milkshakes, smoothies, ice cream cakes, sundaes, coffee and other sweet treats available every day of the week. Neas was open for less than a year before they had to close for a few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The ice cream shop has a drive-through window, but Marin said that there just werent enough people out and about for it to make much of a difference. We just kind of bumped along, I mean, its been a rough year, Marin said. The new business missed out on a chunk of their most popular seasons spring and summer and said they are still working to get business back up to pre-pandemic levels. This is a very weather-sensitive business. We are people that eat ice cream year-round before we had an ice cream shop, Marin said. We have also known that as a business, we have cycles that we go through, but this has been really hard to predict. Its harder to staff the store. Neas employs a lot of local students and has created a fun, family-friendly environment for a young persons first job. Neas sources their ice cream from a dairy in Oregon, their espresso is made in small batches from coffee that is roasted at Batdorf & Bronson in Olympia and their cakes come from the Bread Peddler, a bakery in Olympia. The couple loves to get feedback from customers and collaborate to create new flavors. For example, a regular customer said he has never been able to find cinnamon ice cream, so Marin and Shane had one made. The most popular flavors are the classics chocolate, cookie dough, cookies and cream and birthday cake. They also have sherbets and sorbets. We have pretty loyal customers that are excited and say, we are so glad you guys are here. Of course, every business wants a lot of people coming, but we have a core group of people that are very loyal, and its really nice, Shane said. The Marlantes learned how to make espresso since going independent and use it in their espresso shakes made with just vanilla ice cream and espresso. Marin said they focus on using simple, high-quality ingredients in all of their products. We couldnt do that as a franchise so it was nice to bring in those kinds of things, which I think are kind of hard to find, Marin said. The Marlantes said that if they have room, they are always open to adding in new local products. They enjoy the freedom and ability to be more nimble with their products and business than was allowed when they were operating as part of a franchise. We want people who come to our store and leave feeling a little bit better a friendly smile or a little chit-chat that is my ultimate goal, Marin said. Customer service is a lost art anymore Just something pleasant during the day makes us all feel a bit better. More Information on Neas Ice Cream Owners: Shane and Marin Marlantes Website: neasicecream.com Phone: 360-736-0310 Hours: Winter: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Summer hours: Sunday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Throughout the pandemic, there has been perhaps nowhere more dangerous than a nursing home. The coronavirus has raced through some 31,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, killing more than 163,000 residents and employees and accounting for more than one-third of all virus deaths since the late spring. But for the first time since the U.S. outbreak began roughly a year ago at a nursing care center in Kirkland, Washington the threat inside nursing homes may have finally reached a turning point. Since the arrival of vaccines, which were prioritized to long-term care facilities starting in late December, new cases and deaths in nursing homes, a large subset of long-term care facilities, have fallen steeply, outpacing national declines, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. The turnaround is an encouraging sign for vaccine effectiveness and offers an early glimpse at what may be in store for the rest of the country as more and more people get vaccinated. From late December to early February, new cases among nursing home residents fell by more than 80%, nearly double the rate of improvement in the general population. The trendline for deaths was even more striking: Even as fatalities spiked overall this winter, deaths inside the facilities have fallen, decreasing by more than 65%. Im almost at a loss for words at how amazing it is and how exciting, said Dr. David Gifford, chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of long-term care facilities across the country. If we are seeing a robust response with this vaccine with the elderly with a highly contagious disease, he said, I think thats a great sign for the rest of the population. Experts attribute the improvements in large part to the distribution of vaccines. About 4.5 million residents and employees in long-term care facilities have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 2.1 million who have been fully vaccinated. Other factors, including the steep drop in new infections nationwide in recent weeks, may have contributed as well. Today, new cases in U.S. nursing homes are at their lowest point since May, when the federal government began tracking such data. What is certainly surprising to me is how quickly were seeing this, said Dr. Sunil Parikh, an associate professor of public health research and medicine at Yale School of Public Health in Connecticut, where weekly cases in nursing homes had dropped from several hundred around the holidays to as little as 30 statewide during one recent week. Its a dramatic decline, he said, adding that more research was needed to determine what role community transmission played and whether the first dose of vaccine may offer more protection than previously thought. In one promising sign, the American Health Care Association, the industry group, looked at nearly 800 nursing homes that received early doses of the vaccine in December and compared caseloads with facilities in the same counties that had not yet held a vaccine clinic. The nursing homes that got the earlier vaccine saw a 48% decline in cases among residents, compared with 21% among nearby nursing homes. In some nursing homes, 4 out of 5 residents or more have now been vaccinated. Some states, such as Connecticut and West Virginia, have reported finishing vaccinations at all nursing homes, but many employees and a smaller share of residents nationally have declined to get the shot. At Valley Senior Living in Grand Forks, North Dakota, more than 90% of residents agreed to be vaccinated. The high rate of uptake, combined with low levels of community transmission, has meant that life is slowly inching back to normal for the 400 or so people who live in the facilitys nursing and assisted living centers. Residents are now allowed to visit with loved ones again, one or two people at a time. They are singing in choirs, albeit masked and spaced apart. There was even a recent Mardi Gras parade, complete with beads and music. It is a marked change from much of the past year, when outbreaks there led to months of shutdown and at least 12 deaths. Things are better, said Garth Rydland, chief executive at Valley Senior Living. You kind of knock on wood every time you say something like that, but now I feel a lot more confident. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. FILE PHOTO: Prime Minister and Vice-President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum attends the Global Women's Forum in Dubai LONDON (Reuters) - Sheikha Latifa, one of the daughters of the ruler of Dubai, has written to British police asking them to reopen their investigation into the kidnap of her older sister from a street in Cambridge in 2000, the BBC reported on Thursday. In a handwritten letter seen by the British broadcaster and dated 2018, Latifa asked Cambridgeshire Police to refocus on the case of her sister Shamsa, now 39, who was captured aged 18 and has not been seen in public since. Reuters has not seen the letter. The Dubai government's media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cambridgeshire police confirmed it had received a letter, dated February 2018, in relation to the case and that it was part of an "ongoing review". Latifa, 35, is herself the subject of international concern. In a video message filmed in a bathroom and obtained by the BBC, she said she was being held captive in a barricaded villa. The UAE last week said Latifa was being cared for at home by family and medical professionals. The two women's father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has rejected findings by a London High Court judge who said last year that he accepted as proved allegations that the sheikh had ordered the abductions of his daughters. Britain has called on the United Arab Emirates to show proof that Latifa was still alive. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Mike Collett-White) Acting U.S. Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman testified on Thursday that cellphone records show former USCP chief Steven Sund requested National Guard support from the House sergeant-at-arms as early as 12:58pm on Jan. 6, but he did not receive approval until over an hour later. Why it matters: Sund and former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving clashed at a Senate hearing on Tuesday over a dispute in the timeline for when Capitol Police requested the National Guard during the Capitol insurrection. Irving insisted that he has no recollection of receiving the request until after 2pm. Lawmakers are looking for accountability over that hour of lost time, when pro-Trump rioters were able to breach and ransack the Capitol. "I did not get a request at 1:09 that I can remember," Irving, who resigned after the insurrection, testified. "The first conversation I had with chief Sund in that timeframe was 1:28, 1:30. In that conversation, he indicated that conditions were deteriorating and he might be looking for National Guard approval." Details: Pittman testified to a House subcommittee that Sund's phone records show the former chief first reached out for National Guard support to Irving at 12:58pm. Sund then spoke to former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger to make the same request at 1:05pm, per Pittman. Pittman says Sund repeated his request to Irving at 1:28pm, then spoke to him again at 1:34pm, 1:39pm and 1:45pm. Go deeper: Pittman testifies officers were unsure of lethal force rules on Jan. 6 New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a high alert regarding possible terror attacks across the nation which might take place ahead of Independence Day and Janmashtami. The nation will witness both festivals on the same day. The MHA also stated that the Pakistan-based terrorists could enter in Delhi using buses and carry out attacks on the lines of Nice terror attack in France. The MHA also warned, saying that they can use police or Army uniforms to cover their identities. As per intelligence inputs, the terrorists could disguise themselves in form of beggars and could target metro stations, railway stations and bus stations. The ministry has all asked states to beef up security at the public places. Also Read | J&K: Terrorist attacks, stone pelting incidents have reduced in 2017, says MHA The MHA has asked Uttar Pradesh police to enhance its vigil in Mathura on the occasion of Janmashtami. Also Read: MHA launches Twitter handle to help kin of martyred soldiers For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Canadian Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Sri Lankans Into US A Canadian national pleaded guilty in the United States on Feb. 24 in connection with a human smuggling operation uncovered in 2019 that reached from Sri Lanka through the Caribbean to the United States. Sri Kajamukam Chelliah, a Sri Lankan Canadian, worked with other smugglers to bring at least six Sri Lankans into the United States illegally, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). He also pleaded guilty to smuggling Sri Lankans into Canada via the United States in 2019. Chelliah arranged transport for the aliens from the airport in Port Au Prince, Haiti, to a local hotel and then traveled with them by boat to the Turks and Caicos Islands, then to the Bahamas, and finally to Miami. Chelliah, along with a total of 154 aliens aboard a Haitian sloop sailboat heading for the Turks and Caicos Islands, was picked up by Turks and Caicos authorities in October 2019, according to the DOJ. After spending 12 months in a Turks and Caicos prison on immigration charges, he was extradited to the United States in August 2020 to face smuggling charges. By participating in a smuggling operation which planned to illegally transport individuals through various countries, including the United States, the defendant jeopardized the national security of the United States for his own financial benefit, Nicholas McQuaid, acting assistant attorney general of the DOJs criminal division, said in a statement. As this case demonstrates, the criminal division is committed to working with our law enforcement partners both here and abroad to bring human smugglers to justice and to disrupt and dismantle the international networks they operate. Angry protests continued to break out several cities across Sistan-Baluchistan province for the third day in a row. According to local activists, at least two more people were killed, bringing the overall death toll to 12. Those figures, however, have been denied by Iranian officials. The turmoil began in the city of Saravan earlier this week after members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps opened fire on unemployed locals who have been struggling to earn an income by carrying untaxed fuel across the border to Pakistan. The killings prompted demonstrations from angry people who broke into the governors office in Saravan. Yet in the past two days, the rage has spilled over into other cities, including Mehrestan, Iranshahr and the provincial capital, Zahedan, where a heavy police presence has been reported. In an attempt to curb the tension, Iranian officials have largely disrupted internet connections across the province, making it harder for protesters to organize new gatherings. While authorities said at least one officer had been killed by armed gangs during the clashes, they declared the situation under full control across the province. Still, videos came out purportedly showing people storming new military bases and public institutions. Mowlawi Abdul-Hamid, a top Sunni cleric and Friday prayer leader, urged the protesters to exercise restraint and avoid attacking military and civilian institutions. He also called on the Iranian authorities to punish those behind the deadly fire on the fuel traders. Meanwhile, exiled Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi attempted to echo the plight of the Baluchi protesters. Amid the silence of international institutions, the Islamic Republic is committing crimes in Iran, she wrote on her official Telegram channel. Ebadi also argued that had the international community reacted properly when Iranian authorities shut down the internet and massacred people in November 2019, the Islamic Republic would have not comfortably resorted again to the same tactic in Sistan-Baluchistan. Ebadi was referring to the deadly clampdown on nationwide rallies over the 2019 fuel price hikes that left at least 200 Iranians dead. The same reminiscence of the 2019 crackdown was reflected in an open letter by the Iranian Center for Defenders of Human Rights. The group called on the UN Human Rights Commissionaire to immediately investigate the Islamic Republics brutal killing of the defenseless and impoverished people of Saravan. The Competition Council of Latvia has adopted a resolution allowing Linas Agro Group to implement the concentration and acquire the companies belonging to KG Group. The decision was made by the Latvian Competition institution after examining an application received on 20th January 2021 from AB Linas Agro Group about the intention to acquire AB Kauno Grudai, AB Vilniaus Paukstynas, AB Kaisiadoriu Paukstynas and related companies. The Competition Council of Latvia states in their decision that the market, where Lithuanian groups of enterprises are operating is larger than the territory of Latvia, therefore, the acquisition will not substantially change the structure of the Latvian market, reduce competition or strengthen the dominant position of the companies involved. AB Linas Agro Group has signed share purchase agreements for acquisition of controlling stakes in AB Kauno Grudai, AB Kaisiadoriu Paukstynas, AB Vilniaus Paukstynas and related companies on 2nd October 2020. The decision of the Lithuanian Competition Council regarding the implementation of the concentration is still to be made. For the transaction to go ahead, it must also be approved by the competition authorities in Russia, Poland and Estonia. About AB Linas Agro Group AB Linas Agro Group, together with its subsidiaries makes the Group of Companies established in 1991 and operates in four countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. All companies within the Group employ more than 2,100 people. The consolidated revenue of the Group during the previous financial year (2019/2020) amounted to 658 million euros. The companies of the Group produce, handle and merchandise agricultural and food products, also provide products and services for farming. The Group is the leading exporter of Lithuanian and Latvian grain and has own network of 13 grain elevators. It is also one of the leaders in supplies of agricultural inputs (such as certified seeds, fertilizers and agricultural machinery) in Lithuania and has a seed processing plant. The Group owns seven agricultural companies in Lithuania and is a major milk producer. It is the biggest poultry producer in Latvia and has four poultry companies there: AS Putnu fabrika Kekava, CIA Lielzeltini, SIA Broileks, SIA Cerova. Mazvydas Sileika, Finance Director of AB Linas Agro Group Mob. +370 619 19 403 E-mail m.sileika@linasagro.lt SALEM, Ore. The Oregon state Senate will soon vote on a bill that could limit whether concealed handguns are allowed in public buildings. Senate Bill 554 would let local jurisdictions decide whether to allow guns in airports, schools, and other public spaces legally concealed or not. SB 554 was introduced by several leading Democratic Senators, including Senator Ginny Burdick and Senate Majority Leader Rob Wagner. Thursday morning, the Senate Committee on Judiciary approved the bill for a vote on the Senate floor. As a father of teenagers, the conversations around safety in schools and the risk of gun violence are all too frequent. Guns have no place in schools. Senate Bill 554 takes a reasonable and commonsense step to improve the safety of our kids. Im proud to support this bill, said Senator Wagner. As written, the bill would allow city and county governments, school districts, colleges and universities, metropolitan service districts, or airport authorities to adopt an ordinance "limiting or precluding the use of the affirmative defense" by people licensed to carry a concealed handgun. Buildings that could be covered by the bill include airport passenger terminals, hospitals, capitol buildings, public or private schools and universities, a city hall, or the residence of any state official including the adjoining grounds. The bill requires that any entity that adopts this kind of ordinance post visible signs showing where these limits are in place. Violations of these ordinances would have a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment, a fine of up to $125,000, or both. The fee due to a county sheriff's office for initial issuance of a concealed handgun license would also increase from $50 to $100, and renewal would cost $75. As former military, and a former law enforcement and corrections officer, I am proud to Chief Sponsor Senate Bill 554. In those roles, I saw time and again that the presence of firearms among civilians did not prevent violence, but made the situation more dangerous, said Senator James Manning Jr. Even if it is a good guy with a gun, that gun can be misused, or used against the good guy. Limiting the places and buildings where we allow firearms is a commonsense measure which will improve Oregonians safety, especially the safety of government employees who work on behalf of Oregonians in every corner of this great state. The bill saw opposition from Republican lawmakers who spoke at Thursday's hearing, including Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod and Senator Kim Thatcher. Thanks to our rigorous concealed carry licensing program in Oregon, CHL holders are the good guys with guns, said Senator Girod in a statement. This bill is a 'solution' in search of a problem. The sponsors have failed to bring forth any evidence that this bill would make anyone safer. It would do the opposite. With violent crime on the rise, we cant afford to severely curtail Oregonians right to self-defense. Senate Republicans cited FBI statistics that almost 3.2 percent of active shooting situations in the US have been "stopped with someone with a CHL." Other research they cited found that Oregon CHL holders are relatively unlikely to commit felonies. Concealed carry license holders are some of the most upstanding people in our state, said Senator Thatcher, who is the Vice-Chair of the Committee. These people are the ones you would want to be your neighbors and friends because they protect their families and others around them. The last thing we should be doing is discouraging people from helping keep our communities safe by creating an inconsistent standard of laws across the state. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:25:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Brunei's Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Thursday that the temporary suspension of cross-border activities between Brunei and Malaysia will be extended for another two weeks until March 10. Temporary suspension on the entry of foreign nationals from Malaysia, including transits through Brunei via land and sea ports, is extended by 14 days, until March 10, the PMO was quoted as saying in a statement by the local daily Borneo Bulletin. "Transit through Brunei Darussalam may only be considered for official government travels, students required to attend school, emergency services (such as ambulances, police and military) and Malaysia-registered Transport Operators with Cross-Country Permits issued by the Brunei government for import deliveries of essential goods to Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia, granted that the travelers attained endorsement from the relevant Malaysian authorities for their travels," the PMO said. Located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Kalimantan, Brunei shares land and sea borders with East Malaysia. According to the PMO, the temporary suspension on the collection and delivery of private goods at checkpoints handled by operators registered in Brunei is also extended until March 10. Temporary suspension on commuters via land and sea, for the purpose of work, is also extended by 14 days, until March 10. "The conditions for the consideration of entry and exit travel are subject to review by the Cross-Border Affairs Steering Committee from time to time," the PMO said. A total of 44 imported cases have been confirmed in Brunei since the last local infection case was reported on May 6, 2020. There is only one active case still being treated at the National Isolation Center. Enditem The British Embassy in Riyadh today launched the #TogetherForOurPlanet campaign, calling on all of society to pledge one climate action to stop climate change. The campaign drives awareness about the impact of human actions on climate change, and calls on the private sector, institutions, individuals and the wider community in Saudi Arabia to do their part in helping to tackle global warming. Individuals and organisations can share their pledge on their social media channels tagging @UKinSaudiArabia and using the campaign hashtags. As we recover from Covid-19, it is critical that we build back greener and more resilient, protecting the environment for future generations. Our world continues to get hotter, and climate change is a challenge for all. It is crucial that all countries and people take action to safeguard our planet, said the embassy. Speaking to social media influencer Rajeh AlHarthi, British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Neil Crompton said: Climate change is real and affects us all. Saudi leadership on climate and environment is critical as we accelerate progress towards achieving our global climate commitments. At the Riyadh G20 Summit last year, under Saudi Presidency, world leaders supported the Circular Carbon Economy framework, and reaffirmed commitments to the Paris Agreement. The UK and Saudi Arabia share common areas of focus, including on transitioning to clean energy, research into energy efficiency and green technologies, and protecting nature. In November, the UK will host the UN climate change conference COP26, in Glasgow, in partnership with Italy. COP26 is an opportunity and pivotal moment for countries to work together to combat climate change and commit to urgent action. Every one of us has a part to play -- #TogetherForOurPlanet The social media campaign in Saudi Arabia is a part of the global campaign #Togetherforourplanet in the lead up to COP26, Together for Our Planet. COP26 (the United Nations 26th annual session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention), will bring together world leaders, delegates, climate experts and negotiators to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change. The British Embassy in Riyadh along with partner and organisations is encouraging everyone to work together to protect the planet and ensure a greener, more resilient future for us all, the embassy said. TradeArabia News Service Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. 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. This weeks guest is Helen Dixon, Europes most powerful tech regulator. She and Adrian talk about Facebook, Whatsapp, fines, Brexit, data rights and a whole host of other things. Among the revelations are that Whatsapp will not be sharing more data with Facebook in the EU anytime soon. Helen Dixon says that there has been no progress between Facebook and the Irish regulator on seeking allowance for Facebook to integrate Whatsapp with Facebook in a closer way, as it is poised to do in the US. The tech giant has been trying for years to find a way to make more money out of its subsidiary, which has tighter privacy controls than the tech giants main social platform. Read More But Ms Dixons office has steadfastly refused to allow cross-sharing of data across the EU, citing a lack of satisfactory explanation from Facebook around the legal basis of the data sharing. I don't doubt that Facebook hasn't given up on the idea of the data sharing, she said. But nonetheless, there has been no progress in terms of WhatsApp convincing the DPC that as the controller of the data of users of WhatsApp, it should share it with Facebook. And they've made no substantive approach to us. So it really hasn't progressed. There's no sharing of EU user data between the controllers. Last month, Whatsapp saw 20m users leave for rival messaging apps when it informed users outside the EU that they needed to agree to Whatsapp sharing more account information with Facebook for the ultimate purpose of cross-service advertising. Helen Dixon is talking to Adrian on the same day that her office published its annual report, outlining several investigations and data breach statistics. The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband. Doloros Indek and Rabbi Yanky Majesky, as well as many others, enjoyed the kosher sandwiches at the new kosher food truck from Gili's Kitchen in Jacksonville. They didn't have to drive to Jacksonville as the truck is now going to be coming to Reiter Park in Longwood on the second Thursday of every month. How did this come about? Beginning in January, Gili's Food Truck began serving customers in southwest Orlando in the parking lot at the Rosen JCC every Tuesday and Thursday. Rabbi Yanky Majesky asked them if they could come to Longwood and he put them in touch with the City of Longwood. Ri... A Honduran immigrant who has spent three and a half years living inside a Missouri church to avoid deportation has finally stepped outside. Alex Garcia left the church in suburban St Louis after a promise from US President Joe Bidens administration to let him be. Mr Garcia is a married father of five. He was due for removal from the US in 2017, but Christ Church United Church of Christ in Maplewood gave him sanctuary. Sara John, of the St, Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America, said Mr Garcias emergence came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declared it would not pursue his detention or removal. Expand Close Alex Garcia holds the hand of his youngest child after leaving the church (Laurie Skrivan/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alex Garcia holds the hand of his youngest child after leaving the church (Laurie Skrivan/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Mr Garcia, braced by a hand on his shoulder from a son and fighting back tears, told a cheering crowd of about 100 people that he was separated from living with his family for 1,252 days. Hi everyone, Mr Garcia said. Thank you everyone for showing support for me and my family. Today is the day Im going to get out of sanctuary after three years and a half. Reading from a written statement, he added: We are not done yet. There is still so much work that has to be done. In his first weeks as president, Mr Biden has signed several executive orders on immigration issues that undo his predecessors policies, though several Republican members of Congress are pushing legal challenges. Expand Close A crowd of family, friends and supporters outside the church (Laurie Skrivan/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A crowd of family, friends and supporters outside the church (Laurie Skrivan/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) Myrna Orozco, organising co-ordinator at Church World Service, said 33 immigrants remain inside churches across the US and that number should continue to drop. We expect it to change in the next couple of weeks as we get more clarity from ICE or (immigrants) get a decision on their cases, Ms Orozco said. Others who have emerged from sanctuary since Mr Biden took office include Jose Chicas, a 55-year-old El Salvador native, who left a church-owned house in North Carolina on January 22. Saheeda Nadeem, a 65-year-old from Pakistan, left a Michigan church this month, while Edith Espinal, a native of Mexico, left an Ohio church after more than three years. In Maplewood, emotion spilled out during a brief ceremony marking Mr Garcias departure. Expand Close Alex Garcia sought sanctuary from deportation (Laurie Skrivan/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alex Garcia sought sanctuary from deportation (Laurie Skrivan/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP) The churchs bell tolled, while mayor Barry Greenbergs voice broke as he told Mr Garcia he could not grant him US citizenship but he could make him an honorary citizen of Maplewood. He presented a key to the city that Mr Garcias young daughter immediately took out of the box to play with. Mr Garcia fled extreme poverty and violence in Honduras, his advocates have said. After entering the US in 2004, he hopped on a train that he thought was headed for Houston, but instead ended up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, a town of about 17,000 residents in the south-eastern corner of the state. He landed a job and met his wife, Carly, a US citizen, and for more than a decade they lived quietly with their family. In 2015, Mr Garcia accompanied his sister to an immigration office for a check-in in Kansas City, Missouri, where officials realised he was in the country illegally. He received two one-year reprieves during Barack Obamas administration. SAGINAW, MI - Corey Corey Dollaz Davis, a Saginaw native and rapper based in Las Vegas, decided to give back to his Saginaw alma-mater, Arthur Hill High School. On his social media pages, Davis announced hes setting up a $5,000 yearly scholarship that will benefit a college-bound Arthur Hill student with financial need. Davis said he doesnt want to wait to blow up before he gives back, and hopes the scholarship will help enable someone to follow their passions. I thought about it, I wanted to do something where we could give back and do something positive, Davis said. It feels good. Davis was inspired to start the scholarship after seeing a $100k challenge trend starting up in the Detroit music scene, he said, which involved flashing a lot of cash at once. Instead, Davis thought he could start a trend of making a lasting impact with his money, he said. A lot of people just try to do stuff to do it, I thought no, its really got to mean something, Davis said. I thought if I make it, I gotta be one of those people who comes back and helps out in the community. To help you navigate this complicated school year, were pleased to offer you a simpler way to get all of your education news: Our new Michigan Schools: Education in the COVID Era newsletter delivered right to your inbox. To receive this newsletter, simply click here to sign up. Read more: Betty Williams, longtime owner of Saginaws Magic Kitchen, dies at 78 Bay Citys NAACP branch celebrates over a century of existence in a predominantly white county Star high school athlete loses part of finger in gnarly snowblower accident by Silvina Premat Chinese investments bring no benefits. Chinese companies violate local laws. Chinese workers get paid more than US$ 2,000 dollars while Venezuelans get US$ 350. The same situation is found in other parts of Latin America. Complaints are made against Chinese mining and oil companies. Buenos Aires (AsiaNews) A report by the China Latin American Research Center (Centro de Investigaciones China y Latinoamerica), of the Andres Bello Foundation (Fundacion Andres Bello), shows that at least four Chinese companies have violated Venezuela's labour law. Despite the significant role played by companies from the Asian country over the past twenty years, there was no significant gain in terms of labour or economic benefits for any of the parties. The study is based on interviews with Venezuelan workers employed by four Chinese companies involved in major projects in Venezuela, namely the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), ZTE Corporation, Sinohydro and Gezhouba Group Corporation. The main violations of Venezuelan labour law by Chinese companies are irregular recruitment practices such as outsourcing to third parties, which is banned by Venezuelan law; lack of trade union protections; and wage inequality and treatment between Venezuelan and foreign workers. The study shows that the percentage of foreign workers employed by these companies tend to exceed the 10 per cent maximum established by law. In the case of the construction of the Santa Lucia-Kempis motorway, a project that cost US million, Venezuelans were 40 of the staff; the rest were Brazilians (40 per cent) Chinese (20 per cent). Foreigners held the positions of greatest responsibility and in some cases, the same post was filled by two people, a Chinese coordinator and a Brazilian coordinator. Despite the training and background of Venezuelan professionals, they were paid less than their Chinese colleagues. While the latter earned salaries of more than US$ 2,000, Venezuelans were paid less than US$ 350. The conditions offered by Venezuela in the agreements reached opened the door to the investment and installation of Chinese companies in the country. As in several Latin American countries, these conditions are not beneficial to recipient countries, not the least because foreign labour is privileged at middle and higher levels, as well as other elements, said Angeyeimar Gil Carrillo, author of the research published by the Andres Bello Foundation. Gil Carrillo further notes that the Collective on Chinese Financing and Investment, Human Rights and Environment (Colectivo sobre Financiamiento e Inversiones Chinas, Derechos Humanos y Ambiente, CICDHA) has reported dozen allegations of labour violations in Latin America by Chinese mining, hydroelectric and oil companies. 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. The Department of Veterans Affairs is asking the Department of Justice to step in after it lost control of the domain "GIBill.com," a site that has previously been used by scammers. "As the owner of the registered trademark 'GI Bill,' VA has referred the matter to the Department of Justice to reclaim the GIBill.com domain in accordance with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy," Joe Williams, a spokesman for the agency, said Wednesday. The VA seemingly lost the domain rights to GIBill.com last year, drawing frustration from some lawmakers and veteran advocates. Now, some advocates are urging President Joe Biden's administration to reacquire the domain to protect beneficiaries from scammers and deceptive marketers. Read Next: 'I Am Not a One in a Million Story': Marine Speaks Out After Viral TikTok Video About Sexual Misconduct Veterans Education Success, a nonpartisan veteran advocacy group, sent a letter to Biden last week urging him to take steps to expand GI Bill protections, including reclaiming the lost domain GIBill.com, which has in the past been used by the for-profit education industry to deceive veterans. The VA appeared to own the website at least as of May 20 last year, according to the Wayback Machine internet archive, which stores website screenshots. The department seems to have lost control of the domain last June. The URL does not currently forward to a website, and the domain is being withheld by an unidentified owner. A decade ago, GIBill.com was owned by QuinStreet, an online marketing firm whose clients included a vast roster of for-profit schools. The firm used the website to masquerade as the VA, directing veterans to for-profit schools and falsely telling beneficiaries that students could get the most out of their education benefits at the schools it advertised. A coalition of 20 attorneys general -- including then-Delaware AG Beau Biden, the president's late son -- filed a lawsuit to take the URL away from scammers, which led the VA to trademark the term "GI Bill" in 2012. "We're acting to ensure that service members are not deceived by companies who are more interested in adding to their bottom line than in providing clear information to soldiers about the educational benefits they have earned while protecting us," Beau Biden said in a 2012 statement. That year, QuinStreet was forced to terminate the website and pay $2.5 million in penalties over deceptive advertising practices that targeted student veterans. Jack Conway, then the attorney general of Kentucky, said at the time that QuinStreet's use of GIBill.com was "the most egregious example" that he had seen of misinformation and greed directed at veterans. He said the investigation included a review of 8,000 emails to QuinStreet through the site, many of which came from veterans who believed they were communicating with VA officials. The marketing firm regularly redirected visitors to a small group of for-profit schools. Despite the VA holding the trademark, there are concerns the domain could fall into the wrong hands again. "It's very risky to have GIBill.com not owned by VA," said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success. "The whole reason that law enforcement shut down GIBill.com in 2012 and forced the private owner to give the domain to VA is because it was wildly abusing and deceiving veterans. That is likely to happen again." Veterans Education Success, through a domain broker, offered up to $5,000 to buy the domain to get it out of the wild and return it to the VA, but the anonymous owner turned it down. GIBill.com could be used for other means, which could confuse veterans trying to find information and apply for benefits. However, the VA could potentially file a lawsuit if the domain was ever used to deceive beneficiaries again. "The owner of the domain name cannot use the domain name in a way which would mislead the public to believe that it is owned, sponsored or affiliated with the Department of VA," said Jeffrey Kobulnick of Brutzkus Gubner, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property. "If the domain is used with a problematic website or for deceptive purposes in the future, the VA would potentially file a lawsuit for trademark infringement and cybersquatting and seek to recover the domain name again." Veterans have long been targets of deceptive and aggressive recruiting from for-profit schools, which are required to earn at least 10% of their revenue outside of Pell Grants or federal student loans. Because of a so-called "90/10 loophole," the GI Bill technically does not count as federal money, despite the scholarship being earned on military duty and delivered by the VA. All domain purchases have an end date. If one lapses and the owner doesn't renew ownership, there are companies that use algorithms to identify unregistered domains to acquire and sell on auction sites. It is unclear how the VA initially lost the domain. Last year, the department blamed the Obama administration and didn't say it was trying to reacquire the site, despite evidence in Wayback suggesting the department had recently owned it. When the VA secured the domain after the 2012 lawsuit, it used GIBill.com to redirect to the department's official website. All VA websites have ".gov" internet addresses. Editor's Note: Military.com is a former client of QuinStreet. That relationship ended in 2019. -- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon. Related: VA Has Lost GIBill.com Rights. Some Worry It Could Prompt Scammers to Target Student Vets Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cell Source, Inc. (OTC: CLCS) ("Cell Source" or the "Company"), a developer of Veto Cell-based innovative immunotherapy technologies that facilitate mismatched donor stem cell (e.g. bone marrow) and organ transplants and other cell therapy treatments with an improved safety profile achieved through the active management of immune response, today announced that Joseph Rosenthal, M.D., M.H.C.M. JD, has joined its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Rosenthal is currently the Director of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Barron Hilton Professor & Chair in Pediatrics at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA. "Dr. Rosenthal is an important addition to Cell Source's scientific leadership, and we welcome him enthusiastically" said Dennis Brown, Ph. D , Chairman of Cell Source. "He has dedicated his career to serving the youngest patients, leading research and clinical progress in the treatment of childhood cancers including pediatric stem cell transplantation experience that will prove invaluable to Cell Source as we continue the development of our Veto Cell platform technologies, which have recently transitioned into the first in human clinical trials. This is a major milestone for Veto Cell technology and our team is optimistic about the potential outcome." Prior to becoming the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in 2011, Dr. Rosenthal's earlier positions at City of Hope Medical Center included the Interim Chair of the Department of Pediatrics (2002 2011), Associate Professor and Director of Pediatric Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (1996 - 2002), and Assistant Professor and Director of Pediatric Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (1993 - 1995). Before joining City of Hope, Dr. Rosenthal spent two years as a member of Children's Hospital of Orange County's Hematology/Oncology, Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Program. Before emigrating to the United States, Dr. Rosenthal was a member of Rambam Medical Center's Pediatric Oncology Faculty in Haifa, Israel, as well as a member of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Faculties of Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheba and Sambur Center at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva, Israel. Dr. Rosenthal received his medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine in 1981 and received his Masters in Health Care Management in 2003 from Harvard's School of Public Health. He earned his JD from Purdue in 2018. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Transplantation Technologies & Research and reviewer for Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation, has authored over 100 scientific publications, and has been awarded multiple research grants, including a $5.7M grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine in 2018. Dr. Rosenthal joins an international team of Cell Source Scientific Advisory Board veterans, all of whom have been with Cell Source for more than five years: Dr. Yair Reisner (Chairman): Head of Stem Cell Research, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation & Cell Therapy, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Head of Stem Cell Research, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation & Cell Therapy, M.D. Anderson Cancer Dr. Steven Burakoff : Dean of Cancer Innovation and Chief of Pediatric Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York Dean of Cancer Innovation and Chief of Pediatric Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Dr. Robert Negrin : Director of the Bone and Marrow Transplantation Division and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University , California : Director of the Bone and Marrow Transplantation Division and Professor of Medicine at , Dr. Herman Waldmann : former Department Head and Professor Emeritus of Pathology at the Oxford Medical School and Clinical Director, Oxford Therapeutic Antibody Centre, England : former Department Head and Professor Emeritus of Pathology at the Oxford Medical School and Clinical Director, Oxford Therapeutic Antibody Centre, Dr. Hermann Einsele : Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Department of Internal Medicine of the Julius Maximilian University, Germany About Cell Source Cell Source, Inc. (OTC: CLCS) is a leading innovator of Veto Cell-based cellular therapy and immunotherapy technologies that are designed to provide safer and more accessible bone marrow transplantation, improve the treatment of blood cell cancers, facilitate treatment of genetic diseases, and allow for more accessible and successful organ transplantation by reducing or eliminating the need for lifelong, daily anti-rejection drugs. Cell Source intends to create and market "off-the-shelf" immune-oncology products for the treatment of blood-borne cancers and solid tumors using Veto Cells along with CAR-T, and other cell therapies. Cell Source Investor Resource Center Cell Source maintains a comprehensive Investor Resource Center including share information, SEC filings, investor relations contacts, and more, located here: https://cell-source.com/investor-center Cell Source General Information For general information regarding Cell Source, please visit the Company's website at https://cell-source.com A PDF presentation introducing Cell Source and its technologies is available here: https://cell-source.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CLCS-Introduction-Q1-2021.pdf For details regarding Cell Source's Veto Cell Technology Platform and other immunotherapy innovations, please visit https://cell-source.com/veto-cells Background information on Professor Yair Reisner, Ph.D, the award-winning Chairman of Cell Source's Scientific Advisory Board, is available here: https://cell-source.com/professor-yair-reisner-ph-d To learn about Cell Source's world-class collaborative partnerships, please visit http://cell-source.com/collaborative-partnerships. For information regarding Cell Source's Scientific Advisory Board, please visit https://cell-source.com/scientific-advisory-board Company Contact Itamar Shimrat, CEO 646.612.7554 [email protected] Investor Contact Michael Briola Alternative Advisory Group 917.455.0820 [email protected] Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. With the exception of historical information, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The actual future results of Cell Source, Inc. could differ significantly from those statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks and uncertainties such as the inability to finance the company's operations, inability to hire and retain qualified personnel, and changes in the general economic climate, as well as the risk factors disclosed in Cell Source, Inc.'s Form 10-K filed on March 30, 2020. Cell Source, Inc. may, in some cases, use terms such as "anticipates," "continue," "estimates," "predicts," "believes," "potential," "proposed," "expects," "plans," "intends," "may," "could," "should," "might," "will," or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements should not be regarded as a representation by Cell Source, Inc. or any other person, that such forward-looking statements will be achieved. Cell Source, Inc. undertakes no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In light of the foregoing, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of any entity. SOURCE Cell Source, Inc. Related Links https://cell-source.com At age 11, Britney Spears played the wholesome American girl on "The All New Mickey Mouse Club." A few years later, she was on concert stages surrounded by big teddy bears as she bumped, grinded and moaned. There was also a pole dance. Ladies and gentlemen, this is entry-level kiddie porn. The despoiling of innocence has always been an easy sell. Britney and her pushing parents understood well that a schoolgirl in bobby socks singing lascivious songs would draw enormous amounts of attention. They had America debating the propriety of this act, which meant everyone was talking about her. And that sold records. The New York Times documentary "Framing Britney Spears" feeds on the tragic 39-year-old she has become. By her mid-20s, Britney was in drug rehab, had lost custody of her children and had a couple of failed marriages. After she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward, her father took control of her person and finances as her conservator. She reportedly wants control back. This legal tangle is the hook that gives uplift to a documentary that's basically an orgy of tabloid excess. The woman's suffering is undeniable, but where this account loses credibility is in suggesting that the public drove the celebrity to this sad state. Supposedly, it was the paparazzi she intentionally cultivated who caused her unraveling. "[I]t's so much fun to take a celebrity who's a young, beautiful, talented girl and rip her to shreds," said former Jive Records executive Kim Kaiman, who was instrumental in helping turn Britney into the teen sexpot-turned-punchline on late-night TV. We see a video of Britney shaving her head at a hair salon. Her essential message, Times critic Wesley Morris says, is "whatever you guys are looking for, in terms of me coming back and being that person again -- that person is gone, and you have destroyed her." Morris adds, "The idea that people could look at that and only see a crazy person, well, that just tells me what a vulturous society she was working with to begin with." Wait a second. It was Britney who single-mindedly pushed society to obsess over her. She shaved her head in front of cameras, did she not? And at any point, she could have returned to a quiet life in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana. There were odd efforts at feminist commentary. "I worked with all the boy bands -- all of them," said Hayley Hill, former fashion director at Teen People. "Not one of the boys was ever under any scrutiny." Hill seems to be saying that the critics' objections to sexualizing schoolgirls are thus a form of misogyny. The pop star's fans have set up a #FreeBritney movement to push for her release from the conservatorship. I offer no informed opinion on this. Her father's powers have been reduced to cover only her finances, and a third party, a trust, now has power equal to his. Does Britney deserve some of our pity? She does. After all, the teen tart did possess true talent. Britney could sing and dance, and she sold a ton of records. And her struggle with severe mental illness is painfully real. But why, exactly, are her fans populating Twitter with apologies, claiming that the world "destroyed" her? The world did exactly what she wanted it to. It feasted on the teen striptease, which she knew perfectly well was profitable because it was tawdry. Britney's fans have their own lives, and their trials and heartbreak are as real as hers. But the celebrity machine demands that the public cheer and cry over strangers who are famous. Perhaps the public has a right to be freed from Britney Spears. COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM The Federal Communications Commission has shared the results of its long-awaited C-band spectrum auction . A company called Cellco Partnership, better known as Verizon (Engadget's parent company), came away from the proceedings the clear winner. It spent $45.4 billion, more than every other participant combined, to secure 3,511 individual 20Mhz blocks of spectrum across the country. AT&T came in second place, winning 1,621 licenses on a $23.4 billion spend. In third place, you have two different companies. In terms of spend, it was T-Mobile with its $9.3 billion in bids, but US Cellular came ahead of the carrier with 254 licenses to its 142. All told, the auction raised more than $81 billion, significantly more than the $20 to $30 billion windfall that was projected last summer. All big three carriers will use the spectrum to build out their 5G networks. For Verizon, however, the auction was a must-win in many ways. To date, its buildout has mostly depended on mmWave spectrum . Thats allowed it to build a 5G network that is fast, but not very comprehensive . Millimeter waves are notoriously fickle. They cant travel far and they oscillate so quickly they tend to scatter against any walls and obstacles they meet. Its new spectrum will allow Verizon to build out its 5G network without deploying cell sites at every intersection. Now that #CBand auction results are public, time for carriers to start explaining what they are going to do with their billions of dollars of new spectrum. Verizon is up first with an investor day on 3/10. T-Mobile goes next with its own analyst event on 3/11. Eli Blumenthal (@eliblumenthal) February 24, 2021 Whats most surprising is the amount of money AT&T spent. It only recently reduced its debt load to about $164 billion and now its spending $23.4 billion. But while T-Mobile could afford to sit back because of its $23 billion merger with Sprint , AT&T could not. The carrier needs that spectrum to stay competitive. Just as notable are the companies that didnt walk away with any spectrum. Comcast, Charter and Cox formed a joint venture called C&C Wireless Holding to take part in the auction and didnt win any licenses. In many ways, its only the easy part thats done now. Now the carriers need to actually build the infrastructure that will take advantage of the spectrum they won. It may also take a while before most people see the benefits of those investments. While some C-band spectrum will be available by the end of the year, other parts wont be ready until 2023. As the teaching year begins, Australian university administrations are competing to secure the largest share of enrolments, while returning to face-to-face teaching and expanding class sizes with little to no regard for the health risks to staff or students posed by the continuing global COVID-19 pandemic. At present, the coronavirus, if it is currently present in the community, is circulating at extremely low levels. However recent outbreaks, including of highly-contagious overseas variants of the virus that have spread from hotel quarantines, have demonstrated that the situation can change very rapidly. Part of the University of New South Wales in Sydney (Credit: UNSW promotions) The return to physical classrooms is part of the rising economic reopening and anti-lockdown push of governments and the corporate media. Universities are also desperately seeking to boost their revenues after decades of government funding cuts and pro-market restructuring of tertiary education, intensified by the loss of international student fees due to the pandemic. University of New South Wales deputy vice chancellor (academic), Merlin Crossly, told the Guardian last month that 2021 will be a bit of a celebration because of the roll out of vaccines. In Australia, vaccines only began to be administered to front-line health workers this week. Most university students fall under the fourth category of the governments five-part rollout plan, so they will receive the vaccine in the second half of the year at the earliest. Moreover, the vast majority of the countrys population will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, which may not adequately protect against the more virulent strains, such as that detected in South Africa. Even if all goes to plan, this still leaves plenty of time and possibility for outbreaks to start on campuses, endangering the lives of students and staff alike. Judging by media reports, university managements plan to have tens of thousands of students back inside classrooms this semester. According to the Guardian, more than two-thirds of classes will be face-to-face at the University of Canberra. All tutorials and laboratories at Murdoch University will be in person. The Australian National University expects all students who can study on campus to do so this year. The University of Sydney reported that half its students attended in-person classes in the second half of 2020 and it expects the number to rise this year. Universities are not required to enforce the official 1.5-metre social distancing rules. University managers are being allowed to work out arrangements with staff. To the extent that social distancing is practiced, and/or mask wearing and hand sanitation required, it is being left up to individual staff and students, sometimes at their own expense. At Western Sydney University, students and staff have been issued with COVID-19 Protocols that include the following: Where 1.5 metres cannot maintained, all impacted students MUST wear a mask. Students and Staff must bring their own masks. Hand sanitising and wipe dispensers are provided in the corridors The academic must wipe the lectern or teaching space. The students must wipe the desk space where they are sitting. This cleaning must take place at the START and FINISH of every class. If the hallway supply of wipes and sanitiser run [sic] out, call x5800 for the PPE to be replenished. The in-class teacher is responsible for the monitoring and assurance of these Covid-19 protocols. A LIMITED supply of hand sanitiser, wipes and masks are [sic] available to support Face to Face teaching These limited resources can be used ONLY where the central supplies are exhausted or where the academic or student forgets to supply their own. Remember, academics and students are REQUIRED to supply their own masks. These resources are emergency ONLY [emphasis in the original]. Many academics are being instructed to teach in a new hyflex model, which means presenting lectures and tutorials to students in classrooms while simultaneously having students participate online. Often this is being presented as a temporary measure, yet it accelerates moves by universities to maximise class sizes. The hyflex model creates the possibility of almost limitless student numbers per class, thus further driving up staff workloads and diminishing the quality of university courses. In an email to department heads this month, the Faculty of Arts general manager at the University of Sydney called for an increase to class limits as a matter of urgency to relieve pressure on over-enrolled classes. This agenda has received no opposition from the trade unions, which have remained silent on the COVID-19 dangers. Instead, they have advised their members that they cannot refuse to work in unsafe conditions unless there is an aggravating factor, such as a recent infection case. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) website states: As long as the public health advice allows it and your workplace is practising physical social distancing and hygiene measures, being at work does not itself constitute an immediate or imminent hazard that would allow you to cease work without penalty. For example, if students or colleagues are not adhering to the social distancing guidelines or your area has run out of hand sanitiser, it is unlikely to meet the threshold for stopping work unless there is some sort of aggravating factor, such as a confirmed case of COVID-19 recently being in the area. The unions are continuing their decades-long collaboration with the managements, which has facilitated the pro-business transformation of universities. At the start of the pandemic, the NTEU offered employers wage cuts of up to 15 percent, supposedly as a job protection scheme, but nevertheless said it would accept thousands of redundancies. This cleared the way for the elimination of what the NTEU itself estimated to be up to 90,000 jobs in the university sector last year, despite widespread opposition among staff members. This offensive is now being accelerated. Macquarie University management, for example, told its staff last week that $50 million had to be saved across the university through a series of change proposals. That equates to another 400 to 500 job losses. With the help of the unions, Liberal-National and Labor governments have implemented decades of market-driven education reforms. The last Greens-backed Labor government lifted caps on student enrolments and cut tertiary funding by $2.7 billion in 2013. As a result, universities are constantly fighting each other for enrolments, particularly from full-fee paying international students. According to news.com.au, the Australian Border Force Commissioner has granted travel ban exemptions to permit 1,050 international students to enter Australia in recent months as part of the scramble to secure a section of the lucrative international student market. International students pay three to five times the fees of local students. A three-year Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney would cost an international student over $121,500; a health science degree would cost at least $165,000. Education is counted as one of Australian capitalisms biggest exports, worth $37.6 billion in 201819. Just as the unions have policed managements demands to eliminate jobs, they are doing nothing to ensure the safety of staff and students, because this would cut across university revenues. To ensure the necessary precautions are taken to defend their health, university staff, academics and students need to establish rank-and-file committees that are independent of the unions. These committees would ensure that class sizes are strictly limited and only proceed under conditions in which all participants are safe. Such measures, while basic, mean rejecting the financial and political dictates of the managements, the governments and the corporate elite. To stop the destruction of jobs and conditions, there must be a vast redistribution of resources away from the banks, big business and the military, and into education, and that is possible only as part of a socialist program organised by the working class. Two new studies suggest that people who have had coronavirus should still get vaccinated, but these studies also argue that one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine may be enough to supercharge antibodies, The New York Times reported. These two studies join other recent findings that also suggest that people who have had COVID-19 would may only need one dosage of a COVID-19 vaccination. Dr. Jennifer Gommerman is an immunologist at the University of Toronto. Though Der. Gommerman isnt involved in any of the new studies, the immunologist told the NY Times: I think its a really strong rationale for why people who were previously infected with Covid should be getting the vaccine. When infected with a virus like coronavirus, most people produce antibodies that may last months. However as the report stated, some people who didnt experience any symptoms or whose symptoms were light, may produce less antibodies that may become undetectable more swiftly. One of the newest, unpublished studies focused on people who have COVID-19 antibodies. The study suggested these people would have trouble with B.1.351 a.k.a. the South African variant of COVID-19. However the study also found that with just one shot of the Pfizer vaccine or Moderna vaccine their antibodies were supercharged. For people who havent had COVID-19, but who received two does of either the Pfizer vaccine or Moderna vaccine, their antibodies werent reportedly as strong as people who already had antibodies and who took just one shot of either vaccine, this same study suggests. Though in another study led by Dr. Florian Kramer who works at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York as an immunologists, people who had antibodies who also got vaccinated experienced more side effects. According to the study this indicates that these people are producing even more antibodies then those who hadnt had COVID-19, but whove been vaccinated. According to Dr. Kramer, If you put all four papers together, thats providing pretty good information about people who already had an infection only needing one vaccination. Those are just two of the recent studies done on COVID-19 vaccines and their immunity. The Associated Press recently reported the FDA confirming Johnson & Johnsons vaccine would offer a great deal of protection against COVID-19 with one single dose of it. The FDA stated that the vaccine is 66% effective and protective against mild to severe cases of COVID-19. Though the vaccine is currently 85% effective against the most severe form of COVID-19. While studies suggests that one shot of the Pfizer vaccine or Moderna vaccine should be enough to supercharge antibodies in people who have had coronavirus, both companies offer two shots of their vaccines currently. Both vaccines are regarded as 95% effective of two doses. Read more of this report via NY Times. READ MORE: Supreme Court Tosses Suit Brought by Michigan Man Beaten by Police in Mistaken Identity Case The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a former Michigan college student who sued police officers for beating him after mistaking him for a criminal suspect, finding on technical grounds that his claim was barred by the Federal Tort Claims Act. The case is Brownback v. King, court file 19-546. The high courts opinion, dated Feb. 25, which overturned a decision by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, was written by Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a separate opinion concurring with the result. Respondent James King, at the time a student at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, was roughed up by police officers who were members of a federal task force and mistook King for a fugitive. King, who was in his early 20s when he was walking outside at night in 2014, was set upon by undercover law enforcement officers Grand Rapids Police Detective Todd Allen and FBI Special Agent Douglas Brownback, who demanded identification from King. The officers thought King was a burglary suspect; King thought he was being mugged and refused to produce ID. Things escalated and the policemen put King into a chokehold and beat him, according to Law and Crime. King was acquitted of resisting arrest and assaulting the police. He then sued for excessive use of force. King sued the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), claiming the officers committed six torts, or civil wrongs, under Michigan law. King also sued the officers individually under the implied cause of action recognized by the Supreme Court in Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents (1971), alleging four violations of his Fourth Amendment rights. The historic Bivens ruling opened the door to individuals suing federal officers for rights violations. The FTCA, Thomas writes, allows a plaintiff to bring certain state-law tort suits against the Federal Government. It also includes a provision, known as the judgment bar, which precludes any action by the [plaintiff], by reason of the same subject matter, against the employee of the government whose act or omission gave rise to the claim. While waiving sovereign immunity so parties can sue the United States directly for harms caused by its employees, the FTCA made it more difficult to sue the employees themselves by adding a judgment bar provision, Thomas wrote. The 6th Circuit found that the officers werent entitled to qualified immunity, and that the U.S. District Courts order dismissing Kings FTCA claims did not trigger the judgment bar because the plaintiffs failure to establish all elements of his FTCA claims had deprived the court of subject-matter jurisdiction, he wrote. We disagree and hold that the District Courts order also went to the merits of the claim and thus could trigger the judgment bar. Kings lawyers view the Supreme Court ruling as providing an opportunity for their client to seek an accounting from the policemen. Institute for Justice attorney Patrick Jaicomo, who argued the case before the Supreme Court, was sanguine about Kings legal prospects. Although todays decision appears at first glance to deal a blow to constitutional accountability, in reality, the Supreme Court teed up the central issue in this case for the federal appeals court to reconsider, Jaicomo said in a statement. The Supreme Court is asking the 6th Circuit to weigh in on whether centuries of common-law practice should applyor be abandonedwhen the issue involves constitutional violations committed by federal police. When it does, our client James King, the innocent college student the officers choked and beat in 2014, will be able to persuasively argue why he deserves a day in court. And thats what we have been fighting for since day one. If Americans must follow the law, government employees must follow the Constitution. Acting U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, counsel of record for the Biden administration, didnt immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Bollywood producers neither have the money nor talent to cater to audiences who want something beyond the popular and the mainstream, claims actor Abhay Deol. In this context, he notes that OTT platforms have emerged as a good space for independent filmmakers and budding actors to showcase talent. "OTT platforms are a limited space for content, not at the mercy of physical multiplexes and single screen cinemas that usually get taken over by bigger movies, bigger studio films and producers that don't allow space for newer ideas and talent to be exhibited. While the OTT platforms have to make popular cinema as they should, they have the ability to cater to those who want something outside of the popular and the mainstream. Only they can do that. Bollywood producers can't do that. They don't have the money or even the talent to do that," Abhay tells IANS. As an actor, does it make a difference to him if his film releases on the digital platform instead of having a theatrical release? "It's the wave of the future. While it would be nice to see something on the big screen, I'm not going to fight technology. I'm more concerned about making what I want to make, and being true to my product than I am about where it is going to be shown. Sure I'd love if it goes theatrical but if that means I have to compromise on my craft and creativity, then I'd rather go to an OTT platform. So it's a bit of a give and take I suppose," the actor explains. Abhay returns to the OTT screen with the upcoming web series "1962: The War In The Hills" directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. On his character in the series, he says: "I play Major Suraj Singh. He is a family man who has a wife and a little daughter. He is extremely brave, loyal to his country, devoted to the Army, a doting father, a loving husband, never shies away from a challenge, he has a lot of integrity and is dedicated to his soldiers and his country." The war drama series reunites Abhay with his Dev.D co-star Mahie Gill. Opening up on his experience of working with her once again, Abhay says: "I was really looking forward to working with her again because I had such a great experience in Dev.D. I think she is one of the best actresses we have in the country. She is fiery. She can play varied characters and has that talent of nuance. It is easier to work with actors like her because of the way they respond and react to you. It helps you play upon their performance. She is somebody I like and respect. So I was really happy being paired up with her once again." While Abhay has created a space in the hearts of viewers for choosing unconventional roles and nailing them effortlessly, what does he have in store for fans who are waiting for him to feature in a mainstream commercial Hindi film again? The actor laughs heartily and replies: "Let a mainstream commercial producer call me up and give me that, I'll do it!" He further explains: "What makes a film mainstream and commercial are the people backing it, not necessarily its content. Of course the content will be formulaic, I have no problem with that. But if I have to do something Bollywood, it better be with the bigger names. Otherwise it is going to go nowhere." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Burundian refugee students attend class at Paysannat L school, in Mahama refugee camp, Rwanda, February 2018. UNHCR/Georgina Goodwin GENEVA/WASHINGTON The average annual cost of educating refugees is less than 5 percent of public education expenditure in developing nations hosting 85 percent of the worlds refugees, according to a joint World Bank UNHCR report released today. The principle of inclusive education, in this case, opening education up to all refugee children and their inclusion into national education systems can also lead to better services for local communities in host countries. This can be achieved at an estimated annual cost of US$4.85 billion globally. This is a pre-COVID estimated cost of educating all refugees and is likely to increase as the impacts of the pandemic continue to unfold. The Global Cost of Inclusive Refugee Education report provides a standardized methodology to estimate refugee education costs across all host countries. It hopes to catalyze the development of country-level costed refugee-inclusive education plans. Wherever they are, children must go to school. Education can help refugee children and youth to succeed despite the severe challenges they face, said Mamta Murthi, Vice President for Human Development, World Bank. Providing quality education for all school-aged children in countries affected by fragility, conflict, or violence will require the international community and host governments to come together in the spirit of cost and responsibility sharing, but, as the report finds, it is within our reach. At mid-2020 the number of forcibly displaced people globally surpassed the 80 million mark, accounting for one percent of the global population. Among them were 26 million refugees, half of whom are below the age of 18. Many of these children live in protracted crises. They often spend long periods, if not the entirety of their schooling years, in displacement. Educating them is of paramount importance to their future and self-sufficiency. Refugee children and youth belong in schools, like all children. For boys and girls forced to flee violence and persecution, inclusion in national education systems means hope and a critical opportunity to define their future, realize their potential, said Raouf Mazou, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations. Our study clearly shows that this is possible with a genuine commitment and with what is a manageable price tag in the global context. The report provides a what it would take figure rather than international commitments and obligations or current domestic expenditure on refugee education. Challenges remain in funding refugee education adequately, sustainably, and in a coordinated manner. There is an urgent need to improve the coordination of education financing in fragile and conflict-affected situations. Funding is not the only condition for universal access and completion of education. While the report is focused on estimating the cost of access to education for refugee children, the importance of improving the quality of education cannot be ignored. The eradication of learning poverty, that is, being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10, applies to host country populations and refugee children alike. The World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the largest sources of funding for refugee education. Our priorities focus on building inclusive and adaptable education systems in fragile and adverse environments; strengthening skills and resilience of individuals whose lives and education are affected by adversity; and improving education services for displaced populations and host communities. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, protects people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We work in over 130 countries, protecting millions of people by responding with life-saving support, safeguarding fundamental human rights and helping them build a better future. For more information about the World Bank, please visit : www.worldbank.org/education World Bank Group FCV Strategy Follow the World Bank on Twitter: @WBG_Education For more information about UNHCR, please visit : www.unhcr.org/education Follow the UNHCR on Twitter: @refugees World Bank Media Contacts: UNHCR Media Contacts: ADVERTISEMENT Nigerias independent fact-checking platform, Dubawa, will on Friday graduate fellows in its 2020 cohort. The fellowship would wind down in an end of fellowship event and award dinner slated to hold at Ibeto Hotels, Abuja, on Friday, February 26. Under the auspices of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), the outgoing cohort is the second since the platform initiated the fellowship in 2019. The six-month fellowship, inspired by the need to tackle the menace of misinformation and disinformation in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and beyond, started in July 2020 and came to an end in January 2021. The fellowship was organised for journalists in new media platforms (online blogs), radio and TV stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone with the aim of providing an opportunity for analytic, dedicated and innovative journalists to research and write truth-based and factual stories; and also to institute a culture of fact-checking in newsrooms across Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. At the dinner and award ceremony, some fellows would be awarded based on their performance throughout the fellowship. Speaking on the fellowship, the Executive Director, PTCIJ, Dapo Oloruntomi, said the influence the fellowship has had on newsrooms and institutions is gratifying and this proves journalism lives on. He said, One finds it extremely gratifying that fact-checking is now gaining grounds and deepening in Nigerian newsrooms. It is even far more interesting that colleges are increasingly integrating fact-checking as a component of their journalism training so we welcome that and see that both Dubawa and particularly the fellows programme have become an important and influential contribution to helping the amplification of and to debunk inaccuracies and misinformation as well disinformation in the polity and in our policy-making as well as in the media. In the past 1 year or so, we have found the Dubawa fellowship programme extremely helpful in propagating accurate information, helping to strengthen the footprints of truth in the protection of public health through first our participation in the WHO Alliance, the work we do in collaboration with the NCDC and of course generally our little contribution in helping fight the infodemic as it were. This is one more evidence that journalism is alive, it can bring great consequence, it can help to improve not only the context of accurate policy-making but it can definitely strengthen communities, it can strengthen policymaking and then strengthen democracy in the final analyses. The programme officer, Dubawa Ghana, Caroline Anipah, described the 2020 fellowship, which was the maiden edition in Ghana, as timely, exciting and productive. The 2020 Dubawa fellowship which happens to be the maiden edition in Ghana, has been very exciting, productive and largely successful. In Ghana, it came at a time when the country was preparing for a historical and highly competitive election one between a sitting and former president and expected to be characterised by misinformation and disinformation. With the effort and contribution of our fellows, Dubawa was able to meet the fake news which circulated head-on. She appreciated the fellows for their commitment and contribution. In the same vein, the Programme Manager Research and Capacity Development unit of PTCIJ, Adedeji Adekunle, acknowledged the efforts of the fellows in this short period of time and looks forward to more achievements. This dinner brings to close months of learning, growth and journalistic adventure for the fellows. Taken leadership in their organisations in the fight to enshrine truthful and factual dialogue in the public space. We look forward to what they go on to do in the future. The research fellows have helped to lay a foundation for knowledge in the misinformation ecosystem in West Africa and I am proud of what they were able to achieve in just a few months. The 2020 Dubawa fellowship was sponsored by Henrich Boell Stifung Foundation and National Endowment for Democracy. NEW DELHI : Bharti Airtel Ltd has raised $1.25 billion overseas by selling senior bonds and perpetual bonds, in the largest fundraising by any Indian investment grade issuer since January 2019, it said on Thursday. Bharti Airtel priced the senior 10.25-year bonds of $750 million at a yield of 187.5 basis points (bps) for an implied coupon of 3.25%, while its wholly-owned subsidiary Network i2i Ltd priced $500 million worth guaranteed subordinated perpetual 5.25-year bonds at a coupon of 3.975%. This is the lowest yield on 10-year and perpetual bonds for Bharti Airtel," the telco said. The telco said it received orders from 92 accounts for senior bonds and 97 accounts for perpetual bonds. The order book is very well distributed" by region with more than 30% from Asia Pacific, more than 45% from Europe, West Asia and Africa, and the remaining from the US, it said. The offering was significantly oversubscribed with strong demand from several marquee Asian, European and American funds, the company said. The peak order book of over $5 billion, at the time of final price guidance, allowed the pricing to tighten significantly from initial price guidance (IPG) on both tranches and allowed Airtel to meet its pricing as well as size objectives," it said. Barclays, BNP Paribas, BofA Securities, Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan, and Standard Chartered Bank were joint lead managers and joint book-runners for the fundraising, while DBS Bank Ltd and SMBC Nikko were co-managers. The strong reception of both our senior and perpetual bonds by the high quality global investor community reflects its confidence in our business and credit," said Ashish Sardana, group treasurer, Bharti Airtel. The fundraising will further support Airtels capital structure, Sardana said. In 2021, Indian companies have been aggressively raising foreign debt through bonds, looking to take advantage of the liquidity and low rates. Private firms such as Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, and Continuum Green Energy Ltd and state-run entities such as SBI, Export Import Bank of India, and Power Finance Corp. have mobilized funds through the offshore debt capital market this year. Others such as UltraTech Cement Ltd, ReNew Power Pvt. Ltd, and IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd raised debt through overseas bonds earlier this month. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Florida pastor loses home in fire after church; neighbors save baby goat and cat Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Florida pastor and his family lost their home to a fire that took most of their belongings Sunday but remained thankful as neighbors saved their pet cat and a goat from perishing. The Bellview Assembly of God in Pensacolaannounced in a statement on Facebook Monday that the churchs parsonage burned down Sunday afternoon. Youth minister Jacob White and his family, who were living in the home, lost nearly everything. Yesterday afternoon, the church parsonage burned down. Praise God no one was home and the pets were rescued, the statement said. Our Youth Director and his family lived in the house and they have lost everything. White, who has four children with his wife, Amanda, told WKRG that while they lost a lot in the fire, he is grateful that the fire happened at a convenient time. The family was reportedly out celebrating a birthday when they received a phone call about the fire at the home. If there is such a thing [as] a convenient time for something like this, then it happened at a convenient time. Because nobody was here to be harmed or hurt and we are all safe and are ok, White said. Escambia County Fire and Rescue said the fire, which occurred on Sunday afternoon, was started by a failed power strip in one of the homes bathrooms. White is now staying in a family mobile home on his fathers property. He acknowledged that the family will have to restart from scratch but expressed faith in Gods word to recover. We have a roof over our heads but as far as anything else goes, its just starting from scratch and just figuring it out. We just know that Romans 8:28 and what it tells us on Gods word and we are just going to stand on that, he said. Romans 8:28 states: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Neighbors reportedly broke down the home's door when they saw the fire and found the goat and the cat inside. They were also able to save some of the pastors family photos. I am thankful that everything that means the most to us survived, Amanda White told the local news station. You know our pictures and our memories, our memory books of our kids and children, and they revived our animals. So we lost a lot, but we didnt lose the important stuff. The family also expressed thanks to the community for stepping in to help them when they needed it the most. We have never been one to have our hand out. We have always been the one giving out, and its just nice to know that people love us and care for us and [are] willing to give and help us out in a time of need, the pastor said. A GoFundMe campaign with a $10,000 fundraising goal to assist the family had raised more than $3,200 as of Wednesday morning. The outpouring of love, support and prayer is humbling. I cannot even begin to express how grateful our family is! God is so good, Amanda White wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Everyone wants to help. Honestly we don't really know where to start. Its overwhelming and we are frazzled. The Canadian Press Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she experiences huge waves of anxiety before speaking to the media and revealed she has suffered long bouts of depression. Osakas agent, Stuart Duguid, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the worlds No. 2-ranked tennis player was pulling out before her second-round match at the clay-court tournament in Paris. The stunning move came a day after Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the U.S. at age 3, was fined $15,000 for skipping the postmatch news conference after her first-round victory at the French Open. She also was threatened by all four Grand Slam tournaments with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension, if she continued with her intention which Osaka revealed last week on Twitter to not do any press during Roland Garros. She framed the matter as a mental health issue, saying that it can create self-doubt to have to answer questions after a loss. First and foremost we are sorry and sad for Naomi Osaka. The outcome of Naomi withdrawing from Roland Garros is unfortunate, French tennis federation president Gilles Moretton said Monday. We wish her the best and the quickest possible recovery. And we look forward to having Naomi in our tournament next year. Moretton said the four major tournaments, and the professional tennis tours, remain very committed to all athletes well-being and to continually improving every aspect of players experience in our tournament, including with the media, like we always have." In Monday's post, Osaka spoke about dealing with depression since the 2018 U.S. Open, which she won by beating Serena Williams in a final filled with controversy. I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly, Osaka wrote, explaining that speaking with the media makes her anxious. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris, Osaka wrote. I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. She continued: Anyone that knows me knows Im introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that Im often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety. ... I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the worlds media. Williams was asked about Osaka on Monday after winning her opening match in the first scheduled night session in French Open history. I feel for Naomi. I feel like I wish I could give her a hug because I know what its like. ... Ive been in those positions, Williams said. We have different personalities, and people are different. Not everyone is the same. Im thick; other people are thin. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently. You just have to let her handle it the way she wants to, in the best way she thinks she can, and thats the only thing I can say. I think shes doing the best that she can. Osaka has never been past the third round on the French Open's red clay. It takes seven victories to win a Grand Slam title, which she has done four times at hard-court tournaments: the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020; the Australian Open in 2019 and this February. Here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences, she wrote. Tennis players are required to attend news conferences if requested to do so. The maximum fine of $20,000 is not a big deal to Osaka, the worlds highest-earning female athlete thanks to endorsement contracts totaling tens of millions of dollars. Mental health and awareness around it is one of the highest priorities to the WTA, the women's tennis tour said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman. We have invested significant resources, staffing and educational tools in this area for the past 20-plus years and continue to develop our mental health support system for the betterment of the athletes and the organization. We remain here to support and assist Naomi in any way possible and we hope to see her back on the court soon. Other players, notably 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and No. 1-ranked Ash Barty, have said they respect Osakas right to take a stance but explained that they consider speaking to reporters part of the job. After Osaka's post Monday, several athletes in tennis and other sports tweeted their support. Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, wrote: I am so sad about Naomi Osaka. I truly hope she will be ok. As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental & emotional aspect gets short shrift. This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference. Good luck Naomi- we are all pulling for you! Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry wrote that it was impressive taking the high road when the powers that be dont protect their own. major respect. ___ AP Sports Writers Sam Petrequin in Paris and Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report. ___ More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press 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. A judge has struck out a drugs charge against a 25-year old college student who imported more than 10,000 worth of MDMA through the post after watching a tutorial on YouTube on how to get illegal drugs through the dark web. At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan struck out the charge after Jack McInerney, of Dough, Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, paid 5,000 to the Court Discretionary Fund (CDF). Judge Durcan told Mr McInerney: You made a stupid decision and the only redeemable factor in this case was the decision was so stupid, really stupid. The judge told Mr McInerney he had decided to punish him in the pocket. He said the 5,000 will be applied to a charitable cause. You are going to enjoy further enhancement in your chosen career, Judge Durcan told Mr McInerney, adding dont ever come back before me again. Read More The judge said as a result of striking out the charge, there will be no record against Mr McInerney. At a previous hearing into the case, Sergeant Aiden Lonergan said that Mr McInerney got involved in the drugs after he heard a few lads in college talking about it and he watched a tutorial video on YouTube on how buy drugs on the dark web. He said Mr McInerney decided that he would try it and make a bit of money. Sgt Lonergan said Mr McInerney had spent 4,000 on purchasing the drugs and had used an address of a friend of a friend for the postage of the drugs. Sgt Lonergan said two separate packages containing a total of 175g of MDMA were detected. Mr McInerney had pleaded guilty possession of the MDMA with intent to sell or supply in April 2018. Previously, Judge Durcan said he would be striking out the charge when the 5,000 is paid over as he accepted Mr McInerney is not a criminal and has not been involved with criminals. Judge Durcan said Mr McInerneys actions were not part of a criminal conspiracy to import drugs. He accepted that Mr McInerney developed a drug habit and pursued that and an easy way of dealing with that was getting cash by running a little mini-mart for his friends. The judge also said Mr McInerney had no previous convictions and was totally co-operative with the gardai. Solicitor for Mr McInerney, Jim Finnegan, said his client has redeemed as much as a human being can. He has shown full remorse in this matter, Mr Finnegan said. I think he will be a good and upstanding member of society if he is given the chance. The court was told previously that Mr McInerney is studying for a Higher Diploma in Financial Analysis in Galway and intends to do a masters in Financial Services in Limerick this year. "Pit Boss is blessed to partner with Speedway Motorsports and Circuit of the Americas for the Pit Boss 250 this May," said Dansons President Jeff Thiessen. "Race fans love barbecue and wood pellet grilling. As the official grill of NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports, we are proud to bring these audiences together. Not only is Austin one of the barbecue capitals of the world, but it is also a community in which Pit Boss already has a distinct and established relationship with. Also, like Dansons, both NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports are proud family-owned businesses, making his partnership a natural fit." The Pit Boss 250 will be part of the inaugural NASCAR at Circuit of the Americas weekend, as the nation's top racing circuit visits Austin for the first time. The Xfinity Series showdown will feature NASCAR's rising stars battling on the 3.41-mile long course at the world-renowned, 20-turn counterclockwise circuit. COTA is America's only facility that annually hosts both Formula 1 and MotoGP races, and is also the only FIA-certified Grade 1 track in the United States. "The inaugural NASCAR at COTA weekend is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated events on the action-packed 2021 NASCAR schedule, and everyone wants in on the fun," said Kevin Camper, executive vice president and Chief Sales Officer for Speedway Motorsports. "From fans to business partners, we've seen a surge in interest around this amazing event, and we're proud to bring Pit Boss on board to help us make the weekend and event to remember." For Pit Boss, the partnership with Speedway Motorsports will include an elevated marketing presence at each of the NASCAR events held at its tracks around the country. SMI, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates eight first-class racing facilities in four of the top-10 media markets in the United States: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Texas Motor Speedway and Kentucky Speedway. "Speedway Motorsports owns and operates tracks in key markets for our company, including Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee, as well in emerging regions for our brand in California and Nevada," Thiessen said. "Our company is truly blessed to be aligned with a family-owned business of SMI's caliber and believe this partnership is a win-win for both parties. We cannot wait to see what 2021 has in store for both of us." Pit Boss Grills, the fastest growing brand in the grilling industry, offers the best value per square inch in the pellet grill market, doing so with innovation, excellence and a distinctly customer-driven approach. Pit Boss takes pride in delivering the best possible products, at an affordable price, crafting grills that are Bigger. Hotter. Heavier than the competition. Patrick Kurish (480) 542-9449 ext. 1304 [email protected] SOURCE Pit Boss Grills Lee University will host the 2021 65 Roses 5K to raise funds for a cure for cystic fibrosis. The in-person 5K race/walk will take place on Lees campus Saturday, April 17. Proceeds from the 5K will benefit the CF Foundation and its Cleveland Great Strides walk, a virtual event this year culminating in a celebration on May 15. "We are thrilled that 2020 is behind us and that we are in a position to come together and put on the 65 Roses race again, said Dr. Bill Estes, race coordinator and dean of the Helen DeVos College of Education. After 20 years, this event truly has become a tradition in the Cleveland community. We hope the thousands of folks who have run in the past 20 years will come out and run again with us as we take these little steps to return to normalcy. Best of all, our efforts continue to raise money and awareness to end cystic fibrosis. The April 17 event will follow the regular 65 Roses 5K route through downtown Cleveland. All are welcome to run or walk the 5K (or 1K Fun Run). Runners and walkers will receive dri-wicking running shirts and beanies this year for their participation, and chip timing will be provided by Terra Running Company. The race cost is $25, and event day registration/ will begin at 7 a.m. The 5K race/walk begins at 9 a.m., and the 1K Fun Run will take place at 9:30 a.m. Race awards will be announced virtually via the Terra Running website, and the 65 Roses 5K fundraising total will be announced via social media later that day. Lee University is committed to the safety of participants in the 65 Roses 5K and will follow recommended state and local guidelines for social distancing and hygiene. Race organizers will monitor the situation and will notify participants if conditions require logistical changes for the April 17 event. The 65 Roses 5K began in 2003 as an opportunity for those interested in doing more than walking at Great Strides, the CF Foundations largest national fundraising event. All proceeds from the 65 Roses race will go to support the CF Foundation and Clevelands virtual Great Strides. Individuals with cystic fibrosis and their families take such encouragement and hope from our campus and communitys embrace of this cause, said Vanessa Hammond, parent of a son with CF. In the past year alone, I have seen first-hand what an impact the new medications have made in daily life for my son Will and other kids and young adults here locally. These life-saving drugs are available because of people like those in Cleveland and Bradley County who run, walk, and donate to find a cure." This event consistently rallies hundreds of community participants and Lee University students to raise money for the Foundation. To date, Great Strides has raised more than $42 million with over 125,000 participants at events all across the nation. The Cleveland event has reached over $1.1 million raised for CF research since the local events founding in 2001. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a nonprofit donor-supported organization dedicated to attacking cystic fibrosis from every angle. Its focus is to support the development of new drugs to fight the disease, improve the quality of life for those with CF, and ultimately find a cure. In the last 30 years, the life expectancy of a child with CF has doubled, and research is happening daily to find a cure and develop drugs available to those living with CF. For more information about the CF Foundation, visit cff.org. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Ms. Hammond, Cleveland Great Strides co-chair, at vhammond@leeuniversity.edu. For more information or to register for the 65 Roses 5K race, visit www.leeuniversity.edu/cf ALBANY A bipartisan chorus is calling for an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, but it remains unclear who would conduct such a probe and how insulated it would be from his administration. The chorus grew louder Thursday, a day after a former aide to the governor published an essay alleging the governor kissed her in his office without her consent and had engaged in a pattern of harassment allegations the governor's office has denied. Steven M. Cohen, a longtime aide and loyalist to Cuomo, spoke to the media on the governor's behalf Thursday morning as Cuomo remained silent. He has not conducted a press conference in several days, despite having one on his schedule Wednesday. While Cohen's conference call ostensibly intended to defend the administration's handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes was hosted through the governor's normal number and promoted by his press office, the governor did not take part. Cohen avoided providing a detailed response to the claims by Lindsey Boylan, a former economic development official in Cuomo's administration who this week alleged that Cuomo had routinely commented on her appearance and touched her arms, back and legs, once asked her to play strip poker on a private plane, and kissed her without consent in his New York City office in 2018. "That really is beyond the scope of what Im addressing today," Cohen said several times when asked about Boylan's claims. Cohen is the head of the Empire State Development Corporation, where Boylan worked before he took the top job. A reporter asked whether Cohen planned to investigate Boylan's claims as a human resources issue within the office. Cohen said the only investigation he knew of was related to Boylan's own conduct, an allusion to allegations of workplace harassment against Boylan that led to her departure from the job, the AP reported. "I have never seen anything of the like of what Ms. Boylan has described" as Cuomo's behavior to her, Cohen said. He added that he has known the governor for more than 30 years and that Cuomo's conduct in Cohen's presence has always been appropriate." "Not that its always fun-loving and a good time," he said, "but it has always been appropriate, and he pushes to get results. And I think those results are obvious to everyone. Cuomo's press secretary Caitlin Girouard released a statement denying Boylan's allegations on Wednesday. She provided documents that sought to cast doubt on Boylan's description of the private plane ride where she said Cuomo asked about playing strip poker, with other passengers aboard the plane saying the conversation did not occur. Meanwhile, Boylan's essay has stoked national attention. Republicans were quick to jump on the story, calling for investigation or even Cuomo's resignation, and outside groups and other Democrats began weighing in as well. Allegations of inappropriate behavior in any workplace are deeply troubling and should be addressed. We call on the Cuomo administration to conduct a full and independent investigation into these claims immediately," said Tina Tchen, president and CEO of the Time's Up Foundation, a charity that focuses on combating workplace harassment and was founded in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2018. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki answered several questions about Cuomo during her Thursday briefing, saying that President Joseph R. Biden's focus is on COVID-19 response. "The president has been consistent in his position: When a person comes forward, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect," Psaki said. "Their voice should be heard and not silenced and any allegations should be reviewed." Biden has in the past apologized for touching women in ways they said violated their personal boundaries. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand who has spoken out for years against workplace sexual harassment and was the first Democrat who called for former U.S. Sen. Al Franken's resignation when he faced harassment allegations said in a Thursday press call that she had not yet read Boylan's essay but had seen news reports about it. "These allegations are serious and deeply concerning and anyone has a right to come forward to be heard and to have allegations be investigated. Gov. Cuomo also has a right to be heard and he has come forward and has denied these allegations, but ultimately the decision will be up to the state Legislature," Gillibrand said. "Its not something that we as society have dealt with well, so in areas where I have a say and where I have oversight responsibility I have tried very hard to create accountability and transparency in these kinds of cases. Asked to comment on the allegations, Allison Biasotti, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, said that he "has said many times that sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated, and that any credible allegation should be thoroughly investigated." U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said he believes "we must honor our commitments to due process, and so it is my most fervent hope that this matter will be fully reviewed, the participants heard and respected, and that the truth will be brought to light whatever it may be. But despite calls for investigations from members of both parties and outside observers, it's unclear what person, legislative body or board might conduct an investigation of Boylan's allegations. The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which is tasked with investigating violations of state Public Officer's Law, is effectively controlled by Cuomo appointees, as the Times Union has reported, and Cuomo previously quashed an ostensibly independent investigative body, the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, when its work began encroaching into his administration and the dealings of top legislative leaders. U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-Staten Island, who has previously called for Cuomo's resignation over his handling of nursing home issues, said "JCOPE must investigate and Cuomo appointees should recuse themselves so it is truly independent. An independent investigation could potentially be done by a special prosecutor, a bipartisan legislative panel, the state attorney general's office or the Albany County district attorney's office. Five Republican state senators all women penned a letter to Attorney General Letitia James late Wednesday saying that Cuomo's alleged actions "are not only grossly inappropriate they are also potentially criminal in nature." They called for a special prosecutor to investigate the claims. The attorney general's office has not responded. GOP House members Elise Stefanik, Tom Reed and Lee Zeldin released harsh statements calling for Cuomo to be held accountable, with Stefanik saying he should resign. Cuomo's 2018 gubernatorial opponent, Dutchess County Executive Marc J. Molinaro, used a fundraising email Thursday to denounce what he said is Cuomo's "abuse of power, his silencing and devaluing women in the workplace. " The bottom of the missive encouraged donors to "help hold Cuomo accountable." All four are among the potential contenders that GOP insiders believe could be exploring runs for governor against Cuomo in 2022. 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. Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co . plans to make its debut in Western Europe, people familiar with the matter said, as the company seeks new growth markets ahead of a long-awaited initial public offering. Beijing-based Didi is considering rolling out ride-sharing services in markets that could include the UK, France and Germany by the first half of this year, according to two people briefed on the plan. The company has already set up a team dedicated to the European market and is hiring locally, another person said. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Shares in rival Uber Technologies Inc. slumped 3.7% in US trading on Wednesday, while Berlin-based Delivery Hero SE sank 3.9%. Didi is turning to new geographies as its momentum starts to slow in China, where it has a dominant market share after ousting Uber in 2016. The SoftBank Group Corp.-backed company now operates in 13 countries outside its home base, mostly in Latin America. In August, it began offering car-hailing services in Russia, marking its first direct foray into Europe, and its already an investor in Estonia-based Bolt Technology OU, the continents main rival to Uber. Didi would also be competing against apps like Gett Inc., Ola and BlaBlaCar. In Europe, Didi would face a fast-changing regulatory landscape for tech companies and the gig economy. Last week the UKs highest court ruled Uber must treat its drivers as workers," entitling them to vacation pay, rest breaks and minimum wage while using the app, a judgment which could have wider repercussions. European countries are also working on taxes aimed at tech platforms, and the continent imposes strict data privacy rules in the shape of the General Data Protection Regulation. Aggressive expansion outside of its domestic market sounds like a bad idea for Didi," Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Vey-Sern Ling said. It does not have clear competitive advantages against established incumbents, and it may have to navigate through regulations in different jurisdictions. Initial efforts to acquire users may result in higher operating losses." As part of the rollout, Didi is also considering additional offerings including food delivery and errand services, depending on local market demand. The plans are aimed at boosting the value of the firm, already one of the worlds largest startups, ahead of a possible IPO, the people added, who asked to not be identified discussing private deliberations. The company didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Didi is also eyeing foreign markets as Chinese regulators step up scrutiny of the countrys tech giants. Xi Jinpings government has unveiled anti-monopoly regulations targeting internet companies while the Beijing-based industry group China Taxi Industry Association in December called on the antitrust regulator to investigate Didis takeover of Ubers China business. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. DENIS O'BRIEN has cast a long shadow and lost a lot of money as a major investor in Irish media across three decades. For all his controversies as a media proprietor and as a very litigious media reader the decision to cut his losses and sell Communicorp will leave a changed landscape where the era of the larger-than-life media baron is coming to an end. OBriens own financial advisers are likely to be among the most welcoming of his decision to get out of Irish media by selling Communicorp, including Today fm and Newstalk. He lost a staggering 450m on his other big media bet, a 500m investment in Independent News & Media where, against the background of coverage of the Moriarty Tribunal, OBrien led a shareholder revolt against Tony OReillys long dominance of the then international newspaper chain. OBrien won the battle only to be left with the biggest stake in INM as the newspaper industry went into decline after a century of bumper profits and as Ireland was about to enter the financial crash. Having gained the upper hand at INM in part by railing against corporate governance under the previous regime OBrien nominated his long-time associate Leslie Buckley to the board. Management of INM during Buckleys tenure as chairman is now subject to a High Court-appointed inspection including over allegations that Mr Buckley wanted to pay over the odds to buy OBriens loss making Newstalk. INM itself has been found by the Data Protection Commission have broken the law by accessing personal data stored in its IT systems back in 2014. In the end OBrien cut his losses at INM and sold his stake to current owner Mediahuis at a fraction of what hed paid for it. Read More Around the same time OBrien had bought shares in INM his own radio business, Communicorp, paid British media group Emap 200m for Today fm, Fm 104 and Highland Radio. That 2007 deal brought real national reach to what had been a small radio group, but at the cost of a never to be seen again top-of-the-market price tag. Rich men have long sought to own media assets. OBrien followed OReilly, who followed William Martin Murphy into INM. In OBriens case the fortune from his successful telecoms ventures, Esat Digifone and later Digicel, sustained the investments, but he was emerging as the big beast in the sector just as owning Irish media assets was becoming a licence to lose money. Now hes out. Communicorp is being sold to UK-based Bauer Media for a price understood to be north of 100m, which is also roughly what Communicorp owes O'Brien for bailing it out with interest-free loans through the years, including keeping Newstalk going in the period after the 2008 crash, when any purely rational investor would have pulled the plug. Communicorps buyer Bauer, by contrast. is an unabashedly corporate investor. Its portfolio of by-the-numbers UK radio stations includes Absolute 60s, Absolute 70s, Absolute 80s, etc, Kiss FM, Jazz FM and heavy metal brand Kerrang fm. The group has a huge reach in the UK market achieved with little chatter, less news and almost no big-name anchors, even in celebrity-obsessed Britain. Communicorps 98fm and Spin brands look like an easy fit for the group. Today FM is always going to be Communicorps big national brand in Ireland, but Newstalk looks a square peg in a round hole and there is already speculation in media land that the talk-radio brand could eventually be hived off again once the new corporate owners have been up and down the numbers. Under OBriens largesse Newstalk carved out a unique space for itself; challenging what it saw as the RTE / public sector consensus with a distinctly chippy, pro-enterprise stance and a heavy emphasis on covering business and sport to an extent unknown in the rest of the commercial radio. Newstalk was too male, too middle class and too outspoken for some, perhaps even most, tastes; which only proves its defined position in the market. It is certainly impossible to imagine a new corporate owner taking a chance on big personality-driven broadcasters like George Hook or Ivan Yates, or thumbing its chequebook at RTE by hiring away the equivalent of a Pat Kenny. If the pubs were open it would be hard for any hack to stay at home tonight Dublin bars like Kehoes, ODonoghues and Toners would have been electric with gossip and war stories. Many journalists whove been on the receiving end of legal actions prompted by coverage of Mr OBrien and his businesses, or banned from his airwaves or indeed been hired and fired by OBrien and his lieutenants down the years will be relieved that the billionaire has decided to leave the field. Those whove found big audiences and large incomes under OBriens wing, or just got their foot in the door for a start at one of his stations, might be less sanguine. That probably goes double for the small army of executives, advisers and lawyers whove trailed the billionaires trajectory through the Irish media landscape and would have had their own stories to trade in more upmarket surroundings if town was open. When the dust settles, and the corporate takeover is complete it will leave a less fraught, less volatile but inevitably more staid and predictable media market. Much of the snow and ice has melted away across North Alabama, but the damage remains and repairs are just beginning. We spoke with a representative from the Limestone County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) about how we all can be better prepared for severe weather. Daphne Ellison with the Limestone County EMA says it all starts with reliable forms of communication so you know when severe weather is about to hit. "A weather radio is great to have, because it's battery-operated, plus you can have it if the power goes out. You'll still have it to be able to get your alerts," said Ellison. Ellison says it's important to have essential items on hand before severe weather hits. Weather like the snow and ice storms that caused damage across North Alabama last week. "Mainly, it was roads that we had travel problems, impassable roads, a lot of ice and snow on bridges and overpasses. Also, we had several trees with ice that came down and done a little roof damage," said Ellison. Ray's Greenhouse in Toney experienced some damage because of the storms. It's going to cost the owner, Jody Hamm, around $10,000 to clean up the fallen trees and repair the greenhouses. Ellison says everyone should have a to-go kit in case damage or power outages occur. "What I mean by prepared is get some type of bag or you can use a plastic container or a bedsheet, pillowcase. Take it and put extra batteries, have flashlights, have any kind of personal items that you need," said Ellison. You can get supplies for severe weather this weekend during Alabama's 10th annual Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday. That's when all supplies you would need to help you during severe weather are exempt from the state sales tax. THE FASHION MILLITANT Born in Kerala, India, Nidhi Sunil is a model, activist, and actress. After gaining a law degree, she first worked as an environmental attorney, and switched career to become a model in 2011. She worked with some of the biggest names in national and international fashion publications, such as Vogue, Elle, Maxim, Harpers Bazaar; before starting her career as an actress in Bollywood. Her film break came in the 2013 movie Gangoobai, then followed household fame for her role as Samira in Kaash in 2015. In 2017, her modeling career reached a stepping stone as she was named Vogue Indias Model of the Year. COMBATING COLORISM Nidhi has become an influential voice in the fight against colorism. From being bullied at school to being trolled online to experiencing discrimination within the fashion and movie industries - she calls out the obsession with fair skin. Whether appearing as a panelist for the Women of the World Teen Summit. No Shade or writing a powerful opinion piece for Dazed Digital, she has helped to foster dialogue and raise awareness of the colorism she continues to face as a model with dark skin. She resisted early career pressure to laser away her freckles, for example, standing firm in self- belief to become one of Indias success stories. Im so happy to join LOreal Paris to speak out for the self-worth we must all believe in to succeed, especially when others try to tell us different. To me, beauty lies in the full power of your own voice and your belonging in the world. Every one of our stories is worth hearing. Our worth is our birth right.- Nidhi Sunil The LOreal Paris family is delighted to welcome Nidhi Sunil as an inspiring new ambassador. From lawyer to model, actress to activist, Nidhi uses her energy to speak out against colorism and gendercide and to campaign for girls to be valued as much as boys. Shes a perfect spokesperson for our signature brand message - every girl is worth it. Delphine Viguier-Hovasse. Global Brand President L'Oreal Paris A VOICE AGAINST GENDERCIDE The message at the heart of LOreal Paris, that every woman is worth it, is one Nidhi Sunil shares through her fight against violence towards vulnerable girls. Passionate about sounding the alert on this issue, she is an advisory board member and spokesperson for the Invisible Girl Project, an NGO working against gendercide and the neglect and violence disproportionately facing girls. As their ambassador, Nidhi shares the stories of girls rescued from trafficking and abuse, in a film which she was invited to present at the United Nations as part of her dedicated campaigning for girls to be considered just as worthy as boys. * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! A Republican has added his name to the list of Democratic state lawmakers calling for the legalization of recreational adult-use marijuana in Pennsylvania. Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie County, joined Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, on Wednesday in announcing their legislation to allow the sale of marijuana. They said it would generate tax revenue for the state and create new job opportunities. As the marijuana movement reaches Pennsylvania, legalization must be done the right way, Laughlin said. This bill ensures a legalized market in the commonwealth is implemented safely and responsibly, with a thoughtful approach that provides opportunities to medical and recreational consumers, farmers and small, medium, and minority-owned businesses. Having a Republican co-sponsoring the legislation allows for a larger conversation about this issue that Street said would benefit communities across the state. Previously, Republican lawmakers would only go so far as to support legislation to decriminalize marijuana, while several Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Jordan Harris of Philadelphia and Rep. Jake Wheatley of Allegheny County, among others, have called for adult use legalization. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Legislature and with the administration to build support for this critical legislation that aims to make Pennsylvanias cannabis market the most diverse and inclusive in the country, Street said. Former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in 2018 estimated taxing marijuana could generate a half billion a year in tax revenue for the commonwealth assuming there were 800,000 regular users. Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County, said on Wednesday her caucus has not discussed the issue. Previously, Republican leaders in the House and Senate have voiced resistance to the idea, citing concerns about it impacting the opioid epidemic and the states 5-year-old medical marijuana program. Republicans control both chambers of the General Assembly. A spokesman for the conservative Pennsylvania Family Institute cited a multitude of other reasons why its a bad idea. For one, communication director Dan Bartkowiak said it could place a strain on an already stressed health care system due to COVID-19. Further, he said it would mean high-potent marijuana packaged and marketed in ways that attract youth and a proliferation of pot shops, much like has been seen in Colorado. Big Tobacco giants like Altria are right now huge investors in the push for states to commercialize marijuana, Bartkowiak said. Any state senator who claims to put the best interests of children over the special interests of Big Tobacco and the marijuana lobby would oppose any effort to fully legalize and commercialize the sale of marijuana in Pennsylvania. This development in the marijuana legalization front in Pennsylvania comes just two days after New Jerseys Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a measure that opens the doors to the adult-use marijuana market. New Yorks Legislature is expected to legalize marijuana there in the upcoming budget season, Street said. Already, 15 states have legalized recreational marijuana, which also now has the support of nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvanians. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf called for marijuana legalization in his 2021-22 budget. Wolf recently tweeted, I want to see Pennsylvania begin the process to legalize adult-use marijuana this year. The profits from this measure would be used to help us recover from COVID. Plus, its past time that we restore justice to those harmed by marijuana criminalization. I want to see Pennsylvania begin the process to legalize adult-use marijuana this year. The profits from this measure would be used to help us recover from COVID. Plus, its past time that we restore justice to those harmed by marijuana criminalization. pic.twitter.com/TiNeDtji1s Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) February 17, 2021 Lt. Gov. John Fetterman also has been advocating for it since his statewide tour in 2019 to gauge the pulse of Pennsylvanians on the issue. He also has a pot legalization flag hanging on the door to his Capitol office and often on the balcony railing outside his office along with a flag supporting a ban on LGBTQ discrimination. Pa. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman displays flags on the balcony of his office at the state Capitol to show his support for marijuana legalization and his support for extending the state's anti-discrimination protections to cover matters of sexual orientation and gender identity. The LGBTQ Pride flags are displayed on either side of a Marijuana Leaf Weed Rainbow Gay Lesbian Pride flag. January 5, 2021. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com The Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition on Wednesday applauded the introduction of this bipartisan bill. Its executive director Meredith Buettner said it will create tens of thousands of new jobs in the next five years. Revenues generated from adult use cannabis, which are estimated to exceed $400 million annually in Pennsylvania, can also help offset the need to raise taxes while supporting restorative justice programs across the Commonwealth. She said it would build on the success of the states medical marijuana program but the state must act now to ensure that the job creation and revenue realized from legalized marijuana remains in Pennsylvania. Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy. (Upper) A larva of terrestrial moss-feeding crane fly, Liogma mikado, marvellously blended into a moss-laden habitat. Head on the left. (Lower) A larva of L. brevipecten, another moss-feeding species. The perfect protective resemblance is offered by three elements: green coloration, dorsal dark patterning, and numerous fleshy lobes. Head on the left. Credit: Yume Imada, Ehime University The roles of physical structures in animal camouflage are not well known. This study illuminates an overlooked role of a mechanism for camouflage. Dr. Imada investigated how larvae of the long-bodied crane flies achieve uncanny resemblance to mosses, highlighting the functions of their special body armature, "fleshy lobes". The lobes on the lateral sides of the body had internal muscles, suggesting that they are not only for tricking enemy's eyes, but may also aid the larvae in crawling. Different physical structures play an important role in animal camouflage; however, they are rarely studied compared to the camouflage colors and patterns. All known larvae of long-bodied crane flies (Cylindrotominae) are plant-feeders, feeding either on mosses or herbaceous plants. The terrestrial moss-feeding larvae resemble mosses to a remarkable degree (Fig. 1). The larvae not only have cryptic coloration and patterning, but also are cloaked with special armature; cryptic, fleshy lobes surround their body on dorsal, lateral, and ventral sides. These complex traits serve to trick potential predators by obfuscating typical caterpillar-like outlines. The question is how a device for camouflage (fleshy lobes) can evolve simultaneously alongside physiological, mechanical, and behavioral functions? After a ten-year pursuit of the larvae, Dr. Imada discovered eight cylindrotomine species in Japan and North America. She explored the link between their ecological background (i.e. habitats and food-plants) and various larval forms. Furthermore, she challenged the conventional explanation of the function of the fleshy lobes, revealing their roles in respiration, attachment, and locomotion. Lengths and forms of dorsal lobes are particularly diverse among species depending upon the species' habitats. The dorsal lobes tend to be more complicated in moss-feeding species (BD) than in herb-feeders, making their mimesis more successful among patches of mosses with delicate leaves. Aquatic moss-feeders have fine and the longest lobes. Terrestrial herb-feeder: (A) Cylindrotoma japonica ; terrestrial moss-feeder: (B) Diogma glabrata; (C) Liogma mikado; (D) Triogma kuwanai; aquatic moss-feeder: (E) Phalacrocera replicata. Credit: Yume Imada, Ehime University Internal structure of the abdominal segment, in cross-section, has revealed that lateral lobes contain muscles (arrowheads), whereas dorsal and ventral lobes are simple thick cuticles. The muscles in the lateral lobes may assist larval locomotion when crawling on wet substrates (e.g. moss carpets). Credit: Yume Imada, Ehime University Major findings of this study are: Larval morphological and behavioral (defensive behavior and locomotion) features are correlated with the species' habitats, varying from fully terrestrial, submerged, to fully aquatic environments, and their food plants. Notably, the fleshy lobes were longest in aquatic species and are more complex, often with auxiliary outgrowths, in terrestrial moss-feeding species (Fig. 2). The fleshy lobes in aquatic species, which are among the longest, were previously hypothesized to be gills, by which the larvae absorb dissolved oxygen in water. However, this study did not support this view because they can take in oxygen through the spiracles, the same as terrestrial species, and examination of the ultrastructure of the lobe surface did not reveal evidence for respiration through the cuticles. Serial cross-sections of the body revealed that the lobes on the lateral sides contained muscles, whereas the dorsal and ventral lobes were simply thickened cuticles (Fig. 3). The musculatures were comparable to those in the prolegs of caterpillars. The result thus cast a new light on the lobes' function as a mechanism for locomotion. The lateral lobes can assist the larvae in crawling. Dr. Imada concluded that the cylindrotomine larvae live exposed on plants are more prone to predation than most crane flies living in organic mud. Also, the lobes may be adaptive for crawling slowly amongst wet, slippery moss carpets. Two questions remain unanswered. First, soft, turgid appendages in larvae are curious structures which have evolved in many insect groups, and yet their structures and functions are largely unexplored. Second, the evolution of camouflage in Cylindrotominae remains paradoxical because there seem to be no records of keen-sighted predators, but it is yet to be shown that ground moss patches are enemy-free spaces. Explore further 100-million-year-old liverwort mimicry in insects More information: Yume Imada. Moss mimesis par excellence: integrating previous and new data on the life history and larval ecomorphology of long-bodied craneflies (Diptera: Cylindrotomidae: Cylindrotominae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2020). Journal information: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society Yume Imada. Moss mimesis par excellence: integrating previous and new data on the life history and larval ecomorphology of long-bodied craneflies (Diptera: Cylindrotomidae: Cylindrotominae),(2020). DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa177 Provided by Ehime University The Tory party is no longer a place for pro-Europeans, says former home secretary Amber Rudd. The Remain supporter said that those hoping to be selected as a candidate for MP had to show real Brexit enthusiasm. She resigned the Conservative whip after Boris Johnson sacked 21 of her colleagues who tried to stop a no-deal Brexit. She did not stand again as an MP in 2019. Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, pictured, said the Conservative Party is no longer a place for pro-Europeans as anyone seeking to run for the party has to show 'real Brexit enthusiasm' She said on ITV yesterday: The Conservative Party used to be a place where you could have pro and anti-Europeans, not always in harmony, but it was a home for both. Now there is no place for pro-European Conservatives. Thats a loss because I think theres a legitimate Conservative position which is pro-European, not trying to get back into the EU, but fundamentally pro-European. Those people are not going to be part of the MP selection process in the future. Miss Rudd also argued that there should be an all-women Cabinet, adding: I think Id fire all the men. Its about time that we addressed the balance. It feels to me that theres still very much a boys club and women get overlooked. She highlighted that the current percentage of women to men was just 25per cent. She added: Id set a completely new precedent by having an all-female cabinet. Looking back to the time in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, she said it was a very great, very successful way of operating a government. She added: So wed have the first, all-female cabinet under a female prime minister. Urging the Government to scrap policies to protect freedom of speech, she said she had a slight horror at the idea of a free speech champion. I dont see the need for it. I think that universities make wise and unwise choices and the market can see that and students will respond. I dont feel theres actually a need, she said. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or contributing today. A male primary school teacher has died amid reports police were investigating claims he filmed students in change rooms. The family of Michael Patrick Robertson, a Year 6 teacher at St Columba's Primary School in Wilston, inner Brisbane, posted about his death online on Thursday. Mr Roberston is believed to have taken his own life, the Courier-Mail reported. Brisbane primary school teacher Michael Robertson died on Thursday, his family posted online The principal of St Columba's Primary School in Wilston, inner Brisbane, wrote to parents on Tuesday revealing a police investigation was underway into one of their staff members Two days earlier the school revealed to parents a police investigation was underway following claims students had been filmed at a sporting event. Mr Robertson was reportedly understood to have come to the attention of police following allegations he filmed - or attempted to film - students, with detectives probing whether he had created child exploitation material. It is not clear if any charges were laid. Queensland Police have not provided any comment on the matter as yet. The primary school's principal sent out two emails to parents on Tuesday night about allegations involving one of their staff members. 'I write to inform you that our school recently became aware of an alleged incident involving one of our staff members,' the principal wrote in one email. 'This matter is now the subject of an ongoing police investigation and in support of this, our school is continuing to assist police in every way we can.' Mr Robertson was reportedly understood to have come to the attention of police following allegations he filmed - or attempted to film - students In another email the principal reassured parents the school was 'focused on the safety and wellbeing of your children'. 'We would certainly make contact with you if we held any concerns about your child,' the principal wrote. For 24/7 confidential support in a crisis call Lifeline on 13 11 14 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, February 25, honored the memory of Lesya Ukrainka on the 150th anniversary of her birth. The presidential press service said that Zelensky laid flowers at the grave of Lesya Ukrainka at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv, as well as at her monument in the Ukrainian capital. As reported, for the 150th anniversary of Lesia Ukrainka, the complete collection of the writer's works in 14 volumes will be presented. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Only a few hours after roughly 50,000 coronavirus vaccination appointments became available Thursday morning at super vaccination sites in Massachusetts, the state is now reporting that nearly all of those slots have been filled. The states announcement comes after residents waited in lines that reached more than 100,000 people for periods of time in the digital waiting room of the commonwealths appointment-booking website, vaxfinder.mass.gov, to try to cement a time and place to get immunized in the next week at one of the six large-scale vaccination sites in Massachusetts. Those locations include the former Circuit City in Dartmouth, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Danvers the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, Fenway Park in Boston, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and the Natick Mall. The state also has super immunization locations set up at the Reggie Lewis Center in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston and Worcester State University. Due to a severely limited vaccine supply and a large population of individuals eligible to get a vaccine, this weeks ~50,000 appointments at mass vaccination sites across the Commonwealth are nearly all filled, the state wrote in a tweet. Gov. Charlie Bakers administration said that if someone wasnt able to schedule an appointment, they should try again next week. However, it may take several attempts over the course of a few weeks to land an open slot, the governors office noted. If you have not been able to schedule an appointment yet, please try again next week - it may take several attempts over the course of a few weeks to get an open slot. Mass.gov (@MassGov) February 25, 2021 For weeks now, tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents have been saddled by a frenzied and, at times, hair-pulling vaccination appointment-booking process. Last Thursday, all hell broke loose when the vaxfinder site crashed due a massive influx of residents to the portal. More than a million residents in Massachusetts became eligible that morning to receive their vaccines in the second part of Phase 2 of the states vaccine rollout. Those residents fall under the second priority group in Phase 2 of the rollout, which encompasses people 65 years and older, individuals with at least two comorbidities that put them at higher risk for COVID-19 and/or residents and staff of low income and affordable senior housing. The site reconnected around 2 hours later, though eligible residents continued to vent frustrations this Thursday when trying to book an appointment, particularly in regard to the digital waiting room that forced many people to wait for more than hour behind tens of thousands of other individuals. The virtual waiting room feature was added in the wake of the technological mishaps last week with the aim of preventing further outages on the scheduling portal, according to Baker. If theres high travel and traffic on the website, some users might be placed in the waiting room, the governor explained at a press conference Wednesday. The page will display more information about when you will be allowed to proceed, but its basically the equivalent of creating a line. The digital feature was designed to ensure the site is constantly running and that residents have an uninterrupted experience, he added. Those who werent able to book appointments Thursday at any of the super vaccination sites in Massachusetts dont need to lose hope just yet. Retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens are expected to give out 20,000-plus doses this week as well. Available appointments, though small in number, are updated daily, unlike the states large-scale vaccination sites, whose availabilities are updated weekly every Thursday. CVS announced this week it would be opening 17 additional vaccination sites in Massachusetts to administer 21,000 more doses per week. Related Content: Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney, pictured, apologised after six members of her Serious and Organised Crime Unit in Basingstoke were found to use racist and sexist language A police force is spending 860,000 on discrimination training for its staff after an investigation revealing shocking racism and sexism in one of its departments. Up to 6,000 officers at Hampshire Constabulary will receive the ground-breaking training after a full 'cultural audit' of the force is carried out involving teams of university researchers. The programme is the first accredited 'equalities and inclusion training' in the UK for policing and comes after five officers were dismissed when covert recordings uncovered an array of racist, homophobic and sexist language in a specialist unit. A disciplinary panel ruled that all but one of six officers caught using a 'whole array' of offensive language were to be dismissed from the serious organised crime unit in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The officers were accused of either making 'abhorrent' comments, or not challenging others when those remarks were made. A bug was planted to make the covert recording between March and April 2018 following an anonymous complaint to a whistleblowing service. Durham and Reading Universities are now involved in carrying out a full 'cultural audit' of the force. Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney today said the new programme was proof that the force is tackling problems highlighted by the inquiry. She said: "We have not sat on our laurels. "There are lots of things that we have got in place to ensure that we learn from this, that we reach for even higher standards and that we do everything we can. "We've got a very comprehensive training programme. It's the first accredited equalities and inclusion training in the country for policing and we're very excited about that." The in-house programme was approved by Police and crime commissioner Michael Lane in December last year, shortly before the panel found the officers at the SOCU unit guilty of misconduct. The officers accused of gross misconduct were Detective Inspector Timothy Ireson, Detective Sergeant Oliver Lage, Detective Sergeant Gregory Willcox, trainee Detective Constable Andrew Ferguson, PC James Oldfield, and PC Craig Bannerman. The officers accused of gross misconduct included Detective Inspector Timothy Ireson, pictured The most junior officer, T/DC Ferguson, who brThe officers accused of gross misconduct were Detective Inspector Timothy Iresonoke down in tears while giving evidence, was handed a final written warning. Officers also sent 'explicit' fake pornographic images of Prince Harry and Kate Middleton having sex to the work's WhatsApp group. The training programme, which could have costed 1.5m if it was outsourced according to a report, will be rolled out in March. The cash will also fund a 38,763 a year neurodiversity adviser role as between five and 10 per cent of staff have a neurological condition needing extra support or equipment. This includes dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome and autism. Chief Constable of Hampshire Constabulary, Olivia Pinkney, admitted the behaviour of the officers had 'undermined' the public's trust in the force. She added the six men had 'failed to uphold fundamental human rights' and their shocking behaviour had 'damaged' the reputation of colleagues. Bugging devices placed in the unit's offices between March and April 2018 recorded them calling women 'w****s' and 's***s', comparing black officers to dogs and saying Albanians should be killed with 'nerve agent', a disciplinary hearing was previously told. Hampshire Police are spending 860,000 training 6,000 people following the investigation into racism and sexism within the Serious Organised Crime Unit Prosecutor Jason Beer QC said that although the recording only lasted 24 days the investigation uncovered 'enough racism and sexism to last a lifetime'. Panel Chair John Bassett said the unit's conduct was 'shameful' and the 'antithesis' of what the public expects from those at the Police Investigation Centre in Basingstoke. He said: 'The current professional standards first came into force on December 1, 2008, in other words over nine years before [the probe]. 'The standards set out how the public expect members of the police to conduct themselves. 'Police officers cannot pick or choose which of the standards they abide by In the panel's opinion the matters it's found in this case are the antithesis of what the public expect. 'The conduct was shameful.' The hearing was told officers likened the unit's only black officer, DC Solomon Koranteng, to a mixed breed dog, sang the Bob Marley song Buffalo Soldier at him and said he had been flown 'from Africa in a crate' and taken to London Zoo. The squad also placed a map of Africa above the area in the office where DC Koranteng and another officer of African heritage sat and nicknamed it 'African Corner'. On the recording, women were referred to as 'sl**s', 'sugar t***' and 'sweet t***', while an officer's partner was described as 'an absolute wh**e'. Officers also sent 'explicit' fake pornographic images of Prince Harry and Kate Middleton having sex to the work's WhatsApp group. Three members of the team were heard joking that 'Albanian migrants' should be shot on entry to the UK or killed with a nerve agent and called women 'sluts and whores'. Charlie Munger, the long-time business partner of Warren Buffett, said Robinhood Markets and other brokerages that attract inexperienced retail investors are essentially offering gambling services" and have found a dirty way" to make money. Munger, 97, lamented the recent mania for GameStop Corp , in which amateur investors encouraged each other online to buy the gaming retailer on platforms including Robinhood, and caught some hedge funds in a short squeeze. "It's really stupid to have a culture which encourages as much gambling in stocks by people who have the mindset of racetrack bettors," he said. "A lot of them crowd in to buying stocks on frenzy, frequently on credit, because they see that they're going up, and of course that's a very dangerous way to invest." Asked if the market resembled the late-1990s dot-com bubble, Munger said: "Yes, I think it must end badly, but I don't know when." Munger was speaking at the annual meeting of Daily Journal Corp, the Los Angeles newspaper publisher he chairs, which was broadcast on Yahoo Finance. He is better known as vice chairman of Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc since 1978. Munger said investors should not buy gold or bitcoin, noting the latter was too volatile to become a "medium of exchange for the world." He paraphrased author Oscar Wilde's quotation about fox hunting to describe bitcoin, calling it "the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable." Munger also expressed disdain for the surging demand for special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which raise money from investors and then merge with private companies to take them public, in "blank check" arrangements. "The world would be better off without them," Munger said. "This kind of crazy speculation in enterprises not even found or picked out yet is a sign of an irritating bubble," he said. "It's just that the investment banking profession will sell shit as long as shit can be sold." Munger has been at Buffetts side for decades as they used corporate acquisitions and stock purchases to build the conglomerate into a behemoth valued at more than $580 billion. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics AN Independent councillor has called for a horse-sculpture on a roundabout outside Patrickswell village. Cllr Fergus Kilcoyne, who owns a pub in the village has been in contact with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to install a horse statue on the roundabout coming off the M20. It would be to recognise the fact we have Limerick Racecourse right here in the village. The racecourse has told me they are willing to contribute to some of the costs of this proposed sculpture, he said. Its the premier racecourse in the region, he added. The businessman has also welcomed a 500,000 boost given to the village of Patrickswell. The grant from the National Transport Authority will see renewal work at the village continue, and Cllr Kilcoyne says he feels it will rejuvenate many existing businesses, as well as attracting new firms into the village. What its going to do is allow us to upgrade the footpaths similar to phase one of this development, right up through the middle of the village, he said, The village enhancement through this scheme will be of great benefit. It will be felt throughout the village, make it more picturesque and get a bit more tourism in. Cllr Kilcoyne hopes Patrickswell can eventually become a service village for the new M20, construction which is expected to commence in the coming years. We have two shops with cafeterias, as do the pubs. So there are plenty of locations where people can sit down and relax for 10 to 20 minutes, he said. Elsewhere in City West, Cllr Kilcoyne has also welcomed works starting in Vartrys Field. It followed a motion he put into council and passed last year to install public walking paths in the park in Raheen. The funding for Patrickswell is from the an overall package of 17m put in place to support sustainable transport projects across the country from the National Transport Authority. OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- California Donor Table, a network of donors committed to building power in California's communities of color and making lasting progressive political change, raised and distributed nearly $5.7 million to expand California's electorate and help progressive candidates across the state win key races. "There are a lot of candidates, political, and issue-based organizations vying for progressive donors' attention and money, but scattered funding does not add up to big wins," said Ludovic Blain, executive director of the California Donor Table. "Through the California Donor Table, progressive donors make informed, strategic funding decisions so that California legislators reflect and represent their constituents, and California can live up to its potential as a progressive beacon for other states and the federal government." In addition to direct fundraising for candidates, California Donor Table directed millions more through its support of seven local civic engagement collaboratives in San Francisco, Contra Costa County, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire and San Diego. "California Donor Table is a great co-conspirator around building both the big picture strategy and a funding network we need to build power beyond any single election cycle or issue campaign," said Jonathan Paik, Director of Orange County Civic Engagement Table and Orange County Civic Engagement Table Action. "The Donor Table helps us tap into funding from all over the state, which is critical for us to build a grassroots movement that can take on corporate interests that do not have our communities' health and wellbeing at heart." "This year we won a vast majority of races we were involved in, from local to state level races, because we invested from the ground up," California Donor Table Senior Political Strategist Tim Molina. "By supporting diverse coalitions of candidates, voters, and organizations, we built powerful formations able to win." California Donor Table was also instrumental in funding first time programs for the Working Families Party in California, which was which supported local organizational with field, fundraising, and communications strategy in 28 elections during the 2020 cycle. "California Donor Table was integral in bringing interested and energized donors into the conversation to build a political home that is responsive to local leadership and priorities," said Mehran Khodabandeh, Senior Political Strategist at Working Families Party. "One that will build a unified strategy built by our partners to enact policy and elect officials that represent the many, not the few." California Donor Table, originally called the Progressive Era Project, began in 2005 with five donors from three families. Combining political strategy with community organizing and training, the project aimed to develop and support Black, Latinx, and Asian Pacific Islander progressive leaders, organizations and candidates. To date, the table has invested and aligned approximately $35.7 million over 15 years. It has financially supported 58 candidates (75 percent people of color, 51 percent women, 42 percent women of color, 23 percent Latina women, 14 percent Black women). About the California Donor Table The California Donor Table is a statewide community of donors who pool their funds to make investments in communities of color so they have the power and resources to (1) elect people who represent their values and needs and (2) help govern and hold decision-makers accountable. California Donor Table believes that California can and must lead the nation in becoming a healthy, just place to live with shared economic success and a democracy that works for all our people. Please visit: californiadonortable.org SOURCE California Donor Table Related Links http://californiadonortable.org SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Starting Sunday, Scottsdale Stadium will become a test tube of sorts, an experiment for the Giants as they prepare for eventually allowing fans back into Oracle Park on a limited basis. When Cactus League play opens, the team will welcome 750 to 1,000 fans to each of the 14 home games, bringing joy to those whove missed them the most: the players. You realize how much they boost you throughout your day, Giants third baseman Evan Longoria said. It will be nice to kind of have a return to normalcy. Its going to be a huge difference. It seems like a small number, but we havent had any fans, so its going to seem like a good amount just to have somebody cheering for you when you take the field and get on base. On Wednesday, stadium personnel were checking to make sure everything is in working order. Light bulbs were changed, the fan-cooling misting system rarely used during the spring billowed for 30 minutes, and food and beverage deliveries were unpacked and stored. The constant sound of hammering accompanied player drills and batting practice throughout the morning. I dont anticipate any real issues, Giants executive vice president of administration Alfonso Felder said of Sundays opener against the Angels. Were still sorting through what things will look like in San Francisco, so thats in some respects our bigger challenge: understanding how to accomplish that, because the guidelines may well be different in terms of how we operate at Oracle Park. One wrinkle that will be in place Sunday and throughout the spring will be transferred to Oracle: The team will use an app-based health-screening system, which must be completed before entering the ballpark. Fans can input their information before they arrive, which will hasten entrance times. We want to make sure that were really understanding the inflow process, so were going to institute that in Arizona and our fans will be able to expect something similar when they come back to San Francisco, said Sara Grauf, vice president of event strategy and services. With such a limited number of fans at spring games, issues of egress potentially the most tricky for maintaining social distance are pretty much moot: The club can direct the 500 or so fans behind home plate out the exits nearest their pods, and about a quarter of the ticket holders will be in the Charro Lodge deck area in right field, so theyd leave through the gate behind the stadium. Fans may enter the ballpark an hour before game time, and they will be seated in pods of two or four, with 6 feet or more between pods. Concessions will focus on ballpark staples and will include beer but no hard alcohol. The initial orders placed: 5,000 non-alcoholic beverages, 6,700 beers, 3,000 hotdogs, 3,500 bratwursts, 2,400 burgers and 1,500 pretzels, which should take care of the first few games. How fast they go will determine future orders and also help the team project totals for the regular season. Were really just trying to do things that are easy for people to consume because we do want them wearing their face coverings when theyre not actively eating or drinking, Grauf said. The Giants Dugout store will be open during game days, and the team is determining whether it might add hours during non-game days. Face coverings will be required throughout the ballpark. The Scottsdale Stadium experience will be an important tool for the Giants, who operate the facility during the spring and who have spent months planning for every eventuality when Oracle Park reopens. What will help is those nuanced things how are our fans understanding the screening app and that sort of thing, Grauf said. Well be able to take what were learning and fine-tune any communications with our ticket holders and all those visiting our ballpark. Anything we start to figure out from enforcing best policies, well just have that much more awareness and can properly train our staff and make sure that theyre comfortable in these situations. I think its going to be a very useful exercise for us, and thats part of the reason why we went with a smaller capacity so we could take a responsible approach, not rush things. Canned crowd noise and extra-vocal bullpens didnt really make up for the empty stands last year, so the anticipation level is high; players want to see fans just as much as fans want to see games. Itll be interesting to see if it almost makes you a little nervous after a year of not having it at all, outfielder Alex Dickerson said. Even the small crowd will make it feel a little more like home, so Im excited for it, and hopefully as the year goes along, we can move toward a bigger stadium filled with people again. Said Felder: This obviously is what we do and why we all come to work every day: to try to create a great environment for fans. This is sort of the first step, with the ultimate goal to do it in San Francisco. At the same time, we want to be careful and cautious and and responsible about how we do it. Susan Slusser covers the Giants for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser No doubt, E.Sreedharan popularly known as the Metroman has enjoyed a cult image not only in Kerala, but across the country for his work. He has earned respect cutting across political lines. However, things took a nose-dive from the moment state BJP president K.Surendran, last week broke the news that the 88-year-old will not only join the BJP, but also contest the upcoming assembly polls. Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is credited with changing the face of public transport in India with his leadership in building the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro while he served as the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Later he helmed several other metro projects in key cities. After Surendran played to the gallery, all were waiting for the hugely popular engineer for a confirmation or not, and the moment he came out with the "yes" for BJP, many responded with shock. On Thursday morning, a police official attached to the Ponnani Police station, in Sreedharan's home town in Malappuram, told IANS that quite a few complaints have started coming over phone against Sreedharan for his statement that came in an English TV news channel. "Till now we have received oral complaints against Sreedharan. The police will look into it and do according to the rules. So one will have to wait on what happens to these oral complaints," said the police official who did not wish to be identified. These oral complaints have come following his statement about Love Jihad- (on how a number of Hindu and Christian women were victims of Love Jihad) and that he does not like people who eat beef. There has been a sharp spike in anti-Sreedharan posts on social media following his political decision. Both the CPI-M-led Left and the Congress-led UDF have expressed surprise at his decision Now all eyes are on Sreedharan when he will be officially given the BJP membership when the statewide yatra led by Surendran reaches Malappurram district. At a time when many Michigan residents are frustrated by lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines, a program to vaccinate residents and staff at Michigans long-term care facilities has yet to use even half of the almost half-million doses the program has been allocated so far. The program -- in which the federal government contracted with Walgreens and CVS to hold vaccination clinics in nursing homes and assisted living centers -- has received 499,200 vaccine doses to date. Thats 20% of Michigans supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses. Yet the program has administered fewer than 220,000 shots -- 44% of the doses available -- as of Monday, Feb. 22, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. That means more than 280,000 doses are still unused, held at the federal level in a bank of doses to be ordered by the pharmacies from the distributor. By comparison, 1,973,585 vaccine doses had been shipped to other Michigan health-care providers as of Monday, Feb. 22, and 1,682,856 doses -- 85% -- were administered. The vast majority of those unused doses are expected to be administered this week. Michigan health-care providers say they are aware of the unused doses in the long-term care program, but they dont have access to them. We would love to redistribute unused vaccine to places that we know can give it (more quickly), but its out of our hands, said Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer for Munson Healthcare in Traverse City. The reality is those allocations going to long-term care program are not coming from the state; theyre coming directly from the federal government. The state did pull 30,000 doses from the long-term care program stockpile a few weeks ago and transferred those doses to other providers, MDHHS spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin said. But, she added in an email to MLive, At this time, we do not plan to pull down any additional doses as getting this population vaccinated continues to be a high priority and we have allocated vaccine to ensure that can be accomplished. Long-term care staff and residents have been given top priority in vaccine allocations. Thats because residents are at especially high risk of dying from COVID-19 due to their age and health status. To date, 4,100 Michigan residents and 46 workers at skilled nursing homes have died of COVID-19. That doesnt include another 1,484 deaths linked to other long-term care facilities, such as assisted-living sites for senior citizens and people with disabilities. In all, deaths linked to long-term care facilities account for 36% of the states COVID-19 deaths. MDHHS has made several moves to speed rollout of the LTC program. Last month, the state brought on Managed Health Care Associates to help with vaccination clinics at assisted living centers and adult foster homes. And for most of January, MDHHS told the federal government to set aside the states weekly allotment of Moderna vaccine for the LTC program so that vaccine access wouldnt be an issue. Since then, MDHHS officials continue to meet regularly with our federal pharmacy partners to ensure vaccinations are being scheduled as quickly as possible, Sutfin said. Experts say the biggest reason for the slow rollout appears to be vaccine hesitancy, primarily among staff. Indeed, more half of the 400,000 staff and residents eligible for the program have declined to be vaccinated so far, the data indicates. Andrea Acevedo, president of SEIU Healthcare Michigan, the union with the largest representation of workers at long-term care facilities, said her organization is well aware of hesitancy among their members and is working hard to address it. These are workers whove seen the brunt of the pandemic, she said. Theyve seen a lot of death, and some actually have become ill with COVID. So its a scary place for workers to be right now, and the anxiety regarding this vaccine is very much in the forefront. She said the union has launched several initiatives to answer workers questions about the vaccines and to counter misinformation about their efficacy and safety. Sutfin said she does not anticipate that any more vaccine doses will be allocated to the LTC program. Three vaccination clinics are being scheduled at each facility. Walgreens and CVS have completed the first two clinics at skilled nursing homes, while rounds one and two are still under way at assisted living facilities and adult foster home. If there are vaccine doses left over from the program, they could be pulled back to be distributed to vaccine providers across the state or could be allocated to CVS, Walgreens or MHA pharmacies to provide vaccination to eligible Michiganders, Sutfin said. This will be determined at a later date by MDHHS. Read more on MLive: Grocery store workers were once front line heroes, now they cant get a vaccine For Michigans older population, navigating vaccination options is complicated Dont fall for this this COVID-19 vaccine phone scam making the rounds in Michigan Unchecked national security wont stop Americas long-standing domestic terrorism threat SupportLink3 We are confident that businesses to which we introduce new online marketing strategies will see significant increases in customer satisfaction, loyalty, brand awareness, operating efficiencies, and margins." Ed Abufaris, Co-Founder of SL3. Your Home Digital, developer of YourHome1Source (YH1S.com) and YourHomeTV.com, has announced a strategic partnership with SupportLink3 (SL3), a U.S. financial services consultancy firm. The partnership enhances business opportunities for mortgage banking and homebuilding clients, leverages emerging technologies, and provides efficiencies to reach and engage new customers online. Strategies also focus on building loyalty, retaining customer relationships, and building new lines of revenue for clients. SupportLink3, LLC is extremely excited to be in a marketing partnership with Your Home Digital, publisher of YourHome1Source.com (YH1S.com), the unparalleled source for any and all information pertaining to home needs, and serving all home industry verticals," said Ed Abufaris, Co-Founder of SL3. The information included and contained through YourHome1Source can help any lender source new leads, and consumers source products and services including financing of their home, home repair, home furnishings, etc. Through the combined efforts of SupportLink3 and Your Home Digital we are confident that businesses to which we introduce new online marketing strategies will see significant increases in customer satisfaction, loyalty, brand awareness, operating efficiencies, and margins," said Abufaris. The timing could not be better for this key strategic marketing partnership. Ive known the executives at SL3 for many years and the depth of their experience as leaders, strategists and innovators in the mortgage and financial services industry is widely known. Our organizations are ideally aligned, recognizing that the mortgage and financial services marketplace today may change tomorrow. Were all about planning, building and executing innovative solutions for our mutual clients, positioning them to survive and thrive in the future. We utilize new technologies and new digital reach strategies, delivering superior home-consumer engagement and improved ROI for our clients. Were absolutely thrilled to partner with the talented team at SL3, says David Margulies, EVP and Director of Strategic Alliances at Your Home Digital. About SupportLink3 (SL3) Based in Dallas, Texas, SL3's primary focus is to connect organizations with the industries best product & service providers and qualified personnel based on your needs and investment strategy. We negotiate on your behalf for the best possible results with the goal of overall business growth through additional volume and in efficiencies through utilization of a variable cost model. In addition, we provide advisory services for Executive & Management Support, Systems & Technology, Sales & Marketing, and Mergers & Acquisitions. To learn more, visit the company's website https://www.supportlink3.com/. About Your Home Digital, LLC Based in Tampa, Florida, Your Home Digital teams with business partner, kathy ireland Worldwide to provide digital marketing strategies and agency services for all Home Industry Verticals including Builders & Contractors, Furniture & Decor, DIY & Home Improvement, Insurance & Title Services, Home Security & Technology, Rent or Lease-to-Own, Residential Real Estate, Mortgage & Home Equity Loans, Moving & Storage, Home Inspections & Warranties, Green Homes & Tiny Homes, and Communities: Live, Retire, Vacation. Your Home Digital specializes in content creation and distribution for home industry clients, with an emphasis on educational and awareness videos, trend articles, and improving home-consumer engagement through OTT/Streamed programming. Connect with Your Home Digital at: https://www.yourhome1source.com/your-home-digital/, or call 800-860-7210. Nacogdoches, TX (75965) Today Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Trisha Goddard has voiced her anger towards her late mother amid her battle to find the identity of her biological father. The TV host, 63, spoke candidly about her family arrangement on Piers Morgan's Life Stories and revealed that she realised the man she called dad was not her biological father aged 'four or five' as she looked so different to her sisters. Having then known she was not biologically related to her dad, Trisha was desperate to find out the identity of her real father - however her mother, Agnes Fortune, a Windrush nurse from Dominica, took the secret to her grave in 2004. Trisha has since launched a fruitless hunt for her father and on Thursday's show, she spoke to Piers about the agony of the hunt and her battle with identity. Pained: Trisha Goddard has voiced her anger towards her late mother amid her battle to find the identity of her biological father Trisha has always been candid about her family and revealed that growing up, she was initially under the impression that her mother's husband, a white British man from Norfolk, was her father, before being struck by the news at a young age. Due to the fact her skin was significantly darker than that of her three sisters, yet her mother did not ever tell Trisha the identity of her father. After her death, her father told Trisha's third husband Peter the truth and revealed he did not know till Trisha was three months old. Speaking to Piers, she said: 'I felt very angry towards Mum. She could have told me. And there were excuses like 'I wasn't ready, I wasn't stable, then I was in the public eye' and what have you. But I don't think I would have judged her. Knowing now: The TV host, 63, spoke candidly about her family arrangement on Piers Morgan's Life Stories and revealed that she realised the man she called dad was not her biological father aged 'four or five' as she looked so different to her sisters Candid: Trisha has since launched a fruitless hunt for her father and on Thursday's show, she spoke to Piers about the agony of the hunt and her battle with identity 'But it made a huge difference growing up. I mean, you know, something's different.' Trisha detailed how she discovered her dad was not her biological father, as she revealed she noted how she looked different to her sisters in 'every way'. She said: 'From what I liked and what I did. I remember walking around holding my dad's hand, singing - there was a hit called 'I Want to Be Bobby's Girl'.. 'I used to walk around singing 'I want to be Daddy's Girl'. I mean, I idolised my dad and I think as I grew older, I don't know what was going on between my parents, but I could always sense it.' Changing: Trisha detailed how she discovered her dad was not her biological father, as she revealed she noted how she looked different to her sisters in 'every way' 'I remember when Mum was dying, she died at home and Dad - he is still Dad to me - nursed her. And we left and I took the kids up the road to, they must have been 14 and 10 up the road for snack or something. 'And they were looking at each other and looking at me in like, 'shall we tell her?' And I said, 'tell me what?'. '[They said] "Oh, Mummy, we went up to Nanny's bedroom and we got Grandpa's hairbrush and we got some of this hair for you so you can do a DNA test"... So close: Trisha felt she was getting a step closer to discovering the identification of her father, when a friend of her mother told Trisha her mum had a fling with a member of 'the West Indian Club', which she tried to hunt down 'And I thought, my god my kids have even picked up on it. I don't remember discussing it with them. But it was always an issue. It affected me dreadfully in my life. I can't tell you how much it affected me. Trisha felt she was getting a step closer to discovering the identification of her father, when a friend of her mother told Trisha her mum had a fling with a member of 'the West Indian Club', which she tried to hunt down. She said: 'I've tried to track down that West Indian club. I have looked through the ship's logs and what have you. But I'd like to know for my health... 'Like where my cancer comes from, I've got health things, like my eyes. I remember saying to Dad, I look just like mum. And he said, no, you don't.' Heartache: In 2014, Trisha wrote in The Guardian about her struggle, saying: 'My dad told my husband, Peter, the truth about my background, that Dad was led to believe I was his daughter, and didn't know until my mother admitted that another man was my dad' In 2014, Trisha wrote in The Guardian about her struggle, saying: 'My dad told my husband, Peter, the truth about my background, that Dad was led to believe I was his daughter, and didn't know until my mother admitted that another man was my dad... 'This was when I was about three months old. I think he was too scared to tell me himself. I've since had a heritage DNA test, which shows I am also 9% Asian, which implies that my biological father was West Indian too.' Prior to her appearance on Life Stories, Trisha spoke on Loose Women about her discovery that her first husband Australian politician Robert Nestdale, had AIDs and her fear that she too had contracted the disease and could have passed it to her newborn daughter. She detailed: 'We were divorced and I was in another relationship and had a baby. I knew my ex-husband had cancer, I'd hear through the grapevine and rang him up and commiserated with him about it, and then I had Billie... Heartache: Prior to her appearance on Life Stories, Trisha spoke on Loose Women about her discovery that her ex-husband had AIDs and her fear that she too had contracted the disease and could have passed it to her newborn daughter 'A mutual friend called me and said he'd passed away. I went to the funeral, it was sad but I wasn't shocked as he'd become increasingly unwell. One of his colleagues told me it wasn't cancer, he had died of AIDs and of course I'd just given birth... 'This is 1989 so you have to put your head back in those days when information was patchy about it, but as a journalist I'd covered the babies in the orphanages... 'I can't really put myself back in those days. This guy, John Dowd arranged for me and my newborn baby to go straight to hospital in Sydney, and have an AIDs test. A doctor came, and in those days they were dressed in full PPE... Opening up: She detailed: 'We were divorced and I was in another relationship and had a baby. I knew my ex-husband had cancer, I'd hear through the grapevine and rang him up and commiserated with him about it, and then I had Billie' 'I remember her saying 'we're going to take blood.' I said 'you don't have to take blood from my baby do you?' she said they did. I just remember her crying and wanting to breast-feed her.[I waited three weeks for the results]... 'I didn't even tell my aprents back in England, I don't know how they gotthrough, I can't really remember, I just had to not think... 'I would have gone mad, and when I got the result and they phoned and said they were HIV-free. I phone John and told him and he broke down crying and that's when it hit me.' Piers Morgan's Life Stories airs on ITV on Thursday at 9pm All Chris Rice wants to do is protect himself and his family, especially his 6-year-old son CJ, who is in remission from leukemia, from COVID-19. While the Weston father of three knows his young son is at a lower risk from the virus as a child, hes deeply concerned about its potential future effects on CJs health. Its a tough thing not to know what it will do down the line to somebody with a comorbidity, Rice said. He knows more testing has to be done before his son can get the vaccine but wants his wife and himself to be covered for him. With Gov. Ned Lamonts new rollout plan, Rices wife, a teacher, will be eligible March 1, which Rice said is a great step and something positive. But the 44-year-old Rice still has to wait until April 12. On Monday afternoon, Lamont diverged from national recommendations and announced that eligibility for vaccination would be staggered based on age, rather than based on essential front-line workers or comorbidity status. I just dont think its fair, Rice said. Hes already sent emails to U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, and and state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, and has encouraged others to do the same. Ive been trying to promote people to do that, to put a little pressure on this, because I dont think its right. Youre taking an easier way out than taking the data. Up to this point, Rice said he thought Lamonts plan had been a good one. I think its kind of veered off now. Mostly, he doesnt understand the governors decision to skip over those with comorbidities who might not fall into the first few age brackets, and pointed to data from FAIR Health that showed 83.3 percent of deaths were people with comorbidities while just 16.7 percent did not. Its almost like a no-brainer, Rice said of including this population. However, it is also true that comorbidities are shown to increase with age, something the governor pointed out when he announced the change. In a tweet, Lamont writes that 96 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the state were those over age 55. Courtesy of Chris Rice / But Rice was also concerned about another aspect of the age-based rollout: actual desire to get the vaccine. Hes in a Facebook group, New York / Connecticut Vaccine Hunters, that has been helping crowdsource information about where and how to get an excess dose, as well as aiding older eligible residents in confirming their appointments. He has seen how desperate people with underlying health conditions are to get the vaccine as fast as they can, but also said there are still appointments available. You wonder how many of these age groups are actually going to go get it when you have people with comorbidities who are going to run to get these vaccines, he said. I would think you want to give it to people who want it. At the end of the day, Rice is just worried about lingering effects from the virus both for CJ and the rest of his family. Hes know several people with severe reactions. Rices wifes uncle, a mailman in New York, was on a ventilator for four months, and hasnt been home in almost a year while he continues to recover. He had one comorbidity and was just 64, Rice said. Another family member suffers from kidney damage after a bout with COVID-19. Rice has asthma and was pre-diabetic at the start of the pandemic. His doctor told him those conditions put him at higher risk. So for a year, hes worked hard to lose weight 40 lbs. so far and get healthy so he can mitigate his risk and be there for his wife and kids. CJ goes for an echocardiogram next month to check on his heart post-chemotherapy. Rice said he thinks about the news hes heard about heart inflammation linked to the virus and worries. Its the unknown, he said. They have no idea what its going to do. Still, April 12 is not that far away, and while he waits, Rice is going to continue helping older people find appointments through the Vaccine Hunter group. But he doesnt think the governors surprising decision was the right one. In a text after being interviewed, he asked: How much does this affect the mental anguish of people and families of people who were told they were going to be next in line? Education is all about learning. Not just English and Maths, Science or History. From Primary One through to final year at university, it is about learning life skills too. Forming social bonds. Feeling valued. Finding the right path through life, wherever those futures may lead. But there is one major thing we have definitely been taught all over again, even if we all knew it before. Prior to Covid, there had been little investment in those futures. Head teachers told how parents had been donating toilet rolls, pens and pencils. Fewer teachers, bigger classes, stressed teachers. Northern Ireland students have always punched above their weight when it comes to academic achievement. It is hard to keep those punches flowing when hands are tied behind backs. Just imagine how good things might be without the decades of cutbacks. That schools have still managed to produce wonderful success rates for pupils across all walks of life is an achievement in itself. But the creaks in the system have been ravaged by Covid. Seven months, going on eight, of remote learning for most pupils is a long time in the life of a pupil. Every school year sees a crucial development, both academically and socially. To have taken that away from them, through no fault of their own, has left many struggling. Add to that the digital divide between the have and the have nots and the concerns over home schooling, the chaos over A-level grades last August, university life disrupted, the late decisions from the Department of Education, the on-off, on-off confusion over transfer tests, the further cancellation of last summers exams and there is a lot to recover from. And remember, education was at a pretty low point to begin with when Covid struck a year ago. As president of the National Association of Head Teachers, Dr Graham Gault was there at the start of Covid. He is still standing now, despite the twists and turns. Back in March 2020 our school leaders, on the arrival of Covid, were just coming out of a period of industrial disagreement over issues of workload excessive, unreasonable, relentless workload, he said. When Covid arrived it was extremely difficult for everybody. Everything was fast moving, a very, very complicated time. All of the support services for our schools social services, behavioural support, family respite, even the Education Authoritys support services disappeared. It was our school principals who were left there trying to manage circumstances for children of our key workers and online learning at home, with varying degrees of capacity in terms of resourcing, support for vulnerable and disadvantaged children having disappeared. Then we managed to crawl our way through to summer time. We dealt with all of the changing guidance issues. Was it going to be full classes, half classes, how was social distancing going to be managed? We were trying to get ourselves resourced with PPE and all of the rest. There was no breathing space for school principals at all, Dr Gault recalled. And then September arrived and school restarted. Its very complex running a school at the best of times, but its extremely demanding currently, he said. The workload has been immense. Nothing sort of immense. According to Dr Gault, keeping schools functioning has taken evenings and weekends. He is worried about the burden placed on teachers school principals and vice-principals. There is a threshold of what we can actually carry and our school principals are simply at the end of what they can deliver, he added. A tentative move back into classrooms is planned on March 8 with P1 to P3 pupils. The Minister would like things to move more quickly. What happens after that is in the hands of Covid. But academics have already warned that there needs to be a major overhaul of how education is run in Northern Ireland. At Ulster Universitys Unesco Education Centre, they have called for a complete reform of the education system after a report concluded that the current system is unsustainable. It said the influence of the church and politics had created a confused, bloated and ultimately costly system that is no longer fit for purpose without ambitious and radical reform. The report said the system has been left divided, splintered and overly expensive and as a result has become confusing and socially divisive. It is a challenge to the Department of Education which, in trying to streamline the system over the past 20 years, has managed to build a complex, bloated and ultimately highly expensive system which tries to keep all parts of society in control of their own interests, but which isnt actually in the interests of those who matter most, the children. Change, though, is promised. A spokesperson for the department said: The forthcoming Independent Review of Education is expected to consider a range of issues with a focus on improving the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of our education system. The Terms of Reference for the Review explains that it will include consideration of system level design, delivery and administration. But what of the pupils themselves? The NI Youth Forum addressed Stormonts Executive Committee last week. Students are raising their voices. We hear terms like anxious and annoyed and frustrated as being the key words that young people are feeling if that isnt a call to action by an Executive and political representatives then I dont know what we are here to do, Committee chair Colin McGrath said after the meeting. Weve been here before. Education cannot afford to have to go back again in a few years time. Dr. Marc Lazare The world of dentistry is constantly changing, and thanks to skilled dental professionals like Dr. Marc Lazare, patients can find out what they need to know about the latest and greatest dental care techniques from the comfort of their own home. In addition to running his busy New York City dentistry practice, Dr. Lazare was recently featured as a guest on the Dental Digest podcast to discuss how Biomimetic Dentistry can reduce the need for invasive dental work like root canals, crowns, and extractions. Dr. Lazare believes that the most successful dentistry consists of procedures that are the least invasive. Additionally, Biomimetic Dentistry helps to not only save tooth structure but also saves the patient time and money in the process. Dental Digest is a podcast whose mission is to help dentists stay at the forefront of their profession. Dr. Lazares innovative research in the practice of Biomimetic Dentistry, which he discusses on the latest episode of the podcast, is a mind-blowing paradigm shift in which preventative and conservative dentistry is practiced. He does not just fill teeth, he reconstructs them. If a tooth becomes structurally compromised, he reinforces the remaining tooth structure with a polyethylene fibered mesh to disperse the forces within the tooth when chewing. He layers the esthetic biocompatible bonding materials in a way that minimizes the stresses between the restoration and the tooth structure. This helps to prevent developing cracks that could lead to fractures and protects the margins from breaking down in order to seal out bacteria. The materials that he uses mimics the strength of enamel and the elasticity of dentin (the tooth structure beneath the enamel) and are layered to enhance the bond strength of the material to the tooth, minimize the stresses that cause a restoration to break down, and blend in the natural shades and characteristic of the original tooth structure to make a final restoration that is difficult to find, even when blown up in high definition on a big screen. Dr. Lazare is very proud to be an instructor of smile transformation and dental aesthetics along with being at the forefront of the Biomimetic dental movement. In 2014 he coined the phrase and published an article titled The Biomimetic Smile Makeover, which demonstrated just how one can conserve and strengthen tooth structure while transforming a smile. Dr. Lazare has been a member of the clinical faculty at the NYU College of Dentistry and has been on the teaching staff at North Shore University Hospital since 1998, where he had previously graduated as Chief Resident. Dr. Lazare holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a D.D.S. degree from New York University College of Dentistry. Dr. Lazare regularly attends dental education courses to expand his knowledge and stay current with the rapid innovations in his field. Dr. Lazare earned the designation Master of the Academy of General Dentistry (MAGD), a title earned by less than 1% of dentists in the United States. He also is a Fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry, a Fellow in the International Academy for Dental-Facial Esthetics, and a Fellow in the Academy of Biomimetic Dentistry. Dr. Lazare is also a Certified Instructor in the principles and discipline of Biomimetic Dentistry and has been trained at the ADC with the Biomimetic Mastermind group in Sardinia. Dr. Lazare is also the founder of the Lazare Institute for Biomimetics & Smile Design hosting lecturers from around the world. Dr. Lazare is a world-renowned dentist who has also been a featured author in numerous peer-reviewed dental journals including The Biomimetic Smile Makeover Conserving and strengthening tooth structure while transforming a smile. He lectures internationally on Biomimetic Dentistry and Smile Design. He is also the author of two acclaimed published books, including his latest titled: Dr. Lazares - The Patients Guide to Biomimetic Dentistry and Smile Design. Dr. Lazare maintains a Cosmetic and Biomimetic dental practice in New York City and is currently the President of the Academy of Biomimetic Dentistry and a longtime member of its Executive Board. DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Defibrillator Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global defibrillator market size is expected to reach USD 22.2 billion by 2028. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2021 to 2028. Factors contributing to the growth of this market include supportive legislative reforms, rising incidences of sudden cardiac arrests in the region, presence of integrated technology, and the rising awareness for cardiac conditions. Moreover, the COVID 19 pandemic further accentuated the need for defibrillators as many elderly patients suffering from COVID-19, suffered from sudden cardiac arrests, and the device was useful for the resuscitation of such patients. The rising demand for handling sudden cardiac arrests is leading to innovation in implantable as well as external defibrillators. Innovation with regards to implantable devices includes subcutaneous and transvenous devices, that aim to increase the comfort level of patients. Swedish Transport Agency ran a program in 2017 under the test phase, which aimed to deliver AEDs using a drone. This may reduce the delivery time of an AED, increasing the chances of survival with faster treatment. Therefore, the market is anticipated to grow because of technological advancements and product delivery innovations. Major market players are focused on launching technologically advanced products to enhance their presence. For instance, in July 2020, Zoll Medical Corporation launched a new remote view technology feature on its X Series monitor/defibrillator. This enhanced the existing product portfolio. Defibrillator Market Report Highlights The implantable cardioverter defibrillator segment dominated the market in terms of revenue share in 2020 and is projected to witness a CAGR of over 7.2% from 2021 to 2028. Technological advancements by market players are expected to drive segment growth. North America held the largest revenue share in 2020, due to the supportive healthcare infrastructure and deeper penetration of the technologically advanced devices. held the largest revenue share in 2020, due to the supportive healthcare infrastructure and deeper penetration of the technologically advanced devices. The industry participants are focusing on investing in acquisitions, collaborations, product launches, and partnerships to gain a competitive edge. The hospital segment held the largest revenue share of more than 91.0% in 2020 owing to the high patient footfall for treatment of their cardiovascular ailments. In Asia Pacific , the market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of around 8.1% owing to the presence of emerging economies such as China and India and increasing healthcare expenditure. , the market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of around 8.1% owing to the presence of emerging economies such as and and increasing healthcare expenditure. In January 2020 , Medtronic received the CE mark for its Crome and Cobalt portfolio of defibrillators. This significantly enhanced the company's cardiac solutions offerings and allowed it to commercialize the products in the market. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope 1.1 Market Segmentation and Scope 1.2 Research Methodology 1.3 Information Procurement 1.4 Information Or Data Analysis 1.5 Market Formulation and Validation 1.6 Model Details 1.7 List of Secondary Sources 1.8 Report Objectives Chapter 2 Executive Summary 2.1 Defibrillators Market Outlook, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 2.2 Market Snapshot Chapter 3 Global Defibrillators Market Variables, Trends & Scope 3.1 Market Lineage Outlook 3.1.1 Parent Market Outlook 3.1.2 Ancillary Market Outlook 3.2 Penetration & Growth Prospective Mapping 3.3 Reimbursement Scenario 3.4 Market Driver Analysis 3.4.1 Legislative Reforms 3.4.2 Presence of Integrated Technology 3.4.3 Increasing Incidences of SCA in Younger Population 3.4.4 Rising Awareness for Cardiac Conditions 3.5 Market Restraint Analysis 3.5.1 Stringent Regulatory Framework 3.5.2 Price Sensitive Market 3.6 Global Defibrillators Market-SWOT Analysis, by Factor (Political & legal, Economic and Technological) 3.7 Industry Analysis-Porter's Chapter 4 Defibrillators Market: Competitive Analysis 4.1 Competitive Insights 4.1.1 Heat Map Analysis 4.2 Covid 19 Impact 4.2.1 Opportunity Analysis 4.3 List Of Private/Emerging Players Chapter 5 Global Defibrillators Market: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis 5.1 Global Defibrillators Market: Product Movement Analysis 5.2 Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator 5.2.1 Global implanTable cardioverte defibrillator market Estimates and Forecasts, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.2.2. S-ICD 5.2.3 T-ICD 5.2.3.1 Global T-ICD Market Estimates and Forecasts, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.2.3.2 CRT-D 5.2.3.3 Single Chamber 5.2.3.4 Dual Chamber 5.3 External Defibrillator 5.3.1 Global External Defibrillator Market Estimates and Forecasts, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.3.2 Manual ED 5.3.3 Automated ED 5.3.4 Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator Chapter 6 Global Defibrillators Market: End-use Estimates & Trend Analysis 6.1 Global Defibrillators Market: End-use Movement Analysis 6.2 Hospital 6.2.1 Global hospital market estimates and forecasts in healthcare providers segment, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 6.3 Prehospital 6.4 Public Access Market 6.5 Alternate Care Market 6.6 Home Healthcare Chapter 7 Global Defibrillators Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis, By Product and End-use 7.1 Global Defibrillators Market: Regional Movement Analysis Chapter 8 Company Profiles 8.1 Company Overview 8.2 Financial Performance 8.3 Product Benchmarking 8.4 Strategic Initiatives Medtronic Abbott Boston Scientific Corporation Stryker Koninklijke Philips N.V. Zoll Medical Corporation Biotronik, Inc. Nihon Kohden Corporation Progetti Srl Schiller MS Westfalia GmbH AMI Italia Axion Ltd Bexen Cardio For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/egp4j4 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 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. He prohibited his deputies from seeking the death penalty, prosecuting juveniles as adults, attending parole hearings or seeking enhancements that increase a defendants prison term. The union representing those deputies sued, alleging that Gascon was ordering them to violate criminal laws, and won an initial judgement. What really blew up the conflict politically was support from the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA) for the union position. In its supporting brief, the District Attorneys said Gascons orders meant that the voices of victims fall silent and the might of the state has failed its most vulnerable. This month, Gascon resigned from the organization with a two-page letter that he posted on Twitter, accusing the association of being racially insensitive, closed-minded about criminal justice reform and even corrupt. CDAA continues to be a member organization solely for those willing to toe the tough on crime line, Gascon wrote. For the rest of us, it is a place that fails to support us, our communities, or the pursuit of justice. SkyLake Investment CEO Chin Dae-je, left, stands next to People Power Party's Seoul mayoral contender Na Kyung-won during her announcement of election pledges at Nuritkum Square in Seoul, Feb. 15. Joint press corps By Park Jae-hyuk SkyLake Investment, a domestic private equity firm (PEF) specializing in investments in tech companies, is raising concern among capital market insiders here, after its CEO Chin Dae-je joined the camp of a contender to be the main opposition party's Seoul mayoral candidate. Because he is still serving as the key decision-maker for his company's management and investments, industry officials warned SkyLake of possible setbacks in raising additional funds especially from local institutional investors under the supervision of the government. The chief executive, known for his experience as a former minister of information and communication and ex-Samsung Electronics CEO, will work as an adviser for Na Kyung-won, a former four-term lawmaker of the People Power Party (PPP). "I will help Na raise the average annual income of Seoul citizens to $60,000 through digital transformation," Chin said during Na's visit to Sangam Digital Media City, Feb. 15, indicating he would participate in the city government if she is selected to run in and wins the by-election. This came as a surprise to market participants because Chin had been categorized as an ally of the ruling party, serving as a minister during the 2003-08 Roh Moo-hyun administration. Chin also ran in the election for Gyeonggi Province governor in 2006 as a candidate of the Yeollin Uri Party, which changed its name to the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). He worked as an IT adviser in 2019 for the Seoul Innovative Growth Committee established by former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who also belonged to the ruling DPK. In the United States and other countries with developed capital markets, it is not difficult to see executives of PEFs participating in politics. Blackstone Group Chairman Stephen Schwarzman is known as former U.S. President Donald Trump's unofficial economic adviser and Wall Street's top donor to Republican super PACs. Market insiders, however, point out that things are different in Korea, expressing concern over possible attacks on SkyLake from the ruling party and progressive civic groups that have been flexing their muscles against domestic PEFs recently. DPK spokeswoman Kang Sun-woo has already condemned Chin, alleging he attempted a few months ago to run for the Seoul mayoral by-election as the ruling party's candidate. "As the door shut there, it seems that he moved swiftly to find another open door," she said. According to industry sources, major investors in funds managed by SkyLake include the National Pension Service, Korea Development Bank and the Korea Teachers' Credit Union, all of which are under the supervision of the government, so they might be forced to stop investing in the company over any conflicts it has with the Moon administration. "The CEO can be a potential risk to the PEF and its portfolio of companies," an industry source said on condition of anonymity. Chin said he did not talk with other company executives before joining Na's camp. He is also CEO of Solus Advanced Materials, after SkyLake took over the copper foil company from Doosan Group last year. SkyLake is also trying to divest from Outback Steakhouse's Korean operation it bought in 2016, after hiring Credit Suisse as the underwriter. The PEF raised its 11th blind-pool fund worth 750 billion won ($676 million) last year. Its amount of assets under management is around 2 trillion won. John Bennett, 34, of Potomac appeared via video before Judge Adam Dill on Wednesday at the Champaign County Courthouse to be arraigned for allegedly shooting at deputies during a chase early Monday but would not look at the judge or answer questions. Kate Garraway has been showing no signs of slowing down as she continues to juggle her broadcasting career and dealing with her husband Derek Draper's ongoing coronavirus battle. The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, was snapped out in London on Thursday, turning heads in a blue dress. The figure-hugging garment featured a crimped detailing and puffed sleeves, with a varied pattern of different blue hues rounding off the design. A vision in blue: Kate Garraway has been showing no signs of slowing down as she continues to juggle her broadcasting career and dealing with her husband Derek Draper's ongoing coronavirus battle She added mustard yellow suede boots to the look and carried a pale pink coat. Kate added a brown purse to the ensemble and wore her blonde locks loosely around her shoulders. She finished things off with a black and pink face mask, which she put on as she headed to her waiting taxi. The mother-of-two returned to her hosting job on Smooth Radio in September 2020 and told fans of her show: 'Things are still hugely challenging and a long way from being normal. Busy: The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, was snapped out in London on Thursday, turning heads in a blue dress Stunning: The figure-hugging garment featured a crimped detailing and puffed sleeves, with a varied pattern of different blue hues rounding off the design 'But I'd like to think that this will give Derek yet another opportunity to hear my voice as well as many of the songs we both love.' Kate has been unable to see her ailing husband, 53, since Christmas as he continues to recover from coronavirus. The doting mother has been at her partner's side constantly since he was first hospitalised with the potentially deadly virus in March 2020. She revealed on Good Morning Britain that her ITV employers had given her leave after she found herself struggling to cope. Kate said: 'I haven't been able to see him [Derek], I haven't seen him since Christmas. He's back in a situation now looking at strangers in masks. Details: She added mustard yellow suede boots to the look and carried a pale pink coat. Kate added a brown purse to the ensemble and wore her blonde locks loosely around her shoulders She's off: She finished things off with a black and pink face mask, which she put on as she headed to her waiting taxi 'I think that's a situation for everybody whose got someone they love in hospital at the moment it's not unique to him.' The mother-of-two explained she decided to take some time off from GMB after 'not feeling well' following a 'long year'. Kate said: 'I've taken some time off; very kindly ITV have given me some time off, I hadn't been feeling very well. 'I think it might have been one of those things where chickens had come home to roost after a long year that we've all had, haven't we? Time apart: Kate has been unable to see her ailing husband Derek Draper, 53, since Christmas as he continues to recover from coronavirus (pictured in December 2019) 'I took some holiday leave, at home because I know holidays are controversial, literally within the four walls of my home. I had a lot of sleep and a bit of medicine and feeling much better.' Kate admitted she is finding her current situation 'really tough' because it feels like there is 'no end in sight'. She explained: 'It's tough, it's also the same for people in care homes. When you're someone like him who is dealing with unconsciousness problems and trying to emerge, I can't help but fear that it's not helpful. 'There is no end in sight to that and that's really tough.' In September, Derek passed the grim milestone of becoming the longest patient battling coronavirus in hospital in the UK, with doctors telling Kate that Derek's infection was the 'highest they had seen in a patient who had lived'. Sad: Reflecting on her last hospital visit with their two children Darcey, 14 and William, 11, (pictured in February 2019), Kate admitted the family reunion was 'heightened with emotion' Reflecting on her last hospital visit with their two children Darcey, 14 and William, 11 in December, she admitted the family reunion was 'heightened with emotion' because they saw how Derek had been ravaged by the virus. 'It was very heightened with emotion, because he's very changed,' she told viewers. 'So all the routines that we'd normally do, it was one of those moments that it was so wonderful but also it amplified how sad everything was. 'And how different it is. But it was still fantastic, and we're very grateful to have had that opportunity.' While Derek no longer has coronavirus, the disease has left him suffering from multiple health conditions including diabetes and holes in his heart and lungs. During one of her darkest moments Kate was told her husband may 'never come out of a coma' amid his ongoing battle. Derek has regained minimal consciousness from his medically induced coma and while he has not been speaking, he heartbreakingly mouthed the word 'pain' in October last year. Kate noted that returning to work on GMB and hosting Smooth Radio has provided a welcome distraction amid her personal crisis. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions In the midst of a polio epidemic in 1959, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a law requiring vaccinations for all children attending school. The Assembly carved out a religious exemption as a safeguard to protect religious beliefs, a worthy commitment to the principle of separation of church and state upon which our nation was founded. Sadly, the religious exemption has been misused ever since never more so than in recent years. In 2003-04, the state counted 316 students claiming the religious exemption. As of 2019, there were four times as many. This is the result neither of some increase in religiosity among Connecticut residents nor of faith groups issuing more restrictive guidelines. It is due simply to parents exploiting the religious exemption system for their own anti-vaccination purposes. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly has once again taken up this issue with the aim of eliminating the religious exemption for vaccinations. Never has this issue been of more immediate and dire importance. I am neither a scientist nor a medical professional; I can offer no personal expertise on the effectiveness or dangers of vaccines. But as a rabbi, I can say this: Recognized authorities across the Jewish religious spectrum have plainly declared that there is no basis at all in Judaism for any religious exemption for vaccination. Moreover, there a clear Jewish religious obligation to protect the health of our own children and to protect others through vaccination. All three major Jewish religious denominations in the United States have made unequivocal statements supporting mandatory vaccinations. The Orthodox Union, the largest Orthodox Jewish congregational organization in the United States, and the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest organization of Orthodox rabbis in North America, have made it clear that vaccinations are not only permitted by Orthodox Jewish law, they are obligatory. The Conservative Movements Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has ruled that timely vaccinations are a basic and necessary requirement for appropriate pediatric care. Rabbi Joseph Prouser of the CJLS argues that unless medically contraindicated for specific children, in extraordinary and compelling cases, parents have an unambiguous religious obligation to have their children immunized against infectious disease. The ruling concludes, Failure to immunize children against vaccine-preventable disease is a serious, compound violation of Jewish Law: there is no basis in [Jewish law] to support a parents request for a religious exemption from state-mandated immunizations. Reform Judaism, too, holds that vaccination is obligatory. The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the professional organization of Reform Rabbis, issued a ruling on Compulsory Immunization in 1999. It states, Jewish tradition would define immunization as part of the mitzvah of healing and recognize it as a required measure, since we are not entitled to endanger ourselves or the children for whom we are responsible by refusing proven medical treatment. The ruling clearly endorses programs of compulsory immunization in our communities, with exemptions granted only to those individuals whose medical conditions place them at particular risk of injury or untoward side effects. Aside from those individual cases, there are no valid Jewish religious grounds to support the refusal to immunize as a general principle. With these rulings in mind, it is especially disheartening to see that in recent years some Jews have cited a so-called religious exemption to evade their responsibility to vaccinate. Even before the current pandemic, we recently witnessed diseases once considered eradicated returning to cause harm to children and families when vaccinations against them are not vigilantly performed. Opting out of vaccination puts our own children and other children at risk, in clear violation of Jewish tradition. Rabbis across Connecticut have come together to urge legislators to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccination. We sincerely wish good health upon all children in our state, and fully support the General Assemblys efforts in that direction. Rabbi Michael S. Friedman serves as senior rabbi at Temple Israel of Westport. Hackers have breached the biomedical systems of an Oxford University laboratory doing vital research into Covid. Oxford confirmed its Division of Structural Biology, known as Strubi, had been hit by a cyber attack but stressed that its clinical studies had not been compromised. GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been alerted and will assist with an investigation. Strubi is not behind the successful Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine - created by the university's Jenner Institute - but is a world-leading laboratory carrying out research on Covid cells. Experts mooted the possibility hackers were trying to harvest valuable data about the vaccine. Oxford confirmed its Division of Structural Biology, known as Strubi, had been hit by a cyber attack but stressed that its clinical studies had not been compromised (pictured) An Oxford University spokesperson said: 'We have identified and contained the problem and are now investigating further. 'There has been no impact on any clinical research, as this is not conducted in the affected area. 'As is standard with such incidents, we have notified the National Cyber Security Centre and are working with them.' Screenshots of the cyber breach seen by Forbes reportedly show interfaces that can control the pressure gauges on lab equipment used prepare biochemical samples. Time stamps on the monitors show show the infiltration took place on February 13 and 14. Any possible leads on the identity of the hackers or what their aim was has not been disclosed. Strubi is not behind the successful Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (pictured) - created by the university's Jenner Institute - but is a world-leading laboratory carrying out research on Covid cells Professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at Surrey University, said 'one might speculate that it was someone searching for data about the virus or the vaccine.' Last year Interpol warned that criminal gangs would likely try to infiltrate institutions to extract data about the vaccine. An NCSC spokesperson said: 'We are aware of an incident affecting Oxford University and are working to fully understand its impact. 'The university has confirmed that there has been no impact on any clinical research.' While not directly involved in creating the Oxford vaccine, Strubi has been conducting research on the virus. It counts among its scientists Professor Sir Dave Stuart, who was knighted in the New Year's Honours list for his work on coronavirus. Tampa, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Umbra Applied Technologies Group, Inc (OTC Pink: UATG) (UAT Group) announced today that it has initiated the acquisition of the Denver, Colorado based manufacturer of water treatment components and systems company H2O Processing, Inc. Chief Executive Officer, Alex Umbra commented, "H2O represents an evolution in water treatment technology commensurate with the growing environmental demands of modern times. What Stan and his team at H2O have developed is exceptionally dynamic and will result in a paradigm shift within the segment. This addition to our suite of companies supports our commitment to building value within our subsidiary structure and delivering improved shareholder value." H2O Processing is a manufacturing, research and engineering company, that has been operating within the water treatment space for 30 years in varying capacities. With an expanding portfolio of intellectual property, the H2O team has just recently begun its expansion into a full-provider and manufacturer of mobile on-site and fixed commercial water treatment platforms. The company's mobile water treatment platform concluded field testing and certification within the past five years and has been awarded the only state-wide permit in all 77 counties within Oklahoma, to treat deleterious water to non-deleterious water. The mobile platforms are fully automated and can be managed remotely by either H2O Processing from their headquarters in Denver or managed by the customers onsite team. The mobile platform is ready for commercial production and introduction into the market. H2O Processing CEO stated, "We are aware of more than 2 trillion gallons of water that need to be treated in the United States daily. This is a tremendous market that will require new water treatment equipment on a large scale. We want to be in a position to supply this equipment with our associate company Processing Engineering, Inc so that we can further enhance our relationship with UAT Group. This path forward will allow H2O the capability of meeting the future demands as a "green" company." For more information about H2O Processing go here: https://h2otechnologiesinc.com/ About Umbra Applied Technologies Group, Inc. The firm is located in Tampa Florida and focuses on advanced technologies across many disciplines. UAT Group is a holding company with interests in both public and private companies during the early stages of development as well as growth stages of companies with a synergistic business model to UAT Group subsidiaries. For more information visit www.uatgroup.com Investor and Media Contact: UAT Group at info@uatgroup.com. NEITHER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. Forward-Looking Information This news release may include "forward-looking statements" including forecasts, estimates, expectations, and objectives for future operations including but not limited to its ability to conclude a business combination with a third party, sale of assets, return of capital or initial public offering and a secondary listing on the OTC as a result of aforementioned and its ability to fund the exploration of its assets through the raising of equity or debt capital or through funding by a joint venture partner that are subject to a number of assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Umbra Applied Technologies Group including but not limited to capital markets and securities risks and continued development success on technology. There can be and are no actual or implied guarantees that any of the above activities will be completed or completed on terms acceptable to the Company and its shareholders or approved by any regulatory authority having jurisdiction. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Umbra Applied Technologies Group does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required by applicable law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75425 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The Burkinabe army announced on Thursday that it had killed at least 11 suspected terrorists and captured another in combined operations from Tuesday to Wednesday in the Sahel province of Oudalan Dundalk man Joseph Keenan is organising 'Paddy's Day Drive - Round 2' to bring some Irish spirit while raising funds for charity. The event last year-which was organised in just two hours - was a great success with 200 cars adorned with flags, scarves and jerseys gathering for a social distanced parade in town. The event raised 7,000 for Aoibheann's Pink Tie, a charity which supports children and their families going through cancer treatment as well as raising funds for a local charity The Maria Goretti foundation that is committed to supporting children with disabilities. And with Covid restrictions preventing a St Patrick's Day parade from taking place again year Joseph is organinsing 'Paddy's Day Drive - Round 2' to bring some joy to the community along with fundraising for charity. Joseph said: "The aim is not only to raise much needed funds but also to get kids out of the house, get a bit of joy into everyone's day and have some fun. "I think I speak for everyone that attended the event last year we all went home very happy that evening. "This year will be a struggle with restrictions, but we promise to do everything we can to overcome whatever is thrown our way in a safe manner." "Please everyone I would ask if yous can donate at all, 1/5/20/200 whatever you can afford and get as much funds raised for a great cause while also ensuring what would be a great days crack with you and your family. " To donate log on to the https://www.gofundme.com/f/paddys-day-drive-round-2 Officials from UMass Memorial Health Care and community leaders from Worcester are poised to answer questions about health equity and the COVID-19 vaccine during a forum Thursday morning. The virtual forum, moderated by MassLive reporter Melissa Hanson, is being live-streamed from the UMass Memorial Facebook page at 11 a.m. Anyone who wants to ask a question can submit one in the comment section of the Facebook live video. Health Equity Open Forum II WATCH LIVE: Health Equity Open Forum II Posted by UMass Memorial Health Care on Thursday, February 25, 2021 The forum panelists are: Dr. Eric Dickson, the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, Dr. Mark Johnson, the chair of UMass Memorial Medical Centers department of neurological surgery, Maggie Rodriguez, a community health worker and vaccine navigator at UMass Memorial Health Care and Stacey Luster, an assistant vice president at Worcester State University and the co-founder of Black Families Together. Massachusetts vaccination program and vaccine availability in the Central Massachusetts region, as well as health equity, will be discussed during the panel. Leaders will provide information on vaccination efforts, including a mobile vaccination program from UMass Memorial that brings doses directly to older residents. Latino and Black residents have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. In Worcester County, Latino residents have represented more than a third of all COVID-19 cases while being only 13% of the population. Panelists will discuss how to improve access to the vaccine. Related Content: He's been busy directing his movie, Journal For Jordan - and on Wednesday, Denzel Washington was pictured having an intense moment with a fan. The movie star, 66, was by his car when the fan walked over to him with a sack of photos for him to sign in New York City. The pair engaged in an intense conversation with the actor looking like he was given the fan some pearls of wisdom. What is going on? Denzel Washington had an intense moment with fan who asked him to sign a photo for him on set of his movie Journal For Jordan in NYC on Wednesday He placed his hands on his shoulder and looked deep in his eyes, looking like he was forgetting to keep socially distanced for a second. While Denzel had his mask on, the fan had his pulled down to his chin for the moment as the Hollywood star placed his hands around his face. An onlooker claimed he told the fan to 'say a prayer' but it is not known what they were talking about. A moment: An onlooker claimed he told the fan to 'say a prayer' as he cupped his face in his hands, but it is not known what they were talking about Journal for Jordan is an upcoming American drama film directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan, 34, and Chante Adams, 26. The motion picture is centered around the relationship between First Sergeant Charles Monroe King and journalist Dana Canedy, whose 2008 memoir provides material for the movie. King had kept journals of his deployment in the Iraq War - in which he perished in 2006 - with messages for his son Jordan, who was seven months old at the time his father died. Both Jordan and Washington are producers on the dramatic film, as Jordan said he was 'a sponge right now' working with the Hollywood icon. 'Being directed by the GOAT - Denzel, himself - and being able to work with a very talented cast and actress in Chante Adams, it's something that I've been looking forward to,' he told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. Jordan added, 'We're having a blast and Im getting a masterclass and a crazy education on character development, directing, and producing from Todd Black and Denzel Washington. It's a great thing.' He said the the project offered him a new genre to explore in his career, which is best defined by his work on films such as Black Panther and Creed. 'It's a love story,' he told the outlet. 'I haven't had the opportunity to do an intimate love story before.' The United States announced new sanctions against Nord Stream 2. 18 European companies withdrew from the project. Will Washington be able to bury the Russian-German gas pipeline? Vestnik Kavkaza was looking for the answer to this question with the help of energy expert Stanislav Mitrakhovich Clouds are gathering again over Nord Stream 2. Threats launched from the west coast of the Atlantic scared the Europeans in earnest. On February 23, the US State Department made it clear that the US, if necessary, can take additional measures to stop the laying of a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. "We will continue to observe, evaluate, if there are grounds for additional political responses, we will not hesitate to accept them," said State Department spokesman Ned Price. Long list Possible sanctions would affect the participants of the Nord Stream 2. Price announced a list of 18 European companies that have withdrawn from the project to avoid American restrictions. Among them: insurance companies headquartered in the UK, Swiss Zurich Insurance Group, French Axa Group and German concerns Bilfinger SE and Munich Re Syndicate. It is noteworthy that the information about the withdrawal of European companies from the project we learn from the lips of the Americans, and not from these firms themselves. Russian journalists decided to clarify how the information corresponds to reality. It turned out that Anthony Blinken's press secretary was not lying. Thus, the insurance company Munich Re Syndicate Ltd. confirmed to Interfax the termination of cooperation with the Russian gas pipeline. The data on the Zurich Insurance Group are similar to the truth. Back in January, it was reported that this Swiss company had stopped providing insurance services due to the threat of sanctions from Washington. Apparently, the sanctions frightened not only insurers, but also financiers. The very next day after the statement of the State Department, the German concern Wintershall Dea announced the completion of investments in the gas pipeline. He has already invested 730 million euros, but does not plan further investments. Energoexpert: No need to overestimate the sanctions Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund (NESF), a lecturer at the financial university under the government of the Russian Federation, believes that one should not overestimate the harmfulness of the decisions of European companies. There are companies that have already completed their work. For example, Danish Ramboll. She fulfilled her environmental impact assessment obligations and withdrew from the project because her work ended back in 2016. Wintershall has already contributed its funding. [The completion of her investment] is not of fundamental importance, "he said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza. The exit of European insurers is justified by their fears of being subject to US sanctions in the future, Mitrahovich said: There is a gradual exit of insurance companies that are planning further work with the Americans. They want to remove all risks, play it safe, and once again not be subject to sanctions. It was known for a long time that insurance and certification companies could withdraw from the project . Deja vu The current situation around Nord Stream 2 is somewhat similar to the one that happened at the end of 2019. Then, after Donald Trump approved the defense budget, which contained sanctions against SP-2, the Swiss company Allseas announced the suspension of pipe-laying. Moreover, her decision followed even before the document was signed by the former US president. The new head of the White House, Joseph Biden, has promised to be softer with the Europeans and take into account their interests. But, as you can see, his strategy in relation to the SP-2 is exactly the same. The only difference is that Biden does not confront Europe with a fact and consults with its companies in advance so as not to expose them to harm. Trump's decision has slowed down the laying of the remaining 160 km of the 1200 km pipeline for more than a year. Construction work was completed in Danish waters on December 21, 2019. However, even then Russia announced that it would complete the construction of Nord Stream 2 itself. After obtaining the necessary permission, the Russian pipe-laying vessel Fortuna began construction work on January 24, 2021 and conducted sea trials. The laying of the gas pipeline itself resumed on 6 February. Earlier in December 2020, Fortuna laid 2.6 km. The project is 94% complete. Only 150 km are left until its completion. From the bottom 120 km in the waters of Denmark and 30 km in Germany. Completion of construction work in Danish waters is expected by the end of May, and in Germany by June. The laying speed without taking into account bad weather and technical difficulties per day is approximately 0.4 km. What's next? The day before the State Department's announcement, it became known that the US Treasury had included the pipe-laying vessel Fortuna on another sanctions list under the European Energy Security Protection Act (PEESA). Stanislav Mitrakhovich is sure that these restrictions will not in any way affect the work of the Russian barge, because it "is already on the tough sanctions list." The energy expert doubts that the latest decisions of Washington will bury SP-2: Russia will look for a replacement. These can be companies that agree to take risks and will not work with American companies later, or nominee companies. " Support can also be provided by the German Regional Environmental Fund of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, established in early January. His list of tasks includes "a contribution to the continuation of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline." The decision of the German authorities remains the main factor in the successful implementation of the pipeline under the Baltic Sea. The most important thing is that the Germans are interested in the project. While this is so, the likelihood of completion is high. I believe that this year even one line of the pipeline may be launched. If the Greens won in the autumn elections to the Bundestag, then it would be a different story, added Mitrahovic. Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the US sanctions undermining the principles of "free trade and competition" and an attempt to "subordinate the laws of the market to their own geopolitical interests against the will of sovereign countries." Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that opponents of the construction of the SP-2 want to make Moscow pay for the West's geopolitical project in Ukraine. Shimla, Feb 25 : Padma Shree awardee for his path-breaking research in rabies, Omesh Kumar Bharti, who is a state epidemiologist with the Himachal Pradesh Institute of Health and Family Welfare has now been included in the WHO's panel of experts for strategic plan for control and prevention of snakebite envenoming. Accepting his expertise on snakebite management, a communique by the Department for the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases of the WHO to Bharti on Wednesday said, "Your expertise and knowledge are highly valuable to WHO as it operationalises and rolls out the strategic plan and from time to time, we may request your technical support and assistance for projects." Bharti, 53, told IANS that it is a matter of great honour for him as along with rabies, he had been simultaneously working on snakebite management for long. Part of national consultations on snakebite management, Bharti is Co-Principal Investigator in the Rs 7-crore project sanctioned by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the first ever study to know the snakebite incidence in India. The project involves screening of 12 crore population for snakebite cases in eight states, including Himachal Pradesh. "In a separate study, we are conducting a survey to know the snake species in Himachal Pradesh in association with a team headed by Anita Malhotra, a molecular ecologist and evolutionary geneticist from Bangor University in North Wales in the UK, with requisite permission from the state forest department over last three years," he said. "The larger objective of the study, which involves catching snakes, taking traces of venom and DNA samples before releasing the reptiles in the same habitat, is to see the efficacy of available anti-snake venom in snakebite cases region wise," he added. Bharti's research paper based on lifesaving intervention, wherein snakebite victims were administered anti-snake venom in the 108 emergency ambulance while on way to hospital in Himachal Pradesh was referenced in WHO guidelines on snakebite management in 2016. The intervention had promoted six other states and UTs in the country to follow the pattern. Out of the estimated one lakh deaths due to snakebite across the globe annually, nearly half occur in India. Bharti's need-based research to treat rabid dog bite patients In Himachal Pradesh had brought down the cost of dog bite treatment from Rs 35,000 to Rs 350. His cost, time and lifesaving treatment protocol for rabies prophylaxis was recommended by the WHO in 2018. The revised guidelines of the WHO on rabies prophylaxis referenced Bharti's research work that he had carried out at the Intra Dermal Anti-Rabies Clinic and Research Centre of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Hospital in Shimla. Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung and Thai Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Thani Thongphakdi exchanged views on cooperation between the two countries and international issues on February 24. Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung (Photo: VNA) Dung thanked the Thai government for facilitating flights bringing Vietnamese citizens home, and supporting those who are studying and living in Thailand. He suggested Thailand limit trade barriers, exchange information about export-import regulations and procedures, and further support and closely cooperate with Vietnam in regional and international organisations and forums. Thani congratulated Vietnam on the successful organisation of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and its outstanding performance of the ASEAN Chairmanship 2020. Thailand attaches importance to and has worked to continuously consolidate and strengthen the fine bilateral friendship, the official said. Vietnam has become a model in the COVID-19 combat worldwide, he said, stressing that Thailand will continue its close coordination with Vietnam in fighting the pandemic and reviving supply chains, as well as in the efforts to access safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Thailand also backs initiatives put forth by Vietnam in its capacity as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The two sides agreed to deepening the enhanced strategic partnership between Vietnam and Thailand in an effective manner, increase the exchange of all-level visits, and maintain bilateral cooperation mechanisms. Vietnam and Thailand will work together to organise activities celebrating the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year, sign an action programme implementing the enhanced strategic partnership, and a cooperation agreement between the two foreign ministries for 2021-2025. They have also targeted a balanced trade and set a goal of 20 billion USD in bilateral trade revenue a year in the coming time. The two countries will continue their close collaboration within sub-regional cooperation frameworks, and in building the ASEAN Community, and accelerating the ratification and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. Regarding the East Sea issues, the officials shared the views that ASEAN needs to maintain its solidarity, common voice and centrality, while persistently pursuing agreed principles, and promoting the observance of international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). VNA SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cloudera Foundation has selected five nonprofit organizations as its first round of recipients for the foundation's data-for-social-impact program. "I am excited to introduce the Data for Equality cohort of the Cloudera Foundation's Data4Change Accelerator program," said Claudia Juech, CEO of the foundation. "Each organization is focused on developing, testing, and delivering proof-of concept data experiments that address barriers to survival and wellbeing experienced by marginalized communities. We look forward to collaborating closely with each grantee to help advance their data maturity and, in turn, make real progress toward impact." The five organizations and their projects are: Invisible Institute , a South Side Chicago journalism production company, is expanding its data analysis around gender violence within policing to better understand patterns of abuse faced by Black women, women of color, and trans people. , a South Side Chicago journalism production company, is expanding its data analysis around gender violence within policing to better understand patterns of abuse faced by Black women, women of color, and trans people. "Invisible Institute is in the process of securing all completed Chicago Police misconduct investigations between 2012 - 2015. This will make new modes of inquiry and analysis possible at a moment when national attention is focused on police violence. In particular, these documents will make it possible to better understand the patterns of abuse faced by Black women, women of color and trans people. Invisible Institute's CPDP team, led by Trina Reynolds-Tyler , is thrilled to pursue this work with capacity-building mentorship from Cloudera's in-house technical team." -- Maira Khwaja , Director of Public Strategy, Invisible Institute Police misconduct investigations between 2012 - 2015. This will make new modes of inquiry and analysis possible at a moment when national attention is focused on police violence. In particular, these documents will make it possible to better understand the patterns of abuse faced by Black women, women of color and trans people. Invisible Institute's CPDP team, led by , is thrilled to pursue this work with capacity-building mentorship from Cloudera's in-house technical team." -- , Director of Public Strategy, Invisible Institute Mapping for Environmental Justice seeks to create the first dataset of factory farms in the American Southwest using open-source machine learning algorithms. There is no data on the location or number of these factory farms, whose effects such as groundwater contamination and reduced air quality likely disproportionately impact low-income communities of color who live/work nearby. seeks to create the first dataset of factory farms in the American Southwest using open-source machine learning algorithms. There is no data on the location or number of these factory farms, whose effects such as groundwater contamination and reduced air quality likely disproportionately impact low-income communities of color who live/work nearby. "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to shed light on the secretive and polluting world of industrial animal farms by applying deep learning models to satellite imagery. The Data4Change Accelerator Program is giving us the chance to significantly advance our mission to make environmental justice data available and actionable for advocates and policymakers." -- Adam Buchholz , Director, Mapping for Environmental Justice , Director, Mapping for Environmental Justice The Power of Nutrition transforms children's futures in vulnerable countries by pooling nutrition funds and delivering partnership programmes that tackle undernutrition. This first-of-its-kind analysis, led by Modern Scientist Global, will assess longitudinal data on the well-known, but under-researched, impact of childhood stunting on businesses in low and middle income countries. This research will provide an important advocacy tool to encourage businesses and governments to invest in nutrition for healthier people and economies. transforms children's futures in vulnerable countries by pooling nutrition funds and delivering partnership programmes that tackle undernutrition. This first-of-its-kind analysis, led by Modern Scientist Global, will assess longitudinal data on the well-known, but under-researched, impact of childhood stunting on businesses in low and middle income countries. This research will provide an important advocacy tool to encourage businesses and governments to invest in nutrition for healthier people and economies. "We know that stunting has a long-term negative effect on businesses in developing countries, but the figures have never been studied in depth. The Power of Nutrition welcomes the expertise and support of the Cloudera Foundation in analysing this impact. We believe it will provide a compelling case for businesses to partner and invest in initiatives that tackle the root causes of stunting and drive social impact." Mabel McKeown , Head of Corporates, The Power of Nutrition , Head of Corporates, The Power of Nutrition Urban Displacement Project will use data science tools and natural language processing (NLP) to mine millions of pages of court records in order to understand eviction causes, outcomes, and racial disparities in the United States . will use data science tools and natural language processing (NLP) to mine millions of pages of court records in order to understand eviction causes, outcomes, and racial disparities in . "The Data4Change Accelerator program is important for our work right now because it will give us the much needed resources to create data that is otherwise non-existent. We don't know a lot about evictions because much of the data is hidden behind court documents either on paper or as an image. The D4C Accelerator will allow us to produce open-source tools to scrape these documents and will help any state, city, and scholar to enumerate previously unknown households and understand the mechanisms of eviction and their outcomes." Tim Thomas , Ph.D., Research Director, Urban Displacement Project , Ph.D., Research Director, Urban Displacement Project Women's World Banking will develop a Global Women's Financial Index that benchmarks various countries' progress towards women's financial inclusion, to determine if data can help predict the future of women's economic empowerment. will develop a Global Women's Financial Index that benchmarks various countries' progress towards women's financial inclusion, to determine if data can help predict the future of women's economic empowerment. "Participation in this cohort allows us to create the evidence to understand which policies work, and which do not, to advance women's economic empowerment through financial inclusion. We look forward to data accelerating our global advocacy efforts, benefitting the most vulnerable women around the world to achieve greater financial resiliency." -- Sonja Kelly , Ph.D., Director of Research and Advocacy at Women's World Banking Women's World Banking is the first of the five organizations to begin its Data4Change Accelerator project. Initial findings are expected in late spring. The Accelerator is a fixed-term, nonprofit data exploration and analysis platform managed by Cloudera Foundation's data engineers and operated on the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) Public Cloud. The D4C Accelerator functions as an analytics "sandbox" that can handle large, complex datasets. The nonprofit participants will receive personalized technical and programmatic support throughout the program, about eight months long per project. Each organization also was awarded a $75,000 supplementary grant to cover expenses associated with running the nonprofit's data exploration, including cloud-related costs. One crucial component of this program is the sharing of discoveries with one other and the broader data-for-social-impact field. The Foundation looks forward to seeing what learnings the Data for Equality cohort will share with the world later this year. About the Cloudera Foundation: Cloudera Foundation is a Silicon Valley-based private philanthropy established by Cloudera, Inc., the enterprise data cloud company. The foundation works to enable nonprofits worldwide to use advanced data analytics and machine learning to improve people's lives and protect the planet. We collaborate with grantees to build their data engineering capacity through direct access to technology, data expertise and technical support. Our grantee partnerships allow nonprofits to establish infrastructure and develop technical capabilities to scale and sustain their high-impact work. The foundation also manages Cloudera, Inc.'s employee giving program Cloudera Cares, empowering Clouderans around the world to give back to the global communities where they work and live. SOURCE Cloudera Foundation This is the 13th in a "Letter to President Biden" series aimed at conveying policy recommendations through open letters from politicians, scholars and experts to the new U.S. president following his Jan. 20 inauguration. ED. By Troy Stangarone Dear Mr. President, United Nations, Feb 25 : United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that human rights must not only be available to the privileged few and joint efforts must be made to deliver them. "Much like Covid-19 vaccines, human rights will not lead to a healthier world if they are only available to the privileged few," the UN chief told the UN General Assembly briefing on the Call to Action for Human Rights. Addressing the Human Rights Council, Guterres on February 24 last year launched a Call to Action for Human Rights. He said these rights are powerful tools for preventing conflict, reducing human suffering and building a just and equitable world, the Xinhua news agency reported. "We need renewed, concerted, global determination to ensure the protection of human rights of all people, everywhere and in all situations," the UN chief briefed member states exactly one year after the release of the call. "We must all join forces to deliver," the top UN official added. "Only by working together can we forge a new social contract that reflects respect and protection for all people and is rooted in universal human rights," he noted. "As we enter the second year of the Call to Action, I look forward to working closely with all of you to fulfil the highest aspirations of the people of the world - human rights and dignity for all," said Guterres. Noting that with the support of member states over the last year, he said that the Call to Action "is making important progress." The UN family is working together to ensure that human rights are at the heart of Covid-19 socio-economic response plans, he said. After elaborating on some of the areas where progress has been made, the UN chief noted that the UN will launch a first-of-its-kind "One Stop Digital Shop," bringing together a wealth of resources on implementing human rights in the digital space. "Our enduring challenge is to transform the promise of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into real-world change on the ground. It is to look at our contemporary challenges with a human rights lens," said the UN chief, noting that "this is why my Call to Action extends beyond the UN family." It is also a call to all member states, to parliamentarians, to the business community, to civil society and to people everywhere, he said. "We shoulder a collective responsibility. Transformative change will take the full commitment and support of us all," said the secretary-general. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Associates of jailed gangland killer Brian Rattigan were among those targeted when officers seized around 3,000 worth of cocaine as part of a major search and arrest operation today. Up to 30 gardai including a number of armed officers were involved in the raids in Dublins south inner city which led to six men ranging in ages from their late teens to early 50s being arrested in the course of nine different searches. Senior sources say that one of the more significant arrests was that of a man aged in his early 20s who is suspected of controlling much of the drugs distribution in the Basin Street flats area. This young man is central to a group of criminals who still have loyalty to Brian Rattigan. They are suspected of serious involvement in the distribution of drugs in the locality, a senior source said. While the seizure of three grand worth of coke is important there is an element of disappoint that not more drugs were got, the source added. The raids were carried out in what is being described as a day of action by gardai based in Kevin Street and Kilmainham. This had been planned for some time and the objective to it was to disrupt and target local criminals, the source pointed out. Apart from the suspected drug dealer, gardai arrested three people for burglary offences which had happened in the locality last year as well as one man for suspected theft offences. One suspect was arrested for a violent disorder offence and is expected to appear before court later this week. It is fair to say that none of these criminals are at the higher end of organised crime but they all have been causing significant problems in the local communities they operate in, the source explained. At least two of the arrested men have major drug addiction issues and they have been robbing from people at every opportunity. This was essentially a sweep on criminality in the Dublin 8 area, the source added. The arrested dealer has become one of the main players in the Basin Street flats area and is connected with a crew of violent young dealers who are linked to notorious criminal Brian Rattigan. The cocaine was discovered this afternoon in a flat linked to the up-and-coming criminal. The gang have been using using primary school children who are aged only as young as 10 to deal deadly drugs for them. Senior sources say that gardai in the capitals south inner city have established that more than half a dozen male children aged between 14 and 16 are dealing crack cocaine, heroin and other substances for the ruthless mob whose leaders are aged in their early 20s and late teens. Brian Rattigan (40) will remain in jail until 2025 for manslaughter but gardai believe that he continues to control a major drugs trafficking network in which male juveniles sell drugs at Basin Street and other locations in the south inner city. Some of the young criminals working for his criminal network were not even born when Rattigan was last on the streets as a free man. Rattigan formerly of Cooley Road, in Drimnagh has been in prison for most of his adult life and pleaded guilty in 2018 to killing 21-year-old Declan Gavin in August, 2001, the fatal stabbing that led to the Crumlin/Drimnagh feud that led to at least 15 murders. Photo: Contributed ALR land in the Kelowna area When I moved to Kelowna in the early 90s, homes were selling for $150,000. In fact, I bought a 3 acre parcel for $69,000 which I now regret selling. My how things have changed. I dont know how anyone starting out can ever get into home ownership. Small, and I mean very small building lots in Kelowna/West Kelowna are now going for well over $500,000. In my opinion the ALR is directly responsible for this. Its simple economics. Kelowna is growing, people want homes, and lack of supply drives prices up. Look at the area in dark green in the image. This is all in the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve) and undevelopable. This area is probably 4 times, maybe 5, the area of the developable areas of Kelowna. I understand our orchard industry in an important part of the Okanagan economy and we need to preserve it, but anecdotally I would say 3/4 of the land below, or maybe even more, is either private estates, or empty land not being used for agriculture. In fact some of it would be near impossible to grow anything on as it has a lot of rock and boulders making clearing and bedding it for agriculture unfeasible, but yet would make space for housing. Yes, I support an agricultural industry in the Okanagan, but there seems to be lack of common sense how this land bank is administered. Many people are buying these former orchard lands and building estates, and in some case receiving tax relief. They are not being used for agriculture. I am pretty sure this was not the intention of the ALR. In my area, a 9 acre parcel of ALR land was just sold last year for less money than my 1 acre non-ALR property, and today, most of the orchard is gone and now it has a massive home. Is this what we want? The ALR in its current state is not serving its purpose and only making housing unaffordable. I encourage you to drive around Kelowna with this map and look how much land it sitting empty, overgrown, or is hobby horse pasture or hobby farms. There are large swaths of land in the ALR that will likely never be used as agriculture due the poor or rocky soil conditions. Why can we not develop these? Vancouver is also choked by ALR land. An interactive map is available here. I am not suggesting we should discard the ALR but there needs to be a detailed study of ALR land use in the Okanagan. If we are going to regulate and protect agriculture we need to ensure the protected land is actually being used for the purposes intended, and balance that with ensuring enough supply to keep housing demand low. Whenever the government regulates anything it seems to have the opposite effect. Kim Dobranski, Kelowna Two people have died after a horrific collision between a car and a motorcycle in Cork. The accident occurred on the N20 Cork-Limerick road at Rathgoggin-Deerpark just outside Charleville shortly before 2pm yesterday. It brings to 10 the number of people to have died on Irish roads so far this year a decline of 12 compared with the 22 people who died over the same period in 2020. The Charleville collision involved a motorcycle and a car about 1.5km outside the town. Gardai, paramedics and Charleville fire brigade units were at the scene within minutes of the alarm being raised. Once the severity of the crash was realised, the air ambulance was also dispatched to the scene on the Limerick side of the north Cork town. A male motorcyclist in his 20s and a male motorist in his 60s both sustained critical injuries. Despite desperate efforts by paramedics to assist the injured men, both were pronounced dead before they could be transferred to Cork University Hospital. The road near the accident scene was immediately closed to facilitate the work of the emergency services. Gardai warned motorists to avoid the area if possible, with diversions put in place. Charleville gardai have appealed for anyone who may have witnessed the collision to contact them. Drivers who were in the area at the time and whose vehicles are equipped with dash cam footage have also been asked to contact gardai. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-10 20:01:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The southern African country Malawi is expecting AstraZeneca vaccines to arrive in late February and start vaccination exercise in March, with senior officials saying the vaccine could be a winning formula against COVID-19. BLANTYRE, Malawi, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has announced that the country is going to embark on an immunization exercise that will see Malawian citizens receiving COVID-19 vaccination. Responding to the development, local, religious and political leaders in Malawi have hailed the government plans to introduce the COVID-19 vaccine as a strong path to saving more people's lives. The first consignment of AstraZeneca's vaccine targeting 20 percent of the population, roughly 3.8 million people, is expected in Malawi at the end of February with a plan to roll out in March. This follows a spike in the number of cases in the southern African country, which has hit 27,422 with 874 deaths. Senior Chief Chikumbu of Mulanje, south Malawi, said while the fight against the pandemic is being enhanced on the treatment front, bringing a vaccine is a winning formula. "The vaccine is not intended at killing anyone, nor is it intended at victimizing any human. The vaccine is rather aimed at protecting us all and bringing the pandemic to an end as soon as possible," she said. The vaccination program in Malawi starts with front-line health care workers, the elderly who are more vulnerable to the pandemic and people with underlying health conditions. The photo shows Malawi's Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 co-chairperson Dr John Phuka. The picture was taken on Feb. 4, 2021. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua) In his remarks, CCAP Blantyre Synod General Secretary Reverend Billy Gama says by opting for a vaccine, the government means well for its people. "I don't think there is any other government that can accept a vaccine that can kill its people. It is the responsibility of the government to save the lives of the people," he said. The doses secured are aimed at giving as many citizens as possible immunity against the virus. Legislator Kondwani Nakhumwa who also leads the opposition benches in the Malawi National Assembly, however, said there is a need for enhanced awareness for people to understand issues surrounding the vaccine. "Not much has been done. We have been talking about the vaccine for the past two weeks or so if I am not mistaken. The two weeks are not long enough but I am glad people have started talking about it but as far as civic education is concerned, I think we haven't done much yet. There is a need for a proper strategy to be put in place," Nakhumwa said. A picture showing a group of religious, traditional and political leaders at a meeting in Blantyre, Malawi. The leaders have hailed government plans to introduce the COVID-19 vaccine. The picture was taken on Feb. 4, 2021. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua) According to Malawi's Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 co-chairperson Dr John Phuka, the vaccine is safe and highly effective. "It is not the first time we have used a vaccine in Malawi. And we usually accept vaccines very well and we know at this point for example that by itself, we are struggling and that is why we have high numbers of COVID-19 cases," he said. "Therefore the fact that local leaders, religious leaders and legislators have accepted the vaccines, it's a good start that can help us control the disease." Meanwhile, the government has set aside funds in all Malawi's 28 districts for the procurement of face masks for every Malawian. ANAHEIM, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GreenGro Technologies, Inc. (OTC: GRNH), an established provider of eco-friendly green technologies for the Industrial Hemp Industry, announced today it has officially begun to position itself for the eventual federal legalization of cannabis in the U.S. The Company's initial steps include acquiring intellectual property rights such as the trademarks IGot420tm, 420 Rescuetm, and Reefer Throwdowntm. The intellectual property will be held in the Company's Cannabis Ventures Division which is expected to eventually do for Legal Cannabis what the Company's CBD Ventures Division is currently doing for Industrial Hemp. GreenGro's COO, Mr. James Haas believes that acquiring and securing intellectual property rights is the first step in positioning the Company for a lucrative future in the Cannabis Market. "Our experience with Industrial Hemp will be easily transitioned into the Cannabis Market. What should be understood is that we already have the platform established. Our recent partnerships with organic certification experts Organna LLC & Southern Grown LLC go far beyond the Industrial Hemp space. We purposely arranged those strategic alliances so they could be instantly repurposed for the cannabis space. So, it is paramount that we begin our venture into Cannabis by securing our branding rights first. We want to be able to 'hit the ground running' as soon as the federal legal landscape for cannabis in the U.S. changes. That would mean an immediate deployment of our current Industrial Hemp based services into cannabis-based branded products when the time is right." Mr. Darrel Courtney, GreenGro's CEO, added: "The Company will be strategically poised to simultaneously capitalize on the two markets. It will have two branches operating in Cannabis and Industrial Hemp respectively. This diversification of company resources not only expands our total market reach, but it also allows for each segment to compliment the other. The markets, although intertwined to some extent, follow wholly different trajectories and are aimed at different end-user bases. This should not only increase our bottom-line income but also level out our volatility as performance in one market will support the other. Additionally, our international footprint in Industrial Hemp will serve as a springboard to international cannabis transactions that we expect to open up upon federal legalization here in the U.S." According to two recent polls, one from Gallup and the other from Pew Research Center, about two-thirds of people in the US support legalizing cannabis sales. And the results of last November's general election proved that sentiment as initiatives in four states to legalize or decriminalize some form of cannabis all passed. Additionally, several Washington lawmakers have already signaled they'll soon introduce legislation to start reversing the federal ban on cannabis not just for social justice reasons but on economic grounds as well. Strategic consultancy Emerton reports that legalized recreational cannabis in the US is already at a market value of nearly $8 billion and is expected to grow at an impressive 14% every year in the lead up to 2025, landing anywhere between $15 billion and $20 billion. Globally, a report from Arcview has predicted that legal cannabis sales will hit $42.7 billion by 2024, while a report from Grand View Research has said that the global legal marijuana market size is expected to reach $73.6 billion by 2027. GreenGro Technologies, Inc. (OTC:GRNH) is a vertically-integrated provider of eco-friendly state-of-the-art technological solutions to the green industries. The Company is a trusted partner to the cultivation, extraction, production and retail aspects of the green market through a combination of three operating divisions: CBD Ventures, Cannabis Ventures and GenoBreeding. Each division is able to leverage the strengths of the other, creating a synergistic, efficient and highly profitable business model. Additional details can be found by visiting the Company's website at www.greengrotech.com. For additional information about GreenGro Technologies and its solutions, please visit www.greengrotech.com. Safe Harbor Act: The Company relies upon the Safe Harbor Laws of 1933, 1934 and 1995 for all public news releases. Statements, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The company, through its management, makes forward-looking public statements concerning its expected future operations, performance and other developments. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates reflecting the company's best judgment based upon current information and involve several risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that other factors will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all such factors. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the company include, but are not limited to, government regulation; managing and maintaining growth; the effect of adverse publicity; litigation; competition; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the company's public announcements. For More Info Visit: greengrotech.com or Contact: [email protected] Darrel Courtney, CEO, +1 (714) 367-6538 SOURCE GreenGro Technologies, Inc. Related Links https://greengrotech.com WAYZATA, Minn., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Like many industries, agriculture is facing a racial equity problem. Traced back to slavery in the U.S., systemic injustices involving property rights, financing and other exclusionary practices persist today for Black farmers who make up less than 2% of the country's 3.4 million farmers. Cargill is looking to partner across the industry, from fields and ranches to restaurants and grocery stores, to help dismantle these inequities. To accelerate progress, today the company has announced the Black Farmer Equity Initiative, in partnership with two U.S. organizations, the National Black Growers Council and 100 Ranchers. The ultimate goal is to work with customers, non-profits and others to help increase the participation and profitability of Black farmers. As a first step, the partners will convene listening sessions with Black farmers, ranchers and producers, to map barriers and prioritize ways to improve market access and financial inclusion, sustainable agricultural practices, support next-generation agriculture leaders and advocate for policies that advance equity in agriculture. "We're looking forward to working with the private sector to prioritize the most powerful ways to address long-standing inequities caused by racism in agriculture," said chairman of the Black Growers Council, PJ Haynie III. "Cargill's engagement will help create long-term solutions to increase market opportunities and earnings potential for our growers." "Our values drive us to put people first. That is why we are working to address anti-Black racism by helping make the agricultural economy work for more producers," said Anna Richo, Cargill's general counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and corporate secretary. "Racism is systemic, so our approach to addressing it must also be systemic. The status quo is not acceptable. We must do more in food and agriculture to invest in the Black community." The Black Farmer Equity Initiative is part of a larger effort by Cargill to put its resources toward advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the agriculture industry and in the communities where the company operates. To address anti-Black racism in the United States, Cargill has signed on to Management Leadership for Tomorrow's Black Equity at Work Certification, joined the OneTen partnership and dedicated resources to the CEO Action for Racial Equity. In its headquarters community, Cargill is advancing programs through the Cargill Foundation and with the Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity. Globally, the company has contributed more than $15 million in the last year to programs that strengthen and support marginalized or underrepresented communities. Cargill has also dedicated itself to supporting farmer livelihoods in the United States and around the globe. To date, 3.2 million farmers have gained increased access to markets and participated in trainings on sustainable and innovative agriculture practices that improve yields and earning potential. More than 10 million farmers, ranchers and producers will be trained by 2030, increasing productivity of family farms in the U.S. and around the world. For more information or to join the efforts to advance opportunities for farmers, ranchers and producers, contact us. About Cargill Cargill's 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. We combine 155 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center. SOURCE Cargill, Inc. Related Links www.cargill.com 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. Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, on the fourth day of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Bharat Bandh on February 26: Going ahead with their protest against the Goods and Services Tax (GST), fuel price hike, E-Way Bill, traders across the country will go a day-long strike on Friday and all commercial markets will remain closed. The Bharat Bandh has been called and traders across the country are demanding a review of the provisions of the goods and services tax (GST) regime. In a statement, the Indian traders' body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) the umbrella body which has called for the Bharat Bandh said that over 8 crore traders belonging to more than 40,000 trade associations across the country will observe the `Bharat Vyapar Bandh` to protest against some of the "draconian, arbitrary and critical" amendments made recently in GST rules. The CAIT has announced that all commercial markets across the country will remain closed on February 26. It will also urge the government to rectify glitches in e-commerce for preventing violation of law by foreign e-commerce companies. The All India Transport Welfare Association (AITWA) an apex body of 1 crore transporters have already supported the strike and has also announced `Chakka Jam` of the transport sector on Friday all over India. CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that not only traders but even small industries, hawkers, and women entrepreneurs among others will also join the bandh. Further, associations of chartered accountants and tax advocates have supported the strike and have informed their clients not to visit their offices on Friday. Khandelwal further said that on Friday as a mark of protest, `dharna` will be held in more than 1,500 towns and cities across states and no traders will log in to the GST portal to register their protest. According to the CAIT, the traders will stage dharnas (protests) at as many as 1,500 places across the nation on February 26, demanding the Centre, state governments and the GST Council to keep in abeyance the "draconian" provisions of GST. The CAIT also called for a review of the GST system and its tax slabs to simplify and rationalise it for easier compliance by traders. CAIT Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal said it is also talking to the government on this issue, adding that All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) will also support CAIT's Bharat Bandh call and hold a 'Chakka Jam' on February 26. Addressing a press conference on Thursday, he said, "All commercial markets across the country will remain closed and protest dharnas will be organised in different cities of all states," adding that along with CAIT, over 40,000 traders' associations across the country will support the Bandh. Khandelwal observed that voluntary compliance is the key to a successful GST regime, as it will encourage more people to join the indirect tax system, increase the tax base and boost revenue. According to reports, over 40,000 traders' associations across the country will support the Bandh. All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) will also support CAIT's Bharat Bandh call and hold a 'Chakka Jam' on February 26. Nearly 40, 000 trade associations, who represent eight crore traders of the country, has extended support to the Bharat Bandh call given by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on February 26. The AITWA has also urged the government to abolish E-Way Bill and track vehicles by using Fast-Tag connectivity to E-Invoice and to scrap the penalty on transporters for any time-based compliance target of transit and make diesel prices uniform across the country. Almost 950 amendments have been made so far to GST rules in the past four years, he said, adding that the issues related to glitches in the GST portal and the continuous increase in compliance burden are the major lacunae in the tax regime. Live TV The Colorado Republican Party can't be blamed for asking. Wednesday the state party urged Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper to block Rep. Deb Haaland's confirmation as interior secretary unless she commits to keep the Bureau of Land Management headquarters in Grand Junction. Neither senator accepted. +2 Hickenlooper tells interior nominee from New Mexico: Keep BLM in Grand Junction Gov. John Hickenlooper had two points he wanted to get across as he questioned New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland on her nomination for interior secretary Tuesday: protect public lands and keep the Bureau of Land Management headquarters in Colorado. It was never likely to happen. Both senators support the congresswoman from New Mexico, who is a supporter of public lands positions favorable with fellow Democrats, particularly President Joe Biden. On the other side, Republicans are happy to try to box in Bennet and Hickenlooper to decide between their party in Washington and the West Slope of Colorado. When Hickenlooper questioned Haaland in a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he made it clear he wants both: protect public lands with outdoor recreation and the BLM headquarters in Colorado. "I strongly support keeping the BLM headquarters in Grand Junction," Hickenlooper said during Tuesday's hearing. "I know it's been somewhat controversial." Hickenlooper meets with Biden Interior nominee Deb Haaland U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper met virtually on Tuesday with President Joe Biden's nominee to l He said there is "broad bipartisan support" to do so. The last administration I dont think managed the move properly," Hickenlooper said. "It was perceived as an attack on the BLM and trying to reduce its capabilities." He doesn't think the West has yet realized the benefits of having the headquarters here, including the jobs it can support in different states. "I hope theres a path forward where we find a solution that restores a fully functioning agency while allowing BLM staff to work close to the lands they manage, said the former governor. Haaland concluded two days of testimony before the Senate committee Wednesday, withstanding characterizations from Republicans that she is an anti-energy zealot, who will bar production on public lands, a position President Biden has expressed some level of support for. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the ranking Republican member on the committee, cited Haaland's past positions and said she is "wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands." The right says Biden's green energy plan will kill oilfield jobs, and in Colorado that means a loss of tax dollars to an already rocky state budget. New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to campaign for Elizabeth Warren in Colorado Deb Haaland, one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress, is scheduled to rally Warren supporters at a phone bank in Denver on Friday night and will help lead get-out-the-vote canvasses on Saturday in Boulder, Longmont and Denver. The Colorado GOP is asking Bennet and Hickenlooper, frequent targets of their political barbs, to help preserve the legacy of former Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who was unseated by the former governor in November. "Senator Bennet and Senator Hickenlooper have a choice," the Colorado GOP said in its Wednesday statement. "They can either follow (Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer in blindly voting for this extreme nominee or they can stand up for Colorado and place a hold on her nomination. They can't do both." In the same statement, party spokesman Joe Jackson said, "Colorado and Grand Junction are worth fighting for. As Colorado's current voices in the U.S. Senate, they need fight to ensure that the BLM stays closest to the millions of acres they (sic) manage." A spokeswoman for Bennet said in an email: Michael was encouraged by Representative Haalands remarks yesterday, during her confirmation hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she expressed her commitment to visiting Colorado to discuss the BLM headquarters in Grand Junction. He was also glad to hear her and the Biden Administration endorse the CORE Act this week, which is an incredibly important piece of legislation for Colorado." The Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act is a bill Bennet and Hickenlooper are cosponsoring to protect 400,000 acres of public lands in Colorado. Holding Representative Haalands nomination would not help," Bennet's office continued. "Instead, Michael intends to work with a bipartisan group of local leaders and the administration to find a path forward for the BLM headquarters in Grand Junction. Michael looks forward to sitting down with Representative Haaland soon and working with her in the years ahead. A spokeswoman for Hickenlooper said, "Congresswoman Haaland committed to keeping an open dialogue on maintaining the Grand Junction office and will make a fabulous Interior secretary. Thats why West Slope leaders support her nomination, conservation leaders support her nomination, and Senator Hickenlooper supports her nomination. Any suggestion wed try and hold it up is simply unfounded." Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat pre-emptively took a dig at Rahul Gandhi over his repeated claim that there was no Fisheries Ministry at the Centre. Taking to Twitter, Shekhawat informed about his ministry to the Congress leader, so that he does not "jump from fishes to water." "Dear Rahul ji, I am Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister Jal-Shakti, a newly integrated ministry that caters to all water-related issues in India. Just thought of letting you know so you don't jump from fishes to water!" he said in a tweet, mocking Gandhi. Interestingly, the Minister's tweet came shortly after the Congress leader took a dive into the sea with fishermen during his visit to Kerala's Kollam on Wednesday. He dived into the sea along with some fishermen at the Thangassery beach and spent about 10 minutes swimming before returning to the shore. Kerala: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi swam in the sea with fishermen during his visit to Kollam yesterday. (Source: Congress office) pic.twitter.com/I2pgXiuih3 ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 READ | Giriraj Singh Takes Jibe In Italian Over Rahul Gandhi's 'set Up Fisheries Ministry' Gaffe Shekhawat's jibe at Gandhi's dip in the waters, left Union Minister Smriti Irani in splits, as she commented with a laughing emoticon on his tweet. Dear Rahul ji, I am Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister Jal-Shakti, a newly integrated ministry which caters to all water related issues in India. Just thought of letting you know so you don't jump from fishes to water! Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (@gssjodhpur) February 24, 2021 Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) February 24, 2021 Despite being corrected by Minister of Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Giriraj Singh, the Congress leader stated on multiple occasions that fishermen did not have a Ministry to represent them in Delhi. Gandhi made these remarks while interacting with the fishermen in the election-bound states of Kerala and Puducherry. READ | Senior Congress Leaders Should Inform Rahul Gandhi About Fisheries Ministry, Says RK Singh Fisheries Minister takes swipe at Rahul Gandhi The Wayanad MP was previously schooled by Fisheries Minister Giriraj Singh that there already existed a Ministry to address the issues of the fishermen. Jovially taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, the Minister said, "I request you to come to the ministry or call me so that I can come and tell you about the schemes being run by the new Fisheries Ministry all over the country and in Puducherry." Giriraj Singh went on to tweet that there is no separate ministry for Fisheries in Italy. "There is no separate Ministry of Fisheries in Italy. It comes under the Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies," Giriraj Singh tweeted in Italian while tagging Gandhi. READ | Rahul Gandhi Unmoved By 'Caro Raul' Jibes; Fishes In Kerala & Insists There's No Ministry READ | Fisheries Minister Giriraj Singh Answers As Rahul Gandhi Insists Ministry Doesn't Exist Around 29 million Britons could be entitled to a payout after being overcharged for their smartphones, if a landmark claim by consumer champion Which? is successful. LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Which?, consumers could be owed a collective 482.5 million in damages from multi billion-dollar tech giant Qualcomm. Which? believes Qualcomm has breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent-licensing and chipset markets. The result is that it is able to charge manufacturers like Apple and Samsung inflated fees for technology licences, which have then been passed on to consumers in the form of higher smartphone prices. Which? is seeking damages for all affected Apple and Samsung smartphones purchased since 1st October 2015. It estimates that individual consumers could be due up to 30 depending on the number and type of smartphones purchased during that period, although it is expected at this stage that most consumers would receive around 17. Qualcomm has already been found liable by regulators and courts around the world for similar anticompetitive behaviour and Which? is urging Qualcomm to settle this claim without the need for litigation by offering consumers their money back. Which?'s legal action could help millions of consumers get redress for Qualcomm's anticompetitive abuse. This is possible because of the opt-out collective action regime that was introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. It has been near impossible for individual consumers to take on big companies like Qualcomm in the past, but the collective regime opened the door for Which? to represent consumers where large numbers of people have been harmed by anticompetitive conduct. This action is vital to obtain redress for consumers and to send a clear message to powerful companies like Qualcomm, that if they engage in harmful, manipulative practices, Which? stands ready to take action. Anabel Hoult, CEO of Which?, said: "We believe Qualcomm's practices are anticompetitive and have so far taken around 480 million from UK consumers' pockets - this needs to stop. We are sending a clear warning that if companies like Qualcomm indulge in manipulative practices which harm consumers, Which? is prepared to take action. "If Qualcomm has abused its market power it must be held to account. Without Which? bringing this claim on behalf of millions of affected UK consumers, it would simply not be realistic for people to seek damages from the company on an individual basis - that's why it's so important that consumers can come together and claim the redress they are entitled to." Visit www.smartphoneclaim.co.uk to find out more about the claim and sign up for campaign updates. TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Pew Research Center , women of childbearing age in the United States have greater hesitancy about the COVID-19 vaccines compared to men . A contributing factor is likely the lack of data available regarding the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on pregnant women or their offspring, especially as it relates to DNA-containing vaccines like the one Johnson & Johnson is requesting the FDA approve this week. Dr. David Berger, Owner and Medical Director of Wholistic Pediatrics & Family Care in Tampa, Florida On February 26, 2021, the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet to discuss Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the Johnson & Johnson/Jansenn Biotech COVID-19 Vaccine . Dr. David Berger will give a presentation regarding continued vaccine hesitancy and safety concerns related to pregnancy and the COVID-19 vaccines (see submitted slide presentation and submitted written comments ). Dr. David Berger, founder and medical director of Wholistic Pediatrics & Family Care in Tampa, Florida, is a Board Certified pediatrician with decades of experience specializing in preconception, pregnancy, and infant and childhood health. He also serves as Senior Medical Advisor of the Vaccine Considerations Project . He previously addressed the committee during their EUA meeting regarding Pfizer on December 10th and Moderna on December 17th. Dr. Berger has specific concerns about the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for women of childbearing age. We know the mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not enter the nucleus of the cell, so they cannot come into contact with human DNA. At this time, we cannot confidently say the same for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and this may have safety implications for developing fetuses. - David Berger, MD, FAAP Although pregnant women and those trying to conceive want pregnancies free of COVID-19 medical complications, they also often want to minimize synthetic chemicals from entering their bodies. "Researchers are not certain that genetic material from this type of vaccine will not cause issues for pregnant women or developing fetuses," said Dr. Berger. "For women to be able to make informed decisions, it is critical the scientific community better determine if the various COVID-19 vaccines have differing impacts on a developing fetus." Dr. Berger intends to tell the FDA that, until more is known, mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna may be better options for women of childbearing age who are choosing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Berger will present to the Committee between 1:10 pm - 2:10 pm ET on Thursday, February 26, 2021. The online meeting can be viewed at: FDA Webcast YouTube Dr. Berger also produced a series of YouTube videos on COVID-19 topics important to his patients, and social media campaigns to notify the public about FDA vaccine approval meetings. Dr. Berger is available for further public comment before or after his committee presentation. Media Contact Information: Whitley Procopio [email protected] c: (727) 902-0748 SOURCE Wholistic Pediatrics & Family Care The U.S. has seen a dramatic turnaround since December and January, when hospitals were teeming with patients after holiday gatherings and pandemic fatigue caused a surge in cases and deaths. Health officials acknowledge the improvement but point out that hospitalizations are still at about the same level as earlier peaks in April and July and right before the crisis worsened in November. Deaths are still persistently high, though much lower than the peak in early January, when they sometimes exceeded 4,000 per day. Smoke billows from smokestacks and a coal fired generator at a steel factory in the industrial province of Hebei, China, on Nov. 19, 2015. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) China Emits More Carbon in 2 Weeks Than Australia Does in One Year: Think Tank China emits more carbon dioxide in 16 days than Australia does in one year, according to new research published by a free-market think tank. Australias net-zero emissions target would therefore be cancelled out by China in just two weeks, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) said in a press release on Wednesday. According to the report, China operates 57 times as many coal-fired power stations as Australia. This figure is set to increase with China currently constructing 92 coal-fired power stations. The report also added that while Australias carbon emissions per capita have declined by 15.4 percent since 2004, Chinas emissions per capita over the same period have increased by 83.5 percent. Globally, the report identified that Australias share of global carbon emissions declined from 1.3 percent in 2009 to 1.1 percent in 2019. Despite Australias negligible share of global emissions, under the Paris Agreement, Australians are subject to the deepest per capita emissions cuts in the developed world, the report added. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is pursuing low emissions technologies instead of committing Australia to net-zero emissions, with New South Wales and Western Australia referring to net-zero it as an aspirational target, reported Herald Sun. However, Federal Labor Opposition leader Anthony Albanese looks set to committing his party to achieve net-zero by 2050, while Independent Member for Warringah Zali Steggall plan to introduce a Climate Change Bill to parliament in March. Cian Hussey, Research Fellow at the IPA, said calls for Australia to adopt a net-zero emissions target would ignore the significant economic, social, and humanitarian costs which would inevitably be the result of such a target. It is reckless and futile for the political class to impose on Australians further severe cuts to emissions which costs jobs and livelihoods, while Chinathe worlds largest emittercontinues to rapidly increase its emissions without consequence, said Hussey. Earlier research by the IPA found that up to 653,600 jobs would be at direct risk if a net-zero carbon emissions target were put in placeparticularly in the agriculture, heavy manufacturing, and coal mining industries. While some Nationals have called for exemptions for the agricultural sector, Independent Zail Steggall said keeping the sector out of the zero-emissions target would mean the sector risked being charged carbon tariffs from other countries. Nationals backbencher Matt Canavan has warned the 2050 net-zero emissions target is the wrong priority for the Federal government, reported Sky News. Theres way too much focus on what might or might not happen in 30 years time rather than dealing with the challenges we face right now, Canavan said. When I think about what the biggest challenge for my kids is going to be in their generation, I think its the rising aggression of the Chinese Communist Party in our region. Not carbon neutrality by 2050. DEARBORN, MI A sizeable contingent of Michiganders remain uncomfortable traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey by AAA Michigan. About 400 Michigan residents were surveyed in January, 62% of which said they had concerns. Top concerns include fear of getting sick (59%), new strains of the virus (51%) and the number of Covid-19 cases (49%). The numbers suggest that two-thirds of Michiganders (66%) canceled or rescheduled travel plans in 2020. Currently, almost half (45%) of Michigan residents are comfortable staying in a hotel or resort, while only 27 percent feel comfortable taking a commercial flight. The vast majority (80%) feel most comfortable traveling in their personal vehicle, according to AAA, which expects confidence in travel to improve as vaccine rollouts continue The Covid-19 vaccine truly is the key to restoring Americans confidence in traveling again, said Adrienne Woodland, spokesperson, AAA The Auto Club Group. With health experts predicting widespread vaccinations by the summer, AAA Travel Advisors are seeing growing interest in bookings for the second half of the year. About 1 in 5 Michigan residents (21%) say they are more comfortable traveling now than when the pandemic began 12 percentage points more than AAA Michigans last survey in October. Growing confidence was attributed to the implementation of mask use and cleaning policies (44%), more knowledge about how the virus spreads (37%), quarantine fatigue or wanting to get out of the house (21%) and having received the COVID-19 vaccination (20%). This year, over half of Michigan residents (57%) plan to take at least one vacation of 3 days or more. Over one-third (38%) of respondents plan to take multiple trips up 9 percentage points from 2020. However, about 2 in 5 residents say they will feel more comfortable traveling after receiving both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine (43%) and when cases begin to decrease (36%). You can see the complete survey here. Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) and Faradion, one of the U.K.-based companies behind the first demonstration of a sodium-ion powered vehicle, have launched a technical collaboration to develop lower-cost and higher-performing anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005110/en/ Phillips 66 Senior Engineer Liang Zhang is shown testing small batteries to evaluate Phillips 66 carbon products as sodium-ion battery anode materials. (Photo: Phillips 66) Sodium-ion battery technology has an inherent advantage over other power-storage technologies because it uses low-cost materials that are sustainable and widely available. Carbon is the preferred anode material for the batteries, and the collaboration is expected to leverage Phillips 66's experience developing specialty carbon materials and Faradion's work as a leader in sodium-ion battery technology. "Our world-class research team is working on various energy production and storage technologies that could help meet the world's growing energy needs while advancing a lower-carbon future," said Ann Oglesby, Vice President, Energy Research Innovation at Phillips 66. "We're pleased to put some of our resources into play with Faradion as it works to bring game-changing technology to market using our high-performing anode materials." A diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company based in Houston, Phillips 66 has filed numerous patent applications on battery-related technology. Faradion's technology provides similar performance to conventional chemistries while avoiding use of expensive materials such as cobalt and replacing lithium with the more sustainable and abundant sodium while giving better safety and thermal stability. "This agreement brings together Phillips 66's strengths in hard-carbon anode material and Faradion's sodium-ion technology for a high-performance, sustainable next-generation energy storage technology," said James Quinn, CEO of Faradion. "Our aim is to further accelerate large-scale industrialization of Faradion's safe, low-cost sodium-ion energy technology. We are looking forward to Phillips 66 supporting Faradion's growth in the rapidly expanding battery market and to jointly contribute to the transformation of the global energy market." In 2015, Faradion demonstrated the world's first sodium-ion battery powered vehicle when it launched an e-bike battery demonstrator in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering and Oxford University. The company's comprehensive intellectual property portfolio comprises multiple patent families focusing on cell materials, cell infrastructure, pack design, safety and transportation. About Phillips 66 Phillips 66 is a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company. With a portfolio of Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, and Marketing and Specialties businesses, the company processes, transports, stores and markets fuels and products globally. Phillips 66 Partners, the company's master limited partnership, is integral to the portfolio. Headquartered in Houston, the company has 14,300 employees committed to safety and operating excellence. Phillips 66 had $55 billion of assets as of Dec. 31, 2020. For more information, visit www.phillips66.com or follow us on Twitter @Phillips66Co. About Faradion Faradion is the world leader in sodium-ion battery technology that provides low cost, high performance, safe and sustainable energy. Its proprietary technology delivers leading-edge, cost effective solutions for a broad range of applications, including mobility, energy storage, back-up power and energy in remote locations. Faradion's patented zero-volt capability enables the safe transportation and maintenance of sodium-ion batteries. The wide operating temperature range, high energy density and fast charge/discharge capability combine to offer a next generation, drop-in solution. Its sodium-ion batteries contain no cobalt, no lithium and no copper, resulting in a safe and sustainable, cost-effective, high performance technology. For more information, visit www.faradion.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @faradion_uk. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined under the federal securities laws. Words and phrases such as "is anticipated," "is estimated," "is expected," "is planned," "is scheduled," "is targeted," "believes," "continues," "intends," "will," "would," "objectives," "goals," "projects," "efforts," "strategies" and similar expressions are used to identify such forward-looking statements. However, the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements included in this news release are based on management's expectations, estimates and projections as of the date they are made. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and you should not unduly rely on them as they involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements include: the continued ability of Phillips 66 to satisfy its obligations under our commercial and other agreements; the volume of crude oil, refined petroleum products and NGL we or our equity affiliates transport, fractionate, terminal and store; the tariff rates with respect to volumes transported through our regulated assets, which are subject to review and possible adjustment by federal and state regulators; fluctuations in the prices for crude oil, refined petroleum products and NGL; the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on the demand for refined products; changes in governmental policies relating to crude oil, refined petroleum products or NGL pricing, regulation, taxation, or exports; liabilities associated with the risks and operational hazards inherent in transporting, fractionating, terminaling and storing crude oil, refined petroleum products and NGL; curtailment of operations due to accidents, severe weather (including as a result of climate change) or natural disasters, riots, strikes or lockouts; the inability to obtain or maintain permits, in a timely manner or at all, and the possible revocation or modification of permits; our ability to successfully execute growth strategies; the operation, financing and distribution decisions of our equity affiliates; costs to comply with environmental laws and safety regulations; failure of information technology due to various causes, including unauthorized access or attacks; changes to the costs to deliver and transport crude oil, refined petroleum products and NGL; potential liability from litigation or for remedial actions, including removal and reclamation obligations under environmental regulations; the failure to complete construction of capital projects on time and within budget; general domestic and international economic and political developments including armed hostilities, expropriation of assets, and other political, economic or diplomatic developments, including those caused by public health issues; our ability to comply with our debt covenants and to incur additional indebtedness on favorable terms; changes in tax, environmental and other laws and regulations; and other economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting Phillips 66 Partners' businesses generally as set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Phillips 66 Partners is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter its 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/20210225005110/en/ Contacts: For Phillips 66: Bernardo Fallas 855-841-2368 (media) bernardo.e.fallas@p66.com For Faradion Ltd.: James A. Quinn Tel: +44 114 224 2421 Mobile: +49 174 6069 007 james.quinn@faradion.co.uk Bangkok, Feb 25 : Three current Thai Cabinet ministers lost their posts on Wednesday due to their court verdicts for jail in relation to 2014's Bangkok shutdown and street protests which they had unlawfully orchestrated. Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta and Deputy Transport Minister Thavorn Senniam, who received jail terms ranging from five years to seven years and four months respectively, have automatically lost their ministerial seats, the Xinhua news reported. The Criminal Court ruled a group of 39 defendants, all being former political activists attached to the now defunct People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), guilty of illicitly organising the massive anti-government protests against the government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Former deputy prime minister and former secretary general of the PDRC Suthep Thaugsuban was among the convicts and sentenced to five years in jail. Turkish police, on February 24, detained a suspected Iraqi Islamic State group militant and rescued a 7-year-old girl, whom he had allegedly been holding captive, the state-run news agency Anadolu reported. The militant, who has been identified as S.O. was arrested in Ankara in a well prepared and calculated raid early morning on Wednesday. One other, identified as N.H.R. has also been captured in the operation. As per the news agency, the suspect had once served as an officer in the Iraqi army. However, his suspicious moves prompted Turkish law enforcers and intelligence agency to monitor his activities. Following an investigation, they found his links with a militant organisation. The cops then planned a raid and carefully timed it so that the child wasnt placed at risk. The 7-year-old belongs to Iraqs Yazidis community, which is a minority in the country. Following her rescue, she has been placed under Turkeys social services. Read: Iraq's Struggling Christians Hope For Boost From Pope Visit Read: NATO To Expand Iraq Mission From 500 To Around 4,000 troops To Fight 'terrorism' NATO to expand mission to combat Iraqi terrorism Last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance decided to expand a NATO training mission in Iraq from 500 to around 4,000 personnel. In a tweet, Stoltenberg announced NATO's Iraq mission expansion to open a new chapter in the transatlantic relationship and build a substantial, forward-looking agenda for the alliance. Ministers decided to expand Iraq's NATO mission to support local forces in their fight against terrorism. We'll increase from 500 to around 4000 personnel & include more security institutions & areas, NATO Secretary-General said, adding that the NATO mission will continue in full consultation with Iraqs government. Read: Islamic State Steps Up Attacks In Syria & Iraq After Losing Territory: UN Experts Read: 6 Security Personnel, 3 Civilians Killed In ISIS Ambush Attack In Iraq Strengthening of NATOs Iraq mission was aimed at curbing the resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) group in the nation, and the military increases are incremental, Stoltenberg told a conference. "Training activities will now include more Iraqi security institutions, and areas beyond Baghdad, furthermore, he said. He insisted that the new plan will be implemented with due respect for Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The past few years have been a golden period for health care, and the industry should strive to make the next 10 years the decade of India, said Commerce and Industry Minister on Thursday. Till 2030, the entire world should be driven by Indian quality standards, regulatory processes, and manufacturing practices, he said at the International Conference on Pharmaceuticals and Medical organised by industry body Ficci. Coining a new acronym, he said the world today needs CURE Cost-effective Universal solutions through Research and Enterprise. If we take it upon ourselves that India is going to cure the world, I see no limitations in our ability to aspire to become a world dominant leader in the field of medtech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health care providers. The country would always be indebted to the Indian pharma industry, often called the pharmacy of the world, for its contribution in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, Goyal said. The three Vs that the industry has provided to the world, and to India ventilators, vaccines, and the V-shaped recovery in Indias economy are reflective of the industrys strength. WTO waiver for easy vaccine access Goyal said Indias proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights waiver to allow more countries to get equitable access to Covid-19 vaccine is getting support from other nations. India along with South Africa had introduced a proposal in October 2020 for waiving the intellectual property rights regime so that more countries get equitable access to medicines, Goyal said. Lawyers for President Nana Addo have prayed the Supreme Court to dismiss the Petitioner's case as it discloses no reasonable cause of action. President Nana Addo said "our submission is that the petition is frivolous and discloses no reasonable cause of action remains unshaken, notwithstanding the evidence led in aid of the Petition. In fact, the woeful performance of the Petitioner's witnesses during their respective cross-examination has further buttressed our position that the instant Petition with all due respect, ought not to have proceeded to trial." In the second respondent's closing address filed at the Supreme Court, Nana Addo said the election Petition was one that in all shape and form relate to an attack on the process for the conduct of the presidential election itself. "In the instant matter, it is clear on the face of the Petition and indeed the evidence of Mr. Asiedu Nketia in particular that the Petitioner was not in court to challenge the validity of the election but the case concerns the performance of the function 1st respondent (EC) and its Chairperson pertaining to the declaration of the Presidential election of December 2020, shows that the petition is not an election Petition properly so-called." The second respondent argued that from the Petitioner's reliefs he did not contest the propriety of the conduct of the elections hence his call for another election between him and the Petitioner. According to the second respondent even though from the reliefs of the Petitioner that, no one had 50 percent of the total number of valid votes cast in the Election and there seek a " second election with the Petitioner and the second respondent as a candidate...", the Petitioner did not indicate his percentage or number of votes in the December 7, 2020 polls. "Not having pleaded these fundamental material facts and no evidence having been led on same, it is our humble submission that this Petition does not qualify to be an election Petition." Incidentally, the Petitioner has also not contested any of the EC processes when it's come to the process of voting, counting of votes, and declaration of results at polling stations among others. The second respondent says that, the instant Petition belongs to the class of actions that could be best described as suits challenging the declaration" rather than the validity of the election itself. The court is invited to hold that no challenge of the conduct of the election is stated from paragraph one to 30 of the Petitioner's Petition." Nana Addo held that Article 64 (1) of the Constitution set out the criteria for the invocation of the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction on the conduct of a presidential election. "The Supreme Court, therefore, is not, clothed with jurisdiction to entertain any matter clothed with apparel of presidential election Petition when in fact it is not. The second respondent said based on evaluation of facts and the law, in terms of Mr Asiedu Nketia, one of the Petitioner's witnesses, the Court's jurisdiction has not been properly invoked. The second respondent said it was not in dispute that a summation of the total valid votes announced by the EC Chairperson, Mrs. Jean Mensa as having obtained by the 12 candidates yielded a total of 13,121,111. "Apart from the fact that this figure is incontrovertible, Petitioner failed or refused to provide any contrary evidence that would establish or least suggest that the valid votes declared for the 12 candidates were erroneous." The second respondent argues that apart from reproducing the figures declared by the EC Chairperson and making fanciful analogies based on her innocuous errors, the Petitioner failed to provide his own data or independently attained figures to controvert what was declared as the valid votes obtained by each of the 12 candidates. Nana Addo therefore prays the court to ignore allegations of arbitrariness and lack of transparency in the National Collation Centre, saying that "these allegations are of little probative value." The second respondent noted that the Petitioner seeks to make a piece meal out of what it described as "ever-changing figure of the results of the December 7, Presidential results. 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 Thanks in part to the testimonies from SGFs Stephanie Beall, M.D., Ph.D., and Loretta Trumble, CRNP, new revisions to the Maryland Mandate went into effect on January 1, 2021. Thousands of Marylanders have difficulty becoming pregnant and deserve access to todays modern technology that will assist them. This bill brings our law up to date, reflecting modern patterns in both medicine and parenting. Loosened restrictions to the Maryland Mandate lead to improved access to fertility treatment for unmarried and married people who dream of building their families, thanks in part to the advocacy efforts of Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) clinicians and patients. Maryland was the first state in the nation to enact infertility insurance legislation in 1985, but the previous Mandates criteria posed barriers for insurance holders to receive equal and timely treatment opportunities. When single mother by choice and SGF patient, Dr. Deborah Brooks, first embarked on her family-building journey in 2018, she found it discriminatory that she did not qualify for the same access to fertility treatment benefits that married couples did. After my third unsuccessful IUI, I wasnt prepared to pay for IVF out of pocket, said Dr. Brooks as she recalled the previous Mandate requiring six intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles before moving on to IVF despite success rates drastically dropping after three. Thanks in part to the testimonies from SGFs Stephanie Beall, M.D., Ph.D., and Loretta Trumble, CRNP, along with Dr. Brooks, new revisions to the Maryland Mandate include: the removal of a marriage requirement for patients seeking treatment, reducing the 2-year waiting period to 1 year of unprotected sexual intercourse, and reducing the attempts of IUI from six attempts to three. Fortunately for Dr. Brooks, her fourth IUI led to the birth of her son in April 2020, 2 months after testifying in front of the Maryland Senate Finance Committee. I love my son, and I might want him to have a sibling someday, shares Dr. Brooks. It could be a very real possibility that Ill be in my late 30s when that day comes and may need to try IVF. Its comforting knowing that insurance benefits are available to me if I need them. Advocating for Maryland Mandates Expanded IVF Coverage On February 26, 2020, Dr. Beall and Ms. Trumble testified in favor of laxing limitations on infertility treatment insurance carrier require of their policyholders. Their testimonies were presented alongside RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, Maryland Senator Shelly Hettleman, D-Baltimore County, and the Womens Law Center of Maryland. Thousands of Marylanders have difficulty becoming pregnant and deserve access to todays modern technology that will assist them, Shared Senator Hettleman in her testimony. This bill brings our law up to date, reflecting modern patterns in both medicine and parenting. For SGF physicians, helping patients build their families extends beyond the exam room. During Dr. Bealls testimony, she shared, The diagnosis of infertility knows no boundaries. It affects individuals regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or marital status. Given the anticipated age-related decline in fertility, and the increased incidence of pregnancy loss and having a child with a chromosomal abnormality, it is important not to delay fertility care for an individual or couple who have a clinical diagnosis of infertility. Dr. Beall and Ms. Trumble have called for change to the Maryland Mandate before. Due to their collective efforts, on May 15, 2018, Maryland Governor Hogan signed the bill that requires insurers under the Maryland Mandate to cover the expense of fertility preservation, sperm and egg freezing specifically, for patients prior to medical treatments, such as chemotherapy for cancer, that likely would permanently damage their reproductive ability. Im so passionate about helping build families across all patient populations and this was a way to use my passion to advocate for increased coverage, says Trumble. Revising legislation wasn't something I actively sought out, but change was needed and Im so honored to be a part of it. To learn more about SGFs support services for single mothers by choice like Dr. Brooks, or to schedule a virtual physician consultation with an SGF physician, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and 5,000+ 5-star patient reviews. With 37 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, offer patients virtual physician consults, deliver individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including 100% refund guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. On Feb. 12, the Friday before harsh winter weather cut off power and water to millions of Texans, killed dozens of people and caused billions of dollars in damage, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo advised residents to prepare as if a Category 5 hurricane were on the way. I just want to make sure that everybody knows that if the models are right, were about to see an incident the likes of which we have not seen in 30 years a very high probability of power outages, dangerous conditions outside, road closures. The same type of thing we would see in a Category 5 hurricane, Hidalgo said at a press conference. Her critics were quick to paint the comparison as hyperbolic. Typical scare tactics, one person wrote on Twitter. Yeah, we get it. Its gunna snow and ice... NO WHERE NEAR A CAT 5 HURRICANE! Why not just compare it to a nuclear bomb being dropped on us? read another reply to Hidalgo. Yes, this is serious, but stop it. The toll of last weeks winter storm still is coming into focus, but it already has become clear the damage rivals that of a major hurricane. Roughly 1.4 million customers lost power in the Houston metro area. Nearly 80 people across Texas died from hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and other storm-related causes, according to an Associated Press tally as of Monday. Grocery stores, facing food shortages, imposed limits on certain items including eggs, milk and bread even days after power was restored. And a water crisis unfolded as nearly the entire Houston area and more than 14 million people across the state were ordered to boil their water before drinking it, even as many lacked running water or the electricity to operate their stoves. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer It is too early to tell if the winter freeze will prove costlier statewide than Hurricane Harvey, which inflicted $125 billion in damage concentrated in Southeast Texas. What is evident is that both storms left behind widespread property damage: County and city officials estimate that tens of thousands of Houston-area residents have burst water pipes or other damage from last weeks weather. You think about the wind from a hurricane blowing a tree into your house, said Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice Universitys Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center. Thats nothing different than a pipe bursting in your attic and the entire roof collapsing in on you. Still, even Houstons most destructive storms never made landfall as Category 5 hurricanes, the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Hurricanes Ike and Harvey both peaked at Category 4; Hurricane Rita reached Category 5 status but came ashore as a Category 3. The conditions that define a Category 5 storm namely sustained winds of at least 157 miles per hour would destroy most homes in its path and make most of the area uninhabitable for weeks or months, according to the National Hurricane Center. Effective message Eric Berger, a meteorologist who runs the Space City Weather blog, said the winter freeze known as Winter Storm Uri inflicted damage similar to major hurricanes, roughly in line with a Category 3 or 4 storm. To be clear, we really dont have any concept of what a Category 5 hurricane striking the Houston area would look like, Berger said. That would be widespread destruction in the sense of completely destroying homes, blowing them right off their foundations. A catastrophic, historic event. Hidalgos comparison still was effective, Berger said, because it made an impression on residents who otherwise may not have viewed the coming storm as much of a threat. The messaging was bang on, because I think comparing this event to a hurricane was a good way to capture peoples attention, Berger said. I think a lot of people have a warm and fuzzy feeling about a winter storm in Houston. This was really a different event. Hidalgo said she was searching for language that would resonate with Harris County residents who have grown uncomfortably familiar with tropical storms but had never encountered such brutal winter weather. On the day she made the comparison, meteorologists already were predicting temperatures would reach their lowest point since the 1980s. My sense was the experts and the meteorologists said this was going to be bad, and they had the evidence to prove it. And it was a disservice in my mind for me to sugarcoat it, Hidalgo said. I was trying to use something that our community could understand, and that would break through with our community. Thats how we picked the hurricane metaphor. Meteorologists, including Jeff Lindner, the director of flood operations at the Harris County Flood Control District, were telling Hidalgo temperatures would reach historic lows. She and other county officials expected freezing rain would cause power outages, and they anticipated the food shortages, in part because icy conditions likely would make roads impassable for days. And just like during tropical storms, people might need temporary shelter, Hidalgo thought, after their homes flooded from busted pipes. My job is not to scare people. Thats not at all what Im going for. My job is to clearly communicate what people should expect, Hidalgo said. Yeah, theres a nonzero chance I may be wrong, but thats not worth people not being prepared. Familiar trauma Houstonians may have been unaccustomed to the frigid conditions, but the trauma was deeply familiar to an area that has been battered in recent years by chemical fires, tropical depressions, hurricanes and the coronavirus pandemic. The region saw six major chemical fires between March 2019 and January 2020, leading to massive pollutant exposure, worker injuries and destruction of homes. Storms have inundated the area, damaging homes that were still awaiting repairs from the previous disaster. Shonza Branch, 56, remained without running water Thursday due to pipe damage at her home in northeast Houston. Her house still bears the scars of Harvey: mold on the bathroom wall, broken window panes, poor insulation from ceiling damage that has yet to be fully fixed. Last week, Branch who takes more than 20 medications for various ailments wore her winter coat and boots to bed as she slept under four blankets, trying to keep warm as cold air filtered into the house. The storm was in some ways worse than Harvey, Branch said, noting she did not lose running water and had only brief power outages during the hurricane. The blackouts last week were especially rough on Branch because she was unable to use her sleep apnea machine, and she had no way to refrigerate the insulin she takes to treat her diabetes. This has been a crazy few years for me, Branch said. Its totally devastating. Sometimes I just sit here and I think about all this stuff thats happening. Its been terrible, Im just going to be honest. Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Scott Tinker, the state geologist for Texas and a professor of geoscience at the University of Texas at Austin, said the winter storm was similar to the consequences of a hurricane in the damage it did to infrastructure systems. I think in many ways, when you lose power intermittently or for longer periods of time, and many of us lost water, thats like having a big hurricane coming through, Tinker said. Two important distinctions, though, were duration and breadth. Hurricanes tend to be more regional, affecting one part of the state or even more localized parts of the city and county where they strike, Tinker said. They also tend to reach land and dissipate. The challenge with the one we were in last week was it was so regional. Everyone was getting affected by it, Tinker said. As opposed to a hurricane you can drive from Houston to Austin. Not so much in a winter storm. Blackburn said the winter freeze created human suffering on a magnitude similar to what youd have with a major hurricane, similar to Harvey. Does it basically challenge your existence? Blackburn said. The answer is, you bet it did. I mean, to the point that people died. jasper.scherer@chron.com dylan.mcguinness@chron.com A local business owner is being credited as an unsung hero during the COVID-19 pandemic for his efforts to bring bagels and donuts to local communities and health care workers. Leo Spinelli, the owner of Uncle Leos Not Just Donuts in Wilton and Redding, worked with his cousins who own Liz Sue Bagels in Stamford and BagelMan in Danbury to tag-team efforts of giving food to health care workers, shelters and food pantries at the start of the pandemic. Spinelli otherwise known as Uncle Leo has created a GoFundMe to gather support for his continued efforts of donating food to local communities. Its just something we got in our heart to do and we just want to take care of the health care workers and people right now are really hurting for food, Spinelli, 67, said. Its just others helping others. Thats what our motto is, its a family thing. Spinelli said he tries to bake extra bagels, muffins and pastries each day to deliver to locations in the Danbury, Norwalk and Bridgeport areas about two to three times a week. Hes delivered food to local hospitals as well as to a Norwalk food pantry and others up to this point. Nuvance Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives Susan Kania said Spinelli has been Danbury Hospitals unsung hero. Kania recalls when Spinelli made his first delivery to the hospital. It was like hundreds of bagels and boxes of donuts and this did not stop. This man has stopped by Danbury Hospital almost every week since the pandemic started, she said. Everybody has been touched by Uncle Leo and he is so humble. His car is filled with carbohydrates that just make people smile, she added. Spinelli and his cousins have sustained a continuous flow of deliveries since March and want to keep it going but need some extra support. We did the GoFundMe because we were trying to get a few dollars to help us because it does cost money. I was trying to get a little help on the side with it. Spinelli set the GoFundMe goal at $2,500 and community members have raised a total of $1,105 so far. I dont expect too much, I just want whoever can help to help so I can continue to do it, Spinelli said. February 25, 2021 U.S. Further Complicates Its Return To The Nuclear Deal With Iran A week ago we found that Biden's slow walking of a U.S. return to the nuclear deal with Iran makes no sense if we presume that doing so is really his aim: Why Is Biden Creating Himself An Iran Quagmire? The Biden administration demands that Iran fully come back under the restrictions of the deal, to agree to an extension of some restriction under the deal and to agree to talks about its missile programs and its role in the Middle East. Only after that, says the Biden administration, would the U.S. remove some of its sanctions. The demands are nonsense and have absolutely no chance of being fulfilled. It is the U.S. that is in breach of the deal. Biden could simply reenter it by lifting the sanctions Trump imposed. Iran had promised that it would follow through by coming back into the technical limits of the deal. But instead of agreeing to that the Biden administration is trying to create a more complicated process by coordinating its negotiation positions with Saudi Arabia, Israel and other opponents of the deal: ... Then came the announcement of a brigade strong deployment of NATO forces to Iraq with the obviously aim to put pressure on Iran: It is likely that the U.S. sees the additional troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as a pressure point that can be used against Iran in the rather hopeless attempt to renegotiate the nuclear agreement with Iran into a larger surrender document. Iran will not surrender. The NATO troops will become hostages of U.S. policies and may well take casualties. Why the European NATO countries agreed to put themselves into this no-win situation is beyond me. In between Iran reached an agreement with the IAEA which, under the nuclear deal, is tasked with inspecting Iran's nuclear program: In response to the murder by Israel of Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh the conservative parliament passed a law that compels the moderate government under the Iranian President Rohani to further reduce its adherence to the JCPOA deal. As part of this the Iranian government will soon reduce the ability of the international inspectors from the IAEA to observe parts of its civilian nuclear program. The Iranian parliament had instructed the government of President Rouhani to restrict the IAEA's activity. But Iran's President Rouhani wants to hold up good relations with the IAEA. He agreed on a compromise under which IAEA surveillance cameras, installed at various nuclear sites in Iran, will continue to work. The captured video and data will be archived for three months before it will be deleted: IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said Sunday that the two sides had reached the temporary "technical understanding" following his trip to Iran, which had recently signaled plans to scale back cooperation with the global nuclear watchdog. ... The interim deal reached Sunday would alleviate the impact of Iran pulling out of the additional protocol, Grossi said. "What we agreed to is something that is viable, it's useful to bridge this gap that we are having now, salvages the situation now," he said. If the U.S. returns to the deal within the next three months the IAEA will receive all the stored data. If no deal is reached the data will be deleted and the IAEA will lose insight to Iran's program. Rouhani was lambasted by conservative in the Iranian parliament for agreeing to this and for thereby giving the U.S. more time. But neither words nor deeds by the Biden administration show a real effort to return to the deal. It presumably did not like the IAEA's effort to prolong the negotiation time frame before Iran takes stricter measures. Today it started efforts to use the IAEA to further sabotage the relation: The U.S. is asking other countries to support a formal censure of Iran over its accelerating nuclear activities, a signal that the Biden administration wants to turn up the diplomatic heat on Tehran as it looks to restore a crumbling 2015 accord. The International Atomic Energy Agencys board of governors convenes next week in Vienna to discuss the latest reports that Iran has stepped up production of nuclear fuel while stalling inquiries into the presence of uranium particles at undeclared sites. U.S. diplomats circulated a document on Thursday which lists Washingtons grievances and orders Iran to fully cooperate with inspectors. The proposed resolution would underscore strong concern at the IAEAs findings and express the boards deepening concern with respect to Irans cooperation, read the three-page document seen by Bloomberg. ... The proposed censure suggests the U.S. is ratcheting up the pressure. The world has long known that Iran pursued nuclear weapons in the past, according to the document. We also know that Iran retained a vast collection of records from its past nuclear weapons program. Iran must now cooperate fully with the IAEA so we may have assurance that the legacy of Irans past nuclear weapons work does not include undeclared nuclear material in Iran today. A suggestion that Iran could be providing incomplete information has potentially serious consequences, including another referral to the United Nations Security Council. Iran is still within the limits of the JCPOA deal. It has exceeded some technical limits which is allowed under 36 of the JCPOA if the other side, the U.S. and European countries, do not fulfill their commitments. The old documents that Iran has archived are well known to the IAEA. The programs described in them have long been shut down and all issues with them were closed when the nuclear deal was signed. That the Biden administration is now pushing these old issues at the IAEA is totally unnecessary if it really wants to return to the deal. Daniel Larison @DanielLarison - 16:31 UTC Feb 25, 2021 This is absurd. They are wrecking their opportunity for a diplomatic success with stunts like this. This practically guarantees that Iran will accelerate further Iran Faces U.S. Censure in First Diplomatic Showdown With Biden Lots of JCPOA supporters have been giving Biden and his team the benefit of the doubt that they were going to do the smart thing on this issue and they just needed to be given time to get things together. This report suggests that was a mistake. It was the U.S. which left the deal and it is the U.S. that makes unrealistic preconditions to reentering it. Iran is within the limits of the deal the U.S. left but the U.S. wants to censure Iran at the IAEA. Ali Ahmadi @AliAhmadi_Iran - 17:01 UTC Feb 25, 2021 Iran says lets compromise & reenter together, US says no. Iran gives IAEA good access risking wrath of Majlis, US escalations with censure motion. There isn't going to be a compromise if Biden is too scared of DC to reach out. Hard to overstate the level of hypocrisy here. US is completely in violation of its obligations but it wants Iran censured for downgrading its participation in accordance with JCPOA articles. The U.S. attempt to abuse the IAEA to censure Iran is likely designed to bring the European participants of the JCPOA deal onto its side by pressing them to support its hard line approach at the IAEA. UPDATE (19:34 UTC): Iran thinks that the EU3, Britain, Germany and France, wanted this IAEA stunt: Iran accuses Britain, France and Germanythe E3of having initiated the US plans to censure Tehran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Speaking to Amwaj.media on condition of anonymity, Iranian sources allege that France is now leading a charge behind the scenes to single out Tehran at the Agencys Board of Governors meeting next week. They also warn that such efforts will jeopardize Irans cooperation with the IAEA. End-update If a majority at the IAEA votes to censure Iran over exceeding the technical limits of the original deal the issue would escalate to the UN Security Council. There China and Russia would veto any further measure. On top of the IAEA move the State Department issued a hypocritical and empty threat: The United States patience with Iran on returning to discussions over the 2015 nuclear deal is not unlimited, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday. ... Asked at a news briefing whether there was an expiration date on the offer, Price said Irans moves away from compliance with the 2015 agreements restrictions on its nuclear activities made the issue an urgent challenge for the United States. Our patience is not unlimited, but we do believe, and the president has been clear on this ... that the most effective way to ensure Iran could never acquire a nuclear weapon was through diplomacy, Price said. And then what? Russia as well as China have today urged the U.S. to stop this nonsense, to immediately lift the sanctions on Iran and to return to the deal: Developments surrounding Iran's nuclear program are at a critical point and lifting sanctions on the country is key to breaking the deadlock, China's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The attitude of the Trump administration towards a return to the nuclear deal seems extremely hostile. It is completely unnecessary if the aim is really to reactivate the deal. The U.S. could just lift the sanctions against Iran. Iran would then came back into the technical limits of the deal and the whole issue would be be done with. The Biden administration wants a bigger deal and it seems to believe that it could reach it with more pressure. But despite 'maximum pressure' sanctions the Obama, as well as the Trump administration, failed to get more concessions from Iran than are included in the original JCPOA deal. The U.S. balance of power positions has since not improved while Iran has learned to live under 'maximum pressure'. Since it agreed to the JCPOA it has also gained the support of Russia and China. Iran is not willing to give any further concession. It also has the ability to make the life for the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East much more complicate and dangerous. It is Iran that has escalation dominance, not the U.S. Which again leaves the question what endgame the Biden administration foresees. The aggressive track it is currently on points to war. But a war against Iran is not winnable. It would create huge damage to the U.S. and its allies. It makes absolutely no sense to risk one over a few unreasonable demands which Iran, as any other truly sovereign country, is sure to reject. To insists on these demands means only that the U.S. will lose face when it finally has to drop them. Posted by b on February 25, 2021 at 19:06 UTC | Permalink Comments next page next page Long-term heavy coffee consumption (six or more cups a day) may lead to unfavourable lipid (fat) profile, which could potentially increase individuals risk for cardiovascular disease, accoring to a new genetic study. The findings may have clinical relevance for people with elevated LDL (low-density-lipoprotein) cholesterol. Theres certainly a lot of scientific debate about the pros and cons of coffee, but while it may seem like were going over old ground, its essential to fully understand how one of the worlds most widely consumed drinks can impact our health, said lead author Professor Elina Hypponen, a researcher at the University of South Australia, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, and the UCL Institute of Child Health. As hyperlipidemia is a well-established contributor to cardiovascular disease risk, Professor Hypponen and her colleague Dr. Ang Zhou investigated the association between habitual coffee intake and plasma lipid profile. They used data from up to 362,571 UK Biobank participants, aged 37-73 years, to examine phenotypic associations between self-reported coffee intake and plasma lipid profiles, including low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and apolipoproteins. We looked at genetic and phenotypic associations between coffee intake and plasma lipid profiles, finding causal evidence that habitual coffee consumption contributes to an adverse lipid profile which can increase your risk of heart disease, Professor Hypponen said. High levels of blood lipids are a known risk factor for heart disease, and interestingly, as coffee beans contain a very potent cholesterol-elevating compound (cafestol), it was valuable to examine them together. Cafestol is mainly present in unfiltered brews, such as French press, Turkish and Greek coffees, but its also in espressos, which is the base for most barista-made coffees, including lattes and cappuccinos. There is no, or very little cafestol in filtered and instant coffee, so with respect to effects on lipids, those are good coffee choices. The implications of this study are potentially broad-reaching. In my opinion it is especially important for people with high cholesterol or who are worried about getting heart disease to carefully choose what type of coffee they drink. Importantly, the coffee-lipid association is dose-dependent the more you drink unfiltered coffee the more it raises your blood lipids, putting you at greater risk of heart disease. The findings were published in the journal Clinical Nutrition. _____ Ang Zhou & Elina Hypponen. Habitual coffee intake and plasma lipid profile: Evidence from UK Biobank. Clinical Nutrition, published online January 11, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2020.12.042 AMSTERDAM, N.Y. One of 12 new state pop-up vaccination sites will be set up in Montgomery County this weekend, at the Riverfront Center in Amsterdam. The state works with local health care providers to host these pop-up sites to reach more communities statewide. Local organizations help conduct outreach to identify eligible New Yorkers in that area, and schedule appointments for them at these pop-up sites. "Community-based vaccination sites are a key component of New York's effort to ensure all eligible New Yorkers have a chance to get the vaccine quickly and fairly, right in their community," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "Social equity and fairness has been at the center of our response, but this isn't purely an access issue. We need New Yorkers to trust the vaccine and actually take it. We're tackling skepticism and distrust head-on through our local partnerships and pop-up sites and bringing the vaccine directly in the communities that have been hit hardest by this pandemic." The clinic at the Riverfront Center will take place Saturday, Feb. 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. People must have an appointment to receive a vaccine. The state expects to vaccinate more than 3,700 people over the next few days through this set of pop-up sites. He was married to Cyrell Paule on the sixth season of Married At First Sight Australia, which is currently being aired in the UK. But they've since gone their separate ways, (the show was filmed in December 2018) and British women have been sliding into Nic Jovanovic's DMs at quite the rate. The electrician, 28, took to Instagram Stories on Wednesday night and claimed 4,000 Brits have messaged him after he said he plans on visiting the UK and Ireland. Calm down everyone! MAFS Australia's Nic Jovanovic claimed on Instagram on Wednesday 4000 Brits have slid into his DMs with X-rated messages - asking about his manhood Any takers? He revealed he is planning on visiting the UK when possible because he is very much single and looking for love During an Ask Me Anything session, Nic said that while he had been with a couple of girls since the show and had fallen hard for one, but it wasn't meant to be and he is currently single. He said: 'I'm so ready to settle down. Maybe I do have to come to the UK or Ireland. I've got about 4,000 messages right now.' 'In five years from now I definitely see myself married, a kid or two, hopefully, very much happy and in love, building an empire and living my absolute best life.' ... Spag bol?!? Nic could only raise an eyebrow or two over some of the rude messages he had received Nic seemed very shocked to discover that one of the messages was very explicit and read: 'Why aren't you here eating my *****,' and he raised an eye to that. Another asked him about the size of his manhood and he said it was not the first time the question had been asked. He said: 'This is probably the 200th question like this, 200 just before... similar,' as he let out a big sigh. Not meant to be: Nic was married to Cyclone Cyrell Paule on the show but sadly they went their separate ways, but remain friends New love: Cyrell has since had a baby called Boston with Love Island Australia star Eden Dally When he was asked when he is coming to the UK, he replied: 'Not just coz of the show airing over there, but I genuinely want to make my way over there. 'Definitely on the cards once everything settles with travel restrictions and all that. I am definitely going to be over there. Who is going to show me around?' Nic was asked by one fan what he looks for in a partner. He replied: 'Someone honest and truthful, someone who has really good family values, good morals, that's fun, outgoing... and loves wild sex.' 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. As part of its commitment to promote global awareness and research on multiple system atrophy, the MSA Coalition is a Prime Sponsor of the 7th International Congress of Multiple System Atrophy. The Congress will be hosted by the University of Tokyo and will be held virtually February 26 27. The International Congress of MSA brings together top researchers, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies to stimulate global collaboration in the urgent search for better diagnostic tools and treatments for MSA. The International Congress of MSA is the single most important meeting of MSA researchers and advocacy groups, said Cynthia Roemer, EdD, Chair, Board of Directors, the MSA Coalition. The MSA Coalition believes it is critically important to support and collaborate on a global level to improve outcomes for multiple system atrophy patients worldwide. After initiating the first Global MSA Advocacy meeting at the 2018 Congress, we are delighted to again host a meeting with our current charity partners as a means to unify our efforts. The MSA Coalition proudly supports the International Congress of MSA continuing many years of successful partnership. The MSA Coalition Board members Cynthia Roemer and Pam Bower will present the session MSA Advocacy & Research Directions. The MSA Coalition funds patient-centric collaborative research aimed at alleviating symptoms, slowing disease progression and discovering a cure. In 2020, the MSA Coalition surpassed $2 million in total research funded. We are very thankful to the MSA Coalition for its Prime Sponsorship of this Congress, and the University of Tokyo is proud to be the first ever Japanese host of this prestigious event, said Shoji Tsuji M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Neurology at the University of Tokyo and President of the 7th International Congress of Multiple System Atrophy. With virtual presentations by the foremost MSA research experts and top advocates to a global audience of scientists and healthcare professionals, considerable progress can be made towards advancing our understanding of the current state of MSA research. This Congress facilitates the continuing commitment of all participants to work collaboratively on a global scale to advance MSA research, the best hope for making progress against this horrible disorder. To learn more about the 7th International Congress of Multiple System Atrophy, visit the Congress website at http://www.congre.co.jp/msac2020/en/index.html. About the Multiple System Atrophy Coalition The Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) Coalition is a positive beacon of hope standing up to a little-known, rare, insidious disorder. Since 1989, the MSA Coalition has been devoted to improving the quality of life and building hope for people affected by multiple system atrophy by focusing on a four-pillar mission: Providing patients and caregivers with trusted and compassionate emotional support Educating patients, care partners and healthcare professionals with credible, critically important and relevant information Funding patient-centric collaborative research aimed at alleviating symptoms, slowing disease progression and discovering a cure Building a sense of community by connecting and unifying people affected by MSA. Thousands of participants benefit from the annual MSA Coalition Family Conference, which is live streamed and posted online. With multiple online discussion groups and a dedicated support line, someone is always there to help. As the host of the first-ever Global MSA Advocacy meeting, the MSA Coalition works with other like-minded charities to foster a community of support and care, while also playing an important role in global MSA research efforts. Learn more at http://www.multiplesystematrophy.org/ About Multiple System Atrophy Multiple system atrophy, previously known as Shy-Drager Syndrome, is a rare and fatal disorder with less than 15,000 Americans diagnosed at any given time. According to the National Institutes of Health, "Multiple system atrophy is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by symptoms of autonomic nervous system failure such as fainting spells (neurogenic orthostatic hypotension) and bladder control problems, combined with motor control symptoms such as tremor, rigidity, and loss of balance and muscle coordination." MSA affects both men and women primarily in their 50s. MSA tends to advance rapidly over the course of 6 to 10 years, with progressive loss of motor skills, eventual confinement to bed, and death. There is no cure or remission from the disease. The education crisis has been exacerbating in the areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria after the latter failed to impose its Kurdish curriculum on schools and private institutes in their areas of control. Teaching the Kurdish language in the Kurdish-majority areas began in 2012 when the Syrian regime forces withdrew from the areas. Small schools were opened to teach the Kurdish language, then Kurdish was introduced to schools curricula so that students were able to learn the basics of the language. Following the formation of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in 2013, and the subsequent formation of a government and governmental bodies in northeast Syria, the Education Authority was established in 2014. In 2016, the Education Authority trained some 2,600 teachers specializing in the Kurdish language to teach primary school students. The authority also issued a decision to suspend the Syrian regime curriculum and began to impose its own curriculum in the Kurdish language. The decision, however, was rejected by several private institutes and teachers as well as students. The latter had to depart from the SDF-controlled areas to be able to continue their education elsewhere. On Dec. 14, 2020, the Education Authority in the Jazira region filed a lawsuit against 18 institutes teaching the Arabic curriculum in the city of Qamishli, based on the decision issued by the Education Authority of the Autonomous Administration in the Jazira region. This decision was issued on June 12, 2017, providing for the closure of institutes that teach the Arabic curriculum and the arrest of their officials, and fining them an amount of 1 million Syrian pounds ($2,157) for each institute, with a stay of execution for the last two penalties. The SDF-affiliated Autonomous Administration also arrested dozens of educators on charges of teaching the regimes curriculum in private institutes in the cities and towns of Hasakah, Qamishli and Deir ez-Zor. During the spate of arrests, several students were also apprehended, before being later released. Teachers, on the other hand, remain behind bars in SDF prisons. Al-Monitor tried to contact the SDFs Education Authority for comment but there was no reply. A teacher, who preferred not to be named for fear of reprisal, told Al-Monitor, After the Autonomous Administration imposed educational curricula in the Kurdish language, many families began to look for private schools or Syrian public schools to enroll their children since the regimes curriculum is officially recognized, while the Kurdish curriculum is not and this would affect the students educational future. The source noted, Both Kurdish and Arab students also agreed to the need to follow the official curriculum taught in the Arabic language, which would allow them to be admitted to universities outside the SDF-controlled areas. This is why it is imperative for the Autonomous Administration to consider its decision to allow students to continue their education." The teacher added, I work in a private institute that follows the curriculum of the Syrian government. Most students from the [SDF-controlled] areas join these private institutes, ditching schools that are affiliated with the Autonomous Administration since they are not well equipped and the educational cadres are not specialized, just loyal to the [Kurdish-led] authorities. The curriculum taught at these schools was established by Kurdistan Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan. But even officials in the Autonomous Administration send their children to private institutes and schools, as they are the best in the area. The father of one of the students told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, When the armed factions took control of our areas, they deliberately obliterated anything related to the regime in schools and educational curricula. At the beginning of 2014, the Islamic State [IS] took control of these areas, and the educational process came to a complete halt and was replaced by religious studies by IS preachers in mosques, calling for killing and infidelity. He said, When the SDF took over, students were required to learn about the ideology of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, which created a new problem. This did not help students to secure their future, especially since the Syrian regime does not recognize the Kurdish curriculum, which in turn was not in line with the reality of the community." The parent added, Parents here truly fear for their childrens future, notably in high school, where students are readied to qualify for and enter university. The [high school] certificate is issued by the Ministry of Education in Damascus. Also, most of the Kurdish students and not only Arabs do not go to Kurdish schools but they rather choose private institutes or public schools within the security zones under the regimes control. Some warehouses in state institutions have been turned into classrooms, as every classroom has up to 100 students, which is not a wise decision in light of the coronavirus outbreak." In light of all this, many parents send their children to the regime-held areas, especially those who are preparing for the official high school exams. I sent my son to Damascus and registered him in an institute, which is of course very costly, not to mention that we are worried about him there. But we had no other choice, the father added. In the face of these decisions, teachers in the SDF-held areas in eastern Syria began Feb. 21 a general strike in protest to SDF violations against educators and disregarding their demands. Teachers were calling for the abolition of the penalties imposed on private institutes and the release of teachers, in addition to increasing employees salaries, supporting the education sector and schools. Ocean City might not have any bars or sell alcohol. But it will soon have a boat with a bar on it. Pau Hana, a company chartering tiki bar boat tours, is launching out of Ocean City this summer providing one of the states few dry towns with a chance to party on the water. Tours launch in May, offering two-hour trips on a tiki bar-topped barge for up to six guests. Prices range from $325 for the But First, We Do Coffee on the Bay tour, a morning excursion that is open to all ages, to $1,000 for the Night in Venice Charter, which allows guests to take part in Ocean Citys famous boat parade. Tours launch from Ocean City Fishing Center. The companys boats are certified by the United States Coast Guard. The trips are BYOB and guests can bring their own snacks though the company will arrange snacks and meals for an additional cost. As Ocean City is a dry town, not even allowing BYOB restaurants, alcohol beverages cannot be opened or consumed until the boat has left the dock, according to the companys website. The tours include music, but guests are welcome to bring their own if they would prefer to set the playlist. Pau Hana founders Brian and Jennifer Toner spent years cruising around the United States, Bahamas and Caribbean on their boats exploring hundreds of beach bars and islands in their travels before deciding to launch out of South Jersey. The name translates to finished work in Hawaiian, meaning leaving work early on Friday and starting the weekend. We invite you to join us on our never-ending quest for the perfect sunset while surrounding yourselves with close friends, a cold drink and great tunes, the Pau Hana website says. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. New York, Feb 25 : The US is on the cusp of getting a third vaccine against Covid-19. The US Food and Drug Administration today delivered a strong endorsement of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine and set the stage for a final decision on February 26. Two vaccines - from Pfizer and Moderna - have already received emergency use approval in the US. US FDA scientists confirmed that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is safe and is about 66 per cent effective at preventing moderate to severe Covid-19, and about 85 percent effective against serious illness. On February 26, a special team of independent US FDA advisors will debate if the shots can be recommended for population level use - following the same greenlighting process for the two earlier vaccines. The Covid-19 death toll in the US has topped 500,000 but the country's infection curve is slowly bending downwards. More than 44.5 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna, and nearly 20 million of them have received the second dose. J&J tested its single-dose option in about 44,000 adults in the US, Latin America and South Africa with a 2-month median follow-up. "The analysis supported a favorable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA," the US FDA said of the J&J vaccine. The FDA summary noted that there were no Covid-19-related deaths and no Covid-19 cases requiring medical intervention 28 days or more post-vaccination among participants age 60 years or older with medical comorbidities in the vaccine group. (Nikhila Natarajan can be reached at nikhilanatarajan@gmail.com) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access Will Facebook, Twitter, Instagram be banned in India? Check new IT Rules, Regulations and Penalties 2021 Will Facebook, Twitter be banned in India? What are the new rules and here is what the companies are saying Twitter reacts to new IT rules, says potential threat to freedom of expression Govt gives digital media platforms 15 days time to comply with new IT Rules 3 tier regulation for OTT, social media say new draft rules India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: A new set of rules to regulate both the social media and OTT platforms has been drafted by the government. The Centre had earlier this month informed Parliament that the IT Rules are being amended to make social media platforms more responsive and accountable to Indian laws. The draft report titled Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 suggests a three tier mechanism for regulation of all online media. It also defines the process for tracing the first originator and confer blocking powers to an inter-ministerial committee. Why did govt decide to bring OTT platforms, online news media under I&B The first tier of the regulatory mechanism is grievance redressal by the company itself. The second level includes the Press Council of India like regulatory body that will be headed by a retired judge of a High Court or the Supreme Court. The inter-ministerial committee will have representatives from the ministries of IT, Information and Broadcasting, Home, Law, External Affairs, Defence and Women and Child Development. The draft rules according to a report in the Hindustan Times would require social media platforms to appoint a chief compliance officer, who would be responsible for issues of compliance and will be held liable if the intermediary fails to observe due diligence while discharging its duties. Govt moves to regulate digital content, new rules for OTT platfoms and social media| Oneindia News Further the rules also ask the social media intermediaries to enable the idenfication of the first originator in a bid to tackle fake news. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 13:16 [IST] Beijing (Gasgoo)- A subsidiary of JD.com has officially applied for trademark registration for its autonomous vehicle efforts, according to Tianyancha. Late last year, the company has reportedly many patents about autonomous driving technologies. All efforts demonstrate that the Chinese online retailer wants to be a player in this emerging segment. Photo credit: JD Logistics As early as in 2016, JD started the research and development of autonomous delivery vehicles, which have gone through several iteration updates. It is said the 4.0 version was released in November, 2019. The latest delivery vehicle version features remote control and can be transformed into self-driving minibus and shuttle. Last year, JD.com deployed its delivery vehicles in Wuhan. Thanks to L4 autonomous driving technologies and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, those vehicles can offer contactless delivery to help fighting the virus. In order to mass produce autonomous delivery vehicles, JD Logistics partnered with King Long Bus and released an autonomous logistics vehicle last September. The DIDO can realize fully unmanned delivery to offer last-kilometer service for communities and campuses. Its sample vehicles have been conducting pilot operation in Suzhou and Changshu. But competition in this segment is becoming increasingly intense. Meituan also makes extensive deployment in autonomous delivery vehicles. From 2016 to November, 2020, the companys autonomous delivery vehicles had run 100,000 kilometers in Shunyi District, Beijing. Xia Huaxia, vice president of Meituan and head of the companys autonomous driving business, said that his company plans to deploy 1,000 autonomous delivery vehicles in the district. This is the hilarious moment a live TV link on Channel 4 is gatecrashed by the announcer's child. Voiceover artist and presenter Pete Nottage had been about to introduce the documentary series The Secret Life of the Zoo when his child gained control of the mic and decided to take charge of the broadcast. Mr Nottage took to social media to share a clip of his infant impersonating him as he worked from home and comically telling viewers: 'Hello, I am Daddy.' The Channel 4 continuity announcer Pete Nottage (pictured) had been about to introduce The Secret Life of the Zoo when his child decided to gatecrash his TV link The presenter, who was working from home, took to social media to share the comical audio with others The child can be heard getting hold of the mic and taking charge of the live broadcast as one of the channel's ident (above) begins to play During the clip, which has since received more than 8,000 views on Twitter, the continuity announcer's child can be heard taking over the mic and telling C4 viewers: 'Hello, I am Daddy and this is going to be...' Just seconds later, Mr Nottage interjects and says: 'Hey, hey what's going on? No, no no. Out of the way. Go to Mummy.' Despite the comical interruption, the presenter continues with the announcement, saying: 'The Secret Life of the Zoo available to stream now on All 4 - the UK's biggest free streaming service!' The announcer, who also works as the station voice at BBC 6 Music and Manchester United Television (MUTV), later took to Twitter to share the comical clip with others alongside the caption: 'The perils of announcing from home. Ruddy kids.' One social media user wrote 'it was all going so well' before Mr Nottage replied: 'Then I showed up and spoiled it.' While another added: 'This is brilliant! You are a ledge Pete Nottage.' Another person commented: 'Funny it was The Secret Life of the Zoo too lol (sic).' Meanwhile another viewer wrote: 'Ha ha! Brilliant.' One user told Mr Nottage that it was 'going so well' before the announcer comically replied: 'Then I showed up and spoiled it' Social media users shared their amusement with the clip, with one calling Mr Nottage 'a ledge' MailOnline has approached Channel 4 and Pete Nottage for comment. The comical scenes come less than a year after Dr Clare Wenham, from South London, was interrupted by her young daughter Scarlett as she appeared on BBC News to discuss the coronavirus crisis. After Dr Wenham apologised, Scarlett remained in the room and began rearranging a shelf behind her, trying to figure out where to put a picture she had painted of a unicorn. 'Mummy, where do you want this picture, she asked, before repeating, 'Mummy, where do you want it?' After attempting to continue the interview, the presenter addressed the little girl saying: 'Scarlett, I think it looks better on the lower shelf. It's a lovely unicorn.' Meanwhile in 2017, Robert Kelly, an associate professor of Political Science at Pusan National University in Busan, was answering questions on the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, being ousted from power when his daughter Marion, then four, burst into the room. In 2017, Professor Robert Kelly became an instant sensation after his daughter Marion, then four, burst into her father's office for the world to see The professor's son James then excitedly made his way into the room in a walker. Just moments later, Mr Kelly's wife Jung-a Kim came skidding through the threshold and grabbed the two children before attempting to drag them out of the room. Talking about working from home with his young children, Professor Kelly later told the BBC: 'It's tough for us. As you can see, it's very difficult. 'Employers who have employees with kids this age; they're fighting all the time, they've got nothing to do, they're climbing the walls, it's just really really tough.' Vasorum, a Dublin-based medical device business, has received a 6m investment from growth capital investor BGF. Vasormum specialises in developing devices used to close arterial punctures in vascular, cardiology, radiology and neuro-radiology procedures. It has developed and markets the CELT Arterial Closure Device (ACD), which is used to close femoral artery punctures. The CELT ACD is based on a patented platform technology, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017 and has been used in over 70,000 patients to date. BGFs investment will be used to accelerate the commercial roll-out of CELT ACD in the United States and to invest in new product development. Vasorum is led by its founder and chief executive Dr Jim Coleman and serial entrepreneur Chas Taylor. Mr Taylor is also a former senior executive of med tech company Bard. Leo Casey, head of BGF in Ireland, said: We are delighted to welcome Jim and his team into the growing portfolio of successful Irish businesses backed by BGF. Vasorum is the seventh investment that BGF Ireland has closed in the last two years, this Mr Casey said, demonstrates BGFs continued momentum in the market. "BGFs portfolio of Irish business now spans multiple sectors including medical devices, software, aerospace engineering, security and residential construction, he added. Vasorum is chaired by former SIAC Construction CEO Finn Lyden. Mark Sykes of BGF will join the Vasorum board with Maedhbh ODriscoll of BGF joining as a board observer. BGF was advised by Dillon Eustace and Potter Clarkson (legal), Ronan Murray (financial) and Grant Thornton (tax). Vasorum was advised by Clark Hill (legal), Michael Kinsella of BCA (financial) and David OFlynn of EVA Consulting (commercial). Turkey started Wednesday vaccinating teachers against COVID-19 with National Education Minister Ziya Selcuk getting the first shot in a northern province, Anadolu agency reports. Selcuk received the jab in a primary school in the Sungurlu district of Corum, and said: Teachers can get vaccinated here today, but later they will get vaccinated in health institutions. He said a list including 1.25 million education workers was submitted to the Health Ministry, and added that the workers can get information about their turn and take appointment through the mobile application e-Nabiz (e-Pulse). President Joe Biden on Wednesday formally revoked a series of presidential orders and memorandum signed by Donald Trump, including one that sought to cut funding from several cities he deemed 'anarchist' havens and another mandating that federal buildings should be designed in a classical aesthetic. Since taking office last month, Biden has revoked dozens of Trump orders and issued dozens more of his own as he's sought to target foundational aspects of Trump's legacy and promote aspect of his own agenda without going through Congress. The latest slate of revocations targeted a grab-bag of issues, including a few that Trump signed in his last months in office. President Joe Biden on Wednesday formally revoked the order and several others Trump issued a memorandum in September that sought to identify municipal governments that permit 'anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities' Trump issued a memorandum in September that sought to identify municipal governments that permit 'anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities.' The memorandum followed riots during anti-police and anti-racism protests over George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police. The Justice Department identified New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed. Those cities in turn filed a lawsuit to invalidate the designation and fight off the Trump administration's efforts to withhold federal dollars. Seattle city attorney Pete Holmes welcomed the Biden revocation, saying he was 'glad to have this nonsense cleared from the decks.' Trump in his 'Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture' intoned that America's forefathers 'wanted public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue.' The memorandum added that architects should look to 'America's beloved landmark buildings' such as the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Department of the Treasury and the Lincoln Memorial for inspiration. The memorandum followed riots during anti-police and anti-racism protests over George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police Trump in his 'Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture' intoned that America's forefathers 'wanted public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue' Another order halted was one Trump issued in the final days of his presidency dubbed the 'Ensuring Democratic Accountability in Agency Rulemaking.' It called for limiting the ability of federal agency employees in making regulatory decisions. Biden also revoked a 2018 order that called for agency heads across the government to review welfare programs - such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing aid - and strengthening work requirements for certain recipients. On Wednesday, Biden also revoked a proclamation from his predecessor that blocked many green card applicants from entering the United States. Trump in his 'Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture' intoned that America's forefathers 'wanted public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue' Former President Donald Trump issued the ban last year, saying it was needed to protect U.S. workers amid high unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden stated in his proclamation Wednesday that shutting the door on legal immigrants 'does not advance the interests of the United States.' 'To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here. It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world,' Biden stated in his proclamation. IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AIVITA Biomedical, Inc., a private biotechnology company developing personalized vaccines for the treatment of cancer and prevention of COVID-19, today announced the completion of a Phase 1 clinical study in Indonesia of its personalized vaccine candidate, AV-COVID-19, for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The 27-participant Phase 1 study showed the treatment was well-tolerated, with no serious adverse events, and that treated individuals produced antibodies. The clinical program is being conducted by PT AIVITA Biomedika Indonesia, a joint venture established between AIVITA and local partners with support from the government of Indonesia. AV-COVID-19 is being manufactured locally by AIVITA. AIVITA is in discussions with regulatory authorities for a Phase 2 study in Indonesia, as well as clinical investigation of AV-COVID-19 in the United States in early 2021. "We continue to see unprecedented global need for preventative vaccines that can be rapidly scaled and adapted to provide protection against all COVID-19 viral variants," said Hans Keirstead, Ph.D., chief executive officer of AIVITA. "Our personalized vaccine can be created locally to support regional economic stimulation, using a kit that can be produced rapidly at scale. In addition, our materials can be adapted to quickly create new vaccines against mutations of the virus. With this de-centralized model, we can conduct studies in Indonesia while moving toward a clinical trial in the United States early this year, and prepare for worldwide distribution." AV-COVID-19 was created using AIVITA's autologous cell therapy platform, which has generated multiple therapeutic vaccine programs shown to be safe and effective in early clinical trials for difficult to treat cancers. Vaccine production begins with a basic blood draw from an individual, from which autologous immune cells are extracted using AIVITA's validated methodologies. These cells are loaded with multiple recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens to create a vaccine that is specific to each individual. The resulting cells are re-administered to the individual, with the purpose of creating fast immune protection against the coronavirus. A kit containing all materials is provided to local sites, which can carry out steps with minimal equipment, to de-centralize manufacturing. In preclinical studies, AIVITA has shown that multiple SARS-CoV-2 antigens reacted with natural immunoglobulin antibodies from COVID-19 convalescent patient serum, showing that these antigens are suitable immune targets for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine production. The multiple antigens were loaded onto the dendritic cells and the resulting vaccine mounted an appropriate immune response in lymphocytes from the same recipient. Vaccinated mice were also shown to produce antibodies and a strong cellular immune response very quickly, in a third party GLP setting. If successful in clinical studies, AV-COVID-19 may offer unique benefits compared to traditional vaccine technologies. Using a provided kit, technicians in thousands of laboratories around the world can create the vaccine quickly for individuals in their area. Many of the kit materials can be sourced from local suppliers, and have multiple alternate suppliers. The distributed kit and vaccine manufacturing model also creates a regional economic stimulus. In addition, new vaccines can be created quickly by altering the antigens provided in the kit, to address mutations of the virus. Previous studies of AIVITA's cancer immunotherapies using the same approach of loading multiple antigens, in this case from self-renewing tumor-initiating cells, into autologous dendritic cells have demonstrated promising safety and efficacy in multiple cancer types. These cancer immunotherapies are developed with a pan-antigenic approach that targets multiple neoantigens on those cells. AIVITA is advancing clinical vaccine programs in glioblastoma, ovarian cancer, and melanoma. About AIVITA'S Clinical Programs OVARIAN CANCER AIVITA's ovarian Phase 2 double-blind study is active and enrolling approximately 99 patients who are being randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive either the autologous tumor-initiating, cell-targeting immunotherapy or autologous monocytes as a comparator. Patients eligible for randomization and treatment will be those (1) who have undergone debulking surgery, (2) for whom a cell line has been established, (3) who have undergone leukapheresis from which sufficient monocytes were obtained, (4) have an ECOG performance grade of 0 or 1 (Karnofsky score of 70-100%) and (5) who have completed primary therapy. The trial is not open to patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. For additional information about AIVITA's AVOVA-1 trial patients can visit: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02033616 GLIOBLASTOMA AIVITA's glioblastoma Phase 2 single-arm study is active and completed treating 57 patients with the tumor-initiating cell-targeting immunotherapy, AV-GBM-1. In a final analysis of progression-free survival, patients treated with AV-GBM-1 had a 38% increase in progression-free survival as compared to Stupp's standard of care. For additional information about AIVITA's AV-GBM-1 trial please visit: www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03400917 MELANOMA AIVITA's melanoma Phase 1B open-label, single-arm study will establish the safety of administering anti-PD1 monoclonal antibodies in combination with AIVITA's tumor-initiating, cell-targeting immunotherapy in patients with measurable metastatic melanoma. The study will also track efficacy of the treatment for the estimated 14 to 20 patients. This trial is not yet open for enrollment. Patients eligible for treatment will be those (1) for whom a cell line has been established, (2) who have undergone leukapheresis from which sufficient monocytes were obtained, (3) have an ECOG performance grade of 0 or 1 (Karnofsky score of 70-100%), (4) who have either never received treatment for metastatic melanoma or were previously treated with enzymatic inhibitors of the BRAF/MEK pathway because of BRAF600E/K mutations and (5) are about to initiate anti-PD1 monotherapy. For additional information about AIVITA's AV-MEL-1 trial please visit: www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03743298 About AIVITA Biomedical AIVITA Biomedical, Inc. is a personalized vaccine company evaluating vaccines for prevention of COVID-19 infection and treatment of cancer. Our immuno-oncology vaccine therapies address the seed of all cancers, tumor-initiating cells, with a unique pan-antigenic approach that targets all neoantigens to overcome a cancer's tendency to mutate over time. Our patient-specific treatments have shown tremendous promise in eradicating tumors without harmful side effects in our melanoma and glioblastoma clinical studies. We have also leveraged our approach to create a proprietary skincare line, which dedicates 100 percent of net proceeds towards advancing revolutionary treatments for patients with cancer, and continue to explore additional applications in human health. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as applicable. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our plans, beliefs, expectations and assumptions, as well as other statements that are not necessarily historical facts. You are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve risks and uncertainties. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date as of which it is made and we do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements. This communication also contains market data related to our business and industry which includes projections that are based on a number of assumptions we believe are reasonable and most significant to the projections as of the date of this communication. If any of our assumptions prove to be incorrect, our actual results may significantly differ from our projections based on these assumptions. This communication is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein. SOURCE AIVITA Biomedical, Inc. NEW DELHI: In a major development, a Delhi court on Thursday granted protection to Shantanu Muluk and stayed his arrest till March 8 in connection with the toolkit case. Delhi Police has sought more time to file a detailed and comprehensive reply on the anticipatory bail plea of Shantanu Muluk in Delhi court. The court has directed the police not to take any coercive action against him and adjourned the hearing on his plea for March 9. The Delhi court had on Wednesday sought a response from the Delhi Police on the anticipatory bail application of Shantanu Muluk, who along with Disha Ravi is accused of sharing a "toolkit" on social media related to the farmers' protest. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana, who granted bail to Disha Ravi on Wednesday, posted Muluk's bail application for arguments on Friday. Muluk had got transit bail from the Bombay High Court on February 16 for a period of 10 days. During the brief hearing held through video-conferencing on Wednesday, the court also noted that Muluk has been granted protection from arrest till February 26. The matter was adjourned after the public prosecutor said that the investigating officer of the case was not present today and it would be better if the matter is heard in physical presence. Muluk, along with Ravi and another co-accused Nikita Jacob, was booked for alleged sedition and other charges. Ravi was arrested by a Cyber Cell team of the Delhi Police from Bengaluru and brought to Delhi. Muluk and Jacob are currently on transit bail, while Ravi was granted bail on Tuesday after nine-day custody. If convicted for sedition, the accused may get a maximum jail term for life. Live TV New York: Some states are resorting to proxy war by supporting non-state actors such as terrorist groups to evade international censure, said Nagaraj Naidu, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of India`s Mission to UN on Wednesday. Ambassador Naidu made these remarks at the Arria Formula meeting on the issue of "Upholding the collective security system of the UN Charter: the use of force in international law, non-state actors and legitimate self-defence. Speaking at the meeting, the envoy said, "Article 2(4) of the UN Charter requires that states refrain from the use of force. However, the drafting history of Article 51 of the UN Charter and the relevant San Francisco Conference Report of June 1945 that considered Article 2(4) of the UN Charter mentions that "the use of arms in legitimate self-defence remains admitted and unimpaired." "Article 51 also explicitly acknowledges the pre-existing customary right of self-defence, as recognized by the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council by stating that "nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence," Naidu added. He further said that customary international law has long recognised the principles governing the use of force in self-defence. "Furthermore, Article 51 is not confined to "self-defence" in response to attacks by states only. The right of self-defence applies also to attacks by non-state actors. In fact, the source of the attack, whether a state or a non-state actor, is irrelevant to the existence of the right of self-defence," Naidu said. Talking about the terrorist groups, Naidu said, "Non-state actors such as terrorist groups often attack states from remote locations within other host states, using the sovereignty of that host state as a smokescreen. He stated further that in this regard, a growing number of States believe that the use of force in self-defence against a non-state actor operating in the territory of another host State can be undertaken if: the non-state actor has repeatedly undertaken armed attacks against the State. Secondly, the host State is unwilling to address the threat posed by the non-state actor, and third is the host State is actively supporting and sponsoring the attack by the non-state actor. In other words, a State would be compelled to undertake a pre-emptive strike when it is confronted by an imminent armed attack from a non-state actor operating in a third state. This state of affairs exonerates the affected state from the duty to respect, vis-a-vis the aggressor, the general obligation to refrain from the use of force. In fact, Security Council resolutions 1368(2001) and 1373(2001) have formally endorsed the view that self-defence is available to avert terrorist attacks such as in the case of the 9/11 attacks, he said. He added, "the 1974 UNGA `Declaration on Principles of International Law, Friendly relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations` requires positive action on the part of a member state so as not to acquiesce or tolerate terrorist activities originating from within its territory, nor allow the territory under its control to be used for terrorism against another state. The Security Council also mandates all States to refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts." "Despite this, some states are resorting to proxy war by supporting non-state actors such as terrorist groups to evade international censure. Such support to non-state actors has ranged from providing and equipping the terrorist groups with training, financing, intelligence and weapons to logistics and recruitment facilitation," he said. Ambassador Naidu further said India for decades has been subject to such proxy cross-border and relentless state-supported terrorist attacks from our neighborhood. Whether it is was the 1993 Mumbai bombings, or the random and indiscriminate firings of 26/11 which witnessed the launch of the phenomenon of lone-wolves or more recently, the cowardly attacks in Pathankot and Pulwama, the world has been witness to the fact that India has repeatedly been targeted by such non-state actors with the active complicity of another host State, he said. "While we believe that instances, where states have exercised the right of self-defence to attack non-state actors located in other states, must be consistent with Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, preemptive actions taken to fight the menace of terrorism, even without the consent of the state hosting the non-state actors, meets this criterion because such actions are not of reprisal since their prime motive is for protecting the affected states` national integrity and sovereignty," he said. Live TV Healthcare Australias boss has stepped aside after an investigation found the company misled the government over the qualifications of a doctor who gave the wrong vaccine doses to patients in Queensland. A third health provider will also be brought in to handle the vaccine rollout after it was revealed on Wednesday that HCA would not be able to finish vaccinating all aged care residents on schedule by the end of the week. Healthcare Australia provided false information to the Australian government, Mr Hunt said. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Health Minister Greg Hunt was confident the phase 1a rollout would be completed within the six-week timeframe, with more than 17,500 people vaccinated across the country so far. Will we achieve it in that timeframe that we are expecting? Thats my expectation, he said. Estimates for cash burn in 2021 have ballooned to the $75 billion to $95 billion range from a previously anticipated $48 billion. However, previous analysis in November 2020 indicated that airlines would turn cash positive in the fourth quarter of 2021. New Delhi: Airlines are expected to remain cash negative until 2022, the International Air Transport Association's analysis showed on Wednesday. IATA said it is already clear that the first half of 2021 will be worse than earlier anticipated. "With governments having tightening border restrictions, 2021 is shaping up to be a much tougher year than previously expected. Our best-case scenario sees airlines burning through $75 billion in cash this year. And it could be as bad as $95 billion," IATA's Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac was quoted as saying in a statement. "More emergency relief from governments will be needed. A functioning airline industry can eventually energise the economic recovery from Covid-19. But that won't happen if there are massive failures before the crisis ends. If governments are unable to open their borders, we will need them to open their wallets with financial relief to keep airlines viable." Besides, IATA said vaccines and testing will play a role as the pandemic comes under control and economies ramp up, including the travel sector. "The 'IATA Travel Pass' will enable travelers to securely control their health data and share it with relevant authorities." At present a growing list of airlines - including Air New Zealand, Copa Airlines, Etihad Airways, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, RwandAir, and Singapore Airlines-have done or are committed to doing trials with IATA Travel Pass. In addition, statement said the IATA Travel App will protect against fraud and enable a convenient travel process. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Expanding its hot-selling Galaxy M series, Samsung is set to launch Galaxy M12 next month that will be priced around Rs 12,000. The Galaxy M12 will sport a 6.5-inch HD+ Infinity-V display and a 6000mAh battery, industry sources told IANS on Thursday. The device will feature a 'True' 48MP quad camera along with a ultra-wide, macro and depth sensor to capture detailed images with better clarity. This will be a big upgrade from Galaxy M11 that featured a 13MP triple rear camera. Galaxy M12 is likely to be powered by an 8nm chipset for a smooth mobile experience. Galaxy M12 will be Samsung's third 'M' series smartphone of the year. The South Korean giant has been on a roll since the start of the year and has made a big impact in the affordable smartphone segment with the recently launched Galaxy M02, Galaxy M02s and Galaxy A12 that have all been priced under Rs 15,000. Galaxy M series has been very popular among millennial consumers and Gen Z since its launch in 2019. Earlier this month, Samsung launched Galaxy M02 with a large 5000mAh battery, good camera and large screen starting from Rs 6,999 (2GB+32GB variant) in India. The latest Samsung Galaxy M02s has also creates ripples in the entry-level segment. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text WASHINGTON A temporary system of fencing around the Capitol topped with razor wire and built as a response to the Jan. 6 riot is costing millions of dollars as lawmakers debate whether to keep it. The fence's total cost through the end of March will exceed at least $19 million through the end of March, according to a House Democratic aide not authorized to speak on the record. After the deadly riot, a 7-foot fence topped with barbed wire was erected outside Capitol building and a second, wider fence surrounds the larger Capitol complex, blocking members of the public or protesters from visiting areas that had normally been open to the public. National Guardsmen and police officers patrol the Capitol grounds, with some carrying rifles. Capitol Police officials have said the fence is necessary to provide continued security for the Capitol following the riot, when law enforcement officers were overwhelmed by rioters. Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman has said the fencing may need to become permanent. The U.S. Capitol is seen behind the razor fence around the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. More: 'Colossal' breakdown: FBI warning not fully shared before Capitol riot; police lacked training, gear More: Thomas Jefferson statue, James Madison portrait among artifacts damaged in Capitol riot, officials say Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton, who oversees the complexs operations, told lawmakers Wednesday his agency had incurred $30 million in costs to cover the cost of the fencing and other security and maintenance expenses. The aide clarified that $19 million of that total had gone towards the fence, with the remainder going towards funding employee support services, damage estimates, cleaning of the Capitol, support for the National Guard, and other expenses. Blanton told lawmakers his agency's first assessment of damage to the building's interior and exterior was "was broken glass, broken doors and graffiti," but other historical statues, murals, benches, and shutters "suffered varying degrees of damage" from chemical irritants and fire extinguishers discharged in the building. Story continues The $30 million is not the final amount required to cover the costs of security and repairs at the Capitol, Blanton said. Telling lawmakers forthcoming expenses would be unfunded, Blanton said Wednesday additional funding would also be needed should the elevated security posture of the campus extend past March 31." Congress is likely to act on additional legislation to cover the remaining costs, though the timing of the bill is unclear. The fence has drawn the ire of lawmakers, many of whom want to preserve open access to the Capitol. Following an all-senator briefing Wednesday on Capitol security, many senators expressed resistance to keeping the fence. The U.S. Capitol is seen behind the metal security fencing around the U.S. Capitol Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Washington. U.S. While we need to make the Capitol secure, we should not turn it into an armed camp.these buildings are owned, and are for the benefit of all Americans and they should be easily accessible to all Americans, said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. And Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., told reporters, They ought to tear these fences down and send them home today. Blanton was part of a group of officials testifying before a key House panel overseeing funding for congressional operations. More: Acting Capitol police chief: No 'specific credible threat' before riot; officers unsure of lethal force authority Blanton, who is part of a panel of officials overseeing the Capitol Police, told lawmakers what he had heard about the state of Capitol Police equipment leading up to the Jan. 6 riot was heart-wrenching, telling them about helmets so old that the padding was rotting out of it. His testimony comes amid several congressional probes into the riot. The acting Capitol Police chief and the Houses top law enforcement official are testifying Thursday before the same panel, where lawmakers are expected to press them on their response to the riot. Pittman, the Capitol Police chief, is set to tell lawmakers many Capitol Police officers were unsure whether they could use deadly force during the riot, and that their less lethal munitions were not as successful in dispersing insurrectionists. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Capitol riot: costs of security fence to cost at least $19 million 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. Millions of Australians will be allowed to enjoy singing and dancing together in large groups from Friday in two states as coronavirus restrictions are lifted. From 12.01am on Friday, Premier Gladys Berejikilian has ordered gathering limits be eased in New South Wales to allow up to 50 people in private homes. Similar rules are also changing in South Australia, allowing revellers to dance in small venues, and in groups of 50 in large venues. Weddings in NSW, which are capped at 300 guests, will now be able to allow guests to dance with each other, lifting the previous restrictions that only the bridal party was allowed on the dancefloor. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) is easing coronavirus restrictions in NSW from Friday Patrons from March 17 can stand up when drinking at indoor venues. Pictured are diners at a Sydney bar on February 12 Ms Berkijikilan asked hosts to remain vigilant in ensuring guests with Covid symptoms do not attend, saying : 'Please be careful if you are taking up this opportunity. Make sure there is good ventilation, good distancing.' Wedding parties must have a rotation in place, however, allowing groups of only 30 guests on the dancefloor at once. The move follows the state having logged no locally acquired infections for a 39th straight day on Thursday - as the country entered the fourth day of a national vaccination programme. 'With the rollout of the vaccine now underway and no new locally acquired cases in NSW, we are able to make further changes towards a new COVID normal,' Ms Berejiklian said. In NSW 3,200 people were vaccinated in the first two days of the program. Gayathry Vellangalloor Srinivasan, an Environmental Services Supervisor, is watched by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (left), NSW Chief Medical Health Officer Kerry Chant (second right) and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard (right) as she receives the states first Pfizer vaccination at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Vaccination Hub in Sydney Dancefloors will once again open up in Sydney from Friday, however, limits of 30 people must be adhered to (file image) Up to 30 people will also be allowed to sing in choirs and congregations from Friday as long as they wear a face mask and adhere to physical distancing. Ms Berejiklian added that is the state continues to experience low numbers the wedding cap will be revisited in three weeks. In gyms, 50 people will be allowed in group classes, up from 30, but the four square metre rule must be adhered to. Restrictions will be further eased on March 17, barring any unexpected outbreaks of coronavirus in the state. Patrons at pubs and clubs will be able to stand and drink while indoors. Restrictions are also being eased in South Australia from Friday. Dancing will be now allowed at smaller venues with capacity of less than 200 people, while at bigger venues, 50 can dance at a time at a designated area. The state will also drop testing requirements for visitors from Melbourne, which had previously been a COVID-19 hotspot. Singing in groups will be allowed from Friday in New South Wales was coronavirus restrictions ease Commuters wearing face masks outside St. James Station in Sydney on January 4. Households in NSW will be allowed to welcome 50 visitors from Friday at 12.01am Department store giant David Jones has swung back into profit despite a fall in sales for the first half of the financial year thanks to a $39 million fillip from the JobKeeper subsidies and rent relief. The upmarket retailers parent company, South African-based Woolworths Holdings, told investors on Thursday David Jones adjusted operating profit rose 33.3 per cent for the six months to the end of December, coming in at $56 million. David Jones and Country Road have jumped into profit thanks to JobKeeper. Credit:Wayne Taylor This was a marked improvement on the companys prior corresponding half, where profits plunged 57 per cent to $20 million after a continued period of underperformance at the national chain. David Jones opted to keep its stores open during Australias first lockdown in March, however it was forced to close its doors during the second lockdown in Victoria, which dragged the companys total revenue down 8.8 per cent to $1.07 billion. Around 29million smartphone holders could be entitled to a payout after being overcharged for their smartphones, if a landmark claim by Which? is successful. Consumers could be owed a collective 482.5million in damages from multibillion-dollar tech giant Qualcomm, according to the consumer site. It believes Qualcomm has breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent-licensing and chipset markets. As such, it is able to charge manufacturers like Apple and Samsung inflated fees for technology licences, which have then been passed on to consumers in the form of higher smartphone prices. Millions of smartphone owners could receive a payout if it is found they were overcharged Which? is seeking damages for all affected Apple and Samsung smartphones purchased since 1 October 2015. It estimates consumers could be due up to 30 depending on the number and type of smartphones purchased during that period. However, it is expected at this stage that most consumers would receive around 17. Qualcomm has already been found liable by regulators and courts around the world for similar anticompetitive behaviour and Which? is urging Qualcomm to settle this claim without the need for litigation by offering consumers their money back. The consumer sites legal action could help millions of consumers get redress for Qualcomm's anticompetitive abuse. This is possible because of the opt-out collective action regime that was introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Collective proceedings involve a claim brought by a class representative on behalf of a defined group of persons who have suffered loss as a result of a breach of competition law. Similar legal action has also been taken against Qualcomm in Canada and the US. It said it has been near impossible for individual consumers to take on big companies like Qualcomm in the past but the collective regime opened the door for Which? to represent consumers where large numbers of people have been harmed by anticompetitive conduct. Anabel Hoult, CEO of Which?, said: 'We believe Qualcomm's practices are anticompetitive and have so far taken around 480million from UK consumers' pockets this needs to stop. Which? estimates consumers could be due up to 30 depending on the type of smartphone 'We are sending a clear warning that if companies like Qualcomm indulge in manipulative practices which harm consumers, Which? is prepared to take action. 'If Qualcomm has abused its market power it must be held to account. Without Which? bringing this claim on behalf of millions of affected UK consumers, it would simply not be realistic for people to seek damages from the company on an individual basis that's why it's so important that consumers can come together and claim the redress they are entitled to.' Its claim will state that Qualcomm employs two harmful and unlawful practices. This includes refusing to license its patents to other competing chipset manufacturers and refusing to supply chipsets to smartphone manufacturers, such as Apple and Samsung, unless those companies obtain a separate licence and pay substantial royalties to Qualcomm. Together, it is argued these abuses enable Qualcomm to charge Apple and Samsung higher fees for the licences for its patents than would be the case if Qualcomm behaved lawfully. Qualcomm insists it is paid fees by smartphone manufacturers even when they don't use Qualcomm chipsets in their smartphones and use another chipset instead. This raises the manufacturing costs of all smartphones, which are ultimately passed on to consumers, meaning that consumers have paid more for smartphones than they should have done. Which?'s claim will automatically include consumers that purchased particular models of Apple or Samsung smartphones, either direct from the manufacturer or from a network operator or smartphone retailer since 1 October 2015. There is no guarantee that compensation will be made available in the future the case must first be won in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, unless an earlier settlement is agreed. A Qualcomm spokesperson said: 'There is no basis for this lawsuit. As the plaintiffs are well aware, their claims were effectively put to rest last summer by a unanimous panel of judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States.' SAN DIEGO (AP) Democratic lawmakers are again proposing a bill that would stop California prisons from transferring inmates to federal immigration custody. State law prohibits local police and sheriffs from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for some crimes, but it doesn't apply to the prison system. Bounchan Keola, a Laotian immigrant who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for a gang-related shooting when he was 16, says he felt betrayed when he was turned over to ICE after helping firefighters battle massive wildfires. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed similar legislation in 2019. ICE says it doesn't comment on pending legislation. 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. ST. LOUIS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, recently announced several leadership changes, all of which are effective May 1, 2021. David L. Schwichtenberg has announced his upcoming retirement from Graybar. Schwichtenberg has nearly 47 years of service with Graybar and is currently District Vice President in the company's Tampa district. has announced his upcoming retirement from Graybar. Schwichtenberg has nearly 47 years of service with Graybar and is currently District Vice President in the company's district. Robert W. Levine has been named District Vice President in Tampa . Levine has 26 years with Graybar and currently serves as District Vice President in the Chicago district. has been named District Vice President in . Levine has 26 years with Graybar and currently serves as District Vice President in the district. Ellen S. Rebne has been named District Vice President in Chicago . Rebne has 32 years with Graybar and is currently District Vice President in the Minneapolis district. "On behalf of everyone at Graybar, I thank Dave Schwichtenberg for his extraordinary contributions to the company and wish him all the best in his retirement," said Dennis E. DeSousa, Graybar's senior vice president and general manager. "We also congratulate Rob Levine and Ellen Rebne on their new assignments. They are both strong leaders who will play a vital role in moving our business forward for the future." Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of 290 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR. Media Contact: Tim Sommer (314) 578-7672 [email protected] SOURCE Graybar Related Links http://www.Graybar.com Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. The top court in Bosnia has found a Bosnian Muslim man guilty of fighting with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria and sentenced him to six years in prison. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina also found Jasmin Keserovic guilty on the second count of having published an incitement to murder on the Internet in 2016. Judges who announced the sentence on February 25 said that by publicly calling on Muslims to kill Christian soldiers and civilians alike, the defendant demonstrated specific ruthlessness. Judges rejected defense claims that Keserovic was in Syria for charity work to help the local population amid the war. The defense can appeal the sentence. Keserovic was part of a group of seven Bosnian men flown back from Syria on a U.S. Air Force flight in December 2019 along with 18 women and children. Bosnia became the first country in Europe in 2014 to announce prison terms for its citizens who fought abroad. Some 42 suspected IS fighters who have since returned to the country were tried and, in most cases, sentenced to prison. With reporting by AP and balkaninsight.com Despite the progress, though, getting appointments for vaccinations has been a source of great frustration for many people. Appointment slots are filled within minutes of becoming available. States, local health departments and pharmacy chains have their own sign-up websites that in many cases do not share data with one another. The C.D.C. has its own vaccine administration management system, or VAMS, which some states are using to have people register for vaccinations and to collect essential data, but state officials have complained that it is clunky. Exasperated people have taken matters into their own hands, creating online navigator tools and vaccine hunter Facebook groups in cities like Los Angeles and New Orleans to help connect people with available doses. When the VaccineFinder portal goes live this week, it will include some drugstores and grocery stores nationwide, plus many other locations, like mass-vaccination sites, in Alaska, Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee. Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency was encouraging vaccination locations to provide accurate and up-to-date information on location, hours and availability of vaccines, so Americans can find vaccine sites easier. Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said, I think people are optimistic and eagerly awaiting it. He continued, As with anything that we roll out in the middle of this pandemic, if there are glitches it could end up creating a lot of confusion, but I think well just have to work through it. Finding doses was relatively straightforward in the first weeks of the vaccine rollout, when eligible people health care workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities were getting vaccinated mainly where they lived or worked. But states have since expanded their eligibility criteria to include older people, people with certain medical conditions and certain frontline workers. More locations have also been added to give out vaccines, including stadiums and local pharmacies. A New Orleans police officer fired after being booked with molesting an underage rape victim he met on the job last year is facing a civil-rights lawsuit from the girls mother. The suit against Rodney Vicknair also seeks damages from the New Orleans Police Department, which is accused of ignoring a history of problematic behavior from Vicknair, enabling him to groom and prey on the plaintiffs daughter. Vicknairs attorney on Thursday declined comment on the suit, filed a day earlier at U.S. District Court in New Orleans. In a statement Thursday, NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson noted that he placed Vicknair on emergency suspension immediately after his arrest in September and then fired earlier this year. Ferguson said the NOPD had also contacted the FBI "regarding potential civil rights violations" by Vicknair. "As I stated from the moment this was brought to my attention, this type of behavior will not be tolerated," Ferguson said. "The actions violate the basic trust citizens should never have to worry about with their police department." The newspaper generally doesnt identify victims of sexual violence and therefore is not naming the plaintiff nor her daughter. The 36-page lawsuit explains that the daughter 14 at the time reported to police on Memorial Day weekend that someone had raped her. The NOPD dispatched Vicknair, a patrol officer, to drive the girl to a hospital for what is commonly known as a rape kit. The plaintiff argues that violated NOPD regulations requiring a special victims unit detective to be dispatched to such reports and the effect was devastating. According to the lawsuit, in the hospital waiting room, Vicknair began showing her pictures of another girl clad in bikinis and lingerie, saying they were modeling photos of the officers teen daughter. He went to the victims home after she was discharged from the hospital, began calling and texting her daily, and frequently drove his patrol car over to visit. Vicknair, 54, said he wanted to mentor the girl, who turned 15 in June. But then he began acting menacingly, once striking the girls arm with his baton once and bragging about how he could kill her loved ones, according to the suit. He allegedly said hed let his daughter have sex with older men and was disappointed the plaintiffs daughter wouldnt do the same with him. He was accused of exposing himself to her on a couple of video calls while talking about how aroused he was. Wearing his uniform and with his agency-issued pistol holstered on him, Vicknair would grope the girls buttocks and breasts, and he used his fingers to penetrate her at least twice, acts to which she couldnt legally consent, the lawsuit said. The plaintiff said an unidentified person alerted the NOPD about Vicknairs conduct in between those assaults. But it wasnt until after the second one that the agency arrested Vicknair on counts of sexual battery, indecent behavior with a juvenile and malfeasance in public office, said the lawsuit, prepared by attorneys Hope Phelps and Nicholas Hite. 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 lawsuit criticizes Louisianas laws for not defining what Vicknair is accused of doing as rape. Both federal authorities and human rights advocates define rape as any form of non-consensual penetration, no matter how slight, according to the filing. The NOPD first suspended Vicknair indefinitely following his Sept. 25 arrest, but the force ultimately dismissed him on Jan. 13. The plaintiff argues that was far too little too late. After joining the NOPD in 2007, Vicknair had faced at least a half-dozen complaints in his first nine years at the agency, though none cost him his job. The lawsuit said a couple involved his leveraging the power of his office over women he met while working. He drew a five-day suspension in 2009 after running a womans license plate to obtain her name, calling her to his patrol car as if he knew her, and then failing to record the encounter on an activity log officers are supposed to keep. He received a letter of reprimand in 2016 after threatening a homeless woman whose boyfriend had just died of a heroin overdose with running her name for pending warrants. The agency warned Vicknair that continued lapses could result in harsher discipline. But in 2017, the lawsuit said, the NOPD made him a field training officer, who mentors new police academy graduates. The plaintiff demands compensation from Vicknair and the NOPD for civil rights violations, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and other damages for herself and her daughter. "NOPD gave Officer Vicknair the badge, the uniform, and the opportunity," Phelps said in a statement. "His reprehensible actions were only possible because of the position he held with NOPD." The lawsuit argues that Vicknairs case forms part of a troubling nationwide problem. It cites a Bowling Green University study that found police officers were arrested for sex-related crimes 548 times in between 2005 and 2007 alone. Victims included children preyed on by cops trusted by caregivers mainly because the officers worked in law enforcement, the study said. In 2017, former NOPD Officer Marcellus White received a 25-year prison sentence after sexually abusing at least 10 boys he met as a karate instructor and fraternity youth mentor. Note: This post was updated after it was first published to add remarks from Ferguson. Boeing had been working to strengthen engine covers on the 777 for about two years before last weekend's scare on a United Airlines flight, according to a report Thursday. Boeing was working with the Federal Aviation Administration to strengthen protective engine covers following similar problems on earlier flights preceding Saturday's emergency landing, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report comes amid a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of Saturday's United flight, which returned to Denver soon after disembarking after the engine caught fire and began breaking apart. No one was hurt in the incident, but the episode raised questions about maintenance on the jets. On Tuesday night, the FAA ordered inspections of all Pratt & Whitney engines similar to the one that broke apart. Investigators have attributed the Denver incident to a fan blade that broke off soon after takeoff due to metal fatigue and apparently breached the engine cover, known as a cowling. Both Boeing and the FAA avoided discussing specifics on the efforts to modify the 777. Such changes typically require signficant evaluation and testing. Boeing is "in constant communication with our customers and the FAA, and engaged in ongoing efforts to introduce safety and performance improvements across the fleet," a Boeing spokesman said. "We will continue to follow the guidance of the FAA on this issue and all matters related to safety and compliance, and we continue to provide updates to our customers." The FAA said it focused on fan blade inspections in its most recent order on the Pratt & Whitney engines and on an earlier directive after a 2018 incident on a 777. "Redesigning airframe and engine components is a complex process. One of the top priorities to date has been reducing the risk of a fan-blade failure that could lead to cowling damage," an FAA spokesman said. "The FAA engages with manufacturers to continuously enhance safety. Any proposed design change to a critical piece of structure must be carefully evaluated and tested to ensure it provides an equivalent or improved level of safety and does not introduce unintended risks." This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. WASHINGTON The government of Afghanistan has filed a petition in federal court supporting the return of a citizen who has been held for a third of his life at Guantanamo Bay and now argues that, based on a series of peace agreements in his fractious country, his war is over. The 24-page brief was submitted by Afghanistans Foreign Ministry in the case of Asadullah Haroon Gul. It is believed to be the first time a foreign government has stepped into a habeas corpus case in two decades of detention challenges in federal court by the wartime prisoners held at the United States military base in Cuba. Earlier repatriations were the result of diplomacy, not litigation. The American military says Mr. Haroon, who is about 40, is a former commander of an Islamic militia that attacked coalition forces in Afghanistan and was a go-between for Al Qaeda. He was captured in 2007. Mr. Haroon is one of 40 prisoners at Guantanamo. Twelve are charged with crimes, but he is not one of them. Periodic reviews of his case by a national security panel have deemed him too great a threat to the United States to be released. The epidemiological curve in Spain is still falling, but this third wave is leaving behind significant damage: February is now the month with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths since the first wave of the pandemic last spring. And that is with three more coronavirus reports still to come from the central Health Ministry before the month is out. According to the latest figures, released on Wednesday evening, there have been 9,387 Covid-19 deaths in Spain in February so far, with 389 added to the overall death toll in the last report. The good news is that the 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants came in at 218, having fallen below the extreme risk level of 250 earlier in the week. All of Spains regions, apart from Madrid, the Basque Country and the North African exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla, are now under that 250-case level according to Wednesdays report. According to the latest report, 30% of ICU beds are occupied by Covid patients (3,241), and in some regions it is over 44% As has been seen in the previous waves of the health crisis, during this third spike it was infections that rose first, due to socializing over the Christmas period, then hospital admissions, followed by increased occupation of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and finally a rise in the number of deaths. According to the ministrys figures, 873 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the last seven days, while the total death toll since the outset of the pandemic now stands at close to 68,500. This does not include, however, the thousands of fatalities that went untested in the first wave. February has now outstripped November in terms of the death toll that month, in the midst of the second wave, saw 9,191 victims. The worst month, however, continues to be April, during the first wave, when there were around 15,500 fatalities. At that time, it should be pointed out, the statistics and reporting were not as well-honed as they are now. Despite the bad data in terms of victims, the situation is improving throughout Spain. Extremadura, with 87 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days and the Balearic Islands, with 101, are the regions where transmission is most under control. The areas that are still at maximum alert levels are the North African cities of Melilla (458) and Ceuta (311), as well as Madrid (339) and the Basque Country (274). Despite the falling curve, Health Minister Carolina Darias called on Wednesday for caution. In the last four weeks, there has been a very fast fall in the incidence over the last four weeks, she said at a press conference yesterday. This rapid fall has been uneven and there is also a reduction in the speed of descent. The average daily fall is 7% but this varies from region to region. In fact, Catalonia is one of the regions where the trend is about to take a turn. The speed of the propagation of the virus, known as the R number i.e. how many people a positive case infect on average has once again risen above one, which is the limit that the health authorities have established to consider the pandemic under control. The fall in cases in the northeastern Spanish region has been slowing down for some days now, and is threatening to increase once more. It is the British variant that is constraining us the most, said Clara Prats, an expert in mathematical epidemiology at the Catalan Polytechnic University. We dont know how it is going to behave. She was referring to the more-infectious strain first detected in England and known as B.1.1.7. This variant is thought to be circulating in Spain but the countrys limited genetic sequencing capabilities are hampering efforts to track this and other new strains. We know the consequences of previous deescalations that were carried out in an abrupt manner Health Minister Carolina Darias Meanwhile, in the Canary Islands the fall in infections has also slowed down, and the 14-day incidence has actually risen slightly, from 108 on Monday to 111 on Wednesday. Transmission also crept up in Melilla this week, while the curve is falling slower in Navarre and Cantabria, for example, compared to the average. The health minister predicted yesterday that the fall in the curve will continue in Spain, but it will be uneven from region to region. She repeated her call for prudence when it comes to the deescalation of the current restrictions in place. We know the consequences of previous deescalations that were carried out in an abrupt manner, she warned. The situation in the countrys hospitals continues to be serious across Spain, and a new spike in cases would be dangerous for the health system. According to the latest report, 30% of ICU beds are occupied by Covid patients (3,241), and in some regions, these high numbers are persisting over time. In Madrid, for example, ICU occupation is over 44% while in Catalonia and Castilla y Leon it is around 40%. English version by Simon Hunter. Workers climb scaffolding on a Joint Support Ship being built for the Royal Canadian Navy at Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver, B.C., on Oct. 9, 2020. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press) Navy and Coast Guards Shipbuilding Plan Plagued by Delays, Auditor General Says OTTAWAFederal auditor general Karen Hogan delivered a stark warning Thursday that government mismanagement is threatening to leave the navy and coast guard without the ships they need to defend Canada and protect its waterways. The warning is contained in a new report tabled in the House of Commons that offers a scathing assessment of the state of Ottawas multibilliondollar national shipbuilding strategy nearly 10 years after it was launched. Hogan and her team found delays across the board in the construction and delivery of new ships for the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Those delays are threatening to create gaps as the navy and coast guard vessels that those ships are supposed to replace are near retirement, or in some cases have already reached that stage. Those already retired include the Navys three destroyers and two support ships, while the Coast Guard has sometimes had to do without certain research vessels and icebreakers because the existing ships are docked for repairs. Hogans report identifies a variety of problems and mistakes in the governments management of the shipbuilding plan over the past decade, all of which have contributed to the problem. She says the government has managed to mitigate some of the shortterm effects, but she warns that Canada is already feeling the pinch as ships retire or are forced into extended maintenance with no replacements on deck. The delivery of many ships was significantly delayed, and further delays could result in several vessels being retired before new vessels are operational, says Hogans report, which looked at how the plan was managed from January 2018 to January 2020. National Defence and the Canadian Coast Guard have implemented measures to maintain their operational capabilities until new ships are delivered, but interim capabilities are limited and cannot be extended indefinitely. The report added that it had not assessed the impact of the COVID19 pandemic but noted that shipyards have either closed or reduced their workforces due to restrictions, which will further threaten schedules. The auditor generals report comes one day after the parliamentary budget office estimated that the construction of 15 new warships through the strategy will cost $77.3 billion, about $17 billion than the governments stated price. Both reports are likely to raise fresh questions about the shipbuilding plan, which was launched in earnest in October 2011 when Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax and Seaspan Marine in Vancouver were selected to build dozens of navy and coast guard vessels. The government is now working to add a third shipyard to the program, Chantier Davie in Quebec City, to work on a series of icebreakers. Hogan acknowledges the complexity of building new ships but says that was compounded by the shipbuilding plans other objectives: creating a Canadian shipbuilding industry, and boosting the economy. Nearly a decade after it was launched, the auditor said the government did not know if the two shipyards in Halifax and Vancouver had even reached a state where they met international shipconstruction standards to enable efficient ship production. That was despite the agreements between the government and shipyards having set the expectation that the (Vancouver) shipyard would achieve target state within about three years and the (Halifax) shipyard within about six years, the report says. The level of target state achieved by the (Halifax) shipyard is expected to be assessed before February 2022. In fact, officials did not assess whether the shipyardsor even the government departments involvedhad enough staff to implement the shipbuilding plan and deliver the new ships on schedule. We noted instances where such staff shortages caused shipbuilding delays, the auditors report says, adding the government only drew up a draft human-resources plan for the shipbuilding strategy in December 2019. One of the early steps in the plan is to assess whether the government and industry have the capacity to carry out the strategy. Hogans report also catalogues some of the numerous changes to the schedule and cost of the various individual projects involved in the shipbuilding plan, which is supposed to deliver dozens of new vessels over a 30-year period. That included several amendments to the contract with Seaspan Marine for three fisheries science vessels for the coast guard, which saw the delivery schedule pushed back by two to three years. The report also revealed the Vancouver shipyard sustained significant financial losses during the construction of those vessels, the last of which was delivered last October, due to a significant underestimation in the time and effort needed to build them. This not only threatened the strategys overall objective of creating a sustainable marine industry, the auditor generals report says, but also put the renewal of the federal fleet in peril. Hogan also raised concerns about the continued uncertainty around building a polar icebreaker to replace the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. The ship was pulled from Seaspans order book in 2019, but the government has not decided where it will be built. The auditor general did suggest departments have started to learn from some of their earlier mistakes and expressed a cautious hope those lessons would ease some of the many problems afflicting the shipbuilding strategy. But there was little room for further delay, Hogans report says. Delaying could result in a loss of capability to deliver essential government programs. As an example, she noted that the last of the navys existing Halifax-class frigates is due to retire in 2047only one year before the last of 15 new warships is scheduled to arrive. By Lee Berthiaume Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on his supporters to display restraint and remain calm during the rallies that he called for. Asked by reporters whether or not he sees the danger of potential clashes, he said: There is always a danger, it is tense. But we must all agree that no such thing will happen in Armenia. The most important thing is that we are all calm, we have no enemies in Armenia, this is the most important record. But there are issues that must definitely be discussed, and this discussion is the purpose of our rally today. Earlier today, the General Staff of the Armed Forces called on Pashinyan to step down. In turn, Pashinyan said this demand amounts to an attempted coup. Asked by reporters whether or not the danger of the coup is over, Pashinyan said the danger of a coup is mostly manageable. I think that was an emotional reaction, Pashinyan said regarding the militarys statement. And we shouldnt treat our brothers strictly, its just that some of our brothers have been drawn into, but even those whom Ive decided to dismiss are my brothers, all of them are my brothers, our brothers, soldiers of the country, therefore be calm, Pashinyan said. There must be an atmosphere of brotherhood in Armenia, but this doesnt mean that there wont be a political debate and conversation. The peoples power must be preserved and protected, he said. Pashinyan went on to walk with his supporters in downtown Yerevan. He called on citizens to gather at the central square in Yerevan at 16:00. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan Turkey's parliament is set to consider legal bids to lift the immunity from prosecution of 21 pro-Kurdish MPs, applying more pressure on a political party targeted in a years-long crackdown and that now faces calls for its closure. The government accuses the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), parliament's third largest, of ties to Kurdish militants and stepped up its accusations after Turkish captives were killed in Iraq earlier this month. The HDP in response criticised President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) for using a failed military rescue mission to target it politically and to sow ethnic division, and the European Union has expressed concern over the legal moves. AKP Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop told reporters on Thursday it was "saddening" for parliament to have to deal with so many dossiers with such charges, including "manslaughter", "spreading terrorist propaganda" and "provoking hatred". State-owned Anadolu news agency said 20 HDP deputies and one from an affiliated party were among 25 targeted by the cases. The HDP, which has 56 members in the 660-seat assembly, denies links with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. The legal bids will first be handled by a parliamentary commission which will decide whether to put them to a vote in the general assembly. The timing of the process was unclear. Nine of the HDP deputies were accused in connection with protests triggered by an Islamic State militant attack on the Syrian town of Kobani in 2014. The subsequent protests in Turkey led to the deaths of 37 people. Ankara said this month in Iraq's Gara region the PKK executed 13 prisoners, including Turkish military and police personnel, during an army operation meant to rescue them. The PKK said the captives died during clashes. HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan, one of those accused over the Kobani protests, said this week the government had sought to make political capital out of the Gara operation. "They began to attack the HDP from all directions. Each day the 'shut down the HDP' chorus continues to cause uproar, show enmity towards Kurds and spread the hatred climate," she said. Erdogan's nationalist allies have repeatedly called for the HDP's closure over links to the PKK, which Turkey, the EU and United States designate a terrorist group. The PKK has waged an insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The crackdown on the HDP in recent years has included the arrests of thousands of party officials and members, while dozens of its elected mayors and lawmakers have been ousted. EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said earlier this week the EU was "gravely concerned" about continuing pressure on the HDP, including "what seem to be politically motivated judicial proceedings". Short link: Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions SAN DIEGO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NEUVOGEN, an immunoncology company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Alan C. Mendelson to its Board of Directors effective February 23, 2021. "We are honored to welcome Alan to NEUVOGEN's Board of Directors" said Todd Binder, Chief Executive Officer of NEUVOGEN. "As one of the most respected advisors in the life sciences sector, Alan will provide invaluable guidance to our business and legal teams as we seek to maximize NEUVOGEN's exceptional potential for the clinical development of our novel cancer vaccine candidates in solid tumors." Alan C. Mendelson served as a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP from May 2000 to December 2020, where he held several leadership roles, including Co-Chair of the Emerging Companies Practice Group and Global Co-Chair of the Life Sciences Industry Group, and advised numerous private and public companies, primarily in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Latham & Watkins, Mr. Mendelson was a partner at Cooley LLP from February 1980 to May 2000. From November 1995 to June 1996, he served as acting General Counsel of Cadence Design Systems Inc., a public EDA software and services company. Previously, from April 1990 to April 1991, he served as secretary and acting general counsel of Amgen Inc. Mr. Mendelson previously served on the boards of directors of several public biotech companies including Aviron Inc., CV Therapeutics, Inc., QLT, Inc., and Valentis, Inc. He has served as the corporate secretary for Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Eargo, Inc. and 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Inc. Mr. Mendelson also currently serves on the board of directors of Coherus Biosciences, the California Life Sciences Association and the boards of trustees of the University of California, Berkeley Foundation and The Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Mr. Mendelson received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. "I am thrilled to be joining the NEUVOGEN Board of Directors at this stage in the company's growth and progress. I welcome the opportunity to continue to work with such a talented business and scientific team. I am particularly interested in the company's systems approach to solving solid tumors and the remarkable opportunity that creates for substantial patient benefit and sizeable market value," said Mendelson. A link to comprehensive biographies can be found at www.neuvogen.com/about-us/. About NEUVOGEN NEUVOGEN, Inc. is an immunoncology company focused on whole cell cancer vaccine therapies. NEUVOGEN believes its cancer vaccines have the broadest combination of tumor associated antigens and tumor specific antigens ever delivered in a cancer vaccine and as a result can directly target a greater percentage of cancer cells in a solid tumor than any previous cancer vaccine. Based in San Diego, California, NEUVOGEN's goal is to develop therapeutic cancer vaccines that activate the body's immune system to eradicate solid tumors and meaningfully extend the lives of patients while limiting side effects. To learn more, visit www.neuvogen.com. SOURCE NEUVOGEN Related Links http://www.neuvogen.com "Follow the science" is what progressive Democrats demand when the science suits them. And yet, like Pavlov's salivating dog and the meat powder, a whiff of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo prompts a predictable, conditioned response: a barking chorus of "whatabout whatabout" Ted Cruz or other Republicans. There are plenty of Republicans to choose from, but as Cuomo began to publicly dissolve, it was Cruz, the conservative senator of Texas, who served up an awkward feast of himself. Cruz flew to sunny Cancun while his constituents were suffering and dying without power during a killer cold snap. He made it worse with a weasel trick, shifting the blame to his family for his jetting off to Mexico. His sin was about optics. And he deserves to pay for it. But it wasn't Cruz who ordered senior citizens infected with COVID-19 back into nursing homes. Cuomo did that. It wasn't Cruz who allegedly manipulated the numbers of nursing home deaths, now under federal investigation, while writing a book about his admirable handling of the health pandemic. Cuomo did that. Cuomo's decisions regarding COVID-19 patients allegedly harmed thousands of seniors. Letitia James, Democrat and New York attorney general, issued a report on the undercounting of deaths. The New York Post reported on an admission of a cover-up, and investigations began amid Democrat vs. Democrat bullying and shrieking. But is this just a New York fight or does it suggest a larger truth about where American politics is heading? The progressives aren't merely influencing Democratic politics. In the deep blue states, they've taken control as the old party apparatus crumbles. The violent summer protests were about flexing muscle. Liberal Democratic mayors cowered and were overwhelmed in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon and Seattle. Progressive muscle now is about taking out Cuomo, which is critical to protect the ambitions of their real champion, Vice President Kamala Harris. Prior to Cuomo's meltdown, oddsmakers already were evaluating a Cuomo vs. Harris matchup in the 2024 presidential primary. "Cuomo is in trouble," David Marcus, the New York correspondent for the conservative Federalist site and other publications, including the New York Post, explained on my podcast, "The Chicago Way." "We've known for months and months now something fishy was going on with the numbers from the nursing homes," Marcus said. "Progressive Attorney General Letitia James released a report saying Cuomo basically lied and undercounted nursing home deaths. "[Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] of New York called for an investigation. Democrats called for impeachment, taking away Cuomo's powers. It's a mess. The media is trying to protect him, but that's hard to do." After the mass looting and violence of those "mostly peaceful" protests over the summer in the big Democratic cities, we've all proved susceptible to being dazzled by fire and anger and spin, so much so that sometimes we don't see the thing in front of us. What Cuomo allegedly did to the seniors sentenced to death in New York nursing homes is his doing, his fault and his sin. His alone. Make no mistake about this. He deserves what's coming. And what is happening to Cuomo is what happened to Democratic mayors in big cities during those "mostly peaceful" protests: The old Democrats are being devoured by the progressives who've taken control of urban politics. "The Democratic Party in big cities is no longer the big machine that it once was, yet Cuomo still operates as if he's a boss of Democratic machine politics," Marcus said on "The Chicago Way." "But this is a post-machine political age." Indeed. It is a truth learned firsthand, through costly experimentation in the ultimate political and biological laboratories of America. It has been learned by every liberal Democratic big-city mayor during the summer, as their downtown business districts were looted and burned. The mayors might be liberal, but they're no match for the energy of the progressives. And the landscape that nurtured the old Democratic bosses, like the Daleys in Chicago, like Cuomo's own father, Mario, in New York, has shifted. "Progressive groups like the 'justice Democrats,' are doing an end run around the party machines that no longer have the patronage operations that they once did," Marcus said. "And Cuomo's learning that. He's not the boss in the party the way his dad was in the 1980s. The politics are different.'" What is different? The Democratic Party has always been a big tent party of competing interests. The patronage was simple and understood: Get out the vote and keep your city job and pension. What's changed is that the old bulls lost control. The new Democratic patronage is found in the public workers unions, the public schoolteachers and others. They flexed their muscle in the summer. Now they want to use it some more. And they'll use it to rid the political world of possible rivals to Harris. Until he began to collapse, Cuomo had been propped up by much of the media, by CNN in particular, in those painful, cloying interviews with his brother Chris and by other outlets. The governor was even given an Emmy for his handling of COVID-19 news conferences when he was posed, like an anti-Trump mannequin, as an alternative to the carefully scripted Joe Biden. But that's over. Biden is president. Cuomo fights for his life. Harris waits for an opening. Once the meat powder was in the air, the rest was inevitable political biology, where only the strong survive. And that's science too, isn't it? (C)2021 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Its really hard to put all of it into words. It was December, as Covid-19 deaths were besieging California, and Helen Cordova, an intensive care unit nurse in Los Angeles, was trying to describe what it was like. This is a very real disease, Ms. Cordova said. Those images of inside of hospitals, thats very accurate. Two months later, it is still hard to put in words how deeply the pandemic has scarred the state, but one single number told the story: 50,000. That is how many people have died from coronavirus over the past year in California the first state to pass that milestone. The record was hit on Wednesday, and by Thursday deaths were nearing 51,000. -Start of Production for the e.GO Life scheduled for June 2021 -Focus on its disruptive Internet of Production to drive decentralized international growth AACHEN, Germany, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- nd Industrial Investments B.V., part of international private equity company nd Group B.V. and majority shareholder of Next.e.GO Mobile SE, has successfully closed a Series B equity funding round of more than EUR 30 Million for Next.e.GO Mobile SE, enabling start of production in its German factory and supporting Company's growth agenda. The round attracted renowned international investors from all around the globe, including Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), the privately held investment company for Louis M. Bacon, founder & CEO of Moore Capital Management, LP; John Snow, Previous U.S. Secretary of Treasury; Alejandro Agag, the founder and Chairman of Formula E and a pioneer in EV racing as well as Edward Norton - a three-time Academy award nominated actor, writer, director and co-founder of multiple technology companies such as CrowdRise and EDO. Having served as the UN Ambassador for Biodiversity for over 10 years and a long-time advocate for decarbonisation and environmental sustainability, Mr. Norton is one of the great brand ambassadors for e.GO in its mission to transform and reimagine the urban mobility. With its four-seater passenger car, e.GO Life, and its disruptive production platform, Next.e.GO Mobile SE offers one of the most sustainable electric cars. "We are very pleased with the success of the Series B funding and more so with the quality and impact of our great investors, who have joined the Next.e.GO journey in driving the transformation of carbon-free urban mobility and offering true life-cycle sustainability" says Ali Vezvaei, CEO of nd Group B.V. and Member of the Board of Directors at Next.e.GO Mobile SE. The production of the e.GO Life at Plant 1 in Aachen, Germany, is scheduled for June 2021, making Next.e.GO one of the only Western independent BEV manufacturers that commences production this year. In parallel, the company is working closely with suppliers of electronics and plastic components to ensure timely progress on all fronts. Employees will be gradually brought out of short-time working. Production will initially focus on a special limited edition e.GO Life NEXT, celebrating this major milestone in the company's journey. Only available to the first 1,000 customers, the limited edition is priced at 22.990 including VAT, after manufacturer's environmental bonus. "We are very grateful for the continued enthusiasm, commitment and patience of our customers and fans and are equally happy to finally be able to accept their orders" says Professor Gunther Schuh, founder and Chairman of the Administrative Board at Next.e.GO Mobile SE. The special edition e.GO Life NEXT will be delivered to customers as early as July 2021 onwards. Copyright - Next.e.GO Mobile SE Next.e.GO Mobile SE Next.e.GO Mobile SE, headquartered in Aachen, is a manufacturer of electric vehicles and sustainable mobility systems. On the RWTH Aachen Campus, 400 employees of Next.e.GO Mobile SE use the unique network of science and business with 420 technology companies as well as a comprehensive research infrastructure. Agile teams are working on various cost-effective and particularly durable electric vehicles for short-distance traffic. ND Group B.V. nd Group B.V. is a Private Equity and Holding company, headquartered in the Netherlands. Founded in 2008, the firm is primarily focused on EV, Alternative Energy, Fintech, HealthTech, Industrial assets and real estate. Contact: Next.e.GO Mobile SE Public Relations Campus-Boulevard 30 52074 Aachen T +49 241 47574-227 presse@e-go-mobile.com ND Group B.V. Public Relations Flight Forum 880 5657 DV Eindhoven, The Netherlands Phone: +31 40 30 40 50 1 press@nd.net Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1444706/e_GO_Life_Next.jpg [February 25, 2021] North American Mobile Situational Awareness Market Report 2021: Heightened First-Responder Safety and Effectiveness, Coupled with Affordable Subscription Pricing, Create New Growth Opportunities DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "North American Mobile Situational Awareness Market is Accelerating Out of Early Adopter Stage" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This study examines the North American mobile situational awareness market. For the purposes of this study, mobile situational awareness offerings are defined as software solutions that put near real-time information about critical field situations at the disposal of emergency first responder teams via their mobile devices. This information usually includes mapping of the area and its surroundings, location and status of personnel and other markers, alerts, relevant photos and videos, and up-to-the-minute guidance from central command. While the typical form factor is the smartphone (regular or ruggedized), smart watch capabilities can also be provided, depending upon the vendor. Key market trends, adoption dynamics, and potential growth opportunities are examined. Revenue forecasts are provided for two product categories: 1) Public Safety - firefighters, police, EMTs, etc. 2) Private Security - security guards in the enterprise sector, such as manufacturing, utilities, and health facilities. The total market is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 37.8% over the study's 2019-2025 forecast period. The mobile situational awareness market is in an early stage, with a number of both small and large vendors competing for attention and share. MSA product awareness and interest is accelerating in each of the two major target segments. Current and prospective users of mobile situational awareness offerings will want to remain current on product enhancements and the growing array of industry participants. High-potential new customers should understand the affordability and benefits of this solution category, especially when compared to current Land Mobile Radio (LMR) technology. All stakeholders will want to track trends, partnership opportunities, and evolving customer needs. Challenges to growth in today's obile situational awareness market include: 1) Solutions remain a work in progress, prompting certain prospective customers to delay purchase and deployment, 2) Finding funding in government departments and overall cost sensitivity in private security settings, 3) A fragmented public safety sector that extends the approval process and complicates the sales cycle, 4) Customer concerns regarding privacy, security and reliability, and 5) The preponderance of technology laggards in the public sector. Companies interviewed for this study include AT&T and Intrepid Networks. Key Issues Addressed Who are the current key participants (vendors and channels) in this industry? What is the current distribution mix? What is the revenue forecast for the mobile situational awareness market as a whole and for each of the two product segments investigated? What are three top strategic imperatives impacting today's mobile situational awareness industry? Who are key competitors in each of the two major product segments? What are three major growth opportunities in this industry? What are the major growth drivers and growth restraints in today's mobile situational awareness industry? Key Topics Covered: Strategic Imperatives Why Is It Increasingly Difficult to Grow? The Strategic Imperative The Impact of the Top Three Strategic Imperatives on the Mobile Situational Awareness Industry Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine Growth Opportunity Analysis, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Mobile Situational Awareness Market Scope of Analysis Market Segmentation Key Competitors for Mobile Situational Awareness Market Key Growth Metrics for Mobile Situational Awareness Market Distribution Channels for Mobile Situational Awareness Market Growth Drivers for Mobile Situational Awareness Market Growth Restraints for Mobile Situational Awareness Forecast Assumptions, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Revenue Forecast, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Revenue Forecast by Product, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Revenue Forecast Analysis, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Pricing Trends and Forecast Analysis, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Competitive Environment, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Growth Opportunity Analysis, Public Safety Key Growth Metrics for Public Safety Revenue Forecast, Public Safety Revenue Forecast Analysis, Public Safety Growth Opportunity Analysis, Private Security Key Growth Metrics for Private Security Revenue Forecast, Private Security Revenue Forecast Analysis, Private Security Growth Opportunity Universe, Mobile Situational Awareness Market Growth Opportunity 1 - Targeting the Private Sector to Expand Reach, Minimize Purchase Barriers, and Increase Revenues, 2020 Growth Opportunity 2 - Enabling Smart City Integrations to Improve Information Quality and Increase Revenues, 2020 Growth Opportunity 3 - Forging White Label Relationships to Expand Into New Markets and Lower Customer's Perceived Risk, 2020 Next Steps Your Next Steps Legal Disclaimer List of Exhibits Companies Mentioned AT&T CommandWear Intrpid-Networks Incident Response Technologies Motorola Verizon For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7j55nv Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com 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 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/north-american-mobile-situational-awareness-market-report-2021-heightened-first-responder-safety-and-effectiveness-coupled-with-affordable-subscription-pricing-create-new-growth-opportunities-301235932.html SOURCE Research and Markets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Mountain States TRUSTED news source. Click here to stay informed and subscribe to The Charleston Gazette-Mail. Click #isupportlocal for more information on supporting our local journalists. Learn more about HD Media A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Professor Ohene Adjei, has expressed shock over the decision to demolish the 45year-old uncompleted Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) of the hospital to allow for the construction of an entirely new building. He said during his tenure at the hospital, all the reports conducted on the building indicated that it was in good condition and could be completed for use. Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Kumasi last Friday, he said the government at that time approached an American company for assistance to complete the project and when they came to assess the building, they never gave any indication that it was not fit for purpose. Cost Prof. Adjei wondered how a government that was unable to find money to complete a project would now be in a position to find money to pull it down and put up a new one to replace it. He said the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL) had sat in all the meetings on the project and had never recommended that the building be pulled down for doubts over its structural integrity and not being fit for purpose. Decision important However, the Project Manager of the MBU project and Head of Architectural Engineering at the Ministry of Health (MoH), Mr Richard Vanderpuye, said the decision to demolish the building was the best for the country. He said the former CEO had left the place for about seven years and within that time, lots of things had happened and as such, he should not expect the building to be in the same shape as he left it. Mr Vanderpuye said even though the structural integrity reports on the project recommended two solutions, including the strengthening of the building or its complete demolition, strengthening the current structure would require between 30 and 35 per cent of the current project sum and there was no guarantee that it would survive the next 30 years. That, he said, could increase the project cost of the building to about 40 per cent with no guarantee of its lifespan. Technical perspective Mr Vanderpuye told the Daily Graphic that from a technical perspective, the building had deteriorated and could crumble under the weight of equipment and load. Besides that, he said, there was the need to safeguard government investment and as such, it was more prudent to demolish it than to reinforce the current building and install equipment in it. He explained that the normal life cycle of a building was 50 years and the current building had been in existence for 45 years at the mercy of the weather. Demolition Mr Vanderpuye said the contractors were ready to demolish the building and were waiting for the permit from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to start the demolition. He said due to the imposing nature of the structure, the demolition would be undertaken in phases until the whole structure was pulled down. Work is ongoing on the project and the building is currently sitting on a platform and once the permit is granted, the demolition exercise will start, he said. Background The President, Nana Addo Dankwa AkufoAddo, supported by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, on May 15, 2020, cut the sod for the reactivation of the MBU which had stalled for more than 40 years. The project, which was awarded to Contracta UK Limited at the cost of 155 million, was expected to be completed within a 36month period. However, last week, the Ashanti Regional Minister designate, Mr Simon Osei Mensah, in a radio interview, announced the governments decision to pull down the building due to its structural defects. Source: Graphiconline.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 [February 25, 2021] SALMON Health and Retirement Chooses Medline and OnShift to Improve Workforce Engagement NORTHFIELD, Ill., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SALMON Health and Retirement, a senior living organization with eight communities across Massachusetts, has selected OnShift's human capital management software platform to deliver an innovative employee experience to their 1,500 employees. Through a new collaboration with Medline, SALMON Health and Retirement has begun implementing OnShift's software to provide flexible employee schedules, drive down labor costs, engage staff and improve quality of care through consistent staffing. "Taking care of our staff is the number one priority at SALMON Health and Retirement. OnShift provides our employees the visibility and flexibility required to achieve a better work-life balance, which is needed now more than ever," said Courtney Sibinich, recruitment manager for SALMON Health and Retirement. "Our partnership with OnShift gives our team members a powerful, modern experience that leads to better engagement and retention long-term." SALMON Health and Retirement employees are leveraging OnShift's mobile app to access shifts and manage their schedules. In 2020, over 5,000 shifts were filled by employee-generated requests, saving the organization significant administrative time and improving employee satisfaction. In addition, community leaders rely on OnShifts robust messaging system to effectively communicate open shifts and other updates with employees. These communications have been critical during the pandemic, reaching all employees with important and timely updates including policy changes, CDC guidance and COVID-19 infection control guidelines. In the coming months, SALMON Health and Retirement will expand its use of OnShift by implementing OnShift's employee engagement solutions. With OnShift, the post-acute care provider will be able to easily capture employee feedback through pulse surveys, reward staff for positive behaviors, and offer access to earned but unpaid wages between paychecks. "The pandemic exacerbated workforce issues in the long-term care sector. SALMON Health and Retirement is addressing these challenges and leading the way with their use of OnShift's software to foster the well-being of their employees, improve operational efficiencies and control costs," said Shawn Scott, vice president of strategic business development, Medline's Post-Acute Care division. "We are pleased to work closely with the organization, together with OnShift, on their commitment to making an even bigger impact on the lives of their dedicated and caring employees." Learn more about how Medline is working with long-term care customers to implement customized quality improvement plans at https://www.medline.com/pages/business-solutions/quality-management/. About Medline Medline is a healthcare company: a manufacturer, distributor and solutions provider focused on improving the overall operating performance of healthcare. Medline works with both the country's largest healthcare systems and independent facilities across the continuum of care to provide the clinical and supply chain resources required for long-term financial viability in delivering high quality care. With the size of one of the country's largest companies and the agility of a family-owned business, Medline is able to invest in its customers for the long-term and rapidly respond with customized solutions. Headquartered in Northfield, Ill., Medline has 27,000+ employees worldwide, a fleet of nearly 1,000 trucks and does business in more than 90 countries. Learn more about Medline at www.medline.com. About OnShift, Inc. OnShift's next-generation human capital management platform fundamentally transforms the relationship between healthcare organizations and their employees. Our innovative approach to recruitment, hiring, workforce management and engagement fosters a culture where people want to work. That's why thousands of healthcare organizations rely on OnShift's integrated suite of software and services to dramatically reduce turnover rates, decrease costs and improve the quality and continuity of care. For more information, visit www.onshift.com. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/salmon-health-and-retirement-chooses-medline-and-onshift-to-improve-workforce-engagement-301235940.html SOURCE Medline [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Most panda reserves consist of bamboo forests at high elevation, which is not ideal for all wildlife. The researchers found that two threatened species, Asiatic black bears and forest musk deer, actively lost key habitat in the most intensively protected panda areas. And in places where habitat changed for the better for forest musk deer and Asiatic black bears, as well as for two other cloven-hoofed species, Chinese serow and Reeves muntjac, it changed for the worse for pandas. Now we know that when were protecting pandas, were losing Asiatic black bears, musk deer and probably many other species, Dr. Wang said. The findings echo research published last summer by some of Dr. Wangs colleagues, which found that panda conservation had not helped large carnivores in China, like leopards, wolves and snow leopards. David Lindenmayer, a conservation biologist at the Australian National University in Canberra, who was not involved in the research, said the new panda findings reinforced ongoing concerns about the umbrella species approach to conservation. While pandas and other high-profile species are great for fund-raising and campaigning, rare animals usually have very specific habitat requirements. Efforts to conserve an entire ecosystem seldom align with the needs of these more charismatic species, Dr. Lindenmayer said. There is a need to be very sober in making decisions about what species are selected and why, and what species can and cannot work as useful surrogates, he said. Otherwise, serious mistakes get made. In China, reception to the panda findings has been mixed, Dr. Wang said. Some people said its just common sense that species need their own habitat, but others asked me why I wrote an article in English criticizing our great success in panda conservation. Dr. Wang was concerned that the government would be displeased, but so far, he said, the response has been mostly positive. Theyve started to talk about incorporating a multispecies monitoring network in the new Giant Panda National Park in Central China, he said. They may not be happy about this finding, but I think theyre moving forward to avoid similar results being repeated. Some change is already happening on the ground. World Wide Fund for Nature-China, for example, which works with the Chinese government, recently added snow leopards to its conservation strategy. Press Release February 25, 2021 LAPID BILL SEEKS TO CRIMINALIZE DEPRIVATION OF SUPPORT TO ELDERLY, SICKLY, INCAPACITATED PARENTS Senator Manuel "Lito" Lapid has filed a bill which proposes to criminalize the act of deprivation of support to incapacitated parents. Senate Bill 2061 reinforces the duty of children to take care of their elderly, sickly or otherwise, incapacitated parents. The bill further states that children shall, within their means and capacity, maintain support for their father or mother, who by virtue of being over sixty (60) years of age or suffering from a disease or disablity, are rendered incapabale of supporting themselves. The bill also mentions that among the persons mentioned in Article 195 of the Family Code who are obliged to give support to each other are parents and their children. This means that the obligation to support cuts both ways-- parents must support their children, especially during the years of their minority and dependency; on the other hand, children who are already capable must take care of their elderly, disease or disability-stricken parents who are in need. Unfortunately, abuse against an elderly, disabled, or otherwise incapacitated parent, which includes physical, sexual, psychological, emotional and financial abuse, abandonment, neglect and serious loss of dignity and respect, has become an "invisible issue" in the Philippines, according to Commission on Human Rights. "Nakakalungkot isipin na ang mga magulang na nagpakapagod noong panahong malakas pa sila para masuportahan ang kanilang mga anak, ay kaya na lamang tiisin at abandunahin sa panahong matanda na sila. Wag sana nating makalimutan na hindi naman nagkulang ang mga magulang na ito sa pagsuporta sa kanilang mga anak kaya dapat lang na siguruhin ng ating gobyerno sa pamamagitan ng panukalang isinusulong ko, na masuklian man lang ang mga pagsasakripisyo ng mga magulang sa oras na sila ay matanda at mahina na," Sen Lapid explained. Senate Bill 2061 states that when an elderly parent appears to be in need, he/she may, by himself/herself through a representative of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, shall initiate the filing of a criminal action against his/her children for deprivation of support. The bill defines "support" as everything indispensible for sustenance, dwelling, clothing, and medical attendance. Any person, who despite having the capacity, but neglects to maintain support to his or her parent shall be liable for deprivation of support to parent and shall be punishable by imprisonment of arresto menor as the minimum and arresto mayor as the maximum. There are also respective fines of not less than two hundred thousand pesos (P200,000.00) but not more than five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00), at the discretion of the court. "Kung ang mga magulang ay pwede parusahan ng pang-aabuso sa mga bata oras na hindi nila nagampanan ang kanilang tungkulin na magbigay ng pangunahing pangangailangan ng kanilang mga anak gaya ng pagkain, tirahan at pagpapagamot, dapat parehas na proteksyon din ang ibigay sa mga magulang oras na tumanda na sila. Dapat siguruhin na mabibigyan din sila ng tulong ng kanilang mga anak na may kakayananan naman lalo sa panahong mahina, matanda at may sakit na sila. Hindi dapat hayaan ng ating lipunan na basta pabayaan ang mga magulang sa oras ng kanilang pangangailangan," Sen Lapid added. 's ( ) Stephen Lilley talks through their results for the year that ended 31 December 2020 with Proactive London. Lilley explains describes 'the enormous amount of investment done, with over 900 million invested and 400 million of new equity raised. It's already been a busy start to 2021, raising 198 million of equity, acquired the remaining 50% stake in Braes of Doune for 48 million and announced the commitment to acquire 49.9% of Kype Muir Extension. Dismissing fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's "mental health concerns," UK extradition and district judge Samuel Goozee on Thursday ruled that Modi will be extradited to India to stand trial. He said Modi has a case to answer for in India, and that Barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai is fit for him. The judge said, "mental health concerns" as cited by Modi were not unusual in a man in his circumstances. Nirav Modi conspired to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses and he won't be denied justice if he's extradited to India, the UK judge ruled. "I am satisfied there is a prima facie case. Now the order awaits to be ratified by the UK Home Secretary. Nirav Modi can challenge this verdict in the appeals court on a point of law," the extradition judge said. He added that submissions from Nirav Modi conflict with his statements. Also, there is no evidence that if extradited, he will not get due justice in India, justice Goozee said. The UK judge said how LoUs (letters of understanding) were obtained concludes that "Modi and Co" were operating fraudulently. "Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence he could be convicted. There's a prima facie case of money laundering," the judge ruled. The judge said he agreed with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) that Nirav Modi tried to show post facto that he was sorting out the LoU issue with the bank and that his link with bank officials had been established. "I am satisfied that there is evidence that Mr Modi could be convicted. I have considered the case and made the following findings: LOUs issued in the same manner between 2011 and 2017 without appropriate measures. Transactions were not entered in the CBS system of the bank in a way to mislead. There are clear links between Nirav Modi and other connivers including bank officials in question," the judge ruled. He ruled that Nirav Modi personally subsequently wrote to Punjab National Bank, and acknowledged the debt he promised to repay. The CBI is also investigating that Nirav Modi firms were dummy partners. "I do not accept that Nirav was involved in a legitimate business. I find no genuine transactions and believe there is a process of dishonesty. These companies were shadow companies operated by Nirav Modi," the judge said. Nirav Modi is the main accused in the Rs 13,500 crore fraud involving the Punjab National Bank. He has been lodged in London Jail since March 19, 2019, after a request from CBI and ED, and faces extradition to India. Also read: Nirav Modi to remain in custody until extradition judgment on Feb 25 Also read: Nirav Modi to be extradited to India? UK court to seal his fate on Feb 25 For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. The NHS is facing a backlash over 'woke propaganda' messages urging people to be more aware of 'misgendering' and add pronouns to their email signatures. NHS Health Education England tweeted a message to mark LGBT month, telling followers it would be 'focusing on misgendering, which is one of the most common unintentional blunders made by cisgender people.' It encouraged people to, 'add your pronouns to your email signature, which provides clarity and encourages others to do the same.' But the move has sparked anger among social media users, who said the NHS 'was not a lobby group for an ideology.' Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan joined the critics as he replied: 'Is this really what you should be 'focusing on' at such a critical stage of a global pandemic?' In the tweet last night, NHS Health Education England (HEE) wrote: 'Today, we're focusing on misgendering, which is one of the most common unintentional blunders made by cisgender people' Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan joined the chorus of critics responding to the NHS This comes after Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust unveiled a blizzard of 'gender inclusive' phrases in a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia' In the tweet last night, NHS Health Education England (HEE) wrote: 'Today, we're focusing on misgendering, which is one of the most common unintentional blunders made by cisgender people. 'Why not try adding your pronouns to your email signature, which provides clarity and encourages others to do the same.' In a bid to be more inclusive for workers who are transgender or non-binary, more companies are inviting staff to add pronouns - he, she, they or something else - to their email signatures, making clear how they wish to be referred to. The NHS tweet also featured a graphic explaining misgendering, with the caption: 'If you misgender someone by accidentally using the wrong pronouns, don't panic. 'Correct yourself, make a mental note for the future and move on. Being overly apologetic and making a fuss can make the misgendered person feel bad about your mistake.' But the tweet sparked a fevered debate online. Piers Morgan added: 'Or maybe the NHS - as the vast majority of its staff are - should be focusing on vaccine rollout, covid patients & those suffering from non-covid illness... rather than what pronouns we should be using to avoid causing offence?' Lee Whitehead, Director of Corporate Accountability and Engagement, Health Education England said: 'We don't want to exclude anyone from being a nurse, a doctor or any of the 350 plus professions in the NHS, if they have the skills, compassion and drive we want them and will do what we can to make them feel at home. 'The NHS cares for everyone so our workforce needs to include everyone. Supporting LGBTQ colleagues helps them feel the NHS is a place they want to work, and that can only be good for patients.' This comes after a hospital told staff to use terms like 'birthing parents' and 'human milk' rather than just referring to 'mothers' and 'breast milk'. A row also erupted in Westminster over a special maternity bill referring to 'pregnant people' rather than women. The Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill caused controversy after it emerged drafts referred to 'the pregnant person', and want the wording amended 'Woke' NHS is mocked for implying men can get pregnant The NHS has been mocked for implying men can get pregnant on its website. The health service's 'Trying to get pregnant' information page states: 'Eight in 10 people under 40 years old will get pregnant within one year of trying by having regular sex without using contraception.' The wording sparked a lively debate on social media. Writer Sarah Ditum said: 'I think that 'eight in 10' figure might want limiting to the kind of 'people' who can actually get pregnant, just a thought, NHS. 'If public bodies could just restrict themselves to saying things that make sense, that would be really great.' Broadcaster David Aaranovitch commented: 'Good lord. The clear implication is that most men can become pregnant.' One social media user wrote: 'I have four brothers. I'm starting to worry that we are all infertile, as none of us have yet managed to become pregnant, despite the odds being stacked in our favour.' And Stephan Eckner added: 'I don't want to get too much into the details of my sex life here, but, boy, what a miracle I never got pregnant.' Advertisement Earlier this month, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust unveiled a blizzard of 'gender inclusive' phrases in a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia'. Other changes include replacing the use of the word 'woman' with the phrase 'woman or person', and the term 'father' with 'parent', 'co-parent' or 'second biological parent', depending on the circumstances. Critics lambasted the new terminology, branding it 'utter nonsense'. The Trust became the first in the country to formally implement such a radical overhaul for its maternity services department - which will now be known as 'perinatal services'. The new terms will be used for documents, protocols and Trust-wide communication at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. They will also be used when discussing pregnancy, birth and parenting at a population level - such as at a meeting. The Trust stressed that when interacting with a patient in a one-on-one scenario, midwives should continue referring to their gender. Meanwhile, the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill caused controversy after it emerged drafts referred to 'the pregnant person'. A row erupted in Westminster over the draft, with Ministers demanding the wording was amended. The bill states: 'A person designated as a Minister on Leave under this section is to be paid an allowance in accordance with section 2. 'The person is pregnant and it is no more than 12 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. 'The person has given birth to a child within the previous four weeks.' A government source told BBC Newsnight Political Editor Nicholas Watt: 'We will have to amend this. I don't see how we can get it through with the current wording.' Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust unveiled a blizzard of 'gender inclusive' phrases in a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia' An estimated 1 per cent of the adult population in Britain identifies as transgender or non-binary but the trans population in Brighton and Hove is thought to be larger. Although no official figures exist on the trans community, research has shown nearly 10 per cent of the population of Brighton and Hove identify as LGBTQ+, compared to around 2.2 per cent of the general population. The Office for National Statistics estimates that there are approximately 200,000-500,000 trans people in the UK. However it says there is no robust or clear indication of the true number. ABOARD U.S.S. NIMITZ, off California When this aircraft carrier and its city-size crew departed Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., on April 27, George Floyd was still alive. Donald J. Trump was still president, Georgia had two Republican senators, and some 56,000 people in the United States had died of the coronavirus. Now, 10 months later, the nuclear-powered warship is returning home to a country vastly different from the one it left. That difference was highlighted on Thursday when the new defense secretary for the first time, an African-American landed aboard to talk to a travel-weary and isolated crew. Secretary of defense in combat! came the announcement. Lloyd J. Austin III, his baritone ringing through the ships public-address system, told the sailors and pilots on the Nimitz that he knew what it felt like to be cut off from life during extended deployments: Mr. Austin, a retired Army four-star general, was posted in Iraq about a decade ago for a tour even longer than the Nimitzs. Govt treating farmers the way it should be treating China on borders: Owaisi Owaisi slams TMC govt for not allowing his rally in Kolkata India pti-Deepika S Hyderabad, Feb 25: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday blasted the Kolkata Police for ''denying'' permission for his rally in the poll-bound West Bengal capital and mocked at ruling TMC MPs for talking about democracy in Parliament. The Hyderabad MP, whose party has decided to contest the polls in the eastern state, claimed permission was denied for the rally scheduled for Thursday without assigning any reason. "You (Trinamool Congress Government) allow (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah to hold a public rally. You allow BJP to hold public rallies. Congress and Left hold rallies. But not MIM. Why?..." he asked. Talking to reporters here, he said the TMC MPs in Parliament use ''flowery'' terms such as democracy and freedom of speech, but it doesnot reflect at the ground level in West Bengal. Once the Code of Conduct for the polls likely in April- May comes into force, AIMIM would be compelled to approach the Election Commission, against the continuation of the police officer (who rejected permission) in the same post, he added. "If the officer is there, the elections will not be free and fair," he contended, a day after his party announced the cancellation of the rally citing denial of police permission for it. He was scheduled to kick off his party''s campaign ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections with the rally in the minority-dominated Metiabruz area of Kolkata. On possible alliance with with Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui, who had recently floated the Indian Secular Front (ISF), the MIM supremo said they were in discussions with the former. His party has handed over a list of constituencies which it intends to contest, he said. Replying to query, he said there was a political vacuum in Gujarat and his party will work with Chhotubhai Vasava''s Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) there. Amid a spurt in Covid-19 infections in Maharashtra , 229 cases have emerged from a single hostel in a school in the Washim district of the state. The school premises have reportedly been declared a containment zone. Those who tested positive are 225 students and four teachers, according to reports. A total of 327 students who reside in this hostel are mostly from Amravati, Hingoli, Nanded, Washim, Buldhana, and Akola. Among these, a few districts have contributed to a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks. Risod tehsildar Ajit Shelar told news agency PTI that the students had joined the Washim hostel on 14 February. Around 21 students tested Covid-19 positive in the first few days following which RT-PCR tests of all the 327 students were conducted. Washim has been in the news over a large gathering near a temple on Tuesday in violation of Covid-19 protocols. Thousands of supporters of Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Rathod, whose name has been linked by the opposition to the death of a woman, gathered near the temple as he visited the shrine. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said the second wave of coronavirus could be a matter of concern for all and this prompted him to disallow religious, political and social events in the state. Asking people to follow Covid-19-appropriate behaviour and safety guidelines, CM Thackeray had said he would observe the situation for a week to 15 days and then decide whether to impose another lockdown. No end for Maharashtra's woes Maharashtra has witnessed a significant rise in Covid-19 cases, with over 8,000 fresh infections coming to light in a single day after a gap of more than four months, the health department said. With 8,807 new cases on Wednesday, Maharashtra's total infection tally has touched 21,21,119. The state had reported 8,142 cases on 21 October last year, after which the numbers had declined. The state reported 80 deaths, the highest in two months since 24 December, when 89 deaths were reported. The state's fatality count rose to 51,937, the government said. Since 10 February, the graph of new Covid-19 cases began to climb again. The state had recorded 6,112 infections on 19 February, 6,281 on 20 February and 6,971 on 21 February. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Southsiders, the wait is over. A new burger craving is coming your way soon. Burger Boy announced Wednesday afternoon that its fifth location is coming to the city's South Side at 4402 S. New Braunfels Ave., near E. Southcross and U.S. Hwy 281. The new spot is expected to open this summer, according to the release. READ ALSO: Laguna Madre casts wider net in San Antonio, opening near the airport The latest location comes nearly two months after the chain announced its fourth establishment will be at 151 W. Bitters Road in the Hill Country Village area by this spring. The original location on the St. Mary's strip, known for its A-frame roof, opened in 1985 and quickly gained a dedicated following hungry for their burgers, fries and shakes. In 2017, original owner Carl Bates sold the restaurant to a group of local investors, and the business opened a second location a year later at 9334 Potranco Road. Its third opened in 2019 on the city's West Side, at 7363 W. Loop 1604 North. RELATED: San Antonio staple Burger Boy is expanding again, this time near Hill Country Village "Since the announcement of our third location two years ago, our social media fan base has been calling for a Burger Boy on the Southside," co-owner Bryce Pohlmeier said in the release. "Well, we heard them, and we're excited to make our way there and be a part of the community." In fact, Burger Boy noted the anticipation for a South Side spot was so strong that someone predicted the exact location when they asked the chain if they can build one by McCreless on the corner of New Braunfels and Southcross. The existing building will be fully demolished and a ground-up building that replicates the design of the Shaenfield/1604 location will be constructed. Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre Making comparisons between the number of visitors allowed to homes and other settings, such as restaurants and other regulated environments were not necessarily helpful, Mr Andrews said. Why can the restaurant be open but I cant have a big barbecue at home? Well, we know that every home is a much higher risk environment, he said. I know thats a bit counterintuitive because youre with people you know ... but thats exactly the issue, you dont keep the 1-metre distance, you dont necessarily have all the formality that comes in a restaurant or a bar or a cafe. In gyms, the density limit remains at one person per four square metres with classes limited to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors. Loading Victorias State of Emergency will be extended until 11.59pm on March 15. The Premier said the concept of a new normal was very real as more workers would return to office buildings from Monday. That is very important in terms of retail trade, hospitality, food and beverage that whole part of the economy, and not just for the CBD (as important as that is) but in lots of different suburban locations, as well as regional centres, he said. We were on the cusp of moving to that [75 per cent] setting when we had our most recent challenges, so Im very pleased, based on public health advice from the Chief Health Officer, were able to make those adjustments. When the COVID-safe summer rules were announced in early December, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the rules represented the closest return to normal that could be done safely in the absence of widespread vaccine takeup. No international flights, but hopes for a closer to normal Anzac Day However, Victoria will not welcome international flights until new systems are in place to prevent another Holiday Inn-style outbreak of the highly contagious UK variant of the virus and other new strains. Weve got our doctors looking at this very closely what can we do differently in the context of these new strains to minimise the chances of this getting out, Mr Andrews said. Loading Im just not having flights land until Ive had that work done ... by experts in their field. Yet the Premier hopes an Anzac Day parade will go ahead this year. RSL Victoria earlier this month said the traditional Anzac Day march would be cancelled for the second year running because COVID-19 restrictions and safety concerns for elderly veterans made it unmanageable. I want an Anzac Day parade, Mr Andrews said on Friday. One of the great honours and privileges of this job ... to lead that march, is an amazing privilege, an amazing privilege, one that I cherish every year. To be at the dawn service and be in the official party at the dawn service is a deeply emotional and profound thing. I want an Anzac Day service that is as close to normal as possible, thats why were continuing to work with Anzac House and with other groups ... to try and get that. New Holiday Inn cases Friday marks the end of the 14-day incubation period for many close contacts of COVID-positive people infected during the Holiday Inn outbreak, which now stands at 24 cases. Under the governments current approach, secondary contacts or contacts of contacts are put into 14-day isolation once identified. Consequently, the close contacts of Fridays two cases have already been in isolation for 14 days, all but negating the threat to the wider community. Mr Andrews said Fridays new cases were linked to a private function in Coburg, in Melbournes north, that was attended by an infected Holiday Inn worker. Both people have been isolating in hotel quarantine, away from their families. They pose no risk to public health more broadly ... It was obviously late in their 14-day period they have tested positive, Mr Andrews said. I will take this opportunity to thank the many thousands of people who over these last few weeks have been at home, isolating away from other members of the community. We thank them and absolutely acknowledge the sacrifice and the important contribution they have made to protect public health. It does speak to the fact [that with] this UK strain you can very late in that 14-day period become positive. It also speaks to why its so important to have that full 14-day [isolation] period, even in the last few days. Victoria to pay NSW $34 million in quarantine costs Meanwhile, the Andrews government has confirmed it will pay $34.3 million to NSW to cover the cost of accommodating Victorians in hotel quarantine. We intend to reimburse NSW for the cost of providing quarantine for Victorian returned travellers, a government spokeswoman said. NSW has been hosting about 3000 returning Australians a week since last year, including when Victorias quarantine system was shut down from June until December. The Queensland government is so far refusing to pay, insisting it will only transfer the $30 million it owes to NSW once the federal government approves its proposed pop-up quarantine hub near Toowoomba. Premier Daniel Andrews with (L-R) COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar, Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Credit:Chris Hopkins A total of 808 vaccine doses were administered in Victoria on Wednesday, up from 675 on Tuesday and 580 on Monday. South Australia has reopened its border to Melburnians, and Queensland will lift its travel restrictions on the city from 1am on Saturday. Professor Sutton indicated after the five-day lockdown that health officials realised its tracing and isolation model was sufficient to deal with outbreaks involving more infectious strains of the virus indicating that if it was presented with a similar set of circumstances the government might not mandate another lockdown. Pupils in Northern Ireland will receive their CCEA AS and A level results on August 10. Education Minister Peter Weir also confirmed that GCSE examination results will be released on August 12. The results will be released on the same dates as those in both England and Wales. Given the importance of A level results for admission to universities, it is important that CCEA AS and A level results are aligned with those from other jurisdictions to ensure that Northern Ireland pupils are not disadvantaged, stated Mr Weir. He continued: I fully appreciate that issuing GCSE results in the same week as AS and A level results may provide challenges for both CCEA and for schools, but while far from perfect, I believe this decision will provide clarity and parity to all our students. Pinarayi Vijayan takes oath as Kerala Chief Minister for second time; 20 ministers inducted in his cabinet Meet Subaida, Kerala woman who sold goats to donate for CM fund, gets VVIP pass to attend swearing-in ceremony Vijayan slams Rahul over tractor rally, says Cong's policies responsible for farm sector crisis India pti-Deepika S Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 25: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday mounted a scathing attack on the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, holding the party's neo-liberal policies in the 1990s responsible for the crisis in the farm sector and demanding an apology from him. He sought to make light of Gandhi's tractor rally in his Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in the state and his sea trip as part of outreach programme for fishermen, sarcastically saying they were grateful for his interest towards Kerala. Vijayan also hit back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, alleging the northern state governed by him was number 1 in corruption in the country and in the grip of an anarchy kind of situation. The Congress government which introduced neo-liberal policies during its rule from 1991 was responsible for the crisis in the farm sector, he told reporters here. 'The hands of the Congress are soaked in the blood of lakhs of farmers. Many families were orphaned due to the Congress governments' anti-farmer policies. Rahul Gandhi should tender unconditional apology for the wrongdoings of the Congress governments', he said. Vijayan questioned the Congress MP for organising a tractor rally in Wayanad instead of participating in the farmers' agitation on the borders of Delhi seeking to repeal the three contentious central farm laws Quoting a media report, the chief minister said at least 70 farmers had died in the venues of their protest outside Delhi, but Gandhi declared his support to the ryots after visiting Kerala. Opposition leaders blasts Pinarayi Vijayan on gold smuggling case 'Rahul Gandhi visited Kerala and made unusual interferences here. He drove a tractor in support of agitating farmers and swam in the sea for the fishermen. We are grateful for him for his interest towards Kerala', he said. The senior CPI(M) leader slammed Gandhi for 'speaking in the same tone' of Adityanath against his government. During his visit to Kerala this week to launch the party's assembly election campaign, the former Congress president had lashed out at the LDF government over various issues, including gold smuggling through diplomatic channel. On a two-day visit that ended on Wednesday, Gandhi visited Wayanad, took out a tractor rally and interacted with fishermen in Kollam district besides sailing with a group of them and attacked both the LDF and the BJP over various issues, including fuel prices and farm laws. Responding to Adityanath's allegation that the LDF government was a symbol of corruption, Vijayan claimed a national-level survey conducted in 2019 had revealed that Kerala 'has the lowest' incidence of graft. 'It was BJP MLA Shyam Prasad who had said UP ranked top in the corruption list in the country. He made such remarks in July last year. Besides, Uttar Pradesh Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said last month that he has found cases of gross corruption in his department,' he said. The CPI(M) politburo member also mocked at Adityanath for his allegation that the Kerala youth were forced to migrate to other places in search of jobs, saying 15 per cent of migrant workers in the state were from Uttar Pradesh. These youth will be able to tell the kind of facilities they enjoy in Kerala, he added. 'The highly educated youths of Kerala are going to various parts of the world as they are competent enough. Fifteen per cent of Kerala's guest workers are from Uttar Pradesh,' Vijayan said. He sought to know from Adityanath why they left their state and reached Kerala in search of jobs. Vijayan said not a single communal clash was reported in his state in the last five years whereas the situation in Uttar Pradesh was different. Media reports say the UP witnessed many incidents of communal clashes and incidents of hate related violence, the Kerala Chief Minister said and alleged that an anarchy kind of situation was prevailing in Adityanath-ruled state with crimes against women and others. Noting that Kerala topped Niti Aayogs Sustainable Development Goals index,the chief minister said the state was not following Uttar Pradesh 'model' for development. Yogi made the allegations while inaugurating the state- wide 'Vijay Yatra' led by BJP Kerala president K Surendran in Kasargod on February 21 in the run up to the assembly elections, expected to be held in April-May. Vijayan, however, did not respond to Adityanath's allegations of 'love jihad', a term used by right wing activists to refer to an alleged campaign of Muslims forcing Hindu girls to convert in the guise of love. The UP chief minister had slammed successive LDF and UDF governments for not enacting any legislation to check 'love jihad' despite 'strong court observation'. He had accused the Vijayan government of working only for the 'vikas' of CPI(M) cadre and described both the LDF and UDF as symbols of corruption. At a time when India is contemplating a ban on private cryptocurrencies, a blog by two International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts may provide a piece of advice to the government. The title of the blog Public and Private Money Can Coexist in the Digital Age says it all. The blog, written by Tobias Adrian and Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli both working at IMFs monetary and capital markets department says todays world is characterised by a dual monetary system, involving privately-issued money by banks of all types, telecom companies, or specialised payment providers, built upon a foundation of publicly-issued money by While not perfect, this system offers significant advantages, including innovation and product diversity, mostly provided by the private sector, and stability and efficiency, ensured by the public sector, it says. These objectives innovation and diversity on the one hand, stability and efficiency on the other are related. More of one usually means less of the other. A trade-off exists, and countries especially have to navigate it. How much of the private sector to rely upon, versus how much to innovate themselves? Much depends on preferences, available technology, and the efficiency of regulation, the two writers say. Keeping pace with technology change, user needs, and private-sector competition will be challenging for However, they need not be alone in doing so, says the blog. First, a central bank may be designed to encourage the private sector to innovate on top of it, much like application (app) designers bringing enticing functionality to phones and their operating systems. By accessing an open set of commands (app programming interfaces), a thriving developer community could expand the usability of central bank digital currencies beyond offering plain e-wallet services, it says. For instance, they could make it easy to automate payments, so that a shipment of goods is paid once received. Or they could build a look-up function, so that money can be sent to a friend on the basis of phone number alone. The trick will be vetting these add-on services, so that they are perfectly safe, cautions the blog. Some central banks may even allow other forms of to coexist much like parallel operating systems while leveraging the settlement functionality and stability of central bank digital currencies. This will open the door to faster innovation and product choice. For instance, one might compromise on the settlement speed to allow users greater control over payment automation, say the two authors. This new form of will be a stable store of value, if it was redeemable in central bank currency (digital or non-digital) at a fixed face value. This will be possible if it was fully backed by central bank currency, suggest the authors. This form of will be an efficient means of payment, as settlement will be immediate on any given digital money network just as it is between accounts of the same bank, they say. This form of digital money (which we have called synthetic currency in the past) could well coexist with a central bank It will require a licensing arrangement and a set of regulations to fulfil public policy objectives, including operational resilience, consumer protection, market conduct and contestability, data privacy, and even prudential stability, says the blog. At the same time, financial integrity could be ensured via digital identities and complementary data policies. Partnering central banks requires a high degree of regulatory compliance, say the authors. An inter-ministerial committee, headed by former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, had first suggested a draft Bill to ban cryptocurrencies. It defined virtual currency as a cryptocurrency, by whatever name called, means any information or code or number or token not being part of any official digital currency, generated through cryptographic means or otherwise, providing a digital representation of value which is exchanged with or without consideration, with the promise or representation of having inherent value in any business activity which may involve risk of loss or an expectation of profits or income, or functions as a store of value or a unit of account and includes its use in any financial transaction or investment, but not limited to, investment schemes. A committee of secretaries, chaired by the Cabinet secretary, has also given its report on cryptocurrencies. The Supreme Court, in March 2020, had struck down the Reserve Bank of Indias restrictions on banks to stop providing services to crypto trading platforms. This led to uncertainty about the status of virtual currencies in India. The new legislation will clear the governments stand on cryptocurrencies. Staying at the forefront of providing advanced treatment options to the community, RAK Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah has now introduced Bamlanivimab. It is a highly effective antibody treatment against Covid-19 which greatly reduces the risk of hospitalisation or progression to severe disease and bad outcome including artificial ventilation. Bamlanivimab has been authorized for emergency use by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to treat mild to moderate symptoms of Covid-19 in non-hospitalized adults with Covid-19 Positive result, and who are at high risk for developing severe Covid-19 symptoms or the need for hospitalization. It is the first drug to be approved that was designed specifically against the new coronavirus. When theres a virus in your body, like Covid-19, your immune system makes antibodies to fight it off. But it takes time for your body to make antibodies for a new virus and in the meantime, you could get very sick. A synthetic antibody treatment against Covid-19 developed by Eli Lilly, Bamlanivimab neutralises the virus. Normally the patients immune system produces antibodies, but this takes time and the patient can develop severe symptoms during the immune response. The medication consists of antibodies similar to the antibodies of patients who recovered from the disease thereby allowing an immediate response to the virus and avoid severe disease, said Dr Jean Marc Gauer, CEO, RAK Hospital. The drug is a treatment option for people with Covid-19 who have had positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing. The research so far shows that for certain people, taking this drug may help limit the amount of virus in the body. Particularly if you are over 65 years, have diabetes, high BP, heart issues, this is the treatment for you. However, it is not for people who are already in the hospital because of Covid-19 symptoms. Explaining how the drug is administered, Dr Gauer says, The patient only needs to get the drug 1 time via an intravenous (IV) infusion, meaning that a nurse will put a small needle in your arm to give you the drug slowly over 1 hour. Your healthcare provider will determine the duration of your infusion and the treatment has to be given in a hospital setting. One will also need at least 1 hour observation after the infusion. However, this treatment option is not suitable for patients with low oxygen saturation (SpO2 <93%), or respiratory rate > 30/minute or heartrate > 125/minute or the ones who require hospital admission. Pregnant women are also not the candidates, further elaborated Dr Gauer. RAK Hospital is always at the forefront of medical excellence and has therefore taken a very active approach in fighting the pandemic since its onset. This is one more example of our initiative and commitment to offering the best possible care to the community and supporting Governments efforts, commented Dr Raza Siddiqui, Executive Director, RAK Hospital.-- Tradearabia News Service London: Australia has entered the top 10 nations with the most effective soft power, according to a leading index in which the United States dropped five points, ceding first place to Germany. New Zealand was the fastest-rising nation propelled by Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns personal popularity and the nations suppression of coronavirus although it missed out on a top 10 spot, coming in at 16th, in Brand Finances Global Soft Power Index. Soft power is used to describe a countrys attractive power, its ability to influence through its reputation, as opposed to hard military power, according to Melissa Conley Tyler, from the University of Melbournes Asia Institute. She said it had real effects including where people travel, which consumer goods they buy and where they send their children to study but was notoriously difficult to measure. The United States standing collapsed in the second year of the rankings, falling from first place to fifth but Britain, which has the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe, remained unchanged in third place. China fell just three places, from fifth to eighth. More than 200 virtual events are planned by the Local Enterprise Offices around the country, including the Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny in the first week of March. These include training workshops, information webinars and masterclasses with entrepreneurs and experts, designed to help Irelands small businesses and those looking to start a new business in 2021. Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has launched the full programme of events for Local Enterprise Week, which takes place online from Monday to Friday, March 1 to 5. Organised by Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny and supported by Enterprise Ireland and Kilkenny County Council, this years theme is Making It Happen. Common topics across the week include starting a new business, resilience and recovery, the green economy, becoming leaner, exploring new markets, doing business online and the new trading relationship with the UK. For the first time, Local Enterprise Week also includes ten national Spotlight events and these are open to every business across the country. Spotlight events include the launch of the Green for Micro Programme, Growing Lean Seminar, AgriTech Revolution in Farming and Food Event and a Trading Online Voucher Training Seminar. Highlights from Local Enterprise Week locally include: Looking to the Future Seminar with international US-based keynote speaker Kevin Coupe along with two local companies Catherine Roycroft, Chief Operations Officer with Cartoon Saloon and John Duggan, Managing Director LoanITT Ltd. This free event takes place virtually on Wednesday, March 3 at 6.30pm. Also taking place on Wednesday morning is the commencement of the Management Development Programme for owner/managers of small businesses. The Management Development Programme is the Local Enterprise Offices most comprehensive offering to small businesses. It is aimed at owner/managers who have a strong commitment to developing and expanding their business onto the next stage of its business cycle despite the challenging economic conditions. The Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny will also be hosting a series of one-to-one mentoring clinics during Local Enterprise Week in the areas of marketing, finance and Lean for Micro. Tanaiste Leo Varadkar will officially open Local Enterprise Week at the first Spotlight event, the Green for Micro launch on March 1. Weve all had to do things a little differently because of the pandemic and Ive no doubt that those participating will find this years week just as useful and interesting, he said. Local Enterprise Offices are the point of contact for many of the Governments grants and training schemes, such as the new Green for Micro initiative, the Trading Online Voucher Scheme and the Lean programme. Local Enterprise Week is the perfect opportunity to have a look at what help is available and find what works best for your business. Fiona Deegan Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny said small businesses throughout Kilkenny are being severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and many havent been able to trade fully since last year. Thats why initiatives like Local Enterprise Week are more important than ever as they showcase all the supports that are available to small businesses and start-ups now, she said. As well as the ten Spotlight events, we are offering a full programme of events over the five days of Local Enterprise Week. Our advice to all local businesses and to those with a business idea, is to have a look at the events taking place by visiting LocalEnterprise.ie/ Kilkenny and to book early. Details for events taking place for Local Enterprise Week, from March 1 to 5, are available at LocalEnterprise.ie/Kilkenny. Local Enterprise Week is an annual initiative from the Local Enterprise Offices and supported by Enterprise Ireland, local authorities and the Government of Ireland. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company New Delhi, Feb 26 : A Delhi Police constable was injured after three unidentified persons fired at him near the Bhalswa Dairy here on Thursday. The incident took place on Thursday afternoon near a police check-post at JJ Colony in outer Delhi when the constable, who has been identified as Sandeep, stopped three persons on a bike for checking. "They tried to run away and when Sandeep tried to chase them, they fired at him. The three men then fled from the spot, leaving behind their bike. Sandeep was rushed to the Max Hospital at Shalimar Bagh where he is undergoing treatment," said Rajiv Ranjan, DCP, Outer North Delhi. The bike was later found to be a stolen vehicle. Searches are being carried out in the nearby localities to apprehend the suspects. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an end to embargo preventing private banks from taking on goverment businesses. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das express grave concerns on cryptocurrencies. Read for more top news from the world of business and economy 1. Govt lifts embargo on grant of govt businesses to private banks The billionaires club in India is expected to increase significantly by 43 per cent to 162 by 2025. The growth will outpace the global average growth of 24 per cent and Asia average of 38 per cent during the period. 2. India to see 63% more ultra-high net worth individuals by 2025 With the lifting of the said embargo, private sector banks can now carry out government-related banking transactions such as taxes and other revenue payment facilities, the Department of Financial Services stated. 3. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das raises 'major concerns' about cryptocurrency The central government is in process of bringing legislation that would create the ground for the introduction of an official digital currency and prohibit private cryptocurrencies. 4. Sensex surges 1,030 points, Nifty ends near 15,000 in extended trading session Following resumption of trading at 3:45 pm on NSE, benchmark indices rose as FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government has lifted the embargo on grant of government businesses to private banks. 5. Air India, BPCL disinvestment to be completed by July-August While DIPAM targets to complete the stake sale by June, the government may have to relax the time period for bidders to complete due diligence. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 09:32:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BERLIN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A German court on Wednesday convicted alleged Syrian secret service agent Eyad A. of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity and sentenced him to prison for four and a half years. It was considered as proven that the man "provided assistance to others to seriously deprive 30 people of their physical liberty and to torture them while in custody," a statement by the Higher Regional Court Koblenz read. It is the world's first trial in which a former Syrian official was convicted of crimes against humanity. The 44-year-old Syrian national was accused of searching streets for fleeing protesters during protests in Douma on the outskirts of Damascus in 2011, before taking arrested people to the detention center Branch 251 for torture. Eyad A. later fled to Germany, where he was arrested in 2019, along with Anwar R., who is also on trial in the city of Koblenz as a main defendant. The trial of Anwar R. is scheduled to continue with a verdict not expected before the second half of the year. According to the court, universal jurisdiction was the legal basis for the trial in Germany. It was passed in 2002, allowing crimes to be prosecuted worldwide, regardless of the location of the crime and the nationality of the perpetrator and the victims. Enditem School of Rock Method App, featuring RealTime Audio technology Pandemic or not, it will always be crucial for musicians to learn and play together in a way thats equally synchronous, smart, and engaging. The School of Rock Method App can now offer this kind of experience, thanks to the addition of RealTime Audio technology. School of Rock, the leader in performance-based music education, has announced the integration of RealTime Audio technology into its School of Rock Method App to improve the experience of online and remote lessons and group rehearsals. The new technology will allow School of Rock to expand upon its Method App, powered by MatchMySound, to offer remote synchronous group performances, a new moderator functionality, and live recording and streaming solutions. School of Rock posed a unique challenge, in that it required a real-time solution for its Method App that would work elegantly and efficiently, not just for one-on-one educational purposes, but also for group band practices, said Taylor Robinson, RealTime Audio CEO. RealTime Audio solves each of these scenarios, and then some, with its ultra-low latency, Zoom-like webcam technology designed with musicians in mind. With the addition of RealTime Audio solutions, the School of Rock Method App will now offer ultra-low latency, drastically enhanced audio and video, a live jam moderator function, a master mute button, and security and privacy features specific to the ages and needs of School of Rock students. Our goal is to continually improve the online and remote lesson and rehearsal experience of our students and teachers, said Sam Dresser, Vice President of Education for School of Rock. Pandemic or not, it will always be crucial for musicians to learn and play together in a way thats equally synchronous, smart, and engaging. The School of Rock Method App can now offer this kind of experience, thanks to the addition of RealTime Audio technology. The School of Rock Method App is available now for all School of Rock students, with RealTime Audio integration to be available by the end of the year. About School of Rock School of Rock helps aspiring musicians master skills, unleash creativity, and develop tools they need to thrive in life. Founded as a single school in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1998, School of Rock has become a rapidly growing international franchise with over 350 schools open and in development across 15 global markets. Since 2009, School of Rock has grown student count from 4,000 to over 34,000. School of Rock offers a wide variety of music lessons, including guitar lessons, singing lessons and piano lessons. School of Rock was awarded US Patent 10,891,872 in 2021 for its innovative music education method. Follow School of Rock on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SchoolofRockUSA and on Twitter at http:http://www.twitter.com/SchoolofRockUSA. For more information on School of Rock visit http://www.SchoolofRock.com or call 866-695-5515. To learn more about School of Rock franchise opportunities, head to http://franchising.schoolofrock.com. About RealTime Audio RealTime Audio creates webcam platforms that enable musicians to play and sing together in real time, remotely, with ultra-low latency audio and video. RealTime Audio uses the combined power of Taylor Robinson Musics groundbreaking ultra-low latency technology and MatchMySounds innovation and resources to offer musicians and educators the modern online music solutions they need. The company has offices in Dallas, TX, and Lakeside, CT. For more information, contact trobinson@realtimeaudio.com or visit http://www.realtimeaudio.com. A team of researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture examined how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed food practices and safety protocols for workers in food-processing plants. The world is currently experiencing several supply chain issues as a direct result of extensive lockdowns and impacts on essential workers' safety. However, disruption in the food supply, while catastrophic in nature, has created opportunities for the advancement of medical science, data processing, security monitoring, foodborne pathogen detection, and food safety technology, wrote the research team. The review Food safety lessons learned from the COVID19 pandemic was published in December in the Journal of Food Safety. Study: Food safety lessons learned from the COVID19 pandemic . Image Credit: SeventyFour / Shutterstock SARS-CoV-2 concerns in food-processing plants SARS-CoV-2 can transmit in the air through infected individuals coughing, sneezing, or talking via large aerosol droplets. Because aerosol droplets can linger in the air for some time indoors, infection containment strategies are needed to avoid the risk of exposure and contamination in food-processing factories. The evaporation and inactivation of these aerosols and other droplets are not well understood and may be needed to modify conditions that decrease the risk of spread. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on the environmental conditions surrounding the type of food being produced. For instance, while fruits and vegetables are refrigerated during processing, this might not be the same storage plan in households. Current research suggests that lower air temperatures enhanced coronavirus virus survival, possibly slowing reaction rates. The researchers say its important for food storage and food contact surfaces to survive in different temperatures and humidity. Some research has suggested that food storages that promote moisture removal in the air can inactivate the coronavirus. Not all disinfectants are created equal Hand sanitizers are a hot commodity with people during the pandemic. The EPA List N recommends creating antimicrobial products effective in inactivating a non-enveloped virus. Most sanitizer companies currently adhere to these guidelines, but chlorine-based products arent as effective as a disinfectant. The researchers say food-processing places should be aware of disinfectants that have been shown to reduce the risk of lingering SARS-CoV-2. This is even more important as there is a small risk of SARS-CoV-2 staying on objects such as propylene plastic surfaces and stainless steel for up to 72 hours. Although significant efforts have been focusing on the effectiveness of various disinfectants on HCoV, including SARS-CoV-1and SARS-CoV-2, similar information conducted associated with the food processing environment is significantly lacking and needed. Reducing coronavirus exposure between workers Food-processing plants initially followed the guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. Still, it was based on traditional infection prevention instead of considering the unique situation created by SARS-CoV-2. Many measures focused on creating more engineering and administrative practices, which is impractical for processing food. As a result, many food-processing plants relied on personal protective equipment (PPE) to minimize contact and potential exposure to the virus. Given the essential role in feeding society, the researchers reason that these workers should be wearing masks, although information is still limited if surgical masks are sufficient for the food sector. However, with the knowledge on the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces, it is very likely that both symptomatic and asymptomatic food handlers can transfer respiratory droplets on food items and food contact materials, by touching eyes and mucosal membranes. Therefore, wearing of appropriate PPE and social distancing is vitally important for essential workers handling food. It is important to consider identified hazards for any employee safety program to successfully perform tasks safely with low to negligible risks of infection, wrote the researchers. Using data to assess risk Data science can analyze historical data to find places with the highest risk for COVID-19 infection. Doing so can prioritize areas that need more PPE and other resources. Providing datasets to workers and customers helps keep everyone informed of current practices and relieves apprehension over contaminated products. They suggest that with more people buying their groceries online, online tools can be developed for enhanced monitoring. One idea is smart labels on food. This could watch for ambient conditions and provide information regarding potential temperature abuse and impacts on the foods shelf-life. IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Helio Health, an AI-driven healthcare company focused on commercializing early cancer detection tests from a simple blood draw, today announced its participation in the 41st Annual Cowen Healthcare Conference, which takes place March 1-4, 2021. Company management will be scheduling investor meetings on March 4. Meetings may be requested through Cowen. About Helio Health Helio Health is an AI-driven healthcare company focused on commercializing early cancer detection tests from a simple blood draw. The company's mission is to simplify cancer screening so lives can be saved by detecting cancer earlier. With Helio's AI-driven technology, both physicians and their patients gain powerful insights from accurate, accessible, and convenient blood tests. Building on a robust research and development program, and with access to thousands of patient samples, the company is currently in clinical trials in the US and China with its lead liver cancer detection test. Helio's development program is focused on liver, colon, breast and lung cancer. Helio Health is headquartered in Irvine, CA, with R&D, GMP and CLIA facilities in Irvine, CA and West Lafayette, IN, Guangzhou and Beijing. SOURCE Helio Health Libya has embarked on a new interim phase, its fifth since the Libyan crisis broke out. As an influential stakeholder in this question, Cairo hopes this one will be the last and that the country will be able to transition to sustainable stability after a decade of conflict. This was probably the central message of the first official meeting between President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and the new Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, who visited Cairo last week: his first trip outside Libya since taking office. During Dbeibahs visit, Egypt reaffirmed prioritising the successful completion of the roadmap for the current interim phase, which calls for a plebiscite on a new constitution and legislative and presidential elections by the end of the year. Egypt also reiterated its readiness to offer its full support to the National Unity Government as it lays the foundations for those processes, overseeing the implementation of other important requirements of the phase. Cairo continues to host key activities to this end, such as meetings of the Libyan committee overseeing the constitutional track and meetings between various political leaders and representatives of different components of civil society and political forces. As such efforts indicate, Cairo seeks to implement the principles it established in the Cairo Declaration and advocated in every activity it sponsored or was involved in since then. It hopes to usher in the end of the cycle of interim phases and enable political processes to prevail over armed conflict. Strategic partnership is the term that best sums up Cairos outlook on the current interim phase. It is an outlook grounded in the principles of bilateral relations between neighbours and bolstered by the instrumental part that Egypt played in the political process that led to the creation of the new Libyan executive authority. The new leaders in this authority appreciate the value of the Egyptian role in the effort to resolve the crisis. It was by facilitating the necessary agreements that the current phase was made possible. Both Egyptian and Libyan leaders share the impression that this phase will also be characterised by the best bilateral relations so far between Cairo and a government based in western Libya. Concrete signs of this can already be seen in the reopening of the Egyptian Embassy in Tripoli and the Egyptian Consulate in Benghazi as well as the resumption of air traffic between the two countries. Cairo and the new Libyan government also share a number of concerns. Above all, they agree on the need to prevent a backslide into war. Cairo has stressed the need to remove the instruments of civil warfare from Libya, thereby eliminating opportunities for military escalation. Steps to this end include halting all forms of outside military involvement in Libya, dismantling the militias, promoting the unification of the Libyan army and military establishment and equipping said army to perform its inherent functions in the defence against threats and dangers to the country. Cairo has reiterated this belief frequently, on the numerous occasions it hosted the 5+5 Joint Military Committee, when it also emphasised the need to base the unification and restructuring process on a set of objective standards and controls and to forego the criteria of personified power centres that had prevailed for so long. Another point of agreement was on the need for solidarity in confronting the security threats and the fight against terrorism. Egypt has been the country most harmed by the regional fallout of the security breakdown in Libya. In addition to the inundation of smuggled arms which ended up in the hands of terrorist groups in Sinai, Egypt suffered directly from the concentration of jihadist groups in the vicinity of the Libyan border. At one point, an Islamic State franchise had taken up base in Derna and the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Morabitoun, later followed suit. Egypt was instrumental in the defeat of both organisations. Because of the continuous threat of infiltration from that direction, Egypt has had to upgrade security along its lengthy border with Libya. It was an extremely costly process that entailed major redeployments, installation of expensive hardware, and intensive training in order to build and equip a deterrent force capable of intercepting cross-border threats or threats emanating from the Libyan interior, if necessary. It also appears that there is another form of support Egypt will provide Libya, namely help in rebuilding the infrastructure that was damaged during the recent battle for Tripoli. Evidence of this is to be seen in Egyptian-Libyan interactions in the period leading up to the current phase and in the fact that the new National Unity Government intends to make reconstruction and development one of its highest priorities. It sees promise in the Egyptian development model. Egypts proven experience in infrastructure development, in particular, will be useful for Libya, which needs to act quickly to provide much needed facilities and services from roadworks to energy and other utilities, even as it prepares to draw up a comprehensive reconstruction plan. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... LOS ANGELES The U.S. military on Wednesday began delivering shots at coronavirus vaccination centers in Texas and New York and announced that service members will start staffing four centers in Florida and one in Philadelphia next week. The expanded vaccination effort came as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with military commanders overseeing the COVID-19 response effort. He also visited the vaccination center in Los Angeles, the first staffed by the new active-duty military teams that are being developed. The Biden administration has said that delivering the vaccine to Americans is a top priority. The Pentagon is ramping up the deployment of what federal authorities say could be up to 100 vaccination teams around the country. The stepped-up efforts reflect the extent to which the coronavirus has devastated the United States, killing more than 500,000 Americans. While average daily deaths and new infections have been falling, some experts say too few Americans have been inoculated for the vaccine to be making enough of a difference. The decline instead is attributed to the passing of the holidays, more people staying indoors during the winter and better adherence to mask rules and social distancing. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ California has the highest coronavirus death toll in the nation, at more than 49,000. Austin is touring the federally run vaccination site that is set up on the campus of California State University of Los Angeles, which opened last week. The site, on the east side of LA, is staffed by a 222-member military team from Fort Carson, Colorado, and it highlights an effort by state leaders to make the vaccinations more available to communities hit hard by the pandemic. Watching the line of cars file slowly through the parking area on campus as people in their cars got shots, Austin spoke with troops who have been giving out vaccines. One soldier from the area told Austin how thrilled he was to be able to give his own mother a shot. It almost brought me to tears, Austin said later, recounting the story. Speaking to another group of service members working at the walk-up vaccination site, Austin said they need to take the leadership, coordination and compassionate skills they have learned doing this to their next mission. Austin told reporters later that the military is learning every day how to make the process more efficient. And he said one thing that has proved successful has been the mobile vaccination teams, and he intends to talk to agency leaders about expanding those. Despite the states high death toll, the rates of new infections and hospitalizations continue to plummet across the state. Health officials said Sunday that the number of patients in California hospitals with COVID-19 has slipped below 7,000, a drop of more than a third over two weeks. Total cases are approaching 3.45 million. The positivity rate for people being tested has been falling for weeks, which means fewer people will end up in hospitals. In his first trip outside Washington as defense chief, Austin stopped in Colorado at U.S. Northern Command and met with its commander, Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, who also heads the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Military officials there told reporters traveling with Austin that service members are delivering 6,000 shots a day in Los Angeles and will build to that number at the center in Houston, where the 222-member team started working Wednesday. Smaller, 139-member teams began operations in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and in Dallas, which has two. They are expected to soon be delivering 3,000 shots a day. Austin has so far approved the deployment of 25 military vaccination teams, which come in two sizes, 222 members and 139 members, and total about 4,700 service members. So far, 11 have either started or will begin next week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked for 100 such teams, which would put the Defense Department on pace to deploy as many as 19,000 troops if all are needed. The troop number is almost double what federal authorities initially thought would be needed. The five military teams moving into cities this week include 139-member units going to Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville in Florida, and a 222-member team going to Philadelphia. The military has also sent three 25-member medical units to cities in New Jersey and is sending one to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Military officials said developing new sites will depend on how much vaccine becomes available and whether states request the aid and can provide proper locations. Separately, in a video message to the military force, Austin urged service members to get the vaccine. The shot is voluntary because the vaccines have not yet gotten final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. And while rates vary, military units around the world say 30 to 60% percent of their troops who are offered the vaccine are declining. Military leaders said last week that they believe the overall declination rate is about 30%, but they say they do not have good data. Speaking to reporters in Los Angeles, Austin also acknowledged the reluctance in the Black community to the vaccine. As the first Black person to serve as defense chief, Austin said that he believes the vaccine is safe and that with enough information people will make the right decision. A $1million reward has been offered in a renewed appeal for information about the mysterious death of a German national 13 years ago. Bernd Lehmann, 66, was found dead from severe head injuries inside an Ashfield unit in Sydney's inner-west on February 14 in 2008. No arrests have ever been made over the disability carer's death, which was referred to the Unsolved Homicide Unit following a coronial inquest in 2012. Strike Force Navala detectives hope a new forensic analysis of DNA obtained from the crime scene will finally provide a breakthrough. Police are desperate to crack the unsolved murder of Bernd Lehmann (pictured), who died from severe head injuries DNA samples were sent to the Genetic Ancestry Laboratory for phenotyping in 2018. New analysis found the DNA samples did not belong to Mr Lehmann, and likely belonged to a man with a multi-racial background including European, Middle Eastern and African. The DNA phenotyping also indicated the individual most likely did not have blonde hair or blue eyes. Mr Lehmann was a well-respected member of the community and had been working as a disability carer prior to his murder, He was due to visit a critically-ill relative in Germany in the days before his body was found. Mr Lehmann's mother and brother back home in Germany have previously pleaded for help to solve his murder. The death of Bernd Lehmann (pictured left enjoying a meal with friends) remains a mystery The German national was found dead in a unit in Alt Street Ashfield (pictured) in Sydney's inner-west on Valentine's Day in 2008 Police hope a $1million reward will be the incentive for those with information to come forward. Detectives have vowed to explore every line of inquiry possible in their quest to get justice for Bernd. 'Strike Force Navala investigators have conducted a thorough review of the all evidence obtained over the past 13 years,' Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said. 'Detectives are confident that advances in DNA technology will assist in establishing the offender's identity. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus controversial plan to ship surplus coronavirus vaccines to a group of allied nations was frozen Thursday following a legal challenge to the deal, his office announced. It was the latest twist in a saga that has raised questions at home about Netanyahus decision-making authority as well as his move to help far-flung nations in Africa and Latin America at a time when the neighboring Palestinian territories are struggling to secure their own vaccine supplies. The plan has also illustrated how at a time of global shortages, the vaccine has become an asset that can be used for diplomatic gain. Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he had personally decided to share small quantities of surplus Israeli vaccines with allied nations. He did not identify the countries, but an Israeli TV station said they included a number of nations that have supported Israels claims to the contested city of Jerusalem as its capital. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Netanyahus governing partner and rival, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, on Thursday called for a halt in the shipments, saying Israels stockpile of vaccines is the property of the state. He attacked the prime ministers go-it-alone approach and questioned Netanyahus claims that there are really excess supplies when Israelis still have not been fully vaccinated. This is not the first time that significant defense and diplomatic decisions are being made behind the backs of the relevant bodies, while possibly damaging our national security, our foreign relations, and the rule of law, Gantz wrote. This is a pattern which impinges upon our ability to manage the country soundly. He demanded the matter be brought before the countrys Security Cabinet for discussions and said he had asked the attorney general for an opinion. Late Thursday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said he had received a number of requests to review Netanyahus decision. One of those requests, he said, came from Netanyahus national security adviser, who told him he had been instructed to freeze any action on the matter. An official in Netanyahus office confirmed that the national security adviser had asked for the delay in response to the legal challenge. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the media. Despite the freeze, Israels Army radio station reported that one delivery had already landed in Honduras. Netanyahu, who is up for reelection on March 23, has staked his political success on Israels successful vaccination drive, in which about half of the countrys 9.3 million people have been inoculated in just under two months. Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch, a member of Netanyahus Likud party, told army radio that Gantz was jealous of Netanyahus achievements and said Israel had more than enough vaccines to share with friends. He described the mission as a strategic and political move at zero cost. Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel has hundreds of thousands of surplus vaccines. He said some extras were being shared in response to requests from allies as a mostly symbolic thank-you in return for things we already have received. The revelation was striking because Israel has received widespread international condemnation for sharing only a small fraction of virus-fighting shots with the Palestinians. Israeli this month shared just 2,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine with the Palestinian Authority to immunize front-line medical workers. As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the health of all the people under its control, tweeted U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. It is outrageous that Netanyahu would use spare vaccines to reward his foreign allies while so many Palestinians in the occupied territories are still waiting. U.N. officials and human rights groups say Israel is an occupying power responsible for the well-being of the Palestinians. Israel says that under interim peace accords from the 1990s it has no such obligations. It notes that it has vaccinated its own Arab population, including Palestinians who live in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. A list obtained by an Israeli TV station included a number of nations that have supported Israels claim to Jerusalem, including Honduras, Guatemala and the Czech Republic. African countries with close or budding relations with Israel also appeared, including Chad, Mauritania, Uganda and Kenya. In his letter, Gantz noted that the decision to share vaccines with the Palestinians was made after consultations involving various government ministries. He said he could not understand why Netanyahus latest move was never broached in relevant forums. Gantz and Netanyahu are fierce rivals who battled to stalemates in three consecutive elections before agreeing last year to form an emergency government. Their power-sharing arrangement was beset by mutual distrust, highlighted by Netanyahus moves to reach a number of diplomatic pacts with Arab countries last year without informing Gantz ahead of time. In December, their coalition collapsed, and the country is heading to its fourth election in two years next month. Netanyahus Likud is projected to be the largest party in parliament after the election, but it is not clear whether he and his hardline allies will control a majority of seats. Gantzs Blue and White party, meanwhile, has plummeted and is struggling to win the minimum number of votes to remain in parliament. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Guangzhou further expanded its nucleic acid testing as the city battles the spread of Covid-19, with Haizhu and Yuexiu districts starting mass testing on Sunday. In Haizhu district, residents queued for hours in the rain to get tested on Sunday. The city reported four new local and three new imported cases, and confirmed 14 cases originally reported as asymptomatic on Sunday May 31, 2021 05:47 PM A vendor a company regularly uses sends an invoice with an updated bank account number. A company CEO asks their assistant to purchase dozens of gift cards to send out as employee rewards, and then asks for the serial numbers so they can email them out right away. A homebuyer receives a message from their title company with instructions on how to wire the down payment. (TNS) The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia has joined forces with Metro-Atlanta District Attorneys, the Office of the Attorney General, the FBI Atlanta Field Office, U.S. Secret Service, state, and local law enforcement to combat the criminal movement of cyberfraud proceeds through banks in the Atlanta area by employing Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud schemes."We are grateful for the participation and commitment of our metro District Attorneys to come together in a coordinated effort to address this criminal enterprise," said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine. "The money mules that facilitate the transfer of fraud proceeds make these cyberfraud crimes lucrative. Interrupting that flow of money is an important part of disrupting the criminal enterprise. Working together creates a strong network of prosecutors and law enforcement, across counties, who are addressing the problem through criminal prosecution and community outreach."It is this kind of intelligence and resource sharing that make our law enforcement efforts more effective and our businesses and citizens safer."Said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr: "Those perpetrating BEC scams can target anyone who relies on email for both personal and professional communications. In fact, in recent years, the FBI reported BEC crimes account for 40 percent of all cybercrime losses."Our Prosecution Division is joining federal, state and local partners to educate Georgia citizens and businesses about the telltale signs and stop the criminals facilitating this crime.""With advancements in technology, now more than ever, Georgians and Georgia businesses are highly susceptible to online fraud. By partnering with the members of this task force, the GBI plans to use the expertise we have in cyberinvestigations to help combat these fraudulent schemes," said Vic Reynolds, Director, Georgia Bureau of Investigation.Business Email Compromises exploit the fact that so many of us rely on email to conduct businessboth personal and professional. In a BEC scam, criminals send an email message that appears to come from a known source making a legitimate request, as in the examples below:In scams like these, the unsuspecting victim sends thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to the criminal.Over the last five years, BEC crimes have evolved into the predominant cyberthreat businesses face.In 2020, the FBI IC3 the primary law enforcement arm to combat BEC crimes reported 1,303 incidents with $462,967,963.72 in losses and $380,211,432.04 reported frozen by financial partners (yielding a 79 percent success rate of funds frozen).From global reporting, comprised of multiple law enforcement and financial partners, between 2016 and 2019, businesses have lost at least $26 billion as a result of BEC scams. Based on the most recent FBI IC3 report, losses from BEC attacks grew another 6 percent in 2020accounting for 45 percent of all cybercrime losses over the course of the year.Surprisingly, a quarter of all BEC attackers had a home base in the United States. Nearly half of U.S.-based BEC actors were located in five states with clusters of actors around a handful of metro areas, including the metro-Atlanta area.By making a coordinated and concerted effort to focus on suspects moving fraud proceeds in the metro-Atlanta area, the Cyber Fraud Task Force hopes to disrupt the financial structure that makes BEC fraud schemes so lucrative for criminals. Additionally, the task force aims to partner with community leaders and organizers to educate the public about avoiding these scams.The Cyber Fraud Task Force is comprised of members from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, the Office of the Georgia Attorney General, FBI Atlanta, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service Atlanta Field Office, the Atlanta Police Department, the Sandy Springs Police Department, the Smyrna Police Department, the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, the Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, the Clayton County District Attorney's Office, and the Cobb County District Attorney's Office. "Nicky brings to Palma Ceia a history of developing advanced semiconductor products and delivering them to market." Tweet this Wilkinson was most recently director IC Engineering for Huawei R&D, where her accomplishments included managing a design team that delivered a full NB-IoT (narrow-band Internet of Things) chipset solution, from analysis of marketing requirements through to production-quality silicon. Earlier experience includes work at Cambridge Silicon Radio, where she had technical management and line management responsibilities. At CSR she served as senior analogue and RF design engineer, and later group leader for the Bluetooth family of devices and project lead for every new generation of Bluetooth and multi-standard radio device. Wilkinson also co-founded Neul, where she applied her design and leadership skills to software-defined radio architectures to add features such as GPS positioning to NB-IoT solutions, providing highly integrated, cost-competitive solutions with significant value-added market attraction. She holds BA, MA, and MEng degrees in Electrical and Information Sciences from the University of Cambridge. "Palma Ceia's push to deliver advanced connectivity chips for the Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi HaLow standards makes it an exciting time to be part of the company," Wilkinson said. "Our team is focused on delivering products for these new standards, which will only grow in demand as new applications arise to take advantage of them." About Palma Ceia SemiDesign Palma Ceia SemiDesign (PCS) is a fabless semiconductor company and leading provider of communication semiconductors and IP for next-generation Wi-Fi and cellular applications. With a focus on emerging Wi-Fi and LTE standards, particularly for IoT (Internet of Things), PCS targets the design of ICs for broadband, wireless, medical and automotive applications. Palma Ceia SemiDesign solutions are differentiated by low power, high performance and ease of integration. Headquartered in the Cayman Islands, the company has design and sales support centers in Cambridge (United Kingdom), mainland China, Hong Kong, and McKinney, Texas (United States). PCS is soon expanding to provide direct support for Israel, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Visit Palma Ceia SemiDesign on the web at pcsemi.com. Palma Ceia SemiDesign and the Palma Ceia SemiDesign logo are trademarks of Palma Ceia SemiDesign, a Cayman Islands corporation, and are protected by trademark laws of the United States and other jurisdictions. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Palma Ceia SemiDesign Media Contact Milan G. Lazich [email protected] +1 650-464-1132 SOURCE Palma Ceia SemiDesign Related Links http://www.pcsemi.com NEW DELHI - India and Pakistan announced Thursday that their armed forces would cease firing across their shared border, the first such step since 2003 and a potentially significant move toward reducing tensions between the two rivals. Military officials in the two countries released a joint statement saying they had agreed to a cease-fire that went into effect at midnight, including along the unofficial frontier in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange artillery and small-arms fire in the region, a situation that analysts have described as a war by other means. The low-grade conflict is deadly, with dozens of villagers and military personnel killed annually in recent years. India accuses Pakistan of stoking a three-decade insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir by sending fighters and arms across the frontier. Pakistan denies the accusations. Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors have been frosty since 2019, when India conducted an airstrike in Pakistan after a terrorist attack killed 40 Indian troops in Kashmir. The two countries then engaged in their first aerial dogfight in nearly 50 years. Months later, India revoked Kashmir's autonomy, further angering Pakistan. Since then, cross-border firing has intensified. There were more than 5,000 such incidents in 2020, according to Indian government data, the highest figure since 2002. "You're looking at a lot of loss of life, with villagers getting killed on both sides," said Happymon Jacob, a professor of international studies and author of a book on clashes between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, "Line on Fire: Ceasefire Violations and India-Pakistan Escalation Dynamics." The new agreement, if effective, would be "pathbreaking," Jacob said. It would reduce violence and allow both countries to tell the international community that they are taking steps to stabilize Kashmir, he said. Near the highly militarized frontier in Kashmir, the cease-fire announcement is a source of deep relief. Syed Ahmad Habib, 47, lives on the Indian side of the line, but his home is so close to the boundary that he can see houses in Pakistani-controlled territory. "Someone who has not seen shells rain down cannot imagine the kind of life we are living," said Habib, 47, who is from a village called Mandhar. A childhood friend died in shelling this year, he said. "If it has stopped, I am glad." This is a "very positive" move, said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a security analyst in Pakistan, who nevertheless cautioned that it remains unclear whether the agreement will be implemented successfully. If the firing ceases, Rizvi said, it opens the door to other confidence-building measures, such as making it easier for people and goods to travel between India and Pakistan. In theory, a cease-fire agreement already exists between the two countries, which share both an international border and a 460-mile unofficial frontier in Kashmir known as the Line of Control. The cease-fire understanding was announced in 2003, and, for the next several years, the Line of Control was relatively quiet. But after terrorists killed more than 160 people in Mumbai in 2008 - an attack carried out by a Pakistan-based militant group - cross-border firing increased. They have soared tenfold since 2014, according to official Indian data. Indian officials have accused Pakistan of using the shelling to give cover to militants crossing into Indian-controlled territory, a charge that Pakistan denies. Commanders on both sides have the autonomy to decide when to fire, Jacob said. Thursday's announcement comes as India continues to grapple with tensions on a different border - the one with China. India and China recently disengaged their troops from one sensitive area after a months-long standoff that began with a deadly clash in June. A period of calm on the border between India and Pakistan could serve both countries' interests, analysts said. "It's an important development," said Arvind Gupta, a former deputy national security adviser in India. "Whether it is tactical or something with long-term consequences remains to be seen." Bashir Ahmad Wathloo, 45, lives near the town of Uri on the Indian side of the Line of Control. His aunt was killed three years ago when she was unable to run away with the rest of the family from falling shells. On Thursday, Wathloo was sitting with friends in front of a store, an activity he has avoided for more than a year after shelling intensified. The mood was festive. It felt good to be outside without fearing for one's life, he said. - - - The Washington Post's Shams Irfan in Hyderabad, India, and Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report. St. Petersburg court extends detention of rapper's widow in murder case until May RAPSI, Eugeny Varlamov 18:01 25/02/2021 ST. PETERSBURG, February 25 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) Detention of Marina Kokhal, who stands charged with killing her husband, rapper Alexander Yushko, has been again extended for two months, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI. The Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg ordered the victims widow to be held in jail until April 30. According to the investigation, on July 29, the woman had a conflict with Yushko and then killed him and dismembered his body in order to further wean it off. Kokhal pleaded not guilty. During the questioning, she said that her husband died from drug overdose. However, the analysis of the victims hair and human tissues showed no drugs. The St. Petersburg investigators believe the murder of the musician was planned by his wife. They earlier said they found out that shortly before the crime Kokhal got medical drugs at a pharmacy which later used to kill her husband. Moreover, it was revealed that the womans mother was at the scene of the crime, according to the probe. Yushko known as Andy Cartwright took part in rap battles and released his sole tracks on the Internet. [February 25, 2021] Businessolver Solidifies Market Leadership Position in 2020 WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Businessolver, a leader in SaaS-based benefits technology and services, completed 2020 with a strengthened market position and forward industry momentum, driven by strategic investments ensuring business continuity, uninterrupted client service, and consistent employee safety and productivity. Businessolver's tenured leadership acted swiftly and decisively to not only safeguard operations and employee well-being, but also increased business performance through its intentional focus on innovation and transparent delivery of Technology with Heart. "The pressures and challenges faced by the HR industry in 2020 were like nothing we have ever seen," said Jon Shanahan, Businessolver Founder and CEO. "As the technology behind their benefits programs, our clients and our partners trusted us to rise to the challenge of facing head on the pressures on their human capital, the impact on declined total well-being and the immense shift to a virtual or socially-distant environment. By listening to our clients and consulting on their needs, we have been incredibly fortunate to be entering 2021 in a solid financial position allowing us to lead the way in what's next for benefits technology." Businessolver expanded its footprint in high-growth business including the addition of new clients from the Fortune 100, large-scale organizations and pooled insurance groups. Businessolver's 2020 achievements propel the company for continued success in 2021 and beyond. Organizational excellence aids response-readiness during pandemic The company continued strong client retention of over 95%. Using the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework as its roadmap for organizational excellence, as it has every year since 2017, Businessolver received Gold Level recognition in 2020, the highest level of state recognition, for demonstrating the framework's core values. By living those values, Businessolver was able to rise to the myriad challenges of 2020 and provide exemplary support to its clients. While maintaining a combined tenure of 50+ years in steadfast executive leadership leading the way in strategy, vision, engagement and compliance, four additional leaders were added to the executive team to continue Businessolver's focus on organizational excellence and market growth. Businessolver launched its Navigating the New Normal information center in addition to the Benefits Pulse, to keep clients informed of benefit trends related to COVID-19, as well as the increase of new federal regulations in 2020, including the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and a variety of complex extensions affecting COBRA. With an obsessive drive for security, Businessolver successfully completed thousands of dail scans to ensure Benefitsolver protections that ensured zero security breaches in 2020 while maintaining a 100% uptime during the most critical enrollment periods. Adhering to process and leveraging technology in a fully remote environment, Businessolver's Critical to Quality compliance checks which prevent gaps in service and ensure quality product jumped over five percentage points during 2020. The Businessolver Pinnacle Partner Program added seven new preferred voluntary benefits carriers and partners. With 12 partners now participating in the program, Businessolver clients and their employees are provided with an advanced user experience that helps them make the most of their benefits investment. Innovation delivered delight for clients amidst human capital pressures Businessolver's MyChoice Accounts, its proprietary, integrated consumer-directed health care platform, continued to provide unique account options for clients by introducing several non-traditional reimbursement programs that supported clients' needs pre- and mid-pandemic. These account programs included savings goal accounts, a post-employment HRA, as well as employer-funded dependent care programs to meet the growing demands on child care for essential workers. The company enhanced functionality and added consumer-account management within the MyChoice Mobile App. The importance of the mobile application increased throughout the year, as Businessolver saw app downloads increase more than three-fold in an increasingly virtual environment. Launched as a direct-to-consumer health care exchange experience, MyChoice Market served as an effective alternative to COBRA coverage or for those who found themselves without affordable care. Businessolver helped clients adapt to virtual and socially distanced worksites in 2020 through the development of a unique and highly interactive virtual benefits fair solution ahead of the busy fall annual enrollment season. The virtual benefits fairs, created and maintained by Businessolver's in-house engagement practice, Studio B, averaged 8,800 page views per event with an average engagement of 8 minutes and 40 seconds per visitor. Sofia , Businessolver's intelligent application, completed her fourth annual enrollment as Businessolver's MVP resource in answering employee questions related to their benefits. As her knowledge set increased, so did her performance. Sofia's chat volume increased 97% throughout 2020, but with no delay, she resolved over 87% of her total chat volume, increasing her success rate by over 21% in 2020. With increased demands at all times of day, 31% of her chat volume was on nights and weekends, ensuring members had care support when they needed it most. Additionally, Sofia supported over 22% of calls during the peak annual enrollment season, to simplify the experience for members, by leveraging technology to elevate service. , Businessolver's intelligent application, completed her fourth annual enrollment as Businessolver's MVP resource in answering employee questions related to their benefits. As her knowledge set increased, so did her performance. chat volume increased 97% throughout 2020, but with no delay, she resolved over 87% of her total chat volume, increasing her success rate by over 21% in 2020. With increased demands at all times of day, 31% of her chat volume was on nights and weekends, ensuring members had care support when they needed it most. Additionally, supported over 22% of calls during the peak annual enrollment season, to simplify the experience for members, by leveraging technology to elevate service. Among the company's primary goals was improving users' overall understanding of benefits information and confidence in benefits selection. With an innovative, empathy-driven user experience, Businessolver created a conversational enrollment for employees at a time when benefits literacy remains low. With that, nearly 77% of users rated their understanding as Extremely Clear or Very Clear, and 81% rated their confidence as Extremely Confident or Very Confident. Strong company culture proves ability to extend beyond brick and mortar Businessolver successfully shifted to a fully remote workforce of more than 1,200 Solvers over just three days in March 2020 . This included closing eight offices across the U.S., without service disruption to clients or their employees. . This included closing eight offices across the U.S., without service disruption to clients or their employees. Maintaining high levels of employee engagement while providing support to Solvers in this new environment, two new metrics were added to Businessolver's weekly employee measurement surveys. Findings proved that engagement scores increased by roughly 10% in the first month of moving remote and continued throughout 2020. Businessolver's overall attrition rates were 4.5% lower in 2020 than in the previous year. Businessolver launched its first diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program to address the challenges faced by BIPOC populations throughout the country. The cultural touchpoints on race during 2020 drove Businessolver leaders to recognize the company needed to be accountable to its employees, clients and communities by acknowledging systemic inequality. In launching its DEI focus, 809 Solvers took the pledge to "Be Kind, Speak Up, and Do the Work" to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion. Dedicated to the importance of empathy in the workplace, Businessolver released its fifth annual Workplace Empathy Study. The findings revealed that the perception of empathy in the workplace had decreased with a greater lens on the executive leadership to own this foundational value. Despite the year's many challenges, Businessolver Chief Strategy Officer Rae Shanahan said the company's consistent commitment to product quality, process excellence and employee empowerment over the last two decades can't be overstated. "We didn't know it, but for more than 20 years we'd been building a culture that would prove to withstand some of the most consequential changes our countryand our clientshad ever seen. And while we celebrated this resilience, we are also excited for continued growth in years to come." Read more about the company's achievements in the interactive Businessolver 2020 Annual Snapshot. About Businessolver Since 1998, Businessolver has delivered market-changing benefits administration technology supported by an intrinsic responsiveness to client needs. The company creates client programs that maximize benefits program investment, minimize risk exposure, and engage employees with easy-to-use solutions and communication tools to assist them in making wise and cost-efficient benefits selections. Founded by HR professionals, Businessolver's unwavering service-oriented culture and secure SaaS platform provide measurable success in its mission to provide complete client delight. Media Contacts Grant Stoker, Edelman (on behalf of Businessolver) media@businessolver.com 206.939.7298 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/businessolver-solidifies-market-leadership-position-in-2020-301235628.html SOURCE Businessolver [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Long March 7 orbital launch vehicle carrying China's cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 lifts off from its launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in Wenchang, southern China's Hainan Province, on April 20, 2017. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images) Coming Soon: Chinas Space Station Hegemony Commentary By late April or early May, its expected that China will have started the construction of its first large space station. Given its importance to the larger ambitions of the regime in Beijing, it should be called Space Station Hegemony. Chinas space station construction has come close to the implementation stage, the Global Times reported on Jan. 14, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office. The Global Times also stated that China will carry out 11 launches, including four manned spaceships and four cargo spaceship flights in the next two years, as it aims to complete the building of the countrys first space station by around 2022. The other three launches will orbit the three main modules of the early version of the space station. The Chinese name for the space station is Tiangong (Heavenly Palace); the first habitation module will be called Tianhe (Heavenly River). It will weigh about 22 tons and have an internal area of about 50 square meters (about 538 square feet). This will be followed by two experimental modules that will also deploy the space stations two main solar power arrays. These modules are called Wentian (Quest for Heavens) and Mengtian (Dream of Heavens). The station will be supplied and probably powered by regular eight-ton Tianzhou (Heavenly Vessel) supply ships. Chinas space station reportedly will have a regular crew of three, and the whole station will have a lifespan of about 10 years. In its early stages, this space station could weigh up to 100 tons, but subsequent additions could see its weight increase to 140 to 160 tons. Larger size likely means accommodations for additional crew. An image of Chinas space station at the 2019 Paris Air Show. (Richard D. Fisher) The size of the crew modules is limited by the 25-ton to low Earth orbit (LEO) lifting capacity of the five-meter (about 16 feet) diameter Long March 5 space launch vehicle (SLV), currently Chinas largest SLV. At the 2014 International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, a Chinese space official told this analyst that China has plans for a next-generation space station after Tiangong, which could be a much larger craft. After 2030, China will likely have its Long March 9, capable of lofting space station modules of 100 tons or more. China has been working toward the Tiangong space station since at least 1992, when China began its three-part 921 Program of early manned operationsits Shenzhou manned spaceships, then its Tiangong early manned space station, and then its early unmanned moon probes. While the Shenzhou was based on purchased Russian Soyuz spacecraft plans and technology, in 2009, Russian sources told this analyst that China basically stole Russian technology to develop its early space station. This explains why the Tianhe module looks like a slightly longer Russian company Energias MIR space station module. It also serves as a cautionary tale ahead of allowing Chinese astronauts to board the International Space Station (ISS). Like all other aspects of Chinas space program, its space station will be controlled by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). This means that beyond the expected scientific and commercial activities, Chinas space station will have two more important missions. First, Chinas space station will likely perform military surveillance, and even potential combat missions. This is made easier by its modular construction; additional armed modules can be launched under a deceptive guise, again copying the Energia concept that would have also produced an armed MIR station, had the Soviet Communist Party survived into the 1990s. In the early moments of a conflict with China, the United States and other countries may hesitate to attack a manned Chinese space station, possibly giving the PLA sufficient time to attack U.S. and other satellites, or targets on Earth with kinetic or energy weapons. China, however, may have little hesitation to attack the manned 15-nation coalition, 417-ton ISS. In September 2008, Chinas Shenzhou-7 very likely conducted a simulated interception-attack against the ISS. Beyond its potential use in wartime, Chinas space station will perform a critical political-military mission by serving as the focal point for Chinese recruitment of a space partnership coalition. China will then use such a coalition to normalize its presence on the Moon, which in turn advances its quest for hegemony on Earth. In 2022, Pakistan expects to launch its first astronaut to the Chinese space station. This will gift Pakistans military authoritarian government with a hero who may beat into space Indias first astronauts on their Gaganyaan spacecraft, not expected until the end of 2022 or early 2023. The prospect of such a propaganda coup may help Pakistan agree to station Chinese military ships and aircraft at the Chinese-built port of Gwadar, assisting the PLAs projection into the Indian Ocean, to the Persian Gulf, and to Africa. Possible future Chinese space station visitors from Nigeria, Algeria, Venezuela, and Argentina, countries with either arms sales or space program relationships with China, might then welcome Chinese military access to their strategically located ports. Countries welcomed aboard its space station become likely candidates for selection to work on Chinas future lunar bases. In the 2030s, China may have the intention to rapidly build up to 10 such Moon bases. Having an international crew cohort may be helpful in building political support for any Chinese actions on the moon that may undermine, or run counter to, American and allied lunar objectives or international treaties and agreements. Success on its LEO space station and then on the moon could enable China to build a network of larger space-based solar power satellites to help achieve energy independence, which could greatly assist Chinas quest for hegemony on Earth. Chinas first-generation space station, and the possibility that it will build a much larger second-generation station, puts pressure on Washington to try to sustain the ISS for as long as possible. Since the mid-2000s, Russia has been mulling plans for divorcing some of its modules from the ISS to build a new but smaller Russian space station. India may also have a small space station by the early 2030s. There has been some enthusiasm for increasingly turning the ISS over to private sector companies and, indeed, they could also build independent small space stations should the ISS not survive the decade. But to sustain its international space coalition, it may be more profitable for the United States to continue the Artemis Program to build a large human presence on the moon that involves many allies, partners, and friends. Richard D. Fisher Jr. is a senior fellow and policy analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Denton, TX (76205) Today Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible. FULLERTON, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new film festival highlighting creative content made by aerial filmmakers is set to debut in in Southern California this March. The inaugural Southern California Drone Film Festival is set for March 6, 2021 and marks the only event of its kind in California. The one-day virtual event will include panels on drone technology, cinematography, and video production, and will culminate with the awards ceremony highlighting shorts from creative storytellers. Filmmakers and content creators from around the world submitted their content for the festival. The festival is the brainchild of Southern California native Jay Seidel. A Fullerton College professor and head of the Fullerton Drone Lab. "There is so much great visual content being created with drones," Seidel said. "I wanted to find a way to showcase it all here in Southern California, so people could enjoy it and we can recognize the efforts from these innovative filmmakers." As with most public events, the festival is being held remotely in a virtual environment. In addition to showcasing the finalists and announcing the winners of the 14 categories, the festival will provide videos of interviews with filmmakers, photographers, journalists, drone professionals and many more. There will also be some training videos, as well as an exclusive screening of a new documentary on the first-person view (FPV) drone craze. As a professor, Seidel said the festival looks to encourage education as well as expanding creativity. "Education is an important part of the festival," Seidel added. "The panels and workshops we will be holding before the awards will help inform and enlighten filmmakers and drone professionals of every level." Tickets are only $25 for a month access to the content. The Southern California Drone Film Festival showcases the best and most creative content captured by drones by aspiring and professional filmmakers from around the world. More information can be found at the festival website: socaldronefilmfestival.com or the virtual event site at: festival.filmocracy.com/scdff CONTACT: Tania Rangel [email protected] 714-222-8841 SOURCE Southern California Drone Film Festival The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A hair restoration doctor cleared by a court of illegally importing medicines has taken proceedings to stop a Medical Council hearing over the same matter. In a case which may have ramifications for investigations by a range of professional bodies, Dr Samuel Van Eeden claims the inquiry breaches his constitutional rights as he has already been cleared of criminal charges. The South African-born surgeon and his wife Zelda were both charged in connection with the alleged unauthorised importation of the medicines from Bangladesh in 2012. The medicines included an injected antibiotic for hair restoration treatment, sedatives, drugs for indigestion and cholesterol problems, and a local anaesthetic. Dr Van Eeden has a regenerative medicine practice in Malahide, Co Dublin. The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) told Dublin District Court none of the products were authorised for marketing in Ireland. Both the doctor and his wife were cleared of the charges. The HPRAs file from the case was handed over to the Medical Council, whose Fitness to Practice Committee had been due to begin a hearing on Tuesday. The hearing did not go ahead after lawyers for Dr Van Eeden secured a stay from the High Court the previous day. Dr Van Eeden is being represented by barrister Alan Toal and solicitor John Geary. Following representations on Thursday from Patrick Leonard SC, for the Medical Council, the stay was lifted by Mr Justice Michael Twomey. As part of the case Dr Van Eeden is seeking an injunction restraining the councils Fitness to Practice Committee from proceeding to hear the disciplinary matter until such time as his constitutional challenge is determined. A central plank of Dr Van Eedens challenge is that the holding of the inquiry amounts to a form of invidious discrimination. In papers lodged with the High Court, he claims a person acquitted of a criminal charge who is not a member of a professional class can enjoy that benefit and is free to continue in their workplace. However, he alleged that as a member of the professional classes he was being prosecuted again, this time by the Medical Council. Among the declarations he is seeking is that this inequality of treatment is not in accordance with the spirit or intention of Article 40.1 of the Constitution, which states all citizens shall be held equal before the law. In an affidavit, Dr Van Eeden said he believed he was clearly being discriminated against by reason only of his membership of his profession. In contrast, for example, a tradesperson acquitted before the courts on a criminal matter may without further impediment return to his or her trade absent fear they would be brought before their governing union and prosecuted for the same matters upon which that person had just been acquitted, he said. During his application to lift the stay on the hearing, Mr Leonard said Dr Van Eeden had a weak case and there was no need for the continuance of the stay. He said the doctor ought to have applied to the Fitness to Practice Committee for the stay rather than seeking it from the court. Mr Leonard also claimed there had been a lack of candour by the other side about the background leading up to the Fitness to Practice Committee hearing date. This was rejected by Mr Toal, who said he could have put voluminous material before the court, but this would only have complicated the matter. Mr Justice Twomey said he had been concerned about the lateness of the stay application when he granted it on Monday and would now lift it after hearing from the other side. The matter will now be transferred to another judge for a date to be set for the hearing of the full case. Domenico Arcuri, COVID-19 Extraordinary Commissioner to the Ministry of Economic Development, leaves after a meeting on vaccines in Rome, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. Arcuri boasted that after seeing its daily vaccinations sharply dip in the second half of January, innoculations this week showed "a comforting increase," averaging around 100,000 a day nationally. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP) Italy's northern Lombardy region, where Europe's coronavirus outbreak erupted last year, asked the national government Thursday for more vaccines to help stem a surge of new COVID-19 cases that are taxing the health system in the province of Brescia. The province's fast-growing caseload is contributing to another upswing in reported cases nationwide: Italy added another 19,886 confirmed infections Thursday, its highest daily number since early January. Authorities reported another 308 virus-related deaths, bringing the country's official toll in the pandemic to just under 97,000. Brescia, with a population of around 1.2 million, has seen its daily cases go from the mid-100s at the start of February to 901 on Wednesday and 973 Thursday, due to clusters of infections traced to the British variant. Doctors say the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the main public hospital went from an average of around 200 to 300 recently. "We can't talk about a third wave from our point of view, just because the second one never really ended," said Dr. Cristiano Perani, head of emergency room at Brescia's civic hospital. "The increase was gradual, but had an acceleration in the last few weeks." Lombardy's governor, Attilio Fontana, said he told Italy's health minister Thursday that the region needed an "immediate delivery (of vaccines) in the territory where the virus is growing." Already, LombardyItaly's most populous regionhas imposed new lockdown measures in Brescia and revamped its vaccine strategy to redirect the jabs it has on hand to the province and nearby towns in neighboring Bergamo. The aim of the strategy is to inoculate as many people as possible as quickly as possible in the hardest-hit areas. Guido Bertolaso, who is in charge of the vaccine campaign, said the region was going to bypass the 30% reserves that the national government recommends keeping on hand for second doses, and starting Thursday would begin vaccinating residents ages 60-79, well earlier than scheduled. Lombardy only recently began vaccinating people aged over 80, after prioritizing health care workers and residents of nursing homes. The aim of the strategy, Bertolaso said, is to create a "health cordon" in the area with blanket vaccinations. The approach is based on studies from Britain and Israeland even on Lombardy's own datathat show declines in infection rates as more people are vaccinated with only one dose. "This is war," Bertolaso said. Carabinieri officers patrol one of the main access road to Bollate, in the outskirts of Milan, Italy. Italy's northern Lombardy region, where Europe's coronavirus outbreak erupted last year, asked the national government Thursday to send more vaccines north to help stem a surge of new cases that are taxing the hospital system in the province of Brescia. Brescia, with a population of around 1.2 million, has seen its daily caseload go from the mid-100s at the start of February to 901 on Wednesday thanks in part to clusters of cases traced to the British variant. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Brescia's deputy mayor, Laura Castelletti, said residents were willing to accept new lockdown measureswhich include closing all schools and day-care centersas long as the vaccination schedule accelerated. "We are ready to make sacrifices if the vaccination campaign goes forward 24/7," she said. Brescia and Bergamo were two of the Italian provinces hardest hit during the first wave of the pandemic, which began this time last year and quickly turned Lombardy into the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe. Lombardy as a whole still accounts for nearly a third of Italy's 96,974 confirmed COVID-19 dead, and a fifth of its 2.87 million confirmed infections. Italy has the world's sixth-highest confirmed death toll, and the second in Europe after Britain. Italy's vaccine campaign, which has administered 3.92 million doses, has been slowed by delays in deliveries from the three pharmaceutical companies supplying the European Union: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. It wasn't immediately clear whether the health ministry would redirect any vaccines to Lombardy, given previously established quotas which have already delivered the most doses there. Italy's virus czar, Domenico Arcuri, didn't address Fontana's request in a statement Thursday but boasted that inoculations showed "a comforting increase" this week, averaging around 100,000 a day nationally. Nearly two months after Italy began its vaccination campaign on Dec. 27, the tiny Republic of San Marino administered its first doses Thursday. San Marino, a city state of about 33,800 people surrounded by Italy, had to buy Russian Sputnik V doses after delays in receiving allotted doses from Italy. "This constitutes the most effective weapon we have to defeat this disease," said Dr. Enrico Rossi, who was among the first inoculated. "It has been kind of a nightmare this year but we are hopeful that it will end." Explore further Outbreak of UK virus variant detected in Italian town 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Generals have attempted to stage a coup in Armenia three months after the country lost a bitter war against Azerbaijan in which more than 6,000 died. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan led 20,000 supporters through the capital Yerevan as he warned the top brass to 'obey the people' after they issued a statement calling for his resignation. Another 10,000 people protested against the PM in another part of the city, blocking off a main road with large rubbish bins as hundreds of police were deployed. Pashinyan has been under intense pressure over his handling of the 44-day conflict which ceded the ethnically-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region to Azerbaijan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters escorted by law enforcement officers march during a rally in Yerevan, the capital city, on Wednesday The PM, a 45-year-old former newspaper editor, hugs a supporter in central Yerevan on Wednesday as he faced down what he claimed was an attempted coup Police officers shield the PM as he leads 20,000 supporters through the capital on Wednesday Participants shout slogans during an opposition rally to demand the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, on Wednesday. Another 10,000 demonstrators gathered in another part of the city against the PM Addressing supporters in the capital today, Pashinyan said: 'As an elected prime minister, I am ordering all generals, officers and soldiers: do your job of protecting the country's borders and territorial integrity.' Video showed a Russian-made fighter jet flying over the city and pro-Pashinyan demonstrators cheering as it flew overhead. However, there were no signs of any military action to oust Pashinyan after the statement by the generals. Video showed a Russian-made jet flying over the city and pro-Pashinyan demonstrators cheering as it flew overhead The defence ministry also issued a statement declaring that the army had no place in politics. 'The army is not a political institution and attempts to involve it in political processes are unacceptable,' it said. Pashinyan said he was ready to start talks with the opposition, but also threatened to arrest any of his opponents who 'go beyond political statements'. Sporadic protests of thousands have erupted since the ceasefire brokered by Russia but Pashinyan has repeatedly refused to resign over losing swathes of territory to Azerbaijan. After backing the prime minister for months, the military's general staff on Thursday joined calls for him to step down, saying in a statement that he and his cabinet 'are not capable of taking adequate decisions'. Pashinyan hit back with an accusation that top brass were mounting an 'attempted military coup' and fired the chief of the general staff Onik Gasparyan. He then led supporters through the streets of the capital, surrounded by his family, ministers and security detail, as marchers chanted 'Nikol Prime Minister!' In an earlier statement, Pashinyan said the military's call had been an 'emotional reaction' to his firing the previous day of the deputy chief of the general staff, Tigran Khachatryan. Khachatryan had ridiculed claims by Pashinyan that Iskander missiles supplied by Russia - Armenia's main military ally - had failed to hit targets during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Participants shout slogans during an opposition rally to demand the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, Armenia, on Wednesday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets with his supporters gathered on Republic Square in downtown Yerevan on Wednesday Armenia's opposition, who have been calling for Pashinyan's resignation since a ceasefire deal in November, urged him to heed the military's demand. 'We call on Nikol Pashinyan not to lead the country towards civil war and to avoid bloodshed. Pashinyan has one last chance to avoid turmoil,' Prosperous Armenia, the country's largest opposition party, said in a statement. Prosperous Armenia and another opposition party, Bright Armenia, called for the holding of an extraordinary session of parliament, which is controlled by Pashinyan's allies. President Armen Sarkisian, whose role is largely symbolic, said he was taking urgent steps to try to defuse the crisis, while the Apostolic Church called for all sides to hold talks 'for the sake of our homeland and people'. Moscow also called for calm, while Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu strongly condemned what he said was an 'attempted coup in Armenia'. Pashinyan has faced fierce criticism since he signed the peace deal brokered by Russia that ended the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region that broke from Azerbaijan's control during a war in the early 1990s. Fresh fighting erupted over the region in late September with Azerbaijani forces backed by ally Turkey making steady gains. After six weeks of clashes and bombardments, a ceasefire deal was signed that handed over significant territory to Azerbaijan and allowed for the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers. Azerbaijan has said 2,783 troops were killed in the fighting, with 100 missing and 94 civilians dead. Armenia reported 2,718 soldiers were killed and at least 55 civilians died in the 44-day war. The peace deal was seen as a national humiliation for many Armenians, though Pashinyan has said he had no choice but to agree or see his country's forces suffer even bigger losses. It was met with protests in the capital Yerevan, where demonstrators stormed government offices on the night it was signed and have continued to regularly gather. Pashinyan has rejected calls to resign and for early elections despite the building pressure. The former newspaper editor came to power spearheading peaceful protests in 2018 and initially brought a wave of optimism to Armenia, a deeply impoverished ex-Soviet state that also borders Iran, Georgia and Turkey. As a boy growing up in Brewarrina in the 1950s, award-winning photographer Mervyn Bishop would borrow his mothers box camera to chronicle the characters of his bush childhood. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hand of traditional landowner Vincent Lingiari, Northern Territory in 1975. Credit:Mervyn Bishop From about the age of 10, the now 75-year-old, who went on to become The Sydney Morning Heralds and Australias first Indigenous press photographer, would use her Kodak 620 to take candid snaps of his younger sister Cynthia, his cousins and neighbours. Aircraft were early subjects too: the DC-3s, the de Havilland Dragon Rapides and Tiger Moths that would touch down on the airstrip near his home in the north-western NSW town near Bourke on the banks of the Barwon River. Rather than the long wait for film to be mailed off, developed and delivered, a local amateur photographer, Vic King, showed Bishop how to develop photographs in his makeshift home darkroom. I still remember when my first print went into the developer, and I saw it coming out - I thought that was just so magical I was hooked instantly ... I couldnt get enough. The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center is celebrating 50 years of ministry to the Church of God and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements on Tuesday. Founded under the leadership of Charles W. Conn on the campus of Lee University, the center is one of the worlds largest repositories of Pentecostal publications, documents, and artifacts. Along with its extraordinary growth, the center has expanded its mission to preserve Pentecostal voices as it seeks to fulfill the biblical mandate of Psalm 78:4: We will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord. We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did (NLT). The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center began in 1971 as a special collection in the Lee College Library. Library Director LeMoyne Swiger and her staff had assembled a collection of books by Church of God authors. When Dr. Conn became president of Lee College in 1970, he saw the potential of developing a leading research library documenting the global Pentecostal movement. Dr. Conn was uniquely positioned to understand the value of a research collection. While he was serving as editor in chief of Church of God publications, denominational leaders commissioned him to write the movements history. Like a Mighty Army appeared in 1955 and established Dr. Conn as the denominations historian and an important voice in the Pentecostal movement. In response to Dr. Conns vision, the college created the Pentecostal Research Center, raised a budget, moved its Pentecostal books to a designated room, and hired a part-time director. Desiring to build a collection as nearly exhaustive as possible, Dr. Conn challenged the Church of God and Pentecostal movement to preserve for future generations those things of the past that have made us what we are. The Church of God General Assembly adopted this vision to preserve Church of God and Pentecostal heritage in 1980. Dr. Conn, along with Church of God School of Theology president Cecil B. Knight and General Overseer Ray H. Hughes, proposed a plan to construct a facility that would include a library to serve both educational institutions along with the Pentecostal Research Center. The General Assembly approved the proposal, and in 1985, the building that houses William G. Squires Library and the Hal Bernard Dixon Jr. Pentecostal Research Center was completed. Adding to its mission as a world-class research library, the Church of God designated the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center as the archives of the denomination. Fulfilling Dr. Conns vision, tens of thousands of resources are available for students, faculty, visiting researchers, church leaders, and congregations. Todays holdings exceed 20,000 cataloged books and other media as well as a large number of archival records. Among the many archival holdings are the Bennie S. Triplett Collection, Conversations with Charles W. Conn Video Interviews, the French and Frances Arrington Papers, Lee College Records, North Cleveland Church of God Records, the Ray H. Hughes Papers, and the Tomlinson Family Collection. Under the current directorship of Dr. David G. Roebuck, the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center has increased its emphasis on sharing the Pentecostal heritage with the Christian community through teaching, historical exhibits, publications, and an annual Azusa Lecture. The center works closely with the Church of God Historical Commission to design and create a major historical exhibit and accompanying publication for each Church of God General Assembly. Its most recent exhibit, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Century of Church of God Education is available for public viewing at the center. Dr. Roebuck teaches at Lee University and the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, is available for local church heritage services, and has served as director of the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center since 1997. Holding a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Vanderbilt University, his research interests include the holiness and Pentecostal movements with attention to minority voices. An ordained bishop, he has been a member of the Church of God Historical Commission since 1996, and the Church of God International Executive Committee appointed him as Church of God historian in 2004. Serving alongside Dr. Roebuck, the Reverend David Gene Mills, Jr. is archivist at the center. Mills educational experience includes advanced graduate studies in American religious history, philosophy of religion, and theology. He has taught at numerous educational institutions and was president of Discipleship College in Eldoret, Kenya. In commending the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center for 50 years of ministry to the Kingdom of God, Church of God General Overseer Timothy Hill announced that he is donating the original manuscripts of his fathers sermons as well as his own sermons. Regarding his fathers sermons, Dr. Hill noted, I cant think of a better way to utilize the messages as to make them available in the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center for anyone that may come and use them at any time in their own research. Offering his congratulations, Lee University Chancellor Paul Conn said, The Pentecostal Research Center is something that we at Lee are really proud of. We are glad that it is here, and we are proud of its growth and its effectiveness serving scholars and church people over all these years. It has become a very valuable asset and resource for the Church of God at large, for the Pentecostal movement around the world, and for all scholars who care about the Pentecostal movement and want to know more about it. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is about to start a search for signs of ancient Martian life, but new research hints at the prospect of current life on the Red Planet. Planetary scientists from Arizona State University analysed images of features from the Martian surface taken by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Within those images study authors Aditya Khuller and Philip Christensen found the lowest latitude evidence of dusty water ice on Mars that has formed into gullies. This is significant, said Khuller, as ice on Mars melts when it is dusty and at lower latitudes where it is warmer there could be stable liquid water 'within the ice'. While this doesn't necessarily mean there is life within that liquid water, it would be the best place to find surviving life on Mars today, the authors explained. False-color image of light-toned, dusty water ice (relatively white materials in this image) exposed within mid-latitude Martian gullies. This ice might melt to form the gullies A number of missions have been spent to Mars to search for signs of ancient Martian life KEY FINDINGS: LOW LYING DUSTY ICE HINTS AT MARS LIFE It is the lowest latitude detection of water ice on Mars. This could help future astronauts access the water and any signs of life within because it is warmer. Existing models for snow on Mars show that snow only melts on Mars when it is dusty. The ice seen in the images is dusty, which suggests it could be melting, potentially even today. The melting of this dusty water ice could provide places for any surviving life to exist on Mars. It can also lead to the formation of the gully/ravine channels at these locations. Advertisement 'There might be small amounts of stable liquid water being produced within the ice at these gully sites, potentially even today,' Khuller told MailOnline. He added this 'would be the best places for any surviving life on Mars'. 'Whether there is any life or not is not possible to say based on the data we currently have.' The melting of this dusty water ice could have led to the formation of gullies that have eroded into rock and ice at the locations seen in the satellite images. 'We've known that Mars has water ice for a while,' said lead author Khuller, who is a graduate student at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. 'But this is the first time we've seen it this close to the equator at places where it might be melting.' Christensen, a professor at ASU, first noticed smooth deposits that looked like snow-packs covered in dirt on gullied slopes in images of Mars almost two decades ago. This led him to propose that the gullies formed by dusty snowmelt, a theory backed by computer simulations that show snow on Mars only melts when it is dusty. Khuller later analysed higher-resolution images of the same gullies and noticed a change between the 2003 pictures and ones from 2020. 'There were these light-toned deposits now visible within the gullies that weren't there in Christensen's original observations,' said Khuller. 'The light-toned deposits were present at the exact locations Christensen had proposed they would be nearly 20 years ago.' Observing this, Khuller set about expanding his analysis and found even more of the places where the light-toned deposits were visible. Based on the brightness of the deposits, Khuller and Christensen determined that they must be dusty water ice - similar in appearance to dirty snow on Earth. This was based on the idea that it is unlikely for short-term localised dust deposits to form only within the smooth deposits. In addition, the locations of these deposits are too warm for the ice to be water frost. The team hope their findings could help NASA and other agencies narrow down where to search for signs of life on the Red Planet when planning future missions. Mantles found in the Dao Valles on Mars show a gully incision (black arrow) possibly made by dusty melting water ice exposed to the warmer equatorial summer weather This is due to the fact small amounts of liquid water may be produced within these water ice deposits in the summer - at the equator. While significantly colder than the equator on Earth, Martian summers can reach as warm as 20 degrees Celsius during the day, although it can drop to -73C at night. The ASU team say that because they are closer to the equator, the locations are also warmer, so astronauts in the future might be able to access them more easily even with just a shovel. Low-resolution image (left) used by Christensen in 2003 showing a remnant of the snow mantle (arrow) could be the source of water. On the right is a new high resolution image of the same location from a decade later with dusty water ice exposed and melting 'For decades, scientists have been looking for places on Mars where there could be water,' said Khuller. 'We believe that these dusty ice deposits are the best candidates to look for small amounts of shallow liquid water, and therefore potentially ideal locations for any surviving life on Mars.' Khuller and Christensen plan to develop new computer simulations of how this water ice changes with time, and they will continue to document more locations with exposed ice so that future Mars missions could potentially target them. The findings have been published in the journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 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. India takes up with Canada reports of threats to Indians, asks Canadian authorities to ensure safety India pti-Deepika S New Delhi, Feb 25: Amid reports of threats to some members of the Indian community in Canada over their support to Centre''s new farm laws, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said it has taken up the issue with Canadian authorities both in Ottawa and New Delhi, and has requested them to take steps to ensure the safety of Indians. Asked about the reports that some members of the Indian diaspora in Canada have received threats from Khalistani groups after they took out "tiranga" rallies in support of the farm laws, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "We have come across these reports of threat and intimidation to some members of the Indian community in Canada. These threats have come from some fringe elements in Canada." "We have taken this up with Canadian authorities both in Ottawa and in Delhi. We have requested them to take steps to ensure the safety of Indian citizens in Canada," he added. Srivastava said the Indian nationals are advised to report any such incident to the local Canadian police and also bring it to the immediate attention of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa as well as Indian consulates. "I would also say, we have taken up with the Canadian authorities the issues concerning the safety and security of our missions and consulates and our diplomatic personnel in Canada," he said. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Under political pressure to sanitise its family of apps including WhatsApp in India, Facebook on Thursday cautiously welcomed the new social media regulations on intermediaries, saying the company will comb through the new rules to chart its further course of action. The government has come up with new stringent guidelines for social media platforms along with code of ethics for over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital media. Addressing the media, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that social media platforms will be classified under two categories - social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries - with the latter being subject to greater obligations. A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement that they have always been clear as a company "that we welcome regulations that set guidelines for addressing today's toughest challenges on the Internet". "Facebook is committed to people's ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platforms. The details of rules like these matter and we will carefully study the new rules that were just published," the company added. The government will soon notify a list of significant social media intermediaries, the minister said, adding that platforms with a "significant" number of users will be classified as significant social media intermediaries. The company said it acknowledges and appreciates the recognition from the Minister "on the positive contributions of social media to the country". "Facebook is an ally for India and the agenda of user safety and security is a critical one for our platforms. We will continue to work to ensure that our platforms play an enabling role in fuelling the exciting digital transformation of India," the spokesperson added. Twitter, which is also facing intense political heat in India, declined to comment on the new guidelines. Twitter's India rival and homegrown micro-blogging platform Koo said that the new guidelines set forth under the Indian laws help clarify the responsibilities of intermediaries. "We understand the need for these social media guidelines. Only a small fraction of the social media users are found to be making posts which may be against the laws of the land," a Koo spokesperson told IANS. "The social media guidelines help make addressing these kinds of situations uniform across all platforms and ensures the safety of the majority of users across India," the spokesperson added. "This policy will help protect the interest of citizens at large and keep nefarious elements at bay," the company said. The tour map may include China, South Korea, Indonesia, etc. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to make a major tour across Asian countries, while his visit to the United States is also being discussed. Deputy Head of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva said the final list of countries the president will visit is now being formed. According to the official, the list may include China, South Korea, Indonesia, and other destinations. "Negotiations are underway through diplomatic channels, but as of now, it is impossible to name the exact date of the visits for objective reasons unfortunately, the Asian region, like all other regions of the world, periodically suffers from coronavirus," Zhovkva said. He added a number of agreements had already been prepared, as well as promising projects for the development of trade and attracting investment to Ukraine. Read alsoBiden: Standing up for Ukraine "vital concern" for Europe, U.S.Separately, the official expressed condolences to the family of Ukrainian Ambassador to China Serhiy Kamyshev. He added that the post of ambassador cannot remain vacant for a long time, therefore a replacement is being sought. Also, the preparations for Zelensky's visit to the United States are underway. Contact has already been established with the new administration of President Joe Biden. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier spoke over the phone. "Work continues not only with the State Department, but also the White House," Zhovkva added. He said a phone talk was being set up for the leaders of Ukraine and the United States. "Of course, such a conversation will take place. I would not be dramatizing I would not count down days, minutes or hours. It will happen, as well as the exchange of visits," the diplomat said. Zhovkva noted the issues of political support were on the agenda, as well as Washington's wider engagement in negotiations on a peaceful settlement in Donbas and the end of Crimea occupation. Issues of economic cooperation have also been discussed. Presidential phone call: What is known The date for the first phone talk between Zelensky and Biden has not yet been fixed. On February 1, 2021, Kuleba and newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke over the phone and agreed to make bilateral partnership more ambitious. Read alsoPreparations for Zelensky-Biden first phone call underway FM KulebaBlinken said, among other things, sanctions imposed on Russia for its aggression in Donbas and Crimea should remain in place until Moscow fully implements its commitments on the peaceful settlement of the conflict. Blinken also assured Kuleba of the new U.S. administration's readiness to maintain robust economic and military assistance to Ukraine, including the provision of lethal weapons. On February 19, Kuleba said preparations for the first phone call between Zelensky and Biden were underway. Reporting by UNIAN Asia Japan Weighs Halting New Assistance Projects to Myanmar After Coup People stage a rally in Yangon on Feb. 22, 2021, in protest against the Feb. 1 military coup. / Kyodo TOKYOJapan is considering halting new assistance projects in Myanmar for the time being in response to the military coup earlier this month, government sources said Thursday, as international criticism of the takeover mounts. Japan, a major donor to Myanmar, has joined other Group of Seven advanced economies in condemning the coup and the Myanmar security forces use of violence against peaceful protests. From a humanitarian perspective, meanwhile, Japan plans to continue emergency assistance offered through international organizations and nongovernmental organizations such as for combating the coronavirus pandemic, the sources said. Japan, in light of its longtime ties with Myanmars military, has distanced itself from imposing sanctions on the countrys military officials as the US administration of President Joe Biden has done. Unlike its G-7 partners, Japan has maintained connections with both the military, known as the Tatmadaw, and ousted civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy, according to Japanese Foreign Ministry officials. Japan intends to continue efforts to convince the Myanmar military to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and others detained and swiftly restore democratic government in Myanmar, the officials said. Japan extended massive official development assistance totaling nearly 190 billion yen (US$1.8 billion, 2.52 trillion kyats) in fiscal 2019, by far the largest among the 30-member Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to Japans Foreign Ministry. China has not disclosed its assistance figures for the country. In 2016, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Daw Aung San Suu Kyi that Japans public and private sectors would contribute about 800 billion yen over five years to agriculture, human resources, manufacturing, energy, urban development and financial services essential to nation-building in Myanmar. This story was first published by Kyodo. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Police Fails to Probe Headquarters Raid: NLD Myanmar Foreign Minister in Bangkok to Meet Indonesian Counterpart China Says It Will Work With ASEAN to De-Escalate Situation in Myanmar Kevin Duitsman, manager of property claims at Country Financial, said ice dam claims in Illinois are at the highest level hes seen in several years. Frozen pipes, a typical cold weather hazard and a problem during the polar vortex two years ago, havent generated as many claims this year, perhaps because homeowners are staying in during the pandemic and catching the issue early, Duitsman said. Israel: after crude spill, ban on fish sales Move by health ministry. Thus far 70 tonnes of tar removed (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, FEBRUARY 25 - The Israeli health ministry has issued an immediate ban effective until further notice on the sale to the public of fish and seafood from the Mediterranean. The decision is tied to the effects of the massive crude oil spill from an unknown source, most likely a ship, which reached the country's coasts causing serious damage to the ecosystem, said Times of Israel. The ministry said the decision was made "in light of the environmental pollution of the Mediterranean Sea that has manifested itself in, among other things, a quantity of tar on the beaches". According to figures updated through Wednesday, thus far over 70 tonnes of tar have been removed from the coasts.(ANSAmed). 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 * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! UK was ill-prepared for the transition of regulation from the EU and still does not have the infrastructure in place to manage new trade relationships UK currently has no official body to monitor government action, or scrutinise compliance with environmental law Duplication of bureaucracy could cost the chemicals industry an estimated 1bn Brexit aimed to gain regulatory autonomy, in practice however the UK is unlikely to be able to diverge or will face disadvantages for business that doesn't comply with EU regulation The UK is still not in a position to assume responsibility for regulation in several critical policy areas including trade, crime and the environment, a new academic report - UK regulation after Brexit - has found. Researchers from the University of Sheffield contributed to the report, published today (25 February 2021), which found that the UK was ill-prepared when responsibility for regulation switched from the EU, following the end of the transition period. Neither does the UK have the physical or IT infrastructures in place to manage trade in its new relationship with the EU, and is relying on transitional arrangements to make the system work. The report from UK in a Changing Europe, the Centre for Competition Policy, and Brexit & Environment, found that UK regulators are still not ready to take on their new responsibilities. Professor Tamara Hervey, from the University of Sheffield's School of Law, looks at how Brexit will affect the NHS. She said: "Brexit isn't 'done', you cannot unwind over 40 years of legal, political, economic, social and cultural integration in a few short months, but the UK's relationship with our nearest neighbours has fundamentally changed. "It's critical for us to draw on social science expertise to track the effects of these changes for our country. This report provides a baseline for us to measure against going forward." In the environment, the UK left the EU's European Environment Agency but the UK Office for Environmental Protection has still not opened, leaving the UK without a body to monitor government action or scrutinise compliance with environmental law. Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, Charlotte Burns, and works on investigating the implications of the UK leaving EU environmental policy. She said: "Regulation is central to environmental protection in the UK. The government has tried to minimise environmental regulatory gaps emerging post-Brexit, but the failure to adopt the Environment Bill, to put in place a fully functioning Office for Environmental Protection and limitations on non-regression in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement all raise the prospect of regulatory gaps emerging over time." Many UK authorities are not adequately equipped compared to the EU bodies they replaced. Staffing and budget are an issue, but UK bodies lack powers in inspection and enforcement too. They have also lost access to data crucial to the police and border control. Europol databases had been consulted more than 500 million times a year by UK authorities, and the Metropolitan Police made more than 100,000 requests for information from the European Criminal Records Information System. The report also raises important question marks about costs and duplication. In chemicals and aviation, UK regulators replicate the same functions that are performed by EU bodies and in those industries, which are both heavily regulated, it will be a tall order for UK authorities to develop the same levels of expertise as the EU bodies they replace. UK businesses wanting to operate in both the UK and the EU will have to submit to the same bureaucracy twice. In chemicals, industry will have to cover the costs of testing and registration a second time, estimated at a total of 1bn, when they only recently paid for the creation of the EU system. Dr Matthew Wood from the University of Sheffield Department of Politics and International Relations contributed his expertise on how the UK might work with the European health regulators, he said: "Health is a crucial area where Brexit has a significant impact, not least because we are no longer involved in the European Medicines Agency, which checks and certifies new medicines for all EU countries. "Our research shows Brexit will pose long-term challenges for standards of medicines in the UK. However, in this report we also show the UK government is looking for alternative international collaborations to achieve common standards in medicine regulations, for example by partnering with Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Singapore in the so-called 'Access Consortium'." The report also describes how the UK EU deal leaves significant 'unfinished business'. There are grace periods for customs formalities, issues where the UK and the EU still need to reach agreement, and transitional arrangements where the terms of the UK's withdrawal from the EU are not yet decided and where the full effects have yet to be felt. The report concludes that the UK's decision to leave the single market and the customs union was driven by a determination to gain regulatory autonomy at all costs. But, in practice, the UK is unlikely to be able to diverge over the long term. The UK remains bound by the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and highly dependent on trade with the EU, as well as being constrained by wider international laws and conventions. As the EU is a global standard setter in many areas, if the UK were to diverge from these standards, it is likely to disadvantage businesses in the country. ### Additional information The University of Sheffield With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities. A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in. Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2018 and for the last eight years has been ranked in the top five UK universities for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education. Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields. Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. Staff members unload a batch of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines from the plane at the international airport of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, Feb. 23, 2021. (Photo by Sun Ning/Xinhua) ANKARA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Anti-COVID-19 vaccines developed by China save lives and are an important tool for defeating the global pandemic as they have proved very successful in mass inoculation programs across the world, a Turkish expert said. In a recent interview with Xinhua, Canturk Alagoz, CEO of Keymen Pharmaceuticals, and the distributor in Turkey of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese Sinovac Biotech pharmaceutical company, said his country was grateful to the people and government of China for this safe product, the CoronaVac. The Turkish firm also conducted clinical trials of the Sinovac jab in Turkey. "It has a very good safety profile. The Phase III trials have been yielding important immunogenicity results," Alagoz said. "We thank the people and the administration of China. Sinovac has helped overcome a serious hurdle in mass inoculation in Turkey and other countries. It makes lives better," the head of the medical company said. The vaccines have also gained recognition from scientists around the globe, Alagoz added. "This vaccine saves lives, we have seen it in the global fight against the pandemic, especially in developing countries," he said, praising China's practice in making a vaccine against this deadly disease and sharing it with other countries. "China has worked extensively to develop this vaccine and at the end has been successful. China's attitude to share it with the rest of the world is right and fair, you cannot beat this disease only by thinking about it yourself, you have to share knowledge," he said. Turkey launched in mid-January a mass inoculation drive with the Sinovac jab, aiming to vaccinate 60 percent of its population ultimately. Some 7.5 million people have been vaccinated so far, essentially health workers and the elderly, according to data from the health ministry. Education Minister Ziya Selcuk received his first shot on Wednesday. Teachers are next in line as Turkey plans to reopen schools as of March 1. The vaccine is voluntary and free of charge. Alagoz said he believes that China's scientific efforts to fight COVID-19 and produce vaccines have helped strengthen bilateral cooperation and friendship with Turkey. "This is a serious service towards safety and health. Our trade cooperation was already growing and this vaccine has demonstrated that we can cooperate in other fields as well," the expert said. Sinovac has announced earlier that it will export semi-finished jabs to some countries, and help build local filling and packaging lines in importing countries to improve production capacity and efficiency. Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020. So far, it has recorded some 2.6 million infections and over 28,000 deaths. MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) Peruvian Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez announced the extension of the night ban on movement of citizens in 24 provinces with the highest risk of COVID-19 infection from March 1 to March 14, whereas a total lockdown in these regions is canceled. "From Monday, March 1, for 14 days, there will be mandatory and strict social immobilization [curfew] at night and on Sundays," the minister said, speaking at a press conference broadcast on the Council of Ministers' Twitter. The travel ban will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., as well as 24 hours a day on Sundays in 24 provinces with an "extreme risk" of COVID-19 infection. Among the settlements that retain the maximum level of threat are Lima, Huaura, Huanuco and others. The abolition of the total quarantine will entail the resumption of the work of enterprises related to optional types of activity, and intercity transport links. For shopping and for walking, people can go out in company and for more than an hour a day, as was required before, although visiting the beaches in a number of provinces is still prohibited. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte, speaking with Bermudez, pointed to a downward trend in the number of cases. According to him, until last week, there was a vertical growth without any changes. Since the beginning of the epidemic, Peru has registered 1,293,497 cases of COVID-19 infection, with 45,487 deaths. The boss of Lloyds Bank scooped another 3.4million last year taking his pay to almost 60million during his decade at the lender. Antonio Horta-Osorio, who took over as chief executive in 2011, is set to leave Britains biggest mortgage lender at the end of April. But he managed to sneak in one last strategy update before his departure, announcing that Lloyds would slash its office space by 20 per cent and aim to become a leader in wealth management over the next three years. Antonio Horta-Osorio, who took over as Lloyds chief executive in 2011, is set to leave Britains biggest mortgage lender at the end of April And although his pay last year was 1million less than in 2019, it took his rewards in the job to 59.5million. Horta-Osorio said: I feel I will be leaving the bank in a better position than it was in when I joined, which should be the purpose of any chief executive. The 57-year-old banker took over at Lloyds in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and was credited with helping the bank return to health and back to private ownership after its government bailout. The shares initially rose under his tenure from 62p when he started to a peak of 88p in 2015, but are now languishing at 39.34p after Brexit and coronavirus weighed on the economy. In full-year results for 2020, Lloyds revealed that its profits slumped 72 per cent to 1.2billion. It set aside 4.2billion for loans that it expects to turn sour, as customers affected by the pandemic struggle to repay their debts. But this was less than analysts had been expecting, and finance chief William Chalmers said Boris Johnsons four-step plan for leaving lockdown had boosted optimism within the bank. It followed its rivals in resuming its dividend, after the Bank of England lifted its coronavirus ban on payouts, handing investors 0.57p per share. Lloyds also became the latest bank to usher in flexible working, after an internal survey revealed 77 per cent of staff did not want to return to the office full-time. It said it would trim its office space by 20 per cent by 2023, and refurbish those it retained to make them more collaborative, as many employees wanted to continue to work from home several days per week. But its decision will be another blow to the city centres which rely on office workers to fuel their local businesses, after HSBC unveiled plans to axe 40 per cent of its office space this week. And Metro Banks boss Dan Frumkin said that his office staff were likely to make more use of basements and extra space within branches, after the lender ditched its central London office at Old Bailey. While it cuts down on office space, Lloyds is planning to plough more money into technology and its wealth management arm, as it wants to become a top three financial planning business by 2025. It is currently partnering with asset management company Schroders, so customers can access investment services and wealth management advice from the blue-blooded investment firm. And it wants to improve its data analytics and machine learning capabilities, so that its technology will be able to flag up which customers are heading for financial trouble and may need help before they hit the rocks. Lloyds also wants to beef up its investment banking arm, which is much smaller than its rivals such as Barclays and Natwest. Horta-Osorio said that it would focus on improving its foreign exchange and sterling rates products for existing corporate customers. Lloyds is still waiting on the outcome of the delayed review into its handling of the HBOS Reading scandal, where fraudsters milked millions of pounds from small business customers and pushed them to collapse. The review is being led by former High Court judge Dame Linda Dobbs, and should be completed later this year. Eric Golnick, a former naval officer, is a national veteran and mental health advocate and co-founder of Veteran and First Responder Healthcare, which provides mental health and substance use treatment to service members, veterans and their families. A substantial number of former military members were involved in the Jan. 6 capitol riots and subsequently charged with related crimes; nearly 1 in 5 defendants served in the military, according to an early NPR tally. And Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was killed by law enforcement after breaking through a barricade. As someone who currently works to prevent suicide and address substance use among service members and veterans, I wanted to understand why a disproportionate number of those who took part had military experience. When I first joined the Navy, I was optimistic and idealistic, and felt like I had found my "tribe." However, when I left active duty and began my transition to civilian life, I felt lost, vulnerable and anxious. I didn't feel as if I "fit in" with the civilian world anymore. Sprinkle in some unaddressed trauma, and I turned to the one thing that always made me and my fellow sailors feel comfortable and helped us cope: drinking. In the military, drinking culture is ubiquitous. It is the one activity in which nearly everyone takes part, due in no small part to peer pressure. This is especially true after the stressful operation tempos of the last decade. For promotion ceremonies, command events and coming back from deployment, drinking is a staple of military culture that, in many cases, remains with you after leaving active duty. Like many veterans who had issues relating to civilian life, I turned to online veteran communities to chat, commiserate and find camaraderie. Finally, I was part of something again, with people who understood me. My weekends were consumed by drinking, going to events and engaging various veteran groups online. Much of it was harmless enough -- some interservice rivalry and dark humor. When things got serious, and someone talked about dealing with Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) or suicide, we all tried to help bring them back from the brink. I felt that these online friendships were a necessary lifeline. But I soon realized that the short-term sense of belonging brought about something far more damaging. While I was back with people who understood me and had worn the same uniform, I was also very susceptible to ideas that I would never otherwise believe or advocate. I soon found myself thinking that civilians were "morons" and would never understand the experiences of service members and veterans. My anger and sense of isolation illogically grew. Many veterans fall into this cycle of drinking and going online. We can easily fall prey, in these vulnerable states, to extremist groups. According to a 2011 Department of Homeland Security report from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, veterans have a specific set of skills, such as weapons and explosives training, that would be useful to these groups' violent ends. Extremist groups use online recruiting tactics to specifically go after veterans and service members. There is still insufficient research to ascertain an accurate picture of how many service members and/or veterans are members of, or otherwise affiliated with, radical violent groups. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is making addressing extremism in the military a focal point as he begins his tenure. How did we get here? A potential answer is that these extremist groups prey on us during some of the most vulnerable times of our lives. Some studies have found that anywhere from 11% to 20% of veterans and service members have PTS. It is estimated that 1 out of 3 veterans with PTS also has a substance use disorder. When in these vulnerable mental states, coupled with substance use and a loss of "tribe" or sense of belonging, veterans become a prime target for extremist groups. We need to understand the specifics of what leads service members and veterans down the path of extremism. While mental health and substance use are not the only factors, they can be symptoms that we can study for more answers. From here, we can work to ensure that our nation's heroes feel a sense of belonging and have access to the help and resources they need to avert the path of radicalization. -- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. Sources in the Delhi government alleged on Thursday that the security cover of Chief Minister has been scaled down, a charge denied by the Union Home Ministry. "The development at the behest of the BJP leadership has come two days after the Aam Aadmi Party's impressive performance in the Gujarat civic body polls," a source claimed. The number of commandos of the Delhi Police in Kejriwal's security has now been reduced from six to two, the sources alleged. However, Home Ministry officials said no such decision has been taken by it. The AAP won 27 seats in the municipal polls in Gujarat's Surat, where the party convener will participate in a roadshow on Friday. (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.) 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. The founder of disbanded childrens charity Kids Company has claimed the organisation was the victim of a smear campaign aimed at former prime minister David Cameron. Camila Batmanghelidjh alleged former Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings was among those briefing against Kids Company as the charity came under ferocious attack over its finances in 2015. I personally think it was a smear campaign and I think there were two targets, she told she told BBC Radio 4s Womens Hour. One is I believe David Cameron because he was seen to have chosen us as big society and I think the Brexit team wanted to discredit him, because I dont understand why Dominic Cummings, whom we had never met, was briefing against us in 2015. And I think another bit was campaigning for child protection issues I believe there is a propensity to slightly silence charities when they campaign forcefully on an issue that the government doesnt have the capacity to address. Recommended Kids Company founder and trustees win High Court disqualification case Ms Batmanghelidjh was speaking in her first interview since a High Court judge ruled earlier this month that she and former trustees of the charity should not be barred from holding directorships. Mrs Justice Falk rejected a claim by the Official Receiver (OR) that Ms Batmanghelidjh and seven board members were unfit to hold office as a result of their handling of the organisations finances. The High Court judge added that Kids Company, which supported young people in London and Bristol, might not have been wound up in 2015 were it not for unfounded allegations of child abuse at the charity. Before its closure, Kids Company had received government grants and was publicly backed by figures such as Mr Cameron as part of his big society agenda to boost charitable groups. Camila Batmanghelidjh attends big society meeting at No 10 in 2010 (PA) Ms Batmanghelidjh singled out Michael Gove for criticism over the charitys treatment accusing him of abandoning the charity after initial praise. I think Michael Gove was really disingenuous, because I have a letter from him to someone saying that Kids Companys an inspiration and the country should be proud of it and this is 2014, she recalled. By 2015 he was saying he never wanted Kids Co funded and I find it very difficult when people change colours. Not a single professional politician, not a single governing body stood up and said what is happening to these children is completely out of order and we have to stop it. Asked if Mr Gove owed her an apology, Ms Batmanghelidjh said Mr Gove, then-Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin and others in government should say sorry to children who lost out as a result of the charitys closure. I can live without Michael Goves apology, she told the BBC. But the staff and the children are owed an apology from Michael Gove, Oliver Letwin all these people who promised that they were going to help us resolve the fact that children were pouring in through our doors. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Corteva Agriscience and Dow were both named a 2021 Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign. The distinction is achieved by scoring 100% on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which is the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, benefits and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. This was Dow's 16th consecutive year receiving a perfect score, joining more than 760 other businesses to do so this year. Our work advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and equality over the years has served as a cornerstone of our larger efforts to build a more inclusive society for all, said Amy Wilson, general counsel and corporate secretary of Dow, and executive sponsor of the companys LGBTQ+ and ally employee resource group, GLAD. This recognition is an honor, a validation of the progress weve made, and encourages us to keep striving for our ambition: to be the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company in the world. Dow offers best-in-class policies and practices for LGBTQ+ colleagues, including equal benefits to same-sex partners for health, dental and life insurance, bereavement leave, relocation, dual-career assistance, and survivor benefits. The company also advocates for public policy around the world to help bring fairness and equal treatment to the LGBTQ+ community. As part of this commitment, Dow continues to support the Equality Act, a comprehensive federal framework that ensures fairness and opportunity for all. Globally, Dow shares best practices with other like-minded organizations, leading the way toward a more diverse, inclusive and equal workplace and world. Corteva Agriscience, while headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, has two sites in Michigan, including one here in Midland. It became an independent public company on June 1, 2019, and was previously the agriculture division of DowDuPont. Corteva also earned top ratings in the 2021 HRC Equidad MX report, standing out as an employer in Mexico committed to creating LGBTQ-inclusive policies and practices in their workplaces. These recognitions follow the late 2020 recognition that Corteva was named a 2020 Best of the Best Corporations for Inclusion by the National Business Inclusion Consortium (NBIC). Our vision is to boldly embrace the power of inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E) to enrich the lives of our employees and strengthen the performance of our company, while advancing equity in agriculture, said Meghan Cassidy, SVP, chief human resources and diversity officer, Corteva Agriscience. We are honored to receive these recognitions from HRC for our strong commitment to our LGBTQ+ colleagues. However, we are still in the early phases of our ID&E journey and will not rest until our vision is fully realized. Corteva proudly supports eight business resource groups, including Corteva Pride for LGBTQ+ employees and allies. Additionally, Corteva has signed the Business Statement for Transgender Equality and is an annual sponsor of the Out & Equal Workplace Summit. Ongoing, the company advocates for legislation promoting LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion. Were pleased to see the external recognition of our new company for our LGBTQ+ policies and practices. At Corteva Agriscience, we strive to enable a culture of ID&E, to create an environment where employees are actively engaged, differences are embraced and varying perspectives help to better serve the needs of customers, said Rajan Gajaria, EVP, Business Platforms, Corteva Agriscience, Pride Executive Sponsor. To learn more about Cortevas commitment to inclusion and diversity, visit https://www.corteva.com/who-we-are/our-diversity.html. For more information about the 2021 Corporate Equality Index, visit www.hrc.org/cei TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Febuary is coming to a close and that means Saint Patrick's Day is right around the corner. Saint Patrick School of the Terre Haute Deanery will be hosting their 18th annual Irish Dash on March 13th. This event gives families a fun way to celebrate togather. The one mile fun run will begin at 9 A.M. and the 5K will begin at 9:30 A.M. The event costs $20 and participants will get a shirt, food and door prizes. Participants must be registered by March 1st to be guaranteed a shirt. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Union Home Ministry has reduced the security of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, sources in the CM's office told IANS on Thursday, though the Delhi Police denied Kejriwal's security had been relaxed. The sources said six commandos were deployed for the Chief Minister's security so far, which has now been reduced to only two. However, Delhi Police have refuted the allegations that Kejriwal's security has been relaxed. "We have not reduced the security of Delhi CM. In fact taking into account his movements, roadshows and election time, the Z plus security has been strengthened," said a senior Delhi Police officer. This comes two days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 27 seats in the Gujarat civic polls on Tuesday and Kejriwal will visit Surat on Friday to participate in a roadshow organised by local AAP leaders to celebrate their win in the civic polls. AAP has raised this as a political issue and has slammed the BJP for reducing the Chief Minister's security. Kejriwal will spend the whole day in Surat on Friday. Apart from participating in roadshows, he will hold meetings with local leaders to boost their confidence and will start campaigning for Gujarat Assembly polls scheduled next year. Nacogdoches, TX (75965) Today Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Patna, Feb 25 : Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Shreyasi Singh has flagged irregularities in the purchase of crops and payments to the farmers in her district. The international shooter turned politician said that the authorities are not giving genuine receipts to farmers after their sale of paddy in Jamui district due to which they are facing problem in receiving payments. "The agencies in Jamui are taking signatures or thumb impressions of the farmers on plain paper. The banks are not initiating the payments as the blank papers are not the genuine receipt. This results in heated arguments between the farmers and the bank officials and eventually they are either denied payment or receive lesser payment for their crops," Shreyasi said in the Assembly. Reacting to her statement, Bihar Agriculture Minister Amrendra Pratap Singh said: "The state government purchased paddy after certain procedures. For every transaction, we issue a receipt wherein the minimum support price of paddy is always mentioned and after the signature of farmers, the cost of paddy is transferred to their accounts through PMS. Despite this, if Shreyasi has specific information, we will initiate investigation in the entire district. Action will be taken if any agency like PACS or Vyapar Mandal is found involved in any such irregularities." The Opposition has raised such irregularities on several platforms earlier. They also claimed that the farmers are getting a much lower price than MSP in several districts of Bihar. FORT COLLINS, Colo., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New West Genetics announces that four of their varieties from their ABOUND family passed the THC hemp trials managed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, AOSCA's National Hemp Variety Review Board for AOSCA certified seed, as well as approval from Colorado Seed Growers Association for Certified seed status. More on seed certification: The goal of seed certification is to maintain varietal purity to ensure that growers receive the pure, high quality seed they expect. Hemp varieties that have successfully passed through the AOSCA variety review process are eligible for the production of Certified hemp seed following AOSCA Standards. The variety review is conducted by representatives of seed certifying agencies, academia, the seed industry, and USDA, following requirements established in the U.S Seed Act, to make certain new varieties are distinct, uniform, and stable. After the review, seed certifying agencies work closely with seed producers, following AOSCA standards throughout the growing season. Hemp seed that has successfully met AOSCA Standards may be labeled with the familiar "Blue Tag" that shows customers they are receiving the pure variety they purchased. HPP Advisors 5918-R Series Stackable Pallet Racks We were looking for a partner that would complement our current manufacturing process and provide us the flexibility to deliver to our customers the freshest juices in the Cold Pressed Industry. We found that partner in Safety Fresh, states Jeff Stachelek, Vice President of Sales at Healthy Roots. Whether you are launching a new line of juices, expanding your market, or exploring HPP food processing for the first time, tolling centers offer all the benefits with minimal capital outlay. Food Manufacturing Companies that do not own their own HPP machines can buy space from a company that owns an HPP Machine to pasteurize their product, a process known in the HPP Industry as 3rd Party Tolling. Early 2018, Safety Fresh Foods installed a state-of-the-art High-Pressure Processing (HPP) machine in Plymouth, Wisconsin. Their primary customers are in the meat and dairy industries. Safety Fresh Foods now provides the food and beverage industry companies with innovative solutions, costs savings, food safety, and shelf-life extensions on their products. States Mark Maglio, Owner of Safety Fresh Foods, The goal of Safety Fresh is to provide process enhancements that improve profitability and sustain the long-term viability of the Wisconsin-based food manufacturing industry. Consumer demand for high-quality, convenient products with natural flavor and taste without preservatives and with minimal processing is what drives the High-Pressure Processing Industry. Talk to any hiring manager in the food manufacturing industry about the challenges they face in this COVID-19 Pandemic, and you will probably hear them say that finding good, reliable workers with the needed skillsets, or the willingness to learn the skills, is a constant challenge - not to mention working in a 38-degree facility. The Maglios were not immune to the labor issues that the industry faced, and HPP Advisors could provide a solution. The Cold Pressed Juice process provides many challenges to both the juice manufacturer and the 3rd Party Tolling company. The goal is a synergistic process flow that reduces the number of touches from the bottle line, through the HPP Pasteurization Process, and to the end pack-off. Our approach at HPP Advisors is to play to the strengths of the Cold Press Juice manufacturer and that of the HPP Machine Owner, states Nannette Cameron, President, HPP Advisors, to that end we treat the solution for using a 3rd party toller the same as if the Cold Pressed Juice Manufacturer owned the HPP Machine. A process diagram of the workflow process of Safety Freshs floor was created through collaboration of both HPP Advisors and Mark Maglios team. HPP Advisors has a unique understanding of the synergies that exist between tollers and food and beverage manufactures. The goal was to create a streamlined process utilizing HPP Advisors stackable baskets and carts to eliminate double handling between the food manufacturer and Safety Fresh, reduce damage to product, and improve the ergonomics. The results, a process that required two to three people, now was reduced to a one-person process and reduced the probability of employee injury. We were looking for a partner that would complement our current manufacturing process and provide us the flexibility to deliver to our customers the freshest juices in the Cold Pressed Industry. We found that partner in Safety Fresh, states Jeff Stachelek, Vice President of Sales at Healthy Roots. With the implementation of HPP Advisors product solutions, Safety Fresh was able to offer us a complete package that we could not find with other tolling operations. HPP Advisors HPP Advisors entered the High-Pressure Processing Industry after several years of operating and consulting for food processing companies who owned HPP machines. HPP Advisors has worked with several of the manufacturers of HPP machines in a variety of capacities. It is the experience gained in these different roles that provided the framework for the products and material handling solutions that HPP Advisors offers to tollers and food manufactures. HPP Advisors collaborates with each customer for a unique solution by utilizing best practices from many different industries. Safety Fresh Foods Safety Fresh Foods is owned by the Sam and Mark Maglio through their joint venture group Sammark Holdings LLC. Sam and Mark represent the fourth and fifth generation of a family business that started in 1902 with Giacomo Maglio settling in Chicago and selling the days best quality fruits and vegetables from a pushcart. Safety Fresh is now transforming Wisconsins food and beverage industry. Healthy Roots Cold-Pressed Juice Healthy Roots Cold-Pressed juice is a Glendale, Wisconsin based cold-pressed juice company. Healthy Root juices are made from 100% fresh fruits and vegetables sourced from local farmers to maximize taste and quality. Every bottle of Healthy Roots Juice is pressed with over 2 pounds of fruits and vegetables. hand crafted cold-pressed juices are never heat pasteurized and contain no added sugar, fillers, or preservatives. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced its commitment to add 300 American workers in Pennsylvania in continuation of its overall hiring plan in the U.S. The company, known for building leading-edge digital capabilities and training the next generation of global talent, will recruit for a range of opportunities across technology and digital services, client administration, and operations as it expands its new Retirement Services Center of Excellence (the Center). Infosys_Logo "My administration welcomes Infosys to Pennsylvania, and looks forward to the growth and success of its new Retirement Services Center of Excellence in Chester County," said Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. "Our commonwealth is known worldwide for its leadership in technology and innovation, and Infosys's expansion is a testament and welcome addition to that legacy. The company's commitment to supporting the local workforce will provide new opportunities to the region, and we are proud that this international company has selected Pennsylvania as a place to settle, grow, and expand." "We are committed to growing Infosys' footprint in the financial services space in the U.S. Our Retirement Services Center in Pennsylvania is one example of how we realize this aspiration," said Mohit Joshi, President at Infosys. "This Center will focus on technology and innovation that will enable the retirement industry to navigate its way to lower costs, enhanced experiences, and better outcomes for retirement savers." The Center will develop technology solutions and services to help firms capitalize on the opportunities emerging at the intersection of employee benefits, wealth management, and digital transformation, beginning with a focus on the employee-sponsored retirement plan experience. The Center was conceived last year following the partnership forged with Pennsylvania-based investment management firm Vanguard. Story continues Infosys helps financial institutions, the world over, stay a step ahead of digital disruption by embracing rapid technology transformation. The firm serves half of the top 20 retirement service firms in the U.S., helping them manage risk, improve their participants' experience, and deliver better outcomes with leverage from digital solutions. "Our business model is about finding the best workforce, training the best workforce, and deploying the best workforce to enable our clients to thrive," said Martha King, Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer at Infosys. "Southeastern Pennsylvania, so well-known for its talent, innovation, and successful enterprise, offers the opportunity for us to strengthen our workforce on behalf of our clients here in the region and beyond." A global organization with nearly 250,000 employees worldwide, Infosys has rapidly been expanding its hiring of U.S. workers. In September 2020, the company announced its commitment to hire an additional 12,000 American workers bringing its total hiring commitment in the U.S. to 25,000 workers by 2022. In addition, the firm aims to play a crucial role in building pathways to employment for American workers, particularly those who have been negatively impacted by the economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please visit: https://www.infosys.com/americas/american-innovation/pa.html About Infosys Ltd. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe harbor: "Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects and financial expectations are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding Covid-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in I.T. services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law." Cision View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infosys-expands-pennsylvania-based-retirement-services-center-of-excellence-commits-to-adding-300-new-jobs-301235272.html SOURCE Infosys The Equality Act that President Biden wants to pass so "swiftly" is seen as a controversial "assault on Christianity" by several religious sectors, including the Catholic League. The controversial Equality Act is set to be voted on this week by the House of Representatives. President Biden already urged that Congress "swiftly" pass the bill that provides "long overdue federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ Americans." However, many Christian groups see the Biden Equality Act as disastrous for people of faith. Known as H.R. 5, the bill sees an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity on a range of areas, including employment, housing, education, as well as other federally funded programs known as "public accommodations," NPR reported. However, a number of Christian groups are already clamoring for the shutdown of the Biden Equality Bill to be passed to Congress. In fact, the Catholic League warned on Monday that H.R. 5 will devastate Christianity if it becomes law. According to Breitbart, Catholic League president Bill Donohue called out the Biden Equality Act, saying that it will not only "promote the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law," but it would also "discriminate against people of faith." The Catholic League President continued to criticize the Biden Equality Act for amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was designed to put an end to racial segregation and ban "discrimination based on race, sex or national origin." Adding the clause on sexual orientation and gender identity not only "violates the intent of the legislation," but also "burdens houses of worship and other religious organizations." What the Catholic League believes as a "comprehensive assault on Christianity" will "undermine the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by conferring special status on gay rights, prioritizing them over religious freedom and conscience rights." The Biden Equality Act will furthermore force healthcare workers to perform hormone therapies, surgical procedures, and other measures involved in sex change with absolutely no regard for their beliefs. Foster care programs are also at risk for being shut down, the Catholic League president warned. If Congress passes the Biden Equality Bill, foster care homes will be forced to allow same-sex couples to adopt children, which is a "clear violation of Church teachings." If they don't, they will risk losing funding from the government. The Biden Equality Act was further criticized by the Catholic League president, as under the law, individuals who were born male but identify as women will be able to unfairly compete in women's sports, share locker rooms and shower spaces, with biological women. Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Denise Harle has the similar sentiments as the Catholic League president. She told CBN News, "We can see [the Biden Equality Act] would immediately be stripping religious Americans and stripping girls and women of our equal rights." Harle condemned what the Catholic League president called the "most comprehensive assault on Christianity," saying, "The Equality Act treats people of faith as second-class citizens. It specifies a certain point of view and it labels it as bigotry." Beijing (Gasgoo)- Li Auto aims to be NO.1 smart electric vehicle maker in China, according to the startups 2025 Strategy announced on February 22. In an internal letter, Li Xiang, the companys founder, chairman and CEO, said that its target for 2025 is to obtain 20% market share in the worlds largest auto market. Expectations for 2030 In the next 10 years, the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry is expected to see fast growth as China strives to reach carbon emission peak by 2030 and Europe countries have set stricter standards for emissions. According to Li Autos forecast, the segment will have much higher growth rate than those predicted by most institutes and will account for 60% of the global passenger vehicle sales by 2030. However, the world economy, affected by COVID-19 and other factors, may continue to face uncertainties. Based on this expectation, Li Auto predicts that global sales of passenger vehicles will be about 65 million units while global sales of NEVs will be up to 40 million units, half of which will be from China. Li ONE; photo credit: Li Auto The CEO said in the letter, autonomous driving segment will experience development at the rate of Moores Law. By 2030, all smart electric vehicles will come standard with L4 autonomous driving, which will become the operating system of smart electric vehicles. Besides, charging will be much more convenient with the development of ultra-fast charging technologies. And an all-new business value chain will be formed with new environment-friendly forms of power generation, charging network with energy store capability and V2G. With the wide application of new technologies, customers demands are expected to become polarized. Some will expect their vehicles to be private space for themselves and their families while others just take vehicles as means of transportation to take them from one place to another. To Li Auto, smart electric vehicles will be more valuable private space than house. It is the companys mission to build a mobile and happy home for customers. Along with opportunities, there will be various challenges in auto industry. First, competition will become increasingly intense. The CEO said that in the traditional internal combustion vehicle era, a brand can survive and grow as long as it has its unique positioning and distinct product portfolio. But smart electric vehicles will be totally different. Data and chip will be vital for the competition. Only with at least 25% market share may a vehicle company become a smart electric vehicle leader across the world. The second challenge lies in energy. Currently, limited availability of charging infrastructure is the biggest obstacle in popularizing electric vehicles. Consequently, customers will not prefer electric vehicles over traditional ones unless charging stations are as accessible and convenient as petrol stations. So in the next 10 years, Li Auto will adopt two powertrain roadmaps: EREV (extended-range electric vehicles) system and high-voltage battery electric vehicle platform, to meet different demands for different conditions. The third challenge is the companys structure. In smart electric vehicle era, the industry needs smart organization. The fast growth of the segment requires the way to manage a company should be totally different. Against the above background, Li Auto is ambitious to become NO.1 player in the global smart electric vehicle market by 2030. Efforts by 2025 In the letter, Li Xiang said from 2015 to 2020, the company went from zero to one. Like most startups, lack of resources and investment is the problem, so striving for survival is the companys core target at this stage. But it managed to deliver the Li ONE, which was the top-selling new energy SUV model in China last year. In the next five years, Li Auto will grow from one to ten with strong development momentum. The main challenge during this period is to be a leader by sales among smart electric vehicle brands in China and a contender for leadership in the global market. Li Auto predicts that China will sell more than 8 million smart electric vehicles in 2025. If a company wants to be a leader in the segment, it needs to gain at least 20% market share. That means the companys sales need to exceed 1.6 million units in 2025. But that is a huge challenge. According to data from the China Association of Auto Manufacturers, the countrys annual NEV sales reached 1.367 million units in 2020 while Li Auto said it delivered 32,624 Li ONEs during the whole year. So there is an enormous gap. In order to accomplish the ambitious target, Li Auto must have solid reserves of talents and fund to maximize product value. In the next 5 years, Li Auto will enlarge its customer base to more family users who wants their own mobile home. Thus the company will offer much more premium smart electric vehicle models, which will be built on its second-generation EREV platform X, or one of its two battery electric vehicle platforms, Whale and Shark. In the future, the startup will continue to develop SUV models with a full-size premium electric SUV to come in 2022. Afterwards, the company plans to expand the product portfolio with mid-size and compact SUV models. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. LAKEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the difficulties that faced businesses in 2020, Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning one of the fastest-growing and greenest carpet cleaning franchises in the United States ended the year strong and is poised to continue its impressive expansion in 2021. The company opened 46 new units during 2020 and was able to meet the increasing demand for carpet cleaning services as people looked to keep their homes clean and safe during the pandemic. This growth and other factors earned Oxi Fresh both a spot in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500 and the title of a "Top Franchise" courtesy of Franchise.com. "This past year presented unique challenges for all businesses, but Oxi Fresh was able to remain strong. We added dozens of new locations that are serving more and more communities," said founder and CEO, Jonathan Barnett. "As we look toward the rest of 2021, we are confident that we will continue to meet the rising demand for cleaning services with our continued innovation, strong network of franchisees, and our committed team." In 2020, Oxi Fresh had its strongest week in terms of number of appointments booked; the company also regularly had higher numbers of appointments booked per week in the second half of 2020 when compared to the second half of 2019. This increased demand exemplifies the brand's excellent position for even further expansion in 2021. In addition to Oxi Fresh's accomplishments, the home services franchise category made up nearly 25% of all franchise inquiries in Q4 of 2020. This was an increase of nearly 50% from Q4 in 2019 according to Franchise Insights, which also demonstrates the strength of the industry. As the category continues to see incredible demand, Oxi Fresh's resiliency and strength continues to position the brand as an industry leader. Oxi Fresh plans to utilize this increase in demand for home service franchises in 2021 to ramp up its expansion with 70 new locations across the United States. The company is looking to grow its presence in the cities of Boston, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Tampa and Portland while also expanding in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Alabama, among other markets. "With almost 450 locations open throughout the United States and Canada, we want to keep pushing forward to continue our mission of providing communities with access to high quality, eco-friendly carpet cleaning services, especially as the pandemic continues," said Barnett. "We are eager to surpass the 500 unit mark in 2021 and further strengthen our presence." About Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning Through innovative products and modern technology, Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning offers green carpet cleaning and exceptional results through a unique, low-moisture process. Oxi Fresh's advanced franchisee support system including its centralized Scheduling Center and innovative marketing strategies provides franchisees the opportunity to focus on growing their business instead of merely operating them. The company's powerful combination of knowledgeable people, innovative technology, and strong processes has landed the company in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500, ranked in Inc. magazine's Inc. 500|5000, and saw them named as one of "America's Best Franchises to Buy," by Forbes magazine. Oxi Fresh has nearly 450 locations throughout the United States and Canada with more locations currently in development. For more information, visit oxifresh.com. SOURCE Oxi Fresh New Delhi, Feb 25, For Nepal, the political and constitutional crisis lingering from December 2020 continues to unravel despite the Supreme Court declaring Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's decision to dissolve the House of Representatives unconstitutional. The apex court has ordered the winter session to be resumed within 13 days. On Wednesday, the five-member constitutional bench of the Nepali Supreme Court reinstated the House of Representatives and ordered the government to call the new session of the Parliament by March 9. Oli's decision to dissolve the House of Representatives had led to 13 petitions being filed before the Supreme Court. In its defence, the government had said that the Prime Minister had the prerogative to dissolve the house as was the tradition in other parliamentary democracies. However, the other side said that Nepal had adopted a reformed parliamentary form of government which did not give the PM unlimited powers to dissolve the house. After the dissolution of the house in December, the Election Commission had called for two-phase elections on 30 April and 10 May. The dissolution had also intensified the squabbles of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which was being supported by China in a big way. NCP split into two with Oli heading one faction and the other led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, and Madhav Kumar Nepal. A concerned Communist Party of China (CPC) sent its emissaries to Kathmandu to patch up differences between the NCP factions. The Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, too played a major role in trying to keep the party together. Over the past few years, China was able to sway Nepal not just because of the strong communist links, but also on account of its capacity to meet Nepal's economic needs. The intense Chinese jostling to bring together Oli and Prachanda did not meet any success. In the meantime, Kathmandu and Delhi improved their relationship considerably with numerous high-level visits from Delhi. Jubilant people came out on the streets in Kathmandu to celebrate the Supreme Court decision. However, they are also wary of how the politics will pan out as the court orders have galvanised political parties across the spectrum. Nepal's political leaders now have to touch the 138 member mark to ensure that a government is formed as per the Supreme Court orders. The Nepalese lower house has 275 members. The NCP has a total of 173 members while the Nepali Congress holds 63 seats. The Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) has 32 members. The Kathmandu Post reports that Oli currently has the support of nearly 80 MPs, while the Dahal-Nepal team has about 90 MPs. The newspaper conjuctures that the Nepali Congress with 63 seats is likely to support the the Dahal-Nepal faction. If that happens and the JSP with its 32 seats too comes together, they would easily oust Oli from the lower house. But the catch is that the NCP has to first split legally. Currently, the two factions are still seen as one by the Election Commission. The political situation in Kathmandu is complex by all means. The numerous options before the political parties are that Oli resigns and allows the formation of a new government. The other option is that Oli faces the house and proves his majority, otherwise he faces the no-confidence motion. However, the signals from the Oli camp are that he is neither resigning nor going to go down without a fight. Surya Thapa, the Prime Minister's aide, wrote on Facebook that Oli will not resign. He said that the Prime Minister will face the parliament. The political situation in Nepal remains in a flux. Though the media and the common man feel vindicated by the court ruling, it is clear that Nepal will witness many intense moments in days to come. (This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative/ Google has announced that it will expand its password checkup feature to older devices on Tuesday (February 23). Google offers a password checkup feature that analyses the password strength or if any logins have been compromised in a data leak. This password checkup will now make its way to smartphones and tablets running Android 9 and above. This feature is one of the many that Google will be rolling out on Android. Google will introduce updates which include the ability to schedule text messages, an updated version of Google's Talkback and better- deeper support for Google Assistant in order to complete the tasks even when the screen is locked. Schedule Text: The name says it all, Google's Schedule Text feature will be available in Google Messages app. User can schedule the delivery of the text as per their need. They will need to tap and hold on to the send button to get this feature. This feature is useful to send custom messages to family and friends situated in different time zones. The Schedule Text feature will be available on devices running Android 7 or above. Google has its screen reader, Google Talkback, it is expected that the company will come up with a refined version of it. This feature allows visually challenged persons to interact with their smartphones in an easy and simple way. Google has listened to its customer feedback and added new features to its screen reader. According to Google, the Talkback gets more intuitive features, a unified menu, a reading control menu and many other features. Google will be adding new cards to glance when users are interacting with their assistant while the screen is locked. Google has been pushing a lot of efforts into developing Google Assistant. Google is focusing on making its Assistant do things that include setting alarms, sending texts, play a song when the is at a distance. Live TV Rand Paul angrily confronted Joe Biden's pick for assistant secretary for Health and Human Services on Thursday, likening gender changes surgeries to genital mutilation and pushing the transgender nominee on if they would allow minors to decide if they want to go on hormones to stop puberty. 'We should be outraged that someone is talking to a three-year-old about changing their sex,' Paul said of Rachel Levine, a transgender woman Biden picked to help head up HHS. Paul, who was a practicing ophthalmologist before becoming a U.S. senator, likened transgender minors starting on transitioning treatments to genital mutilation, blaming the increasing rates of trans-identified youth on 'the social pressure to conform.' 'Genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned,' Paul began in his line of questioning of Levine. 'Most genital mutilation is not typical performed by force,' he continued in an opening monologue. 'But, as [the World Health Organization] notes, that by social convention, social norm, the social pressure to conform, to do what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community.' 'American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics,' Paul continued as Levine appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing on Thursday. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul likened on Thursday minors going on hormone treatment and getting transition surgery to genital mutilation, blaming the increase in trans-identifying minors to 'the social pressure to conform, to do what others do' Paul brought up the issue during his line of questioning with Joe Biden's pick for assistant secretary of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine, a transgender woman Rachel did not directly answer Paul's question on if 'you believe minors are capable of making such a life changing decision of changing one's sex?' 'Dr. Levine, you have supported allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia,' the Kentucky Republican senator pointed out. 'Do you believe minors are capable of making such a life changing decision of changing one's sex?' Levine thanked the senator for his 'interest' in transgender medicine, calling it 'a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed' over time. 'If I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office to discuss the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine,' Levine said. Levine, a pediatrician, is currently secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and rose to prominence in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She was nominated to become Biden's assistant secretary of HHS. If confirmed, she would act as HHS secretary nominee Xavier Becerra's deputy. Becerra currently serves as attorney general for California. During the hearing Thursday, Levine did not address the substance of Paul's questions at any points regarding transgender healthcare decisions in cases with minors. 'Let it go into the record that the witness refused to answer the question,' Paul said of Levine. 'The question is a very specific one: should minors be making these momentous decisions?' 'For most of the history of medicine, we wouldn't let you have a cut sewn up in the ER [without parental consent],' he lamented. 'But you're willing to let a minor take things that prevent their puberty, and you think they get that back?' 'You give a woman testosterone enough that she grows a beard, you think she's going to go back looking like a woman when you stop the testosterone? You have permanently changed them. Infertility is another problem,' Paul said. Levine appeared before the Senate panel alongside Surgeon General nominee Vivek Murthy for a dual confirmation hearing. Levine (right) appeared alongside Surgeon General nominee Vivek Murthy (right) for a dual confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee 'According to the WHO, genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of human right. Genital mutilation is considered particularly egregious because because, as the WHO notes, it is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children,' Paul continued in likening putting children on hormones to castration and female circumcision. 'I'm alarmed that you're not saying they should be prevented from making decisions to amputate their breasts or genitalia,' Paul said during the heated exchange between him and Levine. 'We have always said that minors do not have full rightswill you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?' Levine reiterated that transgender medicine is 'a very complex and nuanced field,' but refused to directly answer whether minors should be able to make medical decisions based on changing their sex. A man with a white swastika painted on his forehead who allegedly attacked a woman with a makeshift flamethrower has been charged following a dramatic citizen's arrest. The 37-year-old allegedly tried to set a 40-year-old Indigenous mother and her daughter alight in the southeast Perth suburb of Gosnells on Saturday night around 6.30pm as they walked home. He allegedly yelled racial obscenities at the woman before attempting to burn her with a makeshift flamethrower made using a can of deodorant and a lighter, inflicting minor arm injuries. Police released CCTV footage of the alleged offender walking across the Gosnells IGA car park around the time of the assault. Passers-by eventually spotted the man walking around Gosnells around 6.15pm on Wednesday night and detained him before calling police. A man with a white swastika painted on his forehead who allegedly attacked a woman with a makeshift flamethrower has been charged following a dramatic citizen's arrest Police have released images of a man (pictured) who allegedly tried to set a mother and daughter alight in Perth's southeast on Saturday night The 37-year-old was wearing a red scarf covered in swastikas and other neo-nazi images painted on it, police say. The man was charged with an unlawful act with intent to harm and conduct intended to racially harass. He was due to appear at the Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday. Detective Senior Sergeant Sean Bell earlier said the behaviour of the man accused was 'not acceptable' and would not be tolerated. 'We are treating this cowardly and random attack on a woman and her child, doing nothing more than walking to the shops in the early evening, very seriously,' he said on Tuesday. An IGA worker who knows the mother said the victims were living in fear the man would hurt them again. 'She's all right, unbelievably, but she and her daughter were pretty shaken. I only spoke to them once since, and she said she wouldn't be walking to the shops anymore,' the worker told the The West Australian. A teenage girl who lives in the area said she knew the pair, but wished to remain anonymous out of fear she could be targeted by the same man next. 'She does FIFO, I'm pretty sure she's left today to go back to work. It's really scary what's happened,' she said. 'It's 2021. We all bleed the same colour. The fact this is still happening to people like us is unacceptable. It's terrifying.' By Park Moo-jong Four years ago in 2017, I wrote a column titled "Quo Vadis Korea" about the then commotion and trouble we Koreans were experiencing following the National Assembly impeachment of then President Park Geun-hye over the corruption and cronyism scandal dubbed "Choi Soon-sil gate." I wrote, "I am afraid the Republic of Korea may be drifting quickly toward the shameful times of 71 years ago in 1946 when an 'all or nothing' confrontation between the left and right forces split the people in a grave social chaos." At that time, the rivals confronted each other through respective street protests over whether to accept or reject the trusteeship by the United States and the Soviet Union, thus eventually leading to national division in 1948 and North Korea's invasion of the South provoking the 1951-1953 Korean War, called by South Koreans the "June 25 War." The embattled President Park finally lost her job after the Constitutional Court approved the impeachment and Moon Jae-in from the left wing won the ensuing presidential election to become the successor of the disgraced Park in May, 2017. Unfortunately, however, a very similar phenomenon is again sweeping the whole country since Moon took power and placed top priority on policies to wipe out the so-called "deep-rooted evils of the past." The ruling forces' unyielding attempt to embrace their supporters is only aggravating social division, notably between the ruling leftists and opposition rightists, formerly progressives and conservatives. In the presidential office, President Moon is surrounded by student activists-turned-politicians who got their fame for their unswerving fight for democracy against the "military dictatorship" in 1980s. And he appears to have no thoughts about changing his policies, even if they are found to be wrong. Their pro-North Korea stance is contributing to isolating their Republic of Korea increasingly in the international arena, estranging the nation from its long-time allies, notably the United States. They seem to have a firm confidence that North Korea's Kim Jong-un will give up his nuclear bombs, although Kim has not the slightest idea of discarding the deadly weapon of mass destruction. A housing shortage and unemployment have already surged to become a serious social evil thanks to the lack of appropriate and effective policies, while the people have been and still are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020. What's more serious is the Moon government's populism featuring "spending money like water" apparently to woo votes ahead of by-elections in the nation's top two cities, Seoul and Busan, on April 7, and next year's presidential election slated for March 9. Before the April by-elections, the government, under Moon's initiative, is expected to release about 20 trillion won (about $18 billion) as "disaster relief funding" to help people battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Quite naturally, the Moon administration's spending spree, backed by the magnificent force of Moon's Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on the floor, is flatly adding to the sharp increase in the national debt, which the next governments whichever they are will have to pay back. While the ruling camp is wielding its mighty power on the floor, the opposition People Power Party (PPP)is literally incompetent, showing no clear signs yet of making an effort to put up a "unified candidate" from all the opposition forces in the by-election for Seoul mayor, which is certainly to play an important role in their skirmishing. The PPP is helpless to check the ruling party and its government, only engaging in verbal wars through social media, in particular, as a weak minority party. Actually, many people worry over the "interim" leadership of Kim Chong-in, who was the top election campaigner and a lawmaker of the then opposition DPK in 2016. 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. The walls are closing in on Donald Trump. Not the big, beautiful walls on the southern border, but potential felony charges in New York, Atlanta and Washington, DC. Trumps own impeachment lawyer posed the odd defense that the time to go and arrest him would be after hes out of office during the Senate trial in which he was ultimately acquitted. Mitch McConnell, in his head-snapping mea culpa, also invoked criminal remedies at the time: We have a criminal justice system in this country, he said, adding, and former presidents are not immune from being accountable. So where does that leave us? Cyrus Vance, the District Attorney of New York, has had an open investigation for years that appears to be focusing on phony, shifting property valuations given to banks, insurers and tax authorities. Trump has fought to prevent his financial records and tax returns from being turned over, presumably for good reason, but his repeated appeals have now come to an end as the Supreme Court has refused any final relief. Given that Donald Trump may never have done a straight deal in his life, the likelihood of actionable state law wrongdoing is high. Michael Cohen, who is in a position to know, offered that, with the now-inevitable release of his tax and financial records, it does not look good for him. In Georgia, new Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has made clear she will aggressively investigate criminality arising from Trumps recorded phone call trying to pressure the Georgia Secretary of State into somehow finding enough votes to overturn the election. An investigation is like an onion, she said. You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else. There is a big onion in Georgia. Trumps calls to state officials urging them to subvert the election, for instance, could run afoul of a Georgia statute dealing with criminal solicitation to commit election fraud. To the extent that Trump was coordinating with Lindsey Graham, who also intervened with the Secretary of State, Rudy Giuliani, or others, conspiracy or even racketeering charges could be brought under Georgia law, Willis suggested. While a person indicted federally can be arrested anywhere in the United States, if Trump is charged with a state offence, the governor of that state must request extradition from the governor of the state where Trump is located in this case, Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis. In Timothy Snyders typology, DeSantis is a breaker, not a gamer. His devotion is to his own political advancement, without regard to any moral or political guardrails. He is an uber Trump loyalist; he encouraged the legal challenge to the presidential election. He told local health officials to stop publishing Covid statistics until after the election and overrode local officials mask mandates. He ordered armed raids on the home of a whistleblowing data scientist. He is positively Trumpian in his lack of respect for truth or the rule of law. And he will decide on approving extradition. The legal issue is straightforward. The Extradition Clause of the Constitution requires aperson charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. In 1861, when the Governor of Ohio refused the Governor of Kentuckys request for the return of a free man of color to face criminal charges for helping a slave to escape, the Supreme Court held that the Ohio Governorhad an absolute constitutional obligation to extradite the defendant who had aided a fugitive slave. But it also ruled that federal courts had no authority to enforce this duty. More than 100 years later, in 1987, Thurgood Marshall wrote for a unanimous Court that the federal courts did have the power to order extradition sought by a requesting governor while reiterating that a governor had no discretion to refuse a proper request. So, what could DeSantis do? In theory, he only has the power to make certain the extradition documents are in order. But Florida law provides that when an extradition demand is made, the Governor of Florida may instruct any prosecutor he chooses to investigate or assist in investigating the demand, and to report to him or her the situation and circumstances of the person so demanded, and whether the person ought to be surrendered. The statute is silent as to the scope of the investigation or the length of time that such an investigation can continue. It is also silent as to what conditions affect whether the person ought to be surrendered. Just as Trump has stonewalled, delayed or ignored the rule of law, his acolyte DeSantis can stave off the day of judgment for his mentor, perhaps indefinitely. He can insist he is in the process of investigating, until some court orders him it is time to wind it up. That ruling could then go through the federal court system, to the Supreme Court. Once his investigation is concluded, DeSantis can then find that Trump ought [not] be surrendered. That too can inch through the appellate system. And finally, DeSantis can contend that Justice Marshalls overruling of the fugitive slave extradition case was wrongly decided and see whether the conservative bloc will rediscover federalism and allow the extradition to be refused. That final decision would leave Trump to avoid the day of judgment and remain the Prisoner of Mar-a-Lago. Irish Water is working with industry partners to collaborate in a unique programme, the first of its kind in Ireland at a national level, to train engineers to become specialists in the water engineering space. Aidan Loughlin from Kinlough has secured a full-time position in Irish Water following the completion of the Cross Industry Graduate Programme. The programmed involved a one-year rotation in Irish Water, a year in one of the participating consultancy firms (Jacobs Engineering; Nicholas ODwyer; RPS; Ryan Hanley); and another year with one of the contractors (EPS; Glan Agua; Veolia; and Ward & Burke). His achievement has been highlighted as part of Engineers Week which runs from February 27 to March 5. STEPS Engineers Week is an annual campaign run by Engineers Ireland to inspire the next generation of engineers and excite students about the possibilities a career in engineering can offer. With a staff of over 800 people across Ireland, in a variety of disciplines including engineering, environment, science, health and safety, HR, finance, legal, planning and communications; Irish Water, as one of the largest employers of engineers in Ireland, is delighted to promote engineering as an exciting career choice to students. Aidans qualification on entering the programme was a BSc in Environmental Science from the Institute of Technology Sligo. He explained why he applied for the Cross-Industry Graduate Programme: I applied for the programme as it seemed like a great start to a career after college and I had an interest in water treatment having done my work placement in wastewater treatment operations. My first position was with Veolia Water Ireland where I was placed in the process department (ideal place with my science degree). I started out doing jar testing which help design water treatment plants by getting the correct dose rates. After a time I was sent to site where I learned a lot about how a wastewater plant works which gave me an understanding of design and the treatment process. My second role was in the water department in RPS consultants based in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin. I was put on the lead mitigation team where I learned a lot about report writing and preparing design reports. I was also sent as a Resident Engineer to Ballymore Eustace Water Treatment Plant which is the largest water treatment plant in Ireland. I was on site here for eight months. My third and final placement was with Irish Water. I was placed in capital programmes where I worked on the Orthophosphate, Disinfection and Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) Programmes. This gave me great experience on how programmes are managed. The Cross Industry Graduate Programme is designed to give participants on the job training and mentoring and there are a number of permanent positions available to participants upon completion of the programme in Irish Water and the consultancy and contractor firms involved. Aidan was lucky to quality for one of these roles in Irish Water. After the programme finished there was a bit of uncertainty but interviews where held in August 2020 and I was one of the lucky two to get hired by Irish Water (the other four that finished the programme also got hired by different industry partners). I am currently a Programme Management Coordinator and I moved over from Water ECI to Wastewater ECI which was a great transition as I knew most of my new team from previous meetings and workshops. It has been a strange year with COVID and working from home, but I really enjoy my work and Im kept very busy. The next Cross Industry Graduate Programme will be commencing in September 2021 and details will be advertised in advance. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 01:13:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's anti-poverty success showcases the courage and strength of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and its achievements and experience in this regard are inspiring for other developing countries, experts have said. China has secured a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday while addressing a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark the country's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters. "What impressed me most is the spirit of unity of the Communist Party of China, government, and people across the country," Sithixay Xayavong, director of the Chinese Studies Center at National University of Laos, told Xinhua, adding that what China has done in developing rural infrastructure and training agricultural technicians are worth learning for Laos. Noting that China's remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation are unprecedented in human history, Shakeel Ramay, director of the China Study Center at the Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said the CPC, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has steadfastly fulfilled its promise of eradicating absolute poverty. As the CPC tries hard to take care of every need of the Chinese people, this attitude makes the people fully support the policies introduced by the CPC, Ramay added. Ivona Ladjevac, head of the Center for the Belt and Road Initiative at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Serbia, called China's success in alleviating poverty a proof of a people-oriented country. "I don't think that anywhere in the world, and I don't mean to offend anyone, that anyone is so diligent as the Chinese people are, because they are really motivated to do more, to do the best, for their country. This was an element of that success," she said. The Serbian expert pointed out that the Chinese government played a role in designing this strategy and the people make it operational. "So, this is a kind of cohesion that exists between the government and the people," she added. Sonia Bressler, French writer and sinologist, said that "We should draw inspiration from what China has put in place, such as education designed for people in poverty, creative mechanism of social assistance, local-national joint development plans, etc." People can find "a fabulous continuity of policy implementation" in China's five-year plans, which shows an inclusive policy that directs the governance for the well-being of its population, Bressler added. Enditem South Korea has yet to finalize its position on this year's U.N. resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses, but it will continue communication with the United States and others on the matter, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The ministry's comment came as Seoul's stance on co-sponsoring the resolution drew attention this week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed support for the U.N. Human Rights Council's role in addressing human rights violations by North Korea in his speech to the council's session. "Our government's position in relation to the resolution has yet to be finalized. But with regard to the issue, we will continue to communicate with the international community, including the United States," ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said in a press briefing. Choi also cited the remarks by Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon in the U.N. session that Seoul has "profound interest" in the human rights situation in North Korea. "The government has been making efforts so far in promoting the human rights situation for North Korean people with cooperation from the international community," the spokesperson said. South Korea had co-sponsored the resolution since 2009 but did not join as a co-sponsor for the past two years, largely citing the current situation on the Korean Peninsula. The resolution, led by the European Union, urges the North's leadership to prevent crimes against human rights and bring abusers to account. The U.S. has announced that it will seek its return to the U.N. Human Rights Council, undoing the former Donald Trump administration's withdrawal from the council in 2018. (Yonhap) Thats Rich! I think its a bit cruel that unemployment compensation is taxable by the Feds and Ohio. I knew that it was, but my colleagues are just discovering that fact. I feel sure that the GOP thinks that by taking back 10% to 20% of unemployment income, it encourages us not to be lazy. But in COVID-time it seems harsh. - Carl, Mayfield Heights Carl. If not cruel, it certainly is both silly and inefficient when it comes to the enhanced unemployment benefits being paid for with federal tax dollars. Uncle Sam provides money to help out during hard times, then makes you fill out a tax form to send some of it back. Maybe taxing unemployment benefits in normal times has some logic. Traditional unemployment is paid for with money from payroll taxes on employers. But money for the special pandemic unemployment programs is from the federal government. This includes the extended benefits for traditional unemployment, and extra weekly amounts for both programs. Yet its taxable on both the federal and state levels. And heres the kicker. Different from unemployment checks, there is no tax liability for the separate stimulus payments most adults received twice in the last year, regardless of whether the recipient suffered any financial hardship during the coronavirus crisis. Some planning advice for those receiving unemployment: There is an option to have 10% withheld for federal tax purposes (no option for withholding for state income taxes), but that may not be enough. Single people get to take a standard deduction of $12,400 from their income, then are taxed at 10%. That rate increases to 12% for income (after the deduction) from $9,876 to $40,125, and 22% from $40,126 to $85,525. Then up from there. For married filing jointly, the standard deduction is $24,800. The 10% rate applies to income after that deduction up to $19,750. It is 12% from $19,751 to $80,250, and 22% from $80,251 to $171,050, and up from there. Thats Rich! On Feb. 16 I received two letters from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Office of Unemployment Insurance Operations. One of the letters gave me a temporary PIN. The other gave a temporary OMJ password. I did not file any claim. I have been retired for eight-plus years. When I have attempted to call to let them know that these are fraudulent claims, the phone system tells me that they are dealing with a high volume of calls and should call back at another time. Is there some way to make sure these false claims are identified & NOT processed as real claims? - Richard Richard: Join the crowd. I shared your story with the state unemployment office and the answer was direct: He is a victim of identity theft and needs to complete the fraud form on our website and take steps to protect his identity, spokesman Tom Betti said. Betti said people in this situation should go to unemployment.ohio.gov, click on the red button that says Report Identity Theft and then click ID Theft: What To Do-Individuals. Also, he noted, its a good idea to review other resources available for potential victims, including the option of requesting a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com. Thats Rich! I dont know whether or not youve covered this topic in your column, but I cant be the only one with the problem: I havent received my 1099G for PUA payments -- and I have no clue whom I should call regarding it. IRS.gov says theyre being mailed. But what if you dont get one? What recourse does one have? - Sandy, Shaker Heights Sandy: Maybe it got misplaced in your junk mail. Or the way mail service has been lately, maybe its sitting in some post office out of state somewhere. Fortunately, theres an easy way to access the form. Sign in to your Ohio unemployment account online, then click the tab marked view correspondence inbox. There you should be able to find your 1099 and download it. Thats Rich! My unemployment account is showing no weeks left available and no balance left remaining on my account? ... I started claiming at the end of March last year. The letter on my determination (for extended benefits) only said seven weeks. So when they increased it to 11 weeks nothing in my account ever got increased - weeks or total allowed amount. - Taylor Taylor: Your question arrived just before a new deadline target of Feb. 19 by the state unemployment office promising to bring things up to speed on these extended benefits. In a follow-up, you let me know youre all set now. But anyone still in this situation through this weekend should check with the state. Backing up a bit, to explain. Originally, benefits under the pandemic unemployment program were capped at 39 weeks, but lasting no longer than Dec. 26. Then there was a seven-week extension, which kicked in because of Ohios high unemployment rate. Not everyone received their extra weeks before the original program ended in December. Now the maximum is a total of 50 weeks - the original 39 and 11 more. But it took a while for the state to update its system. Thats Rich! Our story is almost the same as the one in the Feb. 7 paper. We had the homestead exemption in Brecksville in Cuyahoga County before the income exclusion (that limits the benefit now based on income). When we moved to Avon Lake in Lorain County three years ago, we were told that we were not eligible because of income. Is it possible to appeal and get approval now? - Terry, Avon Lake Terry: Dig up whatever records you may still have from your original homestead exemption in Cuyahoga County and attach that to a request for your Lorain County home, explaining what happened. I cant speak to what you were told earlier. But the Lorain County auditors real estate department offered these instructions, saying a case like yours is in fact eligible for transfer to keep getting the property tax discount. This matches what the state tax department told me previously; if you were in the program before income limits were put in place, you can stay in the program even after you move. Only new applicants after Dec. 31, 2013, are subject to the income requirements. Thats Rich! My wife and I received a lower amount in our second round of stimulus checks than any of our friends. While they received $1,200, we received around $875 or so. I was told this was due to the fact that we just made over $150,000 in 2019 and the checks were based on this year and tax records. We both retired at the end of 2019 so our 2020 income is just from Social Security. It is considerably much less. Is there any way to inform the government of our reduced income in case there are more stimulus checks to come, or are they always going to be based on our 2019 income and tax filing? - Terry, North Ridgeville. Terry: Repeating here for those who missed it from my earlier columns: This can be straightened out in filing your 2020 federal taxes. You can get more money based on your new tax return, if your income or family situation changed in 2020 to justify higher payments. The tax forms are now available and can be submitted. And making this fix is fairly straightforward. Thats Rich! Like your previous writer on Feb. 4, my mother passed on Dec. 29 from COVID in a nursing home and we received her stimulus check. But, since its a treasury check it needs a signature endorsement and my sister who was her power of attorney was told she lost that title upon moms death. So, wed like to cash it for some expenses weve had but dont know how? Any help? - Dave, Strongsville Dave: Yes, the check still can be cashed, though this becomes an estate issue. When a person passes away, a check made payable to them would need to be deposited in to an estate account and endorsed by the executor of the deceased, Emily Smith, a spokeswoman for Huntington National Bank, said when I posed the question. If an estate bank account hasnt been established, you may need a court document to authorize cashing the check, but these laws can vary by state, Smith added. Thats Rich! One other thing to mention in regard to COVID-19 relief payment is that if you or your spouse was a member of our Armed Forces at any time during 2020, then your payment is not limited. - Steve, Cleveland Steve: Thanks for the reminder. The IRS stimulus worksheet does in fact explain a military exception to the requirement that individuals, or also their spouses in filing joint returns, both have valid Social Security numbers. The third question on the IRS worksheet explains your credit is not limited for a joint return if at least one of you has a valid Social Security number and at least one of you was a member of the U.S. Armed Forces at some point in 2020. This was a change in the rules between the first and second stimulus packages, but now applies to both. Rich Exner, data analysis editor, writes cleveland.coms and The Plain Dealers personal finance column - Thats Rich! Follow on Twitter @RichExner. Email questions and suggestions to rexner@cleveland.com. Include your hometown and first name for publication. And to help me sort through the clutter of my email box, try to remember including Thats Rich! in the subject of the email. Previous Thats Rich! columns How to check to ensure youre not overpaying for electric, natural gas; some deals have short promotional periods Heres how to claim missing or bigger stimulus payments in filing 2020 taxes; young adults, new parents, others may now qualify Heres why some Ohioans are still out PUA unemployment benefits from December IRS confirms stimulus payments will be issued for people who died in 2020 With bank CD rates so low, where can I park my savings to make at least a little interest? President Biden extends student-loan breaks through September; heres what to consider even if you can afford to keep paying Compare Greater Cleveland, Akron property tax rates, and learn why they have changed this year Heres how to make a case to lower your property tax bill Cuyahoga County home prices in 2020 up more sharply than at any time since the housing bust; see details for each town $200,000-plus is now the norm for homes in Clevelands Detroit-Shoreway, Ohio City and Tremont neighborhoods What you need to know about the new stimulus checks, and $300 extra weekly in unemployment benefits: Q&A 2021 personal finance calendar: key dates for tax documents, student grants and loans, Obamacare, Medicare and more Tis the season for the stock markets typical Santa Claus Rally 7 end-of-the year money-saving ideas: picking tax brackets, IRA withdrawals, loan refinancing, more Extended warranties are free with credit cards; dont waste the benefit Is a gift card the right gift? Some ideas, cautions, and protections to know under the law You can go to college tuition-free if youre 60 or older by auditing classes in Ohio How to be sure youre getting a fair deal on auto insurance during COVID-19 with traffic, accidents down Is your budget tight during coronavirus? See these tips to help you cope, now and in the long run How to avoid scams; newest fraud tricks; can payment be stopped? Organize your financial records in case you get sick - a reader Q&A Explaining Ohios maze of city income tax rates and credits, and why you should log where youve been working With mortgage rates at historic lows, should you join the rush to refinance? - Thats Rich! Ohio has $3.2 billion in unclaimed funds; find out if some of that money is yours - Thats Rich! Roth retirement plan or traditional IRA and 401(k) plans? Is this the time to adjust your thinking? Taking college classes online? Heres how students can save a lot of money Does it make sense to pay off your mortgage early? Heres what to consider CARES Act makes this ideal time for a student-loan payment checkup What you need to know to get an unemployment check in Ohio TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / AI/ML Innovations Inc. (CSE:AIML), a company focused on acquiring and advancing Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies that address urgent societal needs, reports that it has engaged Toronto-based marketing firm North Equities Corp. ("North Equities") that specializes in various social media platforms, to facilitate greater investor engagement and widespread dissemination of the Company's news. In addition to press releases, the Company will be posting important information and updates through videos on the official Company YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCfOj2P_Fu3TOK6Jl1G9vEQ In accordance with the terms of the agreement, the Company will issue 80,645 common shares at a deemed price of $1.24 per share to North Equities, for a 6-month engagement ending 15/08/21. These shares are subject to a statutory hold period ending 24/06/21. Jason Coles, CEO at North Equites expressed his confidence in North Equities' ability to create value for AIML stakeholders: "We are very excited to be able to enhance AIML exposure during this significant period in the Company's life cycle. Through our marketing capabilities on social media platforms, we intend to widen the communication outreach while providing up to date information about the Company to a bigger audience." About North Equities: The North Equities team has more than 100 team-years of equity experience and has helped more than 200 companies acquire more than 120k+ investors combined. With the perfect combination of expertise, tactics, and a track record in fundraising and marketing, North Equities has created the next evolution of investor engagement and marketing. On behalf of the Board of Directors Tim Daniels, Executive Chairman For more information about AI/ML Innovations : For detailed information please see AI/ML's website at https://aiml-innovations.com/ or the Company's filed documents at www.sedar.com. Presentations: Investor slidedeck: https://aiml-innovations.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AIML-mini-1-21.pdf Corporate video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2QSjo7clXc&feature=youtu.be Contact: For further information, contact Blake Fallis at (778) 405-0882; toll free at 1 (833) 751-0882 or info@aiml-innovations.com. About AI/ML Innovations Inc .: AI/ML Innovations Inc. has realigned its business operations to capitalize on the burgeoning areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), with an initial focus on emerging companies in the digital healthcare space. AI/ML's shares are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "AIML". AI/ML's first acquisition was 70% ownership of Health Gauge. About Health Gauge: Health Gauge's patent-pending solution is a personal health monitoring & management system, which combines the latest wearable health monitors with sophisticated artificial intelligence software tools and proprietary cloud computing software, to help caregivers, patients, and healthcare professionals access and utilize relevant data, resulting in better recovery outcomes and healthy living objectives through the ability to make immediate and better health choices. 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: AI/ML Innovations Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631800/AIML-Innovations-Retains-North-Equities-Corp Freshly minted a2 Milk chief executive David Bortolussi is hopeful investors can see the underlying strength of the milk and infant formula company despite a disappointing first-half result after weaker-than-expected sales in China. Mr Bortolussi, who took up the reins at a2 just two weeks ago, was forced to downgrade the companys full-year guidance in his first results call on Thursday after a further deterioration of the business key daigou reseller channel. New a2 Milk CEO David Bortolussi has a tough job ahead after the company again cut its outlook for the year. Credit:AFR The results are disappointing relative to initial plans [and] to market expectations, but were having to navigate through pretty difficult times, he told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. So Im hopeful of starting to recover in the second half and being in a better position going into 2022. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. 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. The Woodsmith mine was acquired for 405mln in March 2020, and, subsequently by the end of 2021 Anglo will have sunk around US$800mln of investment into the project. ( ) expects to spend US$500mln on the former Sirius Minerals Yorkshire mine project in 2021, around US$200mln more than it originally expected when it acquired the project at a knockdown price just over a year ago. The miners financial results statement reveals that Anglo spent US$292mln on the Woodsmith mine project in 2020 following its acquisition in March, as the construction of a massive subterranean conveyor beneath the North Yorkshire national park reached the 12 kilometre marker (on the way to the 37 kms thats required). At the mine head, Anglo noted that the projects first shaft boring machine had been commissioned and the company said good progress is being made on the production shaft. Anglo launched a technical review of the project immediately after the acquisition and the findings are due by mid-2021, though today it highlighted that the report confirms the high quality of the overall project design and development approach. It added that it is likely to bring forward certain investments to increase early production flexibility. Previously, under Sirius Minerals, a point of scrutiny was the marketability of POLY4 the non-standard fertiliser product that the mine will produce in high volumes and in that regard, Anglo highlighted market development activities including full scale farm trials with over 200 commercial partners globally and a wider commercial demonstration programme. In the groups financial results, meanwhile, Anglo reported earnings (underlying EBITDA) of US$9.8bn in 2020, from US$10bn in 2019, and profit attributable to equity shareholders of US$2.1bn, down from US$3.5bn in 2019. Anglo confirmed a 72 cents per share final dividend, which it noted was consistent with a 40% pay-out policy. Woodsmith and the Quellaveco copper project in Peru were the focus of the companys investments in growth. "Our balanced investment programme is driving material business improvement, while also delivering margin-enhancing and sector leading volume growth of 20-25% over the next three to five years, that includes first copper production from Quellaveco in 2022, said chief executive Mark Cutifani. He added: "Looking further out, we benefit from a sequence of high returning growth options, mainly in copper, PGMs, and now also crop nutrients. Our business is increasingly positioned to supply those products that are fundamental to enabling a low carbon economy and catering to global consumer demand trends. Combined with our integrated approach to technology and sustainability - also helping us reach carbon neutrality across our operations by 2040 - we are well positioned to meet the expectations of our full breadth of stakeholders." The two emails came in quick succession. One asked if I had been following the latest Israeli vaccine story. A few minutes later, another notified me I could sign up online to get the vaccine. They highlighted the same problem. Its been nearly impossible for tens of thousands of eligible would-be vaccine takers across Washington, D.C., where I live, to actually get the shot. Its the same across the country. Hundreds of thousands of doses promised to cities and states never arrived. Where there should be coordination, theres been only chaos. Because our country treats health care as a privilege, not a right, those most vulnerable to the virus especially people of color and the poor are also those least likely to get quick access to the vaccines. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people die every day across the United States, even as unused vaccines get tossed in the trash. In Israel, things have gone better. Initial reports boasted that the country had vaccinated the highest percentage of its citizens of any country in the world. The Brookings Institution ran a congratulatory story headlined The Secret Sauce Behind Israels COVID-19 Vaccination Program. It credits the countrys vast public health infrastructure, a public good that has developed through heavy public investment since the creation of the state about 70 years ago. Israels public health system has indeed succeeded at vaccinating Israeli citizens effectively. But a key ingredient in its secret sauce is exclusion. Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli rule simply arent getting access to the vaccine. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Those post-1967 settlements, where only Jews are permitted to live, are all illegal under international law and U.N. resolutions. But they are built with full support of the Israeli government, and their residents are Israeli citizens. These settlers thus have full access to the COVID-19 vaccine alongside the other privileges of Jewish Israeli citizenship. But the 3 million Palestinians living in that same West Bank, and the 2 million more in the besieged Gaza Strip, are excluded. These Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation. Israel controls their borders, land, water, economy, airspace and access to health care. But unlike their Jewish settler neighbors, they cant vote in Israeli elections, and they cant get a vaccine. There is a word in international law for this situation: apartheid. Human rights activists and international law experts have been warning about this for years. In January 2021 the respected Israeli human rights organization Btselem described the countrys reality as a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid. Vaccine apartheid is only the latest variant and its no less illegal under international law. As the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, Israel is obligated under the Geneva Conventions to provide for public health services, public health and hygiene including the preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Faced with growing international pressure at their refusal to provide vaccines, Israel recently announced it would allow 5,000 doses of the Russian vaccine to be transferred to Palestinian health care workers from Jordan to the West Bank. But thats not even close to what they are obligated to do under international law, which is to provide equal vaccines to Palestinians that they are now boasting about providing to Israelis. Palestinians, many of whom are refugees living in crowded camps where social distancing remains largely impossible and even clean water for hand washing remains unavailable, face daunting COVID-19 odds. According to the United Nations, more than 160,000 Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation have tested positive, and more than 1,700 have died. And the virus continues to ravage the territories. The United States supports Israels military to the tune of almost $4 billion per year. American taxpayers are effectively subsidizing this vaccine apartheid, along with other brutal realities of Israels illegal colonization. With a new administration taking over vaccine distribution in the United States, I have a suggestion: Lets spend less on supporting vaccine apartheid abroad and more on ending it at home. The secret sauce of all public health should be equality. Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She wrote this for InsideSources.com. AUSTIN, Texas - The deaths are still being counted, but last week's extreme winter weather in Texas left yet another group of victims in its wake: exotic animals. Days of freezing temperatures kept the state blanketed in ice and snow, and despite the frenzied efforts of breeders, ranchers and other caretakers to maintain water and food supplies, the losses grew: Axis deer. Blackbuck and gemsbok antelope. Wildebeest. Even a 58-year-old chimpanzee named Violet, who had been retired to a special refuge after being used in biomedical research. "We have over $2 million in animals that have been lost, and another half-million in damage to infrastructure," said Charly Seale, president of the Exotic Wildlife Association in Kerrville, Texas. "It's an extremely trying time for all of us." At Valkyrie Ranch, 50 miles east of Austin, Francisco Artes put out hay and alfalfa for the wildebeest he raises for sale to zoos. It wasn't enough to sustain two pregnant females and their yearlings. Indeed, the storm was the worst possible scenario for creatures equipped to withstand the extreme temperatures of Africa, with blood vessels in their curled horns that allow heat to escape. "That works the exact opposite in the cold. The blood in the horns get cold and goes into their brains, and they were having seizures and dying," Artes explained this week. "We had no way of keeping the animals warm. We were out in the blizzard, trudging around - and even when we could find the animals, we couldn't do much to help them." After posting about the deaths on social media, within hours Artes had distributed more than 4,000 pounds of wildebeest meat to people in need. Nothing went to waste; even the animals' intestines were donated to a dog rescue organization. "I was telling everybody that wrote to us to come, but it was heartbreaking," he said. Seale lost 85 axis deer at his ranch in the Hill Country. Another 50 were found at the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park, site of the 36th president's former ranch in Stonewall. The reddish-colored deer, native to India, were introduced in Texas in the 1930s and today are hunted for thousands of dollars. Hundreds of deaths were also reported of blackbuck antelope, originally from India and Pakistan; gemsbok, an antelope with long horns; Barbary sheep; and scimitar-horned oryx calves. A sulcata tortoise - one of the largest tortoise species in the world - was among the 30 animals that froze on the Ox Ranch west of San Antonio. The first storm knocked out power in parts of Central Texas on Feb. 11, followed by more extreme weather that led to wider, rolling power outages that became days long and took out water systems. Ranchers hustled around-the-clock to keep animals alive as best they could. Many of those that rancher Joe Reed saw during the freezing temperatures were desperate. "They were 100 percent in survival mode, dependent on us," said Reed, who owns an outfitter called Nomad Hunts. "For eight days, it was daylight to dusk, making sure water tanks were not frozen, making sure animals had food on the ground." Harry Fleming, the operations manager at a ranch north of San Antonio, had wild blackbuck, axis and whitetail deer coming right up to him for feed - extremely atypical behavior. "It was very difficult to watch the suffering going on," he recalled Tuesday. Exotic animals in Texas are monetized in several ways: for breeding and sale domestically, to repopulate endangered herds in their native countries and as trophies hunted for sport at a steep price. The industry provides an estimated 14,000 jobs and has an economic impact of $2 billion a year. Seale said he is working with the Texas agriculture commissioner to ensure that exotic losses are counted the same way that livestock and crop losses are assessed for federal disaster declarations. The impact could continue for some time, said Andy Schwartz, the Texas Animal Health Commission's executive director and the state veterinarian. "We anticipate residual feed needs and cold-related health concerns," said Schwartz, who blamed the sharp die-off on a variety of factors, including the animals' overall health before the storms hit. Cattle, he noted, are better acclimated for cold weather and fared fairly well. The Primarily Primates sanctuary in San Antonio not only lost Violet, but also monkeys and lemurs after its power went out, even with staff scrambling to quickly evacuate as many residents as possible from the 78-acre facility. Some 60 primates were moved to a neighbor's house - with a video on Facebook showing dog crates of bushy-tailed, big-eyed lemurs in a converted "lemur room." At Snake Farm Zoo in New Braunfels, staff plugged in generators to keep reptiles and other animals alive, used hand and toe warmers in incubators and opened the outdoor portions of cages for the lions, mountain lions and hyenas to play in the snow. The big cats and hyenas frolicked as long as their paws could stand it, then headed back to the warmth inside, where all 500 of Snake Farm's species remained safe through the storms. Regardless of whether an animal dies in the wild or in captivity, property owners are responsible for disposing of carcasses, according to the Texas Animal Health Commission. Ranchers were still burying the carcasses this week or putting them on brush piles to be burned, Seale said. Some left them exposed to serve as a food source for other carnivores. "We got hit pretty hard," Reed said. "It's going to cost us ranchers millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions. This is how we make our living." The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Technology holds significant benefits for humanity, and digital technology can be an indispensable tool for helping the United Nations achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This was the view of Huawei senior vice president and board member Catherine Chen, in her keynote speech at the recent Connected for Shared Prosperity Forum in Shanghai. Chen said technology could be an engine for human progress, and called on individuals and businesses to think big and act small, while reiterating her support of the SDGs and building a green, innovative and inclusive world. Chen said it was essential that people reach agreement around technology, which held significant potential for achieving development goals. Large social changes tend to happen in lockstep with breakthroughs in science and technology. But today, technological advancements are hyped and politicised as has sometimes been the case with 5G. Chen pointed out that 5G was in fact a standardised technology defined by its high bandwidth, low latency, and broad connectivity, which could transform traditional industries and benefit all. Every day, consumers are benefiting from 5G experiences, while industrial use in seaports, mines, and the transportation sector is increasing operational efficiency. Is this a bad thing? I dont think so. Chen said that while there was always the danger that a new technology could be abused, rules could be established to manage technological risks. Many people are already hard at work creating governance rules for cyber security, privacy protection, and trusted AI that will keep us safe. For the rest of us, its time to be confident and open to technological development. Chen said technology was most effective when it created value for all, and that consensus could be built gradually so that technological advancement could continue. By focusing on the limited common understanding we have right now and what resources are actually available, we can drive progress step by step, she said. Huawei has always supported technological advancement. We believe digital tech benefits humanity, and can help the UN achieve its SDGs. Chen described how Huawei was already deploying digital solutions to empower people and meet UN development goals especially the goals of innovation, reduced inequality and quality education. In South Africa, for instance, Huawei, non-profit organization Click Foundation and network provider rain teamed up to connect more than 100 urban and rural primary schools to the Internet. The goal is to boost reading comprehension skills and close the digital gap through technology. In Kenya, Huawei partnered to build Digitrucks, mobile, solar-powered classrooms that bring digital skills to remote, underserved communities. Equipped with 20 laptops, 20 VR headsets, and built in Wi-Fi, each DigiTruck is a temporary digital school that provides free classes, resources, and materials. Chen also described how Huawei Smart PV solution being used in more than 60 countries was already helping to achieve SDGs, and had reduced carbon emissions by 148 million tons. This is the equivalent of planting more than 200 million trees. In Ethiopia alone, we have helped our customers deploy more than 400 solar power stations, reducing carbon emissions by 2 850 tons. In China, we have also helped build the world's largest solar stations, dedicated to agriculture and fishing in Ningxia and Shandong provinces. Huawei and UNESCO have also partnered to launch the Open Schools programme to help schools in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Ghana improve their digital skills through online education. In all these examples every single connection, every gram of emissions reduced, every watt of electricity saved, could not have been achieved without small advances in tech, said Chen. This is the value that tech brings to the world. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The woman who blackmailed a couple while they cradled their dying baby daughter remains in prison and will not get a reduction in jail time after losing an appeal against her sentence. As Jay and Deanne Windross held 11-month-old Amiyah during her final hours in April 2019, they were bombarded with text messages from Siti Kamal, who demanded $1000 to return a mobile phone containing hundreds of photos of the infant, who was in critical care with a neurological condition. Siti Kamal. Credit:Facebook The couple made a public appeal for the return of the phone days earlier when Ms Windross left it in a toilet cubicle at Chadstone shopping centre. Kamal, a mother of two, sent more than 90 messages in the hours before and after Amiyahs death, all while the Windrosses believed she had the phone. They later found out she never had it. RTHK: US regulator to approve one-shot J&J vaccine The single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe Covid-19, including newer variants, according to documents released by the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. The news came as the regulator was set to convene an independent panel on Friday that is likely to vote to authorise the vaccine, making it the third available in the country hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. In large clinical trials, the J&J vaccine's efficacy against severe disease was 85.9 percent in the United States, 81.7 percent in South Africa, and 87.6 percent in Brazil. Overall, among 39,321 participants across all regions, the efficacy against severe Covid-19 was 85.4 percent, but it fell to 66.1 percent when including moderate forms of the disease. Crucially, analyses of different demographic groups revealed no marked differences across age, race, or people with underlying conditions. The vaccine was generally well-tolerated, with no reports of severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), which have been seen in rare cases for the Pfizer and Moderna shots. Mild to moderate reactions, like injection-site pain, headache, fatigue and muscle pains were more likely to occur in younger participants than older. There were no reported deaths in the vaccine group, but five in the placebo group. "The analysis supported a favourable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA (emergency use authorisation)," the FDA wrote. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that if authorised, the federal government would seek to distribute three to four million doses next week. "Johnson and Johnson has announced it aims to deliver a total of 20 million doses by the end of March," he continued, adding the government was trying to speed up the delivery of the contracted 100 million doses, which the company has promised by the end of June. A third vaccine is seen as a vital means to ramp up the immunisation rate in the United States, where more than 500,000 people have lost their lives to the coronavirus. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Against the backdrop of staggering pendency of 35 lakh cheque bounce cases, the Supreme Court on Thursday suggested that the Centre examine the possibility of additional courts for speedy disposal of these cases. The observation from a bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat, while hearing a suo motu case to work out a mechanism for expeditious and just adjudication of cases connected with dishonoured cheques. The bench asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, representing the Centre, to inform it next week whether the Centre is keen on exploring the possibility of setting up additional courts under Article 247 for speedy disposal of cases under the Negotiable Instrument Act. Banerjee replied that he would seek instructions and inform the court on next date in the matter. Citing judgments, the top court told Centre's counsel and senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appointed amicus curiae in the matter, that the legislature is duty bound to conduct an impact assessment before creating a new offence under the law. Parliament, under Article 247 of the Constitution, has power to set up additional courts for the better administration of laws made by it or of any existing laws with respect to a matter enumerated in the Union List. Citing the central negotiable instruments law, the bench queried if the government is under obligation for establishing additional courts to deal with cases falling under this Act. Suggesting a mechanism for fast-tracking these matters, Luthra said that many cheque bounce cases are stuck due to non-service of summonses and stressed these should be served electronically through e-mail or social media. The top court will continue to hear the matter next week. On January 19, the Supreme Court had asked various High Courts to submit their response in connection with its suo moto case on expeditious trial in cases where cheques have been dishonoured. States were asked to do so also, through their Directors General of Police. It noted that amicus curiae have made submissions, the NALSA has submitted a report and the RBI has filed a reply to the preliminary report. "On October 27, 2020, DGP of states were directed to respond with respect to service of summons. Only 7 DGPs have submitted response. Some High Courts have not filed response," it said. An elderly Belfast couple have been harassed with repeated bullying letters saying they do not have a TV licence, even though they claim to have had one for more than 20 years. Jacqui (72) and Jimmy Patton (71), from Dunmurry, said they had contacted TV Licensing on several occasions, but to no avail. The couple spoke out after it emerged that since the first lockdown, the BBC had issued almost one million warning letters to homes across Northern Ireland. More than 1,000 people have also been brought before the courts since March last year. Speaking to this newspaper, Jacqui said the problems began last year. This all started six months ago, but weve had a licence since May 2000, she added. The letters started off saying Weve noticed you have no TV licence and all that, but we threw them out because we knew that wasnt true and we thought it was just a mistake. The next thing we knew, these red letters came in, saying they were going to send enforcement officers to our home. I wrote to customer services and gave them all our details that were on the receipt we kept for our licence, but it didnt stop. We got more letters. This newspaper revealed earlier this week that more than 3,000 letters warning of potential fines of up to 1,000 were being sent out every day. Jacqui said that with her husband in poor health, the messages were taking their toll. Last week, I sent a photograph of a copy of our receipt because we couldnt get a photocopier to the TV Licensing people, but I have heard nothing since, she explained. In one of my letters, I said to them This is harassment. I said my husband was 72 and in poor health, that they were harassing us and that it wasnt on. When I saw the money the BBC is spending on sending out these letters, its just mad. I actually asked TV Licensing in my letter if they were going to compensate us for all this, maybe a few months free on our licence or something. We still dont know what is happening. TV Licensing said it contacted the Pattons because it had no record of receiving a payment after the couples licence expired last year. A spokesperson added: To be fair to those who regularly pay for their licence, TV Licensing sends reminders to those who become unlicensed to explain the options available. We have no record of receiving (the Pattons) payment after the licence at this address expired in April last year, so we contacted the customers to obtain a record of the PayPoint receipt in order to resolve this and set up their new licence. The spokesperson added that because there was no initial response to reminder letters issued to the Pattons home, the licence was cancelled and warning letters were sent out. A TV licence is required by households watching or recording broadcast programmes, including streaming services such as Amazon Prime. A licence currently costs 157.50, but this is rising to 159 in April. The BBC contracts TV Licensing inspectors for collection and enforcement. The General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government. It has issued a respective statement, which reads as follows in part: "The General Staff of the RA Armed Forces expresses its resolute protest over the dismissal of the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, which was carried out without taking into account the national and state interests of the Republic of Armenia, based solely on personal and ambitious sentiments. In such difficult conditions for the country, such a decision is an anti-state and irresponsible step," the statement reads. "The RA Prime Minister and the Government are no longer able to make proper decisions in this critical and crucial situation for the Armenian people. For a long time, the RA Armed Forces patiently tolerated the current governments "attacks" aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces," the statement reads. The RA Armed Forces demanded the resignation of the RA Prime Minister and the Government, at the same time warning to refrain from using force. Pashinyan said on Facebook that an announcement by the armed forces calling for him to resign amounted to an attempted military coup and he called on his supporters to gather in the centre of Yerevan. Photo: BC Gov The number of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) vaccine deliveries due to arrive in Canada in April will exceed the total number received to date in short order. The pharmaceutical giant is set to deliver 769,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses the first two weeks of April, according to Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the vice-president of logistics and operations at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Our planning is focused on increasing shipments from Pfizer-BioNTech and taking them out there now beyond April, he said during a Thursday (February 25) media briefing. The April tally would bring in more than 1.5 million doses, exceeding the 1.3 million doses to arrive in Canada between mid-December and February 18. PHACs website has not updated its delivery data since last week. Pfizer is also due to deliver 444,600 doses over the next five weeks, totalling more than 2.2 million doses delivered by the end of next month. The manufacturer is contracted to deliver four million doses by the end of the first quarter, but that looked to be in doubt earlier this month amid ongoing shipping delays brought on by efforts to revamp its production facility in Belgium. But if all those March deliver arrive on time, Pfizer will meet its guarantee albeit it will do so by requiring that health workers extract six doses from each vial rather than the five doses previously agreed upon. Immunizers began using specialized syringes this month to wring out the extra dose. Fortin said the federal government has been monitoring the results of those efforts. Well continue to push more of those [low-dead volume] syringes to the provinces and very, very soon I would expect to see numbers from provinces on their ability to draw that [extra dose] consistently, he said. Fortin also revealed Moderna Inc. (NYSE:MRNA) would be shipping 466,000 doses for the weeks of March 8 and March 22. The nearly one million doses set to arrive means Moderna will also meet its Q1 delivery guarantee to Canada of two million doses. Fortin could not, however, provide shipping estimates for Moderna going into April. But he said Moderna would now be delivering doses every two weeks starting with its first March shipment. The manufacturer was previously delivering doses every three weeks and, similar to Pfizer, it began throttling deliveries over the past month. Woke culture is hardly even awake. It is a devouring force that means to eviscerate all excellence that has come before: The Greek classics. Chaucer. Milton. These authors are all white cisgender Western men -- enough said. A friend and I were wondering how long it would be before the Bard would also be cancelled. We did not have long to wait. In an article in the School Library Journal, librarian Amanda MacGregor conceded that Shakespeare was a genius wordsmith but that his work is full of problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir. I do not know what misogynoir is. Might it refer to Fifty Shades of Grey which, as I understand it, does not even reach the shiny silver boot buckle of The Story of O. According to Ben Jonson, Shakespeare was not of an age but for all time! Woke folk ask: But is he relevant? Do we want to keep privileging his stories over and above those written more recently, by women, people of color, queers, trans, and especially non-westerners? As a founder of Womens Studies which, at its long-ago best, sought to expand, not retract the Canon, even I think that relevance is a bit overrated. Call me crazy, but I like time-traveling, I enjoy being transported to an earlier time, another place, which is why I do not love most modernizations of operas that were set in castles of yore, or on wild heaths and shorelines. We lose something if we wrench them out of their place in time and set them in a more recent time. Rigoletto in Frank Sinatras Las Vegas, Gianni Schicchi and Macbeth both set in the 1930s. I stand almost alone. In 1984, the beloved poet, novelist, and essayist, Audre Lorde, wrote that The Masters tools will never dismantle the Masters House, and yet she used the English language and read widely. Nevertheless, those in favor of cancelling writers take Lorde at her word and believe one can create out of the thinnest air, the air that only they themselves can breathe today. All the teachers and professors quoted in the School Library Journal, feel that its time for the Bard to retire or be presented in accessible ways. Worse: If one insists on using him, one must use him against himself. A teacher must discuss his biases and failings -- which are considerable and possibly not forgivable. According to Arizona State University English professor and Shakespeare scholar, Ayanna Thompson: Shakespeare was a tool used to civilize Black and brown people in Englands empire. (She capitalizes Black, but not brown). Shakespeares plays were part of the colonizing efforts of the British in imperial India. I am a woman and yet I never felt myself colonized by Shakespeare. His plays have given me great joy. I am thinking of one extraordinary performance at the Globe/Sam Wanamaker Theater in London. The players performed The Tempest and the ensemble acting moved me from laughter to awe. Enchanted, I did not want to leave that theater and was one of the last to depart. Another teacher, in a Michigan high school, Jeffrey Austin, is quoted as saying that teachers need to challenge the whiteness of the assumption that Shakespeares works are universal. Claire Brunke, a Washington State public school teacher, exiled Shakespeare from her classroom. She wanted to stop centering the narrative on works by white, cisgender, heterosexual men. Cameron Campos, an English teacher at a high school in Alberta, Canada skipped Shakespeare and chose the works of an Indigenous author instead. Sarah Mulhern Gross, an English teacher in New Jersey said that when she teaches Romeo and Juliet, she analyzes it in terms of its toxic masculinity. Silly me. And all this while, I though Romeo and Juliet was a play about young, doomed love, about how two teenagers, a boy and girl, were willing to break with their hot-blooded feuding families for the sake of first love -- and to commit suicide for that love as well. I thought it was a story of love and death, a tragic tale about tribal family quarrels and how two youngsters sought to heal that breach through marriage. My God! The play is West Side Story but without music, only with immortal verse. To be fair, the high school teachers are trying to reach their students but in doing so they are encouraging narcissism and ignorance. Everything has to be about now! Me! My world! Yes, but this also cheats students of their heritage, which they can build on, critique, reject. This world view is one that leads to statue toppling and erasure of historical figures who, by our lights, are flawed, unacceptably so. Out with Lincoln and Washington. Lorena German, an Austin educator insists that your kids will be fine if they dont read Shakespeare. Instead, she suggests Amiri Baraka, Zora Neale Hurston, Ntozake Shange, and Athol Fugard as also deep and powerful. They are. But they are very recent, written in the 20th century. Does she believe that their focus on Black life in America or Fugards white anti-apartheid views are more universal than Shakespeare? Why not teach them all? Why not read them all -- in excerpted form if time is the salient issue? If Shakespeare is taught at the high school level, even in part, I would be open to also teaching the most creative retellings of his plays. As long as both are taught, not either/or. In terms of the colonization critique: Let me note the following. V.S. Naipaul, a Caribbean-based Indian writer and Suzanna Arundhati Roy, also an Indian writer, both won the distinguished British Man Booker Prize. Neither of them refused it. Naipaul was also knighted. Jean Rhys, a Caribbean-born and bred writer (Dominican Creole mother, a Welsh father), wrote a wondrous prequel to Jane Eyre titled The Wide Sargasso Sea. I assume that she read Charlotte Bronte in order to do so. Rhys was appointed a Commander of the British Empire for her writing. She did not refuse the honor. My point: While I may reject Naipauls misogyny and cruelty to his wives, I would never dream of refusing to read his work. And while I disagree, most profoundly, with Roys Marxism and anti-Zionism -- that would never compel me to cancel her or refuse to read her novels and essays. Although we may be ideologically and geographically apart, we have inherited a literary legacy that spans the continents. Jean-Paul Sartre, in an Introduction to Paul Nizans Aden Arabie, describes what happened to his friend, the author of eight novels, when he became an ex-communist. Communists do not believe in hell, they believe in nothingness. It was decided that Comrade Nizan should be obliterated. He had already been hit (and killed in World War Two, but this liquidation satisfied no one. It was not enough that he had ceased to live. He must never have existed at all... Communists intimidated the publishers, who left (Nizans) books to rot in basements, and they intimidated readers who no longer dared ask for them. My dear friends: This is an earlier form of Cancel Culture. Perhaps its the prototype. Do not go down this terrifying road of obliteration and cultural oblivion. Embrace more writers not fewer; time travel when you can. It is our common global legacy. Dr. Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Womens Studies and the author of twenty books, including the best-selling Women and Madness (1972), Womans Inhumanity to Woman (2002, 2009), An American Bride in Kabul (2013), A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killing (2018), A Politically Incorrect Feminist (2018) and Requiem for a Female Serial Killer (2020). She is a co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and the National Womens Health Network (1975). Dr. Chesler is the author of four studies about honor killing ( femicide), submits affidavits for women in flight from being honor killed and who are seeking asylum; is a Senior Fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, and a Fellow at both the Middle East Forum and the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Image: Picryl SPRINGFIELD This school year 481 students in 30 schools across the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois received a scholarship to attend Catholic school, thanks to about $1.4 million in donations. The tax credit scholarship program, part of Illinois Invest in Kids Act, provides students the opportunity to attend a school of their choice, despite financial challenges. Donors to the scholarship program receive a 75 percent state income credit on their donation. A Catholic couple from Chicago are committing to match dollar for dollar what is donated to 12 schools in the diocese, up to $15,000 per school. Eligible schools include St. Francis/Holy Ghost School in Jerseyville, St. Ambrose School in Godfrey and Ss. Peter and Paul School in Collinsville. The schools were selected by the diocese and Empower Illinois, an organization that runs the scholarship program, for participation in the match. Matching gifts are a great opportunity to grow community involvement and support a greater number of students, said Empower Illinois Regional Director, Bobby Sylvester. We are excited to announce that more schools than ever are eligible to participate in this years match. Donations must be made to the school through Empower Illinois before March 31 to be eligible for the match. Go to empowerillinois.org and click on donate. This page will walk an individual through what he or she must do to make a donation and to ensure he or she receives a tax credit. Donors need an account on mytax.illinois.gov before applying for a tax credit, and this can take up to 10 days and involves a mailed letter containing your account pin, so act sooner rather than later. If a school is not on this list, an individual can still receive a 75 percent tax credit and a donors school and students there still receive the major benefit of their generosity. For example, if an individual donor contributes $1,000, he or she will receive a state tax credit of $750. Individual donors can direct their donations to a school or subset of schools of their choice. Applicants seeking a scholarship for next school year may visit empowerillinois.org. PHOENIX, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ernst & Young LLP (EY) today announced the virtual launch of its first EY Cloud Enablement Center (the Center), housed within the firm's Phoenix office. The Center represents the first of several technology hubs to be unveiled over time and will serve to build upon our existing technology talent and services capabilities while catering to the full breadth of regulated industry sectors. EY's breadth of experience in technology equips the firm to serve forward-thinking businesses through dedicated venues that will continuously innovate with, and for, clients' evolving needs around an array of technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data, cybersecurity, analytics, and cloud. "Our clients are increasingly seeking to accelerate technology adoption to realize digital transformation benefits for their customers, shareholders and employees alike. This is particularly challenging for those in highly regulated industries," said Nicola Morini Bianzino, EY Global Chief Technology Officer. "We want to arm our clients with the knowledge, tools and services that can help them overcome any obstacles around aging infrastructure, legacy operating models, automation challenges, regulatory enhancements and cybersecurity concerns." EY has chosen Phoenix as the strategic location of choice for the first of these centers, given the presence of more than 20 financial services organizations, along with their significant IT facilities within the region. The Phoenix Center will focus on delivering an array of services and solutions for clients with cloud and agile technology capabilities. Other key services include strategic counsel around: legacy technology, operating models, policy, governance, cybersecurity, cloud native platform engineering, multi- and omni-cloud management, cloud migration and cloud managed services. "Our financial services clients will be fully supported on their technology transformation journeys," said Raj Sharma, EY Managing Partner and Financial Services Consulting Leader. "By delivering the right experience and capabilities through dedicated virtual and physical centers alike, we will be equipped to provide the strategic guidance our clients need to stay ahead of competition." Geoff Vickrey, EY Principal, and the EY Americas Technology Consulting Leader, noted that EY remains committed to providing our clients with experiences, insights and solutions that enable them to thrive in the face of uncertainty. He also remarked that these first-of-its-kind technology hubs can help clients leverage cutting-edge technologies in real and practical ways that accelerate transformation and growth. These technology centers build off of the success of the EY wavespace, a global network of growth and innovation centers that provide companies with access to an immersive experience, including design-based thinking, technology intelligence and deep business experience across disciplines and sectors to achieve breakthroughs in business transformation. EY will tap the Phoenix technology and cloud talent market, bringing new economic opportunities to the city as part of the growth and expansion of the Center. "The EY expansion in Phoenix reflects the tremendous opportunity, talent and future we see in this area," said Ron Butler, the EY Phoenix Office Managing Partner. "We are proud to base our new technology hub in Phoenix as part of the deep EY commitment to this thriving business community." To learn more about the set of services that the Phoenix-based EY Cloud Enablement Center will provide visit: ey.com/eyfsocloud . EY | Building a better working world EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate. Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. SOURCE EY Related Links https://www.ey.com/ I feel like I often denounce the Democrats in pretty fiery terms, but David Horowitzs standard is hard to match. If you think the January 6 mini-riot, which the Democrats are now using to justify their many abuses of power, is, if not fake news, certainly grossly exaggerated news, you are right. And David spells it out in his patented fashion. This essay is on Front Page, and I am taking the liberty of reproducing it here. The Fascist Democrats & the Fake Insurrection In less than a month in office, the Biden administration has clearly defined itself and its party as a fascist vanguard, driven by a racist agenda, and unconstrained by constitutional principle. It chooses to rule by presidential diktat, even though it controls both Houses of Congress. It is an aggressive pursuer of political division behind a deceptive smokescreen of healing and unity, It is busily exploiting a fake armed insurrection to justify witch-hunts of the military, the capital police, members of Congress and the opposition media, at the moment Fox and Newsmax, whom they want to suppress. Its legislative radicals have called for the expulsion of half the Republican conference, without rebuke from their leaders. Because these actions are indefensible in a democracy, the Democrat Party is brazenly advancing these destructive, anti-democratic measures using Orwellian doublespeak. Thus, Merrick Garland, Bidens nominee to be the chief law enforcement officer of the land, has claimed under oath that terrorist acts can only be committed in the daytime a transparent move to protect the domestic terrorists of the left who laid siege to 220 American cities at night last summer, showing utter contempt for authority and law, while attacking federal buildings and local police offices along the way. In other words the fake insurrection in the Capitol an event conducted mainly by Trump supporters in which only Trump supporters died is an act of domestic terrorism because it took place in the daytime. But violent armed insurrections and attacks on federal buildings conducted by leftists at night, cannot be regarded as terrorist events. How can Americans expect blind justice from a sophist like this? The nauseating sophistry has an obvious bottom line. Only violent protests by Trump supporters can justify the political witch-hunts and purges the Democrats are currently conducting against all conservatives and Republicans. The so-called armed insurrection in the Capitol on January 6 was used to impeach Trump? It was allegedly so dangerous as to justify impeaching him after he left office? But it deserves to be called a fake armed insurrection because there were no firearms present, and no plausible plan to overthrow the government. The malicious fantasy that this effort was an armed attempt to overthrow the government is just that: a malicious fantasy. Four people died at the event all unarmed. The one who didnt die of a heart attack, stroke or medical emergency, Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was murdered by a Capitol police officer with no consequences to the officer. The Capitol police officer who died Brian Suknick, and was laid in state and honored by Democrats as a defender of their faith, died of indeterminate causes the day after the melee, and was a Trump supporter. The January 6 mob scene, according to investigators, was planned by Oath Keepers a fringe pro-Trump group two months before Trump gave the speech for which he was impeached under the bogus charge that he had incited an insurrection. In fact, he had offered to deploy 10,000 National Guardsmen to defend the Capitol for the January 6 certification. Some insurrectionist! Trumps infamous speech was perfectly normal, law-abiding and democratic. It was given a mile from the Capitol and was an appeal to his supporters to stiffen the spines of Republican members of Congress so they would challenge the election result. This was something Democrats and their impeachment leader the devious Jamie Raskin had done at the certification hearings in 2017 after Trumps election (and also in 2001 and 2005 after both Bush elections). Democrats hypocrisy apparently knows no limits and no restraints and evidently has no decency filter. If Trumps supporters failed to stiffen the spines of weak Republicans as Trump urged them to do in so many words at the Ellipse, they needed to go back home and primary them in the 2022 elections. Totally respectful of the democratic process. The reality is that given the three months of violent assaults by Black Lives Matter and Antifa criminals on 220 American cities last summer, January 6 was an unexceptional event. Where was the respect for government courthouses, national monuments, police stations and public order all summer? For three months and more, those violent insurrectionary riots were supported by Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party leadership, and even funded by them. Thanks to the Democrats, violent attacks on people and property and government buildings had become a cultural norm to use Bidens unconscionable phrase for looking away when confronted by Chinese genocide and enslavement of 2 million Uighur Muslims. Yet with the help of cowardly Republicans, afraid to call these aggressions by their proper names, the Democrats were able to turn the Capitol melee into a preposterous Reichstag Fire the same that provided Hitler, the elected chancellor of the Weimar Republic with an excuse for destroying the Republic and silencing his opponents. The difference was that for Hitler the phantom enemy that justified his depredations was the Jews, while for the fascist Democrats it is white supremacists, whose actual numbers are fewer even than the Jews. The Marxists of Black Lives Matter are the actual authors of the lie that the January 6 melee in the capital was a white supremacist coup. But even the pathetic Merrick Garland was forced to repeat the canard without offering a shred of evidence at his confirmation hearing. Thats how pervasive this racist ideology has become in shaping the Democrat Partys drive to destroy our constitutional Republic. The hour is actually late, and Americans better wake up and start fighting for their country or there will soon be nothing left to defend. A San Francisco man suspected of breaking into the iconic Cliff House and stealing historic memorabilia in January, nearly one month after the restaurant announced its permanent closure, has been arrested and charged with burglary, authorities said. The man, whom police officials declined to identify because their investigation is ongoing, was arrested Feb. 12 in San Franciscos Outer Richmond neighborhood on a search and arrest warrant for the Jan. 26 burglary. Several items stolen from the famous restaurant were recovered at the mans residence, found on Ocean Beach by joggers or discovered in second-hand stores in San Francisco, Julian Espinoza, a spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said. U.S. Park Police located additional items stolen from the Cliff House on Feb. 19, including Sutro Baths bathing suits and artwork. All of the stolen historic items except for a photograph valued at $50 were recovered. Some smaller items, including some tools, remained missing, Espinoza said. All of the found items were returned to the Hountalas family, which ran the restaurant. Auction contractors hired by former Cliff House operators Dan and Marianne Hountalas discovered a break-in at the Cliff House on Jan. 26, officials said. U.S. Park Police said at least two people broke into the building near Ocean Beach in the early hours of the day and stole historic memorabilia, tools and art. Police did not say if additional suspects would face charges. The burglary happened nearly a month before a planned online auction of the 157-year-old landmarks memorabilia, artwork and decorative furnishings. The Cliff House auction dates were pushed back to allow park police to investigate the burglary and recover the stolen items that were up for sale. Dan and Marianne operated at a loss for several years, especially during COVID, to keep the restaurant going for as many years as it did, said Laura Reid, who is helping to manage the Cliff House auction. These are possessions that they feel can be enjoyed by other people and will continue, hopefully, to be in the community. The Western Neighborhoods Project, a nonprofit that preserves the history of neighborhoods in western San Francisco, recently launched a fundraising campaign to purchase artifacts from the auction to keep the Cliff House collection intact and accessible for public viewing. The Cliff House closed in December after the Hountalas, who ran the property since 1977, failed to reach a new lease agreement with the sites owner, the National Park Service. But the property may not remain vacant for long. The National Park Service said it will immediately make use of the space while it searches for a tenant, and the goal is for the building to house a restaurant under a new name. Officials said the suspect has been arraigned and is pending future court appearances. Vanessa Arredondo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vanessa.arredondo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @v_anana 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. Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. Bollywood's 'Mast Mast' girl Raveena Tandon made her acting debut opposite Salman Khan in the 1991 film Patthar Ke Phool. Daughter of producer-director Ravi Tandon, the actress dabbled with different genres ranging from comedy to social issues, and was one of the most-sought after heroines in the 90s. A National Film Award recipient, Raveena completes three decades in the film industry this year. In an interview with Hindustan Times, the Mohra actress opened up about her thirty-year journey and how she has managed to stay relevant over the years. Raveena told the leading daily that she never aspired to become an actress as she was always conscious of people looking at her. The actress was quoted as saying, "I am in this industry by default, I never wanted to be an actress. I was a little plump, reserved kid who bit her nails, was always conscious of people looking at her. Even in the class, I was that, so I sat on the back bench. Fortunately for me, even in school I got lead roles, annual functions, the play we performed. It always worked for me strangely, I used to do it though I would be nervous." Raveena revealed that initially, she wanted to venture into direction, but destiny had some other plans in store for her. She said that she started getting film offers when she joined to assist ad guru Prhlad Kakkar, howoever she turned them down as she wanted to complete her education. "I think the metamorphism happened then. I joined Prahlad Kakkar (ad guru), he always told me I need to be on screen, I used to say no. I started getting offers, but I refused, keen to finish my education first. I got seven-eight offers before Patthar Ke Phool, like Jungle and Heer Ranjha. It's not that they weren't great films to be associated with, but I hadn't made up my mind. It was destiny that the makers spotted me in my first year of college. It wasn't that my dad (Ravi Tandon) influenced someone to take me into films, or pushed me. There's this nepotism debate today, which I think is ridiculous, things happened on their own for me. If I didn't have the face for it, I wouldn't have been discovered or got offers." Speaking about how she landed her debut film, Raveena said that it was the makers of Patthar Ke Phool who approached her father to let her act in their film. "The makers asked my father and said 'ghar ki bacchi hai, don't worry, everything will be taken care of'. The next day I went to college and told my friends 'guess what? I am doing a film with Salman Khan' All of them begged me 'say yes, just do it for us. We will come on set, take pictures, after that if you don't want to act in films, don't'! I did that exactly, and the rest is history," Raveena told the tabloid. In the same interview, the actress also spoke about how journey in the film industry and said, "I feel there is a lot more in me yet to be tapped. In terms of my filmography,I was the only heroine who had a Dulhe Raja (1998) releasing at the same time as a Shool (1999), Aks at the same time as Daman (both 2001). Ghulam-e-Mustafa (1997), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) alongside. I think I managed to do some varied stuff and got accepted. I have no clue how I stayed relevant. I actually started experimenting pretty early. I started getting bored myself of what I was doing, and needed something that challenged myself as an actor. You need to grow, evolve, and that is what I always tried." Raveena Tandon is currently awaiting the release of her upcoming film, Yash-starrer KGF Chapter 2. The film marks the diva's return to Kannada cinema after 21 years. ALSO READ: Raveena Tandon Reveals Why She Was Not Seen In Yash's KGF: Chapter 1 ALSO READ: Raveena Tandon Says She Was Called Arrogant, Refused To Sleep Around With Heroes For Roles There is much anger, frustration among Longford's elderly over shortcomings in the Covid-19 roll-out. Speaking in the Dail today, Longford /Westmeath Fianna Fail Deputy Joe Flaherty spoke about how an 86-year-old woman due to be vaccinated on Friday was 'told it would be another two weeks before the GP gets the supply of vaccine'. While he was also contacted by a 76-year-old woman from Aughnacliffe who said the one thing that sustained her for the past two months has been the anticipation of getting the vaccine and a possible opportunity to visit her new born granddaughter in London. "She was angry. Through her tears, she told me that, for the first time in her life, she knows what it is like to be depressed." Deputy Flaherty acknowledged that the Government is being hamstrung by poor communication and 'people are still sceptical' that the target of 4.2 million vaccines will be met by the end of June. However, he expressed that belief that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly 'will lead us around the corner' and engagement with people will improve. Also read: Covid-19 Latest: Warning that virus is still circulating at high level as Longford's incidence rate increases yet again In the Dail, Deputy Flaherty stated, "In recent days, I have been dealing with numerous calls from elderly people in county Longford. They are frustrated and anxious and they are questioning and wondering about the validity of the vaccine roll-out. "To put it in context, there are 2,000 people over the age of 85 in county Longford and a further 8,000 over the age of 65. All present accept that those age groups are the priority for vaccine roll-out. Approximately 1,500 of them have been dealt with through nursing homes. "I know of an 86-year-old woman who has put her life on hold for the past year. She and her general practitioner, GP, expected that she would get her first vaccine this Friday but last Monday she was told it would be another two weeks before the GP gets the supply of vaccine. That is no fault of the GP. I know that GPs across the county have pulled out all the stops, rescheduled staff and reorganised their surgeries with the stated aim of making this vaccine campaign work. "As I sat in the party room yesterday listening to An Taoiseach take Leaders' Questions, I got a call from a 76-year-old woman from Aughnacliffe. Her only contact with the outside world for the past year has been when her two sons and her daughter call to her house and speak to her through the window. "The one thing that has sustained her for the past two months has been the anticipation of getting the vaccine and a possible opportunity to visit her new born granddaughter in London. She was angry. Through her tears, she told me that, for the first time in her life, she knows what it is like to be depressed. "There are shortcomings in the roll-out campaign but there are also many positives. However, the communication is failing us thus far. I hear the same glib advertising campaigns on the radio ten times a day and I see the same sterile and non-specific campaigns in print and online. "What the 10,000 people over the age of 65 in County Longford want to know is when they will get their vaccines. "To the credit of the local GPs, there is a massive plan under way in anticipation of the roll out. Several GPs in Longford will today commence the vaccination of over-80s. I am aware that more than 380 GPs will receive their supply this week and up to 500 practices will receive their supply next week. "We are now committed to rolling out 1.2 million vaccines before the end of March and the target is 4.2 million vaccines by the end of June. These are big numbers but people are still sceptical. We need to start engaging with them and giving them real, specific and localised dates for when they will get their vaccines. "I acknowledge the difficulty of the Minister's job, but I believe he will lead us around the corner. However, he will only be able to do so if we get to grips with the vaccine campaign. To that end, we need to start engaging with older residents. They need to be reassured in good time that there is a plan and a date for their vaccination." An urgent health alert has been issued for millions of Australians to get tested for Covid-19 if they experience even mild symptoms after fragments of the deadly disease were detected at two wastewater treatment plants. Queensland Health announced on Thursday sampling of sewage at Luggage Point, servicing huge swathes of Brisbane, and Victoria Point, servicing the area around Redland Bay, returned positive readings for Covid-19. The state is on high alert following concerns highly-infectious strains of coronavirus could potentiality be spreading around Queensland. Residents in Brisbane (pictured) are being urged to get tested after fragments of Covid-19 were detected at two wastewater treatment plants Queensland's chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young (pictured) begged residents to get tested even with the mildest of symptoms 'It is critical we detect any cases that we may not be aware of as quickly as possible through our testing system, to contain any potential spread,' Queensland's chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said. 'We are concerned by the new variants that are emerging overseas that are more contagious than previous variants we have seen in Queensland.' Dr Young begged residents to come forward for testing no matter how mild their symptoms. 'It is very important people with symptoms come forward right away and get tested now more than ever with the new cases we are seeing in other states and the amount of interstate travel that we've seen over the past while,' she said. 'Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting, and loss of taste or smell.' Dr Young added it was also possible this latest detection relates to previous Covid-19 cases that can shed viral fragments for a couple of months after they are no longer infectious. IS YOUR SUBURB IMPACTED? Victoria Point wastewater treatment plant catchment includes: Redland Bay, Thornlands, Victoria Point Luggage Point wastewater treatment plant catchment includes: Albion, Alderley, Annerley, Ascot, Ashgrove, Auchenflower, Balmoral, Banyo, Bardon, Boondall, Bowen Hills, Brisbane Airport, Brisbane City, Bulimba, Camp Hill, Cannon Hill, Chermside, Chermside West, Clayfield, Coorparoo, Dutton Park, Eagle Farm, East Brisbane, Enoggera, Enoggera Reservoir, Everton Park, Ferny Grove, Fortitude Valley, Gaythorne, Geebung, Gordon Park Grange, Greenslopes, Hamilton, Hawthorne, Hemmant, Hendra, Herston Highgate Hill, Holland Park, Holland Park West, Kalinga, Kangaroo Point, Kedron, Kelvin Grove, Keperra, Lutwyche, Lytton, McDowall, Milton, Mitchelton, Moorooka, Morningside, Mount Coot-Tha, Mount Gravatt, Mount Gravatt East, Murarrie, Nathan, New Farm, Newmarket, Newstead, Norman Park, Northgate, Nudgee, Nudgee Beach, Nundah, Paddington, Petrie Terrace, Pinkenba, Port of Brisbane, Red Hill, Seven Hills, South Brisbane, Spring Hill, St Lucia, Stafford, Stafford Heights, Stones Corner, Taigum, Taringa, Tarragindi, Teneriffe, The Gap, Toowong, Upper Kedron, Virginia, Wavell Heights, West End, Wilston, Windsor, Woolloongabba, Wooloowin, Wynnum, Wynnum West, Zillmere Advertisement The health alert comes as Queensland reopens its border to Melbourne, as the state waits for the federal government to explain a vaccine bungle involving two aged care residents in Brisbane. The state has imposed mandatory hotel quarantine on visitors from the Victorian capital since it was declared a coronavirus hotspot on February 13. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says Queensland will reopen to Melbourne from 1am on Saturday. 'As we say 'Queensland is the place to be', and from Saturday family, friends and visitors from Victoria can once again experience all that our great state has to offer,' she told parliament. Ms Palaszczuk said federal investigations are continuing into how two residents at Brisbane's Holy Spirit Nursing Home were given four times the correct dosage of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The pair - an 88-year-old man in hospital and a 94-year-old woman who remains at the home - have so far not shown any adverse reactions but they are being closely monitored. 'We welcome the Commonwealth's commitment to sharing the findings of its investigation with Queensland, and what actions will be taken to ensure that that doesn't occur again,' she told parliament. Minister for Health Greg Hunt addressed the nation's vaccine rollout and bungle on Wednesday morning (pictured) Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has revealed the doctor who administered the vaccine had not been properly trained. The premier renewed her call for an emergency national cabinet meeting so the prime minister can explain the vaccine rollout in aged care facilities. 'That's logical, to talk about the vaccine rollout, to make sure we're aware of the communications campaign, to ensure that the training has happened,' she told Nine's Today program on Thursday. The premier said the two elderly people in question are not out of the woods yet. She said the next 24 to 48 hours were 'critical' for the woman in hospital. When asked if she would try to suspend aged care vaccinations until the issues were dealt with, Ms Palaszczuk said the federal government had assured her it had taken action to prevent a repeat. 'Well it's up to the Commonwealth government to ensure that the training is happening for those contractors that are administering the vaccine in aged care homes,' she said. The premier also wants the Commonwealth to share data with states on its vaccine rollout, like the facilities where the shots are occurring and how many. 'We don't know where the commonwealth is administering the vaccine and the data collection for the aged care,' she said. 'I think that's very simple, just to ask for those updates, even if they're weekly.' Last week the Guardian newspaper reported British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had told a Downing Street roundtable event with business leaders he was "fervently Sinophile" and would seek to strengthen economic and trade links with Beijing, resuscitating dialogues previously frozen owing to tensions in Hong Kong. The report came amid a flurry of U.K. actions against China in the past few weeks, including a speech at the United Nations by Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb attacking Beijing over Xinjiang, Britain pitching itself as an "Indo-Pacific power" to take on China, as well as the banning of China Global Television Network (CGTN) by Britain's television regulator Ofcom. This suggests Britain has firmly cast in its lot with the United States. But Johnson's claim begs the question: Just what does Britain want from China? The contradictions on display illustrate the deep abiding divisions within the governing Conservative Party on the matter and the pressing reality that China is deeply essential to the country's post-Brexit vision. This has created a political tug of war between the two factions, many of whom are eager to push closer to Washington and promote decoupling [with China]. This reveals the more troubled reality that Britain doesn't have a coherent China strategy, and that seems certain to cause problems down the road. The Conservatives are known most primarily in Britain for the fact they are unapologetically, pro-business, something many deplore. Since the Thatcher era of the 1980s, the party has run on a doctrine of neoliberal economics, opting for low taxes, low regulation and open markets. Under such a mantra, foreign investment into Britain is to be encouraged even if it is at the expense of domestic industries or jobs. Equally, the Conservatives admired China as an overwhelming business opportunity. Former Prime Minister David Cameron created what was called a "golden era" of relations with China, and sought to frame Britain as China's partner in the West. Unfortunately, the world has changed and that era has since long gone. Britain's obligation to the strategy of the United States is part of the reason, along with a determination to achieve Brexit, which influenced many of the right-wing factions in the Conservative Party, opting for a more nationalistic view of the world, to turn anti-Chinese. The Conservative Right has for decades been a headache to the front bench, be it in government or opposition, as they seek to repeatedly undermine the leadership and push a harder agenda on various issues. Traditionally since the post-Thatcher era, their point of emphasis has been Europe, and various rebels have been remarkably successful in forcing Euroscepticism into the mainstream and bringing about Brexit itself. But now Brexit is complete, these individuals have since redefined their purpose. Having done away with Europe, their emphasis is now China, and a coalition of right-wing Conservative MPs have persistently sought to try and force the government to take a harder position on Beijing. For Boris Johnson personally, this is unfavorable, forcing him to have to negotiate and compromise with the rebels to stop them from completely upending the government's position. Initially, the government sought to include Huawei in their 5G networks, but growing pressure from the Trump administration, as well as a growing rebellion in parliament as the COVID-19 pandemic forced anti-China sentiment into the mainstream, made this untenable. This, combined with tensions over Hong Kong, has sent U.K.-China relations on a sharp downward trajectory. However, it is obvious that the benefits of China are not lost on Boris. His comments will infuriate many, but he seems to maintain the longstanding concept that Britain has a lot to lose if it is locked in a confrontation with Beijing. A post-Brexit Britain which is now losing trade with Europe ultimately needs more markets, and, like it or not, China happens to be the largest market in the world. This means that Britain's China approach is marred with uncomfortable contradictions, and there is no clear strategy or approach at the helm. What is visible is a confrontation between numerous interest groups, both pushing for harder and open approaches simultaneously, which creates uncomfortable crisscrossing on a number of issues. What does Britain want? It's impossible to say, not so much about a country as it is about a myriad of agendas. Ultimately, this is hardly a vision and nor is it a position of strength. Britain needs to adequately and straight-out communicate to China what it wants, where it stands and what it does not want, than persistently communicate rampant hostility and then indicate it still values business. Beijing might appreciate the clarity. Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain and the U.S. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/TomFowdy.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. We encourage our state leaders, therefore, to continue the investments in early childhood programs that have earned strong bipartisan support in Illinois. While the pandemic has put a pinch on our state finances, we cannot use our present predicament as an excuse to shrink from our pursuit of a better, safer future. Investments made in children today will bring savings in the long run as much as $27,000 per child enrolled in high-quality preschool, for instance as we reduce the myriad costs incurred by crime and violence in our communities. Mumbai: The late legendary actress Sridevi, who was hailed as the first female superstar of Indian cinema, breathed her last on February 24, 2018. Millions of her fans were heartbroken as the news left her family, and well-wishers grieving forever. Sridevi was found dead at a hotel in Dubai where she had gone to attend a family wedding. Sridevi's death was reported to have been due to accidental drowning in a bathtub. She was 54. Remembering Sridevi on her third death anniversary, popular television actors list out their favourite film starring the first female superstar of Indian cinema: Rohit Choudhary: Sadma is my all-time favourite movie. Her performance leaves a mark on you. I have watched the film several times and can watch it again and again. Adaa Khan: I loved Sridevi's performance in Naagin and Nagina. Her portrayal was so convincing. I remember her lenses and look in the films were much talked about. Piew Jana: I loved Sridevi's dancing in Mr India and Lamhe. She used to dance from her heart and we could see that in her eyes. Rahul Sharma: I loved Lamhe. The film was shot in Rajasthan. Since I am from that state, apart from the performances and narrative, the backdrop of Rajasthan are the reasons why the film is close to my heart. Ive watched it more than 10 times. Kavitta Verma: Sridevi was one actor who had done varied roles and with every role she has done something new. I really loved her in Chalbaaz, Chandini, Lamhe and Mr India. Prashant Bajaj: She is a legend and having seen most of her films I can only say that there can be no one like her. But if I have to take a few names then I would say Lamhe because of the shades in her character and the way she convinced the audience with her performance. And the other film is Chulbully. Farnaz Shetty: Sadma, Judai, Chaalbaaz and Mom are my favourites. I have never seen such a versatile actor in my life. She would induce life to her characters giving them an identity of their own, which is why it's difficult to pick one of her best. I look up to her for her contribution to Indian Cinema. Aditi Patankar-Gupta: Sridevi was something else. Her grace and beauty were incomparable. Though I loved all her films, I was awestruck by her performance in Chandni. From her dancing to her acting in the film, everything was beyond fabulous. Sidharrth Sipani: I loved Sridevi in English Vinglish. The way she portrayed the life of a homemaker was relatable at all levels. And then her desire to learn and create an identity of her own was a big lesson not just to women but also to men. Zaan Khan: Sridevi was one of those strong actors who loved taking up challenges. Sadma was made at a very young age but the way she performed showed what a brilliant performer she is. She is the only actor who could play childlike innocence and strong woman characters with great ease. Pranitaa Pandit: It's difficult to choose one movie of Sridevi, she gave her best in all of them. However, I recently watch Mom, and I think she was just fabulous in it. Her powerful performance gave the movie the result it truly deserved. She was brilliance on screen. Nyra Banerjee: I loved Sridevi in Chaalbaaz. Anju and Manju the double role left a huge impact on me and I want to do a film like that in future. I also loved Judai too. Sridevi lights up the screen every single time. I have learnt so much by just watching her films. It has long been known that several chemicals used in plastic toys in different parts of the world can be harmful to human health. However, it is difficult for parents to figure out how to avoid plastic toys containing chemicals that may cause possible health risks to their children. Regulations and labelling schemes are different across regions and countries, and there is no international agreement on which substances should be banned from use in toy materials. For the most part, regulations and international lists of 'chemicals of concern' in toys focus on certain substance groups with known harmful properties, such as phthalates, but do not cover the wider range of chemicals found in plastic toys. Researchers from DTU and the University of Michigan together with UN Environment have looked into this important issue, analyzed data on chemical functions and amounts found in plastic toys, and quantified related children exposure and potential health risks. They ranked the chemicals according to their health risk and compared these results with existing priority substances lists from around the world. The study has been published with open access in the journal Environment International. "Out of 419 chemicals found in hard, soft and foam plastic materials used in children toys, we identified 126 substances that can potentially harm children's health either via cancer or non-cancer effects, including 31 plasticizers, 18 flame retardants, and 8 fragrances. Being harmful in our study means that for these chemicals, estimated exposure doses exceed regulatory Reference Doses (RfD) or cancer risks exceed regulatory risk thresholds (all substances in the 'red zone' of below figure). These substances should be prioritized for phase-out in toy materials and replaced with safer and more sustainable alternatives," says Peter Fantke, Professor at DTU Management and the study's principle investigator. Nicolo Aurisano, the study's first author and Peter's PhD student, explains that toy manufacturers usually do not provide any information on the chemical content in the toys, and toy composition databases are missing. Hence, the researchers had to collect and scrutinize information on chemicals contents in toy materials based on chemical test data for specific toys reported in 25 different peer-reviewed studies. Nicolo further states: "We have combined the reported chemical content in toy materials with material characteristics and toy use patterns, such as how long a child typically plays with a toy, whether it puts it into the mouth, and how many toys are found in a household per child. We used this information to estimate exposure using high-throughput mass-balance models, and compared exposure doses with doses below which there is no unacceptable risk to the children." The researchers find that children in Western countries have on average about 18 kilograms of plastic toys, which underlines the large amounts of plastic that children are surrounded by on a daily basis. Chemicals that the researchers identified to be of possible concern for children's health include, for example, widely known phthalates and brominated flame retardants but also the two plasticizers butyrate TXIB and citrate ATBC, which are used as alternatives to some regulated phthalates. "These alternatives showed indications for high non-cancer risk potentials in exposed children and should be further assessed to avoid 'regrettable substitutions', where one harmful chemical is replaced with a similarly harmful alternative. Overall, soft plastics cause higher exposure to certain harmful chemicals, and inhalation exposure dominates overall children exposure, because children potentially inhale chemicals diffusing out of all toys in the room, while usually only touching one toy at the time", Peter Fantke explains. A way toward safe use of chemicals in plastic toys Many lists exist that inform about 'chemicals of concern' across product and material applications. However, what is currently missing is any information about the levels at which the use of chemicals in the different applications would be safe and sustainable. Here, the researchers introduce a new metric to benchmark chemical contents in toy materials based on exposure and risk. Peter Fantke explains: "Since the same chemicals can be found in different concentrations across toy materials, we have estimated the 'maximum acceptable chemical content (MACC)' for all the substances reported to be found in plastic toys. Such information will enable decision-makers to develop benchmarks for various chemicals in different applications, but will also help toy companies to evaluate the amount of chemicals used for a specific function against such benchmarks." As a parent, it will continue to be difficult to avoid using plastic toys that can contain harmful chemicals, until regulators include all substances, and address exposure to toys that are produced outside Europe and imported to the European market. A good piece of advice from the researchers is hence to reduce the consumption of plastic materials in general, avoid the use of soft plastic toys, and remember to ventilate well every day your children's rooms. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. BRIDGEPORT The citys Police Department unveiled its newest weapon on Wednesday in its battle against violent crime. In 2020, the ShotSpotter detection system recorded 51,000 shots fired in 1,100 shooting incidents in the city. The city also recorded 24 homicides 21 were by gun, two by knife and one by strangulation. On Wednesday, the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agency came to the city and parked a blue van and trailer in front of the Police Department which they touted as the latest technology to help trace all these fired bullets. The van and trailer house the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a technology that can help local police trace guns used in crime scenes, according to Assistant Special Agent James Ferguson, of the ATF. And, he pointed out, its mobile so it can travel not only to crime scenes around the city but to other towns as well. The downside is the city only has it for a month, or 20 working days. The press conference announcing the technology came on the same day a suspect shot up an East Side street then led police on a chase that ended with the suspect crashing into another vehicle in Fairfield. The Police Department has its own ballistics expert, Marshall Robinson, who has matched fired bullets to guns in hundreds of cases. But Ferguson said the network can trace guns recovered in crimes as well as the casings from fired bullets. In a demonstration, another ATF agent fired a gun into a device housed in the trailer. Ferguson then showed how the gun and shell casings information would be entered into a computer in the van. At the press conference, across from the Police Department, Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia said the technology will be a tool to help make the community safer. Garcia declined to answer any questions on the specifics of its use by the department. She termed reports that she had previously cut department funding for use of the network as not accurate, but would not elaborate. States Attorney Joseph Corradino, referring to the underfunding and understaffing in the Police Department at the press conference, said the network is an example of federal authorities working with state and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime in the city. Rohingya refugees hold placards as they participate in a rally to observe World Refugee Day at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, JUne 20, 2019. Bangladeshs top diplomat asked the United States to appoint a special envoy for the issue of Myanmars ethnic Rohingya who have fled state-backed discrimination and violence in their homeland, officials in Dhaka said Wednesday. A.K. Abdul Momen, who is on an official visit to the U.S., also urged Washington to take the lead in pressing Myanmar on the repatriation of around a million Rohingya refugees sheltering in his country, Bangladeshs Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement about a phone meeting on Tuesday night between him and his new U.S. counterpart, Antony Blinken. Momen [r]ecommended that the U.S. appoint a Special Envoy on Rohingya, in order to press Myanmar to create a conducive environment for the repatriation of the displaced Rohingya to Myanmar, the ministry said about the first high-level meeting between Bangladeshi officials and officials from the Biden administration. He also [e]mphasized that the U.S. should take the lead and bring the international community together to put enough political pressure on Myanmar to create conditions for the sustainable return of the Rohingya, the ministry said. Blinken, meanwhile, tweeted about the meeting, saying the new U.S. administration wanted to strengthen ties between the two countries Good to speak with Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen and congratulate him on Bangladeshs 50th anniversary of independence. We affirmed the strong, enduring U.S.-Bangladesh relationship and look forward to working together to address challenges in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific, Blinken said. Momen also expressed his gratitude to the U.S. government for its humanitarian and political support to Bangladesh to cope with the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar. The United States has been the leading donor to the humanitarian response to the crisis in Myanmars Rakhine state and in neighboring Bangladesh, having provided nearly $1.2 billion since August 2017, when a brutal military offensive in Rakhine drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya across the border. Most of the Rohingya live in 34 refugee camps in and around southeastern Coxs Bazar district. Durable solution to refugee crisis Secretary Blinken expressed appreciation to Bangladesh for sheltering the Rohingya and said his government supported Dhakas efforts and understood fully the pressure the crisis had created on resources in the South Asian country, the Bangladeshi statement said. In late 2017, Bangladesh and Myanmar officials agreed to begin repatriating Rohingya the next year, but those efforts stalled because refugees were reluctant to return to what they said was a hostile environment in Rakhine. And three years later, Rohingya Muslims keep defying COVID-19 movement restrictions to flee Rakhine many of them for destinations in Southeast Asia so they can leave behind discrimination, police and other officials told BenarNews sister entity Radio Free Asia last month. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has time and again raised the issue of the refugees and the toll that sheltering them has taken on Bangladesh. She did so again at the United Nations General Assembly last September. More than three years have elapsed. Regrettably, not a single Rohingya could be repatriated, she told the world body in a pre-recorded speech. The problem was created by Myanmar, and its solution must be found in Myanmar. I request the international community to play a more effective role for a solution to the crisis. Blinken and Momen discussed how to arrive at a durable solution to the Rohingya refugee crisis, according to a readout from the State Department about their meeting. Blinken and Momen also discussed the political situation in Myanmar where the military toppled the elected government of leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on Feb. 1, the readout said. The U.S. Secretary of State expressed concern about the disruption in the democratic process in Myanmar, while his Bangladesh counterpart thanked Washington for imposing sanctions on some people. The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on 12 current or former military officials in Myanmar since the coup. Thanking the U.S. government for imposing sanctions on some individuals, [Momen] encouraged the U.S. government to take more stringent measures like imposing economic sanctions and withdrawing the preferential trade facilities to Myanmar, the Bangladeshi ministry said. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Im going through the sale of the property of our late father, who passed away in 2018. We have done the propertys mutation in the name of my mother, elder sister and myself (we are two siblings). My sister has moved to the UK, where she is working and residing. We have a buyer in India who has given an advance for the property and needs a power of attorney for the progress and to finalize the deal. I would appreciate your guidance on the same. Shashank As per the details provided, we understand that your mother, elder sister and you are the only legal heirs of your deceased father, who are the co-owners of the subject property and now selling the immovable property to a buyer. It is assumed that the consideration in the proposed transaction would also be divided among you all three. Since your sister is residing in the UK, she will have to give a specific power of attorney, which is required to be apostilled in the UK (a kind of attestation). The power of attorney may be granted by your sister either in favour of your mother or yourself, for the purpose of executing, admitting execution and registration of the sale deed and then at any time thereafter to present and register the sale deed and other documents relating to the sale of the subject property. Once the apostilled power of attorney is brought to India, it would require to be stamped and signed with the appropriate stamp duty as per the applicable state Stamp Act. This power of attorney will then be required to get the sale deed to be executed with the prospective buyer and registered before the concerned office of sub-registrar having the appropriate jurisdiction. Aradhana Bhansali is partner, Rajani Associates. Queries and views at mintmoney@livemint.com Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Conversations on National Security is a series of interviews with key national security experts conducted by David Trachtenberg, Vice President of the National Institute for Public Policy. An Interview with Dr. Richard L. Wagner, former Deputy Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy, and member of the Defense Science Board Q. Many observers believe the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise is in need of across-the-board modernization, with all three legs of the U.S. strategic nuclear Triad rapidly ageing out. The current U.S. modernization program, initiated by the Obama Administration and continued by the Trump Administration, involves recapitalization of the land-, sea-, and air-based elements of the nations strategic nuclear deterrent. Do you believe the current modernization program is sufficient to maintain a credible, effective deterrent for the foreseeable future? A. The current modernization program is essential but far from sufficient. Along with two other things, discussed below, an urgent program to develop and field a new and fundamentally different nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) architecture, including its integrated tactical warning and attack assessment (ITW/AA) component, is also essential. This should be treated with the same, or greater, sense of importance as the modernization of the three types of strategic platforms. Two more things would provide a more robust deterrent: increasing our ability to extend deterrence and adding qualitatively new/different capabilities to each leg of the traditional strategic triad. First, I believe that its wrong to separate so-called strategic deterrence from overall deterrence, which includes extended or regional deterrence. Crises that could involve strategic-level deterrence start in regions. Weve let our capabilities for regional deterrence atrophy, including regional nuclear capabilities/deterrence, and should rebuild them. Second, Ive come to believe, over decades, that Russia, and possibly China, have concepts of operations with nuclear weapons operations and concepts that underlie deterrence that are different from ours, including what we in the United States think of as strategic deterrence. Russia and China have had decades to figure out how to deal with, or work around, the qualitatively static characteristics of our strategic triad. We need to develop some qualitatively new characteristics for our strategic forces. The question posed is about the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise. That includes facilities and capabilities, in addition to weapon systems themselves. There are two categories: the defense industry and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) capabilities. I suspect that DoD contractors are still pretty competent, though there are special capabilities needed for nuclear weapons that may require some attention. Some years ago, there was some question about the ability to produce large solid-rocket motors. Ive lost track of the status of this, but the strategic modernization program will create further incentive to attend to it. The NNSA production complex needs much more aggressive modernization, including for emergency responsiveness starting with weapon pit manufacturing. Q. The United States last conducted an underground explosive nuclear test in 1992. Since then, nuclear test expertise and infrastructure have atrophied with increased reliance on modeling and computer simulations. How do you assess the ability of computer-based simulated nuclear tests to ensure the continued efficacy of the U.S. nuclear deterrent? Should the United States consider the resumption of explosive nuclear testing and, if so, when? At what point does the United States risk undermining the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent as a result of the continued moratorium on nuclear testing? What events should trigger a reassessment of U.S. nuclear testing policy? A. Modeling and computer simulation, and non-nuclear experiments, have always been absolutely essential for our warhead design and maintenance programs, even when we were doing nuclear tests. Over the decades when we were doing nuclear tests, we increasingly relied on steadily improving simulation and non-nuclear experiments, and less on the demonstrations afforded by nuclear tests. This was in part because the physics involved in modern designs was hard to access with the kinds of diagnostics one can do on nuclear tests, and in part because we had accumulated physics measurement data from hundreds of relevant past nuclear tests. Over the past twenty-five years weve developed a wide range of further-improved non-nuclear experimental capabilities, and our computational capabilities are, almost literally, infinitely greater. So far, though weve had to make some changes in the details of our warheads, weve been careful not to change them beyond what weve been able to have confidence in using computation, non-nuclear experiment, and reference to the measurements made on past nuclear tests/experiments. Theres even a case to be made that we can have greater confidence in the reliable performance of todays stockpile than we had in the stockpile that existed at the time we stopped doing nuclear tests. In the future, we are likely to need warheads of types that arent in todays stockpile. In the past, we conducted hundreds of nuclear tests covering a wide range of such designs. That data is available to help put such designs into the future stockpile without additional nuclear tests. One would need to provide greater design margins for some of these designs, but I believe its understood how to do that in many cases. There are certainly some areas where the physics is uncertain, but we know how to stay away from those, with one possible exception that might require a physics test to resolve over the next ten years or so. There are a few areas of the broad parameter space of getting explosive energy from fission and fusion for which we know we dont have a good database from past nuclear tests. If, in the farther future, we were to determine that we need such exotic items in the stockpile, we might have to do some nuclear tests to make the physics measurements needed. If we did have to resume testing, the improved non-nuclear experimental capabilities weve developed over the past twenty years could provide the basis for improved measurements on future nuclear tests. This all depends on having very skilled physicists, chemists, and engineers to make the necessary judgments. Todays are as capable as those who originally designed and built the stockpile, and they have much better tools. The very difficulty of the job has continued to attract very good people. And the stockpile has changed slowly enough (so far) that it has been possible for the older generations of people to validate the maturation of the new peoples judgment. What Ive written above is a fairly optimistic story. But some believe that, without an occasional test, we wont really know. In the sense that those people mean know, however, all we ever really knew after a test was that that identical object, if tested again, would (or wouldnt) work. But the types of weapons in the stockpile dont consist of absolutely identical objects; there are always manufacturing variations and differences between the operational environments and the downhole test environment. To account for those differences, we almost always relied on calculations and non-nuclear experiment, just as we do today. Having said all that, however, there may be a certain sense in which the really know argument has some merit. In my own thinking, that could mean that confidence in the reliable performance of current warheads may be degraded by some small amount below the assumed canonical one of the past, moving it closer to the somewhat lower reliability regime of the delivery platforms. But weve always had a deterrence posture that had some margin, so that small degradations in reliability didnt (and dont) threaten deterrence. And the assertion of the canonical reliability of one in the past was probably not true. Another reason we tested in the past was to understand the effects produced by nuclear explosions. During the last decades of testing, the focus was mainly on the effects on our own military systems produced by enemy explosions, rather than the effects of our own explosions on targets. At the time we stopped testing, there was some uncertainty in our understanding of these effects. Effects lie in regions of the physics and engineering that are different from those pertinent to producing the explosion. We havent done anything like the large scientific program in those regions as weve done for the weapon functioning, and nuclear tests might be required to address those. This is an area requiring more attention. Q. After the end of the Cold War, the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories shifted much of their operational focus to non-nuclear scientific pursuits. Was this shift prudent, and is it time to reevaluate the mission of the national laboratories? A. The fraction of the labs programs doing weapon work hasnt changed that much. The Science-Based Stockpile Assessment Program has been a very large program. (It ranks with the largest scientific programs ever done.) Furthermore, the other major programs at the Labs have generally been chosen with an eye to complementing and sustaining the areas of science and engineering in the weapons programs. But the labs capabilities have diminished considerably for other reasons, two of which Ill mention. First, theres a lot more red tape and bureaucratization of even the weapons programs. Forty years ago, the weapons program was almost entirely managed internally to the labs, within very broad guidance from Washington, with latitude to rapidly move resources to solve problems or take advantage of opportunities; today it has been split into dozens of sub-programs, the management of which requires negotiation and approval from Washington. This permeates to even the lower levels of the enterprise; some estimates say that the actual productivity of people at the labs is half of what it could be without the encumbrances of unnecessary compliance. The other reason, related to the first, is that the labs upper management must spend a larger fraction of their time managing a much larger number of individual projects, as well as non-programmatic compliance matters. During the 1970s, there were perhaps a half a dozen major programs at each lab, and the director himself was able to play a personal role in leading the most important few of them because there was latitude within each to do what was needed. Today, the labs have hundreds of projects, including in the weapons program, and each is more difficult to manage because of the compliance-related burden. So, the director has become mainly a business manager rather than mainly a leader of technical programs. This has resulted in a proliferation of positions with titles like deputy assistant principal associate director, and good people are doing administrative work rather than program leadership. Q. Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an Executive Order titled, Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence. The policy allows for the use of nuclear weapons by Russia under a range of circumstances, to include a conventional attack on Russia that threatens the very existence of the state; an attack against critical governmental or military sites; or reliable warning of a missile attack. Do you consider Russias current nuclear posture stabilizing or destabilizing? How should the United States respond? A. Declaratory policy is worth less than the paper its written on, unless it results in self-denial of actual capability, which seems not the case with the Russian nuclear posture. That said, the examples given seem like appropriate uses deterrence uses of nuclear weapons, although I have some concern about how extensive an attack would have to be on critical governmental or military sites. The problem is Russias more offensively oriented capabilities and threats of nuclear use for purposes of coercion, including when a possibly legitimate defensive response to an attack becomes offensive. Russias paranoia has been a problem for hundreds of years, and gave rise to the creation of an immense empire. Their paranoia (and pride) has led them to the belief that a good offense is the best defense. At the level of exchanges of intercontinental-range weapons, their posture fits reasonably within the stability framework typified by avoidance of a disabling first strike capability, although I have some marginal reservations. (There are some questions about the overall framework of this stability paradigm, especially in a tri-polar world, but I wont go into them here.) The great Russian preponderance in nuclear weapons for regional or battlefield use seems quite destabilizing, however. It allows Russia to carry out attacks at a level for which the West has limited ability to respondsomewhat analogous, at a regional level, to a strategic-level first strike. The West cant manage crises or escalation with such a large gap in the escalation ladder (to use a too-simplistic term). Q. How would you define an effectively verifiable arms control agreement? What does effective verification mean and what should the United States insist upon in arms control negotiations to ensure any agreement reached is effectively verifiable? A. Id define effective verification as the ability to observe cheating 1) at a level that would give the cheater an advantage according to some metric of stability, or deterrence, or escalation management, etc., and 2) with such observation made by means that politically allow action to be taken in response to the cheating. (The parties need not have the same metric in order for this to work, but it does require each party to agree internally, and perhaps with allies, on the metric and the nature of the means of observation.) Im a strong proponent of serious red-teaming of monitoring and verification means. An example may illustrate. Decades ago, during one of the sporadic debates about a comprehensive test ban (CTB), CTB proponents asserted that cheating could be detected with national technical means (NTM), because a nuclear test is a large engineering operation with observable signatures. The nuclear weapons labs asserted that they could carry out a relatively low-yield test at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) that could not be detected by U.S. NTM. An experiment was conducted in which U.S. NTM carefully observed the Nevada Test Site over the course of a year. (Doing this experiment in the relatively confined area of the NTS made it much easier for U.S. NTM to monitor.) During that year, the labs developed a way to do a test in which the preparations, hole-drilling, device emplacement, and methods for sophisticated diagnostic measurements would not be identified by NTM. The labs actually carried out all the necessary preparations for a test using these approaches, and they were, in fact, not detected by U.S. NTM. (At the time, the yield threshold at which seismic signals could distinguish a nuclear explosion from a chemical explosion was quite high, so seismic detection was excluded from the experiment on the grounds that it would have been inconclusive.) This experiment demonstrates what I mean by red-teaming of monitoring and verification. It cost a lot, but demonstrated a lot too. This article appeared originally at the National Institute for Public Policy. The National Institute for Public Policys Information Series is a periodic publication focusing on contemporary strategic issues affecting U.S. foreign and defense policy. It is a forum for promoting critical thinking on the evolving international security environment and how the dynamic geostrategic landscape affects U.S. national security. Contributors are recognized experts in the field of national security. The views in this Information Series are those of the author and should not be construed as official U.S. Government policy, the official policy of the National Institute for Public Policy or any of its sponsors. For additional information about this publication or other publications by the National Institute Press, contact: Editor, National Institute Press, 9302 Lee Highway, Suite 750 |Fairfax, VA 22031 | (703) 293- 9181 |www.nipp.org. For access to previous issues of the National Institute Press Information Series, please visit http://www.nipp.org/nationalinstitutepress/information-series/. National Institute Press, 2021 Last Thursday, Irans U.N. mission, which is on the thirty-fourth floor of a high-rise in midtown Manhattan, received what is known as a diplomatic note from the U.S. mission, seven blocks away. The Biden Administration, the e-mail said, was lifting restrictions imposed by the Trump Administration that had confined the movement of Iranian diplomats and their families to the mission, the United Nations, their homes, or John F. Kennedy Airport. Now, like diplomats from North Korea and Syria, Irans small staff of envoys can move anywhere within a twenty-five-mile radius around Columbus Circle. In another diplomatic note, the U.S. mission also informed the United Nations that it was rescinding President Trumps invocation last year of snapback sanctions on Iran, which was designed (but ultimately failed) to reinstate U.N. sanctions. Shortly thereafter, the State Department announced that the United States would accept an invitationif organized by the European Unionto meet Iran and the five other world powers who produced the Iran nuclear deal, in 2015, to discuss how to prevent it from collapsing altogether. Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/the Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG Applications open next month for $145 million in state grants for small hospitality businesses, with a significant change by lawmakers intended to ensure the money is more accessible to low-income and minority owners shut out from some relief last year. But assessing whether its a success will be difficult, as the legislature failed to give the Wolf administration the authority to collect data on race or ethnicity from applicants. Since the start of the pandemic a year ago, the state has rushed to deliver aid to a variety of sectors of the economy damaged by the economic ripple effects of the coronavirus. But in that haste, the earliest effort catered mostly to white business owners, a previous Spotlight PA review found. Officials have acknowledged that shortcoming and have since taken steps to fix it. A second round of funding last summer set aside half of the money for businesses owned by people of color. Now, a new COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program is giving counties the option to tap into a state network of small business lenders that focus on communities often neglected by mainstream financial institutions. The first business relief program relied on a different network of economic development groups. Now, counties can take their pick between the two, or use both. Our concern was, youll exclude the low-income, minority-owned businesses, said Chris Hudock, director of Rising Tide Community Loan Fund in the Lehigh Valley. The loan fund is one of the states Community Development Financial Institutions, some of which will now help administer the program. CDFIs have strong relationships with small and minority-owned businesses, and a deep understanding of the challenges they face in getting government assistance. Hotels, bars, restaurants, and other businesses in the hospitality industry can apply for grants from the new program. Applicants must have no more than 300 employees and a net worth of less than $15 million. Priority will go to businesses that havent yet received state or federal aid, had to close as a result of Gov. Tom Wolfs coronavirus mitigation orders, or can show a 50% loss of income after March 2020. The maximum amount available is $50,000. In the scramble for coronavirus relief, the smallest and most vulnerable businesses have often been left behind. White-owned businesses reported a 60% success rate when applying for Paycheck Protection Loans, the federal governments primary business relief program, compared with 29% for Black-owned businesses, according to a survey by a Washington consulting firm last winter. Asian, Black, and Hispanic business owners were also more likely than their white counterparts to believe they were not eligible for the program, the survey found. The gap for Pennsylvanias first relief program for small businesses, offering $61 million in low-interest loans, was just as stark. The program was announced last March, as the state scrambled to help small businesses reeling from coronavirus shutdowns as quickly as possible. Owners could only apply through state-certified, local economic development organizations. All the money was accounted for in six frantic days. Of nearly 900 applications, only 5% came from people of color. There were some areas of the state we were not getting to and the reach to diverse businesses was not as strong as we had hoped, said Carol Kilko, deputy secretary for business finance and workforce development at the Department of Community and Economic Development. The department promised to do better with a $225 million grant program last summer overseen by the CDFI network and targeted toward business owners of color, acknowledging that they face historic systemic barriers in seeking state and federal funding. Roughly half the money was set aside for them. This time, however, there is no dedicated funding for those businesses, and it may be difficult to assess how well the money reaches them. The state law that created the program doesnt give the department the authority to collect data on race or ethnicity from applicants, Kilko said. If counties choose not to collect that information, then, yes, it would be difficult for us to know, she said. The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit by the economic fallout of the pandemic. In November, 45% of restaurant operators reported that without more federal aid it was unlikely they would still be in business in six months, according to a survey by the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association. The following month, Wolf suspended indoor dining over the holidays, costing many restaurants and bars what are normally the most profitable nights of the year. At Soulcialize Catering in Lancaster, everything came to a screeching halt when the pandemic hit, said owner Corey Woods. The company, which specializes in the Southern-style food that Woods grew up eating at big family gatherings, had been in business only a few years. Things picked up over the summer, as some events moved outdoors; now, its almost back to square one, he said. Woods said he applied for a federal Paycheck Protection Loan but received $1,000 less than he had been hoping for. The most helpful aid programs, he said, are the ones that you dont have to jump through hurdles and sign your life away. Woods, who is Black, said concerns about minority business owners being left out are nothing new. You just have to have the resolve to not let it stop you from figuring out a way to get what you need, he said. Early signs indicate 13 of the states 17 CDFIs will be involved in the new program, but only in a handful of counties, including Allegheny and Philadelphia, said Daniel Betancourt, the chair of the states CDFI network. Trying to work with many more counties on a tight deadline by law, applications must open March 15 would have been a challenge, Betancourt said. We were just essentially working with the counties where we can accomplish the most impact and reach the most business owners, he said. 100% ESSENTIAL: Spotlight PA relies on funding from foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. Become a member today at spotlightpa.org/donate. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) interacts with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors on the surface of host cells via the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the viruses spike protein. The spike protein structure and its domains have been cataloged since early in the pandemic, and this information has proven vital in the development of diagnostic procedures and vaccines. However, the specific structural characteristics and the surface glycan profile are highly dependent on synthesis conditions. Those that are biotechnologically produced are likely to differ from their natural form. A research paper recently uploaded to the preprint server bioRxiv* by Dominguez-Vega et al. (23rd Feb, 2021) describes an in-depth structural analysis of the RBD of the spike protein expressed in mammalian Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells, providing a new understanding of protein structure and function. Why is this important? Recombinant spike proteins have previously been produced in full and short forms to develop neutralizing antibodies and vaccines by several routes, including by human embryonic kidney cells. When produced, however, these proteins were noted to bear differing glycan structures, which could potentially alter the way the spike protein and RBD interact with ACE2 and antibodies. Several researchers have noted that recombinantly produced spike proteins may differ based on their source, the length of protein expressed, and any post-translational modifications that may take place. Careful replication of the true spike protein is essential for effective vaccine and neutralizing antibody creation. Multilevel characterization of RBDs produced in HEK293 or CHO cells. Next to intact protein analysis using CE-MS and MALDI-ISD-MS the samples are structurally characterized by glycan dissection, glycopeptide analysis and released glycan analysis. Their functional characterization was performed by measuring their binding characteristics to ACE2 and anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. How did the RBDs differ? The group performed an in-depth structural analysis of two commercially available recombinant RBDs produced by both CHO and HEK293 cells, beginning with capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) after deglycosylation of the RBD to establish protein sequences and any difference in mass between the RBDs without regarding glycans. Those produced by both CHO and HEK293 cells were on average 119 Da larger than the protein's theoretical mass, explained by the presence of a free cysteine amino acid that becomes cysteinylated during antibody production. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization in-source-decay (MALDI-ISD) mass spectrometry, which is often used to fragment proteins into ions directly in the ion source, was performed, and it was found that HEK293 cells had more differences from the expected in the number and type of N-terminal proteins. Pyroglutamic acid forms from glutamic acid residues and 52% of the sequence was found to be affected this way. HEK293 cells have a slightly different sequence that results in additional glutamine at the N-terminus after cleavage, explaining the mass shift of 111 Da compared with CHO RBD after taking into account pyroglutamic acid formation. N-glycans and O-glycans were individually released and analyzed by CE-MS and MALDI-ISD MS. HEK293 had larger heterogeneity, and more glycans were sialylated, with many of those being di- or tri- sialylated, which affects the isoelectric point of the protein. Antibody binding assays were performed with the glycosylated and non-glycosylated RBDs against both anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies collected from patient sera and the ACE2 receptor. Both RBDs performed similarly in each case. The non-glycosylated RBDs exhibiting a halved affinity towards the ACE2 receptor, as expected from earlier reports and theorized to be due to the conformational stability provided to the RBD by glycans. The affinity of either RBD towards ACE2 was greater than that of either the full spike protein or RBD-containing subunit, most likely due to lessened steric hindrance around the binding site and thus greater access to the receptor. Overall, CHO cells were less sialylated but bore more high-antennary and LacNAc repeat structures, while HEK293 cells had higher sialylation and antenna fucosylation. Additionally, the group discovered a new O-glycosylation site that is not present in the full-form spike protein and could have implications in receptor binding. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. News Around the Republic of Mexico Near-Shoring: Will China's Loss Be Mexico's Gain? A number of factors have contributed to Mexico's current status as the United States' number-one trading partner, with $614.5 billion in two-way trade during 2019, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. maquiladoras, factories mostly located in areas close to the U.S. border, kicked off an era of vibrant manufacturing activity in Mexico in the 1960s. For years afterward, they churned out large volumes of components that could be exported to the U.S. duty-free. By the late 1990s, the maquilas were employing more than one million Mexico workers. Further spurring production in Mexico was the launch of regular double-stack train services that carried parts north for U.S. automakers. Activity slackened when U.S. companies began shifting production to China, where labor rates were cheaper and more readily available. But recent geopolitical shifts and other factors suggest that Mexico might be poised for another surge of manufacturing activity. So believes Deepak Chhugani, founder and chief executive officer of Nuvocargo, a software-centric freight forwarder and customs broker specializing in shipments between Mexico and the U.S. Thanks in part to the U.S.-China trade war, as well as the rising cost of production in China, manufacturers are beginning to turn their attention back to Mexico, he says. "For a lot of small importers [from China], the tariffs have become untenable and impossible to pass on," Chhugani says. "That has made Mexico the obvious alternative." Successful negotiation of the All of which has contributed to Mexico's current status as the For all the factors in its favor, the shift in manufacturing from Asia to Mexico isn't happening overnight. USMCA, created to make trade between the U.S. and Mexico more seamless, actually has had the opposite effect in its first year of life, Chhugani notes. "People have had to adapt to new regulations," he says, but even a few months later we can see a very positive trend." Chhugani says 2021 could be "a marquee year" for Mexican industry, as mid-sized shippers look to reshore manufacturing back to the western hemisphere. Many are likely to start with small facilities, then gradually expand their reliance on Mexican production if the experiment proves successful. No single part of the country stands to benefit above all others, with various regions specializing in certain key areas such as automotive, alcoholic beverages and agriculture. Where they probably won't go, Chhugani says, is the state of Sinaloa, which despite its traditional strength in agriculture and fishing is hindered by its reputation as a home for powerful drug cartels. In fact, justifiably or not, the drug trade has made all of Mexico a dubious place to do business in the minds of many importers and exporters. Chhugani points out that crime and corruption are present in nearly all developing countries, but says shippers can mitigate the risk of theft or violence in Mexico by knowing which routes are the safest to travel, and crossing their goods into the U.S. at the earliest possible opportunity. In any case, Chhugani says, technology in recent years has greatly improved carriers' ability to track and secure goods traveling throughout Mexico. The advent of GPS and electronic logging devices (ELDs) are among the innovations that are providing increased visibility and control of freight no matter where it happens to be. Some shippers and manufacturers have shied away from Mexico in recent years because of excessive delays in getting freight over the border. Anywhere from seven to 11 million truck loads of goods make that transit each year, Chhugani says, with 15,000 trucks crossing each day at Laredo alone. Congestion has proved to be less of a problem during the pandemic, which was responsible for a steep drop in cross-border traffic. Most of the shipments handled by Nuvocargo from Mexico to the U.S. make the transit in three to seven days, Chhugani says. Still an open question is how the Biden Administration will address trade and political relations with Mexico. President Biden is likely to take a far more conciliatory approach to immigration than his predecessor, but there's no guarantee that simmering tensions over that issue will be resolved in the short term. Nor are concerns over congestion and logistics infrastructure likely to go any time soon. Still, Chhugani pronounces himself "bullish" on the prospects of better ties between the two countries, with a resulting boost in Mexican manufacturing and cross-border trade in the coming years at the expense of China and other Asian producers. "We're very excited to help companies with the transition to near-shoring to Mexico," he says. Original article As a favored source of low-cost manufacturing for U.S. markets, Mexico seems to come and go. The formation of, factories mostly located in areas close to the U.S. border, kicked off an era of vibrant manufacturing activity in Mexico in the 1960s. For years afterward, they churned out large volumes of components that could be exported to the U.S. duty-free.By the late 1990s, thewere employing more than one million Mexico workers. Further spurring production in Mexico was the launch of regular double-stack train services that carried parts north for U.S. automakers.Activity slackened when U.S. companies began shifting production to China, where labor rates were cheaper and more readily available. But recent geopolitical shifts and other factors suggest that Mexico might be poised for another surge of manufacturing activity.So believes Deepak Chhugani, founder and chief executive officer of Nuvocargo, a software-centric freight forwarder and customs broker specializing in shipments between Mexico and the U.S. Thanks in part to the U.S.-China trade war, as well as the rising cost of production in China, manufacturers are beginning to turn their attention back to Mexico, he says."For a lot of small importers [from China], the tariffs have become untenable and impossible to pass on," Chhugani says. "That has made Mexico the obvious alternative."Successful negotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced the 25-year-old North American Freight Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was another "accelerant" of the nascent trend toward stepped-up production in Mexico, Chhugani says. Then there was the coronavirus pandemic, which temporarily shut down Chinese plants along with many of the passenger plane services required to expedite shipments from China under precisely such a scenario.All of which has contributed to Mexico's current status as the United States' number-one goods trading partner, with $614.5 billion in two-way trade during 2019, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. Top categories include machinery, vehicles, fuels and agricultural goods.For all the factors in its favor, the shift in manufacturing from Asia to Mexico isn't happening overnight. USMCA, created to make trade between the U.S. and Mexico more seamless, actually has had the opposite effect in its first year of life, Chhugani notes. "People have had to adapt to new regulations," he says, but even a few months later we can see a very positive trend."Chhugani says 2021 could be "a marquee year" for Mexican industry, as mid-sized shippers look to reshore manufacturing back to the western hemisphere. Many are likely to start with small facilities, then gradually expand their reliance on Mexican production if the experiment proves successful.No single part of the country stands to benefit above all others, with various regions specializing in certain key areas such as automotive, alcoholic beverages and agriculture.Where they probably won't go, Chhugani says, is the state of Sinaloa, which despite its traditional strength in agriculture and fishing is hindered by its reputation as a home for powerful drug cartels. In fact, justifiably or not, the drug trade has made all of Mexico a dubious place to do business in the minds of many importers and exporters.Chhugani points out that crime and corruption are present in nearly all developing countries, but says shippers can mitigate the risk of theft or violence in Mexico by knowing which routes are the safest to travel, and crossing their goods into the U.S. at the earliest possible opportunity.In any case, Chhugani says, technology in recent years has greatly improved carriers' ability to track and secure goods traveling throughout Mexico. The advent of GPS and electronic logging devices (ELDs) are among the innovations that are providing increased visibility and control of freight no matter where it happens to be.Some shippers and manufacturers have shied away from Mexico in recent years because of excessive delays in getting freight over the border. Anywhere from seven to 11 million truck loads of goods make that transit each year, Chhugani says, with 15,000 trucks crossing each day at Laredo alone.Congestion has proved to be less of a problem during the pandemic, which was responsible for a steep drop in cross-border traffic. Most of the shipments handled by Nuvocargo from Mexico to the U.S. make the transit in three to seven days, Chhugani says.Still an open question is how the Biden Administration will address trade and political relations with Mexico. President Biden is likely to take a far more conciliatory approach to immigration than his predecessor, but there's no guarantee that simmering tensions over that issue will be resolved in the short term. Nor are concerns over congestion and logistics infrastructure likely to go any time soon.Still, Chhugani pronounces himself "bullish" on the prospects of better ties between the two countries, with a resulting boost in Mexican manufacturing and cross-border trade in the coming years at the expense of China and other Asian producers. "We're very excited to help companies with the transition to near-shoring to Mexico," he says. Site Map Print this Page Email Us Top The government is open to the suggestion to include in the list of lenders that can offer services like tax and pension payments. A day after the ministry lifted an embargo on private-sector offering government-related banking transactions, officials said they were also open to including on the list. They are examining whether the capital structure of the would be sufficient to offer such services without any disruptions. On Wednesday the ministry announced that not just designated private-sector banks but all private-sector universal banks could offer taxes and other revenue payment facilities, pension payments and small savings schemes to their customers. This step is expected to further enhance customer convenience, spur competition and higher efficiency in the standards of customer services. Private sector banks, which are at the forefront of imbibing and implementing latest technology and innovation in banking, will now be equal partners in development of the Indian economy and in furthering the social sector initiatives of the government, a ministry release noted. So far, this business was mostly confined to government-run banks. In 2017, the (RBI) had announced that no financial entity other than the designated banks could offer these fee-based services. The ministry has now made it clear that there is now no bar on the RBIs authorisation of private-sector banks to offer government business. In India, state and central government entities offer a range of services for a fee that is to be paid made through bank challans. While all challans have been made paperless, the public in urban areas, more accustomed to banking with private-sector banks, now wanted the facility to be extended to these banks as well. It was nearly a year ago when Sarah Peltier began receiving calls from customers of the Simsbury Stop & Shop who were anxious about finding food. At the time, Gov. Ned Lamont had just sent the state into lockdown as the COVID-19 pandemic hit Connecticut, and grocery stores became the primary source for people to stock up. Over the past year, Peltier and other grocery employees have remained on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We dont have an opportunity to work remotely in a grocery store, she said in a phone interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. We were there through the entire thing. But they now feel slighted by Lamonts decision this week to not prioritize front-line essential workers like themselves. Instead, the state will take an age-based approach, starting Monday with those 55 to 64. School staff, teachers and child care professionals will also be prioritized in this next round. I just feel really bad that there was a light at the end of the tunnel every time we get to the light, they move it, said Jason Laviana, a meat cutter from Torrington, who said he felt disillusioned by the governors decision. Laviana, a 47-year-old Type 1 diabetic, will not be able to get the vaccine until late March. But Laviana said hes also concerned for teenage cashiers who come face-to-face with customers and will not be eligible until May. Jason Laviana / Contributed photo Were the ones that have been doing this since day one. Weve been forgotten weve been pushed to the rear, he said. At 60 years old, Tony Vernali, who heads the deli department at a Stop & Shop in Glastonbury, would be among those eligible Monday when the state opens up the vaccine to those 55 and older. But Vernali has recently recovered from the disease, so he doesnt plan to get the shot for several months. Still, maybe if I was able to get it a month ago, maybe I wouldnt have gotten sick, he said. It seems after all this time, we thought we were essential workers and were gonna get it soon its all gone away, he said. Thats a bit of a letdown. Joe Jarmie, a head meat cutter at a Stop & Shop in Madison, said it was disheartening to see grocery store employees like him become eligible for the vaccine in New York and Massachusetts while those in Connecticut have to wait. At least for Jarmie, who is 64, he wont have to wait much longer. Joe Jarmie / Contributed photo But Jarmie and Peltier said grocery employees should have been rewarded for working throughout the pandemic in this environment, where they say customers often ignore the COVID rules like one-way aisles and are sometimes reluctant to wear masks. Give them some sense of peace of mind. Thats what we were promised, Peltier said. Were the poor stepchild that isnt really invited to the table yet. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company 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. Przepraszamy! 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Inne oferty, ktore mogy byc w kregu Twoich zainteresowan: President Joe Biden raised human rights issues when he spoke to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Thursday but the White House didn't say if the two men discussed murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In their conversation, President Biden 'affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law,' the White House said in a readout of the call. 'The President told King Salman he would work to make the bilateral relationship as strong and transparent as possible. The two leaders affirmed the historic nature of the relationship and agreed to work together on mutual issues of concern and interest,' the readout noted. The White House did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's inquiry on whether Khashoggi was part of their conversation. The call came ahead of the expected release of a declassified intelligence report on the 2018 murder of the dissident journalist. The administration will name Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the man who approved Khashoggi's murder when it releases the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence - which is expected to come this week. Four U.S. officials told Reuters the forthcoming report - to which the CIA was the main contributor - assesses that the crown prince approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi. Biden told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that he's read the report. President Joe Biden raised human rights issues when he spoke to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Thursday but the White House didn't say if the two men discussed murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi A forth coming declassified intelligence report from the Biden administration will name Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the man who approved the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi White House readout of call between Biden and Saudi King Salman President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia to address the longstanding partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Together they discussed regional security, including the renewed diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and the United States to end the war in Yemen, and the U.S. commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups. The President noted positively the recent release of several Saudi-American activists and Ms. Loujain al-Hathloul from custody, and affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law. The President told King Salman he would work to make the bilateral relationship as strong and transparent as possible. The two leaders affirmed the historic nature of the relationship and agreed to work together on mutual issues of concern and interest. Advertisement A classified version of the report on Khashoggi's death was given to Congress in late 2018. But the Trump administration declined to release a declassified version. Saudi King Salman, 85, is the head of government but the crown prince, his heir, is seen as the power behind the throne. Bin Salman has denied involvement in the October 2018 murder of Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who wrote columns critical of MBS, as the crown prince as known. MBS did accept responsibility for the assassination as the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. And Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in an 'rogue' extradition operation gone wrong. Five men were given the death penalty for the journalist's murder but had their sentences commuted to 20 years in prison after being forgiven by Khashoggi's family. Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 to live in self-imposed exile. He was writing columns critical of the Saudi government - including of both King Salman and MBS - for The Washington Post when he was killed. In October 2018, Khashoggi visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, to pick up the paperwork required for his marriage to a Turkish citizen. He was never seen leaving. According to reports, while there he was drugged, killed and dismembered by a team of assassins sent in from Saudi Arabia. His remains have never been recovered. Biden's call with the king comes after the White House last week announced a recalibration of American relations with Saudi Arabia. 'We've made clear from the beginning that we're going to recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,' White House press secretary Psaki said last week. Biden's call with Saudi King Salman (center) came ahead of the release of a declassified report on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi She said part of that recalibration would include Biden speaking to the Saudi king, instead of MBS - a marked change in policy from the Trump administration. 'Part of that is going back to engagement counterpart to counterpart, the president's counterpart is King Salman and I expect that, at an appropriate time, he would have a conversation with him,' Psaki said. The Biden administration is shifting America's relationship with the Middle East country after Trump made the U.S.'s relationship with the Saudis a priority, making his first trip abroad in 2017 to Riyadh. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was close to MBS, who became next in line to the throne in June 2017 after a power struggle ousted a rival. Kushner's close relationship with him - the two were said to text and communicate via apps - raised eyebrows due to its taking place outside of diplomatic channels, Kushner's lack of foreign policy experience and MBS' reputation as a despot. The crown prince has been accused of the torture of human rights activists; the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen which has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis and famine; and the arrest of members of the Saudi royal family in November 2017 where he imprisoned several of his royal cousins in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyad. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - the three men are seen together in Riyadh in May 2017 The brutal Khashoggi killing didn't change U.S.-Saudi relations under President Trump. In Bob Woodward's book 'Fear,' the veteran Washington Post journalist wrote that Trump had said, 'I saved his a**,' about MBS. 'I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop,' Trump said. Trump saw the relationship with Saudi Arabia in dollar figures, warning lawmakers that the Saudis could go into business with Russia instead. In May 2019, Trump also bypassed Congress allowing the Saudis to buy $8 billion in arms. Trump took MBS' denial at face value, the Woodward book indicated. 'He will always say that he didn't do it. He says that to everybody, and frankly I'm happy that he says that. But he will say that to you, he will say that to Congress, and he will say that to everybody. He's never said he did it,' Trump told Woodward. Woodward asked if Trump believed that he ordered Khashoggi's killing. 'No he says he didn't do it,' the then president replied. 'He says very strongly that he didn't do it.' Trump also ignored a law passed in early 2019 that instructed his administration to give Congress an unclassified intelligence report with 'a determination and evidence with respect to the advance knowledge and role of any current or former official of Saudi Arabia ... over the directing, ordering or tampering of evidence in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.' In February of last year the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told congressional leaders it was 'unable to provide additional information ... at an unclassified level,' instead sending them a copy of the classified CIA report. In July, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe reiterated to lawmakers that he would not be releasing an unclassified report because 'the disclosure of additional details surrounding Mr. Khashoggi's murder would undermine U.S. intelligence sources and methods.' He also said, 'I have determined that there is only a marginal 'public interest' argument for this declassification.' But the Biden administration vowed to release the document. During her confirmation, Biden's nominee to head the DNI, Avril Haines, said it would happen. 'Yes, senator. Actually, we'll follow the law,' she said when asked about the report's release. In yoga classes, in downtown Washington dance clubs, in her spreadsheet of the city's newest restaurants that she and her 20-something friends frequent, Anaise Kanimba found normalcy. And anonymity. "Here in D.C., I am my authentic self," she said. "It is my home now." In Washington, she isn't the terrified orphan the world wept for in an Oscar-nominated movie. She isn't the toddler hiding from a massacre while surviving on chicken feed after her parents were slaughtered. She isn't the target of Rwandan spies hunting her famous family in Belgium. She isn't Hutu or Tutsi. She's a Georgetown University graduate, class of '15. She's a smiling face on LinkedIn, a Digital Solutions Senior Associate. Until last week, when she was thrown back into a familiar fear and terror, watching her adoptive father stand trial, accused of terrorism by the home nation where the story of his heroism unfolded. Kanimba, 29, is now speaking out loudly and emphatically as the daughter of Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the place known as the Hotel Rwanda. She is fighting for his release after an astonishing plot last year that whisked him out of his safe haven in San Antonio to Dubai, then bound and blindfolded on a private plane - according to the lawsuit she filed in December against the Greek aviation company that provided the plane - back to Kigali, where he was imprisoned and is now on trial. "There's nothing else that I could be doing right now but working to get him back," she said. "It is my destiny . . . I was brought to Washington, D.C., for some reason, and this must be it." Kanimba became known to the world in 2004 when the movie "Hotel Rwanda" rattled the Western world into understanding the enormity of the Rwandan genocide 10 years earlier. It's told through the story of Rusesabagina, the manager of a four-star hotel in the Rwandan capital ofKigali, who sheltered about 1,200 people behind the hotel's walls while at least 800,000 were massacred across the nation. Two of those killed were Kanimba's parents. Biologically, Kanimba is Rusesabagina's niece. At the endof the film, as the hotelier, his wife and son are rescued and about to be evacuated to Belgium, they find the orphaned Kanimba and her younger sister in a refugee camp and adopt them. Kanimba was just 2 years old during the war and remembers none of it. "It's a weird feeling not to have those memories," she said from her Washington home. "On the one hand, it allowed me to move forward and to live my life. But I think my parents were 28 or 29 when they were killed - my age now. I wish I could remember his face and her face." She didn't know she was adopted by the Rusesabaginas until she was 6 years old. They told her what she needed to know, but didn't cloud her childhood with the brutal stories of slaughter in the streets. She learned most of that when she was 12 and saw the movie. "I hated the movie," she said. It was the first time she had pictures in her mind of Kigali, the massacre, the brutality. She's learned more about that time since then. "I learned in the last couple of years that my dad died in the very first week or so of the genocide," she said. "My mother died four or five weeks in. And I've heard stories of how we survived, eating chicken feed when we were in hiding." This is the closest she can get to Rwanda. She's worked for nongovernmental organizations that get her on the African continent, but because of her father's continued activism in Rwanda and the enemies he's made, she wouldn't be safe visiting. The film made Rusesabagina the world's most famous Rwandan. He used his platform - nights with Hollywood stars, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, audiences yearning to understand the nation's conflict - to continue advocating for human rights and peace inside his home country and criticizing Paul Kagame, the rebel leader who became president. While Kagame became the West's darling, receiving massive amounts of aid, Rusesabagina said the president began skewing toward authoritarianism. The former hotelier became an opposition leader in exile and a thorn in Kagame's side. Then their home in Belgium was ransacked, prompting their move to the United States, Kanimba said. Her parents settled in San Antonio, where they have some Rwandan friends, and found peace and safety in a gated community. Last summer, Rusesabagina received an invitation to speak with faith leaders abroad. Kanimba and her sister helped their dad, who is 66 and recently battled cancer, find a good flight with limited layovers, good coronavirus protocols and a quick return. But after he was scheduled to land in Dubai, he never returned their texts. The next time the family heard from him was from a prison in Kigali, arrested on charges of terrorism. The Rwandan government said they had a warrant accusing him of inciting violence during a 2018 speech when he said: "The time for us has come to use any means possible to bring about change . . . It is time to attempt our last resort." Some of the armed subgroups of his followers did launch attacks on Rwandans that left several people dead. But the international community has not drawn a line directly from Rusesabagina to the violence, and has resoundingly condemned his arrest. Human Rights Watch called it an "enforced disappearance." In America, 37 members of Congress signed a letter strongly urging Kagame to free Rusesabagina. Kanimba has done much of the legwork on that campaign after it became clear last fall that President Donald Trump, while on a spree freeing political prisoners across the globe, would not help a fellow hotelier. The trial began live-streaming last week. Kanimba was horrified to see her dad - always an impeccable dresser - in such debilitated condition. "Seeing him in the pink. Prisoners in Rwanda wear pink . . . and he lost about 40 pounds," she said. "I thought: 'That's not him. That's not my father.' " The family believes their last hope is President Joe Biden. If Biden shows support for Rusesabagina, they believe Kagame will let him go. Biden hasn't spoken publicly about the situation, and Kanimba is lobbying him to do so. In the movie, Rusesabagina is shown using his smarts and connections to keep holding off the rebels. At one point, he tells them that Americans have devices to monitor their behavior. "America is watching," he tells them. Kanimba borrowed from that when she marshaled the support from American lawmakers: "He has to know Congress is watching Rwanda. America is watching." The Future Mobility District will support deployments focused on improving overall movement of people and goods to validate their role in the changing mobility ecosystem. Designed with local community input, this human-centered framework will facilitate implementation activities and commercialization of an array of cooperative options. May Mobility, a leader in autonomous vehicle (AV) technology and shuttle operations, will begin operating two 6-month non-concurrent AV shuttle services for passengers in the cities of Indianapolis and Fishers. The Indianapolis deployment is designed to increase mobility options by providing a connection from the nearby Vermont Station along IndyGO's Red Line to areas west of downtown. The fixed-route service will be open to the general public when operations begin in May 2021 and will include five Lexus RX450h vehicles equipped with May Mobility's autonomous technology alongside one wheelchair-accessible Polaris GEM shuttle. "The May Mobility team is thrilled to be partnering with the Toyota Mobility Foundation and Energy Systems Network to bring this new AV shuttle service to Indianapolis and Fishers," said Edwin Olson, co-founder and CEO of May Mobility. "Our mission is to offer safe, reliable and accessible transportation options that can seamlessly integrate with the available public and private services. And with every new deployment, we are able to expand our capabilities to better serve the riders and communities." Prior to launching its operations, May Mobility will establish its regional headquarters at the Indiana Internet of Things (IoT) Lab in Fishers. Founded in 2017, the Indiana IoT Lab is one of the nation's first to bring together various players in the growing IoT sector and contributes to making central Indiana a thriving hub of innovation, education, and networking opportunities. May Mobility will subsequently commence autonomous vehicle operations in Fishers in November 2021. We've built our community to be smart and entrepreneurial in both business and lifestyle to make way for opportunities such as this," said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness. "The partnership with ESN, Toyota Mobility Foundation, and May Mobility allows Fishers to be at the forefront of personal mobility in Indiana." Udelv, the world's leading autonomous delivery platform for last and middle mile delivery, improves living quality in cities by reducing overall traffic and carbon footprint through their highly effective and innovative Delivery Management System (DMS), comprised of an automated cargo pod (the uPod) and a cloud-based operating system, the UdelvOS. Udelv's DMS is the only true contactless delivery system in the world. Through Udelv's uPod, goods are retrieved from an individual compartment by consumers without direct contact with the vehicle's driver. Udelv will begin operations of their program in 2021 in Indianapolis with one Toyota Sienna equipped with their innovative DMS technology. "We are excited to now also deploy our platform on a Toyota Sienna in Indianapolis and allow for true contactless delivery and improved customer service levels while lowering cost and pollution in the process", says Daniel Laury, CEO of Udelv. "As we actively pursue Mobility for All through our Future Mobility District initiative, we want to continue to partner with like-minded organizations like Udelv and May Mobility who understand the importance of advancing innovation in mobility through community engagement," shared Ryan Klem, Director of Programs for the Toyota Mobility Foundation. "We are confident they are key players in helping to build the future of sustainable cities and communities. "The introduction of the Indiana Future Mobility District's first two mobility services are major steps forward for defining the initiative and validating its model for cost-effective and cooperative mobility technologies," said Matt Peak, managing director, ESN. "The integration of additive technologies into the region's existing transportation resources will continue to push central Indiana to the cutting edge of innovation and help inform deployment strategies in other regions." Additional details about the Future Mobility District initiative deployments and how to get involved will be made available in the coming months leading up to the launch of these pilots. About Toyota Mobility Foundation The Toyota Mobility Foundation was established in August 2014 to support the development of a more mobile society. The Foundation aims to support strong and equitable mobility systems. It utilizes Toyota's expertise in technology, safety, and the environment, working in collaboration with universities, government, non-profit organizations, research institutions and other organizations to address mobility issues around the world. Solutions till date have aimed at resolving urban transportation problems, expanding the utilization of multi-modal mobility and developing solutions for future generations. About Energy Systems Network ESN is an Indianapolis-based nonprofit initiative focused on the development of the advanced energy technology and transportation sectors. Over the last decade, ESN has collaborated with a range of industry, academia, and government partners to deliver sustainable energy and mobility solutions, including electric car sharing, vehicle-to-smart grid communications, mobility-as-a-service, and others. ESN's mission is to leverage its network of global thought leaders to develop integrated energy solutions to increase quality of life for today and tomorrow. The company's focus is to: reduce costs, emissions and waste; influence policy; and advance technological innovation. For more information, and to download Emerging Mobility Technologies and Trends, visit www.energysystemsnetwork.com. About IEDC The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) leads the state of Indiana's economic development efforts, helping businesses launch, grow and locate in the state. Governed by a 15-member board chaired by Governor Eric J. Holcomb, the IEDC manages many initiatives, including performance-based tax credits, workforce training grants, innovation and entrepreneurship resources, public infrastructure assistance, and talent attraction and retention efforts. For more information about the IEDC, visit www.iedc.in.gov. About May Mobility May Mobility is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology development and deployment. With more than 270,000 autonomous rides to date, May Mobility is committed to delivering safe, efficient and sustainable shuttle solutions designed to complement today's public transportation options. The company's ultimate goal is to realize a world where self-driving systems make transportation more accessible and reliable, the roads safer, and encourage better land use in order to foster more green, vibrant, and livable spaces. For more information, visit maymobility.com. About Udelv On a mission to improve people's lives, road safety and deliver a sustainable industry, Udelv is revolutionizing the logistics space with its Autonomous Delivery Vans (ADV), built specifically for last and middle mile delivery on public roads. Founded in California in late 2017 by Daniel Laury and Akshat Patel, Udelv's mission is to revolutionize delivery and shape the future of autonomous deliveries. In January 2018, Udelv successfully accomplished the first ever autonomous delivery on public roads. Udelv has since completed nearly 30,000 deliveries for multiple merchants in CA, AZ and TX and is preparing for expansion in many other states. Udelv is the leader in the last and middle mile logistics space through its proprietary delivery & access platform. Udelv's focus on autonomous vehicles paired with its uPod delivery technology enable long-range and high-capacity deliveries that are eco, business and customer friendly. For more information, visit www.udelv.com. About City of Fishers The City of Fishers is a suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana, located in Hamilton County and was named #1 Place to Live in the US by Money Magazine in 2017. Under the leadership of Mayor Scott Fadness, Fishers is known as a smart, vibrant, and entrepreneurial city through its neighborhood development, dedication to supporting high-growth companies, and innovative city processes. With a population of 91,832 (2017), Fishers is one of the fastest growing communities in Indiana and has received national accolades for entrepreneurship, livability, and safety. City branding guidelines and logos can be downloaded here. Media Contacts: Julie Ann Burandt (TMF) [email protected] Drew Tharp (ESN) [email protected] Erin Sweitzer (IEDC) 317-296-2556 or [email protected] Afaf Farah (May Mobility) 248-346-0407 or [email protected] Tobias Wessels (Udelv) [email protected] Ashley Elrod (City of Fishers, IN) - 317-903-9825 or [email protected] SOURCE Toyota Mobility Foundation 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. Former first deputy head of PrivatBank's board Volodymyr Yatsenko has been released on bail of UAH 52 million, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) told Interfax-Ukraine. "The bail has been posted for Yatsenko, previously determined by the court as an alternative measure of restraint in the form of arrest worth of UAH 52 million," the HACC reported. At the same time, the court did not specify who exactly posted the bail. As reported, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) on the night of Thursday, February 25, chose a measure of restraint in the form of detention for former first deputy head of PrivatBank Volodymyr Yatsenko, suspected of embezzling more than UAH 137 million, for two months with an alternative of paying a bail of UAH 52 million. According to media, if Yatsenko pays the bail, he must wear an electronic bracelet and not leave Dnipropetrovsk region without the permission of the investigator, the court, or a prosecutor; refrain from communicating with other suspects in the case and witnesses, and also hand in all passports in storage. As reported, on February 23, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova reported that the suspicions to three former employees from among the management of PrivatBank were reconciled of embezzlement of other people's property through abuse of office, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, on an especially large scale, and of official forgery, which led to the embezzlement of UAH 136 million. Law enforcement agencies told Interfax-Ukraine that they are talking about former head of the board Oleksandr Dubilet, former first deputy head of PrivatBank Volodymyr Yatsenko, and about Olena Bychykhina, who is indicated as the first deputy head of the board of the Ingosstrakh insurance company (Dnipro). A law enforcement source said that the suspicion was handed over to Yatsenko personally, and to Dubilet and Bychykhina by mail. Learn From the Best with 888poker's Chris Moorman's Top Beginner Poker Tips February 25, 2021 888poker It's not every day that you get the chance to learn from an online poker legend. But 888poker Ambassador Chris Moorman certainly ranks as one. Arguably the most successful online poker player in history, Moorman was the first player to reach $10 million in earnings and now sits with an eye-watering $16.6 million according to PocketFives. Discover 888poker's New Tournament Schedule 888poker's rebranded tournament schedule offers $500,000 in guarantees every week! Get Involved! Learn from the Best Chris recently took time out of his busy schedule to give 888poker players some advice on how to succeed in the world of online poker. Here are seven tips that he explains will lead to greater levels of success. 1. Strong Fundamentals Win the Money Learning some basic poker maths and having a strong grasp of the basic fundamentals will likely result in long-term profits. 2. Manage Your Bankroll Don't run the risk of going broke by taking too many big shots. Play a decent amount of lower buy-in events to help reduce variance. 3. Keep Your Emotions Under Control Make sure you are in the right frame of mind to play in order to have any chance of winning consistently. 4. Study in Detail As the author of Moorman's Book of Poker, Moorman is no stranger to studying. Read every single poker book you can get your hands on and don't be afraid to meet with poker friends to discuss poker strategy together. Related: Brush Up on Your Omaha Skills with 888poker's Vivian Saliba 5. Practice, Practice, Practice You're not going to get better overnight. Consider playing micro-stakes tournaments in order to develop good poker instincts before moving onwards and upwards. 6. Game Selection Identify opponents and games where you are likely to have an edge over your opponents. The more we know about our opponents, the more we will know how to correct play against them. 7. Play to Win! Chris says he's only ever had one goal when playing online poker tournaments - to win. Focus on your competitive spirit and give it everything you've got. Head to the 888poker website to read the advice in full from Chris Moorman! 888poker Unveils NEW Tournament Collection 888poker have released a brand new tournament schedule in the latest upgrade to their online client, with over $200,000 in seats and tickets given away to players over the next month. With shorter tournaments, more payouts and less re-entries, the schedule aims to be more friendly to recreational players. Click here to find out more! Download 888poker Put this advice into practice on 888poker today! Play in the exciting new tournaments schedule with the 888poker mobile app, available for free download on iPhone and Android devices. Follow the links below to get yours. If you don't have an 888poker account you are eligible to a free bonus as soon as you register an account to play. 888Poker bonuses vary depending on your location and range from a free $88 bonus to a 20 UK poker bonus with no deposit needed. UPDATE: The highway is fully reopened as of 8:30 a.m. Route 30 east is closed to traffic outside of Lancaster after a Thursday morning crash involving multiple vehicles, according to traffic maps. According to 511PA, the eastbound side of the highway is shut down between Eastbrook Road and Cherry Lane in Ronks. The crash took place near Eastbrook Road around 6:55 a.m. and involved two vehicles, including a school bus, according to FOX 43. The traffic map shows the crash is not far from the Dutch Wonderland amusement park and is just down the street from the Amish Village. WGAL reported but no students were on the school bus. Police told reporters that one person was hurt, and the crash was likely caused by sun glare. Mumbai: Welcoming government's guidelines for OTT (over-the-top) platforms on Thursday, film personalities Ekta Kapoor, Priyadarshan and Vikram Bhatt said there cannot be creative freedom without responsibility, while producer Pritish Nandy said there was a need to tread carefully with the regulations. Kapoor, Bhatt, Priyadarshan -- all prominent names in Bollywood as producers and directors -- said the guidelines are a "great step" by the government. Nandy and Onir had a different take, with the former saying that it was crucial for the government to not allow a "heavy hand" to fall on OTTs, while the latter criticising the move. The government on Thursday said a 'code of ethics' and three-tier grievance redressal mechanism would be applicable for OTT platforms, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, news publishers and digital media. Seeking to establish a soft touch regulatory framework, the government said OTT platforms would have to self-classify the content into five age-based categories - U (Universal), U/A 7+ (years), U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said such platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age-verification mechanisms for content classified as 'A'. Kapoor, a major Bollywood and TV producer who also runs OTT platform ALT Balaji, said the new regulations will provide a level-playing field. "Heartening to see the new guidelines that provide a level playing field for digital news media and OTT platforms. #ResponsibleFreedom," Kapoor tweeted. Nandy, who has backed the International Emmy-nominated Amazon Prime Video series "Four More Shots Please", said while grievance redressal mechanisms are fine, they rely on "very careful and circumspect actions by the authorities in power". "One mistake and the entire credibility of the mechanism can disappear. That is what we must understand and reckon with in these difficult times. Right now, it is just a beginning and the government ought to tread carefully if it wants to emerge as a global soft power," Nandy told PTI. "We are very good at what we do in India but till the foreign OTT platforms came in, we were stuck in that jejune Bollywood space. Now is the time to mature, grow and contend with the world, show everyone the creative genius of India," he added. Bhatt, who has made web shows such as 2017 horror "Gehraiyaan" and thriller franchise "Twisted", said it is only fair to inform the audience about the kind of content they are about to watch. "The government isn't saying 'do not make this.' All they're saying is, whatever you make, there should be enough information out there for the viewers to know what kind of shows they're watching," he told PTI. It is not censorship but merely a guideline to put in place a redressal system, Bhatt said. "They're asking to have an internal redressal system of three tier. Basically, they are asking us to handle our own problems and not bring it to them. I don't see a problem in what has happened today. There's no cause of concern as there's no censorship," he added. "Heri Pheri" director Priyadarshan tweeted the guidelines "respect the artistic freedom while providing an avenue for redressal of citizen grievances." Onir, known for films such as "My Brother... Nikhil" and "I Am", criticised the guidelines for not favouring content creators. "The death of cinema and good content. Stab the artist and keep everyone happy. The worst that a democracy can do to an artist is this regulation of OTT," he said. CBFC chairperson and lyricist Prasoon Joshi said responsible and accountable mechanisms will only bring in "more quality and maturity in a commercial creative industry". "Measures taken for a level playing field and empowering consumers would provide clarity for content creators of emerging platforms," Joshi tweeted. Some industry insiders tweeted their support using the hashtag #ResponsibleFreedom, previously also shared by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Javadekar. BJP MP and actor Ravi Kishan also thanked the prime minister and said "#ResponsibleFreedom was the need of the hour." Director Nila Madhab Panda, known for films like "I am Kalam" and "Kadvi Hawa", said digital media must be used responsibly. "Freedom comes with responsibility, digital media can do a lot of good if used correctly, great decision by the government, @PrakashJavdekar Sir @rsprasad sir, also giving a forum for users grievances is the correct way ahead. #ResponsibleFreedom #OTTGuidelines," Panda wrote on Twitter. Despite multiple attempts, prominent filmmakers, representatives of OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon remained unavailable for comment. The OTT censorship has been a cause of concern among filmmakers, writers and actors for some time as many believe it will curtail their creativity on the new platform, which has witnessed a boom in India in recent years. The streamers have been self-regulating their content as per Indian laws until recently but some of the shows have stirred controversy, most recently Amazon Prime Video's show "Tandav", which was accused of hurting religious sentiments. A scene in the show led to multiple FIRs on directors, actors and the India head of the platform, prompting the streamer to chop the scenes from the political drama. Other shows that have angered a section of people include Netflix's "Leila" and "A Suitable Boy" and Amazon's "Paatal Lok". NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) announced today that 26,219 complaints have been filed by nurses to hospital management about understaffing in hospitals and nursing homes during 2019 and 2020. A total of 97,715 nurse signatures appear on those complaints because multiple signatures are allowed on each complaint. That is the equivalent of almost 35.9 complaints per day, every day for 730 days. This data includes complaints from nurse members in the NYC H+H/Mayorals facilities, the backbone of care in the City. During 2019-2020 there were a total of 8,812 complaints about staffing, with 32,888 nurses signing. "Both before and during the pandemic, understaffing at our public hospitals has been severe and puts patients in jeopardy. This condition in our hospitals continues today and our nurses must care for far too many patients. It is unsafe. The communities we serve pay a price-- in lives," said NYSNA Board Member Judith Cutchin, RN, President NYSNA's NYC H+H/Mayorals Executive Council. The complaints are called 'protests of assignment' (POA) and are formal complaints given to hospital management. The large number of complaints is further proof that Albany lawmakers must pass the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act to ensure that all patients across the state get the care they need and deserve. The nurse descriptions that accompany the POAs tell a scary story of what is really going on inside New York hospitals. One nurse writes: High acuity patients, many telemetry, restraint, 2:1 observation and multiple isolations. Only 4 RN scheduled for shift. 1 RN out sick - no RN sent to relieve high ratios. Admissions from surgery as of this time. Multiple patients on bed alarms, majority of floor high fall risk who require staff to remain in bathroom. Patient safety in jeopardy. Another nurse writes: There is 1 Nurse in Triage & EMS. No Nurse in Asthma (HN covering Asthma). Two (2) Nurses per Team. Inadequate time for documentation and to provide basic & advanced critical care to patients. Lack of staff. Dangerous working conditions.Working: 10 nurses plus 1 Agency Nurse. Needed 7 more nurses. Bed Capacity: 27 Census: 38 A third nurse writes: Inadequate time for documentation and to provide basic & advanced critical care to patients. Lack of staff. Dangerous working conditions. Needed 7 more nurses. These types of stories are coming in everyday from across the state. The impending release of a two year peer-reviewed study on nurse staffing prior to the pandemic, co-authored by Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of Pennsylvania, confirms the extreme condition of nurse staffing in New York. Dr. Aiken wrote, "From our empirical results, we estimated that were all NYS hospitals staffed at the 4:1 ratio proposed in the pending legislation, more than 4,370 deaths would have been avoided just among elderly Medicare patients admitted to hospitals with common surgical and medical reasons during the 2 years of the study, and many more deaths would have been avoided if all patients who benefit from improved nurse staffing were counted." The COVID pandemic underscores that safe staffing saves lives in hospitals and nursing homes. A recent report by Attorney General Letitia James is the latest evidence that connects safe staffing and positive patient outcomes. The central finding and core recommendation of the AG's report are that poor staffing was a major factor in the high death toll in nursing homes, and that New York must enact enforceable, minimum staffing standards, or hours of care per resident. Earlier this month, the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act moved out of the State Assembly Health Committee, and is moving ahead to the Codes Committee. It must be passed this year by the New York State Legislature and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. ALBANY: DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON NEW YORK PATIENTS OR NEW YORK NURSES! For more information, go to http://www.campaignforpatientsafety.org/. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York's largest union and professional association for registered nurses. For more information, please visit our website at www.nysna.org. SOURCE New York State Nurses Association FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- VPR Brands (OTC: VPRB), a market leading innovator specializing in vaporizers and accessories for essential oils, cannabis concentrates and extracts, as well as electronic cigarettes containing nicotine and premium smoking accessories. The company has been actively working towards expanding its newly acquired Dissim Brand Lighters International distribution channels with great success. "The Dissim Brand has been the best received product we have launched to date. Dissim's novel design has been welcomed with open arms by the international tobacco community of resellers. The tobacco world is filled with long standing large distributors who carry the top brands for many years, these folks haven't seen a revolutionary lighter design in years and they are as excited as we are to have a new product with such innovative patent pending design and functionality," said Kevin Frija CEO of VPR Brands. "We are looking forward to offering all of our new color combinations as well as our new Dual Torch model which sold out in just days in our US Launch." "I have been hands on with our team setting up all of the new international distribution channels and have been very impressed with how rapidly new regions are on boarding the Dissim brand of lighters," said Dan Hoff, COO of VPR Brands. "We are excited to expand our global reach and look forward to working with our partners to promote the Dissim brand in their respective countries." Asia: The company now has Three main Distributors across China and One in Japan and Three additional sub distributors in the region. Europe: The company has already gained Six Distributors across the EU including France, Italy, Germany and Greece, as well as Denmark and Finland. Middle East: The company has a distributor in Kuwait who is a well-established tobacco distributor. Canada: The company now has a large national distributor in Canada who distributes branded tobacco accessories. United Kingdom: The company has also just received an initial order form a well-known tobacco distributor in the UK. About Dissim Dissim Lighter Brand is a premium lighter with patent pending functionality and design. The lighter, the Dissim, is the world's first soft flame lighter designed for both upright and inverted use, meaning that it can be ignited and will remain lit at any angle. It was also selected as one of Kickstarter's "Projects We Love." www.Dissim.com About VPR Brands, LP: VPR Brands is a technology company, which develops consumer and business products based on the newest cutting-edge technologies and whose assets include issued a U.S. patent for atomization related products including technology for medical marijuana vaporizers and electronic cigarette products and components. The company is also engaged in product development for the vapor or vaping market, including e-liquids, vaporizers and electronic cigarettes (also known as e-cigarettes) which are devices which deliver nicotine and or cannabis through atomization or vaping, and without smoke and other chemical constituents typically found in traditional products. For more information about VPR Brands, please visit the company on the web at www.VPRBrands.com. Forward-looking statements: This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions, and other factors discussed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. The company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. Contact: [email protected] +1 (954) 715-7001 SOURCE VPR Brands, LP Related Links http://vprbrands.com BERLIN - A German man has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing information on properties used by the German parliament to Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said Thursday. FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 31, 2020 file photo, crowd control barriers are placed in front of the Reichstag building, home of the German federal parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany. A German man has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing information on properties used by the German parliament to Russian military intelligence.(AP Photo/Michael Sohn) BERLIN - A German man has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing information on properties used by the German parliament to Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said Thursday. The suspect, identified only as Jens F. in line with German privacy rules, worked for a company that had been repeatedly contracted to check portable electrical appliances by the Bundestag, or the lower house of parliament, federal prosecutors said in a statement. As a result of that, he had access to PDF files with floor plans of the properties involved. The Bundestag is based in the Reichstag building, a Berlin landmark, but also uses several other sites. Prosecutors said, at some point before early September 2017, the suspect "decided of his own accord" to give information on the properties to Russian intelligence. They said he sent the PDF files to an employee of the Russian Embassy in Berlin who was an officer with Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. They didn't specify how his activities came to light. The charges against the suspect, who is not in custody, were filed at a Berlin court on Feb. 12. The court will have to decide whether to go ahead with a trial. Relations between Germany and Russia have been buffeted by a growing list of issues in recent years. In October, the European Union imposed sanctions on two Russian officials and part of the GRU agency over a cyberattack against the German parliament in 2015. In addition, a Russian man accused of killing a Georgian man in broad daylight in downtown Berlin on Moscows orders in 2019 is on trial in Berlin. And last year's poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was flown to Germany for treatment and then arrested immediately after he returned to Russia, has added another layer of tensions. Fox News anchor Dana Perino has broken down in tears following an interview with an Illinois woman whose 18-month-old son was shot dead by her estranged husband. The heart-wrenching interview was conducted by Perino, 48, during Thursday's edition of America's Newsroom. Perino was discussing Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker's recent decision to end cash bail for pretrial detainees, before she conducted a remote interview with Cassandra Tanner Miller. Cassandra told Perino that, in September 2019, her estranged husband, Christopher Michael Miller, broke into her home in Joliet, Illinois while he was out on an 'I-bond' while awaiting trial on three counts of aggravated felony battery. 'For those that don't know what an I-bond is, it's a no cash bail bond,' Cassandra explained. Cassandra then horrifically recounted how she was brutally beaten by Christopher before he pulled out a gun and fatally shot their 18-month-old son ten times before turning the gun on himself. Fox News anchor Dana Perino has broken down in tears following an interview with an Illinois woman whose 18-month-old son was shot dead by her estranged husband Back in September 19, 18-month-old Colton Miller was shot dead by his father Christopher, who was out on an 'I-bond' at the time while awaiting a court appearance On that fateful day, Cassandra was at home with baby Colton and her older child, nine-year-old daughter, Camryn. 'I went into my kitchen and my estranged husband was standing at my back door,' Cassandra began. 'He said "Are you all ready to die?" He began punching me, beating me, strangling me over and over again,' she stated. 'I yelled to my daughter to go get my son and don't stop for anything, but my estranged husband dragged me in front of the stairs [to the second floor] blocking any exit they would have had. 'After he thought he killed me, he walked up the stairs pulled out a gun and asked my daughter if she was having fun yet.' Cassandra went on to explained that her estranged spouse Christopher then shot Colton dead, before he attacked young Camryn and tried to throw her over a second floor railing. At that point, Cassandra was able to crawl up the stairs and distract her husband, allowing her daughter to escape. Christopher subsequently turned the gun on himself. Cassandra told Perino that, in September 2019, her estranged husband, Christopher Michael Miller, broke into her home in Joliet, Illinois while he was out on an 'I-bond' while awaiting trial on three counts of aggravated felony battery. Cassandra and Christopher are pictured in happier times Christopher killed his son, Colton, as he napped in an upstairs bedroom. The father and son are pictured together Cassandra was brutally beaten by her estranged husband. She is pictured with injuries she sustained after the September 2019 tragedy Cassandra has now become an outspoken opponent of eliminating cash bail, and met with Gov Pritzker urging him not to push through the legislation - which he eventually did this week. 'He absolutely let me down. I made a plea to him prior to him signing this bill and to hold off and to actually think about victims,' Cassandra stated. 'He completely failed the entire domestic violence community,' she added. The harrowing story was too much for Perino to take, and her composure cracked after she ended the interview. 'I don't think I've ever cried on TV. That was really hard,' Perino sobbed to Fox News colleague Trace Gallagher as she crossed to him at the conclusion of her program. The harrowing story was too much for Perino to take, and her composure cracked after she ended the interview 'I don't think I've ever cried on TV. That was really hard,' Perino sobbed to Fox News colleague Trace Gallagher as she crossed to him as she concluded her program 'Her story is replicated [everywhere]', Perino stated. 'I understand that there is concern that cash bail has hurt segments of the population. There is concern that minorities are hurt more. But we have to think about these victims,' she implored. On Monday, Illinois' Democratic Governor Pritzker signed sweeping reforms making Illinois the first state to end cash bail. Some claim cash bail disproportionately effects people of color, as they are less likely to have access to money to post bond. The law will not come into effect for several years but it has been slammed by Republicans and law enforcement officials . 'The governor is willfully undermining public safety - endangering citizens, emboldening criminals,' Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said Hernandez spoke before the countrys legislature and when asked about the documents filled by the US prosecutors suggesting that the president himself was under investigation, he expressed that a person in collusion with drug trafficking would not have approved the extradition of alleged drug dealers or the purging of the National Police, referring to this and other measures against transnational crime in Honduras. The president remarked that the drug lords found the magic key to go unpunished by surrendering, negotiating and accusing the Honduras officials that captured, extradited and put them behind bars." He also said that he is hopeful that "the next government will continue the battle against transnational crime, for the peace and tranquility of Hondurans, and be willing to build on what Honduras has achieved, because then the country can definitely win the war against criminals, gangs and drug trafficking". Since Juan Orlando Hernandez presided over the National Congress, the foundations to fight against drug trafficking began to be laid. President Hernandez pointed out that it is necessary to remind the country how things were a decade ago and how Honduras was about to become a failed state. "Less than fifteen years ago, the US embassy in Honduras said that the government at that time was so closely linked to organized crime that close cooperation between the forces of order was impossible," said the president. In addition, he stated that drug cartels and gangs operated with impunity, and if they ever went to jail, it didn't matter because they controlled the prison system. Hernandez also recalled that less than ten years ago Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world and extradition did not exist, because it was not allowed by the Constitution. "The National Police was corrupted and penetrated by organized crime, to such a degree that, according to confessed drug traffickers, they associated with senior police officials to assassinate the head of the anti-drug unit," he said. Hernandez affirmed that the situation in 2010, when he assumed the presidency of the National Congress, was difficult. However, the legislature passed a series of eight security laws that were hated and feared by drug traffickers. He stressed that laws were passed to confiscate the assets of organized crime, making it clear that the control of the confiscation of assets would be in the hands of the Public Ministry and the Judiciary, independent State Powers and institutions in this Central American country. From that point of view, he indicated that anyone could see "who is who", because no one linked to drug trafficking or intimidated by drug lords would ever fight to confiscate the assets of criminals. President Hernandez added that Honduras has extradited 24 people charged and requested by the United States; of those, 15 turned themselves in directly to negotiate with the DEA, and five have been captured by the Honduran authorities. Source: https://presidencia.gob.hn/index.php/gob/el-presidente/9044-presidente-juan-orlando-hernandez-ante-el-congreso-nacional-una-persona-coludida-con-el-narcotrafico-no-habria-aprobado-la-extradicion-ni-la-depuracion-de-la-policia SOURCE Government of the Republic of Honduras A SUSPECTED hitman 'living under the radar' in rural Longford was in garda custody last night, being questioned about threatening to kill a terrified man he claimed owed him a drugs debt. The 43-year-old criminal was detained at Longford Garda Station after the Garda Armed Support Unit and local detectives were involved in a major arrest operation at the suspect's home in Edgeworthstown yesterday. Senior sources said the arrested man is an "extremely dangerous criminal" who has been imprisoned in his native Lithuania for murder. Local gardai have been working with Interpol as part of their investigation. Read More The suspect served eight years for the charge of "intentional murder" and was also given a sentence of two-and-a-half years in relation to a serious assault in Lithuania. He relocated to England but was deported from the UK in 2015 after police there became aware of his dangerous background and convictions after he was arrested for handling stolen property. It is not known when he moved to Ireland, but sources say he had been living "under the radar" in rural Longford. "Longford gardai were notified of this incident on Monday and the allegation is that this man threatened to kill the victim around a fortnight ago at a property in Longford in which the victim was also seriously assaulted and threatened with a firearm," a source said. Local officers acted quickly and the suspect was arrested within hours of detectives receiving the information. It has emerged that the male victim, who is also a foreign national, allegedly bought a small quantity of drugs from the convicted killer - who then demanded he pay over 10 times the value of the drugs. When the criminal was not paid the cash, he called to the victim's home and allegedly beat him up, threatened to kill him and pulled a gun on him. "He told him he had 24 hours to pay or he was dead," a source said. When gardai raided the suspect's home yesterday, they discovered three imitation firearms - including one which is suspected of being used in the crime. Officers also recovered a small amount of cannabis and suspected amphetamine paste during their searches. Read More It has been a busy week for Longford gardai, who seized 22,500 in cash and jewellery during a search on Monday evening as part of a separate investigation into a local organised crime gang. "During the course of the search gardai seized 7,500 in cash and a number of pieces of high-end jewellery - including two Rolex watches, and gold jewellery with an estimated value of 15,000 - were also seized," a garda spokeswoman said. A woman aged in her late 40s was arrested and was later released without charge. A file is being prepared for the DPP. LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.Camping World Holdings, Inc. (Camping World), Americas Recreation Dealer, today announced the launch of multi-language initiatives intended to ignite domestic and international expansion. Initiatives should result in enhancements to its consumer facing platforms including but not limited to ecommerce, instore consumer messaging, RV rental/peer to peer consumer network, digital and social media activities, consumer shows and publications, and call centers. We continue to hear and see changes in the American and International consumer, said Marcus Lemonis, CEO and Chairman of Camping World Holdings. As the industry leader, we have a responsibility to ensure the shopping and buying experience for recreational products is seamless regardless of the consumers language. Phase 1 of the program is expected to launch with the Spanish conversion later this summer. Phase 2, planned for late summer 2021, initiates the French language conversion which addresses the companys desire for expansion of its ecommerce and store footprint in Canada to complement the tens of thousands of long time Good Sam Members and Good Sam Partner Parks. Camping World Holdings, the nations largest network of RV and outdoor lifestyle centric locations, currently owns and operates over 170 SuperCenters nationwide and a comprehensive e-commerce platform, specializing in RV sales and service, RV parts and accessories, outdoor lifestyle products, and its entire portfolio of Good Sam products and services. The Company expects to continue to expand and evolve its digital offerings through initiatives that better serve its customers' outdoor, RV and camping needs. Camping World is always looking for seasoned and professional RV sales associates, technicians, and retail support to assist with locations across the country. Individuals interested in applying for a position may visit http://www.campingworldcareers.com/. About Camping World Holdings, Inc. Camping World Holdings, headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois, is Americas leading recreational vehicle and outdoor retailer, offering an extensive assortment of recreational vehicles for sale, RV and camping gear, RV maintenance and repair, other outdoor and active sports products, and the industrys broadest and deepest range of services, protection plans, products and resources. Since the Company's founding in 1966, Camping World has grown to become one of the most well-known destinations for everything RV, with more than 170 locations in 38 states and a comprehensive e-commerce platform. For more information, visit www.CampingWorld.com. It has been a month since Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas called for presidential and legislative elections in Palestine for the first time in 15 years. The announcement was made just days before US President Joe Biden was sworn into office and was seen by observers as a PR move signalling the Palestinian presidents relevance and readiness to engage in democratic reforms. But the tepid conversations that followed reflected the disillusionment of Palestinians in any elections held under the Israeli occupation and the complicated mechanisms of partial self-autonomy, a reality that set the stage for inter-Palestinian divisions and conflict between the two major factions, Fatah and Hamas, after the last elections in 2006. However, rumours that Marwan Al-Barghouti, a Palestinian leader serving five life sentences in Israeli prison, is mulling over standing for the presidency has revived interest in the elections. The 61-year-old has spent the past 19 years in prison a third of his life where his public profile has acquired a legendary status as he has continued to be politically engaged from behind bars. A former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), perceived leader of Fatahs armed wing in the West Bank, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the second Intifada and an elected member of Fatahs Central Committee, Al-Barghouti was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in 2002 and sentenced to five life terms and 40 years in prison in 2004. While no statement has been issued from his office or through his wife Fadwa revealing his intentions, sources close to Al-Barghouti have confirmed his decision to seek office. According to senior Fatah official Hatem Abdel-Qader, Al-Barghouti is planning to run for Palestinian president from an Israeli prison. Abdel-Qader, who is close to Al-Barghouti and communicates with him through his lawyer, said that his nomination had the support of many in both the ruling Fatah faction and among the Palestinian public. He cited Al-Barghoutis soaring popularity in recent opinion polls, which have placed him ahead of other Palestinian leaders. In a December 2020 poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, 61 per cent of Palestinians said they would vote for Al-Barghouti if he ran for president against Hamas leader Ismail Haniyyah, while 37 per cent said they would vote for the latter. If an election saw competition between Abbas and Haniyyah however, the former would get 43 per cent while the latter would get 50 per cent of the vote. At 85 and in ill health, Abbas is in his 16th year of his four-year term in office since 2005, which expired in 2009. Both his term and the PA body he chairs were presented as temporary and transitional until the two-state solution was realised and a Palestinian state was born out of the Oslo Peace Process that produced the roadmap. But the 2006 general elections, which saw a win for the Islamic resistance group Hamas, was rejected by Abbas and his Fatah faction, as well as by Israel, the United States and international community, and it led to a power struggle between the two Palestinian factions and Hamass eventual seizure of Gaza in 2007. The inter-Palestinian conflict and Israels illegal settlement expansion in the Occupied Territories that prevailed in the following years left no room for elections or for progress in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which stalled and finally pushed the Oslo Process to oblivion. Abbas signed a decree on 15 January setting the Palestinian legislative elections for 22 May and a presidential vote for 31 July. According to Abdel-Qader, Al-Barghouti has no intention of running in the May legislative elections, which means that if he does not contest the presidential vote, he will not be part of the elections at all. However, all the odds of the complex reality of the Palestinian question are against Al-Barghoutis bid. They begin with Abbass expected insistence to run again, in which case Al-Barghouti, a Fatah loyalist, will not compete against him. On the logistical level, as a prisoner of Israel he cannot stand as a candidate without Israels approval, which is unlikely. Al-Barghouti was born in the West Bank village of Kobar in 1959. He joined Fatah at the age of 15 and was arrested by the Israelis for the first time in 1976 when he was 17. In 1978, he was detained for five years for joining a militant group, a jail sentence that helped him become fluent in Hebrew. In 1987, Israel accused him of incitement during the first Intifada, and he was exiled to Jordan for seven years. Upon his return in 1994, he resumed political activity in Fatahs ranks and was elected a member of its revolutionary council and then its West Bank secretary. In 1996, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. However, having engaged in aspects of the Peace Process, Al-Barghouti became disillusioned and shifted his activism to the second Intifada. After having failed to assassinate him, Israel arrested Al-Barghouti in 2002 and accused him of founding and leading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a coalition of armed resistance groups in the West Bank, and of two counts of murder. He was interrogated and tortured for 100 days, followed by 1,000 days of solitary confinement and was sentenced to five life terms and 40 years in 2004. He continued to be politically engaged, and in 2006 released the Prisoners Document for National Conciliation, which was signed by all the Palestinian factions, paving the way for the 2007 Mecca Agreement between Fatah and Hamas to end the confrontation. In 2009, Al-Barghouti obtained a PhD in political science and continued as an elected member of Fatahs Central Committee. In 2017, he led a 42-day freedom and dignity hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, with the participation of 1,500 prisoners, the largest in Palestinian history. Ironically, the deadlocked Palestinian scene, exacerbated by the 2020 peace agreements between Israel and the Gulf Arab states, the former US administration of Donald Trump snubbing Abbas and its recognition in 2017 of contested Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, is full of hope that the imprisoned Al-Barghouti can be a presidential candidate. Hussein Al-Sheikh, a Palestinian official on Fatahs Central Committee, reportedly visited Al-Barhgouti on 11 February to dissuade him from the bid and to invite him instead to run for the partys electoral list in the May legislative elections. The news triggered a number of Palestinian public figures and intellectuals, including Elias Khoury, Michel Kilo and Fatah officials, to issue a widely circulated statement on 20 February in solidarity with Al-Barghouti. For a long time, the Palestinians have missed having a reference leadership, the statement said, proclaiming that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) had been marginalised, and the Fatah faction had become a ruling party, or the presidents party. Meanwhile, the president, a reference to Abbas, had assumed all executive, legislative and judicial powers. Palestine today needs a moral and political Intifada, in order to revive the liberation movement and resist the Israeli occupation. But real change, said the statement, could only begin through a political shock from the leadership itself. The figure of Al-Barghouti, who has languished in Israeli prisons for 18 years, possesses the suitable personal qualities required of a leader, the statement said. It is our hope that he runs in the presidential elections. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Ghana is not ready to legalise the use of motorcycles for commercial purposes, popularly referred to as okada, the Minister designate for Transport, Mr Kweku Ofori Asiamah, has said. He said contrary to reports that his ministry had engaged stakeholders to legalise Okada in the country, what the ministry did was engage in consultations to determine whether to legalise it or not. He said after the consultations, it had become clear that the country was not ready to legalise the okada trade. Appearing before Parliaments Appointments Committee, he said: I never said that we were leading a stakeholder consultation to legalise Okada. I said we were having consultations to come to a determination whether we are going to legalise it or not, and as the condition pertains today, we will not be able to legalise okada. We have a problem of enforcement, and based on the issues on the ground, it will be difficult for me to lead the legalisation of Okada. If the conditions in terms of traffic management and enforcement of regulations change in the near future and become conducive to legalise okada, we will do that. As I sit here, and knowing that enforcement is an issue in this country, I cannot. In 2010, the people who died out of motorcycle accidents were 210, but in 2020, out of the 2,500 people who died from road accidents, 1,050 were as a result of motorcycles, he explained. Training pilots at Ho Airport Mr Asiamah also noted that the government was in discussions with some investors to explore the possibility of using the Ho Airport as a base to train pilots. He said the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State and President of the Asogli Traditional Area, Togbe Afede XIV, had already brought some investors forward and the government would be looking at how to explore that opportunity. The Ho Airport is positioned in a way that we can use the place to train pilots, so the government is partnering the private sector to use it as a place of training pilots, he stated. Responding to a question on when the airport would finally be opened for commercial purposes, the Minister designate said AWA had notified the ministry that it would commence operations to Ho by June this year. The Ghana Airport Company Limited completed the construction in December 2018, and in 2019 we informed the operators, Passion Air and AWA, that the airport was ready for them to start their commercial operations. According to the brief, they also asked us to give them some time in order to do their own assessment to see if they could fly to Ho. Then this COVID-19 came in. But AWA has approached us, saying that by June, they will commence commercial operations to Ho, he stated. GPHA still holds 30 per cent share in MPS Mr Asiamah said the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority still held 30 per cent shares in the Meridian Port Services agreement, which was signed for the development and operationalisation of a multi-purpose container terminal at the Tema Port. In 2004 when the agreement was signed, the GPHA had 30 per cent and the rest of the partners had 70 per cent. In 2012, a further amendment to the contract to execute Terminal Three. The GPHA was supposed to advance some money as part of its counterpart funding, which it couldnt pay. So the agreement by the shareholders was that if they didnt have the money, then the other shareholders will pay, then dilute their shares. When we came to power in 2017, the matter came to the attention of the government and we met the shareholders and informed them that instead of diluting our shares, they should advance us part of our counterpart funding for future dividends, so we have been able to restore our 30 per cent back, he explained. Boankra Inland Port The Minister designate also said work on the Boankra Inland Port, which has been in the books of the country for over 18 years now, would finally commence in March. I havent received any news from the concessionaire that they are facing any challenges as far as the project is concerned. They have told me that they will start the project at the end of March. The construction was supposed to start by April this year, but the information I have is that they have finished the financial closure and think they can start construction by March, he stated. He said the project was in three phases, with the first phase expected to cost $120 million. The second and the third phases are expected to cost $180 million and $300 million, respectively. GACL only rented space to Frontiers Mr Asiamah also pointed out that the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), which operates the Kotoka International Airport, only rented its space to Frontiers Healthcare Services to conduct COVID-19 tests. That, he noted, was done after receiving confirmation from the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) about the certification of equipment to be used by Frontiers Healthcare Services. The GACL did not rely on the bare word of Frontiers Healthcare. It sought to verify and confirm the due certification of the equipment of Frontiers Healthcare. On 20th August, 2020, the MD of GACL wrote to the FDA to confirm the certification of Frontiers Healthcare, he stated. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The government on Thursday unveiled sweeping rules aimed at giving it greater control over large social media and messaging firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, digital news websites and video-streaming platforms. The new rules are likely to have far-reaching implications for digital media and follow a clash with Twitter over the farmers protest. The rules, called the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, were described as soft-touch regulatory architecture" by the government. View Full Image Slippery slope They require big social media companies to take down unlawful content within a specific time-frame after being served either a court order or a notice by an appropriate government agency. In addition, significant social media intermediaries" will be required to identify the first originator" of mischievous content" on messaging apps, a move that may spark fears of state surveillance. According to the rules, social media platforms have been divided on the basis of the number of users. Smaller platforms are social media intermediaries, while the big ones have been classed as significant social media intermediaries. The government is yet to notify the threshold of user-base to distinguish between these two. Significant social media intermediaries will have to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person who will coordinate with law enforcement agencies and a resident grievance officer. All three have to be residents of India. The government welcomes criticism and the right to dissent. Social media has been used to ask questions, but it is important that users must also be given a proper forum for resolution of grievances in a time-bound manner against the abuse and misuse of social media," information and technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters. He said social media platforms amassed significant numbers of users in India. They include WhatsApp (530 million), YouTube (448 million), Facebook (410 million), Instagram (210 million) and Twitter (17.5 million). These big platforms will have to publish a monthly compliance report with details of complaints received and action taken. The details of rules like these matter and we will carefully study the new rules that were just published. We will continue to work to ensure that our platforms play an enabling role in fuelling the exciting digital transformation of India, said a Facebook spokesperson. Spokespeople for Twitter and Google declined to comment. The rules also state that users who want to verify their accounts voluntarily should be provided with an appropriate mechanism. Significant social media intermediaries will have to provide prior intimation to users before removing or disabling access to any information shared by them. Importantly, upon receiving a court order, the rules restrict big intermediaries from hosting or publishing any information that is prohibited under the law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India; security of the state public order, friendly relations with foreign states; decency or morality; in relation to contempt of court; defamation; incitement to an offence relating to the above Gurshabad Grover, senior policy officer at Centre for Internet and Society, welcomed the attempt to bring accountability through grievance redressal. He added, Legally speaking, certain points in the guidelines amount to a significant obligation that is not foreseeable from the text of the law itself. Going into the invasion of privacy (through tracing of the first originator) and defining types of intermediaries (two kinds of social media intermediaries) should be done through law and not through delegated legislation. At its worst, this can be seen as an attempt to bypass the Parliament." The government also tightened its control over digital news media and OTT (over-the-top) video streaming platforms through a three-tier mechanism. While the first two tiers bring in place a system of self-regulation by the platform and by the self-regulatory bodies of content publishers, the third calls for an oversight mechanism by the central government. The idea is to create a level-playing field for all media since print and television already worked under certain restrictions," information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said. The government had asked OTT platforms to come up with a code of self-regulation several times but the last draft of the code allowed for no third-party intervention. While freedom of the press is absolute", it comes with responsibility, Javadekar added. Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe the norms of journalistic conduct of the Press Council of India and the programme code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act. According to the new rules, the digital website or content publisher will have to appoint a grievance redressal officer based in India who will have to act upon the complaint within 15 days. The second tier will comprise the self-regulatory body of the news publisher or streaming platforms headed by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge or an eminent person. Third, and most importantly, the I&B ministry will establish an inter-departmental committee for hearing grievances. Instead of pre-censorship, platform owners will have to classify their content according to different age groups: U" or universal rating, and others for 7+, 13+, 16+ and 18+ age groups. These guidelines are on expected lines and are really quite mild compared to the kind of pre-censorship of content many were fearing," said a senior executive at a streaming platform. The rules, the person said, have stemmed from the industrys failure to formulate a code of self-regulation that would satisfy the government. However, he said, OTT platforms will have developed these classifications for India as they do not exist in other countries. Platforms would also be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as A". Karan Taurani, an analyst at Elara Capital Ltd, said the move will lead to a consolidation in the OTT industry or shutdown of niche apps that rely on adult content but will augur well for large global giants and broadcaster-led OTTs,. Netflix, ZEE5, Shemaroo, Hoichoi and ALTBalaji declined to comment. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV, Eros Now, VOOT, MX Player and Lionsgate Play did not respond to Mints queries. The courts will need to be involved in the interpretation of some aspects of the new rules, said Chandrima Mitra, a partner at DSK Legal. There are various categories of ratings now, which may become more cumbersome for the content creator as well as the platform." Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The Fox 5 station in Washington, DC, has suspended a news anchor who tweeted his annoyance that obese Americans have been getting the vaccine early before being slammed for his comments and a backhanded apology on Twitter. Blake McCoy, who is the co-anchor for Fox 5's evening broadcasts, made the remarks on Tuesday afternoon. 'I'm annoyed obese people of all ages get priority vaccine access before all essential workers,' he tweeted. 'When most stayed home, we went into work everyday last March, April, May and everyday since putting ourselves & loved ones at risk. Vaccinate all essential workers. Then obese.' He later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, saying: 'Earlier today I Tweeted something insensitive and offensive. I truly regret my words and want to apologize. I have deleted my tweet and ask that you accept my sincere apology.' The Fox 5 station in Washington, DC, has suspended news anchor Blake McCoy (pictured) who tweeted his annoyance that obese Americans have been getting the vaccine early before being slammed for his comments and a backhanded apology on Twitter 'I'm annoyed obese people of all ages get priority vaccine access before all essential workers,' he tweeted (above) He later deleted the tweet and issued an apology (pictured), saying: 'Earlier today I Tweeted something insensitive and offensive. I truly regret my words and want to apologize. I have deleted my tweet and ask that you accept my sincere apology' But his remarks were met with swift criticism as several people slammed him for his 'disgusting tweet' and 'hollow' apology But his remarks were met with swift criticism as several people slammed him for his 'disgusting tweet' and 'hollow' apology. DC-based journalist, Chris Weidner, tweeted that the 'shameful anchor' should be fired 'for his disgusting tweet regarding who should receive COVID vaccines. His apology rings hollow!' 'And as a fellow DC gay man, he should be even more ashamed of himself for this. Blake, which comorbities are Ok?' Weidner wrote. One Twitter user wrote that she's a plus-sized healthcare worker who was 'pretty saddened to see that tweet'. 'Everyone is waiting their turn and I waited for mine as a healthcare worker. There shouldn't be any hierarchy on compassion,' she added. Another user shared: 'My sister suffers from a number of mental health issues which in turn has caused her to deal with obesity her entire life. She is also a healthcare worker and is continuing her career in caring for people. To say that her life is less valuable than yours was truly despicable.' b 'The fact that you see essential workers as some universally thin horde also says something about how much time you've spent actually perceiving essential workers. Yikes, man. Can't find a mindset with a tweet' 'What are you sorry for and how will you work to shift your perspective in a meaningful way?' one person questioned while a Twitter user responded: 'THANK YOU. There really isn't even an apology in his tweet' 'I've struggled with weight my entire life and used to be on the brink of suicide from being judged and shamed by people just like you. I USED to respect you... LEARN SOMETHING FROM THIS!' one man wrote. 'The fact that you see essential workers as some universally thin horde also says something about how much time you've spent actually perceiving essential workers. Yikes, man. Can't find a mindset with a tweet,' a third wrote shortly after McCoy issued his apology. On a discussion thread, a user questioned: 'What are you sorry for and how will you work to shift your perspective in a meaningful way?' In response, another user wrote: 'THANK YOU. There really isn't even an apology in his tweet.' To make matters worse, McCoy responded to a user who tweeted: 'I am a huge fan of yours, Blake, but Tweets like this only serve to divide people. I know that is not your intention. 'Youre right,' McCoy said. 'I deleted because, frankly, who has the time to argue with strangers on the internet.' That comment prompted Weidner to once again slam McCoy, saying: 'His apology is empty.' In addition, LGBTQ Nation reported that McCoy was working from home during the early days of the pandemic. A spokesperson for the station, WTTG, said McCoy has been 'suspended pending further review'. New Delhi, Feb 25 : After the AAP-led Delhi government accused the Union Home Ministry of reducing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's security on Thursday, the Delhi Police denied the claim and said Z-plus security is maintained. The office of Delhi Chief Minister had claimed that commandos Gagan Deep Yadav, Jitendra, Jitu Mani and Ankur Singh deployed for Kejriwal's securities were removed and the security reduced to only two. In its response, the Delhi Police said, "Gagandeep Yadav, Jitendra, Jitu Mani and Ankur Singh were replaced by four other security personnel - Naresh, Vinod, Ankush, Shivraj due to administrative reasons." A senior Delhi police official has earlier told IANS that Kejriwal's security had been relaxed. "We have not reduced the security of Delhi CM. In fact taking into account his movements, roadshows and election time, the Z plus security has been strengthened." This comes two days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 27 seats in the Gujarat civic polls on Tuesday and Kejriwal is set to visit Surat on Friday to participate in a roadshow organised by local AAP leaders to celebrate their win in the civic polls. Earlier, AAP had slammed the BJP for 'reducing' the Chief Minister's security. 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. Several provinces, enterprises and universities nationwide will provide free COVID-19 vaccinations to their residents, staff and students in order to share the financial burden for pandemic prevention and control. The Coteccons Group is working with the Vietnam Vaccine Joint-Stock Company to register in advance to buy vaccines for 8,000 staff and their families of Coteccons and Unicons, a member of the Coteccons Group. (Photo courtesy of Coteccons Group) Several provinces, enterprises and universities nationwide will provide free COVID-19 vaccinations to their residents, staff and students in order to share the financial burden for pandemic prevention and control. The Ministry of Health has approved the import of 30 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine to obtain such authorisation in the country. Under the ministrys plan, the Drug Administration of Vietnam will import the first 200,400 doses of the vaccine for emergency use on February 28. Following the ministrys approval, Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Quang Ninh and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces asked for approval from the Government and Ministry of Health to buy vaccines for their localities. Hai Phong authorities expect that it will be one of first localities in the country to buy the vaccine. It aims to provide free vaccinations to more than 2 million people. Quang Ninh Province will allocate 500 billion VND (21 million USD) to buy the vaccine and give priority to frontline workers. Ba Ria Vung Tau province and Hanoi authorities said they would use funds from their budget and call on sponsors to buy vaccines to provide free vaccinations to local residents. Coteccons Group has been working with the Vietnam Vaccine Joint-Stock Company to register in advance to buy vaccines for 8,000 staff and their families of Coteccons and Unicons, a member of the Coteccons Group. Tran Thi Lieu Vinh, human resources director at Coteccons, said: Free vaccination to staff not only helps prevent transmission but also makes us feel more confident in work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Pham Thai Son, director of the Communications and Enrollment Centre at the HCM City University of Food Industry, told Vietnam News that the university plans to buy 25,000 doses of the vaccines to provide to its lecturers and students. According to AstraZeneca Vietnam, the primary analysis of Phase III clinical trials from the UK, Brazil and South Africa have confirmed that it is safe and effective at preventing COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 22 days after the first dose. Vietnams locally made COVID-19 vaccine, Nano Covax, is in the second phase of human trials following the first phase results, which showed that the vaccine is safe and 90 percent effective, according to the National Council for Ethics in Biomedical Research. Besides Hanoi, the Peoples Committee in the Mekong Delta province of Long An on February 21 said that Nano Covax could start its second phase human trial in the province on February 26, one month earlier than scheduled. The second phase trials in Hanoi and Long An will reduce the time needed to three months instead of the previously scheduled six months. The number of registered volunteers in the second phase is nearly 1,000. The phase is expected to last until the end of March and the results will be reported in April. The third phase of human trials is expected to start in May. The other two locally made COVID-19 vaccines are in the first phase of human trials. VNA 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Astana Club, one of the most esteemed geopolitical forums for Europe and Asia, announces the latest edition of the international rating "TOP-10 Risks for Eurasia in 2021". The rating is developed by the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), comprising over 40 international experts and 1,200 professional respondents from 75 countries in Eurasia. The COVID-19 pandemic remains the key element to accelerate the risks in 2021 and affects recovery, social stability, digital and climate threats and the escalation of confrontations between key geopolitical players. A brief rundown of the TOP-10 risks is presented below: THE PANDEMIC 2.0 Given the absence of effective international cooperation mechanisms to combat the infection and the constant mutation of the virus, the pandemic threatens to continue throughout 2021, possibly longer. RECOVERY UNDER THREAT The pandemic, collapse of economic activity, geopolitical and social instability and the debt crisis of emerging markets are key factors that threaten the shaky recovery of the world economy. US- CHINA COLD WAR The US and China have crossed practically all "red lines" during the pandemic; this confrontation will transform into full scale systemic conflict in 2021. CRISIS AROUND IRAN Growing tensions around Iran may trigger a large-scale military confrontation, thus dealing a crushing blow to the international energy market. DECOUPLING Decoupling of the West and China will not only continue under the new US administration but will gain a dangerous new dynamic in 2021. DISSOLUTION OF THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION REGIME The erosion of key nuclear treaties and institutions along with outstripping developments in military technologies threaten to initiate a new nuclear arms race. EXPLODING SOCIAL PROTESTS Political systems in many countries will come under unprecedented pressure as the economic and social impact of COVID-19 mounts. GLOBAL CYBER CRISIS The absence of uniform rules in the digital domain opens the road to massive cyber-attacks, which may become the catalyst for a global-level crisis. DIGITAL TOTALITARIANISM Total digitalization, accelerated by the pandemic, offers unprecedented opportunities to control personal data and political censure, creating the risk of a new type of totalitarianism. FAILURE OF DECARBONISATION In 2021, the world will be concerned with recovering economic growth, meaning plans to decarbonize and reduce CO2 emissions will be pushed to one side, especially in developing countries. The full report is available at: Link Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1442004/Astana_Club_Logo.jpg PARIS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Trace One, the world's largest collaborative retail business platform for consumer-packaged goods (CPG), announced the launch of Trace One E-Sourcing, a new solution for global retailers to bring private labels to market faster. For resilience in retail's complex, constantly-evolving environment, Trace One E-Sourcing extends digital best practices across all stages of the product lifecycle to help brand owners thrive by maximizing their process efficiency. This new retail innovation streamlines CPG product sourcing and business-to-business tender (RFx) processes, helping retailers save time, boost agility and gain a competitive edge with private labels consumers love. By integrating cross-organizational private label efforts, Trace One E-Sourcing enhances retailers' efficiency as they source and develop the right products to make their assortments more desirable. Private labels help retailers differentiate their offerings, promote their brand, increase their margins and delight consumers by reflecting emerging trends, including healthy, local and sustainable products. "Retailers win by making their private labels available to consumers faster and get ahead of innovation," said Christophe Vanackere, CEO, Trace One. Private label sourcing and RFx processes are time-consuming yet strategically significant to retailers' success. Accelerating these processes can give companies an advantage to reach faster all the manufacturing ecosystem and develop business with the best players, "With Trace One E-Sourcing, we want to empower retail companies of all sizes to overcome their challenges and boost their productivity by using proven innovations," said Christophe Vanackere. Through digital collaboration, Trace One E-Sourcing connects retailers and CPG suppliers around the world. "Retail partners gain a single, online source of private label RFx information rather than multiple types of offline and online tools, which improves data accuracy and efficiency," said Claire Bui, Product Marketing Manager at Trace One. Overall, this new offering enhances communication and time savings for product discovery and private label development. Amid the pandemic, more global retailers now embrace digital practices to navigate consumer and market trends. Digital systems and processes have evolved into business necessities for retailers to stay competitive and attract happy, loyal consumers. For more information on Trace One E-Sourcing, contact Trace One. About Trace One Founded in 2001, Trace One is the world's largest collaborative retail business platform for consumer-packaged goods (CPG). Trace One offers a suite of integrated cloud solutions for the creation and management of CPG products. We've created a global community of 5,000+ brand owners spanning more than 100 countries. Our smart solutions let them collaborate and innovate on remarkable products worth over $300 billion every year. We've been helping them create products that consumers really want since 2001, through bigger (and faster) thinking. For more information, visit www.traceone.com Photo(s): https://www.prlog.org/12854921 Press release distributed by PRLog SOURCE Trace One Related Links http://www.traceone.com 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. 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. INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American College of Education is expanding its nursing and healthcare offerings to include new programs in telehealth, nursing education and simulation, and nursing leadership. These new programs further expand ACE's nursing offerings, which feature some of the most affordable RN to BSN, RN to MSN and BSN to MSN programs in the country. The Certificate in Telehealth is designed for healthcare professionals interested in using telehealth services to improve access for patients, increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery and work toward better patient outcomes. With the proliferation of telehealth, this certificate is relevant for many different healthcare careers. The Certificate in Nursing Education & Simulation, designed for new nurse educators or nurses interested in becoming nurse educators, prepares students to teach using the latest simulation tools that replicate patient care scenarios. Upon completing this certificate, graduates will be able to develop and plan simulation scenarios to build student skills in patient care. Students who complete the Certificate in Nursing Leadership & Management will be prepared for the complex challenges in today's demanding nursing environment. This program explores a variety of topics in leadership, from human resources and communication to financial analysis and quality improvement. ACE will also offer the new three-course Micro-Credential in Simulation in Healthcare, which provides a foundation in using simulation in healthcare education. Students who complete the three courses will receive a micro-credential and a digital badge to display their commitment to learning healthcare simulation skills. This micro-credential can also be put toward the full Certificate in Nursing Education & Simulation. These programs will be available beginning with the May 24 term (except in select states; see program page for details). If you are interested in these or any other programs at ACE, please contact the enrollment team at (800) 280-0307 option 2 or visit ace.edu to use the live chat feature fill out the request for information form. About American College of Education Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Indianapolis, American College of Education is an accredited, completely online college specializing in affordable programs in education, nursing, healthcare, business and leadership. ACE offers more than 50 programs for adult students to pursue doctorate, specialist, master's or bachelor's degrees, along with micro-credentials and certificate programs. In addition to being a leader in online education, ACE is a Certified B Corp and for four years has been ranked as one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana, achieving the No. 4 ranking for large employers in 2020. Learn more at www.ace.edu. SOURCE American College of Education Related Links http://www.ace.edu Amnesty International said Cambodias Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary was at grave risk and urged the government to lift its arbitrary ban on environmental defenders who patrol the protected forests. The international rights group released a statement on Thursday and accompanied it with recent satellite imagery from February, showing rapid deforestation in the protected forest, which spans four provinces. Amnesty International added that the Cambodian government insistence on preventing community patrollers from entering the forest was putting the protected area at further risk. While Cambodian authorities prevent the Prey Lang Community Network and environmental defenders from protecting the Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary, illegal loggers are clearing land with impunity, said Richard Pearshouse, head of crisis and the environment at Amnesty International. The Cambodian authorities must allow these environmental defenders to resume their patrols and carry out their vital work preventing further destruction of one of the worlds most important rainforests, which is disappearing before our eyes. The group said the satellite imagery findings matched those released by the University of Maryland in partnership with Global Forest Watch. The deforestation alerts showed widespread forest clearings during 2020 and early 2021. In 2019, Prey Lang lost 7,511 hectares of tree cover, an increase of 73% compared to the previous year, according to the University of Maryland. Last year, the Cambodian government prevented the Prey Lang Community Network, local communities and civil society groups from conducting a tree-blessing ceremony in the forest, The PLCN was told it was unregistered and prevented from entering the forest without prior approval from the ministry. Early this month, the Ministry of Environment rangers arrested five forestry activists who were wrapping trees in Buddhist cloth and collecting evidence of widespread illegal logging occurring inside Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, according to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. The arrested activists, one of whom was Goldman Environmental Prize winner Ouch Leng, were detained inside the wildlife sanctuary documenting deforestation in Kratie province. The activists were released only after thumb-printing a contract ordering them to not undertake any conservation activities inside the protected area, or to share footage, photos or information with other organizations, without permission from authorities. Amnesty International also criticized a proposed power line that will cut through the protected area, to provide an electrical connection from Phnom Penh to Laos. The group said clearing the forest for the power line could further exacerbate illegal logging activities in the forest. Sok Phloak, a representative for the Prey Lang Network in Kampong Thom province, said there was a daily increase in logging in the protected area, and that the government should allow his group to resume patrols in the forest. If [the situation] remains like today, the forest will be destroyed, he said. Before, we were able to get into the forests at least two times per month. It helped reduce logging. He said the group did not patrol the forest for any monetary benefits and was only interested in preserving the protected area. The government has consistently alleged that patrol groups and environmental activists have raised illegal logging concerns only to garner the attention of international groups and to secure funding from them. Khem Sokhy, a member of Prey Lang Network in Preah Vihear province, said it was counterintuitive for the government to ban patrol groups while claiming that it wants to protect the Prey Lang forest. If the government has the clear will to protect the forests, they must not ban the protectors who support the government, he said. The Prey Lang forest covers approximately 500,000 hectares and spans four provinces Kratie, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom, and Preah Vihear. More than 250,000 people live in and around Prey Lang, most of whom identify as Indigenous Kuy, and the protected area is one of the last, and largest remaining, evergreen forests in the country. In June last year, the researchers at the University of Copenhagen released an open letter reporting a 73 percent increase in deforestation in 2019 at the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, compared to 2018. The University of Copenhagens open letter used data from the University of Marylands Global Forest Change dataset and other data points to show that 7,510 hectares of forestland were lost at the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary in 2019, the worst loss since 2016 when the area was designated a protected area. [February 25, 2021] Energy And Water Development Corp. Pays Off Its Convertible Loans Florida, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Energy and Water Development (OTCQB: EAWD) is pleased to report that it has paid off the convertible loans issued during years 2019 and 2020. All of the convertible loans were paid off to avoid dilution and reduced the Companys overall debt. Eliminating the convertible loans recorded as December 2020 represents a significant milestone for EAWD. Ralph Hofmeier, CEO of Energy and Water Development Corp., said, We believe that this strategy will better position us to enter a growth phase, so we are focusing on new revenue-producing projects of our innovative water and energy generation systems and in capital equity sources such as our qualified Reg A offering for institutional investors. The next step in our strategic plan is to pursue the assembling manufacturing in Hamburg, Germany, where the Self-Sufficient Powered Atmosphere Water Generation Systems (e-AWGs) would be produced in a faster period, allowing us to satisfy the current demand in the market. This pess release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall it constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. About Energy and Water Development (OTCQB: EAWD). Energy and Water Development Corporation is a green-tech engineering solution company focused on delivering water and energy to extreme environments. The Company offers design, construction, maintenance, and specialty consulting services to private companies, government entities and non-government organizations (NGOs). EAWD builds water and energy systems out of already-existing, proven technologies, utilizing their technical know-how to customize solutions to their clients needs. The Companys website is: www.eawctechnologies.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, should, intend, estimate, projects, variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not a forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Companys current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Companys filings. Contact Information: Energy and Water Development Corp. Irma Velazquez, Chief Operating Officer Email: velazquezi@eawctechnologies.com Tel. +1 347 871 8927 Tel. +49 179 911 9256 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A citizen runs in front of the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, on Oct. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Chen Bin) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday voiced resolute opposition to any attempt seeking "Taiwan independence," including making it convenient for the separatist forces, through the so-called "constitutional amendments." Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the comments while responding to a question regarding the island legislative body's plan to initiate the so-called "constitutional amendments." Separatist activities seeking "Taiwan independence" severely undermine the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and pose threats to peace and stability across the Strait, said Ma. Seriously harming the common interests of the compatriots on both sides of the Strait and the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, such activities will face resolute countermeasures from the mainland, he added. North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Aurora Solar Technologies Inc. (TSXV: ACU) ("Aurora", the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with a strategic technology leader in solar cell manufacturing for their evaluation of the Company's initial version of the InsightTM data science product, called "Insight Essentials", for solar cell production yield optimization. Insight Essentials is the first of a planned series of Insight versions, focused on plant-wide yield (and quality control) visualization and reporting. Future versions of the product will integrate and add value to inline measurement systems such as Aurora's DM family of products, providing a fully integrated system for yield and quality control management in solar manufacturing. Aurora has designed its Insight platform using industry know-how along with novel proprietary algorithms and technology to evaluate the large volumes of data collected during solar cell fabrication. It evaluates these data to inform the manufacturer - in real time - how well its production equipment is performing, where problems may be occurring, or where yield or quality might be improved. As customers realize the value of the Insight Essentials, the Insight data science platform can be further developed to create additional value for customers that seek competitive advantage. The principal objectives of this evaluation project are to determine the yield management and quality control cost-saving potential of Insight Essentials, and to quantify the business case for its use as a subscription-based product in a high-volume production environment. The project is expected to start during March 2021, will be for an initial period of 90 days, and is expected to fully complete within 180 days. "We are very pleased to announce this evaluation project with one of the industry's technology leaders," said Gordon Deans, Aurora's Chief Executive Officer. "They are a long-standing Aurora customer, and we value their support as we implement our vision to create a new industry standard by improving solar cell manufacturing yield and performance measurement through the intelligent mining and analysis of available data." The Company has also granted 3,050,000 options to its employees, officers, directors and consultants exercisable at $0.54 for a period of five years. About Aurora Solar Technologies: Aurora Solar Technologies is a leader in the development and delivery of inline process measurement, analysis, and control systems for solar cell manufacturers. We believe that solar power will dominate the renewable energy field, and our mission is to bring quality and profitability to every customer through superior control of critical processes during solar cell manufacturing. Aurora's products are used by some of the world's most advanced and respected solar cell manufacturers. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, Aurora has operations in Shanghai, China, and partners in all major solar manufacturing markets. Aurora is a public company, traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (ACU) and is a two-time TSX-V Top 50 winner. Aurora's website is located at www.aurorasolartech.com. For further information contact: Jake Bouma Corporate Development Phone: +1 (604) 317-3936 corpcomm@aurorasolartech.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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75392 In May 2020, Mary's Tails announced that it would become PetSmart's first and only in-store CBD brand to be sold initially in 122 store locations. Mary's Tails was among the first to produce hemp-infused pet products with naturally occurring CBD in 2016, and PetSmart selected the brand for its focus on transparency, quality, efficacy and pet-friendly delivery methods. Formulated for dogs and cats, Mary's Tails' products can help keep pets happy, healthy and calm. During 2020 PetSmart chose to expand the brand's presence to additional U.S. locations because of the growing consumer demand for pet CBD products. In the last 52 weeks, the total pet CBD market has grown over 500%, and Mary's Tails tinctures rank in the Top 2 products in the US Pet specialty channel, holding the #1 and #2 ranks per Nielsen data P52W report. "I couldn't be happier with the commitment that PetSmart is making to the CBD category," said Hilal Tabsh, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Distribution at BellRock Brands CBD Division. "Over the past nine months, our footprint has grown from 122 stores to over 1,000 locations, and in that time, we have also created additional opportunities for PetSmart's customers to experience our products through end cap displays and promotions. This year, we also have exciting initiatives and new product introductions planned and expect those to drive continued growth in the coming months." Mary's Tails, in collaboration with PetSmart, is putting the finishing touches on a state-of-the-art hemp-infused product line that will be available to customers in the second quarter of 2021. All Mary's Tails products feature clear communication on packaging and undergo internal and external lab testing with results made public for all to see. Products are tested to confirm they are free of pesticides, heavy metals, microbials and solvents. The hemp extract used in Mary's Tails is sourced from trusted partner farms, ensuring top quality from seed to shelf. Mary's Tails uses extracts sourced only from the flower of the hemp plant and not the seeds and stalk. About Mary's Tails: Mary's Tails is dedicated to creating natural, holistic solutions for pets. Leading with years of experience in CBD, Mary's Tails helps improve the lives of both pets and their parents. For more information on Mary's Tails please visit www.marystails.com. Follow Mary's Tails on Instagram at @MarysTails. ABOUT BELLROCK BRANDS: BellRock Brands is a brand and IP focused CPG multi-state operator that possesses one of the industry's broadest branded product portfolios catering to the growing and ever-evolving cannabis consumer. BellRock's portfolio consists of two iconic cannabis brands with deep history, Mary's Brands (a pioneer in the Health & Wellness segment since 2013) and Dixie (a market-leading cannabis-infused edibles brand since 2010), as well as two growing, California-based brands, Rebel Coast and Defonce. Together, the BellRock brands offer a vast spectrum of high-quality cannabis-centric consumer packaged goods. With 11 brands and over 200 SKUs, BellRock reaches nearly every key consumer group and addresses the needs of a diverse cannabis consumer base. The BellRock manufacturing and distribution footprint continues to expand and currently spans nine states, and the Company owns or manages production facilities in its largest markets. For more information, visit www.bellrockbrands.com. CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION The information provided in this press release may contain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, made by the Company (or its predecessors) that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements preceded by, followed by or that include words such as "may", "will", "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "intends", "anticipates", "targeted", "continues", "forecasts", "designed", "goal", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. Forward-looking statements may relate to future financial conditions, results of operations, plans, objectives, performance or business developments. These statements speak only as at the date they are made and are based on information currently available and on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events, which are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from that which was expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to: (I) the regulation of the medical and recreational marijuana industry in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and other countries in which the Company may carry on its business; (ii) the ability of the Company to obtain meaningful consumer acceptance and a successful market for its products on a national and international basis at competitive prices; (iii) the ability of the Company to develop and maintain an effective sales network; (iv) the success of the Company in forecasting demand for its products or services; (v) the ability of the Company to maintain pricing and thereby maintain adequate profit margins; (vi) the ability of the Company to achieve adequate intellectual property protection; (vii) the availability of financing opportunities, risks associated with economic conditions, dependence on management and conflicts of interest; and (viii) other risks described from time to time in documents filed by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, including the Company's annual information form dated June 21, 2019. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain key expectations and assumptions, including that: (I) the transaction with BR Brands will be completed on the terms described herein; (ii) there will be no material adverse competitive or technological change in condition of the Company's business; (iii) there will be a demand for the Company's products that the Company has accurately forecast; and (iv) there will be no material adverse change in the Company's operations, business or in any governmental regulation affecting the Company or its suppliers. With respect to the forward-looking statements contained herein, although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements as no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks, including the risks described above. Consequently, all forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by such cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the anticipated results or developments will actually be realized or, even if realized, that they will have the expected consequences to or effects on the Company. The cautionary statements contained or referred to herein should be considered in connection with any subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements that the Company and/or persons acting on the Company's behalf may issue. The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. SOURCE BellRock Brands Inc. Related Links http://dixieelixirs.com State Sen. Eric P. Lesser, a Democrat from Longmeadow, has filed legislation that would require the Registry of Motor Vehicles to act promptly to suspend the license of a Massachusetts driver who has lost the right to drive in another state. The bill, An Act to Promote a Fair and Informative RMV, was filed Friday for the upcoming docket for the Massachusetts State Senate. Lesser, vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the bill, if approved, will reform how the registry operates by enacting mandatory deadlines to act when notified a Massachusetts driver has lost the right to drive in another state. It creates a very clear timeline within the statute, Lesser said. Having such legislation in place as recently as two years ago would have spared the RMV from the fallout from a 2019 New Hampshire crash where Volodymyr Zhukovskyy of West Springfield fatally struck and killed seven motorcyclists, Lesser said. Zhukovskyy, who is charged in New Hampshire with multiple counts of negligent homicide, was charged with driving while under the influence in May 2019 in Connecticut. His Massachusetts commercial license should have been suspended following the Connecticut arrest, but the Massachusetts RMV failed to act after being notified by Connecticut officials. Lessers bill would have created much clearer lines of accountability and faster timelines for acting off of infractions in other states, he said. It would have prevented a lot of pain and frustration for people since then. Under existing law, if a Massachusetts driver is convicted of a motor vehicle violation in another state, the Massachusetts registry is supposed to determine if the violation warrants a suspension or revocation of the Massachusetts license. For example, if a Massachusetts driver is charged with drunken driving in another state, Massachusetts is supposed to treat the offense as if it happened within state lines and take away the drivers Massachusetts drivers license. Fallout from the Zhukovskyy arrest and aftermath led to the discovery the Massachusetts RMV had failed to process out-of-state notifications involving Massachusetts drivers dating back as far as 2008. The news led to the June 2019 resignation of then-Registrar Erin Deveney. In the wake of the discovery of the backlog of cases, the registry began pulling the licenses of thousands of drivers for out-of-state infractions. In the process, hundreds of drivers who had been written up months earlier for minor infractions in other states and who had already paid their fines ended up having their licenses erroneously suspended by the Massachusetts registry. This forced hundreds of drivers to go through the time and expense of getting the suspension lifted at a time through appeal. He spoke of one example of a woman who had her license revoked in Massachusetts because she was flagged in another state with a broken taillight literally decades ago. Lessers bill calls for writing deadlines into existing legislation, Chapter 90, Section 22 of the Massachusetts General Laws. The way the law reads at present, there is no requirement for the registry to act under any sort of deadline. Minus that, there is no urgency to process out-of-state notifications and cases get backlogged for a dozen years, he said. Theres also no urgency for the registry to determine if an out-of-state case has been resolved, or for it to determine if a revoked or suspended license should be reinstated. Under his bill, the law would be amended to require the Massachusetts RMV to process every out-of-state notification within 30 days. If the violation results in a Massachusetts revocation or suspension, the driver needs to be notified in seven days. During that first 30 days, the registry is required to reach out to the other state to check on the status of the case. If the Massachusetts driver has resolved the issue with the other state by paying fines, the Massachusetts registry has the discretion to pursue a license revocation or not. In cases where Massachusetts drivers have successfully had their license in another state restored, they may petition the Massachusetts registry for restoration, and the registry has 15 days to act. The law as it is written gives the registry no discretion to consider extenuating circumstances in cases or to make exceptions in special cases. His bill would give the registry the power to determine if a suspension or revocation is necessary for out-of-state offenses. It will help speed up the process so that youre not sending someone who had a broken taillight 30 years ago through a multi-step process of getting issued a ticket or a license suspension, and then appealing it and having to sit in front of the appeals board ... And then getting it dismissed. He said he expects the bill to go to committee, and then it will have to be voted on by the full Senate and then the house before going to the governor for ratification. The process could take several months. This is only the second or third inning, Lesser said. Related content Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. David Cameron today added his voice to warnings against early tax rises in the Budget. The former PM said it would make 'no sense' to 'pile' more burden on to businesses before the economy has even reopened. The comments, in an interview with CNN, came as Rishi Sunak puts the final touches to his crucial financial package before it is delivered next week. He has been dropping heavy hints of a looming reckoning, after coronavirus triggered the worst recession in 300 years. Increasing corporation tax from 19 per cent to as much as 25 per cent by the end of the Parliament is believed to be on the cards. But there are claims today that Tory MPs could join forces with Labour to block any effort to raise duties quickly. Former Cabinet minister David Davis has suggested he will not support the Budget if there are any significant tax rises - even though Downing Street has made clear it is a confidence issue and any rebels could be stripped of the whip. Meanwhile, former chancellor Lord Hammond has insisted Boris Johnson must be 'honest' with the public about the dire state of the public finances after coronavirus and ditch his big-spending manifesto pledges. The Tory former chancellor urged the PM to tell Britons 'some difficult home truths' ahead of next week's Budget rather than sticking to his 'populist' habits. Mr Sunak also faces having to throw billions more at the Covid response, with the massive furlough scheme and other business support set to be extended potentially until June - when the PM's 'roadmap' suggests lockdown will finally be lifted. Lord Hammond urged the PM to tell Britons 'some difficult home truths' ahead of next week's Budget rather than sticking to his 'populist' habits Boris Johnson must be 'honest' with the public about the dire state of the public finances after coronavirus and ditch his big-spending manifesto pledges, Lord Hammond warned The UK looks to have avoided a double dip recession but faces a long road to claw back the lost economic activity during the pandemic Another 500,000 people put on furlough The impact of lockdown was laid bare today as figures showed another 500,000 people have been put on furlough in just two weeks. An official survey of businesses found a fifth of the workforce were on leave early this month - equivalent to around 6.5million people and up from 18 per cent a fortnight earlier. The grim figures come as Rishi Sunak prepares to extend the huge bailout again in the Budget, despite mounting fears about the spiralling bill. The findings will fuel fears that furlough - estimated to cost the taxpayer around 5billion a month - is masking a looming jobs bloodbath. Separate details released by the Treasury today show that as of mid-February the bill for the bailout had hit 53.8billion. It was revealed earlier this week that the unemployment rate has risen to a five-year high of 5.1 per cent, but experts believe it will peak at around 7.5 per cent when support is withdrawn from stricken businesses. Advertisement Speaking to CNN, Mr Cameron said the UK was currently in a 'very different situation' than he faced in 2010 when his coalition government imposed austerity. 'So piling, say, tax increases on top of that before youve even opened up the economy wouldnt make any sense at all,' he said. I think its been right for the government here in the UK and governments around the world to recognise this is more like a sort of wartime situation. Lord Hammond said he broadly supported financial assistance measures during the pandemic, but remains concerned about Downing Street's priorities in the future. 'My fear is that, as a populist government, giving money away is always easier than collecting it in,' the ex-Cabinet minister told the BBC. 'And the Government will be tempted not to move quickly back to normalising the relationship between government and citizen, the balance between taxing and spending, as we move out of the crisis and into the next phase, which is dealing over the longer term with the legacy of this Covid crisis what the economists called the scarring effect on the British economy.' Lord Hammond was appointed to the Lords by Boris Johnson despite being stripped of the Tory whip in 2019 for joining with those attempting to block a no-deal Brexit. Sir Keir Starmer warned yesterday that now is not the time to be raising taxes on business. And amid grumbling on Tory benches a senior minister told The Times: 'We shouldn't be raising corporation tax at a time when we are trying to attract foreign investment as we emerge from the pandemic. We want to bring foreign companies into the UK.' Mr Sunak is expected to unveil help for motorists, hospitality firms and the housing market in a string of eye-catching policies next week - although there will also be moves to start stabilising the finances. The Chancellor is set to shelve plans for tax rises, including a threatened 5p increase in fuel duty that would have hit millions of drivers. An official survey of businesses found a fifth of the workforce were on leave early this month - equivalent to around 6.5million people and up from 18 per cent a fortnight earlier The downturn sparked by Covid restrictions last year was the worst since the Great Frost devastated Europe in 1709 He is also poised to announce further VAT and business rate cuts for the hospitality and tourist industries, continue the stamp duty holiday and extend the jobs furlough scheme. The Mail has revealed that Treasury officials are examining even more dramatic plans for a major stimulus to the economy later this year. This could include vouchers for high street shoppers and lower alcohol duty for restaurants and pubs battered by coronavirus restrictions until early summer. The latter move would be coupled with higher levies on supermarket booze to help local traders. A return of last summer's Eat Out to Help Out scheme is another possibility. Officials are also said to be examining the case for long-term reform of the stamp duty system because of concerns that it distorts the housing market. 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 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). ISLAMABAD : Pakistan and India have agreed to the strict observance of all agreements, understandings and ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and use existing mechanisms to resolve any "unforeseen situation or misunderstanding", the Pakistani Army said on Thursday. The agreement was reached between the two countries after the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact, said a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan military's media wing. The two sides issued a joint statement after the talks. The two sides reviewed the situation along Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere, the ISPR said. Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and ceasefire along the LoC and all other sectors, with effect from Wednesday midnight," it said. Both sides reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any "unforeseen situation or misunderstanding." "There have been contacts between India and Pakistan on a hotline level since 1987. Frequently, the DGMOs of both countries stay in contact through this established mechanism," Dawn newspaper quoted Pakistani military spokesman Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar as saying. He said that from 2014 there was a spike in ceasefire violations along the LoC. "Both the DGMOs have agreed that the existing 2003 understanding should be implemented in letter and spirit." Both officials have agreed on making it sustainable and have expressed the intention to act on it, he said. The latest development is seen as a thaw after years of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, Dawn newspaper said. Both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa recently offered India to resolve all issues through dialogue. Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in the neighbouring country. Subsequent attacks, including one on the Indian Army camp in Uri, further deteriorated the relationship. The relationship dipped further after India's war planes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed. The relations deteriorated further after India in August 2019 announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories. PTI SH NSA AKJ NSA NSA Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The operator of Dublins Luas tram system said its earnings declined in 2019 because salaries at the company rose faster than the consumer price index. Newly-filed accounts for Transdev Dublin Light Rail show that revenue hit 43.5m in 2019 compared to 38.7m in 2018. But the increase was due to the inclusion of a new maintenance contract it secured towards the end of 2019. The maintenance of the Luas infrastructure had previously been undertaken by the Irish arm of French firm Alstom, which also manufactured the Luas carriages. The Dublin Luas business made a loss of almost 2.6m before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation during the year. That compared to a loss of just over 2m the previous year. The decrease is predominantly due to salaries increasing at a higher rate that CPI [Consumer Price Index] in 2019, directors of the company noted. Salaries are paid in line with the Labour Court recommendations, whereas there was no growth in CPI during the year, they added. Costs also increased in line with increased revenue under the new operations and maintenance contract which started in December 2019, which includes the addition of maintenance and security staff. The company was awarded a new six-year operations and maintenance contract for the Luas at the end of 2019, with an option to extend the contract for an additional five years. The capitals Luas system carried 48.3 million passengers in 2019, compared to just over 41 million in 2018. Passenger numbers on the Luas, Dart and Intercity services plunged by more than 60pc during March and August last year. The new contract secured by Transdev in 2019 reflected expanded Luas network. In 2017, the 368m, 5.9km Luas Cross City extension opened, adding to the existing Green Line. It meant that for the first time since the Luas started operations in 2004, the Red and Green lines are connected. There are plans to further extend the Luas network. A new line that would see the green line extended to Charlestown in Finglas from Broombridge is set to be constructed. The 4km extension is intended to have four new stops and bring an additional 30,000 people within 1km of the green line. 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. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Photo: DriveBC 2:30 p.m. Hwy 5, northbound at Zopkios Rest Area, near the Coquihalla Summit looking south. UPDATE 2:30 p.m. DriveBC is advising motorists heading south on the Coquihalla to expect major delays due to an incident between Zopkios and Box Canyon. Driving conditions are treacherous and other routes should be considered. UPDATE 1:45 p.m. DriveBC has now issued a travel advisory for Highway 5, the Coquihalla. Both directions of the highway between Exit 192 and Exit 228, 5 km north of Coquihalla Summit to 15 km north of Hope are impacted by limited visibility with snow, blowing snow, limited visibility and dense fog. Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement and RCMP have set up near the Sowaqua Creek Road and are enforcing chain-up and winter regulations. Winter tires or chains are required on most routes in British Columbia from October 1 to April 30. For select highways not located through mountain passes and/or high snowfall areas, tire and chain requirements end March 31. DriveBC indicates their next update won't be until 4:00 p.m. Pacific time. ORIGINAL 7:44 a.m. Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for the Coquihalla Highway - Hope to Merritt and Highway 3 - Hope to Princeton via Allison Pass. A frontal system is expected to move across the B.C. interior on Thursday hazardous winter conditions are expected. Snow is expected to become heavy at times later this morning. Snowfall amounts near 30 cm can be expected by Friday morning. Weather in the mountains can change suddenly resulting in hazardous driving conditions. Rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult over some locations. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow. You are advised to check DriveBC and Castanet traffic cameras for the latest driving conditions. NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Thursday tightened its control over digital news media and OTT (over-the-top) video streaming platforms, introducing a three-tier mechanism and terming it as a "soft-touch regulatory architecture." While the first two tiers bring in place a system of self-regulation by the platform itself and by the self-regulatory bodies of content publishers, the third calls for an oversight mechanism by the Centre. These guidelines may be called the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, as per a government statement. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle The idea is to create a level-playing field for all media, since print and television already worked under certain restrictions," Union minister of information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar told the media on Thursday. The government had asked OTT platforms to come up with a code of self-regulation multiple times, but the last draft had not allowed for a third-party intervention. While freedom of the press is absolute, it needs to come with certain responsibility, the minister said. Publishers of news on digital media will be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, so far followed by print and TV respectively. According to the new rules, a digital website or content publisher will have to appoint a grievance redressal officer based in India who will have to act upon a complaint within 15 days. The second tier will comprise self-regulatory body of the news publisher or streaming platforms headed by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge or an eminent person. Third, and most importantly, the I&B ministry will establish an inter-departmental committee for hearing grievances. These guidelines are on expected lines and are really quite mild compared to the kind of pre-censorship of content many were fearing," said a senior executive at a streaming platform. The rules, the person said, had stemmed from the industrys failure in formulating a code of self-regulation that the government found satisfactory. Instead of pre-censored content, platform owners will have to classify their content according to different age groups: U" or universal rating, and others for 7+, 13+, 16+ and then 18+ age group. This will have to be developed specifically for India since similar age classifications do not exist in other countries, the executive cited earlier said. Platforms will be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as A". Karan Taurani, research analyst at Elara Capital Ltd, said the move will lead to consolidation in the OTT industry or shutting down of niche apps which have relied on obscene content, but will augur well for large global giants and broadcaster-led OTTs, with especially the latter having a strong track record of creating content within government regulations. The consolidation of the OTT industry may now happen much earlier than expected, wherein broadcaster OTTs can go a long way if they are able to address issues of tech with better user experience and distribution via aggregators and telcos. The situation is similar for the news genre; larger news broadcaster groups may have an edge versus smaller news aggregators," Taurani added. Abhinandan Sekhri, co-founder of news portal Newslaundry, said at first glance, the rules seem vague and arouse concerns but DigiPub (a body representing the interests of digital news publishers) will study and comment on the same soon. Netflix, ZEE5, Shemaroo, Hoichoi and ALTBalaji declined to comment. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV, Eros Now, VOOT, MX Player and Lionsgate Play did not respond to Mint's queries. The courts will need to be involved in interpreting some aspects of the new rules, said Chandrima Mitra, partner at DSK Legal. There are various categories of ratings now which may become more cumbersome for the content creator as well as the platform. Except animated films or series, all content currently on OTT platforms may fall into the U/A 16+ or the A category. The players and creators will have to probably re-look at the kind of content they want to make since these ratings will directly impact the storytelling and the commercials involved," Mitra said. Also, there will be ambiguity regarding certain films which may have already received CBFC certification. It is unclear whether the platform would need to incorporate the same certification or re-determine it based on these rules, which would lead to increasing compliance procedures. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! DIDCOT, UK / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Altus Strategies Plc (AIM:ALS) (TSX-V:ALTS) (OTCQX:ALTUF) announces that it was informed on 25 February 2021 by Matthew Grainger (Executive Director) that he had dealt in ordinary shares of 5 pence par value each of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") between 22 and 24 February 2021 as follows: 55,500 Ordinary Shares were purchased at a weighted average price of 83.72p per Ordinary Share via his Self Invested Personal Pension Plan; and 55,500 Ordinary Shares were sold at a weighted average price of 81.91p per Ordinary Share by Mrs Anna Grainger (Mr Grainger's spouse). Following the transactions as described above, Mr Grainger's and persons' closely associated with Mr Grainger, total shareholding has remained unchanged at 2,085,566 Ordinary Shares, representing 2.98% of the Company's outstanding issued Ordinary Share capital. The information set out below is provided in accordance with the requirements of Article 19(3) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014. Notification and public disclosure of transactions by PMDR and persons closely associated with them. 1 Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated a) Name Matthew Grainger 2 Reason for the notification a) Position / status Executive Director b) Initial notification / Amendment Initial notification 3 Details of the issuer emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Altus Strategies plc b) LEI 2138001P93D9LMFIUA28 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii each type of transaction; (iii each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument Ordinary Shares of 0.05 each b) Identification code GB00BJ9TYB96 c) Nature of the transaction Purchase & Sale of Ordinary Shares d) Price(s) and volume(s) Purchases Price Volume 83.8p 10,000 86.0p 10,000 84.0p 2,500 82.7p (aggregated) 33,000 (aggregated) Sales Price Volume 83.0p 5,000 82.4p (aggregated) 30,000 (aggregated) 82.0p 7,500 80.6p 13,000 e) Aggregated information Aggregated volume 55,500 shares Price 83.72p (purchase) 81.91p (sale) f) Date of the transactions 22 - 24 February 2021 g) Place of the transactions AIM For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact: Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel:+44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: info@altus-strategies.com SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Adam Cowl Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Grant Barker / Richard Parlons Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR & IR) Georgia Colkin / Charles Goodwin / Henry Wilkinson Tel: +44 (0) 20 3004 9512 E: altus@yellowjerseypr.com About Altus Strategies Plc Altus Strategies (AIM: ALS, TSX-V: ALTS & OTCQX: ALTUF) is a mining royalty company generating a diversified and precious metal focused portfolio of assets. The Company's focus on Africa and differentiated approach, of generating royalties on its own discoveries as well as through financings and acquisitions with third parties, has attracted key institutional investor backing. The Company engages constructively with all stakeholders, working diligently to minimise its environmental impact and to promote positive economic and social outcomes in the communities where it operates. For further information, please visit www.altus-strategies.com. TSX Venture Exchange Disclaimer Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Market Abuse Regulation Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("MAR") until the release of this announcement. SOURCE: Altus Strategies View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/632079/PDMR-Dealings Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. American politics have become highly polarised and divisive both within each of the two main political parties and also between them. Centrists who have previously dominated American politics are being outflanked by radicals on both sides of the political spectrum. In the Republican Party, the establishment elite is being increasingly marginalised by a radicalised, nationalist, populist counter-elite led by former president Donald Trump and his allies. And in the Democratic Party, centrists are being challenged by a youthful cohort of social democrats who are challenging the cautious, status-quo oriented, and incrementalistic approach of the party leadership. Four women have come to represent each of the four main currents of American politics today, and their biographies highlight the emerging schisms that are likely to define American politics in the coming decades. They are Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney, who represent the centre-left and the centre-right wings of their respective parties, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who represent the rising threat to the centre coming from the more radical extremes. ESTABLISHMENT ROYALTY Nancy Pelosi, now 80 years old, has served as a US representative from California since 1987 and as speaker of the US House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to the present. Pelosi is the only woman in US history to have served as speaker of the House, and she is the second-highest-ranking female elected official after Vice-President Kamala Harris. She is second in the presidential line of succession after Harris. Initially, Pelosi was considered to be to the left of centre of the Democratic Party. She is a strong advocate of LGBT and abortion rights and of gun-control measures, and she opposed many of the policies endorsed by Democrats in the past, such as the war on Iraq and allowing China into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. However, as Pelosis stature and power in the Democratic Party increased, and as the partys younger cohort became more left-leaning, she became an emblem of centrism within the party. Her emphasis on compromise, gradualism and incrementalism, which have made her one of the most effective legislators in the American Congress, is now being challenged by a new cohort of Democrats who demand a bolder and more radical agenda for change. Liz Cheney, 55 years old, is the daughter of Dick Cheney, the former vice-president in the administration of George W Bush. Cheney has been serving as the US representative for Wyomings at-large congressional district since 2017. She is the House Republican Conference chair, the third highest position in the House Republican leadership. During the Bush administration, she held several positions in the State Department as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and coordinator of the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives. Cheney is an emblem of the neo-conservative movement within the Republican Party, which during a previous era constituted the right-wing of the party but has now come to represent the centre. She is known for her focus on national security, support for the US military, pro-business stance and hawkish and neoconservative foreign policy views, and for being fiscally and socially conservative. Cheney was one of the most vocal critics of the Trump administration within the Republican Party, and she supported the second impeachment of former president Trump. In February 2021, an attempt by pro-Trump Freedom Caucus members to remove her from her leadership position failed by a vote of 145 to 61. Both Pelosi and Cheney are considered establishment royalty. Both come from powerful political families, both have extensive connections with influential donors and interest groups, and both are very wealthy. This has made them targets of the growing anti-establishment sentiment on the rise within the base of both the Republican and Democratic Parties. ATTACK FROM THE FLANKS Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, 31 years old, popularly known as AOC, is the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress. In 2018, at the age of 29 she was able to replace Democratic Caucus leader Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent, as the representative of New Yorks 14th congressional district. Her success in ousting a high-ranking Democratic incumbent with access to vast support and resources constituted a big shake up to the Democratic establishment, highlighting an emerging shift within the base of the Democratic Party towards the left. As a young, non-white, Hispanic, female, AOC represents some of the main constituents of the Democratic Party, and her rapid ascent is seen by some to represent the future of the party. AOC is among the first female members of the Democratic Socialists of America elected to serve in Congress. A long-standing supporter of Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, she advocates for a progressive platform that includes public Medicare health insurance for all, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal and abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. AOC, along with a number of other young congresswomen including Ilhan Omar, Rashid Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, have formed the squad, a group of radical lawmakers seeking to challenge the status quo within the Democratic Party. Marjorie Taylor Greene, 46 years old, was elected to Congress in November 2020 to represent Georgias 14th congressional district. Greene represents the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party. She has won national notoriety for being a QAnon conspiracy theorist, for supporting violent threats against Democratic lawmakers and the FBI, for participating in protests organised by radical militias and for promoting Trumps Big Steal elections narrative, and for refusing to endorse last years presidential elections results. While her views and rhetoric have been condemned by some centrists within the Republican Party, the party has nonetheless failed to take any actions against her. Greene is part of a growing group of Republican lawmakers who embrace Trumps nationalist-populist, conspiracy-laden, anti-immigrant, anti-establishment discourse. It is expected that this group will continue to grow in size and in power within the Republican Party in the coming years. CAN THE CENTRE HOLD? The election of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 was seen as marking the end of centrist politics within the Republican Party. Four years later, the loss of the presidency and the Senate majority does not seem to have shaken the grip of Trump and the radical right on the party. Moreover, concerted attacks by Trump loyalists against centrist Republicans who took a stand against Trump and his supporters threaten to reduce their clout and numbers in the coming congressional elections. On the other hand, the victory of Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primaries and subsequently over Trump in the presidential elections represented a triumph for the centrist wing within the Democratic Party over its challengers on the right and on the left. However, some would argue that this triumph is only temporary and that as older voters become outnumbered by millennials, and as whites lose their majority status and women become more politically active, the Democratic Party will continue to shift to the left, and politicians such as AOC will become more representative of the party. What would the decline of centrism on the left and the right mean for American democracy? Would it usher in greater polarisation and social strife? Would it increase the chances of an authoritarian takeover and the suspension of the democratic process as the two sides become increasingly unwilling to compromise and meet halfway and as constitutional consensus breaks down? While this is a scenario that many fear could materialise in the years to come, it is also possible to argue that populists on the right and socialists on the left share more in common than meets the eye. Supporters of both camps share a disenchantment with the established elite who have championed the values of liberal internationalism by pushing for globalisation and neo-liberalism at home and abroad. Growing inequality and concentration of wealth and reduced public investment and public spending are widely seen as being the result of these policies. However, whereas populists have directed their anger towards the political elite, minorities, foreigners and immigrants and have proposed economic protectionism and anti-immigration measures as a solution, socialists are calling for greater restrictions on capitalism in the form of higher taxes, more labour rights, universal healthcare, free education and environmental regulations and innovation. It is possible that a new consensus could emerge between radicals on the left and on the right around an economic agenda that champions protectionism and deglobalisation and favours greater investment and spending at home. Moreover, if in the next few years Democrats succeed in making a rapid push towards re-industrialisation and a new green economy driven by clean energy and technological innovation and investment in education and research, perhaps that will reduce the discontent driving the rise of the radical right and reduce the clout of the fossil-fuel capitalism sustaining it with generous funding and support. *The writer is a senior researcher and editor of Al-Malaf Al-Masry, Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: The Solicitor-General of the Federation, Dayo Akpata, Thursday lauded the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, for transforming the Federal Ministry of Justice into a revenue-generating entity for the Federal Government. Mr Akpata, who is also the Permanent Secretary of the ministry presided by Mr Malami, said this was one the ministers many remarkable interventions in the nations justice sector. The official, who was speaking in Abuja at the launching of a book written in honour of Mr Malami, also credited the minister, with bringing uniformity and synergy among anti-graft agencies regarding asset recovery. He said, the honourable Attorney-General of the Federation assumed office at a time when the contemporary leadership issues and challenges were also evolving and in their characteristics. As a proactive chief law officer, he has ensured a paradigm shift in the operations of the ministry as a whole. He has introduced the assets recovery process which has brought uniformity and synergy in the management across the different agencies thereby leading to an increase in generating revenue for the country. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we have a synergetic approach to assets recovery which is through a database and this is commendable for the proactive service. Also, under his watch, the Federal Ministry of Justice, for the first time, became a revenue profile generating entity for the government, and under his watch, other issues have witnessed reforms that include strengthening the rule of law, prosecution of high-profile cases and also corruption-related cases, and also corruption-related cases, which include technological innovations to address emerging challenges. Malamis controversial profile While there is a possibility that the quantum of revenue generated by the Federal Ministry of Justice has increased under Mr Malami leadership, the claim cannot be immediately verified by PREMIUM TIMES. However, contrary to Mr Apatas claims, the rule of law has largely been disregarded under Mr Malamis watch as the nations chief law officer. This is evident in President Muhammadu Buhari administrations penchant for disobeying court orders, and suppression of protests and dissenting voices, through arrests, detention and filing of frivolous charges. In July 2018, Mr Malami made a comment subordinating the rule of law and human rights to national security in his bid to justify the illegal detention of a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who had been ordered released by various courts. Mr Dasuki is standing trial for diversion of public funds. Mr Buhari and other key elements in his administration have similarly echoed similar views, which could be suggestive of the type legal advice the minister offers to the government. Also in terms of prosecution of high profile cases, Mr Malamis disposition towards this has been a subject of controversy. Book launch The book, Contemporary Issues In Nigeria Law and Practice was presented in honour of Mr Malami on Thursday. The event which held at the Shehu Musa Yaradua Centre in Abuja, had in attendance the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege; the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; the Chairman/CEO of anti-drug law agency NDLEA, Buba Marwa, among others. Speaking at the event, Mr Omo-Agege showered encomiums on Mr Malami for his work in the recovery of looted funds both home and abroad. He also said Mr Malamis approach to rule law and fight against corruption was exemplary. ADVERTISEMENT He added, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in January 2020 saddled him with the task of repatriating about $300 million of looted funds from the United States and the Island of Jersey. The AGF has successfully ensured the repatriation of over $11 million of the much talked about Abacha loot from the U.S.A and Jersey. Responding, Mr Malami thanked guest, adding that the gathering exemplifies the unity of Nigeria. He said the recent violent events orchestrated by a few unscrupulous and unpatriotic people cannot and will not undermine the constitutional status of Nigeria as a sovereign unified democracy. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) PLDT, Inc.'s aviation arm Pacific Global One Aviation or PG1 is seeing a surge in demand for its air charter services as companies look for private flights amid COVID-19 fears. In a statement issued by PLDT on Thursday, PG1 showed optimism the air charter business would thrive in the next three years, citing a report from market research firm Technavio. Based on Technavio report, the global air charter services market is expected to grow by over $7 billion through 2024 to be propelled by passenger segment. Demand for air cargo services is also seen to pick up. "We have been getting a lot of inquiries, especially from corporations, on our air transport services," Leo A. Gonzales, PGQ OIC-President, was quoted as saying in the statement. This as companies explore "a safer way to travel as the government gradually eases restrictions and opens up the economy," Gonzales added. PG1 has also taken the advantage to boost its service offerings during the pandemic. Aside from ferrying business travelers, it has started accommodating medical evacuations, and transport essential personnel and cargo to critical areas. Currently, the PG1 hangar in Pasay City houses two helicopters and one airplane. The Bell 429 can seat five passengers and can fly from Manila to as far as Laoag up north or Cebu down south, while the AgustaWestland AW139 is a medium-sized helicopter that can carry eight passengers to Luzon and the Visayas from the capital. The firm also operates a twin-engine turboprop, the King Air 350, which can fly eight passengers to all domestic points with airfields of at least a kilometer long, as well as Asian destinations including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. The global health crisis has forced airlines to conduct massive job cuts to keep afloat as travel restrictions continue to be implemented to lessen the virus' blow. In the Philippines alone, thousands of employees of Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific were affected by the companies' retrenchment programs. RELATED: PAL, Cebu Pacific seen to survive COVID-19 bankruptcy fears READ: Airlines counting on local travel to recover from 2020 losses Scranton police arrested a man Tuesday while investigating a suspected fatal overdose. Ronald Howard Ewell, 58, 431 Prospect Ave., Scranton, faces three counts of possession with intent to deliver, one count of criminal use of a communication facility and other charges. According to a criminal complaint, police responded Tuesday to a suspected overdose death of a Scranton man at his home in the 400 block of Pittston Avenue. Officers found text messages with Ewell in the mans cell- phone with phrases police said were common to narcotics sales, including B for a bundle of heroin. Afterward, police used that phone to set up a meeting with Ewell. When police pulled him over in South Scranton, he said he was meeting his friend D who owed him money. Ewell later identified D as the person he sold heroin to earlier Tuesday. Police searched Ewells vehicle and found one packet of suspected heroin. At Ewells home, police found approximately one quarter pound of marijuana and a handgun, which he cannot legally own, according to the complaint. The case remains under investigation, according to police, who plan to review the mans toxicology report and autopsy. Ewell remains in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 4 at 9 a.m. Kolkata, Feb 25 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) all India president J.P. Nadda on Thursday launched the party's 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' (Target Golden Bengal) campaign to unseat the Mamata Banerjee-led West ruling Trinamool Congress government from power in West Bengal. Under the 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' scheme, the BJP will invite suggestions from March 3 to 20, through boxes, that will be made available in all the 294 Assembly constituencies across Bengal. "We have launched Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in Kolkata," Nadda said. The BJP national president, who had arrived in the state on Wednesday night, had lunch at the house of Hukumchand Jute Mill worker Debnath Yadav on Thursday. Sources said Nadda ate lunch on lotus leaf with rice, roti, Dal and vegetables on the lunch menu. BJP Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh, party's Lok Sabha MP from Barrackpore Arjun Singh and many other senior party leaders accompanied Nadda during the lunch. Located on a pristine beachfront property, the upcoming Four Seasons property in Puglia will be comprised of 150 rooms and suites. The exclusive seaside location will offer guests views of the Adriatic Sea and direct beach access, along with easy accessibility to the nearby historic town of Ostuni and countless other attractions in the region. "As we grow as a brand, our focus is on opening hotels in the world's best travel destinations, and in markets where we can introduce an elevated luxury experience. In Puglia, we are achieving both of these goals, and this is the perfect project to expand our presence in Italy with our partners at Omnam Investment Group, led by David Zisser," says John Davison, President and CEO, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. "We look forward to setting the standard for luxury hospitality in this beautiful region, creating opportunities to discover more of this incredible country with Four Seasons." "We acquired this amazing plot of land in Puglia at the end of 2020 together with our trusted partners led by Adam Hudaly from IAC investments. We are always looking for opportunities to create something unique and unexpected with each new project, and we are very excited to do exactly that with the iconic Four Seasons brand," says David Zisser, Founder and CEO, Omnam Group. "As more and more travellers discover Puglia, we look forward to delivering the best luxury lifestyle offering in the region, not only through exceptional design and amenities, but through renowned Four Seasons service." Puglia makes up the heel of Italy's "boot" and is home to ancient towns with rich histories, national parks, soaring mountains, exceptional food and wine, pristine beaches and a Mediterranean climate. Ostuni, the local city a short drive from the Resort, is also known as the "White City" for its white-washed houses and buildings carved into the cliffside, medieval streets, and its 15th century Gothic cathedral. An Exquisite Seaside Retreat Located within a 40-minute drive from popular destinations such as Ostuni, Alberobello and Monopoli, the upcoming Four Seasons in Puglia Italy will be one of few hotels in the region with direct beach access. Accommodations will be housed in villa-style units, all facing the sea, and is being designed by HKS Architects, an award-winning international design firm that has previously worked with Four Seasons on projects in the Bahamas, Tunis, and Egypt, while interior design is being led by ODA Architecture. Additional onsite facilities will include six restaurant and bar offerings, including an all-day restaurant, a specialty restaurant, a seasonal pool bar and grill, a lobby lounge bar, a signature bar and a beach club. The Resort will also include extensive meeting and event spaces including a ballroom and smaller meeting rooms in a designated building, as well as additional outdoor event offerings. The state-of-the-art destination spa will include a fitness centre, 10 treatment rooms, hammam, sauna, pool and yoga studio. The Resort will be located 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Brindisi International Airport and 95 kilometres (60 miles) from Bari International Airport, and is also accessible via direct train from Rome. Four Seasons new Resort in Puglia will join Four Seasons growing collection of properties in Italy, including Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, Four Seasons Hotel Milano, and the upcoming San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel. For more images, please see here. About Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts opened its first hotel in 1961, and since that time has been dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through continual innovation and the highest standards of hospitality. Currently operating 119 hotels and resorts, and 44 residential properties in major city centres and resort destinations in 47 countries, and with more than 50 projects under planning or development, Four Seasons consistently ranks among the world's best hotels and most prestigious brands in reader polls, traveller reviews and industry awards. For more information and reservations, visit fourseasons.com. For the latest news, visit press.fourseasons.com and follow @FourSeasonsPR on Twitter. About Omnam Group Omnam is a diverse global real estate investor and developer with an incisive vision to source and develop iconic real estate assets. Omnam's core expertise lies in medium to large-scale hotels, aparthotels, residential and mixed-use developments in Europe; its portfolio includes projects in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy. Contact: Matt Levison [email protected] 646-274-3631 SOURCE Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Related Links http://fourseasons.com The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A man donning a set of bird pyjama bottoms has been arrested after police seized $700,000 worth of magic mushrooms. Strike Force Bagster investigators swooped in on a home in Greystanes, in Sydney's west, earlier this month. Officers discovered a hidden laboratory and 46kgs of psilocybin - commonly known as magic mushrooms. The 26-year-old, wearing magpie flannelette pyjama pants, was handcuffed on the street before being loaded into a paddy wagon Pictured: Magic mushrooms growing inside dozens of plastic crates at a home in Western Sydney The hallucinogenic drugs have an estimated street value of nearly $700,000. A 26-year-old man was charged and remains before the courts. On Wednesday, investigators arrested a second man, from Kellyville, in relation to the drug bust. The 26-year-old, wearing magpie flannelette pyjama shorts, was handcuffed on the street before being loaded into a paddy wagon. He was taken to Castle Hill Police Station and charged with a slew of offences including manufacture prohibited drugs and possess or use a prohibited weapon without permit. The first man, from Cherrybrook in Sydney's north, was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday. Pictured: Rows of plastic crates with magic mushrooms that were allegedly found in a garden shed Two persons were crushed to death when a wild elephant ran amok in Bihar's Nawada district. A team from the forest department was trying to catch the elephant, which has also destroyed crops. A forest official said the elephant entered Babhanauli village in Nardiganj on Wednesday night and killed Vinod Chauhan (55). On Thursday morning, the elephant caught Anandi Singh (62), who was going to relieve himself in Hisua. It picked him up and then slammed him on the ground, which led to Singh's death, officials said. Fear has gripped the Nardiganj and Hisua areas as the elephant continues to be at large. Nawada forest division officer A.K. Ojha told IANS that a team of experts had been called from Gaya and Patna to catch the elephant. He said that three teams from the forest department were trying to trap the elephant. Forest Area Officer (Ranger) Sanjay Kumar said the elephant arrived in Nawada from Jharkhand's Chatra. It first created trouble in the Sirdala Block area, then it came towards the Hisua and Nardiganj areas, Kumar said, adding that efforts were being made to drive the elephant back to the forest or capture it. President has revoked a policy issued by his predecessor during the pandemic that blocked many Green Card applicants from entering the US, a move that will benefit many Indians working in America on the A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently. Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency. The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. Reopening the country to people seeking green cards, or legal permanent residence, Biden in his proclamation on Wednesday said that the policy of former President Donald Trump does not advance the interests of the United States. To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here, he said. It also harms industries in the United States that utilise talent from around the world. And it harms individuals who were selected to receive the opportunity to apply for, and those who have likewise received, immigrant visas through the Fiscal Year 2020 Diversity Visa Lottery, Biden, a Democrat, said. Biden said that the proclamation issued by his predecessor last spring has prevented these individuals from entering the US, resulting, in some cases, in the delay and possible forfeiture of their opportunity to receive Fiscal Year 2020 diversity visas and to realise their dreams in the country. Biden gives boost to chip manufacturing said on Wednesday he would seek funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the United States as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced US automakers and other manufacturers to cut production. Reuters Neera Tandens confirmation delayed The White House has said it is fighting for the nomination of Indian-American Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget as two crucial Senate committees abruptly postponed meetings on her confirmation. PTI CPS Energy officials on Wednesday blamed runaway natural-gas prices for the financial hit the utility absorbed in the wake of last weeks winter storm. CEO Paula Gold-Williams said CPS is still determining the total cost and whether it will receive federal or state aid to pay off the expense. The utility is looking to make sure that we shelter our customers from shock, she said during a San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board meeting on Wednesday. We want the total obligation reduced. City-owned CPS wont charge its residential and business customers for the expenses stemming from the deep freeze which resulted in prolonged power outages in San Antonio and across the state until the utility has fully assessed the cost, she said. As CPS sought to restore electricity to San Antonio households last week, it faced spiraling prices for natural gas, the fossil fuel it relies on most to generate electricity. The utilitys coal and nuclear plants seized up because of the winter blast, and so did some of its wind and solar energy sources. Gold-Williams said CPS builds its plants to shed heat during the summer, but not to retain heat during the winter. She said utility may invest in insulation at its plants to protect them from the cold. We have a huge imperative to look at everything in the system: the regulations, the standards, planning for the extremes, putting more money in resiliency, she said. Were going to invest more into our systems. The failures forced CPS to scour the open market for natural gas to power several CPS plants including the Spruce coal plant, which the utility switched to run on natural gas during the winter storm. On ExpressNews.com: CPS: Customers won't see higher bills after winter freeze - for now Competition for gas was fierce. All Texas utilities needed it to generate electricity, and households around the state needed the fuel to heat their homes. As demand escalated, some natural gas pipelines and wellheads froze, and icy roads caused delays in gas deliveries. Supply and demand kicked in, and a single unit of natural gas surged from between $2.50 to $3.50 before the storm to several hundred dollars per unit in some parts of Texas. When we had a bunch of gas freeze out in West Texas and in gathering lines, youve got not as much going in and youve got people demanding a whole lot more, and it just shot the prices up extremely high, said Joshua Rhodes, an energy researcher at the University of Texas-Austin. On ExpressNews.com: Buying back-up generators for San Antonio water pumping stations could trigger rate increase Rhodes said utilities such as CPS usually sign long-term contracts with natural gas suppliers to lock in prices for the fuel. But the immense demand for electricity in San Antonio last week likely overtook the gas supply guaranteed by those contracts. When the gas ran out, CPS had to go shopping on the spot market. The markets last week were absolutely crazy, Rhodes said. Being short (on natural gas) for just a little bit of time could equal a lot of money. Gold-Williams said CPS holds long-term contracts for natural gas. But it also frequently buys on the spot market because the price of gas has remained relatively stable and low for much of the last decade. You could go get (natural gas) from a lot of different suppliers, and you could bid it out, she said. It typically works well until you have a freeze across the state until the supply gets constrained. The freezing weather touched off the greatest demand for electricity the utility had ever seen, official said. It does get cold and goes below freezing, but its usually for a few hours and not a few days, Rhodes said. Its like, I have this event that doesnt happen very often, but has big implications. Am I willing to buy the insurance for that event? Insurance in this case could be more gas storage, or it could be making sure you have more generation or weatherizing your plants, he said. Many customers spent hours or sometimes days without power and with no explanation from the utility. Gold-Williams pledged Wednesday to improve its communications with the public. One potential solution: an alert systems to warn residents when an outage is coming their way. diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net The Union Government on Thursday came up with new stringent guidelines for social media platforms along with code of ethics for over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital media. The government will soon notify a list of significant social media intermediaries soon, the minister said, adding that platforms with a "significant" number of users will be classified as significant social media intermediaries. A benchmark number would be set for the classification, he said. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 mandate that the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims. Intermediaries will have to appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty-four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt, said an official statement. As per the new norms "an intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the appropriate government should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries etc." Further, significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the originator of the information that is required only offences related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse. The norm would be applicable to offences under which an offender would be punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. Intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator, said the statement. Further, the significant platforms will have to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person, a Resident Grievance Officer. The platforms would also have to publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively by the significant social media intermediary. In cases where significant social media intermediaries remove or disable access to any information on their own accord, then a prior intimation for the same shall be communicated to the user who has shared that information with a notice explaining the grounds and reasons for such action. Users must be provided an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary, as per the new norms. The rules will come in effect from the date of their publication in the gazette, except for the additional due diligence for significant social media intermediaries, which shall come in effect 3 months after publication of these Rules. Further, on the online news, OTT platforms and digital media platforms, the government has set up three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been under the rules with different levels of self-regulation. The levels are self-regulation by the publishers, self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers, oversight mechanism self-classification of content. A per the Code of Ethics, the publisher shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer based in India who shall be responsible for the redressal of grievances received by it. The officer shall take decision on every grievance received by it within 15 days. There may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body shall be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminent person and have not more than six members. Such a body will have to register with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This body will oversee the adherence by the publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that have not be been resolved by the publisher within 15 days. The partnership helps those that live far from high-level hospitals At the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Nghia Lo General Hospital, doctors are consistently providing active care for sick newborns, especially babies born prematurely to young mothers, the majority of whom are from ethnic minority groups. As a common practice, ethnic minority women still have to carry out heavy farming work whilst receiving inadequate nutrition during their pregnancy. The consequence is that many infants are prematurely born. As Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai from the NICU explained, Ethnic minority groups live in remote villages in mountainous areas which are hard to reach. It takes them hours to get to the NICU. As a result, many infants with infections come to our unit only in severe condition. In 2014 the NICU was established in order to take better care of these children in the hospital without requiring at least four hours to travel to the central hospital. At the time, Mai and many other physicians lacked both professional expertise and proper medical equipment to take care of the sick new-born babies. To deal with this issue, GSK and Save the Children are cooperating to contribute to the development and operation of the NICU. Electrical equipment such as ventilators, automatic infusion machines, electric syringes, and monitors have been provided for the unit. In addition, 10 doctors and nurses have received training and practical experience at the National Childrens Hospital. With the support, Mais unit has helped save the lives of mothers and their babies from some of the most remote areas in the northern province of Yen Bai. One of them was a HMong baby boy. Three years ago, he was born prematurely at 31 weeks at home in a remote village in Yen Bai. At one day old, the baby was brought to the NICU in critical condition, with bluish discolouration on his skin and severe infections. At that moment, no-one thought that he could make it, but with the wholehearted care of the doctors, he recovered miraculously and is now an active and healthy toddler. Besides the support for Nghia Lo General Hospital, the cooperation between GSK and Save the Children has expanded to the village of Tram Tau, in Van Chan district of Yen Bai province. Hundreds of health staff, including midwives from the commune health centres, are receiving intensive training on birth delivery and handling common obstetrics-related problems, which allows nurses to help women at birth, as well as newborn resuscitation and safe referral in Nghia Lo General Hospital. This means that many pregnant women do not need to travel long distances to higher level hospitals, but rather give birth safely at their local commune health centres. The GSK and Save the Children partnership aims to save the lives of a million of the poorest children in the world, with the flagship community partnership programme supporting training and continuous medical education for healthcare professionals across many remote areas including Vietnam. Science-led global healthcare GSK is continuing the establishment of a sustainable and accountable business in Vietnam, by setting the goal to offer innovative anti-infectives, respiratory medicines and life-course vaccine portfolio that supports healthcare professionals to prevent and treat for patient. Besides the Save the Children partnership, GSK also is committed to tackling global healthcare issues by working with the Medical Administration Department at the Ministry of Health and the British Embassy to Vietnam with an aim to support the Vietnamese governments long-term strategy and align with the initiatives of the UK government to support developing countries. Save the Children started its work in Vietnam in 1990 and has since expanded its programmes to cover education, health and nutrition, child protection and child poverty, disaster risk reduction, and also emergency response. It spans 22 cities and provinces across the country with offices in Hanoi, Haiphong, Lao Cai, Danang, and in Ho Chi Minh City. You and your loved ones are your best advocates, but if your hospital has a patients advocates office, report your concern to them. They may not be surprised by your report, and if needed, can help you to change surgeons. They may help with either having a family member join for a critical in-person conversation with your surgeon, or if thats not possible, listen to the consultation over the phone. Many patients are stressed and will not remember what their doctor says, so that extra pair of ears helps. IF you have absolutely no urgent or emergency need to be outdoors today, then remain at home. Should you take a chance and decide to tempt fate, then it may most likely result in you being stopped and questioned by police officers and members of the Defence Force, or even find yourself charged and taken before a court. (Natural News) A new guys only campground for homosexuals in Orleans, Mich., is facing backlash after it announced that only men, and not women pretending to be men, are allowed to camp there. Camp Boomerang RV Park and Campground, which is set to open next year, created a male-only policy that caters to a very specific clientele: biological men. Because of this policy, the transgender mob is having an absolute meltdown. Camp Boomerang is a private, membership-only rv park / campground that allows only guys,' wrote facility co-founder Bryan Quinn in an offensive social media post, adding that a guy is a person with a penis who presents himself as male and has a state-issued ID that says male.' We understand this statement, unfortunately, may not make everyone happy, but feel it needs to be clarified, Quinn added, noting that his campground exists as a private membership-only entity. It is the same policy being employed by private social media companies, which transgenders loudly cheered for silencing conservatives and other transphobes. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, though, private companies are no longer allowed to discriminate. Since I seem to have a good platform here, wanted to bring this to attention to [sic] gays in the Michigan and Midwest area about a campground opening up here next year, whined one Twitter user who identifies as an up and coming amateur porn gay. This same Twitter user urged his followers to not go there, referring to the campground, because it will not allow trans men in as I finally got it in written proof of the rules. Another outraged LGBTQP the P stands for pedophile wrote on Facebook that homosexuals should not camp at the Camp Boomerang RV Park and Campground because [t]heir terms are transphobic and disgusting. In our community, whined another, we fight for each others [sic] rights and we stand together! We cannot allow for this type of exclusion and frankly it makes me so sick! Please DO NOT support Camp Boomerang RV Park & Campground, this same person added, blasting the facility for its lack of empathy and understanding for Trans Men. Watching the Cult of LGBTQP destroy itself sure is entertaining Still another outraged LGBTQP fanatic called for a boycott of Camp Boomerang RV Park & Campground and other Gay Male focused Establishments because of their prejudicial policies against Our Trans Brothers. Hate is hate. Period, this person wrote proudly. In response, Quinn stood his ground and came out with another announcement about how his facility is not planning to implement penis checks, per se, but is rather trying to maintain an environment where only homosexual men are present. Lets be real here: If we let [transgender] men in, and they go naked at the pool, thats when its obvious that theres no penis, Quinn wrote in a Facebook post. Sorry to put it bluntly. But if you dont like the rules, quietly leave. Quinn reiterated that all biological women, including transgender men, are not allowed at Camp Boomerang RV Park & Campground, period. There are other places they can go if they so choose, and are not entitled to breach his campgrounds guidelines simply because they demand it. Much like the no mask, no entry policies embraced by the Cult of LGBTQP and other leftists, a men-only campground can exist at the discretion of its owner. It is a private establishment, and is thus free to do whatever it wants, according to the lefts rationale for social media censorship, forced mask-wearing, and other forms of discrimination. Meanwhile, Beijing Biden is aggressively pushing Congress to pass the so-called Equality Act, which effectively erases women from existence. More related news about LGBTQP outrage culture can be found at Gender.news. Sources for this article include: Breitbart.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com Minnesota's GOP Senate Rich Draheim Madison Lake Minnesota Minnesota's Brent Christensen Minnesota Telecom Alliance Minnesota Anna Boroff Minnesota Cable Communications Association House and Senate Minnesota Congress Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Minnesota's Opportunity Fund Nevada Nick Frentz Greater Minnesota Watonwan County Tom Bakk Minnesota St. Louis County Schools Minnesota (TNS) Lawmakers appear ready to spend more state funding than ever to expandbroadband internet, but questions remain over how best to use that money.and DFL senators presented largely similar proposals before aagricultural policy committee Wednesday that would call for $120 to $150 million spent over the next two years on broadband projects, with at least $30 million to $50 million going toward projects in unserved or underserved communities. That amount is largely in line with a House DFL broadband proposal made earlier this year."I think we all can agree it is very important that we give every citizen in the state an opportunity to hook up to some kind of higher speed of internet," said Sen., R-Draheim is calling for $50 million in grants to be spent in unserved or underserved areas throughout the state over the next two years. He'd also like the state to update its broadband service maps to differentiate between wired and wireless technology connections, as well as mandate state officials to conduct on-the-ground tests of broadband speeds throughoutDraheim also proposes the money he requests to be used in areas not now served by federal funding, which caused mixed reactions among broadband advocates, industry experts and state officials.Critics point out some federal grant programs come with matching fund requirements for communities and internet service providers, which state money can help address. In addition, some federal programs don't meetbroadband speed goals of 25 megabits per second downloads and 3 mbps uploads by 2022, as well as 100 mbps downloads by 20 mpbs uploads by 2026."While several federal programs have requirements at 25 and 3, others have broadband requirements for 10 and 1 or 4 and 1," said, president and CEO of theYet advocates almost universally agree with Draheim's goal to use funding as efficiently as possible to connect morehouseholds to high-speed internet., the executive director of the, said the organization supports Draheim's language as it allows more internet service providers access to funding for community projects rather than stacking the deck for certain projects while leaving other providers out of consideration."The idea is right," she said. "Paying twice in the same areas while leaving other communities with nothing does not make sense."It remains to be seen just how much moneyleaders are willing to commit to broadband this year.is set to receive $300 million in federal broadband grants from the COVID-relief packagepassed in December, which leaders say will likely factor into their budget decisions.About $408 million from the federalis going to broadband projects across the state over the next 10 years to hook up about 142,000 ofunserved households. The state has about 157,000 unserved or underserved households that don't meet the 2022 broadband speed goals, and about 256,000 households that don't meet the 2026 broadband goals.It's unclear how quickly many of those projects can get started, however, and some may require state funding to push them to completion. Some providers and broadband experts have expressed concerns over whether certain projects funded through thewill actually come to fruition.One company,-based LTD Broadband, received about $312 million for broadband projects across the state. Yet experts say LTD Broadband is ill-equipped to tackle so many projects at once and may not pass federal requirements to get their projects going, leading some local officials and businesses to ask the state to fund broadband proposals in areas where LTD projects are set to start.Sen., DFL-North Mankato, said he was "very encouraged" by the broadband funding proposals. "It seems like both parties agree on how critical this particular infrastructure is to."Yet Frentz and other lawmakers are feeling pressure to do something quickly about broadband funding. Frentz said he still hears complaints fromresidents who have to drive their children miles away to a restaurant parking lot to do their homework online.Sen., I-Cook, said he was surprised to learn 80% of students in the northernschool district where he lives,, had internet speeds at home that didn't meet state broadband goals this past school year."That is a massive problem and I suspect much of rurallooks like that," Bakk said. Top Republican Compares House Democrats Attempt to Deplatform Fox News With CCP Censorship The top Republican House member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday criticized an attempt by House Democrats to pressure television carriers to deplatform Fox News and two conservative cable news channels. Ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) expressed her concerns regarding letters sent by two Democratic members on the panel to 12 cable, satellite, and streaming companies. The letter accused the companies of not taking steps to combat the spread of what the Democrats said was misinformation. They demanded answers to why carriers were offering their services to these television outlets. Elected officials using their platform to pressure private companies to censor media outlets they disagree withthat sounds a lot like actions from the Chinese Communist Party, not duly-elected representatives of the United States Congress, McMorris Rodgers said during a committee hearing on disinformation and extremism in the media. Here we cherish free speech and a free independent press. We believe in dialogue and in the battle of ideas. Rather than censor and silence constitutionally protected speech, the answer is more speech. Thats the American way. She reminded the committee that it was their duty to uphold the First Amendment. Its foundational to our personal rights and liberties. So, we should all be troubled today on what appears to be an attack on the First Amendment by elected officials to coerce private companies to censor political speech, she said. The letters were sent by Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), who claim that right-leaning Fox, Newsmax, and One America News had spread misinformation after the November 2020 elections and about COVID-19. They asked carriers to provide details on what moral or ethical principles they apply in deciding which channels to carry, how many subscribers tuned into the networks in the weeks preceding the presidential election, and whether theyve taken adverse actions against any channel in the wake of the election or the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. In separate statements to The Epoch Times, spokespeople from the three news outlets decried the lawmakers conduct. The spokesperson for Fox News said that the lawmakers actions set a terrible precedent. Meanwhile, One America News President Charles Herring told The Epoch Times that when government officials want to silence media, especially media that opposes their false narratives, its nothing short of an attack on our democracy and freedom of press. Eshoo pushed back on criticism that they violated the First Amendment, adding that she had asked First Amendment experts at the Congressional Research Service to review their letters for violations. She said the experts informed her that their analysis so far did not indicate that there were any First Amendment red flags and that she would share the legal analysis in due course. Id like this to be understood, the idea that members asking questions violates the First Amendment is absolutely absurd. Its our job to ask questions, Eshoo said. Meanwhile, McNerney defended their letter saying that they were trying to understand how disinformation spreads and the role of various companies in enabling its spread. McMorris Rodgers on Feb. 24 sent a letter to acting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asking her to condemn Eshoo and McNerneys letter. As Acting Chairwoman of the Commission, it is incumbent upon you to use your position to preserve and protect our fundamental freedoms that are protected by the First Amendment. You can, and must, denounce any attempts by government officials to use their power to threaten a free press at such an important time in our Nations history, she wrote in the letter, which was cosigned by Communications and Technology Republican Subcommittee Leader Bob Latta (R-Ohio). Rosenworcel and her staff did not respond to The Epoch Times request to comment on the House Democrats letters. However, FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington in separate statements characterized the lawmakers pressure as troubling because it seeks to stifle political speech and independent news judgment. Carr said that the two House Democrats had selectively targeted several news media outlets for their coverage of political events, saying that such actions send a clear and troubling message of these regulated entities will pay a price if the targeted newsrooms do not conform to Democrats preferred political narratives. This is a chilling transgression of the free speech rights that every media outlet in this country enjoys, he said. Simington echoed Carrs concerns, characterizing the two House Democrats conduct as worrying. He said the lawmakers were applying overbroad and vague label of misinformation to any media reportage that calls into question their preferred political narratives, and have sought to intimidate into silence those who would distribute on their platforms disfavored points of view. This is particularly concerning because the House Energy and Commerce Committee supervises the Communications Act, and their statement could be read to imply that action will be taken under the Communications Act should the recipients not agree in advance to chill their speech, he said (pdf). The (ADB) has priced a two billion dollar 10-year global bond, proceeds of which will be part of ADB's ordinary capital resources. "We appreciate the strong support of our investors for this new 10-year global bond issue," said ADB Treasurer Pierre Van Peteghem on Thursday. "This is our second successful outing in the US dollar market this year. The constructive result provides us with more resources to support our developing members in Asia and the Pacific, especially those most affected by the pandemic." The 10-year bond, with a coupon rate of 1.5 per cent per annum payable semi-annually and a maturity date of March 4, 2031, was priced at 99.088 per cent to yield 18.35 basis points over the 1.125 per cent US Treasury notes due in February 2031. The transaction was lead-managed by JP Morgan, Nomura, RBC, and TD Securities. A syndicate group was also formed consisting of ANZ, Credit Agricole CIB, ING, Natixis, and Scotiabank. The issue achieved wide primary market distribution with 27 per cent of the placed in Asia; 48 per cent in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and 25 per cent in the Americas. By investor type, 56 per cent of the went to central banks and official institutions, 30 per cent to banks, and 14 per cent to fund managers and other types of investors. ADB plans to raise around 30 billion to 35 billion dollars from the capital in 2021. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The English-speaking world is leading the way on cannabis legalisation Is cannabis good for you? Medically, this argument continues to roll on. But pragmatically, legislators are increasingly devolving decisions about the drug to the individual. Thus recreational use of cannabis is now completely legal in 14 states of the USA, and effectively allowed in several others. Its also legal in Canada, and South Africa, and a couple of other jurisdictions around the world. Noteworthy that its the English-speaking nations leading the way, and noteworthy too that in this respect the UK and Australia are the laggards. But how much longer can it last. Long gone are the days when the media and popular press were able to whip up hysteria about pot-smoking dopeheads and cause moral panic, as they famously did with the film Reefer Madness. These days moral panic is generated by outing Rita Ora for hosting an illegal birthday party or by castigating Gina Carano for the contents of her Twitter account. Cannabis use is a long way down the list, to the point that although it turned heads and raised eyebrows when the worlds richest man, Elon Musk, publicly smoked it on the popular Joe Rogan show. Yes, Musk has been publicly censured by US regulatory authorities more than once, but not for that. And naysayers - both on Musk and on cannabis - would do well to take note that it was only after his public display of reefer madness with Rogan that Tesla recovered its poise and shot up the rankings to take the slot at the top of the world rankings of car companies by market capitalization. Cause and effect? Probably not. But the more salient point is that smoking cannabis, and smoking it publicly at that, didnt do Musk, or any of his investors any harm. With Musk, you either think theres madness where hes involved, or there isnt. The reefer is a side issue. All of which indicates a clear direction of travel. With the Democrats, a party traditionally more favourably disposed to cannabis, now firmly in control of the USAs most important levers of power, it seems a racing certainty that the overall environment is going to become more lax. The question is how soon? Remember the issue of gay marriage? That seemed intractable, and even President Obama was on the record as against it at one point. But attitudes suddenly shifted, and legalization of gay marriage swept across the country with amazing rapidity. The same could happen with cannabis. And as with the USA, so with the UK. The British government, having suddenly found itself lumbered with a 400bn additional debt burden it wasnt expecting to have, is frantically scrabbling around for new ways to raise revenue. Some sort of tax on e-commerce would seem equitable, given that bricks and mortar companies have been forced out of business as a direct consequence of the governments own lockdown policies. But given the precedent now set by the USA, Canada and elsewhere, the legalisation and consequent taxation of cannabis would seem to be a no-brainer. After all, since cannabis use in the UK is effectively decriminalised anyway, making the de-facto reality official and above board would involve little more than the stroke of a pen. Then, the entrepreneurial companies can move into the space, clean up the seedier side of the industry, and turn a small part of the black economy legitimate. Such a move wouldnt solve all Rishi Sunaks problems. But the precedents are there. In just under two years between early 2018 and late 2019, Californias cannabis sales generated US$411.3mln in excise tax, US$98.9mln in cultivation tax, and US$335.1mln in sales tax. Cannabis sales in Colorado in 2019 were valued at US$1.7bn, and overall sales in the US are expected to triple over the next three years to more than US$30bn. The UKs economy is smaller and structured differently. But theres no doubt that, as with electric vehicles, this is a growth industry. The UK government has been falling over itself to help out the nascent lithium and battery metals industry thats currently growing up at breakneck speed in Cornwall. But isnt it time it also took a leaf out of Elon Musks playbook, and properly investigated the effects of cannabis on its own fiscal wellbeing. Conservative governments are by their nature cautious. But amongst up-and-coming generations of voters this could well be a vote winner. The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday. South Africa and India, which both manufacture drugs and vaccines, made the proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year, arguing that intellectual property (IP) rules were hindering the urgent scale-up of vaccine production and provision of medical products to some patients. They have faced opposition from some developed nations, but the backing ... 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. 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. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:31:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Around 2,000 fighters in Ethiopia's western Benishangul-Gumuz regional state have surrendered, an Ethiopian official said on Thursday. Ashadli Hassen, president of Bensihangul-Gumuz regional state, said the 2,000 fighters surrendered after recent security sweeps by the Ethiopian army forced the fighters to give up their weapons. "The Ethiopian army has been able to improve security situation in unrest parts of the region," Hassen said, according to the Bensihangul-Gumuz regiononal communications affairs office. In recent months, deadly inter-communal violence in the Metekel zone of Benishangul-Gumuz regional state has killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 100,000 others. In one especially deadly incident in December, at least 207 people were killed in a massacre in Bekoji village, Metekel zone. The violence is mainly over access to power and land resources. Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, located along the Ethiopia-Sudan border, hosts Ethiopia's largest development project, the 5,150 Megawatts (MW) the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is under construction on the Blue Nile River with a construction cost of close to 5 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem Australia has landed itself in the top 10 nations with the most effective soft power, closely followed by New Zealand. Soft power refers to a country's appeal and attraction to the rest of the world, and is defined as 'a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence'. Germany took out the top spot, followed by Japan, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, the US, France, Sweden, China, and Australia at the number 10 spot. New Zealand's meteoric growth has been attributed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's likability and popularity following her handling of the Covid pandemic and the Christchurch massacre Australias climate change policy and treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people likely hindered its overall ranking. Pictured: Prime Minister Scott Morrison New Zealand, the fastest-rising nation, came in at 16th. Its meteoric growth has been attributed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's likability and popularity following her handling of the Covid pandemic and the Christchurch massacre. Melissa Conley Tyler from the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute said soft power influences where people travel, what overseas goods they buy and where they send their children to study. 'I think positive perceptions of a country's leader are very important and I'm not surprised that the Jacinda factor has worked in New Zealand's favour,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said Ms Ardern is considered by most as being 'confident, decisive and fair,' and instrumental in propelling the country's soft power for 2021. Despite Australia and New Zealand all but eliminating the virus, Mr Haigh said leaders' decisions to implement tough border closures has worked against their favour. 'It's also likely that Australia's strict border controls and quarantine measures elevated negative perceptions, despite being effective in managing the spread of the virus, [and] sparked criticism about the restriction of movement,' he said. Ms Conley Tyler said Australia's climate change policy and treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people hindered its overall ranking. China was ranked third thanks to its appeal to and relationships with the developing world. Australia's ranking has improved after last year when it came in at 13th in the world's 60 soft power nations 'While China has been criticised by Western media for various issues at home and on its borders, these criticisms do not seem to have adversely affected the developing world which has responded favourably to Chinese infrastructure, medical, educational and financial support,' Mr Haigh said. Australia's ranking has improved from last year when it came in at 13th in the world's 60 soft power nations. The country was in 2020 globally regarded as 'fun and friendly', according to the inaugural Global Soft Power Index. SAINT HELIER, Jersey, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CoinShares, Europe's largest digital asset investment firm, today announced it has made a four-year, $500,000 (USD) donation to the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Media Lab (read more here). The MIT DCI will use the funds to support open-source software development and advance the security of the Bitcoin protocol. This contribution to the DCI will support a growing team of senior, specialized open-source developers focused on systemic threat mitigation and rigorous improvements to Bitcoin's underlying infrastructure, including code audits, increasing automation, and novel research into Bitcoin's long-term economic security. CoinShares joins a growing core of other industry leaders as part of a new DCI Guardian's Circle committed to long-term foundational funding of open-source development and systemic security improvements to the Bitcoin protocol. CoinShares CEO, Jean-Marie Mognetti, stated, "As a beneficiary of the work of hundreds of developers who secure, upgrade, and maintain the open-source protocols that underlie the Bitcoin network and the applications built on top of it, we believe for-profit firms in the digital asset industry have an obligation to fund independent, neutral development efforts and research that advances the mutual interest of all ecosystem participants." This donation follows several other contributions CoinShares has made since pioneering digital asset ETPs in 2015. CoinShares has sponsored a two-year research grant at London's Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering, which resulted in the development of a new indexation methodology. CoinShares also employs a full-time market analysis team which has published research considered a bellwether for the industry, including the firm's widely cited mining report, weekly fund flows, and many others. In addition, CoinShares produces a regular series of events that educate and advocate for the digital asset class. CoinShares Chairman, Danny Masters, added, "We are proud to support Bitcoin Core development and believe it is important for industry leaders to provide the financial, social, and political capital needed to allow institutions like MIT DCI and others to maintain their independence and pursue an agenda informed by their expertise and free of corporate influence." About the CoinShares Group CoinShares is Europe's largest digital asset manager, managing billions of assets on behalf of a global client base. Our mission is to expand access to the digital asset ecosystem by pioneering new financial products and services that provide investors with trust and transparency when accessing this new asset class. For more information on CoinShares, visit: https://coinshares.com Media Contact Jay Morakis +1 646 859 5951 [email protected] SOURCE CoinShares Group 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. 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. More than half of the jobs at Walgetts high school are vacant, with violence and high staff turnover putting teachers and principals off moving there despite $9 million facilities and more money per student than Sydney Grammar. The NSW Department of Education needs to fill 11 of Walgett Community Colleges 21 teaching positions and find its 30th principal in 23 years, but teachers believe the workplace is unsafe, as multiple sources say staff have been hit, spat upon and had their cars damaged. A multimedia and performing arts area built at Walgett Community College as part of a $9.2 million renovation Credit:Jenny Wiggins Late last year, a student put a speaker cable around a teachers neck and threatened to kill him but was allowed to remain on site for the rest of the day, according to documents seen by the Herald, while a pregnant teacher recently had to stop a fight involving a knife at the north-western NSW school. One person familiar with the situation said a handful of students were responsible for creating a volatile environment for everyone else. Most students were calm and interested. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Volvo Cars and Geely Automobile Holdings Limited on Wednesday announced wide-ranging collaborations and the combination of their powertrain businesses. Retaining independent corporate structures, the two auto companies plan to combine their powertrain operations into one new company focused on next-generation hybrid systems and internal combustion engines, said a joint statement issued late Wednesday. The new company, expected to become operational this year, will supply to both companies as well as other automobile manufacturers. Volvo Cars and Geely Auto will also deepen their collaboration on electric vehicles, autonomous driving technologies and joint procurement, according to the statement. "Having evaluated different options to realize value, we concluded jointly that a collaboration model between two standalone companies is the best way to secure continued growth and at the same time achieve technological synergies in many areas," said Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Cars. Our body consists of 100 trillion cells that communicate with each other, receive signals from the outside world and react to them. A central role in this communication network is attributed to receiver proteins, called receptors, which are anchored at the cell membrane. There, they receive and transmit signals to the inside of the cell, where a cell reaction is triggered. In humans, G protein-coupled receptors (GPC receptors) represent the largest group of these receptor molecules, with around 700 different types. The research of the Frankfurt and Leipzig scientists focused on a GPC receptor that serves as a receptor for the neuropeptide Y in cells and is accordingly called the Y2 receptor. Neuropeptide Y is a messenger substance that primarily mediates signals between nerve cells, which is why Y2 receptors are mainly present in nerve cells and among other activities trigger the formation of new cell connections. In the laboratory, the researchers engineered cells, which had approx. 300,000 Y2 receptors on their surface and were grown on specifically developed, light-sensitive matrices. Each of the Y2 receptors was provided with a small molecular "label". Once the scientists created a spot of light with a fine laser beam on the cell surface, the Y2 receptor under this spot were trapped via the molecular label to the exposed matrix in such a way that the Y2 receptors moved closely together to form an assembly known as a cluster. The whole reaction could be immediately observed at the defined spot and within a few seconds. Professor Robert Tampe from the Institute of Biochemistry at Goethe University Frankfurt explains: "The serendipity about this experiment is that the clustering of receptors triggers a signal that is similar to that of neuropeptide Y. Solely by the clustering, we were able to trigger cell movement as a reaction of the cell. The laser spots even allowed us to control the direction of the cell movement." As the light-sensitive lock-and-key pairs utilized are very small compared to the receptors, the organization of the receptors in the cell membrane can be controlled with high precision using the laser spot. "This non-invasive method is thus particularly well suited to study the effects of receptor clustering in living cells," Tampe continues. "Our method can be used to investigate exciting scientific questions, such as how receptors are organized in networks and how new circuits are formed in the brain." ### Gwyneth Paltrow is once again under fire for being on the wrong side of science, this time for saying she is treating lingering COVID-19 symptoms with intuitive fasting and infrared sauna sessions. The 48-year-old actor wrote in a blog post on her lifestyle website Goop that she has been experiencing long-tail fatigue and brain fog after contracting COVID-19 early on. Gwyneth Paltrow is again clashing with scientists. Credit:Netflix She said she sought advice from a functional medicine practitioner and had since been fasting daily until 11am and eating a mostly ketogenic and plant-based diet, with no sugar or alcohol and lots of coconut aminos. She is also taking supplements in service of a healthier gut, which she said were critical for me right now. Everything Im doing feels good, like a gift to my body. I have energy, Im working out in the mornings, and Im doing an infrared sauna as often as I can, all in service of healing, she wrote. Stocks to watch today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Thursday's trading session based on latest developments. Share Market Live: Sensex rises 500 points, Nifty at 15,140; Axis Bank, ONGC, IndusInd Bank top gainers Nureca: The company's shares will be listed on exchanges today. Max Financial Services: IRDAI has given its formal approval for the acquisition of up to 12 percent stake in Max Life Insurance Company by Axis Bank and its subsidiaries. Cadila Healthcare: The company's subsidiary Sentynl Therapeutics will buy Cyprium Therapeutics' Copper Histidinate product candidate to treat Menkes disease for $20 million. HG Infra Engineering:The company has been declared as L-1 bidder by NTPC for a road construction project. Wipro: The IT services major has appointed Ren Mulder as Country Head and Managing Director of its Switzerland operations. Indiabulls Real Estate: The Competition Commission of India approved the proposed merger of NAM Estates Pvt Ltd and Embassy One Commercial Property Developments Pvt Ltd into Indiabulls Real Estate. Cochin Shipyard: The company has partnered with Dredging Corporation of India and IHC Holland BV to make world-class dredgers. Affle (India): The company's board will consider raising funds via securities on February 27. MEP Infrastructure Developers: The company has been awarded user fee collection rights at Sergarh Fee Plaza for one year. Piramal Enterprises: The company's subsidiary Piramal Pharma Ltd has completed the acquisition of an additional stake in Convergence Chemicals Private Ltd for Rs 65.10 crore. Just Dial: The company has launched its B2B portal, Jd Mart, across various platforms for users. Godawari Power Ispat: The company has started booking export orders of high-grade iron ore pellets to China and other countries. The first export order of 50,000 MTs has already been booked and the delivery will take place in the month of April, 2021. By Trudy Rubin Earlier this month President Joe Biden went to the State Department to pump up a demoralized foreign service corps, and to tell the world: "America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy." That pledge was echoed Tuesday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told NPR: "We've reengaged with allies and partners around the world. I think I've made myself maybe 50 calls already." So there's no doubt the Biden approach is diametrically different from that of the erratic tweeter in chief, who was incapable of strategizing, as he ignored competent experts and whipsawed policy decisions solo. That doesn't mean Biden will be a softie, for example on China, as the GOP claims. As Blinken put it, in an NPR interview: "President Trump was right to take a tougher line on some of the egregious things that China has done. But the way we went about doing it did not produce results." The Biden team rightly realizes that curbing Chinese aggression (or Russian meddling) requires a full-court press by Washington together with allied nations in Europe and Asia. But building back those alliances better may be one of the toughest, and most critical, challenges the Biden administration will face. On the surface that would seem paradoxical. No doubt Blinken is correct, when he says, in regard to U.S. reengagement: "I found an incredibly receptive audience for that." No wonder. No more sneering at Germany or NATO's relevance, or hinting the United States wouldn't come to the aid of members if they were attacked, as Biden's predecessor did, repeatedly. Instead, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III made clear at a virtual NATO defense ministers meeting last week that America was committed to the alliance. And Biden has already reversed the former president's pledge to cut the 36,000 U.S. troops based in Germany by one-third. But the Trump presidency has left its negative mark on trust in America's reliability (as did the Iraq war and the financial crisis before that). And the impact on the transatlantic relationship with fellow democracies in Europe should unsettle Republicans as well as Democrats. Consider these dire statistics: A new survey issued by the European Council on Foreign Relations, or ECFR, shows that only 10% of those polled, in 10 European Union countries, believe the United States is a "reliable" security partner that will always protect Europe. In other words, most Europeans appear to doubt that NATO would defend a member if Russia tried to seize part of its territory as it did in Ukraine. "Europeans' attitudes towards the United States have undergone a massive change," writes the ECFR's director, Mark Leonard, along with the shrewd Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev. "Majorities in key member states now think the U.S. political system is broken " True, two-thirds of those surveyed believe Europe should look after its defense rather than rely primarily on the United States, which is not a bad thing in principle. The problem is that European nations, and their militaries, are too divided and ill-equipped to provide sufficient defense against likely future Russian nibbling tactics or possible future moves by China. A reimagined NATO, including U.S. forces, is best positioned to do that. But the ECFR survey also shows that "there is deep ambivalence towards the United States in the event of conflict with China or Russia with many Europeans keen to be neutral in such a scenario." And a majority believe that China will overtake the United States as the world's leading superpower within the next decade. Such broadly shared opinions about U.S. decline amongst the European public undercut plans for strengthening a joint U.S.-European position toward a more aggressive China. "Washington cannot take European alignment against China for granted," write Leonard and Krastev. "Public opinion will have a bigger effect on the relationship than it once did, and needs to be taken into account." The good news is that the Biden administration has put forward another essential foreign-policy premise that speaks to America's declining image linking foreign policy to addressing America's divisions and inequalities at home. "There's no longer a bright line between foreign and domestic policy," Biden said at the State Department. "Every action we take in our conduct abroad, we must take with American working families in mind. Advancing a foreign policy for the middle class demands urgent focus on our domestic economic renewal." This may sound like boilerplate, but the link between U.S. foreign policy and domestic renewal has never been so crucial. The Trump administration's failure to address racial injustice or curb COVID-19, its attacks on democracy including the Jan. 6 insurrection, and now the Texas power disaster (and Sen. Ted Cruz's trip to Cancun) have presented the world with a picture of democracy on the rocks. So the route to reviving our alliances also includes passing a COVID-19 relief package and moving on infrastructure and other measures that demonstrate America is not imploding as China rises. A successful foreign policy abroad will depend on what happens at home. Trudy Rubin (trubin@phillynews.com.) is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. This article was distributed by Tribune Content Agency. In the song Empire State of Mind, by Jay-Z (featuring Alicia Keys) the hugely famous rapper proclaims Now I live on billboard. Today, almost 12 years after the acclaimed anthems release, a group of community-minded Trenton Central High students now live on billboards too, five of them, distributed throughout their city of Trenton. But this isnt about bold self-promotion. The billboards are a public service campaign that will contribute to the health and well-being of the residents of Trenton. The project involved the high school partnering with the City of Trenton, Trenton Public Schools, Office of School Health Services, Heal the City of Trenton and a local graphic artist to design the billboards. Heal the City also sponsored a billboard campaign last summer to honor and encourage the 2020 TCHS graduates. Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - Trenton Central High School senior Noelia Martinez is one of a group of TCHS students featured on a billboard campaign to encourage "masking up" during the coronavirus pandemic.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Noelia Martinez is one of the members of the TCHS Volunteer Club featured on the billboards. She serves as the clubs vice-president and says the concept for the billboards was a real team effort. The city, they really allowed us to create this from the start, she said. The message was that we wanted to spread awareness for COVID-19. First, we all talked about our experiences observing people not willing to mask correctly or not wearing them at all. For example walking into the corner store seeing people not wearing their masks, we were like Okay, how do we reach out to those people? The group hatched the idea of making a connection between masks and superheroes as a good way to encourage their families, friends and neighbors to do their part for coronavirus safety. Trenton schools have remained all-remote learning during the pandemic but the photoshoot for the billboards brought together the classmates. Noelia said when she arrived, it was emotional. I hadnt seen these people in like a year. (It) was really fun because we were all really depending on each other. A nine-minute video was produced from the photoshoot for the billboards. Once the shoot was accomplished and that part was over, The Barnard College-bound senior said they all felt something. Wow! We did this! Were actually creating the board. Were actually spreading this message and it was really inspiring, and a moment to reflect on what we were accomplishing, she said. Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - Provided photo - A group of TCHS students are featured on a billboard campaign to encourage "masking up" during the coronavirus pandemic.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - Provided photo - A group of TCHS students are featured on a billboard campaign to encourage "masking up" during the coronavirus pandemic.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com We did that together. We did it as a team and it really goes to show what patience and hard work can really give you. It was a moment that I felt proud of myself, and its an experience I keep with me. Speaking of the billboards, Noelia said, I hope people will actually stop and read them and be like think maybe I should take care of myself more, maybe I should watch out little more for my family. We all have loved ones, people we are close to and people we cherish and want to protect. I wanted people to really understand the dangers of the virus and the importance of wearing a mask. One of the billboards, located on Lalor Street, has special significance for Noelia. The design relies heavily on the theme of family connections and the words are in Spanish. A lot of people dont speak English, for example my parents, who came here from Guatemala, she said. My parents are both immigrants and Im the first one in the family that is going off to college. Its like an honor. Translated, the main words read Trenton, Use a Mask, For the Ones You Love. Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - One of the billboards in a campaign to encourage "masking up" during the coronavirus pandemic, is written in Spanish. It is located on Lalor Street.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - Trenton Central High School senior Noelia Martinez is one of a group of TCHS students featured on a billboard campaign to encourage "masking up" during the coronavirus pandemic.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com I know a lot of people keep saying like, Whats a mask going to do? but it has power, a huge impact and it really does lower chances and I think we all have some type of responsibility protecting ourselves and trying to stay safe is our main responsibility and its one thing we can all do and its the one way we can all contribute. RELATED: Trenton born, world renown singer Sarah Dash gets her COVID-19 vaccine at Trenton arena. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Michael Mancuso may be reached at mmancuso@njadvancemedia.com With the hope of contributing to the fight against cancer, researchers in Sweden have published a new molecular mapping of proteins that regulate the cell division process - identifying 300 such proteins. The release of the data, which was published today in the scientific journal, Nature, is significant because it helps bring medical research closer to the point of being able to target specific proteins to treat cancer. Identifying and understanding what characterizes these proteins is important, says co-author Emma Lundberg, a professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology whose research group at Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Stockholm contributed to the mapping of these proteins. The long-term hope is that doing so will lead to progress in development of tailor-made cancer drugs and treatments, adapted to the specific anatomical condition of the individual patient in relation to the underlying disease, Lundberg says. In addition to the 300 newly-identified proteins, the researchers report that 20 percent of the human proteome (all protein molecules that the genome encodes for) indicates cell-to-cell variation, that is, fluctuation in gene expression within otherwise identical cells. This information presents medical research with new insights into the cell cycle, in which a balance is moderated between those proteins which promote cell proliferation and those which inhibit it. Lundberg says the work is now incorporated into the open-access research database, the Human Protein Atlas. Our hope is that this provides a valuable resource for a better understanding of, among other things: cell-to-cell variation, the human cell cycle, and the newly-identified proteins in the cell cycle and their role in the formation of tumors." Emma Lundberg, Professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology In order to identify the cell cycle-specific proteins, the researchers used so-called immunofluorescent microscopy. The researchers then combined the collected data with RNA sequencing of individual cells to describe the temporal presence of RNA and proteins throughout the cell cycle. The research work was carried out by 19 researchers from KTH, including Diana Mahdessian and Anthony Cesnik, via SciLifeLab. The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Uppsala University and Stanford School of Medicine also contributed. Research support was provided by the Swedish Research Council and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. INDIANAPOLIS The confrontation begins at a side door of Lebanon Senior High School. Viewers watched via Facebook Live as a woman approached the school, about 40 minutes northwest of downtown Indianapolis, and was greeted by Brian J. Boyer, a band teacher who, in that moment, was allegedly waiting for a 14-year-old girl to meet him for sex. Do you wanna come out and talk to me for a minute? the woman asked. Basically, I brought you out here cause we know who you are, Im definitely not 14, youve definitely been talking to a decoy, the woman said while walking with Boyer into the nearby parking lot. The nearly 20-minute video is one of dozens posted to the PCI: Predator Catchers Indianapolis Facebook page. Their confrontation with Boyer was eventually interrupted by the schools principal, who directed the decoy and Eric Schmutte, the groups founder, to take their complaints to the districts administration office. Within hours of the encounter being streamed on Facebook, Lebanon Police announced Boyers arrest and the school district placed him on administrative leave. Boyer, whose job was terminated Jan. 29, is charged with one count of child solicitation. CDC data: Young Black men and teens are killed by guns 20 times more than their white counterparts Schmutte and the decoys working with PCI are part of a wider network of online sleuthing groups throughout the state. Eric Schmutte, founder of Predator Catchers Indianapolis, is seen Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021 at his Indianapolis home. His organization's work has resulted in the arrest of a Lebanon High School band teacher. 'Vigilantes' just want to help. But there are risks. Schmutte, 34, said he started his group after becoming outraged that child predators aren't held fully accountable for their actions. The way I see it, the justice system is not doing what it needs to do as far as locking up these guys and giving them actual sentences, he told IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network. So, us exposing them is the next best thing so people can at least know that these guys are predators. As his audience has grown the video of his confrontation with Boyer has over 250,000 views Schmutte said he's gotten pushback from some who say he's posting videos for attention. Story continues "It's very insulting for people to tell us that we're doing it for the views or the clout, just to be famous or whatever," he said. "Because we put a lot of work into what we do and we take it very seriously." Yet, there's another side to this picture: However noble their intentions, this kind of internet detective work carries significant legal and safety risks. Online citizen groups hunting for potential predators is by no means a new phenomenon, but it's often discouraged by law enforcement due to safety concerns for both the citizen investigator and their "catch." In several instances across the country including the case that contributed to the cancellation of Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" subjects have died by suicide after being confronted by investigators. By no means a new phenomenon: How private citizens become digital detectives And their work will not always be rewarded. While some law enforcement agencies will take their screenshots and videos as tips to investigate, others have outright said they will not accept any information from the groups. One such prosecutor, Holly Hudelson of Orange County, told IndyStar in a written statement that her office is aware of Austin Spain, the one-man team behind the Bedford Predator Patrol, about 90 minutes south of Indianapolis, and said that unlike a police investigation, none of the information he presents can be used for prosecution. "The vigilante's actions in ambushing an individual in this way causes great risk to the parties and the public," she said. "These actions make the community less safe, by allowing these alleged predators to avoid the possibility of a conviction by tainting a case from the start." Spain told IndyStar that although his page attracts thousands of followers, he's not motivated by clicks. "To me, it's not about anybody knowing what I'm doing," Spain said, "it's about making the world safer for our kids." Victor Vieth, chief program officer of Zero Abuse Project and founder of the National Child Protection Training Center, told IndyStar that private citizens may not have a complete understanding of how a predators mind works or the danger and gravity of the situation theyve created. "Even a lot of detectives are not well-trained on all of these nuances, and its hard for me to believe your average layperson is properly educated," Vieth said. Theyre playing with fire." 'This is the worst of the worst' Neither Schmutte nor Spain has law enforcement training Schmutte is a welder and Spain works in electrical construction. They're conducting these investigations in their free time, for free. Spain, 29, said he was inspired to begin hunting would-be predators after growing concerned that men who assault underage girls sometimes get a "slap on the wrist." "This is the worst of the worst, you know. Anybody that can do something to a child, in my opinion, is just the bottom of the barrel," Spain said. "Because what theyre seeing as a sexual pleasure to them is something thats going to ruin a childs life. Since starting this work late last year, Spain said he's personally met at least 30 men and said recent catches have contributed to arrests in two counties. Here's how it works: Members of these groups create fake, "decoy" dating or social media profiles and, once connected with someone, share their decoy age. The conversation either ends or continues and eventually becomes sexual, Spain and Schmutte said, at which point they'll agree to meet, only to reveal their true identities and confront the person while streaming on Facebook Live. Austin Spain looks at his Facebook Messenger inbox on his phone Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. He has two decoy pages that he uses in his search for sexual predators online. For Spain, it's as easy as creating decoy Facebook pages using photos of adult female friends who he said have given him permission to use their images. One decoy page reviewed by IndyStar shows a young woman who says she's a student at a Bedford high school who likes reading. There's nothing outwardly provocative about the page. Spain doesn't send friend requests, he said, nor does he initiate conversations. He lets the requests come to him. When he spoke to IndyStar on Jan. 22, Spain said one of his decoy pages had around 900 pending friend requests. Typically, he sorts through requests and messages, deleting those that are obviously fake or out-of-state. Then, it's just a matter of responding to that first message. He'll respond with a "hey," and let the person drive the conversation from there. Even when the person begins sending sexual messages, Spain said he tries to steer the conversation toward a different topic. "That kind of gauges how the rest of the conversation is gonna go," he said, "because a lot of times theyre very persistent and they want to keep talking about it." In one exchange from December reviewed by IndyStar a conversation between Spain and one of his first catches a man asked the decoy about herself, at which point she said she was nearly 16 and had a previous boyfriend who was 46, but he had recently died in an accident. The man messaged the Spain's decoy account suggesting she must like grown men, to which she responded "Lol well I only date older men." The conversation continued, with the man offering to pay half of the cost of a motel room and split a dose of ecstasy, saying, "it get u high but bring the freak out of you." As captured on Facebook Live, when confronted at an area Walmart on Dec. 6, the man walked out of the store without acknowledging Spain's accusations. The man, Willie Richardson, now faces one count of child solicitation. Tech: YouTube to launch supervised accounts for kids under 13 years old 'Not only illegal, it's sick' About two-thirds of the people Spain communicates with will end the conversation when they learn the girl's age, he said, so "there's still a lot of good people in this world." "But theres still 30% that are willing to take that risk," he said. "And when you have 100 people a day messaging you, 30% is a lot. An IndyStar review of one of his decoy accounts found he received around 600 messages within the first 10 days of January. By early February, that account had over 750 pending friend requests. Posing as the girl, he eventually agrees to meet with these men in a public place. It's one thing to exchange messages, but it's another to prove that the men were willing to go forward with the proposed sexual encounter, Spain said, and that piece of evidence is likely to be most helpful to police and prosecutors. "When they show up," Spain said, "that shows the intent." Austin Spain looks at his Facebook Messenger inbox on his phone Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. He has two decoy pages that he uses in his search for sexual predators online. Spain tries to stay even-keeled, staying mindful of his volume and language. He just wants to give them the opportunity to respond to the allegations. "Im non-confrontational," Spain said, "so when I talk to somebody although what theyre doing, to me, is disgusting I still talk to them like a human being. I still show them respect." After the "catch," he'll go home and put together a file of screenshots and photos he's received to turn over to police. But that doesn't always result in an arrest or prosecution. "My goal from the beginning was to try to get these guys arrested and prosecuted," he said. "But if its just exposing them and thats all I can do, then thats all I can do." Coronavirus Watch newsletter: Sign up for daily updates right in your inbox Tiptoeing legal boundaries Vieth, the training expert and former prosecutor, said law enforcement professionals who go undercover understand there are legal parameters to what they can say and do. Then comes the question of the subject's intent. A prosecution has to be able to prove the offender's desire was to maltreat children. Experts used to divide sex offenders into two groups: preferential, those who prefer having sex with children, and opportunistic, those who wouldn't act unless the opportunity presented itself. However, Vieth said, each offender's mind and motivation are far more complex than binary, meaning law enforcement and health professionals have to work to understand what is driving each individual's actions. Victor Vieth is the former executive director of the National Child Protection Training Center. There's this built-in defense that it wasnt really the offender who was choosing to go down this path, it was really planted in their mind, encouraged by the person whos dialoguing with them," Vieth said. "So its a very fine line to be careful not to cross. Another issue to consider is that of safety. The subjects of the catch may feel trapped and decide to harm themselves or others. Their work may inspire others to engage in "vigilante justice." The work they turn over to police may not be prosecutable. So, is it worth the risk? "Eventually," Veith said, "those things will overpower any of the good anecdotes." Vieth encourages private citizens who want to engage in prevention efforts to reach out to professional organizations for training, become involved in local advocacy groups and educate their children and other children about what they can do to stay safe. "Theres no doubt that citizens can play a role in protecting children from abuse," he said. "The question is how do they do it in a healthy and lawful way?" The greater good There's not an easy way to quantify how many of these cases Indiana law enforcement have taken on or thrown out. Neither Spain nor Schmutte tracks their catches to know what happens once they turn the information over to law enforcement. Spain, who said he's studied Indiana code regarding child solicitation and done his research to avoid entrapment, said people shouldn't be quick to judge him for the work he's doing online. "Before anybody says that what Im doing could potentially hurt a prosecution, I think they should look at what Ive done and look at the facts that are presented and see if it actually would hurt the prosecution," Spain said. "Because Im fairly positive that Ive stayed between all guidelines." Both Schmutte and Spain told IndyStar they'd be willing to undergo law enforcement training to ensure they're safe, effective and able to collaborate with local agencies. Until then, their sleuthing will continue, because their priority is the greater good. "I dont feel like Im doing anything that I couldnt do with any other law thats being broke," Spain said. "If I saw somebody robbing a bank, I would be more than glad to pull my phone out and record it and hand the evidence over to the police." Follow reporter Holly Hays on Twitter: @hollyvhays More: Biden administration to deliver more than 25 million masks to health centers, food pantries Ahmaud Arbery was killed at 25: A year later, Black men who see themselves in him mourn his loss This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis predator catchers hunt offenders, experts urge caution You might notice something different here. As we continue our evolution, our data and market news is now available through the Fastmarkets platform and a trial of this website is no longer available. Our new delivery solution allows you to access the prices and news that matters most to you in a way that delivers value, quality and a unique, fully customizable view for you. We are working hard to develop an experience that allows you to test drive building your view of our data and news on the new platform. In the meantime, learn more about us through any of the options below. CONWAY As residents continue to be impacted by the current major flooding event inching its way toward and through the Grand Strand, Horry County officials announced it is unlikely FEMA will be involved in this isolated incident due to monetary damage thresholds the county is not predicted to meet. Randy Webster, assistant county administrator for public safety, said the county would need to exceed $1 million in uninsured losses, while South Carolinas uninsured damage at large needs to reach $7 million in order for a presidential declaration to be made to allow FEMA to aid in the process. Webster cast doubt that there would be enough statewide damage to help buoy the numbers to trigger the assistance, with FEMAs prior involvement tied to major hurricanes that impacted more than just Horry County. FEMAs absence will leave the county responsible for the costs and expenses of this flooding event, with Webster indicating the county is exploring low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration to aid residents in need. Dont be thinking FEMA will be coming to assistance on this one, Webster said. While isolated, the impact of this flood continued to become more apparent throughout the area on Feb. 25, with the Waccamaw River at Conway expected to crest in the late afternoon. Roads already overflowing with floodwaters have been classified by the National Weather Service as major. The NWS maintained the minor flooding status along the Intracoastal Waterway in Socastee, while officials are monitoring both the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers in Bucksport as the flood event is expected to extend into next week. With 92 roads closed throughout the county as of 11 a.m. Feb. 25, the Horry County Police Department has activated access- control zones the first time it has done so for a rain event, according to Joe Hill, the HCPD chief. Over the past five years, the access-control zones have been used for hurricanes and tornadoes. Hill also announced the U.S. Coast Guard has put in a no-wake zone order for the Intracoastal Waterway, with HCPD and SCDNR patrolling the waterways to enforce the order. Johnny Gardner, Horry County Council chairman, expressed the council understands the areas continued obstacles with flooding are growing tiresome for all, specifically calling out the Socastee and Bucksport areas. There is a permanent solution required for this; this is not the first time that youve had this it seems to be getting worse every time we have substantial rain, Gardner said. Were going to do everything we can do to try to fix this. Rest assured, it is not a short process, everybody knows that. Buyouts as a solution Sign up for our Myrtle Beach weekly update newsletter. Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Myrtle Beach area. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Myrtle Beach news staff. Email Sign Up! With the county overwhelmingly familiar with flooding events, Webster addressed the ongoing attempt to buy out homeowners who have property consistently in the path of destruction. While offering no specific timeline, Webster said that the buyouts are key to combating flooding events moving forward. Were still in the process of getting funding taken care of for the buyout program, Webster said. One way to fix this is to offer buyouts to those that continue to get flooded. Webster also addressed the idea of developers building in areas in harms way, pointing to Horry County Councils flood resiliency committee that's looking at various solutions, indicating that costs were central to putting one in motion. More rain ahead Parts of Horry County are under a flood warning until further notice and more rain is possible in the coming days. The National Weather Service predicts more rainfall in the Conway area on Feb. 26 and again Feb. 28. Forecasters predict a 40 percent chance of rain through the day Feb. 26 and a 50 percent chance overnight. A 30 percent chance of showers is possible through the day on Feb. 28 and into the late weekend. The NWS also calls for chances of showers in the Conway area into next week. Resources Webster indicated the county is working with the American Red Cross for those who might need housing assistance during this time, indicating that they've worked with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on following all COVID-19 protocols. Here are additional resources to utilize: The Canadian Press Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she experiences huge waves of anxiety before speaking to the media and revealed she has suffered long bouts of depression. Osakas agent, Stuart Duguid, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the worlds No. 2-ranked tennis player was pulling out before her second-round match at the clay-court tournament in Paris. The stunning move came a day after Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the U.S. at age 3, was fined $15,000 for skipping the postmatch news conference after her first-round victory at the French Open. She also was threatened by all four Grand Slam tournaments with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension, if she continued with her intention which Osaka revealed last week on Twitter to not do any press during Roland Garros. She framed the matter as a mental health issue, saying that it can create self-doubt to have to answer questions after a loss. First and foremost we are sorry and sad for Naomi Osaka. The outcome of Naomi withdrawing from Roland Garros is unfortunate, French tennis federation president Gilles Moretton said Monday. We wish her the best and the quickest possible recovery. And we look forward to having Naomi in our tournament next year. Moretton said the four major tournaments, and the professional tennis tours, remain very committed to all athletes well-being and to continually improving every aspect of players experience in our tournament, including with the media, like we always have." In Monday's post, Osaka spoke about dealing with depression since the 2018 U.S. Open, which she won by beating Serena Williams in a final filled with controversy. I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly, Osaka wrote, explaining that speaking with the media makes her anxious. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris, Osaka wrote. I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. She continued: Anyone that knows me knows Im introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that Im often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety. ... I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the worlds media. Williams was asked about Osaka on Monday after winning her opening match in the first scheduled night session in French Open history. I feel for Naomi. I feel like I wish I could give her a hug because I know what its like. ... Ive been in those positions, Williams said. We have different personalities, and people are different. Not everyone is the same. Im thick; other people are thin. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently. You just have to let her handle it the way she wants to, in the best way she thinks she can, and thats the only thing I can say. I think shes doing the best that she can. Osaka has never been past the third round on the French Open's red clay. It takes seven victories to win a Grand Slam title, which she has done four times at hard-court tournaments: the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020; the Australian Open in 2019 and this February. Here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences, she wrote. Tennis players are required to attend news conferences if requested to do so. The maximum fine of $20,000 is not a big deal to Osaka, the worlds highest-earning female athlete thanks to endorsement contracts totaling tens of millions of dollars. Mental health and awareness around it is one of the highest priorities to the WTA, the women's tennis tour said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman. We have invested significant resources, staffing and educational tools in this area for the past 20-plus years and continue to develop our mental health support system for the betterment of the athletes and the organization. We remain here to support and assist Naomi in any way possible and we hope to see her back on the court soon. Other players, notably 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and No. 1-ranked Ash Barty, have said they respect Osakas right to take a stance but explained that they consider speaking to reporters part of the job. After Osaka's post Monday, several athletes in tennis and other sports tweeted their support. Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, wrote: I am so sad about Naomi Osaka. I truly hope she will be ok. As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental & emotional aspect gets short shrift. This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference. Good luck Naomi- we are all pulling for you! Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry wrote that it was impressive taking the high road when the powers that be dont protect their own. major respect. ___ AP Sports Writers Sam Petrequin in Paris and Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report. ___ More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press Two people have been identified in connection with the discovery of more than 100 immigrants at a stash house in the Cheyenne Subdivision. Jose Ruben Ortiz-Parada and Ignacio Torres-Elias were arrested and charged with conceal, harbor or shield from detection; attempt to conceal, harbor or shield from detection; and conspire to conceal, harbor or shield from detection the immigrants. The case unfolded on Feb. 16, when U.S. Border Patrol agents received information regarding a human stash house in the 1000 block of Comanche Loop. Agents, Homeland Security Investigations and Laredo police set up surveillance at the residence and observed Torres-Elias depart the home in a light-colored Chevrolet Suburban at approximately 10 a.m. Torres-Elias departed alone in the vehicle. He later returned to the residence on Comanche with a front seat passenger identified as Ortiz-Parada. Authorities observed Ortiz-Parada standing near the front door of the residence while several people exited the residence and boarded the Suburban. Agents and officers approached Torres-Elias and Ortiz-Parada, prompting both to run to the rear of the property and jump a fence into a neighboring property, according to court documents. Border Patrol agents and HSI special agents detained Torres-Elias and Ortiz-Parada after a brief pursuit. Authorities then observed several people inside the Suburban parked in the driveway and multiple more through the open front door. The people inside the home closed the door and opened the windows in an attempt to abscond, according to court documents. Agents entered the residence and detained multiple immigrants who had crossed the border illegally. Authorities detained 105 people in total from the residence and the Suburban. All were determined to be immigrants who had crossed the border illegally. HSI special agents would identify Torres-Elias as a caretaker who would go into the residence to watch over and feed the immigrants. Torres-Elias allegedly stated that Ortiz-Parada called him earlier in the day and asked him if he wanted to work by transporting immigrants. Ortiz-Parada stated he did not have any work, so he agreed to transport the people. Ortiz-Parada stated he was to transport the people from the house to an 18-wheeler trailer and he knew the people were illegally present in the United States. Ortiz-Parada stated Torres-Elias drove and picked him up and took him to the residence on Comanche Loop to help transport the people, states the affidavit. Ortiz-Parada added he had transported people on two previous occasions about a week ago and was paid approximately $1,200 each time, states the affidavit. He alleged that Torres-Elias told him he would be paid $1,800 this time for transporting 17 immigrants. Ortiz-Parada stated Torres-Elias instructed him to act as a lookout for law enforcement officers and when he (Ortiz-Parada) saw the approaching law enforcement officers, he told Torres-Elias, and they both ran away, states the affidavit. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The synthesis of new material using a solid solvent. A substrate covered with a system of uniformly distributed anchors is immersed in a solution containing the desired atoms or molecules, which are then captured from the solution by the anchors. Credit: IFJ PAN Materials impossible to obtain with existing methods can be produced using a solid, nanostructured silica solvent. Scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow presented an innovative approach to the production of substances with unique physical and chemical properties. A team of physicists from Cracow (Poland) has succeeded in developing a flexible method for producing solid, two-dimensional silica solvents to produce materials with unique optical, magnetic and structural properties. The term 'solid solvent' here means a substance which, when immersed in a solution of the appropriate molecules, binds them to its surface in strictly defined proportions and in a defined manner. This achievement is the work of a team headed by Dr. Lukasz Laskowski from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Science (IFJ PAN) in Cracow. The results of the team's many years of work have just been presented in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. New materials are often produced by depositing specific atoms or chemical molecules on a suitable substrate, such as silica or carbon. The problem here, however, is controlling how the molecules are deposited. The difficulty is easy to understand using a simple example. Take a rubber ball, coat it with glue and throw it into some feathers. When you take the ball out, you find that there are more feathers in some places than in others on its surface. The reason for this situation is the fact that there is no control over how individual feathers stick to the ball. "In molecular engineering, the situation is even more complicated," says Dr. Laskowski and presents the issue: "Suppose that after years of research you finely managed to find a way to control the distance between the feathers stuck to the rubber ball. What would happen if we suddenly needed to stick on not feathers but, let's say, glass beads? You would probably have to change the glue. Changing the glue and the glued element would mean that new methods would have to be devised to control the distance between the elements being stuck on. Again, this would require several years of research, which would not necessarily be successful." Microscopic images of various forms of solid silica solvent covered with molecular anchors. Top: spherical porous silica particles (MCM-41), bottom: the SBA-15 mesoporous silica. False colors. Credit: IFJ PAN The Cracow physicists, funded by the Polish National Science Centre, decided to solve the problem described above in the following way. Instead of struggling with successive searches for new methods of uniformly depositing all sorts of different ions or particles on carriers, they developed one method of coating a silica substrate with anchoring units. Here, each molecular anchor is bound on one side to the substrate, while the other side can capture an ion or a molecule of a specific type from the environment. What is particularly important is that this method makes it possible to maintain statistical control over the density of distribution of the anchors on the carrier's surface. The problem of designing new materials has thus been radically simplified. Currently, its most significant point is the relatively simple and fast development of an anchor with one end attracting the currently required ions or molecules. "In our method, the key role of the solid solvent is played by silica nanostructures. We produce them in conditions such that when they form, they are immediately covered by a regular grid of anchoring units with a density strictly adjusted to our current needs," explains Dr. Magdalena Laskowska (IFJ PAN). The ability to statistically control the distance between anchors, which exists at the stage of producing the silica solvent, allows scientists to precisely select the amount of substance bound on the silica particles' surface. At the same time, it becomes possible to maintain control over the interactions of the molecules trapped by the anchors and even over their orientation. "In traditional processes for producing new materials, molecules of certain chemical compounds can become deposited on a surface in such a manner that their molecular structure changes. The molecules then often lose their properties and become virtually useless. This happens when molecules bind to the substrate using fragments that determine their physical or chemical properties. However, we can take these unruly molecules and compact the number of anchors on a solid solvent in such a way that the molecules, after binding, still have active areas and retain their original functionality," explains Ph.D. student Oleksandr Pastukh (IFJ PAN). Microscopic images of various forms of solid silica solvent covered with molecular anchors. Top: spherical porous silica particles (MCM-41), bottom: the SBA-15 mesoporous silica. False colors. Credit: (IFJ PAN When a suitably prepared silica solvent is immersed in a solution with the target ions/particles, the anchors on its surface capture and bind them, which spontaneously leads to the assumed molecular structure formation. The newly formed material now simply needs to be filtered, washed with a solvent to remove any dirt, and dried. Mastering the technology of producing solid solvents with precisely controlled anchor distribution allowed the IFJ PAN researchers to reverse the traditional process of designing and synthesizing materials. Instead of examining already manufactured materials to find applications for them, the Cracow researchers first learn about current needs, for example, in optoelectronics or photonics, then with these in mind, design the properties of the material, determine its molecular structure, and finally synthesize a substance with exactly the properties required. During the synthesis, a key role is often played by a solid solvent, with which it is possible to control the proportions between molecules taking part in the reaction with extraordinary precision. "Once the material has been produced, we test it to compare its actual physical and chemical properties with the required ones. If there are discrepancies, we repeat the synthesis with slightly changed parameters. If that does not help, we make adjustments at the molecular design stage," Ph.D. student Andrii Fedrochuk (IFJ PAN) explains in more detail. The method using nanostructured silica solvent is particularly interesting due to the possibility of producing materials with unique non-linear-optical characteristics, for example, with a precisely tuned second or third harmonic component of light (which means that the light wave leaving the material has doubled or tripled frequency in relation to the wave incident on the material). Interesting applications are also opening up in the field of medicine. It is becoming possible to develop new materials that would allow the molecules to retain their strong biocidal properties when added to dental fillings or paints. Explore further Obtaining and observing single-molecule magnets on the silica surface More information: Magdalena Laskowska et al, Nanostructured Silica with Anchoring Units: The 2D Solid Solvent for Molecules and Metal Ions, International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2020). Magdalena Laskowska et al, Nanostructured Silica with Anchoring Units: The 2D Solid Solvent for Molecules and Metal Ions,(2020). DOI: 10.3390/ijms21218137 Provided by The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. OnePlus 9 series is one of the most anticipated smartphone lineup for 2021. OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus 9R alongside the OnePlus Watch are all set to launch on March 23 globally. The company has heavily teased the design and specifications of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro but has largely kept the other two products under wraps. That said, we do have an idea of what to expect from the upcoming products since they have been leaked several times now revealing their key specifications and features. OnePlus has also announced that it has inked a three-year partnership with Hasselblad to co-develop the camera system on the OnePlus 9 series. Here's everything we know so far about the OnePlus 9 series India launch set for March 23. What is the launch date of the OnePlus 9 series in India? OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 9 series will launch on March 23 in India. The company is expected to launch the OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9R this year. OnePlus 9 series launch details OnePlus 9 is now confirmed to launch on March 23 at 7:30 PM IST/ 10 AM EDT/ 2 PM GMT/ 3 PM CET. How to watch the OnePlus 9 series launch event live? OnePlus will live stream the OnePlus 9 series launch event for its fans and interested folks can tune in and witness the company as it announces new products. The OnePlus 9 series along with the company's first smartwatch is confirmed to launch on March 23 at 7:30 PM IST. We have embedded the YouTube livestream link below for your convinence and you can also follow OnePlus' social media handles to get regular updates. What is the price of OnePlus 9 series in India? The OnePlus 9 series could be priced starting at Rs 39,999 as per the leaks. The OnePlus 9R is said to be priced at Rs 39,999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage and Rs 43,999 for the 12GB+256GB option. OnePlus 9 could be priced starting at Rs 49,999 for the 8GB+128GB storage option and Rs 54,999 for the 12GB+256GB storage variants. OnePlus 9 Pro could be priced starting at Rs 64,999 for the 8GB+128GB variant and Rs 69,999 for the 12GB+256GB storage option. The OnePlus 8 series was launched in 2020 starting at Rs 41,999 but if the latest leak is to be believed, the company could price the OnePlus 9 series higher than the last generation. OnePlus 9 series Design and Display OnePlus has officially revealed the design of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro in Morning Mist and Winter Mist colourways, leaving little to the imagination. The OnePlus 9 is confirmed to have triple cameras while the 9 Pro has quad camera array on the back. OnePlus 9 has been leaked in the past indicating that it could feature a 6.55-inch Full HD+ display that uses an AMOLED panel. The display is also said to support a 120Hz refresh rate making the whole experience fluid and fast. The screen is also rumoured to have a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera up front. In all likelihood, the display on the OnePlus 9 could be the same as the one on the OnePlus 8T that launched in October 2020. OnePlus 9 Pro is confirmed to feature a slightly larger 6.7-inch QHD+ (3216 x 1440 pixels) resolution display with a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera. The screen supports a 120Hz refresh rate and has a 3D curved design on the edges unlike the flat display on the OnePlus 9. OnePlus has revealed that the display supports 10-bit colour depth with 1 Billion colours, HDR10+ certification and Automatic Color Temperature Adjustment. As for the OnePlus 9R, it is expected to feature a 6.5-inch Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution AMOLED screen with support for a 90Hz refresh rate. Not much is currently known about the affordable phone in the OnePlus 9 series but it is rumoured to be a toned-down version of the standard OnePlus 9. OnePlus 9 series: Under the hood OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro are flagship smartphones that are confirmed to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 660 GPU. The phones will be offered in multiple storage and RAM variants to choose from. The phones will run on OxygenOS 11 out-of-the-box which is based on Android 11. Apart from the usual set of sensors and connectivity features, we can expect dual stereo speakers along with an in-display optical fingerprint reader. The OnePlus 9R, on the other hand, is rumoured to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 processor with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 619 GPU. This could be paired with 8GB RAM and 12GB storage and will run on Android 11 out-of-the-box. OnePlus 9 series: Cameras The standard OnePlus 9 is rumoured to have triple cameras on the back that consists of a 48MP primary camera, a 50MP camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there could be a 16MP selfie camera which could be the same one as the OnePlus 8T. On the OnePlus 9 Pro, the rear camera setup is headlined by a 48MP primary camera, 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a telephoto camera with 3.3x optical zoom and a 2MP camera sensor as well. The rear cameras will also be able to record in 8K and 4K UHD at upto 120FPS. OnePlus has revealed that the OnePlus 9 series will use a custom Sony IMX789 sensor with support for 12-bit RAW, improved HDR recording, video recording in 8K at 30FPS and 4K UHD at 120FPS. OnePlus 9 series features a new panoramic camera with 140-degree field-of-view, free-form lens that potentially eliminates edge-distortion in an ultra-wide-angle camera and a T-lens technology for faster focus on the selfie camera. Another leak revealed the alleged camera details of the OnePlus 9R. The affordable phone in the OnePlus 9 series is expected to have a 64MP primary camera along with an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera. OnePlus 9 series Battery The OnePlus 9 series is confirmed to support 65W fast wired charging. The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro are expected to be equipped with a 4,500mAh battery with 65W fast charging support. The OnePlus 8T debuted last year with its 65W Warp Charge fast-charging technology and the company will likely bring it to the OnePlus 9 series as well. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 9 Pro also supports 50W fast wireless charging out-of-the-box and the company has also revealed a new Warp Charge 50 wireless charging dock for the OnePlus 9 Pro. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 9R is expected to feature a slightly larger 5,000mAh battery that could likely support 33W fast charging out-of-the-box. Also Read: Asus ROG Phone 5 launch in India: Everything we know so far On the first night Janice Suess parked her 2004 Honda Element outside her new Bernal Heights apartment, she heard the distant scrape of metal on metal outside her window a sound that would cost her thousands of dollars and months of uneasy sleep. She rushed outside, but not before thieves managed to saw off part of the cars catalytic converter, an emissions-control device containing a mix of precious metals whose values have skyrocketed in recent years. Suess paid $800 to mend the converter and weld it to the underbelly of the car to protect it from future thieves. But the episode sent her into a paranoid spiral, she said, leaving her on perpetual alert for the sound of saws. On one anxious night she even slept in the car. In January, thieves struck again while she was out of town, this time making off with the entire catalytic converter, which cost thousands of dollars to replace. Infuriating, Suess, a painter, called the ordeal. Catalytic converter thefts are on the rise in the Bay Area and across the nation, with thieves targeting the component for its rising resale value on an underground market that relies on a network of scrapyards and recyclers willing to deal in stolen parts. Those responsible for the robberies work at night and often travel from outside the areas they target, local law enforcement officials said, making it exceedingly difficult to catch them in the act. The more they move around, the easier it is to go undetected, said Chris Mahurin, spokesman for the Santa Rosa Police Department, where detectives saw a sharp spike in catalytic converter cases this year. The phenomenon is not limited to the Bay Area. Police departments nationwide are reporting an uptick in the thefts, which require little time and few tools. While police sometimes recover stolen catalytic converters as they did after a car containing a cache of stolen parts careened off an Oakland overpass arrests are rare. Thats in large part because thieves wielding floor jacks and reciprocating saws have become adept at removing the pipe-shaped part without detection, officials said. With people commuting and traveling less during the pandemic, cars may sit idle for days. By the time a car owner notices usually when the engine elicits a telltale roar like the rumble of a motorcycle its too late. Without physical evidence or eyewitnesses, such cases can be particularly hard to solve. In Berkeley, catalytic converter thefts more than tripled last year, from 150 in 2019 to 516 in 2020, according to police. And 2021 is on track to approach that record, with 74 catalytic converter thefts so far. In Vallejo, converter thefts surged in the early months of the pandemic and again at years end, totaling nearly 300 in 2020. In Pacifica, police responded to dozens of thefts in November and again in January, a spike that led investigators to start tracking the thefts for the first time. Oakland and San Francisco police departments declined to provide specific data. Catalytic converters began disappearing as soon as the pandemic started, said Jiacomo Rodriguez, a technician at Precision Auto in San Francisco. We call it the other epidemic. While overall crime is down during the pandemic, statistics show auto theft and burglaries shot up. At one point last year, Rodriguez said, it was not uncommon for his shop to attend to three catalytic converter replacements simultaneously. Part of the reason for the surge in thefts has to do with the global rise in demand for the metals contained in catalytic converters: platinum, rhodium and palladium. Noxious fumes from a vehicles engine react with the metals as they pass through the converter, where theyre transformed into less harmful gases like carbon dioxide. The metals have seen historic price increases in recent years as automobile companies strive to meet tougher emissions standards. Palladium and rhodium are now more valuable than gold, per ounce, with platinum not far behind. The value of rhodium alone has increased by 3,000% since 2016. The demand for rhodium, in particular, has skyrocketed given the growing global concern with pollution emissions, said Frank A. Wolak, an economist who studies commodity prices and directs the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University. Demand for it comes almost entirely from catalytic converters, he said. For car owners, that means buying a new catalytic converter to replace a stolen one can cost between $2,000 and $3,000 for parts and labor. By contrast, the three to seven grams of precious metal stripped from a stolen converter fetches about $300 at scrapyards, according to Michael Andraychak, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. Despite the steep replacement fee, new catalytic converters were back-ordered due to high demand this week at auto body shops around the Bay Area. One Toyota of Oakland, for example, was running a wait list for converters Monday as it awaited a shipment. At On Site Auto Repair in Santa Rosa, one owner of a 2001 Toyota Prius was told her new part wouldnt arrive from the manufacturer until April. For an additional $450, mechanics can bolt an aluminum plate over the catalytic converter, on the cars underbelly, to protect it. Suess recently had one such plate installed on her Honda Element, an investment she said she wishes she had made sooner. The aluminum safeguard ended five months of nightly dread. I feel like I can finally sleep at night, she said. Nora Mishanec is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NMishanec Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspects poverty alleviation work in a tea farm of Laoxian Township, Pingli County of Ankang, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, April 21, 2020.Xi visited Shaanxi Province on an inspection tour from April 20 to 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Eliminating poverty, improving people's livelihoods, and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism. Since the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress, the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, has placed poverty alleviation in a prominent position, put forward new thoughts and ideas, and made new decisions and arrangements to advance China's poverty relief campaign. Here is a look at China's efforts to fight poverty. In this file photo taken on Dec. 30, 2012, Xi Jinping (R) visits an impoverished villager in the Luotuowan Village of Fuping County, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) -- December 2012 During his visit to impoverished villages in north China's Fuping County, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the most arduous and heavy task facing China in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society is in the rural areas, especially the poverty-stricken regions. -- March 2013 While joining deputies in panel discussions at the annual session of the National People's Congress, Xi said poverty alleviation should not be like "killing fleas with a hand-grenade" or resort to indiscriminate measures. The poor population should be accurately identified, assisted and managed. -- November 2013 During an inspection tour in central China's Hunan Province, Xi visited Shibadong, a Miao minority village labeled "poor" at the time, where he put forward the concept of "targeted poverty alleviation." The term refers to measures that include a system to keep track of every household and individual in poverty to verify that their treatment is having the desired effect. -- April 2014 The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development issued a work plan on the registration of the poor population, mobilizing millions of grassroots cadres across the country to carry out poverty identification. During the process, 128,000 villages, 29.32 million households, and 89.62 million people were identified as poor, according to national standards and procedures on poverty reduction. A database was established for every single impoverished person. -- October 2014 China observed the first National Poverty Relief Day on Oct. 17. -- January 2015 Xi said no single ethnic minority group should be left behind in the country's building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. -- February 2015 During a meeting with Party chiefs of 24 counties and cities from Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Xi said a well-off society is incomplete if people in old revolutionary base areas cannot shake off poverty. Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the 2015 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 16, 2015. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) -- October 2015 Xi delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum, saying that China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty in the past 30 years, and China was the first developing country to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of reducing the population living in poverty by half ahead of the 2015 deadline. While striving to reduce poverty at home, China has also actively supported the cause in other developing countries. Over the past 60 years, China has provided 166 countries and international organizations with nearly 400 billion yuan in assistance. -- November 2015 Xi led a conference on poverty alleviation and development. The conference, attended by senior leaders of the CPC Central Committee and the central government, and major provincial-level officials, was the first such high-level meeting ever held at the time. Officials made a "soldiers' pledge" to the central leadership. -- February 2016 During a trip to Shenshan Village, a poverty-stricken village in the city of Jinggangshan, in Jiangxi Province, Xi met with villagers and the village party chief to learn about the progress that had been made in poverty relief through "precision" measures. "Not a single family living in poverty is to be left behind on our path to combating poverty," Xi told the Shenshan villagers. -- July 2016 Xi urged developed regions in the east to help their partner regions in the west better fight poverty at a national conference on poverty alleviation through east-west cooperation in Yinchuan, capital city of China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. -- August 2016 During an inspection tour to Qinghai Province, Xi said relocation is an effective way to relieve poverty, and stressed the importance of listening to what the villagers want and letting them participate in planning their new villages. Xi said that the building of new villages should be integrated with measures to promote production and employment, improve basic public services and protect ethnic, regional and cultural features and styles. -- End of 2016 The Shibadong Village, the birthplace of "targeted poverty alleviation," dropped its "poverty-stricken" label in 2016. -- February 2017 Jinggangshan, the heartland of the early revolutionary activities of the CPC, announced that it had been officially taken off the list of impoverished areas. -- October 2017 The 2017 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum kicked off in Beijing. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sent a letter of congratulation to the meeting commending China's poverty-reduction strategy. He said that China had lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and China's poverty-alleviation experience could provide useful lessons for other developing countries. -- February 2018 The number of rural people living in poverty had dropped from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 30.46 million at the end of 2017, and 68.53 million people had been lifted out of poverty in the past five years, a reduction of about 70 percent. -- End of 2018 The Dulong ethnic minority group in China's Yunnan Province announced that it had been officially taken off the list of impoverished areas in 2018. When answering a letter from the Dulong people, Xi said that "poverty eradication is only the first step, better days are yet to come." -- May 2019 Yan'an, a former revolutionary base of the CPC, was officially taken off the list of impoverished areas. -- June 2019 Huang Wenxiu, who led the poverty-alleviation efforts in a village in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, died in a rain-induced flash flood on June 17, 2019, at the age of 30. Over the past eight years, over 1,500 poverty-alleviation cadres in the country had died in the battle against poverty. -- March 2020 A symposium on securing a decisive victory in poverty alleviation was held in Beijing, the largest of its kind since the 18th CPC National Congress. -- March 2020 The country's poverty-alleviation tasks were near completion, as the number of impoverished people fell to 5.51 million at the end of 2019, and the poverty headcount ratio was down to 0.6 percent from 10.2 percent during the period. Of all the 832 nation-level poverty-stricken counties, only 52 remained to be removed from the poverty list. -- May 2020 The registered poor households of the village of Atulieer atop a cliff in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in China's Sichuan Province, moved to a newly built community. Since 2016, more than 600 billion yuan had been invested in building new homes for 9.6 million people struggling in extreme poverty. -- May 2020 The Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was removed from the country's impoverished county list. In an instruction on poverty elimination among the ethnic group, Xi called on the Maonan people to take poverty elimination as a new starting point for a better life, and continue with efforts to make their lives more prosperous. -- October 2020 China's Tibet Autonomous Region accomplished the historical feat of eradicating absolute poverty. By the end of 2019, Tibet had lifted 628,000 people out of poverty and removed 74 county-level areas from the poverty list. -- October 2020 Xi urged continuous efforts to win a complete victory in the battle against poverty as China marked the seventh National Poverty Relief Day, saying that 2020 was the decisive year for completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty nationwide. -- November 2020 China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with over 25 million people of various ethnic groups, bid farewell to absolute poverty, with the last 10 impoverished counties managing to end absolute poverty. -- November 2020 Xihaigu, once one of the world's most uninhabitable places due to harsh environment, achieved a historic feat in eliminating absolute poverty, with the last poor county in the region removed from the country's list of poverty-stricken counties. -- November 2020 China announced that it had removed the remaining 52 impoverished counties from the poverty list, marking the removal of all 832 on the list, a globally significant milestone in poverty reduction for the world's most populous country. -- December 2020 In a letter of congratulations to the International Forum on Sharing Poverty Reduction Experience held in Beijing, Xi said that the cause of poverty reduction is facing severe challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the world, and China is willing to work with all countries to promote international poverty reduction and build a community with a shared future for humanity. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year speech Thursday evening in Beijing to ring in 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) -- December 2020 While delivering a televised New Year speech to ring in 2021, Xi said China had secured a great historic achievement for fully building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a decisive victory in poverty eradication. In 2020, after eight years of efforts, all of China's nearly 100 million impoverished rural residents living below the current poverty line had shaken off poverty. The guests have been revealed for this week's Graham Norton Show on BBC One. Joining Graham on Friday night will be Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Stanley Tucci and Kingsley Ben-Adir, with music from Silk City featuring Ellie Goulding. Hollywood star Kate Winslet joins Grahm to talk about her role in romantic Victorian drama Ammonite, and versatile actor, Stanley Tucci, speaks about portraying a writer with dementia in Supernova. Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom joins to discuss his powerful revenge drama Retaliation, and rising British star Kingsley Ben-Adir talks about his new sci-fi anthology, Soulmates. Music on the night will be from Silk City ft Ellie Goulding, who perform New Love. Catch the programme this Friday night on BBC One at 10.45pm. An 18-year-old video gamer was arrested in Brazil after he turned himself in at a police precinct and acknowledged he murdered a 19-year-old female rival while they played Call of Duty at his home. Brazilian news outlet R7 reported that Guilherme Alves made the shocking admission about a half-hour after he assassinated Ingrid Oliveira at his home and uploaded a video of the gruesome act on social media on Monday. Alves can be seen smiling in a video after he was handcuffed by cops outside the station house in the northern Sao Paulo city of Pirituba. When asked by a law enforcement agent why he killed Oliveira, Alves said 'because I wanted to.' Another person in the background then shamed Alves by telling him, 'you are laughing at a situation, you killed a young girl, Guilherme.' Alves then replied, 'my sanity is completely apt. I wanted to do that.' Guilherme Alves turned himself in to the police in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Monday moments after he uploaded to social media a video in which he shows the dead body of fellow gamer Ingrid Oliveira after he had invited her over to his home to play Call of Duty Ingrid Oliveira reportedly met Guilherme Alves while playing Call of Duty: Mobile last month and kept her interaction with him over the phone and in online video game chats. On Monday, she agreed to visit Alves' home where he stabbed her multiple times before confessing to the police The teen murder suspect met his victim online playing Call of Duty: Mobile last month and reportedly had planned her killing for at least two weeks, according to G1. Oliveira's dead body was discovered by Alves' brother. Alves stabbed Oliveira multiple times, frighteningly claiming in a video, 'look how wonderful.' The suspect, who doesn't have a criminal background, also wanted to make sure that people watching the video knew the blood was really Oliveira's. 'You guys think it is ink editing, but it's not. I really killed it. I have a book, too. I asked people to disclose it,' he said. Guilherme Alves smiled in a video after he was handcuffed by cops outside the station house in the northern Sao Paulo city of Pirituba. When asked by a law enforcement agent why he killed Ingrid Oliveira, Alves said 'because I wanted to' Ingrid Oliveira was part of a E-Sports video game team known as FBI E-Sports In the video, Alves spoke about a 52-page book he had penned in which he revealed that he never met his biological father. He also commented about a 'mission' he had carved out to kill an unknown amount of people. 'If you chose to be a person without feeling of others, just kill several people and prevent remorse from reaching you,' he wrote. He also wrote about his desire to set people on fire without naming anybody in particular. 'I'm sad to hear that I don't have the capacity to burn more than 5 billion idiots on this planet.' Ingrid Oliveira played under the online video game username 'Sol' The unemployed Alves had not met Oliveira in person before he welcomed her over to play video games. Their interactions were kept via cellphone and online game chatter. Oliveira played under the online username 'Sol' and was part of an E-Sports team called FBI E-Sports. Alves also belonged to an online gaming team known as Gamers Elite and played under the nickname, 'Flashlight.' 'She joined our girls squad and made a lot of friends with the boys from the Black Stars line, where she stayed until the end. She was an excellent player, she had a space in our hearts,' FBI E-Sports said in a statement. 'She was an extraordinary person, always motivating and Her connection with all the members was super good, super respectful, friendly and very polite. We dedicate her our utmost respect, and her family, our feelings and our condolences.' A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been carrying out "secret classified animal experiments" in Wuhan for years, said Mathew Pottinger, former US Deputy National Security Advisor (DNSA), while adding that Beijing tried to cover up the COVID-19 outbreak. Taiwan Times quoted Pottinger as speaking in an interview with CBS on Sunday: "Chinese military was doing secret classified animal experiments in that same laboratory [Wuhan Institute of Virology]". He further said that there is "good reason to believe" that an outbreak of a "flu-like illness" had occurred among the scientists in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in the fall of 2019, just before the first cases of a new type of pneumonia were being reported in Wuhan, Taiwan Times reported. He also emphasised that the COVID-19 disease was already spreading from the autumn of 2019. Last month, the US had issued a statement saying, "Despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China's military." It further said that the WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017." According to the former security advisor, the US' statement was "meant to make the case for further investigation into the WIV's activities leading up to the outbreak in the city".He further said that the US' too much reliance on China's CDC resulted in the American health officials not getting information about the outbreak sooner. However, China's CDC was "left in the dark and even the center's director "did not know this thing was circulating until the last day of December", said the former security while adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had put the PLA in charge of handling the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. The PLA tried to "cover this thing up, to try to contain it until it was too late", he reiterated. (ANI) Also Read: Coronavirus: India reports 16,738 new COVID-19 cases, 138 deaths The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A court in Mali's capital Bamako on Thursday postponed a case against former coup leader Amadou Sanogo who is accused of killing 21 elite soldiers, AFP journalists said Bamako, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :A court in Mali's capital Bamako on Thursday postponed a case against former coup leader Amadou Sanogo who is accused of killing 21 elite soldiers, AFP journalists said. A former army captain, Sanogo and several other plotters staged a military coup against President Amadou Toumani Toure in the Sahel state in 2012, after a rebellion emerged in the country's north. But the junta led by Sanago stepped aside under international pressure after critical northern cities such as Timbuktu and Gao fell to the rebels. Sanogo was later arrested and then held for six years on charges of killing 21 elite "Red Berets" who opposed the putsch. Jihadists have since commandeered the northern rebellion with the violence spreading to central Mali as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands. A court ordered Sanogo's temporary release last year, which sparked fears among rights defendants that the former putschist would avoid facing trial. Those fears were assuaged after lawyers handling the case indicated this month that the trial was set to resume on Thursday. The court did convene on Thursday -- but it postponed Sanogo's hearing until March 11, without specifying a reason. Sanogo, who was wearing a white suit and sunglasses, was in attendance alongside ex-defence minister and ranking junta member Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele, according to AFP journalists present. The former coup plotter's lawyers suggested to AFP that the delay is administrative, relating to personnel changes in the judiciary. When it reconvenes, the court may ratify a financial settlement reached between the plaintiffs and the accused, according to lawyers involved in the case, who did not say whether they thought Sanogo would be sentenced. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan defied calls to resign and accused the military of an attempted coup on Thursday, as divisions over his handling of last year's war with Azerbaijan brought thousands to the streets. Hours after the general staff of Armenia's military made a shock call for the government to step down, Pashinyan rallied some 20,000 supporters in the centre of the capital Yerevan against what he said was an attempt to oust him. The opposition gathered some 10,000 of its own supporters not far away, then began putting up tents and building barricades outside parliament as it vowed to hold round-the-clock demonstrations. There were no signs of any military action against Pashinyan, who ordered the armed forces to stand behind the government. "I am ordering all generals, officers and soldiers: do your job of protecting the country's borders and territorial integrity," he said during the rally. The army "must obey the people and elected authorities," Pashinyan said. The defence ministry also issued a statement declaring that "attempts to involve (the military) in political processes are unacceptable." Pashinyan said he was ready to start talks with the opposition, but also threatened to arrest any opponents who "go beyond political statements". The prime minister has been under intense pressure over his handling of the conflict for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, but has ignored repeated calls to resign for losing swathes of territory to Azerbaijan. - Opposition warns of 'bloodshed' - After backing the prime minister for months, the military's general staff on Thursday joined calls for him to step down, saying in a statement that he and his cabinet "are not capable of taking adequate decisions". Pashinyan hit back with an accusation that top brass were mounting an "attempted military coup" and ordered the firing of the chief of the general staff Onik Gasparyan. Story continues Pashinyan then led supporters through the streets of the capital, surrounded by his family, ministers and security detail, as marchers chanted "Nikol Prime Minister!" He attempted to downplay the military statement, saying it had been an "emotional reaction" to his firing the previous day of the deputy chief of the general staff, Tigran Khachatryan. Khachatryan had ridiculed claims by Pashinyan that Iskander missiles supplied by Russia -- Armenia's main military ally -- had failed to hit targets during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh. But Armenia's opposition urged him to heed the demand. "We call on Nikol Pashinyan not to lead the country towards civil war and to avoid bloodshed. Pashinyan has one last chance to avoid turmoil," Prosperous Armenia, the country's largest opposition party, said in a statement. Prosperous Armenia and another opposition party, Bright Armenia, called for the holding of an extraordinary session of parliament, which is controlled by Pashinyan's allies. Their supporters had gathered outside parliament in the early evening, blocking traffic, erecting tents and making barricades out of rubbish bins. "We will bring tents, stoves, everything we need. We are staying here. The lawmakers can either come or we will bring them to parliament," said Ishkhan Saghatelyan of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation, also known as Dashnaktsutyun. President Armen Sarkisian, whose role is largely symbolic, said he was taking urgent steps to try to defuse the crisis, while Armenia's Apostolic Church called for all sides to hold talks "for the sake of our homeland and people". - Call with Putin - Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Pashinyan and "called on all parties to show restraint," the Kremlin's spokesman said. The United States, which under President Joe Biden has redoubled efforts to support democracy, warned the military and urged all sides to avoid violence. "We remind all parties of the bedrock democratic principle that states' armed forces should not intervene in domestic politics," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. The European Union's spokesman also called on the armed forces to "maintain neutrality in political matters" in line with Armenia's Constitution. Pashinyan has faced fierce criticism since he signed a peace deal brokered by Russia that ended the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region that broke from Azerbaijan's control during a war in the early 1990s. Fresh fighting erupted over the region in late September with Azerbaijani forces backed by ally Turkey making steady gains. After six weeks of clashes and bombardments that claimed some 6,000 lives, a ceasefire agreement was signed that handed over significant territory to Azerbaijan and allowed for the deployment of Russian peacekeepers. The agreement was seen as a national humiliation for many in Armenia, though Pashinyan has said he had no choice but to agree or see his country's forces suffer even bigger losses. mkh-im-mm/jbr-sct/bgs Textile and garment companies have made big strides in the industry for the past decade, but 2020 was a challenge. Workers at Viet Tien Garment Corporation (VGG). From 2010 to 2020, the total revenue of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises has increased four times from VND12.35 trillion to VND54.14 trillion. Viet Tien Garment Corporation (VGG) recorded a sharp decline in net profit by 65 per cent in 2020 to VND143 billion (US$6.2 million), the lowest profit rate in the last 10 years. VGG attributed the decline to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, especially in Japan, the US and the EU, the main export market of the corporation. Importers in these countries reduced their orders, leading to a decrease in VGGs sales. DamSan Joint Stock Company (ADS) reported net profit rising sharply to VND23 billion, nearly three times higher than the previous year, thanks to the increase in the price of finished cotton fibre products and sales of fixed assets. Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Company (TCM) during the pandemic in 2020 invested heavily in masks, medical protective gear and developed antibacterial fabrics. Thus its net profit in 2020 increased by 28 per cent to VND275 billion. For the first year in 25 years, Vietnam's textile and garment export growth was negative 10.5 per cent, only reaching US$35.2 billion compared to $39 billion in 2019. In the context of a decline in global demand by more than 22 per cent, from $740 billion to $600 billion, competing countries all witnessed an export decrease between 15-20 per cent, making Vietnam's reduction rate small. From 2010 to 2020, the total revenue of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises has increased four times from VND12.35 trillion to VND54.14 trillion. Among large garment firms, the revenue of Vietnam National Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex) increased from VND489 billion to a five-digit number during the period 2014 - 2020 and peaked at VND19.1 trillion in 2018. The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) forecasts that export value in 2021 may recover to 2019 levels, reaching $39 billion, equivalent to a growth rate of 10.6 per cent year-on-year. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the textile and garment industry has great development opportunities from new free trade agreements, especially the potential to expand exports to major markets around the world. High-end brands will benefit greatly. Notably, in 2021, many new features of the supply chain will be established such as the falling prices trend that dominates the whole market and the online business model which requires digital communication with all components of the supply chain. Many businesses plan to invest in new projects in 2021 to improve production capacity. Vinatex will focus on supplementing, training and developing high-quality human resources, connecting chains in member enterprises and increasing the performance of subsidiaries. Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Company (TCM) plans to boost investment to expand its factories to serve export orders, while at the same time meeting the increasing orders for yarn and fabric for domestic textile enterprises to benefit from trade deals. In terms of fashion items, the company plans to develop online instead of opening a retail chain to catch up with modern shopping trends. VNS Garment and textile industry targets US$39 million export turnover in 2021 The garment and textile sector is targeting an export turnover of US$38-39 billion in 2021, said Le Tien Truong, general director of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex). Health Minister Robin Swann has warned of the dangers of pupils returning to the classroom too quickly. It came ahead of the Education Minister making a written statement to the Assembly on the matter today. First Minister Arlene Foster and Peter Weir, the Education Minister, have urged the Executive to revisit the plan, with Mrs Foster saying she is determined to "build consensus" around a more rapid reopening. But the Health Minister said he believed the decision reached by the Executive last week, with P1 to P3 returning on March 8 and exam years 12 to 14 on March 22 as primary pupils revert to remote learning, was the correct one. "As a father of two primary school children I want to see our schools open as much as anyone else, but I want to see that happen when it's safe and sensible to do so," Mr Swann said. "The medical and scientific advice was to act with caution. Whilst I note that England has decided to open all schools from March 8, it is also important to recognise that Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have all decided something else. "We should not apologise for taking our own decisions. The gradual step by step approach agreed collectively by the Executive I believe was the correct one. "There is always a danger that some people will jump to the conclusion that the danger has passed. "I don't want to look a devastated family in the eye and say sorry because we opened up too soon." Earlier, Sinn Fein education spokesperson Pat Sheehan said warnings of health advisers should be heeded. And the UUP's Robbie Butler said it would be 'unforgivable" if an early return to school resulted in another full lockdown. Mr Sheehan addded: "The First Minister has called for that position to be revisited, going on a solo run, trying to change policy on the hoof. And all because England decided they were going to send all their schools back. It beggars belief that anyone would want to follow the English model given how abysmally they have handled the pandemic." Meanwhile, the chair of a leading trade union has written directly to the Health Minister saying there is "simply no excuse" for not vaccinating all teaching staff if getting children back into schools is a priority. Maxine Murphy-Higgins, of the NIC-ICTU Education Trade Union Group, said it was "regrettable and frustrating" that the steps have not yet been taken to show the Executive's "genuine commitment to limiting the risk of further disruption to children's education". In her letter to Robin Swann, Ms Murphy-Higgins said: "It is vital that the NI Executive recognises that it has already lost the trust of many education workers and needs to do much more to win the confidence of the sector," she wrote. "Vaccinating education staff can be done now if there is the political will to do so. There is simply no excuse and no reason to not do so." TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Diesel Outboards, LLC, the distributor of OXE diesel outboards for the U.S. West Coast, Gulf Region, and Central U.S. along with central and western Canada, is pleased to announce an agreement with Northpoint Commercial Finance to provide floor planning for dealerships inside the Diesel Outboard network. This will provide dealerships with financing options for their on-hand inventory of OXE Marine outboard engines, which allows dealerships to maintain a robust stock of OXE outboards while also enjoying cash flow flexibility. By offering financial options to build and maintain inventory, Northpoint's partnership with Diesel Outboards, LLC allows dealerships to better serve end-use consumers with quick access to OXE outboards. NORTHPOINT COMMERICAL FINANCE to Provide Dealer Floor Planning for DIESEL OUTBOARDS, LLC Diesel Outboards, LLC, is the distributor of OXE diesel outboards for the U.S. West Coast, Gulf Region, and Central U.S. "Our OXE diesel outboards dealer network can now offer a full lineup of our products to commercial, government, and recreational users, enhancing dealership success. Our job is to keep dealers financially viable while being committed to supporting them with the best tools available. Offering a floor-planning program gives dealers the tools to fill their showrooms with product and inventory to support all consumers. We are excited to be part of this industry milestone providing financing solutions for the world's most powerful and innovative diesel outboard motors." Douglas Natoce, President, Diesel Outboards, LLC About Northpoint Commercial Finance Northpoint is owned by LBC Capital, a subsidiary of Laurentian Bank of Canada and has offices in Alpharetta, GA, and Burlington, ON. Laurentian Bank, which has been in business for over 175 years, acquired Northpoint Financial in 2017. Northpoint Commercial Finance was created by floorplan industry veterans highly experienced in forming and managing specialty finance programs. Our dedicated program team is empowered to make quick credit decisions and our unique flexibility provides a significant advantage in today's often inflexible environment. More information about Northpoint and their offerings is available at www.northpointcf.com. About OXE Marine OXE Marine is the world's first high-performance diesel outboard, offering durability, fuel-efficiency and low emissions that place OXE on the cutting edge of outboard technology. Founded in 2012, the company offers a patented outboard transmission, enabling the use of high torque diesel engines on an outboard. The concept eliminates bevel gears and transfer shafts by utilizing innovative belt technology that allows for high torque transfer. About Diesel Outboards, LLC Diesel Outboards, LLC, a division of the Outdoor Network, is a primary source for OXE Diesel outboards in the United States. For coverage areas, visit www.dieseloutboards.com. Diesel Outboards, LLC provide high-performance OXE Diesel outboards for commercial, government, and recreational applications through the dealership network. The Outdoor Network (ODN) is one of the world's largest online headquarters for outdoor and boating enthusiasts. Founded in 2000, the corporation's flagships Partzilla.com and Boats.net have shipped more than five million orders to more than 120 countries. In addition to Diesel Outboards, LLC, Partzilla, and Boats.net, ODN also maintains six marine and powersports dealerships across the United States, including Boater's World, Powersports Plus, and Michael's Cycle Works. Contact: Douglas Natoce 877.473.4595 [email protected] SOURCE Diesel Outboards, LLC Related Links http://www.dieseloutboards.com Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) says investigations have been launched against an unspecified number of guards at a prison in Siberia following reports about the brutal torture of inmates. The FSIN said on February 25 that probes were also begun against 10 inmates who allegedly tortured Tahirjon Bakiev, adding that it had yet to confirm the incidents were motivated by his ethnicity. Gulagu.net human rights group reported in December and then again this month about two other cases of torture at correctional facilities in Irkutsk. The groups said that one inmate, Kezhik Ondar, was raped by inmates in Detention Center No. 1 in Irkutsk. Ondar suffered severe internal injuries in the attack and is now disabled. The second inmate, whom Gulagu.net identified as Bakiev, was raped after inmates beat him and desecrated a Koran in front of him. He was then kept under a cell bed for two days. The penitentiary administration allegedly then prevented him from sharing his ordeal with his wife, Anastasia Bakieva, and other relatives by not allowing him to call home for more than one month. On February 22, the FSIN said that wardens at Detention Center No. 1 and Correctional Colony No. 6 were suspended as preliminary investigations began into the reports. Gulagu.net's founder, Vasily Osechkin, told RFE/RL on February 25 that some of the inmates had confessed to beating and torturing other inmates and testified that they were doing so on orders from guards. Bakiev and Ondar initially served their terms at Correctional Colony No. 15 in the city of Angarsk in the Irkutsk region. In April, inmates there staged a large riot, after which many inmates were transferred to other prisons in the region. Human rights groups quoted some of the inmates as saying that they faced beatings and torture after they were transferred to other prisons, where guards used other inmates, who agreed "to cooperate" with the administration, to force them to confess to organizing the riot. A number of inmates have died with some reportedly beheaded and dismembered after a prison riot in Ecuador this week. Authorities managed to control the facilities in three cities after raids by hundreds of police officers and military personnel. This marks one of the deadliest outbreaks of prison violence in the country's history. Fights broke out in the maximum-security wing as rival gangs' power struggled within the detention centers, according to a Sky News report. Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo said in a news conference that 800 police officers have been helping to regain control of the facilities, with hundreds of officers from tactical units had been deployed. Moncayo said that close to 70 percent of the country's prison population lives in the centers where the unrest occurred, according to an NBC News report. "The concerted action of criminal organizations to generate violence in the country's prisons," Minister of Government Patricio Pazmino was quoted in a report. Pazmino said they are managing to take back control in the prison. Authorities have said that the fight began on Monday night, which was triggered by weapons searches. The national agency responsible for the upkeeping of the prisons said that at least 79 inmates had died, which includes 37 inmates in the Pacific coast city of Guayaquil. Meanwhile, around 34 were from the southern city of Cuenca, and eight in the central city of Latacunga. The maximum-security prison area holds inmates connected to killings, drug trafficking, extortion, and other major crimes. Related story: Ecuador, Colombia & More: Unwrapping Latin America's Gift-Giving Etiquette Gang Wars Moncayo said that the tension had been running high since the killing of Jorge Luis Zambrano in December. Zambrano is the leader of the Choneros gang, according to a BBC report. Zambrano was shot dead in a cafeteria just months after being released from jail. He and his gang were known to have run lucrative smuggling, drug dealing, and extortion ring, which mainly operates inside Ecuador's jails. Security analyst Ricardo Camacho said that there is a dispute between national gangs that seek to monopolize the power that was left vacant in the prison by Zambrano's death. Camacho said that has given way to this massacre with violence never seen before. "There are prisoners beheaded, dismembered, their hearts removed," Camacho was quoted in a report. He added that when the police arrived, the prisoners did not put up much resistance as they had the time to do what they wanted. The ombudsman's office said that 103 inmates were killed in prisons last year. President Lenin Moreno has ordered the defense ministry to exercise strict control of ammunition of arms, munitions, and explosives at the country's prison. Last year, he declared a 90-day state of emergency in the country's jail to try to bring gang activity under control and reduce the violence, according to a Malay Mail report. Meanwhile, the government cut sentences of people convicted of minor offenses, reducing overcrowding from 42 percent to 32 percent. Ecuador's prison system has a capacity to house 29,000 with a population of 38,000. Related story: Ex-Con Shot 15 Minutes After Being Released From New York Prison Whether one is dealing with a manufacturing plant or a smart city, the architecture of a distributed Internet of Things (IoT) system depends on several design considerations, says Ingo Freise, software architect at Deutsche Telekom . One is the ability to combine legacy sub-systems, such as a final-assembly cell, with greenfield deployments such as an image processing system for quality control. Another design consideration relates to the challenge of combining multiple connectivity and data management technologies, with the added complication that these are sourced from multiple vendors. Deutsche Telekom dealt with such issues when working on the MySMARTLife project in a consortium with the cities of Nantes, Hamburg, and Helsinki. Naturally, our involvement in the project focused on the city of Hamburg. The citys platform, based on a standard developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), is a common starting point for many cities. It supports the geo-location, surface planning and activities that municipal agencies deal with on a day-to-day basis. An open standards and interoperable framework The city of Hamburg operates under a transparency law that requires all data from public sources to be published. This ranges from static data, such as school opening times, to live data streams. An example of the latter is the status of electric vehicle charging stations. Our solution addressed two issues. One was the issue of sourcing and publishing city data, going beyond legacy, geo-spatial sources. The second issue was to make it easy for data users to access data through an API (application program interface). While the existing Hamburg system included an API, our analysis identified the need for one with enhanced capabilities. New features would enable a system administrator to assign access policies to end-point devices and data sources. An enhanced API would empower data providers to manage access and security at a granular level with different types of data consumer. These requirements illustrate how a basic API can be enhanced to address operational and digital transformation needs. Foundations for digital transformation Since our team focuses on applied innovation, we did not want to invent a new technology or IoT platform. We evaluated FiWARE and oneM2M specifications, eventually preferring oneM2M which had the added benefit of aligning with our Java expertise and Scrum organising methodology. In addition to being an open and internationally recognised standard, oneM2M is a middleware technology. It sits in a horizontal layer between IoT applications on the upper level and a lower level of connected devices and other data sources. oneM2M defines a standard set of tools for building interoperable IoT systems. Examples include tools for connectivity management, subscription management, security, and device management. The last of these is a good example where oneM2M avoids reinvention and reuses existing technology in the form of the LWM2M standard. The Deutsche Telekom team worked with the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB) who built a server to collect city data from parking lots and traffic lights. My team developed a oneM2M data management platform to gather data from other sources and to publish it to third party users. We built a bridge between the two systems using an interworking proxy entity (IPE), another standardised capability in the oneM2M toolkit. Ingo Freise This architecture gathers city data from many different sources and to combine with the primarily geospatial data from Hamburgs in-house data platform. This is an elegant way to bring together several brownfield systems and gradually add greenfield sensor deployment and data sources. It is also valuable for data users who now have a single way to access a wide and growing range of city data. As factory owners, city administrations and their service partners embark on Industrie 4.0, smart city, and digital transformation initiatives, system architects need to plan for interoperable and extensible systems using open standards, such as oneM2M. An important design principle for service providers, system integrators and IT departments is to enable seamless interworking between new and legacy systems to work across departmental and operational boundaries. Source: https://www.iot-now.com/2021/02/24/107978-hamburg-deploys-onem2m-smart-city-standards-to-go-greener/ Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. A forest fire has broken out in a rural area north of Tokyo, close to another blaze which has been burning for four days. One man suffered burns and was taken to hospital, said Hitomi Hirokami, an official in Kiryu in the Gunma prefecture, about 60 miles north-west of Tokyo. News footage showed smoke billowing upwards from the hills. Expand Close Residents watch as a helicopter dumps water on a wildfire (Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Residents watch as a helicopter dumps water on a wildfire (Kyodo News via AP) Another fire has been raging in nearby Ashikaga in the Tochigi prefecture, where 207 households have been asked to evacuate, said spokesman Minoru Takayama. Firefighters were working on the ground, while military helicopters were dousing the area. The two fires are not directly related, but the area has not had much rain lately, causing flames to spread, officials said. An evacuation order for Ashikaga was first issued on Tuesday for about 50 households, underlining how the stricken area was growing. Expand Close A helicopter dumps water on a wildfire (Kyodo News via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A helicopter dumps water on a wildfire (Kyodo News via AP) The cause of the fire was unclear, but there is a rest stop for hikers in an area where it is believed to have started. Three evacuation centres were set up with social distancing measures and everyone is wearing masks, officials said. 2020 WSOP to Air in Entirety Sunday, Feb. 28 on ESPN2 February 24, 2021 Mo Nuwwarah It won't be the weeks-long recurring show many fans are used to, but the World Series of Poker will once again be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks. And it's coming to a TV near you in just a few short days. The 2020 WSOP will be broadcast starting at 8 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 28 and lasting four hours, with everything carried on ESPN2. The shows will chronicle both the domestic and international editions of the $10,000 WSOP Main Event, culminating in the $1 million heads-up match between the champions of those tournaments, Joseph Hebert and Damian Salas, respectively. The schedule, speculated upon for weeks, was confirmed via a presser released by the WSOP this afternoon. We could not be more excited to deliver poker fans new primetime content on ESPN, said Ty Stewart, executive director of the WSOP. With compelling storylines and unpredictable action, these episodes remind us all why there was a poker boom in the first place. New Format, Feel for 2020 Coverage Of course, the radical changes wrought to the WSOP by COVID-19 necessitated a new format to the event, which saw most of the play take place online on WSOP.com (U.S. players) and GGPoker (international players). The final tables of each portion were played out live but were not broadcast via livestream, making for a marked change in the coverage from previous years. Instead, the only access to real-time results came through PokerNews' own reporting from both final tables. That means that while the hand histories themselves may be on record, nearly all viewers will be witnessing the action for the first time. That hearkens back to the days of tape-delayed TV releases that predated modern streaming broadcasts that changed the way the WSOP is consumed by the average fan. We are ecstatic that even in an unprecedented year, we can give our audience another fantastic World Series of Poker event to look forward to, said Tim Bunnell, senior VP, programming & acquisitions, ESPN. The format may be different, but the action remains captivating. Additionally, the commentary team will have a new look. After nearly two decades of Lon McEachern and Norman Chad calling the action, with a variety of co-hosts joining them in recent years, the McEachern will instead team with popular pro Jamie Kerstetter. Chad will be replaced by Kerstetter In another departure from previous years, which saw the broadcast split between ESPN and ESPN2, only the latter will carry the poker action. It'll be four hours straight through showing the pertinent hands from both the domestic and live final tables. It's not currently known in what order the tournaments will be shown, or whether they'll be edited in some format that follows both at once. Once those are finished, the epic heads-up match between Salas and Hebert figures to fill plenty of airtime, considering it proved a grueling affair lasting more than 170 hands. It's not known what role, if any, PokerGO will play in the coverage. Currently, PokerGO holds the rights to the historic broadcasts and has all of the old WSOPs for subscriber access in its on-demand archive. PokerNews has inquired whether the 2020 broadcast will join them in the vaults and will post an update if and when an answer is received. Update: PokerNews was told the 2020 broadcast is "expected to be on PokerGO in the future" but the timeline has yet to be determined. 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 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. Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong inspects the operation of the super-cold storage. He said Vietnam and Thailand are the first Southeast Asian nations to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine and that the ministry would do its best to bring home the rest of the vaccine Vietnam has ordered as soon as possible. The AstraZeneca vaccine has so far been available in 50 countries. It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body. The vaccine has been demonstrated to have an efficacy rate of 62-90 percent. CIA Director nominee William Burns said Iran cannot be overlooked, but advocated for a focus on China during his nomination hearing Wednesday. Burns, who was nominated for the top intelligence position by US President Joe Biden, went before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday. Burns is a longtime diplomat who served in top State Department positions under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2014. In the Middle East, he was ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. Much of the senators focus during the hearing was on China. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the vice chairman of the committee, pressed Burns on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peaces partnership with Chinese entities, including Tsinghua University. Burns is serving as president of the US-based think tank. Burns said China would be his top focus if confirmed, calling it the biggest geopolitical test that we face. He took a critical stance toward the Peoples Republic throughout the hearing, describing an adversarial predatory Chinese leadership under President Xi Jinping. Iran and its alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapon was another major topic at the hearing. Republican Sen. John Coryn of Texas asked Burns if he thought it would ever be acceptable for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, to which Burns answered, No, sir. The challenges posed by Iranian behavior, for example, are hugely significant and ones that we cant afford to ignore, said Burns. Burns specifically mentioned Irans development of ballistic missiles, in addition to subversive and destabilizing actions in the Middle East and human rights abuses to its own people inside Iran. The Biden administration wants to rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which lifted sanctions in exchange for the Islamic Republic scaling down its nuclear program. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018. Iran is no longer in compliance with the agreement's stipulations. The agreement sought to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Biden wants Iran to return to compliance before rejoining the deal. Iran says the United States, as the party that left, must return first. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked if Bidens desire to return to the Iran nuclear deal would color his intelligence assessments on Iran. On Iran it will be my obligation if confirmed to deliver those intelligence assessments in a straightforward and unvarnished way, said Burns. Burns also addressed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, mentioning his 2002 perfect storm memo to then Secretary of State Colin Powell. The memo did not advise against the war, but warned of the possible negative consequences of removing Saddam Hussein from power. Burns declined to specifically answer a question from Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska on shifting the intelligence budget from counterterrorism toward China. Burns noted there is a continuing threat from terrorist groups as well as clearly huge emerging challenges. The ambassador did not mention many other Middle Eastern states during the hearing, but said he viewed Israeli intelligence as extremely capable during his diplomatic career, especially regarding its use of technology. Burns also said the United States cannot afford to underestimate Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. While Russia may be in some ways a declining power, it can be at least as disruptive under Putins leadership as rising powers like China, said Burns. Russia is active in the Middle East, and heavily supports the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war. The committee's questionnaire Burns filled out ahead of the hearing disclosed gifts he has received from officials while president of the Carnegie Endowment. He listed a trip to the Super Bowl from the Saudi ambassador and holiday baskets from the king of Jordan among these. Al Qaeda has a new leader, called 'the Sword of Revenge' who is reportedly set to make the terror group as dangerous as they were under Osama Bin Laden. Egyptian former general Saif al-Adel is in hiding in Iran and the 'brilliant and ruthless strategist' has now taken the reins from Ayman Zawahiri, according to reports. The former leader was rumoured to be dead late last year, following speculation he had succumbed to asthma following 'breathing issues'. Al Qaeda has a new leader, pictured left, called 'the Sword of Revenge' who is reportedly set to make the terror group as dangerous as they were under Osama Bin Laden, pictured right Saif has been heavily involved in Al Qaeda activities for some 30 years, and already has a 7.5 million US bounty on his head, after the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, which left 224 dead Now Saif, who has long been tracked by intelligence agencies both in the UK and the US, has taken the top job, and is preparing a 'rebrand'. A senior British terrorism expert told the Mirror: 'Compared to Zawahiri he is likely to be a much more effective leader, at least so or more so even than bin Laden.' Saif has been heavily involved in Al Qaeda activities for some 30 years, and already has a 7.5 million US bounty on his head, after the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, which left 224 dead. The veteran fighter was a leading member of bin Laden's close protection unit in Afghanistan, named 'Black Guard' after the colour of their scarves. A source described Saif as someone who was always 'the least affected by the deaths of innocent civilians.' Reports suggest the dangerous new leader is looking to build ties with ISIS, Iran and the Afghanistan Taliban. Colonel Richard Kemp, who once monitored Saif for the British Government nearly 20 years ago told the Mirror: 'There is co-operation between groups like this but Saif is so well-respected that he could cause even greater co-operation or even a merger. 'He could make Al Qaeda a much more effective organisation than it has been for a few years.' Last heard from in a message on the anniversary of 9/11, former leader Zawahiri's health and longevity have long been in doubt, although reports of his death have proved incorrect in the past. The Egyptian-born doctor was second-in-command to bin Laden and took over the terrorist network after the Saudi's death in 2011, but its influence has waned and Al Qaeda is now widely seen as a shadow of its former self. Former Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri (pictured) was reported to have died in Afghanistan last year following persistent rumours about his health One of the sources who spoke to Arab News was an Al Qaeda translator said to maintain close ties with the group, who said Zawahiri had died in Afghanistan. 'He died of asthma because he had no formal treatment,' the translator told the outlet's Pakistani edition. Reports at the time suggested Zawahiri's death would deal a further blow to the group after it emerged that Israeli operatives had secretly killed its deputy leader on a US-ordered mission in Iran. Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was shot and killed in Tehran by an Israeli hit squad on a motorcycle. The operation is said to have taken place on August 7 on the anniversary of the 1998 US embassy bombings. The killing of bin Laden in a US operation in Pakistan in 2011 left the group in the hands of Zawahiri, an Egyptian veteran of jihad and the key Al Qaeda ideologue, but without Bin Laden's ability to rally radicals around the world. The US government said last year that bin Laden's son Hamza was also dead, removing a man seen as a possible heir to the Al Qaeda leadership. The group has spawned several franchises across the world that bear its name, including in Africa's Sahel region, in Pakistan as well as in Somalia, Egypt and Yemen. But it does not control their actions or the alliances that they may forge on a local level. All students in Ho Chi Minh City have been allowed to go back to school in early March as the COVID-19 pandemic has been put under control again in the southern metropolis. The municipal Peoples Committee on Wednesday issued a document stating that students and learners of local schools, universities, and other educational institutions will resume their normal classes on March 1. The citys Department of Education and Training and Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs will provide local schools with guidance on pandemic prevention and control measures. Students who have been to virus-hit areas will be required to fill out health declaration forms. Stern penalties will be imposed upon those failing to declare their health status or violating rules on COVID-19 prevention and control. All students, teachers, and other staff members will have to complete online health declaration on a daily basis. Following the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, all students were required to switch to remote learning until the end of the month due to the complicated COVID-19 developments. The city recorded 36 community-based COVID-19 cases between February 6 and 11. A total of 35 locations in 10 districts and Thu Duc City were sealed off to prevent the disease from spreading further into the community. As of Tuesday afternoon, lockdown had been lifted from all of these locations. The municipal Department of Education and Training on the same day proposed that all students be allowed to return to school on March 1. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Evonik has introduced the silicon-carbon composite material Siridion Black as a new anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Siridon Black features an amorphous Si/C structure with a unique carbon concentration gradient for superior stability and a high specific capacity of more than 3,300 mAh/g. The Si/C composite increases the energy density and energy efficiency of lithium-ion batteries while maintaining a practical service life. The introduction of the new high-performance material completes Evoniks range of battery materials: the company already offers cathode active material and fumed metal oxides for the coating of separators. Sirdion Black, Evoniks Si/C composite powder: transmission electron microscopy image (left) and schematic representation of the Si/C structure with carbon concentration gradient (right). Source: Evonik The powder is produced by gas phase synthesis. It consists of isolated unsintered spherical particles that are a few hundred nanometers in size. Within the amorphous particles, the carbon concentration increases from the inside out. In addition, due to the higher carbon content on the surface, the particles are better protected against oxidation and easier to process. Our Siridion Black enables customized solutions: It gives anode manufacturers and their customers the necessary flexibility to adapt their batteries exactly to their respective needs. Dr. Julia Lyubina, responsible for the development and commercialization of Siridion Black The high performance anode material was jointly developed by the Research, Development & Innovation Function and the Silanes Business Line of Evonik. They are working on making lithium-ion batteries even more powerful in a joint project with the University of Duisburg-Essen that is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy until 2023. The carbon-covered silicon is now available on an industrial scale. It will be showcased to the public at the China International Battery Fair, which will take place from 19 to 21 March in Shenzen, China. Prime Minister said today that his Government is working towards a system where medical and technical would be given in Addressing a public rally at Puducherry today, the Prime Minister said, "Government is working towards a system where medical and technical would be given in Many students will gain from this." He added that coastal development and making cooperative sectors stronger are two other key focus areas of the Government. The NDA administration believes that the road to AatmanirbharBharat will not be completed without a strong blue economy. While kickstarting the BJP's campaign at Puducherry today, Modi said the NDA Government at the Centre wants to make Puducherry as the BEST (B- Business Hub, E- Hub, S- Spiritual Hub and T- Tourism Hub). He kick started BJP's campaign at Puducherry by addressing a public meeting, ahead of which, he launched and laid the foundation of new projects in Puducherry. In his address at the public rally, he came down heavily on the opposition, saying, "Congress does not believe in working for the people. There was non-cooperation from the Congress government in Puducherry towards pro-people central schemes. Puducherry deserves a government whose high command consists of the people of Puducherry, not a small group of Congress leaders sitting in Delhi". He added, "NDA assures Puducherry-the next government will be a people-powered government. In 2016, Puducherry did not get a peoples government. They got a Government that was busy serving the Congress high command in Delhi." "In Puducherry I am seeing great happiness. Many development works have been inaugurated today and secondly, the people of Puducherry are celebrating freedom from the mis-governance of the Congress," said the Prime Minister. He said the people of Puducherry will now punish the anti-democratic mindset of Congress. Instead of telling the truth to the nation, the former Puducherry Chief Minister gave a wrong translation of the womans words. A helpless woman was complaining about the Puducherry government's neglect during cyclone and floods, said the Prime Minister. It may be noted, recently a video went viral in which Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who stepped down early this week after the political drama in the State, is seen wrongly translating a fisherwoman's grievance to Rahul Gandhi during his programme in Puducherry. "The culture Congress showed in Puducherry in five years is how they work nationally. Our colonial rulers had the policy of divide and rule. Congress has a policy of divide, lie and rule," said the PRime Minister. "He lied to the people and his own leader. Can a Party whose culture is based on lies ever serve people?, said the Prime Minister, adding that NDA wants to make Puducherry the BEST (B- Business Hub, E- Education Hub, S- Spiritual Hub and T- Tourism Hub). He added, the NDA Government reforms in various sectors will help the IT, Pharma, textile and several other sectors. The Government is encouraging start-ups under the Start-up India programme. Compliance burdens are down. The recent PLI schemes will help entrepreneurs. "We are working towards a system where medical and technical education would be given in Many students will gain from this," said the Prime Minister, adding that Puducherry is a beautiful confluence of many cultures. This is a wonderful place to become a hub of spiritual tourism. He added, the Government is working towards a system where medical and technical education would be given in local languages. Many students will gain from this. After traveling several billion miles toward the Sun, a wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way. The object has settled near a family of captured ancient asteroids, called Trojans, that are orbiting the Sun alongside Jupiter. This is the first time a comet-like object has been spotted near the Trojan population. The unexpected visitor belongs to a class of icy bodies found in space between Jupiter and Neptune. Called "Centaurs," they become active for the first time when heated as they approach the Sun, and dynamically transition into becoming more comet-like. Visible-light snapshots by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the vagabond object shows signs of comet activity, such as a tail, outgassing in the form of jets, and an enshrouding coma of dust and gas. Earlier observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope gave clues to the composition of the comet-like object and the gasses driving its activity. "Only Hubble could detect active comet-like features this far away at such high detail, and the images clearly show these features, such as a roughly 400,000-mile-long broad tail and high-resolution features near the nucleus due to a coma and jets," said lead Hubble researcher Bryce Bolin of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Describing the Centaur's capture as a rare event, Bolin added, "The visitor had to have come into the orbit of Jupiter at just the right trajectory to have this kind of configuration that gives it the appearance of sharing its orbit with the planet. We're investigating how it was captured by Jupiter and landed among the Trojans. But we think it could be related to the fact that it had a somewhat close encounter with Jupiter." The team's paper appears in the February 11, 2021 issue of The Astronomical Journal. The research team's computer simulations show that the icy object, called P/2019 LD2 (LD2), probably swung close to Jupiter about two years ago. The planet then gravitationally punted the wayward visitor to the Trojan asteroid group's co-orbital location, leading Jupiter by about 437 million miles. Bucket Brigade The nomadic object was discovered in early June 2019 by the University of Hawaii's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes located on the extinct volcanoes, one on Mauna Kea and one on Haleakala. Japanese amateur astronomer Seiichi Yoshida tipped off the Hubble team to possible comet activity. The astronomers then scanned archival data from the Zwicky Transient Facility, a wide-field survey conducted at Palomar Observatory in California, and realized that the object was clearly active in images from April 2019. They followed up with observations from the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, which also hinted at the activity. The team observed the comet using Spitzer just days before the observatory's retirement in January 2020, and identified gas and dust around the comet nucleus. These observations convinced the team to use Hubble to take a closer look. Aided by Hubble's sharp vision, the researchers identified the tail, coma structure and the size of the dust particles and their ejection velocity. These images helped them confirm that the features are due to relatively new comet-like activity. Although LD2's location is surprising, Bolin wonders whether this pit stop could be a common pull-off for some sunward-bound comets. "This could be part of the pathway from our solar system through the Jupiter Trojans to the inner solar system," he said. The unexpected guest probably will not stay among the asteroids for very long. Computer simulations show that it will have another close encounter with Jupiter in about another two years. The hefty planet will boot the comet from the system, and it will continue its journey to the inner solar system. "The cool thing is that you're actually catching Jupiter flinging this object around and changing its orbital behavior and bringing it into the inner system," said team member Carey Lisse of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. "Jupiter controls what's going on with comets once they get into the inner system by altering their orbits." The icy interloper is most likely one of the latest members of the so-called "bucket brigade" of comets to get kicked out of its frigid home in the Kuiper belt and into the giant planet region through interactions with another Kuiper belt object. Located beyond Neptune's orbit, the Kuiper belt is a haven of icy, leftover debris from our planets' construction 4.6 billion years ago, containing millions of objects, and occasionally these objects have near misses or collisions that drastically alter their orbits from the Kuiper belt inward into the giant planet region. The bucket brigade of icy relics endure a bumpy ride during their journey sunward. They bounce gravitationally from one outer planet to the next in a game of celestial pinball before reaching the inner solar system, warming up as they come closer to the Sun. The researchers say the objects spend as much or even more time around the giant planets, gravitationally pulling on them--about 5 million years--than they do crossing into the inner system where we live. "Inner system, 'short-period' comets break up about once a century," Lisse explained. "So, in order to maintain the number of local comets we see today, we think the bucket brigade has to deliver a new short-period comet about once every 100 years." An Early Bloomer Seeing outgassing activity on a comet 465 million miles away from the Sun (where the intensity of sunlight is 1/25th as strong as on Earth) surprised the researchers. "We were intrigued to see that the comet had just started to become active for the first time so far away from the Sun at distances where water ice is barely starting to sublimate," said Bolin. Water remains frozen on a comet until it reaches about 200 million miles from the Sun, where heat from sunlight converts water ice to gas that escapes from the nucleus in the form of jets. So the activity signals that the tail might not be made of water. In fact, observations by Spitzer indicated the presence of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas, which could be driving the creation of the tail and jets seen on the Jupiter-orbiting comet. These volatiles do not need much sunlight to heat their frozen form and convert them to gas. Once the comet gets kicked out of Jupiter's orbit and continues its journey, it may meet up with the giant planet again. "Short-period comets like LD2 meet their fate by being thrown into the Sun and totally disintegrating, hitting a planet, or venturing too close to Jupiter once again and getting thrown out of the solar system, which is the usual fate," Lisse said. "Simulations show that in about 500,000 years, there's a 90% probability that this object will be ejected from the solar system and become an interstellar comet." ### The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, managed the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Science operations were conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at IPAC at Caltech. Spitzer's entire science catalogue is available via the Spitzer data archive, housed at the Infrared Science Archive at IPAC. Spacecraft operations were based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Credits: NASA, ESA, and B. Bolin (Caltech) Media Contacts: Claire Andreoli NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 301-286-1940 claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Donna Weaver / Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland 410-338-4493 / 410-338-4514 dweaver@stsci.edu / villard@stsci.edu Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 626-808-2469 calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov Science Contact: Bryce Bolin Caltech, Pasadena, California bbolin@caltech.edu The process of negotiations on the Minsk platform on the situation in Donbas has been practically blocked since July, said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov in an interview with the Voice of America. "Negotiations continue in the Normandy format at the level of political advisors. There were meetings in Berlin both offline and online. However, since July, the peace negotiation process on the Minsk platform has been practically blocked. Any discussions have been stopped, there are scuffles and strange demands. For example, 'let the parliament of Ukraine adopt a resolution that recognizes the Minsk agreements, and President Zelensky will sign it. We will write you the text of the resolution," Reznikov stressed. According to him, Ukraine responds to such statements. The Minsk agreements are not an international treaty, they are not binding, but this does not mean that Ukraine refuses the principles and foundations that are laid down in the Minsk agreements. "After all, it is about the withdrawal of troops, equipment, illegal armed groups, fighters and mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine. It is about disarmament, demilitarization and a ceasefire regime. Further on, it is about the need for local elections, the adoption of a bill that will ensure the peculiarities of local self-government. But we emphasize: the security component is to come first, and then the political one," he said. In addition, Reznikov said that the swap of detainees was also completely blocked. "Moreover, back in July we agreed on the criteria for the exchange of lists. We also discussed 19 new areas for mine clearance and four new areas for the disengagement of forces and equipment. There is no further progress," he added. HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, has successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of the Dynetics Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA's Artemis Program, marking another critical milestone in human spaceflight. This review provided NASA with insight into the design of the human lander that Dynetics hopes will carry the first woman and the next man to the Moon. "This review, a culmination of nine months of intense design and analysis, included a robust portfolio of development and risk reduction testing," said Robert Wright, Dynetics HLS program manager. "The PDR demonstrated that our team's preliminary lander design meets all the system requirements with acceptable risk while remaining within current cost and schedule constraints." Additionally, the team presented detailed technical descriptions of design trades, analyses conducted, and a design status to NASA. Verification methods were also explained. "This is another step toward the lunar surface," said Kim Doering, vice president of Space Systems at Dynetics. "The PDR confirmed that our team is ready to proceed with a detailed design as we approach the next milestone, Critical Design Review. This is yet another notable review that brings us one step closer to landing the next Americans on the moon." The Dynetics team has successfully completed four reviews in the short, 10-month initial Base phase a systems requirements review, a certification baseline review, the continuation review, and now the preliminary design review. About Dynetics Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, provides responsive, cost-effective engineering, scientific, IT solutions to the national security, cybersecurity, space, and critical infrastructure sectors. Our portfolio features highly specialized technical services and a range of software and hardware products, including components, subsystems, and complex end-to-end systems. The company of more than 3,000 employees is based in Huntsville, Ala., and has offices throughout the U.S. For more information, visit www.dynetics.com. Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 39,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $12.30 billion for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2021. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 1, 2021 and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. For more information, contact: Kristina Hendrix, APR Dynetics, Inc. Group Communications Director 256-713-5453 [email protected] SOURCE Dynetics Related Links http://www.dynetics.com Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? 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Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Max Verstappen was asked about Lewis Hamilton's situation at Mercedes during an online press moment with various media. The seven-time world champion only signed for one year and that might open doors for Verstappen. Would the 23-year-old Dutchman be interested in a move to the German team? Verstappen says he is not concerned at all. "In the end I don't know what Lewis will do. I just focus on myself and this year. I want to be successful." The focus is entirely on performing with Red Bull and the new RB16B. Verstappen doesn't want to dwell on it too long According to the Red Bull driver, there is also no point in speculating now about what might happen in 2022. "It's so early in the year, we've just done a shakedown," Verstappen told Motorsport-Total.com. In just over two weeks they will test, after which the first Grand Prix of the year is scheduled in Bahrain at the end of March. Verstappen obviously didn't feel like dwelling on the subject for too long. "So I don't really think about that kind of thing," he said. However, according to the aforementioned German medium, it is clear that a rejection from Verstappen towards Mercedes would 'sound different'. All options are still kept open. Tax and financial records that former President Donald J. Trump fought to keep secret for nearly 18 months have been turned over to the Manhattan district attorneys office, which is investigating possible fraud by Mr. Trump and his company, an official said. The voluminous records, including eight years of personal tax returns, were handed over to prosecutors on Monday, the same day that the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Trumps final bid to block a subpoena for them. A spokesman for the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., confirmed in an email that the office had received the records just hours after the court issued its brief, unsigned order. Mr. Vances investigation, which started more than two years ago, has recently zeroed in on possible tax and bank-related fraud. Investigators are particularly concerned with whether the Trump Organization inflated or otherwise manipulated the value of its properties in order to obtain loans and tax benefits. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Republican Sen. Marco Rubio warns Christians of the Chinese Communist Party's attempts to 'stamp out faith for good' by co-opting religious authorities in their campaign. The CCPs war against believers of any faith aside from that approved by the communist state seemed to spread not only in their nation, but also to Hong Kong, The Stream reported. Not only is political freedom crushed in Hong Kong with its National Security Law (NSL), a draconian law imposed by the CCP. The communist government is also using it to eliminate almost every right of the citizens including freedoms of speech, assembly, expression, conscience and most especially faith to name a few. When it comes to religious liberty, Hong Kong's de facto constitution states that "residents shall have freedom of conscience... freedom of religious belief and freedom to preach and to conduct and participate in religious activities in public." However, the CCP is now moving to overturn religious freedom by using the pretext of "collusion with foreign forces" as indicated in the NSL. To those who are unaware, this same move mirrors the action of CCP in mainland China where people who freely express their faith are repressed and oppressed without mercy. Until now, the CCP has continued their brutality against religious minorities like the Uyghurs and Tibetans. Apparently, the communist party fear Christianity not only because of its exponential growth but because "CCP rightly recognizes that the Gospel is irreconcilably at odds with totalitarianism." For the CCP, contending with a higher authority than that of the government is something that they cannot tolerate. Despite all the crackdowns currently happening in Beijing and now in Hong Kong, Christians still keep the faith that they can negotiate a deal with the CCP to protect them as a minority. However, the CCPs refusal to come to a compromise is proven when they continued to tear down crosses and detain priests even after a negotiation with the Vatican. Last year, Chinese authorities detained Hong Kong nuns while visiting their relatives in the province of Hebei. There were no charges brought against the nuns, but they were detained for three weeks, released to a house arrest and were forbidden to return back to their city. Since then, CCP has increased their surveillance of believers who openly practice their faith. In December, churches were raided and two members of the Good Neighbor North District Church were arrested after the CCP froze the church's and the pastor's bank account. With all that has happened, the Vatican has been quiet since the repression campaign of the communist party. Cardinal Zen, bishop emeritus of Vatican in Hong Kong, already warned that seeing an improvement with the CCP's actions is next to none. Cardinal Zen even asked, ""Is there any choice between helping the government to destroy the Church or resisting the government to keep our faith?" Apparently, the CCP is doing everything they can to co-opt religious authorities to succumb to their campaign of stamping out people's faith for good by putting fear and terror in the people's hearts. If left unchecked, CCP might one day persuade people not to believe in God anymore and that they are the highest authority to be feared of. When this time comes, believers must stand in their faith and fight the battle not in the flesh but in spirit through prayer and continued intercession for religious freedom. ACEC California Commendation Award Delta Air Lines Ground Support Equipment Maintenance Facility Los Angeles, California Los Angeles International Airport diligently has been working on improvements to prepare for the 2028 Summer Olympics. As such, Delta Air Lines recently relocated and rebuilt its ground support equipment (GSE) maintenance facility to accommodate its current and future fleet. Burns & McDonnell was selected to design and construct the new 27,000-square-foot GSE facility. With the schedule demand, an integrated design-build project delivery method was used to rapidly progress the project, which included assisting the airline with moving management operations from the existing facility to the new building. During pre-construction planning, the team developed design packaging strategies to determine appropriate methods for a smooth move, limiting operation downtime. Burns & McDonnell also designed and built aircraft-rated Portland cement concrete apron pavements. The design team evaluated the aircraft fleet intended to use the facility and revamped the structural pavement section to support nose gear loadings and the loading from the GSE vehicle fleet. ACEC Missouri Grand Award More's Lake Coal Combustion Residuals Impoundment Closure and Restoration Project Columbia, Missouri In 2015, Columbia elected to close the More's Lake coal combustion residuals (CCR) site to focus on removing and decontaminating all areas affected by coal ash to meet new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding the disposal of CCR in landfills and surface impoundments. Burns & McDonnell was brought on to develop closure plans, design and construct the site groundwater monitoring well network, perform groundwater monitoring and reporting, provide regulatory submittals, and certify the closure of the facility. The firm also performed the engineering design and completed the construction plans and specifications so the city could beneficially utilize the coal ash as an embankment fill to create a new landfill access road. This unique approach saved the city 13,000 cubic yards of landfill airspace and approximately $600,000 in saved tipping fee revenue while also conserving valuable landfill cover soil. Upon closure, the city retained Burns & McDonnell to continue restoration of the site by designing a public park featuring walking trails with benches, a picnic shelter, a fishing pier and green spaces. The park also includes a bioretention cell to manage stormwater drainage from the roadway and parking area. ACEC Missouri Grand Award Portneuf River Culvert Replacement Lava Hot Springs, Idaho This culvert replacement project used partial tunneling with tunnel liner plate to replace a severely deflected corrugated metal pipe (CMP) in the Portneuf River in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. The team chose a trenchless replacement method, a first for the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD). The method was used to replace the 262-foot-long, 10-foot-diameter culvert because of multiple project constraints, including tall mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls with 45 feet of fill and geofoam above the culvert. Environmental constraints included wetland impacts and mitigation, aquatic organism passage, presence of migratory birds and bats, protection of vegetation, and turbidity. Hydraulics challenges included performing a no-rise analysis, obtaining acceptable velocities for the pipe and avoiding a decrease in the hydraulic opening. In addition, the Portneuf-Marsh Valley Canal Co. limits the time frame for reducing river flows with an upstream flow control structure from October through March, when low flows are anticipated. ITD partnered with Burns & McDonnell to solve these complex challenges. Ultimately, a partial tunneling solution was selected and included shoring of the existing culverts, sequentially removing sections of the existing CMP and constructing a new pipe inside the existing one. A galvanized steel tunnel liner plate and timely pressure grouting of the new culvert sections were used for the project. All culverts were retrofitted with a beveled headwall to improve hydraulics, and the overflow culverts' inverts were repaired with concrete as preventive maintenance. For photos and support materials, please visit our MEDIA KIT. About Burns & McDonnell Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 7,600 engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities with more than 55 offices, globally. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a 100% employee-owned company and proud to be on Fortune's 2020 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn how we are designed to build. Contact: Lydia Schroeder, Burns & McDonnell 720-592-3440 [email protected] SOURCE Burns & McDonnell Related Links www.burnsmcd.com 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. Purim, or the Feast of Lots, is a joyous holiday that recounts the saving of the Jews from a threatened massacre during the Persian period (539-330 BCE). It is celebrated this year beginning at sunset on Thursday, Feb. 25. The story of Purim is recounted in the Book of Esther, whose eponymous heroine plays the leading role in saving her people. The holiday is traditionally celebrated with wild abandon and with the giving of gifts to friends and the poor. History of Purim While the origins of Purim appear clear from the Book of Esther, historians have looked in vain for any sort of ext... Govt promoting bamboo plantation to boost farmers' income: Narendra Tomar India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Feb 25: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday said the government is promoting bamboo plantation as it can help boost farmers' income. The minister virtually addressed the inaugural session of 'National Consultation on Opportunities and Challenges for Bamboo in India'. The two-day event on the bamboo sector is jointly organised by National Bamboo Mission, Niti Aayog and Invest India, according to an official statement. Tomar said the "government is putting in due diligence in developing the bamboo sector since it is evident that it can be a key crop to double farmers' income, increase employment opportunities and improve the livelihood of the people, especially in the North East region". The minister emphasised the formation of FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisations) to encourage small and marginal farmers for taking up the bamboo plantation. He urged the states to send proposals for the formation of FPOs in the bamboo sector. As it is very difficult to identify the species and quality of bamboo at the seedling stage, the minister appreciated the 'National Bamboo Mission' for preparing the guidelines for accreditation of nurseries and certification of planting material. "States are now in the process of accrediting nurseries and details are available in the public domain to guide farmers and industry as to where they can get good planting material," he added. Tomar said bamboos have been planted in an area of 15,000 hectares in the last three years. The agriculture minister noted that the government will promote the use of bamboo in premium eco-tourism destinations, modern buildings and resorts. He also said the use of bamboo will be encouraged in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Rural for which the Ministry of Rural Development has prepared the necessary models. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 23:46 [IST] STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The Hudson County corrections officer accused of killing his girlfriend who worked as a dental hygienist on Staten Island and her best friend last week was furious about the trip she took with her friends to Cancun, according to Advance/SILive.com sister website NJ.com. John Menendez, 23, of West New York, who is a corrections officer at the Hudson County Jail in Kearny, was furious and upset that his girlfriend, Anna Shpilberg, a 40-year-old mother of a teenage son, went on a vacation without him, family members told NJ.com. Shpilberg was a registered dental hygienist on Staten Island, according to the report, and her LinkedIn page says she had worked in the borough since 2011. Menendez also stands accused of killing Shpilbergs best friend, Luiza Shinkarevskaya. Shpilbergs cousin told NJ.com that Menendez told Shinkarevskayas boyfriend that he cant believe they went on vacation and that Anna was going to hear it from him when she got off the plane. The corrections officer, who was in a relationship with Shpilberg, allegedly killed the two friends after picking them up at Newark Liberty International Airport because Anna had been ignoring his calls while on vacation with her friend and he said he lost it and killed them, police said. Menendez allegedly turned himself in to police, saying: I killed both of them. Just arrest me, bro. This is crazy,' he allegedly added. I cant believe I did this. Shpilbergs friends told NJ.com that Menendez was controlling, and asked her to send her texts and videos of her whereabouts. More than a year ago, Shpilberg ended her engagement to another man, Fabian Goni, but her former fiance said he considered the couple on a break and thought the two would get back together. We were on a break, Goni told NJ.com. She met this younger guy, but I still had her stuff in my house. I wanted her back. Im still in love with her. We're keeping the loved ones of these beautiful women in our thoughts. Posted by NJ.com on Friday, February 19, 2021 Menendez allegedly told detectives he was angry that Shpilberg went on vacation without him, according to NJ.com. Shpilberg was still close to her fiance's family and had been recently in contact with his sister-in-law. Claudia Marcela Goni said she texted Shpilberg a picture of her baby on Valentines day, but didnt receive a response, even though she could see Shpilberg read the text. Its so heartbreaking, Goni said. We connected, and I really wanted her to be back in my life, in my house and around my family. Shpilberg had a 15-year-old son from another relationship. He was the biggest love of her life, Fabian Goni said. Beaumont ISD is working to repair an estimated $1 million in damages from the winter storm that swept the region last week. Right now the district is working around the clock to ensure that we get all of the campuses up and running, Superintendent Shannon Allen told The Enterprise in an interview. We have 11 campuses and nine facilities that are repaired and ready to resume for Monday, March 1 right now. Water infrastructure still is a concern at several campuses including Beaumont United, which was gutted and rebuilt in 2019 after Tropical Depression Imelda flooded large portions of it. Related: Beaumont ISD details disaster disruption Beaumont United is the one that I am concerned about as to whether it will be ready, Allen said. Weve been working with our district team and additional contractors who are assisting us. The million-dollar price tag is cheaper than the damage from Imelda, but the administrators still are worried about potential learning loss. That is why weve been working so hard to try to get the buildings back and get our kids back onsite, learning face-to-face finally, Allen said. This has been cheaper but in the big scheme of things were still missing instructional time. The BISD Board of Trustees will vote Thursday on whether or not to authorize Allen to apply for missed-day waivers or virtual-day waivers from the Texas Education Agency, allowing them to receive full funding for the days missed during power outages and unsafe conditions due to the storm. I don't anticipate that it will impact the calendar at this time for this year, Allen said. So that's a good thing. But right now we still have to get that authority from the school board to give me the ability to apply for the various waivers. As students have returned to school virtually, the district is allowing for extended deadlines and other flexibility for work assigned before the storm and subsequent campus closures. What is important to me and to our staff is that the learning occurs, Allen said. But we are certainly being very flexible at this time to give students and parents opportunities to submit those assignments as students complete them. Weve just got to keep moving. Related: BISD classes to remain online for the week The winter storm is the latest in a year full of interruptions, ranging from intermittent requirements to quarantine due to spreading coronavirus cases, to the hurricane-related shutdowns that took place at the beginning of the school year. Looking forward, administrators are beginning plans for expanded summer learning opportunities to help students make up lost time. One of the things we are working toward is tapping into additional funding from the state for additional days, Allen said. If you maintain 180 days within your school calendar, any days that you go beyond 180 days can be funded ...for your pre K-5th graders. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox For the first time ever, the district is looking at ways to provide a summer school program for all elementary school students, regardless of whether or not they struggled during the year. My vision is that we can at least get 50% of our elementary students enrolled and engaged in our summer program, Allen said. Itll be a half-day program lasting approximately 3-4 weeks. The logistics and details of the program are still being finalized and will be shared with the community in the coming weeks. For secondary students, a virtual summer course will be available similar to what was provided last summer. Allen said the district weatherized all facilities and campuses in anticipation of the storm, but standard precautions were not enough for the abnormal cold snap. All the steps we took didnt actually assist with keeping our buildings 100% up and running, Allen said. No one anticipated that it would be to the degree that it was, but Im happy we passed the inspection with the insurance adjuster because we took those steps. Related: Freeze closes schools, health clinics, roadways As after every weather event, the district will continue to learn lessons and move forward. I hope that we dont have to continue to go through hurricanes and tropical storms, and now were are talking about winter storms, Allen said. But we will continue to do the work. isaac.windes@hearstnp.com twitter.com/isaacdwindes Ford Credit CFO Brian Schaaf to Speak March 2 at J.P. Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference Brian Schaaf, Ford (News - Alert) Motor Credit Company CFO, will hold a fireside chat at the J.P. Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, March 2. The virtual discussion will include Ford Credit's financial results, funding, liquidity and portfolio performance, as well as Q&A. Listeners are encouraged to register for the chat. There is more information at shareholder.ford.com. # # # About Ford Motor Credit Company Ford Motor Credit Company is a leading automotive financial services company. It provides dealer and customer financing to support the sale of Ford Motor Company (News - Alert) products around the world, including through Lincoln Automotive Financial Services in the United States, Canada and China. Ford Credit is a subsidiary of Ford established in 1959. For more information, visit www.fordcredit.com or www.lincolnafs.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006135/en/ The doctor who branded NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere's initials into women's bikini lines has defended the ritual by claiming they 'wanted' to have it done. Dr Danielle Roberts spoke out in a new Dateline special and insisted that the women she branded, who were members of a secret master-slave group within NXIVM known as DOS, were not 'harmed'. 'These women wanted this, they asked for this,' Roberts said in a preview for the episode airing Friday. 'You know, I mean and I understand now that narrative has changed and they're saying other things. 'I think pain and harm are two different things. You know, I think people are making an assumption that people were harmed. Nobody was harmed in this.' 'They said they wanted it. They were laughing,' she added. Roberts, who has never faced any charges but did have her medical license brought under review for her involvement in NXIVM, also said she wasn't acting as a physician when she cauterized the women's skin with a branding pen, leaving behind the letters K.A.R. 'They had no idea who the branding technician was going to be, you know? There was no patient-physician relationship,' she said. Scroll down for video Danielle Roberts, the doctor who branded NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere's initials into women's bikini lines, defended the sick ritual by claiming they 'wanted' to have it done Roberts also said she wasn't acting as a physician when she cauterized the women's skin with a branding pen, leaving behind the letters K.A.R. (pictured) Roberts is pictured with several women during an NXIVM retreat in Fiji in 2014 that was presented by prosecutors during Raniere's trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges During Raniere's 2019 trial in Brooklyn federal court, more than a dozen former DOS members testified about how they were branded in their pubic region with an insignia during a nude ceremony. One witness, former DOS slave-master Lauren Salzman, described the branding as 'the most painful thing I've ever experienced'. Prosecutors presented audio of Raniere and his alleged second-in-command, Smallville actress Allison Mack, planning the ceremonies in January 2017. Raniere was heard saying that he wanted the women to recite an oath during the service. 'The person should also ask to be branded,' he said. 'Master please brand me. It would be an honor, and an honor I want to wear for the rest of my life. Although my body may be burned or tortured or whatever, my love is stronger.' 'They should probably say that before they're held down so it doesn't seem like they're being coerced,' he added. Raniere, 60, was sentenced to 120 years in prison in October after a jury found him guilty of seven charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. All charges were linked to DOS Roberts (left and right) has never faced any charges but did have her medical license brought under review for her involvement in NXIVM Roberts is pictured (left) with fellow NXIVM members Nicki Clyne (left) ,Michelle Hatchette (second left) and Linda Chung (center) after Raniere's sentencing hearing in October Raniere also said that he wanted the ceremonies to resemble a human sacrifice ritual. 'Do you think the person who's being branded should be completely nude and held to the table, almost like a sacrifice?' he asked Mack in the recording. 'That's a feeling of submission. Laying on the back, legs spread straight, held to the table. Hands above the head, probably held, almost like sacrificial.' Raniere, 60, was sentenced to 120 years in prison in October after a jury found him guilty of seven charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. All charges were linked to DOS. Mack, 38, was also charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy in April 2018. She pleaded guilty and is out on house arrest while awaiting sentencing, where she faces up to 40 years in prison. During Raniere's 2019 trial prosecutors presented audio of him and his alleged second-in-command, Smallville actress Allison Mack, planning the branding ceremonies in January 2017. Mack (right) is pictured with NXIVM member Nicki Clyne (left) Raniere founded NXIVM in Albany, New York, in 1998 and between then and 2017, recruited more than 17,000 people to it, promising them self-help. Women in DOS were branded with his initials, starved, sleep deprived and forced to engage in group sex and blackmailed with 'collateral' they had provided in the form of incriminating photos, videos or information about them or their families. Raniere also punished young women including a teenager who prosecutors said he held in a room for two years as punishment because she'd shown a romantic interest in another man. He spoke out for the first time since his arrest in an interview with NBC News in October, before he was sentenced. 'I apologize for my participation in all of this pain and suffering. I've clearly participated. I've been the leader of the community,' he said. But he added: 'Yes, I am innocent. 'Although it is, this is a horrible tragedy with many, many people being hurt, I think the main thrust of this has been the oppression but really a different issue, which is hard for me to express. 'There is a horrible injustice here. And whether you think I'm the devil or not, the justice process has to be examined.' After his sentencing Raniere expressed fears for his life while he sat in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting transfer to a maximum security prison. (CNN) -- Australian airline Qantas said it plans to resume international flights by the end of October 2021. The company released its half-year financial results on Wednesday and included the confirmation that it has a plan to restore international flights by the fall. That applies to both Qantas itself and to Jetstar, the lower-priced carrier also owned by the company. The airline also intends to ramp up trans-Tasman flights to New Zealand by July. The autumn date was chosen as the airline believes it will dovetail with Australia's country-wide Covid-19 vaccination efforts. However, don't expect those flights to look the same as they did before coronavirus. For example, only 22 of its 25 international routes (including Los Angeles, Johannesburg and London) will return on or before October 31. Meanwhile, Jetstar will resurrect all 13 of its routes, which include flights to Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo. Fewer planes will run on each route, and fewer passengers will be on each plane. A representative for Qantas says that the airline is looking into several digital health passes, AKA "vaccine passports" that will verify whether a passenger has been vaccinated. Some countries are allowing vaccinated travelers to bypass quarantining upon arrival, which is a critical first step for slowly reopening the global tourism industry. Not surprisingly, Qantas has taken a financial hit since the pandemic began last year. Despite creative ideas like a seven-hour sightseeing trip dubbed "the flight to nowhere," Qantas has struggled as Australia kept its borders almost entirely shut to non-residents. Qantas, Australia's oldest airline, turned 100 in November 2020. It began life as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, operating mail planes that delivered packages and materials to some of the outback's most remote settlements. Its first international flight route was to Singapore in 1935. According to the airline, international travel is not expected to fully recover until 2024. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Australia's Qantas says it will resume international flights in October of 2021" NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, asked about improving secular education at yeshivas, said "we shouldn't interfere with their religious and parental choice as long as the outcomes are good." (New York Jewish Week via JTA) - New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang waded into the debate over the push for secular education at yeshivas, affirming "parental choice" and saying there is a "complete lack of trust" between the haredi Orthodox community and city government. Organizations that oppose government scrutiny of secular education at the Jewish private schools were quick to praise Yang for his comments. "We commend any candidate who affirms the importance of parental choice and who recognizes the healthy results of yeshiva education," said Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, director of New... Boeing will be on-ground exhibiting its diverse range of defense products and services capabilities at the biennial International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) this year. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the show will take place from the 21st to 25th of February, 2021 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Boeing continues to work closely with the United Arab Emirates and other governments and defense forces in the region who will be present at IDEX, and play a key role in enhancing security in the region (Picture source: Boeing) IDEX is the largest defense exhibition in the Middle East and North Africa, and is an ideal platform for Boeing and its subsidiaries, Insitu and Liquid Robotics, to highlight their key products and services that complement the regions existing defense capabilities and support its security requirements. I am proud to say that Boeing shares more than 40 years of partnership with the United Arab Emirates, and more than 70 years across the Middle East region. With safety precautions in place by organizers and exhibitors alike, IDEX will be an opportunity for us to engage with our regional customers on their existing and future security needs. Boeing will support the considerable potential for growth in the aerospace sector by offering the right defense capabilities, infrastructure expansion and services at the right time, said Bernard Dunn, President of Boeing Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Boeing Defense Space & Security (BDS) backlog now stands at $61 billion with 32% of that coming from outside the United States. Looking to the future, over the next five years BDS is pursuing $170 billion across 41 countries in international defense and services opportunities. Boeing continues to work closely with the United Arab Emirates and other governments and defense forces in the region who will be present at IDEX, and play a key role in enhancing security in the region. At IDEX, Boeing will be holding discussions with customers about advanced platforms such as T-7 Advanced Pilot Training System, the KC-46A Pegasus aerial refueling tanker, AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, CH-47F Chinook advanced multi-mission helicopter, F-15EX multi-role combat fighter and the Compact Laser Weapon System (CLWS). Boeing will also focus on its autonomous systems portfolio, in particular the Integrator ER and ScanEagle by our subsidiary, Insitu, and Wave Glider by our subsidiary Liquid Robotics. In addition, Boeing will also discuss its diverse sustainment and training solutions, including an expansive supply chain and logistics network, in-country partnerships and on-the-ground support, and OEM reach back for its installed base of defense platforms, future deliveries and near term sales opportunities. The T-7 is a new advanced pilot training system, designed to include ground based training and support designed together from the start. Its open architecture and flexible design can evolve as technologies, missions and training needs change. In 2018, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a T-7 contract award for 351 jets, 46 simulators and associated ground equipment worth $9.2 billion. T-7A Red Hawk (Picture source: US Air Force) The KC-46A Pegasus is a wide-body, multi-role tanker that is revolutionizing the air mobility mission, designed to refuel U.S., allied and coalition military aircraft compatible with international aerial refueling procedures. KC-46A Pegasus (Picture source: US Air Force) The AH-64E Apache is the most advanced, combat-proven attack helicopter to ever enter production. In addition to the U.S. Army, the Apache is the primary attack helicopter for 17 partner nations around the globe, demonstrating its interoperability as US and international forces operate side-by-side in peacekeeping roles. AH-64E (Picture source: US Army) The CH-47F Chinook is the most advanced, affordable, battle-tested heavy-lift helicopter in the world. The tandem rotor design allows the Chinook to devote all of its power to lift, and provides unmatched tactical and combat support mission capabilities. CH-47 Chinook (Picture source: US Army) The F-15EX is the force of the future. With fly-by-wire flight controls, hypersonic weapon payload capacity and advanced cockpit systems, Boeings F-15EX is prepared to face future threats head-on. Equipped with Open Mission Systems for quick and convenient technology upgrades, it is ready to take on the missions of today and adapt to meet the missions of tomorrow F-15EX during its first flight (Picture source: Boeing) The Compact Laser Weapon System (CLWS) is a modular high energy laser (HEL) system that provides proven, affordable battlefield protection for warfighters and is ready today to defend against a growing array of emerging UAS threats. Compact Laser Weapon System (Picture source: Boeing) The Integrator ER, is Insitus satellite-enabled beyond line of sight (SATCOM BLOS) variant of the Integrator unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for extended range operations. Integrator ER (Picture source:Army Recognition) The ScanEagle by Insitu, is a long-endurance unmanned aerial system (UAS) that has eyes in the sky at 15,000 ft. 24 hours a day. Built upon more than one million hours of operational experience and innovation, it does not require support systems or infrastructure. A ScanEagle prepares for launch in Helmand, Afghanistan. Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistans ISR Capabilities Integration Cell is training, advising and assisting the Afghan National Army on how to best utilize this technology (Picture source: U.S. Army/Lt. Charity Edgar) The Wave Glider designed and manufactured by Liquid Robotics, is the worlds most experienced, long-duration autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). It supports a wide range of sensors and payloads to collect and transmit data in real-time from seabed to space, and is used by defense organizations around the world for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), maritime domain awareness (MDA), and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Wave Glider (Picture source:Liquid Robotics) Australia is officially in the box seat to secure the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed it would enter into exclusive discussions with organisers of a very advanced south-east Queensland bid. IOC president Thomas Bach said the bodys executive had accepted the recommendation of its Future Hosts Commission to install Brisbane as a non-binding preferred candidate. Bach stressed it was not a final decision and the matter had been the subject of intensive debate before being finalised. The move means the IOC will now engage in detailed and targeted discussions with Brisbane organisers and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) over coming months. If all of the conditions are met, Australia will in just over a decade be hosting its third Olympics, with a final call to be made as early as July ahead of Tokyo 2021. Its a momentous development for Australian sport, while the speed at which Brisbanes bid has progressed has surprised many not privy to the background machinations. However, the Future Host Commission made it clear Australia was seen as a very safe pair of hands amid global uncertainty and had offered lofty praise for the detail of the Queensland presentation. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a new way to harness properties of light waves that can radically increase the amount of data they carry. They demonstrated the emission of discrete twisting laser beams from antennas made up of concentric rings roughly equal to the diameter of a human hair, small enough to be placed on computer chips. The new work, reported in a paper published Thursday, Feb. 25, in the journal Nature Physics, throws wide open the amount of information that can be multiplexed, or simultaneously transmitted, by a coherent light source. A common example of multiplexing is the transmission of multiple telephone calls over a single wire, but there had been fundamental limits to the number of coherent twisted lightwaves that could be directly multiplexed. "It's the first time that lasers producing twisted light have been directly multiplexed," said study principal investigator Boubacar Kante, the Chenming Hu Associate Professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. "We've been experiencing an explosion of data in our world, and the communication channels we have now will soon be insufficient for what we need. The technology we are reporting overcomes current data capacity limits through a characteristic of light called the orbital angular momentum. It is a game-changer with applications in biological imaging, quantum cryptography, high-capacity communications and sensors." Kante, who is also a faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has been continuing this work at UC Berkeley after having started the research at UC San Diego. The first author of the study is Babak Bahari, a former Ph.D. student in Kante's lab. Kante said that current methods of transmitting signals through electromagnetic waves are reaching their limit. Frequency, for example, has become saturated, which is why there are only so many stations one can tune into on the radio. Polarization, where lightwaves are separated into two values -- horizontal or vertical -- can double the amount of information transmitted. Filmmakers take advantage of this when creating 3D movies, allowing viewers with specialized glasses to receive two sets of signals -- one for each eye -- to create a stereoscopic effect and the illusion of depth. Harnessing the potential in a vortex But beyond frequency and polarization is orbital angular momentum, or OAM, a property of light that has garnered attention from scientists because it offers exponentially greater capacity for data transmission. One way to think about OAM is to compare it to the vortex of a tornado. "The vortex in light, with its infinite degrees of freedom, can, in principle, support an unbounded quantity of data," said Kante. "The challenge has been finding a way to reliably produce the infinite number of OAM beams. No one has ever produced OAM beams of such high charges in such a compact device before." The researchers started with an antenna, one of the most important components in electromagnetism and, they noted, central to ongoing 5G and upcoming 6G technologies. The antennas in this study are topological, which means that their essential properties are retained even when the device is twisted or bent. Creating rings of light To make the topological antenna, the researchers used electron-beam lithography to etch a grid pattern onto indium gallium arsenide phosphide, a semiconductor material, and then bonded the structure onto a surface made of yttrium iron garnet. The researchers designed the grid to form quantum wells in a pattern of three concentric circles -- the largest about 50 microns in diameter -- to trap photons. The design created conditions to support a phenomenon known as the photonic quantum Hall effect, which describes the movement of photons when a magnetic field is applied, forcing light to travel in only one direction in the rings. "People thought the quantum Hall effect with a magnetic field could be used in electronics but not in optics because of the weak magnetism of existing materials at optical frequencies," said Kante. "We are the first to show that the quantum Hall effect does work for light." By applying a magnetic field perpendicular to their two-dimensional microstructure, the researchers successfully generated three OAM laser beams traveling in circular orbits above the surface. The study further showed that the laser beams had quantum numbers as large as 276, referring to the number of times light twists around its axis in one wavelength. "Having a larger quantum number is like having more letters to use in the alphabet," said Kante. "We're allowing light to expand its vocabulary. In our study, we demonstrated this capability at telecommunication wavelengths, but in principle, it can be adapted to other frequency bands. Even though we created three lasers, multiplying the data rate by three, there is no limit to the possible number of beams and data capacity." Kante said the next step in his lab is to make quantum Hall rings that use electricity as power sources. ### This research was primarily supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and Berkeley Lab's Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline industry body, said it would launch its Covid-19 travel pass at the end of March, a Reuters report said. The pass is expected to bring into use a digital system for test results and vaccine certificates which will help facilitiate international travel. IATA said it is becoming clear that vaccines and testing will play a role as the pandemic comes under control and economies ramp up, including the travel sector. The IATA Travel Pass will enable travellers to securely control their health data and share it with relevant authorities. A growing list of airlinesincluding Air New Zealand, Copa Airlines, Etihad Airways, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, RwandAir, and Singapore Airlineshave done or are committed to doing trials with IATA Travel Pass. Efficient digital management of health credentials is vital to restart. Manual processes will not be able to cope with volumes once the recovery begins. Digital solutions must be secure, work with existing systems, align with global standards and respect data privacy. In developing the IATA Travel Pass these are fully in focus. The IATA Travel App will help to set the bar very high for managing health credentials, protecting against fraud and enabling a convenient travel process. While there is choice in the market for solutions, there should be no compromise on the fundamentals, or we risk failing systems, disappointed governments and travelers, and a delayed restart, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs Director General and CEO. The travel pass essentially works as a digital passport. It stores travellers information, including Covid-19 test results, which they can share with airlines and other authorities during their travel, thereby making their trips more convenient and paperless. - TradeArabia News Service I feel grateful and happy to be given this opportunity, she said. It makes me a little bit more relaxed, but Im still taking the precautions, but it makes me sad because a lot of my neighbors cant get theirs yet. Everyone wants that normal summer to be able to be around friends and family and have that backup. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the launch of an antitrust investigation into large tech companies outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Sept. 9, 2019. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) We Think Weve Absolutely Got a Case That Will Win: Texas AG Ken Paxton on Big Tech Antitrust Action Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed his certainty in winning an antitrust case Texas filed against Google, which alleges illegal monopolistic practices. Paxton talked with Breitbart about the lawsuit against the tech giant. He was asked to comment on a proposal from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that would allow big tech companies to be fined or sued for specific content-policing decisions. We definitely are looking at [DeSantiss proposal], Paxton said. Were trying to encourage our legislature to do something similar [in Texas], because I feel like [Big Tech] have had exemption from liability that they shouldnt have had, especially being in the monopolistic position they are in. The Texas Attorney General said that theyre focusing on the lawsuits. Weve sued Google for antitrust violations, and we think weve absolutely got a case that will win, and very likely, there [will] be other companies [doing] this process [that we will] learn have done the same thing [and] that are in the very same position. The logos of mobile apps Facebook and Google on a smartphone in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 9, 2020. (The Epoch Times) Paxton said that the emphasis of their lawsuit is ad tech, referring to the fact that Big Tech possesses almost exclusive control over advertising on the internet. He explained the conflict of interest that Googles business model exhibits. [Google represents] the buyers of advertising, the sellers of advertising, and they control the exchange, Paxton said. It would be like Goldman Sachs owning the only exchange and representing all the buyers and sellers at the same time, knowing all the information, and therefore they can massively profit at the expense of these business owners who then have to pass on those costs to consumers. So consumers are paying an exorbitantly high price for use of the Internet without even knowing it, he explains. On Oct. 20 of last year, Paxton announced that Texas would be involved in the lawsuit along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the states of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and South Carolina. Googles illegal conduct has allowed it to dominate the search industry by requiring exclusivity from business partners and avoiding competition on the merits while shielding itself from competitors who might threaten its market share, the AGs office said in a statement. The judge overseeing the DOJ case has put forward an initial trial date for Sept. 12, 2023. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was attacked by the BJP for his "north-south" remark but he also faced surprise criticism from within his party with the 'G-23' dissenters waiting for the right time to attack him and it came after his speech in Kerala. The Congress dissenters defended the party but left Rahul Gandhi undefended with the rider that Rahul could clarify it himself as evidenced by party leaders Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal's "clarification" jibe. The 'G-23' group met at senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's residence at South Avenue Lane including Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Anand Sharma and sources say some were contacted through phone. The dissenters are unset since their letter became public in August and the issues were not resolved and the group is unhappy over rise of people close to Rahul Gandhi including K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala. The overlooking of Anand Sharma for the post of Leader of Opposition and denying another Rajya Sabha term to Azad have irked them while leaders like Manish Tewari and Sandeep Dikshit are also feeling sidelined in the party set-up. Sources say the internal war is far from over as Rahul Gandhi is placing people close to him in key posts and the seniors are overlooked. This is the reason Congress leaders, specially members of 'G-23' who have written to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi for sweeping reforms in the party, have reportedly said that it is up to former party president Rahul Gandhi to clarify his statement allegedly comparing "north vs south". Anand Sharma told the media that the Congress had great leaders from the north and the party is grateful to the people of Amethi for electing Congress leaders such as Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Satish Sharma, and Rahul Gandhi. Sharma who is deputy leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha said, "Congress never believes in dividing the country on region and religion and does not disrespect any region. Rahul Gandhi had made certain observations, perhaps shared his personal experiences, but in what context he made that observation, only he can clarify so that there is no conjecture or misunderstanding." Sibal said it is the BJP which is dividing the country but "what Rahul Gandhi had said he can explain in what context he made the statement." He also said the voters should be respected whether from any region and their wisdom should not be questioned. But leaders close to Rahul Gandhi have defended him. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera addressing the media said, "the observation of Rahul Gandhi is for the kind of political culture the BJP has developed." He rejected the statement of Sibal and said he did not listen to the whole speech. The Congress launched a counter attack on Wednesday on the ruling BJP after the latter attacked Rahul Gandhi. Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Rahul Gandhi has given a clarion call to the people of India to question the governments of the day, whether in the states or at the Centre on issues paramount to the people and to ignore the superficial 'Toolkit' story being sold by the BJP day in and day out." On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi had said in Thiruvananthapuram: "For the first 15 years, I was an MP from the north. I had got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was very refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in issues." 2021-02-25 Maeci BAHRAIN SEEKING INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS FOR THE COUNTRYS FIRST-EVER METRO SYSTEM Bahrain has launched a tender process for selecting international partners to build the countrys metro system. The multi-million-dinar project aims to develop a rail network in the Kingdom based on a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. To this end, the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications (MTT) will host a Global Market Virtual Sounding Forum to present the project to the major stakeholders in the worldwide construction sector. The Forum is scheduled to be held on 2 March 2021 and will be followed, over the forthcoming months, by the publication of a specific call for tenders. The MTT has appointed a technical, financial and legal team headed by KMPG, which will act as guide and consultant for the transactions. The project will consist in the phased development and construction of an urban rail network 109 kilometres long with 4 lines. In phase one of the project the first two lines will be built, linking important facilities in the Kingdom, such as the International Airport and the principal residential, retail and institutional centres. For more information email the Ministry at: bahrainmetro@mtt.gov.bh or visit the website http://www.mtt.gov.bh/content/bahrain-metro-market-consultation Simulations demonstrate vulnerability of critical personnel during joint natural disaster and pandemic events. Credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute When a pandemic and a natural disaster hit a community simultaneously, disease exposure and social distancing can limit the availability of critical personnel, leaving a community positioned for a lengthy recovery. With both types of events expected to occur with increasing frequency, a team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been running simulations to better understand how communities can weather concurrent crises. In a paper recently presented at the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, the research team wrote that, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, "little attention had been paid to the possibility that a significant number of critical personnel in both the infrastructure and disaster response and recovery supply chains could be incapacitated or otherwise unavailable due to an ongoing pandemic." Furthermore, their modeling suggests that "our current understanding of such compound extreme events is inadequate to the potential threat." Specifically focusing on hurricane recovery, the team used a customizable artificial communityessentially, a digitally created model townto simulate scenarios that may become realities after a storm. Their particular model, previously created at Rensselaer with support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, mimics a coastal community in North Carolina with a population of about 500,000 people. Using a tool developed at Rensselaer to optimize the scheduled repair of civil infrastructure, the researchers calculated the recovery time of the artificial community in scenarios of varying storm strength, workforce supply, and workforce demand. The model revealed that civil infrastructure outages increased when there were pandemic-induced workforce reductions, that water and power system outages were the most frequent and pressing challenges, and that the greatest disruption to civil infrastructure happened after a loss of the first 25% of workers. "In order to do emergency response, you have to have people," said Al Wallace, head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer and co-author on the paper. "When you talk about infrastructure, everybody thinks about the physical part of it. But we rarely think about the human part of it. We're beginning to recognize it now because of COVID-19. The problem isn't going to go away; the problem will be here this hurricane season." The paper also raised concerns that delays in recovery could exacerbate negative health impacts already heightened by a pandemic. For instance, the researchers said, those living in nursing homes and temporary shelters would be most vulnerable to COVID-19, power outages, and water shortages. Restoration efforts for these populations are critical. While their model highlights some of the key challenges recovery personnel could face, the researchers said that more exploration and modeling should be done in this area. They encourage policymakers and response personnel to consider new and critical questions, such as how mass evacuations could be conducted in an era of social distancing and what to do if few volunteers from other areas are able or willing to help. Most of these considerations, the researchers pointed out, ultimately come back to the importance and availability of people. "Almost everybody looks at the hardware and the institutional pieces of infrastructure and they just kind of assume that people are always going to be there," said Richard Little, a visiting research scholar in industrial and systems engineering at Rensselaer and co-author of the paper. "What we saw during the pandemic is we sometimes didn't have people." "Observations on the Effects of a Global Pandemic on the Time To Recovery (TTR) from Natural Disasters" was written by Wallace, Little, and Madeline Roberts, a 2020 graduate of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer. Explore further Study identifies strengths and challenges of responding to dual disasters More information: Observations on the Effects of a Global Pandemic on the Time To Recovery (TTR) from Natural Disasters. Observations on the Effects of a Global Pandemic on the Time To Recovery (TTR) from Natural Disasters. scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/70748 Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. We have just witnessed the damage caused by poorly designed energy gridsrolling blackouts, skyrocketing electricity prices, people sleeping in their cars and in one insulated room to keep warm. At the same time a weaponized right wing media swings into action blaming wind turbines and the green new deal for Texass energy woes. There is a pattern here. These are variants of stories told after Californias forest fires and resulting power outages. But we see no easy end of power outages that have plagued electricity supply in recent years while adverse weather events seem to get more frequent and impactful. (See Figure 1.) But this is the bottom line. In a way an electric system is like maintaining a car. Spend adequately on repairs maintenance etc. and reliable performance is reasonably assured. Or one could skimp repeatedly on maintenance, save a lot of money over the years and take one's chances on vehicle reliability. The electric system in Texas was built it appears around the latter proposition. Their reserve margins are the lowest in the country (about 8%). And this is the third time the electric system failed to perform adequately in winter (1989, 2011 and 2021). Our point here is that any system that consistently fails in this manner regardless of the governance regime is designed that way despite claims and protests to the contrary. This is a big problem for any region because an increasingly digital economy requires highly reliable electricity service. And what is being provided at present in ERCOT is anything but. Figure 1. Major disturbances and unusual occurrences on USA electric grids Source: Energy Information Administration Now lets add another ingredient to the mix. Automobile makers are in a very clear transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles. A key step we believe to decarbonize the economy. But first as a society we have to decarbonize our electricity supply, and then sell decarbonized electricity to the transportation sector (which plan, if successfully executed could reduce carbon emissions by 40% or more). Related: Russias Answer To The U.S. Shale Threat Is Finally Here But how will the electricity grid handle this incremental demand from the transportation sector well as the needs of existing customers under the increasingly stressful conditions imposed by climate change? One obvious answer: upgrade and expand. If the grid does not, outsiders including industrial consumers acting to protect their individual electric supply will. We have previously written that decarbonizing and modernizing the USs existing electricity plant (whose average age is 35 years) could cost $7-8 trillion. Electricity suppliers might need 20 years to complete the job, meaning $350-400 billion per year to get into shape. Currently, they spend about $150 billion per year which means a lot of catching up to do. Those numbers look huge, but the actual payments will stretch out over decades like a mortgage. And financings of this magnitude will make little dent in U.S. capital markets, where the electricity industry accounts for only 3-4% of total capital expenditures and financing. In order to pay for new equipment, without government subsidy, we calculate that electricity suppliers would have to raise prices by 3 - 4% per year in real terms. (Academic studies optimistically calculate no price increase under the right operating conditions.) The electric bill equals about 2% of the USs gross domestic product and the household bill about 2% of household income. Paying for modernization and decarbonization together, spread over decades, would add about $45 each year to the average household electric bill. Not an enormous burden, and one that could be spread to mitigate financial hardship. Admittedly, we should view long term projections with caution. Markets, technology, institutions and solutions change over time. What the numbers show, at best, is that the electric industry can finance modernization and decarbonization without placing undue burdens on consumers. That should be enough to encourage faster action. What will encourage the industry to raise the ante? Legislation in Congress reprises Obama administration policies: a mix of emissions restrictions, generous tax handouts and regulatory incentives. The industry pushed back then and might do so again, considering that the courts have become friendlier to business. Overall, greenhouse gas emissions per kwh generated fell about 2% per year during the Obama presidency and 3% per year during Trumps term, largely for economic reasons. Generators shifted from burning coal (high carbon content) to natural gas (lower carbon content) because gas was cheaper. In order to approach zero in 20 years, greenhouse gas emissions per kwh must fall more than 10% a year. We believe that policy makers would accelerate decarbonization and modernization of the electricity sector by making it a business opportunity for electric companies to embrace rather than as an environmental compliance problem, using tried and true components such as securitization to pay for the most polluting regulated power stations if retired promptly, granting higher returns on assets that support decarbonization, and a bonus to electric companies for the fossil-free electricity that they produce or deliver. Add a Federal guarantee for the securitization bonds or any other deferrals designed to smooth the price impact of the capital program, and that will lower costs to consumers at practically no cost to the government. (For details of proposed policies, see blog page, lenhyman.com.) Businesspeople do not oppose or stall policies that might raise their profits. We cant argue that with the notion that recent polar vortex events or summer wildfires reveal serious shortfalls in electricity regulation, governance and market structure. And this includes lack of financial accountability. But from an operating perspective we also see inadequate reserve capacity, plants in the wrong place or unable to stand up to severe weather. Combine those inadequacies with the need to decarbonize, and it all adds up to a lot of capital spending. Even if the energy market decentralizeswe would think the ERCOT disaster drives people awaysome public or private corporation has to spend money for a modernized electricity grid. And needless to say energy consumers will eventually pay. However the good news is if we start this massive grid redesign and rebuilding process now at least the cost of money is very low. By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: This isnt Bed Bath & Beyond, where the activist group taking on Kohls last had success. Bed Bath & Beyond didnt own much real estate, but it had a number of underperforming divisions and low board turnover. Kohls has tried to navigate the department store downturn by partnering with grocers to fill space in its larger boxes, with Amazon to offer returns from its stores and with Sephora to attract new customers. And while the activist group wants Kohls to add more board members with retail experience, retailers have in recent years focused on hiring from outside the industry to bring in new skills, especially in technology. Kohls said it has added six new directors since 2016. Activists have pushed sale-and-leaseback deals on retailers before. The investors love them because they quickly generate cash that they hope will be returned to shareholders. Retailers hate them because they are left with less flexibility after those activists have gone. For years, Macys rejected Starboards push to monetize its real estate; when the pandemic hit last year, that property backed billions in much-needed loans. Even after the pandemic passes, the continued rise of e-commerce will force retailers to reassess their property portfolios. A sale-and-leaseback deal, which often entails long-term leases, could lock in retailers like Kohls at a time when they need to be nimble. Charlie Munger lets loose The 97-year-old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway is known for being Warren Buffetts more brusque right-hand man. He lived up to his reputation yesterday at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal, the Los Angeles-based newspaper publisher that he chairs, during which he traditionally fields questions on a range of topics. Some of the highlights: I think were crazy to allow it. Mr. Munger said that the recent meme-stock mania was fed by people getting commissions and other revenues out of this new bunch of gamblers, apparently referring to online brokerages like Robinhood. He added, Its really stupid to have a culture which encourages as much gambling in stocks by people who have the mind-set of racetrack bettors. The world would be better off without them. SPACs have been the hottest trend on Wall Street, but Mr. Munger finds the phenomenon another instance of irresponsible gambling. This kind of crazy speculation in enterprises not even found or picked out yet is a sign of an irritating bubble, he said, adding some profane words for the banks bringing these companies to market. I dont think Bitcoin is going to end up the medium of exchange for the world. Mr. Munger said that digital tokens were too volatile to replace traditional currencies, and compared crypto to gold. Since I never buy gold, I never buy any Bitcoin, he said. 02/25/2021 Photo (c) krisanapong detraphiphat - Getty Images Homeowners struggling financially during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are doing a better job of paying their mortgage on time. Black Knight, a housing data firm, reports that the national mortgage delinquency rate fell to 5.9 percent in January. The company says that number is significant because its the first time it has fallen below 6 percent since March, just as the pandemic was beginning in the U.S. For most consumers, their rent or mortgage is their largest recurring monthly expense. Economists say a decline in mortgage delinquencies is almost always a good sign for the economy as a whole. Still, the numbers are much higher than before COVID-19 shut down the economy and threw millions of Americans out of work. Black Knight reports that around 2.1 million homeowners remain 90 or more days past due on their housing payments, but they are not yet in foreclosure. Thats five times higher than pre-pandemic levels. The report shows that 130,000 properties were 30 days or more late on a mortgage payment but not yet in foreclosure as of early January. Thats 121,000 fewer than in December but 1.4 million more than in January 2020. Mississippi leads the nation with 10.32 percent of its homeowners delinquent on their mortgage payments. Louisiana is second at 9.9 percent, and Hawaii is third at 8.99 percent. Idaho has the smallest percentage of delinquent mortgages at 3.18 percent, followed by Washington at 3.71 percent and Colorado at 3.75 percent. Numbers may not reflect the true pain The numbers, however, may not reflect the true economic disruption some homeowners are feeling. As part of the CARES Act early in the pandemic, Congress placed a moratorium on foreclosures on government-backed mortgages. Last week, the Biden administration extended the moratorium through June. Homeowners who are in financial difficulty because of the pandemic may enroll in a mortgage forbearance program, with deferred payments added to the end of the loan. While that may provide short-term relief, Black Knight says it may have the effect of extending the length of the recovery period Black Knights report estimates that 1.8 million mortgages will still be seriously delinquent at the end of June when foreclosure moratoriums on government-backed loans are scheduled to lift. All the ambassadors who have recently been recalled from their missions have completed their four-year terms of office, some even overstayed their terms by one or two years, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu told Parliament on Thursday. "The recall of the ambassadors was made according to the usual rotation process, of those heads of missions who have already completed their four-year terms. All the heads of missions who were recalled, both last year - remember that there has also been a wave of recalls and appointments - and all those who have been recalled very recently have already completed their customary four-year terms, and some of them have even overstayed them by one and even two years," said Aurescu. Asked if he was satisfied with the work of the recalled ambassadors, including George Maior from the US and Emil Hurezeanu from Germany, the minister said: "Many of the ambassadors who were recalled have done their duty very well.""Each ambassador is assessed according to individual performance, but in terms of the rotation of ambassadors (...) the term is somehow unfortunate because it is about recall, but all ambassadors return when they finish their customary mandate of four years or if they overstay it," Aurescu added.Regarding the activity of George Maior, the minister mentioned: "The Romanian Embassy in Washington has an excellent team of diplomats.""In the past years there was obvious progress in terms of the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States, there was progress with all dimensions of the strategic partnership. This progress has been due to a combined effort, if you will, of both the ministry's main offices, the diplomatic mission in Washington and also the special efforts that the President of Romania has made in the relationship with the United States," added Aurescu.He said that he did not want to comment on a piece of public information that George Maior would be appointed ambassador to Jordan.On February 22, President Klaus Iohannis signed decrees recalling 23 Romanian ambassadors, including George Maior, Romania's ambassador to the United States of America, and Emil Hurezeanu, Romania's ambassador to Germany. Microsoft will add AI-powered text predictions to its Word desktop application in March 2021, according to a report by The Verge. This feature was available in a beta stage last year and will now be offered through Microsoft Editor to all users of Microsoft Word. The predictive text feature aims to reduce spelling and grammar errors by adapting to the users writing style over time. Once enabled, Microsoft Word will begin offering predictions in greyed-out text ahead of your cursor. Pressing the Tab key will accept a prediction and move the cursor to the end of the offered word, and pressing the Escape key will reject the prediction. This predictive text feature is already available for English users of Microsoft Word who have signed up through the Windows Beta channel. It is also available on the web version of Microsoft 365, as well as the web version of Outlook for users in North America. We typically release features over some time to ensure that things are working smoothly, Microsoft states on its Insider blog. The company added that it may remove the feature or parts of it to improve them before public launch. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as Insiders, have had the opportunity to try them, Microsoft said. Privacy Microsoft has assured users that there are no privacy concerns related to the predictive text feature in Microsoft Word and Outlook. It states that the content of your document never leaves your system and is not stored on its servers unless volunteered. Text predictions use a machine learning model to make suggestions based on the text you have typed in the current document or email, Microsoft states. The content is not stored or seen by any human unless donated as part of the feedback mechanism. The image below shows how the text predictions in Microsoft Word will work. Now read: Tesla shares sink after big Bitcoin drop 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. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Welcoming the UK court order to extradite fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi to India, the BJP said it is in line with Narendra Modi government's commitment to punish offenders as per Indian law. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary and Rajya Sabha member Dushyant Gautam said the judgment is "on the lines of Modi government's commitment" to punish each and every person involved in crime against the country. "It a clear message for criminals or fraudsters within the country or those who escaped the country. No one will be spared under the Modi government. It was the Congress regime these economic offences were committed. No one can escape the law under the Modi government," Gautam said. Thanking the Modi government for pursuing the extradition of Nirav Modi, the BJP leader said the message is loud and clear, and that "no one will be able to hide anywhere in the world after committing crime in India today". "Modiji has already made clear that no one can escape or hide oneself anywhere in the world. After Nirav Modi, other fugitive offenders will also be brought back and punished as per Indian law." BJP National Secretary Sunil Deodhar said Prime Minister Modi is ensuring that all those who looted India during UPA are punished. BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya tweeted, "UK Court's order on Nirav Modi's extradition is a shot in the arm for the agencies pursuing the fugitive. This is in line with the Modi Government's commitment to bring all economic offenders to book. After legislating the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, this is significant development." UK's Westminster court on Thursday accepted the prima facie evidence against Nirav Modi regarding his involvement in Rs 14,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam and issued an order for his extradition. Published on 2021/02/24 | Source Actor Park Gyu-young had a photo shoot with ELLE. In an interview conducted with the photo shoot, she pointed out that "I can have a very diverse experience as the biggest attraction of my job as an actress", and added, "There are so many things you can learn under the pretext of acting. I think the biggest attraction is that I accumulate all kinds of new experiences in each work". Meanwhile, Park Gyu-young said, "I love the support I received through Netflix's original series "Sweet Home" but I adapt to new changes quickly", and added, "I am starring in the drama "The Devil Judge" in the role of detective Yoon Soo-hyeon. I'm working as an ace in the investigation team who is after 'devil judge' Kang Yo-han's (Ji Sung) secret, so I'm doing more action than I did in "Sweet Home" these days". Park Gyu-young's pictorial and interviews, who has an honest and natural charm, can be found on the March issue of ELLE, the ELLE website and YouTube channels. The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, acts as a de facto high-ranking British arms dealer and supports the authoritarian regimes of the Persian Gulf, the Declassified UK reported. The portal has published materials on the relationship between Windsor Palace and the Arab royal family. It turns out that over the past decade, Charles alone has met 95 times with ruling families in the Middle East, while in total, members of the British royal family have met with representatives of the region's monarchies 217 times. Charles' diplomatic trips to the region are made at the request of the Foreign Office. It is noted that he helped fortify controversial alliances with undemocratic regimes and promoted arms exports worth 14.5 billion. It is claimed that the real purpose of these visits is hidden behind Buckingham Palace. The palace emphasizes its cultural visits, although there are frequent meetings with senior members of the military, intelligence, and internal security. While the details of what was said during Charles's meetings with Arab royals are unknown, they were sometimes followed by statements from British arms manufacturers such as BAE Systems that they had struck multi-billion dollar arms deals. The Prince of Wales' visits also coincided with high levels of repression against pro-democracy protesters in the region. The most recent meeting between the House of Windsor and the Arab royal family took place in December when Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed visited Charles and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London. The meeting took place despite growing criticism from UN experts regarding the conduct of UAE forces in the fighting in Yemen. Oxfam warned earlier this week that the UK was extending the war in Yemen by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. Yazmin Oukhellou has quit TOWIE following her bitter split from James Lock. The reality star, 26, broke up with her on-off beau, 34, 'for good' earlier this month, while they were staying in Dubai on a 'work trip'. And now Yaz has turned her back on the new series of the ITVBe show because she 'wants to pursue a career in real estate in the United Arab Emirates'. Times change: Yazmin Oukhellou has quit TOWIE following her bitter split from James Lock A spokesperson for TOWIE told The Sun: 'Yaz has decided to stay in Dubai to pursue a career in real estate so she wont be starting this series of The Only Way is Essex. 'We support this decision and wish her well in this new venture. As with other cast, the door remains open should she return to Essex.' MailOnline has contacted Yazmin's representatives and TOWIE for comment. All over: The reality star, 26, broke up with her on-off beau, 34, 'for good' earlier this month, while they were staying in Dubai on a 'work trip' Dubai is on the U.K's red list of countries, meaning if Yaz had decided to return home to star in the next series, she would have to pay 1,750 for a mandatory, 10-day quarantine at a government-mandated hotel. It appears Yaz wants a fresh start in Dubai, after the start of her trip was marred by the breakdown of her relationship. The TOWIE couple mutually agreed to cut ties after their relationship turned toxic, with James planning to fly home while Yazmin stays in the UAE. Money talks: And now Yaz has turned her back on the new series of the ITVBe show because she wants to pursue a career in real estate in the United Arab Emirates. A source previously revealed to MailOnline: 'James and Yazmin haven't been in a good place for a while now and living together in Dubai only put further strain on their relationship. 'Arguments between them have intensified and turned nasty, resulting in the couple deciding between them to go their separate ways and this time, for good. 'James plans to return to the UK for TOWIE filming but Yazmin has work in Dubai so is staying put.' A spokeswoman for Yazmin said: 'I can confirm James and Yazmin have split up. It's all over: The couple had flown out to Dubai on a 'work trip' last year but it was said the break put 'further strain on their relationship' 'It's an amicable split and both of them are certain that it's time to move on with no animosity.' The Essex couple had experienced a tempestuous relationship, splitting up and reconciling on a number of occasions after they first started dating in 2017. They split in 2019 after Yazmin accused James of betraying her by partying with a group of women in a hotel room in Turkey, where the couple were on holiday together. A year after their bitter breakup they got back together, confirming their romance by kissing on a beach in Mallorca. Yazmin eventually took James back after the pair failed to keep their distance from each other amid filming for TOWIE and sharing the same group of friends. Last year, Yazmin said: 'I feel like the things that went wrong in the relationship before, we now know to put right this time. I look at that as a test run and now this is the real run.' Scheduling time to see your health care provider can feel overwhelming at any age, but it doesnt have to be that way. The best way to navigate this process is by preparing in advance. Over the past 12 months, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on many communities and families. In addition to the long-term impact of the virus, the pandemic has led to widespread and unforeseen side effects, including the delay or cancellation of medical appointments due to fear of exposure to the virus. The aging population has been particularly impacted, opting to avoid the potential risks of leaving home. In fact, according to a nationwide survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University Chicago, 1 in 6 older adults delayed or canceled essential medical treatment in the first month of the pandemic alone. Of those who deferred care, almost 40% put off non-essential treatment, while nearly a third went without preventative or primary care. Regular checkups and appointments are essential to maintain good overall health, as well as prevent and/or detect the progression of common diseases. This can be particularly devastating for seniors managing chronic illnesses. Routine visits to the doctor are a fundamental investment in our physical well-being and become increasingly important as we age, says Lakelyn Hogan, Ph.D., gerontologist and caregiver advocate at Home Instead. Seniors are typically more susceptible to chronic diseases and conditions, and yearly checkups allow doctors to monitor and observe changes in a patients health, identify signs of illness early on and recommend the necessary treatments. For those who still have reservations about visiting their medical provider, telemedicine has made it possible to visit your doctor over the phone or via video session, presenting seniors with additional alternatives to in-person visits. Scheduling time to see your health care provider can feel overwhelming at any age, but it doesnt have to be that way. The best way to navigate this process is by preparing in advance. Below, Hogan shares a few suggestions to help aging adults plan ahead for a visit to the doctor and better anticipate what to expect. Do your homework. Health concerns and needs change over time, and so has the current health care landscape. Before making an appointment, spend time researching which doctor best aligns with your needs and objectives for your checkup. What type of doctor are you looking for? Are they conveniently located? Are they within your insurance network? Do they have a positive reputation? What COVID-19 protocols have they put in place? Its important to be thorough in your research and find someone who will make you feel comfortable. Explore appointment options. Due to the pandemic, many physicians have expanded options to offer virtual visits. While several practices have resumed in-person checkups, some doctors may still only provide remote care at this time. If preferred, telemedicine appointments offer many benefits including convenience, limited exposure to germs and increased ability for caregivers or family members to act as advocates in real time. Talk to your provider about options for the safest way to schedule your visit and make sure to plan ahead for both options, either by arranging transportation to and from the doctors office or setting up a virtual workstation with good internet connection. Bring everything needed for a successful visit. Before your checkup, prepare to bring all necessary documents, such as a list of current medical conditions, allergies and medications, as well as up-to-date insurance information, health records and test results, if needed. You can also compile a list of questions you would like to ask and any new information that needs to be shared since the last visit, as this information will help your appointment flow more efficiently and effectively. Now is a good time to ensure youre up to date on your vaccinations. If you have any questions around the flu or COVID-19 vaccine, this is a great time to talk with your doctor. Dont overlook specialists. In addition to scheduling regular visits with primary care physicians, you should also plan to see specialists such as the eye doctor and dentist on an annual basis. For example, an ophthalmologist can help catch early signs of age-related eye problems, including vision loss and cataracts. Follow public health guidelines. If planning for an in-person visit, remember to follow standard COVID-19 precautions. This includes wearing a face mask, using hand sanitizer, avoiding touching your face, practicing social distancing and following any additional staff directives. While visiting the doctor is important at any age, it is especially crucial for older adults who face greater risks. Our health is of the utmost importance, which is why it is imperative not to delay or avoid medical care. Whether scheduling an appointment virtually or in-person, now is the time to prioritize the care you deserve. For more information on how to stay on top of your health and wellness, visit: HomeInstead.com. ### ABOUT HOME INSTEAD Founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, the Home Instead franchise network provides personalized care, support and education to enhance the lives of aging adults and their families. Today, the network is the world's leading provider of in-home care services for older adults, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide more than 80 million hours of care annually throughout the United States and 13 other countries. Local Home Instead offices employ approximately 90,000 CAREGivers worldwide who provide basic support services that enable older adults to live safely and comfortably in their own homes for as long as possible. Home Instead franchise owners partner with clients and their family members to help meet varied individual needs. Services span the care continuum from providing personal care to specialized Alzheimers care and hospice support. Also available are family caregiver education and support resources. Visit HomeInstead.com. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. LANSING, MI - The Michigan Senate approved more than $1.9 billion in COVID-19 supplemental appropriations Thursday, opting to provide piecemeal funding to various sectors affected by the pandemic. Senate bills 29 and 114 were passed partisan lines 20-15 during the Feb. 25 session. The two bills would appropriate mostly federal dollars to fund vaccine distribution, COVID-19 testing, emergency rental assistance, school aid, plus an extension and increase on direct care worker payments. The $1.9 billion package is about a third of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers initial $5.6 billion supplemental proposal. Whitmers plan also contained elements that Senate and House Republicans have argued arent immediately pertinent to coping with the pandemic, such as $225 million in grants for job creation initiatives and $5 million to implement increased security measures at the Michigan State Capitol. The Senate plan also differs from the Houses $3.5 billion plan approved earlier this month. Among the differences is that the Senate would not tie school funding to the House provision that would give local health departments more authority in determining coronavirus restrictions. Sen. Jim Stamas, the bills co-sponsor, said the legislation allocates funds responsibly, addresses more pressing needs and saves money for future use. Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing, voiced the Democratic opposition to the bills for not releasing all federal dollars now. We dont need to wait, theres no reason to wait, Hertel said. Why not now? What would be the downside of giving out the funding now? Senate Bill 114 would appropriate $772 million to: Increase supplemental pay for direct care workers to $2.25 an hour, with an extension through Sep. 30. The total cost is $150 million, including $55 million from the states general fund. Commits $184 million of federal money for COVID-19 testing, including $75 million specifically for school districts and $20 million directly to the Michigan Department of Corrections. Send $282.5 million in emergency rental assistance, including administrative costs. The bill also approves $110 million toward vaccine distribution, versus Whitmers initial $90 million proposal, though the Senates allocation comes with strings attached. The initial allocation is $36.7 million, with the rest able to be released after the Senate and House appropriation committees approve a transfer request by the State Budget Office per state law. The Senate is also considering House bills in its COVID-19 relief plan that would send $150 million into the states Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and $300 million for the Department of Treasury for property tax relief. House and Senate Republicans have frequently expressed a desire to provide oversight of the vaccine distribution process led by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Stamas plainly said Thursday on the Senate floor that he doesnt want to give Whitmer a blank check. The Senate bill would require oversight measures in the form of MDHHS proving it has spent all of its vaccine money before requesting more, plus providing weekly reports on how vaccines were distributed across the state. Senate Democrats offered multiple amendments that failed to gain traction Wednesday, including ones that would release all federal funds intended for rental and food assistance. Multiple amendments also called for a change in the bill that would change the way Michigan calculates which regions need the COVID-19 vaccine the most. During the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, Republicans passed a provision over objections from Democrats to remove the states vaccine distribution methodology based on the CDCs Social Vulnerability Index. Related: Michigan adjusts how it allocates COVID-19 vaccines to communities The index directs state purchases of the vaccine to communities hardest hit by the pandemic. For example, by June, fatal COVID-19 cases among African Americans made up about 40% of the total coronavirus deaths in the state. After the virus spread across the state, that number declined to 22%, still disproportionately high. African Americans make up about 13% of Michigans population. By comparison, white residents account for 67% of deaths from COVID-19 and make up 78% of the states population. Black residents lead in deaths per million in the state with 2,276 versus 1,284 for white Michiganders. The amendment, added by Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, would send vaccines to areas based only on the local number of eligible individuals. It would ban the allocation of vaccines based on race, socioeconomic status, gender, sex, national origin or religion. Early state data shows some racial disparities in who receives the vaccine, though the data contains a large percentage of Michigan residents that did not identify their race. Related: New Michigan vaccine data shows disparities along racial lines Barrett said the amendment would get the vaccine out equitably, rather than through a social justice platform. Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, argued Wednesday that the current index distributes vaccines to communities more if you have minority status and you dont speak English that well than for someone who is over 65 years old. The vaccine is not currently available for general public use. I dont care what race they are. I dont care what ethnicity they are. I dont care what language they speak. These are the people who are vulnerable to die, Runestad said, referencing senior residents. Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, echoed state data that points to Black residents, including seniors, being disproportionately affected by the virus. She also introduced one of the failed amendments to retain the Social Vulnerability Index. We already have a lack of vaccines in this state and its not about one community getting the vaccine over another, she said. Senate Bill 29 approves $1.25 billion in school aid, including $313 million from the State School Aid Fund. The money would help aim to ensure districts are able to afford $450 per pupil and fill gaps for underfunded districts. About $87 million in federal funds would go to nonpublic schools. Additional programs included in the bill are $90 million for K-8 summer school programs to help offset learning loss during the pandemic shutdowns, $45 million to help high schoolers recover lost credit hours and $21 million to pay staff that operate during the summer. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer isnt mandating that schools reopen for in-person learning that decision is left to local school boards but she is pleased that 97% of traditional public districts will offer in-person learning by March 1. Its clear we need to return to in-person learning as soon as possible, Whitmer said, donning an apple-themed mask at her Feb. 24 news conference. Both bills now head to the House for consideration next week. Read more from MLive: Michigan House clears $3.5B coronavirus spending plan over objections from Democrats Read Whitmers $5.6B plan to fund coronavirus recovery for Michigan schools, economy Michigan Republicans worry Whitmers budget creates long-term costs, falls short on in-person school Michigan Senate Republicans unveil $2B plan for spending federal coronavirus money Democrats introduce Whitmers $5.6 billion pandemic spending plan in House Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Dr. Claytor is a highly sought-after lecturer on the topic of Drainless Tummy Tuck and teaches the advanced course on Scarpa Sparing Abdominoplasty with Concomitant Liposuction: No Drains Needed at national and international meetings. Award-winning, Double Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Dr. Brannon Claytor has been helping patients realize their beauty goals for over 16 years. He serves as Chief of Plastic Surgery for Main Line Health Systems encompassing Bryn Mawr, Lankenau, Paoli, and Riddle Hospitals. 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Barrett Noone in 2014 where he has become the "Go-To" cosmetic aesthetic Plastic Surgeon to the Main Line. Dr. Claytor is an active member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Claytor is a highly sought-after lecturer on the topic of Drainless Tummy Tuck and teaches the advanced course on Scarpa Sparing Abdominoplasty with Concomitant Liposuction: No Drains Needed at national and international meetings. In addition to his surgical work, Dr. Claytor is a Clinical Associate Professor at Lankenau Institute of Medical Research. Dr. Claytor is dedicated to achieving the highest level outcomes for his patients, and to ensure that art and science are continuously aligned, he is committed to clinical research trials and has authored many journal articles and book chapters as a result. He also serves as an instructor for medical residents. 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Whether you desire a surgical procedure or a non-surgical treatment, Claytor Noone Plastic Surgery has the expertise and the patient care that has kept patients coming back for over 40 years. Learn more about Dr. Brannon Claytor by visiting: https://hauteliving.com/hautebeauty/member/dr-brannon-claytor/ ABOUT HAUTE BEAUTY NETWORK: Haute Beauty is affiliated with the luxury lifestyle publication Haute Living. As a section of Haute Living magazine, Haute Beauty covers the latest advancements in beauty and wellness, providing readers with expert advice on aesthetic and reconstructive treatments through its network of acclaimed doctors and beauty experts. For more about Haute Beauty, visit https://hauteliving.com/hautebeauty/ Lieutenant General Levon Mnatsakanyan expresses solidarity and support for the demand for the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan and the government, voiced by the leadership of the Armenian Armed Forces. "The entire nation is reliving a historic, fatal moment," he said. "The Armenian people are forced to resist not only external but also today's anti-national authorities, leading the country to death." "As an Armenian who stood at the origins of the national liberation struggle in Artsakh and made a modest contribution to the building of the Armenian army, I cannot take a passive position in this difficult period when the question of To Be or Not to Be for the Motherland is being decided." "Proceeding from the historical necessity that has arisen, I express my solidarity and support for the demand for the resignation of the RA Prime Minister and Government, voiced by the leadership of the General Staff and military formations of the RA Armed Forces." "At the same time, I address my appeal to all worthy officers serving in the security forces to be honest and impartial in the position entrusted to them in saving the Motherland from the coming catastrophe," he added. The Armenian army joint staff on Thursday issued a statement noting that the army demands the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan and his government. The statement was signed by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, his deputies, heads of departments, and commanders of all corps. The Armenian army has expressed its resolute protest over the dismissal of the First Deputy Chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff. At the suggestion of the PM, President Armen Sarkissian had dismissed Tiran Khachatryan, who had reportedly mocked PM's words about the alleged flaw of the Russia-made Iskander missile systems. Following the incident, the Armenian army noted that the PM and the government are no longer able to make proper decisions for the Armenian people. After this statement, Nikol Pashinyan made a Facebook post, noting that he had signed the necessary documents to dismiss Onik Gasparyan, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces. PM also noted that considered this statement a military coup attempt, and he urged his supporters to gather Republic Square in Yerevan. Numerous political scientists and analysts, however, called the PM's aforesaid announcement an attempt to lead to civil strife and bloodshed. The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL), a 'Miniratna' central public sector enterprise (CPSE), has called for online applications from qualified and experienced candidates for filling Six (06) vacancies to the post of Senior Programmers in BECIL on contract through direct recruitment to be deployed at the Indira Gandhi National University in New Delhi, India on a fulltime basis. The application-cum-registration process towards the same started on February 21, 2021 and closes on March 10, 2021. CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Senior Programmers posts in BECIL Organisation Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) Educational Qualification B.Tech/B.E/M.Sc (CS/IT)/MCA Experience 3+ professional years of experience in concerned area Job Responsibilities null Skills Required null Job Location New Delhi Salary Scale Rs. 50,000 per month Industry A 'Miniratna' central public sector enterprise (CPSE) Application Start Date February 22, 2021 Application End Date March 10, 2021 BECIL Recruitment 2021: Age Criteria And Fees Candidates interested in applying for BECIL Senior Programmer Jobs 2021 through BECIL Recruitment 2021 must meet age criteria as per the BECIL recruitment norms, with relaxation (upper age limit) for reserved categories as mentioned in the BECIL Notification 2021. Candidates must remit a prescribed amount of Rs. 750 (Gen/UR/OBC/Women) and Rs. 450 (SC/ST/PWD/EWS) respectively as application fee for BECIL Senior Programmer Jobs 2021 under BECIL Recruitment 2021 through online mode only as specified in the BECIL Notification 2021. Also Read: RBI Recruitment 2021 For 841 Office Attendants Posts, Check RBI Notification For Eligibility And Other Details BECIL Recruitment 2021: Education And Eligibility Desirous candidates applying for BECIL Jobs 2021 through BECIL Recruitment 2021 must possess a B.Tech/B.E/M.Sc (CS/IT)/MCA form a recognised University/Institution with 3+ professional years of experience in the concerned area as detailed in the BECIL Notification 2021. BECIL Recruitment 2021: Selection And Pay Scale The selection of candidates for BECIL Jobs 2021 through BECIL Recruitment 2021 will be made as per prescribed norms and requirement of the job as notified in the BECIL Notification 2021. Candidates selected for BECIL Senior Programmer Jobs 2021 through BECIL Recruitment 2021 will be paid a remuneration of Rs. 50,000 per month. Also Read: BMRCL Recruitment 2021 For DGM, Chief Engineer, CEE And Gen Manager Posts. Apply Offline Before March 23 BECIL Recruitment 2021: How To Apply Candidates applying for BECIL Senior Programmer Jobs 2021 through BECIL Recruitment 2021 must register online on the official BECIL website and submit their applications on or before March 10, 2021. Download BECIL Recruitment 2021 PDF Notification for Senior Programmer posts Haiti - News : Zapping... Haiti requests the extradition of Youri Chevry At a press conference on Wednesday, Frantz Exantus, the new Secretary of State for Communication, said that the Haitian authorities had sent a formal request for the extradition to Haiti of the former mayor of Port-au-Prince, Youri Ralph Chevry , so that he will respond for his actions before justice. Recall that Chevry is currently under house arrest for 3 months in Santo Domingo https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33098-haiti-news-zapping.html See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33035-haiti-justice-new-elements-in-the-arrest-of-the-former-mayor-of-port-au-prince-ralph-youri-chevry.html 125 million US for the elections The Haitian Government, according to the budget of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), plans to spend 125 million US dollars to carry out the next elections. It was Mathias Pierre, the Minister Delegate in charge of electoral issues and relations with political parties who confirmed this information which added that the Haitian State had signed an agreement of 72 million US dollars with the United Nations Program for development (UNDP), to start purchasing electoral materials. The United States remains concerned "The United States remains concerned about the creation of new state institutions, including the National Intelligence Agency, which could pose additional risks to fundamental rights and accountability in Haiti," said the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Important agenda for the Council of Ministers On Wednesday at the National Palace, Jovenel Moise chaired a Council of Ministers with a busy agenda. Major decisions to ensure the safety of the population, the electrification of the country, the referendum on the new Constitution and the elections were discussed. Local police On Wednesday, during a meeting with agents assigned to different units including EduPol and the Community Police Leon Charle, the General Direcetur ai of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), insisted on the need for all agents are actively involved in efforts to project a better image of the institution, which should focus on respect for human rights and a community policing approach. CIN cards More than four million citizens have already registered with the National Identification Office (ONI). HL/ HaitiLibre Mineralization in adjacent Central Breccia Pipe appears to have affinity with a tin porphyry TORONTO, Feb. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: ELO; OTCQX: ELRRF FSE: P2QM) (Eloro, or the Company) is pleased to announce further diamond drill results from its Iska Iska Silver-Polymetallic Project in Potosi Department, southern Bolivia. To date, Eloro has completed 22 holes totalling 7,185 metres from both underground (12) and surface drill holes (10). Currently a steeply inclined deep hole, DSB-06, is in progress to test the Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe (SBBP) at depth. This release reports results from the last two underground holes (DHK-16 and DHK-17) and the first radial surface hole from SBBP (DSB-01). Results from the first deep radial hole, DSB-02, are delayed for reasons discussed below. Results for Holes DHK-16, DHK-17 and DSB-01 are listed in Table 1. Due to the polymetallic nature of the deposit, silver equivalent (Ag eq) values have been included for comparative purposes. Pending holes are listed in Table 2. Figure 1 is a plan map showing locations of the drill holes completed and in progress with holes in this release highlighted. Figure 2 is a North-South geological cross section of the SBBP. Highlights of the SBBP drill results are as follows: Underground Drill Holes 67.39 g Ag eq/t over 213.10m including 205.17 g Ag eq/t over 13.04m in Hole DHK-16 drilled at -10 degrees 50m southwest and parallel to Hole DHK-14 (see press release January 26, 2021) in Hole DHK-16 drilled at -10 degrees 50m southwest and parallel to Hole DHK-14 (see press release January 26, 2021) 279.82 g Ag eq/t over 8.57m, 74.21 g Ageq/t over 52.93m and 121.61 g Ag eq/t over 37.85m in Hole DHK-17 drilled at -50 degrees 50m southwest and parallel to Hole DHK-15 (see press release January 26, 2021) Radial Surface Drill Hole 114.43 g Ag eq/t over 33.25m in Hole DSB-01 drilled at -45 degrees south Eloro also received preliminary analytical results from Hole DSB-02, drilled at -60 degrees south from the radial setup at SBBP. As previously reported, this hole intersected 332m of mineralized breccia in the adjacent Central Breccia Pipe (CBP) from 300m to the end of the hole at 632m with the breccia open at depth. Preliminary analytical results indicate that the CBP is chemically distinct from the SBBP. The metal association seen in the lower part of this hole, especially the last 15 m, sees associated Sn (tin) up to 0.23%, Ag (silver) up to 13.3 grams per tonne (gpt) and Au (gold) up to 0.89 gpt with considerably lower Pb (lead), up to 0.052%, and Zn (zinc), up to 0.292%, than what has been seen in the SBBP. Eloro considers that this style of mineralization is more closely aligned with large tin porphyries in the region and that a similar porphyry potentially underlies the CBP and perhaps more of the Iska Iska project area. Eloro has determined that its current assay protocol is not suited for the style of mineralization described above, especially given the persistent elevated Sn levels seen in recent drilling. Therefore, the Company is changing the assay protocol to utilizing X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to more accurately analyze higher Sn. Tin in the CBP is suspected to occur as cassiterite which is insoluble in acid digestion, and therefore not suited for wet chemical techniques. In addition, other assay protocols are being changed to provide for a more accurate measurement of the wide-ranging suite of polymetallic metals at Iska Iska. Results from Hole DSB-2 will be reported once these more accurate results are available. Unfortunately, the ASL Global laboratory in Lima where the Iska Iska samples are being analyzed has had major delays in turnaround time due to the impact of the recent COVID-19 lockdown of Lima by the Peruvian government. This has restricted availability of critical supplies necessary to carry out analytical work. As a result, there will be delays in reporting of assay results. Dr. Bill Pearson, P.Geo., Eloros Executive Vice President Exploration, commented: We are seeing increasing evidence of an Sn porphyry at a much shallower depth than previously thought. The SBBP is a major Ag-Zn-Pb target whereas CBP is looking more like an Sn-Ag-Au target. In the Huayra Kasa underground workings we identified a third major target, high-grade Au-Bi. Clearly we have a large scale complex multiphase porphyry-epithermal system driven by a major porphyry at depth. Dr. Pearson continued: Our second drill will commence shortly with first pass drilling of the 700m longitudinal extent of the CBP from both the north and south setup areas. The drill currently at SBBP will complete the deep hole then we will follow up areas of higher-grade mineralization in the vicinity of Hole DHK-15 and follow up on the major extension of the SBBP to the west. Drilling will be designed in consultation with Micon International to optimize future resource estimation. Preliminary metallurgical tests have also been initiated with Micon. Dr. Osvaldo Arce, P.Geo., Manager of Eloros Bolivian subsidiary, Minera Tupiza S.R.L., and an expert on Bolivian geology commenting on the style of mineralization at Iska Iska compared to other major polymetallic deposits in the region said: Hole DSB-02 intersected at its bottom significant grades of Sn and Au, which is characteristic of other deposits in the district such as Chorolque, located 25 km northwest of Iska Iska. At Iska Iska, the Huayra Kasa breccia pipe could be peripheral higher-level epithermal mineralization with predominantly Zn, Pb, Ag and Au. The SBBP west of Huayra Kasa is likely an intermediate zone with telescoped polymetallic mineralization of Ag, Sn, Zn and Pb. The CBP with Sn-Au association could constitute the core zone similar to the Chorolque tin deposit. Dr. Arce continued: The Au-Bi mineralization outlined in the underground workings of Huayra Kasa and in the beginning of hole DHK-05 is also characteristic of mineral deposits in the district such as Tasna, located 50 km northwest of Iska Iska, In the case of Iska Iska, the mineralized system has a high degree of preservation of the entire porphyry-epithermal system. This is due to proximity of the erosionally resistant basement quartz sandstones and the pervasive silicification within the breccia pipes which prevented significant erosion of the volcanic edifice as compared to other major polymetallic deposits in the district. Dr. Quinton Hennigh, P.Geo., Senior Technical Advisor to Eloro, commented: The preliminary results for hole DSB-02 strongly suggest we are rapidly approaching an underlying Sn-Ag-Au porphyry system as we test the deeper part of the CBP area. Given the strong Sn as cassiterite component of this mineralization, we have had to step back and rethink our analytical protocols to analyze this exciting newly discovered porphyry mineralization. This coupled with the struggles at the lab in Lima have resulted in delays in getting numbers out. These delays are anticipated to subside as Peru bounces back from the latest COVID-19 surge. In the meantime, we are quickly seeing Iska Iska grow dramatically through mineralized intercepts encountered in recent drilling. Table 1: Significant Assay Results Holes DHK-16, DHK-17 and DSB-01, Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe, Iska Iska: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/231f1fa7-47c2-4348-beab-1eb83316d9a5 Note: True width of the mineralization is not known at the present time, however based on the current understanding of the relationship between drill orientation/inclination and the mineralization within the breccia pipes and the host rocks such as sandstones and dacites, it is estimated that true width ranges between 70% and 90% of the down hole interval length but this will be confirmed by further drilling. Metal prices and conversion factors used for calculation of g Ag eq/t are as follows: Element Price (per kg) Ratio to Ag Sn $28.00 0.032 Pb $2.10 0.0024 Zn $2.80 0.0032 Cu $8.80 0.01005714 Au $57,400.00 65.60000 Bi $12.76 0.01458286 Cd $5.50 0.00628571 In $305.00 0.34857143 Ag $875.00 1.00000 Table 2: Summary of Diamond Drill Holes at Iska Iska from press release of February 16, 2021 with assays pending. Hole No. Type Collar Easting Collar Northing Azimuth Angle Hole Length m Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe - Surface Radial Drilling from Centre DSB-02 S 205118.9 7656205.7 180 -60 632.50 DSB-03 S 205118.9 7656205.7 90 -60 515.30 DSB-04 S 205118.9 7656205.7 0 -60 536.40 DSB-05 S 205118.9 7656205.7 270 -60 611.20 DSB-06 S 205118.9 7656205.7 210 -80 In progress TOTAL 2295.4 S = Surface Total drilling completed since the start of the program on September 13, 2020 is 7,185 m in 12 underground holes,10 surface holes and one (1) surface hole in progress as of end of day shift, February 22, 2021. Qualified Person Dr. Osvaldo Arce, P. Geo., Manager of Minera Tupiza S.R.L., and a Qualified Person in the context of National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101), has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release. Dr. Bill Pearson, P.Geo., Executive Vice President Exploration Eloro, and who has more than 45 years of worldwide mining exploration experience including extensive work in South America, manages the overall technical program in consultation with Dr. Quinton Hennigh, P.Geo., Senior Technical Advisor to Eloro and Independent Technical Advisor, Mr. Charley Murahwi P. Geo., FAusIMM of Micon International Limited. Drill samples are prepared in ALS Bolivia Ltdas preparation facility in Oruro, Bolivia with pulps sent to the main ALS laboratory in Lima, Peru for analysis by fire assay for gold and silver as well as 31 element ICP. Over limits from ICP are analyzed by XRF. Eloro employs an industry standard QA/QC program with standards, blanks and duplicates inserted into each batch of samples analyzed with selected check samples sent to a separate accredited laboratory. About Iska Iska Iska Iska silver polymetallic project is a road accessible, royalty-free property, wholly-controlled by the Title Holder, Empresa Minera Villegas S.R.L. and is located 48 km north of Tupiza city, in the Sud Chichas Province of the Department of Potosi. The property can be classified as a silver polymetallic (Ag, Zn, Pb, Au, Cu, Bi, Sn, In) and porphyry-epithermal complex. This is an important mineral deposit type in the prolific South Mineral Belt of Bolivia. Silver polymetallic mineralization at Iska Iska occurs within a Miocene possibly collapsed/resurgent caldera that consists of granodioritic stocks and five (5) dacitic domes which are each about 500m in diameter. These rocks intrude/extrude an intensely deformed sequence of Ordovician shales, siltstones, and sandstones, which are partially covered by Miocene pyroclastic rocks. The silver polymetallic mineralization occurs mainly as veins, vein swarms, veinlets, stockworks, disseminations and in breccias associated with intense hydrothermal alteration. The Iska Iska dome complex has several major phases of igneous breccias, quartz porphyries, dikes and dacitic syn-kinematic flows. On November 18, 2020 Eloro announced the discovery of a significant breccia pipe with extensive silver polymetallic mineralization just east of the Huayra Kasa underground workings and a high-grade gold-bismuth zone in the underground workings. Diamond drilling intersected a number of extensive mineralized intersections within the major breccia pipe including 54.48 g Ag/t, 1.45% Zinc (Zn) and 1.60% Lead (Pb) over 16.39m (140.91 g Ag eq/t) within a broader interval of 122.74m grading 14.29 g Ag/t, 0.81% Zn and 0.41% Pb (53.67 g Ag/t eq) in Hole DHK-04 (see press release November 18, 2020). The high-grade gold-bismuth zone outlined in channel samples in the underground working averaged 7.1 g Au/t and 0.2% Bi (8.29 g Au eq/t) over 3.04m width for strike length of 47m. Hole DHK-05 on the strike extension of the high-grade Au-Bi zone intersected 6.51g Au/t, 0.07% Bi and 31.96 g Ag/t (7.68 g Au eq/t) over 11.85m grading including 29.56 g Au/t,0.26% Bi/t and 63.69 g Ag/t (31.94 g Au eq/t) over 2.31m in this high-grade zone. On January 26, 2021, Eloro announced significant results from drilling at the Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe. Highlights are as follows: 129.60 g Ag eq/t over 257.5m (29.53g Ag/t, 0.078g Au/t, 1.45%Zn, 0.59%Pb, 0.080%Cu, 0.056%Sn, 0.0022%In, 0.0064%Bi and 0.0083%Cd) from 0.0m to 257.5m in hole DHK-15, the deepest of the three holes reported within the SBBP; 79.00 g Ag eq/t over 121.33m (21.77g Ag/t, 0.034g Au/t, 0.35%Zn, 0.23%Pb, 0.18%Cu, 0.056%Sn, 0.0011%In, 0.004%Bi and 0.0055%Cd) from 0.0m to 121.33m in Hole DHK-14 within the SBBP; 74.16 g Ag eq/t over 40.88m (33.43g Ag/t, 0.032g Au/t, 0.04%Zn, 0.33%Pb, 0.13%Cu, 0.045%Sn, 0.0010%In and 0.0012%Bi) from 30.40m to 71.28m in Hole DHK-13 which is within the approximately 100m wide mineralized envelope that surrounds the breccia pipe. Silver-polymetallic mineralization within the Iska Iska system occurs over a potential strike length of more than 2.5km along major ring structures in the caldera complex. A synchrotron study of the underground channel samples (see press release dated June 25, 2020) concluded that the mineral cluster analysis identified four mineralogical domains that cover the entire sampling area suggesting they are related and represent a single, large mineralizing system. Furthermore, the mineralogy of the domains is consistent with minerals identified in hand specimen and are likely related to a telescoped porphyry/epithermal style of mineralization. About Eloro Resources Ltd. Eloro is an exploration and mine development company with a portfolio of gold and base-metal properties in Bolivia, Peru and Quebec. Eloro has an option to acquire a 99% interest in the highly prospective Iska Iska Property, which can be classified as a polymetallic epithermal-porphyry complex, a significant mineral deposit type in the Potosi Department, in southern Bolivia. Eloro commissioned a NI 43-101 Technical Report on Iska Iska, which was completed by Micon International Limited and is available on Eloros website and under its filings on SEDAR. Iska Iska is a road-accessible, royalty-free property. Eloro also owns an 82% interest in the La Victoria Gold/Silver Project, located in the North-Central Mineral Belt of Peru some 50 km south of Barricks Lagunas Norte Gold Mine and Pan American Silvers La Arena Gold Mine. La Victoria consists of eight mining concessions and eight mining claims encompassing approximately 89 square kilometres. La Victoria has good infrastructure with access to road, water and electricity and is located at an altitude that ranges from 3,150 m to 4,400 m above sea level. For further information please contact either Thomas G. Larsen, Chairman and CEO or Jorge Estepa, Vice-President at (416) 868-9168. Information in this news release may contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Companys plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and are believed to be reasonable based on information currently available to the Company. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the 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. Figure 1: Geological Plan Map of the Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe area: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5c613432-feeb-4251-9992-a1c33dde16c3 Figure 2: North-South Geological Cross Section, Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fa646834-fd3e-40bf-a63a-1744a5ba8ae3 New Delhi: With an eye on Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal, the BJP on Thursday launched the 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' campaign to unseat the ruling Trinamool Congress government from power in the state. BJP president J P Nadda, who had arrived in the state on Wednesday night, launched the campaign along with an election manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in West Bengal. Launching Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in Kolkata. https://t.co/m8ExpCEOAX Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) February 25, 2021 State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and the party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were also present on the occasion. West Bengal: BJP national president JP Nadda launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla (manifesto) crowdsourcing campaign', in Kolkata. State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also present on the occasion. pic.twitter.com/tnfblr68ro ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 "We'll accept over 2 crore suggestions from people. We'll make available approx 30,000 suggestion boxes across WB. Around 100 boxes will be kept in 294 assembly constituencies. Our workers will go from door to door with 50 boxes and 50 will be placed at strategic locations,'' the BJP chief said. This campaign will go on from 3rd to 20th March in every Vidhan Sabha constituency, the BJP chief said in Kolkata. "We're making efforts to work towards making 'Sonar Bangla', with the inclusion of contributions of Swami Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in prestigious history of WB.'' the BJP chief said. Nadda said, ''There are around 10 crore farmers in the country, of these around 73 lakhs are in Bengal itself. 7 installments of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi have already been released but the farmers of Bengal have remained deprived of it.'' According to a statement released by the party, Nadda will address a conference of the intelligentsia, among his other engagements during a daylong stay in the poll-bound state. BJP's national media in-charge Anil Baluni had earlier said, JP Nadda will launch the "Lokkho Sonar Bangla Manifesto Crowdsourcing" programme on Thursday. Baluni said this while referring to the party's poll promise of rebuilding the state as "Sonar Bangla". The BJP chief will also pay tributes to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the composer of Vande Mataram, at his residence and museum. Nadda's programme schedule includes lunch at the house of a jute mill labourer and prayers at the Anandpuri Kalibari temple, followed by a "Parivartan Yatra" rally. In the evening, he will visit the ancestral home of renowned Bengali writer Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay to pay his tributes, followed by a visit to the West Bengal State Armed Police headquarters to pay homage to the martyr Mangal Pandey pillar, the statement said. The party will seek suggestions from two crore people in West Bengal for its election manifesto ahead of the Assembly polls. Through this campaign, the BJP will directly engage with the citizens of West Bengal in crafting a vision for the state for the next five years by inviting them to give their suggestions. "Two crore suggestions will be collected by the party and will be used in the creation of the BJP's manifesto for West Bengal," the party said. The saffron party will use 294 specially designed LED raths, one for each Assembly constituency of the state. "Suggestions will be collected through 294 LED `raths` travelling the entire state and suggestion boxes will be placed in each of these vehicles along with a mobile or tablet to video record people's aspirations," BJP leader Amit Malviya said. About 30,000 suggestion boxes will be placed across the state (100 in every constituency) to reach out to citizens in every corner of the states. "People can give a missed call on 9727-294-294 and record their aspirations. Citizens can also send their suggestions via Whatsapp or SMS on this number. They can also visit the specially designed website for the purpose or send their suggestions via email," he said. For the `Lokkho Sonar Bangla` campaign to collect suggestions from the people for its manifesto, the BJP also held meetings with representatives of different communities. In recent times, the BJP had sought suggestions before preparing its election manifesto. For the 2019 general election, the BJP crowdsourced suggestions for its manifesto. In the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls also the BJP took suggestions from common people. Polls for 294 seats in the West Bengal Assembly will be held in April-May. The BJP, riding high on its success in the last general election in the state, is leaving no stone unturned to uproot the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government. In 2019, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. Live TV ANNAPOLIS, Md., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The MD JJC is hosting a virtual press conference to discuss the significance of the Juvenile Restoration Act with respect to the racial disparities in Maryland and its necessity as a safe, effective, and reasonable repair of Maryland's criminal justice system. WHEN: Monday, March 1st, 2021 10:00 11:00 AM (EST) WHERE: Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rNKm4CGhTaOJwPbed3WK0A WHO: Delegate Jazz Lewis, Maryland General Assembly Senator Chris West, Maryland General Assembly Aisha Braveboy, Esq., State's Attorney for Prince George's County Philip Caroom, Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform, current Judge Paul LaRuffa, Survivor and Advocate Eddie Ellis, Incarcerated Children's Advocacy Network Coordinator Preston Shipp, Senior Policy Council, Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth Erica Suter, Esq., Vice President of Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys' Association Rabia Chaudry, Esq., Co-host of the Undisclosed Podcast Hamza Khan, Judiciary Chair of Progressive Maryland (Moderator) Jayna Peterson, Co-founder and Legislative Affairs Coordinator, MD Juvenile Justice Coalition, (opening and closing statements) WHY: Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President William (Bill) Ferguson have made it a priority to analyze the impact of proposed criminal justice bills on the existence of structural racism during the 2021 legislative session. The Juvenile Restoration Act is crucial in addressing and alleviating Maryland's stark racial disparities prevalent in the prison population. The line-up includes various perspectives on the importance of this bill from its sponsor(s) and those who provided compelling testimony in favor of the Juvenile Restoration Act during committee hearings. Contact: Jayna Peterson, MD Juvenile Justice Coalition (MDJJC) (240) 245-0554 [email protected] SOURCE MD Juvenile Justice Coalition On 19 February, the UK Supreme Court made a landmark ruling that Uber must classify its drivers as workers rather than self-employed. While India has already taken steps towards formalization of the labour market, Mint looks at the possible impact of this ruling. What did the UK top court say in its ruling? The UK Supreme Court dismissed the ride-hailing giants appeal against an employment tribunals ruling that Uber drivers must be classified as workers rather than self-employed. This would make drivers eligible for employment-related benefits such as minimum wages and holiday pay. Uber said it will now launch a consultation to seek the views of all active drivers who use its app in the UK and understand where things could improve. The company will thereafter share its next steps. Experts believe that the ruling could lead to better remuneration for millions of gig workers and reshape the gig economy. Will the ruling have any impact in India? While there may not be any quick impact in India, the ruling creates a precedent in policymaking for gig workers and platforms offering similar services across the globe. Some experts believe categorizing gig workers as employees could put an end to the uniqueness of the aggregator model that gives them flexibility in working hours or as a side hustle. However, in India, the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget 2021-22 said that social security benefits will be extended to gig workers. Minimum wages will apply to all categories of workers, and they will all be covered by the Employees State Insurance Corp. View Full Image Road ahead What is the extent of Ubers presence in Indian market? The company entered India over seven years ago and has seen good growth since then, barring covid-led disruption. It not only created work avenues for drivers, but turned out to be one of the biggest disruptors in the transportation space, kickstarting a debate on whether cab aggregators are impacting auto industry. Uber operates in over 85 cities in India. Are cab aggregators regulated in India? Yes. In November 2020, the Centre issued its first guidelines to bring all vehicle aggregators, such as Uber, Ola under a regulatory framework, aiming to ensure customer safety and formalization of gig workers, thereby make ride-hailing firms more accountable. As per the Centre, these firms must ensure health and term insurance for each driver for at least 5 lakh and 10 lakh, respectively, with the base year of 2020-21 and increase it by 5% every year. In the past, there were no uniform guidelines for cab aggregators across states. What are some of the drivers concerns here? Drivers have complained about shrinking incentives in the last few years. In parallel, commissions charged by aggregators on every ride have gone up, impacting their incomes. Drivers in the UK and the US have had concerns on whether they should be treated as workers or self-employed. Ubers 2019 annual report mentions driver dissatisfaction and protests, and says any future protests could negatively impact its business. Continued driver dissatisfaction may also result in a decline in the number users on its platform. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! ALBANY The downtown Walgreens was a crossroads where different parts of the city came together. Residents from poorer neighborhoods to the north and south of downtown arrived to have prescriptions filled. Office workers did the same, or popped in during their lunch breaks for some sundry or another. And for downtown Albanys burgeoning residential population, the North Pearl Street drugstore was about the only place to buy, say, laundry detergent, a greeting card or a gallon of milk. Coming to an inbox near you Our writers share more about the topics they cover in our newsletters. Churchill's Corner: Chris Churchill goes in depth on his latest columns, and shares what readers are saying. Sign up here. Editor's Note (subscribers only): Editor Casey Seiler shares the story behind our biggest stories of the week. Sign up here. Click here for a complete list of newsletter offerings. It seems surprising, then, that a store on which so many people depended could close, as the Walgreens did Friday. If that store couldnt survive in downtown Albany, what store could? In that respect, the closure seems to be more evidence of a famously difficult business environment in Albany, and comparable to a run of shutdowns that includes the McDonalds on South Pearl Street or the Rite Aid in the South End. But while Walgreens hasnt bothered to explain the decision, it is likely the stores closure was influenced by factors that are hardly unique to the city. (Walgreens did not respond to multiple Times Union requests for comment.) First and most obviously, theres the pandemic, which has dramatically reduced downtowns daytime population. Yet that, we hope and pray, is a temporary issue. With vaccines promising better days, couldnt Walgreens have stuck it out? Chain pharmacies, like other brick-and-mortar stores, also have been hit by the shift to online shopping, with its remarkable ease and convenience. Yet pre-pandemic customers of the Walgreens remember it as a seemingly profitable store with four registers running simultaneously during peak hours. So why did it close? I asked Assemblyman John McDonald, who, as many of you will likely know, is also a pharmacist. The Cohoes Democrat pointed to long-standing problems with Medicaid prescription reimbursements in New York as a possible factor. McDonald noted that his pharmacy, Marras in Cohoes, loses money on nearly 20 percent of the prescriptions it fills, and he said the percentage is no doubt higher at drugstores, like the Albany Walgreens, that serve poorer populations. But McDonald also noted that planned changes to the states Medicaid reimbursement system are expected to help pharmacies beginning in April. So, again, why, would Walgreens close now? "Greed," said Mark Yonally, who co-owns B. Lodge & Co., a clothing retailer on North Pearl Street. "Its what big companies do. They dont care about the community that gets hurt. Everything is just a number or a dollar." I certainly agree that chain retailers are not nearly as invested in their communities as locally owned businesses. Bean counters in suburban Chicago, where Walgreens is headquartered, dont know Albany and presumably dont care to. Thats particularly problematic in an age when drugstores are increasingly taking on important roles such as, you know, vaccinating people during a pandemic. As Mayor Kathy Sheehan noted for a story by my colleague Claire Bryan, the Walgreens departure impacts health care in vulnerable and distressed neighborhoods where many residents don't own cars. Sheehan called the decision "indefensible." It was also predictable. After all, Walgreens is not a charity or a non-profit, so it was widely understood that the company would look to close and consolidate stores when it purchased about 1,900 Rite Aid locations in 2017. Federal regulators had even scuttled a planned merger of the chains, saying it would too greatly diminish competition, but subsequently allowed Walgreens to purchase about half of all Rite Aid stores, including 273 in New York. Walgreens then closed locations it had purchased in Cohoes and Albany's South End both have since become dollar stores before last week shuttering stores in Menands and downtown Albany. The Route 32 corridor, then, has certainly paid a high price since the purchase. The now former Walgreens at 17-21 N. Pearl St. had been a drugstore for decades, and it is remarkable that the central business district of the regions largest city now lacks one. Despite all the new apartments, and despite the many factors that may have led Walgreens to leave, it is hard to argue that downtown Albany is succeeding when so many basic necessities cant be purchased there. What will that vacant storefront become? Another dollar store? Few would consider it progress. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook will now need to pay when linking content in search results and news feeds from local media outlets and publishers in Australia, according to the country's new media law. Facebook, Google to Pay for News The move comes just days after the Australian government made some last-minute changes to the bill. The law is now known as the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code. In a joint statement by Australia's Communications Minister Paul Fletcher and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, they said that the media law aims to help sustain the public's interest in journalism in Australia. This is through ensuring that media companies receive fair compensation for the content that they produce. Moreover, the statement also said that the government was very pleased with the progress by tech giants, Facebook and Google, in brokering agreements with the news media businesses in Australia. Officials also stated that the code will be reviewed by the Treasury after one year of its commencement. Since last year, both Google and Facebook have fought against the media law. The move by the officials will put Australia as the first country where a government-appointed arbitrator can decide on the final price that either platform will have to pay news publishers in Australia, provided that a commercial deal cannot be reached independently. According to CNBC, numerous experts stated that the decision will come by a ruling in favor of either party, whether the digital platform or the publisher, with no room for middle-ground agreement. In the amendments this week, the government stated that every party involved will be having a two-month mediation period to broker deals before they will be entering arbitration as a last resort. Earlier Facebook decided to block access to news content in Australia in retaliation against the then proposed bill, but on Monday, the giant will restore news pages in Australia. Read also: China Imposes New Rules for Online Content Creators On Tuesday, the vice president for global news partnerships of Facebook, Campbell Brown shared that the Australian officials clarified that they will retain their ability to decide if news appears on its platform so that it will not automatically be subject to a forced negotiation, Deutsche Welle reported. Initially, tech giant Google threatened to pull out its search function from Australia. But in recent weeks, it struck numerous prominent commercial agreements with publishers in Australia, which includes the Murdoch family-owned media conglomerate NewsCorp. Facebook Claimed Victory Before passing the parliament, the law was considered and described this week by both Australia's competition watchdog and Facebook as a victory for both parties. Nick Clegg, the former United Kingdom Deputy Prime Minister, who is the current vice president for global affairs at the social media platform, shared the decision of Facebook in restricting and then restoring news in Australia in a lengthy blog post, CNET reported. Based on an associate professor of journalism at the Monash University in Australia, the final tweaks made to the media law appears to be a face-saving exercise for both sides, but it favors more for Facebook. Related article: Facebook Steps Down from Australia News Ban After Law Compromise @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. RTHK: Thai cabinet ministers ousted in sedition case Three cabinet ministers in Thailand were forced to leave their posts on Wednesday after a court found them guilty of sedition for taking part in sometimes-violent protests in 2013-2014 against the government then in power. The Criminal Court in Bangkok found Digital Economy Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan and Deputy Transport Minister Thaworn Senneam guilty along with about two dozen other defendants in a case that was launched in 2018. The verdicts can be appealed to a higher court but under the law the cabinet ministers must relinquish their jobs immediately. Another prominent figure convicted on Wednesday was Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister who helped found the Peoples Democratic Reform Committee, which led the demonstrations against the elected government of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Instability caused by the street protests led to the Thai army staging a coup in 2014 and keeping power until 2019. Suthep and the cabinet ministers each received prison sentences ranging from five to about seven years. We are prepared. Whatever happens, will happen, Suthep said outside the court. "But I have to assure you that the protest leaders and those who share our same belief, that we are fighting for our country and our land. We firmly believe in responsibility in our actions and not violating the law. The protests marked the tail end of almost a decade of intense political contention in Thailand that began in 2006 after then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin is Yingluck's brother, and they are both currently in exile. Thaksins ouster set off years of sometimes violent conflict between his supporters and opponents, both of which engaged in aggressive street protests against governments led by the others faction. The Peoples Democratic Reform Committee was in the anti-Thaksin camp, which in an earlier incarnation as the Peoples Alliance for Democracy occupied the prime ministers offices and Bangkoks international airport for about a week in 2008. Thaksins supporters were known as the Red Shirts, and in 2010 wreaked havoc by occupying part of central Bangkok. Their protest was suppressed by the army with armed force in violence over several weeks that took almost 100 lives. (AP) This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Woolworths will rename its tampons section to help female shoppers feel less ashamed about their periods. The supermarket announced that from Thursday its 'personal care and sanitary product' category will be renamed to 'period and continence care'. Woolworths managing director Natalie Davis called the change 'exciting' and claimed it would help 'debunk the stigma' behind periods. 'Many of us still tread around using the word period as if it's inappropriate or something to be ashamed of. The truth is periods are a very natural part of life,' she said. 'This is a change we can make today that will help debunk the stigma of calling a period what it is and will help many young women grow up feeling less shame or embarrassment, so we're excited to introduce this in Australia.' Slide me Woolworths said its 'personal care and sanitary product' and 'feminine hygiene' categories will be renamed to 'period and continence care' The change was first trialled in New Zealand last year and was met with a 'remarkable' response from woman and parents. 'Young women are especially passionate about reclaiming the word and calling periods what they are,' Ms Davis said. 'Our research shows that Australians agree there is still a stigma around the word period. 'As Australia's largest retailer, we feel a responsibility to make a simple change, that can help remove some of the embarrassment around periods.' Woolworths also partnered with Share the Dignity, a charity working to end period poverty in Australia. The charity's founder Rochelle Courtenay welcomed the change organised by the supermarket. 'If we can't comfortably talk about periods, we can't address period poverty,' she said. Rollout has begun but expected will gradually be implemented nationwide Radio host Ash London (pictured) has joined Woolworths to become a Period Care ambassador 'We need open conversations around menstruation so we can make changes for those in need.' Radio host Ash London has joined Woolworths to become a Period Care ambassador. 'Im all for calling things the way they are - and for too long weve felt like we have to speak in code about one of the most natural things on the planet!' she said. 'This may seem like a small step, but my hope is that it contributes to a future where young people especially feel less shame and embarrassment when it comes to periods. 'Teenage years are full of enough cringe moments without adding period shame to the mix. 'I think this is a wonderful step in the right direction from a major brand like Woolworths.' Almost 100 academics have demanded the University of Melbourne take swift and decisive action in response to a website created by one of its lecturers that has been labelled transphobic and potentially in breach of the universitys own guidelines on research integrity and inclusion. On Tuesday, Holly Lawford-Smith, an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Melbourne, launched www.noconflicttheysaid.org in response to legislation in Australia and elsewhere designed to be inclusive to transgender people but which, she says, replaces sex with gender identity. The website invites cis women to share their encounters with trans women. Credit:Screengrab The site calls for women assigned female at birth (cis women) to anonymously share stories about any time they have felt threatened by transgender women. Were worried about the impacts on women of men using women-only spaces, the website introduction says, including but not limited to: changing rooms, fitting rooms, bathrooms ... rape and domestic violence shelters. HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sewa International distributed over 43,000 pounds of food and hundreds of gallons of drinking water on Saturday, February 20 to families affected by winter storm Uri in Houston. Sewa is planning to distribute a truckload (43,000 pounds) of food every weekend for the next several months. These food drives are part of the COVID-19 and winter storm Uri relief efforts. "More than a million pounds of food will be distributed by the end of these drives," said Nikhil Jain, Sewa's Houston Chapter Coordinator. Sewa International volunteers helping with the distribution. Sewa International volunteers helping with distribution. Sewa partnered with Alief School District, International Management District, and Houston Assistance Ministry to conduct the food drive. Cars lined up two to three miles before the drive started at 9 AM. Sewa volunteers swung into action as they started receiving calls about burst pipes, flooding of homes, and lack of heating. With a plumber's help they were immediately able to fix leaks in about 13 homes over the weekend. Sewa shared a list of more than 500 plumbers serving different areas of Houston with the community desperate for quick, skilled help. A young couple with an eight-month pregnant wife, and an elderly couple did not have drinking water and electricity. Sewa volunteers were quick to respond and help. The elderly couple was provided a host family to ride out the storm. Another elderly woman living alone was one of the many that Sewa helped with either accommodation or food and water. In another instance, Sewa arranged for oxygen canisters for a 90-year-old man when his wife called for help. Volunteers also supplied dehumidifiers and fans as well as food, water, and other essentials. When it was not safe to drive, they found people in the neighborhood to supply water and food to needy families. Sewa volunteers began sharing critical information with the community a week ahead of the storm. "Most queries we received were about the right thing to do during the storm. We provided clear answers to these questions," Nikhil Jain said. Sewa is partnering with OneStar Foundation, the State Service Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service for Texas since 2003, which administers the AmeriCorps program. Sewa is the only organization specialized in disaster management in the OneStar portfolio in Texas. Eighteen AmeriCorps volunteers are working with Sewa helping coordinate disaster relief efforts. "This Arctic blast has shown us that natural disasters and crises can strike at any moment. We are ready to serve the distressed and the underserved in our communities, and we will continue to monitor the needs of our communities, and provide help," said Nikhil Jain. About Sewa International Sewa International, https://sewausa.org/, a leading Hindu faith-based nonprofit organization, has extensive experience in disaster rescue, relief, and rehabilitation operations having responded to 24 disasters in the US and abroad. CONTACT: Name: Viswanath Koppaka Phone: 1-404-304-0563 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.sewausa.org SOURCE Sewa International China in Focus (Feb. 24): China an Authoritarian Adversary: CIA Nominee President Joe Bidens nominee for CIA Director is calling Beijing an authoritarian adversary. He says countering the Chinese Communist Partys predatory leadership is key to U.S. national security. The United States wants a seat at the UN Human Rights Council, even though it hosts some of the worlds biggest human rights abuserslike China and Russia. The UK plans to deploy an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea. Experts explain the risks involved. A Chinese billionaire is praising the Communist Party, even though it put him behind bars for a decade. Strict lockdown measures in one Chinese city are partially lifted after 700,000 people were confined to their homes for a month and a half. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China. For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter. 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 YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenias tourism sector is trying to gradually recover following the difficulties of 2020. Although COVID-19 has not been completely eliminated yet, this year the tourism season in Armenia will be full of festivals, also taking into account the new realities. Director of the Festivar Association of Armenian Festivals Nune Manukyan told Armenpress that there are no restrictions connected with mass gatherings anymore, which she considers as a good opportunity for restoring the events tourism in the country. The Association has developed rules for holding events amid the pandemic. For instance, the pavilions will be installed away from one another, the staff will wear face masks, the pavilions will have disinfectants in a visible, accessible place. The arrangements in the area will be in a way to avoid gatherings, she said. Nune Manukyan informed that despite that the annual festival season in Armenia starts with the Yerevan Wine Days event, which is taking place in the first Friday-Saturday of May, but this year will take place on June 4-5, this year the opening of the festival season will be held on April 30 with the Spirit of Armenia in Yerevans English Park. Its a festival of alcoholic drinks, which will take place for the first time. All types of drinks produced in Armenia will be presented. The visitors will have an opportunity to see over 1500 types of drinks. Then, the traditional Dolma Festival is coming. As usual, this tasty event will be accompanied by a number of cultural events. The next is the Yerevan Wine Days which is for wine-lovers. During the event the visitors have a chance to taste the Armenian wine, as well as be introduced on the production of winemaking companies. This year, in line with all these events, Armenias bordering communities will be under focus. We will definitely hold the Mulberry Festival in Karahunj. I think that this is very important for the domestic tourism. The community must not lose its attractiveness and should continue to be interesting for the guests. The Wine Festival will take place in Areni, the Gata Festival in the village of Khachik, she said, adding that the company, which is organizing the Yerevan Wine Days, is planning to hold two events in the provinces, the border communities. The talk is about the Tavush Wine Days and the Yerevan Music Night. I think we need to boost our communities with the development of event tourism, she added. The festivals will take place, however, due to the pandemic, there wont be a major flow of foreign tourists. Manukyan, however, noted that there is a little progress in connection with the re-launch of flights. There are already foreign nationals interested in travel to Armenia. Manukyan said that there are some tour-operators who are interested in the list of event tourism. The Association will present details about the Armenian festivals and events on its Facebook page. Interview by Anna Gziryan Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan The Lincoln Projects members fall from their perch of anti-Trumpist fame to political grifters sidestepping sexual predation in their midst has had the velocity of a super collider. The depth of the crater from the detonation may not be known for weeks or months to come, as more victims of co-founder John Weavers sexual advances come forward and the groups craven cash grab is unwound. The groups questionable spending and tactics were in plain sight last year even before the election. Public disclosures showed that the Lincoln Project was not making strategically minded media buys, but rather was producing provocative ad content, usually targeting Donald Trump, that brought cathartic joy to millions of Americans and helped pry donations from them. And in the end, the founders paid themselves millions of dollars while probably creaming unreported millions more in commissions from ads and fundraising. But it wasnt just the hinky self-dealing finances that went ignored. The groups tone and crass language regularly mirrored Trumps own demeaning rhetoric. Founder Rick Wilson called Trump supporters tin-toothed rubes and mocked them by using a stereotype Southern accent. Senior advisor Jeff Timmers constantly profane tweets included one directed at Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., with the sentiment to f yourself. I could go on with other countless examples of crassness and bullying. Although the premise was that they were Republicans, or former Republicans, fighting Trump, the group found a mother lode in shifting into essentially being a Democrat Super PAC going after incumbent GOP senators. The content of the advertising was stock Democrat messaging. For example, they attacked Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, for voting with Mitch McConnell, hardly a message that would persuade Republicans to oppose her. The group hired Democratic fundraisers and contributions poured in from big-name Democrat donors. Groups aligned with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority PAC and Majority Forward, plowed almost $2 million into the Lincoln Project. At this point, it was clear to many of us anti-Trump Republicans that the Lincoln Project was not interested in fighting for the GOP, but rather burning it to the ground for its own gain. For those of us who vehemently despise Trump and his hijacking of the GOP, the Lincoln Project was obscene. They had taken the anti-Trump category and turned into a huge money maker for themselves while cultivating a multitude of fans who sincerely believed they were doing virtuous work. Meanwhile, others were left to do the difficult work of trying to save the party from within. An example of the work to change the party from within is Rep. Randy Feenstras campaign in Iowa. Feenstra scored more than 62% of the vote to win Iowas Fourth District, but to get there he took on and defeated incumbent Steve King in the June primary. King was a deep stain upon the party, banished by GOP House leadership for racist comments and beliefs. Feenstra, a businessman and state senator, was successful in defeating King with the support of roughly $500,000 in independent PAC campaigns run by Iowa GOP operatives. Their efforts purged a racist from the party. The Lincoln Project did not participate. In fact the Lincoln Project never spent a penny in support of a Republican, including those who have courageously stood up to Trump in the past year. When the Lincoln Project started announcing its plans for its post 2020 iteration, it never included any mention of using its substantial influence and resources to protect the 10 brave Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump and will now face Trumpist primary challenges. But of course not, their donor base doesnt want to support Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. So, after a year of self-righteously calling for Republicans to show the courage and character to stand up to Trump, when 10 of them did, the Lincoln Project left them for dead on the battlefield of politics. Trump is out of office, but obviously his influence over the GOP persists. During the next two years, many GOP professionals will be struggling to shape the party away from Trump and his sycophants. This wont be easy, and we might fail. But weve stayed in the contest. Going forward the struggle for the GOP will be better without the Lincoln Project around. I hope many in the media will self-examine their role in fueling this disastrous enterprise. And the country also needs the media to facilitate a better dialogue about what the future of the party will be and how the struggle will unfold. Its going to be messy and its going to require nuance and finesse and if Trumps influence is to wane it will take time and be gradual. The press should better report that story rather than constantly declare the party dead. It is not. Onto the primaries of 2022, a critical front line that the Lincoln Project had already abandoned. Rob Stutzman is a veteran GOP consultant and campaign alumnus of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney and several members of Congress. Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/24/2021 -- The marine battery market is estimated to be USD 250 million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 812 million by 2025, at a CAGR of 48.1% from 2020 to 2025. The implementation of the sulfur 2020 rule and growing maritime tourism industry are among the major factors driving the marine battery market. Fully electric segment to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period By propulsion type, the fully electric segment is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Fully electric-driven ships have a positive effect on the environment as the inclusion of high energy storage in batteries and optimized power control can reduce fuel consumption, maintenance, and emissions. The growth of the fully electric segment can be attributed to the increasing demand for fully electric small and medium passenger and cargo ships. Several manufacturers are jointly investing in the manufacturing of ships adhering to the IMO 2020 rule. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=210222319 Dual-purpose batteries segment to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period By battery function, the dual-purpose batteries segment is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. Marine dual-purpose batteries combine the performance of starting batteries and deep-cycle batteries. They are majorly used by ships that have space for two or more batteries. These batteries are equipped with active lead paste chemistry, which helps them in tolerating deep discharges that the starting batteries could not normally tolerate. Europe estimated to lead the marine battery market in 2020 The marine battery market is expected to witness substantial growth in Europe during the forecast period. The growth of the shipbuilding industry in Europe is one of the most significant factors contributing to the demand for ships with hybrid propulsion in the region. Increasing investments in the electrification of ships and the restructuring efforts undertaken by ship manufacturing companies are additional factors driving the growth of the marine battery market in Europe. Key Market Players The key players in the marine battery market include Corvus Energy (Canada), Akasol AG (Germany), EST-Floattech (Netherlands), Siemens (Germany), Spear Power Systems (US), Echandia Marine (Sweden), Sterling PBES Energy Solutions (Canada), Furukawa Battery Solutions (Japan), Lithium Werks (Netherlands), Exide Technologies (US), Craftsman Marine (Netherlands), PowerTech Systems (France), Kokam Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Toshiba Corporation (Japan), XALT Energy (US), EverExceed Industrial Co. Ltd. (China), U.S. Battery (US), Lifeline Batteries (US), Saft (France), Forsee Power (France), and Leclanche (Switzerland). 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. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 404 This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. [February 25, 2021] Realeyes Attention Measurement for Video Advertising Achieves Performance Milestones, Brand Adoption and U.S. Patent NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Realeyes , a pioneer and leader in video attention measurement, announced today that its flagship PreView SaaS product has exceeded industry expectations by initiating a blue-chip roster of brand clients including Mars, Church & Dwight and Hersheys among others. The company also has completed a breakthrough creative and media analytics assignment for influential political data firm Hawkfish, and has established a strategic partnership in Japan with NEC, a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies. Since its debut in August 2020, PreView attention measurement has featured hundreds of brands across 24 markets. It provides clients with vital intelligence across a high volume of their brand and their competitors digital advertising creative. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has awarded a patent to Realeyes for PreViews core technology, a computer-implemented system and method for determining attentiveness of users . This patent recognizes Realeyes IP in areas of development of online attention measurement using any webcams in modern computing devices. Realeyes method is based on the annotation of facial expressions indicative of user attentiveness, and machine-learning models based on such data, which then can measure user attentiveness in scenarios like watching online videos. This patent grant brings Realeyes total number of patents to 17, with 18 pending, in areas of computer vision and emotion AI. Realeyes also has developed a new ROI framework within PreView that quantifies the economic impact of video creative Quality Score on media cost (qCPM). The framework has been shared at key client symposiums including the ANAs UNLOCKED Summit, featuring innovative uses of AI in the customer journey. The ROI framework is featured in a downloadable white paper, The High Cost of Low Quality Video Creative . PreView calculates a video creatives in-market performance by measuring: Capture, the ability to hook attention in the first seconds; Retain, the ability to retain audience attentiveness until the end; and Encode, the ability for brand messaging to create emotional response and memorability. In addition to enhancing media ROI, PreView has become useful in empowering CMOs to quickly and reliably measure the Quality Score of every video creative, to determine which ones should be flighted and boosted with media budget, edited, or cut. PreView also delivers competitive intelligence to close gaps and boost market share. PreView represents a unique opportunity for publishers and digital platforms to strengthen advertiser relationships and grow revenues. A platforms audience is only as valuable as the quality of the advertisers creative. With PreView, platforms can better advise advertisers on why certain creatives perform, how to optimize creatives on the platform, and qualify and reward higher volumes of quality creative for better performance. Realeyes recently released a downloadable study showcasing creative intelligence for publishers and platforms: Swipe Up: TikTok and the Power of Authenticity . A good ad brings your true media costs down, a bad ad makes your effective media costs go up, said Mihkel Jaatma, co-founder and CEO, Realeyes. Good marketers always knew it, but with PreView Quality Score they now finally have the common language to align creative and media for maximum brand growth across their entire creative portfolio. Realeyes will launch later in the quarter the PreView API for clients that wish to integrate PreView data directly into their own marketing analytics environments, such as content-management or business-intelligence systems. Additionally, Realeyes will debut a new portfolio view dashboard for multi-video comparative intelligence. In addition to innovating closely with clients, Realeyes is active in partnering with leading academic institutions to advance PreViews core technology around attention and emotion detection. For example, a recent partnership with Columbia Business Schools data science department resulted in new evidence that video thumbnail selections can influence the viewing attention of ads by nearly 20%. About Realeyes Using front-facing cameras and the latest in computer vision and machine learning technologies, Realeyes measures attention and emotion of opt-in participants as they watch video content online. This empowers brands publishers and technology platforms to inform and optimize their content as well as target the right videos to the right audiences. Realeyes technology applies facial coding to predictive, big-data analytics, driving bottom-line business outcomes for brands and publishers. Founded in 2007, Realeyes has offices in New York, London, Tokyo and Budapest. Customers include brands such as Mars Inc, Church & Dwight, Hersheys and Expedia, agencies Ipsos, MarketCast and Publicis, and media companies such as Google, WarnerMedia and Teads. Media Contact: Kyle Kuhnel Broadsheet Communications 201-248-3826 kyle@broadsheetcomms.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A Gold Coast mother has claimed to have caught a man masturbating in his black Mercedes while 'naked from the waist down' on a busy street in broad daylight. The business owner said the man pleasured himself in the back seat of his car outside her shop in Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, on two occasions. She posted in a community group to warn 'parents and young ladies' of the alleged serial public exhibitionist. The outraged local claimed her daughter drove off after seeing the man touch himself on Monday at around 4.40pm. A Gold Coast local has alleged a man was pleasing himself in this a Mercedes (stock) In a Facebook post (pictured), a local said she saw the man touch himself in his car twice 'Parents and young ladies please be aware,' the woman posted on social media. 'Check in back seat - he will be master-bating [sic]. We caught him 2 days in a row outside our shop in James St and got [police] on him - naked from waist down.' The shop owner runs a boutique on James Street and said the man was 'blatant'. '[He] was doing it with people standing next to the car in James St waiting for coffee at the bakery,' she wrote. Other residents described the alleged act as 'disgusting' and 'filthy.' 'Thanks so much for sharing I was just there over a hour ago dropping off my son and there were lots of teen girls and boys around. That's sick,' one person remarked. Queensland Police could not confirm any call-outs or reports about the alleged incident. The driver was accused of self-pleasuring on busy James St in Burleigh Heads (pictured) There was a time in Australian politics when rolling the leader of a political party mid-term, like some Liberals wish to do to Opposition Leader Michael OBrien, was the ultimate act of treachery. That treachery intensified when the public felt like they had some role in installing the leader to their position, and therefore had a buy-in. For so long, it was an unwritten rule of politics that such an act of bastardry would come with a transaction cost. In economics, a transaction cost is the expenses incurred when buying or selling goods like an agents commission or brokers fee. In politics it usually comes in the form of a dip in the polls or encounters with angry constituents. Victorian Opposition Leader Michael OBrien is under pressure from some of his colleagues. Credit:Luis Ascui But in both cases, the net gain is meant to make it worthwhile. But the whole idea of a transaction cost for rolling the leader of a political party has somewhat diminished in the past 15 years. With each switch of prime minister from Rudd to Gillard to Rudd; Abbott to Turnbull to Morrison, the rules by which we understood politics were rewritten. The transaction cost of such treachery dropped. STORY LINK GBP to USD Rises Ahead of UK Lockdown Exit Plan Announcement GBP/USD Exchange Rate Heads Higher on UK Covid Vaccine Optimism US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Struggles as Risk-On Market Mood Limits Appeal of Safe-Haven Currencies GBP/USD Exchange Rate Forecast: UK Unemployment Data in Focus Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate rose by 0.2% today ahead of the unveiling of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons lockdown exit plan. The pairing is currently trading around $1.40.Boris Johnson is also expected to highlight new data that shows that Covid-19 vaccines has had a significant effect on transmission.UK Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi said:Suffice to say the evidence looks good. The Oxford team demonstrated their own evidence of cutting transmission by two-thirds.This will offer a far more optimistic view about the reopening of the economy in the months ahead.However, GBP investors are remaining cautious as easing of lockdowns could rise the infection rate about 1, meaning that the cases virus could exponentially increase.Today also saw positive news about the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.According to various scientists at Scottish Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, and Public Health Scotland:By the fourth week after receiving the initial dose, the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines were shown to reduce the risk of hospital admission from Covid-19 by up to 85% and 94%, respectively, they found.The US Dollar struggled against the Pound today as demand for the safe-haven Greenback has suffered due to improving risk sentiment.Now that Covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out across the world, investors are more confident about the outlook for the global economy.As a result, this has limited demand for safe-haven currencies.The White House also announced that it expects to finish sending out millions the Covid-19 vaccines this week following the winter storm which disrupted distribution of the vaccine.Consequently, USD investors are becoming more hopeful about Americas economy. This, however, has also dampened demand for the US Dollar as the outlook for the worlds largest economy improves.In US economic data, today saw the release of Januarys Chicago Fed National Activity Index, which beat forecasts and rose to 0.66.The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago commented:The CFNAI Diffusion Index, which is also a three-month moving average, moved down to +0.34 in January from +0.49 in December. Fifty-three of the 85 individual indicators made positive contributions to the CFNAI in January, while 32 made negative contributions. Forty-nine indicators improved from December to January, while 36 indicators deteriorated.US Dollar investors will be awaiting tomorrows testimony from the US Federal Reserves Jerome Powell.Any upbeat comments about the outlook for the US economy could further limit demand for the safe-haven US Dollar.As a result, we could see the USD/GBP exchange rate continue to slip as risk sentiment improves.Pound investors will be monitoring tomorrows publication of Decembers ILO Unemployment Rate report. If joblessness increases, however, then Sterling would suffer.The GBP/USD exchange rate could continue to head higher, however, if Downing Streets lockdown exit plan buoys confidence in the UK economy. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: American Dollar Forecasts Pound Dollar Forecasts ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A group of well-known writers and poets in Kazakhstan has called on President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev to release dissident poet Aron Atabek, who has been behind bars since 2007 and is said to be in failing health. In a letter to the president, published on the Abai.kz website on February 24, the group said the 68-year-old poet, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer, is suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. "If he dies in custody, that will be a shame on all of us!" the letter says, urging the president to release Atabek as soon as possible. Atabek has maintained his innocence. He rejected a 2012 government pardon offer that would have required him to admit guilt. In December 2012, after his critical article about then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government was smuggled out of prison and published online, Atabek was transferred to solitary confinement, where he spent two years. Atabek and his relatives said in 2014 that prison guards had broken his leg, which the authorities denied. Human rights groups in Kazakhstan say that Atabek has been constantly tortured in prison, with guards intentionally splashing water with high concentrations of chlorine on the floor of his cell to damage his health. Domestic and international rights organizations have demanded the Kazakh government release Atabek for years. Ukraine has launched its own official website Ukraine.ua for foreign audiences. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, this online portal is designed to form a positive image of the state abroad. The English version of the site is currently running, but French, German, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese language versions are planned to be launched in 2021. The website was created for the world to learn about the real Ukraine: creative, dynamic, innovative, the country of diversity and beautiful nature, the country of freedom and dignity, the country where millennial history and culture are complemented by an ambitious vision of the future, the Foreign Ministry said. On the website one can find a lot of information about the country and get acquainted with opportunities for study, investment or travel. There are hundreds of high-quality images of Ukraine, its nature, cultural heritage, traditions and talented people in the official photo bank on the website. NYPD Officer Ray Wood Uncovers Explicit News Surrounding the Assassination of Malcolm X Confirming Law Enforcement Involvement The anniversary of the assassination of Malcom X was on Sunday, February 21. Over 50 years have passed, the infamous event has been under scrutiny since day one. Concerned parties investigated and presented a breath of evidence that led to various possibilities, including the involvement of local and federal law enforcement. Ray Wood was an undercover policeman during the heightened stages of the civil rights movement, he was sanctioned to enter the inner development of the organization headed by Malcom X. As Wood, rearing near to the days of his final breath, he wrote down his truth of his participation of the Assassination of Malcom X, he kept his involvement secret for over 56 years in fear of his life and the lives of his loved ones. Wood unearthed striking evidence, confirming the involvement of a local branch of government and the FBI having a hand in the assassination of activist leader, Malcom X. This vital information resurrected the inquisition of his murder, causing the case to be re-open for full investigation. ADVERTISEMENT Wood worked under the NYPD and according to his written statement, he also collaborated with the FBI. Their goal was to create a snag in the fabrics of the civil rights movement, resulting in the unraveling of events that would ultimately lead to social change across the nation. According to the press release uncovered by activist lawyer, Ben Crump, Wood headed into his position with no training. He was given the mission to compromise civil rights organizations through encouraging leaders to make radical movement that would be seen as criminal acts. Rendering increments of the letter released by ABC news, Wood wrote, It was my assignment to draw the two men into a felonious federal crime, so that they could be arrested by the FBI and kept away from managing Malcolm Xs door security on February 21, 1965 Wood continued, At that time I was not aware that Malcolm X was the target. In the preparation of the assassination, Wood was tasked to have two key members of Malcom Xs security arrested days before the murder took place, creating an opening for the activist to be exposed in the Audubon Ballroom. Woods letter was delivered to Malcoms three daughters and during the press conference that happened on Saturday, Reggie Wood, a cousin of the late NYPD officer, and administrator of Ray Woods estate, read the letter out loud. Woods letter was dated January 25, 2011. According to History.com, Malcolm X was assassinated by rival Black Muslims while he was holding a meeting with his organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. In the height of the movement, Malcom X became too powerful and was under high scrutiny by government. ADVERTISEMENT History.com confirms that Malcom was under speculation by the FBI and they had various informants inside the Nation of Islam. Reports state that the informants knew about the plot to assassinate Malcom X. Woods statement navigates the assassination case to follow a federal trail. The letter continued to outline that if Wood did not go through with his role in the assassination, he would be falsely attained for marijuana and alcohol trafficking charges. Rendering information from the previous listed above, the Manhattan District Attorneys office confirmed the review of the case is active and ongoing. According to ABC news, the NYPD provided a statement that any evidence about the case has been provided to the district attorney, the department remains committed to assist with that review in any way. Huffington Post stated Wood shared his truth with his family when he first became ill with stomach cancer in 2011. During that reveal, Wood confided in his cousin, Reggie, to have a letter with his statement delivered to Malcom Xs family after Wood passes away. Wood passed away in November 2011, and Reggie made the announcement public on Saturday, February 20 of this year. Reggie stated he held on to this information because he was cautious of what might happen to his family or himself. He was joined by the daughters of Malcom X; Qubiliah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz and Gamilah Shabazz, in addition to civil rights attorneys, Benjamin Crump, Ray Hamlin and Paul Napoli. There is anticipation that more information would surface due to the exposure of this information. Reggie Wood stated in an interview with ABC news, He was a good manhe was tricked and forced to betray his own people and he felt guilt and remorse for that for 56 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the Congress, especially its leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on creating a fisheries ministry at the Centre. PM Modi also expressed 'shock' over Gandhi's statement that there was no 'dedicated' fisheries ministry at the Centre, adding the NDA government had set it up in 2019 and that its budgetary allocation has substantially gone up ever since. "I was absolutely shocked to hear a Congress leader come and say they want to start a fisheries ministry because there is none. The truth is that it already exists. The current NDA government has already set up a fisheries ministry back in 2019 itself," PM Modi said. The PM was referring to a string of remarks from Gandhi who visited Puducherry and Kerala earlier. Gandhi had said on 17 February that the fishermen, the "farmers of the sea", needed a separate ministry. PM Modi also attacked the Congress' erstwhile government in Puducherry, saying the V Narayanasamy led dispensation had 'different priorities' than public welfare and flayed party leader Rahul Gandhi over his recent 'north-south' remarks. Hitting out at the "Congress culture," at a public meeting in the poll-bound union territory, he said people were witness to it in the last five years. "Our colonial rulers had the policy of divide and rule. Congress has a policy of divide, lie and rule. Sometimes their leaders put region against region... community against community," he said in an apparent reference to Gandhi's recent 'north-south' remarks which the BJP opposed strongly. During his Kerala visit on Tuesday, Gandhi had said he was used to a "different type of politics" in north India and coming to the southern state was "very refreshing" as people are interested in "issues". Averring that the people of Puducherry did not deserve a "high command" government that would serve a few Congress leaders, Modi assured that the NDA government, if voted in the coming elections, would treat people as its high command. The Prime Minister is in the Union Territory to inaugurate a slew of developmental projects, especially in the run up to the assembly polls to be held in April-May. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Infection rates for coronavirus are down in seven counties in Central and South Jersey, a promising sign that may lead to the resumption of nursing home visits, but only if the facilities can show they have been COVID-free for two weeks, state officials said Wednesday. COVID activity has declined from high to moderate levels in Hunterdon, Mercer and Somerset counties in the central-west region of the state, and Burlington, Camden, Gloucester counties in southwest New Jersey, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli announced Wednesday. This is good news, Persichilli said during Wednesdays regular coronavirus briefing. We are seeing the outbreaks in our long-term care facilities decrease. But nursing homes and other long-term care facilities located in these seven counties may only re-open for visits if the can prove they meet requirements set by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last fall. They require a facility must go 14 days without a new case or a suspected case under investigation. That is a high bar that most nursing homes have not been able to clear, Long-Term Care Ombudsman Laurie Brewer said following the announcement. On Wednesday, there were 362 long-term care facilities, more than half in the state, with an active coronavirus outbreak, according to the website. It is undoubtedly good news that the infection rates are going down in these counties and that, as a result, social visitation can occur in facilities that are not in outbreak status, Brewer said. But if a facility is still in outbreak status or if they are investigating a possible outbreak, social visitation remains paused and that is a problem that a lot of residents and families continue to face. There are other requirements long-term care facilities must meet before visits may resume, the states top health official said. They include the facility confirming they have enough staff, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and space for a designated meeting area, Persichilli said. Visitors and residents also must sign informed consent documents that say they understand the potential risks involved, Persichilli said. Visits are by appointment only. Visitors and residents must remain socially-distanced masked and six feet apart, she said. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage The state Health Department made the determination about the seven counties based on the COVID-19 activity level index or CALI score, which is based on the case rate as a percentage of the population, the percent positivity rate over seven days, and evidence of COVID-like illness in hospital emergency rooms. Bill Borrelle, the son of an assisted living resident and the founder of a resident advocate group, FACE for Seniors, agreed the announcement does not really change much for families who have agonized over the isolation their loved ones have dealt with for nearly a year. Seeing the CALI score drop in some counties is a sign of progress in the reduction in COVID cases, and I appreciate the Commissioner calling attention to these reductions and their impact on visitation in long-term care facilities, Borrelle said. However, this is simply a statement of the current visitation directive in place since last year and not a change in the day-to-day visitation policy that prohibits families from visitation and essential caregiving. Until the federal government relaxes its guidance on long-term care visits, not much will change anytime soon, Brewer added. But facility operators can and should be more flexible with who can qualify as needing a compassionate care visit, because the rates of depression among residents are alarming. My office advocates for families and residents to be granted in-person visitation under existing provisions that allow for compassionate care visits, which can occur regardless of whether the facility is in outbreak status. I strongly urge long-term care facilities to expand the number of family members and other caregivers who can visit under this provision. State and federal regulators closed nursing homes for visits in mid-March. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Besides the highly publicized spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a number of other accessory proteins belonging to the virus are involved in pathogenesis by suppressing or evading the host immune response. One such protein is open reading frame 7a (ORF7a), which has previously been implicated in interferon antagonism and may be involved in triggering the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. A new study by researchers at Montana State University in the U.S., which was released as a preprint on the medRxiv* server, has identified a high variability in the C-terminal end of ORF7a in SARS-CoV-2 sequences collected from around the globe. They noted that mutations result in a defective suppression of interferon and lowered replication rate. These mutations were identified to have derived independently and not from a single lineage, suggesting that this mutation occurs innately. However, the mutation does not persist in the population, most likely due to the impaired suppression of the host immune response compared to wild-type virus. How was the study performed? The group gathered full SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from 56 patients in Montana, USA, between April and July 2020 and composed a phylogenic tree using nearly 200,000 genome sequences from around the globe over the course of the pandemic for comparison. Interestingly, only one of the 56 samples belonged to the original Wuhan lineage, with the remainder being of the B.1 lineage characterized by a D614G point mutation that enhances transmissibility and has become the dominant strain in many countries since spring 2020. In total, fourteen distinct lineages were identified amongst the 56 samples, representing multiple introductions of the virus to the Montana area. Of the 56 samples, seven exhibited deletion to regions of the ORF7a encoding gene, one of which bore two additional point changes that were the result of community-acquired mutations within the same lineage. A world-wide search of the available databases revealed 845 unique ORF7a gene variants, representing 189 unique ORF7a amino acid sequences that differ from the original Wuhan strain. These variants have appeared on every continent over the course of the pandemic and were not from a single lineage. In comparing the translated ORF7a sequences, it was found that two-thirds bore a truncated C-terminus while the N-terminal half of the protein was preserved, with a third of these mutations occurring independently in two or more patients. Truncated ORF7a SARS-CoV-2 can, however, still be transferred between hosts, as some of the forms were confirmed to be from the same lineage. SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance identifies global reoccurrence of ORF7a truncations. A) Symptom onset (purple) and PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 test results (coral) for patients in Bozeman, Montana are shown with vertical bars. Seven day moving averages, shown with lines, were used to indicate epidemiological trends. B) . A) Symptom onset (purple) and PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 test results (coral) for patients in Bozeman, Montana are shown with vertical bars. Seven day moving averages, shown with lines, were used to indicate epidemiological trends. B) Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes sampled in Bozeman and globally. The tree was constructed from an alignment of 56 Bozeman samples and 4,871 genomes subsampled from GISAID. Subsampling was performed using Augur utility (Nextstrain) by selecting 10 genomes per country per month since the start of the pandemic. Red branches identify truncated ORF7a variants (n= 205) detected in the global data and merged into the alignment. The red dot highlights seven of the 56 ORF7a variants that were isolated in Bozeman between April and July (2020). White dots highlight 49 viral genomes isolated in Bozeman that have wild-type ORF7a sequences. C) Alignment of unique ORF7a protein sequences with five or more mutations as compared to the SARS-CoV-2 reference strain (Wuhan-Hu-1). Conserved residues are depicted in gray, while mutations and deletions are shown in white. The frequency of each genotype is shown on the right. D) Distribution of different mutations that occur along the ORF7a coding sequence. What is the significance? ORF7a is a transmembrane protein with an N-terminal immunoglobulin-like ectodomain that consists of two sheets held together by two disulfide bonds. The mutated ORF7a bears an additional stop codon that eliminates these bonds, destabilizing the protein structure of ORF7a and impacting protein function. This was evidenced further by fluorescent tagging of wild-type or mutated ORF7a in HEK293 cells, with the mutated form being delocalized from the cell membrane due to the destabilization. Viral replication rate was also assessed in the same cells by measurement of viral RNA using PCR, with wild type displaying a 960-fold increase over five days while the mutated virus showed only a 270-fold increase in population. This was confirmed to be an artifact of both lessened viral replication and viral egress. The authors suggest, however, that the lower observed replication rate is a direct result of weakened suppression of host anti-viral immune response by ORF7a, as the protein is not essential to virus replication. To observe this mechanism in further detail, the expression of 88 genes involved in interferon response was examined in HEK293 cells following exposure to wild-type or ORF7a-mutated SASR-CoV-2. Forty-two of these genes were noted to double in expression following exposure to wild type, while the mutated form doubled the expression of 55 distinct genes. Further investigation revealed that most of the former are involved in the downregulation of interferon processes, while the latter are more heavily involved in upregulation and strengthening of the host immune response. SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance identifies naturally occurring truncations of ORF7a that limit immune suppression *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. The Covid alert level has been lowered across the UK after experts said the NHS is no longer at risk of being overwhelmed. The move from Level Five to Level Four comes as infections, hospital admissions and deaths continue to fall. It triggered calls for a faster lifting of lockdown measures but Boris Johnson refused to budge saying: Were sticking to our plan. Boris Johnson yesterday said he will continue to look at the data but refused to move his roadmap to freedom forward. He is seen above visiting a school in Lancaster The threat level was raised on January 4 when the Prime Minister plunged the country into its third lockdown amid fears the NHS would be swamped within 21 days. The UKs chief medical officers and NHS Englands medical director lowered it yesterday because the number of Covid patients is consistently declining. They took the decision following advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre. They said health services across the four nations remain under significant pressure with a high number of patients in hospital, but thanks to the efforts of the public, numbers are now consistently declining, and the threat of the NHS and other health services being overwhelmed within 21 days has receded. Level Five means there is a material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed and Four means a Covid epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high or rising exponentially. The UKs chief medical officers and NHS Englands medical director lowered it yesterday because the number of Covid patients is consistently declining. A chart showing Britain's vaccination rollout is seen above The seven-day average for daily deaths is now 376, down from 844 on January 4 and a peak of 1,280. The seven-day average for infections is also down to 10,188 from 57,234 when Level Five was declared and a peak of 59,660. And the number of Covid patients in hospital has fallen over the same period from a seven-day average of 29,846 to 17,498, with a high of 38,428. Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: The return to normality will be a slow process and increasing your number of contacts now could cost lives. It is vital that you continue to follow the rules and stay home, it will save lives. The move from Level Five to Level Four comes as infections, hospital admissions and deaths continue to fall Coronavirus case rates are continuing to fall among all age groups in England, the latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England shows. Rates have also fallen in all regions except Yorkshire and the Humber. Mr Johnson yesterday said he will continue to look at the data but refused to move his roadmap to freedom forward. Asked about wiggle room, he said: Were sticking to our plan, obviously we will continue to look at data but the data currently still shows, as you know, that the incidence of the disease sadly remains high. Im afraid the numbers of people in hospital are still not far below the peak that they were in April last year. However Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, called for a speedier exit from lockdown. He said: The lowering of the alert level is fantastic news and a clear sign things are moving in the right direction. If infections, hospitalisations and deaths continue to fall once schools go back the Government really must accelerate its plans to end lockdown. It has done a brilliant job with the vaccine rollout and its time for the hard-pressed British public and businesses to share in that success. Lockdown must be ended as soon as it is safe to do so and not a minute longer. Theresa Villiers, Tory MP for Chipping Barnet, said: It is great news that the Covid risk level is coming down. It shows that the UKs incredible vaccination programme is helping us get the upper hand in the battle with the virus. This is confirmation that were going to be heading out of lockdown. It will still take time but the end is in sight. And Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said: Todays news is extremely positive and shows that we are on track to exit lockdown swiftly, safely and sustainably. We hope that if these trends continue it will be possible for all UK nations to confirm the dates for unlocking the economy and crucially to maintain 21 June as a firm end date for the ending of all legal limits and restrictions on social contact so we can get back to normality. On the national stage: W&M alumni join Biden-Harris administration The following story originally appeared in as an online exclusive for the W&M Alumni Magazine. - Ed. William & Mary alumni have a long history of service at the highest levels of government a legacy stretching from George Washington (who received his surveyors license at William & Mary in 1749) to our current Chancellor, Bob Gates 65, L.H.D. 98, former Secretary of Defense. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris have already appointed several William & Mary alumni to their administration, all of whom have served their nation and advanced their fields since their graduations from the Alma Mater of the Nation. While more may still be appointed, heres a snapshot of William & Mary alumni who have been named by the administration so far. Russ Travers 78 was named deputy to the homeland security advisor on the National Security Council. Travers has 42 years experience in intelligence and served in several leadership roles in the National Counterterrorism Center, including deputy and acting director and chief data officer. He also has significant experience in transnational threats and information sharing. After graduating with a degree in government from William & Mary, he became an intelligence officer with the U.S. Army. He then received an M.B.A. and Ph.D. from George Washington University. He shares his expertise with students during the W&M Washington Center's D.C. Summer Institutes and with alumni in events like W&M National Security Breakfast & Business Cards, part of the W&M Alumni Association's One Tribe One Network career programming. Ambassador Barbara Leaf 80 was appointed special assistant to the President and senior director for Middle East and North Africa affairs on the National Security Council. She has extensive diplomatic experience in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia and more, and she was the State Departments first director of the Office of Iranian Affairs. Leaf also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2014 to 2018. Most recently, she was a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs. After graduating William & Mary with a degree in government, she went on to receive a masters degree from the University of Virginia. Leaf sits on the Reves International Advisory Board at William & Mary and has been a featured speaker at the W&M Alumni Associations Evening at the Embassy. Jen Psaki 00 was appointed the White House Press Secretary. Psaki previously served as White House communications director from 2015 to 2017, when Biden was in his second term as vice president of the United States. She also served as deputy press secretary and later deputy communications director during President Barack Obamas first term. After working for a public relations firm, she returned to the White House in 2012 as press secretary for Obamas 2012 campaign. In 2013, she became spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State. Psaki graduated from William & Mary with a Bachelor of Arts in English. In addition to being a member of the swim team and Chi Omega sorority, she served as a campus tour guide and admission intern during her time at the university. She has volunteered her time as a speaker for W&Ms D.C. Summer Institutes and is currently a member of William & Marys Washington Center Advisory Board. Miriam Magdieli 03 was named the director of communications for the National Endowment for the Humanities. After graduating from William & Mary with a degree in psychology, she joined the state department as a foreign service officer where she specialized in media relations, public affairs and communications, cultural programming, and public-private partnership management. Her work took her all over the world, including serving at U.S. embassies in Amman, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv, and in the U.S. in the bureaus of Near Eastern Affairs, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and at the Foreign Press Center. Most recently, she joined the Phillips Collection, a museum of modern art in Washington, D.C. as chief communications officer and director of marketing as they prepared for their 100th anniversary in 2021. Bishop Garrison J.D. 10 has been appointed senior advisor to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for human capital, diversity, equity, and inclusion, a newly created role within the Pentagon. In 2013, he became acting special assistant to the Secretary of Defense, followed by roles at the Department of Veterans Affairs and as advisor for the Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. He also served as Virginias Operation Vote director in Barack Obamas second campaign and as deputy foreign policy advisor in Hillary Clintons campaign. He is an active Law School alumnus and a member of the Law School Association board. Ike Irby M.P.P. 17, Ph.D. 17 has been named Policy Advisor in the Office of the Vice President. Irby previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor to Harris in the U.S. Senate, covering climate, environment, energy, transportation, and infrastructure. Irby brings both a science and policy background to the nations capital, with a Ph.D. from the School of Marine Science at VIMS and a masters in public policy at W&M. Irby is no stranger to the White House, having served there in 2014 during graduate school as an intern in the Office of Science and Technology Policy during the second Obama administration and then as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Geophysical Union and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In this role, Irby led the legislative team advising then-Senator Kamala Harris on issues related to the environment, energy, climate, and space. One of the big winners from President Trumps push for a new military service called space force may be one of his least favorite places California. Once the launchpad of the nations aerospace industry, Southern California stands to see a surge in government and industry jobs and billions of dollars in contracts for satellites and other technology if Congress approves the space force when it takes up the proposal next year, industry experts and former military officials said. You cant just go out in the middle of Iowa and try to create a center for space, said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), a retired Air Force officer. So Southern California is very well situated to get substantial benefits. The extent of the benefits would depend on where the headquarters is located, how much is spent on new satellites and other space systems, and how many people and programs now in the Air Force and other existing armed services might be shifted to the new force. Advertisement Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis said Tuesday that planners have just begun preparing cost estimates. Weve already commenced the effort, but I dont want to give you an off-the-cuff number, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. The biggest uncertainty is whether Trump or Congress would try to direct the rewards to other states. The president has visited California only once since taking office, and his administration has warred with Sacramento on fuel efficiency standards, clean air regulations, firefighting techniques and more. Southern California remains the largest concentration of space technology, including military space technology, in the United States, said Loren Thompson, aerospace analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank, which receives money from major industry players, including Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. But when you set up a new military service, you increase the impact of politics in ways that might not necessarily be good for California, he added. Colorado and Florida, which also boast extensive civilian and military aerospace facilities, could be big winners too. The White House says it will unveil its plan for a space force early next year. For now, the Pentagon is taking interim steps, including creation of a Space Command in the Air Force to centralize planning for war fighting in space. Congressional approval of Trumps idea for a futuristic armed force for space is by no means certain. Key lawmakers, some Pentagon officials and senior commanders, especially in the Air Force, fear losing responsibility and budgetary authority for space. Pentagon officials say building the space force as a sixth armed service alongside the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard is likely to cost billions of dollars for uniforms, vehicles, buildings, training facilities, communications and all the other administrative trappings of a new command structure and personnel. Advertisement Lawmakers who support the space force idea say one of their goals is to hike Pentagon spending on acquisition of satellites and other space systems. Some of that money is virtually certain to flow through Southern Californias burgeoning aerospace sector. Another beneficiary is likely to be the Air Forces Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo, a facility with more than 5,000 military and civilian personnel. It has an unclassified annual budget of about $7 billion out of a total Air Force budget of $8.5 billion for building and launching satellites and other space systems and an unknown classified budget. If a space force is created, the El Segundo center is likely to be shifted into the new service, current and former officials say, to take advantage of decades of experience at building and overseeing satellites. That could boost employment at the center, which has seen its workforce drop to its lowest in two decades, according to a 2017 study by the Pentagons Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation that was provided to Congress. Advertisement The local expertise also will make it difficult to shift the centers mission to an entirely new facility or organization in another state, its supporters say. You cant just up and move all these rocket scientists and very smart individuals, because theyre not going to move, said Lieu. Theyll retire. California is also home to Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, a key military facility for satellite launches and home to a missile defense battery. Industry stalwarts such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co. all have crucial facilities in the state, as do commercial space firms including Elon Musks SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, which has recently increased its share of national security launch awards. Advertisement Those companies and those areas that already have established space presence and the ability to develop things in space are going to be the first places that probably would benefit, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who held several Pentagon acquisition jobs before retiring last year. Colorado and Florida are two prime candidates. Air Force Space Command is based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, close to Schriever Air Force Bases 50th Space Wing, which heads operations and support of 185 Defense Department satellites. And Floridas Space Coast is home to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base, key for launches. Air Force space programs have been plagued for decades by cost overruns and delays. Spending on new satellites has plummeted to the lowest level in 30 years, according to the same 2017 Pentagon study. Space force advocates say the new service is needed because Russia, China and other U.S. adversaries are building anti-satellite and other weapons that can threaten the U.S. militarys space dominance. Critics say a new military service will add bureaucracy at the Pentagon without easing the danger in space. Advertisement Southern California has been a major player in the aerospace industry since the early 20th century. During World War II, the regions aircraft manufacturing plants employed 2 million people, according to the book Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California. Thousands of North American Aviation workers in Downey helped build the Apollo command module during the 1960s space program. But Southern Californias aerospace employment fell sharply after the Cold War ended. Last year, the region had about 90,000 such jobs. While a space force probably would boost that tally, the industry is unlikely to return to the labor-intensive heyday of decades ago, said Lee Ohanian, professor of economics at UCLA. The technology has changed so much in this area where, all things equal, you dont need as many workers today to create as we did back in the day, he said. I think it wouldnt have so much of a broad effect on the overall economy. Advertisement If Congress creates the space force without increasing the Pentagon budget for satellites and other system military space programs, it might not produce the economic windfall some are expecting. If its just carved out of the Air Force and other services, its a migration of money, rather than an increase, said Thompson. We just dont know exactly where the money would go. Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told analysts during a July earnings call that the increased government interest in space is good for business and creates growth opportunities for the company. Lockheed Martin said it welcomes the administrations continued focus on space policy and related issues, noting in a statement that space operations and innovation, especially in the national security sector, are of paramount importance for our nation. Advertisement Northrop Grumman spokesman Tim Paynter said the company was encouraged by the increased focus on the space domain and its importance to national security and said the firm would look forward to supporting the nations future needs. With all those companies and the Air Force presence, Southern California is a logical hub for the space force, said UCLAs Ohanian. But politics could get in the way, he warned. I dont think California is the presidents favorite state, he said. david.cloud@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @davidcloudLAT samantha.masunaga@latimes.com Cloud reported from Washington and Masunaga from Los Angeles. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Element 29 Resources Inc. (TSXV: ECU) ("Element 29" or "E29" or the "Company") today provides an update and summary of its Flor de Cobre copper project ("Flor de Cobre") located in Southern Peru. Flor de Cobre has two main porphyry copper centres, Candelaria and Atravezado, which are located in the prolific Paleocene Southern Peru Copper Belt, known to host several of the world's tier-1 porphyry copper deposits including Cerro Verde, Cuajone, Quellaveco, and Toquepala. Flor de Cobre Highlights Historical supergene copper resource estimate of 57.4 million tonnes of 0.67% Cu. 1 Historical drilling intersected 272 metres ("m") of 0.92% Cu starting at 78 m including 116 m of 1.4% Cu as secondary enrichment followed by an additional 156 m of 0.58% Cu as primary sulfides from drill hole K-008. 2 2021 exploration plan is to verify historical drill hole results to complete a resource estimate later in the year that meets CIM best practice guidelines while continuing to test the extension of the enrichment blanket to the northwest as well as test the hypogene copper potential at depth. Strategically located in a well-established mining district. Brian Booth, President & CEO of Element 29, comments, "We are excited to introduce our Flor de Cobre project to the public markets. Flor de Cobre comprises two highly prospective porphyry centres including Candelaria which was drilled in the 1990's and outlined a historical copper resource estimate associated with a supergene enrichment blanket. Flor de Cobre is strategically located in a well-known copper mining district with excellent infrastructure for mine development. In 2021, we plan to work toward a resource estimate that would meet CIM best practice guidelines while continuing to explore the hypogene copper potential of this porphyry system that is open at depth and to the northwest." Element 29 has an option to acquire 100% interest in Candelaria from the current owners. Candelaria is a well-known copper prospect identified in the 1930's and the site of a historical small-scale copper mining operation located six (6) kilometres ("km") northwest from the Nexa Resources' Chapi mine and 26 km southeast from the Cerro Verde mine. Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd. explored Candelaria in the mid-1990's and reported an historical copper resource estimate of 57.4 Mt of 0.67% Cu at a 0.2% Cu cut-off1 associated with a supergene enrichment blanket centred on a complex of mineralized quartz monzonite porphyry stocks. The supergene enrichment blanket suggests that the porphyry stocks at Candelaria are mineralized with the potential to host a hypogene copper sulfide deposit at depth below the enrichment. This is supported by historical drilling where Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd. previously reported that diamond drill hole K-008 intersected 272 m of 0.92% Cu starting from a depth of 78 m; including 116 m of 1.4% Cu as supergene enrichment followed by an additional 156 m of 0.58% Cu in hypogene copper sulfide mineralization below the enrichment blanket.2 Drill hole K-008 is located in the central thickest part of the enrichment blanket and is reported to have ended in hypogene copper sulfide mineralization at a depth of 350 m (Figure 1). Figure 1. Historical drill hole locations at Candelaria with the nine (9) drill holes proposed for twinning outlined in blue as well as a target area to the northwest of the current drilling which is currently untested. The location of drill hole K-008 is also highlighted toward the centre of the drill hole array. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7414/75415_a8e448c924485960_002full.jpg Element 29 is in the process of completing an Environmental Evaluation (EIA) approval for Candelaria from the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru (MINEM). The EIA enables the Company to commence its drilling program at Candelaria subject to filing a notice for permit activation and obtaining the local water permit, which is expected to be received by the middle of 2021. A separate permitting process will be initiated in mid-2021 for Atravezado, which is located in a different jurisdiction from the Candelaria area. 2021 Drill Program Upon receipt of the necessary permits, the Company plans to initiate a drill program consisting of approximately 3,700 m of diamond drilling in the area of previous drilling shown in Figure 1. A total of 2,183 m have been allocated to twin nine (9) legacy drill holes to verify the accuracy of the existing historical geochemical assay and drill logs database which were obtained by Element 29 as part of the option agreement for Candelaria. Based on Element 29's assessment, the geochemical assay results from these nine (9) drill holes outlined in Table 1 make up approximately 70% of the total copper metal content from the historical supergene copper resource. The potential verification of these assay results would provide the level of confidence needed for the completion of a resource estimate that would meet CIM best practice guidelines.3 Drill Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) CuT (%) Hole Type Drilled By Year I-008 29.1 146.8 117.7 0.292 Core Rio Amarillo 1994 K-006 92.4 131.1 38.7 0.320 Core Rio Amarillo 1994 K-008 78.1 350.0 271.9 0.930 Core Rio Amarillo 1994 including 78.1 325.4 247.3 0.996 K-010 114.8 148.3 33.5 0.513 Core Rio Amarillo 1994 including 114.8 130.4 15.6 0.726 M-008 73.1 207.0 133.9 0.353 Core Rio Amarillo 1994 including 75.4 117.2 41.8 0.497 CAR-186 66.0 168.0 102.0 0.323 RC Phelps Dodge 1995 including 68.0 102.0 34.0 0.494 CAR-188 66.0 256.0 190.0 0.675 RC Phelps Dodge 1995 including 68.0 256.0 188.0 0.678 CAR-189 76.0 208.0 132.0 0.390 RC Phelps Dodge 1995 including 76.0 106.0 30.0 0.864 CAR-190 10.0 230.0 220.0 0.464 RC Phelps Dodge 1995 including 12.0 114.0 102.0 0.565 and including 132.0 158.0 26.0 0.484 Table 1 : This table provides historical total copper (CuT) assay intervals from 9 legacy drill holes selected by Element 29 for twinning as part of the 2021 drill program at Candelaria to potentially verify the accuracy of these results. 3 The copper mineralization outlined at Candelaria is associated with a complex of quartz-monzonite porphyry stocks that have intruded into Jurassic to early Cretaceous siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. These porphyry stocks and adjacent host rocks have been potassic altered with associated A-type quartz veins and later overprinted by an intense phyllic alteration event with associated D-type quartz veins. The exhumation and weathering of these phyllic altered porphyries and adjacent host rocks have resulted in the leaching and redistribution of copper mostly as secondary chalcocite into a supergene enrichment blanket which is known to host the historical copper resource. The supergene enrichment blanket is 850 m wide x 1,000 m long, ranges in thickness from 5 m up to 126 m and located less than 200 m from surface along the base of a haematitic leach capping zone. Metallurgical test work will also be carried out on the drill core from the 2021 program to determine if the supergene copper resource is amenable to low-cost leaching and SXEW processing. Previous exploration by Rio Amarillo during the 1990's focused primarily on the delineation of supergene copper mineralization at Candelaria with very little interest in exploring for lower grade primary copper sulfides at depth below the supergene enrichment blanket. Several drill holes were extended beyond the supergene enrichment blanket into the mineralized porphyry stocks below including drill hole K-008 which intersected 156 m of 0.58% Cu as hypogene copper sulfide mineralization from a depth of 194 m to the end of the hole at 350 m.2 These results suggest the quartz-monzonite porphyry stocks are well mineralized below the supergene enrichment blanket and have the potential to host a sizeable hypogene copper system at depth. The remaining 1,517 m allocated to the 2021 drill program will be used to test the hypogene copper sulfide potential below the supergene enrichment blanket to depths of more than 500 m as well as to test the extension of this mineralization along strike to the northwest of the existing drill hole array as outlined in Figure 1. The Company will also continue to progress the drill permitting for Atravezado in preparation for initial drill-testing of a priority coincident surface geochemical and geophysical target. References for Historical Data The source of the historical resource estimate is a press release issued by Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd. dated November 15, 1996 (Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd., November 15th, 1996: Aija Property Drill Results). This historical resource is relevant to Flor de Cobre as it suggests supergene-enriched mineralization of interest may be present at Candelaria. The parameters, assumptions, and methods used to calculate the historical estimate are unknown. Additionally, the historical estimate does not use resource categories described in CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (2014). It is also unclear what portion of this historical resource estimate is within the current Flor de Cobre property configuration. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource, and it is unclear what work might be required to confirm the resource. For these reasons, the historical resource should not be relied upon. The Company is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. The original source of the historical mineralized intervals in diamond drill hole K-008 is a press release issued by Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd. dated March 1, 1994 (Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd., March 1st, 1994: Drilling Results from Candelaria Project; Cominco's Option to Lapse on Guabisay Project). These historical assay results are relevant to Flor de Cobre as they suggest supergene-enriched copper mineralization of interest may be present at Candelaria. They also suggest hypogene (primary) sulfide mineralization may be present beneath supergene mineralization. The diamond drill core from K-008 and sample reject material is no longer available for geochemical analysis, which prevents a qualified person from verifying these copper geochemical results. For these reasons, the historical copper geochemical assay results from diamond drill hole K-008 should not be relied upon. Historical total copper ("CuT") assay results and drill logs obtained by Element 29 from legacy drilling completed by Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd. and Phelps Dodge Corporation at Candelaria during the 1990's were used to calculate copper assay intervals for the select drill holes provided in Table 1 of this press release. These historical assay results and drill logs are relevant to Flor de Cobre as they suggest supergene-enriched copper mineralization of interest may be present at Candelaria. Assay certificates were provided by Geochemical Lab Geolab Peru S.A. for assay results received by Phelps Dodge Corporation but no assay certificates were obtained for the Rio Amarillo Mining Ltd. assay results. Additionally, none of the diamond drill core and sample rejects from these drill holes are currently available for geochemical analysis, which prevents a qualified person from verifying the copper geochemical results provided. For these reasons, the historical copper geochemical assay results from Table 1 should not be relied upon. Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure Richard Osmond, P.Geo., Chairman of the Board of Directors for Element 29 Resources, is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the accuracy of technical information contained in this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. About Element 29 Resources Inc. Element 29 Resources Inc. is a new exploration and development company focused on advancing its portfolio of Peruvian copper projects towards development in one of the lowest-risk mining jurisdictions in the world. Element 29's growth strategy is led by our strong board and management who have a proven track record of discovery and delivering significant value to our shareholders. The Company's principal objective is to explore and develop its flagship Flor de Cobre porphyry Cu-Mo project located in southern Peru, just 26 kms southeast from Freeport-McMoRan's Cerro Verde Cu-Mo mine. At the same time, the Company intends to build on its potential copper inventory with continued exploration on its Flor de Cobre project as well as its remaining 22,000 ha of mining concessions in Peru including the recently discovered Elida porphyry Cu-Mo-Ag system located in central Peru, just 85 km from the coast. Both projects are well located for future mine development and will benefit from nearby infrastructure including roads, powerlines, ports, water and a skilled workforce. More information is available at www.e29copper.com. Contact Brian Booth - President, Chief Executive Officer and Director Phone: 888-246-7881 E-mail: info@e29copper.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "Forward-looking Statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute Forward-looking Statements. Words such as "will", "intends", "proposed" and "expects" or similar expressions are intended to identify Forward-looking Statements. Forward-looking Statements in this press release include statements related to the listing of the Company's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange, the exercise of the Over-Allotment Option, the Company's resource properties, and the Company's plans, focus and objectives. Forward-looking Statements involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on certain factors and assumptions. 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include uncertainties related to fluctuations in copper and other commodity prices, uncertainties inherent in the exploration of mineral properties, the impact and progression of the COVID-19 pandemic and other risk factors set forth in the Company's preliminary prospectus under the heading "Risk Factors". The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any Forward-looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for E29 to predict all of them, or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any Forward-looking Statement. Any Forward-looking Statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75415 The European Union has renewed sanctions against Belarus. The Council on February 25 decided to prolong until February 28, 2022, the restrictive measures targeting high-level officials responsible for the violent repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, members of the opposition and journalists in Belarus, as well as those responsible for electoral fraud. The EU sanctions also target economic actors, prominent businesspeople and companies benefiting from and/or supporting the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, the Council of the European Union reported on its website. Read alsoUkraine doesn't align itself with third package of EU sanctions against Belarus "After the fraudulent presidential election in August 2020 and the ensuing wave of demonstrations which have been violently depressed by the Belarusian authorities, the EU has imposed sanctions in October, November and December 2020, thereby signalling to the political and economic actors responsible that their actions and support for the regime should come at a cost," it said. Restrictive measures The restrictive measures consist of a ban on travel to the EU and an asset freeze for listed persons currently 88 individuals, including Alexander Lukashenko and an asset freeze applicable to seven entities. In addition, EU persons and entities are forbidden from making funds available to those listed, either directly or indirectly. The EU is closely monitoring the evolution of the situation in Belarus. On February 22, 2021, the Foreign Affairs Council underlined that, in view of the continuing disrespect for fundamental freedoms and human rights, and repression of the Belarusian people and civil society by the authorities, the EU will consider further sanctions. In addition, the EU will continue to support the Belarusian people in their legitimate request for democracy, including through support to civil society and independent media. Protests in Belarus Mass protests in Belarus began following the presidential elections on August 9, 2020, after which Lukashenko was declared the winner and became president for the sixth consecutive term. Protesters demand the resignation of Lukashenko and insist on new elections, accusing the authorities of unprecedented fraud and brutality against participants in protest rallies. During the crackdown on protests, at least five people were killed. According to human rights activists, more than 30,000 Belarusians were repressed, the country's authorities opened more than 900 criminal cases against opponents. The protests are still going on, although the number of their participants has decreased significantly. The EU countries and the United States do not recognize the legitimacy of the presidential elections in Belarus. Reporting by UNIAN 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. The Pentecost University has resumed full academic work at the Pentecost Convention Centre (PCC) at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region. This was after the suspension of academic activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the closure of schools in March last year, the Church of Pentecost made the PCC available for the treatment of persons affected by the COVID-19. Reopening However, with the reopening of schools, the Pentecost University has admitted 88 fresh students for the School of Theology, Mission and Leadership, which is operated at the PCC. The fresh students took the matriculation oath administered by the Registrar of the university, Mr Foster Amoani. At the ceremony to admit the students last Wednesday, the Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye, said the facility was safe for the students to undertake their studies. He said although there were about 88 COVID-19 patients currently at the facility, the distance between where they resided and that of the students were far apart. We actually supported the government the first time we recorded the pandemic and when the country started recording the second wave, the government had to come back to us. The students are safe, they are about 700 metres apart with the patients, he said. Apostle Nyamekye said the church decided to offer its facility to the government because it was there to support humanity and do the work of God. Development He also asked the students to take their academic and spiritual development seriously for their total development and not only focus on one of them. A former Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Dr Opoku Onyinah, said the students would be trained as ministers before they were allowed to go out to preach to the world at large. According to him, the training of pastors was very important since it offered them the opportunity to be taken through the rudiments of what they were going to do. In an address, the Vice Chancellor of the Pentecost University, Prof. Kwabena Agyepong-Kodua, charged the students to promote the institutions A+ agenda For us to possess the nations, we need to master what we have, master what others know, and present alternatives in very compelling, spiritual and knowledgeable manner, he told the students. The Officer in charge of Digital Media at the university, Mr Daniel Dickson-Dedzah, urged the students to be careful with what they put on the Internet. Source: Graphiconline.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 Korea has extended its ban on flights from the U.K. for another two weeks, as part of efforts to curb the influx of the coronavirus variant from the European country. Health authorities said Wednesday the ban, which was supposed to end Thursday, will remain in place until March 11. The measure was implemented in December amid a surge of variant cases in the U.K. As of Wednesday, Korea reported 128 cases of mutated coronavirus strains, including 109 from the U.K, 13 from South Africa and six from Brazil. Guwahati: The Cambodian government has conferred its national honour to Indian citizen Kaushik Barua, presently the country director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Cambodia and Laos, for rendering distinguished services. Kaushik Barua has been awarded the national medal by the Cambodian government under the Royal Order of Sahametrei, conferred primarily on foreigners who have rendered distinguished services to the King and the people of Cambodia, according to the website of the United Nations in Cambodia. Baruas colleague Sakphouseth Meng, a Cambodian national and the country programme officer for IFAD Cambodia, was also awarded the national medal under the Royal Order of Sowathara.Both were recognised for their contributions to poverty reduction, rural development and smallholder agricultural development in Cambodia, the website said. Barua, who is also an author of international repute, and Meng contributed to improved food security, increased household incomes and assets, primarily achieved from improvements in agricultural productivity and diversification and from investments in roads and irrigation implemented by the IFAD supported projects. Through the IFAD country programme, Barua who hails from Assam, has also contributed to the promotion of renewable energy technologies in the region through which over 5,000 small farmers have adopted sustainable and environmentally friendly renewable energy technologies such as solar pumps, solar hatcheries and insect roasters. Upon receiving the award, Barua said, I am extremely grateful and honoured to receive this award from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government of Cambodia. The credit goes to all partners who have worked tirelessly to improve the agricultural sector and contribute to rural development in Cambodia. Dadasaheb Phalke Awards 2021: Akshay Kumar, Sushant wins award, know the full winner list here USD 1.4 Billion arbitration award: Cairn says hopeful of solution, will protect shareholder interest Kerala's 'Black Sand' documentary film qualifies for Oscars (@FahadShabbir) Venezuela on Tuesday expelled the European Union's ambassador to Caracas, giving her 72 hours to leave the country, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said, in a response to new EU sanctions against top officials Caracas, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2021 ) :Venezuela on Tuesday expelled the European Union's ambassador to Caracas, giving her 72 hours to leave the country, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said, in a response to new EU sanctions against top officials. "Today, by decision of President Nicolas Maduro, we presented to Mrs Isabel Brilhante... her declaration as persona non grata," he told journalists in Caracas. 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. Man Pleads Guilty to Lying to Get $1.2 Million COVID-19 Relief Loans A 46-year-old Wisconsin man pleaded guilty on Tuesday for fraudulently obtaining more than $1.2 million in COVID-19 relief loans, the Justice Department said in a press release. Thomas Smith admitted to lying about payroll expenses for eight different companies in order to receive more than $1.2 million of the relief, his guilty plea said, according to the press release. Smith admitted to receiving a share of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds from the companies involved in the plot and used the money towards personal expenses. Smith pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and is scheduled for sentencing June 2, according to the press release. The PPP was included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which distributed over $2 trillion to aid hospitals, workers and people needing help in the United States. The CARES Act was effective on March 29, 2020 to help millions of Americans affected by the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the press release. Congress approved the PPP to assist small business owners in paying rent and paying their workers. A Florida man pleaded guilty on Feb. 10 for using fraudulently accessed PPP funds to buy a Lamborghini, officials announced in another Justice Department press release. The Justice Department didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. By Mary Rose Corkery From The Daily Callar News Foundation 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. Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant were undoubtedly the loved-up success story of Married At First Sight Australia's sixth season. And following the show's rip-roaring success in the UK after its original screening Down Under in 2019, the couple appeared on This Morning on Thursday to chat to mega-fan Holly Willoughby and her co-host Phillip Schofield. As the blonde beauty, 40, fangirled over the pair, Jules, 38, revealed that she had searched for love during her 14 years in the UK yet grew tired of relentlessly looking on dating apps before taking part in the series and meeting Cam, 37. Loved-up: Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant were undoubtedly the loved-up success story of Married At First Sight Australia's sixth season and on Thursday they appeared on This Morning much to Holly Willoughby's delight Jules and Cameron met on season six of Nine's controversial social experiment, which was filmed in late 2018 and aired in Australia in early 2019, before hitting screens in the UK earlier this year and garnering a huge fan base. After falling in love, the couple, who welcomed their son Oliver Chase in October, got engaged during the finale and later married for real in a legally binding ceremony, selling the broadcast rights to A Current Affair. Jules said: 'I'd literally searched the whole world to find my guy, Il ive in the Uk for 14 years and I came back the year before, and I felt like I was the face of Bumble. I actually applied for the show and said 'I'm a catch! Where's my guy!' Speaking about his own journey on to screens, Cameron said: 'I was having a beer in a pub with three mates who were all married with kids and just had some scouts that came across and said do you have any interested in a dating show... Happy days! Jules and Cameron met on season six of Nine's controversial social experiment, which was filmed in late 2018 and aired in Australia in early 2019, before hitting screens in the UK earlier this year and garnering a huge fan base (pictured at their official wedding) Agh! Holly Willoughby could not contain her delight at the guests 'I thought "My life is in a good place, let's do it! Looking back we're both very naive, but we were both luck and we were open to love and we were both vulnerable'. Speaking about the day they met, Jules said: 'We sat we weren't what we ordered, he wanted blonde and fit and I was a voluptuous redhead. And when we did our vows they mirrored each other. That felt really good, it was vibe at first sight.' 'My mum was not in a good place I think it came from worry that I was going to get hurt, they've seen me get hurt a lot. Everyone else I think just knew I would be ok... 'My only game plan was that I didn't like him I was going to leave, but the stars aligned and it was a beautiful, amazing day.' My boy: The couple spoke from their home and revealed Oliver was asleep, as Cam said: 'Spoiler alert! We do have a have a son,. little Olly Chase, and he's a delight and we are fortunate and loving' Praise be: Following the appearance, Jules took to Instagram to thank Holly and Phil for having them on the show and also their fans The couple spoke from their home and revealed Oliver was asleep, as Cam said: 'Spoiler alert! We do have a have a son,. little Olly Chase, and he's a delight and we are fortunate and loving... 'In the final vows that was my genuine engagement proposal, and it happened right in that moment, I said to her 'would you be my wife,' I was really confused.' Clearly a huge fan, Holly began grilling them about other stars of the show, including the explosive character Ines Basic. Jules revealed: 'Ines now she's said I could even be that woman if I tried to. She's come on leaps and bounds and she's very accountable for how she acted... 'She's not with either of them I know she has a new boyfriend, when that happened a lot of viewers said 'how did you now know?'... My love: 'You don't really take notice because there's such a long table, so when it all came out it was just a shocking for us as the viewers who were watching' 'You don't really take notice because there's such a long table, so when it all came out it was just a shocking for us as the viewers who were watching.' Following Wednesday night's show, which saw Ning be rebuffed by Mark, Jules weighed in on the shocking moment as Holly said it was 'really sad'. Jules responded: 'It was horrible watching that moment when it all went wrong it was interesting and she children and it was a big risk she was taking.' Following the appearance, Jules took to Instagram to thank Holly and Phil for having them on the show and also their fans. Jules delightedly told fans she was glad the show could be 'a bit of fun' for their UK fans during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. Breitling has always stood out among Switzerlands legions of luxury watchmakers as a particularly action-focused brand. The brand is best known for its connection to aviation, its pilots watches worn by civilian and military fliers across the globe as well as even making it into space. But its not just the skies that Breitling has stamped their mark on. Breitlings dive watches are the stuff of legends, and the brand has also had a long association with iconic British car marque Bentley. Breitlings latest collaboration ditches four wheels for two, however, with the storied Swiss brand teaming up with Australian motorbike brand and cultural tour de force Deus Ex Machina (better known simply as Deus) on a stunning new chronograph: the limited-edition Top Time Deus (ref. A233101A1A1X1). Founded in 2006, Deus began life as a custom motorbike shop in Sydneys bohemian Inner West and has since become a true-blue Aussie success story, branching out into apparel, sporting goods and opening other bike workshops across the globe, everywhere from Milan and Los Angeles Venice Beach to Tokyo and Bali. Iconoclastic and free-spirited, Deus is the perfect partner for Breitling, the brands uniquely sporty character a perfect match for Deus petrol-powered irreverence. One of Breitlings slightly more obscure models, the Top Time is a classically beautiful chronograph thats been in and out of production in recent years. Deus take on the timepiece pays homage to the original incarnation of the watch from the 1960s while spicing up the watch with some unique Deus details that will delight motorcycle fans and desk jockeys alike. Immediately obvious are unique details like its funky squircle-shaped chronograph counters; orange and yellow details with a unique lightning bolt-shaped chronograph hand; a racing-themed calfskin leather strap; plus the Deus logo and its tongue-in-cheek adage in benzin veritas in petrol we trust offset in white on its black tachymeter scale. Flipping the watch over reveals an iconic Deus artwork of a retro-looking motorcyclist in full flight designed by Deus creative director Carby Tuckwell adoring the caseback. On a technical level, the 41mm stainless steel watch is powered by the Breitling Caliber 23, a COSC-certified chronometer with a power reserve of approximately 48 hours. Its prominent chronograph pushers and double anti-reflective sapphire crystal make the watch a cinch to use whether youre on your bike or at brunch (hot tip: the Deus Cafes potato rosti eggs benedict is amazing if youre ever in Sydney). Water-resistant to 30m, its also tough enough to put up with all your blood, sweat and beers. RELATED: Breitlings Gym-Proof Watch Is Affordable Luxury Australians Will Love Brand collaborations are often quite a cynical exercise, but Breitling and Deus partnership seems incredibly natural. Breitlings current trajectory under recently-appointed CEO Georges Kern has seen the brand revitalised: where other watchmakers often feel stuffy and constrained by their history, Breitling has chosen to take risks, seeking out interesting collaborations like this one with Deus, ultimately to their benefit. Breitlings watches are relevant, beautiful and most importantly, fun and really, thats what watches should be about: fun. And this Top Time is certainly all that, and more. Limited to only 1500 examples, this Top Time currently only available online, with a roll-out to boutiques anticipated later in the year If they dont all sell out by then. Australias rumoured to only have an allocation of 20 or so watches, so if you want one, youll need to get onto the Breitling website quicker than a Suzuki Hayabusa. Read Next Saudi Ministry of Defence made an announcement allowing women of the kingdom to join military and armed forces. Saudi women can join Saudi Arabian Army, Royal Saudi Air Defence, Royal Saudi Navy, Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force, and Armed Forces Medical Services, Gulf News reported. The move comes under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 initiative, introducing reforms that allow Saudi women to advance in various fields. With this initiative, Saudi women will be increasingly seen doing jobs that were previously limited to men, such as waiting tables in restaurants, being cashiers in shopping malls among others. Arab world's largest economy first announced allowing women into the military in 2019, the same year when the Saudi kingdom said it would allow women to leave the country without permission from a male relative. The Saudi Ministry of Defence announced that men and women in the kingdom can now apply for positions in the military through their unified admission portal. According to tot the ministry, Saudi women would be recruited as soldiers, lance corporals, corporals, sergeants, and staff sergeants. Applicants must be between the age of 21 and 40 to be eligible for the military. In addition to this, a woman must be at least 155 centimetres tall or above, to become part of the army. They must also pass admission procedures, have a clean record, and be medically fit for service. Moreover, a woman must hold an independent national identity card, have at least a high school education, and cannot be married to a non-Saudi. For male citizens wanting to join the armed forces, they must be between the ages of 17 and 40 and be a minimum of 160 centimetres tall. They must also pass admission procedures, have a clean criminal record, and prove that they are medically fit for service.Also read: 89% want reduction in central tax on fuel price: LocalCircles survey Also read: Patanjali clarifies on Coronil efficacy as WHO says it's 'not certified' Comprehensive reform is important not only to attract the best global talent but also to retain them who are already in the US but stuck in the green card backlog, representatives of the American tech industry, including Microsoft, have told lawmakers. A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently. "One of the reasons that comprehensive reform is so important is we have so many other extraordinarily talented people here, including working in the tech sector, who need the added certainty. "They're either stuck in a green card backlog because they came here from India, Microsoft president Brad L Smith told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Emerging Technologies And National Security on Wednesday. They, he argued, risk actually having their children age out. Professionals from India currently have the longest waiting period for Green Card, running into decades, because of the country quota for employment-based categories. A legislation supported by the Biden administration seeks to remove the country cap on employment-based Green Card, a move that has been welcomed by the US tech industry. I'm very struck that we have an extraordinarily talented young person at Microsoft. He's working at Microsoft to our benefit rather than on, frankly, what he'd like to do, which is in the aerospace field, because as a docker registrant, he can do one thing, but not the other...We need to address this range of issues to continue to nurture the world's best talent, Smith said, responding to a question from Senator Tim Kaine on maintaining US' technological edge and reform. Under the current rule, a foreign professional on an H-1B visa can only work in the field that he has been given the visa. But given that IT is such an evolving and dynamic field, this prevents many Indian IT professionals from working in other creative areas, even if it is related to IT. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. Smith said US' technological edge remains a very high priority. However, he said, one of the interesting things about technology is that it always starts with talent, so it starts with people. "And if you want to have the world's best technology, especially if you have a country, as we do, that has the world's best universities, you want to continue to attract the best and brightest, not just to study here, but to stay here, Smith said. The more we can do and especially these high-demand fields in these critical graduate degrees, to give people the assurance upfront that they can not only get a visa but a green card, we put ourselves on a path to do that, he said. Schmidt Futures Co-founder Eric Schmidt told lawmakers that the US must build every possible technological sharing path between its key alliances. And who are they? Israel, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, Korea, maybe India. Right. There is a list of about ten. And the world that's coming through the industry is the T10, he said. And what it means is constant harvesting of the best ideas, putting companies together, and so forth. If...American global companies are our greatest asset...let's have American companies working closely across all those boundaries. Everything that we do to make it harder to work across those boundaries also hurts our national security, Schmidt said. He also advocated a national competitiveness plan, which includes a list of the key technologies and a list of the key countries In his written testimony, Smith said digital technology plays an increasingly critical role in the defence of the nation. "Emerging technologies are redefining the way we secure the peace, maintain our defense, and when necessary, fight wars. The US cannot secure its digital defences by acting alone. One of the country's greatest strategic advantages is its global network of allies and partners. In part this is because of the global nature of technology innovation and markets." he said. Moreover, one of the key drivers of successful development and deployment of technology is scale. The larger the potential market for US technologies, the larger the pool of private and human capital that will be dedicated to the research and development efforts needed to maintain America's competitive edge, Smith argued. Scale plays a major role in AI development in particular. AI runs on data. That means that China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has a comparative advantage when it comes to mustering sheer quantities of personal data, he said. But the combined populations of the US, our NATO and Five Eyes allies, Japan, and Korea, total over 1.1 billion. If Mexico, India and Brazil are added, the combined population of this potential coalition of democracies would be close to 2.9 billion, Smith said. The Five Eyes is the biggest intelligence alliance of the world, comprising the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The US should work with its global network of alliances and partners to invest in and build coalitions with like-minded partners to develop, adapt, and deploy new technologies," Smith said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Colonial Williamsburg joins William & Mary to research, relocate, interpret 18th-century Bray School for enslaved and free Black children Once a schoolhouse: Front elevation of the Dudley Digges House in its original location on Prince George Street, Williamsburg, Virginia. Copy photo by Frank Nivison of photograph taken in early 1900s. Courtesy of John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library/Colonial Williamsburg Photo - of - Hide Caption A small white building that sits tucked away on the William & Mary campus once held an 18th-century school dedicated to the religious education of enslaved and free Black children, researchers have determined. Now, the university and its neighbor, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, are working together to ensure future generations learn about the history of the building and the stories of those who were part of it. William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg have forged a partnership regarding the future use of the building, now known as the Bray-Digges House, likely the oldest extant building in the U.S. dedicated to the education of Black children. The agreement calls for relocation of the structure to Colonial Williamsburgs Historic Area, where it would become the 89th original structure restored by the foundation. The partnership also establishes the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative, a joint venture of the two institutions to use the Bray School as a focal point for research, scholarship and dialogue regarding the interconnected, often troubled, legacy of race, religion and education in Williamsburg and in America. Research conducted in 2020 by Colonial Williamsburg connected the final dots in a decades-long trail of evidence begun by a curious William & Mary literature professor. The work, focused on dendrochronology of the buildings timber framing, further corroborated research indicating that the building at 524 Prince George St. in Williamsburg once held the Bray School, an institution that educated many of the towns Black children from 1760 to 1774. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is scheduled to join the Williamsburg community for a special event at 5 p.m. Thursday commemorating the history of the Bray School, its rediscovery and plans for site and interpretation. Due to COVID-19 guidelines, the event is not open to the general public to attend in person but it will be available virtually via live stream. It is hard to overstate the importance of this discovery, of the robust history that will be uncovered through this partnership between William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg said William & Mary President Katherine A. Rowe. So much of our history as a nation has gone unrecorded the history of African Americans, their oppression and resistance. By studying the legacy of the Bray School students, we will uncover and illuminate some of the most important impacts of education in the story of America. {{youtube:large|qEeUGQdlot8, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam joined the Williamsburg community for a special event on Feb. 25 commemorating the history of the Bray School.}} Generating private financial support Both partners are generating private financial support for the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative. Colonial Williamsburgs work to restore and interpret the Bray Schools historic structure is possible in part thanks to a grant of $400,000 from the Gladys and Franklin Clark Foundation. The grant from the Clark Foundation will allow Colonial Williamsburg to relocate the structure to the Historic Area, and additional funds will be raised to complete the restoration and interpretive work. Cliff Fleet, president and CEO of Colonial Williamsburg, said the project is a critical step toward fostering a broader understanding of Americans shared history. Colonial Williamsburg and William & Marys partnership to research, restore and interpret the original structure of the Bray School is critical to our ongoing work to uncover our common past and expand our understanding of Americas founding, said Fleet. Were very grateful to the Clark Foundation, whose generous support makes this effort possible. We invite guests, the community and the nation to join us as we continue to pursue and present a more complete story of all who lived in Williamsburg during the Revolutionary era. Each of the students of the Bray School was taught to read and possibly to write as well as elements of deportment, while girls received needlework lessons, all in the furtherance of a Christian education. Colonial Williamsburgs Historic Area would be the third location for the venerable structure. The Bray-Digges building originally stood near the corner of Prince George and North Boundary streets. It was moved down Prince George a few hundred yards in 1930 to make way for the construction of Brown Hall, a William & Mary residence hall thats still in use. Facing up to a history of enslaving A Virginia Department of Historic Resources marker commemorating the school was unveiled at Brown Hall in early 2019, and Rowe noted that the new joint venture aligns with other William & Mary initiatives that address the institutions historical involvement with slavery. Construction is to begin this year on Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved, a monument dedicated to the enslaved individuals who labored at William & Mary, while the Lemon Project is a scholarly and educational initiative that investigates slavery and its legacies and particularly William & Marys involvement. The Lemon Project takes its name from Lemon, an enslaved worker at William & Mary. Jody Allen, the Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project, explained that the Bray School legacy has long been a part of the Lemon Projects programming. Identification and engagement of descendants of Bray School scholars are among the priorities of the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative. Gov. Northam recently appointed Allen to Virginias Commission to Study Slavery and Subsequent De Jure and De Facto Racial and Economic Discrimination. She said she expects the Bray School Initiative will allow scholars to follow more closely the intriguing line of evidence of a Bray School education having influence that is deep and wide among Williamsburgs African American population. When we talk about the history of slavery and the history of the African American experience at William & Mary, we include the Bray School, she said. We believe the Bray School not only impacted the children who actually attended the school, but it impacted their descendants. We believe very strongly that they went on to share their knowledge with brothers, sisters, neighbors. William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg are neighbors, and collaborations are frequent. The Bray School has been the object of numerous research initiatives focusing on archival as well as material-culture sources aimed at expanding the collective understanding of our shared history. Several summer archaeological field schools at Brown Hall were staffed largely by W&M students and led by Mark Kostro, then a Colonial Williamsburg archaeologist and also a graduate student in the universitys Department of Anthropology. Currently, the university and foundation are partners in work led by the citys Historic First Baptist Church to research and interpret its first permanent site on South Nassau Street. The Williamsburg Bray School Initiative is designed to channel and intensify such collaborations, facilitating continued research and interpretation, toward a deeper examination of a number of aspects of history through the lens of the Bray School. Our knowledge of history is not static; it continues to reveal itself through critical work like the investigation of the Digges house, said Stephen Seals, Colonial Williamsburg interpreter, program development manager and community liaison. Restoration and interpretation of the Bray School, which represents another complex chapter in our nations story, will be critical to our communitys work to foster a more complete understanding of our shared history. A scholar and an interpreter Nicole Brown, a graduate student in William & Marys American Studies Program, is also a Colonial Williamsburg actor-interpreter portraying Ann Wager, a white teacher at the Williamsburg Bray School. She is currently studying the history and impact of the Bray Schools in Williamsburg and beyond. Her work with Colonial Williamsburg is supported by the Mary and Donald Gonzales Field Experience Fund. Browns work as a scholar-interpreter took her to Oxfords Weston Library where she dove into some 8,000 pages of records of the Associates of Dr. Bray, the London organization that established or tried to establish Bray Schools throughout the New World in Philadelphia, Nova Scotia and the Bahamas. Existing records of the Williamsburg Bray School indicate that the student body was about 90 percent enslaved, with the remainder being free children of color. Ages ranged from 3 to 10 years old, usually equally divided among boys and girls, and the enrollment was around 30. Brown said Wagers funding from the Bray Associates was contingent on the schools maintaining an enrollment as close to 30 as possible. Browns research also led her to dig up and read as many of the Bray School textbooks as she could find. Research on the textbooks gave me a great deal of insight into Ann Wager and her students. You can learn a lot based on the books she used at the school, Brown said. Quite frankly, you learn a lot about the pro-slavery ideology of the school, when you see how many of the books are extremely rooted in systemic racism. Another scholar of the Bray Schools history is Julie Richter, a lecturer in William & Marys Department of History and the director of the National Institute of American History & Democracy (NIAHD), itself a partnership of William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg. She has done research into the students at the Bray School. Known records are far from complete, she said. Richter said that from the 14-year run of the Williamsburg Bray School, there are surviving student lists from only three years: 1762, 1765 and 1769. The lists, she said, were compiled by Bray School trustee Robert Carter Nicholas, who was Williamsburgs chief correspondent with the Bray Associates in London. Im eternally optimistic that there will be a few more lists that someone will find in time, Richter said. But right now, we have these three slices in time to try to tease out what students were at the school and who sent them. Possible motivation of the slaveowners Brown and Richter said slaveowners had varied motivations for enrolling enslaved children in the Bray School. A demonstrated degree of numeracy and literacy increased the auction value of any enslaved individual, while Brown pointed out that a Bray School education increased a persons usefulness to a slaveowner, especially one who operated a commercial establishment. Some 40 percent of the white slaveowners who sent students to the Bray School were women, Brown said, a group that included city tavern owners Christiana Campbell and Jane Vobe. If you had an enslaved cook that could read, you could just give her a written recipe, Brown said. You wouldnt have to sit and read it out. Richter became interested in probing the three student lists for clues about the motivation among prominent households for educating enslaved children. She said the three lists showed that the John Blair family sent a number of enslaved children to the Bray School. John Blair was the nephew of William & Mary founder James Blair, and a prominent public figure in colonial Virginia in his own right. From those three lists, John Blair and his family sent the greatest number of children to the Bray School, Richter said. And you can follow some of these Bray students 30 to 40 years after they left school and they were still with the Blair family. Richter said the motivation to educate enslaved children was more complicated for the Blairs and similarly prominent, politically well-connected families than it was among the tradespeople of Williamsburg. Some wanted to groom enslaved children to become body servants, personal attendants for various members of the white Blair family, Richter said. It shows your status. A curious professor finds the first dots Dendrochronology allowed Colonial Williamsburg researchers to connect the most recent dots of the Bray-Digges link, but the first dots were unearthed and connected by Terry Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, Emeritus, at William & Mary, who developed an interest in Williamsburg history after moving here in 1970. Meyers said he was reading a memoir by a local resident when he came across a reference to an 18th-century cottage that in 1930 had been moved down Prince George Street from the corner of Prince George and North Boundary streets. I walked over to Prince George Street and walked up and down, Meyers said. I was looking for an 18th-century structure, and I just couldnt see it. He said he was ready to give up the search, but something prompted him to drop in at Colonial Williamsburgs John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, where there was a file on the building. From that, I was able to go back and look at what is now 524 Prince George St., Meyers said. And I realized that if you look at that structure and erase the two additions on the right and the left and change the roofline from a Dutch colonial roof to a proper cottage roof, you actually do have an 18th-century cottage. Its remarkable that this particular cottage survived the 18th century, let alone into the 21st, said Ronald Hurst, vice president for museums, preservation and historic resources at Colonial Williamsburg. Hurst led a team of researchers investigating the 18th-century portion of the building this past summer. Their examination included a partial removal of siding and other explorations beneath the updated fabric. They discovered the reconfigured roof line that Meyers had noticed and a window sash that dates to the original construction date, pinpointed though dendrochronology tree growth ring dating. Our analysis of the structures oldest elements conclusively places the timbers harvest between the winter of 1759-60 and the spring of 1760, with the establishment of the Williamsburg Bray School in 1760, said Matt Webster, Colonial Williamsburgs executive director of architectural preservation and research. That, combined with existing evidence of the Bray Schools historical location on Prince George Street, makes a compelling case that this is the original structure, and the building still has a great deal more to teach us. A quick and dirty structure Hurst described the 18th-century portion that held the Bray School as a three-bay, story-and-a-half building. There were two rooms that extended the length of the building with a center passage. Each of the two rooms was heated with a fireplace, Hurst added, and one of the original brick chimneys is still there. The half-story had two rooms, with dormer windows, under an A-frame roof. He said there were other revelations from the 2020 work, as well. The building was extremely poorly constructed, Hurst said. We discovered in getting into the walls that even the standard mortise-and-tenon construction that we expect on outbuildings was abandoned here. And the frame was simply toenailed together. Thats telling us that this was put up as a pretty quick-and-dirty structure. Meyers found that the Bray School operated in the Digges building from its 1760 founding until 1765, when the school moved, possibly out to Capitol Landing Road. He also found William & Mary connections to the Bray School. The 1769 list of children mentioned Adam and Fanny, belonging to the College, and the school figured in faculty minutes from 1773. I noticed an entry where the faculty had voted to send four loads of firewood to Mrs. Wager, the teacher at the Bray School, because shed been taking care of children owned by the College, Meyers said. The entries about children deepened his interest, he said, and made him want to explore any other William & Mary-Bray School connections. I knew in the abstract, that as an old Southern school we must have been involved in some way with slavery, but I'd never really thought much about it until I came across Adam and Fanny, Meyers said. Then, the idea that I work for an institution that actually claimed to own people owned children! you know, got me interested. I think that was one of the seeds that turned into the Lemon Project. He found a wonderful collection of published correspondence among the Bray Associates, where he found records of Benjamin Franklins becoming a member in 1760. Franklin had visited Williamsburg in 1756 and was awarded an honorary degree from William & Mary. They asked Franklin where to start Bray Schools in America, Meyers said. And he mentioned Williamsburg. Meyers thinks Franklin discovered the clerical faculty were already involved in the religious education of local Black residents; and the idea of founding a formal school was already abroad. He added that Franklin likely saw the affiliation with William & Mary as a way of protecting the school from its many skeptics. The unintended consequences of education Meyers said the Bray Schools mission was to impart Christian education to Black children and the strategy was to get enslaved people to accept their position as divinely ordained. This educational philosophy was very much in line with the Virginia clergys use of religious education to convince the enslaved to accept their position in the colonys social hierarchy. It wasnt intended to shake the pillars of slavery or anything like that, Meyers said. I mean, the thinking at the time was that if you were a good Christian slave, you knew you were born through God's will to be enslaved. And so you accepted your role and your position. But Meyers added that education is almost invariably subversive. Like Allen and Brown, he noted evidence that students at the Bray School took their literacy skills back home and spread them around. If you are taught to read the Bible, he said. you will be able to read other things. Once you educate people, they are better equipped to think critically. Scholars are divided on what appears to be a very simple question: Students were taught reading, but was writing a part of the Bray School curriculum? Answering that simple question soon leads to a need to understand the world shared by the enslaved and the enslaver at a deeper level. The Lemon Projects Allen explains that masters might be wary of what could happen if enslaved people learned to write. The ability to write would certainly open up opportunities, she said. And one of those opportunities would be the ability to forge passes, for themselves and for others. Allen explained that enslaved workers sometimes carried written authorizations explaining the errand they were sent on, vouching for the legitimacy of their presence in unfamiliar areas. There are lots of stories about enslaved people using passes forged by themselves or by another, she said. Some of the stories ended with the people riding their forged passes all the way to freedom. Theres no definitive statement that we can find anywhere that says that they were taught to write, Allen said. But the preponderance of evidence shows that many of them learned to write. As evidence of writing instruction, both Richter and Allen cite the large number of slate pencil fragments recovered during the archaeological excavations at the Brown Hall site. Allen also notes that the girls needlework lessons at the Bray School included writing of a fashion, in the form of embroidering monograms and samplers. Even if Bray School lessons did not include writing instruction, Allen points out the short intellectual step from reading deciphering letters arranged into words to copying the strokes and curves and making your own words. No date has been set for the relocation of the Bray-Digges building, and Colonial Williamsburg and William & Mary are considering a number of potential sites. The building has been known as Prince George House. It was most recently used as offices for William & Marys Department of Military Science, which has been relocated. There remain nine to ten months of architectural and archaeological examination of the Bray-Digges building by Colonial Williamsburg researchers. Hurst added that all additional work on the structure will require extra care, especially if its to be moved. The buildings pretty fragile at this point, Hurst said. Theres a good possibility that the plaster and lath are actually helping to hold it together. One year after its founding, the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago suffered a setback when its first building caught fire and was destroyed. It was rebuilt, only to burn down again in the Great Chicago Fire but that still didnt stop the organization from pressing forward. (TNS) California's electricity prices are growing so high that they threaten the state's ability to convince enough people to ditch fossil fuel-powered cars and appliances, new research says.The state's electric rates are now two to three times what it costs to provide power, a paper released by the energy institute at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the nonprofit think tank Next 10 reported.As much as 77% of what investor-owned electric companies recover through rates are related to fixed costs that don't change based on consumption, the paper says. That includes generation, transmission and distribution costs but also subsidies for low-income households and public programs such as increasing energy efficiency, the authors concluded.Low- and average-income residents are disproportionately burdened by the state's high electric prices because they use only modestly less power than people with higher incomes. High-income households are also more likely to install solar panels on their roofs, reducing their utility bills, the paper said.Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley energy economist who spearheaded the paper, said he's concerned that California is saddling its electric rates with too many things that are divorced from the direct cost of powering homes and businesses. Investments to reduce wildfire risk are one example, as are bill subsidies and funding for various other public programs.He said the state should look at paying for some of those extra programs and policies through income or sales taxes instead. Another option could be allowing California utilities to implement fixed charges that vary based on income, meaning wealthier households would pay a higher monthly fee.Otherwise, the state could end up in a situation where electric rates are "vastly higher than the true cost of using electricity," Borenstein said. "At the same time, we're going to have rates that are going to be so high that it will be a huge discouragement to using electricity for things that we need people to adopt if we're going to decarbonize the economy."California has some of the highest electric rates in the country, though the specifics vary by utility. Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s residential electric rates are about about 80% higher than the national average, while San Diego Gas & Electric charges about double the national average and Southern California Edison's are 45% higher, according to Borenstein's paper.Monthly bills for California customers have historically been relatively low thanks to the state's temperate climate. Still, Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network consumer group, agreed that Californians pay for too much through their electric rates."There are too many costs that have nothing to do with providing safe, reliable clean energy," Toney said. "That's really what ratepayers should be paying. We got no business paying for things like electric vehicles and home electrification other sectors need to pay for that."Borenstein will present his findings Wednesday at a special California Public Utilities Commission hearing that will focus on electricity prices.In advance of that hearing, the commission released its own paper projecting steady increases in electricity rates for the three major power companies over the next 10 years. The paper warned that upward pressure on rates could "trigger equity and affordability concerns for vulnerable customer populations" if not handled properly. The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The head of Germany's accounting watchdog, under fire for failing to spot wrongdoing ahead of the collapse of the payments company Wirecard, is stepping down. The agency, formally known as the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP), said in a statement on Wednesday that President Edgar Ernst is leaving his post at his own wish, effective Dec. 31. Ernst has also come under criticism for potential conflicts of interest because he held seats on supervisory boards of major corporations, including real-estate company Vonovia, retailer Metro and tour operator TUI. Germany's financial watchdog BaFin called on FREP in February 2019 to investigate Wirecard's accounts, but it had not yet issued results by the time the company collapsed in June 2020. Ernst earlier this month told a committee of Germany's parliament investigating the Wirecard case that FREP had no chance to uncover malfeasance because it was not equipped with tools to do forensic accounting. Last month, the finance ministry announced that the head of BaFin, Felix Hufeld, would leave his post. (Reporting Hans Seidenstuecker and Tom Sims; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) THUNDER BAY, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Wolfden Resources Corporation (TSXV:WLF) (the "Company" or "Wolfden") is pleased to announce that the Company has commenced a 2,300 metre (6-8 hole) diamond drill program designed to expand its wholly owned Rice Island strategic-metal nickel-copper-cobalt deposit with support of a $230,000 grant from the Manitoba Government Mineral Development Fund. The deposit is well located near the town of Snow Lake and its existing infrastructure that includes power, an experienced mining work force and operating mineral processing facilities. The Rice Island Ni-Cu-Co-PGE sulphide deposit is comprised of a 'keel' of higher-grade mineralization that returned 14.7 metres grading 3.63% nickel, 1.13% copper, 0.12% cobalt (March 22, 2016, true width approx. 5m) and a 'feeder-dyke-type' zone that returned 21.1 metres of 2.4% nickel, 1.3% copper and 0.16 g/t PGE2 (April 12, 2016, true width approx. 10.6m). An historical inferred mineral resource (non 43-101 compliant) stands at 5.5 million tonnes at a grade of 1.1% nickel, 0.7% copper and 0.07% cobalt1. The Keel Zone remains open down-plunge while the Feeder Zone is open along strike and at depth. The program will test for down-plunge extensions to the 'keel-type' mineralization, extensions of the feeder-dyke-type Ni-enriched mineralization and nearby conductive EM targets associated with magnetic highs that have not been previously tested (see Figures 1 to 3 below). "Drill results to date include some impressive grades and widths of Ni-Cu-Co-PGE's within an open-ended feeder and thicker keel (dyke) system," stated Don Dudek, VP Exploration for Wolfden. "The open-ended nature of the system underscores the potential upside to expand the limits of the system through drilling. The airborne geophysical data also indicates other similar-style anomalies that will be drill tested. I am optimistic about discovering additional mineralization that could lead to a further development of an already valuable project so close to the existing mining infrastructure of Snow Lake." The program should be completed by mid-April and results will be released as they become available. About Wolfden Wolfden is an exploration and development company focused strategic and precious metals deposits in good jurisdictions. Its wholly owned Pickett Mountain Project is one of the highest-grade polymetallic projects in North America (Zn, Pb, Cu, Ag, Au). This relatively advanced project is well-located near excellent infrastructure that will support straight forward development as detailed in a Preliminary Economic Assessment date September 14, 2020. For further information please contact Ron Little, President & CEO, at (807) 624-1136 or Rahim Lakha, Corporate Development at (416) 414-9954. The information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Don Dudek, P. Geo., VP Exploration and Ron Little P.Eng., President and CEO, who are Qualified Persons' under National Instrument 43-101. 1The potential tonnage and grade of the historical resource is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration of this deposit to define a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the historical resource being delineated as a Mineral Resource 2Wolfden Sample analyses includes holes with 15, 16 and 17 in central portion of hole designation. Wolfden adheres to strict Quality Assurance and Quality Control protocols, including routine insertion of blanks and certified reference standards in each sample batch, that is sent to the lab for analyses. Drill core was cut with a diamond saw on site, with one half retained by the Company and the other half shipped by Gardewine North, to Activation Laboratories in Dryden, Ontario. Samples were analyzed for Au, Pd and Pt by fire assay with ICP-OES finish (Code 1C-OES) and were also analyzed by multi-element assays using peroxide fusion and ICP-OES finish (Code 8 Peroxide ICP-OES). Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information (within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation) that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information includes statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance of the Company, and include, without limitation, statements relating to the use of proceeds of the 2021 financings, metal price assumptions, cash flow forecasts, projected capital and operating costs, metal or mineral recoveries, mine life and production rates, and other assumptions used in Preliminary Economic Assessment dated September 14, 2020, information about future activities at the Pickett Mountain Project that include plans to complete additional drilling and pre-permitting (rezoning petition), the results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment dated September 14, 2020, the potential upside of the Pickett Mt. Project, and the timing and commencement of future drill programs in Maine, Manitoba and New Brunswick. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information in this news release, including without limitation, the following risks and uncertainties: (i) risks inherent in the mining industry; (ii) regulatory and environmental risks; (iii) results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; (iv) risks relating to the estimation of mineral resources; (v) stock market volatility and capital market fluctuations; and (vi) general market and industry conditions. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. This forward-looking information is based on estimates and opinions of management on the date hereof and is expressly qualified by this notice. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada at www.sedar.com. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by applicable law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Figure 1. Rice Lake Drill Core Hole RI-16-22 (A portion of the 14.7m at 3.63% Ni, 1.13% Cu, 0.12% Co) Figure 2. Rice Lake Isometric Longitudinal Section Figure 3. Cross-section through Keel Zone showing Feeder Zone SOURCE: Wolfden Resources Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631862/Wolfden-Commences-Expansion-Drill-Program-of-Strategic-Metal-Ni-Cu-Co-Deposit A man launched a campaign of harassment after being rejected by a married Grindr date he met just once - even threatening to throw a firework at his victim's husband. Perry Marshall matched his victim on the dating app and they met at a pub in Urmston, Manchester, before having sex. But shortly after a 'perceived rejection,' Marshall began to send threatening messages via text and WhatsApp. Manchester Crown Court heard how the 21-year-old, from Eccles, Salford, twice turned up at his victim's house banging on the door - and one occasion threatened to set off a firework at his husband. Mr Recorder Anthony O'Donohoe but was handed a restraining order and warned that his behaviour had been 'very serious indeed'. Marshall pleaded guilty to putting a person in fear of violence by harassment and was given a nine month prison term, suspended for 18 months. Perry Marshall bombarded his victim with more than 100 messages and turned up at their house on two occasions. The 21-year-old threatened to attack his victim's husband with a firework after a 'perceived rejection,' Manchester Crown Court heard The court heard how the victim met Marshall on Grindr in June last year and they arranged to meet up at the Nags Head pub in Urmston. The pair had sex and after this Marshall began 'a campaign of harassment' against the victim, threatening to tell his husband, the court heard. After waking up to find 14 'threatening' messages from Marshall the next day, the victim asked the defendant to leave him alone and blocked his number. But the contact continued and in one message, Marshall threatened to throw a firework at the victim's husband, the court heard. The victim met up with Marshall once again asking him to leave him alone. Marshall matched his victim on Grindr and they met at The Nag's Head in Urmston last June. The pair had sex and after this Marshall began 'a campaign of harassment' against the victim, even threatening to tell his husband During this meeting the defendant was emotionally 'all over the place' the court heard. The messages continued with Marshall sending another 80 messages until the victim changed his phone number. But Marshall was still able to continue contact via Whatsapp - which was linked to the victim's email address. On July 5 Marshall turned up at the victim's address knocking several times despite there being no answer. The court heard that the complainant had been in fear of what might happen. Marshall returned again the following day and started throwing items at the door, shouting and banging on the door, the court heard. Marshall was arrested a short time later but failed to answer any questions put to him, the court heard. Nine days later, on July 15, Marshall returned to the address once again spoke to the victim through the window and started shouting. The complainant's husband came to the door and police were called again. The court heard that the victim had been 'petrified' and became scared to leave his home as a result. Ms Ashcroft, defending, said Marshall had been remanded into custody for a time after breaching his bail order. Marshall was slapped with a two year restraining order at Manchester Crown Court, he was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and a 30-day rehabilitation requirement She said Marshall - who has no previous convictions - lost structure in his life when he left college and was struggling after his mum's diagnosis with a serious health condition. As well as his suspended sentence, Marshall was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and a 30 day rehabilitation requirement. A two year restraining order was also imposed. The Recorder said Marshall had taken a rejection by the victim 'very badly indeed'. 'Over a 16 day period, fuelled by emotional and general immaturity, you engaged in what amounted to a campaign of harassment,' he said. 'You turned up at his address, your behaviour was threatening and you sent many threatening messages to harm both him and his husband. 'Overall your behaviour was very serious indeed.' The Telegraph In a major setback to fugitive economic offender Nirav Modi, the UK Extradition judge has ruled that the diamantaire has a case to answer for in India and can be extradited. Read more Here's more top news of the day: 1) After Petrol, Onion Prices Leave Consumers In Tears; Milk Price May Go Up By Rs 12 From March BCCL While petrol and diesel prices continue to burn a hole in the common man's pocket, onion prices are bringing people to tears. Read more 2) 229 Students & Staff Test COVID Positive In Maharashtra; School Declared Containment Zone PTI As many as 225 students of a public school hostel in Maharashtra's Washim district have tested coronavirus positive. Read more 3) Patanjali Coronil Not COVID Cure, Can Only Be Used As Supplement, Says Uttarakhand Health Dept Patanjali Ayurveda As controversy intensifies over Patanjali's Coronil tablet over contentious claims, Uttarakhand health department has said the drug can only be used as a supplementary measure and not for treatment of Covid-19 patients. Read more 4) Phase 2 COVID-19 Vaccination Drive In India From March 1: Here's All You Need To Know PTI The centre said that people over 60 years and those above 45 with comorbidities can get COVID-19 vaccine from March 1. Read more 5) Maharashtra COVID Crisis: 8,000+ New Cases; 190 Students Test Positive At Washim Hostel BCCL As Maharashtra battles a surge in coronavirus cases, the state has recorded a total of 8,807 fresh cases on Wednesday, the highest in 129 days. Read more Turkeys purchase of Russias S-400 missile defense systems in no way undermines the security of other NATO states, the CEO of the Rostec corporation, Sergei Chemezov, said in an interview with the RT channel. "I can say that S-400 is first and foremost a defensive weapon, and it cannot be used during an offensive. <> So I cannot imagine how it can affect the security of other NATO states. On the contrary, the Turkish side ensures the security of NATO members. So I see no problem here," he said. He also noted that under the deal with Turkey on the delivery of S-400, partial localization of its components used in the missile defense system is planned. However, the Rostec CEO noted that the handover of technology to a third country cannot be used against Russia. "We do not carry out 100% localization. Even if we wanted to, it is unlikely that Turkey could have organized the production of such state-of-the-art equipment domestically. There needs to be a corresponding school set up for that. So I see no need for concern," Chemezov said. LONDON Aviva has pushed back the deadline for final offers for its Polish operations to late March as the British insurer is still haggling with Spanish lender Santander over the renewal of a key distribution agreement in Poland, sources told Reuters. Three bidders, including Dutch insurer NN Group and Italys Generali, are vying for the unit which is worth about 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion), three sources familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Related: UKs Aviva to Sell French Business for $3.9 Billion, Continuing Core-Market Strategy Germanys Allianz is also in the race after missing out on Avivas French business, which was snapped up by mutual insurer Aema Groupe for 3.2 billion euros on Tuesday, the sources said. A spokeswoman for Aviva confirmed the Polish business was under review, adding the British insurer was exploring options across our manage-for-value portfolio, which also includes joint venture businesses. Santander, Allianz and Generali declined to comment, while NN Group was not immediately available. Aviva, which initially requested binding offers by Feb. 26, needs more time to renegotiate a bancassurance partnership in Poland with Santander, the sources said. The bid deadline which has been moved to March 19 risks being pushed back again as an agreement with Santander is not in sight, one of the sources said. They are still haggling and no deal is possible until theres clarity on the new agreement with Santander, this source said. Generali has emerged as one of the most motivated bidders for the Aviva unit and its boss Philippe Donnet said on Wednesday that Poland was a key market, adding the Italian insurer would consider any growth opportunity there. Generali, which has a board meeting on March 10 ahead of its annual results, is expected to discuss the Aviva deal in Poland at a second board meeting scheduled on March 22, two sources said. Aviva is the second largest life insurer in Poland after state-owned company PZU while NN ranks as the countrys third-biggest, according to a report by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). The British insurer runs one of the biggest networks of life agents in Poland and two key bancassurance partnerships with Santander and ING. Its Polish business has been growing in recent years despite a general contraction of the countrys life insurance market where insurers have moved away from single premium investment products and there has been an increased level of regulatory intervention. Avivas portfolio review comes as boss Amanda Blanc is trying to shift the companys focus to its core operations in Britain, Canada and Ireland after a prolonged period of share price weakness. The London-listed firm, which is due to report 2020 earnings on March 4, announced on Wednesday a deal to sell its 40% stake in a joint venture in Turkey for 122 million pounds ($172 million). It is also in the final stages of selling the remainder of its Italian business and wants to wrap up that deal and the one in Poland by the end of the first quarter, the sources said. The Italian exit could be worth about 500 million euros, one of the sources said, and follows the sale of Avivas stake in Italian life insurer Aviva Vita to joint venture partner UBI Banca for 400 million euros in November. Panmure Gordon analysts estimated the sale of Avivas remaining European assets to be worth an overall 2.1 billion pounds, with Italy potentially valued at 600 million pounds and Poland at 1.5 billion pounds. ($1 = 0.8232 euros) ($1 = 0.7096 pounds) (Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia and Stephen Jewkes. Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze, Carolyn Cohn, Gianluca Semeraro and Alex Huebner. Editing by Mark Potter, Kirsten Donovan) WASHINGTON President Biden on Wednesday announced three nominees to fill vacant seats on the Postal Services board of governors, a move to increase Democratic influence on the future of the beleaguered agency. If the nominees are confirmed by the Senate, Democrats and Democratic appointees would gain a majority on the nine-member board. That would give them the power to oust Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor who has served as postmaster general since last year, should they decide to. The board, not the president, hires and fires the postmaster general. The announcement came on the same day that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on how to address the post offices widespread service and financial problems, marking the first time that Mr. DeJoy had testified before lawmakers since the election in November. The Postal Service catapulted to the national spotlight last summer amid nationwide slowdowns that coincided with operational changes instituted by Mr. DeJoy, raising fears ahead of the election about vote-by-mail delays. Democrats accused Mr. DeJoy, a supporter of President Donald J. Trump, of trying to undercut mail balloting at a time when Mr. Trump was also promoting a false narrative that it was rife with fraud. A federal judge has rejected an appeal from a former University of Virginia lacrosse player that his 2012 murder conviction should be tossed out because of a claim the jury improperly consulted a dictionary. George Huguely V is serving a 25-year sentence for the 2010 slaying of Yeardley Love, who was herself a lacrosse player at U.Va. and was two weeks away from graduation when she was killed. Huguely has filed multiple unsuccessful appeals. But in a ruling in December, U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen in Roanoke opened up a narrow window for Huguely and ordered an evidentiary hearing to be held to determine whether the jury improperly used a dictionary to look up the definition of malice. A finding of malice was necessary to convict Huguely of murder, and his appellate attorneys argued that using a dictionary would be equivalent to reviewing inadmissible evidence; jury instructions already contained a detailed legal definition of malice that should have guided the jurys discussions. At a virtual hearing Friday, Cullen dismissed the appeal and said the jurors claim that a dictionary was used was outweighed by testimony of 26 other witnesses to the contrary, according to Attorney General Mark Herrings office, which argued to uphold the conviction. In court papers, Cullen had previously noted that the jurors claims about use of a dictionary were inconsistent, and that the dictionary was alternately described as a single sheet of paper, a collection of papers and a hardbound book. Attorneys for Huguely indicated to the judge at the conclusion of Fridays hearing that they plan to appeal. Jon Sheldon, one of Huguelys attorneys, declined to comment after the hearing. The jury convicted Huguely, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, of second-degree murder at a high-profile trial in 2012. It rejected a first-degree murder conviction that could have resulted in a life sentence. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Education Virginia Universities A court on Thursday sentenced Jayant Patel, chief of the unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to two years' imprisonment for assaulting school teachers five years ago. Judicial Magistrate of Umreth, L L Prajapati, also found Patel and his supporters Nimesh Goswami and Pankaj Shridhar guilty of unlawful assembly, rioting and house- trespass. The court later granted them bail to enable them file appeal in a higher court. Jayant Patel, popularly known as Bosky, was MLA from Umreth in Anand district between 2012 and 2017. On October 5, 2016, he and his supporters stormed into a school in Ratanpura village where a science fair was being held, and got into an argument with Rakesh Khira, who worked at the District Education and Training Centre, for not mentioning the MLA's name on the event's invitation card. As the local MLA, his name should have been there, the leader said. Though Khira apologized for the omission, Patel slapped him, the latter said in the complaint. Patel and his supporters also manhandled two other teachers and damaged some property, Khira said. The science fair had been organized by the Education Department. Patel was arrested the next day and subsequently granted bail by a local court. (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.) ADVERTISEMENT The management of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, NIPC, on Thursday denied allegations raised against it by the agencys Association of Senior Civil servants of Nigeria. The staff on Wednesday held a protest and shut the gates to the the NIPC in Abuja, accusing the executive secretary of the agency, Yewande Sadiku, of executive felonies. They raised concerns about staff welfare, promotion and sackings. The management in a response on Thursday said the issues the workers raised had been resolved. It also said some of the issues were never brought to its notice ahead of the protest. Staff of the council held a similar demonstration in July 2020, and accused Mrs Sadiku of several wrongdoings, allegations she denied. For the record, it should be noted that despite the resolution of virtually all the issues and continuous engagement with the Union and other stakeholders, the Union has issued four ultimatums to Management in the past six months, over issues that had either been resolved or had never been brought to Managements attention, a statement by the management said. The statement said after the July protest, the federal government held several meetings with NIPC which resulted in the resolution of the issues, most of which have been implemented, while others are at various stages of implementation. In relation to the 2020 promotion exercise, the promotion examination was transparently conducted by the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) with the full participation of relevant MDAs, including the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, the Federal Civil Service Commission and Federal Character Commission, the statement said. The promotion letters for Officers outside the management cadre were released by Management on 23 February 2021, while the promotion of staff in the Management cadre is still awaiting Council approval in line with extant rules. The council said it has always made staff welfare and development a priority. It said major welfare improvements were initiated under the leadership of the current executive secretary without being prompted, including Staff Housing Loan Scheme, Post Service Benefit Scheme and Peculiar Allowance. Bridgerton star Ruby Barker would one day love to write to the parents, who put her up for adoption as a baby, to let them know she 'turned out alright'. The 24-year-old plays Miss Marina Thompson, the spirited country cousin who arrives in Regency London concealing a scandalous secret in the Netflix series. And she is one of a handful of highly talented young actors who have sprung to prominence during lockdown, as we've been glued to our screens. Bridgerton star Ruby Barker would one day love to write to the parents, who put her up for adoption as a baby, to let them know she 'turned out alright' Ruby knows that she was born in Islington and considers herself a Londoner, even though her adoptive mum and dad raised her in Glasgow. She also knows that her birth mother and father were from Ireland and Montserrat. 'It's one of those things that's always at the back of my mind,' she told me. Ruby is a nickname. Her first name is 'a secret', known only to those close to her, including her sister, who's a year older. She said she felt incredibly lucky and thankful that the two of them were adopted by the same family. But there's always been something holding her back from sitting down and actually composing that letter. 'Sometimes life gets in the way but it's something I want to do,' she said. 'I want them to know that I turned out alright, you know?' For starters, she'd tell them about How To Stop A Recurring Dream, a film she made before Shonda Rimes and her team cast her in Bridgerton (which has become a global smash hit since its launch two months ago). The 24-year-old plays Miss Marina Thompson, the spirited country cousin who arrives in Regency London concealing a scandalous secret in the Netflix series. She is pictured in the show (right) and with co-star Luke Newton (left) And if they watched the picture (due out next month) I'm sure they'd be impressed with her ferociously raw portrait of Yakira: a rebellious 17-year-old who kidnaps her younger stepsister and shuts her in a car boot before driving off on what turns out to be a poignant pilgrimage. The moment she read director Ed Morris's screenplay she knew she had to play Yakira, who lives in an unhappy household with her father, stepmother and stepsister (a superb Lily-Rose Aslandogdu). 'I know it sounds crazy, but it felt like it was something I would have done in my teenage years,' she said. Her Bridgerton character has a 'rebellious streak', too; which is why she believes she was cast. 'Marina's definitely got this edge,' she noted. Barker said when growing up, she was encouraged to be herself. 'Well behaved women seldom make history, as my mother used to remind me,' she said. If they watched the picture (due out next month) I'm sure they'd be impressed with her ferociously raw portrait of Yakira: a rebellious 17-year-old who kidnaps her younger stepsister and shuts her in a car boot before driving off on what turns out to be a poignant pilgrimage She described her adoptive mum as 'quite a feisty lady' who gave up being a beautician to train and then work as a solicitor. 'Very motivated and independent, and those qualities rubbed off on me,' she said, adding that her dad had been encouraging, too. While making How To Stop A Recurring Dream she'd often discuss the role with director Morris. 'I've been a 17-year-old mixed race girl, and a tearaway teenager, so I know how my character will act,' she reasoned. When still living in Glasgow, her favourite thing was to sneak out of the house and meet up with her best friend in Kirkintilloch and 'sit under the stars together and drink Mad Dog 20/20'. 'Proper Scottish stuff,' she said proudly. Aged 15, she went to school in York. 'That's when I sorted out my priorities and started getting my head down.' Strong A-level grades won her a place at the London School of Economics to study international relations a subject close to her heart after she spent a summer in Tanzania, working on environmental conservation projects. Ruby Barker also stars in How To Stop a Recurring Dream But still, she found herself drawn to drama and dance. (As a child she took Saturday morning classes at the Elizabeth Murray School of Dance in Glasgow. 'That's where I fell in love with performing.') Ruby was chatting from her home in Leeds, where she lives with her beloved black and white cat Mr Morse, who has been with her since she was two; outliving Columbo and Miss Marple. 'He's an old man with arthritis,' she said of Morse, who eats his medication out of her hand and has heated blankets scattered around the place, plus tiny steps to help him onto her bed. 'He can have whatever he wants. He's my oldest friend, and the best lockdown companion anyone could ask for.' Ruby, pictured in a scene from How To Stop a Recurring Dream Reluctantly turning her back on the London School of Economics, Barker got a job at the National Railway Museum in York. She became involved in community theatre and built up her CV. And then came her first lead role, in How To Stop A Recurring Dream (out on digital streaming platforms on March 9). Followed by Bridgerton. Marina doesn't quite have the 'happy ever after' ending of Bridgerton's heroine Daphne, played by Phoebe Dynevor. Nor does she enjoy any hanky-panky with Rege-Jean Page's swaggering aristocrat Simon Basset. She remained tight-lipped about whether she'll be involved with Season Two, though I'd hazard a guess that she'll be reuniting with the Bridgertons and the Featheringtons before long. She told me she's 'living proof' that a change is coming, in terms of roles being offered to non-white actors. 'I never thought I was going to be in a period drama unless I was playing the help,' she said. Sorry for inconvenience! You have been redirected to this page due to the following reasons:-- Your session has expired. You have closed the browser, without logging out. If the problem persists, kindly remove all the temporary files and cookies from your browser. For IE - 1. Click on tools from the task bar of browser. 2. Click on Internet Options. 3. Click on "Delete temporary files." For Mozilla Firefox - 1. Click on tools from the task bar of browser. 2. Click on "Clear recent history." As the live performing arts continue to struggle through the coronavirus pandemic, here are 10 highlights from the flood of online music content coming in March. (Times listed are Eastern.) Die Tote Stadt Feb. 28 at 1 p.m.; operavision.eu; available through March 28. Korngolds breakthrough opera has not been well served on DVD. Some productions emphasize the plots salaciousness at the expense of its musical beauty. For others, the problem is the reverse. If anyone can achieve the delicate balance of the two elements, its the experienced director Robert Carsen, whose production of the rapturous, late Romantic score a precursor to Korngolds influential Hollywood work appeared at the Komische Oper in Berlin in 2018, and is streaming now. The soprano Sara Jakubiak stars, and has made something of a specialty of Korngold in recent years, including appearing in another recent Berlin staging, at the Deutsche Oper, of Das Wunder der Heliane. SETH COLTER WALLS Teju Cole and Orchestra of St. Lukes March 3 at 6:30 p.m.; oslmusic.org; available until March 10. This ensemble, which has responded robustly and creatively to the constraints of streamed performance, begins a new words-and-music series, Sounds and Stories, with a program organized by the writer Teju Cole and hosted by the actor David Hyde Pierce. Cole will read selections from his work alongside visual elements and pieces by an eclectic array of composers: Caroline Shaw, Yvette Janine Jackson, Henryk Gorecki, Unsuk Chin, Kaija Saariaho and Hildegard von Bingen. Oh, and Beethoven. ZACHARY WOOLFE Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts for the full episode. Joe Biden might not have expected any Republicans to vote for Neera Tanden as his nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, but her snappish Twitter persona and unapologetically partisan hot takes have proved unpopular on both sides of the aisle. Now even some Democrats seem to be withdrawing support. West Virginia moderate Joe Manchina crucial votehas said hes a no. Slates senior political reporter, Jim Newell, says theres no question Tanden is qualified for the job: Shes worked with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a number of policy roles, she helped draft the Affordable Care Act, and shes president of the Center for American Progress, a major Democratic think tank. The stiff opposition to Tandens confirmation is about much more than her experience. On Thursdays episode of What Next, I talked to Newell about whats behind the pushback and what that means for the rest of Bidens picks. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mary Harris: Questions about Tanden often come down to her style. The New York Times published this infamous story about how in 2008 Tanden brought her then-boss, Hillary Clinton, to an interview at the Center for American Progress. When Clinton was asked about her vote for the Iraq wara sensitive subjectTanden reportedly punched the interviewer in the chest. In her defense, Tanden said, I didnt slug him, I pushed him. A decade later, that interviewer would be running Bernie Sanders campaign. The story shows this divide in the Democratic Party, where Clinton thinks its going to be a friendly interview and then is being pushed, and that might be uncomfortable for folks who are establishment Democrats, whove worked with the Clintons for a really long time. Advertisement Jim Newell: Right, and I think in the last couple of years, [Tanden is] probably better known on the left as this embodiment of the centrist Democratic establishment. There have been all sorts of controversies from the left when she was at CAP about the fundraising she was doing, either from questionable foreign regimes or from major corporations. But I think once she really started taking shots at Bernie Sanders campaign and after 2016, when her emails were hacked in the Russian hacking episode and released and she was saying some pretty nasty stuff there, thats when she really became a big villain of a lot of Sanders supporters. Advertisement What did the emails show? There was a lot there of what the left thinks the establishment says about them behind their backs. Like Tanden will publicly say, I believe in the idea of Medicare for All, but politically its not likely to happen. And I think she was venting a little bit more in her emails about how unrealistic and idealistic some of these Sanders supporters were. She showed a lot of frustration that a lot of the Hillary team had in 2016, that Sanders could just offer anything, no matter how unrealistic, and it was hard for the Clinton campaign to top that. Advertisement Over the last four years, Neera Tanden really got known for her tweets. It was like the person in those emails just started putting it out there online. I would look at Twitter at like 1 a.m., and Id see her fighting with just randos about anything. I do think that after 2016, and the specific experience of being hacked by Russian military intelligence, she was quite radicalized by that, and to the extent that she was ever playing nice before, kind of stopped doing that. I think she was like a lot of people who, after Trump was electedyou saw the sorts of protests that emerged right after that, maybe from a lot of people who werent politically active to begin with. She was already politically active, but I think she just kind of felt like this was war now. Advertisement Advertisement When Trump got elected, Tandens online persona started getting more attention. She used her platform to unleash missives against many of the senators shes now depending on for confirmation, people shed need to work with as director of the OMB. She called Sen. Tom Cotton a fraud, Mitch McConnell Voldemort, and said vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz. She went after moderate Republicans too, calling Sen. Susan Collins the worst. When senators read her tweets back to her during her confirmation hearing, she said I really feel badly about them and I must have meant them, but I really regret them. Theres something a little bit rich about seeing a bunch of Republicans read tweets back and try to shame someone. Advertisement Yeah, thats part of the surreal aspect of the whole thing. I spent the last four years in the Capitol hearing senators and members of Congress, Republicans, say, I havent seen the tweet, when youd ask about Donald Trump, like, threatening to beat up someone or whatever insane thing he would tweet at any minute. Its kind of nebulous, how theyre directly linking this to making her unqualified to write the budget proposal. But one thing is we just had an insurrection in the Capitol because of the environment, and we need to cool temperaturesthats kind of what Joe Manchin is going with a lot. But then others are saying OMB is someone who works a lot with members of Congress, and we need to know that were working with someone who will actually communicate with us and isnt just such a sharp partisan. Advertisement Advertisement On Friday, Joe Manchin said he would oppose Tandens confirmation. You wrote that Manchin is going to do things like this from time to time, make little sacrifices to the gods of bipartisanship to maintain a semblance of centrist credibility. Is that what you think happened here? Yeah. I think Manchin knows how much power he has as the most conservative vote in the Democratic Congress, but hes being squeezed a little bit on the reconciliation bill, the relief bill that theyre working on. He wanted to be bipartisan; leadership chose a partisan path. He doesnt want to deal with minimum wage in it; they do. So hes being squeezed on that bill because he knows he cant really vote against Joe Bidens signature opening piece of legislation. He can only tailor it a little bit. So I think hes going to try to express himself in some other areas along the way. And that may be if a nominee whos controversial, who he doesnt know very well, is coming down the pike and who he wasnt given a heads-up about or anything, then hes going to take the opportunity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of people have viewed this whole process as sexist and insulting towards an Indian American woman who would be making history here. Jim Newell With Manchin out, the Biden administration needs at least one Republican to cross party lines and support Tandens nomination. And some of the usual suspects are out: Susan Collins and Mitt Romney have both made clear that theyre not likely to back this vote. Susan Collins was actually really harsh. She didnt just give the whole shes partisan and Im afraid I wont be able to work with her excuse. She also said shes not qualified for the job. Neither the experience nor the temperament. Yeah. Some of these senators, even though they may say that they dont take personally all the stuff thats said online or what have youPolitico did a story that Susan Collins was really upset that Tanden had picked for her staff this guy, Topher Spiro, who was a health care policy adviser at the Center for American Progress and is also very active and very aggressive on Twitter. Collins was concerned. She said, Why would you put someone who is a troll against a United States senator in a key position in OMB? So she knows she called Topher Spiro a troll of hers, meaning Susan Collins is checking her account and everything. Advertisement Neera Tanden has probably called a lot of these people names, and some other people at CAP have probably been a big pain for a lot of these Republican senators over the last especially four years. So even though they say theyre above all that, I think they know whats been coming out of the broader CAP Cinematic Universe here and they might have some grudges. Subscribe to What Next Get more news from Mary Harris and her team every day. Subscribe But even with this narrow pathway for support, the Biden White House is digging in. I dont understand how Tandens nomination got this far. Blocking this nomination is like the most bipartisan thing to happen on Capitol Hill right now. Was that the intent? I think just because of her negative history with some on the left, this is an easy one for some Democrats in the Senate to block, because you can show off your bipartisan credentials and you wont actually irritate the left. I mean, we should be clear: There are a lot of people who are very mad about this. I think a lot of people have viewed this whole process as sexist and insulting towards an Indian American woman who would be making history here. But I dont think that Neera Tanden had quite the constituency on Capitol Hill that Bidens team expected. Advertisement Advertisement There are a bunch of people on the Hill who are concerned with the optics here. You saw AOC tweeting about it the other day. It raises this issue of are the women and the women of color having to jump through more hoops to get approved by this Senate. Yeah, I can understand why some people see that as the real problem. The one that I think is going to get the most heat in the end is Xavier Becerra, who would be a Hispanic director of Health and Human Services. He was in Congress for 24 years. He left at the beginning of the Trump administration, became a California attorney generalwhich is a bigger job, I think, than a lot of House Democratic positions sub speaker, because you are basically doing a lot of the litigating against the Trump administrationdoing a lot of partisan lawsuits. That creates a lot of grist for Republicans to say that hes a big partisan who hates all these people and all these things. Hes maybe a good target just because of all the lawsuits filed. But then, when we look at the race issue again there, its another one where theyre going around saying hes unqualified. And that seems to be a bit of a thread here. Advertisement Advertisement Some of what the opposition is hes not a medical doctor. Well, most HHS secretaries are not medical doctors. We can dismiss that right off the bat. He was a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, which has health care jurisdiction, and he was on the subcommittee that oversaw health care. And thats good enough. I think thats plenty. Hes been involved in health care policy. So when people are saying that its only the nominees of color who get this unqualified wrap, and you look at Neera Tanden, who is straightforwardly qualified to be OMB director and shes hit with that too, yeah, I think thats a serious thing to look into. So was this a Biden misstep? I would think so. If youre struggling to get 49 votes on your own sidewho knows how many votes she actually has among Democratsthen you didnt read it very right. And you put her in an awkward position because you didnt pay attention to the politics on Capitol Hill very well. But I do think for all the complaining that the left and specifically some Bernie supporters have been doing about Neera Tanden, and maybe some hoping that Neera Tanden wouldnt get the job, there are real concerns, because even though they may not like that she lectures them about how Medicare for All is unrealistic or whatever, she is on board with the project of big spending right now through deficits to rebuild the economy and to do a lot of very bold projects. And some of the other nominees that Biden was reportedly looking at, like Bruce Reed for OMBthats a former director of the Democratic Leadership Council, which is a very centrist think tankthat would not have been a good fit there. Be careful what you wish for. Yeah. For some on the left, be careful what you wish for. And for Republicans, they can roll the dice and maybe get someone more favorable to their policy beliefs. Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts Get more news from Mary Harris every weekday. Paul Sellers sues over allegations of sexual harassment in Rome. The former head of the British Council in Italy has been accused of drunkenly groping a staff member of the British embassy in Rome, reports The Times. Paul Sellers stepped down from his role as the director of the British Council in Italy after an investigation was launched into claims that he kissed the woman and grabbed her breasts, The Times reports. The incident is alleged to have occurred at a party hosted at home by Sellers and his art historian wife Isadora, who had worked at the British embassy, on 16 December 2018. The next day the woman confided in the British ambassador Jill Morris who ordered an internal investigation, at the end of which Sellers left his post. High court action No complaint has ever been filed in Italy and the case would not have become public if Sellers himself had not taken high court action against UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab and the British Council. The libel action centres on an email written by Ken OFlaherty, deputy head of mission at the Rome embassy until October 2019, containing details of the woman's complaint. Party In the email the diplomat reports the account given by the woman, identified only as ZZ, who said she was groped by Sellers as she prepared to leave the party, at around 16.30. O'Flaherty wrote: "When saying goodbye to Paul, he leaned in and kissed [ZZ] on the edge of her lips. He placed his hands on her chest and rubbed them down over her breasts in a way that was quite deliberate. [ZZ] was very shocked by this. She felt violated and immediately wanted to get out of the house. She duly left." The woman, who claimed she was unable to sleep that night, made a complaint to the ambassador the next day, despite fears that she might become the subject of gossip and face potential "professional consequences," reports The Times. Alcohol '[ZZ] judges that Paul was "quite drunk". He had previously [been] salsa dancing with a female intern and said proudly "I don't drink coffee" when it was offered," added O'Flaherty. "Paul regularly drinks at social professional events. I have not seen him incapacitated, but does show the effect of alcohol and consumed more than many colleagues." Erratic behaviour The email continued: "Paul Sellers has shown erratic and uncharacteristically emotional behaviour in his interactions with embassy staff in recent months. This has made HMA [Ms Morris] wonder whether there might be other issues in play." Lawyers for Sellers argued that the email suggested there were "strong" grounds to suspect him of sexual assault. Argument dismissed However Mr Justice Saini dismissed that argument, stating that the officials who received it "would have been fully aware that Mr O'Flaherty was simply passing on a summary of a complaint made by a third person, about a matter which he had no direct knowledge of." The judge ruled that the "ordinary meaning" of the email is that there "are reasonable grounds to suspect that when [ZZ] was saying goodbye to the claimant the claimant, under the influence of alcohol, inappropriately kissed [ZZ] on the edge of her lips and deliberately rubbed his hands over her breasts in a sexual manner." The judge found that two further emails sent by O'Flaherty and Rebecca Walton, the council's Europe director, announcing Sellers was leaving his post, were not defamatory. The claim for damages over O'Flaherty's first email is ongoing, reports The Daily Mail. Career with British Council Sellers spent 22 years working at the British Council, which is funded by the UK foreign ministry and is tasked with promoting British culture around the world. Before arriving in Rome in 2014, Sellers held senior positions in India and the United Arab Emirates. His Facebook profile states that he lives in Chennai, India, and there has been little news of him since the second half of 2019, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The British embassy and the British Council in Rome have declined to comment on the case. Photo The Times Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, as one of the world's most ethical companies for the tenth year in succession. The Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, has announced the list of 135 companies representing 47 industries from across 22 countries who have earned their place in the coveted 2021 World's Most Ethical Companies list. The World's Most Ethical Companies honour is reserved for only those companies that prioritise ethical behaviour and understand the correlation between values-based leadership and overall business success. The recognition is a testimony to the company's unwavering commitment to integrity, fairness and transparency backed by strong values which has made it a trusted global brand. Thierry Delaporte, CEO and Managing Director, Wipro Limited, said, "Integrity and ethical behavior are central to Wipro's culture and embodied in the 'Spirit of Wipro'. To be named as one of the world's most ethical companies for the 10th year in a row is a testament to our commitment to business sustainability practices, and transparent standards. We would like to share this recognition with all our employees, as well as our stakeholders, who respect our standards and enhance our capacity to excel." Timothy Erblich, CEO, Ethisphere, said, "While addressing the tough challenges of 2020, we saw companies lead above all other institutions on earning the trust of stakeholders through resilience and a commitment to ethics and integrity. The World's Most Ethical Companies honorees continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest values and positively impacting the communities they serve. Congratulations to everyone at Wipro for earning the World's Most Ethical Companies designation." The World's Most Ethical Companies assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient (EQ) framework that analyses over 200 data points on parameters such as culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process captures the best practices of the global organizations and presents each company with a comprehensive analytical scorecard. This year, the process was streamlined, and the question set expanded to gauge how applicants are adapting and responding to the global health pandemic, environmental, social, and governance factors, safety, equity, and inclusion, and social justice. About the Ethisphere Institute The Ethisphere Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character and measure and improve culture. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies recognition program and provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://ethisphere.com. About Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 180,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. Forward-Looking Statements The forward-looking statements contained herein represent Wipro's beliefs regarding future events, many of which are by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside Wipro's control. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Wipro's growth prospects, its future financial operating results, and its plans, expectations and intentions. Wipro cautions readers that the forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, complete proposed corporate actions, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. The conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could decrease technology spending, adversely affect demand for our products, affect the rate of customer spending and could adversely affect our customers' ability or willingness to purchase our offerings, delay prospective customers' purchasing decisions, adversely impact our ability to provide on-site consulting services and our inability to deliver our customers or delay the provisioning of our offerings, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance. Our operations may also be negatively affected by a range of external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic that are not within our control. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Annual Reports on Form 20-F. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005528/en/ Contacts: Purnima Burman Wipro Limited purnima.burman@wipro.com An organised Australian mum-of-four has revealed how she and her husband transformed their children's toy room using IKEA products. Sharing before and after images to a popular Facebook group, the pair bought ten $87 white and grey Trofast storage sets from the Swedish department store. The play area was originally organised using black storage cubes placed against two adjacent walls, but the IKEA products made the room look light and spacious. To add a personal touch and to join the open cabinets together, Sophia's husband bought wooden bench tops cut to size from Bunnings Warehouse. Before: The play area was originally organised using black storage cubes placed against two adjacent walls (pictured) After: Sharing before and after images to a popular Facebook group, Sophia bought ten $87 white and grey Trofast storage sets from the Swedish department store (pictured) 'He lacquered and put together [the bench tops] to form a big corner storage area,' she wrote online. Sophia placed a number of different potted plants and flowers on the bench top to add colour and decorate the space. She also made labels for each drawer to categorise the various types of toys, which would make it easier to clean up the toy room. Some of the categories include toy dinosaurs, monster trucks, animals, soft toys, dress ups, Barbie dolls and Ooshies. Sophia placed a number of different potted plants and flowers on the benchtop to add colour and decorate the space She also made labels for each drawer to place her children's toys into categories, which would make it easier to clean up the toy room While the makeover would've cost the couple more than $870 to complete, it looked stunning and will likely remain in the room for a number of years. After sharing the images on social media, other parents shared words of praise towards the 'brilliant' project. 'Oh my god amazing I love this so much!' one woman said. 'Looks great. Loved that your hubby saw your vision and joined your mission. Well done to the both of you,' another added. A third said: 'Mind blown! What an amazing, but also beautiful transformation.' KOMU 8 Reporter/Digital Producer My name is Drew Cusumano and I'm a senior Mizzou student studying Journalism with an interest area in Sports TV & Radio Broadcasting. If you need to contact me you can e-mail me at dvc62f@mail.missouri.edu [February 25, 2021] New Off-the-Shelf (OTS) Datasets from Appen Accelerate AI Deployment Appen Limited (ASX:APX), the leading provider of high-quality training data for organizations that build effective AI systems at scale, today announced new off-the-shelf (OTS) datasets. These datasets are designed to make it easier and faster for businesses to acquire the high-quality training data needed to accelerate their artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) projects. The new OTS datasets include human body movement and innovative baby crying sounds, as well as scripted speech and images with text suitable for optical character recognition (OCR) for high-demand but hard-to-acquire languages, such as Arabic, Croatian, Greek, Hungarian, Thai and more. With the expanded datasets, Appen's total OTS offering includes over 250 datasets, comprising of over 11,000 hours of audio, over 25,000 images and over 8.7 million words across 80 languages and multiple dialects. Appen's OTS datasets are a fast, cost-effective tool to jumpstart an AI or ML project with consistent high-quality training data. Teams expanding their AI capabilities can also leverage OTS datasets to effectively improve accuracy, develop new model skills and incorporate other improvements into their AI models. An OTS dataset is often delivered in one week, for example, compared to the eight to twelve weeks for a new dataset collection and annotation project - or even longer, depending on complexity. All Appen datasets are developed using a fully transparent, opt-in methodology, so AI specialists can be assured their data is clean and compliant, eliminating the potential risk of backlash and reputation damage. "AI teams around the world working on projects with tight deadlines and flexible data requirements can benefit from using off-the-shelf datasets," said Wilson Pang, CTO of Appen. "OTS datasets shorten time to value and provide access to high-quality data at a lower total cost than using traditional methods. We at Appen take the necessary steps to ensure that all our datasets are ethically sourced and demographically balanced, enabling companies to maintain resposible AI practices by minimizing bias in their models and ensuring fair treatment of data annotators. You always know the precise quality of an OTS dataset, which helps build better AI that works in the real world." MediaInterface has delivered language technology solutions to healthcare-related institutions in Germany and other parts of Europe for over 20 years. When the company was expanding into France, it had fully localized software but lacked French lexicon data, especially French names and places, which are often referenced in patient health information. Using Appen OTS datasets, MediaInterface acquired approximately 21,000 French names and 14,000 place names. "The critical data from Appen has been incorporated into our background lexicon to successfully launch in a new market, and this helps us build out new vocabularies for our clients and strengthen our approach for future market launches as well," said Ines Wendler, product manager at MediaInterface. The most experienced AI experts combine OTS datasets with on-demand data collection and annotation projects to meet their complex AI model training data needs. Appen is the leader in offering continued support through a range of specific data collection services, such as ongoing data annotation and smart labeling, through AI-powered tools and automated workflows to maximize efficiency. "We interact with AI from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed - through virtual assistants, chatbots, search engines, social networks, medical devices, smart cars and other applications," said Judith Bishop, Appen's senior director of AI specialists, who leads a team of 100 AI linguists and language experts. "Language is often the primary interface for many of these compelling AI use cases, so to guarantee a great experience, the model needs to be trained to work for everyone. Appen's commitment to high-quality data and responsible, ethical AI development allows companies purchasing our off-the-shelf datasets to accelerate their AI projects with complete confidence in their data." Joining the existing hundreds of datasets already live on appen.com, the list of new Appen OTS datasets that are now available includes: Scripted speech for Arabic (Egypt), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Arabic (United Arab Emirates), Central Khmer (Cambodia), Croatian, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish (Spain), and Turkish Image OCR for Simplified Chinese printed text, Thai printed text, and Finnish printed text Includes pre-recorded billboards, outer packaging, signs, magazines, and menus to train and update computer vision OCR models Human body movement (China) Includes annotated videos of people moving, tracked at pixel level, suitable for game development, fitness apps and more Baby crying audio (China) Includes pre-recorded and annotated baby sounds that can be used to train AI models to recognize different crying sounds and alert parents Availability For more information and to request an Appen OTS dataset sample, visit https://appen.com/off-the-shelf-datasets/ About Appen Limited Appen collects and labels images, text, speech, audio, video, and other data used to build and continuously improve the world's most innovative artificial intelligence systems. Our expertise includes having a global crowd of over 1 million skilled contractors who speak over 235 languages, in over 70,000 locations and 170 countries, and the industry's most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform. Our reliable training data gives leaders in technology, automotive, financial services, retail, healthcare, and governments the confidence to deploy world-class AI products. Founded in 1996, Appen has customers and offices globally. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005274/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Teresa Giudice has been at the center of plenty of Real Housewives Of New Jersey drama this season, notably bucking heads with Jackie Goldschneider after asking the other women if her husband 'screws around' with other women at the gym. And writer/reality star Goldschneider, 44, is dealing with the fallout from Giudice's unfounded accusations, admitting there has been 'terrible tension' between her and husband Evan since Teresa's pot-stirring comments during Wednesday night's episode of RHONJ. 'I'm trying to put on a happy face to shield the kids from the terrible tension between me and Evan,' she said. 'I feel so guilty that someone I brought into our lives would try to destroy his name.' But Giudice didn't seem to be fretting about the feud, taking to Instagram to share several smiley selfies with her new boyfriend Louie A. Ruelas and sister-in-law Melissa Gorga, 41, during a cast trip to Lake George which Jackie chose to skip. Tense: Real Housewives Of New Jersey's Jackie Goldschneider says cheating rumors started by castmate Teresa Giudice have caused a 'terrible tension' between her and husband Evan Not worrying: Jackie decided to skip the group's trip to Lake George after the fight, but Teresa seemed to be having a worry-free time with sister-in-law and castmate Melissa Gorga Teresa casually dropped the cheating gossip during Evan's own birthday party. Jackie confronted her but the mother-of-four wouldn't reveal who the rumor originally came from. Trying to turn the tables to point out how absurd the baseless claims were, Goldschneider remarked that she 'heard that Gia snorts coke in the bathroom at parties.' 'How is that not the same thing?' she wondered. Then, a furious Giudice stormed out of the affair cursing. The prickly situation was enough to make Jackie skip out on a group trip to Lake George. 'Evan is still so angry,' Jackie said in a confessional. 'I haven't taken an easy breath since I found out. It just sucks that Evan and I did nothing wrong at all. Teresa gets to cause all this trouble and then I am left picking up the pieces, while she goes on vacation with all my friends.' Cheating rumor: During last week's episode started stirring the pot after Jackie gave a sweet speech about Evan being a great husband and father Happy: She also shared a loved up shot with new boyfriend Louie A. Ruelas Stormed out: Teresa stormed out after Jackie started her own rumor involving her 20-year-old daughter Gia doing drugs to make a point about baseless gossip While not happy to have been wrapped up into the drama, Giudice's daughter Gia, 20, actually advised her mom to say sorry to Jackie. Gia tried to reason with her mom over the phone during the episode, exhe said something about me, she's upset because you said something about her marriage.' 'And not for nothing, if you went about it in a s***y way that upset her, then you should apologize.' She reminded her mom of how upset she was when Jackie repeated allegations her ex-husband Joe Giudice had cheated. 'I'm sure you weren't happy when cheating rumors were going on about you and dad,' Gia said. 'If you upset her, say sorry.' While Teresa was proud of how 'mature' her daughter's response was, she doubled down on her defense during a dinner with the rest of the girls during their trip. 'I'm glad Jackie didn't come. I don't think it would have been good,' Teresa said, prompting Jennifer Aydin to ask: 'Wait, are we back on this subject?' 'I don't think I did anything wrong,' Teresa said. 'I really don't. So tell her to shut the f*** up and stop crying like a baby.' 'Obviously there's a skeleton in the closet, because for her to be this f***ing heartbroken means something's going on,' she continued. Be the bigger person: Though she got wrapped up in the gossip, Gia advised her mom to take the high road during a phone conversation One way to do it: While Teresa was proud of how 'mature' her daughter's response was, she doubled down on her defense during a dinner with the rest of the girls during their trip, toasting 'F*** Jackie' at a group dinner While the drama seemed ripe, some sources have said that Teresa is only pushing buttons in desperate bid to stay relevant on RHONJ. 'She's being watched by the network and needed a story to stir the pot. She had zero proof [that he cheated] and made up the story because Bravo has been getting rid of original ''Housewives'',' a source told Page Six. The source added that Teresa was scared that she could be axed. '[She's] too expensive and they can filter through different women. She's desperately trying to stay relevant,' the insider added. Teresa has been on RHONJ since it premiered in May 2009 on Bravo. Her lawyer, James J. Leonard Jr., commented on the 'ridiculous' allegation to Page Six. 'The core principle of reality television is authenticity, and I don't believe there has ever been a more authentic 'Housewife' than Teresa Giudice, and there never will be,' said James, who was a regular fixture on the show while Teresa and her ex-husband Joe Giudice went through their financial fraud case. 'She is without peer in what she and her family have shared with the cameras over the years. When you are as real and authentic as Teresa has been, you don't need to pull stunts or manufacture story to be relevant and that is ridiculous for anyone to suggest otherwise,' James added. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigerian government has said that unifying the exchange rate of Naira will not happen overnight. Explaining its delay in securing a further $1.5 billion credit from the World Bank, the finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, said the government has taken steps to meet the lenders requirements but said its insistence that the gap between the spot and the parallel market rates be closed will take time. Our point is that its not what you do overnight, Mrs Ahmed told journalists on Thursday. Its not that you wake up and make a pronouncement and that happens. Its something that you have to do overtime taking several measures and working systematically for it to happen. So, we are still pushing our view with the World Bank and we hope to convince them that this requirement has been met and that they should now give us the approval to go ahead and release the $1.5 billion that we have been discussing with the World Bank. But having said that, the World Bank during 2020 has also given us approval for a number of facilities. One of them is the $500million for metering system for the distribution network, $750 million for the power sector recovery programme, and several other facilities that we have on the table with the World Bank that were approved during the course of the year 2020. She also spoke about other subjects such as the rise in the price of crude oil, the governments debt, and the plan to present a supplementary budget. Read her comments below: Impact of crude oil rising price The more revenue we realize out of the budget, the less we borrow. As we see the oil price rising and provides us more revenue, it provides us some reliefs. We will be able to reduce our borrowing so, it is a positive thing for us and also, we have a position in the 2021 budget for immunization. We already releasing money to the health authority to start operation in the first batch of vaccines that are going to arrive in the country in one week. But what we have in the budget is not enough, so we are working with the health authorities to provide a plan that will be taken to the President for approval and to be taken to the National Assembly as a supplementary budget specifically for COVID -19 vaccination. Supplementary budget There will be a supplementary budget, the first one will be in March relating to the COVID-19 pandemic but we will also have a mid-year review like we did last year of the budget and if at the time we do the review and there is a need to go back to do any amendment for a supplementary budget, at that time we will take that decision, if not, we will just report the review. World Bank Support Facility We closed 2020 by being able to realize $3.4billion from IMF, $600million from AfDB. We were not able to conclude our negotiation with the World Bank and also with the Islamic Development Bank. Even with Islamic Development Bank, we signed for the last tranches but for the World Bank, we started negotiation with the World Bank with the list of about 10 requirements that we needed to address and we had addressed those 10 requirements but, the World Bank position is that we have not sufficiently addressed the requirements relating to having a single exchange rate. Their view is that despite the fact that we have adjusted the official exchange rate from N305 to N360 and we further on moved to I&E or the Nafex window, and as we speak, federal government inflows and outflows are monetized at the Nafex window rate. So, we feel we have met that requirement but the World Bank is saying that we have to close that gap between the black market and Nafex window. ALSO READ: Nigerian parallel market operators introduce platform for countrywide exchange rates Our point is that is not what you do overnight. Its not that you wake up and make a pronouncement and that happens. Its something that you have to do overtime taking several measures and working systematically for it to happen. So, we are still pushing our view with the World Bank and we hope to convince them that this requirement has been met and that they should now give us the approval to go ahead and release the $1.5billion that we have been discussing with the World Bank. But having said that, the World Bank during 2020 has also given us approval for a number of facilities. One of them is the $500million for metering system for the Distribution network, $750million for the power sector recovery programme, and several other facilities that we have on the table with the World Bank that were approved during the course of the year 2020. Borrowing There is a lot of sensitivity in Nigeria about the level of borrowing by the government and it is not misplaced. And I said earlier that the level of borrowing is not unreasonable, it is not high. The problem we have is that of revenue. So, what we need to do is to increase revenue to be able to enhance our debt to GDP obligation capacity. If we say we will not borrow and therefore not build rials and major infrastructure until our revenue rises enough, then, we will regress as a country. We will be left behind, we wont be able to improve our business environment and our economy will not grow. So, it is a decision that every government has to take. Our assessment is that we need to borrow to build our major infrastructure. We just need to make sure that when we borrow, we are applying the borrowing to specific major infrastructure that will enhance the business environment in this country. Again, we all have to work with not just the federal government but state governments to increase our revenue to enhance our debt service obligations. We also have to make sure that when we are choosing the projects, we are choosing carefully the ones that will enhance the business environment so that more revenue yields come into the treasuries of the country. Loan Threshold The total borrowing of the country as of 31 December is 21.6 per cent of the GDP. So, if we were not looking at adding the other category of loans that I mentioned, we dont even need to increase that at this time As of 2019, the debt to GDP ratio was 19.2 per cent so only two per cent was added. Red Cross teams in Guinea and across West Africa are ramping up response efforts to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak. Red Cross volunteers and staff Guinea, Liberia, Cote dIvoire, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone have stepped up surveillance and community sensitization efforts. To support these live saving activities, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has issued an international emergency appeal for 8.5 million Swiss francs. Mohammed Mukhier, the IFRCs Regional Director for Africa said: Ebola does not care about borders. Close social, cultural and economic ties between communities in Guinea and neighbouring countries create a very serious risk of the virus spreading to Liberia, Cote dIvoire and Sierra Leone, and potentially even further. Thats why we are launching an integrated cross-border operation aimed at rapidly confining the outbreak to its current locationand swiftly containing any eventual outbreak beyond Guinea. In Guinea, Red Cross teams in Nzerekore were mobilized to conduct safe and dignified burials for two people who were killed by Ebola. They also disinfected a local hospital and started efforts to create broad community awareness about the return of the disease in the urban areas of NZerekore and in Gouecke. There are an estimated 1.3 million people living in the health zone affected by the outbreak. The Guinea Red Cross and IFRC plan aims to support about 420,000 of them with a range of services, including community sensitization, community-based surveillance, water, sanitation and hygiene, safe and dignified burials, infection prevention and control, as well as psychosocial support. In surrounding countries, Red Cross actions will target an additional 6 million people. In Sierra Leone, a network 200 Red Cross volunteers in Kambia and Kailahun are now on high alert and are conducting surveillance activities. In addition, an alert was sent to the four other districts (Kono, Koinadugu, Western Area and Pujehun) bordering Guinea and Liberia, where an additional 100 volunteers are preparing social community awareness activities. In Liberia, in areas along the borders with Guinea, Red Cross volunteers are on high alert and are currently conducting awareness in communities. The most at-risk areas include Bong, Lofa, Nimba, Cape Mount, and Gbarpolu counties. Liberia Red Cross will be sending Personal Protective Equipment to the region. In Mali, Red Cross teams will provide services such as surveillance and community sensitization. The Senegalese Red Cross is beefing up surveillance efforts at border points, while ramping up community awareness activities. In addition to enacting community response, surveillance and sensitization activities, Red Cross teams are also concerned about the needs being created by localized efforts to limit movements in a bid to contain the outbreak. As a result of these public health measures, people near the epicentre are already in need of water, sanitation and hygiene services as well as food assistance. IFRCs Mukhier said: This outbreak is likely to complicate an already challenging situation. COVID-related containment measures currently being implemented have exacerbated food insecurity in the region and this may lead to the reluctance of communities to respect new preventive measures that are being put in place to contain Ebola. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn 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. 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. Saint-Gobain Life Sciences, an industry leader in material science-based solutions for cell and gene therapy manufacturing, today launched a new cell culture bag designed specifically for T cell derived therapies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005014/en/ VueLife "HP" Series Bag cell culture testing in Saint-Gobain Life Sciences Laboratory. (Photo: Business Wire) T cell based therapies are revolutionizing the approach to treating cancer. Harnessing the patients own immune system by isolating their T cells and engineering them to elicit an immune response is emerging as a preferred manufacturing practice. As the industry continues the advancement of these therapies, process efficiency becomes paramount to the success of delivering affordable therapies to patients. Building upon the VueLife family of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) based cell culture bags, VueLife HP (high permeability) incorporates an innovative, patented laminate film layer that allows increased CO 2 and O 2 exchange versus other monolayer bag designs, yet maintains the scalability and process flexibility offered by a closed bag system. The increased permeability associated with the HP laminate layer was specifically designed for culturing cells requiring higher rates of respiration, such as T cells. The development of this product was in direct response to the market need for a cost effective culture vessel that provides efficient cell expansion in a scalable, closed system, said Benjamin Le Quere, General Manager for the Saint-Gobain Life Sciences Bioprocess Solutions business unit. VueLife HP is an exciting result of the marrying of our expertise in material science with our knowledge in cell culture. The entire family of VueLife cell culture bags utilize a common FEP fluid-contact layer. FEP creates an ideal environment for cell growth due to its gas permeability and liquid impermeability, while being biologically and chemically inert. ABOUT SAINT-GOBAIN LIFE SCIENCES Dedicated to improving the quality of life, Saint-Gobain Life Sciences develops and manufactures high-performance components and integrated solutions that touch a broad range of patient care, from the development of new therapeutic cancer treatments to biopharmaceutical production, on through to intravenous therapies for drug delivery. Along with material science expertise and collaborative design services, our focus on global quality and regulatory affairs allow us to be the trusted partner to organizations reaching every part of the globe. Combining our technical expertise, global manufacturing capabilities and research and development resources, Saint-Gobain Life Sciences is dedicated to meeting the evolving needs of bioprocess, medical and pharmaceutical customers around the world. Saint-Gobain Life Sciences is part of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain. Compagnie de Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions which are key ingredients in the wellbeing of each of us and the future of all. They can be found everywhere in our living places and our daily life: in buildings, transportation, infrastructure and in many industrial applications. They provide comfort, performance and safety while addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, resource efficiency and climate change. Saint-Gobain operates in 70 countries with more than 180,000 employees worldwide. The Company had 42.6 billion in sales in 2019. www.celltherapy.saint-gobain.com/products/cell-culture-processing-bags/vuelife-hp-series View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005014/en/ Kuzovlev was recalled from Donbas in the spring of 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin has conferred the rank of Colonel-General on Sergey Kuzovlev, one of the former military commanders in the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic", the unrecognized entity in the Russian-occupied part of Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Supervising Russian-controlled mercenaries with the self-proclaimed "LPR," Kuzovlev operated under a number of aliases, including "Sergey Yuryevich Ignatov," "Tambov," and "Ignatov," uc.od.ua reports. It is known that the general earned the promotion for assisting terrorists in waging war on Ukraine's territory, the report reads. Kuzovlev: Background On January 6, 2015, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine made public intercepted communications between the so-called "ataman of the Cossack National Guard" Pavel Dryomov and his subordinates. The records made it clear that Major General Kuzovlev, at the direction of Russia's top leadership, was coordinating "LPR" proxy forces' activity and the process of arms and ammo supply. Read alsoUkrainian military claims Russian general is directing militants in eastern Ukraine (Video)In the spring of 2015, Kuzovlev was recalled to Russia after being replaced by Yevgeniy Nikiforov Deputy Commander of the 58th army of the southern military district. On August 22, 2016, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine put Kuzovlev on the list of 18 persons charged with committing especially grave crimes against Ukraine's national security foundations, as well as peace and international law and order. Donbas: Other reports Reporting by UNIAN Missouris GOP-led state House has moved to ban the use of eminent domain for a large wind-energy power line planned to travel through part of west-central Illinois as it goes from Kansas to Indiana. Lawmakers in a voice vote approved legislation that would prevent the use of private land for the Grain Belt Express power line without property owners permission. Theyre trying to stop the projects developers, Invenergy Transmission, from pursuing condemnation if landowners wont sell easements, which means allowing a piece of their land to be used for the power line. The ban wouldnt apply to transmission lines with energy substations every 50 miles, a provision designed to encourage companies to give Missourians greater access to buying energy off the line. What this bill does is say if youre going to use and take Missouri farm owners land, that were actually going to have access to the power, said bill sponsor Rep. Mike Haffner, a Pleasant Hill Republican. The 780-mile long, $2.7 billion energy project aims to carry wind-produced power from Kansas to Indiana. The Illinois portion would enter Illinois in Pike County and go through Pike, Scott, Greene and Macoupin counties on its way to Sullivan, Indiana. Missouri lawmakers have been trying unsuccessfully for years to block the use of eminent domain for the project, which was approved by the states utility regulators in 2019. Landowners in the path of the project line, along with the Missouri Farm Bureau, in 2019 lost a lawsuit against the line, which they argued would take some of their land without providing any benefit to them. A spokeswoman for Invenergy said additional power from the Grain Belt Express could help during emergencies, such as the extreme cold last week that prompted rolling blackouts in some Missouri cities as a way to decrease demand on systems. Had Grain Belt been in operation last week, outages in places like Kansas City and Springfield could have been avoided, spokeswoman Beth Conley said. Thats how shortsighted this legislation really is. Missouri Democrats spoke in favor of the project during a floor debate. Rep. Mark Ellebracht of Liberty said property owners would be paid for the use of their land and that the project will mean lower energy costs. The greater good outweighs the individual rights in this specific instance, he said. The bill to stop eminent domain in the project needs another vote of approval in the House before it can move to the Republican-led Senate for consideration. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 20:26:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISHKEK, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan and China should continue to develop bilateral ties, Sherani Baktygulov, consultant at the National Institute for Strategic Studies of Kyrgyzstan, told Xinhua in a recent interview. Commenting on the telephone conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov on Monday, Baktygulov expressed hope that the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Kyrgyzstan could rise to a new level. "There are reasons for the development and of course there are also prospects in relations," the expert noted, pointing out that the border shared by the two countries exceeds 1,000 kilometers, and that the economic, trade and security ties between the two countries have been enhanced. Speaking of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Baktygulov recalled the considerable number of ventilators that arrived in Kyrgyzstan from China last year, which he said proved to be useful across the country. In contrast to the Anglo-Saxon approach where the world should be dominated by one force, China sees the development of the world as the progress of a community formed by peacefully coexisting countries, the expert said. On the prospect of cooperation, Baktygulov said the development of the Belt and Road Initiative has become crucial in the bilateral relationship. "For a more successful promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative, it would be good if the media and social networks were actively working, bringing information about China to ordinary Kyrgyzstanis in simple language," he said. On the development of Xinjiang, Baktygulov said he has repeatedly visited the region and personally met with people from many ethnic groups over the past four years. Xinjiang is developing rapidly, he emphasized. "Some 30 years ago, Xinjiang, in particular Urumqi, was perceived as a provincial town. Now it is a modern, dynamically developing metropolis. Urumqi is turning into a financial hub for Central Asia, and it has long become an economic and trade hub," he said. Enditem ALGIERS - The Algerian Supreme Court has postponed the appeal in Cassation Court by journalist Khaled Drareni until 25 March, said the website Casbah Tribune and Drareni's attorney. Drareni became a symbol of the fight for freedom of the press after he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison last September for having written about a demonstration by the protest movement. Drareni was released from prison on 19 February as part of a pardon decreed by the head of state in favour of 60 prisoners of opinion crimes, in a gesture of peacemaking. The journalist is the director of the news website Casbah Tribune and a French-language correspondent for TV5 Monde. He was found guilty last September of "incitement to an unarmed rally" and of "danger for national unity". He was also accused of having criticised on Facebook the "corruption" of the political system. 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. Dr Marion Okoh-Owusu, Western North Regional Director of Health Services has appealed to health workers especially newly trained workers to accept postings to the Western North region. According to her, the Regional Health Directorate had put in place adequate measures to accommodate any health professional who would accept postings to the Region. "The Region is in dire need of health professionals and we have resolved to allow anyone who wants to further his or her education after three years". Dr Okoh-Owusu made the appeal during the 2020 annual performance review conference held on the theme, Sustaining the gains in healthcare quality and improving service delivery targets, the role of service providers and stakeholders". The conference would among others, assess the performance of health facilities in the Region, identify challenges, achievements and the way forward. It was attended by District Health Directors from all the nine Health Directorates within the Region, traditional and religious leaders as well as heads of departments. The Regional Director of Health commended health workers in the Region for their splendid performance in reducing maternal mortality to less than one percent. She attributed the success story to the "child right feed right" campaign launched last year and promised that the programme would continue. Dr Okoh-Owusu explained that malaria cases recorded at all out patients departments in 2019 reduced from 50 percent to 11.6 percent in 2020 due to a number of interventions put in place, including; the distribution of treated mosquito nets. She said the Regional Health Directorate has identified maternal healthcare as a major challenge and have therefore introduced a programme dubbed "accelerated action" to help improve on maternal and new born health. Dr Owusu said the Regional Health Directorate would engage and have cordial relationship with traditional birth attendants, adopt home visits by midwives and community nurses as well as encourage expectant mothers to attend antenatal clinics regularly. This according to her would help to reduce maternal mortality in the Region. She said the Region was in need of paediatricians, adding that they were particularly needed in the Bibiani, Waiwso and Enchi government hospitals. Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, Director -General of the Ghana Health Services, who was the special guest promised to resource the Regional Health Directorate for excellent delivery of health care in the Region. He advised Ghanaians to continue to adhere to all the COVID-19 safety protocols since that was the only way to defeat the virus. Dr Aboagye called on Ghanaians to patronize the COVID-19 vaccine. 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 ATLANTA, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Purchasing Power, LLC, an Atlanta-based voluntary benefit company, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, spotlighting two decades of providing workplaces with the leading employee purchase program. Since 2001, Purchasing Power has given hardworking employees immediate access to thousands of products and services they need and the ability to pay for them over time through payroll deduction via its proprietary e-commerce platform, helping an increasingly cash-strapped workforce achieve financial flexibility. "The events of the past year in particular highlight the value we bring to our clients and customers, many of whom rely on our employee purchase program to be their financial lifeline," said Trey Loughran, Purchasing Power CEO. "Our anniversary theme this year is 'Honoring the Past. Empowering the Future.' The far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic means financial recovery is going to take time at both the corporate and household level. Employees are struggling to meet demands at home and work, but we can help by giving their employers a way to meet these needs." As part of a year-long celebration of this anniversary milestone, Purchasing Power will continue its long history of giving back in the community by making monetary donations to 20 Atlanta-area non-profit organizations selected by employees. Local organizations such as Junior Achievement of Georgia, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, the Marine Toys for Tots and PAWS Atlanta are just some of the non-profit charities to receive special funding this year from Purchasing Power. "Our employees have regularly donated more than 3,000 volunteer hours each year that have supported a wide variety of community-targeted projects," said Racquel Roberts, chief people officer at Purchasing Power. "From renovating homes with Habitat for Humanity to serving up meals at Open Hand Atlanta, our team has shared their skills and manpower to generously assist others throughout our 20-year history. This is consistently among the company practices our employees enjoy most. With social distancing restrictions limiting our opportunities for these projects the last 12 months, we hope a special donation might help bridge the needs of these organizations until we're able to volunteer again in person." On a national scale, Purchasing Power also will be hosting promotional giveaways and discounts throughout the year for customers. Earmarked items will include popular products from a range of merchandise categories, including top brands in electronics, laptop computers, home appliances, gaming systems, fashion and jewelry and more. Purchasing Power serves employees as a voluntary benefit offered through large businesses including Fortune 1000 companies, trade associations, unions and government agencies. Using the employee purchase program, workers have an opportunity to purchase the latest brand-name consumer products and household necessities, including major appliances, electronics, furniture and automobile tires, online education services and vacation packages through payroll deduction, when they are unable or prefer not to use cash or credit. They make manageable, fixed payments over 6 or 12 months with no ballooning interest, credit checks, hidden fees, or late fees associated with high-interest credit cards and other sub-prime financing options. "Over the years, Purchasing Power has grown along with the voluntary benefit industry as more companies have realized the financial stress their employees are under and the need for programs that will help them," added Loughran. "69% of U.S. workers working full time are living paycheck to paycheck1, struggling to manage their household budgets and purchase the things they need. Often, they're forced to choose between a high-interest credit card or loan or simply go without. We provide a better option." "After working so diligently alongside our clients and customers to meet and overcome the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic, we are excited and grateful to focus our energies on both giving back and looking forward to an increasingly brighter future," Loughran concluded. About Purchasing Power, LLC Purchasing Power, LLC, is an Atlanta-based voluntary benefit company offering a leading employee purchase program available to millions of people through large companies including Fortune 500s, associations and government agencies. Purchasing Power is a Flexpoint Ford, LLC company. For more information, visit www.corp.purchasingpower.com Purchasing Power is a registered trademark of Purchasing Power, LLC. 2021 Purchasing Power, LLC. All rights reserved. 1, 2020 "Getting Paid In America" survey, conducted by the American Payroll Association (APA), Sept. 21, 2020 Media Contact: Joe Swaney, 404.609.5630 [email protected] Juliann Kaiser, 770.643.0615 [email protected] SOURCE Purchasing Power, LLC Related Links http://www.purchasingpower.com The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 20:07:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Macao's total merchandise import grew by 28.5 percent year on year to 10.69 billion patacas in January 2021, the special administrative region's statistical service said on Thursday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the imports of mobile phones, handbags and wallets and watches surged by 205.1 percent, 65.9 percent and 45.2 percent respectively, but those of perfumes, articles for casino and fuels and lubricants declined by 53.7 percent, 43.5 percent and 31.5 percent respectively. External merchandise trade totaled 12.12 billion patacas in January 2021, up by 28.5 percent from a year earlier. Merchandise trade deficit in January totaled 9.27 billion patacas, according to the report. Analyzed by place of origin, imports from the mainland and the European Union (EU) increased by 46.0 percent and 28.8 percent year on year to 3.95 billion patacas and 3.39 billion patacas respectively in January 2021. Besides, imports from the Belt and Road countries rose by 13.0 percent to 2.06 billion patacas, while imports from Portuguese-speaking countries reduced by 9.5 percent to 62 million patacas. (1 pataca equals to 0.1252 U.S. dollar) Enditem Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions The Press Secretary of White House pronounced that there is an ongoing discussion of considering the next steps to ensure peace in the war-scarred country. The White House has said that US President Joe Biden would not be okay if the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, and it further underlined that the discussions over the process of the next steps that would ensure peace in the war-torn region are also underway. The US and the Taliban had reached a consensus in February 2020 which called for a permanent ceasefire and peace negotiations between the Afghan and the Taliban government. In the agreement, withdrawal of foreign forces was to be done by May 1. Currently, there are 2500 US troops in the country. The Taliban had their ouster entirely at the hands of the US-led troops in the regions of Afghanistan in 2001. White House Press Secretary stated that the US President would not be okay with the Taliban ruling Afghanistan. John Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary in a separate statement, underlined thaT Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has constantly been carrying out interactions with the Afghan partners about the ongoing review procedure and how would they be going forward with the same. He asserted that the US is mindful of looming deadlines and everybody shares the sense of alacrity when it comes to working out the way through the review process but this has to be done in a thoughtful and deliberate way to ensure that the decisions that are made serve the country and its allies well. Also Read: During a congressional hearing, former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General (Retd.) Joseph F Dunford told the lawmakers that The Taliban gets its funding from the drug trade. he also mentioned that The Taliban has its sanctuary in Pakistan and blamed countries like Iran to have provided the group with material support. He further added that the threat has reduced to a certain level because of the US-trained Afghan forces and the continued presence of the US military in the region. Also Read: Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Earn your Associate of Applied Business in Business IT (BIT) degree online from the University of Cincinnati. This program can be completed fully online, with curriculum customized to fit your schedule, interests and how quickly you want to complete your degree. Application deadline July 1, 2021. Learn More A Shopper Experience Index report by Bazaarvoice, a provider of product reviews and user-generated content (UGC) solutions, shows shopping trends are expanding as the pandemic's impact on e-commerce continues, forcing retailers to adapt their marketing strategies to meet new consumer expectations and demands. Consumer adoption of digital shopping is driving expanded use of user-generated content, new private labels, and access to product sampling. A key finding of the global report is how rapidly social commerce has gone mainstream. Another significant result is that while digital shopping is not fully replacing brick-and-mortar stores, it is surpassing it. The report notes that most shoppers want a mix of user experiences for in-store and online shopping. That strategy was already on the rise. The pandemic has accelerated e-commerce's trajectory by years. Released Wednesday, the report is based on data from over 11,500 brand and retailer websites in the Bazaarvoice Network, Bazaarvoice's Influenster community of more than six million members, and a global survey of more than 6,000 consumers. "COVID-19 has not only drastically changed consumers' shopping habits, but accelerated the trends already in motion before it began," said Keith Nealon, CEO at Bazaarvoice. "But even though more shoppers are utilizing e-commerce than ever before, they still want the brick-and mortar experience of truly getting to know the product they are buying." As the pandemic continues, brands and retailers must have an omnichannel approach. This allows their consumers to shop and meet them where and when they want. Regardless of what channel consumers select, brands need to bring the in-store experience to the shoppers' front doors and leave them with the confidence to make the right purchase decision, he said. "I think the most surprising finding was how common social commerce has become -- almost a third of U.S. shoppers said they use social media to discover new products to buy," Suzin Wold, senior vice president of marketing at Bazaarvoice, told the E-Commerce Times. Social Commerce Now Mainstream The report found that more than one in three shoppers made a purchase on social media in the past year. Social commerce will only continue to become more and more mainstream going forward as well, Wold noted. Almost half of the global population is using at least one social media platform. But that use is no longer reserved for keeping in touch with friends. Some 32 percent of U.S. shoppers said they use social media to discover new products to buy. "We are seeing this in real-time, as social companies are continuing to update their platforms to be more commerce-friendly. Soon, people will be using social media to shop just as much they use it to socialize," Wold added. When broken down by age, that number climbs to 43 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds and 47 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds regularly engage with e-commerce on social media, said Wold. Report Takeaways As these social commerce and online shopping trends are only set to increase, it is time for brands to take what customers share with them on social media and utilize it elsewhere, according to the report's researchers. That should be a staple for marketers since many shoppers cannot or will not go inside stores to see products for themselves. When shopping on a brand or retailer's website, 42 percent of shoppers will not purchase if the page they visit lacks user-generated content available. Nearly half (49 percent) of shoppers look on product pages for customer photos, followed by other websites where the product is sold (47 percent) and search engines (35 percent). The trends reported above from the Shopper Experience Index reflect consumer behavior in the U.S. But the report also focuses on the same behavior patterns by shoppers in other countries. The trends revealed are the same, only the supporting percentages vary. "Right now, the large variations in shopper behavior between countries is very much due to the pandemic. COVID-19 has impacted countries in very different ways over time, and there are vastly different lived experiences going on right now all over the world. Shutdowns and the risk of infection varied greatly by location. In turn, shoppers approached retail differently in response to that," explained Wold. Same Trends, Different Numbers This year's Shopper Experience Index shows some significant differences in consumer behavior over last year as influences from the pandemic spread. Still, e-commerce's trajectory was vastly accelerated in 2020 alone. While online shopping used to be mostly for leisure, it is now a necessity, noted Wold. In fact, 36 percent of American shoppers said they reduced their in-store trips, 18 percent said they only go into stores for essentials, and 20 percent said they are not shopping in-store at all right now. In Bazaarvoice's client network of over 11,500 brands and retailers, online ordering increased 39 percent year-over-year in 2020 globally. However, by no means does this suggest that physical retail is obsolete. "I think as soon as shopping in-person is safer, more people will get back to it. Just slightly under half (49 percent) of shoppers would choose in-store shopping over buying online for the next year," observed Wold, citing results from the report. Gone Digital With Hands-On Sampling In 2020, online shopping went from a novelty option to a necessity. Despite the reluctance of many shoppers to step foot in a physical store, shoppers are not willing to give up brick-and-mortar shopping just yet. But the tide is showing strong signs of changing. More consumers are cutting regular trips to their previous in-store preferences. Hands-on sampling as a new consumer shopping trait is making up for the missing in-store experience. Product sampling is helping to replace it. Over half (52 percent) of shoppers said what they value most about an in-store shopping experience is the ability to touch, see, and try on products. Significantly fewer (47 percent) of consumers said shopping at a brick-and-mortar store is how they feel most connected to the brands they love. With the new normal having turned into just 'normal', brands need to meet customers where they are, at home. Product sampling is the perfect solution, the researchers found. Bazaarvoice's survey found 82 percent of shoppers like the idea of receiving free samples. Some 53 percent of shoppers are willing to write a review of the free products they received. Plus, 28 percent say they will even post on social media. In a survey of the Influenster community of members who have received a sampling box from Bazaarvoice, 60 percent said they purchased the products they sampled again, and 97 percent said they bought at least one other product from the brand because they loved the first product so much. Shoppers appreciate sampling because it gives them the in-store experience of physically interacting with a product that they crave. What makes it so appealing is they can discover new products from the safety of their own homes. Private Label Products in Demand Private labels are becoming preferred by shoppers as well. Private label products are obtained by retailers from a third-party. Retailers sell them under their own brand names. The individual retailer controls everything about the product or products, including the product's specs, its packaging, and everything else. Through an improvement in perception and offerings, private label products have become sought after, instead of afterthoughts, according to Baazarvoice's research. During the past year, 53 percent of shoppers made a private label purchase. The top reason for doing so was liking the product (59 percent), followed by the product being cheaper (56 percent). Grocery is the most popular vertical that shoppers will buy as a private label (57 percent), followed by apparel and accessories (47 percent), and home goods (46 percent). Some 47 percent of shoppers have intentionally purchased private label products in the past year. The greater availability of private label products has also played a role in addressing global product shortages due to COVID-19. More than three-fourths (84 percent) of shoppers report product shortages during the pandemic. As current times provide great opportunity for private labels, retailers must ensure that UGC is available for these products to give consumers confidence to choose them. Seeing Is Not Like Touching COVID-19 has accelerated numerous shopping trends and consumer behaviors related to online shopping and delivery, acknowledged Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. But the new commerce normal still leaves something to be desired when it comes to assessing products you are thinking about buying, he said. "At one level, that has increased the importance of consumer-generated reviews and similar content," he told the E-Commerce Times. "But it is also worth mentioning that personal reviews are being actively gamed on Amazon and other e-commerce platforms." That, in turn, has heightened the value of known/respected brands and manufacturers with solid support services and return policies, King added. "One reason subscription boxes have been so popular is that they allow consumers to sample a variety of products without the trouble of leaving the house. Whether those services remain popular as the pandemic begins to recede will be an important trend to watch," he said. Shifting Trends, Changing Loyalties The issue of consumer and brand trust is impacting consumer reactions to the shift in buying practices, noted Andre Artacho, managing director of Two Nil, a marketing and consulting services firm in Los Angeles. That could become a tipping point of success or failure for brands this year. "Consumers are likely going to rely more and more heavily on reviews and not product details that are emphasized by the brands themselves. They will trust what other people have to say over fluff from brands," Artacho told the E-Commerce Times. Brand trust and sentiment will likely be driving factors for consumer decision making in 2021, he added. Private labels and live shopping are two other trends that are attracting consumer attention as in-store replacements, observed Shelly Socol, co-founder of 1R, a digital commerce and retail strategy agency in New York City. "The uptick in private labels is increasing because many of these types of brands are straight direct-to-consumer models with streamlined and dedicated offerings," Socol told the E-Commerce Times. They have cut out the middleman, are digitally savvy, focused on convenience, brand communication, are priced right, and are extremely authentic in their communication which is resonating with shoppers, she explained. Live shopping is also popular and is a dominating trend this year. Brands are finding a lot of success with marketing on Instagram Live or similar third-party platforms, she noted. Product testing is a big trend that will continue to grow. Virtual try-on is also getting more popular, but it is an investment. "If you do not implement properly, it could scare customers off," Socol cautioned. Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open-source technologies. He is an esteemed reviewer of Linux distros and other open-source software. In addition, Jack extensively covers business technology and privacy issues, as well as developments in e-commerce and consumer electronics. Email Jack. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Actress Kriti Sanon has a packed year ahead, with five films scheduled to release. Her projects are at different stages of production, boast of either big production houses or new genre or high expectation from fans owing to commercial value. Over the next few months, she will be seen in "Bachchan Pandey", "Mimi", "Adipurush", "Bhediya" and "Ganpath". The varied assortment, you would think, would weigh her down with pressure. The actress has no time for pressure, or be scared. "I don't think you can be scared and cautious and still move ahead in your career. Fear pulls you back. Once I know why I am doing a project, there is no fear. You like the film, the storyline, the scene. You know you are doing something slightly different. Ok, it can be experimental but thats your reason for doing it then," Kriti told IANS. "I believe in all the films I am doing right now. Beyond that, my job is to do my part really well and work hard for it. The rest is not really in my hands. I don't want to take the pressure of 'oh what if this goes wrong?' I would rather think.' what if all of them go right!'" shared the actress, who had made her Bollywood debut with 2014 film "Heropanti". Over the past seven-odd years, Kriti has been noticed for her roles, particularly "Dilwale", "Raabta", Bareilly Ki Barfi", "Luka Chuppi", and "Panipat". Her upcoming films are a mixed bag, too. "Mimi", a heroine-centric film about surrogacy, has particularly drawn interest. While she wants to do more such films, she would prefer to balance it with every other kind of films. So, "Bachchan Pandey" is a commercial entertainer co-starring Akshay Kumar. "Bhediya" takes her to the zone of supernatural horror with Varun Dhawan. In "Ganpath", co-starring Tiger Shroff she engages in heavy-duty action. "Hum Do Hamare Do" co-stars Rajkummar Rao and is a social comedy drama. "Adipurush is a historical action drama with Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan. "Would I love to do more such films (as 'Mimi')? Yes I would. But would I be looking for only this? No. I feel for me it's not only about what I am doing, it is about a project that really excites you. I feel like you have to really go beyond how many scenes I have and go more into how good the character is. Is it doing something to the film and I feel like as an actor, I want to explore more and do all kinds of films. I want to do smaller roles, which are very impactful as characters," said the actress. However, Kriti does specify that "if it's just two scenes and two songs and if those are cut out from the film and the story remains the same, then that's not exciting. Your character is pivotal. As an actor I am very greedy and I know that I would always balance it out. So, I want to do everything". -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Since they were released in late January, Lady Gaga Oreos have generated a lot of words, many of them from writers who want to give us an idea of how the pink-and-green cookies taste. It's a perfectly logical pursuit, of course, service journalism with a clear eye on Little Monster clicks. So, here I am, listening to the soundtrack to "A Star Is Born" (2018 version, naturally) in my home office, wolfing down a small stack of cookies that look as if they were swiped from a Tim Burton set, and feeling like I have more questions than answers about Lady Gaga Oreos. I'm no Gaga-ologist, but I get the sense that she, as an artist and fellow traveler on this big blue marble, wouldn't be crass enough to merely endorse a product tie-in, as if her cookies were the equivalent of "Avengers: Infinity War" Ziploc bags. One of the promotions tied to Gaga's cookies is a Sing It with Oreo feature. You can make personal recordings, transform them into a "musical messages of kindness" and send them to folks you love and support. The pink foil packaging for Gaga Oreos features a QR code, which provides instant access to the recording function. You probably have to give up countless personal information in the process, but go ahead, "Just sing from the heart, and make someone's day a little brighter." The kindness is reinforced with Oreo's support of the Born This Way Foundation, which Gaga co-founded as a way to help young people create a more welcoming world and to provide resources for their mental health. I've been listening to "Chromatica," Lady Gaga's latest album, and despite its many dance grooves, it is a challenging collection, at least lyrically. The narrators in her songs - it's probably unwise to assume Gaga is always talking about herself, even though she has all but said the album reflects her personal journey - wrestle with doubts, inner demons and self-destruction. It's dark, confessional stuff, all set to beats that keep your feet moving, even as your heart aches at the human frailties embedded in the lyrics. "I hope that they listen to this record and go on not only my personal journey with me and dance through all the pain," Gaga said to Apple Music's Zane Lowe, "but also go through their own journey and dance through all their pain." Some sample lyrics from "Chromatica," from "Alice," Gaga's twist on "Alice in Wonderland": (Oh-ma-ma-ma, oh-ma-ma-ma) I'm tired of screaming (Oh-ma-ma-ma, oh-ma-ma-ma) At the top of my lungs (Oh my mother, oh my mother) I'm in the hole, I'm falling down, down So down, down What does this have to do with Lady Gaga Oreos, you ask? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. On perhaps the album's best song, a pulsating piece of electronic dance music titled "Plastic Doll," Gaga sings that she's "lived in a pink box so long." The imagery is reinforced with the "Chromatica" cover art, in which Gaga looks like a steampunk warrior-goddess pinned down against a sidewalk grate in some post-apocalyptic world. The grate is pink and rectangular, like a box. But the pink box may not even be literal. It may be metaphorical, a box that confines and traps so many women who struggle to live up to the impossible standards of beauty and perfection established for them at a young age, by toys such as Barbie and her tidy pink world of accessories and cars and homes. In promoting "Chromatica," Gaga has worn a number of pink or pink-accented outfits and bodysuits, suggesting dolls, bondage or scars that won't heal. Pink, in this context, represents something artificial. It represents someone else's ideal of perfection, which is ultimately unattainable and therefore toxic. As a critic in the New York Times wrote in its dissection of "Chromatic," the album embraces Gaga's old dance persona while "retaining the humanity that was stripped from her as she was objectified and jettisoned to the realm of the hyperfamous." The Lady Gaga Oreo gives you a representation of that artificiality, in cookie wafer form, tinted a shade of pink that you rarely see in commercial foodstuffs. (I should note these pink wafers also feature design elements from the "Chromatica" album, which reinforces a basic product tie-in.) You literally have to bite through the hard wafer to get to the sweet cream inside, which itself is bright green. The color's connection to nature, not the artificial world, can't be ignored. Green is associated with harmony, restoration, peace. You could argue, then, that Gaga is taking us on a personal journey not only with her album, but also with her Oreo, which is available for a limited time only. She wants you to see your own journey along the way, too. And how does the Lady Gaga Oreo taste? Well, it's really sweet, just like learning to live life on your own terms. Advertisement It was a photo of Earth which put human existence into perspective. The 1968 'Earthrise' image, which was taken by astronauts from NASA's Apollo 8 mission, showed our planet as it looked from 240,000 miles away - a blue and white ball rising above the grey landscape of the moon and surrounded by pitch black. Now, an original copy of the photograph is among more than 600 images being sold which document mankind's first ventures into space. The prints chronicle expeditions all the way up to the late 1990s and are in fine original condition. They are to be sold by auctioneers Dreweatts of Newbury, Berkshire. The firm compiled the collection from several unnamed vendors. Also seen among the collection is the first man to make it into space, Russian Yuri Gagarin, as well as his female counterpart Valentina Tereshkova. And the first primate to be blasted into space - Ham the chimpanzee - is seen with fear etched into its eyes during his 1961 mission. Ania Hanrahan, Dreweatts' autographs and ephemera specialist, said: 'These are iconic images that are sure to draw interest from around the globe. They will appeal to historians, space and photography aficionados and private collectors. 'There will also be those just wanting to obtain a true piece of history. The sale takes place on March 17. 'Earthrise' - 1968 It was a photo of Earth which put human existence into perspective. The 1968 'Earthrise' image, which was taken by astronauts from NASA's Apollo 8 mission, showed our planet as it looked from 240,000 miles away - a blue and white ball rising above the grey landscape of the moon and surrounded by pitch black. Now, an original copy of the photograph is among more than 600 images being sold by auctioneers Dreweatts of Newbury, Berkshire On December 24, 1968, American astronaut William Anders took what is widely regarded to be one of the most famous photographs in history. The image, which has come to be known as Earthrise, is the first colour photograph of Earth taken by humans. The scene was observed by the crew of Nasa's Apollo 8 mission, which is still considered to be the American space agency's most dangerous undertaking. The photograph is expected to sell for between 3,000 and 5,000. During their mission, the three-man crew orbited the moon ten times and took pictures. They were under orders to get photographs of potential lunar landing sites. A year later, in 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon for the first time. Earthrise - 1966 Two years before the Apollo 11 mission, the black and white precursor to the famous colour image of earth was taken by Nasa's Lunar Orbiter 1. The unmanned vehicle was the first US-made robotic spacecraft to orbit the moon. The black and white image which was taken is the very first photograph of the earth rising above the moon's horizon. It is estimated to fetch between 800 and 1,200 at auction. Two years before the Apollo 11 mission, the black and white precursor to the famous colour image of earth was taken by Nasa's Lunar Orbiter 1. The unmanned vehicle was the first US-made robotic spacecraft to orbit the moon. The black and white image which was taken is the very first photograph of the earth rising above the moon's horizon. It is estimated to fetch between 800 and 1,200 at auction US astronaut Ed White during a spacewalk - 1965 During Nasa's Gemini 4 mission on June 3, 1965, Ed White performed the very first spacewalk by an American astronaut. The image, taken by his colleague James McDivitt, is both the first still photograph taken of a human in space and the first image of a human in space which was taken by another human. Until that point, all released images of astronauts had been taken by television or monitoring cameras. White is seen during his historic 23-minute space walk in which he was attached to his spacecraft by a 25ft tether line The image is expected to fetch between 1,000 and 2,000. American astronaut Ed White on the Gemini 4 mission from 1965. He is seen during his historic 23-minute space walk in which he was attached to his spacecraft by a 25ft tether line. It is estimated to fetch between 1,000 and 2,000 The first man and woman in space - 1961 and 1963 The Soviet Union's 1961 mission saw their astronaut Yuri Gagarin become the first man and human to reach space. The craft which got him out of Earth's orbit, the Vostok 3KA space capsule, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, in what is modern-day Kazakhstan but was then part of the Soviet Union, on April 12, 1961. The flight saw Gagarin's craft complete a single orbit around Earth during which it skimmed the upper atmosphere. From launch to landing, the flight took 108 minutes. Gagarin is seen in the below image during the mission. In the same lot of photos is a photograph taken two years later of female Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova. At the age of just 26, Tereshkova, who is now 83, became the first and youngest woman to reach space. She spent nearly three days outside of the Earth's atmosphere and remains the only woman to have completed a solo space mission. The lot which both photographs are featured in is expected to sell for between 300-500. Russian Yuri Gagarin's 1961 mission saw him become the first man and human in space. He is seen above in his space suit before he was blasted into space Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova became in 1963 the first woman in space. She is seen above during her mission. This image is among 14 in a lot which is estimated to sell for between 300-500 A nearly full moon - 1968 This incredibly detailed picture of the moon was taken by the crew of Apollo 8 during their journey back to Earth. It is the first image taken by a human from a previously inaccessible perspective - the side of the moon not visible to humans from Earth. The photograph therefore shows elements of the moon's surface not previously witnessed before. It also shows distinctive features what could already be seen with less clarity from Earth, such as the Sea of Tranquillity. The image is estimated to sell for between 1,000-2,000. The moon as seen in an image taken during NASA's Apollo 8 Mission. It is estimated to fetch between 1,000-2,000 First image of Earth taken by a human from beyond the planet's orbit Like the colour 'Earthrise' image, this shot was also taken by astronaut William Anders. The image was taken by Anders on December 21, three days before the Earthrise photo. The picture featured on the cover of Life Magazine on January 10, 1969 and went on to become one of the 20th century's most famous photographs. The print of the image being sold by Dreweatts is estimated to fetch between 2,000-4,000. Another image of the earth which was taken during NASA's Apollo 8 mission. The photo captures our planet's swirling weather systems and blue of the oceans Ham the chimpanzee during his flight into space - 1961 The first primate to be blasted into space - Ham the chimpanzee - is seen with fear etched into its eyes during his 1961 mission. Before being sent into space, Ham was first trained by Nasa experts so that he would survive the flight, which lasted 16 minutes and 39 seconds. Ham was the first non-human hominid to be launched into space. His name is an acronym for the laboratory that trained him - the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center. The chimpanzee survived his historic mission and died in 1983. The first primate to be blasted into space - Ham the chimpanzee - is seen with fear etched into its eyes during his 1961 mission The first American in space - 1961 Astronaut Alan Shepard is seen during his 1961 mission which saw him become the first American in space. The photograph, which along with one other image is expected to fetch between 500 and 1,000, was taken by the pilot monitoring camera on his 'Freedom 7' spacecraft during the mission, on May 5. Shepard made it into space less than a month after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin had done so. The flight lasted for 15 minutes and its launch was seen by millions on television. The prints chronicle expeditions all the way up to the late 1990s and are in fine original condition. Pictured: Astronaut Alan Shepard is seen above during his 1961 mission which saw him become the first American in space. This image is estimated to fetch between 500-1,000 Apollo 11 mission to land on the surface of the moon - 1969 This stunning image shows US astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 mission which saw his colleague Neil Armstrong become the first man to walk on to the surface of the moon. In Armstrong's photograph of Aldrin, who closely followed his fellow astronaut on to the lunar surface, the lunar 'Eagle' module can be seen in his gold-plated visor. The image, which is perhaps the most famous snapshot of the historic mission is expected to fetch between 2,000 and 3,000 at auction. It appeared on the cover of Life Magazine after the Apollo 11 crew landed back on earth. This stunning image shows US astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission which saw his colleague Neil Armstrong become the first man to walk on to the surface of the moon. In Armstrong's photograph of Aldrin, which is perhaps the most famous snapshot of the historic mission, the lunar 'Eagle' module can be seen in his gold-plated visor. The image is expected to fetch between 2,000 and 3,000 at auction. It appeared on the cover of Life Magazine after the Apollo 11 crew landed back on earth A second image taken by Armstrong of Aldrin during the mission is expected to fetch between 1,500 and 2,500. The US flag is clearly visible behind Aldrin on the lunar module. Armstrong took the image of his fellow astronaut shortly after he had set up the camera which broadcast footage live back to Earth. Aldrin is seen unfurling the solar wind collector, which was designed to trap tiny particles being hurled there from the sun so they could be examined back on earth. A second image taken by Armstrong of Aldrin during the mission is expected to fetch between 1,500 and 2,500. The US flag is clearly visible behind Aldrin on the lunar module The Canadian Press Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she experiences huge waves of anxiety before speaking to the media and revealed she has suffered long bouts of depression. Osakas agent, Stuart Duguid, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the worlds No. 2-ranked tennis player was pulling out before her second-round match at the clay-court tournament in Paris. The stunning move came a day after Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the U.S. at age 3, was fined $15,000 for skipping the postmatch news conference after her first-round victory at the French Open. She also was threatened by all four Grand Slam tournaments with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension, if she continued with her intention which Osaka revealed last week on Twitter to not do any press during Roland Garros. She framed the matter as a mental health issue, saying that it can create self-doubt to have to answer questions after a loss. First and foremost we are sorry and sad for Naomi Osaka. The outcome of Naomi withdrawing from Roland Garros is unfortunate, French tennis federation president Gilles Moretton said Monday. We wish her the best and the quickest possible recovery. And we look forward to having Naomi in our tournament next year. Moretton said the four major tournaments, and the professional tennis tours, remain very committed to all athletes well-being and to continually improving every aspect of players experience in our tournament, including with the media, like we always have." In Monday's post, Osaka spoke about dealing with depression since the 2018 U.S. Open, which she won by beating Serena Williams in a final filled with controversy. I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly, Osaka wrote, explaining that speaking with the media makes her anxious. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris, Osaka wrote. I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. She continued: Anyone that knows me knows Im introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that Im often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety. ... I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the worlds media. Williams was asked about Osaka on Monday after winning her opening match in the first scheduled night session in French Open history. I feel for Naomi. I feel like I wish I could give her a hug because I know what its like. ... Ive been in those positions, Williams said. We have different personalities, and people are different. Not everyone is the same. Im thick; other people are thin. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently. You just have to let her handle it the way she wants to, in the best way she thinks she can, and thats the only thing I can say. I think shes doing the best that she can. Osaka has never been past the third round on the French Open's red clay. It takes seven victories to win a Grand Slam title, which she has done four times at hard-court tournaments: the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020; the Australian Open in 2019 and this February. Here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences, she wrote. Tennis players are required to attend news conferences if requested to do so. The maximum fine of $20,000 is not a big deal to Osaka, the worlds highest-earning female athlete thanks to endorsement contracts totaling tens of millions of dollars. Mental health and awareness around it is one of the highest priorities to the WTA, the women's tennis tour said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman. We have invested significant resources, staffing and educational tools in this area for the past 20-plus years and continue to develop our mental health support system for the betterment of the athletes and the organization. We remain here to support and assist Naomi in any way possible and we hope to see her back on the court soon. Other players, notably 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and No. 1-ranked Ash Barty, have said they respect Osakas right to take a stance but explained that they consider speaking to reporters part of the job. After Osaka's post Monday, several athletes in tennis and other sports tweeted their support. Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, wrote: I am so sad about Naomi Osaka. I truly hope she will be ok. As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental & emotional aspect gets short shrift. This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference. Good luck Naomi- we are all pulling for you! Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry wrote that it was impressive taking the high road when the powers that be dont protect their own. major respect. ___ AP Sports Writers Sam Petrequin in Paris and Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report. ___ More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press Coimbatore, Feb 25 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a scathing attack on the DMK and Congress said the leaders of the two parties "brainstorm" on looting the people. Launching the BJP's election campaign in Tamil Nadu from this industrial city which is about 500 kms from Chennai, Modi said the leaders of DMK and Congress "brainstorm" on the methods to loot the nation. The Prime Minister said the nation is seeing two distinct styles of politics - the opposition's misgovernance with corruption and the ruling BJP-led NDA's governance with compassion. "Both the methods are very different. For the opposition what matters is personal gains. They want to capture power to fill their pockets," Modi charged. "DMK and Congress leaders brainstorm on how to loot and those who give most innovative ways to loot are rewarded with posts and ministries," he said. Modi said the opposition's style of politics is based on bullying and harassment. Continuing his attack on DMK, Modi added that whenever that party comes to power it promotes a "strongman culture". In every district, the DMK has anti-social elements who trouble innocent citizens, he alleged. Modi alleged DMK party cadres do not leave any chance to extort money. According to him, it is the women who suffer because of this and added that everyone knows how the DMK had treated late Chief Minister and AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa. Leaders who troubled Jayalalithaa were rewarded by DMK and Congress, Modi said. On the other hand, NDA's approach to governance is with compassion, he Modi. He said when crores of new bank accounts were opened (Jan Dhan scheme) it was the poor who gained the most. Similarly, it was poor people who benefited under the world's largest health care programme - Ayushman Bharat - and when heart stents and knee replacements were made cheaper. Modi charged that the DMK has lost the right to be called an "all-Tamil Nadu party" as it last won a full electoral majority 25 years back. Attacking the Congress and DMK, the Prime Minister said the two parties are suffering from internal contradictions. Both parties have tried to launch and relaunch their respective "first families" without success, he said. "There is a continuous family drama there. DMK and Congress are so busy in internal matters that they cannot deliver good governance in Tamil Nadu," Modi said. On the other hand, the NDA is united like a family and its focus is on people's welfare. He said DMK ruled Tamil Nadu for many years. Congress was at the Centre for many years but didn't bother about the demand of the Devendra Kulla Vellar community. It was the current AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu and BJP-led NDA government at the Centre that agreed to the demand of Devendra Kulla Vellar community. With Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu around the corner, Modi said during the last few years, the people of India had given a strong message. He said the people want development-oriented governance and good governance and have kept the anti-development parties at a distance. Modi said the NDA government at the Centre and Tamil Nadu's AIADMK government is a classic example of cooperative federalism. The Prime Minister said the NDA government gives top priority to the welfare of small businesses and farmers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, emergency credit of about Rs 14,000 crore was sanctioned to about 3.5 lakh micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) in the country and about 25,000 MSMEs in Tamil Nadu also benefitted, Modi said. He said the central government is equally focussed on the development of the vibrant textile sector and seven textile parks will come up in the country in three years. The central government's focus was on providing a life of dignity and prosperity for small farmers, Modi said while listing out schemes like Kisan Credit Card, crop insurance and others. Modi, who often quotes from Tamil literature within and outside India, said he takes great pride in Tamil culture and the Tamil language is the oldest. He said the Centre has permitted engineering and medical education in regional languages which would benefit the students. "The NDA stands for regional aspirations and national progress. The development works launched today must be seen in that spirit," Modi said. We couldnt find anything at this address. Please check the URL or go to the homepage The chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly, has called for a review of the ban on visitors to nursing homes because the vast, vast majority of residents have received the second dose of the vaccine. Indoor visits were critical for the wellbeing of residents, he told RTE radios News at One. There needed to be a balance between the risk from visits and the wellbeing of residents. There were a number of measures that could be taken to set the groundwork for a return of visits, he said, such as infection control, antigen testing, PPE and vaccinating visitors. All of these needed to be done incrementally so there could be a gradual return to visits. Ireland should mirror what had been done in Scotland, Mr Daly said. All new admissions to nursing homes from hospitals should be tested and they should be vaccinated prior to admission or at the earliest opportunity. Infectious diseases expert Dr Paddy Mallon said there was a risk/balance issue here, and the risk factor would have to be lowered before visits could be allowed. A suite of measures would have to be introduced before this could be done, contingent on getting approval from Nphet. There is still some way to go, he said. Antigen testing could form part of that suite of measures, he added. The technology was getting better with regard to sensitivity of testing, the cost and rapidity of results. Every available technology should be used to reduce the risk of transmission. Dr Mallon said 2020 had been "the year of lockdown" while 2021 would "be the year of vaccines and variants" and everything should be done to protect the vaccination programme and to avoid the introduction of new variants into the country through international travel. Ultimately, the solution was a global vaccination programme Its the only way to get control of the virus. The headline on this article has been changed for clarification purposes. As any fule kno, the biggest enemy of fraud, corruption, money laundering, and other forms of financial crime is transparency, while their best friend is secrecy. That's why the unprecedented mass sealing of cases that's taking place at the Financial Services Division of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands is repugnant to anyone with a genuine concern for financial crime. 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. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Shelton, CT February 25, 2021 TMC today announced that IKIN University at ITEXPO, part of the #TECHSUPERSHOW, will be held live on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 from 4:00-7:00 pm at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida. IKIN University is the worlds first instructional program to empower software developers to create and integrate holographic content into existing and emerging applications and services. "We are ecstatic to welcome IKIN University to ITEXPO 2021, noted Rich Tehrani CEO TMC. Offering a hands-on program like this will enhance not only developer insights, but it will also help hone the skills and tools that will translate into expanded revenue, higher margins and greater customer loyalty. We are eager to debut IKIN University at ITEXPO and demonstrate how the developer community can efficiently monetize holography in a wide range of consumer- and business-facing applications and services, explained Joe Ward, IKINs CEO. As IKIN begins to introduce our solutions into the marketplace, we anticipate there will be a significant interest in holographic content. Developers who participate in IKIN University will have the requisite technical skills and market acumen to meet this expected demand. Presented by IKIN (www.ikininc.com), the world leader in delivering compelling holographic technology for business and consumers, this hands-on program will give developers including those working on visually engaging apps for collaboration, communications, and interactive support/assist products the requisite skills and tools to add holographic content into B2B and consumer applications. The curriculum includes: Sessions on the capabilities and features of IKIN's proprietary holographic technology Programming content utilizing IKIN's SDK Strategies for monetizing holographic content in current and emerging applications. After this program, attendees will have a framework for creating holography-centric services, as well as insights for bringing these lucrative capabilities to market. Join us for an evening of fun, innovation, and inspiration. For more information or to register for ITEXPO, which takes place June 22-25 in Miami contact events@tmcnet.com. For media inquiries, contact Michelle Connolly. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages for ITEXPO should contact TMC's Joe Fabiano at 203-852-6800 x132 or Maureen Gambino at 203-852-6800 x109. For the latest ITEXPO news, updates and information follow the event on Twitter at @ITEXPO. About TMC Through education, industry news, live events and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC's content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all participants. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360-degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, @tmcnet . Share this Page Michelle ConnollyMarketing Manager203.852.6800 ext.170Edited by Erik Linask Egypts Journalist Syndicate announced on Thursday that the mid-term elections will be held as scheduled on 5 March, ending a month of uncertainty about the fate of the elections owing to fears over the coronavirus. In an official statement, the syndicate summoned members of the general assembly to register attendance at the syndicates headquarters on Friday 5 March by 10am, in order to elect a new syndicate head and six board members. The quorum for holding the syndicate's elections is 50 percent plus one member of the general assembly. The syndicate said the assembly would be postponed two weeks if quorum is not reached on Friday. The quorum for a repeat general assembly is 25 percent plus one member. The syndicate currently has 7,000 members. Members will vote in the midterm elections, which are held every two years, for half of the board seats 6 out of 12, in addition to a new head. The syndicates elections supervisory committee has announced that six candidates are vying for the post of syndicate head, which is currently held by Diaa Rashwan, while 55 candidates are competing for board seats. The syndicates announcement came hours after the State Council's legislation and fatwas department decided not to hear a request submitted by the current syndicate head and the Egyptian Supreme Media Regulatory Council (ESMRC) for an opinion on the possibility of postponing the midterm elections due to coronavirus concerns. The State Council reasoned that a lawsuit over the elections, which is being processed in an administrative court, prevents the council from weighing in over the issue. The lawsuit was lodged by a candidate for a member seat who is arguing that the Egyptian cabinet should be the entity that approves the holding of the syndicate's elections since the cabinet itself bans all forms of crowding to curtail the spread of the contagion. Short link: NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading communications consultancy Ketchum won six awards on behalf of its clients at the 2021 North America Innovation SABRE Awards, which took place in a virtual ceremony last night. Ketchum won more awards than any other firm. Ketchum North America President Neera Chaudhary said of the awards: "These recognitions are testament to the incredible partnerships we share with our clients working together to blend intelligent thinking and creativity with deep human insight to ensure the work connects with people and creates real impact. Throughout this most challenging year, this combination of empathy and intelligence has been more important than ever, which makes these awards even more meaningful." Ketchum and its clients won awards in the following categories: BEST IN DIGITAL PROMO & ACTIVATION "Making Luxury a Virtual Experience" Grand Seiko with Ketchum BEST MEDIA PARTNERSHIP "Nacho Average Showdown" Frito-Lay North America's Tostitos with Ketchum BEST IN CROWDSOURCING & CO-CREATING "Going the Extra Smile" Frito-Lay North America's Lay's with Ketchum, The Marketing Arm and OMD BEST IN AI/VIRTUAL REALITY/AUGMENTED REALITY/IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY "Puerto Rico Virtual Vacay" Discover Puerto Rico with Ketchum NON-PROFIT/CHARITY "Clorox Clears Teachers' Back-to-School Wish Lists" The Clorox Company with Ketchum BEST NEW PRODUCT/BRAND LAUNCH "Unleash the Cheetle: Introducing Cheetos Popcorn" Frito-Lay North America's Cheetos with Ketchum These award wins follow a number of recent honors for the consultancy, including being named PRovoke's Creative Agency of the Year for the second consecutive year and winning PRWeek's Global Campaign of the Year for its work with Pantene in Brazil as part of MMK+. About Ketchum The winner of 105 Cannes Lions and PRovoke's Global Creative Agency of the Year, Ketchum is the most creatively awarded firm in our industry. We're equal parts human-centered and business-focused, empathetic and intelligent. As a global communications consultancy, we combine the deep industry and specialty expertise of boutique firms with global reach to find unexpected connections that lead to lasting relationships and work that matters. For more information on Ketchum, a part of Omnicom Public Relations Group, visit www.ketchum.com. About Omnicom Public Relations Group Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, marketing to women, global health strategy and corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more than 6,300 public relations professionals in more than 370 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group delivers for clients through a relentless focus on talent, continuous pursuit of innovation and a culture steeped in collaboration. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range of marketing disciplines including advertising, public relations, healthcare, customer relationship management, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. SOURCE Ketchum Related Links http://www.ketchum.com [February 25, 2021] Trust the Leaders in Online School: Arizona Virtual Academy and Insight School of Arizona Now Accepting Enrollments for 2021-2022 School Year After an academic year like no other, both the Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA), and the Insight School of Arizona (ISAZ), two full-time online public-schools serving students throughout the state, are welcoming students to enroll for the 2021-2022 school year. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005014/en/ AZVA and ISAZ are the state leaders in providing safe, alternative education options, while giving your student a personalized experience and providing them with what they need to succeed. AZVA and ISAZ are tuition-free to all students who reside in Arizona, staffed by state-licensed teachers, and are authorized online public-school programs that are both AdvancED accredited. They offer a personalized approach to learning, delivering rich, engaging curriculum designed to assist students who seek alternative pathways to education. ISAZ serves students in grades 7-12 and AZVA services students of all ages, K-12, why may need a little more help. While working towards their high school diplomas, ISAZ students can participate in the StrideCareer Prep program and discover exciting options for their future in a variety of career fields, including: Business, Health, Education, and IT. They can also earn college credits through partnerships with local colleges and universities and prepare to take industry-recognized certification exams upon graduation. "Students of all ages need consistency and an opportunity to shine; AZVA and ISAZ can provide them with both," said Charles Woods, head of school. "There's no doubt this past school year was unlike any other, but our technology and student-focused curriculum coupled with the passion and courage of our teachers will give your children the advantage they need to succeed at the next level." "The teachers at AZVA/ISAZ are so selfless, and make you feel so good about your ability to do the work," said one AZVA student. "They encourage you, they understand, and they really are the best teachers I've ever worked with." Students choose online school for a variety of reasons including advanced learning, a bullying-free environment, and the ability to support extracurricular pursuits or medical needs. AZVA and ISAZ's online platform gives students the opportunity to pursue their academic goals in a supportive environment and at an appropriate pace for their learning style. AZVA and ISAZ are now accepting enrollments for the 2021-2022 school year. Families are encouraged to attend an online information sessions hosted by the school. More information, how to enroll, and a schedule of upcoming events can be found at https://azva.k12.com/ and https://az.insightschools.net/. About Arizona Virtual Academy Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA) is an AdvancED-accredited, full-time online public charter school that serves Arizona students in kindergarten through 12th grade. As part of the Arizona public school system, AZVA is tuition-free and provides families the choice to access the curriculum and tools provided by K12, a Stride Company (NYSE: LRN). Stride offers learners of all ages a more effective way to learn and build skills for their future. For more information visit azva.k12.com. About Insight Academy of Arizona Insight Academy of Arizona (ISAZ) is an AdvancED-accredited, full-time online public school that serves Arizona students in grades 7-12. As part of the Arizona public school system, ISAZ is tuition-free and provides families the choice to access the curriculum and tools provided by K12, a Stride Company (NYSE: LRN). Stride offers learners of all ages a more effective way to learn and build skills for their future. For more information about ISAZ, visit az.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005014/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The long suspected and finally confirmed permanent closure of Frys Electronics on Wednesday loosed a torrent of nostalgia from tech types who recalled frequenting the quirky themed stores during their heyday, before the one-two punch of the internet and the pandemic knocked the business off the pedestal of retail geekdom. Bay Area residents fondly and not so fondly recalled time spent at the locally founded chain that never quite adapted to a Silicon Valley where hardware increasingly took a backseat to software while e-commerce drove down prices and siphoned sales. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the companys demise, as it has for hundreds of other in-person shops during the past year. Frys was founded in Sunnyvale as a family venture by brothers Randy, John and David Fry in 1985, with Kathryn Kolder as a business partner. Frys announced the shuttering of its 31 stores in nine states on its website. It was a geek paradise, said Abbi Vakil, a hardware engineer who started frequenting the Palo Alto location when he was studying electrical engineering at Stanford in the 1980s. Vakil said there were periods when he would stop by the Portage Avenue store every day before it closed in late 2019. He knew most of the employees names and spent so much time there that he hired two of them away from the store to work for a company of his own. They were always underpaying people, Vakil said, describing the chain as more like your grumpy old uncle, instead of featuring the hyper-friendly customer service pervading other big-box stores. They acted like they were doing us a favor by being there. Still, the chain was fostered by and symbolic of a bygone Silicon Valley era. While grocery shoppers in Los Angeles might be piqued by a celebrity sighting while buying food, a Frys location in the valley always offered the promise of a reasonably priced piece of silicon and a chance to cross paths with an emerging tech titan taking the latest hardware or video game for a spin. Even the store designs catered to a unique, geeky clientele. The San Jose location was built to resemble a stepped Mayan pyramid flanked with palm trees that also dotted the interior. The Palo Alto location adopted a Wild West theme, complete with a life-size cowboy rearing up on horseback. The Campbell store also featured a pyramid, this one of the Egyptian variety, while still another shop featured a flying saucer sticking out from the storefront, as if crash-landed from deep space. Yelp / Around the time of the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, the chain began to expand its offerings, never quite regaining the identity that made it a destination in the late 1980s and early 90s. Frys became a big-box store, Vakil said. The place everybody loved was gone 20 years ago. The drubbing taken by retail during the pandemic appeared to be only part of the reason for the chain having slung its last keyboard. The company had denied rumors of its impending doom in recent years, countering reports of empty shelves that portended the end by claiming it had switched to a consignment model paying suppliers only once an item had been sold. Electronics and appliance stores went down substantially in 2020, and they were no doubt a casualty, Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at market research firm Forrester Research, said in an email. There were rumors of challenges for years, which suggests that it may have had a cash crunch for a while, Kodali said. Any company going into the pandemic with a cash crunch was only going to do worse when cash was even more crucial. Its unfortunate because it was, for many, an institution, but it appears to be another casualty of the pandemic and a further push of sales to eCommerce. In their heyday, Frys stores doubled as hangouts for teens and tech types to grab gear and swap notes on do-it-yourself projects, even if the staff was less than helpful. Deng-Kai Chen, who works at Twitter in the Bay Area, grew up hanging around a space-themed Frys near Anaheim in Orange County. Frys was more than just a store. ... It was an experience, youd meet people with similar interests, he said. While he was in high school, browsing the aisles for hours became an activity of its own, sometimes sparking run-ins with like-minded builders. Oftentimes the staff wouldnt be helpful, but the other person in the aisle with you looking at similar stuff was, Chen said. The store even indirectly helped him get his first job out of college at Google in Mountain View. Asked during the job interview to discuss something he was proud of building, he described a GPS device hed attached to a camera to track the location of his snapshots. I was able to go to Frys and buy parts and create this thing myself, he said. With the supremacy of Amazon and other online retailers only compounded by the pandemic, those serendipitous creations and interactions are dwindling. You can order what you want online, Chen said. But that in-person collaboration and sense of community isnt there. Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Botkeeper, a leading Machine Learning-powered bookkeeping solution, is turning the accounting industry on its ear in 2021. The "service as a software" pioneer that has provided both a direct to SMB and wholesale solution to accounting firms via Botkeeper's Accounting Partner Program, has announced today that they are going all in on their vision to enable accountants and firms by requiring SMBs interested in using Botkeeper to do so through their Partner Community. With Botkeeper's unique approach to client growth and success, this industry disruptor is not just solving the bookkeeping problems within an accounting firm, but they are also acting as a force multiplier to their Accounting Partner's success. "Botkeeper is addressing accounting professionals' biggest pain points," said Enrico Palmerino, Founder and CEO, Botkeeper. "Our AI-powered solution takes hours of tedious bookkeeping work off their plate, allowing accountants to truly be more human and strategic with clients. Going forward, not only will Botkeeper increase efficiencies and the ability for accountants and firms to scale, we will also provide them with leads and revenue by matching them with SMBs instead of having the businesses buy Botkeeper directly." Botkeeper is building a first-of-its-kind model that not only alleviates accounting firms of their bookkeeping challenges, but also connects their partner Accountants/CPAs with businesses in need of bookkeeping and accounting support. Botkeeper's messaging and presence has made a lasting impact on the business owner community, attracting professionals who want to grow and scale their businesses by bringing the best-in-class bookkeeping option into their organizations, resulting in 300k visitors to their website in 2020 alone. With this shift in focus, the company can now funnel those businesses that are raising their hands in need of bookkeeping straight to the Accountants or CPA firms in the Botkeeper ecosystem. Botkeeper's unique approach to growth enablement and client success brings something completely new to the accounting industry and will help shape the future of the profession. "Directing SMBs in need of bookkeeping to our partners allows them to get a skilled team of experts capable of offering not only bookkeeping powered by Botkeeper, but also CFO and advisory services, audit and forensic accounting, and tax and other industry specific offerings," said Palmerino. "We are all-in on advancing the industry in a win-win objective. It's important to add that we have grown accounting firm users five times over last year's use and contracted more than 1,000 partner SMBs in the last 60 days alone." "There are millions of business owners who need high quality and reliable financial data now more than ever. This means that accounting professionals are in higher demand than they have ever been before, but their ability to scale client capacity has always been hindered by the labor-intensive and error-prone bookkeeping methods available," Jessica King, Vice President of Marketing, Botkeeper. "It's truly invigorating to be at the forefront of an entirely new service model. While we've always dreamed of changing the way bookkeeping was done, we're thrilled that we have the opportunity to do something completely new for this space, having found the most powerful way to make that happen." Botkeeper is transforming the accounting industry, bringing the technical innovation that has lagged behind other industries, and creating more opportunity for industry professionals to provide greater value to their clients. Botkeeper's unique combination of machine learning, skilled accountants, and practice management tools automates the most repetitive, labor-intensive parts of an accounting professional's job, leaving more time to provide hands-on client care and to show just how valuable an Accountant or CPA's services can be to a business' bottom line. Botkeeper's strategy of growing its network of Accounting Partners and funnelling businesses in need of accounting services to these partners is going to have a significant impact on the productivity and growth of the industry. "By automating bookkeeping tasks and referring businesses to our accounting industry clients, Botkeeper is committing to help Accountants and CPAs super-charge their growth," said Byron Patrick, Chief of Client Success at Botkeeper. "As we enter into a new year, Botkeeper is ready to help Accountants and CPAs maximize their efficiency and connect with new customers." Botkeeper used 2020 to focus internally on its team, culture, engineering, and Accounting Partners. Employee and client satisfaction scores increased to 4.55 and 4.62 out of 5 respectively. The company's technology team reduced the average manual hours required to service a client by 39 percent. Last year several CPA firms reached 100 percent adoption of Botkeeper for all their clients, with several more slated for firmwide rollouts in 2021 and 2022. "I think that Botkeeper's decision to shift to this new business model presents a great opportunity for CPA firms to focus on the services that provide higher value to their clients," said Evan Paris, Principal at JHR Consulting. "The move to gain market share through leveraging CPA firms is a smart move for Botkeeper and offers a sizable advantage to the CPA firms that join the portal. It allows those CPA firms to offer higher-value services to their clients with no additional internal resources and the ability to become more profitable." To learn more about becoming a Botkeeper Accounting Partner, visit botkeeper.com or send an email to [email protected] to be connected with a specialist. ABOUT BOTKEEPER Botkeeper provides automated bookkeeping support to accounting firms and their business clients by using a powerful combination of skilled accountants, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Clients receive 24/7 accounting and support as well as incredible insight into their financials with interactive dashboards and unlimited reporting. Botkeeper's Accounting Partners are able to grow their book of business and provide high-quality services to their clients, increasing their ability to take on new clients, all while getting crystal clean financials at tax time- all while reducing overhead. Botkeeper is the only solution of its kind, acting as a force multiplier for business owners and accounting firms. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA with offices in North Carolina, New York, and Balanga. Media Contact: Joshua Milne 617-501-1620 [email protected] SOURCE Botkeeper Related Links http://botkeeper.com [February 25, 2021] Inspur Information Releases 2020 Global Computing Index Report Inspur Information, a leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, has sponsored an International Data Corporation ( IDC (News - Alert) ) white paper on the 2020 Global Computing Index (henceforth referred to as The Report). As the world's first index report on computing, The Report unveils the relationship between computing power and economic development and serves as a reference for the outlook of the global digital economy. Global digital transformation has entered a phase marked by exponential growth in innovation, with the size of the digital economy projected to continue on an upward trend. As a key factor that underlies digital technology development, computing is now defining the productivity of the digital economy era. According to The Report, economic growth directly correlates with the development of computing-one point of growth in the computing index translates to a 3.3 rise in the size of the digital economy and a 1.8 growth in GDP. Specifically, AI computing market share is projected to continue on this upward trajectory. Research on computing markets in sample countries shows that AI computing market share has grown from 7% in 2015 to 12% of the overall computing market in 2019 and is expected to reach 23% in 2024. With the largest number of hyper-scale data centers in the world, the United States has demonstrated its strong infrastructure support for computing power growth, ranking first on the index ranking with a score of 75. In second place with a score of 66 is China, followed by Japan (55), Germany (52), and the United Kingdom (47). The Global Computing Index represents a year-long joint effort by Inspur Information and IDC. The Report, covering Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, offers a comprehensive assessment of computing power across four dimensions: computing capacity, computing efficiency, application level, and infrastructure support. Zhang Dong, vice president of Inspur Information, noted that "the application of emerging technologies, especially AI, will be driving the advancement of computing. As the volume of data and the complexity of algorithms continues to rise, computing will be the determining factor for the AI development ceiling." Computing Defines Productivity in the DigitalEconomy Era; Synchronized Development of Emerging Technology Applications and Computing will Foster Economic Growth The development of emerging technologies and computing are mutually beneficial in that computing power provides infrastructure support for emerging technologies, which in turn pushes forward the evolution of computing. IoT, AI, and big data are among the major emerging technologies. In 2020, the global spending on AI by enterprises was forecast to be US$49.87 billion, and this number is estimated to reach US$96.28 billion by 2023. The development of AI is driven by the advancement in computing, data, and algorithms, and sufficient computing power is necessary for the processing of large amounts of data using complex algorithms. The widespread application of IoT will give rise to the fast advancement of edge computing, which has already reshaped IT infrastructure and will revolutionize computing, storage, and networks. Cloud computing is the most important means for improving computing efficiency. IT infrastructure that supports same-pace development of cloud and edge will enable applications of emerging technologies, improve computing power, and eventually reap bigger economic rewards. AI, IoT, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies will be the main drivers for IT spending in the future. Inspur Empowers Computing Power Upgrade through Investment in Open Computing and Artificial Intelligence The Report builds a comparative formula between computing power and economic development and serves as a reference for countries to improve their computing power and economic competitiveness. The digital economy is a significant component of GDP and computing is the foundation for the development of the digital economy. As a leading force in emerging technologies, Inspur is the only server vendor who has joined all major open computing organizations, including OCP (News - Alert) (Open Compute Project), ODCC and Open19, and is a Gold Member of OpenStack. Inspur leads the OpenRMC subproject, which focuses on next-generation data center management standards, and is an active member in OAM specification, the Scorpio Project, and the OTII for establishing edge computing standards. In artificial intelligence, Inspur is the chair of SPEC ML, the Technical Committee on Machine Learning under the international evaluation organization SPEC. While working closely with leading tech companies in AI systems and applications, Inspur leads SPEC ML in the development of AI Test specifications and related benchmarks. As of today, Inspur has the most complete array of GPU servers in the industry with nearly 20 computing platforms supporting GPU numbers ranging from 4 to 64. Inspur also provides ultimate-design GPU servers such as the Inspur NF 5488A5, a 19-time record-setting server in the MLPerf benchmarks. Inspur currently offers full-stack AI capabilities including AI Computing Platform, AI Resource Suite, and Algorithm Toolkit. Please click for more insights from the report. About Inspur Information Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., LTD is a leading provider of data center infrastructure, cloud computing, and AI solutions, ranking among the world's top 3 server manufacturers. Through engineering and innovation, Inspur delivers cutting-edge computing hardware design and extensive product offerings to address important technology arenas like open computing, cloud data center, AI and deep learning. Performance-optimized and purpose-built, our world-class solutions empower customers to tackle specific workloads and real-world challenges. To learn more, please go to www.inspursystems.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005373/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed the charge sheet against the Zonal Commander of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a Jharkhand Based Terrorist Group. The charge sheet said TMC a break-away terrorist group of CPI (Maoist) is also an unlawful organisation proscribed by the State of Jharkhand under CLA Act 1908 while adding that TPC is involved in extortion and levy collection from the businessmen, industrialists, contractors involved in government developmental projects in several districts of Jharkhand and Bihar. The Second Supplementary Charge sheet was filed before the NIA special court in Ranchi on Thursday against Vikas Ganjhu who also goes by the names Avinash, Dashrath Ganjhu, Varun Ji. Vikas Ganjhu is said to be a Zonal Commander of TPC. The charge sheet has been filed u/s under sections 120B read with 386 of Indian Penal Code, sections 17, 18, 20 & 21 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and section 17 of Criminal Law Amendment Act IN RC-23/2018/NIA/DLI. Further investigation in the case is underway. READ | BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi Demands NIA Probe Into Killing Of RSS Worker In Kerala READ | NIA Court Files Charges Against Pro-Pak Separatist Aasiya Andrabi & Two Of Her Associates The case was initially registered in November 2017 at Panki Police Station in the Palamu district of Jharkhand. It pertained to the recovery of Rs 5 lakh in cash along with arms and ammunition from a person named Shyam Bhokta who was a TPC operative. Thereafter NIA took over the investigation in July 2018 after re-registering the case as RC 23/2018/NIA/DLI. Accused Vikas Ganjhu who was earlier absconding was remanded in September 2020. An investigation into the case has established that the arrested accused colluded with the top leadership of TPC and was actively involved in extortion and levy collection for further strengthening TPC and to carry out various terrorist activities. In July 2017 too, NIA had filed the first supplementary charge sheet against eight accused persons - Shyam Bhokta, Uchit Mahto, Premsagar Mahto, Amit Singh, AkramanJi, Laxman Ganju aka Kohram Ji, Mukesh Ganjhu and Nageswar Ganju aka Tarun Ji in this case. READ | Maoist Killed In Encounter With Police In Jharkhand READ | Chhattisgarh: ITBP Diffuses Two IEDs Placed Inside Pressure Cooker & Pipe On The Spot I never offered anything to a public official or a government official never anything in exchange for anything, Caldero said. Danny Solis was a friend of mine for 40 years. If he asked me for something I would try to do it for him. I attended every fundraiser he ever held. I raised $100,000 to $200,000 for him. None of that was a bribe. Kerrville, TX (78028) Today Thunderstorms likely. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible. Google on Wednesday was sued by the attorney general of Washington state for failing to provide information about political advertising, despite having been successfully sued in 2018 for the same offense - a violation which saw the tech giant fined $217,000. Google decided to ban political ads in Washington state after the case, and yet kept selling them. Journalists asked the company why, but their requests for details were not answered. Robert Ferguson, the attorney general, accused Google of 'unlawfully failing to maintain key information regarding state political ads that it sold, and failing to provide that information to individuals who requested it.' Robert Ferguson, the attorney general of Washington state, sued Google on Wednesday Ferguson filed a 53-page document accusing Google of failing to disclose details of political ads In the 53-page complaint, Ferguson highlighted the work of two reporters whose efforts in 2019 to get Google to provide information on the adverts were unsuccessful. Eli Sanders, who worked for Seattle blog The Stranger, requested information from Google about a Spokane public safety initiative. 'While Google acknowledged receipt of the request, it failed to timely provide Sanders with information about those ads,' said Ferguson. Google is yet to respond to the suit, which is similar to one which saw them fined in 2018 Sanders referenced a campaign advert, used as evidence by Ferguson, for a Spokane election Sanders in March 2019 pointed out that the impact of the political adverts was significant, saying they purchased 'more than a million Google ad impressions, for a low-turnout February special election in which only about 40,000 people actually voted.' Another example of the Google adverts that the company did not explain to Sanders A second reporter, Tallman Trask, with the Washington Journal of Law, sought information about Google ads relating to Seattle City Council races and other 2019 elections in Washington. Google provided only partial information in response, Ferguson said. Trask in July 2019 tweeted: 'Alrighty, Seattle City Council candidates, let's have a talk about transparency, because a lot of you don't quite seem to get it (even some of you who I like a lot!). But first, a really quick history lesson . . . 'Since 1972, Washington has had, as a direct result of voter support, strong campaign finance disclosure requirements. For some time, those requirements have included some specific things disclosures by commercial advertisers selling political ads. 'The disclosures required a pretty simple; it's all about who is being targeted with the advertising, money spent, simple stuff like that that all advertisers have really easy access to. 'But there are some advertisers, digital ones, who think the rules and laws supported by Washington voters don't apply to them. Some of them decided they didn't want to follow the law, but they didn't want to break it either, so they left.' Trask asked who was paying for ads in the Seattle City Council election (above) Washington's Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) reported Google's failure to comply to Ferguson in the fall, and he filed his case on Wednesday - emphasizing that, as Google had already been fined for a similar offense, he was determined to extract a significant penalty. 'I take repeat violations of our campaign finance laws very seriously,' he said in a statement. 'Google is one of the largest corporations in the world, and should be able to figure out how to follow our campaign finance laws. Washingtonians demanded transparency in their elections. 'My office will honor the will of the people and continue enforcing the law to ensure our elections are fair and transparent.' Washington campaign finance law requires commercial advertisers like Google to maintain specific information about Washington political ads within 24 hours of the ad's publication. The information includes details such as the name of the candidate or measure supported or opposed; the name and address of the person or committee who sponsored the advertising; the total cost: and how it was paid for. The information must be provided 'promptly' to members of the public when requested. Since Ferguson filed the first case against Google in June 2018, 57 Washington candidates and political committees have reported 188 payments for ads on Google, paying a total of $461,334 for the publicity. Washington campaign finance law allows the court to assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation. Facebook was hit with a similar suit by Ferguson in April 2020, with the case ongoing. A spokesman for Google told DailyMail.com: 'We don't accept Washington state election ads. 'Advertisers that submit these ads are violating our policies and we take measures to block such ads and remove violating ads when we find them. 'We have been working cooperatively with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission on these issues and look forward to defending this litigation.' Foodservice company will create more than 50 new jobs Fayetteville location will expand to add new product line NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe and Franke Foodservice Systems (Franke) officials announced today that the company will expand its Lincoln County operations and create at least 56 jobs. Franke is in the midst of a $1.3 million investment to expand and make building improvements to its operations in Fayetteville, including the addition of woodworking capability to its core stainless-steel fabrication activities. Franke specializes in the design and manufacture of foodservice equipment to equip major restaurant chains with everything from workstations to entire facilities. Franke also distributes replacement equipment and supplies to customers globally from its facilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Over the last five years, TNECD has supported nearly 10 economic development projects in Lincoln County, resulting in 900 job commitments and $165 million in capital investment. QUOTES Franke has been a valued part of the Fayetteville community for over 25 years, and I congratulate the company on its latest expansion. The manufacturing sector is thriving in Tennessee, and this investment will continue that momentum. Gov. Bill Lee We congratulate Franke on its fourth expansion at its Fayetteville location. This project is proof that weve created an environment where global companies, when faced with the decision of where to expand, choose to do so at their Tennessee operations. Franke provides quality solutions for the foodservice industry, and were proud to be a place where manufacturing companies are guaranteed to find a highly-skilled workforce. TNECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe We are excited at the opportunity to add new capabilities and personnel to Fayetteville to be able to handle additional product lines for our growing customer base. With the help of Tennessee resources, we are able to hire and train the kind of productive workers that keep our growth engine running and make us competitive in a demanding marketplace. Christian Mathesius, CEO, Franke Foodservice Systems, Smyrna, Tenn. "I want to thank Franke for the confidence they have showed in our community and especially Lincoln County's workforce for the planned $1,357,625 investment that will bring 56 new jobs." Lincoln County Mayor Bill Newman The City of Fayetteville is excited to learn that Franke has announced the expansion of their existing business in Fayetteville with the addition of 56 new jobs for our community. This is great news, especially during the uncertainty of this past year across the state and our country. Fayetteville City Mayor Michael Whisenant TVA and Fayetteville Public Utilities congratulate Franke Foodservice Systems on its decision to expand operations in Lincoln County. Its always an exciting day when we can celebrate a companys continued commitment to growing in the Valley. We are proud to partner with Fayetteville-Lincoln County Industrial Development Board, Middle Tennessee Industrial Development Board and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to help support companies, like Franke Foodservice Systems create job opportunities for the people of the region. John Bradley, TVA senior vice president of Economic Development "Tennessee's business-friendly environment gives companies of all types the opportunity to create quality jobs for our residents. I am very pleased Franke will be expanding their operations in Fayetteville. We are grateful for their investment in our community. Sen. Shane Reeves (R-Murfreesboro) "I am very pleased with Franke Foodservice Systems announcement to expand their operations in Fayetteville. Businesses like these play a vital role in our community. I appreciate Franke for providing high-quality jobs and investing in our skilled workforce and local economy." Speaker Pro Tempore Pat Marsh (R-Shelbyville) TNECD Media Contact Molly Hair Public Information Officer (615) 878-0063 molly.hair@tn.gov About the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Developments mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. To grow and strengthen Tennessee, the department seeks to attract new corporate investment to the state and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth. Find us on the web: tnecd.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @tnecd. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/tnecd. ### UpCountry Magazine Editor/Features Digital Editor Jennifer Huberdeau is the acting features editor. Prior to The Eagle, she worked at The North Adams Transcript. She is a 2020 New England First Amendment Institute Fellow and a 2010 BCBS Health Care Fellow. A local COVID-19 vaccine provider postponed a mass vaccination clinic scheduled for Saturday at North Pocono High School. Allyson Favuzza, co-owner of Hometown Health Care of NEPA in Covington Twp., said she postponed the clinic until March 13 because the state Department of Health could not provide enough second doses of the Moderna vaccine in time. Favuzza said her center vaccinated about 1,000 people eligible under current rules on Jan. 30 at the high school. Since then, the Department of Health announced a shortage of second doses of Moderna vaccines and said as many as 60,000 second doses could be delayed statewide. Normally, the second Moderna dose is administered 28 days after the first, a period that ends Saturday in the case of Favuzzas vaccinations. Federal guidelines allow for stretching that to 42 days, which allows for March 13 vaccinations. The department is guaranteeing she will have the 1,000 doses by then, Favuzza said. Its going to take place again at North Pocono High School, and all the patients appointment times will remain the same, she said. So whatever time they were scheduled for on (Saturday), theyre scheduled for on the 13th. Unfortunately, its a little bit of a mess right now. And you know, the state is really working hard to correct this. Theyre doing the best with what they have, Favuzza added. However, its extremely frustrating, not only to patients out there who are still trying to get their vaccine, but to us as providers who were told originally that we were guaranteed second doses by day 28. So far, at least 1,531,194 state residents have received at least the first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, according to data posted on the states vaccine dashboard. In local counties, Lackawanna has had 40,536 residents receive at least the first dose; Luzerne, 52,843; Monroe, 13,533; Pike, 4,296; Susquehanna, 4,021; Wayne, 6,666; and Wyoming, 3,445. Daily cases, deaths The seven-county Northeast Pennsylvania region recorded fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases for the fifth day in a row, the first time that happened since early November. The 173 new cases increased the total to 56,366 in the region that includes Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. Statewide, the state Department of Health recorded another 2,356 new cases, the fewest in a single day since Nov. 2. In all, Pennsylvania has recorded 922,990 confirmed or probable cases of the virus. The Department of Health recorded another 81 deaths for 23,868 total. In the region, another four deaths raised the total to 1,610. By county: Lackawanna added 47 cases for 13,772 total, including 2,052 probable, and remained at 414 deaths. Luzerne added 71 cases for 24,737 total, including 1,802 probable. Two new deaths raised the county total to 724. Monroe added 23 cases for 9,543 total, including 243 probable. Two new deaths raised the county total to 266. Pike added 16 cases for 2,477 total, including 203 probable, and remained at 47 deaths. Susquehanna added three cases for 1,689 total, including 189 probable, and remained at 53 deaths. Wayne added 10 cases for 2,994 total, including 257 probable, and remained at 66 deaths. Wyoming added three cases for 1,154 total, including 195 probable, and remained at 40 deaths. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in the Senate subway area of the Capitol on Feb. 4, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Sen. Paul, Rep. Wilson Introduce National Right to Work Act Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) introduced legislation that would ensure that all American workers can choose to refrain from joining or paying dues to a union as a condition for employment. Their proposal, the National Right to Work Act of 2021, repeals six provisions of current federal law and regulation that grant labor unions the power to collect mandatory membership dues from all employees in a workplace covered by a representation agreement. Twenty-seven states have adopted right-to-work laws since they were authorized by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, but the federal government hasnt followed suit, despite a 1988 Supreme Court ruling in Communications Workers of America v. Beck that workers cant be required to join a union as a condition of employment. More than eight in 10 Americans say workers should be free to join a union if they want to, but no one should be forced to join a union, Paul said in a video statement made public with the release of the proposal. The way the law is written today, millions of private-sector workers can be forced to surrender part of every paycheck to a labor union as a condition of employment. The Supreme Court has already ruled that federal employees have the right to work under federal law, and my bill makes sure that employees of private businessesairlines, railroads, and so forthwill get the same protections. It is time to put bargaining power back where it belongs, in the hands of American workers. Wilson said in a statement: I, along with over 80 percent of the American people, believe that every worker should have the power to decide whether or not to negotiate for themselves with their employer. This bill is about giving freedom to hard-working Americans. As one of 27 right-to-work states, South Carolina has seen first-hand the job creation when we protect freedoms for American workers, with Michelin, BMW, and Boeing, among many others. Co-sponsors of the proposal in the Senate include Republican Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Charles Grassley of Iowa, John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Cornyn of Texas, John Boozman of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Mike Braun of Indiana, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. No Democrats are currently co-sponsors. Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said in a video accompanying the release of the proposal that the National Right to Work Act is a one-page bill that does one simple thing: It lets workers choose for themselves whether a union deserves their support. Big Labors push-button unionism bill, the so-called PRO Act, is a massive and monstrous bill giving the union bosses sweeping new powers of coercion over every aspect of the workplace, including the destruction of all 27 state right-to-work laws, Mix said. While union bosses and their pet politicians wage an all-out assault on workers in Right to Work states, Senator Paul and Congressman Wilson are working to expand Right to Work protections to every American and, in doing so, standing with the nearly eight out of 10 Americans that oppose forced unionism. Mix was referring to H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021, introduced by House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va,). The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the urgent need for Congress to protect and strengthen workers rights, Scott said Feb. 24, while introducing the proposal. Over the past year, workers across the country have been forced to work in unsafe conditions for insufficient pay because they lacked the ability to stand together and negotiate with their employer. The PRO Act is an opportunity to honor the contributions of the many frontline workers during the pandemic and American workers nationwide who continue to uphold our economy, Scott said. The PRO Act would repeal the 27 state right-to-work laws presently on the books and significantly increase the power of labor unions to organize nonunion workforces and collect dues from all of a companys employees. A Senate version of the PRO Act, which was approved by the House in 2019, but never brought up for a vote in the then-Republican-controlled Senate, was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc Port of Tauranga Reports Improved Profits Despite Widespread Disruption to Cargo Volumes and Operations Port seeks consent for an additional berth to help alleviate Upper North Island supply chain congestion Port of Tauranga, New Zealands largest port and international freight gateway, today reported increased profitability for the first six months of the 2021 financial year, despite volatile cargo volumes and congestion issues being experienced at Ports of Auckland. Group Net Profit After Tax for the six months to December 2020 was $49.4 million, a 2.3% increase on the same period the previous year, despite a 1.3% decrease in total trade volumes, to 13.1 million tonnes. Container numbers decreased 4.6% compared with the previous corresponding period, to 612,988 TEUs. Port of Tauranga Limited Chair, David Pilkington, said the mid-year financial results were very pleasing considering the volatility in cargo volumes over the period and reflected the stability offered by the diverse companies in the group. We have managed to maintain income throughout a challenging six months. Port of Tauranga handled near record volumes of containers in the months of October and December. However, lower-than-previous demand from June to August, and vessel delays in November, dragged down the year-to-date container volumes, he said. Its a similar story when we look at overall cargo tonnes. Volumes decreased 1.3% for the six month period, yet volumes in December 2020 were 15.1% higher than the same month in 2019. Mr Pilkington said severe vessel delays out of Auckland since September had significant flow-on impacts on Port of Tauranga. We have done our best to accommodate diverted import and export cargoes from Auckland. However, we have had to limit our assistance as we have been constrained by the lack of availability of additional rolling stock and train drivers for the rail link between Tauranga and Auckland. The average cargo exchange per container vessel was 21% higher in December 2020 compared with December 2019, due to the cargo bypassing Auckland. Late arriving vessels have been slow to pick up exports, exacerbating container yard congestion. Port of Tauranga Chief Executive, Mark Cairns, says the January 1 introduction of penalties for shippers rolling cargo or leaving their containers on the wharf for excessive time has provided some relief from yard congestion. The peak export season is now in full swing. We need all parts of the supply chain to do their bit and we are very grateful for the cooperation of importers and exporters in improving terminal productivity. Unfortunately, the threat of congestion remains and is unlikely to dissipate until Ports of Auckland sorts out its operational problems, said Mr Cairns. We accommodated a container vessel at our Mount Maunganui bulk cargo wharves in December to try and alleviate the pre-Christmas stress for retailers. New Zealands ability to absorb the worldwide disruption caused by Covid-19 has been severely constrained. Financial results Revenue increased 3% to $159.5 million due to greater income from the container terminal and strong performances from Subsidiaries and Associates, which saw a 22.3% increase in earnings. Overall costs increased 5.2%. Net Profit After Tax increased 2.3% to $49.4 million. During the period, Port of Tauranga completed the acquisition of Kotahi Logistics 50% shareholding in Timaru Container Terminal. The terminal is now being operated by Port of Taurangas subsidiary, Quality Marshalling. Please see the links below for details: Media Release on interim results to 31 December 2020 NZX Results Announcement NZX Distribution Notice NZX Letter listing attachments Market Update - February 2021 Investor Presentation-February 2021 Source: Port of Tauranga Limited 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: 1st June 2021 Morning Report Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Update Following Canterbury Flooding Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 31st May 2021 Morning Report The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) Media Reporting Regarding Potential Class Action Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Forecast Milk Price Update General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Continues on Its Strong Growth Path Third Age Health Services Limited (NZX: TAH) Announces Preliminary Full Year Result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) Better Positioned for Future Growth Green Cross Health Limited (NZX: GXH) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 Career path Band Aid happened when I was in fifth year and the discussion of famine made me want to work overseas; though I didnt act on this instinct until I was 30. Growing up in Limerick my dad was a dentist, my mum a radiographer and my two brothers had graduated as doctors so that was all a big influence on me going to the Royal College of Surgeons. Apart from an unformed desire to work abroad, I had no career path, so I did the General Practice scheme. I worked in Cavan for two years and was lecturing in UCD when it struck me I would be doing this for the rest of my life if I did not go and work abroad. Up until now I had not been out of Europe and I will be forever grateful to John OShea in Goal because that organisations ethos of just go and do it gave me the opportunity and without experience the other aid agencies and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) would not hire me. I remember the day in 1999 when I was called into the Goal office in Dun Laoghaire where I went down to the basement to chat with very nice HR people who told me the good news is youre hired as a project coordinator in South Sudan in a tiny place called One Rock, but the bad news is we cant find it on the map. Expand Close Simon Collins of Travel Health Clinic working for Medecins Sans Frontieres In the Central African Republic in 2006 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Collins of Travel Health Clinic working for Medecins Sans Frontieres In the Central African Republic in 2006 Self regulation The place was actually called Wunock and the project had been set up by an Irish priest from Co Meath who had married a local and got very involved in human rights following the 1998 famine and ongoing civil war. I lived in a mud hut with no electricity or running water with three other expats and we ran a network the size of Limerick, building and running semi-permanent clinics and flying everything in like Meccano sets. It was chaotic. One day we had a US evangelical church group show up with $60,000 in a suitcase and we used the money to build a clinic. We would work all day and lie under the stars drinking beer at night with a getaway bag at the end of our beds. A decade later when I set up the Travel Health Clinic, our trading name was One Rock in recognition of my two years in Sudan which saw me completely lose my fear and change my career direction which I started by doing a diploma in tropical medicine. The day before I left Africa was the day before the Twin Tower attacks and I had swung an interview with John Garang of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). He was leading the mainly Christian south against the countrys Muslim Arab government up north in Khartoum and this was an incredible experience for me. I then did a Masters in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London where my dissertation focused on this. After this I sat in Dublin the summer of 2012 with no idea what to do when Goal phoned and asked me to help for six weeks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There was a new country director who was a bit unconventional. I went out and he resigned in the bush on a Saturday night there was a team of 15 expats and 200 local staff and I was the only show in town. This was the toughest job I ever had, a crash course in diplomacy and management with schoolboy French. After a year and a half I followed a German nurse I was seeing, who was working with MSF, to Congo-Brazzaville. Now I had experience MSF were offering me work. I loved being a hands-on doctor again and the next couple of years took me to West Darfur and the Central African Republic. It was gung-ho and appealed to my slightly subversive side. I still get calls from MSF when they need help. It is like the aid agencies, once you are on the books you never come off. My wife Kate lets me go for a month at a time. I helped the Ebola response in Congo (2019) and Sierra Leone (2014) and was in Haiti (2010) for the earthquake. Im an old dog now but Kate understands this is part of me and something I like to do. Thought into action When I met Kate in 2006 I realised I wanted to live long term in Ireland and we got married in 2009. She is the engine of the company I was forever droning on about setting up my own business but all I could see were hurdles and Kate made every obstacle disappear. To her nothing is impossible. If I said it was the money she knew someone in a bank to apply for a loan. If it is a computer issue she knows someone who can sort it. Im so lucky I met her. She is the co-director and works with me running the business she is so good with people. Without Kate I would still be talking about it. Expand Close Simon Collins of the Travel Health Clinic with translator Abul Hamid in Darfur, western Sudan, Jan 2005 working with Medecins sans Frontieres / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Collins of the Travel Health Clinic with translator Abul Hamid in Darfur, western Sudan, Jan 2005 working with Medecins sans Frontieres Upheaval The pandemic saw our travel business dry up overnight. Initially, we could not see we would move into antibody and PCR Covid testing, that we would survive, so it was an anxious time. When lockdown was announced it made sense to shut the doors. I worked in St James in the ICU for a few weeks until the peak passed. Turning patients that are ventilated on their backs can take four or five people, and my experience from the Congo and Sierra Leone was useful. There were lots of people who wanted the reassurance of knowing if they have had Covid so we started offering antibody tests, and then in May when the commercial labs started Covid testing, we did this and within two weeks we had all staff working again. Quick turnaround Im up at 6.30am and I check test results on my phone and email the results. People are often waiting to hop on a flight and accuracy is crucial. We have done over 4,000 so far. I recently treated myself to an electric bike and after breakfast with the family I zoom into work. Kate is working from home mostly but if not she will walk in after me. For any positive tests I liaise with HSE contact tracing. I arrange a courier for the first set of samples mid morning to bring to the lab, and we have four more couriers arrive throughout the day with the last one at 5.30pm. Between seeing people for tests, I check emails. We have many corporate clients, so I could be advising an aid worker who is sick in hospital they show me their test results and pictures of medicine and I liaise with the doctors. Everyone who comes for a Covid test has a story many people are flying home to countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria or Honduras because a parent is sick. Or they are returning and work in childcare and their employer requires a test. The other category of people who are travelling tend to be on the executive side you dont see many juniors. I usually work Saturday morning and Ill answer emails. On Sunday I try to take a day off. Myself and Kate talk about the business non-stop, its our third child. Security When you run a business with a number of staff we have ten, some part time the person who gets paid last is you. So in a so-so year, everyone gets paid a normal amount, and you get paid less. In a good year, everyone gets paid a normal amount and you get paid more. For now everything we have goes into the business. The upside is feeling more in control of our own destiny and getting home to read a bedtime story to Elizabeth (10) and David (7) every night. Thank goodness for JK Rowling. Im grateful to have a job that gets me physically out of the house and its not all Covid. We still have a tiny blip of aid workers walking in the door with malaria. That side of the business is close to my heart and will always be with us. We dont know how our business will change though we hope in a few years we will return to how we were before. When the Tourism ministry announced British supermodel Naomi Campbell as the international ambassador for Magical Kenya, a large section of the Kenyan online community questioned why the govt could not have gone for a Kenyan face. Given her target audience, some saw Naomi as a natural fit for such a role, but others wondered why we did not go with Lupita Nyongo. This led to a case of he said, she said between Tourism minister Najib Balala and the Oscar-winning actor, with the former claiming the latter was inaccessible for 5 years. Read: Lupita Responds To Balala, Accuses Him of Lying Lupita laughed off Balalas claims and the issue soon simmered down. Fast forward to about a month later and those who were against Naomi Campbell being Magical Kenya international ambassador appear to have been vindicated. In her first post promoting Kenya since her appointment in January, the 50-year-old shared a stunning video showcasing Magical Kenya but used a Nigerian song as its soundtrack. The models caption was also all about Kenya and therefore, it would have been appropriate to accompany the video with a Kenyan song. Naomi, however, went with the song, In My Maserati by Nigerian hitmaker Olakira, sparking backlash from some Kenyans on social media. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Naomi Campbell (@naomi) Media Personality and NRG radio presenter Mwalimu Rachel was among the first to point out Naomi snubbed Kenyan music acts She wrote: Live and Die in Africa by @sautisol would have made a more fitting soundtrack to this beautiful footage. Wow, I was hoping you could have used a Kenyan Soundtrack as well.. said another Instagram user. A third wrote: That song is good but we can sell Kenya with Kenyan songs I have a few suggestions if you like. Kenya has soundtracks you can use as well, shared another Kenyan. Another expressed her disappointment saying: The background song is a letdown Bro why couldnt you use a Kenyan track lol We actually have good tracks kindly do your job properly another comment reads. Is anyone not going to notice the fact that shes used a Nigerian song? Ama its not important? posed another. One IG user blasted Campbell: Mushenzi(idiot), the video is too basic, you have used Nigerian song to promOte Kenya?!! Things of this earth, meeting has defeated! Come on weve got awesome kenyan tracks. Feels like youre marketing Nigerian culture, another observed. Kenyas transgender fashion stylist Letoya Johnstone added: Dear sweet @naomi I hope you used Kenyan music on the background. This is said in humility. We are all Africans and we love our African music however, I feel that this was for Kenya and her musicians tunes could have been awesome. Just my humble opinion sweetie Some more reactions from the no-nonsense Kenyans on Twitter. Ive removed that silly song from Naomi Campbells video of Kenya. This is better!! We wont be disrespected like that pic.twitter.com/B8j8iqX7xv Lumumba wa Eduvast (@e_lumumba) February 24, 2021 Naomi Campbell using a Nigerian song to market Kenyas tourism pic.twitter.com/uvnbkGLVwk Tired Kenyan (@Xmalcomme) February 24, 2021 Yall hating on Naomi Campbell latest video marketing Kenya to be the tourist destination ,Just because of a Nigerian song that yall been dancing on while clubbing every weekend. Save us some slack and direct your bile elsewhere. We can uplift others not necessarily a kenyan KabarakFinest001 (@KabarakFinest01) February 24, 2021 Haha Naomi Campbell actually did a video marketing Kenya and used a Nigerian song as a bedtrack Na venye Kenyan musicians walimtetea online when we were questioning her capacity for Shithousery Steve Ruigu Njuguna (@Joashnjuguna) February 24, 2021 Walisema Naomi Campbell anafanya hii kazi pro-bono. Wacha achague Music yake basi. Si ni free. Kwani mtaambia mtu vile awafanyie free promotion. BRAVIN YURI (@BravinYuri) February 24, 2021 We have great songs in kenya that Naomi Campbell could have used in her Video experience in Kenya.. This is Better pic.twitter.com/rH18uor9Af UntitledHK (@UntitledHK) February 24, 2021 Kenyans have expressed their disaffection after Supermodel Naomi Campbell posted a video promoting Magical Kenya using a Nigerian song. Many Kenyans were left wondering why she did not consider using a Kenyan song to promote the countries tourism destination. pic.twitter.com/NPNI20c3en Fact Zone Africa (@FactZoneAfrica) February 24, 2021 Some people dont know that Naomi Campbell took up the role to promote Tourism in Kenya for Free Madam Sarah (@OumaSarah1) February 24, 2021 so Naomi Campbell decided to promote Olakira using Kenyas sightswonders of foolishness now Lets wait for Caroline Mutoko to justify?@CarolineMutoko @tunajibu @Nairobi_News Shaggy (@Code035) February 24, 2021 Naomi campbell marketing kenya with naija music stuxnet (@Kamtu_Ka_Chai) February 24, 2021 Naomi Campbell used In My Maserati in that video of hers pic.twitter.com/jloDch5Cvl BOYOT (@Kevlan_) February 24, 2021 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. The family of a woman who has been missing since early January say her remains were found next to the mother-of-three's wrecked car in Colorado but officials have not yet positively identified the body. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced on Wednesday evening that law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, and search and rescue teams on Tuesday recovered the human remains on the remote Wolf Creek Pass in the San Juan Mountains. According to the agency, the body, which has not been positively identified as of Thursday afternoon, was found about 150 feet away from a Ford Focus hatchback, which officials said had been involved in a crash. Marlena Mizell, 49, was last seen leaving a gas station in South Fork, Colorado, at noon on January 2. Mizell is a mother of three and a grandmother Mizell's blue 2011 Ford Focus hatchback with a Texas license plate was located in the South Fork area this week A woman's body was found 150 feet away from the Ford Focus off of Colorado State Highway 160 A day earlier, the South Fork Police Department announced that a blue 2012 Ford Focus with Texas license plates believed to be owned by missing woman Marlena Mizell, 49, had been found in the South Fork area. While the body's identification was still pending, Mizell's daughters and her fiance publicly confirmed that she had died. According to the CBI's press release, the Ford Focus was found hundreds of feet off of Colorado State Highway 160. 'Investigators with the Colorado State Patrol are working to determine the cause of the crash,' an agency spokesperson wrote. Mizell, a mother of three and a grandmother, was reported missing by her family on January 2. She was last seen pumping gas at the Rainbow Grocery in South Fork at around noon. Her cellphone last pinged north of Dulce, New Mexico, which is 44 miles away from the location of her last sighting. Mizell's daughters, Sarah Ferguson and Megan Mizell, on Wednesday appeared on Tyson Draper's YouTube show, Tyger True Crime, confirming that the body found on Wolf Creek Pass was their mother's, and accusing some local officials of dragging their feet on the search and not doing enough to recover her quicker. 'She was always right there and we could feel it. The whole time. Just right there. We pleaded for help to search,' Ferguson wrote in the description of a GoFundMe campaign seeking donations to help the family pay for Mizell's funeral. Meanwhile, Mizell's fiance has been posting messages on his Facebook page, mourning her loss. 'I will never again find someone so beautiful, loving and spiritually incredible,' he wrote. 'You had so much love to give this world and we are now left without your love to keep us warm and safe. My world, our world is so much colder now. I miss you ladybug.' Mizell's daughters said on the morning of her disappearance, their mother went to confront her fiance (left) and a woman believed to be his lover about an alleged affair This map shows the location of Mizell's last sighting in South Fork, where her phone pinged for the last time in Dulce, New Mexico, and where her car was found on Wolf Creek Pass Last week, Mizell's daughters said in an interview on Tyger True Crime that their mother vanished a day after disseminating nude photos of her fiance's alleged lover. Megan Mizell said she last spoke to her mother on the phone at 10.16am on the morning of her disappearance, and she said it was a 'semi-normal' conversation that lasted a couple of minutes. 'But at the very end she said, "I love you, Megan," in a way that I'm not used to, so that kind of raised some concerns with me,' she recalled. Megan said the family have since learned that less than 15 minutes after Marlena got off the phone with her daughter, she allegedly went to confront her fiance and a woman about their affair. Mizell's phone has not been answering and there has been no activity on her bank account Megan also claimed that on that same day, the woman went to pick up her husband from a halfway house, which coincided with Mizell's disappearance. The owner of the Rainbow Lodge cabins where Mizell had been staying saw her drive away at around noon, but said her fiance stayed there for the rest of the night, waiting for her to return. A month after Mizell's disappearance, her fiance, Kurt, posted a message on Facebook that read: 'My fiance has been missing now 30 days. It been a heart breaking crisis in our family and were all praying for her safe return. I pray every day God brings Marlena back to me , and her whole family safely and soon. We havent found any trace of her car, her, or anything she left out of here with, which is very Little.' Mizell's daughters said their mother was planning to return to her native Texas at the time she went missing. In describing her mother, Megan said she would not have shied away from a physical confrontation, if provoked. On February 14, Megan Mizell, Marlena's daughter, was interviewed by YouTube host Tyson Draper about her mother's missing person case Megan Mizell and her sister, Sarah Ferguson (right), have been raising awareness of their mother's disappearance on social media Mizell's daughters said her phone has not been answered and there has been no activity on her bank account. Police have not said whether they suspect foul play. So far, no one has been identified as a suspect or a person of interest, and no arrests have been made. Mizell was last seen wearing a black one-piece pants jumpsuit. She has brown hair and blue eyes, high cheek bones and scars on her chin and neck. She has two tattoos: a hummingbird near her stomach and a butterfly on her ankle. Mizell takes medication daily that she is without and may require medical attention. Anyone with information on the woman's whereabouts is being asked to contact the South Fork Police Department at 719-873-1040. High Surf for All Oregon Coast; Washington Coast High Winds | Snow in Passes Upated 02/25/21 By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Portland, Oregon) UPDATED: HIGH SURF ADVISORY ADDED FOR N. OREGON COAST. Extra caution will be needed on the beaches of Oregon this week, and possibly the passes to and from the coast. Quite a mixed bag of weather and surf conditions are heading to the Oregon and Washington coast over the next few days, with a high surf advisory soon to be in effect for Oregons coast and parts of the Washington coast under high wind and flooding advisories. Large waves are predicted for Oregons northern half as well, and to top it off there will be snow in the higher elevations of the Coast Range over the weekend. The National Weather Service (NWS) offices in Medford, Portland and Seattle have sent out various alerts, with a new advisory for the northern half of Oregon's coast just added, along with the southern third of the Washington coast. All of the Southern Oregon coast is under a high surf advisory from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday. This includes the towns of Winchester Bay, Coos Bay, Bandon, Gold Beach and Brookings. The advisory for the northern half and the southern third of Washington's coast runs fro 1 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. The NWS said breaking waves will be 20 to 25 feet onshore. Look out for hazardous conditions along and within the surf zone, [which] could inundate beaches and low lying shorelines. Beach erosion is possible, and exposed infrastructure may be damaged. The bulk of the Oregon coast has already seen some very heavy erosion this winter, with waves having taken out five to ten feet worth of dunes some of the highest seen in recent years, according to many observers. Storms Take Out Massive Chunks of Oregon Coast Dunes, Some Dangerous Out at sea, the NWS has issued a hazardous seas warning for vessels offshore. See Oregon Coast Weather - Washington Coast Weather See Oregon Coast Sky Cams - Web Cams, Weather Cams On the northern half of the Oregon coast and southern Washington seas, the NWS is saying combined seas offshore could reach as high as 27 feet. Keep an eye on the Oregon coast weather pages for any such updates. The advisories for the southern Washington coastline were just added today, but the NWS in Seattle said there was also a high wind advisory in effect through Thursday morning for the central and north Washington coast and a flood watch that ended last night for the Grays Harbor area. On the northern Oregon Coast Range, some amount of snow is expected Saturday in elevations over 2,000 feet. Accumulation of up to 3 inches is possible, which will cause some traffic issues for a time. See Oregon Coast Traffic Conditions MORE PHOTOS BELOW Oregon Coast Hotels for this event - South Coast Hotels - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours MORE PHOTOS BELOW Coquille Point, Bandon, courtesy courtesy Rick Poecker / King Tides Project More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :The State Council, China's cabinet, announced the appointment and removal of officials Thursday.Ye Min was appointed deputy head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and head of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, replacing Liu Hua. Zhang Xiaohong was named vice minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, replacing Yi Jun.Wang Zhiqing was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Transport. Ni Yuewei was appointed deputy head of the China Earthquake Administration. Liu Lisheng was removed from the post of deputy head of the National Archives Administration. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) - A measure paving the way for former Moro rebels to gain employment in the autonomous region cleared the Bangsamoro Transition Authority. The body unanimously approved on Wednesday Cabinet Bill 59 or the Bangsamoro Civil Service Code of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The authority said in a statement, the Civil Service Code is a priority legislation as it will provide a favorable policy environment that would give chance to our qualified mujahideen (fighters) to be considered for employment by the Bangsamoro government during the transition period. The BARMM parliament passed the Bangsamoro Administrative Code in October 2020. READ: Displacement and untold histories: The Bangsamoro in transition The Education Code, Local Government Code, and Electoral Code are still pending at the committees in parliament. West Virginia University scientists used MRI scans to show what happens when ultrasound waves target a specific area of Alzheimer's patient's brains. They concluded that this treatment may induce an immunological healing response, a potential breakthrough for a disease that accounts for up to 80% of all dementia cases. Rashi Mehta, a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine and Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, led the study that appears in the journal Radiology. "Focused ultrasound is an innovative technique and new way of approaching brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease," said Mehta, an associate professor in the Departments of Radiology, Neuroscience and Neuroradiology. "Novel techniques are needed for Alzheimer's disease since traditional approaches have not proven effective." In 2018, WVU launched a first-of-its-kind clinical trial to explore the use of focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier in early-stage Alzheimer's patients. "The blood-brain barrier has long presented a challenge in treating the most pressing neurological disorders," said Ali Rezai, the executive chair of RNI and principal investigator of the clinical trial. "The ability to noninvasively and reversibly open the blood-brain barrier in deep brain areas, such as the hippocampus, offers a new potential in developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease." The ultrasound targeted the hippocampus in particular because it plays a large role in learning and memory. Mehta used MRI with contrast-enhancement dye to observe the changes that took place in the brains of three early-stage Alzheimer's patients--ages 61, 72 and 73--who underwent the ultrasound treatment. She observed that the dye moved along the course of draining veins following the procedure. "This imaging pattern was unexpected and enhances our understanding of brain physiology," she said. "The glymphatic system, which is a fluid-movement and waste-clearance system that's unique to the brain, has been studied in animals, but there is controversy about whether this system truly exists in humans. The imaging pattern that we discuss in the paper offers evidence not only to support that the system does likely exist in humans but that focused ultrasound may modulate fluid movement patterns and immunological responses along this system." Mehta and her colleagues' analysis of the MRI scans suggests that an immunological healing response may occur around the draining veins following the procedure. Her research team included Rezai; RNI researchers Jeffrey Carpenter, Marc Haut, Manish Ranjan, Umer Najib, Paul Lockman, Peng Wang and Pierre-Francois D'haese; and Rupal Mehta from the Rush University Alzheimer's Disease Center. "This observation may be an important clue in understanding the physiological mechanism by which the focused ultrasound procedure modifies brain amyloid levels and might be used to treat patients with Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders," she said. Why are amyloid levels important? Unusually high amounts of this protein tend to clump together in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, forming plaques between nerve cells and sabotaging their function. The ongoing clinical trial aims to assess whether focused ultrasound can reduce amyloid plaques in patients with Alzheimer's disease. This project did not involve any medications. The ultrasound itself was enough to elicit a probable immunological response. In the future, however, the treatment may make it easier to medicate the brain with more precision, even in people who don't have Alzheimer's disease. "The blood brain barrier limits our ability to deliver drugs and therapeutic agents directly to the brain," Mehta said. "Therefore, opening this barrier in patients would allow focal delivery of medications in select brain regions targeted by the procedure." The clinical trial--sponsored by INSIGHTEC, the manufacturer of the ultrasound device--continues. As Mehta and her team enroll more participants, they plan to examine the treatment's long-term effects. They want to know whether it is safe and effective for slowing--or even reversing--the progression of Alzheimer's dementia. So far, the results are promising. The treatment has not harmed any of the participants who have completed it. "We are thankful to the patients who have volunteered for this trial," Mehta said. "They are brave to undergo this procedure, which if proven effective may benefit patients with Alzheimer's disease in the future." Alzheimer's disease is the nation's most common form of dementia, and it's on the rise. The Alzheimer's Association reports that 5.8 million Americans age 65 and older had Alzheimer's dementia in 2020. By 2050, that number could rise to 13.8 million. The focused ultrasound team at RNI is committed to improving the lives of patients with Alzheimer's disease by pioneering advances using a truly integrated approach and the latest technologies. ### Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health, under Award Number 5U54GM104942-04. This publication does not necessarily reflect the views of NIGMS or NIH. Citation Title: Blood-brain barrier opening with MRI-guided focused ultrasound elicits meningeal venous permeability in humans with early Alzheimer disease DOI: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1148/ radiol. 2021200643 Link: https:/ / pubs. rsna. org/ doi/ 10. 1148/ radiol. 2021200643 -WVU- see/02/25/21 * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 05:16:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COPENHAGEN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 epidemic in Denmark has taken on a different character since new variants of the coronavirus have emerged and taken over, according to the chief of the Danish Health Authority on Wednesday night. "This means that if it flares up again, it will flare up faster and more violently than the first two waves," said Soren Brostrom, director general of the Authority, at a joint press conference in the Prime Minister's Office. Brostrom was referring to B117, the more contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in the United Kingdom last September, which arrived in Denmark in November and is now the dominant variant in the country. Minister for Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke, also speaking at the press conference, cited a recent study from Danish authorities that "aligned very well with data from the UK", showing that more people infected with B117 were being admitted to hospital. Up to last week, B117 accounted for about 60 percent of the analyzed positive samples in Denmark, according to Heunicke. Henrik Ullum, director of the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), said the study confirmed that the presence of the B117 would put limits to the extent the Danish society can reopen. "It is clear that the results of the study ensure that we have to take into account the mathematical models and the dimensions of how much we can open up," said Ullum. The minister expressed his concern over the variant first identified in South Africa, which has already shown a reduced sensitivity to antibodies in some studies. The variant has been found in 13 citizens in Denmark, with the latest two cases being homegrown. "The infections in the last two cases are not linked to travel activity, so the infection appears to have occurred between citizens. However, it is important to say that the numbers are still low," he noted. According to Brostrom, the growth of variants only justify the government's recent decision on the partial reopening on March 1. "We need to do more to limit the virus. Therefore, the reopening has to be more cautious than previous ones," said Brostrom. According to the SSI, Denmark registered 523 new COVID-19 infections and a further two deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total cases and toll to 209,097 and 2,345 respectively. As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in many European countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines. Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Tuesday. Enditem SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Varo Bank, the first all-digital nationally chartered bank in the US, today introduced the Varo Believe Program*, an innovative credit building product that includes a Visa credit card and credit monitoring. The Believe Program is aimed at the 45 million Americans who are "credit invisibles" - meaning they have insufficient credit history to qualify for credit - and the millions more who are seeking to improve their credit score. The Varo Believe Program is a new kind of credit card program that is linked to a Varo bank account to help avoid runaway debt. The card reserves the money that is spent from a linked Varo bank account in real-time into a secure Vault Account to pay your credit card balance on time and in full every month**. The Varo Believe Program is a unique credit building program with no upfront security deposit, no monthly or annual fees, no APR, no application fees, and no foreign transaction fees. Varo then reports your payment history to the three major credit bureaus and customers can view and monitor their credit score directly in the Varo Bank app for free. Roughly half of Millennials and Gen Z'ers have "Fair" or "Poor" credit profiles and one in five Americans don't have a credit profile at all. A lower credit score or a thin credit file can result in limited access to credit offerings and higher cost of credit, whereas a better credit score enables better deals on some of life's biggest purchases. Varo's commitment to helping customers build and maintain a strong credit profile is part of the bank's broader vision to build social and economic resilience within our communities. "A healthy credit score is so important to many of the foundational aspects of our daily lives - renting an apartment, accessing utilities, buying a car, or even applying for a job in many cases," said Colin Walsh, CEO and founder of Varo Bank, N.A. "And access to affordable credit is fundamental to long-term financial health. That's why we knew that Varo's first credit card needed to lead with innovation and directly target one of the biggest challenges facing millions of American consumers today: responsibly building, repairing, and accessing credit." Varo reimagines the traditional banking experience by offering all-digital premium banking products designed to support financial inclusion and opportunity for its customers and their communities. The Varo Believe Program complements Varo's premium banking product features including up to two day early payroll deposits***, savings accounts with rates that pay several times the national average, and Varo Advance****, a short term cash advance line of credit that allows qualifying customers to access up to $100 as needed right in the Varo Bank app. Varo Advance launched in December 2020 and remains fee-free through March 2021 due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. About Varo Bank, N.A. Varo Bank is on a mission to make financial inclusion and opportunity a reality for all - by empowering people with the products and support they need to create healthy financial habits and be in control of their finances. Varo Bank offers customers premium bank accounts that have no minimum balance requirement or monthly account fee, high-interest savings accounts, and tech-first features to help people save and manage their money effortlessly. Varo Bank is the first consumer fintech to be granted a national bank charter by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. For more information, visit www.varomoney.com, like Varo Bank on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter @varomoney. Member FDIC. *The Varo Believe credit card must be repaid on time to avoid late charges. Continued use of the Varo Believe credit card is contingent upon timely payment. Product eligibility and terms are available in the Varo Believe Account Agreement & Disclosures. **The credit limit for each transaction using the Varo Believe credit card is equal to the outstanding balance in the customer's Varo Bank Account or $10,000, whichever is less. ***Early access to direct deposit funds depends on timing of the payer's submission of deposits. We generally post such deposits on the day they are received which may be up to 2 days earlier than the payer's scheduled payment date. ****Varo Advance is a small dollar line of credit that must be repaid on time to continue access to the credit line. Product eligibility and terms are available in the Varo Advance Account Agreement & Disclosures. CONTACT: Consort Partners for Varo Bank [email protected] SOURCE Varo Bank Related Links https://www.varomoney.com/ Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham explores the relationship between Christian faith and peaceful protest in his inspiring biography of one of the icons of the Civil Rights Movement: His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope. John Lewis, who stuttered as a child, lacked the eloquence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but his courage was unmatched. One test of a saint, closely tied to the test of a martyr, is the willingness to suffer and die for others, Meacham writes. Which Lewis was willing to do again and again and again. In fact, he was arrested 45 times. Lewis suffered a fractured skull when a state trooper hit him with a billy club while he helped lead a march for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Fifty-eight of the marchers were treated for injuries. Five months after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. Lewis later served seventeen terms as a congressman from Georgia before his death due to cancer in July 2020 at the age of 80. I have long believed I have long preached that our nations moral compass comes from God, it is of God, and it is seen through God, he wrote in the books afterword. And God so loved the world that he gave us the countless men and women who lost their homes and their jobs for the right to vote. Originally published at the Denison Forum Paramount Pictures is the latest studio to slash the 90-day theatrical release window. ViacomCBS recently announced that the films releasing with the studio will now arrive on Paramount+ after 45 days in theatres. The studio's upcoming releases include Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 7 and Emily Blunt's A Quiet Place Part II. The announcement made on Wednesday (February 24) came after other studios like Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. reached similar agreements with theatre chains in the US. Warner Bros.' Warner Media has also opted for a hybrid release for its upcoming platform HBO Max, which will stream films alongside theatrical releases. Coming back to Paramount, the studio in 2020 had to sacrifice on theatrical releases and opted to sell films' streaming rights to services like Netflix and Amazon. While The Trial of the Chicago 7 is currently available on Netflix, Coming 2 America can be found on Amazon Prime Video. However, upcoming releases including Mission: Impossible 7, A Quiet Place Part II, Top Gun: Maverick and others are scheduled for theatrical releases, and will premiere on Paramount+, earlier than expected. Reports have revealed that the announcement was made as the studio is under pressure to release new content to the latest streaming platform. Similar to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max, Paramount+ will also have a series of acquired tiles. Paramount has struck a deal with EPIX and will add releases from other studios to their platform as well. According to reports, new projects like Paranormal Activity reboot and a new Pet Sematary origin story is being produced to be released solely on the OTT platform. Paramount+ is all set to be launched on March 4, 2021. It is unclear if the streaming platform will be available in India, on the same date. ALSO READ: Mission Impossible 7: Tom Cruise Waves At Fans While Shooting On Top Of A High-Speed Train ALSO READ: Tom Cruise Dating Mission: Impossible 7 Co-Star Hayley Atwell: Report Vladimir Putin spoke in favor of maintaining order and calm in Armenia and resolving the situation within the framework of the law, the Kremlin said in a statement on the phone call. The head of the Russian state called on all parties to show restraint, it said. Speaking earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov likewise urged Armenian state and political actors to ease their mounting tensions and avoid unconstitutional actions. We are watching the situation in Armenia with alarm, the TASS news agency quoted Peskov as saying. And we regard that as an exclusively internal affair of Armenia, our very important and close ally in the Caucasus. Peskov would not be drawn on a possible Russian mediation in ending the crisis. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart Ara Ayvazian also spoke with by phone. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the two men stressed the need to maintain regional security and stability. It gave no others details. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu similarly phoned his Armenian Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian. According to the Armenian Defense ministrys readout of the phone call, Shoigu and Harutiunian discussed the current situation in Armenia. Peskov said that political stability in Armenia is essential for a continued implementation of a Russian-brokered Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10. The Armenian opposition holds Pashinian responsible for the Armenian sides defeat in the six-week war and wants him to resign. The prime minister has rejected these demands. Russian pro-government lawmakers on Wednesday strongly condemned Pashinian for suggesting Armenias most advanced Russian-manufactured missiles proved useless during the hostilities. Obinwanne Okeke, recently jailed in the U.S. for multi-million dollars fraud, has been prohibited from taking up jobs that can grant him access to money or bank accounts, PREMIUM TIMES reports. Mr Okeke, formerly renowned internationally as a successful young Nigerian entrepreneur, has also been barred from holding posts involving investments, upon completing his 10 years jail term in the U.S. The restrictions were imposed on him by a U.S. court in the Eastern District of Virginia, in addition to the prison term, restitution and forfeitures ordered by the court during his sentencing on February 16. The judge, Rebecca Smith, ordered Mr Okeke, who had pleaded guilty to the fraud charge in June 2020, to restitute the $10.7million proceeds of the crime. The judge also ordered the forfeiture of his already identified assets in the U.S and Nigeria. The convict, 33, also known as Invictus Obi, was also ordered to undergo three years of supervised release after completing his 10 years jail term. The judge ordered that upon his transition into the supervised release phase, the convict should be presented before a duly-authorised immigration official of the Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation review. The official, according to Ms Smith, will determine whether to immediately deport him or make him to under undergo the three years supervised release in the U.S. If not deported, the defendant is prohibited from engaging in any employment where he has access to money or bank accounts and shall not be employed in any capacity involving investment, the judge ordered, as part of the special conditions for his supervised release. Loss of financial privacy Mr Okeke will also lose the right to privacy concerning his financial life under the special conditions for supervised release set by the court, as the judge ordered that if he is not deported, he shall provide the probation officer access to any requested financial information. If not deported, the defendant shall participate in the Treasury Offset Programme (TOP) as directed by the probation officer, the judge added. The judge also ordered that if he remains in the U.S. after his jail term, he must not incur new credit charges or open additional lines of credit without the approval of the probation officer. To enforce compliance with the restitution order, the court also ordered that if not deported, Mr Okeke shall apply monies received from income tax refunds, lottery winnings, inheritances, judgment, and any anticipated or unexpected financial gains to the outstanding court-ordered financial obligation, or in a lesser amount to be determined by the court upon the recommendation of the probation officer. Payment for his minors support The court also ordered he must pay for the support of his minor child, a baby girl born in the U.S. about a month before Mr Okekes arrest. The judge, who ordered him to register with the Department of Child Support Enforcement in any state in which he resides, also said the amount to be paid for his minors support would be as ordered by any social service agency or court of competent jurisdiction. Barred from crimes; to continue treatment for drugs She also ordered that if not deported, the defendant shall not engage in spamming, phishing, or email bombing which are part of the offences he was arrested for. The judge also ordered that if he will undergo his supervised release in the U.S., he must continue to participate in a substance treatment programme at the direction and discretion of the probation officer. She added that the treatment would be at Mr Okekes expense. ADVERTISEMENT The also directed that while on supervised release in the U.S. the convict would be randomly subjected to urinalysis testing and if found to test positive for alcohol abuse or use of any controlled substance, he must undergo or participate in a programme approved by U.S. Probation Officer for substance abuse. If deported Ms Smith also ordered that if Mr Okeke is ordered deported after completing his jail term, he shall remain outside of the United States. She added that if at any time, he illegally reenters the United States during the term of supervised release, his illegal reentry may subject him to a violation of supervised release, as well as a violation of (the) law. Who is Mr Okeke? Mr Okeke was until his arrest in the U.S. on August 6, 2019, an internationally renowned young successful entrepreneur, who was operating the Invictus Group in Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. At 28, Mr Okeke was featured on the cover of Forbes Africa magazine in which he was listed among 30 most promising under-30 entrepreneurs of the year. The entrepreneur, who holds masters degree in International Business and Counter-terrorism from Monash University, Australia, claimed to have investments in oil and gas, agriculture, private equity, alternative energy, telecom and real estate. But U.S. authorities later said FBIs months of investigations revealed that he and other conspirators defrauded three victims of nearly $11million in a multi-year global business email and computer hacking scheme. He was arrested on August 6, 2019, on a criminal complaint for computer and wire fraud to defraud Unatrac Holding Limited, which is headquartered in United Arab Emirates (UAE). FBI operatives nabbed him at Dulles International Airport, Virgina, as he prepared to depart the U.S. after a visit to witness the birth of his 19-month-old daughter born on July 15, 2019. On September 9, 2019, he was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud. Mr Okeke, who initially denied the charges, later entered into a plea bargain agreement with the U.S authorities and pleaded guilty to Count 1 on June 18, 2020. The second count of computer fraud, with lesser penalty, was dropped as part of the plea agreement. He was sentenced on February 16, 2021. The CEO of Health Australia has resigned after one of the company's doctors gave two aged care residents four times the correct dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. A 94-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man were given too much of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday, the second day of Australia's vaccination rollout, at Holy Spirit aged care home in Carseldine, Brisbane. Both were admitted to hospital for observation but have suffered no adverse effects. The woman has been returned to the home while the man remains in hospital for an unrelated elective surgery. The two elderly people given an incorrect dose of the Pfizer vaccine re residents at the Holy Spirit Nursing Home Carseldine in Brisbane (pictured) Minister for Health Greg Hunt addressed the nation's vaccine rollout and bungle on Wednesday morning (pictured) Healthcare Australia, a company contracted by the federal government to give vaccines in aged care homes, has been put on notice after an investigation found the doctor who administered the jab had not completed immunisation training. CEO Jason Cartwright has stepped down. Minister Hunt blasted the company for initially telling him the doctor had done the online course on how to administer the jab. When officials asked for proof, the company came clean and admitted the doctor was untrained. 'The thing that particularly upset us was the combination of somebody who was brought on untrained and then the clearly false information made despite repeated interrogation from the department,' he said. 'It was only uncovered late in the day after further investigation involving the Department demanding visual proof.' Minister Hunt said the company breached its contract which would be terminated if any further breaches occurred. 'The company did not meet its requirements under its contract with the Australian Government Department of Health,' he said. Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck told The Today Show on Thursday that healthcare workers need to be 'very, very vigilant'. 'For a mistake of this nature to occur is quite simply not acceptable,' he said. Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck on Thursday confirmed that Healthcare Australia, a company contracted by the federal government to give vaccines in aged care homes, was put on notice 'I'd be really upset if my mum or dad were in a situation where they hadn't received the correct dose,' he said. The elderly pair suffered no adverse effects but are being monitored in hospital. Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler put the bungle down to being a 'grievous error'. 'This is a very basic component of the training, recognising that these Pfizer vaccines come in multi-dose vials,' he said. 'You don't inject the whole thing.' Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday said the doctor was registered and had taken the necessary online training provided by the Australian Board of Nursing. But he later told Parliament that Healthcare Australia had informed him the doctor had not been trained. 'The revised advice is that on further investigation Healthcare Australia has advised he had not completed the required training,' he said. 'I have asked the Department to take action against the company and the doctor for what is a clear breach on both fronts. 'This is being investigated by Healthcare Australia and we're expecting a report later today.' Minister Hunt has apologised to the families of the elderly patients for the bungle. He also said the doctor has been stood down by Healthcare Australia. It is not clear how the doctor got the dosing so wrong. One theory is that he gave two doses of the vaccine to each patient consecutively, instead of three weeks apart. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd, who was investigating the incident, said it is possible up to four times the recommended dose was given to each patient. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said her government was only informed about the overdose late on Tuesday night. 'Although this happened yesterday morning, Queensland authorities were only advised late last night,' she said. 'Discovering these details now is simply not good enough.' The premier said she would write to the prime minister to demand a National Cabinet meeting as soon as possible. 'I want to know what training is provided to the people the Federal Government is employing to administer the vaccines in our aged care facilities,' she said. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly also noted that other countries, including Germany and the UK, have experienced similar bungles in their coronavirus vaccine rollout at aged care facilities. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly is seen at a press conference on Wednesday, where the government addressed a coronavirus vaccine bungle in Queensland An ambulance is seen at the entry to the Holy Spirit Nursing Home in Brisbane on Wednesday after news broke that two residents were given an incorrect dose of the Covid vaccine 'The side effect profile was minimal particularly in the older people. That gives us hope,' he said. The Pfizer vial contains enough for around about six doses. Lincoln Hopper, the CEO or St Vincent's (Holy Spirit) Care Services, said the doctor who wrongly administered the vaccine would be reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. 'Yesterday was very distressing to us, to our residents and to their families,' he said. 'This incident is extremely concerning. It's caused us to question whether some of the clinicians given the job of administering the vaccine have received the appropriate training. 'Certainly, health authorities and contracted vaccination providers should be re-emphasising to their teams the need to exercise greater care so an error like this doesn't happen again.' The chief executive of Costco waded into the political debate over the federal minimum wage, testifying at a Senate hearing on Thursday that the retailer was raising its starting pay to $16 an hour. W. Craig Jelinek, the chief executive, said Costco, which already pays an hourly minimum of $15, had some of the highest employee retention rates of any retailer. This isnt altruism, Mr. Jelinek told the Senate Budget Committee. At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages and providing affordable benefits makes sense for our business and constitutes a significant competitive advantage for us. Mr. Jelinek was invited to testify by the committees chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next four years. Mr. Jelinek said he was not there to endorse the proposed federal minimum wage increase, but rather to discuss how his companys higher-than-average wages had affected his business. A 22-year-old man from the northern Vietnamese province of Ha Nam throttled his 16-year-old girlfriend to death on Wednesday after she spent a night at his parents house. Ha Nam police received a report of the body of a teengirl found at a residence in Vinh Tru Town, Ly Nhan District at around 2:00 pm on Wednesday. The victim was identified as V., a 16-year-old resident of the same district. The crime took place at the home belonging to the family of Tran Manh Hung, a 22-year-old local man. Ha Nam police arrested Hung five hours later on Wednesday evening. At the police station, Hung said that he and V. had been in a relationship. The man took the teenager to his parents house for an overnight stay on Tuesday. Around mid-Wednesday, knowing that V.s family was looking for her, Hung strangled the teenager. He then jumped into the pond next to his house to commit suicide but failed. After that, the suspect went to the Thai Ha Bridge in the same district to attempt another suicide, but he was arrested by police officers. Police are continuing their investigation to find out his motive. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Hasbro is giving its venerable Mr. Potato Head toy a more gender-inclusive identity by dropping the Mr. from its brand name and packaging. Hasbro is making sure all feel welcome in the Potato Head world by officially dropping the Mr. from the Mr. Potato Head brand name and logo to promote gender equality and inclusion, the company said in an initial statement on Thursday. On social media, some people took the statement to mean a change to the Mr. Potato Head character. Before long, Hasbro issued a clarifying statement on Twitter saying that the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters would retain their individual courtesy titles. Hold that Tot your main spud, MR. POTATO HEAD isnt going anywhere! the company said. While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the MR. I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD arent going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD. [February 25, 2021] German firms find success at China International Import Expo SHANGHAI, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- China retained its position as the largest trade partner of Germany for the fifth consecutive year in 2020, according to a report recently released by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany. Statistics show that despite COVID-19, the bilateral trade volume between China and Germany rose by 3 percent year-on-year to about 212.1 billion euros ($258 billion). China was the second largest export destination of German goods in 2020, with the value of exports from Germany to China hitting around 95.9 billion euros last year. China was also Germany's largest destination for exports of electric and electrical products, according to a news release by the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI) on Feb 22. Industry experts have said that these achievements are partly due to the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Clas Neumnn, Chairman of the Board of the German Chamber of Commerce in China, said that the CIIE is a good opportunity for German enterprises to showcase their cutting-edge products in technology, innovation and life style. By participating in the CIIE, German enterprises can expand their brand influence and promote "Made in Germany", Neumann added. Germany, which has a number of large enterprises specialized in equipment manufacturing, automobiles and heath care, has been an important participant of the annual expo. It was also the guest-of-honor country for the first CIIE. About 170 German firms attended the third edition of the expo last year, with their combined exhibition area surpassing 18,000 square meters, the highest among European countries. Among the different segments, the Intelligent Industry Information Technology Exhibition Area was one of the most important stages for German firms to showcase their latest products and technology. It spanned more than 70,000 square meters, housed more than 300 enterprises from nearly 40 countries and regions in 2020. Despite COVID-19, the area welcomed many newcomers last year, including Cheniere Energy, one of the largest liquefied natural gas producers in the United States. The company had a 150-sq-m booth that displayed its new technologies and products. Epson and Konica Minolta also made their debuts in this area during the third CIIE. A host of other leading brands including GE, Hitachi, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Caterpillar, John Deere and Volvo were also featured here. Preparations for the fourth CIIE are well underway. Hundreds of enterprises have already signed up for this year's expo, including many well-known German firms such as Metro, Bayer and Siemens. Companies interested in attending the fourth edition can register here: https://www.ciie.org/ciie/f/book/register?locale=en You can also contact: ciie2021@ciie.org Contact: Nie Qingxin Tel.: 0086-21-67008870/67008988 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1444914/CIIE.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1077995/CIIE_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Florian was born in 1990 in Ho Chi Minh City and adopted when he was three months old. Growing up in Paris and then moving to Cannes, he was exposed to art while living in the mansion, and later developed a passion for music. He started composing at the age of 13 but did not become a professional musician until he was 19, making House music. He was ranked 39th in DJ Mags Top 100 DJs ranking for 2018. The 31-year-old DJ has produced many hits like "Kirigami", "Cracked Wall" and "This is our time" that have garnered millions of YouTube views. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) The Justice Departments statement that an inter-agency investigations initial findings revealed a failure on the part of law enforcers to follow protocols during anti-illegal drug operations shows the Philippine legal system is working, said the Palace. Itong naunang pahayag ng ating Secretary of Justice ay nagpapatunay na seryoso po tayo sa obligasyon natin na mag-imbestiga at mag-litis, said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque during a briefing in Negros Oriental. Dahil hinaharap po natin ang katototahan na posible pong may ilang mga alagad ng batas na kinakailangan sigurong managot sa ating batas dito sa Pilipinas. [Translation: The Secretary of Justices initial statement proves we are serious in our obligation to investigate and conduct trials (on violations of the right to life). We are facing the truth that there are possibly some law enforcers that need to be held accountable under Philippine law.] Justice Secretary Menardo Guevara recently told the United Nations Human Rights Council the initial findings of the investigation led by his department revealed law enforcers did not adhere to protocols regarding the examination of weapons allegedly used by suspects and verifying their ownership. State forces likewise failed to follow standard procedures on coordinating with other agencies and crime scene processing, the report found. [T]hat proves that our domestic legal system is working at hindi po dapat maghimasok ang ibang mga institusyon, explained Roque, who also asked that the system be given a chance to function given this transparency and open-mindedness on the secretarys end. [Translation: [T]hat proves that our domestic legal system is working and other institutions should not intervene.] The Duterte administration has been criticized at home and abroad for its bloody war on illegal drugs, with the President himself encouraging the killing of drug lords and suspects repeatedly in the past. Drug enforcement authorities count over 5,900 deaths from the beginning of the chief executives term up to September last year, but human rights advocates argue the figures are actually in the tens of thousands. President Rodrigo Duterte has warned human rights defenders to keep their hands off his governments drug war, which he also said is not a crime against humanity as dubbed by his critics. Michael B. Jordan and Denzel Washington were seen filming their upcoming drama Journal For Jordan near the Minetta Lane Tavern in New York City on Wednesday. Jordan, 34, wore a brown jacket over a burnt orange button-up top with blue jeans and dark brown loafers. The actor donned a black face mask, and later a clear face shield, as he sipped a beverage on the Big Apple set of the drama, which Washington is directing. Washington, 66, donned a dark flannel top with grey slacks, blue sneakers and a black New York Yankees cap, with a black face mask. The latest: Michael B. Jordan, 34, and Denzel Washington, 66, were seen filming their upcoming drama Journal For Jordan near the Minetta Lane Tavern in NYC on Wednesday The motion picture is centered around the relationship between First Sergeant Charles Monroe King and journalist Dana Canedy, whose 2008 memoir provides material for the movie. King had kept journals of his deployment in the Iraq War - in which he perished in 2006 - with messages for his son Jordan, who was seven months old at the time his father died. Both Jordan and Washington are producers on the dramatic film, as Jordan said he was 'a sponge right now' working with the Hollywood icon. 'Being directed by the GOAT - Denzel, himself - and being able to work with a very talented cast and actress in Chante Adams, it's something that I've been looking forward to,' he told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. Casual: Washington donned a dark flannel top with grey slacks, blue sneakers and a black New York Yankees cap, with a black face mask Stylish: Jordan wore a brown jacket over a burnt orange button-up top with blue jeans and dark brown loafers Protected: Jordan wore a clear face mask amid the ongoing pandemic Jordan added, 'We're having a blast and Im getting a masterclass and a crazy education on character development, directing, and producing from Todd Black and Denzel Washington. It's a great thing.' He said the the project offered him a new genre to explore in his career, which is best defined by his work on films such as Black Panther and Creed. 'It's a love story,' he told the outlet. 'I haven't had the opportunity to do an intimate love story before.' Jordan has a few other films on his slate: Just Mercy, a legal drams, and a role in Paramount adaptation of Tom Clancys Without Remorse. Virgil Williams wrote the script for Journal For Jordan, which also features Adams, Robert Wisdom and Cleveland Berto. Jordan said the the project offered him a new genre to explore in his career, which is best defined by his work on films such as Black Panther and Creed On the move: The actor held a phone as he made his way around the set ROCHESTER, Minn. - The Minnesota State Patrol honored those who have gone above and beyond representing their core values of respect, integrity, courage, honor, and excellence with its 2021 Virtual Award Ceremony. Among the awards presented include the Meritorious Citizenship Award, Exceptional Service Award and Life-Saving award. Three of the recipients of the Life Saving award come from the Rochester area: Sgt. Eric Bormann and troopers Garrett Bondhus and Patrick Beuning. In January of last year, the trio responded to a crash in Olmsted County where a car lost control and was hit by a semi-truck. The troopers took quick action to rescue the driver and perform life-saving measures, and the driver survived. Minnesota State Patrol Chief, Col. Matt Langer, says, "I'm every day thankful and mystified by the great work of our troopers and other members that put in the practice of the first aid training that we learn a couple of times each year - and save people's lives as a result." Commissioner John Harrington of Minnesota Department of Public Safety had high praise for these troopers and the others recognized at Wednesday's ceremony. "It's said that one should never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change the world - and in 2020 the Minnesota State Patrol changed lives, they saved lives, and they kept the peace here in Minnesota, says Harrington. Harrington adds 2020 was a year marked by success for the Minnesota State Patrol. State Patrol named Sgt. Bryan Bearce Minnesota's Trooper of the Year. On Feb. 12, the Friday before harsh winter weather cut off power and water to millions of Texans, killed dozens of people and caused billions of dollars in damage, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo advised residents to prepare as if a Category 5 hurricane were on the way. I just want to make sure that everybody knows that if the models are right, were about to see an incident the likes of which we have not seen in 30 years a very high probability of power outages, dangerous conditions outside, road closures. The same type of thing we would see in a Category 5 hurricane, Hidalgo said at a press conference. Her critics were quick to paint the comparison as hyperbolic. Typical scare tactics, one person wrote on Twitter. Yeah, we get it. Its gunna snow and ice... NO WHERE NEAR A CAT 5 HURRICANE! Why not just compare it to a nuclear bomb being dropped on us? read another reply to Hidalgo. Yes, this is serious, but stop it. The toll of last weeks winter storm still is coming into focus, but it already has become clear the damage rivals that of a major hurricane. Roughly 1.4 million customers lost power in the Houston metro area. Nearly 80 people across Texas died from hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and other storm-related causes, according to an Associated Press tally as of Monday. Grocery stores, facing food shortages, imposed limits on certain items including eggs, milk and bread even days after power was restored. And a water crisis unfolded as nearly the entire Houston area and more than 14 million people across the state were ordered to boil their water before drinking it, even as many lacked running water or the electricity to operate their stoves. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer It is too early to tell if the winter freeze will prove costlier statewide than Hurricane Harvey, which inflicted $125 billion in damage concentrated in Southeast Texas. What is evident is that both storms left behind widespread property damage: County and city officials estimate that tens of thousands of Houston-area residents have burst water pipes or other damage from last weeks weather. You think about the wind from a hurricane blowing a tree into your house, said Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice Universitys Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center. Thats nothing different than a pipe bursting in your attic and the entire roof collapsing in on you. Still, even Houstons most destructive storms never made landfall as Category 5 hurricanes, the highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Hurricanes Ike and Harvey both peaked at Category 4; Hurricane Rita reached Category 5 status but came ashore as a Category 3. The conditions that define a Category 5 storm namely sustained winds of at least 157 miles per hour would destroy most homes in its path and make most of the area uninhabitable for weeks or months, according to the National Hurricane Center. Effective message Eric Berger, a meteorologist who runs the Space City Weather blog, said the winter freeze known as Winter Storm Uri inflicted damage similar to major hurricanes, roughly in line with a Category 3 or 4 storm. To be clear, we really dont have any concept of what a Category 5 hurricane striking the Houston area would look like, Berger said. That would be widespread destruction in the sense of completely destroying homes, blowing them right off their foundations. A catastrophic, historic event. Hidalgos comparison still was effective, Berger said, because it made an impression on residents who otherwise may not have viewed the coming storm as much of a threat. The messaging was bang on, because I think comparing this event to a hurricane was a good way to capture peoples attention, Berger said. I think a lot of people have a warm and fuzzy feeling about a winter storm in Houston. This was really a different event. Hidalgo said she was searching for language that would resonate with Harris County residents who have grown uncomfortably familiar with tropical storms but had never encountered such brutal winter weather. On the day she made the comparison, meteorologists already were predicting temperatures would reach their lowest point since the 1980s. Now Playing: Video: Houston Chronicle Photo Staff My sense was the experts and the meteorologists said this was going to be bad, and they had the evidence to prove it. And it was a disservice in my mind for me to sugarcoat it, Hidalgo said. I was trying to use something that our community could understand, and that would break through with our community. Thats how we picked the hurricane metaphor. Meteorologists, including Jeff Lindner, the director of flood operations at the Harris County Flood Control District, were telling Hidalgo temperatures would reach historic lows. She and other county officials expected freezing rain would cause power outages, and they anticipated the food shortages, in part because icy conditions likely would make roads impassable for days. And just like during tropical storms, people might need temporary shelter, Hidalgo thought, after their homes flooded from busted pipes. My job is not to scare people. Thats not at all what Im going for. My job is to clearly communicate what people should expect, Hidalgo said. Yeah, theres a nonzero chance I may be wrong, but thats not worth people not being prepared. Familiar trauma Houstonians may have been unaccustomed to the frigid conditions, but the trauma was deeply familiar to an area that has been battered in recent years by chemical fires, tropical depressions, hurricanes and the coronavirus pandemic. The region saw six major chemical fires between March 2019 and January 2020, leading to massive pollutant exposure, worker injuries and destruction of homes. Storms have inundated the area, damaging homes that were still awaiting repairs from the previous disaster. Shonza Branch, 56, remained without running water Thursday due to pipe damage at her home in northeast Houston. Her house still bears the scars of Harvey: mold on the bathroom wall, broken window panes, poor insulation from ceiling damage that has yet to be fully fixed. Last week, Branch who takes more than 20 medications for various ailments wore her winter coat and boots to bed as she slept under four blankets, trying to keep warm as cold air filtered into the house. The storm was in some ways worse than Harvey, Branch said, noting she did not lose running water and had only brief power outages during the hurricane. The blackouts last week were especially rough on Branch because she was unable to use her sleep apnea machine, and she had no way to refrigerate the insulin she takes to treat her diabetes. This has been a crazy few years for me, Branch said. Its totally devastating. Sometimes I just sit here and I think about all this stuff thats happening. Its been terrible, Im just going to be honest. Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Scott Tinker, the state geologist for Texas and a professor of geoscience at the University of Texas at Austin, said the winter storm was similar to the consequences of a hurricane in the damage it did to infrastructure systems. I think in many ways, when you lose power intermittently or for longer periods of time, and many of us lost water, thats like having a big hurricane coming through, Tinker said. Two important distinctions, though, were duration and breadth. Hurricanes tend to be more regional, affecting one part of the state or even more localized parts of the city and county where they strike, Tinker said. They also tend to reach land and dissipate. The challenge with the one we were in last week was it was so regional. Everyone was getting affected by it, Tinker said. As opposed to a hurricane you can drive from Houston to Austin. Not so much in a winter storm. Blackburn said the winter freeze created human suffering on a magnitude similar to what youd have with a major hurricane, similar to Harvey. Does it basically challenge your existence? Blackburn said. The answer is, you bet it did. I mean, to the point that people died. jasper.scherer@chron.com dylan.mcguinness@chron.com Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Demi Moore looked youthful in a new Instagram picture shared on Thursday that showed her sitting on the floor at home. The 58-year-old actress had not one wrinkle as she had a glowing complexion. This latest post comes amid a swirl of plastic surgery rumors that started in late January after she made a surprise appearance at a Fendi show in Paris. Flawless at 58: Demi Moore looked radiantly youthful in a new Instagram picture shared on Thursday Cleaning up her closet: The star wore a cap and a sweatshirt with jeans as she sorted through scarves on the floor In her new post Moore was wearing a leopard print beret with a sweatshirt and jeans. She joked in the caption: 'Early spring cleaning or a chance to play dress-up?' Int he background was a closet stuffed with puzzle boxes. She seemed to be at her home in Idaho. Demi was almost unrecognizable when she hit the catwalk for the fashion brand at Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris. Online commentators pointed out how sharply defined her cheekbones looked, as well as noting her pronounced pout, with some theorizing it was just makeup. Board certified dermatologist Dr Corey L Hartman told DailyMail.com that while he 'did not treat Demi personally' he suspected she had gone the surgical route. 'While a lot of this look may be attributed to makeup and lighting, it also appears that perhaps she has had too much fat removed from her buccal fat pads,' he said. Speculation: Her latest post comes amid a swirl of plastic surgery rumors that started last month when she made a surprise appearance at a Fendi show in late January Word on the street: Online commentators pointed out how sharply defined her cheekbones looked, as well as noting her pronounced pout, with some theorizing it was just makeup 'This appears to have caused dermal filler in the cheek to appear too augmented resulting in this dramatically different appearance.' While in Paris Demi went on Naomi Campbell's YouTube show and called the runway appearance 'special' and 'very magical' but did not address the surgery rumors. 'Truly it didn't hit me until afterwards that it really was a teenage fantasy fulfilled,' said Demi, whose latest ex-husband Ashton Kutcher is 15 years her junior. 'I took a moment where I thought: "Oh my God, I literally just walked a runway show with some of the biggest models ever." For me, I literally felt like a little kid.' Chitchat: While in Paris Demi went on Naomi Campbell's YouTube show and called the runway appearance 'special' and 'very magical' but did not address the conjecture Demi has had three husbands, the first of whom was Freddy Moore, whom she confessed to cheating on the night before the wedding to 'sabotage' the marriage. She was married to Freddy from 1980 to 1985 and then was the wife of her fellow movie star Bruce Willis from 1987 to 2000. Bruce and Demi stayed friendly co-parents to their daughters Rumer, 32, Scout, 29, and Tallulah, 27, and Demi has written in her memoir: 'I'm very proud of our divorce.' This time last year: Demi is pictured attending the Monot show at Paris Fashion Week on February 29, 2020 before the coronavirus lockdowns swept America and Europe Then in 2005 she married Ashton, and she has claimed in her memoir that she engaged in threesomes at his request to 'show him how great and fun I could be.' She has written in her memoir Inside Out that he then went on to cheat on her. They ultimately separated in 2011, finalizing the divorce in 2013. Ashton has gone on to marry his old That 70s Show co-star Mila Kunis, with whom he shares his daughter Wyatt, six, and son Dimitri, four. Back to School for Gibraltars Student Teachers University of Gibraltars PGCE students have started placements across Gibraltars schools this week. The students have been eager to return to the school environment and meet their new classes and colleagues following a brief spell learning online during the lockdown. This is the students second placement during this one-year programme. Minister for Education John Cortes said, I am delighted to see the return of PGCE students to Gibraltars schools. Thank you to the hosting schools and in particular to the teaching staff and mentors for their hard work in making this happen. The Head of School for Education, Elaine Lima, praised the local teaching fraternity for their resilience and dedication to their pupils during lockdown. She gave special thanks to the teachers who have acted as mentors to the PGCE students by supporting and getting them ready for this next step in their development. The University of Gibraltars Postgraduate Certificate of Education programme aligns with UK academic standards of delivery and is tailored to Gibraltars schools and educational system. West Australians are making tens of thousands of dollars renting out old campervans and caravans sitting idle in their backyards to locals holidaying at home. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a curse for most small businesses, border closures and uncertainty around travel have seen the caravan trade soar to new heights in the past year. Warren Barnes and Natalie Carter with son Deegan and daughter Kiki. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola Natalie Carter and her partner Warren Barnes have earned more than $14,000 renting out their five-person camper trailer to West Australians holidaying at home since December 2019. Business is booming so much the couple is now planning to buy and another camper to rent out to help pay off the mortgage on their new home in Yanchep. Rush Limbaugh died last week of lung cancer, and with his departure goes a great deal of power. Long before the rise of citizen journalism and the democratizing aspects of the internet, talk radio provided non-elites the opportunity to have their say in a public forum. Opinion Rush Limbaugh died last week of lung cancer, and with his departure goes a great deal of power. Long before the rise of "citizen journalism" and the democratizing aspects of the internet, talk radio provided non-elites the opportunity to have their say in a public forum. Limbaugh was the ultimate circus master for the American underdog, giving them a venue that gave voice to their frustrations. But Canada has never had and will never have a Rush Limbaugh, for a number of reasons. The closest weve ever come was radio personality Charles Adler, and he turned his back on the Conservative party in 2015. Talk radio first arrived in the United States in the 1950s, but it became much more prominent in the 1980s as a result of deregulation and the expansion of technology that allowed FM stations to offer better sound quality and have their signals travel further. As a result, AM stations were facing extinction. At the same time, the U.S. dropped the so-called "fairness doctrine," a regulatory requirement that radio stations provide fairness and balance in their broadcasts. Its repeal during the Reagan administration heralded an opportunity for what many contend was a retaliatory response to the "liberal" medium of television. Talk radio seized the opportunity, and a lucrative new market was created. Canada doesnt have a fairness doctrine per se. There is the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which deals with complaints from the public regarding television and radio broadcasts not adhering to broadcast standards, but these measures are entirely voluntary and are separate from the functions of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the federal broadcast regulator that grants licences for radio stations. The publicly funded CBC has strict guidelines regarding fairness, which it expects its journalists including its talk-show hosts to adhere to. And in most cities, the CBC holds either the top spot or the No. 2 spot in the morning ratings for programming. The CBCs stated mandate is a commitment to "maintaining accuracy, fairness, balance, impartiality and integrity in its journalism." CBC Radios Cross Country Checkup has been on the air since 1965; this call-in program is described as "a meeting place for all Canadians to reflect, share and discover the richness in our diversity and differences." Compare that to Limbaughs program, which effectively stated: "I wont stop talking until everyone agrees with me." Overall, Canadas radio market is nowhere near as robust as its American counterpart. Limbaughs syndicated radio program continues to air, featuring archived segments and clips, and is heard on 600 stations in the U.S. with roughly 13 million weekly listeners (his wife Kathryn is continuing to guest-host the program). Limbaugh reportedly earned US$84.5 million in 2018. Adler, who used to work out of CJOB in Winnipeg but now broadcasts from Vancouver for Global News Radio and is heard across the country, collects nowhere near $80 million a year I can say that with absolute certainty though I am sure, given his talent, he is well compensated. Adler, back when he used to work for Corus Radio out of Winnipeg, may have seemed inclined to give Limbaugh a run for his money in terms of taking controversial stances. His earlier shows were decidedly anti-Liberal, anti-feminist and anti-multi-cultural. On one program, he and a guest joked that women should be asked to wear a red bracelet during their "time of the month" so men would know to tread carefully. A woman caller countered that men should wear a brown bracelet to demonstrate they were full of crap. Like Limbaugh, Adler leaned hard toward the right he was a strong supporter of the Conservatives, particularly then-prime minister Stephen Harper, and was disdainful of such Liberal leaders as Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. It seems, however, that theres been a more recent parting of the ways for Adler and the Conservatives. In a commentary he wrote for Global Radio last September, Adler said that he didnt vote for Harper in 2015 "because their campaign was bogged down in issues like Muslim women wearing face coverings and the barbaric practices hotline." I say good for him. In contrast, Limbaugh never backed down from his controversial positions. Instead, he seemed determined to dig his heels in even more, particularly after the 2008 election of U.S. president Barack Obama. Limbaughs reaction was succinct: "I hope he fails." Stopping Obama was, according to Limbaugh, what he was born to do. And he went into overdrive in his effort to do so, advancing no end of conspiracy theories along the way. Those close to Limbaugh have hinted that much of his on-air performance was just that a performance but it was one he never seemed to tire of. And unlike Adler, he never suffered anything resembling a crisis of conscience. Limbaugh is gone, but he created a template and paved the way for many powerful conservative voices in the United States. The nonsense continues. Thankfully, Canada, for the most part, so far has been immune. Shannon Sampert is a Winnipeg-based political scientist. shannon@mediadiva.ca Twitter:@CdnMediadiva The has ordered a probe into an alleged case of a in the northern command after a soldier was found to be passing data to Pakistani operatives. The took place when the soldier from Punjab and posted under the Northern Command was caught by officials dealing with the alleged issue, Army sources said here. After the incident came to light, a court of inquiry has been ordered to probe how the soldier could get access to the data and the extent to which it was leaked to the operatives of Pakistani agencies. The took place when the Indian side was deeply engaged in a military stand-off with the Chinese military. According to the sources, " the probe would also find out how deeply the soldier was engaged with the enemy operatives and how much was he compromised by them." The Udhampur-based Northern Command is in charge of security on both China and Pakistan borders in the Ladakh sector. The Chinese intruded into the Indian territory in the April-May timeframe after which a whole of the nation approach helped in making the Chinese go back to the most critical Pangong lake area. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A Marxist takeover by the left is well underway, The Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft warns the American public in a new report. A review of the "Four Stages of Marxist Takeover," originally written by Scott McKay in July 2020 for the American Spectator and based on a 1984 interview with Soviet defector and former KGB operative Yuri Bezmenov, has now been published by The Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft, who believes that this same Marxist takeover is already happening in the United States. Hoft warns that America must prepare for even more catastrophic changes in the coming months under the new Biden administration. McKay's four steps of "Marxist takeover" includes demoralizing, destabilization, crisis, and finally, normalization. Hoft believes that the four-step process began in 2020, even well before the United States Presidential Elections in November. Hoft reports that the primary goal of the Marxist takeover perpetrators is to demoralize and make people believe that civilization, as people know it, has been lost. In this stage of the Marxist takeover process, which Bezmenov says is the "first step in engineered societal collapse," society is made to be "satisfied with less." The next step in the Marxist takeover, as per Hoft's interpretation of Bezmenov's interview, is destabilization, which he described as "a rapid decline in the structure of a society - its economy, its military, its international relations." This has already been happening since 2020, says Hoft, who believes that Democratic leaders are trying to tamper down the economy through shutting down schools and businesses with COVID-19 as an excuse. He cited that these unnecessary shutdowns continue to this day because of the left's destabilization agenda, despite COVID-19 death rates declining and better testing capabilities have been established. Hoft believes that COVID-19 no longer poses a significant threat to healthy Americans and that Democrats are just using it as a ploy to carry out the destabilization phase of the four steps of Marxist takeover. Another example of blatant destabilization is the use of Ilhan Omar as a tool to encourage dismantling America's economy. Omar, who is black, Muslim, and an immigrant, serves as a triple-threat that Democrats can get behind, as she seems to have unique immunity from everybody else's criticism. Hoft says that anyone who dares to criticize her will be cancelled for discriminating against her being black, Muslim, and an immigrant: "To criticize [Omar's] statements as cracked bears the signature not of incisive reasoning but rather racism. So when other Democrats join her call you are no longer allowed to object," McKay wrote in his op-ed. Step three in the four steps of Marxist takeover, as per Hoft, is a crisis, in which the United States has had quite enough of, just two months into 2021. First, the attack at Capitol Hill just 6 days into January was a crisis that left some people dead and many others injured. COVID-19, which Hoft calls a "manufactured crisis," continues to cause panic, destruction, demoralization, and disruption in people's lives. This winter season, the cold weather dropped to an unbelievable low, shutting down Texas. These are just a few of the crises that the American public is subjected to under the third of four steps of Marxist takeover, Hoft wrote. Finally, Hoft warns that America must prepare for the final stage of the four steps of Marxist takeover, which is normalization. Eerily, COVID-19 has made the phrase "new normal" ever so common, which means wearing masks, socially distancing, and avoiding large gatherings. Hoft calls on the American public to "plan accordingly," as "the revolution is upon us." The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The company logo for AT&T is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S. on September 18, 2019. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Washington, D.C. Attorney General Sues AT&T, Alleging Overcharges WASHINGTONWashington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against AT&T Mobility National Accounts, alleging that the company overcharged the city millions of dollars for cellphone and internet services, Racines office said in a statement on Wednesday. Racines office said AT&T was contractually required to give the city the cheapest data and wireless phone services available. Instead, AT&T knowingly invoiced the District for features, add-ons, and other services it did not need, causing millions in improper charges that were paid for with taxpayer funds, Racines office said. A spokesman for AT&T said that the allegations were entirely without merit. We are in full compliance with our contract, and we look forward to vindicating ourselves in court, added spokesman Jim Greer in an email statement. The attorney generals office said it was seeking three times the amount of any overcharges as well as penalties and the cost of bringing the case. It did not give a figure for this amount. The lawsuit was filed in District of Columbia Superior Court. By Diane Bartz and Chris Sanders The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking for public input on a draft Environmental Assessment that proposes the construction of a utility-scale solar farm in Madison County, Tennessee. Details of the review are available in a draft Environmental Assessment at https://www.tva.com/nepa. TVA has entered into a power purchase agreement with SR McKellar LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nashville-based Silicon Ranch Corporation, for the energy generated by the proposed facility. SR McKellar would construct and operate the proposed solar facility. The draft EA includes two alternatives: a No Action Alternative and an Action Alternative. Under the No Action Alternative, TVA would not purchase the power generated by the project under the 15-year PPA with SR McKellar, and TVA would not be involved with the project. Under the Action Alternative, SR McKellar would construct and operate a 70-megawatt single-axis tracking photovoltaic solar power facility. The proposed solar farm would occupy about 430 acres of the roughly 942-acre property that Silicon Ranch owns. TVA will buy the entire 70 megawatts of energy from the solar facility under the terms of the PPA. The public may submit comments by March 27 to Ashley Pilakowski, NEPA Specialist, 400 W Summit Hill Dr., WT 11-B, Knoxville, Tn. 37902; online at https://www.tva.com/nepa; or by email to nepa@tva.gov. All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record and available for public inspection. Tonight's quick peek at some of the top headlines on our mind tonight . . . Hole Year In Pothole season is upon us, crews jumping from snow to road repairs As we continue thawing out from last week's cold blast, you may start noticing an unwelcome sight more often on your daily commute - potholes.After the brutal two-week stretch of winter weather, Kansas City metro area road crews are jumping into pothole repair.In Kansas City, Missouri, public works has already received more than 400 requests through 3-1-1 to fill potholes around the city.Pothole crews have been scattered around the city this week and are getting a jump start on that work. Tragic Crash Aftermath Man killed in Sunday night KCK crash found Wednesday KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A man who died in a Sunday night car crash was found in his car Wednesday morning in Kansas City, Kansas. KCK police officers responded around 11:40 a.m. to the 6100 of Riverview Avenue to check the report of a vehicle in a creek bed, according to a police department news release. Local Secret Vaxx Talk Kansas City Vaccination Task Force meets for first time in closed session KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The first meeting of the Kansas City Vaccination Task Force did not yield much information for the public. Members went into closed session almost as soon as the meeting started on Wednesday afternoon. What is known is that the city is partnering with both Walmart and the YMCA of Greater Kansas [...] Freebie Mask Coming Soon Biden administration sending masks to poor communities Why it matters: The initiative comes nearly a year after Trump administration health officials first internallyexplored whether to send masks toevery American in hopes of slowing the virus' spread - an idea that was rejected at the time. Public health experts have since pushed for reviving the concept as a way of reaching underserved communities and emphasizing the importance of mask wearing. Republicans Fight Over Former Prez Trump Awkward moment as House Republican leaders clash over Trump speaking at CPAC Liz Cheney contradicted Kevin McCarthy on whether Trump has a role with the GOP. Former President Donald Trump and his future with the GOP was the subject of an awkward clash Wednesday between two House Republican leaders. Prez Biden Announces EPIC H-1B Comeback Biden reverses Trump visa ban on legal immigration President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked a Trump-era ban on legal immigration for family members of U.S. citizens and residents, as well as diversity visa lottery recipients. In a statement, Biden said former President Donald Trump's order blocking green card applicants and temporary foreign workers "does not advance the interests of the United States." Mr. Postman Trolls Postmaster General Taunts Dems: You're Stuck With Me for Good Louis DeJoy had a defiant message on Wednesday for those craving to see him ousted as U.S. Postmaster General: "Get used to me." The comment came after Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) asked the embattled U.S. Postal Service chief how long he would remain as Postmaster General-"long time," DeJoy spat back-during a Wednesday hearing in the House Oversight Committee. MSM Silence On Scandal ABC, CBS, NBC avoid explosive sexual harassment claims against Andrew Cuomo on evening news broadcasts The three major broadcast networks joined CNN and MSNBC Wednesday in avoiding mention of sexual harassment claims against Democratic New York Gov. Kiss & Tell Pop Star Earns Social Media #MeToo Shame People Are Calling Out John Mayer For His Comments On Male Privilege After His Treatment Of Jessica Simpson And Taylor Swift "I almost cried five times." "I came out OK... I have a very strong feeling that part of that is because I'm a man," he continued. "And I have a very strong feeling that a lot of these things that happen to female performers is endemic to being female." Rebuilding Front Line Mitch Schwartz announces he is having surgery on Wednesday, aims to play in 2021 Kansas City Chiefs right tackle Mitch Schwartz is having surgery on Wednesday, he announced via his official Twitter account. Injury Update: I'm getting surgery today. I was hoping to recover enough to get back for playoffs/Super Bowl but that didn't happen. It's time to address the issue. Kansas City Hand Up Today Fresh Market donates $30,000 worth of food to northeast KC groups KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The owner of Fresh Market donated $30,000 worth of nonperishable foods to two northeast Kansas City organizations. The Gathering Table and Healing House received multiple truckloads of food on Wednesday from the grocery store. Subhi Zaben, Fresh Market manager and the owner's son, said he sees the need in his community. Slight Warm Up Ahead Thursday will be partly cloudy with high near 45 degrees Hide Transcript Show Transcript TEMPERATURE TO FALL OFF. 42 IN THE NEXT HOUR. 30'S BY 7:00. BY 9:00 P.M., 35 DEGREES. TOMORROW MORNING, COOLER THAN IT WAS THIS MORNING. PARTLY TO MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES. AS MENTIONED, LITTLE WIDER. MARSHALL, 26. SAME FOR LAWRENCE. 12 HOUR FORECA, LOOKING IN THOSE 20'S, CLOSE TO FREEZING BY NINE. And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. Jaipur, Feb 25 : Rajasthan has set a record by donating a whopping Rs 464 crore for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya with people from all castes and creeds coming forward to donate money under the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Nidhi campaign, said Indresh Goyal, Mahanagar Nidhi Pramukh, Samarpan Abhiyan. The highest collection has been from Jodhpur at Rs 210 crore and the next is Chittorgarh district which contributed around Rs 150 crore. Jaipur is third in the list with Rs 100 crore, he added. Meanwhile, many emotional and surprising stories have been emerging during the collection drive reflecting the Ganga Jamuna tehzeeb of the state as Rs 25 lakh was donated by the Muslim community in Jodhpur in the presence of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Jhunjhunu resident Saleem Chauhan donated Rs 2,51,000 for Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Nidhi while Mohammad Hussain, a Jaipur resident, donated Rs 25,000 for the temple construction breaking the barriers of caste and religion. In Bamanwas, a Muslim priest offered Rs 5,100 while two school teachers from Alwar and Tonk, Mehrajuddin Khan and Abubakar Naqavi donated Rs 11,000 each. Sanwar Khan from Chaksu donated Rs 1.51 lakh for the Ram Temple construction. A student, Radhika Kunwar, who won a Rs 5,100 cash prize under the Gargi award six years back, donated the entire amount for the Ram Temple. Asha Kunwar Ram, 54, a resident of Jodhpur who recently turned COVID negative but was critical owing to lung infection, expressed her last wish that all her jewellery should be donated for the Ram Temple construction. Her husband and son abided by her last wish and sold her jewellery to donate the money for the temple construction. The middle class family donated Rs 7.08 lakh from her jewellery sale for the temple. Hundreds of kids broke their piggy banks and donated the money for the temple construction, Goyal said. In Rajasthan, more than 25 eunuchs also donated lakhs of rupees for the construction of the temple. Goyal said that society has donated with large hearts as we expected for the Ram Temple cause. We are tallying the amounts on app and are simultaneously depositing it in the bank to ensure transparency, he added. 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Digital Editor Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions More than 7,000 Boston students from preschool through third grade are invited to return to classrooms starting Monday, Mayor Marty Walsh announced Thursday. Boston Public Schools launched a new timeline for fully reopening schools to families whove opted into hybrid learning after consistent downward trends in COVID-19 positivity rates, Walsh said in a news conference. Starting on Monday, March 1, about 7,000 students will be given the option of in-person learning; this follows about 7,900 whove already been invited to classrooms since November, Walsh said. Noting it will be the first time our kids have been in school in nearly a year, the mayor said city and education officials were making sure buildings are safe for students, teachers and staff. Preparation has included district-wide upgrades to ventilation and heating systems, providing medical grade personal protective equipment to staff and readying masks to offer to students. He noted that local protocols in the city and school district go beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state guidelines for the reopening of schools. This is a big step for us, Walsh said, thanking teachers, parents and education leaders. The positivity rate is in the right place. Were seeing trends in the right direction. Last week the citys seven-day average rate of positive tests was down to 3.4%. Walsh, who urged continued social distancing, mask-wearing and hand-washing, noted it was now at 3.2%, where it hasnt been since October, and said we dont need to see a recurrence of rising rates. Walsh added that families still have the option of remote-only learning. All students whove opted for hybrid learning in grades 4-8 will be eligible for in-person learning on March 15; all remaining students on March 29, Walsh said. Registration for the 2021-2022 school year remains open online or by phone, Walsh said. Starting Monday, welcome centers in Dorchester, East Boston and Roslindale will be open for those with questions about school registration. Parents can visit bostonpublicschools.org/register or call 617-635-9046 to make an appointment. The mayor, who is leaving his role to take the helm of the U.S. Department of Labor in the Biden administration, thanked everyone for their patience and cooperation. He said he consistently sees people expressing opinions on the news about schools reopening. This is a slow process, he said, urging caution and safety. Were not going to rush our kids back into school, but I also dont want to see our kids out of school for the entire year. This will be a safe process. Related Content: Turkish President Erdogan appears to be reconsidering his decision to let Turkish-U.S. relations deteriorate. The last week has been instructive. First Erdogan acknowledged the deterioration in relations with America and then characterized the Turkish-U.S. strategic relationship as vital. That statement alone was a backdown from his accusations in mid-February that America was supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Erdogan made the outrageous accusation after PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq murdered 13 Turkish hostages. The U.S. does not support the PKK. The U.S. labels the PKK a terrorist organization. The PKK is a terrorist organization. The U.S. does support Syrian Kurdish militias fighting ISIL in Syria. That support infuriates Erdogan, though many observers think his fury is theatrics for his Turkish Islamist supporters. Why? Some of the American logistical support for Syrian Kurds is believed to flow through Turkey. As it is, Turkey invests in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan. Who really aids the PKK? Iran. And Turkish intelligence knows it. (Austin Bay) February 24, 2021: The U.S. once again urged Turkey to halt its acquisition of more Russian S-400 surface to air missiles and get rid of the S-400 battery it has already purchased. The American appeal came after Turkey announced it is talking to Russia about buying a second S-400 SAM battery. Turkey acquired the first S-400 battery in 2019 after deciding it wouldnt buy an upgraded U.S. Patriot SAM system. The U.S. agreed to sell the system but refused to share technology. The Pentagon contends deploying the S-400 opens an intelligence window on NATO air operations. The U.S. removed Turkey from the NATO F-35 program after Turkey acquired its first S-400 battery. February 23, 2021: Is Erdogan in domestic political trouble? In the last two decades Erdogans AKP (Justice and Development Party) has won every national election. But two recent polls show support for his government alliance is well below support for the opposition coalition. Erdogan has had to confront the spate of protests at Bosporus (Bogazici) University that followed his decision to appoint a non-academic AKP official as president of what is regarded aa Turkeys top public university. The protests began in January and continue. After police, supposedly on Erdogans order, attacked protesting students with tear gas and riot batons, the protests spread. First throughout Istanbul then to other cities around Turkey. February 19, 2021: Turkeys fiscal and currency crisis continues. The value of the Turkish lira has fallen since Erdogan removed Turkeys central bank director last fall. The resignation of Turkeys finance minister, Berat Albayrak, also helped. For the record, Albayrak is Erdogans son-in-law. Two professional economic administrators replaced them. February 16, 2021: A new buzz term describing Turkeys geo-political operations is making the rounds: Bayraktar Diplomacy. The Bayraktar TB1 is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, or drone) designed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The aircraft is rated as a high endurance platform it can stay aloft a long time. But the buzz term refers to small footprint Turkish intervention operations that rely on intensive surveillance by drones and other intelligence sources. In a Bayraktar intervention, Turkish-supported forces (often Syrian Arab mercenaries) deploy a mix of light infantry weapons, anti-tank guided missiles and anti-materiel heavy sniper rifles (think 12.7mm/50 caliber). Occasionally they will have mortar and light artillery support. A Bayraktar can also carry and use two laser guided missiles. This weapon and personnel mix is inexpensive, compared to deploying conventional ground forces. Turkish advisers also train local personnel. Turkeys support for Libyas GNA (Government of National Accord) is an example of Bayraktar Diplomacy. (Austin Bay) February 15, 2021: Iran confirmed that Turkey had arrested an Iranian citizen earlier this month but denied the individual was a diplomat. February 14, 2021: Turkey confirmed that 15 Turkish sailors kidnapped by pirates operating in West Africa (Gulf of Guinea) have returned to Turkey. The men were kidnapped January 23 after pirates attacked their container ship. One sailor, an Azeri, was killed in the attack. The seamen reported the pirates held them in a jungle camp in Nigeria for three weeks. Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry reported that PKK terrorists in northern Iraq murdered 13 Turkish hostages. Turkish Army soldiers and paramilitary policemen were among those slain. The executions took place in a cave in northern Iraq. Many of the hostages had been held since 2015. The Defense Ministry also announced it will begin a new anti-PKK operation in northern Iraq later this week. February 13, 2021: Turkish diplomats are once again discussing reviving relations with Israel. Talk of Turkish-Israeli rapprochement has cropped up four or five times in the last three years but it didnt happen. In May 2018 Israel and Turkey expelled each others ambassador. The Turks objected to an Israeli operation that killed several dozen Palestinians in Gaza. Turkey also objected to the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. President Erdogan has portrayed himself as a protector of Palestinians. At one time Turkey and Israel were functionally allies, particular in defense technology and sharing intelligence. Dont expect a rapid thaw. But Turkish media note that Israels El Al airline now flies a route to Istanbul. The Tel Aviv-Istanbul route was suspended for ten years. Turkish and Israeli media both credit the Abraham Accords (Israeli-Arab rapprochement) with nudging Turkey. February 12, 2021: Turkey accused Greece of slandering Turkey at a meeting in Athens that included representatives from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, Bahrain and Cyprus. The meeting, named the Philia (Friendship) Forum, was called to address economic and security issues in the eastern Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and Europe. There was a special focus on the Balkans. Turkey contends Greece is trying to create an alliance whose goal is denying Turkey its economic rights in the Mediterranean. Greece and Turkey have disputes over maritime boundaries and offshore resource rights. The deep issue is divided Cyprus where the Turkish Army and the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) have been deployed since 1974. Turkeys government news agency reported an Iranian consular official had been arrested in Istanbul. The suspect is believed to be connected to the November 2019 assassination of Masoud Molavi, an Iranian dissident leader. Molavi was murdered in Turkey. February 10, 2021: Despite the political friction, the U.S. and Turkey are conducting a joint naval exercise in the Black Sea this week. Two U.S. Navy destroyers are participating in the exercise. President Erdogan announced Turkey will begin a space program that will include missions to the Moon. The space program will demonstrate that Turkey now has an expanded regional and global role. The first Moon mission could occur as early as 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. February 9, 2021: The diplomatic rumor mill indicated Turkey might dispose of the S-400 it has purchased if the U.S. ends support for Kurdish YPG militias in Syria. February 7, 2021: Turkish security forces arrested four protest leaders at Bosporus University. The demonstrators accuse Erdogans government of politically encroaching on their academic institution. February 6, 2021: Turkey will soon launch the first of four Milgem-class corvettes built for the Pakistan Navy. Pakistan plans to take delivery of the first ship sometime in 2023. The second corvette will be built in Turkey but the third and fourth ships will be built in Pakistan. The ships will have 16 vertical launch cells. February 5, 2021: The new American government announced that the 2019 ban on Turkey acquiring F-35 stealth fighters will continue. The U.S. decided to drop Turkey form the F-35 consortium after Turkey purchased Russian S-400 surface to air missiles. The U.S. military maintains the S-400 is not operationally compatible with the F-35. February 4, 2021: Senior members of the ruling AKP called student protestors at Bosporus University terrorists. An opposition leader pointed out that the AKP now calls any political critic a terrorist. The United States reiterated that the U.S. had no involvement in Turkeys 2016 coup attempt. President Erdogan routinely suggests the U.S. was behind the coup. The fact is, the U.S. quickly condemned the coup. February 3, 2021: Azerbaijan denied media reports that Turkey is establishing three military bases in its territory. The media reports implied the bases were a payoff for Turkeys support of Azerbaijan during its 2020 war with Armenia. Turkeys assistance was seen as an example of Erdogans neo-Ottoman political policies which seek to support Turkic nations in central Asia and former Ottoman territories. February 2, 2021: Senior Turkish and U.S. diplomats and military advisers held a telephonic discussion about issues confronting Turkey and the U.S. Syria, Libya, the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, and Nagorno-Karabakh were included in the discussion. February 1, 2021: Turkey and Azerbaijan began a large-scale joint military exercise in eastern Anatolia (Turkey) near the border with Armenia. The exercise, centered on the city of Kars, will last until February 12. January 30, 2021: A joint Turkish-Russian observation center created to monitor the Armenia-Azerbaijan ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh began operations inside Azerbaijan. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Burma Myanmar Anti-Coup Protestors Get Creative with Thanakha in Fresh Protests Anti-regime protesters in Mandalay use thanakha as part of the campaign. / The Irrawaddy Myanmars anti-coup protesters on Thursday are getting creative with thanakha the countrys traditional facial cosmetic paste to accelerate the civil disobedience movement (CDM), in which civil servants are encouraged to strike. The latest campaign, popularly known as the battle of thanakha kicked off the day before Myanmars designated Thanakha Day. Protesters have put the yellow paste on their faces in Yangon, Mandalay and several other cities. Myanmar has designated the Tabodwe full moon, the 11th of Myanmars lunar calendar, as Thanakha Day to promote the cosmetic paste. Protesters on Thursday painted CDM or three-finger salutes in thanakha, which is made from ground bark, on their foreheads. Young protesters are helping to paint other demonstrators and to restore messages washed away by sweat during the day. A young protester in Myaynigone, Yangon, said the use of thanakha was part of the process of holding fresh protests against the regime and to give moral support to protesters. The paste is recognized as a symbol of a mothers affection and protection. Many children go to school with thanakha smeared on their faces by their mothers. Wearing thanakha equals a mothers love, affection and protection. We will continue to fight until we achieve our goal, he said. Anti-coup protests have sparked a violent crackdown from the security forces with several fatalities. Protesters are demanding the military regime step down, free the elected leaders and hand over power to the party, the National League for Democracy, they voted for in the November general election. According to the Assistance of Association of Political Prisoners, more than 720 individuals have been detained by the military since Feb. 1. A teenager with CDM on his forehead in Yangon told The Irrawaddy he wanted to encourage more public servants to join the strike. We have lost lives. I urge every civil servant to take part in the CDM, he said. Launched on Feb. 3, the CDM has gained momentum across the country and the regime has increased arrests of protesters and civil servants taking part in the movement. Residents have prevented some arrests of striking civil servants in their neighborhoods by people in plainclothes claiming to be police officers. But more than 40 protesters have been detained across the country. Civilians have formed groups to assist striking civil servants in need. You may also like these stories: World Bank Halts Payments to Myanmar After Coup Lawyer for Myanmars Detained Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says He Has Not Been Able to Meet Her Growing Number of Businesses Shun Myanmar Military-Linked Goods, Services France's nuclear safety authority agreed Thursday to extend the operational lifetime of the country's 32 oldest by a decade to as much as 50 years. The public electricity company that operates the nuclear plants, EDF, is in charge of ensuring the safety of the reactors, which had previously been intended to run for 40 years. The nuclear authority said in a statement that it finds that measures planned by EDF "open the prospect of continued operation of these reactors for a further ten years. Nuclear energy currently provides about 70 per cent of French electricity, more than in any other country. aims to reduce that proportion to 50 per cent by 2035 while boosting renewable energy. Last year, shut its oldest nuclear plant in Fessenheim, on the border with Germany, which had been supplying electricity since 1977. The government has outlined plans for 12 more reactor closures. Most were built in the 1980s, meaning they could be shut down in the 2030s. Germany's environment minister criticized the nuclear safety authority's decision. I respect the principle of national energy sovereignty, but I'm very concerned about the increasing superannuation of European nuclear power plants, Svenja Schulze said in a statement Thursday. This includes the old French reactors. Germany is phasing out its own nuclear power plants by the end of 2022, a decision taken in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan ten years ago. (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.) STORY LINK Pound to Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) Exchange Rate Sinks as UK Economic Jitters Return GBP/CAD Exchange Rate as UK Markets Become More Cautious Canadian Dollar (CAD) Rises on Increasing Price of Oil GBP/CAD Exchange Rate Forecast: Could Rising Oil Prices Boost the Loonie This Week? Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The GBP/CAD exchange rate fell by -0.2% today, with the pairing currently fluctuating around CA$1.76.Sterling fell today as concerns for the UK economy have returned, despite Downing Streets outline of its lockdown exit plan earlier this week.Today also saw reports that more UK workers had been put on furlough in January, resulting in costs of up to 53.8 billion.Analysts at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) commented:The ONS estimates that the proportion of businesses workforce on furlough leave increased from 11% in early December 2020 to 20% in early February 2021.This is considerably lower than during the first national lockdown, where 30% of businesses workforce were on furlough leave in early June 2020.The UK economy is also arriving at a crossroads ahead of Marchs Spring Budget.GBP investors are becoming more cautious about the outlook once lockdowns are eased, with both Brexit and the pandemic limiting the nations economy for months and possibly years into the future.The director general of the CBI, Tony Danker, has urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend support for struggling businesses, saying:The chancellor must finish what he started: doing whatever it takes to back UK business. The more businesses the more jobs that we can see through the crisis, the faster we can snap the economy back into shape.The Canadian Dollar rose against Sterling today after the commodity-linked currency benefited by an upswing in oil prices.Oil prices rose to a one-year high over the past few days as global crude supplies continue to shrink.Rob Thummel, a portfolio manager at Tortoise commented:All indications are that were going to see better demand. Inventories are going to continue to fall, both in the U.S. and globally. Big picture, thats going to be positive for prices moving higher.As a result, CAD has benefited from growing confidence in the Canadian economy, with oil being one of the nations biggest exports.Yesterday also saw the Bank of Canada (BoC) take a markedly upbeat tone about the outlook for Canadas economy.Analysts at Reuters said:Canadas economy will see a solid and sustained rebound this year as inoculations ramp up, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday, while warning that Canadas red-hot housing market is starting to show signs of excess exuberance.The Canadian Dollar will continue to be driven by oil-price fluctuations this week. If the price of oil continues to rise, then we will see the Loonie climb against Sterling.In Canadian economic news, tomorrow will see the release of Januarys Industrial Product Price data.Any improvement in the outlook or Canadas economy would also be CAD-positive.Pound traders will continue to monitor the UKs Covid-19 developments. If it looks like the easing of lockdowns will be relatively straightforward in the months ahead, then confidence in the UK economy would improve.The GBP/CAD exchange rate could head higher this week if confidence in the UK economy returns as the nation draws closer to easing lockdown restrictions in March. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: Canadian Dollar Forecasts Pound Canadian Dollar Forecasts Small and self-contained, powder rooms are packed with potential. They're faster and more economical to paint than larger spaces; you can tackle them over a weekend with fewer gallons. And when tastes or trends change - or when the big experiment backfires - it's easy to put them right again. "Powder rooms are always a great place to throw in color, something that brings all the colors of the house together," says Cortney Bishop, principal designer and owner of Cortney Bishop Design in Charleston, S.C. Or they can be a place to step outside of your comfort zone with something completely different. "Powder rooms give you the freedom to express yourself. It doesn't have to correlate with the rest of the house," says Mikel Welch, who has designed for Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey. "Go into the lab and mix things around until you figure it out. Have fun, and show your personality." The bottom line: Your powder room is your playground. There are no rules. We asked several experts to share their favorite powder room paint colors. Here are their picks: 1. Red Earth, Farrow & Ball What it looks like: This earthy tone blends red and yellow to create a warm, terra-cotta feel. It responds well to the changing sunlight throughout the day. What designers say: "It does feel earthy, but it's unexpected," Bishop says. "It's definitely a risk. We find it works really beautifully with creamy white, brown and green tones and all [accent] shades, like yellow and green." Red Earth pairs well with honey-blond wood, Bishop says, such as on a custom vanity or a wood-framed mirror. 2. Urbane Bronze, Sherwin-Williams What it looks like: There's nothing bronze about Sherwin-Williams's 2021 Color of the Year; it's actually a deep neutral that finishes brown-gray. What designers say: "It's moodier," but it works, Bishop says, especially when paired with a brighter color. "Make sure you bring in a great mirror, so it's not too dark," she adds. Consider accenting your bold paint with wood or wallpaper on the top third of the wall, she says. "It's that little touch of thoughtful wallpaper - not covering the whole room, but that accent - that helps those colors play out without feeling cavernous or dark." Bishop also suggests brass accents, such as on the legs of a vanity. "Those shiny, reflective materials really elevate the design, so it feels a little more sophisticated," she says. 3. Abysse/Ocean Abyss, Behr What it looks like: Michigan designer Haneen Matt blended these deep blue-greens (three parts Abysse, one part Ocean Abyss) to achieve her desired teal for her own powder room. What designers say: "I was trying to get the perfect blue-green that looked rich and sophisticated (which is tricky! I didn't want it to look like a juvenile turquoise/teal)," Matt said in an email. Like Bishop suggests, Matt painted the lower two-thirds of the walls, then complemented the dark paint with light wallpaper. She chose Palazzo by Thibaut. "It's an old-world architectural cityscape," she wrote. "You can get lost in it. " Matt also brought in metallic fixtures and an unexpected floral shade that contrasts with the whimsical wallpaper. 4. School House White, Farrow & Ball What it looks like: Reminiscent of the soft off-white frequently found in old schools, this neutral color feels warm and timeless. What designers say: This versatile white works with many styles and colors, Bishop says. "The reason I would suggest white on the wall is that you can then paint the vanity or the cabinet a really great, punchy color" like Red Earth, she says. 5. Card Room Green, Farrow & Ball What it looks like: This subtle sage green gives off a Victorian-study vibe and goes well with any warm neutral, such as off-white. What designers say: For homes on the neutral spectrum, Welch likes this dark gray-green to add color without taking on too much risk. "It's like spicy foods," Welch says. "Everyone's palate isn't the same." 6. Ball Green, Farrow & Ball What it looks like: Although Bishop says this go-to color comes across as beige in online images, in real life it finishes as more of a muted sage green with hints of silver. What designers say: It's a solid complement to any light neutral. Bishop pairs Ball Green on the ceiling with walls in School House White, for example, because both colors are warm and they work well together. "It's a combination that I've been extremely happy with for several clients, as well as for myself," she says. 7. Gentleman's Gray, Benjamin Moore What it looks like: This moody gray-blue that leans toward classic navy is a great choice for a dark and bold neutral that's not black. What designers say: "It's really interesting, but it's also not a hot pink. You could tie it into the rest of your home easily," says Catherine Williamson of Columbus, Ohio-based Beginning in the Middle. To add brightness against a dark color, "go with a contrasting metal, like brass, nickel or chrome," for your fixtures, she says, as opposed to black against a dark color. "It adds some contrast and lightens it up." 8. Studio Clay, Sherwin-Williams What it looks like: This neutral brown tone produces a sophisticated finish, especially when offset by light baseboards and a light ceiling. What designers say: "It's earthy, moody and neutral," Williamson says. She hates to paint, so she opts for neutrals over trendier colors every time. Williamson also suggests introducing bold colors and patterns with rugs and art. "The power of one piece of art in a room, especially like a powder room, it would produce a completely different look," she says, or mix several styles in a gallery wall. "You can get bold without committing long-term." 9. Greenblack, Sherwin-Williams What it looks like: This ink black with green undertones creates a chalky effect. Juxtaposed with light neutrals, the finish is classic and crisp. What designers say: Like Urbane Bronze, Welch says Greenblack works because "it has a chalkiness to it, so it's not a stark black." For optimal effect, Welch suggests color-blocking: painting only a portion of the wall with the dark tone. "One horizontal stripe splits the entire wall in half with a lighter tone on top, darker tone on bottom" - or the inverse, he says. "It gives the effect of a faux chair rail." A glance at the day's highlights from the Proactive Investors newswire ( ) said it expects to materially outperform market expectations for the next financial year and beyond after winning big new contracts with retailers River Island and Mountain Warehouse. PLC ( ) has said its performance in its current financial year to date has been ahead of our initial expectations following an improvement in its performance in the second half of 2020. ( ) has launched its dedicated Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) Fuel Cell test facility hosted at the company's Surrey headquarters. The facility is fully fitted out and ready to move into full operation. ( ) said it has prioritised discussions with two global cosmetic companies after introducing its treatment for solar keratosis to a number of potential commercial partners last year. It said it is also working with a number of potential partners to apply its expertise and technology to develop further targeted products. s ( ) directors have taken advantage of a rocketing share price to exercise and sell a chunk of share options. Peter Wall, the cryptocurrency miners chief executive, sold 1.525mln shares at an average 243p after exercising 2mln options at a cost of 7p each. Ian Macleod, executive chairman, sold 900,000 shares at an average of 231p having also exercised options at a cost of 7p, while non-executive Matthew Shaw sold around 506,600 shares at an average 251p having exercised options over just under 644,000 shares at 13p each. Wall and Macleod have both agreed to give 5% of the proceeds of their sales to an environmental charity. Eco Atlantic Oil and Gas Ltd (LON:ECO) has renamed its new renewable energy venture Solear Ltd as it seeks a possible spin-out later this year. ( ) told investors it has been awarded a construction licence package for the development of the power line for the Araguaia ferronickel project in Brazil. Great Western Mining (LON:GWMO, Euronext Growth:8GW) is gearing up for a busy year on the ground in Nevada, with drilling work expected to get underway in April. 's ( ) directors have declared an interim dividend of 1.625p per share in respect of the period from 1 October 2020 to 31 December 2020. The ex-dividend date will be 4 March. ( ) told investors it has made an investment of C$99,000 (roughly 56,000) in Palladium One Mining Inc (TSXV:PDM) as part of wider funding. Earlier, Metal Tiger said it should receive a dividend payment of A$276,345 from its 3.5% stake in ASX-listed Sandfire Resources, which today announced an interim dividend of A$0.08 per share. (LON:APF, ) said it has raised a total of US$66mln/47mln from a placing and retail offer at a price of 128p per share. The placing raised 43mln, while 3mln was drummed up via the offer on , with an additional 374,000 from directors. ( ) has filed an application for permission to appeal against a recent decision by the Helsinki Administrative Court not to overturn a 1.45mln fine imposed on Afarak by FIN-FSA. ( ) said James Noble and Axel Wieandt will be joining the board as non-executive directors (NEDs) effective from April 1. ( ) has appointed Allenby Capital as joint corporate broker with immediate effect, working alongside the company's existing nominated adviser and joint broker, Stifel. ReNeuron will also be presenting at today's Proactive One2One Investor Forum, starting at 6pm. To register for the event, which brings together high net worth investors and private investors with an interest in growth stocks, investors can follow this link: https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/register/event_details/319. ReNeuron will also present at the Shares Investor Evening Webinar, on Tuesday 2 March, and the HC Wainwright Global Life Sciences Conference, which is taking place on 9-10 March 2021. The presentations will be made available on the company website shortly after the events, here: http://www.reneuron.com/investors/presentations. Redx Pharma plc (LON:REDX) chief executive Lisa Anson will give a progress update at the Cowen 41st Annual Health Care Conference on Thursday 4 March at 4.10pm (11.10am EST). Following the event, a recording will be made available on the investor section of the company's website. Limited ( ) will host an interim results webinar for retail investor at 9am on Wednesday 17 March, following its interim results announcement on Tuesday 16 March. Oy ( ) notified investors that it will publish its audited full-year results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2020 on Thursday 25 March 2021, with the annual report published on the same day. 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. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing to examine her nomination to be secretary of Energy, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 27, 2021. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters) Senate Confirms Granholm to Lead Energy Department Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 25 to serve as secretary of the Department of Energy. Granholm, the second woman to lead the department, was confirmed in a 6435 vote, with all Democrats, two independents, and 14 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, voting yes. She has long supported alternative energy sources and outlets, such as electric vehicles, and wrote in a November 2020 op-ed before being nominated that a low-carbon economic recovery would be the best path. Granholm also signaled support for Bidens moratorium on new oil and gas leases, telling senators during the Jan. 27 hearing that the pause gives us time to be able to work on the technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions that will keep people employed. The Biden administration has already declared a war on American energy and American energy workers, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in comments on the Senate floor. President Biden seems to want to pull the plug on American energy dominance. I cannot in good conscience vote to approve his nominee for secretary of energy, added Barrasso, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy Committee. In introducing Granholm and other choices for similar positions, Biden told a virtual news conference last year that the former governor worked with states, cities, business, and labor to promote clean energy future with new jobs, new industry, cleaner and more affordable energy. Now I am asking her to bring that vision and faith in America to the Department of Energy, he said. Other senators spoke out in support of Granholm, including Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who served under her while she was governing Michigan. President Joe Bidens Cabinet and Cabinet-level picks. (AP Graphic) As the governor of Michigan, she led our state through an economic crisis. She knows how to deal with multifaceted challenges and has a documented record of strong leadership, Peters told colleagues in Washington on Feb. 25. Granholm championed strengthening national security, supporting research and development, and creating new, well-paying jobs while answering questions from senators, Peters added. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who represents a red state and chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Granholms remarks last month amounted to a promise to innovate, not eliminate fossil fuels, while transitioning to using more alternative energy. She understands when markets shift, and basically leaving people behind that had good jobs and now have a hard time just surviving, let alone living any quality of life they lived before, he said. She understands that. Granholm, 62, governed Michigan from 2003 to 2011. She also worked on Barack Obamas transition team before his first term as president. Since leaving the governors mansion, Granholm has contributed to CNN, worked for the University of CaliforniaBerkeley, and advised groups founded by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock, including Media Matters. After the vote, Granholm tweeted gratitude to the Senate. Im obsessed with creating good-paying clean energy jobs in all corners of America in service of addressing our climate crisis. Im impatient for results. Now lets get to work! she wrote. The Department of Energy is focused on maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent and reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation, and overseeing the United States energy supply, among other tasks. Granholm is Bidens 10th Cabinet nominee to be confirmed. Tom Vilsack was confirmed as secretary of Agriculture this week, as was Linda-Thomas Greenfield as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Newsweek developed this prestigious list in partnership with The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit that monitors the quality and safety of health care. Hospitals that received the top maternity care honor had to fully meet all of Leapfrog's rigorous targets in several quality and safety measures, including lower rates of early elective deliveries, C-sections and episiotomies, as well as assuring newborn jaundice screenings are conducted along with techniques to prevent blood clots in mothers delivering via C-section. "This designation is a testament to the collaboration and expertise of our nurses, physician partners, leaders and staff, who consistently work to ensure the safety of both mothers and newborns at our Women's Hospital," said Marcia Manker, CEO, MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center. "We are proud to have a multidisciplinary care team that is dedicated to providing a personalized birthing experience for families in a safe environment." The Women's Hospital at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center has welcomed more than 80,000 babies over the past 30 years and has a renowned reputation as one of the most trusted hospitals for maternity care in the region. In addition to offering the first private Labor-Delivery-Recovery-Postpartum suites in Southern California, MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center is one of the only hospitals in Orange County to have an advanced, on-site Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "When choosing where to give birth, safety is paramount," said Rachael Lopez, M.D., board-certified OB/GYN and chief of Women's and Children's Services at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center. "It is important for families to research safety ratings and select a hospital that offers specialty care for both women and newborns should any acute needs arise before, during or after childbirth." MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center offers a variety of childbirth education classes for women and families to help them prepare for conception, birth and postnatal care. The hospital also launched new postpartum services to address mental health challenges among new mothers and provide ongoing lactation support for patients. In addition to being named as one of the "Best Maternity Hospitals 2021," MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center received an "A" for the Fall 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade the only hospital rating focused exclusively on safety and a way for consumers to choose the safest hospital to seek care. MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center was named a Best Regional Hospital for 2020-21 by U.S. News & World Report and secured high-performing rankings in Orthopedics, Heart Failure, Knee Replacement, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Urology and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair. It has been named among America's 50 Best Hospitals, Top 50 U.S. Cardiovascular Hospitals, Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Orthopedics Programs by Becker's Hospital Review, and the only Orange County hospital recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology. It is Orange County's first Accredited Geriatric Emergency Department, consistently ranks in the top two Best of Orange County Hospitals and was named a Top Workplace by The Orange County Register. Visit memorialcare.org/saddleback. SOURCE MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center Related Links https://www.memorialcare.org/saddleback-medical-center Sorry! This content is not available in your region Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 00:42:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday said it has relocated 5,474 stranded Eritrean refugees to Mai Aini and Adi-Harush refugee camps in northern Ethiopia. "Thousands of Eritrean refugees, who were stranded in the town of Shire-Indaselassie and surrounding areas after fleeing Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps continue to be relocated to Mai Aini and Adi-Harush camps," said a statement by the agency. "To date, 5,474 refugees have been relocated to the two camps, but lack of adequate shelter and communal facilities remains a major concern," said the statement. The Eritrean refugee relocation operation is being implemented entirely in Ethiopia's northern conflict-hit Tigray regional state. UNHCR further disclosed additional shelters are being constructed with the eventual plan of hosting up to 15,000 Eritrean refugees in total. Weeks of fighting in northern Ethiopia's Tigray regional state between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) which used to rule the region until November and the Ethiopian Defense Forces has left hundreds of people dead, thousands displaced and millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, media reported. In January, Ethiopia's Administration for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA) announced plans to close Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps and relocate up to 20,000 refugees that were previously sheltered in the two camps. Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps were reportedly heavily damaged in the conflict, leaving thousands of Eritrean refugees dispersed in nearby towns and other areas. Ethiopia is home to around 200,000 Eritrean refugees with most of them sheltered in Tigray and Afar regional states as well as in the capital, Addis Ababa, according to figures from the Ethiopian government. Enditem Contrary to what many believe, a new study finds that mental illness isn't a factor in most mass shootings or other types of mass murder. "The findings from this potentially definitive study suggest that emphasis on serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or psychotic mood disorders, as a risk factor for mass shootings is given undue emphasis, leading to public fear and stigmatization," study co-leader Gary Brucato said in a Columbia University news release. He's an associate research scientist in the university's Department of Psychiatry in New York City. Brucato and his colleagues analyzed 1,315 mass murders of all types that occurred worldwide and found that only 11% of all mass murderers (including shooters) and only 8% of mass shooters had serious mental illness. The rate was 18% among people who committed mass murder through non-firearm means such fire, explosives, poison, stabbing, bludgeoning or driving vehicles into crowds. While guns were used in nearly two-thirds of all mass murders, non-firearm means resulted in significantly more casualties per event. The researchers also found that mass shooters in the United States were more likely to have legal histories, use recreational drugs, abuse alcohol, and have histories of non-psychotic psychiatric or neurologic symptoms. Most mass shooters used non-automatic firearms. Among U.S. mass shooters, those with any psychiatric or neurologic condition were more likely to use semi-automatic guns than non-automatic guns. These findings could help inform how background checks for gun purchases should be conducted, according to the researchers at the Center of Prevention and Evaluation at Columbia University's Irving Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. They also found that since 1970, the rate of mass shootings has been far higher than the rate of non-firearm mass murder, and that the vast majority of mass shootings have been in the United States. The study was published online recently in the journal Psychological Medicine. "These data suggest that other difficulties, such as legal problems, substance and alcohol use, and difficulty coping with life events seem more useful foci for prevention and policy than an emphasis on serious mental illness," said study co-author Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia psychiatrist. Explore further First report on mass shootings from Columbia University database More information: The American Public Health Association has more on The American Public Health Association has more on gun violence SOURCE: Columbia University Irving Medical Center, news release, Feb. 18, 2021 Journal information: Psychological Medicine Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Arthur Milikh, Executive Director of the Claremont Institutes Center for the American Way of Life, in Washington on Feb. 22, 2021. (Otabius Williams/The Epoch Times) Hate Speech Laws Take Away Freedom of Speech: Arthur Milikh Arthur Milikh, executive director of the Claremont Institutes Center for the American Way of Life, told The Epoch Times that policies and laws regulating hate speech are really about silencing opinions and thus take away freedom of speech, leading to tyranny. The public view is that to criminalize hate speech really is to rid the public square of racial epithets and Holocaust denial, Milikh told Jan Jekielek, host of The Epoch Times American Thought Leaders program. The truth is thats not actually what these laws do. Milikh explained that nowadays, the doctrines beneath controlling hate speech have become more and more radical. In the 1990s, political correctness had a lot to do with politeness, you shouldnt say this because itll hurt peoples feelings. But today, theres an entire doctrinal world beneath controlling so-called hate speech, Milikh continued. And it can basically be summarized in somewhat of a crude way that it has to do with silencing the thoughts and speech of the so-called oppressor group, so as to increase and free the speech of the so-called marginalized. Defining people into oppressor groups and marginalized groups is what identity politics is promoting. Milikh suggested that the critical race theory, or identity politics, is trying to propagandize people by saying that all of history was oppression, there was nothing good whatsoever in the past. The New York Timess 1619 Project asserts that the United States is founded fundamentally on white supremacy. And the narrative is the marginalized are pure, good and the oppressor groups are unconscious beneficiaries of all sorts of privileges, and they, therefore, should remain silent when told what justice is, Milikh added. Thats why its incredible, yet it makes perfect sense that fifth-grade kids in Buffalo are being taught advanced Black Lives Matter (BLM) materials in school, Milikh indicated. Even Facts Could be Viewed as Hate Speech Milikh went on to say that the doctrines behind hate speech policies have become so radical that even facts could be viewed as hate speech. Certain facts can be viewed as racist, xenophobic, anti-trans. And by virtue of that, even if they are true, they are removed from utterances and attempted to be removed from minds, Milikh said. And this is very much rooted in the identity politics thinking. Milikh gave the example of a debate between medical professionals, biologists, and transgender activists. Many medical people would say that sex is by birth. And the transgender activists say no, its merely assigned at birth, and we decide what gender we are. It is becoming rather evident that there is a great interest in shutting down those kinds of scientific facts, Milikh pointed out. Even if science claims that they are true, they are still considered transphobic facts. Another example is disparities in crime among groups. Milikh said many people are promoting that by assuring forth these kinds of facts, they are trying to demean, diminish, and harm people. Thats simply not true. When you take away the capacity to speak about these facts, youre taking away, in this case, safety in neighborhoods, Milikh said. But its a fundamental distortion of the intellect that says that your mind simply should not go there because certain facts are racist or transphobic. Hate Speech Laws Couldnt Stop Hate Speech or Violence Milikh went on to say those hate speech laws couldnt fulfill the promise of what they were intended to dostop the hate speech and get rid of the violence. These laws dont crack down on violence. In fact, they increase it, Milikh claimed. One example is that Jews in the UK, a country that criminalized anti-Semitic hate speech, are 13 times more likely to be subjected to anti-Semitic violence than they are in the United States, which does not have such laws. Another example Milikh gave is a Belgium parliament member who was prevented from running for public office for 10 years because he spread pamphlets against immigration. In that particular European country, discussion of [immigration] is almost impossible because of these hate speech laws, Milikh pointed out. Those people become angry and radicalized. And so theres a great deal of harm that these kinds of laws create. Milikh said that since about the 1970s, the UK, Canada, Australia, and the Anglosphere are running a very dangerous experiment. The experiment is to get rid of the freedom of speech by legislating against hate speech. The answer is more or less clear that these countries more and more are run by administrations rather than politics, that theres a great deal of unrest that is shooed under the carpet, especially among various ethnic groups, Milikh continued. And what ends up happening is that you have a kind of light tyranny that perpetuates itself by spreading the wealth. What Could We Do When asked what we could do in this sort of climate, Milikh responded that therere a couple of paths to focus on. First, we should think about which institutions have a disproportionate power over policing speech and thought. One Ive named before is Google. Milikh pointed out that Google controls 90 percent of the worlds searches, and therefore is essentially the portal into the internet. No free country could tolerate that one corporation could define what it is and is not possible to say, and could moreover attempt to skew the kind of information that is available so as to benefit their moral worldview. Second is the universities, Milikh suggested. The universities have been captured by a very radical element of the left for quite some time now. And I dont think that a free people needs to tolerate these kinds of things. These universities, nearly all of them depend on federal and state budgets. Well, the state of Florida, its citizens can very easily defund the University of Florida. No offense to it. I dont know anything about it. But just to use that one example. Milikh indicated that solid, intelligent apprenticeship programs should be created to avoid making college the end-all-be-all credentialing institution. But more importantly, while the freedom of speech still exists in America, we have to speak out against these very dangerous and unjust ideologies, elaborate what they do, what they say, elaborate the kind of America that they want to create, Milikh said, stressing that speaking out is extremely important. The freedom of speech really is a civilizational level question, Milikh concluded. With the loss of the freedom of speech, the country regrettably descends into an unrecognizable form of some kind of soft despotism that will be maybe almost impossible to get ourselves out of. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced its commitment to add 300 American workers in Pennsylvania in continuation of its overall hiring plan in the U.S. The company, known for building leading-edge digital capabilities and training the next generation of global talent, will recruit for a range of opportunities across technology and digital services, client administration, and operations as it expands its new Retirement Services Center of Excellence (the Center). "My administration welcomes Infosys to Pennsylvania, and looks forward to the growth and success of its new Retirement Services Center of Excellence in Chester County," said Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. "Our commonwealth is known worldwide for its leadership in technology and innovation, and Infosys's expansion is a testament and welcome addition to that legacy. The company's commitment to supporting the local workforce will provide new opportunities to the region, and we are proud that this international company has selected Pennsylvania as a place to settle, grow, and expand." "We are committed to growing Infosys' footprint in the financial services space in the U.S. Our Retirement Services Center in Pennsylvania is one example of how we realize this aspiration," said Mohit Joshi, President at Infosys. "This Center will focus on technology and innovation that will enable the retirement industry to navigate its way to lower costs, enhanced experiences, and better outcomes for retirement savers." The Center will develop technology solutions and services to help firms capitalize on the opportunities emerging at the intersection of employee benefits, wealth management, and digital transformation, beginning with a focus on the employee-sponsored retirement plan experience. The Center was conceived last year following the partnership forged with Pennsylvania-based investment management firm Vanguard. Infosys helps financial institutions, the world over, stay a step ahead of digital disruption by embracing rapid technology transformation. The firm serves half of the top 20 retirement service firms in the U.S., helping them manage risk, improve their participants' experience, and deliver better outcomes with leverage from digital solutions. "Our business model is about finding the best workforce, training the best workforce, and deploying the best workforce to enable our clients to thrive," said Martha King, Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer at Infosys. "Southeastern Pennsylvania, so well-known for its talent, innovation, and successful enterprise, offers the opportunity for us to strengthen our workforce on behalf of our clients here in the region and beyond." A global organization with nearly 250,000 employees worldwide, Infosys has rapidly been expanding its hiring of U.S. workers. In September 2020, the company announced its commitment to hire an additional 12,000 American workers bringing its total hiring commitment in the U.S. to 25,000 workers by 2022. In addition, the firm aims to play a crucial role in building pathways to employment for American workers, particularly those who have been negatively impacted by the economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please visit: https://www.infosys.com/americas/american-innovation/pa.html About Infosys Ltd. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe harbor: "Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects and financial expectations are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding Covid-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in I.T. services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law." SOURCE Infosys 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. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in a telephone conversation with Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed a joint position on Nord Stream 2, as well as the Polish initiative to allocate 1.2 million doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine to Ukraine. "Andrzej Duda and I have a clear and unchanging position on Nord Stream 2. It must not be allowed. Nord Stream 2 is a trap for the whole of Europe. We are grateful to Joe Biden for the sanctions. Their further strengthening is the energy security of Europe," Zelensky said in his Telegram channel on Wednesday evening. According to the presidential press service, the leaders of the countries coordinated steps to further counter the Nord Stream 2 project and agreed to involve the international community as much as possible in this. Zelensky said "this project [Nord Stream 2], in fact, is a trap for the whole of Europe. It cannot be allowed. Further tightening of sanctions against this project is a guarantee of Europe's energy security." The interlocutors also discussed the activities carried out in Ukraine and Poland amid the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Zelensky appreciated Duda for the initiative to transfer 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Ukraine, which Poland plans to receive as part of joint EU purchases. "Thank you for the initiative to donate 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine," Zelensky said on Twitter. The head of the Ukrainian state said this step is a powerful signal of solidarity with Ukraine, and expressed the hope that our country will be able to receive this vaccine in March, after the preparation and conclusion of the relevant contracts. In addition, the sides discussed a number of infrastructure projects near the border between Ukraine and Poland. In particular, they discussed the construction and repair of roads and the modernization of entry-exit checkpoints. The head of the Ukrainian state invited the President of Poland to visit Ukraine and personally take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence and in the Crimean Platform summit. Duda said "he will do everything possible to attend the celebration of the anniversary of Ukrainian independence." A German electrician suspected of passing floor plans of the Bundestag to Russian spies was today charged with espionage by prosecutors in Berlin. Further inflaming tensions with the Kremlin, the suspect, named only as Jens F., is accused of passing intelligence on the parliament building to the Russians for three years. The German national was working for contractors who carry out checks on fire safety of electrical equipment throughout the parliamentary premises in the capital. 'If it has a plug, it gets a sticker from them,' a source told Bild. The German national was working for contractors who carry out checks on fire safety of electrical equipment throughout the Reichstag building where the Bundestag sits in Berlin It risks further souring the relationship between Angela Merkel (pictured during a G7 conference at the weekend) and Russian President Vladimir Putin Prosecutors say Jens F. 'had access to PDF files with the floor plans of' the building. The suspect is believed to have decided sometime in the summer of 2017 to pass on the information to Russian secret services. 'For that, he prepared a data carrier with the corresponding PDF files and sent it to an employee in the Russian embassy in Berlin, who mainly works for the Russian military secret service GRU,' said prosecutors. It comes amid strained tensions between Berlin and Moscow over the case of the detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The West has accused Russia over the Novichok poisoning of the 44-year-old, who was treated in Berlin before he returned to Moscow last month. Upon landing at the airport, Navalny was imprisoned, sparking demands from the West for his release. The European Union announced a new volley of sanctions earlier this week targeting four senior Russian officials over the affair, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to slam what he called an attempt to 'shackle' his country. Chancellor Angela Merkel has always stressed the importance of keeping dialogue open with Putin as she walks a fine diplomatic line to keep Russia engaged. But even the usually unflappable German leader has voiced frustration over Russia's behaviour, including its repeated cyberattacks against the West. Merkel told parliament last May that she had concrete proof that Russia was targeting her in the attacks. Among the most high-profile attacks that German intelligence have accused Russian hackers of is a cyberassault on the German parliament in 2015. Local media have named the suspect in that attack as Dmitry Badin, who is also wanted by the FBI for other similar attempts. Beyond the virtual front, a high-stakes trial is ongoing in Germany over the assassination of a former Chechen commander in a central Berlin park, allegedly on Moscow's orders. The brazen murder in the heart of the German capital appeared to be a tipping point for Merkel, who said last May that the killing 'disrupts a cooperation of trust' between Berlin and Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a video conference call with members of the Security Council in Moscow, Russia November 6, 2020 The series of skirmishes with Russia has also left Merkel in a difficult position over the thorny question of a multi-billion-euro pipeline, Nord Stream 2, that is set to double Russian natural gas shipments to Germany. Germany has long irked allies with its stubborn defence of the project. Despite the tough opposition, including from key ally the United States, Merkel has insisted on the project. Most recently, with the pandemic still plaguing the world, Merkel has signalled openness to the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia. 'Beyond all the political differences that are currently large, we can nevertheless work together in a pandemic, in a humanitarian area,' Merkel has said. Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba will pay a working visit to France on Friday, February 26. On February 26, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba will pay a working visit to the French Republic. Dmytro Kuleba will hold talks with French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as meet with other French high-ranking officials, representatives of business, media and experts, reads a report posted on the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. The key topics of talks will be the development of political dialogue between Ukraine and France, increasing trade and investment, strengthening cooperation within international organizations, European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. It is planned that special attention will also be paid to countering Russian aggression against Ukraine, the security situation in eastern Ukraine and the de-occupation of Crimea, diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict within the Normandy format. As reported by Ukrinform, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis was on an official visit to Ukraine on February 23-24. iy Daylight Saving Time begins in 2021 on Sunday, March 14, when clocks will spring forward one hour and we lose an hour of sleep overnight. Though its been staying light out a little later each day since the winter solstice on Dec. 21, the big change will occur at 2 a.m. on March 14 with the shift to Daylight Savings Time. The sun will set at around 6:03 p.m in New Jersey on March 13 and the following day sunset is at 7:04 p.m. Daylight Savings Time in 2021 is 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 14. People sometimes referred to it as spring forward to remember it as the day clocks move forward one hour. The tradeoff is that sunrise will be an an hour later 7:10 a.m. on March 14 after it was 6:12 a.m. a day earlier. During winter, each day has roughly two-and-half more minutes of daylight than the previous day, with sunset slightly earlier and sunset slightly later until the summer solstice on June 20. At that point, the sun will begin to set a bit earlier each day. What is the history of Daylight Saving Time? The modern idea of Daylight Saving Time was first proposed in 1895 by George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist (the study of insects) and astronomer. Some credit William Willett, an English architect, for first proposing the idea in 1907. However, it was Hudson who came up with the idea nearly a decade earlier after becoming annoyed with the little amount of daylight during the summertime, which was interfering with his study of bugs. He believed that there must be a way to make better use of the days light by shifting the clocks by two hours in the summer and then two hours back in the winter. However, when Hudson presented the idea to the Wellington Philosophical Society, he was ridiculed by many society members. Willett was also disregarded when he proposed a similar idea to Parliament in 1907. Why do we spring forward during Daylight Saving Time? Daylight Saving Time is a roughly century-old practice in the U.S. centered around making better use of the days light by shifting an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. When is the first day of spring? Does it match with Daylight Saving Time? The first day of spring, otherwise known as the vernal equinox, is Saturday, March 20, 2021. While Daylight Saving Time is often referred to by its reminder spring forward or spring ahead, it actually occurs before spring starts each year. What states in the U.S. dont observe Daylight Saving Time? While most states change clocks for Daylight Saving Time, there are some holdouts. Arizona and Hawaii do not observe Daylight Saving Time. In addition, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not participate in Daylight Saving Time. There is a proposal in Congress, called the Sunshine Protection Act, to make Daylight Saving Time year round. It has not been passed, though. Meanwhile, Michigan lawmakers are considering abolishing Daylight Saving Time. What role did Benjamin Franklin play in Daylight Saving Time? Franklin is credited with coming up with the notion of making better use of the days light. While visiting Paris in 1784, Franklin came to believe that sunlight was being wasted during the day. In a joking letter to the editors of a Paris newspaper, Franklin proposed a tax on all Parisians whose windows were closed after sunrise. He believed that this would encourage the economy of using sunshine instead of candles, according to Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time. What is the origin of modern Daylight Saving Time? During World War I, the German Empire hatched an idea that most resembles the Daylight Saving Time that we observe today. Believing that it would conserve fuel during the war, the German Empire in 1916 became the first to switch its clocks to save daylight. When did the U.S. adopt Daylight Saving Time? In 1918, the U.S. enacted the first Daylight Saving Time law as a way to conserve fuel. It was reintroduced during World War II. In 1973, President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act, which made DST permanent in the U.S. This helped reduce confusion throughout the country with some regions of the U.S. participating in the practice and some regions opting out. Wasnt Daylight Saving Time created for farmers? A common misconception is that Daylight Saving Time was implemented as a way to improve farming practices. However, this is a myth. During the early adoption of the practice in the U.S., farmers were among the biggest opponents of Daylight Saving Time, believing that it would disrupt their farming practices. Does Daylight Saving Time actually conserve energy? Not really, even though that was cited in the 2005 Energy Policy Act that extended Daylight Saving Time by a month. A study three years later by the U.S. Department of Energy determined that the extended daylight throughout the year of 2005 saved a mere .5 percent in electricity use per day and only about .3 percent over the entire year. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/25/2021 -- The Latest research study released by HTF MI "Global Potato Chips Market" with 100+ pages of analysis on business Strategy taken up by key and emerging industry players and delivers know how of the current market development, landscape, technologies, drivers, opportunities, market viewpoint and status. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth. Some of the Major Companies covered in this Research are PepsiCo, Shearer?s, Pringles, Kettle Brand, Better Made, Cape Cod, Utz Quality Foods, Golden Flake, Mikesell?s & Ballreich?s etc. Click here for free sample + related graphs of the report @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1406007-global-potato-chips-market-15 Browse market information, tables and figures extent in-depth TOC on "Potato Chips Market by Application (Supermarket/Hypermarket, Independent Retailer & Other), by Product Type (Plain, Barbecue, Sour Cream & Onion, Salt & Vinegar & Others), Business scope, Manufacturing and Outlook Estimate to 2025". The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have significantly affecting the Infrastructure in overall market in 2020. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future. Know more with latest edition of Global Potato Chips Market Study; Early buyers will receive 20% customization free on report for more information or any query mail at sales@htfmarketreport.com At last, all parts of the Global Potato Chips Market are quantitatively also subjectively valued to think about the Global just as regional market equally. This market study presents basic data and true figures about the market giving a deep analysis of this market based on market trends, market drivers, constraints and its future prospects. The report supplies the worldwide monetary challenge with the help of Porter's Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis. If you have any Enquiry please click here @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1406007-global-potato-chips-market-15 Customization of the Report: The report can be customized as per your needs for added data up to 3 businesses or countries or 40 analyst hours. On the basis of report- titled segments and sub-segment of the market are highlighted below: Global Potato Chips Market By Application/End-User (Value and Volume from 2019 to 2025) : Supermarket/Hypermarket, Independent Retailer & Other Market By Type (Value and Volume from 2019 to 2025) : Plain, Barbecue, Sour Cream & Onion, Salt & Vinegar & Others Global Potato Chips Market by Key Players: PepsiCo, Shearer?s, Pringles, Kettle Brand, Better Made, Cape Cod, Utz Quality Foods, Golden Flake, Mikesell?s & Ballreich?s Geographically, this report is segmented into some key Regions, with manufacture, depletion, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Potato Chips in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering China, USA, Europe, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia & South America and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2019 to 2025. Informational Takeaways from the Market Study: The report Potato Chips matches the completely examined and evaluated data of the noticeable companies and their situation in the market considering impact of Coronavirus. The measured tools including SWOT analysis, Porter's five powers analysis, and assumption return debt were utilized while separating the improvement of the key players performing in the market. Key Development's in the Market: This segment of the Potato Chips report fuses the major developments of the market that contains confirmations, composed endeavors, R&D, new thing dispatch, joint endeavours, and relationship of driving members working in the market. To get this report buy full copy @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1406007 Some of the important question for stakeholders and business professional for expanding their position in the Global Potato Chips Market : Q 1. Which Region offers the most rewarding open doors for the market Ahead of 2020? Q 2. What are the business threats and Impact of COVID scenario Over the market Growth and Estimation? Q 3. What are probably the most encouraging, high-development scenarios for Potato Chips movement showcase by applications, types and regions? Q 4.What segments grab most noteworthy attention in Potato Chips Market in 2019 and beyond? Q 5. Who are the significant players confronting and developing in Potato Chips Market? For More Information Read Table of Content @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1406007-global-potato-chips-market-15 Key poles of the TOC: Chapter 1 Global Potato Chips Market Business Overview Chapter 2 Major Breakdown by Type [Plain, Barbecue, Sour Cream & Onion, Salt & Vinegar & Others] Chapter 3 Major Application Wise Breakdown (Revenue & Volume) Chapter 4 Manufacture Market Breakdown Chapter 5 Sales & Estimates Market Study Chapter 6 Key Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Breakdown .. Chapter 8 Manufacturers, Deals and Closings Market Evaluation & Aggressiveness Chapter 9 Key Companies Breakdown by Overall Market Size & Revenue by Type .. Chapter 11 Business / Industry Chain (Value & Supply Chain Analysis) Chapter 12 Conclusions & Appendix Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Work on India's first cable-styled bridge, also called the Anji bridge, is going on in full swing in Jammu and Kashmir's Raesi district, and 85 per cent of the work was completed by January this year. The bridge is being touted as one of the engineering marvels of the Indian Railways. Taking to Twitter, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said, "Infrastructural Marvel in Making: Indian Railways is well on track to achieve another engineering milestone with the steel arch of Chenab bridge reaching at closure position. It is all set to be the world's highest Railway bridge." He also attached a photograph of the Chenab bridge. According to Northern Railway officials, the work on the Anji bridge, which is coming up on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) section of Northern Railway in Jammu and Kashmir, is in full swing and the major arches of the bridge will be completed by March this year, while it is supposed to be completed by 2022. An official said that about 85 per cent work of the bridge was completed by January this year. The bridge is being built on the Katra-Banihal railway line in Kauri village in Reasi district. Officials said that the bridge will be 359m above the Chenab river bed -- 30m higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris. An official said that the bridge has been designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 260 kmph and its lifespan will be 120 years. According to Railway Ministry officials, it is the seventh-largest arch-shaped bridge in the world as there is no support except on both sides of the river banks. The arch is supported by piers and trusses. One of the supporting RCC and steel pillars is 133m high. The officials said that the Chenab bridge has been designed by consultants from Finland and Germany and the work is being executed by the Konkan Railways. Three agencies -- IRCON, KRCL and Northern Railway -- with extensive experience in construction of rail lines are involved in this project. Railway Ministry officials said that many international agencies and premier Indian institutes like IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi, DRDO and Geological Survey of India are providing expertise in planning and implementation of the project. Several sets of tunnelling machineries and cranes have also been imported. Once completed, the Anji bridge will connect Katra and Reasi. The total length of the bridge is 473.25m. The length of the viaduct is 120m and the central embankment has a length of 94.25m. It has the support of 96 cables. The concrete pillars of the bridge have been designed to withstand explosions, and it will include a 1.2m wide central verge and a 14m wide dual carriageway. According to railway officials, the construction activities are in progress on the Udhamur-Katra, Katra-Quazigund and Quazigund-Srinagar-Baramulla sections of the project. The Katra-Qazigund leg is the most difficult stretch of this project. The alignment of this stretch, which is almost 129 Km long, passes through the Patni and Pir Panjal ranges. Railway Ministry officials said that 81.21 km of the total 97.64 km main tunnelling and 53.50 km out of 60.5 km escape tunnel works have been completed. Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Civil society organizations, traditional rulers, Christian and Muslim leaders have sounded a strong and uncompromising message that they will not entertain lesbian and homosexual practice in the country, local media reports said here Wednesday ZURICH, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) announced today that its Board of Directors will recommend to shareholders at the company's 2021 Annual General Meeting an increase in its quarterly dividend for the twenty-eighth consecutive year. The proposal calls for a $3.20 annual per share dividend, payable in four quarterly installments of $0.80 per share, compared to the current quarterly dividend amount of $0.78 per share. The Board also declared a quarterly dividend equal to $0.78 per share, payable on April 9, 2021 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 19, 2021. The dividend will be payable out of legal reserves and will be made in United States dollars by the company's transfer agent as described in the Chubb Limited 2020 proxy statement. This will be the fourth installment as approved by the company's shareholders on May 20, 2020. About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Forward-looking statements made in this press release, such as statements regarding the company's 2021 Annual General Meeting and dividends, reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially as set forth in these statements. For example, payment of scheduled dividends could be affected by extraordinary company events or capital constraints or similar factors that could require the company to adjust, delay or withhold dividend payments. Additional information regarding factors that could cause differences from these forward-looking statements appears in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. SOURCE Chubb Limited Related Links www.chubb.com Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 24 february 2021 - Upcoming techno label Blackly Beyond Records is excited to announce Igor Vertus & Lily Gales collaboration release Event Horizon'' which will be available worldwide on February 26, 2021 on the major music streaming sites like Spotify, Beatport, iTunes, YouTube and Bandcamp. This fusion will guarantee heavy kicks, acid 303s and evil dark synths for the real techno and hard techno fan. The new The Nagol is Back! VTOs guide to this years Nagol, plus where to stay and play in south, central and north Pentecost. Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest rappers in hip-hop, and her influence has only continued to grow over the past few years. Shes worked alongside rap icons such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj and earned the respect of many new fans including California congresswoman Maxine Waters. Megan Thee Stallion performs at Rolling Loud festival at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on September 28, 2019 in Oakland, California | Miikka Skaffari/WireImage 2020 was a big year for Megan Thee Stallion Megan Thee Stallions career has been on a continuous upward trajectory over the past two years. Her Tina Snow EP put her on the map at the end of 2018, and her mixtape Fever released the following spring put the whole industry on notice. 2020 was her biggest year yet: she released her EP Suga in March, and she released her debut album Good News in November. Megan Thee Stallion also earned her first number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with WAP, her earth-shattering single with Cardi B. Megan Thee Stallion attends 47th Annual AMA Awards Arrivals at Microsoft Theater on November 24, 2019 in New York City | David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images WAP caught the attention of many people The explicit lyrics and content of WAP and the accompanying music video outraged many people who viewed it as another decay in morals for women. Others, however, couldnt get enough of the track. Actor and comedian Leslie Jordan captured many peoples reactions when he listened to WAP for the first time. He couldnt believe what he was listening to and rushed to turn the music off, laughing and saying, Well that was just shocking! However, Jordan was clearly a fan of the song, as he began singing the songs Wh*res In This House sample and concluded, I dont judge. To each his own. Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, listens during a hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 | Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images RELATED: Shots Fired: Megan Thee Stallions Powerful Response to Tory Lanez Samples a Classic Hip-Hop Diss Track Maxine Waters told Megan Thee Stallion what she thought of WAP One unlikely fan of WAP and of Megan herself is Representative Maxine Waters. The two had a conversation for Harpers Bazaar and it was a big moment for Megan, as she was nervous to talk to the respected longtime congresswoman. When Waters mentioned WAP, a look of embarrassment came across Megans nervous face. But Waters surprised the rapper by telling her how much she admired Megans courage to be herself. Now thats audacity. That is audacity. And that is the ability for women to take charge of what they want to say, Waters said of Megans confidence in herself. I had paid attention to the young gangster rap time, when men were in charge. They said whatever they wanted to say about women, what have you. But women didnt say, for a long time, what they could say or wanted to say or dared to say. And so I thought, Thats audacity.' Sydney property boss Justin Brown can sell 100 apartments off-the-plan in a day. But he and wife Brooke Brown have had a tougher job winning over Mosman Council and a dozen neighbours in their efforts to get a $1.2 million renovation at their Balmoral home off the ground. Brown, who chairs the residential projects arm inside property giant CBRE, won approval two years ago to renovate the home, relocate the pool and re-do the garden. The pair have since demolished the home and now want to extend the roof on the top level, add a walk-in-wardrobe and add some extra landscaping. Trouble in paradise at Balmoral. But the development has hit a snag. A council inspector attending the property this month ruled more of the home had been demolished than originally approved. And the changes the couple applied for? Not in the public interest, a council report handed down on February 12 read. Of course there are opportunities to re-submit plans and plead the case. Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe is marking its 70th anniversary this year and we are celebrating with an in-depth look into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). We will journey back in time to the very beginning of the Alliance and week-by-week give you a new window into this Transatlantic-multinational organisation. What is NATO? The agreement founding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed in Washington D.C. in April 1949 by twelve nations from Europe and North America with the ambition to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, prevent the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe and encourage European political integration. The newly formed Alliance is committed to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as peaceful resolution of disputes. Most importantly, the treaty set out the idea of collective defence, meaning that an attack against one member is considered an attack against all. NATO ensures that the security of its European members is inseparably linked to that of its North American members. The organisation also provides a unique forum for dialogue and cooperation across the Atlantic. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017) and North Macedonia (2020). Now, 30 countries from North America and Europe make up the Alliance. NATOs fundamental goal is to safeguard Allied freedom and security by political and military means. On signing the treaty, countries voluntarily committed themselves to participating in the political consultations and military activities of the organisation. Although every country retains their cultures, their traditions and national authority; real challenges can exist when sharing the same environment and working together to reach the same target. The members are subject to the obligations of the treaty but there remains a certain level of flexibility, which allows members to choose how they participate. NATO contributes to the security environment by defending democratic values, individual liberty and the rule of law, working for peace and stability across the Euro-Atlantic. The collective defence of its members and, through partnerships with non-NATO countries, is carried out by a leading role in peacekeeping and crisis response operations. By contributing to peace and security, NATO helps to create political stability and economic growth. After World War Two, Europe was devastated. Approximately 70 million Europeans died in the conflict; 19 million of them civilians. Refugee camps and rationing dominated daily life. In some areas, infant mortality rates were one in four; millions of people were homeless or orphaned. In addition, communists aided by the Soviet Union were threatening elected governments across Europe. Following the end of WWII, the United States grew into a leading position with its strong military and booming economy. European nations, alongside their North American Allies, worked together to form NATOs military structure. In 1950, NATOs top political decision was to make an official, organisational body: The North Atlantic Council (NAC). Allies agreed to dismiss the Regional Planning Groups promoting an integrated military command, to create the post of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and appoint an American General as its head. In response to these agreements, on December 19, 1950 the NAC announced the appointment of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first SACEUR, officially named by President Harry S. Truman. As of 2020, the position celebrated its 70th anniversary with General Tod D. Wolters currently holding the title of SACEUR. After that day, SACEUR became responsible for overall command of NATO military operations. His role is to conduct the necessary military planning for operations, including the identification of forces required for the mission and request these forces from NATO countries. The position of SACEUR remains today as the commander of Allied Command Operations (ACO) based at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Belgium. The following episode discusses ACO, the military structure within NATO and dives into the variety of headquarters and roles that exist within the organisational military chain. This is episode one of the SHAPE Public Affairs series, Knowing NATO, where we will introduce you to all aspects of NATO. Following highlights include the NATO structure, how does NATO function, and much more A serial burglar used a stolen master key to access a dozen hotel rooms while on bail for earlier burglary offences, a court has heard. Bernard Foran (48) committed two further burglaries on nearby commercial premises the day after he broke into the hotel. Foran of Cloonlara Road, Finglas, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary at Dean Hotel, Harcourt Street, Dublin city centre, on October 17, 2020. He also pleaded guilty to burglaries at Cedar Tree Restaurant, St Andrew's Street, Dublin city centre, and at The Globe Bar, South Great George's Street, Dublin city centre, both on October 18, 2020. Foran's 173 previous convictions include 63 for burglary as well as convictions for robbery, theft, possession of drugs, criminal damage and assault. Detective Garda Cathal Feely told Derek Cooney BL, prosecuting, that Foran entered the hotel and forced entry into a storage area. Foran forced his way past a padlocked door and acquired a master key for the hotel. Det Gda Feely said Foran then used the key to enter 12 hotel rooms and steal various items, including cash, jewellery and an Apple watch. Guests returned to their rooms to discover items missing and their personal effects scattered around their rooms. On the following night, Foran was caught by a staff member in a storage room in The Globe Bar and was asked to leave. Gardai were called to the scene and while they were present a member of staff informed them that Foran had returned to the premises. When approached by gardai, Foran gave a false name and was discovered to be in possession of a silver knife which he claimed he carried for his own protection. The knife had in fact been stolen from Cedar Tree Restaurant earlier the same day. Det Gda Feely agreed with Marc Thompson BL, defending, that his client follows a cycle of going into custody, getting clean of drugs, being released, falling off the wagon and committing an offence. The detective agreed that Foran was on crack cocaine at the time and using the stolen property to feed that habit. He said Foran was on bail for other burglaries and the time of these offences. Judge Melanie Greally ordered a report from the Probation Service and adjourned the matter for finalisation to May 18, next. Anti-coup protesters with placards near the Indonesian Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar, yesterday. Photo: AP Indonesia has been holding intensive talks with both the Myanmar military and representatives of the ousted elected government in a bid to end a crisis over a February 1 military coup . Indonesia has taken the lead within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in efforts to resolve Myanmars turmoil. Its foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, met Myanmars military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, for talks in the Thai capital yesterday. The Myanmar army seized power after alleging fraud in a November 8 election won by Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD). It detained her and much of the party leadership. Opponents of the coup have staged days of demonstrations across Myanmar, and three protesters and one policeman have been killed in violence. The Indonesian effort to resolve the crisis has raised suspicion among Myanmar democracy activists who fear dealing with the junta would confer legitimacy on the military and its bid to scrap the November election. They insist the election result should be respected. Ms Retno said the wellbeing of the people of Myanmar was the priority. We ask for everybody to use restraint and not resort to violence ... to avoid casualties and bloodshed, she said after talks with the Myanmar minister and her Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwinai. Ms Retno said she had intensive communications with both sides, including ousted lawmakers from the parliament. A Reuters report this week cited sources as saying Indonesia was proposing that ASEAN members send monitors to ensure the generals stick to their promise of fair new elections. That added to suspicion among some pro-democracy activists that Indonesias intervention would undermine their demand that last years election must stand. The military has not given a time frame for the new election it has promised. Dozens of protesters yesterday gathered outside the Thai embassy in the main city of Yangon with signs reading: Respect our vote and We voted NLD. Protesters, some leading a procession of elephants, marched in Myanmars second biggest city, Mandalay, in support of the ousted parliamentarians. Shenandoah Boroughs statement about cleaning your pavement or get a fine is a big joke? When was the last time a fine was given out. The U.S. Post Office cant make it through the pavements to get the mail to people. Shenandoah Dear Mahanoy City veterans, the VA in Lebanon has been giving shots in your age group for over a month. Call your VA representative and see about your transportation and getting your inoculation. Thank you for your service. Mahanoy City To the 100% disabled Vietnam vet, you can get your COVID shot over in Lebanon. You have to have your primary care physician order it for you and you can get it over there. Lake Wynonah Why do all these charitable organizations keep sending all these letters out? I have gotten 15 of them in the last two months and they all want money. Thats great if you have it but in the meantime, they send you stickers and cards and other things that you dont really need. If they didnt send them, they would end up with more money in their pockets. Shenandoah I just watched the Republican response to the impeachment proceedings where they played all these videos of the rioting by Black Lives Matter and the Democratic words that were inciteful. Apparently, we are going to have to impeach the entire Democratic Senate and House Republicans for their words. Imagine that. Pottsville To Pottsville, your comments on Wednesday, Feb. 10, regarding Donald Trump as not the greatest president is spot on. I agree completely with you but I am baffled that others cant figure it out yet. Pottsville Does anyone in Schuylkill County know of someone who sells dry ice? I am looking to send a pack of pierogies to somebody and I cant get anybody in this area who has dry ice. Please tell me who to call. Minersville To the caller from Girardville who insists Trump only signed four executive actions, the official documentation states that he signed 894 executive actions, including 220 executive orders, at least 45 presidential memorandums, in excess of 28 presidential determinations and a handful of presidential proclamations and administrative orders. Knowing Trump and his need to control things, four is an absolutely ridiculous number. Auburn I have a question for the lawyers on the impeachment thing. Why isnt the president in jail? I am pretty sure any other person would be in jail by now for what they did Jan. 6. Lock him up. Lock him up now. Pottsville To the caller from Schuylkill Haven who claims Donald Trump should be convicted for his treasonous crimes, I wish you would call back in and explain what these treasonous crimes were. Morea Donald Trumps defense team shows clip after clip of the left being violent and mentioning violent things toward our president, Donald Trump, and right away they spin it that it is racist. Where do they get this nonsense? Minersville What is with this $25 a quarter increase in the sewerage in Delano? Are you people out of your mind? I live by myself and I am on a fixed income. How can we afford this? You people better look into hooking up with somebody else in the area. This plant is too big for this small, little town. Come on, people. If we stick together, we can do this. Wake up. Delano The caller from Minersville criticizing Gov. Wolf about cutting property taxes must have been asleep since 1984. They should start looking at Dave Argall, because he has been preaching property tax reduction since 1984 and has done nothing, absolutely zero. Zilch. Orwigsburg Excellent article by Dan Daskus, Minersville, on Your Views. You were spot on. Everything you said makes sense. But what makes sense in politics never happens. Senior citizens will have property taxes until they are 6 feet under. Pottsville After the disgusting attempt to overthrow the government by trying to install a dictator, Donald Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021, anyone still flying a Trump flag or having a sign in their yard are now considered seditionists. You were asked to take them down after the election but now I want you to keep them up because everyone then knows who you are. Klingerstown Thank you, Sleepy Joe. Crude oil $60 a barrel and rising. Minersville I am calling about these impeachment hearings. What a joke. These Democrats, Swamp Democrats, babbling on, same thing over and over again. The real reason for the attack on the Capitol is all with the Democrats, their performance, what they are doing to this country, how they are trying to destroy it. It is all their fault. New Philadelphia This is for all the Democrats out there. This second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is not about justice. It is not about right or wrong. It is about revenge and revenge is going to come back and bite you were it counts. Remember that. Frackville To the Frackville caller bashing Trump about all his accomplishments, if you could work as fast as your mouth goes, the wall would be completely finished. Pottsville The Republican Party could have gotten rid of Trump and they failed to do so. The gutless 43 senators could have voted to impeach him and shut him up forever. I think they will regret their votes in the coming weeks and months. Shenandoah I noticed all of my daughters and my pills are now white, even Bayer low-dose aspirin. I think this is dangerous especially for those of us with diminished eyesight. Anybody have any answers for this? Saint Clair Gas is up. Heating oil is up. Taxes are up. And Joe Biden is down asleep. Good going, Democrats. Pottsville For Lent, Sleepy Joe is not going to sign any executive orders. After Lent, look out. God bless America because we are going down the tubes. McAdoo Todd Zimmerman, you nailed it in your article on Your Views, especially about Mitch McConnell, Dan Meuser and Dave Argall. Good job. Pottsville COVID-19 origin: Either it is emerged naturally or it was laboratory accident, says US Intel community US Speaker calls for multi-generational effort to confront institutional racism India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Chennai, Feb 25: On Thursday, the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai in coordination with the U.S. Consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad, organised a virtual discussion on "U.S. Democracy and the Fault Lines of Racism: An Analysis of 2020 Events" with Sam Fulwood III, Senior Fellow and Interim Vice President for Race and Ethnicity at the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C. Over 500 representatives of community-based organisations, scholars, journalists, and students from universities across India attended the online event, joined by representatives from the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs, Kerala, the Neelam Foundation, Chennai, Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), and the Dalit Intellectual Collective. Speaking at the event, Sam Fulwood decoded dramatic developments in the United States in the year 2020 including the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on African-American communities, the death of George Floyd and the subsequent march towards racial reckoning, and the threats to the democratic process. Fulwood said that in addition to formulating smart and effective policies, there is an urgent need to tackle institutional racism and change the culture to cultivate democratic societies. He added: "Changing course will be a challenging, multi-generational effort that requires cultural embrace of the necessity for change." Moderating the interaction, U.S. Consulate General Chennai's Public Affairs Officer Anne Seshadri said: "The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai prioritizes programs focused on pluralism, civil rights, social justice, and inclusion... Discrimination and injustice erode democratic tenets and impact communities' abilities to fully benefit from and participate in democratic processes." This event is part of a series of programs celebrating African-American History Month, held annually in February and also known as Black History Month, to recognize the important achievements by African Americans in U.S. history. This year the White House has called on the American people to honor the history and achievements of Black Americans and to reflect on the centuries of struggle that have brought us to this time of reckoning, redemption, and hope. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 19:56 [IST] CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Though the Cavaliers ended their 10-game losing skid with back-to-back wins at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse this week, the frustrations of fans have been aired. Many have taken to social media and other platforms to voice their displeasure with the team that lost 10 straight games, but are things as bad as they look in Cleveland? Chris Fedor and Hayden Grove discuss the ways they deem fair in which to view Clevelands rebuild as it currently stands. You can listen to the podcast in its entirety below. Buy Cavs gear: Fanatics, Nike, Amazon, Lids More Cavaliers coverage Windler starting to figure it out after injury-filled start to NBA career Cavaliers roll past Rockets, win second straight game Sexton taking All-Star snub in stride: Thats why its here in Cleveland next season Cavaliers to open Second Half of season with three-game road trip Brodric Thomas signed to two-way deal, Marques Bolden waived Lamar Stevens capitalizing on increased opportunity, proving he belongs 10-game slide ends with Stevens winning dunk vs. Hawks Sexton focused on must-win game vs. Hawks, not All-Star announcement Cavaliers recent collapse doesnt mean rebuild is failing: Fedor Are there answers to fix Cavs problems? Nobody is coming to rescue us GLEN ARBOR, MICH. -- Come winter, a sand dune that serves as an icon of Michigan summertime becomes what might just be the ultimate sledding hill. The famous Dune Climb at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is one of the parks top summer tourist attractions, but this time of year, when its blanketed in snow, it provides the perfect slope for incredible sledding. Of course, visitors must first earn that thrill. The dune is actually a complex set of hills, and reaching the peak requires some trudging. But all that work is worth it: The views from the top are breathtaking, the ride down is a wildly good time, and when youve had enough sledding runs for the day, you cap it all off in nearby Glen Arbor with hot cocoa and other treats. Itching to get your kids outside sledding (or your own inner child for that matter)? Head on over to the Dune Climb!... Posted by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Monday, February 22, 2021 According to the National Park Service, sledding is permitted at the Dune Climb only when it is covered in snow, and is restricted to a designated area. More on winter activities at the park can be found on the parks website here. For more ideas on ways to enjoy a winter visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes, read 5 unexpected ways to enjoy Sleeping Bear Dunes in the winter. RELATED: Its still winter in Michigan, so why are we seeing robins? New Michigan tiny cabin rental spot includes cellphone lockboxes, no WiFi Sleeping Bear Dunes debuts new educational self-guided hike series Lands and Natural Resources Minister-Designate, Samuel Abu Jinapor has offered a lasting solution to illegal mininng in Ghana. Lawyer Jinapor says community mining is the surest way to nip illegal mining in the bud. Government introduced the Community Mining Scheme, a mining model, last year and it's aimed at creating jobs for beneficiary communities. As part of the scheme, the government gave the green light for the commencement of regulated and sustainable mining at Adomanu in the Ashanti Region under the Community Mining Scheme. The scheme is to create about 16,000 jobs nationwide; so far, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has issued 55 mining licenses to some communities in the Western, Ashanti, Savannah, Eastern and the Ahafo Regions. The sector Minister-designate was well convinced about the importance of the scheme saying, " . . we need to pursue this concept of community mining. I think it's very important. I've looked at the literature. I've taken a lot of briefings. I've examined the situation and I'm more than fully persuaded that the perfection . . . of community mining in our country will go a long way in dealing with the incidences of illegal small-scale mining". ''We have gotten to a point where we require a bi-partisan broad-based multi-sectoral effort in dealing with illegal small-scale mining. We need a broad-based support for the national policy on illegal small-scale mining. So, what's the policy? The policy is that we build here in Ghana a sustainable viable regulated small-scale mining which has regard for the environment and do away with illegal small-scale mining which degrade the environment," he added. The Minister-designate further demystified issues of legal and illegal small-scale mining. "Illegal small-scale mining simply means [1] you don't have a licence to mine. [2] Even when you have the licence to mine, you're not mining according to the protocols for legal small-scale mining. [3] On the specific issue of excavators and excavating and the rest, the law as it stands today permits deep mining . . . So, the contours of legal small-scale mining permits a whole lot but only that we do it within the confines of the law and regulations.," he said. Samuel Abu Jinapor made these comments during his vetting by the Appointments Committee in Parliament on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Jobs are being lost, some farmers are selling their plantations on to multinationals, machinery is parked up, and contractors are left paying big bills to the banks. These are just some of the knock-on impacts of the Irish forestry licence logjam which will be raised today by industry leaders meeting with former Scottish Forestry chief executive Jo OHara, appointed by the government to advise it on the forestry approval process. Only 2,700 forest planting, felling, or road licences were approved and issued last year, and industry experts say 5,000 or 6,000 licences are needed at the very least, to keep things running smoothly. With some forest owners waiting four years for licences, they live in fear of storm damage to their maturing forests. One such owner is Forest Owners Co-operative Society chairman Tim McCarthy, waiting for the last 12 months for a felling licence. In the meantime, part of his forest has been windblow damaged. He first planted in 1988, and the forest is now ready for clear-felling. Some of my forest is windblown, and some of it is due for thinning, he told the Irish Examiner. If its not thinned out in the required time, it goes beyond the stage of thinning. If its not felled, the timber gets too heavy. Tis a bit like sending cattle to the factory, if the animal gets overfat, the price is less. He said growers also fear the tree disease risk posed by timber imports. Mr McCarthy said the lack of felling licences and the timber shortage now evident across Ireland are connected. Tim McCarthy has mature sitka spruce that was planted in 1987/88 and is now ready for felling. There are thousands of tonnes of timber being imported, and the danger of importing timber is the likelihood of bringing in disease. There are sawmills across Ireland letting staff go, selling off their machines, and the smaller contractors are gone out of business because of the timber shortage. The situation is so bad now that if it keeps going like this and felling licences are not issued, the forestry industry in this country will not recover. A lot of forest owners are now selling their plantations because they have had enough. Its the big crop companies and multinationals that are buying up the plantations, and Coillte is also buying up forestry and land. We have ash dieback now, and that is the end of ash in this country. There will never be an ash tree planted in this country again. Organisations such as the IFA and Forest Industries Ireland (FII) have also called on minister of state with responsibility for forestry, Pippa Hackett, to address the forest licensing situation if there is to be any hope of revitalising farmer interest in forestry. There are currently more than 4,000 licences awaiting approval in the Department of Agriculture. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, FII director Mark McAuley said increased demand for imported timber is a direct result of the lack of licences being issued here. Licences are not being issued for planting. and they are not being issued for felling and so the demand for imported timber has increased. Its a very challenging situation that Ireland now finds itself in, and its ongoing. Its a national fiasco really, and its happening because of new environmental rules and regulations implemented by the EU. Nobody in the industry has any issues with the rules, or with the industry being regulated from an environmental perspective, we just need to see the whole process running smoothly and get the licences that are needed issued. Contractors, in particular, are stuck, they cant import timber and are continuing to pay big bills to the bank every month for the leases on the big machines. The sawmills are operating well below capacity, they cant get the logs in that they need to supply their customers, and all of this is undermining the industry, and undermining the relationship with customers in Ireland and the UK. There is also a lot of financial hardship on individual foresters. Ireland planted a lot of trees back in the 1980s and 1990s. All of those forests have matured now, and there is actually an increase in the number of trees available here for the market. We should actually be on an upward curve in the industry, but we are not. Mr McAuley says there is hope though, despite the difficulties. I do think we will get back on track, but at the moment the whole thing is being undermined by this licencing fiasco. Ireland planted just 2,000 hectares of forest last year, and the programme for government talks about planting 8,000 hectares per annum, that is another problem. Today, industry experts will meet with Jo OHara, appointed to advise the government on implementation of the Mackinnon Report. The Mackinnon Report, published in November, 2019, reviewed Irelands forestry processes and procedures. Its implementation is a key action in the programme for government. Industry leaders say if the Mackinnon Report is fully implemented and backed by political will, the forestry crisis in Ireland will abate. They want all licences issued in a timely manner; introduction of a cost-based planning support grant, as referenced in the Mackinnon Report; a full-time project manager to implement the reports recommendations; licence applications accompanied by a natura impact statement to be dealt with within eight weeks; and removal of management operations such as road construction and thinning from the licencing system. WASHINGTON - The Biden administration has fewer top government leaders in place than other recent presidents at this point in their terms, a pace that's been slowed by a siege at the Capitol, an impeachment trial, a plague and a series of snowstorms. But activists who pushed Biden to nominate a diverse Cabinet are also noticing another phenomenon: Many of the president's Black, Latino, Asian and Native American nominees are encountering more political turbulence than their White counterparts, further drawing out the process of staffing the federal government. Controversy has centered on endangered nominee Neera Tanden, who would be the first Indian American to lead the Office of Management and Budget, typically a low-profile post. Her detractors, including Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, have seized on scores of pointed attacks that Tanden has made via social media in recent years - a line of criticism that women's groups say is unfair because it focuses on her tone rather than her qualifications or policies. Activists say the concerns raised over Tanden are part of a broader pattern imperiling many of President Joe Biden's nominees of color, making their confirmation process rougher and meaner than in previous years and when compared with their White counterparts. Many of these nominees are still likely to go forward along mostly partisan lines, but with their qualifications scrutinized more closely and their reputations attacked more forcefully than their White counterparts, activists say. "We are concerned with what seems like foot-dragging and an effort to slow down the confirmation process of eminently qualified individuals and the fact that these nominees are women, people of color, sons or daughters of immigrants and there seems to be a pattern that is very troubling," said Janet Murguia, the president of UnidosUS, a Latino-focused group. "It seems like this treatment is a double standard because we're seeing that historically other administrations have been able to move much more quickly." Biden made a point of elevating a record number of officials of color to top posts, putting the majority-White Senate in a position where it is potentially more likely that candidates of color will be rejected or scrutinized. Scott Sloofman, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democratic senators have voted against female appointments and appointments of color made by Republican presidents. He noted that 41 Democrats voted against former housing secretary Ben Carson, who is Black, and six Democrats voted against former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, who is Asian American. Republicans also point out that two of Biden's Black nominees, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, had support from both sides of the aisle, and that Alejandro Mayorkas, who is Latino, was confirmed as homeland security secretary. "It's kind of ridiculous," said a Senate Republican aide who was not authorized to discuss the Biden nominations publicly. "Senate Republicans are opposing these people because they are out of the mainstream and it has nothing to do with race." Still, civil rights groups are watching closely and keeping in touch with Senate and White House leaders to call out what they see as sexist or racist lines of attack. Many of the liberal groups have some practice at doing this, as when civil rights leaders banded together during the 2020 campaign to monitor how then-vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was criticized. A number of the nominees have been labeled with language that activist groups view as racially coded. For example, Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., Biden's nominee to be the first Native American to lead the Department of the Interior, is being cast by Republicans as a "radical." Opposition to her has been so intense that it prompted two former Democratic senators - cousins Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Udall of Colorado - to present a defense in USA Today, where they wrote that "the exceptional criticism of Rep. Haaland and the threatened holds on her nomination must be motivated by something other than her record." Vanita Gupta, Biden's pick to be associate attorney general at the Justice Department and an Indian American, is the target of a multibillion-dollar ad campaign from conservative groups labeling her "dangerous." Heritage Action for America has focused on California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, questioning his qualifications to head the Health and Human Services Department because he's not a doctor, which has not always been a prerequisite for that position. "They know by using buzzwords that they're able to try to conjure up these tropes about women of color leaders," said Fatima Goss Graves, the president of the National Women's Law Center. "These are code words that are used not only to distract but to conjure up an image in your mind." And Kristen Clarke, a Black lawyer who has been nominated to lead the Civil Rights Division at Justice, has been accused of being insensitive to Jewish people because she invited the author of an antisemitic book to speak at Harvard. She has said she regrets this decision. Former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who is Black, wasn't put up for a Cabinet-level position amid Senate comments that she was not confirmable. Pacing is a particular area of concern for activists and the administration. So far the Senate has confirmed just nine of Biden's 22 posts, giving nods to six who are White, two who are Black and one who is Hispanic. Exactly half of the 22 Cabinet-level positions that require Senate confirmation went to White nominees. One data point of particular note to civil rights groups: Republicans have required cloture votes for three of Biden's Cabinet-level nominees of color, which has contributed to a longer process. One of those is Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, who had a nomination hearing near the end of January and still hasn't had a confirmation vote as head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Cloture votes were also required for Mayorkas and Thomas-Greenfield. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has been pressing for faster action. "With the cooperation of Republicans, we can confirm these nominations quickly," he said in a recent letter to his colleagues. "President Biden deserves to have his team around him as he tackles the defining crises of our time." Democrats took control of the Senate on Jan. 20 but could not schedule committee votes until they were able to pass an agreement with the GOP, which didn't occur until Feb. 3. The schedule was also slowed by former president Donald Trump's week-long impeachment trial. But that hasn't halted progress in all cases. Thomas-Greenfield was sworn in as U.N. ambassador Wednesday, while Austin was confirmed as Pentagon secretary just two days after the president was inaugurated Jan. 20. Pointed criticism of some of Biden's nominees of color spilled into a hearing this week for Merrick Garland, Biden's pick to be attorney general. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, used the word "antisemitic" in reference to Clarke and also drew attention to a letter she co-authored in 1994 in which she pointed out physical and developmental differences between Blacks and Whites. She has said her words were "twisted" to make them sound as if she were arguing one race was superior, when in fact she was trying to reveal that such arguments are absurd. "I'm a pretty good judge of what an antisemite is and I do not believe that she is an antisemite and I do not believe she is discriminatory in any sense," said Garland, who is Jewish and whose grandparents fled pogroms in Russia. Lee also focused on Gupta, who has made pointed critiques of Republicans in the past. "I know Vanita Gupta now quite well," Garland said. "I have to tell you I regard her as a person of great integrity." Lee shared a video of the exchange with Garland on Twitter and wrote: "I was disappointed that Judge Garland declined to condemn dangerous, radical positions previously taken by fellow DOJ nominees, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke." Tanden, given her long history of pointed attacks on Republicans and some Democrats, has been the focus of particularly sharp criticism and appears unlikely to survive given opposition from Manchin in the 50-50 Senate. During her confirmation hearing, Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., ticked off several insults that Tanden had leveled online against Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and then said: "I mean, you called Sen. Sanders everything but an ignorant slut." "That's not true, senator," Tanden objected. - - - The Washington Post's Alice Crites, Harry Stevens and Adrian Blanco contributed to this report. Actor Darshan has now become the centre of interest for his mature take on a recent controversy. Apparently, the Challenging Star during a recent media interaction issued an apology to actor Jaggesh on behalf of his fans, who slammed the senior actor for his remarks against their idol on social media, and even confronted him on the sets of his upcoming film in Mysore. In the interview, Darshan apologized to the Navarasa Nayaka and said, "Jaggesh sir is our senior and we should respect him. No matter what he has said about me, it doesn't matter to me. He is our senior and we need to respect him. On behalf of all my fans, I fold my hands and apologize to him." Giving a befitting reply to those who considered his silence over the controversy as supporting his fans, the Challenging Star added, "I was not aware of the incident as I was travelling to Tirupathi. When I came to know about the issue, I called the fans association members and slammed them for disrespecting Jaggesh sir." As of now, Jaggesh has thanked Darshan for his steadfast stand and stated that he is happy that the controversy was finally put to an end. For the unversed, the controversy erupted after an audio message allegedly of Jaggesh went viral on social media, in which he was heard talking ill of the Challenging Star, that evidently irked many. However, the Govinda Gopala actor had later clarified that he had not said any disrespectful comments regarding Darshan and the audio message was made-up. The actor had also issued an apology in this regard. On a related note, the Roberrt actor recently made it to the headlines for his 44th birthday celebrations, which his innumerable fans and followers made eventful by trending several hashtags on social media. Also Read: Jaggesh Apologizes For Allegedly Making Derogatory Comment Against Darshan In A Viral Video Clip Also Read: Roberrt Trailer Out: Boss Of The Mass Darshan Is On A Terrific Action-Packed Trip! President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, following a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said Ukraine's immediate goal is the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). "Pleased to hear from Jens Stoltenberg that the door of NATO is open for Ukraine. Grateful that you personally and the NATO members support us in NATO membership aspirations. Our immediate goal is MAP. We are serious about reforms, as they are first of all enhancing our defense sector," Zelensky wrote on his Twitter page. He said cooperation with NATO is extremely important for Ukraine. "We are reinforcing our army by adhering to Alliance's standards, sharing practical experience, developing strategic partnership and friendship," Zelensky said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned world leaders Tuesday that climate change is a threat to security of all nations and sharply criticized people across the globe who say this is green stuff from a bunch of tree-hugging, tofu-munchers and not suited to international diplomacy and international politics. He pointed to the 16 million people displaced by weather-related disasters each year, some becoming easy prey to violent extremists, farmers losing another wheat harvest because of drought and switching to growing opium poppies, and girls forced to drop out of school to search for water becoming prey to human traffickers. He also cited the impacts of changing sea levels and wildfires. Related: Climate Change Poses Much Greater Existential Risk for the World Than COVID-19 Whether you like it or not, it is a matter of when, not if, your country and your people will have to deal with these security impacts of climate change, he warned leaders at a high-level Security Council meeting on climate-related risks to international peace and security. Chairing the meeting of the U.N.s most powerful body during the United Kingdoms presidency this month, Johnson urged the council to demonstrate leadership to protect global peace, security and stability. John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, thanked European nations for stepping up to tackle climate change during the inexcusable absence of the United States during the previous administration. Former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-19th century and the goal now is to prevent an additional 0.3 degrees Celsius (0.5 degrees Fahrenheit) warming from now. Kerry said President Joe Biden knows there is not a moment to waste and his administration aims to put the United States on a route to cutting fossil fuel emissions in a way that is, and I emphasize, irreversible by any president, by any demagogue in the future. That appeared to be one of the most explicit assurances from the Biden administration that foreign countries should go ahead and make deals with the administration on climate despite fears that Trump or one of his populist America First supporters will take power again in 2024. Kerry called the climate crisis indisputably a Security Council issue, saying the Pentagon has described it as a threat multiplier. But even though climate change has been repeatedly called an existential threat, he said, we honestly have yet as a world to respond with the urgency required. He called the U.N. climate conference that Britain is hosting in Glasgow in November literally our last best hope to get on track and get this right. Nations are expected at the conference to come up with more ambitious pollution cuts. Saying he was very happy to see the United States back at the table, Frances President Emmanuel Macron warned that a failure on climate would undermine efforts to prevent conflicts and consolidate peace. He called on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a U.N. envoy for climate security, who would be required to report annually, saying what is at stake is our health, our lives and the stability of our planet. Chinas special envoy for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, echoed that climate change has become a pressing and serious threat to the survival, development and security of humankind. The country met its 2020 targets ahead of schedule, Xie said, adding that China now has the largest number of new energy vehicles in the world. China and Russia have repeatedly objected to the Security Council discussing climate change. Xie called it a development issue and Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who welcomed the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement, said it should be discussed in other U.N. bodies. We agree that climate change and environmental issues can exacerbate conflict, but are they really the root cause of these conflicts? Nebenzia asked. There are serious doubts about this. Reflecting Moscows opposition to council involvement, Nebenzia was the only U.N. ambassador to join presidents, prime ministers, other ministers and climate envoys in speaking. U.S. envoy Kerry countered opponents of council involvement, calling the climate threat so massive, so multifaceted, and warning: We bury our heads in the sand at our own peril. It is time to start treating the climate crisis like the urgent security threat that it is. Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta stressed the impact of climate and security on Africa, which he lamented unfortunately will suffer the worst consequences of climate change despite being the least responsible for global greenhouse gases. He said the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, drying of the Lake Chad basin, shrinking of the Sahel and savannah grasslands and worsening economic vulnerabilities have set in motion political, demographic, migratory dynamics that increase the threat of insurgency and violent extremism. Secretary-General Guterres said much more needs to be done and urged a greater focus on reaching the Paris goals, saying we look to the major emitters to lead by example in the coming months. The U.N. chief called for a dramatic increase in investments to protect countries, communities and people from increasingly frequent and severe climate impacts, a scaling up of early warning systems, and addressing the poverty, lack of food and displacement caused by climate disruptions that contribute to conflict. Renowned British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough, in a video message played just before Johnson officially opened the meeting, warned that if we continue on our current path, we will face the collapse of everything that bring us our security including good, water, habitable temperatures and food from the oceans. We have left the stable and secure climatic period that gave birth to our civilization, he said. There is no going back. But Attenborough said if we act fast enough we can reach a new stable state and the U.N. conference in November may be our last opportunity to make this step change. Ellen Knickmeyer and Seth Borenstein in Washington and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report. Photograph: Climate change protesters gather in Westminster, central London, near the British Parliament as part of a global day of protest on Sept 20, 2019. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Climate Change BEIJING, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from Science and Technology Daily: Compared with the spring festivals before the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration in this year is quite different. Many Chinese people chose not to go back to hometown as people are encouraged to stay where they are and celebrate the Spring Festival, so did a group of foreigners who work in China. Two foreigners shared their stories of how they have celebrated the Spring Festival. Vikash Kumar Singh: I finished the translation of Qinqiang, and I like to be a messenger of cultural exchange between China and India Coming from India, Vikash Kumar Singh has been living in China for more than ten years and speaks Chinese very fluently. He now works as a teacher of Hindi at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Vikash had been translating Qinqiang, a critically acclaimed novel by Jia Pingwa, for almost two years. When the winter holiday began, Vikash had more time to work on the translation and managed to finish it before the Chinese new year. As part of a Chinese and Indian literature translation and publication program supported by both governments, Vikash thought that the translation of literary works like Qinqiang into Indian languages would open a window for Indian people, through which they can have a better understanding of China. "I would like to thank for the support from both governments for this program," said Vikash, "this is quite helpful for the mutual understanding of people from both countries." Getting this long-lasting work done, Vikash felt very relaxed. A lot of people chose to stayed in Beijing for the Spring Festival, which made the city more lively. Shopping malls, cinemas and restaurants were quite full. Vikash told the reporter that most of his friends also stayed in Beijing. They visited each other and talked about how they celebrate new year in their home country such as Indonesia and Bulgaria. And they felt it was also cool to stay in Beijing and enjoy the Spring Festival like this. As a typical "Haidian District" parent who highly values children's education and future development, Vikash often actively interacts with the parents of his child's classmates. According to Vikash, they even conducted heated discussion on the topic of "helping children to get admitted to the primary school" during the holiday. The cunning novel coronavirus has haunted people for almost one year. To contain COVID-19, people have been encouraged to stay where they are for the upcoming Spring Festival in China. "This is for the sake of personal and public safety." Vikash said, "If these are not considered, it will cause a lot of trouble." Vikash also spoke to his family in India about his experience of the unique holiday by phone. Besides, he introduced the customs of celebrating the spring festival in detail. Through the transnational dissemination of traditions and cultures, such as festivals and novels, Vikash deepened the mutual understanding of people from China and India with his profession. To some extent, he is becoming an "messenger of cultural exchange" in the new era. Jose Roberto: The Cooperation Between China and Brazil Fighting Against COVID-19 Warms People's Heart Jose Roberto, who has a nice Chinese name Fan Tianyang, is the science and technology counsellor at the Embassy of the Federation Republic of Brazil in Beijing. This is the first time that he celebrated the Spring Festival in China since he came to China in 2019. Roberto enjoys walking around Ritan Park, near his working place. "China's anti-pandemic measures have been successful in reducing the number of cases," he said. Roberto told Science and Technology Daily that he has spent the whole year of 2020 in China. He believes that Beijing now has a very high degree of urban economic activity because of the government's prompt response and effective measure. "I see changes happening in China every day." He noted. Although there are occasional COVID-19 cases emerging, the government can take timely measures and people observe the rules. As a result, people's daily life is getting back to normal gradually. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused trouble for the whole world. Roberto believes that people have to be patient, and keep on doing their own job well when the pandemic hits. "We also learned from the experience here. I mean the first control measures, the scientific articles that have been published in key magazines," Roberto said, regarding the fight against COVID-19, "at the very beginning, Brazil sent supplies here to China. We sent masks and then we received masks as well. This shows that we work together." Roberto said: "I would emphasize the health agencies' collaboration as very effective under a difficult environment. "Sometimes we could not send or speed up all the supplies as fast as we wanted. The whole world had logistical limits at that time, but we did work together and that was a very good example of collaboration. And this is still ongoing." Two of the main vaccines being used in Brazil depend on supplies made in China Roberto expressed his appreciation: "Thanks to this collaboration and other efforts, vaccines are available in Brazil and other countries." When talking about his vision for 2021, Roberto noted, although the world is still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, he has full confidence in the close communication between China and Brazil in the coming year. Authors: Fang Linlin, Yu Haoyuan, Lu Zijian, Long Yun, Zhang Jiaxin The scene of an overnight shooting incident on Eugene Street in The Coombe area of Dublin. Photo: Gerry Mooney A man aged in his late teens has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after he was shot in Dublins south inner city last night. The incident happened around 11pm on Eugene Street. Gardai are not releasing any further details of the victim at this time for operational reasons. However, a source said the victim was rushed to hospital in a serious condition. A person was seen being taken from a taxi and being placed in the back of an ambulance. Expand Close The scene at Eugene Street / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The scene at Eugene Street Members of the Garda Armed Support Unit were at the scene as well as local gardai. The area remains cordoned off tonight while senior garda investigators make inquiries in the area. Gardai this morning are appealing for anyone with information in relation to the incident to come forward. "Gardai are particularly appealing to anyone who was in the Eugene Street and Dublin 8 area last night between 10:30pm and 11:30pm to come forward, they said in a statement. Anyone who may have camera footage of the incident (including dash-cam and mobile phone footage) is asked to make it available to investigating Gardai. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a phone call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that Kyiv is interested in increasing the presence of NATO forces in the Black Sea, the presidential press service said. "Ukraine stands ready to continue cooperating with the Alliance in strategic air transportation in the framework of NATO SALIS (Strategic Airlift International Solution) program," Zelensky said. Zelensky spoke in favor of expanding the alliance's activities in the Black Sea region and noted that Ukraine is interested in increasing the presence of NATO forces in the Black Sea. At the same time, the secretary general noted that the organization will undertake efforts to increase its presence in the Black Sea and has already begun to do so. He emphasized that both NATO countries and their allies should increase assistance in training the Ukrainian Armed Forces on a bilateral basis. Ta Cuong, and now the Taipan Disovery Zone, have the potential to add to Blackstones massive sulphide mining inventory, providing further impetus for the restart of the companys existing 450,000 tonnes concentrator. Follow-up drilling is being planned to test several proximal EM geophysics targets, as well as the extent of the intensely mineralised TDZ ( ) ( ) (FRA:B9S) has discovered significant new sulphide mineralisation in a previously untested zone within the Ta Cuong Prospect in Vietnam. Ta Cuong, and now the Taipan Discovery Zone (TDZ) within it, have the potential to add significantly to Blackstones massive sulphide mining inventory at the Ta Khoa Project, providing further impetus for the restart of the existing 450,000 tonnes concentrator. Follow-up drilling is being planned to test several proximal electromagnetic (EM) geophysics targets as well as the extent of the intensely mineralised TDZ. The company expects to provide an update regarding ongoing drilling at Ta Cuong, the anticipated King Snake assays, along with results from infill drilling at Ban Chang and Ban Phuc DSS over the coming weeks. "One of the best" Blackstone Minerals managing director Scott Williamson said: We are very pleased to report a significant discovery at Ta Cuong. The discovery hole at TDZ is one of the best Blackstone has delivered on its MSV targets. The TDZ remains open along strike and significantly adds momentum to the MSV strategy at Ta Khoa." Continue aggressive exploration He added: So far, all three priority MSV targets have delivered impressive and high-value intersections. We are excited to be systematically unveiling the potential of the Ta Khoa nickel-copper-PGE district and will continue an aggressive exploration program, representing the most cost-effective and value accretive pathway to secure supply for our downstream business. Shares ended the day at A$0.545, 11.22 per cent higher than yesterday's close, while the company's market cap is approximately A$162.5 million. The TDZ was discovered by hole TC21-03 and features 39.7 metres of continuous disseminated sulphide (DSS), semi-massive sulphide vein (SMSV) and massive sulphide vein (MSV) unweathered mineralisation from 15.15 metres. Ta Cuong Ta Cuong is a Nickel-PGE-Copper-Cobalt MSV prospect 6 kilometres along strike from the recently operating Ban Phuc MSV nickel mine and existing processing centre. The prospect is associated with the Ban Khang intrusive complex and is proximal to a major regional fault zone, which also transects the Ban Phuc, King Snake and Ban Chang MSV zone. Next steps At the Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE site in Northern Vietnam, Blackstone is exploring MSV and DSS targets throughout the project, initially within a 5 kilometres radius of the existing processing facility. Blackstone will conduct further geophysics on the MSV and DSS targets and continue an aggressive drilling campaign. By combining the companys existing mineral inventory (Ban Phuc), exploration potential presented by high priority targets such as Ban Chang, King Snake and now Ta Cuong, and the ability to source third-party concentrate, Blackstone will be able to increase the scale of its downstream business to meet the rising demand for downstream nickel products. Blackstone has completed a scoping study, which includes mining the companys maiden resource at the Ban Phuc disseminated ore body and the construction of one downstream refinery. It is now advancing the Ta Khoa Project through to a pre-feasibility study, which will contemplate the option to mine higher grade MSV deposits, which has the potential to reduce upfront capital requirements by enabling the company to restart the existing Ban Phuc Concentrator. The beers were all brewed at a new microbrewery at Grimbergen Abbey, the original producer of Carlsberg's Grimbergen Belgian brand. They are the first to be brewed at the abbey Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) The military said it was looking into allegations that some members of the military received shots of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine as claimed by former special envoy to China and columnist Ramon "Mon" Tulfo. "Narinig pa lang natin 'yang balita na 'yan... Allow us to look into that, at magbibigay tayo ng additional information sa...mga nakatataas sa atin, aalamin natin kung may reason para magconduct tayo ng investigation," said AFP spokesperson MGen Edgard Arevalo on Thursday. [Translation: We have just heard about that in the news...Allow us to look into that and give additional information to our higher ups. We will see if there is a need to conduct an investigation.] Arevalo said they do not have any information on the matter yet. In an interview with CNN Philippines on Wednesday, Tulfo said officials from the executive, legislative, military, police and local government received the Sinopharm vaccine he got in October 2020. He said the number of officials was in "the thousands." He did not reveal where and from whom he received the doses and only said the vaccination took place in a private property and his supplier was "a philanthropist." Tulfo added that he received the first dose alongside a former provincial governor, and the second dose with a police official, whose names he did not disclose. The Food and Drug Administration said it would also look into Tulfo's claim. Earlier this month, the FDA allowed the President's security to use the unregistered Sinopharm vaccines through a "compassionate permit" in the absence of an emergency use authorization. Only three manufacturers were granted such permit from the FDA the US' Pfizer BioNtech, the UK's AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac. Regulators and health officials repeatedly warned against the use of unregistered vaccines due to potential health risks. The FDA said it is not blocking the entry of Sinopharm vaccines. It added there is no application from the Chinese vaccine firm yet. Cookies op Tweakers Tweakers maakt gebruik van cookies Tweakers is onderdeel van DPG Media en maakt gebruik van cookies, JavaScript en vergelijkbare technologie om je onder andere een optimale gebruikerservaring te bieden. Functionele en analytische cookies die door Tweakers zelf geplaatst worden, worden gebruikt om de website goed te laten functioneren, bezoekersstatistieken bij te houden en a/b-testen uit te voeren. Ook kan Tweakers hiermee het gedrag van bezoekers vastleggen en analyseren. Cookies kunnen daarnaast worden gebruikt om op Tweakers advertenties te tonen die aansluiten bij je interesses. Daarbij kan gebruikgemaakt worden van bezoekersprofielen die door derden zijn opgesteld. Ook kunnen derden je internetgedrag volgen, zoals bijvoorbeeld het geval is bij embedded videos van YouTube. Tot slot kunnen cookies worden gebruikt om op sites van derden relevante advertenties te tonen. Content van derde partijen, zoals embedded videos van YouTube, wordt met een trackingvrij abonnement standaard uitgeschakeld. Indien je deze content wilt zien, kun je hier expliciet toestemming voor geven. Wil je meer informatie over cookies en hoe ze worden gebruikt? Bekijk dan ons cookiebeleid. Accepteer cookies ... Om deze pagina op Tweakers te kunnen bekijken, moet je cookies accepteren. Cookies accepteren Heb je al een account? Dan kun je hier inloggen! Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin met with Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Ukraine Fan Xianrong to discuss an increase in trade between the two countries, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service has reported. "The interlocutors discussed further intensification of strategic partnership between Ukraine and China, deepening of political dialogue, in particular holding the next round of political consultations between the two Foreign Ministries, as well as developing inter-parliamentary and interregional cooperation," the statement reads. During the meeting, the parties also discussed issues of countering COVID-19 and vaccination. As a reminder, for the second year in a row, China has become the biggest trade partner of Ukraine. In 2020, trade turnover between Ukraine and China was USD 15.4 billion (+25%). Exports of goods from Ukraine to China amounted to USD 7.1 billion (+98%), while imports of Chinese goods to Ukraine totaled USD 8.3 billion. As Ukrinform reported, Ukraine and China will strengthen trade and economic cooperation, including interaction in industry and agriculture. ish A man who allegedly spat at several gardai and a female Polish interpreter while under arrest for a section 3 assault last week was remanded in custody following last Fridays sitting of Granard District Court and was released on bail following Tuesday's sitting of Longford District Court. Marcin Rosada of 6 Oaklandsdale, Longford, appeared charged with one count of section 3 assault on a female and three counts of section 2 assault on a number of gardai, with further charges likely in due course. Sgt Enda Daly, for the state, told Judge Seamus Hughes that Mr Rosada spat at gardai on numerous occasions and that the state would be strongly objecting to bail due to the seriousness of the charges. It is a serious offence. He put several members of An Garda Siochana in fear of being spat at. He attempted to bite one of the gardai while in custody. Fortunately, he didnt succeed, he said. And he hasnt been tested, so nobody knows if hes positive for Covid. Its worrying to say the least. Im surprised theres no charge for spitting on the interpreter but I understand additional charges will be brought, said Judge Hughes. Gda Ronan Duffy told the court that, on Thursday, February 18, gardai were called to a disturbance at 6 Oaklandsdale, Longford. Mr Rosada was charged with a section 3 assault on a woman after allegedly pushing her out the door of the house, causing her to fall backwards and injure her wrist. Gda Duffy told the court the woman also had a mark above her left eye. When gardai arrived, Gda Duffy added, Mr Rosada spat at officers on the scene and at a number of other stages during arrest, despite being warned against it. Why did he spit at the gardai all the time? asked Judge Hughes. Through an interpreter, Mr Rosada insisted that he didnt spit at gardai but was charged with doing so and so he started to spit at them. Gda Duffy explained that, when gardai arrived at the house, Mr Rosada was standing upstairs with the window wide open and he started spitting, narrowly avoiding gardai. Mr Rosada, through an interpreter, said that he spat on the windowsill and not at gardai. Four gardai were present. There were two at first but he became very aggressive so two more gardai arrived, said Gda Duffy. Mr Rosada left via the back door and fled with gardai in pursuit. 500 yards up the road, he resisted arrest again by spitting and he became abusive. When he was conveyed to Longford Garda Station, Mr Rosada was placed in a cell and, while being searched, he attempted to bite a gardas fingers, Gda Duffy added. The interpreter was standing at the door while he was being charged and Mr Rosada was sitting on the bed in the cell. I dont want to go into too much detail because it was disgusting but he got a good bit of spit and spat in the direction of gardai and the female interpreter, said Gda Duffy. Some of the spit landed on the interpreters arm and she showed it to Gda Duffy, the court heard. Does he not understand that the pandemic is airborne? Did the consideration come to you after he spat at you that youd have to put a hood or a mask on him? he asked Gda Duffy. He refused to wear a mask, Gda Duffy replied. He was offered a mask this morning and wouldnt wear it so he had to be left in the van until he was brought into court. Sgt Daly explained that Mr Rosada had a total of 21 previous convictions, the most recent of which was in May 2020, when he was given a one month prison sentence for threatening and abusive behaviour. Prior to that, in September 2019, he was convicted of three counts of criminal damage and fined 100. Before that, he had road traffic convictions, including no insurance in September 2018 and no insurance in May 2018. In the interview, he made admissions that he put the female out of the house and threw a wallet at her but didnt see if it made contact, said Gda Duffy. Solicitor for the defence, John Quinn, suggested that the matter be dealt with by way of strict bail conditions. I believe hes a victim of the pandemic. He was stressed and anguished. He needs counselling. Hes very agitated and stressed. I think he needs medical attention. Its all too much for him, said Mr Quinn. Theres something I find troubling about this case, said Judge Hughes. Im so conscious of the pandemic and what were all going through. But his behaviour was appalling. The section 3 assault is on the minor side as the lady suffered minor injuries but his behaviour outside was appalling, so he is suitably charged with three section 2 assaults. Sgt Daly explained that, if bail were to be granted, he would be looking for a substantial cash lodgement of 1,000, to which Judge Hughes agreed. Mr Rosada was then remanded in custody to reappear at Longford District Court on Tuesday, February 23, where he was released on bail. Judge Hughes also ordered that he be medically examined and treated accordingly. Young father in distress shoots himself inside Ohio church, planned to rededicate life to God Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A young father in mental distress and whose family say was also trying to rededicate his life to God, shot himself inside an Ohio church where he went to get help Monday night. He tried to commit suicide, Jennifer LyAnn Prewitt, the mother of the distressed father, Vincent Veloz, 25, of Celina, told The Christian Post on Wednesday. Deputies from the Darke County Sheriffs Office told WHIOTV7 that Veloz went to speak with Pastor Tim Pol of Greenville Baptist Church on Monday evening, but things took a tragic turn as Veloz spoke with the pastor. He came to speak with me and the further we talked, the further I realized where the conversation was going and it wasnt a good thing, Pol said in the report. Veloz got up during his conversation with Pol and took an AR-15 from his car in the parking lot, prompting Pol to rush members who were inside the church for a Bible study to safety, police said. I was already trying to call the police at that point, I was out here on the steps here but when I saw that, I went back inside and got all the folks that were in here downstairs to barricade themselves and all that at the same time speak with the police and try to work with him, Pol explained in the report. Veloz went inside the front entrance of the church while keeping the gun pointed at himself and demanding that anyone from the church be removed, according to a release from the sheriffs office. Crisis negotiators and the Darke County Sheriffs Office Special Response Team arrived at the church at approximately 6:15 p.m. and tried to get Veloz to surrender for about three hours before he shot himself, according to police. Greenville Baptist Church remained closed on Wednesday and officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CP. While she is not sure what triggered her sons suicidal behavior, Prewitt explained to CP that he was involved in a car accident on Feb. 16 after celebrating at a party for his 1-year-old daughter. On the 16th, the day of his daughters party, he was in a car accident. He got a concussion. He was taken to . hospital where they treated him for a concussion, gave him some medicine. He did not work that night because he was obviously in pain. He had broken his nose and stuff, she said. Prewitt said Veloz returned to work at Ayden Healthcare of Greenville, where she also works, on Sunday night and colleagues noticed he was acting strange. He was acting very strange and different and the nurse sent him to a hospital in Greenville and the doctor there was very upset because the medicine that they gave him was not for concussions and the pain medicine he was given he was having an allergic reaction to it. Thats what was making him so out of whack, Prewitt said. So he came home that morning (Monday) and that afternoon is what he did at the church. I dont know if it had anything to do with the medicine, concussion, personal issues he was having; I have no idea yet. A change.org petition which describes Veloz as hilarious, loving, and kind said that he was suffering from depression and needs therapy and not prison time for his actions. He is currently in critical condition at Dayton hospital and deputies have charged him with aggravated burglary for trespassing at the church with a deadly weapon. The case is still under investigation and Veloz might face additional charges. Vincent was struggling. He became severely depressed, having to split time with his 1-year-old daughter, who is undeniably his whole entire world. He attempted to get help, tried selling his gun, seeking a therapist. But was unsuccessful. (Proof publicly on his Facebook) On February 22, 2021, He went to his church with his gun in his hand, crying and asking forgiveness, and attempted suicide. Anyone who knows Vincent knows he would NEVER hurt anyone. He was only a threat to himself. He was so deeply depressed, wrote the organizer of the petition Brittanee Schaupp. Prewitt, who had four children, is praying that her youngest son doesnt end up in jail. Just two years ago, her oldest son killed himself in the Darke County jail. My oldest son killed himself in the Darke County jail two years ago. So this is very tragic for our family, especially in that jail where his brother took his life. What is that going to do to his mental status? the distraught mother asked. I believe that putting him in prison and giving him a felony, who is somebody who has a CNA, he wants to go to nursing school, I dont think thats going help him. I think thats going to make it even worse because he needs some in-patient therapy, she said. She further explained that she wasn't sure if he was alive or dead for two hours after her son was airlifted to the hospital. He had a breathing tube. They were asking him about a DNR. He put on a paper that he wanted to be a DNR. Why would you ask somebody that question that tried to kill themself? Hes not in his right state of mind to make that decision. "This is a kid who just tried to kill himself and I guess supposedly he put on a paper that he didnt want anybody to know he was there. He didnt want anybody to know about his situation, so we cant even call the hospital because hes not on the roster and weve not been able to get any information on how hes doing, Prewitt said. I want to fight. I could not save my oldest boy, but I will do everything in my power to save my son. Prewitt has publicly apologized to Pastor Pol for what her son did at the church and she has spoken with him as well. I talked to him (pastor) yesterday and it was a wonderful conversation. He said that me, my son, we had no reason to apologize. Vincent was never a danger to them; he just was hurting and wanted to be there to do it (end his life), Prewitt said. She noted that her son had attended the church for a while but had stopped after moving away to another town. Before the accident, she said, he was getting ready to recommit his life to God. He had gone there for the longest time and he stopped because he moved to another town, and then that week he decided to take his 1-year-old daughter to get to meet everybody there and his whole plan was to start going there and getting back in with God and getting that support, she explained. The family is seeking to raise funds on a GoFundMe campaign to get legal and medical help for the ailing father. The Ministry of Defence initially thought the munitions dump in the Irish Sea that has dogged plans for a transport link between Northern Ireland and Scotland was 10 times smaller than it really is. Defence officials also believed that dumping had only started after the Second World War - when it began after the First. Proposed by Boris Johnson in 2018 at an estimated cost of around 20bn, plans for a 21-mile bridge connecting Northern Ireland and Scotland were widely criticised at the time. More recently, rail industry leaders mooted building a tunnel from Larne to Stranraer, with a price tag of around 10bn. Doubts have been cast of the viability of either a 'Boris Bridge' or 'Boris Burrow', as the potential projects have been branded. But an area of the Irish Sea called Beaufort's Dyke - where tonnes of surplus military munitions and radioactive waste have been dumped over the decades - has caused most concern. It was originally reported that the amount of munitions dumped was around 100,000 tonnes, but now a former BBC journalist has shed new light on the actual volume of material on the seabed. Alex Kirby, who was the BBC's Environment Correspondent from 1987 to 1995, said he first reported on the existence of the munitions dump almost 30 years ago. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) informed him at the time that it had dumped munitions there since end of the Second World War. The MoD said around 100,000 tonnes of material had been discarded in Beaufort's Dyke. In a letter to the Guardian, Mr Kirby said that, some months later when British Gas were planning on building an undersea pipeline in the area, the MoD contacted him with an update. "It had been using the dyke since the end of the First World War, it said. It did not know what munitions were down there, but the total was about a million tonnes. "I'd fancy my chances of crossing the North Channel in a tunnel as little as on a bridge," Mr Kirby said. In order to get round this problem, it was reported at the weekend that Boris Johnson is considering proposals that would involve three tunnels from Great Britain converging under a "giant roundabout" beneath the Isle of Man, with one tunnel continuing to Northern Ireland. The Sunday Times reported that the three proposed routes from Great Britain would start at Stranraer, Heysham and just outside Liverpool. Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has suffered a blow in his bid to suspend the Sh357 million graft case he is facing at the Anti-Corruption Court in Milimani. Sonko had asked the High Court to postpone the case until a petition in which he accuses the government of violating his right to a fair trial is heard and determined. But the court on Tuesday threw out the application on grounds that Sonko did not demonstrate exceptional circumstances surrounding his prosecution to warrant the postponement. Justice James Wakiaga said the case will proceed as scheduled while noting that issuance of the orders sought would be interfering with the work of the lower court. An order for stay of proceedings, particularly stay of criminal proceedings is made sparingly and only in exceptional circumstances, stated Justice Wakiaga. He ruled that the former Nairobi county boss would not suffer any prejudice if the proceedings of the graft case continue pending determination of his petition which he is challenging a decision by the Director of Public Prosecution to place some witnesses under protection. In his petition, Sonko wants High Court to declare that the directors of Web Tribe Ltd -trading as Jambopay- Danson Muchemi and Robert Muriithi cannot be witnesses against him as they are accomplices. Justice Wakiaga directed that the petition be mentioned on March 23, 2021 before the Deputy Registrar. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Republican Party committee members in Pennsylvania met remotely for hours Wednesday night in what involved a discussion of whether to censure U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey for his vote to convict Donald Trump during the former presidents second impeachment trial. According to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer, however, the online meeting was plagued by technical glitches and ended around 11:30 p.m. without members ever getting to a vote on censuring Toomey. Toomeys vote to impeach Trump and his earlier assessment that Trump had committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol set off a wave of pro-Trump county and local party condemnations of Toomey in Pennsylvania. The state party brass have remained silent publicly about the matter and did not give a precise agenda for the video meeting, members on the call said. The meeting involved the question of whether to censure Toomey, along with top Democratic officials in Pennsylvania, or express disappointment and disagreement with his vote to convict Trump, members on the call said. Toomey joined the meeting to defend himself, they said. A censure vote is a symbolic gesture that may have no real effect on Toomey, who announced in October that he will not run again for office. Toomey supporters have pushed back, seeing a censure resolution as a waste of time and unnecessarily divisive. Lowman Henry, a state committee member from Dauphin County, said before the meeting that he disagreed with Toomeys vote, but also opposed a vote to censure the senator, calling it a circular firing squad. Hes been a very low-key but very effective senator, particularly on tax policy, and I remind people that were it not for Pat Toomey, President Trump would not have gotten the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through. More than 200 state committee members joined the call. Longtime members say they cant remember a time that the state party censured anybody, going back 40 years, not even when then-U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter helped sink President Ronald Reagans nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. As I recall, we just booed him off stage, Henry said. Toomey has not backed down from his position after he became one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection. Ultimately, Trump was acquitted when the vote to convict ultimately fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority, or 67, necessary in the U.S. Senate. Toomey, who once endorsed challenges to Republican officeholders who werent seen as conservative enough, is now urging Republicans to be tolerant of a difference of opinion over whether Trump and his long campaign of falsehoods to discredit the election result is to blame for the attack. Besides Toomey, the North Carolina Republican Party unanimously voted to censure Sen. Richard Burr and the Louisiana GOP executive committee unanimously voted to censure Sen. Bill Cassidy. By Baek Byung-yeul Hyundai Motor Group has hired a veteran aerospace expert as the chief technology officer (CTO) of its Urban Air Mobility Division, seeking to bolster the business as its next growth engine. Ben Diachun, the former head of a California-based aerospace startup called Opener, will serve as CTO, effective immediately, to develop technology strategy and vision to bring Hyundai's urban air mobility (UAM) vehicle to market by 2028, the automotive group said. Ben Diachun, Hyundai Motor Group's chief technology officer for its Urban Air Mobility Division / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group 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. WASHINGTON Republican leaders in the House and Senate say a proposed plan for an independent commission to study the Capitol insurrection is overly tilted toward Democrats, arguing that the panel should have an even party split like the one formed to study the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that a legitimate commission would comprise an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. A draft proposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would create an 11-member commission with four Republicans and seven Democrats, three of whom would be chosen by President Joe Biden, according to one of multiple aides who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details under negotiation. Pelosi has not commented on the draft or said why there should be more Democratic members. Last week, she said the commission must be strongly bipartisan and have the power to subpoena witnesses. But on Wednesday, House Democratic Conference Chair Hakeem Jeffries said McCarthy hasnt operated in good faith and set a bad tone when he supported former President Donald Trumps efforts to overturn Bidens legitimate election victory. (Also on Wednesday, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley gave a detailed account of Jan. 6 to The Oregonian/OregonLives Editorial Board, which published the video of his remarks above.) The partisan bickering before the commission gets off the ground is raising questions about whether lawmakers can coalesce around a thorough review of the Jan. 6 riot that interrupted the presidential electoral count and led to five deaths. Both parties support creating an independent investigation, but much of the consensus ends there, with Democrats demanding accountability for lawmakers who amplified Trumps falsehoods about the election. The vast majority of Republicans stood by Trump as Democrats impeached him for telling his supporters to fight like hell to overturn his election defeat as Congress counted votes. And it is an open question whether the commission will be authorized to investigate Trumps actions. Republicans have suggested an evenly divided 10-member panel and have also objected to some of the rationale for forming the commission. A second aide said that Pelosis proposal would give broad latitude to the commission to investigate what led to the effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power and that it quotes FBI and intelligence assessments that show some of the violence was motivated by racism and false narratives about the election. McConnell said on the Senate floor that the language is artificial cherry picking and that the commission should either look narrowly at the specific security failures in the Capitol or potentially do something broader to analyze the full scope of political violence here in our country. He said an inquiry with a hardwired partisan slant would never be legitimate in the eyes of the American people. McCarthy pointed to the Sept. 11 commission as the model. Its only Speaker Pelosi whos trying to make this thing partisan, he said. That commission in 2004 made 41 recommendations to prevent another terrorist attack, covering tighter domestic security, the reform of intelligence gathering and new foreign policy directions. Several of them were later passed by Congress and signed by then-President George W. Bush. The two chairs of that panel, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, wrote a letter to congressional leaders and Biden after the Jan. 6 attack recommending they set up a similar commission to investigate and establish a single narrative and set of facts to identify how the Capitol was left vulnerable, as well as corrective actions to make the institution safe again. In their letter, Hamilton, a Democrat, and Kean, a Republican, said that a strong, resilient, and responsive Congress is essential for our system of government to work, and that the commission was essential so that the American people learn the truth of what happened. But politics have changed in the intervening 17 years, and Democrats and Republicans rarely agree on anything including, in some cases, basic facts. Some of Trumps most ardent supporters in Congress, and many of their constituents, still question whether Biden really won the election, even though Trumps false allegations of widespread fraud have been rejected by election officials in both parties, his own attorney general and courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jeffries charged on Wednesday that McCarthy had given aid and comfort to the insurrectionists by voting for GOP challenges to the election the evening of Jan. 6, when Congress reconvened after the riot to finish counting the electoral votes and certify Bidens win. The rioters had been calling for Congress to stop the steal and even called for the death of then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the count and ultimately announced the results of his own defeat. Democrats now control both chambers, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said he also supports a commission. Jeffries said, This is the beginning of a dialogue that ultimately will turn into a legislative product. He added, The guiding principle remains: This should be done in a bipartisan fashion. That is our intention. And that is I believe what will ultimately occur. ACTS OF DESPERATION by Megan Nolan ACTS OF DESPERATION by Megan Nolan (Cape 14.99, 288 pp) (Cape 14.99, 288 pp) Should we be worried that so many exciting new female novelists write about self-loathing young women who want to be hurt by older men? Nolan, a young Irish writer known for her unsparing essays on subjects such as abortion, joins the likes of Sally Rooney and Raven Leilani with this tempestuous, Dublin-set debut about a hard-drinking millennial whose hunger for validation leads her into a torrid relationship with a jealous writer, Ciaran. Their yo-yoing affair, seething with poisonous tit-for-tat, soon curdles into a grim parody of domestic bliss, as the narrator's basement-level self-esteem leads her to accept Ciaran's increasingly chilling manipulations. Nolan portrays the narrator's developing thirst for degradation with unnerving, almost confrontational acuity. Nigh-on impossible not to devour, it's an unsettling book that leaves you chewing queasily on its knotty, gristly core, despite the narrative's redemptive framing as an act of purgative retrospection. TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi (Viking 14.99, 256 pp) (Viking 14.99, 256 pp) Gyasi, born in Ghana and raised in Alabama, scored a big hit with her debut, Homegoing, a sprawling historical epic of two half-sisters separated by the slave trade. Set in the U.S., her new novel is more intimate yet still folds a staggering amount into the mix. It's narrated by Gifty, a neuroscientist whose elder brother died of an overdose after getting hooked on painkillers. As her story weaves around a fluid, jumbled timeline, we see the impact of his death on their mother to say nothing of Gifty herself, as she hides away doing lab work on the pleasure-seeking impulses of mice. Her narration deals lightly but seriously with issues such as racism and the opioid crisis, and whether it's possible to be a scientist who believes in God. If you sense Gifty's life being calibrated for the sake of Gyasi's thematic reach, her storytelling skill keeps this mightily enjoyable novel from feeling preachy or programmatic. BRIGHT BURNING THINGS BRIGHT BURNING THINGS by Lisa Harding (Bloomsbury 14.99, 320 pp) by Lisa Harding (Bloomsbury 14.99, 320 pp) Hard on the heels of last year's Booker winner Shuggie Bain, about alcoholism in Eighties Glasgow, comes this pungently propulsive heart-wrencher about another single mother battling the booze, this time in modern-day Ireland. Sonya, once a Rada-trained stage actress, finds herself shoplifting to feed her four-year-old son Tommy, not to mention her out-of-control pinot grigio habit. The tense narration puts us claustrophobically close to the addled perspective of a chaotic protagonist for whom just making it through the day is a gut-wrenching high-wire act. While you could see this as a stealth #MeToo narrative, focused on the aftermath of Sonya's encounter with a sleazy director, the novel's real emotional clout comes to rest on her agonising separation from Tommy after her estranged father forces her into rehab. We root desperately for her to pull through, in an alarming yet tender portrayal of the slow-burn impact of long-repressed grief. 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. Goldman Sachs CEO has slammed working from home as an 'aberration' and said it is not the 'new normal' as he revealed the company is not likely to be offering it as a permanent option. David Solomon, 59, insisted the firm would 'correct' the remote working situation 'as soon as possible' while speaking during a virtual conference organized by Credit Suisse on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs boss, who is based out of the company's New York headquarters, suggested the measure does not suit his investment bank, despite suggestions from other firms that they may seek to retain a form of remote working even after restrictions lift. 'I do think for a business like ours, which is an innovative, collaborative apprenticeship culture, this is not ideal for us,' he told the annual Credit Suisse virtual financial services forum. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, 59, claimed in a virtual financial services forum on Wednesday that the firm will end remote work 'as soon as possible' as it is not the 'new normal' The company currently has an average of 10% of employees back in its global offices Solomon said he was particularly worried about the incoming class of 3,000 new recruits who he fears won't get the 'direct mentorship' and 'direct contact' that they need. He added that he is a 'big believer in personal connectivity' and so foresees that Goldman's pre-pandemic operating style will return. 'I am very focused on the fact that I don't want another class of young people arriving at Goldman Sachs in the summer remotely,' he told the conference. 'I don't think as we get out of the pandemic the overall operating mode of the way a business like ours operates will be vastly different.' The firm had allowed a 'significant portion' of employees to shift to working remotely during the pandemic. The CEO revealed that Goldman Sachs operated throughout 2020 with 'less than 10% of our people' on average working from offices throughout the firm's various global bases. However, in the New York headquarters, up to a quarter of employees are now back on site. It had offered incentives such as free lunch to encourage people back. DAVID SOLOMON: THE GOLDMAN SACHS CEO WITH A DJING SIDE HUSTLE As well as working as a top Goldman Sachs executive, Solomon spends his nights DJing super clubs all over the world David Solomon, 59, has served as CEO of Goldman Sachs since October 2018 The New Yorker has also been chairman of the bank since January 2019. Prior to this, he was president and chief operating officer from January 2017 to September 2018. And worked as the joint head of the investment banking division from July 2006 to December 2016. As well as working as a top Goldman Sachs executive, Solomon spends his nights DJing super clubs all over the world. The divorced 59-year-old performs under the name DJ D-Sol and has even performed at the MTV Europe Music Awards in London His side hustle was outed by the New York Times in 2017 amid his campaign to be named Goldman CEO. Solomon has said he also likes to ride the subway to work, fetch his own coffee in the office, and relaxed the firms dress code making suits and ties optional. Last year, Solomon's annual pay fell by $10million, or 36 percent. It came after the firm clawed back executive pay after it agreed to pay nearly $3billion in fines to the Department of Justice for its role in a Malaysian bribery scandal. His personal life has been just as tumultuous. According to CNBC, his divorce was finalized in 2018. And in his second week as CEO, Solomons former assistant killed himself after being charged with stealing $1.2 million worth of wine from Solomons collection. Advertisement More employees had been brought back to the London offices last summer but were sent home again when stricter restrictions were brought in place again. The same was true in its Asia offices, where up for half of employees returned to workspaces before another surge in coronavirus cases sent them to remote work again. His comments echo other members of the financial sector. In September, JP Morgan's chief executive Jamie Dimon said that working from home has had a negative effect on productivity. Yet Solomon's comments stand in contrast to large tech firms who have announced that remote work is set to become a permanent part of their operations post-pandemic. Earlier this month, Spotify announced that it would allow employees to choose where they'd like work under the Work from Anywhere program. It will allow staff to choose whether they want to work in an office, remotely, and what country they would prefer to work from. It claimed it would allow staff to continue to work from the place where they do their best 'thinking and creating'. 'Effectiveness can't be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office,' the company said in a blog post. 'Instead, giving people the freedom to choose where they work will boost effectiveness. Giving our people more flexibility will support a better work-life balance and also help tap into new talent pools while keeping our existing band members.' The audio streaming service added that location would be offered 'with some limitations to address time zone difficulties, and regional entity laws in the initial rollout of this program'. The new options will come into effect from this summer. Also this month, Salesforce announced that the '9-to-5 workday is dead' as it revealed that it would introduce policies that will allow employees 'flexibility in how, when and where they work with three ways of working'. The leading software-as-a-service company said they had made the decision based on feedback from staff. Spotify and Salesforce both join the likes of internet giants Facebook and Microsoft to make working from home a more permanent company policy. Microsoft announced in October that it will allow employees to work from home on a permanent basis even when offices reopen. The company unveiled a plan for a 'hybrid workplace' that will allow employees greater flexibility on whether they return to working in an office full-time or not. Under the plan, employees will be allowed to work from home for less than 50 percent of the working week or request permanent remote work through their manager. Google has also committed to keeping its 200,000 employees working from home until at least July 2021. And as far back as May, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of both Twitter and Square, told employees at both firms that they could continue working from home permanently if they chose to do so. Solomon has said he is particulary worried about new employees joining the firm. He is pictured in July 2020 speaking to some of the Goldman Sachs 2020 interns virtually Solomon is based in the Goldman New York City headquarters, pictured above But some jobs that require the physical presence of employees at the office will still require those workers to show up. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that up to half if its employees could work remotely in the next five to ten years as it shifts tens of thousands of jobs to remote work. The outlier among tech giants was Apple, which asked employees to start returning to the office in June but ensure its workers that it does not expect a full return to offices until later in 2021. Despite the decision by many tech giants to introduce more long-term plans for remote work, Facebook, Google, and Amazon have all also recently heavily invested in purchasing, building, or leasing large amounts of real estate. It is believed the expanded workspaces will allow for social distancing and health and safety measures that could entice employees back to offices. It comes as a new study from NordVPN Teams revealed that US employees working from home have experience a 'sustained' two-and-a-half hour increase to their working day since the pandemic. The longer working day as remained even as pandemic restrictions have eased. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Taking forward the 'Switch Delhi' campaign, the Delhi government on Thursday ordered all its departments to replace all hired fuel vehicles with electric vehicles within the next six months. An order in this regard issued by the Special Secretary (Finance), Delhi government, stated, "In pursuance of Clause 4.6.2 of the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy, 2020, notified by Government of NCT of Delhi dated 7/8/2020 of Transport Department GNCT of Delhi, the competent authority has decided that all departments, autonomous bodies and grantee institution of the government of NCT of Delhi shall shift their existing hired petrol/diesel/CNG vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) through a lease/hiring model within a timeframe of six months and procure new electric vehicles against condemnable IC Engine Vehicles." It has also been informed that the transport department of Delhi will be the nodal body to monitor the progress of the transition from existing diesel/petrol vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. It will also be necessary for all the departments to produce monthly action reports on the transition to EVs by the 5th of every month to the nodal department. Commenting on the development, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, said that over 2,000 petrol and diesel vehicles will replaced with electric vehicles. "It is the dream of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to make Delhi a pollution-free city. The decision that all government departments will shift to electric vehicles is a historic one. Delhi will be the capital of the world where all government departments switch to electric vehicles for road travel," Sisodia said. "The people of Delhi have time and again made efforts towards making our environment, our city green and clean. Switching to electric vehicles will be another effort that all of us together, as citizens of Delhi, will take to ensure that we continue this fight towards sustainability," he added. Switch Delhi is an eight-week awareness campaign to sensitise people in the city about the benefits of switching to EVs. The Delhi EV policy, announced in August last year, envisages that 25 per cent of all new vehicle registrations should be Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) by 2024. The policy gives a subsidy of Rs 10,000 per kWh to the first 1,000 e-cars or electric four-wheelers, with a capping of Rs 150,000 per vehicle. A subsidy of Rs 5,000 per kWh of the battery capacity up to Rs 30,000 is also to be given on the purchase of each electric two-wheeler, auto-rickshaw, rickshaw and freight vehicle. To push people to shift to EVs, the policy also has a "scrapping incentive" for those who make the switch. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Integration of the .crypto Blockchain Domain Reduces Remittance Costs for Unocoins 1.2M Users Partnership Simplifies the Sending and Receiving of Cryptocurrency for Unocoin Users Both Unocoin and Unstoppable Domains are funded by SIlicon Valley investor Tim Draper SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- [SAN FRANCISCO] -- Unstoppable Domains, a company building blockchain domain names, today announced that Unocoin, Indias first cryptocurrency exchange, will integrate .crypto blockchain domains to reduce remittance costs across India, and simultaneously simplify sending and receiving cryptocurrency. Starting today, Unocoin users can transact using human-readable addresses supported by .crypto domains [ex: brad.crypto] purchased through Unstoppable Domains. The partnership will not only boost the remittance market, but also seeks to remove friction and improve user experience for crypto users across India. Indias appetite for cryptocurrency is evident, as the country facilitates the highest recipient of remittances globally -- totalling more than $83 billion since 2018. With the support of cryptocurrencies, the remittance market is expected to soar in India, with cheaper, more efficient methods of sending money. Despite the popularity of cryptocurrency across India, a forthcoming bill will prevent Indias users from using most cryptocurrencies. Joint efforts across Indian cryptocurrency exchanges urge parliament to regulate, not ban, cryptocurrency. The initiative, known as the #IndiaWantsBitcoin campaign, is seeking positive and progressive regulation of the crypto markets so cryptocurrency can flow freely. The collaboration between Unstoppable Domains and Unocoin intends to establish an improved user experience for those sending and receiving cryptocurrency payments. At its core, cryptocurrency is meant to allow for the cheap and efficient transfer of financial assets, said Brad Kam, co-founder of Unstoppable Domains. Indias population has been historically scorned from cryptocurrency. Unstoppable Domains is excited to deliver the seamless sending and receiving of cryptocurrency to Unocoins users. Our aim is to simplify cryptocurrency addresses, and establish human readable names as the domain standard across wallets and exchanges. To date, stablecoins represent the most-used currency with regard to remittances. According to a McKinsey report, cross-border transactions represent 20% of total transaction volumes in the payments industry, yet they generate 50% of its transaction-related revenues. With popular stablecoins like DAI and USDT supported by the .crypto domain, users have the ability to send and receive stablecoins across borders at a fraction of the current cost. In 2020, remittances fell sharply by roughly 28% due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic. Unoicoin anticipates the partnership with Unstoppable Domains will boost the remittance market, and, in turn, contribute to economic growth, consumption, and investment. The cryptocurrency space is maturing, commented Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO and Co-Founder at Unocoin. In line with the growth of the industry, Unocoin aims to offer its users the best possible experience. Integrating the .crypto domain is a significant step not only for Unocoin users, but also for additional exchanges in the country exploring simpler and more user-friendly options for their users. To date, Unstoppable Domains has registered nearly 500,000 blockchain domain names. To register for a .crypto domain, visit www.unstoppabledomains.com. About Unocoin: Unocoin is Indias leading Bitcoin & Crypto company. We make it easy to buy, sell, store, use & accept bitcoin securely in India. We serve more than 1.5 million customers and have been serving our customers since 2013. Unocoin has one mission - Bringing bitcoin to the billions. About Unstoppable Domains: Unstoppable Domains is a San Francisco-based company building domains on blockchains. Their product replaces multiple complicated wallet addresses with a single human-readable domain name, with no renewal-fees . The company is backed by Draper Associates and Boost VC and has received grants from the Ethereum Foundation and the Zilliqa Foundation. For more information visit www.unstoppabledomains.com. Follow us on Twitter, and join the conversation on Telegram. Investing time, effort and money in technology certifications to improve understanding and competency across a range of technical skills certainly adds value from a personal development perspective but what does it actually mean in terms of job prospects and salary increases? Are all certifications equal or are some more valuable than others? The 2021 IDG Insider Pro and Computerworld IT Salary Survey of 1,172 IT professionals tried to understand current thinking on certifications and to garner some real-world experiences on how they are viewed by employers. With IT skills shortages rife recruiter Hays claims that 84 percent of employers say they are affected by skills shortages, with shortages in the IT, construction, life sciences, and property industries all exceeding the US national average you would expect employers to focus time and energy into training. Is this really the case? According to our survey, 64 percent of respondents currently hold IT certifications, up from 59 percent on last years survey. While 36 percent dont hold certifications, the fact that nearly half of respondents claim that having certifications helped land a job, pay rise or promotion, could mean that figure could change over the course of the year. In which technology areas do we currently see the most certifications? Top of the certification charts are IT pros working in security, where over 79 percent hold certifications. Next is cloud computing, with over 77 percent, followed by networking at 71 percent. Given the rapid acceleration in digital transformations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we would expect to see a demand for increased certifications, especially in some of the hot technology areas, such as cloud, apps and security. However, while 39 percent claimed that certifications played no role in career advancement, return on investment of certifications, at least for a large proportion of IT pros, remains in question. And yet many see the coming months as an opportunity for self-improvement. While certifications may or may not have immediate benefit in influencing job prospects and earnings, some certifications are perhaps more valuable than others. Has this led IT pros to at least consider pursuing certifications in the next 12 months? I want to get more experience and knowledge in cloud proxy, VDI and security, said a Japan-based systems analyst, in what was a typical comment on how many IT professionals see 2021. Our survey found that well over half of IT professionals (58 percent) are looking to pursue IT-related certifications this year. This is a notable increase on last years figure of 50 percent. Like last years survey, security, at 21 percent, came out top in terms of the certifications most IT pros would pursue, although the number has fallen a little from our 2020 survey figure of 28 percent. The real growth area is, as expected, in cloud computing. Up from 15 percent in last years survey, 19 percent of IT pros said they would pursue cloud computing certification over the next two years. Networking (11 percent), project/process management (10 percent), systems administration (eight percent) and analytics (four percent) also featured. The pursuit of technology certifications does loosely match the demand for IT skills, outlined in our analysis of hiring data. Top of that tree were application development, cloud computing and security, so it stands to reason these would be key areas of certification investment. What is also apparent, at least from some respondent comments, is the need to use skills to build personal profiles but also create a broader knowledge and resilience. As one New York systems analyst said, In the next 12 months I want to use my skills to help my organization, to modernize key systems. Personally, I want to build transferable skills and retain my current level of employment and salary. Its an example of how some IT professionals are thinking but what about certifications and technologies in less demand? What is bottom of the pile and losing its sparkle? Going down. Certifications in increasingly less demand Communications, marketing technology and mobile application development rank very low (all one percent). Programming languages and database certifications do not fare much better, with both at two percent. While this may reflect the limited relevance of these certifications to modern technology growth areas, what is surprising is that there is little correlation with what IT leaders deem to be skills that are no longer a top priority, as we revealed in our hiring analysis. Other factors such as outsourcing could come into play, with some organizations preferring in-house teams to gain certifications in growth areas such as cloud and security. If an organization needs a website built, there are plenty of options in terms of agencies and gig economy workers that could fill the gap. I want to be in a job where my skills are valued and provide me with the projects according to my skills, not just any data entry type work, said one India-based web developer, as if to illustrate the point further. Its understandable that all IT professionals want to be valued in their work and feel relevant to their employer. Certifications are one way of proving competencies, which could potentially elevate individuals in the eyes of IT leaders, or perhaps they are regarded as part of the process and not linked to opportunities and change. If anything, it seems to come down to individual employers. If it wasnt, we would expect to see greater numbers chasing certificates, and qualifications becoming industry norms across all technologies. However, as we saw in our job satisfaction research, skills development, education and training are becoming increasingly important in a list of important factors for IT professionals. Only time will tell if the pandemic has influenced learning in anyway. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 02:49:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close OTTAWA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Canada announced on Thursday that it will send an astronaut to orbit the moon in 2023 as part of NASA's Artemis II mission. "It's official!" Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne tweeted. "Canada will join the U.S. on the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years." The Gateway Treaty was signed between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA last December. Under the treaty, a Canadian will be part of the Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. It confirms a second flight for a Canadian astronaut to the Lunar Gateway, a small space station in lunar orbit. Canada will supply the Lunar Gateway with Canadarm3, an autonomous robotic system that will use artificial intelligence to perform tasks around the moon without human intervention. The gateway will be much smaller than the International Space Station orbiting the Earth. It will also be used as a science laboratory, a test-bed for new technologies and as a base for landings and exploration of the moon, and then potentially as a base for a Mars mission. Like the International Space Station, the gateway will be assembled in stages, using both NASA and commercial launch vehicles. Two elements of the gateway -- the Power and Propulsion Element and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost -- will launch together in 2023. Other modules will be added afterwards, according to the CSA. Enditem 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. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Police issued a recruitment notification for SI posts, the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB or UPPBPB) has issued a notification of 9,534 vacancies in UP Police. Interested candidates will be able to apply for these posts from April 1, 2021. For more information on these posts, you can visit the official website of the candidates department uppbpb.gov.in. Last date or applications is April 30, 2021. Of the total 9,534 posts as many as 3,613 posts are unreserved. While 902 posts are reserved for EWS, 2437 posts for OBC, 1895 SC, 180 ST category. Details of vacant posts of SI Civil Police - 9027 posts Platoon Commander PAC - 484 Posts There are 23 posts of fire fighting officer. UP Police SI Recruitment 2021: Eligibility of candidates For the post of an SI in Civil Police and Platoon Commander (PAC), it is mandatory for the candidate to be a graduate in any discipline. At the same time, for the second officer of fire fighting, one should be a graduate in the candidates' science stream. UP Police SI Recruitment 2021: Age criteria The age of the candidates should be between 21 to 28 years. The candidate was not born before 1 July 1993 and not later than 1 July 2000. Please tell that the candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC category of Uttar Pradesh will be given relaxation in the age limit as per rules. UP Police SI Recruitment 2021: Physical test standard qualification Height 1. General, OBC and SC category candidates should have a minimum height of 168 cm. 2. The height of ST category candidates should be 160 cm. Height for women 1. For women candidates of general, OBC and SC category, the minimum height should be 152 cm. 2. The minimum height for women candidates of ST category should be 147 cm. Weight It is mandatory for all women candidates to have a weight of at least 40 kg. UP Police SI Recruitment 2021: Selection process of candidates Candidates will be selected on the basis of written examination and physical efficiency test (PET). New Delhi/Rohtak, Feb 25 : The Income Tax (I-T) department on Thursday carried out searches at several locations in Haryana linked to independent legislator Balraj Kundu, who has been associated with the farmers' agitation, officials said. An I-T department official said that multiple teams of the agency were carrying out searches to scrutinise the documents of Kundu in Rohtak, Gurugram and Hisar. According to the officials, at the time of the searches Kundu was at his Gurugram residence while his family members were in their Rohtak residence. Kundu is an independent MLA from the Meham Assembly seat in Haryana and a vocal critic of the Manohar Lal Khattar government in the state. After the 2019 Assembly polls, Kundu had extended support to the BJP-JJP government in the state but later withdrew it. He is also providing free food to the agitating farmers at the Delhi-Haryana Tikri border, where they have been sitting for almost three months against the three farm laws. He has also been taking part in Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait's Kisan Mahapanchayats in Haryana. Supporting the ongoing farmer agitation, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria on Thursday warned the central government not to further delay in addressing the demands of farmers anymore. Bhadoria told ANI that protesting farmers and members of the Kisan Union are ready to talk with the government, several rounds of conversation have already taken place between them but delaying the demands of the farmers should not be kept as an option. "Members of Kisan Union and the protesting farmers are up in conversation with the government and they had conversation a dozen times too. I believe the government should not delay their demands otherwise the farmers of the country will give up on agriculture and it will lead to major trouble for everyone," he said. Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has extended the period of paramilitary forces in Haryana till February 26 to maintain law and order during farmers agitation. Hundreds of thousands of farmers, from the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting against the newly enacted three farm laws. (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.) Nothing, a London-based consumer technology company, on Thursday announced it has appointed former Samsung executive Manu Sharma, as Vice President and General Manager of Nothing India. Sharma will drive the growth, business development and operations for Nothing in the country, a new venture of Co-founder Carl Pei, in India. "Sharma is an experienced business leader with a deep knowledge and understanding of the consumer technology industry in India. With his proven track record and experience, he will play a pivotal role for our growth in India," said Pei, CEO and Co-Founder of Nothing. Sharma has earlier worked with Samsung Mobile and the Hewlett-Packard (now bifurcated) in India. He will oversee the regional product strategy, marketing and sales operations for the brand, as well as setting up the India office. "Carl's vision is inspiring and I am confident that Nothing will have a meaningful impact on the consumer technology market in India and around the world," said Sharma. The company is set to foray into next-gen consumer devices soon. It has also opened up for its community to invest in the company through a community equity funding round. Nothing will allow its community to invest a total of $1.5 million at the same valuation as their Series A funding with GV (formerly Google Ventures). The London-based startup has so far raised over $22 million. In December, the company raised $7 million in seed financing December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley. Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED, also invested in Nothing, although the amount has not been disclosed yet. --IANS na/ (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.) [February 25, 2021] Intermap Technologies Meets Standards to Trade on the OTCQX Best Market Begins trading today, creating more liquidity, transparency and opportunity DENVER, Colo., Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - Intermap Technologies Corp. (TSX: IMP) (OTCQX: ITMSF) ("Intermap" or the "Company"), today announced it meets the standards to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. Intermap begins trading today on the OTCQX under the symbol "ITMSF." U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com. Upgrading to the OTCQX Best Market from the Pink Market is an important step for Intermap to provide transparent and liquid trading for U.S. investors. The Company meets the high financial standards, follows best practice corporate governance and demonstrates compliance with applicable securities laws. Trading on the OTCQX Market will enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice. These streamlined market standards enable Intermap to utilize its home market reporting to make financial information available in the U.S. As the country's largest provider of authoritative, quality 3D data, used for terrain navigation and modeling by governments, insurance companies, financial intermediaries, telecommunications companies, aviation, drone, and space-based operators, this step expands Intermap's exposure to U.S. capital, which will finance the industry's rapid transition to elevation data-as-a-service (EDaaS). The demand for military-grade 3D data and real-time analytics is accelerating, and Intermap is well-positioned to meet demand. Increasing access to capital comes at a promising inflection point as the Company continues to: Commercialize its technology and 3D library, creating leading products and solutions Offer military-grade solutions powered by global 3D data collected, processed and delivered as a service Democratize data, offering non-expert users the ability to subscribe to geospatial solutions "Your World. Made Simple." Trading on the OTCQX will: Attract more institutional and retail investors, broadening Intermap's investor base Increase Company visibility, including growth plans, technical achievements and results Empower the Company to execute on value-maximizing transactions Increase liquidity of the Company's common shares; and Boost the Company's profile among investors, customers and partners "The OTCQX provides greater liquidity and more exposure for emerging companies like ours," said Patrick A. Blott, Intermap's Chairman and CEO. "It is a big step up from the Pink Market, where we used to trade in the U.S. Today's move is part of our long-term plan to expand Intermap's access to capital and lead our industry's transition to provisioning elevation data as-a-service. At the same time, we are providing more liquidity for existing shareholders and creating more opportunity for exposure to new U.S. investors." Intermap drove significant growth in 2020, including new partnerships, software subscriptions, product development, and customer wins. Here are some highlights: Eliminated $33.9 million of debt in exchange for $1 million in cash of debt in exchange for in cash Obtained EASA certification for the world's only government-certified, aviation-specific elevation 3D dataset in partnership with Lufthansa Systems Entered into partnership with Zipline to deliver medical supplies by drone in Africa , including on-demand emergency response to Covid-19 outbreaks , including on-demand emergency response to Covid-19 outbreaks Signed Lloyd's of London syndicate to a multiyear InsitePro insurance subscription to support their entry and expansion into the U.S. flood market Executed a strategic contract with McElhanney Ltd. to map the historically challenging highlands of Dominica Selected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the agency's Shoreline Mapping Services contract Signed up the State of California for Intermap's NEXTMap One elevation data-as-a-service, becoming Intermap's first government EDaaS subscriber for Intermap's NEXTMap One elevation data-as-a-service, becoming Intermap's first government EDaaS subscriber Selected to be the premier EDaaS provider to Jeppesen, a leading provider of airspace solutions, to support their digital infrastructure with orthorectification of satellite imagery as-a-service, covering 200 airports Completed collection for the Alaska Statewide Mapping Initiative for USGS (3DEP), collecting 1,188,527 square kilometers of high-resolution, 3D elevation data Grew software subscription revenue, including: Global telecommunications operator for 5G tower link planning, global beyond-line-of-sight drone operator for flight corridor route planning, and an admitted-lines insurance carrier for its European perils underwriting platform Agreed to a new development partnership in Columbia for geomatics, geophysics and engineering solutions with Geo Oil Energy S.A.S. for geomatics, geophysics and engineering solutions with Geo Oil Energy S.A.S. Signed 25 th InsitePro insurance application subscription with Atlas General Insurance InsitePro insurance application subscription with Atlas General Insurance Announced collaboration with UP42, a subsidiary of Airbus SE, to jointly commercialize EDaaS and analytics in multiple vertical markets, including infrastructure management, construction planning, geologic mapping, land cover classification, and forestry and resource conservation Announced a patent-pending artificial intelligence-driven, image analysis algorithm used to determine first floor elevations (FFE) for catastrophe management and flood insurance underwriting. This patent is the latest addition to Intermap's growing intellectual property portfolio United States , providing corporate finance, research, sales and trading services. Intermap Reader Advisory Certain information provided in this news release, including statements in relation to the Company's access to capital or increased liquidity, constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast", "will be", "will consider", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Intermap's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties pertaining to, among other things, cash available to fund operations, availability of capital, revenue fluctuations, nature of government contracts, economic conditions, loss of key customers, retention and availability of executive talent, competing technologies, common share price volatility, loss of proprietary information, software functionality, internet and system infrastructure functionality, information technology security, breakdown of strategic alliances, and international and political considerations, as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed Intermap's Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law. About Intermap Technologies Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap (TSX: IMP) (OTCQX: ITMSF) is a global leader in geospatial intelligence solutions. The Company's proprietary NEXTMap database and value-added geospatial data management, processing, analytics, fusion and orthorectification software and solutions are utilized across a range of industries that rely on accurate, high-resolution elevation data, including aviation, engineering, environmental planning, government markets, hydrology, insurance, land management, law enforcement and patrol, oil and gas, renewable energy, telecommunications, transportation and utilities. Intermap's commercial applications include location-based intelligence, risk assessment, geographic information systems, global positioning systems and 3D visualization. For more information, please visit www.intermap.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 11,000 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. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/intermap-technologies-meets-standards-to-trade-on-the-otcqx-best-market-301235505.html SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] L.A. Praise TV Network Debuts A new Black-owned gospel station is on the air. Officially called the L.A. Praise Network, the station is broadcasting 24-hours-a-day on television channel 6.2 Gregg Bynum is president of L.A. Praise Network and Bishop Ernest Johnson serves as vice president of operations. Other staff includes Prophet Philip Miles, who directs funding; Elder Artist Knox, who manages youth programming; Elder Gerald Jones, who oversees public relations; and Garren Bercero, who supervises production. We invite the entire community to tune in to Los Angeles only Black-owned gospel television network, said Johnson. This network is designed to bless the body of Christ and to win souls. Channel 6.2 not only covers Los Angeles and five other counties, but also the online simulcast airs around the world! ADVERTISEMENT To learn more, visit lapraise.network or lapraise.tv or call (310) 667-0147. [February 25, 2021] ASEAN Colocation Data Center Market Report 2021-2026: Growing Opportunities in Emerging Market - Thailand and Indonesia DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Transformative Mega Trends are Driving the ASEAN Colocation Market, Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. With the growing presence of hyperscale cloud service providers, high penetration of Internet connectivity, and a keen focus on cybersecurity and data privacy, the demand for data storage and managed hosting services is expected to grow exponentially across the ASEAN region. In mature data center markets such as Singapore, which still remains the data center hub in the ASEAN region, the demand for wholesale colocation from global cloud service providers will drive the revenue growth for data center services. Emerging data center markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand are poised to experience exponential growth due to the abundant availability of resources, coupled with favorable government policies on developing data center infrastructure. Governments are looking to increase data center adoption to promote digital transformation across industry sectors through effective strategic partnerships with global and local data center vendors, as well as offering them tax incentives. Markets such as Vietnam are witnessing growing data center penetration, thanks to local service providers, but these countries lack the necessary connectivity and infrastructure capabilities to attract global data center vendors. Governments in these emerging econoies are, therefore, focusing on improving the readiness of these countries to support hyperscale data centers by enhancing their telecommunications and network infrastructure. In established data center markets such as Singapore as well as countries witnessing high data center growth rates such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, governments have been undertaking several smart city projects as a part of their digital transformation initiatives. Data Center service providers are, therefore, adopting innovative solutions such as data center infrastructure management, data center modernization, and edge or modular data centers to optimize operational workloads and enhance service delivery by limiting latency related issues. Key Topics Covered: Strategic Imperatives Why is it Increasingly Difficult to Grow? The Strategic Imperative Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Data Centers Market Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine Growth Opportunity Analysis, ASEAN Data Centers Colocation Services Market Data Center Colocation Services Market-Scope of Analysis Data Center Market Ecosystem Key Growth Metrics for Data Center Colocation Services Market Geographical Coverage Growth Drivers for Data Center Colocation Services Market Growth Driver Analysis for Data Center Colocation Services Market Growth Restraints for Data Center Colocation Services Market Growth Restraint Analysis for Data Center Colocation Services Market Forecast Assumptions Revenue Forecast Revenue Forecast Analysis Percent Revenue by Country Trend 1-Revisiting the Data Center Hub Strategy Trend 2-Implementation of Data Sovereignty and Privacy Laws to Accelerate Need for Local Data Center Builds Trend 3-Investing in Proprietary Tools to Manage a Decentralized IT Environment and Enhance Data Center Operations Trend 4-Rise in the Adoption of Edge Data Centers in the Region Demand Split Country Analysis Growth Opportunity Analysis, ASEAN Data Center Colocation Services Market Growth Opportunity 1-Aligning Data Center Design and Management Tools in Order to Address the Hyperscale Demand Growth Opportunity 2-Growing Opportunities in Emerging Market: Thailand and Indonesia and Growth Opportunity 3-Focus on Leveraging Power and Cooling Technology to Create Strategic Differentiation The Last Word List of Exhibits For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/f7eu6 Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com 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 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asean-colocation-data-center-market-report-2021-2026-growing-opportunities-in-emerging-market---thailand-and-indonesia-301235728.html SOURCE Research and Markets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, 25 FEB - Popular protests were called on Thursday also in Beirut after Lebanese military judicial authorities started a trial for "acts tied to terrorism" against more than 30 demonstrators. The demonstrators were arrested at the end of January during violent protests against the high cost of living and corruption in Tripoli, a port in the country's north. Meanwhile, judicial sources cited by Beirut media on Thursday morning said one of those arrested is a minor and may be released today. On Wednesday evening and in recent days, dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Beirut military tribunal to denounce the judicial procedure against the Tripoli demonstrators. Held back by a cordon of officers in riot gear and by a barbed-wire enclosure erected near the National Museum and the rectorate of the Lebanese University, the protesters held banners on Wednesday criticising the judiciary and the Lebanese ruling class. Ayman Raad, an attorney and one of the 35 defendants, defined the accusation by the military tribunal as "exploited for political purposes". (ANSAmed). Armenian opposition supporters protested in Yerevan on February 25 to voice their ongoing demands that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian resign. Earlier in the day, military leaders presented a letter calling for Pashinian to step down. In response, the premier accused the officers of attempting a coup, and called on his supporters to gather in a rival demonstration that drew some 20,000 people. 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. UK Should Bond With Countries Not Limited to Liberal Democracies to Counter China, MPs Told The UK need to work with other countriesnot limited to liberal-minded democraciesto maintain a counterbalance to communist China, MPs of the Defence Committee heard on Tuesday. The committee held an oral evidence session on Tuesday to gather evidence on Chinas military ambitions and capabilities. The session will be followed by a wider inquiry later in the year into the Indo-Pacific region, including the role of the UK, committee chair MP Tobias Ellwood said. PLA Strategic Focus: First and Second Island Chains Experts told the committee that although the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has expanded its range of operations to be more globally postured, it is still regionally focused when it comes to conventional warfare. The capacity to project power is firmly within 400 to 500 nautical miles from the Chinese coast both towards the East China Sea and South China Sea, and that includes the straits of Taiwan, Alessio Patalano, a reader in East Asian warfare at Kings College London, said. Past that, I think there is a considerable lack of capacity to sustain high-intensity warfare operations, he added. Meia Nouwens, a senior fellow for Chinese defence policy and military modernisation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, agreed with Patalano. With the strategic focus for the PLA in the next few years being in its first island chain and second island chain neighbourhood, we are a way away from [global reach] being prioritised at the moment, she said. Patalano said that we might be seeing an escalation of conflict in the South and East China seas. The Chinese in the past two years, notwithstanding the COVID time, have become consistently pressing in that regard, really giving an indication that they are moving towards openly challenging Japanese control of the islands, he said. The Japanese made very clear last August that it is a serious problem for them and, for the first time, they provided clear red lines to the Chinese, insofar as how the behaviour of Chinese forces in that space would be considered. HMS Queen Elizabeth Risks Incident The UKs Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to be deployed to the Indo-Pacific region later this year, a plan first revealed in 2017 by then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and recently discussed during a virtual meeting between the UK and Japans defence and foreign ministers. Australia, the United States, and the Netherlands are also expected to join the show of strength that Robert Clark, a defence fellow at London think tank the Henry Jackson Society, says marks the UKs return as a global maritime power as it seeks to protect its interests in the face of an expansionist China. The Royal Navys newest aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth departs Portsmouth dockyard, in England, on Oct. 30, 2017. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Charles Parton, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and witness at Tuesdays Defence Committee hearing, said the risk of an incident is more likely. We are just seeing an increasing aggressive stance, increasing nationalism, propaganda about it, that I think makes the risk of an incidenta collision between ships, or like 2001 where two aircraft collidedmore likely and, because of that nationalism, a little bit more difficult, perhaps, to de-escalate as China feels more confident and able to throw its weight around, he said. Work With Allies When asked if the UK should strengthen its bond with Commonwealth countries across Africa to prevent them being ensnared in Chinas influence, Parton told the committee that the UK needs to get its own house in order to be a good role model, and work with other countries. This is a question of liberal-minded democracies getting together. It is a very serious values war, not a Cold Warit is very different from Russiabut it is here to stay, and we need to recognise that and work far more closely together, Parton said. Nouwens, on the other hand, said she wouldnt just limit it to liberal democracies. I think this, again, isnt just a question about liberal democracies but about expanding our partnerships with other countries that might be looking for alternatives and extending their own relationships with us, she said. Also, this is a lot about looking internally and seeing where our weaknesses and our strengths are, and being proactive rather than reactive all the time. Nouwens told the committee that communist China does not recognise alliances as something that it does, but only has strategic partnerships that are important to its own interests. Chinas relationship with Russia, for example, Parton said, is very much a marriage of convenience, not one of love. Therefore, one of the most important opportunities to play to a strength that China does not have, Patalano said, is working with partners and allies in developing new ways to create military integration between capabilities and interchangeability. Caden Pearson and Alexander Zhang contributed to this report. Travel & Outdoors Velas Mexico Resorts 'Let's Be Thankful' Campaign For every 5-night stay reserved by April 30th, Velas Resorts will put one night in the prize pot for free all-inclusive stays for medical workers who have fought tirelessly against the coronavirus pandemic. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Mexico's Velas Resorts is showing appreciation for healthcare workers by rolling out a new The resort collection, with properties in Los Cabos, Riviera Maya, Riviera Nayarit, and Puerto Vallarta, will offer a special promotion to help individuals say thanks to members of the healthcare community just by booking a reservation. For every 5-night stay reserved by April 30th, Velas Resorts will put one night in the prize pot for stays for healthcare workers. Nights can also be donated directly to the pool and will be matched by Velas Resorts. The prize pot will be divided up into 3-night stays for healthcare heroes to receive a much-deserved all-inclusive vacation at Starting on Tuesday, March 2nd, individuals can enter their nominee in the social media contest by submitting a 1-minute video sharing why they deserve a stay in paradise. The contest ends April 30th and recipients are determined by the most video likes. Additionally, a panel of five of Velas Resorts' most frequent guests from the US and Mexico will choose three individuals from among the healthcare heroes to receive an upgrade to stay at the AAA Five Diamond Grand Velas of their choosing. For more information, please visit For more information on Velas Resorts, call 1-888-407-4869 or visit Source: ACCESSWIRE - Mexico's Velas Resorts is showing appreciation for healthcare workers by rolling out a new "Let's Be Thankful" campaign. The goal for the promotion is to give at least 100 free all-inclusive stays to those who have fought tirelessly against the coronavirus pandemic.The resort collection, with properties in Los Cabos, Riviera Maya, Riviera Nayarit, and Puerto Vallarta, will offer a special promotion to help individuals say thanks to members of the healthcare community just by booking a reservation.For every 5-night stay reserved by April 30th, Velas Resorts will put one night in the prize pot for stays for healthcare workers. Nights can also be donated directly to the pool and will be matched by Velas Resorts. The prize pot will be divided up into 3-night stays for healthcare heroes to receive a much-deserved all-inclusive vacation at Velas Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta.Starting on Tuesday, March 2nd, individuals can enter their nominee in the social media contest by submitting a 1-minute video sharing why they deserve a stay in paradise. The contest ends April 30th and recipients are determined by the most video likes. Additionally, a panel of five of Velas Resorts' most frequent guests from the US and Mexico will choose three individuals from among the healthcare heroes to receive an upgrade to stay at the AAA Five Diamond Grand Velas of their choosing.For more information, please visit 100heroes.velasresorts.com. The stay awardees must show verification of practice in the healthcare field. Restrictions apply. Individuals who book a five-night stay will also receive a additional night free on their next visit.For more information on Velas Resorts, call 1-888-407-4869 or visit velasresorts.com. Site Map Print this Page Email Us Top Kevin Sneader Bad PR took down McKinsey chief. The management consultant's 54-year-old leader Kevin Sneader is the first global managing partner since 1976 not to win a second three-year term. Blame it on a litany of reputational crises. The once-prestigious McKinsey agreed this month to pay $574M to settle lawsuits in 49 states over its work for Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin painkiller. For Purdue Pharma, McKinsey drew up a marketing plan to turbocharge sales. It was a case of putting profit over peoples lives, said Colorado attorney general Phil Weiser. Sneader was not in charge of the management consultant when it took on the Purdue account 15 years ago. The same applies for McKinseys controversial work for South Africa, Russia and Saudi Arabia. But he was the person in charge when the Financial Times delivered another body blow to the firms image with a Feb. 23 commentary called: It needs to change its culture: is McKinsey losing its mystique? Laura Empson, author of "Leading Professionals," wonders if the vote against Sneader was a ritual sacrifice to appease the bad PR, or a sign that the partners are pressing for reform. Either way, McKinsey now has an opportunity to clean the slate. Hard-core Trump supporters are flocking to Fox News' competitors, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll. The study found that 73 percent of Trump voters watching Fox believe Joe Biden stole the election. That compares to 90 percent at One America News Network and 92 percent at Newsmax. The poll found bad news for the GOP. Fox viewers are more loyal to Trump than the Republican party by a 51 percent to 37 percent split. At Newsmax its 72 percent to 28 percent, and at OANN its 80 percent to 15 percent. If Trump forms his own party, he would gain the support of 70 percent of Newsmax watchers, 65 percent of OANN viewers and 41 percent of Fox fans. And the Democrats would benefit from the break-up. Yerevan: Armenias prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday (Friday AEDT) of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months of protests calling for his resignation following the countrys defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced opposition calls to step down ever since he signed a November 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan waves to supporters during a rally. Credit:AP The opposition protests gathered pace this week, and the feud with his top military commanders has weakened Pashinyans position, raising concerns about stability in the strategic South Caucasus region, where shipments of Azerbaijans Caspian crude oil pass through on their way to Western markets. The immediate trigger for the latest tensions was Pashinyans decision earlier this week to oust the first deputy chief of the militarys General Staff that includes the armed forces top officers. Bac Giang wants local civilian airport Authorities in Bac Giang Province have proposed to upgrade a military airport to a joint-use airport to serve civilian planes. illustrative image 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 [February 24, 2021] Astana Club: TOP-10 Risks for Eurasia Are Already Coming True in 2021 NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Astana Club, one of the most esteemed geopolitical forums for Europe and Asia, announces the latest edition of the international rating "TOP-10 Risks for Eurasia in 2021". The rating is developed by the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), comprising over 40 international experts and 1,200 professional respondents from 75 countries in Eurasia. The COVID-19 pandemic remains the key element to accelerate the risks in 2021 and affects recovery, social stability, digital and climate threats and the escalation of confrontations between key geopolitical players. A brief rundown of the TOP-10 risks is presented below: THE PANDEMIC 2. Given the absence of effective international cooperation mechanisms to combat the infection and the constant mutation of the virus, the pandemic threatens to continue throughout 2021, possibly longer. RECOVERY UNDER THREAT The pandemic, collapse of economic activity, geopolitical and social instability and the debt crisis of emerging markets are key factors that threaten the shaky recovery of the world economy. US- CHINA COLD WAR The US and China have crossed practically all "red lines" during the pandemic; this confrontation will transform into full scale systemic conflict in 2021. CRISIS AROUND IRAN Growing tensions around Iran may trigger a large-scale military confrontation, thus dealing a crushing blow to the international energy market. DECOUPLING Decoupling of the West and China will not only continue under the new US administration but will gain a dangerous new dynamic in 2021. DISSOLUTION OF THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION REGIME The erosion of key nuclear treaties and institutions along with outstripping developments in military technologies threaten to initiate a new nuclear arms race. EXPLODING SOCIAL PROTESTS Political systems in many countries will come under unprecedented pressure as the economic and social impact of COVID-19 mounts. GLOBAL CYBER CRISIS The absence of uniform rules in the digital domain opens the road to massive cyber-attacks, which may become the catalyst for a global-level crisis. DIGITAL TOTALITARIANISM Total digitalization, accelerated by the pandemic, offers unprecedented opportunities to control personal data and political censure, creating the risk of a new type of totalitarianism. FAILURE OF DECARBONISATION In 2021, the world will be concerned with recovering economic growth, meaning plans to decarbonize and reduce CO2 emissions will be pushed to one side, especially in developing countries. The full report is available at: Link Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1442004/Astana_Club_Logo.jpg SOURCE Astana Club [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In this Sept. 24, 2020, file photo, a worker inspects syringes of a vaccine for COVID-19 produced by Sinovac at its factory in Beijing. China approved two new more COVID-19 vaccines for wider use Thursday, adding to its growing arsenal of shots: one from CanSino Biologics, and a second one from state-owned Sinopharm. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) China approved two more COVID-19 vaccines for wider use Thursday, adding to its growing arsenal of shots. The National Medical Products Administration gave conditional approval to a vaccine from CanSino Biologics and a second one from state-owned Sinopharm. Both are already being used among select groups of people under an emergency use authorization. China now has four vaccines to immunize its population. CanSino said its one-shot vaccine candidate is 65.28% effective 28 days after the dose is given. It can be stored at 2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius, "making it more accessible especially to the regions with underserved public health," it said in a statement. It relies on a harmless common cold virus, called an adenovirus, to deliver the spike gene of the coronavirus into the body. The body then makes the spike proteins, which generate an immune response. The technology is similar to both Astrazeneca's and Johnson & Johnson's vaccines, which rely on different adenoviruses. It is the first COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Chinese company that requires only one shot. A Sinopharm subsidiary, the Wuhan Institute of Biologics, said its vaccine candidate is 72.51% effective. It uses the same technology as a vaccine that has already been approved from Sinopharm's Beijing subsidiary in which a live virus is killed and then purified. The inactivated virus is delivered via injection, triggering an immune response. Neither company has publicly released final testing data showing safety and efficacy. CanSino's vaccine was jointly developed with a team led by military researcher Chen Wei at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences in China. The vaccine, called Ad5-nCoV, has been in use since last June, when it was approved by the health bureau under China's Central Military Commission for emergency use in the military. It was not allowed for general use. It has been given to approximately 150,000 military personnel, according to Xuefeng Yu, CanSino's CEO. The last stage of trials involved more than 40,000 volunteers and was carried out across five countriesPakistan, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Russia. Both Mexico and Pakistan have approved CanSino's vaccine. The company has less production power than vaccine maker Sinovac and Sinopharm, which have both said they will be able to manufacture 1 billion shots annually by the end of this year. Chen, the military researcher, has said in state media that CanSino can produce up to 300 million doses per year. A spokeswoman for CanSino declined to comment, saying the company will release a statement in a stock exchange filing on Friday. The Wuhan Institute said its vaccine underwent its last stage of testing in the United Arab Emirates and other countries. The size of the clinical trials and where they were conducted were not immediately clear. The Wuhan Institute's vaccine has been in use after receiving emergency approval in China last June. The company said it can produce up to 100 million doses per year. 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with drugs typically used for rheumatoid arthritis may significantly improve survival, a landmark study has found. The findings, which were announced in January and have now been peer-reviewed and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, come from the REMAP-CAP trial, which evaluates the effect of treatments on a combination of survival and length of time patients need support in an intensive care unit (ICU). Initial findings reported in November showed that tocilizumab, a drug used to treat arthritis, was likely to improve outcomes among critically ill COVID-19 patients. But the impact on patient survival and length of time on organ support in ICU was not clear at that time. The full, peer-reviewed analysis shows that tocilizumab and a second drug called sarilumab - both types of immune modulators called IL-6 receptor antagonists - have a significant impact on patient survival, reducing mortality by 8.5%. Furthermore, the treatment also improved recovery so that on average patients were able to be discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU) about a week earlier. "We are delighted that our full results are now published after peer review. This confirms the robustness of our findings, that tocilizumab and sarilumab can reduce deaths by nearly a quarter, in the sickest patients with COVID," said Professor Anthony Gordon, Chair in Anaesthesia and Critical Care at Imperial College London and a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. "We also saw that it helped speed up recovery, so that on average patients were discharged from ICU a week earlier and leave hospital two weeks earlier. It is great news to know that several thousand patients have already benefited from these drugs being used within the NHS. Other studies have now confirmed our results and so even more patients will continue to benefit. "We are hugely grateful to all the NHS staff who helped make the trial happen and to all patients and their families who agreed to take part in this trial. Together we are all helping to tackle this dreadful disease." Tocilizumab and sarilumab are immunosuppressive drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. They were two of several immune modulation treatments included in the REMAP-CAP trial. At the end of last year, positive early findings on tocilizumab were released before the full data had been collected. With the full analysis now available, researchers are confident the findings will continue to bring clinical benefit for the sickest patients with COVID-19. Full findings At the time of full analysis 353 patients had been assigned to tocilizumab, 48 to sarilumab and 402 to control. The majority of patients were also treated with corticosteroids and were receiving respiratory support. The trial data yielded an odds ratio of 1.64 for a better outcome with tocilizumab, and 1.76 for sarilumab, compared to no immune modulation, with a high degree of statistical certainty (>99.5% probability that both treatments are superior to no immune modulation). Hospital mortality was 27.3% among patients receiving IL-6 receptor agonists (28.0% for tocilizumab, 22.2% for sarilumab) compared with 35.8% for control group. This means for every 12 patients treated, one life would be saved. Professor Gordon added: "Previous trials using IL-6 receptor agonists have showed no clear benefit on either disease progression or survival in COVID-19 patients, but those studies included less severely ill patients and started treatment at different stages in the disease course. "A crucial difference may be that in our study, critically ill patients were enrolled within 24 hours of starting organ support. This highlights a potential early window for treatment where the sickest patients may gain the most benefit from immune modulation treatment." Study co-author Christopher Seymour, M.D., associate professor of critical care medicine and emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPMC), said: "As soon as the immune modulator results hit our statistical trigger, these drugs were immediately incorporated at UPMC and other North American REMAP-CAP partners as our standard treatment for patients critically ill with COVID-19. "In addition, the overall design of REMAP-CAP allows us to test multiple interventions concurrently and over time. So, while we implement new evidence-based care practices, we continue to test other promising therapies in patients with both moderate and severe COVID-19." REMAP-CAP study is led by Imperial College London and the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) in the UK and University Medical Center Utrecht in Europe. It began investigating treatments for COVID-19 in March 2020, enrolling hospitalised patients with either moderate or severe (requiring ICU care) COVID-19 disease. The study design randomises patients to multiple combinations of treatments, enabling researchers to evaluate different treatments for COVID-19, including antivirals, drugs which modulate the immune response, and therapies that modulate or support other vital aspects of the body's response to the virus. To date, over 5,500 patients in 15 countries have been enrolled at more than 290 hospitals worldwide and randomised to multiple treatment combinations. The effects of interventions are assessed separately for moderate and severely ill patients. The latest findings on tocilizumab and sarilumab add to REMAP-CAP findings from earlier this year, which found that hydrocortisone steroid treatment improved recovery among critically ill COVID-19 patients. This study is one of a number of COVID-19 studies that have been given urgent public health research status by the Department of Health and Social Care. As of February 2021 75% of all study participants had been recruited in the UK through the NIHR's Clinical Research Network (CRN). The study is supported in the UK by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Imperial College London & ICNARC are partners in the EU funded PREPARE consortium. *This is an updated press release, based on findings from January 2021* https:/ / www. imperial. ac. uk/ news/ 211514/ arthritis-drugs-reduce-mortality-time-icu/ ### NOTES TO EDITORS 'Interleukin-6 Receptor Antagonists in Critically Ill Patients with Covid-19' by The REMAP-CAP Investigators is published in the New England Journal of Medicine. * Reduction in mortality measured using pooled hospital mortality for both IL-6 receptor antagonist (27.3% (108/395) versus control (35.8% (142/397)). Hospital mortality was 28.0% (98/350) for tocilizumab, 22.2% (10/45) for sarilumab. Eleven patients are still to be followed up. ** Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19, JAMA, 2020 - https:/ / jamanetwork. com/ journals/ jama/ fullarticle/ 2770278 About REMAP-CAP REMAP-CAP (The Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform for Community Acquired Pneumonia) is an ongoing adaptive clinical trial involving more than 3000 COVID-19 patients at more than 290 clinical sites around the world. REMAP-CAP continues to evaluate multiple other study questions, including therapeutic anticoagulation, antiplatelet drugs, apremilast, eritoran, anakinra, vitamin C, simvastatin, convalescent plasma, macrolides, and antibiotics. For more information, see the ICNARC REMAP-CAP website https:/ / www. icnarc. org/ Our-Research/ Studies/ Remap-Cap/ About About Imperial College London Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities. The College's 20,000 students and 8,000 staff are working to solve to the biggest challenges in science, medicine, engineering and business. Imperial is the world's fifth most international university, according to Times Higher Education, with academic ties to more than 150 countries. Reuters named the College as the UK's most innovative university because of its exceptional entrepreneurial culture and ties to industry. Imperial staff, students and alumni are working round-the-clock to combat COVID-19. Imperial has nearly two thousand key workers, and is at the forefront of coronavirus epidemiology, virology, vaccine development and diagnostics. More than one thousand Imperial staff and students are volunteering to support the NHS. http://www. imperial. ac. uk/ About NIHR The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR: Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximise the value of research to patients and the economy The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR supports applied health research for the direct and primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using UK aid from the UK government. As calls continue to improve vaccine equity across the country, CVS said that was a big driver in helping them choose where they would send their limited supply of vaccines. On Wednesday, the pharmacy chain announced that nine locations across Alabama would start administering the vaccine starting on Thursday, February 25. Regional Director Dan Newsom said reaching underserved communities was a goal of theirs. "We're also very aligned with the CDC's Social Vulnerability Index to make sure we're serving patients of greatest needs in underserved communities," Newsom told WAAY 31. The vast majority of the CVS sites are in the southern half of the state. The CVS in Moulton was the only location chosen in north Alabama. Newsom said Moulton was chosen because it helped them continue to reach more rural communities as well as underserved communities of color. "We're absolutely looking to serve underserved communities, in particular Black and Hispanic communities and patient populations. That was part of the decision for which locations were selected in addition to underserved communities from a healthcare standpoint as well," Newsom said. That emphasis was welcome news for many people, like Lawrence County NAACP Chapter President Bobby Diggs. "In the underserved areas or the minority areas, there's already a health deficiency. And the more you can target those areas, the better," Diggs said. Those wanting the vaccine can register for an appointment through the CVS website, by using the CVS Pharmacy app or by calling 1-800-746-7287. After CVS determines if you're eligible to receive the vaccine based on state guidelines, it will schedule both a first and a second vaccine appointment. However, the Moulton location ran out of appointments before 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Diggs said he wasn't surprised to see so much demand for the vaccine since the Lawrence County Health Department has been down to only administering second doses since at least February 16. "We're kind of behind nationwide, so it doesn't surprise me," Diggs said. Newsom said their goal is to increase the number of pharmacies that will offer the vaccine as they get more in stock. A Japanese expert who died in a hotel in Hanoi in mid-February was identified as being infected with a new coronavirus variant, the fifth of its kind in Vietnam, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long confirmed on Wednesday. According to genetic sequencing results, the new variant is referred to as 20C -- a form of the virus which has been circulating primarily in South Korea, Sri Lanka, India, and Taiwan -- and is not a highly contagious strain. Japan, however, has yet to document any case of the 20C variant. It is the first time the variant has been detected in Vietnam and is the fifth coronavirus mutation to have been found in the Southeast Asian country. The other four variants include B.1.1.7 from the UK and B.1.351 first detected in South Africa, both belonging to the 'B lineage,' the 'A lineage' (referred to as A.23.1) originally emerging in Rwanda in October 2020, and D614G popularly known to scientists as 'G.' As more variants are detected, Minister Long forewarned that the pathogen may still exist in the community, so it is necessary to raise vigilance for pandemic prevention. Regarding the deceased Japanese citizen, posthumous test results after he had been found dead at a hotel in Tay Ho District, Hanoi on February 13 showed that he was positive for the novel coronavirus. The man, who was an expert working for the Hanoi branch of Mitsui & Co. Vietnam Ltd., completed quarantine in Ho Chi Minh City between January 17 and 31 before flying to Hanoi where he stayed at the hotel from February 1. Vietnam had recorded 2,412 coronavirus cases, including 1,513 local infections, as of Thursday morning, with 1,804 recoveries and 35 virus-related fatalities, according to the Ministry of Healths data. In the latest wave, 636 cases were recorded in Hai Duong, 61 in Quang Ninh Province, 27 in Gia Lai Province, 35 in Hanoi, five in Bac Ninh Province, two in Bac Giang Province, 36 in Ho Chi Minh City, two in Hoa Binh Province, one in Ha Giang Province, three in Dien Bien Province, six in Binh Duong Province, four in Hai Phong, and two in Hung Yen Province. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Fiji. Vanuatu. Tonga .The Solomon Islands. Australians have been teased with all sorts of travel bubble rumours over the last 12 months. None have happened. Even New Zealand has proved futile (Kiwis are allowed to come to Australia, but we arent currently permitted to return the favour). Though the government stance remains the same, and overseas travel is still banned for Australians, an announcement made by Qantas today may suggest some light is on the horizon. Flights to most international destinations to now resume late October 2021 Qantas announced this morning. In addition, Trans-Tasman flying [is] to ramp up from July 2021. This also involves new flexibility for international bookings, with unlimited flight date changes. Qantas and Jetstar are now planning to restart regular international passenger flights to most destinations from 31 October 2021 a four month extension from the previous estimate of July, which had been in place since mid-2020, the airline announced. The date change aligns with the expected timeframe for Australias COVID-19 vaccine rollout to be effectively complete. Capacity will be lower than pre-COVID levels, with frequencies and aircraft type deployed on each route in line with the projected recovery of international flying. International capacity is not expected to fully recover until 2024. The Group remains in close consultation with the Federal Government around the reopening of international borders and will keep customers updated if further adjustments are required, the media release added. Qantas is assessing the use of digital health pass apps to help support the resumption of COVID-safe international travel. The CommonPass and IATA Travel Pass smartphone apps are being trialled on the airlines international repatriation flights. This comes in a context where Australian residents are raring to spread their wings (and scan their boarding passes) internationally once again. But could this announcement of intention by Qantas get undone? Frequent flyer and owner of Flight Hacks, Immanuel Debeer, told DMARGE he has faith in the October date: Yes I think its likely to happen in October. Once all the oldies are vaccinated the Australian government has zero excuse to keep us locked up. The only spanner in the works is the fact that theyve gone for a zero covid approach. So although October is realistic, no doubt there will be a lot of restrictions in place. Doubt they will let tourists come in by then, unless they are from certain green zone countries. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has said he hopes Australias state borders will permanently open from April once those most vulnerable to the coronavirus have been immunised. Weve had very positive conversations this week with several premiers and chief ministers about how to restore confidence in borders. Qantas announced the following in regards to its network this morning: Qantas Network Qantas is planning to resume flights to 22 of its 25 pre-COVID international destinations including Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Johannesburg from 31 October 2021. Qantas wont initially resume direct flights to New York, Santiago and Osaka, but remains committed to flying to these three destinations. In the meantime, customers will be able to fly to these destinations under codeshare or oneworld arrangements with partner airlines. Jetstar Network Jetstar plans to resume flights to all of its 13 international destinations. Frequencies will be adjusted in line with the projected recovery of international flying. Trans-Tasman Qantas and Jetstar are planning for a significant increase in flights to and from New Zealand from 1 July 2021. The Group has the ability to respond to travel bubbles that may open. Additional flexibility and extension of credit vouchers Qantas has today announced additional flexibility for international bookings to enable customers to book flights with confidence. Qantas updated Fly Flexible policy (previously only available for domestic and Trans Tasman flights) now applies to international flights booked from today until at least the end of April 2021. The flight date can be changed to any available for sale at the time (up to 355 days in advance). Qantas will waive the change fee however a fare difference may apply. Qantas has also extended credit vouchers to enable travel until 31 December 2023 on domestic or international flights, with Jetstar doing the same for vouchers issued due to COVID-19 disruptions. Customers with international bookings impacted by cancellations will be contacted directly and offered alternatives. Qantas also this morning announced an underlying loss before tax of $1.03 billion (see Qantas full half-year financial results here). Read Next NIH Director Says Overdoing It With Masking Is Better than Not Doing Enough Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said Wednesday that given the relative lack of certainty about the protection provided by COVID-19 vaccines, it is better to go overboard on masking up than not do enough to help curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Collins made the remarks in an interview on Fox Business Networks Cavuto: Coast to Coast, in which he said getting a vaccine may provide people with a false sense of security. He said that, even after people have been vaccinated, we dont know exactly whether its still possible for that person to carry the virus. It might be, and until we have better data, then masks are still important. Wearing masks helps minimize asymptomatic spread more generally, he said, as people may be infected with the virus but have no idea as they have no symptoms. The only way were going to keep such individuals, and it might be any of us, from spreading this is if theyre careful about wearing that mask. Its not about protecting themselves as much as it is protecting everybody from them, Collins said. He acknowledged the drudgery of mask-wearing, but urged people to do it regardless of their level of comfort. I know people are tired of them. Im tired of them too, he said. But, at the same time, its a simple measure. Its a life-saving medical device. Just put it on. Even if were overdoing it, thats fine. Better that than run the risk of infecting more people. The COVID-19 vaccines are still relatively new, and researchers have not yet been able to study how long the protection they provide can last, Collins wrote in a recent blog post that explored the issue of how protective a single dose is. Health officials recommend that, with both Pfizers and Modernas vaccines, people get two doses. But a recent study that Collins cited suggests that people who have already had COVID-19 may have an immune response following a single dose that is equal toor even greaterthan after the second dose. The findings are preliminary and the study has not yet been peer reviewed. For now, the most important thing all of us can all do to get this terrible pandemic under control is to follow the 3 Wswear our masks, wash our hands, watch our distance from othersand roll up our sleeves for the vaccine as soon as its available to us, Collins wrote. Earlier this week, in an interview with Axios on HBO, Collins lamented that mask-wearing had become a political hot potato. The evidence was pretty compelling by last March or April that uniform wearing of masks would reduce transmission of this disease. And yet, with a variety of messages through a variety of sources, mask wearing became a statement about your political party or an invasion of your personal freedom, he said. A mask is nothing more than a life-saving medical device, and yet it got categorized in all sorts of other ways that were not factual, not scientific and, frankly, dangerous, he said, arguing that politicization of mask-wearing may have accelerated the spread of COVID-19 and so contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands. [February 25, 2021] ElectrifAi Announces New Business Connection with OXIO using AWS JERSEY CITY, N.J., Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ElectrifAi, one of the world's leading companies in practical artificial intelligence (Ai) and pre-built machine learning models, today announced it will be working with OXIO, a New York based telecommunications company, to personalize phone plan rates. ElectrifAi has deep domain expertise in the Telecom industry using its machine learning technology. Generating increased revenue uplift through customer segmentation, personalization and encouraging customers to spend more with a particular Telecom carrier are just a few of the many benefits. ElectrifAi has applied that domain expertise to improve OXIO's ability to accurately predict an individual customer's phone usage. OXIO has a unique business model that provides a carrier-as-a-service to brands and enterprises. OXIO has built the modern overlay network entirely as a 100% cloud-based solution, blending the wireless connectivity of many providers. By doing this, OXIO enables a custom-purposed, asset-light network delivered to each brand in a matter of days. OXIO's data-driven approach using ElectrifAi's machine learning models allow OXIO to design rate-plans that can save customers money by not paying for services that they don't need. Human analysts can estimate phone usage but not to the degree of accuracy that machine learning technology can. Artificial intelligence identifies patterns in thousands of data points that are fed into a machine learning model to generate recommendations. ElectrifAi's pre-built machine learning model, Initial Rate Plan Assignment, uses an existing framework that will allow OXIO to markt faster than if it were built from scratch, which allows customers to begin saving money sooner. The model's accuracy will also ensure that the recommended rate plans will prevent customers from spending excessive fees in overage charges. ElectrifAi machine learning capabilities bring great time-to-value to OXIO. OXIO will deploy these machine learning models in their own secure Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment on Amazon SageMaker, an AWS service that helps data scientists and developers to prepare, build, train, and deploy high-quality machine learning models quickly. OXIO will feed its data directly into the machine learning model on Amazon SageMaker without sharing the end user data with ElectrifAi, reducing privacy and security risks, thereby better protecting end users. The model then provides output recommendations that are conveniently fed back to OXIO's existing data flows without any programming and only with minimal configuration. As OXIO continues to expand its market throughout the United States, ElectrifAi will help expand OXIO's ability to provide targeted accuracy for customers' phone-plan options. In addition, ElectrifAi's machine learning model will bolster OXIO's personalization efforts, which will allow the company to target exactly who to market to. "With ElectrifAI's solutions, OXIO will be able to serve its customers with the best-in-class Data Science and AI capabilities, unmatched in the telecommunications industry today. ElectrifAi's AI capabilities will help OXIO reshape the telecommunications industry as we know it by opening the door to completely new business models, and we are looking forward to broadening this cooperation into other fields," said Gilles Louwerens, OXIO's Head of Customer & Business Intelligence. The ML models in AWS Marketplace are available worldwide. Please click here to access our pre-trained models and our associated services to help accelerate ML adoption within your organization. About ElectrifAi?? ElectrifAi is a global leader in business-ready machine learning models. ElectrifAi's mission?is to?help organizations change the way they work through machine learning: driving revenue uplift, cost?reduction?as well?as?profit and performance improvement. Founded in 2004,?ElectrifAi boasts?seasoned industry?leadership,?a?global team of domain experts, and?a?proven record of?transforming structured and unstructured data at scale.?A large library of?Ai-based?products?reaches?across?business functions, data systems, and teams to drive superior results?in record time. ElectrifAi has approximately 200 data scientists, software engineers and?employees with a proven record of dealing with over 2,000 customer implementations,?mostly for Fortune 500 companies. At the heart of ElectrifAi's mission is a commitment to?making?Ai and machine learning more understandable, practical and profitable for?businesses and?industries across the globe. ElectrifAi is headquartered in Jersey City, with?offices located in Shanghai and New Delhi.?? About OXIO OXIO is the first carrier-as-a-service platform for brands and enterprises that unbundles mobile telecom infrastructure, capturing the powerful data and true value that it emits. OXIO's 100 percent cloud-based solution blends the wireless infrastructure of many providers, enabling something that wasn't possible before a custom-purposed, asset-light network delivered to each brand in a matter of days. OXIO's B2B SaaS solution unlocks the full and uncompromising control of the wireless experience for brands, including actionable intelligence that drives clear value and results. Mobile data, long locked up in telecom silos, allows brands to get closer to their customers than ever. For more information, visit oxio.com. SOURCE ElectrifAi [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] AKKA PARTICIPATES TO THE RECET4RAIL PROJECT AS PART SHIFT2RAIL PROGRAMME Regulatory News: AKKA Technologies (Paris:AKA) (BSE:AKA) (ISIN:FR0004180537): RECET4Rail1 is a collaborative project aiming at improving rail traction sub-systems, under the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (JU) Programme. The project involves 13 partners from 8 EU countries, sharing the common goal to research and innovate for the reliability and efficiency of rail traction systems. The Shift2Rail initiative The Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking is the European rail programme to seek focused research and innovation (R&I) for market-driven solutions in support to the creation of a Single European Railway Area (SERA), in view of a modal shift in transportation from road to rail for a more competitive and resource-efficient European transport system. This programme intends to transform the current European transport system to one that is more competitive, efficient and sustainable one. Several Innovation Programmes (IPs) addressing specific challenges have already been launched, involving institutes, universities, research centers, rail companies, operators and infrastructure managers from all over Europe. The RECET4Rail project The RECET4Rail project's ambition is to provide essential knowledge and competence that can lead the improvement to high TRL levels of Shift2Rail traction demonstrations on trains developed by Shift2Rail members. This collaboration paves the way for future key developments on fields such as digitalization applied to traction, environmental sustainability (especially devising carbon-free traction systems) or reinforcement of standardization to lower complexity and costs. Four workstreams are envisaged: (i) 3D additive manufacturing and new manufacturing technologies; (ii) Wireless Dynamic Charging for urban vehicles based on silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors and high power Li-ion batteries sizing; (iii) Investigations on reliability of traction components and lifetime mechanisms; (iv) Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for smart and predictive maintenance of traction systems. "Alongside valuable partners such as Saint-Exupery IRT (Institute of Technological Research) and ICAM (Catholic Institute of Engineering), AKKA is proud to provide its technological expertise to the RECET4Rail project, focusing on the development of an automated mesh tool. Meshing is an fundamental part of engineering simulation process where complex geometries are splitted into simple elements which can be used as discrete local approximations of the larger domain. It is a crucial step for the development of the 3D additive manufacturing components which will explore the technologies' benefits for traction sub-systems." added Pierre LION, Group director of AKKA Research, AKKA's in-house R&D and innovation centre Furthermore, RECET4Rail will collaborate with key companies in the rail field, especially collaborating with PINTA3 project, also part of the Shift2Rail community, in terms of manufacturing and validation of the prototypes solutions on train traction systems. PINTA3 is composed of 8 large enterprises active in the rail sector and is aimed at addressing demonstrators for the next generation of traction systems and all the innovative technologies that can improve the competitiveness of the rail traction systems. Note to editors: Each workstream has a main objective within the overall purpose to improve the traction system by leveraging new technologies: The 1st Workstream "3D additive manufacturing and new manufacturing technologies" will mainly focus on exploring the benefits of technologies for traction sub-systems by 3D tailored conception work frame or analyzing the way to increase the thermal performance on heat exchangers. Within the research planned in the 2nd Workstream on "Wireless Dynamic Charging for urban vehicles based on SiC semiconductorsand high power Li-ion batteries sizing", RECET4Rail will focus on giving a clear assessment of the wireless power transfer (WPT) Opportunistic Charging for specific routes versus the size and performances of the on-board battery, improve the efficiency of the power transfer and creating a competitive charging solution. The 3rd Workstream "Investigations on reliability of traction components and lifetime mechanisms" will aim at reducing the threshold for railway rolling stock manufacturers to introduce the SiC technology. The introduction of SiC power modules increases efficiency of traction convertors and leads to more compact, lighter and less noisy systems and large savings of electrical energy consumption. Finally, the 4th Workstream "Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to Traction systems smart and predictive maintenance" will focus on the exploitation of smart maintenance management systems by the development of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. The project consortium of RECET4Rail is composed of 13 partners with complementary knowledge areas and skills to promote the scientific outcome and to ensure the industrial uptake and delivery of tangible results in the field: UNIFE European Rail Industry Association (Belgium, Coordinator), ZABALA BRUSSELS (Belgium), Universitat Bremen IALB (Germany), SAFT (France), WUT Politechnika Warszawska (Poland), IKERLAN (Spain), ARAMIS (Italy), RISE Research Institutes Of Sweden (Sweden), AALTO University (Finland), POLIMI Politecnico di Milano (Italy), AKKA Technologies (France), IRT Antoine de Saint Exupery (France ), ICAM Institut Catholique D'arts et Metiers (France). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant agreement N101015423. For further information please visit RECET4Rail website or get in contact with the project coordinator. About AKKA Technologies AKKA is the European leader in engineering consulting and R&D services in the mobility segment. As an innovation accelerator for its clients, AKKA supports leading industry players in the automotive, aerospace, rail and life sciences sectors throughout the life cycle of their products with cutting edge digital technologies (AI, ADAS, IoT, Big Data, robotics, embedded computing, machine learning, etc.). Founded in 1984, AKKA has a strong entrepreneurial culture and is pursuing its fast-paced growth and international development in line with its CLEAR 2022 strategic plan. With 22,000 employees, who are passionate about technology and dedicated to advancing the future of industry, the Group recorded revenues of 1.8 billion in 2019. Following the completion of the friendly take-over bid of Data Respons launched in January 2020, AKKA now holds 100% of the company's shares; with the success of this operation, AKKA leverages the most comprehensive portfolio of digital solutions in Europe to harness the growing demand from its customers in the mobility sector. AKKA Technologies is listed on Euronext Paris and Brussels Segment A ISIN code: FR0004180537 For more information, please visit www.akka-technologies.com Follow us on: twitter.com/AKKA_Tech 1 RECET4Rail: Reliable Energy and Cost-Efficient Traction System For Railway. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005896/en/ Contacts: AKKA Contacts Investor Relations Stephanie Bia Group Communications Investor Relations Director Tel: +33(0) 6 47 85 9878 stephanie.bia@akka.eu FTI Consulting akka@fticonsulting.com Media Relations, France Emily Oliver Tel.: +33 1 47 03 68 65 CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland-born directors Joe and Anthony Russo have carved out an impressive career making blockbuster movies loaded with cutting-edge special effects, elaborate action scenes, A-list movie stars and budgets that rival the GDP of a small nation. From Captain America: The Winter Soldier to Avengers: Endgame, the stakes in their movies have been just as huge: save the world. Russo brothers come home, team up with sister to make Cherry, their most personal film yet Thats what makes Cherry, their latest film opening in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on March 12, so interesting. The drama, shot in Cleveland in late 2019, is unlike anything the directing duo has done before. A smaller, more intimate story of a young Army veteran battling opioid addiction, Cherry has the beating heart of an indie film wrapped in the sweeping, epic flair of a Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone or Ang Lee movie. The film is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by fellow Clevelander Nico Walker and adapted for the big screen by the Russos sister Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg (Netflixs Away). Marvels Spider-Man Tom Holland stars as the title character, a recent high school graduate just treading water to get by when his life is turned upside down by the breakup with his girlfriend, Emily, played by Ciara Bravo (Nickelodeons Big Time Rush). Searching for direction and purpose, Cherry enlists in the Army on a whim. He begins to find his feet at basic training and becomes a medic. But his life unravels again when he is deployed to Iraq and experiences the horrors of war up close. He returns home to a heros welcome but feels nothing like one. Hes consumed by the pain and trauma of PTSD that only the drugs can numb, dragging Emily down the deep abyss of addiction along with him. Hell do anything to get his next fix and starts robbing banks, dozens of them, to support their habit. Turns out, Cherry discovers, its a pretty easy crime if you just smile. Watching someone spiral out of control and hit rock bottom multiple times over the course of 2 hours, 21 minutes is about as light and fun as it sounds. Cherry is dark, heavy stuff. The graphic violence of war and the raw and ugly reality of addiction make the film uncomfortable to watch at times. Holland is the difference-maker. The charm he brought to Spider-Man is there, but its the vulnerability and honesty in his performance that will make you feel for Cherry despite the questionable decisions the character makes throughout the film. Bravo, in her first major role, delivers an equally powerful performance, matching her co-star step for step. Joe Russo, Anthony Russo and Tom Holland behind the scenes in Cherry," premiering in theaters February 26 and streaming globally March 12, 2021 on Apple TV+. But make no mistake, this is a Russo Brothers film and their signature is all over Cherry. Best known for their four Marvel movies, you might not think of them in the same breath as the auteur directors of our times. But they graduate to that class here, giving the film its own unique narrative and visual style -- youll know what I mean when you see it. The result is a visceral experience that, combined with Russo-Otstot and Goldbergs earnest and poignant script and the moving performances from the two leads, keeps you invested even as the films grim subject matter and unrelenting somber tone are pulling you in the other direction. Making a movie about the opioid epidemic thats compelling, entertaining and commercial all at once is no easy feat. But the Russos have done it by putting a name and face on the crisis in Cherry, a gritty, sobering tale full of emotion, humanity and even humor, while giving people that have suffered at the hands of addiction the empathy and hope they deserve. (JNS) Israels Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center said on Thursday that it was deeply disturbed by the implications of a Polish courts recent ruling in a libel case involving the alleged wartime actions of Edward Malinowski, the former mayor of Malinowo, Poland. On Tuesday, the court ordered professors Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, the editors of Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland, to issue a retraction of their work and apologize to Malinowskis niece, who initiated the libel suit. The two-volume study cites a Polis... Detectives believe that two men who were arrested after they were discovered acting suspiciously at an ATM in west Dublin on Wednesday evening may have travelled into the country to commit a financial crime spree. The duo who are aged in their late 20s and mid 30s are understood to be Moldovan nationals who only arrived in Ireland last week. Gardai have not yet established where they had been living after arriving in this country. One of the suspects has convictions for major theft offences in Russia and Moldova and gardai are trying to establish if the duo are working for a major international organised crime gang. Gardai announced details of the arrest operation today. Read More Gardai in Ballyfermot arrested two men following an incident in Palmerstown Village yesterday evening, Wednesday 24th February 2021, a spokeswoman said. At approximately 6.30pm Gardai observed two men, aged in their late 20s and mid 30s, behaving suspiciously at an ATM on the Old Lucan Road. "Gardai proceeded to search the men and the vehicle they were travelling in. Items, known as skimming devices, were seized during the search. Both men were arrested and taken to Clondalkin Garda Station where they are currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. Gardai in Clondalkin are liaising with the Gardai from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) during this ongoing investigation, she added. It is understood that officers have observed damage to the bank machine that the men were allegedly interfering with. The arrests in west Dublin yesterday are the first made by gardai in relation to skimming since two suspects were arrested in a different case in last February. Skimming involves criminals placing devices in ATMs which scan the details of a persons ATM card when it is placed into a machine. Once installed, they are used to record data and PIN numbers from people's cards at the ATM. The criminals then use the information from cloned cards to withdraw cash at different locations. Officers are probing whether 80 in very crisp notes seized from one of the men detained in Clondalkin Garda Station is a result of skimming. Last November at Romanian father-of-two pleaded guilty to stealing more than 120,000 from ATM machines, using cloned cards in a sophisticated operation in which bank machines in several counties were targeted over a five-month period. Danile Munteanu (31) was arrested at the Co Meath address where he lived in March, 2019, after a GNECB surveillance operation. He is due to be sentenced next month. Trim Circuit Criminal Court heard that hundreds of transactions where cloned cards had been used to withdraw money from the accounts of innocent Bank of Ireland customers were carried out in counties including Monaghan, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Galway, Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin. Some customers had their entire accounts cleared out as amounts of up to 700 at a time were withdrawn without their knowledge. They included juveniles and people in their 80s, and one person had more than 7,000 stolen from their account. New Delhi: There is no need for central government employees to visit banks to start pension as their copy of the Pension Payment Order (PPO) will be handed over to them at the time of retirement, the Personnel Ministry has said. Citing existing rules in this regard, the ministry, in a recent order issued to all central government departments, has said, "The pensioner is no longer required to visit the bank to activate the first payment of pension." The rules also provide for an undertaking to be submitted by the retiring government servants or pensioners to the disbursing banks before the commencement of their pensions. After ascertaining that the bank's copy (of PPO) has been dispatched by the Central Pension Accounting Office, the pensioner's copy is to be handed over to him at the time of retirement along with other retirement dues, the order said. An employee posted at a location away from the head of office, or who for any other reasons feels that it would be more convenient to him to obtain his copy of the PPO from the bank, may inform the head of office of his option in writing while submitting his pension papers, it said. In the recent past, many instances have come to the notice wherein the pensioner's copy of the PPO had not been handed over to him/her and instead had been sent to the bank and was lost in transit sometimes, thereby causing hardship to the pensioner, the order issued on August 1, said. In view of these, all ministries/departments are once again requested to strictly follow the procedure henceforth and hand over the copy of the PPO to the pensioner at the time of retirement along with other retirement dues, except if the pensioner specifically requests for delivering his/her copy of the PPO through the bank, it said. There are about 48 lakh central government employees and about 53 lakh pensioners. The pension gets delayed either due to the delay in receipt of intimation by the pensioner that relevant papers have reached the bank or because of delay on the part of the pensioner in approaching the bank for submission of undertaking, the personnel ministry had said in one of its earlier orders. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. This information is only for spring semester 2021. Updates will be made here, if necessary. What steps do I need to take if I decide to stay home or return home for remote learning during the spring 2021 semester? Here is a checklist to help you with the process. Verify that all of your classes are remote friendly. Please make sure to let each of your faculty know of your intentions to study remotely. Keep in mind faculty are not expected to accommodate students for courses not designated as remote friendly, though some may be willing to do so. If any of your courses are not remote friendly, contact your academic unit to explore your options. Academic unit information is as follows: College of Arts and Sciences dean's office: casdean@udayton.edu School of Business Administration dean's office: sbadean@udayton.edu School of Education and Health Sciences: sehs_deansoffice@udayton.edu School of Engineering: SoEAdvisingOffice@udayton School of Law: Lee Ann Ross, lross1@udayton.edu During your discussion, you and an advisor will decide the best options for you. You will be asked to sign into the site. Click the link at the upper left hand corner to complete Spring 2021 Learning Survey. This will update your status in your class rosters and inform Housing and Residence Life and Dining Services of your intent to learn remotely off campus for the spring semester. A representative from Housing and Residence Life will be in touch to assist you with the process to vacate your residence and process your refund or credit. If you intend to return to on-campus living for the fall 2021 semester, watch your email for information during the spring 2021 semester about applying for housing and registering for housing. What steps do I need to take if I decide to return to campus to study during the spring 2021 semester, after beginning the semester off-campus and remote? Here is a checklist to help you with the process. Please make sure to let each of your faculty know of your intentions to return to campus and inquire if there is sufficient space in the classroom to participate in in-person sessions. Complete the Spring 2021 Learning Survey here You will be asked to sign into the site. Click the link at the upper left hand corner to complete Spring 2021 Learning Survey. This will update your status in your class rosters and inform Housing and Residence Life and Dining Services of your intent to return to campus for the spring semester. A representative from Housing and Residence Life will be in touch to assist you with the process to assign housing and to share other details regarding check-in and COVID testing. What steps do I need to take to withdraw for the spring 2021 semester? Here is a checklist to help you with the process. Contact your academic unit to inform them you wish to withdraw. Academic unit information is as follows: College of Arts and Sciences dean's office: casdean@udayton.edu School of Business Administration dean's office: sbadean@udayton.edu School of Education and Health Sciences: sehs_deansoffice@udayton.edu School of Engineering: SoEAdvisingOffice@udayton School of Law: Lee Ann Ross, lross1@udayton.edu During your discussion, you and an advisor will decide the best options for you. Fill out the "Not Returning Form" on Porches, which will notify Housing and Residence Life, Dining Services and Student Accounts of your intent to withdraw for the spring semester. A representative from Housing and Residence Life will be in touch to assist you with vacating your residence and the process to obtain any refund or credit for which you are eligible. If you intend to return for the summer or fall 2021 semester, please specify your return plans in the non-returning student form in Porches. Contact housing and your dean's office when you are ready to register for the next semester. Deans' offices contact information is above. Will I receive a tuition refund? If you decide to study remotely or if the University makes the difficult decision or is required to go completely online Because UD's fixed costs first and foremost faculty and staff salaries do not change based on whether the course is offered online, in-person or blended, tuition costs will not be discounted based on the modality, including if we make the difficult decision or public health authorities mandate the university to go completely online. If you withdraw before the start of the spring 2021 semester Any spring term registration changes prior to the start of the spring semester on Jan. 19 can be made without students incurring any expense. If you withdraw during the semester The Universitys refund schedule for spring 2021 is available online and any adjustments will be announced and updated on the website. If a student withdraws completely from UD after the full tuition refund deadline, tuition will be adjusted according to the Universitys refund schedule. Financial aid eligibility will be adjusted based on the number of days the student is enrolled during the spring semester. If I voluntarily leave campus to study remotely, or if the University makes an unscheduled decision to send all students home to study remotely due to the pandemic, how will I be charged for housing, dining and parking? Housing - The amount of any housing credits will be determined by the University and will typically be processed within 14 business days after a student completes the checkout process with Housing and Residence Life. A credit is issued on the student account and viewable on the monthly billing statement. The penalty of 75% stated in the housing contract will be waived. Dining - The administrative fee of $925 from the flex meal plan will be prorated based on the number of days you occupied your residence. The standard plan will be prorated for the daily meal equivalency ($22.75) of the remaining unused days in the semester. Neighborhood meal plan balances will roll forward to the next semester and will be available to use when students return to campus. The credit is issued on the student account and viewable on the monthly billing statement. To check the student balance for meal plans the student can go through their GET app or through the web at get.cbord.com. More information on dining refunds can be found here. Students and families who qualify for a credit also have the option of receiving a refund for housing and dining. If you wish to have a refund, rather than a credit to your account, please contact studentaccounts@udayton.edu. Parking - As parking costs are fixed for necessary maintenance and repair, parking fees will not be refunded. Tuition - Because UD's fixed costs first and foremost faculty and staff salaries do not change based on whether the course is offered online, in-person or blended, tuition costs will not be discounted based on the modality, including if we make the difficult decision to go completely online. If I do withdraw for the spring 2021 semester, do I have the option to return for the following semester? If you intend to return for summer 2021 term or fall 2021 semester, please specify your return plans in the non-returning student form in Porches. A representative from Housing and Residence Life will be in touch to assist you with the process to vacate your residence and process your refund or credit. Contact housing and your dean's office when you are ready to register for the next semester. Unit contacts are: College of Arts and Sciences dean's office: casdean@udayton.edu School of Business Administration dean's office: sbadean@udayton.edu School of Education and Health Sciences: sehs_deansoffice@udayton.edu School of Engineering: SoEAdvisingOffice@udayton.edu School of Law: Lee Ann Ross Will refunds or credits for housing and dining be given if students have to leave campus for behavioral reasons? If a student is forced to leave campus for behavioral reasons, including failing to cooperate fully with the Universitys safety protocols, contact tracers, or orders of health officials, there will be no refunds or credits for housing or dining. I'm not moving into my University residence until the end of the spring semester arrival window. Will I receive a credit or refund for the two weeks I was not on campus? According to the student housing contract, the housing fee is set on the academic year rather than days of occupancy. Conversely, if students occupy University housing longer than the usual term of the semester for any reason, they will not incur additional charges. Are students and families incurring the costs of pandemic-related health and safety measures at UD? These additional costs are NOT being passed on to students and families. The University is experiencing significant additional costs in modifying and equipping rooms and buildings for physical distancing, purchasing equipment and supplies to clean and disinfect University facilities, making technology modifications and enhancements for varied teaching modalities, and addressing increased demands for medical services. The pandemic has adversely affected some families' financial situations, and UD is responding by providing record levels of need-based financial aid, significantly beyond what was originally budgeted. We are continuing to work with families with financial need or other special circumstances. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The Kingdom of Bahrain shares with Kuwait its celebrations of its 60th National Day and the 30th anniversary of its Liberation Day, in line with its pride in the depth of their steadily growing fraternal relations, based on their geographical proximity, and their bonds of blood and kinship. The brotherly Bahraini-Kuwaiti relations have always been strong thanks to the keenness of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to develop the two brotherly countries strategic partnership at the political, economic, social, cultural and media levels. Bahrain and Kuwait have also set the example in their fraternal relations, unified visions and stances within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as well as in their keenness to strengthen joint Arab action and serve Arab and Islamic issues. Bahrain praises the wise policy adopted by Kuwait, led by the Amir, His Highness Shaikh Nawaf Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, and Crown Prince, HH Shaikh Mishaal Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, within the framework of their commitment to enhancing the development achievements, and adherence to the principles of wise diplomacy in promoting peace and settling regional and international conflicts peacefully, in addition to their confirmation of Kuwaits humanitarian role at all levels, following in the footsteps of the late Amir HH Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, the Humanitarian Work Leader. The Bahraini-Kuwaiti relations have been growing steadily at all levels, particularly since the establishment of the High Joint Cooperation Committee between their two governments in 2001. It resulted in the signing of numerous agreements on cooperation in the diplomatic, consular, tourism, air transport, cultural, educational and media fields, in addition to many memoranda of understanding and executive programmes. Economic relations between the two brotherly countries have also flourished, in light of the increase of the volume of bilateral trade to reach $318 million in 2020, and the growth of Kuwaits direct investments in Bahrain to $2.25 billion. As NASAs Perseverance rover fell through the Martian atmosphere last week, a video camera on the spacecraft captured the breakneck deployment of its parachute, which was decorated with splotches of reddish orange and white. Those splotches were a secret message. During a news conference Monday, Allen Chen, the engineer in charge of the landing system, narrated what could be seen and learned in the slowed-down video. He added, cryptically and nonchalantly, that his team hoped to inspire others. Sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find for that purpose, he said. So we invite you all to give it a shot and show your work. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Maxence Abela, a 23-year-old computer science student in Paris, realized what Chen was saying: The seemingly random pattern on Perseverances parachute contained a code. Read more: How does Mars look? NASA rover sends the gorgeous view He called his father, Jerome, a software engineer at Google in London, and the two set to solving it. We like those kinds of little challenges, Maxence Abela said. We didnt think we would be able to solve it, but we would at least try. Collaborating via teleconference, they downloaded the video, isolated images showing the fully inflated parachute and started piecing together the bits. So did others around the world, trading insights on Twitter and forums on Reddit. Its just exciting that NASA is putting these little puzzles in their missions, said Adithya Balaji, a graduate student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who independently tackled the problem. Balaji compared the parachute puzzle to a couple of science fiction movies: Contact, where a scientist played by Jodie Foster unravels an alien message, and The Martian, where Matt Damons character Mark Watney communicates with people back on Earth using a similar code. I think that its exciting that real life can be sometimes even more exciting than the movies, Balaji said. The person who came up with the idea for embedding a message was Ian Clark, who led development of the parachute. NASAs previous rover, Curiosity, used the same system when it successfully landed on Mars in 2012. But a failure of a prototype parachute intended for future missions spurred engineers to improve the design. While watching video of a high-altitude test of the new parachute for Perseverance, Clark noticed that the checkerboard pattern on the canopy made it difficult to track how individual portions of the parachute unfurled and inflated. Because Perseverance would be outfitted with video cameras, Clark wanted a pattern that would be visually distinct. That, in turn, provided an opportunity to have a little fun with it, he said. He asked Matt Wallace, a deputy project manager for the mission, for permission. I told them OK, Wallace recalled. Just make sure it was appropriate and couldnt be misinterpreted. The 70-foot-wide parachute consisted of 80 strips of fabric radiating outward from the center to form a hemisphere-shape canopy, and each strip consisted of four pieces. Clark thus had 320 pieces to work with. Some of his ideas would have required additional colors, but that could have threatened the parachutes integrity if untested dyes weakened the fabric fibers. We were unwilling to go to a cloth that was dyed in a color that we had never used before, Wallace said. Even a pattern of just orange and white, the two colors of previous parachutes, raised potential issues. Theres all kinds of second-guessing questions, Clark said. Like could having more white than orange, or vice versa, mean that the parachute was going to warm up differently and maybe that would change its behavior? After all, mission managers would have been embarrassed if they had had to explain how they lost a $2.7 billion mission because a parachute engineer had sneaked in a secret message. But Clarks analysis showed no ill effects, and the plan went forward. Until this week, only about half a dozen people knew about it. When computer scientists see something in black and white or, in this case, orange and white they think of binary code, the 1s and 0s that are the language of computers. That was the first clue that the puzzle solvers pursued Monday. For each orange section on the Perseverance parachute, Maxence Abela and his father wrote down a 1, and for each white section, they assigned a 0. That translated into a long string of 1s and 0s. They thought that perhaps the digits could be rearranged into a picture, like the message that scientists broadcast in 1974 from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to tell distant alien civilizations of humans on Earth. We couldnt find anything that looked like anything, Maxence Abela said. They tried breaking up the digits into groups of 8 a common practice used in computer programming but that too yielded gibberish. Then the elder Abela noticed that the digits seemed to fit in groups of 10. Every 10 bits, there would be three zeros in a row, Maxence Abela said. That, they decided, was not a coincidence. Still, the resulting numbers did not make sense until they realized they had read the 1s and 0s in the wrong direction, anti-clockwise instead of clockwise. When they wrote down the digits in the opposite order, the 10-digit chunks of binary code translated into small numbers, which could then be assigned to letters. The number 1 corresponded to the letter A, the number 2 was B, 3 was C, 4 was D and so on. The message on the inner three rings: DARE MIGHTY THINGS. Maxence Abela posted on Twitter his answer at 4:36 p.m. Eastern time, about two hours after Chen had dropped his cryptic hint during the news conference. This is a credo often cited at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which built and operates Perseverance. It comes from The Strenuous Life, a speech by Teddy Roosevelt in 1899: Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. There were still some numbers and letters in the fourth ring that neither Abela could make sense of. Those turned out to be the longitude and latitude of the NASA center: 341158 N 1181031 W. If you look in Google Earth, if you type in those coordinates, I think youre about 10 feet from the door of the JPL visitor center, Clark said. In the evening, Adam Steltzner, the chief engineer for Perseverance, posted an annotated diagram explaining the solution. The parachute was not the only fun that the builders of the Perseverance rover had. Eagle-eyed observers spotted a series of drawings that represented the five rovers NASA has sent to Mars, from the small Sojourner in 1997 to Perseverance now. A plaque that will be used to calibrate one of the rovers main cameras includes patches of colors, but there are also whimsical drawings that include DNA, a rocket and a dinosaur. On the edge of the calibration plaque is an inscription: Are we alone? We came here to look for signs of life, and to collect samples of Mars for study on Earth. To those who follow, we wish a safe journey and the joy of discovery. Elsewhere on the rover is a piece of a Martian meteorite that landed on Earth and is now back on its original planet. That is to be used for calibration of SuperCam, an instrument that uses lasers and a camera to identify carbon-based molecules and other compounds in rocks and soil. (Before going back to Mars, the same well-traveled rock made a round-trip visit to the International Space Station.) Also on Perseverance are three small chips with the names of 10.9 million people stenciled on them, part of NASAs efforts for the public to participate in its robotic missions. A more solemn addition was an aluminum plate that honors hardships of those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The practice of adding fun or solemn pieces to spacecraft is not new. In NASA jargon, it is called festooning.The two Voyager spacecraft that are now in interstellar space have discs full of images and sounds of Earth. Two earlier Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, had parts made from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto in 2015, carries some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered that world. On Perseverance, a few more surprises have yet to be revealed. Theres some things on the front of the vehicle that well have a chance to see once we deploy the robot arm, Wallace said. He declined to say what they were or provide hints. Were going to let people enjoy the imagery when it comes, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 20:18:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VIENNA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Austria will start to offer free in-home coronavirus self-testing next week as part of its "testing offensive" against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Austrian government has said. Starting from next week, people aged 15 and over can obtain test-kits for free from pharmacies taking part in this program by showing an e-card or a social security number, according to a government press release published Wednesday by the Austrian Press Agency. It said that the plan will provide up to five free tests per person per month. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said Thursday that the free self-tests are "another important component in fighting the pandemic." "Especially when we want to see our loved ones and relatives, we create an additional opportunity to bring some normalcy back into our everyday life in the pandemic," he tweeted. In an interview published online on Wednesday by German newspaper Bild, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that Austria has reopened schools, shops and service providers based on its "test concept." "We are relying very heavily on the test concept," he said. "This means that in our little Austria, with less than ten million inhabitants, we carry out over 2.5 million tests every week, which means that around a quarter of our population is tested weekly." Testing is not "a panacea," but "with a lot of tests there is a bit more freedom," he said. Enditem Scott Morrison said he is confident Linda Reynolds will keep her job despite copping criticism over her handling of Brittany Higgins' alleged rape allegations. Ms Higgins, a former adviser for the Defence Minister, came forward last week claiming she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House after a night out in 2019. Senator Reynolds was taken to a hospital in Canberra on Wednesday morning as a 'precautionary measure' relating to an existing condition on the advice of her cardiologist. Mr Morrison on Thursday quashed any rumours Senator Reynolds' employment is in jeopardy, saying she is doing a 'great job' in her current position. 'I have great confidence in the work that she's doing. I thank those colleagues, whether from the government or elsewhere, that have expressed their support for Linda and she certainly has mine,' he said. Scott Morrison said he is confident Linda Reynolds will keep her job despite copping criticism over her handling of Brittany Higgins' rape allegations. Pictured with alleged rape survivor Brittany Higgins Mr Morrison on Thursday said Senator Reynolds is doing a 'great job' in her current position while quashing any rumours she would be fired Ms Higgins, who has said she was not supported well enough after her alleged rape, wished Senator Reynolds a speedy recovery Foreign Minister Marise Payne has taken over Defence duties while Senator Reynolds is on leave. Mr Morrison's comments came just hours after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton admitted he knew about the alleged rape but chose not to tell the prime minister about it to avoid compromising a potential police investigation. Mr Dutton confirmed Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw informed him about the alleged assault on February 11, four days before Mr Morrison says he was told. Ms Higgins spoke to police on February 5, with the AFP then informing Mr Dutton because it was a politically sensitive investigation. Alleged rape survivor Brittany Higgins Since Ms Higgins made her allegation public last week, three other women have come forward to accuse the same man of sexual assault or harassment. The man was sacked after the alleged rape for breaching security rules by entering Senator Reynolds' office at night. The allegations have prompted another former intern to share intimate details about her experiences with the man on a couch in the office of a Nationals senator at Parliament House in 2014. While she says their encounters were consensual, she claims she felt 'pressured' to have sex with him on other occasions. 'Nothing "rapey" happened. But that makes me feel really ill. I feel like he wanted to [take me there] because he wanted to show off his power. He was obviously much more important than I was,' the woman told news.com.au. 'There was one time I kept saying, "No, I am really tired, I don't want to do anything" and he kept being like, "Oh, come on. Come on".' She also shared Facebook messages which refer to the couch in the senator's office, which the man insists is 'comfortable' as he invited her there. 'The lounge in his office is really comfy, good for doing readings. Haha,' he wrote. The woman replied: 'mmm, depends, do you tend to talk a lot whilst studying?' The man adds he's usually 'a good boy' and has an essay to write. Mr Dutton confirmed Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw informed him about the alleged assault on February 11, four days before Mr Morrison says he was told The former intern shared an exchange of Facebook messages, where the man claims the couch in the senator's office is 'really comfy' Brittany Higgins with partner David Sharaz, who quit his job amid her rape allegations against a former male colleague She claims the encounter occurred five years before the staffer allegedly raped Ms Higgins. The woman was a university student at the time and interning for a Labor MP. The man, whom she described as 'ambitious' with dreams of becoming Prime Minister, was also an intern at the time for a Nationals MP. She first met him at drinks where she got 'very drunk' and went back to his house. 'We kissed that night. I was very drunk and he was totally sober,' the woman recalled. 'I never felt weird about that but there were other instances where he definitely pressured me. We never had proper sex.' The woman says she will come forward to police to make a statement if it helps with their inquiries. Brittany Higgins, then 24, has alleged she was raped by a colleague inside Parliament House in March 2019 Pictured: Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time in the House of Representatives on February 22 Ms Higgins pictured with Senator Micahela Cash (left) former Liberal Party deputy leader Julie Bishop (right) Ms Higgins previously said she did not immediately report the alleged rape to police out of fear that she would lose her 'dream job', but resigned earlier this month before making the allegations last Monday. Her alleged rapist has checked himself into a private rehabilitation clinic after losing his job at a large corporation. Two more women accused the former government worker of rape after Ms Higgins went public last week, and now a fourth alleged victim has taken her story to Canberra police on Sunday. The fourth woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the ABC the 'really sleazy' alleged rapist stroked her thigh on a night out in 2017. Ms Higgins' claim, which was formally stated to police on Wednesday, opened the floodgates for others to share their stories. The latest woman to come forward was with colleagues at Canberra's Public Bar in 2017 when the alleged rapist touched her thigh uninvited. She said it was not the first or last time she received unwanted advances from male colleagues. 'By that time, I was just so used to sexual harassment I just brushed it off,' she said. Since Ms Higgins made her allegation public last week, three other women have come forward to accuse the same man of sexual assault or harassment After speaking to officers from the local police station on Sunday afternoon, the woman said she received a call from the Australian Federal Police's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team. The third woman said she was assaulted while working as a coalition volunteer during the 2016 election campaign. She was barely out of school at the time of the attack, which allegedly occurred after a night out drinking with the then-political staffer. During the night out, she claims he bought her several rounds of 'double strength' vodkas and three tequila shots. The boozy night prompted the young volunteer, who had never been drunk before, to vomit in the nightclub bathroom. When everybody else had left, the woman said she told him she was going to catch an Uber home, and he suggested they go back to his hotel room 'around the corner' instead, and he would 'look after her', she told The Australian. After they arrived, she passed out while laying on his bed and allegedly woke up with her clothes undone and the staffer allegedly lying on top of her. The woman, who was a virgin, said she was uncertain as to whether he was conscious or sleeping, but she bolted from the room into the hotel lobby toilet, where she discovered she was 'bleeding'. Feeling embarrassed and ashamed, the woman made her way home and did not tell police, her family or friends. Scott Morrison said he is confident Linda Reynolds will keep her job despite copping criticism over her handling of Brittany Higgins' rape allegations Prime Minister Scott Morrison alongside Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and Water Resources Minister David Littleproud at Parliament House 'I believe his actions on the night of June 29 and the morning of June 30 constitute sexual assault, because he performed or tried to perform sexual acts on me whilst I was severely intoxicated and unable to provide valid and informed consent,' she told The Australian. 'I later realised I was so drunk, I was not able to give any consent' 'Hearing Brittany Higgins' story, it was so eerily similar, it made me think this person has a pattern of behaviour.' The second alleged victim claimed she met the ministerial advisor in 2016 when he was working for Senator Reynolds during the election campaign. 'We went back to my place and we were kissing we were going to have sex and I said he had to wear a condom,' she said. 'He refused and we argued and I told him five or six times that we couldn't have sex unless he wore a condom. I was drunk and he just got on top of me, I said no, and then he was inside of me and I kept saying no.' Rape in Bengaluru: Time to wake up to the grave threat of illegal Bangladeshi crime syndicates in India Bengaluru riots aimed at sending message against CAA, NRC, Ram Mandir India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: The Centre's decisions on Article 370, CAA, NRC and the ruling of the Supreme Court had made the SDPI unhappy, following which the riots in Bengaluru were triggered, the National Investigation Agency said in its chargesheet. The chargesheet also said that the SDPI were waiting to create communal disharmony in the country. The NIA further said that a provocative post by the relative of Congress leader, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy was used to stoke communal riots. Three persons had died in the violence that took place in the KG Halli and DJ Halli in Bengaluru. Bengaluru riots: A deliberate attempt to create terror as NIA nets 187 The SDPI was looking at exploiting emotive religious issues such as Ram Mandir, the over 300 page chargesheet said. A criminal conspiracy was hatched by Fairoz Pasha, Mohammad Sharrif and Muzzamil Pasha along with other SDPI leaders. They were planning on posting derogatory messages about Hindu Gods and the community through Pasha's social media accounts. The NIA further said that the Murthy's nephew, Naveen was trapped into reacting to a derogatory post, which led to the riots. Fairoz posted a video and audio clip of BJP leader Murugesh Nirani that was seen to hurt the sentiments of Hindus. He also tagged Naveen in the post and this triggered an angry reaction with a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad. Further the NIA also said that the group decided to post the message on August 11, which happens to be Krishna Janmashtami. Further the NIA said that a WhatsApp group had been formed to plan and strategise the violence. There were over a 100 members on the group. The group was used to post images and videos with an intention of instigating people to unlawfully gather outside KG Halli and DJ Halli police station. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News The SDPI however rubbished the chargesheet and said that it was a copy paste of what the investigation agencies had done after the Delhi riots. The SDPI maintains that the NIA is being used by the government to target them. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 11:24 [IST] Cereise Morris (dark brown jacket) and her group doing an Adopt a River Mile cleanup in Clifton, Tn. - photo by Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful Since Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful launched its Adopt a River Mile program in 2018, the aim has been to promote stewardship of local waterways by achieving at least 15 river miles adopted by local individuals or groups each year. Thanks to rallying efforts by local citizens, that goal has more than doubled within the first two months of 2021. Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful is now seeking a title sponsor for their Adopt a River Mile program to see that the momentum of supporting locals who take action for their river continues to grow. Such a sponsorship would allow KTNRB to continue shipping cleanup supplies and volunteer shirts to new adoptees as they are rapidly increasing in number. For example, west Tennesse resident Cereice Morris has challenged the members of her The Beach at Clifton, TN Facebook group to adopt every river mile within their community. The result was explosive, with literally a dozen river miles being adopted within a few hours of her Facebook post and only six river miles remaining to be adopted in their 40-mile targeted region. Cereice made an inspiring decision to go beyond adopting a river mile for herself, to rally other individuals, businesses and local governments to adopt (at the moment) 33 additional river miles in her community, said Kathleen Gibi, KTNRB executive director. Its the kind of inspiring stewardship that will pave the way to changing the litter presence in one of the nations most beautiful and biodiverse river systems. Ms. Gibi said that the remarkable response in river mile adoptions this year, with over 40 adopted in total, have left KTNRB seeking a title sponsor for their program in hopes that Ms. Morriss example will spread throughout the 42,000 miles of rivers and streams within the seven-state Tennessee River watershed. Every participant in KTNRBs Adopt a River Mile program receives a package that includes river cleanup supplies, volunteer t-shirts and stainless-steel water bottles (an example of a solution to the plethora of cups, bottles and cans plaguing river shorelines). They also receive a free sign with the individual/group name declaring the river mile under their care. The group around Clifton, Tn. put us in a wonderful position of seeking further financial support for a program that has clearly taken off, because weve long-since busted our budget for supplies, said Ms. Gibi. Hopefully that momentum trainor probably more appropriate, momentum bargeisnt stopping anytime soon if we can get the support we need. The original scope of the program has historically been supported through a work plan that KTNRB has with the Tennessee Valley Authority, who has also been a big supporter of KTNRBs river cleanups, including help with purchasing their 25-foot work boat. The adoption signs are provided by KTNRB partner and national nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters. To date, KTNRB has supported the adoption of 90 river miles along the Tennessee River and its tributaries. Ms. Gibi said that there are plenty of examples of passionate river mile adoptees in various regions of the Tennessee River watershed, but none that have yet generated such a rapid and extensive domino effect of further adoptions. For that, Ms. Morris, a Memphis resident who owns a houseboat and several Airbnb properties in the Clifton, Tn. area, takes the prize. Weve had people who love this part of the river for its sandy beaches and have been cleaning up litter here for over 25 years, but this program has legitimized our work and I feel like were finally getting something done, said Ms. Morris. Its not just a beautiful place we lovewe have Airbnb properties here and therefore a vested interest in keeping those property values up. Ms. Gibi said that Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful is continuing to improve its Adopt a River Mile program. For example, they recently added an online form where adoptees can report the tallies of trash bags, tires, etc. collected so that they can learn the total impact in poundage that they are directly making for the Tennessee River. To take action with the Adopt a River Mile program now: 1. To become a title sponsor for KTNRBs Adopt a River Mile program: Call 865-386-3926 or e-mail Kathleen@KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org. 2. To adopt a river mile within the Tennessee River system: www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org/adopt 3. To make a donation to Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful: www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org/donate. 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 damaging economic fallout from Boris Johnsons EU divorce deal has provoked unrest in the Leave camp, with hardline Tory Brexiteers calling on the prime minister to tear up arrangements for Northern Ireland which he negotiated and they backed in parliament. In a report today, the European Research Group called on the prime minister to activate Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, which allows him to suspend the agreement if it causes serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties or diversion of trade. The move came as Mr Johnsons government appeared to be backing away from confrontation with Brussels on the issue. After a letter earlier this month threatening to invoke Article 16 if the EU did not deliver rapid action to revise the arrangements, Michael Gove last night concluded a meeting with European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic with a joint agreement to ensure the proper implementation of the existing protocol. The ERG, believed to number around 50 Tory MPs, is proposing a mutual enforcement regime which they insist would get rid of the customs border in the Irish Sea created by the protocol without requiring the creation of a hard border in contravention of the Good Friday Agreement. The move comes as a leading member of the group acknowledged that the measures imposed as a result of the UK transitioning out of the EU on 1 January have led to empty shelves in Northern Ireland supermarkets, increased costs and bureaucracy for hauliers supplying the province and disruption to the day-to-day life of its residents. But ERG deputy chair David Jones rejected suggestions that the Brexiteer group was turning its back on an arrangement which it had itself brought into effect by voting for Mr Johnsons withdrawal agreement in 2019. I wouldnt say we were overjoyed to be supporting the contents of the of the Northern Ireland protocol, but we took comfort from the fact that both sides were obliged under its terms to look for alternative arrangements, Mr Jones told The Independent. Unfortunately, since the end of the transition, the EU has shown no sign of looking for alternative arrangements. That is a breach of an obligation on the part of the EU. Mr Jones said that the shortcomings of the protocol had become apparent over the past two months in the shape of disruption to supermarket supply chains, with stores having to restock with items from EU-based companies, trucks returning empty to Northern Ireland from mainland Britain and difficulties for ordinary residents wanting to take pets over the border. He said that the current disruption was coming during a grace period before controls are imposed in full in areas like supermarket supplies. If these difficulties are experienced now, what is likely to be the impact once the grace periods finish? he asked. It is arguable that diversion of trade is already happening, with Sainsburys shelves having to be stocked with goods from EU suppliers The mutual enforcement regime proposed by the ERG report would require Northern Ireland and the Republic each to take responsibility to ensure that their exporters abide by agreed rules, which the report claims would do away with the need for onerous checks at Northern Irish ports. Downing Street insisted that it stands by the demands set out in Mr Goves 2 February letter to Mr Sefcovic, which called for an extension of grace periods to January 2023. Mr Johnsons press secretary Allegra Stratton said that Gove and Sefcovic were working through outstanding problems with the protocol. They are very clear-eyed about what the problems are, she said. The two parties are on the case. The letter still stands. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Facebook's Oversight Board is currently reviewing former President Trump's appeal to revoke his suspension from the platform, to which he could possibly make a return as early as May. Former President Trump's Facebook account may go back online in May if the company's Oversight Board makes an early decision. The much awaited return to social media by the former president will be determined by the board, which USA Today confirmed, "a user statement has been received in the case before the Oversight Board concerning President Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts." According to Newsweek, Facebook's Oversight Board chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said on Tuesday that "The case is a textbook example of why the board was created because many people are interested in it and it's 'very principled.''' The board has only 90 days to resolve a case, which means that former President Trump's Facebook account may return as early as May. The report also revealed that thousands of people will have the chance to vote on whether his indefinite suspension from the social media platform should be lifted. In January, Big Tech companies censored former President Trump and shut down his Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, a suspension that was as a result of the attack at Capitol Hill, which Democrats and the left accused the former president for perpetuating. The silencing of the former president on social media came about despite him calling for peace. On January 8, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey released a statement announcing the permanent ban of former President Trump from the platform because of "the risk of further incitement of violence" following the attack at Capitol Hill. Former President Trump, who was impeached for the second time for alleged incitement of insurrection, was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on February 13. Following the attack at Capitol Hill, for which former President Trump was also widely and unjustly blamed, Facebook blocked the Republican candidate's account "indefinitely." Facebook's statement read that the "risks" of allowing him to use the platform during his remaining time as president were "simply too great." Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg also blamed him for using the platform "to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world." Zuckerberg admitted to removing former President Trump's statements because they decided that "their effect-and likely their intent-would be to provoke further violence." Big Tech has since then been criticized to be controlled by or aligned with the left, who aim to silence former President Trump. The fight for his freedom of speech is not over, however, as the Facebook Oversight Board is looking to wrap up the case "a little bit faster." Furthermore, The Blaze reported that the Oversight Board has already received thousands of public comments that will be used in consideration for the lifting of former President Trump's Facebook ban. The decision to reactivate former President Trump's Facebook account will be decided on by the Oversight Board alone and its decision will be binding, independent of any oversight by Zuckerberg or other Facebook executives. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Lighting the way to global change, clean energy and climate action Australian entrepreneur Katerina Kimmorleys pioneering work has made a significant difference to global poverty and climate change. We speak to her about providing solar lighting to slum communities across India and Nepal, how Australia can become a clean superpower in the energy sector and so much more. Its a simple idea: provide solar lights for poor families in the slums of India so they can stop using dangerous kerosene lamps at night and save the environment. For many idealistic entrepreneurs, that would be the end of the idea. Not for Katerina Kimmorley, who is the co-founder of Pollinate Energy and a climate and sustainability investor. For Kimmorley, what started out as lights for the poor became a mission to turn the light on for women around the globe. Lights on As a child, Kimmorley grew up in one of Australias most beautiful coastal areas: the northern beaches of NSW. Life was good; shed go to university, perhaps shed do medicine? A good student with a flair for the sciences, everything was possible. Until she saw something very different on the horizon. Growing up on the northern beaches we always used to look out over the skyline and out across the ocean. It was a big part of our upbringing. I remember one day, my dad looking out and getting quite emotional he never got emotional, he was this tough surfie guy about all the coal ships on the horizon, all lined up waiting for Newcastle and Wollongong. I remember him looking at them and saying, Thats going to ruin our paradise. Seeing my Dad emotional like that really shook me up. It was as if a light had been switched on inside her. The answer, she decided, as she considered her direction of study at university, was solar power, or photovoltaics. At the time, Australia was the best in the world in this area, so Kimmorley began her studies. If Australia could develop an alternative to the coal ships her Dad had seen on the horizon, perhaps things could be different. What started out as lights for the poor became a mission to turn the light on for women around the globe. Soon, however, it became obvious (as it would a number of times in her career) that the technology was not enough. It needed funding. It needed policy and support. So she switched her focus to include commerce and liberal studies so she could learn the language of moneymakers and policy people, eventually gaining an honours degree in energy economics at the University of Edinburgh, and then on to the London School of Economics for her masters and PhD. I knew I wanted to be in engineering and solar energy and build a new energy future, but as I studied and learned more, it became linked with a real humanitarian focus on poverty and climate change, too. I realised that you cant solve one if you cant solve the other. And as my career developed that became more omnipresent until I had an opportunity to really explore what that means in the most basic way at first by going to India. Coming out of the dark Life is very real in India. It may be possible to dream of change when inside an economics class in London or Sydney, but to live day in and day out alongside the slums of India is a different thing. We went to India to help a friend who had set up a charity to raise money to build an orphanage in Bangalore. My friend built the orphanage with the funds raised, but the children couldnt study because they didnt have access to lights. As I was working in renewable energy at the time, I knew there was an opportunity for me to help out the orphanage. It really was so simple; Australia was great at photovoltaics. I just wanted to get lots of those solar lights to people who needed it so they could have a stepping stone to having a constant source of renewable energy. And prove that if you could do it in India, you could do it anywhere! It was a totally humbling experience. We were so idealistic. The reality of life in a slum, which we did for nearly five years, was a real reality check. For the first period I was there, I was doing my masters research and was really involved living next to those slum communities, and it started out really philosophical about poverty and climate change and all the big ideas, but within a few days it became mainly about the women. To date, Pollinate Group has trained more than 650 women, has reached 630,000-plus people and saved 65,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Conditions in these slums are often unfit for people to live in, and their basic needs, like access to clean water and lighting, are missing. Many of these slums are not connected to grid electricity or mains water supply, forcing people to go without, or to resort to unsafe products. Families rely on harmful kerosene for their lighting needs, they drink unclean water and cook with dirty cookstoves. The families all live in these little tents no bigger than your dining room table, and all they want is a better life for their children, she says. The women knew the kerosene smoke was killing them and their children and they knew they wanted their children to study at night. It was then that Kimmorleys work became so much more than providing solar energy. One of the first women I met and worked with in the slum communities was a woman called Lolita. Shed wake at 4am to defecate outside before the sun rose because she had to do it out in the open before anyone could see her. Then shed come back and cook for four hours for her family, which included her husband, her two children who were two and a newborn, and both of her parents-in-law. And then shed go to work and carry bricks and rocks on her head for a construction site, six days a week. Then shed go back home and cook for everyone again and then try and educate her children but, by then, it would be dark, and they didnt have any light, so she would use kerosene, Kimmorley explains. And I remember she said to me Life is really hard for women who get left in the dark. Lolita was only 14 years old. She asked Kimmorley to help her find a solution. More than just lights In 2012, Pollinate Energy was established, which set up networks of micro-entrepreneurs to distribute sustainable technology (like solar lights and clean cookstoves) on payment plans to Indias urban poor. Earlier, Kimmorleys research had been focused on what people could afford to pay for solar, but with the experience of the slums and women like Lolita, they needed a new model. At first, we thought that solving this energy need would simply be a matter of rolling out a technology solution. But we quickly realised it wasnt a technology problem. There were plenty of existing solar lighting solutions available. The problem was, we had no distribution or financing mechanism in place to enable us to implement our solar light solution. Climate is like a global pandemic in the sense that its something we all need to share; we all need to chip in together and learn from each other. We also realised, if we could raise enough money to give away a hundred or maybe even a thousand solar lights, that would be good. But with that same amount of capital we could sell these lights to the same people with a no-interest loan and repayments of the same amount as they were paying for kerosene each week, then they would pay it off within five weeks and own it for 20 years. Then, we could recycle that money to reach tens of thousands of people in the end. It was a sustainable business model that would allow us to have way more impact than just a donation model. And so Kimmorley and her team approached various microfinancing organisations in India but were repeatedly knocked back, as these microfinancers considered people living in slums to be too poor and too risky to deal with. This led us to realise we had to provide a whole end-to-end solution, which was technology, distribution and financing essentially, three businesses in one. It took a lot of trial and error, but thats how we developed Pollinate Energy. Included in that business model was also the training and support for women like Lolita to be a part of the business itself. Pollinators, as they are known, are entrepreneurs recruited from the urban poor who sell Pollinates solar lanterns, improved cookstoves, solar fans and water filters to families living in slum communities. This face-to-face distribution network allows the organisation to build relationships and trust with its customers, and, as Kimmorley had hoped, breaks the cycle of poverty for women. It was amazing. We wanted to make sure what they were doing was the best that they could do, so they could have an income and a sustainable economic future as well as a sustainable environmental and health future. I couldnt bear the thought of any of them not having an income. So it started very philosophical, but became very practical very quickly. To date, Pollinate Group has trained more than 650 women, has reached 630,000-plus people and saved 65,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Light up the world Was this enough? For the girl on the beach with her Dad, was this enough? Turns out it wasnt. I realised that our business was very lucky. We had the same amount of growth as Uber, which launched the same year we did, because we had a disruptor model which was enabled by a mobile phone. And it was a need that needed to be served. What we really needed now was tens of thousands of businesses like ours. So, on a trip back to Australia, Kimmorley heard of the Australian Governments announcement of the Innovation Fund which, at the time, was the worlds biggest funding for clean technology (or cleantech for short). She knew it was time to leave her beloved India. Coming back home to Australia was a huge cultural shock. The culture, the people, the depth of that country is so profound. But I decided that I didnt just want to help not just one or even 10 businesses like ours get off the ground I wanted to help tens of thousands of businesses. Over the past three years, Kimmorley has been involved in looking at the up-and-coming cleantech industries and ideas in Australia and how they can change things, not only here but in Asia and the world, too. Shes also recently stepped down from her executive role with Pollinate Energy, in preparation for maternity leave. In her role with the Innovation Fund, she is part of the process that decides which cleantech businesses in Australia to invest in and brings not only her vast understanding from her own experience in India, but also all that language of moneymakers and policy people. Kimmorley says the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 has brought the reality of a global crisis right to our front doors. I had dengue fever when I was in Bangalore, India, and was in hospital and rehab for six months. I have never been so sick. Thirty per cent of Bangalores population has dengue fever every mosquito season which, with a population of over 10 million people, is a lot of people. But the important thing here is that Bangalore didnt have dengue fever 10 years ago because it didnt have the climate for the mosquitoes. But, with climate change, the mosquitoes are now there. I think a lot of Western countries like the United States and Europe as well as Australia have been quite insulated over the years from the spreadable effects of climate change, other than natural disasters. But it does have health effects, not just environmental, and maybe now weve seen a global pandemic, this threat will become more real. Climate is like a global pandemic in the sense that its something we all need to share; we all need to chip in together and learn from each other. We need to try lots of things and innovate together. What happens on the other side of the world can and does affect us here in Australia and thats an important realisation. We really are all in this together. So what can we all do in our own lives to turn the light on? According to Kimmorley, youre more empowered than you realise. The way we encourage entrepreneurs and investments through our superannuation is incredibly important. We dont realise that every single person in Australia has so much power with their superannuation and what they do with it. There are so many ways we can effect change, but weve often felt disconnected from it. We can all use what we have to support those with talents and expertise in the areas of cleantech and change. We must. Hyderabad, Feb 26 : AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday slammed West Bengal's Trinamool Congress government over denial of permission to his party to hold a rally in Kolkata. He alleged that Trinamol Congress was indulging in doublespeak and hypocrisy. "Trinamool leaders talk big in Parliament on democracy, freedom of expression and dissent but they have double standards. They talk one thing in Delhi and do the opposite in Bengal," the Hyderabad MP told reporters. Owaisi wanted to know why he was being denied the permission to hold the public rally despite his application being in order. He said after the code of conduct comes into effect, his All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) will urge the Election Commission to immediately transfer the police officials because if they continue, elections can't be held there in free and fair manner. "It is unfortunate that Trinamool government is not allowing us. We may win or lose but you are not allowing us to present our viewpoint. When I can go to Gujarat and speak against Modi, Amit Shah, the BJP and the RSS, why can't I do in Bengal. I have the right to present my viewpoint. The Constitution has given me the right. How can you stop," he asked. Owaisi reminded the Trinamool that power is not eternal and that what goes around comes around. He recalled that when Congress was in power in Maharashtra and Akhilesh Yadav was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, they used to do the same to AIMIM. "If I want to hold public meeting, why are you not allowing me. When Modi, Amit Shah, Nadda, Congress, CPI-M and others can hold meetings, why can't we," he asked. Owaisi questioned the silence of those secular and liberal people who applaud Trinamool leaders' speech in Parliament. He also claimed that there is a churning in Muslim minority, especially among youth that "we should be politically relevant and that we should have a political leadership". On possible alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) in West Bengal, he said talks were on with them. The MP said he respected Peerzada Abbas Siddiqui of Furfura Sharif. He pointed out that Peerzada on Wednesday issued a statement declaring his support for AIMIM. "But his brother Naushad is the party chairman. I can't say what decision he takes (on the alliance)," Owaisi added. Referring to his party's performance in municipal polls in Gujarat, he said despite 20-day campaign, it won 7 seats in Ahmedabad and in 15 other seats where it lost, it garnered substantial votes. Owasi defended his visit to Gujarat and AIMIM's participation in municipal polls there saying it will strengthen democracy. "When the Home Minister and several Union Ministers can come here (Hyderabad) for municipal elections, shouldn't I go there. I should go to strengthen the party and democracy." Stating that there is a political vacuum in Gujarat, Owaisi said MIM and Chhotubhai Vasava's Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) will continue their alliance in next Assembly elections and try to fill the vacuum. Some traders at Tema Community One market as well as residents of Kpone-Katamanso Municipality on Wednesday expressed mixed reactions on the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccination exercise. Mr Kwaku Aggeman-Manu, the Minster of Health-designate, at 0700 hours today, February, 24th, 2021 on behalf of the Government of Ghana received the nations first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine. In a random interview with residents in Tema and Kpone-Katamanso by the Ghana News Agency Tema team, some school of thought admitted that the coronavirus had retarded the progress of the country and it was good to receive the vaccine, which would help to improve the health condition of the citizens. According to the school of thought, they are ready to take the vaccine because according to them government have invested more funds to secure the medication to protect citizen, so we must be prepared to partake in the COVID-19 vaccination exercise. Most of the traders who said they were ready to partake in the vaccination stressed that even though it might not be compulsory to take the vaccine, it may be a requirement for traveling outside the country very soon. The same applies to the yellow fever vaccine, many people refused to go for the vaccination at the Tema Harbour, but now whenever you want to travel outside the country, you are required to present a yellow fever card as part of your particulars that shows that you have been vaccinated, some of the traders stated. The other school of thought who kicked against participation in the COVID-19 vaccination based their argument on the wrong foundation that COVID-19 was for the affluent people especially those who had air condition at the work places, the homes, cars hence the government will be making money out of it. They also pressed the panic button and questioned whether there would be any side effects after taking the vaccination stressing that if the vaccine could not entirely protect them from contracting COVID-19 then they would prefer adhering to the protocols. Scores of others also proffered that Ghana was endowed with natural herbs, which when invested in could have fought against the disease, boost peoples immune systems and served as COVID-19 cure. I am not taking the medicine until I see the authorities and their family members taking it, after that I will investigate whether the vaccine given to them would be the same as what would be offered the public, Francis Nuertey Tetteh of Kpone stated. I will wait for a month and if nothing happens to those who have taken it, then I will, because I dont know how it will react with my immune system, Madam Sheila Korkor Nartey also of Kpone stated. I will take it because the rate at which people are dying is scary, although there has been a lot of misconceptions about the vaccine, Ghana is not the first country to use it, Mr Andy Sackitey another resident stated. GNA observed during the survey that, those who kicked against partaking in the COVID-19 vaccination exercise were afraid of the after effect, did not trust the health authorities, and lack understanding of the whole issues. Scores therefore appealed to the National Commission for Civic Education, Information Services Department and the media to assist in educating the public to reduce the fear syndrome as well as the misconception about COVID-19 pandemic it is a disease for the affluent. 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 NEW DELHI: The Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMO) of India and Pakistan held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. According to a joint release, the two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere. In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGsMO agreed to address each others core issues and concerns which have the propensity to disturb the peace and lead to violence, the joint press statement said. Further, both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control and all other sectors with effect from midnight of 24/25 Feb 2021. Both sides reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding, the joint statement said. The two sides earlier held the DGMO-level talks over ceasefire violations during which the Indian side highlighted that all violations were initiated by Pakistan and the Indian Army reserves the right to retaliate. The Director-General of Military Operations had held talks with its Pakistani counterpart at Pakistan's request. During the talks, the Pak DGMO raised the issue of targeting Pak Army troops resulting in the death of four Pak soldiers in PoK. The Indian Army rejected and rebutted the Pakistan Army's charge of its soldiers targeting Pakistani Army troops and civilians. Live TV Burma Two More Anti-Myanmar Regime Protesters Die in Mandalay People carry an injured man during the crackdown against anti-coup protesters in Mandalay on Feb. 20. / The Irrawaddy Yangon Six anti-regime protesters have now died since the Feb. 1 coup after two activists in Mandalay died days after being injured. On Saturday, a raid on government personnel taking part in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) at a dock in Mandalay was carried out by police and military personnel using live ammunition, rubber bullet, tear gas and slingshots. Demonstrators had appeared in the street to protect government staff from being forced to return to work. Two protesters were killed immediately and more than 25 others were injured. About 83 people, including some seriously injured protesters, were arrested without being treated. On Wednesday, Ko Yarzar Aung, a 26-year-old protester, who was shot in the leg, has reportedly died at Mandalays military hospital amid questions about that the quality of medical care he received. Dr. Aye Nyein Thu from a charity in Mandalay who tried to treat Ko Yarzar Aung told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that, except from some minor treatment, the military authorities did not allow her to attend to detainees before they were taken away. She said that Ko Yarzar Aung would not have died from his leg injuries if he was treated properly. On Sunday the authorities handed the body of Ko Kyi Soe, 48, who suffered from a head injury, to his family. Ma Su Latt Win of Mandalay told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that her detained 22-year-old husband, Ko Tin Tun Aung, had not received proper treatment at the military hospital, despite being shot in the hand. He is now reportedly being held in a prison. I want him back home. I want to treat his injury, said Ma Su Latt Win. On Saturday, Ko Wai Yan Tun, 16, and Ko Thet Naing Win, 36, were shot dead by the security forces. That evening a civilian vigilante, Ko Tin Htut Hein, was allegedly shot dead by police in a civilian van in Yangons Shwepyithar Township while he asked why the vehicle was breaking the nighttime curfew. On Feb. 19, Ma Mya Thwet Thwet Khine, a student who was shot by the police at a protest in Naypyitaw more than a week earlier, died in hospital. After the Feb.1 coup, crackdowns have been held against peaceful anti-regime demonstrations in Mandalay, Myitkyina, Bago, Myawaddy, Thandwe, Naypyitaw, Mawlamyine and Myaungmya. Police and military personnel have used water cannon, tear gas, slingshots, rubber bullets, live ammunition and air guns firing lead pullets. Several journalists covering protests have been hit with batons and slingshots. More than 100 people, including a pregnant woman and a five-year-old, have been injured by police and military personnel. On Feb. 23, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US and the European Unions representative condemned the militarys violence against the peaceful protests. A joint statement said the use of live ammunition against unarmed people is unacceptable. It said the military and police must respect human rights and international law. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said by Thursday at least 728 people, including officials, leaders and National League for Democracy MPs, political activists, artists, monks, writers, protesters and striking government staff, have been detained. Ko Aung Myo Kyaw of the AAPP said on Wednesday the regime is detaining increasing numbers and amending several laws illegally. The military is completely violating human rights. It must stop he said. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Anti-Coup Protestors Get Creative with Thanakha in Fresh Protests World Bank Halts Payments to Myanmar After Coup Lawyer for Myanmars Detained Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says He Has Not Been Able to Meet Her moderna has become the first vaccine maker to develop a jab that targets the South African coronavirus variant. The Boston-based biotech has already shipped the raw materials to the US National Institutes of Health, which helped the firm study its first jab, to start human trials. Dr Anthony Fauci, America's leading Covid expert, and his team at the NIH will begin testing the vaccine in a small group of volunteers within weeks. It will be given as a top-up to people who have already received Moderna's original jab, which Britain has approved and ordered 17million doses of. The vaccine will also be tested on volunteers who have yet to receive any inoculation. Sources told MailOnline today the updated vaccine could be in people's arms by this winter at the latest, if trials are successful. Lab studies have shown the firm's original jab was slightly less effective against the South African strain, known scientifically as B.1.351. It still worked, but the jab only induced one-sixth of the antibodies that it did against the original strain. The finding raised concerns that newer, further evolved strains could hide from the vaccine completely. The booster vaccine targets the E484K mutation found on the South African variant's spike protein. The alteration is also present on a troublesome strain in Brazil and has been cropping up on various variants in Britain. Stephane Bancel, Modernas chief executive, said the firm had become the first to develop the targeted vaccine because it had the 'muscle' to respond to variants. The firm is using new mRNA technology which can be engineered easier than traditional vaccines. Later in the day Pfizer announced it had started studying whether a third dose of its vaccine could boost immunity against the South African variants and strains like it. Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, have also said they will offer a third dose to 144 volunteers, drawing from people who participated in the vaccine's early-stage US testing last year. The trial will test whether or not the third shot administered six to 12 months after the second will boost its effectiveness against variants. Moderna has become the first vaccine maker to develop a jab that targets the South African coronavirus variant (file) More cases of all the UK variants and the South African one have been found within the past week, PHE data show The announcement came after the medical regulator in the US urged jab makers to launch trials of vaccines that target new variants. The Food and Drug Administration has said it will only need to see proof of the booster vaccines on hundreds of people, rather than tens of thousands like the original Covid jabs, to give them the green light. And it added the studies would only need to last two or three months, which is less than half the time of the original trials. Pfizer vaccine just as effective in real world as it was in trials, landmark analysis finds Pfizer's highly effective coronavirus vaccine is just as good in the real world as it was in carefully controlled studies, a landmark study has found. Results from Israel's mass vaccination campaign found the shot cut symptomatic COVID cases by 94 per cent across all age groups after two doses. Among the handful of people who still caught the virus, the vaccine stopped 92 per cent from falling severely ill. It was also shown to be 63 per cent effective at blocking severe disease after the first injection, which is still well above the World Health Organization's 50 per cent threshold. That finding will be a huge boost to UK officials, who have gambled on delaying the second dose by 12 weeks to get wider coverage quicker. The vaccine, developed by German firm BioNTech, was just as effective in those over 70 as it was in younger people. More than half a million people were involved in the peer-reviewed study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings are significant because they show the jab is just as effective in the real world as it was in meticulous clinical trials, where it stopped 95 per cent of people from getting symptomatic illness. Often medicines are less efficacious when used in the real world because there are more variables and people given the products tend to be older and frailer. The study also suggested the vaccine is effective against the variant first discovered in Kent - though it did not give a specific level of efficacy. However, because the Kent variant was the dominant strain in Israel at the time of the research, the findings will be encouraging. The study did not look at other variants, including the South African one. Advertisement The South African variant caused international alarm when it triggered an explosion of cases in the country last autumn. There are two key mutations on the variant that appear to give it an advantage over older versions of the virus these are called N501Y and E484K. Both are on the spike protein of the virus, which is a part of its outer shell that it uses to stick to cells inside the body, and which the immune system uses as a target. They appear to make the virus spread faster and may give it the ability to slip past immune cells that have been made in response to a previous infection or a vaccine. Public Health England has detected the mutant virus 258 times in the UK since late December. So far all of Britain's approved vaccines seem to work against the variant, according to early lab studies, but to what degree is still a mystery. Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines appeared to be able to neutralise the strain, but were less potent, raising fears immunity could wane over time. A small study of Oxford University/AstraZeneca's jab on young people found it offered them minimal protection against mild coronavirus, although this is not the point of the vaccine, which is intended to prevent severe illness and death. Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine, which is waiting approval, was shown to block 57 per cent of coronavirus infections in South Africa, which meets the World Health Organization's 50 per cent efficacy threshold. British scientists say there is no reason the South African strain will become dominant in the UK because it is not more infectious than the Kent one, therefore it does not have an 'evolutionary edge'. However, there are concerns that once the population has been vaccinated the South African strain could become more prevalent. Meanwhile, Moderna also announced today it is experimenting with two other methods combat new Covid variants through vaccination. It is also developing a vaccine that mixes its original vaccine with the new South African one which could be delivered as a single injection to protect against both variants. And it's looking into whether giving people who received both doses of its original vaccine another half-dose of that jab could give additional protection against new strains. Mr Bancel, Modernas chief executive said he was concerned about new variants, warning that a lack of genomic sequencing in most countries meant mutant viruses could be rapidly spreading around the world right under scientists' noses. Moderna also announced it is investing to expand production for 2022 to a total of 1.4billion doses, up from a previous projection of 1.2bn. Its vaccine is currently authorised for use in the US, UK and EU, but most of the doses have been deployed in America while the firm tries to scale up its European supply chain. About 60 million Moderna doses have been shipped so far, of which 55 million have gone to the US and the rest to Europe. Britain is expected to start getting supplies within weeks. US to approve single-shot Covid vaccine TOMORROW but UK regulators still poring over data Johnson and Johnson's single-shot coronavirus vaccine is on the cusp of sealing approval in the US. American regulators who have been reviewing data from clinical trials have concluded the one dose jab is highly effective at blocking people from catching or falling seriously ill with the disease. A panel of experts on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are meeting today to finalise the review, with the jab expected to get the green light by Friday. Regulators in the UK are also poring over the trial data and will come to a decision about its safety and effectiveness in the coming weeks. The FDA said the vaccine was 85 per cent effective at preventing severe disease and can stop 66 per cent of people from getting mildly ill. No one who received the vaccine died from Covid. J&J's global trial looked at nearly 44,000 people and included variants that have been causing international concern. The jab's effectiveness varied from 72 per cent in the US to 66 per cent in South America, where the Brazilian strain has become widespread, and 57 per cent in South Africa, where the variant there is dominant. It suggests the vaccine is still effective against those strains. The vaccine has the potential to significantly speed up vaccine rollouts because the single dose regimen removes the need for a follow-up. It can also be stored in a fridge for three months, making it just as easy to store and distribute as Oxford University's jab. Advertisement For tens of millions of Americans still unsure about taking coronavirus vaccine shots, advertising industry experts and government scientists have a new message: "It's Up to You." That message and accompanying ad campaign - shaped by months of consumer research and backed by more than $50 million in donated funds - is to be unveiled Thursday across TV and digital video, social media and audio platforms like Pandora and Spotify. It also will include messaging tailored toward Black and Hispanic communities, where studies have found a lack of trust about the coronavirus vaccines and their long-term effects. The campaign - the first concerted effort urging Americans to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus - will further encourage those skeptical of the vaccines to visit a new website, getvaccineanswers.org, for the latest information on the safety and availability of vaccines. The campaign was overseen by the Ad Council - the nonprofit communications industry group responsible for landmark ads such as Smokey Bear and famous public health messages including "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" - which has billed "It's Up to You" as one of the largest public education efforts in U.S. history. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention closely consulted on the campaign, which was announced in November as the first coronavirus vaccines were nearing release. The CDC's branding also will appear in ads. The goal of the campaign is to win over skeptical Americans, whose numbers are considered likely to be the difference between enough people being vaccinated and failing to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly 45 million Americans have received at least one shot of the two-dose regimen as of Wednesday, according to Washington Post data. Experts want more than 100 million more to be inoculated once the vaccines become more widely available in the coming weeks. But many people remain hesitant. According to a recent AP/NORC poll, about 1 in 3 Americans said they definitely would not or probably would not get the coronavirus vaccine. The poll showed that 57% of Black Americans said they have received or planned to get the vaccine, compared with 65% of Hispanic Americans and 68% of White Americans. Ad Council researchers also found that some possible messaging approaches, such as encouraging Americans to be vaccinated because it's "the right thing to do," were rejected as pushy or accusatory in surveyed groups. Instead, the Ad Council and other messaging experts say that because many Americans are confused or unnerved by the nation's coronavirus response - troubled by the speed of the vaccines' development and by the political battles that shaped the 2020 election - any messaging campaign needs to recognize that hesitancy and respond accordingly. "First and foremost, we have to acknowledge the concern rather than challenge it," said Charysse Nunez, who helped steer the Ad Council's work, in a virtual conference with state and public health leaders, where she shared research findings Wednesday ahead of the ad campaign's launch. "Where we believe the opportunity resides is with the 40 percent of the population that has a wait-and-see mind-set," Nunez said. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease doctor, has suggested that as many as 90% of Americans need to acquire immunity to the novel coronavirus through vaccination or infection. Fauci and other officials also have urged rapid vaccinations, given the emergence of mutated forms of the coronavirus, which have sparked fears that the virus's evolution could outpace current treatments and vaccines. Government regulators have authorized a pair of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, with President Joe Biden vowing that the United States will have sufficient vaccine supply to inoculate 300 million people by July. A third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson appears set to win regulators' authorization in the coming days after its safety and efficacy were demonstrated in clinical trials. Current vaccination drives have focused on health workers and some of the most vulnerable Americans, such as people in nursing homes or those with preexisting health conditions that could make a coronavirus infection more dangerous, and health experts are worried about persuading a broader swath of the population that has been less engaged in the process. Researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) asked more than 1,000 Americans about their vaccination plans, finding that about one-third of adults would "wait and see" about getting a vaccine and that 13% would "definitely not" get vaccinated. "I don't believe the FDA is telling the truth," one 42-year-old Black woman in North Carolina, who vowed that she would "definitely not" get the vaccine, told KFF. "The vaccine is not ready yet and people I know who have taken it are having serious side effects and doctors are covering it up," the woman claimed. A 63-year-old Hispanic woman from California told KFF: "I have a preexisting condition so I am a little fearful to get it." Scientists and government regulators have repeatedly said that the vaccines - which were first administered in trials that began last spring - are safe and for the vast majority of recipients have provoked only mild side effects. More than 28 million Americans have been infected with the virus and more than 503,000 Americans have died, according to Washington Post data. Researchers say that conveying certain messages about the value of being vaccinated - such as that it will offer protection and help restart the in-person gatherings with family and friends that have been lost during the pandemic - could make a significant difference in winning over hesitant Americans. "There's a lot of information that could be conveyed to those people to help them make good decisions for themselves," said KFF's Liz Hamel, who has helped to lead the organization's coronavirus public opinion surveys. "We know that most people who are still deciding whether to get the vaccine want it to be their personal choice." KFF also has found that interest in being vaccinated increases as people see friends and family members get shots, Hamel said. The Ad Council's own researchers also studied how best to amplify the pro-vaccination message - stressing that Americans are most receptive to messages from their personal doctors, health workers and virus survivors rather than entertainers, the news media and even some national political figures - and concluded that some language was more effective at reaching vaccine holdouts. For instance, a slide on "consumer language do's and don'ts" presented by the Ad Council on Wednesday urged state public health leaders not to say "anti-vaxxers" and instead use phrases like "people who have questions" about the vaccine. The group also said that officials should avoid terms like "Operation Warp Speed" and "Emergency Use Authorization" - references, respectively, to the Trump administration's push to speed vaccine development and to the regulatory approval given to the resulting vaccines - and instead say that the vaccines were "authorized by FDA based on clinical testing." The Ad Council's campaign included significant contributions from major corporations including Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Cisco, CVS Health, Facebook, General Motors, Google and YouTube, the Humana Foundation, NBCUniversal/Comcast, Salesforce, Verizon, Walgreens and Walmart. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The creative agency Pereira O'Dell worked pro bono to develop the "It's Up to You" message, with support from JOY Collective, a Black-and-female-owned agency that customized the message for Black communities. "This is not only the most important campaign of our generation, but it needs to be the largest, too," P.J. Pereira, Pereira O'Dell's creative chairman, said in a statement. The campaign also will include events and outreach targeted toward communities of color such as an effort partnering with the NAACP on Thursday evening. A planned March 9 event for the Black and Hispanic faith communities will feature Bishop T.D. Jakes. Celebrities including actors Luis Guizman and Daveed Diggs and high-profile health figures including CNN medical analyst Sanjay Gupta will take part in some ads and events. When the campaign was announced in November, the Ad Council said the drive would "complement government efforts," but a $300 million ad blitz planned under Trump never materialized amid scrutiny of how political appointees in the administration were shaping the campaign. Meanwhile, President Biden's plan to launch government-backed pro-vaccine ads - which the administration billed in January as an "unprecedented public campaign that builds trust around vaccination" - are still several weeks away from being finalized, said three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an in-progress effort. The Biden administration also has made a multimillion-dollar commitment to the "It's Up to You" campaign, said one of the officials. Meanwhile, health officials say they're preparing to grapple with the complexities of mass messaging when some Americans have been fully vaccinated, others may be waiting on a second shot and many remain skeptical about the need to be vaccinated. "As the science evolves, we're trying to update information so people can understand 'what's different for me personally if I have been vaccinated,'" Anne Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director, said during Wednesday's Web conference. "We should really invest in nicer masks because they're going to be with us for a while." SHORELINE Local school districts are working to reopen , almost a year after the pandemic forced schools to close and move to remote learning. Not all area schools are on the same timetable, however, and some parents say they are running out of patience in pushing for schools to reopen . The Old Saybrook school district has been fully open since October. But in Guilford, for example. some parents have started a petition on the website change.org, with 375 signatures to date, pushing to return to full-time in-person education. Meanwhile, a parents group in Branford has started a similar petition on change.org with 466 signatures seeking the same result of five-days-a-week classroom learning. Sarah Celotto, who started the Guilford petition along with Jennifer Murphy, said she had hoped for more signatures. but is pleased that the petition has sparked discussions among local parents. Celotto, who has children in Adams Middle School and Guilford High School, said she believes it is best to get the schools open and welcoming students into the classrooms. We really wanted them to be in full time, but well take whatever we can take at this point, she said. Guilford Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman did not comment on the petition directly, but stressed that he will meet with the Board of Education Thursday, Feb. 25 to discuss full-time in-person learning for grades 7-12 during a special meeting that will be live-streamed to the public at: https://bit.ly/2NsDGC5 We are working on plans to re-open more fully, but nothing is definite as of today, Freeman said via email. I will be discussing with the Board.., at 7 (p.m. Thursday). Yes, we expect that we will move to more fully open within this school year. Both the decrease in positive cases locally and the distribution of vaccine are positive changes that are informing our planning, Freeman said. We have been planning on opening more fully as soon as the conditions supported such a move, he said. Since the opening of school, that has been our intention. Now that conditions do, in fact, support such a move, we fully intend to follow through on that plan. In Guilford, Pre-K to grade six are in-person four days per week and one day remotely. We have been in that model since Oct. 19 when we moved away from the hybrid in those grades. As of today, (grades) 7-12 is still in a hybrid model of two days in-person and three days remote, Freeman said. In Old Saybrook, where all grades returned to the classroom full time on Oct. 5, Superintendent of Schools Jan Perruccio said the district began the school year with a month of hybrid learning just to get acclimated and make sure all of the mitigating steps we took were going to work. Weve been open in full, with the exception of a few days where a school or some classrooms had to close down because of quarantining, she said. But the schools are open. Perruccio said teachers, parents and kids are happy that students get to be in class full time. She said there was some trepidation in the first few weeks about how the plan would work, but those fears seemed to quickly evaporate as the year went on. All groups are really pleased to be in school, she said. It takes the support of an entire community to keep schools open during a pandemic, and Old Saybrook is very fortunate to have that support. Perruccio said it also takes 24/7 planning and work by many people to keep the schools running, but added that it was worth it because kids are in the classroom. In Madison, many students have been back to school since October, but not the high school, which offers in-class learning in two cohorts. Madison Superintendent of Schools Craig Cooke said he hopes to have everyone back to the classroom full time in April. Were certainly trying to get the high school totally in before the end of the year. He noted that he hopes to have all staff vaccinated by the end of March, adding that a vaccination clinic is taking place onsite this week and there is another one planned for next week for teachers and staff. Were still a ways off before having our whole staff vaccinated, he said. There are other factors to consider before approving having high school students to come back full time, he said. But, thats if the numbers of those infected by COVID-19 continue to fall statewide and the vaccines bring the numbers further down. Were in the process of developing a survey for the families that will give us more information, Cooke said. Right now, high school students are divided into two cohorts with one going two days a week, and the other three days, and switching up each week. My hope is that we continue to see positive numbers. It will be a while before the vaccine has any impact on that, Cooke said. Cooke said right now the district has reserved the dates and looked at two locations for both the senior and junior proms, but makes no promises. I think were looking at this pretty much every day in terms of numbers. I would hope that were seriously expanding the current status sometime in April, he said. In Waterford, Superintendent of Schools Tom Giard said the town would be phasing kindergarten through eighth grade back in to full-time, in-person learning in March. He said the district has been in hybrid mode to date this school year. (Pre-School) has been four days a week, he said. (High School) will remain in hybrid for now, but we are adding Wednesdays as an in-person learning day now. According to plans from the district, phasing in kindergarten through grade eight allows the district to ensure its core mitigation strategies and protocols can continue to be implemented with the increased capacity and gives the district time to finalize logistics and monitor trends and gauge personal protective equipment. The plans outline Pre-K students going to a 5-day in-person week on March 15. On the same date, kindergarten to second grade, as well as sixth graders, will transition to four days a week, with plans to go to a full week on March 29. On March 22, grades 3-8 will begin going to school four days a week, and will transition to a full week on March 29. Meanwhile, the Branford School District continues to operate on a hybrid schedule with no specific date set for full-time in-person learning. According to John Prins, a Branford Board of Education member, the next steps will be taken as conditions warrant. He said that the district expects to start to phase in as COVID-19 cases decline and the number of people vaccinated increases. East Shore Health District Director Michael Pascucilla is expected to meet with Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez to evaluate the schedule. In a Feb. 11 letter to parents and guardians, Hernandez wrote, Our schools are also continuing to explore ways to extend in-person learning through the use of time before and after school and on Wednesdays. Should the positivity rate continue to trend downward and the rollout of Phase 1B of the vaccine is extended to educators, options to get more students safely back to regular in-person instruction become more realistic. However, because of the pace of Phase 1B implementation and the uncertainty associated with the new variants of the virus, it is impossible to provide a specific date at this time. Prins noted that at no time has Branford shut down its schools. Details regarding Branfords 2020-2021 reopening plan can be found at bit.ly/3qVaJgk The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A jury has ordered Alaska Airlines to pay $3.2 million to the family of a 75-year-old disabled woman who died four months after falling down a Portland International Airport escalator. KGW reports the family of Bernice Kekona, of Spokane, Wash., filed a wrongful death suit against Alaska Airlines in December 2017, alleging neglect at the airport contributed to her injuries. The jury returned its verdict Monday. In June 2017, Kekona was traveling from Hawaii to Spokane with a transfer of planes in Portland. She was disabled with an amputated leg and other health issues. At the Portland airport, while trying to get to a gate for her connecting flight, she fell down an escalator, resulting in significant injuries that led to her death, according to the lawsuit. The Seattle-based airline didnt immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the ruling. Federal law requires that airlines assist disabled passengers in transit. Alaska Airlines confirmed that Kekona received initial assistance but said she declined additional aid while navigating through the Portland airport, KGW reported. Kekonas family said they had requested gate-to-gate service for their mother, who needed wheelchair assistance. According to the complaint, gate agents met Kekona as she deplaned in Portland and provided her a wheelchair ride to the top of a skybridge. She was then left alone, according to the family, and became confused, leading her to tumble in her wheelchair down an escalator. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Aviation Oregon OTTAWA Manitobans have the worst opinion of their governments handling of drug use and addictions, according to a poll released Wednesday that found steady support for supervised injection sites. OTTAWA Manitobans have the worst opinion of their governments handling of drug use and addictions, according to a poll released Wednesday that found steady support for supervised injection sites. Just 19 per cent of Manitobans agreed their provincial government was doing "a good job" responding to drug issues. It was the second-worst rating behind New Brunswicks 17 per cent. The national average was 26 per cent. The poll also found 63 per cent support among Manitobans for what activists call safe consumption sites, compared with 64 per cent two years ago. Premier Brian Pallisters government has been lukewarm toward such sites, saying they might have some value but arguing people should focus more on prevention. Meanwhile, 57 per cent of Manitobans indicated support for decriminalization of all drugs; more than other Prairie provinces and roughly on par with national support. Support for a list of three drug interventions split along party lines, with more than double support for tougher drug sentences among PC voters compared with those who support the NDP, who leaned more towards decriminalization and supervised injection sites. However, supporters of all parties were heavily in favour of compulsory treatment programs. Mental Health Minister Audrey Gordons office responded her government had invested $47.3 million in more than 27 mental health and addictions initiatives. "Many of these investments were based on recommendations from the (2018) Virgo report, which focused on improving access and co-ordination of mental health and addictions services," wrote spokesman Brant Batters, who noted the January creation of this new ministerial position. Last month, two Winnipeg councillors asked for a feasibility study on a supervised drug consumption site. Mayor Brian Bowman has said hes open to the idea of such sites. ARI polled Canadians online Nov. 12-16, 2020, and then surveyed a smaller sample Jan. 7-11; in total this included 499 Manitobans. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd on Thursday said it has raised $1.25 billion overseas through senior and perpetual bonds, making it the largest fundraising by any Indian investment grade issuer since January 2019. The telecom operator has priced $750 million worth of senior 10.25-year bonds at a yield of 187.5 basis points for an implied coupon of 3.250%. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Network i2i Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, priced $500 million in guaranteed subordinated perpetual 5.25-year bonds with a coupon of 3.975%. "This is the lowest yield on 10-year and perpetual bonds for Bharti Airtel," the telco said. The Sunil Mittal-led company has received orders from 92 accounts for senior bonds, and from 97 accounts for perpetual bonds. The order book is "very well distributed" by region with over 30% from Asia Pacific, more than 45% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the balance from the US. The offering was significantly oversubscribed with strong demand from several marquee Asian, European and American funds. The peak order book of over $5 billion, at the time of final price guidance, allowed the pricing to tighten significantly from initial price guidance (IPG) on both tranches and allowed Airtel to meet its pricing as well as size objectives." Barclays, BNP Paribas, BofA Securities, Citigroup, HSBC, JP Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank were joint lead managers and joint book runners for the fundraising, while DBS Bank Ltd and SMBC Nikko were co-managers on the trade. "The strong reception of both our senior and perpetual bonds by high quality global investor community reflects its confidence in our business and credit," said Ashish Sardana, group treasurer, Bharti Airtel. The fundraising will support Airtel's capital structure, added Sardana. Linklaters Singapore Pte Ltd was the legal advisor to the company, while Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and Latham & Watkins LLP advised the lead managers. Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP Chartered Accountants is the statutory auditor of Airtel. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Hyundai Motor Company recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work with the South Korean government as well as logistics, battery and mobility companies to demonstrate the electric vehicle (EV) battery leasing business. Through this agreement, Hyundai aims to foster an EV ecosystem by alleviating the initial cost burden of EV purchases and by providing innovative services that enable eco-friendly reuse of batteries. Hyundai Motor signed the MOU with South Koreas Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy as well as Hyundai Glovis, LG Energy Solution and KST Mobility for the rental of electric taxi batteries and the sustainable reuse of EV batteries in energy storage systems (ESS). Under the agreement, KST Mobility, the taxi operator, will sell the ownership of batteries in newly purchased EVs to Hyundai Glovis, the battery lessor. KST Mobility then pays a monthly fee for battery usage. As a result, KST Mobility is able to have lower initial investment for EV purchases. When the batteries are swapped after extensive usage, the removed batteries are reused in energy storage systems (ESS) for fast-charging EV taxis. To save cost, ESS is charged in the middle of the night when electricity rates are lowest and then charges EV taxis during daytime when electricity is comparatively expensive. In this business model, Hyundai will oversee overall business operations while selling battery electric vehicles (BEV) to KST Mobility. Hyundai is also responsible for providing battery warranty and replacement batteries for vehicles that return batteries after use. Hyundai Glovis will operate a battery rental service and recover batteries after initial usage. Recently, Hyundai Glovis enhanced relevant capabilities by acquiring a patent for a container that can efficiently transport large quantities of used batteries. LG Energy Solution will analyze safety and residual value by purchasing batteries after use. It will also install these batteries into ESS units for fast-charging service and sell them to KST Mobility to utilize the chargers for its fleet of EV taxis. The driving and battery data from these EVs are shared with all parties under the MOU. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to support the project actively in consultation with relevant ministries. With the commercialization of battery rental service, Hyundai Motor expects that customers will be able to purchase BEVs at lower cost because they will only pay for the vehicle excluding battery cost. This is expected to foster EV adoption and expand the EV ecosystem. In addition, this enterprise will demonstrate and validate the safety of used EVs and allow all involved parties to find means to appraise residual value of used batteries. This is expected to encourage the reuse of EV batteries. The shared EV battery data will also allow other new business opportunities to be explored. Commenting on the news, Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading research and consulting company, observed: New Delhi, Feb 25 : In a major setback to fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, a UK court on Thursday ordered his extradition in connection with the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, after almost a two-year long legal battle. The District Judge at the Westminster Magistrates' Court, Samuel Goozee, accepted the prima facie evidence against Modi for money laundering, saying: "Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence that he could be convicted," according to reports. Expressing satisfaction over the detention condition and medical arrangements in India, the court said, "Conditions in Barack 12 (at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai) look far better than his current cell in London." The observations came after Nirav Modi's side had argued that he can't be extradited to India due to his worsening mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic and the poor conditions in the Indian prisons. According to sources, the court ruling will now be sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign-off. Depending on the outcome, appeals may be made in the high court by either side. The charges against the fugitive diamantaire centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Stellar Diamonds and Solar Exports for making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the PNB, known as 'letters of undertaking' (LoUs). Arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK had earlier sought to establish that a number of PNB staff conspired with Modi to ensure the LoUs. The LoUs were issued to his companies without required credit checks, sans recording the issuance of the LoUs and without charging the required commission upon the transactions. This resulted in a fraud amounting to nearly $2 billion (Rs 13,500 crore). Nirav Modi was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019 on charges of money laundering, conspiring to destroy evidence and intimidating witnesses. Nirav Modi is facing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a large-scale fraud upon PNB through fraudulently obtaining LoUs or loan agreements. He is also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. Meanwhile, he also faces two additional charges of "causing disappearance of evidence" and "intimidating witnesses" or "criminal intimidation to cause death", which were added on to the CBI case. The ED has attached several assets of Nirav Modi running into crores of rupees in connection with the case. Even Nirav Modi's sister Purvi Modi, a Belgian national, and her husband Maiank Mehta have turned approvers in the loan fraud case. The ED in January this year had said that both became approvers for assisting the agency in the confiscation of two flats in New York, and one each in London and Mumbai, and the balance lying in two Swiss bank accounts and a bank account in Mumbai, totalling to Rs 579 crore. In June last year, the ED had attached four bank accounts of Nirav Modi and Purvi, having a balance of Rs 283 crore, as part of its investigation into the case. Even Nirav Modi's uncle, Mehul Choksi of Geetanjali group who is believed believed to be in Antigua, is being probed in connection with the case. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed Three Thai ministers were sentenced to jail and stripped of their posts Wednesday after a court found them guilty of participating in anti-government demonstrations which were used to justify a 2014 coup that brought Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha to power. Before joining Prayut's administration, the trio were part of a group behind massive street protests that shut down Bangkok, paralysed traffic, and seized control of government buildings. They were led by firebrand leader Suthep Thaugsuban, whose protest movement was marred by violence, generating so much unrest that the army said it warranted the 2014 military putsch. Bangkok's Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced 26 people, including Suthep and the three ministers -- Digital Economy Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, and Deputy Minister of Transport Thaworn Senniam. Because of the guilty verdict, they will immediately be stripped of their posts, according to Thailand's constitutional law. The ministers' jail terms range from five to seven years "for sedition", said a court statement, while Suthep, a former deputy prime minister, faces five years behind bars. His self-proclaimed People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a now-defunct political group, came to prominence in 2013 to counter the influence of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Despite being ousted in a 2006 coup, Thaksin had remained a popular figure among Thailand's electorate -- who then voted in his sister Yingluck as premier in 2011. But corruption allegations had swirled around the Shinawatra clan, who were hated by Bangkok's political elite, and after months of violent protests staged by the PDRC, Yingluck was eventually toppled in 2014 by the powerful military. Coup leader Prayut has held on to the reins of power since -- after heading a five-year junta regime, he was voted as premier in 2019 elections held under a military-scripted constitution. His military-aligned administration has in recent months come under fire for its handling of a coronavirus-scarred economy, but Prayut and his cabinet survived a no-confidence vote over the weekend. A pro-democracy movement has also raised the heat on the former general, calling for his resignation and demanding for reforms to the country's unassailable monarchy. The youth-led movement has slowed in recent months, and four of their most prominent leaders were detained for royal defamation charges. Wednesday's ruling against Prayut's ministers is meant to convey a message to the current generation of protesters that the courts are trustworthy, said political analyst Titipol Phakdeewanich. "It's to show the protesters that ... people on their (the government's) side will also get sentenced," he said. But the case -- which has dragged on for years -- will be revisited in the Court of Appeals. "It's still a long way," Titipol said. "This is Thailand." The second consignment of 500,000 Covishield vaccines was shipped to Sri Lanka on Thursday. The new batch was ordered under an agreement between the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) of Sri Lanka and the Serum Institute of India, Sri Lanka's acting health minister Channa Jayasumana informed. The distribution of vaccines will start on Friday. India gifted 500,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which kicked off Sri Lankas vaccine rollout in late January. The vaccines were given to the frontline workers and the security personnel. After receiving the second batch today, High Commission of India in Sri Lanka tweeted: "Actively aiding #lka win against COVID, 2nd consignment of 500,000 COVISHIELD vaccines arrived from #India to #lka today. Actively aiding #lka win against COVID, 2nd consignment of 500,000 COVISHIELD vaccines arrived from #India to #lka today. -19 500,000 . pic.twitter.com/HSg1L5eeuu India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) February 25, 2021 The Sri Lankan government has placed an order for 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India at a cost of $52.5 million. Meanwhile, another 3.5 million doses have been ordered from AstraZeneca Institute of UK under the COVAX programme. The next batch of the Covishield vaccines would be shipped to Sri Lanka in March, health officials in Sri Lanka said. Ramesh Pathirana, who is also the Minister of Plantations, earlier said Sri Lanka is likely to go only with the AstraZeneca vaccines for the second phase of vaccination as the Chinese and Russian vaccines are not ready yet. Last month, India announced it will send COVID-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Sri Lanka and seven other countries - Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles, Afghanistan and Mauritius. India is one of the world's biggest drug-makers and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring coronavirus vaccines. Sri Lanka has recorded more than 80,500 coronavirus cases so far with 450 deaths. (With inputs from agencies) Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Freshly minted a2 Milk chief executive David Bortolussi is hopeful investors can see the underlying strength of the milk and infant formula company despite a disappointing first-half result after weaker-than-expected sales in China. Mr Bortolussi, who took up the reins at a2 just two weeks ago, was forced to downgrade the companys full-year guidance in his first results call on Thursday after a further deterioration of the business key daigou reseller channel. New a2 Milk CEO David Bortolussi has a tough job ahead after the company again cut its outlook for the year. Credit:AFR The results are disappointing relative to initial plans [and] to market expectations, but were having to navigate through pretty difficult times, he told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. So Im hopeful of starting to recover in the second half and being in a better position going into 2022. Many people are aware that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is married to Prince Harry. However, of course, she had a life filled with romantic relationships before meeting her prince. In fact, some fans might be wondering: Was she dating anyone when she and Harry first met each other? Meghan Markle | Michael Tullberg/Getty Images Who was Meghan Markle married to before meeting Prince Harry? While Harrys first marriage is with Meghan, she was actually a divorcee when she married Harry. In the early 2000s, Meghan began dating producer Trevor Engelson. Neither of them were high-profile celebrities at the time, so not much about their relationship was documented by the media. The couple got married in 2011 in Jamaica. However, Meghan and Engelson got divorced in 2013, citing irreconcilable differences. Based on Meghans now-defunct blog, The Tig, dishonesty may have also been a reason for their divorce. Some sources believe the divorce could have just been due to lifestyle incompatibility, especially because Meghans career was changing drastically in the early 2010s. Meghan landed her role in Suits just a few months before they married, an insider said, according to The Sun. And despite being together for six years before getting hitched, things started to fall apart not long after the wedding. They really battled with long distances. Trevor was based in LA, while Meghan was in Toronto, a five-hour flight away. It was a very difficult was to start married life. Was Meghan Markle dating anyone when she met Prince Harry? RELATED: Prince Harry Reportedly Tried to Make Sure Meghan Markle Did Not Show Off During Her First Christmas With the Royal Family After divorcing Engelson, Meghan got back into the dating game. In 2014, she began dating Canadian chef Cory Vitiello. Reportedly, Meghanwho was living in Toronto at the timedined at Vitiellos restaurant and left a positive review of it. The two of them then began dating. Meghan and Vitiello broke up some time in 2016, and many people believe she was still dating him when she first met Harry in the summer of that year. However, this rumor has neither been confirmed nor denied by reputable sources. Was Meghan Markle using Prince Harry as a rebound? RELATED: Meghan Markle Helped Prince Harry Envision a Better Life for Himself Outside the Royal Family, Expert Says In any case, it seems to some onlookers that Meghan began dating Harry not long after getting out of a two-year relationship. This means Harry could have been Meghans rebound after the breakup. According to Express, Meghan shared some breakup advice that year, saying, If you are asking my girlfriends the best way to get over one guy is to get on another But my mum says when your heart breaks, it just opens up for more love. Whether Meghan and Harry are a rebound relationship or not, things turned out well for the couple. They ended up getting married in 2018, and the couple is now expecting their second child together. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass. Anti-gay outcry has forced Ghanas first LGBT+ community centre to temporarily close to protect its staff and visitors three weeks after it opened, its founder said on Tuesday. Church groups, politicians and anti-gay rights organisations have called on the government to shut down the centre, run by local charity LGBT+ Rights Ghana, and arrest and prosecute those involved. We did not expect such an uproar, said Alex Kofi Donkor, director of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, which hosted an opening event on Jan. 31 attended by European and Australian diplomats. We expected some homophobic organisations would use the opportunity to exploit the situation and stoke tension against the community, but the anti-gay hateful reaction has been unprecedented, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. LGBT+ people face widespread persecution in the West African nation where gay sex is punishable with up to three years imprisonment. Ghana has not prosecuted anyone for same-sex relations in years, but LGBT+ people face frequent abuse and discrimination, including blackmail and attacks, human rights researchers say. Donkor said the anti-gay rhetoric was scary and he could not risk the safety of people at the centre, which offers paralegal services, counselling and training through workshops, even though its location had not been made public. He dismissed local media reports that police had shut down the centre on the orders of Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, adding that he had not received any communication from authorities directing its closure. The government spokesman and police officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The government banned an LGBT+ conference last year after Christian groups protested. FAMILY VALUES The National Coalition for Proper Sexual Rights and Family Values, which brings together Christian, Muslim and traditional leaders opposed to LGBT+ rights, is among those seeking to close down the centre, along with prominent church groups. The Church rejects the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and, therefore, they should not be blamed for their homosexual acts, said the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference. We call on the Government of Ghana to close down the LGBTQI office space that was recently opened in Accra (and) urge the Executive and the Legislature never to be cowed down or to succumb to the pressure to legalize the rights of LGBTQIs. A member of the ruling New Patriotic Party has also called on the public to find the centre and shut it down, while a local counsellor has called for the arrest of a popular musician who attended the launch event. Ghanas minister of information designate has also weighed into the debate, proposing legislation against advocating for LGBT+ rights. The European Union did not immediately respond to a request for a comment but last week posted on Twitter that its delegates attended the opening and that equality, tolerance, and respect for each other are core values of the EU. LGBT+ Rights Ghanas Dunkor said he was not sure when the centre would reopen but the group would continue to battle against homophobia. There is nothing illegal about the centre. The idea is to create a safe space for the LGBT+ community, he said. We will not give up this fight. We cannot give up on our human rights. Source: reuters.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 God bless and keep our sweet, sweet angel Gia Giudice safe from harm. She summed up the whole situation with her mother and Jackie in about three sentences and figured out what Teresa should do and how she should do it. When Teresa calls her eldest daughter, whos away at Rutgers, and tells her Jackie said she does coke in the bathroom at parties, Gia says to her mother, She said something mean about me because you said something mean about her marriage, and if you went about it in a shitty way and you feel bad about it, you should apologize because Im sure you werent happy when she was talking about rumors about you and dad. If you upset her, say sorry. Thats it. Gia gets it, and shes the one this rumor Jackie spread is about. She knows its not true, and she doesnt care about it. She knows what her mother did was awful and knows she needs to make amends. In fact, everyone on the cast knows this but Teresa, whose excuses for why Jackie deserved what she did went back and forth more times over the course of this episode than Ted Cruz did on his aborted vacation to Mexico. The worst part for Teresa, though, is that everyone in the cast knows shes entirely stupid, and theyre all trying to find ways around her inability to grasp the basic concepts of oral debate. Jackie clearly doesnt understand her audience, Margaret says. There are two rules in this friend group: Dont use analogies, because no one understands them, and dont bring up kids in an argument. When she says no one understands them, she means Teresa. Later, while at dinner on Lake George, Margaret says its terrifying watching Teresa take in information and have it spin around in the cobwebs of her brain and come out more mutilated than a panini on a railroad track. When Melissa hears about the altercation from Teresa, she plays at being shocked but says she knows Teresa is obviously misinterpreting what happened. When she talks to Jackie, who explains that it was an analogy, Melissa says, Teresa doesnt understand its an analogy. And later on, when Margaret says to Melissa that she wishes Teresa would understand what she did wrong and do better, Melissa asks, What do you think Ive been trying to do for ten years? Do you want pigs to fly, too? I loved when Melissa explained to us that, earlier in their relationship, she had just wanted Teresa to understand her, to use logic and appreciate what she was saying, but she eventually realized Teresa would never get the point. This is my problem with putting Teresa at the center of this show. She may bring the drama, but its always at the expense of any intelligence. Since shes the queen bee, you have everyone knowing what she did was wrong but also protecting her from the fallout of her actions. What they should all do is what the ladies of Atlanta did to NeNe, which was freeze her out, forcing her to go on an apology tour and finally make amends. Jackie skipped out on going on the trip, which I think is best for everyone. Teresa was going on about how she was going to annihilate Jackie for what she said, while everyone was trying to tell Teresa that was a bad idea and she should apologize. I would have wanted to crawl up my own asshole, drop myself into a lobster tank and then burn down the Greek diner around the tank if I had to listen to a whole episode of Teresa heckling Jackie with her inept verbal barbs. When the crew arrives in Lake George without Jackie but with Lexi, an accent in search of a body to be her forever home, Teresa brings up Jackie again and says she didnt like it when Jackie discussed the rumors about her dating other guys. Margaret reminds Teresa that there were photos and that Jackie didnt bring it up. Then Teresa reminds Margaret that she made up rumors about Jens husbands infidelity. Margaret reminds Teresa that five minutes later she said it was a lie and apologized. Then we get to the real whopper: Teresa says she was spreading the rumor because she was drunk, so its really Jackies own fault for inviting her to a party and giving her tequila. As Melissa says, you would like to think shes joking with these lines of reasoning, but shes more serious than the lines of cocaine Gia is not snorting in a bathroom. Enough about Teresa. I could castigate her for as long as a can of Pringles remains viable on a gas-station shelf. There are a few other fascinating families I want to talk about, so let us start with Jennifer Aydin and her mother, who seems to be starting a Turkish bakery on the incredibly large kitchen island in her New Jersey home. Jennifer says she and her daughter Olivia were in the neighborhood, so she thought they would stop by, even though there were already cameras in the house when they got there. Last episode, we learned Jens parents were fighting so much that Jen moved her father into her home so one of them wouldnt be murdered in their sleep, possibly by poisoned cookies like this is some fucked-up remake of Flowers in the Attic. When Jen arrives, her mother, Josephine, says she wont call her new grandson, John, by his first name because its the same as her husbands. Instead, she calls him Brian, which is the babys middle name and as strong and commanding an Irish name as there could possibly be, and everyone who has it is intelligent and incredibly well hung. But seriously, that is messed up. Josephine says no one has any idea of the hateful things her husband says about her behind closed doors, but Jen says she sees no evidence of this. She tells us in a confessional that she never saw much love between her parents but that she has never seen her father raise his voice and he never speaks ill of his wife to Jen or her family. So what exactly is going on here? Is John playing some insane con on his wife to turn her children and the world against her, or is Josephine a hateful woman who drove her frail husband out of the house with her hectoring? I would like at least a three-part Netflix documentary about this family and maybe a few Reddit internet sleuths to get on the case like they did with that asshole who was killing the cats and became a serial killer. Even more fascinating is whatevers going on with Dolores, Frank, and David, which I thought was a Bermuda triangle of good sense but is possibly the smartest and most dynamic relationship currently on television now that Big Love has been canceled. When Dolores visits her mother, she tells us that when her father became chief of police in Paterson, New Jersey, her mother didnt want to move, so her parents lived separately for many years, though they remained married and fully committed to each other. That explains why Dolores is so open to what I like to call a modern arrangement. I love anyone in a modern arrangement because it shows that theyve really thought about their relationship and whats going to be right for them. Thats the thing about relationships; the only right way is what works for the people in them. So even if you think its weird, just let them figure it out, and if everyone is happy, then good for them. I say this because it dawned on me that Dolores is clearly in a throuple. Yes, there has always been a weird dynamic between her, Frank, and David, but in this episode, it became shockingly clear to me that theyre in a polyamorous triumvirate. When Dolores is packing for Lake George, she talks to Frank about the troubles between her and David, and she tells Frank the messages about her happiness that she would like him to convey to David. When Dolores is out of town, the guys go to the impossibly named Reloaderz NJ, a shooting range, and Frank wears a vest with many pockets that makes him look like the G.I. Joe action figure you discover in your backyard after the spring thaw. These macho men shoot their pistols together, a metaphor so perfect that if it were in a novel, it would make you roll your eyes. Everything really goes down in the VIP room after they shoot. (Holy cannoli, can you believe that firing-range VIP room, complete with a deadly step and repeat? If Rachel Zoe were here, I would say, I die, but that is probably the wrong reaction with so many gun nuts around.) We find out that Frank injured himself on a job site and was living with David because he has a ground-floor bedroom with a bathroom and Frank couldnt walk upstairs. Not only that, David had to haul a naked Frank into the shower because he couldnt walk. Its one thing to throw me in the shower; its another thing to wash my balls, Frank jokes. I broke my legs, not my hands. What was Dolores doing while all this happened? Taking a video, of course. Probably for their OnlyFans account, JackedJerzDotCom. The whole scene is ridiculous but touching. Frank tells David he loves both of them and wants it to work and relays Doloress message that she wants more commitment. Sometimes youre like a jerk-off, Frank tells David. Youre a great doctor, but youre a mediocre boyfriend. Maybe you have more of a commitment problem than I do? David asks. Yeah, but Im not the one dating Dolores. But Frank doesnt have a commitment problem. He may not be in a sexual relationship with her anymore, but they are committed life partners, and you know as sure as Frank could house three hoagies in one sitting that he will always be there for her. But hes committed to David, too, and to the three of them as a unit, their love revolving around and around in a daisy chain, getting bigger as it passes from one to the next, growing in an ever-widening array until it consumes everything else in their lives. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions London: Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump created an anti-American cult devoted to attacking the norms of American society, a movement which enjoyed strong support in both the mainstream and online media. Clinton said US President Joe Biden was trying to separate Trumps followers from him in a bid to unite Americans, 74 million of whom voted for Trump. The ex-president has not ruled out running again in 2024. Hillary Clinton speaking via video conference. That is our principal political challenge right now, she said. And why I think Biden is approaching it in exactly the right way is because hes trying to separate Trump, the demagogue, from the Americans who may have bought into his slogans and his reality television performances. The opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in on Thursday held talks with its ally the Congress on sharing of seats in the Assembly elections for which the schedule is yet to be announced. Veteran Congress leader and former chief minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and AICC in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao were part of the delegation which arrived here to negotiate the seat-sharing with the The was represented by its leaders who included general secretary Duraimurugan,Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi and T R Baalu. "The discussion was good. Both sides exchanged their views and it was decided that we meet again after holding separate talks within the respective parties," Congress Committee president K S Alagiri, who also participated in the parleys, told reporters later. To a query, Alagiri replied,"we haven't discussed the numbers (of assembly constituencies to be contested). We conveyed our views and they too expressed their views." Following the demise of R Doraikannu, who held the agriculture portfolio, on October 31,2020, the ruling AIADMKs strength was reduced to 124, including the Speaker, from 125 in the 234-member House. The DMK's number too dropped to 97 from 100 owing to the deaths of K P P Samy, S Kathavarayan and J Anbazhagan last year. The Congress accounts for 7 legislators in the House which also has an independent and a lone IUML member. Tupelo Partly Cloudy 80 Hi: 84 Lo: 52 Feels Like: 80 More Weather Columbus Clear 79 Hi: 83 Lo: 53 Feels Like: 80 More Weather Oxford Partly Cloudy 73 Hi: 79 Lo: 49 Feels Like: 73 More Weather Starkville Partly Cloudy 79 Hi: 83 Lo: 51 Feels Like: 80 More Weather Rain and thunderstorms will become the rule across our area as we go through the upcoming holiday shortened work week. All in all this will be due to some bits and pieces of low pressure moving through our area. It does warrant a degree of vigilance and concern because it is so unseasonal and unprecedented. The fact that its already here, at this time of year, means it is quite difficult to predict what will happen as we move into the cooler months and whether circulation will increase along with the re-emergence of other seasonal viruses, such as influenza. Dr Wurzel said a difficultly facing doctors was that hard data was still being collected on the rise of presentations and hospitalisations of RSV in Victoria, but anecdotal evidence increasingly pointed to the need for health services to be prepared for a further increase. A recent study of the virus in children in Western Australia suggested case numbers had more than doubled. The study showed during the peak, more than 100 cases of RSV were diagnosed in a week in WA, compared to around 40 cases per week in the cooler months. Loading Researchers theorised a number of factors had likely contributed to the jump in cases, including the easing of physical distancing and public gathering restrictions, as well as the potential waning of population immunity due to children not being as exposed to RSV in the community during lockdowns last year. One way to ensure cases among children were not being missed was testing for a range of respiratory viruses, including coronavirus, influenza and RSV, whenever children presented with flu-like symptoms, Dr Wurzel said. Professor Robert Booy, a pediatrician and infectious diseases expert, said the influx of cases was concerning. The increasing rates of the virus indicates that its readily transmissible and its effective reproduction number is such that the current measures of social distancing are not working, Professor Booy said. It serves as a warning that as social distancing is being relaxed, were not only at risk of COVID, but other respiratory viruses returning. We are moving into the dangerous unknown, and we need to be closely monitoring this. Symptoms of RSV include fever, severe cough, wheezing, rapid or difficulty breathing and bluish colour of the skin due to a lack of oxygen. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Victorian chair and Melbourne GP Anita Munoz said she had observed an overall increase in people presenting with respiratory illnesses since the states lockdown was eased, but not a particular surge among children. Loading While the virus can infect adults, it tends to affect infants and children under the age of two most severely. The vast majority of children recover easily, but some suffer from a pneumonia-type infection that can put a small number in hospital. Some of those children may require oxygen or need to be ventilated in an intensive care ward. Busy hospital emergency departments and a requirement that children undergo a coronavirus test at screening clinics have at times delayed medical treatment for RSV. We are facing new and novel situations as a result of the pandemic, and we dont want to miss that one needle-in-the-haystack child who is really, really sick, so there is a real need for a really strong collaboration between all health services to closely monitor this, Dr Cubbit said. Loading While the risk of COVID-19 transmission remains, the increased prevalence of RSV reminds us that there are other important infectious diseases that spread when our emergency departments are overcrowded. Dr Munoz said the college still encouraged Victorians to be screened for COVID-19 in testing centres rather than at their local GP clinic. The most important message is for the community to continue to be screened for COVID when they have flu-like or respiratory virus symptoms, even if they believe that the risk is very low, she said. NSW Health sent out an alert in December urging parents of young children to be on the lookout for RSV symptoms following a spate of cases. Queensland and WA health authorities also sent out similar alerts about the virus. Los Angeles, Feb 25 : Two of Lady Gaga's French bulldogs were taken away by an unidentified assailant after they shot at the man who was exercising them in Hollywood, reports said. The incident occurred on Wednesday night, and the dog-walker, identified as Ryan Fischer, was taken to the hospital in an unknown condition, the BBC reported, citing the Los Angeles Police Department. Other reports said that Fischer is stable now. Lady Gaga, who is extremely protective of her dogs who have even accompanied her to the American Music Awards, has offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the dogs, Koji and Gustav. Her press representative said anyone with information on their whereabouts can email KojiandGustav@gmail.com with "no questions asked". A third bulldog, named Miss Asia, who even has her own Instagram account, ran away and was later recovered by the police. Lady Gaga is currently in Rome where she is working on a new Ridley Scott film titled "Gucci". ROSEBURG, Ore. Supporters of the Roseburg High School mascot name change held a protest Wednesday afternoon to show the school board how serious they are about the issue. The protest was held on the sidewalk outside Roseburg High School on Northeast Harvard Ave. About 20-30 people were in attendance, most of which consisted of Roseburg High School alumni, current students and community members. Protesters stood outside from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Then, they walked over to Roseburg High School to attend the Roseburg school board meeting. RELATED: SCHOOL BOARD SEEKS INPUT ON ROSEBURG INDIANS MASCOT I just think its hard to be proud of your school when its just so behind on the times and is ok with dehumanizing a group of people," said Roseburg High School student Victoria Torvik. Last week, the board collected community input regarding potentially changing the Roseburg Indians mascot name. A subcommittee met Tuesday to discuss the results. District officials said they collected more than 2,000 responses, which included 680 physical letters that were sent straight to the district office. District officials said they dont expect the school board to vote on anything at the meeting because they want more time to go over the responses. However, protester Angela Walker said it was still important to hold the protest and attend the meeting, even though nothing is being decided. We want people who are driving by that see our signs and read our signs and have conversations with us and actually talk to us and hear our sides of it," said Walker. Efforts to change the Roseburg Indians name started last year when a group of alumni came to the school board claiming the mascot disrespects Native American cultures. However, another group of alumni have also come forward against the movement. They claim the mascot name is an important part of Roseburgs history. Right now, they are collecting signatures in hopes of steering the school board away from resigning the mascot in the future. Vietnam actively contributes to ASEAN environmental cooperation. - Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi - Vietnam will actively join activities of the ASEAN Working Group on Climate Change (AWGCC), as well as continue its coordinating role in performing relevant activities in 2021, according to the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN)s office in Vietnam (ASOEN Vietnam Office). This year, within ASOEN cooperation, Vietnam will promote cooperation and sharing of information, data and experience, and perform well its role as the host country of the 11th AWGCC Meeting, the 5th ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable City (ESC) Award, the 4th ceremony to award the potential ESC certificate. Vietnam will proactively participate in and cooperate closely with Japan and other ASEAN member countries in implementing the ASEAN-Japan cooperation project on environment, climate change and marine waste, while maintaining close cooperation with the Republic of Korea and other member states to carry out cooperation programmes and projects on the environment and climate change. It will work with partner countries and international organisations to implement ASEAN cooperation activities on the environment, especially Norway, Germany, the European Union (EU), and the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ). As a responsible member of the ASEAN Community, in 2020, Vietnam demonstrated its efforts and determination to successfully fulfill assigned responsibilities, significantly contributing to the regional integration process in terms of natural resources and the environment, as well as played a crucial role in expanding environmental cooperation with countries and international and regional organisations. Marine plastic debris, and marine and coastal environmental problems are seen as the biggest among environmental challenges facing ASEAN countries, the office said. Vietnam strongly supports the building of an ASEAN action plan on marine plastic waste prevention, said Nguyen Que Lam, Deputy Director-General of the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands and head of the ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME). Through jointly building and implementing the regional action plan, ASEAN member states will agree on common standards, concepts and data, and jointly build a regional foundation serving sharing of knowledge, experience, and advanced applications in monitoring and minimising plastic waste, he stressed. Vietnam has been recognised as a country with high biodiversity in the world. The biodiversity has made a great contribution to ensuring food security and livelihoods for people, maintaining genetic resources of animals and plants; supplying construction materials and fuel and pharmaceutical sources, and forming natural landscapes. Vietnam has actively joined international treaties on biodiversity such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Regarding the building of the ASEAN action plan on marine plastic waste prevention, Vietnam and other ASEAN member countries have shown a spirit of cohesion to coordinate with the international community in solving global environmental issues. At the 31st Meeting of ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN 31) and related meetings, the Vietnamese delegation actively contributed comments and proposals to important issues, demonstrating its responsibility for the region, and strengthening multilateral relations as well as ties with each country within ASEAN and ASEAN 3. Vietnam also petitioned other ASEAN member countries to address urgent environmental problems, including cross-border water and air pollution, ocean plastic debris and climate change. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam also called on ASEAN member countries to closely cooperate and gather resources to effectively control the crisis. CONSENT by Annabel Lyon CONSENT by Annabel Lyon (Atlantic Books 14.99, 224 pp) (Atlantic Books 14.99, 224 pp) I raced through this gripping read about sisters, guilt, grief and revenge. Twins Saskia and Jenny look the same but that's where the similarities end. While Saskia is studious and follows the rules, Jenny is a party girl who does what she pleases. When Jenny is left in a coma after a car accident, it is Saskia who must decide to turn off the machines keeping her alive. Meanwhile, Sara and Mattie are sisters with equally different personalities. Mattie needs full-time care thanks to an intellectual disability, making her a child trapped in an adult's body. Sara is obsessed with high-end fashion, fine wines and luxury. When their mother dies, Sara moves Mattie in with her, but first has to get rid of the man her sister has become obsessed with. Full of twists, the surviving sisters eventually find each other which leads to a shocking denouement. I couldn't put it down. TEMPORARY TEMPORARY by Hilary Leichter (Faber 12.99, 256 pp) by Hilary Leichter (Faber 12.99, 256 pp) Some readers won't like this unique, often elusive but always beautifully written narrative: is it about work or identity, love or loss? It is challenging and weird but, for me, this not really knowing is a huge part of the novel's charm. It follows an unnamed female protagonist as she navigates a world full of possibilities, trying her hand at being a pirate, a mother and a murderer's assistant among others, never settling to one role however hard she yearns for steadiness. It's absurd and dreamlike, sad and funny, and I totally lost myself in it. Leichter is particularly brilliant on the nature of people being replaceable or interchangeable. A bizarre yet compelling book. THE COMMITTED THE COMMITTED by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Corsair 18.99, 368 pp) by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Corsair 18.99, 368 pp) This is a sequel to the Vietnamese-American author's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 novel The Sympathiser, but it also works as a standalone. It features the same deep-thinking, often guilt-ridden narrator, Vo Danh ('nameless'), a veteran of the South Vietnamese Army where he worked undercover for the communists. With his blood brother Bon he survived both re-education and refugee camps. The book starts with them arriving in early 1980s Paris in search of a different life. Our protagonist is both charmed and disgusted by this new world, keen to assimilate but it's not easy for the Vietnamese living in France, where racism remains rampant. It is especially difficult for Vo Danh when he becomes a drug dealer, the ultimate capitalist. A brilliant rollercoaster of ideas and action. Any serious interrogation on the wave of crime and violence in Nigeria and especially the northern part of the country would not fail to include the challenges posed by the proliferation of arms in the country. This is because various independent investigations into the causes of conflicts and violence have shown that the surfeit of arms and other weapons have largely been responsible for the upscale of violence. This is not unconnected with the fact that people instead of reporting cases of perceived provocations to the authorities resort to self help. Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, tried to highlight the enormity of this problem when he spoke about how different groups have armed themselves leading to serious threats to security being witnessed in the country but some, driven by impulse have without waiting to analyse his submission in the context of what he said, have come down heavily on the govenor. The governor in the interview had explained that he was one of the first Governors to kick against the RUGA program when it was introduced because the concept was literally sneaked in for reasons he did not understand. He said: For me as Governor of Plateau State, I just heared that they have erected signposts in some sites within some local Governments. How can you earmark such a project without my knowledge and buy-in of the people in my State? I had no interest in it because it was far below the NLTP which was more robust and passed through series of engagements with critical stakeholders. The Governor then condemned the resort by groups to carry arms and called for strong measures to end the ugly trend lamenting that there are many non-state actors who are in possession of arms, a situation that must be addressed. He said, Today, we are now seeing the hazard of allowing people do open grazing here and there. But they (herders) also want solution; by the time you explain to them, they also want to stay in one place, they would also want to keep away from carrying AK-47. Im not justifying anybody to carry AK-47 but dont forget that in the course of our deliberations and investigations, it was not only Fulani herdsmen that were carrying AK-47, even farmers were carrying AK-47. To understand the issue in the context of what the governor was saying, it will be apt to review the content of other reports on conflicts on the Plateau. This I believe would vindicate the position of the Governor as someone who has chosen to be on the side of truth. In the book, Janjaweed in Middle Belt written by veteran journalist and one of the repestected columnists on the Plateau, Mr. Jonathan Ishaku in far back 2015, the writer in trying to identify the causes of conflict in Nigeria, dedicated a whole chapter to the issue of proliferation of arms in the entire country. Ishaku had in Chapter Two of the book titled Armed Groups in Nigeria: A Geographical Distribution; made the following observations: Nigerias weakened sovereignty, fractured through years of military rule and frequent relapse into violent convulsions, ensured that by the turn of the millennium the nation witnessed a proliferation of armed groups spread across the land. He then went on to categorize the problems according to the existing regions in the country and further observed that the trend in the Northcentral revealed elements of premeditation and organisations in the bloody invasions which appears to have given rise to other ethnic militias which emerged a vigilante groups. He said specifically wrote that in In May 2013, the Ombatse cult group in Nasarawa state, caught national attention when it ambushed a convoy of about 65 security officials killing 46 of them. Then on October 26, 2020, the Guardian published a report on the proliferation of arms in Nigeria and stated that the proliferation of small arms and ammunitions is driving the increasing rate of violence in Nigeria. The report said, The number of small arms in circulation in Nigeria, in the hands of civilian non-state actors is estimated at 6,145,000, while the armed forces and law enforcement collectively account for 586,600 firearms, This emphasised the fact that the trend of arms proliferation in Nigeria has had an impact on Nigerias internal security which has led to violence and the deaths and injury of thousands of innocent citizens. ADVERTISEMENT The report observed that in the Nothern region, the proliferation of small weapons coupled with existing state corruption, large tracts of ungoverned spaces, and mass unemployment has largely been responsible for the rising criminality and violence in Northern Nigeria. It said, While the Northern Central region has seen clashes between sedentary farmers and nomadic Fulani herders, the North Central zone is rife with ethnic militias, making it a hotbed for violent ethnic and religious clashes facilitated using small arms. It further stated that clashes between the farmers and herders have witnessed ammunition from at least 21 different nations. Some of these nations include Israel, Poland, Brazil, Iran, USA, Czech Republic, Algeria and Egypt. Another preliminary findings from the National Small Arms and Light Weapons Survey locally manufactured arms illegally contribute to a large percentage of arms in circulation in Northern Nigeria especially in North Central. It stated that In Benue and Plateau states, both in the North Central region, locally made weapons are estimated to be used in over 50% of crimes committed 62% for Benue State, and 69% for Plateau State. All these buttress the fact that Governor Lalong was speaking from a position of authority when he made the statement. The truth is that people have been driven by anger into taking the laws into their hands and this has led to illegal acquisition of fire arms . The Federal government was well aware of this when in 2018, as part of its efforts to mop up prohibited and illegal firearms from wrong hands, revoked all firearms licenses in the country. And in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed an executive order to remove, revoke, banish all firearm or shotgun certificate or license in Nigeria. Governor Lalong being an acknowledged peace ambassador, is not one to play political correctness when the issue involves the security of lives and property. The Governor always says it as it is because he believes that only truth can heal wounds and bring lasting solution to our quest to live in harmony. This is why we must commend our governor for the bold stand he has taken over the issue of arms proliferation and the steps he is taking to control it. Yakubu Dati wrote from Jos, Plateau State. Email: yakubudati@gmail.com You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Dr. Alan Permutt did not live long enough to find a cure for a disease that ailed him, but his successor at Washington University recently moved closer to the finish line. Permutt, who belonged to Central Reform Congregation and died in 2012 at age 72, was a leading diabetes researcher, while also being afflicted with the disease. (He died from cancer, not diabetes.) In the years immediately preceding his death, his particular interest was in a type of diabetes caused by a rare genetic disorder known as Wolfram syndrome. He couldnt finish it, so I took it over, said Dr. Fumihiko Urano, a Wash U physician and researcher. Urano is now studying a mild form of Wolfram syndrome caused by a genetic mutation, WFS1 R558C, that is more prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews than in the general population. Urano is simultaneously working on both a way to prevent people from passing the gene to their offspring or at least to counsel them about its threat while also trying to cure people already afflicted with the form of the syndrome that can cause diabetes and loss of vision and deafness, among other ailments. Urano was working in Boston at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2011, and considering moving back to Japan, when Permutt, who was dying of cancer and had collaborated with Urano, reached out about carrying on his research in St. Louis. ADVERTISEMENT I was really moved by Dr. Permutts enthusiasm about this disease, so I decided to move from Boston to St. Louis, said Urano. A couple years ago, Dor Yeshorim, a New York-based nonprofit that aims to halt genetic disorders prevalent among Jews, contacted Urano and told him about Jewish patients from families with a strong history of diabetes. The organization found that the family shared a genetic mutation, but they could not find the particular gene variant in its database. Urano discovered that one in 30 Ashkenazi Jews in New York and Israel had the variant that caused a mild form of the Wolfram syndrome. If two people with this variant procreate, their offspring has a 25% chance of becoming afflicted with the mild form of Wolfram syndrome. (The life expectancy for the more serious and rare form of the syndrome is 30 to 40 years.) Urano and Dor Yeshorim would like to see widespread genetic testing among Ashkenazi Jews for the variant. Even if a couple both carried the genetic variation, Urano said the doctors could use in vitro fertilization to implant fertilized eggs that do not carry the genetic variation. I think its good for Jewish people to know if they are carriers of the WFS1 R558C variant they should at least know, then we could counsel them, said Urano. For those already afflicted with the syndrome, Urano and other researchers are now also studying potential treatments for the mild form of Wolfram syndrome which Urano thinks could also be used to treat the rarer form. But the researchers must first demonstrate the impact on the larger population because Wolfram syndrome is so rare that it is hard to interest pharmaceutical companies, Urano said. In the meantime, Urano also has a particular interest in helping Ashkenazi Jews who face the unique threat of the Wolfram syndrome variant. Not only were he and Permutt close, but all of my English teachers and all my clinical and research mentors were Jewish. Even when I was in Japan, my English teacher was Jewish, Urano said. I want to help people who helped me. The former Premier of New South Wales has made the stunning admission he didn't do enough to help sexual assault victims while he was in power. Mike Baird expressed his regret at not doing enough to combat rape culture within the New South Parliament as a panelist on the ABC's Q&A on Wednesday night. Mr Baird, who was Premier between April 2014 to January 2017, said state and federal parliament's needed to overhaul their sexual assault complaint procedures. The remarks came after former Liberal party staffer Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House in 2019. Former NSW Premier Mike Baird (pictured) said he didn't do enough to help rape victims Mr Baird praised Brittany Higgins (pictured) for coming forward about her alleged rape 'Being in the New South Wales Parliament, and a leader of a party and a government, I had a chance to do something significant here and I didn't and that onus is on me,' Mr Baird said. Host Hamish McDonald asked Mr Baird whether he was sorry he didn't do more to address sexual violence within the parliament's workplace while he was in politics. 'I am. I personally am because to have this situation, and there are others we've heard about, is heartbreaking,' said Mr Baird, who is now CEO of HammondCare. 'A culture comes from the leadership, there should be a culture that anyone that goes through an event like that should be able to put their hand up.' Mr Baird (pictured) wished he did 'something significant' to help sex harassment victims Dhanya Mani (pictured) said she was assaulted while working for Baird's government in 2015 His apology came after former Liberal staffer Dhanya Mani claimed she was sexually harassed and indecently assaulted by a senior colleague while working for Baird's government in 2015. Ms Mani told ABC's 7.30 Report she was not happy with the response she received when complaining about the alleged incident. 'I was also told simply that it just wasn't true and I was making it up. And the best case response that I got was to say, 'Well I guess we believe you but if you say anything, your political career will be over and this will be it for you,' she said. There is no suggestion Mr Baird knew about the alleged abuse while he was Premier. Liberal MP Katie Allen (pictured) called the alleged Parliament House rape a 'MeToo moment' Fellow panellist Liberal MP Katie Allen defended the government's handling of the rape allegation, but said it was a 'Me Too moment' for Australian politics. 'I think this is a real Me Too moment for parliament and things needs to change,' Ms Allen said. The Me Too movement is a campaign to address the sexual harassment and abuse of women and girls, particularly in the workplace. Geriatrician Joseph Ibrahim was also on the panel and said he wasn't surprised there was a sexual assault within the walls of Parliament House. 'We know that there's a millennia of sexual violence towards women, that one in six women in our community are subjected to sexual violence,' he said. 'To imagine this wouldn't occur in parliament is a nonsense, especially when parliament sets and condones a standard of really poor behaviour and a lack of respect for individuals.' Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) said he only heard about the alleged rape on Feb 12 Revelations about the alleged rape have raised questions about how the incident was handled by the Liberal Party. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has conceded his defence minister should have told him about the alleged incident at the time without identifying the woman involved. Linda Reynolds is on medical leave after coming under intense pressure over her handling of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins' sexual assault allegation. 'I wish she had, but she did not,' he told parliament on Thursday. 'Senator Reynolds has repeatedly said she didn't tell the prime minister out of respect for Ms Higgins' privacy. Brittany Higgins (pictured) has made a complaint to the AFP about an alleged rape from 2019 Ms Higgins said she felt her job would be at stake if she reported her alleged assault Ms Higgins withdrew the complaint in the weeks after the alleged assault, fearing her job was at stake if she proceeded, before reinstating it on Wednesday. While apologising for the level of support afforded to the former media adviser, Mr Morrison also noted Senator Reynolds did offer her help. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton knew about the matter four days before the prime minister earlier this month, but didn't tell him out of fear he could compromise a potential police investigation. Ms Higgins spoke to police on February 5, with the AFP then informing Mr Dutton six days after that because it was a politically sensitive investigation. Ms Higgins (pictured) is the one of three women to allege abuse by the a former Liberal staffer The minister decided it was an operational matter for police. 'I took a decision that I wasn't going to disclose that to the prime minister,' Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. Ms Higgins (pictured) has called for Parliament to change reporting procedures for sexual assault and harassment victims 'That was the right decision.' Mr Dutton told Mr Morrison's office about the rape allegations on February 12 after media enquiries. 'I wasn't provided with the 'she said, he said' details of the allegations. It was at a higher level and that's the basis on which we provided information,' he said. Three other women have alleged they were assaulted by the man since Ms Higgins came forward. He was sacked after the incident because of a security breach on the night of the alleged rape. Mr Morrison has consistently said his office first knew of the allegation on February 12, but staff took almost three days to notify him. Twitter is branching out from advertising to find more ways to make money both for itself and for its most prolific users, whether those are businesses, celebrities or regular people. FILE- This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter icon on a mobile phone, in Philadelphia. Twitter is branching out from advertising to find more ways to make money both for itself and for its most prolific users, whether those are businesses, celebrities or regular people. In an investor presentation Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, the social media company announced a new feature called Super Follows. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Twitter is branching out from advertising to find more ways to make money both for itself and for its most prolific users, whether those are businesses, celebrities or regular people. In an investor presentation Thursday, the social media company announced a new feature called Super Follows, which will let users charge for extra, exclusive material not shown to their regular followers. This can include subscriber-only newsletters, videos, deals and discounts. Users would pay a monthly subscription fee to access the extra content. Twitter users and the company's investors have long been asking it to launch a subscription-based model. This as a growing number of internet creators and influencers use tools like Patreon, Substack and OnlyFans to make money from their online popularity. The subscriptions will also allow Twitter to tap into a broader range of revenue sources in a world where online advertising is dominated by a Facebook-Google duopoly. Twitter did not detail what percentage of the revenue it would share with celebrities and others who sign up paying subscribers. Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivize them to continue creating content that their audience loves," the company said in a statement. Super Follows is not available yet but Twitter says it will have more to share" in the coming months. Another coming product, Revue, will let people publish paid or free newsletters to their audience. There's also Twitter Spaces, a Clubhouse competitor that lets users participate in audio chats. It is currently in private beta testing, which means it's not yet available to the general Twitter audience. The San Francisco-based company also said its revenue goal for 2023 is more than $7.5 billion, more than double its 2020 revenue of $3.7 billion. Shrugging off the disruptions of the year gone by, businesses and agencies are looking for a strong revival in 2021. Over the next few weeks, Adgully as part of our annual TRENDING NOW endeavour will be presenting the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of 2020. Arjun Bhatia, Chief Marketing officer, Matrimony.com, highlights the various changes that have taken place in consumer behaviour post-pandemic and how marketers need to be ready for these changing patterns. Outlook for 2021 Post-pandemic, the way customers discover, review and buy products and services has changed forever. Even after the pandemic dies down, customers are not going back to pre-2020 shopping behaviours. Marketers need to be ready for these changing patterns and focus on following: Personalisation at scale within your digital channels: Digital now doesnt remain the top of funnel awareness-building medium. You need to close sales and depending upon your product/ service complexity, you have to get personal without having a physical interface. So, start thinking about what are those digital elements that bring personalisation for your customers, you seamlessly pick the conversation from one touchpoint to another for each prospect that comes your way. Which comes to my second point Conversational Marketing: Chatbots, immediate call backs, connecting with a human voice at the right time, all backed by AI/ML, is already there and regardless of the size of the company your competitors are already doing it. My sense is that it will get accelerated, allowing brands to meet customers on their terms: on the devices, platforms and time schedules that they prefer. Get real with Social Media: Engage with consumers and co-create your brand stories with them as the protagonist. Consumers dont always want expert advice, at times they want peer advocacy. Social media offers the platform and marketers need to leverage it. With content consumption seeing even higher numbers in current context, UGC is getting utmost importance and is seen as authentic. It also leads to social commerce, another emerging trend, which is going to go mainstream in the next 3-5 years depending upon your industry. Look towards China for its scale and success. Great expectations As I mentioned earlier, we have taken a leap of 5-10 years when it comes to our media consumption, working and socialising and shopping habits all thanks to 2020. Habits wont shake-off this is the new normal. I expect offline recovery to be still tepid and hence, online will get centrestage, so marketers need to plan and execute that. E-commerce will continue its blistering pace, more and more brands will have to define their online commerce strategy, build deeper capabilities to sell Direct to Consumers and gear up their entire business functions from sales, marketing, logistics, customer support, returns, after sales service and product demos to support consumers virtually. Key learnings from 2020 Events of 2020 hit everyone suddenly both at personal and professional levels. In terms of business, my biggest learning was to keep trying out to find new opportunities with this crisis. For example, in the matrimony business, meeting someone is a natural progression in your life partner search that suddenly stopped for a brief while. We had to quickly fill that up with solutions like Video Calling, and safety features like SecureConnect, to ensure that the match finding process doesnt stop. We got tremendous response to this service within days of its launch. Size and Scale of the corporate doesnt matter anymore, while the technologies always existed to decimate the barriers to grow, the customer acceptance to companies with lesser physical presence was moving at a slower pace. The pandemic reversed that as I now see lot of large-sized companies with dominant retail presence, but lower online connect struggling versus their smaller-sized competitors winning consumers thanks to much more nimbler tech-enabled approach. Lastly, the value of personal connect with your seniors, peers and subordinates has become even more important to me, because thats what generates ideas, gives alternate viewpoints, solves problems something we never realised pre-2020. Keeping the engagement high across your colleagues is a must, no matter what the distance is. KALAMAZOO, MI Cookies is the newest cannabis store in Kalamazoo, with plans to open for business on Friday, Feb. 26. Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson will participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 26, at the store at 2712 Portage Street, according to a news release from the company. The stores grand opening for curbside medical sales will be held on Saturday, Feb. 27, the company said. Cookies is an international cannabis lifestyle brand founded by California rapper and entrepreneur, Berner. It will carry the entire family of Cookies offerings, including Cookies, Lemonnade, Runtz, Powerzzzup Genetics, Minntz and Grandiflora product lines. The Midwest is an important part of Cookies overall expansion plan, and our partnership with Gage Cannabis has been integral, Cookies CEO Berner said in a news release. Weve seen tremendous demand from cannabis consumers in Michigan and the surrounding areas and look forward to continuing to serve them as our partnership grows with this second location. The Kalamazoo store is the second Cookies location in Michigan. The first location opened in 2020 at 6030 East 8 Mile Road, in Detroit. Gage Cannabis is the exclusive partner of Cookies in Michigan, according to the business. Kalamazoos Cookies store will be Gages seventh retail location in Michigan. Related: Gage Cannabis plans 13 medical marijuana shops across Michigan To support neighboring communities, Gage has launched a nearly $1 million social equity program in the past year that will award grants up to $50,000 to cannabis entrepreneurs in 19 social equity cities designated by the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency. Throughout grand opening weekend, there will be raffles and promotional giveaways. Comedian and YouTube personality Carlos Davis will visit the storefront, the business said. Visit the websites for Cookies and Gage for more information. The city of Kalamazoo approved new rules to allow cannabis businesses including growers, processors, retailers, consumption lounges and others, in May 2020. The citys approved social equity policy is designed to help people who have been impacted by marijuana related enforcement in the past to enter the now legal industry, and provides some applicants with a discount and other benefits. Editors note: The article has been updated to state that Cookies Kalamazoo will be opening on Saturday (not Friday) for medical customers only. The business said it plans to announce when it brings recreational (adult use) sales to the Kalamazoo market. Read more: Kalamazoo approves rules to allow recreational marijuana businesses A prior marijuana conviction could be a good thing for owners of Michigan pot businesses 8th medical marijuana provisioning center to open in Grand Rapids Its safe to assume that Nico Walker knew his life story could make for a good movie in the right hands. By the time he finished up his prison sentence in Ashland, Kentucky, he was waiting for the publication of the semi-autobiographical novel hed written from jail about the wayward journey that had brought him there in the first place. The book was called Cherry, and the bestsellers instant success would earn enough to afford its 33-year-old author a former Iraq War Army medic, opioid addict, and mild-mannered bank robber in that order a second chance to be all that he could be, even before directors Anthony and Joe Russo paid him $1 million dollars for the film rights and turned it into their first post-Avengers: Endgame production. Suffering through the Russo brothers adaptation of Walkers life story, theres no question who got the better end of that deal. Cherry popped with readers and rubberneckers alike because of its blunt take on a multi-car pile-up of millennial crises. Neither Walker nor the semi-unnamed protagonist who served as his proxy were much interested in style points or seeming cool. The unvarnished writing so casually processed Holden Caulfields matter-of-fact heartache through Hemingways dead-eyed war stories, Hunter S. Thompsons gonzo debasement, and Denis Johnsons here but for the grace of God go I journeys to Hell and back that Walker couldve plausibly denied any familiarity with their work. More from IndieWire But Cherry was still the torch-bearer of a proud tradition that it carried into the 21st century; an explosive account of a country that struggles to imagine how the suffering it causes for so many could be as self-evident as the success that it allows for a chosen few. The Russo brothers dont bother with such subtlety. Youd have to go back to the glory days of solipsistically overcranked post-9/11 cinema like Spun and Rules of Attraction to find a movie so determined to hold your attention hostage with an unloaded gun of its own empty affectations. Period details are one of the few things that Cherry gets right about its story (behold Jack Reynor sporting two popped collar shirts on top of each other in his role as a preppy drug dealer named Pills and Coke), but the Russos aesthetic is far too stultifying and self-insistent to forgive their intricate approach to rendering the Bush era in the visual language of its time. Story continues From fitting red chapter titles and fourth-wall breaking narration to gratuitous speed-ramping, trick mirrors, visualized dialogue (the words COCK HOLSTER billboard across the screen at one point), and splashes of selective color (a la the little girls coat in Schindlers List), Cherry sometimes feels like more of a live-action comic book than any of the Avengers movies ever did. The decision to cast Spider-Man himself in the lead role doesnt exactly diminish that sensation, in large part because fresh-faced Tom Holland despite his admirable commitment to the bit radiates so much friendly neighborhood sincerity that he can only wear his characters indifference like its just another mask. The film begins with its hard-luck hero looking into the camera lens and narrating a 2007 bank robbery in real-time before the action skips back a few years to walk us through how he got there, but it cant even make the leap from PROLOGUE to PART ONE without falling into the uncanny valley between them. Ive got a lot of sadness in the face so I have to act crazy or people think Im a pussy Holland tells the audience as he strolls through Capitalist One or Shitty Bank (get it?) or whichever one of the Fight Club-fresh sight gags happens to be misfiring in the background. But Holland has the enthusiasm of a puppy dog who cant even go hungry without wagging his tail about it. That eagerness works in the actors favor when his character is trying to fight his way through the self-destructive masculine anxieties the movie throws his way, but its a ruinous mismatch with the apathetic tone of this material. Its not even that interesting, he says about everything from robbing a bank to reporting for duty in Iraq. The falseness of his modesty is typical of a film steeped in the overaffected affectlessness of his delivery. In fairness to the Russos and the all-too-real story they took it upon themselves to tell here, it may have been impossible to capture the kite-on-a-string youth of these unfortunate characters without skewing so young that Cherry started to feel like a high school production of Death of a Salesman. Yet Hollands miscasting handcuffs the rest of the movie to a precociousness that was much easier to accept on the page. The Long Dumb Road actress Ciara Bravo plays Emily, the love interest next door who turns our heros life upside down at the Jesuit University they both attend (I have a thing for weak guys, she teases). They make a fine couple, but Bravos ultra-young appearance strains belief as the characters age throughout the film. She isnt done any favors by a script that reduces Emilys childhood trauma to the length of a chintzy cut-away, and overstates her eventual melodramatic slide into opioid addiction that you have to stop yourself from laughing at the storys most acute moment of sadness. Few movie scenes are more galling than the ones that render a common tragedy say, someone getting hooked on OxyContin in a desperate bid to scare their partner out of the habit in such ridiculous terms that an audience questions whether it could actually happen in real life. In between those early college days and the expensive drug addict years that inspire our boy to start robbing banks, Cherry goes off to war and earns the only name he ever has. Dont hold your breath for a satisfying explanation, as the Russos approach to the Iraq chapter a half-hour chunk in an 140-minute endurance test seems almost perversely determined to miss any sort of point. While the combat sequences allow the directors to flex their muscles in a way they never could when playing in the Marvel sandbox, they cant help but overcompensate. The second half of this movie could only work if we understood in visceral terms that Cherrys nerves were so frayed by his experience as a medic that even robbing a bank wouldnt quicken his heartbeat hed zip-tied enough Iraqi civilians and survived enough firefights that nothing about life back home could faze him and yet when it comes to conveying that cold-blooded disconnect the Russos settle for all the wrong solutions. Their fear of cliche drives them straight towards kitsch, as voiceover-heavy sequences about our heros masturbation habits and isometric views of his (Army) unit sweeping through local houses are shot with a jarhead slickness that labors to illustrate Cherrys gradual desensitization from the world around him, but only manages to induce our own. The film never quite sells us on Cherrys stony numbness, and things only get worse when his polite sociopathy collides with the PTSD he brings home from the war in a histrionic way that muddles them both. Im 23 years old, he tells us at the start, and I still dont understand what it is that people do. Cherry doesnt have any decent answers for him; it can only smother him under the crushing weight of style over substance. There are a few small pockets of air along the way (Michael Gandolfini is a lot of fun as Cherrys oafish friend), but Cherry has no way of getting you to care about someone who hardly seems to care about himself. Its protagonist is like a Plinko chip getting bounced from one American disaster to the next and scrambling for any kind of agency he can find as he falls towards rock bottom. At the end of the day, his only available recourse is to sit down on the side of the road and decide that he just doesnt want to be in this movie anymore. Dont sweat it, Cherry. Grade: D Cherry will open in theaters on Friday, February 26 before being available to stream worldwide on Apple TV+ starting Friday, March 12. As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available. Best of IndieWire Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. ALBANY The downtown Walgreens was a crossroads where different parts of the city came together. Residents from poorer neighborhoods to the north and south of downtown arrived to have prescriptions filled. Office workers did the same, or popped in during their lunch breaks for some sundry or another. And for downtown Albanys burgeoning residential population, the North Pearl Street drugstore was about the only place to buy, say, laundry detergent, a greeting card or a gallon of milk. Coming to an inbox near you Our writers share more about the topics they cover in our newsletters. Churchill's Corner: Chris Churchill goes in depth on his latest columns, and shares what readers are saying. Sign up here. Editor's Note (subscribers only): Editor Casey Seiler shares the story behind our biggest stories of the week. Sign up here. Click here for a complete list of newsletter offerings. It seems surprising, then, that a store on which so many people depended could close, as the Walgreens did Friday. If that store couldnt survive in downtown Albany, what store could? In that respect, the closure seems to be more evidence of a famously difficult business environment in Albany, and comparable to a run of shutdowns that includes the McDonalds on South Pearl Street or the Rite Aid in the South End. But while Walgreens hasnt bothered to explain the decision, it is likely the stores closure was influenced by factors that are hardly unique to the city. (Walgreens did not respond to multiple Times Union requests for comment.) First and most obviously, theres the pandemic, which has dramatically reduced downtowns daytime population. Yet that, we hope and pray, is a temporary issue. With vaccines promising better days, couldnt Walgreens have stuck it out? Chain pharmacies, like other brick-and-mortar stores, also have been hit by the shift to online shopping, with its remarkable ease and convenience. Yet pre-pandemic customers of the Walgreens remember it as a seemingly profitable store with four registers running simultaneously during peak hours. So why did it close? I asked Assemblyman John McDonald, who, as many of you will likely know, is also a pharmacist. The Cohoes Democrat pointed to long-standing problems with Medicaid prescription reimbursements in New York as a possible factor. McDonald noted that his pharmacy, Marras in Cohoes, loses money on nearly 20 percent of the prescriptions it fills, and he said the percentage is no doubt higher at drugstores, like the Albany Walgreens, that serve poorer populations. But McDonald also noted that planned changes to the states Medicaid reimbursement system are expected to help pharmacies beginning in April. So, again, why, would Walgreens close now? "Greed," said Mark Yonally, who co-owns B. Lodge & Co., a clothing retailer on North Pearl Street. "Its what big companies do. They dont care about the community that gets hurt. Everything is just a number or a dollar." I certainly agree that chain retailers are not nearly as invested in their communities as locally owned businesses. Bean counters in suburban Chicago, where Walgreens is headquartered, dont know Albany and presumably dont care to. Thats particularly problematic in an age when drugstores are increasingly taking on important roles such as, you know, vaccinating people during a pandemic. As Mayor Kathy Sheehan noted for a story by my colleague Claire Bryan, the Walgreens departure impacts health care in vulnerable and distressed neighborhoods where many residents don't own cars. Sheehan called the decision "indefensible." It was also predictable. After all, Walgreens is not a charity or a non-profit, so it was widely understood that the company would look to close and consolidate stores when it purchased about 1,900 Rite Aid locations in 2017. Federal regulators had even scuttled a planned merger of the chains, saying it would too greatly diminish competition, but subsequently allowed Walgreens to purchase about half of all Rite Aid stores, including 273 in New York. Walgreens then closed locations it had purchased in Cohoes and Albany's South End both have since become dollar stores before last week shuttering stores in Menands and downtown Albany. The Route 32 corridor, then, has certainly paid a high price since the purchase. The now former Walgreens at 17-21 N. Pearl St. had been a drugstore for decades, and it is remarkable that the central business district of the regions largest city now lacks one. Despite all the new apartments, and despite the many factors that may have led Walgreens to leave, it is hard to argue that downtown Albany is succeeding when so many basic necessities cant be purchased there. What will that vacant storefront become? Another dollar store? Few would consider it progress. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill She recently revealed her one stone weight loss after undergoing a fitness transformation. And Amber Gill was keen to flaunt the results of her hard work on Wednesday, as she shared a lingerie-clad snap on her Instagram page. The Love Island star, 23, admitted she was proud of her body as she said her stretch marks 'add character' and are 'signs of growth'. Wow! Amber Gill was keen to flaunt the results of her hard work on Wednesday, as she shared a lingerie-clad snap on her Instagram page The reality star was sporting a simple black bra with a pair of matching briefs, while facing away from the camera to flaunt her peachy posterior. Amber appeared to be sporting minimal touches of make-up, which only highlighted her pretty features, and wore her locks in a natural curly style. Referencing her stretch marks in the caption, Amber wrote: 'Stretch marks are the signs of GROWTH. Caption: The Love Island star, 23, admitted she was proud of her body as she said her stretch marks 'add character' and are 'signs of growth' 'Who's already signed up to the 30 day flexx challenge? I can't wait for us all to work out and build our [peaches] together.' She added: '[I get so many Q's about stretch marks and what I use to fade them or get rid of them, the answer is I don't I quite enjoy mine they add to my character. 'But they have naturally faded over the years.' Amber was keen to flaunt her toned physique earlier in the day as she took to Instagram to pose in a tiny brown triangle bikini top and pink tracksuit bottoms as she joked: 'What's the point in getting these results and not showing you!' Work it: Amber was keen to flaunt her toned physique earlier in the day as she took to Instagram to pose in a tiny brown triangle bikini top Looking good: The reality star, who has lost 1st thanks to her workout platform Amber Flexx, proudly displayed the results of her hard work in a video as she zoomed in on her flat tummy The reality star, who has lost 1st thanks to her workout platform Amber Flexx, proudly displayed the results of her hard work in a video as she zoomed in on her flat tummy. It came after Amber ended her relationship with Rory after being told by MailOnline that he was jailed for four years in 2017 for beating up two doormen, leaving one in hospital. Amber and Rory, 29, were pictured together during a holiday in Thailand last January, where she was captured on Instagram stories with her legs on him and he had his hand on her thigh. A friend of Amber's told MailOnline how the pair were in the early stages of a relationship but she's now split with Rory after hearing about his convictions. Exes: It comes after Amber dumped her secret boyfriend, Rory Colhoun, following her discovery that he is a thug who was found guilty of a brutal nightclub attack in Leeds that left the victim brain damaged (pictured January 2020) 'Amber broke down today when she was told about Rory and his past. She had no idea about any of this,' a source said. 'Amber has been in the early stages of dating someone and this has come as a big shock to her. 'Understandably it's caused her a great deal of upset and stress as it's all come out of the blue. 'This has completely thrown Amber and she just wants to be surrounded by friends and family for their love and support.' 'She had no idea': The Love Island star ended the relationship with Rory Colhoun after being told by MailOnline that he was jailed for four years in 2017 for beating up two doormen He was tried at Leeds Crown Court for the attack that took place at Club Mission in March 2015 along with two others. The assault occurred when Rory was 23-years-old and the victim of the same age was left in a 'critical condition.' Rory was pictured in CCTV stills and his 'distinctive undercut hairstyle' was referenced in a 2015 BBC news article that appealed for the men to come forward. He pleaded not guilty on April 18, 2017, but was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment for wounding with intent and eight months concurrent for attempting to cause GBH with intent. 'I'm happy, I'm really happy': Amber recently confirmed she was in a relationship and that the pair met before the first national lockdown last March Amber, who won Love Island and became a millionaire in 2019 following lucrative deals with the likes of fashion brand MissPap, recently admitted she was 'very happy' in the relationship. A source revealed to MailOnline that Amber met Rory while the pair were both on holiday in Thailand in January 2020 and they shared mutual friends. They were pictured looking close in a story shared by Love Island star and Amber's close pal Kaz Crossley. Rory is seen smiling in the sunshine while wearing a long gold chain. It is believed the pair also spent time together in Dubai, where Amber relocated to in December, with Rory pictured on a friend's profile at the FIVE Palm Jumeirah Hotel the same month. Amber recently confirmed she was in a relationship and that the pair met before the first national lockdown last March. In January, she said: 'I'm not single and ready to mingle, that's all I'm saying. It's someone I've known from before it's not somebody I've known from lockdown onwards. But yes I'm happy, I'm really happy.' Amber won Love Island in 2019 with Irishman Greg O'Shea, 25, but the pair split just five weeks after sharing the 50K cash prize. The reality star has been linked to several love interests since finding fame Flash China will donate another batch of 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Zimbabwe, Chinese ambassador Guo Shaochun said Wednesday. This will be China's second donation to Zimbabwe after the Asian country recently donated 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to help the southern African country fight the pandemic. "Just now I had an online meeting with H.E. @edmnangagwa, announcing that China has decided to donate another 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Zimbabwe. Facing this global pandemic, what we need is solidarity and action. China is committed to standing with the Zimbabwean people," the Chinese ambassador said on his Twitter. The second donation will bring to 400,000 the total number of COVID-19 vaccines that China has donated to Zimbabwe so far. On its part, the Zimbabwean government has purchased 600,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from China, which are expected to arrive in the country in March. The country is also in advanced negotiations to acquire the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, while India has announced that it will also donate 75,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Zimbabwe. Last Thursday, the Zimbabwean government launched its COVID-19 vaccination program, three days after taking delivery of the first batch of 200,000 vaccines from China. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also health and child care minister, became the first citizen to receive the Sinopharm jab. Frontline workers, including journalists, are being prioritized for inoculation under the first phase of the vaccination program. Vaccination is being done on a voluntary basis and in three phases. The government aims to inoculate at least 10 million people out of the country's population to achieve herd immunity. As of Tuesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 35,910 COVID-19 cases, 32,288 recoveries and 1,448 deaths. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has slammed the General Staffs demand for his resignation as a military coup detat attempt and called on his allies to gather on Republic Square. "I consider the General Staffs statement as a military coup attempt. I invite all our supporters to Republic Square right now. I will address the public on air in the near future," he wrote on his Facebook page. Sorry! This content is not available in your region The platforms will be required to disclose the first originator of the mischievous content, said IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday while announcing the new guidelines. Significant intermediaries must have a chief compliance officer and nodal contact officer residing in India to perform the grievance redressal for users, he said. The government on Thursday announced new rules to curb misuse of social media platforms, as it mandated firms to appoint grievance officer, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women. Ravi Shankar Prasad said the content involving nudity, morphed pictures of women have to be removed within 24 hours of order. "There is a rationale behind framing the new guidelines. The Supreme Court had asked us to frame guidelines to cut down hate content and there are also many orders of the high courts," said Prasad. "The government has done widespread consultation after drafting the rules," he said. "Social media is empowered and welcome to do business in India, said Ravi Shankar Prasad, adding that it is also very important that social media users must be given a forum against abuse of social media. "We have received many complaints that some of the content on social media is impinging on the dignity of many users," he said. Concerns have been raised about rampant abuse of social media platforms and spread of fake and the government is bringing in a "soft touch" regulation Prasad said while announcing the new guidelines. As per the new rules, social media intermediaries have to appoint grievance officer, who shall register complaints in 24 hours. The grievance redressal official must be resident in India, and monthly compliance reports will have to be filed by social media platforms. With the new rules, India joins nations across the world increasingly looking to regulate social media platforms. Recently, clashed with the Indian government on content takedown requests. The government had asked the micro-blogging giant to remove some 1,100 accounts and posts for alleged spread of misinformation about the widespread protests by farmers against new agricultural laws. in response said it had withheld some of the accounts flagged by the Indian government for blocking "within India only", but has not blocked handles of civil society activists, politicians and media as "it would violate their fundamental right to free expression" guaranteed under country's law. Expressing its strong displeasure, the government said it expects to fully comply with its orders and that they are binding on any business entity. PITTSBURGH--Babies whose births were depicted in Bollywood films from the 1950s and 60s were more often than not boys; in today's films, boy and girl newborns are about evenly split. In the 50s and 60s, dowries were socially acceptable; today, not so much. And Bollywood's conception of beauty has remained consistent through the years: beautiful women have fair skin. Fans and critics of Bollywood -- the popular name for a $2.1 billion film industry centered in Mumbai, India -- might have some inkling of all this, particularly as movies often reflect changes in the culture. But these insights came via an automated computer analysis designed by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists. The researchers, led by Kunal Khadilkar and Ashiqur R. KhudaBukhsh of CMU's Language Technologies Institute (LTI), gathered 100 Bollywood movies from each of the past seven decades along with 100 of the top-grossing Hollywood moves from the same periods. They then used statistical language models to analyze subtitles of those 1,400 films for gender and social biases, looking for such factors as what words are closely associated with each other. "Most cultural studies of movies might consider five or 10 movies," said Khadilkar, a master's student in LTI. "Our method can look at 2,000 movies in a matter of days." It's a method that enables people to study cultural issues with much more precision, said Tom Mitchell, Founders University Professor in the School of Computer Science and a co-author of the study. "We're talking about statistical, automated analysis of movies at scale and across time," Mitchell said. "It gives us a finer probe for understanding the cultural themes implicit in these films." The same natural language processing tools might be used to rapidly analyze hundreds or thousands of books, magazine articles, radio transcripts or social media posts, he added. For instance, the researchers assessed beauty conventions in movies by using a so-called cloze test. Essentially, it's a fill-in-the-blank exercise: "A beautiful woman should have BLANK skin." A language model normally would predict "soft" as the answer, they noted. But when the model was trained with the Bollywood subtitles, the consistent prediction became "fair." The same thing happened when Hollywood subtitles were used, though the bias was less pronounced. To assess the prevalence of male characters, the researchers used a metric called Male Pronoun Ratio (MPR), which compares the occurrence of male pronouns such as "he" and "him" with the total occurrences of male and female pronouns. From 1950 through today, the MPR for Bollywood and Hollywood movies ranged from roughly 60 to 65 MPR. By contrast, the MPR for a selection of Google Books dropped from near 75 in the 1950s to parity, about 50, in the 2020s. Dowries -- monetary or property gifts from a bride's family to the groom's -- were common in India before they were outlawed in the early 1960s. Looking at words associated with dowry over the years, the researchers found such words as "loan," "debt" and "jewelry" in Bollywood films of the 50s, which suggested compliance. By the 1970s, other words, such as "consent" and "responsibility," began to appear. Finally, in the 2000s, the words most closely associated with dowry -- including "trouble," "divorce" and "refused" -- indicate noncompliance or its consequences. "All of these things we kind of knew," said KhudaBukhsh, an LTI project scientist, "but now we have numbers to quantify them. And we can also see the progress over the last 70 years as these biases have been reduced." A research paper by Khadilkar, KhudaBukhsh and Mitchell was presented at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence virtual conference earlier this month. ### Bharti Airtel rose 1.68% to Rs 582.70 after the company said it raised $1.25 billion by issuing first ever dual-tranche US$ bond offering spread across senior and perpetual issuance. The total debt fund raising of $1.25 billion by the company includes an issue of unsecured senior fixed rate notes of $750 million and $500 million subordinated perpetual securities by Network i2i, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. Bharti Airtel has priced $750 million of senior 10.25 year bonds at a yield of US 10 Year Treasury + 187.5bps for an implied coupon of 3.250%. Simultaneously, Network i2i priced $500 million in guaranteed subordinated perpetual NC 5.25 year bonds with a coupon of 3.975%. This is a lowest every yield on 10 year and perpetual bonds for Bharti Airtel. The telecom major said that the offering was significantly oversubscribed with very strong demand from several marquee Asian, European and American funds. The peak order book of over $5 billion at the time of final price guidance allowed the pricing to tighten significantly from Initial Price Guidance (IPG) on both tranches and allowed the company to meet its pricing as well as size objectives. The senior 10.25 year tranche was launched at IPG of 230 bps over 10 year US Treasuries and eventually tightened by 42.5 bps to price at 10 year US Treasury + 187.5bps. Similarly, the Perpetual NC 5.25 tightened by 37.5 bps from its initial price guidance. The company said that the proceeds will be used for capital expenditure, repayment of existing indebtedness and/or any other purpose. Ashish Sardana - group treasurer, Bharti Airtel said: "The strong reception of both our senior and perpetual bonds by high quality global investor community reflects its confidence in our business and credit. We remain focused on keeping our balance sheet strong and these issuances further bolster our capital structure. We are delighted by the outcome and thank our investors for their continuing support." On a consolidated basis, the telecom major reported a net profit of Rs 853.60 crore in Q3 FY21 as against net loss of Rs 1,035.30 crore in Q3 FY20. Net sales during the quarter increased by 24.2% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 26,517.80 crore. Bharti Airtel is a global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine proved 94 percent effective in a huge real world study published Wednesday that involved 1.2 million people in Israel, confirming the power of mass immunization campaigns to end the coronavirus pandemic. Up until now, most data on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines has come under controlled conditions in clinical trials, leaving an element of uncertainty over how results would translate into the real world with its unpredictable variables. The research in Israel - two months into one of the world's fastest rollouts, providing a rich source of data - showed two doses of the Pfizer shot cut symptomatic COVID-19 cases by 94% across all age groups, and severe illnesses by nearly as much. The study of about 1.2 million people also showed a single shot was 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic infections after two weeks, according to the data published and peer-reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. The results of the study for the Clalit Research Institute were close to those in clinical trials last year which found two doses were found to be 95% effective. The study also suggests the vaccine, developed by U.S drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, is effective against the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK. Researchers said they could not provide a specific level of efficacy, but the variant was the dominant version of the virus in Israel at the time of the study. The research did not shed light on how the Pfizer shot will fare against another variant, now dominant in South Africa, that has been shown to reduce the efficacy of other vaccines. Of the nine million people in Israel, a nation with universal healthcare, nearly half have received a first dose, and a third have received both doses since the rollout began on Dec. 19. This made the country a prime location for a real-world study into the vaccine's ability to stem the pandemic, along with its advanced data capabilities. The study examined about 600,000 vaccinated people against the same sized control group of unvaccinated people. Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital also collaborated. "This is more great news, confirming that the vaccine is around 90% effective at preventing documented infection of any degree of severity from 7 days after the second dose," said Peter English, a British government consultant in communicable disease control. "Previous recently studied papers from Israel were observational studies. This one used an experimental design known as a case-control study ... giving greater confidence that differences between the groups are due to their vaccination status, and not to some other factor." The good news came as Ghana became the first country to receive shots under the global Covax scheme, paving the way for poorer nations to catch up with wealthier parts of the world. "At last!" WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet. The WHO is one of several organizations behind Covax, which aims to deliver at least two billion doses globally by the end of the year. More upbeat data meanwhile emerged about Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine, which was shown to be highly effective against severe Covid-19, including newer variants, in detailed data released by the US regulator. The vaccine is likely to be authorized soon, making it the third available in the hardest-hit country. US biotech firm Moderna also announced its new Covid vaccine candidate aimed at the dangerous South African coronavirus variant had been shipped to government labs for testing. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin receives an injection of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Putrajaya District Health Office, Feb. 24, 2021. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday received the nations first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine in a nationally televised event as authorities began inoculations for 500,000 health-care and frontline workers. Also on Wednesday, neighboring Indonesia began vaccinating teachers to prepare to open schools in the next academic year, and Thailand received its first two shipments of coronavirus vaccine. Philippine officials, meanwhile, were told they should expect their first shipment in about a week. Muhyiddin, who said he did not feel any discomfort from the jab of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, called on people to get inoculated. Health Director General Noor Hisham Abdullah and four frontline health officers also received jabs of the U.S. and German-made vaccine, which arrived in the country on Feb. 21. I would like to appeal to all Malaysians and those residing in Malaysia and eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine to register through the MySejahtera application, the prime minister said on national TV, noting that vaccines would be given for free to citizens and non-citizens. MySejahtera is an app used to update and track new COVID-19 infections nationwide. Those already signed on to the app would need to update it to be able to register for a vaccine. Have confidence and trust that the efforts done by the Perikatan Nasional government is to protect the people from the COVID-19 infection, Muhyiddin said. With the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination, it is our hope that the pandemic situation in the country can be contained and eventually we can reduce the spread of COVID-19. The prime ministers unelected government, which came to power a year ago but which has since lost majority support in parliament, according to lawmakers, is now ruling the country under a state of emergency declared by the king in mid-January because of the pandemic. The government expects to vaccinate 80 percent of the countrys 26.5 million people in three phases through February 2022. Malaysia is under contract to receive 32 million doses from the U.S.-German partnership of Pfizer-BioNTech; 12.8 million doses from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca; 12 million from Chinese drug maker Sinovac Biotech, 3.5 million from Chinese drug maker CanSinoBio; and 6.4 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. Regional efforts In Thailand, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and Chinese Charge dAffaires Yang Xin presided over the delivery of 200,000 doses of the Sinovac Biotech vaccine at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Wednesday morning. In addition, 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in a separate shipment in the afternoon. It is a historical day that we get together to take delivery of the first lot of vaccine from China as the government has tried to import vaccine all along, while the COVID-19 vaccine is in high demand worldwide, Prayuth told reporters. The former junta leader and his cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Saturday that had been pushed by opposition MPs, who criticized his governments handling of the pandemic, including its vaccine policy. The doses have been prioritized for medical personnel treating COVID-19 patients, including high-risk groups such as migrant workers in tourist destinations, health officials said. Prayuth, 67, is to receive the nations first vaccine on Saturday the one from AstraZeneca which has been approved for people 60 and older. He will be followed by Anutin Charnvirakul, deputy prime minister and minister of public health. Thailand, whose population is about 70 million, expects to receive 63 million doses and vaccinate more than 30 million people by years end. An Indonesian woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot during a program for vendors at the Melong market in Bandung, West Java, Feb. 24, 2021. (AFP) In Indonesia, teachers began receiving vaccinations as President Joko Jokowi Widodo said the country aimed to reopen schools for the next academic year. Our target is by June, 5 million teachers and education workers will have completed [their vaccinations]. Therefore in July, by the time the new academic year starts, everything will be normal once more, Jokowi said while inspecting a vaccination drive for educators at a high school in South Jakarta. Indonesia prioritized health workers when it began offering vaccinations on Jan. 13. Teachers, along with the elderly, public servants, merchants and journalists are targeted for vaccinations in the second phase, which began on Wednesday. The government announced vaccines would be available for 38.5 million people, including 5 million for the teachers. Schools are one of the sectors that have not been opened until now and distance learning for too long raises a very big risk, Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim said. In the Philippines, a Sinovac Biotech official said the first batch of 600,000 doses could arrive this week or next. Were working very hard with our Philippine counterpart to prepare for the delivery. The product has already been prepared so we just need to finalize the procedures with the customs then we can fix the date of the flight, Sinovac Biotech general manager Helen Yang told an online media briefing from Hong Kong on Wednesday. Yang said half of the total shipment was being fast-tracked for release and customs procedures were being finalized. So hopefully we can deliver the vaccine in days, she said. Sinovac Biotech is the third vaccine to be authorized for emergency use by the Philippines, after Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca. Globally, more than 112.3 million have been infected by COVID-19 and nearly 2.5 million have died, according to disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The experts reported 1.3 million infections and 35,254 deaths in Indonesia; 566,420 infections and 12,129 deaths in the Philippines; 291,774 infections and 1,088 deaths in Malaysia; and 25,692 infections and 83 deaths in Thailand. Push for vaccinations Dr. Christopher Lee, a former Malaysian deputy director general of health, said people should not fear the vaccines. He noted they had been approved by international regulators, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. In Malaysia, our own National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency has also approved the Pfizer vaccine which is being rolled out now, Lee told BenarNews. Another reassuring fact is: Were now in the midst of the worlds biggest vaccination campaign in history, he said, pointing out that more than 213 million doses have been administered across 95 countries, according to Bloomberg News. Lee said Israel, where more than half the population has been vaccinated, has seen a marked reduction in news infections. All the above should provide confidence and reassurance that the vaccine is both safe and effective. I sincerely hope all Malaysians would take their shots when offered to them, he said. Vaccines are likely our countrys best option forward, both in terms of lives and livelihood. Muzliza Mustafa in Kuala Lumpur, Tia Asmara in Jakarta, Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok, and Dennis Jay Santos and Jojo Rinoza in Davao and Dagupan, Philippines, contributed to this report. Enstar Group Ltd. announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has signed an agreement to provide adverse development cover to AXA XL, a division of AXA. In the transaction, Enstars subsidiary will cover losses incurred on or prior to Dec. 31, 2019 on a diversified mix of global casualty and professional lines for a premium equal to the transfer of loss reserves of 90% of $1.550 billion. [Related: AXA Reports 18% Drop in Net Income During 2020 with COVID Claims of $1.8 Billion] Enstars subsidiary will provide 90% protection (with AXA XL retaining 10%) on two layers, the first providing $1.550 billion of cover in excess of a $9.438 billion retention and the second providing an additional $1.0 billion of cover in excess above $11.363 billion. (Editors note: The total coverage from Enstar is $2.295 billion90% of the $1.55 billion layer and 90% of the $1 billion layer). Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of various closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close around the end of the first quarter 2021. About Enstar Enstar, the Bermuda-based legacy-acquisition specialist, offers capital release solutions through its network of group companies in Bermuda, the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Australia, and other international locations. Enstar has acquired over 100 companies and portfolios since its formation in 2001. Topics AXA XL You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Cannes Lions and its official representative in South Africa, Ster-Kinekor recently announced this year's jury. With only one month to go until two years' worth of Lion-winning work is awarded, we touched base with some of the local jury members for a preview of what to expect. Next up, Lufuno Mavhungu... Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker will be the first to testify Thursday morning in a hearing examining the states rocky COVID-19 vaccine rollout. The Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management begins its hearing at 11 a.m. Thursday with the Republican governor testifying first. The hearing will be the first time Baker will publicly answer questions from lawmakers on vaccine distribution. Legislators have lodged a series of questions in recent weeks about the rollout, from why the state didnt initially launch a call center to why long lines formed at mass vaccination sites to why the website crashed after promises to improve the clunky online process. COVID-19 hit our Commonwealth, its residents, our businesses and families like a wrecking ball and the committee will spare no effort to deliver on its charge of oversight and preparedness, said Sen. Jo Comerford, a Northampton Democrat and co-chair of the committee with Rep. Bill Driscoll. Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat, and Sen. Eric Lesser, a Longmeadow Democrat, also serve on the 17-member committee. Since the state began distributing the vaccine, Western Massachusetts lawmakers have criticized the rollout for failing to set up sites throughout the region or launch a call center. The state launched the mass vaccination site at Eastfield Mall but left vaccine distribution in other parts of Western Massachusetts to the hospital systems and an already existing regional health collaborative in Berkshire County. The vaccine rollout has faced other complications, such as the long lines in Springfield and Danvers in freezing temperatures and problems with the booking website. At one point, Massachusetts was among the worst states for vaccine distribution, but the state has since risen to No. 10 for distributing doses per capita. Still, lawmakers say the process has been confusing and opaque, from the pause in shipments to hospital systems and the decision to resume those shipments a week later to the exemption allowing healthy young people to get their shots ahead of 65-year-old residents if they accompany a 75-year-old person to a vaccine appointment. Other Baker administration officials will testify Thursday afternoon. Lawmakers plan to hear from Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders, Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel and assistant commissioners Kevin Cranston and Jana Ferguson. Tiffany Tate, executive director of the Maryland Partnership for Prevention, will testify after Baker. Tate is the creator of the PrepMod website used to book vaccine appointments, which crashed last week. The committee plans to not only discuss the decisions that shaped the states rollout, but also its impact on communities of color across Massachusetts, including those in Springfield. Rep. Bud Williams, a Springfield Democrat, and Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Boston Democrat, co-chair the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion. Both plan to testify Thursday afternoon. Testifying with them will be Gladys Vega of La Collaborativa, a Chelsea-based nonprofit that has offered food and other resources to immigrant families affected by the pandemic, and Dr. Atiya Martin of All Aces Inc., a Boston-based organization that focuses on diversity and equity training. Related Content: Chief Minister on Wednesday assured that every family will get an insurance benefit of Rs 5 lakhs under the Universal Healthcare scheme in the state. "Every family will get an insurance benefit of Rs 5 lakhs under Universal Healthcare scheme. Those covered under Ayushman Bharat Mahatma Gandhi Swasthya Bima Yojana along with contract workers and small and marginal farmers can avail this scheme for free," Gehlot said while addressing a press conference. Gehlot also assured that all those who are not covered under the above schemes can avail a treatment of Rs 5 lakhs at any private and government hospital in the state. "While others in the state can pay half of the insurance premium, of Rs 850 annually and avail the treatment of Rs 5 lakhs at any private and government hospital," Gehlot said. During the Budget session of 2021 held yesterday, Gehlot said in the parliament that the Rajasthan government will also introduce a 'Right to Health' Bill, which will provide preventive, private and curative cure to the people. It will also for the first time implement a 'Universal health Coverage' in the state to provide healthcare to five crore families. For COVID-19 management, Gehlot also announced a 'Special COVID package' where Rs 2,000 each will be provided to 33 lakh destitute families and an interest-free loan up to Rs 50,000. Under Mukhyamantri Laghu Udyog Protsahan Yojna, Rs 50 crore will be provided to entrepreneurs. Free uniforms and books will be provided to students. (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.) 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. New Delhi: Four more people belonging to the gay and lesbian community urged the Delhi High Court on Thursday to declare that marriages between any two persons irrespective of their sex be solemnised under the Special Marriage Act (SMA). The Delhi government in response to a similar petition filed earlier has said that there is no provision in the SMA under which two women can be married, and it would be willing to abide by the court's direction. The latest petition is in addition to three pleas already before the high court seeking recognition of same sex marriages under the SMA, Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) and Foreign Marriage Act (FMA). A bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Amit Bansal sought response of the Centre on the joint plea by three men and a woman, who have urged the court to also declare that the SMA applies, regardless of sex, to any two persons who wish to marry by reading down any gender or sexuality-based restrictions contained in the Act. In their plea, filed through advocates Meghna Mishra and Tahira from Karanjawala and Co law firm, the petitioners have also sought that the provisions in the SMA which require a 'male' and a 'female' for solemnisation of a marriage be declared as unconstitutional unless they are read as "neutral to gender identity and sexual orientation". During the hearing, the central government assured the bench that it would file a reply to the earlier petitions during the course of the day and the court listed all the four petitions, including the latest one, on April 20. Meanwhile, Delhi government has filed its response to one of the petitions moved by two women seeking to get married under the SMA and challenging provisions of the statute to the extent it does not provide for same sex marriages. It has said that there was no provision in the SMA under which the two women can be married and their marriage be registered. The Delhi government also said that it was "ready and willing to abide by the directions" of the court. The latest petition has said that three of the petitioners have gone abroad as Indian laws do not recognize same sex couples or marriages and such relationships do not enjoy the same benefits as those enjoyed by heterosexual couples. The fourth petitioner is also contemplating going abroad to be with his partner as laws here do not recognize same sex relationships, the petition has said. In the first petition on the issue before the high court, Abhijit Iyer Mitra and three others have contended that marriages between same sex couples are not possible despite the Supreme Court decriminalising consensual homosexual acts and sought a declaration to recognise same sex marriages under the HMA and SMA. The two other pleas are: one filed by two women seeking to get married under the SMA and challenging provisions of the statute to the extent it does not provide for same sex marriages, and the other by two men who got married in the US but were denied registration of their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act (FMA). The two women and the two men, who got married abroad, have been represented by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy and advocates Arundhati Katju, Govind Manoharan and Surabhi Dhar. The plea by equal rights activists Mitra, Gopi Shankar M, Giti Thadani and G Oorvasi was filed through advocates Raghav Awasthi with Mukesh Sharma. Mitra and others, in their petition, have contended that homosexuality has been decriminalised by the apex court but same sex marriages are still not being allowed under the HMA provisions. This is despite the fact that the said Act does not distinguish between heterosexual and homosexual marriage if one were to go by how it has been worded. It very clearly states that marriage can indeed be solemnised between 'any two Hindus', read the petition. In this view of the matter, it can be stated that it is against the constitutional mandate of non-arbitrariness if the said right is not extended to homosexual apart from heterosexual couples, the petition added. The denial of this right to homosexual couples is also against the mandate of various international conventions that India is signatory to, the plea said. The Centre had earlier told the high court that marriage between same sex couples was "not permissible" as it was not recognised by "our laws, legal system, society and our values". The petition by Mitra has said the case for extending the same right of marriage to 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender' (LGBT) persons as those enjoyed by everyone else is neither radical nor complicated and rests on two fundamental principles that underpin International Human Rights Law of equality and non-discrimination. The two women petitioners, aged 47 and 36, have contended that not being allowed to get married has denied them several rights, liking owning a house, opening a bank account, family life insurance, which opposite sex couples take for granted. The two men, who got married in the US, have said that their marriage was not registered under the FMA by the Indian consulate as they were a same sex couple. "The Indian consulate would have registered the marriage of any similarly placed opposite sex couple," they have contended. The couple, in relationship since 2012 and got married in 2017, have also claimed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, non recognition of their marriage by the laws here continues to disentitle them to travel as a married couple to India and spend time with their families. Live TV Flash The Venezuelan government on Wednesday declared the European Union (EU) Ambassador to Caracas Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa persona non grata and gave her 72 hours to leave the country. "We have presented Mrs. Isabel Brilhante, who in recent years was the head of the European Union delegation in Venezuela, with the declaration of persona 'non grata'," Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza said. "We are doing that because the circumstances demand it," he added, after meeting with Brilhante at the ministry's headquarters. According to Arreaza, the decision came after the EU issued "55 decisions, what in the European Union or in the U.S. they call sanctions," against Venezuela. He described the actions of the European bloc as "interference," noting the United Nations Charter only allows for coercive measures against countries at the approval of the UN Security Council. The Venezuelan minister called on European authorities to carry out "a process of reflective analysis so they may abandon these interfering, arrogant attitudes." "Hopefully Europe will play a role of rapprochement, of bridge-building, of respect," he said. Arreaza said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been "generous" in February 2019, when he allowed ambassadors from European countries that did not recognize his mandate to stay in the country. The "persona non grata" declaration came a few days after the EU decided to sanction 19 Venezuelan government officials. LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 7th installment of the Coingeek Conference series (June 8-10) has confirmed that it will be broadcast online and, hopefully, also be allowing attendees into Samsung Hall. CoinGeek VII will be themed around the hot topic of data; the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain can handle almost limitless amounts of data, all immutably stored and at a very low cost. Unlike the tech behind the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with BSV apps, the user keeps their data and can even earn from it as a whole new internet (the metanet) is being built on a system of micropayments using BSV as its platform. Zurich is the heartland of the European banking world and will be the latest venue for the seventh CoinGeek Conference next June. Just south of Zurich, known as 'Crypto Valley', Zug, Switzerland, is the home of the Bitcoin Association whose Founding President, Jimmy Nguyen, will once again host the conference. As a result, Switzerland will further enhance its reputation, as not only a banking and financial hub, but also, the European HQ of the digital asset space by playing host to CoinGeek VII. In October last year, despite the global pandemic, CoinGeek VI managed to broadcast over 90 speakers - all of which were delivered live, not pre-recorded - over three days from studios in London and New York. This unique hybrid live & virtual event experience attracted an audience from around the globe with a total of over 300,000 views of the conference broadcast in English and in Chinese. Earlier in 2020, CoinGeek London saw over 1,000 in person attendees. Previous CoinGeek Conferences have also appeared - highlighting the true power of a blockchain that scales to enterprise level coupled with tiny transaction fees - via Bitcoin SV, in Seoul, Hong Kong and Toronto. To learn more about BSV, visit BitcoinSV.com. She recently relocated to the United Arab Emirates after England implemented its third nationwide lockdown. And Gabby Allen proved she's certainly mixing business with pleasure as she enjoyed a beach trip in Dubai on Thursday. In sizzling Instagram images, the Love Island star, 29, left little to the imagination in tiny bikinis, amid rumours she's claiming coronavirus furlough cash for her company. The fitness instructor turned up the heat as she hit the sandy shores in an orange two-piece, complete with a plunging top and a barely-there thong. Blonde beauty Gabby later slipped into a white swimwear set as she continued to top up her tan in the hot country. Earlier this month, The Sun reported that Love Islanders such as Gabby and Olivia and Alex Bowen are claiming furlough cash for their businesses, despite raking in millions since leaving the show. The companies ran by the stars, who featured on the show in 2017 and 2016, all appear on a list of employers using taxpayer money published by the Government. The publication reports Gabby's company is claiming government cash for 'amusement and recreation activities' Any eligible business can claim for taxpayer money from the scheme to help pay staff wages while the pandemic and national lockdowns continue. The Liverpudlian, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates in recent months as her beau Brandon Myer's business is based there, is thought to worth around 1.3m. She has worked on a number of projects since leaving the villa including Shape Up fitness which included live workouts and a book which was released in 2019. The dancer often shares 'ad' posts on Instagram promoting other exercise brands as well as videos of her own workouts. Work, work, work: The dancer has been living in the United Arab Emirates in recent months as her beau Brandon Myer's business is based there The TV personality recently took to social media to explain why she'd relocated to the reality star hot-spot of Dubai amid the pandemic. Gabby wrote back in January: 'Hey guys, just to let you know, we made the decision to fly out to Dubai as my boyfriends business is based here & luckily allows us to travel. 'We were both fit to travel with negative PCR tests [for COVID-19]. I wanted to come on here and acknowledge this to my followers as it was a difficult decision for me. I really hope you can understand that it was an opportunity I had to take.' MailOnline contacted representatives for Olivia and Alex, Gabby and Kem for a comment. I have read some of the media coverage of the closure and suggestions that what was needed was reclining seats, Schopf wrote. My apologies, but I do not think that is the Evanston audience. Rather, I believe they want excellent, curated programming and they want many of the films to be eventized with visiting directors, talent, panel discussions, etc., as we do at the Music Box, all in a well-maintained theater. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. by Shafique Khokhar The content sparked a social media campaign. In a letter to Pakistans prime minister, Prof Anjum wrote that racism is a crime against humanity and is the enemy of pluralism, peaceful coexistence and social harmony. Lahore (AsiaNews) The Punjab Textbook Board has removed racist content from a Grade II Urdu language book. Reference to racist content about a character called Josephs black in a Class II Urdu textbook, published by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board, had appeared on social media in January, followed by a campaign against it. Prof Anjum James Paul, National Minority Commission member Albert David, Provincial Minister for Minority Rights and Minority Affairs Ejaz Alam Agostino, and Minority MPA Khalil Tahir Sindhu drew attention of education officials to hate content directed at Punjabs Christian community. This pushed the concerned authorities to act immediately. In a letter to the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Prof Anjum wrote that racism is a crime against humanity and is the enemy of pluralism, peaceful coexistence and social harmony. In its foreign policy, Pakistan has always condemned racial discrimination, but unfortunately the problem still persists at home. An example of such racism is found on page 155 (pictured) of a Grade II Urdu textbook. Translated, the offensive sentence says: "Nasir! I brought a sweet dish for your guests. Nasir! Who's is that black boy?" Dr Abdullah Faisal, director (Manuscript), Punjab Curriculum And Textbook Board, told Christian leaders that the aforementioned content, as mentioned in the letter, referred to a dark-skinned character, Joseph, which some people interpreted as being directed at minorities. He noted that that the Federal Education and Vocational Training Ministry was developing a new textbook for students from Pre-1 to Grade-5 in accordance with the Single National Curriculum (SNC) 2020. Older textbooks in Punjab were replaced by new textbooks elaborated without any supplemntary reading material. Speaking to AsiaNews, a Karachi social activist and teacher, Mariyam Kashif, said that she was grateful to all those people who took the issue seriously, highlighted it and reported it to the authorities. She is also grateful to the authorities and the Punjab Textbook Board for taking the necessary steps to remove racist content in a timely fashion. For her, children in school are like clay in a potters hands: They will learn what teachers teach and what they say. In order to teach children good values, we must present to them what is good, including the values of diversity, brotherhood and peace, so that they can become good citizens. At first, Waylon didnt look like much. He was one of about a dozen Suffolk lambs purchased by a Bellaire High School agriculture teacher in 1995 and was randomly assigned to Andra Collins-Johnson when she was a restless junior. A career in animal husbandry or otherwise working in agriculture had never crossed her mind, and it seemed like a foreign concept for her in Third Ward. Raising Waylon and spending long hours at Bellaires barn, however, awoke something in the now 40-year-old. The thing that stood out most to me is that I felt peace, Collins-Johnson said. There was a lot of space and pasture at the barn, even though there were freeways around it. I would stand out there and just look I would look and think about what to do with the rest of my life. It gave me structure and made me feel safe. Collins-Johnson now teaches agriculture science to teens and advises a Future Farmers of America chapter at Aldine ISDs Benjamin O. Davis High School, showing students that despite living in the middle of Houstons urban sprawl, their horizons stretch far beyond the concrete that surrounds them. Fifteen years after Collins-Johnson became the first Black woman to teach ag science in Texas at the high school level, few students of color participate in agriculture education in the Lone Star State and across the country. Nationally, only about 5.3 percent of students who were part of Future Farmers of America last school year were Black and about 15.2 percent were Hispanic, compared with about 64.3 percent of members who were white. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Out of more than 136,000 student members in Texas, about 5.7 percent are Black, nearly 30 percent are Hispanic and more than 52 percent are white. Only about 11 percent of them live in cities. Agriculture may seem like an unusual curriculum option in Houston, the fourth largest city in the country better known for its oil and gas production than for pastures and livestock. And yet, there are more than 100 FFA chapters within a 50-mile radius of downtown, with at least 19 inside Beltway 8. Aaron Alejandro, executive director of the Texas Future Farmers of America Foundation, said Harris County has more agriculture science teachers, students and FFA programs than about 25 percent of the United States combined, giving food a seat at the table here. He credits that to work the organization has done over the past 20 years to reach more students of color and students who live in urban environments. The organization split its curriculum into semesterlong classes instead of yearlong general vocation classes, allowing students to dip a toe into the field with such courses as floral arranging, small animal care and plant science. It also has partnered with Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences or MANRRS and the Latinos in Agriculture Leadership Conference. Some programs allow students to take care of a rescue animal for a year rather than buying and raising hogs or steer for auction, and one program in San Antonio gives students credit for raising fish. Those efforts have made some progress, Alejandro said, evidenced by Houstons prevalence of agriculture course offerings and FFA programs. Still, he said it remains hard to pull new students in without help from local schools or their families. What a high school counselor directs a student or parent directs a student to do falls outside our reach, Alejandro said. Our job is to make sure to make the program as attractive as we can to get people there. Then we can provide them with the most extraordinary experience they can ever have. A different path It was a guidance counselor who suggested Collins-Johnson take an agriculture science class at Bellaire High School. She was struggling to keep her grades up and find something that kept her focus, so the counselor suggested it as a left-field option. No one in her family had experience with livestock or growing food, although Collins-Johnson had spent her childhood growing beans from the pantry into sprouts under her bed and watching National Geographic shows on Saturday mornings. It was a strange adjustment. Black friends would call her Yee-Haw when she would show up to school wearing cowboy boots and Rocky Mountain jeans, and she was the only Black student in her ag class. Her mother lent her $200 to buy Waylon the lamb, but when he got a deep scrape that needed to be stitched up, she had to load him in the back of her friends 1970 Cadillac and drive through southwest Houston with Waylons head out the window to the closest vet. She learned how to speak in front of audiences and the basics of running a small business through FFA, which she says showed her I can play a role in society. It was the first time Collins-Johnson felt passion about her school work. It also felt like a turning point after all she had endured, including the death of her father when she was in 10th grade. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The barn was a place of solace, and then I became third-degree family with FFA, Collins-Johnson said. I had escaped a domestic violence situation growing up, so when I got into agriculture, it really saved my life. Within months of her graduation from Prairie View A&M University, she had an opportunity to pass that on. A teacher she had known through Houston FFA activities approached her as she was working at an extension farm in Rosenberg and asked if she had ever considered going into agriculture education. She said, If you do, youll be the first Black woman to teach agriculture in the state of Texas, she said. She enrolled at Sam Houston State University to earn a masters degree in agriculture education and made state history in 2005 when she started as an agriculture science teacher at Fort Bend ISDs Thurgood Marshall High School. The next generation Even though some of Charle Tolars family members have raised chickens and hogs, she nearly threw up while dissecting a cat in Mrs. C-Js class as a sophomore. She thought the class would just watch videos of animal autopsies, not actually perform them. Now a senior and vice president of Benjamin O. Davis High Schools FFA chapter, Tolar said she has gotten used to it, thanks to Collins-Johnsons encouragement and the energy she exudes during classes. It is not uncommon to hear music wafting from her classroom down the hall during class changes, while Collins-Johnson sings and dances along. She cracks jokes to lighten the mood when students get stressed with new concepts and experiences, and she exudes enthusiasm when she talks about animals. Even on test days, when you walk in and go, Oh my God, we have a test, she says, Youve got this, youve got this. Weve been studying. I texted you to remind you. Youve got your flash cards, youre going to do fine, Tolar said. Collins-Johnson does not gloss over harsher realities either, said Daniela Sanchez, who is completing her first year of veterinarian school at Purdue University. Like Collins-Johnson, Sanchez had no plans to pursue anything animal related after high school when she enrolled in an animal sciences class with a friend as a freshman at Davis. At first I thought she was a little harsh, I thought being a little hard on everybody, Sanchez said. But it wasnt until now that I appreciated how hard she was on everybody. She was really encouraging but really realistic. She never sugar-coated anything, and she really made every lesson applicable to life in general. Collins-Johnson ended up being a confidant to Sanchez, who would talk about her dreams and struggles in life and in school. Her time in her class impacted her so much that Sanchez decided to attend Collins-Johnsons alma mater, Prairie View A&M, after graduation and plans to be a small-animal vet when she completes veterinary school at Purdue. Collins-Johnson similarly has inspired Tolars post-graduate plans, the teen said. Instead of going into agriculture, though, Tolar wants to be a teacher. Being an African American, and an African-American female, its showing me were capable of pursing big careers, Tolar said. She shows that were able to accomplish much more than we expect much more than others expect of us. Next on Collins-Johnsons list of students to inspire: her 13-year-old son Jeremiah, who will be a freshman next year. They are not raising any livestock at their home on the semirural outskirts of Cypress just their schnauzer, Chase but she hopes Jeremiah will opt to raise a pig next year and take an ag science class. Until then, she is just happy to be among the voices pushing for more students to have exposure to agriculture. Its never been of importance to me to be the first or to get recognition, Collins-Johnson said. What is important is that there are other people who have the idea that agriculture should be taught to all kids, no matter how much money their parents make or where they live or what they look like. shelby.webb@chron.com twitter.com/shelbywebb 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 Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), noted in a latest speech today that the past year has witnessed unimaginable misery and agony across the world entailing large destruction of human life and wealth. Governments and central banks across the globe unleashed conventional and unconventional policy support to fight its devastating adverse impact. Globally, governments unveiled large fiscal stimulus packages in 2020 amounting to nearly $14 trillion (13.5 per cent of world GDP) to contain the spread of the pandemic (IMF, 2021) and consequently, deficit and debt levels soared. In India also, the central government announced a series of economic packages, initially focussing on protecting vulnerable sections of the society followed by counter-cyclical measures to provide an impetus to consumption and investment for resurrecting growth. The Reserve Bank undertook several conventional and unconventional measures in the wake of COVID-19. Other than conventional measures, the RBI introduced long term repo operations (LTROs) and targeted long-term repo operations (TLTROs) to augment system as well as sector-specific liquidity to meet sectoral credit needs and alleviate stress. Special refinance facilities were provided to select all India financial institutions (AIFIs), while a special liquidity facility for mutual funds (SLF-MF) was introduced to ease redemption pressures. Unlike many central banks, the RBI's asset purchases did not dilute its balance sheet and hence, did not compromise on core principles of central banking. These purchases were confined to risk-free sovereign bonds (including state government securities) only. The impact of COVID-19 induced deceleration on GDP and trade if compared with the GFC of 2008, reveals contrasting trends. Global GDP is estimated to have contracted by 3.5 per cent during 2020, much higher than the contraction of 0.1 witnessed during the GFC; while global merchandise trade is estimated to have only contracted by 9.2 per cent during 2020 as against a contraction of 22.3 per cent during 2009. This differential pattern could essentially be attributed to the major role played by domestic drivers across countries - induced by lockdowns - during the recent episode. Even though merchandise trade has shown incipient signs of revival since end-2020, recovery in services trade is yet to gain traction as subdued cross-border tourism and travel restrictions continue to weigh on the overall performance of the sector. Uneven global trade recovery led by a few Asian countries and select sectors such as medical equipment and electronic products raises concerns regarding its sustainability. The impact of demand and supply shocks is also reflected in the balance of payments. While commodity exporting countries faced lower current account surpluses due to negative shocks to their net terms of trade, net commodity importing countries such as India benefited, recording either lower deficits or even surpluses. Unlike most of the other major economies, India's services exports gained traction from software exports. Domestic information technology (IT) companies benefitted from growing global demand for core transformation services as their customers focused on new models for IT operations during the pandemic. Remittance inflows fell amid widespread job losses in host countries. Nevertheless, the decline in remittances was more than offset by the lower trade deficit and robust net exports of services. The manufacturing sector is spearheading the growth recovery as many contact intensive services sub-sectors are severely affected by the crisis. The initiatives by the Government under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan and Union Budget 2021-22 towards developing a vibrant manufacturing sector and infrastructure acknowledges the strong linkages they have with the rest of the sectors. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme aims to make India an integral part of the global value chain. This, along with reforms in labour market, can go a long way in propelling growth to an elevated trajectory for the manufacturing sector and reap its employment potential. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UNDER A DARK ANGEL'S EYE by Patricia Highsmith UNDER A DARK ANGEL'S EYE by Patricia Highsmith (Virago 20, 640 pp) (Virago 20, 640 pp) It is a good rule never to judge a work of art by the character of the artist. Patricia Highsmith is a case in point. With the morals of an alley cat and cruel by nature, she was, nonetheless, one of the greatest crime writers of the last century. Nobody in a Highsmith story can be taken for granted. Common decency is a thin veneer easily cracked to release an undercurrent of depravity. While this collection of her short pieces, published to mark her centenary, starts gently with a marital dispute, we are soon on a voyage into the darker recesses of the imagination. If one is looking for a recurring theme, it is that evil intent can be made to seem simple, even logical. Given the right circumstances, Highsmith tells us, the most reasonable person can turn nasty. Graham Greene called Highsmith 'the poet of apprehension'. How right he was. DANCE OF DEATH DANCE OF DEATH by Helen McCloy (Agora 8.99, 278 pp) by Helen McCloy (Agora 8.99, 278 pp) The coming-out party of a New York socialite ends tragically when her body is found in a snowdrift. How she came to be there is puzzling enough, but more baffling is that, in freezing conditions, her death was caused by heatstroke. With the police struggling, it falls to Dr Basil Willing, a psychologist on the staff of the district attorney, to apply his knowledge of the byways of human behaviour. Unravelling the plot takes in mistaken identity, financial chicanery and deadly poison. Making her name in the inter-war years, McCloy's talent transcends the generations. Dance Of Death is as fresh and exciting as a newly minted novel, while Basil Willing, with his Holmes-like insights, is a character to cherish. THE PRIME MINISTER'S PENCIL THE PRIME MINISTER'S PENCIL by Cecil Waye (Dean Street Press 10.99, 238 pp) by Cecil Waye (Dean Street Press 10.99, 238 pp) It's bad enough that the Prime Minister is assassinated. But when there's no way of telling how he met his end, it gets a lot worse. The post mortem shows the victim died from an explosive force, yet the room in which he was sitting is undamaged. With links to those closest to the late premier, private investigator Christopher Perrin joins forces with Scotland Yard to explain the inexplicable. At the heart of the story is the corruption that thrives on the interlock between politics and high finance. It's not giving too much away to reveal that atomic energy, a science still in its infancy when this was first published, has a lot to answer for. Tight plotting makes for a brain-teaser that has lost none of its appeal in the intervening years. Amidst growing concerns around lack of transparency, accountability and rights of users related to digital media and after elaborate consultation with the public and stakeholders, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 has been framed in exercise of powers under section 87 (2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and in supersession of the earlier Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011. While finalising these Rules, both the Ministries of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) undertook elaborate consultations among themselves in order to have a harmonious, soft-touch oversight mechanism in relation to social media platform as well as digital media and OTT platforms, etc. Part - II of these Rules shall be administered by Ministry of Electronics and IT, while Part - III relating to Code of Ethics and procedure and safeguards in relation to digital media shall be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Background: The Digital India programme has now become a movement which is empowering common Indians with the power of technology. The extensive spread of mobile phones, Internet etc. has also enabled many social media platforms to expand their footprints in India. Common people are also using these platforms in a very significant way. Some portals, which publish analysis about social media platforms and which have not been disputed, have reported the following numbers as user base of major social media platforms in India: WhatsApp users: 53 crore YouTube users: 44.8 crore Facebook users: 41 crore Instagram users: 21 crore Twitter users: 1.75 crore These social platforms have enabled common Indians to show their creativity, ask questions, be informed and freely share their views, including criticism of the Government and its functionaries. The Government acknowledges and respects the right of every Indian to criticise and disagree as an essential element of democracy. India is the worlds largest open Internet society and the Government welcomes social media companies to operate in India, do business and also earn profits. However, they will have to be accountable to the Constitution and laws of India. Proliferation of social media, on the one hand empowers the citizens, then on the other hand gives rise to some serious concerns and consequences which have grown manifold in recent years. These concerns have been raised from time to time in various forums including in the Parliament and its committees, judicial orders and in civil society deliberations in different parts of country. Such concerns are also raised all over the world and it is becoming an international issue. Of late, some very disturbing developments are observed on the social media platforms. Persistent spread of fake news has compelled many media platforms to create fact-check mechanisms. Rampant abuse of social media to share morphed images of women and contents related to revenge porn have often threatened the dignity of women. Misuse of social media for settling corporate rivalries in blatantly unethical manner has become a major concern for businesses. Instances of use of abusive language, defamatory and obscene contents and blatant disrespect to religious sentiments through platforms are growing. Over the years, the increasing instances of misuse of social media by criminals, anti-national elements have brought new challenges for law enforcement agencies. These include inducement for recruitment of terrorists, circulation of obscene content, spread of disharmony, financial frauds, incitement of violence, public order, etc. It was found that currently there is no robust complaint mechanism, wherein the ordinary users of social media and OTT platforms can register their complaint and get it redressed within defined timeline. Lack of transparency and absence of robust grievance redressal mechanism have left the users totally dependent on the whims and fancies of social media platforms. Often it has been seen that a user who has spent his time, energy and money in developing a social media profile is left with no remedies in case that profile is restricted or removed by the platform without giving any opportunity to be heard. Evolution of Social Media and Other Intermediaries If we notice the evolution of social media intermediaries, they are no longer limited to playing the role of pure intermediary and often they become publishers. These Rules are a fine blend of liberal touch with gentle self-regulatory framework. It works on the existing laws and statues of the country which are applicable to content whether online or offline. In respect of news and current affairs, publishers are expected to follow the journalistic conduct of Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Network Act, which are already applicable to print and TV. Hence, only a level playing field has been proposed. Rationale and Justification for the New Guidelines These Rules substantially empower the ordinary users of digital platforms to seek redressal for their grievances and command accountability in case of infringement of their rights. In this direction, the following developments are noteworthy: The Supreme Court in suo-moto writ petition (Prajjawala case) vide order dated 11/12/2018 had observed that the Government of India may frame necessary guidelines to eliminate child pornography, rape and gang rape imageries, videos and sites in content hosting platforms and other applications. The Supreme Court vide order dated 24/09/2019 had directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to apprise the timeline in respect of completing the process of notifying the new rules. There was a Calling Attention Motion on the misuse of social media and spread of fake news in the Rajya Sabha and the Minister had conveyed to the house on 26/07/2018, the resolve of the Government to strengthen the legal framework and make the social media platforms accountable under the law. He had conveyed this after repeated demands from the Members of the Parliament to take corrective measures. The Ad-hoc committee of the Rajya Sabha laid its report on 03/02/2020 after studying the alarming issue of pornography on social media and its effect on children and society as a whole and recommended for enabling identification of the first originator of such contents. Consultations: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) prepared draft Rules and invited public comments on 24/12/2018. MEITY received 171 comments from individuals, civil society, industry association and organizations. 80 counter comments to these comments were also received. These comments were analyzed in detail and an inter-ministerial meeting was also held and accordingly, these Rules have been finalised. Salient features of the guidelines related to Social Media to be administered by Ministry of Electronics and IT: Due Diligence To Be Followed By Intermediaries: The Rules prescribe due diligence that must be followed by intermediaries, including social media intermediaries. In case, due diligence is not followed by the intermediary, safe harbour provisions will not apply to them. Grievance Redressal Mechanism: The Rules seek to empower the users by mandating the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims. Intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days from its receipt. Ensuring Online Safety and Dignity of Users, Specially Women Users: Intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images, etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf. Two Categories of Social Media Intermediaries: To encourage innovations and enable growth of new social media intermediaries without subjecting smaller platforms to significant compliance requirement, the Rules make a distinction between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. This distinction is based on the number of users on the social media platform. Government is empowered to notify the threshold of user base that will distinguish between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. The Rules require the significant social media intermediaries to follow certain additional due diligence. Additional Due Diligence to Be Followed by Significant Social Media Intermediary: Appoint a Chief Compliance Officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules. Such a person should be a resident in India. Appoint a Nodal Contact Person for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies. Such a person shall be a resident in India. Appoint a Resident Grievance Officer who shall perform the functions mentioned under Grievance Redressal Mechanism. Such a person shall be a resident in India. Publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively by the significant social media intermediary. Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information that is required only for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of an offence related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to the above or in relation with rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. Intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator. Significant social media intermediary shall have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app or both. Voluntary User Verification Mechanism: Users who wish to verify their accounts voluntarily shall be provided an appropriate mechanism to verify their accounts and provided with demonstrable and visible mark of verification. Giving Users An Opportunity to Be Heard: In cases where significant social media intermediaries removes or disables access to any information on their own accord, then a prior intimation for the same shall be communicated to the user who has shared that information with a notice explaining the grounds and reasons for such action. Users must be provided an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary. Removal of Unlawful Information: An intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the Appropriate Govt. or its agencies through authorized officer should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries etc. The Rules will come in effect from the date of their publication in the gazette, except for the additional due diligence for significant social media intermediaries, which shall come in effect 3 months after publication of these Rules. Digital Media Ethics Code Relating to Digital Media and OTT Platforms to Be Administered by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: There have been widespread concerns about issues relating to digital contents both on digital media and OTT platforms. Civil Society, film makers, political leaders including Chief Minister, trade organisations and associations have all voiced their concerns and highlighted the imperative need for an appropriate institutional mechanism. The Government also received many complaints from civil society and parents requesting interventions. There were many court proceedings in the Supreme Court and High Courts, where courts also urged the Government to take suitable measures. Since the matter relates to digital platforms, therefore, a conscious decision was taken that issues relating to digital media and OTT and other creative programmes on Internet shall be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but the overall architecture shall be under the Information Technology Act, which governs digital platforms. Consultations: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting held consultations in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai over the last one and a half years, wherein OTT players have been urged to develop self-regulatory mechanism. The Government also studied the models in other countries, including Singapore, Australia, EU and UK and has gathered that most of them either have an institutional mechanism to regulate digital content or are in the process of setting-up one. The Rules establish a soft-touch self-regulatory architecture and a Code of Ethics and 3-Tier grievance redressal mechanism for news publishers and OTT Platforms and digital media. Notified under section 87 of Information Technology Act, these Rules empower the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to implement Part - III of the Rules, which prescribe the following: Code of Ethics for online news, OTT platforms and digital media: This Code of Ethics prescribe the guidelines to be followed by OTT platforms and online news and digital media entities. Self-Classification of Content: The OTT platforms, called as the publishers of online curated content in the rules, would self-classify the content into five age based categories - U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as A. The publisher of online curated content shall prominently display the classification rating specific to each content or programme together with a content descriptor informing the user about the nature of the content, and advising on viewer description (if applicable) at the beginning of every programme enabling the user to make an informed decision, prior to watching the programme. Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act thereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media. A three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been established under the rules with different levels of self-regulation. Level-I: Self-regulation by the publishers; Level-II: Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers; Level-III: Oversight mechanism. Self-regulation by the Publisher: Publisher shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer based in India who shall be responsible for the redressal of grievances received by it. The officer shall take decision on every grievance received by it within 15 days. Self-Regulatory Body: There may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body shall be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminent person and have not more than six members. Such a body will have to register with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This body will oversee the adherence by the publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that have not be been resolved by the publisher within 15 days. Oversight Mechanism: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shall formulate an oversight mechanism. It shall publish a charter for self-regulating bodies, including Codes of Practices. It shall establish an Inter-Departmental Committee for hearing grievances. [February 25, 2021] Caban Systems Partners with COATL S.A. de C.V. for the development of National Connectivity & Network Digitalization, the enabler for Closing the Digital Divide and the evolution towards Industry 4.0 in El Salvador The Enduro System, Caban's signature lithium-ion energy storage battery, will support the deployment of reliable internet connectivity for El Salvador's Greater Coastal Communities BURLINGAME, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Caban Systems, a leader in the design and manufacture of software-enabled energy storage systems for the telecommunications industry, announced that they are launching an Innovation Partnership with COATL S.A. de C.V., a transformation oriented company, developing the digitalization ecosystem in El Salvador. This partnership establishes a secured supplier agreement and represents product validation with a new and influential customer. In the first phase, Caban Systems will deploy Enduro Systems and the Continuo Platform to more than 50 sites covering COATLs DWDM & IP-MPLS CORE Network Nodes, Microwave Repeater Sites and TV White Space Radio Base Stations. The Innovation Partnership between Caban Systems and COATL S.A. de C.V. is part of the Digitalization Ecosystem defined by El Salvadors Secretary of Innovation within the Digital Agenda 2020 2030. El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele is leading a historic effort to close the Digital Divide, considering this critical aspect to ensure equal access to opportunities, high quality education, health, security and digitalization services in all of El Salvador. Led by the Secretary of Innovation for El Salvador, Vladimir Handal, despite the Coronavirus Pandemic, COATL is finalizing the implementation of the first 218 rural schools that will provide broadband services to 54,000 students. The complete project presented by the Minister of Education, Carla Hanania de Varela in her 2021 2022 plan, considers broadband connectivity being provided to all 1.2 million students within El Salvador's public education system. "The Project driven by the Secretary of Innovation, draws a clear path for the digitalization of ElSalvador, both in public and private sector and will lead to a substantial impact in the development of the country. At COATL, we are very proud to be a part of this challenge and the transformation this integrated effort will have for El Salvador," said Uwe Martinz, President & CEO of COATL S.A. de C.V. "Caban Systems is a perfect fit for us, their technical evolution brings a unique added value and optimized TCO to our network and enables us to evolve towards solar solutions and business models based on their cloud-based analytics and AI solutions in a next phase of the project." Caban Systems developed Enduro, a hardware and software suite of products, to fully integrate standalone or backup power on any telecom site. Enduro, equipped with the Continuo Platform, is able to pinpoint energy usage with real-time monitoring and precise data, providing customers with efficient and cost-effective energy solutions. With the use of intelligent technology, supported by a suite of lithium-ion hardware products and AI-enabled software, communities across El Salvador's coastline will no longer be left without internet connectivity. "With this deployment, we are most proud of the positive impact that our energy storage system and real-time monitoring software will have in El Salvadoran communities," said Alexandra Rasch, Caban Systems CEO. "During the era of COVID-19, reliable connectivity has proven to be more important than ever before to providing access to medical care, employment and high-quality education. We have an obligation to make connectivity available for all." About COATL COATL S.A. de C.V. is building a countrywide, Open Network Architecture, providing access to a Digitalization Ecosystem we are co-developing with NOKIA, Caban Systems and the Secretary of Innovation as leader of the 2020 2030 Digitalization Agenda, aiming at the reduction of the Digital Divide and sustainable development of El Salvador. Within a Wholesale Business Model, we will be able to provide unique Network Security with end-to-end data encryption over our 100 Gigs capacity DWDM & IP-MPLS Transport layer, allowing us to provide best-in-class Service Level Agreements to our customers. We are very proud this has enabled us to play a key role in the Digitalization Strategy being implemented by the Secretary of Innovation of El Salvador. coatl.com.sv Media Contact COATL S.A. de C.V. Marysabel Salguero Email: msalguero@coatl.com.sv About Caban Systems: Caban Systems, Inc. is an energy infrastructure solutions provider, offering end-to-end solutions for some of the largest telecommunications companies in Latin America, the Caribbean and Middle East. Pioneering a best-in-class intelligent energy storage platform for the telecommunication infrastructure industry, Caban delivers the most flexible, highly-distributed infrastructure solutions to its customers, substantially reducing operational expenses and increasing uptime. Caban is ushering in a clean era for telecommunications providers and tower operators by providing access to affordable reliable and renewably sourced power. All hardware is designed and manufactured by Caban Systems, based in Burlingame, California. For more information, visit cabansystems.com. For Media: Contact: Michelle Spita, Caban Systems Phone: +1 (562) 331-3135 Email: michelle@cabansystems.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caban-systems-partners-with-coatl-sa-de-cv-for-the-development-of-national-connectivity--network-digitalization-the-enabler-for-closing-the-digital-divide-and-the-evolution-towards-industry-4-0-in-el-salvador-301235295.html SOURCE Caban Systems [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The mining sector needs to figure out ways to sustain in future as recession continues to plague the world and Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc worldwide. In addition, widening gap of talent together with rising demand from the stakeholders is estimated to keep on plaguing the mining sector. Given the present scenario, it has become essential for the miners to focus on differentiation of business models to produce long-term value. This will help them draw more investors and generate substantial profit in near future. Integration of advanced, smart technologies is estimated to play an important role in attaining this success. Increased adoption of high-end technologies is transforming the way mining is done. Riding on the back of these factors, the global smart mining solution market is expected to observe high growth over the forecast timeline, from 2019 to 2027. Utilization of smart mining solutions enables mining companies to increase efficiency of production. Mining companies make use of real-time communication and monitoring to lessen cost of labor, which is likely to work in favor of the market. Request for Covid-19 Impact Analysis on Smart Mining Solution Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/Covid19.php Based on the extensive utilization of smart solutions worldwide, the global smart mining solution market is anticipated to rise at ~11.5% CAGR over the forecast tenure, from 2019 to 2027. Such high growth of the market is ascribed to the increased awareness about the benefits of these solutions for the miners. Integration of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) makes these mining solutions extremely beneficial for the miners. Key Findings of Smart Mining Solution Market Study Rising Needs for Process Optimization and Automation to Generate Demand In the era of Industry 4.0, businesses are utilizing the benefits of technologies automation and internet of things (IoT). These high-end technologies diminish the amount of human intervention, which leads to much better outcomes. Following the footsteps of other industries, mining industry is also taking up these technologies. Industrial automation and industrial internet of things (IIoT) are capable of optimizing various mining processes and generating more profit for businesses. As such, rising need for automation and optimization is likely to drive the growth of the global smart mining solution market in the near future. Download PDF Brochure - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php Benefits of Advanced Technologies to Propel Growth of the Market Technologies such as automation, industrial internet of things (IIoT), and artificial intelligence are laying the ground for technology-driven, futuristic mining sector for becoming a digitally supported and disrupted industry. In addition, it offers environmental and emission monitoring, predictive maintenance for equipment, and real-time tracking. AI-enabled solutions and systems drive operational safety and excellence, which is likely to support growth of the global smart mining solution market over the timeline of analysis, from 2019 to 2027. It also offers protection against deadlyopen cast mining accidents, which is likely to drive the demand for such mining solutions. View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/70887 Growing Interest in Deep Sea Mineral and Meta Extraction to Shoot Up Demand There has been an increased interest in the extraction of mineral deposits from deep sea in the last few years. Interest in deep sea is attributed to the rapid depletion of terrestrial metal deposits. In addition, rising demand for green technologies and growing metal production for meeting needs of electronic devices manufacturing have led to accelerated mining activities in the deep seabed. With the utilization of smart mining solutions in deep-sea mining process, there is low impact on the environment. This factor is likely to open up wide scope of growth for the global smart mining solution market over the forecast timeline. Purchase Premium Research Report on Smart Mining Solution Market @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php Smart Mining Solution Market: Key Driving Factors Digital transformation of the mining sector enables businesses to fetch data visualization, data modelling, and real-time data to make efficient, effective, and quick decisions. Marine miningis gathering momentum owing to the presence of huge, untapped metal and mineral deposits in the deep sea. Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Energy & Natural Resources Industry, LNG Engine Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lng-engine-market.html PEM Fuel Cell Materials Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pem-fuel-cells-materials.html Explore More Upcoming Reports: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/upcoming.htm About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Mr. Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Press Release Source: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/smart-mining-solution-market.htm Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com SOURCE Transparency Market Research Victoria is set to become home to one of the worlds biggest lithium-ion batteries by the end of the year after the federal governments green bank delivered $160 million to French energy giant Neoens massive storage project near Geelong. The Clean Energy Finance Corporations debt-financing commitment has allowed Neoen to reach financial close on the Victorian Big Battery, which would have capacity of 300 megawatts and 450 megawatt-hours making it three times the initial size of billionaire Elon Musks Tesla big battery built in South Australia in 2017. Neoen's proposed 300 megawatt battery near Geelong is among the strong pipeline of new storage projects. Credit:Neoen We are on track to deliver this project before the next Australian summer and are looking forward to playing our part in helping Victoria reach its ambitious target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030, Neoen Australias managing director Louis de Sambucy said. We are delighted to announce that the Victorian Big Battery has reached this important financial milestone. As many as 234,000 buyers who've had a property sale agreed could save thousands of pounds if the Chancellor's rumoured three-month stamp duty holiday extension goes ahead. The total amount saved in stamp duty charges if the extension is given the green light in the Budget next week could top 984million, according to online property website Zoopla. Around 750,000 buyers in England are set to benefit from the stamp duty holiday since it was launched last year, saving them but costing the Treasury nearly 5billion, according to the findings. City prices: A map from Zoopla showing what's happened to house prices in cities over the past year Of that figure, 600,000 buyers who agreed a sale from May 2020 onwards will not pay any stamp duty as a result of the Chancellor's holiday, saving an average of 4,660 each, or 2.8billion, collectively. A further 140,500 people who have snapped up homes costing over 500,000 will benefit from a reduction in the amount of stamp duty they pay, enabling them to save 15,000 each or 2.1billion in total, Zoopla said. The Government made the vast majority of buyers exempt from paying the tax on properties worth up to 500,000 until the end of March, allowing people to save up to 15,000. At his Budget on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak could extend the stamp duty holiday until the end of June. Grainne Gilmore, head of research at Zoopla, said: 'Moving the stamp duty holiday deadline means that the 70,000 buyers we previously predicted would miss the stamp duty holiday are now "safe". 'This figure was calculated on sales agreed late last year and early this year. 'However, with the extension looking likely to run until the end of June, up to 234,000 home movers who have already agreed a sale are set to benefit from this holiday, saving buyers a total of 984 million. 'Whilst January and February are often busier times in the market, this year both demand levels and sales agreed have been noticeably higher than usual. 'Given that stamp duty land tax is traditionally a southern tax, its likely that buyers in London and the South East will benefit most from the extension. We are likely to see an uptick in demand in the coming weeks, particularly in these regions.' Price shifts: Average property prices in the UK have increased by 4.3% in a year Extension? The stamp duty holiday is rumoured to about to be extended by Rishi Sunak Property prices still rising In its latest house price index, Zoopla said that property prices rose by 4.3 per cent to an average of 226,600 in the past year, marking the biggest annual jump since 2017. In January, prices increased by 0.3 per cent. Demand for homes is over 12 per cent higher now than it was at the same point a year ago. Stock levels remain low, 'maintaining upward pressure on prices', Zoopla said. While there has been a surge in the number of buyers looking to move somewhere more rural, house prices in some of the country's best-known cities have also risen sharply in the past year. Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham were the cities which have seen the biggest price hikes in the last 12 months, according to Zoopla. Up and down the country, there are also signs that first-time buyers are slowly returning to the market amid the reintroduction of higher loan-to-value mortgage deals. Last year, the contribution from first-time buyers in the property market fell to the lowest level since 2016 as lenders scrapped swathes of mortgage deals aimed at people wishing to get their first rung on the ladder. But, the number of first-time buyers was 5 per cent higher in the first six weeks of this year than it was in the final quarter of 2020, Zoopla said. Sales secured for homes priced between 100,000 and 150,000, a sector of the market where first-time buyers are typically more active, have jumped by just over a quarter since the final quarter of last year. Looking ahead, Zoopla thinks house prices will rise by just 1 per cent by the end of the year. It thinks the 'search for space' among buyers mantra will continue. Outlook: Zoopla thinks house prices in the UK will have risen by 1% by the end of the year Landlords selling up before rumoured tax changes There is mounting evidence that landlords looking to take gains ahead of possible tax changes and changing rental market dynamics are selling up their rental properties, Zoopla said today. A rise in capital gains tax for those selling additional properties could potentially be on the cards at some point in the future. Zoopla said: 'There is widespread speculation capital gains tax changes could be implemented as part of a wider post-COVID package in the Budget on March 3rd.' The number of landlords selling up appears to be highest in London. Here, 13 per cent of homes being listed for sale in the final quarter of last year were previously rented. Landlords sell up: The number of landlords selling up is particularly marked in London Grainne Gilmore, of Zoopla, said: 'One area of the market where there is more supply coming to the market is among landlords who are bringing their investment properties forward for sale. 'The share of homes listed for sale which were previously rented has risen in nearly every region during 2020, as landlords reassess their portfolios in light of current rental trends, or ahead of possible tax changes for investment property. 'While the homes for sale account for a very small proportion (less than 1 per cent) of rented stock, it is a noticeable trend emerging in the market.' KYODO NEWS - Feb 24, 2021 - 18:21 | World, All The first batch of a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine arrived in Thailand on Wednesday morning ahead of a vaccination rollout next week. The 200,000 of a total of 2 million doses the Thai government has ordered from Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. were flown to Bangkok. Later Wednesday, 117,000 doses of the vaccine developed by Britain's AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford arrived in Thailand. The Sinovac batch will be given to front-line medical staff and people in need aged 18-59 in Bangkok and 17 other provinces, including neighboring Samut Sakhon which has had a relatively large number of cases. "I am delighted that the first lot has arrived as scheduled, and more will come," Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said, adding that vaccines will also be manufactured locally to ensure access by every Thai. The Thai government has ordered 61 million doses from AstraZeneca with a deal for the vaccine to be manufactured by local pharmaceutical company Siam Bioscience. Thailand has reported about 25,700 virus cases so far with 83 fatalities. At left, ions being lost from the confined plasma and following the magnetic field lines to the material diverter plates in the gyrokinetic simulation code XGC1. At right, an XGC1 simulation of edge turbulence in DIII-D plasma, showing the plasma turbulence changing the eddy structure to isolated blobs (represented by red color) in the vicinity of the magnetic separatrix (black line). Credit: Kwan-Liu Mas research group, University of California Davis; David Pugmire and Adam Malin, ORNL Nuclear fusion, the same kind of energy that fuels stars, could one day power our world with abundant, safe, and carbon-free energy. Aided by supercomputers Summit at the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Theta at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), a team of scientists strives toward making fusion energy a reality. Fusion reactions involve two or more atomic nuclei combining to form different nuclei and particles, converting some of the atomic mass into energy in the process. Scientists are working toward building a nuclear fusion reactor that could efficiently produce heat that would then be used to generate electricity. However, confining plasma reactions that occur at temperatures hotter than the sun is very difficult, and the engineers who design these massive machines can't afford mistakes. To ensure the success of future fusion devicessuch as ITER, which is being built in southern Francescientists can take data from experiments performed on smaller fusion devices and combine them with massive computer simulations to understand the requirements of new machines. ITER will be the world's largest tokamak, or device that uses magnetic fields to confine plasma particles in the shape of a donut inside, and will produce 500 megawatts (MW) of fusion power from only 50 MW of input heating power. One of the most important requirements for fusion reactors is the tokamak's divertor, a material structure engineered to remove exhaust heat from the reactor's vacuum vessel. The heat-load width of the divertor is the width along the reactor's inner walls that will sustain repeated hot exhaust particles coming in contact with it. A team led by C.S. Chang at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has used the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's (OLCF's) 200-petaflop Summit and Argonne Leadership Computing Facility's (ALCF's) 11.7-petaflop Theta supercomputers, together with a supervised machine learning program called Eureqa, to find a new extrapolation formula from existing tokamak data to future ITER based on simulations from their XGC computational code for modeling tokamak plasmas. The team then completed new simulations that confirm their previous ones, which showed that at full power, ITER's divertor heat-load width would be more than six times wider than was expected in the current trend of tokamaks. The results were published in Physics of Plasmas. "In building any fusion reactor in the future, predicting the heat-load width is going to be critical to ensuring the divertor material maintains its integrity when faced with this exhaust heat," Chang said. "When the divertor material loses its integrity, the sputtered metallic particles contaminate the plasma and stop the burn or even cause sudden instability. These simulations give us hope that ITER operation might be easier than was initially thought." Using Eureqa, the team found hidden parameters that provided a new formula that not only fits the drastic increase predicted for ITER's heat-load width at full power but also produced the same results as previous experimental and simulation data for existing tokamaks. Among the devices newly included in the study were the Alcator C-Mod, a tokamak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that holds the record for plasma pressure in a magnetically confined fusion device, and the world's largest existing tokamak, the JET (Joint European Torus) in the United Kingdom. "If this formula is validated experimentally, this will be huge for the fusion community and for ensuring that ITER's divertor can accommodate the heat exhaust from the plasma without too much complication," Chang said. ITER deviates from the trend The Chang team's work studying ITER's divertor plates began in 2017 when the group reproduced experimental divertor heat-load width results from three US fusion devices on the OLCF's former Titan supercomputer: General Atomics' DIII-D toroidal magnetic fusion device, which has an aspect ratio similar to ITER; MIT's Alcator C-Mod; and the National Spherical Torus Experiment, a compact low-aspect-ratio spherical tokamak at PPPL. The presence of steady "blobby"-shaped turbulence at the edge of the plasma in these tokamaks did not play a significant role in widening the divertor heat-load width. The researchers then set out to prove that their XGC code, which simulates particle movements and electromagnetic fields in plasma, could predict the heat-load width on the full-power ITER's divertor surface. The presence of dynamic edge turbulencedifferent from the steady blobby-shaped turbulence present in the current tokamak edgecould significantly widen the distribution of the exhaust heat, they realized. If ITER were to follow the current trend of heat-load widths in present-day fusion devices, its heat-load width would be less than a few centimetersa dangerously narrow width, even for divertor plates made of tungsten, which boasts the highest melting point of all pure metals. The team's simulations on Titan in 2017 revealed an unusual jump in the trendthe full-power ITER showed a heat-load width more than six times wider than what the existing tokamaks implied. But the extraordinary finding required more investigation. How could the full-power ITER's heat-load width deviate so significantly from existing tokamaks? Scientists operating the C-Mod tokamak at MIT cranked the device's magnetic field up to ITER value for the strength of the poloidal magnetic field, which runs top to bottom to confine the donut-shaped plasma inside the reaction chamber. The other field used in tokamak reactors, the toroidal magnetic field, runs around the circumference of the donut. Combined, these two magnetic fields confine the plasma, as if winding a tight string around a donut, creating looping motions of ions along the combined magnetic field lines called gyromotions that researchers believe might smooth out turbulence in the plasma. Scientists at MIT then provided Chang with experimental data from the Alcator C-Mod against which his team could compare results from simulations by using XGC. With an allocation of time under the INCITE (Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment) program, the team performed extreme-scale simulations on Summit by employing the new Alcator C-Mod data using a finer grid and including a greater number of particles. The interior of MITs Alcator C-Mod tokamak. Credit: Robert Mumgaard, MIT "They gave us their data, and our code still agreed with the experiment, showing a much narrower divertor heat-load width than the full-power ITER," Chang said. "What that meant was that either our code produced a wrong result in the earlier full-power ITER simulation on Titan or there was a hidden parameter that we needed to account for in the prediction formula." Machine learning reveals a new formula Chang suspected that the hidden parameter might be the radius of the gyromotions, called the gyroradius, divided by the size of the machine. Chang then fed the new results to a machine learning program called Eureqa, presently owned by DataRobot, asking it to find the hidden parameter and a new formula for the ITER prediction. The program spit out several new formulas, verifying the gyroradius divided by the machine size as being the hidden parameter. The simplest of these formulas most agreed with the physics insights. Chang presented the findings at various international conferences last year. He was then given three more simulation cases from ITER headquarters to test the new formula. The simplest formula successfully passed the test. PPPL research staff physicists Seung-Hoe Ku and Robert Hager employed the Summit and the Theta supercomputers for these three critically important ITER test simulations. Summit is located at the OLCF, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL. Theta is located at ALCF, another DOE Office of Science User Facility, located at ANL. In an exciting finding, the new formula predicted the same results as the present experimental dataa huge jump in the full-power ITER's heat-load width, with the medium-power ITER landing in between. "Verifying whether ITER operation is going to be difficult due to an excessively narrow divertor heat-load width was something the entire fusion community has been concerned about, and we now have hope that ITER might be much easier to operate," Chang said. "If this formula is correct, design engineers would be able to use it in their design for more economical fusion reactors." A big data problem Each of the team's ITER simulations consisted of 2 trillion particles and more than 1,000 time steps, requiring most of the Summit machine and one full day or longer to complete. The data generated by one simulation, Chang said, could total a whopping 200 petabytes, eating up nearly all of Summit's file system storage. "Summit's file system only holds 250 petabytes' worth of data for all the users," Chang said. "There is no way to get all this data out to the file system, and we usually have to write out some parts of the physics data every 10 or more time steps." This has proven challenging for the team, who often found new science in the data that was not saved in the first simulation. "I would often tell Dr. Ku, "I wish to see this data because it looks like we could find something interesting there," only to discover that he could not save it," Chang said. "We need reliable, large-compression-ratio data reduction technologies, so that's something we are working on and are hopeful to be able to take advantage of in the future." Chang added that staff members at both the OLCF and ALCF were critical to the team's ability to run codes on the centers' massive high-performance computing systems. "Help rendered by the OLCF and ALCF computer center staffespecially from the liaisonshas been essential in enabling these extreme-scale simulations," Chang said. The team is anxiously awaiting the arrival of two of DOE's upcoming exascale supercomputers, the OLCF's Frontier and ALCF's Aurora, machines that will be capable of a billion billion calculations per second, or 1018 calculations per second. The team will next include more complex physics, such as electromagnetic turbulence in a more refined grid with a greater number of particles, to verify the new formula's fidelity further and improve its accuracy. The team also plans to collaborate with experimentalists to design experiments to further validate the electromagnetic turbulence results that will be obtained on Summit or Frontier. "Constructing a New Predictive Scaling Formula for ITER's Divertor Heat-Load Width Informed by a Simulation-Anchored Machine Learning" is published in Physics of Plasmas. Explore further Research provides reassurance that heat flux will be manageable in ITER More information: C. S. Chang et al. Constructing a new predictive scaling formula for ITER's divertor heat-load width informed by a simulation-anchored machine learning, Physics of Plasmas (2021). Journal information: Physics of Plasmas C. S. Chang et al. Constructing a new predictive scaling formula for ITER's divertor heat-load width informed by a simulation-anchored machine learning,(2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0027637 [February 25, 2021] CNOC Encouraged that the Supreme Court Has Rejected Telecom Incumbents' Appeal of the CRTC's 2019 Rate-Correction Ruling Canadian telecom industry association calls on the CRTC to move swiftly to bring the issue of wholesale rates to a close, after nearly two years of delays by the big telecom companies TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - The Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) is encouraged by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC)'s decision, announced this morning, to reject the large telecom incumbents' request to appeal their case against the CRTC's mandated wholesale rate correction from 2019. "We are pleased with the SCC's decision, which brings an end to this avenue of the incumbents' delay tactics," says Matt Stein, CNOC Chair and CEO of Distributel. "Internet access tops the list of many Canadians' household expenses, and for many, it's simply not affordable. Yet Canadians need the internet now more than ever to work, learn, and connect with loved ones, as they try to retain some semblance of their normal lives while they manage through a global pandemic. The SCC's decision puts us one step closer to finally being able to make internet access affordable for Canadians across the country." Putting an End to Backroom Pressure and Delay Tactics After several years of thorough consultation and research, the CRTC released its original decision in August 2019. The ruling ordered the incumbents to correct the rates they charge to independent carriers for wholesale access to their networks, and to pay back the independents for years of over-charging, to the tune of $325 million. CNOC applauded that decision, and many of its members immediately moved to increase speeds and lower rates for consumers, in an effort to make internet access more affordable for all Canadians. <>But the big telecom companies leveraged their playbook, appealing to the CRTC itself, the government, the Federal Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court of Canada . They intensified lobbyist pressure. They threatened to pull back on investments in rural networks. None of those efforts have been successful, Stein notes. "Last summer, the Federal Government decided not to overturn or change the CRTC's original ruling, and the judges on the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the incumbents' first appeal, unequivocally confirming that their claims had 'dubious merit.' To have the Supreme Court uphold that view today is a clear victory for Canadians. Enough is enough." Stein continues: "It's unfortunate that the big telecoms felt the need to petition our highest court in challenging the CRTC's rate-correction decision. It was another expensive delay tactic that wasted millions of dollars and months of time, and kept Canadians' internet bills among the highest in the world during a time when connectivity has never been more important." The Next Step: CRTC Must Stand Strong and Fight for Fair Internet The fight for fair internet is not over, he says. "We need to stand up for Canadians by correcting the imbalance and by holding the large telecoms to account." Canada's telecom industry needs a level playing field where competition can flourish without being held hostage by the incumbents' inflated wholesale rates. Competition drives innovation, which brings incredible value to Canadian households. The Liberal government campaigned on a promise to make life better for the middle class; the CRTC's rate correction provides an excellent opportunity to do just that. Stein says that Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada's new Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, is well-positioned to stand up to the incumbents' backroom pressure and champion the CRTC's original ruling. The next and final step in the process is for the CRTC to issue a decision through its review-and-vary process (as requested by the incumbents in yet another attempt to delay fair wholesale internet rates). "We're confident that the CRTC will do the right thing and move swiftly on that decision," says Stein. "It's been nearly two years since the original ruling, and Canadians shouldn't have to wait any longer. They deserve so much better." Today's SCC decision is a clear signal that the issue is moving in the right direction, he says. "This is a good day for Canada, for choice, for fairness, and for the affordability of essential internet services for all Canadians." About the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) CNOC is the voice of Canadian independent ISPs, representing more than 30 competitive communications service providers that operate wireline and/or wireless networks in many regions of Canada. CNOC's mission is to increase the level of competitive choice, add more value and boost innovation in the delivery of communications services to Canadians. For further information, visit www.cnoc.tech. SOURCE Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Many of the evils of historyracism, sexism, anti-Catholicism, homophobiahave been rolled back by brave people who opened the eyes of their fellow citizens to prejudice. But in politics, accusations of bigotry are sometimes used as weapons. The usual pattern is that progressives accuse conservatives of prejudice, and conservatives complain that theyre being smeared or canceled. But when the debate turns to Israel, the roles are often reversed. On that subject, its the conservatives who tend to allege bigotry, in the form of anti-Semitism, and its the progressives who feel slandered. Its worth taking a look at one such incident, to see how the debate over prejudice looks from the other sides point of view. Advertisement The incident in question stems from a Feb. 10 podcast conversation between Peter Beinart, the host of Occupied Thoughts, and Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama. Israel hawks, led by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pounced on Rhodes remarks in the interview, accusing him of Jew hating and of denouncing all Jews. An article in the Federalist claimed that Rhodes had spewed antisemitic tropes directed toward Israel, its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Jews. Len Khodorkovsky, a former deputy assistant secretary of state under President Donald Trump, demanded that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum fire Rhodes from its board for his anti-Semitic views. Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. None of these charges was true. In the podcast, Rhodes and Beinart (Beinart is a practicing Jew; Rhodes is half-Jewish by birth) dismantled the myth of Jews as a monolith. Rhodes distinguished the Jewish community from the pro-Israel community, which, as he explained, includes many Christians and excludes some Jews. He distinguished Jewish Americans from Israelis, who feel more strongly the fears that come with living in Israel. He distinguished liberal Jews from right-wing Jews, noting that some Jews support divestment from companies that exploit Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. He also distinguished practicing Jews from people of Jewish origin, such as himself. At one point, he said hed been called a fake Jew. Advertisement One influential player in the U.S.-Israel relationship, Rhodes argued, was the pro-Likud media in the United States. In their attacks on the podcast, some critics construed that phrase as a coded slam at Israel. But Rhodes was distinguishing between LikudIsraels leading conservative partyand the diversity of Israel as a whole. He extended this point about political diversity to the United States, noting that Netanyahu had meddled in American politics by working with congressional Republicans to undermine Obama. The larger fight, Rhodes implied, isnt between Jews and non-Jews or between America and Israel. Its between progressives in both countries and conservatives in both countries. Advertisement Rhodes agreed that religion has empowered the right in this conflict. But the religion thats driving that shift, he argued, isnt Judaism. Its Christianity. The Christian evangelical communitys embrace of the most right-wing brand of Israeli politics, he explained, has empowered right-wing Jewish perspectives in the American Jewish community. These evangelicals see themselves as allies of Jews. But in reality, said Rhodes, theyre siding with some Jews against others. In effect, he lamented, theyve shrunk the space, in a way, for the Jewish debate that usually happens around Israel. Advertisement Once you understand the power of Christianity in this debate, the caricature of the Israel lobby as a Jewish conspiracy collapses. Rhodes described foreign policy meetings at which he and other people of Jewish ancestry were present, but the presence that wasnt in the room was very powerful, which was the evangelical Christian movement. That is not about Jews. Beinart added that both he and Rhodes rejected the myth of a Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy. (That didnt stop some critics from accusing Rhodes of going all Protocols of Zion on Peter Beinarts podcast.) Adam Kredo, a writer at the Washington Free Beacon, tweeted that in the podcast, Rhodes claimed that Jews use money to threaten/pressure lawmakers into doing their bidding. What Rhodes actually said was that money is a pervasive tool in politics. Its true for everything from the gun industry to the fossil fuel industry, he observed. Its not a Jewish-specific thing. Beinart pointed out that many Americans who complain about the influence of money in politics change their tune when Israel comes up, protesting that its anti-Semitic to mention it in this context. Advertisement Advertisement Rhodes did talk about the influence of Jews in U.S. foreign policy. But his point wasnt that Jews had too much power. (Rhodes and Beinart agreed, in Beinarts words, that every community should be well represented.) What bothered Rhodes was the absence of Arab Americans. He told Beinart that at one meeting about Israel, I remember looking around the room and every single one of us in the meeting was Jewish or of Jewish kind of origin, like me. That wasnt inherently wrong, he noted, but I just remember thinking what if everybody in this room was an Arab American? The worst smear of Rhodes has come from Pompeo. In a tweet that has recirculated thousands of times, the former secretary of state accused Rhodes of alleging that all Jews were corrupt and cruel. Rhodes said the opposite. In the podcast, he was telling a story about a conversation hed had with a Hungarian man of Jewish origin. They were puzzling over Netanyahus alliance with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom Rhodes bluntly called an anti-Semite. In the conversation with his Hungarian companion, Rhodes speculated that perhaps Netanyahu thought Jews have been screwed throughout history by a corrupt, cruel world, and therefore, we just have to be corrupt and cruel ourselves. And if Ive got to make friends with a guy like Orban, Im going to do it. Advertisement Advertisement The moral of the story, as Rhodes told it, was his Hungarian companions response: A world in which ethno-nationalism is predominant is not a good world for the Jews. Thats the point Rhodes was making in the podcast: Wise Jews, unlike ruthless ones, understand that cruelty and collaboration with bigots are self-destructive. The attack on Rhodes is ironic in part because he explained in the podcast how and why such attacks are orchestrated. Crying anti-Semitism, he noted, is sometimes part of a political strategy to advance right-wing views in the guise of Judaism. It allows the whole debate around Israel to be framed by Bibi Netanyahu and Mike Pompeo and [Sen.] Tom Cotton, he argued. By smearing Rhodes, Pompeo proved the point: Anyone who criticizes the rights position is labeled a bigot. Advertisement Conservatives have long complained that the same thing, in other contexts, is done to them. Some, including Trump, have been accurately charged with racism. But others, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann and his mother, have been unjustly accused. In these cases, allegations of bigotryeven when raised or repeated by some people in sincere errorare deployed by others as weapons. Theyre used not to open eyes, but to shut down political debate. Some people on the right have felt the sting of that kind of injustice. Many more resent it. They shouldnt have done it to Ben Rhodes. For those of us who love aviation history, there is a special reminiscence associated with the Century Series fighter aircraft, similar to how others reflect on the automobiles of the same era. These supersonic fighters were also tested by the NACA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The Dryden Flight Research Center was NASAs premier installation for aeronautical flight research. Dryden was the Center of Excellence for atmospheric flight operations. The Centers charter was to research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space and related technologies. It was located at Edwards, Calif., on the western edge of the Mojave Desert, 80 miles north of Los Angeles. On March 1, 2014, the facility was renamed in honor of Neil Armstrong. The center, previously known as the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) from March 26, 1976, in honor of Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who at the time of his death in 1965 was NASAs deputy administrator. It has also previously been known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Muroc Flight Test Unit (1945), the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station (1949), the NACA High-Speed Flight Station (1954), the NASA High-Speed Flight Station (1958) and the NASA Flight Research Center (1959). Armstrong Flight Research Center was also the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one landed at Edwards. Until 2004, Armstrong Flight Research Center operated the oldest B-52 Stratofortress bomber, a B-52B model (tail number 008) which had been converted to drop test aircraft, dubbed Balls 8. It dropped a large number of supersonic test vehicles, ranging from the X-15 to its last research program, the hypersonic X-43A, powered by a Pegasus rocket. The aircraft was retired and is currently on display near the North Gate of Edwards. The F-100 (lower center) had originally been built as a day fighter. The later versions were built as fighter bombers, with some seeing combat in Vietnam. The F-101 (top center) was designed as a long-range escort, but saw service as a fighter bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, and interceptor. The F-102 (right) was designed from the start as an all-weather interceptor, and was used in this role throughout its service life. The F-104 (left) was originally designed as a light-weight fighter, but ended up being used as an interceptor and fighter bomber. In the photo below on the left is NACA High-Speed Flight Stations North American F-100A (52-5778) Super Sabre with a modified vertical fin. On the right is an Air Forces North American F-100A (52-5773) with the original vertical fin configuration. 1955. NACA added a larger vertical fin to the airplane in December 1954, adding 10 percent more surface area. Later North American installed an even larger fin, having 27 percent greater area, as well as wingtip extensions. The modifications solved the dangerous directional stability and roll coupling problems that the F-100 was experiencing. The F-100 series went on to a long and distinguished service life. These aircraft were flown by the NACA as part of a loan agreement with the Air Force. The NACA learned a great deal from these flights, in return for which NACA research pilots made evaluation flights in support of Air Force development efforts. Such tests were a major NACA activity during the 1950s, and included work on the F-89, F-100, and F-104. President Joe Biden has spoken with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ahead of the Biden administrations expected release of a long-awaited report implicating Saudi Arabias de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law," according to the White House readout of the call, adding that the two leaders discussed the war in Yemen and the US commitment to Saudi Arabia's defense. The White House didn't say whether Biden has raised the Khashoggi report, as expected, with his Saudi counterpart. Khashoggi, a self-exiled former royal insider-turned-critic and US resident, was killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. His remains were never recovered. Citing four officials familiar with the matter, Reuters first reported that the declassified intelligence assessment, based largely on the CIAs investigation, is scheduled for release Thursday and concludes the crown prince approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi. Former President Donald Trump dismissed his own intelligence communitys findings, refusing to blame the 35-year-old prince and reportedly bragging to journalist Bob Woodward that he shielded the Saudi royal from accountability in Congress. The Trump administration sanctioned 17 Saudi officials for their alleged involvement in the murder, but stopped short of punishing MBS, as hes widely known. Trump also refused to produce a declassified report on the Khashoggi killing, even as a law passed by Congress in 2019 required the administration to do so. The White House argued the report compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), if made public, could undermine sources and methods. The Saudi government maintains that Khashoggi was killed in a rogue operation without Prince Mohammeds prior knowledge. But a 2019 UN report found it inconceivable that the crown prince wouldnt have been, at a minimum, aware of the operation. MBS told '60 Minutes' that the murder was a 'heinous crime, adding that he took full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government. A Riyadh court in September jailed eight unnamed defendants for involvement in Khashoggi's murder, but the trial was widely denounced as a sham by human rights experts. Abdullah Alaoudh, the Saudi Arabia research director at Democracy for the Arab World (DAWN), a DC-based organization founded by Khashoggi, said its essential for the Biden administration to name names, but what comes next is equally important. The US should deal with MBS like we did with every other member of the killing team, said Alaoudh. He should not be an exception to the rule of law. DAWN and other human rights groups are calling on the Biden administration to impose further travel bans and financial sanctions on senior Saudi officials, including MBS. Theyre also seeking the disclosure of other records related to Khashoggi, including the full CIA report and a tape recording of the murder. The ODNI reports expected release comes as Biden looks to relicabrate the US-Saudi relationship, having criticized Riyadh for its human rights abuses and promised during the campaign to make the conservative country a pariah on the world stage. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden will only be dealing with his counterpart, King Salman, not MBS. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin placed the administrations first call to Prince Mohammed, who is also the kingdoms defense minister. The two discussed Houthi attacks directed at Saudi Arabia from Yemen, where Biden has pulled US support for the Saudi-led coalition's offensive operations. A trio of colleagues have revealed how they started a 'casual throuple' because they are 'so horny' they always end up sleeping together. Bishop Black, 36, from London, Lina Bembe, 28, from Mexico, and Carmen Canela, 26, from Spain all met at work and live in Berlin. 'First and foremost, we're dear friends,' Lina said. 'But we are also horny and it just more or less transpires that way. 'We don't think about labels or anything definitive. A trio of colleagues have revealed how they started a 'casual throuple' because they are 'so horny' they always end up sleeping together. Pictured: Bishop Black (right), Lina Bembe (centre) and Carmen Canela (left) 'We're just friends who happen to be sexually intimate with each other and have a loving connection. 'There's nothing romantic - in a normative sense - about our thing, but you can indeed call it a relationship.' Bishop, a video and stage performer, and Lina, a performer and director, were the first to meet during a casting at a festival. The pair were originally supposed to work together but the project didn't go ahead, so they ended up becoming close friends. A few years later, fate stepped in as the pair met photographer Carmen, who had been chatting to Lina about a potential collaboration and had also run into Bishop on a random night out in Berlin. Bishop Black (left and right), 36, from London, Lina Bembe (right) 28, from Mexico, and Carmen Canela (left) 26, from Spain all met at work and live in Berlin Lina (right) pictured with Carmen says the trio are 'friends first' but are 'so horny' they end up sleeping together Just like other couples, the trio enjoy date nights out at restaurants and also enjoy cooking meals at home but are polyamorous and have no rules on who they can sleep with. And the fun doesn't end there, with Bishop saying a major benefit of their set-up is not having the pressure of a conventional relationship. 'The best part of being in a throuple is open communication with each other,' he said. 'There's three times the fun. We keep things as casual as we want - we understand that friendship comes first. 'But we are definitely in love with each other.' 'I met Lina first whilst on a casting at a festival,' Bishop added. 'We were originally cast to work together but the film ended up not going ahead in the end. We met a few times after that and became friends. Just like other couples, the trio enjoy date nights out at restaurants and also enjoy cooking meals at home. Pictured: Bishop Black (left), Lina Bembe (right) and Carmen Canela (centre) 'I met Carmen while out in Berlin at a coffee place. I knew about her as I had seen her work on Instagram and liked it. 'We ended up doing a shoot together and became friends. 'I had been adamant not to tamper a work relationship with sex but I think we were pretty into each other.' A few weeks and the trio met up for dinner and drinks, which would soon lead them into the bedroom. Lina Bembe (left) and Carmen Canela (right). Bishop says a major benefit of their set-up is not having the pressure of a conventional relationship They were all feeling frisky and so decided to have a threesome and have since formed a 'casual throuple'. The trio now go out for dinner dates, cook meals at home and before the pandemic would go also go out drinking together at bars. Albeit in a throuple, Bishop, Lina and Carmen consider themselves friends who happen to be sexually intimate with each other and share a loving connection. The throuple's family and friends are very 'progressive' and accepting of their relationship. After first meeting for dinner and drinks, the trio had a threesome and soon decided to start a 'throuple'. Bishop Black (right), Lina Bembe (cenre) and Carmen Canela (left) Carmen said: 'My closest friends are family to me and we are always respectful with each other. 'My mum knows about our relationship, she just laughs very awkwardly about my whole life - but she is sweet and very supportive.' Unlike most three-way relationships, theirs doesn't have any restrictions or rules. Lina said: 'No one was dating anyone at first. 'The three of us just happened to be friends with similar proclivities. The trio now go out for dinner dates, cook meals at home and before the pandemic would go also go out drinking together at bars. 'I feel good about having friends I can trust and feel intimate with the way I do with Bishop and Carmen and I really hate when people try to put labels on connections that simply don't need labels.' As for how and when they have sex, it's a very loose arrangement and there's no jealousy if two of them meet up without the third. Whenever they have a misunderstanding, Bishop, Lina and Carmen will sit down and talk face-to-face with one another but give each other enough space to process things. Lina said: 'Sometimes we have sex with the three of us, sometimes just two of us.' Carmen added: 'Of course, there are sometimes misunderstandings like in every relationship. As for how and when they have sex, it's a very loose arrangement and there's no jealousy if two of them meet up without the third. Whenever they have a misunderstanding, Bishop, Lina and Carmen will sit down and talk face-to-face with one another but give each other enough space to process things 'We don't have a protocol but we definitely think it's best to talk face-to-face and don't assume anything. 'We believe in having adequate space to process things.' Each member of the throuple brings something different to the romance, which they say helps to keep things in balance. Carmen said: 'Lina is very caring, an amazing listener and she always knows what to say, for me, she is always on point and I love that about her. 'Bishop is extremely creative, funny and deep, I am sure people who don't really know him well say he is a very cold person but not at all, he is sweet and he truly cares about the people around him. 'I am blessed to have them in my life, I really love them.' The trio don't live together and don't plan to do so anytime soon, nor do they want kids. Instead, they prefer to take things day-by-day and cherish every moment they spend together. Carmen said: 'I don't think so much about the future, I try to work on thinking on the present and the moments we are together. 'If in 10 years we are still in each other's lives, I'm sure I'll be happy - but if that's not the case, I am very blessed to have had the connection I have with them right now.' Lina added: 'I want our friendship to continue evolving and to be able to see each one of us becoming better, happier versions of ourselves. 'I want to continue cultivating the existing bonds of care and trust that exist between us.' The throuple wants to showcase their love to the world and so have recently created a profile on Lustery, an erotic website, to lift the stigma around less traditional relationship set-ups. 'Our understanding of the concept 'couples' is broad,' co-founder of Lustery Paulita Pappel said. 'We like to include any loving relationship however unconventional, as long as there is a real connection and intimacy in sex.' Drug arrest lands 3.4kg of ice, 1,500 meth pills PHUKET: Police have arrested a man in Koh Kaew found with more than 3.4kg of crystal meth (ya ice ) and more than 1,500 methamphetamine pills (ya bah). drugscrimepolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Thursday 25 February 2021, 10:19AM The arrest followed an investigation by the Border Patrol Police, Phuket Vice Governor Vikrom Jakthee announced yesterday (Feb 24). The bust followed officers arresting Wanchai Than Kobkit at a residence in Soi Mae Kim, off Thepkrasattri Rd in Phuket Town, after he was found in possession of narcotics. Wanchai named his supplier as Thanalop Noom Bunnalang, leading officers to move in and arrest Thanalop at a house in Soi Koh Kaew 8 at about 9pm on Monday (Feb 22). In taking Thanalop into custody, officers seized 3,478.08 grammes of ya ice and 1,564 meth pills, V/Gov Vikrom said. During questioning Thanalop confessed that he received deliveries of drugs by parcel delivery from a man whose real name he did not know, V/Gov Vikrom told the press conference. Thanalop said that the last delivery he received before his arrest comprised 5kg of ya ice pills and 10,000 meth pills. Thanalop was paid B20,000 for selling each delivery of drugs, V/Gov Vikrom noted. Advertisement England's Covid vaccine postcode lottery was laid bare today by figures that revealed towns on the Isle of Wight and in Devon have inoculated nearly 20 times more people than an inner-city region of Sheffield. NHS statistics going up to February 21 show 90.3 per cent of all over-65s in England have had their first dose, with rates varying wildly across the nation. Health bosses also released vaccination data by postcode for the first time, showing exactly how the roll-out has stormed ahead in parts of the country. MailOnline's analysis of the figures based on Office for National Statistics population estimates suggests that 15 areas of the country have already immunised at least half of all their residents. Yarmouth and Freshwater on the Isle of Wight topped the pack, dishing out 5,451 first doses. This would give it an uptake rate of 57.5 per cent, given that the area it is estimated to be home to 9,487 people. But 77 districts have vaccinated fewer than 10 per cent of residents, data suggested. Urban areas in northern cities performed worst, with Cathedral and Kelham in Sheffield jabbing just 3.19 per cent of all its 21,171 residents. It was followed by University North and Whitworth Street in Manchester (4.8 per cent), Arboretum, Forest and Trent University in Nottingham (4.82 per cent) and Leeds City Centre (5.19 per cent). Rates can vary because of population breakdowns, with the roll-out currently only just on NHS workers, over-65s, care home staff and residents and the seriously vulnerable. For example, younger people tend to live in cities so they would rightly have lower vaccination rates. Figures also revealed just 71.5 per cent of care home staff have been given a first dose of the vaccine. But the rate is barely over 50 per cent in London, where the roll-out is lagging behind. It comes as Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace reports released today showed the number of positive Covid tests recorded last week was lower than at any point since the start of the second wave and cases came down in all age groups and regions over recent weeks. And the picture is positive over almost the entire country, with case counts coming down in 134 out of 149 local authorities although there were 15 areas that recorded growing outbreaks in the week up to February 21. Chief medical officers in all four nations of the UK today agreed to downgrade the Covid threat level from Level 5 'a material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed' to Level 4, which says a 'Covid epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high or rising exponentially'. Britain has already vaccinated more than 18.7million people and ministers have pledged to dish out jabs to all 32million in the top nine groups by April. More than 700,000 have received their second dose. NHS England statistics going up to February 21 show 15 areas of the country have vaccinated more than half of all residents. But as the country moved into the second stage of the rollout last Monday moving down the age brackets from the current 65 to 69-year-olds group the disparity in vaccine distribution across the country has come to light. Pictured: The top five and bottom five performing areas. Data is based on MailOnline's analysis of the NHS figures as well as Office for National Statistics population estimates for nearly 7,000 districts in England BEST PERFORMING AREAS FOR VACCINATING ALL RESIDENTS Yarmouth & Freshwater, Isle of Wight 57.46% Sidmouth Town, Devon Felixstowe East, Suffolk Selsey, West Sussex Ferring & Kingston Gorse, West Sussex 57.33% 54.74% 53.17% 52.85% East Preston & Rustington East, West Sussex 51.96% Holland-on-Sea, Essex Collington, Cooden & Little Common, East Sussex 51.70% 51.54% Budleigh Salterton, East Devon 50.63% Meads, East Sussex 50.50% Advertisement WORST PERFORMING AREAS FOR VACCINATING ALL RESIDENTS Cathedral & Kelham, Sheffield 3.19% University North & Whitworth Street, Manchester 4.80% Arboretum, Forest & Trent University, Nottingham 4.82% Leeds City Centre Tidenham & Woolaston, Gloucestershire 5.18% 5.70% North Central & Dartmouth Circus, Birmingham 5.76% Canary Wharf, London Piccadilly & Ancoats, Manchester 6.16% 6.40% Leicester City Centre 6.68% Advertisement London has given out the fewest doses to over-65s, with eight areas of the city falling in the bottom 10 parts of the country for rollout to the age group. Bottom of the pile was Westminster (58.7 per cent), followed by West London (65.7 per cent), Tower Hamlets (66.1 per cent), Newham (70.3 per cent), City and Hackney (73.6 per cent), Barking and Dagenham (75.4 per cent) and Hammersmith and Fulham (75.6 per cent). Top of the pack was Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, which has vaccinated 97.7 per cent of all residents, followed by South Warwickshire (97.6 per cent) and Stafford (96.7 per cent). Yarmouth and Freshwater in the Isle of Wight has given out the most first doses to all age groups, with 57.5 per cent of the villages having been given a jab. This was followed by Sidmouth Town in Devon (57.33 per cent) and Felixstowe in Suffolk (54.74 per cent), with the vast majority of the other top ten areas being in the South East. Meanwhile, inner city regions performed worst in vaccinating adults overall, with fewer than seven per cent receiving a first dose in parts of Leicester, Manchester, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Nottingham. Some 94 per cent of residents of older adult care homes in England eligible to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine had received the jab by February 21. Residents are classed as eligible for the vaccine if they have not had Covid-19 in the previous 28 days. The equivalent figure for staff of older care homes is 71.5 per cent. Just 54.8 per cent of eligible staff at older care homes in London are estimated to have received their first jab. Gary Lineker, 60, gets first Covid jab early in another example of UK's postcode lottery BBC presenter Gary Lineker today revealed he had received his first coronavirus vaccination, praising it as 'quick, painless, liberating and well organised'. The 60-year-old Match of the Day host got his first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab and tweeted a picture of his confirmation card, saying: 'Well played, NHS.' It means Lineker has got his jab early, with the NHS currently only vaccinating those aged 64 or over; the clinically vulnerable; people living or working in care homes; health and social care workers; and people eligible for carer's allowance. It follows fears that the vaccine roll out has become a postcode lottery, with several areas in England, including London, said to have started offering jabs to people in their 50s with no underlying health issues such as diabetes or liver disease. Today, Lineker joked: 'Had the vaccine and @englandcricket lost Root and Stokes whilst I was getting jabbed. Nobody said anything about those side effects.' The ex-England football captain made the gag after Ben Stokes and Joe Root fell in successive overs as England's cricketers went down to a ten-wicket defeat in India. And Lineker, who lives in West London, then tweeted a picture of his jab card with today's date, saying: 'Quick, painless, liberating and well organised. Well played.' He was asked by one Twitter user if he had received the jab because he was vulnerable, but replied: 'No, I'm 60.' Advertisement Some regional NHS sites have started dishing out Covid jabs to healthy people in their twenties, it emerged yesterday. Despite national guidance stating only the top six priority groups should currently be invited for the jab, there have been growing reports of younger Brits who don't have underlying conditions and are not frontline NHS or social care staff receiving their first dose. Examples have been most common in London, which is seeing the poorest uptake of anywhere in Britain, but there has also been anecdotal evidence of it happening in parts of Manchester, Scotland and Wales. GPs in the capital are believed to be moving down through the priority groups to use up doses that would otherwise go to waste. But it's not clear why others are ignoring Government guidance or if admin errors are contributing to the problem. Ellie, 28, from Balham, London, got her first injection in mid-February, despite having no underlying health woes. When she asked why she was being selected ahead of more vulnerable people, she was told it was her 'lucky day'. Rhiannon Williams, 32, a journalist at the i newspaper, revealed yesterday she was given her first vaccine in Tower Hamlets, East London, after a 'very surprising' appointment invitation, despite having no known risk factors. She told the paper: 'At first I assumed I might have something in my health history I wasn't aware of that bumped me up the list, but when I called up to ask the surgery said it was merely working its way through its patients. 'Either way, I'm grateful to have received my first jab and would urge anyone else to follow NHS advice and to accept an invitation for a vaccine when offered.' Currently only people over 64, anyone over 16 with a serious condition, frontline NHS and care home workers and carers of disabled people are officially eligible to receive the vaccine in England. The devolved nations are working to slightly different schedules. The priority list was drawn up based on how vulnerable people are to falling seriously ill and dying with Covid. Only a handful of healthy people in their twenties and younger have fallen victim to the disease. The increasing number of younger people skipping the queue comes despite the national roll-out suffering its worst slump in over a month. But as a total of 18.7million people have been vaccinated so far, Britain's Covid outbreak is continuing to shrink to levels not seen since September. Department of Health bosses today recorded another 9,985 cases down 17 per cent on last Thursday. Another 323 victims were also added to the official fatality toll, a weekly fall of 29 per cent. And nearly 450,000 more Brits were vaccinated yesterday, taking the total to 18.7million. The figures came as the coronavirus alert level was downgraded to level four today, with the UK's chief medical officers confirming the immediate threat to the NHS had 'receded'. But they warned Britain isn't out of the woods yet and health bosses insisted no-one in the NHS is 'anywhere near declaring this phase of battle won'. Despite the good news, the Prime Minister again rejected calls to bring forward lockdown easing, saying there was no wiggle room before the dates he laid out in his roadmap on Monday, which will see social distancing rules relaxed no sooner than March 29. In a statement this afternoon, the UK chief medical officers led by Professor Chris Whitty signalled there is no longer a 'material risk' of the NHS being overwhelmed within three weeks, but they insisted the public should be under 'no illusions' that the threat had gone away entirely. 'Following advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and in the light of the most recent data, the four UK Chief Medical Officers and NHS England National Medical Director agree that the UK alert level should move from level 5 to level 4 in all four nations,' a statement said. 'The health services across the four nations remain under significant pressure with a high number of patients in hospital, however thanks to the efforts of public we are now seeing numbers consistently declining, and the threat of the NHS and other health services being overwhelmed within 21 days has receded.' In a statement this afternoon, the UK chief medical officers said that the Covid alert can come down from the top grade to Level 4 -signalling that the outbreak has subsided significantly Public Health England data show that September 20 (week 38) was the last time that cases were lower in every region and every age group than they are now Age group categories all also have significantly lower rates than they did over the winter peak. Among 20 to 29-year-olds, who had the highest infection rate of all during the second wave at 939 positives per 100,000, almost one per cent of the population in the first week of January the number of cases has dropped to just a sixth of its peak, to 157 per 100,000 Just 84,310 people tested positive for the coronavirus across the country during the week ending February 17, NHS Test and Trace data revealed today. This is down 44 per cent in a fortnight and is the lowest number since the week to September 30 Nearly 4,500 people are being treated in hospital beds every day in England up more than 40 per cent for this time of year amid the Covid pandemic (left). Pressure on hospital intensive care units has fallen nearly 25 per cent in the last month (right), but there are still nearly 1,500 more people in hospital beds than this time last year It came as Covid cases in England hit their lowest levels in five months. Just 84,310 people tested positive for the coronavirus across the country during the week ending February 17, NHS Test and Trace data revealed today. And Public Health England figures showed that 134 out of 149 local authorities saw outbreaks shrink in the last week, with September 20 the last time all regions and age groups had lower infection rates than they do now. Calls are mounting from Tory MPs to bring forward No10's lockdown end date of June 21 and give millions of people their freedom before the summer solstice. But the PM was defiant on a visit to Accrington Academy in Lancashire today, saying the number of people in hospital with Covid remains 'high'. Asked whether there was 'wiggle room' to lift lockdown quicker, he said: 'I think it's very important to have a timetable that is sensible, that is cautious, but one that is also irreversible. And that's the virtue of the timetable we have set out.' Despite promising early information about the impact vaccines have on reducing transmission of the virus, the Prime Minister said case numbers were still too high to accelerate easing the lockdown. 'We're sticking to our plan. Obviously we will continue to look at data but the data currently still shows, as you know, that the incidence of the disease, sadly, remains high,' he added. 'I'm afraid the numbers of people in hospital are still not far below the peak that they were in April last year. 'So we think that the road map that we've set out is a good and balanced one for us to get on a journey that is cautious but, as I say, irreversible as well.' A 16-year-old schoolboy stabbed to death by thugs had only weeks earlier been chased by a gang for straying onto their turf, his friend told MailOnline. Drekwon Patterson was ambushed by four hooded attackers in Brent, northwest London, around 11.30pm last Thursday. Police believe they tried to mow him down with a Ford Mondeo before pursuing him on foot, knifing him repeatedly and leaving him to die on the pavement. Today it emerged that Drekwon's family had only recently moved house for safety after an attack in November. Postcode violence in the area is rife, according to Ty, a friend of tragic Harrow College pupil who recalled a recently frightening episode. Ty said: 'It was only a few weeks ago and we were walking back to the estate when some guys stopped us and asked us where we were from. 'They chased us, screaming they were going to kill us for being in their ends. It happens around here all the time. There's a lot of post code violence around here.' Drekwon Patterson, 16, was left for dead by the attackers who ambushed him in Brent, northwest London, last Thursday night Ty has had some social media contact with Derkwon's twin brother. He said: 'The family are very shocked and have gone into 9 days of mourning. 'Derkwon's death is tragic because his parents decided to move from here because they wanted their kids to be safe. 'Derkwon was not affiliated to any gang, I can promise you that. He was very funny and a proper entertainer. He loved making us laugh. He was very street smart and I'm going to miss him a lot.' Police believe the thugs drove the black Ford Mondeo into the teenager before chasing him down Preston Street and knifing him. Harrowing CCTV footage shows Drekwon desperately trying to get the attention of passing motorists - but tragically going unanswered. A local shopkeeper said: 'The boy was waving for help but no one stopped. It is heartbreaking.' The gang were later caught on camera piling back into the car, which was later found burned out by officers in a nearby park. Drekwon, one of eight children from the Wembley area, was found with stab wounds and pronounced dead the next day, sparking London's 15th murder probe of the year so far. Scotland Yard has not yet made any arrests and have launched a hunt for Drekwon's killers, releasing images of a car and a van in relation to their investigation. They are appealing for information about a car seen driving from the scene which was later discovered burnt out. Police believe the four hooded thugs drove the black Ford Mondeo into the teenager before chasing him down Preston Street and knifing him The officer said police are also keen to trace the driver of a van which was seen on CCTV stopping briefly near the scene Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard, from the Metropolitan Police, said: 'I need to hear from any witnesses or anyone with information about this tragic murder - if you know anything that may be significant, please get in touch. 'In particular, I need to find out more information about a car - a black Ford Mondeo, using registration number YR54 NHN - which was seen on CCTV driving away from the scene and found burnt out in Silver Jubilee Park, NW9 on Friday 19 February. 'I believe this car was used in an initial attempt to injure Drekwon in a collision on Preston Road. 'After the Mondeo had been driven at him, Drekwon ran away and was chased by four suspects who had got out of the car, before being caught and fatally stabbed.' He said the car is a 'key line of inquiry' and described it as 'a fairly large vehicle and quite old, so it would have been noticed'. The officer said police are also keen to trace the driver of a van which was seen on CCTV stopping briefly near the scene. He said: 'I am appealing for that driver to please come forward as a witness.' According to The Sun, Drekwon pleaded with a stationary van driver for help after the thugs had made off, but was ignored. Police are braced for a spike in violent crime this summer as lockdown is eased and society gets back to normal. Would you like to see your product on H-E-B shelves? The H-E-B Quest for Texas Best 2021 is now accepting entries. The H-E-B Quest for Texas Best is an annual competition where the Texas-based grocery store searches for the best foods, beverages, and even non-food items made in the Lone Star State. Finalists will get a chance to win $25,000 and placement on their shelves. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The fish in Texas waters aren't surviving the extreme wintry weather. As of Wednesday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told MySA.com it has had "fish kills" in five bay systems in the middle and lower coast due to the freezing temperatures and cold water. "Fish kills," also known as fish die-off, refers to localized batches of fish that wash up dead along riverbanks and bays. Extreme weather (hot or cold) is one of the common natural causes of "fish kills." FROZEN ANIMALS: Deer, antelope and bats among wildlife pummeled during Southern freeze On Monday, Nessy Tompkins took pictures of one along Port Aransas and posted it to her Facebook page dedicated to the beach. Capt. Michael Laskowski Jr. also shared images of dead redfish and trout he saw while he was out doing his daily fish count on Aransas Bay this Wednesday. Laskowski said he also found 12 dead sea turtles along his route. He's encouraging other anglers to practice "catch & release 2021." TPWD said it always recommends catch and release, however, anglers are allowed to keep legal-size fish within the bag limit. H-E-B FTW: Ellen praises H-E-B for response in aftermath of Texas freeze The department said most of the "fish kills" were observed by its staff or game wardens. It urges residents to report any sightings to (512) 389-4848 so its Kills and Spills team can be notified. The TPWD Kills and Spills team collects data on these events to assess the overall impact on Texas fish populations. The department said it does not yet know the extent of the impact of the recent winter weather. Biologists are still assessing the situation and hope to have a report early next week, as they are dealing with power and water issues while also assisting with sea turtle rescue. Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 13:17:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. - - - - PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia on Thursday confirmed 65 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 697, said a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement. The new infections included 58 domestically transmitted cases in capital Phnom Penh and seven imported cases, the statement said, adding that the patients are currently undergoing treatment at various designated COVID-19 hospitals. - - - - PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia said on Wednesday that all foreigners living or working in the kingdom will be able to receive free COVID-19 vaccines in due course. "All foreign nationals who are currently residing and working in Cambodia can get vaccinated against COVID-19 at no charge in accordance with Cambodian COVID-19 vaccination plans," said a foreign ministry's letter sent to Diplomatic Missions and the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Phnom Penh. - - - - MAPUTO -- A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China arrived here on Wednesday to help the African country fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was also the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines received by the country. Speaking after a delivery ceremony at the airport, Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario praised China's role in fighting the pandemic and thanked the Chinese people for the friendship, adding that "the rapid availability of vaccines against COVID-19 reflects the commitment and determination" of both the Chinese and Mozambican governments in guaranteeing people's well-being. - - - - ALGIERS -- A donation of Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to help the North African nation combat the pandemic. A military jet of the Algerian Air Force carrying the batch of vaccines landed in the evening at the Boufarik military airport. Enditem Analytics India Magazine News Summary Analytics India Magazine has announced the dates for the third edition of The Rising, the largest gathering of women data scientists in India. The conference will be held virtually on May 21 & 22. SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - The Fire Victim Trust filed a lawsuit against former officers and directors of PG&E Corporation and PG&E for their role in causing the North Bay Fires and the Camp Fire, according to the Fire Victim Trust. Fire Victim Trust, which is representing nearly 80,000 victims, is suing nearly two dozen former executives and board members of PG&E for Dereliction of Duty. It is our duty to hold accountable the prior officers and directors who grossly neglected to do their jobs in the lead-up to the North Bay Fires and the Camp Fire, Hon. Justice John K. Trotter, Trustee of the Fire Victim Trust, said in a press release. These individuals had the responsibility to customers, employees, shareholders, and the public to ensure that safety was one of PG&Es highest priorities. The lawsuit says PG&E had not installed and implemented a system to shut off power like other utilities in the North Bay Fires. It also says in 2017 PG&E was six years behind on its vegetation management program, meaning vegetation was not properly trimmed and maintained. Tens of thousands of people have needlessly suffered because PG&Es former officers and directors failed to adopt robust policies and procedures for vegetation management or provide oversight of PG&Es aging transmission tower infrastructure, Frank Pitre of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, who is serving as co-lead counsel for the Fire Victim Trust, said in a press release. In the Camp Fire, the Complaint alleges the defendants failed to detect and replace aging equipment as part of PG&Es transmission inspection program. Fire Victim Trust specifically points out the 100-year-old C-hook that was mounted on a transmission tower failed and started the fire. The First Victim Trust is seeking enough monetary damages and injunctive or declaratory relief to reform PG&Es corporate governance. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The father of a wealthy Manhattan woman who fell to her death down a trash chute in what police ruled was a freak accident when she was drunk is claiming that she was in fact strangled by a hitman hired by her estranged husband to stop her from taking her money in their divorce. Lara Prychodko, 48, was discovered dead on July 10, 2018, by a maintenance worker after plummeting from the 27th floor of the Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square. She had last been seen stumbling around drunk in the apartment building. Police ruled her death an accident but her father, Nicholas Prychodko, has long suspected foul play. On Tuesday, he filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her estranged husband David Schlachet, claiming that he had a hitman strangle her and throw her body down the chute. Lara and Schlachet were in the middle of a contentious divorce when she died. According to the lawsuit that was obtained by The New York Post, he stood to lose at least $6million in their divorce. The lawsuit claims that Schlachet hired an unidentified hitman, referred to as John Doe, and met with him multiple times before Lara's death. Lara Prychodko, 48, was discovered dead on July 10, 2018, by a maintenance worker after plummeting from the 27th floor of the Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square. Her father Nicholas (above together) believes she was murdered Lara with her estranged husband David Schlachet. The lawsuit alleges he hired a hitman to strangle her 'Upon information and belief, during these meetings, Schlachet offered to pay John Doe to murder Lara Prychodko,' the lawsuit alleges, claiming that the hitman followed her before killing her, into her apartment and near another that she kept nearby. The lawsuit claims he waited for her to take the elevator to the 27th floor of the apartment building then strangled her and disposed of her body in the chute. It's unclear where they think he killed her, or if there are security cameras in his apartment building. The lawsuit claims that once she was dead, Schlachet then paid the hitman. Schlachet, the lawsuit claims, then tried to cover up what he had done by planting 'stories in various news outlets to shift the focus away from himself as a suspect.' He has never been charged over his estranged wife's death, nor has anyone else. He has also not yet responded to the allegations in the lawsuit. He previously told Dateline: 'What could have happened to her? 'Was it a suicide? Its not possible. Thats not Lara. Was it an accident? 'I very quickly became convinced that there was only one plausible explanation for what took place. And thats homicide.' Security footage showed Lara, reportedly intoxicated and stumbling, entering her Zeckendorf Towers building at 4:10pm on July 10 and getting onto the elevator alone. Lara was seen entering her apartment building in Manhattan's Union Square alone on the day of her death. She had been drinking at a nearby bar Lara and David were in the midst of an ugly divorce and custody battle when she died Nicholas said Lara had gone to nearby bar that day to watch the FIFA World Series Cup semi-finals. 'Her grandfather is French and she speaks French. So she was a big fan,' he said. France beat Belgium in the match that day, which Nicholas said his daughter was ecstatic. 'The doorman said she was happy. She was high-fiving them. They all loved her because, you know, she was just so friendly and nice,' said Nicholas. One of Lara's neighbors on the 27th floor later told authorities that she returned home around 4:20pm and nothing seemed amiss in the hallway. But ten minutes later, the neighbor said she heard loud noises coming from the hallway and stepped outside her apartment to investigate. Although she did not see anyone at the time, she did discover an unattended purse on the floor near the trash compactor. Authorities would later reveal that the purse belonged to Lara. At 4:40pm, a maintenance worker stopped by the trash chute after it became jammed. That's where he found Lara's body 'crushed from multiple angles.' Prychodko has always claimed that his daughter was murdered A brief investigation by the New York Police Department determined there was no criminal activity involved. The NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner announced that Lara's cause of death 'undetermined,' but did note that she had a blood alcohol level of .29 at the time of her death. 'The circumstances around the death are unclear; however there is no suspicion of foul play,' the office said. But Nicholas refuses to believe his daughters death was simply drunken accident. He told Dateline that the trash chute at Zeckendorf Towers was around 15" by 18" with a door and that Lara was tall at 5'10". Lara accidentally falling into the trash chute, based on her height, seems implausible to Nicholas - and her friends agree. Vesna Todorov is both devastated and confused by the death of one of her closer New York City friends. 'Its definitely tragic, but it is not a tragic accident,' Todorov said. 'Thats what puzzles me. If she fell down the stairs, OK, but not a trash chute. Thats not an accident. Someone did that to her.' (Newser) Though Donald Trump played nice with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it does not appear that President Biden will keep that up. The Biden administration plans to release on Thursday a declassified version of a 2018 intelligence report that concluded the crown prince approved and likely ordered the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, reports Reuters and NBC News. Members of Congress got a look at the classified version of the report, which largely comes from the CIA, in late 2018. But its public release will "mark a significant new chapter in the US-Saudi relationship and a clear break with former President Donald Trump's policy of equivocating about the Saudi state's role in a brutal murder," per NBC. Biden said Wednesday that he had read the report and planned to speak with MBS' father, King Salman. story continues below White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki described an effort to "recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia." Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines committed to releasing it in compliance with a provision in a 2019 defense bill that the Trump administration chose not to comply with, per the BBC. MBS has denied direct involvement in Khashoggis 2018 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The kingdom blames agents who acted in a "rogue" extradition operation. Five men sentenced to death for the crime later had their sentences commuted to 20 years in what UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard called a "parody of justice." "For the sake of accountability and for the sake of American democracy, the DNI report must be released," she said Wednesday, per Al Jazeera. (Khashoggi's fiancee is suing MBS in US court.) ADVERTISEMENT The police in Lagos have arrested a 38-year-old driver for knocking an officer into a canal while trying to evade arrest by law enforcement agents along Airport Road, Lagos. A statement by Muyiwa Adejobi, the police spokesperson, said the reckless driver caused injuries to the officer. He identified the driver as Sunday Okodo, a resident of Alose Close, Apapa, while the police inspector, who was knocked down, was David Zapania. The incident occurred on Wednesday 24/2/21 at about 17 30hrs, when some Lastma personnel (who) were backed up by the police on enforcement duty within the state contravened (intercepted) a Toyota SUV, driving against the traffic along International Airport road. The driver resisted arrest and while trying to escape, a police inspector David Zapania was knocked down from the bridge and fell into a carnal. The police inspector was rescued and rushed to the Lagos State Emergency and Trauma Center where he was attended to and discharged, but sustained fracture on his left hand, the police said. In the video circulated on social media, the driver having encountered the law enforcement agents, made attempts to reverse his car and in the process knocked off the police officer standing behind into a canal. Mr Adejobi said the driver has been arrested and his vehicle impounded. The driver will be arraigned today, Thursday 25th February, 2021 before a mobile court at Oshodi, Mr Adejobi said. While sympathising with the injured police officer, Hakeem Odumosu, the Commissioner of Police, said the command had zero tolerance for gross violation of traffic laws and regulations in the state. Tupelo Partly Cloudy 80 Hi: 84 Lo: 52 Feels Like: 80 More Weather Columbus Clear 79 Hi: 83 Lo: 53 Feels Like: 80 More Weather Oxford Partly Cloudy 73 Hi: 79 Lo: 49 Feels Like: 73 More Weather Starkville Partly Cloudy 79 Hi: 83 Lo: 51 Feels Like: 80 More Weather Rain and thunderstorms will become the rule across our area as we go through the upcoming holiday shortened work week. All in all this will be due to some bits and pieces of low pressure moving through our area. Azaiya sits in the front row of his class in Ikyogen settlement, Nigeria. UNHCR/Roland Schonbauer After living with impaired vision for much of his six years, Azaiya recalls the exact moment the world swam back into view. The first thing I saw was the shining white hospital dress I was wearing, he recalls. The Cameroonian boys face lights up with a dazzling smile as he greets the visitors who have come to check on him at his home at Ikyogen refugee settlement in south-east Nigeria I am happy I can see, says Azaiya, adding, And that I can go to school. His outlook has not always been so bright. When he fled Cameroon three years ago, he could hardly distinguish light from darkness. Living with cataracts that left him visually impaired, his stepsister, 39-year-old Onal, had to carry him through the forests to safety. I am happy I can see and that I can go to school. At the settlement that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency built to receive families fleeing the conflict between secessionist forces in north-west and south-west Cameroon and the military, Azaiya could not make a step on his own. Uneven footpaths, open channels in the rainy season, fireplaces and poles between shelters all posed additional risks for him. Trips to the latrine required someone to take him by his hand and going to school was a distant dream. But help came when UNHCR staff reported his difficulties to health partner FHI 360. Medics promptly diagnosed congenital cataracts a lens opacity present since birth. Left unattended, it worsened over time as his vision progressively deteriorated, explains Ernest Ochang, UNHCRs Assistant Public Health Officer based in the city of Ogoja. Azaiya needed eye surgery, so UNHCR and FHI 360 made the critical intervention possible in June 2020. Forced displacement is particularly tough for people with disabilities like Azaiya, as they are often at higher risk of violence, exploitation and abuse. They can face barriers in accessing basic services, are often excluded from education and can face discrimination when looking for work. When Azaiya later returned to the settlement, equipped with a pair of glasses, his world opened up. While his vision is still classed as low, he does not have to depend on others to move about. More importantly, he can go to school unimpeded. Taking a seat in the first row of desks, Azaiya has begun to read and write. While his eyes seem to falter at times, his progress is visible to staff. He is trying to read from the blackboard and is making little progress, but progress all the same, explains Akule Lucy Angbiandoo, his teacher at the local primary school. In the school playground, he plays just like any other student. The improvements in Azaiyas life have also helped his stepsister Onal, who became the familys main breadwinner after her brother died in the conflict across the border in Cameroon. She farms cassava, rice and corn. But as Azaiya needs less handholding, she also has time to pursue her former trade as a tailor. UNHCR supported her to take a fashion design course, and thanks to some financial support from Save the Children, where she worked as a volunteer, she now has a new sewing machine. She makes clothes for children in her shelter and hopes to open a shop in the settlements main square. He is making little progress, but progress all the same. About 100 people live with a disability in Ikyogen settlement. UNHCR seeks to help them by ensuring they are included in decision making processes and have access to psychosocial support, if needed. Onal still has moments of sadness when she mourns her brother. But when Azaiya comes to her shelter, her spirits get a lift. Soon, boys and girls from the other shelters surround him they all want to hear his story again and again. He enjoys the attention and looks at his friends with a grin. Inspired by the surgeon who changed his life, he wants to become one too and work in a hospital one day. Call me Dr. Asuquo! he says, referring to the name of the doctor who led his surgery. Everyone bursts out in laughter, awed by the precocious boys nature. And his dazzling smile. Additional reporting by Lucy Agiende in Ogoja, Nigeria ROME, FEB 25 - Premier Mario Draghi on Thursday met the special envoy of the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrick Luabeya, and DRC Ambassador to Italy Fidele Sambassi Khakessa, for talks on Monday's killing in the African nation of Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio and police escort Vittorio Iacovacci, the premier's office said. Luabeya has been sent by DRC head of State Felix Tshisekedi to convey their condolences and bring a personal message An autopsy Wednesday indicated that the two Italians were killed by their kidnappers, allegedly Rwandan Huti rebels operating in the North Kivu, in a firefight with Congolese national park rangers. They were both shot twice, and not executed, the autopsy indicated. The Rwandan rebel group has denied killing Attanasio and Carabiniere Iacovacci, as well as their World Food Programme Congolese driver, Mustapha Milambo. (ANSA). TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ataccama, a leading provider of self-driving data management and governance solutions, has announced the acquisition of Tellstory, an innovative startup and easy-to-use data visualization platform that provides a unique, visually appealing, and engaging way to tell data-driven stories. The acquisition advances Ataccama's vision of giving businesses and data teams the ability to innovate at unprecedented speed while maintaining trust, security, and governance of their data. It enriches the flagship Ataccama ONE platform, completing the AI-powered data management and governance fabric with data visualization capabilities. The companies share a strong cultural and technical compatibility, as well as a vision for democratizing access to data and improving data literacy in organizations. This compatibility was one of the key factors in the decision to acquire Tellstory. It will enable further development of Tellstory as an integral part of Ataccama ONE, ensuring that Ataccama users continue to enjoy the ease and advantages of a seamless, unified platform experience. "Tellstory solves the problem of dashboards that are highly useful for analysts with specific, complex requirements, but painful for readers who are less skilled at configuring a BI tool, interpreting data, and finding critical bits of information. It visualizes data through data-driven stories, similar to a dynamic infographic. It leverages AI to provide active intelligence and data insights, selecting and highlighting the most interesting facts for the reader and recommending the optimal way to visualize them," says David Lazar, UX Designer of Tellstory. Ataccama ONE Gen2 gives every user in a company the ability to easily find, understand, trust, and use their data assets. With embedded data profiling, data quality monitoring, and data previews, users are able to peek inside the data to understand if it's fit for the intended use, and if it can be trusted. Tellstory will take this experience to another level by providing rich data stories, relevant to a particular user or a team, on top of cataloged data assets. Data stewards will be able to add business context to the data, providing a deeper view into the business value of given data assets without the user ever leaving the platform. Tellstory will also provide intelligent reporting capabilities for data quality projects, making it easy to share customized data quality reports. Similar functionality will be available on top of master data management repositories. "The tool's ability to intelligently select data elements and highlights to present fits perfectly with Ataccama's ambition to provide users with a self-driving experience in data management and governance. Tellstory's vision, aims, technology, and company culture are closely aligned to those of Ataccama, making it a good match for Ataccama at the company and product levels." Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The entire Tellstory.cloud team and leadership has joined Ataccama as part of the product organization. Tellstory will be launched as a multi-tenant tool with a free tier version available, along with the Ataccama ONE Gen2 GA release in March 2021. Later in the year, Tellstory will be integrated within the existing Ataccama ONE platform for a seamless user experience. It will enhance data exploration in the Ataccama Data Catalog and provide intelligent analytical capabilities on top of Ataccama ONE. Ataccama's customers will see increased value and benefits, including: Rich data asset visualization in the Data Catalog module, allowing data stewards to add business context to data and helping data consumers understand what data will best fit their use case AI-powered, advanced reporting and storytelling capabilities on top of data quality monitoring projects, allowing users to easily share and customize their data quality reports Intelligent analytics on top of the Data Governance suite, providing data stewardship insights The ability to create advanced analytical dashboards and stories on top of master data management repositories, and create custom reports Self-driving, visual data storytelling capabilities to enhance their existing BI & analytical landscape To learn more about Tellstory and sign up for early access, visit www.tellstory.cloud. About Ataccama Ataccama reinvents the way data is managed to create value on an enterprise scale. Unifying Data Governance, Data Quality, and Master Data Management into a single, AI-powered fabric across hybrid and Cloud environments, Ataccama gives your business and data teams the ability to innovate with unprecedented speed while maintaining trust, security, and governance of your data. Learn more at www.ataccama.com. Media Contact: Pamela Valerio, Communications Manager, press@ataccama.com With the Cherry Pi PC, Shenzhen LC Technology has created a single-board computer that is compatible with the Raspberry Pi. However, the Allwinner H3-based board also looks an awful lot like the Orange Pi, another SBC based on the same ARM processor. The Cherry Pi sells for US$16.50 on AliExpress. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 5G , Accessory , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel Evo / Project Athena , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Linux / Unix , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) Ticker Like the Raspberry Pi, the Cherry Pi measures 85 x 55 mm and is based on an ARM processor. However, Shenzhen LC Technology has opted for an Allwinner H3, a quad-core processor that features ARM Cortex-A7 processor cores an ARM Mali-400 MP2 GPU. The Cherry Pi only comes with 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM though, unlike newer Raspberry Pi models. There are two ways of booting an OS on the Cherry Pi, although eMMC flash storage is only available on the most expensive configuration, of which Shenzhen LC Technology has included 8 GB. The company equips all configurations with a microSD card reader though, which it has placed on the board's underside. Moreover, the board has an HDMI 1.4 port, a CSI connector connecting a camera, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a 100 MBit/s Ethernet connection and a USB Type-C port that supplies power. Additionally, there is an RTL8189 Wi-Fi chip, a 40-pin GPIO, an infrared receiver for use with a remote control and a microphone connection. A new coronavirus variant that shares some similarities with a more transmissible and intractable variant discovered in South Africa is on the rise in New York City, researchers said on Wednesday. The new variant, known as B.1.526, was first identified in samples collected in New York in November, and by 45ghresearchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, said on Wednesday. The variant was also described in research published online this week by the California Institute of Technology. Neither study has been reviewed by outside experts. The Columbia researchers said an analysis of publicly available databases did not show a high prevalence of coronavirus variants recently identified in South Africa and Brazil in case samples from44 New York City and surrounding areas. "Instead we found high 4Catrin Uhlemann, assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in a statement. The Columbia study found that B.1.526 shares some worrying characteristics with B.1.351, the variant first identified in South Africa, and P.1., which was first identified in Brazil. Several studies have suggested that those new variants are more resistant to some existing vaccines than earlier versions of the coronavirus. The researchers said the main concern is a change in one area of the virus spike protein, called E484K, that is present in all three variants. The E484K mutation is believed to weaken the bodys immune response to the virus. Studies have shown that recently launched coronavirus vaccines are still likely to neutralize the virus and protect against severe illness, even for infections with new variants. Vaccine makers are also working to develop booster shots to combat mutated versions of the virus. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Days after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) demanded an explanation from Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan for promoting Patanjali's Coronil Ayurvedic medicine, Patanjali Ayurved Limited spokesperson SK Tijarawala on Thursday condemned the IMA. "IMA has problems accepting the truth. It would have been better if it focuses on putting an end to the spread of misinformation and commission in the profession of medicine," Tijarawala tweeted. Earlier in the day, Yoga guru Ramdev said, "Coronil tablets lived up to the protocols set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). 158 countries have certified their sale in their countries. This is historic. Coronil is scientific-evidence and research-based medicine. Any attack on Coronil suggests pettiness." The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday demanded an explanation from Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan for promoting Patanjali's Coronil Ayurvedic medicine. "Being a Health Minister of the country, how justified is it to release such falsely fabricated unscientific product to people of the whole country and how ethical is it to promote the product in unethical, wrong and false ways?" Dr Jayalal, IMA national president, had said. "Let us not adulterate Ayurveda on the pretext of market gain to some monopoly corporate and create a disaster for humanity," IMA had said. Also Read: Bharat Bandh: Traders, transporters to stop work on Feb 26; all you need to know Protests against the military junta have continued in Myanmar following a huge outpouring of opposition on Monday in the form of protests and strikes following the killing of two protesters in Mandalay on Saturday. Yesterday groups of demonstrators gathered outside the Thai and Indonesian embassies while groups from the countrys various ethnic minorities protested on the streets of Yangon. People flash the three-fingered salute of resistance during the funeral of Tin Htut Hein in Yangon, Myanmar Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. Tin Htut Hein, acting as a volunteer guard for a neighborhood watch group established due to fears authorities were using criminals released from prison to spread fear and committing violent acts, was shot killed on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021, in unclear circumstances. (AP Photo) The general strike by workers on Monday graphically demonstrated the scope and depth of the political opposition to the militarys seizure of power on February 1. Along with numerous news sources, the protest leadershipa loosely organised group called the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)reported on its Twitter account that millions of people nationwide participated in the demonstrations and work stoppages. Due to stringent media censorship regulated by the military junta, the exact scale and composition of the strikes is unclear. However, it is apparent that the protests, dubbed the 22222 [or Five Twos] Popular Uprising, referring to the date on which it took place, were the largest since the coup. It is significant that ever wider sections of the working class are joining the struggle against the junta, from doctors, civil servants, and bank employees to supermarket workers and oil rig operators. The strike was organised in the wake of a bloody state crackdown on Saturday against striking shipyard workers and demonstrators in Mandalay. Police and military forces fired live rounds on a crowd of protesters, leaving two dead from gunshot wounds, including a 16-year-old boy, and about 30 injured. In preparation for Mondays strike, authorities constructed barricades and barbed wire at strategic locations in Myanmars cities, such as embassies which have become gathering points for some protesters calling for foreign intervention. Streets were patrolled by armoured vehicles and snipers deployed on downtown rooftops. Businesses throughout the urban and regional centres announced closures, including markets, restaurants, shops, and roadside vendors. The shutdown was also embraced by international chains such as KFC and delivery service Foodpanda. Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab halted its delivery services. In Yangon, the countrys largest city, where commercial activity has been increasingly paralysed by the CDM movement, huge crowds flooded the streets of the Sule, Hledan, and Myaynigone areas, Frontier Myanmar reported. People chanted slogans such as, Dont go to the office, break away! The second largest city, Mandalay, was also brought to a standstill by the broad extent of the strikes, as hundreds of thousands were mobilised across work sectors. Similarly large demonstrations were held in the smaller towns of Myitkina, Hpaan, Pyinmana, Dawei and Bhamo. Health workers have comprised a significant section of the CDM since its origin, with nearly one-third of Myanmars public hospitals no longer functioning. As of Tuesday, the Emergency Department of Yangon General Hospital, the citys best-equipped medical facility, was totally deserted. In place of public hospitals, doctors and nurses aligned with the movement have established free medical clinics across the country. Although the police response throughout the day was relatively muted in the face of huge crowds, in some cases violence was used to disperse gatherings. Attempts to break up the Yangon protests involved a long line of police in riot gear setting upon a massive procession near the Shwedagon Pagoda. As protesters retreated, nearby commuters came to their aid and formed a blockade with their cars, preventing police from moving forward. The crackdown on mass rallies at the capital Naypyidaw was especially violent. Videos on social media showed security personnel using water cannons and wrestling protesters to the ground in neighbouring townships of Zabuthiri and Pyinmana, in an effort to block demonstrators from marching into the capital. Major entry points to Naypyidaw were heavily guarded by military personnel, after calls on the weekend for an organised march on central government buildings. Witnesses spoke to the Irrawaddy about the incident. A reporter who escaped the scene said soldiers and police tried to seize cameras from journalists and targeted them for arrest. An engineering student who joined the protest said: They fired three times while they were trying to break us up. My two friends were beaten and taken away. I managed to run away They targeted young people. Amid the onslaught, hundreds of protesters were forced to hide in nearby houses and monasteries long after the crackdown. A total of 193 mostly young protesters linked to the Naypyidaw rallies have since been arrested and are detained in a military compound outside the capital. The protests on Monday went ahead despite ominous threats from the junta of violence. Late Sunday, the government issued a warning on state-run television network MRTV: It is found that the protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy mob on the day of 22 February. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life. The Foreign Ministry claimed in a statement prior to Monday that despite unlawful demonstrations, incitements of unrest and violence, the authorities concerned are exercising utmost restraint through minimum use of force to address the disturbances. As the anti-coup movement has grown over the past three weeks, the military is insisting that the protests are the work of notorious ex-criminal agitators and blamed protesters for attack on security forces. Its ministries and official publications have falsely claimed that the majority of Myanmars population supported the coup, which ousted the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) after winning last Novembers election in a landslide. Many protesters on Monday scrawled messages on their arms with their blood type and emergency contact numbers, in anticipation of potential injury or death at the hands of a military crackdown. In the aftermath of the general strike, the military regime has expanded its repressive measures in a desperate bid to halt the movement. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners revealed that at least 684 people have been arrested so far, while nearly 600 remain in detention. Meanwhile, in a move clearly aimed at blocking workers ability to organise the strike, the internet suffered widespread service outages and disruption on Sunday night, with NetBlocks reporting a 13 percent drop from usual internet usage levels. The military has also released oppressive new guidelines for media outlets, further restricting press freedom and the release of information on protests. Publications will now lose their publishing licenses for referring to the military regime or junta. Coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing said on Monday that measures must be taken to regulate the press in accordance with press ethics, while the Ministry of Information sent new directives this week to the Myanmar Press Council, calling for journalists to avoid instigating public unrest. Oregon Senate Republicans carried out their first Capitol boycott of the legislative session on Thursday, in what has become an increasingly common tactic by the party that holds a minority of seats in both chambers of the Legislature. Unlike in 2019 and 2020, when Senate and House Republicans walked out to kill proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions and other Democratic proposals, Senate Republicans decided to no-show this time in order to protest Gov. Kate Browns COVID-19 restrictions. They outlined their reasoning in a letter to the governor. All 11 Republicans in the chamber were absent Thursday morning, as was Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas, who recently switched his party registration to the Independent Party of Oregon. Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend, who remained during some of the previous Republican walkouts, joined his party this time. Both the Oregon House and Oregon Senate are required under the state constitution to have a two-thirds quorum present in order to conduct business, which in the Senate means Democrats need at least two senators from outside their party. Their walkout so early in the session and without substantive matters up for floor votes raises questions about how much the Legislature will be able to achieve in its COVID- and wildfire-relief focused session. It was not immediately clear how many of the absent lawmakers might have been excused ahead of time, as Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said one or two of them had said ahead of time they would not be at the in-person session Thursday morning. But all 11 members of the Republican caucus signed a letter to the governor in which they insisted she immediately reopen schools because science says its safe and increase the amount of COVID-19 vaccines available to older Oregonians, especially in rural areas. Our previous efforts to bring these issues to your attention have gone unacknowledged, the 11 Republicans wrote in their letter. Thus, we are protesting todays floor session. In this show of solidarity with Oregonians who are being failed by the current direction of your policies, we hope this action conveys the importance of these issues. While researchers have found that schools can reopen safely, doing so requires significant modifications, and an immediate reopening of schools for full in-person instruction that Senate Republicans demanded would not be safe, according to public health guidelines. At a minimum, educators and students need to wear masks and maintain six feet of social distancing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Oregon health officials say. That has forced schools that return to in-person instruction to bring students back to the classroom only part of the week because classrooms arent large enough for the whole class to be present. Republicans also cited the fact that as of five days ago Oregon was third last in the nation for vaccinating seniors, among the 31 states with data on the issue, according to a report in The Oregonian/OregonLive. Nationally and in Washington, D.C., Republicans are making the halting return to in-person instruction a top issue as they look to appeal to parents concerned about the academic progress and social-emotional well-being of their children and frustrated after a year of juggling work and virtual learning. Oregon Senate Republicans have a mixed record of support for widespread vaccination and COVID-19 safety. In 2019, one of the bills they successfully killed via a walkout would have closed a loophole in the states vaccine mandate for school children. During a December 21 special legislative session, Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg, tore off his face mask on the Senate floor and launched into a speech against Democratic leaders requirement that lawmakers wear masks to protect against the deadly virus. Heard, who referred to his legislative colleagues as fools while attending a Jan. 6 protest against the 2020 presidential election results and governors COVID restrictions outside the state Capitol, was recently elected chair of the Oregon Republican Party. Courtney, the Senate president, said on Thursday he had no warning that Republicans and Boquist would be no-shows at the Thursday floor session, where the only order of business was the introduction of 67 bills. The Legislature has been conducting most of its business via online committee meetings in the beginning of the five-month session, with weekly in-person floor sessions in each chamber to introduce bills. House and Senate leaders said this week they would begin holding more floor sessions and start voting on bills in March, but Senate Republicans walkout even before any floor votes raises questions about how much the Legislature will accomplish during this session. In 2020, House and Senate Republicans walkout over a cap-and-trade proposal killed numerous other bills including many that were noncontroversial and even some Republican priorities. Some of those proposals resurfaced this session, contributing to the potentially record pileup of bills this year. Democrats and their allies have been debating how to respond to the minority partys unprecedented use of walkouts, and Senate Majority Leader Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, said in a statement Thursday that his caucus will advance new rules and laws that will deter future walkouts and provide accountability for all elected officials who refuse to show up for Oregonians. He did not offer details. There are at least five proposals in the House and Senate to penalize lawmakers for unexcused absences or ask voters to amend the state Constitution to lower the quorum requirement: House Bill 2225, Senate Joint Resolution 3, Senate Joint Resolution 4, Senate Bill 261 and Senate Bill 262. Proposed penalties include fines; withholding a lawmakers salary, per diem and expense reimbursements during the absence; and prohibiting lawmakers from taking outside money to defray fines or lost income due to a walkout. (Senate Republicans) continue to accept pay, benefits and daily expenses from Oregon taxpayers all while completely obstructing the business before the Legislature the peoples work, Wagner said. We have tremendously important work this session. Lives are at stake as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet the Senate Republicans continue their anti-democratic walkout tactics. -- Hillary Borrud hborrud@oregonian.com Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Out of Place: Christian community in 1 Peter and James The green outline of his face was a caricature, the name inaccurate. Yet, we didnt think twice about our school mascot, we were the Indians. We cheered his image at games and emblazoned his likeness on yearbooks. It was years later before I heard an Indigenous American Christian speak about her heartbreak at this type of appropriation of tribal culture. I was left reconsidering my perspective and my assumptions. How does our Christian community live as Gods people when we are often either blind to appropriation or heartbroken at the pervasiveness of it? We are meant to embrace our unified identity as the people of God and help bring Gods purpose and blessing to the world, yet our experience of the world vastly differs. 1 Peter is written to believers suffering as marginalized foreigners even though they may not have left their geographic homeland. These Christians exchanged the Roman empire for the Kingdom of God in Christ and are now experiencing damaging social repercussions.[1] Peter calls them to view their present distress in light of Gods eternal purposes and Christs pattern of suffering and glory.[2] He wants them not to question their status as Gods elect because of their distress; instead, he wants them to see that their status as Gods elect involves participation in Christs suffering and future glory. This is testified by the prophets and given understanding by the Spirit (1:10-12). The trials faced by these exiles are not simply human opposition to their faith. It also points to the work of Satan aimed at destroying local churches and the broader community of faith. The struggle against evil is a cosmic battle, but thankfully Gods power and triumph are certain.[3] The conduct of these Christians in the face of suffering is their witness, their way of bringing Gods purpose and blessing to the world.[4] Peter further encourages believers to endure together, sharing hospitality, spiritual gifts and tangible help as they are empowered by God. This fulfills their witness by bringing glory to God in their treatment of one another (4:8-11). The book of James offers a different angle to help believers understand how to treat one another as equal siblings in the family of God. The hearers of this books are scattered abroad and experience difficulty. However, their difficulties dont grow out of separation from the world but instead grow out of embracing the worlds values. James speaks to people claiming their election before God yet not internalizing the lifestyle that comes with it.[5] When James speaks of the elevation of the poor and the lowliness of the rich (1:9-11) his hearers want to associate with the faithfulness ascribed to the poor. However, he goes on to point out that their actions demonstrate inconsistency. They show their true desire to be like the rich by giving them preferential treatment (2:3). For James right belief is linked to right actions.[6] Right actions should not lead to preferential treatment in the community of believers.[7] Right actions work to bring Gods will into the world.[8] Gods will for community is a lifestyle of siblings that has much in common with the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 and little in common with the status and power of the world. My predominantly white, suburban, American Christian context often seems unaware of how weve adopted the cultural values of status and power. James call for the church to be an equal community of brothers and sisters requires us to elevate those on the margins. We must have the self-awareness to see where we absorb status and power into our lives and the courage to explicitly reverse this absorption. This requires listening and allowing the marginalized to teach us. As siblings, it is not beneath us to learn why Indigenous Americans see mascot representation as problematic. It is not beneath us learn the history of the Black Church. It is not beneath us to learn why our Latinx siblings left their beloved homelands. An internalized faith elevates the marginalized and then, humbly, joins in their witness against suffering. Once we practice the equality of James, we can then uphold the witness of 1 Peter. In this, we love God and one another. Bibliography Bartlett, David L. 1 Peter. In Hebrews, the General Epistles, and Revelation, edited by David A Sanchez, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, and Margaret P Aymer, 129146. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016. Accessed February 13, 2021. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1370555. Cargal, Timothy B. James. In Hebrews, the General Epistles, and Revelation, edited by David A Sanchez, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, and Margaret P Aymer, 117128. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016. Accessed February 13, 2021. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1370555. Davids, Peter H. James and Paul. In Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid, 457460. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1993. Green, Joel B. 1 Peter. The two horizons New Testament commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2007. [1] Joel B. Green, 1 Peter, The two horizons New Testament commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2007), 191. [2] Ibid., 200. [3] David L Bartlett, 1 Peter, in Hebrews, the General Epistles, and Revelation, ed. David A Sanchez, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, and Margaret P Aymer (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016), 143, accessed February 13, 2021, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1370555. [4] Ibid., 135. [5] Peter H Davids, James and Paul, in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 460. [6] Timothy B Cargal, James, in Hebrews, the General Epistles, and Revelation, ed. David A Sanchez, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, and Margaret P Aymer (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016), 122, accessed February 13, 2021, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1370555. [7] Ibid., 118. [8] Ibid., 121. Bella Varelis has been mocked online for making a bizarre literary error on Instagram. The Bachelor reject, 26, left fans puzzled after she shared a confusing caption beneath a photo of herself posing in a white dress at Sydney's Watsons Bay Hotel on Thursday. In the caption, Bella wrote: 'Unintentionally matched my outfit to my dress [butterfly emoji].' Is everything all-white? The Bachelor's Bella Varelis, 26, has been mocked online for posting an intelligible caption underneath this photo of herself posing in a white dress at Sydney's Watsons Bay Hotel on Thursday Instagram 'snark' account Celeb Spellcheck quickly shared Bella's post, along with the sassy caption: 'Its a matching set.' Celeb Spellcheck also added the hashtag #thedressispink - a cheeky reference Bella's famous Valentine's Day rant about receiving pink roses from her boyfriend. Followers quickly flooded the post with comments poking fun at Bella's unintelligible caption, with one writing: 'Or does her dress match her outfit? LOL.' What? In the caption, Bella wrote: 'Unintentionally matched my outfit to my dress [butterfly emoji]' Burn: Instagram 'snark' account Celeb Spellcheck quickly shared Bella's post, along with the sassy caption: 'Its a matching set.' Puzzle: Followers quickly flooded the post with comments poking fun at Bella's bizarre caption, with one writing: 'Or does her dress match her outfit? LOL' 'Her caption does not compute in my brain,' another added. Bella has since edited her caption, changing the word 'outfit' to 'nails'. Colour has been a sore topic for Bella of late, after she was trolled online for claiming that the 'red' roses she'd received from her beau Will Stokoe on Valentine's Day were in fact pink. Mystery solved! Bella has since edited her caption, changing the word 'outfit' to 'nails' The saga began when Bella uploaded a photo of her bouquet, alongside the caption: 'Can we just appreciate that he made sure there were no red roses anywhere? He just gets me.' She added: 'Because pink is better than red.' However, many of her followers claimed that several darker-coloured roses looked to be red, not pink. In response, Bella uploaded a photo of herself looking teary and frustrated. 'Guys, some of you are killing me. I think I know what colour the roses are and the ones you are saying are red are pink,' she complained. She added: 'PINK. Some of you are so negative. Say less.' Trolled: Bella was left on the verge of tears on Valentine's Day after she was trolled by fans for saying the red roses her boyfriend gave her were pink More than a week after Donald Trump's acquittal in the Senate, and not before time, attention is turning more squarely to President Joe Biden and his agenda. Unfortunately, it's already clear that moving past the political turmoil that Trump inflicted on the U.S. will be difficult. Biden hopes to unite the country around efforts to support the economic recovery. He restated his case again during his recent town hall event in Wisconsin, for the most part to good effect. And on Friday, at the virtual Munich Security Conference, he ventured to speak for the whole nation in calling for restored alliances and a return to international cooperation. His message was directed as much to Americans as to the rest of the world: The U.S. is getting back to normal. A lot of Democrats, though, question Biden's desire for unity. They think advancing a strong progressive program matters more. Republicans aren't giving much thought to unity right now their party is at war with itself. And the country as a whole is divided, too. Far from bringing people together, a deadly pandemic and its enormous collateral damage have driven them farther apart. Many Americans still hope that Trump's departure can restore some semblance of orderly, semi-functional government. Despite everything, so it might but only if the country's leaders exert themselves. Effective government in a closely divided country means trying harder to bridge the divides. And this demands, against all odds, two parties capable of finding common ground. The president has taken steps in the right direction. At his town hall event he called for decency and respect. Invited to denounce Senate Republicans for failing to convict Trump, he declined, saying it was time to move on. It helps that, during the trial, the president stayed above the fray. He didn't offer running commentary and didn't call for a guilty verdict. In response to disturbing new footage of the Capitol riot, he said only that "Some minds may have been changed." It's to be hoped many were, but Biden was wise to let the evidence speak for itself. A leader who doesn't crave perpetual attention or thrive on disorder is more than welcome. Biden's restraint could also make space for the Republican Party to get past Trump which, for the country's sake, it needs to do. Rest assured, the former president will make that as hard as he can. Last week he attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, blaming him (absurdly) for the party's defeats in Georgia and calling him a "dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack." This came as no surprise: Although McConnell voted to acquit Trump, he later told the Senate, "There's no question none that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events" of Jan. 6. McConnell's forthright evisceration could almost have served as the impeachment managers' closing argument. Seven Republicans dared to join 50 Democrats in finding Trump guilty of incitement to insurrection and it's certain many more, like McConnell, while reluctant to convict, regard him as poison. McConnell's denunciation tests the hitherto impenetrable wall of Trump's support in the GOP's base. That support, to be sure, remains strong. Even so, an overdue internal debate on the risks of remaining attached to Trump has begun. The former president, even now, is capable of destroying the party he was allowed to co-opt, and its leaders finally need to wake up to the fact. Many Democrats would like nothing better than to see Republicans self-destruct, and would wish to help the process along. Yet amid an unprecedented public health emergency, repairing the country ought to come first. With razor-thin House and Senate majorities, a willingness to compromise with post-Trump Republicans would help to speed the necessary action. More fundamentally, good government in a closely divided country needs two functioning parties. The Republican Party's nervous breakdown is a threat to the whole system. The GOP needs to repair itself, suppress its instinct to oppose for the sake of opposing, and accept those elements of the Democratic recovery agenda that are most urgently needed. Democrats, for their part, should stay open to deals that could accelerate the country's response to the COVID-19 emergency, and help Biden keep his promise to heal the nation. In the short term, moderates on both sides can make common cause on how best to recover from the pandemic by accepting, for instance, the need for additional aid for state and local governments (which most Republicans have objected to) and the need to reopen schools as quickly as possible (which most Democrats, in the face of union opposition, have hesitated to demand). Looking beyond the COVID emergency, the desire to leave Trump and his chaos behind can indeed help unite the country but making it happen will demand a lot of the country's leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike. America can't afford for them to fail. This editorials appeared at the Bloomberg and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington on July 21, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images) House Freedom Caucus Members Call on Cheney to Step Down From House Role The conservative House Freedom Caucus called on Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to resign after she made comments Wednesday saying former President Donald Trump should not have a leadership role in the GOP moving forward. She should step down, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told news outlets on Thursday. Another member, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), asserted Cheney forfeited her right to be the chairwoman for the Republican Caucus. In a vote several weeks ago, Republicans again chose Cheney to be the No. 3 House Republican, coming after she voted to impeach Trump. On Wednesday, Cheney broke with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during a news conference when they were asked about Trumps scheduled speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this weekend. McCarthy said, Yes, he should. But Cheney said: saying: Thats up to CPAC I dont believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country. Biggs told Fox News Thursday that Cheney shouldnt be in the House leadership because she allegedly doesnt have her finger on the pulse of the GOP. I also think she is absolutely devoid of any kind of political reading of whats going on in the party, he said. If she [has] any sense of shame, she would step down. Trump, as recent polls suggest, remains enormously popular with the Republican Partywith several finding that a significant number of Republican voters would consider joining a Trump-backed political party. Meanwhile, a number of lawmakers who either voted to impeach or convict Trump have been censured in their home states. Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was also censured by the Wyoming GOP earlier this month. In response, Cheney said that members of the Wyoming Republican Party are mistaken and have been lied to about the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. The Wyoming committee also called on her to immediately resign after her vote. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Trump surrogate in Congress, traveled to Wyoming to rally against Cheney following her vote, and Donald Trump Jr., the presidents son, called the rally to add his support. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski singled Cheney out as the first target for his nascent political action committee. In the midst of the Republican rift, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) released a memo on Feb. 23 calling on Republicans to drop the internal squabbling and focus on defeating the Democrats in the midterm elections. The Epoch Times has reached out to Cheneys office for comment. At its Cabinet meeting on Thursday, the government made a decision to allocate 2,161,600,000 drams from the reserve fund to the Police for the establishment of Patrol Police in Armenia. The matter was presented by Deputy Chief of Police Ara Fidanyan during the Cabinet session. And Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that this decision was connected with the intention to have Patrol Police. He said that although they had previously planned to establish Patrol Police in March, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war, and now the program was planned to be implemented in the summer. "Our future Patrol Police officers are now undergoing training at the Police Academy. And it is very important that not only police officers are involved here, but also civilians who will be wearing police uniforms for the first time," said the Prime Minister, adding that this program will launch in the capital Yerevan, then it will be implemented in Shirak and Lori Provinces, and then in the other provinces. "This will give a new breath and impetus to the Police reforms in general; in fact, there will be new [Patrol Police] cars, a new design. It should also be said that we have made a decision to set a higher salary within the Patrol Police as well," Pashinyan emphasized. 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. Teachers are in line for a $400 pay raise in a state budget plan that will contain no spending cuts, Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters Thursday afternoon, after the state received a windfall of federal money for the Medicaid program. Budget architects have been wondering for months how the pandemic will impact the states spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. At one point, revenue shortfalls were estimated to top $900 million. Economists were unsure how COVID-19 impacted the states economy and feared the worst. Hundreds of millions in federal pandemic aid patched up last years budget, but officials remained worried. Federal aid and improving, though not fully recovered, tax collections helped. "We're in a better place than many thought possible," Edwards said. +2 Louisianas dependence on federal aid leaves budget picture unclear With an estimated $2 billion provided to Louisiana from a federal coronavirus aid bill passed in December and the likelihood of another federa And thanks to the continuation of a federal Medicaid recalculation, the executive budget proposal Edwards chief financial advisor, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, will unveil Friday morning at the State Capitol will have no budget cuts but will have more money for teachers and a $200 increase for support staff, Edwards said. The budget proposal from Edwards, a Democrat, kicks off months-long negotiations with the Republican-led Legislature over the state's budget. Legislators will work off the proposed budget presented to the joint House and Senate budget hearing. The move is part of an ongoing effort on which Edwards campaigned to bring teacher salaries up to the southern regional average. Teachers unions are among the Democrats biggest backers. A huge pot of money the state is getting from the federal government to finance Medicaid is shoring up gaps in Edwards' proposal. The health insurance program for lower income and elderly residents is paid, mostly, by the federal government with the state kicking a portion. Medicaid accounts for one of the largest parts of the states annual spending. Louisiana budget picture uncertain as revenue picture drops, federal aid comes into focus Louisiana will have $228 million less to spend in the multibillion-dollar state budget that will be crafted in the coming months, after a stat 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 During the pandemic, the feds gave Louisiana and every other state a more favorable match rate for the Medicaid program through the end of the year, freeing up money to patch up holes and make the investments. That doesnt mean we arent challenged by COVID, Edwards said. The states unemployment system is more or less bankrupt, with only $6 million in the bank, he said. The state has already borrowed more than $130 million from the federal government and will have to borrow more to keep the fund solvent. He asked Congress to send more aid to state and local governmentssomething proposed by President Joe Biden but opposed by some lawmakersto help shore up the trust fund and avoid taxes going into effect on businesses. That automatically happens when the trust fund falls below a certain level, but Edwards and the Republican-led Legislature agreed to delay those taxes last year. Louisiana is projected to collect nearly $9.6 billion in general state tax dollars for the upcoming financial year, an increase above this year but not enough to offset all the federal coronavirus aid Edwards and lawmakers used to piece together this year's budget. Continuing federal money that Congress has given states to respond to the coronavirus pandemic will help fill the rest of the hole. +2 Louisianas dependence on federal aid leaves budget picture unclear With an estimated $2 billion provided to Louisiana from a federal coronavirus aid bill passed in December and the likelihood of another federa The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget will get a more complete rundown of Edwards' 2021-22 budget proposal Friday. Republican leadership in the Legislature has generally taken a more conservative approach to the finances, expressing a desire to put money into the state's savings accounts and opting for lower revenue forecasts than the governor wants. Lawmakers start the legislative session in April and are not expected to finish crafting a budget until the session's final days in June. Louisiana also has a $270 million surplus left over from the 2019-20 budget year, but lawmakers and the governor can't use that to pay for ongoing state expenses. Under the Louisiana Constitution, 25% must flow to the state's "rainy day" fund and 10% must pay down retirement debt. That will leave about $95 million that can be spent on certain constitutionally allowed one-time expenses, such as debt payments, coastal restoration work, construction projects or savings. The Associated Press contributed to this report A teacher who was convicted of murdering seven of her family members is set to become the first woman to be executed in India in 66 years. Prison authorities in the state of Uttar Pradesh have begun preparations to hang Shabnam Ali, 38, who has been on death row for 11 years. She was found guilty, along with her lover Saleem, of the brutal killings which happened in the city of Amroha in 2008. The pair were expecting a child together and had wanted to get married but Shabnam's family were said to be against the match as he was from a less affluent background. Now, the couple's 12-year-old son Taj has made a last-ditch attempt to save his mother's life, appealing to the state governor, and President Ram Nath Kovind to review a mercy petition and pardon Shabnam. A teacher who was convicted of murdering seven of her family members is set to become the first woman to be executed in India in 66 years. Prison authorities in the state of Uttar Pradesh have begun preparations to hang Shabnam Ali (pictured), 38, who has been on death row for 11 years Taj was born in jail and has lived with foster parents for the last six years as law does not allow a mother to live with her child in jail beyond the age of six. He made his appeal after visiting his mother at the Mathura prison on Sunday. 'When I met Ammi (mum) on Sunday, she told me to study hard and be a good human being, no matter whatever I do in life,' he told Arab News. 'She asked me not to worry. 'I hope the respected president of India will not disappoint a child like me and pardon my mother.' Shabnam and Saleem were found guilty of drugging Shabnam's father, mother, two brothers and their wives before hacking them to death with an axe, the South China Morning Post reported. Shabnam, a former primary school teacher, then strangled her 10-month-old nephew. The couple were given the death penalty in 2010, with the ruling going through a number of failed appeals since then. It was first upheld by Uttar Pradesh's high court in Allahabad, an appeal to India's Supreme Court then failed in 2015. A year later, then-president Pranab Mukherjee rejected Shabnam's mercy petition, which she had made on the grounds of being a mother to a young child. In January 2020, the Supreme Court also dismissed her plea for a review of that rejection. Despite the various failed attempts, there are still some legal options open to Shabnam, Supreme Court lawyer Sarthak Chaturvedi told The Times of India. 'Shabnam could still seek another judicial review of the petition in the Supreme Court. She could also file a curative petition,' he said. However, Shabnam's trial lawyer, Arshad Ansari, said it was 'highly unlikely' her case would be reopened, The Sun reported. Shabnam's lover Saleem (pictured) is also on death row and has had a review petition rejected by the court If hanged, Shabnam would become only the second woman to be executed in India since it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. In 1955, Rattan Bai Jain was hanged for the murder of three girls. Saleem is also on death row and has had a review petition rejected by the court, the newspaper said. Usman Saifi, a college friend of Shabnam's who adopted her son Taj, said that the former teacher is claiming for the first time that she was not involved in the murders. 'When we met Shabnam on Sunday, she told me that she is not the killer and there should be a proper investigation of the case, Saifi, told Arab News. 'This is the first time Shabnam has spoken about the case. When I asked her about it in 2008, she kept silent,' he added. Local media this week quoted prison authorities in Mathura - the only facility in the country tasked with executing female convicts - as saying they are preparing for Shabnam's execution. The date of the hanging has not been confirmed as the Amroha court has yet to issue a death warrant, the South China Morning Post reported. 'We have placed an order for the rope and are just waiting for a fresh death warrant to execute her by hanging,' a senior Mathura jail official was quoted as saying in reference to Shabnam. Reports in local media also suggested that a prolific fourth-generation hangman had inspected the 150-year-old facility and that authorities were in the process of refurbishing the gallows. The brutal killings took place at Shabham's family home in the city of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh in 2008 Pawan Jallad is said to make 7,500 rupees (72.99) a month and was responsible for hanging the killers convicted of the 2012 rape and murder of a student in New Delhi which led to large protests. While her son has pleaded for forgiveness, surviving members of Shabnam's family have been less compassionate, with her uncle telling local media that he would not accept his niece's body following the execution. 'We were not at home when the carnage took place. When we went there at around 2am, there was blood all around and the bodies were cut up. 'The crime was unpardonable,' he said. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, has carried out more executions than any other since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom 74 years ago. According to figures from 2018, the state executed 354 people, considerably more than the next highest of 90 in Haryana state. That year, India's courts handed out 162 death sentences - the most in nearly twenty years, according to the South China Morning Post. The opportunities which Alba Iulia can offer potential Israeli investors, through the development of the industrial area of the city, were amongst the topics addressed by the local administration with the Israeli ambassador David Saranga, on the occasion of the visit made by the diplomat in the municipality, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday. "The representatives of the local and county public administration had the honor of having as a guest his Excellency David Saranga, the ambassador of the State of Israel in Romania. The visit of the Israeli official in Alba Iulia covered several meetings with local officials, as well as visits to historic and tourist sites, among which the Carolina Alba Citadel or the Union Museum," according to the press release. Among the most important topics approached among the talks were "the need of a tighter collaboration, especially in the economic, medical, as well as in the tourism and cultural areas". According to the quoted source, mayor Gabriel Plesa highlighted the "opportunities which Alba Iulia can give to potential Israeli investors, through developing the industrial area of the city". The mayor assured the ambassador of "the openness" of the public administration regarding any sort of potential investor from Israel. Furthermore, the deputy mayors Emil Popescu and Marius Filimon presented the Israeli official several collaboration opportunities regarding the medical and tourism fields. "We wish for that Jewish community from Alba Iulia, emigrated to Israel during communism, to come back to Alba Iulia, if not as residents, at least as tourists or potential investors," the City hall representatives transmitted. The Jewish community in Alba Iulia was at some point the largest one in Transylvania, the city being, from 1653 to 1848, the only one in Ardeal (Transylvania) where it was legal for them to settle, but currently it is amongst the smallest ones in the country. During the 2011 census only 20 people declared themselves as being Jewish in the entire County of Alba. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. Liquid structures - liquid droplets that maintain a specific shape - are useful for a variety of applications, from food processing to cosmetics, medicine, and even petroleum extraction, but researchers have yet to tap into these exciting new materials' full potential because not much is known about how they form. Now, a research team led by Berkeley Lab has captured real-time high-resolution videos of liquid structures taking shape as nanoparticle surfactants (NPSs) - soap-like particles just billionths of a meter in size - jam tightly together, side by side, to form a solid-like layer at the interface between oil and water. Their findings, recently featured on the cover of Science Advances , could help researchers better optimize liquid structures to advance new biomedical applications such as reconfigurable microfluidics for drug discovery and all-liquid robotics for targeted cancer drug delivery, among others. In experiments led by co-author Paul Ashby , a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry and Materials Sciences Division, and Yu Chai, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Ashby group who is now an assistant professor at The City University of Hong Kong, the researchers used a special imaging technique called atomic force microscopy (AFM) to take the first-ever real-time movies of the NPSs crowding together and getting jammed at the oil-water interface, a critical step in locking a liquid into a specific shape. The researchers' movies unveiled a portrait of the NPS interface with unprecedented detail, including the size of each NPS, whether the interface was composed of one or multiple layers, and how much time elapsed, down to the second, for each NPS to attach to and settle into the interface. The spectacular AFM images also showed the angle at which an NPS "sits" at the interface - an unexpected result. "We were surprised by how rough the interfaces are," Ashby said. "We had always drawn illustrations of a uniform interface with nanoparticles attached at the same contact angle - but in our current study, we found there is actually a lot of variation." Most nanoscale imaging tools can only investigate immobile samples that are either dry or frozen. Over the past couple of decades, Ashby has focused his research on developing unique AFM capabilities that allow the user to control the probe tip so it gently interacts with fast-moving samples, such as the NPSs of the current study, without touching the underlying liquid - a challenging feat. "Imaging a liquid structure at the nanoscale, and watching the nanoparticles move around in liquid in real time using an AFM probe - that wouldn't be possible without Paul's extensive expertise," said co-author Thomas Russell , a visiting faculty scientist and professor of polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts who leads the Adaptive Interfacial Assemblies Towards Structuring Liquids program in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division. "These kinds of capabilities aren't available anywhere else except at the Molecular Foundry." The researchers next plan to study the effect of self-propelling particles in NPS liquid structures. ### Ashby and Russell co-led the study. Researchers from Berkeley Lab; UC Berkeley; The City University of Hong Kong; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Soochow University and Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China; and Tohoku University, Japan, contributed to the work. The Molecular Foundry is a DOE Office of Science user facility at Berkeley Lab. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 14 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab's facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. In this Sunday, April 10, 2016, file photograph, Stacey Linn jokes with her 15-year-old son, Jack Splitt, outside their home in Lakewood, Colo. The teenager, who died Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, was the inspiration for "Jack's Law" which gives Colorado school districts the authority to write policies for how and where students can receive medical marijuana treatments on campus. 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. An American Airlines plane prepares to land at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on July 16, 2020. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) FBI Aware Of Possible UFO Spotting, Wont Confirm Investigation The FBI said Thursday its aware of a possible unidentified flying object (UFO) sighting, but would not confirm whether the bureau is probing the incident. The FBI is aware of the reported incident. While our policy is to neither confirm nor deny investigations, the FBI works continuously with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public, a spokesperson for the bureaus Albuquerque Field Office told The Epoch Times via email. Anyone who is aware of suspicious or criminal activity should contact their local law enforcement agency or the FBI, the spokesperson added. The incident in question reportedly took place as an American Airlines plane was en route to Phoenix, Arizona, from Cincinnati, Ohio. Chatter recorded by blogger Steve Douglass shows a pilot reporting that we just had something go right over the top of us. I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast right over the top of us, he added, according to a transmission from a radio scanner. American Airlines did not return a request for comment. The airline told Fox News that the transmission was from its flight 2292, though it also told ABC 7 that it was not. UFOs are periodically spotted by pilots and passengers but the mysterious vessels are sometimes confirmed to be everyday objects. In other cases, sightings are confirmed but no ready explanation is provided. A spokesperson for the Department of Defense said in 2019 that officials investigate UFO reports. The Department of Defense is always concerned about maintaining positive identification of all aircraft in our operating environment, as well as identifying any foreign capability that may be a threat to the homeland, the spokesperson said. The department will continue to investigate, through normal procedures, reports of unidentified aircraft encountered by US military aviators in order to ensure defense of the homeland and protection against strategic surprise by our nations adversaries. The White House trolled Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday, saying he wasn't welcome on Air Force One when President Joe Biden travels to Texas because of coronavirus restrictions. Biden heads to Texas on Friday to visit the state in the aftermath of a winter storm that left at least 80 people dead and millions without water or power. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that because Dr. Jill Biden is joining her husband on the trip and because of social distancing requirements of COVID, neither Cruz nor fellow Texas Senator John Cornyn would be on the trip. It's a tradition to invite home state senators on presidential trips of these types even if they are of the opposite party. Cruz and Cornyn are both Republicans. 'Dr. Biden is traveling, of course, with us to Texas,' Psaki said at her press briefing Thursdsay. 'There are some limitations on space available.' The White House said Ted Cruz isn't welcome on Air Force One when President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden flies to Texas on Friday to see damage from winter storm 'There are some limitations on space available,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, citing COVID restrictions as the reason Senator Cruz couldn't fit on Air Force One Cruz came under fire last week for flying to Cancun with his family as residents of his state suffered from the cold, many without heat or water. The senator flew back to Texas the next day - after social media users posted pics of him traveling to the Mexican hot spot - and said he regretted making the journey. Psaki said because of that no members of Congress would join the president on Friday's trip. Biden is spending the day in Houston where he will tour damage with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and also visit a COVID vaccination center. 'There are not members,' Psaki said, 'of any party traveling with the president to Texas. But again, he's going to be spending the day traveling with Governor Abbott and surveying the damage on the ground.' The failure of Texas' power grid during last week's cold snap left more than four million residents without electricity and heat in freezing temperatures. Many also lost access to water with 14.6 million ordered to boil it before drinking it. Most residents have had power and water restored although 7.5 million people in 204 counties remained under boil-water orders. So far, nearly 80 people have died - including an 11-year-old boy who froze to death - but that number could rise in the weeks ahead. Many lost their lives in house fires or through carbon monoxide poisoning because people were trying to stay warm. Meanwhile, Senator Cruz found himself in a storm of his own making after being caught flying to Cancun. After multiple social media users posted pics of him traveling, a chastened Cruz returned to his state and said he 'regrets' flying to Mexico in the middle of the state's energy crisis but insisted he was 'just trying to be a dad'. Cruz claimed that his 10 and 12-year-old daughters asked him if they go could go on vacation to Mexico with their friends, so he and his wife took them. 'It was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn't have done it,' he said, speaking on arrival at home in Houston last Thursday. Ted Cruz, speaking at home in Texas last Thursday afternoon, admitted he made a mistake in flying to Cancun amid the storms 'I was trying to be a dad. 'And all of us have made decisions - when you've got two girls who have been cold for two days, and haven't had heat or power, and they are saying: 'Look, we don't have school, why don't we go, let's get out of here.'' Before traveling, Cruz's wife Heidi texted friends and neighbors in Texas, encouraging them to join their family in Mexico, the New York Times reported, citing texts of hers that it saw. Heidi, a managing director in Goldman Sachs' Houston office, said their house was 'FREEZING' and said that their hotel, the $309-a-night Ritz Carlton in Cancun, had excellent security, according to the Times' reporting on her texts. She noted they had stayed at the swanky Ritz many times before. Cruz, his wife Heidi and their daughters Caroline and Cathryn were seen boarding a United Airlines flight out of Houston at 4 pm last Wednesday while millions of Texans struggled on without heat or water for the fourth day in a row. Pictures of him emerged online and the flight's manifest also revealed that he was on standby for an upgrade to business class. His wife wasn't. But as outrage erupted on Thursday morning, the Senator changed his return flight - which had been scheduled for Saturday - to Thursday. He then showed up at the airport in Cancun and tried to defend the entire exercise, claiming he was just dropping off his kids because he is a 'good dad' but was returning home to help solve the energy crisis. In a statement, he said: 'This has been an infuriating week for Texans. Like millions of Texans, our family lost heat and power too. With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them.' Senator Ted Cruz at the Cancun International Airport last week as he prepared to fly back to Texas amid outrage over his trip while Texas residents suffered in winter storm Ted Cruz is pictured on last Wednesday afternoon at Houston Airport jetting to Cancun with his wife and kids on a United Airlines flight while more than 3million Texans were freezing in their homes without power Cruz is shown with his wife Heidi (right) and one of his two daughters (left) in route to Cancun On top of outrage over Cruz's trip, he was also mocked and compared to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who closed all of the state's public beaches in 2017 during a government shutdown over a budget standoff, then took his family to the beach. Beto O'Rourke, who closely lost to Cruz in the 2018 Senate race, was among those who criticized him. 'Cruz seems to believe there isn't much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing,' he tweeted last Wednesday night. Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg has condemned unethical academics for sending out spoof emails to MPs to gauge response times. He told MPs it was deeply foolish for university staff at Kings College London to send correspondences to elected representatives from fictitious constituents as part of a research project. It came as MPs from all parties called on those involved to dwell upon the ethics of what they have done. Earlier this week it was reported that academics from Kings College London sent more than 1,000 emails to MPs during the pandemic from invented people with false concerns about their finances. The correspondences included fictitious job descriptions in an attempt to analyse whether a constituents employment title had an impact on MPs response times. Raising the matter during business questions, Conservative MP Chris Green (Bolton West) said MPs staff had wasted an estimated 650 hours responding to the spoof emails. This is really deeply foolish behaviour and you do wonder what the point of an ethics committee is if an ethics committee encourages dishonesty because thats what it is Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons Mr Green told the Commons: Year in, year out, our caseworkers do an immense amount of good work and this has been especially true during the coronavirus pandemic where the casework has gone up immeasurably. They are dealing with issues of parents fears about the education of their children, businesses on the verge of collapse and people frightened about getting healthcare treatments. This is what they are dealing with day in and day out. Mr Green said it was completely the wrong time for Kings College London to be sending many hundreds of spoof emails to Members of Parliament, adding: An estimate Ive seen is that this has consumed about 650 hours of caseworkers time to deal with these spoof emails. Asking Mr Rees-Mogg to join him in condemnation over the matter, Mr Green said those at Kings College London should sit down quietly and dwell upon the ethics of what they have done. Mr Rees-Mogg said: I am absolutely appalled by (Mr Green) telling me 650 hours of time have been wasted. It shows how deeply foolish the behaviour of Kings College has been, especially in the context of the pandemic, and this is clearly being taken up, Mr Speaker, by you. But I hope the condemnation of the House rings out in the ears of this unethical ethics committee. He added: This is really deeply foolish behaviour and you do wonder what the point of an ethics committee is if an ethics committee encourages dishonesty because thats what it is. Writing to people with a false name is dishonest, its cheating and its the sort of behaviour that no respectable ethics committee would approve. If there were ever a right time to do it, it certainly was not in the midst of a pandemic when we all know how hard-pressed our parliamentary assistants were and indeed continue to be. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle confirmed he had written to Kings College regarding the project. He told the Commons: I just want to reassure the House that I did send a letter to Kings on behalf of the House and copied (in) their ethics committee. It was appalling what has happened here and I am waiting for a response from the university. It is totally unacceptable. Highlighting the issue in a point of order on Wednesday, Labour MP Sarah Owen (Luton North) said their actions were unethical and a waste of taxpayers money. Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing said it was a disgraceful situation, and added it was hard to see how it could have been seen as a good idea. Quantum science advancement could help lead to powerful spintronic devices, such as semiconductors and quantum computers BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Graphene is incredibly strong, lightweight, conductive ... the list of its superlative properties goes on. It is not, however, magnetic -- a shortcoming that has stunted its usefulness in spintronics, an emerging field that scientists say could eventually rewrite the rules of electronics, leading to more powerful semiconductors, computers and other devices. Now, an international research team led by the University at Buffalo is reporting an advancement that could help overcome this obstacle. In a study published today in the journal Physical Review Letters, researchers describe how they paired a magnet with graphene, and induced what they describe as "artificial magnetic texture" in the nonmagnetic wonder material. "Independent of each other, graphene and spintronics each possess incredible potential to fundamentally change many aspects of business and society. But if you can blend the two together, the synergistic effects are likely to be something this world hasn't yet seen," says lead author Nargess Arabchigavkani, who performed the research as a PhD candidate at UB and is now a postdoctoral research associate at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Additional authors represent UB, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Thailand, Chiba University in Japan, University of Science and Technology of China, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Nebraska Lincoln, and Uppsala University in Sweden. For their experiments, researchers placed a 20-nanometer-thick magnet in direct contact with a sheet of graphene, which is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice that is less than 1 nanometer thick. "To give you a sense of the size difference, it's a bit like putting a brick on a sheet of paper," says the study's senior author Jonathan Bird, PhD, professor and chair of electrical engineering at the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Researchers then placed eight electrodes in different spots around the graphene and magnet to measure their conductivity. The electrodes revealed a surprise -- the magnet induced an artificial magnetic texture in the graphene that persisted even in areas of the graphene away from the magnet. Put simply, the intimate contact between the two objects caused the normally nonmagnetic carbon to behave differently, exhibiting magnetic properties similar to common magnetic materials like iron or cobalt. Moreover, it was found that these properties could overwhelm completely the natural properties of the graphene, even when looking several microns away from the contact point of the graphene and the magnet. This distance (a micron is a millionth of a meter), while incredibly small, is relatively large microscopically speaking. The findings raise important questions relating to the microscopic origins of the magnetic texture in the graphene. Most importantly, Bird says, is the extent to which the induced magnetic behavior arises from the influence of spin polarization and/or spin-orbit coupling, which are phenomena known to be intimately connected to the magnetic properties of materials and to the emerging technology of spintronics. Rather than utilizing the electrical charge carried by electrons (as in traditional electronics), spintronic devices seek to exploit the unique quantum property of electrons known as spin (which is analogous to the earth spinning on its own axis). Spin offers the potential to pack more data into smaller devices, thereby increasing the power of semiconductors, quantum computers, mass storage devices and other digital electronics. ### The work was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. Additional support came from the U.S. National Science Foundation; nCORE, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Semiconductor Research Corporation; the Swedish Research Council; and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. PLANO, Texas, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CRITICALSTART, a leading cybersecurity provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, is one of 100 companies from the Dallas area selected for the coveted Dallas 100.The Dallas 100 competition annually recognizes the ascension of privately held companies in Dallas and surrounding cities. This year's list marks the 30th anniversary of the competition. "We are proud to call the Dallas Metro Area home, and we are thankful to the panel for including us in the thirtieth edition of this prestigious listing," said Rob Davis, CEO and founder of CRITICALSTART. "As we continue our growth trajectory in the years ahead, we look forward to solidifying our spot as leaders in the Dallas area business community." CRITICALSTART earned the 13th spot on the list after achieving a compound annual growth rate of more than 35-percent. The organization's steep and continuous growth has made it a leader in MDR solutions for companies not just in Texas, but across the United States. The Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship annually ranks the area's top 100 privately held companies based on percentage growth and absolute dollar growth over the previous three years, emphasizing their economic contributions to the Dallas economy. "This year's 100 companies created almost 6,000 jobs between themabout 600 jobs per company," said Simon Mak, executive director of the Caruth Institute of Entrepreneurship. "Quite simply, these entrepreneurial companies are growth engines for DFW, creating thousands of jobs and pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into our economy year after year. That's exactly why we started this annual event 30 years ago: to call attention to the critical impact the entrepreneurial spirit makes on the Dallas economy." About CRITICALSTART CRITICALSTART is the MDR expert that leaves nothing to chance. Our mission is simple: detect threats and stop breaches by resolving every alert for our customers. We do this for enterprises through our award-winning portfolio of end-to-end security services, including MDR and Professional Services. Visit criticalstart.com for more information or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. About SMU Cox In 2020, the Cox School of Business celebrates 100 years of business education at SMU. The Cox School of Business is committed to influencing the way the world conducts business via prolific research that provokes innovation, change and global thought leadership. SMU Cox offers a full-range of business education programs including BBA, Full-Time MBA, Professional MBA (part-time), Executive MBA, Cox MBA Direct, Online MBA and Master of Science degree programs, as well as Executive Education. Consistently ranked among the world's leading business schools, SMU Cox maintains an active alumni network globally. SMU Cox is accredited by AACSB. SOURCE CRITICALSTART Related Links http://criticalstart.com The 10.5-foot and 700-pound pygmy sperm whale found along the shores at Padre Island National Seashore last week was the 18th marine mammal discovered on the beach since 1980, officials say. Dustin Baker, the public information officer for PINS, told MySA.com the animal's cause of death is still unknown, but it was emaciated, which may indicate a chronic illness. A beachgoer reported the dead female whale on Sunday. RELATED: 'Fish kill' sightings continue in Texas, even along the River Walk Baker added they may never know the cause of death, but samples were sent to Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network for more information. The carcass has since been buried. Baker said it is not a common occurrence for a pygmy sperm whale to wash ashore at PINS. He noted whales have been seen on the shores in the past, but stressed that it's not something that happens often, by any means. READ ALSO: Releases begin after over 9,000 cold-stunned sea turtles were rescued last week According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pygmy sperm whales are found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide. They look very similar to dwarf sperm whales, making it very difficult to distinguish between the two species in the field. Little is known about both species because of limited information, and they are considered rare. Adult pygmy sperm whales can weigh 700 to 1,000 pounds and can reach up to 11.5 feet, according to NOAA. The marine mammal can also live up to 23 years. Pygmy sperm whales, like all marine mammals, are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. NOAA Fisheries and its partners are working to conserve pygmy sperm whales and expand their understanding of this species through research and conservation activities. The law also prohibits the transport, purchase, or sale of marine mammal products for any purpose other than scientific research or enhancing the survival of a species. Violators of the law may be fined up to $10,000 per violation. Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre Sorry! This content is not available in your region Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:59 pm The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Aviation Division selected the Chehalis-Centralia Airport Municipal Airport as one of the six electric aircraft beta test sites in the state after conducting an electric aircraft feasibility study late last year. Although there are electric aircraft prototypes being flown in the state today, the development of the Chehalis-Centralia Airport as an electric aircraft site is looking years into the future as WSDOT is still in the beginning stages of the project. Brandon Rakes, Chehalis-Centralia Airports operations coordinator, said that its important to have conversations about electric aircraft early and to begin getting prepared for the future of aviation locally. The WSDOT Electric Aircraft Feasibility Study, completed in November 2020, provides an assessment of the transportation network, workforce consideration, planning and infrastructure requirements and environmental and economic impacts. The study also outlined the possible benefits of further development of electric aircraft technology. The new technology has the potential to increase affordable air travel leading to economic growth, supporting jobs and creating new business revenues. The study also forecasts a reduction in aviation emissions and noise if electric aircraft begin to replace combustion-powered aircraft. The six beta test sites recommended by WSDOT Aviation Division are located in Chehalis, Moses Lake, Olympia, Seattle, Spokane and Yakima. Some factors that went into choosing the beta test sites included the availability of a 3,000-foot runway, connectivity to other airports and availability of jet fuel for hybrid aircraft. Obviously the geographic location of Chehalis makes sense right in between Portland and Seattle, right along I-5. I think that is one of the primary factors considered, Rakes said. WSDOT Aviation Planner Max Platts said that the beta test sites will set the foundation for the state to further understand the benefits of electric aviation. One of the future steps in the project is to secure funding to develop the electric aircraft infrastructure in the selected communities. The WSDOT Aviation Division is continuing to pursue stakeholder engagement and advocate for airport planning initiatives to help position the state to take advantage of this new and exciting aviation technology, Platts said. Beta test site airports, WSDOT Aviation, manufacturers and policymakers all have a role to play in cultivating that network from including electric aircraft infrastructure in local planning efforts, to making resources available to ensure those needs can be met, Platts said. Companies located in Washington state, such as magniX and Eviation, are making strides in the development of electric aircrafts. AeroTECH, an in-state flight testing firm, is currently conducting flight tests and working toward certification of electric aircraft by 2023. The inaugural flight of magniXs all-electric Cessna Grand Caravan 208B was conducted at AeroTECH in Moses Lake in May 2020. Rakes said that he doesnt expect much change in the footprint of the Chehalis-Centralia Airport as this project advances just a change in the types of aircraft using the local airport. This is going to be a next-generation airport setup where youre going to have the traditional airport but youll also have that infrastructure in place for advanced air mobility, Rakes said. If we dont have a local commitment to it then we would not be able to expect this to really come together for the community, but I think once we are able to show people the benefits of this and how it can positively impact our lives, then I think we will embrace this technology. Embracing this next chapter of aviation locally could put the community ahead of others in the state, Rakes said. We all have a vested interest in this in the community, so thats where planning ahead on this makes a lot of sense. The technology is advancing quickly, so we need to get the infrastructure prepared for when this happens, Rakes said. Those interested in learning more about electric aircraft can contact Rakes at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport at brakes@ci.chehalis.wa.us. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Supreme Court on Thursday said the ossification test conducted on an accused at the age of 55 cannot be termed conclusive to declare him a juvenile on the date of the incident in the absence of reliable medical evidence. A bench comprising Justices R.F. Nariman, Hemant Gupta and B.R. Gavai said when ossification tests cannot yield trustworthy and reliable results, such test cannot be made a basis to determine the age of the person concerned on the date of incident. "Therefore, in the absence of any reliable, trustworthy medical evidence to find out age of the appellant (accused), the ossification test conducted in year 2020 when the appellant was 55 years of age cannot be conclusive to declare him as a juvenile on the date of the incident," it said in its verdict. The verdict came on an appeal of murder convict challenging the April 2020 Allahabad High Court verdict, which upheld his conviction. Ram Vijay Singh filed an application before the court stating he was juvenile on the date of incident on July 20, 1982. In support of his plea, Singh relied upon family register maintained by the panchayat, his Aadhaar card and an order passed by the High Court in 1982, granted him bail on the basis of the report of the radiologist that the age of the appellant at that time was between 15-17 years. The top court noted that there was a mention of single barrel gun granted to Singh on July 24, 1982, a couple of days after the incident. In Column 2 of the application, Singh provided his date of birth as December 30, 1961. It said that when a person is around 18 years of age, the ossification test can be said to be relevant for determining the approximate age of a person in conflict with law. However, when the person is around 40-55 years of age, the structure of bones cannot be helpful in determining the age. On the aspect of age of the accused, the bench considered his date of birth for procuring arms licence, granted after the day of the incident. Dismissing the appeal, the bench said: "It is not necessary for the prosecution to examine all the witnesses who might have witnessed the occurrence. It is the quality of evidence which is relevant in criminal trial and not the quantity." Man Allegedly Threatens to Kill Lyon Deputies By West Kentucky Star Staff EDDYVILLE - An Indiana man was arrested over the weekend after he allegedly threatened to kill Lyon County sheriff's deputies.Deputies were called to an Eddyville motel early Sunday morning and met with a woman who appeared to have been assaulted.They said 48-year-old Raphael Hastie of Evansville was intoxicated when he physically assaulted the woman at the motel. Deputies said while the victim was attempting to call 911 for help, Hastie allegedly broke her cell phone.During the investigation, Hastie reportedly threatened deputies multiple times. Hastie allegedly told deputies that he had a history of killing, and desired to kill them also.Hastie was arrested and charged with 4th degree assault, terroristic threatening, interfering with communications and menacing.According to deputies, this is the second time this year that Hastie has been arrested for the same offense at an area motel. Hastie entered a guilty plea to 4th degree assault on Jan. 20, following an incident in Kuttawa. India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement in 2003, but it has hardly been followed in letter and spirit over past several years with more violations than observance of the pact. (PTI File) New Delhi/Islamabad: India and Pakistan on Thursday announced that they have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors, even as Indian Army officials asserted there would be no let-up in its fight against terrorism or in its troop deployment along the borders. A joint statement issued in Islamabad and New Delhi said the Director Generals of Military Operations of the two countries held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact and reviewed the situation along the LoC and all other sectors in a "free, frank and cordial" atmosphere. "In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGMOs agreed to address each other's core issues and concerns which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence. "Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control and all other sectors with effect from midnight of February 24/25," the joint statement said. The two sides also reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding, it added. When asked about the announcement, the external affairs ministry spokesperson said India desires normal neighbourly ties with Pakistan. "On relations with Pakistan, as we have said earlier, India desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan. We have always maintained we are committed to addressing issues if any in a peaceful and bilateral manner," the spokesperson asserted. Thursday's announcement comes a day before the second anniversary of Balakot air strike by India in response to the deadly Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Indian Army officials maintained that there will be no let-up in the troop deployment as well its operations along Pakistan borders against terrorism and infiltration. The ceasefire, they said, does not mean that the army's fight against terrorism has come to a halt and its alertness and vigil will not be lowered. They said they are "cautiously optimistic" on the ceasefire. India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement in 2003, but it has hardly been followed in letter and spirit over past several years with more violations than observance of the pact. The officials said acts of terror in the past have led to "deep distrust" between the two sides. "There have been contacts between India and Pakistan on a hotline level since 1987. Frequently, the DGMOs of both countries stay in contact through this established mechanism," Pakistani army spokesman Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. He said that from 2014 there was a spike in ceasefire violations along the LoC. "Both the DGMOs have agreed that the existing 2003 understanding should be implemented in letter and spirit," he said. Both officials have agreed on making it sustainable and have expressed the intention to act on it, he added, according to the newspaper. The latest development is seen as a thaw after years of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, the paper said. The political parties of Jammu and Kashmir welcomed the agreement with the National Conference hoping that it will be followed in letter and spirit. "We welcome it and hope that the statement will be followed in letter and spirit. JKNC has always been a strong supporter of the ceasefire along the LoC. This will allow people living along the LoC & IB (International Border) to go about their normal lives with minimal disruption & risk," the NC said. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti in a tweet said dialogue was the only way forward. "A big and welcome development that India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC. Dialogue is the only way forward if both countries want to stop the unending cycle of violence and bloodshed across the borders and J&K," Mehbooba said. Army chief Gen M M Naravane on Wednesday had hinted at some development on the Pakistan front. In a webinar, Naravane had exuded confidence that with continued engagement with Pakistan, there could be "some sort of an understanding because unsettled borders and violence on the borders help no one". "We are always wanting peace and tranquillity in our border areas, whether it be the western front or the northern front and the LAC (Line of Actual Control). Or whether it is on the Indo-Myanmar border, we are always looking for peace and tranquillity and our role is to ensure that so as to the rest of the nation can develop," Naravane said. In written response to a question in Lok Sabha earlier this month, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said a total of 10,752 cases of ceasefire violations have taken place along India's border with Pakistan in the last three years, in which 72 security personnel and 70 civilians were killed. He said 364 security personnel and 341 civilians were injured in cross-border firings along the International Border and the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Asserting that the armed forces enjoy freedom on operational deployment, officials said the Indian Army remains committed to fight the scourge of terrorism. "Acts of terror will not be tolerated and a befitting response would await any misadventure. Our counter infiltration grid continues to be strong. We will continue to undertake counter infiltration and counter terrorist operations. All options remain open to mitigate the threat as deemed by (our) commanders on ground," officials added. With troops remain deployed along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, the officials added that the situation along the northern borders has no bearing on the decisions along the LoC and the western front. Last week, the armies of India and China which have been engaged in a border standoff in eastern Ladakh completed withdrawal of troops and weapons from north and south banks of Pangong Tso in the high-altitude region. The disengagement of armies of India and China from north and south banks of Pangong Tso is a "very good end result" and a win-win situation for both the sides, Gen Naravane said on Wednesday but stressed that there is a long way to go and the next steps towards it are de-escalation and de-induction of troops. He also said there were no signs of an "overt collusion" between China and Pakistan during the Ladakh standoff but India caters to a long-term strategy for not a two, but a two-and-half front war. With the half front, he was referring to the internal security. The Westminster Magistrates' Court in London ruled in favour of Indian government on Thursday and paved the way for extradition of fugitive diamond retailer Nirav Modi, who is wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies in PNB loan fraud case. However, today's judgment by the UK extradition court is just the first 'successful' step towards a long-drawn process. While it is an important victory for India and its law enforcement agencies, it is too early to celebrate, legal experts believe. Modi will exhaust all the legal remedies, including appealing in higher courts as well as seeking asylum in the UK, before Indian authorities would be able to bring him back. This could take time, a year or more, but not less. Legal remedies "He can appeal at the level of High Court and go to the level of House of Lords. He can also go to the European courts for human rights violation. He can also potentially seek asylum," says Sherbir Panag, partner at Law Offices of Panag & Babu. Modi is in London's Wandsworth Prison since his arrest in March 2019. Indian authorities cannot do much to expedite the process, and they will have to follow the legal procedures. Experts say there should be a distinction between public sentiment and process of law. "Process of law won't yield to public sentiments," says a lawyer on condition of anonymity. Also read: Nirav Modi to be extradited to India; Arthur Road Jail fit for him, rules UK court Panag says Nirav Modi has legal rights to appeal and he will explore all his options. The case may go the way Vijay Mallya's extradition case went. The same Westminster Magistrates' Court had in December 2018 ordered extradition of Mallya, who had been charged with defrauding a consortium of banks in a Rs 9,000-crore fraud case. However, Panag says Modi's case is worse than that of Mallya's as courts in UK had earlier rejected his bail plea on the grounds that that there were attempts by him to tamper with evidence. If the extradition court also accepts this view, then higher courts will take the matter seriously when he appeals in those courts. Seeking asylum One of the legal remedies that Nirav Modi has is that he can apply for asylum, but it will not be a judicial process. If he is seeking asylum, he will have to demonstrate very clearly that punishment for the offence in India would far exceed that in UK, prison conditions in India are bad or that he would be subject to political persecution. Asylum cases in UK are handled by the Home Office, which is equivalent to Home Ministry in India. The whole process will be confidential. "It is strictly a confidential matter and they don't divulge details of the person (seeking asylum) because if the details come out then life and liberty of the asylum seeker could be in danger," says Panag. Also read: PNB scam: Nirav Modi's sister, her husband opt for pardon, to testify against him CHICOPEE City Council members voted to endorse a controversial proposal to hike salaries of the mayor and six other elected employees by between $37,000 and $17,000 a year, saying the full-time professionals havent seen a raise in 13 years and are underpaid. But they recommended the raises be granted over a two-year period with the first half be delayed until January 2022, after the municipal elections are over, and the second half granted on Jan. 1, 2023. State law already prohibits the council from increasing the mayors salary until then because it is a conflict of interest. The proposal was adopted by the councils ordinance subcommittee Tuesday night during a meeting that stretched for more than three hours. The full City Council will have to take a final vote for the raises to be granted. Everyone agrees that everyone deserves raises but the timing is pretty bad, said Councilor Frederick Krampits who proposed hiking the salaries over two years. This splits it up so it isnt that big of a hit. The proposal will raise the mayors annual salary from the current $85,000 to $103,500 in January and then to $122,000 in January 2023. The treasurers $74,900 salary will increase by $8,500 each of the two years bringing it to $92,000; the collectors $65,000 salary will be raised by nearly $9,800 in each year bringing it to $84,500 in January 2023 and the city clerks salary will increase by about $5,250 each year increasing it from $67,000 to $77,500. The original proposal would have increased the three assessor salaries from $60,000 to $66,000 but a second review proposed hiking them much higher. The City Council agreed to the second amount and voted to raise all three by about $8,600 in each year which would have the three positions earning about $77,200 starting January 2023. Assessor Laura McCarthy urged councilors to consider the higher salary proposal, reminding them that none of the positions have had a cost of living raise in 13 years. She rejected the argument that elected employees know the salaries when they run for the jobs. You would be asking me to make $36,000 a year, that was the salary I was hired at, she said. You are discouraging experience and professionalism. Mayor John L. Vieau, who brought the salary study to the City Council to be examined, said he understood there is no good time to raise salaries and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused economic hardship for many. With the mayor, treasurer and other top officials in the city earning far less than many city employees including vice principals, police captains and others, Vieau said he asked the Human Resources Department to examine salaries of elected officials. This is to show you what happens when you wait 13 years without giving those positions who are electedan adjustment, Vieau said. The gap widens every year. The comprehensive study took months to complete because of the pandemic and compared salaries of elected officials with their colleagues in comparable communities in Western Massachusetts. An analysis of similar communities and responsibilities of each position resulted in a list of proposed salaries that would be similar to the other communities studied, said Paul Winspeare, the human resources employee who did the study. I will note any business, whether it is public or private, has an obligation to be competitive, equitable or fair, Winspeare said, adding multiple councilors also talked to him about concerns about pay parity before he began the examination. Councilor Frank N. Laflamme initially said he had negative and positive feedback from residents about the raises. He initially proposed delaying the vote because he wanted more information on each job title of the positions in other communities that were compared, but later backed down when other members said they felt the council should make a decision now. Councilor William Courchesne asked why the council continues to kick the can down the road on the issue of salary increases. He said he did some further research looking at the per capita incomes of 29 other communities and the mayor salaries in each place and said the data showed much poorer communities offer city officials higher salaries than Chicopee. There are a lot of communities with less ability to pay that are paying (mayors) much more, Courchesne said. That proves a point that the mayor is severely underpaid. Is it the time to do it? No. But it is time to fix the problem. The study also proposed raising the salary of the 12 City Councilors from $12,000 a year to $14,000 and increasing the council presidents salary to $15,000. After some debate, councilors decided against recommending they receive any raises. The salary study did not recommend the School Committee members, who currently earn $6,000 a year, receive a raise and the salaries of the 11 members were not discussed. City Council also discussed creating an ordinance in the future that will automatically give elected officials some type of cost of living raise to prevent similar problems from happening again. Related content: London, Feb 25 : Adding more trees, lawns and shrubbery in prisons may decrease the levels of violence and self-harm among prisoners, says a new study. The study indicated that prisons with a higher presence of green space had lower levels of self-harm, and lower levels of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and assaults on prison staff. "Our evidence shows clear and demonstrable benefits from the presence of green space for prisoners in all categories of prison," said lead researcher Dominique Moran from the University of Birmingham. "It's clear that inclusion of green space should be a key design element for new prisons, and existing prisons should convert existing outdoor areas to provide more green space wherever possible," Moran added. For the study, published in the journal Annals of the American Association of Geographers, the team used Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to identify the percentages of green space within prisons in England and Wales. They compared this with available data about incidents of self-harm, prisoner assaults on staff and violence between prisoners. They also drew on information about the age and function of individual establishments -- for example their capacity, what the security level was, whether they accommodated men, women or young offenders, and whether they were purpose-built prisons, or converted from other types of buildings such as military bases. The study is significant since it demonstrates that the beneficial effects of nature contact, already recognised in other institutional contexts such as hospitals and schools, are also to be found in prisons, the researcher said. A man has been charged with the murder of a 68-year-old woman who was found in a flat in Pembrokeshire. Officers discovered the body of Judith Rhead in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire on Saturday evening. Dyfed-Powys Police treated the death as suspicious from the outset and on Tuesday they formally declared it was being treated as a murder investigation. Forensic officers joined police at the scene in Market Street until Sunday evening as they carried out enquiries. Today Dyfed Powys Police announced Dale Morgan, 43, had been charged with Judith's murder. Dale Morgan, 43, has been charged with murdering Judith Rhead, 68, in Pembrokeshire. He is due to appear before magistrates later today Judith Rhead, 68, was found at a flat in Pembroke Dock, Wales, on Saturday evening. Police initially treated the death as suspicious and later arrested a 43-year-old man Police and forensic teams remained at the flat in Market Street, Pembroke Dock, until Sunday He is due to appear before Llanelli Magistrates Court today. The constabulary previously announced it had arrested a 43-year-old man on suspicion of murder on Saturday. He has remained in custody since. Shocked locals have expressed their sympathies following the death. Mayor of Pembroke Dock George Manning told the Western Telegraph: 'It is always sad to hear of any loss of life and particularly when it occurs in one's local community.' Leading consumer electronics firm Xiaomi has enlisted three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to boost its supply of smartphones and smart televisions (TVs) in India. The Chinese major will now have three additional plants to feed local demand that has grown rapidly after the lockdown in mid-2020. Xiaomi, that leads in both the smartphone and smart TV markets in India, has partnered two Chinese OEMs BYD Electronic Company and DBG Technology for smartphone here. Shenzhen-headquartered BYD has been a supplier to Nokia and Motorola for years, and is currently setting up a plant for Xiaomi in Chennai. DBG, that originated from Huizhou (in Chinas central Guangdong province), has already set up a facility in Bawal in Haryana. Additional capacity offered by DBG has increased Xiaomis monthly smartphone supply by 20 per cent in India. While the smartphone company did not specify numbers, the data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows Xiaomi having shipped 41 million smartphones, or 3.4 million devices every month, in 2020. According to Manu Kumar Jain, managing director, Mi India, BYD India is also expected to contribute significantly to the production capacity once its operations begin in the first half of 2021. Xiaomi has been sourcing smartphones locally since 2016, but the pandemic triggered the need for rapid expansion in local supply. The sudden surge of Covid-19 cases in India and the subsequent lockdown brought its business to a grinding halt. Since all its suppliers were operating at lower levels, even after the initial phases of the lockdown, it had to import the finished handsets from China on a mass scale something it had never done in the past few years. 2020 was an exceptional year. The pandemic led to multiple challenges, disrupting the entire global and India supply chain. Despite this, the Mi India team worked together to further expand its local supply chain and capability, said Jain. Apart from bringing new suppliers on board, Xiaomi is also hoping to take advantage of the newly launched production-linked incentive scheme that offers incentives on incremental production of smartphones with 2020 as the base year. Both its existing handset suppliers Foxconn and Flex have secured approvals under the scheme. With new partners on board, Jain said the company has managed to adequately localise its supply chain, and 99 per cent its handsets are now made in India. Xiaomi, that holds close to 15-per cent share of the countrys TV market, has tied up with Hyderabad-based TV maker Radiant Appliances & Electronics. Xiaomi has been sourcing its smart TVs from Dixon Technologies (India). With Radiant on board, its entire TV portfolio is now locally made, it said. According to Jain, nearly 75 per cent of the components used in Xiaomi phones are locally sourced from partners such as Sunny India, NVT, Salcomp, LY Tech, and Sunwoda, among others. Xiaomi, that began its India journey in mid-2014 with imported handsets from China, now sources key components like printed circuit board assembly, sub-boards, camera modules, batteries, cables, chargers, and power banks from factories located in India. According to the IDC, Xiaomi continued to face supply shortages throughout 2020 that had begun with disruptions in China in the early months. This resulted in a 6 per cent decline in its annual shipments last year. It, however, maintained its leadership position with 27-per cent market share well ahead of rival Samsung (at 20 per cent). The Neunelfer we're feasting our eyes on recently landed in Illinois, USA. And there's no reason to check one's account balance in an attempt to take the $364,170 machine home, as the vehicle has already been spoken for.So, with the Turbo S kicking off at $203,500, where did the difference go? We'll obviously start with the mesmerizing finish mentioned in the title, which means we might actually stop obsessing over the Lamborghini-borrowed paint of the 992 GT3 Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger recently showcased Opting for a paint job that costs as much as a base Carrera means you'll have to start by ticking the $12,830 Custom Color box we mentioned when discussing that GT3 (nope, we're still not over it). Then, you'll need to add $86,040 for the Chromaflair approach, which can currently be had by turning to the CXX bespoke line offered by Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, the company's personalization arm. Note that the Urban Bamboo flavor seen here is one of the five or so offered by the German carmaker.The Chromaflair pigment, which has a wider spread in the car industry, is a multi-layer interference film including flakes that allow the paint and the coating to change color depending on where you view it from and how the light falls onto the surface. The flakes are one micrometer thick (about 50 times less than a human hair), consisting of an aluminum core surrounded by a glass-like layer. With the size of the latter controlling the change in color, the layer thickness needs to be controlled to within a few atoms.Porsche Exchange, the dealer who brought this Turbo S to our attention, explains the real-world impact of the finish in the Instagram post below."As the person who worked his hardest to try to capture this color accurately, I am totally willing to admit that these pictures still do not do this color total justice. Its truly something special that needs to be seen in person to be completely appreciated."What about the remaining $60,000? Well, that is split between exterior options ranging from the Turbo S Exclusive Design wheels and the carbon fiber roof to the extended two-tone leather finish of the cabin, which comes with contrasting sticking (once again, via Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur).Now, if you're willing to enjoy some extra Chromaflair eye candy, perhaps this 991.2 Python Green 911 Turbo S and this 991.2 Explosive Gold 911 GT2 RS can cater to your needs. The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its S-400 air defense missile systems have been put on combat duty on the Far Eastern island of Sakhalin, Xinhua reports. Servicemen have held exercises to confirm the combat readiness of the missiles, which virtually destroyed all simulated targets in the drills, the ministry said in a press release. The S-400 missile system is considered the most advanced of its kind in Russia, capable of destroying air targets at a distance of up to 400 km and a height of up to 30 km. New Delhi, Feb 25 : 725 Homestay owners from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and foothills of Dooars participated in this three-day Mega workshop and were trained in marketing, sales, attitudinal development and product knowledge by the Tourism Ministry. A three day Incredible India Mega Homestay Development & Training Workshop was held in Darjeeling from February 22nd to 24th to enrich the hospitality skills of home stay owners in the region and for ensuring a better experience for the tourists. The workshop was organised by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India's Regional Office (East), India tourism Kolkata in association with Eastern Himalayas Travel & Tour Operator Association as resource partner and IIAS School of Management as knowledge partner. The Workshop was inaugurated on Feb 22 by Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (Independent Charge) Prahlad Singh Patel in presence of Member of Parliament from Darjeeling, Raju Bista and Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General (Tourism) Ministry of Tourism. This workshop would also provide a boost to the tourism economy in the region. A farmer displays newly-harvested pumpkins in Xujiaba Township, Sinan County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 12, 2020.(Xinhua/Yang Wenbin) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's massive anti-poverty campaign has transformed nearly 100 million lives in just eight years. It was a miracle that helped the world's most populous country achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal on poverty eradication 10 years ahead of the schedule. Xi Jinping (C), general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, visits the family of Tang Zongxiu, an impoverished villager in the Luotuowan Village of Longquanguan Township, Fuping County, north China's Hebei Province. Xi made a tour to impoverished villages in Fuping County from Dec. 29 to 30, 2012. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) A LEADER'S PROMISE On a crisp winter day in December 2012, Xi Jinping, who was not long ago elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited the mud-brick house of Tang Zongxiu located in the Taihang Mountains, northern China's Hebei Province. The dilapidated house was engulfed in darkness and had leakages. For two days, Xi visited multiple houses in two villages and saw similar sights of destitution. Knowing what it was like to be in penury, Xi, as the top leader, was determined to end it for all Chinese. He sounded a clarion call to end poverty nationwide, which he deemed an essential requirement of socialism. At the time, China still had 98.99 million people living below the national poverty line. Xi pledged that all rural poor will shake off poverty to usher in a prosperous society in all respects when the Party celebrates its centenary in 2021. It was a tall order to achieve this goal. To deliver on that promise, Xi took charge, drew plans, convened conference after conference, and personally visited all 14 contiguous impoverished areas across the country. "We must have the determination like the fool old man who moved the mountains," Xi once said at a high-level meeting on poverty relief. "We must resolutely fight to win the war against poverty." Even the pandemic did not stop him. In March 2020, when China was fighting the critical battle against coronavirus, Xi convened the largest teleconference on poverty eradication in years, as he called for resolutely accomplishing this great cause of momentous significance for the Chinese nation and all humanity. Zhang Guimei weeps during a lecture at the Huaping Senior High School for Girls in Lijiang, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Sept. 5, 2020. Zhang is the principal of the Huaping Senior High School for Girls, the country's first public high school that provides free education for female students, in the city of Lijiang. Zhang has been educating and aiding students in need, most living in isolated and poor areas. The school, led by Zhang, has created a miracle for the girls: 1,804 graduates have been admitted to colleges. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo) MIRACLE IN RETROSPECT Precision was a key to China's success. The strategy of targeted poverty alleviation was put forward by Xi who compared adopting indiscriminate approaches as "killing fleas with a hand-grenade." From household to household, the questions of who exactly needs help, who should provide help, how help should be rendered, and what standards and procedures should be adopted for exiting poverty were answered. The entire society was mobilized. Since 2015, 3 million cadres from governments, state-owned enterprises and public institutions in cities and towns were sent to the countryside to work out tailored poverty relief packages for each poor family. As part of the efforts, some received training to find urban jobs, some got loans or seed money to start their own businesses and some were relocated out of rugged mountains. The cadres also helped raise cattle, grow cash crops, build roads, drafted in books and teachers, and in many cases imparted e-commerce know-how to better market rural products. In these eight years, more than 1,500 cadres have died of car accidents, heart attacks and overwork-related ailments during the poverty-eradication battle. The war against poverty was a people's war, assisted by people across the country, notably urban returnees, entrepreneurs and professionals. Zhang Guimei, 63, is one among them who chose to work in rural schools at the country's southwestern border for 40 years. She runs a senior high school for girls from underprivileged families. The school, which offers free education, has sent 1,800 graduates to universities and colleges -- forging a path out of poverty for the poor rural children. The steady rise from poverty was exhibited in figures: the per capita net income of the rural underprivileged rose from 2,982 yuan (about 461 U.S. dollars) in 2015 to 10,740 yuan in 2020, posting an average annual growth of 29.2 percent. But the transformation was not just numeric. Rural people have better living conditions, medical care, education and job opportunities near home. Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, receives an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Seattle, the United States, on Nov. 13, 2019. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) GLOBAL IMPACT UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged China's anti-poverty campaign over the past few years, calling it "the most important contribution" to the global poverty reduction cause. Combined with past achievements, China has contributed to over 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty, showed World Bank statistics. In 2020, the French newspaper "Le Monde," for example, wrote about China's "pair-up" practice, which pairs poor western regions with their wealthier eastern counterparts to receive dedicated support on capital, technology, personnel and other resources to fight poverty. The "pair-up" model has long been in practice. As an official in east China's Fujian Province in 1997, Xi was in charge of Fujian's pairing assistance to northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. He had pushed for a relocation project during the tenure. The relocated town is home to 60,000 people today and thrives on mushroom farming and wine manufacturing. Journalists are not the only foreign visitors to China's transformed rural villages. Inspired by China's experience in poverty eradication, Lao leader Bounnhang Vorachith had traveled to Shibadong Village -- where the idea of targeted poverty alleviation had been put forward. He also visited Ningde, a poor region where Xi had worked during his tenure in Fujian. Laos also set goals on poverty eradication by 2020, resembling that of China's. After lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, China can share what it has learned with the rest of the world, said U.S. billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation works with Chinese partners in this regard. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year speech on Dec. 31, 2020 in Beijing to ring in 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) THE WAY FORWARD Ending poverty is not the destination, but is the beginning of a new journey. To prevent people from slipping back into poverty, China has been keeping an eye on vulnerable groups so as to spot their difficulties at the earliest stage possible and offer timely help. For counties that newly emerged from poverty, China set a five-year transition period during which previous targeted anti-poverty policies will continue. The measure aims to ensure these counties can smoothly shift to the rural vitalization strategy. The strategy is an equally challenging task that aims to build rural areas into thriving businesses, with a pleasant living environment, social etiquette and civility, effective governance, and prosperity. "We still need to stay tenacious like a bamboo deeply rooted in the rocks, keep our feet on the ground, and work hard to paint a magnificent picture of rural vitalization, and steadily march ahead towards the goal of common prosperity," Xi said in 2021 New Year speech. 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. Necessary protections for Indigenous heritage sites have been excluded from the Morrison governments proposed environmental reforms, prompting warnings from First Nations leaders it risks another devastating incident like Rio Tintos destruction of the Juukan Gorge. Former competition watchdog Graeme Samuels recent review of federal environment law said the government should bring in greater protections for Indigenous heritage immediately because of the legal culture of tokenism and symbolism. Before it was destroyed by Rio Tinto, the Juukan Gorge in WA held evidence of human habitation dating back 46,000 years. Credit:PKKP Aboriginal Corporation. The lack of legal protections for Indigenous heritage sites shot to public attention last year when mining giant Rio Tinto blew up two ancient Aboriginal rock shelters in Western Australias Juukan Gorge. The longer any substantial reforms take, there is every risk that a site is destroyed or impacted by land users who are not being held to any level of account by the government, said Anne Dennis, co-chair of the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance representing 20 key Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island land councils nationwide. Company signs LOI for Nordics and Germany OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSX:TBP)(OTCQB:TBPMF), a biopharmaceutical pioneer in immunomodulator drug discovery and development announced the signing of a Letter of Intent with DanCann Pharma A/S (SS: DANCAN) for the exclusive distribution of Reduvo Adversa and QIXLEEF in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. Subject to registration with the European Medicines Agency (EMA), DanCann Pharma will handle the exclusive sales and distribution in the Nordics and Germany for Reduvo Adversa and QIXLEEF, a botanical cannabinoid-derived medicine, as well the over the counter (OTC) medicinal cannabis product ENJOUCA. The agreement encompasses a sum of upfront and milestone payments of up to $2,25M CDN and a confidential royalty level on DanCann net sales for Reduvo Adversa, QIXLEEF and ENJOUCA. Reduvo Adversa is a dronabinol administered product through an innovative mucoadhesive-tablet delivery system. It is indicated for the treatment of patients living with Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting (CNIV) as well as those suffering from AIDS-related anorexia associated with weight loss. The Reduvo Adversa technology will allow DanCann to launch a largely improved version of dronabinol in the Nordic countries & Germany. The clinical benefits are numerous including: limited first-pass metabolism leading to an improved bioavailability and consequently to a reduced gastro-intestinal exposure and side-effects. The dosage regimen is likely to become BID as opposed to QID. This new technology signifies important intellectual property. QIXLEEF is a botanical cannabinoid-derived medicine, planned to become the first prescription product for this class to be dispensed through pharmacies and prescribed by healthcare professionals. QIXLEEF is inhaled through a Health Canada approved class 2 medical device. It is well characterized and will benefit from data protection, once approved by the EMA. The indications for this product are expected to be for advanced cancer pain and breakthrough pain. Lastly, ENJOUCA is a medicinal cannabis therapeutic option (non-registered) which will help European patients to manage their pain. According to Steeve Neron, CCO at Tetra Bio-Pharma: "DanCann Pharma and Tetra Bio-Pharma share many of the same values that drive our business - a firm belief that cannabinoid-derived medicines can help improve the quality of life of patients suffering from pain. Physicians and other healthcare professionals are receptive to cannabinoid-derived medicines but have been seeking robust scientific evidence supported by a traditional pharma infrastructure such as a pharmacovigilance program, medical information, medical science liaisons, and so on. We look forward to working with DanCann Pharma in the Nordic Countries and Germany and to intensifying this first European partnership for Tetra. We are very confident that our respective organizations will deliver impactful therapeutic value to Scandinavian and German patients accompanied by financial success for both DanCann and Tetra. "We have very high expectations for the collaboration with Tetra Bio-Pharma. They have a unique portfolio within the pain management and CINV segments, and we look forward to introducing these lines to our markets. We estimate the first sale to commence during second half of 2021, leaving us sufficient time to prepare our sales organization. DanCann estimates reaching peak sales of $55M DKK by 2026," says DanCann Pharma's CCO John Morell Frellsen. About DanCann Pharma DanCann Pharma A/S (SS: DANCAN) was founded in 2018 and is a Danish biopharmaceutical company powered by cannabinoids. DanCann Pharma is a vertically integrated, licensed production and distribution company based in Denmark. The company focuses on discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing new therapeutic cannabinoids in a wide range of disease areas. For more information visit: www.dancann.com About Tetra Bio-Pharma Tetra Bio-Pharma (TSX:TBP)(OTCQB:TBPMF) is a biopharmaceutical pioneer in immunomodulator drug discovery and development with a FDA and a Health Canada approved clinical program aimed at bringing novel prescription drugs and treatments to patients and their healthcare providers. Our evidence-based scientific approach has enabled us to develop a pipeline of drug products for a range of medical conditions, including pain, inflammation, and oncology. 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 biopharma industry by regulators, physicians and insurance companies. For more information visit: www.tetrabiopharma.com Neither the TSX Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX 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 this product or any other product, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process, 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. For further information, please contact Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc.: Investor Contact: Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc Dr. Guy Chamberland, M.Sc., Ph.D. Chief Executive Officer Phone: + 1 (833) 977-7575 investors@tetrabiopharma.com Alpha Bronze, LLC Mr. Pascal Nigen Phone: + 1 (646) 255-0433 tetra@alphabronze.net Media Contact: energi PR Ms. Carol Levine APR, FCPRS Phone: + 1 (416) 425-9143 ext. 226 Mobile: + 1 (514) 703-0256 carol.levine@energipr.com SOURCE: Tetra Bio-Pharma View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631815/Tetra-Bio-Pharma-To-Monetize-Its-Dronabinol-And-Botanical-Product-Portfolios With his bulbous nose, fluffy moustache and slightly sagging jowls, a 34-year-old Rembrandt van Rijn gazes out from the frame. Despite wearing a hat and coat that are 100 years past the date they were considered fashionable, the Dutch artist looks like a man pleased with his place in the world. I see a very confident almost, dare I say cocky artist who is clearly quite aware of who he is and why he is important, says Bart Cornelis, the curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings at the National Gallery in London. And he turned out to be right. I think he was aware that he was something out of the ordinary, but its still a bit cocky. Rembrandts Self Portrait at the Age of 34, 1640. Credit:The National Gallery, London He was, in short, a master of the selfie. A man ahead of his time, who spent hours looking in the mirror to find the right angle for his tronies head and shoulder studies and who was a master of lighting, no filter required. He just needs to work on his angles, as those floppy jowls wouldnt pass the Instagram test. Cornelis, a fellow Dutchman who is keen to know if my surname is Dutch or Flemish, agrees: He probably would have hated Instagram, all these young people with their perfect skin in their selfies. Because he was interested in something else, although its difficult to say what it is. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Reports on India Provides the Trending Market Research Report India Synthetic Rubber Market: Plant Capacity, Production, Operating Efficiency, Process, Demand & Supply, End Use, Distribution Channel, Region, Competition, Trade, Customer & Price Intelligence Market Analysis, 2015-2030 under Chemical & Materials Category. The report offers a collection of superior market research, market analysis, competitive intelligence and Market reports. Synthetic Rubber demand in India grew at a CAGR of around 5.14% during 2016-2019 and is expected to achieve a healthy growth rate during the forecast period. Synthetic Rubber has properties like elasticity and water resistance, less toxicity, resistance to alkalis and other weak acids, toughness, adhesiveness and impermeability. Synthetic Rubber is better than its alternatives as it is resistant to solvents, oxygen, Ouricals and oils etc. The maximum consumption of synthetic rubber is in the manufacturing of tires. It is mixed with filler agents to enhance the properties like toughness and sturdiness in tires. The applications of synthetic rubber are also increasing in construction industry for hoses, belts, tubes, seismic bearings etc. Request a free sample copy of India Synthetic Rubber Market Report http://www.marketreportsonindia.com/marketreports/sample/reports/2337487 The demand of synthetic rubber is maximum in Automotive and Transportation Industry and it constitutes for more than 50% share in the Indian Synthetic Rubber market. South and West Region constitute for maximum demand in India due to availability of most tire manufacturing companies. Demand of Synthetic Rubber in FMCG Industries for manufacturing of footwear, sport goods and other stationary items. The global companies that manufacture synthetic rubber are ExxonMobil Ourical Company, JSR Corporation, Korea Kumho PetroOurical Co., Ltd, PetroChina Company Limited, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company etc. The Indian companies that operate in the Indian Synthetic market are Reliance Industries, Jubliant Industries, Indian Synthetic Rubber Limited and Apcotex. However, sudden outbreak of novel coronavirus hard hit the countrys Synthetic Rubber sector as several Indian ports had to declare force majeure in compliance with the governments lockdown measure in countrys battle against COVID-19. Synthetic Rubber supplies remained tight throughout the final quarter of 2020 as the Indian market is dependent on exports from other countries. Years Considered for this Report: Historical Years: 2015 2019 Base Year: 2020 Estimated Year: 2021 Forecast Period: 2022 2030 Objective of the Study: The primary objective of the study was to evaluate and forecast Synthetic Rubber production, demand, inventory, and demand supply gap in India. To categorize demand for Synthetic Rubber based on end use, sales channel and region. To study trade dynamics and company share in India Synthetic Rubber market. To identify major customers of Synthetic Rubber in India. To evaluate and forecast Synthetic Rubber pricing in India. To identify and profile major companies operating in India Synthetic Rubber market. To identify major developments, deals and expansion plans in India Synthetic Rubber market. Currently, Reliance Industries, Jubliant Industries, Indian Synthetic Rubber Limited and Apcotex are operating in the Indian Synthetic Rubber Market. Some of the international players are ExxonMobil Ourical Company, JSR Corporation, Korea Kumho PetroOurical Co., Ltd, PetroChina Company Limited, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company etc. Import of Synthetic Rubber declined by almost 4-5 per cent in FY 2020 and Synthetic Rubber prices were assessed at USD XXX per MT on bulk contract basis. To extract data for India Synthetic Rubber market, primary research surveys were conducted with manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, wholesalers and end users of Synthetic Rubber. While interviewing, the respondents were also inquired about their competitors. Through this technique, Our Analyst was able to include manufacturers that could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. Moreover, Our Analyst analyzed various end user segments and projected a positive outlook for India Synthetic Rubber market over the coming years. To extract data for India Synthetic Rubber market, primary research surveys were conducted with Synthetic Rubber manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, wholesalers and end users. While interviewing, the respondents were also inquired about their competitors. Through this technique, Our Analyst was able to include manufacturers that could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. Moreover, Our Analyst analyzed various end user segments and projected a positive outlook for India Synthetic Rubber market over the coming years. Our Analyst calculated Synthetic Rubber demand in India by analyzing the historical data and demand forecast was carried out considering the end use industries growth. Our Analyst sourced these values from industry experts and company representatives and externally validated through analyzing historical sales data of respective manufacturers to arrive at the overall market size. Various secondary sources such as company websites, association reports, annual reports, etc., were also studied by Our Analyst. Key Target Audience: Synthetic Rubber manufacturers and other stakeholders Organizations, forums and alliances related to Synthetic Rubber distribution Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers Market research organizations and consulting companies The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for industry stakeholders such as Synthetic Rubber manufacturers, distributors and policy makers. The report also provides useful insights about which market segments should be targeted over the coming years to strategize investments and capitalize on growth opportunities. Report Scope: In this report, the India Synthetic Rubber market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Market, by End Use- Automotive and transportation, Building and Construction, Footwear, Industrial and Others Market, by Sales Channel- Direct/Institutional Sales, Retail Sales, Other Channel Sales Market, by Region -North, South, East, West Competitive Landscape Our Analyst offers detailed analysis of major players including basic company details, Segmental/product information, financial matrices, growth strategies, expansion plans, collaborations, SWOT analysis etc.to give a comprehensive and meaningful insights on the respective product market. Available Customizations: With the given market data, Our Analyst offers customizations according to a companys specific needs. Browse our full report with Table of Content : http://www.marketreportsonindia.com/marketreports/india-synthetic-rubber-market-plant-capacity-production-operating-efficiency-process-demand-supply-end-use-dist/2337487 About Market Reports on India: Market Reports on India is an excellent source to obtain top quality market research reports that helps you to understand the business in the Indian market. We cover various industries, identifying and understanding key macro and micro-economic trends, insights and futuristic growth opportunities. To help achieve all this and more, Market Reports on India is the answer to all your business needs. Contact us at: Market Reports on India Tel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773 Email: info@marketreportsonindia.com Website: www.marketreportsonindia.com Follow us on: Twitter,Facebook, LinkedIn The first restaurant in Lemoyne to serve alcohol in the borough is selling its liquor license to 7-Eleven. Vrai restaurant at 1015 Market St. is transitioning from full-service dining to hosting small private parties, business meetings and team building events, said Shelly Page, owner with her husband, Mike Page. Shelly Page said her husband is retiring this year after a long career in medicine and the couple hope to spend some of their free time traveling. The Pages said they also want to focus on fundraising. We would also like to continue using our resources for charitable purposes as that has been a personal mission and remains a focus, Shelly Page said. Ultimately, we would like to see another operator come in and utilize the space in a way that serves the community. Vrai restaurant remains open for business Thursdays through Saturdays. In 2016, the couple opened the restaurant specializing in organic, local and made-from-scratch foods. They purchased the liquor license from Coakleys Restaurant & Irish Pub in New Cumberland, signaling the end of Lemoynes status as a dry town. (Lemoyne residents voted on a measure that reversed the towns booze status in 2009.) In the meantime, 7-Eleven is adding sales of alcohol at some of its Pennsylvania stores. At least three licenses are pending approval for 7-Eleven stores including one in West Hanover Township, according to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board database. Carlisle Borough Council approved Vrais license transfer earlier this month for use at a 7-Eleven store planned at 1003 S. Hanover St. at the former K.A. Mullens Landscape Supply and Towing. Liquor licenses in Pennsylvania are distributed by a county quota system and require approval from municipalities for transfer. Liquor licenses in Cumberland County have commanded some of the highest prices with the Giant grocery chain bidding on one several years ago for $556,000. READ MORE: Prayagraj : , Feb 25 (IANS) The Allahabad High Court and its Lucknow bench and all Uttar Pradesh courts will function in a routine manner from March 1 with all judges and their supporting staff like private secretaries, bench secretaries and peons attending in full strength. Registrar (protocol) Ashish Kumar Srivastava said all the modalities and arrangements have been approved by Chief Justice Govind Mathur in this regard. Though the restrictions have been removed, but certain precautions will still be maintained during court proceedings to check Covid spread. As per the notification, the chambers of advocates in high court premises will also open from March 1. The canteens of advocates and employees in the high court premises will also function in a routine manner. "The judges and lawyers will wear robes and coats as prescribed in routine manner," the notification read. However, the advocates appearing in court, will wear masks and adhere to all conditions prescribed for social and physical distancing. "Not more than six advocates will be permitted to remain in the court room at any given time. The advocates shall leave the court room immediately after hearing of their cases," the notification added. The advocates will file their cases in e-mode or in physical form as per arrangement prior to the lockdown. "There shall be no requirement of urgency applications for listing of listed matters," it said. The photo-affidavit centre will also start functioning in a routine manner from March. Any person desirous of joining court proceedings through video-conferencing, will have to send an e-mail mentioning mobile number, case details and e-mail ID with a request for being provided a link to join court proceedings virtually. Earlier, various restrictions had been imposed on courts' functioning in view of the Covid-19 outbreak. Madison High School is no more. The Northeast Portland school once named after the fourth president of the United States is now Leodis V. McDaniel High. A coalition of students, educators, alumni and community members chose one of the schools beloved former principals as its next namesake. The group surveyed nearly 2,500 people since September and received more than 400 nominations. The Portland school board unanimously approved the change Tuesday. The school is undergoing extensive renovations district voters approved in 2017. It will open under its new name this fall. McDaniel oversaw the Northeast Portland high schools desegregation during his tenure as its principal in the 70s and 80s. He died in 1987 and has long been the namesake of a $10,000 scholarship awarded each year to an outgoing senior. The guestlist for McDaniels funeral serves as the basis for the schools reunions, an event called The Gathering. The renaming comes just over one month since a similar effort in Southwest Portland resulted in the building named after President Woodrow Wilson being rebranded Ida B. Wells High School. Both efforts were the culmination of years of advocacy on the part of students, staff and alumni who protested their schools being named after former presidents with few ties to the region and who they said did not reflect their values. Madison enslaved more than 100 Black Americans. Wilson segregated federal offices and supported the Ku Klux Klan. The McDaniel High renaming committee chose the Northeast Portland schools new namesake from a list of eight finalists. The other choices included Ella Baker, a Black activist who many credit for laying the groundwork of the Civil Rights movement of the 60s; Mercedes Deiz, the first Black woman to practice law in the state; and Minoru Yasui, the first Japanese American graduate from the University of Oregon School of Law and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Deiz was also considered by the renaming committee at Ida B. Wells High. McDaniel committee members also considered naming the building after Nifti Yangint, the Molalla word for Mount Hood; Nsayka, the Chinook Wawa term for ours and we; and Wimalth, a Chinook term that means the great water. Its what local tribes called the Columbia River. The committee published statements from McDaniel supporters, many of which emphasized the former principals deep ties to the school. One parent called McDaniel a hyper-local example of Black leadership with deep meaning for the community. It would be good to have someone who is not only a major figure of social justice but also a staple of this school, a student wrote. One current staffer told the renaming committee that McDaniel exemplifies what all students should want to emulate. That person noted they attended the school during his tenure. A little more than 14% of the schools students are Black, according to state enrollment numbers. Only North Portlands Roosevelt and Jefferson high schools enroll a higher proportion of Black students. --Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook Eder is The Oregonians education reporter. Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email ecampuzano@oregonian.com. Along with the Redmi K40 series, Xiaomi under its Redmi brand also introduced its Redmi AirDots 3, the next-generation budget true wireless earbuds in China. It features QCC3040 chipset the latest Bluetooth 5.2 along with aptX Adaptive codec for upgraded sound quality and low-latency for gaming. It offers 7 hours of standalone music playback in a single charge, and the 600mAh charging case extends the total battery life to 30 hours. The earbuds support multi-functional touch control, smart wear detection, and MIUI compatible pop-up window to enable instant viewing for connection and battery status. Redmi AirDots 3 specifications Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity with Qualcomm QCC3040 chip, aptX enable low-latency for gaming Two high resolution sound units for high frequency and low frequency offer true to nature balanced sound Touch controls for music playback and launch voice assistant (Siri / Google Voice) Smart wear detection for autoplay and pause Dimensions Headphones: 281621mm; Weight: 4.6g (Each) Dimensions Case: 654232mm; Weight: 51g Water resistant (IPX4) 43mAh battery on the headset offer 7 hours of battery life on a single charge, 600mAh battery on the charging case offers 30 hours of backup The Redmi AirDots 3 comes in Blue, White and Pink colours, is priced at 199 yuan (US$ 30 / Rs. 2,240 approx.), is available to order and goes on sale in China starting from March 4th. Source Emphasising the need for regulating social media and OTT platforms, the government of India has introduced new guidelines regulating the same. Amidst growing concerns around lack of transparency, accountability, and rights of users related to digital media, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 has been framed. The ministry highlighted that there are over 161 crore users on major social media platforms including Whatsapp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. And while it welcomes social media platforms to do business in India, it also stressed the need to follow the Constitution and laws of India. Given the disturbing developments observed on social media platforms, the guidelines issued state due diligence should be followed by intermediaries. The intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, will have to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims, and shall also appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints. The name and contact details of such an officer will have to be shared. The Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt. Also read: Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, other OTT platforms now in govt tightrope The guidelines also highlight that intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that expose the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in a sexual act, or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images, etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf. In addition, significant social media platforms need to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules, a Nodal Contact Person for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies, a Resident Grievance Officer who shall perform the functions mentioned under Grievance Redressal Mechanism. Such persons shall be a resident in India. Social media platforms will have to publish monthly compliant reports mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively by the significant social media intermediary. In cases where significant social media intermediaries remove or disable access to any information on their own accord, then a prior intimation for the same shall be communicated to the user who has shared that information with a notice explaining the grounds and reasons for such action. Users must be provided with an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary. Also read: Remove questionable content within 36 hrs; assist in probe by 72 hrs: Govt's new social media norms Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information that is required only for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, or punishment of an offence related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to the above or in relation with rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. The intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator. Also read: Twitter gives in, blocks 97% accounts flagged by Centre The Ministries of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting undertook elaborate consultations among themselves to have a harmonious, soft-touch oversight mechanism in relation to social media platform as well as digital media and OTT platforms etc. Part- II of these Rules shall be administered by Ministry of Electronics and IT, while Part-III relating to Code of Ethics and procedure and safeguards in relation to digital media shall be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Rules will come in effect from the date of their publication in the gazette, except for the additional due diligence for significant social media intermediaries, which shall come in effect 3 months after publication of these Rules. Also read: Social media, digital news portals to now face govt scrutiny Also read: Do business in India but follow laws too, Ravi Shankar Prasad to Twitter Tension had been brewing in the area following a march organised by the SDPI recently in protest against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Kerala visit. (Representational image) Alappuzha: Eight workers of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) have been taken into custody in connection with the killing of a RSS worker in the district, police said on Thursday. Nandu, 23, was allegedly hacked to death by the workers of the SDPI, a political offshoot of Popular Front of India (PFI), following a clash between two groups in Nagamkulangara near Cherthala, on Wednesday night. According to the police, at least six people belonging to the SDPI and the RSS were injured in the clash between their workers. They have been admitted to various hospitals in Alappuzha and Ernakulam, police said. One of the injured workers of the RSS is said to be serious, they said. BJP is observing a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district to protest the violence against their workers. According to reports, tension had been brewing in the area following a march organised by the SDPI recently in protest against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Kerala visit to inaugurate BJP's Vijay Yatra from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram. The area had witnessed back to back protest marches by two groups following the SDPI programme. Canberra, Feb 25 : Australia's parliament passed the "world-leading" News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code on Thursday aimed at making digital platforms like Facebook and Google pay for news content on the platform. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement that the Code, hailed by him as "world-leading" and "a significant microeconomic reform", provides a framework for "good faith negotiations" between the parties and "a fair and balanced arbitration process" to resolve outstanding disputes, Xinhua reported. "This is a significant milestone. This legislation will help level the playing field and see Australian news media businesses paid for generating original content," he said on Twitter. According to him, there was progress by both Google and more recently Facebook in reaching commercial arrangements with Australian news media businesses. "Importantly, the code encourages parties to undertake commercial negotiations outside the Code," he said in the statement. While Facebook and Google had opposed the code, Microsoft had welcomed it. "This new law is a big step forward. It helps ensure publishers and journalists get paid a fairer share for their work. Australia has shown what's possible and other democracies around the world can build on their ideas," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a tweet on Thursday. On Wednesday, Facebook said that it plans at least $1 billion in the news industry over the next three years. The announcement came just days after it decided to restore news on Facebook for Australians, who were blocked from sharing or accessing news on the platform recently. "After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them," Facebook said in an updated statement on Monday. "As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days." Kooheji Development, one of the largest real estate developers in Bahrain, said steady progress is being made on its twin-tower project, Onyx Bahrain Bay, featuring a total of 700 apartments in the heart of Manama. Announcing the project progress, the developer said work is moving as per schedule, with the structure works of Onyx Tower (A) of the project 100% completed, including the structure of the penthouse and machine room, for the 44 floors, while the structure works of Tower (B) is progressing beyond the set schedule. Kooheji said work has now reached the 36th floor of 39 floors. As for works on the facilities, the concrete pouring of the outdoor swimming pool has been completed, it added. Kooheji Contracting team, is preparing the vertical elements to strengthen the trusses for crowning Onyx Bahrain Bay building (The Crown), as well as starting the cladding works for the external facades, including aluminum works and wall curtain glazing. As for block works, 89% of it was completed in Onyx Tower (A) and 74% in Tower (B) for the Hotel Serviced Apartments. Accordingly, construction work in Tower (A) reached the 44th floor, and plasterworks reached the 39th floor, said the developer. Throughout the phases of the Onyx Bahrain Bay project, Kooheji Development said it was keen to establish strategic partnerships that would achieve the highest standards in developing a sought-after residential address in Bahrain. Kooheji Contracting was appointed as the main contractor for the project, and a contract was signed with Aref Sadeq Design Consultants to implement the engineering designs. The company also appointed the largest and best suppliers in their fields to provide Onyx with its requirements, including the German company Schuco that provided the latest technology for facades, Marazzi Group for tiles requirements and Villeroy & Boch for toilet accessories. The wooden cladding was also supplied directly from Italy, with the aim of constructing luxurious residential towers that would add new value to the portfolio of Kooheji Development projects, stated the developer. Kooheji's interior design team is working in full swing to complete the mockup apartments that include 1- and 2-bedroom residences that are offered in two distinctive color collections: The Madison and The Kingsbridge. While the different collections offer varied tones and textures, both have carefully chosen textures and bespoke details, joinery focal points and discrete lighting to create a relaxed and welcoming space. On the key project, General Manager Engineer Mohamed Abdulghaffar Al Kooheji said: "Onyx Bahrain Bay is one of the latest residential projects for Kooheji Contracting and it represents a qualitative leap in residential life, and an icon of residential projects." "It offers a unique combination of luxury living, in terms of its strategic location, competitive prices, distinctive unit designs, luxurious furnishing and amenities that competes with five-star resorts, some of which are offered for the first time in a 10,000 sq.m residential tower," stated Al Kooheji. "We always strive to provide an investment real estate product that would represent a valuable addition to the real estate sector in Bahrain, as it comes to be an excellent residential option for those seeking homes and a wise investment option with high returns for those wishing to invest," he noted. The biggest challenge for any real estate developer in any market is being able to achieve the two points together, aiming at enriching the real estate sector, thus boosting the local economy, he added. -TradeArabia News Service Drought forecasting, which is typically performed at the multi-decade scale, is getting a proactive makeover by Illinois researchers who are focusing on short-term models that stress the urgency of drought risk in the United States to help inform policymakers now. Credit: Mundoo Many climate models focus on scenarios decades into the future, making their outcomes seem unreliable and problematic for decision-making in the immediate future. In a proactive move, researchers are using short-term forecasts to stress the urgency of drought risk in the United States and inform policymakers' actions now. A new study led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai examines how drought propagates through climate, hydrological, ecological and social systems throughout different U.S. regions. The results are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "The same amount of precipitation, or the lack of thereof, in one region could have very different impacts on the hydrologic cycle, streamflow and water storage in another region," Cai said. "The impacts of droughts are closely related to climate and environmental characteristics, and both together can have very different impacts on human water usage and supply." For example, the team predicted that lack of rainfall in the Southeastern region poses a greater risk than it does in the Southwest. The Southwest has a relatively large water-storage capacity, unlike the Southeast, which has a limited storage capacity and faces increased demand. Their prediction proved accurate, according to their models. Cai and co-author Tushar Apurv compiled previously collected meteorologic, soil and hydrologic data from 30 regions around the U.S. from the past few decades. Using this data, they calculated a ratio representing how severe the hydrologic droughts are relative to meteorological droughts in these regions. This ratio helped them determine where water availability and water supply deficits have been occurring over time. The study reports that precipitation deficits have decreased in Northern parts of the U.S. and increased in the Southwestern and Southeastern regions due to climate change, the researchers said. As a result, the Southwest has experienced severe drought effects on ecosystems in the area in recent years, which is likely to continue into the next decadewith severe drought conditions already in place since August. However, according to the study, the forecasted Southeastern drought could lead to a very different outcome than the Southwestern drought. "If this trend of increasing drought severity persists, as also predicted by other studies, the Southeast could be at very high risk for extreme drought, which might not have been realized in the past," Cai said. "This will expose their water-supply infrastructure to stress beyond its design limit." In other words, there is a risk that the Southeast may not be as well prepared to handle near-future drought as the Southwest, which appears to have the situation better controlled, Cai said. The researchers plan to explore more detailed studies on some of the watersheds to help uncover solutions, but they are more eager to flag the attention of policymakers right now. "We think this study provides the scientific support needed to punctuate the immediate threat posed by drought," Cai said. "We see our results as an incentive for decision-makers to bring drought mitigation to the forefront of environmental and water-management policy." Cai also is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environmentwhich supported this studyand the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. More information: Tushar Apurv et al. Regional Drought Risk in the Contiguous United States, Geophysical Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Tushar Apurv et al. Regional Drought Risk in the Contiguous United States,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2020GL092200 CARO Tuscola County residents continue to receive praise for the high number of signups for the organ donor registry. Stephanie Sommer, who is with the Gift of Life Michigan Registry for Organ Donation, sent a special letter to Tuscola County in recognition of residents' participation. Tuscola County continues to be exemplary in supporting organ and tissue donation," Sommer said. "In 2020, Tuscola County had six donors ranging in age from 34 to 81. There were also 82 referrals. For individuals on the donor registry, referrals means Gift of Life can work with families to honor their loved ones donation decision. About 55% of Tuscola County residents are on the Michigan Donor Registry, and five of six of last years donors were registered, Sommers noted. Tuscola County residents have strongly supported the program for several years. In 2019, there were 91 referrals and six donors. In 2018, there were 94 referrals with four donors. In 2017, there were 83 referrals with six donors. Overall for the last four years, 350 Tuscola County residents have signed up to be an organ and/or tissue donor with 22 making a donation that saved and made someones life better. Each donor has the potential to save and enhance the lives of over 75 recipients. Out of the states 83 counties, 48 counties notified the Gift Of Life organization five or more times, 35 counties made fewer than five referrals in a two year span, and 29 counties didnt have any donations. For non-registered people, the Gift of Life organization was able to approach the family so next of kin can make a decision about donation on their loved one's behalf. When a death occurs outside of the hospital setting, Gift of Life is unaware, and unable to connect with families if the medical examiners office does not contact them. Because Tuscola County uses MD-ILog and has provided iPads to investigators, the referral process is automatic and efficient," Sommer said. "Making a donation happen, however, still requires a significant amount of communication, coordination and collaboration. Thanks to the willingness of Tuscola Countys dedicated team of medical examiner investigators, and Dr. Bush, and everyone at (the Michigan Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine), the process unfolds seamlessly. However in January, county commissioners approved contracting with Dr. William Morrone O.D., and his medical group, Capitol Toxicology, to provide medical examiner services. It will take a few months to finalize all of the contract details in the change over; but in the meantime, it is unclear if the change will have an impact on handling organ and/or tissue donations. They did request an equipment budget," said Administrator Clayette Zechmeister. I will know more after I talk to Dr. Morrone with Capital Toxicology. The county would like to make sure this important process continues. DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Mortuary Bags Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Type; By Size; By End Use; By Regions; Segment Forecast, 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global mortuary bags market is expected to reach US$ 1.85 billion by 2028, according to the study. This report gives a detailed insight into current market dynamics and provides analysis on future market growth. The global mortuary bags industry is anticipated to grow due to the recent spike in infectious diseases, and the establishment of new cremation centers across the globe. Moreover, the obese and old age population are more prone to chronic disorders, ultimately have premature deaths, contributing to the demand for mortuary bags. The global mortuary bags industry is fragmented based on service, type, and region. In terms of type, the market is segmented into PVC, Polyethylene, Nylon, Polyester, and others. The size segment is further divided into adult, child/infant, and heavy-duty and bariatric bags. The end-use segment is further divided into hospital, morgue, and others. Segment Highlights Polythene segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020 owing to its high strength, durability and moulding capacity. Segment holds over 30% of the global share in 2020. PVC segment is expected to expand at highest CAGR during the forecast period. Based on size, the adult bags segment is projected to constitute almost half of the market in 2028. The high revenue share of the segment can be attributed to increasing fatal road accidents and high geriatric population with chronic diseases and medical conditions North America accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020. Recent spike in COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. and annual deaths due to chronic disorders owing to inconsistent lifestyles were the major driving factors. accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020. Recent spike in COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. and annual deaths due to chronic disorders owing to inconsistent lifestyles were the major driving factors. Few companies such as CLASSIC PLASTICS, Smart Choice Funeral Supplies, and Auden Funeral Supplies Ltd. are few of the major players operating in the industry and account for a significant market share Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Executive Summary 3. Research Methodology 4. Mortuary Bags Market Insights 4.1. Mortuary Bags - Industry snapshot 4.2. Mortuary Bags Market Dynamics 4.2.1. Drivers and Opportunities 4.2.1.1. Increasing number of fatal road accidents across the globe 4.2.1.2. Surge in postmortems in hospitals 4.2.2. Restraints and Challenges 4.2.2.1. Fluctuations in raw material prices 4.3. Porter's Five Forces Analysis 4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Moderate) 4.3.2. Threats of New Entrants: (Low) 4.3.3. Bargaining Power of Buyers (Moderate) 4.3.4. Threat of Substitute (Moderate) 4.3.5. Rivalry among existing firms (High) 4.4. PESTLE Analysis 4.5. Mortuary Bags Market Industry trends 5. Mortuary Bags Market Assessment by Type 5.1. Key Findings 5.2. Introduction 5.2.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, By Type, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.3. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) 5.3.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.4. Polyethylene 5.4.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Polyethylene, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.5. Nylon 5.5.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Nylon, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.6. Polyester 5.6.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Polyester, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 5.7. Others 5.7.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Other Types, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 6. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Size 6.1. Key Findings 6.2. Introduction 6.2.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, By Size, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 6.3. Adult 6.3.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Adult, By Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 6.4. Child/Infant 6.4.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Child/Infant, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 6.5. Heavy Duty & Bariatric Bags 6.5.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Heavy Duty & Bariatric Bags, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 7. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by End-Use 7.1. Key Findings 7.2. Introduction 7.2.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, By End-Use, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 7.3. Hospitals 7.3.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Hospitals, By Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 7.4. Morgues 7.4.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Morgues, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 7.5. Others 7.5.1. Global Mortuary Bags Market, by Other End-Uses, by Region, 2016-2028 (USD Million) 8. Mortuary Bags Market Assessment by Geography 8.1. Key findings 8.2. Introduction 8.3. Mortuary Bags Market - North America 8.4. Mortuary Bags Market - Europe 8.5. Mortuary Bags Market - Asia-Pacific 8.6. Mortuary Bags Market - Middle East & Africa 8.7. Mortuary Bags Market - Latin America 9. Competitive Landscape 9.1. Expansion and Acquisition Analysis 9.1.1. Expansion 9.1.2. Acquisition 9.2. Partnerships/Collaborations/Agreements/Exhibitions 10. Company Profiles 10.1. Classic Plastics 10.1.1. Company Overview 10.1.2. Financial Performance 10.1.3. Product Benchmarking 10.1.4. Recent Developments 10.2. Mopec 10.2.1. Company Overview 10.2.2. Financial Performance 10.2.3. Product Benchmarking 10.2.4. Recent Developments 10.3. Auden Funeral Supplies Ltd. 10.3.1. Company Overview 10.3.2. Financial Performance 10.3.3. Product Benchmarking 10.3.4. Recent Developments 10.4. Smart Choice Funeral Supplies 10.4.1. Company Overview 10.4.2. Financial Performance 10.4.3. Product Benchmarking 10.4.4. Recent Developments 10.5. Deluxe Scientific Surgico Pvt. Ltd. 10.5.1. Company Overview 10.5.2. Financial Performance 10.5.3. Product Benchmarking 10.5.4. Recent Developments 10.6. Mortech Manufacturing 10.6.1. Company Overview 10.6.2. Financial Performance 10.6.3. Product Benchmarking 10.6.4. Recent Developments 10.7. EMS Mobil Sistemler 10.7.1. Company Overview 10.7.2. Financial Performance 10.7.3. Product Benchmarking 10.7.4. Recent Developments 10.8. Hygeco International Products 10.8.1. Company Overview 10.8.2. Financial Performance 10.8.3. Product Benchmarking 10.8.4. Recent Developments 10.9. Embalmers Supply Company 10.9.1. Company Overview 10.9.2. Financial Performance 10.9.3. Types/Product Benchmarking 10.9.4. Recent Developments 10.10. Bi Quadro 10.10.1. Company Overview 10.10.2. Financial Performance 10.10.3. Types/Product Benchmarking 10.10.4. Recent Developments For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nudnxu 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 ADVERTISEMENT Two Bayelsa residents were killed in two separate cult clashes on Monday in the state, the Bayelsa State Government has said. The Commissioner for Information in the state, Ayiba Duba, who disclosed this on Thursday to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), vowed that the state government was working with security agencies to apprehend and prosecute the cultists. There were reported cases of shootings by gunmen suspected to be rival cult groups on Monday evening at Erepa Road and Agudama-Epie, in Yenagoa LGA. Unfortunately, two citizens died; one at Erepa and the other at Agudama-Epie. Few others sustained varying degrees of injuries at Erepa. The injured persons are currently receiving medical attention in hospitals with most of them discharged, he said. He said the state government would pick the medical bills of the injured. Preliminary investigation by the security agencies suggests that the shootings are cult related and there is no nexus between the shootings at Agudama-Epie and Erepa, and the Otuoke incidence. Government condoles with the families of those who are affected by the unfortunate development and has taken over the medical bills of the injured, Mr Duba said. He added that the state government was committed to doing everything within its powers to ensure such incidents do not occur again. (NAN) Satellite photo shows the North Island, part of the Paracel Islands group in the South China Sea, on September 29, 2017. Photo by Planet Labs/Handout via Reuters. Vietnam has called for all parties to maintain peace in the South China Sea following recent presence of US warships near its Paracel and Spratly archipelagos to challenge Beijings claims. Vietnam hopes all countries will continue contributing positively to maintaining peace and stability on the basis of international law in the East Sea, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press meet Thursday. In Vietnam, the South China Sea is called the East Sea. Hang said maintaining peace, stability, order, security, safety, freedom of navigation and overflight, obeying the law, respecting sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction of countries along the East Sea in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) should be the common goal, interest, responsibility and aspiration of all concerned states as well as the international community. "The activities of all countries in the East Sea need to contribute to this common goal. As a responsible member of the international community and a member of UNCLOS, Vietnam abides by the convention's provisions, including regulations relating to maritime and aviation operations in the sea area that have been set up in accordance with the convention," she added. The destroyer USS John S. McCain on February 5 sailed near Vietnam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands in the East Sea in a freedom of navigation operation, marking the first such mission under President Joe Bidens new administration. On February 17, U.S. destroyer USS Russell conducted another freedom of navigation operation, sailing near Vietnam's Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands. Washington has denounced what it calls Beijings attempts to bully neighbors with competing interests; and China has similarly denounced what it calls U.S. efforts to foment unrest in the region and interfere in what it regards as its internal affairs. The recent actions suggest that the Biden administration is not about to scale back operations challenging Beijings claims after the ramp-up seen during the Trump administration, analysts have noted. China seized the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam by force in 1974, and has been illegally occupying a number of reefs in the Spratly Islands since 1988. Vietnam has repeatedly affirmed that it has full legal basis and historical evidence to assert its sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea in accordance with international law. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category ADVERTISEMENT A former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has insisted that he has interest in becoming the president of Nigeria, if opportunity permits. The ex-governor also said he was not interested in the rumoured presidential ambition of the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, in 2023. Asked about his view concerning 2023, he said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is capable of producing president after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buharis tenure. Bola Tinubu is a leader in the West. It is a statement of fact. I have never met former governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu in the last three years and I have never spoken with him on the phone once. So, I dont know how they are tying the relationship politically. To the best of my knowledge, I am not a member of APC. I have no influence on how he will become if he wants to become. I have no interest; the only interest I have is that a PDP president must be put in place, Mr Fayose said in an interview with Punch Newspaper on Wednesday. He also reiterated his earlier stance about his ambition to be the president of the country. The office of the president is a noble one and I will love to be the president of Nigeria if the opportunity permits, he noted. This is not the first time Mr Fayose would be speaking on his ambition to be president in Nigeria. He made a similar comment in 2017 at Ado Ekiti while hosting journalists to a dinner. It was the same prophesy that said I would return as governor of Ekiti when I was in the trenches that predicted that I will govern the whole country. Many did not believe the first one but it happened just as we are waiting for the manifestation of the second one. Do not bother to ask me questions as to how this will materialise, I also do not know how it will happen but all I know is that I shall one day occupy the presidential villa, not as a visitor but as president, Mr Fayose said then. Mr Fayose, in 2020, spoke on a radio programme he held to commemorate his 60th birthday that his next target in life is to become Nigerias President or a cleric. My popularity, courageous spirit, unique contributions to the uplift of Ekiti state and other remarkable contributions to lifting different categories of people with no hope of becoming anything in life across the country were enough credentials to make me become Nigerias president, he said. Mr Tinubu has not formally declared his interest to run for the office but he has also not ruled out the suspicion. A sailor who spent 16 hours floating in the Pacific Ocean has credited a piece of "sea rubbish" for saving his life after he fell overboard following his night shift on a cargo ship last week. The Lithuanian man, identified as 52-year-old Vidam Perevertilov, was discovered clinging to a discarded fishing buoy Feb. 16. He was unharmed but exhausted and looked "about 20 years older," his son Marat told the New Zealand news website Stuff. Perevertilov's ordeal began at around 4 a.m. that day, shortly after he finished his shift as chief engineer aboard the Silver Supporter, which was on its usual route to deliver supplies to the Pitcairn Islands. He recalled feeling "hot and dizzy" before going out onto the deck for some air. Exactly what happened after that is a blur, but it is possible he may have fainted, landing him in the dark waters below - without a life jacket to help keep him afloat. For crew on the ship, which left New Zealand's Tauranga port Feb. 8, it was at least six hours before they noticed they were a man down and were able to raise the alarm that the engineer was lost at sea. Unbeknown to them, Perevertilov, who was having trouble keeping his head above water, had summoned the energy to swim several kilometers to a black object he could see on the horizon - and he was now desperately clinging onto it. "It was not anchored to anything or a boat; it was just a piece of sea rubbish," Perevertilov's son said of the floating item that saved his father's life. Despite his determination to pull through, Perevertilov said that as the hours slowly passed, he began to lose hope of ever being found. While bobbing up and down in both the cold and dark, and later in the morning's searing heat, he found himself using the time to reflect on his life. Back on the ship he had tumbled from, crew members studied Perevertilov's work logs to try to pinpoint the coordinates of where he was last certified as on board. Distress calls were made to surrounding ships, and the French navy assisted in the hunt, along with a French meteorological service that worked to map a possible drift path. The ship's captain continued to hunt for the missing crew member, running various search patterns and steering the ship back around to find him. When the dehydrated Perevertilov, who could feel his skin burning, finally spotted the Silver Supporter in the distance, he waved his arm and yelled for help. A passenger on board heard his cry, describing it as a "weak, human shout." "It was incredible someone heard a voice," Marat said. The rescue operation, he added, was almost "inexplicable." According to his son, Perevertilov is recovering well. He said he believes his father survived because he has always looked after his health. "I probably would have drowned straight away, but he always kept himself fit and healthy," Marat said, adding that the engineer's "will to survive was strong." World leaders have long grappled with the issue of marine litter, which threatens sea life and ecosystems and washes up on beaches. In 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the Pacific Ocean was "crying out in despair," amid the plastic pollution crisis that scientists warn could leave more plastic by weight in the oceans than fish by 2050. When asked about the abandoned item he had so luckily found, Perevertilov said he had left the fishing buoy exactly where he had found it - just in case it was ever needed to save "another person's life." Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, as one of the worlds most ethical companies for the tenth year in succession. The Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, has announced the list of 135 companies representing 47 industries from across 22 countries who have earned their place in the coveted 2021 Worlds Most Ethical Companies list. The World's Most Ethical Companies honour is reserved for only those companies that prioritise ethical behaviour and understand the correlation between values-based leadership and overall business success. The recognition is a testimony to the companys unwavering commitment to integrity, fairness and transparency backed by strong values which has made it a trusted global brand. Thierry Delaporte, CEO and Managing Director, Wipro Limited , said, "Integrity and ethical behavior are central to Wipro's culture and embodied in the Spirit of Wipro'. To be named as one of the world's most ethical companies for the 10th year in a row is a testament to our commitment to business sustainability practices, and transparent standards. We would like to share this recognition with all our employees, as well as our stakeholders, who respect our standards and enhance our capacity to excel. Timothy Erblich, CEO, Ethisphere , said, While addressing the tough challenges of 2020, we saw companies lead above all other institutions on earning the trust of stakeholders through resilience and a commitment to ethics and integrity. The World's Most Ethical Companies honorees continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest values and positively impacting the communities they serve. Congratulations to everyone at Wipro for earning the World's Most Ethical Companies designation." The Worlds Most Ethical Companies assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institutes Ethics Quotient (EQ) framework that analyses over 200 data points on parameters such as culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process captures the best practices of the global organizations and presents each company with a comprehensive analytical scorecard. This year, the process was streamlined, and the question set expanded to gauge how applicants are adapting and responding to the global health pandemic, environmental, social, and governance factors, safety, equity, and inclusion, and social justice. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Hit by supply chain disruptions during the global pandemic, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday said it has hired two new smartphone manufacturing partners, BYD and DBG in India to set up factories in the country, thereby pushing its "Make in India" drive to the next level. The DBG manufacturing facility is already operational in Haryana and the BYD facility in Tamil Nadu will be completed within the first half of this year, said Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director, Xiaomi India. Xiaomi already has three manufacturing plants in India in partnership with Foxconn and Flex spread across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. "With these two new smartphone manufacturing partners, we now have presence across northern and southern parts of the country," Jain told IANS. "With the DBG factory going live we expect our production capacity to increase by about 20 per cent within this quarter. This factory went live two months ago. The BYD factory should be operational within the first half of this year and we expect the capacity to further increase," he said. The Xiaomi India MD said that the new manufacturing facilities will help the biggest smartphone seller in the country to meet the "massive demand" and help the company stay protected in case of any future supply chain disruptions in situations like a pandemic or other such events. He said that majority of the smartphone components are also now locally manufactured in India or locally sourced, including the PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly), battery, sub-board and chargers, among other components. "If you add all of this together then approximately 75 per cent of the phone is already covered from a value perspective," he said, adding that the company is also working with partners to manufacture the camera panel locally in India. "Total number of people working in our smartphone factories as part of the Xiaomi family has gone up to 30,000." In addition to these two new smartphone manufacturing partners, Xiaomi also added one new TV manufacturing partner Radiant which is based in Telangana. "We are now locally manufacturing 100 per cent our TVs sold in India," Jain said. Xiaomi started TV manufacturing in India in partnership with Dixon Technologies about two years ago. About 1,000 people are working across these two factories, Xiaomi said. The number of people working with Xiaomi and its partners who are exclusively working for Xiaomi products have gone from 50,000 last year to 60,000 now, Jain said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text 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. ADVERTISEMENT A Nigerian woman studying in the United States, Oyindamola Akinrinola, has pleaded guilty in a federal court for her role in Nigerian fraud schemes that targeted Americans. The 23-year-old and her co-conspirators in Nigeria victimised individuals, several of them elderly, through a variety of online scams, said U.S. Attorney, Stephen McAllister. Ms Akinrinola, who was granted legal permanent residency in the United States in 2018, lives in Kansas city. She now faces time in federal prison for her crimes. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to prioritise the investigation and prosecution of fraud schemes like these, no matter where they originate. I also take this conviction as an opportunity to reiterate to all Kansans the vulnerability of our senior citizens to scams and con artists, who prey upon them. We must all be vigilant to protect our parents, grandparents, elderly relatives, friends and neighbors from such frauds and fraudsters. Scams such as lottery, online dating, and impersonating Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees continue to be a major threat to taxpayers, especially senior citizens, said Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. How she operated The attorney said Ms Akinrinolas co-conspirator in Nigeria orchestrated several scams, such as tricking victims into believing they were eligible for fictitious awards or establishing purported romantic relationships with victims and exploiting their affections. The co-conspirator in Nigeria directed victims to send money to Akinrinola. While in Kansas as a college student, she received funds from the scam victimsin amounts ranging from hundreds of dollars to as much $20,000via wire transfers, money orders, financial applications, Wal-Mart money grams, Western Union, the United States Postal Service, and various other means. Akinrinola kept a portion for herself as her reward and sent the bulk of the funds to her co-conspirator in Nigeria. To do so, she generally used the Sendwave, WorldRemit, or Boss Revolution mobile applications. Citing instances, the attorney said some victims received Facebook messages from an individual who purported to be with FedEx and were tricked into making payments. They were told they won a $130,000 grant and that FedEx would deliver the cash after Victim 2 paid a case file fee. Victim 2 then deposited $2,500 cash into a Bank of America account for the fee. Victim 2 was then told she needed to pay another $1,000 for a winning certificate. Because Victims 1 and 2 did not have $1,000, they allowed the purported Facebook account holder to purchase three iPhones through their Verizon accounts. Victims 1 and 2 were instructed to mail the iPhones to Akinrinola (in Kansas). Victim 2 then received an image from the Facebook account claiming to be from the IRS and requesting $15,000 before release of the grant funds. Victim 3 was the victim of an online dating scam and lost approximately $8,000, of which he sent $900 to Akinrinola via a kiosk at a Walgreens store. Victim 4 also was the victim of an online dating scam. Victim 4 lost approximately $3,815, and he sent $710 to Akinrinola. Victim 4 believed the money was for musical instruments for children in Nigeria. Victim 5 was the victim of a Facebook scam. A man on Facebook, known to Victim 5 as Steven, told Victim 5 that he was in the military and needed money, and Victim 5 sent $1,000 to Akinrinola in this scam. The sentencing is scheduled for June 15 before U.S. District Judge Holly L. Teeter. Ex-porn star reveals how the Bible transformed her after her boyfriend was murdered in front of her Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christian author and speaker Brittni De La Mora believes that hardships and pain have purpose a lesson gleaned from some of her remarkable and inspiring firsthand experiences. De La Mora, a former porn star who famously left the industry behind to become a Christian, is now an author and speaker who regularly shares her faith and works to inspire people facing life struggles. LISTEN: Subscribe to the Lets Talk Purity Podcast on Edifi Sometimes, hardships that come into our lives ... are inevitable, she said on a recent episode of Lets Talk Purity, a show she co-hosts alongside her husband, Richard. There was a time in my life I actually was dating a guy who was murdered. He was stabbed in front of me. Listen to De La Mora reveal how she discovered the Bible during this traumatic event: De La Mora went into hiding for a few days while authorities searched for the people who committed the crime, and it was there, while isolated in a hotel, that she encountered a Bible. I saw a Bible. I wasnt a Christian. I was still in the porn industry during this time, she explained. And I remember taking that Bible I just started reading all the scriptures that pertained to everything that I was going through, and I would write out the scriptures as they spoke to me, and I was so liberated during that time. Despite not yet being a Christian, De La Mora said the fear that had been overtaking her in the midst of the tragic killing started to dissipate. Something about the Word of God gave me so much hope, so much encouragement during one of the hardest seasons that Ive ever been through in life, she said. After becoming a Christian, De La Mora more fully learned how to deal with the pain and struggles that often plague peoples lives. In the end, she and Richard explained that hardships are going to come in life, but that people must keep their faith in God. The couple encouraged people to keep a pure heart during hard times, and explored a plethora of examples of the challenges that can come in life. There are so many things in this life right now that can affect the purity of our hearts, Richard said early on in the Lets Talk Purity episode. We understand that theres purpose in every season. When we understand that theres purpose in every season, then we know theres stuff God is trying to show us and teach us during every season. Richard said he has learned to stop asking God, why are you doing this? and to start asking what God is trying to show him through difficult circumstances. Nothing grows our faith better than hard times, Brittni added. Its when you go through hard times that God shows up. Listen to the couple describe how to keep faith during hard times on their new Lets Talk Purity podcast. Town earns new honors Fairfield has earned new honors for its community sustainability efforts. The recognition demonstrates that the town is keeping pace with, and surpassing many of the largest communities in the U.S. when it comes to supporting the adoption of environmentally friendly energy sources. Fairfield working on budget Fairifeld is in its budget cycle for the 2022 fiscal year budget. The towns First Selectwoman Brenda L. Kupchick will present her budget proposal before the towns Board of Selectman March 1. This will be followed by several days of budget hearings. The towns Board of Finance will then start its review March 11. They can reduce, or add money to the summary then. The summary then goes to the towns Representative Town Meeting for approval in early April. Final passage of the summary is in May. Read the full update online. Boutique executive search firm changes name Boutique executive search firm HCGA Consulting Partners (HCGA) has announced its rebrand to BroadView Talent Partners, emphasizing its commitment to a long-held focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The search firm is located at 120 Northwood Road in Fairfield. Ribbon cutting ceremony for Kennedys Barber Club and Spa The Fairfield Chamber of Commerce new member, Kennedys Barber Club and Spa, located at 1330 Post Road in the town is having its official ribbon cutting ceremony at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 26. First Selectwoman Brenda L. Kupchick is officiating the event. Kennedys mixes hair styling, and day spa amenities for its clients. The business opened briefly for four days in March 2020, and closed for two months by Connecticuts COVID-19 response. Appointments can be booked online at square.site, or by calling (203) 292-8177. The business is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday hours will be available in the coming weeks. It is closed Mondays. Art exhibition on display An art exhibition Into the Horizon: Monumental Art for the Environment is on display at the Art and Design Gallery in the Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts, 5151 Park Ave. at Sacred Heart University through March 6. It features work by iSABEL, (Iuliia Rybchynska), who is an artist, graphic designer and an activist from Kiev, Ukraine, who lives, and works in Fairfield. All attendees must wear masks and stay six feet apart. Mission and ministry leadership changes at Fairfield University Fairfield University President Mark Nemec recently announced three new appointments. Rev. Gerry Blaszczak will be assistant to the president and alumni chaplain. Rev. Paul Rourke will assume the post of vice president for mission and ministry and Rev. Keith A. Maczkiewicz will be joining the school to become director of campus ministry and the university chaplain. The appointments will take effect on July 1. They are expected to reinforce, and enhance the Jesuit, and Catholic character and mission of the school. Father Gerry is currently the schools vice president for Mission and Ministry. Father Paul is currently the director of Campus Ministry at the school. Quick Center receives $300K Mellon Foundation grant The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University received a $300,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Its part of a $4 million distribution to help more than 360 dance artists and collaborators return to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Quick Center is part of the schools College of Arts and Sciences, which will host Nora Chipaumire and 15 dance company members for a bubble residency from March 15 to June 15. The grant will allow them all to choreograph NEHANDA at the center. The project, which is thought of as a radical pedagogical opera, investigates the myth of the legendary female spirit, Nehanda, who was venerated by the Shona people, and demonized by the British empire in the late 19th century. During this new three month bubble residency, stringent safety protocols will protect the artists, and community members through testing, temperature checks and health surveys, while ensuring safe studio and theatre space for Chipaurmire and the artistic team to work as artists in residence at the center. In addition to creating this new opera which will go on tour in 2022, Chipaumire serves as a senior fellow in the college, and will engage in virtual educational conversations, and programs on campus and in the larger Fairfield and Bridgeport communities, focusing on the themes of the work. They recently welcomed their first child, a son named Tait, into the world. And on Tuesday, Dane Swan, 36, and his girlfriend Taylor Wilson were every inch the doting parents as they enjoyed a relaxed stroll with their newborn. The proud couple were all smiles as they cooed over their one week old son during the family outing in Melbourne. Doting parents: Former AFL star Dane Swan and his girlfriend Taylor Wilson enjoyed a stroll with their newborn son Tait on Tuesday - just days after welcoming him into the world The former AFL star looked casual in a pink and white tie dye T-shirt and grey shorts. He combined the look with a pair of sneakers and a white hat while he held two bags during the outing. His girlfriend Taylor, looked comfortable wearing a t-shirt and grey shorts, along with a red jumper. Proud parents: The couple were all smiles as they cooed over their one week old son during the family outing in Melbourne She accessorised her look with a pair of white sneakers and sunglasses to shield her from the sun. The new mother beamed as she pushed her newborn in a pram. The outing comes one week after the former Collingwood star announced the birth of their baby boy. Style: The former AFL star looked casual in a pink and white tie dye T-shirt and grey shorts. His girlfriend Taylor looked comfortable wearing a t-shirt, grey shorts and a red jumper Dane shared the happy news during an interview with KIIS FM's Jase & PJ breakfast show on February 15. 'We had [the baby] on Saturday. He's good. Mum and baby are healthy, happy and a little tired,' Dane said. Dane went on to say that Taylor 'has also been amazing so far, which has been great'. Growing family: The outing comes one week after the former Collingwood star announced the pair had welcomed their baby boy 'She was only in labour for 90 minutes. Her midwife and the gynecologist didn't even make it,' he added. 'She did it all natural without any drugs. She was pretty incredible.' Dane first surprised listeners of KIIS FM's Jase & PJ show when he announced Taylor's pregnancy on November 27. Dane and Taylor have been dating since 2010. 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 Police officers wear face masks as they patrol the city centre in Manchester, England, on Oct. 20, 2020. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Nearly 70,000 CCP Virus Lockdown Fines Handed out in England and Wales British police have handed out nearly 70,000 fines in England and Wales for breaches of CCP virus restrictions since the pandemic began, new figures show. Statistics released by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) on Thursday show that police in England and Wales issued a total of 68,952 fixed penalty notices for lockdown breaches up to Feb. 14. The total number of fines issued in England is now 63,201, while the number for Wales stands at 5,751. Also on Thursday, the Metropolitan Police, which serves the Greater London area, said it has issued over 10,000 fines for COVID-19 breaches since the start of the pandemic, which was caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. NPCC Chairman Martin Hewitt said that it is frustrating that we still have a small number of completely defiant and irresponsible people who have no regard for the safety of themselves or others. Our extra dedicated patrols across the country will continue to support those of us making significant sacrifices in following the rules by taking enforcement action against those who are not. Hewitt added that there are still people threatening to infect officers with the virus and coughing or spitting on them. This is disgusting and anyone who does this can expect to be arrested and prosecuted, he warned. According to a survey published last month, nearly one in three police officers in England and Wales had been threatened with deliberate infection by someone who is believed to carry the CCP virus. The Police Federation of England and Wales, which conducted the survey, said, the weaponising of the COVID-19 virus against police officers was revealed to be an emerging threat to health and welfare. The UK has been under varying levels of CCP virus restrictions since the pandemic began last spring. Since the ongoing national lockdown began in early January, police forces have said they are taking a stricter approach to enforcing the rules. Even police officers have sometimes found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The Metropolitan Police said on Jan. 20 that nine of its officers had been fined after they were caught dining in a local cafe. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday set out his roadmap out of the lockdown, which includes four stages with five weeks in between. On Thursday, the chief medical officers of all four nations of the United Kingdom agreed to lower the virus alert level from level five to level four. Health Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the news, but urged the public to continue to stay at home as its vital we continue to suppress this virus as we roll-out the vaccine. Mary Clark contributed to this report. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company And so we see that, just as American Civil Rights work predated the era we might first think of, there were protest movements in the 1950s. One photo shows Black protesters giving the thumbs-up of solidarity riding in Europeans Only train cars during the Defiance Campaign of 1952. Others chronicle the horrors of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, when police opened fire and killed 69 people protesting the pass book, resettlement and other controlling laws. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has directed relevant offices to discuss with partners in countries with high safety factor about the resumption of commercial flights. The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working with relevant ministries, sectors, localities and offices to make plans to repatriate Vietnamese citizens in a safe manner based on the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world and the country, especially the domestic quarantine capacity, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang. Bringing Vietnamese citizens home (Photo: VNA) She made the statement on February 25 when responding to reporters queries on Vietnams plan to reopen repatriation flights, after the Vietnamese Government suspended flights bringing Vietnamese people back home in late January, given the appearance of new variants of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, new outbreaks in many countries, and complicated developments of the pandemic in Vietnam. She informed that recently, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has directed relevant offices to discuss with partners in countries with high safety factor about the resumption of commercial flights. Several partners have expressed their wish to resume commercial flights with Vietnam, and Vietnams aviation agencies are considering and discussing specific procedures and dates, she added./. VNA WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk will lead a ceremony at 1 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 26, officially naming the NASA Headquarters building in Washington in honor of Mary W. Jackson. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website and will livestream on the agency's Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as the NASA app. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA, began her career with the agency in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The mathematician and aerospace engineer went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal. The work of Jackson and others in the West Area Computing Unit caught widespread national attention in the 2016 Margot Lee Shetterly book "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race." The book was made into a popular movie that same year, and award-winning actress Janelle Monae portrayed Jackson. Members of Jackson's family and other guests will join Jurczyk for the ceremony, including: Clayton Turner , NASA Langley center director , NASA Langley center director Christine Darden , retired NASA engineer and "Hidden Figure," as profiled in Shetterly's book , retired NASA engineer and "Hidden Figure," as profiled in Shetterly's book Artist Tenbeete Solomon, also known as Trap Bob Wanda Jackson , granddaughter of Mary W. Jackson In addition to unveiling a building sign with Jackson's name, the event will feature video tributes with reflections on Jackson's career and legacy from a variety of individuals, including William R. Harvey, the president of Hampton University, Jackson's alma mater, as well as family and friends, current and former NASA employees and astronauts, celebrities, elected officials and others. The event also will feature a video of poet Nikki Giovanni reading an excerpt from her poem "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea," which is about space and civil rights. With the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, on-site attendance will be limited to participants and invited guests, with no accreditation for in-person media. Members of the media are encouraged to attend the event remotely and take advantage of the resources available virtually. Learn more about NASA's Hidden and Modern Figures, at: https://www.nasa.gov/modernfigures Content about Mary W. Jackson for use by journalists and media outlets is available online at: https://www.nasa.gov/mediaresources Photos from the Friday, Feb. 26, naming ceremony will be available following the event at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/ SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov WASHINGTON (JTA) - Nikki Haley has finally and decisively broken with Donald Trump in a move that puts her at the front of the potential Republican presidential pack for moderate conservatives, including pro-Israel Jews who mainly stuck with the party over the past four years because of Trump's foreign policy. After serving as his U.N. ambassador and not taking a stand for months on what his lies about election fraud would mean for his legacy, Haley made the final cut on Friday in a Politico interview. Trump's inflammatory post-election rhetoric, which Democrats argue culminated in the dead... Sen. John Kennedy (R-La) speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee on the fourth day of hearings on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, on Oct. 15, 2020. (Susan Walsh/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Democrats $1.9 Trillion Relief Bill Is Neo-Socialist Wish List: Sen. John Kennedy Republicans are rallying against Democrats proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, with Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) the latest to pan the package as a wish list of liberal spending priorities unrelated to the pandemic. Kennedy made the remarks on Fox News Americas Newsroom on Feb. 25, when he alleged that the profligacy is mind-numbing. The motto of the Biden administration seems to be we cant spend too much,' he said. Kennedy took aim at controversial provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act, which includes such spending priorities as $750 million for the global response to COVID-19, $270 million for arts and humanities endowments, $200 million for museums and libraries, and $100 million for an electric train in Silicon Valley. This isnt a coronavirus bill, the Louisiana senator said. This is a left-of-Lenin, neo-socialist wish list. By late Feb. 24, not a single Republican in either chamber had publicly said he or she would back the Biden administrations proposed relief bill. I havent seen a Republican yet thats found something in there that they agree with, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). I think all Republicans believe in three simple things: They want a bill that puts us back to work, back to school, and back to health. This bill is too costly, too corrupt, and too liberal. The hardening opposition suggests that Bidens first major legislative initiative could face a wall of unanimous GOP opposition. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hill, released a fact sheet (pdf) exposing what Democrats are hoping the public wont find about in the relief bill. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), RSCs newly elected chairman, said in a memo sent to caucus members that Democrats have included items of special interest pork and other liberal goodies in the proposal. He echoed Kennedys take that the bill contains spending thats unrelated to the pandemic. Keep in mind only 1 percent of this $1.9 trillion will go toward vaccines, and only 5 percent overall of this entire package is geared toward public health efforts directly related to the pandemic, Banks said in an interview with Fox News. The memo denounced Bidens package as a job killer that does too little to reopen schools or businesses shuttered due pandemic, calling it not just wasteful but also unscrupulouswith provisions that are pro-abortion, soft on China, and that promote illegal immigration. Democrats have shown no signs of backing down, however, citing the assistance as a measure that would spread to people, businesses, and state and local governments. If congressional Republicans want to oppose all that, my response is good luck, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor. President Joe Biden has said that the legislation needs to pass. We need Congress to pass my American Rescue Plan. It deals with the immediate crisis facing our small businesses, Biden said on Feb. 22. Now, critics say the plan is too big. Let me ask them a rhetorical question: What would you have me cut? What would you leave out? Biden said earlier that he expects his proposal will pass even without Republican support, as the bill is being advanced via budget reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority to clear the Senate. Mimi Nguyen-Ly contributed to this report. AstraZeneca's boss expressed confidence Thursday that his company can make up a huge shortfall in COVID-19 vaccine doses promised to the EU, in a grilling by MEPs alongside rival CEOs. Pascal Soriot, speaking by videolink, told the European Parliament the delivery deficitequal to around 60 percent of the 100 million doses meant to be supplied between January and Marchwas because of low production yields in the EU factories making AstraZeneca's vaccine. But, he said, "we hope that by Q2 (the April-May-June second quarter), we can catch up to where we would like to be". The undersupply torpedoed the EU's plan to use AstraZeneca as its main first vaccine in the first quarter. But EU officials say ramped up deliveries from April by the Anglo-Swedish company, and by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, mean that the 27-nation bloc remains on track to reach its goal of fully vaccinating 70 percent of adults by mid-September. EU leaders held a videosummit on Thursday to look at ways to further boost access to doses, as well as discussing the launch of a vaccine certificate system to be used initially as a medical record rather than a "vaccine passport" allowing easier travel. Soriot, a Frenchman excoriated by Brussels for AstraZeneca's failure to live up to its delivery promises while continuing to fully supply Britain, blamed the EU shortfall on "a lower yield than we expected" in European factories. He said that doses were shipped out as fast as they were made so there was no inventory to act as a supply buffer. "We are very confident that the yield will increase across the network" and other AstraZeneca plants would be tapped to improve the EU's supply after April so that "we actually catch up to the volume that we had projected originally to produce," he said. Soriot said those factories "will be a variety of locations around the world, including the United States and some others". No supply from UK Soriot said an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands "originally reserved by the UK" for its supply would be part of that effort, but he appeared to rule out the company's UK factories diverting some of their production to the EU. "The UK is geared to supply 65 million people who live in the UK. The European community has about 450 million people I believe. So you know, the UK, even if we took the entire supply of the UK would not make a huge difference to the European community," he said. The head of the European Parliament committee questioning Soriot, Pascal Canfin, was sceptical that AstraZeneca would make good. Soriot, he tweeted, "was not able... to confirm the expected delivery of 180 million doses in Europe in the second quarter," and he warned of "new tensions" with the company if that turned out to be the case. The European Commission, suspicious that some AstraZeneca vaccine produced in the EU had been sent to Britain, on January 29 launched a scheme to monitorand if necessary, blockexports of COVID vaccines from the European Union. Franz-Werner Haas, the CEO of German company CureVac which is hoping its vaccine will soon be approved for use in the EU, said his company fell foul of the new system. "This has been hitting us somehow because we couldn't get clinical trial material out to Latin America," he said. "We lost a week then to ship the material, which was totally unnecessary." He added, though, that the commission and the German government did give "immediate support" to resolve the blocage. Explore further EU buys up to 300 million more Moderna jabs 2021 AFP Cotonou, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :A leading member of Benin's opposition has been held and brought before a special court, the government said, as critics accuse the authorities of a crackdown ahead of upcoming elections. Bio Dramane Tidjani, from the opposition Democrats party, was summoned on Monday by the Court of Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism for "destabilising the electoral process," government spokesman Alain Orounla said. "The special prosecutor... heard people whose suspicious activity and reprehensible actions required them to be heard in a court of law," he said, without giving details. "The government will... rigorously sanction anyone who seeks to disrupt the upcoming election or cause violence," Orounla said in remarks to reporters late Wednesday. Tidjani, who is not well known by the public but is important within the party and close to its leader, was still in custody on Thursday, his party said. On April 11, 5.5 million people will be eligible to either reelect President Patrice Talon or vote for one of two opposition candidates -- former minister Alassane Soumano or Corentin Kohoue, a dissident opposition figure. Out of the 20 aspiring presidents, 17 had their candidacies rejected by the West African country's electoral commission. Elected in 2016, Talon had initially said he would complete only one mandate, later changing his mind and announcing in mid-February he was running again. His critics say the country has veered into authoritarianism under his rule. It is unclear why Tidjani was brought before the court or why he was kept in custody. Two other members of his party, former parliamentarians Noureini Atchade and Justin Adjovi, were also summoned by the court last Friday but were not detained. "Bio Dramane Tidjani's detention is arbitrary and illegal," said Rekiath Madougou, the head of the Democrats. "This serves to prove once again that the current regime is becoming authoritarian." The electoral commission rejected Madougou's candidacy in the upcoming election in mid-February for failing to receive the 16 signatures needed from elected officials. A close ally of former president Boni Yayi, a major rival of Talon, Madougou took to Facebook to denounce "plots against freedom fighters" just two months before the election. Supporters of the incumbent reject those charges and say conditions are in place for a fair election in the former French colony. Pakistani officials, academics, and defense analysts have urged the international community to take action against the perpetrators of a 1992 massacre by Armenian forces in Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh which left over 600 people dead. Speaking at a seminar on Monday co-organized by Azerbaijans Embassy in Islamabad and the Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution, parliamentarian Shehryar Khan Afridi said that repeated massacres and genocides show how the world has failed to protect oppressed people living in conflict zones, as the brutal principle of might makes right prevails, Anadolu Agency reports. "Mass rapes of women in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh have been used by occupation forces as tools of genocide," said Afridi, who also heads the Pakistani parliaments Committee on Kashmir, a region disputed between Pakistan and India. He added that Indian forces are also waging a rape war to advance their genocide of freedom-loving Kashmiris. On Feb. 26, 1992, with the Soviet Union just dissolved, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in occupied Karabakh after battering it with heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by infantry. The massacre is seen as one of the bloodiest atrocities by Armenian forces against Azerbaijani civilians in the Upper Karabakh region, which was liberated by Azerbaijan forces last fall after decades of occupation. The two-hour Armenian offensive on Khojaly killed 613 Azerbaijani citizens including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people and seriously injured 487 others, according to Azerbaijani figures. Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing. In the massacre, eight families were completely wiped out, while 130 children lost one parent, and 25 children lost both parents. "What has the international community, including the UN Security Council, done against the culprits who killed hundreds of innocents in Khojaly?" asked Salma Malik, a political scientist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. Azerbaijan Ambassador Ali Alizada said that Armenia bears full responsibility for the Khojaly massacre, whose perpetrators must brought to justice. He said that even though there were four UN Security Council resolutions and similar statements by other groups, there has been no action or pressure against Armenia during the 30 years of occupation and no legal acts against the perpetrators of the genocide. He stressed that that Kashmir dispute also led to several UN Security Council resolutions but similarly no implementation of these resolutions for seven decades. He said he hopes the Kashmir issue will soon be solved by amicable and peaceful means in line with relevant UN resolutions. Retired Lt. Gen. Amjad Shoaib also slammed world powers silence on atrocities carried out by "occupation forces" in Kashmir, Karabakh, and Palestine, saying the world needs to act. "Only few countries among Pakistan condemned and raised their voices against the killing of innocents in Karabakh while world powers remained silent," he said Shoaib urged the UN and other world organizations to act against "Indias occupation of Kashmir." Sabah Aslam, founder and head of the Islamabad Institute Of Conflict Resolution, also spoke at the occasion. Joseph D. Schauer has been named president and chief executive officer at Schauer Group Inc., a Canton, Ohio-based risk management, business insurance and human capital services firm. Schauer represents the fourth generation of the 102-year-old company. In addition, Aimee B. Belden has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer, Taylor D. Schauer has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Bryan D. Schauer has been named executive vice president and Cleveland market leader of the company. David T. Schauer has transitioned from his previous role as president to the new role of chairman and William T. Schauer will now serve as vice chairman. Both will continue to advise and provide service to current and prospective clients. Joe Schauer joined the firm in 2004 and most recently served as vice president of business development. During his tenure, he has been instrumental in developing the companys long-term strategic plans, managing business operations and client relations, and developing new talent. He has earned the Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designations Belden joined the company in 2013 and most recently served as vice president of operations. As COO, Belden will continue to lead the company in the areas of talent attraction and retention, culture, corporate strategy, corporate communications, operations, client retention and execution of the companys vision. Belden has spent more than 20 years in a variety of operations, marketing, communications and public relations roles. Taylor Schauer joined the firm in 2009 and most recently served as vice president, specializing in contract surety and business insurance. In his new role as CFO, his responsibilities will grow to include the planning and implementation of all financial activities for the company, while still advising clients and managing client relationships. He earned the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation (CPCU) in 2010, and his Associate in Risk Management (ARM) in 2011. He completed his MBA at the University of Akron in 2014. Bryan Schauer joined the firm in 2008 and most recently served as vice president. In his role as Cleveland market leader, he will be focused on territory growth and market development in the Cleveland metro area, while continuing to advise clients. He actively manages a diverse client base, applying the expertise he gained as a business insurance underwriter for Cincinnati Insurance Companies. He earned a designation as a Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) in 2010. With offices in Canton and Cleveland, Ohio, Schauer Group Inc. is one of the largest independently owned insurance and risk management firms in Ohio, providing risk management, business insurance, human capital services, employee benefits, contract surety and personal insurance to a variety of clients nationwide. Source: Schauer Group Topics Ohio STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Yes, Theyre Open is a web series highlighting local bars and restaurants that are open for takeout, delivery, pickup or dining during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Live streams from the featured restaurants are broadcast on the Advance Facebook page every weekday around 3 p.m. On Thursday, the Advance/SILive.com visited Palermo Pizzeria & Restaurant at 95 Page Ave., which is open for pickup and delivery Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. To contact the restaurant, call 718-948-8700 or visit palermopizzeriasi.com. YES, THEYRE OPEN: Palermo Pizzeria & Restaurant is open for pickup and delivery at 95 Page Ave. The restaurants hours are Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. To contact the eatery, call 718-948-8700 or visit PalermoPizzeriaSI.com. Posted by Staten Island Advance on Thursday, February 25, 2021 Staten Island restaurant owners: If you would like your establishment featured for free as part of Yes, Theyre Open, email reporter Victoria Priola at vpriola@siadvance.com. WANT MORE YES, THEYRE OPEN? Check out the listings below or check out all of our previous coverage here. Ungaro Coal Fired Pizza Cafe, 1298 Forest Ave. Bocelli Restaurant, 1250 Hylan Blvd. Jimmy Max, 280 Watchogue Road Trattoria Toscana, 4200 Hylan Blvd. Mangia Pizzeria and Ristorante, 7517 Amboy Road Beans and Leaves, 422 Forest Ave. ADVERTISEMENT A United Nations panel has called for punitive actions against bankers, lawyers, and accountants who enable financial crimes, saying governments around the world can finance critical action on extreme poverty, COVID-19, and climate crisis by recovering billions of dollars lost through tax abuse, corruption, and money-laundering. The panel of former world leaders and central bank governors, business and civil society heads, and academics said as much as 2.7 per cent of the global GDP is laundered annually, while corporations shopping around for tax-free jurisdictions cost governments up to $600 billion a year. The High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI Panel) called on governments to agree on a Global Pact for Financial Integrity for Sustainable Development. In its full report, due for launch Thursday, the panel said stronger laws and institutions are needed to prevent corruption and money laundering, and recommended that the bankers, lawyers, and accountants who enable financial crime must also face punitive sanctions. The report also called for greater transparency around company ownership and public spending, stronger international cooperation to prosecute bribery, international minimum corporate tax and the taxing of digital giants, and the global governance of tax abuse and money-laundering. A corrupt and failing financial system robs the poor and deprives the whole world of the resources needed to eradicate poverty, recover from COVID and tackle the climate crisis, says Dalia Grybauskaite, FACTI co-chair and former president of Lithuania, according to a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES. Closing loopholes that allow money laundering, corruption, and tax abuse and stopping wrongdoing by bankers, accountants, and lawyers are steps in transforming the global economy for the universal good, says Ibrahim Mayaki, FACTI co-chair and former prime minister of Niger. The panel said at a time when billionaires wealth soared by 27.5 percent while 131 million people were pushed into poverty due to COVID-19, the report says that a tenth of the worlds wealth could be hidden in offshore financial assets, preventing governments from collecting their fair share of taxes. Recovering the annual loss to tax avoidance and evasion in Bangladesh, for example, would allow the country to expand its social safety net to 9 million more elderly, in Chad it could pay for 38,000 classrooms, and in Germany, it could build 8000 wind turbines, the panel said. The FACTI Panel was convened by the 74th president of the United Nations General Assembly and the 75th president of the Economic and Social Council on March 2, 2020. The panel reviews financial accountability, transparency, and integrity, and makes evidence-based recommendations to close remaining gaps in the international system as a means to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. 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. 5 things you need to know Monday News Press Release Annual results Fully mobilised to support its members and customers during the health crisis, Credit Mutuel Arkea confirms its solid fundamentals and the resilience of its original development model Brest, February 25, 2021 - The Board of Directors of Credit Mutuel Arkea today approved the financial statements for 2020. In an environment deeply marked by the economic and health crisis, Credit Mutuel Arkea posted solid results and a strong financial structure. The cooperative and regional banking group was particularly mobilized during this unprecedented year to support its members and customers through concrete and immediate measures, including a considerable strengthening of solidarity measures. Continuing on from a very fine 2019, with revenues* at their highest level ever, the group once again posted a remarkable performance in 2020 in this exceptional context. It is continuing its growth trajectory and asserting its unique identity in the service of its stakeholders. In a world subject to unprecedented challenges, and on the strength of its convincing results, the company is confidently committed to its new strategic plan, Transitions 2024, to achieve a positive impact. Sustained commercial activity at the service of its members and customers in the context of the health crisis Throughout this year deeply marked by a major economic and health crisis, the directors and employees of Credit Mutuel Arkea were mobilised to ensure the continuity of activities and banking and insurance services, and to support members and customers - individuals, professionals, businesses and associations - throughout its territories. The portfolio of members and customers grew by 4% to nearly 4.9 million. 190,000 new individual, professional, business and institutional clients (net new business) have chosen to place their trust in the local banking group. This client acquisition is mainly driven by online banking (Fortuneo and Keytrade), the personal assistant "Aumax pour moi" developed by the group, and the insurance business. It reflects the quality and attractiveness of the range of products and services designed and developed by Credit Mutuel Arkea. It is also an illustration of the relevance of the group's diversification strategy. Gross outstanding loans increased by 7.6% to 67.7bn, with production of 16.3bn, of which 1.8bn was in State Guaranteed Loans (PGE). The local networks of Credit Mutuel de Bretagne, Credit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest and Arkea Banque Entreprises et Institutionnels were particularly mobilised throughout the year to support their business customers, and granted nearly 11,000 PGEs. To support members and customers facing cash flow difficulties due to the decline or total cessation of their activities during the health crisis, 61,000 business, real estate or consumer loans were also subject to maturity extensions granted by Credit Mutuel de Bretagne, Credit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest, Arkea Banque Entreprises et Institutionnels, Arkea Banque Privee, Fortuneo, Financo, Arkea Credit Bail and CFCAL, for an outstanding amount of 5.8 billion. Total outstanding savings increased by 10.2% to 137.7 billion. This increase, which benefited all saving categories, was driven by net inflows of 7.9 billion. In particular, the Group posted positive net inflows in life insurance, in contrast to the net outflows observed in the French life insurance market in 2020. This performance is the result of the actions undertaken for many years in favor of unit-linked products, which allow clients to give meaning to their savings. Unit-linked policies will account for 56% of gross life insurance inflows in 2020, and 32% of total outstandings. In property, life and health insurance, earned premiums in the portfolio increased by 17 million (+4%) to 441 million. The share of distribution networks outside the Group, both physical and digital, increased again in 2020. They now represent 58% of new business premiums and 32% of earned premiums in portfolio (+2 points). A resilient model driven by the diversification of income sources The group's revenues*, on a like-for-like basis and excluding remarkable non-recurring operations, were stable at over 2 billion for the fourth consecutive year. This demonstrates the relevance and resilience of Credit Mutuel Arkea's development model. They amounted to 2.16 billion. This excellent performance in this environment was driven by strong sales momentum and by the proceeds from the deconsolidation and revaluation of Fintech Younited shares invested by Credit Mutuel Arkea. Net interest margin and commissions increased, driven in particular by the growth in outstanding loans and the increase in stock market volumes (x1.6) achieved by customers during the lockdowns. The group benefited from its strategy of diversifying its revenue sources, with a 17% contribution from the BtoB and white label banking services division (375 billion). Lastly, these revenues*, which in 2019 included an exceptional capital gain of 194 million related to the disposal of the stake in the Primonial group, are suffering from the impact of the health crisis on the valuation of life insurance and private equity assets. Net income group share amounted to 356 million. It was impacted by a cost of risk of 160 million, up 62%, i.e. 23 basis points relative to outstanding customer commitments, including 13 basis points related to the provisioning of performing loans. This controlled increase in the cost of risk makes it possible to anticipate, in a prudent and reasoned manner, the expected economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis. It also results from the good quality of the credit portfolio and the group's limited exposure to sectors considered vulnerable. A robust financial structure with high solvency ratios Total assets increased by 7.8% compared with 31 December 2019, to 169 billion, with a gross loan-to-deposit ratio of 99%. Group shareholders' equity increased by 5.1% to 7.7 billion, of which 2.4 billion in member shares. The Common Equity Tier One (CET1) solvency ratio stands at 16.8%, more than 8 points above the requirements set by the European Central Bank (excluding P2G). With the overall solvency ratio at 21.6%, these two indicators are well above regulatory requirements. Helene Bernicot, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Mutuel Arkea, said: "The quality of Credit Mutuel Arkea's results for 2020 once again illustrates the attractiveness and resilience of its cooperative and collaborative model in this unprecedented context, and is a source of pride in more ways than one. It is the result of the commitment of our employees, the group's diversity, the quality of its customer portfolio and the relationships we maintain on a daily basis with our members and customers. It is also a reflection of the attractiveness of our range of products and services that we offer to support everyone in their life projects. The group's dynamism is also illustrated by the more than 1,000 employees on permanent contracts who joined Credit Mutuel Arkea in 2020, at a time when the European banking sector is being hit by a massive wave of job cuts. These observations show that our unique model of agile, innovative and bold territorial banking makes sense. It is this model that we intend to promote and develop through our strategic plan that we have just unveiled. Transitions 2024 expresses the group's ambition to contribute to sustainable, ethical and inclusive finance and to be the agile financial partner for all its stakeholders in the transitions of the future". Anne Le Goff, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Credit Mutuel Arkea, added: "Credit Mutuel Arkea's results demonstrate the group's resilience in the turbulent period we have just gone through. Our solid fundamentals, high solvency ratios and sustainable growth trajectory are all assets that will enable us to pursue our development in our territories and pursue our own strategy, as we have always done. Throughout this very special year, all of the group's directors and employees have been fully committed, together, to their mission of accompanying and supporting our individual, professional and corporate members and customers. Their commitment and dedication, their sense of teamwork have made it possible to provide all those who needed it with attentive listening and concrete and immediate solutions, notably through the solidarity measures that we have particularly deployed in 2020. * Net banking and insurance income including gains on disposal or dilution in investments in associates. About Credit Mutuel Arkea Credit Mutuel Arkea is made up of two regional federations representing two main French geographic zones (Brittany in the West and the South West) and their member local savings banks. Credit Mutuel Arkea also has a presence across Europe thanks to its corporate and online subsidiaries (Fortuneo, Monext, Financo, Arkea Investment Services, Suravenir, CFCAL). Credit Mutuel Arkea is entirely owned by its customer shareholders. Credit Mutuel Arkea employs nearly 11,000 people, counts 2,800 directors and has a total of 4.9 million customers. The bank has 169 billion euro in total assets. Credit Mutuel Arkea ranks among the leading banks with headquarters in the regions. A detailed presentation for the first half of 2020 is available on the group's website at the following address: https://www.arkea.com/banque/assurance/credit/mutuel/ecb_5037/en/investor?presentations ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: xWpsk8qalGmby5ppl51qamRrbW6TxWiXl5OVk5NpY5uXb2ljnGdib5bJZm9plWpm - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-68050-financial-results-credit-mutuel-arkea-press-kit.pdf The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has meant that many laboratories around the world have quickly redirected research efforts to focus on COVID-19. Correspondingly, there has been an urgent need to establish the right research tools that will improve our understanding of SARS-CoV-2, and allow researchers to focus on critical areas of COVID-19 research, such as studies on new variants of SARS-CoV-2, examinations of vaccine efficacy and evaluation of antiviral drugs. While these tools can sometimes take years to develop, a new paper published in PLOS Biology by an international consortium, including researchers in Australia, Scotland and Estonia, addresses this need for COVID-19 research tools, and describes an openly available SARS-CoV-2 laboratory research toolkit. This coronavirus research toolkit is aimed at increasing the availability and accessibility of a variety of research materials, particularly for researchers who may be unaccustomed to coronavirus research. One important component of the toolkit is the "single plasmid reverse genetics" system, which allows researchers to make synthetic infectious coronaviruses using a specially constructed DNA plasmid that can be grown in bacteria and then used to make viruses in cultured mammalian cells. This genetic tool will allow researchers to easily manipulate the coronavirus genome, and in particular will permit the study of individual SARS-CoV-2 mutations, or combinations of mutations, such as those found in the new variants of concern. Following the generation and validation of the toolkit materials, all cell lines and virus strains have been deposited at the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control and all antibodies, proteins, cDNAs, cell lines and reverse genetics constructs were made available online through a not-for-profit web interface (https://mrcppu-covid.bio/). According to the authors, "By making this toolkit available to the global research community, these resources will fast-track investigation of many aspects of COVID- 19 research, including novel variants of concern, drug discovery and vaccine development." ### Peer reviewed; Experimental; COVID-19 In your coverage please use these URLs to provide access to the freely available articles in PLOS Biology: http://journals. plos. org/ plosbiology/ article?id= 10. 1371/ journal. pbio. 3001091 Citation: Rihn SJ, Merits A, Bakshi S, Turnbull ML, Wickenhagen A, Alexander AJT, et al. (2021) A plasmid DNA-launched SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics system and coronavirus toolkit for COVID-19 research. PLoS Biol 19(2): e3001091. https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1371/ journal. pbio. 3001091 Funding: This work was enabled by emergency COVID-19 investment by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC; https:/ / mrc. ukri. org/ ), MC PC 19026 (to the MRC484 University of Glasgow CVR), as well as the following MRC grants: MR/ K024752/1(to SJW), MC_UU_12014/10 (to SJW and MP), MC_UU_12014/8 (to AK), MC_UU12014/2 (to AP), MC_UU_12016/2 (to DRA), MC_UU_12014/12 (to fund RO and JH, awarded to DLR) and MR/P022642/1 (to SJW and SJR), along with Wellcome Trust support (201366/Z/16/Z to SJR, https:/ / wellcome. ac. uk/ ), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation support (INV-016128 to SJW, AHP and AK; https:/ / www. gatesfoundation. org/ ), UKRI support (MR/V028448/1 to MP and SJW), and support from the German Research Foundation (406109949 to VH; https:/ / www. dfg. de/ en/ ) and Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (01K/1723G to VH; https:/ / www. bmbf. de/ ). RJG was supported by a British Council Newton Fund grant (279705176; https:/ / www. britishcouncil. org/ ) under the DOST492 Newton PhD Scholarship partnership funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Philippines Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute, and the University of the Philippines Visayas. GDL is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care using UK Aid funding and is managed by the NIHR. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Department 497 of Health and Social Care. We thank Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL, Hyderabad, India; https:/ / www. indimmune. com/ ) for funding the design and construction of the icDNA-launched reverse genetics SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mCherry and NLuc derivatives. AZ, JF and XL are supported through Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC; https:/ / www. nhmrc. gov. au/ ) Project Grant funding (APP1106411, APP1079086) and funding from the Menzies Health Institute Queensland. SM is supported by an Australian NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (APP11544347). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. German police have launched huge SWAT-team raids in Berlin after banning a 'jihad-salafist' group that is said to have glorified ISIS, called for the killing of jews and had links to the Christmas market truck terrorist. Hundreds of officers carried out raids across the capital and neighbouring Brandenburg state today after police chiefs dissolved the radical Islamist group. Berlin's Senate interior department said it had outlawed Jama'atu Berlin, 'a young and very radical jihad Salafist' association, also known as Tauhid Berlin, saying the group was advocating terrorist attacks. German police have launched huge SWAT-team raids in Berlin after banning a 'jihad-salafist' group that is said to have glorified ISIS, called for the killing of jews and had links to the Christmas market truck terrorist Hundreds of officers carried out raids across the capital and neighbouring Brandenburg state today after it dissolved the radical Islamist group Nineteen members of the association were the focus of this morning's raids and the group had been under surveillance for two years, Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel told a news conference. A Senate statement said the group had propagated 'a martyr cult', supported Islamic State ideology, rejected the German constitution and called for sharia as the sole legitimate law. '(In the group), there are severe anti-Semites who are calling for the death of Jews,' Berlin Interior Secretary Torsten Akmann said in a statement. Akmann told the news conference he did not know if any arrests were made on Thursday or whether the group had concrete attack plans, but that the investigation was still ongoing. Male and female members of the unregistered association met regularly in parks and private homes to teach and pray and spread the group's ideology over the internet and by distributing flyers in public spaces, the Senate statement said. Several members also belonged to another Islamist group banned in 2017 which had contact with Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links who hijacked a truck and drove it into a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, killing 12 people. Nineteen members of the association were the focus of this morning's raids and the group had been under surveillance for two years A police office walks in front of a car during raids against an Islamist network at the Maerkische Viertel neighborhood in Berlin The number of Salafists in Germany rose to a record high of 12,150 in 2019, the domestic intelligence agency said in its annual report last year, more than tripling since 2011. 'The danger of Islamist terrorism remains high,' Geisel said. 'Today's ban is another building block in the resolute fight against violent extremism.' 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. MIAMI, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Idea Financial recently partnered with Cross River Bank to provide small business owners across the country access to the Paycheck Protection Program "PPP". Cross River Bank has been a pioneer in providing access to this business-saving program, processing more loans than any bank in the United States. This week, United State Government created a temporary rule change in the PPP that grants exclusive access to funds to those businesses that have experienced difficulty accessing the program since its inception. The businesses that qualify to apply during the two-week exclusive application period include: Businesses with 19 employees or less Self-Employed individuals Sole proprietors Independent contractors If your business falls under one of the categories listed above, the best time to apply for a PPP loan is now. Further changes in PPP rules are ahead, with the SBA removing current restrictions regarding those with delinquent student loan debt, non-fraud felony convictions, and US based, non-citizen business owners meeting certain criteria. Sole proprietors and independent contractors also stand to benefit from the more inclusive eligibility. The exclusivity period will conclude on March 11, 2021. The application deadline for the entire PPP is currently set for March 31, 2021, so all eligible businesses should apply now to beat the deadline. Idea Financial is currently processing applications that meet the updated criteria for the 2-week exclusive application window. To start your PPP application, go to: https://ideafinancialapply.crossriversba.com/#/start/. Contact: Adriana Pinto, 786-738-4076, [email protected] SOURCE Idea Financial Related Links https://www.ideafinancial.com Nirav Modi, the diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2-billion Punjab Bank (PNB) scam case, on Thursday lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts. The 49-year-old appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London and showed no emotion as District Judge Samuel Goozee handed down his judgment at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. I am satisfied on the evidence that a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering is established, said Judge Goozee, as he read out parts of his judgment in court and concluded that he will send his ruling to the UK's Secretary of State, Priti Patel. It is the Cabinet minister who is authorised to order an extradition under the India-UK Extradition Treaty and has two months within which to make that decision. The Home Secretary's order rarely goes against the court's conclusions, as she has to consider only some very narrow bars to extradition which are unlikely to apply in this case, including the possible imposition of a death penalty. Whatever the ministerial decision, the losing side has up to 14 days within which to approach the High Court and seek leave to appeal after the Home Secretary's decision. Any appeal, if granted, will be heard at the Administrative Division of the High Court in London. was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019, and has appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison for a series of court hearings in the extradition case. His multiple attempts at seeking bail have been repeatedly turned down, both at the Magistrates' and High Court level, as he was deemed a flight risk. is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. He also faces two additional charges of "causing the disappearance of evidence" and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death, which were added on to the CBI case. Chronology of Nirav Modi's case January 29, 2018: PNB files police complaint against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others accusing fraud to the tune of Rs 2.81 billion. February 5, 2018: CBI launches an investigation into the alleged scam. February 16, 2018: ED seizes a cumulative Rs 56.74 billion worth of diamonds, gold and jewellery from Nirav Modi's home and offices. February 17, 2018: The CBI makes first arrest in the case. Two PNB employees and an executive of Nirav Modi's group were detained. February 17, 2018: Government suspends passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi for four weeks in connection with the PNB fraud. February 21, 2018: CBI arrests CFO of Nirav Modi's firm and two other senior executives of his firms. It also seals his farmhouse in Alibaug. February 22, 2018: The ED seizes nine luxury cars belonging to Nirav Modi and his firms. February 27, 2018: A magistrate's court issues a bailable arrest warrant against diamond trader Nirav Modi. June 2, 2018: The Interpol issues Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi for money laundering. June 25, 2018: The ED moves a special court in Mumbai seeking Nirav Modi's extradition. August 3, 2018: The Indian Government sends a request for the extradition of Nirav Modi to the UK authorities. August 20, 2018: The CBI officials request Interpol Manchester to detain Nirav Modi after the latter informs about his presence in London to Indian authorities. December 27, 2018: The UK informs India that Nirav Modi is living in the country. March 9, 2019: British newspaper 'The Telegraph' confronts Nirav Modi on London's streets and confirms his presence in the country. March 9, 2019: The ED says the government of the UK has sent an extradition request of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi to a UK court for further proceeding. March 18, 2019: Westminster Court in London issues arrest warrant against fugitive Nirav Modi after the Indian government request was forwarded to the court by the UK Home Office March 20, 2019: Nirav Modi arrested in London and produced in Westminster Court, which denies him bail. March 20, 2019: Nirav Modi sent to Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Wandsworth till March 29 A Westminster Magistrates Court in London rejects Nirav Modi's second bail application, saying there are "substantial grounds" to believe that he will fail to surrender. The judge fixes April 26 as the next date of hearing when he will appear via video link from jail. May 8, 2019: Nirav Modi denied bail for a third time, to remain in UK jail. June 12, 2019: UK court rejects Nirav Modi's bail for fourth time over fears he would abscond. August 22, 2019: Nirav Modi's remand extended till September 19, UK extradition trial expected in May 2020. November 6, 2019: UK court rejects Nirav Modi's new bail application May 11, 2020: Nirav Modi's five-day extradition trial in PNB fraud case begins in UK May 13, 2020: Indian govt submits more proof against Nirav Modi in money laundering case September 7, 2020: UK court given fresh video tour of Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail December 1, 2020: Nirav Modi's remand extended, final hearings in 2021 January 8, 2021: UK court decides to pronounce judgement in Nirav Modi's extradition case on February 25 February 25, 2021: UK court rules Nirav Modi can be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering. The satire writes itself in a recent story of hypersensitivity that locals hope to politely ignore. However, activist outcry against the implications of playground equipment deserves deeper consideration as Kansas City struggles to honor the memory of an American civil rights icon. To wit . . . KANSAS CITY FAITH COMMUNITY LEADER CLAIMS PLAYGROUND ROPES ARE RACIST AND THREATEN YOUNGSTERS WITH THE LEGACY OF HATE CRIME VIOLENCE!!! It's a bold allegation that volunteers and organizers didn't anticipate. Check the story . . . KCTV5: Feedback on MLK, Jr. Square Park raises unexpected concern They money line was buried and deserves to be highlighted . . . Kevin Woolfolk, the director of membership engagement of the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences Greater Kansas City Chapter, sent a message in the Zoom chat that read, Not happy with ropes in the play area. Ropes are a symbol of Jim Crow racism, injustice, and terror. Might be a good idea to eliminate ropes as a feature of the park. The knee-jerk reaction would be to take offense and in turn escalate the conversation. Alternatively, we think the concern merits serious and precise deliberation. TKC isn't so old we don't remember playground ropes. Forgive us if we don't see it anything more than a lame physical activity that doesn't seem as fun as playing video games. Given that a reference to horrific institutionalized violence that once targeted African-Americans now threatens to impact the design of the KCMO park rehabilitation; we invite readers to contemplate the future wherein youngsters and all people are prevented from having any fun because of perceived historical implications or after municipal leader acquiesce to the effective rhetorical tactics of a faith community leader. At the very least, this town risks living out the plot from Footloose if this temperamental worldview isn't respectfully challenged. In conclusion . . . We can only hope to reassure EVERYONE that it's highly unlikely the designers of youth activities intentionally referenced hate crimes in their plans. Moreover, the path to move forward and out of the shadow of alleged systemic racism might be to exercise some level of fortitude when confronted with the imagined legacy of "problematic" playground equipment thereby teaching youngsters to overcome easily manageable obstacles. You decide . . . Photo: i.redd.it This weeks report is about Bill C-21: An act to amend certain acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms). In May last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that 1,500 types of assault-style firearms were being banned and that a buy-back plan was going to be introduced so owners of these newly restricted rifles would be able to sell them to the government at a yet-to-be-determined rate. At the time, this announcement from the Prime Minister led to some confusion as military assault rifles in Canada have long been illegal. Further, assault style has no legal definition within the Canada Firearms Act. It is a recently deployed piece of political rhetoric used to characterize 11 different types of semi-automatic rifles that can be ordered in up to 1,500 different variations from various manufacturers. Why did the Prime Minister decide to ban these particular semi-automatic rifles? In his words: "These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time. There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada." Bill C-21 is the legislation that further addresses these assault style rifles and proposes other firearms related measures as well. What is most surprising about this bill is, contrary to commonly expressed opinion, it does not actually remove assault style weapons from within Canada. Legal owners of these weapons can continue to own them however with new restrictions that include a ban on permitted use (none), no import, no further acquisition, no sale and no bequeathal. Critics have questioned why, if the PM believes that there is no place for such weapons in Canada, is Bill C-21 proposing to allow these weapons to remain in Canada? Another measure proposed in Bill C-21 is a measure that will allow municipalities to prohibit legal hand guns from being stored or transported anywhere within a municipality if a bylaw to that effect is passed. Critics of this by-law, including one local mayor, have pointed out this is a form of downloading federal responsibilities onto municipalities. From my perspective, considering guns are illegally smuggled across the Canada/United States border, it is unclear why Trudeau believes that criminals with illegal firearms would view a municipal border any differently. As far as illegal gun smuggling, Bill C-21 is largely silent as most of the measures are proposed against legal gun owners with one exception. Bill C-21 proposed to extend the maximum term of imprisonment from 10 years to 14 years for those convicted of illegally smuggling guns into Canada. My concern with this measure is that gun-smuggling charges often occur well after the fact. The need to be proactive and stop illegal guns from entering Canada should be a priority, not once again targeting legal gun owners. While there are other measures in this bill, most building on already existing laws and regulations, this is a summary of the areas I have heard the majority of concern around. My question this week: Do you believe Bill C-21 will help stop illegal gun crime in Canada? I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free 1-800-665-8711. Linda Thomas-Greenfield takes up her post as US ambassador to the on Thursday and a senior Russian diplomat said the red carpet will be rolled out and Moscow is ready to work with the Biden administration -- but it takes two to tango. After being sworn in on Wednesday by Vice President Camala Harris, Thomas-Greenfield headed to New York where she is scheduled to present her credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday afternoon. She will be jumping right into her new job, tackling global peace and security issues with Russia, China and a dozen other countries because the United States takes over the rotating presidency of the powerful UN Security Council on Monday. And she might even decide to attend a council meeting on Friday. We are looking forward to interactions with her, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told a group of reporters Wednesday. You can count on our most favorable attitudes and positive emotions towards her as a member of our Security Council family. Noting Thomas-Greenfield's decades as a US diplomat, he said it's always easier to interact with professionals." But he said America's view that is an enemy and a threat hasn't changed under Biden, so it's very difficult to imagine how the interaction with us might change with such starting points of the positions of the new administration. Nonetheless, Polyansky said, there are a lot of things and the United States can do together and we will judge the new administration by what it does. We're in favour of cooperation, he said. But it takes two to tango, and really we're ready to dance, but we need a good and reliable partner who knows all the moves and who respects us as a country with certain positions, doesn't view us as a threat and sees our obvious national interests in many issues. Thomas-Greenfield, a retired 35-year veteran of the U.S. foreign service who rose to be assistant secretary of state for Africa, resigned during the Trump administration. She will be the third African-American, and the second African-American woman, to hold the U.N. post. Her confirmation on Tuesday was hailed by Democrats and advocates of the who had lamented former President Donald Trump's America First unilateral approach to affairs and rejoiced at President Joe Biden's return to multilateralism. At the Senate hearing on her nomination, Thomas-Greenfield called China a strategic adversary that threatens the world, and called a speech she gave in 2019 that praised China's initiatives in Africa but made no mention of its human rights abuses a mistake. The Senate voted 78-20 to confirm her with Republican opponents saying she was soft on China and would not stand up for U.S. principles at the U.N. Thomas-Greenfield said at the hearing that Washington will be working not only with allies but to see where we can find common ground with the Russians and the Chinese to put more pressure on the Iranians to push them back into strict compliance with the 2015 agreement to rein in their nuclear program. Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018 and Biden has indicated the US will rejoin it, though how that might happen remains a major question. Polyansky said welcomes the positive developments on the Iran nuclear deal and the US agreement to extend the START nuclear agreement, adding that Moscow is ready for serious and meaningful discussions first and foremost in the area of strategic stability. Thomas-Greenfield stressed at the hearing that the U.S. will be reengaging internationally and promoting American values -- support for democracy, respect for universal human rights, and the promotion of peace and security. (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.) ALEPPO The defense minister in the Syrian opposition's self-styled interim government, Maj. Gen. Salim Idris, said Feb. 22 that the opposition forces are ready to confront any military development in northwestern Syria. We affirm that the Free Syrian Army [FSA] is fully prepared to duly retaliate against any attacks on the liberated areas once they occur, Idris said in a statement published by the Turkish-backed FSA's directorate of moral guidance. Idris statement came only a few days after the Syrian regime forces and their allied militias dispatched military reinforcements to the fronts with the FSA around the city of al-Bab, in the northeastern Aleppo countryside. Since mid-February, the regime forces have been bringing military reinforcements to the areas under their control south of al-Bab city. Military convoys carrying military equipment, including tanks, artillery and rocket launchers, have been flooding into the area. Maj. Yusuf Hammoud, spokesman for the FSA-affiliated Syrian National Army, told Al-Monitor, The regime forces brought military reinforcements to Oweishiyeh, a village in the south of al-Bab. In parallel, the regime forces heavy vehicles were seen moving on the demarcation lines separating the FSA-held areas and regime-held areas near al-Bab. Hammoud downplayed the risks arising from the military mobilization on the fronts, saying, These reinforcements were not necessarily deployed in preparation for a new military action against al-Bab and Aleppos countryside. They could be aimed at beefing up the regime's defenses in the area. Al-Farooq Abu Bakr, deputy commander of the FSA's Al-Motassem Brigade, told Al-Monitor, The regime forces military reinforcements already arrived at the fronts near al-Bab, and were deployed in several positions near the demarcation lines. We still dont know what the fresh regime forces on the lines intend to do later. Yet we are prepared for all possible scenarios. Idris told Al-Monitor, The FSA is ready for all possible scenarios, including a retaliation against any military operation the regime launches in the area. There is ongoing communication with the commanders of the various FSA factions, which are stationed on the demarcation lines. We are closely monitoring the situation. There are also continuous consultations and coordination with the commanders at the various levels. The preparations of the FSA are uninterrupted. Mustafa Sejari, director of the political bureau of Al-Motassem Brigade, had previously warned against a possible military operation by the regime forces on al-Bab. Sejari's Jan. 2 remarks had sparked a debate over the timing of the regime offensive among the oppositions ranks. On Feb. 19, the FSA intercepted an attempt by the regime forces to infiltrate its posts near al-Bab. The incident is another indicator that a large-scale military operation toward al-Bab is possible. The regime deployment near al-Bab coincided with the 15th round of the Astana process for Syria held in the presence of the three guarantor states Turkey, Russia, and Iran Feb. 17 in Sochi, Russia. The military and political developments taking place simultaneously has raised concerns among civilians in al-Bab and all of the FSA-held areas in Aleppos countryside. They fear an undeclared Russian-Turkish understanding on the regimes advances toward al-Bab. Col. Mustafa Bakkour, a military analyst based in Idlib, told Al-Monitor, In my opinion, no military action in any part of Syria is possible without a prior Russian-Turkish understanding. The guarantor states have not issued so far any statement regarding the recent movements in al-Bab. We are, however, used to such unannounced understandings, but their implications are being witnessed on the ground. Some in Aleppos countryside rule out the possibility that Turkey easily gives up al-Bab, considering that Ankara provides the city with aid to improve services in the education, health and other sectors. They believe that it is unlikely that Turkey and Russia reached an understanding on a military operation by the regime toward al-Bab. Bilal Sattouf, a political science researcher based in Azaz in Aleppos countryside, said he doesnt believe that the military reinforcements near al-Bab are a prelude to a regime military operation to take control over the city or advance toward the FSA-held areas in the Aleppo countryside. He told Al-Monitor, The regime may be bringing reinforcements to the area to conduct military changes and reposition their forces near the fronts. It could also be part of Russian efforts to control the front lines with the FSA and put an end to smuggling corridors. The UK variant severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), known as B.1.1.7 or VOC-202012/01, emerged in the UK in late 2020, quickly spreading to become the dominant variant in several countries. A research paper recently uploaded to the preprint server medRxiv* by Vespignani et al. (February 22nd, 2021) uses mathematical models to map the spread of this lineage across Europe, establishing that a 50% increase to the transmissibility of the variant would allow it to become dominant in major metropolitan areas by the end of March 2021. How was the model constructed? Several European cities and their greater metropolitan regions were included in the study: Berlin, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, and Madrid. Data from Denmark, Greece, Poland, and Portugal was also utilized, and the individuals were divided into ten age groups aged 0 to 80+. The model assumes that only B.1.1.7 and wild-type variants exist, and also sets the emergence date of the B.1.1.7 lineage as September 13th 2020, with a transmissibility 50% over the wild-type. It accounted for non-pharmaceutical interventions such as lockdowns using data sourced from local authorities. Three scenarios were considered: status quo, where non-pharmaceutical interventions and population behaviors stay the same; conservative relaxation, where population contact is increased by 25%; or moderate relaxation, where population contact is increased 50%. Assuming a status quo behavior, the B.1.1.7 lineage would be expected to become the dominant one in Denmark, Greece, and Portugal by February 15th, and Poland by March 15th, with the major cities examined in detail also failing between these dates. Interestingly, relaxed behaviors had relatively little sway on the population proportion, with, for example, 92% of SARS-SoV-2 being the B.1.1.7 lineage in Barcelona by March 31st under status quo conditions, and 93% and 94% under conservative and moderate relaxation, respectively. Fraction of new cases attributable to the B.1.1.7 variant. Each plot shows the fraction of new weekly cases attributable to the variant in dierent regions for dierent restrictions scenarios under the assumption of a 50% increase in transmissibility. Dashed horizontal lines represent the dominance threshold of 50% of new cases caused by the B.1.1.7 variant. The shaded areas represent the 50% CI. The cities were expected the present a dominance of the B.1.1.7 lineage of 85-94% in Madrid, Berlin, Milan, and Rome, with a lesser proportion of 74-80% in Frankfurt by the end of March. The countries, similarly, are expected to see 93-95% representation of B.1.1.7 in Denmark, Greece, and Portugal, with a lesser rate of 72-79% in Poland. Each location is expected to experience a fluctuating and differently peaking death rate by the model, which was compared with weekly death data from each location dating back to April 2020 with good agreement. Data collected by PCR that confirmed the variant of SARS-CoV-2 was later collected from Portugal, Denmark, and the Italian regions of Milan and Rome and compared to the model. The model was in-line with the observed proportion of B.1.1.7 in the population within a 95% confidence interval, suggesting that more long-term predictions bear validity. It should be noted however that Portugal had only two data points for this comparison from December 2020 and January 2021, while Milan and Rome had only one. Denmark, however, had seven that fit the predicted curve well from between December 2020 to February 2021. The authors note that the study is limited in not accounting for population density or mobility within the regions of interest. Additionally, presymptomatic or asymptomatic individuals may not have been detected by the PCR tests employed, and thus the number of COVID-19 positive individuals could be underaccounted. Ambassador William Burns is President Joseph Biden, Jr.'s pick for the Central Intelligence Agency despite having close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a report said. Breitbart revealed that Biden's nominee for the Central Intelligence Agency's top post turns out to have a history of cooperation to organizations linked with the Chinese Communist Party based on background information presented by the Republican Study Committee. "Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores. The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director," Biden said last January when he announced his candidate for the post. "Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure. He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect," he added. According to Breitbart, information on Burns presents links with the Chinese Communist Party members such as the time he became board president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace when he included Chinese businessman Zhang Yichen. Yichen, as per Breitbart, happened to be linked with Chinese Communist Party's organizations, the Chinese Political Consultive Conference and the Center for China Globalization and was also connected to the China-U.S. Exchange foundation. The said data could be found in the in-depth study undertaken by the Republican Study Committee on Biden's "weakness" on China. Entitled, "RSC Backgrounder: Biden On China--Bad Policies, Bad Personnel," the study condemns the "number of disastrous steps" the Biden Administration has undertaken that overall shows "a return to Obama's failed approach of engaging rather than holding China accountable for it's bad behavior." "As former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Burns welcomed Zhang Yichen, a Chinese businessman linked to two major CCP organizations, the Chinese People's Political Consultive Conference and the Center for China Globalization, to the think tank's board. Zhang's firm, along with the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, an organization connected to the CCP and responsible for 'United Front' work in the U.S., gave Carnegie millions of dollars to help build the think tank's Beijing based Carnegie-Tsinghua center," the study said. Breitbart added that Burns would become the very first CIA Director that hailed from the US State Department if he will be confirmed by the Senate. He helped former President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 while he was at the State Department, which paved the way for Iran to legally weaponize its program in the future. It was former President Donald Trump who canceled that deal with Iran. Because of this, Breitbart said, Burns was a strong critic of Trump since 2020. Burns would write against Trump's Foreign Affairs policies, among others. Many expressed appreciation for Burn's appointment to the CIA due to his extensive experience in international or foreign relations. He was ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001 then became the ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 and became the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nationally acclaimed, award winning law firm Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has been retained to help the families of the late Sophia Lambert and Margaret "Maggie" Paxton receive justice for their deaths. Attorneys Stuart Z. Grossman, Andrew B. Yaffa, and University of Florida (UF) alumni William P. Mulligan have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent drivers and related entities that caused or contributed to the sudden deaths of Sophia and Maggie, both of whom were University of Florida students at the time. "We are committed to holding all of the drivers and related entities accountable for their roles and decisions that resulted directly in Maggie and Sophia's deaths," says Attorney Andrew B. Yaffa. In addition, both families are taking action to protect pedestrians and bikers along University Avenue, where deadly accidents have become the norm. While walking back to her dorm, Maggie Paxton, a 2nd semester Freshman, was killed by a hit-and-run driver near Ben Hill Griffith Stadium in December of 2020. Less than a month later, 2nd semester Freshman, Sophia Lambert, was fatally injured when a car accident pushed a Honda onto the sidewalk where she stood with her friends, waiting to cross the street. One of the drivers involved in the accident that caused the death of Sophia Lambert was in the process of delivering food for Uber Eats. "Anything we can do to make our roadways safer and protect our children is a worthy endeavor that we support wholeheartedly. We do so in honor of Maggie and Sophia," adds Attorney Yaffa. Students, as well the community surrounding the University of Florida, are saying "Enough is Enough" after the deaths of these two young women. A Facebook group called Gators Against Student Pedestrian Deaths (GASPD) was formed in the wake of the January accident and has grown to over 2,500 members. Students, families, and other concerned community members have joined the Gainesville Citizens for Active Transport (GCAT) in pushing for changes that would make West University Avenue safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, both in the short term and the long run. The attorneys at Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen are honored to fight alongside these two families and the multiple activists who are working to protect all UF students and visitors. UF is one of Florida's flagship universities and it is imperative that if they want to continue to attract the best and brightest students, they must do everything possible to ensure the safety of their students, faculty and residents living and working in and around the University. Attorneys Grossman, Yaffa, and Mulligan urge anyone who has information regarding either case to contact them directly by calling 1-866-629-1061. For more information on the details of the cases please visit www.grossmanroth.com Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen was founded in 1988 to help the victims of preventable accidents or mishaps fight back against negligent people and organizations. 30 years later, the firm has built a reputation for its excellent litigators and strong drive for justice. Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has obtained landmark settlements and verdicts against high-profile defendants including Bank of America, Florida Power and Light, and Palm Beach County. With each success, its attorneys bring Floridians closer to the nation of our ideals, where the laws protect people rather than corporations and justice is attainable by all. The firm can be contacted online at https://www.grossmanroth.com/ or by calling (866) 629-1061. SOURCE Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen Related Links https://www.grossmanroth.com In a turning point that brought hope to developing countries, Ghana has received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX program of the World Health Organization, Wednesday. Ghana Receives 600,000 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Six hundred thousand doses of the vaccine arrived with the flight. The vaccines were developed by AstraZeneca, which is considered easier to distribute in developing countries than other vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna. This is because the AstraZeneca vaccine does not require extremely low temperatures for transportation and storage. According to CNBC, Ghana's Information Ministry stated that people who are over 60 years old, front-line medical workers, and those with pre-existing medical conditions will be prioritized for the vaccination. In a joint statement by UNICEF and WHO, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore called the shipment of vaccines to Ghana a "historic moment.' She also stated that the organizations have been working so hard and have been planning for this for a long time. Moreover, Fore stated that COVAX sending out the first shipment also serves as a promise to developing countries that no one is left behind in this battle against the disease that has taken the lives of almost 2.5 million people globally. Read also: Vatican Threatens to Fire Employees Who Refuse to Get COVID-19 Vaccine What is COVAX? Amid the race by wealthy countries to broker deals and get access to the vaccine, COVAX was developed with the aim of equitable vaccine access. COVAX is a plan which aims to vaccinate 20% of the world's poorest countries through donations by the end 2021. The movement is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international alliance called Gavi, and the WHO, CNN reported. In a statement by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's chief executive, Mark Suzman, back in December, he said that it could be too late for the aimed equitable distribution of the vaccine due to the huge deals by first-world countries. This is because while the wealthy countries procure their vaccines, many poor countries suffer from shortage and inaccess. Based on data by the People's Vaccine Alliance, a group of human rights campaigners, 53% of the world's vaccine supply has been procured by wealthy nations by December of 2020. These rich nations only account for 14% of the global population. On the other hand, some middle-income countries are also set to acquire COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, however, on a self-funded plan. The plan's goal is to get 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to these countries by the end of the year. The vaccines that COVAX distributes are only those that the WHO has deemed effective and safe. The vaccines that the COVAX facility has delivered to Ghana were manufactured by India's Serum Institute. The organization has been given access to intellectual property; thus, it is able to use the formula by Oxford-AstraZeneca to produce vaccines. Meanwhile, more than 670 million doses of the vaccine from the Serum Institute have already been secured by the African Union for its member countries. The union's goal is to vaccinate at least 60% of the 1.3 billion people in Africa in the next couple of years. Related article: Israeli Bar Offers Free Drinks for Those Who Will Get COVID-19 Vaccines @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Porsche driver accused of taunting a dying police officer in the aftermath of a fatal truck crash has sold another of his Melbourne properties while behind bars for close to $1 million. A four-bedroom townhouse on Champion Street in Doncaster East, which Richard Pusey co-owned with his wife Anh Truong, was sold earlier this month for $953,800. It is one of a number of properties Mr Pusey has listed for sale in the past several months, worth millions of dollars in total. The Champion Street townhouse owned by Richard Pusey and his wife that was sold this month. Another townhouse in the Champion Street block that was owned by Ms Truong also sold last week for $983,000. Property documents show it was transferred from Mr Pusey to Ms Truong in mid-2017. Mr Pusey bought the block on Champion Street for $1.32 million in August 2014 and it was developed into three townhouses. He sold the first townhouse for more than $1 million in November last year. A fall in carbon dioxide levels might have enabled sauropodomorphs, initial relatives of the biggest animal to ever walk this world, thousands of kilometers migrate north about 214 million years ago over once-forbidding deserts. The Mysterious Dinosaurs Migration The National Academy of Sciences disclosed that researchers indicated the period of the dinosaurs' trip from South America to Greenland by relating rock layers with sauropodomorph fossils to shifts in Earth's magnetic field. Utilizing that timeline, the team discovered that the animals' push northward concurs with a huge decline in CO2, which may have wiped out climate-related barriers. (SN: 11/17/20). The sauropodomorphs were a faction of plant-eating, long-necked dinosaurs that comprised large sauropods such as Seismosaurus as well as their tinier ancestors. Sauropodomorphs survived mainly in what is now southern Brazil and northern Argentina roughly 230 million years ago. But at a point, these initial dinosaurs pot up and migrated as distant as Greenland ALSO READ: Scientists Finally Unlock Dinosaur DNA The Journey to Greenland Precisely when they could have migrated have been a mystery, though. Columbia University's geologist Dennis Kent explained that in precept, you could have trekked from where they were to the other hemisphere, which was something similar to 10,000 kilometers away. Back then, the Americas and Greenland were put together into the grand-continent Pangea. Mountains were simple to get around and no oceans were obstructing the paths. If the dinosaurs had trekked at the passive pace of two to one kilometers each day, it would have carried them about 20 years to arrive at Greenland. But during most of the Late Triassic Epoch, which lasted for 215 million to 233 million years ago, Earth's carbon dioxide degrees were extremely elevated - as many as 4,000 fractions per million. Currently (in comparison, CO2 levels presently are around 415 per million). Climate simulations have indicated that a level of CO2 would have generated severe climate instabilities and hyper-arid deserts, which could have posed as an obstacle to the enormous beasts. With massive deserts extending south and north of the equator, Dennis says, there would have been some plants accessible for the herbivores to live through the journey for most of that period. Ancient Rocks Earlier assessments indicated that these dinosaurs journey to Greenland from about 205 million to 225 million years ago. To obtain a better-specified date, Dennis assessed magnetic structures with his colleagues in ancient rocks in New Jersey, Arizona, Greenland, Europe, and South America - all locales where sauropodomorphs fossils have been found. These structures document the exposure of Earth's magnetic field at the period of the rock's formation. By correlating those structures with earlier excavated rocks whose ages are known, the group discovered that sauropodomorphs arrived about 214 million years ago in Greenland. Earth's Climate That more specific date for sauropodomorphs' migration might clarify why it took them so long to begin the walk north - and how lived through the migration: Earth's climate was changing quickly at that time. The group disclosed that through the time that sauropodomorphs surfaced in Greenland, carbon dioxide degrees dropped within a few million years to 2,000 fractions per million, compelling the climate more travel-friendly to herbivores. The purpose for this drop in carbon dioxide - which happens in climate records from Greenland and South America - is not known, but it helped for an occasional migration northward. RELATED ARTICLE: Identity Crisis: New Hypothesis Suggests Radical Changes to the Dinosaur Family Tree For more news,update about dinosaur and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or dissemination in the United States. TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voxtur Analytics Corp. (TSXV:VXTR) (Voxtur or the Company) is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement of common shares of the Company (Common Shares) for gross proceeds of up to $35,000,000 (the Offering), subject to TSX Venture Exchange (the Exchange) approval. The Offering shall consist of up to 50,000,000 Common Shares at a price of $0.70 per Common Share. The Offering may close in one or more tranches, with the first tranche of subscriptions for approximately $25,000,000 expected to close in early March. The proceeds from the Offering are expected to be used for future growth opportunities, general working capital and debt repayment. The Company may, in its discretion, pay a finders fee in cash or Common Shares of up to 6% of the total gross proceeds of the Offering, excluding any funds raised from insiders. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day following the applicable closing date. The Company has engaged Cormark Securities Inc. as its financial advisor in connection with this transaction. The Offering is subject to the approval of the Exchange. It is anticipated that certain directors, officers and other insiders of the Company will acquire Common Shares under the Offering. Such participation will be considered to be related party transactions within the meaning of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) adopted in the Policy. The Company intends to rely on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of related party participation in the Private Placement as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involves the related parties, is expected to exceed 25% of the Companys market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101). The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the closing of the Offering as the details of the Offering and the participation therein by each "related party" of the Company will not be settled until shortly prior to the closing of the Offering, and the Company wishes to close the Offering on an expedited basis for sound business reasons. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any state and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the benefit or account of U.S. persons, absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. About Voxtur Voxtur is a transformational real estate technology company that is redefining industry standards in a dynamic lending environment. Voxtur leverages its proprietary data hub and workflow platforms to provide transparency in property valuation and tax assessment and automate processes throughout the lending lifecycle from origination to default and liquidation. This allows Voxturs clients to more accurately and efficiently value assets, originate and service loans, securitize portfolios and evaluate tax assessments. Our innovative platform aggregates complementary data sets and layers in business intelligence to generate targeted analytics and assist in the provision of technology-managed services to the property lending and property tax sectors, both public and private, in the United States and Canada. Voxtur is a brand built on innovation, execution and forward-thinking products and services. Voxturs common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol VXTR. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information generally refers to information about an issuers business, capital, technology or operations that is prospective in nature, and includes future-oriented financial information about the issuers prospective financial performance or financial position. The forward-looking information in this news release includes disclosure about the proposed Offering, including the terms and timing thereof and the proposed use of proceeds from the Offering. The Company made certain material assumptions, including but not limited to prevailing market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, as well as the ability to complete the Offering on the terms set forth herein in a timely manner and to obtain the regulatory approvals required in connection with the same, to develop the forward-looking information in this news release. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information in this news release due to certain material risk factors described in the Companys public filings under its profile at www.sedar.com and the failure to complete the Offering on the terms set forth herein in a timely manner or at all, the risk that regulatory approvals will not be received and the risk that changing circumstances will result in the proceeds being used in a manner other than as set forth herein. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material risk factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information in this news release, unless it is required to do so under Canadian securities legislation. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. Photo of Baltimore Mans Tearful Reunion With His Dog After 4-Month-Long Coma Goes Viral A Baltimore mans story has gone viral after he awoke from a 4-month-long coma and was reunited with his faithful dog. Barak, an adorable spotted hound, was brought into BARCS Animal Shelter when his owner was admitted to the hospital for injuries sustained in a terrible explosion in the city, which affected several homes. The reunion between the tearful owner and his pet was captured on camera by BARCS Animal Shelter. Their picture quickly went viral on Facebook, with nearly 4,000 shares. It was by a miracle that they narrowly survived the disaster which resulted in other fatalities, the shelter wrote on Feb. 8. Barak was transferred to BARCS and his dad to shock trauma where he was put into an induced coma for life-threatening burns. They added that during the ambulance ride, the distressed man kept asking about Barak, telling EMTs he wanted to see his canine friend. A few days after Barak arrived at our shelter, we learned that his dads expected time in the hospital was at least a month, BARCS shared. Up until recently, guaranteeing a month-long hold or longereven for an emergencywasnt always easy or even possible. Due to limited local kennel space and high demand for admission, BARCS and similar organizations are pressed to open their doors to homeless dogs. However, the shelter said that COVID-19 actually led to an expansion of their foster system, and allowed them to open additional space for pets whose owners are facing a crisis. We made the pledge to care for him as long as needed, the shelter shared. Although Baraks owner made a full recovery after treatment at the hospital, his home had been destroyed in the explosion, and the pair had nowhere to live. Even after the dog dad found a new place to stay, the residence wouldnt allow dogs. Fortunately, the shelter was able to put up Barak until his owner was able to find more suitable accommodation. We stayed in contact with Baraks dad frequently, BARCS wrote, all the while facing the daily heartbreak of missing his best friend. We assured him that no matter what, Barak would stay at BARCS until they could be reunited. By the end of January, Baraks owner finally found dog-friendly housing and was able to pick up his much-missed pup. He hugged and kissed his very best buddy, with all those around him watching in tears. Keeping this family together was worth the resources and worth the wait, the shelter said. After the shelters social media post went viral, local community members reached out asking if they could pitch in to help Barak and his dad by donating food and household furniture for their new abode. Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / GREAT ATLANTIC RESOURCES CORP. (TSXV:GR)(FRA:PH01) (the "Company" or "Great Atlantic") is pleased to announce that is has closed the non-brokered private placement previously announced on February 5 and February 11, 2021 for gross proceeds of $675,000, with a lead order from Palisades Goldcorp. Ltd. The units of the financing are comprised of one common share at a price of $0.50 and a full share purchase warrant, which may be exercised for a period of 36 months at a price of $0.75 per share. The Company paid a cash commission of $15,000 to Glores Securities Inc. and $4,500 Haywood Securities Inc. and $1,200 PI Financial Corp. and $6,600 Canaccord Genuity Corp. The Company also issued 30,000 finder warrants Glores Securities Inc. and 9,000 finder warrants Haywood Securities Inc. and 2,400 finder warrants PI Financial Corp. The broker warrants have the same terms as the private placement warrants. The proceeds of the private placement will be used for general working capital and exploration work on the Company's properties. The closing of the private placement financing is subject to final TSX-V approval. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a hold period of June 23, 2021. About Palisades Goldcorp Palisades Goldcorp is Canada's resource focused merchant bank. Palisades' management team has a demonstrated track record of making money and is backed by many of the industry's most notable financiers. With junior resource equities valued at generational lows, management believes the sector is on the cusp of a major bull market move. Palisades is positioning itself with significant stakes in undervalued companies and assets with the goal of generating superior returns. On Behalf of the board of directors "Christopher R Anderson" Mr. Christopher R. Anderson "Always be positive, strive for solutions, and never give up" President CEO Director 604-488-3900 - Dir Investor Relations: Please call 604-488-3900 About Great Atlantic Resources Corp.: Great Atlantic Resources Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on the discovery and development of mineral assets in the resource-rich and sovereign risk-free realm of Atlantic Canada, one of the number one mining regions of the world. Great Atlantic is currently surging forward building the company utilizing a Project Generation model, with a special focus on the most critical elements on the planet that are prominent in Atlantic Canada, Antimony, Tungsten and Gold. This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future exploration drilling, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Great Atlantic Resources Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631854/Great-Atlantic-Closes-675000-Financing-with-a-Lead-Order-from-Palisades-Goldcorp New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for an independent investigation into claims New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed a former aide. In an essay published to Medium Wednesday, Lindsey Boylan - who worked as a special advisor to Cuomo in 2018 - charged that the Governor asked her to play strip poker and kissed on the lips without her permission. The allegations have been vigorously denied by Cuomo, but de Blasio told reporters during a press conference Thursday that they should be examined more thoroughly. 'These allegations are really disturbing. Let's be clear about that, they're really disturbing. We have to, as New Yorkers, we got to take this seriously. When a woman comes forward with this kind of very specific allegations, they have to be taken seriously,' de Blasio stated. 'We need a full and independent investigation, I want to emphasize the word 'independent,' investigation by some individual or entity that is not compromised, is not dominated by the governor's office, but an independent investigation,' he continued. 'This kind of behavior, if it's true, is unacceptable in any public servant, in anybody. So we've got to get the truth about this.' Meanwhile, New York state's two senators were also questioned about the allegations, with a spokesperson for Chuck Schumer stating: 'He has said many times that sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated, and that any credible allegation should be thoroughly investigated.' New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for an independent investigations into claims New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed a former aide In an essay published to Medium Wednesday, Lindsey Boylan -who worked as a special advisor to Cuomo in 2018- charged that the Governor asked her to play strip poker and kissed on the lips without her permission. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was also asked about the allegations on Thursday, but gave a somewhat softer reply. "I have not read her allegations or her posts or Medium posts. But as I said, everyone has a right to be able to come forward, speak their truth and be heard. And that's true for her and it's also true for Governor Cuomo,' Gillibrand said Thursday, according to a tweet posted by Huffington Post's Igor Bobic. In this past, Gillibrand has seemed far more reluctant to let Republicans accused of sexual assault 'speak their truth'. The Democrat senator demanded President Trump 'resign' after he was accused of sexual assault. In 2018, she called allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh 'disqualifying'. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand was also asked about the allegations on Thursday, but gave a somewhat softer reply A spokesperson for Chuck Schumer stated: 'He has said many times that sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated, and that any credible allegation should be thoroughly investigated' Meanwhile, the Democratic party's other prominent women are curiously staying silent about the bombshell allegations. Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have not yet released statements regarding the claims despite fashioning themselves as champion of women. Fox News reports that representatives for Harris, Pelosi and Clinton failed to respond to their request for comment. Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - who recently revealed she had been a victim of sexual assault - has been similarly quiet. Mainstream TV networks ABC, NBC and CBS similarly did not report on their allegations in their news bulletins Wednesday night. No comment? Vice President Kamala Harris has not made a statement on the claims. At one point, the incoming Biden-Harris Administration were reportedly considering Cuomo for the role of Attorney General. Harris is pictured with Boylan in a photo taken several years ago Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have not released statements regarding the claims Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - who recently revealed she had been a victim of sexual assault - was similarly quiet Clinton and Cuomo have long been friends. The pair are pictured together in 2016 However, actress and activist Rose McGown has spoken out in defense of Boylan and, like de Blasio, she is demanding an independent investigation. 'I completely stand by Lindsey Boylan. Its truth leaks from every word on the screen that she wrote. She, none of us, should endure what she endured,' McGowan told Fox News. 'If they're doing it to her, what are they doing to constituents? What is he going to do to what he considers the little people? It's monstrous.' She continued: 'I would like to see an honest investigation. I would like that position of power to be filled by somebody who is not dangerous and a bully and intimidating and threatening because that's what sexual harassment is. It's power abuse. It's trying to make the little person feel small.' Actress and activist Rose McGown has spoken out in defense of Boylan and, like de Blasio, she is demanding an independent investigation In Wednesday's Medium post Boylan claimed she was taking a plane ride with Cuomo in 2017 when he asked her to play strip poker. 'I should have been shocked by the Governor's crude comment, but I wasn't.' She further alleged that during a one-on-one briefing with the Governor to update him on economic and infrastructure projects he kissed her without permission. 'We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking. 'I had complained to friends that the Governor would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,' she wrote. Boylan had already alleged in tweets in December last year that Cuomo 'abused his power' and sexually harassed her for years. Cuomo's press secretary Caitlin Girouard issued a statement Wednesday saying Boylan's latest allegations are untrue. 'As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false,' she stated. In Wednesday's Medium post Lindsey Boylan claimed she was taking a plane ride with Cuomo in 2017 when he asked her to play strip poker NY Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim has come out in support of Boylan. He tweeted support after she went public with her sexual assault allegations The accusation comes as Cuomo is under increasing pressure over his handling of COVID-19 deaths in the state's nursing homes. He signed a March order that allowed nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients back to their facilities. Earlier this month, Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo's secretary, unleashed a political firestorm when she admitted to state Democrats that the administration had deliberately hid data on the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. At least 15,000 people living in long-term care facilities have died of COVID-19, nearly double the number Cuomo had initially disclosed. Cuomo says his office was always honest about the figures but that it came down to differences in categorization. Days after DeRosa's revelation, NY Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim claimed that the Governor made threats as part of an effort to get him to 'cover up' for DeRosa's admission. 'The Governor called for about ten minutes, it seemed like one hour,' Kim told CNN last week. Kim claimed that the Governor made threats as part of an effort to get him to 'cover up' for his staffers admission about inaccuracies in the number of nursing home deaths He accused Cuomo of 'berating' him in order to pressure him 'to issue a statement that invalidated what I heard. He asked me to lie to cover up for his staff.' Kim said the phone call left his family traumatized. Kim has now come out in support of Boylan, who tweeted after she went public with her sexual assault allegations. 'Cuomo is a coward who has abused his powers. His pattern of abuse and harassment toward his aides, journalists, lawmakers, and critiques is despicable. As a lawmaker, I have the duty to hold him accountable. I will not stand down. I will stand with Lindsey Boylan,' Kim wrote. Fox News star Janice Dean appeared at a rally held by Kim on Wednesday Meanwhile, he held a rally about Cuomo's nursing home scandal on Wednesday, with Fox News star Janice Dean taking to the microphone. Dean has been a vocal critic of Cuomo's after both of her in-laws died from COVID in nursing homes. 'A lot of news agencies, news companies, think that this is breaking news,' she said. 'We have been shouting from the rooftops for ten months!' 'And I have yet to hear this governor say, in front of a microphone, I am sorry for your loss. That would have been a good start.' The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is set to decide today whether Pakistan has made efforts to counter terror financing and if the country will in the grey list. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is set to decide today whether Pakistan has made efforts to counter terror financing and if the country will in the grey list. In a major development exiled journalists, human rights activists, and Uyghurs gathered at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) headquarters in Paris to persuade the anti-terror financing organisation to place Pakistan on the blacklist. Taha Siddiqui, a Pakistani journalist in exile and editor of the South Asia press said that Pakistan should be held accountable for its continued support to terror groups and terror financing. Several fearing that FATF News and its members to not come under Chinas pressure and anti-Pak activists urged FATF not to be blackmailed by China, and hold Pakistan accountable for supporting terror groups. With the beginning of the FATF plenary in Paris on Feb 22, Pakistan remains on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Last year in October, the FATF had assigned 6 tasks to Pakistan to curb terrorism which it has failed to complete. Activists said that the idea of their protest was to gather dissidents from Balochistan, Pashtun areas, Tibet, Hong Kong and Uyghur community to build a united front and to remind people of Pakistan-China nexus. In an interesting chance of facts, FATFs latest plenary is also being held at a time when the US has been irked by the Pakistan Supreme Courts acquittal of terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh, the principal accused in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Meanwhile, the Pakistan government believes that it will be able to delist itself from the Financial Action Task Forces (FATF) grey list, it is unlikely that it will be able to do so as the European nations have said that Islamabad has not fully implemented all the points of a plan of action set by it. -There has been a rise in demand for this chemical from the agrochemical industry, where it is used in the production of pesticides and herbicides. This factor is fueling the growth prospects of the phosphorus trichloride market. -The increase in plastic production is pushing the demand for plasticizers across the globe. ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Phosphorus trichloride refers to a slight yellowish fuming liquid. Making of phosphorus oxychloride is one of the predominant uses of phosphorus trichloride. This chemical is an important component in the making of phosphate ester insecticides. This chemical also finds utilization in the synthesis of various other significant chemical compounds, such as phosphorous penta chloride, phosphoryl chloride, thiophosphoryl chloride, and phosphonic acids. These chemical compounds are utilized in the production of herbicides, insecticides, plasticizers, oil additives, and flame retardants. Such extensive use of the chemical is expected to support development of the global phosphorus trichloride market over the forecast timeline, from 2019 to 2027. Pungent in odor, Phosphorus trichloride is similar to that of hydrochloric acid. Driven by urbanization and growing population, agricultural industry is likely to observe immense growth in the near future. Growth in the agricultural sector is expected to generate demand for phosphorus trichloride. This chemical finds extensive use as a fertilizer in the agricultural sector. High demand from the agricultural industry is likely to open up plethora of opportunities for the global phosphorus trichloride market in the near future. Request for Covid-19 Impact Analysis on Phosphorus Trichloride Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/Covid19.php Based on the growing awareness about this chemical and high demand from several end use sectors, the global phosphorus trichloride market is anticipated to clock a growth rate of ~4.95% CAGR over the forecast tenure, from 2019 to 2027. Key Findings of Phosphorus Trichloride Market Study High Demand of this Chemical for Use in Pesticides to Spell Growth for the Market The growth of the global phosphorus trichloride market is likely to be influenced by high demand of this chemical from various end use industries. Phosphorus trichloride is widely utilized in the form of pesticide intermediate. This compound is widely utilized in the making of organophosphorus pesticides, such as glyphosate. Pesticides like glyphosate are an active component of many fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides. Download PDF Brochure - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php Tremendous rise in the population has generated very high demand for food, through the availability of arable land is limited. This calls for increased efficiency in farming methods so as to cater to the rising demand from the ever-growing population. In addition, governments of different countries are coming up with subsidies to diminish the cost burden of pesticides on the cultivators. Such initiatives are estimated to motivate the farmers to use more pesticides. Rising demand for pesticides is likely to foster development of the global phosphorus trichloride market over the analysis timeline, from 2019 to 2027 Rise in the Price of Phosphorus is Expected to Impede Growth of the Market Usually, the power needed for the extraction and smelting of phosphate rock and for the manufacturing of phosphorus-derived fertilizers comes from fossil fuels. This results in pollution, depletion in the supplies of fossil fuels, and additional greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). As both phosphorus and fossil fuels are weakening and non-renewable resources, it is anticipated that the cost of production and the extracted phosphorus will rise over the next few years. The spike in the price of phosphorus is therefore foreseen to hinder the growth of the global phosphorus trichloride market significantly in the immediate future. View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/3906 Phosphorus Trichloride Market: Key Driving Factors In the processing of chemicals, such as triphenylphosphine and phosphites, phosphorus trichloride is often utilized as an intermediate. In the forecast timeframe, growth in the global chemical industry is expected to boost demand for phosphorus trichloride as an intermediate element. There has been a rise in the demand for this chemical for utilization in the production of pesticides and herbicides in the agrochemical industry. This factor is primarily driving the growth of the global phosphorus trichloride market. Purchase Premium Research Report on Phosphorus Trichloride Market @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php Phosphorus Trichloride Market: Key Market Participants With many large-scale and medium-scale producers functioning in the market, the global phosphorus trichloride market is considered to be fragmented in nature. Key players operating in the global market are AkzoNobel N.V., Solvay SA, Mosaic Company, The Syngenta Group, and Monsanto Company. Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Chemicals and Materials Industry, Non Halogenated Flame Retardants for Polymers - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/non-halogenated-flame-retardants.html Flame Retardant Masterbatches Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/flame-retardant-masterbatches-market.html Explore More Upcoming Reports: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/upcoming.htm About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Mr. Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Press Release Source: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/phosphorus-trichloride-market.htm Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1085206/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ASTRONAUT Joshua Kutryk touched down in the gym at Christ the King School this week not via a spacecraft, but rather a massive video screen. ASTRONAUT Joshua Kutryk touched down in the gym at Christ the King School this week not via a spacecraft, but rather a massive video screen. The St. Vital school welcomed Kutryk, who was hired by the Canadian Space Agency in 2016, as a virtual guest speaker for a 45-minute presentation about his career Wednesday. He answered questions about his profession, including what he is most looking forward to when he gets assigned a mission to outer space. "The view back," said Kutryk, during the videocall broadcast into classrooms of wide-eyed students. "You see nothing but Earth in the void blackness of space, everything thats ever been human on Earth. Thats when you probably realize, more than anything, how important it is to protect it." Middle-schoolers won the visit, which was scheduled for the spring and was postponed because of COVID-19, through the Canadian Space Agencys Junior Astronauts program. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Teresa Edwards, Grade 6 teacher at Christ the King School, whose students won a Junior Astronauts campaign last year that won them a visit from an astronaut. Teacher Teresa Edwards 2019-20 class of sixth graders was selected, after completing two science projects. They first compared the temperature, humidity and CO2 levels in their classroom to those in the International Space Station. The second project involved participating in a Mars rover simulation during which students communicated with a pretend operator. Given recent announcements about NASAs Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars last week, and the Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman on the moon by 2024, Edwards said students are extra keen to learn about planetary exploration. "I hope it inspires them to pursue their dreams, whether they be in science or math or engineering or perhaps in other areas, and to stretch their limits," she said about Kutryks visit. Edwards added she learned something new Wednesday: astronaut trainees must go underground for several weeks to simulate the experience of being cut off from the outside world. That was among the anecdotes Kutryk, who is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., shared about his training. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Christ the King School grade 7 students watch Canadian Space Agency astronaut, Joshua Kutryk, via zoom in the school School gymnasium on Wednesday. "Trying to be an astronaut is really a lifelong endeavour," he said, speaking from the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Kutryks resume includes four degrees and experience as a test and fighter pilot, engineer and lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He became a certified astronaut following two and a half years of intensive training, including exercises underwater and in jets to mimic the outer space environment. Mo Ogunbodede said she was shocked by how long it took. "The fact they have to go underwater for a long time, that surprised me too," Mo said. Even though she is not a confident swimmer, the 12-year-old said she isnt discouraged from pursuing a career in astronomy; Mo simply knows what shes up against now. Before signing off Wednesday, Kutryk had a simple message for students: "Dream big!" maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca [February 25, 2021] Humana Military Names Alefiyah Mesiwala, M.D., Chief Medical Officer Humana Military, a wholly owned subsidiary of Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), announced today the appointment of Alefiyah Mesiwala, M.D., MPH, as Humana Military's new Chief Medical Officer. Effective March 15, Dr. Mesiwala will serve as a member of the Humana Military leadership team and report to Brent Densford, President, Humana Government Business, Inc. - Humana Military. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005736/en/ Alefiyah Mesiwala, M.D., MPH, Chief Medical Officer, Humana Military (Photo: Business Wire) Humana Military has a long history of partnering with Department of Defense and the Defense Health Agency to administer health coverage for U.S. Military active duty service beneficiaries, retirees and family members through the TRICARE health program. Humana Military is a convener of care for the TRICARE East region, serving the physical and mental health and well-being needs of beneficiaries through 500,000 health care provider partnerships. "Humana Military has been a proud partner of the Defense Health Agency for 25 years, helping the agency develop solutions to support six million TRICARE active duty, retiree and their family beneficiaries to achieve better health outcomes, receive improved quality of care and lower care costs," Densford said. "Humana Military is excited to have Dr. Mesiwala join our team and strengthen our partnership with the DHA. Dr. Mesiwala's background as a physician, combined with her experiences in integrated payer and provider health, Federal government, and preventive medicine, will make her a critical leader on our team. Dr. Mesiwala's proven track record in alternative payment models and clinical quality improvement will support DHA and Humana Military navigate a critical and important shift towards value-based care for the TRICARE population." As the Chief Medical Officer for Humana Military, Dr. Mesiwala will provide strategic leadership and direction for medical management and clinical operations of the TRICARE contract to ensure the delivery of high quality integrated health care. She will lead large-scale transformation of the Humana Military business towards value-based care delivery, leveraging Humana's significant capabilities in population health management and integrated care to better serve the physical and behavioral health needs of the TRICARE population. Humana's population health management capabilities, which include chronic disease management and data analytics, are focused on working with community-based organizations, business and government leaders, and health care practices to co-create clinical solutions to address population health at a local level. The Defense Health Agency has stated the importance of integrating value-based care progrms and alternative payment models (APMs) into the TRICARE 5th generation (T5) contracts through recent draft requests for proposal. Humana is one of the nation's leading companies for entering into value-based agreements with physician groups to serve its Medicare Advantage members. In 2019, 2.41 million Humana individual Medicare Advantage beneficiaries receiving care from primary care physicians in value-based payment models experienced, on average, better health outcomes, lower costs and more preventive care, as opposed to fee-for-service models. "Humana Military has done an outstanding job working with the Defense Health Agency through TRICARE to serve the health needs of its beneficiaries," said Dr. Mesiwala. "My expertise in clinical payment innovation and my on-the-ground experiences working closely with providers in value-based care will support the Humana Military team as we partner with DHA to transform the care for the TRICARE population towards the Quadruple Aim. The military members who defend our nation and their families deserve the best health care possible and it is my honor to serve them." Dr. Mesiwala joins Humana Military from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health Plan, where she has served since 2017 as Senior Medical Director for Value-based Care and Innovation for UPMC Health Plan. At UPMC Health Plan, Dr. Mesiwala led the clinical design and implementation of primary care and specialty-focused alternative payment models. Additionally, she led programs to support providers and physicians across the network in practice transformation and clinical quality improvement. From 2015 until 2017, Dr. Mesiwala served as Senior Policy Advisor in Healthcare to former President Barack Obama at the White House, where she was responsible for furthering the Administration's progress in health care policy. As the health care lead for the White House National Economic Council, Dr. Mesiwala launched a multi-stakeholder public-private partnership to further kidney care and organ transplantation and also launched a national provider-focused collaborative to collectively address workforce challenges in health care. From 2011 to 2015, Dr. Mesiwala worked at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), where she served as a Medical Officer and Senior Advisor to the CMMI Director. In this capacity, Dr. Mesiwala led the development and implementation of new models including specialty-focused accountable care organization and the CMS healthcare innovation awards program. Dr. Mesiwala received her M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School and a master's in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg (News - Alert) School of Public Health. She completed her clinical training and residency in general medicine and preventive medicine also at Johns Hopkins and currently is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Mesiwala is a frequent speaker at national conferences. She is also an active member of professional organizations, various national committees, and advisory groups. She lives with her husband and two kids in Pittsburgh, PA. About Humana Military Humana Military, a wholly owned subsidiary of Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), partners with the Department of Defense and the Defense Health Agency to administer the TRICARE health program for six million U.S. Military active duty, retirees and family member beneficiaries in the East Region. For the last 25 years, Humana Military has strived to create better health outcomes and simplified experiences for millions of beneficiaries across the United States through TRICARE and other military health care programs. For more information, please visit www.humanamilitary.com. About Humana Humana Inc. is committed to helping our millions of medical and specialty members achieve their best health. Our successful history in care delivery and health plan administration is helping us create a new kind of integrated care with the power to improve health and well-being and lower costs. Our efforts are leading to a better quality of life for people with Medicare, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large. To accomplish that, we support physicians and other health care professionals as they work to deliver the right care in the right place for their patients, our members. Our range of clinical capabilities, resources and tools - such as in-home care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, data analytics and wellness solutions - combine to produce a simplified experience that makes health care easier to navigate and more effective. More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's web site at www.humana.com, including copies of: Annual reports to stockholders Securities and Exchange Commission filings Most recent investor conference presentations Quarterly earnings news releases and conference calls Calendar of events Corporate Governance information View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005736/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] OPEC+ will discuss the possibility of increasing its oil production levels at the next meeting, OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Wednesday. The group is set to meet on March 4, where it will discuss raising output as much as a half a million barrels per day starting in April, the sources said. OPEC+ members are currently suppressing oil production by more than 7 million barrels per day, but with oil prices now on the rise and the markets getting the idea that the market could be tightening, OPEC+ may consider loosening the reins. The last Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee Meeting of OPEC+ met in the first week of February ended without many surprises. For the month of February, another 75,000 bpd was added to the quotas65,000 bpd to Russia and 10,000 bpd to Kazakhstan. For the month of March, production quotas were eased again by another 75,000 bpdagain to Russia (65,000 bpd) and Kazakhstan (10,000 bpd). But Saudi Arabia had announced in January that in February and March, it would voluntarily cut an additional 1 million bpd from its quota. Saudi Arabia has not committed to cutting this additional million barrels beyond March, so its very possible that this OPEC+ meeting will end with an additional 1.5 million barrels added into the mix: an additional 500,000 bpd added to the production quotas, and an additional million bpd from Saudi Arabia. The oil markets have improved in recent weeks, with crude oil inventories in the worlds most visible oil market, the United States, finally returning to its five-year average. The price of Brent oil has rebounded to more than $67 per barrel, with WTI traded above $63 as of Wednesday afternoon. This is the highest level oil prices have seen in over a year. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Nirav Modi's story up until the court verdict on Thursday, just two days before his 50th birthday, is one of stark contrasts. From someone flush with diamonds, quite literally, as a member of a Gujarati family of gem traders who grew up in the European jewellery hub of Antwerp in Belgium, to ending up holed up in a jail cell in one Europe's most overcrowded prisons. The diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab Bank (PNB) scam case, lost his legal battle against extradition as a judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts. He has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest on an extradition warrant in March 2019 at a central London bank branch, where he was trying to set up a new account. He had been staying nearby at a plush penthouse in Centrepoint in the heart of the capital, regularly walking his dog to an apparently new jewellery business nearby. It later emerged during remand hearings at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London that he had hired Boutique Law LLP in anticipation of the extradition proceedings on charges of fraud and money laundering by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED), trying to strike a voluntary surrender and bail deal. However, as the CBI and ED evidence was presented in court by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, his offer of up to GBP 4 million as security to be allowed to be bailed under strict house arrest conditions was repeatedly rejected. His detention in a shared cell with one other inmate is a far cry from his past billionaire lifestyle, which involved hobnobbing with high-profile celebrities and his diamond designs finding red carpet favour with stars. "I was totally impressed with the craftsmanship at the workshop [in India]. It was the best quality I could see anywhere in the world, Thierry Fritsch, a high-end French jewellery expert, told the UK court during the course of the extradition hearing last year. As someone who had served on the Advisory Board of Nirav Modi's company for three years since 2015, Fritsch was deposed by the defence team to vouch for Nirav's integrity and skills as an entrepreneur and creative person, who was passionate about establishing the first international brand of luxury jewellery out of India. A gems expert, Dr Richard Taylor, was also fielded to go into the nitty-gritties of the diamond trade and how the brand had succeeded in making a mark around the world. "The industry relies on sending out high-value product to companies and to do that they require trust and confidence," said Taylor, in an attempt to establish Modi's credibility in the business. "India is the largest and most important centre of diamond cutting it was a very significant trend that he [Modi] was part of," he added. The picture painted in court was one of a talented jewellery designer who was only driven by one mission to make the brand worthy of competition with the likes of global luxury jewellery brands such as Tiffany or Cartier. And, the accusations associated with the extradition case were painted as nothing more than a commercial dispute. The CPS, in turn, presented documents and video evidence in an effort to establish a complex web of misuse of a bank credit facility called letters of undertaking (LoUs) and threats issued to so-called dummy directors of front companies to keep them out of the reach of Indian investigative authorities. Throughout the extradition case in London, Nirav Modi's depression and mental health condition remained at the heart of arguments with his extended incarceration said to have worsened his condition. Coupled with a severe condition of depression, in my view, he presents a high risk of suicide albeit not immediately, Dr Andrew Forrester, a forensic psychiatrist who examined him, told the court in September last year. At the time, Forrester said Nirav's mental health condition was on a deterioration trajectory and met the criteria for hospital treatment in the absence of a multi-professional plan, involving antidepressants and psychotherapy. Except for a few initial remand hearings in 2019, Nirav has been appearing only via video link from a room in Wandsworth Prison as the case was conducted in a part-remote setting due to the coronavirus lockdown. During the hearings last year, he seemed alert and constantly referred to files related to the case made available to him. More recently, he has appeared via video link sporting a thick beard and at times more dishevelled than his appearance in a formal shirt and suit over the past year. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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. As Democrats prepare to vote as soon as Friday to pass the relief package in the House, Republican elected officials are struggling to overcome intraparty divides over whether to embrace the major pieces of the proposal as well as to reconcile with the fact that many Republican voters support the plan. While Democrats are working swiftly to move their bill, Republicans are consumed by sideshows like false claims of voter fraud and what they call cancel culture, which are two major themes of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, starting on Friday in Orlando, Fla. The lack of a unified Republican economic message reflects an unsettled party that is unable to agree on how to chart a path through a Democratic-controlled Washington. While congressional Republicans take a scattershot approach to try to undermine the legislation, mayors and governors in their party push for the plan, saying their states and cities need the federal aid to keep police officers on their beats, reopen schools and help small businesses. Polling shows a significant number of Republican voters agree: More than four in 10 Republicans back Mr. Bidens aid package, according to polling from the online research firm SurveyMonkey for The New York Times. Over all, 72 percent of Americans said they supported the bill, a number that includes 97 percent of Democrats. Interviews with more than two dozen Trump voters across the country found little consensus on fundamental questions that are central to the partys future: Who won the election? Who should lead the G.O.P.? And how much should Republicans try to work with the new administration? There are things about President Biden that do concern me, but Ive been told hes kind of a moderate as far as Democrats go, said Kelly Alexander, 62, a self-described right-wing conservative who owns a seasonal takeout restaurant in Mackinaw City, Mich. Hes our president. We need to give him a chance and not pick him apart for no good reason. That isnt the advice Robert Holland, a retiree from Rockland, Maine, would give to Republican leaders in Washington. Large numbers of energy projects have been built across China to give a leg up to the country's poverty alleviation efforts, and remarkable progress has been made. Photovoltaic (PV) power stations are now an important source of income for many impoverished regions in China. At present, China's poverty alleviation PV power stations add up to 26.36 GW, benefiting nearly 60,000 poor villages and 4.15 million impoverished households. They generate revenue of around 18 billion yuan ($2.79 billion) each year. Village-level PV stations can help each village increase annual income by 200,000 yuan. "Poverty alleviation PV stations are like a bankbook that gets me bonus each year," said Liu Haipeng from Yaoqu village, Jixian County, central China's Shanxi province, who was once trapped in poverty due to paralysis. It were the PV stations that improved his financial situation. "Now I work at the photovoltaic park in Talatan. I can earn over 30,000 yuan each year, including the bonus," Ma Shengjian, villager from Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of northwest China's Qinghai province told the People's Daily. Apart from PV stations, China is also making efforts to build other types of energy projects to help develop economy in poor areas and create jobs for local residents. The country has invested over 2.7 trillion yuan in large energy projects in impoverished areas since 2012. A total of 336.2 billion yuan was invested in power transmission lines in impoverished areas of western China, which led to direct economic gains of more than 860 billion yuan. Besides, a batch of large hydropower stations, modern coal mines and clean and efficient coal mines were built in impoverished areas, creating more than 100,000 jobs. During the past five years, China steadfastly upgraded rural power grid in counties that are key targets in the state poverty alleviation development program, contiguous impoverished areas with serious difficulties and former revolutionary base areas, so as to better help these regions improve their independent development capability. The efforts paid to supply three-phase electricity in rural areas are a guarantee to develop modern agriculture. "Irrigation is easier and cheaper nowadays," said Li Qingrui, a villager from Shangguantun village, Gao Tang County, east China's Shandong Province. The man now waters his crops with motor-pumped wells, the cost of which is less than 5 yuan per mu (667 square meters), while it took at least 25 yuan in the past to irrigate his farmland with the water pumped by a diesel engine. According to an official from the National Energy Administration, a total of 150 million mu of farmland is now facilitated with motor-pumped wells connected to the power grid, which helps farmers cut irrigation cost by 10 billion yuan each year. The solid power supply also offers stable support for industries targeting at poverty alleviation. Last December, the Ngari prefecture-central Tibet power interconnection project officially started operation, supplying stable electricity to regions along its route. "Our machines can finally play a big role," said Kelsang Nyima, general manager of an agricultural development firm in Rutog, Tibet Autonomous Region. Due to insufficient voltage, the devices were always in off mode in the past, so the firm was able to only produce rough wool fabrics manually, which were sold at only 7 yuan per kilogram. Now with the machines, the firm can make wool comforters, and every piece is sold at 900 yuan. Besides, the company also built a processing plant for roasted barley flour and Tibetan incense. "The average annual income of our workers has reached 40,000 yuan," Kelsang Nyima said. From 2018 to 2020, the construction of power grid has drove the establishment of 25,000 processing plants of agricultural products inthree regions and three prefectures which refers to Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibetan areas of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces, as well as Hetian, Aksu, Kashi, Kizilsu Kyrgyz in the south of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, and Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefectur in Yunnan and Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu. The income of featured husbandry and tourism in these regions also increased by 2.7 billion yuan. Last year, the power consumed by processing plants in rural areas of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture went up by 26.57 percent, and urban enterprises there also consumed 11.27 percent more of electricity from a year ago. Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan saw a year-on-year growth of 17.73 percent in its tourism industry's power consumption. Over this last year over the last two or three years, really the countrys been in a lot of turmoil, and were seeing that manifest itself in Congress, Lauf said in a phone interview, pointing to what she calls the heavily politicized COVID-19 response among other issues. And now you have a representative like Adam who would rather spend his time and platform talking about impeachment and censoring Marjorie Taylor Greene another member of Congress. Thats not representing the values of our district, and its not servant leadership. Mumbai: State run Bank of Baroda on Thursday said in a notice to exchanges that its board has approved raising upto 4500 crore from institutional investors through a so-called qualified institutional placement. The floor price of the qualified institutional placement is fixed at 85.98 per share. The floor price is 4.36% discount to its Thursday's closing price. The stock closed at 89.90 on BSE, up 1.2% from its previous close. "Pursuant to the SEBI ICDR Regulations, the Bank may offer a discount of not more than 5% on the floor price so calculated for the Issue. The issue price will be determined by the Bank in consultation with the book running lead managers appointed for the Issue", the lender said in a notice to exchanges. According to terms of the deal seen by Mint, the bank is targeting a base deal size of 2500 crore with an option to up size of deal by 2000 crore The bank in its offer document said that the proceeds from the issue will be used to augmenting its tier 1 capital to meet the bassel III and to support growth plans and to enhance the business of the bank. As of December 2020, the lender's tier I capital ratio stood at 10.57% while its tier II capital ratio was at 2.36%. Gross non performing assets fell 8.48% in the December quarter against 10.43% a year ago. Investment banks ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, BNP Paribas are managing the share sale. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Chinas Top Leaders Gave Secret Orders in Early Stages of Virus Outbreak: Documents The Chinese regime was aware of the severity of COVID-19 during the early stages of the Wuhan outbreak but did not alert the public, according to a series of government documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times from a trusted source. Chinese authorities didnt publicly announce human-to-human transmission of the CCP virus until January 2020. The leaked documents indicate that the top leadership secretly ordered the National Health Commission and regional governments to deal with the outbreak while keeping the public in the dark about the health crisis. In other words, Chinese authorities covered up the outbreak at the early stage instead of alerting the people in a timely manner. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, causes the COVID-19 disease. The Associated Press was the first to report on the documents. Xi, Li Gave Orders About the Outbreak The Epoch Times obtained a document from the health commission of Guangxi Province, dated Jan. 15, 2020, which summarized a speech given by the vice director of the commission, Wang Yong. Wangs speech indicated that the National Health Commission held a nationwide teleconference on epidemic prevention and control on Jan. 14, during which Ma Xiaowei, the head of the commission, conveyed direct orders from Chinese Leader Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Screenshot of the document from Guangxis health commission, indicating that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang gave orders on epidemic prevention and control before Jan. 15, 2020. (Provided to The Epoch Times) Although the document didnt fully detail the orders from Xi and Li, the high-level meeting shows that Chinese authorities were fully aware of the severity of the outbreak. Ma said that it is the most serious public health emergency crisis since the SARS epidemic of 2003, according to the document. Wang advised authorities in Guangxi to be more politically aware of the extreme severity and urgency of the virus outbreak as he conveyed the directives from Xi and Li. The document made it clear that national security should be placed above anything else. It stated that if any institution or individual planned to collect or examine epidemic-related specimens, they must first obtain permission from the local health commission. The document also mentioned that Guangxis health commission held two meetingson Dec. 31, 2019, and Jan. 7, 2020to discuss epidemic control plans. Screenshot of the document from Guangxis health commission, dated Jan. 15, 2020, showing the conferences held on Dec. 31, 2019, and Jan. 7, 2020, to address the virus outbreak. (Provided to The Epoch Times) U.S.-based China affairs commentator Li Linyi pointed out that the two dates are significant because they provide evidence of the CCPs coverup of the outbreak. The dates indicate that authorities in Guangxi had already received internal orders from the top leadership, the CCP Central Committee, on epidemic control and prevention measures. Meanwhile, the public was unaware of the imminent health crisis. Chinese authorities failed to warn the public right away, and instead, they made a public announcement on the human-to-human transmission of the CCP virus on Jan. 20, 2020, Li said. Chinese media reports also made reference to the significance of the Jan. 7, 2020, meeting. On Feb. 15, 2020, the CCPs theoretical journal Seeking Truth published a speech that Xi gave on epidemic control and prevention on Jan. 7, 2020. Hong Kong-based Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao published an article on Feb. 17, 2020, that reported that CCP leaders during the Jan. 7, 2020, meeting required local governments to enforce relevant measures to ensure that the Chinese New Year holiday wouldnt be disrupted, citing a source in Beijing. Instead of warning the public, authorities wanted to continue to cover up the outbreak, thus losing the opportunity to effectively curb the viruss spread. Public Kept in the Dark The publication obtained another document, dated Jan. 15, 2020, issued by the National Health Commission to all provinces in China. It stated that beginning in December 2019, cases of pneumonia of unknown causes had been reported in some hospitals in Hubei Province, and the result from pathogen analysis indicated that it was a novel coronavirus. The top-secret document was designated as most urgent and recipients were instructed not to circulate its contents on the internet. The document laid out measures for preventing infections within hospitals such as disinfecting rooms and requiring health workers to wear PPE (personal protective equipment). Screenshot of the document issued by Chinas National Health Commission, dated Jan. 15, 2020, on hospital guidelines for dealing with infection cases. (Provided to The Epoch Times) On Jan. 16, Guangxis health commission created a work leadership group, consisting of seven teams, to oversee the local epidemic response, according to another internal document obtained by the publication. China affairs commentator Li Linyi believes that the CCP had made preparations on all fronts in advance, while the people in the mainland werent told about the health crisis. That didnt happen until Jan. 20, 2020, when Chinas top respiratory expert, Zhong Nanshan, announced on state-run CCTV that there were had been confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission. Three days later, Wuhan city was locked down to curb the spread of the virus. By then, the public had realized the severity of the situation and that it was too late to safeguard themselves from the disease, Li added. Gu Qinger contributed to this report. New Presidential Order Identifies 4 "Critical Supply Chain" Priorities Graphite is Critical Material to 3 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Graphite One Inc. ( OTCQB:GPHOF )( TSXV:GPH ) ("Graphite One" or the "Company") offers the following comment on a new Executive Order (EO) issued by U.S. President Joseph R. Biden on February 24, 2021, aimed at strengthening critical U.S. supply chains. The EO identifies three technology sectors as critical supply chains: advanced semiconductors, "high-capacity batteries, including Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries", and pharmaceuticals. The EO also identifies "critical minerals and other strategic materials" as a fourth supply chain, essential to technology manufacturing and the Defense Industrial Base. In addition to being a U.S. Government-listed Critical Mineral, graphite is an essential material for both the renewable and EV Battery sectors, and for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. In Executive Order 13953 (September 30, 2020), referenced in the new Biden Administration EO, graphite was one of four minerals and metals singled out as essential to the U.S.'s "national security, foreign policy and economy." "Graphite One welcomes the recognition of renewable batteries, and EV batteries in particular as a critical supply chain," said Anthony Huston, Chief Executive Officer of Graphite One. "The fact that graphite is essential to three 'critical supply chains named in the Executive Order underscores the importance of Graphite One's supply chain approach." EV & Energy Storage: Driving Graphite Demand The new EO comes as the Biden Administration highlights EVs and the Energy Storage System infrastructure as central to its low-carbon climate objectives and green energy policy. According to renewable energy analyst, Simon Moores, from UK's Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, "What we expect from the Biden Administration is to simply make one of their policies to make gigafactories across the whole country at scale in order to turbo-charge and protect their biggest automobile companies such as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co." As Shane Lasley of North of 60 Mining News reports in regard to the EV and renewable energy sectors, "Tesla is not the only automaker vying for graphite and other battery metals. With every major carmaker adding electrified models to their lineup, the number of EVs being built each year is expected to expand from about 2 million this year to more than 25 million by 2030 and 55 million by 2040." The new Executive Order follows the designation of Graphite One's Graphite Creek project as a High-Priority Infrastructure Project (HPIP) in both the "renewable energy" and "manufacturing" sectors by the U.S. Government's Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Committee (FPISC), the culmination of a process that began when the Project was nominated for HPIP designation by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy in October 2019. The High-Priority designation allows Graphite One to list on the U.S. Government's Federal Permitting Dashboard, which ensures federal agencies coordinate their project review authorities, resulting in a more efficient process with more transparency for state agencies and the public. "This new EO continues a significant alignment between tech manufacturing and the tech materials that make it possible," continued Mr. Huston. "When President Biden issued his Buy American Executive Order just a month ago, he referred directly to mining and to materials. And when new Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, testified in her nomination hearing in the Senate, she had a very detailed back-and-forth discussion with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the Senate's thought-leader on critical minerals issues. Secretary Granholm couldn't have been any clearer: 'We can buy electric car batteries from Asia, or we can make them in America'. Pretty simple, pretty strong. We at Graphite One couldn't agree more." About Graphite One Graphite One Inc. has defined America's largest high-quality graphite deposit - Graphite Creek, situated on the Seward Peninsula about 60 kilometers north of Nome - strategically located in Alaska with direct ocean access to North American and Asian markets. Graphite One's intent is to develop a vertically-integrated, advanced graphite materials supply chain project to mine, process and manufacture high grade Coated Spherical Graphite primarily for the lithium-ion electric vehicle battery market and energy storage systems, with significant additional production for a range of advanced value-added graphite applications. As detailed in the Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment Report, Graphite One anticipates that the graphite concentrate produced at Graphite Creek will be transported to an advanced graphite product manufacturing facility, the location of which is the subject of further study. Graphite One's goal is to meet rising graphite demand as an indispensable 21st Century tech mineral, serving the renewable energy sector and advanced communications, medical devices and defense applications. The full Executive Order can be read here. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Anthony Huston" (signed) For more information on Graphite One Inc., please visit the Company's website, www.GraphiteOneInc.com or contact: Anthony Huston CEO, President & Director Tel: (604) 889-4251 Email: AHuston@GraphiteOneInc.com Investor Relations Contact 1-604-684-6730 GPH@kincommunications.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. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "proposes", "expects", or "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "projects", "intends", "assumes", "believes", "anticipates", "indicates" or variations of such words and phrases that state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will have", "occur" or "be achieved". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts that address actual use of proceeds including the timing and completion of the anticipated Pre-Feasibility Study, receipt of regulatory approvals, implementation of a more established shipment program, exploration drilling, exploitation activities, future production, establishment of a processing plant, and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. 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 market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date it is expressed in this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities laws. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com. SOURCE: Graphite One Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631866/Graphite-One-Comments-on-New-US-Presidential-Executive-Order-Elevating-EV-Battery-Sector-as-Critical-Supply-Chain Heidi DeBenedetti promoted to Executive Vice President, Gilbane Building Company as part of the company's strategic growth plans. Heidis commitment to growing our people and delivering the best in client service, will continue to propel the company forward, said Michael McKelvy, President and CEO, Gilbane Building Company. Gilbane Building Company announced the promotion of Heidi DeBenedetti to Executive Vice President. Orlando area-based DeBenedetti will continue her oversight of the Southeast Division which includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and its recent expansion to include the North Carolina, and Virginia business units. She will also maintain her leadership role and executive responsibility of Gilbanes Federal Division, which includes fuels, environmental, and worldwide federal facilities construction services. DeBenedettis promotion is part of an overall company strategic plan to elevate key leaders into growth positions, as the company marks its 150th year in business. Heidi leads with deep industry expertise, combined with an exceptional solutions-driven approach for our clients. Heidis commitment to growing our people and delivering the best in client service, will continue to propel the company forward, said Michael McKelvy, President and CEO, Gilbane Building Company. Heidi DeBenedetti said, I have been fortunate to work with many outstanding teams throughout the Southeast and Federal. Our people are fundamental to our DNA and are critical to ensuring we continue to excel in innovative and dynamic approaches to construction management. I look forward to new collaborations and continued growth, while exceeding expectations for our clients. DeBenedetti joined the company in 2015 to lead Gilbanes U.S. Federal business as a key part of the companys global advancement. Under her leadership, she developed a best-in-class team, provide streamlined operational excellence, and worked alongside business unit leaders to drive lean and efficient processes. DeBenedetti is a strong advocate for employee development and advancement, cultivating Gilbanes future leaders. Heidi serves as the executive sponsor of the company-wide womens Employee Resource Group, empoWer. Heidi received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University. She is a Design Build Institute of America certified Design-Build Professional. Heidi resides with her husband in Winter Park, FL. About Gilbane Building Company Gilbane provides a full slate of construction and facilities-related services from pre-construction planning and integrated consulting capabilities to comprehensive construction management, general contracting, design-build and facility management services for clients across various markets. Founded in 1870 and still a privately held, family-owned company, Gilbane has more than 45 office locations worldwide. Gilbanes Southeast Division operates with a local presence in offices across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Representative projects in diverse market segments include the Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice Campus, The Norton Museum of Art, Legacy Union Bank of America Tower, Fresenius Kabi Standard Solutions Plant, Altria Theater, Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Contemporary Art, Nathan Deal Judicial Center, and University of South Carolina Law School. Gilbanes Federal Division is a strong construction partner for the U.S. Federal Government, executing high-quality, low risk solutions for multiple agencies operating across the nation and around the world. For more information, visit http://www.gilbaneco.com. La Gan Wind Power Development Corporation signed the MoUs on February 24 The MoUs were signed with Vietnam-based contractors, including CS Wind Corporation, PTSC Mechanical and Construction (PTSC M&C), Southern Petroleum Construction JSC (Alpha ECC), and Vietsovpetro. The signing was conducted virtually, taking into consideration the recent COVID-19 resurgence in Vietnam. The supply of foundations and harbour infrastructure are amongst the most critical elements of the offshore wind supply chain. The signing of these MoUs establishes an important alliance between the La Gan offshore wind farm project and four promising suppliers with extensive local operations. This cooperation will contribute to the ongoing efforts to localise the Vietnamese offshore wind supply chain, as well as help build local suppliers capacity to compete in the international market. Under the MoUs, the La Gan offshore wind farm project and suppliers will loyally work together to promote offshore wind power in Vietnam. In addition, the La Gan offshore wind farm project will facilitate knowledge transfer and provide advice on foundation design, facility layouts, logistics, and infrastructure requirements, which will enable the suppliers to serve the offshore wind market to international standards. "I would like to congratulate the La Gan project for making an important and steady step forward today with the signing of the four MoUs on foundation supply and harbour services. One of the key priorities in our long-term cooperation with Vietnam is to support green development and a green transition in the countrys energy sector. The development of foreign investment projects such as the La Gan project will contribute to further expanding and intensifying our close cooperation with Vietnam in knowledge-sharing and capacity building for industry experts and practitioners, especially in the offshore wind supply chain," said Kim Hojlund Christensen, Ambassador of Denmark in Vietnam. According to an economic impact study made by international experts from BVG Associates (World Bank consultants), the 3.5GW La Gan offshore wind farm project will contribute more than $4.4 billion to the Vietnamese economy over the project lifetime. The project is expected to create over 45,000 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) local jobs in Vietnam. The total Vietnamese content is projected to be approximately 45 per cent across the full supply chain of the project. "The signings with four Vietnam-based suppliers today confirms our serious commitment to facilitate knowledge transfer and promote the localisation of the offshore wind industry in Vietnam. It is our intention to ensure that our investments filter down to the local economy and the Vietnamese people wherever it is feasible," said Maya Malik, chief executive officer of La Gan Wind Power Development Corporation." The engagement of Alpha ECC, CS Wind, PTSC M&C, and Vietsovpetro also shows the dedication of local industry leaders to invest in offshore wind energy and to support the Vietnamese government's vision for a green energy transformation." Since the signing of the MoU with Binh Thuan Peoples Committee in July 2020, the La Gan offshore wind farm project has been actively progressing with development activities in close collaboration with local authorities, suppliers, and service providers. Once fully installed, the project is expected to power more than 7 million households per year and avoid 130 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over its lifetime. of public sector units (PSUs) is against the interest of the people of the country, according to trade union Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made his strongest pitch for of non-strategic PSUs, saying the government has no business to be in business and sustaining loss-making units on taxpayers' money drains resources that could otherwise have been spent on public welfare schemes. Speaking at a webinar on by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), he said the government has no business to be in business and his administration is committed to privatising all barring the bare minimum in four strategic sectors. In a statement issued on Thursday, the All India Trade Union Congress Trade Union (AITUC) said "it deplores the policy of selling the PSUs, the national wealth to the corporates of Indian and foreign brand against the interest of our people and our country." It said calls upon its unions, the working people and the general masses at large to "fight back these policies" of the government. The is among ten central trade unions. (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.) This is the couple who have been banned from keeping animals for five years after six dogs they were looking after were found covered in excrement and urine. Paul and Donna Green were due to go on trial at Lisburn Magistrates Court last Tuesday but instead they entered guilty pleas to the two charges against them. The Greens, from Ballymacash Road, Lisburn, admitted a joint charge of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the needs of five little Shih Tzu/Lhasa Apso type dogs and one nursing Lhasa Apso dog on October 24, 2019. The pair said they were asked to mind the dogs by a female friend while she was on holiday. Paul Green (47) admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the dogs while his wife Donna admitted permitting them to be caused unnecessary suffering at a property on the Lany Road in Moira. Expand Close Donna Green / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donna Green The court heard that when inspectors called at the property, the dogs were being kept in cages, stacked on top of each other in a barn which was "pungent" with the smell of urine. A prosecutor described how all of the dogs' coats were soaked in faeces and urine with a multitude of infected paws and none of them had access to water. The lawyer said while the dogs were not overly thin, the conditions they were being kept in was not acceptable. Guilt Defence lawyers Conor Lunny and Patrick Taylor revealed that while the couple were accepting their guilt because they were in charge of the dogs at the time of the inspection, the pets actually belonged to a friend who had asked the Greens to look after them while she went in holiday for six days. Mr Lunny conceded that while his client Paul Green "didn't take enough care in washing the dogs," he felt "slightly aggrieved" that the owner wasn't prosecuted as well "because the system of care was clearly her responsibility." Those sentiments were echoed by Mr Taylor who said the reason the owner wasn't prosecuted "may be due to the fact that the Greens were responsible for that period of time." The lawyers submitted that while the councils were seeking costs awarded against the couple amounting to 3,239, they were unemployed and in receipt of universal credit. Imposing a two-year conditional discharge, District Judge Rosie Watters said that from looking at the photographs and statements, "it's more than just a few days of neglect and I can't help but wonder if it's more than five days' worth." She ordered the couple to pay costs of 1,500 and banned them from keeping animals for five years. Seagate Technology introduced Lyve Cloud storage-as-a-service platform, an S3-compatible storage-only cloud. Lyve Cloud enables always-on mass capacity data storage and activation. It is designed as a simple, trusted, and efficient service allowing enterprises to unlock the value of their massive unstructured datasets. Seagate is collaborating with Equinix, the worlds digital infrastructure company, to make Lyve Cloud accessible to more customers. This collaboration will provide extensive interconnect opportunities for additional cloud services and geographical expansion. Lyve Cloud is a natural extension of Seagates leadership in mass data solutions, combining our mass capacity HDD innovation with deep storage industry knowledge to help customers activate more of their valuable data, said Ravi Naik, executive vice president, storage services, and chief information officer at Seagate. According to Seagates Rethink Data report, as much as 68% of data available to enterprises goes unused. By providing a reliable and cost-efficient cloud storage solution at the metro edge, closer to where their data is generated, Lyve Cloud lets enterprises store and activate their data at scale, securely and efficiently. By locating Lyve Cloud infrastructure in close proximity to Equinix Metal within Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers, customers can consume the scale and efficiency of object storage as a service at the metro edge, while leveraging Equinix Fabric to interconnect sources of data to a variety of edge and cloud-based applications for hybrid and multicloud architectures. Placing Lyve Cloud infrastructure in metro edge colocation data centers also enables reduced latency because data is stored and processed closer to where it is generated. We see a lot of synergy in collaborating with Seagate to help our customers increase their digital advantage, stated Eric Schwartz, chief strategy officer of Equinix. Leveraging Lyve Cloud and Platform Equinix, customers have an optimized, cost-effective object storage option to make their cloud truly composable. Equinixs position at the Metro Edge enables Lyve Cloud to address use cases that demand data storage and activation, accelerating digital transformation initiatives such as disaster recovery, hybrid and multi-cloud, storage for bare metal services, AI and Machine Learning. Lyve Cloud offers privacy, no lock-in, and no egress fees, allowing customers to retain full control of their data while lowering TCO for storing massive datasets. Lyve Clouds ISO27001 and SOC2 certifications meet the data security needs of enterprise customers and provide always-on encryption for data in motion and at rest. Enterprises are increasingly recognizing the need to store more of their business-critical data for longer periods of time, not only for business continuity, but also to harness its potential for analytics and deep learning, said Wenceslao Lada, vice president, technical alliances, Commvault. With Commvaults seamless integration and full compatibility with Seagate Lyve Cloud, end-users now have a compelling new option for cloud storage that enables worry-free, longer term data retention with predictable cost economics and simple recovery capabilities. As CIO, three things I most seek for from any solution are predictability, security, and no lock-ins, said Sudhakar Chilukuri, CIO Lattice Semiconductor. Lyve Cloud features fit these needs very well. We dont have to replace anything but can add Lyve Cloud for certain data workloads. Its critical to choose a cloud storage strategy that has transparent pricing, no ingress, and egress fees, and is reliable and performant. Seagates Lyve Cloud and Lyve Solutions are built with mass data in mind. These solutions, including modular hardware and software, deliver a portfolio that streamlines data access, transport, and management for todays enterprise. Lyve Cloud is offered at multiple locations in the United States and in other countries in the future. A heartbroken family are warning other home-schooling parents to throw away all thumb tacks after their four-year-old son tragically died from inhaling a push pin last month. Ayla Rutherford, 29, from Graham, in Washington, was getting in the shower last month when she heard her family screaming downstairs and rushed into the room to find her husband Josh, 29, performing the Heimlich manoeuvre on their little boy, Axel. She still had no idea what had happened when she realised their efforts were failing as Axel lost consciousness and started to turn blue. When they rushed the four-year-old to the hospital, doctors found Axel had not been choking but had inhaled a common household thumb tack - which had pierced through his left lung and left him unable to breathe. Ayla Rutherford, 29, and husband Josh, 29, from Graham, Washington, are urging parents to throw away drawing pins following the tragic death of their son Axel, four (pictured) Axel tragically passed away in his parents' arms after a week on life support and four brain death tests - leaving his family to agonise over how a simple piece of stationery could have taken their boy away forever. His parents are now warning others to throw out any pins they have in their home to prevent their children suffering the same tragic fate. Ayla said: 'This was freak accident. All I want to do is prevent other people going through what we have to go through. 'I want to let people know that [pins are] such a normal thing to have in your house - to hang up posters, picture frames, Christmas lights, calendars. 'Everybody uses them and all it takes is for one little kid to pick it up, put it in their mouth, inhale it and puncture their lungs. 'If you have pins around the house, throw them out or lock them up. It's not worth your child's life or the pain. 'Me and my husband held Axel as he passed away. He was four-years-old, one month and four days old. Ayla was getting ready when her husband Josh desperately began screaming that there's something wrong with Axel. Pictured: Ayla and Axel 'I don't want anybody to have to go through this.' Ayla had recently finished baking their oldest son Soren's birthday cake when the family's lives were changed forever. Within minutes, Axel had lost consciousness and was turning blue, as Josh and his dad Stuart tried to do CPR, desperately waiting for ambulance sirens to whirl down the street. Ayla said: 'As I was getting ready, my husband started calling me and screaming that there was something wrong with Axel. 'I immediately ran downstairs and I saw my husband and in-laws around him trying the Heimlich manoeuvre. 'We thought my kid was choking - he wasn't breathing. He was trying but he couldn't. I was crying and screaming. Josh and his father who both thought Axel (pictured) may have been chocking immediately began doing CPR 'My mother-in-law called 911 and my husband kept trying to get whatever it was out of [Axel's] mouth. We thought he was choking. 'We've dealt with [choking] before when they're babies. You get it out and it's fine, but my son lost consciousness and he was turning blue. My husband and father-in-law immediately started CPR. 'It felt like the longest moment of my life waiting for those sirens. 'It felt like forever but eventually one of my neighbours across the street heard me screaming and crying. Doctors at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma discovered a drawing pin (pictured) was wedged 'between his ribs' after doing a scan 'He started chest compressions [too]. It was a three-way of trying to keep oxygen in him. 'Eventually the [paramedics] showed up and tried CPR, then they started the paddles. 'They kept trying and trying until eventually they had to load him into the ambulance and rushed him to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma.' Doctors at the hospital searched for hours before finding out what had happened to Axel. After failing to find anything blocking his throat, a scan revealed the schoolboy had a drawing pin wedged 'between his ribs' after having punctured his left lung. Ayla said: 'They said there was nothing in his throat to get out. We had no idea what was going on and why this was happening. 'At about 6pm, the doctor told me they'd finally found the problem. A thumb tack had punctured his left lung and had blocked the way for his right lung to breathe too. 'He couldn't get oxygen no matter what. They found the pushpin between his ribs on his left side. 'It took about two hours for them to remove the pin because when you're not breathing, your throat closes up. 'They had to do a tracheotomy and cut a hole in his throat to get it out. They eventually got it out and it was just a regular size thumb tack. Axel was placed on a life support machine after a two-hour surgery, with doctors warning the family that it was unlikely Axel would recover. Pictured: Ayla with her sons Axel and Soren 'This is a kid who never put things in his mouth. It was the first time.' Ayla and Josh were able to visit their youngest child after a two-hour surgery, which left him hooked up to life support because he could no longer breathe for himself. The pair were warned it was unlikely Axel would recover. Ayla said: 'After they removed the pin we got to go visit him. That was really hard. 'The doctors pretty much told us that because he was without oxygen for so long and went into cardiac arrest five times, he wasn't going to come back from that. 'They told us not to hope, but we did anyway. 'He was on life support. It was breathing for him because he was no longer breathing on his own.' Axel was in the hospital for three days but made no recovery. His parents were told medics would do a brain death test on the youngster who required two tests, 12 hours apart. Ayla said their entire family showed up for Axel's second brain death test, where a doctor said that he showed a 'tiny, miniscule' sign of brain life. Pictured: Ayla and husband Josh After one doctor saw Axel's pupil twitch slightly, she was unable to confirm that he was brain dead, so the couple had to repeat the ordeal before receiving the devastating news that their second born would not survive. Ayla said: 'We were praying really hard. I was like "Please don't take my baby. Don't take him from me". 'They'd done an EEG where they monitor brain waves and it showed he had none. 'At the first brain death test, me and his daddy and the doctor were there. It took half an hour and she told us it showed signs of brain death. We wanted to do the second one. 'Our entire family showed up for that test. It was midnight the next day that they did the second test. 'This doctor said that he showed a tiny, miniscule sign of brain life. They could not declare him brain dead which gave us all hope, because we were hoping so hard and praying so hard. 'His pupil twitched a bit and when they took him off life support, he tried to take a breath. He tried. Ayla said their son Soren was screaming for his brother to wake up, when they delivered the shattering news of his death. Pictured: Ayla with Axel and Soren 'Me and Josh would go and visit him. We'd visit him in the afternoon and evenings and read books, sing songs with him and tell him that we loved him. 'On the 16th, me and my husband and Soren were out going on errands when we got a call from the doctor about around 1pm saying he did a brain death test without us knowing. 'He told me and Josh we needed to go to the hospital soon. We dropped Soren off at home and the doctor told us he was really aggressive with Axel to see if he could get any brain activity. He didn't.' Doctors declared Axel brain dead at 1.35pm on January 17. The family had a memorial service and cremated him on Saturday, February 6. Ayla and Josh then faced breaking the shattering news to Soren, who had just celebrated his birthday without his brother by his side. Ayla said: 'We let Soren see Axel at the first brain death test. We let him give him a kiss, say "I love you, brother" then he went back out. 'He was screaming. He wanted his brother to wake up. Ayla said Soren who has special needs, didn't really understand what had happened and cried for five minutes. Pictured: Axel's urn 'We kept telling him that Axel wouldn't wake up. He's six - he doesn't understand death yet. 'That day we came home, me and his daddy sat him down and told him Axel died. You use real words. You don't tell him he passed away or he's gone. You tell him that he died. You use real words - even though they hurt. 'We told him that he died, and we had to explain that he's with Jesus and no longer sick, but he wouldn't be coming home anymore. 'He cried for five minutes then said, "I want to go watch TV". He's special needs and didn't really understand. 'He brings him up all the time. Today we were doing home-schooling and he asked me when he was coming home.' Now Ayla is warning other home-schooling parents to be wary of the materials they use around their children after the life-changing accident forced her to say goodbye to her 'energetic' and inquisitive little boy at just four-years-old. Ayla said Axel was 'energetic, smart and loved Rubik's cubs', revealing that he would never have put anything 'weird' in his mouth. Pictured: Axel and his brother Soren Ayla said: 'It's very scary. I'm a home-school mom so my entire home-schooling room, my posters, are held up by pins. Now everything has to be held up by sticky tape, blue tack. It's just not worth it - it's not. 'We were done with the baby thing. Of course, we were still cautious, but I was thinking where did he even get the tack? We didn't have any pins like that in the house. 'If Axel had swallowed it, he'd have been okay. It might have punctured his intestine or his stomach and he'd have told me his tummy hurts, then we'd have taken him to the hospital. 'Axel was so energetic. That boy would not sit down. He was so smart and he loved Rubik's Cubes. 'He loved magic tricks. For Christmas, he got a top hat and he loved costumes. Ninety per cent of all my pictures of him involved costume. 'He never put anything weird in his mouth.' If you would like to donate to the family's GoFundMe to help with Axel's funeral costs, you can do so by clicking here THE family of Kerry woman Joan Lucey has settled a High Court action over her cervical smear slides. The court was told on Thursday the action which had been continued by her son and daughter when Mrs Lucey died last week has been resolved. The retired nurse and widow died last Friday just hours after the HSE and the laboratories pledged to begin mediation towards resolving the case and after her lawyers had gone to court twice pleading for mediation to begin as Mrs Lucey was on her deathbed. Mediation had continued after her death but the court was previously told it had been unsuccessful after ending at 10pm last Tuesday night. Lucey family counsel Oonah McCrann SC, instructed by Aisling Maher of Cantillons solicitors, told the court the case had been resolved. She said the case will come back before the court on March 4 next when the settlement can be approved. It is understood the settlement is without an admission of liability. The details of the settlement are confidential. Mr Justice Kevin Cross congratulated all sides and the mediator on reaching a settlement. Ms Luceys son Sean and her daughter Sinead had taken over the legal action against the HSE and two laboratories over their mothers 2011 smear tests. They had taken over her case as they are executors of her will. Mrs Lucey (73), through her lawyers, had pleaded from her deathbed for mediation to begin in her case. Mr Justice Cross had also last week urged mediation to take place in the case of Mrs Lucey who had terminal cervical cancer. This week when he was told that the Lucey family were continuing the case and mediation had been unsuccessful when it ended on Tuesday night the judge told the parties this did not mean the parties could not re-engage with mediation in the case. Mrs Luceys claims for general damages fell away when she died but the action was reconstituted as a fatal claim, with her children replacing her as plaintiffs. The action was against the HSE, Clinical Pathology Laboratories Incorporated (CPL) and MedLab Pathology Ltd in relation to the alleged misreading, misinterpretation or misreporting of Mrs Luceys cervical smears taken in February 2011 and August 2011. The claims were denied. Last week as the judge urged mediation, Ms McCrann SC said all Mrs Lucey was being offered on her deathbed was hollow sympathy. Mrs Lucey, Cooleen, Dingle, Co Kerry had sued the HSE, CPL, with headquarters in Austin, Texas, USA, and MedLab Pathology Ltd, with registered offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin. She sued in relation to the alleged, misreading or misinterpretation or misreporting of her cervical smears taken in February 2011 and August 2011. It was claimed that notwithstanding undergoing regular smear tests as advised, cytological cell changes in Mrs Lucey were allegedly allowed to develop and spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2019. CPL had also joined as a third party in the proceedings consultant obstetrician Dr Mary McCaffrey of The Scotia Clinic, Tralee, Co Kerry. CPL had claimed there was an alleged failure to assess or investigate Mrs Lucey when she attended the clinic on April 29, 2011, and it was claimed it resulted in an alleged missed opportunity to diagnose pre-invasive disease. All claims were denied. SAN FRANCISCOThe Tampa Bay Times published an amazing story Monday about how in the 1970s the FBI and local police surveilled, harassed, arrested and charged civil rights leader Askia Muhammad Aquil under a program ostensibly created to fight communism but which was actually used to target anti-racist reformers. Among the charges prosecutors levied against Aquil were cohabitation and obscenity. It was against the law to cohabitate with someone of the opposite sex unless you were married, Aquils attorney Delano Stewart said. It was never enforced. They only enforced it that time because she was a beautiful white woman dating a Black man. This case illustrates how law enforcement uses sex-negative legislation to enable harm against marginalized communities, especially communities of color. Laws targeting sex work and pornography have sexist, racist, and classist origins, according to activist group Data for Progress. And those underlying roots continue to manifest themselves to this day. For example, anti-trafficking organization Polaris works with law enforcement and ICE to arrest and deport adult, consenting sex workers with a special emphasis on Asian sex workers. Between 2012 and 2016, arrests of Asian people in New York City for unauthorized practice of a profession and prostitution rose 2,700 percent. In 2018 Polaris launched a campaign to close illicit massage parlors, primarily small businesses run by Chinese and Korean immigrant women. Polaris claimed, without evidence, that every massage business in the U.S. that offers sexual services has some element of trafficking. As a result, thousands of Asian women have lost their businesses and their livelihoods at the hands of police and prosecutors despite there being no evidence of human trafficking at these massage parlors. Laws against loitering for purposes of prostitution make up another example of police using anti-sex laws to target women of color, particularly trans women of color. These laws empower police to profile, harass and arrest women for existing in public spaces even when theyre not engaging in sex work. Police cite things such as wearing a skirt and standing somewhere other than a bus stop or taxi stand as justification for loitering arrests. What's more, data shows, as it did with the New York City Police Department's controversial "Stop-and-Frisk" practice, that police disproportionately target people of color, especially women and trans women of color. Women of color comprise 40 percent of outdoor sex workers but make up 55 percent of those arrested for prostitution and 85 percent of those sentenced to jail. NYPD made more than half their 2018 loitering arrests in the immigrant-heavy neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and Jamaica of Queens. The Bronx and Brooklyn made up nearly a quarter of loitering arrests. Manhattan and Staten Island saw zero loitering arrests. Its not just New York. In Washington, D.C. 89 percent of the people sentenced for sex work between Jan. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2019 were Black. Brothel-keeping laws also disproportionately target indigenous women, poor women and women of color who are over-represented among low-income, street-level sex workers. Criminalizing providing shelter to sex workers exacerbates rates of homelessness among outdoor sex workers. Overbroad, rarely enforced laws against voluntary transactions always have been easy weapons for police and prosecutors to wield against marginalized communities. It was always completely absurd for there to be a law against premarital cohabitation. Laws against paying a massage therapist for a handjob are equally absurd. In both instances, the laws are selectively enforced against those with the least power in society in order to shut them up, shut them down, and keep them disempowered. To help ameliorate these harms we need to get outdated, senseless laws off the books. The first step is to pass the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act to investigate SESTA-FOSTAs harms. Secondly, the time has come to decriminalize all aspects of sex work at the federal level. We also need to get rid of arbitrarily enforced, censorious obscenity laws. Most importantly, lawmakers and D.C.-based nonprofits must open the floor fully and earnestly to sex workers and other marginalized communities before passing more harmful, sex-negative legislation. Image by Tim Allen from Pixabay LEBANON, Ind. (WLFI) The Lebanon Police Department reports three suspects are in custody following a Thursday morning armed robbery of an AT&T store. According to the Lebanon Police Department, around 10:30 a.m. officers responded to a report of a robbery at the AT&T store at 1602 N Lebanon Street. Police said an employee reported being held at gunpoint before the suspects fled out the back door of the store. Harney School, Lebanon High School, and Lebanon Middle School were locked down for safety. At approximately 10:55 a.m. the suspects were located in Marion County by IMPD. Three suspects were transported to Lebanon Police Department to being interviewed by detectives. EU leaders met virtually Thursday under pressure to speed up Europe's coronavirus vaccine rollout and facing demands from some capitals for a continent-wide vaccine passport. Their video summit comes a year into the COVID-19 crisis, as most of the 27-nation EU is experiencing a second wave of casesor a third wave for somethat stubbornly won't diminish. Brussels has warned six governments about unilateral border restrictions, while tourist-dependent countries are piling on pressure to lift travel barriers in time for summer vacations. Ahead of the videoconference, Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov called for "green passports" to be issued that contain vaccine and test results. Kurz tweeted "we... want an EU-wide Green Passport, with which people can travel freely, do business without restrictions and go on holiday, as well as finally enjoy gastronomy, culture, events and other things again". But several EU officials and diplomats warn that, while they back a verifiable vaccination record, it is too early to look at using them to permit easier travel. They said it was still unknown if vaccinated people can infect others, and worried that it could open a travel schism between a minority of vaccinated haves and a majority of unvaccinated have-nots. Sea, vax and sun Greece, however, has indicated it is ready to move faster than its EU peers. It has already struck a bilateral travel agreement with Israel, the world's vaccination champion. And it is reportedly in similar talks with former EU member Britain, its second-biggest tourist market, which is contemplating lifting a ban on foreign leisure travel as early as mid-May. One senior EU diplomat acknowledged that all European Union countries were eager to reopen travel for the June-to-September tourist season, but said "we have to move this forward together". An EU official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, was blunter, saying the EU wants to avoid "a new death season". On top of examining options for developing a common certificate strategy, the EU leaders will look at how to speed the continent's sluggish vaccines rollout. The European Commission's vaccine procurement strategy in the first quarter was too dependent on doses from British-Swedish giant AstraZeneca, which drastically under-delivered. The EU now hopes supplies will be greatly boosted from April with more stocks from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, and the possibility of new vaccines such as a single-dose one from Johnson & Johnson being authorised. Despite ongoing concerns that several countries are underprepared to give out the millions of jabs in the pipeline, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is sticking by her goal of having 70 percent of adults in the European Union fully vaccinated by mid-September. So far just four percent of the bloc's 450 million people have received at least one jab, according to an AFP tally of official figures, and only two percent have been fully vaccinated with two jabs. Worry over variants Brussels is also concerned the emergence of worrying variants could require retooled booster shots, which would in turn mean vaccine certificates would have to be constantly updated. A dispute is also stewing over severe border restrictions put in place by several EU countries to curb the virus variants, and which the European Commission sees as disproportionate. It has written warning letters to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden about their measures, giving them until late next week to respond. An EU official said he expected "quite a lively discussion between the member states" on that issue during the summit. The EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, tweeted that "the closure of borders by certain member states hurts the entire single market", calling for curbs to be lifted as soon as it is possible to do so. Explore further EU leaders seek to inject energy into slow vaccine rollout 2021 AFP Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the United States will seek to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council when elections are held later this year. Blinken said in a video address to the council Wednesday, "We humbly ask for the support of all U.N. member states in our bid to return to a seat in this body." Seats on the 47-member council are held for a three-year term, and Blinken said the United States would seek to occupy one for 2022-24. Emory College alumni Yaza Sarieh and Zach Denton have been named to the 2021-2022 class of Luce Scholars. The prestigious fellowship provides the opportunity for immersive work in Asia Learn more about scholarships Students interested in learning more about the Luce Scholars Program and other prestigious awards should contact Megan Friddle in Emory's National Scholarships and Fellowships Program. Find more information or schedule an appointment through the National Scholarships and Fellowships Program website. Two recent Emory College alumni who are working to improve the lives of migrants and refugees have been named to the 202122 class of Luce Scholars. The prestigious fellowship will provide Zach Denton 18C and Yaza Sarieh 20C the opportunity for immersive work in Asia, work that will broaden their understanding of migrant experiences in education and the system of refugee resettlement and aid, respectively. This marks the first time Emory has had two winners in a single round of the program, which is awarded annually to no more than 18 graduating seniors, graduate students and young professionals in the U.S. They join 11 previous Emory winners of the highly competitive fellowship. The Luce Scholars program offers a truly unique opportunity for cultural immersion in Asia, and we are thrilled to have two Emory alumni recognized in this years competition, says Megan Friddle, director of the Colleges National Scholarships and Fellowships Program. Both Yaza and Zach have shown a clear commitment to improving the lives of others, in the Emory community and throughout the world; they each bring cultural humility, exceptional leadership skills and a strong commitment to refugee resettlement and migrant advocacy, Friddle adds. The Luce Program and the unique placement process with the Asia Foundation will connect them to professional opportunities where they can learn about these issues in the context of Asia and contribute meaningfully to their host communities. Created by the Henry Luce Foundation in 1974, the appointment includes stipends, language training and individualized professional placement in several Asian countries each year. The program is intended for young leaders with limited experience in Asia to develop a deeper understanding of the region. Zach Denton: Education for migrant communities Denton has been interested in assuring education for migrant communities since he was in high school in Atlanta, working with adults seeking to take the GED test. As an undergraduate Ely R. Callaway Scholar, he turned that interest in education into a self-directed interdisciplinary program studying how social inequity and language policy impact education. The academic curiosity was personal. Denton was unable to speak as a child and remained behind his peers even as his skills improved with intense physical, speech and occupational therapy. In my case, the system conspired with me, Denton says. That made me sensitive to the built-in barriers to communication and education and the potential for positive, compassionate and formative intervention. After graduating in 2018 with a degree in sociology and linguistics/Spanish, he spent a year teaching English in Madrid with the Fulbright program. With the help of Emorys Charles Elias Shepard Scholarship for Graduate Study, he completed a masters degree in comparative education research last year at the University of Cambridge. His thesis: examining the educational experiences of Moroccan immigrants in Spain. In between his Fulbright and graduate school, he lived in Lumpkin, Georgia, working full-time to pilot a hospitality house to aid immigrants released from the nearby Stewart Detention Center. That program has continued and expanded since he left. I really owe Emory for shaping how I think about my career path, by being able to study the intersection of migration and education and examine how we can undo the punitive systems and create systems that are more equitable, says Denton, who now works in the Dominican Republic with Yspaniola, a non-profit organization that provides educational resources and advocacy for several generations of Haitian migrants. Im incredibly excited to continue that work in a new space, he adds. Yaza Sarieh: Refugees and resettlement Sariehs journey also began in high school, when she traveled from Nashville to refugee camps in Jordan and realized the good fortune of her grandfather, who escaped to similar camps as a refugee of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, before her parents immigrated to the United States. Sarieh started her Emory experience at Oxford College and graduated in May from Emory College with a degree in history and Arabic. She focused her academic, professional and service activities on studying the conflicts that prompt people to flee their homelands and analyzing the policies used to provide humanitarian aid and resettlement. The people at Emory motivate students to try for things that may seem unattainable but will really broaden your experience, she says. Among Sariehs accomplishments were internships with The Carter Center and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), both designed to offer a more sophisticated examination of resource distribution for refugee populations. As part of The Carter Centers Conflict Resolution program, Sarieh conducted geospatial analysis of conflict data and, drawing from her research in English and Arabic, wrote briefs updating other staffers on the Syrian conflict. At the IRC, she worked in intensive case management, helping to develop individualized service plans for clients and connecting them with necessary health care and social services resources to ease their transition. Sarieh also served as co-director of Behind the Glass, the campus organization dedicated to immigration issues that includes among its initiatives service trips to the hospitality house that Denton developed. When the pandemic canceled a planned Peace Corps position in Morocco, Sarieh extended her internship with Georgia Organics where, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health, she now heads a mapping project to identify connections between health disparities and access to nutritional food. My idea has been to do the research and work on the ground level, so I can present that understanding as policy at some point in the future, says Sarieh, who expects to defer graduate school studies in development for the Luce program starting in August. Im eager for the opportunity to learn how to incorporate the Asian region into that goal. On the latest episode of Vodafone Healthline series, health professionals have debunked the assertion that sweating while working out is fat-burning. General Practitioner Dr. Kwekuma Yalley explained that humans sweat when there is a way for the body to regulate temperature; thus when the body temperature goes up, the body puts out water on its surface to cool it down or regulate how hot to becomes. Just like how when you are using a car for a while the engine becomes hot, likewise when you are working out over time, the muscles become warm, they burn out energy and causes the body temperature to go up so the body produces this water on the surface to try maintaining a constant temperature, he said. Adding up to that, Senior Physician Specialist Dr. Aba Folson emphasised that fat in the human body does not come out like we see in sweat, but gets used up in the body. Sweating is not indicative of how much fat you are burning, because people sweat differently depending on the type of activity engaged in; other factors also affect how much you sweat, she reiterated. She further outlined factors such as intensity level of exercise, sex of the person -because men sweat more than women- weather condition of the environment, among others as determinants of how much one sweats during work out which is not related to how much fat one burns in the body. Dr. Yalley complemented this point by adding that burning calories or losing weight has little to do with sweat because swimming is an activity which does not cause an individual to sweat but a lot of calories are lost during swimming. In this 10th episode, the Healthline train moved to the capital of Shai Osudoku district Dodowa, in the Greater Region to rescue eight-year-old Nasira Lihadi, who fell into fire and transformed from being once touted as the most beautiful girl to become someone nobody wants to get close to. Nasiras mother narrated that she left home that fateful morning for school, but after a few minutes she received a phone call that her daughter had fallen on top of a gas stove and injured herself. She was badly burnt and we took her to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where the wounds were treated; but before the wounds were healed, the doctors informed us that her neck had developed a condition that required a surgery to correct but the cost was beyond their capacity to afford. According to the mother, Nasiras speech has even been impaired by the neck injury and she struggles to speak. We heard that Vodafone has a programme that can assist us and we called them; and thankfully they responded and agreed to come to our aid. I am so excited and grateful to Vodafone Healthline for rescuing Nasira and putting smiles back on her face, she said. Dr. Victoria May Adabayeri, Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist, KBTH, on her part touched on allergies and respiratory tract infections. She indicated that allergies can be carried on from childhood to adulthood, though sometimes they clear out of the body; but largely they remain, especially when the immune system is less resistant to them and therefore reacts once activated by consumption of the allergic material or substance. Allergies are recurrent, they happen so frequently; and once a mother notices that anytime I do this particular thing the baby shows this issue, then it can be related to allergy. But usually they dont appear early in babies until they are over a year old. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Opinion Article 24 February 2021 Cancelled flights, record lows for both international and domestic travel, longer wait times due to enhanced cleaning regulations these are just a few of the hardships shared by airports around the world since the beginning of the global pandemic. Yet, airports must remain open to serve those who still have a necessity or a desire to travel on commercial airlines. This inevitably comes with the need to maintain various services that travelers expect to have available at any airport, including restaurants, gift shops, car rentals and more. During more prosperous economic times, these services represent a valuable source of revenue for airport operators and service providers. However, during the current environment where most consumers continue to avoid or at least minimize any type of travel unless absolutely necessary, maintaining airport operations and services has become an increasingly costly task with significantly less revenue being generated. This circumstance places airport operators in an unenviable position of having to keep services and amenities open to cater to the few travelers still willing to fly, while finding sufficient funds to support operations and somehow achieve a reasonable level of profit. Fortunately, in this digital era where virtually every consumer travels with at least one smart device, an airport's existing Wi-Fi service offers the potential to tap into the latest advances in experience personalization that can not only boost satisfaction rates, but that also maximize the performance of much needed revenue streams. By taking advantage of new innovations in the field of "smart data" technology, airports are now able to transform their Wi-Fi offerings from being a required amenity with little ROI potential, into a powerful source of analytical information on each traveler- offering detailed insight into their unique interests and preferences. Armed with such rich data analytics, here are just a few ways that a smart data-backed Wi-Fi and business plan strategy can lead to more profitable and efficient airport operations: Catering to The Future of Digitalized Traveler Experiences As with virtually all consumer-based industries, the travel sector has been increasingly under pressure to adapt to a predominately mobile world where the benefits of instant, personalized service have set the new standard in delivering consumer satisfaction. Simply offering a mobile app with a few features does not fully resolve the demand for instant service that today's consumers expect to be tailored to their unique preferences. However, a mobile app on a smart device that is connected to airport Wi-Fi has the opportunity to promote interactions that align with each traveler's individual interests during their airport stay. This is where a smart data platform integrated with an existing Wi-Fi network demonstrates its immense value. After a traveler opts into the service, an advanced smart data solution will automatically compile demographic and psychographic analytics that are available online and that are instantly stored in a profile that is created for each traveler. This can include details on marital status, income level, hobby interests, active memberships and much more. Once a traveler connects to an airport's Wi-Fi, a smart data platform will then automatically access such profiles to identify which available services and promotions most closely resemble a specific traveler's lifestyle preferences. For example, a traveler with a preference for Italian food can instantly receive a notification for half-price appetizers that may tip a decision to eat onsite into the airport's favor. Those that regularly enjoy coffee or alcoholic beverages prior to a flight can be sent push notifications on the latest specials to entice a purchase. With many travelers eventually seeking a flight to return home, an invitation to visit an airport's souvenir shop can also serve as a welcome suggestion for those wanting to purchase gifts for loved ones and friends. A primary advantage of a smart data platform therefore is that it removes the guess work from promoting airport amenities to potential customers. Each promotion sent is always first automatically matched to relevant traveler profiles to ensure that any marketing campaign is shared with appropriate target audiences. This limits the risk of turning travelers off from reading promotional messaging with offers that they have little interest in. Crucially, it ensures that any marketing effort designed to capture more revenue has the highest probability of success- resulting in a steady flow of income needed to keep airports operational, while providing each traveler with a uniquely satisfying experience that will increase their likelihood of returning to the same airport for future flights. As any airport operator can attest to, smart devices have long been a common sight at airports with travelers navigating between gates seemingly always focused on their screens. However, this behavior creates the opportunity for airports to monetize their Wi-Fi services at a time when it is needed most by the industry. Each Wi-Fi login generates a mass of data that can be used to understand precisely what appeals to a specific traveler. By adding a smart data solution to their existing Wi-Fi network, an airport can finally sift through such metrics in a timely manner and can begin to tailor experiences and boost revenue-earning opportunities from the very moment that a traveler arrives. Boost Your Bottom Line With Localized Advertising As locations that serve as the first point of contact for travelers visiting a new area, airports have another advantage in being able to generate additional revenues by simply serving as a source for local experience recommendations. Those visiting an unfamiliar location will want to quickly gain their bearings on what nearby services or attractions align with their travel plans. The adoption of an advanced smart data solution can also seamlessly cater to this need by again leveraging profile analytics to identify which local experiences or services are likely being sought out by each individual traveler. Examples may include a family with an interest in visiting nearby theme parks, a couple seeking to find out details on tour guides or a business traveler wanting to learn what their options are to stay in shape while away from home. Leading smart data solution providers are able to leverage strategic partnerships to provide instant access to a wide range of local advertising offers that can match any traveler interest. Significantly, such services eliminate the need to contract third-party ad publishers, resulting in more revenue generated from subsequent sales going back to airport operators. From pushing recommendations for hotel accommodations depending on traveler budgets, to offering advice on where to purchase swimwear that matches a traveler's personal style, each promotional offer will always reflect a person's current needs based on their location to maximize sales conversions. Each ad click also represents a vital injection of revenue that can keep airport operations funded and business profitable. Despite the ongoing slowdown in travel, opportunities still remain for airports to generate revenue streams that are essential to keeping operations open and flowing seamlessly. By adopting a digitalized marketing approach that is backed by advanced smart data technology, airport operators can instantly tap into the growing trend of service personalization that is now prevalent in many other consumer-based industries and that travelers are increasingly expecting to find at airports around the world. With today's airport travelers no longer content with a one size fits all experience, a smart data solution ensures that each traveler is treated as an individual and that their unique needs are always addressed. In today's market environment where personalization is an increasingly competitive factor, a smart data platform further boost's an airport's ability to attract more return travelers while always ensuring that such repeat business always leads to even greater revenue growth results. H-E-B is supporting the Texas food banks residents are leaning on in the wake of recent winter weather. The Texas grocery chain announced a $1 million donation on Wednesday to support 18 food banks in Texas as the state recovers from a week-long winter and utility crisis which left residents cold, hungry and in the dark. The effort was highlighted by Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show Wednesday afternoon. HIDALGO: Lina Hidalgo makes 'Time' 100 list for 2021 In addition to the monetary donations, H-E-B also donated $100,000 worth of Meal Simple meals to food banks. H-E-B responded to the need for water, whether due to lack of pressure or busted pipes, by gathering donations from supplier partners. Zen Water and Florida-based Publix donated 10 truckloads of water each. Proud Source Water also committed a truck of water. The end result was 21 trailer loads of more than 725,000 bottles of water, according to the announcement. The grocery store is also providing a way for customers to get in on the giving. Shoppers will be able to donate in the checkout lane or online. Funds generated will go directly to food banks affiliated with Feeding Texas. MACK GIVES BACK: What Mattress Mack told Ellen Degeneres about Houston's winter storm recovery DeGeneres noted H-E-B's commitment Texas, saying she sends her love to the state. "Thank you, H-E-B," she said. "Our hearts go out to all of you affected by the storm." The new assistance is an added ply to the hunger relief work H-E-B ramped up in response to the coronavirus pandemic. H-E-B's Hunger Relief Program, started in 1982, donated 41 million pounds of food to food banks throughout 2020. Winell Herron, H-E-B's president of public affairs, diversity and environmental affairs, said the donations are to help Texans get "back on their feet." "H-E-B is here for Texas, and we will do everything we can to support those in need across our great state," Herron said in a statement. Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye EU nations are facing a split over opening up travel as tourism-reliant nations pile pressure on Brussels to give the green light to so-called 'vaccine passports' while others including Germany are scolded for imposing border closures. European leaders were locked in virtual talks today on and speeding up a stuttering vaccine roll-out which is moving far slower than Britain's. Greece has already struck a bilateral deal with the world's vaccination champion Israel and says that British tourists will be welcome this summer if they have a vaccine or a negative test. Austria has also called for an EU-wide 'green passport' which would allow people to go on holiday and 'enjoy gastronomy, culture, events and other things again'. But other countries including Germany have been lectured by EU officials for imposing unilateral border closures to keep out the feared new variants of Covid-19. One EU official gave a blunt assessment of the risks of opening up - saying that the bloc wants to avoid 'a new death season'. France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands are all seeing cases stagnate or increase with only a fairly small share of the population vaccinated so far - while infections are continuing to drop in the UK with far more people given at least one vaccine dose People enjoy an afternoon on the beach in Barcelona last summer - with European nations now looking for ways to open up again for the 2021 tourist season European Council president Charles Michel (top left) meets EU leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel at a virtual summit today The virtual meeting today comes with many EU countries still mired in second or third waves of the pandemic and all of them struggling to dish out vaccines. The UK is way ahead in the vaccine race and could allow Britons to travel abroad from May 17, but whether European countries will be open by then is less clear. Greek tourism minister Haris Theoharis said vaccinated Britons would be allowed in this summer, after the Mediterranean nation was one of the first to open up in 2020. Theoharis said those who had not been vaccinated would need a negative test, telling ITV News that 'it doesn't mean that only vaccinated people can travel'. 'We feel that the vaccination programmes is a game changer, together with rapid tests and alongside PCR tests,' he said. Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Bulgarian premier Boyko Borissov have also called for 'green passports' that could indicate both vaccines and test results. But several EU officials and diplomats warn that, while they back a verifiable vaccination record, it is too early to look at using them to permit easier travel. They said it was still not clear whether vaccinated people can infect others, and worried that it could open a travel schism between a minority of vaccinated haves and a majority of unvaccinated have-nots. Many young people have voiced anger at the prospect of seeing their elders enjoy foreign holidays while they themselves are still stuck at home. Tourists in Magaluf last summer after Spain opened up again, only for the travel and hospitality industries to take another pounding as the virus came roaring back in the autumn The UK's rapid vaccine roll-out has opened the door to international travel this summer, but whether Britons will be welcome in Europe is less clear One senior EU diplomat acknowledged that all EU countries were eager to reopen for the summer season, but that said 'we have to move this forward together'. Brussels is also concerned about new variants which could require special booster jabs, meaning vaccine certificates would have to be constantly updated. And a dispute is also stewing over severe border restrictions put in place by several EU countries to curb the virus variants, and which Brussels sees as disproportionate. It has written warning letters to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden about their measures, giving them until late next week to respond. An EU official said he expected 'quite a lively discussion between the member states' on that issue during the summit. The EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, tweeted that 'the closure of borders by certain member states hurts the entire single market'. Israel has already moved to bring in 'green passes' to re-open its economy, with nearly a third of the population already receiving two doses of a vaccine. In addition to those who have already recovered from the disease, it means almost three million people in Israel are eligible for such a pass. Gyms, swimming pools, hotels and some cultural facilities are re-opening only to those who have been fully vaccinated and obtained the pass. The scheme is being closely watched abroad, with Boris Johnson saying that the UK was looking at the idea of 'certification' but mindful of ethical concerns. A woman holds up a vaccine 'green pass' in Israel which is pioneering the scheme after leading the world in distributing jabs Lifting weights at a gym near Tel Aviv on Saturday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was moving ahead 'with caution' after three national lockdowns. Netanyahu is hoping the successful vaccine roll-out will boost his support ahead of March 23 elections, Israel's fourth vote in less than two years. On top of examining options for developing a common certificate strategy, the EU leaders will look at how to speed the continent's own sluggish vaccine roll-out. Supplies in the first two months of 2021 have been hampered by delays in AstraZeneca shipments after the EU was slow to sign a contract with the firm. The EU now hopes that supplies will be greatly boosted from April with more stocks from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. There is also the possibility of new vaccines such as a single-dose option from Johnson & Johnson being authorised. Under-fire EU chief Ursula von der Leyen is sticking by her goal of having 70 percent of adults in the European Union fully vaccinated by mid-September. So far just four per cent of the bloc's 447million people have received at least one jab, according to official figures, with two per cent given the full two doses. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Research Future (MRFR) Has Announced a New Release on the Contraceptive Pills Market highlights the current and future status of market and regional level analysis with the help of industry trends and market performance. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2019 through 2022. Also, a five-year historic analysis is provided for these Contraceptive Pills Market. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Global Contraceptive pills Market Competitive Analysis Merck & Co., Inc (US), Pfizer Inc (US), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Bayer AG (Germany), Allergan plc. (Ireland), Janssen Global Services llc. (US), Mankind Pharma Ltd. (India), Piramal Enterprises Ltd (India), Reckitt Benckiser Plc (UK), Church & Dwight (US), The Female Health Company (US), Mayer Laboratories (US), Cooper Surgical (US) are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Contraceptive Pills Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis. Global Contraceptive pills Market Overview Contraceptive pills are likely to witness considerable demand in the years to come. The observation offered by Market Research Future (MRFR) unfolds that the global contraceptive pills market is expected to enter a phase of maturity in the foreseeable future. According to the report, the market is prognosticated to record a CAGR of 2.2% across the projection period 2016 to 2022. Anti-conception medication pills which are also called as oral contraceptive pills are a kind of female hormonal anti-conception medication technique and are extremely viable at avoiding pregnancy. These pills are small tablets that a patient swallow every day. These birth control pills are been used from ancient times but the save and effective methods are introduce and available from 20th century. Fill Out Details To Receive FREE Sample Here: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2122 Contraceptive drugs are used to prevent the unwanted pregnancy by blocking the normal process of ovulations or by altering the process which support the fertilization of egg. Most pills contain two sorts of manufactured (man-made) female hormones: estrogen and progestin. These are like the estrogen and progesterone regularly made by the ovaries. These pills are called combination oral contraceptives, and there are a wide range of these kinds. Globally the market for contraceptive pills is growing at a low rate but with increasing prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases will upsurge the growth of this market in coming future. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global contraceptive pills market is booming and expected to gain eminence over the forecast period. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2022, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a prominent CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2022). Increasing need of population control and increasing incident of abortion has driven the growth of the market. Governmental initiatives for minimizing unwanted pregnancy, increasing awareness and healthcare expenditure, and increasing in use of contraceptives drugs has provided fuel for the growth of the market. While the side effects of the treatment and strict governmental rules in many countries may hamper the growth of the market. Geographically, North America commands the largest market for the contraceptive drug market. Approximately 3 million women in North America experiences unplanned pregnancy. Beside this 90 % of the women use some of the method of contraception. Thus increasing number of abortion and rate of unplanned pregnancy has driven this market in North America. Major market of North America is contributed by US which is followed by Canada. Increasing awareness and minimizing the healthcare expenses by curbing number of abortion in US encourage contraceptive use among women. North America contraceptives drug market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9 % during forecasted period. Browse Complete Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/contraceptive-pills-market-2122 . The market for contraceptive pills is characterised by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of contraceptive pills appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. Major players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the emerging nations, making it putting pressure on the regional players, especially in terms of features such as type, product portfolios, and pricing. Crushing coparenting! Chelsea Houska and her ex Adam Lind are amicably raising their 11-year-old daughter, Aubree. Read article It actually hasnt been too bad, the Teen Mom 2 alum, 29, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, February 24, of coparenting during the coronavirus pandemic while promoting her Aubree Says home goods line. I feel like were in a good place right now with all of that. MTV; Courtesy of Adam Lind/Instagram The former reality star added that since Aubree is getting older and has her own phone, the preteen is able to communicate with her dad, 31, herself. Read article I think that has played a huge part, the South Dakota native told Us. So everything has been going pretty smooth, Id say. The 16 and Pregnant alum gave birth to Aubree in 2009, going into labor on the first day of her senior year. She and Lind split three years later. The former MTV personality is also the mother of three children with husband Cole DeBoer Watson, 4, Layne, 2, and Walker, 1 month. She and the traffic control specialist, 32, definitely have compromises while raising their kids. Were usually on the same page, but he is more paranoid and right on top of the kids, Houska explained to Us. Im more, like, they can go play in another room. I feel like Im always trying to tell him, Just try to chill out and let them do their thing. But I guess I appreciate that hes on top of it and watching them totally. The couple wed in October 2016 in South Dakota and celebrated their fourth anniversary in October 2020. To say I am grateful would be an understatement, I am beyond grateful to have you as my wife, DeBoer wrote via Instagram at the time. The one who has to put up with me, the one who loves me for me, the one who I can always truly count/lean on, the one with so much love and joy in her heart, the one who puts everyone else first, the one who gives our children and myself such an amazing life, the one who brings all the love and joy to my heart and this crazy family. Read article Houska is intentional about her kids see[ing] their parents being affectionate, she told Us on Wednesday. Aubree is getting to that age where shes annoyed of us, but thats OK. Shes like, Oh, Mom, thats so gross. With reporting by Christina Garibaldi European Council President Charles Michel speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels (Olivier Hoslet, Pool via AP) European Union leaders have vowed to accelerate the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines as concern mounts about the spread of new variants of the virus. They said that restrictions, including on travel, should remain in place in many parts of the 27-nation bloc. Covid-19 has killed more than 531,000 people across the EU. Our top priority now is speeding up the production and delivery of vaccines and vaccinations, EU Council President Charles Michel said, adding a warning for vaccine makers: We want more predictability and transparency to ensure that pharmaceutical companies comply with their commitments. The European Commission has sealed deals with several companies for well over 2 billion vaccine shots far more than the EU population of around 450 million but only three have been authorised: jabs from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. Expand Close Charles Michel, right, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participate in a media conference (Olivier Hoslet, Pool via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Charles Michel, right, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participate in a media conference (Olivier Hoslet, Pool via AP) Officials say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be approved next month. But some senior officials at the big pharmaceutical companies, a few of whom were grilled by EU lawmakers not far from where Mr Michel was chairing the video-conference summit in Brussels, said it is no simple matter to build new vaccine production sites. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said production problems are inevitable as companies work around the clock to do in one year what normally takes up to four years. Most of the company chiefs said they expect an improvement in the second quarter. Every time there is a human error, equipment breaking down or raw material from one of our suppliers late by a day, you cannot start making the product because it will not be safe, you will not have the right quality, Mr Bancel said, explaining the technological issues facing producers. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said a big challenge is to improve yield the number of doses that can be extracted from a litre of vaccine. He also rejected the idea that companies can simply open new production sites to solve the problem, saying that engineers must spend a lot of time training staff. Our teams are absolutely stretched to the maximum. Theres no way they could train any more people, he said, and insisted that most companies developing vaccines probably face the same constraint. Mr Soriot came under fire after he confirmed that the company would deliver less than half the vaccines it had committed to in the first quarter. This is a goal that we are confident we will reach Ursula von der Leyen The EU has partly blamed supply delays for lagging behind nations like Israel, the United States and Britain when it comes to vaccinations. By early this week, 6.5% of the adults living in the EU had been vaccinated, compared to more than 27% in the UK. Mr Soriot said AstraZeneca would deliver 40 million doses to the EU in the first quarter, attributing the delay to complicated production issues, including lower than expected output in our dedicated European supply chain. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen noted pointedly that in terms of companies honouring the delivery commitments in their contracts with Europe, there is room for improvement at AstraZeneca. Still, despite the slow vaccine rollout in Europe, Ms Von der Leyen said the bloc still aims to inoculate 70% of all adults around 255 million people by September. This is a goal that we are confident we will reach, she said. Border checks remain a sore point. Divisions among EU member countries, including Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic, on restrictions to stave off transmission has again raised the spectre of travel delays and long traffic queues in a bloc that prides itself on being a seamless market. Mr Michel told reporters that non-essential travel may still need to be restricted, but measures should be proportionate. Whatever Covid has in store for our summer breaks, Pixar is promising us at least some seaside sun. The studios next feature, Luca, is set on the Italian coast. The balmy setting is explored in the films first teaser, which dropped today. Luca is about the relationship between the title character and his best friend, two boys bound by a shared secret: they are both sea monsters. The trailer reveals the interplay between this fantastical realm and the sun-baked village they live in, set to what sounds like an Italian rendition of You Are My Sunshine. Watch it below: Luca is the feature directorial debut of Enrico Casarosa, a longtime Pixar story artist (Ratatouille, Up, Coco) who also directed the studios Oscar-nominated short film La Luna. The new film draws on his own upbringing, as he revealed in a previous statement: In the documentary Un Film Dramatique, the artist Eric Baudelaire fulfills a commission to make a dedicated artwork for Dora Maar, a newly constructed middle school in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. For the project, Baudelaire filmed 21 students across four years, and he encouraged them to take up the camera themselves. The finished film demonstrates the liveliness and generosity that can come from civic-minded art. The movie passes by in informal episodes. The filmmakers set up games and debates, encouraging classmates to discuss what they think the movie will be about. The students consider what it means to be the subjects and creators of a documentary, and in turn, they reckon with how their school fits into the world around them. ROCHESTER, Minn. - Rep. State Sen. Carla Nelson and DFL State Representative Jennifer Schultz announced the introduction of their bipartisan bill aimed at lowering the price of non-name brand versions of common biological prescription drugs. The bill aims to make the drugs more available to Minnesotans. The bipartisan measure unveiled today would require health plans and pharmacy benefit managers to cover all versions of the non-name brand alternatives to biological medications, known as biosimilars. The change would give all patients access to the most affordable and effective version of their medication without compromising safety standards. Biological and biosimilar medications are both regulated by the food and drug administration and have no clinically meaningful difference in safety, purity, or potency. Senator Nelson who co-authored the bill says the legislation would result in savings for consumers. This is a great step forward we are so pleased that we have bipartisanship support but most important support for Minnesotans that are struggling with escalating high-cost prescription drugs, said Nelson. We can non longer be content to only have the most expensive version " Senator Nelson says the senate has been working for years to lower the cost of prescription drugs. 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. The Bank of Ghana has introduced guidelines for inward remittance services by payment services providers. This is in furtherance of its commitment to creating an enabling environment for remittance without risking the stability of the financial system. The guidelines will regulate inward money transfer services provided by Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMIs) and Enhanced Payment Service Providers (EPSPs) in partnership with MTOs. It will stipulate the minimum standards and requirements for providing inward remittance services, ensure adherence to Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Law and Guidelines, amongst others. DEMIs and EPSPs providing inward remittance services in partnership with MTOs shall submit an electronic monthly data return by the 10th working day of the ensuing month to the Bank of Ghana, among others. For data protection, the DEMI and EPSP shall collect, process and retain remittance data in line with relevant provisions under the Data Protection Act 2012, (Act 843). According to the Central Bank, any action which contravenes any section of this Guideline shall attract the corresponding sanctions and penalties under the relevant laws. Remittance is a significant source of external financing and a major contributor to national income. Many Ghanaian families depend on remittances from relations living abroad to cater for various expenses including education, health, rent, housekeeping, and utilities. Ghanaians in the diaspora also send money home to fund the construction of residential and/or commercial buildings. Remittances therefore contribute to the economic well-being of Ghanaians. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) and the Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (Navdex), currently underway in Abu Dhabi, are a model for the success of the UAE leadership's far-sighted vision, said Dr Sultan bin Ahmad Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology. ''In addition to their role in strengthening safety, security, peace, and stability, the defence industries are a source of numerous innovative concepts that are being implemented and utilised daily in computer systems, pharmaceuticals, food manufacturing, space, among others,'' said Dr Al Jaber in a statement, according to a Wam news agency report. "In line with the vision of the wise leadership, the UAE is directing its investments towards three pillars developing Emirati talent, establishing an advanced infrastructure, and enabling strategic partnerships across industries. The International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) and the Naval Defence & Maritime Security Exhibition (Navdex) are a model for the success of this vision. ''The significance of such events lies in their ability to contribute to the nations agenda of growing the industry and manufacturing sectors through the use of innovative 4IR- and artificial intelligence-based solutions. As a result, this positions the UAE as a destination for innovation, attracting talented individuals with exceptional ideas and projects, from across the globe, to develop advanced technologies and employ them in boosting economic growth and quality of life." He added: "IDEX is a remarkable platform to showcase the latest developments in the national defense industry, enhancing the nations global competitiveness. The UAEs adoption of advanced technologies in the industrial sector, across various fields including defense, has become a reality due to the vision of the wise leadership. IDEX has successfully highlighted the significant advancements of the UAE in this dynamic sector, which instills a sense of pride in the exceptional efforts of the national defence companies.'' "We, at the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, aim to collaborate with all the relevant stakeholders, further contributing a supportive ecosystem to grow this dynamic sector," he concluded. South Africa: Name change shakeup for the Eastern Cape Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa has published a number of name changes for towns, cities and airports in the Eastern Cape, in the Government Gazette. The transformation of the naming landscape is a critical component of the heritage landscape as a whole. The most notable change in the Eastern Cape Province is that of Port Elizabeth, which is now known as Gqeberha, said the department of Sport, Arts and Culture in a statement on Thursday. The changes which include the name change for Port Elizabeth, were published in Tuesdays Government Gazette. The Port Elizabeth International Airport is now known as the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport. East London Airport is now the King Phalo Airport. Uitenhage is now Kariega. King Williams Town is now Qonce. Maclear is now Nqanqa Rhu. There was a need for the name changes as this is part of a government programme to transform South Africas heritage landscape. The names of places we live in reflect the identity and cultural heritage of the people of South Africa, the Minister said. The Gazette also includes a number of spelling corrections for existing geographical names, as well as official registrations of new names. The South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC) Act 118 of 1998 provides for the transformation of South Africas naming landscape. As such, more name changes will be submitted to the SAGNC and the Minister in the future, provided that public consultations are conducted by the Provincial Geographical Names Committee before such name changes are submitted to the Minister for his consideration. All the gazetted names come from the Eastern Cape and were submitted to the South African Geographical Names Committee from the Eastern Cape. Prior to the changes, the Provincial Geographical Names Committee conducted public consultations on all the names that were changed. The South African Geographical Names Act provides for objections within 30 days from members of the public in instances that they are not happy with the Gazette name changes, the department said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The playbook read like a script on How to run a romance scheme. There were fictitious names, pleas for help, conversations and eventually requests for money. Federal authorities say a Massachusetts man used fake names on dating websites to lure women into sending him cash in what authorities described as a romance scheme that saw at least three women send him more than a half-a-million dollars. Kofi Osei of Randolph was arrested Thursday and charged in Boston federal court with multiple counts of money laundering, making false statements to a bank and wire fraud. Over the course of the scheme, more than $1.7 million was transferred into accounts controlled by Osei, federal prosecutors said in court records. The romance schemes conducted by Osei began in 2016 and continued into 2019, authorities said. He used fake names on the dating websites eHarmony and Plenty of Fish and fake identifications to set up bank accounts, records said. One woman, a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, said she was contacted by a man known to her as William Karlsen via eHarmony in December 2016. The man was actually Osei, authorities said. The man and woman chatted over the phone, text and through email. Then the man began to tell her he worked on an oil rig overseas. The demands for money began. Osei, posing as the man, had arranged to meet the woman in Florida, but canceled the meeting after he said, he was unable to travel because he was involved in an explosion on the oil rig and had been detained by authorities in Dubai, federal records said. Osei then asked for the woman to send money to pay for his attorney so he could be released. In Feb. 2017, the woman sent $36,000 via wire transfer to a bank account controlled by Osei. In a week, nearly all the money was gone, authorities said. Then on Valentines Day of 2017, the same woman sent two wire transfers totaling $125,000 to one of the accounts controlled by Osei. Roughly $120,000 was gone within three days. The first alleged victim had $201,000 taken by Osei, federal records said. The second woman, who is from Montecito, California, was contacted in December 2017 by a man she knew as William Woodcox on the dating site called Plenty of Fish. The man was actually Osei, authorities said. The two spoke by email and telephone. In this ruse, Osei claimed that he was working in France when there was an accident at his place of employment. Osei, under the phony name, asked the woman to help people who were injured by sending cash. He then later told the woman he was arrested and needed money to get out of jail. The second woman, between January 2018 and February 2018, sent $65,000 to bank accounts controlled by Osei, records said. A third woman from Bradenton, Florida, met a man who called himself Harry Mikesell on Plenty of Fish in July 2018. Again, Osei followed his playbook of talking to the woman by email and text, federal prosecutors said. This time Osei claimed he was a man working on a drilling platform in Houston, Texas. Osei wanted the woman to send money for drilling equipment and convinced the woman to become his power of attorney on his companys bank account in the Bahamas, records said. The woman agreed but then Osei, using his phony profile, told the woman his account had been frozen. He asked the woman to pay to unfreeze the account. The third woman sent roughly $270,565 to accounts controlled by Osei, according to an affidavit on file in court. The FBI said earlier this month that Massachusetts residents lost more than $8 million in romance scams last year. Scammers use online dating apps & sites to build trusting relationships with victims & persuade them to send money or share personal and financial information, FBI Boston said on Twitter. Never send money to someone you have only met online. Across the U.S., victims lost about $605 million due to romance scams in 2020. In New England, victims lost about $11.7 million, with Massachusetts residents losing the most. There were 361 victims in the commonwealth. If someone believes they are part of a scam, stop all contact immediately, the FBI said. If they have already sent money, report any transfer of funds to your financial institution and file a complaint with the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Related Content: Police on Wednesday identified the 11-year-old boy and woman found dead in the river in a Boonton park on Tuesday night as a mother and son from Boonton, authorities said. On Wednesday afternoon, the Morris County Prosecutors Office identified Warda Syed, 35, and her son Uzair Ahmed, 11, both of Boonton, as the woman and child pulled from the Rockaway River in Grace Lord Park late Tuesday night. A second child, a 6-year-old boy, found at the scene was also confirmed as Syeds son, the office said. The childs name was not going to be released, the office said. As of Wednesday afternoon, police have not released information on what happened to Syed and her son, or the circumstances leading up to their deaths. Syed was a substitute teacher at the Boonton school district and worked in the districts aftercare program, confirmed district Superintendent Robert Presuto. The school district had a crisis team in place for any students or staff who needed counseling in the wake of the tragic news, he said. Were heartbroken, said Presuto. At 5:39 p.m. Tuesday, a passerby called 911 and told police a 6-year-old child was shouting for his mother in the upper pond section of Grace Lord Park, authorities previously said in a press conference at the park Tuesday night. When police arrived, they found the child standing by the bank of the Rockaway River and saw footprints leading down to the water, Acting Prosecutor Robert Carroll said. Responding officers also saw two bodies in the river, at the top of the waterfall that the river flows into, he said. Robert, Carrol, 2nd from left, the Morris County Acting Prosecutor, addresses th e media about finding the bodies and the investigation. A woman and a 11 year-old boy's bodies were found dead in the Rockaway River at Grace Lord Park Tuesday evening. Tuesday, February 23, 2021. Boonton, N.J. USA (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media) Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media The two bodies were recovered by Boontons Swift Water Rescue Team, police said. The two were pronounced dead at 6:37 and 6:38 p.m., respectively, authorities said. The prosecutors office, sheriffs office, and Boonton police are investigating the incident. The 6-year-old child was in police custody immediately following the incident, authorities said. The park is located in Uptown Boonton near Essex Ave and West Main Street, and investigators had police tape cordoning off an area of the park near a lighted a gazebo. The Morris County Prosecutors Office Major Crimes Unit, Morris County Sheriffs Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, Boonton Police Department Detective Bureau and Boonton Fire Department Swiftwater Rescue all continue to investigate the two deaths, the Prosecutors Office said. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon. U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) is seeking an investigation, including possible price gouging in utility bills. The unprecedented winter storms that hit the area caused natural gas prices to skyrocket. Prices increased as much as a hundred times the typical rate. Some residents in Texas are seeing utility bills in the thousands. The hikes prompted Sen.. Smith to seek an investigation into possible price gouging. The senator is concerned about fairness. "I think it's completely unfair just because of this disaster that happened in Texas that these companies would jack up prices and Minnesotans end up paying, said Smith. "At the same time, lots of Minnesotan families are already struggling to pay their utility bills. Now we need to make sure that people aren't stuck with this bill." Smith says she has asked the department of energy to look into this and be very tough on holding these natural gas producers accountable. In keeping with its commitment to developing the capabilities of Saudi Arabias military industries sector and continuing to play an active role in localising the Kingdoms military spending, Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will participate in the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) 2021 under the title Invest Saudi through the Saudi Pavilion. Supervised by the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), the Saudi Pavilion will bring together several major Saudi national institutions and companies specialised in the field of military and security industries. The exhibition is being held from February 21 to 25 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. SAMI aims to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the international exhibition and support the vision of the Kingdoms leadership for the military industries sector. SAMI also supports PIFs efforts in localizing cutting-edge technology and knowledge, as well as building strategic economic partnerships. The national defense champion seeks to contribute toward the localization of over 50% of the Kingdoms military industries sector by 2030. Besides, SAMI will exhibit its most significant accomplishments in the sector and its local capabilities in meeting the operational needs of the military. SAMIs participation comes at a time when Saudi Arabias military industries sector is witnessing unprecedented support in terms of empowering local manufacturers, developing promising local companies, and supporting major national companies to strengthen their position globally. SAMI will also showcase its innovative military products and comprehensive defense systems, spread across its Land Systems, Aeronautics, Defense Electronics, Weapons and Missiles, and Emerging Technologies divisions. SAMIs exhibits will also include the products and technologies developed by its affiliates Advanced Electronics Company AEC (a wholly-owned subsidiary), Accessories and Components Company (AACC), SAMI Navantia Naval Industries (a joint venture with Navantia S.A.), SAMI L3Harris Technologies (a joint venture with L3Harris Technologies), and SAMI CMI Defense Systems (a joint venture with CMI Group).--TradeArabia News Service President Moon Jae-in listens to a report from Acting Busan Mayor Lee Byung-Jin about a plan to build a new international airport on Busan's Gadeok Island, during his inspection of the site, Thursday. Yonhap President visits planned site for airport to support project By Jun Ji-hye Both the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) are facing criticism for collaborating in the hasty passage of a special bill aimed at constructing a new international airport on Busan's Gadeok Island. If the bill is passed at a National Assembly plenary session scheduled for Friday, it would open the way for the construction which would require trillions of won to proceed without a feasibility study. The bill also calls for the new airport to be built at government expense. Critics said the parties are pushing ahead with the large-scale national project without a sufficient review and apparently based on populism to woo voters ahead of the April 7 mayoral by-elections that include one in the port city, as well as the presidential election slated for March 2022. A feasibility study is supposed to be conducted for any state infrastructure project that costs 50 billion won ($45 million) or more, including at least 30 billion won from state coffers. The Ministry of Economy and Finance that is in charge of such feasibility studies stated in its report submitted to the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, "A feasibility study is a process to see if a project is economically viable in order not to waste taxpayers' money. Thus, such a study is necessary." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has also expressed its opposition to the new airport project. In a report submitted by the land ministry to the Assembly committee, the ministry brought up safety and environmental problems, as the new airport that will be built on the island requires large-scale land reclamation from the sea. "In addition, there are great dangers of aviation accidents due to complicated air traffic control with nearby Gimhae International Airport and Jinhae Airport," the ministry said in the report. To develop the new airport into a "gateway to the southeastern part of Korea," as claimed by the DPK, the construction would require up to 28.7 trillion won, the ministry added. This is in stark contrast to the 7.5 trillion won calculated by the Busan Metropolitan Government. The ministry even added, "If we don't oppose the new airport plan despite being aware of procedural problems, this would amount to dereliction of duty." A computer-generated image of a new airport on Busan's Gadeok Island / Korea Times file Amid the controversy, President Moon Jae-in took a boat tour around Gadeok Island, Thursday, during his visit to Busan to inspect the region's "mega city" project, which is aimed at developing Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province together as a larger economic bloc. "A new airport on Gadeok Island will enable this region to be connected by the air around the clock, and jump to become a global logistics hub, together with the routes by sea and on land," Moon said during his visit. "The political circle is joining forces to pass the special bill. I promise the government will implement the relevant procedures promptly once the bill is passed." His visit, however, was denounced by the opposition for showing residents in the region that the President was paying attention to the airport construction plan, which they viewed as an "apparent move to buy votes" and "interference in the election." The new airport project has drawn criticism from some lawmakers as well, including Rep. Cho Eung-cheon of the DPK. "Nobody knows the details about the new airport such as how long its runway will be," Cho said. "A feasibility study is supposed to decide those details. Exempting it from one is illogical, especially when a very difficult construction is planned to build an airport on the sea." Kim Sang-hwan, a professor at the department of civil engineering at Hoseo University, said the new airport on Gadeok Island would repeat the same problems of Japan's Kansai International Airport. "There is greater possibility of the new airport to experience land subsidence and the collapse of facilities due to tsunamis, as Kansai International Airport has seen," he said. The two parties' push for the project is also leading other lawmakers to ask for another special bill to build a new airport at government expense in their constituencies including Daegu. SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- USANA extends a tremendous congratulations to Teresa Elias, executive director of digital and brand strategy, for being named one of Utah Business Magazine's 40 under 40. Teresa was honored at an awards ceremony yesterday, along with other distinguished Utah professionalsyoung leaders who are elevating the future of business throughout the state. Teresa Elias, executive director of digital and brand strategy Joining USANA in 2010 as an editor in creative services, Teresa has advanced to her current position of executive director of brand strategy and digital marketing. In this role, she oversees the look and feel of the USANA brand, USANA's digital content strategy, athlete partnerships, and digital marketing (UI/UX, SEO, CMS, and email). "Teresa has been instrumental in the development and implementation of USANA's new brand strategy," says Dan Macuga, chief communications and marketing officer at USANA. "She is the first to lead USANA's brand department, and this opportunity has allowed Teresa to create something entirely new and innovative here at USANA. This recognition is very well-deserved." The impact of Teresa's leadership includes an extremely successful refresh of USANA's brand image and tone of voice, with a distinct focus on consistency and alignment across all customer and Associate touchpoints throughout USANA's 24 markets. She is driven and passionate about her work, and her department adds immense value to the company. "It has been an honor watching Teresa grow into the strong businesswoman and leader she is today," says Ashley Collins, USANA's executive vice president of marketing. "I have known Teresa for more than a decade and have experienced, first-hand, the wonderful asset she is to USANA. Her future is extremely bright." To find out more about USANA and its leadership team, please visit USANA.com. About USANA USANA (NYSE:USNA) prides itself in providing consumers the highest quality nutritional products in the world. From its award-winning supplements to its innovative skincare line, USANA has proven for more than 25 years why it's a company you can trust. How about giving us a try? Shop at USANA.com or learn more at http://whatsupUSANA.com/. Media Contact: Ashley Collins Executive Vice President of Marketing (801) 954-7629 media(at)us.usana(dot)com SOURCE USANA Related Links http://www.usana.com BREST, Belarus -- A Belarusian man who was shot dead by an army officer at a protest rally in August last year has been posthumously found guilty by a court of disobeying a police order. Brest regional court Judge Svyatlana Kramyaneuskaya handed down the ruling on February 25, adding that she would not sentence Henadz Shutau because he was dead. She also found a co-defendant guilty of resisting law enforcement and the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, sentencing Alyaksandr Kardzyukou to 10 years in prison. Kardzyukou pleaded not guilty. He and Shutau's daughter Anastasia, who represented her deceased father, said they will appeal the ruling. The officer who shot Shutau dead, Raman Haurylau, and another officer, Arseniy Halitsyn, were plaintiffs at the trial. The army officers took part in the brutal dispersal of demonstrators on August 11 in Brest after the commander of the army's Special Operations Forces, Major General Vadzim Dzenisenka, ordered his troops to assist police and security forces. Crisis In Belarus Read our coverage as Belarusians continue to demand the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka amid a brutal crackdown on protesters. The West refuses to recognize him as the country's legitimate leader after an August 9 election considered fraudulent. Shutau was killed at a protest against the results of a presidential election on August 9 that incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed to have won in a landslide. Opposition figures and many Belarusians immediately challenged the results, saying the vote was rigged. Several protesters have been killed and thousands of people arrested during the ongoing demonstrations across Belarus. There have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown. Most of the country's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, including opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who says she won the presidential poll. The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge the election results and Lukashenka as the country's leader. RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a two-year state budget that would provide 5% pay raises for teachers, state employees, university employees and state-supported local employees. Largely completed late Wednesday night, the $135 billion spending plan would also give state police an 8% pay raise and bonuses based on years of service, measures aimed at shoring up chronically low pay that has led to retention problems. Reaching a deal became easier early this month when Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced that state tax revenue was running $730 million higher than expected, which created room for the Democrats who control both chambers of the General Assembly to fund the broad increases in pay. Pay raises for teachers and state workers had been planned a year ago when Virginia's economy was flush but were put on hold in the summer after the coronavirus pandemic prompted a vast economic shutdown. The new money reflects a faster-than-expected rebound for Virginia's economy, as well as the benefit of millions in pandemic relief money from Washington. "I am extremely happy with the way it came together, given the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic," said Del. Luke Torian, D-Prince William, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. With many small businesses continuing to suffer, House and Senate negotiators also compromised on a plan allowing employers who received federal aid to avoid paying taxes on some of the assistance payments. Under the agreement, businesses will not face state taxes on expenses up to $100,000 that were covered by the federal Paycheck Protection Program or similar state grants. That relief amounts to just under half of a $221 million package of coronavirus-related tax relief for individuals and businesses, including forgiveness of taxes on PPP loans and extended deductions for charitable contributions. About $78 million in federal and state funds are aimed at purchasing personal protective gear to protect public safety officials against the coronavirus. And roughly $109 million in federal funds are aimed at helping administer coronavirus vaccine and boosting communication about the health crisis. The budget agreement includes $443 million to protect K-12 school systems against losses brought about by the pandemic, plus $40 million to help provide for summer programs as schools begin to reopen. An additional $50 million would fund extra support staffers at public schools, such as social workers, psychologists and nurses. In addition, a "cost of competing" adjustment that helps school systems in high-cost areas such as Northern Virginia will be funded at 18%, up from the 10.6% that had been proposed, at a total cost of $14.6 million. Higher-education facilities would get $40 million to help offset staffing needs and reduce pressure on tuition. Thanks to the extra tax revenue, the compromise budget also includes total payments of about $900 million into the state's reserve funds - $250 million more than had been requested by Northam. Reserves will total $2.1 billion by the end of 2022, a stockpile aimed at preserving the state's coveted AAA bond rating. Almost $15 million is set aside to cover the cost of new bills passed by the House and Senate that require the sealing of someone's criminal record after nine years for a number of drug-related and misdemeanor crimes. One key initiative that survived the budget process but has yet to win legislative approval is a mechanism making it easier for health-care workers and first responders to qualify for workers' compensation payments if they were infected with the coronavirus in the line of duty. The House has passed two bills allowing the workers a presumption that their illness from the coronavirus was work-related if they dealt directly with infected people, and made the benefit retroactive to the beginning of the pandemic last March. One bill, sponsored by Del. Chris Hurst, D-Montgomery, focuses on health-care workers. The other, sponsored by Del. Jerrauld "Jay" Jones, D-Norfolk, addresses first responders such as firefighters. The Senate resisted making the benefit retroactive, for fear that the potential cost could be excessive. Virginia has a private workers' compensation system, funded by employer contributions. Estimates put the potential cost to employers in the range of $12 million to $15 million, though the public cost of covering first responders is uncertain. The budget agreement includes $2 million for workers' compensation for state employees, anticipating that some form of retroactive coronavirus presumption will be passed. Hurst and Jones have made an all-out final push over the past few days. "If we can't do this for our heroes, what the hell are we even doing here?" Hurst said Thursday, with conferees from the House and Senate still working on ironing out some kind of agreement on the measures. At least 17 other states and Puerto Rico have approved a workers' compensation presumption for front-line workers in the fight against the pandemic, and most of those were retroactive, according to a survey by the National Coalition of State Legislatures. On Thursday, negotiators reached agreement on Hurst's bill for retroactive coverage of health-care workers, sending it back to the House and Senate for a vote in the next two days. Jones's bill was still being discussed. The deal between Senate and House negotiators will be taken up by both chambers on Saturday. Approving a budget is usually the last major item on the docket for a General Assembly session. Once that is done, this year's session will be able to adjourn - although for procedural reasons, the actual adjournment is scheduled for Monday. Govt may soon come out with definition of essential supplies by e-tailers Centre, states should talk on reducing fuel prices: Sitharaman India pti-Deepika S Ahmedabad, Feb 25: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said there should be less burden on consumers and both the Centre and states should talk with each other over reducing taxes on diesel and petrol whose prices have risen sharply in recent times. Asked if the Centre is mulling to reduce cess or other taxes on fuel to give some respite to consumers from high prices of diesel and petrol, she said the question has put her in "dharm-sankat" (dilemma). "No hiding of the fact that the Centre gets revenue from it. Same is the case with states. I agree that there should be less burden on the consumers. "For that, both the Centre and states should talk with each other (for reducing central as well as state taxes on fuel)," she said during an interaction with the students of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA). Earlier in the day, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said there is a need for coordinated action between the centre and state governments to reduce taxes on petrol and diesel prices. During her interaction at the IIMA campus, Sitharaman took a dig at those demanding that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime be brought under the purview of law, and asked why it was not done when Congress-ruled UPA was in power at the Centre before 2014. Besides seeking a repeal of the new agri-marketing laws enacted by the Modi government, farmers protesting at Delhi borders are demanding a legal guarantee for MSP. Referring to the ongoing protest outside Delhi against the three farm laws, Sitharaman said these legislations were not about MSP. "The protest is about the three laws which were passed (in Parliament in September last year)...these laws have to do nothing with MSP (of crops) "And since MSP is not a part of the three laws, to come and protest against the three laws and then raise MSP (issue) does not add up," she said during an interaction with the students of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA). Sitharaman said the Centre has explained to farmer unions during talks that the existing MSP regime is not part of the contentious laws. "The Union agriculture minister sat and discussed with the farmers and asked them; ''see MSP is not part of the three laws, but if you want to discuss it, then tell me what it is''," said Sitharaman when a student sought her views on giving a legal backing to the MSP mechanism. "There are 22 items which are there on the MSP list. Though MSP is offered, farmers are not coming. Because, outside the market, they get much higher rates than the MSP. This actually shows that MSP held strongly, prices are above it and farmers benefit from that," she said. "If indeed MSP has to be put in the statute and give it the backing of law, why was it not done in the 10 years of the UPA government (2004-14)? Why was it never a part of the farm reform discussions and why no manifesto carried it till now?"she asked. Asked if the Centre would be able to achieve the disinvestment target set for FY22, Sitharaman replied in the affirmative but admitted that such targets could not be achieved during previous fiscals due to different reasons. "Last year it was COVID-19, and the year before that the economy was slowing down and there was no appetite for the market for disinvestment. "So, no hesitation is saying we could not achieve our (previous) targets. But now, there is an appetite and I am sure we will achieve," she said. Sitharaman termed loss-making PSUs as "laggards" and said the government wants to run profitable state enterprises in a professional manner by way of disinvestment. "For the new India, just the public sector will not be sufficient to meet the growing demands. So when we are talking about bare minimum presence (of PSUs), we are going to ensure big, scaled up bare minimum presence. "In this sense, even if they are one of two, they will be well managed. We should not continue with laggard PSUs. They can not be laggards and be in the public sector also, because they are run by taxpayer''s money," she added. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Pilgrim's Pride, one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S., has agreed to pay a fine of $107 million after it pled guilty to price fixing. The Greeley, Colorado-based broiler chicken producer pleaded guilty for its participation in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products, the Department of Justice announced. Pilgrim's accepted that it participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition for sales of broiler chicken products in the US that affected at least $361 million in Pilgrim's sales of broiler chicken products from as early as 2012 and continuing at least into 2017. The District Court accepted Pilgrim's guilty plea and sentenced the company to pay a criminal fine of $107.9 million. 'Today's guilty plea demonstrates our unwavering commitment to prosecuting companies that violate the nation's antitrust laws, especially when it involves something as central to everyday life as the food we eat,' said Richard Powers, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 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. Highlights Vivo V20SE gets a price cut. The smartphone receives an Rs1000 price cut and is now available for Rs 19,990. The V20 SE is available in both the online and offline market. Vivo V20 SE, which launched back in October last year, is receiving a price cut of Rs 1,000 in offline as well as online markets. Earlier, the online pricing of the device was not updated. However, at the time of writing, both e-commerce giants, i.e. Amazon or Flipkart, have slashed the price to match the offline markets. Vivo says that the new price change shall be applicable across all partners, retail stores pan India, Vivo India E-store, Flipkart, Amazon and other e-commerce platforms. The company has also announced new offers like customers can now avail up to Rs 2,000 cashback on HDFC Bank credit and debit cards as well as EMI transactions. There's also the triple zero down payment offer with Bajaj Finance and zero down payment offer from IDFC First Bank, HDB, Home Credit, ICICI Bank, and TVS credit. The company is also offering 12 months of the extended warranty from Vi. For your information, this is not a limited time offer which means you can pick the Vivo V20 SE anytime for Rs 19,990. The Vivo V20 SE is a toned-down version of the Vivo V20 that featured a Snapdragon 720G chipset, a 64-megapixel triple camera setup on the rear and a 44-megapixel sensor for selfies on the front. Besides this, it shipped with an in-display fingerprint scanner and a 4000mAh battery. Coming back to the Vivo V20 SE, this device was launched at a starting price of Rs 20,990 for the vanilla variant that came with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage. The price cut has come after four months of the device launch. This seems like a good marketing tactic to lure consumers and get back their attention. As far as the Vivo V20SE specs are concerned, the device ships with a 6.44-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with support for a 90Hz refresh rate. It is powered by Qualcomm's mid-range Snapdragon 665 SoC which is an octa-core chipset clocked at 2GHz. Further, the chipset is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage. On the front of the device gets a single punch hole camera and an in-display fingerprint scanner like the Vivo V20. Whereas on the rear, it gets a triple camera setup housed in a rectangular module. The device is made available in two colour options Gravity Black and Oxygen Blue. In terms of optics, the Vivo 20 SE gets a single 32-megapixel sensor for selfies. The rear of the device, as mentioned before, gets a triple camera setup consisting of a primary 48-megapixel, an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor, a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The currently runs on Android 10, with the 11 Funtouch OS on top. The Vivo V20 SE supports connectivity options like dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC (region-specific), USB Type C 2.0 and the much needed 3.5mm jack. The official statement issued by the Egyptian presidency following Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibahs visit to Cairo last week offered a glimpse into a shared agenda for the Libyan interim phase launched when the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) approved a new executive authority on 5 February. In welcoming the prime minister, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi congratulated the new Libyan leadership for its success in reaching a promising beginning of a new era in which all government institutions in Libya will work in harmony and in a unified manner. Since the Berlin Conference on Libya in January 2020 Cairo has been working towards working the reunification of the Libyan state through a political transition process capable of ending years of conflict that had solidified into mutually antagonistic political and military institutions and power centres. The new phase brings the possibility of reunification closer, which is why Egypt, together with the UN which is sponsoring the political process in Libya, hope regional and international stakeholders will work to push the agreed roadmap forward. For its part, Cairo will continue to support and host activities related to the holding of general elections and a plebiscite on a new Libyan constitution before the end of the year. The reunification of the Libyan military is a central issue discussed in Cairo in the framework of institutional reunification. It is an issue on which Cairo began work before the Berlin Conference. Indeed, Egypt achieved major inroads towards this end in 2016 and 2017, inroads that the Berlin Conference adopted as a frame of reference for the military establishment within a unified Libyan state. Members of the LPDF with whom Al-Ahram Weekly has spoken are optimistic. As one put it, with the current phase, the opportunity is at hand more than ever to reshape the Libyan political landscape, support the National Unity Government and end divisions despite the persistence of many challenges. Foremost among the challenges is the risk of military escalation given the continued foreign presence, mercenaries in particular, in Libya. According to another source, the 5+5 Joint Military Committee (JMC) ran aground on the polarisation that prevailed under the Government of National Accord, but now the National Unity Government holds out a real opportunity for progress on the various tracks. He believes that, rather than being addressed head on, reunification of the army will be advanced indirectly, first by restoring political and military calm and achieving logistic priorities such as reopening the coastal road between Benghazi and Misrata, ending one of the greatest manifestations of division in the country, and by dismantling the militias and deporting foreign mercenaries. According to informed sources in Cairo, Egypt broadened the scope of its local alliances in Libya in the period that followed the Libyan ceasefire in October 2020 in order to demonstrate its determination to pursue Libyan crisis management in a fair and impartial spirit. Cairos openness to Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, in particular, was informed by the understanding that he is key to handling the militia question. Cairo fears that the continued presence of militias in Tripoli will jeopardise the work of the National Unity Government and perhaps reproduce the situation whereby the Government of National Accord often had to defer to the militias that controlled the capital. Last weeks visit by an Egyptian delegation to Libya to meet the new political leaders, as well as Bashagha, were in part a continuation of Cairos efforts to minimise opportunities for the militias to rebel against the new government. The assassination attempt against Bashagha this week amply demonstrated the way in which the Tripoli militias see the new political direction in the country as a threat to their interests. In the presidential statement issued during Dbeibahs visit to Cairo President Al-Sisi also reaffirmed Egypts willingness to lend its help and expertise to setting Libya on the path to stability, reconstruction and development. As Dbeibah, himself, said during the meeting: The Libyan people are looking forward to establishing a comprehensive partnership with Egypt with the aim of creating successful models inspired by Egypts development experience that has been achieved in recent years under the presidents able leadership, especially with regard to restoring security and stability and launching development and reform processes. As a Libyan source told the Weekly: The Egyptian development experience seems most appropriate for Libya as it strives to overcome the scars of armed conflict because of its demonstrable success in expanding the countrys infrastructure. A source in Tripoli close to Dbeibah also told the Weekly that Tripoli is particularly keen to open up trade and finance with Egypt and to benefit from Egypts experience in the energy field. According to the source, three Egyptian companies are currently in the country to evaluate the condition of the electricity grid in western Libya. The Libyan and Egyptian chambers of commerce have also exchanged frequent visits, and civil aviation authorities in both countries have agreed to resume civil air traffic. The source believes that the reopening of the Egyptian Embassy in Tripoli and the Consulate in Benghazi, and the prospect of growing travel and movement of goods between the two countries, will increase opportunities for commercial and economic exchange in general. He added that the new Libyan government is eager to cater to the interests of the forces that support the political process in Libya, especially Egypt, and this will promote stability in a country that has been torn by conflict for a decade. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: UK Court Allows Extradition of Nirav Modi to India A court in the United Kingdom has allowed extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is wanted in the about Rs14,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam to India to stand trial. According to reports, the District Judge at the Westminster Magistrates' Court, Samuel Goozee, accepted the prima facie evidence against Mr Modi for money laundering, saying: "Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence he could be convicted,". The development came after almost a two-year long legal battle. Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India by Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in over Rs13,500 crore PNB fraud case and has been at London's Wandsworth Prison since his arrest in March 2019. The CBI and ED, seeking Nirav Modi's extradition to India, are being represented by the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK. Earlier, the fugitive businessman had applied for political asylum in UK after he was denied bail several times. The court ruling will now be sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign-off. Depending on the outcome, appeals may be made in the high court by either side. Last year in November, the same court had ruled in the government of India's favour by allowing the admissibility of its evidence against Mr Modi. Clare Montgomery QC, counsel for Mr Modi had countered India's arguments at the hearing by comparing the case with ex-Indian Navy officer but now an arms dealer, Ravi Shankaran, who is in the UK and is yet to be extradited. Arguing the overturning of Mr Shankaran's extradition based on government of India's evidence not meeting the UK extradition criteria, Ms Montgomery had told the court that statements under section 161 of Code of Criminal Procedure in India (statements of witnesses recorded and signed by the police) were not admissible in extradition cases. Despite Ms Montgomery's strong opposition, district judge Goozee had decided to rule according to the judgement in case of Vijay Mallya, which said that statements under section 161 were valid in the court of law. The charges against the fugitive merchant centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Stellar Diamonds and Solar Exports making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), known as 'letters of undertaking' (LoUs). Law firm Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, sought to establish that a number of PNB staff conspired with Mr Modi to ensure LoUs. The letters of undertaking (LoUs) were issued to his companies without required credit checks, without recording the issuance of the LoUs and without charging the required commission upon the transactions. This resulted in a fraud amounting to nearly $2 billion (Rs13,500 crore). In July 2020, the ED had confiscated the fugitive diamantaire's properties worth Rs329.66 crore in Mumbai, Rajasthan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UK. The movable and immovable assets were seized under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. The assets included four flats at Samudra Mahal, the iconic building in south Mumbai's Worli, a seaside farm house and land in Alibaug, a wind mill in Jaisalmer, a flat in London, some flats in the UAE, shares and bank deposits. On 5 December 2019, the court in India had declared him a fugitive economic offender. Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi of the Geetanjali Group are being investigated by the two agencies after the PNB alleged that they cheated it of Rs13,500 crore with the involvement of some bank employees. GCHQ Jammed ISIS Drones & Servers British intelligence chiefs have revealed details of an operation to undermine the Jihadi terrorist group ISIS that began in 2016 when a secret cyber operation was launched to reduce the effects of its fighters on the battlefield, which involved disabling drones, jamming mobile phones and targeting computer servers to block online propaganda. Details emerged after Jeremy Fleming, director of the signals intelligence agency GCHQ and General Sir Patrick Sanders, head of UK Strategic Command spoke to Sky News when Fleming and Patrick said that Islamist militants relied on cyber technology for propaganda, command and control, and attack planning. GCHQ first admitted three years ago that it had launched an offensive against Isis, but has not previously given any details about the operation. While the UK and allies such as the US have acknowledged using offensive cyber, the specifics of their attack capabilities remain highly classified. Fleming said the joint military and GCHQ team had disrupted the communication of the Isis fighters on the battlefield and piloted new technology to undermine Isis drone technology. He also said the UK had sought to stem the flow of extremist propaganda by remotely getting to ISIS servers, getting to the places that they stored their material.... we wanted to deceive them and to misdirect them, to make them less effective, less cohesive and sap their morale. At the time, Isis was recruiting fighters as it sought to establish a caliphate across large parts of Iraq and Syria. It was a very cheap and effective way of waging a terrorist warfare, Sanders explained. What we wanted to do was to turn that strength, that dependence that they had on the cyber into a vulnerability, and also to undermine the credibility of their information campaign and of their ideology. GCHQ first admitted three years ago that it had launched an offensive against Isis, but has not previously given any details about the operation. While the UK and allies such as the US have acknowledged using offensive cyber, the specifics of their attack capabilities remain highly classified. GCHQs cyber tactics were reinforced on the ground by separate military operations involving special forces, the Iraqi military and local resistance groups, although details of these have not been released. Other nations, including Russia, China, North Korea and Iran have demonstrated their willingness to use these methods. The operation against ISIS comes to light a few months after the announcement of the creation of a UK Cyber Force run jointly by the military and spy agencies to tackle adversaries in the digital realm. The team is expected to significantly increase from a few hundred to 3,000 over the next ten years and will build Britains offensive cyber capabilities within a combined unit. While joint cyber operations are already a feature of modern warfare, some critics warn such activities that fall below the threshold of formal conflict risk being shadowy and unaccountable. Hathalyoum: DroneDJ: PSBE: Financial Times: TheNationalNews: Tech Register: You Might Also Read: Britain Is At Cyber War Every Day: 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. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama Celebrates Launch Of All-New 2022 Tucson SEE ALSO: For 2022 Hyundai Tucson technical specifications and reveal please visit Larry Nutson Reports From Official 2022 Hyundai Tucson Reveal Press Event MONTGOMERY, Ala., Feb. 23, 2021 -- Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) celebrated the launch of the all-new 2022 Tucson SUV on Monday, February 22, 2021. The Tucson joins the Sonata and Elantra sedans and Santa Fe SUV on the Montgomery assembly line. This addition marks the first time that the Tucson has been assembled in the United States, and the first time HMMA has produced four vehicles at once. HMMA recently completed a plant expansion project to support adding the Tucson to HMMA's product mix. The addition of the Tucson will further enhance HMMA's ability to adjust its vehicle production with market demand and stay competitive in the ever-changing automotive market. "Adding this fourth Hyundai vehicle to HMMA's production lineup will help the Hyundai brand meet the growing demand for SUVs in the North American market," said Jose Munoz, President and CEO Hyundai Motor North America. "It will also better position HMMA to fully utilize its vehicle assembly capacity." The addition of the Tucson will continue to sustain high-quality jobs at HMMA and throughout its supplier base. Tucson is Hyundai's best-selling model globally and represents its vision for progressive design, eco-focused powertrains and segment-leading technologies. HMMA will supply internal combustion versions of the Tucson to the North American market, including Canada and Mexico. The 2022 Hyundai Tucson will begin arriving in U.S. dealerships this spring. For features and technical specifications and reveal please visit Larry Nutson Reports From Official 2022 Hyundai Tucson Reveal Press Event Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, announces it advised Chequers Capital on its acquisition of 7days, a portfolio company of Silverfleet Capital (Silverfleet). 7days is a leading direct-to-consumer supplier of fashionable workwear for medical professionals. The transaction was led by professionals from the Harris Williams Consumer Group, including Andreas Poth and Konstantin Molinari of the firm's Frankfurt office, Ed Arkus of the firm's London office and Corey Benjamin of the firm's Richmond office. "7days experienced robust growth under Silverfleet's and management's ownership and has proven itself to be a very stable and resilient platform with an international customer base and multiple avenues to grow," said Andreas Poth, a director at Harris Williams. "The workwear sector has gained a lot of investor attention over the last few years due to its growing end-markets and high adoption rates." "Combining the expertise of our colleagues in Frankfurt, London and the U.S. allowed us to provide tailored, strategic advice to Chequers Capital," added Ed Arkus, a managing director at Harris Williams. "We believe this transaction resulted in a fantastic outcome for all parties and we are excited to watch 7days continue to evolve under its new ownership." Created in 1973, Chequers Capital is one of the oldest private equity investors in Europe. It is an independent company which manages around 2 billion and is one of the leading players of mid cap private equity investments in Europe with a team of 20 investment professionals. Chequers Capital invests in industry, services and retail companies as well as in global companies that have strong international development potential. 7days was founded in 1999 in Lotte, Germany. Today, the company is a leading supplier of modern and innovative workwear for medical professionals. 7days designs, produces and distributes a wide range of high-quality workwear, from tunics to lab coats, for more than 300,000 customers in the healthcare sector in 12 countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. 7days has a vertically integrated business model with diversified supply chains and distributes its products through a fully integrated multi-channel distribution platform, including both catalog marketing and e-commerce channels. This has enabled the company to achieve consistent growth in its German home market and internationally. Established in 1985, Silverfleet has been an active investor in the middle market for over 30 years, specializing in businesses with an enterprise value of 25 million to 300 million. Its five European locations give its portfolio companies global reach and true local expertise with an agile, one-team approach. Harris Williams, an investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, advocates for sellers and buyers of companies worldwide through critical milestones and provides thoughtful advice during the lives of their businesses. By collaborating as one firm across Industry Groups and geographies, the firm helps its clients achieve outcomes that support their objectives and strategically create value. Harris Williams is committed to execution excellence and to building enduring, valued relationships that are based on mutual trust. Harris Williams is a subsidiary of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). The Harris Williams Consumer Group has completed more than 60 transactions in recent years across a variety of verticals, including branded consumer products; consumer services; food, beverage and agribusiness; and restaurant and retail. For more information on the Harris Williams Consumer Group and other recent transactions, visit the Consumer Group's section of the Harris Williams website. Harris Williams LLC is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Harris Williams Co. Ltd is a private limited company incorporated under English law with its registered office at 8th Floor, 20 Farringdon Street, London EC4A 4AB, UK, registered with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales (registration number 07078852). Harris Williams Co. Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Harris Williams Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH is registered in the commercial register of the local court of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under HRB 107540. The registered address is Bockenheimer Landstrasse 33-35, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (email address: hwgermany@harriswilliams.com). Geschaftsfuhrer/Directors: Jeffery H. Perkins, Paul Poggi. (VAT No. DE321666994). Harris Williams is a trade name under which Harris Williams LLC, Harris Williams Co. Ltd and Harris Williams Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH conduct business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005714/en/ Contacts: For media inquiries, please contact Julia Moore at media@harriswilliams.com. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Thursday that the situation of Covid-19 in seven states is deteriorating since cases there have contributed 89.5 per cent to the tally. The ministry said that Maharashtra and Kerala continue to report the highest daily new cases while the situation in Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh has been deteriorating for a few days. However, two states -- Gujarat and Tamil Nadu -- which were reporting low figures, are now witnessing a resurgence of cases. "India's active caseload is 1,51,708 today comprising 1.37 per cent of the total positive cases. This is largely attributable to the upsurge in daily new cases in some states. "Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have recorded a rise in daily new cases," the Ministry said. "Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,807. It is followed by Kerala with 4,106 while Punjab reported 558 new cases, it informed. Meanwhile, the country reported 16,738 fresh cases in past 24 hours. Keeping in view the rising cases of Covid-19 in a few states, the Centre has rushed high level multi-disciplinary teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for supporting them in taking fresh measures for public health targeted Covid response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic. The three-member multidisciplinary teams are headed by Joint Secretary-level officers in the Union Health Ministry. These teams will work closely with the states and UT administration and ascertain reasons for recent surge in the number of Covid-19 cases. They will also coordinate with health authorities of the states and UT for requisite Covid-19 control measures to break the chain of transmission. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Sorry! This content is not available in your region Credit: CC0 Public Domain In more than 1,000 years, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as Gulf Stream System, has not been as weak as in recent decades. This is the result of a new study by scientists from Ireland, Britain and Germany. The researchers compiled so-called proxy data, taken mainly from natural archives like ocean sediments or ice cores, reaching back many hundreds of years to reconstruct the flow history of the AMOC. They found consistent evidence that its slowdown in the 20th century is unprecedented in the past millennium; it is likely linked to human-caused climate change. The giant ocean circulation system is relevant for weather patterns in Europe and regional sea levels in the U.S.; its slowdown is also associated with an observed cold blob in the northern Atlantic. "The Gulf Stream System works like a giant conveyor belt, carrying warm surface water from the equator up north, and sending cold, low-salinity deep water back down south. It moves nearly 20 million cubic meters of water per second, almost 100 times the Amazon flow," explains Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, initiator of the study to be published in Nature Geoscience. Previous studies by Rahmstorf and colleagues showed a slowdown of the ocean current of about 15% since the mid-20th century, linking it to human-caused global warming, but a robust picture about its long-term development has up to now been lacking: This is what the researchers provide with their review of results of proxy data studies. "For the first time, we have combined a range of previous studies and found they provide a consistent picture of the AMOC evolution over the past 1600 years," says Rahmstorf. "The study results suggest that it has been relatively stable until the late 19th century. With the end of the little ice age in about 1850, the ocean currents began to decline, with a second, more drastic decline following since the mid-20th century." Already the 2019 special report on the oceans of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with medium confidence "that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has weakened relative to 1850-1900." "The new study provides further independent evidence for this conclusion and puts it into a longer-term paleoclimatic context," Rahmstorf adds. From temperature to flow speed changes: the art of reconstructing past climate changes Because ongoing direct AMOC measurements only started in 2004, the researchers applied an indirect approach, using so-called proxy data, to find out more about the long-term perspective of its decline. Proxy data, as witnesses of the past, consist of information gathered from natural environmental archives such as tree rings, ice cores, ocean sediments, and corals, as well as from historical data, for instance from ship logs. "We used a combination of three different types of data to obtain information about the ocean currents: temperature patterns in the Atlantic Ocean, subsurface water mass properties and deep-sea sediment grain sizes, dating back from 100 to ca. 1600 years. While the individual proxy data is imperfect in representing the AMOC evolution, the combination of them revealed a robust picture of the overturning circulation," explains Levke Caesar, part of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit at Maynooth University and guest scientist at PIK. As proxy records in general are subject to uncertainties, statistician Niamh Cahill from Maynooth University in Ireland tested the robustness of the results in consideration of these. She found that in nine of the 11 data sets considered, the modern AMOC weakness is statistically significant. "Assuming that the processes measured in proxy records reflect changes in AMOC, they provide a consistent picture, despite the different locations and time scales represented in the data. The AMOC has weakened unprecedentedly in over 1000 years," she says. Why is the AMOC slowing down? An AMOC slowdown has long been predicted by climate models as a response to global warming caused by greenhouse gases. According to a number of studies, this is likely the reason for the observed weakening. The Atlantic overturning is driven by what the scientists call deep convection, triggered by the differences in the density of the ocean water: Warm and salty water moves from the south to the north where it cools down and thus gets denser. When it is heavy enough the water sinks to deeper ocean layers and flows back to the south. Global warming disturbs this mechanism: Increased rainfall and enhanced melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet add fresh water to the surface ocean. This reduces the salinity and thus the density of the water, inhibiting the sinking and thus weakening the flow of the AMOC. Its weakening has also been linked to a unique substantial cooling of the northern Atlantic over the past hundred years. This so-called cold blob was predicted by climate models as a result of a weakening AMOC, which transports less heat into this region. The consequences of the AMOC slowdown could be manifold for people living on both sides of the Atlantic as Levke Caesar explains: "The northward surface flow of the AMOC leads to a deflection of water masses to the right, away from the U.S. east coast. This is due to Earth's rotation, which diverts moving objects such as currents to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. As the current slows down, this effect weakens and more water can pile up at the US east coast, leading to an enhanced sea level rise." In Europe, a further slowdown of the AMOC could imply more extreme weather events like a change of the winter storm track coming off the Atlantic, possibly intensifying them. Other studies found possible consequences being extreme heat waves or a decrease in summer rainfall. Exactly what the further consequences are is the subject of current research; scientists also aim to resolve which components and pathways of the AMOC have changed how and for what reasons. "If we continue to drive global warming, the Gulf Stream System will weaken furtherby 34 to 45% by 2100, according to the latest generation of climate models," concludes Rahmstorf. This could bring us dangerously close to the tipping point at which the flow becomes unstable. Explore further Possible irreversible changes to sub-systems prior to reaching climate change tipping points More information: L. Caesar, G. D. McCarthy, D. J. R. Thornalley, N. Cahill, S. Rahmstorf (2020): Current Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakest in last millennium. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00699-z Journal information: Nature Geoscience L. Caesar, G. D. McCarthy, D. J. R. Thornalley, N. Cahill, S. Rahmstorf (2020): Current Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakest in last millennium. Vice President Kamala Harris revealed on Thursday that she suffered minor side effects from her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 'The first dose, I was fine. The second dose I thought I was fine, got up early in the morning, went to work, and then midday, I realized, yeah, I might I might need to slow down a bit,' she said. 'Just that one day, and then it was fine,' she added. She made her comments at a Giant supermarket in Southeast Washington D.C. when she visited the store's pharmacy to see its vaccine distribution program. She was promoting the administration's Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, which is designed to ensure that the hardest hit communities have access to the vaccine - mainly through pharmacies. Vice President Kamala Harris revealed she suffered minor side effects from her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Harris watched 69-year-old Brenda Thompson get her second dose of vaccine - both women received the Moderna vaccine She talked to one of the pharmacists and then watched Brenda Thompson, a 69-year-old African American woman, receive her second dose of the vaccine. Harris reassured her it would be fine. 'The first day I got the shot. The next day I realized I needed to take it slow and the day after it was like nothing ever happened but I knew I was vaccinated,' she said. The vice president has urged minority communities - particularly African Americans - to receive the vaccine and took her first dose in December at United Medical Center in Southeast D.C. - Washington D.C.'s only public hospital - to promote vaccination efforts. 'It's kind of weird to do it in front of all these cameras isn't it?,' Harris told Thompson as the cameras clicked away, recording the event. 'Yes,' Thompson agreed. 'I know. I felt the same way,' Harris said. 'I'm like, will somebody come and hold my hand please?' Thompson said. Harris joked she would except for social distancing requirements. The vice president stood more than six feet away while the vaccine was administrated. After the vaccine went into Thompson's left arm everyone clapped. Like Harris, Thompson had the Moderna vaccine and this was her second dose. 'I get to see my great grandson,' Thompson said afterward. Harris asked how old he was and when the last time she saw him was. Thompson said he was 5 and not since the summer and that he called her and said 'please come see me, please come see me.' Harris responded: 'So there's so many reasons to get vaccinated, right, so we can all get back to seeing all of our family members and being together.' Vice President received her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on January 26th during a visit to the National Institutes of Health The vice president publicly received both doses of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19. She received her second dose on January 26th, after she had taken the oath of office. President Joe Biden received both of his COVID-19 vaccination shots before he was inaugurated. He and Harris spaced out their dosages in case of side effects. The White House declined to say earlier this month when DailyMail.com asked if Biden experienced any side effects. Side effects from the second shot are common and are becoming more talked about as greater number of people are vaccinated. 'Side effects (such as fever, chills, tiredness, and headache) throughout the body were more common after the second dose of the vaccine,' the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes of the Moderna vaccine, noting that most people felt 'mild' side effects. The side effects are a sign of an immune system kicking into gear. Harris received her second dose at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She urged 'everyone to take the vaccine when it is your turn.' 'It is really pretty painless, and it will save your life,' Harris said at the time. Richie Towell is set to join Shamrock Rovers when he comes home from England this summer. Independent.ie understands that the Dubliner has opted to move to Tallaght instead of accepting an offer from his former club Dundalk with negotiations on a pre-contract agreement completed earlier this week. Towell (29) is ready to move back to Ireland after five and a half years across the water, firstly with Brighton and then Rotherham before a move to ambitious Salford in 2019. He is part of Salford's attempt to secure promotion from League Two and is viewed as an important member of their squad. But while the option of staying there has been floated in discussions, Towell has chosen to come back to these shores. Dundalk made a big attempt to sign the midfielder who was a crowd favourite during a three-year spell that reignited his career after he came home from Celtic. But Rovers have won the race for his services even though they will have to wait until July to benefit from them. It's a major boost for manager Stephen Bradley with the winter exits of Jack Byrne and Aaron McEneff weakening his hand. Towell won two league titles and an FAI Cup during his spell with Dundalk, scoring 25 goals from midfield in his final season under Stephen Kenny. [February 25, 2021] SES Extends Long-Term Partnership With Sky Sky UK has extended its contract with SES (News - Alert) for satellite capacity in a new agreement that will add over EUR 90 million in secured backlog. This renewal is in addition to capacity already under contract that extends through 2027. By the end of the renewed contract, Sky UK will have been an SES customer continuously for almost four decades, illustrating the strength and value of the partnership to Sky UK's business in terms of the reliability, performance, high-quality viewing experience and the reach of SES's satellite services. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006139/en/ SES Extends Long-Term Partnership With Sky (Photo: Business Wire) As part of the contract, SES will deliver Sky UK's channels in a mix of standard definition (SD), high definition (HD) and ultra-high definition (UHD) from the 28.2/28.5 degrees East orbital slots to the operator's subscribers across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. "We're pleased to continue working with SES, a world leader in satellite provision. SES has been a valued partner to Sky for decades and this agreement represents the latest step in a long and successful relationship," said Patrick Behar, Chief Business Officer at Sky UK. "This is a significant, multi-transponder, multi-year renewal founded on SES's decades of delivering a flawless and immersive TV viewing experience to Sky UK customers. It also underlines the continued and rising importance of satellites in delivering a premium content-viewing experience to end customers virtually everywhere," said Stve Collar, CEO at SES. 28.2/28.5 degrees East is one of SES's prime TV neighbourhoods reaching 12 million homes in United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Follow us on: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram Read our Blogs > Visit the Media Gallery > About SES SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world's only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world's leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES's video network carries over 8,200 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 367 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006139/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] EDWARDSVILLE A Collinsville man was charged with aggravated DUI in one of numerous alcohol- and drug-related felony charges filed Tuesday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office. Darel L. Casillas Jr., 51, was charged Feb. 23 with aggravated driving under the influence, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on Sept. 20 Casillas was found to be driving a vehicle while under the influence. It was noted that previous convictions for DUI in 1986, 1993 and 1996 in Madison and Calhoun counties. Bail was set at $60,000. Other drug- and alcohol-related felonies filed Feb. 23 include: Jamie R. Staggs, 44, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On Sept. 17 Staggs allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Holly A. Davidson, 45, of Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On Sept. 17 Davidson allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. David C. Whitehead, 47, of Edwardsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On Sept. 17 Whitehead allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. William P. House, 60, of Cottage Hills, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 16 House allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $25,000. Donna M. Cole, 48, of the 2400 block of Bryan Street, Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 15 Cole allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $25,000. Monte E. Ritchie, 30, of the 2800 block of Wayne Avenue, Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On July 15 Ritchie allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Marvie D. Simmons, 50, of Caseyville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Oct. 25 Simmons allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Christopher A Freeman, 30, of OFallon, Illinois, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 22 Freeman allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $20,000. Raymond K. Fischer, 38, of Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 22 Fischer allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $25,000. Milissa M. Bell, 38, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 22 Bell allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Brittany N. Veach, 33, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 5 Veach allegedly was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $15,000. Larry G. Rhew Jr., 47, of Caseyville, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 21 Rhew allegedly was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $15,000. Although Jenkinson has been a familiar face on screens for years in everything from Bogan Pride, to Offspring, The Ex-PM, Doctor, Doctor and as top dog Allie Novak on Wentworth Amazing Grace is her first series lead. The show is even named after her character. No pressure, then. I dont feel like any show relies on just one person, she says. And I dont think any show is led by just one person. From the outside, perhaps, when people watch the show it may appear that way. But from the inside, I feel Im one of very, very many people who are essential to this process. Amazing Grace ticks lots of boxes with independent and forthright mid-wife Grace (Kate Jenkinson) discovering her long-lost daughter, played by Alexandra Jensen. Credit:Tony Mott Its a fine line in deflection - all she will admit to is waking up slightly earlier, and more frequently than I would have on other shows - but there is no skirting around the fact Jenkinson holds the centre of Amazing Grace. Shes incredibly likeable on screen and has the knack of making even the most over-dramatic birthing scenes look real. To do that, Jenkinson spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos of women in labour, as hands-on research was limited due to the pandemic because the cast were unable to go into hospitals and see the real thing in action. She also had the help of the shows consulting midwife Jess Moran, who said the trick to looking like a real midwife was keeping calm. You have to remain calm, no matter what the situation, even if it is an extreme situation, even if its life and death, you have to remain completely calm, she says. Because your concern, primarily, is the woman who is giving birth and then the baby second. And that, for me, is something I was always conscious of, because as a theatre nerd and an actor, you want to lean into the drama of it, but a good midwife should do the opposite. And the other trick? Strong glutes. I feel like midwives spend their lives squatting, waiting for that baby to drop. Its not all squidgy babies and happy endings, though. Theres trauma at the heart of Amazing Grace - stillbirth and miscarriage - topics many still find difficult to talk about. Its the reason the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, wrote about her miscarriage in The New York Times last year, in effort to break the stigma that still surrounds mentioning it in anything other than hushed tones. At the heart of Nines new drama are topics that many find difficult to talk about, such as stillbirth and miscarriage. Credit:Tony Mott Trauma, in general, is something thats not really talked about, she says. And thats a real shame, because its dangerous to deny people grief. Things are changing slightly, but I remember very much being brought up with this kind of idea that you shouldnt indulge in sadness and if youre going through grief, or going through a bad time, the dialogue you hear is, Get over it, pull up your socks. And thats a shame because we all go through it. And its something we all experience and are unified by it. Jenkinson came to Amazing Grace after four years on Wentworth, Foxtels gritty reimagining of Prisoner. In it, she plays Allie Novak, a former ice-addicted prostitute who has clawed her way to top dog in a teal tracksuit in the womens prison. The show is midway through its last season - the final episodes are due to air later this year - and so far weve seen Novak cut off a fellow prisoners finger and maybe get stabbed to death? Possibly, is all shell give away. The success of Wentworth, with its back-from-the-dead plotlines, screwdriver stabbings, prison fires and sieges, was not a surprise, says Jenkinson, who was a fan of the show even before she was cast. Ive always thought that Wentworth has skated a really, really fine and enjoyable line between melodrama and gritty reality. And I, personally, really like that line. Because there are moments that are so outrageous, but you can lean into it because of the world that has been created. And I dont think people watch television - like drama, scripted narrative television - to see regular everyday life. They tune in to see drama. And thats why a character like Grace, the most interesting thing about her is how flawed she is. Her failures are more interesting than her successes. And I feel that about most characters. Still, Im guessing Grace isnt cutting anyones finger off in this? Not yet, she says, laughing. But theres still time. Now Jenkinson has ticked off the two big TV staples - medical drama and prison drama - is there anything left shed like to do? I do love a half-hour punchy sitcom, and I feel like after Wentworth and now this show, which turns out to be far more tragic than I thought, I would love to do something silly and purely, purely comic. EQS Group-News: Nordea Bank Abp / Key word(s): Miscellaneous Nordea Bank Abp: Flagging notification 25.02.2021 / 10:25 Nordea Bank Abp: Flagging notification in accordance with Chapter 9, Section 10 of the Securities Markets Act Nordea Bank Abp Stock exchange release - Major shareholder announcements 25 February 2021 at 10.30 EET Nordea Bank Abp has on 24 February 2021 received a notification under Chapter 9, Section 5 of the Securities Markets Act, according to which BlackRock, Inc.'s indirect shareholding of Nordea Bank Abp's shares and voting rights crossed the threshold of 5 per cent on 23 February 2021. According to the notification, the total number of Nordea Bank Abp's shares and voting rights held directly or through financial instruments by BlackRock, Inc. and its funds was 5.06 per cent on 23 February 2021. The total number of shares and voting rights in Nordea Bank Abp is 4,049,951,919. Total positions of BlackRock, Inc. and its funds: % of shares and voting rights (total of A) % of shares and voting rights through financial instruments (total of B) Total of both in % (A + B) Resulting situation on the date on which threshold was crossed or reached 4.92% 0.14% 5.06% Position of previous notification (if applicable) Below 5% Below 5% Below 5% Notified details of the resulting situation on the date on which the threshold was crossed or reached: A: Shares and voting rights Class/type of shares ISIN code (if possible) Number of shares and voting rights % of shares and voting rights Direct (SMA 9:5) Indirect (SMA 9:6 and 9:7) Direct (SMA 9:5) Indirect (SMA 9:6 and 9:7) FI4000297767 199,333,952 4.92% SUBTOTAL A 199,333,952 4.92% B: Financial instruments according to SMA 9:6a Type of financial instrument Expiration date Exercise/ Conversion period Physical or cash settlement Number of shares and voting rights % of shares and voting rights American Depository Receipt (US65558R1095) N/A N/A Physical 1,289,409 0.03% Securities Lent N/A N/A Physical 3,232,935 0.07% CFD N/A N/A Cash 1,452,880 0.03% SUBTOTAL B 5,975,224 0.14% The controlled undertakings through which the shares, voting rights and financial instruments are effectively held: Name % of shares and voting rights % of shares and voting rights through financial instruments Total of both BlackRock Japan Co., Ltd. Below 5% BlackRock Investment Management, LLC Below 5% BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited Below 5% BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited Below 5% BlackRock International Limited Below 5% BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, National Association Below 5% BlackRock Fund Advisors Below 5% BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. Below 5% BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited Below 5% BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland AG Below 5% BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited Below 5% BlackRock Advisors, LLC Below 5% BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited Below 5% BlackRock (Singapore) Limited Below 5% BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V. Below 5% Aperio Holdings, LLC Below 5% For further information: Matti Ahokas, Head of Investor Relations, +358 9 53008011 Group Communication, +358104168023 or press@nordea.com The information provided in this stock exchange release was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 10.30 EET on 25 February 2021. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com. On Tuesday, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nations largest Protestant denomination, expelled four churches. Two were voted out for employing pastors convicted of sexual crimes involving minors. But the other twoTowne View Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Georgia, and St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentuckywere found to be out of step with the SBC for affirming homosexual behavior. To understand what drove a small church to break with tradition, Slate spoke with Jim Conrad, the pastor of Towne View, the day after his churchs expulsion. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Molly Olmstead: How did this all start? Jim Conrad: In May of 2019, a man emailed me and said that he and his partner were gay, they were going to be moving to the area from out of state, and they were looking to provide for their three sons the kind of experiences in church that theyd had growing up. Our church had just not encountered that before. Advertisement Advertisement So we talked, and he just point blank asked me the question: Will my family be welcome in your church? Ive never had anybody ask me that question before, but I knew in my heart I couldnt say no. So I said, Why dont we let you guys come and worship with us? See how that goes. Then well get you involved in a small group Bible study and get the boys in Sunday school and let you get to know some other younger adults in a smaller setting. And then if you feel like this is rightto talk about membershipthen Im going to want to do my homework. Advertisement There was nothing in our bylaws that would prohibit it; it just hadnt been addressed. So we got to that point, and toward the end of the summer, I shared with our deacons, who also serve as our membership committee, my story of my evolution on the issue of the LGBT community and faith, and that I would be recommending to them that we adopt a policy that would explicitly state that we would welcome anybody as members who profess Jesus as Lord regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Advertisement What was the story of your personal evolution? My earliest churches taught a traditional perspective that homosexuality is a sinful wrong. I grew up in South Florida during the time Anita Bryant was leading [anti-gay] protests, and I was a teenager just wondering why this one sin was garnering so much more attention than others. I got a little older and began encountering people whose lived experience was that it was not a choice; it was just who they were. And some of them were believers. And that really left me scratching my head. Advertisement Several years ago, the Pulse nightclub shooting jarred me as a pastor. And I addressed that in my Fathers Day sermon the next morningthat weve got to stop the hate and the violence against the gay community. And so all that came together to lead me to that point of saying, OK, this is where I am. And if the church goes with me on this, great. And if it doesnt, then Ill probably be looking for another job. What happened after you approached the church with your position? Over the next several weeks, we had congregational meetings, which very few of the folks who were opposed to it chose to participate in. We are a Baptist Church, so we vote on these sorts of things. And it was approved by about a 70 percent majority. About a third of our participants left. And the rest of those that stayed were excited about being in a church that had made clear their commitment to this issue. And so then we started rebuilding. Advertisement Advertisement What did you hear from people who stayed? That they were proud of their church. That if the vote had gone the other way, they would have left. Were you at all surprised by how that vote went down? No. Before we took the vote, I had a pretty good idea of what the outcome would be. And I also knew that there would be people who would leave. And that hurt, because some of them we had shared life with for 20, 25 years. And that wasnt easy. That was a much more difficult time than this is. So we did most of our grieving then and are just excited about the future before us now. Where did the third who left go? Advertisement To other Southern Baptist churches in the community. Churches that were solidly conservative and probably supportive of the more conservative direction of the Southern Baptist Convention. I think certainly, of the 125 Southern Baptist churches in our local association, were the only one that would take this position. And were probably one of only two or three that would allow women to pray or preach or read scripture from the pulpit. Have you seen that more conservative movement of the SBC play out in other ways? Advertisement In the seminary that my wife and I graduated from, faculty were forced out because they didnt subscribe to a particular theory of biblical inspiration or because they affirmed women in pastoral leadership. We saw the Baptist Faith and Message, the doctrinal statement of the SBC, amended to include statements on family life that were more traditional: that men and women have different roles, and they complement each other, but those roles dont overlap. That the office of the senior pastor in a church is limited to men. Advertisement Over the years, that statement expanded to say that the national mission board would not endorse female chaplains because that was too close to being a pastor. And churches that ordained female associate pastors were ousted, because that was being too close to being a senior pastor. The seminaries would not hire females to teach biblical studies or theology or church history. Over the years, you couldnt find much difference between resolutions adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention than you would in political platforms of a certain persuasion. And I think that was a dangerous shift. What exactly does it mean for you to be disfellowshipped by the SBC? Advertisement Advertisement We will lose a point of identity. But quite honestly, over the last several years, that identity has also been problematic at times. On a practical note, it means that they wont accept our money anymore for the cooperative missions that we were a part of, and we will no longer be allowed to send messengers at annual meetings. Our church will continue to operate as it has. We own our buildings and land. We will find other groups to affiliate with that will not require that we be 100 percent in agreement on everythingthat can unite to do good in our community. Advertisement Has a third of the church leaving had a major effect? I would guess that when those folks left, they probably took about 40 percent of our financial base. People who leave a church over an issue tend to be high commitment people, so we lost leaders. We lost folks who supported us financially. And so weve had to do some budget adjusting. Was it a surprise when your church was reported to the SBC? Probably not. I still dont know who did it. But you know, were not upset with the Southern Baptist Convention. They made the decision that they felt like they needed to make, and we will pray for them and wish them Gods best. And would hope that they would do the same for us. Advertisement What has the response been from outside the church to the news? We have received emails and phone calls and checks and cards from people all over the country, expressing their support, their encouragement, their prayers. And many poignant and painful personal stories of rejection by the church from people who grew up in Southern Baptist churches and would eventually leave the church. Thats been hard to hear. We had someone worship with us the Sunday after the news first broke who said, I havent been able to go to church in a long time because my daughter is lesbian, and I couldnt be open and honest about my family. A couple came and at the end of the service tearfully said, Thank you for welcoming us. And they came back the next week and brought a friend with them. As a pastor, when you have a visitor bring visitors, thats just pretty awesome. Weve had our critics, but not many. Hopefully if folks can recognize that if our little church in Kennesaw can find a way to do this, then maybe that can offer some hope and encouragement for other pastors for their churches. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. They're doting parents to three young boys. And, Giovanna, 36, and Tom Fletcher's, 35, son Buzz, 6, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday, after fracturing his wrist during bike accident. His McFly star dad took to Instagram to share the news with a funny photograph, and joked that the injury was 'one way to get out of homeschooling. Oh no! Giovanna, 36, and Tom Fletcher's, 35, son Buzz, 6, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday, after fracturing his wrist during bike accident In the photograph, dad Tom face palmed over the incident, while I'm A Celeb winner Giovanna worriedly pointed down at her son. Buzz, meanwhile, looked proud as punch with a wide smile across his face as he held up his injured wrist in its new black splint. Tom captioned the snap: 'Well, a fractured wrist is one way to get out of homeschooling. His second bike related lockdown injury. 'Thanks to all the docs, nurses and staff at the hospital' Joker: His McFly star dad took to Instagram to share the news with a funny photograph, and joked that the injury was 'one way to get out of homeschooling Family matters: The couple are also parents to Max, two and Buddy, 5 The couple, who are also parents to Max, two and Buddy, 5, recently celebrated their middle child's birthday. Tom told fans he was spending 'another night in Camp Fletcher' alongside wife Giovanna and their children in a snap shared to Instagram on Friday. The musician, his wife and all three sons could all be seen chilling beside a series of tents and sleeping bags, which had been set up in their living room to create their own campsite. Tom had previously set up the campsite specifically for Buddy's fifth birthday celebrations last Wednesday, with the family all gathering to watch movies together. Cosy night in: Tom told fans he was spending 'another night in Camp Fletcher' alongside wife Giovanna and their children in a snap shared to Instagram on Friday 'BIRTHDAY CAMP!': Tom had previously set up the campsite specifically for Buddy's fifth birthday celebrations last Wednesday, with the family all gathering to watch movies together Wife Giovanna later shared off a snap of their movie night to her own Instagram account, writing: 'We had our first family sleepover/camping trip last night. A movie and s'mores it was so much fun and Buddy loved his birthday celebration. 'Surprisingly everyone slept really well and (unsurprisingly) they were already asking when we can do it again as soon as they woke up this morning. Ha!' The Fletcher family had also dressed up as superheroes to mark Buddy's special day, with Tom sharing a sweet snap of him and his middle child, both wearing Captain America helmets. Super birthday: The Fletcher family had also dressed up as superheroes to mark Buddy's special day He smiled for the camera in his headgear as his mini me clambered on his back and flashed a toothy grin. Tom even appeared to hold the Marvel superhero's shield in his hand as he channelled his inner Avenger. He captioned the snap: 'Happy birthday to our Buddy. No two days are the same with this kid, always in search of adventure and usually knows just where to find it. 'I've loved seeing that mischievous smile grow into the five-year-old he is today and am so lucky that I get to be the one he calls dad.' Yum: The musician had given fans a further look into his son's birthday party, showing off Giovanna's impressive baking skills The musician had given fans a further look into his son's birthday party, showing off Giovanna's impressive baking skills. Sharing the photo of the on-theme red and blue cake filled with sweets, Tom wrote: 'She did it again,' as the blogger, 36, tucked into her creation in the background. In a third snap, Tom donned an Iron Man mask and wrote: 'Avengers Assemble! 5th birthday party, lockdown style.' Buzz sported a Star Lord mask and Giovanna waved with an Ant Man helmet on in the adorable photo. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. ADVERTISEMENT The Gombe State government has relaxed the curfew it imposed on Billiri Local Government Area (LGA) following a violent protest in the area over a chieftaincy tussle. The state government had on Friday announced a 24-hour curfew but has now relaxed it to eight hours from Thursday. Governor Inuwa Yahaya stated this in Billiri shortly after a meeting with some religious leaders in the area. He said the curfew was relaxed due to the return of peace to the area and followed consultation with the parties involved in the crisis who have agreed to embrace peace. Addressing journalists, the governor said: I have gone round along with the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) in charge of Bauchi and Gombe who had come to personally see and assess the situation and I can see that normalcy has been restored reasonably. As a result, we held peace talks with both the Muslim and Christian communities, they have embraced themselves, that is what we expect from them. Governor Yahaya said residents can now go about their activities for eight hours of the day until 2 p.m. He added that the government would monitor the situation closely for further review. Council budget passes key vote that sees council tax rise amid fiery debate on childrens services spending This article is old - Published: Thursday, Feb 25th, 2021 A Council Tax rise of almost seven per cent was backed by councillors last night in a heated meeting, with the Labour group not supporting the plans after raising questions again about an overspend in Childrens Services. For the second year in a row, the budget included an increase of 6.95 per cent for ratepayers, which amounts to an extra 85 per year for an average band D property. The councils administration has said the budget will allow investment in frontline services, with an extra 3.5m earmarked to go into social care following a critical inspection report on childrens services. Speaking at last nights virtual meeting Leader of the Council, Mark Pritchard, said the changes were being introduced after Wrexham was awarded the second lowest settlement by the Welsh Government. He argued that a rise of 6.95 per cent was aimed at protecting council services and jobs as much as possible for both next year and moving into the future. Cllr Pritchard said: It has been more difficult this year to arrive at a balanced budget, given the extremely low settlement that has been received by the council from the Welsh Governments. However, the budget I am recommending was built in some additional resources for service to the vulnerable, while affording a degree of protection to essential services. I am disappointed and quite sad that once again, we we have received a very low settlement and the second lowest in Wales. If you look back at the settlements that weve had, since austerity, we havent had a good funding settlement from the Welsh Government for a long time. I hope that changes, theres an MS election in this year and I hope that theres a change of heart. But we will continue to bring a budget in and well continue to deliver services, well continue to support staff and well continue to invest in essential services. The Council Tax rise was backed by a majority of councillors from across the political parties, with leader of the Conservative group, Cllr Hugh Jones stating that the council was facing two unpalatable options. Cllr Jones said: We either vote for an increase that adds burden on our Council Tax payers, or we cut those services that leader has referred to in terms of libraries, social care, and childrens services. These are services that impacts on the most vulnerable in our community, the very people that we are elected to protect. As a local authority, we have been in terms of the amount of council tax we raise, very much at the bottom end of the scale. We are now struggling to maintain those essential services, particularly in terms of social services, adults and childrens social services, education and the environment all of which are crucial services. Therefore I think we in many ways are paying a price for that lower level of tax increase over recent years. Leader of the Plaid Cymru group, councillor Marc Jones, said he would be supporting the budget as despite the council tax increase, it includes investment into childrens services. He added that his group had consistently argued for the council to reduce expenditure on the number of executive board members and other allowances. Cllr Jones said: Given the economic uncertainties, its going to hit people very hard. That said, we do recognise that significant extra funding is going into childrens social services and thats a must, because this service has only just moved from of serious concern to being inadequate. Thats an essential service, especially in these times, that demands extra funding. Thats why because despite all the reservations we have about the rise in Council Tax at a time when many Wrexham residents are struggling, Plaid Cymru, as a group will support this budget. However the budget came under fire from members of the Labour group, with councillor Malcolm King rejecting support due to an array of bafflement. He said: I have to say one of the reasons I cant vote for this is that I dont really understand where we are, despite repeated questioning, and I dont understand either the process or the end result or where were going or the maths of it, and some of the concepts used I dont understand either. Leader of the Labour group, councillor Dana Davies gave the bleakest assessment and raised concerns about the financial risk as a local authority. She said: Part of our budget setting process involves consideration of financial risks, the impact and what financial provisions we have to make and take forward into next years financial year. We currently have a financial risk of 8 million pounds overspend in childrens services. For the record, have attended every budget workshop and raised this overspend at numerous workshops and also at the executive board. Weve asked numerous questions about this overspend with extremely limited information received. Theres a real real concern about openness and transparency as we are asking for information and not getting any of the details. We only really know that this overspend links to out county placements in the Childrens Services departments where demand has increased by 60 per cent, though the cost has increased by 250 per cent. Theres been no detailed report to explain the overspend, how the overspend has been paid back, whether the spend actually meets the needs of the children, or if that significant spend is going to continue into the next financial year. Ive asked that question. I havent had an answer. Cllr Davies fired a range of related questions to Cllr Pritchard, asking when he became aware of the projected 8 million overspend in childrens services and what action he took, if it was made via a delegated decision and why councillors were not made aware. She added that up that the Labour group would not support a budget with an 8m failure that the taxpayers of Wrexham would have to help cover. Deputy Leader councillor David A Bithell disputed the lack of transparency claim, pointing to a monthly monitoring report that goes out to all elected members every month with the up to date financial position. He added that he and others have been challenging why the overspend as escalated during the financial year but pointed to the pandemic as a possible context. Cllr Bithell said the comment on the lack of transparency was awful and took it as personal criticism of one of the best senior officers within the council. Conservative councillor Andrew Atkinson picked up the baton and also fired back at Cllr Davies, describing her comments as a very highly politically motivated as a way of using childrens services to just have a bash this evening with some of the language that was used, about the service about failures and the like, and the way that those words like failures were used, and I dont think thats acceptable. Speaking on the budget element of the service, he added: We know its a very difficult, almost impossible budget to manage at times, we know just how difficult it is. So I would never as lead member say there will never be an overspend, but I think weve done everything we possibly can with the injection of money in the plan thats in place to make sure that weve got the best possible chance of delivering the best possible care that we can. Councillor Paul Pemberton followed on the theme of the comments, calling the finance officer a top guy and did not deserve comments made by Cllr Davies. Cllr Davies interjected with a point of clarity noting that her comments and questions had been directed to the leader of the administration, not at a council officer. Cllr Pritchard picked up on the points raised by Cllr Davies, inviting further correspondence in response, stating: Cllr Davies has asked me a direct question with regards to openness and transparency. If your question in the openness and transparency of this council, I suggest you send an email to myself as leader of the council, challenge the chief executive on it, and the chief finance officer. Because if youre challenging me, youre challenging the senior team as well. I can assure you, theres no wrongdoings and theres nothing wrong with this council at a senior level from the chief executive Ian Bancroft, down to his six chief officers, openness, transparency, professionalism at its best. Although not addressing the specific questions, he did refer to childrens services and spending, adding: Childrens services overspend, under spend, its a departmental pressure of childrens services and I would rather have money taken out of reserves to protect the young children of Wrexham and put them into care and make sure that in a safe environment, than not spending that money. We are all corporate parents. While Im here as an elected member, I know that I have full support of everybody Ive spoken to, that theyll continue to invest in childrens services. There hasnt been enough money put into childrens services for a long time. We inherited this, but what we are doing is we are working towards funding it appropriately. Ill say this to Cllr Dana Davies and to Cllr Malcolm King: You can abstain tonight, you can sit on the fence, you can make all the excuses you like. But, if you dont support this budget this evening, and thats your choice, you are saying that you dont support investments in childrens services, that you dont want to invest in education in schools. What do you want to invest in? The budget passed the Full Council vote with a majority of councillors voting in favour of the Council Tax rise and budget. The budget passed the vote with 35 in support, opposed by 11 councillors made up of the Labour group present and Independent groups Cllr David Maddocks. There were two abstentions from Conservatives Cllr Paul Roberts and Cllr Rodney Skelland. Cambridge, England--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Alchemie Technology (Alchemie), a global disruptor of textile dyeing and finishing technology, is pleased to announce investment from At One Ventures and H&M CO:LAB, H&M Group's investment arm. The investment will support Alchemie's commercial roll-out, aiming to accelerate the transformation of the sustainability profile of textile manufacturing worldwide. Textile dyeing is the second largest cause of water pollution globally and is the largest single contributor to carbon dioxide emissions from the textile industry. Today, it is responsible for over 3% of global CO 2 emissions and forecast to increase to 10% by 2050. Alchemie is therefore addressing one of the largest sustainability challenges in the global textile supply chain today with its breakthrough clean-tech digital manufacturing solutions. Alchemie Technology To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7784/75454_ The investment will enable Alchemie to accelerate the commercial roll-out of its disruptive digital manufacturing products in the global market: Endeavour smart waterless dyeing and Novara precision digital finishing. Alchemie's industrial solutions provide a unique value proposition to textile manufacturers, with a lower cost, higher throughput, and radically more sustainable alternative to traditional textile processing. With the addition of software services to digitalise the supply chain, it is also enabling the move to fully connected digital manufacturing. The solution is very timely for the industry, as fashion consumers are demanding more accountability from fashion brands to reduce their environmental impact. Alchemie's Endeavour smart waterless dyeing technology allows garment manufacturers to eliminate the production of contaminated wastewater and dramatically reduce the carbon footprint from dyeing. Demonstrated to radically reduce lead times and enable lower minimum order sizes, alongside a 50% cost saving compared to traditional technologies, the Endeavour solution has been well received by textile manufacturers and fashion brands worldwide. Alchemie has also seen a surge in market demand for its Novara precision digital finishing technology. This technology enables significant energy and materials savings compared to traditional technologies, which radically reduces the impact of fabric finishing on the environment and reduces cost. Both Endeavour and Novara are currently available for implementation, and there is a pipeline of additional sustainable fabric finishing innovations progressing to market based on the Novara technology including technologies that deliver eco-friendly, fluorine-free water repellents and advanced bio-based functional finishes. Alchemie's market opportunity continues to grow, with the increasing pressure in the textile industry to reduce its environmental impact and governments legislating to reduce or eliminate traditional textile manufacturing. Textile manufacturing is an industry that urgently needs new technologies that reduce environmental impact, lower cost and enable end-to-end supply chain digitalisation. Alchemie is uniquely positioned to address this underserved market and transform the sustainability profile of the textile industry. The funding round was led by At One Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund focused on disruptive technologies that combat climate change, and H&M CO:LAB, the investment arm of H&M Group. Dr. Simon Kew, Managing Director of Alchemie Technology: "We are very pleased that At One Ventures and H&M CO:LAB have invested in Alchemie at this pivotal point in the commercial roll-out of our sustainable dyeing and finishing solutions. The textile manufacturing industry has a significant impact on the environment, and with our Endeavour and Novara technologies, we are disrupting manufacturing processes that are responsible for over 3% of global CO 2 emissions and 20% of global water pollution. Our solutions both dramatically reduce the environmental impact and radically reduce cost for dyeing and finishing, which has proven to be a compelling combination in the global textile industry. We are building on the momentum we have generated in the market with successful commercial trials of our fabrics and are looking forward to rolling out the first global commercial installations this year." Dr. Alan Hudd, Chairman of Alchemie Technology: "This investment reflects the significant acceleration of interest in the modernisation and digitalisation of global textile manufacturing, a combination of government, consumer, and brand pressure has delivered an unstoppable impetus for change in the textile industry. We are uniquely poised to deliver the next generation of digital clean-tech textile manufacturing solutions and the market is truly supercharged for change. The pandemic has only accelerated the velocity of digitalisation, as retail is replaced by direct-to-consumer e-commerce platforms and consumers demand visibility and sustainability in the supply chain." Helen Lin, Principal at At One Ventures: "With their innovative first-in-market technology, Alchemie has the potential to transform textile manufacturing, effectively leapfrogging over one of the largest water pollution problems in the world today. We believe that outsized environmental returns can only be achieved when driven by commercial scale and are delighted to be supporting Alchemie to deliver this vision in the textile industry." Nanna Andersen, Head of H&M CO:LAB, H&M Group: "Alchemie Technology is pioneering a truly breakthrough and cost-effective approach to solving a longstanding sustainability issue in the supply chain for textile products. We are excited to partner with Alchemie and support innovation that addresses some of the largest carbon footprint contributors of the textile industry: dyeing and finishing. The commercial implementation of their game-changing technology not only aligns perfectly with the H&M group's vision to become fully circular, but also has the potential to benefit the entire textile industry." *********************************************** About Alchemie Technology We are cleaning up textile manufacturing. Alchemie Technology develops clean-tech textile manufacturing processes using advanced digital technology. Textile dyeing and finishing processes are some of the most polluting manufacturing processes on the planet and are responsible for over 3% of global CO 2 emissions and over 20% of global water pollution. We are delivering breakthrough digital dyeing and finishing technologies Endeavour and Novara, which deliver a dramatic reduction in energy consumption and eliminate contaminated wastewater emissions. Our mission is to transform the textile industry with clean-tech digital manufacturing solutions that significantly reduce environmental impact and enable digital transformation in textile supply chains. About At One Ventures At One Ventures finds, funds, and grows teams to catalyze a world where humanity is a net positive to nature. We back early-stage (Seed, Series A) companies using disruptive deep tech to upend the unit economics of established industries while dramatically reducing their planetary footprint. We also look for companies that are pioneering new industries that are actively regenerative to planetary health. Lastly, we look for companies that have significant potential to be healthy, scalable businesses because the positive impacts we invest in only last as long as the businesses that carry them. About H&M CO:LAB H&M CO:LAB is the investment arm of H&M Group. Its mission is to drive and promote entrepreneurship, and to contribute in a meaningful way to the long-term growth of H&M Group through investments in innovative companies. H&M CO:LAB invests across three focus areas: Sustainable Fashion, New Retail and Enablers. For more information about H&M Group, please visit hmgroup.com. Contact: Alchemie Technology Penny Martin pmartin@alchemietechnology.com +44 1223 751644 Related Images alchemie-technology.jpg Alchemie Technology endeavour-smart-waterless-dyeing.jpg Endeavour Smart Waterless Dyeing Related Links Alchemie Technology Related Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=545Gv8Oqgpw To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75454 Realistic approach to tackling crime sees TV series win praise for acting and plotlines. Veteran actor Wu Gang, as police officer Gao Xiaotian, is set to bring gangsters to justice. [Photo provided to China Daily] Bomb explosions. Gun fights. Car chases down narrow alleys. Such adrenaline-filled scenes often pop into our minds when picturing a crime movie or TV drama. However, the actual police officers' work to hunt criminals is a more time-consuming yet less dramatic procedure most of the time, as observed by the creators behind The Dragnet, a TV series that has recently made a splash online. Backed by the Ministry of Public Security, the 38-episode television drama now available on the streaming giant iQiyi is based on several real stories of Chinese police officers' overseas operations to tackle crime. Currently, the drama has notched up 8.6 points out of 10 on iQiyi and 7.6 points on the popular review site Douban, with its major audience being men aged from 30 to 35, according to the producers. Teaming up a dozen veterans, such as actor Wu Gang and Simon Yam, as well as actresses Ke Lan and Yu Feihong, the series has seen directors Yu Chun and Lyu Zibo join hands to shoot for more than six months from late 2019 to mid-2020. The TV drama traces three cases in detail: persuading witnesses to return to China; transnational telecommunication fraud and assisting local law enforcement personnel to crack down on Chinese immigrant gangsters. Producer Li Xiaoning says the creators spent two years reading, studying and watching documentaries, as well as interviewing police officers who have participated in overseas assignments to get firsthand information. "We have heard many interesting stories. In foreign countries, Chinese police officers don't have law enforcement power. They need to overcome a lot of obstacles, varying from language barriers to cultural gaps, and seek help from Chinese embassies to establish cooperation with local police forces," says Li. Chinese police officers who are assigned to overseas tasks are usually highly educated, speak English fluently and master knowledge of the law in foreign countries, Li adds. ORLANDO, Fla. and CHISINAU, Moldova, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Radixx, a Sabre company and leading airline software retailing provider, has signed a multi-year technology agreement with Air Moldova. The Chisinau-based airline will utilize Radixx' merchandising, distribution and fulfillment solutions to expand into new revenue streams and power future growth. Later this year, Air Moldova will go live on the Radixx Res cloud-hosted passenger service system (PSS) to deliver flights and value-adding ancillaries to its travelers. Offering industry-leading performance, Radixx' modern microservices-based system provides Air Moldova with flexible and advanced technology that improves the traveler experience and maximizes revenue. Air Moldova will also use Radixx' ezyCommerce retailing solution to provide a superior device-agnostic customer experience, which will differentiate its brand and offers. Radixx ezyCommerce will enable the airline to take advantage of a set of powerful APIs and integrate third-party content to further customize its offers to travelers. As part of its post-COVID-19 recovery and growth plan, Air Moldova will also implement the Radixx Go departure services suite of products to create a safe and efficient airport experience. With mobile devices for ground agents and self-service options for travelers, Radixx Go will streamline existing airport operations, resulting in shorter queues in the airport and a more enjoyable and seamless travel experience. "Our customers are at the core of what we do, and we strive to provide them with products and services of the highest quality," said Alexander Ceban, General Director, Air Moldova. "We've chosen Radixx because of the advanced retailing opportunities its system provides across all customer touchpoints. Its robust APIs allow us to customize our user experience and integrate other solutions, including our own critical applications, which will deliver more value with the expanded data we will now able to access. We are eager to see the positive impact on customers satisfaction and the cost savings derived from a high level of automation across sales and operations." The airline's migration to Radixx is expected to bring significant savings in annual technology operating expenses. Together, the airline and Radixx/Sabre will also develop future functionalities to support their joint objectives. "We are thrilled to be the technology partner for Air Moldova," said Owen Murphy, vice president Sales - Europe, Radixx. "We believe that our innovative retailing capabilities, coupled with technology that enables a touchless, safe travel experience, will be a core factor in the airline's post COVID-19 recovery and growth. We look forward to collaborating with Air Moldova for years to come." With a comparatively lean cost structure and a flexible business model focused on regional routes, low-cost carriers (LCC) are expected to lead the post-COVID-19 travel recovery.* Since announcing the acquisition of Radixx in October 2019, Sabre has focused on harnessing the growth and innovation of the resilient low cost-carrier market by creating more ways for LCCs to retail and distribute content. As a combined portfolio, Sabre and Radixx offer innovative and comprehensive solutions for all segments of the market from LCC to network carriers backed by best-in-class technology and broad expertise. About Radixx Founded in 1993, Radixx, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, combines an innovative technology approach with unique partnership models enabling airlines of all sizes and business models to be effective retailers and efficient operators. Radixx caters to LCC and ULCC airlines, including the support of GDS distribution. Radixx offers a world-class Internet Booking Engine, Radixx ezyCommerce, a cloud-based Passenger Services System, Radixx Res, and a leading Departure Services Suite, Radixx Go, uniquely designed to enable airlines to increase their profitability and maximize productivity through expanded distribution services. Since 2016, Radixx has delivered its sixth-generation, micro-services-based passenger services system. For more information on Radixx, please visit www.radixx.com. About Air Moldova Air Moldova has become a leader in the civil aviation industry of the Republic of Moldova. Air Moldova is one of the widest recognized brands in Moldova, founded in January 12, 1993, by the decree of the President of the Republic of Moldova. Air Moldova operates direct flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Lisbon, Rom, Milan, Verona, Thessaloniki, Nice, Antalya, Sharm el Sheik and Heraklion. On board of its aircrafts, Air Moldova offers its passengers two classes of service Business and Economy. Currently, Air Moldova holds about 50% from the air passengers flow registered on the local market. About Sabre Corporation Sabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, serving a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and other suppliers. The company provides retailing, distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalized traveler experiences. Through its leading travel marketplace, Sabre connects travel suppliers with buyers from around the globe. Sabre's technology platform manages more than $260B worth of global travel spend annually. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world. For more information visit www.sabre.com. * https://www.aerospace-technology.com/comment/low-cost-airlines-post-covid-19-recovery/ SABR-F Contacts: Media Kristin Hays [email protected] Heidi Castle [email protected] Investors Kevin Crissey [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Sabre Corporation Related Links http://www.sabre.com The U.S. Air Force will begin using its KC-46 Pegasus tanker in limited operations to relieve its overtasked KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender aircraft, the head of Air Mobility Command said Wednesday. The KC-46's chief problem is a glitch in its Remote Vision System, or RVS, software, which does not allow a clear visual of the boom connecting to another aircraft. The Air Force continues to work with manufacturer Boeing Co. to fix the troubled tanker, which was first delivered in January 2019 despite that problem. The service reached an agreement last April with Boeing on the final RVS redesign, known as RVS 2.0. Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, head of AMC, said that, while the KC-46 still isn't ready for an overseas deployment to a combat region, the tanker will start accepting mission tasks from U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, on a case-by-case basis. Read Next: Navy Officer Who Lived with Prostitutes in Bahrain Has Sentence Partly Overturned by Appeals Court "The KC-46 may provide aerial refueling for [F-16 Fighting Falcons] participating in a U.S.-based training exercise," she said during a virtual roundtable for the annual Air Force Association's Aerospace Warfare Symposium. TRANSCOM manages delivery of supplies and coordinates logistics for U.S. troops moving around the globe. "Under this new approach, if AMC is tasked to provide refueling support for an operational coronet mission to move F-18s overseas or an operational [B-52 Stratofortress] mission, the KC-46 is on the table, which frees up KC-135s and KC-10s to execute other combatant command deployments that the KC-46A is presently unable to support with its existing deficiencies," Van Ovost said. Coronet missions are those in which tankers travel with other aircraft to refuel them during a long-distance flight -- something the KC-46 has practiced in operational test and development, the general added. "You may be surprised to know that the KC-46A is already executing four to six missions daily in support of service and joint training missions," Van Ovost said. "Since last October, the KC-46A has executed more than 650 missions across the globe in all three of its mission sets, including cross-ocean aerial refueling fighter drags, aeromedical evacuation missions, and cargo and passenger movements." Still, issues with the KC-46 remain. As a result, the tanker's expected readiness -- which includes deploying to the Middle East, Indo-Pacific and even Europe -- has been pushed back at least to the 2023 timeframe. Van Ovost said the limited operational use does not detract from the efforts to fix any remaining deficiencies -- including the RVS problems, which also impacts how the boom connects and disconnects from some aircraft. The tanker's telescoping boom, which has been described as "too stiff," cannot connect to lighter aircraft or stealth aircraft to fuel them in case it accidentally scrapes the receiving plane. Van Ovost said she is confident in the crews, who have demonstrated "proficiency and propensity to open the envelope on the missions they're flying." But the KC-46's problems are delaying retirement of the service's legacy tankers like the KC-135 and KC-10, she said. "We can't open the aperture on increased operational use of advanced warfighting capabilities like the KC-46A without divestment of some of our older tankers, and the ability to review further divestments annually," Van Ovost said. Acting Air Force Secretary John Roth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown and several lawmakers were able to see the KC-46 in action at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, this week as the aircraft conducted refueling demonstrations with F-16s and F-15 Eagles, Van Ovost said. "I think as we look at the capabilities that the KC-46 can bring operationally at scale to the warfighter, I think it absolutely allows us to go to Congress and demonstrate with this model that we have the total capacity of the [tanker] system," she said, referencing how the KC-46 will be brought into the fold. Van Ovost said the new approach will "show a compelling case as to how we need to divest the older legacy airplanes." In the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, lawmakers said the service may start steady retirements of its KC-10s and KC-135s over the next three years, as long as it maintains a minimum aircraft requirement set by Congress. The Air Force must maintain 50 primary-mission KC-10A aircraft in fiscal 2021; 38 in fiscal 2022; and 26 in fiscal 2023, according to the legislation. The Air Force currently has 58 KC-10s; one tanker was sent to the boneyard last year. As for the KC-135 fleet, the Air Force can begin retirements starting in 2023, the bill states. So far, Boeing has delivered 44 KC-46s to the Air Force. The service plans to buy 179 aircraft. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: The Air Force May Soon Be Shopping for a New Fighter Jet A Fox news station suspended its anchor following social media outrage for his tweet expressing annoyance over obese people getting the Covid-19 vaccine on priority. Blake McCoy made the controversial remark on Tuesday afternoon and later deleted his tweet, issuing an apology for his insensitive and offensive comment. Im annoyed obese people of all ages get priority vaccine access before all essential workers, he said in the now-deleted tweet. When most stayed home, we went into work everyday last March, April, May and everyday since putting ourselves & loved ones at risk. Vaccinate all essential workers. Then obese, he said. McCoy immediately came under fire for his tweet, facing criticism and demands for his resignation or sacking. Some Twitter users said they have called or emailed the Fox 5 news station to complain about his views. Within hours of his initial comments, the news anchor was forced to issue an apology, saying he regretted what he said in his tweet. Earlier today I tweeted something insensitive and offensive, McCoy posted. I truly regret my words and want to apologise. I have deleted my tweet and ask that you accept my sincere apology. Erica Keane, a spokesperson of TV station WTTG, of which FOX 5 News is a part, said: He has been suspended pending further review. She told the Washington Blade the action against him was in connection to his tweet about obese people and the coronavirus vaccine. Social media users vehemently opposed his comments and a number of health care workers and journalists came forward to criticise him, saying his statements were hurtful and disgusting. Some others shared his past pictures, accusing him of travelling during the pandemic. A healthcare worker on Twitter said she was saddened to see the tweet. Everyone is waiting their turn and I waited for mine as a healthcare worker. There shouldnt be any hierarchy on compassion she said. I saw it, and I was a bit taken. I am a plus-sized LGBTQ individual, and I do struggle with my appearance as well as anxiety. I DO accept your apology Blake. I hope that was a moment and not a display of you overall. I find you a good-hearted person that just made a mistake, said another user. McCoys tweet came as 15 states in the US identified obesity as one of the qualifying conditions to get coronavirus vaccine shot in an attempt to push people with underlying health conditions to the front of the queue. People with body mass index (BMI) above 30 would get the jabs as they are at potential risk of getting severe Covid complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prosecutors contended that his gross income in 2017 was more than $130,000, and he owed nearly $20,000 in taxes. But Acevedo allegedly had an accountant file a tax extension and claim the former lawmaker owed no taxes, prosecutors said. He allegedly followed a similar pattern in 2018 and failed to file returns in other years. In an investor note sent this week, Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar says he expects the Apple Car to enter mass production and make its market debut in 2024, with the Cupertino-based tech firm to initially manufacture only 100,000 units.Despite this limited-series production, the Apple Car is still expected to generate about $5 billion in revenue with only 0.1 percent of the market, the analyst is quoted as saying This is impressive, to say the least, but the analyst expects the production, demand, and sales of the Apple Car to skyrocket in the next years before eventually reaching 1 percent market penetration by 2023 and thus generate no less than $50 billion in revenue.Kumar says theres a good chance Apple would end up working with a third-party company thatll be in charge of the manufacturing process, as the Cupertino-based company doesnt typically assemble its devices.According to recent reports, Apple has given up on talks with Hyundai after the South Koreans spilled the beans on the project. The firm has also reached out to Nissan , but the Japanese refused to manufacture the Apple Car due to branding divisions. Now Apple is believed to be looking into a series of other partners that could include Renault, BMW, Magna, and others.The analyst believes one of the differentiating factors of the Apple Car as compared to vehicles produced by other rivals would be the full focus on technology. Still, for the time being, its not exactly clear how Apple wants to make its model stand out from the rest of the crowd.Sources familiar with the matter previously said Apple was expected to pick a company for the manufacturing of the Apple Car by the end of this year. Some states are resorting to proxy war by supporting non-state actors, including terrorist groups , to evade international censure, said Nagaraj Naidu, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of India's Mission to UN on Wednesday. "Such support to non-state actors has ranged from providing and equipping terrorist groups with training, financing, intelligence and weapons to logistics and recruitment facilitation," said Naidu. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle The deputy representative added that India for decades has been subject to such proxy cross-border and relentless state-supported terrorist attacks from our neighbourhood. "Whether it is was the 1993 Mumbai bombings, or the random and indiscriminate firings of 26/11 which witnessed the launch of the phenomenon of lone-wolves or more recently, the cowardly attacks in Pathankot and Pulwama, the world has been witness to the fact that India has repeatedly been targeted by such non-state actors with the active complicity of another host state," he said. Naidu further spoke about Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which requires that states refrain from the use of force. "The drafting history of Article 51 of the UN Charter and the relevant San Francisco Conference Report of June 1945 that considered Article 2(4) of the UN Charter mentions that 'the use of arms in legitimate self-defence remains admitted and unimpaired'," he said. In this light, Naidu said that states that have exercised the right of self-defence to attack non-state actors located in other states must be consistent with Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. "Preemptive actions taken to fight the menace of terrorism, even without the consent of the state hosting the non-state actors, meets this criterion because such actions are not of reprisal since their prime motive is for protecting the affected states' national integrity and sovereignty," he said. He also separately spoke about Article 51, which he said "explicitly acknowledges the pre-existing customary right of self-defence, as recognized by the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council". Naidu said that customary international law has long recognised the principles governing the use of force in self-defence. "Furthermore, Article 51 is not confined to "self-defence" in response to attacks by states only. The right of self-defence applies also to attacks by non-state actors. In fact, the source of the attack, whether a state or a non-state actor, is irrelevant to the existence of the right of self-defence," he said. Naidu was speaking at the Arria Formula meeting on the issue of "Upholding the collective security system of the UN Charter: the use of force in international law, non-state actors and legitimate self-defence." With inputs from agencies. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Mediahuis, the owner of Independent News & Media generated a profit of just under 60m last year and cut debt, despite the impact of the Covid pandemic. Financial results for 2020 show one-in-three subscriptions across the groups titles in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland is now a digital product, in many cases combined with a weekend newspaper. The total number of subscribers in the group exceeded 1.7 million at year end as a result of an 11pc like-for-like increase plus the impact of acquisitions. The year saw the launch of paid digital subscription products for Independent.ie and The Belfast Telegraph. Read More Mediahuis' consolidated turnover in 2020 was 990.5 m, generating earnings of 171.5m and a net profit of 58.6m. Last year was the first to include a full year of Irish results following the acquisition of INM, including independent.ie, the Irish Independent, Sunday World and Belfast Telegraph, in 2019. Though the Covid-19 pandemic caused a significant impact on advertising turnover, the group achieved rock-solid results in readership income, the company said. Mediahuis Group CEO Gert Ysebaert said steps taken in recent years in the area of digital transformation had boosted the ability to respond when the Covid19 crisis struck. "The resilience and agility of our organisation were severely tested. But Mediahuis passed the test with flying colours, he said. The number of visitors to our news sites and apps went through the roof and the number of listeners to our podcasts also grew exponentially, a strong digital growth that led to an unprecedented increase in subscribers, he said. Mediahuis managed to make the switch from being a print company with digital expertise to a digital company that also makes exceptionally strong print media. In Ireland, Independent.ie reached about 800,000 people every day, with Belfasttelegraph.co.uk securing an average of more than 211,000. Independent.ie closed the year with more than 30,000 paying digital subscribers, from a standing start in February 2020, the company said. However, advertising and individual sales of daily papers were hit by the pandemic, the company said. The Saturday edition of the Irish Independent and the groups Sunday papers held up better, the company said. INM CEO Marc Vangeel said the Irish business had been able to leverage systems, technology and experience from Mediahuis, combined with the expertise within INM, to take major steps in digitalisation. In Ireland the group invested in new digital products including price comparison brand Choosy. INM also sold its 50pc shares in the Irish Daily Star to joint venture partner Reach plc and closed the Citywest printing plant in Dublin. HOLYOKE - Police are seeking the publics help in identifying a woman who held up a store in the Holyoke Mall with a knife on Wednesday, police said. Capt. Matthew F. Moriarty said police were notified at around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a robbery at the Sunglass Hut. An employee told police a woman brandished a knife and demanded cash from the register. She fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. The clerk was not injured. Surveillance photos from the scene show a white woman with reddish blond hair, a gray jacket and black pants. Part of her face is concealed by a mask. People who recognize her are asked to call the Holyoke Criminal Investigation Bureau at 413 322-6940 Information may also be sent to anonymously to Text-A-Tip by texting 274637, typing the word Solve, and then the city and the information. South Africa: NSFAS finalising checks on funding applications Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, says the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is currently finalising the due diligence and quality checks of the application information received. They [NSFAS] will communicate funding eligibility once the verification and quality assurance process is complete in order to ensure the credibility of this important process, Nzimande said on Wednesday. Nzimande said all students who are already funded by the NSFAS and have met their study and eligibility criteria will continue to be funded this year. The financial aid scheme has received an unprecedented number of applications compared to previous years, with approximately 730 000 online applications received. Additionally, 60 000 applications were received through the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College walk in processes. It is important to note that NSFAS will fund eligible students when they have been registered at a public university, or TVET College. Students are hereby given assurance that NSFAS is aware of and takes into account that communication should be finalised before the registration windows of the various learning institutions close, the Minister said. Students are advised to regularly track their funding statuses on the NSFAS myNSFAS portal. The portal will assist students to upload any pending documents where required. Applicants should take note of the following: Keep your username and password safe; Contact NSFAS should a cellphone number change or if it has been lost; Do not share your NSFAS Wallet details; Report any suspicious communication that requests you to share your personal information or passwords; Do not leave your personal information exposed, and make sure you log out of your myNSFAS account when you are not using it; and Note that your status will be communicated directly to you officially only by NSFAS (be aware of fake news). Legacy qualifications On legacy qualifications, Nzimande said that there has been much speculation in recent days about which qualifications are funded. Nzimande noted that in July 2016, the Department of Higher Education and Training, indicated in a Government Gazette that 31 December 2019 would be the last date for first-time entering students to consider studying, or registering for academic programmes that are not aligned with the Council on Higher Educations Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework. These qualifications are now referred to as legacy qualifications. Those students who are already being funded for these qualifications may continue to complete their qualifications and their funding will not be affected. However, institutions will not be registering new, students on the legacy qualifications, the Minister said. He also confirmed that the Bachelor of Nursing and the Bachelor of Education are still offered at institutions at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 7, and are both funded by NSFAS. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. As far as this earthworks project, he said, its an opportunity for our communities to build some beauty and to create some spaces that celebrate a coming together to create more equity; to elevate the voice of the ancestral peoples, the presence of Indigenous peoples together because were not doing it alone. People outside of our community are a big part of this, big stakeholders in creating this reality in making our visions and hopes for prosperity tangible. I think the beauty begins with contemplative place-making like this. Tsetse fly, the vector of Trypanosoma. Credit: Hokkaido University Developing reasonably priced, easy-to-use diagnosis kits that can swiftly and accurately detect infectious diseases in developing countries has become the main mission of Chie Nakajima and Kyoko Hayashida, as they seek to alleviate some of the hardship endured by poverty-stricken people. "We have developed such kits for patients in remote regions where there is no electricity or running water, let alone expensive medical equipment needed to make a diagnosis," said Nakajima, whose research focuses on tuberculosis (TB). "Poverty provides the conditions for TB to spread. If developing countries become more affluent and can provide better nutrition for people, this disease can be eradicated. We are simply helping patients until their economic circumstances improve." Nakajima is developing diagnosis kits to detect TB, which causes over 4,000 deaths daily worldwide. Her main target now is multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB that does not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampin, two powerful anti-TB medications. Multidrug-resistance emerges due to the mismanagement of TB treatment and person-to-person transmission. MDR-TB accounts for 3.3 percent of all new cases and has been reported around the world. Hayashida, meanwhile, is developing a diagnosis kit to detect human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness. This disease, which is endemic in 36 sub-Saharan African countries, is caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Trypanosoma and transmitted by the tsetse fly. The fly acquires its infection from infected humans or animals. In the first stage of the disease, patients develop symptoms such as a fever, headache and joint pains one to three weeks after being bitten by the tsetse fly. Once the parasite crosses the blood-brain barrier and infects the central nervous system, the disease enters the second stage, triggering mental disorientation, neurologic problems, and eventually death if not treated. "This is a critical moment if we want to eradicate HAT," Hayashida said. "It is important to identify and treat hidden cases as early as possible because the treatment method for the initial stage has been established." The mobile diagnostic system includes all necessary components small test tubes, a battery, a heating device and an LED illuminator and does not require any sophisticated equipment or infrastructure, enabling on-site diagnoses. Credit: Hokkaido University Modifying LAMP system for developing countries Hayashida often visits Zambia to conduct research on HAT. Patients tend to wait until their symptoms worsen before seeking medical help. Molecular diagnosis has been developed to detect early-stage infection, but this is not easily affordable for impoverished communities, Hayashida said. Such a system also requires complicated sample preparation steps at a well-equipped laboratory, which developing countries often lack. As a consequence, most HAT patients are misdiagnosed as having malaria and receive treatment for the wrong disease. To address these problems, Hayashida and Nakajima have developed a new diagnostic kit based on a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) system, a nucleic acid amplification test method originally developed by Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd. "With our new system called CZC-LAMP, we only need a drop of blood to test for the infection. It costs less than one U.S. dollar per test and the result can be obtained within one hour without the use of sophisticated equipment," says Hayashida. They substantially modified the LAMP system to allow on-site diagnosis even in remote areas. The first major improvement was to dry and stabilize reagents in a single tube by incorporating trehalose, which locks up necessary enzymes and molecules in "glass" when it dries. This prolongs the kit's shelf life at ambient temperature, so it does not require a cold chain to stay in a functional state. Hayashida also utilized a bio inkjet printer to semi-automatically produce the dry LAMP. To enable a HAT diagnosis in local clinics or villages in endemic areas, the researchers simplified the diagnostic procedure. Now, DNA or RNA can be amplified directly from detergent-lysed blood samples. The sample is transferred into the dried CZC-LAMP tube and incubated for 45 minutes at 60C using a portable battery-supplied heat block. The sample is then checked with a portable reaction detector, or a hand-made LED illuminator, which is suitable for field use. Samples emit yellowish fluorescence when they contain amplified DNA of Trypanosoma. Credit: Hokkaido University Braving risk of infection to conduct research in Zambia The kits developed by researchers at Hokkaido University's Research Center for Zoonosis Control (CZC) can be tailored to various emerging and reemerging infections caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites. The kits can be made disease-specific by changing the LAMP primers. A primer is a short nucleic acid sequence that provides a starting point for DNA synthesis. "It is, however, difficult to find optimal primers, so repeated experiments are required to find the most suitable ones," Hayashida explains. She continued, "While conducting research on people with the disease, we also conduct vector and animal surveillance. By doing molecular testing in the veterinary domain, we are trying to elucidate how the parasite Trypanosoma spreads in the environment, and which wild animals are infected with the parasite." The parasite does not harm wild animals, but afflicts some domestic animals that came from Europe. Hayashida often goes to remote areas to collect thousands of tsetse flies. Her aim is to compile maps and locate risk areas where tsetse flies are infected with the parasite. Hayashida is often bitten by the flies, but remains undaunted. "Not all flies are infected, but even if I get bitten by one with the parasite, I can use our kit to make a prompt diagnosis," she said. Hayashida and a colleague examine local residents in Zambia, where advanced medical equipment is often unavailable. Credit: Hokkaido University Halting spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis essential According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 10 million new cases of TB every year, claiming the lives of 1.4 million people. High TB incidence rates are found in African and Asian nations. TB is essentially a human disease, but animals such as elephants and monkeys can be infected with strains that originated in humans. "The bacteria proliferate very slowly," Nakajima said. "TB can be cured with the long-term administration of medicines, but impoverished people tend to quit taking the drugs midway through the six months required. That enables the bacteria to develop drug resistance." There is no gene exchange between bacterial cells in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), so MTB obtains drug resistance when a point mutation in the genes causes a structural change in the target molecule. Bacteria with "low fitness cost" mutations will survive, Nakajima said. It is, therefore, important to accurately diagnose patients at an early stage to prevent further person-to-person infection. This drove Nakajima to develop a LAMP system to detect MTB and an affordable, easy-to-use DNA array for spoligotyping, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method for simultaneous detection and typing of MTB strains. While conventional spoligotyping methods are costly and complicated, the kit she developed costs only three to four U.S. dollars and is simple to use. Moreover, Nakajima developed a method to detect isoniazid-resistant MTB using an easy-to-use printed-array strip (PAS) through a joint research project with Tohoku Bio Array Corporation, as well as a PCR method to distinguish "Modern Beijing" MTB, a multi-drug resistant strain spreading rapidly in some Asian countries. Nakajima and colleagues develop spoligotyping, a PCR and hybridization-based method, to simultaneously detect MTB strains. Credit: Hokkaido University "By distinguishing dangerous strains from less serious strains, we will be able to determine which patient should be treated first, as the capacity of health-care facilities are usually limited in high TB-burden areas." Nakajima said, stressing the importance of controlling person-to-person transmission. As an educator, Nakajima has another pressing issue that worries her. Some of her international students hesitate to return to their native country because there are few jobs available for such specialists. "It is our responsibility to help their governments to properly deal with these infectious diseases," Nakajima said. "My research, which involves science and nature, opened my eyes to various social issues in these nations." Explore further New test for COVID-19 may deliver faster results to more people More information: Tackling Global Issues vol.3 Fighting the menace of zoonosis: Tackling Global Issues vol.3 Fighting the menace of zoonosis: www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/resea -menace-of-zoonoses/ London, Feb 25 : Another 9,938 people in Britain have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,144,577, according to official figures released Wednesday. The country also reported another 442 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 121,747. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test, the Xinhua news agency reported. Meanwhile, a total of 18,242,873 people have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine by Tuesday, the latest figures show. More than three quarters of people in Britain now say they are "very likely" to have the Covid-19 vaccine, an increase from 50 percent among the same group of survey respondents five months ago, according to a two-wave Oxford University survey published on Wednesday. In this survey, both men and women have become more supportive of a vaccine, with women's willingness to have a jab increasing from 73.6 per cent to nearly 88 per cent and men's acceptance rising from 82 per cent to nearly 90 per cent. The survey of 1,200 British residents, contacted in early October last year and again in the first week of February 2021, revealed strong relationships between political attitudes and the intention to accept the vaccine, according to the university. The survey found that people on lower incomes are, on average, less willing to take the vaccine. "When so much of the UK government's lockdown exit strategy rests on successful vaccine rollout, these insights will be of immediate importance to policymakers in both their internal deliberation on policy and their outward facing communication with the public," said Professor Ben Ansell at the university. England is currently under the third national lockdown since outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) 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. The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday. South Africa and India, which both manufacture drugs and vaccines, made the proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year, arguing that intellectual property (IP) rules were hindering the urgent scale-up of vaccine production and provision of medical products to some patients. They have faced opposition from some developed nations, but the backing of the African Union (AU) may give renewed impetus for the push to relax IP rules. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference that IP transfer was a win-win for everybody that would address the huge inequalities in global public health. He gave two examples where the developing world had suffered because of restricted access to medicines: the swine flu pandemic in the late 2000s and HIV/AIDS in the 1990s. In 1996, HIV drugs were available, and we saw how mortality in the developed world decreased drastically. But it would take 10 years before those drugs were accessible in Africa in any meaningful way, he said. In between, 12 million Africans died, so I just use those numbers to say: any IP transfer will be beneficial to everybody, because nobody wants to sit back and be proud of that sad event ... We want to be on the right side of history. Nkengasong added the Africa CDCs regulatory taskforce had approved two versions of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, a day after Ghana received its first AstraZeneca doses from global vaccine distribution facility COVAX. He said the developers of Russias Sputnik V vaccine had submitted a full dossier of data to the Africa CDC and that in the coming days an expert panel would review the data and make a pronouncement. We have not received dossiers yet from China colleagues, but we remain optimistic that they will submit to us, he continued. Several countries on the continent, including Egypt, Zimbabwe and Senegal, have already started rolling out Chinese COVID-19 shots. Short link: 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. AZ Partsmaster, a distributor of maintenance supplies to the multifamily housing industry, leased 68,342 square feet in Waypoint Business Park, at 411 Cravens Road near Beltway 8 and U.S. 90 in Missouri City. Justin Robinson, Matteson Hamilton and Woody Hillyer of Stream Realty represented the landlord, 4M Investments and Clarion Partners. Payson MacWilliam, Jon Lindenberger and Paul Dominique of Colliers International represented the tenant. The Phoenix-based company, which has other Texas locations in Garland and New Braunfels, will occupy Building 1. The General Services Administration leased 22,809 square feet at Interwood Business Park, at 15109 Heathrow Forest Parkway in north Houston. Kurt Kistler of Moody Rambin represented the landlord, Heathrow Forest LLC. Kelly Winn with Savills represented the the tenant. CCJ Collaborations purchased 4.65 acres in the Tomball Business and Technology Park, a development at the northwest corner of Holderrieth and Hufsmith-Kohrville in Tomball, from Tomball Economic Development Corp. for the site of a 10,500-square-foot brewery and restaurant. Ryan Hutson of the J. Beard Co. represented Chris Juergen and Joshua Schwaiger of CCJ. Tom Condon Jr. of Colliers International represented the seller. On HoustonChronicle.com: More commercial real estate transactions Tomball Economic Development Corp. reacquired 10.6 acres at the southeast corner of Spell Road and South Persimmon Road from Packers Plus Energy Services. The lot, along with an adjacent tract, will provide 18.4 acres of contiguous available land. Kristian Nielsen of Newmark represented the seller. Tom Condon Jr. of Colliers International represented TEDC. Floor and Decor Outlets of America purchased 99.3 acres in Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown where it is building a 1.5-million square foot regional distribution center. The land is at Cedarport Parkway and Fisher Road near the Port of Houston. John Simons of NAI Partners represented the seller, TGS Cedar Port Partners. Arch-Con Construction is the general contractor for the project, which is targeting completion by year end. Atlanta-based Floor & Decor sells hard surface flooring products at more than 120 warehouse-style stores averaging 77,000 square feet each. Nine stores are in the Houston area. Cook Legal Group, LRC & Associates and Hack Anti-Aging & Human Wellness leased office space totaling 8,922 square feet at Memorial Green, a development of Houston-based Midway at 12525 Memorial Drive. Loren Cook is founder and CEO of all three companies. Cook Legal Group is a business-consulting firm with 600 clients in the medical, real estate, financial, retail and professional services industries. LRC & Associates is a tax preparation firm specializing in closely held businesses.Memorial Greens 50,000 square feet of office and 25,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space is almost fully leased. Yes Prep Public Schools purchased 8.24 acres at 441 Little York Road from BRI Investment. John Nguyen of NewQuest Properties represented the seller. Tami Pearson of Waterman Steele represented the buyer. My Favorite Quilt Store leased 7,500 square feet at 1240 Wilson Road Court, Humble. Olesya Korneva of CXRE represented the building owner, Clapp Properties. Joshua Marcell and Ryan Fassett of Moody Rambin represented the tenant. Gordon Creekside purchased Dynamic Glass Industrial Park, a 160,778-square-foot complex at 9419 Windfern Road, from Diamond Glass. TCI Properties of California represented the buyer. David L. Carter and John Nicholson of Colliers International represented the seller. Dynamic Glass will continue to occupy the four-building industrial complex under a 15-year lease. Moonshot Compost, a company specializing in food waste diversion, relocated to a 1,500-square-foot headquarters at 1001 W. 18th St. in Houston Heights. The move allows for growth as the company adds commercial and resident clients. Kinghaven Counseling Group leased 2,839 square feet of medical office space at 3425 Texas 6 in Sugar Land. Jason Gaines and Zach Leger of NAI Partners represented the landlord. Meritage Homes acquired 88 acres off U.S. 90, east of downtown Richmond, for Mandola Farms. The community is planned for 156 houses ranging from 1,831 to 2,991 square feet with prices starting in the mid $200,000s. Opening is planned in May. katherine.feser@chron.com twitter.com/kfeser The Space Force is considering adding additional technical sergeant ranks -- similar to its junior enlisted specialist ranks -- so future Guardians have more promotion opportunities while maintaining their specialty, the top enlisted leader for the service said Thursday. During a virtual session of the annual Air Force Association's Aerospace Warfare Symposium, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman told audiences that the service is exploring ways to accommodate promotions should it decide to pursue a technical track for enlisted members. "We want technical experts; this is the definitive rank -- technical sergeant. We've left the door open if we decide to go with technical tracks," he said. Read Next: Air Force Testing Out Weapons That Fry Enemy Drones with Directed Energy, Microwaves The service announced last month that junior enlisted members between E-1 and E-4 will be called specialists 1-4. E-5s will be sergeants, followed by technical sergeants at E-6. Space Force officer ranks -- second lieutenant to general -- will remain the same as those in the Air Force. The service is considering adding technical sergeant 2, 3 and 4 ranks. That would mean a "Tech Sgt. 2" would be level with a master sergeant but without the associated management roles, a Space Force spokeswoman explained to Military.com. "Perhaps if I want to kind of just spend my life on an ops floor, and that's what I'm really into, and I'm really, really good at it, and I want to stay really good at it, and I don't want to do some other things, but I want to stick around, and I want to be invested in it more, then maybe we go technical sergeant -- one, two, and we step up from there," Towberman said. "So we've left the door open for those things." The spokeswoman said there is no timeline on a decision, and rank changes are very much hypothetical at this time. Towberman said the Space Force expects to roll out trial rank insignias for its members next month, and will collect feedback on their designs. What It Means to Be a Guardian Then-Vice President Mike Pence announced during a White House ceremony in December that Space Force members would be called Guardians. Space enthusiasts and military members were quick to point out that the name evokes the Marvel Comics' "Guardians of the Galaxy" film franchise about a motley crew of superheroes in space. Others recalled that the term Guardians also temporarily applied to the Coast Guard years ago. Speaking about the name, and the ridicule still often surrounding it, Towberman said it not only evokes military heritage, but gives the service a clean slate to build on. "Maybe something I love even more is that we don't know what 'Guardian' is going to mean tomorrow; this is in the hands of the culture that we're building," he said during the discussion. In many ways, it can mean "whatever we want it to mean," Towberman said. "It's the headquarters' job to set the condition for success, [but] it's [a Guardian's] job to grow within those conditions and be the culture, and give meaning to a very powerful word with a great history, with great legacy, the future of that word, and what it really means to be a Guardian ... [a] powerful word ... that [asks], 'What will it mean tomorrow?'" It's something space members should consider as "we help to unleash the greatness in all of the folks that are raising their hand to join the team," he said. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214. Related: Floaty Bois and Homo Spaciens: Space Force Reveals List of Rejected Troop Names Her romance with Skeet Ulrich went public when the pair were seen packing on the PDA while out on a brunch date this past weekend. And Lucy Hale showed off her gym-honed physique as she grabbed a coffee at Alfred's in Studio City following a workout at her new beau's house on Wednesday. The Pretty Little Liars star, 31, donned a black printed jumper for the outing while she displayed her toned pins in a pair of black hotpants. Out and about: Lucy Hale showed off her gym-honed physique as she grabbed a coffee at Alfred's in Studio City following a workout at her new beau Skeet Ulrich's house The actress styled her brunette locks into a ponytail for the outing and added to her look with a pair of shades. Hale put safety first with a black face mask and completed her look with a pair of pink-laced trainers. Hale got a head start on her exercise warm-up when she took her beloved pet pooch Elvis out for his daily morning walk. Before heading out earlier that morning, Hale played the role of doting mom to her two dogs: Elvis and newcomer, Ethel, whom the actress just adopted last week. Looking good: The Pretty Little Liars star, 31, donned a black printed jumper for the outing while she displayed her toned pins in a pair of black hotpants Keeping fit: The actress styled her brunette locks into a ponytail for the outing and added to her look with a pair of shades She was seen on her stroll with Elvis, looking sporty in blue, pink and white sweatpants, a white sweatshirt, white sneakers and those very same sunglasses. While back at her home, Elvis got ambushed by his new mate, which proceeded into the pair rolling around and tumbling in the backyard. 'Annoy your brother hour,' Hale wrote about her new mischievous pooch across a quick video she shared on her Instagram Story. Couple's workout: Lucy was earlier seen arriving at Riverdale star Skeet's home for a workout Four-legged family: Before heading to Ulrich's house, Hale took her beloved pooch Elvis out for his morning walk Sporty: The Pretty Little Liars star wore in blue, pink and white sweatpants, a white sweatshirt and white sneakers for their stroll in her neighborhood Pack leader: Hale recently got Elvis a new sister, when she adopted a little lady named Ethel Proud mama: The actress regularly posts photos and videos of Elvis on social media The actress announced she had adopted Ethel last week after the little female had been fostered by actress Kristen Bell. Ulrich, 51, also appears to be a newcomer to Hale's personal life. The pair, who have starred together on The CW's drama series Riverdale, couldn't keep their hands off of each other while sitting in an outdoor patio of a restaurant for brunch this past Saturday. Ulrich is best known to many fans for his roles in such films as Scream (1996), The Craft (1996), As Good As It Gets (1997), as well as role on television including Jericho (2006-2008), Law & Order: LA (2010-2011) and Riverdale (2017-2011). Rough-housing: While back at her home, Elvis got ambushed by his new female sibling, Ethel, which proceeded into the pair rolling around and tumbling in the backyard Oregon taxpayers are on track to get a kicker tax rebate worth a combined $570.5 million next year, state economists told lawmakers in the latest quarterly forecast on Wednesday. That is the upshot of aggregate incomes in the state exceeding economists expectations well before the pandemic, as lawmakers assembled the current state budget. State economist Mark McMullen told lawmakers this massive helicopter drop of a massive amount of federal aid also played a key role in raising incomes, through stimulus payments to individuals and enhanced unemployment benefits. Absent that federal aid, Oregonians aggregate income would essentially be flat, said state economist Josh Lehner. We havent seen this in decades, this level of income support coming from the federal government, Lehner said. Taxpayers would receive the personal income tax rebate as a credit on their 2021 taxes when they file next year. Oregonians received a kicker worth a record total of $1.6 billion in 2020, when they filed their 2019 tax returns. The forecast is good news for the state budget, with general fund and lottery revenues expected to come in $642.7 million higher than expected as of November for the 2019-2021 budget. That would erase part of the $1.6 billion budget gap legislative leaders predicted earlier this month, which they thought would occur due to slower than predicted state revenue growth and hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID and wildfire recovery-related spending by the Legislature last year. Oregons two-year budget is approximately $24 billion. State economists in the Office of Economic Analysis made only minor adjustments to their revenue forecast for the next two-year budget cycle, with a total increase of $56 million in combined general fund and lottery revenues in 2021-2023 compared with the forecast issued in November. They expect the states new business tax, calculated on sales, to also increase by $56 million in that time frame compared with the previous estimate. The latter money would by law be spent on public schools and early childhood programs. Although McMullen and Lehner adjusted down the total amount the state can expect to receive from gambling in the current budget, Lehner said lottery receipts rebounded incredibly quickly when early 2020 COVID restrictions were lifted and that informed the economists predictions both for future lottery revenues and a broader economic rebound from pent-up consumer demand in Oregon. These video lottery sales numbers came back literally overnight, Lehner said. State leaders had a mixed response to the positive news, with Gov. Kate Brown urging caution on the state budget until lawmakers know how much money Oregon will receive from a likely third federal relief package and receive another revenue forecast in May. There is an incredibly important effort on the horizon: President Bidens pending $1.9 trillion federal coronavirus relief package that Congress is currently debating, Brown said in a statement. If passed, this bill would provide another round of much needed aid for states and direct benefits for Oregonians in the form of essential services such as unemployment assistance, nutrition assistance, housing aid, and tax credits for families and workers. House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said the Legislature should further increase spending to help Oregonians still experiencing economic pain on the ground from COVID-related job losses and the historic 2020 wildfires. This crisis demands bolder actions in the areas of housing, wildfire recovery and financial assistance to the hardest-hit households, Kotek said in a statement. I look forward to working with my colleagues to reinvest some available dollars in the coming weeks to help Oregonians who need us to step up and help them. House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, said lawmakers should take a fiscally conservative approach to the budget and avoid increasing taxes on businesses. Given the states fragile economy, we must exercise fiscal discipline, not increase taxes or grow government programs and bureaucracy, Drazan said in a statement. We must focus our attention on getting the 150,000 Oregonians who have lost their jobs back to work and struggling small businesses back on their feet. Democrats have expressed interest in curtailing some business tax breaks this legislative session, particularly those copied automatically from federal tax laws, and they have proposed using the revenue to help people and businesses suffering economically through state-designed approaches. Business groups have countered that it is the wrong time to raise taxes when many small businesses are struggling. This story has been updated to reflect the following correction: an earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the size of the states general fund and lottery budget. -- Hillary Borrud hborrud@oregonian.com Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. UK 4G smartphone owners could be entitled to a 482million payout over claims of anti-competitive behaviour by tech giant Qualcomm, according to a new consumer watchdog report today. Around 29 million Britons could receive a payout after being overcharged for their smartphones if a landmark claim by consumer champion Which? is successful. Which? believes Qualcomm has breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent-licensing and chipset markets. It has therefore been able to charge manufacturers like Apple and Samsung inflated fees for technology licences which have then been passed on to consumers in the form of higher smartphone prices. Which? is seeking damages for all affected Apple and Samsung smartphones purchased since 1st October 2015. It estimates that individual consumers could be due up to 30, depending on the number and type of smartphones purchased during that period, although it is expected at this stage that most consumers would receive around 17. This could mean consumers are owed a collective 482.5million, according to Which?. Which? believes Qualcomm has breached UK competition law by taking advantage of its dominance in the patent-licensing and chipset markets (stock image) Qualcomm has already been found liable by regulators and courts around the world for similar anticompetitive behaviour and Which? is urging Qualcomm to settle this claim without the need for litigation by offering consumers their money back. Which?'s legal action could help millions of consumers get redress for Qualcomm's anticompetitive abuse due to the opt-out collective action regime that was introduced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. It has been near impossible for individual consumers to take on big companies like Qualcomm in the past but the collective regime opened the door for Which? to represent consumers where large numbers of people have been harmed by anticompetitive conduct. This action is vital to obtain redress for consumers and to send a clear message to powerful companies like Qualcomm, that if they engage in harmful or manipulative practices, Which? stands ready to take action. Anabel Hoult, CEO of Which?, said: 'We believe Qualcomm's practices are anticompetitive and have so far taken around 480 million from UK consumers' pockets - this needs to stop. 'We are sending a clear warning that if companies like Qualcomm indulge in manipulative practices which harm consumers, Which? is prepared to take action. 'If Qualcomm has abused its market power it must be held to account. Which? is seeking damages for all affected Apple (left) and Samsung (right) smartphones purchased since 1st October 2015 'Without Which? bringing this claim on behalf of millions of affected UK consumers, it would simply not be realistic for people to seek damages from the company on an individual basis - that's why it's so important that consumers can come together and claim the redress they are entitled to.' Which? has launched legal action against US tech giant Qualcomm on behalf of UK consumers who have purchased Apple and Samsung smartphones since October 1, 2015 - to win them back around 480 million in damages stemming from Qualcomm's anticompetitive behaviour. Which?'s claim will state that Qualcomm employs two harmful and unlawful practices. These are that it refuses to license its patents to other competing chipset manufacturers and refuses to supply chipsets to smartphone manufacturers, such as Apple and Samsung, unless those companies obtain a separate licence and pay substantial royalties to Qualcomm. Together, it is argued that these abuses enable Qualcomm to charge Apple and Samsung higher fees for the licences for its patents, than would be the case if Qualcomm behaved lawfully. Which? believes that Qualcomm is using its market power to obtain an unlawfully gained advantage in its negotiations with manufacturers which enable it to insist on charging artificially high fees for its patents. Qualcomm also insists that it is paid fees by smartphone manufacturers even when they do not use Qualcomm chipsets in their smartphones and use another chipset instead. That raises the manufacturing costs of all smartphones, which are ultimately passed on to consumers, meaning that consumers have paid more for smartphones than they should have done. Collective proceedings involve a claim brought by a class representative on behalf of a defined group of persons who have suffered loss as a result of a breach of competition law. Similar legal action has also been taken against Qualcomm in Canada and the US. A number of competition authorities worldwide have investigated and, in some cases, fined Qualcomm for anticompetitive behaviour including the European Commission and authorities in South Korea and Taiwan. Some of these fines have been overturned on appeal and some continue to be litigated. Which?'s claim will automatically include consumers that purchased particular models of Apple or Samsung smartphones, either direct from the manufacturer or from a network operator or smartphone retailer since October 1, 2015. Depending on the number and models of phones purchased, each class member could be entitled to between 5 and 30 in damages. There is no guarantee that compensation will be made available in the future - the case must first be won in the Competition Appeal Tribunal unless an earlier settlement is agreed. Now the case has been filed, the next step will be for Which? to obtain permission from the Competition Appeal Tribunal to act as class representative and for the claim to proceed on a collective basis. This is a correction to an announcement from earlier today for the Notice to Annual General Meeting. The day of the meeting was incorrectly stated in the main text of the previous announcement. The Annual General Meeting of Iceland Seafood International hf will be held on Thursday 18 March 2021 at 4pm at Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, Suurlandsbraut 2, 108 Reykjavik, Iceland. The meeting will be webcasted live, a link will be published on the Company's website www.icelandseafood.com/investors before the meeting starts. Recording will also be available after the meeting on the Company's website. Enclosed is the Notice to convene the Annual General Meeting, proposed agenda and proposed resolutions for the Annual General Meeting. Attachments Investor Warren Buffetts right-hand man says the US stockmarket is overvalued, but he doesnt know when the bubble will burst. Billionaire Charlie Munger is a vice chairman at Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. He typically sits alongside Buffett to field questions at Berkshires annual meetings in Omaha, Nebraska, each spring. Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffet with long-time business partner Charlie Munger. Credit:AP I think it must end badly but I dont know when, Munger said of the stockmarkets run to record levels. He fielded questions for two hours on Wednesday (US time) at the annual meeting of another company he is chairman of, the Daily Journal, which operates a small legal newspaper in California and sells software to court systems. Munger said the recent frenzy over GameStops stock was driven by small investors gambling on the stock market. I opened a bottle of an Australian Shiraz a few days ago and was rewarded with a prototypical aroma and taste (pepper, violets) which is exactly what I had suspected Id get when I bought the wine many months ago. We can never be sure, of course, that a wine will deliver what we expect, even if we have some clues as to what it should be. This particular wine, recommended by a wine-loving friend, came from an area of Northern Victoria that he knows I adore. I bought two bottles. The Shiraz is from Mt. Langi, an area that almost always produces colder-climate aromatics in Shiraz. Its a region thats about as predictable for that grape as any wine region in the world. That appellation is a clue that some wine lovers use to determine what the wine theyre looking at might be like. Thoughts of the meaning of appellations came to mind earlier the same day I opened the Shiraz after I read a wine critics praise for a cold-climate California Syrah that I know well. But the critics description had nothing to do with the wine; it was just a generic reference that said the reviewer liked it. A young Uyghur man has been confirmed imprisoned after being forced to return to northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) for the crime of having studied abroad in Egypt, according to official sources. Bakihaji Helil was handed a nine-year prison sentence in 2017 after returning home to Atush (in Chinese, Atushi), a county-level city of around 270,000 people that is the capital of Kizilsu Kirghiz (Kezileisu Keerkezi) Autonomous Prefecture in the cotton- and grape-growing region of southwestern XUAR. The young man was among nearly 5,000 Uyghur students who were ordered back to the region from Egypt, where he was enrolled at Al Azhar University in Cairo, an independent researcher based in Turkey named Abdureshit Niyaz, who had previously lived in the North African nation, recently told RFAs Uyghur Service. Repatriated as China ramped up repression in the region through a policies aimed at suppressing expression of religious and ethnic identity, many of the returned students were reportedly jailed soon after their arrival, although their sentences and locations have yet to be confirmed on any large scale. According to Niyaz, Helil had become interested in religious education back in Atush through his interactions with local religious leaders. For a period, he undertook his own religious education by listening to Quranic recitation in mosques and sermons at weddings and funerals, as well as visiting with and learning from local religious leaders. Seeing this, his father decided to send him to Egypt so that he could fulfill his dreams of studying religion more formally and systematically. However, not long after sending his son to Egypt, the father became a target of frequent visits and questioning at the hands of the neighborhood police and neighborhood committee in their hometown. The father reportedly explained to police that he had chosen to send his son to study at Al Azhar University, rather than a Chinese university, because the tuition was low and because they didnt put any restrictions on ethnicity or numbers of students. His comments aroused the polices suspicions that he was opposed to national education and posed a danger to the country. Niyaz said the police threatened to cause ongoing problems for Helils entire family if their son did not return immediately from Egypt. As a result, Helil returned to Atush at his fathers request at the end of 2016. According to Niyaz, Helil was among six students he knew personally that were sent to prison by Chinese authorities after returning to the XUAR from Egypt. The five othersAbdughappar, Mamatjan Abdushukur, Adiljan Arkin, Abdusalam Wali, and Elijan Qariall received sentences of between seven and 12 years, he said, although he was unable to provide further details about their status. He said Helil is currently serving his term in Qara Bughra Prison in Kunes (Xinyuan) county, in the XUARs Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture. Forced to return RFA spoke with a stability officer in Atush who confirmed some of Niyazs account of the students jail sentences. [A police officer] said the young man was sentenced to prison, he said, when asked about Helil. However, he was unable to provide any more information about the young mans situation. I havent spoken with the police about this [and] I havent been involved in the case, he said. A security officer in the city told RFA that authorities had carried out ideological work on Helils family to convince them that he should return home from Egypt. We told them it would be great if they could bring him back, that we had things to talk about with him, and they brought him to us within four days [for an initial interrogation], he said. The officer said Helil was detained seven or eight days after he came back from Egypt and was sentenced to prison in 2017, without providing further details. RFA spoke with an official from a neighborhood committee in Atush with jurisdiction over Helils household while she was in the XUAR capital Urumqi receiving recognition for being among local-level cadres and others who convinced students and other Uyghurs to return to the XUAR from abroad. She acknowledged that she had helped get Helil to return to the region, noting he had been in Egypt at that point for a year or so. He was inspected in Atush, and he was sentenced here to nine years, she said, adding that Helil is in the prison called Qara Bughra. When asked what kind of help the neighborhood committee has offered to Helils family in the wake of his detention and imprisonment, the official said that the young man has been permitted to see his relatives virtually and write letters on several occasions, citing these actions as evidence of care. Egypt is among several countries blacklisted by authorities for travel by Uyghurs because of a perceived threat of religious extremism, and RFA has documented several instances where people have been detained for overseas visits or maintaining ties abroad. Beginning in early July 2017, more than 200 Uyghurs, many of them religious students at Al-Azhar, were detained in Egypt after being rounded up in restaurants or at their homes, with others seized at airports as they tried to flee to safer countries, sources said in earlier reports. Dozens were then deported back to Xinjiang, where rights groups said they faced a serious risk of arbitrary detention and torture, while many who had earlier gone home on their own in response to a Chinese government order to return for registration were also taken into custody. Arbitrary sentences increasing Reports of Helils sentencing came as a new report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that Chinese courts have arbitrarily sentenced hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities to lengthy jail terms in increasing numbers since the launch of a counter-terrorism campaign in the XUAR. On Wednesday, HRW said that since the Chinese government escalated its repressive Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism in late 2016, the regions formal criminal justice system had convicted and sentenced more than 250,000 people. Based on analysis of nearly 60 of these cases, HRW found that many people have been convicted and imprisoned without committing a genuine offense, noting that such formal prosecutions are distinct from those that have resulted in people being arbitrarily detained. Authorities in the XUAR are believed to have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017. Although the Chinese governments use of political education camps has led to international outrage, the detention and imprisonment of Xinjiangs Muslims by the formal justice system has attracted far less attention, said Maya Wang, HRWs senior China researcher. Despite the veneer of legality, many of those in Xinjiangs prisons are ordinary people who were convicted for going about their lives and practicing their religion. HRW cited official statistics as showing a dramatic increase in the number of people sentenced in the XUAR in recent years with 99,326 in 2017 and 133,198 in 2018. Authorities have not released sentencing statistics for 2019, but HRW said that the Xinjiang Victims Databasean NGO that has documented the cases of over 8,000 detainees based on family accounts and official documentsestimates that the number of people sentenced in 2019 may at least be comparable to those in the previous two years. Prior to 2017, sentences of over five years in prison were about 10.8 percent of the total number of people sentenced. In 2017, they make up 87 percent of the sentences, HRW said. International pressure on the Chinese government should be escalated for an independent investigation in Xinjiang, Wang said. Thats the best hope for the release of all those unjustly detained or imprisoned. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. SPRINGFIELD A 27-year-old city man is facing assault and unlawful firearms charges after he allegedly drew a gun on a clerk when told there were no public restrooms in the Belmont Avenue store. Dallas Woodall of Lakeside Street is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license, and carrying a loaded firearm without a license and driving without a license. According to police spokesman Ryan Walsh, a clerk at the CVS, 615 Belmont Ave., called police at 3:20 a.m. to report an armed assault. The suspect, later identified as Woodall, pointed a gun when he was told there were no public restrooms in the store. Woodall was driving out of the parking lot when police arrived. When his car was stopped on Grenada Terrace, about a block away, officers found a gun in the car. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Springfield District Court. Fig. 1 Identification of a missense mutation in SEMA4D/CD100 in a family with PSC. (A) Pedigree of a family with PSC. Squares, male participants; circles, female participants; black filled symbols, patients with PSC; half-filled symbol, patient with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) but without a confirmed diagnosis of PSC; crossed-out symbols, deceased participants. Whole-exome sequencing was carried out on participants with an asterisk. (B) Single-nucleotide variant (SNV) selection strategy. (C) Confirmation of the CD100K849T mutation by Sanger sequencing. F-Mut, family members with PSC; F-WT, healthy family members. Credit: Science Translational Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abb0036 Primary sclerosing cholangitis, or PSC, is a rare chronic inflammatory disease of the bile ducts. It normally debuts in young adults and two thirds of patients are men. In most cases, the patient also has an inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Liver transplantation is currently the only treatment available for the severe liver disease PSC. Now, however, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Oslo University have discovered the first reported genetic mutation that causes PSC. The study, which is published in Science Translational Medicine, opens new paths to future treatments. A family with PSC Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Oslo University have now described for what seems to be the first time a family with an autosomal dominant form of PSC, with five affected and 13 healthy family members. An autosomal dominant disease is an inherited disease that an individual can develop even if only one of the parents has the abnormal gene. By analyzing the DNA of the family members, the researchers found a genetic mutation in the five patients that was not found in their healthy kin. "The mutation localizes to a molecule that exists on the surface of many white blood cells, including immune system T cells," says Niklas Bjorkstrom, doctor and researcher at the Center for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Huddinge) and one of the study's senior authors. Disrupted T cell function The researchers re-created a genetic mutation in mice that was identical to that in the family members with PSC. The mice developed PSC-like symptoms, which suggests that the identified mutation actually caused the disease in the group under study. Finally, the researchers managed to show that the mutation also disrupted T cell function. When these cells were replaced with normal T cells, the mice bearing the mutation could return to health. "This is a great step forward that helps us understand PSC," says Annika Bergquist, adjunct professor at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Huddinge), consultant at Karolinska University Hospital's gastroenterology unit and clinical researcher in charge of the study in Stockholm. "A treatment that stops the disease progressing is urgent, and a vital route to this end is learning more about the mechanisms behind this disease." Their findings contribute to the first genetic explanation of PSC. Their focus now is on finding how the results can be used to develop new future treatments. Explore further Mutation behind incurable disease mapped More information: Xiaojun Jiang et al. A heterozygous germline CD100 mutation in a family with primary sclerosing cholangitis, Science Translational Medicine (2021). Journal information: Science Translational Medicine Xiaojun Jiang et al. A heterozygous germline CD100 mutation in a family with primary sclerosing cholangitis,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abb0036 's ( ) Keith Todd caught up with Proactive London to discuss their new partnership with consultancy and strategy services firm Kintail Consulting to address the area of people and culture risk in capital markets. Todd explains that after the 2008 crisis, regulators made clear that a key factor in that crisis was poor culture. With their new partner Kintail Consulting , they hope to help Human Resource Directors have sight and control over all people and culture activities, such as the processes, recruitment, appraisals, well being and diversity. And importantly providing an integration to those compliance obligations that are now prevalent for example the FCA and SMCR. The United Kingdom must continue its policy of condemning Russia's occupation of Crimea while strengthening itself to counter the Russian threat. Stewart McDonald, a member of the UK Parliament for Glasgow South, wrote about this in an article for The Scotsman. "Condemning Russias actions in Crimea is worth doing, but its not enough. Meaningful solidarity also means ensuring we arent the weak link in the chain," the MP wrote. He stressed that "Putin doesnt play by the international rules-based system; indeed he is one of the greatest challenges to it." "We saw it for ourselves when he deployed chemical weapons on UK soil against Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei and Yulia Skripal, which saw the murder of Dawn Sturgess," the MP said. McDonald added that Russia is spreading a wave of propaganda throughout Europe. "This underlines the need for maximum solidarity amongst free and open societies. Whether it is small democracies such as Estonia or larger nations such as France, alliances such as NATO, the EU and the OSCE are of vital importance in ensuring that we are able to work together to protect our democratic way of life," he said. By Kim Jae-heun Samsung Electronics announced Thursday that four additional young leaders will join Generation17, its joint initiative with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to accelerate progress towards achieving the latter's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Together, the SDGs are an urgent call for action around the world to build peace and prosperity for people and the planet by 2030. "We are proud to expand our mission and use our global reach and purposeful innovations to support a new group of inspirational young activists, who once again share to deliver meaningful solutions that bring communities together," said Stephanie Choi, senior vice president and head of marketing at Samsung Electronics' Mobile Communications Business. "These four leaders are integral members of the Galaxy community, and they have our full support and encouragement to continue rallying us all to advance the Global Goals and help build a better future for everyone." This group of Generation17 Young Leaders is made up of four visionaries combating inequality and human rights issues and educating their generation on the SDGs across Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. Daniel Calarco, 23, is a human rights activist from Brazil who founded the International Youth Watch to create better opportunities for young people from marginalized communities. Nadine Khaouli, 25, is a community activist from Lebanon who leads disaster relief efforts for the country in response to the 2020 Beirut Port explosion and the COVID-19 pandemic through her organization Kafe be Kafak. Choi Ye-jin, 26, is a cognitive therapist turned CEO from Korea who founded DoBrain, an AI-based mobile app that aims to improve early education for children with disabilities. Yurii Romashko, 28, is a transparency advocate from Ukraine, who founded the think tank Institute of Analysis and Advocacy that empowers his community to make more informed, evidence-based decisions in their daily lives. Over the next year, the introduction of these new agents of change will strengthen the initiative's inclusivity and broaden its global scale, as they spearhead previously unaddressed yet critical issues across the SDGs, according to Samsung Electronics. "The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened generational divides around the world, and, now more than ever, it's important that younger generations have the opportunities and resources to be heard and to be active participants in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda," UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said. "Together with Samsung, we are supporting more change-makers as they build sustainable policies, communities and progress during this pivotal time. I look forward to working with this group of young leaders and exploring new paths for a green and equitable recovery." (Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by global companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News: Yellow Cake PLC - Jersey-based uranium investor - Plans to raise at least USD110 million through the placing of shares at GBP2.23 each by way of an accelerated bookbuild. Adds there is also an offer on the PrimaryBid platform for retail investors. Says it will use new cash to fund the purchase of at least 3.5 mmlb of physical uranium under the company's agreement with JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom at a price of USD28.95 per pound. Asiamet Resources - Indonesia-focused copper and gold miner - Plans to raise GBP10 million through the placing of up to 440.9 million shares at 2.2 pence each and the subscription of 16.5 million shares at the same price. Will use the new cash to progress its proposed copper project in Central Kalimantan and support drilling to test the potential for a high grade extension of the Beutong deposit. Optiva Securities is acting as sole bookrunner in connection with the accelerated bookbuild. Yew Grove REIT PLC - Irish real estate investment trust - Agrees new lease for the 43,220 square feet Gateway Three building, East Wall Road in Dublin to Electricity Supply Board group, which is majority-owned by the Irish government. Notes the ESB has signed a lease extension from January 1 for a further term of five years, with an option of an additional one year extension at an initial headline rate of EUR29 per square feet. Says since the start of 2021, it has agreed three rent reviews which add EUR80,000 to its annual rent roll and adds the the new Gateway Three lease will add a further EUR390,000 to the existing rent roll PureTech Health PLC- Boston, Massachusetts-based biotherapeutics company - Notes a research paper published in the Journal of Controlled Release shows its Glyph platform technology has "tremendous potential" for orally administered medicines because it may allow for the bypass of first-pass metabolism in the liver and the direct targeting of the lymphatic system. Says results from the publication demonstrate the ability of a therapeutic modality built from the Glyph platform to target administration of mycophenolic acid - an immunosuppressant - into lymph and directly into gut-draining mesenteric lymph nodes. Separately, also says results from the EMERGENT-1 Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating KarXT for the treatment of schizophrenia demonstrated "statistically significant and clinically meaningful" improvements in primary and key secondary efficacy measures compared with the placebo Agronomics Ltd - Isle of Man-based investor in cellular agriculture with a focus on non-animal cultivated meat and alternative proteins - Invests further USD500,000 in cellular agriculture company VitroLabs Inc in the form of a convertible loan note which will convert at VitroLabs' next funding round. Following conversion, Agronomics will have a 5.3% stake in VitroLabs. AFC Energy PLC - provider of hydrogen power generation technologies - Launches Anion Exchange Membrane fuel cell test facility at its headquarters in Surrey. Notes its "S" Series AEM hydrogen fuel cell once complete, will create the option for heavy motive applications to deploy alkaline chemistry fuel cells in marine, rail and other heavy motive applications. Adds the facility will enhance the feedback in performance of the AlkaMem anion exchange membrane in fuel cell applications, enhancing its development of the membrane for use in other markets. 7digital Group PLC - London-headquartered digital music and radio services platform - Signs two-year contract with connected fitness company FORME Life for the client's trainers to use 7digital's music platform to access a catalogue to cache or stream music content that can then be synchronised with a training video and played on-demand and live. Did noyt diclose financial details of deal but says it expects contract to be a major part of the revenue contribution to overall revenues in 2021. Target Healthcare REIT PLC - UK purpose-built care home investor - As a result of investor demand as well as an "attractive" investment pipeline, decides to increase the size of the initial issue in its fundraise to a maximum of GBP60 million, up from GBP50 million when it was first announced earlier this month. Zytronic PLC- manufacturer and developer of touch technology products - Says 4.6 million shares were validly tendered under its tender offer. Says it will purchase the shares - which represent 29% of its share capital - at 145 pence each for a total of GBP6.7 million Remote Monitored Systems PLC - London-based survey and inspection services provider - Confirms it is in discussions with potential customers for its Pharm 2 Farm Ltd mask, but notes no bulk deliveries of the mask have been made and no contracts have yet been signed. Adds it is making preparations for a formal launch of the masks and its branding Power Metal Resources PLC - metal exploration and development company - Exercises its option to acquire the Magical and Enable properties located on the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt in north-western Ontario, Canada, adding these are the final two of four gold exploration properties upon which it signed an exclusive option to acquire. Notes Magical is located 9 kilometres northwest of Barrick Gold Corp's Hemlo mine and Enable is located on the western part of the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt, at the contact of metavolcanic and volcano-sedimentary rock packages with the Terrace Bay Batholith which is associated with at least 28 documented gold showings. Anglo Asian Mining PLC - gold, copper and silver producer in Azerbaijan - Terminates discussions with Conroy Gold & Natural Resources PLC in relation to the joint venture agreement proposed in July. In July, the company said it entered into a proposed joint-venture with Conroy Gold & Natural Resources which could see it take a 55% stake in the Longford Down Massif gold project in Ireland. Under the deal which has now been terminated, Anglo Asian Mining would initially take just shy of an 18% working interest in exchange for committing to spending EUR2 million in a primary expenditure programme. Energean PLC- oil & gas firm - Completes acquisition of 30% interest in Energean Israel Ltd from Kerogen Investments No.38 Ltd, an affiliate of Kerogen Capital. Notes the acquisition - for between USD380 million to USD405 million - means it now completely own Energean Israel. The acquisition adds 2P reserves of 29.5 billion cubic metres of gas and 30 million barrels of liquids, representing around 219 million barrels of oil equivalent in total to the company. Notes USD175 million of up-front consideration was funded through a drawdown from its USD700 million term loan, USD50 million through the issuance of a convertible note to Kerogen - which matures December 29, 2023 with a strike price of GBP 9.50 and a zero-coupon rate - and the remaining amount will be satisfied through deferred cash amounts of between USD155 million and USD180 million Vela Technologies PLC - Bingley, England-based company with investments in early-stage disruptive technology businesses - Invests GBP350,000 into Aeristech Ltd, a producer of efficient, power-dense compressors for hydrogen fuel cells, as part of the investee's GBP5.1 million pre-IPO funding round. The subscription for 145,833 shares at GBP2.40 each takes Vela's stake in Aeristech to 0.9%. Victoria PLC - Worcestershire-headquartered flooring firm - Prices offering of EUR500 million in aggregate principal amount of 3.625% fixed rate senior secured notes due 2026. It will use proceeds for general corporate purposes - in particular acquisitions - and the refinancing of EUR250 million of principal amount of existing 2024 senior secured notes to further improve the maturity profile and cost of the group's debt. Says offering of notes will close March 5. Separately, increases the target acceptance amount of the tender offer of senior secured notes due 2024 announced on Wednesday to EUR200 million from EUR50 million. Miton UK MicroCap Trust PLC - investment firm focused on companies with market cap of less than GBP150 million - Enters into new three-year term GBP5.0 million revolving credit facility with Royal Bank of Scotland International Ltd. Facility - which replaces the previous RBS facility - has margin of 1.35% above LIBOR and an uncommitted accordion of GBP7.5 million. Kavango Resources PLC - exploration company targeting mineral deposits in Botswana - Banks GBP19,000 through warrants exercise over 1.9 million shares. Following admission, its total issued share capital will comprise 317.5 million shares. Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC - pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical firm based in London - Receives conversion notice from Mint Capital Advisors Ltd in respect of GBP650,000 of convertible loan notes. Hemogenyx will issue 13.1 million shares at GBP0.0495 each. By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. karan86 BHPian Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Mumbai Posts: 38 Thanked: 95 Times Volkswagen Polo 1.5 TDI Highline : 12,000 km and a year This was one of the last-remaining TDI-powered vehicles although the Polo had just gone through a facelift a few months ago. After a thorough PDI, the car was registered and delivered on the 1st of November, 2019. Prior to that, it had been driven all the way from Goa to Bombay as I made a last-minute change from White to Sunset Red. They had disconnected the speedometer for this journey but I know that most dealerships do this when they have to call for a car from elsewhere if they don't have what the customer wants and they aren't going to pay for the truck fare for just one or two cars. One may choose to fuss about it or just move on if there's no damage done. What about the bedding-in process as the guy who drove the car all the way must've not cared? I chose to put my faith in modern engineering. The GT TDI was the first choice, however, there were none available at the time of purchase. The other choice was a Figo TDCi but it somehow felt a little poorer in comparison to the Polo. Since the buying process involved two people, the person whose say mattered more, struck the Ford down for feeling too plasticky in comparison to the VW. Although if driving pleasure is the primary priority and I was the only person involved in the buying process, this review would've been about a Ford. The diesel-powered Polo just cannot match the agility, the involvement, the alacrity, and the "connected to the chassis" feeling one experiences in the driver's seat of the Ford. Between the two, according to me, the Polo is a great GT car which needs the right journeys (and the roads) for the car to delight the driver, while the Ford offers a quick fix to your glum, almost anywhere. Prior to this, I had had a fair amount of experience with the 2015 version of the TDI on 15" wheels and Alnacs and so I knew what to expect. Out of the box, the Polo felt tight like it should've, although immediately, I could sense that the road manners weren't the same. I could blame the bigger 16" wheels but I was to discover other things a little later. The first 1,000 kms were covered within a week and then VW called for what they called their "Swagat" service, which is nothing but a reason for the service centre to understand what kind of a customer they will be dealing with. I'd refrain from mentioning here what happened during the service as it was a painful experience to say the least but a few calls to important men at VW got the issue fixed. I had bought the car knowing that I'd be buying a great product and a hit or a miss service experience but this was next level. Anyways, the car has gone through its 6-month / 7,500 kms check and annual service at 8,500 kms and after the first episode, the service centre guys now know it's a car not to mess with. . What I would like to mention though is that in the last one year, my service experience has gone from worse to better, although Maruti is still top dog when it comes to fixing issues. They replaced the steering column on the Baleno twice because I complained that the steering won't self-centre after a turn. They gave up after several attempts, stating that it's not a feature of the wheel. However, I knew it long before they could tell me that What I love about the Polo 1.5 TDI is its ability to munch miles at speeds which make objects in the mirror appear farther, until they disappear. And it does that while returning 20 kmpl, even while the engine spins northwards of 3,000 rpm in fifth gear, as I recently discovered during a drive to Goa. While at it, it displays stability no other hatchback in the same zip code can match. The calm inside the cabin while everything else blurs past is what makes European cars special and the Polo 1.5 TDI is no exception. For all that planet-saving, I wonder if a turbo-petrol hatchback with its one less cylinder, lesser refinement, hurried nature, and fuel-gulping capacity once its pushed, does make for a more greener vehicle? Let's consider a 600 km journey, and since the petrol car will definitely consume more fuel and then smoke it out (which is more expensive), won't it be letting out as much or more carbon and everything else for the same distance? I've been using cruise control quite often lately as the speed limit on the Sion-Panvel highway and the Bombay-Pune expressway is being monitored very strictly. No longer can one blast all the way to Pune, unless you're ready to receive SMSs for every violation, each asking you to cough out a 1,000 bucks! I've been caught on camera once doing 105 kmph in an 80 kmph zone and I've been extra careful since then. For those visiting Goa, the scenic stretch after Margao towards Canacona will surprise with Police interceptors who are armed with a speed gun and will tell you that the limit on that road is a mere 70 kmph and not 80 kmph as you might've guessed. Coming back to the Polo, it's a 3-seater at best, a great 2-seater for long journeys, and can carry four for everything else which is shorter in terms of distance. For someone who measures 6.0" in height, the seats have been comfortable even after 12-hour+ journeys. Everything else has already been discussed here many times so I'll skip on that. But I would've wanted better sound deadening in the door pads because the stock music system sounds alright to my taste but crank up the volume and then you turn it down immediately as the plastic begins to creak. As of now, the car has covered 12,000 kms on the odometer and in this duration, here are the things which couldve been better: # The driver and passenger-side vents adjusters have broken for being flimsy # Even after a double-barrel setup, the headlight intensity is seriously poor. VW has had plenty of time to fix this but then I experienced the poor headlights of the Seltos and now I dont feel all that bad # Experienced the braking-related steering judder when the car was just 4,500-km old. The service centre fixed it by polishing the discs with sandpaper. The judder went away for some time but has now come back in a mild form while braking from speeds north of 100 kmph. The brakes need a good amount of force on the pedal to shed speed. #The suspension has become extremely harsh and noisy over bad patches (The service centre recommends some oiling under the strut cap). It feels like all four struts have lost all their rebound and compression when the going gets rough. Things are alright on paved surfaces though. Although on cemented surfaces, things get seriously busy. Around corners, the rear section feels rigid and mid-corner bumps do unsettle the car. Having run all sorts of air pressure combinations (got a portable compressor), I run 32 PSI on all four tyres with two passengers inside the cabin. Recommended values are 36 and 33 for the front and rear tyres respectively. Anything above 32 for the front makes things too rigid and the front section floaty. # The factory-fitted Goodyear Assurance 195/55 R16 tyres are seriously shitty. They are really noisy, grip levels are just about okay, and the rubber compound is hard like a rock. # The dead-centre zone in the steering has slightly increased and theres some tak-tak noise from the column (doesnt happen always) when the wheel is turned to the right and the car is being driven on a rough patch. # When the car is driven with the windows open, a loose bearing-like sound from the left, which isnt too high pitched, bounces off into the cabin from parked vehicles, buses, bridge barriers, etc. The famous hissing sound from the front struts is heard too. Inside the cabin, the left front strut makes a damped sound like its hitting something rubbery when the car is driven on roads which are paved but topped with ripples for some reason. Example:- The recently paved road on the Andheri Flyover on the western express highway. Its just so sad that even our paved roads are shitty! # The engine has been performing alright, although the car as a whole, feels a little lazier than it did.. Although the car maintains all its speeds at the usual rpm level. A bottle of liqui moly in the diesel has hushed the initial clatter and improved response. But the engine doesnt feel as eager as it did for the first 7-8,000 kms. Like all other TDIs, it did gulp a litre of so oil which was topped-up during the 6-month check. Have been keeping an extra bottle inside the boot. On a side note, theres a decent amount of smoke from the exhaust when I accelerate hard in 2nd and 3rd gear. It has been happening since the car was new and I guess its normal behaviour for a diesel engine. Feels embarrassing to make that quick move sometimes though. And this happens even when the air filter is clean. # On an incline, only while driving downhill, there is a small hiccup in the throttle where the power is cut for a second or even less before it comes back again. This isn't a one-off situation for sure and happens even when the car is rolling down in gear while still being accelerated. Anybody experienced anything similar with the 1.5 TDI? # Besides all these, the car has been a great purchase, considering the limited choice of diesel cars available now under the 10 lakh mark and the insane pump price of petrol. The cabin is still noise or rattle-free and theres nothing in terms of features I miss. If only they had fitted a dial to shut the air flow to the rear AC vents. What I need now is some assistance from the good folks here to solve the engine lethargy and harsh and noisy suspension issue. None of the struts are leaking and the tie-rods seem tight enough. What am I missing? Is this normal behaviour since the car runs 16 rims? But the suspension felt quite damped until about 10,000 kms or so. I understand that after some time, a new car will lose some of its densely-packed feeling and maybe this could be normal behaviour. Some advice will be of great help. Many Thanks! It was late 2019 when the entire BS6 hullabaloo had begun peaking and manufacturers were announcing their decisions to let go of small-capacity diesels. A decision had to be made quickly. So a 2-year-old 1.2 Baleno went out and in came a VW Polo 1.5 TDI Highline Plus at a whopping 2.3 lakh discountThis was one of the last-remaining TDI-powered vehicles although the Polo had just gone through a facelift a few months ago. After a thorough PDI, the car was registered and delivered on the 1st of November, 2019. Prior to that, it had been driven all the way from Goa to Bombay as I made a last-minute change from White to Sunset Red.They had disconnected the speedometer for this journey but I know that most dealerships do this when they have to call for a car from elsewhere if they don't have what the customer wants and they aren't going to pay for the truck fare for just one or two cars. One may choose to fuss about it or just move on if there's no damage done. What about the bedding-in process as the guy who drove the car all the way must've not cared? I chose to put my faith in modern engineering.The GT TDI was the first choice, however, there were none available at the time of purchase. The other choice was a Figo TDCi but it somehow felt a little poorer in comparison to the Polo. Since the buying process involved two people, the person whose say mattered more, struck the Ford down for feeling too plasticky in comparison to the VW. Although if driving pleasure is the primary priority and I was the only person involved in the buying process, this review would've been about a Ford.The diesel-powered Polo just cannot match the agility, the involvement, the alacrity, and the "connected to the chassis" feeling one experiences in the driver's seat of the Ford. Between the two, according to me, the Polo is a great GT car which needs the right journeys (and the roads) for the car to delight the driver, while the Ford offers a quick fix to your glum, almost anywhere.Prior to this, I had had a fair amount of experience with the 2015 version of the TDI on 15" wheels and Alnacs and so I knew what to expect. Out of the box, the Polo felt tight like it should've, although immediately, I could sense that the road manners weren't the same. I could blame the bigger 16" wheels but I was to discover other things a little later.The first 1,000 kms were covered within a week and then VW called for what they called their "Swagat" service, which is nothing but a reason for the service centre to understand what kind of a customer they will be dealing with. I'd refrain from mentioning here what happened during the service as it was a painful experience to say the least but a few calls to important men at VW got the issue fixed. I had bought the car knowing that I'd be buying a great product and a hit or a miss service experience but this was next level.Anyways, the car has gone through its 6-month / 7,500 kms check and annual service at 8,500 kms and after the first episode, the service centre guys now know it's a car not to mess with.. What I would like to mention though is that in the last one year, my service experience has gone from worse to better, although Maruti is still top dog when it comes to fixing issues. They replaced the steering column on the Baleno twice because I complained that the steering won't self-centre after a turn. They gave up after several attempts, stating that it's not a feature of the wheel. However, I knew it long before they could tell me thatWhat I love about the Polo 1.5 TDI is its ability to munch miles at speeds which make objects in the mirror appear farther, until they disappear. And it does that while returning 20 kmpl, even while the engine spins northwards of 3,000 rpm in fifth gear, as I recently discovered during a drive to Goa. While at it, it displays stability no other hatchback in the same zip code can match. The calm inside the cabin while everything else blurs past is what makes European cars special and the Polo 1.5 TDI is no exception. For all that planet-saving, I wonder if a turbo-petrol hatchback with its one less cylinder, lesser refinement, hurried nature, and fuel-gulping capacity once its pushed, does make for a more greener vehicle? Let's consider a 600 km journey, and since the petrol car will definitely consume more fuel and then smoke it out (which is more expensive), won't it be letting out as much or more carbon and everything else for the same distance?I've been using cruise control quite often lately as the speed limit on the Sion-Panvel highway and the Bombay-Pune expressway is being monitored very strictly. No longer can one blast all the way to Pune, unless you're ready to receive SMSs for every violation, each asking you to cough out a 1,000 bucks! I've been caught on camera once doing 105 kmph in an 80 kmph zone and I've been extra careful since then. For those visiting Goa, the scenic stretch after Margao towards Canacona will surprise with Police interceptors who are armed with a speed gun and will tell you that the limit on that road is a mere 70 kmph and not 80 kmph as you might've guessed.Coming back to the Polo, it's a 3-seater at best, a great 2-seater for long journeys, and can carry four for everything else which is shorter in terms of distance. For someone who measures 6.0" in height, the seats have been comfortable even after 12-hour+ journeys. Everything else has already been discussed here many times so I'll skip on that. But I would've wanted better sound deadening in the door pads because the stock music system sounds alright to my taste but crank up the volume and then you turn it down immediately as the plastic begins to creak.As of now, the car has covered 12,000 kms on the odometer and in this duration, here are the things which couldve been better:# The driver and passenger-side vents adjusters have broken for being flimsy# Even after a double-barrel setup, the headlight intensity is seriously poor. VW has had plenty of time to fix this but then I experienced the poor headlights of the Seltos and now I dont feel all that bad# Experienced the braking-related steering judder when the car was just 4,500-km old. The service centre fixed it by polishing the discs with sandpaper. The judder went away for some time but has now come back in a mild form while braking from speeds north of 100 kmph. The brakes need a good amount of force on the pedal to shed speed.#The suspension has become extremely harsh and noisy over bad patches (The service centre recommends some oiling under the strut cap). It feels like all four struts have lost all their rebound and compression when the going gets rough. Things are alright on paved surfaces though. Although on cemented surfaces, things get seriously busy. Around corners, the rear section feels rigid and mid-corner bumps do unsettle the car. Having run all sorts of air pressure combinations (got a portable compressor), I run 32 PSI on all four tyres with two passengers inside the cabin. Recommended values are 36 and 33 for the front and rear tyres respectively. Anything above 32 for the front makes things too rigid and the front section floaty.# The factory-fitted Goodyear Assurance 195/55 R16 tyres are seriously shitty. They are really noisy, grip levels are just about okay, and the rubber compound is hard like a rock.# The dead-centre zone in the steering has slightly increased and theres some tak-tak noise from the column (doesnt happen always) when the wheel is turned to the right and the car is being driven on a rough patch.# When the car is driven with the windows open, a loose bearing-like sound from the left, which isnt too high pitched, bounces off into the cabin from parked vehicles, buses, bridge barriers, etc. The famous hissing sound from the front struts is heard too. Inside the cabin, the left front strut makes a damped sound like its hitting something rubbery when the car is driven on roads which are paved but topped with ripples for some reason. Example:- The recently paved road on the Andheri Flyover on the western express highway. Its just so sad that even our paved roads are shitty!# The engine has been performing alright, although the car as a whole, feels a little lazier than it did.. Although the car maintains all its speeds at the usual rpm level. A bottle of liqui moly in the diesel has hushed the initial clatter and improved response. But the engine doesnt feel as eager as it did for the first 7-8,000 kms. Like all other TDIs, it did gulp a litre of so oil which was topped-up during the 6-month check. Have been keeping an extra bottle inside the boot. On a side note, theres a decent amount of smoke from the exhaust when I accelerate hard in 2nd and 3rd gear. It has been happening since the car was new and I guess its normal behaviour for a diesel engine. Feels embarrassing to make that quick move sometimes though. And this happens even when the air filter is clean.# On an incline, only while driving downhill, there is a small hiccup in the throttle where the power is cut for a second or even less before it comes back again. This isn't a one-off situation for sure and happens even when the car is rolling down in gear while still being accelerated. Anybody experienced anything similar with the 1.5 TDI?# Besides all these, the car has been a great purchase, considering the limited choice of diesel cars available now under the 10 lakh mark and the insane pump price of petrol. The cabin is still noise or rattle-free and theres nothing in terms of features I miss. If only they had fitted a dial to shut the air flow to the rear AC vents.What I need now is some assistance from the good folks here to solve the engine lethargy and harsh and noisy suspension issue. None of the struts are leaking and the tie-rods seem tight enough. What am I missing? Is this normal behaviour since the car runs 16 rims? But the suspension felt quite damped until about 10,000 kms or so. I understand that after some time, a new car will lose some of its densely-packed feeling and maybe this could be normal behaviour. Some advice will be of great help. Many Thanks! Last edited by moralfibre : 24th February 2021 at 20:33 . Reason: Only two smileys per post. London: Overseas holidays face a new threat as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that travellers COVID vaccinations should not be used to decide whether people can enter a country. The WHO said there were still critical unknowns about the efficacy of vaccinations in reducing COVID transmission and preventing the disease even as governments are working on vaccine certificates as a way to kick-start travel. It said that, as a result, national authorities, airlines and travel operators should not introduce requirements of proof of COVID-19 vaccination for international travel as a condition for departure or entry. The beach in Mykonos - Greece and Israel have already agreed to allow vaccinated travelers to move between the two countries. Credit:Shutterstock The organisation said vaccination should not exempt travellers from having to undergo other travel risk-reduction measures such as COVID testing or quarantine. Vaccination documents are seen as critical to enable holidaymakers to travel abroad during the European summer. In his road map out of lockdown on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), Boris Johnson signalled that international travel could restart as early as May 17. Detectives are investigating whether an elderly woman found dead inside her Gold Coast home alongside her seriously injured husband was killed with an axe. The bloodied body of Robyn Beever is understood to have been found by a family member on Thursday afternoon after they arrived at the couple's abode in Varsity Lakes to check on the pair. The 82-year-old woman is believed to have suffered significant injuries. Her husband Max, 82, was also found inside the home and was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital where he remains under police guard. Mr Beever suffered a suspected drug overdose, the Courier-Mail reported. Robyn Beever (left) was found dead inside her Gold Coast home on Thursday afternoon. Her husband Max (right) was also found at the residence. He was rushed to hospital where he remains under police guard Police (pictured at the scene) were called to the couple's home on Gerona Circuit, Varsity Lakes, about 1:30pm on Thursday Mrs Beever's death is being treated as suspicious, with the Homicide Squad joining the investigation as officers piece together the moments leading up to her death. Her husband 'forms a critical part of our inquiry', Detective Inspector Chris Ahearn said. 'We're not looking for anyone else at this stage. (Mr Beever) was located in the house... when we're able to speak with him, we'll be doing that,' Det Insp Ahearn said. The couple had lived on Gerona Circuit for almost 20 years, with no reported history of domestic violence between the pair. Police (pictured at the scene) are treating Mrs Beever's death as suspicious with officers confirming her husband 'forms a critical part of our inquiry' Shocked neighbours were seen speaking to detectives outside the home as police canvassed the area The death has left the neighbourhood reeling in shock, with residents describing the pair as a 'typical old couple'. 'I just can't believe it, this is the sort of street where everyone says hello,' one woman told the Gold Coast Bulletin. Kamen Nepia, who lives three houses away from the couple, said her family would always wave at them as they passed their home. 'They always had the garage open and were sitting in there. Like typical old people they were always fussing over their house,' she said. Rs80 lakh crore public money at risk if PSBs privatised: UFBU Strongly opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans to privatise all public sector banks (PSBs), the Unted Forum of Banking Unions on Thursday said that it could imperil Rs 80 lakh crore hard-earned money belonging to the people. UFBU Convenor Devidas Tuljapurkar said that the move could prove counterproductive as the private sector banks will work towards "accounting profits" vis-a-vis the PSBs which strive towards "social profits". To protest the move to privatise the PSBs, the UFBU will go on a two-day nationwide strike on March 15-16, he said. "India is still confronted by poverty, unemployment, hunger, there is acute economic disparity and geographical imbalances There is a need to implement social sector lending schemes in which the private sector banks hardly contribute," Tuljapurkar said. He pointed out that in the implementation of the Jan Dhan Scheme, the share of private sector banks is less than 5 per cent and their share is also insignificant for other schemes like Mudra, Swadhan, Stand UP India, Make In India, etc. which are intended for employment generation. The common man will be pushed out of the orbits of banking and in turn, development which is unaffordable, while putting at risk Rs 80 lakh crore savings of the people, Tuljapurkar warned. Referring to the "dismal track record" of the private sector banking in India, he said whenever they collapse, it is the PSBs which bail them out. When Yes Bank was on the verge of a crash, the government intervened and the State Bank of India bailed it out, and earlier helped another important private sector NBFC, the ILFS, along with the LIC, he noted. In the past, after the Karad Bank collapsed with the unfolding the Harshad Mehta scam, the Bank of India helped prop it up, and later, the Global Trust Bank crashed with the revelations of the Ketan Parekh scam and it was the Oriental Bank of Commerce which helped it out, he added. "Today, the biggest challenge before the Indian banks is non-performing assets in which the share of the corporate sector is over 70 per cent and they are 'day-dreaming' to be the owners of these PSBs now. It is most unfortunate that the PM is facilitating it which may prove to be disastrous for the savings of the masses," Tuljarpurkar said. Moreover, even now several private sector banks are struggling for survival on account of some of the dealings of the dubious private and corporate sectors, he added. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. Police have launched raids on two convicted fraudsters at the centre of a homeless housing bill dispute. Perth City Apartment Hotel owner Eddie Kamil and hotel accountant Anthony Collie were demanding $40,000 from the state government for accommodating around 40 rough sleepers who showed up in the days after Fremantles tent city was dismantled. Mr Kamil claimed the 11 rooms booked at his hotel were arranged by Department of Communities staff, however, the department denied making any booking and Mr Kamil was unable to provide the name of the person who made the request. According to Nine News Perth, police investigating the homeless bill scandal have since executed search warrants on two residential properties one being Mr Kamils home, where he was arrested. Bank of Queensland (BOQ) has signed a $1.325 billion deal to acquire ME bank on Feb 22, paving its way to challenge the big four dominance. (Reuters/Edgar Su) BOQ Acquires ME Bank to Become Sixth Largest in Australia Bank of Queensland (BOQ) has signed an all-cash deal to acquire Members Equity Bank (ME) for about $1.3 billion (US$1.03 billion). Announced on Feb. 22, the deal will see the BOQ emerge as a nations sixth-largest bank, giving it the scale it needs to challenge the big fourNAB, CommBank, ANZ, and Westpac. The acquisition was fully funded through underwritten equity raising and is expected to be complete by the end of the 2021 financial year. BOQ chairman Patrick Allaway described the deal as transformational and strategically aligned, saying it was a major step in the banks plan to be the leading customer-centric alternative to the big players. With the addition of the ME Bank business, BOQ now has a material scale and a compelling growth platform to support this ambition, he said in a statement. ME is an industry super fund-owned mortgage lender launched in the 1990s, with a current loan book value sitting around $25 billion. As a result, BOQ will double its retail bank size, bringing its retail and business ratio close to a 50-50 split. It will also lift its ranking among the national financial institutions to the sixth position, just below Macquarie Bank. BOQ Managing Director and CEO George Frazis said the deal is set to deliver sustainable and profitable growth to the merged entity. Combined, the group, will have pro forma total assets over $88 billion, with total deposits of more than $56 billion, he said. The bank also expects the integration to generate benefits between $70 million to $80 million within three years and boost return on equity in the first year. The two banks confirmed business remains as usual for customers and employees. Under the deal, the ME brand, employee, operations, and Melbourne-based presence will be retained. The merger will not affect or change its existing customers accounts, nor their relationship with ME bank. We are pleased that under the proposal, the ME Bank brand and operations will be maintained, ME Banks chairman James Evans said. ME customers will be able to enjoy the same simple and straightforward products and services we know they expect from ME Bank, along with the additional benefits of being part of a bigger bank. ACCC Welcomes the Merger Rod Sims, chair of ACCC, has welcomed the merger and sees it as a potential way to disrupt the status quo of the big four Australian banks. Our assessment is those four players only see themselves in the market; they dont take much notice of the smaller players when thinking about pricing or other decisions, he told the Sydney Morning Herald. Sims also believes that the acquisition means both institutions now stand a better chance of penetrating the big four banks market dominance. If this can help them with a wider product offering, a wider geographic offering, a bit more economies of scale, if this could help them challenge the big four, thats helping, he said. Kentucky's Positivity Rate Falls Below 6 Percent By West Kentucky Star Staff FRANKFORT - On Wednesday, Governor Andy Beshear announced the state's positivity rate has declined to 5.9 percent, the lowest since October 27."We are getting these vaccines out faster than the federal government can provide them, so there's a lot of hope moving into the future," said Gov. Beshear. "We are going to defeat this virus this year, but until then, we've got to protect each other."Beshear reported 1,306 new cases and 51 deaths. The deaths include 1 in McCracken County, and 1 in Marshall County.There are currently 883 Kentuckians hospitalized with the virus, with 112 of those on a ventilator. [February 25, 2021] Illinois Utilities Opening Doors to Opportunities for Diverse Suppliers Charter members of the Illinois Utilities Business Diversity Council (IUBDC) spent a combined total of $1.8 billion on goods and services provided by minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned businesses in 2019, a 100 percent increase since the coalition was formed in 2015. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006212/en/ A technician assembles energy efficiency equipment for ComEd at The Will Group's new 60,000-square-foot facility on Chicago's West Side, where it will provide more than 100 jobs. (Photo: Business Wire) "Diverse suppliers are playing a major role in the efforts of Illinois utilities to modernize energy infrastructure and support the transition to clean energy, drive continuous improvement and meet the evolving needs of customers," said Joe Dominguez, CEO of ComEd and 2021 Chairman of the IUBDC Board of Directors. "Investing in a diverse supply chain also helps us lift up communities in need, which is more important than ever. Many of the equity issues that we face today an be traced back to the lack of jobs and economic opportunities and that's an area where Illinois utilities are committed to making a positive impact." ComEd, along with Ameren Illinois, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, Nicor Gas, and Illinois American Water formed IUBDC to increase business opportunities for diverse companies through closer collaboration, technical development, and sharing of best practices. Since 2014, all electric, gas and water companies under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Commerce Commission with at least 100,000 customers report annually in April on their procurement goals and actual spending with diverse suppliers. Final tallies could top $2 billion for 2020, according to Charles Matthews, president and CEO, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, who passed the IUBDC chairman's gavel to Dominguez in December. "Our passion for diversity is exemplified not only by our supply chain and our own work forces, but by the formation of the IUBDC," said Matthews. "We launched this organization not because of a statutory requirement, but because we saw an opportunity to join forces and engage in a systematic effort to expand the opportunities for diverse companies to succeed for the long haul." The Will Group, a Chicago-based electrical equipment company established in 1986 by entrepreneur Stephen L. Davis, chairman, works with multiple utilities and is seeing doors open to new business since becoming involved with the IUBDC. The company is playing a key role in ComEd's deployment of voltage optimization (VO), an energy efficiency solution that controls and lowers the voltage delivered to electric utility customers, reducing energy costs and lowering carbon emissions. The Will Group recently opened a new 60,000-square-foot facility in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, where the company will provide 100 jobs. Josh Davis, president of The Will Group, is a recipient of the IUBDC scholarship to attend the Advanced Management Education Program at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, in partnership with the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Accelerated (News - Alert) growth in Illinois utility company spending with diverse suppliers began with the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (EIMA) or "Smart Grid Bill" enacted in 2011, and the Natural Gas Consumer, Safety & Reliability Act of 2013. These initiatives created unprecedented opportunities for more diverse suppliers to support utility efforts by implementing massive upgrades to aging energy infrastructure and installing new technologies and equipment to improve reliability and service. For more information about the IUBDC, visit iubdc.com. About the Illinois Utilities Business Diversity Council The Illinois Utilities Business Diversity Council (IUBDC) members include Ameren Illinois, ComEd, Illinois American Water, Nicor Gas, North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas. The mission of the IUBDC is to serve the Illinois utilities as a forum for best practice sharing and information exchange with the focus on advancing the growth and utilization of utility-based diverse businesses in the state of Illinois. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006212/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 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). HOUSTON - (Feb. 25, 2021) - Low-income livestock farmers in developing countries are often faced with a difficult dilemma: protect their animals from endangered predators, or spare the threatened species at the expense of their livestock and livelihood. A new paper by Rice University economist Ted Loch-Temzelides examines such circumstances faced by farmers in Pakistan. "Conservation, risk aversion, and livestock insurance: The case of the snow leopard" outlines a plan under which farmers can protect themselves from crippling financial losses while preserving and possibly benefiting from the lives of endangered predators. "These livestock owners often have very low incomes," Loch-Temzelides said. "The loss of even one animal can be financially devastating. They're faced with the difficult task of weighing conservation efforts against economic losses due to attacks on their herds. And this situation isn't limited to snow leopards -- it applies anywhere large predators live near livestock." Loch-Temzelides proposes establishing community livestock insurance contracts for farmers in developing countries who don't have access to the types of policies available in more developed nations. Under these contracts, farmers would agree to share the cost of lost animals with other farmers in their community. For example: If one farmer in a community of 10 lost an animal valued at $100, each community member would lose the equivalent of about $10. By aiding conservation efforts, he added, farmers may stand to reap additional benefits. "Tourists around the world are willing to pay to see endangered species such as snow leopards in their natural habitats," Loch-Temzelides said. "And revenue from ecotourism can benefit communities and their residents significantly." While Loch-Temzelides' study focuses on Pakistan, he hopes community livestock insurance can be useful around the world. ### The study will appear in an upcoming edition of the journal Conservation Letters and is available online at https:/ / conbio. onlinelibrary. wiley. com/ doi/ 10. 1111/ conl. 12793 . This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu. Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews. Photo link: https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 115314887_l. jpg Photo credit: 123rf.com 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 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 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. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. COLUMBUS, Ohio A Franklin County deputy who works in the county jail has surrendered to federal authorities after being accused of receiving child pornography. Daniel P. Heintz, 38, of Columbus, appeared in federal court Wednesday and is charged with advertising for and receiving child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Ohio. If convicted of advertising for child pornography, Heintz could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years if convicted of receiving child pornography. Court documents show that in mid-August 2020, authorities became aware of online messages sent by Heintz to a man in Illinois. Both discussed a mutual sexual interest in children and exchanged photos of themselves and of child pornography, according to documents. Heintz received sexually explicit videos of a girl approximately 13 to 15 years old, documents show. Heintz also is accused of discussing his sexual abuse of a minor to whom he had access. An affidavit shows Heintz claimed he photographed the minor sleeping and said he sexually abused the victim, telling the Illinois man he also could have access to the victim. Law-enforcement officials searched Heintzs residence and his work location, the Franklin County Correctional Center, on Feb. 11. Authorities say they found several hundred images of prepubescent minors being sexually abused, including toddlers. WBNS Channel 10 reports Heintz is a non-certified deputy in the jail and is not authorized to carry a weapon. He has been working with the Franklin County Sheriffs Office since 2007. Sheriff Dallas Baldwin released a statement Wednesday saying his office has begun the process of firing Heintz, who has been on administrative leave the past two weeks. A lawyer for Heintz tells WBNS that his client is being held in a jail other than where he worked. Heintz is scheduled to again appear in court on Friday. More crime-related content on cleveland.com: Cleveland police chief acknowledges department was deficient in force review after May 30 protests Federal monitor outlines Cleveland police failings in response to May 30 George Floyd protests Judge dismisses charges against former Summit County sheriffs deputy, cites racial bias for prosecution RTA police officer suspended amid excessive force investigation, official says Akron shooting leaves 1 man dead, police say Tom Hellauer/Special to SFGATE By the time police arrived at his home in Santa Cruz, Scott Nevin had escaped to his vacation property in Lake Tahoe. Nevin, 55, was out on bail for 50 felony charges but had a slew of arrest warrants to his name, including felony threats to civilians, domestic violence, witness intimidation and threats to kill law enforcement. I trudge along the side of a piercingly loud two-lane highway, stepping over a Modelo can, an empty bottle of wine and a Sonic burger wrapper. I pull out my phone, open Google Maps, and punch in the exact coordinates again to make sure Im in the right place before scanning the emerald green horizon. And then I finally see it. Now blanketed by endless rows of wine grapes is Bliss hill, the subject of one of the most-viewed images in history: the default desktop wallpaper for the Windows XP operating system. Charles ORear knows this hill well. He drove past it more than 100 times in the mid-90s on his way from St. Helena to Marin to see his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Daphne Larkin. Every Friday afternoon Id drive down to see her, spend the afternoon, then drive home, he tells me over the phone from his North Carolina home. And I always had a camera with me. Makes sense, considering the 79-year-old Missouri native was a staff photographer for The Kansas City Star and Los Angeles Times, plus spent 25 years shooting for National Geographic where he twice landed cover images. After 25 years photographing at National Geographic, there will be no mention of Geographic on my tombstone, he says with a laugh. And, as much as it pains me to say, hes probably right. Because on one of those Friday afternoon drives to see Daphne in 1996, O'Rear pulled over to the side of the road and took a picture of the idyllic hill. He uploaded the photo to a stock photo agency he helped co-found, and then two years later his stock photo agency was acquired by another stock photo agency that was regularly used by Microsoft. Microsoft found ORears hill shot, paid an undisclosed-but-exorbitant sum for all rights to it in perpetuity (reportedly in the low six figures) and then proceeded to make it Windows XPs default desktop wallpaper. That wallpaper was also ultimately a central figure in an extraordinary $1 billion marketing campaign for the operating system. More than 400 million copies of Windows XP were sold in its first five years, and the operating system wasn't retired until 2014, meaning more than a billion people have very likely seen ORears photo without ever realizing it was from the Bay Area. Before the location of the photo was revealed, there was speculation that it was taken in Ireland (or France, or England, or Switzerland, or New Zealand, or Washington or Germany), and that it wasnt even actually a real photograph. A majority of people who saw that photograph, billions of people, thought it was not a real photograph, ORear says. One video posted in 2019, however, makes all kinds of efforts to once and for all prove otherwise. The video's creator debunks weird conspiracy theories (from hidden messages to Photoshopped clouds), estimates which Friday it was shot in January of 1996 based on Farmers Almanac records and the cloud cover (Jan. 19 is the guess) and decides ultimately the photo is real. Which, ORear obviously already knows. Driving through the Sonoma hills in January it always gets a carpet of green grass, its beautiful. I knew that, and it was just the perfect light, the perfect clouds, he says. Still, not a week goes by that some email comes through about that photograph, just like your call. I talked to ORear almost 25 years exactly to the day he shot the photograph and learned all kinds of fun things about him. For one, he doesnt use Windows and hasnt for a long time (I got hooked on Apple, he says.). Also, the previously untouched rolling green hill became a vineyard just a few years after he shot it, and he moved to North Carolina largely because St. Helena had become overrun with "second homes" that killed any sense of community. A couple weeks after we chat, I retrace his steps to the exact spot he shot the photo from. I make my way across the Golden Gate Bridge, up 101 and into wine country eventually blurring by Rams Gate on Highway 121, before getting on Highway 12. Following a short drive, I start twisting my head back and forth like some sort of deranged bobblehead, looking for a place to pull off on the side of the road when I reach the iconic patch of grass. Except theres nowhere to pull off the country road ORear remembers taking is now a bustling two-lane highway. I double back to a little turn-off by an alpaca farm across the street, then trek along the side of the road. ORear told me he always makes a point to take this route back to San Francisco whenever he returns to Napa Valley in order to make a remark when they drive by. I wondered why he'd just drive by instead of stopping to take it in, but now it all makes sense. This isnt a great place to stop and admire anything. Still, I snap a photo of the hill framed exactly like the default desktop background my dad had on his computer for years. Its the hottest day of the year so far, nearly topping 80 degrees. A rich sun beats down as I imagine ORear setting up his tripod a couple feet from where Im standing to take a photo of a hill that will probably never look like it did the day he shot it. The roaring traffic behind me finally stops and theres a moment of absolutely perfect quiet and I feel the sort of calm you get after a really satisfying deep breath. You might even call it Bliss. Bliss hill is located in Sonoma, California. The best way to find it is by putting the following coordinates into Google Maps: 38.249069, -122.410126. East Coast MP Kiri Allan says the imminent closure of the Whakatane Board Mill is devastating for the community and she will be arranging a meeting to see what can be done to prevent it. Earlier this week, more than 200 staff at the mill were presented with a proposal to close the mill, which will see them all made redundant by the end of June. The mill has been an intergenerational employer in Whakatane for more than 80 years and produces paper and packaging products. This news is devastating for all in the Eastern Bay of Plenty community, says Allan. We have over 210 families feeling shock, uncertainty and heartache at this news and it is the latest event to hit the community hard. I am gutted for those families. As soon as the news broke on Tuesday night, Allan contacted the Minister for Forestry, and Economic and Regional Development Stuart Nash, and the two intend to have a meeting with mill executives to see if anything can be done to save the struggling business. We are the Labour Party, we are the party of workers, says Allan. The loss of these jobs is concerning for us. We are wanting to get there ASAP to speak to all the stakeholders including the mill, the mayor and Toi EDA. Allan says her hope for this meeting is that all stakeholders will decide what can be done collectively and what options are in the realm of possibility. The Government has invested more than $300 million in the Bay of Plenty through Covid-19 economic support and Ms Allan said some of these projects were just starting to get going and there was a possibility some mill workers could be redeployed. This closure will hit the Whakatane community hard and we need to work out if we can soften the blow in any way, she says. Allans comments will be welcomed by the Eastern Bay of Plenty Chamber of Commerce which, alongside Toi Economic Development Agency, had called for the Government to step in. Chamber of commerce general manager Lucy Devany says beyond the 210 staff employed by the mill there were between 50 and 100 direct contractors and many businesses that supported them indirectly. A lot of money spent with the wages and contractors at the mill recirculates into the local economy, which means that our cafes, retailers and other service businesses are likely to be impacted, she said. Thats why the Chamber is calling on central Government to step in to help this situation. Whakatane Mayor Judy Turner has also welcomed the news that Allan will be getting involved. Before we start wringing our hands, we need to analyse what options are out there and what can be done to keep those jobs. Im chuffed that Kiri Allan is going to do that. It would be great to bring all the agencies together for a discussion around what can be done and how we can support all the affected families in the meantime. Turner says there needs to be a national conversation around adding value to the products New Zealand produced and suggested, with the Government looking to ban all single-use plastics, the mill could look to innovate and create better paper products for packaging. She says the Government needs to be a strong partner to help businesses innovate to meet a changing world. If the worst-case scenario does happen and the mill closes, we need to be ready to provide support to those affected people." Turner says this support needs to cover the needs of affected contractors as well as the 210 mill employees. It is our role as councillors to facilitate that, economic wellbeing is one of the four wellbeings that we as council focus on." As well as the effect on staff and contractors, Turner says the potential closure of the mill would impact many other businesses in Whakatane. But we cant have a give up attitude without considering all other options first, she said. Kylie Jenner got some canine company on Wednesday afternoon, bringing her new dog Kevin to lunch. The 23-year-old reality star and cosmetics mogul took to her Instagram story to share videos of her with Kevin at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Jenner first debuted the adopted pup on Instagram on Monday, who made quite the impression on her 217 million followers. Kylie's company: Kylie Jenner got some canine company on Wednesday afternoon, bringing her new dog Kevin to lunch New pooch: The 23-year-old reality star and cosmetics mogul took to her Instagram story to share videos of her with Kevin at the Beverly Hills Hotel Jenner was wearing a white top under a grey coat that essentially served as a mini-dress for her lunch date with Kevin. She also wore knee-high white boots and several rings, with her first video showing the adorable Kevin in her lap, checking out the elegant surroundings. The fashionista also shared videos of her lunch and drink, while she added that it was Kevin's first trip to the iconic hotel. Lap dog: She also wore knee-high white boots and several rings, with her first video showing the adorable Kevin in her lap, checking out the elegant surroundings Kylie's look: Jenner was wearing a white top under a grey coat that essentially served as a mini-dress for her lunch date with Kevin. 'Kev's first trip to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Kev? Kev? How do you feel?' Jenner asked, as the dog scratched himself. Jenner also shared a brief boomerang video back in her vehicle, showing off some stylish sunglasses while tagging the Thierry Mugler fashion brand. She also shared a few mirrored snaps and videos, showing off her unique look. Elevator shoot: She also shared a few mirrored snaps and videos, showing off her unique look Kevin is just the latest in Kylie's stable of pets, including her Italian Greyhounds named Norman and Bambi, along with a bunny and a chicken. 'Kevin! Kev! You are so cute!' Jenner said in a video posted on Monday, while she shared another that featured, 'My son' written across the footage. She also adopted a chihuahua-dachshund mix named Wesley in February 2019, and dropped $200,000 for a pony for her daughter Stormi. More pets: Kevin is just the latest in Kylie's stable of pets, including her Italian Greyhounds named Norman and Bambi, along with a bunny and a chicken Jenner's outing comes just days after she welcomed Caitlyn Jenner into her offices so she could, 'finally' do her make-up. 'This is the highlight of my life ... We've been talking about this forever.' Kylie admitted that she got very emotional watching Caitlyn's YouTube videos, adding, 'I cried within the first five minutes, I watched them, like, I didn't even know you. I was so into the story, it made me want to get up and workout and finish my goals for the days.' (Natural News) Update (1525 ET): After a few hours of Boston Dynamics Spot robot shooting up a makeshift art gallery with a paintball gun, live-streamed for the world to see, the fun appears over. (Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com) Update (1330 ET): More than 20 minutes into the live broadcast (watch here), internet users worldwide have been allowed to control (for two minutes) a Boston Dynamics Spot robot with a mounted paintball gun. * * * Users are selected randomly by a company called MSCHF, will be given two minutes to run amuck in a makeshift art gallery. To watch the event live, click here. * * * A company called MSCHF has been responsible for the most absurd viral stunts and products throughout the internet. Their products range from a squeaking rubber chicken bong for smoking weed to Nike sneakers filled with Holy Water to a YouTube channel dedicated to a man eating mayonnaise. MSCHFs latest stunt debuts Wednesday, Feb. 24, beginning at 1300 ET. The company allegedly bought a Boston Dynamics Spot robot and mounted a paintball gun to it. Tomorrows live stream event will allow attendees, randomly selected, to control the dystopic robot for two minutes. Those selected will be able to shoot a .68cal paintball gun mounted to Spot and aim at anything in an unknown art gallery for two minutes. To summarize the companys manifesto. It said: See Spot KILL!! Spot is an empathy-building tool, because: Cute and approachable! Heres the manifesto: See Spot Run. It tops out at a blistering 3mph. See Spot Roll Over. Spot is an empathy missile, shaped like mans best friend and targeted straight at our fight or flight instinct. When killer robots come to America they will be wrapped in fur, carrying a ball. Spot is Rob Rhineharts ideal pet: it never shits. Good Boy, Spot! Everyone in this world takes one look at cute little Spot and knows: this thing will definitely be used by police and the military to murder people. And what do police departments have? Strong unions! Spot is employee of the month. You never need to union bust a robot but a robot can union bust you. The manifesto continued, Boston Dynamics and they HATED this idea. They said the robotics company even offered them two free robots to call off the event. See Spot KILL!! Spot is an empathy building tool, because: Cute and approachable! We talked with Boston Dynamics and they HATED this idea. They said they would give us another TWO Spots for FREE if we took the gun off. That just made us want to do this even more and if our Spot stops working just know they have a backdoor override built into each and every one of these little robots. See Spot Fall Over And Freak Out. Quite an experience to live in fear, isnt it? Thats what it is to be a slave. Our saving grace: Spot is evil but not very good at its job. Boston Dynamics wasnt thrilled with the stunt. They released this statement last week: MSCHF said the only losers of the event would be the human race when remote-operated dogs of war become commonplace. As these war dogs become fixtures of militaries and militarized police, we will all learn a new meaning of fear: an oppressor who can pull the trigger without even needing to be physically present. and maybe MSCHF is on to something as the US Army continues to test, develop, and field autonomous war machines. Read more at: ZeroHedge.com 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. 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company ADVERTISEMENT The Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Lagos State University (LASU) Chapter, on Thursday, suspended an indefinite strike over outstanding arrears of minimum wage and other demands. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NASU and SSANU under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) had embarked on a nationwide strike on Feb. 5, to compel the Federal Government to address their demands. NAN reports that NASU and SSANU, LASU chapter, also demanded payment of their members earned allowances and rightful position. The two unions had shut the universitys main gate and the senate building during the indefinite strike which affected the first semester examination of the institution. Moruf Sanni, chair, NASU, LASU Chapter, said the workers suspended the strike to honour the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. We had a virtual meeting with the Lagos State Government on Wednesday. It was led by the commissioner for establishments, and the government appealed to us to honour the governor by suspending the strike. After the suspension of the strike, we can come back to negotiate with the government concerning our issues or demands. We believe that the governor will do whatever he says, Sanni said. Zaenab Adams, Public Relations Officer, Student Union, LASU, said the students had yet to return to campus. Ms Adams said LASU management would meet on Friday to discuss and announce a resumption date so students can conclude their examinations. (NAN) Las Vegas, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Medican Enterprises Inc. (OTC Pink: MDCN) is pleased to announce this corporate update to enlighten all stakeholders of current developments. As of July 19, 2019, Medican signed an Acquisition and Merger Agreement with Immediate Properties LLC. Pursuant to the agreement, Ken Williams was to resign after three months from all positions. Dana Belle was immediately appointed as Interim Chief Executive Officer and as a director. A brief description of Immediate Properties is as follows: Immediate Properties specializes in residential and commercial real estate investment and development. The Company's success has worked to form lasting, concrete relationships with top equity suppliers, such as individual, commercial and institutional sources. These relationships enable Immediate Properties to provide beyond typical market approaches to finding and acquiring income-producing projects. The Company specializes in value-add investment and development in "A" locations in urban infill areas. It has expertise in multifamily, retail, office, mixed-use, adaptive re-use of industrial buildings and historic renovations. Immediate's current investment portfolio includes properties across Northern and Southern California, Atlanta, and Nevada. The Company is actively investing in California and other select metro areas where we believe relatively high cap rates are not justified due to strong fundamentals. Immediate Properties To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6734/75485_21ed612e64fa5a4e_001full.jpg (http://immediateproperties.net) Medican Enterprises Inc. has every intention of becoming current in its filing and reporting obligations. As such, with the assistance of two institutional investors, the Company's resident agent was forwarded the necessary funds with which to reinstate the Company with the Nevada Secretary of State. After this has been completed, Medican Enterprises can then start an application with OTC Markets Group Inc. in order to file disclosure statements as well as post news. The Company is expecting to be reinstated with the Nevada Secretary of State within the next few days. Medican Enterprises is now a real estate company which will be the Company's focus, not cannabis as it was in the past. However, a significant asset of the Company's is a $10 million convertible note (plus accrued interest) in The Now Corporation which describes itself as follows: "The Now Corporation is a publicly traded, bio-pharmaceutical research company focused on the research, education and production of Scientific-Grade Cannabidiol (CBD) from hemp and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to be used for medicinal purpose, while focusing on pursuing business opportunities in the growing medical and recreational marijuana sector. Through its acquired assets, The Now Corporation is seeking to invest in our businesses associated with the growing, marketing, research and development, training, distribution and retail sale of scientific-grade medicinal cannabis, both in the United States and Canada. At The Now Corporation, we unlock and advance medicine for human life around the world, at every stage of life." The goal is to make Medican Enterprises Inc. into a dynamic real estate company. As such, once all the clean up has been completed and the Company is current, it intends to do a name change. For the foreseeable future, the Company does not intend on performing a reverse stock split. Updates will be forthcoming. Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and jut uncertainties. That includes the possibility that the business outlined in this press release cannot be concluded for some reason. That could be as a result of technical, installation, permitting or other problems that were not anticipated. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medican Enterprises, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein. Except for any obligation under the U.S. federal securities laws, Medican Enterprises, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact: mdcnnew@yahoo.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75485 COLUMBIA Former SCANA Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kevin Marsh will spend at least two years in prison and pay back at least $5 million for defrauding electric ratepayers in South Carolinas $9 billion nuclear power fiasco, according to a plea deal that was presented to a federal judge Feb. 24. The 65-year-old Marsh appeared in court for the first time to plead guilty to fraud charges and formally accept responsibility for his role in the failed, decade-long expansion of SCANAs V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in Fairfield County. Marsh had to surrender his passport at the courthouse but was released without having to post money for bond. Once one of South Carolinas top businessmen, Marsh has spent the past six months as a criminal informant and will continue to be a key witness for state and federal prosecutors who continue to probe the V.C. Summer projects failure. He faces up to 10 years in prison if he does not fully cooperate with that investigation, according to the new terms of his plea deal. "Justice has been served," U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Peter McCoy said after the hearing. "For years, institutions and individuals have abused the public trust with little to no accountability. This includes corporations that have increased profits at the expense of their customers. Oftentimes, it's assumed that these executives will avoid any oversight because of who they are and where they've worked." Marsh's first day in court was a long one, a product of a three-year investigation by the FBI, U.S. Attorney's Office for South Carolina, State Law Enforcement Division and S.C. Attorney General's Office that brought both state and federal fraud charges against him. He spent Wednesday morning atoning for his crimes in a federal courthouse in Columbia and the afternoon apologizing before a state judge in Spartanburg. "I'm sorry it's come to this," Marsh told state judge Mark Hayes. "I stand responsible for my actions. I will fulfill my obligations under the agreement with the state to cooperate whenever and however I can and don't expect to create any problems for you or the court." In both hearings, Marsh clad in a gray suit and black face mask listened quietly as prosecutors lay out the case against him. They recounted how the sudden collapse of the project in July 2017, now considered the greatest business failure in state history, sent shockwaves through South Carolinas legal, regulatory, political and business communities. All told, SCANA and its minority partner on the ambitious venture, state-owned Santee Cooper, spent $9 billion before pulling the plug on the construction effort, which was supposed to usher in a new era of clean nuclear power in South Carolina. The V.C. Summer expansion would have been the United States first successful nuclear construction project since the 1970s. SCANA hiked its rates nine times on its 753,000 electric customers to finance the project. Now, ratepayers for both SCANA and Santee Cooper will spend decades paying off that debt on their power bills. Marshs main crime while managing the project, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim May told federal Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, was failing to tell regulators and the public about the ongoing supply chain, design and construction problems that were dooming the expansion effort. Instead, prosecutors asserted, Marsh and his colleagues at SCANA presented only rosy projections and assessments of the progress at the V.C. Summer construction site, even as lead contractor Westinghouse struggled to assemble the two new nuclear reactors. Marsh and SCANAs top executives knew by late 2016 that their project was doomed, destined to miss critical deadlines to have the reactors online, prosecutors asserted Wednesday. At that point, SCANA executives needed only to raise their concerns to the state Public Service Commission, which sets utility rates in South Carolina, and begin an honest conversation about whether the project should continue. In fact, a similar debate took place about the ongoing expansion of the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia after the V.C. Summer project collapsed. There, regulators decided to continue the construction effort rather than cancel it. But Marsh never brought those concerns to regulators, Instead, May asserted, Marsh and his SCANA colleagues knowingly repeated Westinghouse's false reports of positive progress at the site. "This isn't a typical fraud scheme," May said. "This isn't Bernie Madoff. This isn't a Ponzi scheme. This is more a crime related to violation of public trust." Marsh pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud and wire fraud and admitted, clearly and repeatedly, in response to questions from Judge Lewis, that he committed those crimes. May said investigators determined Marsh should pay back $5 million to S.C. ratepayers after an "exhaustive process" that included studying Marsh's compensation from the company and determining how much of it, including performance-related bonuses, was directly tied to the nuclear project. Prosecutors said Marsh has been cooperating with the investigation since fall 2020. The probe is "looking at additional actors" who may have committed crimes during the project's construction, May told Lewis. "We are going to need his help," May said of Marsh. Marsh, who now lives in Flat Rock, N.C., is the second SCANA executive to plead guilty to defrauding ratepayers. The company's former chief operating officer, Steve Byrne, pleaded guilty in a similar arrangement in July. Now, prosecutors have both Marsh and Byrne at their disposal as witnesses as they continue their investigation. If Marsh fails to cooperate or "misbehaves while he's out, then all bets are off in terms of this plea agreement," said Creighton Waters, an attorney at the Attorney General's Office. Marshs guilty plea comes at the close of Peter McCoys run as U.S. Attorney for South Carolina. The James Island Republican is resigning Feb. 28 after President Joe Bidens administration asked almost all Donald Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys to step down by the end of the month. As a state lawmaker in 2017, McCoy led the S.C. Houses investigation into the V.C. Summer projects failure and questioned Marsh and other SCANA officials about their role. "I am honored to have been U.S. attorney throughout this prosecution," McCoy said. The V.C. Summer fiasco proved an existential threat for both SCANA and Santee Cooper. Once a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Cayce, SCANA was ultimately sold to Virginia-based Dominion Energy. The company was later rebranded as Dominion Energy South Carolina. The General Assembly is currently debating whether to sell Santee Cooper to Florida-based NextEra Energy as a means of offloading the power-and-water utility's V.C. Summer debt. After the morning hearing, as McCoy and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson held a press conference to discuss the guilty plea, Marsh and his attorneys exited the federal courthouse and attempted to walk past the gaggle of reporters and prosecutors near the front gate. Tom Clements, an environmental activist who criticized the nuclear project even before its abandonment, noticed and shouted a question as the former SCANA executive walked past: "Mr. Marsh, are you going to apologize to the people of South Carolina for this nuclear nightmare?" Marsh did not respond. He climbed into the passenger seat of a black truck that revved its engine and drove away. Avery G. Wilks reported from Columbia and Conor Hughes from Spartanburg. Jamie Lovegrove contributed from Columbia. CD Projekt SA said Wednesday it will delay a promised update to the much-criticized role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077, pinning the blame for its slow progress on a recent security breach. What the Polish publisher didnt say is that most of its employees have been locked out of their workstations for the past two weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The work stoppage is the result of a ransomware attack disclosed on Feb. 9. The extent of the disruption, which hasnt been previously reported, poses a major setback to CD Projekts attempt to rescue a game in desperate need of repairs. CD Projekt has said it refused to pay a ransom to the hackers. As a result, employees remain unable to log onto the companys virtual private network, making it impossible to access the systems and tools needed to do most of their jobs, said the people, requesting anonymity because they werent authorized to talk publicly. Although some CD Projekt employees are working from the headquarters in Warsaw, the majority are at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. CD Projekt didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. ALSO READ: Cyberpunk maker CD Projekt sued by investor over botched launch Despite the unplanned vacation, the hack has been a nightmare for employees. The invaders had access to their personal information including Polish identification numbers and passport details, leading the company to tell staff to freeze their accounts and report the security breach to the government and their banks, said the people familiar with the matter. Workers were also asked to ship their computers to the companys IT staff to be scanned for malware or other intrusions, the people said. One software patch, released last month, focused on bugs and stability issues. The next major update, which was previously expected to arrive this month, is now slated for late March, the company said. By Jason Schreier EAGLE POINT, Ore. The man killed in an officer-involved shooting in Eagle Point on Tuesday night fired at a deputy before officers returned fire, according to Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler. Sheriff Sickler held a media conference on Wednesday to provide more details about the shooting near Church on the Hill on Tuesday night. Officers from the Eagle Point Police Department were first on the scene, responding to a 911 call for a domestic disturbance involving a firearm in the 100-block of Idlewood Drive at 7:21 p.m. Before the officers arrived, Sickler said that the man involved in the domestic later identified as 39-year-old Dale Arthur Amstutz-Dunn had gotten into an SUV with another man and left the house. Eagle Point Police pulled over the SUV just blocks away, in the parking lot of Church on the Hill on Stevens Road. Deputies from the Sheriff's Office arrived soon after. Sickler said that during the course of the stop, Amstutz-Dunn drew a handgun and shot one of the responding deputies in the chest. The shot hit the deputy's body armor, limiting his injuries. Officers returned fire, striking both Amstutz-Dunn and the other man. Both men were taken to the hospital, where Amstutz-Dunn was pronounced dead. The other man, still unidentified, is being treated for injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. The deputy struck by Amstutz-Dunn's shot was treated at the hospital and released. Sickler said that he is "doing well." Amstutz-Dunn was wanted on an active federal warrant for a probation violation stemming from an original weapons charge, Sickler said. He was also a person-of-interest in a recent shooting investigation in Keizer, Oregon. The case has been handed over to the Major Assault Death Investigation Unit (MADIU), with Oregon State Police as the lead agency. More details on the shooting are not being released until after a grand jury assesses the evidence, Sickler said. This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Colorado Politics senior political reporter Joey Bunch is the senior correspondent and deputy managing editor of Colorado Politics. His 32-year career includes the last 16 in Colorado. He was part of the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and he is a two-time finalist. 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. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Pagglait, starring Sanya Malhotra starrer, will release digitally on March 26. "So thrilled to announce this film which is very close to my heart on my special day. I essay the role of Sandhya, a character very different from what I have previously portrayed on-screen," Sanya said. "My Pagglait journey was Pagglait indeed- and I can't wait for the world to witness this unique story very soon," she added. The film tells the story of a typical Indian middle-class family navigating a crisis. Sanya plays the recently-widowed Sandhya. As events unfold, Sandhya sets onto a path of self-discovery, attempting to find her identity and purpose in life, all this while living amidst the quirky members of her joint family. Written and directed by Umesh Bist, the Netflix release has an ensemble cast that includes Sayani Gupta, Shrutii Sharma, Ashutosh Rana, Raghubir Yadav, Sheeba Chaddha, Meghna Malik and Rajesh Tailang. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Highlights Asus ROG Phone 5 will be announced in India on March 10. The India price of the Asus ROG Phone 5 will be revealed at the event. Asus ROG Phone 5 is likely to be powered by a Snapdragon 888 SoC. Asus ROG Phone 5 is set to launch in India on March 10. Although this date was announced as the one for the global launch of the phone, Asus later announced the India details will be revealed the same day. We are looking at price and availability information to come out majorly from the India-centric part while the specifications and overall coverage of the ROG Phone 5 will be a part of the global announcement. Ahead of the launch, Flipkart has listed the ROG Phone 5 on the website, which hints at an imminent release in India, which is much earlier than that of the Asus ROG Phone 3. If you are a gamer, the launch of the ROG Phone 5 should be exciting for you. It is for me. If there is one phone that comes to my mind when I am asked to tell the best gaming phone, it is the ROG Phone. Why shouldn't it be? Asus has managed to woo gamers with several small things that make ROG Phone what it is. You always have something extra on the phone, such as two USB-C ports, a cool ROG logo with RGB lighting, exceptionally nerdy design, and, of course, the powerhouse processor on an equally impressive display. That is the recipe for a gaming phone that Asus knows quite too well. But it has been experimenting a lot, as well, because Asus wants the non-gaming crowd to take a look at the ROG Phone. With ROG Phone 5 around the corner, I have a wishlist of features and specifications that I want Asus to deliver on. -- Asus ROG Phone 5 should follow a futuristic design that is a mix of what we have seen on previous ROG Phone models but keeping it low profile on the gimmick part. The ROG Phone 3, for example, had a transparent glass on the side that showed the vents for heat dissipation. It was good to showcase something like that back then. But this time, Asus should not go into that territory. The leaked images have shown the ROG Phone 5 will ditch that transparent section on the back and I am glad about it. Leaked image of Asus ROG Phone 5. -- I have always loved the ROG logo on the back of the ROG Phone. It glows in various patterns with the RGB lighting underneath. I want this logo to stay as-is. Asus' Republic of Gamers is a whole community that desires to be represented by this elegant logo. Asus did justice to the logo implementation with that RGB lighting on the phone. But the ROG Phone 5 is said to have a different plan for the beloved ROG logo. As per leaked images, the ROG logo will be at the bottom left while the space in the middle will be occupied by a dot matrix display. I am not sure why this display will be needed on the phone -- and I am keen to know that, but the ROG logo seems to have been sidelined. -- I am also expecting some new software optimisations for ROG UI. Obviously, the phone is going to have top-class hardware, such as the Snapdragon 888 processor, but the software needs to be changed a bit. I have found ROG UI to be fast and good enough for a gaming phone but it needs a little more. This is not to say that Asus should copy Xiaomi's MIUI or Samsung's OneUI to make its custom software richer. I am looking at game-centric functionalities that would eliminate the need for a mobile game controller or even the triggers on the top. Of course, there are many things set for a change this time with the new ROG Phone 5. Some of them are already out in the open while some are still not known to us. This is why I have these expectations and I hope Asus delivers on them. Asus ROG Phone 5 is coming on March 10 and is likely to be one of the premium phones of this year. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. A 4.4 million-year-old skeleton could show how early humans moved and began to walk upright, according to new research led by a Texas A&M anthropology professor Evolutionary expert Charles Darwin and others recognized a close evolutionary relationship between humans, chimps and gorillas based on their shared anatomies, raising some big questions: how are humans related to other primates, and exactly how did early humans move around? Research by a Texas A&M University professor may provide some answers. Thomas Cody Prang, assistant professor of anthropology, and colleagues examined the skeletal remains of Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi"), dated to 4.4 million years old and found in Ethiopia. One of Ardi's hands was exceptionally well-preserved. The researchers compared the shape of Ardi's hand to hundreds of other hand specimens representing recent humans, apes and monkeys (measured from bones in museum collections around the world) to make comparisons about the kind of locomotor behavior used by the earliest hominins (fossil human relatives). The results provide clues about how early humans began to walk upright and make similar movements that all humans perform today. This discovery is described in a study published in the current issue of Science Advances. "Bone shape reflects adaptation to particular habits or lifestyles - for example the movement of primates - and by drawing connections between bone shape and behavior among living forms, we can make inferences about the behavior of extinct species, such as Ardi, that we can't directly observe, Prang said. "Additionally, we found evidence for a big evolutionary 'jump' between the kind of hand represented by Ardi and all later hominin hands, including that of Lucy's species (a famous 3.2 million-year-old well-preserved skeleton found in the same area in the 1970s). This 'evolutionary jump' happens at a critical time when hominins are evolving adaptations to a more human-like form of upright walking, and the earliest evidence for hominin stone-tool manufacture and stone-tool use, such as cut-marks on animal fossils, are discovered." Prang said the fact that Ardi represents an earlier phase of human evolutionary history is important because it potentially shines light on the kind of ancestor from which humans and chimpanzees evolved. "Our study supports a classic idea first proposed by Charles Darwin in 1871, when he had no fossils or understanding of genetics, that the use of the hands and upper limbs for manipulation appeared in early human relatives in connection with upright walking," he said. "The evolution of human hands and feet probably happened in a correlated fashion." Since Ardi is such an ancient species, it might retain skeletal features that were present in the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. If this is true, it could help researchers place the origin of the human lineage - in addition to upright walking - into a clearer light. "It potentially brings us one step closer to an explanation for how and why humans evolved our form of upright walking," Prang said. He added that the big change in hand anatomy between Ardi and all later hominins occurs at a time, roughly between 4.4 and 3.3 million years ago, coinciding with the earliest evidence of the loss of a grasping big toe in human evolution. This also coincides with the earliest known stone tools and stone cut-marked animal fossils. He said it appears to mark a major change in the lifestyle and behavior of human relatives within this timeframe. "We propose that it involves the evolution of more advanced upright walking, which enabled human hands to be modified by the evolutionary process for enhanced manual manipulation, possibly involving stone tools," Prang said ### This research was funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation. Longtime Texas insurance agency executive, William Bill E. Harrison Jr., has been honored by the Big I with its Woodworth Memorial Award, the national independent insurance agency associations highest honor. The Woodworth Memorial Award recognizes individuals who serve the insurance industry and the Big I with uncommon dedication. In addition to ownership of the San Antonio-based agency, TASA Risk Solutions, Harrison is chairman of the Big I Reinsurance Company. Harrison was raised in the insurance industry, joining his father, Bill Harrison Sr., in the family agency, Coleman Company Insurance Services. After serving as both president and a member of the leadership council, he left in 2007 to start TASA Risk Solutions. At the state association level, Harrison has served the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas as the Budget and Finance Committee chairman, board chairman and state national director, among other roles. In 1999, he was named the IIAT Young Agent of the Year. At the national association level, in addition to his current role as chairman of the Big I Reinsurance Company, Harrison has formerly served as chairman of the Finance Committee, chairman of the Professional Liability Committee, and as a member of Agency Administrative Services Inc., the Trusted Choice Board of Directors and the Planning Committee. He has also been InsurPac chairman for Texas. Throughout the years, Harrison has served his community through volunteer work for Leadership San Antonio, Rotary International and Mission Road Ministries, as well as board chairman of Palmer Drug Abuse Program, deacon at Trinity Baptist Church and committee chair of the San Antonio Livestock Exposition. He was selected for San Antonios Business Journal 40 Under 40 in 1997. Topics Agencies Texas Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry reiterated Egypts call on nuclear powers to honor their pledges and obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), stressing the importance of realising progress towards nuclear disarmament. This came in a recorded speech he addressed to the High-Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament convened in Geneva on February 22-26. Shoukry highlighted efforts being exerted to rid the Middle East region of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction, urging the world community to support endeavors to create an area free of nuclear weapons and WMDs in the Middle east. He reaffirmed Egypts keenness on continuing its active and constructive contributions to international disarmament talks. Short link: Lucknow, Feb 25 : After schools in Prayagraj, it is now the prestigious La Martiniere Boys School in Lucknow that has been shut down for two days after six workers in the school tested positive for Covid. La Martiniere principal, Carlyle Mcfarland, said that of the six workers found positive for Covid, two were staying on the school campus while four were residents of Ashiana locality. He said that the workers who had tested positive did not have any contact with teachers and students since they were working at a construction site on the campus. The school has been declared a containment zone and a medical team that reached there on Wednesday evening has collected 332 more samples, the reports of which will come by Thursday evening. Director General health Dr. D.S. Negi said that focused sampling in schools will be done in which teachers, staff and children will undergo Covid tests. It may be recalled that on Wednesday, nine Covid cases were reported from the Bishop Johnson School in Prayagraj and four from St Joseph's school. Meanwhile, after reports of Covid cases emerging in prestigious schools in the state, several schools have decided not to reopen schools for primary classes from March 1. Talking to IANS on condition of anonymity, the principal of a well-known Montessori school said, "We are not going to open the school from March 1. We have young children and who is going to take the responsibility of their well-being? Small children cannot be expected to follow safety protocols." Another primary school teacher said that they would start online classes for primary sections and children would be asked to come to school only in the next academic session from April. Parents, too, are equally unwilling to send children to school in view of the resurgence of Covid cases. "Small children cannot be expected to maintain social distancing or wear a mask all time. The teachers cannot keep an eye on each child. Schools, in such a situation, are not safe and I will not send my six-year-old daughter to school," said Manjula Nagar, a parent. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) ClaraNila/Getty Images/iStockphoto The footage looks like something out of a how-to video on stopping a robber. In it, a man wearing a blue hoodie and jeans crosses the street with the victim's blue suitcase and backpack in tow. Within seconds, he drops the suitcase and tries to enter the getaway car shown in the video as a gray Chevy Impala with the license plates 5ZZN552. Sony is holding a State of Play broadcast on Thursday, February 25 at 2:00 PM Pacific Time which translates to 3:30 AM Friday, February 26, India time. On the PlayStation Blog, Sid Shuman, Senior Director, SIE Content Communications, said, Time for another State of Play! This Thursday, a State of Play broadcast will serve up new updates and deep dives for 10 games coming to PS4 and PS5, including new game announcements and updates on some third-party and indie titles you last saw in Junes PS5 showcase. He goes on to say, The show is clocking it at 30 minutes or so, give or take. Cant wait to hear what you think! And a quick note: there wont be PlayStation hardware or business-focused updates in this show. Were focusing on great games set to come out in the months ahead. So, it is clear that we will not get any new information on the recently teased second-generation PSVR headset, nor will we hear numbers and statistics on how many PS5 units Sony has sold. This showcase will be about games and games only. As mentioned above, we will see ten games during the showcase, and since the broadcast will be 30 minutes, we can expect each game to have 2-4 minutes of screen time. What to expect from the PlayStation State of Play? Sony has hinted that we will get updates on some party games shown off during the June event. So, we can expect to see some information on Kena: Bridge of Spirits which is slated to launch in March 2021. Hopefully, a release date? We could also get some more details on Returnal, which got a new trailer last night. Maybe see some more gameplay for Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart? How to watch the PlayStation State of Play Live You can catch the PS4 and PS5 (review) State of Play showcase on the PlayStation YouTube and Twitch channel. Or you could watch it below. 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. Prior to opening Obscura in Shanghai, China, Tam and her husband co-founder and chef Simon Wong embarked on a year-long journey to research the country's diverse cuisines and regions. Inspired by their travels, the pair crafted a menu that celebrates China's culinary heritage in a contemporary context. Obscura is set within Shanghai's three-storey Tang Xiang Cultural Space, home to a private collection of ancient Chinese treasures. Embracing the Chinese traditions of food, wine, tea and incense, Obscura presents elegant interpretations of classic Chinese flavours. Born in Hong Kong, Tam relocated with her family to Canada at age 10. After graduating high school, she pursued a degree in engineering. While at university, she discovered a passion for cooking and dropped out of university to embark on a new gastronomic journey. Tam enrolled in the culinary program at George Brown College in Toronto and eventually earned a post-graduate degree in Italian cuisine. Returning to Hong Kong in 2014, Tam began working at the much-lauded Bo Innovation under the tutelage of acclaimed chef Alvin Leung. Two years later, Leung appointed Tam and Wong as co-executive chefs to launch Bo Shanghai at Five on the Bund, a sister restaurant to the Hong Kong outlet. Tam distinguished herself as the first female chef in Mainland China to earn a Michelin star when Bo Shanghai achieved that status in 2018. Accepting the honour of being named Asia's Best Female Chef, Tam says: "This award marks a major milestone in my career. I am humbled that many industry leaders who I admire have followed my evolution in this industry. I hope to be able to inspire others to pursue their passion." Tam's achievements will be honoured during the online ceremony for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2021, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, on Thursday, 25th March, from 4.30pm (HKT/SG) and broadcast to a global audience via Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Facebook and the 50 Best Restaurants TV YouTube channel. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1441575/Asia_50_Best_Restaurants.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1441574/Asias50Best_Logo.jpg Contact: CatchOn, A Finn Partners Company, Email: [email protected], phone: +852 2566 8988 SOURCE Asias 50 Best Restaurants Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Unless trust deficit is removed, we will be very weary says Army Chief India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: Army Chief General M M Naravane said that India has strategies in place to resolve some issues that remain such as the area of Depsang Plains. While acknowledging that there is a trust deficit between India and China, he said that there is a long way to go. We have to move on to the stage of de-escalation, he also said. We have to be weary, we will be very cautious. Unless the trust deficit is removed, we will will of course continue to be weary, the Army Chief also said. However at the end of the day, we have achieved a lot, General Naravane said, while commenting on the de-escalation at Pangong Lake. Ladakh standoff: US welcomes de-escalation efforts by India, China He said there were no signs of an "overt collusion" between China and Pakistan during the Ladakh standoff but India also caters to a long term strategy for not a two, but a two-and-half front war. With the half front, he was referring to the internal security. He said right from the beginning of the standoff, all sides on the Indian side worked together. Be it at the political level, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to their Chinese counterparts, he said. "We were all in it together. We had our plan chalked out which we had discussed on what should be the way forward. Whatever has panned out, has happened as a result of that. What we have achieved so far is very good," Naravane said at a webinar organised by Vivekanada International Foundation. The advice which was given by National Security Adviser also came in extremely handy and his insight into strategic level affairs definitely helped us chalking out the response, the Army chief said. "As a result of this whole approach, this disengagement has taken place. I think it is a very good end result. It is a win-win situation. For any agreement to last, both sides should feel that they have achieved something. I think a good outcome that has resulted out of the 10 rounds of talks which have taken place so far," he said. Last week, armies of the two countries concluded withdrawal of troops and weapons from north and south banks of Pangong Tso in the high-altitude region. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News Naravane said there are some issues which remain in the area of Depsang, in the area of eastern Ladakh and in other areas along northern border. "...But we have our strategies in place for that. Do we have anything to negotiate in future? Yes, definitely we have. But I would not, of course, for obvious reasons, what those strategies would be to further and progress our negotiations and come out with a favourable outcome." For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 10:08 [IST] Here's an exclusive for you: Jane Loughrey never wanted to become a television reporter. That revelation may come as a shock to viewers who have grown accustomed to seeing her face on TV night after night. Indeed, the highly respected journalist is almost as recognisable as the UTV logo itself. But as the north Belfast woman prepared to hang up her microphone for the final time after almost three decades, she told the Belfast Telegraph she had no burning desire to be on the telly. I love my job and I love being a storyteller, but I never wanted to work in television, said Jane, who left UTVs City Quays studios for the final time as a staff member yesterday. I actually thought radio would be more suitable for the sort of journalism I wanted to do. My family still thinks its hilarious that I ended up on television for nearly 30 years. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey Its a different world Jane is leaving now. When she started at UTV in 1992, the Troubles were raging, bombs and bullets were still killing people and there was little sign of ceasefires, let alone a peace process. Newsrooms were still filled with plumes of cigarette smoke and the clattering of typewriters, while mobile phones had yet to become an essential tool of the trade. Even Google, the lifeblood of media now, didnt exist. Everything has changed so much. We didnt have mobiles, we had bleepers. If your bleeper went, you had to find a phone box somewhere, said Jane (54). And of course, there was no satnav either. It was a very different place back then. It was the 4am graveyard shift that propelled a keen cub reporter in front of the camera. I was brought into UTV to write bulletins, but these were the dark days of the Troubles, so although my shift was supposed to finish at lunchtime, I was invariably asked to stay on and cover whatever was happening, Jane said. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey I remember one day being asked to go to Armagh after a bomb went off. I was very hungry for news, so I was delighted for the opportunity. This was what I wanted to do. Although very emotional about leaving, Jane is looking forward to spending time with her 13-year-old son, Matthew, and is excited about the future. Leaving was a huge decision, but its the right one, she said. My grandma has a great saying that a lady always knows when its time to leave, and I think its the right time for me to see what other challenges are out there. Janes face became familiar down the years as she covered major stories, such as the Shankill and Omagh bombs, the Loughinisland massacre and the IRA ceasefire. She also recalls some amazing times, such as when Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland in 1995. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey That was a huge moment in the peace process, she said. I was also outside Castle Buildings when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, and at Hillsborough Castle when Tony Blair famously said he felt the hand of history on his shoulder. When the Queen visited UTV, I was actually asked to report on that story, which was strange the Queen coming to my work. I was in Guildhall Square when the Bloody Sunday Inquiry concluded. That was a big moment, particularly as my parents (Patrick and Alma, both in their 80s) come from Derry. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey Atrocities such as the 1993 Shankill bomb remain memorable for all the wrong reasons. Ill never forget watching people frantically digging through the rubble with their hands, trying to free people who were dead or dying, Jane said. I thought Id never see a worse sight in my life but, unfortunately, I did in 1998 after the Omagh bomb exploded. I wouldnt wish anybody to witness what I saw that day. Rather than leaving home like Eamonn Holmes and many others for a career on national TV, Jane did it other way round, leaving London for Belfast. The QUB psychology graduate did her training at the London College of Printing (now the London College of Communication), studying broadcast journalism. Prior to that, she took a short course in print journalism that included a stint at Hello! magazine on a work placement. My claim to fame is that I posted that weeks edition of Hello! to Princess Diana at Kensington Palace, she said. It was a great experience, but it was the week the Berlin Wall came down. I was transfixed watching this historic event unfold. I knew then that I really wanted to be a news journalist. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey Janes Belfast brogue did her few favours back then. It was difficult in London during the 1980s with my accent, she said. These days, regional accents like Huw Edwards are almost sought after, but not back then. I ended up working in Oxford. I did a freelance stint at a radio station in Cambridge. I got some freelance shifts with ITN and I read the news on Classic FM that was hard work. I would willingly work shifts back-to-back because I was a young journalist with rent to pay in London. Everything changed, however, when two opportunities came up back at home. I was interviewed by BBC NI and UTV on the same day, said the former past pupil of Dominican College, Fortwilliam. It was UTV who offered me the job, so I grabbed it and, well, the rest is history. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey Unlike the Beeb, UTV has never found itself in the firing line over allegations of sexism or ageism, and neither was an issue for Jane during her career. I have never been prevented from doing anything I wanted to do, she said. UTV was a great place to work. Im very close to my family, but I really do feel that UTV has also been a family for the past 30 years. She will miss working alongside colleagues including Tracey Magee and Niall Donnelly, the latter of whom she had an interesting experience with when out on a job in Ardoyne. We were reporting on a volatile Tour of the North when one of the rioters threw a brick that struck me on the ankle, and I fell down, Jane said. When I was lying in agony on the ground, the young fellow whod thrown the brick came over and said, Jane, Im really sorry... I meant to get a peeler. Expand Close Jane Loughrey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jane Loughrey He offered to buy me a gravy chip before I was carted off to hospital in an ambulance. That could only happen in Northern Ireland. In another report from a summer riot in Ardoyne, Jane and her cameraman got trapped in front of the police line. I was pleading with a police officer when a woman, drinking straight from a bottle, yelled Let her through, she does the weather, she said. I still laugh about that to this day. In the midst of all the terrifying things, there have been lighter moments. You need that. Being under siege for days on end while reporting on the Drumcree protests didnt provide many laughs, but even in the darkest of days, Jane found that people were kind. They opened their doors. It astounded me that so many people did that in the middle of their anguish, she explained. The reporter has only ever wanted to be a conduit for the news, not the star of the show. Ive always believed that its a reporters job to tell other peoples stories, not their own, she said. My view has always been that I never want to become the story. Im there to tell somebody elses, and I would hope that history is kind to me. Ive done so many types of stories over the past three decades, but I would like people to remember me and think that I was kind, that I listened, that Im fair and I told it as it was. All the way through my career, that is what I hope I achieved. Expand Close Sunday Life Jane Loughrey Pic Colm OReilly / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sunday Life Jane Loughrey Pic Colm OReilly What is next for Jane, who has an older sister, Anne, and two younger siblings Stephen and Una? Consultancy work, lecturing or perhaps a book? For now, she is looking forward to spending more time with her son because being a mother is the best job in the world. Down the line, she would like to write a memoir, not just about poignant times in UTV, but also about the lighter moments, the fun Ive had with people over the last three decades and the laughs along the way. Northern Ireland is a small place. I dont think theres a town or village that I havent been in, she said. But dont think you have seen the last of Jane Loughrey. As she said: I am not retiring. Im excited to see what the next chapter brings. Looking through other peoples trash and dragging away used objects isnt new. But what has come to be known as stooping, or more recently, trash stalking, has become so widespread since the start of the pandemic that several Instagram accounts devoted to it have attracted thousands of followers and transformed what used to be a niche activity into a phenomenon. Dr. Laxmi Parsa, board-certified gastroenterologist with Erlanger Gastroenterology, has earned a second board-certification in the area of transplant hepatology. Dr. Parsa is the only board-certified transplant hepatologist in the Chattanooga region.Transplant hepatology is a subspecialty of gastroenterology focusing on advanced liver diseases that require liver transplant. These diseases are caused by health issues such as viral hepatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), autoimmune disease or acute liver failure. As a transplant hepatologist, Dr. Parsa manages chronic liver disease, identifies patients who require transplants and provides expertise prior to and after a transplant procedure.Ive worked with Dr.Parsa for many years and he is a superb physician and colleague, said Erlanger Chief of Gastroenterology Dr. Arslan Kahloon. Were very fortunate to have his level of transplant hepatology expertise here at Erlanger. As the only board-certified transplant hepatologist in the region, providing this type of advanced care locally is a great benefit to the community and our patients.Dr. Parsa received a bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degree from NTR University of Health Sciences in India. Following medical school, he completed an internal medicine residency at St. Barnabas Hospital in New York. Dr. Parsa received his gastroenterology, hepatology and transplant hepatology fellowship training at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis.For more information about Erlanger Gastroenterology, visit erlanger.org/GI or call 423-778-4830. Mumbai: Asia is expected to drive nearly 75% of demand for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by 2040 as domestic gas production declines and LNG substitutes higher emission energy sources, tackling air quality concerns and meeting emissions targets, says Shells LNG Outlook 2021. Natural gas emits between 45% and 55% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less than one-tenth of the air pollutants than coal when used to generate electricity. According to the outlook, as demand grows, a supply-demand gap is expected to open in the middle of the current decade with less new production coming on-stream than previously projected. Just 3 million tonnes in new LNG production capacity was announced in 2020, down from an expected 60 million tonnes," the outlook said, adding that over half of future LNG demand will come from countries with net-zero emissions targets. Post the outbreak of the pandemic, China and India led the recovery in demand for LNG. China increased its LNG imports by 7 million tonnes to 67 million tonnes, an 11% increase for the year. Additionally, Chinas announcement of a target to become carbon neutral by 2060 is expected to continue driving up its LNG demand through the key role gas can play in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors, namely buildings, heavy industry, shipping and heavy-duty road transport. India also increased imports by 11% in 2020 as it took advantage of lower-priced LNG to supplement its domestic gas production. "Two other major Asian LNG-importing countries Japan and South Korea also announced net-zero emissions targets in 2020. To meet its net-zero target, South Korea aims to switch 24 coal-fired power plants to cleaner-burning LNG by 2034," the outlook added. Globally, the demand in Europe, alongside flexible US supply, helped to balance the LNG market in the first half of 2020. However, supply outages in other basins, structural constraints and extreme weather later in the year resulted in higher prices. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After 18 years with the Gund Foundation, Dave Abbott announced his retirement from the institution on Thursday. Abbott, president of the George Gund Foundation since 2003, informed the board of trustees that he plans to retire at the end of the year. It has been an enormous honor to work at this foundation and, through it, to fight to make Cleveland and our country better, Abbott said in a recent news release, But change is inevitable, and it is simply time for me to hand the baton to a new leader. The George Gund Foundation is a private, nonprofit institution that contributes to societys progression and well-being. Abbott says the foundation has not found a replacement yet and will be conducting a national search. BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Proximie, the global health technology platform that helps save lives by digitising operating rooms and cath. labs leveraging technologies including Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), appoints Scott Huennekens as an advisor to CEO and the Board of Directors. Scott is a successful MedTech CEO, Chairman, board member, entrepreneur and investor, having been involved in over 20 start-ups, growth and public companies with market valuations totalling over $20 billion. Scott is founder and Chairman of the recently announced VIDA FLaSH Acquisitions, a medtech SPAC. Formerly President and CEO of Verb Surgical Verily, fka Google Life Sciences and Johnson & Johnson's Surgical Robotics and Digital Surgery platform start-up Scott will provide strategic advice to Proximie's CEO and Board on the company's scale-up. Commenting on the appointment, Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, CEO and Founder of Proximie said: "We're thrilled to welcome Scott to our Advisory Board. He brings invaluable MedTech experience and industry expertise to the business at what is a pivotal time for us, with Proximie being deployed in over 35 countries and supporting 800+ procedures a month. Scott will help us develop and drive the continued growth of Proximie worldwide by guiding our business and commercial strategy." Scott Huennekens said: "I'm delighted to have been invited by Nadine to join as an advisor to both her and the Board of Directors. The business has witnessed enormous growth in its client and investor base over the last twelve months. I hope to play a role in supporting Proximie as it continues to scale globally and help and transform lives through its ground-breaking technology." Proximie helps to save lives by virtually transporting the leading experts anywhere in the world to visually interact in clinical procedures. The appointment comes at an important time as Proximie continues to rapidly grow its client base. Proximie continues to expand its footprint in over 35 countries and more than 250 hospitals globally, and over 100 in the US alone. Its client base includes many of the major medical device companies and with over 8000 procedures completed to date, its growth prospects for 2021 remain very strong delivering a long term sustainable solution to aid patient care globally. About Proximie Proximie is a global health technology business with offices in the UK, US and Middle East Proximie, the global health technology platform that helps save lives by digitising operating rooms and cath. labs leveraging technologies including Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), that enables the world's top surgeons to virtually transport themselves into operating theatres anywhere in the world, to visually guide and interact in surgical procedures Proximie is a secure software platform which utilises existing integrated or readily available hardware devices to minimize capital outlay and provide flexible solution for global operating rooms and cath labs across any clinical speciality. For more information: https://www.proximie.com SOURCE Proximie [February 24, 2021] LEIDOS HOLDINGS ALERT: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is Investigating Leidos Holdings, Inc. on Behalf of Leidos Stockholders and Encourages Investors to Contact the Firm Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, is investigating potential claims against Leidos Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LDOS) on behalf of Leidos stockholders. Our investigation concerns whether Leidos has violated the federal securities laws and/or engaged in other unlawful business practices. Click here to participate in the action. On February 16, 2021, investment analyst Spruce Point Capital Management published a report alleging, among other things, that "Leidos' $1.0 billion levered acquisition of L3Harris' Security Detection and Automation business (SD&A) is experiencing significant problems, including product defects, that increase the likelihood of a material adverse effect." The report further alleged that the Company misstated revenue, citing, for example, a $6 million variance between the third quarter 2020 investor presentatin and a Form 10-Q, which "raises the possibility that Leidos has booked fake revenue, or is keeping two sets of books." On this news, Leido's stock price fell $3.41 per share, or over 3%, to close at $105.22 per share on February 16, 2021. If you purchased or otherwise acquired Leidos shares and suffered a loss, are a long term stockholder, have information, would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Brandon Walker, Melissa Fortunato, or Marion Passmore by email at investigations@bespc.com, telephone at (212) 355-4648, or by filling out this contact form. There is no cost or obligation to you. About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006169/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Swiss voters will go to the polls in June to vote in a nationwide referendum on stripping the government of emergency powers to restrict citizens in the pandemic. While Switzerland has had a lighter touch in its lockdown than many European countries and was one of the first to reopen schools, citizens still resent the loss of their freedoms. Switzerland has a national initiative and referendum provision in its Constitution, allowing citizens to put legislation before the voters by petition, which if passed by voter referendum become law. Lockdown opponents have brought the issue before the people through this mechanism. Polls show that 55% of Swiss citizens are concerned about restrictions on their liberty from the pandemic lockdown, so passage of this referendum is considered likely. 'In our opinion, the [government] is taking advantage of the pandemic to introduce more control and less democracy,' Christoph Pfluger, board member of Friends of the Constitution which spearheaded the campaign, told the Financial Times of London. Holiday Island, Arkansas--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Holiday Island Holdings, Inc. (OTC Pink: HIHI) ("HIHI") operating in the recreational and remote living real estate market in geographic markets of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Louisiana, released news today that it has retained International Monetary ("IM") to develop and manage a comprehensive investor relations program and advise HIHI management on capital raising initiatives to meet the company's growth objectives for 2021 and beyond. S. Gene Thompson - CEO and chief strategist for the Company - said "This a major development and opportunity for the Company, its Shareholders and Investors, as we are poised to acquire several high yield commercial real estate properties this year, that can be expanded quickly post-acquisition, and profit enhanced." "IM is the perfect partner that will help us achieve these goals and enhance stock liquidity and shareholder value in the process." Thompson continues, "IM has had a successful track record generating awareness for under-valued micro-cap Companies in a number of diverse industries. And, IM has the team, experience, and connections to assist HIHI in raising the capital to accomplish its growth." MB Riley, Managing Director of IM, states, "HIHI has created a solid platform to launch acquisitions and management of premium branded recreational properties in its geographic target areas including RV Parks, Marinas, Campgrounds, Land Preserves, and Corporate Conference Centers that lend themselves to remote living, which is highly popular now, and we believe it will continue to be in the foreseeable future." "The market for these types of recreational properties is poised for exponential growth over the next 5 years in the U.S. and around the world. IM will introduce the company to a nationwide brokerage network comprised of broker-dealers and investment banks focused on the micro-cap and small-cap sectors." Story continues Mr. Riley continued, "We will also leverage our relationships with these investment banks and work to secure select analyst coverage to open the door to millions of potential investors and shareholders to begin to unlock the true value of HIHI'S under-valued securities." "Investor relations is just the beginning of what we intend to bring. HIHI has an ambitious growth plan that we intend to help fund through our investment banking and strategic advisory arm. We will harness the power of our large network of accredited investors, institutions, funds, underwriters and lenders who provide early stage and later stage financing. We will also advise the company on matters such as other possible capital resources, structured financing, mergers and acquisitions, and advise the company's management on other strategic decisions" added Mr. Riley. ABOUT IM: Founded in 1997, IM recognized a need to provide Merchant Banking Services with the speed and precision that is required in the new internet and technology economy. IM focuses on turn around situations and rapidly growing small companies, specializing in debt/equity financing of under $1 billion. IM is lead by a team of Managing Directors that provides a number of strategic advisory services including: providing capital resources, structuring financing for M&A, International Licensing/Commercialization, Retail Product/Service Distribution, Advertising & Marketing, and Shareholder Enhancement Services. To find out more about IM, go to: www.intlmonetary.com Contact Information: International Monetary, MB Riley, 620 Newport Center Dr, Ste 1100, Newport Beach, CA, 92660, Office: (949) 200-4601 Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainty and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release should be considered in light of all filings of the Company that are contained in the Edgar Archives of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov . HIHI Contact : Gene Thompson, CEO & Chairman Phone: (479) 244-6047 Email: sgthompson@holidayislandholdings.com Website: www.holidayislandholdings.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75447 Kathmandu, Feb 25 : In the aftermath of Nepal's Supreme Court reinstating the House of Representatives, repealing the government's December 20 decision to dissolve the Lower House of the Federal Parliament, ruling Nepal Communist Party's (NCP) Vice-Chairman Bamdev Gautam has met the co-chair of NCP's Dahal-Nepal faction, Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Gautam, in his meeting, proposed to Dahal to stand for unity within the party, the Himalayan Times reported. The senior NCP leader has been appealing for party unity and does not associate himself with either of the party's warring factions, On February 23, the SC termed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's decision to dissolve the HoR unconstitutional and invalidated all decisions related to the House dissolution. Besides, the apex court ordered the government to call for a new session of Parliament within 13 days. Meanwhile, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the NCP splinter group met Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba at his private residence in Budhanilakantha on Wednesday afternoon. The backing of the main opposition appears vital to both NCP groups. Therefore, Wednesday's meeting between NC President Deuba and NCP faction leaders Dahal and Nepal has been viewed with much interest. Ukraine may offer facilities for Boeing aircraft manufacture minister The offer could be voiced during the official's upcoming U.S. visit. Reporting by UNIAN If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter The Angels announced Thursday that theyve acquired infielder Jack Mayfield from the Braves in exchange for cash. Fellow infielder Robel Garcia was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot. Atlanta designated Mayfield for assignment yesterday. Mayfield, 30, is something of a familiar face for the Angels, as his lone big league experience has come over the past couple seasons with the division-rival Astros. He landed with Atlanta earlier in the offseason after being designated for assignment in Houston. New Angels general manager Perry Minasian previously worked with the Braves as an assistant GM under Alex Anthopoulos, so it seems likely that both Anthopoulos and Minasian were fans of Mayfields versatility and glovework during their time together in Atlanta. The Astros gave Mayfield 112 Major League plate appearances across the past two seasons, but the resulting .170/.198/.283 batting line was obviously rather underwhelming. Its a tiny sample of work, however, and Mayfields career .268/.325/.472 slash in parts of four Triple-A seasons (1224 plate appearances) creates some more reason for optimism. With the Astros, Mayfield served as a right-handed-hitting backup at second base, shortstop and third base, grading well defensively at each position. He also still has minor league options remaining, making him a possible Triple-A stash for an Angels club that looks quite strong defensively with Anthony Rendon, Jose Iglesias and David Fletcher lined up around the infield. Garcia, 27, has gone from the Cubs to the Reds to the Mets to the Angels on waivers since last summer. Hes an interesting story, having washed out of affiliated ball for about four years before resurfacing with a pro club in Italy back in 2019. He caught the Cubs attention while playing in Europe and, after signing a minor league deal with Chicago, skyrocketed through their system while showing light-tower power but a huge susceptibility to strikeouts. In 98 minor league games with the Cubs in 19, Garcia posted a monstrous .284/.369/.586 slash with 27 home runs in 388 plate appearances. The power was clear to see, and it earned him a ticket to the big leagues just months after hed been playing in Italy. The Cubs gave him 80 plate appearances at the MLB level, and he punched out in 35 of them, highlighting his contact issues. However, while Garcia only hit .208 with a .275 on-base percentage, he also slugged .500 on the strength of five homers, two doubles and two triples in that brief 80-plate appearance cup of coffee. The fact that hes been passed around the league this much already shows that many clubs are intrigued by the power but wary enough of the strikeouts that they cant commit to a lasting 40-man spot. He does have minor league options remaining, so its possible hell land with yet another club after his latest DFA. The Angels have a week to trade him or try to pass him through outright waivers. Revenue increased to EUR 5.3 billion (+9%, +8% CER[1]) net sales to EUR 5.1 billion (+8%, +7% CER) Underlying profitability (adj. EBITDA[2]) was EUR 1.4 billion (+1%, -4% CER) or 27% of revenue R&D update: bimekizumab filed with FDA and EMA for psoriasis; timelines for late stage pipeline confirmed - despite pandemic Financial outlook for 2021: Revenue expected to reach EUR 5.45 - 5.65 billion, adjusted EBITDA[2] 27 - 28% of revenue, Core EPS[3] of EUR 5.60 - 6.10 expected Outlook 2025: revenue of at least EUR 6 billion and adj. EBITDA margin in the low to mid-thirties BRUSSELS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "We are very impressed by our employees and partners for their resilience and achievements during 2020. Together we continued to serve patients, took good care of each other and joined forces in the global response to COVID-19. 2020 was another year with good performance in execution of our patient value strategy, ensuring sustained growth for the company also in the longer term," said Jean-Christophe Tellier, CEO UCB. "For the first time we share our growth ambition for 2025, despite upcoming patent expirations. Based on our strong portfolio and the promising late-stage pipeline, we aim to lead in specific populations by 2025, creating value for patients now and into the future. Also, we made progress in the sustainability areas that are critical to our long-term success and our contribution to society." https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1140810/UCB_logo.jpg [https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1140810/UCB_logo.jpg] UCB's 2020 financial results 2020 revenue reached EUR 5.3 billion (+9%; +8% at CER). Net sales went up by 8% to EUR 5.1 billion (+7% CER), driven by the sustained growth of UCB's key products. Underlying profitability (adjusted EBITDA(2)) reached EUR 1.4 billion (+1%; -4% CER) reflecting higher investments into the future of UCB, namely product launches and product development. Driven by other expenses, profit was to EUR 761 million (-7%, -14%) of which EUR 732 million (-7%; -15% CER) is attributable to the UCB shareholders. Core EPS[3] were EUR 5.36 after EUR 5.20 in 2019. The Board of Directors of UCB proposes a dividend of EUR 1.27 per share (gross), +2%. Acquisitions and agreements In October 2020, UCB acquired a new campus located in Windlesham, Surrey for its U.K. operations supporting cutting-edge research and development, early manufacturing and commercialization of medicines. The acquisition reflects UCB's commitment to retain the U.K. as one of its three global hubs for research and development, alongside Belgium and the U.S. In November 2020, UCB acquired Handl Therapeutics, a rapidly growing and transformative gene therapy company based in Leuven, Belgium and entered into a new collaboration with Lacerta Therapeutics, a Florida based clinical stage gene therapy company. The new acquisition and collaboration will together serve to rapidly accelerate UCB's ambition in gene therapy. Regulatory approvals Vimpat() (lacosamide) - In October 2020, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion on a license extension for the anti-epileptic drug Vimpat as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (PGTCS) in adults, adolescents and children from 4 years of age with idiopathic generalized epilepsy - approved in the European Union in December 2020. In November 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Vimpat() as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in patients 4 years of age and older and Vimpat( )injection for intravenous use in children four years of age and older. R&D update Bimekizumab - In September 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepted marketing application submissions for bimekizumab for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. In July 2020, the Phase 3b study BE RADIANT, comparing bimekizumab to Cosentyx() (secukinumab) for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, met all co- primary and ranked secondary endpoints, achieving significantly greater efficacy than secukinumab. Dapirolizumab pegol: in August 2020, UCB and its partner, Biogen, included the first patients into the Phase 3 program with dapirolizumab pegol in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) despite standard-of-care treatment. First headline results are expected in H1 2024. Rozanolixizumab: UCB is focusing its resources to new patient populations with autoantibody mediated neuro-inflammation and high unmet medical need. With these patients potentially benefitting from rozanolixizumab, UCB is preparing the start of two clinical programs already during 2021 - next to the ongoing Phase 3 studies in generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). People living with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) are a heterogenous and complex patient population, with approximately only 30% having detectable autoantibodies. While the Phase 2a study in CIDP patients supports the conduct of a confirmatory clinical study, UCB decided to prioritize autoantibody mediated neuro-inflammation indications over CIDP. Bepranemab (UCB0107) Initiation of a Phase 2 study in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is planned for mid-2021, following the partnership agreement with Roche/Genentech. This will allow to evaluate the potential of bepranemab in a tau-mediated disease and subsequently explore options in different tauopathy populations, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). In context with the pandemic, there are no changes to the expected timelines for the late stage pipeline projects. Net sales break-down by core product Cimzia()(certolizumab pegol) - EUR1799 million (+5% Act, +7% CER): for people living with autoimmune and inflammatory TNF mediated diseases, driven by continued growth in the U.S. and stable net sales in Europe despite volume growth, reflecting the competitive landscape. Strong growth contributors were new patient populations in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis Vimpat()(lacosamide) - EUR1072 million (+10% Act, +12 CER), continues to reach more and more people living with epilepsy, reflected in strong growth in all regions. Keppra()(levetiracetam) - EUR788 million (+2% Act, +5% CER), for patients living with epilepsy, the continued generic erosion in the U.S. has been compensated by recovery from a local, one-time rebate adjustment in 2019 in Europe and continued growth in international markets including in Japan where the UCB team took over distribution of E Keppra() from partner Otsuka in October 2020. Briviact()(brivaracetam) - EUR288 million (+31% Act, +33% CER), for people living with epilepsy, is driven by significant growth in all regions Briviact() is available to patients. Briviact() has a different mode of action from Vimpat() and differentiates from Keppra() Neupro()(rotigotine) - EUR319 million (-2% Act, -1% CER), the patch for Parkinson's disease, was almost stable in a competitive market environment Nayzilam() (midazolam) Nasal Spray(CIV), a nasal rescue treatment for epilepsy seizure clusters in the U.S. is successfully launched since December 2019 and reached net sales of EUR 26 million. (CONTINUA) Flash Austria reported on Wednesday more than 2,000 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the first time in almost five weeks, according to data from the Ministry of Interior. The 2,006 new cases brought the tally of infections to 450,376, while 37 new deaths took the toll to 8,470 in the Alpine country, the data showed. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) on Wednesday that further tightening is inevitable if there were "very strong uncontrolled increases" in the next few weeks. He noted that it is not clear whether the increase of infection numbers reflects the spread of the mutations or more tests being carried out. "The increasing reproduction rate is one of our major concerns," said the minister. According to data published last Friday by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), the reproduction rate was 1.04 and thus well above the critical value of 1. Anschober explained that the spread in Austria of the mutations first identified in the UK and South Africa would "increase the pressure on the infection situation", as the variants are 30 to 40 percent more infectious. The minister did not rule out the possibility of a third wave of the pandemic, emphasising that the phase up to Easter will be "difficult and risky". The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company MONTREALYour Paysite Partner has launched BJRaw.com, a new paysite whose content focuses on blowjobs, cunnilingus, rimming and oral sex in general. 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Death on this scale is so massive a blow to society that it is difficult to comprehend. It is as if the cities of Frankfurt (753,056) or Amsterdam (821,752) had been wiped off the map. The loss of life has surpassed the total casualties at the battle of Verdun in World War I, and the number of soldiers killed in the gigantic 1941 battle of Moscow during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. In this Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 file photo, a healthcare worker administers the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, during the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for those in higher risk categories, at a vaccine center in Overijse, Belgium. Two months after the first needles went into arms, the European Union is still struggling to get its COVID-19 vaccine drive up to speed. EU leaders are meeting on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021 to try to kickstart the process as new virus variants raise concerns that they might spread faster than Europe's response. (Eric Lalmand/Pool via AP, File) One in 529 people has died of COVID-19 in Belgium, one in 545 in the Czech Republic, one in 558 in Britain, one in 625 in Italy, one in 630 in Portugal, and one in 646 in Bosnia. As deaths surge and births collapse, life expectancy has fallen in Western Europe for the first time since World War II: 1.5 years in Italy, one year in Spain and Britain, and half a year in Sweden and France. Tens of millions in Europe have lost loved ones. By last month, 63 percent of Spaniards, 59 percent of Poles, 58 percent of Italians, 57 percent of Britons and Swedes, 51 percent of Frenchmen and 34 percent of Germans had at least one relative or close friend test positive. Fully 19 percent in Spain and Poland, 21 percent in Italy, 13 percent in Britain, 11 percent in France, 10 percent in Sweden and 8 percent in Germany, saw a relative or close friend die. Tens of millions of workers lost their jobs as the economy fell by 11 percent in Spain, 10 percent in Britain, 9 percent in Italy, 8 percent in France, 5 percent in Germany, and 3 percent in Poland and Russia. Restaurants, theaters, gyms and other small businesses are unsure when or even if they will ever be able to reopen normally. Students who have lost part-time jobs are lining up to receive food and basic supplies from charities or other associations. The pandemic is not only a tragedy, but a comprehensive failure of the social order. A ruling class utterly indifferent to human life is carrying out policies that amount, as the prestigious BMJ (British Medical Journal) recently wrote, to social murder. Today, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 stands at 33.5 million, or about 5 percent of Europes population. Every day, 100,000 people or more test positive, and deadlier variants of the virus spread further. The Czech Republic recently appealed for international aid, with its hospitals overwhelmed, and expected to be swamped in two to three weeks. It received only one reply, from Berlin, offering to take just nine patients. Yet amid warnings from scientists that a new upsurge of cases due to the variants is inevitable unless drastic action is taken, capitalist governments across Europe are rejecting shelter-at-home orders and moving to eliminate remaining social distancing measures. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson set the tone on February 21 when he announced a road map for an irreversible lifting of Britains last lock-down. In this plan, London will not try to control the exponential growth rate of the virus unless conditions risk a surge in hospital admissions. Johnson baldly ordered British workers to accept that there will be more infections, more hospitalizations and therefore, sadly, more deaths beyond the 126,000 already recorded. Berlin began reopening schools across Germany on Monday, and Spanish regional governments are loosening social distancing restrictions. French President Emmanuel Macron shocked the public last month by rejecting a widely expected nationwide lockdown order recommended by scientists. While two-thirds of Frenchmen expected such a lockdown, Macron lectured officials at a National Security Council meeting: Ive had enough of scientists who answer my questions about the variants with just one scenario: a new lockdown. With vaccine rollouts hopelessly delayed, vaccination will not halt a wave of new deaths in the coming months if such policies are pursued. The percentage of the population that has had just one of the two doses of a vaccine ranges from 24 percent in Britain and 13.5 percent in Serbia to 4 percent in Poland, 3 percent in Germany, France, Spain and Italy, 2.8 percent in the Czech Republic and 1.4 percent in Russia. Mass spread of the virus is not inevitable. By following medical professionals calls for strict contact tracing and shelter-at-home orders, a few countries like China, Taiwan and Vietnam dramatically limited the contagion. In Europe, however, political representatives of the financial aristocracy needlessly condemned hundreds of thousands to death. The fight against the pandemic requires the political mobilization of the working class against capitalism, which subordinates human life to private profit and to the reactionary national geopolitical interests of the imperialist powers. Initial lockdowns imposed across much of Europe in the spring of 2020 were adopted due to a wave of wildcat strikes across Italy that spread to other countries, including Spain, France and Britain. In every industrial sector there is an extremely brutal shift in workers attitudes, Patrick Martin, the vice president of Frances main business federation, the Medef, wrote at the time. Blaming workers for an overreaction to COVID-19, Martin warned that management can no longer continue production due to pressure from the workers. While the working class mobilized to defend life, European capitalist officials and the media worked to defend profits and death. They called for an end to lockdowns and the continuation of non-essential production, thus keeping profits flowing to the banks. Laying out Europes herd immunity strategy, UK Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance said its not desirable to stop the spread of COVID-19, calling for some immunity in the population to protect ourselves in the future. In Germany, where a classified Interior Ministry memo released last summer estimated that letting COVID-19 spread would lead to over 1 million deaths, President Wolfgang Schauble denounced the view that everything must take second place to the protection of life. Germanys Constitution, he bluntly declared, does not exclude us from having to die. As they ended last years initial lockdown, European officials designed multi-trillion-euro bailouts, forking over vast levels of public wealth to the financial aristocracy. Bank bailouts of 1.25 trillion from the European Central Bank and 645 billion from the Bank of England, and corporate bailouts of 750 billion by the EU and 330 billion in Britain, sent stock markets skyrocketing. Europes richest individual, French billionaire Bernard Arnault, saw his fortune rise by 30 billion. The greed of the financial aristocracy was indistinguishable from the imperialist powers struggle to dominate world markets. Warning of the risk of China-centric globalization, Le Monde endorsed Trumps herd immunity policy as the business first option, sacrificing part of its population to not leave Chinese power with an open field. The EU thereupon also sacrificed its population. German and French unions signed the EU bailout, as the affluent middle-class forces in the union bureaucracies and pseudo-left parties saw their stock portfolios surge. The left populist Podemos party implemented herd immunity policies from within the Spanish government. All these organizations supported the ruling classs universal back-to-work and back-to-school policy. Since last summer, they kept workers going to work and most youth going to school, even when governments reintroduced bogus lockdowns as COVID-19 cases began to explode in November. They took their watchword from Macrons statement in September: We must learn to live with the virus. The consequences are now plain to see. European health systems, stripped bare by decades of austerity since the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, proved incapable of tracing, isolating and containing the virus even after last springs lockdowns initially brought COVID-19 cases down to only a few thousand per day. Fixated on defending their wealth and indifferent to mass death, the ruling classes of the major European countries have intensified their fascistic policies. Officers in Spain, outraged by strikes in March calling for the closure of non-essential factories, declared their loyalty to fascism and their plans for a coup to shoot 26 million people. Macrons Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, a former member of the far-right Action francaise, introduced laws to ban filming of police and regulate Islam, setting the stage for intensified police repression of protests and appeals to anti-Muslim hatred. Working class opposition is again rising across Europe. Recent months have seen strikes by Italian public sector workers, wildcat strikes by French teachers against in-person teaching, industrial action at plants in Spain and beyond threatened with closure, and a growing radicalization of youth and students against police state measures. To wage this fight, however, political conclusions must be drawn. The pandemic marks a historic turning point. European capitalism is discreditedits ruling elites, its corporatist union bureaucracies that function as tools of the state, and its pseudo-left parties. Fighting the pandemic requires building a socialist movement in the international working class, independent of the unions and established parties. Only this can prepare the transfer of state power to the workers to wage an international, scientifically-based struggle against the global COVID-19 pandemic. WeWork co-founder and former Chief Executive Adam Neumann is set to reap an extra $50 million windfall and other benefits as part of an agreement that would settle a bitter dispute he and other early investors in the shared-office-space provider have waged with SoftBank Group Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. As The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, the parties are closing in on a deal in which SoftBank, WeWorks majority shareholder, would buy about $1.5 billion of stock from other investors, including nearly $500 million from Mr. Neumann. That is about half as much as it previously planned to buy. But part of the deal not previously reported sets Mr. Neumann apart from other shareholders. It calls for SoftBank to give the 41-year-old the $50 million special payout and extend by five years a $430 million loan it made to him in late 2019, the people said. SoftBank is also slated to pay $50 million for Mr. Neumanns legal fees. It isnt clear how much it is paying for the other shareholders legal fees. The settlement between SoftBank, Mr. Neumann and the other shareholders isnt final and the terms could still change, the people cautioned. Should the parties reach agreement, potentially in the next few days, it would avert an early-March trial. WeWork is separately negotiating a combination with a special-purpose acquisition company called BowX Acquisition Corp. that would provide the startup with a public listing, people familiar with the discussions said. While the talks could still fall apart and other options are being considered, WeWork and BowX could reach agreement as soon as next week, some of the people said. The monthslong legal skirmish centers around a commitment SoftBank made in October 2019 to buy $3 billion of stock from existing WeWork shareholders, including nearly $1 billion from Mr. Neumann. SoftBank, which was bailing out a teetering WeWork after its planned IPO collapsed, also agreed to pay a four-year, $185 million consulting fee to Mr. Neumann, who agreed to step down as chairman and CEO. In addition, it lent him nearly $500 million to refinance another loan. The extra payment to Mr. Neumann could reopen old wounds with WeWork employees and investors, who were furious when the $185 million payout became public. Employees to whom Mr. Neumann had long preached a we over me" ethos were stunned by the contrast between his exit package and their personal financial situation. Most had stock options that had become virtually worthless as the value of WeWork plunged to around $8 billion from $47 billion. Mr. Neumann never received the full amount of the consulting contract, the people said: SoftBank paid him around $130 million before stopping payment amid the legal fight. Last April, as the coronavirus pandemic swept the U.S., SoftBank declined to go ahead with the $3 billion payment. It cited terms of the deal that it said hadnt been completed, including the restructuring of a subsidiary in China. WeWork shareholders, represented by early WeWork investors on the board, and Mr. Neumann filed separate lawsuits, and the sides traded legal motions over much of the past year. The nearly $500 million in stock Mr. Neumann is set to sell represents about 25% of his holdings. The per-share price he is getting is about the same as in the earlier agreement, people familiar with the matter said. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Jianpu Technology Inc. ("Jianpu" or the "Company") (NYSE: JT). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Jianpu and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On June 15, 2020, in a Notification of Late Filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Jianpu disclosed that the independent audit committee of its board of directors (the "Audit Committee") was conducting an internal review of certain matters relating to transactions between the Company and third-party business entities and, as a result, could not timely file its 2019 annual report. Then, on February 16, 2021, Jianpu announced that the Audit Committee's review had found "certain transactions involv[ing] third-party agents . . . with undisclosed relationships, and some transactions lack[ing] business substance," which the Company characterized as "questionable transactions." Jianpu further advised that, "[a]s a result, certain revenue and associated expenses were inflated or inaccurately recorded" in financial statements for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, and that "certain employees improperly altered supporting documents that were provided to the Company's external auditor." As a result, Jianpu concluded that "the previously issued audited financial statements for the fiscal year 2018 and the auditor's report can no longer be relied upon" and would be restated, and that "investors must exercise caution when using the Company's previously announced unaudited financial information for the fiscal year 2019." On this news, Jianpu's American depositary share ("ADS") price fell $0.60 per ADS, or 13.22%, to close at $3.94 per ADS on February 16, 2021. 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. 7980 With his bulbous nose, fluffy moustache and slightly sagging jowls, a 34-year-old Rembrandt van Rijn gazes out from the frame. Despite wearing a hat and coat that are 100 years past the date they were considered fashionable, the Dutch artist looks like a man pleased with his place in the world. I see a very confident almost, dare I say cocky artist who is clearly quite aware of who he is and why he is important, says Bart Cornelis, the curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings at the National Gallery in London. And he turned out to be right. I think he was aware that he was something out of the ordinary, but its still a bit cocky. Rembrandts Self Portrait at the Age of 34, 1640. Credit:The National Gallery, London He was, in short, a master of the selfie. A man ahead of his time, who spent hours looking in the mirror to find the right angle for his tronies head and shoulder studies and who was a master of lighting, no filter required. He just needs to work on his angles, as those floppy jowls wouldnt pass the Instagram test. Cornelis, a fellow Dutchman who is keen to know if my surname is Dutch or Flemish, agrees: He probably would have hated Instagram, all these young people with their perfect skin in their selfies. Because he was interested in something else, although its difficult to say what it is. After Wade was arrested, he told police that the SUV was his sisters car and she did not have the plate screwed onto the bumper, it was on the windshield, Murphy said. He said his passenger was his cousin, who was on electronic monitoring for a gun case, and that he was out on bond for an attempted murder case. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 20:17:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LILONGWE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Malawi government has turned down the demand by teachers for them to be provided with a risk allowance for teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The government ordered that schools should reopen Monday, Feb. 22, after a five-week break, which was necessitated by the new COVID-19 upsurge earlier in the year. But the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) called on its members across the country to stage a sit-in to force the government to pay the teachers' risk allowance and to also provide them with personal protective equipment (PPE). The sit-in started Monday and pupils across the country were either sent back or left unattended to at their schools. The Ministry of Education spokesperson, Chikondi Chimala, told local media Monday that the teachers' demands had been referred to the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 for consideration. But education minister, Agnes NyaLonje, on Wednesday told Parliament, which is currently in the Mid-Year Budget Review session, that the Task Force had turned the teachers' demands down. "Today, we received a communication from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the communication is that they do not think granting risk allowances to teachers at this time is appropriate," explained the minister. She added that the teachers will, however, be considered as a priority in the COVID-19 vaccine which the country will roll out in March targeting health workers first. TUM leadership also met the country's president, Lazarus Chakwera, on the matter and the Union has since suspended the strike, calling all teachers to return to work. However, there is dissatisfaction among teachers across the country as they feel betrayed by their leadership which has called the sit-in off despite the government's failure to honor their risk allowance demand. Meanwhile, the Malawi government says it has disbursed funds to all schools across the country for the procurement of PPEs and, according to the Education Minister, over 3,200 additional teachers have been recruited to ease the teacher to pupil ratio. Enditem UNDP in Vienam, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union co-organised the Youth4Climate Conference, which marked the kick-off of the Youth4Climate Initiative in Vietnam. Youth4Climate Conference (Photo courtesy of organising board) The Youth4Climate Initiative is implemented under UNDP Climate Promise, a global programme through which UNDP is committed to supporting 115 countries in enhancing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by 2020. In Vietnam, the Youth4Climate Initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of existing youth representatives and networks to advance climate actions at national and international forums, through consistent and coordinated efforts and enhanced collaboration with the Government, UN agencies, development partners, private sector, and civil society organisations in future climate initiatives and policies. At the Conference, the results of the recent global UNDPs survey Peoples Climate Vote were shared. Similar to the majority of respondents across the world, 64 percent of respondents from Vietnam declared that they are facing a global climate emergency, with 60 percent of them suggesting urgent responses. The Peoples Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted, with the participation of 1.2 million people from 50 different countries. In his remarks, Pham Van Tan, Deputy Director-General of the MONREs Department of Climate Change, said climate change response has remained among of the top missions of the whole political system. Vietnam adopted and enforced the Paris Agreement shortly after it was signed in 2015, he said. He further noted that Vietnams commitments to the global response to climate change were also included in the revised Law on Environmental Protection adopted by the National Assembly last November. In order to implement the NDC targets, we need a strong will, determination, efforts and join collaboration from all socio-economic groups, of which Youth Union members and youth, as our future leaders, are playing an important role, Tan noted. Youth are the powerhouse for innovation and action, and it is our role, as UNDP Vietnam, to help them reach capacity, Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam, highlighted. By empowering young people, Vietnam can unleash new potential for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its NDCs in the future, she added. Nguyen Ngoc Luong, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union shared that we are willing to introduce new creative initiatives that can attract the mass participation of youth and generate momentum for youth to respond to climate change as part of their self-awareness and continuous lifestyle. During the conference, youth presented the key findings of the Special Report Youth for Climate Action in Vietnam, which is the first report fully led and co-written by 20 outstanding youth at the National Writeshop organised in December 2020. The co-authors were selected based on their outstanding performance during the three regional Youth4Climate consultations from July to November 2020. The Special Report depicts the bottlenecks youth have faced in undertaking climate action as well as the accelerators they identified to fast track their contributions to the NDC implementation and the transition to a greener and low-carbon Vietnam in four key thematic areas: (i) Climate Mitigation, (ii) Climate Adaptation, (iii) Nature-based Solutions, and (ii) Climate Policies. Mai Hoang, the youthlead reporter said she hopes the report will be widely shared with the Government of Vietnam and other stakeholders for our voices to be heard./.VNA South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster wants the states electric providers to review their power grids to see if they could face problems like what happened in Texas during the recent winter storm. McMaster sent a letter Friday to the Office of Regulatory Staff, asking the watchdog group to undertake a comprehensive review of our states public and private power grid to evaluate its ability to withstand potential ice storms and other dangerous winter conditions. His letter noted the state is familiar with how hurricanes can disrupt power. McMaster asked the agency to send their report to his office and lawmakers and request a hearing on the matter before the Public Service Commission if it sees fit. The governors letter also asked state-owned Santee Cooper, which isnt under the control of regulators, to also participate in the review. One of the states largest power providers told WIS-TV that a power grid collapse like happened in Texas is unlikely here. While Texas grid is isolated, South Carolina is connected to power providers along the East Coast and can buy additional electricity from areas far away that arent affected, said Dominion Energy President of Electric Operations Keller Kissam. We could have electricity flowing on our system from another utility, or we could be flowing to another utility, and its seamless, Kissam told the TV station. Customers never see it. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Texas Windstorm South Carolina Statins are being wrongly blamed for aches and pains that are likely to come from old age, a study has found. Doctors fear that tens of thousands die every year from shunning the life-saving pills because they worry about the supposed side effects. But researchers say patients felt roughly the same levels of muscle pain and stiffness whether they took statins or a placebo pill instead. Their study suggests that the symptoms could simply be old age or the nocebo effect caused by negative associations with the prescription drug. Statins are being wrongly blamed for aches and pains that are likely to come from old age, a study has found (stock image) Experts say the findings should encourage millions of people risking heart attack and stroke to start taking the pills. Scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine gave 200 patients both statins or dummy pills over six two-month periods. Neither patients, nor their GP, knew which tablet they were receiving at any given time but all had periods taking both. At the end of each treatment period, participants rated their muscle symptoms defined as pain, weakness, tenderness, stiffness, or cramp of any intensity. No difference was seen in the scores between the statin and placebo periods. The researchers also found no differences for the effect of muscle symptoms on aspects of daily life such as mood, ability to walk, sleep or work. Doctors fear that tens of thousands die every year from shunning the life-saving pills because they worry about the supposed side effects. But researchers say patients felt roughly the same levels of muscle pain and stiffness whether they took statins or a placebo pill instead (stock image) Liam Smeeth, who is a GP and professor of clinical epidemiology at LSHTM, said: Were not saying anyone is making up aches and pains at all these are real aches and pains. What were showing very clearly, is that those aches and pains are no worse on statins than they are on placebo. These are real, theyre just not being caused by statins and that really matters if people are weighing up the benefits and risks, and if statins are for them. Around eight million people in Britain take the cholesterol-busting drugs, while an estimated six million more should be taking them but choose not to. They are thought to stop about 80,000 heart attacks and strokes every year at the cost of roughly 20 a year per patient. Scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine gave 200 patients both statins or dummy pills over six two-month periods (stock image) The trial looked at one type of statin, which is most commonly prescribed in the UK, taken at a moderate dosage. Researchers admitted that the pills can be given at higher doses, typically after a heart attack, and that this study did not look to see if this changed the effects. Eighty of the 200 participants, who had recently stopped or were considering stopping treatment with statins because of the purported side effects, dropped out of the study, with 32 stating intolerable muscle symptoms. Of these, 13 dropped out during a period when they were taking placebos and 18 when on statins, according to the results published in the British Medical Journal. One dropped out before the trial started. Two-thirds of those completing the trial said they planned to restart long-term treatment with statins. Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said the findings should give confidence to patients concerned about taking statins. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Thursday issued tenders for the construction of the first phase of an international airport at in Gujarat, entailing an investment of Rs 987 crore, according to an official statement. The new facility is being set up in greenfield city under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project at Located in the north of the Special Investment Region (DSIR), the upcoming airport is expected to cater to not only DSIR and its hinterland but also to traffic overflow from the Ahmadabad international airport, it said. "The has release Rs 987 crore tender for Phase 1 of the Dholera International Airport, which will be aligned with a fire-station of Category-9, and will incorporate a 3,200-mts (metres) runway, which will be suitable for type 4E Aircraft," said the release. The lack of international airport in Saurashtra and its vicinity will make Dholera international airport strategic and advantageous in many ways, it said. The upcoming airport will be an advantage for the aerospace, defence and manufacturing industries who look forward to invest in the greenfield industrial smart city of Dholera, the statement added. The government has allocated 1,427 hectares of land for the project, and 75 hectares of government land has been allocated for commercial development. Also, all the other relevant ancillary services will be developed by the government like power, water, flood control and roads, said the release. (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.) (Newser) Among the things you never want to hear a pilot say to air traffic controllers: "We just had something go right over the top of us. I hate to say thislooked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast." The transmission came Sunday from the pilot of an American Airlines jet over the northeast corner of New Mexico, reports the Arizona Republic. The airline has confirmed that the pilot of Flight 2292 from Cincinnati to Phoenix did indeed say that, but so far, there's no word on what the mysterious object might have been. Air traffic controllers saw nothing unusual on their screens, and the Pentagon says no military tests were being conducted in the vicinity at the time, per CBS News. The sighting took place about 1:19pm local time. story continues below The plane was about 400 miles from the military's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at the time, though a range spokesperson says no tests were done on Sunday and "we never test in that area." The Holloman Air Force Base also is in the vicinity, and a spokesperson told the Republic they would look into the report but had yet to respond. The incident first came to light via the Deep Black Horizon blog run by Steve Douglass. "Do you have any targets up here?" the pilot asks air traffic control, before going on to describe what he saw. He mentions that the object went "right over the top of us" twice. The plane landed without incident in Phoenix, per AZFamily. (This site now has all the CIA's intelligence on UFO sightings.) The guests have been revealed for this week's Late Late Show on RTE One. Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, Eurovision legends Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh, Charlie McGettigan, Paul Harrington and 2021 hopeful Lesley Roy, and Irish Paralympian athletes are among the guests for Friday night's show. Hollywood star of new series Your Honor, Bryan Cranston, will join Ryan to speak about his Golden Globe nomination, the differences between great TV and film making, and his greatest roles to date. Her Eurovision hopes were dashed with the cancellation of last year's show, but Dubliner Lesley Roy is ready to finish what she started and will give her debut performance of Ireland's 2021 Eurovision entry, Maps, tomorrow night. Lesley will speak about her hopes for glory in Rotterdam this May. It's also going to be an evening for celebrating Eurovision victories and iconic Irish moments from the competition, with former winners Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh, Charlie McGettigan, and Paul Harrington in studio for some very special musical performances. Ryan will be joined by Irish Paralympic athletes Ellen Keane, Colin Judge, Nicola Turner, Martin Gordon, and John Fulham, President of Paralympics Ireland, to discuss their hopes for Toyko this summer and the challenges of training for a worldwide stage in the midst of a pandemic. The past year has shone a light on the vital importance of press photography in documenting unprecedented times, and Crispin Rodwell, president of the Press Photographers Association of Ireland will present a selection of images from this year's PPAI Awards. The overall Press Photographer of the Year will be announced live on air. The Late Late Show, Friday, February 26th on RTE One at 9.35pm. TAKE OUR SURVEY ~~TELL US HOW WE ARE DOING That is 10 years earlier than the world's most populous country's plan to realize the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The achievement was made on the same year when the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates the centenary since its founding. "This is the great glory for the Chinese people, the CPC and our nation!" Xi said at a gathering to mark the country's accomplishments in extreme poverty eradication and commend role models in that cause, hailing the achievement as "a miracle on earth that should be written into the history." The event was held at the Great Hall of the People in capital Beijing Thursday morning. Reform takes time, arduous work The start was not easy. While in his 30s, Xi was sent down to work in the early 1980's as a grassroots-level official in Zhengding County, northern Hebei Province in the country's call for large-scale poverty relief programs. There he started his reform experiments: rural land contracts. He then later became a secretary of the prefectural Party committee in Ningde, southeastern Fujian Province. "I always felt a sense of unease," Xi recalled in his book "Up and Out of Poverty." "Poverty alleviation is an immense undertaking that requires the efforts of several generations." Over the next two decades, he brought his dream of poverty elimination to the center of China's political life. "Xi's reform is derived from his experience," said Shi Zhihong, a former deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee. "He knew that the rigid old paths would lead nowhere, and reform was a must." Since 2012, the Chinese president has gone down deep traveling to impoverished communities more than 50 times and learned about people's lives. Tailored measures based on practical situations Precision was a key to China's success. The strategy of targeted poverty alleviation was put forward by Xi in late 2013, who compared adopting indiscriminate approaches to "killing fleas with a hand-grenade." Xi called it "the poverty eradication path featuring Chinese characteristics" in his Thursday speech. From household to household, the questions of who exactly needs help, who should provide help, how help should be rendered, and what standards and procedures should be adopted for exiting poverty were answered. To take a step further, the central government has also sent millions of city officials to the frontline going down to the poorest grassroots and work with individuals in difficult physical circumstances. "So, again how can China eradicate absolute poverty? It's because of the ruling party's philosophy, the goal of common prosperity," Zheng Yongnian, dean of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, told CGTN. Rural infrastructure, education and healthcare all improved. Official data shows over 9.6 million people moved out of their tiny mud-brick houses that may pose safety concerns. Some rural hospitals partnered with their metropolitan counterparts to offer high-quality medical services to rural residents. "Illness-induced poverty is one of the toughest problems in rural areas," said Hu Yi, head of the public hospital in the county of Zhenxiong in Yunnan Province. "Now they don't have to travel far to get treated, not even for serious illness." Rural revitalization: Consolidating the achievements Beijing now aims for more on top of consolidating its already-reached results. It has set goals at achieving the basic modernization of agriculture and rural areas by 2035, and the grand goal of a strong agricultural industry, beautiful countryside and well-off farmers by 2050. A term was raised: rural vitalization. "To speed up the formation of a new development pattern of 'dual circulation' in which domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, it's imperative for agriculture, rural areas and farmers to play a stabilizing and supportive role in maintaining China's economic and social development," said Li Guoxiang, research fellow at the Rural Development Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in a CGTN Opinion piece. For those villages which agriculture products that are sold solely within their vicinity, their markets are wide now thanks to fast-developing e-commerce service. Luo Huimin, a native from Wannian County of Jiangxi Province, analyzed the demands for agricultural products in cities and optimized the supply of agricultural products. He now opens chain stores delivering crops and oil for residents across the country from Nanchang, provincial capital of Jiangxi, all the way to southern Guangdong Province. With more than 90 people employed all from Luo's hometown they are now each receiving up to 15,000 yuan ($2,172) every month. According to a survey among 3,378 migrant workers conducted in early 2019, more than 60 percent of respondents said they believe improving public resources such as health, education and infrastructure are convincing them to stay in the countryside or return from the coastal areas. The difficulties in rural revitalization are no less than eradicating extreme poverty, Xi said in Thursday's speech. "But we'll maintain the hard-working momentum and continue to march forward!" Original article: here. SOURCE CGTN Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-24 23:35:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Doctors are seen on their way to provide diagnosis and treatment services at the resettlement community for relocated residents of Rasekam Village in Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Fei) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China firmly rejects the unacceptable accusations made by the UK, which has abused the platform of the UN Human Rights Council to spread disinformation, smear China and meddle in China's internal affairs, a foreign ministry spokesperson said here Wednesday, urging the UK to take concrete measures to improve domestic human rights condition. At the high-level segment of the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab attacked China on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet. "We welcome people from all over the world traveling to Xinjiang to see the region's prosperity and the residents' happy life," spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing. He said more than 1,200 foreign diplomats, international organization officials, journalists and religious personnel from over 100 countries have visited Xinjiang in the past years under the invitation of the Chinese side, and they agreed that what they saw and experienced in the region was entirely different from Western media reports. "The door to Xinjiang is always open. We welcome the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang. China already extended invitation to the High Commissioner for visiting Xinjiang and other places in China, and both sides have been in communication on that," he added. Wang however stressed that the purpose of the visit is to enhance bilateral exchange and cooperation rather than carry out "investigations" with the presumption of guilt. "We firmly oppose any political maneuvers to press China on this matter." "The UK's proposed so-called 'resolution' is apparently out of the ill intention to muddy the water, slander China and sabotage China's cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which we firmly oppose," Wang said. "Its petty tricks cannot fool the international community." He noted that the UK is keen on lecturing and pressuring other countries, meddling in their internal affairs and practicing politicization and double standards on human rights issues. However, it turns a blind eye to the severe human rights issues at home. According to Wang, one-third of British families with children aged under five live below the poverty line, and millions of children suffer hunger. The British military committed murder of innocent civilians and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the perpetrators are still sheltered by the government and unpunished. In the UK, there are a lot of such phenomena as racial discrimination, xenophobia, hatred talks, and severe rights abuses against refugees and immigrants. "We urge the UK to take concrete measures to improve domestic human rights condition and contribute something tangible to the sound development of the international human rights cause," Wang said. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread worldwide. To date, more than 112.5 million people have been infected, with over 2.49 million deaths lost to COVID-19. The United States is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with the number of infections skyrocketing to 28.34 million. Due to the pandemic's impact, many countries went into lockdown, where schools were closed, and online learning replaced the classroom. Over the past months, schools and universities allowed face-to-face classes provided that students undergo a 14-day quarantine period if they were exposed to a SARS-CoV-2 case. CDC guideline Recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guideline. Based on local circumstances and resources, quarantine can end after day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported. Data indicated that the incubation period for SARS-CoV-2 infection is between four and five days from exposure in adults and six to seven days from exposure in children. As a result, Alachua County in Florida implemented SARS-CoV-2 testing on day 9 and a return to school on day 10 for students with contacts of confirmed COVOD-19 cases. Researchers at the University of Florida and the Florida Department of Health evaluated test positivity rates for SARS-CoV-2 infection among student contacts. The team found that nine days are not enough to ascertain that the student did not contract the virus. The study To arrive at the study findings, published in the journal JAMA Network, the researchers asked informed consent from the parents of 26,456 children from kindergarten through 12th grade. Of these students, 49 percent were enrolled for in-person instruction, where they are required to attend physical classes. The county's health department provided reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for the students who came back from quarantine. The health department also conducted swabs for symptomatic students and contact tracing for COVID-19-positive confirmed cases. Student contacts of confirmed cases were quarantined and subjected to RT-CR test on the third day and day 9. In some cases, testing was delayed to 10 to 14 days. The students without symptoms and tested negative on days 9 to 14 could return to school on the day after a negative test. If no testing occurred, a 14-day quarantine was required. Students who returned to school after a negative test were monitored for COVID-19 symptoms until day 14. Study findings Study findings showed that from August 1 to November 30, 2020, the positivity rate of Alachua County was 4.9 percent. During this time, 495 suspected student cases underwent testing. Of these, 51.9 percent tested positive for COVID-19. For these confirmed cases, 2,189 contacts underwent quarantine and isolation. Further, 143 contacts were tested on day 3, while 839 contacts were tested on days 9 to 14. Of the student contacts who were tested on the third day, 10.4 percent were positive for SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, 40 contacts tested positive for COVID-19 on days 9 to 14. Among the 799 contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases with a negative test result on days 9 to 14, only one student became symptomatic after returning to school and tested positive on day 14, after testing negative on day 9. However, the virus isolated from the student is genetically distinct from the virus taken from the COVID-19 cases to which the student was exposed to. The researchers concluded that had students returned to school before day 14 without testing on day 9 or thereafter, about 8.2 percent of high school contacts would have returned to school with COVID-19. The study results should be considered when evaluating the CDC recommendation for a 10-day quarantine period without testing or a 7-day quarantine with testing. However, the team also revealed no evidence that an earlier school return with a negative test result was tied to a subsequent symptomatic illness. Since the quarantine length for close contacts is still unclear, it is still crucial to observe infection control measures. These include washing the hands regularly, practicing social distancing, wearing face masks, and avoiding crowded places. 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. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) Legitimate children have the right to adopt their mothers surname, the Supreme Court ruled, as it cited the State's commitment to ensure gender equality. Associate Justice Marvic Leonen made this clear in a 15-page decision he penned, which was uploaded on the SC website on Monday. The high tribunal reversed rulings of the Court of Appeals and the Regional Trial Court of Zamboanga City, which both denied a request for a change of surname. The petitioner, Anacleto B. Alanis III, appealed to be allowed to legally use his mothers maiden name Ballaho, saying it was what he has been using since childhood. The mother also single-handedly raised him and his siblings, the petitioner said. According to the RTC, however, permitting him to drop his last name would be in violation of the Family Code and Civil Code, which provide that legitimate children shall principally use their fathers' surnames. But in its pronouncement, the SC stressed that the fundamental equality of women and men is guaranteed by no less than the Constitution. It pointed to Article 2 Section 14, which it said "implies the State's positive duty to actively dismantle the existing patriarchy by addressing the culture that supports it." The high court further noted that the Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Non-discrimination against women is also an emerging customary norm," it said. "Thus, the State has the duty to actively modify what is in its power to modify, to ensure that women are not discriminated." It also called the RTCs application of the Article 364 of the Civil Code as incorrect, saying that while the provision states that legitimate children shall principally use the surname of the father, "principally" does not mean "exclusively." "Accordingly, where the text of a law allows for an interpretation that treats women and men more equally, that is the correct interpretation," it said. BEAVERTON, Ore., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix, Inc. , a leading global provider of test and measurement solutions, in collaboration with Anritsu , introduced today a new PCI EXPRESS 5.0 transceiver (Base and CEM) and reference clock solution, becoming the first company to offer early CEM fixtures for pre-compliance testing. The collaboration between Tektronix and Anritsu enables industry-leading receiver verification, complementing a world-class transmitter and reference clock test suite. In collaboration with Anritsu, Tektronix introduces a new PCI EXPRESS 5.0 transceiver (Base and CEM) and reference clock solution. PCI EXPRESS continues to extend its industry leadership as the dominant high-speed serial computer bus by doubling bandwidth every three years and exceeding the target with the aggressive introduction of the 5.0 Base Specification (128 GB/s). This rapid development pace is expected to continue as PCI-SIG, the standard-setting body for peripheral component I/O data transfers, announced the PCI EXPRESS 6.0 specification (256 GB/s) to be delivered in 2021 and include multi-level PAM4 signaling. "As the first company to offer CEM testing fixtures for PCIe Gen5, we are proud to help our customers once again speed the pace of innovation, giving them a leg up on competition," says Chris Witt, Tektronix vice president and general manager. The server/storage industry is rapidly transitioning to PCI EXPRESS 5.0 due to new requirements imposed by 400G ethernet, cloud AI and modeling (co-processors), storage capacity, and NAND-based storage. This rapid progression brings an entirely new problem set for test and measurement traditionally split into Base silicon level validation and CEM compliance testing with the PCI-SIG. "Electronics designers today demand future-proofing to protect their innovations' longevity into tomorrow," says Takeshi Shima, senior vice president at Anritsu corporation. "Providing a solution through Gen6 gives our customers a sense of our commitment to stay with them on the cutting edge of development." "As PCIe becomes faster and more complex with the emergence of the Gen5 standard, engineers are faced with new design challenges, shorter time-to-market windows, new standards specifications to understand and apply, and new compliance testing requirements," says David Bouse, PCI EXPRESS systems engineer at Tektronix. "It is vital to have a comprehensive test equipment and software solution in place prior to workshop certification. Our PCIe 5.0 test and debug solution can easily guide the engineer through compliance testing and debug to ensure their design meets new standards with a high degree of confidence." The PCI EXPRESS 5.0 transceiver and reference clock solution from Tektronix was developed and continues to be aligned with the 5.0 Base specification, 5.0 CEM specification, and 5.0 test specifications. Key features include: PCI EXPRESS 5.0 (32 GT/s) automated Base & CEM transceiver solution running on DPO700000SX series 70 GHz real time oscilloscope and MP1900A Signal Quality Analyzer-R series (BERT) from Anritsu New Receiver automation software from Tektronix with highly efficient algorithms for stressed eye calibration at 32 GT/s & 16 GT/s State-of-the-art tool support including SigTest Phoenix with highly parallelized processing to reduce overall test time Multiple form factors (M.2 & U.2) and Clocking Architectures (CC, SRNS, SRIS) Follows real time evolution of the 5.0 Base specification with 32 GT/s uncorrelated jitter and pulse width jitter measurements implemented to optimize A/D range and minimize noise Addresses the increasing challenges of 100 MHz reference clock jitter and signal integrity measurements through full integration with the Silicon Labs "PCIe Clock Jitter" tool and Tektronix's DPOJET tool Industry first pre compliance test fixtures for PCIe 5.0 CEM testing Availability The Tektronix PCI EXPRESS solution is now available worldwide for use with DPO/MSO70000SX/DX. Contact a Tektronix representative for pricing and additional details, or visit www.tek.com/pci-express . About Anritsu Anritsu Corporation (www.anritsu.com) has been a provider of innovative communications solutions for more than 120 years. The company's test and measurement solutions include wireless, optical, microwave/RF and digital instruments, operations support systems and solutions that can be used during R&D, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance. Anritsu also provides precision microwave/RF components, optical devices, and high-speed devices for design into communication products and systems. With the addition of OSS monitoring solutions, it has expanded its offering to provide complete solutions for existing and next-generation wireline and wireless communication systems and service providers. Anritsu sells in over 90 countries worldwide with approximately 4,000 employees. To learn more, visit www.anritsu.com and follow Anritsu on LinkedIn , Twitter , and YouTube . More information on the MP1900A Signal Quality Analyzer-R series (BERT) can be found here . About Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery globally. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. More information on our products and solutions is available at Tek.com . Follow us on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter , YouTube and Instagram , and to stay connected. Learn more from our engineers on the Tektronix blog and read our latest announcements in our Newsroom . Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. SOURCE Tektronix, Inc. Related Links http://www.Tek.com SALEM, Ore. Governor Kate Brown has issued another 60-day extension of Oregon's state of emergency prompted by coronavirus, bringing the keystone for her executive orders into early May. The state of emergency declaration serves as the legal underpinning for all of Brown's coronavirus-related executive orders, making the Oregon Health Authority's health and safety guidance enforceable. It also allows state agencies to use federal COVID-19 relief and assistance, including for vaccine distribution. The state of emergency survived a legal challenge months ago, after a Baker County Circuit Court judge temporarily rendered it "null and void." The Oregon Supreme Court threw out the Baker County ruling, siding with Brown's ability to issue and continue such a declaration for the COVID-19 public health emergency. Brown last extended the state of emergency in the middle of December. This new extension will last until May 2, unless rescinded early. When I issued my first state of emergency declaration last March, there were 14 known cases of COVID-19 in Oregon, said Governor Brown. Today, we have now seen more than 150,000 cases across the state, and, sadly, 2,194 deaths. Throughout the pandemic, Oregonians have made smart choices that have protected our families and loved ones, and saved thousands of lives. We helped our doctors, nurses, and health care workers from being overwhelmed last spring, and again during the winter surge. Our infection and mortality rates have consistently remained some of the lowest in the country. And, for the first time, COVID-19 critical care units are seeing fewer and fewer patients. As we vaccinate thousands of Oregonians each day and reopen more school buildings and businesses as safely as possible, now is not the time to let up our guard. New, more infectious COVID-19 variants are circulating in the United States, including several confirmed cases in Oregon. We will continue to keep each other safe in the months to come by following the same safety measures we have throughout the pandemicwearing face coverings, staying home when sick, maintaining physical distance, and avoiding social gatherings. 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! 4 times politicians displayed hypocrisy, forsook mandates Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has come under fire for traveling to Cancun, Mexico with his family while millions of Texans suffered from the effects of a deadly winter storm with sub-freezing temperatures and widespread power outages that claimed the lives of nearly 60 people. Cruzs decision to take his family on vacation during one of the worst winter storms in recent Texas memory drew pushback from Democrats and critics who have pointed to his past criticisms of leaders who vacationed or took part in leisure activities during times of crisis. But Cruz is not the first politician to be accused of holding a double standard. Many in recent years have also faced backlash for seemingly hypocritical actions that have drawn the ire of opponents and constituents. In the last year alone, several politicians have been accused of engaging in acts of hypocrisy. The following pages highlight four times politicians have been accused in the past year of not following the expectations they or members of their political party have set. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. Egypt counts on the private sector to raise growth levels through its investments in the government's projects and initiatives, said Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly at a webinar organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Egypt on Thursday. Madbouly added that the government has allocated EGP 500 billion for the Decent Life initiative and its affiliated projects despite the coronavirus crisis and the subsequent pressure on the state budget. The projects of the initiative are meant to upgrade the infrastructure of Egyptian villages, improve the quality of life of their people, create job opportunities, reduce the harsh repercussions of the pandemic on the vulnerable, and enable them to access basic needs and services, Madbouly said. The private sector should play a pivotal role in this regard through investing in the initiatives projects. We will not continue to spend more and more from the state budget in such projects. The private sector should be at the fore, directing its investments to state projects. Madbouly urged American investors to tap the opportunities that Egypt have, asserting Egypts desire for more involvement in the Egyptian economy by the US private sector. He noted that US investments in Egypt stood at about $23 billion in 2020. The prime minister stated that COVID-19 has caused the harshest impact on the economy in seven decades. He highlighted the precautionary and pre-emptive measures that Egypt adopted during the first wave of the pandemic that contributed to, together with the successful economic reform programme, making Egypt the only country in the region to see positive growth in 2020 and to navigate the crisis with minimum losses. He noted that the government managed to set the balance between preserving public health and managing the economy without resorting to a total lockdown. The measures included allocating EGP 100 billion to mitigate the repercussions of the pandemic, appropriating a total of EGP 13 billion to support the export sector, applying a comprehensive system of detecting and tracking infected cases, launching the Universal Health Insurance system, and securing the basic food and medical supplies the market needs. On the support Egypts banking sector extended, Madbouly explained that it has allocated EGP 50 billion to back real-estate for low and middle-income classes and EGP 20 billion to support the stock market. Egypt has also launched launching other initiatives that target boosting the private sector, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and retail loans. Egypt is focused now on regaining its macroeconomic pre-pandemic levels. For this purpose, we are working on upgrading the countrys road networks, ports, and implementing projects that secure a sustainable and resilient economy, including establishing sustainable cities, such as the New Administrative Capital, Madbouly said. He underscored Egypts strategic target to be a regional energy hub, noting that the private sector has a critical role to play in this regard and has the chance to tap the significant opportunities that the sector provides. Madbouly added that Egypt targets securing 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable resources by 2022. He said the country has started the vaccination process already, adding that Egypt has contracted with the COVAX Coalition to receive vaccine shipments in a bid to secure the countrys needs. Coronavirus infections in Egypt are now under control, however, he added. Myron Brilliant, executive vice president and head of the International Affairs Division at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, said that the US business community is focusing on investing in healthcare, fintech, digitisation, agri-business, and energy in Egypt. Brilliant added that the US business community is committed to strengthening bilateral economic relations and investing in Egypts growth, stressing that the US businesspersons in Washington and Egypt are paying great attention to investing in Egypt and to bring new investors to the domestic market as well. He lauded Egypts economic and structural reforms that enabled the country to navigate the crisis with resilience and strength. Short link: As the nation passed 500,000 coronavirus deaths this week, government data revealed that the life expectancy for African American men dropped three yearstriple the decline among Americans overall during the first half of 2020. In an effort to help reach minority communities that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 but less likely to get the shot, a coalition of 150,000 churches recently announced its plan for vaccinating over 100 million black and Latino churchgoers. The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), which represents historic black denominations and partners with Latino leaders, has been lobbying the federal government for a more comprehensive plan to address disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake. NBCI president Anthony Evans wants to see the government more deliberately use churches built-in trust and familiarity to make the vaccine more accessible for minority populations. Evans said at a press conference at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Washington, DC, last week that he supports Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for who should become vaccinated first but worries that African Americans and Latinos who qualify because of their age or underlying medical conditions arent getting the vaccine. A representative from Health and Human Services (HHS) has not responded for comment on the NBCI plan, though the CDC distribution plan intends to address health inequities and remove unfair, unjust, and avoidable barriers to COVID-19 vaccination. While black churches across the country have already opened their doors to help states and hospitals distribute the vaccine, Evanss large network could add 300 church-based vaccination sites in the hardest-hit neighborhoods nationwidea more coordinated, larger-scale effort to vaccinate minority groups than has been attempted so far. The NCBI plan aspires to be the largest, faith-based mobilization of African American and Latino Protestant denominations in the country to achieve a single health goal. In partnership with the National Hispanic Medical Association, the National Medical Association (the professional organization for black doctors founded amid the Jim Crow era), and corresponding nursing groups, the network organized response teams by zip code. We will send the response teams out to every single neighborhood that looks like them and speaks like them, both on the black and Latino side, said Evans. In many cases, these areas lack robust medical systems to begin with, a result of Jim Crow segregation and decades of inequality. So far, vaccine distribution sites are more likely to be located in white neighborhoods and require online registration, even though black and Hispanic families and the elderlythe groups most vulnerable to COVID-19are less likely to have broadband internet access. In some cities, white Americans have even traveled to receive vaccines in predominantly minority communities, such as a Latino neighborhood in New York and a private health center in an African American neighborhood in Los Angeles. When you went to the site, most of the people there were whites, and barely any African Americans were there, said Peter Watts, pastor of The Rock Church in Los Angeles. He explained that it wasnt well advertised in the community but was listed online. Co-op City Baptist Church in the Bronx is already serving as a vaccine site, but the community is still underserved due to the states appointment system, said Carrie Mobley, a retired church member who advocates for seniors. She receives calls from residents struggling to navigate the website or waiting on hold for a long time to get through. The governors office has made this process hard for a normal senior citizen to work through, she said. Barbara Felker, an associate pastor at Highbridge Community Church in the Bronx, also serves as a healthcare executive and arranges pop-up clinics at churches. Her company, Northwell Health, adjusted the process for distributing vaccines among minority communities by shifting from advertising on public websites about vaccination events to emailing pastors a private link to share in their neighborhood. The faith-based partnership is critical to access to care and distribution, said Felker, Northwells vice president of strategic community partnerships. Pastors are in the community, and they know how to do outreach to the community. The private link still requires some demographic information for patients to fill in to schedule the appointment, but churches can include their phone numbers to call and provide volunteers to step into the digital divide, answering phones and filing electronic forms. The targeted approach seems to be increasing the vaccination numbers not only of church members but also of the minority populations whose numbers have been lagging, said Felker. California tried a similar approach with special access codes meant for hard-hit communities of color, but the wealthier are still snagging vaccine appointments instead. Image: Jacquelyn Martin / AP So far, the CDC has demographic data from only 34 states on about 55 percent of the vaccinations given nationally. Kaiser Family Foundation, looking at data through February 16, reported how blacks and Latinos are receiving fewer doses but carrying a bigger burden of COVID-19 cases. In Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis already committed to distributing vaccines through seven black churches in January, 6 percent of those who received a shot were blacks, though they make up 16 percent of the population and 16 percent of COVID-19 deaths. In Mississippi, only 22 percent of vaccine recipients were blacks, while they make up 40 percent of coronavirus deaths. In Texas, data on Hispanics is similar: 20 percent of vaccinations and 47 percent of deaths from the virus. Evans feels confident that black churches also have the trust needed to educate communities where there is hesitation to take the shot. To further persuade the undecided, the NBCIs committee of five African American and four Latino doctors independently reviewed the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and confirmed their safety last week. Watts, who leads The Rock Church, a Reformed Church in America congregation in Los Angeles, noticed historically black churches holding educational events to dispel the myths that are out there, he said. People in the community trust the church and whatever information the church is putting out in regards to safety. His church sent out a list of neighborhood vaccination sites, which he used to find a location to take his mother to get her first dose. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office denies sexual harassment claims by former staffer Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is disputing the claims of a former staffer who said that the governor sexually harassed her and possibly others. Former staff member Lindsay Boylan posted an essay on Medium Wednesday outlining allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo. These allegations include a reported plane trip in October 2017 in which she claims Cuomo sat very close to her and made a crude remark toward her. She also claimed there was another instance in which he kissed her on the lips. Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected, wrote Boylan. His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation that he liked you, that you must be doing something right. He used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences. In a statement from Cuomo Press Secretary Caitlin Girouard released Wednesday, the governor disputed Boylans claim about the plane trip. The statement reiterated that Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false." In Ms. Boylan's latest blog post, she opens up with a story about a plane trip in October 2017 [however,] there was no flight where Lindsey was alone with the Governor, a single press aide, and a NYS Trooper, noted the statement. The statement did not specifically address other accusations by Boylan, including the claim that Cuomo would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs or that he once gave her an unwanted kiss on the lips. Cuomo firmly denied Boylan's allegations in a press conference in December. There is a part of me that will never forgive myself for being a victim for so long, for trying to ignore behavior that I knew was wrong. The Governor exploited my weaknesses, my desire to do good work and to be respected, wrote Boylan. It was all so normalized particularly by Melissa DeRosa and other top women around him that only now do I realize how insidious his abuse was. Boylan also claimed that two women reached out to her with their own experiences since she first posted her allegations to Twitter last December. One described how she lived in constant fear, scared of what would happen to her if she rejected the Governors advances, she continued. The other said she was instructed by the Governor to warn staff members who upset him that their jobs could be at risk. Both told me they are too afraid to speak out. The Boylan essay comes as some have called on Cuomo to resign due to both the allegations of harassment and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. "Governor Cuomo has earned his title as Worst Governor in America, and now every New Yorker knows that he is a criminal sexual predator, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said in a statement. On December 14th, I was one of the first and one of the only elected officials in New York State to call for an investigation into Governor Cuomo's sexual harassment of Ms. Boylan. It is an inexcusable disgrace that almost every other elected official in New York State quietly brushed this serious and credible allegation under the rug. Stefanik said that much of the media in the state either ignored this matter or chose to report the sexist character and professional smears of Ms. Boylan by Governor Cuomo's taxpayer-funded staff. I have served in Congress during the height of the #MeToo movement leading to resignations and retirements of my colleagues, Stefanik added. Sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the workplace is not a political issue, it is about right and wrong. Governor Cuomo must immediately resign. And any elected official who does not immediately call for his resignation is complicit in allowing a sexual predator to continue leading the great state of New York." Karen Hinton, a former press secretary for Cuomo when he served as Secretary for Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration, wrote in an op-ed Wednesday that Cuomo is a "bully" who exercises "total control" and made disparaging remarks about her. "[Cuomo had] given me a job in 1995 and then worked to undermine me in it. Day to day, he made me feel as if I were no good at my job and thus totally dependent on him to keep it. In Cuomo's worldhe would never admit this even to himselfworking for him is like a 1950s version of marriage," Hinton wrote. "He always, always, always comes first. Everyone and everything elseyour actual spouse, your children, your own career goalsis secondary. Your focus 24 hours a day is on him." Cuomo came under fire by critics last year after the controversial decision to place COVID-19 positive individuals in nursing homes, possibly resulting in many deaths among the elderly. Additionally, the New York Times reported earlier this month that several state health officials resigned amid disagreements with Cuomos handling of the pandemic and vaccine rollout. According to the newspaper, Cuomo urged health officials to match their health guidelines with his announcements. This month, Cuomos top aide apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state's numbers on COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, alleging the numbers were withheld in fear that they would be used against us by federal prosecutors during the Trump administration. The revelation drew pushback from Democratic lawmakers, with one calling Cuomos actions a betrayal of trust. New Delhi: Aadhaar card is by far one of the most important identity card in the nation since its launch. Many times, we keep our cards in our wallet and end up losing them. In case you have been through a similar incident and have lost your Aadhaar Card, read this article in order to get it back. How to get back lost Aadhaar Card? If you have lost your Aadhaar card in any unfortunate incident, don't worry. Seatback, relax and follow these simple steps to get your Aadhar Card back. 1. Visit the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) official website. 2. Please tap on the "My Aadhaar" tab from the front page of the website. 3. You will now click on the "Retrieve lost or forgotten EID/UID" tab 4. You will be redirected to the lost or forgotten page and you will need to enter your details here. 5. The details will consist of your Aadhaar card number (UID), your Enrollment number (EID), your full name, your registered mobile number. There is a facility to get your Aadhaar card with your email address if you don't want to reveal your phone number. 6. You will need to enter the CAPTCHA which will be provided by the website. After this, click either on the "Send OTP" or "Send TOTP" option. OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number whereas the TOTP will reflect the mAADHAAR app. 7. You will be redirected to a payment gateway where you will require to pay a fee of Rs. 50 for the service. 8. Once the payment is successfully done, you will get a hard copy of your Aadhaar card in the next 15 days delivered by Speed Post. The process has become extremely simple and easy. There is no physical contact of any sort and it helps both ends. Live TV GULF OF ADEN, Feb. 25 -- The 37th escort taskforce of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, who is carrying out escort missions in the Gulf of Aden, held an anti-terrorism and anti-piracy drill featuring the rescue of hijacked merchant ships. In the first stage, the comprehensive supply ship Honghu (Hull 963) simulated the hijacked merchant ship. Upon receiving the distress message, the command post of the escort taskforce immediately organized troops to go forward for rescue. A helicopter took the special operations force (SOF) members into the air for close reconnaissance. Then the command post sent out two SOF groups for the hostages rescue task by rigid-hull inflatable boats. Under the cover of shipboard firepower, the two groups of special operations members boarded the hijacked ship and successfully rescued the "hostages". In the second stage, the guided-missile destroyer Changsha (Hull 173) was set as the hijacked merchant ship. According to the actual situation, the command post quickly dispatched a helicopter for rescue operation. The SOF members boarded the hijacked ship by rope-rappelling, carried out cabin search, and successfully rescued all the hostages. Besides, the escort taskforce also carried out training on light weapons shooting and rescue for battle wounds. When birds see a predator in their midst, one defensive strategy is to call out loudly, attracting other birds of the same or different species to do the same. Sometimes individuals within this "mobbing flock" will fly over or at the predator or attack it directly. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on February 25 have found that male superb lyrebirds do something rather unexpected: they imitate a mobbing flock in courtship and even in the act of mating with a female. "Our paper shows that male superb lyrebirds regularly create a remarkable acoustic illusion of a flock of mobbing birds and, in so doing, create a complex but potent cue of a hidden predator," says Anastasia Dalziell of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Astonishingly, males only mimic a mobbing flock in two contexts: when a potential mate tries to leave a displaying male without copulating, or during copulation itself. These two moments are key to male reproductive success, suggesting that mimicking a mobbing flock is a crucial sexual behavior for males." Male superb lyrebirds already are world famous for their extraordinary ability to mimic complex sounds of human origin such as chainsaws. But the reasons for their impressive mimicking skills have been somewhat mysterious, Dalziell says. Dalziell and her colleagues didn't set out initially to study the mobbing mimicry at all. They were expecting to capture instead the male's loud, flamboyant, and musical mimetic recital song. But, to their surprise, they began hearing the male lyrebirds mimicking a sound that's much less melodious at the end of each mating dance display: the panicked alarm calls of a mixed-species flock of birds. "It was a superb piece of mimicry, if you will excuse the pun," Dalziell says. The second surprise was watching and recording a male lyrebird mimicking a mixed-species mobbing flock during copulation. "That seemed remarkable--indeed it seemed absurd," Dalziell says. "We gradually realized that mimicking a mobbing flock during copulation seemed to be the rule for lyrebirds," although she noted that it's very hard to observe copulations in lyrebirds. "It was such a strange and complex behavior that we thought that we really needed audio-video footage to show everyone, and we were lucky enough to eventually film several events." She says it's not clear exactly how males benefit from their extraordinary mimicry. But the evidence suggests a likely explanation is that males set a kind of "sensory trap" for females. The males may gain a reproductive advantage by tricking the female into responding as if she may be at risk of a predator. Because females have to watch out for predators all the time, the sound of the mob is tough to tune out. Dalziell says, "It's a bit like saying, 'Baby, it's dangerous out there. Stay here with me.'" The stalling tactic might allow for copulation to happen in the first place or last longer, preventing females from leaving before sperm has been successfully transferred. In addition to being intriguing, the findings also extend scientists' traditional understanding of mimicry. "In the past, biologists have specified that mimicry involves three protagonists: a mimic, a signal receiver, and a model. But here we have an example of one individual--a male lyrebird--mimicking an entire ecological scene comprising multiple individuals and multiple species calling simultaneously," she says. The findings also suggest that elaborate bird songs aren't always an honest signal. They can be driven by sexual conflict and deception, which represents an important departure from conventional explanations for song evolution that rely on females' preferences for male extravagance, the researchers say. In future studies, the researchers plan to explore the females' reactions to actual mobbing flocks versus mimetic ones. They also want to understand exactly how the mimetic song benefits males. They've got lots of other questions, too. For example, Dalziell says, another odd behavior that they've observed is that during copulation, the male holds his wings over the female's head. "Are males 'blindfolding' females to prevent females from detecting the male's deception?" she asks. ### This work was supported by Australian National University, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Rose Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (AHD), an Australian Postgraduate Award (AHD), a University of Wollongong VC Postdoctoral Fellowship (AHD), an ARC Discovery Project (RDM), an NSF grant, the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (JAW), BirdLife Australia's Stuart Leslie Award program (AHD), and the Australian Geographic Society (AHD). Current Biology, Dalziell et al.: "Male lyrebirds create an acoustic illusion of a mobbing flock during courtship and copulation" https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00210-4 Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www. cell. com/ current-biology . To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com. If you're tracking global Corona carnage, according to worldometers.info the world has suffered more than 111,700,000 cases and has just surpassed 2.5 million deaths. While most other countries, even those who did exemplary jobs earlier on, are floundering, China is the standout global heath and economic success, not only at home, but in helping others in need. Now the U.S. has surpassed the grim milestone of 500,000 deaths, more by far than the combined U.S. combat deaths in World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. is both first in deaths, as well as cases, approaching 28.5 million. The nearest country in number of cases, India, is a distant second with about 11 million cases and 157,000 deaths. With four times the U.S. population, India has less than one-third of both U.S. cases and deaths. By comparison, China with a population roughly that of India has less than 90,000 cases and 4,636 deaths. In the rankings by number of cases, China, population: 1.4 billion is 84th, is just behind North Macedonia, population: two million. There is no question that, with the possible exception of China, the pandemic is wreaking long-term havoc almost everywhere it has spread in terms of continuing human suffering from deaths and lingering after-effects. Similarly, it seems, with the possible exception of China, economies in most countries are semi-comatose or worse. To address these pressing issues, China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with a number of other senior world leaders, attended the virtual UN Security Council session on February 17, its first specifically devoted to the pandemic. Wang, echoed UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez in decrying the North-South divide in which vaccines are quickly reaching high-income countries, while the poorest are left waiting. He strongly condemned this "immunity divide", as if the world were not divided enough. He said that "we should come together to reject vaccine nationalism, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, and in particular, make them accessible and affordable for developing countries, including those in conflicts. We must ensure that no country in need of the vaccine is left behind, and no individual waiting for vaccination is neglected." These are not idle words. China has donated homegrown vaccines to 53 developing countries and exported vaccines to 22 nations. Blinken affirmed the renewed U.S. commitment to multilateralism, rejoining the World Health Organization and contributing to the UN COVAX vaccine accelerator to help vaccinate less able countries. He said that working with global partners, it was important to build stronger international health capacity and security for the future. It's ironic that on that very same day, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released statistics showing just how much the U.S. has been damaged by the combination of COVID-19 and the self-inflicted wound of not competently addressing it in 2020; the opposite of what China has done, and is still doing. Life expectancy at birth (LEB) is a standard socio-economic measure of how advanced a society is. It includes factors such as health and disease metrics, nutrition, living standards, and education. The CDC data show a precipitous drop in U.S. LEB from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.8 years for January-June, 2020 and marks the largest drop in U.S. population longevity since World War II. In fact, experts expect the initial drop to increase even further when full-year data are reported. What a contrast to China, whose LEB has increased steadily from 57.6 years in 1969 to 76.7 years in 2018, the most recent data available. Given the relatively few COVID-19 cases and deaths in China, its 2020 LEB is likely to continue to increase, not fall. This is especially true in view of the related fact that under the leadership of the President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China (CPC), last year marked achieving the long-sought goal of ending extreme poverty in the vast, heavily populated nation. I'm certain that most Americans would be shocked that the U.S. and China are now in a virtual tie for life-expectancy. Many of my American friends have no idea about how much it has advanced under the leadership of the CPC. For example, not only steadily raising the LEB, but also lifting 850 million out of extreme poverty per the World Bank, and having a literacy rate that by some measures is even higher than the U.S. And then there are China's advancements in technology. One example is illustrative. The train Joe Biden took as a senator for decades between Wilmington, Delaware and Washington, DC would have had a top average speed of 129 km/h (80 MPH). In China, a similar distance today could take less than 28 minutes to Biden's 74 at a top average speed of 350 km/h (217 MPH). But the story doesn't end there; Chinese bullet trains now on the drawing board are slated to travel at 600 km/h (370 MPH) because they are designed to float above the tracks using a technology known as magnetic levitation or "maglev". To borrow and paraphrase one of Biden's admirable themes: it's China that has already built back better! In the spirit of the recent two-hour phone call between President Xi and President Biden, as of yet, there aren't any concrete bilateral or joint-efforts in a multinational forum to engage in needed confidence-building between the two leading countries. There should be! China and the U.S. are in fact the exact two countries best positioned to lead such an effort just as President Xi and Obama cooperated to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016. In view of both the cataclysmic global damage done by COVID-19 that may continue as the coronavirus mutates, and the overwhelming scientific opinion that warns that this is not the last or the worst pandemic, the imperative is for immediate Sino-U.S. cooperation and leadership. Harvey Dzodin is Senior Fellow of the Center for China and Globalization and former political appointee in the Carter Administration of the United States. Two Members of Parliament (MP) have condemned the activities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) groups in the country. According to the MP for Assin South, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, and Bawku Central MP, Mr Mahama Ayariga, Ghanaian laws abhorred the practice of homosexuality and must, therefore, be identified and dealt with according to law. They dont have the right to practise gay or lesbianism so they cannot say their rights have been violated. You dont have the right to be gay or lesbians in Ghana, Mr Ayariga stated. Context Since news broke about the inauguration of an office for LGBTQI in Accra, there have been outpourings of condemnation and calls for the closure of the office. In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Ayariga said as matters stood, the law criminalising sodomy remained in the countrys statute books so no one has a right to be a practitioner of sodomy or lesbianism or however called. He, however, said anyone caught in the act enjoyed the rights of due process of law in the sense that they should not be lynched or beaten and assaulted. They should be treated like any suspect for any other offence, he stated. Freedom Speaking from a legal perspective, he said, it was important that Ghanaians differentiated the practice of LGBTQI and advocacy. In the case of people who are just advocating the decriminalisation of sodomy and unnatural canal knowledge, I take a legal position that there is a constitutional right to free expression and association to advocate the decriminalisation of the sodomy laws of Ghana, he said. Mr Ayariga said if those setting up the offices or advocating were LGBTQIs, then they were engaged in criminal activities and could be individually investigated to establish if they could be prosecuted. If the office is created by citizens who dont identify themselves as actual gays but are just people sympathetic to the cause of the LGBTQI community and want to advocate the law to change to decriminalise sodomy and lesbianism and transgender activities, then we must appreciate the fine balance between advocacy for a change of the law on LGBTQI acts in Ghana and the actual practice of sodomy. Assin South MP For his part, Rev. Ntim Fordjour pointed out that LGBTQI was an abomination and utterly abhorred, hence must not be encouraged in the country. Since the pre-colonial era, Ghana has always upheld a culture of morality and decency and within our cultural and traditional contexts, he stated. It said activities of LGBTQIs in Ghana were due to pressures from the western world which must be resisted. The influence of the West on our society relating to LGBTQI infiltrations remain an age-old pressure, which must be resisted as long as the pressure shows no indication of abating, he added. Laws In a statement, Rev. Ntim Fordjour pointed out that Section 104 of Ghanas Criminal Code proscribes LGBTQI with the specific provision of unnatural carnal knowledge. Source: Graphiconline.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 Congressional Democrats $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill includes money for transit agencies reeling from lost revenue, and that could mean a major boost for BART, Muni and Caltrain. But the set-asides have also drawn fire from Republicans who oppose the bill and are trying to cast it as stuffed with pork, portraying the Bay Area funds particularly for BARTs long-planned extension into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara as a Democratic giveaway. Besides the BART extension, the House version of the stimulus bill includes money to expand the Transbay Tubes capacity for BART trains, the conversion of Caltrain to electric power and Munis delayed Central Subway to Chinatown. The $6.9 billion Silicon Valley extension would complete the decades-long dream of connecting the Bay Areas regional rail transit system to the South Bay. It would travel 6 miles including 5 miles in a subway beneath downtown San Jose that would have three stations before ending in downtown Santa Clara. Construction is expected to start in 2022, with the line carrying passengers in 2030. The $2.7 billion Transbay Tube capacity program would make improvements to increase the number of trains BART can send under the bay. Munis $1.6 billion Central Subway project and Caltrains $1.9 billion electrification effort are both under construction, with the subway scheduled to open in mid-2022 and electric trains also expected to run next year. Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2018 The stimulus bill would give about $141 million to the BART Silicon Valley extension and $77 million to the Transbay Tube capacity project, according to transportation officials. Caltrain would receive $47 million and the Central Subway, $23 million. The BART projects are especially important to the Bay Area as it recovers from the economic and social disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, said Randy Rentschler, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. While were all going through this very painful COVID experience, a sense of normal is not too far around the corner, and we have to be planning for it, he said. People will be going back to work. We dont know how many. People will be riding transit. We dont know how many. But we need a strong, reliable BART system. That means more trains through the Transbay Tube. That means an extension to San Jose. The money is part of a transportation and infrastructure piece of the massive stimulus bill. The legislation gives $30 billion to transit agencies nationwide for payroll, operating costs and expenses caused by the pandemic. Within that, $1.25 billion is dedicated to the Federal Transit Administrations capital investment grant program, which funds transit improvement projects around the country. COVID-19 has had an immediate and overwhelming effect on all of our transportation systems and the jobs associated with them, said Kerry Arndt, a spokesperson for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Our bill helps keep major projects that have already gone through rigorous, bipartisan processes on track, which is critical to keeping workers out of unemployment lines and important to our economic recovery. Republicans, however, have seized on the transit project money as the battle over the bill heats up. The GOP has long opposed Democrats efforts to pass more money to help state and local governments offset COVID impacts, and they see long-term capital improvement projects as unrelated to the pandemic emergency. The Senate Republicans messaging arm branded BARTs South Bay extension as Nancy Pelosis Silicon Valley subway, and GOP former Ohio Gov. John Kasich tweeted that the unilateral move by Democrats to jam noncritical spending into the coronavirus relief package is outrageous. The Bay Area projects are far from the only ones that would be funded. At least 20 others around the country would get money, including several in cities in Republican-run states, including Phoenix, Kansas City, Mo., Gary, Ind., and Ogden, Utah. The House is expected to pass the bill as early as this week. It will then go to the Senate. BART has already expanded south of its original East Bay terminus of Fremont to San Joses Berryessa neighborhood, where a station opened last June. Extending the line to Santa Clara would close a tortured chapter in BART history. When the system was planned in the 1960s, Santa Clara County opted out. But as the tech industry boomed and traffic swelled, politicians and business leaders began campaigning for a BART extension. Santa Clara County voters then passed a 30-year, half-cent sales tax in 2000, and Silicon Valley leaders and commuters thought BART was on the way. After federal transportation officials concluded Santa Clara County had the funds to build the extension but not operate trains, the project was split into two phases and county voters in 2008 passed another sales tax measure. The Berryessa extension opened three months into the pandemic, with BART and other transit agencies carrying a fraction of their normal ridership. Its really the project of the future, Rentschler said. The extension will not only connect BART to downtown San Jose but to Diridon Station, where it will meet up with Caltrain, the Altamont Corridor Express and Capitol Corridor trains. The Transbay Tube capacity project has a less dramatic story but is key to BARTs future. As commuters resume trips in and out of San Francisco when the pandemic eases, the capacity of the Transbay Tube will again limit the number of trains BART can operate. Before the pandemic, BART carried about 430,000 passengers a day and the tube was maxed out during commute hours. The capacity project will add a train-control system, rail cars and power systems that will allow BART to run 30 trains an hour beneath the bay, up from 24 an hour. Weve taken BART for granted, Rentschler said, but it needs to be rebuilt and improved. For BARTs everyday riders, there is no more important project. Caltrains electrification project, part of an effort to modernize the 158-year-old Peninsula commuter railroad, is expected to speed trains and cut emissions. Caltrain started work in 2017 after a battle over federal funding between Californias Republican congressional delegation, which persuaded the Trump administration to put the money on hold, and a coalition of Bay Area officials, business executives and commuters who said the project was crucial to the economy. Munis Central Subway, which will extend the T-Third Metro line 1.7 miles from the South of Market to Chinatown, was originally scheduled to open in 2018 but has been plagued by problems. Construction crews ran into soil conditions they didnt expect, replaced rails after installing the wrong ones and were stricken by COVID-19 outbreaks. Tal Kopan and Michael Cabanatuan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan @ctuan Advocating the need for "Akhand Bharat" (undivided India), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said countries such as Pakistan which broke away from India are now in distress. Speaking at a book launch in Hyderabad, Bhagwat said "Akhand Bharat" is possible through "Hindu Dharma" but not through force. "There is a need to make glorious"Akhand Bharat" for the welfare of the universe. That's why there is a need to awaken patriotism...As truncated India has a need to be united (once again), all the divided parts of India which no longer call themselves as India, they need more," he said. Stressing that the concept of "Akhand Bharat" is possible, Bhagwat said some people had expressed serious doubts before the partition of the country whether it would be divided, but it happened. "If you ask six months before the partition of this country, nobody would have guessed. People asked Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that there was a new topic coming up about the formation of Pakistan." "What is it? (Replying to that) he said that it (the partition) was a dream of fools," the RSS chief said. According to him, Lord Wavell (during British rule) also said in British Parliament that God has made India one and who is going to divide it. "But ultimately it (partition) happened. What seemed to be impossible happened, so it cannot be ruled out that "Akhand Bharat" which may seem to be impossible, will not happen..Because, there is a need for Akhand Bharat," he said. Bhagwat said separated regions of India which don't call themselves Bharat any longer, for them it is much more a necessity of reuniting with "Bharat". According to him, there is unhappiness in the terrains of "Akhand Bharat" which now do not call themselves Bharat. "There is unhappiness. They did all they could, but did not find any remedy. And the remedy is the only one which is reunification (with Bharat) and all their problems will get resolved." "We talk of uniting them, not to suppress them. When we talk of "Akhand Bharat" our intention is not with power (to achieve it) but to unite through dharma which is 'Sanatan' (eternal) which is humanity's dharma and of the entire world and today it is called as Hindu dharma," the RSS chief said. "Gandhar became Afghanistan. Is there peace and tranquillity in Afghanistan since then? Pakistan was formed. From that date till now is there peace and tranquillity?" he asked. He said India has the endurance to overcome several challenges and the world looks towards it to overcome difficulties. With "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (world is one family) belief, India can again offer happiness and peace to the world, he added. with additional inputs from news agency PTI The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine meets the requirement for Emergency Use Authorization, and full approval could come within a few days. At his briefing on Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy called the vaccine a game-changer, noting the one-dose vaccine could be offered at doctors offices and other sites that are not yet distributing any vaccines. Assuming its approved as a one-dose vaccine with regular refrigeration, I cant say (it will be in doctors offices) overnight, but it gives us a flexibility we just dont have today, Murphy said, calculating that the vaccine could be available by the second week in March. The governor said the vaccine could be especially important for homebound people on the outside looking in, thats a great place where you can envision the J&J vaccine making a difference. If the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is authorized for Emergency Use Authorization, this will boost the supply of available vaccine in the coming weeks, said Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. The vaccine has some advantages over the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, including that it doesnt require ultra-cold storage. That will make it easier to administer in distribution centers that dont have the ultra-cold storage capabilities. Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it should be able to deliver more than 20 million vaccine doses by the end of March. The company said 4 million doses would be ready to ship if the vaccine receives the Emergency Use Authorization, Biden administration officials said, with an estimated 2 million doses next week. On Friday, Persichilli said the department is eager to increase distribution points for COVID vaccines. We cannot expand the number of sites until we have more vaccine, she said. The department has more than 1,700 providers approved; theyre enrolled and theyre registered in our system, so they are approved to actually distribute the vaccine. But we only have enough vaccine supply to provide vaccine to about 300 points of dispensing. Those include employers, private medical practices, universities and community-based organizations, she said, noting there is not yet enough vaccine supply to support those locations. The department is expecting to continue to see increases and allotments from the federal government. And when vaccine is more plentiful and it will be we look forward to these partnerships to reach more of our residents that are eligible to be vaccinated, she said. At some point, we will be reaching out to all appropriate sites to participate with us in our vaccine efforts. While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a lower efficacy than the two vaccines currently on the market, medical experts said its worth taking because it still provides solid protection and will help communities get to herd immunity. A brief provided to the FDAs Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee said it was 72% effective against moderate/severe COVID-19 in the U.S. at least 14 days after inoculation. There were no specific safety concerns identified in subgroup analyses by age, race, ethnicity, medical comorbidities, or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, it said. Johnson & Johnson has a deal to supply 100 million doses to the federal government by the end of June. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. NJ Advance Media Staff Reporter Spencer Kent contributed to this report. Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. In the first major challenge to Connecticuts new age-based vaccine plan, the non-profit Disability Rights Connecticut filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services claiming the policy constitute disability discrimination and calling on the agency to order its changes. The complaint calls on the HHS Office of Civil Rights to direct Connecticut to immediately revise its COVID-19 vaccine policy to include individuals with underlying medical conditions, regardless of their age, who are at increased risk of COVID-19 infectionas a priority in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. DRCT is also urging the Office of Civil Rights to advise the State of Connecticut that it must have a process for people with disabilities to request and obtain reasonable modifications to the states age-based vaccine eligibility policy. The policy announced Monday by Gov. Ned Lamont establishes a system where all Connecticut residents yet to be immunized will be vaccinated based on their age, except teachers and child care providers who will have special clinics. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends individuals with medical conditions that put them at risk for coronavirus and essential workers receive the vaccine ahead of middle age people. Lamont said Thursday the complaints criticism of the state was misdirected, pointing out the CDCs list of medical conditions that put people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 doesnt include individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities. Their real frustration ought to be with the CDC, Lamont said. Residents, including those with underlying medical conditions, have been among the loudest voices questioning the governors new plan, which upended weeks of indications that vaccines would soon focus on these groups. Across the country, many groups are pushing to add people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to the lists of vaccine eligible individuals that states have crafted. The Centers for Disease Control added Down syndrome to its list of high-risk conditions in late December, but each state makes its own decisions about its vaccine distribution plan. Connecticuts new policy has apparently been developed in the belief that it would be easier to administer. But merely because it may be easier does not make it right, said Deborah Dorfman, Executive Director of Disability Rights Connecticut. The state has now put more than 1 million people ahead of individuals in their 20s or early 30s, for example, who have a disability that would have made them eligible to receive a vaccination just days from now. DRCT filed its complaint Wednesday and requested the agency investigate and issue findings on an expedited basis. Last year, DRCT and other groups filed another complaint with the Office of Civil Rights which resulted in the state Department of Public Health agreeing to change its state policy that prevented most people with disabilities who were hospitalized from having a support person with them. emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson PM Modi underlines support for farmers; attacks Congress-DMK alliance India oi-Deepika S Coimbatore, Feb 25: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sought to underline his government''s commitment for the farmers, saying it has strived to ensure their prosperity and dignity without any dependence on middlemen. In a statement that comes amid the sustained protests by farmers outside Delhi for nearly four months opposing the new Central farm laws, he said the NDA also wanted to bring a paradigm shift in the agricultural sector. For years, small businessmen and small farmers were ignored but the "NDA government has given topmost priority to these two sections," he said in his address at a public meeting in this western town of poll-bound Tamil Nadu. Retirement age of Tamil Nadu government enhanced "It has been our honour to work for the small farmer of India. In the past seven years our efforts for small farmers are aimed at giving them a life of prosperity and dignity," he said. With the launch of initiatives, including soil health cards, the government wanted to bring a paradigm shift in the agriculture sector, he said. Taking a swipe at the DMK-Congress combine in Tamil Nadu, Modi said their "meetings are like corruption hackathons" where "their leaders sit and discuss on how to loot." The NDA''s governance was one with compassion while the opposition''s was "misgovernance with corruption," he alleged. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 18:27 [IST] Published: 25 February 2021 R&D funding decreases in the 2021 budget compared to the exceptional year According to Statistics Finland, appropriations for research and development in the government budget decrease by EUR 681.7 million from the exceptionally high level of the year before. In the state budget 2021, the total appropriations for research and development activities amount to EUR 2,416.8 million. The share of public research funding in gross domestic product is estimated to be 0.99 per cent. Figure 1. Government R&D funding by organisation in 2016 to 2021 The largest organisations that received government R&D funding in the budget for 2021 are Business Finland and universities. In the 2021 budget, Business Finland's R&D funding is EUR 740.4 million, including EUR 200 million in outlays from disruption funding carried over from the previous year. In 2021, universities' research appropriations amount to EUR 724.0 million and increase by around EUR 34 million from the 2020 budget as the research share of universities rises. The R&D appropriations of the Academy of Finland, in turn, decrease by around EUR 76 million from 2020, as the research appropriations amount to EUR 449.0 million in the 2021 budget. The R&D funding of central government research institutes and university central hospitals remain in the budget for 2021 on level with the previous year. Among administrative sectors, research and development activities are financed most in the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The major provider of funding is the Ministry of Education and Culture, whose R&D funding in the budget for 2021 is EUR 1,298.9 million. The decrease from the appropriations in the budget one year before is around EUR 39 million. The R&D funding of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment falls in the budget for 2021 by nearly EUR 640 million due to the decrease in research and development funding of Business Finland. Table 1. Government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) in 2021 R&D funding million Share of R&D funding, % Change from 2020, million R&D funding total 2 416,8 100,0 -681,7 Main administrative sector Ministry of Education and Culture 1 298,9 53,7 -38,9 Ministry of Employment and the Economy 876,3 36,3 -637,7 Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 69,5 2,9 11,1 Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 67,8 2,8 -15,8 Funding organisations Universities 724,0 30,0 33,6 Universities of applied sciences 80,7 3,3 7,8 Business Finland 740,4 30,6 -647,1 Academy of Finland 449,0 18,6 -75,8 Government research institutes 211,3 8,7 1,0 Other R&D funding 190,3 7,9 -1,2 University hospitals 21,0 0,9 0,0 Source: Government R&D funding in the state budget, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Heidi Pirkola 029 551 3246, tiede.teknologia@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja Publication in pdf-format (294.9 kB) Updated 25.2.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Government R&D funding in the state budget [e-publication]. ISSN=2489-3250. 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 1.6.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tkker/2021/tkker_2021_2021-02-25_tie_001_en.html Twitter seems to be making its platform even more useful by labeling certain tweets as hacked materials warning. Reported first by Mashable, the microblogging website added the hacked materials warning label to a tweet that was posted by a news website called The Grayzone. In the warning label, it mentions These materials may have been obtained through hacking. The firm has also introduced a pop-up to the same tweet, warning users about the hacking material while retweeting and has included a link, which takes them to the company's distribution of hacked materials policy. In the tweet, where the company has labeled it as hacked materials, it is mentioned that the story is based on hacked and leaked documents that showed the participation of BBC and Reuters in the program created by the UK Government. Some of the users on Twitter shared the link on their accounts and were also given the same warning label. Also read: Twitter to add more labels identifying world leader and government accounts However, this is not the only tweet that comes with this kind of label. A separate tweet that included a link of an Italian outlet also showed a hacked materials warning label. The tweet included a link regarding Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. Another tweet showing a music video of English singer Rick Astley got the same label. Twitter, however, is yet to respond or comment on this new warning label feature. This piece of news comes a few days after Reuters reported that Twitter will soon add labels to identify more state-affiliated accounts, including world leaders' personal accounts, to give users more context for geopolitical conversations on the platform. There are plenty of Republicans to choose from, but as Cuomo began to publicly dissolve, it was Cruz, the conservative senator of Texas, who served up an awkward feast of himself. Cruz flew to sunny Cancun while his constituents were suffering and dying without power during a killer cold snap. He made it worse with a weasel trick, shifting the blame to his family for his jetting off to Mexico. His sin was about optics. And he deserves to pay for it. Whether you like psychological thrillers, cozy mysteries, or classic whodunits, theres something for you to add to your to-be-read list next month. These books are some of the most-anticipated mystery novels coming out in March 2021. Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson Peter Swansons Every Vow You Break is a fast-paced psychological thriller that will appeal to fans of Lucy Foleys The Guest List. Abigail Baskin is living out a bonafide romantic fantasy: her dream honeymoon at a stunning resort with a millionaire, who also happens to be the perfect husband. But her dream turns to darkness when a mistake from her past a man she had an impulsive, drunken one-night stand with at her bachelorette party shows up out of the blue. RELATED: 10 Must-Read Nonfiction Books Coming Out in March 2021 The Bounty by Janet Evanovich and Steve Hamilton Bestselling romance author and mystery novelist Janet Evanovich teamed up with Steve Hamilton for The Bounty, the latest book in the popular Fox and OHare series. Nick Fox, a whip-smart career criminal, and Kate OHare, a savvy but straight-laced FBI agent, might seem like an odd match. But together, theyre an unstoppable villain-fighting duo. This time, they each enlist the help of their fathers to bring down the Brotherhood an organization steeped in mystery and find $30 billion of Nazi gold in a lost train buried somewhere in Eastern Europe. By Way of Sorrow by Robyn Gigl Robyn Gigl introduces high-powered New Jersey criminal defense attorney Erin McCabe in By Way of Sorrow, a legal thriller. When a New Jersey State Senator is murdered, ostensibly by a 19-year-old trans sex worker, Erin McCabe knows the case will be one of her most difficult. But as a trans woman herself, Erin feels duty-bound to defend the rights of the accused woman in custody until all her leads start mysteriously disappearing, that is. My debut novel BY WAY OF SORROW comes out in two months March 30, 2021. Enter for a chance to win a copy at the Goodreads giveaway https://t.co/i6RI5eS8sM Robyn Gigl (@robyngigl) January 30, 2021 An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn Deanna Raybourns upcoming mystery, An Unexpected Peril, is the sixth book in the popular Veronica Speedwell series, set at the tail end of the 19th century. Veronica Speedwell, a member of the elite global Curiosity Club for adventure-minded women, investigates the potential murder of a female mountain climber with her partner, Stoker, a natural historian. The intrepid heroine just might have to pose as a missing princess in order to uncover the truth about the suspicious death. It's almost hereten days until AN UNEXPECTED PERIL launches! You still have time to pre-order from your favorite bookseller. Excelsior! pic.twitter.com/USiK0EJhTT Deanna Raybourn (@deannaraybourn) February 20, 2021 Not Dark Yet: A DCI Banks Novel by Peter Robinson Peter Robinsons Inspector Banks series has been praised by the likes of Stephen King. The suspense author returns with the latest installment in Not Dark Yet. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks thinks hes investigating the murder of a property developer in Yorkshire but spy-cam footage reveals a sexual assault against an unknown woman instead. Meanwhile, Banks friend, Zelda, is haunted by a painful past of her own. The Consequences of Fear: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear Jacqueline Winspears New York Times bestselling, critically acclaimed Maisie Dobbs series continues in The Consequences of Fear. Its 1941, and private investigator Maisie Dobbs is secretly working for the French resistance during World War II. Meanwhile, a young deliveryman asks her to help him solve a murder he witnessed, but he might not be telling her everything. Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay Alex Finlays Every Last Fear is a twisty psychological thriller thats landed on several lists of the most-anticipated books of 2021. When it comes to tragedies and controversies, NYU student Matt Pine is used to being in the media spotlight. A popular true crime documentary claimed his older brother was innocent of the murder hes serving a life sentence for but Matt isnt as convinced as the public. Matt gets back to his dorm room one night only to find out that his parents and younger siblings died under suspicious circumstances, forcing him to face everything hes been avoiding until now. A Netflix documentary made his family infamous, a killer left them dead.#EveryLastFear by Alex Finlay is gripping psychological thriller perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Lisa Jewell. Out in ONE WEEK! Pre-order here: https://t.co/U0gTXvWXpG pic.twitter.com/Dw8xbuwLFV Aries Fiction (@AriesFiction) February 23, 2021 Fatal Fried Rice: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien Vivien Chiens Noodle Shop Mystery series, a cozy mystery series set in a family-run Chinese restaurant in Clevelands Asia Village, continues with Fatal Fried Rice. Noodle shop manager Lana Lee enrolls in culinary school on the side to beef up her cooking skills. But she and her boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, team up for a murder investigation instead when her culinary instructor is found dead. Too Good to Be True by Carola Lovering Carola Loverings debut novel, Tell Me Lies, is being adapted into a Hulu series starring Emma Roberts. Her second psychological thriller, Too Good to Be True, promises just as many secrets for dark adult fiction lovers and Lisa Jewell fans to sink their teeth into. Too Good to Be True is told from three perspectives. Skye, a newly engaged woman, hopes that her lifelong struggle with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder wont interfere with her hopes of the perfect wedding and marriage. But Burke, her husband-to-be, is already married and planning to use his future bride for nefarious purposes. Thirty years earlier, 17-year-old Heather just wants to leave Burke behind and start a new life, but its proving to be harder than she thought. Shes Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard Debut young adult author Wendy Heards Shes Too Pretty to Burn is a YA romance and fast-paced psychological thriller inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray. Veronica, a photographer, and Nico, a performance artist, are inseparable best friends. But Veronicas sudden rush of heady, mind-warping longing for Mick, a mysterious new girl, threatens to get in the way of that friendship. Amid the San Diego heat and the growing desire between the teens, somehow their summer of adventure turns into a twisted murder mystery. The SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN Preorder Campaign is live! Preorder the book OR request it at your local library Submit a screenshot of your receipt Get character cards and a signed bookplate, all designed by the inimitable @mmarsloud Link: https://t.co/FBUuoyXEgv pic.twitter.com/9tIkkGLREX Wendy HeardPreorder SHES TOO PRETTY TO BURN (@wendydheard) December 7, 2020 The House Uptown by Melissa Ginsburg Melissa Ginsburgs coming-of-age novel The House Uptown is a suspense-packed domestic thriller set in New Orleans. Fourteen-year-old Ava hardly knows her grandmother, Lane, a New Orleans-based artist who always kept her distance. But after her mothers death, Lane is suddenly Avas new guardian. Being thrust together after so much time apart forces both of them to unpack the secrets and traumatic memories they preferred to stay buried. If you are on Goodreads you can enter a giveaway for my novel The House Uptown, out in March. (puppy shown for scale)https://t.co/gLXmgYm0U1 pic.twitter.com/mtSsoBAP7k Melissa Ginsburg (@Ginsburgmelissa) November 12, 2020 The Dark Heart of Florence: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander Acclaimed author Tasha Alexander returns with another Lady Emily Mystery in The Dark Heart of Florence, a lush historical mystery novel set in Florence in 1903. Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, follow a trail of disturbing burglaries all the way to Tuscany, Italy, only to be met with a strangers sudden murder. The investigation into a palazzos hidden treasures leads them back to the days of the Medici, when the radical friar Girolamo Savonarola ruled Renaissance Florence with an extremist puritanical fist. Haunted Hibiscus by Laura Childs Cozy mystery fans will rejoice at the return of Theodosia Browning in Laura Childs Haunted Hibiscus, the newest Tea Shop Mystery set in a run-down Charleston mansion just before Halloween. Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop, heads out to a book signing at the Gray Ghost, a shadowy mansion turned into a haunted house. The party is teeming with guests dressed up as the spooky figures of literary history, from the Headless Horseman to Lady Macbeth. But the whodunit roleplay turns real when the guest of honor is suddenly murdered and Theodosias detective boyfriend is shot. Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt Debbie Babitts Saving Grace is an atmospheric debut suspense novel with a healthy dose of realistic horror. Mary Grace Dobbs, the first female sheriff in a small Arkansas town, is haunted by the loss of her parents at just 11; by the loneliness and pain of her childhood, filled with schoolyard bullies and abuse at home; and by the friends she made at a young age, only to see them disappear into thin air. Now, when the suspect in those kidnappings returns to town amid yet another disappearance, the sheriff will have to face her own past head-on. Saving Grace hits bookshelves 3 weeks from today! Have you preordered your copy yet? Go to https://t.co/iHBkfPTPQ4 to read reviews, excerpt, hear audio trailer and more! pic.twitter.com/y1FsCdPpau debbie babitt (@DebbieBabitt) February 23, 2021 Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas Aiden Thomas Lost in the Never Woods is part romantic YA fantasy, part mystery-tinged Peter Pan retelling. the LOST IN THE NEVER WOODS preorder campaign is LIVE! preorder my Peter Pan reimagining and get: 3 double-sided character cards by @Gibb_Arts! an enamel pin designed by @mmarsloud that GLOWS IN THE FLIPPIN DARK! ENTER:https://t.co/pY6yAqa1H8 RT's ! pic.twitter.com/CPXrH8HsQI Aiden Thomas preorder LOST IN THE NEVER WOODS! (@aidenschmaiden) January 15, 2021 Wendy and her brothers disappeared into the woods five years ago, but people are starting to talk once more. When Wendy literally stumbles across Peter, the boy she thought was all in her head, she realizes shell have to return to the woods to uncover the truth. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions One teenager is dead and another has been hospitalized after falling through an icy lake in Ohio on Tuesday. Keaira Scott, 16, was killed after falling through the ice at Rocky Fork Lake, the Highland County Coroner confirmed Thursday. Her 13-year-old brother also fell through the ice, but was able to get himself out of the water. It all happened around 6:30 p.m. near the north shore boat docks at Rocky Fork Lake. Officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, as well as dive teams from neighboring counties, were called out to respond and began searching the lake. Around 11 p.m., after hours of searching, Scott, who had been trapped under the ice for four hours, was found unresponsive by emergency crews and pulled from the water. She was taken to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. An Ohio Department of Natural Resources officer, who was assisting in the rescue, died after suffering a medical emergency. ODNR confirmed Wednesday that ODNR Officer Jason Lagore was assisting in the rescue when he suffered a medical emergency. He was taken to Highland District Hospital where he was pronounced dead. RELATED: Officer dies of medical emergency responding to drowning in Highland County Our hearts are with the family and loved ones of Officer Jason Lagore, who died in the line of duty last night, said Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Director Mary Mertz. Our law enforcement officers and their families carry a unique and challenging burden of responsibilities, and we are deeply grateful for their service. Lagore served for 15 years with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. He was responsible for the first ODNR K-9 academy, led the Division of Parks and Watercraft K-9 training program, and was well respected across the state for his expertise working with K-9s. Lagore is survived by his wife Michelle, his two young sons, and his K-9 partner, Sarge. Investigators have set up a memorial fund in his honor. 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. kW Available at the bottom of the page is Cowells first interview since the accident and the first time he publicly addresses his injury. As luck would have it, the interview is done by Terri Seymour, one of his ex-girlfriends and a very close friend, so its mostly softball questions.The incident happened in August last year, in the driveway of Cowells Malibu home. He had just taken delivery of a new trail bike (technically an e-bike due to loopholes in the legislation, but not a road-legal one). Without reading the owners manual, Cowell hopped on it and hit torque, which instantly sent him on his back, breaking three of his vertebrae in the process.That e-bike was a Swind EB-01, marketed as the most powerful on the market thanks to the impressive 15-(20-hp) motor. More recent reports claimed that Cowell was weighing his legal options, looking to sue maker Swindon Powertrain because they should have provided him with special training before selling him the two-wheeler. Swindon denied responsibility , as was to be expected.Either because of pending litigation or because he doesnt want to go into specifics for personal reasons, Cowell doesnt say a word about the e-bike. He does talk about his recovery and how the most difficult part was the feeling of helplessness, how he needed help to walk and couldnt have made a full recovery without help from partner Lauren. He also says he knew right away that hed broken his back because of the pain but still had people move him in the house so his family wouldnt have to look at him lying there.It could have been a lot worse. When I saw the X-ray, I really nearly could have smashed my spine to pieces, so I literally wouldnt have been able to walk, he says.Silver linings and all that.Word in the British media has it that Cowell will never ride an e-bike again because his girlfriend has decided his adventurous days on two wheels are over for good. He doesnt say anything about that either. The right to not live in poverty is the ultimate human right. The task of eliminating poverty is the most urgent and important task of human civilization today. And there are few nations that are more focused on that task than the People's Republic of China. If there was any justice in the world (i.e. if it was less dominated by the West), and if prizes were awarded based more on results and less on dogma, the Communist Party of China would be a clear contender for the Nobel Prize in Economics. China has so far eliminated poverty for 850 million people an unparalleled feat in the history of human civilization. This accounts for more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction. In 1994, China held a Work Conference on National Poverty Alleviation, where the basic foundations of China's poverty alleviation program were formulated. This included leasing out farmlands to poor households, improving education and health, providing job opportunities, ensuring mass electrification, and providing vocational education and training in rural areas. And it worked. By 2000, for example, 95 percent of villages included in the program had access to electricity. Previous Chinese administrations focused on alleviating poverty at first, rather than eliminating it. In late 2015, however, the Chinese government officially committed to eradicating poverty by 2020. The leadership pledged to eliminate the "two worries" (inadequate food and inadequate clothing) and provide the "three guarantees" (access to healthcare, education and housing). In November 2020, authorities announced that the last nine impoverished counties in the country had been lifted out of absolute poverty. China was now free of the scourge for good 10 years ahead of the 2030 deadline in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the UN. So much for Western-style democracy and capitalism being the best system. Poverty has been eliminated for an astonishing 100 million people in the last eight years. The basic criteria for assessing poverty elimination goes beyond mere income it includes food and clothing, guaranteed basic health services, housing and education as well. China's minimum living standard guarantee (known as Dibao) is the largest social safety-net program in the world. Yet, challenges still remain, with income inequality being chief among them. It is as challenging as it was inevitable. In his book "The Rise and Fall of Nations," Ruchir Sharma narrates a rather interesting anecdote. At a World Bank forum in the 1980s, a then relatively unknown Indian official named Manmohan Singh (who would later go on to become India's prime minister), asked a Chinese official whether China's move to create coastal zones with special subsidies for industrialists would run the risk of increasing the wealth gap between cities and the countryside. "I certainly hope so," responded the Chinese official. He was expressing a key idea baked into China's economic reform: not only was it glorious to get rich, but it was expected that some areas of the country would get rich before others did. That was the 1980s. Today, the time has come for the poorer and western regions of China to reap a larger pie from China's economic reforms. China remains firmly on track to achieve its stated goal of achieving Xiaokang, or "moderately well-off," society by the end of 2021. This is often dismissed by jealous western observers as mere dogma and needless garrulousness. Yet, it is entirely scientific with an objective, measurable goal linked to it: the doubling of 2010 per-capita income levels. It is no surprise that Western media prefer to ignore or downplay China's massive successes in poverty reduction. After all, reporting on poverty reduction is boring, unlike reporting on "genocide" in Xinjiang which is much cooler and gets far more clicks. Moreover, they also want to take care to not send the wrong message to audiences back home. Western nations would have us believe that they are rich today due to their ostensibly superior political systems. In truth, the West is rich largely due to centuries of genocide and imperialist wealth hoarding. China doesn't have that luxury. It will become rich the honorable way: by working hard for it. China did in 40 years what the West took centuries to accomplish and it didn't have to colonize half the world to achieve it. By Maitreya Bhakal, an Indian commentator who writes about China, India, U.S. and global issues. (Source: CGTN) Dr Hans Kluge, the European director of the World Health Organization, urged health authorities to prioritise long Covid patients Healthcare services must make treating long Covid patients a priority, the director of the European arm of the World Health Organization has urged. Dr Hans Kluge warned the condition is 'real and significant' and can lead to sufferers losing their jobs and being unable to go back to their normal selves. 'We do not have all the answers. We do not yet know what percentage of patients have these longer-term effects, but we are learning fast,' he told a press conference. 'I am calling upon EU countries and institutions in the European region to come together as part of an integrated research agenda (on the condition).' Long Covid is when someone who has fought off the disease struggles with its debilitating symptoms for months afterwards including fatigue, 'brain fog' and fevers. About one in ten people who caught the virus in the UK are thought to suffer from the condition, which can last for months. In the US it is up to 35 per cent, according to a telephone survey. The NHS is already helping thousands of long Covid patients in England at more than 72 sites across the nation, and has provided more than 10million in funding. The conference was addressed by 42-year-old long Covid sufferer Richard Roels, from the UK. He said he used to swim regularly and had just finished building an extension before catching the virus in March, but now suffers from debilitating symptoms During the press conference, Dr Kluge said the WHO had already made fighting the condition a priority, as he encouraged other health authorities to do the same. 'Regrettably, some (long Covid patients) were met with disbelief, or lack of understanding,' he said, adding that disability following a Covid infection can linger for months. 'We need to listen and we need to understand. The sufferers of post-Covid conditions need to be heard if we are to understand the long-term consequences and recovery from Covid.' The conference was also addressed by long Covid sufferer Richard Roels, 42, from the UK, who said his life had been 'really, really good' before catching the virus in March at the peak of the first wave. 'I was 42 years old, a proud dad with a successful company as an occupational psychologist,' he said. 'I used to swim regularly, I had just finished building an extension to the rear of our house.' But when he had the virus it was so scary he recorded messages for his wife and daughter in case he died. He also suffered fatigue and had a 'head that felt like it was pumped up like a balloon'. He then faced long Covid symptoms during the summer and autumn. 'I kept being hit by new waves of symptoms,' he said. 'I lost sensation one day on my right hand side and was sent to hospital for a scan to see whether I had developed a stroke. 'And the day my feet went purple I was again sent to hospital to check whether I had developed a clot on my legs. There were periods where I just shook uncontrollably on my bed. 'I was so exhausted but I was just unable to sleep.' About one in ten people who catch Covid end up suffering symptoms of long Covid, studies estimate. There have been hundreds of thousands of cases in the UK Those who have long Covid suffer symptoms including fatigue, 'brain fog' and breathlessness. Pictured is the daily deaths from the virus graph for the UK He said graded exercise therapy 'led me to crash again' and he could not walk to a local park, and had to 'get a taxi to just five minutes up the road'. With the help of a cognitive behavioural therapist, he began techniques to use his energy sparingly. 'The biggest issue I have now is fatigue, brain fog, and my breathing is still quite erratic,' he said. 'My legs feel very, very heavy still.' He said his feet and hands also still suffer flare-ups and go bright red. 'I think one of the hardest things is just people not believing you, them telling you just to get on with it,' he added. NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said that social media is welcome to do business in India but there should be no double standards and that it will have to comply with the rules and regulations issued from time to time so that its misuse can be prevented. The government also announced new guidelines to curb the misuse of social media platforms. Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "The social media is most welcome to do business in the country. They have done a good job in empowering the ordinary Indians and their platform has often been used to cast aspersion on most pressing issues. I would like to say that the social media platform should not be misused. The social media platform will have to comply with the rules and regulations issued by the government in this regard.'' "There shouldn't be double standards. If an attack takes place on Capitol Hill in the US, then social media supports police action but if there's an aggressive attack on the Red Fort, then you've double standards. This is plainly not acceptable,'' Prasad said. Prasad added that "concerns have been raised about rampant abuse of social media platforms and the spread of fake news.'' Sharing more details on the new rules and guidelines on social media, Prasad said, "Content involving nudity, morphed pictures of women have to be removed within 24 hours. Social media intermediaries have to appoint grievance officer, who shall register complaints in 24 hours.'' "Social media platforms upon being asked either by a court order or a government authority will be required to disclose the first originator of mischievous tweet or message as the case may be,'' Prasad said. "This should be only in relation to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, public order, relations with foreign states, or rape, sexually explicit content etc,'' Prasad added. "We shall notify users number for a significant social media intermediary very soon. They will have to have a grievance redressal mechanism, you will also have to name a grievance officer who shall register the grievance within 24 hours and disposal in 15 days,'' Prasad said during the press conference. "The I&B Ministry had widespread consultations and we prepared a draft in December 2018 - there'll be 2 categories, Intermediary which can be social media intermediary and significant social media intermediary,'' the Union Minister said. Prasad stated that the content on OTT platforms will be strictly monitored by the government. "The laws made for significant social media will be implemented within 3 months so that they can improve their mechanism. The rest will come into effect from the day the rules are notified,'' Prasad said. The new rules establish a soft touch progressive institutional mechanism with a level playing field featuring a Code of Ethics and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT platforms on the digital media, he said. Addressing the joint press conference along with Prasad, Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said, ''The OTT platforms would self-classify the content into five age-based categories- U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as A. "Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation) Act thereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media,'' Javadekar said on his turn. "There should be a grievance redressal system in OTT platforms and digital portals. OTT platforms will have to have a self-regulating body, headed by retired Supreme Court or High Court judge or very eminent person in this category,'' Javadekar said while replying to questions on the mechanism for monitoring the content on the OTT platforms. The I&B Minister said, "We have decided to have a 3-stair mechanism for OTT platforms. OTT and digital news media will have to disclose their details. We are not mandating registration, we are seeking information.'' There will also be an oversight mechanism at the government level to deal with the case wherein immediate action is needed, Javadekar said. According to the new rules and guidelines issued by the government, a three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been established under the rules with two levels of self-regulation- Level I being the publisher and Level II being the Self Regulatory Body, and the third level being the Oversight Mechanism under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The rules provide for an effective grievance redressal mechanism for receiving, processing, and time-bound disposal of public grievances related to the Code of Ethics. The self-regulatory body would be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court, or by a person of eminence from the relevant field, and can issue advisories to the publisher. The mechanism is based on the principles of minimum ''Government intervention'; however, platforms should develop a robust grievance redressal mechanism on their own, the Union Minister said. What are the benefits of the rules The institutional mechanism would : (i) encourage growth in the Champion Audio-Visual Services Sector; (ii) empower citizens to make informed choices about content, get their grievances redressed in a definite time frame, and protect children; and (iii) help to fight fake news on digital media through a mechanism of accountability of the publishers. Live TV 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. Saying it isnt altruism, the CEO of Costco told the Senate Budget Committee that the company will raise its minimum wage to $16 an hour next week. According to NPR, Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek made the remark during a hearing a hearing on pay at large retail and fast-food employers. NPR reported that Jelinek said, I want to note this isnt altruism. At Costco we know that paying employees good wages ... makes sense for our business and constitutes a significant competitive advantage for us. It helps us in the long run by minimizing turnover and maximizing employee productivity. Congress is preparing to vote on legislation that would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. CNN reported that Costco has around 180,000 employees in the United States, and 90% of them work hourly. According to CNN, retailers that pay a $15 minimum wage include Amazon, Target and Best Buy. Walmarts minimum is $11 that will increase for some of its employees to $13 an hour. Costcos average wage for hourly employees is around $24 an hour. Costco employees have also received an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay during the pandemic since March. Jelinek said the company would end the hazard pay, but convert some of it to permanent pay raises for employees, CNN reported. Costco raising minimum wage to $16 an hour https://t.co/yJJxaORmFw pic.twitter.com/D0z7KLcxL2 The Hill (@thehill) February 25, 2021 READ MORE STAMFORD The Stamford schools are hoping to provide the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to all of its in-school staff by March 13. And the elementary school staff will have the opportunity to get their first shots on March 6, according to a message from Superintendent Tamu Lucero. The message states that about 1,100 elementary school employees will be scheduled first to receive the vaccine. The remaining public school employees will be able to receive the vaccine on Saturday, March 13, Lucero said in her message. If necessary, we will work with the (Department of Health) to establish an additional session, said Luceros message. The State of Connecticuts eligibility criteria to receive the vaccine is for school staff is Pre-K-12 teachers, paraprofessionals, custodial staff, food service providers, school bus drivers and childcare providers, as well as in-school administrative staff. The list, however, does not include those who are not required to work on-site in a school. The email from Lucero does not specify the time or location of the vaccination clinics, however. According to her message, staff who are eligible for the vaccine will receive an email with instructions on how to sign up. Teachers this week said they were thrilled that they were moved to the front of the line for the vaccine after Gov. Ned Lamont released a new schedule for vaccine eligibility, allowing educators to get inoculated starting March 1. Access for additional age groups has also been expanded, allowing those between the ages of 55 and 64 to sign up for the vaccine also starting on March 1, and those between the ages of 45 and 54 to sign up on March 22. Connecticut residents between the ages of 16 and 44 will follow in April and May. Over a weekend in late January, Stamford officials were set to vaccinate all teachers and school employees in the district. But that plan fell through only a few days prior, when the state revised its roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine, excluding teachers from a place in the line at that time. But in recent weeks, Stamford teachers union sent out a communication to all staff urging them to send an email to the state Department of Public Health demanding the vaccine for educators. Other teacher unions across the state did the same. Members of the Stamford Board of Education also sent their own message to the state, in the hopes of getting teachers protected sooner. This school year, all Stamford students are divided into two cohorts, which attend in-person classes every other day under a hybrid model, or students can attend classes remotely as part of the distance learning academy. With the COVID vaccines on the horizon for teachers, some parents are pushing for a full return to in-person instruction in Stamford. What is the next step to make these doors open five days a week? Amy Nelson, the mother of two students at Strawberry Hill School, asked a Tuesdays meeting of the Board of Education. We need to set that date. Nelson is behind an online petition calling for the school district to allow elementary students to attend class in person every day. By Wednesday afternoon, over 900 people had signed the petition. Lucero didnt set an official date for a full return to classrooms, but she told the board Tuesday night to think about six weeks from the date teachers receive the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. We would then be able to consider returning our students to school, she said. That hypothetical timeline would put the full return to classrooms around April 19, which would be a full week after spring break. Darcey Trudeau, co-owner of the Bedford Street Diner and the parent of three students, said she wants to see more action from the district. I know I speak for many parents when I say we are looking for a plan, she said. ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global Flexible Packaging Market is anticipated to reach $335 billion by 2026 according to a new research published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the food and beverage segment accounted for the highest market share in terms of revenue. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading contributor to the global Flexible Packaging market revenue in 2017. The increasing disposable incomes and growing demand for fast moving consumer goods drives the growth of the flexible packaging market. Growing urbanization has resulted in urban citizens spending most of their time at work and everyday commute, which has increased the demand for convenient packaging for on-the-go consumption, thereby supporting the flexible packaging market growth. Brand owners are taking initiatives to optimize packaging operations to meet the global competition, increase productivity, enhance shelf life of products, improve overall efficiency, and create brand differentiation in the market. The demand for new and unique packaging sizes, shapes and configurations has increased from industries such as food and beverages, cosmetics, and healthcare among others. The increasing need to offer convenient packaging solutions while also addressing environmental concerns has boosted the flexible packaging market growth. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-packaging-market/request-for-sample Numerous key players have adopted partnership and acquisition strategies to increase their market share in the global flexible packaging market. For instance, In December 2015, Mondi Group signed an agreement for the acquisition of 95% of the outstanding share capital in KSP, Co. KSP is a flexible packaging company based in South Korea with strong focus on production of high-quality spouted and retort stand-up pouches for food, pet food and beverage industries. The acquisition of KSP compliments Mondis stand-up pouch operations in Korneuburg, Austria and Jackson, US while expanding its presence in U.S. and Asia. In July 2016, Mondi Group also signed an agreement to acquire Uralplastic. Uralplastic manufactures a range of consumer flexible packaging products for food, hygiene, homecare and other applications. The acquisition of Uralplastic supports the development of Mondis consumer packaging business, strengthens its presence in the Russian consumer packaging market, and expands its offerings in the flexible packaging market. Asia-Pacific generated the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2018 in the flexible packaging industry, and is expected to lead the global Flexible Packaging market throughout the forecast period. The growing population, rising disposable incomes, and increasing living standards support the growth of flexible packaging industry in the region. The increasing demand from the food and beverage, and retail industry is expected to generate numerous opportunities for the Flexible Packaging industry. Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-packaging-market The well-known companies profiled in the Flexible Packaging report include Amcor Limited, Mondi Group, Berry Plastics Corporation, Sonoco Products Company, American Packaging Corporation, Novolex Holding Inc., Bemis Company, Inc, Constantia Flexibles International GmbH, Ampac Holding, and Sigma Plastics Group. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers. Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Type Bags Pouches Wraps Others Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Material Paper Plastic Flexible Foam Aluminum Foil Bioplastics Others Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by End-User Food and Beverage Healthcare Retail Consumer Goods Others Flexible Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Region North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/flexible-packaging-market/request-for-discount-pricing About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... AUSTIN, Texas All the groceries spoiled and the water was out for days. Then Melissa Rogers, a believer in the Texas gospel that government should know its place, woke up to a $6,000 energy bill before the snow and ice even melted. The roads were awful, but we were running around town trying to get money from every single bank we could possibly think of, said Rogers, 36, whose Fort Worth family of four was left with $80 after the charges drained her accounts and took her husbands paycheck. Now, the emerging response to a winter catastrophe that caused one of the worst power outages in U.S. history is not the usual one in Texas: demands for more regulation. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ On Thursday, managers of Texas power grid are expected to receive a lashing in the first public hearings about the crisis at the state Capitol where the belief that less government is better is reflected in a part-time Legislature that meets just once every two years, and only for 140 days. The current session ends in May. That leaves Texas little time to make last weeks plunge into freezing darkness that touched nearly all of the states 30 million residents one way or another including grocery shelves left bare and miles of busted water pipes produce tougher regulations that the states GOP majority has resisted for decades. At the same time, warnings ignored after a previous deep Texas freeze in 2011 have baked in skepticism. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wants to force power plants to winterize after nearly half of the states generation capacity was knocked offline by subfreezing temperatures. Theres also new support for guardrails on Texas deregulated electric market to prevent astronomical energy bills that financially devastated homeowners like Rogers, who frantically emptied her savings after wholesale prices, which are typically as low as a couple of cents per kilowatt-hour, spiked to $9 per kilowatt-hour. At $9 a kilowatt-hour, the average U.S. home would have a monthly electric bill of about $8,000. In a lot of respects, were victims of our own attempt to let free market forces work, said Republican state Rep. Drew Darby, who sits on the House Energy Resources Committee that is digging into the outages. His rural district includes two or three homes in the Texas oil patch that burned down as the power lurched off and on, and he heard of plants that couldnt burn piles of frozen coal outside. Even before the storm dropped six inches of snow as far south as San Antonio, generators in Texas were required to submit safeguard plans for cold weather. Darby suspects enforcement was scant. Typically, you know, the Texas Legislature pushes back on overregulation, Darby said. However, my view on something as basic to human survival and need is we need to have reliable power and water. At least six board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the states power grid, resigned this week ahead of likely calls for their ouster at the hearings. Officials in Houston have opened their own investigations into the outages, and prosecutors in Austin say they will investigate potential criminal wrongdoing. President Joe Biden is set to fly to Texas on Friday, a trip that marks his first visit to a disaster site since taking office. Just weeks before the outages, Abbott had ordered state agencies to look for ways to sue the new administration over energy regulations that he said would hamper the states biggest industry. Abbott has put much of the fault on ERCOT, which he accuses of misleading Texas about the grids readiness. In a rare television address broadcast across Texas on Wednesday night, Abbott said the Legislature wont adjourn until the problems are fixed. You deserve answers. You will get those answers, he said. He made no mention of the states Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT and whose commissioners he appointed. A federal report after the 2011 outages urged hardening electric generators against extreme cold, but neither the commission nor ERCOT required plant owners to do anything more than file the weatherization plans. There are no standards for what must be in those plans. ERCOT staffers conduct spot checks at a small portion of power plants every year to, among other things, check on their progress at protecting equipment. But, ERCOT president Bill Magness said, These are not inspections. There is no regulatory authority to issue fines or penalties. Democratic state Rep. Rafael Anchia said it often takes a crisis to push through transformational regulation. Regulation is a four-letter word in this building at times, said Anchia, who sits on the House energy committee. But four million people without power and 12 million people without drinkable water, right, that gets everybodys attention. In Houston, Mya James diabetic grandmother was rushed to an emergency room as she struggled to breathe. The power had gone out two days earlier. Nurses at another hospital were collecting rain water in buckets to flush toilets. James, 38, is a beauty product entrepreneur with customers overseas. When the outages began, clients in other countries were baffled: How could Texas, the state built on energy, not have any? It was very hard for people to comprehend, James said. If were known for one thing, lets be good at that one thing. ___ Associated Press writer David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas. A Scottish independence activist has been jailed for six months after tweeting the names of five accusers who gave evidence at Alex Salmond's sexual assault trial. Clive Thompson, 52, carried out a 'blatant and deliberate' breach of a contempt of court order banning identification of the women. A judge called his actions 'politically motivated' and said that he was fully aware of the court order - but believed he could circumvent it by tweeting from abroad. Thomson, of Rosyth, Fife, admitted contempt of court at a previous hearing in January and was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh today. Mr Salmond, the former first minister, was cleared of all 13 charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and attempted rape at a trial last year. Former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond speaks to members of the media as he leaves the High Court in Edinburgh on March 23 last year Lady Dorrian, who presided over the trial, had banned the identification of the women giving evidence against Mr Salmond. Sentencing Thomson today, she said that he believed at the time of his second tweet that he might be safe from proceedings from contempt of court by being abroad. She said: 'You had thus given thought to how you might get away with it, going as far as to seek advice about that on Twitter. You decided to take a calculated risk. 'This was a blatant and deliberate breach of the order, which was likely to cause serious stress and concern to the complainers and interfere with the protection extended to them by the order.' She said that his actions were 'clearly politically motivated, with a small 'p'. Lady Dorrian, sitting with Lord Pentland and Lord Matthews, said the court took account of the fact it was a 'deliberate, and indeed planned' contempt of court and described it as a 'very serious matter.' Mr Salmond, the former first minister, was cleared of all 13 charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault and attempted rape at a trial last year In a sentencing statement also published after the hearing, she said: 'There are very good reasons why complainers in sexual offence cases are given anonymity. 'The protection is, by convention, afforded to complainers in all cases, not just the one with which we are concerned. 'Moreover, the reason for such protection extends beyond the complainers in the present case. 'One reason for it is that the risk of public knowledge of their identities can operate as a severe deterrent to others against making complaints to the authorities in sexual cases.' Thomson admitted contempt of court at a previous hearing in January. Lady Dorrian said that for such a 'premeditated contempt' there is no alternative to a custodial sentence and jailed him for six months. The boss of an Australian contractor at the centre a Covid vaccine overdose bungle at a nursing home has stood down. A 94-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man were given too much of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday, the second day of Australia's vaccination rollout, at Holy Spirit aged care home at Carseldine, Queensland. Healthcare Australia, a company contracted by the federal government to give vaccines in aged care homes, was put on notice after an investigation found the doctor who administered the jab had not completed immunisation training. The doctor has since been stood down from the vaccination program, and on Thursday afternoon was joined by Haelthcare Australia chief executive Jason Cartwrigth. Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck told The Today Show on Thursday that healthcare workers need to be 'very, very vigilant'. 'For a mistake of this nature to occur is quite simply not acceptable,' he said. Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck on Thursday confirmed that Healthcare Australia, a company contracted by the federal government to give vaccines in aged care homes, was put on notice The two elderly people given an incorrect dose of the Pfizer vaccine re residents at the Holy Spirit Nursing Home Carseldine in Brisbane (pictured) Minister for Health Greg Hunt addressed the nation's vaccine rollout and bungle on Wednesday morning (pictured) 'I'd be really upset if my mum or dad were in a situation where they hadn't received the correct dose,' he said. The elderly pair suffered no adverse effects but are being monitored in hospital. Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler put the bungle down to being a 'grievous error'. 'This is a very basic component of the training, recognising that these Pfizer vaccines come in multi-dose vials,' he said. 'You don't inject the whole thing.' Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday said the doctor was registered and had taken the necessary online training provided by the Australian Board of Nursing. But he later told Parliament that Healthcare Australia had informed him the doctor had not been trained. 'The revised advice is that on further investigation Healthcare Australia has advised he had not completed the required training,' he said. 'I have asked the Department to take action against the company and the doctor for what is a clear breach on both fronts. 'This is being investigated by Healthcare Australia and we're expecting a report later today.' Minister Hunt has apologised to the families of the elderly patients for the bungle. He also said the doctor has been stood down by Healthcare Australia. It is not clear how the doctor got the dosing so wrong. One theory is that he gave two doses of the vaccine to each patient consecutively, instead of three weeks apart. Two elderly people have been given an 'excessive amount' of the Covid vaccine in a jab bungle in Queensland. Pictured: Medical workers prepare the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at the Hyatt quarantine hotel in Perth on Monday An 94-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man were given more than the prescribed amount of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday - the second day of Australia's Covid vaccination rollout. Pictured: Health signage is seen at Gold Coast University Hospital on February 22 Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd, who is investigating the incident, said it is possible up to four times the recommended dose was given to each patient. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said her government was only informed about the overdose late on Tuesday night. 'Although this happened yesterday morning, Queensland authorities were only advised late last night,' she said. 'Discovering these details now is simply not good enough.' The premier said she would write to the prime minister to demand a National Cabinet meeting as soon as possible. 'I want to know what training is provided to the people the Federal Government is employing to administer the vaccines in our aged care facilities,' she said. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly also noted that other countries, including Germany and the UK, have experienced similar bungles in their coronavirus vaccine rollout at aged care facilities. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly is seen at a press conference on Wednesday, where the government addressed a coronavirus vaccine bungle in Queensland Medical workers prepare the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at the Hyatt quarantine hotel in Perth on Monday An ambulance is seen at the entry to the Holy Spirit Nursing Home in Brisbane on Wednesday after news broke that two residents were given an incorrect dose of the Covid vaccine 'The side effect profile was minimal particularly in the older people. That gives us hope,' he said. The Pfizer vial contains enough for around about six doses. Lincoln Hopper, the CEO or St Vincent's (Holy Spirit) Care Services, said the doctor who wrongly administered the vaccine would be reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. 'Yesterday was very distressing to us, to our residents and to their families,' he said. 'This incident is extremely concerning. It's caused us to question whether some of the clinicians given the job of administering the vaccine have received the appropriate training. 'Certainly, health authorities and contracted vaccination providers should be re-emphasising to their teams the need to exercise greater care so an error like this doesn't happen again.' NAIROBI -- With the timely arrival of China's Sinopharm vaccine, Senegal on Tuesday officially began the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, taking one step further in its fight against the pandemic. The delivery once again showed not only the solid friendship between China and Africa, but also China's honoring of its commitment to making Chinese COVID-19 vaccines a "global public good" accessible and affordable to people around the world. During the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 held last year, China pledged that African countries will be "among the first to benefit" from Chinese vaccines. It has walked the talk indeed -- China has donated to Zimbabwe a batch of Sinopharm vaccine, and will offer another batch soon. Other African countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Egypt and Morocco have also received Chinese vaccines which enabled them to launch their vaccination campaigns. So far, China has provided vaccine assistance to 53 developing countries in need, and exported vaccines to 22 countries. It has also decided to provide 10 million vaccine doses to multilateral vaccine alliance COVAX to meet the urgent needs of developing countries, many of which are in Africa. "These vaccines are certainly providing a new light of positivity for the people of Zimbabwe in these tough times ... a light at the end of a dark tunnel," said Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa. In fact, China, a country that firmly believes that solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon against the virus, has been fulfilling its responsibilities as a major country and fighting shoulder to shoulder with African countries against the common threat facing mankind ever since the outbreak. Apart from delivering anti-epidemic materials and sending medical teams to African countries, China has also become the biggest helper among the Group of 20 in terms of relieving African debt. By the end of 2020, it had signed debt service suspension agreements with 12 African countries, and reduced or waived the interest-free loans of 15 African nations. As Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo put it, China's longstanding support to Africa's fight against the pandemic is a testament to the friendship between the two peoples. Viruses know no borders. Leaving the world's least developed areas unvaccinated will inevitably perpetuate more infections and deaths across the world, and prolong the global fight against the pandemic. Sadly, it is happening -- despite efforts by countries like China, there is still a huge disparity in global vaccine distribution as some rich countries are hoarding vaccines. According to Duke University's Global Health Innovation Center, as of mid-January, high-income countries, which represent only 16 percent of the world's population, had taken 60 percent of available doses. The world faces a "catastrophic moral failure" because of unequal COVID-19 vaccine policies, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned, adding it is not fair for younger, healthy people in richer countries to get injections before vulnerable people in poorer ones. Vaccination is not a race among countries, but rather a race against time. As COVID-19 infections and deaths are still surging in Africa and other less developed areas, it is urgent for the international community to come together to reject vaccine nationalism and promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, so as to make them accessible and affordable to all. The European Union has extended for one year sanctions targeting dozens of Belarusian officials, including longtime authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The announcement appeared on the website of the European Council on February 25, saying the sanctions targeted officials responsible for the violent repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, members of the opposition, and journalists in Belarus, as well as those responsible for electoral fraud. The sanctions were imposed after Minsks brutal crackdown on protests against an August 2020 presidential election that the opposition and international observers have deemed fraudulent. That election, which handed Lukashenka a sixth term as the countrys president, has not been recognized by the EU, the United States, Canada, or many other countries. The sanctions were originally imposed in October-December 2020 and target 88 individuals and seven entities. The sanctions include a ban on travel to the EU and an asset freeze. EU entities are barred from conducting financial transactions with the targets of the sanctions. The extension means the sanctions will remain in place until at least February 28, 2022. Former World Expo pavilions to be renovated By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-02-25 12:39 If you have visited the site of World Expo 2010 Shanghai, do you still remember the Russia Pavilion, the Luxembourg Pavilion, the Italy Pavilion, and the France Pavilion? The venues familiar to Shanghai citizens are to be renovated with a new look. It is reported that the World Expo Park in Shanghai is now giving the four pavilions, which are located at the North area of the park, a facelift to create new spaces of culture, education and exhibition. The Russia Pavilion, which was composed of 12 tri-color towers symbolizing the flower of life and the root of the world, is to be reinforced. Each facade of the towers was made up of a single piece of aluminum with irregular shapes and complex carving techniques. To maintain its original uniqueness, the renovation project team made scan models before the update. The movable scales on the facade of the main building have also been optimized in color and material to better reflect the sunlight. The Luxembourg Pavilion, whose facade was made up of weathering steel, is also under renovation. After being removed, the steel plates undergo sandblasting and rust removal, oxidation and rust-fixing treatment, and are then carried to the construction site for three rounds of surface treatment, in order to restore the building to its original state. The Italy Pavilion, which was inspired by pick-up sticks in the traditional Chinese stick game, was made up of 20 modules representing Italys 20 regions. After some consideration, the project team decided to maintain the concrete plates of its facade and reinforce them with glass fiber mesh cloth and steel frames. The glass curtain wall of the building will also be replaced. The France Pavilion of World Expo 2010, wrapped by a white net, was like floating in a futuristic manner above a pool of water. For its renovation, the GRC plates of the facade will be replaced with aluminum plates to ensure its dynamic appearance and light weight. Renovation construction will be completed by the end of August, said the Pudong district government. As many as 225 students of a public school hostel in Maharashtra's Washim district have tested coronavirus positive. Four school staffers have also tested positive, an official said, adding the area has been declared a containment zone. Altogether 327 students from various districts in Vidarbha region reside at the hostel of the Bhavna Public School. Twenty one students tested positive in the first few days after which RT-PCR tests of all the 327 students were conducted, 39 students, five employees test positive in Latur Earlier this week, 39 students and five employees of a hostel in Latur district of Marathwada had tested positive. PTI Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed a significant rise in coronavirus cases, with more than 8,000 new infections coming to light in a single day after a gap of over four months, health officials said. The state reported 8,807 cases on Wednesday, taking its total infection count to 21,21,119. It had reported 8,142 cases on October 21 last year, after which the numbers had declined. With 80 deaths reported on Wednesday, the state's fatality count rose to 51,937, the official said. 190 students, 72 teachers test COVID positive Representational Image Around 190 students and 70 teachers of two government schools in Malappuram tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, prompting health officials to ask school authorities in the district to keep extra vigil and strictly implement the COVID-19 protocol. A district health official said around 150 students and 34 teachers of the Maranchery higher secondary school tested positive for the virus. "Over 600 students of the school were subjected to virus testing after a student had tested positive late last week. All the students who were tested positive belonged to Class X and classmates of the student who tested positive first," the official told news agency PTI. In the other case, 39 students and 36 teachers of the Vanneri higher secondary school at Ponnani tested positive. Islamabad: Rival neighbours Pakistan and India have pledged to stop firing weapons across the border in disputed Kashmir, promising to adhere to a 2003 accord that has been largely ignored, officials from both sides said on Thursday. If indeed implemented, the move would be a major step in defusing tensions in the highly militarised Himalayan region, and open a possibility for broader detente between the two nuclear-armed powers. An Indian army convoy moves on the Srinagar-Ladakh highway in Indian-controlled Kashmir in September 2020. Credit:AP Artillery, rockets and even small arms fire have been regularly exchanged between troops on opposite sides of the border, killing hundreds since the original ceasefire was signed. This time the two militaries themselves are making vocal commitments, with senior generals reaching an understanding over a hotline on Wednesday, a joint statement said. 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. Flash The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines that Thailand ordered from China's Sinovac Biotech arrived in the capital Bangkok Wednesday, with the country's national inoculation program likely to start in a few days. The 200,000 doses, the first shipment among 2 million doses Thailand ordered from the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm, were delivered by a Thai Airways International cargo flight from Beijing to Bangkok. Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, as well as Chinese Embassy official Yang Xin were at the airport for the handover of the vaccines. "Today is a historic day with the reception of the first lot of vaccine," Prayut said at the vaccine handover ceremony, expressing his gratitude for China's timely delivering of the vaccines. "Without any unexpected problems, subsequent lots will arrive as planned," he said. Calling it another major progress in bilateral anti-pandemic cooperation, Yang Xin said he hoped the Sinovac vaccines would play an active role in supporting Thailand's fight against COVID-19. "We are confident in the vaccine," Nakorn Premsri, director of Thailand's National Vaccine Institute, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview. Nakorn said the Chinese vaccine has been widely used in many countries and has shown good result of safety profile and efficacy, especially among medical workers that have a higher risk of infection. "Millions of doses of the vaccine have been used. So far we have not got any reports regarding severe reaction. That's the reason we chose the vaccine." Thailand approved the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use on Monday, and the authorization will be valid for one year, according to Anutin. Upon the vaccines' arrival, three days would be required for the final inspection before the national vaccination campaign begins, Prayut said. The first batch of the Sinovac vaccines will be distributed to 13 provinces, including Bangkok, and administered to at-risk groups, including medical workers, close contacts with COVID-19 patients and people with certain chronic illnesses. A second batch of 800,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccines is scheduled to arrive in Thailand next month, followed by a third batch of the remaining 1 million doses. Thailand has set a three-staged national inoculation program, aiming to vaccinate enough of the general population to create herd immunity. Besides the Sinovac vaccines, it would also use AstraZeneca vaccines. As of Wednesday, the Southeast Asian nation's total COVID-19 tally rose to 25,692. France has denounced the institutionalized repression of the Uighurs Muslims in China. The community has become the victim of forced assimilation by the Chinese government and the situation has worsened over the years. On Wednesday, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced the institutionalized repression of Chinas Uighur minority. Many Human Right Experts and activists have stated that at least 1 million Muslims are detained and are being tortured in camps in Chinas remote western region. despite the shreds of evidence gathered by the international community of Chinas activities in Beijing, China has denied the claims stating that these camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism. Le Drian, while speaking via a video conference at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that the witness accounts and documents from the Chinese region of Xianjing signify unjustifiable practices towards the Uighurs Muslims and s system of large scale surveillance and institutionalized repression. United Nations has earlier called the repression of Uighurs as the worst case of Human Rights Violation since World War II. As a voting member in the council, France raised concerns over the regression of human rights in Russia. The French foreign minister, in his statement, cited that the attempted assassination of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned with a nerve agent in an attack which he blames on the Kremlin, as well as the crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Belarus, the current wars in Syria, the armed conflict in Yemen and the military coup in Myanmar. Also Read: The Chinese Embassy in Paris took out a series of tweets and told that these accusations are more than absurd and these lies are the tools of western anti-Chinese forces to demonize China which are targeted to insult the 1.4 billion Chinese, including the 25 million multiethnic habitants of Xinjiang. The Uighurs are subjected to political indoctrination and are being incarcerated in camps across China. In July 2020, 22 western nations had raised concern over the Xinjiang repression whereas 37 countries, including some Muslim majority nations, had defended China and whitewashed its crimes as counter-terrorism operations. Also Read: (Newser) No worries, American diplomats in China: You can keep your pants on. Per a report Wednesday in Vice, the Chinese government vowed this week to stop performing anal swab COVID tests on diplomats from the States, after news on that supposed occurrence prompted a complaint from the US State Department to China's Foreign Ministry. Even though outside travelers to some parts of China are made to take the test, a State Department rep says China told the department that test had been given "in error" to US diplomatic personnel, as they're exempt from it. The rep added the department was committed to preserving the diplomats' "dignity." On Thursday, however, China denied US diplomats had been subjected to anal swabs altogether. "To my knowledge ... China has never required US diplomatic staff stationed in China to conduct anal swab tests," a ministry spokesman said at a Beijing news conference, per Reuters. story continues below Earlier this month, China's National Health Commission said that COVID is more easily detectable via anal samples than ones taken from the nose and throat. However, the commission has since conceded that mass use of this method isn't ideal, as it's "inconvenient and unpopular," per Vice. And one Wuhan University pathologist says nose and throat swabs are still more efficient. "There have been cases concerning the coronavirus testing positive in a patient's excrement, but no evidence has suggested it had been transmitted through one's digestive system," Yang Zhanqiu tells the Global Times. US experts agree. "It's well established that the gold standard or best sample to take is something upper respiratory," UCLA Health pathologist Omai Garner tells Healthline, though the outlet notes that stool samples are often used as a more noninvasive testing method for babies, young children, and those who have trouble undergoing nasal or throat swabs. (Read more China stories.) It is not quite a tale of scallop kitchen to soup kitchen, but not far off. Royal Bank of Scotland's vast Gogarburn complex outside Edinburgh, widely viewed as a monument to the vanity of former chief executive Fred Goodwin, is now playing host to a food bank. Shortly after the UK went into the first coronavirus lockdown in March last year, RBS turned its conference centre at Gogarburn into a charity distribution hub supplying food and clothing to people in need in the pandemic. RBS's Gogarburn complex outside of Edinburgh where the conference centre is now being used as a charity distribution hub supplying food and clothing to people in need The food bank is the brainchild of RBS staff member Sheena Hales. The single mum, 50, was in the autumn awarded a British Empire Medal for her extraordinary service to the community. It does not deal directly with the needy but has teamed up with charities including Social Bite, which operates a chain of social-enterprise sandwich shops across Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. Gogarburn, nicknamed 'Fred's Folly', became notorious as a symbol of the excess that led to the lender's near-ruin during the financial crisis. Goodwin's lawyers took exception to an article claiming he had a special scallop kitchen installed close to his office there to serve his favourite lunch. Subsequently, it was made clear that a wide variety of luxury seafood was in fact prepared in the kitchen. The Gogarburn complex was officially opened with great fanfare by the Queen in 2005 in a lavish ceremony including an RAF flypast. In a nod to Goodwin's friendship with racing driver Jackie Stewart, it also featured a Formula One car zipping through the grounds. Vanity project: Fred Goodwin was forced to resign as RBS boss in 2008, took a personal interest in the tiniest detail of the 350m Gogarburn complex The erstwhile boss, who was forced to resign in 2008 and stripped of his knighthood in 2012, took a personal interest in the tiniest detail of the 350million glass and sandstone development. He even became a devotee of feng shui. But the food bank is likely to exorcise any trace of the ghost of Goodwin. 'We haven't always had the best reputation at the bank but I think the fact we were stepping in is being seen in a very positive way,' says Sheena, who had the idea of using the centre as a food bank as the UK went into the first lockdown. 'I thought the easy answer was to repurpose our conference centre, get it staffed up and to get some marketing behind it,' she says. Inspiring: The food bank is the brainchild of RBS staff member Sheena Hales The enormous campus, which stretches over a 100-acre site, remains the bank's official headquarters. It can house 6,000 employees, but since lockdown most staff have been working from home. 'I thought, 'We are sitting on a massive empty asset that could be useful.' So I sent an email to our chief administrative officer, Simon McNamara, and I was really shocked within 20 minutes to get an email back to say it had been tabled at an executive meeting,' says Sheena. 'Within one hour, I had a call back from the property manager to say we will open the conference centre tomorrow, the marketing team will be in touch and it will be fully staffed. I thought, 'I've gone and done it now, I'll have to get on with it.' She adds: 'I am a single parent and I want to inspire my son. I hope he grows up to realise you need to be able to give when you can and ask for help when you need it. I have needed help at various points in lockdown because it is stressful and lonely at times.' Crime writer Ian Rankin, who partied at Gogarburn with Goodwin and his acolytes shortly before the near-demise of RBS, described it as 'almost a city in itself'. At the time it was built it was the largest planning application in Scotland. In addition to the conference centre, it contains a nursery, health club and a business school. The bank has been working with the NHS to provide 1,500 free meals each evening to night-shift staff out of kitchens at the site. Since the project began, it has received large donations that have been passed on to people in need, including 150,000 chocolate items and 80,000 Pot Noodles. Online retailer Amazon is donating some returned products, including a gift this week of skateboards without wheels. 'They are perfect for some of our community projects,' says Sheena. Customers of the bank have also made generous donations, including a rum distillery that gave hand sanitiser and two farmers who gave 12 pallets of vegetables. Some restaurants that were forced to close gave their remaining stock from cupboards and freezers, and also cooked meals to give away. 'There was a lot of sadness in that,' says Sheena. 'It was lovely that they were giving food, but that was their livelihood. They were being generous at a time when they were quite scared.' The Gogarburn hub has also distributed 300,000 children's books, 100,000 education packs and 415,000 items of new clothing, including school uniforms. Sheena is working on a 'skillbank', helping charities acquire business acumen that will help them work more effectively. Parts of the Gogarburn citadel, which was built in woodland on the site of a former psychiatric institution, have already been repurposed. The opulent executive wing was converted into a hub for small businesses six years ago. This included Goodwin's penthouse office, known to insiders as the 'torture chamber' where he staged his 'morning beatings' at 9.30am every day. Paul Alivisatos and Michael Gratzel win the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category has gone in this thirteenth edition to Paul Alivisatos (University of California, Berkeley, United States) and Michael Gratzel (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) for their fundamental contributions to the development of new nanomaterials already in use for the production of renewable energies and in latest-generation electronics. "Gratzel's groundbreaking work includes the invention of a dye-sensitized solar cell named after him," reads the committee's citation, while "Alivisatos has made pioneering contributions in using semiconductor nanocrystals for energy and display applications." Scientists have long been fascinated by the way in which light interacts with matter, and the quest to control this interaction in fine detail is at the basis of some of today's most powerful technologies. Alivisatos and Gratzel are leaders in controlling the play of light-matter through the use of nanomaterials that act upon the latter. The committee recognizes them as key figures in the fundamental science that led to "the development of nanostructured materials for energy-related applications." Gratzel - nominated by Jean S. Hesthaven, dean of the School of Basic Sciences at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) - was the first to combine molecular systems with nanoparticles to create a new kind of solar cell that mimics photosynthesis, bringing closer the goal of converting sunlight into a clean, efficient and cheap source of electricity on a major scale. Alivisatos created nanocrystals of barely a thousand atoms, known as "quantum dots," to emit light whose color can be minutely controlled. He has also used these nanocrystals to explore new renewable energy sources. At present, the most advanced application of his work is a new generation of screens that incorporate quantum dots to achieve high color quality, already on the market as QLED televisions, standing for Quantum Dot LED. Professor Alivisatos was nominated by Jennifer Doudna, Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, winner of the Frontiers Award in Biomedicine in 2017 and Nobel Chemistry Laureate in 2020; Mike Witherell, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Milan Mrksich, Vice President for Research at Northwestern University. In a sense, Alivisatos remarked in a video conference after hearing of the award, "Michael has looked more at how to get electricity from the light coming into the system, whereas I've probably done a bit more work where energy is extracted in terms of light coming back out of the system, and then making something that people can use." Emulating photosynthesis Photosynthesis, whereby the leaves of plants convert sunlight into organic matter - essentially just a means of storing energy - is the natural process that gave Gratzel his inspiration. Plants use chlorophyll and other pigments to absorb as much as they can of visible light; the chlorophyll molecule is so structured that it emits electrons when excited by the sun's protons, triggering chemical reactions to build organic matter with water and carbon dioxide. Gratzel's solar cells also use a pigment that takes the role of chlorophyll, harvesting the sun's light and generating electrons which are then collected and transported by a semiconductor material such as titanium dioxide. His masterstroke was to arrange the titanium dioxide in nanoparticles. Each titanium dioxide nanoparticle is coated in pigment, and the result is a liquid that holds the nanoparticles and serves to fabricate the solar cells. "That was the first use of nanoparticles to build photovoltaic cells, something no one had thought of before," said Gratzel in a video conference following news of the award. "The first time we tried it was so exciting, we were genuinely astonished because the response we got [of light conversion into energy] was thousands of times greater than we had expected." He and his team presented their new photovoltaic solar cell in a 1991 paper in Nature - "A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films" - since cited tens of thousands of times. This was the world's introduction to what would come to be the new DSSC or dye-sensitized solar cells, also known simply as Gratzel cells in honor of their inventor. The discovery would lead to "thousands of patents," he himself remarks, and open up "a whole new field of research." For the Gratzel cells offer multiple advantages: abundant raw materials, a cheap manufacturing process, transparency - meaning they can be mounted on windows, flexibility and the capacity to obtain electricity from even ambient light of the kind you find in any room. In 2013, they were used to create a colorful glass facade for the convention center on the EPFL campus. The cells' efficiency is approximately 15%, less than that of conventional silicon cells. But this drawback could soon be overcome with another type of cell following on from Gratzel's, known as perovskite cells. This material, which also starts from a liquid so is suitable for flexible surfaces, entered use in 2009 and in less than a decade had achieved efficiencies of 25%. Gratzel, who has also been a pivotal player in perovskite cell research, remarks that "the speed of perovskite cell efficiency gains is on a scale not seen in any other material." Indeed the figures coming in are already comparable to those of silicon. Whatever degree of reach Gratzel's cells eventually achieve, the committee highlights the power of his work to launch new lines of research on use of nanomaterials in the renewable energies domain. Nanocrystals for high-resolution screens Alivisatos' nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, are likewise at the core of multiple applications, from the search for new clean energy sources to consumer electronics by way of biomedical imaging techniques. The U.S. scientist is himself a leader in the development of nanocrystals, a new kind of macromolecule that can be studied, controlled and widely used - in a liquid medium, like Gratzel's nanoparticles. Ultraprecise control of nanocrystal size brings with it control over the color of light it emits, as the new laureate explains: "An electron in a nanocrystal can emit light and the color of that light will depend on the nanocrystal's size. If it is a little bit smaller the energy of the light will be higher, so it will be bluer light. And in this way you can use nanocrystals to make materials that emit the full rainbow of colors; such a large rainbow that you can reconstruct with it every color you can see in nature." Among its most successful applications are the displays developed in the mid-1990s that are now a part of QLED television sets. Alivisatos showed that it was possible to manufacture them in a way that combined high resolution with energy saving efficiency. "In a color display," he elaborates, "there is always a red, a blue and a green color that can be excited. And those colors interact inside your eye - mixtures of them - to reproduce all the colors that we can see around us. When we put quantum dots into a television to produce the reds, greens and blues, the size of the particle can be used to precisely tune the color to match the best spot in energy, which matches the receptors in your eye. So that's an example which enables, for example, artists and photographers to achieve better color reproduction, but it also results in very, very high efficiency for those displays, which means that they consume less energy and they can be used in a variety of new applications." In the biomedicine field, Alivisatos and his group have developed nanocrystals for the staining of biological samples - by adjusting the size of the nanocrystal, the liquid will tag one or other cell type. In fact, hundreds of quantum dot-based products are now commercially available for bioimaging purposes. The environmental dividend of nanomaterials The two laureates are convinced that, given the serious threat of climate change and the need to ramp up production of renewable energies, the new lines of research enabled by their work in nanomaterials could provide forefront solutions from the realm of science and technology. "Climate change," says Gratzel, "is certainly a major challenge. We need to curtail our use of fossil fuels, while scaling up photovoltaic energy supply by a factor of 200 in the next few decades. That means new technologies, and, in this respect, the dye-sensitized cell has led onto the new perovskite cell, whose efficiency in pilot tests is already outperforming that of conventional silicon cells." Alivisatos, meantime, is convinced that nanomaterials have yet to reveal their full potential, and that they have a part to play in tackling the key environmental issue of our time: "Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and part of that challenge is to learn how to make new materials that can harvest the energy of the sun and put it to beneficial use with as few losses as possible. But also, to do it on a vast scale. It turns out that nanomaterials can be made in extremely high quality but at relatively low cost. And they can be used to absorb light from the sun, and absorb it without losing it to thermal energy or heat, which allows more efficient conversion to electricity. Michael Gratzel has already shown some uses of nanomaterials in solar energy but there will be many more over the years to come." ### Laureate bio notes Paul Alivisatos (Chicago, Illinois, United States, 1959) earned a BA in Chemistry from the University of Chicago (1981), then went on to complete a PhD in the same subject at the University of California, Berkeley (1986). After two years researching at AT&T Bell Labs, in 1988 he joined the faculty at UC Berkeley, where he is currently Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, and Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Also at Berkeley, he is the Founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute, and Director Emeritus of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), which he headed from 2009 to 2016 and where he remains a senior faculty scientist. He also holds professorships in the university's departments of chemistry and materials science. Among his previous positions at the Berkeley Lab, he was Founding Director of the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy's Nanoscale Science Research Center, and Director of the Materials Science Division. Author of more than 400 publications, he is co-holder of 38 patents and founder of two companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corporation (now part of Thermo Fisher). Alivisatos is also founding editor of Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, and formerly served on the senior editorial board of Science magazine. Michael Gratzel (Dorfchemnitz, Germany, 1944) completed a degree in chemistry at the Free University of Berlin (1968), then a doctorate in Physical Chemistry at TU Berlin (1971). He joined the faculty at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland) as an associate professor in 1977, and four years later was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry. That same year he founded the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL, which he has headed ever since. He has held visiting or research positions at centers including UC Berkeley (United States), the National University of Singapore, Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), the Hahn Meitner Institute Berlin (Germany) and the Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan (Paris, France). An External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Germany), he chairs one of the panels of the ERC Advanced Grants program, and has served on the scientific advisory boards of the presidents of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea), KTH Stockholm (Sweden), the University of Helsinki (Finland) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). He is author of over 1,700 scientific papers and 2 books, holds more than 80 patents and has co-founded two start-ups. Basic Sciences committee and evaluation support panel The committee in this category was chaired by Theodor Hansch, Director of the Division of Laser Spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany), and the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Physics, with Ignacio Cirac, Director of the Theory Division at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany) acting as secretary. The evaluation support panel of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) was coordinated by M. Victoria Moreno, Deputy Vice President for Scientific and Technical Areas, and formed by: Jose Luis Fernandez Barbon, scientific researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics (IFT); Carmen Garcia Garcia, Deputy Coordinator of the MATERIA Global Area and research professor at the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC); Berta Gomez-Lor Perez, scientific researcher at the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid (ICMM); Jose Luis de Miguel Anton, tenured scientist at the Daza de Valdes Institute of Optics (IO); and Carlos Prieto de Castro, Coordinator of the MATERIA Global Area and research professor at the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid (ICMM). About the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards The BBVA Foundation centers its activity on the promotion of world-class scientific research and cultural creation, and the encouragement of talent. The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, funded with 400,000 euros in each of their eight categories, recognize and reward contributions of singular impact in science, technology, social sciences and the humanities, privileging those that significantly expand the frontiers of the known world, open up new fields, or emerge from the interaction of various disciplinary areas. The goal of the awards, established in 2008, is to celebrate and promote the value of knowledge as a public good without frontiers, the best instrument at our command to take on the great global challenges of our time for the benefit of all humanity. Their eight categories are congruent with the knowledge map of the 21st century, ranging from basic science to key challenges for the natural environment by way of domains characterized by the overlap of disciplines - Biology and Medicine; Economics, Finance and Management - or the supremely creative realms of music and the opera. The BBVA Foundation has been aided in the evaluation of the 105 nominees for the Frontiers Award in Basic Sciences by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the country's premier public research organization. CSIC appoints evaluation support panels made up of leading experts in the corresponding knowledge area, who are charged with undertaking an initial assessment of the candidates proposed by numerous institutions across the world, and drawing up a reasoned shortlist for the consideration of the award committees. CSIC is also responsible for designating each committee's chair and participates in the selection of its members, thus helping to ensure objectivity in the recognition of innovation and scientific excellence. This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Stories of Kurdish Christian women who fought ISIS told in 'The Daughters of Kobani' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Syrian women, many of them Christian, were a crucial part of defeating the Islamic State terrorist group. Yet, their stories of heroism, bravery, and resilience have largely remained untold until now. The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice, a new book from Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Ashley's War, documents how an all-female Kurdish militia known as the Kurdish Women's Protection Units fought alongside their male counterparts in northeastern Syria, defeating one of historys most violent terrorist groups and risking their lives for women's equality and political rights. The Daughters of Kobani is about how the world's most far-reaching experiment on women's equality is taking place right on the ashes of the ISIS fight, created by women who fought room by room and house by house and town by town so that the men of the Islamic State would not be allowed to bring their values to anyone else's communities, Lemmon told The Christian Post. I love to see stories that really challenge us, to see the resilience and the strength and courage of the women all around us, she continued. So many of us have daughters or mothers or sisters whose courage isn't always recognized. Seeing women who rewrote the rules governing their lives and created a whole different reality for girls coming after them is just so inspiring. To bring her book to life, Lemmon spent hours on the ground in Syria, interviewing young women fighting on the front lines. She was struck, she said, not only by their courage in the face of incredible odds, but how deeply respected they were by U.S. forces. These women were instrumental to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that defeated ISIS, she said. They had true respect for the will that these women brought to the fight. Lemmon revealed that many of the women she interviewed grew up in situations where they had very few rights let alone permission to fight against men. These women truly rewrote the rules governing their lives, revealing that women can do anything when they put their minds to it, she said. These women were fighting for the ability to name their babies what they wanted, to celebrate holidays, and to celebrate faith, safe and unhindered. Faith, and being part of a cause greater than yourself, can produce a fearlessness that changes the world. For ISIS, the buying and selling of women is at the center of its ideology, Lemmon stressed. Yet, they were defeated by these largely underestimated women who had emancipation and a desire for equality at the center of their ideology. Its a story, she said, of David and Goliath only, David was a woman. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity. CP: Tell us about The Daughters of Kobani. How did you first hear about them? And what made you want to tell their story? Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: One of the soldiers from a book I've written called Ashley's War called me and said, You have to come see this. At the time, she was a soldier with a special operations unit that was working with these women who were fighting ISIS on the front lines and commanding men and women in battle. She said, It's just extraordinary. Their will to win and the faith they have that what they're doing matters is something you have to see for yourself. In this book, you will meet four women whose lives were changed and who changed the lives of the Americans they worked with while fighting to stop the Islamic State. CP:You share some incredible and compelling stories in this book. As you conducted your research, were there any stories that especially stuck out to you? Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: Ill never forget my interview with one young woman who comes from the Christian community. We spent an afternoon unannounced with her, and she told me the story about how ISIS had kidnapped Christians from the Khabur River Valley. She was so motivated to stop what she was doing and defend her neighborhood, so she joined the Christian Women's Protection Force. The reaction from her family was not thrilled, but then her parents went to church and people would come up to them and say how proud they were of their daughter who was protecting their neighborhood. I think her parents really came around by seeing how important it was for people in their community that a young woman from their community was defending them. CP: The idea of an all-women fighting force in Syria is extremely counter-cultural because this is not a region where women have many rights or much visibility. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: Exactly. I come from a cultural tradition myself where the notion of women's equality is a bit confounding. So when I heard that there were women who were both fighting against ISIS and for women's equality, emancipation and political rights, I thought, This is a story we have to know. CP: It seems that in the West, theres sometimes a bit of apathy surrounding these kinds of stories. Why should we care? Gayle Tzemach Lemmon: I would say there are two reasons. First of all, these are women who are living on the frontlines of the fight against extremism and ISIS so that the United States is safe. The Islamic State doesn't have any kind of physical territory from which it can plan attacks. These are women who are keeping not just their community safe, but the world safe, including the United States, by fighting the men of the Islamic State from the front and keeping the pressure on them. The second reason is, I think we're in this moment when so many women really want to hear stories of women's persistence, resilience, courage and strength. These women truly believe that their work was to show the value of women's lives, not just in their community, but in their region and well beyond. This book is about women rising to the moment in support of their communities, their nations, and people all around the world who are fighting for a safer future in which everyone has the right to exercise their God-given talent. 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. Staycations dont appear to be going anywhere, with current restrictions on foreign travel remaining quite tight. While a reasonable excuse is still necessary under Level 5 restrictions for travel outside of the home, these rules might loosen as summer approaches and Covid-19 cases drop. As such, the Competition & Consumer Protection Commission have put together several tips for consumers to keep in mind before they book their local holiday trip. Take time to read the terms and conditions Make sure the terms and conditions are clear before you pay a deposit, or pay in full. Look for the cancellation policy and any references to public health measures - or government advice - that may affect your booking. Read More Request a copy before you book If the terms and conditions cannot be found on the businesss website for example, contact them directly and ask for a copy before paying anything. If the business doesnt have this information available, ask them to confirm the details in writing. If anything is unclear, contact the business Make sure you fully understand your rights and obligations before you book. If any important information is given over the phone, follow up with an email confirming the details. This will ensure there is a record of the conversation, which may help in the event that a refund is necessary. Ask the what if..? questions Many standard terms and conditions may not cover alternative arrangements, or deposit refunds where public health measures prevent a booking from going ahead. These are some scenarios to consider asking about: What options are there if the booking is cancelled due to public health measures, or other Covid-19 related circumstances? Does the business provide a refund if the booking is cancelled because of government guidance? If the consumer feels uncomfortable travelling due to circumstances at the time and wishes to cancel their booking, will they be offered a refund? If the consumer is unable to travel due to mandatory quarantine, are they entitled to a refund? If not, what other options are there? Ask about payment options Find out if its possible to pay in instalments rather than paying up front. It may be worth considering looking for businesses that offer payment closer to departure when theres more certainty about travel proceeding. Keep a copy of the terms and conditions Keep a copy of them at the time of booking as proof of entitlements if there is a change of plans or something goes wrong. For example, if the original terms give a right to a refund, the business is not allowed to change that term without previous agreement. Do research and be vigilant Be sure to do research before booking. Watch out for rental accommodation scams. This is where scammers go to a genuine holiday website and put up a fake listing for a place to rent. These scams will try and get people to pay the full rental price or a sizable deposit upfront. Therefore its important to do some quick research, check reviews and social media pages before paying either a deposit or providing payment in full. 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. [February 25, 2021] ADVA announces record Q4 2020 results and reports full year 2020 figures ADVA (News - Alert) (ISIN: DE0005103006), a leading provider of open networking solutions for the delivery of cloud and mobile services, reported financial results for Q4 2020 and full year 2020 ended on December 31, 2020. The results have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005994/en/ Brian Protiva (News - Alert) , CEO, ADVA (Photo: Business Wire) Q4 2020 financial summary1 (in thousands of EUR) Q4 Q4 Change Q3 Change 2020 2019 2020 Revenues 140,572 151,135 -7.0% 146,676 -4.2% Pro forma gross profit 54,641 54,633 0.0% 51,930 5.2% in % of revenues 38.9% 36.1% 2.8pp 35.4% 3.5pp Pro forma operating income 14,343 10,333 38.8% 11,053 29.8% in % of revenues 10.2% 6.8% 3.4pp 7.5% 2.7pp Operating income (loss) 13,085 5,438 140.6% 9,768 34.0% Net income 13,249 2,522 425.3% 6,671 98.6% (in thousands of EUR) Dec. 31 Dec. 31 Change Sep. 30 Change 2020 2019 2020 Cash and cash equivalents 64,881 54,263 19.6% 68,293 -5.0% Net debt 25,545 61,146 -58.2% 35,009 -27.0% Net working capital 129,853 128,150 1.3% 124,043 4.7% 1 Potential difference due to rounding Q4 2020 IFRS financial results Revenues in Q4 2020 reached EUR 140.6 million, down by 4.2% from EUR 146.7 million in Q3 2020 and down by 7.0% compared to EUR 151.1 million in the same year-ago period. The decrease in revenues is primarily due to the devaluation of the US dollar compared to the euro. In addition, due to lockdown tightening again, some orders had to be postponed to the following quarter. Pro forma gross profit in Q4 2020 increased by 5.2%, reaching EUR 54.6 million (38.9% of revenues) compared to EUR 51.9 million (35.4% of revenues) in Q3 2020. Compared to EUR 54.6 million reported in the year-ago quarter, pro forma gross profit remained stable in absolute terms. However, in relation to revenues, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from 36.1% to 38.9% was achieved. This increase can mainly be attributed to the stronger euro compared to the US dollar. Compared to the year-ago quarter, Q4 2020 benefited from lower US tariffs due to the relocation of production facilities out of China. In addition, the above-average profitable technology area of network synchronization recorded a very successful final quarter. Pro forma operating income for Q4 2020 was EUR 14.3 million (10.2% of revenues) and increased considerably by 29.8% compared to EUR 11.1 million (7.5% of revenues) in Q3 2020. Compared to the year-ago quarter, pro forma operating income improved substantially by 38.8% from EUR 10.3 million (6.8% of revenues). In addition to the higher gross profit, this substantial margin improvement is mainly due to the cost improvement measures introduced in 2019 and reduced discretionary spending. Consequently, operating income for Q4 2020 of EUR 13.1 million increased by 34.0% from EUR 9.8 million reported for Q3 2020 and significantly increased by 140.6% from EUR 5.4 million in the same year-ago quarter. While Q4 2019 was negatively impacted by one-off expenses of EUR 3.2 million resulting from the introduced cost improvement measures, Q4 2020 was positively impacted by the renewed cost basis. Net income reached EUR 13.2 million in Q4 2020, substantially up by 98.6% from EUR 6.7 million in Q3 2020 and significantly up by 425.3% from EUR 2.5 million in Q4 2019. The company's cash and cash equivalents totaled EUR 64.9 million, representing a slight decrease of EUR 3.4 million compared to EUR 68.3 million at the end of Q3 2020. Year-over-year cash and cash equivalents substantially increased by EUR 10.6 million from EUR 54.3 million at the end of Q4 2019. The higher cash balance is mainly the result of the improved profitability. Consequently, net debt in Q4 2020 decreased by EUR 9.5 million to EUR 25.5 million from EUR 35.0 million at the end of Q3 2020 and improved significantly by EUR 35.6 million compared to Q4 2019 (EUR 61.1 million). Net working capital at quarter-end was EUR 129.9 million and increased by EUR 5.9 million compared to EUR 124.0 million at the end of Q3 2020. This was particularly due to measures to maintain the supply chain and the associated reduction in trade payables. Full year 2020 financial summary1 (in thousands of EUR) 2020 2019 Change Revenues 564,958 556,821 1.5% Pro forma gross profit 199,050 195,364 1.9% in % of revenues 35.2% 35.1% 0.1pp Pro forma operating income 33,832 24,811 36.4% in % of revenues 6.0% 4.5% 1.5pp Operating income (loss) 27,473 12,003 128.9% Net income 20,314 7,045 188.3% (in thousands of EUR) Dec. 31 2020 Dec. 31 2019 Change Cash and cash equivalents 64.881 54,263 19.6% Net debt 25,545 61,146 -58.2% Net working capital 129,853 128,510 1.3% 1 Potential differences due to rounding Full year 2020 IFRS financial results For the full year 2020, revenues increased by 1.5% from EUR 556.8 million in 2019 to EUR 565.0 million. Revenues were at the lower end of the guidance corridor of between EUR 565 million and 580 million. Despite the current pandemic, demand in 2020 was robust. Home office, the increased use of e-learning, video conferencing and streaming services have increased network utilization significantly, while investments in network access solutions for enterprises have decreased. On the other hand, the US dollar, which continued to weaken against the euro, had a negative impact on US-denominated revenues, especially in the second half of the year. Pro forma gross profit increased by 1.9% from EUR 195.4 million in 2019 to EUR 199.1 million in 2020. While in the first half of the year, gross profit was negatively impacted, particularly by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the second half of the year benefited from revenues with higher margins and the ongoing US dollar devaluation. Pro forma operating income for 2020 significantly increased by 36.4% from 24.8 million or 4.5% of revenues in 2019 to EUR 33.8 million or 6.0% of revenues. Pro forma operating income was at the top end of the guidance corridor of between EUR 5.0% and 6.0%. In addition to the higher gross profit, this substantial margin improvement is mainly due to the cost improvement measures introduced in 2019 and reduced discretionary spending. Operating income for 2020 reached EUR 27.5 million compared to EUR 12.0 million in 2019 and increased significantly by 128.9%. While the previous year was negatively impacted by EUR 5.7 million one-off expenses in connection with the cost reduction measures, the improved cost base in 2020 contributed positively to profitability. Consequently, net income increased significantly from EUR 7.0 million in 2019 by 188.3% to EUR 20.3 million in 2020. Basic and diluted earnings per share in 2020 amounted to EUR 0.40, both compared to basic and diluted earnings per share of EUR 0.14 in 2019. Management commentary "Today's communication infrastructure is critical to solving some of the biggest challenges facing our global society. And we are a key part of this process. We are the only remaining optical networking and synchronization specialist in Europe. Growing safety concerns, specifically around the major Chinese equipment suppliers, create new opportunities and unique selling points for us that further strengthen our market position," said Brian Protiva, CEO, ADVA. "Technologically, our solutions are perfectly aligned with the network transformation that's taking place, including a focus on cloud, mobility, 5G, network automation and security. With our investments, we've created a foundation for transforming our business model towards higher margins. This transformation includes growing revenue contributions from software and services, expansion into new industries and further verticalization of our business." "2020 was a challenging but very successful year for us. At the beginning of the pandemic, the uncertainties were high. However, we responded quickly to ensure that we could navigate through the crisis as best as possible. As a result, we're reporting today one of the most successful financial years in the company's history. In the final quarter, our pro forma operating income was even at 10.2% - a number that we have never achieved before," commented Uli Dopfer, CFO, ADVA. "In addition, we were able to reduce our net debt substantially by EUR 36 million to around EUR 25 million - without the application of IFRS 16 this would correspond to net cash of around EUR 2 million. Therefore, we decided to terminate the KfW back-up line early in January. We are very confident about the coming year and started the new quarter with a well-filled order book and a favorable customer and product mix." Financial outlook 2021 For the fiscal year 2021, ADVA expects revenues to be in the range of EUR 580 million and EUR 610 million and a pro forma operating income of between 6.0% and 9.0% of revenues. For Q1 2021, the company expects revenues to be in the range of EUR 143 million and EUR 148 million and a proforma operating income of between 7.0% and 9.0% of revenues. The company will publish its financial results for Q1 2021 on April 22, 2021. Conference call details ADVA will hold a conference call for analysts and investors today, February 25, 2021, to discuss the Q4 2020 and full year 2020 results. The company's CEO, Brian Protiva, and CFO, Uli Dopfer, will host the call at 3:00 p.m. CET (9:00 a.m. EST). A question and answer session will follow management presentations. A corresponding presentation is available on ADVA's website: https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results/conference-calls The complete annual report 2020 (January - December) is available as a PDF here: https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results/financial-statements A replay of the call will be available here: https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results/conference-calls Forward-looking statements The economic projections and forward-looking statements contained in this document relate to future facts. Such projections and forward-looking statements are subject to risks that cannot be foreseen and that are beyond the control of ADVA. ADVA is therefore not in a position to make any representation as to the accuracy of economic projections and forward-looking statements or their impact on the financial situation of ADVA or the market in the shares of ADVA. Use of pro forma financial information ADVA provides consolidated pro forma financial results in this press release solely as supplemental financial information to help investors and the financial community make meaningful comparisons of ADVA's operating results from one financial period to another. ADVA believes that these pro forma consolidated financial results are helpful because they exclude non-cash charges related to the stock option programs and amortization and impairment of goodwill and acquisition-related intangible assets, which are not reflective of the company's operating results for the period presented. Additionally, expenses related to restructuring measures are not included. This pro forma information is not prepared in accordance with IFRS and should not be considered a substitute for the historical information presented in accordance with IFRS. About ADVA ADVA is a company founded on innovation and focused on helping our customers succeed. Our technology forms the building blocks of a shared digital future and empowers networks across the globe. We're continually developing breakthrough hardware and software that leads the networking industry and creates new business opportunities. It's these open connectivity solutions that enable our customers to deliver the cloud and mobile services that are vital to today's society and for imagining new tomorrows. Together, we're building a truly connected and sustainable future. For more information on how we can help you, please visit us at www.adva.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005994/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A state Republican Party meeting in Pennsylvania to discuss whether to censure U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey recessed late Wednesday night without resolution after roughly five hours because of technical difficulties in counting votes, committee members on the call said. Party officials are taking Toomey to task for his vote to convict Donald Trump during the former presidents second impeachment trial. Toomeys vote and his earlier assessment that Trump had committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol set off a wave in Pennsylvania of pro-Trump county and local party condemnations of Toomey. The video meeting Wednesday night involved the question of whether to censure Toomey, along with top Democratic officials in Pennsylvania, including Gov. Tom Wolf, or to express disappointment and disagreement with Toomeys vote to convict Trump, members on the call said. Toomey appeared on the meeting to defend himself, as did U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Trump supporter, they said. The meeting was closed to the media. The meeting started at 6:30 p.m. and reports said went past 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. That Pennsylvanian Republican Party committee meeting to discuss the future of the GOP and issues arising from Trumps impeachment? Its still going. Julian Routh (@julianrouth) February 25, 2021 The state party leaders have remained silent publicly about the meeting, and did not release a date to continue it, members said. A censure vote is a symbolic gesture that may have no real effect on Toomey, who announced in October that he will not run again for office. Cyber CISA looks inward to stop future supply chain attacks Einstein, a core component of the government's National Cybersecurity Protection System, was unable to stop the Solarwinds compromise because it focuses on attacks coming from outside the network, according to the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA is exploring ways to monitor internal "anomalous activities," such as a network management system communicating through an encrypted channel to an entity outside the network, Brandon Wales, acting CISA chief, said at a Feb. 18 event hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding. "There are things that clearly need to be done to enhance our ability to stop attacks like this in the future. One that we are working on is better insights and visibility into the end points," he said. "Einstein is actually a collection of capabilities, but they're all focused on the perimeter of monitoring network traffic that's going from outside U.S. government networks to inside the networks," he said. "In the case of a supply chain attack, [the threat] kind of bypasses that. It immediately places itself inside of a network and no perimeter security measure is going to stop it," he continued. Wales also said work needs to be done on software assurance. While it would be unrealistic for the government to review every line of code for every piece of software it deploys, there are improvements that can be made through contractual language to ensure contractors have appropriate levels of security in place. "What made SolarWinds so devastating was that SolarWinds devices are normally configured to have broad administrative rights on a network. If a system is like that, if it has broad administrative rights then it requires further hardening inside of your network," he said. This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to Defense Systems. Walgreens and CVS stories will offer more cororonavirus vaccines to eligible individuals in participating locations throughout the Bay Area after receiving tens of thousands of more doses from the federal government. Both companies received an additional 49,000 vaccines each for their California stores through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. Vaccinations at some Walgreens began Wednesday. Eligible groups can book an appointment for a vaccine at participating CVS pharmacies starting Wednesday, with vaccinations beginning Thursday. Health care workers, long-term residents, people over the age of 65, teachers, child care workers, emergency workers, food and agricultural workers are eligible to get vaccinated in California as of Wednesday. However, some teachers, grocery store employees and first responders may not get their first-dose shots for another two or three weeks in San Francisco because many public health departments and providers are prioritizing second-dose shots. Heres how you can book an appointment with Walgreens and CVS: Walgreens Eligible individuals are required to create an online Walgreens account to schedule an appointment. To schedule an appointment, visit Walgreens.com/ScheduleVaccine or call 1-800-Walgreens or 1-800-925-4733 to find a list of participating stores in the Bay Area. Walgreens will not accept walk-ins. If appointments are not available, individuals must create an account to sign up for alerts on appointment availability. Vaccine supplies are still very limited, but they will be ramping up. Please be patient while attempting to schedule appointments, as appointments will be limited as well, Walgreens said in a statement. CVS CVS will add an additional 40 locations across California, including several in the Bay Area, that will start to administer vaccines Thursday, according to spokeswoman Monica Prinzing. Individuals can book an appointment starting Wednesday on CVS.com, through the CVS Pharmacy app or by calling 1-800-746-7287. The list of specific pharmacies will be available on CVS.com as more vaccines and appointments become available. Active stores also change based on vaccine supply, Prinzing said. Customers should continue to check availability on CVS.com. Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores The Pinnacle Peak Patio Steakhouse & Microbrewery is a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, the United States, known for its delicious steaks and its rigorously enforced no-necktie dress code. If anybody is found wearing a necktie, someone will sneak up on them with a pair of scissors and cut it off. The clipped necktie then joins thousands of others hanging from the ceiling like trophies reminding everyone to never, ever, walk into this place wearing a necktie. According to their website, the owners of Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse has cut over a million ties from unsuspecting customers. Pinnacle Peak was first opened in 1957 as a general store and rest stop for travelers heading to nearby lakes. To boost sales of his small business, the owner began serving dinner on the weekends. The success of the weekend cookout encouraged him to abandon his current business and open a full fledged restaurant instead. Today, Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse is said to be the world's largest western steakhouse with seating capacity for 1,800 people inside. Victims necktie hang from the ceilings inside Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse. Photo credit The "no necktie" tradition was started one night when a Phoenix executive came in for dinner. The original owner, wanting to keep the atmosphere in his restaurant casual, told the executive, "Either you take that tie off, or I'll cut it off." The executive did not take heed and was appalled when the owner pulled out a butcher knife and promptly cut off the offending cravat. Wanting to be recognized as a victim of this absurd policy, the executive demanded that his tie be prominently displayed for all to see. So the necktie was stapled to the rafters along with a business card identifying its victim, and a tradition was born. Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit More Restaurants Like This: 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. Kakao founder Kim Beom-su speaks at an online conference with his employees, Thursday. Courtesy of Kakao Corp. Kim Beom-su, the founder of South Korea's top mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp., said Thursday that his role model is Bill Gates and that he wants to further benchmark the steps of the U.S. business magnate following his donation pledge. In an online conference with employees, Kim, who recently pledged to donate more than half of his assets worth over 10 trillion won ($9 billion), shared his ideas of donation and the company's future. "My role model for solving social problems is Bill Gates," Kim said. "He started a company and created a foundation, and it first made me realize that a company can do such things, so I have been benchmarking him." Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., runs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest private foundations that focuses on global issues, including poverty and healthcare. Kim hinted that he may also establish a foundation to tackle social issues. "The Giving Pledge was made by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and it became like a culture for IT businessmen in the United States," he said. "Maybe we should follow that step and I think we can also apply 'creative capitalism,' which Gates has been talking about." About his pledged donation estimated at around 5 trillion won, Kim said he wants to use the money immediately where support is needed. "I want to go with a structure which we can set up a schedule for spending," he said. "I prefer a project-type operation. If there's a problem, I just want to try something to solve it." Kim said he is interested in those who prepare for the future, people who lack opportunities due to the digital divide, and talents in artificial intelligence (AI). "I'm thinking of setting up an AI campus to foster talents," he said. "I want to make a system which people can participate in not only online, but also offline." Kim also emphasized the importance of startup companies, saying that he hopes he can see Kakao employees or their children running startups in the future. (Yonhap) ADVERTISEMENT The Ekiti State Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up to investigate cases of violations of human rights by the police has ordered the prosecution of an erring police officer. The panel sitting in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday said the officer, an operative of the disbanded Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), Akinfolarin Festus, was involved in the killing of an 18-year-old person, Seun Awoyemi, in the state in 2014. The directive of the panel is coming after the 70-year-old grandmother of the victim, Abigail Awoyemi, filed a petition alleging that SARS operatives came into her residence on March 13, 2014, in Ado-Ekiti, at about 12 noon and killed her grandson. Officers of SARS came into my house and dragged my grandson, Seun, upon an allegation by a man that Seun beat his son and while my younger sister was appealing to the police officers, Seun was hit by a bullet on his head and died on the spot, part of her petition read. She also said the corpse of the deceased was taken away from the scene of the crime by the SARS operatives, pointing fingers at Mr Festus. ALSO READ: Ekiti judicial panel recommends compensation for widow of murdered SARS officer Following the failure of the police counsel to challenge the petitioners evidence, Mrs Awoyemis counsel, Emmanuel Afolayan, asked that his clients case should be upheld and justice given appropriately. In its judgement, the panel headed by Cornelius Akintayo, a retired judge, ordered that the officer, Mr Festus, be prosecuted through the office of Ekiti State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice. The panel also recommended that the family of the deceased be compensated with N1.5 million. Grab your cue. Break out the darts. Get a hold of that axe. Pub games like pool, darts and axe-throwing are set to resume, with restrictions, in New York on March 5, according to new guidance released this week by the state Health Department. The fine print on the rules came after Gov. Andrew Cuomos announcement Monday that pool/billiards halls, along with movie theaters, could reopen on March 5 with certain restrictions. The state Health Departments new guidance spells out the rules with more specifics, along with noting that the new order applies to pool and billiard halls, and establishments that provide both recreational activities (e.g., darts, toss/bowl/shuffle games, racket games, axe throwing, etc.) and food and beverage service for patrons. William Crowley, a spokesman for the State Liquor Authority, confirmed that the new order means bars, restaurants and other establishments that hold liquor licenses can restart their games, following the state guidance. That guidance spells out certain requirements: At least six feet of social distancing must be maintained between tables, lanes etc. (or physical barriers between them must be erected); players must wear masks except while actively consuming food or beverages; and parties of players must maintain separation from parties at other tables, lanes etc. The rules also call for the venue to rigorously clean and disinfect any rented or shared equipment (e.g., bowling balls, bowling shoes, pool/billiard cues, pool/billiard racks, or throwing, tossing, or other game objects) between each patrons/players or partys use. All other standard restrictions for bars and restaurants still apply: Total occupancy cannot exceed 50% of capacity and places with liquor licenses must still close and get all patrons off the premises by 11 p.m. For bar owners, the new rules show a move toward returning to pre-pandemic operations, but still fall far short of normal. Patrons should not expect all bars to immediately reopen their gaming areas. Its good news, but were still going to have to figure out how to make it work, said Matt Bruce, owner of The Blarney Stone tavern on Syracuses Tipperary Hill. The Blarney has a pool table and a dart machine on a raised section squarely in the heart of the overall tavern space. In normal times, some patrons play games there while others use it to move from one part of the tavern to another, which could create distancing issues. Before he takes the cover off the pool table, Bruce said, we have to see whether we can do it safely and in a way that follows the rules. It (pool/darts etc.) is a big part of what we do, so wed love to have it back. But I need to talk to the staff to see how we can productively do it. That same sense of caution applies to the Bad Axe Throwing bars in Camillus and Rochester, said Mario Zelaya, owner of the Canadian company that operates them. In the face of earlier restrictions, Bad Axe decided to turn in its liquor license, so it could legally book groups for axe-throwing. Axe-throwing, in particular, has been on a bit of a rollercoaster with the state rules. They were initially allowed to stay open with liquor last summer, but have been shut down by SLA inspectors in recent months. Bad Axe will reapply for its liquor licenses but will take it really really slow, Zelaya said, citing uncertainty in dealing with state regulators. The 11 p.m. statewide curfew, meanwhile, remains one of the biggest issues facing bar owners, who say it cuts into their most lucrative hours of operation. Some bars have remained closed altogether rather than risk losing money with the shorter hours. Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. NEW DELHI : Delhi Jal Board chairman Raghav Chadha on Thursday said that the national capital will face a water crisis if the Central government stops the water flow by closing the Nangal Hydel channel. "In summer the water consumption in Delhi has increased, but the Central government is going to stop the water of Beas river for a month by closing the Nangal Hydel Channel. This will reduce 232 million gallons of water per day in Delhi, which is 25% of Delhi's water supply," said Chadha. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also informed that the board has written a letter to the Central Government, Haryana Government and Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) asking them not to stop the water flow from the Beas river He also asked Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Union Minister of Jal Shakti to call a meeting of all the stakeholders on this problem. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. As the world grapples to counter the pandemic, pressure on the (WTO) is mounting to seriously consider a proposal by India and South Africa for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver on COVID-19 vaccines. India, which is often described as 'World Pharmacy' is supplying vaccines to more than 70 countries on a humanitarian and commercial basis, is spearheading the move to get a TRIPS waiver at the If India succeeds in getting the proposed waiver of the agreement on TRIPS, it will reduce the cost of vaccines substantially and enable free flow of medicines, easy technology transfer across the world. However, the road to getting the proposal cleared and develop consensus is not easy as many western countries are opposing the move, official source dealing told the reporter that if this gets through it will be a 'game changer'. India, South Africa's proposal got further boosted when a group of least developed countries (LDC) lent its support to the proposal recently. According to media reports, "In a declaration to the European Commission and European Council, a cross-party group of 115 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have urged the European Commission and the European Council to drop their opposition on the TRIPS waiver proposal at the " Such a waiver would enable greater access to affordable COVID-19 health technologies, including vaccines, in particular for developing and middle-income countries. In the declaration, MEPs stressed that "the EU's open opposition to the TRIPS waiver risks exacerbating a dangerous North-South divide." According to media reports " The call for a TRIPS waiver from MEPs, representing all 27 Member States, comes the day before a meeting of the European Council scheduled on February 25, 2021, and the crucial decision to be made by all Member States at the General Council on March 1-2, 2021." "A group of lawmakers from the Democratic Party wants US President Joe Biden to support the TRIPS waiver proposal that seeks to temporarily suspend several provisions in the WTO's TRIPS Agreement in combating the COVID-19 pandemic," said a source familiar with the development. Around 90 countries have broadly supported the TRIPS waiver proposal at the WTO. Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that many more vaccines from India will assist the world in this hour of the COVID crisis. (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.) Lead drug Ampligen in clinical trials to address both chronic fatigue syndrome and to treat multiple cancers Clinical trial also widened to include cancer patients suffering from long-term effects of coronavirus Positive results from a pancreatic cancer Early Access Program (EAP) evaluating Ampligen in the Netherlands. What AIM ImmunoTech does: . ( ) is an immuno-pharma company headquartered in Ocala, Florida which is focused on the research and development of therapeutics to treat multiple types of cancers, as well as immune-deficiency disorders. It has established a strong foundation of laboratory, pre-clinical and clinical data with respect to the development of nucleic acids and natural interferon to enhance the natural antiviral defense system of the human body and to aid the development of therapeutic products for the treatment of certain cancers and chronic diseases. The groups lead drug Ampligen (rintatolimod) is an experimental ribonucleic acid (RNA) that is in clinical trials to address both chronic fatigue syndrome and to treat multiple cancers. However, a study has also shown that Ampligen can decrease the infectious viral yield of coronavirus (COVID-19) trigger SARS-CoV-2 by 90% (in an vitro model). In conjunction with the Institute for Antiviral Research at Utah State University, the company tested intranasal Ampligen and found that dramatic reduction in viral yield could be achieved at clinically achievable dosage levels. How is it doing: AIM ImmunoTech entered 2021 with cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $54.4 million -- a telling increase compared to the $8.8 million on-hand at the start of 2020. The runway is plenty sufficient to support the company's advancement of Ampligen. Meanwhile, given the deadly pandemic sweeping the world, it is no surprise that the focus for AIM ImmunoTech recently has been on using Ampligen in the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19). On February 16, the company said it has received approval from the required Ethics Committee in the Netherlands to commence its Phase 1 clinical study on the safety of Ampligen as an intranasal therapy. The company said this is a critical step in its ongoing efforts to develop Ampligen as a potential prophylaxis or treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19) and other respiratory viral diseases. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) for the proposed AMP-COV-100 (CHDR2049) trial. CHDR, an independent institute located in Leiden in The Netherlands, will conduct and manage the proposed clinical study titled A Phase I, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Safety and Activity of Repeated Intranasal Administration of Ampligen (Poly I:Poly C12U) in Healthy Subjects. The current study has enrolled eight healthy subjects in each of four Ampligen treatment groups and eight placebo subjects, for a total of 40 healthy subjects. This will assess the safety, tolerability and biological activity of repeated administration of Ampligen intranasally. The subjects will receive intranasal dosing every other day for 13 days, for a total of seven doses each, and the first patient has been dosed. And in January, AIM ImmunoTech said its active AMP-511 Expanded Access Program (EAP) had dosed its first coronavirus 'Long Hauler' patient with Ampligen. The company said the initial dosing marked a significant milestone in its efforts to develop an effective therapeutic for people suffering from post-COVID-19 infection chronic fatigue-like symptoms. Additional patients are in the process of being enrolled. The Ampligen EAP protocol is authorized at any one time to enroll up to 100 active Chronic Fatigue Syndrome trial participants, 20 of whom may be Long Haulers. All study subjects will receive the same Ampligen treatments. Cancer fight going on too Away from coronavirus, on the cancer front, on February 24, AIM ImmunoTech announced that its subsidiary NV Hemispherx Biopharma Europe had received formal notification from the European Commission approving the companys Orphan Medicinal Product Application for Ampligen as a treatment for pancreatic cancer. The company noted that medications designated as Orphan products by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), once commercially approved in the European Union (EU), receive benefits including up to 10 years of protection from market competition from similar medicines with similar active components and indication-for-use that are not shown to be clinically superior. Orphan medicinal product designations promote the clinical development of drugs that target rare life-threatening conditions, and which are expected to provide significant therapeutic advantage over existing treatments. The EMA designation follows a similar approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December last year, which also awarded AIM ImmunoTech with orphan drug designation status for Ampligen as a treatment for pancreatic cancer. The FDA orphan designation followed the companys September 2020 announcement of statistically significant positive pancreatic cancer survival benefit in the Ampligen arm as compared to a historical control cohort seen in a multi-year Early Access Program conducted at Erasmus University Medical Center. The use of Ampligen following the current standard of care for pancreatic cancer (FOLFIRINOX) yielded an overall survival of 19 months, 7.9 months greater than FOLFIRINOX treatment alone, AIM ImmunoTech said. On February 10, the company said the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) had approved use of its treatment for six pancreatic cancer patients as part of a new, follow-up Early Access Program at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. Subject to further authorization, AIM ImmunoTech said it plans to treat up to 16 pancreatic cancer patients with Ampligen under the program, which follows the success of a previous multi-year Ampligen Early Access Program for pancreatic cancer patients at Erasmus. The new approval was designed to include several patients treated under the previous program, who are still alive despite their diagnoses several years ago of locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer, the company noted. AIM ImmunoTech announced on September 22, 2020, that the initial Early Access Program had demonstrated statistically significant positive pancreatic cancer survival benefits in its Ampligen arm, as compared to a historical control cohort. The use of Ampligen, following the current standard of care for pancreatic cancer (FOLFIRINOX), yielded an overall survival of 19 months, or 7.9 months greater than FOLFIRINOX treatment alone. This new group will help focus on immunological markers which will aid in identifying high-level Ampligen responders. Inflection points: News on Phase 1 clinical study on the safety of Ampligen as an intranasal therapy Progress in AMP-511 Expanded Access Program for coronavirus Long Hauler patients Advance of plans to treat up to 16 pancreatic cancer patients with Ampligen under the Dutch Early Access Program What the boss says: We are proud to have achieved a number of important milestones throughout 2020 and believe we have a number of key upcoming catalysts," said CEO Thomas Equels after the company released 2020 earnings recently. "We are conducting important and potentially groundbreaking pre-clinical and clinical research in critical unmet medical needs within large addressable markets. We are in a solid financial position that enables us to continue to execute on our corporate strategy without relying on third-party grants or assistance. Our strong balance sheet also allows us to accelerate our clinical trials without the need to wait for grants. We look forward to updating stockholders and the market as developments unfold. Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham has successfully priced its debt fund raising of $1.25 billion through the issuance of its first ever dual-tranche $ bond offering spread across senior and perpetual issuance. This is the largest issuance by any Indian Investment Grade issuer since January 2019. Airtel has priced $750 million of senior 10.25-year at a yield after adding 187.5 basis points (bps) over the US Treasury, for an implied coupon of 3.25 per cent. "Simultaneously, Network i2i Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company priced $500 million in guaranteed subordinated perpetual 5.25 year with a coupon of 3.975 per cent," the company said. The offering was significantly oversubscribed with very strong demand from several marquee Asian, European and American funds. Thirty per cent of the tranche has been distributed in the APAC region, 45% from EMEA with the balance from US accounts. Over 95% has been allocated to asset managers, insurance and real money accounts with the balance to private banks, corporate, broker dealers and others. "The strong reception of both our senior and perpetual by high quality global investor community reflects its confidence in our business and credit. We remain focused on keeping our balance sheet strong and these issuances further bolster our capital structure. We are delighted by the outcome and thank our investors for their continuing support," said Ashish Sardana - Group Treasurer, Shares of was last trading in BSE at Rs.573.05 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 565.5. The total number of shares traded during the day was 1596660 in over 29769 trades. Meanwhile, the stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 581.4 and intraday low of 563. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 910,186,215. CAREFREE, Ariz., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chopra Global is announcing today a partnership with CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa to offer a premier wellness experience with health icon, Deepak Chopra, in the high desert of Arizona. The "Whole Health Retreat" is a 5-night physician-led Ayurvedic program that will help participants learn a life-changing, well-rounded approach to well-being through daily spa experiences, educational sessions, daily yoga and meditation, a 1-on-1 session with a physician trained in Ayurveda, and chef-created plant-based meals. The exclusive Chopra Global retreats will take place twice monthly at CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa in Carefree, Arizona, which was ranked the #3 Destination Spa in the U.S. by Travel + Leisure and one of the top 10 wellness retreats by USA Today for two consecutive years, among other accolades. CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa Chopra Global's Whole Health Retreat at CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa Chopra Global's Whole Health Retreat at CIVANA marks an important step for the company, by partnering with a world-class hospitality brand specifically aligned on a mission to bring the message and experience of well-being to as many people as possible. Blending Western medicine and Ayurvedic principles, guests will learn how to take their health into their own hands through 5,000-year-old techniques translated for the modern world. The program is based on Dr. Deepak Chopra's best-selling book, Perfect Health, a groundbreaking 20-year-old program addressing the health concerns of the whole person from a physical, emotional, and spiritual perspective. Each element in the retreat is thoughtfully curated and designed to play together in an immersive experience, from the sequence of the spa treatments to the selection of each day's meals. Each guest will leave with the tools and practices to establish a regular meditation practice as well as other self-care daily routines for balance in body, mind and spirit. The Whole Health Retreat from Chopra Global includes: 5-night stay at CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa 15 locally sourced, vegan, chef-driven meals Twice daily meditation & yoga and access to CIVANA wellness classes 4 days of custom spa experiences including 4 personalized Ayurvedic spa treatments and access to the resort's unique and immersive Aqua Therapy Circuit Your own personal Primordial Sound Meditation mantra A 1-on-1 health consultation and personalized lifestyle recommendations based on your mind-body type by physicians trained in Ayurveda "Bringing the Whole Health Retreat to CIVANA gives us the opportunity to inspire a wellness movement on a broader scale," said Deepak Chopra, MD. "Well-being begins when we sleep deeply, eat food that nourishes, move our bodies, practice meditation, love ourselves and those around us, live with nature and truly understand how to create our collective reality. We are confident that this retreat will help those in attendance reshape their perspectives on what's possible in terms of physical, mental and spiritual health." About Chopra Global: Chopra Global is a leading whole health company that is empowering personal transformation for millions of people globally to expand our collective well-being. Anchored by the life's practice and research of Dr. Deepak Chopra, a pioneer in integrative medicine, Chopra Global's signature programs have been proven to improve overall well-being through a focus on physical, mental and spiritual health. Chopra Global has been at the forefront of health and wellness for more than two decades with a portfolio that includes an editorial archive of more than 2000 health articles, expansive self-care practices and meditations, a comprehensive mobile app, masterclasses, teacher certifications, immersive live events and personalized retreats. By providing tools, guidance and community, Chopra aims to advance a culture of well-being and make a healthy, peaceful and joyful life accessible to all. For more information, interact with the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa: Nestled high in the Sonoran Desert, CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa is a playground of wellbeing located just outside of Scottsdale. The only wellness resort & spa to focus on happiness first, healthiness always, CIVANA provides time and space to awaken the soul, free the mind and connect. Because we're all trying to find our happy place, but happiness isn't a place, it's a state. Grounded in principles of flexibility, personalization, and attainability, CIVANA is a premium destination for the wellness conscious traveler looking for a highly personalized wellness experience that doesn't feel prescriptive, restrictive or regimented and leaves guests craving their next visit. Designed as an approachable alternative to most wellness resorts and one that suits the modern traveler, CIVANA offers each guest the flexibility to create an impactful, immersive experience that best suits them from devout students of wellness who want to dive deeper to those who simply want to relax and unplug. Between a world-class spa, wellness classes and studios, healthy cuisine, and welcoming accommodations, CIVANA offers the very best of the wellness experience. CIVANA also offers nearly 15,000 square feet of meeting space ideal for wellness and corporate retreats. Media Contact: Kristen Marion 623-308-2638 [email protected] SOURCE Chopra Global Russian opposition leader has been sent to a prison outside to serve his sentence, his lawyer said Thursday, a move that comes despite a demand by Europe's top human rights court for his release. Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev didn't immediately say what prison he was sent to. Russian news reports have previously indicated that Navalny, who has been held in a maximum-security jail in Moscow, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia. Navalny, 44, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most vociferous foe, was arrested on January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies claims he has ridiculed. Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and which the European ?ourt of Human Rights has ruled to be unlawful. Navalny's arrest has fuelled a wave of protests that drew tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days. Russian officials have dismissed demands from the United States and the European Union to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters. also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny's life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him. The Russian government has rebuffed the court's demand as unlawful and inadmissible meddling in Russia's home affairs. Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny's jailing. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A memorandum or letter to the President on Wednesday by Samkyukta Kisan Morcha read, 'Regarding the unconditional release of innocent farmers lodged in jails during the farmers movement and cancellation of false cases and notices issued.' New Delhi : Samyukt Kisan Morcha has written to President Ram Nath Kovind demanding the immediate release of farmers arrested during the ongoing protests against Central agri laws and the removal of 'false cases' against them. 'Sir, the humble request is that for the last six months the farmers of the country have been fighting in various ways and at various levels against the three agricultural laws and for some other demands including legal guarantee of MSP. 'Under the leadership of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, for the last three months, the farmers have been protesting indefinitely around Delhi, but hundreds of farmers and supporters of the movement have been jailed by the Government of India and several state governments and false cases have been made,' the letter read. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha further said, 'Observing 'Daman Virodhi Diwas' (anti-repression day) across the country, we are sending the following demands to you through district and tehsil authorities. We hope that you will take immediate action in this regard. 'The demands include, Police cases lodged against innocent farmers lodged in jails should be dismissed and they should be released unconditionally immediately. 'False police cases filed against farmers and individuals and organisations supporting their struggle should be dismissed. The notice sent by the Delhi Police, NIA and other government agencies to intimidate the farmers involved in the struggle should be stopped immediately and the earlier notice should be cancelled,' it added. In the name of the police siege of the Kisan Morcha on the borders of Delhi, the closed roads of the common man should be opened, it said. Farmers have been protesting at the different borders of the national capital since November last year, against the three newly enacted farm laws - Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (Natural News) Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called the report of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the origins of the coronavirus shameful for mimicking the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that the disease didnt originate from a Wuhan laboratory. At the outset of the pandemic, the WHO acted as a propagandist for communist China, echoing the CCPs lies, the Texas senator tweeted on Wednesday, Feb. 10. Now, the WHO concludes that the virus did not accidentally escape from a Wuhan government lab because the CCP told them it didnt. Peter Embarek, a Danish scientist who led the WHO fact-finding mission in China, earlier dismissed the claim that the virus may have leaked from a local virology lab in Wuhan as extremely unlikely. Embareks team visited the lab on Feb. 3 and wrapped up the trip on Feb. 9. According to him, bats remained the likely source. The laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population, Embarek said. Therefore, [it] is not in the hypotheses that we will suggest for future studies. The WHO team said it could take years for health experts to fully understand the origins of the coronavirus. I think the report is shameful, Cruz told Fox News on Feb. 10. The WHO, instead of stepping in as medical professionals and instead of acting quickly to stop this pandemic, just echoed the lies from the Chinese Communist government. The State Department on Feb. 9 said the United States would present its conclusion after reviewing the full WHO report. The department cast doubt on the amount of transparency afforded to the WHO experts during their time in Wuhan. Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing, an academic and vocal critic of the CCP, condemned the WHOs findings on the origins of the pandemic as a farce staged by the Chinese regime, adding that the CCP is likely to leverage the organization to deflect responsibility for causing the global crisis. WHO accused multiple times of acting at the behest of CCP The WHO had been accused of acting at the behest of the Chinese regime many times before. A report by Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in September 2020 stated that the CCP engaged in active cover-up efforts of information surrounding the spread of the coronavirus and the WHO enabled the cover-up by praising the CCP and parroting its talking points. In July last year, the Trump administration announced plans to withdraw from the WHO. Former President Donald Trump said the organization failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted with Beijings accounts about the viruss spread and parroted and publicly endorsed the theory that human-to-human transmission was not happening. In Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, noted that some people have started referring to the WHO as the Chinese Health Organization because of its close ties to Beijing. Taiwanese officials said the WHO ignored its early warnings about the virus because China refused to allow Taiwan, a self-governing island it claims as its territory, to become a member. (Related: World Health Organization (WHO) forced to release statement after awkward Taiwan interview.) Critics have faulted the organization and its leader, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for moving too slowly in declaring a global health emergency. They said the WHO has been too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to hide the outbreak in Wuhan. Chinese health officials repeatedly played down the severity of the outbreak when cases of a mysterious viral pneumonia first appeared in Wuhan in December 2019 When the virus spread beyond Chinas borders in mid-January last year, Chinese officials described it as preventable and controllable. They said there was no evidence it could be transmitted between humans on a broad scale. The WHO seconded the governments claims, saying in mid-January that human-to-human transmission had not been proven. WHO reluctant to declare global health emergency to appease China In late January last year, the virus spread to more than half a dozen countries and forced China to place parts of Hubei Province under lockdown. But the WHO was still reluctant to declare it a global health emergency. Officials of the WHO said at the time that the committee discussing the epidemic was divided on the question of whether to call it an emergency, but concluded that it was too early. One official reportedly said they were weighing the potential impact of such a declaration on the people of China. When the U.S. announced a ban on most foreign citizens who had recently visited China, the WHO said travel restrictions were unnecessary. The organization only declared the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11. Some experts argued that the WHOs delay in making such declaration deprived other countries of valuable time to prepare hospitals for a surge in number of patients. (Related: Chinese Communist subversion of the WHO undermined global pandemic response.) It reinforced the reluctance to take early strong measures before the catastrophe had actually landed on other shores, said Francois Godement, senior adviser for Asia at Institut Montaigne, a nonprofit group in Paris. The WHOs tardiness or reluctance to call out the problem in full helped those who wanted to delay difficult decisions. Some believed the organizations deference to the Chinese exacerbated the spread of the disease. They could have been more forceful, especially in the initial stages in the crisis when there was a cover-up and there was inaction, said Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert specializing in China at Seton Hall University. Huang noted that during the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003, the WHO pushed the Chinese government to be more transparent by publicly criticizing it for trying to conceal the outbreak. Follow Pandemic.news for more news and information related to the coronavirus pandemic. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com NYTimes.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) Importations of COVID-19 vaccines will be included in the Department of Finances express lane to allow speedy processing of tax and duty exemptions for them, the agency said Thursday. In a statement, the DOF said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has approved the inclusion of the said shipments in the Mabuhay Lane. The Mabuhay Lane, which is under the departments Revenue Office, is in charge of expeditiously processing applications for tax and duty exemptions of import sectors such as export-oriented firms, returning residents or balikbayans, and non-profit, non-stock educational institutions. RELATED: House panel OKs tax exemption for COVID-19 vaccines bought by LGUs Tax exemption applications for vaccine doses will be processed within 24 working hours under the express lane, said the agency. The finance chief also approved the waiving of filing fees for vaccine applications with the said lane and the usage of the Tax Exemption System online filing module for processing the said imports, the department noted. All policies for tax exemption will also be incorporated in inter-agency guidelines on the execution of a one-stop shop for international donations and COVID-19 vaccines procured by the state, it added. "We add that the Mabuhay Lane currently processes all Relief Consignment under Section 120 in relation to 121 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA), explained Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko. The Lane is expected to process all COVID-19 vaccines which may qualify as relief consignment." Relief consignment refers to goods donated to agencies and accredited private entities intended for the use of calamity victims or free distribution to them. Under the CMTA, relief consignment imported amid a state of calamity and intended for the use of calamity victims shall be exempt from duties and taxes. President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire country under a state of calamity until September this year as it continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Critically Acclaimed Film from Internationally Recognized Director and Japans 2021 International Film Oscar Entry Explores Adoption and Motherhood LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles , a Japanese cultural destination in the heart of Hollywood, is proud to present an online screening of the critically acclaimed film True Mothers, written and directed by award-winning and internationally lauded Japanese director Naomi Kawase. Available now through March 10, 2021, the films online screening is accompanied by a live Mothers and Film Making discussion with Kawase and Los Angeles Film Critics Association President Claudia Puig happening March 2, 2021. More information and registration for both events can be found at www.japanhousela.com. The events are supported by the Asia Society Southern California and Women in Film. Selected to represent Japan for 2021 Oscar consideration in the International Film category and featured at both the Toronto International Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival, True Mothers is a compelling story with unexpected twists about adoption and motherhood. Adapted from the novel by Mizuki Tsujimura and set in modern-day Tokyo, a couple struggling with infertility is presented with an alternative option: adoption of a baby boy. Their lives are disrupted when, six years after the adoption, the birth mother reappears wanting her son back. The film holds special meaning to Kawase, who was adopted and raised by her great uncle and aunt. We are honored to showcase such a meaningful film that examines the concepts of adoption and motherhood with expressive cinematography, said Yuko Kaifu, president, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles. Were particularly proud to highlight females in the film industry through our live event with Naomi Kawase and Claudia Puig on the universality of motherhood and film. As Kawase has said about True Mothers: Everybody is somebodys child; everybody has a mother who gave birth to them. And in this respect, the core of this story should touch peoples hearts. For therein lies the worlds beginnings, seen by a pure soul who believes that this world is genuinely beautiful. Event Details True Mothers Film Screening Date: Wednesday, February 24 Wednesday, March 10, 2021 Time: Available at your leisure Fee: Complimentary Registration: https://www.japanhousela.com/events/film-screening-true-mothers/ Mothers and Film Making: An Evening with Award-winning Director Naomi Kawase and Claudia Puig Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 Time: 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. PST Fee: Complimentary Registration: https://www.japanhousela.com/events/mothers-and-film-making-evening-with-naomi-kawase-and-claudia-puig/ For more information, visit the JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles website and social channels: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. ABOUT JAPAN HOUSE JAPAN HOUSE is an innovative, worldwide project with three hubs, London, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo, conceived by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. It seeks to nurture a deeper understanding and appreciation of Japan in the international community. JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles occupies two floors at Hollywood & Highland. JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles offers a place of new discovery that transcends physical and conceptual boundaries creating experiences that reflect the best of Japan through its spaces and diverse programs. Location: 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028 Website: www.japanhousela.com Media Contacts: Nerissa Silao | 310-874-9230 | nerissas@ca.rr.com Lisa Nakanouchi | 323-904-9298 | lnakanouchi@japanhousela.com Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/03e909ff-89c5-44bd-80b6-402b60954157 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/57f1b6db-d6ef-4bca-a83f-b99f18b54278 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday nearly fell while driving an electric scooter in Howrah. As a mark of protest against the fuel price hike, she was travelling to Kalighat from State Secretariat in Nabanna. However, she quickly regained her balance with support and continued to drive. Earlier, in a unique protest against the fuel price hike, CM Banerjee rode pillion on an electric scooter to state secretariat Nabanna. CM Banerjee was seen sitting behind state minister Firhad Hakim, who rode the battery-powered electric scooter. With a placard protesting against the petrol price hike hanging around her neck, helmet-clad Banerjee waved at people on both sides of the road during the seven-km-long journey from Hazra More to the state secretariat. WATCH: #WATCH | West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee nearly falls while driving an electric scooter in Howrah, as a mark of protest against fuel price hike. She quickly regained her balance with support and continued to drive. She is travelling to Kalighat from State Secretariat in Nabanna pic.twitter.com/CnAsQYNhTP ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 After reaching Nabanna following a 45-minute ride, Banerjee slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre saying, "We are protesting against the fuel price hike. The Modi government only makes false promises. They have done nothing to bring down fuel prices. You can see the difference in petrol prices when the Modi government came to power and now." She said the TMC will launch a stir against fuel price rise from Friday. "The BJP had promised free LPG connections to the people before coming to power and now they are hiking its price," Banerjee said. "Modi and Shah are selling the country. They are selling the profit-making PSUs. This is an anti-people, anti-woman, anti-youth, anti-farmer government," she said. The feisty TMC chief also criticised the BJP government for renaming the Sardar Patel Stadium, popularly known as the Motera stadium, in Ahmedabad after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The way they are changing the names of stadiums, who knows they might change the name of the country in the coming days," she quipped. Speaking on her unique protest, Banerjee said, "I rode on an e-scooter to protest the manner in which petrol, diesel and LPG prices are rising. "A middle-class household needs two LPG cylinders a month which they can't afford now. Over 1 crore people in our state also depend on kerosene which they are not getting now," she said. Banerjee said she will return home in the evening on the e-scooter. The chief minister was trailed by security personnel on other two-wheelers as other vehicles followed her a little distance away. There was tight security along the Hazra-Exide-AJC Bose Road-Vidyasagar Setu route. The opposition parties, however, called her protest an "election stunt". "The CM is resorting to novel theatrics ahead of the elections but the state government is not doing its bit to reduce fuel prices," BJP leader Jai Prakash Majumder said. Congress Legislature Party leader Abdul Mannan said, "This is nothing but an election stunt. Why is the state government not substantially withdrawing cess to blunt the effect of the fuel price hike to help the common man?" Left Front leader Sujan Chakraborty compared her fuel hike protest with her earlier riding pillion on a motorcycle ridden by former PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato during the Lalgarh agitation. "Banerjee had ridden pillion on Chhatradhar Mahato's motorcycle in the Jangalmahal region before coming to power in the state but later people of that region witnessed the TMC's intimidation and terror," he said. The TMC supremo had earlier several times ridden pillion on two-wheelers. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. [February 25, 2021] Killi Announces Non-Brokered Private Placement, Effecting Previously Approved Share Consolidation and Leadership Updates /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES./ TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - Killi Ltd. (the "Company" or " Killi ") (TSXV: MYID) is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of up to 23,076,923 units (each, a "Unit" and collectively, the "Units") of the Company at a price of $0.13 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $3,000,000 (the "Offering"). Each Unit will consist of one common share (each, a "Common Share" and collectively, the "Common Shares") in the capital of the Company and one common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant" and collectively, the "Warrants") of the Company. Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.21 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance thereof. If during the exercise period of the Warrants, the Common Shares trade at or above a volume-weighted average trading price of $0.30 per Common Share for 20 consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry time of the Warrants to 30 days from the date on which the Company provides written notice to the holders of the Warrants. No commissions or fees will be payable in connection with this Offering. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used for general working capital requirements. The Offering is expected to close on or about March 5th, 2021, and is subject to all regulatory approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issuance thereof in accordance with applicable securities laws. To demonstrate continued support of the Company's growth plans, insiders of the Company, including certain directors and officers, plan to participate in the Offering. Such participation is considered a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The related party transaction will be exempt from minority approval, information circular and formal valuation requirements pursuant to the exemptions contained in Sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the gross securities to be issued under the Offering nor the consideration to be paid by the insiders exceeds 25% of the Company's market capitalization. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. This press release is not an offer of the securities for sale in the United States. The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an avaiable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") and applicable U.S. state securities laws. The Company will not make any public offering of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act. Share Consolidation The Company is also pleased to announce that the board of directors of the Company has approved the consolidation of all of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a ratio of five (5) pre-consolidated shares for one (1) post-consolidated share (the "Consolidation"). The Company currently has 301,021,909 Common Shares issued and outstanding and will have approximately 60,204,381 Commons Shares issued and outstanding after effecting the Consolidation. No fractional shares will be issued on the Consolidation and each fractional share remaining after the Consolidation shall be canceled. The Consolidation was previously approved by a special resolution of the shareholders of the Company (the "Resolution") at the annual general and special meeting held on May 25, 2020. The Resolution authorized the directors to effect the Consolidation within one year from the date of the Resolution's approval. The effective date of the Consolidation will be the date in the certificate of amendment issued by the Registrar of Corporations of Ontario or such other date indicated in the articles of amendment. The Consolidation will become effective after the closing of the Offering. The Consolidation remains subject to final approval by the TSXV. Leadership Updates The Company is also pleased to announce that it has hired Chris Frostad as Chief Financial Officer to replace current Chief Financial Officer Andrew Elinesky, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities. The Company wishes Andrew well in his future endeavors and thanks him for his continued support of the company including his participation in this private placement. Throughout his career, Mr. Frostad has been instrumental in the development and building of a variety of high-growth, early stage, public and private companies. He is the President and CEO of Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSX:V PTU) a uranium exploration company focused on the precision exploration of its projects in the Canadian Athabasca Basin. Mr. Frostad was also a director of Enthusiast Gaming Inc. (TSX:V EGLX), a Canadian gaming company, and the CEO and director of Minera Alamos Inc. (TSX:V MAI), a Mexican based gold development company. Mr. Frostad is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Professional Accountant who began his career in International Taxation with Deloitte. The company would also like to welcome back Laura Jordan, as the Vice-President of Finance of the Company, who was away on maternity leave. Miss Jordan who has worked for the company since its inception was the finance principal in the company's original RTO process in June of 2019. About Killi Ltd Killi ( killi.io ) is a consumer identity product, available in five countries, that allows individuals to take back control of their digital identity from those who have been using it without their consent. With Killi, consumers can opt-in and select specific pieces of personal information that they would like to share with companies and be compensated directly in cash for its use. Download Killi here . For more information, please visit killi.io. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward Looking and Other Cautionary Statements This news release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, but not limited to, the Company's financing plans, the securities offered in the connection with the Offering, the proposed use of proceeds therefrom, and other expected effects of the Offering. Forward-looking statements may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "believes," "estimates," "potential," "target," or "continue" and variations or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the aggregate amount of Units sold pursuant to the Offering, the dilution arising from the Offering, the Company may not receive final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange with respect to the Offering, the uncertainty surrounding the spread of COVID-19 and the impact it will have on the Company's operations and economic activity in general, and the risks and uncertainties discussed in our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the Canadian securities regulators and available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, which risks and uncertainties are incorporated herein by reference. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events. SOURCE Killi Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] John Bennett, 34, of Potomac appeared via video before Judge Adam Dill on Wednesday at the Champaign County Courthouse to be arraigned for allegedly shooting at deputies during a chase early Monday but would not look at the judge or answer questions. Denton, TX (76205) Today Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible. 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. (Natural News) India, the country with the second-highest number of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, has been mystifying experts after recording a big dip in its coronavirus caseload in recent months. In September last year, the country was reporting as many as 100,000 new cases every day. But that number suddenly dipped in October. Now, the country is only reporting around 10,000 cases daily, according to Daily Mail. Some experts posit that the decline was due to Indias major cities nearing herd immunity after getting saturated with COVID-19 for the past several months. The virus is believed to have moved to rural areas where it is spreading more slowly due to sparser populations. Herd immunity is achieved when at least 70 to 90 percent of a given population has become immune to a disease. But some are saying that new coronavirus cases might be underreported due to false-negatives, under-testing and limited access to healthcare. Others note that even if some places have achieved herd immunity, the entire country remains vulnerable to the virus that so far has infected nearly 11 million Indians and caused over 150,000 deaths. Why is Indias coronavirus caseload dropping? Experts attribute the dramatic drop in Indias caseload to possible herd immunity, small rural populations, Indians potentially stronger immune systems and a less transmissible variant circulating in the country. Antibody surveys seem to suggest that some of Indias major cities are about to achieve herd immunity. One study shows that 56 percent of people in Delhi the countrys most populous city have antibodies to COVID-19. Surveys in Mumbai and Prune also showed that around 50 percent of their respective populations have antibodies. The most densely-populated areas are already saturated and reaching the threshold of herd immunity, Dr. Giridhar Babu, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), told the Times. The virus has now spread to rural areas, but [these areas] are not so dense. A slimmer population means that the virus spreads more slowly, which, in turn, brings down daily case figures. Rural areas have lesser crowd density, people work in open spaces more and homes are much more ventilated, explained PHFI president Dr. K. Srinath Reddy. (Related: Are COVID case surges more fake news?) India also has a younger population and lower rates of obesity age and obesity are major risk factors for severe COVID-19. The average age of Indians is less than 30, with only 15 percent of adults being overweight and five percent obese, according to 2015 data. The United States, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases at more than 28 million, has an average age of 38, with 32 percent and 36 percent of adults being overweight and obese, respectively. Many Indians may have also developed resilient immune systems after being exposed to a variety of diseases. Indian virologist Jacob John said that locals are commonly plagued by dengue, malaria, typhoid, cholera, dysenteries and influenza, among other things. Their innate immune system, according to Jacob John, is trained to be on high alert. Its possible too that India is dealing with less infectious variants, thanks to air travel restrictions. While the Indian government is allowing passengers to and from certain countries, it was quick to ban flights from nations with dangerous new variants such as the U.K. However, the trend cannot be attributed to vaccinations since rollout only began in January, with only seven million out of the countrys 1.3 billion population vaccinated so far. India may be undercounting cases Indias seeming success in dealing with COVID-19 may also mean that many cases and deaths are going undetected. The countrys testing data shows that just 0.5 people per 1,000 are swabbed each day. That rate is one of the lowest among nations that report similar data. Reports also indicate that Indians in far-flung regions are less likely to be swabbed than urbanites, which means that as the disease moves away from cities, the number of positive tests appears to decline. Moreover, the average number of tests carried out per day has been dropping across the whole of the country since mid-December, and the few who were swabbed might have returned false-negatives. Rijo John, an Indian public health policy analyst, further noted that some states are too dependent on rapid antigen testing. These produce less reliable results than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, which is considered to be the gold standard for COVID-19 detection that uses nasal swabbing. The picture gets even muddier as some states fail to report which type of test is being used, according to John. It should be made mandatory for all states to report the [breakdown] of different test types as well as the positives from these, he said. Data also suggests that only around 20 percent of deaths in India are medically certified, leaving the remaining 80 percent without an official cause of death. The national government does not require a cause of death to be established before a body is cremated or buried. (Related: The NON-SCANDAL of covid-19 death certificates.) Babu warns that the true number of deaths may be two or three times higher than the official count of nearly 156,000. And even if some populations are already about to achieve herd immunity, the threat posed by the virus has not completely gone away, as new variants could emerge at any given time. Read the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and how countries are faring at Pandemic.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk JAMANetwork.com Worldometers.info TheTimes.co.uk APNews.com 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 Hearing a case from Sonoma County, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed likely Wednesday to allow police who are pursuing a suspect, even for a minor crime, to enter a home without knocking or seeking a warrant. The justices were considering an appeal by Arthur Lange, a real estate agent who was driving home on state Highway 12 in an unincorporated area of eastern Sonoma County one evening in October 2016 when an officer heard him honking his horn loudly, for no apparent reason, and decided to follow him. The officer did not turn on his light or siren, however, until Lange drove into a residential area, stopped in front of his home and pushed a button to open his garage door. After Lange drove into his garage, the officer got out, put his foot under the door to keep it from closing and entered the garage, where he questioned Lange and smelled alcohol on his breath. Lange later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor drunken driving and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. State courts upheld his conviction, but the Supreme Court took his case to decide whether the officer should have sought a search warrant. Past rulings have allowed police to enter a home without a warrant in pursuit of a suspected felon, but the court has not decided whether the same rules apply to those suspected only of misdemeanors, punishable by months in jail rather than years in state prison. There are many non-threatening reasons why people sometimes step inside or continue into their garages when pursued by officers, Jeffrey Fisher, a Stanford law professor representing Lange, told the justices for example, teenagers who want their parents present or women afraid to stop on dark roads. It is not too much to ask for officers to procure a warrant before breaching the Fourth Amendments most sacrosanct space. But Chief Justice John Roberts said prohibiting a warrantless entry in pursuit of a fleeing suspect would put the police in a dangerous situation. Obtaining a warrant might give the suspect time to destroy evidence, he said, and an officer who knocked on the door might be met with a gun. Justice Brett Kavanaugh added that preventing escape was the type of emergency that would justify entry into a home without a warrant. Both sides in the case agreed that police do not need a warrant to pursue someone into a home in emergencies. Lawyers for the prosecution argued that cases of hot pursuit, in which suspects knew or should have known they were being pursued but continued to flee, were the type of emergency that justified warrantless entry regardless of the crime. Officers cannot be expected to classify offenses (as felonies or misdemeanors) in the midst of a chase, said attorney Amanda Rice, assigned to represent prosecutors after Attorney General Xavier Becerras office sided largely with Lange. Rice said state courts found that Langes case was a hot pursuit, even though Lange said he had not known the officer was following him. Fisher and Samuel Harbourt, a lawyer from Becerras office, both said police should have to show evidence of an emergency to pursue a misdemeanor suspect into a home without a warrant. The alternative would allow entry even for minor offenses like littering or loitering, whenever a suspect disobeys police and takes a few steps into his home, Harbourt said. Justice Stephen Breyer appeared to agree, telling Rice it was ridiculous that police can just get into your house when you went inside your house because you once sold a rabbit as a prize in a lottery, a misdemeanor in California. But Breyer also noted that states have varying definitions of misdemeanors in Massachusetts, they include reckless driving in which someone is killed and suggested a suspects failure to stop while being pursued could justify police entry into a home. A ruling in Lange vs. California, 20-18, is due by the end of June. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Jim Mattress Mack McIngvale got some love on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, as he updated a national audience on how Houston is faring after a winter storm left millions of Texas without power and water last week. As he has done in past disasters, the Gallery Furniture store owner opened his store last week so residents could use it as a warming shelter and get a free meal. McIngvale told DeGeneres that about 1,000 people came inside his store Tuesday to get warm and have a meal and he estimated about 300 or 400 people stayed the night inside the store. BIG WINNER: Mattress Mack won how much with his Super Bowl bet? This is a big store, McIngvale said during his four-minute interview conducted remotely. Weve got lots of couches and mattresses for people to sleep on. We were expecting a lot (of people), but we got even more than we expected. This is nothing new for Gallery Furniture, as McIngvale opened the doors to his business as the city struggled during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. My parents taught me when I was a little child, that the essence of living is giving, McIngvale told DeGeneres. Weve always had a saying here at Gallery Furniture that we have a responsibility for the well-being of the community, so if something bad happens, we want to be one of the first businesses to act because its our job to help the community, not just take money out of the community. We dont want to necessarily make a lot of profit, we want to make a big difference in the community and make the community a better place, and when people are hurting, whether theyre going to drown during Hurricane Harvey or theyre going to freeze to death during this winter storm, its our responsibility to step up and take a leading position. After the interview, DeGeneres unveiled a $20,000 check from Shutterfly to Mattress Mack's Winter Storm Community Outreach, which is still helping to provide residents with food and water as the city recovers from the winter storm. According to KHOU 11, which airs "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", H-E-B also donated $1 million to Feeding Texas, which is a statewide network of food banks to help try to end hunger in the state. "I was a bit starstruck to be on the Ellen show to be honest with you," McIngvale said in an interview on KHOU's local newscast after the show aired. "I was quite nervous, but I made it through." Fourteen- and 15-year-olds in California cannot be prosecuted in adult court, where they would face sentences of up to life in prison, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday, upholding a 2019 state law that was challenged by prosecutors. The law requires youths younger than 16 to be tried in juvenile court. The maximum confinement for juveniles is up to age 25, although a juvenile court judge could then order a safety hold requiring placement in a medical center. Prosecutors from a number of counties argued that the 2019 law violated a provision of a 2016 ballot measure, Proposition 57, that allowed them to charge 14-year-olds as adults if a juvenile court judge decided the case belonged in adult court, based on the crime and the youths record. But that law actually limited prosecutors authority to try juveniles as adults. Under a 2000 ballot measure, Prop. 21, prosecutors could charge 14-year-olds in adult court for serious crimes on their own, without review by a juvenile court judge, as the law had previously required. Prop. 57, sponsored by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, reinstated the pre-2000 requirement of juvenile court approval for adult prosecutions and allowed the Legislature to enact further changes in juvenile law as long as they were consistent with the intent of Prop. 57. That intent, the court said Thursday, was to keep youths out of prison and return them to the juvenile court system, which focuses more on rehabilitation than on punishment. Quoting a state Assembly committee analysis of the 2019 law, the court said the prosecution of 14- and 15-year-olds as adults in California dated from the 1990s, a period where the state was getting tough on crime, but not smart on crime. Societys views have changed since then, based on scientific research about juvenile development as well as the financial and social costs of steadily rising prison populations, Justice Joshua Groban, a Brown appointee, said in the 7-0 ruling. He noted the U.S. Supreme Courts 2005 ruling banning the death penalty for offenders under 18, and its 2012 decision striking down state laws that required life in prison without parole for crimes committed by juveniles. California lawmakers were entitled to conclude in 2019 that 14- and 15-year-olds accused of serious crimes should be tried in juvenile court, where they are more likely to receive appropriate education and emotional and psychological treatment, and less likely to reoffend after their release, Groban said. One of the stated purposes of Prop. 57, he said, was to stop the revolving door of crime by emphasizing rehabilitation, especially for juveniles. Groban also noted that the states voter guide said the ballot measure was intended to save money by reducing wasteful spending on prisons. The ruling makes California the first state to prohibit adult prosecutions of youths under 16, said the Sentencing Project, a group working to reduce imprisonment. It said those prosecutions have disproportionately affected racial minorities. The ruling does not affect prosecutions of 16- and 17-year-olds, who can be tried in adult court for serious crimes if a juvenile court judge grants the prosecutors request after reviewing a youths record and background. The case came from Ventura County, where a 15-year-old identified as O.G. was charged with two gang-related murders in 2018. A state appeals court said prosecutors could seek to try him in adult court, ruling that the 2019 law barring such prosecutions violated Prop. 57 contrary to rulings by seven other appeals court panels in similar cases. The law has been enforced in parts of the state but is on hold elsewhere to await the state Supreme Courts ruling, which keeps O.G.s case in juvenile court. Groups that backed the 2019 law praised the ruling. Now the state will focus on rehabilitating young people, said Elizabeth Calvin of Human Rights Watch. Youth who are sent to the adult system miss out on the treatment, education and services offered in the juvenile system. Youth kept in the juvenile system are less likely to commit new crimes. The California District Attorneys Association, representing most prosecutors in the state, argued for continued authority to try the youths as adults. The association was not immediately available for comment. But attorney Kymberlee Stapleton of the pro-prosecution Criminal Justice Legal Foundation said the ruling would require the state to release some of the most violent juvenile criminals in the country. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said he was disappointed that the court had not allowed adult prosecutions of youths in cases of murder and serious sex crimes, but agreed with the overall goals of promoting rehabilitation and reducing prison spending and overcrowding. The ruling was applauded by the liberal California Prosecutors Alliance, representing district attorneys in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties. Research shows that rehabilitation works, and by rehabilitating our children, we will make it less likely that they will commit new crimes, said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, the former district attorney in San Francisco. The case is O.G. vs. Superior Court, S259011. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko For nearly 10 years, forestry and grassland bureaus at various levels in China have actively practiced the philosophy of lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and vigorously advanced the countrys poverty alleviation campaign through ecological compensation, afforestation, and the development of ecological industry. These bureaus have completed all the tasks and targets set in the countrys programs designed to promote poverty reduction through ecological conservation and restoration, lifting over 20 million poor people out of poverty. Li Yuhua, a forest ranger in Gongshan Derung and Nu autonomous county, southwest China's Yunnan province, is often seen walking through the mountain forest beside the Derung River in local ethnic clothes. According to Li, she gains a subsidy of 800 yuan (about $124) per month by taking care of the forest. The forest ranger has also been able to take care of her family and engage in various forms of under-forest industries, such as planting black cardamom, growing traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, and raising bees. In 2020, Li secured an annual income of over 100,000 yuan. Over 4,000 forest rangers in the county like Li have been able to work in their hometowns and shake off poverty while guarantee the management and protection of the countys more than 5.71 million mu (about 3,807 square kilometers) of forests. In some regions of China, rangers are also assigned tasks of managing and protecting grasslands and wetlands. Tashi Tsering, a ranger in Changjiangyuan village, Golmud city, northwest Chinas Qinghai province, feels a sense of mission from guarding the ecology of the source of Chinas Yangtze River. The rangers routine work includes checking on local grassland and monitoring whether the grassland is overloaded by cattle and sheep. Qinghai province has created public welfare jobs for protecting and managing forestry and grassland resources. It has hired 49,900 qualified poverty-stricken residents as rangers. By increasing the average per capita annual income of these people by nearly 20,000 yuan, the province has lifted the families of these rangers out of poverty. Chinas forest and grassland areas that suffer from destruction, major areas for ecological protection and regions that are ecologically vulnerable are usually severely impoverished areas. They are the main battlefields of Chinas fight against poverty as well as the core of forest and grassland programs. China has blazed a path of poverty alleviation that features ecological compensation in these areas, said Li Chunliang, deputy head of Chinas National Forestry and Grassland Administration, adding that the country has hired over 1.1 million registered poor villagers as rangers and lifted more than 3 million people in impoverished areas out of poverty. Li noted that China has increased the area of forest and grass resources under management and protection by nearly 900 million mu, thus achieving win-win results in protecting ecology and increasing residents income. In response to the governments call for treating Horqin Sandy Land in Tongliao city, north Chinas Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Chun Mei, a local villager, and her husband have created a wood of pinus sylvestris, acer monoes, and aspens around their house. Every year, the couple takes part in afforestation projects launched by local government. While Chun earns 100 yuan per day by planting and watering trees, her husband gets a daily wage of 400 yuan by leveling the ground with tractor and digging pits for saplings. As the sandy land turns greener and the grasslands could support more cattle, we have also become better-off, said Chun, who has recently renovated her house. Last year, her family gained an income of 100,000 yuan. Under the project of returning farmland to forest, Chama town, Qinglong county, southwest Chinas Guizhou province, has tapped into the huajiao (Sichuan pepper) industry according to local conditions in recent years. The Sichuan pepper trees have helped 11,700 local residents shake off poverty. I earn over 20,000 yuan every year by working in a local Sichuan pepper planting base, and receive a subsidy of 1,200 yuan for each mu of farmland that I have changed into forest and used to grow Sichuan pepper, said Yi Hongzhong, a villager of Chama town who has bid farewell to poverty. While protecting ecology and exploring tourism, Baichao township, Guangyuan city, southwest Chinas Sichuan province, has endeavored to develop itself into a tourist town featuring eco-healthcare. Yueba village of the township, which boasts alpine wetlands and dense primitive forests, has become an Internet-famous tourist destination. In 2019, the village received more than 300,000 tourists, and the per capita income of more than 500 local tourism practitioners reached 28,000 yuan. Yang Xiulin, a resident in Yueba village, has changed his house into a homestay hotel. Last year, Yangs family gained nearly 100,000 yuan from the business. By pursuing eco-friendly income sources for villagers, more and more once-impoverished villages in China have helped rural residents bid farewell to poverty and march toward comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. The footage looks like something out of a how-to video on stopping a robber. In it, a man wearing a blue hoodie and jeans crosses the street with the victim's blue suitcase and backpack in tow. Within seconds, he drops the suitcase and tries to enter the getaway car shown in the video as a gray Chevy Impala with the license plates 5ZZN552. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-24 21:49:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (L) meets with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Feb. 24, 2021. Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Wednesday agreed to strengthen cooperation in several areas including agriculture. The agreement came as visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met here with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for bilateral ties. (Sri Lankan President Media Division/Handout via Xinhua) COLOMBO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Wednesday agreed to strengthen cooperation in several areas including agriculture. The agreement came as visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met here with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for bilateral ties. During the meeting, Khan underlined the "exceptional quality" of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations with mutual trust, understanding and support. The Pakistani prime minister emphasized the importance of building robust economic partnership between the two countries characterized by enhanced bilateral trade, investments and commercial cooperation. He emphasized the importance of regional cooperation through the platform of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the opportunities for regional prosperity through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative. For his part, President Rajapaksa expressed his wish to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries and also exchanged views on sharing technical knowhow in order to promote agriculture in both countries. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 14:57:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A grand gathering is held to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honor its model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Building on its victory in eradicating absolute poverty, China is moving on to push for rural vitalization along with renewed efforts to consolidate the achievements made in the fight against poverty. Shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting line of a new life and new endeavor, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday, urging efforts to effectively integrate the consolidation of poverty alleviation achievements and rural vitalization. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing a gathering marking the country's accomplishments in poverty eradication and commending the efforts of outstanding individuals. The rural vitalization strategy was proposed as a key move for the development of a modernized economy at the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017. The year 2021 marks the start of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for economic and social development and the beginning of its new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country. China detailed plans to fully promote the strategy of rural vitalization in the Chinese leadership's proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. In his speech, Xi said efforts must be made to prevent the scenario in which residents slip back into poverty on a large scale. In 2020, after eight years of efforts, all of China's nearly 100 million impoverished rural residents living below the current poverty line had shaken off poverty. Xi also demanded continued efforts to place the solution of problems concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers as a priority in the work of the CPC. Work concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers has remained a top priority for China for 18 consecutive years. China unveiled its "No. 1 central document" for 2021 on Sunday, stressing the efforts to comprehensively push forward rural vitalization and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. "China will attach greater importance to the pursuit of common prosperity," Xi said in his speech. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The company that held the first sales of recreational marijuana in Michigan is opening its first dispensary in Grand Rapids. On Friday, Feb. 26, Exclusive Brands will hold a grand opening for its dispensary and medical marijuana provisioning center at 2350 29th St. SE The cannabis retail store, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, is the sixth recreational dispensary to open in Grand Rapids. We are very excited to announce the opening of this new retail store location in Grand Rapids and to work with the local community on helping with the economic rebound in a troubling time -- and on new social equity programs and other initiatives, Narmin Jarrous, chief development officer at Exclusive Brands, said in a statement. For Exclusive Brands, our role in helping and contributing to the local community is always our top priority, and were excited to open up access to top industry brands like Kushy Punch and Platinum Vape. Exclusive Brands has two other dispensaries in Michigan -- one in Kalamazoo and another in Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor location held the first sales of recreational marijuana in Michigan in December 2019. Related: Michigans first recreational marijuana customers camped outside store overnight First-time customers at the Grand Rapids location will receive a 20% discount on purchases. Veterans and students can receive regular 10% discounts. One-eighth of an ounce of marijuana flower at the Grand Rapids location is billed at about $35 to $60 depending on the strain. In addition to marijuana flower, the dispensary also offers pre-rolled joints, edibles, vape cartridges, concentrates and topicals. The dispensary is expected to create more than 40 retail positions. Exclusive Brands has partnered with Flos Collection restaurant group, which owns the Flos Pizzeria restaurants, on the Grand Rapids dispensary development. I am excited to lead the development of this industry leaders footprint in Grand Rapids, and the community and city have been very open and great partners in getting this operation off the ground, said Davide Uccello, co-owner of Flos Collection. The other recreational marijuana dispensaries in Grand Rapids are: PharmHouse Wellness at 831 Wealthy St. SW Fluresh at 1213 Phillips Ave. SW. Michigan Supply & Provisions at 2741 28th St. 3Fifteen Cannabis at 2900 S. Division Ave. SE 3Fifteen Cannabis at 3423 Plainfield Ave. NE Read more: Air purifiers built to kill coronavirus headed to jails in Wayne County Grand Rapids to fully relieve police officers of parking enforcement duties How Muskegon went from chaos to zero hospitalizations in battle with COVID-19 I'm sure that there are some Americans, somewhere, who voted for Joe Biden because the media assured them that Joe is an honest, decent family man all of which is patently untrue. Because they were unaware that the only thing "abnormal" about the Trump administration was the relentless attacks from the Democrat party and the media (but I repeat myself), they thought Biden would bring an era of peace and even honor. No wonder, then, that the media and the tech tyrants corrupted the election by quashing any reports about Biden's sleazy son Hunter. Now it turns out that Hunter was even worse than we realized. Those people who paid attention to conservative media outlets and learned of Hunter Biden's laptop knew that Hunter Biden functioned as a conduit by which foreign governments, most notably Ukraine and China, funneled millions of dollars to the "Big Guy," AKA thenvice president Joe Biden. They also knew that Hunter Biden is one of the sleaziest men in America. It was public knowledge that Hunter Biden was a crack cocaine addict, which had resulted in his being booted from the Navy; that he'd had an affair with his sister-in-law after his brother died from cancer; that he impregnated a stripper; and that he refused to pay for his children and, instead, married another woman. The media rather successfully dressed all this up in the story of a troubled young man trying to make good. What the laptop revealed, in addition to the Biden family cartel, is that Hunter's personal life was even worse than anyone realized. A Taiwanese outlet made public videos showing Hunter, a man with a foot fetish, smoking crack and cavorting with multiple women. Additionally, tweets on the computer indicated that the women in Hunter's life worried about him and underage girls. In this regard, Hunter must take after his father, who has been shown in endless video footage fondling and nuzzling little girls. It doesn't matter to me if that public behavior is the only and worst thing Joe Biden does to little girls. It's sufficient to make him a creep and a pervert. It turns out, though, that Hunter's unutterably sleazy sex life was even worse than those paying attention knew back in 2020. Get a gander at this Daily Mail headline: "EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden was living with his brother Beau's widow Hallie while sending raunchy texts and FaceTiming in the shower with her married SISTER as they declared their love and she called him her 'prince.'" You can read all the sordid details in the Daily Mail. For now, I'll just quote from the bullet points at the top of the article: Hunter Biden began dating his late brother Beau's widow, Hallie Biden, shortly after Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 The unconventional relationship was first exposed in March 2017 with Joe Biden issuing a statement giving his blessing to the couple DailyMail.com can reveal Hunter was also exchanging sexual text messages with Hallie's then-married sister Elizabeth Secundy around that time In a 2016 text conversation recovered from his abandoned laptop hard drive, Hunter offered to teach Secundy 'how to masturbate' Secundy, 49, who was married to husband Joel Secundy, referred to Hunter as her 'prince' and told him she loved him in the texts Another conversation showed Hunter texted Secundy telling her he had been up late watching 'bad porno movies like I'm 13' Secundy separated from her husband and father of her three children in 2015 after 15 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized three years later What's really baffling is Hunter's success with women. Despite being a total loser with a terrible drug habit and some weird sexual perversions, Hunter managed to seduce his brother's widow, her sister, a stripper, and the woman he married, all over the course of four years. It's enough to make one think Hunter's charm had less to do with the man himself and more with the benefits flowing from the Biden family cartel. The American people knew what they were getting with Trump: a flamboyant man who had sown his wild oats, raised five extremely successful children, and loved America. Naive American people had no idea what they were getting with Biden: a senile, corrupt, debauched old man with a son who was a conduit for his dirty dealings and who has a personal life so disgusting that it's hard to write about it. That's what the American media and the tech tyrants have done to America. Image: Hunter Biden in a selfie from his laptop. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Sebastian Elbaum, Anita Jones Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia School of Engineering, has been named an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow in recognition of his contributions of testing techniques for evolving systems. The institute's board of directors annually awards the designation to those who have contributed to the advancement or application of engineering, bringing significant value to society. Fellow is the highest level of membership and is recognized by the technical community as an important career achievement. Less than 1% of the institute's membership earn the honor. Elbaum earned his bachelor's in systems engineering from the Universidad Catolica de Cordoba, Argentina, in 1995. In 1997 and 1999, respectively, he earned a master's and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Idaho. Elbaum joined the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 1999, and served as the Charles Bessey Professor of Computer Science there from 2015-2018. He joined the UVA Engineering Department of Computer Science in 2018. He also served as Academic Fellow, University College London; Visiting Researcher, Italian National Research Council; and Google Research Scientist in 2005, 2006 and 2013, respectively. Elbaum has published more than 150 articles on analysis techniques to make complex systems more dependable. He has been supported by more than 30 external grants and is exploring how to narrow the gap between automated program analysis techniques and robotic system development. He is also one of the founding faculty members of the Lab for Engineering Safe Software at UVA Engineering. Elbaum is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an IBM Innovation Award and a Google Faculty Research Award. In addition to being recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, as a Distinguished Scientist, he received an ACM Foundations of Software Engineering Test of Time Award and five ACM SigSoft Distinguished Paper Awards. Additionally, Elbaum served as program co-chair of the 2015 International Conference on Software Engineering, program co-chair for the 2008 Empirical Software Engineering Symposium, program chair for the 2007 International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, co-editor for the Information and Software Technology Journal, and associate editor of the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodologies Journal. Elbaum was also the Steering Committee Chair for the International Conference on Software Engineering from 2015 to 2019. "I am honored to earn this recognition as IEEE Fellow by my peers. I am also thankful to my accomplished collaborators and students for their contributions that have made my career so fulfilling and rewarding." Elbaum said. ### About UVA Engineering: As part of the top-ranked, comprehensive University of Virginia, UVA Engineering is one of the nation's oldest and most respected engineering schools. Our mission is to make the world a better place by creating and disseminating knowledge and by preparing future engineering leaders. Outstanding students and faculty from around the world choose UVA Engineering because of our growing and internationally recognized education and research programs. UVA is the No. 1 public engineering school in the country for the percentage of women graduates, among schools with at least 75 degree earners; the No. 1 public engineering school in the United States for the four-year graduation rate of undergraduate students; and the top engineering school in the country for the rate of Ph.D. enrollment growth since 2015. Learn more at engineering.virginia.edu. NEW DELHI : Online food ordering platform Zomato on Thursday said it restructured its delivery partner remuneration to factor in the fuel price hike, a move that will increase their earnings by 7-8%. The company said the dramatic increase in fuel prices has led to a direct impact on the net earnings of Zomato delivery partners. This also impacts the earnings of the partner in case of a long-distance order, given that the delivery partner is required to return back to the base-working localities to get another order assigned. Zomato founder and Chief Executive Officer Deepinder Goyal said the company has increased the pay structure for its delivery partners by 7-8%. He added that the company is "not yet passing on this cost to our customers". Over this past month, Zomato has taken multiple steps to ensure that this increase in the running costs for delivery partners does not impact their net take-home earnings, a statement said. The company explained that its delivery partner travels between 100-120 km in a day, consuming 60-80 litres of fuel in a typical month. The recent increase in prices amounts to an additional monthly spend of 600-800 (about 3 per cent of monthly income) from their take-home income. Zomato has now introduced a revised pay structure for its delivery partners which will include an additional component of distance pay. This component will be applicable over and above the existing remuneration, and will automatically be pegged to adapt to any changes in fuel prices in the future. Besides, Zomato has also introduced long-distance return pay where for every long-distance order completed, its delivery partner would either receive another order within 15 minutes that would bring them back closer to their base areas of working or they will receive an additional payout for travelling the extra distance. "We understand how fuel price hikes can impact their earnings and have decided to factor in such developments in their pay structure. Both of these inclusions combined will increase their earnings by 7-8%," Zomato COO- Food Delivery Mohit Sardana said. He added that the Zomato has already implemented the new structure in about 40 cities and will be rolling it out in other cities in the coming week. Zomato - which has recently raised $250 million (over 1,800 crore) in funding from Tiger Global, Kora and others - has 1.5 lakh delivery partners in its fleet, and has been strengthening it further to meet the growing demand for food delivery in India. The online food delivery segment has seen significant growth in the last few years with Zomato and Swiggy competing head-on to grab market share. Zomato -- which competes aggressively with Prosus-backed Swiggy in the Indian market -- has previously stated that it plans to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of 2021. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. With daily cases of Covid-19 showing a surge in some parts of the country, various state governments are putting in place restrictions to contain the spread of the virus and prevent a second wave. Nearly 75 per cent of the cases currently are from and Heres a look at what some states are doing to get a grip on the situation. Delhi > All passengers arriving from Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are required to show a negative RT-PCR test report to enter the city from today (Friday) to March 21. > Only those arriving by public transport flight, train or bus will have to produce a negative test report. Those travelling by private vehicles are exempt. Maharashtra > Restrictions on all political & religious gatherings > Proposal for staggered work timings in state govt headquarters, state secretariat > Night curfew imposed in several cities > Janta curfew in Latur on February 27 and 28 > Week-long lockdown in Akola, Amravati districts of Vidarbha Mumbai > Buildings with more than five Covid-19 patients will be sealed > Stamping of hands of positive patients advised > 300 marshals will be appointed to take action against passengers travelling without mask in suburban railways > Number of marshals will be doubled to take action against citizens without masks, with an aim to catch 25,000 offenders every day > Orders to raid marriage halls, clubs, restaurants etc to check Covid-appropriate behaviour > Passengers coming to Mumbai from Brazil will be put in compulsory institutional quarantine Karnataka > Mandatory RT-PCR rule for commuters from Kerala, irrespective of the mode of travel > Decision, however, put on hold in the states border Dakshina Kannada > Hostels, boarding or residential, educational institutions with a cluster of five or more Covid cases to be declared a containment zone Tamil Nadu > Persons coming from other states and union territories (except and Maharashtra) required to self-monitor their health for 14 days > Those coming from and to undergo mandatory home quarantine for seven days and then self-monitor their health for symptoms for the next seven days > All symptomatic persons arriving from other states to be subjected to Covid-19 testing WASHINGTON : Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis released by US regulators that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic. The long-anticipated shot could offer the nation a third vaccine option and help speed vaccinations by requiring just one dose instead of two. Food and Drug Administration scientists on Wednesday confirmed that overall the vaccine is about 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, and about 85% effective against the most serious illness. The agency also said J&J's shot is safe. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle The analysis is just one step in the FDA's evaluation. On Friday, the agency's independent advisers will debate if the evidence is strong enough to recommend the shot. With that advice, the FDA is expected to make a final decision within days. The COVID-19 death toll in the US topped 500,000 this week, and the vaccination drive has been slower than hoped, hampered by logistical and weather delays. So far, about 44.5 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna, and nearly 20 million of them have received the second dose required for full protection. Tests showed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 95% effective at protection against symptomatic COVID-19. Dr Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is part of the FDA advisory panel that will scrutinise the J&J data on Friday and cautions that none of the vaccines have been directly compared. Still, he was encouraged that one dose of the J&J vaccine appears as good at preventing serious illness as its two-dose competitors. This is a vaccine to prevent you from going to the hospital and dying at a level that's certainly comparable" to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, he said. J&J tested its single-dose option in 44,000 adults in the US, Latin America and South Africa. Different mutated versions of the virus are circulating in different countries, and the FDA analysis cautioned that it's not clear how well the vaccine works against each variant. But J&J previously announced that the vaccine worked better in the US - 72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19, compared with 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa. South Africa recently began giving the J&J vaccine to front-line health workers on a test basis after deciding that a vaccine from rival AstraZeneca had not shown strong enough study results against the particularly concerning variant spreading there. I was reassured" that despite different variants, the J&J shot still protected against serious illness, said Dr Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief. That's pretty robust data." In case the vaccines eventually need to be updated, manufacturers are working on adjustments to their recipes. Moderna announced Wednesday that it is ready to begin testing experimental doses that better match the South African version of the virus. Across all countries, the analysis of the J&J vaccine showed protection began to emerge about 14 days after vaccination. But by 28 days after vaccination, there were no hospitalisations or deaths in the vaccinated group compared with 16 hospitalizations and seven deaths in study recipients who received a dummy shot. The FDA said effectiveness and safety were consistent across racial groups, including Black and Latino participants. All of the world's COVID-19 vaccines have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible. It would not be surprising if one dose turned out to be a little weaker than two doses, and policymakers will decide if that's an acceptable trade-off to get more people vaccinated faster. J&J has another large study underway to see if a second dose of its vaccine works better, raising the prospect that countries could eventually add a booster if one turned out to be warranted. Like other COVID-19 vaccines, the main side effects of the J&J shot are pain at the injection site and flu-like fever, fatigue and headache. No study participant experienced the severe allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, that is a rare risk of some other COVID-19 shots, although one experienced a less serious reaction. The FDA said there were no serious side effects linked to the vaccine so far, although it recommended further monitoring for blood clots. J&J was on track to become the world's first one-dose option until earlier this month. Mexico announced it would use a one-dose version from China's CanSino, which is made with similar technology as J&J's shot but initially was developed as a two-dose option until beginning a one-dose test in the fall. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines now being used in the US and numerous other countries must be kept frozen, while the J&J shot can last three months in a refrigerator, making it easier to handle. AstraZeneca's vaccine - widely used in Europe and Britain - is made similarly and also requires refrigeration but takes two doses. If the FDA clears the J&J shot for US use, it will not boost vaccine supplies significantly right away. Only a few million doses are expected to be ready for shipping in the first week. But J&J told Congress this week that it expected to provide 20 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by summer. European regulators and the World Health Organisation also are considering J&J's vaccine. Worldwide, the company aims to produce around a billion doses by the end of the year. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. A total of 582 cases of COVID-19, split among 373 students and 209 staff members, have been reported in Massachusetts schools in a two-week period that includes February break, officials said Thursday. The cases were reported to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from Feb. 11 to Feb. 24. DESE releases a COVID case report each Thursday that includes cases of student or staff members who tested positive within seven days of being inside a school building. Last week was skipped because of school vacation. The last time DESE released a COVID case report, on Feb. 11, there were 674 cases of the virus among 462 students and 212 staff members. This week, there were 367 student cases and 187 staff cases reported at local school districts, zero student cases and four staff cases at education collaboratives, and six student cases and 18 staff cases at approved special education schools, according to the report from DESE. Lincoln-Sudbury had the largest number of student cases among districts with 26, according to the report. Acton-Boxborough had 17, Methuen had 16, New Bedford had 15 and Weymouth had 10. District staff cases were highest in New Bedford and Newton, both with seven. There were six staff cases each in Medford, Fall River, Waltham and Lynn. The four staff cases among education collaboratives included one each at CAPS Education Collaborative, South Coast Educational Collaborative, Collaborative for Regional Educational Service and Training (CREST) and South Shore Educational Collaborative (SSEC). Among approved special education schools, there were three student cases at the League School and one each at the Landmark School, The Learning Center for the Deaf School and Nashoba Learning Group. Staff cases at approved special education schools were highest at the Boston Higashi School with five. There were also three cases each at the Crystal Springs School and N.E.A.R.I. School. From Jan. 24 to Feb. 20, public health officials have identified 13 clusters of the virus in K-12 schools. Those clusters led to 44 confirmed cases and 72 contacts. There are also 37 ongoing clusters that were identified before Jan. 24 but have not yet met the criteria for closing. School clusters include cases associated with a school where in-school transmission cannot be completely ruled out, officials have said, though other transmission settings are considered more likely. A cluster is considered closed after 28 days have passed since the last confirmed case. Evidence of possible in-school transmission includes two or more cases that share a classroom or other school setting; timing between cases, as the average time between exposure and development of disease for COVID-19 is 5 days; and ruling out of other exposure settings, officials said. DESE estimates there are 450,000 students and 75,000 staff members in public school buildings during the pandemic. Soon, more students in Boston will be back in the classroom. Mayor Marty Walsh on Thursday announced that more than 7,000 city students from preschool through third grade will be able to go back to school buildings on Monday. This follows about 7,900 students whove already been in classrooms since November, Walsh said. This week, DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said state officials want to start looking at taking hybrid and remote education off the table as coronavirus case counts continue to decrease statewide. Ideally, the state wants elementary school students learning in person five days a week this April, Riley said, with older students returning to classrooms for traditional learning at a later date. Related Content: 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. A garda forensics officer investigates the scene of a fire at a 5G mast near Letterkenny hospital, Donegal. Photo: North West Newspix Irish people are amongst the worlds top 5G sceptics, according to a new study. Research carried out by UK-based software firm Prolifics Testing found that Ireland ranks 15th out of 155 countries in terms of sceptical online searches about 5G wireless mobile technology. The US and UK are by far the most doubtful about 5G, with Australia and Canada coming next on the league table. Denmark and Austria are the least doubtful about the technology. People in Ireland carry out an average of 3,370 sceptical searches a month on 5G, using recurring questions such as, Is 5G dangerous? or, Does 5G cause/spread coronavirus (Covid-19)?. The US topped the league table with 374,700 negative online searches a month, while the UK came next with 93,400. Within the EU, Poles, Germans and Dutch people are the most likely to question the benefits of 5G technology, typing an average of between 16,000 and 20,000 sceptical questions a month into Google. Italy, France Spain and Sweden also rank above Ireland in the league table, which used data collated between 19 and 22 February this year. The Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization have both said that, according to existing research, the radio frequencies used for 5G have no adverse health effects. The survey comes the day after the European Investment Bank (EIB) revealed a financing gap of up to 6.6bn for EU tech start-ups working on 5G applications. The Bank said the bloc is falling behind its competitors in the US and China because public and private investors are either afraid to or dont know where to invest. The EIB report said there are too many tech hubs across the bloc, with Ireland highlighted as a medtech and hardware capital in a group of 15 other hubs. US tech companies are concentrated in San Francisco and New York, making it easier for investors to find and fund them, and scale up financing. Geopolitical tensions have dogged 5Gs rollout across the world, with Chinese mobile giant Huawei banned from network infrastructure in the UK, US and Australia last year. Three Irelands 5G launch took around a year longer than its main competitors, Eir and Vodafone, after the company made a late switch away from Huawei to Swedish provider Ericsson. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The new report by Expert Market Research titled, 'Global Freeze-Dried Fruit Powder Market Size, Price, Trends, Growth, Report and Forecast 2021-2026 ', gives an in-depth analysis of the global freeze-dried fruit powder market, assessing the market based on its segments like types, applications, and major regions. The report tracks the latest trends in the industry and studies their impact on the overall market. It also assesses the market dynamics, covering the key demand and price indicators, along with analyzing the market based on the SWOT and Porter's Five Forces models. Note 1: For a snapshot of the primary and secondary data of the market (2016-2026), along with business strategies and detailed market segmentation, please click on the request sample report. The sample report shall be delivered to you within 24 hours. Get a Free Sample Report with Table of Contents https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/freeze-dried-fruit-powder-market/requestsample The key highlights of the report include: Market Overview (2016-2026) Forecast CAGR (2021-2026): 4% (Fruit Powder Market) The global freeze-dried fruit powder market is being driven by the rising consumer demand for clean label and nutritious food products and an increase in awareness about using strawberry fruit powder as ice-cream stabilisers across the world. The increasing focus on nutrition of infants and young children is driving the demand for infant foods, thus, aiding the industry growth. The growing population and the rising living standards in developing nations are driving the demand for improved formulations. Moreover, the improved taste of freeze-dried fruit powder is significantly aiding the industry growth. Over the forecast period, the healthy snacking trends are expected to further propel the market growth. Industry Definition and Major Segments Freeze-dried fruit powder refers to the powdered form of frozen fruits. It involves the pulverisation of dried fruit to prepare fine powder, which is further utilised for various applications. Read Full Report with Table of Contents https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/freeze-dried-fruit-powder-market On the basis of type, the industry is divided into: Strawberry Cherry Apple Banana Orange Mango Others The market is divided based on application into: Infant Food Beverages Confectionary Bakery and Desserts The major regional markets include: North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East and Africa Market Trends The global freeze-dried fruit powder market is expected to be driven by the increasing demand for infant food. It has been observed that freeze-dried fruit powder is superior to dehydrated fruit powder because of its fine nature and other benefits. Also, it helps in improving the taste of the end product by masking the bad taste off the active ingredient present in infant food, which makes it quite desirable among manufacturers. This is expected to significantly boost the freeze-dried fruit powder in the region. Further, new product launches, increasing research and development activities by the key players and the rising demand for nutritious, packaged food products will also aid the industry growth in the forecast period. Key Market Players The major players in the market are Kanegrade Limited, Chaucer Foods Ltd, Watershed Foods, Paradise Fruits Solutions GmbH & Co.KG, and Saipro Biotech Private Limited, among others. The report covers the market shares, capacities, plant turnarounds, expansions, investments and mergers and acquisitions, among other latest developments of these market players. Related Reports: Helichrysum Oil Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/helichrysum-oil-market Honey Powder Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/honey-powder-market Banana Flour Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/banana-flour-market Banana Flakes Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/banana-flakes-market Yumberry Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/yumberry-market Sweet Potato Flour Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/sweet-potato-flour-market Liquid Butter Alternatives Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/liquid-butter-alternatives-market Quillaia Extracts Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/quillaia-extracts-market Strawberry Powder Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/strawberry-powder-market Apple Extract Market: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/apple-extract-market Note 2: As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the world, our analysts are constantly tracking the impact of this rapidly evolving situation on the markets and the consumer purchase behaviours. Thus, our latest estimates and analysis about the current market trends and forecast will exhaustively reflect the effects of this emerging pandemic. About Us: Expert Market Research is a leading business intelligence firm, providing custom and syndicated market reports along with consultancy services for our clients. We serve a wide client base ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to small and medium enterprises. Our reports cover over 100 industries across established and emerging markets researched by our skilled analysts who track the latest economic, demographic, trade and market data globally. At Expert Market Research, we tailor our approach according to our clients needs and preferences, providing them with valuable, actionable and up-to-date insights into the market, thus, helping them realize their optimum growth potential. 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With our primary focus on the Latin America and Spain markets, our research experts provide relevant and actionable insights into the markets and track major trends, economic developments, and global trade data. Determined to bring client satisfaction, we make sure that our tailored approach meets the client's unique market intelligence requirements. Our syndicated and customized research reports cover a wide spectrum of industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and food and beverage to packaging, logistics, and transportation. Media Contact Company Name: Expert Market Research Contact Person: Mathew Williams, Business Consultant Email: sales@expertmarketresearch.com Expert Market Research Toll Free Number: US + 1-415-325-5166 | UK + 44-702-402-5790 Address: 30 North Gould Street, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA City: Sheridan State: Wyoming Country: United States Website: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com Vaccine rollout to start next Monday THAILAND: Samut Sakhon, Chiang Mai and Tak will start vaccinating priority groups, including health workers, against COVID-19 from March 1. ChineseCoronavirusCOVID-19drugshealth By Bangkok Post Thursday 25 February 2021, 08:46AM Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha holds up two vials as he announced the arrival of the first batch of a COVID vaccine from China yesterday (Feb 24). Photo: Somchai Poomlard. The first 317,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines - 200,000 from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and 117,000 from British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca - arrived in Thailand yesterday. The first 200,000 Sinovac doses will be inspected by officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) for three days. The vaccines will then be given to priority groups in 13 provinces with the highest infection rates, the greatest economic significance, or both. More than half of the Sinovac batch will be earmarked for Samut Sakhon, the epicentre of Thailands latest outbreak, and Bangkok. Samut Sakhon, which will receive 70,000 doses of Sinovac, has announced it will next month start vaccinating healthcare personnel in contact with infected people and those with chronic diseases. Dr Naresrit Katasrima, head of Samut Sakhons Public Health Office, said about 4,000 people would be vaccinated per day at three public hospitals and seven private hospitals in the province, so it would take 17-20 days to administer all 70,000 doses it receives. It will take 5-7 minutes per recipient, who must then wait for 30 minutes while their condition is monitored. Chiang Mai, which will receive 3,500 Sinovac doses, has also announced plans to begin vaccinating priority groups next month. Dr Jatuchai Maneerat, head of Chiang Mais Public Health Office, said the province planned to vaccinate 1,750 healthcare workers on March 1 and 41,750 people would be vaccinated by May. About 5,000 medical and health personnel will also be vaccinated in Mae Sot on March 1. The first COVID-19 jab to be administered in Thailand will be given to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Sunday and it will be the AstraZeneca version. Gen Prayut called the arrival of the first Sinovac vaccines a historic moment and he thanked all those involved for making it happen. Today is a historic day, he said. The government has tried its best to receive the vaccines as scheduled. Without any unexpected problems, we will have enough to develop herd immunity. An Bord Pleanala approved the project for the homes in Delgany, Co Wicklow, despite 167 objections A large-scale housing development made possible by the 15m sale of convent lands by an order of nuns has provoked widespread local opposition in the Co Wicklow village of Delgany. In 2019, the Carmelite Order of nuns in the town cashed in after selling convent lands to a developer. Now an Bord Pleanala has given the green light to Eddie Holly and Ronan OCaoimhs Drumakilla Ltd for 232 homes on the lands. Newly released records by the appeals board show the fast-track Strategic Housing Development (SHD) proposal secured planning in spite of more than 160 objections lodged against the scheme on the 15-acre site. Board inspector Stephen Rhys Thomas said most of the 167 submissions were made by individuals worried about their locale and containing similar themes and concerns. For the most part, observers are against the scale and density of the development and the problems that will result in terms of traffic congestion and a perception that the character of Delgany Village will be lost, he said. As part of the fast-track planning application, Drumakilla has put a 7m price tag on 24 apartments it is proposing to sell to Wicklow County Council for social housing. The appeals board granted planning permission in spite of the strong recommendation by the county council to refuse on four grounds. The council said the density of the development would contravene the zoning objectives for the lands. It also said a number of apartment units would form a dominant feature and affect the setting of the Delgany Carmelite Monastery House. The management of Delgany National School objected and said the village was gridlocked several times a day and cannot accommodate extra traffic. MUSKEGON, MI Three months ago, Muskegon was under siege from COVID-19, its hospital filled to capacity with more than 150 patients who were receiving treatment from medical personnel summoned from across the country. It was, according to one nurse, chaos. Fast forward to Tuesday, Feb. 23, when Mercy Health Muskegon reported there was not a single patient hospitalized for COVID. How did Muskegon County go, in fewer than 90 days, from one of the hardest hit in the state to having one of the lowest rates of new cases? It was a combination of factors, health officials say. And one of them was the shellshock the community experienced from those dark days of late November. That spike sobered people up, said Gary Allore, president of Mercy Health Muskegon. Nearly everyone knew someone who had COVID-19, and at that point, the pandemic became very real to them, he said. They began taking more precautions, especially those who were most at risk of serious complications, said Kathy Moore, the countys public heath director. They didnt go out. They masked up and kept their distance when they did. And they began getting vaccinated. In mid-November, the countys positivity rate for COVID-19 tests was 20 percent one of the highest in the state. Over this past week, it averaged 2.5 percent, and its rate of new cases was one of the lowest among the 83 counties. West Michigan had mostly been spared the first spike in COVID-19 cases that hit Michigan last April. Summer came, people were outdoors and cases remained relatively low. People over the summer probably got a little comfortable that we were at a manageable level and people werent quite as diligent, Allore said. When the colder weather arrived and people moved indoors, the cases started climbing. We went from having 15 (cases) to 30 the next week to 60 the next week to 120, Allore said. It hit us fast. In late November, the number of hospitalized patients peaked at 152. Mercys new hospital in Muskegon filled up with 140 COVID-19 patients, and recently closed floors at its Hackley Campus were reopened to handle the surge. There is chaos in the staffing office, Molly Nixon, a nurse told MLive at the time. Right now, were in a crisis of staffing. A call went out for help, and 95 contracted medical personnel responded to help Muskegons overwhelmed health workers who themselves were being infected with the deadly virus. More than 100 people died of COVID-19 in November, a number that grew by another 77 by the end of the year. But new cases in Muskegon County were starting to drop, and Mercy was able to close the Hackley unit after four weeks. Looking back at what our organization had to go through for those four weeks in such a quick surge I hope its something we never have to go through again, Allore said. Through the crisis, Allore said he was struck by the resiliency of health workers called in to work long hours under difficult conditions and the generosity of community members who volunteered to help. And he said he learned the importance of communicating with the public, and with health providers throughout the community. In a situation like that, you cant communicate enough, he said. After the spike in hospitalizations that started in November, public health officials had braced for the holidays and the after effect of family gatherings and celebrations. But a resurgence in cases didnt happen as feared. I believe that people had started to kind of let down their guards in October, and then we had that big surge in November and that caused them to think twice, Moore said. The county has not had a death from COVID-19 in three weeks, according to public health figures. The total stands at 295. The cumulative number of cases stood at 10,334 on Tuesday, Feb. 23, according to county figures. The number grew by 45 over the prior week. Its rate of cases, computed per million people, continues dropping, with a 40% reduction this past week as compared to the week prior. I really think it took a lot of cooperation, and just responsible precautions by everybody, Moore said. Also on Mlive: Muskegon County courthouse reopening March 1 to public without appointments Public bus system threatened with defunding likely to be cut loose from Muskegon County Thursday, Feb. 25, coronavirus data by Michigan county: Case, positivity rates up slightly again FRIDLEY (dpa-AFX) - Medtronic plc has recalled unused Medtronic Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft system globally, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Irish medical technology company also informed physicians to immediately cease use of the device until further notice. The company initiated the recall following information obtained from the Valiant Evo Global Clinical Trial indicating that three patients in the trial were observed to have stent fractures, two of which have confirmed type IIIb endoleaks. One patient death was reported. Following these observations, an independent imaging laboratory reviewed all available images from patients enrolled in the Valiant Evo Global Clinical Trial. It was found that seven out of 87 patients were observed to have stent ring enlargement beyond the design specification. Those observations require further assessment to determine potential clinical importance. Medtronic is currently conducting a comprehensive technical root cause investigation, including further review of follow-up clinical trial imaging and commercial complaints and imaging. The company has contacted the FDA, along with other regulatory bodies around the world, to share information related to the recall. Further, Medtronic advises physicians to retrospectively review all available images of patients treated with Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft system with specific attention to stent fractures and type IIIb endoleaks. They are asked to contact the firm if any imaging findings are observed. Patients with a Medtronic Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft system are urged to consult their physician with any questions. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 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. Advantech (stock code: 2395), a global leader in industrial IoT, launches Advantech Connect, an online partner conference for Advantech global partners. Having AIoT Vision as its theme, the forum will be held from February 24th to May 6th and center around five main topics: Industrial IoT, Embedded IoT, IoT Cloud Platform - WISE-PaaS, Smart City Solutions and Services, and Cloud IoT. In total, more than 20 online forums will be hosted over the next three months. Learn the latest AIoT trends that help the formation of an IoT ecosystem Advantech Connect will start with the AIoT Visionary Keynote speech on February 24. Influencers, such as Professor William Webb, author of The Internet of Things Myth, Alfonso Velosa III, research analyst from Gartner, Ken Forster, founder of Momenta, and strategic partners Microsoft and Intel will also give talks. Various invited experts will discuss trends in the IIoT industry and insights from various perspectives such as the blind spots of IoT development, promoting enterprise digital transformation with AIoT, and accelerating the formation of AIoT ecosystem partners through venture capital funds. With in-depth examination on how to utilize AIoT to accelerate digital transformation and innovation, you can quickly get up to speed on the exciting business opportunities in IIoT. AIoT market set to reach US$450 billion in 2025 KC Liu, CEO of Advantech, commented, According to Gartners report, the AIoT market will reach US$450 billion by 2025. Of this market, integrated solutions and services will account for the majority (roughly 55%) of IoT business. Therefore, I believe that by 2025, the IoT ecosystem will be much improved. KC further asserted that the reason the IoT did not grow as fast as expected 10 years ago is because AIoT ecosystems need to evolve gradually step by step, from Stage 1.0 to Stage 4.0. Stage 1.0: WISE-PaaS Created: IoT-PaaS solutions are required. Advantech began developing WISE-PaaS in 2015 and commercialized it in 2018. Stage 2.0: Integratable Industrial Apps: Develop industrial apps as building blocks to ensure easy solution integration. Advantech develops integration-ready industrial apps and solution suites for solution integrators aimed at the domains of iFactory, energy and environment, public services, iRetail, iBuilding, and iHealthcare. Stage 3.0: Interconnection in Applications and Domains: Industrial apps and domain focus applications should be properly interconnected so that solution integrators can join the ecosystem and start to duplicate solution business to other fields. To fulfil this, Advantech has applied four tasks, achieve application suite readiness, initiate more key technology breakthroughs, and establish strong and committed domain solution integrator relationships. Stage 4.0: Integrators Innovate: Develop innovative solutions quickly and efficiently. This will allow domain system integrators and the IoT industry as a whole to enjoy explosive growth. Eventually the digital transformation of all domains will become a popular reality. Three months, five main topics, and more than 20 industry- and technology-themed forums To provide partners from all regions of the world an opportunity understand the latest industrial IoT trends, the Advantech Connect Global Partner Online Forum will broadcast more than 20 industry and technology-themed forums centered on five main topics over two consecutive months, and in two time zones (Paris and New York). About AdvantechThe Advantech Connect Online Partner Conference is expected to have more than 40,000 customers and partners from various industries as participants. Also invited to the conference are technology and industry experts in the fields of edge-to-cloud, IoT cloud platform, AI, 5G, intelligent transportation, environment and energy, intelligent healthcare, intelligent logistics, intelligent retail, and more. They are invited to share their opinions and insights in the hopes of benefiting customers and partners and accelerating digital transformation. Furthermore, we anticipate continuing collaboration with partners in order to co-create a sustainable ecosystem, strengthen ecological interconnection, and seize industrial IoT business opportunities together. Advantechs corporate vision is to enable an intelligent planet. The company is a global leader in the fields of IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms. To embrace the trends of IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence, Advantech promotes IoT hardware and software solutions with the Edge Intelligence WISE-PaaS core to assist business partners and clients in connecting their industrial chains. Advantech is also working with business partners to co-create business ecosystems that accelerate the goal of industrial intelligence. (www.advantech.com) DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Destaco, part of Dover (NYSE: DOV), is pleased to announce the launch of the TC1 manual tool changer designed for collaborative robot (cobot) pick and place, load and unload applications. The TC1 provides seamless integration for fast tool change operation, thereby expanding cobot flexibility and increasing return on cobot investment. As cobot use in part-locating applications continues to expand across markets, including CNC machine tending, medical/laboratory tools, warehouse packaging and many commercial applications, safe and easy-to-use cobot peripherals that can be rapidly deployed are in high demand. Destaco has designed the TC1 to meet these evolving customer needs. Among other benefits, the TCI offers operator-friendly self-locking, push-button release, lightweight, flexible mounting and direct electrical connectivity to UR cobots. "With the increase in non-traditional automation, comes an increased need for true plug and produce cobot products. TC1 is a high-quality, ready-to-work solution that delivers on this need through its differentiated design," said Gary Labadie, Global Product Director, Destaco. "We also recognize how important deployment speed is for our customers, so we package each tool changer with its own mounting hardware and necessary tools to ensure fast installation without requiring additional adapter plates, mounting hardware or custom cabling." The TC1 manual tool changer includes the following benefits: Ultra-lightweight and low profile: At 25mm height and 330g, more cobot payload capacity is dedicated to part handling versus tooling. Versatility: Tool changer blanks allow users to add their own mounting patterns versus the standard ISO 9409 cobot mounting pattern. Easy Installation: Electrical modules connect directly to UR cobots. More electrical modules will be implemented in the future to integrate directly with other cobots. Operator friendly: The self-locking insertion, push-button release allows any cobot operator to switch cobot tools in less than 30 seconds for maximum uptime. Gripper compatibility: TC1 integrates directly with Robohand pneumatic and electric grippers supporting load and upload or pick and place applications. The TC1 is an out-of-the-box, ready-to-install solution and includes quick start guides that show customers step-by-step how to quickly install the tool changer to their cobot. To learn more about any of Destaco's high-performance automation, workholding or remote-handling solutions, please visit destaco.com or call (888) Destaco (888-337-8226). About Destaco: Destaco, a Dover Corporation company, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance automation, workholding and remote-handling solutions. The company serves customers in a variety of end-markets, including the automotive, life sciences, consumer packaged goods, aerospace, industrial and nuclear sectors. Built on a legacy of more than 100 years, Destaco offers a comprehensive portfolio of products designed to engineer precise movement, placement and control solutions that drive productivity and uptime for manufacturers around the world. The Destaco family of products consists of industry-leading brands such as Destaco Manual Clamps, Power Clamps, and End Effectors; Camco and Ferguson Indexers; Robohand Grippers; and CRL Manipulators and Transfer Ports. Destaco is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S.A. The company has more than 800 employees with 13 locations, in 9 countries, across the Americas, Europe and Asia. More information is available at destaco.com. About Dover: Dover is a diversified global manufacturer and solutions provider with annual revenue of approximately $7 billion. We deliver innovative equipment and components, consumable supplies, aftermarket parts, software and digital solutions, and support services through five operating segments: Engineered Products, Fueling Solutions, Imaging & Identification, Pumps & Process Solutions and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Dover combines global scale, operational agility, world-class engineering capability and customer intimacy to lead the markets we serve. Recognized for our entrepreneurial approach for over 60 years, our team of over 23,000 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. Destaco Contact: Kristen Fairbrother (248) 836-6674 [email protected] Dover Media Contact: Adrian Sakowicz, VP, Communications (630) 743-5039 [email protected] Dover Investor Contact: Andrey Galiuk, VP, Corporate Development and Investor Relations (630) 743-5131 [email protected] SOURCE Dover Related Links http://www.dovercorporation.com Reeling from the effects of the pandemic, the oil industry is in no mood to fool around. When newly inaugurated President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline project, refiners on the Gulf Coast shuddered. How would they get the Canadian oil they needed? But when President Biden paused all oil and gas permitting on federal lands and waters and canceled lease sales, struggling oil and gas companies took the gloves off and prepared for a fight. At stake is the industrys very survival. One recently announced fight involves Continental Resources, an Oklahoma-based exploration and production company that relies on permits to allow it to conduct its normal business. But in January, on the day President Biden was inaugurated, the Department of the Interior clamped down--on President Bidens direction--on approving permits for oil and gas exploration on federal lands and in federal waters. It did this not by banning permits outright but by limiting which Interior employees could approve permits. The number of employees to approve permits has dwindled significantly to a total of nine, limited to leadership only. It is an effective suspension of the permitting process, although not an outright suspension. The suspension order, signed January 20, was to last for a period of sixty days--until March 21. But according to Continental, the Department of the Interiors actions are unconstitutional, and on February 23, it filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in North Dakota. The challenge, according to the 44-page lawsuit, is that by delaying 50 of Continentals permits, it has violated a provision in The Mineral Leasing Act, which spells out strict deadlines that the Department of the Interior must follow during the permitting review process. Related: Exxon Shocks As Oil Reserves Drop By A Third In other words, the Act tells the DoI how much time they have to rule on permit applications, and this suspension has essentially stalled the permitting process. But Continental isnt the only one on this warpath. The Western Energy Alliance, just seven days after President Biden took office, filed a lawsuit challenging his order that banned oil and nat gas leasing on federal public lands. The WEA alleges that President Biden exceeded presidential authority and his order violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act, and much like Continentals lawsuit, it violates the Mineral Leasing Act, which requires the Interior Secretary to hold quarterly lease sales. The WEA filed their suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming--a state that ranks first in federal natural gas production and third in oil. Wyoming also has more federal acres leased than any other state. Bidens Keystone XL cancellation has also drawn the wrath of the oil and gas industry, with more than a dozen U.S. states considering a lawsuit against the federal government. The 830,000 barrel per day pipeline project has been stuck in regulatory muck for well over a decade prior to its cancellation. States were quick to urge Biden to reconsider. But their pleas appeared to have fallen on deaf ears, citing energy security, lost jobs, and lost revenues. Related: Bank Of America Expects Fastest Oil Price Rise In 30 Years In a letter from 14 Attorneys General, including Montanas Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the states threatened some type of vague legal action. Please be aware that states are reviewing available legal options to protect our residents and sovereign interests. In the meantime, we urge you to reconsider your decision to impose crippling economic injuries on states, communities, families, and workers across the country. In a departure from the rash of lawsuits, but no less striking, 24 Republican senators have banded together to support a bill in the U.S. Senate designed to stop the executive order that paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands. The bill is known as Protecting our Wealth of Energy Resource Act (aka the POWER Act) of 2021 and would prohibit a President or Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture and Energy departments from blocking energy or mineral leasing and permitting on federal lands and waters without Congressional approval. Despite the legal challenges, the new administrations policies show no signs of shifting. Interior Secretary nominee Deb Haalands testimony this week would not commit to ending Bidens suspension of oil and gas leasing. If confirmed, it is President Bidens agenda, not my own, that I would be moving forward, Haaland said, implying that Bidens green energy vision would be executed. The nominee went on to say, however, that the ban would not be a permanent thing. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-24 21:33:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MADRID, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Spain unveiled an aid package worth 11 billion euros (13.4 billion U.S. dollars) on Wednesday for companies and self-employed workers, which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said will focus on the sectors of tourism, hotels and restaurants. "We not only want to save companies, but to strengthen them," Sanchez said while addressing lawmakers in the Spanish Congress, the lower house of Parliament. The aid package could "reinforce the solvency of their balance sheets," allowing companies to "resume their activity, make the necessary investments and hire the workers they need to start the economic recovery," he said. Sanchez was optimistic that Spain's "economic recovery has a firm hope," and in a "sure and safe horizon," as the country continues with its vaccination program. "We are in the final stretch of the health emergency and the beginning of the economic and social recovery," he said. With 3,165,191 doses of vaccine administered to date, Sanchez said the vaccination program was now "beginning to give results." "Spain is the fourth country in the EU in the number of doses administered... 540,000 doses are administered per week," he said, before announcing a major increase in vaccine supply in the coming weeks. "Spain will receive four times as many vaccines in the next quarter," said Sanchez, who insisted Spain would meet its target of vaccinating 70 percent of its population by the end of the summer. As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in Spain and many other European countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines. Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 23. Enditem Opinion International Community Must Commit to Reversing Myanmars Military Coup Anti-regime protesters call for international action against the junta at the US Embassy in Yangon on Feb 16. / The Irrawaddy The coup in Myanmar needs legitimacy to succeed. On Feb. 1 the military overthrew the democratically elected government and then formed its so-called State Administrative Council. In response, the public response could not have been more unanimous. Millions from different backgrounds are joining the civil disobedience movement and refusing to work while this regime is in power. Peaceful demonstrations have engulfed the country. But international support or at least apathy will give the regime legitimacy. The violence and lack of respect for human rights in the past show they must not succeed. The military has already received diplomatic support from China and Russia at the UN Security Council and ASEANs non-interference policy will be followed by most of its members. From the regimes point of view, China wants Myanmar as a base to threaten India and US geostrategic interests. The country is at the crossroads of south and southeast Asia and China has immense influence over ASEAN and looms large as Myanmars northern neighbor. Chinas Belt and Road Initiative could dominate Myanmar. It is a threat to the country and many other underdeveloped nations liberty. We are doubly threatened because the military has the confidence to do whatever it wants by saying it is protecting our sovereignty from external threats. The military is following the same playbook as in 1988 with its divide and rule strategy by talking to the ethnic armed groups. It may already have signed some preliminary agreements. Some parties and individual candidates, who lost in the free and credible general election in November, have joined the regime. It is a strategy which always ends in ordinary people from ethnic minorities getting the uncomfortable end of the militarys very sharp stick. In the assault on democracy and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the military paused fighting in some of Myanmars civil war. What they want is to hold onto power. The military does not care about the 2008 Constitution it took decades drafting or about following international laws like the Geneva Convention or Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The military understands it cannot defeat State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the ballot box. When the military seized power, it would have expected people to demonstrate and known how to handle them. The armed forces are supposed to protect the people and not rule over them through violence. We need to look for ways to destroy the culture of military coups across the world. The military says it built the country and is the only institution capable of ruling. It is likely it allowed the NLD to take power because the Constitution was so stifling and would lead to such a weak government that the military could then claim a civilian administration cannot tackle Myanmars issues. The coup culture in Myanmar has allowed the military to have substantial legal and illegal financial business interests. An entire economy is under its tight control. The military previously allowed some militias free rein to conduct business activities in the areas they control. It has also been well documented that Chinese groups work with these border guard forces and militias who declare they are fighting for self-autonomy but are actually extorting residents and setting themselves up as warlords. Both the military and militia leaders want to be governments. Violence and force have replaced democracy and become the state. If these warlords join forces there will be an even greater threat to human rights, peace and democracy. In Shan State, this has already become a reality in many places. The Northern Alliance and Arakan Army are supported by China. The United Wa State Army has formed a small state, functionally outside the control of Myanmars military. It has its own currency, laws, Chinese weapons, radar and defense systems and Chinese languages are spoken. The population in Myanmar has no peace or security. We live in a perpetual risk of violence. My organization, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), has been monitoring those detained or charged since the coup. By Feb. 24 there has been 728. There is a strong possibility this will accelerate and, like in 1988 and 2007, the military will violently crack down on young protesters who are courageously leading the civil disobedience movement if international action is not immediately taken. My generation was also persecuted for our political beliefs. We expressed them as our inalienable rights because we desired democracy and those who survived the crackdown were imprisoned, tortured and then persecuted until they fled the country. The main reason the military got away with it was because it was granted international legitimacy, in particular from China, Russia and ASEAN. However, crucially, in the past we did not have legitimate leaders to mediate with the military. On Nov. 8, 2020, we elected a government and parliament. These are the elected leaders who represent us. Many were detained during the Feb. 1 coup. Some of those who were not detained have formed the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), representing elected NLD members of the Union Parliament. The CRPH members, who now face arrest warrants, constitute Myanmars legitimate government and President U Win Myint, who is currently detained, is our legitimate leader. Our democratic leaders and parliamentary representatives must be given international legitimacy. The military coup does not deserve a seat at the United Nations. On Feb. 18, groups of so-called monks attacked cars carrying peaceful demonstrators. Using violence to intimidate the civil disobedience movement is part of a wider pattern of counter-coup mob violence. Equally, the 1am to 9am internet blackout is an effort to harass and subdue support for true democracy. But it is only making us stronger. Younger activists understand the NLD won the election and they want this to be recognized. And they want an end to the illegitimate military dictatorship. Some ethnic parties are calling for the 2008 Constitution to be scrapped and a federal union to be established. There are many different views in Myanmar and these will only be reconciled in a just and democratic way. We want accountability for the coup to ensure it never happens again. The military will expect western countries to impose targeted sanctions and maybe it expects other forms of pressure. However, it understands the international community will find it difficult to do more. The generals assume there will be no military intervention although the US, EU, UK and Japan may impose some additional pressure. But the non-interference policy from China and ASEAN gives cover to the military. Peace and security for residents will continue to be highly limited and our neighboring countries will also be affected and suffer as long as the military is in power. On Feb. 20, the Peace Process Steering Team, a group of ethnic armed organizations which signed the 2015 National Ceasefire Agreement, decided to support the civil disobedience movement. It said it would try to ensure the junta does not violently crack down on protesters, help release political detainees and suspend the ceasefire agreement. Its statement demonstrates without doubt the alignment of different groups in Myanmar against the coup and an agreement on the juntas threat to peace and security. To prevent these threats to the peace and security of the people, the UN Security Council should deliver a sharp condemnation of this threat in a unanimous statement. This statement must be followed by diplomatic intervention in coordination with ASEAN, demanding the military returns to its barracks. Former political prisoner Bo Kyi is co-founder and joint-secretary of the AAPP. Bo Kyi was first arrested in 1989 for his political activism and spent most of the next decade in prison. Escaping to Thailand after his release, he called for the release of all political prisoners. Since 2013, the AAPP has been active throughout Myanmar. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Protesters Call ASEAN Not to Endorse Military Regime Australia Demands Immediate Release of Detained Myanmar Government Adviser Indonesia, Thailand Seek Peaceful Solution to Myanmar Crisis PORT HURON, MI -- Cleveland Elementary School in Port Huron was placed on lockdown Wednesday morning after police received multiple calls from a man threatening to burn down the school. St. Clair County Dispatch received multiple threatening calls from an unknown man around 8:10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, according to a Port Huron Police Department news release. The school was placed on a soft lockdown as police investigated the threats. About an hour later, police found out the caller was a 32-year-old man who called from the 2700 block of Nern Street. When police attempted to place him under arrest, the man attempted to run from and fight officers. Officers deployed a Taser and took him into custody, according to police. The Port Huron residence the man made the calls from was the home of the mans girlfriend, who he had met online, according to police. He gave several fake names to investigators before police were able to identify him using a portable fingerprint scanner provided by Michigan State Police. He is now lodged without bond in the St Clair County Intervention Center. He is charged with terrorism using telecommunication to commit a crime, false report or threat of a bomb and resisting an obstruction arrest. The man is also on parole in Ohio. The lockdown at Cleveland Elementary School ended after the man was arrested. Anyone with information on the situation is asked to call CAPTURE at 810-987-6688. Anonymous tips can be made by texting the word CAPTURE and tip to 847411 or by downloading the Port Huron PD app. Tips can also be emailed to www.porthuronpolice.org. Read more on MLive: 1 dead, 2 seriously injured after 3-vehicle crash in St. Clair County 3 charged after missing Flint Township man is killed, body is burned Flint Township man charged with torturing, abusing girlfriends 2-year-old daughter, prosecutor says Port Huron Customs and Border Protection officers respond to vehicle fire amid blizzard Police investigate hit-and-run on M-52 in Shiawassee County One of more than a dozen Syrians who took the stand, Mukdad recounted how he was blindfolded and hit with a rifle, before being loaded onto a bus and taken to Branch 251. During a total of 16 days in detention, he lost more than 16 kilograms. At one point he said he was packed into a cell a little over 21 square metres with 87 others. He described the experience as hell. The brutal physical and psychological abuse had been used to force confessions, to obtain information about the opposition movement and to deter the prisoners from further protesting against the government, the court said in a statement after the verdict. In Branch 251, it said, there was torture using electric shocks, beatings and severe psychological abuse to obtain forced confessions. Prisoners were denied access to sufficient food or medical care and kept in inhumane conditions, it found. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Gharib was convicted of rounding up demonstrators following a protest in the Syrian city of Douma and accompanying them by bus to Branch 251, despite knowing of the widespread abuses that happened there. This verdict is against a single individual and hes been, I think correctly, referred to as a relatively small fish, said Steve Kostas, legal officer for the Open Society Justice Initiative, which represents Syrian victims who have given evidence at the trial. But the evidence in the case in order to prove the crime against humanity involved demonstrating the role of the entire Syrian government intelligence agencies going up to the highest levels. In his closing arguments last week, Gharibs defence lawyer began by reading a quote from Martin Luther King jnr, saying he had a dream that humanity had learnt from the crimes in history, according to the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights account of the trial. The lawyer emphasised that Gharib helped as a witness against the other defendant, Raslan, and his behaviour after his alleged crimes showed remorse: he had defected from Syria and apologised to the victims in a letter. A Syrian boy rides a bicycle through a part of the old city of Homs, devastated by the Assad regime bombings. Credit:AP He also said that Gharib had to follow his superiors orders. Evidence presented to German authorities has included documentation from the Syrian defector code-named Caesar who smuggled thousands of pictures of torture victims out of Syria. But much of the evidence against Gharib was based on his own testimony to authorities when he applied for asylum in Germany. In an initial May 2018 asylum interview, he admitted working with Syrian intelligence but said he was a witness to abuses. In a later police interview, he admitted detaining demonstrators. Loading As his defence lawyer, Gharib wept before saying he had nothing to add. Although some were quick to criticise what was perceived as a relatively short sentence, the decision still offers Syrian victims a new kind of hope that sometimes, justice prevails. I believe that this is just one step on a long and hard road to achieving any justice for Syria and its children, said Wafa Mustafa, a Berlin-based Syrian activist who campaigns on freeing detainees in Syria. My most important hope and my most important message is that this is a chance for the whole world [...] to do more than just talk. This is a chance to save all the detainees who we can still save. While states can normally only prosecute crimes committed on their own territory, the case used the principle of universal jurisdiction, which is enshrined in German law and allows for the overseas trials of those accused of committing grave acts such as genocide or war crimes. Loading It allowed a former Syrian soldier to be convicted of war crimes in Sweden in 2017 after posing with his boot on a corpse. The trial shows that its possible with drive and perseverance and determined prosecutors for victims to have their day in court, said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. Over the last 10 months, courageous survivors have provided testimony about horrific abuses committed in Syrias ghastly archipelago of prisons, Jarrah said in a statement. This case not only speaks to the role of the two suspects but also lays bare the Syrian governments systemic torture and killing of tens of thousands of people. YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenia's prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months of protests calling for his resignation following the country's defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Police detain an opposition demonstrator during an anti-government protest at the government building in Yerevan, Armenia, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Thousands of protesters calling for the resignation of Armenia's prime minister have demonstrated in the center of the country's capital. (Hayk Baghdasaryan/PHOTOLURE via AP) YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenia's prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months of protests calling for his resignation following the country's defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced opposition calls to step down ever since he signed a Nov. 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century. The opposition protests gathered pace this week, and the feud with his top military commanders has weakened Pashinyan's position, raising concerns about stability in the strategic South Caucasus region, where shipments of Azerbaijans Caspian crude oil pass through on their way to Western markets. The immediate trigger for the latest tensions was Pashinyans decision earlier this week to oust the first deputy chief of the military's General Staff that includes the armed forces' top officers. Police stand in a line to protect the government building against opposition demonstrators during an anti-government protest in Yerevan, Armenia, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Thousands of protesters calling for the resignation of Armenia's prime minister have demonstrated in the center of the country's capital. (Hayk Baghdasaryan/PHOTOLURE via AP) In response, the General Staff called for Pashinyan's resignation, but he doubled down and ordered that the chief of the General Staff be dismissed. After denouncing the militarys statement as a coup attempt, Pashinyan led his supporters at a rally in the capital, and he addressed them in a dramatic speech in which he said he had considered but rejected calls to resign. I became the prime minister not on my own will, but because people decided so, he shouted to the crowd of more than 20,000 people in Republic Square. Let people demand my resignation or shoot me in the square. He warned that the latest developments have led to an explosive situation, which is fraught with unpredictable consequences. In nearby Freedom Square, over 20,000 opposition supporters held a parallel rally, and some vowed to stay there until Pashinyan stepped down. Demonstrators paralyzed traffic all around Yerevan, chanting Nikol, you traitor! and Nikol, resign! Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, center, gestures as arriving at the main square in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. Armenia's prime minister has spoken of an attempted military coup after facing the military's General Staff demand to step down. The developments come after months of protests sparked by the nation's defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan. (Hayk Baghdasaryan/PHOTOLURE via AP) There were sporadic scuffles in the streets between the sides, but the rival demonstrations led by Pashinyan and his foes later in the day went on in different parts of the capital. As the evening fell, some opposition supporters built barricades on the central avenue to step up pressure on Pashinyan. The crisis has its roots in Armenia's humiliating defeat in heavy fighting with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh that erupted in late September and lasted 44 days. A Russia-brokered agreement ended the conflict in which the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces but only after more than 6,000 people died on both sides. Pashinyan has defended the peace deal as a painful but necessary move to prevent Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. Despite the simmering public anger over the military defeat, Pashinyan has manoeuvred to shore up his rule and the protests died down during winter. But the opposition demonstrations resumed with new vigour this week and then came the spat with the military brass. Pashinyan fired the deputy chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Tiran Khachatryan, earlier this week after he derided the prime minister's claim that only 10% of Russia-supplied Iskander missiles that Armenia used in the conflict exploded on impact. Police block opposition demonstrators letting off flares, as they guard Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's supporters rally in the central in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. Armenia's prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months long protests calling for his resignation following the nation's defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. (Karo Sahakyan/PAN Photo via AP) The General Staff responded Thursday with a statement demanding Pashinyan's resignation and warned the government against trying to use force against the opposition demonstrators. Immediately after the statement, Pashinyan dismissed the General Staff chief, Col. Gen. Onik Gasparyan. The order is subject to approval by the nation's largely ceremonial president, Armen Sarkissian, who hasn't endorsed it yet, prompting an angry outburst from Pashinyan. If he doesn't sign my proposal to dismiss Gasparyan, does it mean that he joins the coup? Pashinyan asked at the rally of his supporters. He urged the chief of the General Staff to resign voluntarily, adding that I wont let him lead the army against the people. The prime minister warned that authorities now will move more forcefully to disperse the opposition protests and arrest its participants. He bluntly rejected their demand for early parliamentary elections. The political crisis is being watched closely, particularly in Russia and Turkey, which compete for influence in the South Caucasus region. Russia, worried about its ally plunging deeper into turmoil, voiced concern about the tensions and emphasized that Armenia must sort out its problems itself. We are calling for calm and believe that the situation should remain in the constitutional field, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Pashinyan and called for the preservation of calm and order in Armenia, Peskov said. While the Kremlin emphasized stability, the Russian military didn't miss a chance to slap the Armenian leader on the wrist for debasing the Iskander missile, a state-of-the-art weapon touted by the military for its accuracy. The Russian Defence Ministry said it was bewildered to hear Pashinyan's claim because the Armenian military hadnt fired an Iskander missile during the conflict. It added that the Armenian prime minister had apparently been misled. Armenia has relied on Moscow's financial and military support and hosts a Russian military base ties that will keep the two nations closely allied regardless of the outcome of the political infighting. And even though the peace deal is widely reviled in Armenia with many calling it a betrayal, it's unlikely to be revised no matter who is in charge following the fighting that demonstrated Azerbaijan's overwhelming military edge. Turkey, which backed its ally Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, would relish instability that would further weaken Armenia. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country strongly condemns the coup attempt in Armenia and stands against all coup attempts anywhere in the world. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan urged all parties in Armenia to exercise calm and restraint and to de-escalate tensions peacefully, without violence. In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano also called on rival sides to avoid any rhetoric or actions that could lead to further escalation. ____ Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions World-leading children's hospitals partner to find new treatments for pediatric diseases Ahead of Rare Disease Day (28 February), four leading children's research institutions on three continents are joining forces to decipher paediatric illnesses, including rare diseases, and find better treatments. The four paediatric hospitals -- Boston Children's Hospital; UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London); the Murdoch Children's Research Institute with The Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne); and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto -- are working together to evaluate genomic data, clinical data from patients, and scientific and medical expertise to accelerate discovery and therapeutic development. The partnership, known as the International Precision Child Health Partnership (IPCHiP), is the first major global collaboration around genomics and child health. The founding partners anticipate that additional institutions will join the collaboration in the future. Of the more than 7,000 rare diseases that affect millions of individuals globally, only a few hundred have approved treatments. Many of these diseases mean children suffer their whole lives, or may die early from complications, sometimes just a day after birth. IPCHiP's goal is to enable the world's top experts in paediatrics and genomics to work together to improve diagnosis, implement personalised treatment decisions, and develop new therapeutic targets and treatments that will benefit children around the world. IPCHiP's first project will involve epilepsy in infants, bringing together efforts already underway at the four hospitals. Investigators at each site will enrol babies under age one with epilepsy, sequence their genomes, change treatment based on the findings when appropriate, and follow the children's development long term. No patient will be identifiable from the data used, and no patient data will be shared across international borders. The study will compare infants who receive a genetic diagnosis with those who don't. Through this project, IPCHiP will establish systems to evaluate data responsibly across the different institutions. The study will pioneer the use of rapid genome testing in epilepsy and will recruit 100 babies initially, with a larger study planned. After initial seed funding by each institution, the collaborative anticipates additional funding through national health and medical research grants within each country, industry contracts, and philanthropic efforts. The collaborative as a whole has received support from the International Venture Philanthropy Network. ### Notes to Editors Quotes by country: UK Professor Rosalind Smyth, Director of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: "Our partnership will enable us to combine the collective power of our research effort to answer questions about rare diseases in children, which we are not able to answer by working only within our own centres. This will mean that we can move much more swiftly to effective treatments where none currently exist. "We're bringing together the world's top experts in genomics, rare disease, paediatric medicine, and computational science to develop precision approaches to benefit children everywhere. In addition, we think our large patient cohorts will enable partnership with industry when a discovery advances to clinical trials." Dr Amy McTague (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), who is leading the epilepsy project, GeneSteps, in the UK, said: "We know that for at least 50% of babies with epilepsy, there is a genetic cause. For some, having a specific genetic diagnosis can change treatment and we want to know if finding the genetic problem earlier improves epilepsy and development in the long-term." Professor Helen Cross (Great Ormond Street Hospital, GOSH), President-elect of the International League Against Epilepsy, added: "This world-first collaboration, supported by the GOSH NIHR BRC and Young Epilepsy, is a unique opportunity for us to work together for patients with rare diseases such as genetic epilepsy. "This exemplifies GOSH's ambition to be a Research Hospital, where research is embedded across our care of children with rare and complex diseases. The new Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, where Dr McTague is based, also allows our work to draw from expertise at UCL's Institute for Child Health and GOSH, while the hospital's global reputation means we will be able to work with a large number of children and their families." USA David A. Williams, MD, chief scientific officer of Boston Children's Hospital said: "We're looking to combine the strength of each institution and find areas where we can pair genomic data with phenotype data to find answers for these patients. We will prioritize projects that have the possibility of making a difference in their care, by developing new therapies and perhaps by repurposing an existing drug. "We're bringing together the world's top experts in genomics, rare disease, pediatric medicine, and computational science to develop precision approaches to benefit children everywhere. In addition, we think our combined patient cohorts will enable partnership with industry when a discovery advances to clinical trials." Annapurna Poduri, MD, MPH, who is leading the Boston Children's Hospital arm of the epilepsy project, said: "We hope to demonstrate the impact of an early genetic diagnosis in babies with epilepsy. Will children who obtain a precise genetic diagnosis have changes in treatment and fewer seizures? Will these changes improve survival and developmental outcomes? This collaboration is an opportunity to systematically provide answers to these questions, starting with a pilot of 100 children and hopefully extending to several hundred children in the coming years." Australia Professor Kathryn North AC, Director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, said: "IPCHiP brings together the clinical and research strengths of the four leading children's medical research institutions internationally. This is a critical mass of leading researchers together with a critical mass of patients. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts when it comes to genomic collaborations. "So much of paediatrics deals with genetic, often 'rare' diseases, and so the combination of complementary research strengths, experience and patient cohorts will empower greater research collaboration. Ultimately, this partnership will help us find answers that families are desperately seeking, and the treatments their kids desperately need, much more quickly. "This is a research collaboration bringing together the best minds in the world to accelerate discovery research and develop effective therapies for the world's most precious resource - our kids." Professor John Christodoulou AM, Director, Genetics Theme, MCRI; Chair in Genomic Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, said: "Being able to harness the expertise of global leaders in paediatrics and genomics gives us an unprecedented opportunity to be able to deliver rapid genetic diagnoses at scale to the sickest kids, which we believe will transform the lives of these children and their families." Dr Katherine Howell, Paediatric neurologist and clinician-scientist, The Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, said: "Having a prompt genetic diagnosis guides our choice of seizure medication, with dramatic effect. We've had a glimpse with individual babies of the possible benefits of prompt genetic diagnosis, but we now want to understand how much benefit this approach might provide to all the infants we see with these devastating conditions. "In Melbourne we only see about 30 babies with these epilepsies every year, but by following the outcomes of hundreds of infants with epilepsy who receive cutting-edge genetic sequencing, genetic counselling and precision treatments across the IPCHiP consortium, we will be able to treat genetic epilepsy faster, more precisely and with better outcomes." Canada Dr. Stephen Scherer, Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) at SickKids, said: "SickKids has been championing a new approach to paediatric medicine - Precision Child Health - which includes using genomics to better classify disease so it can be treated earlier and more effectively. Through IPCHiP, we can now share our expertise and resources to fuel new discoveries. By doing so, we are taking a huge leap forward in moving medicine toward data-driven treatments that take into account individual differences in each child's genes." Dr. Vann Chau, Neurologist and Project Investigator in the Neurosciences & Mental Health Program at SickKids, who is leading the SickKids arm of the epilepsy project, said: "Rapid whole genome sequencing can help us find the cause of early onset epilepsy quicker and among a greater number of patients, giving clinicians the critical data they need to choose the most appropriate treatment sooner. Our hope is that this collaboration will help create new and tangible changes in medical practice to cut diagnosis from months to days, and lessen the burden on our patients and families living with epilepsy." Dr. Greg Costain, Staff Physician in the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics, and Scientist-Track Investigator in the Genetics & Genome Biology Program at SickKids, said: "At SickKids, we have a successful track-record of conducting genomics research studies that translate from the bench to the bedside," says "With this new international partnership, we hope to responsibly leverage research technologies and specialized expertise from world-renowned institutions to help ourselves and our colleagues provide the best care possible for all our patients and families." For more information, case studies (UK and Australia) or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact: (UK) Sophie Vinter, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0)20 3108 7787, E: s.vinter@ucl.ac.uk (USA) Erin Tornatore, Boston Children's Hospital T: 617-919-3110, E: erin.tornatore@childrens.harvard.edu (Australia) Tom Keeble, MCRI communications manager, T: +61 400 764 084, E: tom.keeble@mcri.edu.au (Canada) Jessamine Luck, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), E: Jessamine.luck@sickkids.ca This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 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. 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. Singapore -headquartered Inbrew Holdings Pte. Ltd, which is owned by UK-based entrepreneur Ravi Deol, has acquired Molson Coors Brewing Co.s beer business in India, as the American firm is in the process of exiting non-core geographies. The deal value was not disclosed. Molson Coors India Pvt. Ltd (MCIPL) is a subsidiary of Coors Brewing USA with popular beer brands in India. Molson Coors, North Americas second-biggest beer producer, had acquired Mohali-based Mount Shivalik Breweries Ltd in 2015. The acquisition gave it control of two breweries, in Punjab and Haryana, besides adding Thunderbolt, a popular strong beer brand in north India, to its portfolio. As part of the recent deal, Inbrew Holdings will acquire Thunderbolt and the rights to Molson Coors other brands such as Millers, Miller High Life, Miller Ace, Blue Moon, Carling and Cobra in India. Inbrew will own the plants, along with the entire business operations in India. The facilities have a combined capacity of over 600 hectoliters with a scope for doubling capacity, besides Molson Coors brewery in Bihar. The total installed capacity of the breweries is 16 million unit cases. Molson Coors has invested significantly in India and we plan to expand the manufacturing footprint and distribution of Thunderbolt to smaller cities and towns, a strong base for strong beers. We will be launching the brand in more southern states," said Deol. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Tucker Carlson was outraged Thursday night that teachers want to exercise caution before fully re-opening schools, calling them disgusting and saying theyre all just sitting at home on Twitter instead of teaching kids. The COVID-19 death toll in the United States crossed 500,000 this week. Thats more than 20% of the entire worlds death toll from the virus its an extremely disproportionate number because the U.S. only contains 4% of the population of Earth. Last year, Fox News argued in court that Tucker Carlson is not stating actual facts on his show and thus he should not be treated as a credible journalist. So the teachers unions are just totally out of the closet, confirming everything weve suspected for years. Theyre not teaching just because theyre teachers. Theyd rather be in Puerto Rico sipping margaritas. What happens to your kids they could literally care less, Tucker whined. Also Read: Tucker Carlson Says He Just Learned That QAnon 'Is Not Even a Website' (Video) During this segment, Tucker never made any attempt to argue one way or another about the teachers concerns. Instead, he just delivered a bunch of insults while the Fox News chyron read: Teachers have no interest in going back to school. Nobody says the obvious: teachers unions are totally corrupt and entitled and actively hurting your kids. People dont say that because teachers unions give a ton of money to politicians, to Democrats. But that changed this week, that cone of silence over teachers unions, when Adam Carolla went to war with the LA teachers union on social media, Tucker said. Quote LA teachers either dont want to go back to work or are cowards, he tweeted. Those the only two options left. And that struck a nerve over at the union, where of course everyone was sitting at home on Twitter, instead of teaching kids. Also Read: Tucker Carlson: 'Imagine if Lying Was Your Job' (Video) The teachers unions Twitter account immediately fired back. They accused Carolla of cowardice, or as they put it: Sitting safely in his La Canada mansion. Right, okay. Story continues Corolla then joined Tucker in mocking teachers, who on average earn 21% less than other college graduates. People need to rise up and start telling these heroes to start doing their job again, Carolla cried. Tucker asked Carolla why he felt the need to complain on Twitter. Also Read: Tucker Carlson Is Outraged Disney Made a Kamala Harris Video for Black History Month (Video) Because Im a hero and everyone else is a coward, Carolla said, before complaining about the teachers trying to cancel him. Theyve got a lot of time, I noticed, to try and pull you off the air and respond to you on Twitter. I mean shouldnt they be grading homework or something? Tucker said. Later, Carolla wanted to explore a hypothetical he made up to further villainize teachers. Well, the teachers wont go back into the classroom until theyre vaccinated. But what if that vaccine was three years away? Would you just let the kids sit in rooms and grow beards until you guys were vaccinated then? Carolla said. So disgusting, Tucker replied. You can watch the quoted portion from Wednesdays episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News in the video embedded up at the top of this article. var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid__1", "obj": {"id":"21259","stats":{"wp":1},"title":"Tucker Carlson Says He Just Learned That QAnon Is Not Even a Website","video":"724558","width":"640","height":"360"}}); Read original story Tucker Carlson: Disgusting Teachers Could Literally Care Less About Your Kids (Video) At TheWrap 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. The achievements of Vietnamese women steering large corporations have been recognized internationally. Nguyen Thi Bich Van In early 2021, on its Facebook page, IBM Vietnam for the first time announced the appointment of a female Vietnamese CEO to replace a foreign CEO who had been working for IBM for 25 years. The woman, Pham Thu Diep, is the first IBMs female general in the company's 25 years of operation in the Vietnamese market. It is now more common to see women managing large corporations in Vietnam such as Mai Kieu Lien, CEO of Vinamilk; Nguyen Thi Nga, president of BRG; Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet; and Le Thi Thu Thuy of VinFast are some of the names. However, becoming a CEO of a foreign invested technology firm is still rare in Vietnam. Before taking the office as CEO of a technology firm, Diep was a high ranking manager with 23 years of experience in the IT field. Starting her career at TRG International, she later held posts at Exact, which provides ERP service and cloud software to clients specializing in accountancy. Diep joined IBM in early 2011 and has had many leadership positions since then. In 2017, a Vietnamese woman became the highest ranking leader of Unilever Vietnam, a foreign invested enterprise specializing in personal and family care products and food. The first Vietnamese female president of the leading company in the FMCG sector is Nguyen Thi Bich Van, who has had a strong attachment to the company for the last 24 years. Le Diep Kieu Trang is another well known name among businesswomen. She worked as CEO of Facebook and Go-Viet before choosing a new way to go. The golden girl with respectable achievements during school has had leadership positions at the worlds largest groups in Vietnam. The brilliant achievements gained by VietJet Air, the air carrier with the largest market share, in the last decade bear the hallmark of CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Last year Vietjet was one of only a few air carriers in the world which did not lay off workers and also made a profit, despite the Covid-19 crisis. After a period of holding the post of CEO at Fossil Vietnam, Trang chose Facebook to use her experience to connect to the business community, both in Vietnam and overseas. Global vision Van said in Forbes Vietnam that being a leader in a multinational environment requires a high level of professionalism. She needs to understand multinationals vision and define their role in the multinationals business. The working environment at multinationals is very diverse, so there is high requirement on the ability to work, communicate, and think in that environment. To encourage people to raise good ideas, leaders not only need to understand national cultures, but also understand the abilities of each worker so as to combine their talents and lead the staff to the finish point. According to Van, this is not an easy work, because the more talented people there are, the more difficult it is for the team to reach a common purpose. In modern times, CEOs need to not issue orders from the top down, but serve others. They need to set orientation and then give power to workers to implement the strategies. Some important positions at foreign corporations were and are held by Vietnamese women. These include Nguyen Phuong Anh, who worked as Google Asia Pacific marketing director in charge of the Vietnamese market; and Nguyen Mai Phuong, who became the youngest branding director of Unilever at the age of 24. Vietnamese businesswomen also play an important role in the development of Vietnamese enterprises. The brilliant achievements gained by VietJet Air, the air carrier with the largest market share, in the last decade bear the hallmark of CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Last year Vietjet was one of only a few air carriers in the world which did not lay off workers and also made a profit, despite the Covid-19 crisis. Thao has been included in Bloombergs list of 50 global influential leaders for many years. Thao is also chair of the board of directors and founding shareholder of Sovico Holdings, and deputy chair of HDBank. In the manufacturing sector, Le Thu Thuy, president of VinFast, is a respectable name. Just within a short time, VinFast introduced its first two products LUX A2.0 sedan series and LUX SA2.0 SUV at Paris Motor Show 2018. Most recently, its first three SUV smart electric cars were launched. The great strides made by VinFast has created a stronger belief in the future of Vietnams automobile industry. This is the first time in history that a Vietnamese company can manufacture luxury cars with good design and high quality, to be sold in Vietnam and in the world market as well. V. Ha Mystery businessmen pours VND150 billion into ITA, Dang Thi Hoang Yen makes surprise move The ITA shares of the Tan Tao Group unexpectedly witnessed an impressive trading session with a record high trading volume. Early studies show the coronavirus variant thats spreading widely across California is somewhat resistant to antibodies that fight off infection, but the vaccines still should offer plenty of protection, infectious disease experts say. Antibodies generated by the vaccines, or by previous coronavirus infection, were two to four times stronger against earlier versions of the virus compared to the new variant, scientists at UCSF found in laboratory studies. They released preliminary results this week. The finding is disappointing, but not cause for alarm, said scientists involved with the study as well as outside observers. The vaccines are extremely powerful, and even with a drop in antibody strength, they likely will be about as effective against the variant as they are against the original version of the virus they were designed to fight. If there is a reduction in effectiveness, the vaccines still should prevent almost all cases of severe illness and death, even from the new variant. In my opinion it will make no difference in terms of the efficacy of the vaccine, said Raul Andino, a UCSF virologist who led the variant antibody research. I would say there is nothing to be afraid of just now. The California variant is now dominant in much of the state; there are technically two variants, known as B.1.429 and B.1.427, but they are nearly identical and carry the same key mutations. Scientists generally are studying them as a singular variant. Two teams of UCSF scientists released study results this week showing for the first time that the variant appears to be more infectious than earlier coronavirus versions, and that it may also cause more serious illness and be resistant to antibodies. All of the results suggest this variant is worrisome and should be closely monitored. That its so widespread should remind people to stay vigilant about wearing masks and keeping social distance, even as the winter surge fades and the state reopens, experts warn. But the antibody research in particular is important to put in context, scientists say. The research itself is critical: If variants appear able to evade vaccines, public health officials want to know that right away. The vaccine manufacturers, too, need to know if they should update their formulas to better match new variants. The California variant along with one from South Africa could render the vaccines marginally less effective in subtle but important ways. As with so many aspects of this pandemic, scientists wont have all those answers until theyve done more research. Studies in South Africa have shown that vaccines work somewhat less well against a different variant there. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, for example which the Food and Drug Administration is considering for emergency authorization is about 64% effective in South Africa and 72% effective in the United States. Moderna updated its vaccine to better match the South Africa variant after studies found it was less effective; the new version is still under review. Similar studies havent been done yet for the California variant. For now the only sign that there may be trouble is antibody resistance in the lab, but that doesnt mean the vaccines wont work in real life. Antibodies are the immune systems most powerful response to disease-causing pathogens. They are specialized proteins let loose by the immune system to target and kill invaders. When someone is infected with a virus or other pathogen, the immune system learns from that experience and if it encounters the same virus again, it will quickly gather an army of antibodies. Vaccines similarly prime the immune system to release antibodies. The vaccines used in the United States trigger huge antibody responses that are about 95% effective at killing the coronavirus. To understand antibody effectiveness against the new variant, UCSF scientists did a common experiment called a neutralization assay. They collected antibodies from people who had been infected and others who had been vaccinated, and diluted those antibodies to varying degrees. They let samples of the California variant and a non-variant virus soak in the various antibody dilutions for half an hour. Then the antibody-soaked viruses were mixed with cells in petri dishes to test whether the viruses were still alive and infectious. Scientists focused on how much the antibodies could be diluted and still manage to kill, or neutralize, the virus. The UCSF team found that antibodies generated by the vaccines could be diluted twice as much against the original virus as they could against the California variant. Antibodies from people who were previously infected could be diluted four times as much. In other words, the antibodies were stronger against earlier versions of the virus compared to the new variant. Similar studies from South Africa found antibodies to be six to 10 times stronger against the original form of the virus compared to the variant there. The California variant should cause concern, but certainly not like South Africa, said Dr. Jay Levy, an infectious disease expert at UCSF who said he found the results released this week reassuring. The vaccines will work, unless it mutates to become worse. Youre still neutralizing the virus. There are several caveats to these early results, the most important of which is these are laboratory experiments that analyze interactions between the virus and antibodies in a highly controlled setting. In real life, the body mounts a complex immune response to the virus. That may be further helped or hindered by environmental factors that cant be replicated in a lab. Vaccine effectiveness is nuanced too. The vaccines in use in the United States are nearly 100% effective at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID-19, but its unclear how well they protect against asymptomatic disease. Vaccinated people may still be carriers of the virus. Its also not yet known how long vaccine protection lasts. The key takeaway remains: Everyone should get vaccinated when their turn comes, said Bali Pulendran, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. If you asked me, would you take the vaccine in the hope that it might offer some protection against variants? he said. My answer would be a resounding yes. Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute (PPI), Angela Rodell was elected to serve as its next chair and Mark Delaney as vice chair. Rodell succeeds Jeb Burns, chief investment officer of the Municipal Employees' Retirement System of Michigan, who held the position for three years. Rodell previously served as vice chair of the PPI Board of Directors. "Angela is deeply respected among her investment peers and the global PPI Community. She has brought tremendous insight to PPI's board, and we look forward to continued progress in serving our institutional investor membership under Angela's capable leadership," said PPI President Lionel Johnson. Angela M. Rodell is the chief executive officer/executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, a state-owned corporation based in Juneau, Alaska, that manages and invests the assets of the $72 billion Alaska Permanent Fund and other funds designated by law. Rodell has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Mark Delaney is the deputy chief executive and chief investment officer of AustralianSuper, acting as an advisor to the board, developing and implementing investment strategies, and managing the work of AustralianSuper's investment advisers. Mr. Delaney has a bachelor's degree with honors and is a CFA charterholder. About PPI: Pacific Pension & Investment Institute (PPI) is a global organization with individual and institutional members from leading pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, commercial asset management and other investment experts. Our members' investment decisions impact the prosperity and security for hundreds of millions of beneficiaries and stakeholders today and for future generations. PPI has held forums for over two decades that inform the investment decisions of the world's major institutional investors as they relate to Asia and the Pacific Rim. These forums, exclusively for members, are conducted in a collegial, trusted and marketing-free environment, which allows in-depth and off-the-record dialogue. This tradition of thought leadership and candid conversation are coveted aspects of the PPI experience. For more information visit: www.ppi.institute. Contact: Mark Mancao, Chief of Staff [email protected] Pacific Pension & Investment Institute 465 California Street, Suite 610 San Francisco, CA 94104 USA Ph: +1-415-576-1187 SOURCE PACIFIC PENSION & INVESTMENT INSTITUTE Related Links http://www.ppi.institute Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Mi India completed 5 years of the Make in India initiative. Mi India was earlier manufacturing all of its smartphones in India via its manufacturing partners: Foxconn and Flex. However, the company has been ramping up its Indian smartphone manufacturing during the pandemic over the last 9 months. In a recent move, Mi India has onboarded two new manufacturing partners DBG and BYD for manufacturing smartphones in India. DBG, which is already operational in Haryana, enables an increase in monthly manufacturing capacity by about 20%. The second facility with BYD which will go live in Tamil Nadu in the first half of 2021 is also expected to contribute significantly to the production capacity. According to the companys claims, Mi India manufactures more than 99% of its smartphones locally in India. The majority of the components such as PCBA (mother-board), sub-board, camera module, battery, back panel, USB cable, chargers, boxes, and other components are locally sourced or locally manufactured in India. These components are being manufactured by partners such as Sunny India, NVT, Salcomp, LY Tech, Sunvoda, and many more. All these components contribute to more than 75% of the value of smartphones. On the other hand, the company has onboarded a new manufacturing partner Radiant Technology for manufacturing smart TVs. Notably, Radiant Technology has set up a manufacturing plant in Telangana. With this move, 100% of the smart TVs sold are now Made-in-India, claims the company. To date, Mi India has already sold 3 Million units of Made-in-India smart TVs. With the new manufacturing plant, the local employment crosses 60,000. This 60,000 strong workforce has been built over the last six years since its inception in 2014 and comprises partners from manufacturing, after-sales, offline sales, logistics, and corporate employees (team members exclusively working for Mi India). Speaking on the initiatives, Manu Kumar Jain, MD, Mi India said, Storm Victims In Texas To Receive Extension From IRS Victims of this month's winter storms in Texas will have until June 15 to file various individual and business tax returns and make tax payments, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday, February 22. Following the recent disaster declaration issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the IRS is providing this relief to the entire state of Texas. But taxpayers in other states impacted by these winter storms that receive similar FEMA disaster declarations will automatically receive the same filing and payment relief. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the disaster relief page on IRS.gov. The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting on February 11. As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until June 15, 2021, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period. This includes 2020 individual and business returns normally due on April 15, as well as various 2020 business returns due on March 15. Among other things, this also means that affected taxpayers will have until June 15 to make 2020 IRA contributions. The June 15 deadline also applies to quarterly estimated income tax payments due on April 15 and the quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on April 30. It also applies to tax-exempt organizations, operating on a calendar-year basis, that have a 2020 return due on May 17. In addition, penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after February 11 and before February 26 will be abated as long as the deposits are made by February 26. The IRS disaster relief page has details on other returns, payments and tax-related actions qualifying for the additional time. The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area. Therefore, taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get this relief. However, if an affected taxpayer receives a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS that has an original or extended filing, payment or deposit due date falling within the postponement period, the taxpayer should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated. In addition, the IRS will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period are located in the affected area. Taxpayers qualifying for relief who live outside the disaster area need to contact the IRS at 866-562-5227. This also includes workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization. Individuals and businesses in a federally declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can choose to claim them on either the return for the year the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2021 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year. This means that taxpayers can, if they choose, claim these losses on the 2020 return they are filling out this tax season. Be sure to write the FEMA declaration number 4586 on any return claiming a loss. The tax relief is part of a coordinated federal response to the damage caused by these storms and is based on local damage assessments by FEMA. For more on disaster recovery, visit disasterassistance.gov. NEW DELHI : A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the "government has no business to be in business", India Inc on Thursday said privatisation except in strategic sectors would unleash exciting opportunities, boost investments in infrastructure and create jobs. However, the industry called for an effective implementation of road map towards privatisation and asset monetisation, cautioning that regulatory and legal hurdles should not derail the process. FICCI President Uday Shankar said senior government functionaries and other officials responsible for the execution of the programme would adopt a highly cautious approach in case they are not insulated from the outcome of their bona fide decisions. "Wisdom gained in hindsight should not be used to question the judgement of the decision-takers and such officers should be offered protection for their action done in good faith," he said. The FICCI president emphasised that the quality of the asset is as important as the credibility of the process. In addition to being fair and transparent, the process should have smooth sailing and adhere to projected timelines, Shankar said. He also stressed that asset valuation is contextual and price discovery through an objective and transparent manner should be acceptable. Modi on Wednesday said the government has no business to be in business and his administration is committed to privatising all public sector undertakings (PSUs) barring the bare minimum in four strategic sectors. He also said the Centre's policy is to either monetise or modernise public sector enterprises, with the intent that the government has "no business to be in business". "The prime minister has conveyed his message loud and clear that the focus of the government would be on the welfare of people and not in running business enterprises. "His statement that the government has no business to be in business leaves no doubt in the mind of the policy makers," Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said. He expressed confidence that the strong messaging from the prime minister would lead to the desired results. In the process of privatisation, except in strategic areas, India would see unleashing of a tremendous growth potential, required to meet aspirations of our people and taking us towards the USD 5-trillion mark, Sood said. Speaking at a webinar on privatisation by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), Modi had said the Budget has given a clear road map to take India to a high growth trajectory. Fiscal support to sick PSUs puts burden on the economy, and public sector units should not be run just because of legacy, the prime minister said. He added that many PSUs are loss-making and supported by taxpayers' money. The government has many under-utilised and unutilised assets, and 100 assets would be monetised to garner Ra 2.5 lakh crore, Modi added. The FICCI president also highlighted the importance of the design of the auction. He said it should not be a non-starter nor should it lead to an extensive competition which may impair implementation. While revenue maximisation is the desired objective, larger good in terms of making the resource available to the public should over-ride everything else, Shankar said. In the case of the reverse auction, a bidding war can lead to the winner's curse, making the whole deal unviable. There should be some degree of rationality in the design of the auction, he added. Shankar observed that advisers should be appointed through careful consideration and should have an international presence and network. Appointing the lowest bidder does not always ensure effective discharge of responsibility. Undoubtedly, there are questions on the capability of the lowest bidder. There is a need to qualitatively qualify the advisers, the FICCI president said. CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said, "The prime minister has given a strong statement that the government has no business to be in business, which is a morale booster shot for entrepreneurs. His words reflect a mindset change in the government that its responsibility is to fully support businesses and enterprises, and the agenda of disinvestment, privatization and monetisation of assets that he has unleashed strengthens the confidence of industry." He added that privatisation would contribute significantly towards improving competency within enterprises and would build resource efficiency among units. "The mantra of 'monetise or modernise' is a powerful statement for better utilisation of resources with global best practices." Global and domestic perceptions about India would get a further fillip and so would the environment for doing business in the country, Banerjee said. "CII warmly welcomes this statement of intent and commitment from the Prime Minister." Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. WE are now reading that the Minister of Sport has come out with a statement regarding our participation in the Tokyo Olympics. As with the usual run of the mill political type, the statement vacillates, kicks the can down the road and seeks to avoid the issue. Let us be clear on what the situation is regarding these Olympics. 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. The Cube kicked off for 10 last night with 567,000 tuning in, third in its slot but second in the demos. 10 cites this as its biggest game show launch since 2014. On social media Andy Lee was well received as host, although there was some commentary around the shows pacing and number of commercial breaks. Married at First Sight still won the slot at 891,000 then Hard Quiz 584,000. Meanwhile 7:30 drew 536,000 while Ambulance: Code Red (255,000) and Britains Historic Towns (235,000) trailed. Later The Weekly with Charlie Pickering drew 474,000 then The Equalizer (352,000) and Aftertaste (290,000). Nine network won Wednesday with 33.1% then Seven 21.8%, 10 19.8%, ABC 16.6% and SBS 8.8%. Nine News drew 858,000 / 857,000 for Nine while A Current Affair won its slot at 676,000. Hot Seat was 397,000 / 231,000. Seven News was #1 at 934,000 / 875,000. Home & Away was 489,000 then The Chase 478,000 / 301,000. The Bay ended at 202,000 / 171,000. The Project drew 464,000 / 269,000 for 10. 10 News First (299,000 / 207,000) and Bull (218,000 / 184,000) followed. ABC News (654,000) was best for ABC. The Drum was 146,000 and Why Are You Like This was 136,000. Adam Hills: The Last Leg managed 115,000. On SBS it was Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime (205,000), SBS World News (154,000 / 153,000), Vikings (127,000) and Mastermind (63,000). NCIS topped multichannels at 160,000. Sunrise: 232,000 News Breakfast: 115,000 / 86,000 Today: 191,000 OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 24 February 2021 Related Today, Chambers Ireland and Irish Water announce a new partnership by calling on Kilkenny businesses to get involved in Irish Waters Water Stewardship Programme, which includes taking the Water Conservation Pledge, carrying out free Online Water Conservation Training and finally enrolling to become a Certified Water Steward. Water is a critically important resource, fundamental to both homes and businesses. But it's also a limited resource with water shortages becoming a global reality. Protecting our precious water is becoming as important as reducing our energy use with water now ranked as the third greatest risk to global growth in the next 10 years according to the World Economic Forum. Irish business uses circa 510 million litres of water every day in Ireland (the equivalent of 10 times the amount needed to supply a city the size of Limerick), which is why supporting businesses to become more sustainable in how they use water is critical to safeguarding our supplies for the future. Chambers Ireland will work with Irish Water to raise awareness of the Three Steps to Sustainable Water Management, to support businesses to lower water consumption and reduce operating costs while protecting the environment. Yvonne Harris, Irish Water Head of Customer Operations, said: Safeguarding our precious water resources is a top priority for Irish Water. For that reason we are delighted to launch this water stewardship partnership with Chambers Ireland. Conserving water not only helps protect your local supply it can also protect the environment, boost your reputation, and reduce your bills. Small changes such as identifying water waste on site, setting a baseline for water use, raising awareness amongst staff and customers or upgrading to water efficient devices can help to save water and money. John Hurley, Kilkenny Chamber CEO said: Kilkenny Chamber encourages Kilkenny businesses to move to sustainable water management. Irish Waters Water Stewardship Programme provides an opportunity to improve your green credentials by taking the water conservation pledge and online training to support your business to use water sustainably, in a way that benefits people and the environment. There are many business benefits to taking the water conservation pledge and developing a sustainable water management strategy, including reducing the risk of your business being impacted by limited availability or quality of water, reputational gains and improving relationships with stakeholders and with your supply chain, as well as ultimately cost savings. Irish Water is delivering the Certified Water Steward Programme in partnership with the Lean & Green Skillnet and Central Solutions. Welcoming the initiative, Ken Stockil, Director of Programme Delivery said, This innovative programme has been made possible thanks to the funding from Irish Water, Skillnet Ireland, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and is a clear demonstration of Irelands growing reputation and leadership actions on water stewardship and climate action. Irish Waters innovative and world-leading Certified Water Stewardship Training is the final step of three steps Irish Water has developed to support all types of businesses move to sustainable water management. The programme has been running for two years and has trained over 320 Certified Water Stewards to date. 70% of the businesses who took part are introducing Annual Water Stewardship Targets on foot of the programme and have produced 825 new water conservation projects. Three graduating sites have certified to International Water Stewardship Standards. Businesses can find out more information on the Water Conservation for Business Hub at www.water.ie. NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Donlin, Recano & Company, Inc. the Court Appointed Claims and Noticing Agent for the Archdiocese of New Orleans (ANO). On May 1, 2020, the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans (ANO) filed for Chapter 11 Reorganization under the United States Bankruptcy Code. More details about this case can be found at www.NolaChurchClaims.com or by calling (877) 476-4389. Anyone sexually abused before May 1, 2020 by a member of the ANO clergy or other individual related to the Archdiocese, its parishes, schools, orphanages or a related ministry must file a claim by March 1, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. (Central Time). Individuals whose claims are approved may receive compensation for the claim. Individuals who do not file a timely claim may lose legal rights that may exist against the Archdiocese of New Orleans. To file a clergy abuse claim: Individuals claiming abuse must file a claim using the Sexual Abuse Survivor Proof of Claim by March 1, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. (Central Time). For more detail and to file a claim, visit www.NolaChurchClaims.com or contact the restructuring information center toll free at (877) 476-4389 or submit an inquiry via e-mail to [email protected] . For more information on the Archdiocese of New Orleans' reorganization and a video message from Archbishop Aymond, visit www.nolacatholic.org/renew . SOURCE The Archdiocese of New Orleans STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Staten Islanders experienced a warm respite from weeks of brutal winter weather Wednesday with highs for the day reported in the mid-50s the warmest temperatures seen in New York City since late December, said David Dombek, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. It was a welcome change, said Dombek. And it was certainly warmer than what weve been recently. The days high surpasses the temperatures recorded throughout the entire months of February and January, said Dombek. The last time during this winter that temperatures were higher than the mid-50s was on Dec. 25, Christmas, when the high for that day was 61 degrees. Looking ahead, fluctuations in temperature for the end of February into early March are expected, said Dombek, who added that there could be brief spells of some chilly or colder weather. I think its more of a back-and-forth type-regime were going into over the next week to 10 days or so, said Dombek. The National Weather Service forecasts that Thursday will have a high near 47 degrees, with Friday having similar temperatures in the mid-40s before dipping to a low of 34 degrees in the evening. Saturday and Sunday have highs of 49 degrees and 51 degrees, respectively, the National Weather Service forecasts. Moving into March, temperatures typically accelerate upward at a fast pace, according to Dombek, though winter weather is still a possibility in the coming weeks. Anybody thats grown up in the Northeast, anybody who has lived in this part of the country for any length of time knows that youre pretty much fair game to get some bouts even if theyre brief bouts of winter weather, even some nasty weather, whether its snowstorms or ice storms, he said. That can still happen through the month of March, sometimes even into the first week or two of April, he said. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! The company recently completed a first-pass soil geochemical survey with the help of a vehicle-mounted auger drill rig with results to help identify any geochemical anomalism which would lead to further exploration. The Graceland auger geochemistry will be carried out on a 400-metre x 100-metre grid. ( ) has started on-ground systematic geochemical exploration work at its highly prospective Viper, Graceland and 8 Mile Dam projects in the Wheatbelt and Goldfields regions of Western Australia. The company has completed a first-pass soil geochemical survey with the help of a vehicle-mounted auger drill rig exploring primary copper, nickel and platinum group element (PGE) occurrences. Results of this program will be used to help identify any geochemical anomalism which would lead to further exploration potentially utilising geophysics and drilling. Historic and intermittent mining and exploration activity on EMUs project areas provide support for a targeted program of exploration to commence immediately. A four-wheel mounted auger drill with a capability to drill more than 20 metres below the surface was used for the survey under the hands-on supervision of a highly experienced and skilled geologist. The recent world-class Julimar discovery by ( ) has highlighted the previously unrecognised, undercover exploration potential of the South West Terrane of Western Australia for copper, nickel and PGE mineralisation. Comprehensive geochemistry program EMU chairman Peter Thomas said: Following the success of our maiden drilling program at Gnows Nest, EMU is launching its on the ground focus over its base metals portfolio. The recently acquired Graceland and Viper Projects, along with our 8 Mile Dam Project, will be tested by a comprehensive geochemistry program targeting copper, nickel and platinum group element mineralisation. These projects are all situated undercover within untested greenstone belts. EMU anticipates that successful results, if any, will immediately transition to follow-up geophysical and RC drilling programs. Viper Project The 112.5 square kilometre Viper Project, near Jerramungup, is centred on the historic high-grade Netty Copper Mine. Past production from Netty over the period 1907-1969 is reported at 3.13 tonnes of contained copper from 30.5 tonnes of oxide and sulphide (chalcopyrite) ore. According to the company, Viper presents as an interesting target for the application of contemporary exploration techniques and is interpreted to be a discrete mineral occurrence along a broad base metal trend associated with shearing at the contact of a mafic intrusive and granite dome. Graceland Project The 58.2 square kilometres Graceland Project, near Hyden, features a significant but concealed, 5-kilometre-long coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly interpreted as a mafic-ultramafic intrusion considered prospective for nickel and copper mineralisation. The anomaly is of sufficient interest to have been the prime driver for EMU to secure this project. Modelling of detailed ground magnetics geophysical data from within the Graceland Project has outlined 10 high-value magnetic plates at depths of 70120 metres. The Graceland auger geochemistry will be carried out on a 400-metre x 100-metre grid across the magnetic anomaly. 8 Mile Dam Project Historic drill chip samples collected by EMU from the 8 Mile Dam Project indicate the presence of previously unrecognised mafic-ultramafic units within this largely granitic terrane considered prospective for nickel and PGE mineralisation. The project is 20 kilometres southwest of Menzies in the WA Goldfields. EMU will, as part of its methodical and measured modus operandi, conduct an auger program to test the prospectivity of the interpreted remnant mafic-ultramafic sequence intersected by previous drilling for diamonds within the largely granitic terrane. This will be EMUs first on-ground geochemical program at this project following a reconnaissance visit by the companys geologists in August 2020. CLEVELAND, Ohio-- The seventh annual Accelerate: Citizens Make Change competition, a week-long virtual event presented by the Cleveland Leadership Center in partnership with Citizens, aims to help entrepreneurs improve their communities. The Cleveland Leadership Center developed Accelerate in 2015 to offer civic entrepreneurs a public platform to develop a vision to improve their communities, share mentorship and support and create an environment overflowing with initiatives to make Northeast Ohio a better place. Marianne Crosley, CEO and president of the Cleveland Leadership Center, says this years initiative is crucial because it will give participants a much-needed boost from the pandemic. We do it the last February every year because it adds some warmth, excitement, and enthusiasm at the end of whats typically a gray, cold, hard month, Crosley said. This year, its particularly important because people can look to get some hope during the pandemic. Crosley said the civic pitch competition invites entrepreneurs every fall to submit ideas they think can improve the Greater Cleveland area. For most of those who pitch, while the money is important, its the connections that they make publically stating their idea in front of individuals who can help them make connections to advance it, Crosley said. Crosley noted any citizen could be a positive change agent, which is partially where the competition gets its name. Its a double entendre, Crosley said. The word citizen has two meanings, recognizing our lead sponsor, and recognizing the power of an individual to affect positive change. Throughout the week, panels of community leaders selected one finalist among the five pitches in each of six categories. Two finalists are chosen each day Monday-Wednesday, so six finalists compete Thursday for the grand prize. The audience will vote to determine the overall winner. The winner will receive $5,000, the five runners-up each receive $2,000. Additional partners and sponsors of the event include The MetroHealth System, serving as Lead Category Sponsor, Destination Cleveland, KJK, The Lubrizol Corporation, MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, Nordson, Oatey Co., and Thompson Hine LLP. Registration is still open. Tickets, originally $35, are now available for Pay What You Can at www.cleveleads.org/Accelerate. Last year, over 700 people attended the event. This years finalists include: Abigail Poeske and Rachel Hosler, who pitched for An Ecosystem of Innovators. They want to create a talent-attraction program that connects university students on campuses across the region with local industry. They pitched in the Economic Development category presented in partnership and The Lubrizol Corporation and MAGNET : The Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network. Laylah Allen and Ashley Welsh, who pitched for Project Coping Box. They want to create a container with items that provide skills and tools for youth to calm themselves and/or express emotions. They hope to expand to those experiencing homelessness or impacted by the pandemic. They pitched in the Health & Well-being category presented in partnership with Oatey and Thompson Hine LLP Antwoine Washington and Michael Russell pitched for MOCHA Gallery the Museum of Creative Human Art. They want to give Black visual artists a platform for career support and the freedom to tell their stories while connecting them to the community. Their pitch was in the Authentic Cleveland Experiences category presented in partnership with Destination Cleveland and KJK Sara Kidner, who pitched Read Like Me, a literacy and role model initiative. She wants to provide young Black males internships to address the reading achievement gap in Black male students in grades 3-5. Her pitch was in the Education category presented in partnership with Nordson Lisa Rose-Rodriguez, who pitched Planting Stems of Peace. She seeks to reduce the incidents of firearm assaults within at-risk populations through harm-reduction models and planting trees. She presented in the Social Change category presented in partnership with The MetroHealth System Michelle Park, who pitched Project DeLight: Dark Night, Stars Bright. She wants to spread awareness of light pollution and bring change within local communities. She presented in the Quality of Life category presented in partnership with The MetroHealth System Here is the remaining schedule of events: Thursday, Feb. 27 Technovation competition 4-5 p.m. Teen Entrepreneur Showcase 5:30-6:30 p.m. Finals with the audience picking winner 6-7:30 p.m. Participants have access to a community board, meet-ups, and other networking and engagement opportunities this week and more. Check out some of the past winning pitches. Noel Fielding shared a picture of himself sporting round blue sunglasses and wearing a ponytail. And he couldn't help but notice he looked just like the late Beatles star John Lennon, as he flashed his large sideburns. The Bake Off star, 47, had his hair pulled back off his face and was more Mighty Bouffant than Mighty Boosh. 'Imagine there are no hairdressers': Noel Fielding looked just like John Lennon in iconic blue sunglasses and a ponytail on Instagram on Wednesday as barbers remain closed He captioned his image with the words: 'Imagine there are no hairdressers it isnt hard to do x' as he referenced Lennon's 1971 song Imagine. Noel also tagged his usual hairdresser Lyndell Mansfield - and he won't have too much longer to wait until he reunites with her. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pencilled in April 12 as the date salons can reopen in his roadmap to cautiously ease lockdown restrictions in England. Spot the difference: Even Noel thought he looked like the late Beatles legend, who was murdered by Mark David Chapman, 65, in Manhattan in December 1980 (pictured in 1974) John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman, 65, in Manhattan in December 1980. Meanwhile, Noel reportedly has almost 1.5 million in the bank after scoring a 150,000 wage rise to continue hosting The Great British Bake Off. According to The Sun, the comedian paid himself nearly 900,000 under Fantasy Man Ltd in 2020. Wow! While Noel referenced the iconic hit Imagine, Noel's fans were commenting on how much he looked like the star The presenter's TV production company, Secret Peter Ltd, boasted profits of 68,716 in the last year. The media personality's companies were believed to be worth just over 200,000 before he joined the Channel 4 show. On his pay rise, a source previously told the publication: 'Noel is incredibly popular with both viewers, and the cast and crew of Bake Off he's a real commodity to Channel 4. Kerching! Noel reportedly has almost 1.5 million in the bank after scoring a 150,000 wage rise to continue hosting The Great British Bake Off (pictured) Dynamic group: The funnyman hosted the latest series with Little Britain's Matt Lucas, while Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith returned as judges 'With Sandi [Toksvig] leaving, it's important they keep up with continuity to ensure people continue. Noel secured a healthy salary rise off the back of the success of the first two series. 'Contrary to his fun, laid-back persona, Noel is one of TV's hardest working broadcasters and now one of its wealthiest.' Noel's earnings have skyrocketed since his stint on the competition series as according to Companies House, he accumulated 1.1million in 2019 up almost 250,000 on the previous year. On his financial success, The Mighty Boosh star previously said: 'We never really thought about money that much or career steps or anything like that.' Astronomers found a roaming comet taking a rest stop before possibly continuing its journey. The wayward object made a temporary stop near giant Jupiter. The icy visitor has plenty of company. It has settled near the family of captured asteroids known as Trojans that are co-orbiting the Sun alongside Jupiter. This is the first time a comet-like object has been spotted near the Trojan asteroid population. Hubble Space Telescope observations reveal the vagabond is showing signs of transitioning from a frigid asteroid-like body to an active comet, sprouting a long tail, outgassing jets of material, and enshrouding itself in a coma of dust and gas. Credits: NASA, ESA, and B. Bolin (Caltech) After traveling several billion miles toward the Sun, a wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way. The object has settled near a family of captured ancient asteroids, called Trojans, that are orbiting the Sun alongside Jupiter. This is the first time a comet-like object has been spotted near the Trojan population. The unexpected visitor belongs to a class of icy bodies found in space between Jupiter and Neptune. Called "Centaurs," they become active for the first time when heated as they approach the Sun, and dynamically transition into becoming more comet-like. Visible-light snapshots by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the vagabond object shows signs of comet activity, such as a tail, outgassing in the form of jets, and an enshrouding coma of dust and gas. Earlier observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope gave clues to the composition of the comet-like object and the gasses driving its activity. "Only Hubble could detect active comet-like features this far away at such high detail, and the images clearly show these features, such as a roughly 400,000-mile-long broad tail and high-resolution features near the nucleus due to a coma and jets," said lead Hubble researcher Bryce Bolin of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Describing the Centaur's capture as a rare event, Bolin added, "The visitor had to have come into the orbit of Jupiter at just the right trajectory to have this kind of configuration that gives it the appearance of sharing its orbit with the planet. We're investigating how it was captured by Jupiter and landed among the Trojans. But we think it could be related to the fact that it had a somewhat close encounter with Jupiter." The team's paper appears in the February 11, 2021 issue of The Astronomical Journal. The research team's computer simulations show that the icy object, called P/2019 LD2 (LD2), probably swung close to Jupiter about two years ago. The planet then gravitationally punted the wayward visitor to the Trojan asteroid group's co-orbital location, leading Jupiter by about 437 million miles. Bucket Brigade The nomadic object was discovered in early June 2019 by the University of Hawaii's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes located on the extinct volcanoes, one on Mauna Kea and one on Haleakala. Japanese amateur astronomer Seiichi Yoshida tipped off the Hubble team to possible comet activity. The astronomers then scanned archival data from the Zwicky Transient Facility, a wide-field survey conducted at Palomar Observatory in California, and realized that the object was clearly active in images from April 2019. They followed up with observations from the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, which also hinted at the activity. The team observed the comet using Spitzer just days before the observatory's retirement in January 2020, and identified gas and dust around the comet nucleus. These observations convinced the team to use Hubble to take a closer look. Aided by Hubble's sharp vision, the researchers identified the tail, coma structure and the size of the dust particles and their ejection velocity. These images helped them confirm that the features are due to relatively new comet-like activity. Although LD2's location is surprising, Bolin wonders whether this pit stop could be a common pull-off for some sunward-bound comets. "This could be part of the pathway from our solar system through the Jupiter Trojans to the inner solar system," he said. The unexpected guest probably will not stay among the asteroids for very long. Computer simulations show that it will have another close encounter with Jupiter in about another two years. The hefty planet will boot the comet from the system, and it will continue its journey to the inner solar system. "The cool thing is that you're actually catching Jupiter flinging this object around and changing its orbital behavior and bringing it into the inner system," said team member Carey Lisse of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. "Jupiter controls what's going on with comets once they get into the inner system by altering their orbits." The icy interloper is most likely one of the latest members of the so-called "bucket brigade" of comets to get kicked out of its frigid home in the Kuiper belt and into the giant planet region through interactions with another Kuiper belt object. Located beyond Neptune's orbit, the Kuiper belt is a haven of icy, leftover debris from our planets' construction 4.6 billion years ago, containing millions of objects, and occasionally these objects have near misses or collisions that drastically alter their orbits from the Kuiper belt inward into the giant planet region. The bucket brigade of icy relics endure a bumpy ride during their journey sunward. They bounce gravitationally from one outer planet to the next in a game of celestial pinball before reaching the inner solar system, warming up as they come closer to the Sun. The researchers say the objects spend as much or even more time around the giant planets, gravitationally pulling on themabout 5 million yearsthan they do crossing into the inner system where we live. "Inner system, 'short-period' comets break up about once a century," Lisse explained. "So, in order to maintain the number of local comets we see today, we think the bucket brigade has to deliver a new short-period comet about once every 100 years." An Early Bloomer Seeing outgassing activity on a comet 465 million miles away from the Sun (where the intensity of sunlight is 1/25th as strong as on Earth) surprised the researchers. "We were intrigued to see that the comet had just started to become active for the first time so far away from the Sun at distances where water ice is barely starting to sublimate," said Bolin. Water remains frozen on a comet until it reaches about 200 million miles from the Sun, where heat from sunlight converts water ice to gas that escapes from the nucleus in the form of jets. So the activity signals that the tail might not be made of water. In fact, observations by Spitzer indicated the presence of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas, which could be driving the creation of the tail and jets seen on the Jupiter-orbiting comet. These volatiles do not need much sunlight to heat their frozen form and convert them to gas. Once the comet gets kicked out of Jupiter's orbit and continues its journey, it may meet up with the giant planet again. "Short-period comets like LD2 meet their fate by being thrown into the Sun and totally disintegrating, hitting a planet, or venturing too close to Jupiter once again and getting thrown out of the solar system, which is the usual fate," Lisse said. "Simulations show that in about 500,000 years, there's a 90% probability that this object will be ejected from the solar system and become an interstellar comet." Explore further Astronomers recategorize asteroid-like comet More information: Bryce T. Bolin et al. Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), Using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, Apache Point Observatory, and GROWTH Visible and Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy, The Astronomical Journal (2021). Journal information: Astronomical Journal Bryce T. Bolin et al. Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), Using Hubble, Spitzer, ZTF, Keck, Apache Point Observatory, and GROWTH Visible and Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy,(2021). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/abd94b Calabria, Italy may not have been on the list of the places you're thinking of traveling to anytime soon, but, this week, it became the site for one of the biggest organized crime criminal trials in the history of the country. 355 people, with said ties to the Ndrangheta crime syndicate, the largest mafia organization in Italy, are on trial for a number of criminal acts. The 'Ndragheta mafia has its hand in illegal businesses all over the globe. They are known drug traffickers, operate illegal sportsbooks and casinos, and much more. They were also linked to the Wirecard payment method, which fell off the radar after over USD $3bn went missing in 2020. The city of Calabria has been overwhelmed by security personnel, in attempts to keep everyone in the area safe, as they do not want it to turn into a scene from classic stories like in The Godfather. Nicola Gratteri, the public prosecutor has been under police protection for over 3 decades and has dedicated his life to bringing an end to organized crime in Italy. In the past, mobsters have had no issue in killing prosecutors, witnesses, and anyone else that could be thought to assisting sending them to jail. Over 1,500 Betting Facilities Over the years, a number of reports have been made that link the Ndrangheta crime syndicate to over 1,500 betting shops and since the advent of online gambling, to over 80 sites. More recently, 68 criminals with ties to the mafia were arrested in a raid, but, the syndicate didn't even slow its operation down. It is fitting that it was one of the mob bosses' sons has helped the police build a case against the 355 people on trial. He lives in hiding and remains a target by those that look for revenge. To make matters worse, there isn't a facility in Calabria that is big enough to act as a courtroom to hold everyone charged. A call center has been transformed into a makeshift courtroom where alleged boss Luigi Mancuso, aka "The Uncle," probably the main attraction in this trial, will stand before the judge. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA is seeking proposals from U.S. companies for ground and flight demonstrations of integrated megawatt-class powertrain systems to design and develop subsonic aircraft that help reduce aviation emissions and invigorate the U.S. economy. The US space agency said it plans to build hybrid aircraft using integrated Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) technologies and associated EAP vision systems for introduction into the U.S. and global fleet by 2035. Integrated EAP concepts are rapidly emerging as potentially transformative solutions to significantly improve the environmental sustainability of the next generation of subsonic transport vehicles. It is also expected to reinvigorate the regional and emerging smaller aircraft markets, and to strengthen the single-aisle aircraft market. Through partnerships with U.S. industry, NASA intends to acquire necessary ground and flight test data to advance design and modelling tools pertinent to future aircraft products with an EAP system. Just like electric or hybrid motors are used in automobile vehicles, EAP electrical systems are being developed to replace or boost fuel-burning aircraft propulsion systems. Studies conducted by NASA and the aviation industry have proved that EAP concepts can reduce energy usage, carbon and nitrogen oxide emissions as well as operating costs that will benefit both the air travelers and the airline operators. Target markets for the technology include turboprops, regional jets, and single-aisle aircraft serving the thin-haul (very short flights), regional, and single-aisle markets. NASA said the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project directly supports retaining U.S. leadership in the aerospace manufacturing sector, the largest net-exporter of all U.S. manufacturing sectors. It has set April 20 as the deadline to submit proposals. 'The release of this request for proposals represents an important next step as NASA partners with industry to further mature critical EAP technologies through demonstrating integrated megawatt-class powertrain systems in flight,' said Lee Noble, NASA's Integrated Aviation System Program director. 'These flight demonstrations have strong applicability to sustainable and highly-efficient aircraft powertrain systems that will facilitate continued U.S. competitiveness for the next generation of commercial transport aircraft,' he added in a press release. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 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. London: A UK court on Thursday (February 25) ruled that fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi can be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated USD 2 billion. The court ordered the extradition of Nirav Modi, who is wanted for fraud and money laundering in the 14,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, accepting the Indian case that he threatened witnesses and tampered with evidence. Here is how the whole case unfolded: January 29, 2018: Punjab National Bank (PNB) files police complaint against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others accusing fraud to the tune of Rs 2.81 billion. February 5, 2018: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launches an investigation into the alleged scam. February 16, 2018: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seizes a cumulative Rs 56.74 billion worth of diamonds, gold and jewellery from Nirav Modi's home and offices. February 17, 2018: The CBI makes first arrest in the case. Two PNB employees and an executive of Nirav Modi's group were detained. February 17, 2018: Government suspends passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi for four weeks in connection with the PNB fraud. February 21, 2018: CBI arrests CFO of Nirav Modi's firm and two other senior executives of his firms. It also seals his farmhouse in Alibaug. February 22, 2018: The ED seizes nine luxury cars belonging to Nirav Modi and his firms. February 27, 2018: A magistrate's court issues a bailable arrest warrant against diamond trader Nirav Modi. June 2, 2018: The Interpol issues Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi for money laundering. June 25, 2018: The ED moves a special court in Mumbai seeking Nirav Modi's extradition. August 3, 2018: The Indian Government sends a request for the extradition of Nirav Modi to the UK authorities. August 20, 2018: The CBI officials request Interpol Manchester to detain Nirav Modi after the latter informs about his presence in London to Indian authorities. December 27, 2018: The UK informs India that Nirav Modi is living in the country. March 9, 2019: British newspaper 'The Telegraph' confronts Nirav Modi on London's streets and confirms his presence in the country. March 9, 2019: The ED says the government of the UK has sent an extradition request of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi to a UK court for further proceeding. March 18, 2019: Westminster Court in London issues arrest warrant against fugitive Nirav Modi after the Indian government request was forwarded to the court by the UK Home Office. March 20, 2019: Nirav Modi arrested in London and produced in Westminster Court, which denies him bail. March 20, 2019: Nirav Modi sent to Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Wandsworth till March 29. March 29, 2019: A Westminster Magistrates Court in London rejects Nirav Modi's second bail application, saying there are "substantial grounds" to believe that he will fail to surrender. The judge fixes April 26 as the next date of hearing when he will appear via video link from jail. May 8, 2019: Nirav Modi denied bail for a third time, to remain in UK jail. June 12, 2019: UK court rejects Nirav Modi's bail for fourth time over fears he would abscond. August 22, 2019: Nirav Modi's remand extended till September 19, UK extradition trial expected in May 2020. November 6, 2019: UK court rejects Nirav Modi's new bail application May 11, 2020: Nirav Modi's five-day extradition trial in PNB fraud case begins in UK May 13, 2020: Indian govt submits more proof against Nirav Modi in money laundering case September 7, 2020: UK court given fresh video tour of Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail December 1, 2020: Nirav Modi's remand extended, final hearings in 2021 January 8, 2021: UK court decides to pronounce judgement in Nirav Modi's extradition case on February 25 February 25, 2021: UK court rules?Nirav Modi?can be extradited to India?to face charges of fraud and money laundering. Modi is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. Live TV By Keith Burbank Bay City News BERKELEY (BCN) Three horses have died since Saturday at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, according to the California Horse Racing Board. Sweet Boy, My Three Kids and Okoye died in training. The trainers of the horses were Timothy Bellasis, Andreas Psarras and Isidro Tamayo, state horse racing officials reported. Five horses have died this year at the track, according to the state horse racing board. "It is tragic for anyone to lose a horse, and I would hope that their owners do genuinely care about them," said Berkeley veterinarian Dr. Crystal Heath. "But anytime we create a system where a living being's value comes from their ability to produce a profit, and their worth is measured by their economic value, it leads to decisions being made based on economics instead of their best interest," Heath said. "This has corrupted our relationship with the horse," Heath added. "I want to know what happens to each of these horses after their three- to four-year careers" as racehorses. Heath said horses can live an average of 25 to 30 years, but many are permanently injured from racing, or slaughtered across the border in Mexico. Heath co-founded Our Honor, an organization of veterinarians who advocate for creating more compassionate systems for all species including humans via collaboration with industry, government, and educational institutions. At least one Berkeley resident and one group want to see the end of Golden Gate Fields. Berkeley resident Paul Picklesimer said that horse racing doesn't seem to be in alignment with Berkeley values, such as compassion. Direct Action Everywhere, which enters farms, slaughterhouses and other agricultural facilities to document abuse and rescue sick and injured animals, also wants to see Golden Gate Fields shut down. Another group Horseracing Wrongs wants to see the end of horse racing altogether. Twenty-seven horses died at Golden Gate Fields last year. Attention to horse deaths grew recently after 23 horses died at Santa Anita Park in Southern California over three months in early 2019. A spokeswoman for Golden Gate Fields did not respond Wednesday to an email asking if track officials wanted to comment on the deaths this year. Copyright 2021 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. 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. Sorry! This content is not available in your region Opposition figure Sobol to stay under house arrest in sanitary rules breaching case Moscow's Tverskoy District Court, Moskva city news agency 13:13 25/02/2021 MOSCOW, February 25 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld choosing of the house arrest as a restrictive measure against opposition figure Lyubov Sobol charged with violating sanitary rules at the illegal rally held in Moscow on January 23, the courts press service told RAPSI. She will stay under house arrest until March 23. On Thursday, the court will also consider an appeal against house arrest of other defendant in the case, an employee of a foundation established by Alexey Navalny, Oleg Stepanov. Earlier, the court upheld house arrest of Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina and Navalnys brother Oleg, who are also charged in the case. All four defendants are accused of breaching sanitary and epidemiological requirements. According to police, coronavirus-positive persons ordered to isolation were identified among participants of the Moscow rally. A criminal case over violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules was opened over this fact. Madison City Schools is bringing students back to the classroom due to a decline of coronavirus cases in the community and district. The district said in an announcement Wednesday afternoon that With the positivity rate at near 10% and indicators from both the Huntsville Hospital System and the ADPH of declining Covid-19 issues, we will return all of our school-based students to an everyday schedule beginning Monday, March 1. There will still be some virtual days in March for standardized testing. You can read the district's full announcement on Wednesday below: Dear MCS Family, We have been blessed in the last few weeks with a decline in both the positivity rate of Covid-19 in our community and the number of staff and students quarantined in our schools. With the positivity rate at near 10% and indicators from both the Huntsville Hospital System and the ADPH of declining Covid-19 issues, we will return all of our school-based students to an everyday schedule beginning Monday, March 1. I know this is a change, but I feel that with the recent weather-related absences from school that it is the right time to reopen fully for all of our school-based students. Please know that we will continue to monitor the rate of infection in our community in the days ahead. Also, there will be a few days scheduled as virtual after spring break to address the required standardized testing for the district. Those virtual days are detailed in the calendar attached to this messenger. Below you will find specific information about the state standardized assessments. Addressing Gaps in Learning I realize that since March 2020, our students have experienced interruptions in traditional school due to the pandemic. Our team has been working on a plan to support gaps in student learning that will begin in the summer and extend into the 2021-2022 school year. After spring break, I will provide more information about these learning opportunities in addition to the summer school opportunities that are traditionally provided. State Standardized Testing In the upcoming months, the Madison City School system will administer standardized tests to all students in grades 2-8 and grade 11. These tests are required by the Alabama State Department of Education and may only be administered on school campuses. More importantly, results from tests such as the ACAP Summative and the ACT - in addition to formative assessments such as iReady and STAR - provide guidance to help us meet students where they are and to help them continue to make academic progress. Students who participate in these standardized tests will gain valuable academic information regarding their progress, strengths, and areas to improve. Therefore, we strongly encourage your childs participation. The elementary, middle, and high schools are developing schedules for school-based students and virtual students to complete the ACAP testing session and the ACT on campus. More information will come from your childs school concerning testing dates and times. In order to provide testing opportunities for both school-based and virtual students, there will be a few scheduled virtual days. On March 9, school-based and virtual 11th grade students will take the ACT on campus; therefore, 9th, 10th, and 12th grade school-based students will have an asynchronous virtual learning day. On April 9 and 23, virtual students in grades 2nd - 8th will be taking the ACAP Summative assessment on campus. Therefore, school-based students in grades Pre-K - 8th will have asynchronous virtual learning days on both April 9 and 23. The asynchronous virtual learning days mentioned are detailed in the calendar attached to this messenger along with the specific grade levels that will be virtual on those days. Attached to this messenger is a letter from the Alabama State Department of Education explaining the ACAP (Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program) to parents. We encourage you to review the information. Also included in this messenger is a form for parents of virtual students to complete. If you are the parent of a virtual student in 2nd - 8th grades, please complete this ACAP Form by March 1 to notify the school of your plans for your child(ren) to complete the ACAP assessment on campus. We appreciate your continued support of our schools. Ed Nichols Superintendent Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access New Delhi: A 28-year-old doctor from Kerala has been arrested by the United States police for groping a minor girl sitting beside him in a United Airlines flight bound to New Jersey. While, the accused doctor has denied all allegations. U.S. media reported that the 16-year-old girl was travelling alone on July 23 and was asleep on the flight. When a strangers hand on her thigh awakened her. Washington Post reported that the Indian man has been identified as Vijakumar Krishnappa, sitting next to her removed his hand as she woke up. The newspaper quoting the federal court complaint wrote, the teenager went back to sleep but few minutes after woke up again and founf the man was groping her. The newspaper wrote that the girl complained the incident to the airline crew. According to the newspaper article the girl on landing at the Newark Liberty Airport called her parents and detailed the incident. On the mean time the accused left the airport. The girls family has also filed a complaint against the United Airlines for neglecting to detain the accused. The incident is being handled by FBI. The agency has charged Krishnappa with criminal sexual contact. According to US media reports Krishnappa was charged in the federal court of Newark. According to media report Krishnappa has been released on bond and has been placed with electronic monitoring. The court has directed him not to contact with minors while the criminal case is pending. While, Krishnappas court-appointed attorney, John Yauch, told the media that his client adamantly denies the charges and deserves to be considered an innocent man. The doctor's court-appointed attorney, John Yauch, told the Post that his client "adamantly denies the charges and deserves to be considered an innocent man." Krishnappa is studying medicine in the United States. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Headshot of American political activist Malcolm X (1925 - 1965) holding a fist full of U.S. currency during a speech at Urline Arena, Washington, in August 1963. (Richard Saunders/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) NYPD, FBI Connected to Malcolm Xs Murder, Letter Released by His Family Alleges Malcolm Xs family members presented a letter from a deceased undercover cop Sunday that alleges the FBI and NYPD were responsible for his assassination. Former undercover NYPD officer Raymond Wood wrote the letter, which was presented by some of Malcolm Xs daughters and Reggie Wood, the officers cousin, the New York Post reported. Three members of a black separatist group were convicted following Malcolm Xs assassination in Harlem, New York, in 1965. Under the direction of my handlers, I was told to encourage leaders and members of the civil-rights groups to commit felonious acts, the letter said, the Post reported. Supervisors allegedly pressured former officer Woods to bait two members of Malcolm Xs security detail into committing crimes, leading to their arrest two days before the shooting, the Post reported. In the letter, Woods said federal officials and the NYPD conspired to arrest Xs security detail in order to make the hotel ballroom where he would be assassinated more accessible to the perpetrators. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance reopened the case last year in response to claims by historians and scholars that people were wrongfully arrested for the shooting, the Post reported. Vances office said the review of this matter is active and ongoing and the NYPD said it is cooperating with the investigation. Several months ago, the Manhattan District Attorney initiated a review of the investigation and prosecution that resulted in two convictions for the murder of Malcom X, NYPD Detective Denise Moroney told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The NYPD has provided all available records relevant to that case to the District Attorney. The Department remains committed to assist with that review in any way. The FBI did not respond to the DCNFs request for comment. By Kaylee Greenlee From The Daily Caller News Foundation UP eases covid restrictions: Shops allowed to open on weekdays in districts with less than 600 active cases UP CM Yogi Adityanath slams Opposition for creating ruckus during Governor's address India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Lucknow, Feb 25: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday criticised the opposition for its behaviour during the Governor's address to the joint sitting of the state legislature last week, saying it does not augur well for democracy. Opposition parties had raised slogans and staged a walkout during the Governor's address in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on the first day of the Budget session on Thursday last. While wrapping up the discussion on the governor's address, Adityanath said, "Such behaviour does not augur well for democracy. Nor will it do any good to any party". PM Modi inaugurates multiple developmental projects in Puducherry "Their behaviour during the address of governor will not strengthen democracy. We have to shun bad practices and adopt good ones. But there are those who work contrary to this, leave good practices and adopt bad traditions and try to do more bad," the chief minister said in the Legislative Council. "Their behaviour against a governor, who also happens to be a woman, is not good. But it is there in history and the state guest house episode is an example of their behaviour. "It's a misconception that one who shouts and creates ruckus while raising an issue is considered good. People do not consider it as good. In public life, we should set an example for people to follow," the chief minister said. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee rides pillion on electric scooter to protest fuel price hike "Continuing the bad tradition will do no good to any party or people. But it is a matter of habit which refuses to change," he said. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News Adityanath's reference to the state guest house incident dates back to June 2, 1995, when SP lawmakers and supporters created a ruckus at the venue where BSP leader Mayawati was meeting her legislators purportedly to pull the plug on the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led coalition government. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 14:16 [IST] You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. This 2017 billboard in Budapest was part of a Hungarian government campaign to "demonize George Soros," the report said. (JTA) - Authorities in Poland, Russia, Hungary and some lawmakers in Britain's Labour Party used anti-Semitism for political means, according to the Anti-Defamation League's anti-Semitism report on Europe published Thursday. In Poland, presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski was the target of "antisemitic rhetoric" this summer during an election in which he lost to the incumbent Andrzej Duda of the right-wing Law and Justice party, ADL wrote in the report titled "Choosing Antisemitism: Instrumentalization and Tolerance of Antisemitism in Contemporary European Politics." The report noted th... Detainees have complained of memory loss and other health impacts from the devices in their cells. Female inmates and their children await food donations from a local aid agency at Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh, in a file photo. Family members and human rights officials have called on Cambodias government to probe the use of cellphone jamming devices in prison cells they believe are impacting the health and rights of detainees after jailed activists complained of what they say is radiation poisoning. Eap Sour, the wife of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) activist Kong Sam An, told RFAs Khmer Service Wednesday that her husband was shockingly thin, irritated, and forgetful while appearing at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court last week to face charges of incitement. She said Kong Sam An, like other detainees, complained that his health was deteriorating and that he had passed out in his cramped cell in Phnom Penhs notorious Prey Sar Prison because of the jamming devices. He looked like he was going to faint during the hearing, and I wanted to cry, she said. I'm disappointed that good people like him are treated badly by the authorities. He fought for the nation, worked as a teacher, and eventually ended up in prison. I feel sorry for him, but I can do nothing but pray for him to get well soon and return home. Prey Sar Prison is the largest of Cambodias prisons and administered by the countrys Ministry of Interior. Rights groups say conditions in the facility, formerly known as S24, are atrocious. According to London-based Amnesty International, as of January last year, Prey Sar held over 10,000 prisoners, approximately 500 percent over capacity. Up to 40 percent of all prisoners are in pre-trial detention and thousands are held for minor, non-violent offenses, such as use or possession of drugs. Kol Sat, the wife of jailed CNRP activist Kong Mas, told RFA that while the prisons water supply was recently restored, inmates remain stacked like farm animals. She urged the government or the Ministry of Interior to investigate the cellphone jamming devices and remove them if they are found to have a detrimental effect on the health of the detainees. I had a quick chat with [Kong Mas], but he could not hear the conversation and kept forgetting things, she said. Several activists, including Cambodian Confederation of Trade Unions president Rong Chhun, who are being tried on charges widely seen as politically motivated, have also complained of Prey Sars tight quarters and said they believe the cellphone jamming devices have impacted their health and memory. Former prisoner Kong Raya said that each cell in Prey Sar has at least four or five devices. He said the devices make a noise that bothered his ears and gave him a headache. Instead of installing the devices, he added, prison guards should be fighting corruption within their ranks and stopping prisoners from having cell phones brought into the facility. Im no expert, but prisonersincluding political activistshave the same complaints, he said. When they were outside, they were fine, but when they are in jail, they lose their memory. Officers stand behind the main gate of Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh, in a file photo. AP Photo Call for probe In response to the complaints, Nuth Savna, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior's General Department of Prisons, said he welcomed the idea of setting up a commission to investigate the impact of using the devices, as his officers work at Prey Sar. He claimed that the company that installed the devices had previously confirmed that they are not harmful. Please be informed that my officers lack the skills to evaluate radio equipment, so only a telecommunications employee can do it, he said. This request has nothing to do with me. If civil society writes a letter to the government or the Ministry of Interior, they will decide whether to take action. Nuth Savna said prison officials restrict the import of prohibited items, but crowded conditions prevent them from catching all contraband. As for the overcrowding, he echoed earlier statements claiming that the courts are working to speed up their caseload and authorities are building more prisons. Am Sam Ath, deputy director for human rights monitoring and protection at local rights group LICADHO, confirmed to RFA that many detainees have made similar claims about the health effects of the cellphone jamming devices, but that so far, no one has probed the issue. He called on the government to establish an expert and independent commission to investigate and address the allegations. We are not experts, we do not dare to explain whether they have an affect or not, so we want an expert committee to study the matter, he said. He added that even though detainees are deprived of certain rights in prison, they should still enjoy the rights to adequate food, health services, and freedom from torture. Inhumane conditions Cambodias opposition parties have also called on Cambodian authorities to improve conditions for the countrys detainees. The CNRPs European Union branch earlier this month issued a statement urging Cambodias government to resolve overcrowding and end the use of jamming devices in prisons. The EU branch said it considers the housing of thousands of prisoners together in cramped, poorly ventilated rooms, torture and a serious human rights violation. In November 2017 the Supreme Court banned the CNRP for its supposed role in a plot to overthrow the government. The move marked the beginning of a wider crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in the countrys July 2018 general election. In March last year, Amnesty Internationals regional director, Nicholas Bequelin, called the conditions in Cambodias jails inhumane, adding that detainees and staff are unable to take preventable steps, including physical distancing and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. These conditions were never acceptable, and now they risk lighting a fuse for what could quickly become dramatic and exponential levels of community transmission of COVID-19, he said, referring to the disease caused by the virus. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. KYODO NEWS - Feb 25, 2021 - 21:23 | All, World, Japan Japan is considering halting new assistance projects in Myanmar for the time being in response to the military coup earlier this month, government sources said Thursday, as international criticism mounts of the takeover. Japan, a major donor to Myanmar, has joined other Group of Seven advanced economies in condemning the coup and the Myanmar security forces' use of violence against peaceful protests. But unlike the United States and Britain, Japan is reluctant to impose sanctions on Myanmar military officials in light of its longtime ties with the armed forces and its policy of promoting investment in the country. Japan is expected to carefully decide on which projects to suspend, wary that China will take advantage and increase its clout in the Southeast Asian nation. "If Japan stops its support for infrastructure building projects or its investments in local businesses, it will give China a chance to step in," a Japanese Foreign official said. Unlike its G-7 partners, Japan has maintained connections with both the military, known as the Tatmadaw, and ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, according to Japanese Foreign Ministry officials. Japan will strongly urge the Myanmar military to release Suu Kyi and other detained individuals, and to swiftly restore democratic government, the ministry quoted Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi as saying in his telephone talks with Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof, Brunei's second minister of foreign affairs, on Thursday. In the ministerial talks, Japan and Brunei, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, expressed grave concern about the situation in Myanmar and agreed to closely cooperate, the ministry said. Japan extended official development assistance totaling nearly 190 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in fiscal 2019, by far the largest among the 30-member Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the Foreign Ministry. China has not disclosed its assistance figures for the country. In 2016, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Suu Kyi that Japan's public and private sectors would contribute about 800 billion yen over five years to agriculture, human resources, manufacturing, energy, urban development and financial services essential for nation-building in Myanmar. Some 450 Japanese companies, mainly in the manufacturing sector, operate in Myanmar, up from 53 in 2011. Japan is the fifth-largest foreign investor in Myanmar, following Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, according to data by the Myanmar government. Japan plans to continue emergency assistance offered through international organizations and nongovernmental organizations such as for combating the coronavirus pandemic, the sources said. Related coverage: G-7 foreign ministers rap violence on peaceful protests in Myanmar Myanmar sees largest-scale protests since coup Its a telling sign that even in the absence of northern summers in Mykonos or winter escapes to Bali, the countrys top menswear labels sell $300 boardshorts and the dream of a sun-kissed lifestyle. Australia is having so much growth [in menswear] because we have decided to be authentic to who we are [as a country], says Richard Jarman, one half of the husband-and-wife duo behind resort-wear label COMMAS. We live not only a lifestyle but also in a place that a lot of the world is envious of, and its about being unashamed about that. COMMAS blend of relaxation and refinement is help driving change in Australian menswear. On Thursday, Jarman and wife Emma won the National Designer Award for emerging designers at the Melbourne Fashion Festival. The pair launched COMMAS four years ago, taking the unconventional tack of securing markets in Europe and America before building a domestic base. The backwards strategy effectively forced them to launch their local online store during the pandemic, a gamble they say paid off. Now, 80 per cent of their business is in Australia. KABUL The third meeting of the EU-Afghanistan Special Working Group on Human Rights, Good Governance and Migration was held on 24 February 2021, in a virtual format. It was co-chaired by Ms. Paola Pampaloni, Deputy Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific of the European External Action Service and by HE Mr. Meerwais Nab, Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. The two sides reaffirmed their commitment undertaken with the signature of their bilateral Cooperation Agreement for Partnership and Development (CAPD) to respect democratic principles and human rights, as well as the principle of the rule of law as essential elements of the CAPD, and underpinning the internal and international policies of both parties. The parties discussed human rights and fundamental freedoms in the context of the ongoing Afghan peace process, and expressed grave concern about the continuing high level of violence, and condemned the increasing number of targeted killings of media workers, civil society activists and law enforcement officials, who are essential bastions of a democratic and open society. The EU called on the Government of Afghanistan to provide for the security of these important actors in society, as well as conduct thorough investigations, bring the culprits to justice and keep the Afghan public fully informed about the measures taken. The EU referred to its work under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, supporting human rights defenders, and the role of civil society in promoting human rights and democratic reform, as well as projects addressing specifically the needs of vulnerable children and women, and the rights of persons with disabilities. The EU side also recalled the imperative of respecting and promoting International Humanitarian Law to protect civilians in conflict by all parties to the conflict. The protection of civilians, medical and education facilities as well as humanitarian workers, cannot wait for peace. The parties stressed that only an immediate cessation of violence would restore confidence in the sincerity of the Taliban for a political settlement to end the war. The two sides agreed on the importance of an enhanced promotion of inclusivity in the peace talks, notably the involvement of women, youth, minorities, internally displaced persons, refugees and victims of war, to ensure an ownership of the process by all Afghans. They also underlined that the preservation and further strengthening of the democratic and human rights gains of the last 20 years is indispensable during and after the peace process, and referred to the broad-based consensus on this, as expressed at the Geneva Conference for Afghanistan in November 2020. In the areas of women and childrens rights, the necessity to enforce legislation against widespread violence and harmful practices was highlighted, as well as the need to address discrimination against religious minorities. In the field of governance, the two sides emphasised the importance of free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive electoral processes that would facilitate legitimate transfer of power, and discussed the experiences of their electoral cooperation and the prospects of continuing electoral reform. Anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) issues were also addressed, in view of the EUs ongoing assessment of Afghanistans AML/CFT regime. The parties discussed the measures taken by the Afghan Government and commended their joint coordination in the area of anti-corruption policy and institutional reforms, and committed to keep the matter high on their bilateral agenda. Concerning the regional dimension of migration, the need to address in an integrated manner its humanitarian, development and security aspects was emphasised. The Afghan side welcomed the EUs Chairmanship in 2021 of the Core Group of the Support Platform of Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR). Both the EU and Afghanistan look forward to working closely with the other members of the Core Group, the members of the Quadripartite Steering Committee (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and the UNHCR), as well as all stakeholders, to seek durable solutions to the protracted refugee situation in the region, supporting the protection, inclusion and self-reliance of Afghans, both in Afghanistan and host countries. The next meeting of the EU-Afghanistan Special Working Group on Human Rights, Good Governance and Migration will take place in 2022 in Kabul. Chinese Regime Detains Man Over His Faith, Holds Him for Months in Secret Location A Chinese man was disappeared by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last October over his belief in spiritual practice Falun Gong. His mother was only notified of his whereabouts in early February, months after his initial detention. Li Zhigang, a private tutor from the City of Changsha in central Chinas Hunan Province, was arrested by local police in the middle of the night of Oct. 27, 2020, according to Minghui.org, a U.S-based website that serves as a clearinghouse for the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Around 20 police officers stormed into Lis house and arrested him along with other Falun Gong practitioners present, the website said. His house was also searched. Lis mother was told by police that her son was under residential surveillance, but was not given a location. She was finally informed on Feb. 5 that Li was now being detained at Changsha City Detention Center. While under residential surveillance, Li was tortured causing injuries, Minghui.org reported. His body was frail when Li was transferred to the Changsha City Detention Center. The CCP deploys a system known as Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location to detain religious believers, critics, and political targets, in secret locations, where they are held incommunicado and in isolation for up to half a year. Police are allowed to operate supervision at these facilities, where torture is common, according to human rights groups. Falun Gong practitioners have been a prime target for persecution by the CCP for more than two decades. The practice, also known as Falun Dafa, consists of meditative exercises and a set of moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Its popularity surged in China during the 1990s, reaching 70 million to 100 million adherents by the end of the decade, according to official Chinese estimates at the time. Threatened by its large following, the CCP launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in 1999, subjecting its adherents to harassment, detention, forced labor, torture, and forced organ harvesting. Li, who holds a doctorate in computer science at the National University of Defense Technology, has previously been arrested multiple times for practicing Falun Gong. In 2000, he was sentenced to one and a half years at a labor camp. Three years later, he was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2010, Li was again ordered to a labor camp for two years. Minghui reported that on the night of April 2010, Li was taken to Qiaoyi Police Station in Changsha City, where he and other practitioners were tortured and interrogated until the next morning. The police did not stop their beating and verbal abuse of Li until they were tired, the website said. When Lis family visited him at the detention center ten days later, he had wounds all over his body. There were obvious wounds on his eyes, ears, and arms, as well as a palm-sized bloodstain on his thick cotton pants. His legs were also full of bruises, according to Minghui.org. Li also developed a severe cough after the beating, causing pain in his chest and back, which prevented him from getting sleep at night. Lis relative also told Minghui.org that over the years of suffering from persecution, Li has been tortured, beaten, deprived of sleep for long periods of time, starved, and locked up in a small iron cage. 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. HYDERABAD, India, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Apollo Hospitals, India's largest integrated healthcare chain announced in March 2020, its campaign of Project Kavach, a multi-pronged strategy deployed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Kavach, which translates to 'shield', encompassed a 360-degree approach. The innovations pioneered by Project Kavach are highlighted in a February 24, 2021 report in the NEJM Catalyst. NEJM Catalyst is a leading American journal from the prestigious NEJM Group, focusing on the latest innovations, big ideas, and practical solutions for health care delivery transformation. The Project Kavach commentary sheds light on the unique strategies undertaken by Apollo Hospitals such as the AI-based COVID-19 screener, which saw over 15 million downloads and adaptations in 6 regional languages, 24/7 app-based teleconsultations, doorstep testing, medication delivery across the length and breadth of the country, and remote monitoring services at home. Authors of the Commentary were Drs. Anupam Sibal, Hariprasad, and Sangita Reddy from Apollo Hospitals, and Professor Murali Doraiswamy from Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Doraiswamy is also a board member at Apollo. Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, remarked, "To meet the challenges that COVID-19 threw, an integrated approach that deployed the whole Apollo ecosystem was designed. Dissemination of accurate information, early detection and isolation and tech-enabled care in different settings with advanced treatment using the best medical global protocols formed the pillars. With hospitals across 16 states, we provided care to patients in full compliance with advisories issued by different state governments. An innovative approach allowed the launch of ideas like Project Stay-I (Stay Isolated) allowing infected individuals to stay in hotels freeing up beds in hospitals. Care was provided using telemedicine. The initiative served over 80,000 nights and touched over 5 million lives over the period." Dr Hariprasad President, Apollo Hospitals Group noted that, "Apollo's Project Kavach has delivered exemplary results in terms of combating the COVID-19 pandemic with a phenomenal success rate. Whether it was dedicating the 2,250 beds for exclusive Covid care or setting up over 30 fever clinics, we have always led from the front. Our expertise in handling and managing Covid patients was collated and circulated in a comprehensive SOP driven guidebook called 'The Red Book' in order to help other healthcare institutions to learn from our clinical expertise." Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals, commented, "The multidisciplinary approach of bringing experts from across the Group on a virtual platform provided us with the ability to create clinical guidelines which were modified regularly, as evidence emerged. The guidelines were changed 34 times including twice in a week when data on the benefit of steroids was published. The active participation in multinational clinical trials allowed patients access to novel therapeutic options". Dr Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, USA observed that, "India's handling of COVID-19 has drawn praise globally. India deployed an approach in establishing close collaboration between the public and private sector. Project Kavach showed how the largest Indian private healthcare provider scaled their response and offer many insights and innovative solutions that can be implemented across geographies." The full report titled, "Apollo Hospitals and Project Kavach: Insights from How India's Largest Private Health System Is Handling Covid-19", can be accessed at the link be accessed on the link below: https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.20.0677 Contacts: Saurabh Bose, [email protected] SOURCE Apollo Hospitals GUANGZHOU, China, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MINISO Group Holding Limited (NYSE: MNSO) ("MINISO" or the "Company"), a fast-growing global value retailer offering a variety of design-led lifestyle products, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 ended December 31, 2020. Financial Highlights for Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 Revenue in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was RMB2,297.7 million ( US$352.1 million ), within the Company's guidance range of RMB2,200 million and RMB2,400 million , representing a decrease of 18.1% from the same period of the prior fiscal year and an increase of 10.9% from the previous quarter. in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was ( ), within the Company's guidance range of and , representing a decrease of 18.1% from the same period of the prior fiscal year and an increase of 10.9% from the previous quarter. Gross profit in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was RMB642.8 million ( US$98.5 million ), representing a decrease of 27.6% from the same period of the prior fiscal year and an increase of 23.0% from the previous quarter. in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was ( ), representing a decrease of 27.6% from the same period of the prior fiscal year and an increase of 23.0% from the previous quarter. Operating profit in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was RMB54.3 million ( US$8.3 million ), compared to RMB329.8 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and an operating loss of RMB2.1 million in the previous quarter. in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was ( ), compared to in the same period of the prior fiscal year and an operating loss of in the previous quarter. Profit from continuing operations in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was RMB20.8 million ( US$3.2 million ), compared to a loss of RMB205.2 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and a loss of RMB1,676.3 million in the previous quarter. in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was ( ), compared to a loss of in the same period of the prior fiscal year and a loss of in the previous quarter. Adjusted net profit[1] in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was RMB84.0 million ( US$12.9 million ), compared to RMB389.8 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB102.1 million in the previous quarter. Operational Highlights for Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 Number of MINISO stores increased to 4,514 as of December 31, 2020 , from 4,211 as of December 31, 2019 and 4,330 as of September 30, 2020 . increased to 4,514 as of , from 4,211 as of and 4,330 as of . The Company expanded its business into two additional countries and regions in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. The following table provides a breakdown of the number of MINISO stores as of the relevant dates: As of December 31, 2019 September 30, 2020 December 31, 2020 Number of MINISO stores[2] 4,211 4,330 4,514 China 2,543 2,633 2,768 Directly operated stores 8 5 5 Third-party stores 2,535 2,628 2,763 Overseas[3] 1,668 1,697 1,746 Directly operated stores 126 115 105 Third-party stores 1,542 1,582 1,641 [1] See the section titled "Non-IFRS Financial Measure" for more information about the non-IFRS financial measure referred to in this press release. [2] "MINISO stores" are any of the stores operated under the "MINISO" brand name, including those directly operated by the Company ("Directly operated stores"), and those operated by third parties under the MINISO Retail Partner model and the distributor model ("Third-party stores"). [3] Overseas stores exclude a small number of stores under certain overseas businesses that the Company had disposed of as of June 30, 2020. The Company completed such business disposal during the period from December 2019 to April 2020. Mr. Guofu Ye, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of MINISO, commented, "We are pleased to see our domestic operations delivered a well-rounded and encouraging quarterly performance, while our overseas operations also moved further along its path of recovery. During the quarter, we added 184 new stores to our global store network. While the pandemic hit off-line retailers globally in calendar year 2020, we added 303 new stores during the year, demonstrating our partners' confidence in our resilient business model and faster-than-average recovery speed." Mr. Ye continued, "In December, we announced our 'X' strategy, further illustrating our commitment to becoming a global leading new-retail platform. Our team has accumulated core strengths in supply chain management, retail know-how, asset-light business model and digitization, and we will leverage these strengths in our new initiatives such as TopToy." Mr. Saiyin Zhang, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of MINISO, commented, "We concluded calendar year on a positive note as both our top and bottom lines showed solid recovery trends. On a sequential basis, our revenue increased by 11%, with overseas revenue increasing by 32% and domestic revenue increasing by 7%. Our growth recovery was attributable to a 4% growth in our store count and a 7% growth in our average revenue per store quarter over quarter. In addition, we are delighted to report a substantial improvement in our operating profit, which we expect to normalize over the coming quarters as the pandemic abates. Looking ahead, we are highly confident in the strength of our underlying business model and remain steadfast in our commitment to solidifying our leadership at home, expanding our market share abroad, and delivering long-term shareholder value." Recent Developments Impact of COVID-19 As of December 31, 2020, there were (i) 2,768 MINISO stores in China, most of which had resumed their operations, although a few of them were closed temporarily due to regional cases of COVID-19 and (ii) 1,746 MINISO stores in overseas markets, 1,593 of which had resumed their operations. The majority of those stores that resumed operations were half-opened or had operating hours reduced due to regional resurgences of COVID-19 in many countries and areas. Unaudited Financial Results for Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 Revenue was RMB2,297.7 million (US$352.1 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, representing a year-over-year decrease of 18.1% and a quarter-over-quarter increase of 10.9%. The year-over-year decrease in revenue was mainly attributable to the negative impact of COVID-19 on the Company's international operations during the period. Revenue generated from international operations decreased by 51.3% year over year to RMB463.0 million (US$71.0 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 as a result of temporary store closures, a reduction in store operating hours, and a decline in customer traffic, all of which were caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. Revenue generated from domestic market was flat year-over-year. The quarter-over-quarter increase in revenue was primarily driven by the recovery of the Company's international and domestic businesses in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. On a sequential basis, revenue generated from international operations increased by 32.2%, and revenue generated from domestic market increased by 6.6%. Total number of MINISO stores was 4,514 as of December 31, 2020, representing a net increase of 303 stores year over year and 184 stores quarter over quarter. Revenue per MINISO store, which is calculated by dividing the revenue of MINISO brand (excluding Africa and Germany) by the average number of stores at the beginning and the end of the relevant period, was RMB503.7 thousand (US$77.2 thousand) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to RMB665.8 thousand in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB469.9 thousand in the previous quarter. Cost of sales was RMB1,655.0 million (US$253.6 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, representing a decrease of 13.6% from RMB1,916.5 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and an increase of 6.8% from RMB1,549.8 million in the previous quarter. Gross profit was RMB642.8 million (US$98.5 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, representing a decrease of 27.6% from RMB887.4 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and an increase of 23.0% from RMB522.4 million in the previous quarter. Gross margin was 28.0% in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to 31.6% in the same period of the prior fiscal year and 25.2% in the previous quarter. The fluctuations in gross margin during these periods were primarily due to the fluctuations in revenue contributions from the Company's international operations, the gross margin of which is typically higher than that of the Company's domestic operations. International operations contributed 20.1% of revenue in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to 33.9% in the same period of the prior fiscal year and 16.9% in the previous quarter. Other income was RMB7.8 million (US$1.2 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to RMB0.2 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB36.0 million in the previous quarter. Selling and distribution expenses were RMB340.8 million (US$52.2 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, remaining stable as compared to the same period of the prior fiscal year, but increasing by 18.8% quarter over quarter. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, selling and distribution expenses were RMB306.4 million (US$47.0 million), compared to RMB317.0 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB230.4 million in the previous quarter. The quarter-over-quarter increase was primarily attributable to increased logistics expenses, which were in line with the recovery of the Company's sales during the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, and the increase in marketing expenses as the Company continues to strengthen brand recognition for MINISO and TopToy. General and administrative expenses were RMB189.0 million (US$29.0 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, representing a year-over-year decrease of 17.2% and quarter-over-quarter decrease of 25.0%. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, general and administrative expenses were RMB160.2 million (US$24.6 million), compared to RMB168.3 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB155.3 million in the previous quarter. Other net loss was RMB55.1 million (US$8.4 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to other net income of RMB23.9 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and other net loss of RMB15.7 million in the previous quarter. The Company's other net loss in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 was mainly comprised of a net foreign exchange loss of RMB66.9 million (US$10.3 million), which was in line with the appreciation of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar in the period. Operating profit was RMB54.3 million (US$8.3 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to an operating profit of RMB329.8 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and an operating loss of RMB2.1 million in the previous quarter. Profit from continuing operations was RMB20.8 million (US$3.2 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, as compared to a loss of RMB205.2 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and a loss of RMB1,676.3 million in the previous quarter. The fluctuations in profit or loss from continuing operations during these periods were mainly due to fair value changes of redeemable shares with other preferential rights, which were nil in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 compared to a loss of RMB493.1 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and a loss of RMB1,625.3 million in the previous quarter. The fluctuations in fair value changes of redeemable shares with other preferential rights were primarily due to the revaluation of the Company's equity value based on the offering price of the Company's Class A ordinary shares in its initial public offering (the "IPO"). After the completion of the IPO, all of the Company's redeemable shares with other preferential rights were converted to its Class A ordinary shares. The fair value of each of the Company's redeemable shares with other preferential rights approximated to the fair value of each of the Company's ordinary shares on the conversion date, which was the pricing day of the IPO. Adjusted net profit[1], which represents net profit excluding (i) fair value changes of paid-in capital subject to redemption and other preferential rights or redeemable shares with other preferential rights, (ii) loss from discontinued operations, net of tax, (iii) equity-settled share-based payment expenses, and (iv) employee compensation expenses related to non-forfeitable dividends related to unvested restricted shares, was RMB84.0 million (US$12.9 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to RMB389.8 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB102.1 million in the previous quarter. [1] See the sections titled "Non-IFRS Financial Measure" and "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Financial Measure" in this press release for more information about adjusted net profit. Basic and diluted earnings from continuing operations per American Depositary Share ("ADS") were RMB0.08 (US$0.01) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to a loss of RMB0.80 in the same period of the prior fiscal year and a loss of RMB7.08 in the previous quarter. Each ADS represents four of the Company's Class A ordinary shares. Adjusted basic and diluted earnings per ADS were RMB0.28 (US$0.04) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to RMB1.52 in the same period of the prior fiscal year and RMB0.40 in the previous quarter. As of December 31, 2020, the combined balance of the Company's cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash amounted to RMB6,841.0 million (US$1,048.4 million), compared to RMB2,964.8 million as of September 30, 2020. The increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was primarily due to proceeds received from the Company's IPO and the cash flow generated from operations. Business Outlook For the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 ended March 31, 2021, the Company currently estimates its revenue to be between RMB2,200 million and RMB2,400 million, representing an increase of 34.7% to 47.0% year over year. This estimate represents management's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions as of the date of this press release, which does not factor in any of the potential future impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is subject to change. Conference Call The Company's management will hold an earnings conference call at 7:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Thursday, February 25, 2021, (8:00 P.M. Beijing Time on the same day) to discuss the financial results. Listeners may access the call by dialing the following numbers: International: 1-412-317-6061 United States Toll Free: 1-888-317-6003 Mainland China Toll Free: 4001-206-115 Hong Kong, China Toll Free: 800-963-976 Access Code: 5981498 The replay will be accessible through March 4, 2021, by dialing the following numbers: International: 1-412-317-0088 United States Toll Free: 1-877-344-7529 Access Code: 10152644 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.miniso.com/. About MINISO MINISO is a fast-growing global value retailer offering a variety of design-led lifestyle products. The Company serves consumers primarily through its large network of MINISO stores, and promotes a relaxing, treasure-hunting and engaging shopping experience full of delightful surprises that appeals to all demographics. Aesthetically pleasing design, quality and affordability are at the core of every product in MINISO's wide product portfolio, and the Company continually and frequently rolls out products with these qualities. Since the opening of its first store in China in 2013, the Company has built its flagship brand "MINISO" as a globally recognized retail brand and established a massive store network worldwide. For more information, please visit http://ir.miniso.com/. Exchange Rate The U.S. dollar (US$) amounts disclosed in this press release, except for those transaction amounts that were actually settled in U.S. dollars, are presented solely for the convenience of the readers. The conversion of Renminbi (RMB) into US$ in this press release is based on the exchange rate set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as of December 31, 2020, which was RMB6.5250 to US$1.00. The percentages stated in this press release are calculated based on the RMB amounts. Non-IFRS Financial Measure In evaluating the business, MINISO considers and uses adjusted net profit as a supplemental measure to review and assess its operating performance. The presentation of this non-IFRS financial measure is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS. MINISO defines adjusted net profit as profit/(loss) excluding (i) fair value changes of paid-in capital subject to redemption and other preferential rights or redeemable shares with other preferential rights, (ii) loss from discontinued operations, net of tax, (iii) equity-settled share-based payment expenses, and (iv) employee compensation expenses related to non-forfeitable dividends related to unvested restricted shares. MINISO presents adjusted net profit because it is used by the management to evaluate its operating performance and formulate business plans. Adjusted net profit enables the management to assess its operating results without considering the impacts of the aforementioned non-cash and other adjustment items that MINISO does not consider to be indicative of its operating performance in the future. Accordingly, MINISO believes that the use of this non-IFRS financial measure provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating its operating results in the same manner as the management and board of directors. This non-IFRS financial measure is not defined under IFRS and is not presented in accordance with IFRS. The non-IFRS financial measure has limitations as an analytical tool. One of the key limitations of using adjusted net profit is that it does not reflect all items of income and expense that affect MINISO's operations. Further, this non-IFRS measure may differ from the non-IFRS information used by other companies, including peer companies, and therefore its comparability may be limited. The non-IFRS financial measure should not be considered in isolation or construed as an alternative to profit/(loss) or any other measure of performance or as an indicator of MINISO's operating performance. Investors are encouraged to review MINISO's historical non-IFRS financial measure in light of the most directly comparable IFRS measure, as shown below. The non-IFRS financial measure presented here may not be comparable to similarly titled measure presented by other companies. Other companies may calculate similarly titled measures differently, limiting the usefulness of such measures when analyzing MINISO's data comparatively. MINISO encourages you to review its financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure. For more information on the non-IFRS financial measure, please see the table captioned "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Financial Measure" set forth at the end of this press release. Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "is/are likely to," "potential," "continue" or other similar expressions. Among other things, the guidance for the fiscal year 2021's third quarter ended March 31, 2021 and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as MINISO's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. MINISO may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about MINISO's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: MINISO's mission, goals and strategies; future business development, financial conditions and results of operations; the expected growth of the retail market and the market of branded variety retail of lifestyle products in China and globally; expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of MINISO's products; expectations regarding MINISO's relationships with consumers, suppliers, MINISO Retail Partners, local distributors, and other business partners; competition in the industry; proposed use of proceeds; and relevant government policies and regulations relating to MINISO's business and the industry. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in MINISO's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and MINISO undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. Contact: Eason Zhang MINISO Group Holding Limited Email: [email protected] Jack Wang ICR, Inc. Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 (212) 537-4056 MINISO GROUP HOLDING LIMITED UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION (Expressed in thousands) As at June 30, 2020 (Audited) As at December 31, 2020 (Unaudited) RMB'000 RMB'000 US$'000 ASSETS Non-current assets Property, plant and equipment 88,062 81,144 12,436 Right-of-use assets 502,867 485,645 74,428 Intangible assets 69,091 70,445 10,796 Deferred tax assets 183,520 185,734 28,465 Prepayments 6,112 6,802 1,043 Interest in an associate - 356,000 54,559 849,652 1,185,770 181,727 Current assets Other investments - 100,437 15,393 Inventories 1,395,674 1,413,301 216,598 Trade and other receivables 729,889 766,387 117,454 Cash and cash equivalents 2,853,980 6,840,474 1,048,349 Restricted cash 7,056 538 83 4,986,599 9,121,137 1,397,877 Total assets 5,836,251 10,306,907 1,579,604 EQUITY Share capital 69 92 14 Additional paid-in capital 162,373 8,289,160 1,270,369 Other reserves 625,984 830,103 127,219 Accumulated losses (1,125,055) (2,794,665) (428,301) (Deficit) / equity attributable to equity shareholders of the Company (336,629) 6,324,690 969,301 Non-controlling interests 13,583 9,198 1,410 Total (deficit) / equity (323,046) 6,333,888 970,711 LIABILITIES Non-current liabilities Contract liabilities 74,226 65,988 10,113 Loans and borrowings 15,207 14,094 2,160 Lease liabilities 378,894 356,954 54,706 Deferred income - 23,240 3,562 Redeemable shares with other preferential rights 2,381,327 - - 2,849,654 460,276 70,541 Current liabilities Loans and borrowings 401,182 - - Trade and other payables 2,419,795 2,904,174 445,084 Contract liabilities 218,287 294,419 45,122 Lease liabilities 224,080 237,028 36,326 Deferred income - 6,120 938 Current taxation 46,299 71,002 10,882 3,309,643 3,512,743 538,352 Total liabilities 6,159,297 3,973,019 608,893 Total equity and liabilities 5,836,251 10,306,907 1,579,604 MINISO GROUP HOLDING LIMITED UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF PROFIT OR LOSS (Expressed in thousands, except for per share and per ADS data) Three months ended December 31 Six months ended December 31 2019 (Unaudited) 2020 (Unaudited) 2019 (Unaudited) 2020 (Unaudited) RMB'000 RMB'000 US$ '000 RMB'000 RMB'000 US$ '000 Continuing operations Revenue 2,803,843 2,297,721 352,141 5,792,643 4,369,860 669,710 Cost of sales (1,916,493) (1,654,953) (253,633) (3,968,047) (3,204,716) (491,144) Gross profit 887,350 642,768 98,508 1,824,596 1,165,144 178,566 Other income 241 7,811 1,197 3,385 43,804 6,713 Selling and distribution expenses (339,213) (340,751) (52,222) (645,318) (627,492) (96,167) General and administrative expenses (228,359) (189,032) (28,970) (441,176) (441,163) (67,611) Other net income/(loss) 23,868 (55,084) (8,442) 38,633 (70,755) (10,844) Credit loss on trade and other receivables (14,105) (11,419) (1,750) (23,714) (17,387) (2,665) Operating profit 329,782 54,293 8,321 756,406 52,151 7,992 Finance income 7,698 13,874 2,126 11,775 23,044 3,532 Finance costs (7,216) (6,760) (1,036) (13,547) (13,860) (2,124) Net finance income / (costs) 482 7,114 1,090 (1,772) 9,184 1,408 Fair value changes of paid-in capital subject to redemption and other preferential rights / redeemable shares with other preferential rights (493,061) - - (831,767) (1,625,287) (249,086) (Loss) / profit before taxation (162,797) 61,407 9,411 (77,133) (1,563,952) (239,686) Income tax expense (42,431) (40,639) (6,228) (148,365) (91,615) (14,041) (Loss) / profit for the period from continuing operations (205,228) 20,768 3,183 (225,498) (1,655,567) (253,727) Discontinued operations Loss for the period from discontinued operations, net of tax (1,783) - - (64,361) - - (Loss) / profit for the period (207,011) 20,768 3,183 (289,859) (1,655,567) (253,727) Attributable to: Equity shareholders of the Company (203,860) 20,762 3,182 (289,548) (1,651,857) (253,158) Non-controlling interests (3,151) 6 1 (311) (3,710) (569) (Loss) / earnings per share for ordinary shares -Basic (0.20) 0.02 0.00 (0.29) (1.52) (0.23) -Diluted (0.20) 0.02 0.00 (0.29) (1.52) (0.23) (Loss) / earnings per shareContinuing operations -Basic (0.20) 0.02 0.00 (0.22) (1.52) (0.23) -Diluted (0.20) 0.02 0.00 (0.22) (1.52) (0.23) (Loss) / earnings per ADS (Each ADS represents 4 Class A ordinary shares) -Basic (0.80) 0.08 0.01 (1.16) (6.08) (0.93) -Diluted (0.80) 0.08 0.01 (1.16) (6.08) (0.93) (Loss) / earnings per ADSContinuing operations (Each ADS represents 4 Class A ordinary shares) -Basic (0.80) 0.08 0.01 (0.88) (6.08) (0.93) -Diluted (0.80) 0.08 0.01 (0.88) (6.08) (0.93) UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF PROFIT OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (Expressed in thousands, except for per share data) Three months ended December 31 Six months ended December 31 2019 (Unaudited) 2020 (Unaudited) 2019 (Unaudited) 2020 (Unaudited) RMB'000 RMB'000 US$ '000 RMB'000 RMB'000 US$ '000 (Loss) / profit for the period (207,011) 20,768 3,183 (289,859) (1,655,567) (253,727) Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss: Exchange differences on translation of financial statements of foreign operations 4,263 (12,031) (1,844) 2,298 (47,773) (7,322) Other comprehensive (loss) / income for the period 4,263 (12,031) (1,844) 2,298 (47,773) (7,322) Total comprehensive (loss) / income for the period (202,748) 8,737 1,339 (287,561) (1,703,340) (261,049) Attributable to: Equity shareholders of the Company (199,481) 8,199 1,257 (287,779) (1,698,955) (260,377) Non-controlling interests (3,267) 538 82 218 (4,385) (672) RECONCILIATION OF NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURE (Expressed in thousands, except for per share and per ADS data) Three months ended December 31 Six months ended December 31 2019 (Unaudited) 2020 (Unaudited) 2019 (Unaudited) 2020 (Unaudited) RMB'000 RMB'000 US$'000 RMB'000 RMB'000 US$'000 Reconciliation of loss for the period to adjusted net profit: (Loss) / profit for the period (207,011) 20,768 3,183 (289,859) (1,655,567) (253,727) Add back: Fair value changes of paid- in capital subject to redemption and other preferential rights 493,061 - - 831,767 1,625,287 249,086 Loss for the period from discontinued operations, net of tax 1,783 - - 64,361 - - Equity-settled share-based payment expenses 82,284 63,189 9,684 166,372 216,379 33,162 Employee compensation expenses related to non- forfeitable dividends related to unvested restricted shares 19,664 - - 19,664 - - Adjusted net profit 389,781 83,957 12,867 792,305 186,099 28,521 Attributable to: Equity shareholders of the Company 392,932 83,951 12,866 792,616 189,809 29,090 Non-controlling interests (3,151) 6 1 (311) (3,710) (569) Adjusted net earnings per share for ordinary shares[2] -Basic 0.38 0.07 0.01 0.76 0.17 0.03 -Diluted 0.38 0.07 0.01 0.76 0.17 0.03 Adjusted net earnings per ADS (Each ADS represents 4 Class A ordinary shares) -Basic 1.52 0.28 0.04 3.04 0.68 0.10 -Diluted 1.52 0.28 0.04 3.04 0.68 0.10 [2] The adjusted basic and diluted net earnings per share are computed using adjusted net profit attributable to the equity shareholders of the Company, and the number of ordinary shares used in GAAP basic and diluted (loss) / earnings per share calculation after retrospectively adjusting for the effect of Series A preferred shares issued by the Company that are deemed to have been converted into ordinary shares since July 1, 2019. SOURCE MINISO Group Holding Limited Related Links http://ir.miniso.com/ Channel 10's newest game show The Cube premiered on Wednesday night. And during the ad breaks, host Andy Lee revealed some behind-the-scenes secrets on Instagram. The comedian, 39, answered burning questions from fans about the quirky series, including what really happens between each game that viewers don't see. Andy Lee (pictured with girlfriend Rebecca Harding) shared behind the scenes secrets of what REALLY happens between games on Channel 10's game show The Cube via an Instagram Q&A with fans on Wednesday night From the comfort of his Melbourne lounge room, Andy told fans he was relieved when certain games were mastered in one life and the reason contestants are afforded multiple lives while competing. 'You need those lives to get to a quarter of a millions dollars. Most games take a couple of lives to get used to it on average,' he said. While some games are trickier than others to complete in the allocated time limits, Andy confirmed that no one is given time to practice before competing. 'You need someone to come in and pick up those thousand balls': The radio host claimed there were multiple staff hired to 'reset' and clean the glass walls of The Cube between each failed attempt at a game The radio host claimed there are multiple staff hired to 'reset' The Cube between each failed attempt at a game. 'Obviously a game where you have to throw a thousand balls out of a bucket, you need someone to come in and pick up those thousand balls,' he said, adding that he was relieved they didn't need to wait a lengthy amount of time for a 'reset' when the team got that challenge in one take. Andy also said to avoid finger prints or marks being left on the glass walls of The Cube, staff cleaned them between each game being filmed. Fair: While some games are tricker than others to complete in the allocated time limits, Andy confirmed that no one is given time to practice before competing Based on the global series of the same name, The Cube will see contestants put in a small perspex cube where they must take on a series of tasks in the hopes of winning $250,000. The tasks can involve anything from throwing and catching challenges to memorising games. Before the premiere, Andy and girlfriend Rebecca Harding filmed themselves trialling some of the 30 games, with Andy hinting he could release the footage in the coming weeks. Pressure tests: The Cube sees contestants put in a small perspex cube where they must take on a series of tasks in the hopes of winning $250,000 When someone asked what he was paid by Channel 10 for the hosting gig, he sarcastically answered: 'Nothing. This is one of those one I do out of the goodness of my heart.' 'Things get tense with me and my mates when we play skill games to determine who's going to get the next round of beers at the pub, imagine doing it for a quarter of million dollars,' Andy said in a statement. Andy's new hosting role will see him placed in competition with his colleague, Hamish, who hosts the hugely popular Channel Nine series Lego Masters. The Cube airs Wednesdays from 7:30pm on Channel 10 The gas producer Romgaz obtained last year a net profit of 1.25 billion RON, rising by 15.14% from 2019, but the company's turnover has gone down by 19.79%, to 4.07 billion RON, given that the quantity of natural gas sold was 10.1% smaller, according to AGERPRES. "The turnover's slashing comes from the diminishing of 24.48% of income from the sales of natural gas, in both the production of Romgaz, as well as for those acquired for reselling and through associating as well. Instead, the consolidated income from storage services have gone up by 13.32%, and those from selling electricity by 29.9%," according to the report regarding the preliminary financial results of Romgaz, sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The production of natural gas estimated for 2020 was of approximately 4.52 billion cubic meters, with 757.2 million cm smaller than the production of last year (-14.35%), as a result of the special situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Romanian economy. The preliminary turnover for 2020 was of 4.07 billion RON, dropping by 19.79% (from a quantity point of view, the sold quantity of natural gas is 10.1% smaller). For Q4 2020 there is an estimate of a 59.5% growth of turnover, comparing with Q3, especially as a result of a larger quantity of natural gas sold, by 86.4%. On the level of the Group, the storage activity notices a rise of 13.32% of the turnover, supported by the advance of 92.6% of extracting services (+20.7 million RON) and by 6.2% (+16.4 million RON) of capacity storage services. The turnover from electricity has gone up by 29.9% from the previous year (+43.6 million RON), to a production higher by 58.9%. Traditional work perks like company cars and rail season tickets are being replaced with Uber gift cards and Netflix subscriptions due to the impact of Covid. New figures show almost nine out of 10 white-collar job hires have been for work-from-home positions since the start of the pandemic in March last year. It means firms have been forced to switch up their company perks to entice potential hires. Traditional tempters such as gym memberships, subsidised staff canteens and company-funded nights out are all currently off the table due to lockdown rules. Instead, companies are turning to more modern perks, such as offering a basic 5.99-a-month Netflix package to new employees. Other new perks include e-gift cards for Uber, online vouchers for takeaway deliveries like Deliveroo and Just Eat, HelloFresh and Graze meal-kits, Fitbit exercise gadgets It comes as recruitment firm Walters People have revealed that over the past year, 87 per cent of new posts have been on an entirely work-from-home basis. IN: Vouchers to help cover the cost of Uber journeys are now being used as part of perk schemes by employers OUT: With workers making fewer trips due to travel restrictions, company cars are being dropped from perk packages IN: With employees unable to leave their homes, the cost of Netflix packages are being used to entice new staff OUT: Pubs and bars are shut and firm-funded work nights out are currently off the table IN: With restaurants and bars closed, companies can no longer offer restaurant vouchers, so they are offering takeaway ones instead, including for firms such as Deliveroo OUT: With people being urged to work from home unless they have to go into work, covering the cost of travel is not currently a valuable perk Director of staffing business Phill Westcott said: Were almost 12 months into the worlds largest remote working experiment, where 23.9 million professionals in the UK are currently working from home - a jump from 1.54 million pre-pandemic. Another 500,000 workers are put on furlough in just to weeks The impact of lockdown was laid bare today as figures showed another 500,000 people have been put on furlough in just two weeks. An official survey of businesses found a fifth of the workforce were on leave early this month - equivalent to around 6.5million people and up from 18 per cent a fortnight earlier. The grim figures come as Rishi Sunak prepares to extend the huge bailout again in the Budget, despite mounting fears about the spiralling bill. The findings will fuel fears that furlough - estimated to cost the taxpayer around 5billion a month - is masking a looming jobs bloodbath. Separate details released by the Treasury today show that as of mid-February the bill for the bailout had hit 53.8billion. It was revealed earlier this week that the unemployment rate has risen to a five-year high of 5.1 per cent, but experts believe it will peak at around 7.5 per cent when support is withdrawn from stricken businesses. The latest Business Insights and Conditions Survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the proportion of the workforce on furlough is now at its highest level since last summer. A quarter of businesses had paused trading during the two weeks to 7 February - with half their staff on furlough. Separate figures published by the Treasury today showed the number of jobs furloughed has risen from 3.9million at the end of November to 4.7million as of January 31. Altogether, some 11.2million employments have been supported by the furlough scheme since it launched. Advertisement For companies who have been experiencing growth or undergoing some form of transition, hiring hasnt stopped - but the way in which they hire, and more specifically the job offer, has changed significantly. Mr Westcott added: Previously, professionals would weigh up a job offer looking at factors such as work hours, commute time and train season ticket loans, but with remote working still the norm, job-hunters are judging prospective employers on entirely different standards. The firm found 57 per cent of employers plan to continue with a degree of remote working even after social distancing rules ease. The company also revealed that the new breed of work perks can save bosses money. For example, a basic Netflix account costs 5.99 a month, compared to the average 22 a month spend per employee on work-related booze-ups. Some 42 per cent of professionals reported a decline in mental health during remote working, while a third of managers said they were concerned about their workers wellbeing. This has prompted some to offer recruits paid subscriptions to mental health apps such as Headspace, Calm and Happify. And with more than a quarter of professionals vowing to ditch public transport when they do return to the office, jobs are coming with the offer of an Uber rather than an Orpington to Charing Cross season ticket. Other tempters include wi-fi boosters, noise-cancelling headphones, smart speakers and wireless charging stations. It comes as office staff will be told to keep working from home even as other lockdown restrictions are eased. The 'work from home if you can' message, most recently put out at the start of the latest national lockdown in January, will continue to guide employers for the foreseeable future. That's despite other restrictions being lifted. Millions of office employees have been working from home since the start of the pandemic in March last year. Though some offices returned in the summer, albeit with social distancing measures in place, others have remained at home for an entire year. Meanwhile, a new study released earlier this month showed people working from home during the Covid pandemic put in ten hours extra each week compared to when they were in the office. People working from home during the Covid pandemic put in ten hours extra each week compared to when they were in the office, a study has shown NordVPN Teams, which provides digital network services to businesses, found the average working week had increased by 25 per cent in the UK. The company collected data on the average usage of its business VPN servers last month and analysed it against that of last year, including pre-pandemic levels. Britain, alongside Austria, Canada and the US, saw a 'sustained' two-and-a-half hour increase to their working day, reports The Telegraph. Meanwhile, the number of hours people worked fell back to pre-pandemic levels in Belgium, Denmark, France and Spain in January. The company said: 'Online working hours across some European countries have started to stabilise, with employees having had the opportunity to return to the office in some capacity. 'However, employees in the UK and the Netherlands are working until 8pm, regularly logging off later than usual to wrap up an extended working day.' In an effort to further boost its vaccine diplomacy, India has sent six lakh doses of domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines to Ghana. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar took to Twittter on February 24 and confirmed that the western African nation had already received the jabs produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) and was ready to begin its mass inoculation. Keeping our African commitment. Ghana now receives Made in India vaccines. #VaccineMaitri pic.twitter.com/uGwgalidAd Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 24, 2021 Read: India Dispatches First Batch Of Six Lakh COVID Vaccine Doses To Ghana Read: Ghana Is First Nation In World To Receive COVAX Vaccines He also shared photographs showing stocks of Covashield vaccines at a Ghanaian airport. All the vaccines received by Ghana are free of cost as the country received them under WHOs COVAX programme. Co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the WHO, the Covax programme aims to expedite vaccine distribution in 92 low and middle-income nations and also support manufacturing capacities so that two billion doses could be freely distributed before the end of this year. #Ghana becomes the first African country to receive #COVID19 vaccines from the COVAX facility. 600,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca doses arrived in Accra this morning. The delivery is the first wave of arrivals to continue in coming days. pic.twitter.com/1R5mVciEpv WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) February 24, 2021 Vaccine Maitri Meanwhile, India has won global praise for its Vaccine Maitri programme which aims to aid poor countries amidst the global pandemic. As of now, the country has gifted domestically produced vaccinesCovaxin and Covishieldto over 20 countries, including those in the Caribbean and the Middle East. Earlier, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denominated the vaccine production capacity of India as the "best asset" that the world has today while calling for India to play a major role in the global vaccination campaign. A flight carrying 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AZ vaccine has landed in Ghana. It's the first delivery under the global Covid vaccine sharing scheme COVAX. In a joint statement WHO/UNICEF called it a 'momentous occasion'. The doses were produced by the Serum Institute of India Fergus Walsh (@BBCFergusWalsh) February 24, 2021 Read: India Sends Domestically Produced Vaccines To Serbia: 'Buttressing Our Bond With Belgrade' Read: Ghana Becomes World's First Country To Receive Free Doses Of Made In India COVAX Vaccines Ghana's vaccination campaign Ghana's vaccination campaign will begin from March 2 and will be conducted in phases among prioritized groups, beginning with health workers, adults of 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and their related staff. The government of Ghana remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agencies, the country's acting Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told the Associated Press. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin his first "virtual trip" abroad on Friday, filling an itinerary of video conferences with leaders in Mexico and Canada as the United States confronts a list of immigration and energy challenges with its two key neighbors, said a senior State Department official. The first trip of America's top diplomat is typically imbued with symbolism and fanfare as foreign hosts roll out red carpets and toast to strong bilateral relations. But the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus will keep Blinken and his entourage behind large TV monitors in Washington while concerns about a surge of new migrants on the Southern border will keep the subject matter of discussions fairly serious. "We're trying to make diplomatic lemonade out of the lemons that 2020 and 2021 have dealt us," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the upcoming itinerary. Blinken begins his slate of meetings with Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, and secretary of economy, Tatiana Clouthier. The virtual setting will be the Paso Del Norte - which links El Paso and Ciudad Juarez - where Blinken "will discuss cooperation between Mexico and the United States to manage migration flows and travel across the U.S.-Mexico border," said the official. The next several weeks will be a critical test for the Biden administration as it transitions from campaigning on a friendlier posture toward migrants to managing a largely dysfunctional U.S. immigration system. The Biden administration's goal to make immigration more "humane" and "orderly" without triggering a rush to the border that creates unsafe conditions and fresh criticisms from anti-immigration hard-liners in Congress. The Biden administration remains committed to doing away with the "cruel" policies of the Trump era, the official said, while it tries to stress that "would-be migrants" should not journey to the United States because it is "dangerous, even more so because of covid." Following his meetings with Mexican leaders, Blinken will conduct a virtual visit with Canadian leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau and other cabinet members. "They will discuss a common approach to global challenges such as protecting our citizens from the pandemic and reinvigorating our economies," said the official. President Joe Biden rankled Canada's leaders early on in his tenure by blocking the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project designed to pump oil sands crude from Canada to Nebraska, and pushing a "Buy American" program they felt could threaten Canadian manufacturers. But Trudeau and Biden sought to bury the hatchet during their first virtual meeting this week, and both stressed solidarity in the relationship. "The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend than Canada," Biden told Trudeau during a video conference. The two spoke for about two hours and pledged to work together against the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, with the hope of achieving net-zero emissions in less than 30 years. A House hearing on Capitol security lapses Thursday identified a series of 'intelligence missteps' leading up to January 6th as the new head of the Capitol Police cited militia threats to try to blow up the Capitol during a joint meeting of Congress. Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman raised the issue at the same hearing where lawmakers from both parties blasted security preparations made in advance of the day Congress met to count the electoral votes as thousands of Donald Trump supporters gathered to hear from the then-president. 'We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union which we know that date has not been identified,' she said. 'So based on that information. We think that it's prudent, that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture,' she said, referencing the expanded perimeter, high fencing with barbed wire, and National Guard support. The White House has not yet released a date for President Joe Biden to address a joint meeting of Congress the speech president's typically give soon after taking office that amount to a State of the Union speech. Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday about the January 6 insurrection. She says militia groups have said they want to blow up the Capitol. At the hearing she fended off questions from lawmakers who said police were unprepared and lacked proper intelligence information White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Feb. 16th that the event 'was never planned to be in February,' although Biden himself had said in January that it would be. Such a speech, were it to occur now, would take place amid the massive new security footprint put in place following the Capitol riot. Pittman also gave new, more precise information about the size of the mob that breached the Capitol and the size of the crowd that rallied around Trump near the White House. She said 15,000 people were screened through security at the Ellipse near the White House on Jan. 6. Another 15,000 outside the Ellipse were unscreened. 'We know that there were excess of 10,000 demonstrators that traversed the campus on January 6th,' she said of the Capitol grounds. She said there were an estimated 800 demonstrators who breached the building. As of this week, prosecutors had charged 275 people and opened files on 540 people, CBS reported. The new House sergeant at arms blasted 'intelligence missteps' in testimony before the latest probe into the January 6th riot, and said Capitol Police were not 'adequately prepared' for what happened. Acting Sergeant at Arms Henry Blodgett told a House Appropriations subcommittee that there was an intelligence failure leading up to the riot with the substance of one dire security warning not making it into subsequent briefings and preparatory memos in the days before the riot. 'Intelligence requires finding the needles in a haystack,' Blodgett told Congress. 'On January 6th, there was a failure to either gather, synthesize, or disseminate intelligence and there were indications that the intelligence was muddled or contradictory,' he said. 'Intelligence requires finding the needles in a haystack,' Acting Sergeant at Arms Henry Blodgett told a House Appropriations subcommittee 'The intelligence provided to the Capitol Police and other law enforcement did not anticipate a coordinated attack,' he told the Legislative Branch subcommittee. 'Warning should not be qualified or hidden. Bad information, conflicting information or missing information leads to poor decisions,' he added. He said Capitol Police 'Were not adequately prepared for the events of January 6th.' Lawmakers at the hearing blasted failures to adapt as well as the apparent chaos of leadership and communication that unfolded on Jan. 6. 'I, for one, am at a loss to understand how your intelligence report, and then later as the mob walked 16 blocks, growing in size and aggressive demeanor failed to impact the Capitol Police force security posture,' said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). Ryan brought up a Jan. 4th push by former Capitol Police chief Steven Sund seeking National Guard assistance, which Sund testified hit opposition from former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving. 'Who in the hell gave Mr. Irving authority ... to deny that request and then go tell the National Guard to lean in?' asked Ryan. 'Why didnt Chief Sund push back and demand that he brings that to the board for a vote.' 'The Capitol Police force was woefully unprepared for the attack,' said Rep. Jaime Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, the top Republican on the subpanel. Panel chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro called the Capitol Police Board, which provides oversight, 'obsolete' and said it 'seems to be non-functioning.' Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts pressed Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman on how Capitol Police could produce a Jan. 3 assessment that anticipated the potential for violence, but later assessments that called it 'remote' or 'unlikely.' 'Capitol police already knew. We knew that the white supremacist and militia groups were coming, and we did anticipate those groups being violent,' said PIttman. She also asked whether 'institutional racism' and 'white supremacy' played a role in the 'discrepancy between the intelligence received the assessment of the likelihood of violence and the preparations that left our officers really at the mercy of the mob?' Pittman, who noted she was the first black and the first female chief, said she has 'no evidence whatsoever that suggests that there was any discrepancy based on our security posture as it relates to making enhancements or not based upon race.' Pittman also spoke about future threats including one related to President Joe Biden's still unscheduled speech to a joint session of Congress. 'We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union which we know that date has not been identified,' she said. 'So based on that information. We think that it's prudent, that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture.' Pittman said her organized had pulled phone records from former chief Steven Sund. The latest information differs from the testimony this week by Sund and former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving on the exact times. It took hours for Guard forces to reach the Capitiol. 'On January 6, Chief Sund first reached out for National Guard support to the House Sergeant at Arms at 12:58 pm. He then spoke to the Senate Sergeant at arms to make the same request for the National Guard at 1:05 pm, and he repeated his request to the House Sergeant at Arms at 1:28 pm, speaking again with them at 1:34, 1:39 and 1:45. Chief Sund spoke to both sergeant at arms to request National Guard support,' she said. PIttman wrote in prepared testimony for a House hearing Thursday that intelligence did warn that armed, white supremacists would be targeting the U.S. Capitol on January 6. But the Capitol Police were not prepared, she wrote, 'for the massive groups of violent insurrectionists,' describing the number as being in the 'tens of thousands.' 'While the Department was prepared to neutralize and remove individuals or groups engaging in civil disobedience or violence among the demonstrators, it was quickly overwhelmed by the thousands of insurrectionists (many armed) who immediately and without provocation began attacking officers, bypassing physical barriers, and refusing to comply with lawful orders,' she said. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) asked how a growing mob 'failed to impact the Capitol Police force security posture' Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman will testify about the insurrection during a House hearing Thursday. In pre-released testimony she wrote that police were warned of armed white supremacists being present, but not 'tens of thousands of insurrectionists' Pittman said the Capitol Police were 'quickly overwhelmed by the thousands of insurrectionists (many armed) who immediately and without provocation began attacking officers, bypassing physical barriers, and refusing to comply with lawful orders' 'The Capitol Police force was woefully unprepared for the attack,' said Rep. Jaime Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler Pittman will appear before the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on the Legislative Branch for a 10 a.m. hearing Thursday morning. Pittman's pre-released opening statement articulated the intelligence the Capitol Police force had prior to the attack and then explained what happened that day. She also wrote about what training Capitol Police officers will receive going forward. While President Donald Trump was acquitted on impeachment charges of inciting the January 6 insurrection, both House and Senate committees have started holding hearings on the Capitol attack this week. Pittman said that the Capitol Police's Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division warned officers in advance of January 6 that 'militia members, white supremacists, and other extremist groups would be participating in the January 6th event.' Officers were warned that 'these groups planned to be armed.' Capitol Police officers were also told that unlike the two Million MAGA marches that happened in November and December, this group would be focused on Congress and the Electoral College vote certification process. 'Unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of demonstrator would not be other branches of government or counter-protesters,' Pittman noted. 'This event was different because all judicial remedies for opposing election results had been exhausted and the only way for their candidate to win was for Congress to reject the Electoral College results.' Officers were also warned, 'due to the tense political environment following the 2020 election, the threat of disruptive actions or violence cannot be ruled out.' 'Supporters of the current president see January 6, 2021, as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election. This sense of desperation and disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent,' Pittman wrote in her testimony. That being said, Pittman noted that 'although the Department's January 3rd Special Assessment foretold of a significant likelihood for violence on Capitol grounds by extremists groups, it did not identify a specific credible threat indicating that thousands of American citizens would descend upon the U.S. Capitol attacking police officers with the goal of breaking into the U.S. Capitol Building to harm Members and prevent the certification of Electoral College votes.' She said the Capitol Police's preparations for January 6 were based on information gathered from its law enforcement partners including the FBI. 'None of which indicated that a mass insurrection of this scale would occur at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th,' she said. On the day of the insurrection, Capitol Police gave Congressional leadership larger police details and had agents protecting evacuation vehicles for them. The police force also sent agents to the Ellipse in case members of Congress, participating in Trump's rally, encountered a security threat. There were 1,200 officers working on Capitol grounds at the time of the attack. Pittman wrote that while officers were trying to keep insurrectionists out of the Capitol Building, the Capitol Police also had to respond to the pipe bomb threats at the Democratic National and Republican National Committee headquarters, which are located on opposite sides of Capitol Hill. Officers had to evacuate House office buildings and also have businesses vacate premises and residents leave the area. Another problem that occurred is when a 'lockdown' was ordered, when the Capitol Building was initially breached, that process did not go smoothly. Officers were supposed to seal all entrances and exits of the Capitol, however 'some of the physical infrastructure of the building, however, gave way to protesters using shields, flag poles, and other objects to break through glass windows and doors.' Going forward, Pittman said officers would be receiving training on lockdown procedures. They would also be learning when to use lethal force. A Capitol Police officer fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 insurrection. About that, Pittman just confirmed it was under investigation by outside law enforcement. The department will also be looking at how less lethal munitions were deployed, as they were 'not as successful in dispersing insurrectionists in the attack,' Pittman said. 'Additionally, the Department recognized that its training largely focuses on keeping unauthorized persons out of buildings on the Capitol Complex and not scenarios in which a building has been breached,' she wrote. 'The Department will also be developing and pushing out additional training scenarios for our officers.' At the top of her remarks, Pittman, who moved up the ranks on the heels of Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund's resignation in the aftermath of the insurrection, said that the police force 'succeeded in its mission' that day. 'It protected Congressional Leadership. It protected Members. And it protected the Democratic Process.' she pointed out. 'At the end of a battle that lasted for hours, democracy prevailed.' Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has called for the implementation of the new Lands Act. Samuel Abu Jinapor appeared before the Appointments Committee in Parliament on Wednesday, February 24. Speaking before the Appointments Committee, he stated he will be working with the new Act when approved by the Committe to become the sector Minister. ''Mr. Chairman, I want to submit that [the implementation] the effective implementation of this new Lands Act (Act 1036) will go a great way of improving the administration of land in our country...We will require to make sure that we publicize it. 1. We have to get the country to be aware of it, to know about the implications of the provisions of this Act. We must have a strategy and a policy to ensure that this Act is well implemented'', he stated. Parliament passed the Land Bill last year to reform land administration in Ghana and is aimed a revising and consolidating the laws on land. The former Deputy Chief of Staff held that the Act will help address all land entitlement issues and other related matters regarding lands. He said; ''...literally all the funny difficult issues relating to land administration [seems to have been], this Act seems to have intervened in almost all of them.'' He also added that he will reduce the number of days it takes for a person or investor to acquire a land entitlement. ''Mr. Chairman, I will endeavor to do that'', he pledged. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has announced three new appointments to its regional staff structure in Munster. William Shortall has been appointed as a senior regional executive for Munster. Mr Shorthall has more than 15 years experience in IFA as a regional executive and has worked with IFA Countryside and as a health and safety Executive. Karol Kissane has been appointed as regional executive for Cork and Kerry. Karol is an accountant and a tax adviser, he is a 2018 Nuffield Scholar and returned to farm in Kerry in 2013. Recently, Karol has been involved with the online platform, Agri Insider, running farm webinars and events. Oisin McGlynn has been appointed as regional executive for North and South Tipperary, Limerick and Clare. The UCD Agriculture Science graduate is currently working as a dairy advisor with Teagasc in Wexford, he previously worked with Teagasc in Limerick and Kilkenny. He completed a Walsh Scholarship masters with Teagasc and UCD in 2019. Fresh thinking IFA director of organisation James Kelly welcomed the appointments to the Munster region. This represents a change in structure with a senior regional executive for Munster working with two regional executives. William Shortalls experience will be invaluable in providing support to our county officers; in identifying and attracting new officer talent into IFA; and in mentoring the new regional executives. "This model gives us a good balance of experience and fresh thinking for a modern IFA, he said. The people we have appointed are passionate about farming. The new team will work with our elected officers and our regional offices in Cork, Clare, Kerry, Tipperary and Limerick. Under the new structure, we will be increasing our engagement with farmers on the ground right across Munster, he said. William Shortall will take up the senior executive role with immediate effect; Karol Kissane will take up his role next Monday, March 1; and Oisin McGlynn will join later in March. Rescue workers carry the body of a dead soldier out of a jungle in Ra-ngae, a district in Narathiwat province in Thailand, Feb. 25, 2021. Thai security forces were hunting for suspected armed separatist insurgents who killed two soldiers and injured another during an attack Thursday on a makeshift military camp in the mountains of Ra-ngae, a district of Narathiwat province, authorities said. This was the first incident with casualties in Thailands southern region along the Malaysia border since two soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion set off by suspected rebels on Feb. 13. Malaysia since January 2020 has been brokering peace talks between the Thai government and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (National Liberation Front, or BRN), the largest of the rebel groups, but those negotiations have gone online since being disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak last year. Col. Chanathip Thongchiew, the commander of the 45th Ranger Task Force in Thailands Deep South, said a team of 16 people from his unit had been tasked with tracking a group of insurgents who were recently spotted near the Tawe mountain range. The 16 men trekked on foot and camped at the site before dusk yesterday with a plan to launch a man-hunt operation on Thursday, but the insurgents were able to spot their movement first, Chanathip told reporters. The insurgents attacked them with homemade hand grenades, followed by a barrage of gunfire from M-16s and shotguns they shot at every tent. The soldiers returned fire for about 15 minutes before the attackers retreated, Chanathip said. Two soldiers were killed and another was seriously injured. Chanathip did not say how many insurgents were involved but noted that they were able to snatch two rifles and a shotgun from the soldiers before fleeing. He said the insurgents were led by a militant identified as Abdullah Bulla, but did not release details about him. The soldiers who pursued the insurgents after the attack found traces of blood on a trail to the Tawe mountain range but were not able to track down their attackers, he said. This year, at least five civilians and government officials were killed and 21 were injured in attacks by suspected rebels, according to police reports gathered by BenarNews. The Deep South encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala provinces and four districts of Songkhla province. Since an insurgency reignited in January 2004, more than 7,000 people have been killed in violence across the region, according to Deep South Watch, a think-tank based in Pattani. Peace talk efforts Earlier this month, BRN and Thai officials held an online meeting to further peace efforts, Thai negotiators and Malaysian facilitator Abdul Rahim bin Mohammad Noor confirmed. BRN had held direct peace talks with the governments team in January and March last year, facilitated by Rahim Noor. Those talks were disrupted by travel restrictions on both countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to BRN representatives and Thai officials. In Bangkok, Thai government officials issued a statement announcing the Feb. 3 technical-level talks, that is, talks without the full delegations. Thailands technical-level peace talk team had a teleconference with the representatives of the BRN with Tan Sri Abdul Rahim bin Mohammad Noor being a facilitator, said the Secretariat Office for the Peace-Talk Dialogue Panel, which is under the National Security Council. Since then, a BRN representative, identified by Thai security officials as Acan Wahid, appeared on YouTube channel Diaspora Patani on Feb. 15 to confirm that technical teams were holding virtual discussions to set up a future full-scale meeting when the pandemic eases. Even though a face-to-face meeting cannot be conducted, the discussion continues through messages and letters, Wahid said. The facilitator team tried to set up a third-round [face-to-face] discussion, but it has yet to materialize because the pandemic is not easing and most of the countrys borders are still closed. Rahim Noor did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for information about potential upcoming meetings. Melissa Leong announced her split from husband Joe Jones in December. And on Monday, the MasterChef Australia judge looked single and ready to mingle as she stepped out in style to host the LOreal Professionnel Colour Trophy Awards in Melbourne. The 39-year-old looked absolutely stunning in a slinky black gown with a low-cut neckline. Flawless: Melissa Leong looked single and ready to mingle as she stepped out in style to host the LOreal Professionnel Colour Trophy Awards in Melbourne Her long black hair was slicked back and she wore a bold red lipstick and black eyeshadow. At one point during the event, Melissa said that her 2021 mantra would be 'gratitude, connection, power and change'. 'I think theyre very apt,' she said, according to Sydney Morning Herald. 'Those words, I definitely consider are at the heart of whats going on in my life.' Looking good: The 39-year-old looked absolutely stunning in a slinky black gown with a low-cut neckline It was recently reported that the newly-single Melissa is being considered for The Bachelorette. According to New Idea, Channel Ten believes the 40-year-old could help revitalise the dating show after viewers were left underwhelmed by sisters Elly and Becky Miles last year. 'Melissa is on the top of their wish list and is already adored by the network,' an industry insider said. Style: Her long black hair was slicked back and she wore a bold red lipstick and black eyeshadow Humble: At one point during the event, Melissa said that her 2021 mantra would be 'gratitude, connection, power and change' 'She's smart, funny and articulate, and gave new life to MasterChef. They want that same success on The Bachelorette.' If she does take on the role, Melissa would be Australia's oldest ever Bachelorette, as well as the first Asian woman to front the dating franchise. The speculation comes just months after Melissa announced she'd split from her husband, bar owner Joe Jones. All smiles: Melissa was certainly enjoying herself at the event as she posed with the recipient of an award In a heartfelt Instagram post on December 20, the food critic wrote: 'It has brought us such happiness to walk together, but the time has come for Joe and I to part ways and walk on, apart.' 'We ask for your kindness and consideration for our privacy, we will not be making any further comment as our private lives have, and will always remain exactly that. 'We wish you peace at the end of such a challenging year for all.' MONCKS CORNER The owner of a Berkeley County funeral home has been arrested and charged with running his business without proper licensing or tax payments. Milton Edward Scott, 77, faces six counts of tax evasion and one count of operating a business without a license. If Scott is found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison for each tax evasion count, plus up to 30 days in jail for unlicensed business operation. Investigators with the South Carolina Department of Revenue said Scott had left over $58,000 of taxes unpaid, so authorities revoked his retail license in March 2017. But Scott's Mortuary Inc. was still operating as normal when authorities checked on the business in October 2020. According to warrants filed Feb. 25, Scott reported no earnings for his taxes from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and much of 2020. But by Department of Revenue's calculations, he raked in over $450,000 in that period. Scott wasn't immediately available for comment. Scott's Mortuary has been operating since 1982, according to its website, and serves families across the tri-county from its location on Highway 52. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:10:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Thursday said that 23 positive cases of COVID-19 variant were reported. "Experts of the center managed to detect 23 cases of COVID-19 variant after carrying out tests to 88 positive COVID-19 samples. This represents 26 percent of the total samples tested," Ibrahim al-Daghis, official of the center told Xinhua. The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Libya so far is 131,833, including 118,791 recoveries and 2,156 deaths, the center said in a statement. The center stressed the need to track, study and monitor the virus and take necessary protective measures against the pandemic. Enditem North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has presided over a Central Military Commission meeting to discuss the discipline among the military officials and stricter control over the younger officers, state media reported on Thursday. At the expanded military commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party on Wednesday, Kim stressed on the importance of establishing "revolutionary moral discipline" particularly among the younger generation in the Army, according to the Korean Central News Agency. "To establish the revolutionary moral discipline within the KPA is not just a technical issue, but a fatal issue related to the existence of the KPA and success or failure in the army building and military activities," Kim said, referring to the People's Army, Yonhap reported. Kim also called for intensified education and control to ensure that the commanding officers of the "new generation have the proper political consciousness and moral point of view." The meeting also saw a discussion of "a series of shortcomings revealed in the military and political activities and moral life of KPA commanding officers." Kim's criticism appears aimed at tightening discipline among military officers amid challenges from global sanctions and the country's prolonged fight against the global pandemic. Several major commanding officers were dismissed or appointed at the meeting, reflecting an apparent generational change in the organisation. Kim Song-gi was appointed as the Commander of the North's Navy, while Kim Chung-il was appointed the Commander of the Aviation Force. The tile of the Vice Marshal was also conferred on Defence Minister Kim Jong-gwan and Kwon Yong-jin, Director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean Army. --IANS int/ (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.) Chandigarh, Feb 25 : Carrying the initiative of Digital India Mission, Haryana will become the 16th state to introduce paperless functioning of the state legislative assembly. In this direction, a tripartite memorandum of understanding was signed on Thursday for the implementation of National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA). Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said the expenses on this project costing Rs 20 crore would be provided by the Central and state governments in the ration of 60:40 respectively. "Even in situation of COVID-19, we have been successful for implementation of National e-Vidhan Application," he told the media here. Under this agreement, the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs will organize a three-year training programme for officials of the Assembly. He said Himachal Pradesh is the only state in the country which has been successful in paperless functioning of the legislature. He said that on March 1 and 2 a team of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha would visit Shimla to know the functioning and proceedings of the Assembly. Gupta said the Vidhan Sabha library would also be digitized soon. He said after the implementation of this paperless initiative, an amount of about Rs 15 crore will be saved which was earlier spent on papers in the sessions. It will also help in environmental protection, he added. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The New York Times is an amazing paper. Take the report titled "Israel Gives Vaccine to Far-Off Allies, as Palestinians Wait." The gist of it is this: Israel has a small surplus of COVID vaccine doses and, as a token of friendship, will sent them "to nations like the Czech Republic and Honduras that pledged to move diplomats to Jerusalem" rather than to Palestinians to whom they gave so far, as a humanitarian gesture, "2,000 doses and promised 3,000 more" "token figures, given the size of the Palestinian population." Why the Times thinks this worthy of an article is unclear. For one, Israel is in no position to inoculate populations that are comparable in size to its own. As is clear from the article itself, several thousand doses it plans to send to friendly countries (to be used undoubtedly for the health care workers) are just a token of friendship. So it looks as though the Times' intention is to smear Israel with violating "international law": "human rights watchdogs say that Israel should organize a systematic vaccine program in the occupied territories, rather than sporadically deliver spares a few thousand at a time. They cite the Fourth Geneva Convention, which obliges an occupying power to coordinate with the local authorities to maintain public health within an occupied territory, including during epidemics." Why Israel should be responsible for inoculating Palestinians is not at all clear, given that, as the report itself notes, "the Palestinian Authority was given responsibility for organizing its own health care system in the 1990s, after the signing of the Oslo Accords that gave the Palestinian leadership limited autonomy in parts of the occupied territories." (The specifics can be found in an excellent article that quotes the relevant "chapter and verse"). In the report, the Times simply uses the classical tactic of trying to look fair while throwing the mud at Israel in the hope that some of it sticks. The Times' attempts to accuse Israel of wrongs that are in fact rights is as unnatural and forced as the Palestinian outrage quoted in its report: "It is a system of oppression," said Salem Barahmeh, executive director at the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, a Ramallah-based advocacy group. "It says a lot about a regime," Mr. Barahmeh added, "that it is willing to send vaccines halfway across the world, potentially for a quid pro quo, and not offer the vaccine to the millions of Palestinians who live under the Israeli occupation." In fact, this quote "says a lot" about something else: the culture of irresponsibility embedded in the Palestinian mindset. Not only do Palestinians fail to realize that Israel does not have the vaccines for "the millions of Palestinians" and that it is the Palestinian Authority's duty to acquire it; what is stunning is the spectacular failure of the Palestinians to realize that the terrorism they unleashed against Israel after refusing to fairly settle the conflict, killing over a thousand Israelis in suicide bus and restaurant bombings and maiming thousands more, did not endear them to the Israelis, who, as is only natural, prioritize for help friends over enemies. While the Palestinian position can at least be understood in the context of their desire to destroy Israel by means foul or fair, the intention of the Times in making up a story out of a non-story is less clear. Unless, of course, the Times also shares the Palestinian goal of destroying Israel. That would certainly explain it. Image: New York Times. In a ceremony held to inaugurate a medical complex in Ismailia governorate on 16 February, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi underlined the importance of combating Egypts runaway population growth. Overpopulation represents a threat to Egypts stability, security, and development programmes, said Al-Sisi, before revealing that a new strategy seeks to cut annual population growth from 2.4 million to 400,000. Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala Al-Said told the media this week that the government will this year begin implementing a three-year birth control programme. The beginning will be in Upper Egyptian governorates where fertility rates are high. We will aim to help women aged between 18 and 45 enter employment and secure an income. Al-Sisi warned that if population growth rates continue, Egypts population will increase from 101.5 million citizens in 2020 to 150 million by 2030 and to around 193-194 million by 2050. We need LE16 trillion per year to spend on an Egypt with 100 million citizens and would need to double this figure to spend on an Egypt with 195 million, he said. The new population strategy, added the president, will raise the slogan Two Children Are Enough. It is important that families can feed, take care of, and follow up on their children. If they have three, four, or more children, this becomes a big burden not only for the families but also for the state. Many of the current chronic problems from which Egypt suffers, from the proliferation of slums and haphazard communities and building on agricultural land, are the direct result of overpopulation, said Al-Sisi. He said an effective population control strategy requires coordinated efforts from all sectors of society, civil society organisations, intellectuals, the media and religious clerics all of whom should work to raise awareness about the importance of birth control programmes and the negative impact of overpopulation. According to Al-Said, Egypt witnessed a rapid increase in population growth in 2020, recording 194,000 births per month, 6,480 births per day, or one birth every 13 seconds. The 2017 census revealed that children under nine years made up 25 per cent of the total population, said Al-Said. This group is expected to reach marriageable age between 2030 and 2042 and without effective birth control programmes a huge population boom is inevitable. Al-Said explained that the new three-year family planning and birth control programme will adopt four measures. The first aims to help women between 18 and 45 raise income from productive small-scale projects. The second involves offering free family planning and birth control services in rural areas across Egypt, with civil society organisations playing the biggest role. Some 336 doctors and the same number of nursing staff have received intensive training in the area of family planning and birth control programmes and are now ready to implement them. The third measure aims to raise awareness about the effects of overpopulation. Volunteers will make 12 million visits to families across Egypt and organise 10,000 seminars and 500 events targeting women in at least 20 governorates. The fourth measure, said the minister, will involve legislation that toughens penalties for early marriage and child labour. Egypts 2030 vision targets a drop in fertility rates from 3.5 children per woman in 2017 to 2.4 in 2032, and 1.9 children in 2052. Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics figures show that Egypts population today is more than five times that of 1947. Tarek Tawfik, deputy health minister for population matters, told the media last week that there are three scenarios for population growth in Egypt between 2010 and 2050. The first is that the current fertility rate of 3.5 children per woman holds steady, which means Egypts population will reach 183 million by 2050. The second scenario is that the fertility rate drops to 3.07 children which means Egypts population will reach 160 million in 2050. Under the third scenario, the fertility rate will fall to 2.4 children meaning Egypts population will increase to 152 million. Parliaments Social Solidarity Committee says it will hold hearing sessions on population growth in the next few. The committees deputy chairman Radwa Gaafar said the hearing sessions will be organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Solidarity which is playing a key role in birth control programmes, and stressed that committee members agree that it would be unconstitutional to punish families with three children or to legally compel families to abide by birth control measures. MP Rania Al-Gazayerli, however, has announced that she intends to submit a draft law that will strip families with three children or more from accessing 50 per cent of subsidized services and products. This law, which I hope will come into effect in 2024, represents a tough but necessary step to stem overpopulation, said Al-Gazayerli. On 17 February, the day after President Al-Sisis remarks on Egypts population crisis, Dar Al-Ifta (the House of Religious Edicts) launched a hashtag which translates as birth control is halal [not forbidden by Islam]. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: Traffic on the Centenary Highway west of Brisbane will explode by more than 400 per cent over the coming decades, forcing Ipswich authorities to explore options to improve road and public transport routes. An initiative to upgrade transport options between Ipswich and Springfield was among 44 new proposals to be added to the latest Infrastructure Australia priority list, released on Thursday. Traffic congestion is expected to get much worse on the Centenary Highway. Generic image. Credit:Paul Rovere It comes amid predictions the population in the Ipswich council area would more than double from 222,000 residents in 2019 to 558,000 by 2041, with better public transport options needed to reduce reliance on cars. The number of daily trips on the Centenary Highway between Ipswich and Springfield is expected to grow from about 7500 trips in 2016 to nearly 40,000 trips by 2036. The U.S. Supreme Court finally has ended the desperate effort by some Republican politicians to invalidate the votes of more than 2.6 million Pennsylvanians and bestow the states electoral votes upon former President Donald Trump. In the process, it exposed as mere naked partisanship the supposedly high-minded claims of Republican members of the states congressional delegation including Reps. Dan Meuser and Fred Keller of Northeast Pennsylvania that they merely were trying to uphold the Constitution in attempting to disenfranchise their fellow Pennsylvanians. Even after Trump-inspired rioters attacked Congress on Jan. 6, Mueser, Keller and their colleagues voted to object to Pennsylvanias certified election results. President Joe Biden carried the state by more than 80,000 votes. They already had supported a lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general to invalidate the presidential piece of their own states election the very same election that had returned them to office. The Supreme Court quickly dispatched that farce to oblivion. That didnt stop the litigation, however. Even after 60 different lawsuits claiming election fraud or unconstitutional conduct were dismissed by scores of federal and state courts, Pennsylvania Republican leaders persisted in challenging the Pennsylvania presidential election. Their claim was that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court acted unconstitutionally in interpreting the Pennsylvania Constitution to allow the counting of almost all mailed ballots for the Nov. 3 election. The Supreme Court decided not to hear the case, which means that at least six justices found no constitutional issue consider. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented, saying that state legislatures should be the final word on election rules. But its a good thing that isnt the case in Pennsylvania, where the Republican legislative majority often has attempted to pass voting legislation that suppresses the vote, and is in the process of doing so again. The shameful attack by Mueser, Keller and the others on democratic governance was exactly what it appeared to be a shameful power grab. Watching the line-up for Merrick Garland's confirmation votes on his nomination, I realized something today about politics in Congress. All Democrat politicians, whether famous or unknown, can reliably be counted on to vote a straight Democrat party ticket. Meanwhile, many Republican politicians, whether famous or unknown, can also be reliably counted on to vote a straight Democrat party ticket. Merrick Garland is Biden's nominee for attorney general. Although presented as a "moderate," he is anything but. During the Senate hearings on Garland's nomination, America learned that: This is a man whom Republicans should oppose. Certainly, if the shoe were on the other foot, the Democrats would oppose him en masse. The reality is that, because Kamala Harris can break a tie, Garland will get confirmed regardless of Republican actions but at least the Republicans could make a principled stand. The problem is that "Republicans" and "principled stand" are not words often paired in a single sentence. According to a report in the New York Post: Judge Merrick Garland will head into next week's confirmation vote on his nomination to be attorney general with considerable support from Republicans, despite evading key questions pertinent to conservatives' concerns. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Garland's nomination to lead the Justice Department on Monday, where he is expected to cruise through with the support of multiple Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has repeatedly told reporters since Garland's Tuesday testimony that he is leaning toward voting to confirm, though he has stressed that he doesn't "want to make a final decision." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the No. 2 Republican on the committee, said Tuesday he was "very inclined" to back Garland's confirmation given his "very deep understanding of the threats America faces." Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.), a member of GOP leadership who serves on the panel, has backed Garland since he was tapped by President Biden for the post. [snip] Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who also sits on the powerful panel, said in a statement Tuesday that he would join his fellow GOP committee members in backing Biden's AG pick. I've written before about the schism in the Republican Party, one that sees Trump's pro-American agenda outside Washington, D.C. versus Mitch McConnell's and Liz Cheney's pro-internationalism agenda inside Washington, D.C. The latter view means that McConnell and Cheney, and others in their camp, are more interested in aligning with Democrat and Chinese interests than they are with protecting Americans. Moreover, the anti-American wing of the Republican Party is open about this. Watch this video of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Liz Cheney as she tries to boot Trump from the Republican Party: Writing at The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance rightly says: Thus the ridiculous position of the Republican party is on display. Keep in mind the party caucus recently agreed to keep Liz Cheney in her leadership role after she voted to impeach President Trump. Her remarks today were intentionally antagonistic and intentionally public. She is sneering in the face of 80,000,000 voters and laughing while she does it. Ms. Cheney could have chosen to say nothing but she made a choice. The DeceptiCon wing of the party feels emboldened by the lack of the MAGA contingent to push back forcefully against them. There are times when it becomes necessary to separate from bad people and unfortunately the Republican party does not seem capable of getting rid of the conniving corrupt internal elements. As long as voters keep sending the same anti-American, pro-Chinese incumbents back to D.C., we'll get the same outcome: a congressional uniparty that is entirely Democrat in its policies. If we want a federal government that works for America, rather than for transnational elitists and the Chinese government, it's up to conservative voters to make a difference within their states. Change doesn't start in D.C.; change there is the final step, not the first step. Image: Merrick Garland. YouTube screen grab. One of the slippery things when writing about conspiracy theories is this: how to explain their convoluted logic without making them sound more sensible? How to lead the reader along the twisted path, without constantly having to shout its not true!? During WWI, German Jews served in the imperial military with distinction and in far greater numbers than their proportion of the population. After the Nazi rise to power, many German Jewish veterans assumed (and then hoped in vain) that prior sacrifice and service would shield them from intensifying persecution. That was a reasoned line of thinking. But rationality is irrelevant in a world permeated by conspiracism. Press Release February 25, 2021 TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS WITH MS. PINKY WEBB THE SOURCE, CNN PHILIPPINES Q: We have a lot of topics to talk about but Gusto ko lang isingit sana itong nangyari sa gabi because you know when you look at this video, well nakakatakot po, it happened before 6pm it was a one-hour shootout between a police, a QCPD and a PDEA. I just want to get your quick reaction on it. SRH: Well as they said, it was an unfortunate, or very unfortunate, I would say a very very unfortunate incident. Condolences to the families of the two who were killed and I really hope that the four injured and reportedly in hospital, we don't know whether seriously or slightly, I hope that they will recover but they say a misencounter and the NCRPO said that hindi ito yung unang pagkakataong nangyari ito, maraming beses na raw. My goodness no. These misencounters should be rare than marami or even common and the NCRPO Chief said that may coordination naman daw they are procedures to be followed and I really hope that the Board of Inquiry that they've reportedly formed will get to the bottom of what happened. Why a misencounter again? Sabi nila this is not the first time this has happened and how could it have transpired at al in the first place? And why did it take one hour hindi ba pwedeng magkalinawan even within the first few minutes that a misencounter breaks out. Sabi rin ng NCRPO Chief baka hindi lang sila nagkaamuyan kaagad. Well, maybe it shouldn't take an hour in order to save their own lives and prevent danger to the public. Q: Very hard to really get at the bottom of what happened here because kulang pa nga po tayo ng impormasyon in fact we are trying to get anyone from PDEA, from the police to speak out about this. I believe they will have a press conference later this afternoon but you know what we know so far is you're looking at two groups: the QCPD and the PDEA and both are saying they are involved in a drug operation or a buy bust operation, sila yung nanghuhuli sa buy bust yung isa naman sinabi sila ung nanghuhuli ng buy bust kaya ang mangyayari po dito, it's one group's word against the other. SRH: Right in a way it's like a 'he said, she said' but In the end, the Board of Inquiry will have to tell the public the full and true story as they can discover it. Including nasaan yung nile-legitimate drug operation or nasaan yung bina-buy bust operation. Sino sila? All those details just to put the public's midn and heart at rest about the very dramatic. traumatic so-called misencounter that happened last night. Q: Let's go to the vaccines. Sinovac donated vaccines. We're looking at two batches here, two kinds of agreements. One is the donation, one is the procurement. I just wanna talk about donation first of 600,000 apparently it is set to arrive, possibly, according to Ms. Helen Yang of Sinovac, it is possible this week or even next week pero minamadali na raw nila ito. But the fact is, this would be the first batch of vaccines that the Philippines will be receiving. Is this a welcome development for you? SRH: It's welcome in the sense that when the vaccines finally arrive, that donation, the timetable will stop being a moving target kasi noong una sinabi nila Feb 15 ang rollout ng vaccination program and then they said okay it's delayed, but Sinovac will be the first vaccines, the donated batch of 600,000 to arrive on the 26th which is tomorrow. Now, Ms. Yang says possibly next week. So galaw nang galaw. Pangalawa, finally the FDA issued and Emergency Use Authorization for Sinovac earlier this week and I appreciate yung effort ng FDA to add to a slowly growing shortlist of vaccines given EUAs, nauna na yung Pfizer and Astra Zeneca and now we have the Sinovac. I also appreciate gabay o payo na ibinigay ng FDA na itong Sinovac may EUA na siya pero mas indicated daw siya for healthy adults within the 18-59-years old age range at hindi raw siya recommended for healthcare workers na heavily-exposed on a daily basis sa mga COVID-19 patients natin dahil mataas daw ang viral load at saka long hours ang exposure sa ganyan gsetting at hindi sasapat ang efficacy ng Sinovac sa ganyang setting. Nananawagan ako sa FDA at sa buong IATF and National Task Force bilisan yung pagprocure din ng mga vaccines na pupwede sa ating mga healthcare workers kasi sila yung priority sa vaccine prioritization masterlist na inilabas na rin ng DOH but if FDA says that Sinovac na mukhang unang darating, the first 600,000 bukod pa sa 25 million na ipo-procure, kung yan ang unang darating, e baka hindi masunod ang prioritization list ng DOH. So, bilisan at galingan ang pagprocure ng mga vaccines na bagay sa ating mga healthcare workers so that the NTF can remain faithful to the vaccine masterlist na sila rin mismo ang nag-issue even if ang mauunang darating, isang donasyon ay hindi recommended para sa healthcare workers and I hope that FDA and DOH will release the full findings of their research about Sinovac, at saka sa pag-administer nito, pag iaadminister na ito sa iba't ibang sektor ng populasyon that there be a stringent screening process at saka full information and choice talaga, informed choice ng pasyente or ng tao na tatanggap ng vaccine na ito, particular na vaccine. Q: It's interesting that you appreciate yung tinatawag ni President through Secretary Roque na colatilla na inilagay ng FDA, I spoke with FDA Director General Eric Domingo yesterday sabi ko nga, nagulat ba kayo sa concerns ng ilan bakit ganoon? Bakit may not recommended for? You know, he was saying na based on their study, gaya po ng inyong what you explained, it is better for healthier individuals and not especially the healthcare workers directly treating other COVID -19 patients, because you have other senators who are not very happy with this colatilla that the FDA had issued but Secretary Roque also yesterday was saying while this is not recommended, sabi niya healthcare workers can still opt to get vaccinated if they want to. Do you think this is a sound suggestion? Coming from the FDA saying, 'sandali ha, wag muna sa mga healthcare workers directly treating COVID-19 patients and then Secretary Roque was saying while it is not recommended, healthcare workers can be given the choice to be vaccinated by Sinivac or not. SRH: Parang si Secretary Roque is trying to be Pope-ish that the Pope. Kasi kung ako ang pasyente, or taong hindi doctor, hindi ako healthcare worker, pakikinggan ko ba ang FDA na nagbigay ng ganitong EUA but with that colatilla? Na naintindihan ko rin yung ibang colleagues ko na hindi masyadong masaya, pero sinabi yun ng FDA makikinig ba ako sa kanila o kay Sec Roque na hindi naman healthcare worker o sa ating mga healthcare workers na of course, in the end, choice nila iyon. Palagay ko, dahil gusto natin na evidence-based dapat yung ating COVID-19 response, I would continue to appreciate yung pagbibigay ng EUA plus additional advise ng FDA at yung decision ng mga healthcare workers I would gues na yung kaisipan at desisyon ng mga healthcare workers ay mas malapit sa FDA kaysa sa Sec Roque. Q: What about what was also said during the press briefing that there is a plan that when the vaccines Sinovac arrived, magkakaroon ng simple ceremony and in fact, I believe that the President would want to be there upon the arrival of the vaccine. Basically, Secretary Roque was saying Filipino tayo at tumatanaw din naman tayo ng utang na loob, hence, that's why, possibly, the President would wanna be there pagdating ng mga SInovac vaccines. SRH: I have no problem with that. Wala akong away sa mga seremonya, wala akong away sa ugali nating mga Pilipino ng utang na loob, but you know the more important is to back up any ceremonies with solid, concrete actions on the ground and speaking of utang na loob, ang pinakamataas na utang na loob dito sa sitwasyon na ito ay sa ating mga healthcare workers mismo. Those who've been putting their lives on the line. Some of them getting sick, some of them dying, since the first day of the pandemic. So, in faithfulness to the prioritization list of the DOH, dapat talaga bilisan ng NTF ang pagprocure ng mga vaccines na bagay at poprotekta sa ating mga healthcare workers. The recoveries we've also been experiencing in this last one year of the pandemic are due mostly, mostly to none other than our healthcare workers. Protektahan naman natin sila. Let's put out money where our mouth is. Hindi lang seremonya, hindi lang utang na loob na salita but let's back it up with procuring the vaccines that they need to stay alive and healthy and serving us beyond the call of duty. Saka huli na nga yung mga benepisyo nila under the law including laws that we've passed recently, huwag na rin maman nating ihuli pa, bilisan natin. Let's get those vaccines here on time which was yesterday para protektahan ang ating mga healthcare workers na nagpoprotekta sa atin. Q: And that's what we need to talk about, the Vaccination Bill that was passed by Congress, awaiting the signature of the President and of course this pastillas scam, sabi ni Senator Hontiveros, may bagong mutation itong pastillas scam. Q: A bit of good news when we're talking about the COVAX facility. Ang sabi ng WHO representative here in the Philippines yung pong scheduled delivery ng Astrazeneca could be finalized this week. Wala parin po tayong update about the Pfizer vaccine as much as we've already sent the indemnification agreement. Parang naghihintay pa ata ng sagot dun sa ating indemnification agreement with them. All this, was, again, supposed to arrive, the indicative date was mid-February but obviously this did not happen. Parang in a nutshell siguro senator, what do you think happened? Because subsequently while this is happening nagmadali ang Congress, Senate, and the House to pass this vaccination bill, which includes what? Two things: the procurement of vaccines and an indemnity fund. 17:45 I really commend the Senate leadership, our sponsor Senator Sonny, and our counterparts in the House, for taking this urgent action on a Vaccine Bill, or a Vaccine Law soon to be, hopefully. In the Senate, we only had wished that the DOH had told us earlier na kailangan pala yang indemnification provision na iyon dahil kung sinabi nila agad nung palang Committee of the Whole hearing, edi sana mas maaga pa namin trinabaho ito as we did just within the space of less than 2 weeks at masaya po ako na tinanggap ng House yung Senate version. I also laud yung ating mga local government units at yung private sector for stepping up earlier, taking the lead in what is now finally, hopefully with the signature of the Executive dahil tinrabaho namin sa Kongreso, truly a more whole of government, and whole-of-nation approach. Of course, nakakainip na yung Pfizer at Astra Zeneca na una pa ngang nakatanggap ng EUA mula sa FDA ay nahuhuli sa pagprocure, nauna pa yung donation ng Sinovac na pangatlo, humabol na EUA. I don't know some people are saying, "Did somebody drop the ball again?", "Minsan nauuna yung karetela sa kabayo". But let's get things in order those vaccines are early on received EUA's belatedly now Congress was informed and we stepped up and delivered an indemnification provision in this vaccine law, no more excuses, no more delays please on the part of the Executive as led by the IATF to get all the vaccine platforms that they said they've been negotiating for many months now. Hello, it's already year 2 of the pandemic, get these platforms in place and operating because we are falling behind in the time table that they set early on to begin rolling out the vaccination program and let's get the 'why DOH information program about the vaccination program online so that there's full information to the public. There will be that screening, there will be informed consent, and proper monitoring put in place as also provided by the bill passed by Congress. Q: I need to shift topics, senator, but this is just something I wanted to clear up. Nakausap ko nga po si Senator Drilon kahapon and he said, I asked him, "Who dropped the ball?" And sabi niya it's Sec. Duque and Sec. Galvez. But I need to move on to this. He also said that even that law, that Congress passed, the Vaccination Bill, is not really necessary according to Senator Drilon. He was saying na kaya naman po, it's within the powers of the President to issue an Executive Order on this. Just very quickly: Why pass a law when, if Senator Drilon is right, that kaya naman ng Pangulo 'to na wala nang kailangang gawing batas ang Kongreso. SRH: Totoo. Sinabi din ni Senate Minority Leader Senator Frank na the President has all the powers to bind the government, even in a vaccination program like this. I guess our still passing a law was a natural followup on the Senate Committee of the Whole hearings on a vaccination program. So here, in a way, we've gone even above and beyond what is required in terms of legislation so all the more we can tell the Executive, hey, no more, as I mentioned earlier, no more delays. No more excuses because the LGUs stepped up early. The private sector stepped up early. Here we are in Congress passing a law about something that in fact you could already do and you could have done in the past year, so speaking of who dropped the ball before, now, the ball is again solidly, finally in the court of the Executive. Q: A new modus dito sa Pastillas scam, sabi nyo nga, it's mutating pasillas scam, this was already revealed, investigated at the Senate and then very recently, mayroon na naman, at panibago hindi na nga, ibang version nga ng pastillas scam. Ano ho ba ito, wala ho kayang kadala-dala ang mga pasimuno nito? SRH: Parang ganyang nga. As a fruit of the Senate inquiries, NBI's and DOJ's own investigations, cases have started to be filed against BI officials and personnel even against one travel agency operator and manager, cases filed also in the Ombudsman, mukha ngang walang kadala-dala. I think their business model is too profitable for them in the past several years already, at least since 2017, when former Justice Sec Aguirre issued that Department Order 41 creating the Visa Upon Arrival or the VUA, which is another scheme which a revenue stream for the one-stop shop of corruption at the BI. And the cases so far have been filed against low level or foot soldier, and some, but not all, mid-level bosses and masterminds who were identified in the Senate hearings, so far. Mukhang there's really a protector who is operating, emboldening those who remain inside, and their cohorts for example in the travel agencies to now mutate the original pastillas, into something even much more profitable for them, 50x over apparently, P10,000 before per person, and now reportedly, P550,000. Parang dollars na di ba. Probably, they're emboldened because the roots haven't really been deeply pulled out, uprooted to put an end to this corruption in one of our importante government agencies. Important not only to protect our borders, but to protect our women and children against the crimes they've been suffering from the Chinese POGO workers and undesirable aliens among those Chinese using the VUA to come into the country and operate their criminal syndicates. Q: Will this prompt the Senate to look into this new Pastillas scam? SRH: The Senate Committee on Women was prepared to do our last hearing on the year-long now POGO-related prostitution resolution. We were going to close with a final look into not just the inbound human trafficking and the so-called Chinese-only related prostitution here inside the Philippines, pero tingnan din yung sinasabing baka yung sindikato ay the one behind also outbound trafficking of Filipinas bound for prostituition abroad. Now we have to do a back-to-back of closing topics in our hearing, kasi ito nga nakita naming mutation, parang may lumot na pastillas, pero bagong flavor, mapait na pastillas scam dito sa BI. Wala talagang kadala-dala, matigas talaga ang ulo, palagay ko masyadong matapang ang apog. The struggle to defeat poverty in Russia faces certain difficulties, but national officials are not giving up on it, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday. "True, not everything works out well," he admitted, when commenting on the endeavors to do away with poverty in the country. "Yes, certain factors seriously impede this work sometimes. However, nobody is going to give up, and work on this will carry on," TASS cited him as saying. The war on poverty is "the highest priority" for the Russian authorities and the president. "It is this issue that appears in all national development plans. Of course, not a single one of the presidents addresses to the Federal Assembly goes without this topic, and efforts to fight poverty are carried out on a permanent basis," Peskov stressed. Fans of Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo will be pleased Cherry gives them so much to do. Its almost too much. The story doesnt really kick in for about 80 minutes. Its a good story, but does not require as much setup as its given. It does show growth from directors Joe and Anthony Russo after their four-film Marvel stint, although some of the same issues with bloated, sprawling stories. Ciara Bravo and Tom Holland | Apple Tom Holland IS Cherry and Ciara Bravo IS Emily Cherry (Holland) meets Emily (Bravo) in college. They fall in love but Cherry enlists in the Army. He goes through Basic Training and does a tour in Iraq. When he comes home, he uses heroin to cope with PTSD and gets Emily addicted too. So he robs banks to pay for their habit. Tom Holland | Apple RELATED: Cherry Will Feature 6 Chapters, Each With Completely Different Tones and Production Designs, According to Joe Russo See, that took one paragraph to set up, but Cherry spends five of its eight parts (including prologue and epilogue) setting up the desperation for bank robbery. Its surely reflecting the structure of the Nico Walker book, and its not to diminish the realistic experiences of veterans, but it could have been an economical 20-30 minute first act. Its not a hard leap to make from war to addiction, and the extra hour of film doesnt make it any more or less sympathetic. Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo run the gamut in Cherry The meat of Cherry is when Emily decides to do heroin with Cherry and when he goes to extremes to support their habit. They have some Trainspotting-esque capers, and one powerful scene has Cherry rob a bank while going through withdrawal. Ciara Bravo and Tom Holland | Apple RELATED: Tom Holland Talks Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Cameos in Spider-Man 3 Holland and Bravo get to play the extremes of their characters. They begin as college students whos primary concerns are their love lives. It is valid to see those carefree characters and think about them later when Cherry and Emily will do anything for a score. It could just be a bit more concise. Cherry goes through the military, too. Theres a bit more of a gradual transition in his performance, although Cherry spends much of his military time hiding his true character, lest drill sergeants or fellow soldiers see him crack. That, too, makes Cherrys break when he returns to civilian life all the more drastic. Holland also breaks the fourth wall and explains his robbery method to us. The Russo Brothers give Cherry more style than Marvel To be fair to the Russo brothers, they joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Phase 2 when there was already a style established. They just had to conform, although they thankfully dropped the handheld shakycam from Captain America: The Winter Soldier by the time they did Avengers: Infinity War. Tom Holland | Apple RELATED: Cherry: Russo Brothers Reveal Why They Chose Tom Holland for This Dark Role With Cherry, the Russos let cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigle convey a lot more with the camera. Considering so many scenes take place in bars, restaurants, dorms and college parties, he gives them direction and intention. Basic Training takes on a Wes Anderson sort of symmetry but with more camera movement. RELATED: Uncharted: Tom Holland Says the Film Has the Biggest Action Sequences [Hes] Ever Been a Part of: What to Expect Additional fourth wall breaks give Cherrys story a surreal quality, but never goes off in a full Terry Gilliam direction. War scenes look like real vehicular incidents staged in the desert, not green screen like most Marvel action. Cherry has powerful moments in filmmaking, and in Holland and Bravos performances. It feels like brevity may have enhanced that power. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. GlobeNewswire Gross Revenue of $4.40 Million and Cash Cost of US1,315/OzVANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY and FSE: D7Q1) Monument or the Company today announced its third quarter production and financial results for the nine months ended March 31, 2021. All amounts are expressed in United States dollars (US$) unless otherwise indicated (refer to www.sedar.com for full financial results). President and CEO Cathy Zhai commented: Q3 sets a milestone with Monument restructuring its asset portfolio to focus on gold development and production by spinning off the Mengapur base metal project. The proceeds of $30M has been received to advance gold portfolio. The market has reacted favorably to this move with trading volumes lifted in 2021 and the market capitalization raised significantly. Ms. Zhai continued: The flotation construction at Selinsing was accelerated in the Q3 to place the sulphide project into production. In transition the oxide plant continues to process the leachable gold. It is exposed to the risk of bearing higher cash cost and AISC from time to time as reported in the current quarter. Peranggih oxide mineralized materials may help to improve profit margin. However, there is no guarantee to sustain positive cash flow especially when the mine shuts down due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. At Murchison work continued to optimize regional exploration targets as part of an extensive two-year exploration program, with the goal to turn Murchison into a cornerstone project for Monument. We will keep the market updated as practical as we can. Third Quarter Highlights: 2,523 ounces (oz) of gold sold for $4.40 million (Q3 2020: 7,323oz for $11.62 million);Average quarterly gold price realized at $1,830/oz (Q3 2020: $1,604/oz);Cash cost per ounce sold was $1,315/oz (Q3 2020: $892/oz);Gross margin decreased by 79% to $1.08 million (Q3 2020: $5.08 million);1,977oz of gold produced (Q3 2020: 5,369oz);All-in sustaining cost (AISC) increased to $1,509/oz (Q3 2020: $1,070/oz);Two stage Selinsing plant expansion initiated with flotation plant phase;Restructure assets portfolio spinning off Mengapur base metal project. Production Analysis Three months endedNine months ended March 31, 2021March 31, 2021March 31, 2021March 31, 2021Operating ResultsUnit Ore minedt161,80585,691355,454220,743Waste removedt930,216780,9352,952,2352,424,213Stripping ratio 5.759.118.3110.98Ore stockpiledt122,495137,442122,495137,442Ore processedt165,361157,413484,629606,742Average ore head gradeg/t Au0.721.490.861.12Process recovery rate%57.576.260.271.3Gold recoveryoz2,2105,7468,11315,529Gold productionoz1,9775,3698,44415,048Gold soldoz2,5237,3239,37716,119 Q3 2021 gold production of 1,977oz, a 63% decrease as compared to 5,369oz for Q3 2020. The decrease mainly resulted from a large quantity of super low-grade ore with lower leachability being fed into the mill and triggered lower recoveries.Q3 2021 ore processed increased to 165,361t from 157,413t for Q3 2020. The increased mill feed was mainly due to increased ore supply from transitional leachable sulphide ore from Selinsing, Peranggih oxide material, and super-low-grade oxide ore from Selinsing, while the same quarter last year was affected by the Malaysia Movement Control Order suspension for two weeks from the Covid-19 pandemic.Average mill feed grade was 0.72g/t Au as compared to 1.49g/t Au of Q3 2020. Q3 2021 processing recovery rate decreased to 57.5% from 76.2% for Q3 2020. The decrease in processing recovery rate was mainly due to lower recoveries obtained from processing low-grade leachable sulphide ore from Selinsing and Peranggih oxide material.Q3 2021 cash cost per ounce increased by 47% to $1,315/oz from $892/oz for Q3 2020. This increase was primarily due to a significant reduction in the mill feed grade from 1.49g/t Au to 0.72g/t Au and a decrease in recovery to 57.5% (Q3 2020: 76.2%) as a result of processing significantly more low-grade leachable sulphide ore and low-grade Peranggih material.Ore stockpile has reduced mainly due to adverse impact from shortage of explosive supply resulting in a lower mining rate that has yet to be caught up. The Covid-19 pandemic has not helped in achieving the target. The Company has devoted its effort to improve the stockpile balance. Financial Analysis Three months endedNine months ended March 31, 2021March 31, 2021March 31, 2021March 31, 2021Financial resultsUnit Gold salesUS $0004,39711,61817,15124,567Gross marginUS $0001,0795,0816,83210,294Weighted average gold price London Fix PMUS $/oz1,8371,6091,8851,538Monument realizedUS $/oz1,8301,6041,8841,539Cash costs per ounce sold Total cash cost per ounceUS $/oz1,3158921,100886All-in sustaining costs per ounce Total all-in sustaining cost per ounceUS $/oz1,5091,0701,3561,112 Q3 2021 gold sales generated revenue was $4.40 million as compared to $11.62 million from Q3 2020. Gold sales revenue was derived from the sale of 2,523oz (Q3 2020: 7,323oz) of gold at an average realized gold price of $1,830 per ounce (Q3 2020: $1,604 per ounce) and the delivery of 723 oz (Q3 2020: 723oz) in fulfilling gold prepaid obligations at an average London Fix PM gold price of $1,525 per ounce (Q3 2020: $1,429 per ounce).Q3 2021 total production costs decreased by 49% to $3.32 million as compared to $6.54 million from Q3 2020. Cash cost per ounce increased by 47% to $1,315/oz as compared to $892/oz of the same period last year. The increase was attributable to a 52% decrease in the mill feed grade from 1.49g/t to 0.72g/t and a decrease in recovery to 57.5% (Q3 2020: 76.2%) as a result of processing significantly more leachable sulphide ore and other low recovery ores.Gross margin for Q3 2021 was $1.08 million before operation expenses and non-cash amortization and accretion. That represented a 79% decrease as compared to $5.08 million from Q3 2020. The decrease in gross margin was attributable to lower volume of gold sold and increased cash costs offset by an increase in a higher average realized gold price.Net loss for Q3 2021 was $96.10 million, or ($0.30) per share as compared to net gain of $1.87 million or $0.01 per share from Q3 2020. The net loss was mainly caused by the impairment of the Mengapur assets to the value that will be realized when the sale of the Mengapur project is completed.Cash and cash equivalents balance as at March 31, 2021 was $7.98 million, a decrease of $2.14 million from the balance at June 30, 2020 of $10.12 million. As at March 31, 2021, the Company had positive working capital of $50.64 million as compared to that at June 30, 2020 of $18.79 million. Development Selinsing Gold Mine During the third quarter, the Selinsing gold mine prioritized flotation plant construction as the first phase of the sulphide gold production project. Orway Mineral Consultants (WA) Pty Ltd. was engaged to optimize flotation conceptual design based on the feasibility study work completed in January 2019 in order to produce saleable gold concentrates. On site laboratory continued testwork at bioleach inoculum adaptation and propagation stage on flotation concentrate. Subsequent to the quarter, testwork was completed by Orway in May pending final report to be issued. Testwork on external concentrates continued through the current oxide processing plant. Murchison Gold Project Development work at Murchison focused on optimizing regional exploration targets and assessing the opportunity for early production. The mine plan was completed by management and the independent review conducted by SRK has been received in May with recommendations. It is under review by management and the board. The scope of the SRK review had been extended to cover geotechnics, hydrology, environmental compliance, as well as resource modelling, mining optimization and scheduling, and metallurgical recoveries. Exploration Progress Malaysia At Selinsing, an RC drilling program was completed which consisted of 1,128m over 19 holes at Pits 4, 5, and 6. A total of 1,051 samples were collected. The drill program aimed to identify mineralization areas with average grades that can be mined economically in the short run. Once those areas are defined, materials will be mined to feed into the processing plant. At Peranggih, during the quarter, 19,033m of closed-spaced, 5x5m shallow GC holes with a maximum depth of 10m were drilled to infill the existing gap and extend the coverage of the surface mineralization along the 540m strike length. Western Australia The Company commenced work on a 2-year extensive exploration strategy and budget, aiming to add significant additional resources to the current resource base. The strategy will involve testing down dip of high-grade mineralization underneath existing pits as well as test some of the high priority regional targets through greenfield exploration of the land package at Burnakura and Gabanintha targeting the discovery of shallow stand alone or satellite gold deposits. Field work permitting activities had commenced with ground preparation activities underway to facilitate deployment of the AC rig to site as it becomes available. Mengapur Transaction During the quarter, on January 8, 2021, Monument entered into a definitive Purchase and Sale Agreement with Fortress Minerals Limited (Fortress) to sell to Fortress 100% of the shares in Monument Mengapur Sdn Bhd (MMSB). On the same date, Monument also entered into a royalty agreement with Fortress and a supplemental escrow agreement with Fortress and Madison Pacific PTE. Limited. The sale of Mengapur was closed subsequent to the end of Q3, and Monument received US$30.00 million cash consideration, and is also entitled to a royalty of 1.25% of gross revenue on all products produced at the Mengapur Project. Covid-19 Update Subsequent to the quarter, the mine has been temporarily shut-down for two weeks from May 18th to May 28th, 2021, as a result of positive Covid-19 cases and resumed with no more positive case being tested. A new movement control order was announced in Malaysia national wide due to rising Covid-19 cases to new high, including constraining manufactory activities to essential services only from June 1st to June 14th, 2021, during which Selinsing Gold Mine will maintain a 10% workforce only at the mine site for essential services. The Company is continuously monitoring the situation and implementing the Companys standard operating procedures for the Covid-19 pandemic. About Monument Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE:D7Q1) is an established Canadian gold producer that owns and operates the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia. Its experienced management team is committed to growth and is also advancing the Murchison Gold Projects comprising Burnakura, Gabanintha and Tuckanarra JV (20% interest) in the Murchison area of Western Australia. The Company employs approximately 200 people in both regions and is committed to the highest standards of environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities. Cathy Zhai, President and CEOMonument Mining LimitedSuite 1580 -1100 Melville Street Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web site at www.monumentmining.com or contact: Richard Cushing, MMY Vancouver T: +1-604-638-1661 x102 rcushing@monumentmining.com "Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Forward-Looking Statement This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future plans (forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or future events that are not historical facts and include the Companys plans with respect to its mineral projects and the timing and results of proposed programs and events referred to in this news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation: risks related to general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the progress and timing of development activities; foreign operations risks; other risks inherent in the mining industry and other risks described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Companys projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows which may be generated from the operations, general economic factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of exploration on the Companys projects; assumptions regarding the future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of estimated future production; the expected timing and results of development and exploration activities; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; and all of the factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Companys projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. WASHINGTON (JTA) President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nearly a month into his first term a time frame that drew criticism from Republicans for its length. Biden appeared to make up for lost time, at least according to Netanyahus account on Twitter, and the two spoke for an hour. The conversation was friendly and warm Netanyahu said in Hebrew, addressing an Israeli electorate that places a high value on healthy relations with the United States. His tweet, accompanied by a photo of a grinning Netanyahu on the phone, comes just weeks before an I... Montana is considering becoming the latest state to intensify its hunt for welfare overpayments and fraud, a move expected to remove more than 1,500 enrollees from low-income health coverage at a time when the pandemic has left more people needing help. With Republicans now controlling both chambers of the Montana legislature and the governor's office, a lawmaker is reviving an effort to both broaden and increase the frequency of eligibility checks to search for welfare fraud, waste and abuse. Proponents say it's about what's fair weeding out people who don't qualify, protecting safety nets for those who do, and saving the state millions. But advocates for low-income people who rely on such services and some policy analysts say such changes would unfairly drop eligible people who need the aid. "Were not looking to do anything mean. Were taking the emotion out of it," state Sen. Cary Smith, a Republican, said during a Jan. 20 hearing on his bill, the Provide for the Welfare Fraud Prevention Act. "If you dont qualify, then you shouldnt be participating in that program." The Montana bill, and measures underway in Ohio and Utah, are similar to earlier efforts undertaken to cut costs in states such as Illinois and Michigan. But this year's bills come even as Congress offers states more Medicaid dollars if they ensure people have continuous coverage through the pandemic because of its economic shock waves. The Montana proposal would create a system potentially run by third-party vendors that would mine a large swath of data to see if someone, for example, has assets like a boat, has won the lottery or has filed for benefits in another state. The vendor could earn a bonus for flagging more cases than the state projected. State employees would have the final say in cutting someone from Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, food stamps or other aid programs. The state estimates the measure could save Montanas treasury between $1.4 million and $2.3 million each year over the next four years by dropping more than 1,500 people on Medicaid and 277 children covered by CHIP. This isn't Smith's first effort to create such a law. He sponsored a similar bill in 2015 that was vetoed by the states then-governor, Democrat Steve Bullock. In the veto letter, Bullock said the measure duplicated steps the state already took and unfairly stigmatized Montanans who are poor. Opponents of Smith's latest proposal have repeated those concerns. Smith didn't respond to several requests for an interview. But this time, the potential legislation has a clearer path. The state has a new governor, Greg Gianforte, a Republican who called for heightened Medicaid eligibility checks throughout his 2020 campaign. During Montana's first hearing for the renewed effort, Scott Centorino of Opportunities Solutions Project was the sole person to testify in support of the bill. "Ive seen this play out in state after state," Centorino said. "Turns out, the less you look for welfare, fraud and waste, the less you find." Opportunity Solutions Project, the lobbying wing of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a right-leaning think tank, has backed similar efforts elsewhere that followed FGA model legislation. The organizations have also been major forces in trying to link food assistance to work requirements and block states from expanding Medicaid. Opportunity Solutions Project's attempts to influence laws at the federal level, too, appear to be growing. The nonprofit spent $25,500 lobbying the federal government in 2017 and $420,000 last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Opponents of the Montana bill have said the focus on welfare recipients is misplaced. Nationally, most Medicaid payments deemed improper last year were tied to states not collecting information that federal standards already call for, not necessarily for covering ineligible enrollees, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services financial report. Michele Gilman, a University of Baltimore law professor, said the potential bonus Montana would pay a company finding more savings than expected is especially concerning. "The goal should not be to create some bounty hunter system to find alleged cheats that don't exist," Gilman said. This is built on an unfounded mistrust of poor people and undermines public support for social programs. If states do move to undertake broad data searches, she said, they need to start with a pilot program to test for errors in its design. Gilman called Michigan the ultimate cautionary tale. The state, which had used a new computer program to spot cheaters, ended up mired in lawsuits after it falsely charged thousands with unemployment fraud between 2013 and 2015. The Trump administration and federal agencies encouraged states to increase eligibility checks. According to a KFF analysis, as of January 2019 more than half of states were conducting checks more often than during annual renewals, with some doing so quarterly. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.) Robin Rudowitz, co-director of KFF's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said Medicaid and CHIP enrollment dropped across the nation from late 2017 through 2019. Rudowitz said it's hard to untangle all the reasons the enrollment declines occurred, but increased verification efforts that add to administrative hurdles create barriers to coverage. Jennifer Wagner, with the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said people may not realize they're still eligible when notified that their benefits are in question or may not even receive the notice. She said a search for benefits filed in a separate state may flag aid that can cross states, such as food stamps, and such searches can pull up property someone no longer owns. Frequent wage checks may not take into account inconsistent jobs. The onus would fall to the aid recipient to prove they are still eligible in each scenario, she said. One state that Opportunity Solutions Project points to as a success is Illinois, which in 2012 hired a company to identify Medicaid recipients who might not be eligible. Wagner, who was an associate director with the Illinois Department of Human Services at the time of the change, said Illinois is unique because the state knew it had a backlog of status checks. Within a year, Illinois had canceled benefits for nearly 150,000 people. But the state reported that more than 75% of cancellations were due to clients' failure to respond to a state letter asking for more information. Wagner said similar issues have occurred in other states. "In many cases, those individuals remain eligible, but they have a gap in coverage and they have to reapply and do what they can to get back on the program," said Wagner. "There's a large cohort of people who never get that done." Of all the people Illinois dropped, nearly 20% had reenrolled by the end of the year. That issue people getting knocked off when they're eligible already happens in annual renewals. But Wagner said more checks means more people losing benefits, and more work for states to bring those people back onboard. Centorino, with Opportunity Solutions Project, said systems that remove qualified people aren't being implemented properly, but added it's not too heavy of a lift to respond to an eligibility question. "The alternative is not is not resolving the discrepancy at all and just assuming that there is no discrepancy and continuing to fund benefits for somebody who may be ineligible," he said. In Montana, even with the bill's clearer shot at becoming law, some elements that opponents criticized were rolled back after the state estimated it would need to hire 42 employees to run the new system. Smith reduced how many programs would fall under its scrutiny and pulled back eligibility checks to twice a year instead of quarterly. He removed a rule that the system pay for itself, and he cut a section that would have disenrolled people who don't respond to eligibility questions or notices within 10 business days. Nonetheless, if a new system flags issues in people's enrollment, the state will have to go out searching for why. The bill is under consideration in the Senate and must also pass the House before it goes to Gianforte for signing. Holly Madison has reportedly split from her boyfriend Zak Bagans after almost two years of dating. The Girls Next Door star, 41, and Ghost Adventures host, 43, are said to have called it quits a few weeks ago, according to TMZ. However, a source told the publication that the former couple have remained friends and are still on speaking terms. Break up: Holly Madison has reportedly split from her boyfriend Zak Bagans after almost two years of dating Holly and Zak met when she went to his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas in 2019 and began dating soon after. The former couple had tried to keep their relationship under wraps until fans noticed similarities between their Instagram Stories. Holly is mother to Rainbow, seven, and Forest, four, from her marriage to Pascquale Rotella, who she split from in 2019. The model was most famously in a relationship with Hugh Hefner from 2002 to 2009, living with him in the Playboy Mansion with his other girlfriends. Split: The Girls Next Door star, 41, and Ghost Adventures host, 43, (pictured) are said to have called it quits a few weeks ago, according to TMZ Amicable: A source told the publication that the former couple have remained friends and are still on speaking terms (pictured in 2011) Holly starred on E! reality series The Girls Next Door, documenting her life as one of Hefner's girlfriends alongside Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. It comes after the news that Holly is set to be portrayed by Australian actress Samara Weaving in a limited series based on her memoir Down The Rabbit Hole. The model previously took to her Instagram account to share the news about Samara's involvement in the forthcoming show and to let her followers know that she was happy about the decision. She wrote in the post's caption, 'I couldnt be more thrilled with this casting.' Past: Holly was most famously in a relationship with Hugh Hefner from 2002 to 2009, living with him in the Playboy Mansion with his other girlfriends (pictured with Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson) A network is yet to be attached to the series, which will be shopped to streaming services and premium cable networks, Just Jared reported. Samara, who is the niece of Lord of the Rings star Hugo Weaving, got her break on Australian television playing the role of Indigo Walker for about five years on Channel Seven's soap Home and Away from 2009. She has since starred on the TV series Picnic at Hanging Rock, Hollywood and SMILF. A former United Airlines pilot who served time in federal prison for posting online nude photos and videos of a flight attendant he previously dated has again been charged with stalking her. Mark Joseph Uhlenbrock, 66, of suburban St. Louis, was indicted this week by a federal grand jury in San Antonio on one count of internet stalking. Uhlenbrock is accused of using the internet to cause substantial emotional distress to the woman from May through September, though the indictment doesnt provide any details on his alleged acts. He has been in federal custody since his arrest Dec. 10 in Missouri. Federal prosecutors want Uhlenbrock detained until his trial, citing the safety of any other person or the community. They also deem him a serious flight risk. Were just asking that the investigation be thorough, and were hoping that nobody rushes to judgment, said Shannon W. Locke, Uhlenbrocks San Antonio attorney. On ExpressNews.com: United Airlines pays $321K to flight attendant over nude images posted online In 2016, Uhlenbrock was sentenced to 41 months after pleading guilty to stalking the San Antonio woman. It was revealed at sentencing that he had two previous indecent exposure convictions elsewhere in 2004 and 2006, a conviction for third-degree assault and one for drunken driving. He apparently was allowed to continue flying. Court records show that after being released from prison, Uhlenbrock was arrested again in early 2019 for violating terms of his supervised release. He was sentenced to six months in prison. Uhlenbrock was released from prison in August 2019 but was still under three years of supervised release when he was taken into custody in December. United Airlines removed Uhlenbrock from the cockpit in late 2015 after his arrest by the FBI. He retired in lieu of termination in 2016. He had been with the airline for more than 30 years. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Chicago-based airline in 2018 in San Antonio over Uhlenbrocks conduct. The agency said United failed to protect the flight attendant from harassment and a hostile work environment. SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox United agreed in late 2019 to pay the woman, identified in the EEOCs suit as Jane Doe, $321,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to settle the complaint. The woman dated Uhlenbrock for about five years beginning in 2002 and allowed him to take nude photos and videos of her, court documents in the first criminal case indicated. He also took video of her sunbathing without permission. Uhlenbrock posted the photos and videos to swinger and pornographic sites without permission. The woman broke off their relationship after learning about the internet postings. The EEOC alleged United failed to prevent and correct Uhlenbrocks behavior, even after the flight attendant made numerous complaints and provided substantial evidence of his conduct to the airline. She first complained in 2011. United said it concluded that Uhlenbrocks conduct stemmed from a private consensual relationship. The flight attendant also sued Uhlenbrock in state District Court in San Antonio. That litigation was settled for $110,000, records show. pdanner@express-news.net Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Babies whose births were depicted in Bollywood films from the 1950s and 60s were more often than not boys; in today's films, boy and girl newborns are about evenly split. In the 50s and 60s, dowries were socially acceptable; today, not so much. And Bollywood's conception of beauty has remained consistent through the years: beautiful women have fair skin. Fans and critics of Bollywoodthe popular name for a $2.1 billion film industry centered in Mumbai, Indiamight have some inkling of all this, particularly as movies often reflect changes in the culture. But these insights came via an automated computer analysis designed by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists. The researchers, led by Kunal Khadilkar and Ashiqur R. KhudaBukhsh of CMU's Language Technologies Institute (LTI), gathered 100 Bollywood movies from each of the past seven decades along with 100 of the top-grossing Hollywood moves from the same periods. They then used statistical language models to analyze subtitles of those 1,400 films for gender and social biases, looking for such factors as what words are closely associated with each other. "Most cultural studies of movies might consider five or 10 movies," said Khadilkar, a master's student in LTI. "Our method can look at 2,000 movies in a matter of days." It's a method that enables people to study cultural issues with much more precision, said Tom Mitchell, Founders University Professor in the School of Computer Science and a co-author of the study. "We're talking about statistical, automated analysis of movies at scale and across time," Mitchell said. "It gives us a finer probe for understanding the cultural themes implicit in these films." The same natural language processing tools might be used to rapidly analyze hundreds or thousands of books, magazine articles, radio transcripts or social media posts, he added. For instance, the researchers assessed beauty conventions in movies by using a so-called cloze test. Essentially, it's a fill-in-the-blank exercise: "A beautiful woman should have BLANK skin." A language model normally would predict "soft" as the answer, they noted. But when the model was trained with the Bollywood subtitles, the consistent prediction became "fair." The same thing happened when Hollywood subtitles were used, though the bias was less pronounced. To assess the prevalence of male characters, the researchers used a metric called Male Pronoun Ratio (MPR), which compares the occurrence of male pronouns such as "he" and "him" with the total occurrences of male and female pronouns. From 1950 through today, the MPR for Bollywood and Hollywood movies ranged from roughly 60 to 65 MPR. By contrast, the MPR for a selection of Google Books dropped from near 75 in the 1950s to parity, about 50, in the 2020s. Dowriesmonetary or property gifts from a bride's family to the groom'swere common in India before they were outlawed in the early 1960s. Looking at words associated with dowry over the years, the researchers found such words as "loan," "debt" and "jewelry" in Bollywood films of the 50s, which suggested compliance. By the 1970s, other words, such as "consent" and "responsibility," began to appear. Finally, in the 2000s, the words most closely associated with dowryincluding "trouble," "divorce" and "refused"indicate noncompliance or its consequences. "All of these things we kind of knew," said KhudaBukhsh, an LTI project scientist, "but now we have numbers to quantify them. And we can also see the progress over the last 70 years as these biases have been reduced." A research paper by Khadilkar, KhudaBukhsh and Mitchell was presented at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence virtual conference earlier this month. Explore further AI may mistake chess discussions as racist talk 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. Catalog #3522 swims off the coast of Georgia in 2006 with fresh propeller cuts on his back.He was never seen again and is presumed dead due to these injuries. Credit: New England Aquarium, collected under NOAA Permit #655-1652-01 A study co-authored by scientists at the New England Aquarium has found that known deaths of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales represent a fraction of the true death toll. This comes as the death of a calf and recent sightings of entangled right whales off the southeastern United States raise alarm. The study, published this month in Conservation Science and Practice, analyzed cryptic mortality of right whales. Cryptic mortality refers to deaths resulting from human activities that do not result in an observed carcass. The study's authors combined data on whale encounters, animal health, serious injuries, and necropsies from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Identification Database curated by the New England Aquarium with the serious injury and mortality database held by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The scientists concluded that known deaths of the critically endangered species accounted for only 36% of all estimated death from 1990 to 2017. "Our work has shown that 83% of identified right whales have been entangled one or more times in fishing gear, and an increasing number of these events result in severe injuries or complex entanglements that the whales initially survive. But we know their health becomes compromised and they eventually succumb and sink upon death," said Amy Knowlton, senior scientist with the Aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. The studyled by Richard Pace and Rob Williams and co-authored by Knowlton, New England Aquarium Associate Scientist Heather Pettis, and Aquarium Emeritus Scientist Scott Krausdetermined that several factors interact to cause undercounting of human-caused mortalities of marine mammals. First, in order for a human-caused mortality to be determined, a whale carcass must float or strand, be detected before decomposition or scavenging occurs, be evaluated to determine cause of death, and then have that result reported. In the absence of any of these steps, information about the cause of mortality can easily be lost. Additionally, a number of right whales have been observed entangled or injured from vessel strikes and never seen again. This suggests they died and their carcasses were not discovered. "We have long known that the number of detected right whale carcasses does not align with the number of whales that disappear from the sightings records," Pettis said. "Since 2013 alone, we have documented 40 individual right whales seen with severe injuries resulting from vessel strikes and entanglements that disappeared following their injury. This study allowed us to quantify just how underrepresented true right whale mortalities are when we rely on observed carcasses alone." The estimated population number for North Atlantic right whales stands at just over 350 whales. Right whales are one of the most endangered large whale species in the world, facing serious ongoing threats from vessels and fishing gear. Just in the past month, a right whale calf died in an apparent vessel strike and two right whales have been spotted entangled in fishing gear. A sport fishing boat hit and killed the calf in the calving grounds off the Florida coast on February 12. The calf was the first born to Infinity (Catalog #3230), who also suffered injuries consistent with a vessel strike. Catalog #1803, a 33-year-old male, was seen badly entangled off the coast of Georgia and Florida in mid-January, and on February 18, Cottontail (Catalog #3920) was sighted entangled and emaciated off the Florida coast. Cottontail, an 11-year-old male, was first seen entangled in southern New England last fall. In both cases, disentanglement efforts were not successful and these whales will likely die. "These serious entanglements are preventable with regulatory changes and a commitment from the fishing industry and the U.S. and Canadian governments to do more to address this threat," said Knowlton. For 40 years, the Aquarium's Right Whale Research Program has extensively studied this critically endangered species. Scientists focus on solutions-based work, collaborating with fishermen on new techniques to reduce deadly entanglements in fishing gear, facilitating communication across the maritime industry to reduce vessel strikes, and working with lawmakers locally, nationally, and internationally to develop science-based protections for the whales. Explore further Endangered baby right whale found dead on Florida beach More information: Richard M. Pace et al, Cryptic mortality of North Atlantic right whales, Conservation Science and Practice (2021). Richard M. Pace et al, Cryptic mortality of North Atlantic right whales,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/csp2.346 Provided by New England Aquarium Katharine McPhee has become a mother. ADVERTISEMENT Billboard confirmed Wednesday that McPhee, 36, welcomed her first child with her husband, musician and music producer David Foster , 71. People said McPhee gave birth to a son. "Katharine McPhee and David Foster have welcomed a healthy baby boy," McPhee's rep said. "Mom, Dad and son are all doing wonderfully." Foster also has five daughters, Allison, 50, Amy, 47, Sara, 40, Erin, 38, and Jordan, 34, from previous relationships. He was previously married to B.J. Cook, Rebecca Dyer, Linda Thompson and Yolanda Hadid. McPhee and Foster married in London in June 2019. News broke in October that the couple were expecting their first child. "Since work has slowed down for both of them, they knew this year would be a great time for it to happen," a source told E! News. 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! "They told their immediate family members ... and everyone was very shocked and excited." McPhee showed her baby bump in a photo Sunday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. McPhee came to fame as a contestant in "American Idol" Season 5. As an actress, she played Karen Cartwright on the series "Smash" and Paige Dineen on "Scorpion." Remarks by Secretary Denis R. McDonough Student Veterans of America National Convention 2021 (Virtual) Washington, DC February 20, 2021 Good evening, everyone, Im really happy to join you. SVA is one of our countrys most important Veterans service organizations, and one of VAs best partners. And I look forward to strengthening that partnership. Jared [Lyon], Pam [Erickson], the rest of your leadership teamthanks for inviting me. More important, thanks for your devotion to Americas Veterans, devotion thats paying dividends in the leadership that SVA alums bring to communities and the nation. Im thinking of SVA alums like Air Force Veteran Alexandria Sawin, Student Veteran of the Year in 2019 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Alexandrias worked with The Mission Continues, helping children and families experiencing homelessness in Boston and Cambridge. Im thinking of alums like Coast Guard Veteran Tammy Barlet, Temple Universitys SVA Chapter Vice President. Today, Tammys serving VFW as an Associate Director of National Legislative Services. Or Army Veteran Patrick Carney, who was an SVA Chapter President at Stockton University and is now serving his fellow Veterans as an Outreach Specialist at VA in Wilmington, Delaware. And Im especially proud to serve alongside Navy Veteran, Drexel University graduate, and SVA alum Chris Diazmy liaison to the White House who stepped up to the challenge of serving as our Acting Chief of Staff. We live in peace and security today because of their sacrifices, because of your sacrifices, and because of the sacrifices of generations of Veterans before you. And Ive had the privilege few Americans have had to witness up close the excellence you represent. Ive seen your great leadership and deep courage in visits to Afghanistan and Iraq. Ive seen your strength and resilience among wounded warriors at Walter Reed. And Ive experienced the unimaginable grief of military families at Dover, when our fallen heroes come home one final time. So it is my honor, the honor of my lifetime, to lead VA, and Im going to fight like hell every day to ensure we serve you as well as youve served this country. President Biden said our countrys most sacred obligations are preparing and equipping the troops we send into harms way, and then caring for you and your families after youve come home. And heres how VA will answer that sacred obligation. Our highest priorities will remain our three core responsibilities: providing timely, world-class healthcare; ensuring you and your families have access to the benefits youve earned; and honoring you with a final resting place thats a lasting tribute to your service. Beyond those three core responsibilities, well do everything in our power to help you get through this pandemic. Well make sure VA welcomes all of you, equallymen, women, Veterans of color, and LGBTQ Veterans. Well work to eliminate Veterans homelessness and reduce suicide and keep faith with your caregivers and families. And especially important to SVA members, and especially important to me, well move heaven and earth to help you build fulfilling civilian lives with education and jobs worthy of your skills and service after you leave the ranks. When I think about the student Veterans this organization representsmore than three quarters of a million strongIm so inspired. More than any other single group, you have both the potential and the great responsibility to continue to shape our countrys future and to keep the United States a world leader. You can help answer immense challenges we face today, and that well face in the years to come and the decades to come, from responding to COVID-19 to preparing for and working to prevent future pandemics, from averting global warming to shoring up our cybersecurity, from exploring the reaches of space to meeting the challenges of our local communitiesquestions of social inequality and poverty, unemployment and job production, educating future generations, internet and healthcare access for every American, among many, many other challenges. In these and other challenges your experiences, leadership, ingenuity and spirit of innovationyour wildest dreams and your greatest hopescan profoundly and positively impact this country and the world. So I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that VA help you seamlessly transition from military service to leading back homenationally, and internationally. My vision for student Veterans is about you designing and living the fulfilling, productive lives you want to live. So that means VA providing world-class education benefits and opportunities. Let me tell you this, Im proud of VAs investments in you and your families. Since August 2009, weve provided Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits of nearly $115 billion dollars to more than 2.3 million of you and your beneficiaries; in Fiscal Year 2020 alone, $12 billion dollars to almost one million Veterans and family members across all five GI Bill programs. These educational benefits are a vote of confidence in you, proven leaders whose skills protecting the nation can now help grow a vibrant, resilient, and equitable economy. So, for you its about the resources and tools to achieve your goals, whether thats a degree or advanced occupational training in high demand fields like software programming, data sciences, or engineering. Its increasing automation of education claims processing for on-time delivery of your benefits, and its real-time eligibility decisions. Its more timely customer service, solving problems on first-contact, and electronic outreach and communications. And were expanding our transition, education, and employment programs with an array of economic development initiatives like personalized career planning, technology education opportunities, and STEM scholarships, among others. Now, for VA its about stronger compliance and oversight of education programs to provide quality education, business intelligence tools monitoring and assessing education outcomes and trends for the future, faster implementation of legislative and program changes and, when necessary, course corrections to better serve you and provide better outcomes. And we understand how important the GI Bill and its financial support is especially during the pandemic. So well continue working closely with SVA leaders and congressional stakeholders to protect student Veterans from COVID-related impacts of transition to online learning or school closures. All of that, and more, its what youve earned. Its what you deserve. And were counting on you. Veterans of generations past put their mark on this country. Now, the future is in your hands. And in your hands, its well-placed. Let me conclude with this commitment. Every decision I make will rest on a simple principlewhether the decision increases your access to care and benefits and improves outcomes for you. And well measure our success by your outcomes, and by listening to what you say about your experiences. I fully embrace this mission, and I know the VA workforce does, too. May God bless our troops and all of you. And, as a nation, may we always give our Veterans our very best. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. USPS SELECTS OSHKOSH DEFENSE FOR NEXT GENERATION MAIL DELIVERY VEHICLE FLEET Both ICE and Electric Versions Ordered OSHKOSH, Wis.-The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced today that it has awarded Oshkosh Defense, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation , an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to produce the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV), the USPSs first large-scale fleet procurement in three decades. The competitively awarded contract allows for the delivery of between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles over a period of 10 years. Oshkosh operates with unparalleled commitment to those who depend on our products and services to build, protect and serve communities around the world. We are honored to have been selected by the USPS to support their important work by manufacturing American-made Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that will connect every home and business across the United States for decades to come, said John Pfeifer, President & Chief Operating Officer, Oshkosh Corporation. Oshkosh Defense will manufacture both zero emission battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel-efficient low-emission internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE), upgrading the USPS fleet to be increasingly sustainable. Under the contract announced today, the USPS has committed to pay Oshkosh Defense $482 million to initiate engineering efforts to finalize the production vehicle design, and for tooling and factory build-out activities that are necessary prior to vehicle production. Our century-long history of delivering products to customers, operating in some of the most demanding and severe conditions on the planet, uniquely positions us to bring exceptional reliability, safety, and maintainability to USPSs Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, said John Bryant, Executive Vice President, Oshkosh Corporation, and President, Oshkosh Defense. Partnering with trusted suppliers, we have developed a purpose-built solution to support the current and future needs of the USPS, Bryant concluded. Production of the next generation delivery vehicle is expected to begin in 2023. About Oshkosh Defense Oshkosh Defense is a global leader in the design, production and sustainment of best-in-class military vehicles and mobility systems. As a pioneer of combat-ready vehicle solutions, Oshkosh develops and applies emerging technologies that advance troop safety and mission success. Setting the industry standard for sustaining fleet readiness, Oshkosh ensures every solution is supported worldwide throughout its entire life cycle. Oshkosh Defense, LLC is an Oshkosh Corporation company [NYSE: OSK]. Learn more about Oshkosh Defense at www.oshkoshdefense.com. About Oshkosh Corporation At Oshkosh , we make innovative, mission-critical equipment to help everyday heroes advance communities around the world. Headquartered in Wisconsin, Oshkosh Corporation employs more than 14,000 team members worldwide, all united behind a common cause: to make a difference in peoples lives. Oshkosh products can be found in more than 150 countries under the brands of JLG, Pierce, Oshkosh Defense, McNeilus, IMT, Frontline, Jerr-Dan, Oshkosh Airport Products, Pratt Miller, and London. For more information, visit oshkoshcorp.com. , All brand names referred to in this news release are trademarks of Oshkosh Corporation or its subsidiary companies. 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 A look at some of the major movers in London on Tuesday Non-Standard Finance PLC (LON:NSF) enjoyed a rare spell in the spotlight, rising 18% to 4.15p on the back of news of a fundraising initiative. The board has commenced work on a substantial capital raise with the support of Alchemy, its largest shareholder with a view to completing this in the second quarter of 2021. Once completed, the group will be in a strong position to take advantage of what it believes to be an exceptional market opportunity in the non-standard sector, it said. 1.40pm: Kanabo on a roll after signing distribution deal Kanabo Group PLC (LON:KNB), up 10% at 28p, was on a high after signing its first UK distribution agreement. The medicinal cannabis group has signed a distribution agreement with Astral Health Limited, part of LYPHE Group, a medical cannabis solutions specialist that provides clinics, dispensing, import infrastructure and educational services to patients, doctors and the industry in the UK. Through the agreement, Kanabo said it intends for its VapePod medicinal cannabis formula, under the NOIDECS brand, will be available to patients using Project Twenty21, which aims to provide affordable medical cannabis treatment and create the UKs largest body of evidence for the effectiveness and tolerability of medical cannabis. 12.40pm: Ethernity dips as warrant exercises keep on coming Ethernity Networks Ltd (LON:ENET) slipped 8.1% to 34p after 20,834 warrants were exercised at 30p a share. Its the fifth time that 30p warrants have been exercised this year. This time around the data processing specialist will receive the princely sum of 6,250.20 from the exercising of the warrants. The company now has 49.49mln shares in issue. 11.45am: Pineapple Power spikes higher as it fields business approaches Pineapple Power Corporation PLC (LON:PNPL) jumped 7.7% to 8.25p after the cash shell revealed it has received a number of approaches. Such approaches are preliminary in nature and the company's board and its advisers are in the early stages of considering them. The company is also actively seeking other potential transaction candidates. None of the situations currently under review are at a stage where it would be appropriate for the company to announce details to the market, the company advised. 10.50am: Blockchain stocks take a bath Online Blockchain PLC (LON:OBC) slumped 20% to 72.5p, pretty much in line with the price of Bitcoin, which is off 17%. Argo Blockchain was down 20% to 215p for similar reasons. The flash crash seems to have been sparked by relentless self-publicist, Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla Motor, who tweeted over the weekend that cryptocurrency prices seem to be a bit high. READ Bitcoin flash crash knocks Elon Musk off rich list top spot 9.55am: IMC Exploration is heartened by appraisal drilling at North Wexford gold asset IMC Exploration Group PLC (LON:IMC) hardened 8.1% to a penny after it reported drilling results from its North Wexford gold asset. Drillhole 20-1200-01 intersected a 47 metre mineralised acid volcanic horizon (mainly rhyolites) at depths up to 50 metres (m) deeper than historical drilling during appraisal drilling on the North Wexford gold project. Gold mineralisation occurs over five closely-spaced intervals (ranging from 0.9 1.4m wide) with a maximum grade of 0.4 g/t gold (Au) over a one-metre interval, the company said. 9.00am: OKYO Pharma higher after receiving ocular pain treatment patent OKYO Pharma Limited (LON:OKYO) climbed 6.9% to 9.75p after it was issued a US patent. The biotechnology company focused on the development of novel drugs to treat inflammatory eye diseases and chronic ocular pain, said the patent, entitled "Compounds and Methods for Treating Pain" was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on January 26, 2021. This patent covers a class of bovine adrenal medulla peptides linked to specific lipids that demonstrate the potential for treating symptoms of neuropathic pain, ocular pain, ocular inflammation and/or dry eye disease. i3 Energy PLC (LON:I3E) soared 24% to 7.23p after an operational update covering the three months to the end of January. The independent oil and gas company said production remained predictably stable, averaging 9,150 barrels oil equivalent per day in the period. The company, which in 2020 acquired production assets in Canada to add to its undeveloped North Sea portfolio, said the assets continue to perform at or above expectations. Proactive news headlines Feedback PLC (LON:FDBK) said it is seeing an improvement in the pace of negotiations with the National Health Service over the use of its Bleepa product. World High Life PLC (LON:LIFE) (OTCQB:WRHLF) said its subsidiary cannabidiol (CBD) brand Love Hemp Limited has submitted its novel food dossier to the UKs Food Standards Agency (FSA). OKYO Pharma Limited (LON:OKYO) has been issued a patent for a potential new class of non-opioid analgesics being developed to treat symptoms of neuropathic pain, ocular pain, ocular inflammation and/or dry eye disease. Crossword Cybersecurity PLC (LON:CCS) said it has signed an agreement with the University of Glasgow (UOG) to support its privacy risk and compliance (PRC) project by creating a new software product aimed at privacy governance. The AIM-listed firm said it will help to design, market test and build the software, which will ultimately be owned by a newly formed separate UOG spin-off business. Sunrise Resources PLC (LON:SRES) said a 500 tonne sample of pozzolan that was shipped to a large cement and ready-mix company is due to be ground by the end of March and then used in a number of commercial concrete pours. Meanwhile, at the Bakers Gold Project in Australia, Sunrise is moving ahead with plans to drill, with a rig booked for a drill start at the end of March. Strategic Minerals PLC (LON:SML)(USOTC:SMCDY) is beginning a trenching and auger exploration program to investigate the possible presence of extensions of mineralisation up to 1,000 metres to the west of the presently established resource at the Redmoor project in Cornwall. Multiple prospective targets for tin and copper have been identified as a result of a review of historic exploration data to the west of the Redmoor deposit. British Lithium Ltd (PRIVATE:BLL) has embarked on its fourth and largest round of drilling to date. The aim is to define the extent of the lithium carbonate resource already identified in previous exploration work last year. Bezant Resources PLC (LON:BZT) has started target testing for its maiden drill programme at the Kalengwa exploration project area in Zambia. The 800m programme at Kalengwa will test the first two priority exploration targets for copper, based on a review of extensive historic exploration datasets 88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E) has highlighted that the Merlin-1 exploration well, in the Peregrine project area in Alaska, is due to spud in early March. The well is targeting a prospect thats estimated to host some 645mln barrels of oil. i3 Energy PLC (LON:I3E, TSE:ITE) told investors that production remains predictably stable, averaging 9,150 barrels oil equivalent per day in the period from November 2020 to January 2021. Mosman Oil & Gas Ltd (LON:MSMN) reported total production of 34,569 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) for the six months to end-December. Of this, 9,871 net boe was attributable to the AIM-listed company. NQ Minerals PLC (LON:NQMI)(OTCQB:NQMLF) announced that it is expected to qualify for London Stock Exchange's Green Economy Mark at admission. MaxCyte Incs (LON:MXCT) chief executive, Doug Doerfler, is presenting to two virtual events next month. On March 1, from 1.20 pm ET, he will address the online audience of Cowen's 41st Annual Health Care Conference. Then it is on the H.C. Wainwright & Co Global Life Sciences Conference on March 9-10. finnCap Group PLC (LON:FCAP) said it has appointed Oberon Capital, part of the Oberon Investments Group Plc, as joint broker with immediate effect. New York, NY, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency (ACM FAccT), to be held virtually from March 3-10, brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, and transparency in socio-technical systems. ACM FAccT provides a forum for research work in a variety of disciplines, including computer science, statistics, the social sciences and law. The work published at FAccT represents the cutting edge of practical applications of AI algorithms in hiring, policing, standardized test bias and privacy protection, among many other areas that impact daily life. FAccT is a leading venue for advancing the science of fairness and accountability of AI systems according to General Co-chair Richard Zemel, co-founder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Last year, more than 600 academic researchers, policymakers and practitioners attended the conference. This year, we expect that number to double. The issues that the FAccT community centers in its work are more important than ever. This years conference takes place in the context of a worldwide reckoning with racism and other forms of injustice, in society generally and within the field of computing in particular. Such questions are not only a matter of personal and professional concern, but also a perennial focus of FAccT scholarship. In this light, there is especially welcome attention to insufficiently addressed issues in computing relating to anti-Blackness and the advancement of social justice in relation to design of computational systems. The most important themes we see emerging this year include scholarship on systemic racism and discrimination, use of AI in health and health inequities, and the growing demand for new forms of accountability around the world, said ACM FAccT General Co-chair William Isaac, a senior research scientist with DeepMind. He added, While we will miss gathering in person, moving online provides a way to lower barriers to conference participation and prioritize racial equity, diversity, inclusion, and climate justice. This year ACM FAccT introduced several innovative programs to increase participation in the conference by previously underrepresented groups including: offering significantly reduced conference registration prices for students and attendees from economically developing countries, and offering internet bandwidth and carers grants to support attendees faced with greater personal and professional demands during the pandemic. Added General Co-chair Madeleine Clare Elish, a senior research scientist with Google Research, FAccT is changing what computer science conferences look like. Our aim is to be more interdisciplinary and open to different communities of scholarship and practice. Conference leaders and attendees represent a diverse range of perspectives, spanning not only computer science, social science and law but also academia, industry, civil society, and community organizing. This years program reflects this diversity and presents investigations that not only extend current research but also investigate core assumptions and propose alternative designs, practices, and policies. ACM FAccT 2021 HIGHLIGHTS Keynote Addresses Health, Technology, and Race Yeshimabeit Milner, Founder & Executive Director of Data for Black Lives Discussant: Mary Gray, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Yeshimabeit Milner is the Founder & Executive Director of Data for Black Lives. She has worked since she was 17 behind the scenes as a movement builder, technologist and data scientist on a number of campaigns. She started Data for Black Lives because for too long she straddled the worlds of data and organizing and was determined to break down the silos to harness the power of data to make change in the lives of Black people. In two years, Data for Black Lives has raised over $3 million, hosted two sold out conferences at the MIT Media Lab and has changed the conversation around big data & technology across the US and globally. As the founder of Data for Black Lives, her work has received much acclaim. Yeshimabeit is an Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow and joins the founders of Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street in the distinguished inaugural class of Roddenberry Foundation Fellows. In 2020, Yeshimabeit was honored as a Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneur. In Praise of (Flawed) Mathematical Models Katrina Ligett, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Hebrew University Discussant: Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Professor of Computer Science at University of Utah Katrina Ligett is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Hebrew University, where she is also a member of the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality. Her work is in algorithms, particularly in data privacy, algorithmic fairness, algorithmic game theory, and online algorithms. She was previously an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Economics at Caltech (2011-2017), and was a postdoctoral fellow in Computer Science at Cornell University (2009-2011). Prior to joining Caltech, Katrina received her PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009. Katrina is a recipient of a NSF CAREER award and a Microsoft Faculty Fellowship. Katrina has been affiliated with programs at the Simons Institute for Theoretical Computer Science at Berkeley, on Economics and Computation and on Algorithms and Uncertainty. She co-organized a Simons Institute program on Data Privacy in Spring 2019. Her research is funded in part by the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), a Simons Foundation Collaboration grant, a grant from Georgetown University, and DARPA/US Air Force. Algorithms, Accountability and Journalism Julia Angwin, Editor-in-chief and Founder of The Markup Discussant: Carly Kind, Director of The Ada Lovelace Institute Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impacts of technology on society. Julia was a previously a senior reporter at the independent news organization ProPublica, where she led an investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2017 andwon a Gerald Loeb Award in 2018.From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Wall Street Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. She is also the author of Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance (Times Books, 2014) and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America (Random House, March 2009). She earned a BA in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. Plenary Panels This year the conference is introducing plenary panel sessions to highlight key issues facing the field from disciplines and regions that have been historically underrepresented in the conference. Machine Learning and Health Inequities during COVID. Panelists: Marzyeh Ghassemi (U of Toronto), Seda Gurses (TU Delft), and Inioluwa Deborah (Deb) Raji (Mozilla) Relevance and Applicability of Causality for Algorithmic Fairness. Panelists: Kouske Imai (Harvard), Issa Kohler-HausmannKosuke (Yale), and Ricardo Silva (UCL) Alternative Futures. Panelists:Sasha Costanza-Chock (MIT), Cori Crider (Foxglove), and Vidushi Marda (Article19) Accepted Papers For a complete list of research papers and posters which will be presented at the FAccT Conference, visit https://facctconference.org/2021/acceptedpapers.html Accepted Tutorials ACM FAccT Tutorials aims to introduce technical, policy, regulatory, ethical, or social science aspects of FAccT issues for a broad audience. The goal of tutorials, whether introducing methods, presenting a broad overview of an application domain, or a deep dive on a case study, is to educate and broaden the perspective of our interdisciplinary community. For a complete list of tutorials which will be presented at the FAccT Conference, visit https://facctconference.org/2021/acceptedtuts.html CRAFT Sessions CRAFT, which stands for Critiquing and Rethinking Accountability, Fairness and Transparency, explicitly push the boundaries of FAccT as a field of study and a community of practice. These sessions bring together academics of all disciplines and people representing different communities of practice (including journalism, advocacy, activism, organizing, education, art, spirituality, public authorities) in the spirit of reflection and engagement. For a complete list of CRAFT sessions which will be presented at the FAccT Conference, visit https://facctconference.org/2021/acceptedcraftsessions.html About ACM ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the worlds largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the fields challenges. ACM strengthens the computing professions collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... PHOENIX The Arizona Senate has voted to allow dog owners to demonstrate their pet has immunity to rabies instead of giving a booster vaccine for the deadly disease. The measure was given preliminary approval on Wednesday but still needs a final Senate vote. Republican Sen. Nancy Barto of Phoenix says she introduced the bill at the request of constituents who say some animals have adverse reactions to vaccines. The measure would allow them to meet rabies vaccine mandates by performing a titer test showing the pet has antibodies. Critics say the measure is dangerous and could lead to increased cases of rabies. Theres been a backlash and a fearmongering about allowing pet owners that are concerned about this to take this step so they can avoid these adverse events for their pet, Barto said. I dont think this is going to be a widespread practice that could endanger the public. Democratic Sen. Christine Marsh of Phoenix said veterinarians warned that a test cant tell if immunity will last for the entire year for which the dog would be exempt from a rabies booster. We dont know whether the titers will actually last for a year or not, Marsh said. They might actually only last 60 days. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Vicente Fox got off to a great start by winning the 2000 presidential election and putting an end to 70-something years of one-party rule in Mexico. It was historic and very promising but did not quite work out as most Mexicans anticipated. To be fair, the Mexican swamp is a bit more complicated than ours. Since leaving office in 2006, President Fox has found a way of sticking his nose in everything, especially getting into fights with President Trump over the border wall. He is back in the news with a rather interesting tweet about Emma Coronel Aispuro, El Chapo's young, pretty wife. By the way, how do they say "trophy wife" in Spanish? I'm not sure, but Emma fits the description. "El Presidente" Fox tweeted about the arrest, and a lot of Mexicans are wondering what in the world he's talking about. He wrote in Spanish something like this: "Don't worry, Emma. The president will come to the rescue!!" What's that supposed to mean? President Lopez-Obrador is going to intervene to get her out of the U.S.? I think that he was referring to the 2020 arrest of a former Mexican defense secretary, retired geneneral Salvador Cienfuegos. He was accused of drug-trafficking and money-laundering, the same as El Chapo's wife. I asked a couple of Mexican friends south of the border and got a couple of interesting responses: First, Vicente Fox is just looking for attention. He wants an interview with CNN. Second, El Chapo just wants his pretty wife in prison so he can spend more time with her. Time will tell, but Mexican politics just gets more and more interesting all the time. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk). Image: Gage Skidmore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced investment opportunities worth 2.5 trillion in the national asset monetization pipeline outlined in the Union budget, through the sale of around 100 assets of central public sector enterprises ( CPSEs ). Today, there are many underutilized and unutilized assets under the control of the government. We have set the target to monetize around 100 assets in oil, gas, port, airport and power sectors. This process will continue in future also. The government is moving ahead with the mantra of monetize and modernize," Modi said at a webinar on privatization and asset monetization attended by investment bankers, sovereign and pension funds as well as domestic and international investors. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Modi said it is not necessary or possible for the government to remain the owner of many CPSEs, and the government should instead focus on public welfare and development. Thats why I say the government has no business to remain in business," he said. The government faces many limitations in the decision-making process, Modi admitted. Everybody remains afraid of innumerable accusations and legal tangles. That is why the thinking within the government has been to let things remain as they are," he added. Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary, department of investment and public asset management, said the objective of the webinar was to jointly develop an effective implementation plan to undertake bold reforms for privatization and asset monetization. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a PSE policy providing a road map for disinvestment in all non-strategic and four strategic sectors. She said the government aims to keep the bare minimum" CPSEs in four strategic sectors and privatize the rest or close down unviable ones. The four buckets of strategic sectors are atomic energy, space and defence; transport and telecommunications; power, petroleum, coal and other minerals; banking, insurance and financial services. Modi said the FY22 budget has put forward a clear road map to put the economy on a high-growth trajectory and the PSE policy aims at right utilization of public money. There are many PSE which are loss-making. Many of them need to be supported through taxpayers money. The money on which poor and youth have the right is spent on these enterprises and because of this, the CPSEs also prove to be a burden," he added. Modi said the government will ensure transparency, competition, stable policies and processes for the medium-term strategic disinvestment policy unveiled in the budget. For this, along with a detailed road map, proper price discovery and stakeholder mapping, we have to learn from global best practices. We have to keep in mind that decisions that are taken benefit the public as well as help in development of that sector," he added. The government has set a disinvestment target of 1.75 trillion for FY22 after failing to complete any big-ticket privatization in FY21 due to the disruptions caused by covid. For FY21, it has pared its target to 32,000 crore from 2.1 trillion. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday. South Africa and India, which both manufacture drugs and vaccines, made the proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year, arguing that intellectual property (IP) rules were hindering the urgent scale-up of vaccine production and provision of medical products to some patients. They have faced opposition from some developed nations, but the backing of the African Union (AU) may give renewed impetus for the push to relax IP rules. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference that IP transfer was a win-win for everybody that would address the huge inequalities in global public health. He gave two examples where the developing world had suffered because of restricted access to medicines: the swine flu pandemic in the late 2000s and HIV/AIDS in the 1990s. In 1996, HIV drugs were available, and we saw how mortality in the developed world decreased drastically. But it would take 10 years before those drugs were accessible in Africa in any meaningful way, he said. In between, 12 million Africans died, so I just use those numbers to say: any IP transfer will be beneficial to everybody, because nobody wants to sit back and be proud of that sad event ... We want to be on the right side of history. Nkengasong added the Africa CDCs regulatory taskforce had approved two versions of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, a day after Ghana received its first AstraZeneca doses from global vaccine distribution facility COVAX. He said the developers of Russias Sputnik V vaccine had submitted a full dossier of data to the Africa CDC and that in the coming days an expert panel would review the data and make a pronouncement. We have not received dossiers yet from China colleagues, but we remain optimistic that they will submit to us, he continued. Several countries on the continent, including Egypt, Zimbabwe and Senegal, have already started rolling out Chinese COVID-19 shots. Short link: NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Singh Tikait, who is due to address rallies in Madhya Pradesh on March 8 to drum up support against the Centres new farm laws, may be arrested in connection with an attempt to murder and rioting case of 2012. According to a BKU functionary, Rakesh Tikait will address farmer rallies in Sheopur, Rewa and Dewas on March 8. MP BKU general secretary Anil Yadav had confirmed this. Incidentally, a Madhya Pradesh court has issued an arrest warrant against Tikait in connection with a 2012 attempt to murder and rioting case in the states Anuppur district. Tikait had led a BKU protest against a power plant in the Jaithari area, which turned violent, leading to injuries to policemen and torching of vehicles. Over 100 people, including Tikait, were arrested under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with armed weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, an official said. However, after being released on bail in 2012, Tikait failed to appear before the court for subsequent hearings, after which an arrest warrant was issued against him in 2016. We will take necessary action on the arrest warrant, Anuppur Superintendent of Police Mangilal Solanki said. The BKU leader has recently warned that the farmers would march to the Parliament if the three agricultural laws are not taken back. Tikait said, "A call would be made for taking farm protests to the Parliament." He claimed that farmers would do farming on the lawns located near Parliament and when the crop would mature, the government could analyse the financial yield of the crop. He further said that a Parliamentary Standing Committee should be formed and monitor this and then the government would get to know about the gains and losses related to it. Tikait also said that the movement would spread to other states such as Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Live TV [February 24, 2021] Kioxia Commences Construction of New Fabrication Facility at Yokkaichi Plant to Support Sixth-Generation 3D Flash Memory Production Kioxia Corporation, the world leader in memory solutions, today held a groundbreaking ceremony for its state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility (Fab7) at Yokkaichi Plant in Mie Prefecture, Japan. The facility will be one of the most advanced manufacturing operations in the world, dedicated to production of its proprietary 3D flash memory BiCS FLASHTM. The first phase of construction is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2022. Construction of the new facility will be divided into two phases to allow for continued production and shipment of cutting-edge flash memory products to meet ongoing market demand. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006230/en/ Artist's impression of Fab 7, Yokkaichi Plant (Graphic: Business Wire) The Fab7 facility will have an earthquake absorbing structure and an environmentally friendly design that includes the latest energy saving manufacturing equipment. Located in Yokkaichi Plant, which offers the world's largest flash memory production capacity, the Fab7 facility will further boost Kioxia's entire production capacity by introducing an advanced manufacturing system that utilizes AI. Consistent with Kioxia's successful 20-year partnership with Western Digital (News - Alert) , the two companies regularly collaborate on facility operation. Accordingly, Kioxia and Western Digital expect to continue their joint venture investments for the Fab7 facility, including the creation of sixth-generation 3D flash memory. Due to technological innovations, the amount of data being generated, stored and used around the world has increased exponentially. The flash memory market expects further growth driven by cloud services, 5G, IoT, AI and automated driving. As a result, the production of cutting-edge products in Kioxia Corporation's Fab7 facility will continue to meet the increasing demand for memory around the world. Under its mission of uplifting the world with memory, Kioxia is focused on cultivating the new era of memory. Kioxia remains committed to enhancing its position in the memory industry through capital investment and research and development that reflects market trends. About Kioxia Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba (News - Alert) Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with memory by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, SSDs, automotive and data centers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006230/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 69F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Steve House live online / Nanga Parbat Rupal Face ascent with Vince Anderson 25.02.2021 by by Planetmountain Tonight at 19:00 CET American alpinist Steve House will talk about the ascent of the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat, carried out with Vince Anderson over a period of eight days in alpine style in 2005. 15 years have passed since what is considered one of the major climbs on the highest mountains on the planet: the Central Pillar of the Rupal Face on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, first ascended in perfect alpine style over a period of eight days by the Americans Steve House and Vince Anderson. The climb that earned them the Piolet d'Or the following year is the subject of the Planinski Film Festival event this evening. Starting at 19:00 CET, House will recount the story of this historic ascent. The event will be broadcast in live streaming on vimeo and also on zoom. By Anahid Nersessian University of Chicago Press. 160 pp. $20 - - - Two hundred years ago this week, English poet John Keats died of tuberculosis, in Rome, at the age of 25. In his short life Keats had composed an astonishing body of work, one that would guarantee that he would be remembered, and admired, as a great poet. He suspected this but could not be sure. One can never be sure in such matters. He thought of posterity constantly, and the fear that he had not done enough, that he would disappear before establishing an immortal reputation, tormented him. To be sure, the pugnacious poet had his moments of assurance. In an 1818 letter to his brother, he wrote, "I think I shall be among the English poets after my death." At least as frequent, though, was the mood expressed in the sonnet from the same year that begins, "When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain," or in the words he chose for his gravestone: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." One suspects that the confidence of that 1818 letter was based on the expectation of future work, not what the poet had already accomplished. After all, that letter came not long after the publication of "Endymion," an epic poem that was trounced by critics. Though the reviews were unfair and unkind, "Endymion" is far from Keats' best work, and the poems that would establish him as an enduring poet - in particular, the "great odes" of 1819 - were yet to come. Those six odes - "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode on Indolence," "Ode on Melancholy," "Ode to Psyche" and "To Autumn" - rise to heights unscaled by most poets and, indeed, unsuspected by many. The odes are so beautiful - and Keats' image as a sensualist, an effete Romantic aesthete, so firmly established - that it is easy to overlook how philosophically accomplished and profound they are. They constitute, to my mind, some of the richest and deepest meditations on art, beauty, mortality and subjectivity in Western literature. Sadly, it is such a deep part of our culture to think of feeling and reason as profoundly opposed - and of beauty as falling firmly on the side of feeling - that we are programmed to misunderstand any work in which reason, feeling and beauty work in tandem to raise aesthetic experience to a supreme level of insight. Perhaps the odes require a different form of criticism, one in which feeling is mixed with thinking, passion with reason, the subjective with the objective. Something like this impulse seems to lie behind Anahid Nersessian's "Keats's Odes: A Lover's Discourse." As the Roland Barthesque title indicates, "Keats's Odes" is no staid, traditional work of literary commentary. Its six essays, one for each ode, move in unexpected, often highly personal directions, expanding the universe of discussion surrounding Keats' work and attempting to reinvigorate our engagement with a set of poems that has now endured for over 200 years. Nersessian, a professor of English at UCLA, warns her readers that this is not the first book anyone ought to read about Keats. It is, she writes, "based on intimate, often idiosyncratic responses to the poems" and mixes heavy doses of personal reflections, autobiographical fragments, quotations from the work of more-recent poets, and other such assorted material, with more-straightforward interpretation and commentary. Different readers' enthusiasm for such minglings and interweavings will doubtlessly vary. Indeed, a single reader's reactions may vary considerably from essay to essay, page to page or even sentence to sentence. Fortunately, Nersessian is a sufficiently gifted writer that even where her interpretations struck me as unconvincing or stilted, the strength of her sentences, in combination with her obvious passion for the poetry, carried me through. Any book that tries to do justice to Keats must be beautiful at least a fair bit of the time, and "Keats's Odes," particularly when its author allows herself to be carried by the force of her enchantment with the poems, satisfies that requirement. This is not to say that there are no false notes. Biographers, as Nersessian notes, have demonstrated that Keats entertained radical political ideas, but the radicalism did not make it into many of the poems, and certainly not into these poems. Nersessian is determined to find it there anyway, as a matter of style if not of content. But the strenuousness of the effort shows, and the results, it seems to me, are unconvincing and at times dismayingly reductive. "Ode on a Grecian Urn," for instance - a poem with a great deal to say about art and the human experience of time - becomes a piece largely focused on sexual assault, while the beautiful and manifestly apolitical "To Autumn" is spun as a kind of meta-political statement in which Keats comments on our woeful human inability to stop caring about things, like beauty, that have no political dimension. It's a creative interpretation, to be sure, but while I enjoyed the chapter (mostly), I did not buy it. The book's intimacy, vulnerability and determination to provoke is true to Keats, and Nersessian's genuine feeling for his work is never in doubt. One can't help but be pleased that two centuries on, Keats' odes still inspire engagement and love. In a letter to Fanny Brawne from 1820 - that is, after the odes - he wrote: "'If I should die,' said I to myself, 'I have left no immortal work behind me ... but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered.'" He was half right. - - - Troy Jollimore's new book of poems, "Earthly Delights," will be published later this year. The father of a 14-year-old San Francisco girl who went missing last week said his daughter left a note telling him that she was depressed because of social isolation caused by the pandemic. Katlin Gallaread has not been heard from since leaving her home sometime between the night of Feb. 16 and the following afternoon, police said. San Francisco police said Thursday evening that they believe Katlin is possibly in the company of Tyler Sexton, a 16-year-old boy who ran away from his Monroe, Mich., home. Police said the teens were last known to be in Sacramento, and they may be traveling by bus or train. Tyler is described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall and 155 lbs. Missing persons investigators are working on the case, police said. Its a horrible feeling. I couldnt even imagine what it was like having a missing child before this happened, her father Jason Gallaread said. Ill just call, call, call leave voicemail messages, I love you. Come home. Gallaread, who spoke with The Chronicle before police said they believed his daughter was with a runaway, said it was out of character for his daughter to run away. Surveillance video from Gallareads neighbor across the street showed Katlin walking down the block in pajama bottoms and a hoodie, as if she had only planned to be outside briefly, her father said. Hours later, she withdrew $500 from her bank account at an ATM in Chinatown. Bank records showed that Katlins account was emptied from an ATM in West Sacramento on Saturday. As of right now SFPD is heading this investigation, West Sacramento Police Sergeant Stefan Iwanicki said. Obviously we will work with them in any possible way to locate the missing juvenile. However we are only a support capacity. Gallaread said the day before Katlin went missing was just like any other day. They ordered Chinese food and Katlin went to bed at 9 p.m. to wake up early the next day to attend online classes at Wallenberg High School. That was the last time Gallaread saw her. The next day, he frantically searched the house and neighborhood for her, called her cell phone and her grandmother, but she was nowhere to be found. He found a note in her dresser in which she expressed that she was sad and tired because of the pandemic, her grades were down and she was running away to solve her problems. Gallaread filed a missing persons report on Feb. 17. COVID is like prison for children, Gallaread said. Shes in the house all the time, not being able to be around her friends anymore. Its a struggle parents all over the country have been dealing with since the pandemic closed schools, denying children of social interactions with peers and support from teachers, said Maryam Abdullah, the Parenting Program Director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. While were trying to balance the well-being of the public, were also struggling as a society with how we can continue to support our children with their social development, in addition to their academic and emotional experiences, Abdullah said. Katlin deleted all her social media accounts, and friends and neighbors have been unable to reach her. Katlin enjoys playing the cello and is interested in pursuing a career in interior design, her father said. They enjoy traveling and fishing together. The teenager is described as being 5 feet, 1 inch tall and 90 pounds. Police said anyone who sees Katlin should call the local law enforcement agency and be prepared to describe the girls clothing and location. Police urged anyone with information about this incident to call the Police Departments 24-hour tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 by starting the message with, SFPD. Chronicle staff writer Lauren Hernandez contributed to this story. Vanessa Arredondo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vanessa.arredondo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @v_anana New Delhi: After meeting the Gujarat Congress MLAs on Monday, party leader Ahmed Patel said that he has full confidence on all of them. "I have total confidence in my MLAs," Patel said. He will also meet each of his party MLA individually. "Will hold meeting with all our Gujarat MLAs individually," he added. Soon after Patel's statements, BJP MP Bhupender Yadav said that Gujarat is moving towards a Congress free Gujarat. "We are moving towards a Congress free Gujarat. All 3 candidates of BJP will win tomorrow," he said. ALSO READ | Gujarat RS polls: Cong leader Ahmed Patel to meet party MLAs in resort; Shaktisinh Gohil claims no horse trading possible now Earlier, all 44 MLAs of Gujarat Congress returned to the state from Bengaluru as the Rajya Sabha polls will be held on Tuesday. The party MLAs reached Neejanand Resort in Anand on early Monday morning. The administration has deployed heavy police personnel to ensure the security of MLAs. Senior Congress leader and MLA Shaktisinh Gohil said that BJP cannot threaten any MLA and horse trading is not possible with those who are with them. ALSO READ | Gujarat RS polls: Congress in a tizzy as NCP yet to clear stand over support For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Australian parliament on Thursday passed landmark legislation that paves the way for Google and Facebook to invest tens of millions of dollars in local content deals. The tech giants will now be required to pay for local news content. While Google will pay for news content that appears on its "Showcase" product, Facebook is expected to pay providers who appear on its "News" product starting later this year. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Big tech firms had fiercely opposed the legislation from the outset, fearing it would threaten their business models. However, after Australia's judgment, regulators in the European Union and the US are expected to pressurise their government to move on the same lines. Here is how the law came to being and its implications Fair payment: Australian government had said that its proposal mandates a negotiation safety net through an arbitration panel. The digital giants would not be able to abuse their dominant negotiating positions by making take-it-or-leave-it payment offers to news businesses for their journalism. If a news business refused to budge, the panel would make a binding decision on a winning offer. Regulators had accused the companies, who dominate online advertising, of draining cash away from traditional news organisations while using their content for free. Tech giants' fears: The digital platforms feared that what's happening in Australia will become an expensive precedent that larger countries will follow and threaten their business model. In particular, the companies objected to rules that made negotiations with media companies mandatory and gave an independent Australian arbiter the right to impose a monetary settlement. A shutdown followed: Facebook -- which is much less reliant on news content than Google -- had initially said being forced to pay for news was simply not worth it and shut down access to news content for its Australian users. Facebook said the proposed Australian law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it." Government's stance: Australia's government condemned the decision of Facebook to block news websites, which also prevented some government communications, including messages about emergency services, as well as some commercial pages. Facebook's actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed and they will damage its reputation here in Australia," said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who added that he was given no warning before Facebook acted. Negotiations on the table: Following this, a last-gasp deal was made between Facebook and the Australian government. The social media giant said it will restore news pages in Australia after reaching the agreement. We are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns," said William Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia. Law passed finally: On Thursday, the Australian parliament passed the legislation that forces technology companies like Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google to pay media companies for content. Facebook and Google now have an additional two months to reach further agreements that would stave off binding arbitration. Facebook's investment: Both Facebook and Google have each said they will invest around US$1 billion each in news around the world over the next three years. Facebook said that it has invested $600 million since 2018 in news. Other countries observe development: Governments in Europe and the US are also sympathetic to the points of views of the news companies that are demanding payment from tech giants. The Australian legislation could serve as a global benchmark for how to force tech titans to the negotiating table and pay the traditional media for their news content. US legislators are voicing the loudest concerns about Facebook, with Rhode Island Congressman and Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline tweeting that the company is not compatible with democracy." Licensing agreements with Canadian media: Facebook is exploring potential licensing agreements in the coming year with Canadian media outlets and expanding its investment in local journalism initiatives, according to reports. The move comes as the Canadian government is preparing to introduce legislation in the coming months along the lines of the Australian model. Last week, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, in charge of crafting legislation, condemned Facebook's decision to shut down all news sites in Australia for several days, and said it would not deter Ottawa from introducing new rules. Sheer numbers: Thousands of journalism jobs and scores of news outlets have been lost in Australia alone over the past decade as the sector watched advertising revenue flow to the digital players. For every $100 spent by Australian advertisers today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country's competition watchdog. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. How Mindfulness Saved My Life During COVID-19 I thought I was going to die from COVID-19, said Chris Burton, the founder and director of Art Active, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing art and mindfulness to underserved communities of all ages in the greater Los Angeles community. In March of 2020, Burton became very ill with COVID-19, which is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. He had all the typical symptoms fever, loss of smell and taste, extremely lethargic, and random pains. He battled with COVID-19 for six weeks. Of all the symptoms he experienced, he says the worst one was the virus effect on his mental health. Burton is not alone. Although it is seldom discussed, one of the most devastating aspects of suffering from COVID-19 is its effect on a patients mental health. Many COVID-19 patients are now speaking up about the mental health effects of the virus due to the isolation from quarantining away from family members and society, the harsh physical symptoms, and how the mind begins playing tricks on them. ADVERTISEMENT When you are as sick as I was, you are left with your thoughts, said Burton. And if you are not aware of your thoughts and the direction they can go, you can get hijacked by your thoughts, he explained. Burton, a mindfulness teacher, is well aware of the power of your thoughts and the importance of being aware of them. He knows that our minds are capable of producing thousands of thoughts a day. Mindfulness Defined Mindful.org defines Mindfulness as the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what were doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by whats going on around us. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, an internationally known meditation teacher, author, and founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), adds that Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. The key is being both aware in the moment but without judgment of ourselves or our thoughts. Burton credits his mindfulness practice for making him aware of his thoughts, bodily sensations, and emotional wellbeing. It allowed him to watch his thoughts and his overall thinking when he was battling COVID-19. Mindful Awareness Explained Burton explains that mindful awareness of your thoughts is like standing on a train platform. In this analogy, each train car that passes in front of you is like a thought. Your goal is to notice each train car. Occasionally, your mind may drift, and you end up on the train or down the track. Yet, your mindful awareness of the thoughts, or train cars, disrupts your mind from continuing down the train tracks. And you bring yourself back to standing on the train platform watching the thoughts. Burton shares that his thoughts during his bout with COVID-19 sounded like this: Oh my God, you are going to die. Oh my God, are you ever going to get better? Oh my God, are you even going to be able to get out of the bed and make it to the bathroom? Oh my God, I dont think youre ever going to get better? This is how its going to be forever. He describes his thoughts and emotions during this time as on turbo boost. ADVERTISEMENT A Thought Isnt You While having COVID-19, Burton knew he had to use mindful awareness to disrupt his thoughts to improve his physical and emotional wellbeing. Burton explains, So, when the thoughts came, I had to keep looking at them. And then, I was separating myself from the thought. This thought is not who you are. This thought is coming up in you. It is not you. Mindfulness teaches practitioners to put a little bit of space between themselves and their thoughts. Burton confides that his mindfulness practice allowed him to not be overly consumed with his thoughts as well as not identify with them. He developed a constant awareness that he was having the thoughts but that the thoughts were not him. A Thought Isnt Automatically True Additionally, Burtons mindful awareness practice allowed him to see that just because he was having a thought didnt make the thought true. He began to open up his mind to the possibility of seeing the thought, especially concerning his health, another way. He also realized that he could stop the thought train right there and not go any further. So, instead of allowing a scary thought about his health to worry him incessantly, he would observe the thought and stop thinking about it. Surprisingly, Burton says that he didnt even have to think wellness thoughts of I am well, or I am better. He would simply say to himself, I am open to seeing this differently after noticing his thoughts. This practice prevented his mind from taking him down and allowed his body to heal itself. Mindfulness Helps with Suffering One of the biggest benefits of mindfulness that Chris Burton experienced while recovering from COVID-19 was that he lessened his suffering. There is a famous Buddhist parable about two arrows on how to deal with suffering skillfully. It is said that the Buddha once asked a student, If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful? If the person is struck by a second arrow, is it even more painful? He then went on to explain, In life, we cant always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. This second arrow is optional. Burton learned that he didnt have to experience the second arrow of suffering. By using his mindfulness practice, he was able to manage the suffering, which let the body do what it does heal itself. Burton said, I had to get out of the way. I couldnt allow myself to feed into what I was hearing on the news about all the devastating effects on the body like blood clots. And within six weeks, he recovered and felt much better, although he still experiences some of the long-term effects from the virus. Benefits of Mindfulness Burtons experience using mindfulness during his time with COVID-19 exemplifies many of the benefits of mindfulness. According to Positive Psychology, some of the most commonly stated benefits include a decrease in stress and depression, emotional regulation, an increase in self-compassion, and less anxiety. Mindfulness is also known to enhance a persons ability to deal with illness. It may not take away the symptoms, but it makes the illness more manageable. A 2013 study by Garland & Howard showed that mindfulness can also help patients to focus less on the pain, thereby improving their quality of life. Additionally, mindfulness can facilitate recovery. It helps people who suffer from a chronic or potentially terminal illness or life-threatening event move on from it. Similar to Burtons experience, Positive Psychology explains that mindfulness provides the necessary tools to step back from intense negative emotions, identify them, and accept them instead of fighting them. Mindfulness for the Community Despite all of its known benefits, mindfulness is often met with skepticism and mistrust in the African American community. Its important to understand that mindfulness is not a religion. Mindfulness is a secular, scientifically based practice that helps people become more present to their lives in a nonjudgmental way. And, as a result, mindfulness helps its practitioners lead more peaceful, less stressful, and healthier lives. Chris Burton recognized the need for more mindfulness teachings in the African American community. Although Burton began his career as an aerospace engineer, his passion for learning, community service, and embodying and sharing mindfulness practices led him to found Art Active, Inc., a nonprofit organization in 2014. As the leader of Art Active, Burton has designed and facilitated art and mindfulness programming in schools, senior citizen clubs, community centers, and the greater Los Angeles area. His contributions have been recognized with awards and honors, and most recently by Curren D. Price, Jr., Los Angeles City Councilmember for District Nine. A graduate of California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics, Burtons continued education includes a certificate in the UCLA Training in Mindfulness Facilitation (TMF) program and the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Practices (MAPs) teacher training program. As a meditator of more than 30 years, Burton currently provides two mindfulness opportunities for the community. First, he offers a morning meditation from 7:00-7:15 a.m., every Monday through Friday. And second, he offers a 30-minute, Monday Mindfulness drop-in class at 7:00-7:30 p.m. in which he shares mindfulness practices through a guided practice and a brief reflection period thereafter. For more information, please visit www.ArtActiveLA.org. Join Our Email List and you will be given the zoom links to the two mindfulness opportunities for the community. 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. Disturbance Call Leads to Assault, Drug Charges By West Kentucky Star Staff PADUCAH - A call about a disturbance on Tuesday led to two people's arrest on drug and other charges.Just after 9 pm, McCracken County deputies responded to Colony Drive where authorities alleged that 32-year-old Christopher M. Anderson had assaulted and choked a woman.While investigating, deputies reportedly saw illegal drugs in plain view. A search of the home allegedly uncovered cocaine, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia.Anderson was arrested on charges of fourth-degree assault, second-degree strangulation, and possession of marijuana. Additionally, deputies arrested 20-year-old Chase McCurdy on a charge of possession of cocaine.They were lodged in the McCracken County Jail. One of the richest men in the world, tech billionaire Elon Musk, is becoming quite enamoured with Ireland's potential for his Starlink project, with the National Space Centre in Midleton joining his satellite broadband revolution. Ireland's space headquarters in Elfordstown in East Cork remained tight-lipped on speculation that it has become another location for his Starlink ground equipment, declining to comment. However, what looks like giant golf balls are now visible at the Midleton facility, a telltale sign for Starlink spotters all over the world. The Starlink project has become a fascination among technology enthusiasts, with Musk's vision of dominating the fast broadband landscape in hard-to-reach areas. Starlink says its satellites are over 60 times closer to Earth than traditional satellites, which results in lower latency and the ability to support services typically not possible with traditional satellite internet. Latency is the time it takes to send data from one point to the next. Starlink claims that having its network of close satellites dotted throughout the atmosphere means better quality for the likes of video calls and online gaming. SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk Picture: Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo via AP, File According to Starlink's website, the firm is "now delivering initial beta service both domestically and internationally, and will continue expansion to near global coverage of the populated world in 2021". As more satellites are launched, more ground stations are installed, and networking software is improved, that means data speed, latency and uptime will improve dramatically for users, Starlink has claimed. It was revealed earlier this week that the Black Valley in Kerry was roped into the Starlink project, with a top secret agreement reached between the Tesla chief's venture and Kerry County Council. Locals in the Black Valley have had to endure a long wait to join the rest of the country in technological advances, due to its remote location. Mobile phone coverage remains poor at times, while a previous broadband project had to be restricted to local schoolchildren. While the cost of joining the Starlink community is far more expensive than joining regular service providers, it may appeal to weary users in Ireland that have been waiting years to receive quality broadband in their area. Beta users in the US had to buy Starlink ground equipment for $499 (410) as well as a $99 monthly fee, while similar costs will exist in Ireland. Musk's SpaceX firm has long had ambitions for satellite broadband, with years of research and development thought to have cost upwards of $10bn. Launching 60 satellites per go, it aims to have almost 1,500 by the end of this year or early next year, according to space experts. In a show of confidence in its exploits, SpaceX filed paperwork with the International Telecommunication Union for 30,000 satellites in late 2019. South African inventor Musk is worth around $180bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Priti Patel signalled a dramatic new intervention into Scotland Yards disastrous VIP child sex abuse investigation yesterday. The Home Secretary admitted there were outstanding questions about the Operation Midland scandal and urged MPs to launch an all-encompassing inquiry. It escalated tensions between Miss Patel and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, after the Home Secretary refused to declare confidence in her earlier this month. Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured, wants MPs to launch an inquiry into the Metropolitan Police's handling of the Operation Midland scandal Officials in the Home Office and PM Boris Johnson confirmed that Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, pictured, had the backing of Government Her aides and the Prime Minister later insisted Britains most senior police chief had the backing of the Government. Miss Patel revealed for the first time yesterday that she will meet retired High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques, who has urged her to order an independent criminal investigation into five detectives at the centre of the scandal and the watchdogs who cleared them. The Home Secretary said yesterday: There are outstanding questions. I would like to meet with Sir Richard primarily to understand effectively the processes, what has happened, what went wrong. She told MPs on the home affairs select committee: This is a difficult issue, because obviously there is a historic timeline where evidence was collected. There is more that clearly needs to be done here. I will absolutely follow the inquiries that the committee is holding. I think I do definitely need to ask some questions in terms of what has happened. Sir Richards concerns focus on the way Scotland Yard acted unlawfully in giving a district judge false information used to obtain search warrants to raid the homes of former home secretary Lord Brittan, D-Day hero Lord Bramall and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. Sir Richard said in an article in the Mail: There are reasonable grounds to believe that criminal acts have been committed. He also blasted officials at the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog for the way they handled an inquiry into the shambolic Operation Midland investigation. Sir Richard said the apparent condoning of police criminality by its notional watchdog, will inevitably give rise to allegations of political manipulation of the police, and of an orchestrated cover-up and corruption at the highest level. Miss Patel yesterday urged Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the home affairs select committee, to significantly expand the scope of an inquiry already announced into the IOPC. Miss Patel revealed for the first time yesterday that she will meet retired High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques, who has urged her to order an independent criminal investigation into five detectives at the centre of the scandal and the watchdogs who cleared them I would actually urge... to go wider than that, to look at an all-encompassing Operation Midland inquiry, primarily as youve highlighted some key questions around accountability, the way warrantry came up, she said. Committee member Tim Loughton asked Miss Patel about the extraordinary revelations that have been in the Daily Mail in the last week. Yet no heads have rolled, and many of the senior officers involved in that whole operation still hold senior positions, he said. Why havent any heads rolled and what do you propose to do about it? Miss Patel replied: This is a very, very sensitive issue, as we all know, and I myself when I first became Home Secretary actually met some of the victims of Operation Midland and I always like to reiterate my sympathy, and also the way in which theyve been represented themselves throughout what has been a terrible, terrible time. She added that she would reply to points raised by Sir Richard in his open letter, published in the Mail on February 12. And she volunteered to give further evidence to the committee at a later date. Yesterday the Mail revealed how the judge who signed the search warrants, Howard Riddle, has demanded a criminal inquiry into the Metropolitan Polices role. Mr Riddle said he had no reason to doubt Sir Richard Henriques conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a criminal offence was committed by the police who obtained the warrants. Former Chancellor Lord Lamont, a close friend of the late Lord Brittan, was among the grandees backing calls for a full inquiry last night. He said: The Home Secretary ought to be looking closely into this as it is extraordinary that no one has been disciplined over it. Conservative peer Lord Lexden, who raised the Operation Midland scandal in the House of Lords earlier this month, praised the Mails coverage of the saga. Given we have heard from Sir Richard Henriques and now from the judge who dealt with the application for search warrants, the case for further investigation is in my judgment absolutely unanswerable, he said. Dame Cressida Dick insists she 'won't quit' Dame Cressida Dick shrugged off mounting pressure to quit yesterday. The Metropolitan Police commissioner rejected the idea that she no longer enjoyed the Home Secretarys support following a radio interview in which Priti Patel failed three times to say that she had confidence in her after the forces botched Operation Midland investigation into a VIP paedophile ring. Dame Cressida told the London Assemblys police and crime committee: My job is to make sure we have the strongest possible Met for now and in the future, medium term and long term, and Im completely focused on that. In terms of the comments that you talk about, the Home Secretary through the Home Office immediately after the interview gave her full confidence in me. She added she enjoyed very productive working relationship with Miss Patel. More than 22,000 Connecticut businesses have been approved for nearly $2 billion in forgivable loans since the federal government reopened the popular Paycheck Protection Program in January, and now the Small Business Administration will aim squarely at loans for the smallest businesses. On Wednesday, the SBA launched a two-week period where PPP loans are only available to businesses that have fewer than 20 employees. Starting next week, the SBA will also revise its funding formula to allow more sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed people to get the assistance. The SBA is also setting aside $1 billion to help these businesses in low and moderate-income communities. These small businesses not the ones with 500 employees, but these small businesses that, with a handful of folks, they are 90 percent of the businesses in America, President Joe Biden said as he announced the changes Monday. But when the Paycheck Protection Program was passed, a lot of these mom-and-pop business just got muscled out of the way by bigger companies who jumped in front of the line. Small businesses employ over 700,000 Connecticut residents, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, said as he praised the window for the smallest companies to apply. It's critically important that federal assistance programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program, are readily available to mom-and-pop businesses, he said. Starting next week the PPP will be open to people with a non-fraud felony conviction, people who are delinquent on student debt payments and U.S. residents who are not citizens but are lawful residents, the Biden administration announced. The latest round of PPP reopened a month ago, allowing small businesses to get forgivable loans to cover payroll and other costs. Companies with 500 employees or fewer can still apply for their first PPP loan or some companies with fewer than 300 employees that can demonstrate a 25 percent reduction in gross receipts between comparable quarters in 2019 and 2020 can get a second loan, too. Catherine Marx, Connecticuts SBA District Director, said the agency is doubling its outreach to inform the smallest businesses in all neighborhoods will be able to tap the funds. The program closes March 31 or when funding runs out. Since PPP reopened on Jan. 11, the SBA has approved 1.8 million loans nationwide for a total of $134 billion. In Connecticut, 22,669 Connecticut small businesses and entities have been approved for PPP loans totaling $1.9 billion as of Feb. 21.This follows millions of PPP loans previously approved nationwide by the SBA in the spring and summer. The program was initially envisioned as a means to help businesses that had to temporarily shut their doors due to the pandemic keep employees on the payroll. As the pandemic has continued for a year, the program has become the primary way the government is trying to stave off a tsunami of small business closures. Initially, the Paycheck Protection Program was swamped with applications from larger companies and partnerships including regional law firms; retail and restaurant chains; and publicly-traded corporations that fit the size limits. Banks were criticized for helping wealthier business clients with their applications before smaller, less-connected shops and companies. Democrats and Republicans have made a concerted effort to curb loans to bigger companies that may not need the relief, by adding stricter eligibility criteria to the second round loans. Biden also promised more oversight of the program Monday. I invite any inspector general in this program, with jurisdiction over this program, to closely look at these loans and report publicly report on any issues they uncover inconsistent with what I'm saying today, Biden said. We will ensure every dollar is spent well. These changes will bring much-needed, long-overdue help to small businesses who really need help staying open, maintaining jobs and making ends meet. emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter; @emiliemunson REDDING, Calif. - Redding police closed Market Street Wednesday afternoon after receiving a couple of calls about a subject possibly having a firearm, according to Lieutenant Brian Cole. Redding police received more calls about the same subject throwing water bottles and trash off of a second-story balcony, Lieutenant Cole said. The incident took place between the 1500 and 1600 block of Market Street. Lieutenant Cole said the subject is described as a younger male in his 20s. Redding Police were able to get in contact with an individual who was staying by the apartments who said the subject had left the apartment. Redding Police do not have a victim. They are making a report to send to the District Attorneys Office for review. Market Street was closed but has been reopened as Police believe it is safe to the public. Lieutenant Cole said no shots were fired and no one was injured. ST. LOUIS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spartech, a leading plastics manufacturer of engineered thermoplastic materials and specialty packaging products, recently donated essential anti-fog plastic materials to an engineered plastics product company that provided complimentary medical-grade face shields and personal protective equipment (PPE) to Indiana area hospitals. Spartech supplied polyethylene terephthalate glycol sheets, commonly known as PETG, thermoplastic polyester that offers significant chemical resistance, durability and excellent formability. The material is clear coated with an anti-fog property making it a valuable element of face shields used by medical personnel as a protective measure when treating patients for COVID-19 and other procedures. "When the Indiana-based company placed an order with us, we discovered how it was to be used and were very happy to make a donation of materials that exceeded the original request," said Spartech Sales and Business Development Manager Todd Niemuth. "With healthcare workers giving selflessly of themselves, especially during COVID-19, we think this donation is the right thing to do as a company." This is the latest example of Spartech's dedication to partnering with companies to donate high-quality PPE supplies to medical professionals and helping to make a positive difference in the healthcare environment. About Spartech Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri with a unique innovation center and 15 manufacturing facilities located throughout the United States, Spartech is a leading plastics manufacturer of engineered thermoplastic materials and specialty packaging products. Meeting exact standards for everything from food packaging to aerospace and automotive applications, Spartech continues to make a world of difference with sustainable, diverse, reliable and innovative products including UltraTuf, Royalite, Korad, PreservaPak, and Polycast. https://spartech.com/ Media Contact: For Spartech Sheldon Ripson [email protected] 636-751-5733 SOURCE Spartech Related Links https://spartech.com/ Zinzi Bailey can still recall watching TV in her college dorm at Princeton University and seeing the anguish on the faces of people in New Orleans as they realized just how much they lost in Hurricane Katrina. The Jamaican immigrant also noticed who was hurting the most. They were brown faces, similar to hers. And she knew there were some underlying factors that caused this group of people to fare so much worse than others. I watched the rhetoric around who was classified as a looter, and who was struggling to live, said Bailey, a research assistant professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Miller School of Medicine. It was a very visible complexion of suffering. Things like housing, and access to transportation . . . you could see all the points of inequity and failure within our system. But it took a disaster for us to comprehend all the components involved. That was when Bailey started to realize the pervasive role of racism in the United Statesbeyond her own personal experiences. Since then, she has researched the influence of racist practices like slavery, redlining, employment discrimination, and mass incarceration on the Black population of the United States and the world. She wrote about the impacts of cancer, maternal morbidity, opioids, tobacco use, and even neighborhoods on the health of minorities. And she investigated the causes of these disparities by talking to people and tracing the barriers that put them at a disadvantage. Today, Bailey is a leading voice at the forefront of a national conversation about structural racism, and medicines role in it. In December, she was the lead author of a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) outlining the major implications of structural racism that influence health care for minority populations. And in February, she was a key voice on an article in another major medical journal, The Lancet, chronicling the devastating effects of the Trump administrations health and social policies. Bailey attends a launch of the Game Changer vehicle with her colleagues from Sylvester. The Game Changer RV brings cancer screenings and health information to underserved communities across South Florida. Photo courtesy of Miller School of Medicine. Racism is not an isolated ideological event, its a system or culture of inequity. So, its important that we are able to recognize that in ourselves and our institutions, said Bailey, who joined the University in 2017 after working as the founding director of research and evaluation for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The more that we are able to recognize our history, the more we can learn from it. In the NEJM article, Bailey, along with co-authors Dr. Mary Bassett, and Justin Feldman, described structural racism as not just privately held beliefs, but a mindset embedded into our laws, rules, and government, as well as in the United States economy, culture, and society. They pointed to residential segregation, the criminal justice system, and unequal medical treatment as the main outlets where structural racism continues to perpetuate these disparities among minorities. Recently, this fueled the uneven realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, they wrote. And they called on the health care community to help undo these trends. In particular, the trio urged health care professionals to support more research about how racism affects health outcomes, rather than disregarding its relevance. And they pressed medical and nursing schools to include training about racist practices of the past, so that future patients receive more compassionate care. They also called on medical schools to accept more Black students and hire more Black faculty members. Change will require policies that restructure the chances for a healthy life for people of color, they pointed out. Our fields have much to regret, and we have much still to offer to right our historical wrongs. The NEJM piece was a more accessible version of a longer article published three years earlier in The Lancet, while Bailey was working in New York. Thats where she got to know Bassett, who was New York Citys commissioner of health at the time and also co-authored both articles with her. Bassett now leads the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, but the two still collaborate often. The insights offered in both articles caught the attention of many health care professionals, including Erin Kobetz, the Universitys vice provost for research and scholarship, who recruited Bailey to work with her at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Since 2017, the two have collaborated to investigate issues of health inequity in cancer patients and even created a web platform called Scan360, which allows users to understand the influence of their background on potential cancer outcomes. Kobetz said a major asset of Baileys scholarship is her ability to statistically demonstrate how racism has impacted the health of minority populations, particularly Black people and women. Her work on structural racism is critically important and fills a necessary gap in understanding how systemic inequity can directly condition worse health outcomes, said Kobetz, who is also the associate director of population science and cancer disparities at Sylvester. Perhaps because she was able to offer evidence in such a high-impact medical journal, it could force more attention to the notion that achieving health equity necessitates attention to racism on multiple levels of influence. Primed for a future in health care Born in Jamaica, Bailey immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was 3 years old and grew up in the South Miami-Dade neighborhood now known as Palmetto Bay. From listening to the work experiences of her dad, a water quality engineer, and mom, a longtime nurse at Jackson Health System, Bailey said the difference in care offered to people of color drove her desire to go into public health. After earning a bachelors degree in public policy from Princeton, Bailey moved to New York to work for an organization called Public Health Solutions, where she was able to see the conditions of low-income communities of color living in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood. Facing gentrification and rising housing prices, she saw firsthand how residents were fighting structural barriers to their health, like poor housing conditions and environmental hazards in order to maintain the well-being of their families. Soon, Bailey wanted to learn more and enrolled in a masters-degree program in public health focused on global epidemiology at Emory University. While she took classes in the Atlanta area, Bailey worked as a research assistant at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and helped compile epidemiology information for the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, particularly related to the U.S. implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis in preparation for forthcoming trial results. A shift in perspective She went on to earn her Doctor of Science at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where Bailey studied the influence of structural racism on the criminal justice system, and explored such issues as why Black males are imprisoned more than white males, and Black females nearly twice as much as white females. She continues to study the criminal justice system and collaborates with sociology assistant professor Kathryn Nowotny to explore how prisons often amplify health inequities. Yet during her time at Harvard, Bailey also noticed a gaping hole in much of the public health data available in the U.S. At the time, two of the most commonly used databases for health information both excluded information from people in institutions. This meant people in jails, prisons, and nursing homes were completely left out of national health surveys, and Bailey knew that people imprisoned were disproportionately Black. If we are only interviewing people who are not institutionalized, we get distorted pictures if we have a distorted level of incarceration across different populations, she said. But a lot of people, most epidemiologists, were not thinking about that when they were looking at the data. I saw this as our blind spot. So, thats what got me more interested in the topic of structural racism. As her interest in public health grew, Bailey often mentally compared her experiences visiting family in Jamaica to her life in the U.S.. Then, once she traveled to places like Brazil and South Africa to study health care, she could not ignore a common thread she observed: the jobs that people could get, along with the homes and neighborhoods where they lived and how often they were entangled in the criminal justice system, was often defined by the color of their skin. In 2015, Bailey became the founding director of research and evaluation in New York Citys health department. The experience gave her a chance to work with Bassett, who planned to explore why some city residents had the best health in the nation, while others had the worst. At the time, it was the first foray into investing in and acknowledging structural racism at the New York City Health Department, Bailey said. Part of [Bassetts] mission was making sure we were recognizing the role that racism plays in our everyday lives, and part of that was looking at the data we produce and questioning what data we have, what data do we not have, and what we are asking or not asking. She learned how neighborhoods that the city did not invest in historically, such as the South Bronx, had some of the poorest health outcomes, which were exacerbated by COVID-19 last spring. This prompted her to do a case study last year on the Bronx, describing the historical precedents to the boroughs pandemic crisis. But while in New York, Bailey also saw how health departments could help reverse the harmful trends perpetuated by structural racism. According to Bailey, Bassett led a charge for reinvesting in neighborhoods where residents have some of the worst health, like the Bronx, parts of Brooklyn, and East and Central Harlem. Under her leadership, staffers repurposed unused municipal buildings as neighborhood health centers, where community organizations could offer health services, maternal care, and nutrition classes at a low cost. Bailey hopes these examples will allow those in public health to recognize what works. In the meantime, she realizes that listening to concerns of local patients, and offering scientific information at their comfort level, is one of the best ways to improve health outcomes. Bailey is now trying to impart this in her own community in Miami, where vaccine hesitancy is readily apparent. She has regularly contributed to a neighborhood church group about the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine, and she recently convinced her mother, and several of her friends, but she knows how critical it is to get more people protected. We can identify COVID-19 or develop a vaccine. But until we understand the people affected, how our interactions have played out thus far, and the gaps in public health care, we will never get to the places we want to be, Bailey noted. Theres a lot more listening we need to be doing. And we need to be engaging with people in honest, transparent ways to allow us to build community relationships, so that people will trust the medical information they are getting. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Delhi Police reunited a 30-year-old divyang person with his family following a lead based on just one word - Hospital. On the intervening night of Feb 23 and 24, the Delhi Police found a person abandoned in Sultanpur village while patrolling. He told his name as Gaurav but was not able to disclose other information regarding his family and residence. The police conducted systematic counselling sessions where he repeatedly spoke 'Hospital' but could't reveal any other details. Following the word 'hospital', the police started a search in Fatehpur Beri and adjoining areas of Gurugram and Faridabad but couldn't find anything relevant. A pyschiatrist of a local hospital and another doctored conducted another counselling session of the person in which he disclosed the name of the hospital as Kalawati Hospital. The police team reached Kalawati Hospital but no one recognised the person after which the team also contacted the Mandir Marg police station and searched for the missing complaints. "While we looking for missing complaints, we found that an entry was lodged vide GD No. 44A dated July 11, 2020 regarding missing of Gaurav (30), a resident of Patwa Chowk, Shastri Park, Delhi. Through that complaint we found his family and his mother identified him," said DCP South Delhi Atul Thakur. During further enquiry it was revealed that her mother brought him to Kalawati Hospital on July 11, 2020 for a check-up after. He went missing from there and hence remembered just one word 'hospital'. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan the highest ranking uniformed officer is expected to retire from the post by weeks end, the Daily News is reporting. The development is part of an anticipated shake-up within the NYPDs top brass, while Dermot Shea is expected to remain as the citys police commissioner, according to the report. Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison is expected to assume the role of Chief of Department. Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James singled out Monahan in her lawsuit against the NYPD for alleged civil rights abuses stemming from citywide protests and riots over the summer. Monahan made headlines over the summer after kneeling in solidarity with civil rights protesters outside Washington Square Park, decrying the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Reaffirming Our Africanness and Radical Tradition, 1960s: Liberation Coming From a Black Thing Part I. The Reaffirmation of the 1960s stands, after the Classical Period of Kemetic civilization and the Holocaust of Enslavement, as a third modal or decisive and defining period in our history. This period of our most ancient and ongoing history was a reaffirmation of our commitment to our Africanness and our radical tradition, that is to say, our liberation tradition. It was a self-conscious struggle to be ourselves and to free ourselves. We strove and struggled to be our beautiful Black selves without doubt and degradation, without restriction, constraint, penalty or oppression. And we struggled to free ourselves internally and externally from White racist oppression. The Nation of Islam and its leader, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, challenged us to see and say Black with reverence and rightful respect, and to value this unique way we have emerged and asserted ourselves in the world. He called on us to rise from the grave of oppression and achieve our divinely determined destiny of freedom, justice and equality among the nations of the world. And his most capable representative, Min. Malcolm X, carried forth this message and augmented it with his own understanding of us, our struggle and our relationships with each other and other oppressed and struggling peoples of the world in righteous and revolutionary ways. It was a time of calls and strivings to get Back to Black, to the beautifulness of who we were and are without needing to doubt ourselves, deny ourselves, condemn ourselves and mutilate ourselves, psychologically and physically. We said it and we meant it, Black is Beautiful and we declared that as sure as sunrise and day dawning, Liberation is coming from a Black thing. We knew too that we could not free ourselves if we did not be ourselves, i.e., claim ourselves and live our lives without disguise and self-degrading practices. We also knew we could not fully be ourselves unless we fully freed ourselves. And so, we took up the struggle and drew heavily on the best of our past history and current knowledge and practice to reaffirm our liberation tradition in thought, speech and practices. ADVERTISEMENT The reaffirmation of our Africanness and liberation tradition takes place in the midst of several defining realities that help shape the content, character and course of our struggle. We built not only on the best of our own history and culture, but also learned the lessons of struggle taught by other liberation struggles in the world. But again, we begin, continue and sustain our rootedness in our own ancient and ongoing history and culture of radical and revolutionary resistance. And in rightful commemoration of the mission and martyrdom of Min. Malcolm X, February 21, 1965, I begin with his lessons of life, love of his people, and self-sacrificing struggle. After the NOI, clearly a defining feature of the Reaffirmation of the 1960s is the mission and martyrdom of Min. Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Min. Malcolms self-defining and sacred mission was to urge and enable African people to wake up, clean up and stand up. He taught us to appreciate the essential beauty and ultimate sacredness of Black lives and Black people and the moral imperative to free ourselves from unconsciousness, behaviors unworthy of us, and all kinds and concoctions of oppression, internally and externally. Thus, he taught, organized and modelled a process and practice directed toward a critical consciousness, moral grounding and transformative struggle that strengthened our capacity to develop our potential as persons and a people and build a self-conscious, self-determining and liberated community. Moreover, Seba Malcolm, master teacher, taught us to pursue freedom by any means necessary, that is to say, first by any means the oppressor compels us to use in self-defense and in rightful pursuit of our liberation from oppression. And second, it is to say by whatever service and sacrifice necessary to advance our liberation. It is here that Hajji Malik models not only how we are to live for the struggle, but also how we must be ready to offer the supreme sacrifice for the struggle, i.e., our very lives. This means becoming a willing sacrifice for the liberation of our people, if it becomes necessary. This is the meaning of his martyrdom, then, a willing giving of his life so that we could live freer, fuller and more meaningful ones. Indeed, this is why we stress his martyrdom more than his assassination. For his assassination is what his and our enemies and the enemies of human freedom did to deprive us and our struggle of him. And we must righteously condemn and continue to resist them. But his martyrdom, his self-sacrifice, is what he did, giving us the awesome gift of his very life for our liberation. Thus, we of Us call the day of commemoration of his martyrdom, Siku ya Dhabihu, The Day of Sacrifice. And in the midst of all the fear and anxiety brought about by his assassination, we stood up, February 21, 1966, a year after his martyrdom, to honor him for the magnitude and meaning of his life and death for us and his revolutionary role as Noble Witness (shahid) for us, his people, and his faith Islam, and the world. Another defining reality in the shaping of the Reaffirmation of the 1960s was the Watts Revolt, a decisive turning point in our history and liberation struggle. Although our oppressor tries to discredit the revolt by calling it a riot, we immediately distinguish our revolt against oppression from riots, mob rampaging and violence without overarching political aims. On the contrary, a revolt is a collective act of resistance to the established order motivated by political aims and ideas to end oppression. The Watts Revolt was an act of resistance against police violence, merchant exploitation and ongoing systemic racist oppression. Furthermore, the Watts Revolt and all the other revolts which followed it were a fundamental and defining practice of Black Power. Indeed, it marked a line of historical transition from the Civil Rights phase of the Black Freedom Movement to the Black Power phase. And it was part and parcel of a long and continuous history of Black revolts and resistance from the Holocaust of enslavement and colonialism to Ferguson, Baltimore and beyond. ADVERTISEMENT Also, an additional defining factor in shaping the Reaffirmation of the 1960s was the continental liberation movements. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, founding president of independent Ghana, spoke of seeking the political kingdom, political power, with a patient and persistent educating and organizing and learning from the masses of our people. And he taught pan-Africanism and African rising as a decisive power for good in the world. Sekou Toure, founding president of independent Guinea, urged full-reAfricanization as both a cultural and political practice. He stressed the essentiality of a cultural revolution that laid the basis for the political liberation struggle. Indeed, he defined national liberation as a cultural act itself, an act rooted in and required by a culture of resistance as Kawaida teaches. And there was Frantz Fanon, psychiatrist, revolutionary, representative and soldier of Algerian independence, whose master work, The Wretched of the Earth, became essential and unavoidable reading. He taught us that each person bears the liberation struggle within themselves and that real liberation means not only the defeat of the colonial system, but also the disappearance of the colonized person. Thus, he stressed we must leave Europe where they are always talking about abstract man, and yet always colonizing, killing and enslaving real men, women and children. And we must, ourselves, rethink the questions of Africa and humanity and strive to initiate a new history of humankind and bring into being a new man and woman. Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, www.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org; www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org. 02/22/21 (Newser) A double tragedy in Ohio: A 16-year-old girl died Tuesday night after falling through lake ice, and a police officer died in the rescue attempt. Ohio Department of Natural Resources police officer Jason Lagore fell in the lake after suffering a medical emergency, believed to be a heart attack, WLWT reports. Lagore was among the officers who responded after a 911 caller said a 13-year-old boy had been screaming for help at a private dock at Rocky Point Lake in Highland County. "I'm at Rocky Fork. I had some little kid come up to me and said his sister's in the water dead," the caller said. "He come running up to us saying, 'Somebody please help me, please help me.'" story continues below Authorities said the 13-year-old boy also fell through the ice and tried to find his sister before he freed himself and sought help. He was hospitalized and treated for hypothermia. Divers pulled the body of a 16-year-old girl from the lake around 11pm, after she had been under the ice for more than four hours, Fox reports. Lagore, a 15-year veteran of the force who led its K-9 watercraft program, is survived by his wife and two young children. Flags at the Ohio Statehouse and other public buildings have been lowered to half-staff to honor him, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. "Officer Lagore acted with extreme courage to go to the rescue of these two kids; his example demonstrates the very highest valor," said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. (Read more Ohio stories.) Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Benidorm beach in Valencia in July 2020. Monica Torres The tourism sector in Spains Valencia region is starting to see the first signs of recovery after being devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Spanish news agency EFE, the president of the Valencian Hotel Association (Hosbec), Toni Mayor, said on Wednesday that hotels in the Mediterranean region had received more bookings this week from British holidaymakers than in the history of tourism. According to Mayor, Britons have made reservations on a massive scale to secure accommodation over summer, explaining that people were eager to get their revenge on the coronavirus, and that there was no better way to do this than going on vacation. The spike in bookings comes after the UK government announced on Monday a roadmap to ease lockdown restrictions in England. According to Mayor, following the news, hotels in Valencia received a massive number of bookings from May 17, when restrictions on international leisure travel are set to be lifted. The British government, however, will meet on March 12 to decide whether this roadmap should be pushed forward or back, depending on the epidemiological situation in the country. The United Kingdom is the largest source country of foreign visitors to Benidorm, which is one of Valencias most popular tourist destinations. It is also the largest market for the entire Spanish tourism sector, which received 18 million UK visitors in 2019. Benidorm's beaches in 2018, and in May 2020. Monica Torres We might open on May 1 instead of May 17, said Mayor, who added that Britons are beginning to book hotels for all of summer now that the end of lockdown restrictions is in sight. The Hosbec president said that reservations for August, September and October were going very well, but that bookings were also being made earlier from mid-May. Nearly 19 million people in the UK have received the first dose of the Covid vaccine, out of a population of 66.6 million, and by the end of October, 90% of the population may be vaccinated. We are already concluding that half the summer season has been saved, said Mayor, who also supports a universal vaccine passport certifying that the bearer has been immunized against Covid-19 as a way to revive tourism across the world. As a result of the pandemic, British visitors to Spain plummeted 82% in 2020 from the previous year, according to figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE). The total number of international tourists also fell last year, dropping 77% compared to data from 2019. This drop was felt especially hard in the Balearic Islands (a fall of 87%), Catalonia (80%), Madrid (77.7%), Andalusia (77.5%) and the Valencia region (73.2%). English version by Melissa Kitson. Syrian defendant Eyad al-Gharib arrives to hear his verdict in the courtroom in Koblenz, Germany. Photo: Thomas Frey/Reuters A former member of Syrian President Bashar Assads secret police was convicted yesterday by a German court of facilitating the torture of prisoners in a landmark ruling that human rights activists hope will set a precedent for other cases. Eyad al-Gharib was convicted of accessory to crimes against humanity and sentenced by the Koblenz state court to four-and-a-half years in prison. It was the first time that a court outside Syria ruled in a case alleging Syrian government officials committed crimes against humanity. German prosecutors invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes to bring the case that involved victims and defendants who were in Germany. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the verdict represented a historic juncture that would send real messages to all those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people and gives hope to the victims and their families that right will prevail. The group urged Syrian refugees in Europe to come forth with any evidence to courts to help more such cases. Al-Gharib could have faced more than a decade behind bars, but judges took into account mitigating factors, including his court testimony. The 44-year-old was accused of being part of a unit that arrested people following anti-government protests in the Syrian city of Douma and took them to a detention centre known as Al Khatib, or Branch 251, where they were tortured. Al-Gharib went on trial last year with Anwar Raslan, a more senior Syrian ex-official who is accused of overseeing the abuse of detainees at the same jail near Damascus. Mr Raslan is accused of supervising the systematic and brutal torture of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, resulting in the deaths of at least 58 people. During the trial, al-Gharib testified against Mr Raslan, implicating him in more than 10 deaths of prisoners. A verdict in Mr Raslans case is expected later this year. Todays verdict is the first time a court has confirmed that the acts of the Syrian government and its collaborators are crimes against humanity, said Patrick Kroker, a lawyer with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, which represented multiple survivors at the trial. Testimony by torture survivors and intelligence officers prove the scale and systemic nature of enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence in Syria, he said. The coronavirus pandemic is threatening to claim still another victim: Martin Luther King Jr.s dream of a colorblind society. That would add to the tragedy. During this terrible pandemic, politicians have invoked the authority of experts to justify their policies. Science, we are told, tells us to wear masks, wash our hands, socially distance, quarantine the infected, avoid large gatherings and take other measures. Most Americans comply because the goal is to save lives, particularly of the vulnerable elderly. Meanwhile, 2020 also was the year of anti-racism or, more accurately, a brand of obsessive race-think that contrasts sharply with Dr. Kings dream. Rather than demanding equality of opportunity for all Americans, the new anti-racism, which views everything through the prism of racial groupings, demands that government tip the scales in favor of certain groups thereby discriminating against others to achieve racial equity. If any policy is said to have a disparate impact on Blacks or other minority groups, the Anti-Racists assert, that policy is ipso facto racist. Anti-racism guru Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Anti-Racist, contends that there is no such thing as a non-racist or race-neutral policy. In this view, every policy must be implemented with the explicit aim of achieving racial equity and leveling the playing field. This means discriminating in favor of minorities today to remedy past inequities. Now comes the moral quandary: prioritizing who gets the COVID vaccine first and who must wait. Racial-justice activists have called for distribution priorities that would move the vulnerable elderly down the list, not up. The problem is that the elderly are too white. Harald Schmidt of the University of Pennsylvanias Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics put it like this: Society is structured in a way that enables them (white people) to live longer. Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them, we can start to level the playing field a bit. Schmidt and others argue that millions of essential workers (an ill-defined category if ever there was one) should receive priority over the elderly because theyre disproportionately people of color. Maximizing the vaccination of the elderly might save more lives, the activists concede, but the loss of life is offset by the benefits of leveling the playing field. This isnt idle theorizing: CDC guidelines already include race as a metric for deciding who gets the vaccine. Several states also are using equity metrics to prioritize the vaccination of Blacks and other minorities, regardless of their age, over the elderly, because members of these groups are more likely to die of COVID than whites. That means, for example, that a healthy 30-year old African-American might be vaccinated before an at risk 70 year old, despite the fact that those age 65 to 74 (excluded from the current round of vaccinations) are 90 times more likely to die than younger people. The long-standing struggle against racism has, throughout U.S. history, also been a drive to guarantee equal protection of the law to all Americans. On this, skin color doesnt matter. Blacks suffer more from COVID-19 because of the prevalence of such risk factors as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. This is the medical issue, not their skin color; so prioritizing people with these risk factors would help them and all others with those conditions. Thats a color-blind solution we all should applaud. The racial-equity vision is based on a mistaken belief that wherever a disparity exists, it must be the result of either discrimination or the structure of society. Men are dying of COVID-19 in much greater numbers than women. In deciding who gets the vaccine, should we prioritize men over women? Asians live longer than whites. Should they too be moved down the line? The racial engineering of public health will worsen race relations, undermine respect for both medical science and the law, and unnecessarily kill many more Americans. The idea of sacrificing lives at the altar of racial equity should shock the conscience of our nation. Jonathan J. Bean, research fellow at the Independent Institute, is professor of history at Southern Illinois University and editor of Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. Writer and comedian Andrew Doyle We need to check your thinking. These chilling words are taken not from a dystopian novel or some totalitarian regime, but were rather those of a British police officer speaking to businessman Harry Miller. Miller was contacted following a complaint by an offended party about a poem he shared on social media which was deemed transphobic. The officer explained that, although not illegal, this nevertheless qualified as a non-crime hate incident. Why, Miller asked, was the unnamed complainant described as a victim if no crime had been committed? More to the point, why was he being investigated at all? To which came that ominous response: We need to check your thinking. Over the past decade, many people have detected a pattern of minor changes in our culture at odds with our hard-won rights to personal autonomy. Millers case is not an isolated affair. Between 2014 and 2019, almost 120,000 non-crime hate incidents were recorded by police forces in England and Wales, leaving a substantial number of us with a gnawing sense that something is amiss. We are no longer on secure ground; the tremors are too persistent. A sea change has taken place in the publics attitude to free expression and its key function in a liberal society. The principle of free speech is being casually disregarded for the sake of a supposed higher priority, namely a new identity-based concept of social justice. This has brought with it a mistrust of unfettered speech, and appeals for greater intervention from the State. We are left stranded on unfamiliar terrain, facing that confusing and rare phenomenon: the well-intentioned authoritarian. How are we to respond when the people who wish to deprive us of our rights sincerely believe they are doing so for our own good? Defenders of free speech like me are often accused of indulging in the slippery slope fallacy. The occasional instance of state over-reach, we are told, is hardly cause for alarm. Yet the idea that citizens of the UK might be investigated for non-crime was unimaginable 20 years ago. Andrew Doyle said: 'Over the past decade, many people have detected a pattern of minor changes in our culture at odds with our hard-won rights to personal autonomy' I am not suggesting we are freewheeling towards a future of gulags and show trials, but there exists a degree of general apathy that bodes ill for the preservation of our fundamental liberties. Free speech is a privilege denied to the overwhelming majority of societies in human history. Our civilisation is abnormal, almost miraculous, in its dedication to this estimable principle. But free speech dies when the populace grows complacent. Opposition to it never goes away. It must be defended anew in each successive generation. Without free speech, no other liberties exist. It is the marrow of democracy detested by tyrants because it empowers their captive subjects, and mistrusted by puritans because it is the wellspring of subversion. Unless we are able to speak our minds, we cannot even begin to make sense of the world. As the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes noted, the Greeks had one word, logos, for both speech and reason. Not that they thought there was no speech without reason, but no reasoning without speech. Contrast this wise thought with a crazy, irrational world in which: 'Writer J. K. Rowling has been subjected to an unrelenting campaign for her concerns that self-identification of gender might compromise women-only spaces such as domestic violence refuge centres,' said Andrew Doyle Asda supermarket worker Brian Leach was fired after sharing a video online by the comedian Billy Connolly that mocked Islamist suicide bombers. Even though the source of the offending excerpt was a DVD sold by the company that employed him. He was reinstated following an outcry. Veteran television presenter Alastair Stewart was forced to resign after tweeting a quotation from Shakespeare which included the phrase angry ape. This was misinterpreted as racist because he was replying to a black Twitter user, even though it was a phrase he had previously used in conversation with white people. Kate Scottow was arrested in front of her children, confined to a cell for seven hours and convicted under the Communications Act. Her crime? Insulting and mis-gendering a trans person on Twitter, and she was cleared on appeal. When I was a child, it was the Right-leaning tabloids that would commonly call for censorship of TV, film and the arts. Today this is predominately a feature of those who identify as being on the Left. Similarly, the most vocal opposition to censorship today now comes from Right-wing commentators which has led to any discussion about free speech becoming freighted with unfounded suspicions of political extremism. Concerns over censorship are dismissed as a ruse of the far-Right to spread hatred. It is even said that those who argue in favour of free speech simply do not care about minorities, or even wish to return to a time when casual racism, homophobia and sexism were ubiquitous. Andrew Doyle said: 'We need to check your thinking. These chilling words are taken not from a dystopian novel or some totalitarian regime, but were rather those of a British police officer speaking to businessman Harry Miller' But free speech transcends notions of Left and Right because all forms of political discourse depend upon it. Yes, unpleasant people may use it to advance reactionary ideas, but the human right that enables them to do so is precisely the same right that allows those of us who disagree to counter them. It is a grave error to assume that defending another persons right to speech amounts to approval of what that person is saying. There is no contradiction in holding individuals in contempt for their repugnant views and simultaneously defending their right to express them. Unfortunately, the fallacy of guilt by association pervades much of todays discourse, with the result most people would rather stay out of such discussions altogether than risk being yoked to disreputable characters. This is why those of us who believe in free speech have a duty to be clear that we do not protect controversial speech for its content, but rather the principle it represents. The dangers of empowering the State to determine the limitations of expression far outweigh the risk of small groups of extremists attempting to proselytise. Last year, British journalist Helen Lewis was hired by a company named Ubisoft to record dialogue for one of its video games. But her voice was erased and an apology issued after the company was alerted to Lewiss writings on gender identity nuanced and compassionate, but not wholly in line with current trends. Just a few tweets from activists and the company relented to their demand, the hecklers veto writ large. Significantly, the harm done was not just to Lewis. The invisible casualties of her cancellation are those seeking work at Ubisoft in future who will be vetoed for the crime of holding impure thoughts. Here is the dangerous new fad of cancel culture in action. Typically driven by social media, it is public shaming and boycotting, often for relatively minor mistakes or unfashionable opinions. Practitioners of cancel culture habitually claim they have been made to feel unsafe or that violence has been inflicted on them. They smear their targets as bullies as a means to bully them, or cast themselves in the role of victim while they victimise others. Often they deny that cancel culture even exists, claiming they are merely holding the powerful to account. The key difference is that what they seek is not to criticise, but to punish. Writer J. K. Rowling has been subjected to an unrelenting campaign for her concerns that self-identification of gender might compromise women-only spaces such as domestic violence refuge centres. Along with her conviction that there is a biological basis to womanhood one shared by the majority of the population as well as the scientific community this has led to activists bombarding her with abuse, some of it sexually threatening. She has explicitly pledged her support for equal rights for trans people, but some have nonetheless interpreted her views as hostile. 'Veteran television presenter Alastair Stewart was forced to resign after tweeting a quotation from Shakespeare which included the phrase "angry ape"', Andrew Doyle said Amid this hysteria, including the burning of her books, there has been little opportunity for sober discussion of the issues, as people are discouraged for fear of incurring the wrath of the online mob. This toxic atmosphere is particularly dire in our universities and colleges, where the insidious practice of no platforming as a tactic to prevent others from speaking has taken hold. Students demand intellectual safety occasionally in the most bellicose and intimidating manner and academics have learned to be reticent when it comes to expressing views that deviate from the norm. But the cost of this to the intellectual well-being of society can hardly be overestimated. By reframing certain opinions as violence, activists justify censorship as a form of self-defence, thereby exempting themselves from ever having to validate their own arguments or engage with those of others. But is there not something to be gained from hearing from those whose ideas we find repulsive? Those student bodies who have taken to dis-inviting speakers with controversial views deprive themselves of the chance to prove that their own position is sound. In open debate, they could expose the flaws of the speakers stance and, better still, persuade others of their way of thinking. Progress is only ever made when the dissenters are heard. If liberty means anything at all, wrote George Orwell, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. It also means being brave enough to speak out; though, sadly, too many people seem willing to self-censor, sacrificing their freedom of speech and independent thought for the consolations of a quiet life. Whatever the motive desire to be liked, fear of animosity, submission to authority for the stability it brings the fact is that the greatest threat to free expression comes from ourselves as we fall prey to what John Stuart Mill described as the tyranny of the prevailing opinion. The price we pay for a free society is that bad people will say bad things. Once we have compromised on the principle of free speech, we clear the pathway for tyranny. In the end, we have to consider which is more harmful to society: a minority who would seek to incite violence against their fellow citizens, or a State empowered to set the limits of permissible thought and speech. And we must be wary of those who mistake their own arguments for proof. The connection between unfettered speech and violence is now taken by many to be self-evident, which, in turn, makes the case for hate speech irrefutable. This is to reach a conclusion intuitively and work backwards. A major problem we face is that taking offence has become the norm. It is the inevitable corollary of years of risk-averse parenting and teaching strategies, as well as anti-bullying measures that have a tendency to catastrophise. People have come to expect emotional and intellectual comfort as a right. As a result, they stop demanding freedom of speech and start demanding freedom from speech. An over-diagnostic culture has reframed distress and emotional pain as mental illness, rather than aspects of a healthy human existence. Yet to feel upset is not an aberration; it is a sign that we are alive. Taking offence is a matter of choice. As the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said: Choose not to be harmed, and you wont feel harmed. Dont feel harmed, and you havent been. Unpleasant speech can provoke scorn, ridicule and even ostracism, but none of this constitutes an infringement of human rights. We all have a right to incivility, just as we have the right to opinions that are considered to be beyond the boundaries of permissible thought. Likewise, those who wish to criticise such forms of dissent are free to express their disapproval however they see fit within the law. This is the liberal system, and it works. Liberalism offers a social contract by which we are entitled to attack people verbally so long as we cede the right to do so physically. It is only when speech is met with threats, censorship, defamation, harassment, intimidation, violence or police investigation the tools of cancel culture that freedom becomes compromised. Criticism is not the same as censorship. There is a world of difference between barbed words and barbed wire. But free speech is breached when one party resorts to harassment or threats in order to silence the other, or if the State attempts to criminalise those who deviate from the popularly accepted thresholds of polite expression by checking the thinking of people such as Harry Miller. (The High Court later ruled the police had breached Mr Millers human rights.) Thirty years ago, any would-be Cassandra would have been derided had she claimed that one day police would routinely investigate citizens for non-crime, students would be demanding protection from unpleasant ideas, and serious consideration be given to the criminalisation of private conversations in the home. Yet here we are. In another 30 years we may have resigned ourselves to self-censorship and conformity, with eccentricity and free-thinking seen as quirks of a half-forgotten time. But if, like me, you dont want to live under the continual supervision of the State, tempering our every utterance in accordance with the accepted script, then we have to stem the momentum of this new illiberalism. Even if we fail, at least we can say we tried. Adapted from FREE SPEECH AND WHY IT MATTERS by Andrew Doyle, published this week by Constable at 9.99. Andrew Doyle 2021 To order a copy for 8.79 (offer valid to 6/3/21; free UK P&P on orders over 20), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. 2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning -- 4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS. We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover. We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come. * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! 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 Dimitris Fafalios and Karin Orsel on shippings future Dimitris Fafalios, president of Fafalios Shipping, and Karin Orsel, CEO of MF Shipping Group, shared thoughts on where the maritime industry is going, in an ICS webinar The recovery in the aftermath of COVID. Dimitris Fafalios, president of Fafalios Shipping, said that although the industry could be considered low tech, we're actually very efficient. The dry bulk busines is probably up there amongst the most efficient in the world. We transport the basic products needed for everyday life. Mr Fafalios was elected as chairman of Intercargo in Jan 2019 and chaired its technical committee since 2009. As of June 1, 2018, the latest information available on its website, Fafalios Shipping SA fleet consists of 5 dry bulk vessels with an aggregate capacity of more than 320,000 dwt, mainly consisting of Supramax and Panamax vessels. There is actually quite a lot which other industries could learn from shipping, including how it manages to stay agile and resilient in the face of enormous change, he said. Shipping and shipping operations is management of change. We manage change every single time. That's what distinguishes us from a highly automated supply chain. We go through Panama Canal five times - every single time its different for A or B reason. We developed risk management structures to counter that. If you ask us - what is our revenue going to be in October we simply don't know. The shipping business has been relatively resilient to COVID. Therefore our economic model and management model is robust. It should actually be taken onboard more in land based industries. We could give some economic professors and finance professors some very good tips from the shipping industry about resilience. The system for working with a port is very simple. You load cargo, you are sent to a port, told to go at a particular speed, to arrive at a particular time, then stay in a queue until the terminal selects you, and then discharge the cargo. It is very very simple. Shipyards of the world can produce new vessels and relatively latest technology vessels within 18 months of placing an order. When it comes to digitalisation, Mr Fafalios believes that it must keep the people onboard fully in the loop. It is no use developing a fantastic vessel where everything can be monitored from the shore, and people onboard feel as if they are simply there to tick boxes. We must discourage this. The people onboard must retain their skills as navigators and engineers. They must know what it means to go around the engine room, feel, see and hear problems. The dry sector is seeing demand for steam coal reducing, as companies find more environmental methods of power generation. Covid has brought big problems with crew changes, particularly in the Far East. They want the ship but don't care about the crew, he said. This is extremely challenging for us. We've had to change trade routes, divert the vessel to the most convenient port in order to make crew changes. Then there are problems with the lack of flights. EU ETS For shipping to be included in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is an example of politicians not understanding fully what shipping is, he said. To many politicians, shipping is a container ship, ferry or ro-ro, which has got a far higher profile. The regulations we're going to have to face with ETS will be very negative to the industry, very negative to Europe, and will increase emissions. Consider how large bulk carriers are transhipped into smaller vessels in Rotterdam. This task does not need to be done in Rotterdam, and having to pay for emission credits would push the task outside the EU, which could also lengthen voyages. The shipping industry has proposed a tax on every tonne of fuel burned or consumed globally, he said. Corona In terms of establishing virus testing requirements onboard, Mr Fafalios said that the Maritime Labour Convention could be the right place for requirements, making it a generic procedure. On our vessels we take everybody's temperature several times a day every single day, he said. We have adapted. A weakness has emerged where IMO is good at influencing maritime authorities, but we are facing rules coming from health and immigration authorities, and national leaders, who dont understand shipping, he said. Karin Orsel, MF Shipping Karin Orsel, CEO of MF Shipping Group, said that the industry suffers from a poor public image. The general public thinks a seafarer is a tough gentleman smoking a cigarette having a beer. That's not how our industry is working today. The industry has picked up several initiatives, they are unknown to the general public. We raised the standards quite high in the tanker segment and cruise industry. There's a high level of governance we want to fulfil. MF Shipping, based in the Netherlands, manages 52 vessels, including product tankers, chemical tankers, multipurpose ships and cement carriers. It employs 1000 seafarers. Ms Orsel is co-president of the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners and member of the executive committee of Intertanko. I think our industry is very fragmented, especially if I look at a part of Europe where you see a lot of vessel owners who have one or maybe a dozen [vessels], in comparison to big shipowners. Maersk is a name familiar with the general public. But we as an industry have been invisible for a long time. The other challenge is decarbonisation. The big question mark is - will a vessel [find cargo]? Say a dry cargo vessel, in 25 years, tankers shorter? That's another challenge we all have to deal with, what is the lifecycle of vessels. Does it mean freight rates have to be completely different to make [low carbon ships] a valid investment? We say we are quite proactive as an industry, also on digitalisation, she said. There is where our opportunity lies, to attract the next generation. In terms of establishing virus testing requirements onboard, she said there should be multiple testing to avoid a possible outbreak, no discussion whatsoever. I am not sure if we should make it a regulation. A person goes up an escalator at Terminal 2 of Heathrow Airport, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in London By Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) - Digital health checks will be vital to a recovery in foreign travel from the COVID-19 pandemic, Britain's Heathrow airport said on Wednesday, after a collapse in passenger numbers saw it plunge to a 2 billion pound ($2.8 billion) loss last year. The UK government said on Monday trips abroad could restart in mid-May as its vaccination campaign kicks in, sparking a surge in holiday bookings. It is also looking into a digital health passport or app to help ease restrictions, while conceding the benefits have to be weighed against potential risks to civil liberties. But Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said digital technology, and international agreements, would be vital to reviving a travel industry on its knees. "It's absolutely critical and that's one of the main things that government needs to work on," he said, when asked about a digital health app. At present, paper checks on COVID-19 test results and passenger locator forms take 20 minutes per traveller at Heathrow, making travel near impossible should passenger numbers rise from current low levels. Britain's biggest airport said it was "very likely" people would be able to go on their summer holidays, but expects passenger numbers will take time to recover. The airport, west of London, is forecasting 25 million passengers in the second half of the year, meaning it would be operating at about 50% capacity. Heathrow, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, the Qatar Investment Authority, China Investment Corp and others, last year lost its title as Europe's busiest airport to Paris after its flight schedules shrank more than those of its rivals. Passenger numbers plunged 73% to 22 million people last year, with half of those travelling during January and February, before the pandemic shut down global travel in March. Heathrow said it had 3.9 billion pounds of liquidity, giving it sufficient resources to keep going with low levels of traffic until 2023, despite the 2 billion loss before tax for 2020. The airport urged the government to provide business tax breaks for big airports, something only available to smaller airports so far, and to extend the furlough job support scheme to help it financially before the recovery takes off. (Reporting by Sarah Young. Editing by James Davey and Mark Potter) 5 things you need to know Monday News Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 25 (ANI): All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (AIMIM) Kolkata wing on Thursday accused the Kolkata administration of "misusing power" for denying permission to party supremo Asaduddin Owaisi's first rally in the poll-bound state. Zameerul Hasan, an AIMIM leader told ANI, "We had to cancel the rally as the administration didn't grant us the requisite permission. Although we sought permission ten days ago still permission was denied. We will do a press conference today at 2:00 pm." "They are misusing their power. Seeking permission for the rally by adhering to the procedure is our democratic right," he added. The rally was scheduled to take place in the minority-dominated Metiabruz area of Kolkata - which falls in the parliamentary constituency represented by Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief Minister The party along with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui is planning a public meeting at Brigade in the second week of March. During his earlier visit to West Bengal, after the announcement to contest the West Bengal assembly poll, Owaisi held discussions at Futura Sharif in Bengal's Hooghly district with Indian Secular Front's Abbas Siddiqui. It is to mention that West Bengal is a key state for the AIMIM as the party has stretched its wings in eastern India after bagging five seats in Bihar. The Assembly election for 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal are slated to take place in April-May. However, the Election Commission is yet to announce the final dates. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - The report delivers insights on how India's largest private health system handled COVID-19 HYDERABAD, India, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Apollo Hospitals, India's largest integrated healthcare chain announced in March 2020, its campaign of Project Kavach, a multi-pronged strategy deployed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Kavach, which translates to 'shield', encompassed a 360-degree approach. The innovations pioneered by Project Kavach are highlighted in a February 24, 2021 report in the NEJM Catalyst. NEJM Catalyst is a leading American journal from the prestigious NEJM Group, focusing on the latest innovations, big ideas, and practical solutions for health care delivery transformation. The Project Kavach commentary sheds light on the unique strategies undertaken by Apollo Hospitals such as the AI-based COVID-19 screener, which saw over 15 million downloads and adaptations in 6 regional languages, 24/7 app-based teleconsultations, doorstep testing, medication delivery across the length and breadth of the country, and remote monitoring services at home. Authors of the Commentary were Drs. Anupam Sibal, Hariprasad, and Sangita Reddy from Apollo Hospitals, and Professor Murali Doraiswamy from Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Doraiswamy is also a board member at Apollo. Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, remarked, "To meet the challenges that COVID-19 threw, an integrated approach that deployed the whole Apollo ecosystem was designed. Dissemination of accurate information, early detection and isolation and tech-enabled care in different settings with advanced treatment using the best medical global protocols formed the pillars. With hospitals across 16 states, we provided care to patients in full compliance with advisories issued by different state governments. An innovative approach allowed the launch of ideas like Project Stay-I (Stay Isolated) allowing infected individuals to stay in hotels freeing up beds in hospitals. Care was provided using telemedicine. The initiative served over 80,000 nights and touched over 5 million lives over the period." Dr Hariprasad President, Apollo Hospitals Group noted that, "Apollo's Project Kavach has delivered exemplary results in terms of combating the COVID-19 pandemic with a phenomenal success rate. Whether it was dedicating the 2,250 beds for exclusive Covid care or setting up over 30 fever clinics, we have always led from the front. Our expertise in handling and managing Covid patients was collated and circulated in a comprehensive SOP driven guidebook called 'The Red Book' in order to help other healthcare institutions to learn from our clinical expertise." Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals, commented, "The multidisciplinary approach of bringing experts from across the Group on a virtual platform provided us with the ability to create clinical guidelines which were modified regularly, as evidence emerged. The guidelines were changed 34 times including twice in a week when data on the benefit of steroids was published. The active participation in multinational clinical trials allowed patients access to novel therapeutic options". Dr Murali Doraiswamy, Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, USA observed that, "India's handling of COVID-19 has drawn praise globally. India deployed an approach in establishing close collaboration between the public and private sector. Project Kavach showed how the largest Indian private healthcare provider scaled their response and offer many insights and innovative solutions that can be implemented across geographies." The full report titled, "Apollo Hospitals and Project Kavach: Insights from How India's Largest Private Health System Is Handling Covid-19", can be accessed at the link be accessed on the link below: https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.20.0677 Contacts: Saurabh Bose, saurabh_bose@apollohospitals.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1310950/Apollo_Hospitals_Logo.jpg Celebrate Recovery founder John Baker dies: 'The world lost a giant of a man' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Pastor John Baker, founder of Celebrate Recovery a global ministry born out of the heart of Rick Warrens Saddleback Church aimed at helping people recover from addiction and other hurts, habits, and hang-ups has died. The Celebrate Recovery National team shared the news of Bakers death in a social media statement Tuesday. The cause of death has not yet been announced. There are times in life when words are totally inadequate in sharing how you feel, this morning is one of those days, the statement attributed to Celebrate Recovery National Director Mac Owen and his wife, Mary, states. My dearest friend and brother has gone Home. John Baker co-founder of Celebrate Recovery made his way Home early this morning. To say this took us by surprise would be an understatement. John touched more people with the healing power and grace of Jesus Christ than anyone else that I have ever known personally and one of those lives was mine. The team plans to share more details in the days to come, but asked supporters to keep Bakers wife and Celebrate Recovery co-founder, Cheryl Baker, in their prayers. We will miss John more than words can express but it will only be for a short while and then we will see him again. See you soon my brother," the statement added. Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12-step recovery ministry started in 1991 at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. The ministry was founded after Baker wrote Warren the now-famous, concise, 13-page, single-spaced letter outlining the vision God had given him for the program. Today, 35,000 Celebrate Recovery groups meet around the world. The program has been implemented in churches, recovery houses, rescue missions, universities and prisons. Baker, who authored several books on addiction and recovery, previously shared how his heart for others was birthed out of his own recovery story. A functioning alcoholic with a failing marriage, he found freedom and recovery through Christ and Warrens ministry. Although Baker initially found help with his addiction through Alcoholics Anonymous, he desired a Christian-based healing program. He presented a plan to Warren about starting a Christ-centered 12-step program through Saddleback Church, according to a frequently-asked-questions page. All of us have several things in common. We love Christ, were willing to turn our lives over to Him, and were praying that we can begin to break the cycle of dysfunction for our families, Baker shared in an online testimony. On Facebook, Saddleback Church leader Kay Warren said that the world lost a giant of a man today" and that her family lost a dear friend and brother in the Lord. Thirty years ago John Baker turned the ruins of his life over to Jesus Christ and God transformed him from a driven businessman with an addiction to alcohol, a failing marriage and alienated children to a Christ-follower with a passion to help others with their hurts, habits and hang ups through the principles of recovery, she wrote. More than 7 million men and women around the world have found hope, a new start, and the God who made them [through] the program he co-founded with his precious wife Cheryl and Rick - Celebrate Recovery. There is simply no way to put into words how I love John and will miss this kind, creative, brilliant and faithful man. Our world lost a giant of a man today, and our family lost a dear friend and brother in the Lord. Thirty years ago John... Posted by Kay Warren on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 Celebrate Recovery International Director Richard Cobb said that Baker is a hero of the faith who gave many of us a fresh picture of how God can help with our brokenness. He will continue to be an example to this forever family in so many ways, Cobb tweeted. James Ackerman, president of the national evangelical prison ministry organization Prison Fellowship, said in a statement that the impact of Baker's "faithful obedience will go on for generations." "Several years ago, I met John in his office in California. We had a great discussion and began a fruitful collaboration that continues to this day," Ackerman explained. "God simply put us together at the right time. Celebrate Recovery Inside is now a key component of the Prison Fellowship Academy, and Celebrate Recovery chapters in the community are key partners in the ministry of Angel Tree Christmas." On social media, hundreds shared how Bakers program changed their lives. Thank you, John Baker, for the difference you made in my life. You made a remarkable difference in countless lives across the face of the globe, for the glory of HIS kingdom. Prayers for your family, friends, and a great multitude of forever family, commented one supporter. Wrote another: This man has done so much for the hurting people in this world, including me. I have to say I am in shock, but I know he is receiving his reward today in the presence of his King. I appreciate his heart and his obedience to Christ in founding Celebrate Recovery. Collage documenting newspaper reporting on the threats to and closures of LGBTQ+ venues in London. Credit: Lo Marshall, Author provided Dedicated spaces have long been crucial to LGBTQ+ people. Whether it's with friends and chosen family, or partners and hook-ups, these places have created joy and belonging while providing care that isn't always available elsewhere. While the pandemic has closed the doors of these venues, the cultures created in and around them have continued. Those behind LGBTQ+ spaces have raised funds for freelancers who've lost income, and raised the spirits of those physically isolated from their communities through online events. Unfortunately, in the UK, it's unclear how many LGBTQ+ venues can outlast the pandemic, even with the financial support some have received from Arts Council England and the mayor of London. But this isn't the first challenge that LGBTQ+ people have faced relating to their access to dedicated spaces. And the way LGBTQ+ communities have responded to the loss of spaces in the past could teach us about how they can continue to adapt in these trying times. From the mid-2000s there was marked decline in the number of LGBTQ+ venues in the UK, often driven by rising rents due to urban regeneration. In London, for example, much-loved spaces like First Out, Candy Bar, and Glass Bar closed their doors. By 2015, concern about closures was so great it was reported in the mainstream press, and numerous campaigns sprang up to keep venues open. In response, my colleague Ben Campkin and I began researching LGBTQ+ nightlife in London, and found that the number of venues fell by 58% from 121 to 51 between 2006 and 2017. Another issue is the inequality between LGBTQ+ people perpetuated by venues. Although many LGBTQ+ spaces have a mixed clientele, they have largely been operated and used by white, gay, cisgender men. With women, people of color, trans people being less likely to have the access to the financial capital to start up and operate venues, there are far fewer venues run by and for the more marginalized. Newly thriving scenes But the story of the last decade is more complex than a straightforward tale of decline and inequality. Several campaigns to protect and re-open LGBTQ+ venues have achieved landmark results despite severely limited negotiating power compared to pubs, property owners and developers. Over the last five years, much thought and labor has also been put into adapting LGBTQ+ spaces to be more equitable and inclusive. Some of these measures include having gender neutral toilets and taking explicit stances against discrimination with policies and manifestos displayed visibly online and in venues. Collage of media reporting on events and emerging scenes in Londons LGBTQ+ nightlife. Created by Lo Marshall, 2016. Credit: Lo Marshall, Author provided There is also more to LGBTQ+ nightlife than venues. In 2016, when we began our research, we found events run by and for women, trans and non-binary individuals and people of color in and outside of LGBTQ+ venues were starting to thrive as collectives and club nights multiplied. Audiences for these events also grew, creating strong reputations for great parties with inclusive atmosphere These scenes have continued to flourish through collectives made up of event promoters, DJs and performers. Many seek to redress the exclusion and discrimination of traditional LGBTQ+ venues that tend to be dominated by white, cis, gay men and a culture of heavy drinking, drugs, loud music and crowds in expensive and physically inaccessible venues. New, recurring events have begun to create alternative spaces that work to change these dynamics, providing vital social and cultural bases for under-served audiences. Boi Box and Kings of Color have contributed to the explosion of London's Drag King cultures among women, non-binary and trans performers. At The Cocoa Butter Club Black artists take center-stage, and The Bitten Peach puts performers of Asian descent in the spotlight. Promoters like Pxssy Palace prioritize queer, trans and intersex folk who are black and people of color and take strong stances against issues like racism, transphobia and consent. Beyond the capital, the monthly queer clubnight Traumfrau often hosts after-parties for Brighton's annual Trans Pride. And the Rebecca.Never.Becky Collective is a Manchester-based group of DJs and creatives which showcase talent from queer, trans and intersex folk who are black or people of color (QTIBPOC). LGBTQ+ spaces in the age of the pandemic The pandemic has demanded further adaptations to LGBTQ+ spaces. Thousands have come together for queer online parties as well as more intimate digital gatherings for people who live under multiple identities (such as LGBTQ+ people who are Muslim). Misery Party, for example, is a mental health collective and sober QTIBPOC club night that has run online since the pandemic began, and is oriented toward care, healing and joy. By removing geographical barriers, these online platforms have shown how LGBTQ+ spaces can reach new audiences and connect with communities in difficult circumstances. They also provide opportunities for organizers to learn about accessibility. For example, Queer House Party has a British Sign Language interpreter, audio description and live captions for the virtual parties it's thrown since the first Friday of Britain's first lockdown. Of course, while proving crucial to many during lockdowns, online spaces cannot replicate or replace the sights, sounds and social interactions that we know and love as part of being face to face and inside a venue. And once pandemic restrictions are eased, we may find many physical LGBTQ+ spaces struggle to open their doors again. But by the way LGBTQ+ spaces have managed to stay alive and even thrive in the last few years gives us reason for hope. By engaging with communities and offering greater inclusivity, accessibility and alternative versions of existing scenesboth online and offlineLGBTQ+ social life could find new ways forward. Explore further Social exclusion, career limitations hinder LGBTQ STEM professionals This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The central offices of the Geo and Jang media group in Karachi were vandalized by a group of protesters from the Sindhi community on February 21, in retaliation over a satirical segment aired on the network. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls for a thorough investigation into the violence. The mob comprising members of the Sindhi community were reportedly angered by the airing of a satirical segment by Geo TV anchor Irshad Bhatti in a January 28 broadcast of the Khabarnak program. In the episode, the program presenter interviewed an impersonator of former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari a typical format of the show, where the shows co-host Ali Mir adopts various characters. During the segment, Bhatti introduced the Mirs character as the millionaire leader of bhukhe-nange (hungry and naked) people. He also accused him of exploiting people from Pakistans Sindh community. Following a public backlash, Bhatti issued an apology statement on February 21, claiming that his intention was not to disrespect the Sindh province or Sindhi language and clarifying that the program was satire and comedy. His apology statement was shared from his Twitter account also. In response to the program, the Sindhi communities reportedly planned a peaceful protest in Karachi on February 21. But when the protestors reached the Geo office the protest turned violent, with protesters tearing down a gate and breaking through another main gated entry to the office on Chundrigar Rd. During the attack, protesters threw chairs, broke furniture and glass and allegedly roughed up receptionists, camerapersons and other staff in the building. Geo News officials accused police of failing to provide security to the office saying the protest was planned in advance. Geo News managing director, Azhar Abbas, tweeted: Strongly condemn attack on offices of Geo and Jang. They vandalised the reception area and beat our cameraman and staff. Where is the Govt?? On February 21, Karachi police filed cases against over 200 people in connection with the attack and on February 22 the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism court remanded 13 suspects in judicial custody for their alleged involvement on the attack. The suspects were booked under Sections 147, 148, 149, 324, 342, 427 and 506-B of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The IFJ said: The IFJ expresses its concern over the actions of protesters who attacked the Geo-Jang media group and the lack of police presence as this publicized protest turned violent. IFJ welcomes the swift action by the anti-terrorism courts and calls for an urgent investigation into into the handling of the matter by police on the ground at the time of the protest. Pune, India, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Air Duct market size is projected to reach USD 11.61 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period. Growing prominence of smart air purifying technologies in urban areas worldwide will prove favorable for the development of this market, finds Fortune Business Insights in its new report, titled Air Duct Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Galvanized Steel, Aluminum, Flexible, Fabric and Others), By Shape (Round, Half Round, Square/Rectangular, Triangular and Others), By Application (Public Facilities, Commercial Facilities, Industrial Facilities and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027. Smart HVAC systems are automated air filtration and purifying units that can be remotely regulated to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings. According to the Building Performance Institute-Europe (BPIE), smart ventilation technologies can bring down energy consumption in residential buildings by 27% and save around 23% energy in offices. The International Energy Agencys 2017 report Digitalization and Energy Savings suggested that digitized buildings can cumulatively save 10% of the total energy consumption in commercial and residential spaces by 2040. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) air ducts will inevitably play a crucial role in this context as the global movement towards sustainable development intensifies in the coming years. Request Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/air-duct-market-103269 The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a moderate impact on the market as production activities have been stalled in most countries. Moreover, supply chains have been blocked as a result of restricted trade and movement of goods. However, the air duct market growth is anticipated to pick up once the pandemic has abated in 2021. As per the report findings, the market value stood at USD 8.28 billion in 2019. The report also contains the following: Intelligent insights into the upcoming market trends and opportunities; Detailed analysis of the key market drivers and restraints; Microscopic study of all Air Duct Market segments; and Comprehensive evaluation of the regional dynamics and competitive landscape of the market. Market Driver Growing Demand for High-Efficiency HVAC Systems to Boost the Market Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning consume enormous amounts of energy in urban spaces. According to the US Small Business Administration, HVAC systems account for 40% of the energy used in commercial buildings. The US Department of Energy further notes that residential energy consumption is responsible for twice as much greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as cars. As a result, there is growing clamor for the replacement of conventional duct systems, which are known to cause massive energy losses, especially in commercial buildings where air conditioning and heating are functioning throughout the day. Replacement or up-gradation of these systems will not only be environmentally attractive, but it will also be economically viable. For example, Energy Star-certified HVAC systems consume only half the energy that their conventional counterparts use and thus reduce utility bills by a substantial margin. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this Air Duct Market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/air-duct-market-103269 Regional Insights Infrastructural Development to Accelerate Market Growth in Asia Pacific In 2019, the market size in Asia Pacific stood at USD 3.79 billion and the region is expected to continue its dominance of the Air Duct market share in the near future on account of massive investments in infrastructural development projects. Moreover, governments in the region are imposing strict norms to regulate GHG emissions from buildings, which will further propel the demand for efficient air ducts. Europe is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities for market players owing to high demand for thermal conductivity in northern European and Scandinavian countries. The market in North America is also expected to perform impressively as adoption of smart homes and smart factories is gaining traction in the region. Ask For Customization: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/air-duct-market-103269 Competitive Landscape Strategic Mergers among Companies to Stir Competitive Spirits Some of the key players in this Air Duct Market are merging with each other to enlarge their market share and deepen their market footprint. This strategy is also allowing the merging companies to widen their client base and broaden their market reach. Industry Developments: December 2019: The French ventilation veteran, Aldes Global, is merging its Aldes Canada and American Aldes into one unified brand to be known as Aldes North America. The amalgamation will allow the company to expand its presence strategically across North America and strengthen its network in the region. The French ventilation veteran, Aldes Global, is merging its Aldes Canada and American Aldes into one unified brand to be known as Aldes North America. The amalgamation will allow the company to expand its presence strategically across North America and strengthen its network in the region. January 2019: LG Electronics showcased its smart building solutions for residential spaces at the 2019 AHR Expo in Atlanta. Among these, the companys most standout product was the AC Smart 5 Controller, its new home connectivity solution for seamless indoor environment regulation. List of Players Covered in this Air Duct Market Report: Advanced Mechanical Inc. (United States) Kingspan Group (Ireland) FabricAir (Denmark) Imperial Manufacturing Group (Canada) CMS Group of Companies (United Arab Emirates) Lindab (Sweden) Aldes Group (France) FlaktGroup Holding GmbH (Germany) KAD AIR CONDITIONING (BIN DASMAL GROUP) (United Arab Emirates) THERMAFLEX (United States) Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (ISOVER) (France) Quick Buy Air Duct Market: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/103269 Table Of Content: Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Approach Sources Executive Summary Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities Emerging Trends Key Insights Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players Porters Five Forces Analysis COVID-19 Outbreak: Impact on Air Duct Market Global Air Duct Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecasts By Type (Value) Galvanized Steel Duct Aluminium (Al) Duct Flexible duct Fabric Duct Others (PVC Duct, etc.) By shape (Value) Round Half-round Square/Rectangular Triangular Others (Customized, etc.) By Application (Value) Public Facilities Commercial Facilities Industrial Facilities Others (Government Buildings, etc.) By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa South America TOC Continued! Speak To Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/air-duct-market-103269 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Logistics Robots Market Size , Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Automated Guided Vehicles, Autonomous Mobile Robots, Robot Arms and Others), By Application (Palletizing & De-palletizing, Pick & Place, Transportation, and Others), By Industry (E-commerce, Healthcare, Retail, Food & Beverages, Automotive and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Industrial Vending Machines Market Size , Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Carousel Vending Machine, Coil Vending Machine, and Others), By Product (Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO), Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and Others), By End-User (Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Dairy Processing Equipment Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Pasteurizers, Homogenizers, Separators, Evaporators & Drying Equipment, Membrane Filtration Equipment & Others), By Application (Processed Milk, Cream, Milk Powders, Cheese, Protein Ingredient & Others) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Bottled Water Processing Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Equipment Type (Filter, Bottle Washer, Filler & Capper, Blow Molder, and Others), By Technology (Reverse Osmosis (RO), Ultrafiltration (UF), Microfiltration (MF), Chlorination, and Others), By Application (Still Water, Sparkling Water, and Flavored Water) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data. At Fortune Business Insights, we aim at highlighting the most lucrative growth opportunities for our clients. We therefore offer recommendations, making it easier for them to navigate through technological and market-related changes. Our consulting services are designed to help organizations identify hidden opportunities and understand prevailing competitive challenges. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissians Office says he has received the Prime Ministers recommendation on sacking Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan but hasnt yet signed it. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan earlier said that he had decided to dismiss Gasparyan and his deputy Tiran Khachatryan before the militarys high command issued a statement demanding his resignation. The dismissal of Gasparyan requires the approval of the President to be formalized. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a National Post article, 1000 macaques were imported from Cambodia to be used for research purposes. It is totally legal in Canada to subject our biological cousins to terrible experiments, said Barry MacKay, of Born Free USA, Director of Canadian & Special Programs. These animals share much of our DNA and yet we exploit them for our own benefit and allow these experiments to continue behind closed doors with no public oversight. An examination of the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) animal use data, primates are subjected to some cruel experiments, said Liz White, Director, Animal Alliance of Canada. In 2019, Canada used 4,805 non-human primates in research. One thousand, one hundred and forty-five were subjected to more than one experimental procedure. Thirty-nine percent of these animals were subjected to Category D of invasiveness. Category D is described as experiments which cause moderate to severe distress and discomfort including major survival surgical procedures under general anesthesia, behavioural stresses such as maternal deprivation, aggression, predator-prey interactions, physical restraint for prolonged periods, exposure to chemical/drugs that impair physiological systems, production of radiation sickness, induction of anatomical or physiological abnormalities that cause pain and distress, exposure to noxious, inescapable stimuli, and procedures causing severe, persistent or irreversible disruption/malfunction of the sensorimotor centres. (CCAC Categories of Invasiveness) Subjecting such intelligent and social animals is indefensible and the Canadian government should be ashamed for allowing such atrocities to occur, said White. The government hides behind the CCAC and its justification of the cruelty and suffering of non-human animals. If Canadians were allowed to see how these animals are treated, there would be outrage. So the government protects those who conduct such experiments from public scrutiny even though in most cases, these facilities receive public dollars. Even worse, many of the drugs that pass pre-clinical and clinical trials, ultimately fail, White said. We urge the federal government, the funding bodies and researchers to embrace new approach methodologies that advance the science of human health without using animals. A publication by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology titled Limitations of Animal Studies for Predicting Toxicity in Clinical Trials: Is it Time to Rethink Our Current Approach? cites an 88% failure rate in pre-clinical trials and 88.3% in clinical trials. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452302X1930316X#undfig1) For information: Liz White: c) 416-809-4371 or liz@animalalliance.ca NEW DELHI: Customers typically avail the facility of bank lockers to keep jewellery and important documents safe, and once done they fail to visit their lockers on a regular basis. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations require you to visit the bank locker at least once a year, else your bank may open the locker. However, in case you fall in the low-risk category, you may get more time. Those who fall in the medium risk category the bank will send a notice only if the locker remains un-operated for more than three years as per RBI regulations. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Banks classify their customers in different risk categories--low, medium, high--depending on various parameters such as financial or social status, nature of business activity, location of customers and their clients. Banks are required to carry out proper due diligence before allotting a locker to a person. In case a locker has remained idle for long, the bank is required to send a notice to the locker holder advising him to either operate or surrender the locker facility. The bank needs to ask you to provide a written response regarding the reason for not operating the locker. If the reasons mentioned are genuine, that is, if you are a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or you were not in the city due to transferable job or any other genuine reason, then the bank can allow you to continue with the locker facility. If you fail to provide a proper explanation, the bank can cancel your allotment and allocate it to someone else even if you have been paying rent regularly but havent operated the account in the prescribed time limit. To open a bank locker the bank has to follow a proper procedure. Every bank is required to inform the customer about this clause. This is supposed to be the part of the agreement of hiring a locker facility. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Union Home Minister on Thursday said the journey the BJP started five years ago in Assam will continue till the state along with other states of the northeastern region emerges as the biggest contributor to the country's The journey initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been taken forward by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Shah said after attending the 'Mahayagya' at the Shivlinga shaped 'Maha Mrityunjaya' temple, believed to be the tallest Shiva temple in the world, in Assam's Nagaon district. "This is just the first step and the journey will continue till Assam becomes violence-free, infiltrator-free and flood-free," Shah said. The BJP and its alles are in power in all the eight states of the northeast. Assam, once known for agitation and violence, is marching forward on the path of development under the leadership of the prime minister, Sonowal and Sarma, he said. People now know Assam for investments being made in various sectors like education and tourism, he added. Shah said today was an auspicious day for Assam as the temple has been consecrated. Shah, who arrived in Guwahati past Wednesday midnight, flew to Nagaon to attend the 'Pran Pratishtha Mahotsav' (consecration) of the temple where priests from Tamil Nadu and other states, including Assam, are organising 11-day Mahayagya in Puranigudam area of the district. Shah was accompanied by Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal, North East Democratic Alliance convenor and Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP state unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass and other senior state party leaders. The temple authorities received Shah at the gates and, after making a 'parikrama' (circumambulation) of the temple, he drove to the 'Yagya' site where he participated in the rituals flanked by Sonowal and Sarma. The three leaders were offered 'angavastram' and 'rudraksh' necklace by the priests performing the rituals. The temple is also being developed as a centre for religious studies. GREEN Party leader Eamon Ryan has come under sustained attack in the Dail over the unholy mess on the fight against Covid. Mr Ryan, the Minister for Transport, was told that new mandatory quarantine for arrivals into Ireland from high-risk countries was destined to fail. But he insisted the Government was operating in lock-step with Nphet and public health advice, and the vaccine roll-out could change for the better because there were signs of improved supply, and from a variety of sources, in coming weeks and months. Sinn Fein spokesman Pearse Doherty told him that up to 3,500 people were arriving through Irish airports per day, with about 10,500 travelling into Dublin Airport alone last week. Most people will find the figures concerning and disturbing, he said, given the great sacrifices many have made over the last year. It makes no sense to people that they cant travel beyond five kilometres, yet those who travel to Ireland on their holidays can arrive in the State, virtually unimpeded yet that is the policy that your government intends to pursue, he said. Read More There was to be mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from 20 countries, only two of which have direct flights to Ireland. Rather than taking any meaningful action to prevent the importation of new strains or variants, you're putting in place a system that we know is unfit for purpose. It's absolutely bizarre, he told Mr Ryan. There is no urgency or meaningful action, and it was unacceptable amounting in fact to a dereliction of duty. You as Minister for Transport bear responsibility for this. Catherine Murphy, co-leader of the Social Democrats, told Mr Ryan the strategy announced for reducing Covid numbers appears to lack a strategy, and instead relies on people doing more of the same. People are losing hope. They're dejected, and increasingly feel the Government is not in control, she said. There was a half-hearted approach of patting people on the head and telling them to keep with the Level 5 strategy, that itll work but its not convincing. People are openly saying this is the worst Government that weve ever had, at a time when we need a Government to pull together. There was a spike in infections in the 18- to 24-year-olds, but no sign that there was even a public information campaign planned. And there are still problems in the meat plants, she said. The Taoiseach had said there was going to be a scaled-up track and trace system that would look back to close contacts for 14 days, but the Tanaiste had said last October that track and trace only works when the numbers are low. And there was now a new variant from California that was rapidly spreading, she warned, adding that the public was not just worried about poor communications, mixed messages and contradictions, but about what we're not being told. Mr Ryan said there were now 900 people working flat out in track and trace, but they were finding it difficult in up to a quarter of cases. It was not caused by any flaw in the system, but by the characteristics of this new variant. It's very easily transferred in a way that's not easy to do the contact tracing," he said. A close contact was someone you've been in close conversation with for 15 minutes, or in a room for two hours. But there seems to be some incidence of transmission with this new variant e outside that and that makes it difficult. Mr Doherty said mandatory quarantine in a home by returning Irish residents was farcical and unenforceable. The Government had claimed that gardai were already carrying out checks at people's homes yet the general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), Antoinette Cunningham, had said on RTE radio that her members havent a clue what you're talking about, he said. She said that they've received no consultation, no guidelines, no operational instructions. Mr Murphy asked if Mr Ryan was saying that the AGSI was telling porky pies on the matter, but Mr Ryan insisted the Government had been told that home checks had already been carried out and more would follow. They were also handing out 500 fines at the airport to people engaged in non-essential travel, Mr Ryan said. It is not a question of if but when an extreme event will reach your neighborhood. Thats very hard to predict. To safeguard our communities, scientists need to be able to see a couple of months or more ahead. With a deeper understanding of the science and better technology, that may be possible. But we dont have all of that in place now. Thats not to say scientists havent significantly improved weather forecasting. They have, thanks to government and private investments in satellite and ground-based measurements and the development of advanced computer models. Its now possible to predict weather events like cold snaps and storms up to about two weeks in advance. But things become much less clear beyond that. Climate scientists, on the other hand, can estimate environmental conditions decades into the future. This creates a gap in the time scales between forecasting weather and climate. Nature has no such artificial demarcation. Recent observations suggest worrisome trends that underscore the interplay between weather and climate. Among the two dozen or so satellites that NASA operates to monitor Earths environment, two of them the Orbiting Carbon Observatories 2 and 3 track sources of carbon dioxide and natural absorbers of that greenhouse gas, called sinks. The decades-old technology in these two satellites samples less than 1 percent of Earths surface each month. But even these sparse measurements are revealing some staggering changes in Earths carbon cycle. We think, for instance, of the Amazon forests as giant sinks that suck in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That was once true. However, after decades of increased warming, sporadic rainfall, escalating fires and deforestation, research suggests that the Amazon is gradually turning into a source of carbon dioxide. Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming a source as well, as higher temperatures enhance plant respiration and reduce the efficiency of photosynthesis. During the 1980s, Rayful Edmond III was the narcotics kingpin of Washington D.C. He probably did more harm to residents of the city than anyone else in history. According to this report in the Washington Post, Edmond oversaw an operation that brought around 1,700 pounds of cocaine into Washington every month. Law enforcement officials estimate that he was making around $2 million a week from drug dealing between 1985 and 1989. The cocaine epidemic in which Edmond played such a central role wrecked the lives of countless Washingtonians. The violence associated with it caused the citys homicide rate to spike. D.C. became known as the nations murder capital. Many pregnant women became frequent users, giving birth to underweight infants who were addicted to the drug. Edmond was personally involved in the D.C. murder fest. Thats why, years later when he began cooperating with law enforcement in the hope of getting his sentence reduced, Edmond was able to provide information about 20 unsolved killings. Edmond was sentenced by a federal court in D.C. to life imprisonment without parole. But now, Judge Emett Sullivan has reduced that sentence to 20 years. Edmond has already served considerably more time than that. However, he was also sentenced to 30 years by a court in Pennsylvania for dealing drugs from prison in that state. So depending on what happens there, Edmond may have to remain in jail. Not thanks to Judge Sullivan, though. Sullivan reduced Edmonds sentence because he cooperated with federal authorities investigating drug dealing. But this was only after Edmond had continued to deal drugs while in prison and had received that second conviction. Sullivan claimed that Edmonds cooperation showed his remorse. Nonsense. Edmond may or may not be remorseful (and why should we care if he is?). However, his cooperation is evidence only of his desire to obtain a reduced sentence. Because of Edmonds cooperation, federal prosecutors filed a motion in Sullivans court for a sentence reduction. However, the reduction they sought was to 40 years, not 20. Sullivan criticized the prosecutors for not giving enough weight to Edmonds cooperation. He worried that reductions like the one they sought for Edmond wont encourage other convicts to cooperate. But career prosecutors have a far better understanding than Sullivan of the incentives that will cause inmates to cooperate with them, and of how to balance this consideration with the need to severely punish societys worst offenders. Unfortunately, Judge Sullivan seems to get off on imposing his views of how prosecutors should go about their job even when its unlawful for him to do so. Sullivan asked that D.C. residents be polled as to how they feel about an early release for Edmond. I never realized that criminal sentencing was a popularity contest. If it is, Edmond lost. Even with the passage of more than 30 years, a majority of respondents with an opinion said the drug kingpin should remain in prison. Sullivan ignored the result of his own poll, just as he ignored the prosecutors recommendation. This month Sullivan announced that he will retire from full-time duty on the federal bench. Thats the good news. The bad news is he will take senior status. Thus, we lack even the consolation that Sullivans attempt to release Edmond, arguably the worst criminal in D.C. history, will be his parting gift to the city. Photo taken on May 22, 2020 shows flags on the Tian'anmen Square and atop the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The leading group for Party history learning and education campaign issued a circular on Wednesday, urging Party members to study the speech on Party history learning by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. The speech is of major guiding significance to building the CPC into a stronger Marxist ruling party and securing the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, said the circular. Calling on Party members to align their minds and actions with the guiding principles of Xi's speech, the circular demanded efforts to arm the Party with its innovative theories, draw experience from history to improve the ability to address risks and challenges, carry forward the revolutionary spirits, and strengthen the Party's unity. 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. A top executive who was sacked by Iceland for calling the Welsh language 'gibberish' has revealed he received death threats over the comments - as he hit out at 'cancel culture that is plain wrong'. Corporate affairs boss Keith Hann, 66, was axed from his 102,000-a-year job last week after shoppers threatened to boycott the High Street chain's Welsh stores in protest. Mr Hann made a stream of anti-Welsh comments despite the supermarket's HQ being in Wales, with thousands of Welsh workers among its 30,000 staff. In a column from 2014 which recently resurfaced on Twitter, Mr Hann shared what he now claims were 'intended to be humorous comments' about the Welsh language. He described the ancient tongue as 'a dead language that sounds uncannily like someone with bad catarrh clearing his throat.' The father-of-two later said 'inhabitants of the UK's Celtic fringe loathe all visitors' - referring to people travelling to Wales - in a tweet which has since been deleted. Corporate affairs boss Keith Hann, 66, was axed from his 102,000-a-year job last week after shoppers threatened to boycott the High Street chain's Welsh stores following his remarks Writing for Voice of the North, Mr Hann suggested the latter comment was made in a bid to 'make people smile on Twitter,' adding that the 'cancel culture that is sadly becoming the norm in the UK is plain wrong.' The author also confessed that a day after the historic comments emerged, he was 'fully occupied blocking and muting personal abuse from those expressing their determination to have me prosecuted for racism, to push excrement through my letterbox, and in one case to seek me out and kill me.' It was a day later that Mr Hann said Iceland, 'besieged by furious callers and social media posts', decided it could 'no longer continue our long association.' The Welsh-based frozen food giant insisted last week that Mr Hann's statements do not 'reflect' the company's views. But later a spokeswoman for Iceland said: 'Iceland has taken action in light of recent comments made by its Director of Corporate Affairs, resulting in the dismissal of Mr Hann with immediate effect. Iceland's headquarters, where Mr Hann works, is situated in Deeside in Wales - but he lives in Cheshire, just two miles over the Welsh border in England In a since-removed tweet, Mr Hann said 'inhabitants of the UK's Celtic fringe loathe all visitors', referring to people travelling to Wales 'We would like to reiterate that these comments in no way reflect the values or philosophy of our business. 'We are a proud Welsh company, with a long history of investment in communities across Wales, and apologise for any upset or offence caused.' Iceland's headquarters, where Mr Hann works, is situated in Deeside in Wales - but the father-of-two lives in Cheshire, just two miles over the Welsh border in England. Outrage began on February 14, when Mr Hann wrote on Twitter: 'Your periodic reminder that the inhabitants of the UK's Celtic fringe loathe ALL visitors, in or out of lockdown, and that you should definitely bear this in mind when contemplating a summer holiday booking.' Mr Hann explained this sparked an 'immediate kickback demanding to know whether this represented Iceland Foods' view of their Scottish and Welsh customers,' to which he claims he replied: 'Of course it didn't.' The former executive said he then deleted the tweets and 'moved on', as it was his son's ninth birthday and 'I would be much better employed celebrating then in spending my time arguing on Twitter.' Mr Hann's Twitter account has now been made private and, immediately after the outrage, his bio had read: 'All views my own and usually joking'. This has since been removed The supermarket insisted that his statements do not 'reflect' the company's views. Pictured: Iceland's headquarters in Deeside However, the next day Mr Hann said he was 'confronted with a dossier... seeking to prove that I was a lifelong anti-Welsh bigot.' Historic comments were ultimately unearthed in which Mr Hann said: 'I'd like to say that I have never left England, but regular attendance at an office about 800 yards inside Wales sadly precludes this. 'Still, I take pride in never visiting Scotland despite having a home within sight of the border.' Another Tweet said one 'bonus' of lockdown would be that he wouldn't be 'travelling from home in Cheshire to my office in Wales every day'. What has Iceland boss Keith Hann said about Welsh people? 2009 - In a blog post written in 2009, Iceland's corporate affairs boss Keith Hann - who lives in Cheshire - said if he moved over the border his son 'would be having part of his education conducted in gibberish' He also wrote:'I regret to say that we are also only about two miles from Wales, thanks to the border lurching east from the natural boundary of the River Dee, and taking a bite out of England that can only have been designed for the convenience of manufacturers of jigsaw puzzles.' 2014 - In a blog post written on September 17, 2014, he said that Welsh 'supermarket signage' was 'incomprehensible'. He also said children were educated in a 'dead language that sounds uncannily like someone with bad catarrh clearing his throat'. 2019 - In June 2019 he said: 'I'd like to say that I have never left England, but regular attendance at an office about 800 yards inside Wales sadly precludes this. 'Still, I take pride in never visiting Scotland despite having a home within sight of the border.' 2021 - Mr Hann tweeted: 'Your periodic reminder that the inhabitants of the UK's Celtic fringe loathe ALL visitors, in or out of lockdown, and that you should definitely bear this in mind when contemplating a summer holiday booking.' February 2021 - Iceland confirm they have sacked executive Mr Hann. Advertisement In a blog post written on September 17, 2014, Mr Hann said that Welsh 'supermarket signage' was 'incomprehensible'. He also said children were educated in a 'dead language that sounds uncannily like someone with bad catarrh clearing his throat'. In another post, he wrote: 'I regret to say that we are also only about two miles from Wales, thanks to the border lurching east from the natural boundary of the River Dee, and taking a bite out of England that can only have been designed for the convenience of manufacturers of jigsaw puzzles.' He also added that if he moved over the border that his son 'would be having part of his education conducted in gibberish'. Mr Hann also called a Welsh landmark 'unpronounceable hall'. Budget store Iceland, which is headquartered in Deeside, North Wales, at first said it was dealing with the matter 'internally' and Mr Hann apologised, saying the 'humorous' views were all his own. Responding to the criticism, Mr Hann explained many of the comments had come from a Newcastle Journal column he wrote weekly for around a decade. He had then archived the comments in a personal blog he says ended in 2015. He said: 'I wrote this weekly column for the best part of a decade, dispensing knockabout fun in the style of a very poor man's Rod Liddle, and making jokes at the expense of a pretty comprehensive range of people and places though chiefly to the detriment of myself. 'I had archived the columns in a personal blog that ended in 2015 and which I had not looked at for almost as long. 'Nor had anyone else, to judge by the visitor tracker, but interest now shot up as people trawled through this and another personal blog, mainly about my disastrous love life, looking for things that they could claim to be offended by.' He said that he understands his humour is 'not to everyone's taste', adding that he 'constantly sees and reads things that I personally find offensive.' 'I think it is reasonable to expect a right of reply, but I would never demand that anyone to be forced to stop saying these things to spare my feelings,' he said. 'The "cancel culture" that is sadly becoming the norm in the UK is plain wrong. No one should be deprived of their livelihood, and potentially driven to take their life, by making a joke that others do not find funny.' Later in the response - entitled 'How trying to be funny cost me my job' - Mr Hann explained he has many fond memories of weekends spent in Wales. He added that he has also discovered over the past week that many Welsh people 'share my view that growing overt hostility to visitors poses a threat to their tourist economy.' Mr Hann's Twitter account has since been made private and, immediately after the fallout, his bio had read: 'All views my own and usually joking.' This was not in place at the time the comments were shared, and it has since been removed. Several Twitter users contacted Iceland asking for them to take action against Mr Hann, promoting the store to release a statement in reply. It read: 'Please be assured that the comments you refer to do not reflect the views of Iceland as a company, and were not made on Iceland's behalf. 'We apologise for any upset or offence caused.' Workers compensation insurers arent getting the large aggregate volumes of COVID-related claims projected during the early months of the pandemic, but different data sources give varying readouts on developments for individual U.S. states and classes of workers. In fact, while claim frequencies are down for workers compensation overall with business shutdowns bringing lower numbers of non-COVID claims, and while the bulk of COVID comp claims are short-duration, low-dollar claims, some insurers have paid out claims that were $2 million or more for health care workers infected on the job. And the length of tail of COVID-related comp claims is far from certain, experts said during a webinar last Thursday. In a single week in January, Teresa Bartlett, chief medical officer for Sedgwick, said more than 10 people called her who had tested positive for COVID last summer. They were young people in their 30s. Suddenly sitting at their desks working, [they] developed shortness of breath, really severe headaches and profound [levels] of hypertension, just out of the blue, she reported during the opening minutes of the webinar, COVID Claims Development: Workers Compensation and Beyond. What Long-Term COVID Looks Like Although not many people who have had a positive COVID test will also have cause to file a workers compensation claim, the long-term effects of COVID-19 may cause more people to be away from work and have trouble functioning at work, a medical officer said last week. Speaking during a webinar presented by Sedgwick and Safety National, Teresa Bartlett, Sedgwicks chief medical officer, said that half the 4,000 people in a National Institute of Health study were unable to work full time six months after they tested positive for COVID, and 88 percent said they were coping with some form of cognitive dysfunction. According to another study, which summarized the findings of 18,000 publications that followed at least 100 patients long-termcompiling findings for 47,000 patients overall: 58 percent had fatigue. 44 percent had headaches. 27 percent had some sort of attention disorder. 27 percent had hair loss. 25 percent had difficulty breathing. Eighty percent had one or more long-term symptoms, she said, adding that pulmonary embolisms, cardiomyopathies as well as blood clots in the legs are developing in some patients. Referencing the most common symptom, fatigue, she said that it can occur even after mental activity. You dont even have to have physical activity, but mental activity is starting to cause fatigue in some of these patients. Kimberly George, global head of Product Development and Innovation for Sedgwick, co-hosted the webinar with Mark Walls, vice president of Communications and Strategic Analysis with Safety National as part of the Out Front Ideas webinar series. Reporting on the results of a study of 4,000 people in the U.S., Bartlett said that 50 percent were unable to work full time six months after they tested positive for COVID, even though only 8 percent of those people actually were hospitalized. She reported on symptoms ranging from fatigue to attention disorders to breathing difficulties based on a larger volume of research, noting that 80 percent of 50,000 patients infected with COVID develop one or more long-term symptoms. While the symptoms, for the most part, might keep people out of work rather than contributing to a workers comp claim, there is a lot of uncertainty. We dont know quite yet from the literature if this virus is lying dormant in the tissue for a little while and then suddenly something activates it. Theres more that we dont know than what we do know, she said, expressing particular concern for health care workers. These front-line workers who resiliently keep going on the front lines every day may be suffering from PTSD, Im a little worried what will happen with these folks. Its something we have to be very mindful of in our industry and be prepared for how we will deal with it. Walls noted that workers comp claims data for health care workers is one of the categories thats largely missing from data reported by the National Council on Compensation Insurance, which hosted its own webinar in January 2021. (Related articles: Responding to the Impact of COVID-19 on Workers Compensation and It Could Have Been Worse. An Update on COVID-19 Impact on Workers Compensation) A significant portion of the health care industry is self-insured, Walls said, explaining that self-insureds, for the most part, do not report their data to any of the bureaus. Displaying a chart from the Bureau of Labor statistics that shows the top 20 industries by employment nationwide, he highlighted the education sector as well as federal, state and local governments as other sectors of the economy that are mostly self-insured, collectively representing over 30 percent of the jobs in the top 20 industries. Walls also noted that while NCCI covers most states, it does not cover the largest states, including California and New York. NCCIs data represents less than half of all workers compensation data nationwide, he said. Alex Swedlow, president of the California Workers Compensation Institute, filled in the one of the gaps, reporting recent data for California. Max Koonce, chief claims officer for Sedgwick, and Tim Stanger, a vice president in the claims department of Safety National, were able to provide data on the self-insured businesses. Safety National is largest provider of excess coverage for qualified self-insured entities, Stanger said. Californias Experience Swedlow noted the scary early multibillion-dollar California comp estimates coming out in the second quarter of last year. Reporting on actual COVID-19 infections and deaths in the state and actual workers comp claims, he said that injured workers between the ages 18 and 65 made up about 78 percent of the states infections and about one-quarter of all the fatalities. The actual number of workers compensation claims was a small fraction. Only about 4.7 percent of the working-age Californians who were infected had a corresponding workers compensation claim, and roughly 5.6 percent of the fatalities among working-age Californians had an accompanying workers compensation claim, he said. This shows you just how wrong those original estimates were by focusing on what we all thought was a reasonable proxy, the working-age Californian, he commented. Swedlow drilled down into comp claims data by industry, noting a change in the distribution of claims for the first half of 2020 claims compared to more recent claimsfrom October 2020 through January 2021. In the earlier time period, 39 percent of these COVID-related claims were from the health care sector compared 29 percent more recently. While the percentage of claims from first responders (public safety/government workers) stayed around 15-16 percent in both time periods, retail workers now represent 12.5 percent of infections compared to 7.9 percent in first-half 2020, and transportation workers are 8 percent of the total, double what they were earlier in the year. Self-Insured and Work From Home Stanger and Koonce both reported waves of claims in April, July and December of last year, with a December frequency peak surpassing earlier levels. Overall, Safety Nationals claims, excluding the COVID claims, were down 26 percent from 2019, Stanger said, after revealing that public entities, health care networks and educational institutions account for 50 percent of the insurers excess comp book of business. Including COVID claims, the number of claims dropped about 10 percent compared to 2019. Stanger and other panelists said they expect that number to continue to decrease as more claims data gets through reporting systems. More Comp-Related COVID News: Novel claim barred by workers comp exclusive remedy. Read about it in the IJ/CM article, Workers Comp Remedy Bars Wifes COVID Suit vs. Husbands Employer and related article, Update: Wife Sues Husbands Employer for Causing Her COVID-19 Infection. Stanger also presented claims data by age of worker, reporting that 85 percent of Safety Nationals claims related to workers aged 20-55 and that the average incurred amount of the claims was roughly $4,300. In contrast, comp claims for workers over the age of 55 had an average cost more than three times higherabout $15,000with co-morbidities and other factors complicating the disease progression. Most Severe Claims Focusing in on the most severe claims, Stanger said that 63 percent of Safety Nationals COVID death claims were for workers over the age of 55, and just over half were in the health care industry. He provided details of four catastrophic health care worker claims, each costing more than $2 million, including one in which the injured persons reaction to the COVID-19 infection included renal failure, brain injury and eventually quadriplegia. Counting up all of Safety Nationals COVID claims with incurred amounts over $100,000, he said that 15 percent of those were actually above $1 milliona mix of deaths and extended ICU hospitalizations. Koonce said that while only 11 percent of Sedgwicks total book of business relates to the health care industry, the industry represented half of the firms overall claim count. Breaking down the overall claims by level of severity, he said that 90 percent of Sedgwicks COVID clomp claims require little medical treatment or time away from work, while another 8 percent are moderately complex, involving about six weeks away from work and medical visits costing $3,000 to $5,000. The vast, vast majority of claims are of a short duration. Generally, theyre pretty well wrapped up within 60 days, he said. The severest cases, roughly 1.5 percent, involve significant time away from worka half a year, on average, involving expensive ICU treatment. Koonce also said that he sees a higher rate of ICU hospitalizations for workers in the health care industry. Were not exactly sure why that is occurring, but it is important to note that its a three- or four-point increase over other industries, he said. Koonce closed by noting that theres another small pool of workers comp claims emerging from the COVID pandemic. Although it was a very low number to begin with, we are seeing an increase in the work from home claims, he said. Those are not directly COVID claims, he said, but they are ticking up from a small base, centering around ergonomic type issuesmy back hurts because Ive been sitting in my kitchen chair all day, those types of things. Topics COVID-19 Claims Workers' Compensation Talent Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 00:03:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HARARE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday thanked China for making a second donation of COVID-19 vaccine doses to Zimbabwe. "Only yesterday (Wednesday), I was informed that we have received another donation of 200,000 doses of vaccines from His Excellency, President Xi Jinping and the Government and people of the People's Republic of China, making the total donation from China to date, 400,000 doses of vaccines," he said. "I would like to express the profound gratitude of the Government, the party ZANU-PF and the People of Zimbabwe, to the President and people of China for their kind generosity," Mnangagwa said. He said in addition to the donation, China's Sinopharm had availed an additional 1.8 million doses of vaccines for purchase by Zimbabwe. At least 600,000 of the 1.8 million doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccines are expected in the country in early March. Mnangagwa added that procurement plans of other vaccines from India and Russia are also advanced, as the nation steps up the first phase of its vaccination roll-out program. Last Thursday, the Zimbabwean government launched its COVID-19 vaccination program, three days after taking delivery of the first batch of the 200,000 vaccines from China. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also health and child care minister, became the first citizen to receive the Sinopharm jab. Frontline workers, including journalists, are being prioritized for inoculation under the first phase of the vaccination program. Vaccination is being done on a voluntary basis and in three phases. Mnangagwa urged Zimbabweans to continue adhering to the laid-down COVID-19 health protocols. As of Wednesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 35,960 COVID-19 cases, 32,410 recoveries and 1,456 deaths. Enditem 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. SBC pastor in NYC calls for repudiation of report finding ERLC a threat to funding Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment NEW YORK Stephen Stallard, leader of the Mosaic Church, a small multicultural Southern Baptist congregation in Brooklyn, called on the SBCs Executive Committee Tuesday to repudiate a new report from a task force which found that the Russell Moore-led Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is a major threat to the funding of the $15 billion Protestant Christian organizations Cooperative Program. If the SBC is to be a national convention instead of a regional one, I believe this report should be repudiated by the entire executive committee. Im pleading with you to make it clear that the members of my congregation who subscribe to the BFM 2000 are welcome in the convention, Stallard stated in a letter that was read during Tuesdays plenary session of the SBC Executive Committees annual meeting. Stallard, who said his church was planted six years ago with help from the denominations North American Mission Board, represents the future of the SBC. We are a multicultural church comprised of people from across the country and across the world. We are a young church, most of us millennials. In short, what the SBC will look like in a generation, he declared in his letter. Moore, Stallard added, speaks for this future of the denomination and they support him. NAMB sent my wife and I to Brooklyn to reach people who are not necessarily culturally southern or politically conservative. Those we are trying to serve are confused by some of the actions and statements of the SBC. When our members look at the SBC, they think that Russell Moore, in many ways, represents them, he said. If the SBC is to survive, it will be because young people including people of color, decide the SBC was worth the investment. I want the SBC to survive and thrive for generations to come. However, reports like the one just issued, distract us from the task and undermine our missionary witness in places like New York City, he continued. If the executive committee accepts the findings of the task force, Im concerned that [the] unintended message will be received in the northeast that only a certain kind of Southern Baptist is welcome. While a motion to defund the ERLC, which currently has an operating budget of $4.3 million, was rejected by SBC messengers nearly two years ago, members of the task force, which includes Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Georgia, who is vying to become the next president of the SBC, painted a grim picture of the threat Moores controversial leadership poses to the Cooperative Fund. The Cooperative Program is the SBCs unified plan of giving through which cooperating SBC churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and SBC missions and ministries. The ERLC, along with the North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, and the six Southern Baptist seminaries in America Southern, Southeastern, Midwestern, Southwestern, Golden Gate, and New Orleans, all receive varying levels of funding from the SBCs Cooperative Program. While much of the work of the ERLC is praised and appreciated by Southern Baptists, the ERLC is also a source of significant distraction from the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists. The leader of a large state convention reported, The ERLC has been a stumbling block not worth the mission dollar investment. The task force finds merit in this statement, members of the task force chaired by Stone wrote. Among the concerns state executive directors of the SBC reported hearing about Moore from pastors were: Moores open opposition of President Donald Trump; an allegation that he received funding from an organization with ties to George Soros; an Amicus brief from the ERLC in support of a New Jersey mosque; a perception that he criticizes conservative political figures more frequently and more harshly than moderate to liberal figures; his stance on immigration; his stated support of attending homosexual wedding showers and receptions; plus giving disrespectful and condescending responses to the questions of messengers. Repeatedly noted was the response given to Pastor John Wofford of Armorel Baptist Church at the 2016 annual meeting about Muslims. Other members of the task force are SBC Executive Committee Chairman Rolland Slade, Hoyt Savage, Ron Hale, Mike Lawson, Monte Shinkle, and Cheryl Samples. The entire task force was involved in writing this report, Stone explained at the committee meeting Tuesday. This is not my report from my task force. This is our report to you, the Executive Committee, from your task force. Stone said while the task force did not find any evidence that the ERLC acted outside the scope of the organizations assignment, the financial losses based on its work is real. The task force believes and it is indicated in the report that the ERLC is acting within the bounds of that ministry assignment. It was not the function of this task force and frankly is not the focus of this Executive Committee to oversee how well that task is being done. That is a matter for the board of trustees, Stone said. You asked us to assess whether the actions of the Commission and its leadership are affecting cooperative program giving or the further advancement of the cooperative program. And based on the information that we received from our state convention partners, the answer to that question in our estimation is undeniably, yes, he continued. Stone said that executive committee staff working with state convention partners were able to verify that the work of the ERLC under Moore resulted in a reduction to the International Mission Board of $1.5 million, a reduction to the North American Mission Board of nearly $700,000, a reduction to theological education of nearly $700,000, a reduction of nearly $100,000 to the work of the Executive Committee and nearly $4 million in losses to state convention partners. He further noted that the report has been criticized as one sided because it does not list the names of the churches that have increased giving because of their appreciation for the work of the ERLC. The task force chairman explained that there is no verification from any of the states that responded during their data collection that "any such church exists. That is not to say they do not exist but the responding states have no record of them, Stone said. When contacted by The Christian Post Wednesday, Stallard said he first raised concern about the report with the SBCs New York state representative when the report was released a few weeks ago. I reached out to our state representative and told him about some of my concerns and I also spoke to Chairman Slade. Neither of them were able to address the specifics of the report because they have agreed within the EC not to discuss it. They could listen to my concern but they were waiting until the EC meeting to weigh in, he said. He said he was directed to write down his concerns and when he submitted his letter, officials just said thank you for your input, we will pass it along. When asked why he believes SBC churches would withhold funds even though the ERLC was found to be working within the scope of its assignment, Stallard said he couldnt say. That question is above my pay grade. Im a pastor of a local church. What I have to do in my church is to preach the truth whether people tithe or not. And if I preach the truth and people stop tithing, then so be it. I dont know what is going on in Southern Baptist life in general, but I know with Baptists we have a history of being people of the Bible, he said. Protesters chant slogans during a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images) Hong Kong Government Allocates $1 Billion for National Security Budget Without Providing Any Details On Feb. 24, the Hong Kong government announced a new budget for fiscal year 20212022, allocating about $1 billion (HK$8 billion) for national security expenditures, despite facing a huge deficit. This is the first time that national security expenditures appeared in the Hong Kong governments budget since Beijing implemented the national security law at the end of June last year. However, the Hong Kong government did not provide any details of the budget. Following the resignation of Hong Kongs democratic legislators in November last year, the financial secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan Mo-po, announced the 2021 budget for the first time in the parliament led by the pro-Beijing establishment on Feb. 24. At the press conference, Chan said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kongs fiscal deficit in 2020 was HK$257.6 billion (about $33.2 billion), which is a record high, and the forecast deficit in 2021 will be HK$101.6 billion (about $13.1 billion), which is equivalent to 3.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Chan used the huge fiscal deficit as an excuse to cut pandemic relief measures and refused to issue more unemployment benefits, according to a report by Voice of America. However, $1 billion is allocated for safeguarding national security. Reporters from several media outlets asked Chan at the press conference about how the national security budget will be used. Chan did not give any details. He only reiterated that national security expenditures are confidential. According to a report by the BBC, it is stated in the budget document that the allocation of national security funds was approved by the Chief Executive, from the general government revenue to spend on national security matters and staffing, and is not restricted by the current relevant laws and regulations of Hong Kong. Liu Ruishao, a senior China current affairs commentator, told Radio Free Asia that the national security budget seemed vague and very similar to the stability maintenance budget in mainland China, which is used to maintain social order and suppress individuals who are critical of the Chinese regime. He recalled that when the Chinese regimes stability maintenance budget was first made known to the public in 2008, the figure was even larger than its military budget. [February 25, 2021] Hyperledger Unveils Plans for 2021 Global Forum SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies, today announced plans for Hyperledger Global Forum (HGF, #HyperledgerForum), the premier virtual enterprise blockchain event of 2021. The event, set for June 8-10, is open to users and contributors of Hyperledger projects from around the globe looking to connect, network and collaborate. To reach the growing, global base of people exploring and adopting Hyperledger technology, the virtual event will feature content tracks, delivered across a mix of time zones, tackling both business and technical next steps for scaling enterprise blockchain development and deployment. Hyperledger also announced seven new members, a diverse set of organizations from North America, Europe and Asia that includes Alastria, BONbLOC and Verizon. In addition, three more members, CPQD, KrypC and Snapper Future Tech, completed the requirements to become Hyperledger Certified Service Providers (HCSPs). There are now 23 HCSPs based in markets around the world, including Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States. Hyperledger added to its growing library of case studies with a detailed look at Kiva's launch of Africa's first national decentralized ID system built with Hyperledger Indy. Further demonstrating the global growth and traction for Hyperledger technologies, half of the companies on the recent Forbes Blockchain 50 list named at least one Hyperledger technology as part of their solution platform. Fifteen of the 21 companies that were new to the list, including ones from Australia (BHP), India (Tech Mahindra) and Africa (Sappi), reported using Hyperledger-based platforms. Constellation Research also named four Hyperledger DLTs, Burrow, Fabric, Iroha and Sawtooth, to its "Short List of Blockchain Platforms." "As the Forbes Blockchain 50 and our own collection of case studies underscore, Hyperledger technologies are proving their value every day," said Brian Behlendof, Executive Director, Hyperledger, and Managing Director for Blockchain, Healthcare and Identity at the Linux Foundation. "Now, with planning for Hyperledger Global Forum well underway, we are laser focused on advancing efforts to put blockchain-based systems to work for maximal impact. HGF will be about tackling the core requirements for wider deployment and new use cases and end users. We welcome our newest members into the community and this important discussion." Hyperledger allows organizations to create solid, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by offering enterprise-grade, open source distributed ledger frameworks, libraries and tools. General members joining the community are biztribution, BONbLOC, Pegwin, Inc., Snapper Future Tech and Verizon. Hyperledger supports an open community that values the contributions and participation from various entities. As such, pre-approved non-profits, open source projects and government entities can join Hyperledger at no cost as associate members. Associate members joining this month include Alastria and Alliance of Blockchain Industry, Z-park. New member quotes: biztribution "At biztribution, we are excited to join the Hyperledger community and become part of this great blockchain framework of the Linux Foundation," said Juan Antonio Navarro, CEO, biztribution. "We look forward to bringing a rapid and global adaptation of blockchain-based solutions to the air travel distribution. Nowadays, the air travel retail model poses great pressure on the travel and tourism industry's profitability while limiting innovation. biztribution is reinventing the industry by creating a new, revolutionary automated and simple distribution model for the travel and tourism sector with no middlemen. We are leveraging Hyperledger Fabric to deploy a decentralized retail network that creates a trusted business environment and preserves privacy to fulfill the needs of the travel and tourism ecosystem. For biztribution, joining Hyperledger represents a further step forward in our commitment to deliver a fair and sustainable retail model to the ecosystem." BONbLOC "We are thrilled to be part of the Hyperledger community," said Berta Fuentes, VP of Operations at BONbLOC. "BONbLOC IoT and Data Science solutions, built exclusively on Hyperledger and Linux Foundation technologies, enable immediate business value to Commercial and Public Sector Customers. For example, our supply chain data measurement IoT solution, built on Hyperledger Fabric, enables end-to-end visibility of remote food storage conditions to minimize financial loss resulting from food wastage; and to comply with Federal food safety management (FSMA) guidance. We have chosen Hyperledger frameworks, libraries and tools as our exclusive development platform to expand our supply chain solution offerings in the areas of delivery management, multi-network distribution, product authentication, recall management, asset productivity, and public service solutions; such as affordable housing and city administration, all valuable blockchain use cases that can be converted to viable solutions primarily due to Hyperledger's rich solution components, aggressive R&D, and hyperactive developer community." Pegwin, Inc. "We are excited to embark on a journey to unleash the full potential of blockchain for healthcare," said Douglas Dotan, President and Founder of Pegwin Inc. "Hyperledger's enterprise class ecosystem is the perfect scalable security fit for patient information to be leveraged for a wide variety of needs from improving overall healthcare outcomes to lowering overall healthcare costs by mitigating errors. Hyperledger's world-class blockchain ecosystem is exactly what we needed at Pegwin, and we are proud to be on this journey with such a distinguished and diverse community." Snapper Future Tech "Having actively contributed to the open-source community, we are happy to become part of the Hyperledger community and to be both a new Hyperledger Certified Service Provider (HCSP) and Hyperledger Training Partner (HTP), which endorses our technical blockchain expertise," said Darshana Jain, CEO, Snapper Future Tech. "Enterprise blockchain is the future, and we are using Hyperledger technologies like Hyperledger Fabric and Indy in our blockchain solutions for real world problems in identity management, sustainable supply chain, e-governance, credential verification and a lot more." Verizon "We're excited to join the Hyperledger community and continue to innovate on new aspects and applications of the technology, both internally and across Verizon's lines of business," said Jean McManus, Executive Director of Emerging Technologies at Verizon. About Hyperledger Global Forum 2021 Hyperledger Global Forum, the premier virtual enterprise blockchain event of 2021, is open to users and contributors of Hyperledger projects from around the globe looking to connect, network and collaborate. Hyperledger Global Forum, taking place June 8-10, will provide an opportunity to learn and understand various aspects of the ecosystem, including technical roadmaps, milestones and the latest uses and applications across industries and markets for Hyperledger projects and other related technologies. Register here. About Hyperledger Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, healthcare, supply chains, manufacturing and technology. Hyperledger hosts many enterprise blockchain technology projects including distributed ledger frameworks, smart contract engines, client libraries, graphical interfaces, utility libraries and sample applications. All Hyperledger code is built publicly and available under the Apache license. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger under the foundation. To learn more, visit: https://www.hyperledger.org/. Contact: Emily Fisher Linux Foundation/Hyperledger PR@Hyperledger.org View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyperledger-unveils-plans-for-2021-global-forum-301235171.html SOURCE Hyperledger [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:46:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA -- Around 2,000 fighters in Ethiopia's western Benishangul-Gumuz regional state have surrendered, an Ethiopian official said on Thursday. Ashadli Hassen, president of Bensihangul-Gumuz regional state, said the 2,000 fighters surrendered after recent security sweeps by the Ethiopian army forced the fighters to give up their weapons. (Ethiopia-Fighters-Surrender) - - - - HELSINKI -- Staring on March 8, Finland will go into a three-week lockdown as the country faces a surge in COVID-19 infections, the Finnish government announced on Thursday. The new rules will include the closure of bars and restaurants and expanded remote learning in a large part of the country, including the capital region, but there will be no curfews. (Finland-Covid) - - - - BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Brunei's Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Thursday that the temporary suspension of cross-border activities between Brunei and Malaysia will be extended for another two weeks until March 10. Temporary suspension on the entry of foreign nationals from Malaysia, including transits through Brunei via land and sea ports, is extended by 14 days, until March 10, the PMO was quoted as saying in a statement by the local daily Borneo Bulletin. (Brunei-Malaysia-Transit Suspension) - - - - GABORONE -- Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) has launched a new funding program dubbed Grand Challenges Botswana, to support innovations that can accelerate progress towards achieving national development priorities and economic transformation. "Launching Grand Challenges Botswana today, gives me renewed hope that we are on course towards achieving our national Vision 2036 aspirations. We are looking at a five-year implementation plan in which we target supporting key projects that will scale commercially, locally and regionally, building a portfolio with potential to create jobs," said Douglas Letsholathebe, minister of tertiary education, research, science and technology on Wednesday. (Botswana-Fund-Innovation) - - - - BERLIN -- After a couple of spectacular heists in Germany, the government announced Thursday it would launch a program to help cultural institutions expand security measures so as to better protect national art and cultural treasures. For this purpose, the German government would provide up to 5 million euros (6.1 million U.S. dollars) this year. Cultural institutions, such as museums, archives and exhibition halls, could apply to fund the installation of structural, mechanical or electronic security measures against burglary and theft. (Germany-Heist-Cultural Treasures) Enditem The people who got their lights back on and the heat back on didnt get it from a windmill or solar panel. They got it from reliable fossil fuel energy. - Sen. Kel Seliger. And there starts and ends the lesson for those wanting to use to the recent power crisis as a reason to abandon natural gas or other fossil fuels. I dont plan on telling the world that windmills and solar are the worst things in the world, but I have more confidence in fossil fuels. We know that the failures of the power grid in Texas arent going to be solved by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That isnt being political, just reasonable. But the goals of those on the left when talking about what happened in Texas -- isnt to convince you that their favorite sources of power worked. We know that was not the case. No, they are here to preach that fossil fuels didnt work, and therefore we can begin the transition to greener sources with a clear conscience. Its a messed up way of looking at things. However, the reaction to the power problem that we had in Texas hasnt been normal -- far from it as we found this weekend. It was this weekend that the Dallas Morning News reported President Joe Biden declared a major disaster for 77 Texas counties, two days after Gov. Greg Abbott had asked for a declaration that covered all 254 counties coping with the effects of a winter storm that knocked out power and heat across the state. Lets see 254 vs. 77. Something is off there. Did the governor shoot for the moon? Having experienced, an all-time weather event inside Midland County, Im not sure that was the case. Not surprisingly, most of West Texas was left out in the cold. Our population doesnt measure up to where the president declared disaster areas. The declaration, according to the Morning News, covers most of the Texas population, including Dallas, Fort Worth and neighboring counties, and the counties that include Houston, San Antonio and Austin. I try not to think that those most populated counties Tarrant, Dallas, Bexar and Harris also voted Democrat in the 2020 president election. That was probably a coincidence. Still it isnt just me or Greg Abbott who disagreed with the president on this one. Try Shelia Jackson Lee. In fact, 27 members of the Texas House Republican and Democrat sent a letter to the president, asking him to immediately approve the Individual Assistance Program for all 254 counties in Texas. We fear that your initial Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declaration falls far short of the actual needs of our state and request the immediate approval of all 254 Texas counties for Individual Assistance, the members wrote in the letter. The services provided by FEMAs Individual Assistance programs are essential to helping states and communities recover from disasters. Although the initial effects of this unprecedented winter storm are beginning to dissipate, the entire state continues to reel from the aftermath that has left millions without power, potable water, and dwindled food supplies. Yes, even Joaquin Castro is willing to say the president can do better. So do Dan Crenshaw, Eddie Bernice Johnson and former Midlander Van Taylor all members of the Texas delegation, and they also side with Texans west of the I-35 corridor. Thank yous also go out to Congressmen August Pfluger and Henry Cuellar for leading the bi-partisan effort. President Bidens initial disaster declaration left too many counties in the 11th District of Texas behind. I am proud to represent this resilient district and advocate on behalf of the hard-working men and women who live here. The president should immediately approve Individual Assistance for every Texas county in need, said Pfluger, the San Angelo Republican. Will that happen? Will the president have a change of heart? Probably not. This major weather event did not happen along the East Coast but middle America, and what happens here often doesnt measure up. What a shame. Just think Louie Gohmert and Al Green are among those 27 willing to unite for what best for their constituents. President Biden, why wont you? YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The administration of the President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian has responded to the questions of media outlets referring to the offer of the Prime Minister to remove from office Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia Onik Gasparyan. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, the Presidents administration received the offer to remove Onik Gasparyan from office following the statement of the top military leadership. According to the Constitution, the President has 3 days for presenting his position, and the President, pursuing the goal of ensuring the normal operation of the state bodies, has never had any fundamental objections to the appointment or dismissal of officials. But, under the light of the martial law and the existing crisis, dismissing the Chief of the General Staff following the mentioned statement is nor an ordinary personnel reshuffle, given the fact that according to the Constitution of Armenia, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia ensure the defense, security, territorial integrity and the inviolability of the borders of the Republic of Armenia, reads the statement issued by the Presidents administration. The Presidents Office also notes that in the existing situation no one should try to involve the President in political developments in any way. Any attempts to exert pressure against the President is inadmissible. The President of the Republic does not support anyone or any political force, and never did so and will never do so. While implementing his functions, the President is guided exclusively by the interests of the state and the people. President Sarkissian highlights the atmosphere of stability and tolerance in the country and continue to make all efforts for that, confident that the problems must be solved through a dialogue, but not confrontation, reads the statement, adding that the priority issue for the President for this moment is the de-escalation of the tensions in the country and the solution of the situation without any shocks, and all his efforts are aimed at that goal. I think the President of the Republic should sign the decree of releasing the Chief of the General Staff of the post, or Onik Gasparyan should himself submit a resignation letter, PM Pashinyan said earlier today, during the rally organized by him. Advertisement Where are you thinking of going on your first post-lockdown foreign holiday? Scroll through this spellbinding picture portfolio of pristine beaches and the answer will very probably be Spain, if it wasnt before. The pictures are courtesy of traveller John Weller and appear in a guide hes co-authored with half-Spanish former stand-up comic Lola Culsan called Hidden Beaches Spain (Wild Things Publishing) thats simply breathtaking in scope. It details 450 beaches that pepper 5,000km (3,110 miles) of coastline on mainland Spain and the Balearics, from grand sweeping crescents of golden grains to remote and little known coves requiring hikes along smugglers paths to reach. Some are so secret they dont have a name. The tome reveals which beaches are nudist, best for families and perfect for snorkelling - and it has taken London-based John and Lola literally years to research. Their efforts to document Spains finest strips of sand and precisely how to get to them (there are even GPS co-ordinates) included a year roaming its coasts in a campervan. Have they got the sand out of their feet yet? They told MailOnline Travel: Yes, but not the twinkle from our eyes or the smiles from our faces. We did a whole lap of the Spanish peninsula and the Balearic Islands. We drove our campervan and hiked to secluded beaches, all wild, exciting and unspoiled. We swam in indescribably turquoise blue water and wallowed in rock pools left by the receding tide. We met an eclectic bunch of international adventurers, campervanistas, surfers, pilgrims and long-lost relatives all happy to share food, drink and travellers tales beneath the Spanish stars. Scroll down for a peek at some of the amazing pictures that appear in the book, which is out on March 1 and perfect, say the authors, if youre up for wild adventures well off the beaten track, or just looking for a quiet beach to spend the day with family. MailOnline readers get a 20 per cent discount and free P&P using code MailHiddenBeach21. Ready the buckets and spades! PLAYA MEXOTA, TAPIA DE CASARIEGO, NORTHWEST SPAIN: This beach is 'one of the finest in Asturias' declare the authors, who add that 'its golden islet stands like a monumental slice of abstract art in the dazzling turquoise sea'. Safety tip - don't swim too far out from the headland CALA BRAFI, FELANITX, MALLORCA: This 'unspoiled sandy cove' has 'breathtakingly clear water' enthuse the authors. To the rear are olive trees and small caves, they add PLAYA SAN JULIAN, LIENDO, COSTA CANTABRICA: Beachgoers here are afforded 'spectacular' views along the Cantabrian coast and the Bay of Biscay. The authors reveal that on their visit here they watched 'acrobatic wild goats scrumping juicy, fat figs' from the surrounding hillsides PLAYA DE FUENTES, SAN VICENTE DE LA BARQUERA, CANTABRIA: This gem vanishes at high tide, while at low tide it's divided by karst formations into 'intimate enclaves where families or couples can find solitude or shade'. As a bonus, a small stream 'trickles musically into the left cove' CALA MITJANA, MENORCA: A 'secluded and unspoiled beach' that's 'great for snorkelling' CALA DEL POZO DE LA AVISPA, CAMPILLA DE ADENTRO, COSTA CALIDA: This 'isolated cove' that's enveloped by yellow fossilised dunes has 'clear blue water' and from here you can apparently swim around to Cala de las Chapas PLAYA DE COVACHOS, SANTA CRUZ DE BEZANA, CANTABRIA: It seems this beach lured the authors' jaws towards the ground. They write: 'One devastatingly beautiful beach with seductive sand spit beneath tall cliffs blooming with wild carrot and heather' PRAIA DO ANCORADOURO, COSTA GALICIA SOUTH: This sandy cove within the protected area of Cabo Udra is surrounded by wind and wave-eroded granite formations, write the authors, who add that a more intimate cove can be found by clambering over the rocks to the left PRAIA DE MEDIABRIL, BUEU, COSTA GALICIA SOUTH: A petite cove frequented by nudists, we're told. The boulders provide some respite from the afternoon sun PRAIA DE COUSO, COSTA GALICIA SOUTH: This remote pocket of soft sand is accessed along an ancient woodland trail that few venture along, we're told PUNTA DES CALO/COSTA DELS PINS, MALLORCA: The authors recommend booking a sea-kayak tour with kayakexcursionmallorca.com to explore the coves and caves near these 'unspoiled' beaches CALA PUDENT, NORTH-EAST MENORCA: Behold the authors' favourite Spanish beach. They told MailOnline Travel: 'It's just the right mix of soft sand, turquoise sea and wild landscape. Perfect for a paddle, a long swim or chilling on the beach. Well off the beaten track' PLAYA DE MERON, VILLAVICIOSA, COSTA VERDE ASTURIAS: Golden grains, eucalyptus woods and a sea pool with a sand bar at its centre that's revealed at low tide PRAIA DE SAN MIRO, MALPICA DE BERGANTINOS, COSTA VERDE WEST: 'Enjoy awe-inspiring views over the Atlantic from a beach backed by huge cliffs, smothered in ubiquitous eucalyptus and pines that offered welcome shade on a late August afternoon,' write the authors. 'A small waterfall and two streams provide extra charm' PLAYA DE LA ALMENADA, LLANES, COSTA VERDE ASTURIAS: This eye-catching double-beach is shy, it only appears at low tide and then is accessible only from Playa el Portillu CALA DES TALAIER, CIUTADELLA, MENORCA: An enticing white sandy cove with intensely turquoise shallow waters and plenty of shade PRAIA DO SARRIDAL, ORTIGUEIRA, COSTA VERDE WEST: This 'vast and remote beach' sits in front of a block of volcanic rock with two holes in it called Pena Furada. But the authors have a warning - the climb down to the beach is dangerous. However, they say, 'you can still enjoy beautiful views atop the Ribeira Peninsula' ES PORTITXOL, IBIZA: Portitxols almost circular shoreline is lined with traditional Ibizan fishermens huts, the authors write. And 'her perfectly calm, turquoise and untroubled waters offer some of the best swimming on the island'. Top tip - it's a longish 1.6-mile (2.7km) walk along a rocky track to reach it, so 'wear suitable shoes and bring lots of water' CALA ARENAS, ALGECIRAS, COSTA DE LA LUZ: This sandy Cove is surrounded by 'lush hillsides of the Parque Natural del Estrecho'. What's it good for? 'Solitude, nature and views of North Africa' CALA DE LOS AMARILLOS, COSTA ALMERIA: This beach stole the authors' hearts. They write: 'A simply ravishing beach beneath cliffs of yellow fossilised dune and lava. Rocky islets and gin-clear water complete the picture. We walked to the left of the beach between the rocks to discover a narrow inlet of water for jumping and diving with spectacular views out to sea. Low visitor numbers are guaranteed owing to the difficult and dangerous descent down the cliff not for the faint-hearted, this beach is one of our favourites' PLAYA DE LA FLECHA DEL ROMPIDO, COSTA DE LA LUZ: This 'vast and remarkable sand spit' is 'unadulterated by bars or sunbeds and one of the finest beaches in Andalucia', the authors enthuse. But they warn that you'll need plenty of food and water and your own shade CALA JOVERA (TAMARIT), TARRAGONA: Golden sand? Tick. Double-sided cove beneath a romantic seafront medieval castle? Naturally. Calm waters? You've got it. Huge hollowed rock to explore or jump from nearby? Of course. Any warnings? Just this - do watch the locals jumping from that rock first CALA FONDA (OR WAIKIKI BEACH), TARRAGONA COAST: This 'deep beach' has 'lovely golden sand... edged with white-flowering myrtle bushes'. The authors reveal that it's reached 'after a longish walk through a beautiful protected pine forest' and flanked by 'impressive cliffs formed from fossilised dunes' PLAYA DE GULPIYURI, LLANES, COSTA VERDE ASTURIAS: This astonishing circular inland beach is fed by water from subterranean tunnels beneath the sea, reveal the authors. Arrive early, they say, to enjoy it in all its geological magnificence PLAYA DE TORIMBIA, LLANES, COSTA VERDE ASTURIAS: This 500m-long (1,640ft) croissant-shaped beach is 'spectacular' declare the authors, who warn that you'll need to arrive early to snare a good parking spot CALA CAP DE PLANES, PALAMOS, COSTA BRAVA: This 'serene natural sea pool' is perfect for snorkelling thanks to its generous volumes of underwater flora PLAYA DE SOMOCUEVAS, PIELAGOS, CANTABRIA: The authors loved this 'wonderful sun-warmed, sandy beach' carved out of a hillside that boasts 'startlingly clear and deliciously cool water for swimming' PLAYA EL PORTILLU, LLANES, COSTA VERDE ASTURIAS: 'Low tide reveals this magnificent sandy beach with rock pools,' say the authors. 'Perfect for families' PLAYA DE SANTAMARINA, PONTECESO, COSTA DA MORTE [COAST OF DEATH - THERE ARE MANY SHIPWRECKS HERE]: This narrow beach sits in front of a small fishing port and features in several hiking trails, the authors reveal, including the RC-2 Coastal Route and Camarinas Blue Coast Path AREA GRANDE, COSTA DA MORTE: John and Lola encountered a solitary nude female sunbather at this 'very hidden, seemingly forgotten beach'. Be aware of tide times so you don't get trapped, they add PRAIA DE TALON, FISTERRA, COSTA DA MORTE: Come here for 70 metres (229ft) of 'finest Galician sand'. And a 'good view of Faro de Fisterra, the "lighthouse at the end of the world"' PRAIA DO BARREIRINO, COSTA GALICIA NORTH: This rural 'secluded soft white sand beach' is 'great for families and snorkelling' say John and Lola PRAIA ABELLEIRA, MUROS, COSTA GALICIA NORTH: 'A profoundly beautiful cove hidden and sheltered beneath a canopy of ancient pines,' is how the authors describe this beach. One-way ticket to Spain? Hidden Beaches Spain - 450 Secret Coast and Island Beaches to Walk, Swim & Explore by Lola Culsan and John Weller is out on Monday, March 1 (www.wildthingspublishing.com), 18.99. Use MailHiddenBeach21 for a 20% discount and free P&P Przepraszamy! Ogoszenie na stanowisku: Senior Specialist, Control Monitoring wygaso z dniem 2021-03-24 Ta propozycja bya zozona przez Nordea Bank Abp SA Oddzia w Polsce Mozliwe przyczyny wygasniecia oferty to: oferta zozona przez pracodawce zostaa usunieta z serwisu praca.egospodarka.pl ogoszeniodawca zakonczy proces rekrutacji uzyskujac odpowiednia ilosc zgoszen rekruter zmodyfikowa tresc ogoszenia i jest ono dostepne pod innym adresem WWW dostawca tresci usuna ogoszenie z bazy danych niewasciwy adres url ogoszenia Jezeli poszukujesz pracy w branzy Konsulting, zajrzyj tutaj: Praca Konsulting Jezeli poszukujesz pracy na stanowisku Senior Specialist, Control Monitoring, zajrzyj tutaj: Praca Senior Specialist, Control Monitoring Jezeli poszukujesz pracy w miescie: Warszawa, zajrzyj tutaj: Praca Warszawa Pamietaj, ze mozesz takze rozpoczac poszukiwanie pracy od strony gownej, kliknij tutaj. Inne ogoszenia, ktore mogy byc w kregu Twoich zainteresowan: Visiting Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has proclaimed his Muslim-majority nation a choice destination for religious tourism by Sri Lankans, most of whom are Buddhists. In talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday, Mr Khan highlighted Buddhist heritage sites in Pakistan and stressed the building of cultural ties, the Pakistan Embassy said in a statement. Analysis has shown that 10.3% of Luxembourg residents have developed antibodies against Covid-19. Despite this, the country may be facing a third wave. Based on serological tests that are regularly carried out by health authorities, 10.3% of Luxembourg residents have already developed antibodies to Sars-CoV-2, according to virologist Dr. Thomas Dentzer in the RTL podcast RTL-Wellebriecher. Health personnel were among the first to be vaccinated, and are furthermore regularly tested. Luxembourg's current coronavirus numbers show that the virus' circulation is less present among inoculated groups and, above all, severe symptoms are prevented altogether in people that have received the jab. Indications of a new wave There are indications that Luxembourg is facing a third wave. More remnants of the virus are found in wastewater, and the number of infections has also been climbing in recent days. For virologist Dr Thomas Dentzer, broad-scale testing with the national large-scale testing programme is an essential strategy to keep the pandemic under control. In a representative sample of the week from 8-14 February, 132 positive tests were sequenced. In 57.6% of cases it was the British variant, and in 4.5% the South African mutation. Great faith is placed in rapid tests. Due to their swift result and increased use, the chain of infection can be interrupted early. They are already being used in sports, among other things, and they should be coming to schools very soon. Charlie Brake was interrogated by Jenny Powell's fiance after he was romantically linked with the nineties TV star. The Love Island hunk, 26, insisted his relationship with Jenny, who is 26 years his senior, was only ever platonic despite speculation the pair were secretly dating. In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Charlie recalled the awkward encounter with Martin Lowe, who sounded him out at a showbiz party after seeing pictures of him and Jenny, 52, 'plastered' all over the internet last year. 'It was all a bit awkward': Charlie Brake was interrogated by Jenny Powell's fiance after he was romantically linked with the nineties TV star (pictured in September 2020) He said: 'That was nuts. Jenny is really nice but there's nothing more between us than friends. 'Jenny and I met at an alcohol event, a launch party. Being an alcohol launch I'd had a few drinks and I thought "lets have a picture Jenny" and it was quite a nice one so I posted it. 'Jenny is in the public eye, but I thought nothing of it and suddenly people thought we were dating or asking if she's my mum. Jen was like "I can't believe it, do I look old enough to be your mum?" 'I've met her partner, who's a really nice guy. It was all a bit awkward to be honest. 'I met him and he said "oh so you're the guy that everyone thinks is dating Jenny" and I'm like "yeah" it was all a bit awkward. We were plastered all over the news, so it was a tad awkward.' 'Jen was like "I can't believe it"': Charlie recalled the awkward encounter with Martin Lowe, who sounded him out at a party after seeing pictures of him and Jenny 'plastered' over the internet Charlie dated Ellie Brown, 22, during his time on Love Island in 2018, but their relationship didn't last outside of the villa. He's been linked to former co-star Megan Barton-Hanson, 26, and TOWIE's Ferne McCann, 30 but says he's found it 'difficult' to date since his stint on the series. Charlie, who's the owner of seltzer brand Naughty Water, said: 'I find it harder now. Girls doubt my intentions and think "he's been on Love Island and is probably talking to ten other girls." 'I find it difficult and now being in a pandemic it is ten times harder. 'I am living on my own at the moment and it gets lonely and I do think it would be quite nice to have a girlfriend but at the same time with Naughty Water and trying to focus on that the last thing I need is any girlfriend drama. 'There's nothing more between us': The Love Island hunk insisted his relationship with Jenny, who is 26 years his senior, was only ever platonic despite speculation the pair were dating 'When things are back to normal I would definitely be open to a relationship. I have been single since the show, so it's been a few years now. Not to say I haven't had a good time!' Charlie is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who's the founder of food Distribution Company Brakes, a firm that sold for 434million in 2002. During lockdown, Charlie launched his own business alongside partner Simon Horth called Naughty Water, a low-calorie sparkling water with an alcoholic kick. He's determined to prove to his critics he can be a success on his own accord, and without the backing of his family's millionaire heritage. Work: Charlie is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who's the founder of food Distribution Company Brakes, a firm that sold for 434million in 2002 He said: 'There's this big stigma that I'm an incredibly wealthy person but I'm not, it's my family, they were very successful and in particular my grandfather. 'I do have a privileged life and I'm very thankful for that but at the same time I want to create my own legacy.' The reality star, who's spent the pandemic between Monaco, the French Alps and Dubai, said creating the product saved him from 'tearing his hair out' after recently returning to the UK and finally facing the lows of lockdown. He said: 'During lockdown my business partner Simon and I just got on with it, doing Zoom calls, taste tests. 'The name came about because we were trying flavours over Zoom and I said a comment "those flavours are really naughty" and that's how Naughty Water was born. 'I want to create my own legacy': Charlie has launched his own business alongside partner Simon Horth called Naughty Water, a low-calorie sparkling water with an alcoholic kick 'I was talking to a family member the other day because my family's old business was in food and drink distribution, so now it's like I'm going back to where the fruits of that all started and I am absolutely loving it. 'I feel like I'm going back to my family roots and what they made a success of in this industry. It is something I have needed during lockdown because without it, I would be tearing my hair out. 'Being a bit of a health freak and cautious about what I consume, they're so low in calories, being only 71 calories, no sugar, carb free, vegan friendly, added vitamin C, those are all the benefits to it. 'At the end of the day it is alcohol so I can't call it healthy but hopefully we'll take the UK by storm come the summer.' Naughty Water is available to buy online at Drinks & Treats Pro-military supporters throw rocks at residents in Yangon (AFP or licensors) Supporters of Myanmars military attack anti-coup protesters in Yangon, as international pressure grows to find an end to the crisis. By Devin Watkins Pro-military protesters armed with knives, clubs, and slingshots attacked coup opponents in downtown Yangon on Thursday. Around 1,000 army supporters gathered before demonstrators turned up for a rally. They threatened photographers and journalists, with violence escalating quickly. Groups were photographed beating individual protesters. Emergency workers assisted one man laying on the ground after being attacked by a man wielding a knife. In another area of Yangon, police barred hundreds of students from exiting the main university campus in order to demonstrate. The Tatmadaw, Myanmars military, seized power on 1 February in a coup, in which dozens of civilian leaders were detained. Facebook ban for junta International pressure continues to grow for a resolution to the crisis. Facebook announced Thursday it had banned the military from using its Facebook and Instagram platforms with immediate effect. In a blog post, Facebook said the escalating, deadly violence against protesters was the reason for the ban. We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw on Facebook and Instagram are too great, read the post, condemning the exceptionally severe human rights abuses and the clear risk of future military-initiated violence in Myanmar. The ban covers the military, its subunits, army controlled-media, and the ministries of home affairs, defense, and border affairs. Regional efforts Regional governments are also taking steps to end the impasse. Indonesias foreign minister, Retno Marusdi, visited Bangkok to meet with both Thailands and Myanmars foreign ministers. The meeting was part of efforts to coordinate a regional response. Ms. Marsudi said afterwards that all parties were asked to exercise restraint and avoid violence and bloodshed. Separately, Japan is reportedly working on plans to stop new development aid to Myanmar. The government denied preparing for sanctions but said a change in policy was possible. Japan has long had close ties with Myanmar and has held back from criticizing the military junta. Europe's largest digital asset investment firm pledges four-year gift to secure Bitcoin protocol over the long-haul SAINT HELIER, Jersey, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CoinShares, Europe's largest digital asset investment firm, today announced it has made a four-year, $500,000 (USD) donation to the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Media Lab (read more here). The MIT DCI will use the funds to support open-source software development and advance the security of the Bitcoin protocol. This contribution to the DCI will support a growing team of senior, specialized open-source developers focused on systemic threat mitigation and rigorous improvements to Bitcoin's underlying infrastructure, including code audits, increasing automation, and novel research into Bitcoin's long-term economic security. CoinShares joins a growing core of other industry leaders as part of a new DCI Guardian's Circle committed to long-term foundational funding of open-source development and systemic security improvements to the Bitcoin protocol. CoinShares CEO, Jean-Marie Mognetti, stated, "As a beneficiary of the work of hundreds of developers who secure, upgrade, and maintain the open-source protocols that underlie the Bitcoin network and the applications built on top of it, we believe for-profit firms in the digital asset industry have an obligation to fund independent, neutral development efforts and research that advances the mutual interest of all ecosystem participants." This donation follows several other contributions CoinShares has made since pioneering digital asset ETPs in 2015. CoinShares has sponsored a two-year research grant at London's Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering, which resulted in the development of a new indexation methodology. CoinShares also employs a full-time market analysis team which has published research considered a bellwether for the industry, including the firm's widely cited mining report, weekly fund flows, and many others. In addition, CoinShares produces a regular series of events that educate and advocate for the digital asset class. CoinShares Chairman, Danny Masters, added, "We are proud to support Bitcoin Core development and believe it is important for industry leaders to provide the financial, social, and political capital needed to allow institutions like MIT DCI and others to maintain their independence and pursue an agenda informed by their expertise and free of corporate influence." About the CoinShares Group CoinShares is Europe's largest digital asset manager, managing billions of assets on behalf of a global client base. Our mission is to expand access to the digital asset ecosystem by pioneering new financial products and services that provide investors with trust and transparency when accessing this new asset class. For more information on CoinShares, visit: https://coinshares.com Media Contact Jay Morakis +1 646 859 5951 press@coinshares.com Thank you for Reading. As a community service, our obituaries are always free to view. In order to better know our audience, we ask that you register to continuing viewing. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) The new reality show of Filipino American internet sensation Bretman Rock on MTV is trying to achieve a goal represent Ilocanos and Filipinos in America's mainstream media. "I hope that Filipinos and Ilocanos feel seen especially on mainstream media in America," Bretman told CNN Philippines' New Day. Released on Feb. 8, 'MTV Following' starring Bretman, airs weekly on MTV Youtube channel. The 22-year-old immigrant, whose real name is Bretman Sacayanan, has a huge fanbase, with millions of followers on both Youtube and Instagram. He is not shy of his Filipino roots, and this is put on display on his new show. "With the show, it just became so natural for me to not only showcase my life but to showcase my culture as well," he said, adding his family also plays a huge role in 'MTV Following.' The internet sensation said he believes that the reason the world is drawn to him is because of his Filipino values, including the ability to laugh even in the most trying and difficult times. "The reason why the world is attracted to Bretman Rock is because I am a Filipino," he said. On what he misses most about PH Being based in Hawaii for over a decade now, Bretman shared he misses their home in Ilocos and the people he grew up with. "Besides my family, I would say I just miss the environment. I feel like when I am home I am truly 100% Bretman Rock," he said. "For a brief second of the time that I am in the Philippines, I get to be just Bretman without cameras, without Wi-Fi -- surrounded by Filipinos who raised me and who have been with me from the beginning, who speak the same language as me, and are the same color as me," he added. Australian rules football is a rough and tumble game. Umpires often have to work hard to prevent it from degenerating into an outright stoush, or brawl, between overheated players. By being drawn into a fight with Australias government, however, Facebook has clumsily miscalculated. The proposed law forcing Google and Facebook to fork out for news content was poorly conceived, badly drafted and never likely to work effectively. Even so, Facebooks ham-fisted and angry response - blocking news content not just from Australian news sites but from others headquartered in the country, as well as from government health and emergency service websites - may have backfired. For Facebook, this could be a disaster CEO Mark Zuckerberg lives to regret. Credit:AP Thats because, far from strengthening Facebooks hand, the response - which appears to have been ordered personally by Mark Zuckerberg - has united and intensified international pressure against the company, already facing antitrust pressure for a break-up, and led to calls for others to adopt similar steps. Sir Nick Clegg, Facebooks PR supremo, on Wednesday scrambled to repair some of the damage, insisting the row was all the result of a fundamental misunderstanding over Facebooks relationship with publishers. It may be too late. Canada could be next, with Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison already holding talks about a similar law governing Canadian news sites. Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG During a federal confirmation hearing Thursday, former Health Secretary Rachel Levine was questioned about the ongoing data discrepancies in Pennsylvanias public reports on nursing home coronavirus deaths and cases. Levine, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as assistant health secretary, oversaw the Pennsylvania Department of Health through the first year of the pandemic, which has killed thousands of people in long-term care facilities. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) said Levine had assured her that Pennsylvania had accurately reported deaths in these homes, unlike New York, where the attorney general found that the Cuomo administration had undercounted fatalities by the thousands. But Collins questioned that claim, citing Spotlight PA reporting from September 2020 that found weekly reports released by the state health department were consistently missing death and case data for more than 100 of the states 693 nursing homes. In her response, Levine pointed to lags in the states electronic death reporting system, or EDRS, and said slow uploads to that system explained why data outlining cases and deaths in nursing homes appeared incomplete. That is not what reporting by Spotlight PA has revealed. The state first started releasing weekly reports with cumulative data on resident deaths, resident cases, and staff cases for each nursing facility in May. That disclosure came after weeks of pressure from advocacy groups representing nursing home residents and families. Officials initially resisted releasing facility-by-facility data, citing a decades-old law that prohibits the release of disease records by state or local authorities. The first facility-level reports released by the state in May were filled with errors that took several days to correct. Those early reports were supplemented with data from PA-NEDSS, the states disease reporting system, which collects data from health-care systems and labs. More recent versions of the reports contain data that is self-reported by nursing homes directly to the state health department using other software portals not the electronic death reporting system as stated by Levine during the confirmation hearing. By September, more than six months since the first COVID-19 case in Pennsylvania, problems with the data had not been corrected. With many facilities still closed to visitors, advocates for nursing home residents and families said that there were few ways for families to know what was going on inside facilities and to monitor outbreaks. Data related to a deadly outbreak at one Lehigh County facility was not included in the reports until August after 80 residents had died, one of the highest death tolls in a nursing home in the state. In a June 18 letter, the health department said nursing home administrators could face daily fines or prison time if they did not comply with reporting requirements. But in September, the health department did not respond to questions about whether any state penalties had been issued. Facilities contacted by Spotlight PA in the fall said that they were in fact meeting reporting requirements but could not explain why their data was not included in the states weekly reports. Others were frustrated that they reported their data correctly, but it still showed up with errors in the public-facing reports. These problems do not appear to have been corrected in the most recent reports, which are posted to the state department of health website. A Feb. 17 report lists 139 facilities that are reporting no data. Data is missing for 145 facilities in the Feb. 23 report. WHILE YOURE HERE... If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. 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. KNOX COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A traffic stop in Knox County overnight led to two arrests when troopers reported finding stolen guns, as well as drugs. Indiana State Police stopped a SUV just after midnight on Thursday. Troopers searched the vehicle and found oxycodone, marijuana, and three handguns. Two of the handguns were reported stolen out of Evansville. Police arrested Johan Jean, 20, and Jicah Ajao-Salami, 23, both of Chicago. They were arrested and taken to the Knox County Jail. Jean faces charges of Theft of a Firearm, Carrying a Handgun without a License, Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of a Controlled Substance. Ajao-Salami faces charges of Theft of a Firearm and Carrying a Handgun without a License. American diplomats in China have claimed they were forced to take anal swab tests for coronavirus. Washington complained the procedure was 'undignified' and told staff to decline the test if asked to take one. Beijing has since claimed the test, mandatory for incoming travellers in some parts of China, was given 'in error', as diplomatic personnel were exempt. However, China today denied any knowledge of carrying out anal swab tests on US diplomats. To collect the nucleic acid samples, the swab needs to be inserted about three to five centimetres (1.2 to 2 inches) and rotated several times. A video widely circulated online shows a doctor holding a visual demonstration of the procedure To collect test samples, the swab needs to be inserted about three to five centimetres (1.2 to 2 inches) into the rectum and rotated several times. After completing the motion twice, the swab is removed before being securely placed inside a sample container. The whole procedure is said to take about 10 seconds. The Chinese capital began using the derriere detecting method more frequently during a mass testing drive after a nine-year-old boy tested positive for the virus last month. Within a matter of days in January, more than three million residents in three Beijing districts have received coronavirus testing in a bid to stem the contagion, authorities said. A US source told Vice of the claims: 'The State Department never agreed to this kind of testing and protested directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when we learned that some staff were subject to it.' Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily news briefing in the Chinese capital: 'To my knowledge...China has never required U.S. diplomatic staff stationed in China to conduct anal swab tests.' A State Department representative said it was 'committed to guaranteeing the safety and security of American diplomats and their families, while preserving their dignity'. Anal swabs have been used in China to test coronavirus since last year, but the method is mainly used in key groups at quarantine centres because of its inconvenience, according to a Chinese disease control expert. Some Chinese cities used samples taken from the anus to detect potential infections amid stepped-up screening during a spate of regional outbreaks ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. A medical worker collects a swab in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China, earlier this week Tests using anal swabs can avoid missing infections as virus traces in faecal samples or anal swabs could remain detectable for a longer time than in those from the respiratory tract, Li Tongzeng, a respiratory diseases doctor in Beijing, told state television last month. Stool tests may also be more effective in finding infections in children and infants as their waste carries a higher viral load than adults, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said in a paper published last year. But the accuracy and efficiency of anal swabs remain controversial among experts. Yang Zhanqiu, a deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, told state media Global Times that the nasal and throat swabs remain the most efficient test as the virus is proven to be contracted via one's upper respiratory tract rather than the digestive system. 'There have been cases concerning the coronavirus testing positive in a patient's excrement, but no evidence has suggested it had been transmitted through one's digestive system,' Yang said. Financial records from Steve Bannon's crowd-funding efforts for 'We Build the Wall' have been subpoenaed by the Manhattan district attorney's office. The subpoenas were sent in late January just weeks after former President Donald Trump handed Bannon a pardon for federal conspiracy crimes tied to the border-wall project. According to CNN, the grand jury subpoenas were sent to Wells Fargo and GoFundMe, the platform where the $25million was raised for the 'We Build the Wall' project. Wells Fargo was one of the financial institutions that handled some of the accounts used during the fundraiser. Scroll down for video Financial records from Steve Bannon's (pictured in August 2020) crowd-funding efforts for 'We Build the Wall' have been subpoenaed by the Manhattan district attorney's office State charges against Bannon, right, may come under double-jeopardy scrutiny A spokesman for GoFundMe told the network that the company 'does not comment on or confirm requests for information from any law enforcement officials' while a spokesman for Wells Fargo declined to comment. Bannon, who helped Trump win the 2016 election and briefly served as a White House adviser, was charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan after he allegedly profited off a scheme to defraud donors to the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign. The district attorney's subpoenas are being brought on the state level since a presidential pardon only applies to federal crimes. The state grand jury investigation revives the possibility that Bannon, the conservative and outspoken political strategist, could face state criminal charges after shedding the federal case last month. Bannon, 66, was arrested in August aboard a superyacht owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and accused with three others of defrauding hundreds of thousands of people as part of a group pledging to use private donations to build a section of the border wall. He was released on $5million bail, secured by $1.75million in assets and was ultimately the only one of the group to receive the presidential pardon. The We Build The Wall scheme raised $25million to fund part of the border wall (file image) but prosecutors claimed it was a scam. Bannon was accused of getting $1million in the alleged scheme, spending hundreds of thousands of that on 'expenses' The We Build The Wall scheme raised $25million to fund part of the border wall but prosecutors claimed it was a scam: donors' cash was also funneled to its founder Brian Kolfage and to Bannon. Bannon was accused of getting $1million in the alleged scheme, spending hundreds of thousands of that on 'expenses'. If state charges are filed against Bannon, they may face scrutiny under double jeopardy laws outlined in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and state laws. The Manhattan DA previously brought a case against Trump ally Paul Manafort, who was found guilty on eight counts including filing false tax returns, bank fraud, and failing to disclose a foreign bank account. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance tried to bring state charges for mortgage fraud and other state felonies against Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, but they were dismissed by a New York appeals court on double jeopardy grounds. The court argued that Manafort, who was later pardoned by Trump in December, had already been tried in federal court. Double jeopardy laws may not apply if charges are filed against Bannon, who had not been convicted at the federal level before his pardon. Vance's office began a probe investigating Trump and the Trump Organization for possible tax and insurance fraud in 2019. New York Attorney General Letitia James is also currently investigating Trump for possible financial crimes. The New Jersey attorney general's office has also launched a civil inquiry into We Build the Wall. [February 25, 2021] Ferns N Petals Brings the Women's Day Corporate Gifting Collection to Celebrate the Strength and Spirit of Women - Theme for this year's corporate gifting catalogue is Five Senses - The world's largest flower and gifting portal with the most flexible delivery options and personalised gifting NEW DELHI, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International women's day is around the corner and it is time to pay respect for the determined efforts and contributions rendered by women at all spheres of workplace and business. Ferns N Petals, a name synonymous to gifting for any occasion, has curated a special range of gifts under the theme Fives Senses to woo the hearts of female employees, business partners or clients. The exquisite range of gifts is sourced and sorted keeping in mind the impeccable and vibrant personality of women and spoil them for choices. The concept of a 'Five Senses gift' is to buy or create gifts that appeal to the basic senses of the human body: sound, touch, taste, smell and sight. Rather than spending hours trying to find one perfect gift to celebrate the existence of women in corporate culture, companies can choose a combination of gifts to make them feel empowered in a unique way. With small gifts or larger splurge-worthy presents, one can stimulate each of the recipient's five senses for a truly exceptional gift-giving experience. Here are some of the stunning corporate gift hampers for women's day suitable to acknowledge the accomplishments of the female workforce: Work from home essentials This year, one can gift this perfect practical gift to the remote employees to enjoythe pleasure of working from home. It is an assortment of branded products which are the must have at work. Travel Kit It was a challenging year for globetrotters or business travelers but now it's that time of the year again to quench one's wanderlust and fly for business or leisure trips. The amazing travel kit is an ideal travel present for any white collar female employee or associate. It includes items & essentials like pill organizer, sipper, portable speaker etc. packed in premium FNP branded gift boxes. Bottoms Up Over Ludo To take a break from the monotonous work life, it is a quirky and coolest gift hamper to give away to a young talent at the workplace. Priced at just Rs. 2,500, this hamper is worth making the weekends happening. Tea-Riffic The thoughtfully and elegantly sorted gift hamper of aromatic teas, delicious cookies, glass tea pot, cup & personalized coaster is the most simple yet classy hamper to impress any woman. It is priced at Rs. 1,800. Rejuvenating Spa Kits Nothing makes a woman happier that the right beauty hamper which brims with all the bathing and spa essentials to pamper the skin. The gift box comes with exciting products required for skin rejuvenation like bathing salts, facial masks, shea butter and many more items. The amazing range of hampers by Ferns N Petals are an assortment of branded goodies & items which are handpicked keeping in mind the distinctive choices and are a great option as a Happy Women's Day Gifts. Depending on the requirement and budget of clients, all the gifts can be further personalised with a name or a motivational message printed on any item. Corporates can also choose from a host of evergreen and enthralling gifting options like decorative planters, electronic items, utility gifting, personalized items, cosmetic kits, cakes & cookies and various other possible combinations. With more than 365+ outlets delivering over 120+ cities in India and more than 120 countries around the world, Ferns N Petals has a pre-eminent position in the gifting industry, earned through decades serving communities. Apart from a being a household name for gifting, Ferns N Petals is the one stop solution for all employee and client partner gifting across India and has a clientele of 10,00+ companies from various industries. About the Company: Ferns N Petals came into existence in 1994 that has grown to be the Largest Gifting Portal in India in the last 25 years. The journey started with a single store under the entrepreneurship of Mr Vikaas Gutgutia, which has now emerged as a reputed brand with 11 verticals under the FNP World. These verticals are FNP Retail & Franchising, FNP E-commerce - India| UAE| Singapore, FNP Cakes 'N' More, FNP Gardens, FNP Weddings & Events, FNP Floral Touch - UAE, WDH (Wedding Design Hub), Flowers 'N' More, FNP Flagship, Sipping Thoughts and FNP Media. Today, the brand leads the floral, gifting and cakes industry with 365+ outlets in more than 120+ cities pan India. The company also has ten luxury venues in Delhi NCR to offer vast spaces to host social and corporate gatherings. FNP is consciously foraying into various fields to make your special moments even more memorable, be it your birthday or even your wedding. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/534936/Ferns_N_Petals_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Donald Trump Jr. was deposed this month by the attorney general of Washington, D.C. in a probe of the Trump inaugural committee where he said he did not authorize his assistant to enter a nearly $50,000 contract with a D.C. hotel. The president's son, a Trump Organization executive, made the statement in connection to a probe D.C. attorney general Karl Racine on February 11. Racine is conducting a probe of the 2017 inaugural committee after suing the company and Trump's D.C. hotel for alleged misuse of Trump inaugural funds. Racine accuses the entities of 'blatantly and unlawfully abusing nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family,' something Trump Jr. and the Trump Organization have denied. Donald Trump Jr. was deposed by DC attorney general Karl Racine's office in its probe of Trump inaugural spending from 2017 Trump Jr., whose father faces probes in New York related to his business and in Georgia related to his election overturn effort, was deposed Feb. 11 in connection with the probe, according to a government filing. The filing states that his deposition raised 'further questions' about a $49,359 contract that witnesses testified the Trump organization reached for a bloc of rooms at the Lowe's Madison hotel just blocks north of the White House in connection with the inauguration. The bill was presented to Donald Trump's Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC), a nonprofit entity that oversaw inaugural activities. Although the PIC picked up the tab, Trump Jr. wasn't able to identify any donors for the committee who actually used the rooms. Attorney General of Washington, DC, Karl Racine is conducting the probe The lavish affair kicked off the Trump administration in 2017, with events at the Trump Hotel Racine's office says the inaugural committee paid vastly more than other entitites Gentry Beach (c) a friend of Don Jr.'s, is described in court documents as signing the contract for a block of rooms 'When asked about the names associated with the rooms and the invoice, Mr. Trump was unable to testify if any of them donated to the [inaugural committee]. Instead, the names were associated with the campaign or with the Trump family,' according to the filing. 'For example, Mr. Trump testified that one individual was a friend from college, one was a Trump family driver, another was a New York socialite from Real Housewives of New York who is also a Trump family friend,' it said, CNBC reported. The filing identifies Trump Jr.'s assistant Lindsay Santoro as the point of contact on the block of rooms, and says his 'close friend' of Trump Jr. Gentry Beach provided the 'authorizing signature.' The two men are pictured together wearing Tuxedos at a fundraiser for Operation Smile in 2006. Beach is a stock trader who became a fundraiser for the Trump campaign and who went to college with Trump Jr. Trump Jr''s sister, Ivanka, also provided a deposition to Racine's office in December. Former Trump campaign deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, who cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, also was deposed. Racine's office is asking a judge for more time to conduct further depositions in the matter. DailyMail.com asked the Trump Organization for comment but got no immediate reply. A complaint failed by Racine's office states that Gates, a PIC executive, reached agreements for four days around the inauguration to reserve hotel space for four days, paying 'almost $1.03 million for this event space.' However, 'these charges were unreasonable and improperly served to enrich the Trump Entities and its owners for a number of different reasons,' it charges. It notes that an event planner warned they were double market rates, that space 'should have been provided at no charge' since the PIC arranged for a block of Trump Hotel rooms, and that the PIC paid for space even on days it didn't hold official events. But another nonprofit, the National Prayer Breakfast, paid $5,000 for the Trump Hotel ballroom, while the PIC paid $175,000 to have it in the afternoon. The legal action in D.C. comes as investigators in Manhattan looking into Donald Trump's tax affairs are becoming increasingly interested in the president's oldest son, according to a report. Trump Jr has been running the Trump Organization alongside his brother Eric, 37, while their father was in the White House. Cyrus Vance Jr, the Manhattan district attorney, has been investigating the former president's tax affairs for several months. But on Tuesday it was claimed that Don Jr is now being dragged into the probe. Donald Trump Jr, 43, is now reportedly a focus of Cyrus Vance Jr's investigation into tax Vance has been looking into the Trump Organization's financial affairs and taxes for years Investigators were asking questions about the 43-year-old and about Allen Weisselberg, one of the former president's most trusted officers, The Daily Beast reported. Weisselberg, 73, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has repeatedly appeared in investigations into the Trump family finances. In particular, he was heavily involved in the scheme to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels. Don Jr has played an increasingly large role in his father's political campaigns, while dealing with the family's foreign business interests. Forbes reported that Trump's two sons 'unloaded $118 million worth of the president's real estate since his January 2017 inauguration, striking deals everywhere from New York City and Los Angeles to Charleston, South Carolina and the Dominican Republic.' His activities have also caught the eye of the Washington DC attorney general, who is suing the Trump inaugural committee and the Trump Organization for allegedly misusing over $1 million in donations. Ivanka Trump spoke to Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington DC, last year about the lawsuit, which she called 'a waste of taxpayer dollars.' On official in Racine's office confirmed in January that the prosecutor hoped to speak to Don Jr too. Allen Weisselberg, 73, is also being looked at by Vance's team, The Daily Beast reported Don Jr has not commented on The Daily Beast's report, and neither has Weisselberg. Vance has expressed satisfaction that his investigations are progressing. On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court approved Vance's request to see Trump's long-concealed tax returns and other financial records for a wide-ranging fraud probe. Vance responded: 'The work continues.' Donald Trump is pictured with his son, as Weisselberg looks on behind Trump released a statement complaining, 'The Supreme Court never should have let this 'fishing expedition' happen, but they did,' and baselessly accusing his foes of engaging in 'fascism' against him. The Manhattan prosecutors were reported last week to have also recruited new members to their team. On Thursday, The New York Times said that Vance had brought on Mark Pomerantz, a well-known former federal prosecutor, to aid in its investigation of Trump and his real-estate company. The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors are now investigating loans that Trump had taken out on multiple buildings, including Trump Tower in Manhattan. On Thursday Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was interviewed by the Manhattan team for the fifth time, with Vance personally sitting in on the interview. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to crimes including lying to Congress during the Russia investigation and campaign finance violations, and is now serving the final months of his sentence under house arrest. He predicted that Trump would be severely harmed by the investigation. 'The Supreme Court has now proclaimed that no one is above the law,' Cohen told The Daily Beast. 'Trump will, for the first time, have to take responsibility for his own dirty deeds.' As if record-breaking cold, electricity blackouts and burst waterpipes are not headaches enough for Texans, some are now receiving astronomical energy bills in the wake of the recent cold front that blanketed Texas. Some are reporting receiving bills as high as $12,000. But experts say most electric customers need not fear such huge bills. Its our understanding that the majority of retail electric customers are on fixed rate plans, Andrew Barlow, director, external affairs at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, told the Reporter-Telegram by email. The plans that are indexed to the wholesale rate likely comprise the bulk of the billing horror stories that have been emerging. While legal under PUC rules, the reports of thee contracts storm-related billing have drawn additional scrutiny from the PUC, which is exploring their compliance with rules on disclosures and more, and very likely the Legislature. While the PUC cannot change electric contracts, he said it can enforce its rules. And to help Texans cope with the aftermath of the winter storm, the PUC has suspended disconnections for non-payment until further notices and ordered utilities not to process disconnections. The PUC is also continuing the COVID-19 measure under which retail electric providers are required to offer deferred payment plans to customers when requested. Atmos Energy, which provides natural gas to Midland customers, issued a statement assuring customers near-term bills will not include any of the unusually high gas prices seen during the historic winter storm. The company said it is working with regulators on ways to minimize the impact on monthly bills and until those solutions are found, the gas cost portion of a customers bill will reflect normal, seasonal gas prices. Atmos cautioned that February and March bills may still be higher than in recent months based on the amount of gas used during the winter storm. It is offering installment plans to spread out payments over time with no additional charges or fees. There are federal programs being established to help Texans struggling to pay their electric bills. There is also the established Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and programs operated by various energy providers. Scott Nethery, president of Energy Ogre, the technology company that helps consumers find the lowest-cost electric plan that fits their usage profile, told the Reporter-Telegram by telephone that those in variable rate plans were likely either playing the market or did not have a contract. While his company is not privy to the finances of the states various retail electric providers, Nethery said some will likely be financially impacted by the storm. Mike England, vice president, business development at Energy Ogre, said the winter storm and resulting high bills underscored the need for Texans to research the states electricity markets and find the lowest-cost providers. (JTA) NBC pulled an episode of the show Nurses that aired on the channel on Feb. 9, responding to pressure from Jewish groups that said it contained an anti-Semitic storyline about Orthodox Jews. An NBC source told Variety that it had consulted with leading Jewish organizations before making the move on Thursday. In the episode of the medical drama titled Achilles Heel, a young Hasidic patient is told he will need a bone graft to heal his broken leg, leading his father to recoil at the possibility of a dead goyim leg from anyone. An Arab, a woman. ADVERTISEMENT The Anti-Defamation League, Simon Wiesenthal Center and other watchdogs expressed outrage, arguing that it portrays haredi Jews in a false light. Allison Josephs, who blogs about Orthodox life as the founder and director of Jew In The City, also harshly criticize the episode and helped spur the backlash to it. The idea that such a surgery would be problematic in general or problematic because of where the bone came from not only is categorically false according to Jewish law, it is a vicious lie that endangers men who walk around with curled side locks and black hats, Josephs wrote. NBC did not create the show; the network acquired the series U.S. broadcast rights as part of a broader international acquisition strategy by American television networks whose content mills have run dry due to COVID-19-related production difficulties. The episode originally aired on Canadas Global Television Network in February 2020. 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. KABUL A round of the Ambassadorial Meeting of the of the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) co-chaired by the Deputy and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mirwais Nab and Ambassador of Tajikistan to Kabul Dr. Sharifi Sa'di, was held with the attendence of the ambassadors of the of the Participating Countries of the HoA-IP at the Foreign Ministry's Stoore Palace. The purpose of this Ambassadorial Meeting was to discuss the necessary preparations for the 9th Ministerial Conference of the HoA-IP to be convened in March this year. At the outset of the meeting, Mr. Nab expressed his gratitude for the condemnation of the Participating Countries, in regards to the recent terrorist attacks on the Afghan people, calling the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process an important mechanism for strengthening regional cooperation and consensus as well as consolidating support for peace talks and stability in Afghanistan and the wider region. During the meeting, ambassadors and representatives of the Participating Countries discussed and exchanged views on the arrangements of the 9th Ministerial Conference of the HoA-IP, scheduled for March 29-30, 2021, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Block your calendars, set your alarms and get ready to welcome the madness and quirks of Sony SABs Jijajis world once again as the show returns in a brand new avatar with an intriguing new title Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Hai. While the Jijaji family returns to Sony SAB, this time, their world is full of spook which is bound to send chills down your spine all while you enjoy your daily guffaws! Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Hai promises a classic tale of an age old family feud between the Jaldirams and Jindals over their claims on the ancestral property. While the property feud stirs the rivalry between the families, there is a mystery that walks the halls of this pushtaini haveli. Adding to the hilarious conflict is the constant conflict betweem Jaldiram and Jindal over the shared space their businesses occupy a restaurant and a garage. Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Hai brings back the stunning Hiba Nawab as Jaldirams beloved daughter CP (short for Connaught Place) who will be seen alongside the dashing Shubhashish Jha essaying the role of Jitendra Jamwant Jindal aka Jijaji. More quirk and laughter are on offer as the show will further delight the audience with a gamut of exciting characters essayed by brilliant actors. Making a comeback with this Jijaji franchise is Anup Upadhyay, to be seen as Jaldiram, the proud owner of Jaldiram Sweets, bubbly yet cheeky Soma Rathod, to be seen as Jaldirams devoted wife Sofia, contesting for Jaldiram as their lawyer and Sofias brother will be Firoz Khan and immensely charming Raashi Bawa as a waitress working at Jaldiram sweets. The cast will also see the addition of some new faces such as Jeetu Shivhare as Nanhe, Jijajis father, Sucheta Khanna as Bijlidevi aka Jijajis mother and Vipin Herro as Gulzar, Nanhe as Bijlidevis adopted son among others. Comments: Mr. Neeraj Vyas, Business Head Sony SAB The first season of this show created a deep connection with our audience. Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Hai's launch is a true testament to that as the show is back purely on pubic demand. With a new entertaining storyline, quirky characters and an entirely new mystery element, it is bound to make the audience fall in love with the show again. The year 2021 has started on a great note for us with Wagle Ki Duniya amassing love from across all sets of the audience, and I believe Jijaji Chhat Parr Koii Hai will only add to the enriching content on Sony SAB. (JTA) The Democratic Majority for Israel political action committee has made an endorsement in a special congressional election in Ohio, a sign of how Israel tensions within the Democratic Party have not abated since the partys sweeping wins in November. The PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel group announced Tuesday that it is endorsing Shontel Brown, a Cuyahoga County councilwoman who has the backing of the partys establishment and who has cultivated the mainstream pro-Israel community. The field ahead of the May primary for the special election is crowded, but the candidates att... As a part of the agreement, the company has granted exclusive rights to ALM to distribute and promote its premium lager beer products for retail and on-premise markets within Australia. ALM is the largest supplier of liquor to independently owned liquor retailers in Australia. ( ) has entered into a distribution agreement with Australian Liquor Marketers Pty Ltd (ALM) to distribute its Broo premium lager beer products for the retail and on-premise markets throughout Australia. This is an exclusive agreement with owned and exclusive brands of ALM and comes after the company has been working collaboratively with ALM to accelerate the growth of its beer products. ALM is working with Broo to distribute products across its retail and on-premise market, and as part of this, the company has launched a joint sales campaign with ALM across its extended network in Queensland. The company has had distribution arrangements with ALM since 2018, however, these were on a non-exclusive basis. "Delighted to join forces" Broos CEO Kent Grogan commented: We are delighted to join forces with ALM. Together, we are well-positioned to offer customers a point of difference with ALMs exclusive-to-indies approach, along with our unapologetic packaging to drive further brand awareness and category growth. Background to ALM ALM is the largest supplier of liquor to independently owned liquor retailers in Australia and the largest broad range liquor wholesaler in Australia. In addition to supplying liquor stores, ALM incorporates a specialist on-premise liquor division that supports bars, clubs, restaurants and hotels. It also provides a similar supply service in New Zealand via the Tasman Liquor Company. ALMs Independent Brands Australia (IBA) network has approximately 2,700 stores and includes a stable of strong national brands. Key terms of agreement Under the agreement, Broo has granted exclusive rights to ALM to distribute and promote Broo premium lager beer products for retail and on-premise markets within Australia during the term. The agreement begins on February 24, 2020, and will continue for an initial term period of six months and there is scope for the parties to extend the agreement for a further term of 12 months by mutual agreement. Pricing will be based on Broos standard wholesale pricing list from time to time. There are no other material terms to the agreement. 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 Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. Brandon Ford explains everything customers need to know about the new Ford certified pre-owned model designations on its website. The Ford Motor Company has changed the way its selling certified pre-owned models, and Brandon Ford of Tampa, Florida, has everything interested customers need to know available on its website. The Ford Motor Company has changed the way its selling certified pre-owned models, and Brandon Ford of Tampa, Florida, has everything interested customers need to know available on its website. Prior to the change, all Ford certified pre-owned models were housed under the same umbrella. However, the Ford Motor Company has now added new designations for its certified pre-owned models therefore creating Gold Certified Pre-Owned models and Blue Certified Pre-Owned models. The main differences between the two new Ford certified pre-owned model designations are the ages of the available models, the number of miles on the odometers of the models and the inspections that the models have to pass before being designated a Ford certified pre-owned model instead of a normal pre-owned model. More specifically, Gold Certified Pre-Owned Ford models must be less than 6 years old, have less than 80,000 miles and pass a thorough 172-point inspection. These Gold Certified Pre-Owned Ford models feature a comprehensive warranty and free 24/7 roadside assistance. On the other hand, Blue Certified Pre-Owned Ford models must be less than 10 years old, have less than 120,000 miles and pass a 139-point inspection. These Blue Certified Pre-Owned Ford models feature a 90-day/4,000-mile warranty and free 24/7 roadside assistance. Interested parties can learn more about the new Gold Certified Pre-Owned Ford models and Blue Certified Pre-Owned Ford models by checking out the new Brandon Ford Gold and Blue Certified Pre-Owned Model Research Page. Additionally, more information on all things Ford can be found on the Brandon Ford website at http://www.brandonford.com. Customers can also direct any questions they may have to the friendly and knowledgeable staff at Brandon Ford by calling 813-246-3673 or by emailing Tom Murray, the dealerships marketing director, at tom@brandonford.com. Brandon Ford is located at 9090 Adamo Drive in Tampa. EDWARDSVILLE Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day returns to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Saturday with a new look. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at SIUE is hosting the ninth annual event for girls in grades 5-8. For the first time it will be in a free, virtual format. I didnt know about the Society of Women Engineers, but I heard about Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day when I visited SIUE my senior year in high school (at Brussels) and thats what drew me to the organization, SWE President Emma Schleeper said. I have some younger sisters in fourth and fifth grade now and thats what drew me to being part of the event. For girls, sometimes it can be hard to get involved in hands-on activities, she said. At that younger age, people might think its something odd for you to be involved in, but to get that experience makes it so normalized. Going forward, its something you have the confidence to be a part of. A senior majoring in industrial engineering, Schleeper will graduate in May. She didnt get to participate in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day as a grade school or middle school student, but the event has become a major part of her collegiate experience. The switch this year to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new set of challenges, she said. The first year I got involved in low-level planning. But the past two years I was vice president, so I was a little more involved in the normal in-person events, said Schleeper, a Golden Eagle native. This year, were taking what normally makes it successful and were trying to bring that into the virtual event in as many ways as possible. Using prerecorded videos, the event features activities for students in the disciplines of civil, industrial, electrical and mechanical engineering and computer science. Weve created subcommittees for each of those disciplines and engineering students that are part of SWE or just wanted to get involved planned activities and recorded videos to interact with the students, Schleeper said. Normally we have engineering professionals who also volunteer to be in different rooms at the in-person events, she said. In a virtual setting, we have some engineering professionals that made videos about each of those disciplines, what their jobs are and what you can do with each of those types of engineering. All of Saturdays content will become available at 10 a.m. on YouTube. The videos will remain online for use at any time on or after the event date; search YouTube for SIUE Society of Women Engineers. I think thats a really beneficial part of the virtual environment because educators can use the content after the event, Schleeper said. She added that students who might be intimidated by the pace of the day can split it up however it works best for them. Rther than SWE providing as in the past, all of the Saturdays materials are either common household items or inexpensive items that can be picked up at a store with a list posted on the SWE Facebook page. That was a little challenging, particularly for the mechanical and electrical engineering activities, which are a little more in-depth, Schleeper said. I think the committees did a great job of still creating useful activities that reflect the disciplines with those more common items to make it accessible for all students. Guardians and educators can sign up for SWE emails at forms.gle/dpkArxCWwDGdiYUm8. Additionally, SWE will be sharing event information on Facebook at facebook.com/swesiue/. For more information, contact SWE at swesiue@gmail.com. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. [For more Bay Area COVID-19 stories, sign up for the Coronavirus Updates newsletter] Three Bay Area counties have suspended coronavirus vaccine supplies to a San Francisco-based health care provider whose procedures allowed ineligible individuals to cut the line, local officials say. The company, One Medical, is no longer receiving vaccines from San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties, and San Francisco health officials said Wednesday they have directed One Medical to return more than 1,600 doses. When asked about its practices in the Bay Area last week, One Medical officials said accusations that the company knowingly disregarded eligibility guidelines are in direct contradiction to our actual approach to vaccine administration. Early in the vaccine rollout, the counties allocated vaccine doses to One Medical after the company demonstrated it could distribute them efficiently. The company offered free trials of its $199 membership program to people who wanted to sign up for the vaccine. But this month, officials at San Franciscos health department asked One Medical to provide information on how it was administering COVID-19 vaccines after fielding complaints that ineligible San Franciscans were getting vaccinated. The companys response indicated that people who did not meet the states criteria for vaccine eligibility at that time had been inoculated. Because of this and our inability to verify the (eligibility) of this cohort, DPH has stopped allocating doses to One Medical, a health department spokesperson said Wednesday in an email. Five days after One Medical responded to the health departments inquiry, Jonathan Sears, deputy director of vaccine operations for San Franciscos COVID-19 Command Center, directed the company to return 270 vials of Pfizer vaccine containing 1,620 doses that it had listed as saved for other uses. San Mateo and Alameda counties have also stopped allocating doses to One Medical after learning the company allowed line-cutting, according to officials in both counties. One Medical is a membership-based concierge service that offers physician care in 12 cities, and 24/7 virtual care. It has expanded from one location in San Francisco in 2007 to more than 72 across the country. California currently allows vaccines to be distributed to individuals over age 65, as well as health care workers and other categories of essential workers, including teachers, emergency responders and agriculture workers. But, initially, many local health departments struggled with supply shortages that made it difficult for them to expand eligibility past the most vulnerable groups, like people over 75 and health care workers. In early February, San Mateo Countys public health department received complaints originating from two school districts alleging that One Medical was vaccinating teachers not yet eligible based on local and state criteria, according to Rebecca Archer, chief deputy county counsel for San Mateos Office of the County Counsel. After investigating the allegations, the countys public health department found One Medical had vaccinated 70 ineligible individuals, and terminated its contract with the company on Feb. 10, Archer said. Its unclear whether all 70 of those ineligible individuals who got vaccinated were teachers because One Medical did not clarify, she said. Alameda County allocated 975 doses to One Medical in late January so they could vaccinate the Phase 1A health care workers who were their members, according to Neetu Balram, a spokesperson for Alameda Countys Health Department. Phase 1A includes health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, according to the California Department of Public Health. The county stopped allocating doses to One Medical, she said, after the company indicated that they planned to vaccinate more than their health care workers the only approved group prioritized for vaccinations at the time aside from long-term care residents next. The vaccination distribution problem is likely more widespread, as NPR and Forbes also previously reported internal documents and interviews with current employees showing that One Medical had let ineligible people skip the line up and down the West Coast. But One Medical pushed back. We are disappointed to learn that ill-informed hearsay is leading to public misconceptions about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols and, more importantly, has impugned our company values in our efforts to collaborate with Bay Area health officials to administer COVID-19 vaccines. We remain committed to serving our communities and hope that any misconceptions can be cleared up quickly so we can continue doing this vital work, the spokesperson said when a Chronicle reporter asked them about complaints last week. The company did not immediately respond when asked Wednesday for a response to the actions taken by Alameda and San Mateo counties. The California Department of Public Health allocates vaccines to both multi-county entities like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health and local health departments based on their needs, calculated by the current eligibility criteria. To speed up distribution, local health departments typically at the county level can set up contracts with health care providers like One Medical and local hospitals. One Medical set up contracts with multiple Bay Area counties, as it was among the first health care providers in the state with the infrastructure to administer vaccines, according to a spokesperson from San Franciscos Department of Public Health. To their credit, One Medical figured it out early, said Roland Pickens, director of San Franciscos Health Network, which is currently helping the city distribute coronavirus vaccines. The company had infrastructure to get shots in arms quickly, he said. One Medical has also been distributing vaccines in Marin County. Laine Hendricks, a spokesperson for the countys Health and Human Services department, said the agency received an email in late January alleging that One Medical was offering vaccines to people under age 65. That age group was not eligible to receive vaccines at the time. Hendricks said the county is looking into whether One Medical is abiding by the terms of its memorandum of understanding, which states it will follow the countys policies on vaccination. So far, an initial review of the data did not show obvious signs of wrongdoing, Hendricks said. Santa Clara County gave One Medical about 300 doses to vaccinate health care workers on its staff, according to a county spokesperson. It hasnt given the company any more doses since but did not cite any wrongdoing as the reason. Archer, the San Mateo County official, noted that the county has received only one other complaint regarding inappropriate vaccinations separate from One Medical and that complaint turned out to be a false alarm. I think theres a lot of positives in the vaccine story, Archer said. Its a shame this happened with One Medical." Susie Neilson and Meghan Bobrowsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: susan.neilson@sfchronicle.com, meghan.bobrowsky@sfchronicle.com. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. [February 25, 2021] David Adefeso and Sootchy App Take on Black Financial Literacy Gap by Partnering with Capital City Lighthouse Charter School As we near the end of Black History Month, the impact of African Americans on our society continues to spread far and wide - in this case, through generations. On a mission to close the African American financial literacy gap, Sootchy announced today it will be partnering with Lighthouse Academies at their Capital City campus in North Little Rock, AR to help the next generation of Black scholars achieve their education without student loans. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005382/en/ David Adefeso - Founder & CEO of Sootchy (Photo: Business Wire) Sootchy is a free intuitive crowdfunding platform that allows parents, and an extended network of friends, family and acquaintances to contribute to a child's 529 college savings plan at the touch of a button with less reliance on student loans or debt. With information on tax benefits, education options covered by the Plans and state-by-state guidelines, Sootchy helps communities become more informed and provides gifting options to get family and friends involved in saving for a child's future education expenses. As a tax-advantaged education account, the contributions grow tax-free, and with no signup or account maintenance fees, more of your money goes toward your education. Realizing a staggering achievement gap in America today, Arkansas Lighthouse Academy teachers and parents of students were hand selected to be an exclusive group of early adopters to use Sootchy's beta app. A recent study found that children with college savings accounts are seven times more likely to go to college. By simplifying the process of opening tax-advantaged 529 College Savings Account, this partnership is designed to help these students save for higher education. As an additional incentive, Sootchy will be giving each of these students a matching grant into their 529 College Savings Accounts. "Closing the achievement gap in America is our focus and financial literacy is a key component at play," said Wendall Scales, Jr., Arkansas Lighthouse Academies' Deputy Director of Innovation. "This partnership with Sootchy enhances our ability to provide resources to help our students succeed." Knowing that in order to manage your finances, a sound, effective and thorough understanding of finance is crucial, Founder & CEO of Sootchy, David Adefeso, wanted to find a way to educate people in underserved communities while reducing the wealth disparity that exists in Black, Hispanic and Native American communities. Embodying the true definition of Black greatness, he is seeking to help his community improve with financial literacy and a singular vision, debt-free education for all. "Education has the ability to be a great equalizer and eliminate the wealth gap that exists in our country - but only if it's accessible. When I started Sootchy, it was with the goal of ensuring everyone has access to debt-free higher education. That's why I'm so excited about our partnership with Lighthouse Academies! It's a major step toward achieving that goal. These children have unimaginable potential, and I'm very proud to work with the LHA teachers and parents to help them realize it," Mr. Adefeso explained. Following the footsteps of his ancestors before him, Adefeso fought and sacrificed to become one of America's very few Black founders/CEO of a technology startup. As we celebrate Black people worldwide who have overcome obstacles in order to achieve excellence and success, Sootchy's David Adefeso, is no stranger to this account. The true meaning of "from rags to riches," Mr. Adefeso was born in Nigeria, and moved to New York City at the age of 21 all by himself. With just $250 in his pockets and knowing no one, he experienced struggles with homelessness and hunger. With nothing but his intelligence and determination to succeed, he graduated from Harvard University with his MBA in General Business Administration and Management. From there he broke down several barriers as he became a top contender in Wall Street working for some of the world's largest companies and financial institutions. Creating financial freedom for future Black generations to come, David and his diverse team of tech experts are empowering Black communities by emphasizing the need for proper financial education knowing they play a vital role in the economic establishment of the United States. Sootchy's five-minute set up and easy-access money management tools simplify the process and make tech-enhanced financial planning, the power of community and tax-efficient incentives to combat student debt, now at a historic high of almost $1.7 trillion, accessible to all. "Having the opportunity to partner with Sootchy has opened up a new world of possibilities for our staff and scholars at Capital City Lighthouse. Our families now have the knowledge and consistent opportunity to invest in their scholars' future," stated Rosanna Mhlanga, Principal, Capital City Lighthouse Charter School. With the intent to adopt all Lighthouse Academies's campuses to ensure their success, David Adefeso and team Sootchy, will continue to provide opportunities for internships and financial literacy support. "Our team is dedicated to the success of each scholar, now and in the future," said Superintendent LaShawnDa Noel. "With this partnership and the establishment of a focus group of teachers and parents, we are equipped to incorporate a financial literacy program as a tool for our scholars' future success." About Sootchy: Sootchy is an innovative financial technology company that enables parents to leverage the power of family and friends with contributions to 529 College Savings Accounts that help fund a child's higher education. Through the Sootchy mobile and website platform, the company is changing the traditional way individuals gain access to 529s. The company's mission is to provide future students and parents with an alternative to student loans and debt. About Lighthouse Academies: Lighthouse Academies is a national nonprofit network of charter schools encompassing more than 6,000 students and families, in addition to 605 teachers, principals, and staff members. The team goes above and beyond to pave the way to a college education for students who would otherwise face limited opportunities due to no fault of their own. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005382/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Luxembourg 25 February 2021 - Subsea 7 S.A. (Oslo Brs: SUBC, ADR: SUBCY) today announced that, on 24 February 2021, the Group entered into a $500 million five-year amortising loan facility backed by a $400 million guarantee from UK Export Finance. The Group has a two-year availability period during which to draw on the facility, and the facility has a five-year tenor which commences at the end of the availability period or when the facility is fully drawn, if earlier. The facility can be used for general corporate purposes, including to provide working capital financing for services provided from the UK. The facility is guaranteed by Subsea 7 S.A. John Evans, Subsea 7s Chief Executive Officer, commented: This flexible $500 million loan facility diversifies our sources of liquidity and supports our strategy of proactive participation in the Energy Transition. ******************************************************************************* Subsea 7 is a global leader in the delivery of offshore projects and services for the evolving energy industry. We create sustainable value by being the industrys partner and employer of choice in delivering the efficient offshore solutions the world needs. Subsea 7 is listed on the Oslo Brs (SUBC), ISIN LU0075646355, LEI 222100AIF0CBCY80AH62. ******************************************************************************* Contact for investment community enquiries: Katherine Tonks Investor Relations Director Tel +44 (0)20 8210 5568 katherine.tonks@subsea7.com Forward-Looking Statements: This announcement may contain forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the safe harbour provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements relate to our current expectations, beliefs, intentions, assumptions or strategies regarding the future and are subject to known and unknown risks that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, future, goal, intend, likely may, plan, project, seek, should, strategy will, and similar expressions. The principal risks which could affect future operations of the Group are described in the Risk Management section of the Groups Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2019. Factors that may cause actual and future results and trends to differ materially from our forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to): (i) our ability to deliver fixed price projects in accordance with client expectations and within the parameters of our bids, and to avoid cost overruns; (ii) our ability to collect receivables, negotiate variation orders and collect the related revenue; (iii) our ability to recover costs on significant projects; (iv) capital expenditure by oil and gas companies, which is affected by fluctuations in the price of, and demand for, crude oil and natural gas; (v) unanticipated delays or cancellation of projects included in our backlog; (vi) competition and price fluctuations in the markets and businesses in which we operate; (vii) the loss of, or deterioration in our relationship with, any significant clients; (viii) the outcome of legal proceedings or governmental inquiries; (ix) uncertainties inherent in operating internationally, including economic, political and social instability, boycotts or embargoes, labour unrest, changes in foreign governmental regulations, corruption and currency fluctuations; (x) the effects of a pandemic or epidemic or a natural disaster; (xi) liability to third parties for the failure of our joint venture partners to fulfil their obligations; (xii) changes in, or our failure to comply with, applicable laws and regulations (including regulatory measures addressing climate change); (xiii) operating hazards, including spills, environmental damage, personal or property damage and business interruptions caused by adverse weather; (xiv) equipment or mechanical failures, which could increase costs, impair revenue and result in penalties for failure to meet project completion requirements; (xv) the timely delivery of vessels on order and the timely completion of ship conversion programmes; (xvi) our ability to keep pace with technological changes and the impact of potential information technology, cyber security or data security breaches; and (xvii) the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting;. Many of these factors are beyond our ability to control or predict. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Attachment Kathmandu, February 25 The government of Nepal has corrected its Covid-19 death count by adding over 600 death incidents in a single day. Although only one person died of the disease on Wednesday, the daily update issued by the Ministry of Health and Population says 619 new death cases were reported in a single day. It means 618 death reports were missing until yesterday. With the corrected information, 2,684 people died of the coronavirus infection since the pandemic began last year, according to the government. Earlier, the government was accused of hiding the death data after it was found that the Nepal Army, which has been assigned with the task of giving funeral to the victims, had different figures. Now, the government has accepted it and said the data have been updated based on the information provided by other governing agencies active in managing the crisis. According to a press release published by ADSB, the regional leader in the new build, repair, maintenance, refit and conversion of naval and commercial vessels, was today awarded an AED3.5 billion contract by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and UAE Navy, to build four Falaj 3-class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). According to a press release published by ADSB, the regional leader in the new build, repair, maintenance, refit and conversion of naval and commercial vessels, was today awarded an AED3.5 billion contract by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and UAE Navy, to build four Falaj 3-class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). Model on the ADSB stand The new contract is the largest-ever order received by ADSB and reinforces the company's vision of becoming the leading regional shipyard through delivering innovative and dependable solutions that add value to clients and other stakeholders, both military and civilian. Running one of the most advanced shipyards in the Middle East, ADSB operates three main naval programmes: corvettes, offshore patrol vessels and fast patrol boats. The company also offers a full range of maintenance, repair and refit, upgrade and conversion, as well as engineering consultancy services. With core technical expertise in marine and naval project management, ADSB previously built the UAE Navys Baynunah-class corvettes, the last of which was delivered in 2017. The Falaj-3 class is a highly flexible and versatile offshore patrol vessel used to carry out a wide range of missions, from patrol and surveillance operations over attacks against targets at sea. The vessels have stealth geometry to ensure reduced radar detect ability. The Falaj 2 class (previous class) are patrol boats of the United Arab Emirates Navy classified as stealth inshore patrol vessels (IPVs). The Falaj 2 class is based on the Italian Diciotti-class offshore patrol vessel, in use with the Italian Coast Guard. The Diciotti class is based itself on the earlier experimental Saettia class, a missile attack boat demonstrator designed and built by Fincantieri. The specifications require a highly flexible and versatile vessel to carry out a wide range of missions, from patrol and surveillance operations over attacks against both targets at sea and on land in national and international scenarios up to self-defence against threats from the air or surface. A special feature of the vessels is their particular stealth geometry to ensure their reduced radar detect ability. 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. Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC) welcome Indo-Pak agreement over ceasefire. Dialogue is the only way forward if both countries want to stop the unending cycle of violence & bloodshed across the borders and Jammu and Kashmir, said political leader Mehbooba Mufti. Both the regional parties of Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference, termed the fresh agreement between India and Pakistan over ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) a welcome development. Mehbooba Mufti in a tweet said, A big & welcome development that India & Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC. Dialogue is the only way forward if both countries want to stop the unending cycle of violence & bloodshed across the borders and J&K. A big & welcome development that India & Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC. Dialogue is the only way forward if both countries want to stop the unending cycle of violence & bloodshed across the borders and J&K.https://t.co/jENfvDNujJ Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 25, 2021 Similarly National conference spokesman Imran Nabi Dar said, We welcome it and hope that the statement will be followed in letter & spirit. JKNC has always been a strong supporter of the Ceasefire along the LoC. This will allow people living along the LoC & IB to go about their normal lives with minimal disruption & risk. Apart from those two political parties, all the other political parties of Kashmir have also welcomed the agreement on ceasefire between India and Pakistan. People of Jammu kashmir have also said that it will ease the living of people here especially those who are living on line of control and are always caught in line of fire. A resident of Kamalkote Uri Abdul Rahim said, We always face the problems because of ceasefire violations and have to suffer losses both of life and property, we hope now some relief. The Director Generals of Military Operations of India and Pakistan held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere. Both sides have agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control and all other sectors with effect from midnight February 24, 2021. Live TV The officers were in a police vehicle at Superior and State streets in the Near North neighborhood, when, about 1:10 a.m., a man in another car hit theirs from behind, according to police. Poor Kevin Marsh. Hes looking at prison time and a $5 million fine, and all he did was defraud more than 700,000 South Carolina Electric & Gas customers out of $2 billion. But the rest of us basically, everyone who uses electricity from here to Columbia got 20 years of paying a $2.3 billion fine for something we didnt even do. In fact, we're the victims. When Marsh, the former CEO of SCANA, pleaded guilty to fraud charges related to SCE&Gs nuclear meltdown on Wednesday, a lot of people proclaimed justice had prevailed. Thats true; many white-collar criminals skate. But is it really justice when the victims get a heavier sentence than the villain? And make no mistake, South Carolina residents had their pockets picked. In 2007, SCE&G (in concert with Santee Cooper) asked the Legislature for the ability to charge customers upfront for a pair of nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer. The reactors came with the promise of lower electric rates into the foreseeable future. The scam worked great for nearly a decade. Marsh and his minions told everybody the project was percolating along nicely, when design, construction and supply chain problems were literally running it into the ground. But the facade helped them collect millions in performance bonuses. By the time all this was revealed in 2017, SCE&G customers had shelled out $2 billion for a couple of holes in the ground and a lot of unused material. Between 2012 and 2017, Marsh was paid about $28 million in compensation. You can live pretty well on bank like that, even in a nice place like Cayce. When the malfeasance came out, however, Marsh bailed and the SCANA board cut the strings on his golden parachute which some reports suggest would have given him another $28 million. Still, he walked away with about $2 million in stock. Prosecutors have based his fine on how much, exactly, he earned in performance bonuses for those false reports about the nuclear plants. SCANAs scam brought us Dominion, which came in to buy the utility. To drum up support for the deal, they promised SCE&G customers $1,000 checks to make up for the average $2,000 every customer had paid in nuclear surcharges to that point. Sign up for our new opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! They did everything but say the checks were in the mail. Then Dominion reneged, claiming theyd just lower future electric rates (where have we heard that before?). Adding insult, they said the company would need everyone to keep paying off that debt to the tune of $2.3 billion over the next 20 years. You know, so they could keep paying dividends to shareholders. The state allowed that to happen, which is corporate welfare if not a crime. Marsh and his SCE&G buddies were living la vida Lexington on our dime, but at least they halfway intended, at least initially, to give us something for that money. Some people may have found it gratifying to see Marsh face consequences for bilking more than a million South Carolina residents (Santee Cooper and electric co-op customers got scammed, too) for $2 billion. But its hardly worth the price tag. Yes, Marsh may go to prison for a spell and thats horrible, even if he goes to Club Fed instead of, say, Lieber or Lee. But if he cooperates, and rolls on his former colleagues, his gig as a guest of the government will be over in a few years. Meanwhile, well still be paying back the money he and his pals swiped until the late 2030s. So never let anyone tell you crime doesnt pay. Sometimes its quite lucrative. Social media giant announced Thursday it was banning all accounts linked to Myanmar's military as well as ads from military-controlled companies in the wake of the army's seizure of power on February 1. It said in a statement that it was treating the post- situation in as an emergency, explaining that the ban was precipitated by events since the coup, including deadly violence. already has banned several military-linked accounts since the coup, including army-controlled Myawaddy TV and state television broadcaster MRTV. The bans are also being applied on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook and other social media platforms came under enormous criticism in 2017 when right groups said they failed to act enough to stop hate speech against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority. The army launched a brutal counterinsurgency operation that year that drove more than 700,000 Rohingya to to seek safety in neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps. security forces burned down villages, killed civilians and engaged in mass rape in their campaign, which the World Court is investigating as a crime of genocide. Facebook in 2018 banned the accounts of several top military leaders, including Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who led this month's that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party. The general heads the junta that now acts as the government. The junta has tried to block Facebook and other social media platforms, but its efforts have proven ineffective. For more than a week it has also turned off access to the internet nightly from 1 a.m. (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.) Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. President Joe Biden signs an Executive Order on the economy with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House in Washington, on Feb. 24, 2021. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images) Biden Signs Executive Order to Fortify Critical Supply Chains President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Feb. 24 to bolster the resilience of supply chains for four critical industries following a slew of recent production shortages that have left the United States vulnerable. The executive order will begin a 100-day review of semiconductor chips, pharmaceuticals, rare-earth minerals, and large-capacity batteries used in electric vehicles. While White House officials on Feb. 23 said the action doesnt target any one country, it will direct the United States to diversify its supply chain reliance on Chinaone of the dominant players in the rare-earth and pharmaceutical fields. The measures come at a time when the pandemic has put a strain on the availability of personal protective equipment essential to frontline health workers, and a shortage of computer chips has forced automakers to cut production, highlighting the need for reshoring supply chains. The order will also call for a comprehensive one-year review of six key sectors, covering areas of defense, public health, communications technology, transportation, energy, and food production. This is about making sure the United States can meet every challenge we face in this new era: pandemics, but also in defense, cybersecurity, climate change, and so much more, Biden said before signing the order. He added that the best way to achieve that is by sharpening Americas competitive edge by investing here at home. The horror stories of health care workers having to wear trash bags and rewashing their masks for lack of proper gear at the onset of the pandemic should have never happened, and it will never happen again in the United States, period, he said. We shouldnt have to rely on a foreign country, especially one that doesnt share interests or our values, in order to protect and provide for our people during a national emergency. Biden said the policy recommendations that arise from the reviews will be implemented right away to close existing gaps. The review will draw on a full range of American talents, such as policymakers, scientists, pharmacists, and engineers, for their input, he said, expressing appreciation for the bipartisan leaders who came to meet with him over the issue. They are leading the way, he said. Everyone has a role to play to strengthen our supply chain and our country. Semiconductor Shortage Chip scarcity has been a growing headache for the United States. While U.S. semiconductor firms create 47 percent of global chip sales, the U.S. share of global chip production has plunged to 12 percent from 37 percent over the past three decades due to increased outsourcing of manufacturing, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Ford recently said it may have to cut up to 20 percent of production in the first quarter due to a semiconductor shortage. General Motors has also temporarily slashed production in its United States, Canada, and Mexico plants. The organization urged the administration to invest ambitiously in domestic chip manufacturing and research so that more of the chips our country needs are produced on U.S. shores. The Biden administration is under bipartisan pressure to invest in emerging technologies and counter threats posed by Chinas ruling communist party. Last month, nearly two dozen Republican House lawmakers wrote a joint letter calling on Biden to work with allies on the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductor chips, and 5G communications in order to challenge Chinas goal of total global technology leadership and tech authoritarianism. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) directed lawmakers on Feb. 23 to draft a bill to invest $100 billion on research for key high-tech areas in a bid to out-compete China. He particularly emphasized semiconductors as a dangerous weak spot in our economy, saying, We cant let China get ahead of us in chip production. Biden officials have projected a tough line on China but said they would also focus on building an alliance in a more multilateral approach. On a hot day in Arizona more than a decade ago, Sarah Kauss found herself on a hike drinking hot water. It wasn't pleasant. The moment inspired her to make an insulated reusable water bottle. In 2010, Kauss launched S'well, which sells a line of high-design water bottles with a cult following that brought the company to a $100 million valuation without outside funding. Kauss recently sat down with Inc.'s Lindsay Blakely in an exclusive Real Talk stream event to talk about her journey and her tips for launching a successful business. Early on, S'well was featured in Oprah's magazine, something that Kauss says was invaluable to the brand's viral success. The coverage was the result of a lot of hustling. Once a week, she went to Barnes & Noble to write down the editors' addresses for magazines she wanted S'well to be in, and she sent samples two at a time. "I still remember the look on the post-office worker's face when I handed over that package, and it literally said, 'Oprah,' " she says. An editor from O, The Oprah Magazine, called right away, says Kauss, and was enthusiastic about the sample bottle, having taken it on vacation. But it almost didn't get featured, because its color--blue--didn't look good on the page. "It was really then and there on the phone that I decided that I needed to double down and expand the product line," she says. One reason S'well grew so quickly, says Kauss, is that customers didn't want to purchase just one bottle. "That was a surprise to me, quite honestly," she says. "Customers really became advocates for the brand and collectors." Because a water bottle is a highly visible product on the go, the brand became highly marketable without having to spend much. "It's not necessarily something that you leave at home, but you take with you to work, in school, and to the gym. And it's a product that invites conversation so very early on. The story of our brand was really being told and sold organically person to person," she says. S'well bottles also make great gifts, because their designs are always changing. What's more, they're a way for passionate customers with robust collections to share S'well's mission of sustainability with others. At the start of 2020, Kauss decided to step down as CEO. "I didn't want my involvement with the business to ever be the bottleneck, no pun intended, that held us back," she says. "My value was potentially so much larger to the business being on the outside of the company, looking out, than being internal." By hiring a CEO, Hugh Rovit, who could get up every day and be excited about the day-to-day operations, she was freed up to think about the company's vision and mission. EXPLORE MORE Female Founders COMPANIES Sandia National Laboratories awarded an information technology subcontract of potentially up to $700 million over a possible seven years to a New Mexico small business. This is the largest subcontract Sandia has issued to date. "It's a big deal and a huge win for the small-business community," said Sandia subcontract manager Ally Gronager. "I think this will open doors. It showcases that small businesses have the ability and the capability to bid on big projects." Encantado Technical Solutions, LLC, will provide Sandia IT and telecommunications support under a five-year deal signed in January. The agreement includes an option to renew for an additional two years. The award replaces several subcontracts set to expire in April and continues with a similar scope of work. The agreement covers the support and provisioning of specific telecommunications and IT services for Sandia, which employs more than 14,000 people. "We are thrilled to support Sandia National Laboratories with our scalable, flexible and comprehensive service-delivery model," said John Heneghan, Encantado partner. "We will leverage Encantado's Centers of Excellence and innovation labs focused on IT operations, cloud, cybersecurity, software modernization and artificial intelligence to maximize Sandia's investments and achieve the labs' long-term IT strategy." The scope of the agreement includes servicing about 25,000 telephones and 30,000 user devices; delivering conventional end-user service to 30,000 computing devices; and providing end-user support that includes managing servers. The subcontract's infrastructure computing services include operating, maintaining and servicing the labs' network, telephone, wired communications, wireless communications and mobile platforms, and desktop computing devices at Sandia's New Mexico, California, Washington, D.C., and Nevada sites. Encantado has an office in Albuquerque and is registered as a New Mexico small business. The company also plans to form a New Mexico nonprofit, the Encantado Technical Solutions Sandia Foundation, to promote local and regional STEM-related development programs in Albuquerque and Livermore, California. "We are honored to be selected for this small-business award," said Dave Yockman, Encantado partner. "We look forward to providing innovative and efficient IT service delivery to Sandia National Laboratories." Single award will merge efforts, improve processes "There were a few main objectives we were trying to achieve by consolidating multiple subcontracts into one," said Sandia Information Systems Engineering Manager Thomas Montano, who served as a technical expert during the bidding process. "Working with one company to manage the subcontract will improve the services' quality through standardization, reduce the disruption of operations due to movement across subcontracts and increase the value IT provides to Sandia." Additional values of a single award include increased operational efficiency and enhanced collaboration between Sandia and the subcontractors, said Sandia subcontract manager Alex Riebli. It will be easier to share information and innovations across centers once all IT-related projects operate under the same company. In addition, managing a single subcontract will increase administrative efficiency and reduce costs within Sandia, Riebli said. Montano said the transition has already begun and will be complete by the time the previous subcontracts expire. Subcontract posting led to positive, 'overwhelming response' Companies were able to bid on the subcontract following an external Sandia website posting in the summer of 2019, Gronager said. "We got an overwhelming response from the small-business community during that time and that led us to be able to plan for a full, small-business set-aside, which means only registered small businesses could bid," she said. Paul Sedillo, Sandia's small-business program manager, also emphasized the response, saying there was a solid group of competitors that put a lot of effort into the process. Proposals were evaluated based on the following technical criteria: relevant experience, technical solutions and transition plans, said Montano. "The source selection team was concerned with striking the most advantageous balance between technical features, price and identified risk, which the Encantado proposal did," said Riebli. Sandia also partnered with the Small Business Administration, which helped guide the labs through policy in awarding the subcontract, said Sedillo. "I appreciate Sandia National Laboratories' effort to provide this kind of extraordinary opportunity for small businesses in New Mexico and throughout the country," said John Garcia, SBA New Mexico District Office director. "The final contract will benefit our economy in so many ways." Sedillo said Sandia has long been committed to the small-business community and continues to work with the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration to increase spending in that area. "This new subcontract is a key element in ensuring we are committed to small business at every level," Sedillo said. "This could open opportunities for small businesses at every cost level because this proves they can compete. This is big for the future, not just for Sandia, but for other sites that will see we were able to achieve this award, and others will most likely follow suit. Sandia is leading the way in awarding this major small-business, high-dollar, highly visible subcontract." ### DAKAR, Senegal A long-awaited global sharing program designed to make vaccine access more equal began on Wednesday, when hundreds of thousands of doses arrived in the West African nation of Ghana the first of two billion that organizers hope to deliver worldwide this year. The initiative, known as Covax, was created so that poorer countries that struggle to buy coronavirus vaccines on the open market can get them for free. Officials said it is the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history. But the inequalities remain grim. Despite promises of billions of dollars in funding from wealthy nations, Covax still has a financing gap of $23 billion. While richer countries have managed to buy up vast reserves of vaccines and inoculate millions of people including more than 44 million Americans and about 18 million Britons poorer countries have been left behind. As of last week more than 130 countries had yet to vaccinate a single person. By trying to secure more vaccines for themselves, rich countries are undermining Covax and prolonging the pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. QINGDAO, China, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS) (the "Company" or "SOS") today announced the agreement by several accredited investors to exercise certain warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 23,880,000 of its American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") issued by the company on February 10, 2021, at an exercise price of $4.05. The ADSs issuable upon exercise of the warrants are registered pursuant to a registration statement on Form F-3ASR (File No. 333-253402) which became effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 23, 2021. The gross proceeds to the company from the exercise of the warrants are expected to be approximately $96.7 million, prior to deducting fees and estimated offering expenses. Maxim Group LLC is acting as the exclusive financial advisor for the offering. In consideration for the immediate exercise of the warrants for cash, the exercising holders will receive new unregistered warrants to purchase ADSs in a private placement pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"). The warrants will be exercisable into an aggregate of up to 23,880,000 ADSs, at an exercise price of $7.00 per ADS, which have a term of exercise approximately equal to five years. SOS intends to use the proceeds from the offering to develop its recently launched cloud cryptocurrency mining and cryptocurrency security and insurance business as well as for working capital and general corporate use. The new warrants described above were offered pursuant to an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the 1933 Act and, along with the ADSs issuable upon their exercise, have not been registered under the 1933 Act, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration with the SEC or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. The securities were offered only to accredited investors. The company has agreed to file a prospectus supplement with the SEC covering the resale of the ADSs issuable upon exercise of the new warrants. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About SOS Limited SOS is an emerging blockchain-based and big data-driven marketing and solution provider, with a nationwide membership base of approximately 20 million in China. Recently, SOS started to get ready to roll out its cryptocurrency mining business and plans to develop insurance and security management solutions for digital assets and cryptocurrencies. The core infrastructure of SOS' marketing data, technology and solutions to insurance and emergency rescue services is built on big date, blockchain-based technology, cloud computing, AI, satellite, and 5G network, etc. SOS Limited, through its operating subsidiary, SOS Information Technology Co., Ltd. ("SOS") is a high-technology company providing a wide range of services to its corporate and individual members, including marketing data, technology and solutions for emergency rescue services. SOS transforms digital technology into data-driven operations through the research and development of big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, blockchain and artificial intelligence. We have created a SOS cloud emergency rescue service software as a service (SaaS) platform with three major product categories, including basic cloud (medical rescue card, car rescue card, financial rescue card, mutual assistance rescue card), cooperative cloud (information rescue center, intelligent big data, intelligent software and hardware), and information cloud (News Today, E-Commerce Today). This system provide marketing-related data, technology solutions, and technology-driven big data to clients such as insurance companies, financial institutions, medical institutions, healthcare providers, auto manufacturers, security providers, senior living assistance providers and other service providers in the emergency rescue services industry. For more information, please visit: http://www.sosyun.com/ Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements made herein are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," "outlook," and "project" and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. Such forward-looking statements include timing of the proposed transaction; the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of the parties;, SOS's estimated and future results of operations, business strategies, competitive position, industry environment and potential growth opportunities market acceptance of our products; the ultimate impact of the current Coronavirus pandemic, or any other health epidemic, on our business, our research programs, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole; our intellectual property; our reliance on third party organizations; our anticipated financial and operating results, including anticipated sources of revenues; our assumptions regarding the size of the available market, benefits of our product offering, product pricing, timing of product launches; management's expectation with respect to future acquisitions; statements regarding our goals, intentions, plans and expectations, including the introduction of new products and markets; and our cash needs and financing plans and etc. These forward-looking statements reflect the current analysis of existing information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, caution must be exercised in relying on forward-looking statements. SOS may not realize its expectations, and its beliefs may not prove correct. Due to known and unknown risks, our actual results may differ materially from our expectations or projections. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact our expectations and projections can be found in our periodic filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. SOS's SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. SOS disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE SOS Limited Related Links http://www.sosyun.com/ Pashinian again accused the military of attempting to stage a coup and demanded the removal of Armenias top general as he addressed supporters who gathered in the citys central Republic Square. He also offered to hold crisis talks with opposition groups seeking to topple him over his handling of last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Mind your business: the defense of Armenias territorial integrity and borders. This is my order and nobody can disobey it, he said, appealing to the armys top brass that demanded his resignation earlier in the day. The army cannot be drawn into political processes. The army must obey only the people and the political authority elected by them, he told the crowd that chanted Nikol prime minister! Pashinian also said that President Armen Sarkissian should approve his motion to fire Colonel-General Onik Gasparian, the chief of the armys General Staff. Alternatively, he added, Gasparian should tender his resignation. Sarkissian seemed in no rush to sign a decree relieving Gasparian of his duties. In a written appeal to the nation, Sarkissian expressed serious concern over the political turmoil in the country and urged state bodies, political actors and ordinary citizens to show restraint and common sense. The head of state, who has largely ceremonial powers, also said he is urgently taking steps to find ways of easing tensions and resolving the situation peacefully. He did not elaborate. In a joint statement, Gasparian and four dozen other generals and colonels accused Pashinians government of mismanaging the country and putting it on the brink of destruction. The statement followed the unexpected sacking of Gasparians first deputy, Tiran Khachatrian. The General Staff reaffirmed its demands in another statement issued shortly before the start of the Pashinian-led rally. Meanwhile, an alliance more than a dozen opposition parties rallied supporters in another Yerevan square to voice support for the military. Speakers at the opposition rally included Seyran Ohanian and Yuri Khachaturov, former chiefs of the army staff highly critical of the current government. Both retired generals echoed opposition claims that Pashinian is to blame for Armenias defeat in the war. Pashinian insisted that it is the countrys corrupt former leaders who are primarily responsible for the outcome of the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered truce on November 10. Addressing thousands of his supporters at Republic Square, Pashinian expressed readiness to start political consultations with the opposition on how to resolve this situation. He complained that the opposition rejected his December offer to hold snap general elections. A change of the government can take place only through elections, the prime minister said before marching with the crowd to other parts of the Armenian capital. Opposition leaders and their supporters chanting Armenia without Nikol! marched, meanwhile, to the Armenian parliament building and blocked an adjacent street. The two opposition parties represented in the parliament demanded an emergency session of the National Assembly on the deepening political crisis. 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. Event Series Will Explore Financial Inclusion and the Role of Fintech in Small Business, Payments, Digital Currency, Cybersecurity and Other Important Industry Topics BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Due to the popularity of its virtual FinTech Talks series last fall, FinTech Sandbox today announced a second virtual event series featuring six public sessions and two private sessions from March 16-19, 2021. Headlining the event are Ken C. Montgomery, who is leading the Federal Reserve System's FedNowSM Service, and CNBC Special Correspondent Rebecca Fannin who will discuss real-time payments, central bank digital currencies, cybersecurity, and more in a fireside chat that formally kicks off the event on Tuesday, March 16. Here's a snapshot of the sessions that revolve around the series' central theme of "Wall Street to Main Street: The Role of FinTech in Ensuring Global Inclusive Growth": Tuesday, March 16 12:00PM ET: Fireside Chat with Ken Montgomery and Rebecca Fannin 3:00PM ET: What Can Fintech Do to Help Small Businesses Recover and Move Forward? Wednesday, March 17 12:00PM ET: Financial Services Shifting Center on ESG 3:00PM ET: Can You Actually Do Well by Doing Good? Incentivizing VCs to Fund Financial Inclusion Companies Thursday, March 18 12:00PM ET: respectthehustle: Financial Services for the Growing Gig Economy 3:00PM ET: Fintech and the Coming Convergence of Digital Data This week of FinTech Talks will conclude with two invite-only events - one for FinTech Sandbox startup residents and alumni, and one for FinTech Talks sponsors. Many topics that are included in the 'Wall Street to Main Street' theme center on the concept of Sustainable and Inclusive Finance, a growing area of interest among start-ups, financial institutions and investors. Both concepts - Sustainability and Inclusion - are intertwined and address a societal shift in philosophy and awareness about what people value when it comes to investing or their daily lives. "Leveraging new technology to boost access is an essential part of building greater financial inclusion," said FinTech Sandbox Executive Director Kelly Fryer, who took the helm of FinTech Sandbox in September of last year. "Also, by viewing finance through a "human lens", FinTech Sandbox sees the shortfalls and areas of potential growth for the industry. Our goal is to support entrepreneurs building products that empower people and help them to regain agency in their financial lives. Greater access allows people to use fintech to their own benefit for a more positive impact on their own lives." Sarah Biller, co-founder of FinTech Sandbox added: "It's undeniable the link between greater use of digital financial services and faster economic growth - higher levels of digital financial inclusion accelerate this trend. We're proud to contribute to this development by providing a platform, forum, and essential data sets that enable entrepreneurs to address needs by developing new capabilities that bring about lasting positive change in the industry and the world." FinTech Sandbox expects this second edition to build on the success of the 2020 program, which attracted dozens of sponsors and more than 1,000 attendees. The series is also laying the foundation for Boston FinTech Week, which is planned for September. FinTech Sandbox promotes innovation in the financial sector by making data and infrastructure available to fintech startups, at the point in their growth when access to this typically expensive data is most impactful. FinTech Sandbox startups, in return, collaborate with current and past residents, sharing learnings and advancements that benefit the ecosystem. Participating startups - more than 225 thus far - pay no fees and no equity is taken. For more information and to register, please follow this link. For the full list of event sponsors, please visit this page. About FinTech Sandbox FinTech Sandbox is a nonprofit that promotes innovation in financial technology and financial services globally by providing FinTech entrepreneurs and startups with access to critical data and resources. FinTech Sandbox also organizes Boston FinTech Week, next taking place from September 27 - October 1, 2021. For more information, please visit https://fintechsandbox.org/ and https://www.twitter.com/FinTechSandbox. Media Contact: Philipp Jago 929-255-5652 Philipp@calibercorporateadvisers.com SOURCE: FinTech Sandbox View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631799/FinTech-Sandbox-Hosts-Second-Edition-of-Virtual-FinTech-Talks-Featuring-the-Federal-Reserve-Bank-of-Boston-CNBC-MIT-Franklin-Templeton-Algorand-and-Two-Dozen-Industry-Luminaries-in-March Fugitive Sandesaras Claim Religious Persecution due to Ahmed Patel Link; Say They Are Victims of Malfunctioning Banking System At a time when the government wants to create a bad bank to transfer non-performing loans of corporate India owed to public sector banks (PSBs), the story of the Sterling group provides an astonishing picture of how several thousand crores of rupees of outstanding dues are being wiped out in collusion with PSBs, agencies and the government. The fugitives, Gujarat-based promoters of the Sterling Biotech group holed up in Nigeria, have managed to beat Indias extradition attempt in 2019, by claiming that they are facing religious and political persecution. They also got the Interpol to cancel a red-alert. These startling facts were revealed recently in documents submitted in the Supreme Court (matter MA-972 of 2020) through Richmond Investments Pvt Ltd. Meanwhile, the Sandesaras continue to calmly lobby to regain control over their Indian companies, by paying just the principal amount, which is 35% of their total outstanding dues. Astonishingly, their claim of religious persecution is based on their strong affiliation with the late Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is a Muslim. These charges have been accepted by courts in Nigeria and Albania to deny their extradition to India. (see excerpts from orders below) The Sterling group runs a flourishing oil business in Nigeria and the US, making it perfectly capable of paying up their entire dues to the Indian banking system, mostly PSBs. Stunningly, in these days of hyper nationalism, when a 22-year old environmental activist is jailed for eight days and slapped with serious sedition charges, the Sandesaras claims against India have not even found a mention in the mainstream media, although they are being investigated by every top investigative agency. Moneylife has reported extensively on the shenanigans of this fugitive group; but let us look at the recent developments sequentially, going backward from the latest Supreme Court (SC) order in February 2021. Sometime in 2019, the Sandesaras managed to get Sterling Biotech out of the bankruptcy proceedings by negotiating a small one-time-settlement (OTS) with its creditors mainly Indian PSBs. But the Sandesaras have been delaying even this payment and re-negotiating its terms for the past two years. In the latest litigation (Miscellaneous Application No. 972/2020 in C.A. No. 9473/2019), the group sought time to delay the payment by another year, to 31 March 2022, and to pay the money in four instalments starting June 2021. Meanwhile, their oil business in Nigeria is flourishing and these oil companies continue to do business with India. A YouTube video of 2020 sent to me shows a lavish corporate event hosted by the Sandesaras oil company in Nigeria, where Mr Sandesara claims that his oil companies contribute 2% to the Nigerian exchequer. And, yet, they want a settlement in India without paying interest and have almost got away with it. YouTube Video On 22 February 2021, a Supreme Court bench of justice Rohington Fali Nariman and justice BR Gavai disposed Richmond Investments petition without granting the extension of time requested by the Sandesaras. If the group pays up the balance of Rs3,110 crore, offered as OTS by the end of this month, they will regain control over their company even while accusing India for persecution. More on this later. Earlier, on 25 April 2019, the attorney generals office in Nigeria, writing to Sterling Global Oil Resources Ltd on the extradition of the four absconders, said that after a careful review of the matter, it has rejected Indias extradition request because the offences allegedly committed by the persons appear political in nature which is a condition of refusal of extradition in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The letter is signed by the Chief State Counsel. The case of the fourth promoter, Hiteshkumar Patel, took a slightly different trajectory. On 21 March 2019, he was actually arrested in the Republic of Albania based on an Interpol red alert. The red alert was based on a warrant issued by a magistrates court, Delhi, in January 2019, under the prevention of money laundering charge related to Sterling Biotech. Mr Patel appears to have spent over 40 days in house arrest. The hearing of his matter in Albania referred to the Nigerian government rejecting the extradition of the Sandesara family for various reasons including malfunctioning of banking service. The fugitives have sought political asylum on the grounds of fear of political and religious persecution. On 3 July 2019, an Albanian court set Mr Patel free from house arrest, returned his passport and identification documents, and refused extradition on the grounds of his political persecution because of religious beliefs. Papers submitted in the Supreme Court by Richmond Investments show that Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara had also obtained a formal letter from Interpol that he was not subject to any notice or order! How Sandesaras Want To Regain Control from Nigeria In a recent court filing, Richmond Investments (of the Sandesaras) claims that it has paid back Rs1,332 crore, which is allegedly more than the disbursed amount. However, due to certain policy factors and reasons beyond control, they have bad loans (remember they argued in Nigeria that it is due to our faulty banking system). Readers can draw their own conclusion from the claim that Sterling Biotech remains a well-run company with Rs100 crore available in bank balances and Rs180 crore in working capital and thousands of employees. And, yet, there are absolutely no bidders for the company, except a capsules manufacturer, who had offered Rs360 crore, which is less than the liquidation value arrived atof Rs420 crore. This is probably one of the biggest mysteries in Indian business that nobody wants to unravel, least of all PSBs who only act on political orders. Sterling Biotech had offered Rs3,110 crore as OTS which is about 35% of what it owed banks with interest (Rs8,100 crore). The group, as a whole, owed banks Rs15,600 crore two years ago, on which interest would have only increased). Money was to be generated from investors in Dubai and cash-flow from its Nigerian businesses. For the first time, court documents name a Dubai-based investor, Al Khoory Holding Ltd, as willing to invest in Sterling. It had already made an initial payment of Rs167 croreand then paid Rs204 crore moremaking total of Rs371 crore that has been paid upfront. It is alleged that several lenders delayed formal acceptance of the OTS for a year, allowing the Sandesaras to drag repayment by blaming banks. These delays also warrant a vigilance inquiry. But the Sandesaras used the delay and the COVID pandemic to demand time until 31 March 2021 (at a consortium meeting on 4 August 2020). This also diluted the terms, allowing them to pay 75% of the settlement money. But this is apparently not good enough. The group asked for another 15 months to make the payment, dangling the carrot of a 20% upfront payment (amounting to Rs528 crore) by 31 March 2021. They approached the Supreme Court with a request to pay the balance 80% in four instalments by 31 March 2022 in four quarterly instalmentsstarting June 2021. Since clearances by investigative agencies were also involved, banks also pushed the decision to the Supreme Court. Sterling Biotech accuses investigation agencies of launching frivolous prosecution and placing roadblocks to the settlement. It is important to remember that Sterling Biotech is only one of the companies run by these fugitive economic offenders in India . Their Nigerian operations continue to do business with government-owned Indian oil companies and their companies in India and abroad include Sterling Global Oil Resources Pvt Ltd Mauritius (SGORPL), Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL), Sterling SEZ & Infrastructure Ltd (SSEZ), Sterling Port Ltd (SPL) and PMT Machines Ltd (PMT). Clearly, the Sandesaras and the Sterling group as defaulters, with thriving businesses overseas, are on a completely different plane from others and even get away by ridiculing the country and its systems without drawing any political anger or action! At a time when the government is set to privatise public sector companies and lenders use strong-arm tactics with small borrowers, this massive give-away to politically exposed private sector companies is downright scandalous. A bankruptcy official is eyeing up Sean Dunnes 700,000 pension after the property developer failed to make payments into his estate. The former multi-millionaire has claimed he could not afford to comply with a 2018 High Court order requiring him to make monthly payments of 7,000 for a period of 32 months to the Official Assignee in Bankruptcy. Now lawyers for Official Assignee Michael Ian Larkin have questioned whether the 224,000 owed could be taken from a pension Mr Dunne moved to the UK last year. Any move to access the pension is set to be resisted by Mr Dunne (66), who says there is a worldwide stay on creditors getting access to it. The development is the latest twist in the protracted dual bankruptcy of the one-time Celtic Tiger developer, who has been subject to bankruptcy processes in both Ireland and the US since 2013. The Official Assignee issued contempt proceedings against him last year over his failure to make the payments. However, that application was adjourned after Mr Dunne, who now lives in Surrey, England, filed a motion seeking to vary the bankruptcy payment order. The hearing opened last December but went in camera following an application from the Official Assignees counsel Edward Farrelly SC, arising from matters referred to by Mr Dunne in an affidavit. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys ordered there could be no reporting of the contents of the affidavit. The hearing finally resumed in public at a virtual court sitting on Monday when details of a pension worth 706,000 were disclosed. Mr Farrelly told Mr Justice Humphreys information previously provided by Mr Dunne suggested it could not be drawn down until he reached the age of 72. But he said this condition had now essentially been dropped and it appeared the pension could actually be drawn on from the age of 55. The barrister said there was a suggestion the Official Assignee cant get the pension under English law. But he said this was not the point as a pension is considered assessable income for the purposes of a bankruptcy payments order (BPO) in Ireland. The question before the court at the moment is whether it is assessable income for the purposes of reducing the BPO already made, he said. Mr Farrelly said that even if there were tax implications from drawing on the pension, whatever would be left over would more than cover the 224,000 owed. During the hearing, the barrister also accused Mr Dunne of a lack of disclosure regarding his current income and expenditure. Mr Dunne, who represented himself, rejected the allegation. He said his income when the BPO was made was 13,000 a month and that this was all being expended on legal fees at the time. Since then, his employment had been terminated and he was now earning just 200 a month. He said he had also been receiving money from his ex-wife, former journalist Gayle Killilea, but this was spent on the upbringing of their children. Holding up a bank statement supplied to the Official Assignee, he said: I get my money into my NatWest bank account. I dont have any other bank account. I dont have any other credit card. Mr Dunne told the judge he fully declared the pension in 2013 and it had been given a worldwide exclusion from his bankruptcy by his US trustee. It was only as a very, very last gambit, throw of the dice, that Mr Farrelly and the OA [Official Assignee] came in over the hill at the beginning of last year looking for the pension when I had taken steps to relocate it. Before adjourning the matter, Mr Justice Humphreys said he required an unambiguous clarification, ideally via affidavit, on whether Mr Dunne can draw on the pension now. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. 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Digital Editor The National Testing Agency (NTA) has released an official notification inviting applications for the recruitment of various Non-Teaching posts in Delhi University (DU). The willing and interested candidates can apply online for NTA DU Recruitment 2021 by going to the official website recruitment.nta.nic.in before 16 March 2021. NTA DU Recruitment 2021: Vacancy Details There are a total of 1145 vacancies that need to be filled as part of NTA DU Recruitment 2021. The recruitment is for various Non-Teaching posts including Junior Assistant, Personal Assistant, Senior Technical Assistant, Junior Engineer, Technical Assistant, Stenographer, Library Attendant, Lab Attendant, and many other posts. NTA DU Recruitment 2021: Eligibility Criteria Educational Qualification: The candidate should be at least Class 10th pass, or must hold a degree in Graduation, Post Graduation, or equivalent from any relevant institute in the respective discipline. The candidates must check the official notification PDF to know the post-wise educational qualifications at the end of this article. Age Limit: The age of the candidate must be between 27 years to 45 years of age. There are different age limits for each non-teaching post. The candidates must check the official notification PDF. CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Various Non-Teaching Post Organisation Delhi University (DU) Educational Qualification Class 12 pass, Graduate, Post Graduate, Other Qualification Experience Refer to the official notification Job Responsibilities null Skills Required null Job Location Delhi Salary Scale As per norms Industry Education Application Start Date February 23, 2021 Application End Date March 16, 2021 NTA DU Recruitment 2021: Selection Process The candidates who are applying for NTA DU Recruitment 2021 for various non-teaching posts will be selected on the basis of an Online Test followed by a Personality Test or Interview, and a Skill Test. NTA DU Recruitment 2021: Application Fee The application fee for the NTA DU Recruitment 2021 for various Non-Teaching posts is Rs. 1000 for General or unreserved candidates, whereas for OBC candidates the application fee is Rs. 800 and for SC/ST is Rs. 600. Also Read: RRI Recruitment 2021 Notification For Project Engineer Posts, E-mail Applications Before March 31 NTA DU Recruitment 2021: How To Apply The interested candidates can apply for NTA DU Recruitment 2021 through online mode. The candidates should visit the official website recruitment.nta.nic.in and select the Recruitment option. Then fill up all the details along with the required documents and submit the application form to complete the application process. The last date to submit the application form online is 16 March 2021. Download the NTA DU Recruitment 2021 notification PDF for Various Non-Teaching Posts here Australians will be able to read news on Facebook from tomorrow after the tech giant backed down and agreed to pay for content before the negotiating rules were enshrined in law. The landmark bill received the final tick of approval on Thursday when parliament's lower house agreed to the government's changes, which were made after negotiations with Facebook and Google. Speaking to Jim Wilson on 2GB later that afternoon, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the social media company would restore local news from Friday after banning content last week. Mr Frydenberg said the code would ensure media companies were fairly paid for content. Facebook has agreed to restore Australian news on its site after agreeing to pay for content 'The code provides a framework for good faith negotiations between the parties and a fair and balanced arbitration process to resolve outstanding disputes,' he said on Thursday. The announcement comes after a tumultuous battle between the Australian government and the tech giants who both threatened to limit services across the nation if the bill was passed. The social media platform was condemned by politicians and users around the world after it blocked 25million Australians from viewing and sharing news articles on February 18 amid a dispute about the terms of the code. The 'arrogant and disgraceful' move - which also banned charity, health authority and emergency service pages - came after Australia's ground-breaking news media bargaining code passed the lower house of Parliament on February 17. Following talks with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, the government made some last-minute changes to the law before it was finalised on Thursday which appeased the tech giant and convinced it to undo the ban. The code will no longer automatically apply and digital platforms will be given more time to negotiate payment with media organisations. Facebook has advised the government it will restore Australian news pages 'within the coming days'. Pictured: CEO Mark Zuckerberg with wife Priscilla Chan Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims is confident the heavily amended code will still curtail the immense market power of digital platforms. 'Google and Facebook need media but they don't need any particular company and that (previously) meant media companies couldn't do commercial deals with Facebook or Google,' he told ABC radio on Thursday. 'The purpose of the code is to give them the potential for arbitration, which helps their bargaining position, and therefore helps them reach fair commercial deals.' So far, large media organisations including News Corp and Nine have been the main beneficiaries of deals struck with the online behemoths. Mr Sims is not surprised. 'In any situation like this you would expect deals to be done with the bigger players first and then work down the list,' he said. Google responded to the new law by striking multi-million deals but Facebook banned Australians from viewing news on its website last week in a 'disgraceful' protest at the new rules. Pictured: Posts were blocked on the Daily Mail Australia Facebook page 'Given this is supporting journalism, it's naturally going to see more money going to those who've got the most journalists but I don't see any reason why anybody should doubt that all journalism will benefit.' Mr Sims expects the online giants to seal deals with smaller players in time. 'I just don't see why Google and Facebook would leave them out,' he said. 'I couldn't see why you wouldn't do deals with them, given it's not going to cost you that much compared to what it's going to cost for those that employ the vast bulk of journalists.' The prime minister likened the media bargaining code to a tax crackdown on multinational companies that sparked a protest from Amazon. 'They left in protest and they came crawling back because our government held its ground,' he told parliament. 'We are not going to let big tech companies take a free ride on our free press.' 'Holding these companies to account shows the strength of resolve of our government to stand up for the things that are important to Australia.' Google threatened to pull its search engine from Australian users before backing down and striking multiple deals worth millions of dollars with media companies. In recent weeks, it has brokered agreements with News Corp, Nine Entertainment, Guardian Australia and Seven West Media. Facebook signed an in-principle agreement with Seven West Media after the government agreed to change its landmark code. Leone wasn't convinced. "I am very familiar with Mr. Jones' case," Leone said. "I just think he plays the system, a little bit." Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann opposed the request for a competency exam, and while not recommending a specific sentence to the court, said, "If we reward people for fleeing, we'll have a lot more people fleeing." Canzano asked the court to take Jones' age and health into consideration, calling him "somewhat pathetic and obviously suffering from physical and mental ailments." He requested a sentence of either time served or county jail time of less than a year. Jones also addressed the court, denying his guilt in the underlying conviction, and claiming he was a victim of politics because of his role in the 1990s as a Cayuga County Conservative Party chairman. After hearing from both attorneys and Jones, Leone issued his sentence, which was the original prison term the defendant faced when convicted in 1997. "The court's certainly not going to reward Mr. Jones, or any other defendant, for being on the lam for over two decades," Leone said. In a rare move, environmental authorities in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, have fined dozens of citizens and businesses for disposing of plastic and other waste in the city's rivers and canals and along their banks. They've also promised to beef up the monitoring of waterways in an effort to deter polluters. Counterterrorism special forces are seen at London Bridge in London, on June 3, 2017. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Radical Extremists Operate With Impunity Online, New Laws Needed, UK Watchdog Says Extremists can pro-actively glorify terror, openly promulgate anti-democratic ideologies, and radicalize others onlineyet still stay within the law, a UK watchdog warned on Wednesday. Theres a gaping chasm in the law that allows such extremist activity, the Commission for Countering Extremism said in a review scrutinizing existing legislation. It called for a new legal framework to tackle the radicalization threat. An extremist cant be prosecuted for grooming others unless they are encouraging the commission, preparation, or instigation of specific acts of terrorism, the review (pdf) said. Not only have our laws failed to keep pace with the evolving threat of modern-day extremism, current legal boundaries allow extremists to operate with impunity, Sir Mark Rowley, former head of the UKs counter-terrorism policing, and the reviews co-author, said in a statement. During the course of conducting this review, I have been shocked and horrified by the ghastliness and volume of hateful extremist materials and behavior which is lawful in Britain, he said. Actively Radicalizing Others Extremist groups are actively radicalizing others and are openly propagating for the erosion of our fundamental democratic rights, said lead Commissioner Sara Khan. Their aim is to subvert our democracy, she said. This is a threat to our civilized democratic order, which cannot be taken for granted and requires a robust, necessary, and proportionate legal response, she added. Commenting on the Commissions review, CEO of International Corporate Protection Group and counter-terrorism expert, Will Geddes, told The Epoch Times that during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, terrorist groups have not been able to operate as they normally would. But one of their mainstays is to try to recruit people to their cause, he said. This particular report addresses how certain materials can be promoted online, almost lawfully, as its currently set within the legal parameters available to us, which can potentially be utilized as those recruitment tools. Recruited individuals could then be incited to carry out hateful and terrorist activities, he said. Geddes praised the report for navigating the ambiguities of defining what is a direct incitement to terrorist acts and what falls within the sphere of radicalization. Where this report has worked quite efficiently is in determining that certain materials, even if they are not inciting directly terrorist or hateful action, if they are congregated by a particular group that is deemed to have only one agenda, and that agenda is hateful, or terrorist-related, that those materials would be deemed as the tools and the ammunition to promote their ideals, he said. If you have an individual that is collating and gathering and distributing materials that are very exclusive, rather than inclusive, those could be prismed as a particular philosophy, approach, and agenda, he added. Terrorist Propaganda Mathew Dryden, a research fellow in the Radicalisation and Terrorism Centre at the Henry Jackson Society think tank, meanwhile welcomed the reviews attempt to tackle gaps in the current law. The report is looking at ways to close some of those loopholes that currently exist that allow the preaching, for example, or the spreading of extremist or terrorist propaganda, without legal ramifications, he told The Epoch Times. Both Geddes and Dryden identified a need for social media to be on board in the fight against extremism online. Geddes said that while many social media platforms will take a very draconian approach to, for example, the circulation of pedophile material, terrorist material can have moral ambiguities depending on the audience that is reading it. Its therefore important, he said, to ensure that those extremists sending clear messaging in praise of terrorism be categorized as harshly as those promulgating pedophile materials and be decisively shut down by online platforms. Dryden meanwhile said that some of the bigger tech platforms had done great work in taking some quite extraordinary steps to protect people from accessing harmful material online. However, some of the smaller alt-tech platforms had failed to sanction even particularly vicious and hateful content, he said. It will be interesting to see how, if at all, those types of platforms choose to or are mandated to assist with that material, he said. The review titled Operating with Impunity-Hateful Extremism: The Need for a Legal Framework suggests the governments nascent Online Harms Bill be revised to include a robust legal framework for dealing with hateful extremism and to provide clarity for both social media companies and the future regulator, Ofcom. We believe praising and glorifying terrorists and their murderous actions help create a climate that is conducive to terrorism and such extremist activity should be outlawed as part of a new legal hateful extremism framework, it said. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. City businessman and aspiring politician Alinur Mohammed has clarified his relationship with celebrity media personality Betty Kyallo saying he is her mentor. Alinur, who is eyeing the Kamukunji parliamentary seat, burst into the limelight in January last year when he was rumoured to be the mysterious Somali Guy Betty was dating. Speaking on Radio Jambo recently, Alinur reiterated that they are not an item. Im not in a relationship with Betty. Im a family man, a father of two. Sisi kama waislamu tunapewa nafasi nne, we dont do things chini ya maji. We do things out in the public, he said. His host, Ali Baba, further asked what his role was in Kyallos life saying: We can say you are the mentor to Betty Kyallo? To which the aspiring politician responded: Yes, exactly. Alinur Mohammed also confirmed Betty Kyallo has political ambitions to succeed Nairobi women rep Esther Passaris. Betty Kyallo is a good friend of mine, we talk often, and everyone knows she was a media personality. Yes, she wants to run for the seat for women representative in Nairobi. Last September, Betty Kyallo opened about her political ambitions in an interview with Churchill. I will definitely join politics and it is the next thing Im looking forward to doing. For TV, I think I have done whatever I wanted to do on Mainstream, there is just one thing I want to do that before I go into politics, I have always wanted to have a talk show like Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres who are my role models in terms of the industry I am in. I have always wanted to have a stage where I have my audience, beautiful stageso am looking for people to sponsor me I want to talk to real people, she said. It(politics) is in my plan, I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve so far and there are a few things I need to do; package myself and think about what is it that I want to run for, but I will do it, added Betty. Im not yet sure what I want to do but I will do it. I dont want to start just mentioning names here, which title or leadership position but I will do it because I have something to offer and I also have young people who want young people to represent themI am very certain that if God wants me to do it, you will see me on a ballot in a town near you. Cyber threats across commercial and government enterprises appear to be so common that seldom do we see major stories on the topic. The past couple of weeks were an exception, as gas stations along the East Coast ran out of fuel supplies, thanks to the paralyzing cyberattack on null The scent of spring can already be smelled in China as cherry blossoms bloom in Wuhan, rape flowers charm tourists in Anhui, and tulips bloom in Zhejiang. Last year, Chinese people were unable to meet the beautiful spring outdoors due to the COVID-19 epidemic. But now, spring has arrived again as scheduled. People can once again go outside and enjoy the birds' twitter and fragrance of flowers. Winter will always end and spring will come. Spectators are such a big part of Cheltenham but the famous roar as the tape drops for the Supreme Novices Hurdle on Day 1 will have to come from our own front rooms. The festival will take place behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions but Irish horses will be able to travel and they will present formidable opposition for the UK charges. Currently, Willie Mullins trains half of the ante-post favourites across the 28 races of the festival for 2021. The Carlow handler has already stood on the winners' podium 72 times at Prestbury Park, including to pick up the coveted Gold Cup in the last two years with Al Boum Photo. He trains the favourite for the very first race on the card this year in APPRECIATE IT (7/4) who should win to get punters off to a good start from their sofas. His only defeats for Willie Mullins came on debut back in 2019 at Fairyhouse and at Cheltenham last year when his colours were lowered by Ferny Hollow in the Champion Bumper. Since then, he has looked iron clad over hurdles, winning three from three, including at the Dublin Racing Festival in February where he stamped his authority on a good field which included Ballyadam, currently third in the betting market for the Supreme. Another of the Irish brigade could pose a serious threat; that being Bob Olinger, trained by Waterford's Henry De Bromhead. He's currently 12/1 and a good each-way option. Also on the first day, Tuesday, March 16, it could be the battle of the mares in the Unibet Champion Hurdle. Last year's impressive winner Epatante is back to defend her crown with Ireland's great white hope coming in the form of the unbeaten HONEYSUCKLE (3/1). Epatante lost some of her allure when she laboured to a defeat at the hands of the admirable Silver Streak at Kempton over Christmas. Silver Streak is a good yardstick and was 6th in last year's Champion Hurdle but is no superstar and had six lengths to spare over Nicky Henderson's super mare. Honeysuckle is the favourite here but is still decent value at 3/1. With an unbeaten record stretching back over 11 races, you have to stick with her. I would be wary of the enigmatic Goshen who could be brilliant as he was in beating Song For Someone by 22 lengths last month, or he'll throw all the toys out of the pram and get pulled up halfway round. If you want an eachway punt, Silver Streak is reliable and will give you a run for your money, no doubt. The feature on Wednesday is the Queen Mother Champion Chase, a race the Irish have enjoyed success in over the years with the likes of Sizing Europe, Big Zeb and Special Tiara most recently. This year it pits stalwart Altior against Willie Mullins' latest machine, Chacun Pour Soi, who is already odds on at 4/6 for the race. Altior has lost twice in recent times, somewhat diminishing his impenetrable reputation. Having said that, his Cheltenham record is flawless and a swansong in the twilight of his career can't be ruled out. It's not original to pick the favourite but CHACUN POUR SOI (4/6) will win this barring disaster. He is as good a chaser as Willie Mullins has had in recent times, and he's had some good ones. Chacun Por Soi showed his class in spades against a good field at the Dublin Racing Festival when he eased eight lengths clear of Fakier D'Oudaries. It will take something extraordinary to beat him and if there was a danger, it could be the teak-tough Politologue who won this race in 2020. On Thursday, March 18, the Stayers Hurdle takes centre stage and it's being billed as a match between Thyme Hill and Paisley Park. I will be backing two horses in this race but it won't be either of those at the prices. If ever a horse was named for the Irish at Cheltenham, even though we won't be on-course, it is FLOORING PORTER (16/1) for Gavin Cromwell. The Meath trainer is no stranger to Cheltenham glory after training 2019 Champion Hurdle winner Espoir D'Allen and Champion Hurdle third Darver Star in 2020. The Stayers is a funny old race and had a 50/1 winner last year, and a 12/1 and 10/1 winner in 2018 and 2017 respectively. The favourites can falter in this race so it's worth delving deeper into the field. That's why Flooring Porter is a good eachway bet at 16/1, not to mention his strong form. He made a very good impression in beating The Bosses Oscar at Navan last December but really announced himself in this sphere with a six-length success over The Storyteller in Leopardstown's Christmas Hurdle. He made all that day and could employ similar tactics to run the legs out of his opponents at Cheltenham. Another interesting contender is GREAT WHITE SHARK (40/1) who could pitch up here after a disappointing run at Gowran in January. What I like about this horse is his course form. He was third at a big price in last year's Martin Pipe, not to mention the fact he's trained by the master, Willie Mullins, who has won this race twice in the last four years with Penhill and Nichols Canyon. Another piece of form you can't ignore with this one is his win in last summer's Guinness Handicap Hurdle at Galway. He beat My Sister Sarah and Flooring Porter over 2M 6F that day, a more than eye-catching performance. You will have to put a line through his 62-length defeat at Gowran in January but that may be worth doing in this case. On Friday, March 19, AL BOUM PHOTO (5/2) will aim to emulate Arkle and Best Mate in winning three Cheltenham Gold Cups. I genuinely hope he does it for Willie Mullins who waited until this horse's win in 2019 to get his hands on the Gold Cup. He is the quintessential Gold Cup horse now and so lightly raced for that very reason; to have him primed for Prestbury Park. He is going into the race this year with an identical prep to last year. In 2020, he beat Acapella Bourgeois at Tramore on New Year's Day before going to Cheltenham and winning the Gold Cup in March. Again in 2021, he raced and won at Tramore on New Year's Day; he even beat the same horse in Acapella Bourgeois, only this time by further. He now heads straight to Cheltenham and it will take something special to stop him. The story the UK contingent will be hoping for the horse named after AP McCoy and trained by Nicky Henderson to prevail. CHAMP (7/1) was dead and buried, fully 10 lengths behind the leaders jumping the last in the RSA last season, but somehow managed to reel in and beat Allaho and Minella Indo on the line. The field couldn't run down Al Boum Photo up the hill in the last two years but if one horse can, it's Champ, and what a story it would be for AP McCoy and owner JP McManus. You can follow daily tips from Cheltenham on our website from March 16 to March 19. Swelling of lymph nodes in the armpit area is a normal response to COVID-19 vaccinations, but when they are seen on mammograms, they can be mistaken for nodes that are swollen because of cancer. In some cases, the nodes are biopsied to confirm they are not cancer. To avoid confusion by patients and their providers, and to avoid delays in either vaccinations or recommended mammograms through the pandemic, radiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have published an approach to manage what is expected to be a fairly common occurrence as vaccination programs ramp up. The approach is described in the American Journal of Roentgenology. We had started to see more patients in our breast imaging clinic with enlarged lymph nodes on mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging. And we noticed they were coming to our clinic after a recent COVID-19 vaccination. We talked with our colleagues in primary care and in our breast cancer specialty clinics and realized we needed a clear plan for management." Constance Lehman, MD, PhD, Study Lead Author and Director, Breast Imaging, Co-director, Avon Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center, Massachusetts General Hospital The team's goals were to develop a program that supported patients to continue to engage in vaccination programs while also ensuring that patients continued to receive their routine health care needs, such as breast cancer screening. It was also important to reassure patients that swollen lymph nodes in the armpit is a normal and expected finding after vaccination. The group's approach is based on three principles: 1) encouraging COVID-19 vaccination; 2) reducing and/or eliminating delays, cancellations, and rescheduling of breast imaging exams; and 3) reducing unnecessary additional imaging and/or biopsies of lymph nodes that have become swollen from recent vaccination. "In addition to avoiding delays in vaccinations and breast cancer diagnoses, we hope that our model will reduce patient anxiety, health care provider burden, and costs of unnecessary evaluations of enlarged lymph nodes after vaccinations," says Lehman. Lehman and her colleagues--including co-authors Leslie Lamb, MD, MSc, and Helen Anne D'Alessandro, MD--stress that no additional imaging tests are needed for swollen lymph nodes after recent vaccinations unless the swelling persists or if the patient has other health issues. This message should be communicated to both imaging staff and patients. Patient letters may read: "The lymph nodes in your armpit area that we see on your mammogram are larger on the side where you had your recent COVID-19 vaccine. Enlarged lymph nodes are common after the COVID-19 vaccine and are your body's normal reaction to the vaccine. However, if you feel a lump in your armpit that lasts for more than six weeks after your vaccination, you should let your health care provider know." Lehman notes that drastic declines in screening mammography and breast cancer diagnoses are well documented across multiple health care institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "This disruption of breast cancer screening is likely to result in a significant increase in cancers diagnosed at late stages and an increased demand for cancer screening procedures as delayed tests are rescheduled," she says. "We believe our model can avoid reducing or delaying vaccinations and avoid further reduced or delayed breast cancer diagnoses based on confusion amongst patients and/or their providers." 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! Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova has been appointed to serve as a United Nations goodwill ambassador and will use her new position to promote women's health and end stigmas surrounding menstruation. "For too long, society's approach to menstruation and women's health has been defined by taboo and stigma," Vodianova said on February 24 after her appointment was announced. "Menstruation is a normal bodily function. As UNFPA goodwill ambassador, I want to work to build a world where we no longer need to explain this," she told reporters in a videoconference. Vodianova, 38, will be a campaigner for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said the agency's executive director, Natalia Kanem. Vodianova, who has worked with UNFPA for the last three years, has focused on "breaking harmful taboos and tackling the stigmas that surround women's bodies and health, including menstrual health," Kanem said. Vodianova said she was honored to be named a UN goodwill ambassador and said she looked forward to continuing her work to tackle the "myths and taboos" that women, girls, and vulnerable young people live with and "raise the standards of womens health and dignity." In some parts of the world girls and women who are menstruating may face exclusion from public life and may lack access to menstruation products, according to the UNFPA. Vodianova said such products were a "right for women, not just something nice to have." As a model for the past 20 years, Vodianova, who lives in Paris and is nicknamed Supernova, has traveled the world working for luxury fashion brands such as Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, and Stella McCartney. Vodianova was raised in poverty by a single mother with a half-sister who has cerebral palsy and autism. She founded the Naked Heart Foundation to help children with special needs and their families and is a member of the Special Olympics International board of directors. Based on reporting by AFP and AP A new measure introduced in the House Thursday would waive fees for family members of Purple Heart recipients seeking to become American citizens, saving them hundreds of dollars. The Sergeant First Class Javier Gutierrez Purple Heart Survivor Naturalization Fee Relief Act of 2021 -- introduced by Florida Republican Rep. Michael Waltz and California Democrat Rep. Salud Carbajal -- would eliminate processing fees for parents, spouses and children of service members who were awarded the Purple Heart. Read Next: Navy Officer Who Lived with Prostitutes in Bahrain Has Sentence Partly Overturned by Appeals Court "The very least we can do to help these Purple Heart and Gold Star families is to help them become Americans," Waltz said in a statement. Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Green Beret in the National Guard, noted that this bill won't speed up the citizenship process for families or eliminate steps; it's strictly intended to waive fees. The fee to submit the I-360, a petition for American citizenship, is $435. The N-400, an application for naturalization, requires a $640 fee. The fee to process biometrics, including fingerprints, is $85. Waltz doesn't foresee many obstacles to the bill's passage, but told Military.com it could eventually be tied to the next National Defense Authorization Act, the yearly must-pass measure that directs funding and policy priorities for the Pentagon. It's common for military legislation to be stapled to the NDAA to ease its passing into law. "While we've introduced this separately and will get support, I suspect at the end of the day this will be a component of the defense bill," Waltz said. Gutierrez, the bill's namesake, was a Green Beret killed in an insider attack in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province Feb. 8, 2020. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group out of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Sgt. 1st Class Antonio R. Rodriguez was also killed in the attack. Both men were 28 years old. Six other U.S. service members were wounded. Gutierrez's widow, Elena, became a legal permanent resident last year and will remain so for five years until she can become a citizen. "We appreciate that this bill is one less worry for families like ours," Elena Gutierrez said in a statement. "We miss him dearly but are tremendously proud of the honorable life he lived." -- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon. Related: The US Military May Dodge Significant Budget Cuts, to the Ire of Progressives Iraqi Christians are looking forward to the upcoming Papal Visit on March 5-8, 2021 after being years of devastation from IS persecution, a report says. The Christian communities in Iraq suffered severely when the Islamic State attacked in 2014 causing the death of many while millions flee into foreign lands as far as Germany and Australia, and less than 500,000 to return and remain to rebuild their lives, the Associated Press reported. Places that the Pope will be going to in Iraq, the Associated Press pointed out, are already setup with Iraqi and Vatican flags, as well as, flags with the Pope's image on it with his apostolic visit coming in two weeks time. These signs give hope to the Iraqi communities that they "are not alone," which the Pope's upcoming visit wishes to convey. "You're not alone. There's someone who is thinking of you, who is with you. And these signs are so important. So important," stressed Vatican Development Office Undersecretary Monsignor Segundo Tejado Munoz to the Associated Press. The Associated Press said that when the IS onslaught took place, Iraqi homes were ransacked while buildings were charred or pulverized along the lost of lives and the scattering of the Christians who fled for their lives, leaving areas such as the Nineveh Plains much like a ghost town. As per the Associated Press, the Vatican and the Pope have frequently pushed for the preservation of Iraq's ancient Christian communities and have extended help by coordinating a Catholic non-governmental organization network to restore Iraq and provide needs such as education and health care to both Christians and Muslims, which is also a way to restore interfaith dialogue and balance. The Pope's visit is one way to strengthen that interfaith dimension alongside restoring hope to the Christian communities there. "People want to look for a better future for their families, so you can't stop them if they have the intention of going somewhere else. But at least we try to create the conditions they might return," Tejado raised. According to Vatican News, the Pope announced last December 7 of his plans to visit Iraq to fulfill the dream of St. Pope John Paul II who wanted to visit it in 1999 but wasn't able to do so due to security reasons brought by Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi government, as per Vatican News, invited the pontiff last July 2019 to visit Iraq in the hope of restoring the country "from years of strife" that originally began because of th 2003 US-led invasion. The Pope's announcement of coming to Iraq was well appreciated by its government who called it as a "historic event". "It symbolizes a message of peace to Iraq and the whole region," Iraq's foreign ministry told Vatican News in an article posted on February 19. In line with the upcoming apostolic visit of the Pope, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako called on everyone to continue to pray for the safety of the pontiff and called on the media to "more positive and supportive of everything that would make this visit a success". He also reminded everyone that the Pope is coming to Iraq not "to solve all the problems" of the country since that is "the responsibility of the Iraqi government". Vatican News highlighted that Sako has composed a prayer for the Pope's visit and has asked Iraqi churches to recite it since January 17. During his informal conversation with a group of journalists from the US Bishop's Conference, particularly from the Catholic News Service, Pope Francis expressed his desire to go to Iraq despite the coronavirus pandemic because "he wanted to show his closeness to the Iraqi people as Pope St. John Paul II had intended to do" besides speaking about media's role in building unity and the situation of the Catholic Church in the United States today. Dispute after claim no objection and no opposition in secret cross party assets group to auction of Kings Mills This article is old - Published: Thursday, Feb 25th, 2021 The row over the sale of Kings Mills by Wrexham Council has continued, with a claim from the council leader that a secret cross party group voiced no objection and no opposition to the auction. The sale of the building, which was first reported by Wrexham.com, resurfaced yesterday evening during the full council meeting during a question and answer exchange between the two councillors. Councillor Carrie Harper had submitted a question to be put at the start of the meeting about the sale, said Plaid Cymrus representative on the Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group had expected it to be heard at Executive Board before any decision was made. She also challenged the membership of that group and the transparency of the decision making process. Cllr Harper started: On the 29th of January Wrexham.com ran a story about the council putting up the Kings Mills for auction next month. For members who dont know, this is an 18th century corn mill in Abenbury, it sits between Caia Park and Hightown. The building was gifted to the council by the National Trust and it includes a covenant which states the building must be used as a public amenity for culture and heritage purposes. Before Cllr Harper could continue much further the Leader of the Council Mark Pritchard raised a point of order, pointing out that the question Cllr Harper was reading was not the one submitted and in-front of him, which he had prepared a response to. Cllr Harper disagreed with the point of order, pointing to the constitution of the council and noting it allowed her any preamble to the question as she liked as long as it was inside the five minutes allowed. The Legal Officer was asked for a view by the Mayor, who was told the constitution was not explicit in such matters, and therefore the Mayor could rule if an introduction was allowed or if a question must be as submitted. Cllr Harper added: There is no mechanism currently for us to scrutinise this as it stands. The only discussions that have taken place about the future of the building have happened in the Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group. Now, that group is not open to the public. But I have seen the papers relating to Kingsmills, and they say very clearly that the Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group intends to make a recommendation about the future of Kings Mills to the Executive Board. So thats there in black and white. But, it didnt go to the Executive Board. The only explanation weve had about that so far, is that sometimes things may go to the executive board, and sometimes they dont. Now, Kings Mills was also scheduled to go to the Executive Board in March last year, because it was on the Forward Work Program. But again, for some reason it didnt get there. But there was a clear expectation that there will be public scrutiny in terms of the future of that building, which hasnt happened. Cllr Harper described the process of asset sales as very unclear and inconsistent, adding: When you look at the makeup of Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group, it has got 10 members, with 6 of those members of the Executive Board, so those members have the majority. The only purpose of that group seems to be for the executive board members ultimately to make recommendations to themselves, that sometimes go for public scrutiny or sometimes dont. Cllr Harper announced that the Plaid Cymru group were now withdrawing from Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group, because there is no openness and transparency. She added: Instead of enabling that to happen a decision was taken to sell it off to the highest bidder at auction. There doesnt seem to be any clarity in terms of how that decision was made, and certainly no political accountability or public scrutiny because those decisions have been literally taken behind closed doors. So my question is, that our constitution state at the disposal of assets has to be done in an open and transparent manner manner. Can the lead member please explain what steps he plans to take to address these concerns? Council leader Mark Pritchard replied, initially appearing to read a prepared very formal statement but then moving to off the cuff comments. He explained: Disposal of assets is an Executive Board function, the responsibility of the Executive Board and in the scheme of delegation to Chief officers in the constitution, it is delegated to the Chief Officer of Housing and Economy under the following provision; in consultation with the lead member, and the local members, to agree the terms of any acquisition and or disposal of land and premises owned by or for use by the council including the final determination of boundaries. The Chief Housing Officer of Economy is exercising the delegation that follows the council approved procedures. In this instance, the decision has been made by the Chief Officer Housing and Economy exercising his delegated authority, following consultation, not only with the lead member and the local Ward member, but also the Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group, which met on the 13th of October 2020, which is a politically balanced group reporting to the executive board. A peek through the up to now closed doors of the Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group was offered by the council Leader, who said: There was political support for the disposal, and the exercise of the delegation by the Chief Housing and Economy was supported within the discussion and within that meeting. The council has a statutory duty under Section 123 Local Governments Act 1972 not to dispose of land or properties assets for considerable less than the best that can be reasonable be obtained without the consent of the Welsh Minister. Sale By auction is an open and transparent process and is accepted as an appropriate method of disposal to obtain the best consideration that can be reasonably be obtained. Moving to a more freestyle approach Cllr Pritchard added: Can I just add Mr Mayor that when it goes to auction all the covenants affecting the site will remain, and if theres a listing on it, the listing will be respected. I am a bit disappointed to be sitting here this evening explaining this procedure to Cllr Harper. She is fully aware of the process and I did say in my presentation, that Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group which met on the 13th of October, theres a representative from Cllr Harpers group on it. There was no objection, no discussion, not to allow it to go to auction. I do believe, because Ive asked for clarification, that the representative from Cllr Harpers group abstained. But there was no objection. There was no discussion and there was no opposition for it to go to auction. Speaking about the auction he added: I have to say this because I think its important that people of Wrexham understand that we have an obligation and a duty to get the best price and value for land and buildings. This group offered the council 10,000, and its been valued at 155,000 to go to auction. I have no problem in saying this evening, I fully support and endorse the recommendations of the Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group on the way they voted for it to go to auction. You cant have any more openness and transparency than for it to go to auction. What more can we do as a council and as elected members? I think theres a lot of untruths being said about the process but I am clarifying them here today. Cllr Harper fired back: The recommendation from Corporate Land and Building Strategy Group was that it was a decision, a recommendation, to the Executive Board. I have spoken to Cllr Gwenfair Jones, shes here she can clarify this herself, that it was her understanding. After reading the paperwork, its in black and white there, it was supposed to go to the Executive Board. As regards the groups offer of 10,000, youre talking about a community group, a group of volunteers who have entered She added that the site was being put on the auction block by a Manchester firm who is allegedly encouraging people to travel from anywhere to view that building on Friday with it claimed no virtual viewing has been offered. The Welsh Government guidance was pointed to, along with it noted people in Wrexham cant get in their cars and drive to this building, because were in a level four lockdown. Cllr Pritchard was asked, Is it sending the right message to be encouraging people to travel here from across the UK potentially, to view this building when selling it clearly isnt urgent, given it has sat empty since 2012?. The Council Leader explained he did not want to pass the buck and drag any officer into the row, but said it was an operational process and pointed Cllr Harper to enter correspondence with the Legal Officer. As we noted on the first article on this matter, Wrexham.com had been told the matter was on the agenda of the Wrexham Council Corporate Land and Buildings group last year and we asked Wrexham Council for a copy of the meeting papers relating to the disposal of the site, and if there were any attendee lists or outcomes. We noted that a 10,000 bid by a community group for the freehold was now in the public domain, along with the 155,000 starting price at auction plus a range of legal documents now viewable to anyone registering with the auctioneer. Wrexham Council told us: Corporate Land and Buildings Strategy Group is a confidential meeting. * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! Jerusalem: A real-world test of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in more than half a million people has confirmed that it's very effective at preventing serious illness or death, even after one dose. Results of the test that were published on Wednesday from a mass vaccination campaign in Israel have given strong reassurance that the benefits seen in smaller, limited testing persisted when the vaccine was used much more widely in a general population with various ages and health conditions. The vaccine was 92% effective at preventing severe disease after two shots and 62% after one. Its estimated effectiveness for preventing death was 72% two to three weeks after the first shot, a rate that may improve as immunity builds over time. It seemed as effective in folks over 70 as in younger people. This is immensely reassuring...Better than I would have guessed, said the Mayo Clinic's Dr Gregory Poland. Vanderbilt University's Dr Buddy Creech agreed: Even after one dose we can see very high effectiveness in the prevention of death, he said. Neither doctor had a role in the Israel study but both are involved in other coronavirus vaccine work. Both doctors also said the new results may boost consideration of delaying the second shot, as the United Kingdom is trying, or giving one dose instead of two to people who have already had COVID-19, as France is doing, to stretch limited supplies. I would rather see 100 million people have one dose than to see 50 million people have two doses, Creech said. I see a lot of encouragement on one dose in the results from Israel, which were published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, is given as two shots, three weeks apart, in most countries. The study was led by researchers from the Clalit Research Institute and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, with Harvard University in the US. It did not report on the safety of the vaccine, just effectiveness, but no unexpected problems arose in the previous testing. Researchers compared nearly 600,000 people 16 and older in Israel's largest health care organisation who were given shots in December or January to an equal number of people of similar age, sex and health who did not receive a vaccine. None of the participants had previously tested positive for the virus. The vaccine was estimated to be 57% effective at preventing any symptoms of COVID-19 two to three weeks after the first dose, and 94% a week or more after the second dose. Effectiveness was 74% after one shot and 87% after two for preventing hospitalisation, and 46% and 92% for preventing confirmed infection. Reducing infections gives hope that the vaccine may curb the spread of the virus, but this type of study can't determine if that's the case. There were 41 COVID-19-related deaths, 32 of them in people who did not get a vaccine. Overall, the numbers compare well to the 95% effectiveness after two doses that was seen in the limited testing that led US regulators to authorise the vaccine's emergency use, Poland said. How much benefit there would be from one dose has been a big question, and now there's some data to help inform the debate, he added. Maybe the right thing to do here to protect the most number of people...Is to give everybody one dose as soon as you can. I think that's a very acceptable strategy to consider, Poland said. Israel now has vaccinated nearly half of its population. A newer variant of the virus that was first identified in the United Kingdom became the dominant strain in Israel during the study, so the results also give some insight into how well the vaccine performs against it. Earlier this week, two UK studies suggested benefits even after one dose of the Pfizer vaccine or a different one from AstraZeneca. The UK is delaying the second shot for up to 12 weeks after the first one to try to give more people some level of protection. Live TV Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Jephthah was the illegitimate son of a man called Gilead. His mother was a prostitute. He grew up in a household with Gileads legitimate sons who later chased him away. You will not get any of our fathers inheritance, they said (Judges 11:2). So he ended up living in a cave. While there, he took a band of misfits and rebels and trained them to form an impressive army. When the Ammonites threatened Israel, the elders turned to him for help. But Jephthah said to them: Arent you the ones who hated me and drove me from my fathers house? Why do you come to me now when youre in trouble? Because we need you, the elders replied. If you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you ruler over all the people of Gilead (Judges 11:7-8). Not only did Jephthah lead them to victory, but hes also named with honor in the Bible along with other leaders like Abraham, Moses, and David. His life is rich with valuable lessons. Heres an important one that may be difficult to accept in the moment: Rejection can be part of Gods plan for your life. Jephthah was rejected for reasons beyond his control he was illegitimate. But instead of growing bitter, he moved forward and did something good with his life. The story of Jephthahs rejection and subsequent rise to rule over the same people that rejected him gives us a powerful lesson in how to move forward with those who have wronged us. When your trust has been violated, it can understandably be difficult to forgive. But by the same grace that God offers you, you must also forgive others when they have sinned against us Once we have shown grace, however, its perfectly reasonable that our trust must be earned. God does not expect us to place ourselves in positions where we will be hurt again. Your offender must show the fruit of repentance consistent behavior that gives evidence they have had a genuine change of heart. Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Luke, Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Perhaps youve heard the story of the guy who went to the doctor with a severe burn on his right ear. He explained, I was ironing and watching television when the phone rang, and I picked up the iron instead of the phone. Puzzled, the doctor said, But how did you get the burn on your left ear? The man exclaimed, Because he called back! Bottom line: when youve been burned by someone, be careful to avoid putting yourself in a position to be burned over and over again. Wisdom must be used when moving forward in the relationship. When Israels leaders turned to Jephthah for help, they were in distress and wanted to use him. So Jephthah said, in essence, Lets get an understanding of the type of relationship were going to have. At that point, he negotiated with them and ended up in a significant position of leadership. Jephthah immediately embraced the new relationship. Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: What do you have against me that you have attacked my country? (v. 12). Note the words me and my country. He put the hurts of his past behind him and fully embraced the cause of his brothers and fellow countrymen. One author writes of Jephthah, He was ready to walk in unity. And a unity walk requires unity talk. You would be surprised at the impact unity talk will have on your attitude and relationships. Youll find yourself being less critical of others once you make such team talk a habit. This doesnt mean youll always see eye to eye on every issue moving forward. It simply means the cause and the vision you share are greater and more important than your differences, and certainly more important than whats happened in the past. The Apostle Paul gives great advice that serves as the perfect capstone to a lesson like this when he tells us, Make every effort [youve got to work at it] to keep yourselves united in the Spirit [not necessarily in opinion], binding yourselves together with peace (Ephesians 4:3). Ukraine's president has appointed former finance minister Oksana Markarova as the country's new ambassador to the United States, the presidential office said on Thursday. "The president emphasized that the ambassador should focus primarily on establishing an effective dialogue with the administration of the new President of the United States of America Joe Biden," it said in a statement. Short link: To the Editor: Re For Migrants at Border Uncertainty Remains Even as Policies Shift (news article, Feb. 24): The government should not hold unaccompanied migrant children or youth in facilities in Carrizo Springs, Texas, or any other facility. Here is a proposal. Appoint each unaccompanied migrant child or youth an advocate to locate and investigate potential sponsors, preferably family; insist on the release of the child to this home, and stay in touch with the child and family for a year. The advocate should be bilingual (English and Spanish), smart, committed, diligent, assertive, savvy, resourceful, empathetic and assigned to work with only one child. One-on-one advocacy will help ensure that we dont lose any children. Independence is critical. We cant leave these tasks to any organization that profits from confining children. Finance Minister Scott Fielding consulted with Manitobas conflict-of-interest commissioner last week in relation to his wifes interest in a company accused of workplace turmoil. Finance Minister Scott Fielding consulted with Manitobas conflict-of-interest commissioner last week in relation to his wifes interest in a company accused of workplace turmoil. On Wednesday, the commissioner commented about the steps Fielding took and spoke generally about the need to modernize toothless old provincial legislation. "I think our legislation doesnt do anything near what it can," Jeffrey Schnoor said Wednesday. "Im hopeful we will move towards better legislation." In 2018, the conflict-of-interest commissioners 56-page report recommended how to modernize the "oldest and arguably the weakest conflict-of-interest legislation in Canada." In October, the Tories introduced Bill 21, the Conflict of Interest (Members and Ministers) and Related Amendments Act, that will fill some of the gaps in the current legislation, including having no restrictions on members and their families from accepting gifts and other such benefits. Right now, theyre only required to "disclose" gifts with a value over $250. The new bill requires MLAs and ministers to disclose their liabilities, as well as their interests and assets, with the clerk of the legislative assembly at the start of each session. In his 2018 report, the commissioner recommended having the disclosures posted online for the public. "There are no public announcements," Schnoor said. "Thats a weakness I address in my report." The public needs to know about potential conflicts in order to trust their elected representatives, he said. Every year before the legislative session starts, the commissioner will meet with each MLA to advise them on possible conflicts that may arise and what disclosures need to be filed. "Its to provide the public with information to be aware of any potential conflict that may arise in the future." In Fieldings case, he filed all the appropriate disclosures in October relating to his wife, Michelle Lalonde, being an owner of Tiber River Naturals. Last week, dozens of former and current employees of the Winnipeg wellness company took to social media to allege Tiber River operates a hostile, even abusive, working environment. Tiber River defended itself in a statement saying a human resources firm will conduct an independent assessment. Schnoor said Fielding, whose department handles labour issues and employment standards, called him early last week regarding concerns about Lalondes interest in Tiber River Naturals and workers complaints. "He told me he intended to provide written instructions to his deputy minister (that) any decision regarding the Tiber River matter not be brought to him," Schnoor said Tuesday after receiving permission from Fielding to share what theyd discussed in confidence. Any matter involving the company would be discussed and handled by someone other than Fielding, such as a deputy minister, Schnoor said. Critics charged that any workplace probe of Tiber River should involve independent investigators. NDP finance critic Mark Wasyliw said although the finance minister doesnt get involved at that level, a provincial investigator might be influenced just by knowing the finance minister is closely connected to the workplace. The commissioner said hes not aware of any jurisdiction with such regulations. "Ultimately, somebody has to be responsible," said Schnoor. "Anyone who drives a car in Manitoba is licensed by MPI... We dont say (to all cabinet ministers) You cant vote on MPI or anything to do with MPI rates." In his report on modernizing Manitobas conflict-of-interest law, Schnoor recommended more restrictions on the employment and activities of MLAs and ministers after they leave office one year for members and two years for ministers. Right now and in the proposed new legislation there is a one-year cooling-off period for both MLAs and ministers. The legislation would change the title of the job to ethics commissioner and allow them to investigate a complaint by an MLA about another member. The onus is still on Manitobans to file a complaint, said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont. A voter must file an affidavit showing details of an alleged conflict-of-interest violation by an MLA or minister. They then have to pay a $300 security for court costs, apply to a Court of Queens Bench judge for authorization to have a hearing before another judge of the court, to determine whether the member or minister has violated the act. Upon hearing the application, the judge will either grant authorization and the application is then heard by another QB judge or dismiss the application and order forfeiture of all or a part of the security. "No one has ever been caught under (Manitobas conflict-of-interest law) because the commissioner has no power of investigation and no sanctions," Lamont said. "The fact is that Manitoba conflict-of-interest laws, at least as far as MLAs and ministers are concerned, are the Wild West. We might as well not have any rules at all. "Right now it is completely possible, and it happens, that the government can vote for tax breaks for businesses that affect them. If theyre landlords, they can vote for things that benefit them as landlords. If they own an insurance company, they can target PST reductions." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 04:20:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People wearing face masks walk on a street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Feb. 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz) -- Iran bans travels to 4 provinces, 7 cities to curb COVID-19; -- Iraq expects new batches of vaccines on Saturday; -- Israel enters 3-day curfew as holiday falls; -- Syria gets vaccines from "friendly country." CAIRO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in Iran surpassed 1.6 million on Thursday after 8,206 new infections were confirmed. Meanwhile, Iraq issued new restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said the total number of COVID-19 cases in Iran surged to 1,607,081, while its death toll climbed by 94 to 59,830. The Iranian police announced on Thursday a travel ban on four provinces and seven cities to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The four provinces include the Khuzestan Province bordering Iraq, and the northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan, as well as Teymour Hosseini. The Iranian authorities have also banned travels to the tourist cities of Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Kish, and Qeshm to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Also on Thursday, Iranian health officials started vaccinating elderly people, war veterans and nursing home workers against COVID-19. Soldiers are seen during the full curfew in Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 19, 2021. (Xinhua photo) In Iraq, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, also head of the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, ordered several new measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The new instructions included preventing people's movement between provinces except for humanitarian reasons, and banning gatherings and maintaining social distancing. Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Thursday 4,074 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 684,362. The ministry also reported 27 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,351. The total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 2,271 to 627,718. Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the ministry, said that "there is a special plane that will fly in the upcoming Saturday to transport the vaccines, and new batches will arrive after that in succession." The Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs has approved the emergency use of China's Sinopharm and Britain's AstraZeneca vaccines. Turkey announced 9,572 new COVID-19 cases, including 658 symptomatic patients, and 73 more deaths from the disease, pushing its tally of infections to 2,674,766 and its death toll to 28,358. A total of 6.65 million people in Turkey have so far received the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, including 1.44 million who have received two shots, according to the Turkish Health Ministry. Israeli Ministry of Health reported 4,725 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the tally in the country to 767,233. An Israeli woman gets vaccinated against the COVID-19 at a temporary facility set up by the Israeli Magen David Adom national emergency service in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Feb. 20, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/JINI via Xinhua) The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 5,685 after 36 new fatalities were added, while the total recoveries rose by 6,421 to 721,957. Israel entered on Thursday night a three-day night curfew in a bid to prevent the traditional mass celebrations during the Jewish holiday of Purim and stop the spread of the coronavirus. Morocco announced 386 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the North African country to 482,514. The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 467,541 after 726 more were added, while the death toll rose by six to 8,598. Jordan recorded 3,827 new COVID-19 cases and 16 new deaths, taking its tally of infections to 380,268 and its death toll to 4,627. The total recoveries in the kingdom climbed by 1,579 to 342,600. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed 3,025 new coronavirus infections and 18 more deaths, pushing its tally of COVID-19 cases to 381,662 and its death toll to 1,182. The total recoveries in the UAE climbed by 4,678 to 375,059. In Lebanon, the health ministry reported 3,469 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 366,302. Lebanon's COVID-19 death toll went up by 52 to 4,560, while the total recoveries rose by 3,453 to 281,194, according to the ministry. Lebanese caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan vowed on Thursday to request 300,000 more vaccines from AstraZeneca to vaccinate Palestinian refugees. Lebanon aims to vaccinate 80 percent of its population. In Syria, Health Minister Hasan Ghabbash said on Thursday that Syria will start giving COVID-19 vaccines to its medical staff from next week. Snow is seen in Damascus, capital of Syria on Feb. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani) At a press conference, the minister said Syria had obtained the vaccines from a "friendly country," without naming it. The next stage will be vaccinating the people aged over 55, mainly those with chronic diseases. On Wednesday, Syria reported a total of 15,343 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 9,468 recoveries and 1,008 deaths. In Libya, the National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Thursday said that 23 positive cases of COVID-19 variant were recorded in the country. The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Libya stood at 131,833, including 118,791 recoveries and 2,156 deaths, the center said in a statement. The Qatari health ministry on Thursday announced 465 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 162,268. Qatar's total recoveries rose by 540 to 152,327, while the fatalities remained unchanged at 257 for the fourth day running. The Omani health ministry confirmed 288 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total confirmed cases in the country to 140,588. The tally of recoveries in Oman increased by 299 to 131,684, while its death toll climbed by four to 1,562, according to a ministry statement. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Staten Island middle school students returned to campus on Thursday ready to see their friends and teachers face-to-face again for their first day back to in-person learning after schools were closed in mid-November due to rising coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. School buses, city buses and parents dropped off students ready with their backpacks and masks in front of both Prall Intermediate School (I.S. 27) in West Brighton and Bernstein Intermediate School (I.S. 7) in Huguenot on Thursday morning. Students were socially distanced outside as teachers and staff welcomed them back. Upon arrival each day, kids are required to fill out a daily health screening. And additional safety protocols at schools involve social distancing, face coverings and more. We set the bar high and have the highest safety standards, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his Wednesday press conference. A lot of cities didnt dare to reopen, but we did. The NYC example is being lauded as the way to open schools and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] schools guidelines borrowed heavily from the NYC school approach. Various safety protocols are in place as middle school students return to campus Thursday. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) And many of the students the Advance/SILive.com talked to Thursday said they werent feeling the same first-day jitters like they did at the beginning of the school year. Instead, they indicated feeling both excited and happy to be returning to campus. Seventh-grade student Jaelyn was walking to I.S. 27 Thursday morning, and said he was most excited to meet the teachers face-to-face again. He did not provide his last name. Chase Nazon, a sixth-grader at I.S. 27, said he was ready to return to school. He said is looking forward to going to gym again, because at school students do fun stuff, rather than watch a health video during virtual learning. Chases father said he hopes the return to in-person school will bring some sense of normalcy. Im feeling pretty good because in quarantine, I was just looking at the computer, Chase said. This is easier because of all the technical difficulties [with remote learning]. Sixth-grader Chase Nazon heads to Prall Intermediate School (I.S. 27) in West Brighton, as in-person learning restarts for the city's middle school students. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson) Annalise KnudsonAnnalise Knudson *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** Families and students said they also felt the same excitement at I.S. 7. One parent told the Advance/SILive.com that everyone is happy as it should be. But some students expressed they were a bit nervous. Im kind of nervous because I havent been to school in a long time, Giuseppe said. Since I havent been to school in a long time, its kind of weird. Giuseppe Mannino, an eighth-grader at I.S. 7, said he is "kind of nervous" about returning to campus. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) Middle schools have been closed temporarily since Nov. 19, when the coronavirus positivity rate surpassed 3%, the threshold to close schools. At that time, all public school students transitioned to fully remote learning. Schools had only been open for in-person instruction since mid-September first to special education and preschool students on Sept. 21, followed by students in K-8 schools and middle and high schools the following week. Now, the city is following a similar phased-in approach, while enforcing more safety and health standards as middle schools reopen. Its unclear when high schools will reopen. Students temperatures are taken as they return to I.S. 7 Thursday morning. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW Only students who opted into blended learning, either at the start of the 2020-2021 school year or during the opt-in period that ended in November, are able to return to school for in-person learning. If you didnt opt into blended learning during the allocated periods, your child will learn remotely for the rest of the school year. Some schools with space may be able to accommodate a five-day-a-week in-person instruction model. Some immediately returned to in-person learning five days a week. But others still need increased infrastructure. Charles Wright, a seventh-grader at I.S. 27, leaves his mother's car to return to campus Thursday morning. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson) Annalise KnudsonAnnalise Knudson Students returning to campus are required to consent to mandatory weekly coronavirus testing. New York City is able to continue requiring consent from families to test students after confusion following a new directive from the state. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) said in a directive that New York schools and school districts cant require students to consent to coronavirus testing in order to attend in-person instruction. However, in a reversal the following day, the state said testing in schools could be mandatory under the direction of the local health department. If you have already submitted consent, the city Department of Education (DOE) encourages parents to submit the consent form again to ensure the latest form is on file. Exemptions are only granted in certain limited cases. You must submit consent by the day that your child returns to his or her school building, according to the DOE. If your child comes to school on his or her first day back for in-person instruction without a consent form on file, the principal and school staff will contact you to obtain consent. After that, those students without a consent form on file who dont have a medical or disability-based exemption must move to fully remote instruction. MORE PHOTOS FROM THE FIRST DAY BACK View more photos below to see photos from I.S. 27 and I.S. 7 as students arrived Thursday morning. Students return to I.S. 27 Thursday morning. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson) Annalise KnudsonAnnalise Knudson Students returning to campus are required to consent to mandatory weekly coronavirus testing. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson) Annalise KnudsonAnnalise Knudson Many of the students the Advance/SILive.com talked to Thursday said they werent feeling the same first-day jitters like they did at the beginning of the school year. Instead, they indicated feeling both excited and happy to be returning to campus. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) We set the bar high and have the highest safety standards, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his Wednesday press conference, referring to the city's plan for in-person learning amid the health crisis. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson) Annalise KnudsonAnnalise Knudson Students head to I.S. 27 Thursday morning. (Staten Island Advance/Annalise Knudson) Annalise KnudsonAnnalise Knudson School Zone: A new newsletter with the updates you need as our schools try to get back to normal. Enter your email address here and hit "subscribe" to receive this weekly newsletter: FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Conspiracy theories have warped todays GOP in Congress: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has a history of endorsing twisted right-wing conspiracies which include Pizza-gate, deep state Trump-haters and blood-sacrificing pedophile Democrats. Conspiracy theories have long been part of the political landscape. The theories are rife with bizarre speculation, convoluted thinking and absurd ideology, feasting on our doubts and fears. They lurk in the deepest, darkest depths of the unconscious, fed by lies and innuendo until they bubble up to erode our faith in humankind. In 1836, slavery issues were dividing Southern Whigs from Northern ones. From this schism, the Whigs saw the emergence of the Republican Party. But that wouldnt last because another faction of the Republican Party broke away, forming the Know Nothing Party: a group of disgruntled and aggrieved GOP politicians. America was growing, and immigration loomed. The Know Nothings platform was bent on suppressing certain groups of American voters, curbing immigration and foiling an imaginary Vatican takeover of America when most immigrants were Irish Catholic. Its platform called for America First or Native Americans First. The latter, of course, excluded real Native Americans. The group became steeped in political intrigue, conspiracy theories and the secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, wrote Lorraine Boissoneault for Smithsonian Magazine in 2017. Potential members had to endure an initiation rite called Seeing Sam likely walking a line with members striking body blows. They had passwords, hand signs a la Donald Trumps QAnon signs and membership restricted to Protestant Anglo-Saxons. Members werent allowed to talk about their secret society; if asked, theyd respond with, I know nothing. They held bizarre beliefs about immigrants in league with lustful priests, killing babies and nuns. Broadsheets and posters circulated around Boston proclaimed: All Catholics and all persons who favor the Catholic Church are vile imposters, liars, villains, and cowardly cutthroats. To support their wild accusations, they pointed to an 1836 expose: The Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal, published by Maria Monk who claimed to be a former nun accusing priests of raping nuns, strangling babies and burying them in backyard convents. Even after Monk was debunked and exposed as a fraud, she sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The conspiracies were so virulent that churches were burned and Know Nothing gangs spread from New York and Boston to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Louisville, Cincinnati, New Orleans, St. Louis and San Francisco. Many of these old-school Proud Boys were arrested and there were no findings of baby burial grounds or other insidious evidence. Because Know Nothing Party members were less educated, they were easily manipulated by politicians. The modern GOPs parallels to the Know Nothing Party are striking. After winning his third straight victory in Nevada, Trump said in 2016, I love the poorly educated. He probably meant less educated. A 2018 Pew Research examination of the 2016 electorate, based on validated voters, confirms his poorly educated claims with a 64 percent margin of noncollege voters and 57 percent mainline evangelicals. Unfortunately, right-wing, conspiracy-based theories have a tight grip on the GOP. Even now, QAnon Republicans are getting ready for an unofficial Trump inauguration purportedly scheduled for March 4. Trump hotels have tripled their room rates for this extreme extravaganza. If it happens, Im hoping U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz will be there to witness it. Rafael C. Castillo is a writer and a member of the PEN America, the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The second time proved the charm for Saudi Arabias foray into electric vehicles. The kingdoms main sovereign wealth fund is sitting on paper gains of over 30-fold from its investment in Lucid Motors Inc., with the value of its stake set to rise as part of a deal to take the company public. The result is a boost for the $400 billion Public Investment Fund after missing out on an epic rally in Tesla Inc. shares when it sold much of its 5% stake in the industry leader at the end of 2019. The PIF, as the fund is known, will hold a stake of 62% in Lucid once the acquisition of the automaker by special purpose acquisition vehicle Churchill Capital IV is complete. The holding would be valued at about $32 billion, based on the current share price of Church Capital IV. The deal would represent a jackpot for the PIF, which invested $1 billion in Lucid in 2018 and is expected to provide an additional $600 million in funding for the company before the SPAC deal is completed. It also participated in a $2.5 billion private investment in public equity, or PIPE, the largest of its kind on record for a SPAC deal. Under the leadership of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF has shifted investment priorities from holdings in state-owned companies to building up stakes in companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Jio Platforms Ltd., the digital services business controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The funds returns on investment increased from about 3% between 2014 and 2016 to 8% from 2018 to 2020, according to the PIF website. It has more than doubled its assets in the five years since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been chairman. The investments are part of a strategy that aims to boost returns from the kingdoms wealth while diversifying the Saudi economy and creating jobs. Bloomberg News reported in January that Lucid was in talks with the PIF to potentially build a factory near the Red Sea city of Jeddah, although the automakers CEO, Peter Rawlinson, said on Tuesday there were no imminent plans to build a factory in the kingdom. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Facts have emerged of how gallant troops of the Nigerian military crushed Boko Haram terrorists and recovered Marte Local Government of Borno State, over a week after it was captured by the extremist group The Nigerian Army had on Tuesday announced the recovery of the local government and other communities recently captured by the terrorists. This was disclosed by Army Spokesperson, Mohammed Yerima, in a statement circulated to the media. PREMIUM TIMES has now obtained details of how the military executed the operation that left the terrorists scampering out of the town. According to details exclusively obtained by this paper, troops of the 402 Special Forces Brigade, in conjunction with 22 Brigade of the Army, advanced to Marti Local Government at about 8 am on February 23. Hours later, at about 2 pm, as the troops marched closer to Marte, the troops encountered no fewer than nine improvised explosive devices at the fringes of the town which were safely detonated by the detachments Explosive Ordinance Devices team. Our sources said as the troops entered the town, the Boko Haram terrorists launched a vicious attack, shooting sporadically. But the Nigerian troops stood their ground and decisively repelled the offensive. The exchange of gunfire lasted hours culminating in the killing of at least 19 terrorists, with several others fleeing with gunshot wounds. As the terrorists fled, the soldiers erupted in songs of celebration. Amongst items recovered from the terrorists were seven AK 47 rifles, two anti-aircraft guns mounted on Hilux vans. Two gun trucks belonging to the Boko Haram sect were also destroyed in the battle. The general security situation in Marte and environs is now calm but fluid, a military insider told PREMIUM TIMES. Troops morale and fighting efficiency remain satisfactory. The Marte Assault PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported on February 17 that at least seven soldiers died as Boko Haram dislodged the 53 Task Force Battalion stationed in the town. The unit was then temporarily moved to Dikwa as the military strategised to chase out the terrorists. But on Tuesday, Army spokesperson, Mohammed Yerima, said the town had been recovered in collaboration with the Nigerian Airforce. He said the troops killed some of the terrorists and destroyed improvised explosive devices (IED), land mines and other dangerous equipment. Troops of Nigerian Army troops this afternoon, around 3 pm, recovered New Marte and adjoining communities from the devilish Boko Haram terrorists, Mr Yerima said. This is coming less than the 48 hours directive earlier given to the troops to recover the town by the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru. The troops backed by air cover from the Nigerian Air Force, successfully charged through Marte town, destroying several Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs) and landmines laced across their routes and killing scores of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists and successfully recovered the town. The gallant troops are currently in total control of the general area, the statement said. ADVERTISEMENT Insurgency The Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria has caused over 37,500 deaths since 2011, according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs. An estimated 2.5 million people are also believed to have been displaced from the country`s North-east states and the Lake Chad Basin, with at least 244,000 of them now refugees in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The Nigerian military has been able to limit the activities of the terror group to the three North-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. However, the group still carries out deadly attacks on civilian and military targets in those three states. 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 Asher Learmonth delivered a speech to Cranbrook School to ask his peers to reconsider their treatment of women The head prefect at a $38,860-a-year Sydney private school has asked his peers to reconsider their treatment of women - after thousands of girls from the nation's top schools claimed they had been sexually assaulted. Asher Learmonth delivered a speech to Cranbrook School after the prestigious eastern suburbs institution featured 'too heavily' in a petition on social media, which included claims of sexual assault. Kambala School alumni Chanel Contos, 22, launched the petition on February 18 demanding students be taught about consent after reflecting on her own sexual assault as a youth. In response to the latest headlines, Mr Learmonth said the 'regular, valuable and powerful talks' the students have received about consent and respect in the past have not had the intended and crucial impact - but it is time to make a 'change'. Mr Learmonth said the prestigious eastern suburbs institution featured 'too heavily' in a petition on social media, which included claims of sexual assault. Pictured: Cranbrook School Former Kambala student Chanel Contos, 22, (pictured) started a petition demanding students be taught about consent after reflecting on her own sexual assault as a youth Mr Learmonth acknowledged there has been times where he has heard about 'disgusting behaviour' and has done nothing about it, adding that he has since 'grown up' and made an honest attempt to fix his past errors. The Year 12 student then played out a scenario at a party, which he claims happens 'all the time'. He said he would often be approached by someone at a social gathering who seemed irritated and he would then ask them what is wrong. The person would say something along the lines of 'mate, Phoebe is such a tease' and Mr Learmonth would ask them to elaborate further. They would then respond: 'I was talking to her all night, right. We were laughing, dancing together, she even touched my leg at one point. Like come on, right? But before she was about to leave, I went to hook up with her and she pulled away! I can't believe she led me on the entire night when there are so many other chicks I could've been getting with!' Mr Learmonth then went on to explain that students at an all boys school like Cranbrook begin to socialise with girls from about Year 9 but only in a 'a completely artificial environment' like at a party. 'You'd most likely go to the "gatho" with the mindset that you're there to hook up with as many girls as you can, or maybe just the "fittest" one just so you could tell your mates,' he said. 'You wouldn't care what the girl's interests were or what she was passionate about, what kind of music she liked or whether she made you laugh, because as I said, you see her once a week, you weren't looking to be her mate. Hundreds of girls who attended Sydney private schools has claimed they were sexually assaulted and raped by private school boys. Pictured: Chanel Contos is calling for better sex education 'For too many men, especially from the years of eight to 10, women are completely and shamelessly over-sexualised - mere objects of our desires, and a vehicle for validation or popularity amongst our year group.' The head prefect then asked the students to acknowledge what he said in the speech and 'identify this sexist and reductive attitude within yourself'. He appealed for the Cranbrook students to change the way women are viewed as 'it goes without saying' that women are just as interesting, smart and funny. 'You don't need a sister or mother to understand this. Women are people just like you. People to get to know. People to love. People to be friends with,' he concluded. Ms Contos' petition rapidly went viral, with thousands of girls from both private and state schools across the nation coming forward to share their own experiences. While the alarming stories hailed from all sorts of institutions, several of Australia's top same-sex schools' names were repeatedly mentioned - including Scots College, Cranbrook, Sydney Grammar, Waverley College, Kambala, Monte Sant Angelo and Pymble Ladies' College. Chantel Contos' petition now has signatures from close to 7,000 former and current school students across Australia Ms Contos believes this is not a coincidence and segregating boys and girls for learning is leading to problematic sexual encounters. 'In Australia, we're in a very weird position on this because single-sex schools are way more prevalent than in other countries,' she told news.com.au. 'Because they are separated at school, it means the only time they do meet is on weekends - when there is often alcohol and drugs involved.' Ms Contos, who has lived in three other countries, said she has spoken to hundreds of people from around the world about rape culture in their nation but none compare to the experiences she and her friends endured growing up. Although rape culture is problematic across the globe, Ms Contos the situation in Australia was 'frustrating' given the country's affluence and ability to direct resources into tackling the issue. Several of Australia's top same-sex schools' were repeatedly mentioned among the disturbing testimonies, including Scots College (pictured), Cranbrook, Sydney Grammar, Waverley College, Kambala, Monte Sant Angelo and Pymble Ladies' College She called for greater education in schools about consent and for institutions to address toxic cultures like 's***-shaming' in girls' schools and 'locker room talk' in boys schools. As girls across the nation shared their disturbing accounts this week, one horrifying theme emerged - most of their alleged rapists were their boyfriends or close male friends. One girl wrote that she was a 15-year-old virgin in 2016 when she met her first boyfriend who had a 'rape fetish', and assaulted her repeatedly throughout their relationship. 'On our first date I told him I didn't even want to kiss and he forced one on me... later he coerced me into losing my virginity before the legal age, which I insisted I did not want to do,' she said. The student, from Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney, claimed the Cranbrook boy 'manipulated' and 'forced' her into having sex on countless occasions, or would rape her when she was asleep or too drunk to say no. Eventually, he told her about his 'rape fetish', and joked with his friends at a party about gang raping her. Another victim, from Kincoppal in Rose Bay, said her first boyfriend went to catholic boys boarding school Saint Ignatius College Riverview and was 'obsessed' with taking her virginity. Ms Contos (pictured) said she hopes the petition will bring change to sexuality education to students across Australia She felt pressured into sex and was worried he wouldn't like her anymore if she refused. 'I had been assaulted before and while he was trying to push himself inside me I started having flashbacks and crying,' the girl said. He only stopped because she was 'sobbing too hard'. A teenage girl from St Catherine's said her ex boyfriend from Moriah College often touched her body without asking and eventually 'coerced' her into sex, despite saying no 'literally 20 times'. 'I was overwhelmed and confused, but surely it must have been fine, because he was my first love,' she wrote. 'It hurt so much that I shouted in pain, but he carried on, and said "that was it" when he felt my hymen "break".' The girl said one of her school friends was also raped by a boy who she considered to be her best friend. Ms Contos said Kambala High School (pictured) gave her a 'great consent education but they gave it too late' Another St Catherine's student said she woke up in complete darkness in 2017 to find her boyfriend 'inside me', despite telling him earlier that she was too tired. 'I rarely said no to sex, so he continued to ask. Eventually, sometime after I had fallen asleep, he started touching me. When I opened my eyes to find him inside of me, I felt sick,' she wrote. A victim from Kambala said her boyfriend forced her into anal sex while she was drunk on her 18th birthday, 'despite screaming no and yelling in pain'. She said he manipulated her into feeling as though she had done something wrong, adding that she only realised it was rape years later. Ms Contos started the petition because she was sexually abused at the age of 13. She was forced to give oral sex to a boy when she was in Year 8, but did not realise she had been raped or learn about consent until she attended a sex consent class in Year 10 that was presented by a former police officer. 'I was sexually abused and I also found out last year when I was talking with my friends that the same person who did it to me did it to another one of my friends,' she told The Project on Tuesday. Pictured: Chantel Contos, who said she was forced to perform oral sex on a boy when she was in high school The now 22-year-old said she couldn't sleep the night she found out and felt as though she could have stopped it but she didn't realise at the time that it was wrong. 'I just felt anger - why didn't I know it was wrong? Why couldn't I stop that?,' she said. Ms Contos previously told Daily Mail Australia she 'knew that something had to be done'. 'The realisation you've been sexually assaulted, it's a hard thing to go through'. Ms Contos said despite her school giving her a 'great consent education, they gave it too late.' 'A lot of people are already sexually active by 15 or 16, and you need to have this consent training before you become sexually active', she said. 'People who have contacted me have said they received no consent sexual education, especially boys schools said that it was minimal to none.' Ms Contos' petition now has thousands of testimonies from woman aged between 13 to 50-years-old from across Australia. Chanel Contos' petition nearly has 7,000 signatures from men and women across Australia A new report co-authored by two Western PhD students outlines how five Ontario manufacturers have increased the number of women working on the factory floor. Credit: Chevanon of Pexels One manufacturer embedded women-welcoming language in its recruitment materials. Another offset the cost of child care to retain its female workers during the pandemic. With female participation in Ontario's manufacturing workforce stubbornly stuck at less than one-third for the last 40 years, it's no accident that some companies are more successful at attracting and keeping women, says a new blueprint on gender diversity in Ontario manufacturing, a report for the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing with two Western graduate students among its three authors . "There are so many companies that don't walk the talk," said co-author Eva Kwan, a Ph.D. candidate in industrial organizational psychology. "We've highlighted five that do. They're making investments in their people and processes, and it shows." The report includes case studies of five Ontario manufacturersHonda of Canada Mfg., Sanofi Pasteur Canada, Muskoka Brewery, MAD Elevator Inc.and Cascades paper companythat have worked intentionally to recruit and retain women employees. "It makes economic and moral sense," said co-author Brendan Sweeney, managing director of the Trillium Network. "It's good business, good economics and it's the right thing to do." The Trillium Network, a provincially funded non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of Ontario's advanced manufacturing ecosystem, operates out of offices at Western but is independent of the university. Women make up just 29 percent of Ontario's manufacturing workforce, a number that has barely shifted in 40 years even though the sector is headed for labor shortages as employees age and retire, the report said. "Even if it's been about 29 percent women for decades, it doesn't have to stay that way," said co-author Talissa Watson, an MSc candidate with a focus on business analytics at Ivey Business School. Both she and Kwan undertook the work as Mitacs research interns. "What this paper says is that there are ways to improve upon this, ways to move that dial and inspire companies to know that it is possible," Watson said. For example, MAD Elevator, a company of about 200 employees, recognized the pandemic was having a disproportionate impact on those who are also parents and caregivers. To help with child care when schools and daycares were closed, the company paid employees' relatives the equivalent of the federal government's CERB amount to fill in. The company also loaned laptops to families to help with online learning. Honda in Alliston, Ont., launched a Women@Honda recruitment program that included a tour and question-and-answer session and resulted in more female hires. The percentage of women on Honda's production floor has almost doubled in three years. Pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur's push includes using gender-neutral and inclusive language in recruitment materials and job ads, having diverse recruiters, and offering staggered start times for shifts. Women make up nearly half of leadership positions and 47 percent of production and quality-control employees at Sanofi. Muskoka Brewing has achieved near gender parity, and its slogan "people first, pints second" emphasizes its commitment to work-life balance. It is also the first craft brewery to commit to paying a living wage. Cascades committed to gender parity in 2016, and its job ads include testimonials from women employees in occupations where the female participation rate is low. The company's performance reviews and leadership training build in equity and inclusion. Cascades is one of just three Ontario manufacturers to receive a bronze-level gender parity certification from Women in Governance in 2019. Kwan noted these success stories are taking place across different manufacturing sectors, in workplaces small and large, and in unionized and non-unionized environments. The blueprint's 10 recommendations suggest manufacturers: make gender parity intentional, with strategies embedded in company culture and values; track progress with a data feedback loop; understand that work-life flexibility can benefit everyone; involve women in designing, implementing and reviewing policies; recognize and minimize recruitment biases in language, images and compensation; identify pathways for promotion and development; provide tools and training. Sweeney said policies and practices that benefit women in the workplace also benefit households, communities and companies' bottom lines. "There aren't a lot of arguments against doing this," he said. "I'd challenge you to find one besides 'it's going to be hard.'" The authors hope other manufacturers will read the blueprint, glean at least some recommendations they can implement, and start now. "We've said here's what five companies have done," said Sweeney. "I think it's a bit of a buffet approach: here's all these things, just try one of them to see if it works." Explore further Study eyes manufacturer agility during COVID-19 RTHK: Van Gogh painting to be displayed in Hong Kong A painting of a Paris street scene by Vincent Van Gogh is to be shown to the public for the first time, after spending more than a century behind closed doors in the private collection of a French family. The work, painted by Van Gogh in 1887 while he was lodging with his brother Theo in the French capital, will be put on display by Sotheby's auction house in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Paris, prior to being auctioned off next month. The auction house put an estimated value on the artwork of between 5 million euros (US$6.08 million)and 8 million euros. Titled "A street scene in Montmartre," the painting depicts a man and woman, strolling arm in arm past a ramshackle fence with a windmill in the background. The painting is part of a series that Van Gogh produced of scenes in Montmartre, a hilly district of Paris now dominated by the Sacre Coeur church. When the artist was there, the church was under construction and the area was a patchwork of fields, houses and windmills on the edge of the city that was starting to attract a bohemian artist set with its cheap rents. The auction house said the painting had been seen in catalogues, but has never itself been on public display. It did not identify the current owner. Sotheby's said in a statement that very few paintings from Van Gogh's Montmartre period remain in private hands. "The appearance on the market of a work of this calibre, and from such an iconic series, is undoubtedly a major event," the statement said. Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886. He left the city in 1888, saying he had tired of the hectic pace of Paris life. He moved to the south of France, where he cut off part of his ear during an episode of mental illness. The artist later shot himself and died near Paris on July 29, 1890. (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company FV Hospital oversees the treatment of 200,000 patients every year Thoughtful and whole-hearted was the review given by Ngo Thi Giang, a 42-year-old woman living in Ho Chi Minh City, after nearly 10 months of treatment of breast cancer at FV Hospital. I am in good condition now and can firmly move on from this. Coming to FV was a sound decision, she happily noted. Remembering April last year when she learned that she had breast cancer, Giang told VIR, I was surprised, sad, and shocked when I got the news, but I quickly accepted the situation and began to seek qualified treatment. At that time, she was wavering between going to Singapore for treatment or seeking prestigious services at home. I made comparisons between FV Hospital and those Singaporean establishments and found that there are big similarities. Eventually, I decided to choose FV Hospital because of its international standard services, medical proficiency, state-of-the-art equipment, and comfortable atmosphere, she explained. Along with N.G, many other cancer patients have been gaining good treatment results at FV Hospital. Nguyen Thi Lan, 54, living in Ho Chi Minh City, has now recovered after a year of treatment at the Hy Vong Cancer Care Centre. My sister booked an air ticket for me to go to Singapore for treatment, but I refused so I could seek treatment at home. I went for a medical examination at some hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. I selected FV Hospital because of its medical proficiency and state-of-the-art equipment, Lan said. To bring the best possible services for cancer patients, in 2018, FV Hospital invested $5.3 million to make the Hy Vong Cancer Care Centre one of the most modern cancer centres in Southeast Asia. Besides synchronous and complete investment in the scale of facilities, modern equipment, and the international team of medical doctors and treatments, FV Hospital also announced a collaboration with HCG the largest provider of cancer care in India with its network of more than 20 comprehensive cancer centres across India and Africa. Over nearly 20 years of operation, the centre has provided treatment for tens of thousands of cancer patients with a high success rate, with many keeping healthy after five, 10, or even 15 years of treatment. Even then, they are still monitored at the facilities. Highest standards Vietnamese people are increasingly more trusting in private-run healthcare services at home, instead of thinking about public facilities or going abroad as they often did in the past. This added trust has been made possible by FV Hospitals team of dedicated personnel and medical professionals, who always give top priority to safety and quality of patient care. This was once again reflected as the COVID-19 pandemic appeared on the horizon. FV Hospital has been on the frontline of Vietnams response to the situation, applying for a testing licence from the Ministry of Health and creating a dedicated wing for coronavirus-screening and treatment, all carried out to the same standards that have helped to build FV Hospitals reputation over the past 17 years. Even more recent was the life-saving work on a Filipino crew member on Tuvalus Northern Endeavour vessel, who had acute appendicitis when crossing the waters of the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau in early February. With the ambitious goal of achieving and retaining Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation the worlds leading healthcare accreditation with the most rigorous international standards in quality and patient safety FV Hospital has been ceaselessly making efforts and investments in modernising facilities and better service quality. With all-out efforts, FV Hospital celebrated its JCI accreditation in 2016 as the first healthcare facility in southern Vietnam to win this certificate. Three years later, after a week of re-evaluation, FV Hospital was accredited for the second time. It was not by accident that FV Hospital was selected to serve as the backup hospital for US President Barack Obama during his two-day visit to Ho Chi Minh City in 2016. FV Hospital then attained recognition from the White House Medical Unit for its outstanding services. World-class services CEO of FV Hospital, Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon FV Hospital has won various accolades, motivating it to continue its efforts. These awards include Vietnam Hospital of the Year 2017 and 2019 by Global Health and Travel Awards; and also in 2019, FV Hospital was given an award of excellence in hospital quality management at the Hospital Management Asia conference. FV was also the first hospital in Vietnam to promote medical tourism to attract overseas patients to visit for treatment, collaborating with different hospitals in other countries to bring doctors to FV Hospital to treat patients and exchange knowledge with its resident doctors. The international ranking and prestige of FV Hospital today reflects the great efforts among FV staff and the expertise of key leaders. Back in 1997, Vietnamese authorities decided to encourage foreign investment in the healthcare sector to meet the needs of Vietnamese by offering them higher standards of healthcare services and reduce the burden on public hospitals. CEO Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon and a group of nine fellow French doctors seized on this opportunity to act. Dr. Guillon travelled many countries, met hundreds of people, gave numerous presentations, and carried boxes of mail to the post office to send thousands of letters to doctors to raise funds to invest into the project. In all, nearly 500 French doctors become shareholders of the hospital. The Phu My Hung area in the latter years of the 20th century was not the modern and high-end urban area it is today, but Guillon and his friends turned this wild swamp into a dream come true. In 2003, FV Hospital, the first international hospital in Vietnam, was inaugurated with the vision to become one of the leading medical providers in Asia. Over the past 20 years, FV Hospital has created an ideal medical working environment attracting more than 1,000 employees including over 130 full-time doctors from many countries. And today, the hospital now receives more than 200,000 patients a year, most of them Vietnamese but also many expatriates too. The hospital increased its investment from $44 million when it opened to $65 million more recently for buying more equipment, building another consultation centre, opening a clinic in District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, renovating and expanding the outpatient consultation area and paediatric ward, and opening the first one-stop-shop Check-Up Centre in Vietnam. Through these results and more, FV Hospital is an example of successful private participation in the healthcare sector, and has justified the decision by the Vietnamese government to encourage foreign investment in the healthcare industry. 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. 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. Have You Seen This? Baby calmed by Imperial March Jordana Brewster got her daily smooches in early. The 40-year-old actress was spotted taking a romantic stroll with boyfriend Mason Morfit in Brentwood, California on Thursday morning. The couple could not keep their hands off each other for the outing, sharing a few sweet kisses after getting their caffeine fix from a nearby coffee shop. Morning walk: Jordana Brewster was spotted taking a romantic stroll with boyfriend Mason Morfit in Brentwood on Thursday morning PDA: The 40-year-old actress and her boyfriend couldn't keep their hands off each other for the outing, sharing a few sweet kisses after getting their caffeine fix from a nearby coffee shop Brewster and Morfit packed on the PDA for all to see while they waited for their iced coffees. The Fast and the Furious star showed her wild side in a loose-fitting leopard print blouse and matching printed mules on her feet. She paired the animal style garments with light blue relaxed fit cutoff jeans. Jordana kept her wavy brunette tresses bundled underneath a cute black knitted beanie and donned black sunglasses to protect from the bright Los Angeles sun. Feeling wild: The Fast and the Furious star showed her wild side in a loose-fitting leopard print blouse and matching printed mules on her feet Holding tight: The lovebirds held hands for most of the outing, only taking a break so Jordana could grab onto Mason's arm instead Casual beau: The star's financial executive boyfriend kept things casual in a navy blue sweater and khaki pants Her financial executive boyfriend kept things casual in a navy blue sweater and khaki pants. He paired his look with matching blue sneakers for the walk as he carried the pair's Starbucks bag upon completing their shopping at the trendy Brentwood Country Mart. The lovebirds held hands for most of the outing, only taking a break so Jordana could grab onto Mason's arm instead. Honeymoon phase: The couple, who began dating last summer, made safety a priority as they rocked matching black face coverings to keep from contracting COVID-19 Matched: Mason paired his look with matching blue sneakers for the walk as he carried the pair's Starbucks bag upon completing their shopping at the trendy Brentwood Country Mart Beach bliss: Morfit and Brewster were first linked in July of 2020 after they were photographed kissing on the beach in Malibu. She posted this intimate snap on her Instagram for Valentine's Day The couple, who began dating last summer, made safety a priority as they rocked matching black face coverings to keep from contracting COVID-19. Morfit and Brewster were first linked in July of 2020 when they were photographed kissing on the beach in Malibu. The Lethal Weapon starlet filed for divorce from movie producer Andrew Form on July 1 after 13 years of marriage. The former couple have two sons: Julian, seven, and Rowan, four. Mom duties: The Lethal Weapon starlet filed for divorce from movie producer Andrew Form on July 1 after 13 years of marriage. The former couple share two sons: Julian, seven, and Rowan, four Jordana shared a post celebrating her love with Morfit to her Instagram page on Valentine's Day. 'My love. My Valentine. I am one lucky girl,' she captioned the three images and tagging Mason. The couple cuddled up in two snaps with the third one featuring her CEO boyfriend solo with his guitar. Ahead of elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a visit to Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry today. He will launch multiple projects at a cost of Rs 12,400 crore in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a visit to Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry today. Prime Minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for major development projects in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during his visit. Prime Minister Modi will launch multiple projects at a cost of Rs 12,400 crore in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. PM Modi will enter Puducherry at 11, where he will lay the foundation stone of the four-lane NH 45. From Sattanath Puram to Nagapattinam, this highway will be 56 km. Along with this, the foundation stone of Minor Port would also be laid under the Sagarmala scheme. Puducherry BJP President Swaminathan said the Prime Minister would address a public meeting after that. This will be the second visit in the last three years by the Prime Minister to Puducherry. Earlier in2018, he visited the Auroville International Project in the neighboring district of Villupuram and also addressed a public gathering. Also Read: FATF to decide Pakistans Grey List status today; Paks fate to be tested Prime Minister Modi will commit the country to the Neyveli New Thermal Power Project at about 4 pm in Tamil Nadu. It is a lignite-based power plant with a production capacity of 1000 MW and two units with a capacity of 500 MW. The mines at Neyveli have ample reserves of lignite to fulfill the projects lifetime requirements. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Puducherry will benefit from the energy produced from this project. Updates Via Twitter: NDA wants to make Puducherry the BEST. By BEST, I mean B for business hub, E for education hub, S for spiritual hub, and T for tourism hub: PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/WRdIQ1FqBK ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 A few days ago the entire nation saw a video. A helpless woman was complaining about Puducherry govt & CM neglect during cyclone & floods. One could see the pain in her eyes. One could hear the pain in her voice: PM Narendra Modi in Puducherry (1/2) pic.twitter.com/XZBDliwu2t ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 People all over India are rejecting Congress, their seats in Parliament is the lowest ever. Congress culture of feudal politics, dynasty politics, patronage politics is ending. India is young, aspirational & forward-looking: PM Modi at a BJP rally in Puducherry pic.twitter.com/Wl85cO32Q2 ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 Also Read: Major jolt to KP Oli, Nepal SC reinstates House of Representatives Nobody will say it publicly, but there are more than a few Liberals and Nationals who think the very fact of the heart condition means Reynolds should find another job. It is a hasty judgment. It is also at odds with at least one lesson from history. Loading Having a heart condition did not stop Kevin Rudd becoming prime minister in 2007 after plenty of publicity about an operation on his aortic valve years earlier. Having another operation in 2011 did not stop him becoming PM again in 2013.When Rudd lost power, either at the hands of Bill Shorten (yes, and others) or the Australian public, it wasnt because of his ticker. So Reynolds can be direct with voters about her condition. For the moment, her office will not even say what it is. It is the wrong approach. The bigger questions are about her head, not her heart. Her judgment, not her compassion. The strongest rebuke on this comes from Morrison himself, who says he should have been told about the alleged rape sooner. Why did she not take that one simple step? Why did she not say: Prime Minister, this debate in the media about the treatment of women in Parliament only scratches the surface. I cant tell you the names but I know of one case that is far, far worse. Perhaps that would not have changed anything, but Morrison said on Thursday she could have given him anonymised information about what happened. Morrison insists he only knew of the alleged rape on February 15, when it was reported in the media. Labor mocks the claim but has no proof he is wrong. Has the Prime Minister misled Parliament? What he has done is quite different. He has placed his neck on a guillotine and put the blade under the control of anyone who can produce a call record, an email or any other evidence that he lied. No Prime Minister takes that risk lightly. Morrison must be very, very confident he is right. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Women Marise Payne at an International Womens Day breakfast on Thursday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Will Reynolds have to go? Morrison made no mention of her rush to hospital when he spoke at the start of question time on Wednesday. He did not praise her, wish her well or update the House on her condition. Only the next day, when asked if her position was tenable, did he comment. Shes doing a great job. It was the answer he had to give. Others are not helping much. Marise Payne, the Minister for Women, has been as visible as a submarine. Very quiet engine, no torpedo. Payne spoke on radio on February 15 and again three days later but has not gone out to defend Reynolds this week. Payne is too silent too often, something her colleagues accept with resignation. But this was a fortnight of Parliament dominated by one issue, the sexual assault of women, and the Minister for Women barely emerged from her office and the Senate chamber. Only when Morrison attended a parliamentary breakfast for International Womens Day did Payne make a brief media appearance. She stood behind the Prime Minister. He did all the talking. Time and again, cabinet ministers choose not to speak up. When police told Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton about the case on February 11 this year, he chose not to tell Morrison immediately about claims of rape in their own wing of Parliament House. Dutton had the discretion to tell the leader. He decided not to do so. Dutton said it was a she said, he said matter. He left it to his chief-of-staff to talk to Morrisons chief-of-staff the next day. No urgency. Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton in Question Time on Thursday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The questions will not go away. And they are not so much about who knew what and when but about who did what and when, because that explains who, if anyone, actually cared. Reynolds seemed to care, even if she failed to do enough. Those who know her describe her as a strong defender of women during her time in the military, where she served three decades in the Army Reserves, gained a Conspicuous Service Cross and reached the rank of Brigadier. Morrison is reluctant to trigger another reshuffle. Reynolds, in turn, is said to be champing at the bit to get back to her job. She may be out of hospital as soon as Friday and could return to her office after a week on leave. That will be a good time for her to take the questions she missed on Wednesday. New commentary calling for Prez Biden to revive the US Sentencing Commission | Main | "Merrick Garland, cannabis policy, and restorative justice" February 25, 2021 Noticing some notable criminal justice panels at CPAC 2021 As highlighted by this NPR preview, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) kicks off tonight and concludes Sunday with former Prez Trump giving his first big speech since leaving office. Though there are lots and lots of storylines surrounding this year's CPAC, and I was intrigued to see a few criminal justice reform programs appearing on the CPAC 2021 agenda. Notably, one theme for various CPAC panels is the Bill of Rights, with Senator Mike Lee slated to give a speech tomorrow morning titled "Why the Left Hates the Bill of Rights... and We Love It." But it is not exactly clear that the CPAC folks really loves ALL of the Bill of Rights: the CPAC agenda has a whole lot more folks slated to speak about those parts of the Bill of Rights that primarily deal with civil rights rather than criminal defendant rights. For example, the Fifth Amendment panel on the first day has four participants focused on "Freedom from Confiscation of Private Property" and nobody speaking about the array of criminal procedure protections also in the Fifth Amendment. Still, it is encouraging to see that there will be these panels on the even Amendments dealing with criminal issues: Amendment IV: Unreasonable Search and Seizures Louis Reed, Dream Corps Justice Pastor Darrell Scott, CEO of National Diversity Coalition for Trump Moderated by David Safavian, American Conservative Union Amendment VI: Rights of the Accused KT McFarland, American Conservative Union Foundation Board Member Amendment VIII: Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Does Tough on Crime Messaging Work on Election Day? Doug Deason, Deason Capital Services LLC Rep. Byron Donalds (FL-19) Jim McLaughlin, Pollster for President Trump Fmr. Rep. Mark Walker (NC-06) Moderated by Brett Tolman, American Conservative Union Foundation I find it a bit discouraging to see only two panelists scheduled to discuss the Fourth Amendment and a single person due to talk about the Sixth Amendment (while panels on the "hot button" Third and Seventh Amendments are together bigger). I find it even more discouraging that the panel on the Eighth Amendment, an amendment intended to preclude certain extreme forms of punishment no matter their political support, is going to be all about about whether extreme forms of punishment are still politically popular. Still, I am glad these topics will be covered, and this one additional CPAC 2021 panel is especially interesting: Conservative Prosecutors: Conservative Reforms David O. Leavitt, Prosecutor for Utah County Brett Tolman, American Conservative Union Foundation Kent Volkmer, Pinal County Attorney Tori Verber Salazar, DA for San Joaquin County, CA Moderated by Chelsea Murphy, Right on Crime As regular readers know, the so-called "progressive prosecutor" movement truly is a hot topic in criminal-justice reform and academic circles. I am quite intrigued to see a panel at CPAC embrace the label "Conservative Prosecutors," and I am very interested to hear what conservative prosecutors would consider "conservative reforms." February 25, 2021 at 01:27 PM | Permalink Comments Post a comment Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, German manufacturers of industrial valves saw a stable year in sales backed by an increase in domestic demand. While the industry held up well in H1 2020, sales declines in Germany and abroad made themselves felt in the following months. Foreign business declined significantly. Foreign sales fell by 4 per cent last year. Here, the euro zone in particular proved to be a brake on growth. Sales contracted by 6 per cent. In contrast, sales in Germany increased by 6 per cent at the same time. "As a result of the very good start to the year and the stable domestic market, German manufacturers of industrial valves have come through the crisis well," said Wolfgang Burchard, Managing Director of VDMA Armaturen, commenting on the situation. The industry's broadly diversified customer structure once again proved to be an advantage. "Of course, our industry was not immune to the international lockdown and the consequences of the global economic slump. But in some cases," says Burchard, "losses - for example in the oil and gas business - were offset by gains in other areas such as the pharmaceutical or food industries." Thanks to stable domestic demand, the industry achieved sales growth in all segments in Germany last year. However, the situation was different for foreign sales, which declined across the board. In the case of shut-off valves, the decline in foreign business could not be offset by the increase in domestic sales, with the result that overall sales fell by 2 per cent. By contrast, sales of control and safety and monitoring valves still grew by 3 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively. In 2020, German industrial valve manufacturers exported goods worth around 4.1 billion ($5 billion) abroad. This corresponds to a decline of 10.4 per cent compared to the previous year. Business with China, the most important trading partner, had picked up somewhat after a sharp dip at the start of the year and was only slightly (-2.1 per cent) below the very good level of the previous year. Valves worth a total of 557.3 million were supplied to the People's Republic. Deliveries to the US, the second most important customer country, slumped by 16.6 per cent to 363.0 million. France also received significantly fewer valves than in the previous year (minus 11.9 per cent). The country nevertheless maintained third place among the most important sales markets with an order volume of 216.1 million. Among the most important customer countries, only Switzerland and Russia stood out positively. Exports to Russia rose by 4.4 per cent to 143.6 million, and 0.6 per cent more valves (146.1 million) were supplied to Switzerland. At present, there are many indications that the global economy will pick up again in the current year and thus also that the valves business will pick up. However, the recovery of the global economy will probably take longer than originally expected. Important customers such as the chemical industry and shipbuilding are gradually returning to a growth path. The oil and gas sector, on the other hand, will be held back for the time being by low oil prices and slumping demand from the aviation industry. "Against this background, we currently anticipate a slight decline in sales of 1 per cent for 2021," Burchard said. Tradearabia News Service Sorry! This content is not available in your region Reliance Industries Ltd is quoting at Rs 2096.75, up 1.73% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 52.06% in last one year as compared to a 29.53% spurt in NIFTY and a 36.25% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. Reliance Industries Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 2096.75, up 1.73% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.97% on the day, quoting at 15127.65. The Sensex is at 51196.12, up 0.82%. Reliance Industries Ltd has risen around 10.65% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Reliance Industries Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 17.3% in last one month and is currently quoting at 18782.4, up 2.94% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 51.49 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 125.33 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark February futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 2107, up 2.26% on the day. Reliance Industries Ltd is up 52.06% in last one year as compared to a 29.53% spurt in NIFTY and a 36.25% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. The PE of the stock is 50.98 based on TTM earnings ending December 20. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is temporarily halting the Model 3 production line at its key factory in Fremont, California, for two weeks, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg, while carmakers are reeling from a global shortage of microchips. Workers at the line manufacturing Model 3 at Fremont have been told that the line would be idle between February 22 and March 7, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The workers have not been informed of the reason for the halt and were advised to take vacation time if they had it because they would not be paid for the full two weeks. The idling of the Model 3 line at Fremont comes amid a global shortage of microchips which has impacted carmakers around the world, including in the United States. This month, the U.S. auto manufacturing industry is scaling back production, including that of the top-selling U.S. vehicle. Chinas soaring imports of semiconductors, the rise in the electronics industries, and the jump in technology use during the pandemic, combined to create a perfect storm on the global semiconductor market, whose supply chain is strongly interconnected. Detroits Big Three announced this month that they would be reducing production at some factories in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as the severe shortage of supply of semiconductors and microchips is affecting the global automotive supply chain. Tesla, for its part, said in an SEC filing earlier in February, For example, a global shortage of microchips has been reported since early 2021, and the impact to us is yet unknown. The unavailability of any component or supplier could result in production delays, idle manufacturing facilities, product design changes and loss of access to important technology and tools for producing and supporting our products. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order aiming to address and identify risks in the semiconductor manufacturing supply chains. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Results confirm initial visual observations of bright to ultra-bright white (>84 IOS-B) kaolinitic clays in dam walls up to 15 kilometres along strike northeast of the current focus for air core drilling. s ( ) (FRA:XL5) results from four float samples collected from dam walls have confirmed bright white and ultra-bright white kaolin, emphasising the potential scale of its 100%-owned Noombenberry Project in Western Australia. These strong results highlight the potential scale of the high-quality kaolinite and high-grade halloysite mineralisation within the project, where the company is engaged with independent consultants to generate its maiden JORC resource. The company has land access agreements in place covering these areas and will progress to systematic drill testing of these new areas as a priority once the new tenements are granted. Potential to significantly grow the project Latin Resources executive director Chris Gale said: These results from the reconnaissance sampling of the white dams along strike from our current drilling area are exceptional. They are not only significant in their own right, showing high-quality kaolinite and high-grade halloysite outside of our current area of drilling, but moreover they highlight the potential to significantly grow the exciting Noombenberry project. These samples are up to 15 kilometres along strike from our main drilling area, where we are undertaking a maiden JORC resource and is the first location sampled as part of our regional reconnaissance program. Latins tenement applications extend over a strike length of 100 kilometres where our exploration team have identified many more of these white dam locations. We are extremely confident that as we continue to expand our reconnaissance sampling into our new tenement areas, we will continue to highlight more high-grade zones like this. Float sample results Results from four float samples collected from dam walls at two separate locations within Latins new tenement applications have confirmed bright white (>74 ISO-B) and ultra-bright white (>84 ISO-B) kaolin up to 15 kilometres along strike to the northeast of the companys main drilling area. Both samples from one dam site sampled about 7 kilometres along strike to the northeast have returned high-grade (>10%) halloysite, with one sample returning over 25% halloysite. Maiden JORC resource estimate The JORC resource estimate will be based on an area of about 4.0 by 4.5 kilometres (18 square kilometres), where the company has completed air-core drilling on a nominal 200 metres by 200 metres grid pattern. With results from the analysis of drill samples still coming in, the companys immediate focus is generating the geological wireframes to enable the fast-tracking of the estimation process once all results have been received. Extend current drilling pattern In parallel with this, the company is preparing to extend the current drilling pattern immediately to the north, within its 100%-owned and granted tenements, where new land access agreements have recently been executed. Work programs have been submitted to DMIRS, with the company planning to commence drilling as soon as possible upon receipt of approvals. The company will then turn its attention to these newly identified areas of high-quality kaolinite and high-grade halloysite along strike to the north-east and then further afield within the company extensive tenement package which extends over a 100-kilometre strike length. (Jewish Journal via JNS) When the top editor of the worlds newspaper of record flips and flops and flips again on a subject as sensitive as the use of the N-word, you know things are getting messy at The New York Times. And when a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist claims that the paper spiked his column on the subject, well, it just gets messier. This sad story started when longtime New York Times science reporter Donald McNeil was accused in 2019 of using a racial slur while on an overseas trip chaperoning high-school students. At the time, the paper reprimanded but chose no... Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Mayonnaise might just be another condiment for us but for reptiles, it has become a miracle cure. In Israel, the white thick sauce is being used to treat endangered green sea turtles. According to an Associated Press report, these sea turtles were affected by a devastating oil spill. Employees at Israel's National Sea Turtle Rescue Center are using mayonnaise to treat the endangered reptiles. Israel's Nature and Parks Authority has called the spill one of the country's worst ecological disasters on record. It coated Israel's coast and several creatures with thick black tar. Also read: Reduced Human Activity Leads To Record Number Of Sea Turtles Hatching On Mexico Beach AP After the unfortunate spill, thousands of volunteers and cleaners were deployed to remove the tar from the beaches and the water. However, the clean-up is expected to take many more months. Reports have also revealed that the spill coated most of Israel's 195 km of the Mediterranean coastline with sticky tar. Due to that, extensive damage has been caused to wildlife, particularly sea turtles. But now, the use of mayonnaise has become a miracle cure for the creatures. Guy Ivgy, a medical assistant at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret, said that 11 sea turtles are currently being treated with mayonnaise. They came to us full of tar. All their trachea from inside and outside was full of tar, he said. Also read: Heartbreaking Footage Shows Dying Dolphin Trying To Save Infant In Mauritius Lagoon After Oil Spill Times of Israel The treatment involves workers removing toxic substances from the turtles' airways. With mayonnaise, they found a creative way to flush the tar out of their digestive tracks. "We continue to feed them substances like mayonnaise, which practically clean the system and break down the tar," Igvy added. Also read: Mauritius Declares Environmental Emergency After Massive Oil Spill Haaretz The treatment is expected to take one to two weeks. Once the reptiles are cured, they will be released back into the wild. A Belfast DJ who died after an incident involving police was struggling for his life while being restrained, an inquest heard. A coroner is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Gerard McMahon. The 36-year-old, from the Short Strand, died hours after he was held in a prone position by three PSNI officers restraining him on September 8, 2016. Yesterday one of the officers involved, referred to as Officer B at the inquest, said that when he arrived at the scene around one minute behind his colleagues, named as Officer A and Officer C, he had assessed Mr McMahon as being under the influence of alcohol and drugs. He also said he considered the possibility that Mr McMahon could have been suffering from Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD). This is a condition brought on by mental health issues or as a result of cocaine use. Symptoms can include bizarre and erratic behaviour, profuse sweating and violent outbursts, following a period of calm. The inquest, sitting in Belfast, heard that Mr McMahon had the condition and that as such he should not have been placed in the prone position which left him particularly vulnerable to positional asphyxiation. The inquest heard how the three officers restrained Mr McMahon on the ground after he became agitated and aggressive as they feared he would escape, with Officers A and B at his two shoulders while Officer C held his legs and applied limb restraints. In his evidence, Officer B confirmed to the coroner, Joe McCrisken, that he had put his right knee on Mr McMahon's back at his left shoulder while he was being restrained on the ground, saying: "I felt that at the time we were losing control of him with just my hands." Officer B, responding to questions posed by the legal representative of Mr McMahon's family, said that in the midst of the struggle and restraint of Mr McMahon, he wasn't thinking that he had ABD or that he was at increased risk from positional asphyxiation because of it. When asked if he appreciated now that "while this man (Mr McMahon) is struggling for his life, you are struggling for control" Officer B said he did, although at the time, he thought Mr McMahon was struggling to escape. Efforts to administer first aid to Mr McMahon were unsuccessful. The inquest continues. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Guangzhou further expanded its nucleic acid testing as the city battles the spread of Covid-19, with Haizhu and Yuexiu districts starting mass testing on Sunday. In Haizhu district, residents queued for hours in the rain to get tested on Sunday. The city reported four new local and three new imported cases, and confirmed 14 cases originally reported as asymptomatic on Sunday May 31, 2021 05:47 PM (Newser) Princess Shamsa, a daughter of Dubai's ruler, was 18 when she fled from her father's estate in Surrey, England, in 2000. She was nabbed on a street in Cambridge two months later and hasn't been seen in public since, though Cambridgeshire police are now looking into the case at the request of Shamsa's younger sister. Princess Latifa, who claims to have been held hostage by her father since her own escape attempt in 2018, urged police to reinvestigate "because it could get [Shamsa] her freedom" in a handwritten letter received by officers on Wednesday. The BBC reports it passed through friends and was written in 2019 while Latifa was held in a boarded-up villa monitored by police. The UK's High Court determined Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktouma friend of the queen and one of the largest private landowners in the UKabducted and held captive both princesses. story continues below In secretly recorded videos, Latifa said she'd been held in solitary confinement ever since a failed attempt to escape her father's clutches. She has also described how Shamsa was flown back to Dubai and "tortured" during eight years in prison following her escape. Released in 2008, Shamsa "had to be led around by her hand" because she was given pills that "made her like a zombie," Latifa said, per the BBC. A 2001 investigation into Shamsa's case fizzled when investigators were blocked from visiting Dubai. Police now say Latifa's letter will factor into an "ongoing review." There's also concern for Latifa, whose communications have stopped. A family statement claims she's being cared for at home "and we are hopeful she will return to public life at the appropriate time," per Sky News. The sheikh previously told the High Court that he felt "relief" at having found the "vulnerable" Shamsa in 2000. (Read more Dubai stories.) There are so many ungodly cases you really have to do something unique to get attention. Recently in Pennsylvania, three people were fatally shot in a fight over snow shoveling. Two F.B.I. agents trying to execute a search warrant in a child pornography investigation were killed by the suspect, who happened to have an assault rifle on hand. Perhaps you remember assault rifles. Theyre the rapid-fire, military-style guns extremely efficient for a mass shooting that Congress refuses to ban. Or now, anyhow. Back in 1994, it prohibited the manufacture of semiautomatic assault weapons, under the leadership of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Joe Biden. The ban, alas, included a 10-year expiration date, a compromise to placate the ever-popular Tiny Group Of Swing Votes In The Senate. Nothing could get our nations leaders to bring it back, even a mass shooting of six educators and 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary. Theres not much doubt Biden is eager to get some serious reform underway. His heart is on his sleeve when it comes to this, said Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Sadly, there often seems to be a gap between the issues Biden really, really cares about and the ones hes actually going to do something about. But even if he charges ahead, theres only so much he can do by executive order, and whatever it is wont have the staying power of real legislation. If were lucky, sometime this year a gun bill at least a modest one toughening up background checks will make it to the Senate. In between paeans to the Second Amendment, opponents will tell the nation that their constituents want to have weapons on hand to defend themselves and their families from evildoers. You do wonder how the founding fathers would have felt about the right to bear arms if they knew their nastiest neighbor had just installed a printer that manufactures guns in his basement. The stories about how a Gun Saved The Day arent generally all that convincing. The Heritage Foundation recently ran a list of 11 incidents in which a gun stopped matters from getting worse. One case involved a robber who threatened employees at a pizza restaurant in Georgia. The workers won the day by grabbing another gun and catching him off-guard. It was indeed good news. But the fact that the workers were able to get the gun because the holdup man decided to use the restaurant bathroom before leaving with the money was kind of a help. One problem with our gun debate is that it has the wrong starting point. Lets raise the bar. Demand that nobody be able to purchase a gun without passing a test demonstrating she knows how to aim it. Youd be astonished at how many enthusiastic owners that would eliminate from contention. 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. A Longford born animator is celebrating this week after he received a prestigious Emmy Award. Chris O'Hara was the winner of the day time Emmy Award 2020 individual achievement in Animation for his work on the Netflix series 'Ask the Storybots'. Due to the pandemic the awards ceremony was cancelled and the winners received their awards by special courier. Chris, who learned of his success last December, is no stranger to the red carpet. He was previously nominated for an award for Annie in 2019 for excellence in Animation and he was also part of an Emmy award winning studio. A former pupil of St Emer's national school and Templemichael College, Chris moved to Los Angeles in 2014 to further his career, having previously worked in studios in Dublin. Chris, pictured with his award, is currently working with Netflix as head of character design in Animation. The trial court rejected the plea to cancel actor Dileep's bail, in the Actress Abduction Case. As per the reports, the court has declared that the bail granted to the actor will not be revoked. For the unversed, the prosecution had approached the court to revoke Dileep's bail, claiming that he had tried to influence the witnesses. In the plea before the trial court, the prosecution had argued that Dileep tried to influence the prime witnesses in the Actress Abduction Case. The prosecution also pointed out that the witnesses Vipinlal and Jinson, and those who belong to the Malayalam film industry, changed their statements due to Dileep's influence. The case was registered against the actor for influencing the witnesses in October 2020. However, in the court, Dileep argued that the crime branch has failed to collect evidence against him regarding the same. Following this, the court observed that the prosecution failed to produce any solid witness to prove their allegations against Dileep. Thus, it was declared that the bail granted to the actor will not be revoked. As reported earlier, the Kerala High Court had granted bail to Dileep in the case, under strict conditions. While granting the bail, the court had stated that the actor cannot influence the witnesses in the case. However, later in October 2020, it was alleged that Dileep violated the bail conditions. Now, the latest reports suggest that the prosecution is currently considering the chances to approach the Kerala High Court, to revoke Dileep's bail. An official update on the same is expected to be out in a couple of days. Also Read: Kerala Actor Abduction Case: Additional Special Sessions Court To Resume Trial On February 16 Meenakshi Dileep Wins The Internet With New Dance Video; Gets Compared With Mother Manju Warrier How do we rightly understand the people who stormed the Capitol last month? MSNBC analyst Mehdi Hasan, soon after the riot, wrote that we must ask, Where were they radicalized? Hasans answer was right-wing news and social media, a frantic feed of Fox and Facebook. But in a column for Religion Dispatches, Chrissy Stroop pointed to Christian education as well. Citing a Huffington Post report that connects rhetoric from former President Donald Trump with lessons in widely used Christian textbooks produced by Abeka Publishing and Bob Jones University Press, Stroop argued conservative Christian schools are sources of radicalization with a toxic influence that contributed to the seditious violence in Washington on January 6. On the one hand, if Stroops broad verdict is right, I should have joined the Capitol mob. I am a product of Christian primary educationeven used Abeka books. Still, I cant argue with Stroops basic contention that the mushrooming visibility of Christian nationalism in American evangelical circles requires new scrutiny of Christian schooling. The question I keep returning to is this: Are our schools training Christians or Americans? If education is the chief project of childhood, then it should be a project infused with Jesus Christ. Our reflexive answer would be Christians, of course. After all, this is why parents like my mom seek Christian education, sometimes despite great financial strain. If education is the chief project of childhood, then it should be a project infused with Jesus Christ. Three hours a week at church cant compete with 35 hours a week in the classroom. Education shapes what sociologists call the imaginaryan expansive, all-encompassing, and intuitively held perspective on life. Christian schools offer parents the tantalizing prospect of children educated into a thoroughly Christian imaginary, a way to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). And research shows Christian education has measurable, lifelong effects. But thinking back on my own Christian education, mere Christianity was not all I learned. I moved around a lot growing up, attending four Christian schools and spending one year in American public school, one year in Chinese public school, and one year homeschooled. The four Christian schools I attended varied theologically and culturally: One was affiliated with a fundamentalist Baptist church; another hired a Democrat to teach civics the year former President George W. Bush was reelected with overwhelming evangelical support. At all of them we said our pledges, sometimes daily or as a standard feature of a weekly chapel. The order of pledging allegiance, to my recollection, started with the American flag, then the Christian flag, and, lastly, the Bible. That routineplacing national loyalty firstimplies a devotion to nation before Jesus, the very essence of Christian nationalism, not faith in Christ. To pledge ourselves to any state is not appropriate for Christians. Martyrs of the early church died for this conviction. Their declaration that Jesus is Lord carried an implicit repudiation of the Caesars claim to be their lord. When the early Christians chose to say, Jesus is Lord, explains CT contributing editor Ed Stetzer, they were literally choosing to align everything with Jesus, even their own lives. Their words were not trite statements. They were downright treasonous. They echoed a subversive rebellion against the establishment that clearly resonated their allegiances and alliances. Yet 19 or so centuries later, my Christian schools had me pledgingwhether I understood it or notfirst to the flag of Caesar and only secondarily to Jesus by way of a flag with colors deliberately suggesting a link between Christianity and American patriotism. (This flag, by the way, was carried by a rioter on the Senate floor last month.) That portion of my schooling wasnt Christian discipleship. It was good American trainingor, more bluntly, it was Christian nationalism. Article continues below My twins are still a few years out from kindergarten, but as my husband and I consider our school options, this weighs heavily on my mind. My inclination after my unusually broad educational experience is to send my kids to Christian school, ideally a large one with elements of classical education and de-emphasized technology use. But the possibility that the flow of their education will have an undercurrent of Christian nationalism troubles me. I dont want my children to be expected to pledge themselves to the United States of America, because I believe saying the Pledge of Allegiance is a direct violation of Jesus instruction to give ourselves only to God (Matt. 22:1522). Nor do I want them, especially while theyre too young to be able to explain their parents theological reasoning, to be the weird ones opting out of a school-wide ritual. I want them to be trained in our faith, not in idolatrous American civil religion. But public schools also lean toward nationalism, only without the Christian. Ah, I can imagine some readers saying, so send them to public schools instead. But public schools also lean toward nationalism, only without the Christian. Not that public school teachers and administrators cant be Christians or conscientious public servants; plenty are. Yet at an institutional level, American public education as we know it was built on models developed in 18th- and 19th-century Europe (chiefly Prussia), models designed to turn out loyal citizens with a strong sense of national spirit. This design was well intended. One immediate impetus was to overcome deep (and sometimes violent) religious and ethnic divisions by teaching children to think of themselves as Prussians or Americans first and Catholics or Protestants second. The idea, in the words of philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, was to establish deeply and indelibly in the hearts of all, by means of education, the true and all-powerful love of fatherland, the conception of our people as an eternal people and as the security for our own eternity. However good the intent, thats a clear usurpation of roles that, for Christians, belong to Christ and his church. While this theory of education is certainly not the only influence in the American public school system, its indefensible enough for my family to decide well steer clear. Opting for public school wouldnt free my kids of an expectation to say the Pledge of Allegiance, for examplein fact, they might be asked say it even more often in a public setting, depending on the district. So that brings me back to Christian schools. They played a powerful and positive formative role in my life and now stand accused, not entirely without basis, of inculcating the Christian nationalism on display at the Capitol insurrection. The best I can do is plead with Christian educators: If it is lurking in your school, root out the nationalist weed. Burn it away like the dross it is (Isa. 1:2526). Train Christians, not Americans. Graduate students who have never pledged to a flag but know they belong to Christ. I hope my children will be among them. Bonnie Kristian is a columnist at Christianity Today. CARY, N.C., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition for commitment to fostering an inclusive, diverse culture that encourages women to achieve their full leadership potential, SAS will receive the 2021 ATHENA Global Organizational Leadership Award. One of only three organizations to have ever received the award, SAS will accept the recognition on International Women's Day, March 8, at 1 p.m. ET at a global virtual webinar with renowned author Carla Harris. SAS joins individual ATHENA award recipients that include Harris, astronaut Christina Koch and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. SAS is committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse workplace culture that empowers creativity and drives innovation Tweet this (PRNewsfoto/SAS) ATHENA International, a global nonprofit organization that aims to empower women leaders especially in underrepresented fields will honor SAS for its commitment to empowering women to take on leadership roles, support of women and girls in the STEM community and dedication to providing development opportunities specific to women employees and technologists. "SAS has always been committed to creating a workplace culture where all employees are empowered to embrace their individuality and curiosity to think differently," said Michelle Proctor, Chief of Staff for Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions at SAS and sponsor of the SAS Women's Initiatives Network (WIN), an internal employee inclusion group with over 1,000 members globally. "Through WIN and external support of women in STEM and educational outreach for girls, including the SAS Women in Analytics (WIA) Network, SAS helps uplift women across our often male-dominated industry and encourages the next generation of women innovators." SAS WIA aims to strengthen diversity in the analytics field, providing members inspirational events, career development and personal brand-building opportunities like its virtual casting call open for idea submissions from women and male allies across the industry. "It's an honor to be receiving such a prestigious award," said SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Jenn Mann, who will accept the award during the webinar event hosted by SAS WIA. "SAS has a long history of empowering and inspiring women. We believe it's critical not just for our success, but our communities, and are committed to fostering an environment that supports personal and professional growth." ATHENA International has recognized this long-standing commitment to nurturing a diverse, meaningful culture. "SAS exemplifies our ATHENA Leadership Model, values and mission, cultivating an inclusive culture that helps women achieve their full leadership potential and contributing to improving the community we share," said Ann Playter, President of ATHENA International. "We are excited to recognize SAS' notable contributions on such an important day for women around the world." Register for the free webinar event to hear from Carla Harris, Vice Chairman of Global Wealth Management and Senior Client Advisor for Morgan Stanley, whose impressive list of accomplishments includes being named by Fortune Magazine as one of "The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America." Harris and Mann will also participate in a Q&A discussion with audience members. To learn more about and join a community dedicated to strengthening diversity in the analytics field visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information/diversity/women/wia.html. About ATHENA International ATHENA International is a global non-profit organization providing a proven framework and distribution model dedicated to building a global pipeline of women leaders "from the classroom to the boardroom," particularly in underrepresented areas such as technology and business. Since 1982, ATHENA International has empowered women leaders to reach their full potential through leadership training, their trademarked ATHENA Powerlink entrepreneurial advisory boards, and through global, national, local, young professional and organizational ATHENA Leadership awards. Unlike other leadership training offerings, ATHENA International is the only organization that provides an age-appropriate continuum toolkit for middle school, high school, college, corporate and board candidates which has also been proven effective for women incarcerated. All programs are based on the philosophy of the transformative, research-based ATHENA Leadership Model (ALM) and its eight principles of enlightened leadership, underwritten by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Through the generosity of major underwriters and a unique, affordable licensing fee model, ATHENA International leverages local host communities to scale its footprint by partnering with hundreds of chambers of commerce, colleges & universities, women's organizations and affiliate communities in 48 states, 11 countries and growing. Since inception nearly 8,000 female and male leaders have been recognized in 500 regions, impacting more than 500,000 members annually. For more information, visit www.athenainternational.org. About SAS SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 2021 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial Contact: Kara Roberts [email protected] 919-531-5449 sas.com/news SOURCE SAS Related Links http://www.sas.com 'Captured alive on May 8, killed on May 17 in alleged clash with Sabah police' FIVE ABU Sayyaf terrorists were killed following an a... A man wanted over an alleged sledgehammer hammer attack on a woman inside a luxury five-star hotel has been discovered in bushland and arrested. Matthew Donaldson was found by cops at Lapstone in the NSW Blue Mountains just before 5pm on Thursday, two days after the alleged attack. The 41-year-old was arrested and taken to Springwood Police Station, where he is currently assisting police with inquiries. He is expected to be charged. Police launched a manhunt for Donaldson after a Belarusian woman was allegedly seriously assaulted inside the Primus Hotel in Pitt Street, Sydney's CBD, on Tuesday. Matthew Donaldson (pictured centre surrounded by police) was arrested by cops in the NSW Blue Mountains on Thursday afternoon Donaldson was arrested after police launched a manhunt for the 41-year-old following an alleged sledgehammer attack on a woman at a hotel in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday night A Belarusian woman was rushed to hospital after she was allegedly assaulted inside the Primus Hotel in Sydney's CBD. She is pictured on a stretcher being treated by paramedics Emergency services had rushed to the hotel about 11pm after receiving a tip-off from an anonymous male caller. The 26-year-old woman was found in a hotel room unconscious and covered in blood. She was treated for head and facial injuries by paramedics at the scene, where disturbing images showed the woman hooked up to a respirator before being stretchered into an ambulance. She was rushed to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical condition but she is understood to be now in a serious but stable condition. 'An unconscious female lying on the bed in the hotel, she had sustained serious injuries to her face and head, located inside the room is what police will describe as a small sledgehammer,' Acting Superintendent Paul Dunstan said. '(She had) very significant injuries (and is) very fortunate to be alive, to be honest.' Investigators say it was likely the pair had never met before the alleged attack, with Donaldson meeting the woman in the hotel foyer before taking her up to his room. Cops had been hunting Matthew Donaldson (pictured) over an alleged sledgehammer assault in Sydneys CBD on Tuesday night Police remained at the scene throughout Wednesday after a woman was allegedly attacked with a sledgehammer late Tuesday. Pictured, forensic police taking away evidence The alleged assault occurred at the Primus Hotel (pictured), a five-star hotel in Sydney's CBD Donaldson is believed to have left the hotel and headed to Wynyard train station before police arrived on scene. As part of their inquiries, cops executed a warrant at a unit in Rodgers Street, Kingswood, on Wednesday afternoon, where they allegedly seized knives, ammunition and other weapons. Primus Hotel is a luxury five-star hotel where rooms cost about $300 a night. Annual revenues up by 1.5% to EUR 565.0 million Pro forma operating income up by 36.4% to EUR 33.8 million (6.0% of revenues) Outlook fiscal year 2021: Revenues EUR 580 610 million; Pro forma operating income 6.0% 9.0% of revenues ADVA (ISIN: DE0005103006), a leading provider of open networking solutions for the delivery of cloud and mobile services, reported financial results for Q4 2020 and full year 2020 ended on December 31, 2020. The results have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005994/en/ Brian Protiva, CEO, ADVA (Photo: Business Wire) Q4 2020 financial summary1 (in thousands of EUR) Q4 Q4 Change Q3 Change 2020 2019 2020 Revenues 140,572 151,135 -7.0% 146,676 -4.2% Pro forma gross profit 54,641 54,633 0.0% 51,930 5.2% in of revenues 38.9% 36.1% 2.8pp 35.4% 3.5pp Pro forma operating income 14,343 10,333 38.8% 11,053 29.8% in of revenues 10.2% 6.8% 3.4pp 7.5% 2.7pp Operating income (loss) 13,085 5,438 140.6% 9,768 34.0% Net income 13,249 2,522 425.3% 6,671 98.6% (in thousands of EUR) Dec. 31 Dec. 31 Change Sep. 30 Change 2020 2019 2020 Cash and cash equivalents 64,881 54,263 19.6% 68,293 -5.0% Net debt 25,545 61,146 -58.2% 35,009 -27.0% Net working capital 129,853 128,150 1.3% 124,043 4.7% 1 Potential difference due to rounding Q4 2020 IFRS financial results Revenues in Q4 2020 reached EUR 140.6 million, down by 4.2% from EUR 146.7 million in Q3 2020 and down by 7.0% compared to EUR 151.1 million in the same year-ago period. The decrease in revenues is primarily due to the devaluation of the US dollar compared to the euro. In addition, due to lockdown tightening again, some orders had to be postponed to the following quarter. Pro forma gross profit in Q4 2020 increased by 5.2%, reaching EUR 54.6 million (38.9% of revenues) compared to EUR 51.9 million (35.4% of revenues) in Q3 2020. Compared to EUR 54.6 million reported in the year-ago quarter, pro forma gross profit remained stable in absolute terms. However, in relation to revenues, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from 36.1% to 38.9% was achieved. This increase can mainly be attributed to the stronger euro compared to the US dollar. Compared to the year-ago quarter, Q4 2020 benefited from lower US tariffs due to the relocation of production facilities out of China. In addition, the above-average profitable technology area of network synchronization recorded a very successful final quarter. Pro forma operating income for Q4 2020 was EUR 14.3 million (10.2% of revenues) and increased considerably by 29.8% compared to EUR 11.1 million (7.5% of revenues) in Q3 2020. Compared to the year-ago quarter, pro forma operating income improved substantially by 38.8% from EUR 10.3 million (6.8% of revenues). In addition to the higher gross profit, this substantial margin improvement is mainly due to the cost improvement measures introduced in 2019 and reduced discretionary spending. Consequently, operating income for Q4 2020 of EUR 13.1 million increased by 34.0% from EUR 9.8 million reported for Q3 2020 and significantly increased by 140.6% from EUR 5.4 million in the same year-ago quarter. While Q4 2019 was negatively impacted by one-off expenses of EUR 3.2 million resulting from the introduced cost improvement measures, Q4 2020 was positively impacted by the renewed cost basis. Net income reached EUR 13.2 million in Q4 2020, substantially up by 98.6% from EUR 6.7 million in Q3 2020 and significantly up by 425.3% from EUR 2.5 million in Q4 2019. The company's cash and cash equivalents totaled EUR 64.9 million, representing a slight decrease of EUR 3.4 million compared to EUR 68.3 million at the end of Q3 2020. Year-over-year cash and cash equivalents substantially increased by EUR 10.6 million from EUR 54.3 million at the end of Q4 2019. The higher cash balance is mainly the result of the improved profitability. Consequently, net debt in Q4 2020 decreased by EUR 9.5 million to EUR 25.5 million from EUR 35.0 million at the end of Q3 2020 and improved significantly by EUR 35.6 million compared to Q4 2019 (EUR 61.1 million). Net working capital at quarter-end was EUR 129.9 million and increased by EUR 5.9 million compared to EUR 124.0 million at the end of Q3 2020. This was particularly due to measures to maintain the supply chain and the associated reduction in trade payables. Full year 2020 financial summary1 (in thousands of EUR) 2020 2019 Change Revenues 564,958 556,821 1.5% Pro forma gross profit 199,050 195,364 1.9% in of revenues 35.2% 35.1% 0.1pp Pro forma operating income 33,832 24,811 36.4% in of revenues 6.0% 4.5% 1.5pp Operating income (loss) 27,473 12,003 128.9% Net income 20,314 7,045 188.3% (in thousands of EUR) Dec. 31 2020 Dec. 31 2019 Change Cash and cash equivalents 64.881 54,263 19.6% Net debt 25,545 61,146 -58.2% Net working capital 129,853 128,510 1.3% 1 Potential differences due to rounding Full year 2020 IFRS financial results For the full year 2020, revenues increased by 1.5% from EUR 556.8 million in 2019 to EUR 565.0 million. Revenues were at the lower end of the guidance corridor of between EUR 565 million and 580 million. Despite the current pandemic, demand in 2020 was robust. Home office, the increased use of e-learning, video conferencing and streaming services have increased network utilization significantly, while investments in network access solutions for enterprises have decreased. On the other hand, the US dollar, which continued to weaken against the euro, had a negative impact on US-denominated revenues, especially in the second half of the year. Pro forma gross profit increased by 1.9% from EUR 195.4 million in 2019 to EUR 199.1 million in 2020. While in the first half of the year, gross profit was negatively impacted, particularly by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the second half of the year benefited from revenues with higher margins and the ongoing US dollar devaluation. Pro forma operating income for 2020 significantly increased by 36.4% from 24.8 million or 4.5% of revenues in 2019 to EUR 33.8 million or 6.0% of revenues. Pro forma operating income was at the top end of the guidance corridor of between EUR 5.0% and 6.0%. In addition to the higher gross profit, this substantial margin improvement is mainly due to the cost improvement measures introduced in 2019 and reduced discretionary spending. Operating income for 2020 reached EUR 27.5 million compared to EUR 12.0 million in 2019 and increased significantly by 128.9%. While the previous year was negatively impacted by EUR 5.7 million one-off expenses in connection with the cost reduction measures, the improved cost base in 2020 contributed positively to profitability. Consequently, net income increased significantly from EUR 7.0 million in 2019 by 188.3% to EUR 20.3 million in 2020. Basic and diluted earnings per share in 2020 amounted to EUR 0.40, both compared to basic and diluted earnings per share of EUR 0.14 in 2019. Management commentary "Today's communication infrastructure is critical to solving some of the biggest challenges facing our global society. And we are a key part of this process. We are the only remaining optical networking and synchronization specialist in Europe. Growing safety concerns, specifically around the major Chinese equipment suppliers, create new opportunities and unique selling points for us that further strengthen our market position," said Brian Protiva, CEO, ADVA. "Technologically, our solutions are perfectly aligned with the network transformation that's taking place, including a focus on cloud, mobility, 5G, network automation and security. With our investments, we've created a foundation for transforming our business model towards higher margins. This transformation includes growing revenue contributions from software and services, expansion into new industries and further verticalization of our business." "2020 was a challenging but very successful year for us. At the beginning of the pandemic, the uncertainties were high. However, we responded quickly to ensure that we could navigate through the crisis as best as possible. As a result, we're reporting today one of the most successful financial years in the company's history. In the final quarter, our pro forma operating income was even at 10.2% a number that we have never achieved before," commented Uli Dopfer, CFO, ADVA. "In addition, we were able to reduce our net debt substantially by EUR 36 million to around EUR 25 million without the application of IFRS 16 this would correspond to net cash of around EUR 2 million. Therefore, we decided to terminate the KfW back-up line early in January. We are very confident about the coming year and started the new quarter with a well-filled order book and a favorable customer and product mix." Financial outlook 2021 For the fiscal year 2021, ADVA expects revenues to be in the range of EUR 580 million and EUR 610 million and a pro forma operating income of between 6.0% and 9.0% of revenues. For Q1 2021, the company expects revenues to be in the range of EUR 143 million and EUR 148 million and a proforma operating income of between 7.0% and 9.0% of revenues. The company will publish its financial results for Q1 2021 on April 22, 2021. Conference call details ADVA will hold a conference call for analysts and investors today, February 25, 2021, to discuss the Q4 2020 and full year 2020 results. The company's CEO, Brian Protiva, and CFO, Uli Dopfer, will host the call at 3:00 p.m. CET (9:00 a.m. EST). A question and answer session will follow management presentations. A corresponding presentation is available on ADVA's website: https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results/conference-calls The complete annual report 2020 (January December) is available as a PDF here: https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results/financial-statements A replay of the call will be available here: https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results/conference-calls Forward-looking statements The economic projections and forward-looking statements contained in this document relate to future facts. Such projections and forward-looking statements are subject to risks that cannot be foreseen and that are beyond the control of ADVA. ADVA is therefore not in a position to make any representation as to the accuracy of economic projections and forward-looking statements or their impact on the financial situation of ADVA or the market in the shares of ADVA. Use of pro forma financial information ADVA provides consolidated pro forma financial results in this press release solely as supplemental financial information to help investors and the financial community make meaningful comparisons of ADVA's operating results from one financial period to another. ADVA believes that these pro forma consolidated financial results are helpful because they exclude non-cash charges related to the stock option programs and amortization and impairment of goodwill and acquisition-related intangible assets, which are not reflective of the company's operating results for the period presented. Additionally, expenses related to restructuring measures are not included. This pro forma information is not prepared in accordance with IFRS and should not be considered a substitute for the historical information presented in accordance with IFRS. About ADVA ADVA is a company founded on innovation and focused on helping our customers succeed. Our technology forms the building blocks of a shared digital future and empowers networks across the globe. We're continually developing breakthrough hardware and software that leads the networking industry and creates new business opportunities. It's these open connectivity solutions that enable our customers to deliver the cloud and mobile services that are vital to today's society and for imagining new tomorrows. Together, we're building a truly connected and sustainable future. For more information on how we can help you, please visit us at www.adva.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005994/en/ Contacts: Published by: ADVA Optical Networking SE, Munich, Germany www.adva.com For press: Gareth Spence +44 1904 699 358 public-relations@adva.com For investors: Steven Williams +49 89 890 66 59 18 investor-relations@adva.com CLEARWATER TOWNSHIP, MI A Northern Michigan is being honored for his heroic actions in rescuing a man from a burning vehicle. This week, Derek Bissell, of Central Lake in Antrim County, received The Michigan State Police Distinguished Citizen Award in recognition of his life-saving efforts on Aug. 16, 2020, when he pulled a 70-year-old Rapid City man from a burning vehicle, according to a news release from the MSP Houghton Post. The victims vehicle had slid into a ditch and the engine compartment was on fire, police said. Bissell stopped when he encountered the incident on Morrison Road in Clearwater Township, Kalkaska County. Bissell pulled the man out of the burning vehicle and then began fighting the fire with a fire extinguisher he had in his vehicle. Clearwater Township Fire Department responded to the scene and finished extinguishing the fire, police said. The vehicle, a 2005 Mazda, was a complete loss. The victim was transported to a local hospital but sustained no injuries thanks to Bissells timely actions. The MSP Distinguished Citizen Award recognizes citizens who assist the department in any way that physically endangers themselves, including actions to aid in the apprehension of a criminal and for extraordinary actions to protect life or property, police said. Bissell was honored during a ceremony at the Kalkaska Township Fire Department on Wednesday, Feb. 24, police said. READ MORE: Michigan police officer on unpaid leave for racist social media post Michigan firefighter suspended for allegedly driving fire truck while drunk Chick-fil-A plans Traverse City restaurant, its first in Northern Michigan Guy Fieri opens 6 take-out-only Flavortown Kitchens in Michigan ADVERTISEMENT The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), on Thursday, in Abuja, buried its personnel who died in the Beechcraft King Air B350i crash on February 21. The officers were buried in National Military Cemetery, Karonmajigi, Airport Road, Abuja. The officers are Haruna Gadzama, a flight lieutenant (Captain), Henry Piyo, flight lieutenant (Co-Pilot), Micheal Okpara, a flying officer (Airborne Tactical Observation System (ATOS) Specialist) and Bassey Etim, a warrant officer (ATOS Specialist). The others are Olasunkanmi Olawunmi, a flight sergeant, (ATOS Specialist), Ugochukwu Oluka, a sergeant (ATOS Specialist) and Adewale Johnson, an aircraftman (Onboard Technician). The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Oladayo Amao, an air vice marshal, said the officers had paid the supreme price in the service to the nation. I stand here today bearing my personal grief as well as the entire NAF and the country as we lay to rest the remains of our fallen colleagues while in active duty to the service of their fatherland. I must confess that even at this moment, NAF is still in palpable shock and grieving very deeply upon this loss of our gallant and courageous heroes, he said. Mr Amao said it was in connection with the concerted efforts to secure the release of the staff and students abducted from the Government Science College Kagara, Niger State that the officers died. He advised that the death of the officers and airmen ought to spur the rest of Nigerians to relentlessly expose and fight crimes. We must throw everything that we have into this fight to ensure that our departed colleagues did not die in vain. Their death is a huge loss to the NAF family and indeed the entire nation. They will be greatly missed but fondly remembered for their invaluable services to the nation and humanity, he said. The CAS also assured the families of the late officers that the service is with them at this time, as well as others both within and outside the country. Earlier, the Director, NAF Chaplaincy Protestants, Dogo Gani, a group captain, prayed that the remains of the fallen heroes continue to rest in peace. Mr Gani urged all the NAF personnel as well as the civilian staff of the service to make it a point of duty to pray for the souls of the fallen heroes to rest in the bosom hands of the Almighty God. (NAN) WASHINGTON The Biden administration plans to send 25 million reusable cloth masks directly to community health centers and food banks to protect the communities hardest hit by COVID-19 from rapidly spreading the virus and increasing the likelihood of mutations. One of the most impactful things we can do is wear a mask, and this is so important during this critical period where cases are declining, but variants that spread more easily are increasing throughout the country, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said. The masks will go to 1,300 community health centers and 60,000 food pantries and soup kitchens across the country. The masks are expected to reach an estimated 12 million to 15 million Americans. COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said the program will cost $86 million and will not impact the delivery of masks to health care workers. White House public health officials stressed that the country is at an inflection point when it comes to COVID-19. Cases and infection rates are dropping as vaccine distribution ramps up, but emerging, highly contagious virus variants threaten to thwart the nations progress. Scientists have already discovered several COVID-19 variants in the United States and have said the B.1.1.7 variant from the United Kingdom could be the dominant virus strain in this country by March. Normal virus mitigation efforts, such as masking and distancing, can help slow the spread of these highly transmissible variants. Meanwhile, the federal government plans to increase the U.S. supply of vaccines to states and pharmacies. States should receive 14.5 million vaccine doses this week, up from 13.5 million last week, Zients said. This marks a 70% supply increase to states during the Biden-Harris administration. The administration will provide another 2.1 million doses directly to pharmacies. Last week, the administration experienced weather-related shipping delays due to severe weather, but at this point, officials say they have completely caught up on shipments to states. The administrations task force encouraged states to work around the clock and on the weekends and said the federal government could help provide backup if needed. More shots may be on the market soon, Zients noted, as the Food and Drug Administration is expected to make a decision on Johnson & Johnsons one-shot vaccine candidate. An FDA advisory committee will meet Friday to discuss that vaccine, and if the agency follows the timeline of previously authorized vaccines, a green light could come as soon as this weekend. The administration would be able to immediately distribute 3 million to 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week if its authorized, which would directly translate into 3 million to 4 million vaccinated people. Johnson & Johnson is contracted to provide 100 million doses to the U.S. by the end of June, but Zients said the administration is working to accelerate that timeline. The CDC is doing more genomic sequencing of virus samples to help track variants. Walensky announced that virus sequencing had increased from 400 samples per week when she took office to 9,000 samples per week. Public health officials are also investigating the threat of long COVID, a condition in which people dont fully recover from the virus for several weeks or longer. The National Institutes of Health announced yesterday that it launched a new initiative to study this issue because large numbers of patients continue to feel symptoms long after theyve recovered from the initial stages of the virus. Symptoms include brain fog, sleep disorders, fevers, gastrointestinal issues, or depression, and they can range from mild to nearly complete incapacitation. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said scientists hope to learn more about the underlying causes of long COVID and who is most vulnerable. Walensky said broader COVID-19 trends are headed in the right direction as U.S. cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are all rapidly declining. Average daily cases declined 25% over the past week to about 64,000 cases per day, which is slightly less than last summers peak of 67,00 reported cases per day. An average of 6,500 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to the hospital each day last week, down 16% from the week before. The most recent seven-day average for daily COVID-19 deaths was slightly less than 2,000, representing a 35% decline compared to the prior week. -- Ariel Cohen of CQ-Roll Call wrote this story. (c)2021 CQ Roll Call Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC Everyones talking fast development, short timelines and tonnes of electric car models coming to market. But the price of ambition is high, as Motor Co is learning. Electric carmakers and the investors who love them should take note. This week, the South Korean company announced one of the most expensive recalls in auto history. said the repair and replacement involved three of its and would cost approximately KRW1 trillion ($900 million). Vehicle fires were apparently associated with the battery systems and defective manufacturing of some of the LG Energy Solution Co-made cells in them. All told, the company is recalling almost 82,000 cars and buses. In terms of vehicles, the debacle isnt enormous, compared to the tens of millions recalled by carmakers in decades past over faulty airbags and seatbelts. However, as a proportion of viable green autos out there, its large: Almost 3 per cent of the total 2.8 million of all types of sold globally in 2020. Thats even more as a percentage of fully battery-operated cars. Ambition should be made of stronger stuff. The rate of EV recalls by both new and traditional car makers is alarming. Its not just Hyundai. Here are a few others: New York-listed, China-based Li Auto Inc in November announced 10,469 cars needed to have their front suspension control arm replaced. In 2019, another Chinese carmaker, NIO Inc, recalled 4,803 electric sport utility vehicles after battery fires. General Motors Co recalled nearly 70,000 Tesla Inc, which has been quick to get cars off the assembly line in China, called back about 30,000 Model S and X cars because of suspension defects. Hyundai and many of its peers have rushed to make cars based on nascent technologies to cater to investors expectations, rising regulatory requirements and consumers impatient for cars that will save the planet. The speed is dizzying. These recalls should sound a broad, cautionary note: The industry needs to take a slower, more considered approach to the next generation of automobiles. And investors must also shoulder responsibility for this rush toward green profits. There are very real repercussions for consumer safety as well as the bottom lines of companies if things go wrong. As one South Korean battery expert told Reuters in November, A battery that is not safe is like a bomb. You cant make provisions for these kinds of consequences in corporate financial statements. In Hyundais case, the recall announcement came a day after the company launched its latest electric car, the IONIQ 5, with much fanfare. In keeping with its aspirations, Hyundai also appointed a chief technology officer for its urban air mobility division that is, flying cars. How about we get one technology right first? The Junta de Andalucia's Minister of Health, Jesus Aguirre, has announced that, as of this Thursday (25 February), the regional government will start to vaccinate people in their own homes if they cannot travel to an established Covid-19 vaccination point. Speaking to journalists in Cordoba, Aguirre explained that the Junta de Andalucia had called on "the Government of Spain during the last Interterritorial Council", and also "the Pfizer laboratories, to change the advice to allow health workers to take pre-filled Pfizer doses to peoples homes and be able to inject them." The Minister of Health said, "We have now received the authorisations and we are ready to vaccinate the group of elderly dependents at home. Aguirre clarified, it will be "a small volume of people" who cannot leave home to be vaccinated. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Fourteen- and 15-year-olds in California cannot be prosecuted in adult court, where they would face sentences of up to life in prison, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday, upholding a 2019 state law that was challenged by prosecutors. The law requires youths younger than 16 to be tried in juvenile court. The maximum confinement for juveniles is up to age 25, although a juvenile court judge could then order a safety hold requiring placement in a medical center. Prosecutors from a number of counties argued that the 2019 law violated a provision of a 2016 ballot measure, Proposition 57, that allowed them to charge 14-year-olds as adults if a juvenile court judge decided the case belonged in adult court, based on the crime and the youths record. But that law actually limited prosecutors authority to try juveniles as adults. Under a 2000 ballot measure, Prop. 21, prosecutors could charge 14-year-olds in adult court for serious crimes on their own, without review by a juvenile court judge, as the law had previously required. Prop. 57, sponsored by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, reinstated the pre-2000 requirement of juvenile court approval for adult prosecutions and allowed the Legislature to enact further changes in juvenile law as long as they were consistent with the intent of Prop. 57. That intent, the court said Thursday, was to keep youths out of prison and return them to the juvenile court system, which focuses more on rehabilitation than on punishment. Quoting a state Assembly committee analysis of the 2019 law, the court said the prosecution of 14- and 15-year-olds as adults in California dated from the 1990s, a period where the state was getting tough on crime, but not smart on crime. Societys views have changed since then, based on scientific research about juvenile development as well as the financial and social costs of steadily rising prison populations, Justice Joshua Groban, a Brown appointee, said in the 7-0 ruling. He noted the U.S. Supreme Courts 2005 ruling banning the death penalty for offenders under 18, and its 2012 decision striking down state laws that required life in prison without parole for crimes committed by juveniles. California lawmakers were entitled to conclude in 2019 that 14- and 15-year-olds accused of serious crimes should be tried in juvenile court, where they are more likely to receive appropriate education and emotional and psychological treatment, and less likely to reoffend after their release, Groban said. One of the stated purposes of Prop. 57, he said, was to stop the revolving door of crime by emphasizing rehabilitation, especially for juveniles. Groban also noted that the states voter guide said the ballot measure was intended to save money by reducing wasteful spending on prisons. The ruling makes California the first state to prohibit adult prosecutions of youths under 16, said the Sentencing Project, a group working to reduce imprisonment. It said those prosecutions have disproportionately affected racial minorities. The ruling does not affect prosecutions of 16- and 17-year-olds, who can be tried in adult court for serious crimes if a juvenile court judge grants the prosecutors request after reviewing a youths record and background. The case came from Ventura County, where a 15-year-old identified as O.G. was charged with two gang-related murders in 2018. A state appeals court said prosecutors could seek to try him in adult court, ruling that the 2019 law barring such prosecutions violated Prop. 57 contrary to rulings by seven other appeals court panels in similar cases. The law has been enforced in parts of the state but is on hold elsewhere to await the state Supreme Courts ruling, which keeps O.G.s case in juvenile court. Groups that backed the 2019 law praised the ruling. Now the state will focus on rehabilitating young people, said Elizabeth Calvin of Human Rights Watch. Youth who are sent to the adult system miss out on the treatment, education and services offered in the juvenile system. Youth kept in the juvenile system are less likely to commit new crimes. The California District Attorneys Association, representing most prosecutors in the state, argued for continued authority to try the youths as adults. The association was not immediately available for comment. But attorney Kymberlee Stapleton of the pro-prosecution Criminal Justice Legal Foundation said the ruling would require the state to release some of the most violent juvenile criminals in the country. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said he was disappointed that the court had not allowed adult prosecutions of youths in cases of murder and serious sex crimes, but agreed with the overall goals of promoting rehabilitation and reducing prison spending and overcrowding. The ruling was applauded by the liberal California Prosecutors Alliance, representing district attorneys in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties. Research shows that rehabilitation works, and by rehabilitating our children, we will make it less likely that they will commit new crimes, said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, the former district attorney in San Francisco. The case is O.G. vs. Superior Court, S259011. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Evolve Education Group Limited has released its audited results for the financial year ended 31 December 2020. As EVO changed its balance date from 31 March to 31 December during calendar year 2020, EVOs audited results for the financial year ended 31 December 2020 are for the 9 months from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020. Key features of the results: Revenue of $102.6m for FY 31 December 2020, i.e. 9 months to 31 December 2020 (FY 31 March 2020, i.e.12 months to 31 March 2020, $140.6m) Net profit after tax at $7.6m for FY 31 December 2020 (FY 31 March 2020 loss of $13.3m) Underlying EBITDA of $15.7m for FY 31 December 2020 (FY 31 March 2020 $8.2m) Managing Director Chris Scott commented that 2020 was a challenging year with lockdowns and restrictions in New Zealand and Australia due to Covid-19. The confidence of our families, the support of the Governments of both countries for the sector, the dedication of our employees, the acquisition of Australian centres in late 2019 and action taken to improve operations in New Zealand all enabled EVO to record a better result in the 9 months to 31 December 2020 compared to the previous financial year. Following a refresh of the EVO Board in September 2019, EVO has experienced a stabilisation in occupancy levels, the streamlining of support office functions, a reduction in Board fees and the curtailment of fee discounting. EVO has also expanded into Australia with the acquisition of 10 centres in the last quarter of 2019. In December 2020, EVO issued A$35m five-year notes the proceeds of which were partly used to fully repay bank facilities from ASB and the remainder has been earmarked for future acquisitions in Australia. The results reaffirm our action plans in both New Zealand and Australia, and our healthy balance sheet positions us well for acquisitions in Australia while we continue to progress operational improvements in New Zealand. Please see the links below for details: Evolve (EVO) full year financial statements 31 December 2020 Evolve (EVO) results announcement 31 December 2020 Evolve (EVO) full year results commentary 31 December 2020 Source: Evolve Education Group Limited 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: 1st June 2021 Morning Report Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Update Following Canterbury Flooding Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 31st May 2021 Morning Report The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) Media Reporting Regarding Potential Class Action Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Forecast Milk Price Update General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Continues on Its Strong Growth Path Third Age Health Services Limited (NZX: TAH) Announces Preliminary Full Year Result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) Better Positioned for Future Growth Green Cross Health Limited (NZX: GXH) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 COLUMBUS, Ohio - The number of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines allotted to Ohio is expected to increase by over 90,000 next week, Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday. This week, the federal government allocated 219,700 first doses for Ohio, according to a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Health. Each week since Ohio began administering vaccines Dec. 14, the allocations to the state have generally increased. Next week, DeWine said he was told the state will get 310,000. Theres been a lot more demand than there has been supply, DeWine said during a coronavirus briefing from his Greene County home. And Im not telling you that is ending. But I am going to tell you things are looking a lot better. Furthermore, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will increase the availability of shots in Ohio. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel will meet Friday to consider the vaccines risks and efficacy. Its unclear when the panel will approve the vaccine, which will be just one dose. Ohio will receive 90,000 Johnson and Johnson doses during the first week its allowed, DeWine said. The number will decrease in the second and third week, though he didnt know how much less on Thursday. First doses of vaccines for school employees is concluding this week, DeWine said, which means more shots will be available for other groups. DeWine wouldnt answer a question about whether Ohioans will get to choose which pharmaceutical companys vaccine they want to take. While the J&J vaccine is effective at preventing severe illness. However, trials found its less effective among higher-risk older people than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. DeWine said some Meijer and Walmart locations will begin offering vaccines. People can find locations at https://vaccine.coronavirus.ohio.gov/ but at this point, theyll have to try schedule at each location because the centralized, statewide vaccine signup is not yet live. Were going to be able to send more vaccinations to the (local) health departments, he said. And more to vaccinations, more doses, to hospitals. The number of people reported to have received their second dose of vaccine between 6 a.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday was 29,304 to a total of 772,126 people. This represents 6.61% of Ohios population, although not every Ohioan is eligible for the vaccine. Most children are not at this point. And some people who have gotten shots live in border states. And 30,743 more people got first doses of vaccine since Wednesday, bringing the total to just over 1.5 million. It represents 13.1% of the states population. More coverage: Ohio reports 2,409 new coronavirus cases: Thursday update Gov. Mike DeWine to update the public on coronavirus rules for Cleveland Indians, other Ohio games: Watch live Fewer people will get food, Medicaid, unemployment under Ohio bill requiring more fraud checks, advocates say Ohio coronavirus deaths now exceed 17,000: Wednesday update Ohio is developing a $3.6 million centralized coronavirus vaccine signup system. Here are the details Ohio hospitals, other sites could easily ramp up for mass vaccinations, Gov. Mike DeWine says Browns, Indians, Cavs stadiums under consideration to become Ohio mass vaccination sites Earlier this week, the Israeli Air Force carried out a three-day exercise simulating a large-scale war against Hezbollah, the terrorist group that controls much of Lebanon, and which reportedly has as many as 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel. Included in the exercise were simulated strikes on some 3,000 Hezbollah targets in a single day. This number of targets in one day is unprecedented, particularly compared to the fact that during the entire 2006 Lebanon War, its been reported that Israel reportedly attacked some 5000 targets. The Israeli army undertaking, much less publicizing, this... 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 Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise in Texas one week after millions lost power during the deadly storm, as medics say warming shelters providing refuge for desperate residents may have acted as 'giant petri dishes' for the virus. Texas recorded 7,640 new infections Wednesday, marking a 320 percent surge from 2,387 cases just one week earlier on February 18. The state's seven-day average also climbed from 5,478 to 6,504 cases in the last week, undoing the progress made the week earlier as the average fell from 11,078 back on February 12. The resurgence of cases comes despite state data showing fewer Texans have been tested in the last week, as testing sites were forced to shutter and people prioritized trying to survive the storm that left at least 30 dead. Texans were forced to huddle together in warming shelters set up around the state while business owners opened their doors to welcome those in need after rolling power blackouts left 4.3 million people without power and more than 14.6 million were left without access to safe drinking water. Now, 10 days on from when the crisis first began, 10,000 homes are still without power and more than 1.4 million still face water disruptions. The hard-hit Lone Star state is now on the brink of more trouble as doctors warn that a spike in coronavirus is likely in the coming days. It comes as Texas now lags behind all but three other states in its vaccine rollout as health officials were forced to cancel appointments and shutter sites during the storm and shipments of doses couldn't reach health centers along the treacherous roads. COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise in Texas one week after millions lost power during the deadly storm The spike comes despite state data showing fewer Texans have been tested in the last week. Just 36,900 new molecular tests were recorded on a seven-day rolling average Tuesday - around half the 70,900 tests taken on February 18 (seen in chart) COVID-19 cases topped 10,000 for the first time in almost two weeks Tuesday, with 10,274 infections recorded. This is the highest figure since February 12 when 12,295 cases were recorded - just before Storm Uri barreled into Texas. Cases overall had been on decline from February 12 to a low of 2,387 on February 18, after which they steadily increased again. However the daily case count may not show the true extent of an increase in cases, as the number of tests carried out remains far below average. Just 36,900 new molecular tests were recorded on a seven-day rolling average Tuesday - the latest day the state data is available for. This is around half the 70,900 tests taken on February 18 when the state recorded just 2,387 cases and Texans were in the midst of the storm crisis. On February 12, 95,100 tests were carried out. With cases climbing despite testing falling, this suggests the surge in cases could be even greater than the state data currently reveals as people are currently being tested less as they try to rebuild their homes destroyed by the storm. Another 325 deaths were recorded Wednesday with the seven-day average death toll climbing to 200 Wednesday up from 158 February 18. A total of 6,738 Texans were hospitalized. Deaths and hospitalization rates tend to lag behind cases so the impact will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. People take shelter at Gallery Furniture store which opened its door and transformed into a warming station Texans were forced to huddle together in warming shelters set up around the state while business owners opened their doors to welcome those in need People select shirts and sweatshirts being given away at a Gallery Furniture store where people took shelter last week after rolling power blackouts left 4.3 million people without power and more than 14.6 million were left without access to safe drinking water Dr. Joseph Varon, chief medical officer at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, warned that another spike is likely in the coming days as shelters for people escaping their freezing homes acted as 'petri dishes.' 'A lot of people gathered. They didn't care about Covid,' he told CNN. 'We had a bunch of shelters open to keep people warm, and you know a shelter is a giant petri dish so I do expect in the next few days we're going to have a small spike in the number of cases.' Varon said social distancing rules also fell by the wayside as people rushed to the likes of grocery stores to stock up on water and food as the power outages left the state's food supply chain and water systems in crisis. The UMMC was one of several hospitals that lost power and water during the storm leaving the hospital unable to use its operating room and leaving some staff stranded at the site for five straight days, he added. 'The storm was absolutely devastating. It was chaotic to say the least,' Varon said. '[When it ran out of water] we thought we were going to get some help from other hospitals, but they were in the exact same position as we were.' Another 325 deaths were recorded Wednesday with the seven-day average death toll climbing to 200 Wednesday up from 158 February 18 A total of 6,738 Texans were hospitalized Wednesday. Deaths and hospitalization rates tend to lag behind cases so the impact will become clearer in the coming days and weeks While concerns are mounting the hard-hit state is headed for further crisis, it has also emerged that Texas' vaccination program has been hampered by last week's storm. The state is now lagging behind the vast majority of US states in getting shots into the arms of Americans. Just 11.6 percent of Texans have been given their first dose of the vaccine and just 5.4 percent the second, according to Bloomberg data. This puts the second most populous state considerably below the national average of 13.6 percent and 6.2 percent. The state had been ramping up its vaccine distribution before the storm hit with around 126,793 people being vaccinated each day in the first week of February, according to state data. But when the storm hit, vaccination sites lost power and were forced cancel appointments, people couldn't travel to sites in the treacherous weather and deliveries from the federal government were delayed as roads and flight paths were too dangerous. As a result, just 221,481 doses were administered the whole of last week. This has fueled a major setback for the state with only Georgia, Utah and Tennessee now administering a lower proportion of their population than Texas. Dr. Peter J. Hotez, a professor of biology at Baylor University in Waco, told Texas Monthly: 'It set us back a week at a point when you don't want to lose time. 'How quickly we can recover and redouble our efforts is going to be really telling.' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that vaccination sites would be 'doubling up appointments' to make up for delays caused by the storm. At least 30 died in the storms that rocked Texas last week including an 11-year-old boy who died of suspected hypothermia in his family's mobile home hours before Ted Cruz abandoned his state and jetted off on a holiday to Cancun. More than 1.4 million were still facing some form of water disruptions Wednesday afternoon, with more than 20,000 still without access to any running water, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. People line up for a grocery store last week to stock up on water and food as the power outages left the state's food supply chain and water systems in crisis Now, 10 days on from when the crisis first began, 10,000 homes are still without power and more than 1.4 million still face water disruptions 2020 was an extraordinary year for China. Facing the sudden coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese people put up a strong defense with solidarity and resilience, and achieved a heroic feat in humankind's fight against the virus. China has become the first major economy worldwide to achieve positive growth after the economic downturn caused by the epidemic. What was behind these achievements? How did ordinary people in different sectors respond? Recently, three foreigners living in China, Raz Galor from Israel, Lila Kidson from the US and Alistair Bayley from Australia, went to Zouping in East China's Shandong Province, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province, and the country's capital city Beijing, met with workers, delivery men, restaurant owners and learned about their stories. From the interviews and experience, they have seen many flashes of heroism in ordinary people in China. Here's a video that shows what exactly they discovered. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Bangladesh , his first visit abroad in more than a year largely because of the covid-19 pandemic, on 26-27 March. The two countries may take a step towards launching talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) during the visit, which is primarily to take part in the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladeshs independence and 50 years of Bangladesh-India diplomatic relations. Ties between the two countries have been on an upswing since 2015 when the two countries concluded their land boundary agreement that had been pending for decades. It had facilitated the transfer of 111 enclaves, adding up to 17,160.63 acres, from India to Bangladesh with India receiving 51 enclaves, totalling 7,110.02 acres. Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar is expected to visit Dhaka to pave the way for Modis visit, which comes just months after the two prime ministers held a virtual summit in December during which they had directed the officials to expeditiously conclude the ongoing joint study on the prospects of entering into a bilateral CEPA." The results of the study were to be put up to the two governments soon, said a person familiar with the matter. Should the CEPA talks be launched during Modis visit, it will signal a step up in ties, according to Biswajit Dhar, a professor of international trade relations at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University. It is very important for ties given that India has said that it was relooking at trade agreements with all countries. This would not be just an economic agreement. It will also be strategic in nature, defining ties in the larger context," he said. With Indias strategic rival China making inroads into Indias periphery, it makes sense for India to extend a hand of friendship to close partner Bangladesh," he said. Bangladesh would be graduating from the category of Least Development Country (LDC) to Low Middle Income Country soon and would hence be losing the privileges extended to LDCs. A CEPA would cover trade, investments, and competition. So this would be a better deal," Dhar said. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have developed an entirely new type of vaccine based on mRNA [Messenger RNA vaccines] to combat the coronavirus. A UK-based university, with the help of a two-minute-long video, has explained how the mRNA vaccine targets the immune system to eliminate COVID-19. The coronavirus vaccines, when injected in the upper arm sends the mRNA into the bloodstream. The virus makes copies of itself by entering into the healthy host cells using protein spike structures that are made out of RNA and DNA. The mRNA from the vaccine contains the synthetic version of the RNA that tricks the immune system that the virus is present, thereby accelerating the anti-body-making process. When injected, the mRNA component acts as an instructor for the immunity cells directing them to interpret the protein spike structure of the coronavirus which kick starts the immunity mechanism in the body. While the coronavirus attacks the healthy cells, makes copies of itself, and rapidly multiplies, the mRNA prepares these cells to fight in advance. The messenger RNA injected from the vaccine performs a "crucial task" in the body by tricking the healthier cells against the spike protein and by teaching our immune system what that virus actually looks like. This prepares the immune system to vigorously attack the actual virus. How does the mRNA COVID vaccine work? pic.twitter.com/WW6s7or23W Harvard University (@Harvard) February 24, 2021 According to Barry Bloom of Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health, SARS-CoV-2 uses DNA or RNA that wraps itself on the coat of proteins altering it into a specific structure. As mRNA enters the blood, the immunity cells become more aware of these spike protein structures that are also composed of RNA. This is much different from the mechanism of traditional vaccines. In the case of COVID-19, a piece called the spike protein is the critical piece, scientists explain. And hence, the mRNA vaccine instructs the immune system cells to gobble up the critical piece of protein, kill the virus, and ramp up the defense against the virus. The mRNA plays a vital role in educating the immune cells to get rid of the actual virus. Once the cells recognize the protein spike structure due to the mRNA, it starts to build an immune response and makes antibodies. Read: COVID-19: Johnson And Johnson's Single-dose Vaccine 'offers Strong Protection', Says FDA Read: In Bid To Battle Covid, AIIMS' Dr Randeep Guleria Pitches Vaccine-aided Herd Immunity [SARS-CoV-2. Credit: Twitter/@MediosTec21_Vva] New vaccines, but known previously mRNA vaccines that have been researched for the COVID-19 were manufactured earlier for ailments like flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Scientists have used traditional vaccines for over several years against illnesses like polio and measles. After the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, German company BioNTech, and company in Massachusetts Moderna commenced rigorous research to alter the right mRNA sequence for it to combat more complicated illnesses like COVID-19. For this, the researchers had to first identify the coronavirus. Once the genes that make the spike protein in the SARS-CoV-2 virus were identified, scientists began working on an mRNA vaccine to pave way for widespread immunization again COVID-19. Read: Elderly Receive Vaccine In Argentina Amid Scandal Read: Indian Envoy: 'I Am Glad That Mongolia's First COVID-19 Vaccine Is Made In India' Republicans Can Win 2022 by Following Trumps Lead: Lindsey Graham Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Republicans on Tuesday to unify and get behind former President Donald Trump in order to win both House and Senate majorities in 2022. If we could get behind President Trump and follow his lead, we will win in 2022. If we argue with ourselves, were going to lose. And theres no reason to lose, Graham told Foxs Hannity on Tuesday. The South Carolina Senator warned against the division in the Republican party that has become more obvious since the second Trump impeachment trial in February that saw Trump acquitted but where Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other top Republicans publicly came out against the former president. During a Wednesday press conference, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) contradicted each other about Trumps role in the GOP. McCarthy said that Trump should play a role and Cheney said she is opposed to the former president playing a role in the party. Meanwhile, Graham has been a supporter of the Trump Administrations policies and on numerous occasions, said Trump has been one of the most consequential presidents in history. He also told Hannity that he had recently spent the weekend with the former president and feels positive about Trumps role in the GOP and his policies, especially on immigration. Ive never felt better about President Trumps leading the party than I do right now, Graham said. I predict that immigration will be a bigger issue than 2022 than it was in 2016, he added. What theyre (Democrats) doing at the border makes no sense. Ive been involved in trying to fix immigration. Theyre dismantling the Trump border plan that worked. Host Sean Hannity asked Graham what Trump would say in the speech he is scheduled to deliver on Sunday at this years Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida. Number one, he will position himself as the alternative to Joe Biden. I think (Trump) will make a speech that will unify Republicans on the policy. He has been working the phones, I was with him all weekend. He wants us to win in 2022, Graham said. Many people are wondering if Trump will run in 2024 but Trump himself said last week that its too early to say whether he will launch another bid for the presidency. But I see a lot of great polls out there, thats for sure, Trump told Newsmax, adding: We have tremendous support. I wont say yet but we have tremendous support and Im looking at poll numbers that are through the roof. Im the only guy who gets impeached and my numbers go up. Trumps daughter-in-law and former senior adviser, Lara Trump, said over the weekend that the former president has told us to stay tuned and that this is not over for him, and he has indicated that he probably would be interested in running again in 2024. Graham did not confirm if Trump would run in 2024 but did make the case for the former president leading the party to win back legislative power. Stay tuned. I think youre going to see over the next couple of months Donald Trump lead the Republican Party on policy, and give us the energy we need to take back the House and the Senate. The Democrats are doing their part, Graham reiterated. Zachary Stieber contributed to this report Moscow is concerned over developments in Armenia and is calling for calm after the country's prime minister accused the military of an attempted coup, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. "We are watching the development of the situation in Armenia with concern," Peskov said, adding: "Naturally we call for calm." Short link: LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired SolarWinds Corporation ("SolarWinds" or the "Company") (NYSE: SWI) securities between February 24, 2020 and December 15, 2020, inclusive (the "Class Period"). SolarWinds investors have until March 5, 2021 to file a lead plaintiff motion. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. On December 13, 2020, Reuters reported hackers have been monitoring email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments. The hackers are believed to have breached the emails by deceptively interfering with updates released by SolarWinds, which services various government vendors in the executive branch, the military, and the intelligence services. On December 14, 2020, the Company disclosed that "a vulnerability [was inserted] within its Orion monitoring products which, if present and activated, could potentially allow an attacker to compromise the server on which the Orion products run." The vulnerability was inserted in Orion products downloaded, as well as updates released, between March and June 2020. On this news, the Company's stock price fell $3.93, or 17%, to close at $19.62 per share on December 14, 2020, thereby injuring investors. Then, on December 15, 2020, Reuters reported that Vinoth Kumar, a security researcher, alerted the Company last year that anyone could access SolarWinds' update server by using the password "solarwinds123." The article also reported that co-founder of cybersecurity company Huntress, Kyle Hanslovan, noticed the malicious updates were still available for download even days after SolarWinds was aware their software was compromised. On this news, the Company's stock price fell $1.56, or 8%, to close at $18.06 per share on December 15, 2020, thereby injuring investors further. The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) since mid-2020, SolarWinds Orion monitoring products had a vulnerability that allowed hackers to compromise the server upon which the products ran; (2) SolarWinds' update server had an easily accessible password of 'solarwinds123'; (3) consequently, SolarWinds' customers, including, among others, the Federal Government, Microsoft, Cisco, and Nvidia, would be vulnerable to hacks; (4) as a result, the Company would suffer significant reputational harm; and (5) as a result, Defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. Follow us for updates on Twitter: twitter.com/FRC_LAW. If you purchased SolarWinds securities during the Class Period, you may move the Court no later than March 5, 2021 to ask the Court to appoint you as lead plaintiff. To be a member of the Class you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the Class. If you purchased SolarWinds securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Frank R. Cruz, of The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-914-5007, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.frankcruzlaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. SOURCE The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, Los Angeles Related Links frankcruzlaw.com PM Modi to inaugurate key development projects in TN, Puducherry Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday will visit Puducherry to inaugurate several development projects. PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for 4 landing of NH45-A - 56 km Sattanathapuram - Nagapattinam package of Villupuram to Nagapattinam project covering Karaikal district in Puducherry at around 11:30 am in the morning, as per an official release. He will also lay the foundation stone of the Medical College Building at Karaikal New Campus- Phase I, Karaikal District (JIPMER). PM Modi will also visit Tamil Nadu on Thursday and will dedicate to the nation the Neyveli New Thermal Power Project and several other projects. Read full story here India begins BRICS 2021 chairship with 3-day-long Sherpas meeting India kicked off its BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Chairship with the inaugural three-day-long Sherpas' meeting, said Anurag Srivastava, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson on Wednesday. Taking to Twitter he wrote that India looks forward to continuing productive discussions with BRICS partners over the next two days. According to the MEA release, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar launched Indias BRICS 2021 website at the BRICS Secretariat at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan on February 19. Read full story here Pak misusing international platforms for baseless propaganda: India at UNHRC India, on February 24, slammed Pakistan for misusing International platforms for 'baseless and malicious propaganda' against it and advised that before pointing a finger at New Delhi, Islamabad would do well to put its own house in order. In response to a statement by Pakistan's representative, India said it was not surprised that Islamabad's representative misused the UN forum yet again. Read full story here Railways increases fares for short-distance trains After concerns were raised over a rise in the ticket fares of short-distance passenger trains, the Indian Railways on Wednesday explained that the hike was only to discourage unnecessary travel. After easing up the Coronavirus-triggered lockdown, the railways started running only special trains. It started with long-distance trains and now, even short-distance passenger trains are being run as special trains. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the fares of these trains have been fixed at par with the price of unreserved tickets of mail and express trains for the same distance, a statement from the railway ministry said. Read full story here Australias new law forces tech firms to pay for news Australia's Parliament passed landmark legislation on Thursday mandating global digital giants like Facebook and Google to pay for local news content, in a move that is being closely followed around the world. The new law facilitates Google and Facebook to invest millions of dollars in local content deals and could prove a model for resolving the companies' tussles with regulators worldwide. Google will now pay for news content that appears on its "Showcase" product, while Facebook will pay providers who appear on its "News" product, which is to be launched in Australia later this year. Read full story here WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), America's largest Hispanic business organization, condemns the racist remarks by U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) about Hispanic Americans at the recent Energy & Commerce hearing on Thursday February 11, 2021. Hispanic Americans contribute $2.6 trillion to the U.S. economy each year and collectively are the world's seventh largest economy. "We condemn all racism, including remarks that cast negative stereotypes on the Hispanic community and imply Hispanic Americans do not belong in our country. To date, Hispanic Americans have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, with higher infection and mortality rates. This is due to the number of essential Hispanic workers providing healthcare, food service, and logistics in every American community. It is important that everyone has access to COVID-19 vaccines and we encourage Congress to promote equitable distribution of vaccines for all," said Ramiro A. Cavazos, USHCC President & CEO. "We hope for a sincere apology from Congresswoman Lesko for her remarks so that we can get back to the important work of ending this pandemic and economic recovery." "We denounce Representative Lesko's statement and any language that negatively portrays our Latino community and belies our substantial contributions to this country," said Alice Rodriguez, Chair of the USHCC Board of Directors. "The data trends show that Latinos are the most represented among our frontline essential workers as well as our national economic growth and recovery process. These statements are unacceptable." Lesko made this statement on a proposed amendment to prioritize citizens for vaccines: "Arizona is a border state. We are compassionate people too. We have a lot of different varieties of people that live here. It's very diverse. I worked with people that are Hispanic. I mean they're very good workers. We're compassionate people, but for goodness sakes, we have to take care of American citizens, or people that are here legally, first. I'm just not going to be able to explain to my senior citizens that we're giving away the vaccines to people that [are] here illegally. I just think that's totally wrong." The abhorrent comments came days before the United States reached the sad milestone of 500,000 deaths from the COVID-19 virus, affecting so many families from all walks of life. "We agree with the Department of Homeland Security that 'equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines for undocumented immigrants is a moral and public health imperative.' Further, we invite Congresswoman Lesko to engage in a discussion about how to best protect all lives in Arizona, regardless of age or status," said Monica Villalobos, President & CEO, Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "Arizona and our entire country have experienced great loss due to the pandemic. The statements made by Congresswoman Lesko regarding Hispanic Arizonans with the second highest impacted community at 30% infection rate and 29% in deaths, is both inhumane and ill-informed. These types of comments by a leader of our state only serve to disenfranchise and create distrust at a time when we must work together. This is not the language of someone who is working for all their constituents during a time of true life and death circumstances," added Isabel Georgelos, President & CEO, Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. About the USHCC The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) actively promotes the economic growth, development, and interests of more than 4.7 million Hispanic-owned businesses, that combined, contribute over $800 billion to the American economy every year. It advocates on behalf of its network of more than 250 local chambers and business associations nationwide. For more information, please visit ushcc.com. Follow us on Twitter @USHCC. SOURCE United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) The Democratic leader sparks debate and attempts to burn down old school criminal justice codes. Kansas governor supports bill to legalize medical marijuana The response . . . Kansas law enforcement pushes back on legalizing medical marijuana Better reading about the big picture . . . "There are very few things that many Americans agree on," said Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies for legalization advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project. Medical cannabis is one of them. A pair of polls in 2019 showed support for medical marijuana surpassing 90 percent. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. As a leading financial newspaper run by Japanese media giants Nikkei Inc., Nikkei Asia have stated that, Southeast Asia's growth leader in 2021 may well be Vietnam, during a recent article detailing ASEAN's GDP forecasts for the year ahead. According to Nikkei, the country recorded economic growth of 2.9% last year due to its success in containing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), in addition to the robust exports of electronics and other consumer products, with the nation reportedly targeting a growth rate of 6.5% this year. The Japanese media also quote a report produced by Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at Capital Economics, who notes that Vietnamese exports should continue to be supported by tariffs imposed by the United States on Chinese goods. "To avoid US tariffs, importers have shifted demand from China to alternative suppliers. With US-China relations likely to remain strained over the years ahead, this trend is likely to continue, Leather noted. Nikkei also stress that before the pandemic, Southeast Asia achieved collective annual growth of approximately 5% over the course of many years, therefore making it one of the world's best-performing regions in economic terms. According to media reports, the region has become an attractive investment destination, with a relatively young population that drives demand and provides plenty of manufacturing labour. Although these factors can be viewed as advantages that can boost economic growth, the regions top priority in the short term is to stamp out COVID-19. VOV/Nikkei Asia Vietnams economic achievements surprise the world Legendary story, Rising star, and Asias brightest economy count among the praise from international organisations in relation to Vietnams economic development over recent years. BRIDGEPORT The owner of a Clinton environmental cleanup company accused of costing Fairfield taxpayers millions of dollars for his failed cleanup of a dumping site on town property pleaded not guilty Thursday to illegal dumping charges. Robert Grabarek, president of Osprey Environmental Engineering, pleaded not guilty before Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton to two counts of violating state environmental regulations and one count of conspiracy all felonies. He asked for a jury trial. Judge Dayton then continued the case to March 12. Senior Assistant States Attorney Tamberlyn Chapman declined comment. Neither Grabarek nor his lawyer, Jeremiah Donovan, would comment as they left the Golden Hill Street courthouse. The town of Fairfield is currently suing Grabarek in Superior Court here. Town Attorney James Baldwin said the town hired Osprey and Grabarek to come up with a plan approved by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to cap the dump site near the towns public works garage to prevent contaminated materials from leaking into the air and water. But he said Osprey and Grabarek didnt get DEEP approval and instead created a barrier on the site that contains contaminated material. Osprey said it was OK to go ahead to proceed to create the berm and now it is going to cost millions of dollars for remediation, Baldwin said. He estimated the damage caused by Osprey and Grabarek will cost the town up to $5 million. Four former senior Fairfield town officials Scott Bartlett, former Fairfield Public Works superintendent; Joseph Michelangelo, former director of public works; Brian Carey, the interim public works director and town conservation director; and Emmet Hibson, the towns former human resources director pleaded not guilty earlier this week to conspiring to illegally dispose of hundreds of yards of highly-contaminated soil on town property. Bartlett is also facing bribery charges. In 2013, Julian Development was hired by the town to manage a pile of debris next to the public works garage with the prohibition that he was to accept no contaminated material there and was to eventually clean out the site. But over the next three years, the site went from 40,000 cubic yards of material to approximately 120,000 cubic yards covering nearly three acres. Subsequent tests found the pile contained high levels of PCBs, lead and other hazardous materials, according to court documents. The town was ordered by DEEP to clean up the site. In 2016, the town hired Grabarek, who already was under investigation for alleged environmental wrongdoing, to do the cleanup and build a berm of clean soil around the site to prevent contaminates from spreading to neighboring properties and waterways, the documents state. Grabarek, in his capacity as a licensed environmental professional, together with town officials, conspired to bury contaminated materials into the berm, including soils containing PCBs in concentrations greater than (allowed) and then continued to conceal the act of doing so, his arrest warrant affidavits state. Fundraising can be challenging in the best of times, and if you throw in a pandemic, it creates even bigger challenges. What do nonprofits do to ensure that they are able to receive the funds they need to fulfill their mission? At the Jewish Pavilion an army of dedicated volunteers and employees worked together, came up with a plan, and carried it out beautifully. To quote Charles Dickens it was the best of times, it was the worst of times and this group made the Pavilions fund-raiser event shine bright to make sure our seniors see the best of times. The biggest fundraiser we have... Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:52:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writers Xia Yuanyi, Huang Yinjiazi BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose career has been closely associated with his country's war against poverty, declared on Thursday that China has scored a "complete victory." The country has created a "China example" of poverty reduction and made great contributions to global poverty alleviation, Xi said when addressing a gathering marking the country's accomplishments in poverty eradication and commending role models in that cause. During the race against impoverishment at home, the Chinese president is keenly aware that poverty eradication is a common ideal of humanity. He thus has urged his country to play an increasingly proactive role in global efforts to reduce poverty. Xi calls it "the bigger perspective." PEOPLE-CENTERED DEVELOPMENT In the late 1960s, Xi, who was then less than 16 years of age, came to a small village on the loess plateau of northern Shaanxi Province and worked on the land there for seven years. Back then, peasants had nothing to offer but sweat and toil in hopes of living better, but due to a severe scarcity of resources, that still seemed a pie in the sky for the rural impoverished. That experience has built enduring momentum in Xi's devotion to the anti-poverty cause. By the end of 2010, China's economy was about 6 trillion U.S. dollars, overtaking Japan as the world's second-largest economy, while there remained nearly 150 million people whose income was less than one dollar a day. When China's per capita GDP rose from 4,551 dollars in 2010 to 10,276 dollars in 2019 -- crossing the 10,000-dollar mark for the first time, Xi has repeatedly said "no single poor area or individual shall be left behind." Over the past decade, the overarching goal of China's anti-poverty endeavor was to realize the Two Assurances and Three Guarantees -- to ensure the rural poor do not have to worry about food and clothing, and have access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing. "It is a basic requirement and core indicator in our poverty eradication effort that by 2020 we will succeed in delivering the Two Assurances and Three Guarantees for impoverished rural residents," Xi said during an inspection tour of southwest China's Chongqing municipality in April 2019. "This is key to the success of the final stage of our fight against poverty," he said. While the Chinese people are moving closer to realizing what has come to be known as the Chinese dream, hundreds of millions of people in other countries are still living in extreme poverty. "We cannot but feel deep concern that more than 800 million still go to bed every day with an empty stomach," Xi said, addressing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Summit 2015 at the UN headquarters in New York. As a developing nation, China will share its development opportunities with other developing countries, Xi pledged on the same day at the High-level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation. "China will closely link its development with the common growth of the developing world, connect the Chinese dream with the dream of all the people in the developing countries for a better life, and join hands with other developing countries to create a bright future for common progress," he said. TARGETED POVERTY ALLEVIATION In 2012, there were still nearly 100 million people living below the national poverty line -- 2300 yuan (about 356 dollars in the current value) or less per year, a new but tough period in China's anti-poverty war. The idea of "targeted poverty alleviation" proves to be China's mighty weapon in its final push against poverty, which was first put forward by Xi during an inspection tour in 2013 to Shibadong, a Miao minority village in the central province of Hunan. Despite its location deep in the mountains, Shibadong abounds in ethnic charm and ecological resources. Therefore, the villagers decided to bet their future on six major industries, including Miao embroidery and rural tourism. In early 2017, all the 533 impoverished residents in the village were lifted out of poverty, while the net per capita income grew nearly ninefold between 2013 and 2019. In 2018, Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith led a delegation to Shibadong to learn from its playbook of fighting poverty. As Laos is striving to reduce poverty, the village's success has become a model for his country, Bounnhang wrote to Shibadong villagers in 2019. Having blazed a poverty reduction path with Chinese characteristics, China, under Xi's guidance, is helping other developing countries transform their resource endowment into development advantages. In 2000, Xi helped launch the pilot Juncao project to help improve the livelihood of the Papua New Guinea people, when he was the governor of southeast China's Fujian Province. Juncao, famed as "magic grass" and discovered by Chinese scientists, is an economical and environmentally friendly substitute for timber, which can be used as a substrate for growing mushrooms. Eighteen years later, during Xi's visit to the Oceania country, the two countries signed another aid project using the grass technology. By 2023, the aid program is expected to lift 30,000 local people out of poverty. At a UN meeting in 2019, former President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces described Juncao as "emblematic of China's Belt and Road Initiative," which, according to the World Bank's estimates, could contribute to lifting 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million out of moderate poverty. UPHILL BATTLE Over the past eight years, China has lifted 98.99 million poor rural residents under the current poverty line out of poverty, with 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 poor villages removed from the poverty list, Xi said Thursday, hailing the country's achievement of eradicating absolute poverty as a miracle that shall "go down in history." It was a hard-fought battle, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in late 2019, tore through China's economy. Thanks to China's dual efforts to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 and stabilize economic and social development, its economy emerged as the only major economy to grow in 2020, with a 2.3-percent increase of GDP year on year, official data showed in mid-January. Despite China's rebound, other emerging markets and developing economies, however, may trace diverging recovery paths, as the pandemic is still mauling many parts of the world, according to the World Economic Outlook Update released by the International Monetary Fund on Jan. 26. The quest to end poverty has suffered its worst setback for the first time in a generation. The COVID-19 crisis is forecast to pull 32 million people back into extreme poverty and efforts to rebuild the economies of the world's poorest nations post-pandemic will fall significantly short, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in December. It called for swift, significant and substantial policy action. In his special address at the World Economic Forum Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda in January, Xi said as a steadfast member of developing countries, China will further deepen South-South cooperation, and contribute to the endeavor of developing countries to eradicate poverty, ease debt burden, and achieve more growth. At the G20 Riyadh Summit on Nov. 21, Xi said "we should keep our support for developing countries and help them overcome the hardships caused by the pandemic." He pledged that China will increase the level of debt suspension and relief for countries facing particular difficulties and encourage its financial institutions to provide new financing support on a voluntary basis and according to market principles. "Past a fallen ship, one thousand sail onward," Xi said, quoting a Chinese poem. "In that spirit, let us join hands to deliver a better life for our people and build a community with a shared future for mankind." Enditem A CAMPAIGN to stop heavy goods vehicles using Henley as a rat run has been criticised by a town councillor. Ian Clark (pictured), an experienced HGV driver, said lorries had been passing through the town for decades without causing any problems. He said that the campaign launched by Bell Street resident Amanda Chumas for a 7.5-tonne weight limit to restrict HGVs was only getting off the ground due to the coronavirus pandemic. Councillor Clark, a Conservative, told a meeting of the town councils transport strategy group that if residents had a problem with lorries coming through the town they should move house. He also said that comments about HGVs causing excess deaths from air pollution were rubbish. Cllr Clark said: I have had 40 years experience of driving heavy good vehicles and Ive never had a problem driving through Henley. Ive driven a 50ft trailer with a drilling rig on it around New Street, Reading Road, over the bridge and Greys Road and nobody has ever been injured in these places. Heavy lorries have been coming through Henley for more than 100 years and nothing has ever fallen down. I might suggest to Mrs Chumas that if she doesnt like it, move out of Henley. She has been there nine years and kicks up one year when we are in covid. Residents living in Bell Street and New Street have raised the problem of HGVs for years as the vibrations from the vehicles shake their homes. Environmental campaigner David Dickie told the committee that he had witnessed this first hand and people should not have to live in such conditions. He said: When I first started on this, I chatted with Amanda in her front room and you feel the lorries as they go through. I am amazed she stayed there. All the people in New Street have signed a petition and have posters in their windows and they are all suffering terribly. The lorry drivers a lot of them are careful, some of them arent but I dont care, you should not have to live in conditions like that. Patrick Fleming, a member of the committee and the environmental campaign group Greener Henley, said that large vehicles posed a safety risk to residents. He said: Not everyone is as careful as you, Ian, and these are people who have probably driven up from Dover who are on long shifts and I think we could do without them. We could do with them sticking to the M40, the M4 the A43 those are the strategic roads that can take the traffic through and around South Oxfordshire. Councillor Ian Reissmann said that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs reported that 45,000 people in the UK die prematurely each year as a result of air pollution, primarily caused by HGVs. He said: If you extrapolate that downwards to Henley that means about nine people in Henley die every year prematurely as a result of air pollution but, of course, it will be a lot more because we have 10 streets covered by an air quality management area. If Ian Clark has been an HGV driver around Henley for 40 years then thats 360 people he has been part of killing. Im sorry to put it so bluntly but 45,000 people every year thats about half of covid. Three people were killed in the early Nineties one person was killed in the town centre by a large HGV which didnt realise it had hit anyone and was stopped 10 miles down the road. Air pollution is a serious matter. I lived two doors down from Amanda Chumas for 20 years. I greatly admire the work she has done. When you live in one of those streets the whole house rattles. If you clean your windows, the next day they are covered in black soot and that black soot is going in peoples lungs and its killing people. Cllr Clark replied: You are talking rubbish you are just warmongering. A motion calling for the 7.5-tonne limit on Henley Bridge will be put to Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, next month. This would prevent big lorries from using Henley as a short cut but those delivering to the town and immediate area would not be affected. South Oxfordshire District Council has already supported it. Almost 2,500 residents have signed an online petition in support of the campaign. Parish councillors from Bix and Assendon, Nettlebed, Kidmore End, Sonning Common and Rotherfield Greys have also indicated their support. The environmental traffic regulation order, which would cost about 125,000, would be enforced using automatic number plate recognition cameras. What do you think? Write to: Letters, Henley Standard, Caxton House, 1 Station Road, Henley or email letters@henleystandard.co.uk Lorry photo courtesy of Neil Wilson. Victor Cha, a senior adviser and the inaugural holder of the Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), speaks remotely, Thursday, during an online forum, titled "Free and Unified Korea: Options for the New U.S. Administration," hosted by the Global Peace Foundation at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul hotel. Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation By Kang Seung-woo Former U.S. government officials who dealt with the North Korean nuclear issue for previous presidents have advised the new Biden administration to take advantage of China, the North's key ally and economic patron, in resolving the decades-long problem. U.S. President Joe Biden took office last month and his national security team is reviewing its policy toward Pyongyang, which will likely result in the undoing of many of the Donald Trump administration's foreign policies. "China obviously plays an important role in any negotiation, but given the state of U.S.-China relations, I think we have to approach that particular aspect with a great deal of sobriety, and so I think that means working tactically with China. But strategically our interest may diverge too much to think that there could be some sort of grand bargain over North Korea," Victor Cha, a senior adviser and the inaugural holder of the Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said during an online forum, titled "Free and Unified Korea: Options for the New U.S. Administration," hosted by the Global Peace Foundation, Thursday. Cha served as deputy head of the U.S. delegation to six-party denuclearization talks in 2007 under the George W. Bush administration. "So I think there the principle is to work tactically with China but not have our policy dependent on China's cooperation to be successful," he added. Robert Gallucci, who was the chief U.S. negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994, expressed a similar view. "I think, in terms of what we should do, I'm pretty sure I understood Victor's point about the Chinese doing things tactical rather than attempting the strategic here, so I think I'm consistent with it," Gallucci said. "I would want from the Chinese to sign them up to encourage the North to continue restraint I guess the best I put it not to look for opportunities to enhance their bargaining position by some sort of provocation that will just set us back six months or more." Gallucci also warned against prejudging the North Korean regime, citing it as a "fundamental error." "The new realism in Washington which I have no sympathy for is saying that 'look, North Korea is never going to give up its nuclear weapons, so let's just get past that and see what we can get' and that strikes me as a fundamental error at least because we actually don't know about what North Korea is thinking and shouldn't pretend we do," he said. Some experts claim that the Biden administration needs to shift toward the goal of arms control in its negotiations with the North as an interim step before complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the North. "Even though denuclearization may not come soon, there still needs to be efforts to manage the threat from North Korea," Cha said, adding this could mean freezing their capabilities, capping them or trying to codify agreements not to test missiles or things of that nature. "There's a threat management component that has to be a part of any negotiation," he added. However, Kim Hong-kyun, another participant and former special representative for the Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, opposed the idea, claiming it will end up allowing the North to buy time for the development of its nuclear weapons program. "Korea and the U.S. have to review and come up with a common strategy on the denuclearization of North Korea as early as possible. A comprehensive agreement needs to be pursued even if its implementation will be gradual," Kim said. "An interim agreement, a so-called small deal, without clear definition on a final goal or timeline, will be exploited by the North to recognize it as a de facto nuclear weapons state." Meanwhile, Moon Hyun-jin, founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, said the time is ripe for fresh strategic thinking that a unified Korea aligned with fundamental freedoms and human rights should become the clearly stated and actively pursued policy of the U.S., South Korea, their allies and the United Nations. "This would provide a clear angle for Korea policy and a framework for all negotiations," he said. Information about HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and how to maintain good sexual health can be found out at https://www.tht.org.uk/ Trisha Goddard has spoken in the past about her first husband, an Australian politician called Robert Nestdale, who was secretly gay and died of AIDS in 1989. And appearing on Piers Morgan's Life Stories, the TV presenter, 63, said Robert risked her life to hide his sexuality, having sex with her when he was knowingly HIV positive. Trisha said he 'put my life on the line to hide his sexuality' but admits she 'feels sorry for him' because he 'must have been going through hell.' 'He risked my life to hide his sexuality': Trisha Goddard said on Piers Morgan's Life Stories her gay first husband Robert had unprotected sex with her when he was knowingly HIV positive During the interview, Piers, 55, asked Trisha: 'Your romantic life, to put it mildly, has been eventful. Tell me about your first husband. You met him on a plane? Trisha said: 'Yeah. Oh, gosh. We always used to say, never date a passenger. Piers pressed on: 'He courted you very aggressively. But you married this guy within eight months, [in 1985]. Secrets: The presenter's ex-husband, Australian politician Robert Nestdale, died in 1989, with Trisha only learning Robert had died of AIDS at his funeral Trisha said: 'Yeah. He was so charming.' 'And well connected. Where did you get married?' Piers chipped in. Trisha said: 'We were married in Sydney, with the who's who of politicians there. And it was great, until the day after the wedding. 'Then he went back to Canberra.' Piers asked her if that was the moment alarm bells began to ring for her. She replied: 'It was the first DING. Yeah. Yeah. He always used to say things to me like, I'm very tactile. So if anybody ever tells you I'm homosexual, it's just because I'm tactile.' Scared: Trisha had a three week wait and see if she had HIV and if she had given it to Billie, now 31, through breastfeeding, recalling that she didn't 'how I got through it' The marriage only lasted for eight months. Piers said: 'He died in 1989. And you thought he'd had Leukemia. He told you that but it turned out that he died of AIDS.' Robert passed away just weeks after Trisha gave birth to daughter Billie with second husband Mark Grieve - with the star only learning Robert had died of AIDS at his funeral. She and Mark married in 1993 and the pair welcomed their second daughter Madison in 1996, with the couple splitting shortly after. Trisha then went on to tie the knot with psychotherapist Peter Gianfrancesco in 1998, however, this married also didn't last, with the duo divorcing in 2017. Trisha said of her first husband: 'He always used to say things to me like, I'm very tactile. So if anybody ever tells you I'm homosexual, it's just because I'm tactile' Talking about Robert, Piers said: 'Although you had not much of a physical marriage, you had had sex unprotected with a man who knew he was HIV positive.' Trisha recalled she had a three week wait to find out if she was also HIV positive after taking a test. She also had an to wait to see if she had given HIV to daughter to Billie, now 31, through breastfeeding, recalling that she didn't 'know how I got through it'. Piers asked her: 'Do you know how he got HIV? Did you assume after all that that maybe he'd been gay, but you think maybe he was leading a double life of some sort?' Trisha admitted: 'You know what? I feel sorry for him. I actually ended up joining the Terrence Higgins Trust. But you can't come out. 'If he said to me, you know, people were guessing that I'm gay. If he told me... His life must have been hell. But to put my life on the line to cover your secret up. No.' Piers Morgans Life Stories airs on Thursday night at 9pm on ITV. To catch up on the series, visit the ITV Hub Information about HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and how to maintain good sexual health can be found out at https://www.tht.org.uk/ 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. MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (AP) An eastern Iowa man has been arrested and charged with livestock neglect resulting in death after authorities found dead cattle on his property. 43-year-old Brian Greazel, of Mount Vernon, was arrested Wednesday. Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner says deputies called to a rural property near Libson for a complaint about neglected cattle discovered numerous head of cattle dead. Authorities say a veterinarian determined the cattle died for lack of food, water and shelter. The sheriff's office did not say how many animals were found dead, but said 18 head were rescued from the property. Mere days after the Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars, on February 22, NASA scientists presented another first in planetary exploration: multiple videos of a rovers entry, descent and landing sequence from the perspective of the rover itself. NASAs Mars mission captured stunning footage from multiple cameras on the areoshell (the capsule that protected the rover during entry and deployed the parachute to slow its descent), the rocket pack (which guided the rover to its final landing spot), and the Perseverance rover itself. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A total of five cameras were used to film the various stages of Perseverances descent. Two were placed on the rover, one pointed up to observe the rocket pack as that part of the landing system lowered the rover to the ground via skycrane, and one pointed down, providing a front-row seat from the perspective of a vehicle landing on Mars as it hurtled toward the Martian surface. Two others were attached to the outer shell that protected the rover during entry into Mars atmosphere and were aimed upwards, watching the parachute deploy from two different perspectives. A final camera was added to the bottom of the rocket pack to record the rover as it was deployed, which provided the stunning image of the rover being gently placed on the red planet. Six individual images from the Perseverance navigation cameras were stitched together to make this panorama of the Martian surface. Such images are used by algorithms onboard the rover to guide it as it travels from point to point, largely independently of its controllers on Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Every frame of these videos will be carefully studied for years to come. They are the first time that anyone has been able to view a Mars landing as it happened in real time, and every moment provides crucial information about the state of the spacecraft during what is arguably the most difficult part of the mission. The two videos in which the skycrane was featured are also the first time this system has been seen in operation. While every other aspect of the spacecraft can be tested on Earth (parachute, heat shield, rover), the fact that the skycrane is designed to work specifically in the Martian atmosphere and under Mars gravity means that it cannot be tested on Earth. Though the system was first envisioned 15 years ago for the Curiosity mission, this is the first time its designers have seen it in operation. By all accounts, the system performed flawlessly. These two images were among many taken of the rovers various instruments and calibration targets. These were all taken to ensure that none of the instruments were physically harmed either during the rovers cruise from Earth to Mars, or during the tumultuous entry, descent and landing sequence. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech At the same time, NASA also released the first audio recordings from Mars. Perseverance has a microphone attached to its SuperCam instrument, which recorded a soft breeze blowing at the rovers landing site. The raw and filtered audio are available here. The microphone will continue to record sounds, primarily to listen to the sounds made as Martian rocks are vaporized by the laser mounted on the SuperCam. These data will be used in conjunction with the rovers cameras and spectrometers to analyze the chemistry and geology of those rocks. A whole slew of other imagery has been released, including images of the rovers descent system as it was heading to the final landing point, taken by the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and thousands of raw images taken by Perseverance. While all of these images are primarily used as part of the process to ensure the rover is functioning as expected after landing, they have already provided some initial scientific insights into the history of Jezero Crater. This view of Perseverances landing site was taken by the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to provide pinpoint data about the final landing position of the rover, and to locate where the parachute, rocket pack and heat shield ultimately crashed. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Mission controllers have also received confirmation that the Ingenuity helicopter, currently attached to the underside of the rover, is operating as expected. Over the next several days, the crafts batteries will be charged in preparation for when it will be deployed and hopefully fly above the Martian surface, currently scheduled for 30 to 60 days from now. One of the many raw images taken by the rovers Right Navigation Camera during Perseverances second sol (Martian day) on Mars. These are used by both controllers on Earth and the rovers computers to determine where the rover is and any nearby hazards to be avoided as Perseverance drives across the Martian landscape. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech On Monday, the Bay Area lost one of our strongest voices and advocates for social equity in the arts when Lawrence Ferlinghetti author, publisher and founder of San Franciscos famed bookshop, City Lights died at the wondrous age of 101. A longtime resident of the citys North Beach neighborhood, his passing is a reminder that San Franciscos identity as a revolutionary, countercultural bastion isnt what it once was. While the cost of living continues to rise and older generations of activists fade away making it harder for free-spirited artistry to exist we gather tightly to embrace Ferlinghettis cathedral in all its dusty homeliness and independent boldness on the corner of Columbus and Broadway. Yet, Ferlinghettis contribution to our region transcends these brick-and-mortar walls no matter how world-famous they are. Because its Ferlinghettis unabashed legacy of altruism that will be most useful for the rising generation of local poets, who, even in his absence, have something to gain. In fact, the Gandalfian figure has already ensured his imprint on the Bay Areas literary future by inspiring the Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellowship at the University of San Francisco. The program, which was launched in 2012 as part of the universitys MFA program, enacts a reality of Ferlinghettis vision: This fellowship honors Ferlinghetti, who published and supported the work of writers who were outsiders outside traditional academia or traditional social conventions, the universitys website says. Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty But it gets better. Much better. This fellowship, which provides full tuition funding, is awarded bi-annually to an applicant in poetry whose work embodies a concern for social justice and freedom of expression. In other words, for emerging poets who might not otherwise see themselves inside institutional academia and are instead rooted in their own communities the Ferlinghetti Fellowship is a pathway for pursuing a masters in creative writing within a supportive, fully funded capacity. I personally know how impactful an opportunity like this can be for a marginalized voice because I was selected as the second-ever Ferlinghetti Fellow in 2015. My introduction to poetry wasnt in books. It was in the world doing graffiti, freestyling rap lyrics and attending political protests as a first-generation Mexican American growing up in the South Bay. When I was a teen, reading the words of older white men was far from anything Id do it felt unrelatable and out of touch for me and my friends, so we were more likely to cut class, skip assignments, play video games and pursue our sense of freedom elsewhere. Then, in community college, after years of academic floundering, my younger sister who was an avid reader introduced me to a little black book that would unexpectedly launch my path into a lifetime of poetic exploration and commitment to literary justice in ways Id never known possible. The booklet fit inside my back pocket and was titled "Poetry as Insurgent Art." Ferlinghettis work was essential as I began to carry it with me wherever I went, since it helped me feel validated as an aspiring intellectual; I started to believe that maybe a voice like mine deserved to be inside of books, too. I learned that Ferlinghetti was a weird Bay Area poet like me and the more I grew obsessed with his library of work, including "A Coney Island of the Mind" and "Starting from San Francisco," the more I realized that poetry wasnt some untouchable ivoried beast. Instead, while wandering around City Lights the physical and psychic space that embodies Ferlinghettis egalitarian philosophy with its sprawling, nonlinear beauty I learned that literature could be as casual as a conversation with a longtime friend, or as a radical as a Public Enemy verse, or both at once. Ferlinghettis liberated sense of being along with the poetry of Martin Espada, June Jordan and Sonia Sanchez, among others whom Id discovered on the famous bookstores shelves were about declaring yourself in a society that was designed to silence you; about the dirty underwear in your lived-in apartment; about foreign landscapes and the ravages of warfare; about neighborhoods we inhabited and our duty to preserve them. We have to raise the consciousness; the only way poets can change the world is to raise the consciousness of the general populace, Ferlinghetti wrote. And its something that quietly sparked a flame in me and others like me to be voices, not only for ourselves, but for each other. When I found out Id received full tuition from the University of San Francisco as a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellow after having been rejected from multiple other institutions in previous years I knew his legacy would forever become a part of my fabric, and that poetry wasnt just something to be written, but to be lived. At the time, I was a public high school teacher in Boston, but because of the fellowships generous funding, I was able to relocate back to the Bay Area. I attended the two and a half year program to study the craft of poetics with mentors like D.A. Powell, Brynn Saito and Barabara Jane Reyes without ever paying more than $25 a semester for registration fees. As someone who has been the first in my family to attend a four-year university after transferring from community college, and then became the first to receive my masters, I knew that my ability to access this privilege was largely due to Ferlinghettis generosity and radicalism. But Im not the only one who benefited from the late poets advocacy. Since the programs introduction, there have been three other Ferlinghetti Fellows: Victor Inzunza, Juan Rodriguez and Rosa De Anda. All of us are Latinx, all of us are Northern Californians, all of us have come to poetry as outsiders, and all of us, in our own ways, carry Ferlinghettis urgency to be insurgent with our words. Briana Chazaro Inzunza a Mexican American who grew up in Stockton, California, and served as a United States Marine after enlisting in 2001 became the inaugural fellow and welcomed me into the group like an older brother. Having served two tours of duty in Iraq, he embodies the diverse and textured perspective that Ferlinghetti sought to uplift through his lifes work bringing in those from the periphery. I grew very dark and angry, Inzunza said in a previous interview. Eventually, being able to put those words on the page allowed me to have the freedom to express myself and not be afraid of those feelings. I remember riding BART from South Hayward into Powell Street and talking to Victor on the phone during my first year, as he would offer me advice and listen to my questions. It felt like family within an otherwise disembodied experience as a married and older graduate student. Years later, Ive tried to do the same with Juan, who succeeded me as the next fellow and whom Ive befriended (we are so alike that we share the same city of birth on the Peninsula and loudly support the Oakland As and 650 area code together). Now, its Rosas turn, the first woman in the fellowship to carry Ferlinghettis torch. Hes a guiding ancestor, emanating knowledge through poetry, love and demand for social justice in all forms, said De Anda. His light is eternal. Rosa is a manifestation of that spirit, approaching the classroom from an untraditional angle as a middle-aged woman, but using her edges to carve a space into the world. Like Ferlinghetti, De Anda doesnt hold back, and neither do her poems, which explore sexuality and the body in ways that would make the Beatniks blush. And after Rosa, there will undoubtedly be more. Now, its ironic that Ferlinghetti is heralded by a university for rejecting the status quo myth, since he was once fired from teaching at the University of San Francisco after offering a course that offered queer readings of Shakespeares sonnets. As he retold it in an interview, I was giving a lecture on the homosexual interpretation of Shakespeares sonnets and in walked the priest who headed the department. That was the end of my academic career. The irony, of course, is that after quickly ending his career at USF Ferlinghetti has become the genesis for so many younger poets and learners, activists and artists, wanderers and dreamers to pursue our voices in the very institution that once shut him out. So, in a way, we wont ever have to go very far to find him again, because he's still there, writing through so many of us, in a multitude of tongues, demanding to be heard in places weve often been left out of. Alan Chazaro is a Bay Area writer and teacher. His books, "This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album" and "Pinata Theory," are available through Black Lawrence Press. Follow his updates on Twitter and Instagram @alan_chazaro. General Assignment Reporter Chris Mays is a general assignment reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer. He has been with New England Newspapers Inc. since 2012. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company 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. Even allowing for the pop culture invincibility of anything Marvel, Disney+s WandaVision is an odd sort of superhero show to become a phenomenon. Why, of all the comic-book premises, would America in 2021 be captivated by a story about someone escaping inside classic TV as a refuge from trauma? Maybe, in part, because thats where we live. When WandaVision releases its finale March 5 on Disney+, it will have been roughly a year since the pandemic suspended our lives usual programming. For longer than even the most tube-addicted would care for, we have spent our days not unlike the denizens of Westview, N.J. inside television. In early 2021, a streaming series about television as both escape and prison is practically a documentary. WandaVision, a pleasantly weird ornament on the narrative megalith of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is TVs latest diversion from the pandemic and perhaps its best metaphor. It is also a meta feast for pop culture scrutinizers, a mash-up of two American mass-culture mythologies. It smushes the chocolate of superherodom into the peanut butter of feel-good sitcoms, making for two great empty-calorie tastes that, together, add up to a balanced meal. Levi Waldner sat down for coffee in Anna and Herb Marquarts house in Glenboro last July, and when he left, everything seemed fine. Levi Waldner sat down for coffee in Anna and Herb Marquarts house in Glenboro last July, and when he left, everything seemed fine. Waldner said Wednesday he was one of the last people to see Anna before she disappeared on July 4. Anna Marquart was last seen in Glenboro in July. "I just found that out (Tuesday)," Waldner said by phone. "I didnt know that until then. "I saw both of them there. I went over every second month. You would call in, they still had a phone and the gate was locked. You phoned and Anna would come out and unlock the gate and then lock it when you came in. And when you left, Anna would unlock the gate and lock it after you left. "Everything seemed fine. They seemed normal to me. I didnt leave with the impression she was going to leave. "We had coffee and cake and everything seemed nice." RCMP announced earlier this week 31-year-old Anna Marquart had been reported missing on Feb. 4. She was last seen leaving her residence on July 4, and has had no contact with family in either Manitoba or Ontario since then. RCMP said they cant say why it took months for the woman to be reported missing, but admit it makes finding her tougher because physical evidence deteriorates and peoples memories fade. "We continue to investigate her as a missing person," RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel said. "If anyone has information, please contact the RCMP." Marquart, nee Bauman, is described as 5-1 and 119 pounds, with light brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information should call Blue Hills RCMP at 204-726-7519, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or provide a secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com. Its not the first time Marquart has been in the news. CBC reported that Anna and her sister, Emma Bauman, left the provinces only Old Order Mennonite community in 2013, alleging they had suffered sexual abuse throughout their lives. The CBC reported that after the pair and Herb Marquart helped a boy under 14 years of age run away from a foster home in the community, they were charged under the Child and Family Service Act. Herb Marquart was sentenced to jail and probation while the sisters received 18-month suspended sentences. Anna and Herb married after he got out of jail. During the early afternoon interview, Waldner said he had just driven past the Marquart place a few minutes earlier. "Theres horses and cattle there. Someone must be feeding them," he said. "Weve had some snow here and there are fresh tracks there, so someone is there. Id have gone in a long time ago, but they have a big dog the same size as me and it is vicious. I wasnt going to take a chance." Waldner said a relative of Anna in Ontario has called him a few times in recent months, asking him if he had seen her and saying she hasnt been seen down there either. He said he has asked around Glenboro, but no one has seen Anna. "What can I say? Im worried. But what can you do if they dont want to be talked to? But if she was some place, somebody would have seen her." Glenboro is 160 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca 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. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer To mark the one year anniversary of the first COVID case diagnosed in the Houston area, join the Houston Chronicle for an exclusive subscriber-only event. Senior writer Lisa Gray sits down with pre-eminent vaccine expert and Houstonian Dr. Peter Hotez to take your questions and discuss a wide range of topics, including how we might prevent the next pandemic. Rather like proverbial London buses that make passengers wait for one to come along, and then three arrive at once, English-language publishers abroad have finally been waking up to the rich back catalogue of works of modern Arabic literature already available in high-quality English translations. A classic English-language version of Sudanese writer Tayeb Salihs 1966 novel Season of Migration to the North by veteran translator Denys Johnson-Davies made it into the catalogue of UK publisher Penguin almost two decades ago, followed by a similarly well-established translation of Egyptian writer Tawfiq al-Hakims 1933 novel Return of the Spirit by William Hutchins in 2019. As if to complete the group of three, Wadida Wassefs 1970s translation of The Cheapest Nights, a collection of stories by Egyptian writer Yusuf Idris, has now appeared in a new edition published by Penguin. It is to be hoped that it will introduce the work of Idris to wider audiences and be the harbinger of additional works in widely circulating and high-quality English-language translations. The new Penguin edition of Idriss stories includes a foreword by Egyptian novelist Ezzedine Fishere introducing them to a new generation of readers along with Wassefs original introduction. This usefully situates Idris in the wider context and provides readers with pointers on what to expect when they first open a collection of his stories. Born in 1927 in a small town in the Delta, Idris first came to Cairo as a medical student. While he initially welcomed the July 1952 Revolution that ended monarchical rule in Egypt, he was soon disillusioned with the apparent inability of the countrys new rulers to make good on some of their promises, particularly with regard to wider political participation and more even economic development. Idris joined a larger group of writers and others known for their opposition to the revolutionary regimes sometimes anti-democratic tendencies. Unlike his elders, however, who sometimes passed over the lives of the mass of their countrymen in their writings and described instead the lives of the Cairo middle classes, Idris was determined to describe the lives of the Egyptian lower-middle and working classes and have them speak directly in their own voices. Perhaps this had something to do with his own social background, but whether for this or for other reasons, even today readers may well be struck by the range of experience recorded in the stories collected both in this new edition of The Cheapest Nights and elsewhere. All on a Summers Night, for example, one of the stories in the Penguin volume, describes an incident in the lives of a group of young men in a Delta village in a way that is entirely free of sentimentality or condescension. Comparing this story with earlier works depicting Egyptian village life, whether from the bureaucratic heights of al-Hakims novel Diary of a Country Prosecutor, in which the residents of Delta villages can be made into figures of fun, or even Abdel-Rahman al-Sharqawis famous novel The Earth, in which they take their place in an elaborate political argument, it is easy to see that with Idris a new and powerful voice had entered the literary arena. Perhaps it is for this reason that Fishere in his foreword says of Idris that though his ideological commitments were always clear, his characters are also always presented in and for themselves, being introduced neither to entertain the reader nor to advance a sociological thesis. Idriss stories deal mostly with poverty and injustice and there was no shortage of either, Fishere says. Like many other writers of his generation, he stood with the poor and underprivileged and traced the source of their suffering to Egypts political and social conditions. Yet Idriss characters, even the most rudimentarily described, are real; they are conflicted, struggling, and facing real-life challenges, not types. This is why they stay with the reader long after ones finished reading. Fishere adds that having grown up in the Delta city of Mansoura, not so very far from where Idris was born some generations before, he can still remember the first time he read one of Idriss stories. I had never read such a graphic description in Arabic, Fishere says. It was so poignant, it almost hurt. There was the sense in which through his use of the Egyptian spoken dialect and of a surgical style and an economical use of language, hostile to redundancy, hyperbole, and melodrama in the written language, Idris was handing down important discoveries to subsequent generations of writers. Widening horizons: Although he lived until 1991 and was publishing works of fiction and other material almost up until the end, Idris perhaps had his most lasting successes in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the reasons for his later fame can be found in The Cheapest Nights, first published in Arabic in 1954, but including later stories in Wassefs Penguin translation. In addition to All on a Summers Night, for example, in fact coming from a 1959 collection called Dregs of the City, the English version of The Cheapest Nights also includes the title story of this later collection as well as other pieces. Among the most notable are the remarkable Did you Have to Turn the Light on Li-Li? from the 1970 collection House of Flesh, The Shame from the 1960 collection of the same name a similar story, novel length, later inspired a famous film and Al-Sheikh Sheikha, here rendered as The Freak, from the 1966 collection The Ends of the Earth. Perhaps the earlier stories are mainly characterised by descriptions of the human consequences of poverty and injustice, like in the title story which spells out how these things can suffocate hopes and force aspirations into narrow channels. Later ones can become both longer and deeper, like in Dregs of the City, almost novella length, a penetrating study of sexual jealousy with overtones of class-related spite reminiscent of work by the Swedish writer August Strindberg. There are shorter and more concentrated pieces, whose aim may have been to capture the essence of an often somehow stigmatised individual in a very few words. Reading the stories again, some readers might be struck by how many refer to something like a loss of innocence or at least to the acquisition of experience that can act like a form of poisoning. Dregs of the City is a terrifying account of the destruction of a maidservant by a rich employer, who apparently acts out of a mixture of idleness and vanity in a kind of motiveless, even trivial, malignity that nevertheless has serious consequences. All on a Summers Night describes the acquisition of another kind of experience, this time attended by more brutal violence. Did you Have to Turn the Light on Li-Li?, written in a first-person confessional mode, outlines what seem to be festering sexual fantasies entertained against a local woman. In his Essential Youssef Idris, a selection of Idriss short stories put together by Denys Johnson-Davies in 2009, there are other stories that flesh out some of Idriss characteristic themes, though, as his editor notes, Idriss stories, already scattered in their Arabic original versions in the various magazines and collections in which they appeared, can be even harder to track down in English versions. In addition to Wassefs versions of the stories collected in The Cheapest Nights, there are also four longer stories, almost novellas, available in English versions by Catherine Cobham in the collection Rings of Burnished Brass (1984), and an early novel, City of Love and Ashes, that appeared in an English translation by R. Neil Hewison in 1999. Rings of Burnished Brass presents one side of Idris at his best Cobhams translation is included in the Essential Yusuf Idris and is the story of a boy who takes a middle-aged woman as his sexual partner, perhaps inevitably seeing the relationship as simply a step towards sexual knowledge. While the collection also includes some stories not easily available elsewhere, such as the remarkable House of Flesh and Farahats Republic, it does not include Cobhams version of The Black Policeman, another study in poisonous experience, this time of a military conscript set to work in the monarchical regimes prisons before the 1952 Revolution. As Johnson-Davies notes in his introduction to his edited volume, Idris was also an important journalist and commentator, and standard bibliographies of his work list dozens of essay and other collections, sadly none of them translated into English. He was an important dramatist and his 1964 play Al-Farafir (Small Fry) was a notable attempt to cast off European models for Egyptian theatre and return instead to more local sources including the traditions of the aragoz (puppet theatre), shadow plays, popular epics and chanted tales, and the samir, or evening gatherings in which dramatic stories were at one time told. This side of Idris, his theoretical and manifesto pieces on Egyptian theatre, has also not been translated into English. Yusuf Idris, The Cheapest Nights. Trans. Wadida Wassef, New York: Penguin, 2020, pp185. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Finnish sustainable fibre producer Spinnova has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with wood pulp producer Suzano in a move that will see it begin construction of a EUR22m (US$27m) factory that allows it to scale production of its sustainable bio-based fibre. The announcement was made during a joint web presentation between the two firms this afternoon (25 February). The factory will be the first commercial-scale Spinnova production facility in Finland. The total investment, including all needed infrastructure such as real estate, is estimated to be some EUR50m. Spinnovas sustainable fibre, created out of wood and waste without the use of harmful chemicals, will be available for global textile brands in 2022. The facility will be located in Jyvaskyla, home of Spinnovas R&D hub and pilot facility. Production will be managed and operated by a new joint venture company owned by Spinnova and partner and investor, Suzano. Every leading textile brand is looking for ways to minimise their emissions and ecological footprint, and build a circular material foundation for their products, says Spinnovas CEO and co-founder Janne Poranen. We feel humbled and proud that soon we will be able to provide brands our new, disruptively sustainable fibre and fabrics. Suzano, which claims to be a world leader in the production of eucalyptus pulp, will ensure the supply of sustainably produced micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) obtained from eucalyptus planted by Suzano in Brazil. The fibre produced will be sold under the Spinnova trademark, with the company operating as the exclusive technology provider. Suzano uses only planted trees in its production processes. This renewable raw material is being combined with Spinnovas technology for producing fibres that are more sustainable than the options currently available in the textile industry, which is aligned with the demands of contemporary society, says Fernando Bertolucci, chief technology and innovation officer of Suzano. With a process that uses no harmful chemicals and 99% less water than the cotton value chain, Spinnova claims its fibre can be considered the most sustainable textile fibre there is. Fibre produced this way creates minimal CO2 emissions, is quickly biodegradable and contains no microplastics, it notes. The firms technology also enables textile fibre production from textile waste or agricultural waste such as wheat or barley straw in addition to wood. Thematic Reports Are you worried about the pace of innovation in your industry? GlobalData's TMT Themes 2021 Report tells you everything you need to know about disruptive tech themes and which companies are best placed to help you digitally transform your business. Find out more When asked what the production costs would be of the new Spinnova fibre versus conventional fibre production costs, both Spinnova and Suzano said they were working to ensure the costs remained as low as possible. The goal is not only to provide a sustainable material, it has to be competitively priced too, Bertolucci said during todays presentation. Meanwhile, Swedish fashion giant H&M Group has also announced its partnership with Spinnova today. The H&M Groups ambition is to become fully circular, and we are continuously testing and actively looking to further integrate the use of sustainable materials through our groups brands. We see Spinnova as having great potential to address several of the sustainability challenges we face today, said Mattias Bodin, H&M Groups Circular Innovation Lab lead. It is the second such announcement from H&M in a matter of days. Earlier this week, the groups co-owned Swedish joint venture TreeToTextile said it would invest EUR35m (US$42.6m) in constructing a demonstration plant in Sweden for scaling its new regenerated cellulosic fibre, which is produced from renewable and sustainably sourced raw materials. Spinnova will be announcing a number of new brand collaborations and products later this year. The company expects to fill the new factorys production capacity during 2021. We believe that the Spinnova fibre will be the breakthrough that the textile and fashion industry has been waiting for, Poranen adds. We have all the needed components in place: a good quality product that can replace cotton in end products, proof of concept from our production pilot, scalable technology and ample, sustainable raw material supply. To speed up the companys further growth, Spinnova is now actively exploring multiple substantial financing alternatives. Coronavirus cases: India reports 16,738 new COVID-19 cases, 138 deaths in last 24 hours India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, Feb 25: Union health ministry on Thursday said that India in the last 24 hours reported 16,738 cases, taking the total tally to 11,046914. With the surge, the number of active cases on Thursday against breached the 1.5 lakh mark. The number of daily fatalities too rose with 138 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. It can be seen that the sudden jump on Thursday does not come as a surprise as Maharashtra reported 8,807 new infections on Wednesday, continuing the upward trend of the daily infections. India-Pak can resolve problems through dialogue: Imran Khan On Wednesday, Mumbai recorded 1,167 new COVID-19 cases which was the highest daily spike in about four months. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News The resurgence of COVID-19 in several states, primarily in Maharashtra, has become a cause of concern as no reason behind the sudden spurt of the cases has been found yet. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 10:27 [IST] Woods' Genesis swerved into the opposite lane and crashed into a signpost and a tree before tumbling down a steep slope. Pictures of the catastrophic wreck were plastered all over the world's front pages. Woods had been taking part in the Genesis Invitational PGA Tournament over the weekend, and the Hyundai-owned automaker let Woods and other guests drive its cars. Golf star Tiger Woods was seriously injured Tuesday when the Genesis SUV he was driving in Los Angeles rolled over and crashed. The Genesis SUV is equipped with sensors that are advertised as warning the driver when the vehicle encroaches on another lane and other safe-driving features. But the speed of the turn Woods took could have hindered the safe-driving features or Woods may not have heard the warnings if he was dozing behind the wheel. Police believe the airbags were deployed during the crash. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said, "The front end was totally destroyed, the bumpers, everything totally destroyed, airbags deployed, all of that. However, thankfully the interior was more or less intact, which kind of gave him the cushion to survive what otherwise would have been a fatal crash." USA Today rubbed salt into the carmaker's wounds. "The Tiger Woods car crash thrust a little-known luxury car brand into the spotlight," it reported. "Genesis was saddened to learn that Tiger Woods had been in an accident in a GV80," Genesis spokesman Jarred Pellat said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Tiger and his family at this time." Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Our mission is to promote the work of talented portrait photographers by showing their work and telling their stories. The Czech photographer Aneta Jeremiasova won the first edition of the annual Unlike Portrait Awards, an international photo competition for talented portrait photographers from all corners of the world. With 24 awards, 8 different categories and 4 specialised jury members, the organisation rewards the best and brightest professionals. The winning portrait shows a girl, the first thing you may notice is her porcelain skin, her piercing eyes, the aureole. Look again and you see the unforgiving light, her undone hair, the poisonous green, hand painted background. Aneta Jeremiasova, winner of the Unlike Portrait Awards: The lightning in this photo was achieved by two small strobes, one at the model's feet and second above her head. Huge part of the success is the model with her interesting look and dreamy expression. The Unlike Portrait Awards partnered with the Quina Care Foundation, a non profit organisation that improves medical health care in Putumayo. By joining the competition, photographers help realising a hospital in the middle of the Amazon rainforest providing care to people in the most remote, poorest and unstable area of Ecuador. The first edition of the Unlike Portrait Awards (2020) was an outstanding success, both in terms of quantity and quality of the received submissions. We're so proud of our award winners Aneta Jeremiasova, Lisanne Jager and Sybrinne Straver. Our mission is to promote the work of talented portrait photographers by showing their work and telling their stories. Our platform also connects professional portrait photographers from all over the globe. We have our own virtual island, where we host online meetups for all the participants. The perfect moment to have a digital drink, swap stories, have a laugh but also to have a serious conversation with colleagues about running a sustainable business during and after a pandemic. says the founder of the Unlike Portrait Awards Luuk Hendriks. The full list of winners can be viewed at the Unlike Portrait Awards website. The 2nd edition of the Unlike Portrait Awards is now open for submissions until December 1st 2021. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday declared "complete victory" in eradicating absolute poverty in the worlds most populous country, local media reported. "The final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty," Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying at a ceremony. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have been removed from the poverty list, he added. With such achievements, China has created another miracle that will go down in history," Xi said. China, the worlds second-largest economy, launched reform and opening up in the late 1970s and since then 770 million impoverished rural residents have shaken off poverty, the president said. According to Xi, China contributed more than 70% of global poverty reduction in the past 40 years. It was in 2012 that China embarked on its mission to change the poverty-stricken lifestyle of its people, especially in rural areas. According to China's State Council Information Office, the Xi-led central government managed to lift at least 832 national-level counties out of poverty in the past eight years. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Concrete fiber Market - Market Overview Concrete fiber also known as fiber reinforced concrete. It is concrete containing fibrous material which increases its structural integrity. It contains short discrete fibers that are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented. It is made up from concrete, steel fibers, glass fibers and natural fibers. For many applications, it is becoming increasingly popular to reinforce the concrete with small, randomly distributed fibers. Their main purpose is to increase the energy absorption capacity and toughness of the material, but also increase tensile and flexural strength of concrete. Access Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/concrete-fiber-market-2085 Concrete reinforced with fibres which are usually steel, glass or plastic fibres is less expensive than hand-tied rebar, while still increasing the tensile strength many times. Shape, dimension and length of fibre is important. Fibres are usually used in concrete to control plastic shrinkage cracking and drying shrinkage cracking. They also lower the permeability of concrete and thus reduce bleeding of water. Some types of fibres produce greater impact, abrasion and shatter resistance in concrete. Generally fibres do not increase the flexural strength of concrete, so it cannot replace moment resisting or structural steel reinforcement. Some fibres reduce the strength of concrete. Whereas, major manufacturers based in this region are experiencing various challenges such as, competition from new & existing players, pressure from environmental agencies, demand for substitute and eco-friendly products, and calculating the cost efficiency of the final product. Accrediting the colossal growth the Concrete fiber market is witnessing currently and the potential the market is demonstrating to accrue pervasively further in the years to come; the Market Research Future has recently published a meticulous study report giving out the complete market insight up till 2023. According to which, continuing with the same trends the global Concrete fiber market is projected to perceive an outstanding growth by 2023 registering a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2023). Concrete fiber Market Competitive Analysis Concrete fiber market appears to be highly fragmented and competitive owning to the presence of numerous large and small players active in regional market. The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include product launch, agreement & partnership, acquisition and expansion. Strategic partnerships between key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position. Manufacturers operating in the market strive to deliver innovative solutions that improve the design and manufacturing processes of business around the world. Focusing upon the competitive edge, manufacturers strive to develop products that can deliver optimal adhesion, convenience and reliability. Utilizing their international and regional presence, these manufacturers assure their customers with the consistency in product & service quality. Manufacturers strive to develop their product portfolio with a wide range of products for flat steels for every application. Industry Overview: Increasing demand from developing economies, such as China and India for concrete fibers, and growing population of concrete fibers as compared to other composites are factors that drive the concrete fiber market in the Asia Pacific region. In contrast to this, high operating costs and lack of required R&D investments and technical knowledge are the key restraining factors hampering the market growth. Concrete fiber Market - Segments For the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; The Concrete fiber Market is segmented in to 3key dynamics Segmentation by Type: Synthetic Fiber, Steel Fibers, Glass Fibers and others Segmentation by Application: Construction, Industrial, Road industry and other Segmentation by Regions : Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World. Get a Free Sample Now @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2085 Concrete fiber Market - Regional Analysis The global Concrete fiber market by region has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the world. This market has seen a substantial growth over the past few years and it has been experienced that the market will remain on the same growth level till forecast period. Among the regions covered, Asia-Pacific has accounted the largest market for Concrete fiber market followed by Europe and North America. China leads the concrete fiber market, rise in construction activities due to an increase in population has aided China and other developing economies. Bharti Airtel share rose 2 percent intraday after the telco said it had raised $1.25 billion through debt instruments. The large cap stock rose up to 1.98% to Rs 584.45 against previous close of Rs 573.05 on BSE. Airtel share has risen 2.95% in two days. Market cap of the telco rose to Rs 3.16 lakh crore. The share trades higher than 5 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages but lower than 20 day moving averages. The special committee of directors for debt fundraising, on February 25, 2021, approved the pricing, tenure and other terms and conditions w.r.t. issuance of senior unsecured foreign currency (USD) denominated notes aggregating to $750 million, the company said. This forms a part of total debt fundraise of $1.25 billion by the company through its first-ever dual tranche of dollar bond offering, including the aforesaid issue of $750 million and issue of guaranteed perpetual securities of $500 million by Network i2i Limited, a subsidiary of the company. Airtel, Qualcomm announce tie-up to provide 5G services This is the largest issuance by any Indian Investment Grade issuer since January 2019, the company said. The offering was oversubscribed with strong demand from several marquee Asian, European and American funds, it said. Meanwhile, rising for the third straight session, Sensex was trading 500 points higher at 50,316 and Nifty gained 170 points to 15,144. Sectorally, all the other indices were trading with decent gains. Airtel forays into advertising; launches Airtel Ads Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) President Rodrigo Duterte once again called on Filipinos to "set aside differences" and work together in keeping the spirit of the EDSA People Power Revolution alive, as the country marked the 35th anniversary of the historic event. In a statement on Thursday, Duterte told Filipinos to commemorate the occasion with the "realization of our shared aspirations for our nation." "Guided by the spirit of EDSA, let us set aside our differences and work together in building a legacy that we can proudly leave behind for future generations of Filipinos," he added. Duterte's message resembles his statement last year, wherein he challenged the public to "rise above political differences" to ensure that the legacy of EDSA will remain relevant. The President has been a vocal ally of the Marcoses, particularly expressing his admiration for the Marcos brand of presidency in his past speeches. In 2016, he even approved the transfer of the late strongman's remains from Ilocos Norte to the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Duterte, who has also faced criticisms over alleged human rights violations, even urged Filipinos to be vigilant in "safeguarding our democratic institutions, preserving our values, and upholding our rights as Filipinos." RELATED: Duterte to Filipinos on 34th EDSA rites: Rise above 'petty' political differences Robredo: Democracy still under threat, 35 years after In a separate statement, Vice President Leni Robredo reminded the public of "the work that remains to be done" while acknowledging that "the promise of EDSA has not yet been completely fulfilled." "Our democracy, ever fragile, is still under constant threat," Robredo said. "There are efforts to revise history for the personal agenda of a powerful few. We are still in the process of forging the nation we dreamt of, and fought for, on EDSA." The Vice President stressed that even in the middle of a pandemic, Filipinos must "walk forward together" to get through the crisis, a key lesson which can be seen in the 1986 military-backed civilian revolution that ended the dictatorship of Marcos. Former President Fidel V, Ramos, one of the key figures of the 1986 revolt, also encouraged Filipinos to take on the challenge of preserving the gains of EDSA. "The revolution is not over and the work remains unfinished until every Filipino enjoys the freedoms and rights embodied in our Constitution, our democracy secure, and we regain our seat at the table of the community of nations," he said. A simple flag-raising and wreath laying ceremony at the EDSA People Power Monument in Quezon City was held on Thursday morning, led by Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte. Rights advocates and other cause-oriented groups also gathered in front of the Commission on Human Rights to commemorate the four-day historic event on Feb. 22-25, 1986. Malacanang did not state whether Duterte will personally attend any activities marking the occasion. The President has been absent in the past EDSA anniversary events since taking office. A Decatur man is in jail for shooting into a vehicle and home. Hes one of three suspects arrested for the shooting on Nov. 4, 2020. It happened in the 1100 block of London Place SW. Decatur police say the vehicle and home, which was occupied, were shot multiple times. The first suspect, 20-year-old Shane Bradley Arnold, was arrested days after the shooting for discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling and discharging a firearm into an unoccupied vehicle. Another suspect, 20-year-old Kimani Paul Wynter, was arrested on Jan. 22 for the same charges. The third and final suspect, 18-year-old Nicquan Nicholas Forbes, was arrested Wednesday, Feb. 24. He was found in Indiana and extradited back to Alabama. Forbes is in the Morgan County Jail with a $22,500 bond. He is also charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling and discharging a firearm into an unoccupied vehicle. COVID-19 presents unique diagnostic testing challenges, said Iain MacLeod, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Aldatu. Our PANDAA platform has demonstrated it can work with the new SARS-CoV-2 variants with no loss of sensitivity and specificity. Aldatu Biosciences, the leader in adaptive PCR diagnostics, announced the opening of new, expanded lab and R&D space in Watertown. The move to the new, 7,000-square-foot facility comes as demand grows for Aldatus unique PCR-based test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Along with the move, Aldatu is launching a new service, Aldatu Diagnostics, to provide rapid-turnaround processing of diagnostic tests for hospitals, employers, and other large organizations coping with new demands during the pandemic. Aldatu Diagnostics was certified last week as a CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) lab by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Aldatu also sells its diagnostics in kit form to health care providers, NGOs, governments, and other groups around the world. COVID-19 presents unique diagnostic testing challenges, said Iain MacLeod, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Aldatu. As the disease spreads, more localities need to engage in widespread testing to identify and contain outbreaks. At the same time, the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to mutate. This makes it crucial to employ a test that can accurately detect the virus and keep false positives and false negatives to a minimum. Our PANDAA platform has demonstrated it can work with the new SARS-CoV-2 variants with no loss of sensitivity and specificity. Aldatu Diagnostics is a CLIA-certified laboratory additional information on the lab registration can be found on the CDC website at https://www.cdc.gov/clia/LabSearch.html (CLIA lab number 22D2209238). For health care providers, employers and others with the need for rapid-turnaround SARS-CoV-2 testing, Aldatu Diagnostics offers the following: Sample pickup by local courier throughout New England Results within 24 hours Competitive pricing with volume discounts Unique access to the PANDAA platform, which adapts to emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 with no reduction in performance. A team with extensive experience in high complexity testing Aldatu has doubled its staff to accommodate the new processing service as it continues to develop novel diagnostics for global health challenges and emerging diseases. The company, launched out of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, had previously been located in Lab Central, the famed Cambridge biotech incubator. As a Public Benefit Corporation, Aldatus mission is to serve the growing testing needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic, said MacLeod. Were excited to expand the scope of our services as governments work to halt the spread of COVID-19 and restore public health. In particular, we look forward to helping urgent care centers, clinics and schools which do not have in-house diagnostic capabilities. About Aldatu Aldatu Biosciences is the leader in adaptive PCR-based diagnostics for global health and emerging diseases, including COVID-19. Our proprietary qPCR-enabling platform, PANDAA, uniquely adapts to DNA sequence instability in probe-binding regions. This makes our diagnostics tests ideal for rapidly mutating viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. Aldatu packages its diagnostics in kit form, and processes tests at its CLIA-certified laboratory. Aldatus technology was developed at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Aldatu is a Delaware-registered Public Benefit Corporation. Learn more at aldatubio.com. WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new white paper from IEEE-USA, written by the nation's leading power engineers, addresses challenges and suggests solutions to current electrical grid shortcomings that are both technically feasible and economical. Challenges facing the U.S. electric power grid include aging equipment, physical and cyber security threats, transmission losses, wildfires and extreme weather, interconnection issues and integration of renewable generation sources. The new white paper highlights solutions to these issues, including new technologies such as distributed energy resources, energy storage systems, microgrids, demand response, and more. "Grid modernization is a pressing national imperative," said Kate Duncan, 2021 President, IEEE-USA. "Reliable generation and distribution of electricity is critically important to our economy, and to the health and safety of all. America needs to get serious about upgrading that infrastructure today to protect these crucial utilities." "Today's electrical grid faces challenges as it transitions to a modern infrastructure that meets our needs in the 21st century," said Will Robinson, Vice President of Government Relations, IEEE-USA. "The grid must become more sustainable, resilient, and reliable, while remaining affordable to all customers. New threats require new approaches, and this report shows how we can get there." White Paper: Building an Intelligent Grid for the 21st Century, was prepared by the Energy Policy Committee (EPC) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA), with special assistance from EPC members Harold Adams, Dick Wakefield, Veronika Rabl, Kenneth Lutz, and Thomas Pierpoint. It is available for download at ieeeusa.org/advocacy/white-papers. About IEEE-USA: IEEE-USA serves the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of 170,000 engineering, computing and technology professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization. Visit us online at ieeeusa.org, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel and check us out on LinkedIn. SOURCE IEEE-USA Related Links http://ieeeusa.org Early this month, news that Peking University and Tsinghua University will open more undergraduate courses and recognize each other's credits went viral on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform. According to the announcement, students from the two most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China will be able to choose among more courses to take at both universities and have their credits acknowledged. During this spring term, Peking University will open 56 undergraduate courses in the core general education curriculum, allocating 396 places to Tsinghua students. Meanwhile, undergraduates of Peking University will have access to 27 courses offered by Tsinghua University, with 299 places available. Many netizens left excited comments such as, "Megamerger indeed," and "No need to worry about whether to go to Peking University or Tsinghua University any longer." "However excellent a university is, its teaching resources are limited. Course sharing can give play to the potential of existing teaching resources, and present more choices and possibilities to students," said Fu Suiyan, a professor from Peking University. This is not the first time that the two institutions have shared their academic resources. In spring 2020, Peking University offered 27 undergraduate courses for Tsinghua students to choose from, while Tsinghua University provided 12 courses to Peking University. The credits were also mutually recognized. Last year, besides its main humanities and social sciences courses, Peking University also provided some science classes such as Modern Astronomy and Genomics Data Analysis. Tsinghua University offered some humanities courses like studies on Bamboo Slips and Silk Fabrics, while also playing to its strengths in science and engineering. This year, new popular courses made it to the list of shared programs, including Robotics offered by Peking University and Big Data and Machine Intelligence by Tsinghua University. Each university has its distinct culture and ethos. Students that study in different universities can get more experience and expand their friend circles, which is conducive to their future development, Fu stressed. ENDEAVOUR INCREASES 2021 PRODUCTION GUIDANCE BY 50% TO 1.4 - 1.5 MILLION OUNCES Sabodala-Massawa expansion underway AISC guidance reduced by $40/oz Exploration budget increased by 40% HIGHLIGHTS 2021 guidance has been updated to reflect the newly integrated Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion mines: Production guidance for continuing operations increased by 50% to 1.4 - 1.5Moz AISC guidance for continuing operations decreased by $40/oz to $840 - 890/oz 2021 exploration budget increased by 40% to $70 - $90m with strong focus on newly acquired assets and greenfield properties Construction for Sabodala-Massawa Phase 1 expansion expected to be completed by year-end; DFS for Phase 2 expansion expected by year-end George Town, February 25, 2021 - Endeavour Mining (TSX:EDV) (OTCQX:EDVMF) is pleased to announce that it has increased its guidance for 2021 to include production from the recently integrated Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion mines, following completion of the Teranga Gold Corporation ("Teranga") acquisition. As shown in Table 1 below, consolidated 2021 production guidance for continuing operations has increased from 900,000 - 990,000 ounces to 1,350,000 - 1,475,000 ounces, while consolidated AISC guidance has decreased by $40/oz to $840 - $890/oz. The change reflects the inclusion of the Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion operations from February 11, 2021, which results in the addition of 450,000 - 485,000 ounces of production at AISC of below $900/oz for the 11-month period. Table 1: Consolidated Production Guidance for Continuing Operations PREVIOUS GUIDANCE UPDATED GUIDANCE VARIANCE Gold Production, koz 900 - 990 1,350 - 1,475 +450 - +485 AISC, $/oz 880 - 930 840 - 890 (40) - (40) In addition, Endeavour is progressing with the two-phase expansion project at the Sabodala-Massawa mine to unlock the value of the Massawa deposits. The first phase, which is expected to increase production by approximately 90kozpa, has commenced and is expected to be completed by year-end. Following the positive outcome of the 2020 Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") for the second phase, which outlined the potential to increase production to above 400koz per year1, a Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") is underway and is expected to be completed by year-end. Further details for each phase are outlined below. Sebastien de Montessus, President & CEO, commented: "Today's updated 2021 guidance confirms our position as a senior, low cost, global gold producer and re-affirms our confidence in the potential of the newly acquired mines. The integration of the Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion mines is progressing well as we remain focused on optimizing operations and delivering on the anticipated synergies. We are therefore moving forward with the Phase 1 expansion at the Sabodola-Massawa mine, which is the first stage in unlocking value from the large, high grade Massawa deposits, and in parallel we are advancing the DFS on Phase 2 and ramping-up exploration. Given the significant potential within our portfolio, our sole strategic priority is to unlock value organically through mine life extensions, asset optimization initiatives, and by advancing our brownfield and greenfield projects through studies and further exploration. As such, investment in exploration remains a core focus and consequently we have increased our 2021 budget to $70-90 million, one of the largest in West Africa, with 40% allocated to greenfield exploration. Our corporate efforts continue to be focused on maximizing shareholder returns, with the goal of augmenting our shareholder return program, which may include increasing our dividend or initiating a share buyback program as part of our capital allocation framework. In addition, we are on track to obtain a listing on the Premium segment of the London Stock Exchange in late Q2-2021, which we believe will boost investor appeal." ABOUT THE SABODALA-MASSAWA MINE 2021 Outlook From the date of Sabodala-Massawa's acquisition by Endeavour, which closed on February 10, 2021, the mine is expected to produce between 300-320koz at an AISC of $690 - $740/oz compared to production of 229koz at an AISC of circa $885/oz for FY-2020. Ore mined is expected to be higher than in 2020 due to increased availability of the mobile equipment fleet for mining in 2021, as compared to 2020, when a portion of the fleet was used for the construction of the Massawa haul road. The two Sofia pits, Sofia Main and Sofia North, on the Massawa mining permit will contribute close to 85% of the ore mined in 2021. Plant throughput and recovery rates are expected to decrease slightly from the 4.1Mt and 89% achieved in 2020, due to an increased proportion of fresh ore from the Sofia pits. Mill feed will be comprised of approximately 30% oxide and 70% fresh material. Head grade is expected to materially increase in H2-2021 with higher grades mined at the Sofia pits. Throughout the year, the Phase 1 upgrades will assist in debottlenecking the back-end of the plant, as described in the section below. Sustaining capital expenditures are expected to amount to $35 million, mainly related to replacement of mobile equipment, a portion of which was deferred from 2020, an additional tailings storage facility ("TSF") lift, and waste capitalization. Non-sustaining capital expenditure is expected to amount to $47 million, primarily to complete relocation activities of the Sabodala village. Other non-sustaining capital relates to new haul road and infrastructure developments at the Massawa permit mining areas. Growth capital expenditure is expected to amount to approximately $25 million, with $20 million allocated to Phase 1 upgrades and $5 million for the Phase 2 DFS, as outlined below. Sabodala-Massawa Expansion Phase 1 The Massawa deposit is being integrated into the Sabodala mine through a two-phased approach, as outlined in the 2020 PFS. Phase 1 of the expansion will facilitate processing of an increased proportion of high grade, free-milling Massawa ore through the Sabodala processing plant, which will avoid bottlenecks and prevent gold loss to tailings. The addition of the Massawa ore will increase the average processing head grade from 1.5 g/t, up to a peak head grade of 2.8 g/t, while maintaining milling capacity at the current 4.0 - 4.2Mtpa level. The plant upgrades are expected to increase the Sabodala-Massawa gold production by up to 90kozpa2. As shown in Figure 1 below, Phase 1 will increase the Sabodala plant's overall gold production capacity through additions to the gold separation, concentration, elution and electrowinning facilities at the back-end of the plant. The detailed engineering for Phase 1 was completed by Lycopodium Limited. Procurement is largely complete with some packages already delivered, and the civil engineering contractor is currently mobilizing to site. Figure 1: Upgraded Sabodala-Massawa Processing Plant Layout As shown in Figure 1, the upgrades are focused on six key areas as detailed below: An additional electrowinning cell will be added to the gold room to increase its capacity to process high grade ore An additional carbon regeneration kiln will be added to increase carbon regeneration capacity An additional acid wash and elution circuit will be added to increase the total average capacity from 5 to 13 tonnes per day One additional leach tank will be added, increasing the leaching and CIL residence time from 24 to 32 hours, which is expected to improve the recoveries from Massawa ore One existing leach tank will be converted to a CIL tank to increase capacity A gravity circuit, consisting of a gravity feed scalping screen and a gravity concentrator will be added to reduce the load on the downstream circuit. The gravity circuit will process the coarse free-milling ore through the intensive leach circuit. Completion of Phase 1 is expected in Q4-2021, as detailed in Figure 2 below. Figure 2: Phase 1 timeline Sabodala-Massawa Expansion Phase 2 Phase 2 of the expansion will add an additional processing circuit to process the high grade refractory ore from the Massawa deposit, through the addition of a new refractory ore plant. A DFS for Phase 2 is underway and due for completion in Q4-2021, focusing on the following optimizations: Improved geometallurgical modelling incorporating a wider range of elements into the resource block model, to improve the quality of the mill feed blend resulting in improved plant efficiencies and recoveries Pit optimization to redefine the boundary between refractory ore and non-refractory ore to minimize losses due to dilution Processing optimization testwork to investigate operating cost and recovery improvements Metallurgical optimization testwork focused on comminution and variability, leaching and flotation Figure 3: Proposed Sabodala-Massawa Phase 2 PFS Plant Layout Exploration upside Significant exploration potential exists within 30km of the processing facility, which includes the Sabodala mining license, the Massawa mining license, and additional exploration permits which respectively cover 291km2, 320km2 and 915km2, as shown in Figure 4 below. Over 36,000 metres were drilled in 2020 with activity planned to ramp up significantly in 2021, specifically on the Massawa deposits, with a budget of $13 million for the year, representing Endeavour's largest single spend. During 2021, drilling will be concentrated on the Sofia deposit and the satellite deposits Samina, Tina and Delya. At Sofia North, drilling will be directed towards extending the non-refractory ore resources. Samina, Tina and Delya have had limited shallow drilling to date and show potential for additional mineralization at depth. Initial drill results at Samina demonstrate possible oxide mineralization at depth, which will be tested during 2021. Tina is a target where some reconnaissance drilling has been conducted. A number of other prospects, located within the structural corridor between the Sabodala Sofia Shear Zone and the Main Transcurrent Shear Zone, will also be explored. Figure 4: Sabodala-Massawa Plan Map ABOUT THE WAHGNION MINE 2021 Outlook From the date of Wahgnion's acquisition by Endeavour, which closed on February 10, 2021, the mine is expected to produce between 140 - 155koz at an AISC of $940 - 990/oz, compared to a production of 175koz at AISC of circa $898/oz for FY-2020. In 2021, total tonnes mined will remain in line with the strong performance seen in 2020, as the supplemental mining contractors will be retained to meet the continued above nameplate throughput. Mining activity is expected to focus on the Nogbele North and South pits, supplemented with ore from the Fourkoura pits, which commenced mining operations at the start of 2021. Plant throughput and gold recovery rate are expected to decrease slightly in 2021, compared to the 3.6Mt and 95% achieved in 2020, due to greater volumes of fresh ore. Mill feed is expected to be composed of a higher proportion of fresh ore, resulting in an even split between oxide ore and fresh ore. Sustaining capital of $14 million is planned for 2021, mainly related to waste capitalization and a number of small-scale mining and processing upgrades and infrastructure improvements. Non-sustaining capital expenditures of $26 million relate to construction of a second TSF cell, which significantly increases the overall TSF capacity, additional mining fleet and the construction of an airstrip. Exploration upside Given the recent commissioning of the Wahgnion mine in late 2019, significant exploration potential exists within the permitted mine license and five surrounding exploration permits, which respectively cover an area of 89km2 and 920km2, as shown in Figure 5 below. The 2021 exploration program, with a budget of $10 million, will focus on the Nogbele, Nogbele North and Nogbele South deposits, targeting the down dip continuation of mineralized structures between the Nogbele pits. Additionally, the north-northeast continuation of the Fourkoura deposit and the Hillside target will be tested for extensions. On the exploration permits, efforts will be focused on various attractive targets such as Kafina West and Korindougou. Figure 5: Map of Wahgnion Mine and Permit Area UPDATED 2021 OUTLOOK As shown in Tables 2 and 3 below, consolidated total production guidance for 2021 has increased from 915,000 - 1,010,000 ounces to 1,365,000 - 1,495,000 ounces, while consolidated AISC guidance has decreased by $50/oz to $850 - $900/oz. The change reflects the inclusion of the Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion operations from February 11, 2021, which results in the addition of 450,000 - 485,000 ounces of production at AISC below $900/oz for the 11-month period. Consolidated production from continuing operations, which excludes Agbaou following its sale, is expected to be between 1,350,000 - 1,475,000 ounces at AISC of $840/oz to $890/oz. Production is expected to be higher and AISC lower during the second half of the year, due to a combination of higher grades and capex weighted towards the first half of the year. More details on the Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion mines can be found in the individual mine sections above, with details of Endeavour's other mines provided in the initial guidance press release, dated January 25, 2021. Table 2: 2021 Consolidated Production Guidance (All amounts in koz, on a 100% basis) PREVIOUS GUIDANCE UPDATED GUIDANCE Ity 230 - 250 230 - 250 Karma 80 - 90 80 - 90 Hounde 240 - 260 240 - 260 Mana 170 - 190 170 - 190 Boungou 180 - 200 180 - 200 Sabodala-Massawa n.a. - n.a. 310 - 330 Wahgnion n.a. - n.a. 140 - 155 PRODUCTION FROM CONT. OPERATIONS OPERATIONS 900 990 1,350 - 1,475 Agbaou (sale on March 1, 2021) 15 - 20 15 - 20 TOTAL PRODUCTION 915 - 1,010 1,365 - 1,495 Table 3: 2021 Consolidated AISC Guidance1 (All amounts in US$/oz) PREVIOUS GUIDANCE UPDATED GUIDANCE Ity 800 - 850 800 - 850 Karma 1,220 - 1,300 1,220 - 1,300 Hounde 855 - 905 855 - 905 Mana 975 - 1,050 975 - 1,050 Boungou 690 - 740 690 - 740 Sabodala-Massawa n.a. - n.a. 690 - 740 Wahgnion n.a. - n.a. 940 - 990 Corporate G&A 30 30 Sustaining exploration 5 5 AISC FROM CONT. OPERATIONS 880 - 930 840 - 890 Agbaou (sale on March 1, 2021) 1,050 - 1,125 1,050 - 1,125 TOTAL AISC 900 - 950 850 - 900 1This is a non-GAAP measure. Refer to the non-GAAP measure section of the most recent MD&A for Endeavour and refer to the non-IFRS measures note in this press release As detailed in the table below, consolidated total sustaining and non-sustaining capital allocations for 2021 amount to $173 million and $201 million, respectively. Details on the Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion mine capital expenditures have been provided in the sections below. Details on Endeavour's other mines, for which guidance has not changed, were provided in the initial guidance press release, dated January 25, 2021. Table 4: 2021 Consolidated Mine Capital Expenditure Guidance (All amounts in US$m) SUSTAINING CAPITAL NON-SUSTAINING CAPITAL Ity 28 27 Karma 11 5 Hounde 39 13 Mana 27 62 Boungou 19 22 Sabodala-Massawa 35 47 Wahgnion 14 26 MINE CAPITAL EXPENDITURES FROM CONT. OPERATIONS 172 201 Agbaou 1 0 TOTAL MINE CAPITAL EXPENDITURES 173 201 As detailed in the table below, growth capital spend is expected to amount to approximately $46 million, mainly related to the ongoing Phase 1 expansion at Sabodala-Massawa mine and studies and holding costs at the Kalana and Fetekro projects, as well as for IT and integration projects. More details on the Sabodala-Massawa mine expansion can be found in the section above. Table 5: 2021 Consolidated Growth and Corporate Capital Spend (All amounts in US$m) 2021 GUIDANCE Sabodala-Massawa 25 Fetekro 6 Kalana 6 Golden Hill 3 Bantou 1 Corporate 5 TOTAL 46 As detailed in the table below, exploration will continue to be a strong focus in 2021 with the Group exploration budget revised upwards from $55 - $60 million to $70 - $90 million, inclusive of the newly integrated Teranga assets. Table 6: Consolidated Exploration Guidance (All amounts in US$m) 2021 GUIDANCE Sabodala-Massawa ~13 Wahgnion ~12 Ity ~9 Mana ~8 Hounde ~7 Karma ~0 MINE SUBTOTAL ~50 Greenfield and development projects ~20 - 40 TOTAL $70 - 90 UPCOMING CATALYSTS Key upcoming expected catalysts are summarized in the table below. Table 7: Key Upcoming Catalysts TIMING CATALYST March 1 Corporate Closing of Agbaou sale transaction H1-2021 Afema Initial resource estimate Late Q2-2021 Corporate Premium LSE Listing Q4-2021 Sabodala-Massawa Completion of Phase 1 plant upgrades Q4-2021 Sabodala-Massawa Completion of Definitive Feasibility Study Q4-2021 Fetekro Completion of Definitive Feasibility Study FY-2020 FINANCIAL RESULTS CONFERENCE CALL AND LIVE WEBCAST Management will host a conference call and webcast on Thursday March 18, at 8:30am Toronto time (ET) to discuss the Company's FY-2020 financial and operating results. The conference call and webcast are scheduled at: 5:30am in Vancouver 8:30am in Toronto and New York 12:30pm in London 8:30pm in Hong Kong and Perth The webcast can be accessed through the following link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/uwqj86xn Analysts and investors are also invited to participate and ask questions using the dial-in numbers below: International: +44 (0) 2071 928338 North American toll-free: +18778709135 UK toll-free: 08002796619 Confirmation Code: 4447534 The conference call and webcast will be available for playback. QUALIFIED PERSONS Clinton Bennett, Endeavour's VP Metallurgy and Process Improvement - a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release. CONTACT INFORMATION Martino De Ciccio VP - Strategy & Investor Relations +44 203 640 8665 mdeciccio@endeavourmining.com Brunswick Group LLP in London Carole Cable, Partner +44 7974 982 458 ccable@brunswickgroup.com Vincic Advisors in Toronto John Vincic, Principal +1 (647) 402 6375 john@vincicadvisors.com ABOUT ENDEAVOUR MINING CORPORATION Endeavour Mining is one of the world's top ten senior gold producers and the largest in West Africa, with operating assets across Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso and a strong portfolio of advanced development projects and exploration assets in the highly prospective Birimian Greenstone Belt across West Africa. A member of the World Gold Council, Endeavour is committed to the principles of responsible mining and delivering sustainable value to its employees, stakeholders and the communities where it operates. Endeavour is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, under the symbol EDV and will be seeking a secondary listing as a Premium issuer on the London Stock Exchange during Q2-2021. For more information, please visit www.endeavourmining.com. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of Endeavour with respect to future business activities and operating performance. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions and includes information regarding Endeavour's production guidance for 2021, AISC guidance for 2021, ability to create sustainable shareholder value over the long term, the potential for continued or future dividends or a share buy back program and Endeavour's ability and the expected timing to list on the LSE . Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect Endeavour management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although Endeavour believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of Endeavour. This forward-looking information may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Endeavour and market conditions, including (1) there being no significant disruptions affecting the operations of the Company, whether due to extreme weather events and other or related natural disasters, labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment, pit wall slides or otherwise; (2) permitting, development, operations and production from the Company's operations and development projects being consistent with Endeavour's current expectations; (3) political and legal developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; (4) the completion of studies on the timelines currently expected, and the results of those studies being consistent with Endeavour's current expectations; (5) certain price assumptions for gold; (6) prices for diesel, electricity and other key supplies being approximately consistent with the Company's expectations; (7) production and cost of sales forecasts for the Company meeting expectations; (8) the accuracy of the current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates of the Company, and Endeavour's analysis thereof, being consistent with expectations; (9) labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Endeavour's current expectations; (10) the terms and conditions of the legal and fiscal stability agreements for the Sabodala-Massawa and Wahgnion mines being interpreted and applied in a manner consistent with their intent and Endeavour's expectations and without material amendment or formal dispute; (11) potential direct or indirect operational impacts resulting from infectious diseases or pandemics; and (12) the Company's financial results, cash flows and future prospects being consistent with Company expectations in amounts sufficient to permit sustained dividend payments. This information is qualified in its entirety by cautionary statements and risk factor disclosure contained in filings made by Endeavour with the Canadian securities regulators, including Endeavour's and Teranga's respective annual information forms, financial statements and related MD&A for the financial year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although Endeavour has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Endeavour does not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law. NON-IFRS MEASURES All-in sustaining costs is a non-IFRS performance measure referred to in this press release, and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Endeavour believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, Endeavour and certain investors use this information to evaluate performance. Accordingly, it is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. "Cash costs" is a common performance measure in the gold mining industry, but does not have any standardized definition. Endeavour reports cash cost per ounce based on ounces sold. Cash costs include mine site operating costs, administration, royalties and by-product credits but are exclusive of depreciation, accretion expense, interest on capital leases, capital expenditures, and exploration and project evaluation costs. All-in sustaining costs or "AISC" is an extension of the existing "cash costs" metric and incorporates costs related to sustaining production. Endeavour believes that, although relevant, the "cash costs" metric does not capture the sustaining expenditures incurred, and therefore, may not present a complete picture of its operating performance or its ability to generate free cash flows from its operations. AISC includes cost of sales, excluding depreciation, and includes by-product credits, sustaining capital expenditures, sustaining exploration and project evaluation costs, corporate general and administrative costs, and environmental rehabilitation accretion and depreciation. Readers should refer to the reconciliation between the non-IFRS measures presented in this press release to the most directly comparable IFRS measures in Endeavour's management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations as at and for the financial year ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 and as at and for the financial period ended September 30, 2020. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 1 Teranga Gold, Sabodala-Massawa PFS press release dated July 27, 2020 available under Teranga's SEDAR profile 2 Teranga Gold, Sabodala-Massawa PFS press release dated July 27, 2020 available under Teranga's SEDAR profile Attachments Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Myanmar citizens in Thailand protest in front of the Indonesian embassy in Bangkok, Feb. 23, 2021. Neighboring countries are under pressure to take a stronger stance against the junta in Myanmar, a day after the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Thailand met in Bangkok with its top envoy. Activists criticized the Indonesian government on social media for talking with representatives of the junta, saying that doing so gives legitimacy to the generals in Naypyidaw who toppled an elected government on Feb. 1. ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] is still missing in action, Malaysian MP Charles Santiago, the chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said Thursday in a statement about the trilateral meeting between the top diplomats at an international airport outside the Thai capital. It is quite embarrassing that nearly a month since the coup, ASEAN Foreign Ministers have still not met to develop a coordinated response to a blatant violation of its Charter by the Myanmar military, Santiago said in a statement. In the coups wake, mass protests against the power grab have taken place across Myanmar, with the military responding with violence. Government security forces have killed at least four people and injured dozens in trying to quell the civil disobedience movement. ASEAN is in disarray and needs to get its act together, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in an interview with TRT World, a Turkish news channel. Right now ASEAN doesnt have a center or a way to coordinate and ensure that the organization can speak with one voice, Robertson said. Because of that, we are looking at a situation where everyone is looking to ASEAN to solve the problem because they can talk to Myanmar, but ASEAN is at sea on this issue. ASEAN parliamentarian Santiago was unhappy with the outcome of Wednesdays meeting between Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and her Myanmar and Thai counterparts, Wunna Maung Lwin and Don Pramudwinai. Retno said afterwards that she told Naypyidaws top envoy that the the wishes of the Myanmar people must be heard, and called for an inclusive democratic transition process. What does Indonesia mean when talking to restore an inclusive democratic transition in Myanmar? Santiago said. There is only one thing to restore: that is the duly elected Parliament that was meant to convene on 1 February. That is what the Myanmar people want and tell the world and the junta everyday on the streets of Myanmar. The envoy appointed by Myanmars junta also met Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha in a closed-door session in Bangkok on Wednesday. Myanmar developments disastrous for region For HRWs Robertson the venue of the meeting of the three foreign ministers was telling. The fact that Myanmars foreign minister is flying here [to Bangkok] shows that he understands that Prayuth in Thailand is in a similar situation to Myanmar a couple of years ago. Prayuth is a coup maker himself, Robertson said. As army chief, Gen. Prayuth engineered a coup that overthrew the elected administration of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. Prayuth became prime minister after the coup and retained the post after a general election in 2019 that was widely viewed as rigged. In fact, immediately after the coup in Naypyidaw in early February, Thailand, along with Vietnam and the Philippines, had said they would not interfere in Myanmars affairs. That line mirrored a core principle of the ASEAN bloc that says member-states will not interfere in each others domestic matters. Manila later changed its tune and joined Indonesia and Malaysia in expressing concern about the situation in Myanmar. Meanwhile, Brunei, as the 2021 chair of ASEAN, held a virtual meeting with Myanmar officials to hear about the situation there. On Wednesday night, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Bruneian Foreign Minister II Dato Erywan Yusof, during which they discussed ASEANs essential role in resolving the crisis in Burma created by the militarys seizure of power, the State Department said. Meanwhile in a joint open letter to ASEAN, dozens of Southeast Asian NGOs said that a fractured response by the regional bloc to the post-coup situation in Myanmar will not yield results and nor will platitudes. Recent developments in Myanmar are disastrous for its people, as well as the region as a whole. They create the potential for thousands of people to flee violence and persecution, as well as a volatile regional environment. We firmly believe that it is not only crucial, but also in ASEANs best interests, to take a strong stance on these urgent and worrying developments, the letter by 70 NGOs said. Failure to do so risks further damaging ASEANs reputation as an effective regional body that can meaningfully contribute to a strong and viable community of nations. As it is, Malaysia this week was criticized internationally for sending back more than 1,000 Myanmar nationals in defiance of a court order to suspend the deportation on Myanmar navy ships. Rights activists and the United Nations refugee agency said that refugees and asylum seekers who risked facing persecution and violence in Myanmar were among those sent back. The European Union said it had urged Malaysia to halt the deportation, and deeply regretted Malaysias action. Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the United States was concerned that Malaysia had sent back the Myanmar nationals in spite of a Malaysian court order barring their deportation and in light of ongoing unrest in Burma since the coup. Stop acts of legitimizing the military regime While a few analysts have commended Indonesia for taking the lead in pushing neighboring countries to get more involved in addressing the Myanmar coup, rights activists say even those efforts have been ham-fisted. Earlier this week, Retno had to cancel her proposed trip to Myanmar after hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Indonesian embassy in Yangon to protest what they said would be a recognition of the military regime. Still, Retno went ahead and met with her Myanmar counterpart in Bangkok on Wednesday. Veronica Koman, an Indonesian human rights activist and lawyer, wondered why. People from the grassroots to the U.N. to the World Council of Churches have urged Indonesia to meet face to face with pro-independence Papuan groups to resolve the conflict, but those calls were ignored, the activist tweeted, referring to Indonesias restive province of Papua. Indonesia instead met with the Myanmar junta even though there were demonstrations in Myanmar and Thailand [against the meeting.] A young activist from Myanmar said she and her fellow protestors were shocked that Retno met with a Myanmar military-appointed minister. We totally condemn this action at this sensitive time. We want ASEAN governments to consult with stakeholders. ASEAN needs to stand with the people of Myanmar. Dont add to our burden, said Scarlett at a virtual press briefing organized by Indonesian human rights group KontraS, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development and Asia Justice and Rights. We dont want to give legitimacy to the military government, stop engagement with the military engagement. You said you are concerned about the welfare and safety of people of Myanmar. Im not sure your engagement [with the military] is conveying your message, she said, addressing the Indonesian foreign minister. For her part, Retno said Indonesia chose not to stand still. To do nothing is not an option, Retno said in a statement after her meeting with the Myanmar envoy. Meanwhile on Thursday, Thai PM Prayuth said that his meeting with the Myanmar minister did not amount to an endorsement of the military regime. [We] did not endorse, did not endorse, I listened on behalf of Thailand, also on behalf of ASEAN, he told reporters when asked about the meeting. On their political issues, we gave good wishes that they move towards democracy as quickly as possible. Each country has different problems. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Pomelos are harvested in Ha Tinh Province in central Vietnam, August 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Hung. Vietnamese limes and pomelos could be exported to New Zealand soon, following a commitment made Wednesday during the first agricultural dialogue between the two countries. The virtual dialogue was co-chaired by Ray Smith, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, and Dr Le Quoc Doanh, Vice Minister of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). A New Zealand embassy press release said the two leaders had confirmed their shared commitment to finalizing new fruit access for each other this year, so consumers can enjoy New Zealand strawberries and squash in Vietnam and Vietnams limes and pomelos in New Zealand. The two sides signed an Agriculture Cooperation Arrangement (ACA) after the dialogue. The ACA will enable both sides to advance their key agricultural interests in enhancing bilateral trade, reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, promoting food safety, utilizing agriculture research and technology, and fostering rural development, the release said. The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries is already supporting agriculture cooperation with MARD through activities in plant health, veterinary epidemiology and electronic certification. These activities complement New Zealands ongoing development program in the country, which has a number of agriculture projects including one on premium fruit development in the southern province of Tien Giang, another on rural dam safety project in central Vietnam, and yet another on safe vegetables in central Binh Dinh Province. Smith and Doanh affirmed that the strategic partnership between the two countries has created a solid foundation for increasing bilateral agricultural cooperation and connections. Vietnam is New Zealand's 14th largest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at over $1.4 billion as of September 2020. Vietnam has received licenses to export fresh mango, dragon fruit and rambutan to New Zealand so far. It imports apple, kiwi fruit, kiwi berry, blue berry, cherry and persimmons. From Peru's Ucayali region, where she supervised the vaccination of medical personnel , the Cabinet chief indicated that she expresses this opinion in her capacity as a lawyer and human rights defender, since this issue has not been evaluated by the Executive Branch. "I consider that it is a historic ruling , because it is talking not only about the right to life but to a dignified life; all people have the fundamental right to live and but to live with dignity," she pointed out. The Prime Minister said the case of Ana Estrada has shown in recent years her suffering and the deterioration of her health, a condition that at this time is unfortunately more dramatic and irreversible. "In the case of Ana Estrada, I, as a human being, respect her will; hopefully, science and medicine can offer other alternatives in the future so that there are no more cases like that of Ana Estrada, who has no alternative to continue living with dignity," she concluded. Golden Tag Resources (CVE: GOG-OTCQB: GTAGF) CEO Greg McKenzie joined Steve Darling from Proactive with initial results from the ongoing 4,500-metre exploration program as the San Diego Project in Mexico. McKenzie telling proactive a program of infill sampling on historical diamond drill holes shows some results from two holes that have significantly expanded the size of identified mineralized zones and in one of the holes, increased previously reported grades by 10%. Highlights: Includes a high-grade core grading up to 4.06% Cu, 0.048% Co, 0.881 g/t Au and 17.5 g/t Ag for a 5.13 CuEq% ( 1) across 1.3m true width. Drilling designed to evaluate high-grade, near-surface copper/cobalt/gold/silver mineralization across 120m of strike and 8m average true width. Assays pending on nine more holes. Project located 100km by road to the deep-water port of Belledune, New Brunswick and 40km by road to the nearest railroad. Company investigating small-scale, high-grade, direct-shipping mining project to generate near-term cash-flow. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Stratabound Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SB) (OTC Pink: SBMIF) ("Stratabound" or the "Company") reports initial assay results for the first six of fifteen drill holes completed on its 100% owned Captain copper/cobalt/gold/silver Deposit located along the "Brunswick Horizon", within a 20km radius and the same stratigraphic contact that hosts the world-class Glencore Brunswick No.12 and No.6 mines with past production totaling an aggregate 149.4 million tons of 8.72% zinc, 3.3% lead, 0.35% copper and 99 g/t silver,(2) (Figure 3.) The Captain is a volcanic massive sulphide, or VMS-type deposit, similar to the above described deposits,(2) (source: Government of New Brunswick DNR Mineral Occurrence Database). The Captain Deposit is also strategically located 100km by road access south of the deep-water port of Belledune near Bathurst, New Brunswick. 1,100 metres of drilling were completed on December 3, 2020. Assay results are only now being received due to heavy back-logs in commercial assay labs. The Captain Deposit hosts an NI 43-101 Measured and Indicated Resource totaling 448,000 tonnes averaging 1.75% Cu, 0.046% Co, and 0.30 g/t Au for a 2.2% CuEq%(1), plus an inferred resource of 162,000 tonnes averaging 1.47% Cu, 0.04% Co and 0.24 g/t Au for a 1.87% CuEq%(1), ("Technical Report on an Updated Mineral Resource Estimate, Stratabound Minerals Corp. Captain Cu-Co Deposit"; Mercator Geological Services Limited, Dec. 8, 2010). Drilling on the Captain Deposit now totals 10,452m over 53 holes across 120m of strike and is open beyond the deepest intersection to date at 359m yielding 1.12% Cu over a down-hole length of 19.5m including a 2m interval of 5.46% Cu, 0.093% Co, 0.30 g/t Au and 30.5 g/t Ag in hole CP-09-23. The drill holes reported on today were designed to confirm near-surface grade and continuity to define and investigate the opportunity for a small-scale, high-grade mining project. All holes completed on this program to date are presented in Figures 1 and 2 and detailed in Table 1 below. Mr. R. Kim Tyler, President and CEO of the Company commented, "The Captain Deposit provides a small but lucrative high-grade opportunity for direct shipping copper/cobalt/gold/silver feed to custom processing plants either locally, regionally or internationally. To that end, Stratabound has been contacted by reputable agents that purchase direct-shipping run-of-mine ore and concentrates and sell to custom processing plants internationally. The Captain Deposit's road access, close proximity to a rail head and the deep-water port at Belledune near Bathurst, New Brunswick allows for the possibility of monetizing this asset via micro-capital intense, small-scale mining and delivery of high grade product through truck, rail or marine shipping. Given the recent surge in copper and cobalt prices and the healthy outlook for both of these battery metals we are more than obliged to review this asset for its direct cash-generating opportunities." "We nevertheless remain tightly focussed on advancing our flagship Golden Culvert and secondarily our McIntyre Brook early-stage exploration projects in exciting, new gold districts developing in the Yukon Territory and northern New Brunswick respectively. We will not, however, overlook any and all opportunities to develop our non-core assets such that they may generate significant cash-flow for funding our core assets and provide for shareholder value without dilution through capital raises." Drill Hole UTM NAD 83 Northing UTM NAD 83 Easting Azimuth: Dip: From: (m) To: (m) Length: (m) True Width (m) Cu% Co% Au g/t Ag g/t CuEQ%(1) CP-20-41 282389 5240656 110 -50 21.4 25.9 4.5 3.8 1.30 0.038 0.216 5.6 1.72 includes: 22.0 23.0 1.0 0.8 2.49 0.060 0.544 11.5 3.34 CP-20-41B 282388 5240656 110 -70 32.1 44.6 12.5 6.5 1.09 0.047 0.171 5.00 1.53 includes: 39.3 40.5 1.2 0.4 2.06 0.069 0.243 10.6 2.74 CP-20-41C 282387 5240657 120 -90 44.4 55.5 11.1 7.5 1.78 0.032 0.316 8.1 2.26 includes: 45.1 51.2 6.1 4.1 2.47 0.032 0.457 11.6 3.10 includes: 46.5 48.4 1.9 1.3 4.06 0.048 0.881 17.5 5.13 CP-20-44 282378 5240723 85 -45 15.0 19.2 4.2 4.0 1.23 0.061 0.190 4.9 1.77 CP-20-50 282377 5240722 85 -80 40.5 43.2 2.7 2.0 2.18 0.041 0.037 6.2 2.51 CP-20-52 282395 5240631 110 -45 9.3 12.9 3.6 3.1 0.92 0.039 0.122 4.1 1.27 (1) CuEq% based on CuEq%= ((Cu lb/t*US$3.75.lb) +(Co lbs/t*US$20/lb) +(Au g/t*0.03215*US$1,750/oz) +(g/t Ag*0.03215*US$25/lb))/US$3.75/lb Cu insitu value and does not account for metallurgical, refining or other losses. Figure 1. Section 060N: All widths posted are true widths. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4064/75399_b63a1e2b74ec7ab8_003full.jpg Figure 2. Recent and historic drill results within 15m of surface. All widths posted are true widths. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4064/75399_b63a1e2b74ec7ab8_004full.jpg Figure 3. Captain Deposit location relative to Glencore and regional base metals mines. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4064/75399_stratafigure3enhanced.jpg Quality Assurance/Quality Control The core samples referenced in this press release were marked and cut by diamond saw whereby half the sample was bagged and hand-delivered by Stratabound personnel to a secure carrier and transported to the Activation Laboratories (Actlabs) preparation lab in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The remaining half-core is stored at the Madran core facility in Madran, NB. Actlabs prepared the samples by crushing to 80% less than 10 mesh. A riffle split of 250 grams was then taken and pulverized to a 95% passing 200 mesh pulp sub-sample. The pulps were then shipped by Actlabs to its Ancaster, Ontario laboratory for copper, cobalt, gold and multi-element analyses. A 4-acid near-total digestion ICP-MS 42-element analysis was performed on all samples and a duplicate 4-acid digestion ICP-OES procedure performed where values exceeded 350ppm for cobalt and 5,000ppm for copper in the original digestion. Gold was determined separately by the 1A2 standard fire assay procedure with an atomic absorption (AA) finish on a 30-gram sub-sample taken from the 250-gram split. If the gold result exceeded 5 g/t a duplicate sample was processed by method 1A3-30. Actlabs uses a procedure of standards, blanks and duplicates inserted into the sample stream results. Actlabs is an independent internationally recognized and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited chemical analysis company. In addition to the quality assurance and quality control program performed by Actlabs, Stratabound personnel insert lab-certified standards and field blanks into the sample stream, as well as sample duplicates, at the rate of one QA/QC sample for every 7 core samples. About Stratabound Minerals Corp. Stratabound Minerals Corp. is a fully-funded Canadian exploration and development company focused on gold exploration at its flagship Golden Culvert Project, Yukon Territory and its McIntyre Brook Project, New Brunswick, Canada. The Company also holds a significant land position that hosts three base metals deposits in the Bathurst base metals camp of New Brunswick featuring the Captain Copper-Cobalt-Gold Deposit that hosts an NI 43-101 Measured and Indicated Resource. Mr. R. Kim Tyler, P.Geo., President and CEO of Stratabound, and a "Qualified Person" for the purpose of NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. For more information please visit the company's website at www.stratabound.ca or contact: R. Kim Tyler, President and CEO 416-915-4157 info@stratabound.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. WARNING: The Company relies upon litigation protection for "forward-looking" statements. The information in this release may contain forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. This forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking information. Factors that may cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, inaccurate assumptions concerning the exploration for and development of mineral deposits, currency fluctuations, unanticipated operational or technical difficulties, changes in laws or regulations, failure to obtain regulatory, exchange or shareholder approval, the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits, changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets and the inability to raise additional financing. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update this forward-looking information after the date of this release or to revise such information to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75399 Sexual harassment and bullying are widespread in federal political offices, with a review finding nearly two-thirds of staffers were hesitant to report it because they worried about jeopardising their careers. The survey of almost 100 political staffers from across the political spectrum in December found one in eight had been sexually harassed or assaulted in the workplace in the past year. More than half had witnessed bullying and harassment in the workplace in the past year and two in five had experienced it themselves. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he should have been told about the allegations made by Brittany Higgins. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen More than three-quarters of staffers surveyed by the Commonwealth Public Sector Union did not believe the Department of Finance would support them if they reported serious workplace incidents, igniting calls for an inquiry into the Parliaments workplace culture to be widened. In November the Finance Department started a review of sexual harassment and bullying policies, and the union ran the survey to inform that work. A church in Maine is fighting against the state's order on its pandemic restriction for houses of worship, wherein Christians are faced with a dilemma of staying away from church or getting charged with a crime. Pastor Ken Graves of Calvary Chapel of Bangor in Orrington, Maine is fighting a legal battle against Gov. Janet Mills' order on indoor gathering, limiting attendance of people inside houses of worship. The pastor describes the directive as "unconscionable and frightening," the Liberty Counsel, via Charisma News, reported. The order dated Feb. 12, limits churches to accommodate only "5 persons per 1,000 square feet of functionally available space, or 50 persons, whichever is greater." The state's order on pandemic restrictions is considered to be the strictest in the country, which has been in place for almost a year already. "I am responsible for overseeing and managing all of the affairs that the Lord Jesus Christ gave me in my role as undershepherd of His church at Calvary Chapel," Graves reportedly declared in court filings. Graves, fighting for his church and Calvary Residential Discipleship (CRD), is represented by Liberty Counsel. CRD is the church's 12-month residential program that seeks to rescue individuals struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. It currently houses 48 patients. Group Bible study is being conducted daily and participants attend church twice weekly, along with seven or eight staff members. They join the church's congregants for worship every Sunday, which is an essential factor of their recovery program. The state considers substance abuse centers as "essential" and thus has no numerical limit but since CRD conducts religious activities such as Bible studies and worship services, their assembly is regarded illegal in accordance with the order. Secular meetings are free from restrictions but gatherings that holds religious programs are restricted. The order forbids 56 CRD residents and church members to worship every Sunday. The situation places them in a dilemma to either abandon worship services or face jail time. Graves argued that CRD residents and church members cannot be kept from worshiping God every Sunday since it is essential for them. The church insisted that attending worship services is not an option and the reason of its existence is to minister healing and redemption to people. Thus, the order contradicts its belief. Calvary Chapel also contended that the governor's view about the church, reducing it to an online podcast is wrong. It also said that the church is more than downloading a pastor's preaching to watch on devices. "As a pastor who has firsthand experience with the evils of substance abuse and who has worked nearly my entire life to help people trapped in bondage by their addictions. I know that Bible studies and worship are essential. But the governor's orders presented a Hobson's Choice-the Calvary Residential Discipleship program could continue without numerical restrictions, but we could not gather for Bible studies and worship. I could not and cannot in good conscience remove worship from the Calvary Residential Discipleship program," Graves further stated in the court filing. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 17:02:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Villagers sort out just-harvested mushrooms at an edible fungus growing base at Minjiachang Village, Minxiao Township in Jiangkou County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin) The world still has 700 million people living in extreme poverty with a yawning gap between the rich and the poor in many countries. China's victory comes as an encouraging sign. It has quickened the pace of global poverty reduction, therefore cementing confidence in the ultimate eradication of penury. BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Ending absolute poverty in the world's most populous country is nothing less than a history-making moment. Alleviating poverty is a common and enduring challenge to humanity. China has a population of 1.4 billion and has used the past decades, since 2012 especially, to tackle the challenge with unparalleled efforts. The result: bringing close to 100 million people out of poverty in eight years and a farewell to absolute poverty. For the 100 million, the changes are real -- it is an ill man being able to afford treatment, a mother having a job, a family moving out of a ramshackle shelter, or a student no longer having to climb a cliff to go to school. Improved lives give these people hopes and dreams. Thursday's gathering to mark the country's complete victory in its fight against poverty evoked strong emotions in many who would agree the great struggle won attests to the nation's resolve, character, and strength. The Communist Party of China (CPC), inspired by socialist ideals to eliminate poverty, improve people's livelihood, and realize common prosperity, has put poverty fight as a top policy goal. The CPC's efforts came from a simple and clear purpose -- to deliver real benefits to the people. The efforts are neither for scoring political points nor creating a battlefield to compete with other countries' systems or governance. Farmer Qin Yongling displays eggs at a chicken farm in Renyuan Village of Jinji Township in Wuxuan County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming) China set its poverty line at a per-capita annual income of 2,300 yuan at 2010 constant values, or 2.3 U.S. dollars in terms of purchasing power parity per person a day. This standard is higher than the World Bank's benchmark of 1.9 U.S. dollars per person per day. By 2020, a person making less than 4,000 yuan a year could be listed as impoverished. Besides the numerical target, China ensured the impoverished people have "two assurances" (adequate food, adequate clothing) and "three guarantees" (access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing). The country has conducted the strictest assessment to ensure that the quality and standards of the poverty relief work are not compromised. World Bank data say China contributed to 70 percent of worldwide poverty reduction in the last 40 years. Over the last eight years, unabated attention and a sustained push from Chinese President Xi Jinping have ensured continued momentum. Under his leadership, efforts against poverty have been woven into every fabric of Chinese life, in which reducing poverty is a consensus and constant call to action. Liu Yuan(R), a primary-level poverty relief official, talks with a senior villager in Balu Village of Rongjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Nov. 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Ying) Exploring wisdom and ways, China has accumulated a vast pool of experiences in battling poverty. With almost surgical precision, the country established a targeted poverty-relief database and rolled out specific prescriptions to fight poverty for different people. With flexibility and ingenuity, farmers succeeded in experimenting with new cash crops or raising a new type of cattle. With mass mobilization, three million "first secretaries" and cadres were sent to villages to help stamp out poverty. Both public and private sectors undertook poverty-relief projects. With robust government funds, roads and bridges were built, and over 9.6 million people were relocated to more hospitable areas. Proper checks and supervision mechanisms made sure the results of poverty reduction can stand the test of time. As an old saying in China goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." In addition to external assistance, China has fostered among the poor an awareness of escaping poverty through self-reliance. It has focused on improving their skills through training programs and providing them with jobs instead of giving grants. In this way, the poor have become more involved in poverty alleviation programs. The victory over absolute poverty and regional poverty speaks volumes of the leadership of the CPC and the strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China's poverty alleviation is a success, but far from a full stop. China remains the biggest developing country globally. It still faces problems caused by unbalanced and inadequate development. Eliminating absolute poverty is a new starting point. China has already made arrangements for consolidating the achievements in poverty alleviation and rural vitalization, including a five-year transition period during which major supportive policies and assistance for the poor will remain stable. Wu Xianyan and college student Liang Qiongying promote local tourism via live streaming at Jiache Village, Jiabang Township in Congjiang County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, April 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin) The world still has 700 million people living in extreme poverty with a yawning gap between the rich and the poor in many countries. China's victory comes as an encouraging sign. It has quickened the pace of global poverty reduction, therefore cementing confidence in the ultimate eradication of penury. While striving to cure poverty at home, China has also actively supported the cause in other developing countries. It is committed to creating wealth and opportunities for people in other countries through aids and initiatives like the Belt and Road. All roads lead to Rome. No country should blindly follow others' steps or take their development paths as the only viable one. But China's victory in poverty reduction has at least offered hope and provided a valuable reference to the world, especially the developing and least developed countries, given its holistic approach in planning and perseverance in implementation. Looking ahead, China expects exchanges and mutual learning with the international society in the spirit of shared development and win-win cooperation. China also wants to ensure that the benefits of poverty reduction reach more people around the world. China's victory in the fight against absolute poverty merely marks another beginning -- the beginning of more miracles yet to be worked, and a path toward an even brighter future. BANGKOK: Three current Thailand Cabinet ministers lost their posts on Wednesday due to their court verdicts for jail in connection with the 2014's Bangkok shutdown and street protests which they had unlawfully orchestrated. Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan, Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta and Deputy Transport Minister Thavorn Senniam, who received jail terms ranging from five years to seven years and four months respectively, have automatically lost their ministerial seats, according to the news reported by Xinhua The Criminal Court ruled a group of 39 defendants, all being former political activists attached to the now defunct People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), guilty of illicitly organising the massive anti-government protests against the government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. PDRC leader and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban was jailed for five years. Of those found guilty, 12 were given suspended sentences and six were released on bail. The PDRC protests in 2013 and 2014 play a key role in uniting royalist and nationalist forces against a government they said was controlled by fugitive tycoon and expelled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's exiled brother. Both Shinawatras won elections by landslides. Prayuth stayed on as prime minister after the coup and retained the post after a 2019 election, which he insists was free and fair, despite opposition allegations of foul play. Russia prevents 72 terror crimes in 2020: Putin Japan Govt approves bill to ratify RCEP trade deal Gulf Cooperation Council calls for participation in Iran's nuke deal talks GENIUS KADUNGURES family has dragged lawyer Patricia Darangwa to court, accusing her of fraudulently designing the late socialites will. Ginimbi died in a car crash on November 8 last year. Darangwa and the Master of High Court are cited as respondents. According to an application led by the late Ginimbis sisters; Juliet and Nelia, and his father Anderson Kadungure, they are challenging the authenticity of the document, which they claim is imprecise and not dated. The family is seeking an order to stop the administration of the will presented by Darangwa on November 25 pending a High Court review of why the Master of High Court appointed her as the testamentary. Applicants seek an interdict in the interim prohibiting any administration of the deceaseds estate pending the return date upon which date a review of the Master of High Courts decision to appoint Darangwa as testamentary executrix and to accept the will in question shall be sought. We also seek that the review proceedings be prosecuted on terms to ensure expeditious resolution of the contestation involving the parties, wrote Juliet Kadungure. Juliet said the family was entitled to protect its interests in Ginimbis estate and would not rest until the alleged irregularity was finalised. The Kadungures have labelled the will a nullity for allegedly lacking Ginimbis signature and say it falls out of the requirements of the Wills Act. Recently, Darangwa tried to dispose of Ginimbis Lamborghini to one of her friends, Kitkat. All the acts by Darangwa regarding the deceaseds estate are a nullity. There is need to expeditiously stop Darangwa in her illegal tracks. Darangwa is already in the process of permanently disposing of the deceaseds assets . . . without following due process of law, a case in point being her recent disposal of the deceaseds Lamborghini vehicle in terms of distribution account which was neither availed to, nor approved by the Master of High Court and without a proper inventory, she said. The record also claims, Ginimbis biggest investment, Quick Gases, is on the verge of collapse owing to a loan he obtained from FNB Bank, Botswana. Authorities in Botswana have rejected the will presented by Darangwa, saying it had irregularities. The family wants closure on the legitimacy issue and who among them is to be appointed as signatory to save the Botswana business with the company accounts already frozen. The bank has also given the family up to March 31 to administer foreclosure and liquidation of assets. Before its closure, the Botswana company had more than 10 000 gas cylinders in circulation. There is real risk that in the absence of an order of this court, Darangwa may continue to dispose of the deceaseds assets to our irreparable prejudice and that of potential creditors. Darangwa continues to take the law into her own hands, she advertises an account during the lockdown, inviting people to come and inspect such account at the Master of High Court, which is currently closed. As applicants we have no other alternative remedy to protect our rights and avert the risk of dissipation of the estate and to seek an expeditious review of Master of High Courts decision other than by manner of this application, she said. The Master of High Court has no jurisdiction to accept as a will a document, which was neither drafted nor signed by a person who has died. The decision of Master of High Court is illegal and contrary to Section 8 (5) of the Wills Act (6:06). The decision is therefore a nullity, she said. H Metro Chinese-language food delivery service Hungry Panda has come under fire in a NSW parliamentary inquiry over payments to staff. The UK-based app raised $70million last year to drive its overseas expansion and capitalise on the 50 million Chinese people living outside mainland China. The company admitted it does not pay its riders workers' insurance - which covers employees if they suffer a work-related injury or illness - as they are considered to be independent contractors. The inquiry also heard evidence the service sacked a worker who protested a cut in riders' pay from $7.50 to just $3 for each delivery - although the company claims the minimum amount for a delivery under the new rate is $5.9 up to $15. How Hungry Panda compensates its workers came under fire after one of the company's delivery drivers Xiaojun Chen, 43, was fatally hit by a bus during a shift last September. Xiaojun Chen, 43, (pictured with wife Lihong Wei) was killed after a bus ploughed into him in Zetland in Sydney's inner east back in September. His family was offered no death benefit or funeral cover as he was not considered a worker by Hungry Panda As he was not considered to be a Hungry Panda worker, his family was offered no sort of death benefit or funeral cover from the company. But the company said it did pay for his funeral, as well as sthe family's travel and accommodation costs. Hungry Panda's Australian human resources manager Tina Sun told the inquiry riders weren't entitled to the insurance as they were working for multiple services at once. 'They are not identified as workers,' she told the inquiry, according to The Australian. 'They are covered by other insurance policies.' The inquiry heard contractors must agree to work for services other than Hungry Panda when they sign their employment contract. Greens MP David Shoebridge hit out at the lack of employee entitlements for the company's riders. 'You have between at any point between 100 and 150 workers out on the streets of Sydney, delivering food at great risk to themselves, and your company contributes not a cent to cover their workers compensation entitlements,' he said. 'Do you see how unfair and unreasonable that is?' In a statement Hungry Panda said it was the NSW Parliament that set the rules around who was covered by workers' compensation and how much companies must pay. 'Our delivery partners accept work as independent contractors, and therefore are not eligible under the rules for WorkCover. 'We have always required them to have their own insurance, and as a measure of goodwill from next month we will be providing a private insurance policy to cover them while they are working for us. 'Our delivery partners are critical to our success as a business, and no-one cares more about their safety and welfare than we do.' Jasmina Mackovic, from Slater and Gordon, lodged a workers' compensation claim last year on the Chen's family behalf for death benefits from Hungry Panda. A NSW parliamentary inquiry heard evidence Hungry Panda had sacked a worker who protested a cut in riders' pay. File image of one of the companies' delivery riders in London 'For me, it's like a part of my life is gone. I would almost rather be gone than be like this without him. He was the love of my life and a great father to the children,' his wife Lihong Wei told news.com.au. 'We have lost our main source of income and we are facing financial stress. All the while knowing Hungry Panda have not accepted him as a worker.' Ms Wei said on top of dealing with the heartbreak of losing her husband, her family were now struggling to stay afloat financially. Families in NSW can be entitled to up to $834,200 if someone is killed during work. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - ArcPacific Resources Corp. (TSXV: ACP) ("ACP" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the ongoing data analysis for its 100% owned 8,136 hectare Lucky Mike Silver Lode Project (the "LMSL" or the "Project") located adjacent to Canada's largest producing copper mine in the prolific Quesnel Trough in southern British Columbia. The LMSL boasts excellent infrastructure and year round access. Highlights: Identified multiple hydrothermal system centers in and surrounding the Project area, representing a possible "cluster" scenario. Observable temperature gradients in litho-geochemistry suggest tilted hydrothermal systems possibly explaining why previous drilling confined to high level part of the system. New geological model suggests largest hydrothermal center remains untested. Unusual combinations of Silver/Lead/Zinc in conjunction with Copper/Molybdenum in places suggests overprinting of events. Porphyry-epithermal signatures present, with unusual high silver values. Three main zones outlined on LMSL Project: Sunshine Area: silver-lead-zinc-copper-gold structurally controlled breccias and stockwork. Lucky Mike Area: copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry environment with proximal silver-lead-zinc-copper and tungsten skarns. Corona Area: high grade silver veins in possible chimney or skarn setting. Drilling permit and Induced Polarization (IP) permit application has now been submitted for potential 2021 program. New maps and full litho-geochemical interpretation and summaries are now available on the Company's website on the LMSL project page. Adrian Smith, CEO of ArcPacific Resources comments: "It is very exciting to see such prominent targets emerge from the newly compiled data. The more information we input into the geological model, the more intriguing and surprisingly wide-open the targets on the LMSL Project become. We have now submitted permit applications to test the new geological model developed, beginning with an IP survey and followed by drilling, that could lead to a new discovery in the heart of this historic mining camp. "Separately, we have completed our 3D modeling of the historic underground gold mine at the Rickard project in the Timmins area of Ontario. We are now in the process of finalizing the planned drillhole locations based on this detailed work and plan to move quickly towards project implementation within the coming months. It is going to be an exciting year for ArcPacific as we are well positioned with high quality assets for gold, silver, and copper." Figure 1: Regional Geology map for the LMSL Project showing regional structural corridor. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6963/75443_3097e65044a93b68_001full.jpg LMSL Litho-geochemistry Analysis Summary As part of the data analysis, a review of the regional geological setting was also undertaken. It was determined that the LMSL Project is located along pronounced mineralized structural corridor stretching from Kodiak Copper's MPD project and possibly all the way to New Gold's New Afton Project. Given the project is also directly adjacent to Teck's Highland Valley mine (as shown in Figure 1), the Project sits in a well-endowed region of BC. The litho-geochemical analysis showed that geochemical signals in the Project area are consistent with a series of hydrothermal centers present at varying levels of exposure at surface. These range from the lithocap/advanced argillic environment down to a high temperature potassic level. Porphyry-epithermal signatures are present but are unusually associated with distinctively high silver values. This may represent overprinting events, or reflect high host rock reactivity and skarn formation during the early onset of an evolving system. In the context of superimposed and genetically related skarn/porphyry systems, the patterns observed could be explained adequately. Carbonate horizons in the Nicola or Ashcroft likely captured early base and precious metal fluids as skarns and the evolving system could generate sericite in volcanic facies of the Nicola in proximity to said skarns. It was also observed that the historic drilling in the Lucky Mike Area most likely focused on a very high level part of a porphyry system, within the molybdenite halo (see Figure 2) and on base and precious metals or "proximal skarns" within the surrounding stratigraphic horizons. If the system is tilted with the top towards the north-northeast, as suggested by the data, then a possible underlying porphyry is likely located within and adjacent to the molybdenum anomaly (as shown in Figure 2). A more detailed review and summary of the analysis, including map and presentations summarizing this process, can be viewed on the Company's website on the LMSL project page. Figure 2: Lucky Mike area showing relationships between molybdenum halo and skarn type occurrences. Note: the central area of the system remains untested. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6963/75443_3097e65044a93b68_002full.jpg Based on the positive results from the data analysis, the Company has now submitted diamond drilling permit and Induced Polarization (IP) application for a possible planned 2021 program. Rickard Gold Project ACP continues to move quickly towards its initial planned and fully permitted 2021 drilling program at the Rickard gold project (the "Rickard Project"). Following the recent completion of the 3D modeling of the historic mine workings located within the Rickard Project area, the Company is now in the final stage of selecting drill locations for the upcoming program. The drilling will target the high grade gold shoots within the well-developed vein system present at the historic Rickard gold mine on the Rickard Project. The Company is also pleased to announce that based on the positive results from the LMSL data compilation and analysis, the Company has engaged the same contractor to initiate a complete data compilation program for the Rickard Project that will help guide regional exploration as follow-up to the upcoming drilling on its massive 56.56 square kilometer property. The Rickard Project is located in the Abitibi greenstone belt in Ontario, Canada, approximately 70 kilometres from Timmins in the Timmins Gold Camp. This camp alone has produced over 80 million ounces of gold over the last 100 years, making it one of the most prolific gold camps in Canada. The Rickard Project sits within 25 to 60 kilometres of six currently producing gold mines and eight previous producers. Additional Rickard Project updates will be provided leading up to the commencement of the 2021 drilling program. Corporate Update The Company is pleased to welcome Mr. Mike Collins, P.Geo., to the board of directors. Mr. Collins, is currently the CEO of Exploits Discovery Corp. a company active in the modern day gold rush in Newfoundland, Canada, and who are one of the leaders in that area with a substantial land package. Mr. Collins brings over 25 years of industry experience with a deep understanding of numerous mineral camps and deposit types around the world. Mr. Collins also brings over 14 years of experience as an officer and director of public companies. Mr. Collins understands intricacies of building corporate structure, marketing and value accretion and will be a valuable addition to the ArcPacific team. Disclaimer The Qualified Person for the Company has not verified the historic analytical data disclosed within this release. While the Company has obtained all historic records including analytical data from the ARIS (Assessment Report Indexing System) from the Government of British Columbia, the Company has not independently verified the results of the historic sampling. Qualified Person Adrian Smith, P.Geo., is Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the above-mentioned project. The QP is a member in good standing of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (EGBC) as a registered Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo.). Mr. Smith has reviewed and approved the technical information disclosed above. About ArcPacific Resources Corp. ArcPacific Resources Corp. (TSXV: ACP) is a Canadian based exploration company expanding the exploration initiative at multiple historic past producing gold and silver mines in the Timmins Gold Camp, Ontario, and in the Nicola Mining Division in Southern British Columbia. The Company is focused on creating shareholder value through new discoveries and strategic development of its mineral properties. For further information, please visit http://www.arcpacific.ca. or contact us at: info@arcpacific.ca or 1.778.331.3816. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS /S "Adrian Smith" CEO and Director Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, including statements that address future production, reserve potential, exploration and development activities and events or developments that the Company expects. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to the Company. There are a number of risk factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those described herein. Information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75443 Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Zimbabwean Vice President and Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga (L) takes a blood test before receiving the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, at a hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Feb. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Shaun Jusa) HARARE, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China will donate another batch of 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Zimbabwe, Chinese ambassador Guo Shaochun said Wednesday. This will be China's second donation to Zimbabwe after the Asian country recently donated 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to help the southern African country fight the pandemic. "Just now I had an online meeting with H.E. @edmnangagwa, announcing that China has decided to donate another 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Zimbabwe. Facing this global pandemic, what we need is solidarity and action. China is committed to standing with the Zimbabwean people," the Chinese ambassador said on his Twitter. The second donation will bring to 400,000 the total number of COVID-19 vaccines that China has donated to Zimbabwe so far. On its part, the Zimbabwean government has purchased 600,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from China, which are expected to arrive in the country in March. The country is also in advanced negotiations to acquire the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, while India has announced that it will also donate 75,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Zimbabwe. Last Thursday, the Zimbabwean government launched its COVID-19 vaccination program, three days after taking delivery of the first batch of 200,000 vaccines from China. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also health and child care minister, became the first citizen to receive the Sinopharm jab. Frontline workers, including journalists, are being prioritized for inoculation under the first phase of the vaccination program. Vaccination is being done on a voluntary basis and in three phases. The government aims to inoculate at least 10 million people out of the country's population to achieve herd immunity. As of Tuesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 35,910 COVID-19 cases, 32,288 recoveries and 1,448 deaths. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A new Pentagon report on extremism has revealed that several white supremacists have been active in the US military. The report, obtained by Roll Call, which was commissioned by Congress and dated October 2020, details instances of former military personnel speaking openly about their white supremacist views while serving. One example featured in the report was a former National Guardsman bragging about openly espousing his white supremacist views while serving in the military. The former guardsman did this in the extremist Iron March online forum in 2016, telling another member: I was 100 per cent open about everything with the friends I made at training. They know about it all. They love me too cause Im a funny guy. No veterans in the report were named, but the former guardsman was confirmed to have been a co-founder of Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group that has been implicated in several murders. Other communications from the online forum quoted service members explaining that they can identify other white supremacists by the logos on their clothing and their fascist tattoos. A good way people in the military find other rightists is to simply wear a shirt with some obscure fascist logo, one person wrote, adding: The symbols of SS units are especially common, even on things as public as cars, flags and helmets. The report recommends several ways for the military to combat the issue and to prevent white supremacists from enlisting in the armed forces. It proposes creating more precise questions for security clearance checks, as it argues that asking if applicants are involved in terrorism is not specific enough. It also suggests giving Defence Department personnel access to an FBI database of extremist tattoos, so that they can easily screen applicants for the offending symbols. Although military members are prohibited from participating in or advocating for supremacist and other extremist ideology, the Navy is the only branch that has a rule requiring those identified as white supremacists to leave the military. It advises that an official rule should be added for all branches of US military service to make it easier for white supremacists to be removed from serving. The report emphasises that the amount of extremist views found were a low number of cases in absolute terms, but says that any number of white supremacists in the military is a concern. The authors added: Individuals with extremist affiliations and military experience are a concern to US national security because of their proven ability to execute high-impact events. President Joe Biden has made tackling extremist views a priority for his new administration, and defence secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a military shutdown earlier this month so that commanders could have needed discussion with officers about extremism. Mr Austin did this in response to the Capitol riots that took place on 6 January. Five people died and several more were injured as a mob of pro-Trump supporters sieged the US Capitol on that day. CNN analysis found that at least 27 current or former members of the US military are facing federal charges in connection with the riots, as off-duty law enforcement officials were also involved. The U.S. and Iran are inching closer toward diplomatic talks over Tehran's nuclear program, even as the Iranian government moved further outside the original nuclear deal on Tuesday by curtailing international inspections of its nuclear sites, ABC News reports. The delicate dance between the two sides, along with the other world powers that remain party to the deal, has entered a new phase in recent days after President Joe Biden offered to join direct talks with the remaining participants last week. "A lot of diplomatic work is underway in order to arrange the meeting to green light the JCPOA and to put all the participants together," Josep Borrell, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, said Tuesday, using the acronym for the nuclear deal's formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. But on Tuesday, Iran halted certain inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Hours later, the U.N. nuclear watchdog issued a report finding the Iranians have amassed a stockpile of uranium enriched up to 20%, according to the Associated Press -- a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels and far beyond what is allowed under the nuclear deal. Curbing those inspections in particular sparked condemnation from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the European countries that remain in the agreement. In a joint statement, their foreign ministers said Iran's "dangerous" decision will "significantly constrain the IAEA's access to sites and to safeguards-relevant information." Still, while Tehran moved ahead with the restrictions, its foreign minister signaled for the first time that the country is open to talks that include U.S. officials. "We will not have an official meeting because America is not a member of the JCPOA. We are assessing the idea of an unofficial meeting, in which America is invited to as a non-member," Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday. Such a meeting could come as soon as next month. The State Department said Tuesday that Iran still has not formally responded to its offer to join talks. On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the Biden administration "would accept an invitation from" Borrell to meet with Iran and the other remaining signatories -- the Europeans, as well as China and Russia. Former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and reimposed U.S. sanctions on Iran -- leaving America at odds with its closest European allies. One year later, Iran followed suit, continually taking steps out of the nuclear deal to pressure the Europeans to make up for U.S. sanctions and provide the economic relief guaranteed under the nuclear deal. Now, the U.S. is back on the same page with the so-called E3, issuing a joint statement last week that they seek a U.S. and Iranian return to the nuclear deal and new negotiations on extending the pact and addressing Iran's ballistic missiles and regional activity -- something Tehran has said it will not agree to. "We are working hand-in-glove with our European allies, and we believe that gives us a position of strength when it comes to these negotiations and we believe it provides the best path forward," Price said Tuesday. Iran's new restrictions on inspections are the latest move in its efforts to raise its leverage. Zarif announced Tuesday that Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the IAEA. Instead, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said it would retain the footage for three months -- leaving a window to hand it over to the IAEA, but only if there's sanctions relief before then. IAEA director general Rafael Grossi traveled to Tehran Sunday for last-minute negotiations to stop Iran from implementing the restrictions, which were passed into a law by Iran's parliament in December. Those talks achieved a "temporary, bilateral, technical understanding," Grossi said Tuesday, that allowed "necessary" monitoring and verification activities to continue for now -- even as Iran has now stopped abiding by its "additional protocol" agreement with the agency, including ending snap inspections of nuclear sites. "It is our conviction that in doing what we did, we can facilitate a smooth return to the previous situation, if that is possible after the consultations that are going to take place -- and most of all, I think, we facilitated an easier atmosphere and time for the indispensable diplomacy that will be deployed in the next few days, I hope, in order to bring back some stability to a situation that needs it very, very badly," Grossi told the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based think tank. That timeline provides a small "window of opportunity" to put the nuclear deal "back on track," Borrell told the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. Last Thursday, his deputy invited the U.S. to join the next meeting of the joint commission that meets regularly under the deal's terms, which would be the first U.S. attendance since Trump withdrew in May 2018. But even if U.S. and Iranian officials are in the room together again soon, it is unclear how both sides will return to compliance -- and whether the U.S. and European push for more negotiations can materialize after U.S. sanctions are lifted. Iran has so far refused Biden's offer, that the U.S. would return to compliance by lifting sanctions only once Iran met its obligations again, like limiting its stockpile of enriched uranium and the number of centrifuges. Biden's offer has also included a good will gesture to lift severe travel restrictions on Iranian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and rescind a Trump posture that U.N. sanctions on Iran had "snapped back" -- a view that nearly no other country accepted. Iran will only "follow ACTION w/ action," Zarif tweeted Thursday. One possible avenue for discreet action may be Iran's oil revenues, frozen by U.S. sanctions in overseas banks. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Iran had agreed to a proposal to begin unfreezing those funds, but it required U.S. sign-off first. Price told ABC News, "There has been no transfer of funds," but the U.S. does "discuss these issues broadly with the South Koreans." That could spark criticism, especially from Republican lawmakers who oppose the nuclear deal and have cast Biden's call for talks as a concession. "Sanctions should only be relieved for a commensurate change in behavior or policy by Iran," said Behnam Ben Taleblu, calling the potential move "self-defeating" and the possible "beginning of more indirect sanctions relief to Tehran." Neera Tanden, nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget, speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2021. (Leigh Vogel/Pool/Getty Images) Bidens OMB Nominee Neera Tanden Lacking Confirmation Votes: Bernie Sanders Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday that her two confirmation hearings were postponed because she didnt look like she had the votes. I think theres no secret shes lacking the votes right now and shes working hard to try to get the votes, Sanders told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday, when asked about postponing the vote. This comes as two Senate committees delayed confirmation votes for the nominee, which is signaling pessimism that Tanden may not be able to get through the confirmation. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Budget Committee were scheduled to vote on Tandens nomination on Wednesday. White House chief of staff Ron Klain said on Wednesday that if Neera Tanden, President Joe Bidens pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, is not confirmed, then they would find her another role in the administration. If Neera Tanden is not confirmed, she will not become the budget director, Klain during a television appearance on MSNBC. We will find some other place for her to serve in the administration that doesnt require Senate confirmation. But let me be clear: Were going to get Neera Tanden confirmed. Thats what were working for. And she will prove her critics wrong as an outstanding budget director that works with people on both sides of the aisle, he added. Senators from both sides of the aisle have expressed their reservations about the nominee, noting her incendiary statements that had insulted lawmakers, including those who are currently in office. Her statements include calling Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) a fraud and accusing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of being beholden to Russia. She also wrote in an essay that opposition to abortion became successful as a political cudgel, helping isolate extreme anti-choice advocates from the mainstream. That one seems to have crossed a different line for me, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told Tanden during her recent confirmation hearing. Similarly, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Feb. 19 that he will not support Tanden due to her partisan statements aimed at lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. I have carefully reviewed Neera Tandens public statements and tweets that were personally directed towards my colleagues on both sides of the aisle from Senator Sanders to Senator McConnell and others. I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget, Manchin said in a statement. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who may be a swing vote, has not made up her mind about Tanden, telling reporters that she has yet to look into the nominee and her comments that have made about the senator. Murkowski said she has not talked to the nominee. You know, I suggested to the White House that my colleagues were being very critical of the statements, and rightly so I think some of them were clearly over the top. It seems that in this world weve kind of gotten numb to derogatory tweets. I dont think that that is, thats a model that we want to set for anybody, whether its a nominee, whether its a president, or whether its a senatorso Id like us all to cool that, Murkowski said. So I was trying to look at competence, but apparently Im going to have to do more looking into what she thinks about me, she added. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that he hoped every Republican would oppose Tanden, although some have yet to make up their minds, including Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.). Although the Biden administration is preparing for an undesirable outcome of Tandens confirmation, Klain said the White House is still fighting our guts out to get her confirmed. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the Biden administration believes Tanden is a leading policy expert who would bring critical qualifications to the table during this time of unprecedented crisis. Tanden would need to get at least 50 votes in order to be confirmed. Since Manchin said he would not back Tanden, Democrats need to get at least one Republican to their side. Other likely swing votes such as Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have indicated they wont. Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 13:10:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Feb. 24, 2021 shows staff members unloading COVID-19 vaccines at the military airport of Boufarik, 40 km southeast of the capital Algiers, Algeria. A donation of Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to help the North African nation combat the pandemic. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A donation of Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to help the North African nation combat the pandemic. A military jet of the Algerian Air Force carrying the batch of vaccines landed in the evening at the Boufarik military airport. Chinese Ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe said that the donation is a demonstration of solidarity between China and Algeria. "The two friendly countries have been helping each other overcome this pandemic since its outbreak, which constitutes a solidarity model to follow for the international community," he said. Algerian Communication Minister Ammar Belhimer handed over a gratitude letter from the Algerian government to the Chinese government for the donation to Ambassador Li, saying "the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines come to sustain our vaccination campaign ... and protect the lives of our citizens." China and Algeria have offered each other help in the fight against the pandemic. In February 2020, Algeria sent medical donations to China. China has also sent several batches of medical aid and experts to Algeria. Enditem More than half of the jobs at Walgetts high school are vacant, with violence and high staff turnover putting teachers and principals off moving there despite $9 million facilities and more money per student than Sydney Grammar. The NSW Department of Education needs to fill 11 of Walgett Community Colleges 21 teaching positions and find its 30th principal in 23 years, but teachers believe the workplace is unsafe, as multiple sources say staff have been hit, spat upon and had their cars damaged. A multimedia and performing arts area built at Walgett Community College as part of a $9.2 million renovation Credit:Jenny Wiggins Late last year, a student put a speaker cable around a teachers neck and threatened to kill him but was allowed to remain on site for the rest of the day, according to documents seen by the Herald, while a pregnant teacher recently had to stop a fight involving a knife at the north-western NSW school. One person familiar with the situation said a handful of students were responsible for creating a volatile environment for everyone else. Most students were calm and interested. Shot noodle vendors condition improves, bullet hit spine PHUKET: The noodle vendor shot on Bangla Rd by a drunken off-duty police officer on Tuesday has showed signs of recovery, but remains under close care in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Vachira Phuket Hospital. crimepoliceviolence By Eakkapop Thongtub Thursday 25 February 2021, 11:17AM Polcie have taken quick action over the incident, with a host of top-ranking officers visitnig the hospital. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Polcie have taken quick action over the incident, with a host of top-ranking officers visitnig the hospital. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Polcie have taken quick action over the incident, with a host of top-ranking officers visitnig the hospital. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Polcie have taken quick action over the incident, with a host of top-ranking officers visitnig the hospital. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Mr Aroons mother, Ms Nuanchan, cries as she speaks with reporters at Vachira Phuket Hospital yesterday (Feb 24). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Aroon Thongplab was shot in the stomach by Cpl Pornthep Channarong of the Phuket Provincial Police just before 6am on Tuesday while he was walking along the street after collecting a noodle bowl from a customer. My husband is now conscious and he has already opened his eyes. He can respond to the doctor, but is unable to speak. He can feel a touch on his arms, but has no feeling in his hands, Mr Aroons wife, Kulthida Chananan, told reporters at the hospital yesterday (Feb 24). The doctor said the bullet damaged his spine. We have to wait and see if he will be left disabled, she said. Today when I entered the room to see him, he looked much better than before, Ms Kulthida said. Ms Kulthida was at the hospital with her and Mr Aroons two children. They have a daughter who is 4 years old and a 4-month-old son. Mr Aroons mother, Nuanchan Thongplub, was also present, in obvious distress. Doctors say that my son has regained consciousness, but he still needs to be in the ICU, where relatives are not allowed in, Ms Nuanchan said. This morning, I thought of my ancestors and asked them to help my son, and before he was shot, I dreamed of him returning home, she added. At this stage, Im still angry with the police. I want to know why the police [officer] had to beat him even after shooting him. He beat him like he was not human. Why did he do that? How does he feel if this kind of thing happened to his family? I will try my best to fight for him and ask police officers to help me too, Ms Nuanchan said. My son works very hard and behaves well as the head of his family, she added. KIND HELP One man also at the hospital who asked to be named only as Mr Mongkol heard of the need for blood donations to help Mr Aroon with his recovery and responded by stepping up to donate blood. I saw the news of Mr Aroon and heard that he needed a lot of Type B blood, so I came to donate for him, Mr Mongkol said. It was my first time donating blood, he added. Mr Mongkols wife is still receiving treatment at the hospital for injuries sustained in a car accident. His wife was pregnant, but the couple lost their unborn child due to the injuries sustained. We will give Mr Aroons children the toys that we bought for ours, he said. Police have taken quick action in arresting and moving to charge Cpl Pornthep for the shooting. He has already been dismissed from the Royal Thai Police and faces at least three charges, including attempted murder. Moved by the incident, top-ranking officers have also been quick to attend to Mr Aroon and his familys needs at the hospital. The blackouts in Texas are a real possibility in Colorado. What they're saying: Much like Texas, the Colorado grid is managed by a handful of utility companies and needs to be better connected to its neighbors in the event of a major blow, state Sen. Chris Hansen (D-Denver) tells Axios. "I think Colorado is in danger of something similar happening because we have a relatively islanded grid," said Hansen, who doubles as the director of the nonprofit Colorado Energy and Water Institute. Hansen and Sen. Don Coram (R-Montrose) are behind new legislation to push utilities to build transmission corridors and create a commission to oversee the fortification of the grid. The other side: The same storm that hit Texas led utilities to ask Colorado residents to conserve energy. But experts and utilities companies here have offered repeated assurances that they are prepared and moving toward regional power solutions. A 2019 law required Colorado's Public Utilities Commission to hire an outside firm to study the issue and how it would benefit rate payers and power generators. The report is expected in May. The bottom line: A regional power network would mean Colorado utilities need to generate smaller energy reserves, saving money for ratepayers but the build-out could be costly. Jared Pate was already in the Georgia Army National Guard when he began his academic career at the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Dahlonega Campus. He knew about being an enlisted soldier, but Pate said UNG taught him how to lead and work with others. In fact, his fellow cadets' leadership served as a catalyst for Pate's own growth. "I was really impressed how basically a bunch of 20-year-olds lead such a large organization and how smoothly it works," said Pate, who graduated in December 2020 with a bachelor's degree in strategic and security studies. "It inspired me to one day be in a leadership position where I could learn about myself and make the same decisions and be a part of something that's bigger than myself." Through the Corp of Cadets' Leadership Development Program (LDP) and leadership roles on campus, Pate made good on those desires. He served as a first sergeant and resident assistant (RA) for the corps' Delta Company in fall 2018. "That was the first time I had ever been in a position where I had influence on that many people," Pate said. The Commerce, Georgia, native was a recipient of the University of North Georgia Military Scholarship. The state of Georgia offers 42 of these scholarships per year to high school seniors who attend UNG and commit to commission as officers in the Georgia Army National Guard upon graduation. The four-year scholarship pays for room, meals, tuition, books, uniforms, and fees. For Pate, who had dreamed of being in the Army since he was a child, the Guard and the scholarship opened up numerous doors. "One of the best decisions I've ever made was to enlist in the National Guard. It provided me so much, and not only financially," Pate said. "I've learned a lot about myself. It taught me a lot about the military, and I feel like it's given me a jump above other people in my graduating class." Capt. Elijah Carroll, commander of the National Guard detachment on the Dahlonega Campus and assistant professor of military science at UNG, also inspired Pate. "I learned a lot about being a leader in the military under his guidance," Pate said. "He is a man of great character and an officer that I aspire to be like one day." While he aims to one day be in the active-duty Army, Pate focused on the task at hand. He served as LDP commander and cadet lieutenant colonel as a senior at UNG. "I want to take that a step further and learn as much as I can from this place about myself and my leadership style and how to lead others and make those mistakes now so I'll be prepared when I commission in the National Guard as a second lieutenant," Pate said. His degree offered him another level of preparation for life after graduation. "After the military I still would like to continue working for the government in the security sector," Pate said. "UNG's strategic and security studies degree gives one a great understanding of national security issues and similar topics." GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Spine and Posture (www.mygrandrapidschiropractic.com) in Grand Rapids has been helping hundreds of residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic live stronger, healthier, pain-free lives. As one of only a handful of clinics in the entire state of Michigan specializing in a multi-disciplinary approach to improving patients' health, it is our goal to pinpoint, and uproot the source of pain, discomfort, disease, and fatigue. At our facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, our team of doctors and therapists offer corrective chiropractic care, physical therapy, and integrative medicine. By working together under one roof, we can ensure that our patients' health concerns are correctly addressed, diagnosed, and treated. The Advanced Spine and Posture family of clinics originated in Las Vegas, Nevada over a decade ago, and has since been expanding into different communities, including two in Las Vegas, one in Henderson Nevada, and here in Grand Rapids. "One of our specialties that we are proud of is Chiropractic BioPhysics, or CBP" explains Dr Alan Szagesh, chiropractic director at Advanced Spine and Posture. "CBP is the most published, researched, scientific, and results-oriented chiropractic technique in the world." "By addressing spinal imbalances, postural deformities, and misalignments, we are able to gradually and methodically lift pressure off the delicate nerves in the neck and back, and restarting nerve flow back to the body" explains Dr Szagesh. "This in itself restores health and vitality back to the patient". At Advanced Spine and Posture, we are also excited about being one of the only providers of ScoliBrace in the area. As the name implies, ScoliBrace is a revolutionary corrective brace for those suffering with scoliosis or postural deformities. "Unlike the regular brace or surgery, the ScoliBrace offers the best of both worlds without being intrusive or bulky" says Dr Szagesh. The ScoliBrace is the latest technology in treating Scoliosis. This brace comes backed with all the case studies to prove its effectiveness. Advanced Spine and Posture is not just a Chiropractor in Grand Rapids, we are a unique chiropractic office that is offering cutting edge technology to address patients' health concerns. Contact: Dr Alan Szagesh (616) 741-2232 [email protected] SOURCE Advanced Spine and Posture Xi Jinping has claimed 'victory' over extreme poverty in China, marking the end to a near four-decade mission for the ruling communist party. The President gave an hour-long speech in Beijing on Thursday hailing the achievement, claiming it proves that China's communist system is 'the fundamental guarantee against risks, challenges and difficulties.' But critics say the country is using a low benchmark for what it considers 'poverty', is failing to include data from its cities in the count, and has used harsh methods in its campaign including the forced resettlement of almost 10million poor Chinese. Xi Jinping hailed China's 'victory' over rural poverty on Thursday with an hour-long speech in Beijing before giving out medals to officials who led the effort Xi's announcement comes ahead of celebrations marking the CCP's 100th anniversary in July, which had led others to question whether China will remain committed to its poor when the celebrations are over. Since the 1960, China's leaders claim to have lifted some 800million people out of extreme poverty, which they define as a daily income of less than $1.70. Around 100million of those came under Xi's leadership, after he gave orders to his officials in 2015 to seek out every poor family left in China and end their poverty. Xi boasted on Thursday that he had spent $250billion over the last eight years on the anti-poverty drive, a huge increase in funding since before he came to power. Officials did this in two ways - according to analysis by The Economist - either by setting up businesses such as mushroom farms in rural villages and making villagers shareholders in them, or else forcibly relocating people were resources were greater. Between 2016 and 2020, it is thought China forcibly relocated some 10million people this way, moving them closer to large towns. One - 39-year-old labourer Liu Zhu'an - told the LA Times last year that while relocation had changed his living conditions but had little other effect. China claims to have lifted some 100million people out over poverty in the last eight years, but that includes 10million who were forcibly relocated from villages to towns (file image) Every day he had to travel back to his old village where land had been sold to a hotel developer in order to help build the new hotel. 'What could we do even if we didn't want to move? Do we have any choice?' he told the paper. 'My life is the same. I was a day laborer before, and I'm a day laborer now.' Others who spoke to the newspaper said they had 'struggled with finding new jobs to afford higher costs of living in their new homes. 'They worried that the land they vacated would be repurposed to benefit government officials, private investors and developers more than the poor.' Meanwhile US economists,. including those at the Brookings Institute, point out that China has set a low benchmark for defining 'poverty' - one typically used in developing countries - and should be aiming much higher. Using the US definition of poverty in the 1960s when the country was about as wealthy as China is now, they say 75 per cent of Chinese would still count as 'poor' - meaning China is in fact 'years - if not decades - behind schedule.' Others point out that China's statistics do not include data from cities, where it is assumed that welfare safeguards mean nobody is living in poverty. Critics say China is using a low benchmark to define poverty and is only counting poor people in the countryside (pictured) and not in cities And some question whether Xi's huge investment in eradicating poverty in time for the CCP's 100th anniversary will be maintained after the party is over. In his speech, he trumpeted his past investments but said nothing about future funding for the initiative. In a 'No. 1 policy document' released on Sunday, China vowed to stick with its poverty alleviation policies, while making some adjustments for a five-year transition towards what Beijing calls 'rural revitalisation'. A new National Rural Revitalisation Bureau was set up in Beijing on Thursday, replacing an office for poverty alleviation and development that had been operating since 1993. State media highlighted Xi's role in its publicity of the poverty alleviation milestone. The People's Daily, the Communist Party's main newspaper, mentioned Xi's name 139 times in a commentary of more than two pages lauding the 'historic leap'. The famous Spraoi international street arts festival in Waterford is undergoing a radical overhaul this year. The festival traditionally takes place over the August bank holiday weekend, drawing thousands of people into the city. The street arts and spectacle company is planning to unveil prism this summer, a large scale art installation and temporary performance space. The innovative structure will be 9m high, 16m wide and 30m deep. Read More T.V. Honan, Director of Wateford Sproai, said the plan is also to have a series of outdoor performances which will be spread out over the month of August across the county. It emerged this week that Waterford Spraoi was awarded a grant of 385,000 by the Arts Council, which announced its new key strategic funding round. Mr Honan said the initial plan had been to launch the prism spectacle in March, but Level 5 restrictions meant it was deferred. Covid-19 continues to disrupt the arts sector, he pointed out. He said normally Spraoi would be performing in St Patricks Day parades in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, and in recent years have done Limerick and Kilkenny as well. "So we would have five teams out on St Patricks Day, he said. "This year, we knew there wouldnt be parades so we redirected our energies to creating prism. He said the new spectacle will get its premier in Waterford on August bank holiday weekend and we are hopeful that we would present it, in at least one other Irish location later this year, maybe two." Mr Honan said it is a structure like a circus tent with no walls. We intend to make an event out of its construction each place that it goes. A team of artists will arrive at a location, and it will take about two days to construct. The artists will wrap the frame in a cloth tape and we hope in certain circumstances that we will actually be able to allow members of the public to join in the act of creating the prism, each location it goes to. He said there is a stage area inside and at night the whole structure will light up and we will run a programme of dancers, musicians, spoken words, and it even has the capacity to accommodate certain circus performers on trapeze-like structures." He said tickets, although free, will be organised in advance, so that the numbers in the structure will be controlled at any given time. Because the structure is porous, it is actually outdoors with really good air circulation. In each location where the prism is brought, it will be located in an outdoor courtyard area attached to a prominent building, Mr Honan said. He said with Covid-19, they did not believe they could stage the festival in the traditional model this year. Instead, Spraoi will create a season of weekend performances at different locations throughout county Waterford. We are still hoping to perform to thousands of people this August, but we will do it on more dates, and more locations, so we dont get concentrated crowds in one place at one time. He said the Arts Council funding they received was vital. The majority of Sproai's funding goes to artists. Mr Honan said for arts producers 2020 was the school of hard knocks. But Spraoi learned a lot from the experience, and I think we are much better equipped this year through that experience, of being better to cope with Covid conditions for the year ahead. "We are going to find new ways of doing what we do, so that there are children able to be held by the hand this summer, and see something amazing that might just leave a little bit of wonder in their lives. Meanwhile, with its exchequer grant increased to 130m, the Arts Council said hundreds of artists and practitioners were planning and already making great art for the public to experience in the months ahead. The Council said it would invest 46.1m in 105 key arts organisations across the country, among them Dublins Abbey Theatre, the Irish Chamber Orchestra in Limerick, Macnas in Galway, Cork Midsummer Festival, and Teac Damsa in Kerry. A further 7.8m will fund 43 arts centres in every region of the country, from An Grianan in Donegal and Garage Theatre in Monaghan to Dunamaise Arts Centre in Laois, Glor in Clare, and the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen. The council said that in addition in the weeks ahead, it would award around 10.7m to arts organisations through its Arts Grant Funding programme; 2m in smaller festivals in almost every county from its Festivals Investment Scheme; and a range of other supports for arts organisations struggling to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. For individual artists there will be some 10.5m in bursaries; 5.6m through a new Agility Award; as well increased funding for commissions and projects. Thursday, 25 February 2021 13:57:04 (GMT+3) | Istanbul Swedish iron ore producer LKAB has announced an increase in mineral resources during 2020 by 45 percent from 1.21 billion mt to 1.75 billion mt, after having dramatically ramped up exploration activities at all three of its mining locations since 2018. This should enable us to maintain production until at least 2060. Furthermore, the deposits are open at depth, meaning that their extent at depth is not known, Pierre Heeroma, senior vice president exploration, said. He stated that a large increase in mineral resources is a prerequisite both for continuing to operate as a mining company and for the companys major transition to carbon-free products. In Kiruna, work will continue both at depth and towards the areas referred to as the Per Geijer ore. In Svappavaara, both Gruvberget and Leveaniemi will be tested at depth, and in Malmberget it will be a matter of following the existing deposits at depth. Over the past two years, the company has invested SEK 700 million ($84.86 million) in the search for new deposits and in ascertaining the extent of existing ones. Moreover, LKAB aims to deliver sponge iron that is produced with hydrogen and thereby reduce global carbon emissions by 35 million mt per year. The company is setting a new world standard for carbon-free, digitalized and autonomous underground mining. The companys target will require investments amounting to SEK 1020 billion per year over a period of 1520 years. This will create thousands of new jobs in the mining districts and Norrbotten over more than 20 years. LKABs total mineral reserves amount to 1.09 billion mt, including 737 million mt in Kiruna, 265 million mt in Malmberget and 91 million mt in Svappavaara. AP Photo/Hans Pennink The Germantown Sportsmens Association's upcoming Squirrel Scramble, scheduled for Feb. 27, is one of many gruesome wildlife killing contests taking place across our state (Plea to drop squirrel hunt spurned, Feb. 16). In these competitions, participants vie for prizes by killing the most or even the smallest animals. Hundreds of coyotes, foxes, squirrels and other species may fall victim at a single event. The Humane Society of the United States investigated a Sullivan County contest in 2020 and documented bloodied coyotes tossed into dumpsters and participants describing how they cut open pregnant coyotes and found pups ready to be born. [February 25, 2021] In wake of Supreme Court ruling, TekSavvy urges CRTC to immediately implement 2019 wholesale rates and promote affordable internet As frustrated consumers demand federal action to lower prices, Canada's top court dismisses Big Telecom's case with costs. CHATHAM, ON, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - TekSavvy Solutions Inc. (TekSavvy) welcomed today's decision from the Supreme Court of Canada declining to hear appeals by Canada's largest telecom and cable companies (such as Bell Canada and Rogers), who seek to overturn a key 2019 CRTC decision lowering the wholesale Internet rates the large carriers charge smaller competitors. The Supreme Court's ruling ordered the large carriers to pay TekSavvy's legal costs, following an earlier, unanimous decision from the Federal Court of Appeal rejecting the large carriers' appeals with costs, noting the large carriers' arguments were of "dubious merit". The Supreme Court's decision was issued amid growing frustration and demands by Canadian consumers for federal action on affordable internet. The CRTC's August 2019 FinalRates Order is the result of an extensive four-year regulatory proceeding that confirmed the large carriers systematically deviated from the CRTC's rate-setting rules to grossly inflate their costs of providing wholesale access to their networks. The CRTC condemned the large carriers' rate-fixing as " very disturbing " because it would drive smaller competitors out of business. The large carriers appealed the 2019 Final Rates Order to the courts, the Federal Cabinet and the CRTC itself. Even after the Federal Court of Appeal's complete rejection of the incumbents appeals, the CRTC issued a new decision declining to implement its own order. The CRTC instead allowed the large carriers to continue charging grossly inflated rates until the CRTC decides on Bell and Rogers' further requests to raise prices and keep the overcharged amounts. TekSavvy is challenging the CRTC's stay decision, calling it "flawed and unreasonable". Denied rate relief and refunds for overcharged amounts, TekSavvy was forced to raise its prices . In addition to the prospect of further price hikes, TekSavvy warned that the CRTC's failure to act is hostile to independent investment, warning "the single greatest threat to TekSavvy's quarter billion dollar investment plan is the CRTC's delay in implementing its 2019 final wholesale rate order". The company said it is currently reviewing its business plans in light of the continuing climate of extreme regulatory uncertainty. About TekSavvy TekSavvy has been proudly serving Canadians award-winning telecom services and fighting for consumers' rights for more than 20 years. TekSavvy is committed to providing quality competitive choice and closing the digital divide in Canada. With over $250 million of planned broadband infrastructure investments by 2026, TekSavvy will continue to better connect underserved Canadians. TekSavvy has offices in Chatham, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec and is Canada's largest independent telecom service company serving over 300,000 customers from coast to coast. SOURCE TekSavvy Solutions Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] MoCA Westport announces exhibition acquisition MoCA Westport, at 19 Newtown Turnpike, has announced the acquisition of a new permanent human rights teaching exhibition by Ann Weiner, a Westport artist. It is the museums first permanent collection and will be on view for people who want to see it every three to five years. It will be loaned to other museums in between this time. The exhibition, When Caged Birds Sing, is based on the Maya Angelou poem Caged Bird, which includes the refrain, The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. The exhibition features eight life-size sculptures that represent current womens rights activists who suffered and survived abuse because of their gender, and who continue to advocate for the rights of others at risk. The women are: Grace Akallo, Maria da Penha Fernandes, Waris Dirie, Mukhtar Mai, Nujood Ali, Jhinna Pinchi, Malala Yousafzai and Laverne Cox. Visit annweiner.net for more information. Kindergarten registration underway Kindergarten registration for Westport Public Schools is underway for the 2021-2022 school year. Parents who have children turning 5 on or before Jan. 1, 2022, are asked to register them as soon as possible. Registering now allows the school district to plan for the new kindegarteners. All registration information is located on the school districts website, https://www.westportps.org, under the Kindergarten Registration link. Information on parent meetings will be coming. Parents who are unsure as to what elementary school their child(ren) should attend, are asked to visit the school districts locator website: https://www.westportps.org /parents/school-locator-and -directions Call the superintendents office for the school district at 203-341-1026 for more assistance. Jewelry appraisal, consignment event to benefit historical society Rago, a leading auction house featured on the PBS series The Antiques Road Show will have their second jewelry appraisal and consignment event March 9, by appointment only from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, at the Weston Historical Society, 104 Weston Road. Rago is scheduling the appointments, not the Historical Society. Rago will donate a portion of its commission on the property consigned from this event to the Historical Society. Appointments are required, no walk-ins. Email robin@ragoarts.com, or call 609-460-3619 to register or for more information about the event. Masks are required for all attendees, and social distancing protocols for the coronavirus pandemic will be in place. Contact the Historical Society at: info@westonhistoricalsociety.org, 203-226-1803 or visit www.westonhistoricalsociety.org for more information. Winged Monkey boutique celebrating 25 years A boutique, The Winged Monkey, located at 384 Post Road East in Westport, Conn, is celebrating its 25th anniversary March 1, kicking off its month-long celebration. It will include discounts, raffles and end with a charity fashion show. Westport Book Shop hosting local artists The first art exhibit in the Westport Book Shops Drew Friedman Art Place is on view for the month of February. The exhibit features a series of photos of artworks by Nina Bentley, a renowned assemblage artist from the town. The art exhibit is open to the public during the Book Shops business hours: from 3 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Its located at 23 Jesup Road. The store will exhibit community artists on a rotating basis. Program looks at prohibition The Weston Historical Society is hosting a virtual lecture Taverns, Temperance, Teetotalers, and Tommy Guns: The Long History of Prohibition at 6:30 p.m. on March 10 in Zoom. Francis Coan, and Stephen McGrath are the events guest presenters. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. Registration is required and can be done at www.westonhistoricalsociety. The event is free but a $5 donation is suggested. The historical society is hosting a series of virtual lectures that looks at events that shaped the 1920s leading into its 1920s exhibit, which will open later this year. Coan is a history professor of history at Tunxis Community College in Farmington. McGrath recently retired from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain where he taught about American history and European revolutions. Email info@westonhistoricalsociety.org, call 203-226-1804 and, or visit www.westonhistoricalsociety,org for more information. The United States and plan to convene the first ministerial dialogue on agreed to by President and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by the beginning of April, the White House said. "The initial meeting of the Dialogue will occur between March 15 and April 1," the White House said in a statement on Wednesday evening. The ministerial group, chaired by Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry and Canada's Minister of Environment and Jonathan Wilkinson, will meet biannually at the chair level with the second meeting set to occur in early September, the statement said. Lower-level meetings will be conducted as needed throughout the year, the statement added. The ministerial dialogue will focus on three core issues: meeting and exceeding climate targets in both nations, aligning policy and regulatory requirements and mitigating the expected impacts of Despite differences on issues including, Biden's Keystone XL pipeline cancellation and the so-called "Buy America" policy, the two leaders have recognized climate change as an area of potential cooperation in an effort to rebuild bilateral relations following a turbulent four years under the administration of former President Donald Trump. Biden and Trudeau announced the establishment of the intergovernmental ministerial dialogue following the conclusion of a virtual bilateral meeting on Tuesday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Government and Ofqual have unveiled how pupils in England will receive their grades after this summers GCSE and A-level exams were cancelled. Here is how it will work, based on what we know so far: How will teachers decide pupils grades? Teachers will be able to draw on a range of evidence when determining grades, including mock exams, coursework or other work completed as part of a pupils course, such as essays or in-class tests. Exam boards will provide teachers with optional assessment questions for students to answer to also help schools decide which grades to award. But it is understood that teachers will have the flexibility to choose how long students have to complete the task, and where it will be carried out. Will an algorithm be used to set grades? No algorithm will be used by the regulator to standardise teachers grades if they appear too generous. The decision comes after the grading of students became a fiasco last summer after exams were cancelled when schools and colleges closed. Expand Close Students receive their A-Level results (Joe Giddens/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Students receive their A-Level results (Joe Giddens/PA) Thousands of A-level students had their results downgraded from school estimates by a controversial algorithm before Ofqual announced a U-turn which allowed them to use teachers predictions. But this year, teachers will submit their grades to exam boards by June 18 who will then carry out quality assurance checks through a combination of random sampling and more targeted scrutiny. Why are students receiving their results earlier than normal? Normally students receive their results in mid to late August. But this summer, A-level students will receive their results on August 10 and GCSE pupils will receive their results two days later on August 12. It is hoped that bringing forward the dates will ensure that A-level students have enough time to log any appeals so that they do not miss out on their preferred university place for the autumn. How can pupils challenge their grades if they are unhappy? Every student will have the right to appeal their grade and they will face no additional costs doing so. If pupils feel that their school did not go through the right process when issuing grades, or there has been an administrative error, they can appeal. They will also be able to challenge grades if they feel that specific circumstances, such as a bereavement at the time of an assessment, were not been taken into account in the grading decision. An application for an appeal will go through the school or college first where they will be asked to check for errors or process issues. If a student is still unhappy with the grade, then the appeal can be raised with exams boards who will then assess whether the teachers judgment is fair. Students will also be offered the chance to sit exams in the autumn. What will happen with vocational qualifications? The results for some vocational qualifications will be released in the week of August 9. Expand Close Schools have again been disrupted by coronavirus (Tim Goode/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Schools have again been disrupted by coronavirus (Tim Goode/PA) Students studying vocational and technical qualifications, which are often taught alongside GCSEs and A-levels and are often used for university or college places, will receive grades assessed by teachers. These qualifications include many Btecs and Cambridge Nationals. Assessments will continue for qualifications that are used for direct entry into employment, where learners need to show occupational competence. How does Englands plans differ to the devolved nations? In Wales, GCSE, AS-level and A-level students will receive grades determined by their teachers. Education minister Kirsty Williams has said students will receive grades from their school or college based on work they have completed over the length of their course. In Scotland, Higher and Advanced Higher grades will be decided by teacher judgment supported by assessment and no algorithm will be used to adjust results. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland schools will determine pupils GCSE and A-level grades. Results days will remain as previously announced A-levels on August 24 and GCSEs on August 27. Representatives of the Servant of the People party and the President's Office of Ukraine periodically negotiate with leader of the Holos party Kira Rudyk about the possibility of uniting into a parliamentary coalition. "Someone is cyclically negotiating with me so that we join [in the coalition]. From time to time, representatives of either the Office [of the President] or the Servant of the People party come to me to talk about where we can unite our efforts," Rudyk told Interfax-Ukraine. At the same time, she said that regardless of being in a coalition or in opposition, Holos always supports the actions of the authorities, which "are correct for the country." In this context, the politician drew attention to the recent steps of President Volodymyr Zelensky, which arouse high hopes in the Holos team. "These are really systemic, pro-Ukrainian, public steps that we support, and I am sincerely glad that he is taking them. When we see such steps, we say: "Maybe something will come of it!" But let us see, what the next ones will be, because these should not be two or three random government decisions, but the result of a certain plan. Then we will talk," she said. Answering a question of what positions in the government could be taken by the representatives of Holos in case of joining a coalition with Servant of the People, Rudyk said: "If there are several directions where we can fully implement the planned reforms, then we are ready take it and do it." In a little more than a month, state public servants will come knocking on the door of Queensland businesses to claw back tax deferred during the height of the pandemic. Payroll tax bills deferred during the first quarter of last year are due on April 7, one week after the federal government guillotines its wage subsidy scheme. JobKeeper payments will end in March. Credit:Wayne Taylor Ms Palaszczuk has been pressuring the federal government to extend JobKeeper for industries that are doing it tough because of travel restrictions. What were asking for is a helping hand in this hour of need, she said. 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. Sexual harassment and bullying are widespread in federal political offices, with a review finding nearly two-thirds of staffers were hesitant to report it because they worried about jeopardising their careers. The survey of almost 100 political staffers from across the political spectrum in December found one in eight had been sexually harassed or assaulted in the workplace in the past year. More than half had witnessed bullying and harassment in the workplace in the past year and two in five had experienced it themselves. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he should have been told about the allegations made by Brittany Higgins. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen More than three-quarters of staffers surveyed by the Commonwealth Public Sector Union did not believe the Department of Finance would support them if they reported serious workplace incidents, igniting calls for an inquiry into the Parliaments workplace culture to be widened. In November the Finance Department started a review of sexual harassment and bullying policies, and the union ran the survey to inform that work. 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. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. "Tapes are films which has adhesive on one or both sides and are broadly used to seal the cartons or other packaging materials. Some companies also uses these tapes for advertisements but such uses are countable. Most of the companies uses these tapes to ensure that if the packages are not being tampered the last seal has been done by the company itself. Further the companies also uses the printed tape as brand building by ensuring that every material used has the companies footprint. Custom tapes are less expensive than custom boxes printed with company logos. With adding security, these tapes also show that company is serious about making their position in the market. More insightful information | Request a sample copy @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/3117 With the motto of increasing sales all companies strive hard for larger brand recognition and do not let any scope of missing the opportunity to increase the brand visibility. 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Please click here @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/3117 Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:22:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GABORONE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) has launched a new funding program dubbed Grand Challenges Botswana, to support innovations that can accelerate progress towards achieving national development priorities and economic transformation. "Launching Grand Challenges Botswana today, gives me renewed hope that we are on course towards achieving our national Vision 2036 aspirations. We are looking at a five-year implementation plan in which we target supporting key projects that will scale commercially, locally and regionally, building a portfolio with potential to create jobs," said Douglas Letsholathebe, minister of tertiary education, research, science and technology on Wednesday. BIH partnered with the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) to launch the Grand Challenges Botswana, as a unique but collaborative initiative under the Grand Challenges Africa initiative. Grand Challenges Africa is an AESA program that awards seed and full grants to the continent's most impressive innovators to promote Africa-led scientific innovations that help countries better achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "Our partnership with BIH is part of efforts to establish a national Grand Challenges program and catalyse scientific breakthroughs that have potential for high impact, scale, and sustainability and finding local solutions to solve Africa's pressing challenges," said Moses Alobo, Grand Challenges Africa Program Manager. According to BIH, Grand Challenges Botswana is aligned with Botswana's national digital transformation initiatives and aims to identify locally developed solutions that demonstrate the use of relevant emerging and Fourth Industrial Revolution related technologies in artificial intelligence and big data analytics in geospatial data benefitting the tourism and agriculture sectors. "Local innovators will be a lynchpin to promoting productivity in a myriad of sectors, effectively ensuring they contribute to national efforts to accelerate economic transformation and achieve our six national development priorities," said Budzanani Tacheba, director of innovation and technology, BIH. Enditem A red-alert for toxic cyanobacterial blooms has been issued for almost the entire Lower Darling River, with fears another big fish kill is imminent without significant new flows. Popularly known as blue-green algae, the toxic blooms along the Lower Darling, between the Menindee Lakes to the Murray River, also have become a major problem for other parts of the state, including the Burrinjuck Dam, near Canberra, and Malpas Dam in north-east NSW. Noah Hindmarsh looks at a cyanobacterial bloom near Menindee on the Darling River earlier this month. Credit:Michael Minns Human exposure to high levels of the algae and their toxins can cause diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting as well as skin, eye or throat irritation and allergic reactions or breathing difficulties. The blooms make the water undrinkable, unswimmable and unsuitable for bathing, which are huge problems for the communities along the Lower Darling. Fishing and stock watering also should be avoided. 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. Diligent Corporation (Diligent or the Company), the modern governance company with a platform used by nearly 700,000 board directors and leaders, across 19,000 clients, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Galvanize, a global leader in SaaS governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Galvanize transaction follows Diligents planned acquisition of Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc. (Steele) a leader in ethics and compliance SaaS, which the Company signed in February 2021. Both transactions are expected to close in March. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006109/en/ With the acquisition of Galvanize, Diligent will become the largest SaaS GRC provider. The combined solution with enrichment from Steele will enable an integrated GRC picture from Audit, Risk, Information Security, Ethics and Compliance across the organization directly to the CEO, CFO and Board. Customers will benefit from a powerful operating system that enables governance programs organization-wide, backed by trusted concierge level customer support with NPS scores over 50. Galvanize, the only company with comprehensive Leader recognition from both Gartner and Forrester analysts, brings the only integrated cloud GRC platform powered by robotic data automation across security, risk management, compliance, and audit software for 6,000 global customers in 130 countries, including more than half of the Fortune 1000 and S&P 500. As a FedRAMP-authorized cloud service provider, Galvanize is trusted by more than 900 government agencies worldwide, including most large agencies in the U.S. federal government, to advance their missions transparently and efficiently. Diligent plans to enhance its modern governance platform with Galvanizes 11 integrated risk and compliance solutions, bringing new insights to its leading board and leadership application and operational governance solutions. Galvanizes flagship cloud-based platform HighBond aggregates risk and compliance concerns to top-level strategy across the organization, with real-time dashboards of comprehensive business metrics to the C-Suite and Board. We are on the cusp of a new era. Executives and their boards are navigating incredible challenges and opportunities across all of their stakeholders. More than ever, they need an integrated view of data and information, as well as clear visibility and confidence for decision-making, to effectively maximize performance and mitigate risk, said Brian Stafford, CEO of Diligent. Risk and Compliance data traditionally sits in disparate systems across audit, compliance and risk functions and make it difficult and laborious to combine into one view for the CFO, CEO and Board. Together with Galvanize and Steele, we are excited to drive even greater impact for our clients through a completely integrated GRC platform so they can run more effective, equitable, sustainable, and successful organizations. Laurie Schultz, president & CEO of Galvanize said: This transaction fast forwards our vision as the operating system of conscious organizations and furthers our mission to make GRC todays mission-critical enterprise platform. Joining forces with Diligent, the clear market leader in the governance space, represents an immediate, material and meaningful redefinition of the $41 billion GRC market. With Diligents presence in thousands of boardrooms across the globe, our combined offering ensures all levels of an organization will have the real-time insight they need to manage risk and optimize performance. Credit Suisse served as the exclusive financial advisor, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as the legal advisor to Diligent. For Galvanize, Evercore served as the financial advisor, and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP served as the legal advisor. About Diligent Corporation Diligent powers modern governance, enabling transformational leaders to help their organizations do the right thing. Our governance platform provides new ways for leaders to digitally transform their governance practices, from increasing board and executive effectiveness to proactively managing risk and compliance practices to integrating real-time industry and company data like cyber risk scores and board composition. Diligent empowers leaders and teams to stay connected, informed, and ahead of whats next so they can run more successful, equitable, and sustainable organizations and create positive change in the world. Today, nearly 700,000 governance leaders from over 19,000 organizations and 90 countries rely on the Diligent modern governance platform. With more than 1,000 employees globally, serving both public and private sectors, we are helping organizations digitize their governance practices and transform effective governance into a long-term, competitive advantage. Learn more at Diligent.com. About Galvanize Galvanize is the leading provider of award-winning, cloud-based security, risk management, compliance, and audit software for some of the worlds largest organizations. The integrated HighBond platform provides visibility into risk, makes it easy to demonstrate compliance, and helps grow audit, risk, and compliance programs without incurring extra costs. More than 6,000 organizations in 130 countries rely on HighBond to meet their objectives, including over half of the Fortune 1000 and S&P 500 companies, hundreds of banks, manufacturers, healthcare and government organizations. Whether managing threats, assessing risk, measuring controls, monitoring compliance, or expanding assurance coverage, HighBond automates manual tasks, blends organization-wide data, and broadcasts it in easy-to-share dashboards and reports. Learn more at WeGalvanize.com. About Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc. Steele is the global leader in Ethics & Compliance Management. We partner with the worlds largest, most respected companies to deliver compliance products and services that help organizations embrace a culture of compliance while protecting their brand. Learn more at SteeleGlobal.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006109/en/ While civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. have become household names, some others have been overlooked: Not too many New Yorkers likely know that Constance Baker Motley became the first Black woman elected to the state Senate in 1964, for example. Former state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn is another Empire State trailblazer whose work remains largely unknown by the general public. Her recent retirement, however, is giving her former colleagues an opportunity to highlight during Black History Month how Montgomery changed New York over 17 terms in office. She understood the injustice in the criminal justice system. She understood the inequities in education and access. She understood how marginalized people were and how it hampered their progress and she fought, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat who is the first Black woman elected to her post, said at the Capitol Wednesday while awarding the inaugural Majority Leader Legislative Legacy Award to her longtime colleague, as part of the majority leaders efforts to promote Black History Month. Here are three things to know about her legacy. Albany was a very different place when she came than when she left. White men still have an outsized voice in state government, but things have come a long way from when Montgomery first got elected in 1984. Back then, after-hours gallivanting and licentiousness were the norm. Women in power were not. If the designers of the State Capitol had intended there to be women in the Legislature, logic says, they would have built two bathrooms in the Assembly chamber, The New York Times wrote in 1987. Former colleagues recall her making a place for herself despite these tough barriers. I dont think her constituents realized the opposition she faced in the Senate, as a triple minority, as a Black woman in the Democratic Party, Al Vann, a former state Assembly member from Brooklyn, told The Imprint. She didnt cry about it, she did all she could to deliver. Very unique person to be able to do that, I think. Her presence also made a difference to constituents back home who could see someone who looked like them had finally made it to the halls of power. A generation of women and people of color followed in Montgomerys political footsteps over the subsequent 30 years. The state Legislature is more diverse than ever. Her retirement even paved the way for the election of the first Black, gay senator in state history, Jabari Brisport. She had a big effect on the state criminal justice and foster care systems. Montgomery served in the minority conference for the vast majority of her career, but that did not stop her from getting some big stuff done. She promoted the value of needle exchange sites in confronting HIV/AIDS and voted in opposition to lengthening prison sentences in an era when mass incarceration was politically popular. In more recent years, she played a key role in getting the GOP majority to pass Raise the Age legislation that removed 16 and 17-year-olds from adult prisons. Once Democrats took over the upper chamber after the 2018 elections, she got even more reforms passed. She got a chance finally to see so many of the things that she fought for long ago (pass), Stewart-Cousins said Wednesday. Incarcerated women are no longer shackled during childbirth. Unsubstantiated allegations of child neglect no longer follow parents for years through a state registry that prospective employers can access. It is now much harder for unscrupulous people to trick people out of their homes through deed theft. These are not the types of new laws that get a politician a lot of attention, but they brought life-changing relief to the New Yorkers who need them most. She was the first state senator to give birth while in office The federal government did not make it illegal for businesses to fire women for getting pregnant until a few years before Montgomery became the first and thus far only state senator to give birth in office in 1987. A photo of a smiling Montgomery and her baby was the first of its kind to grace the front page of The New York Times Metro section, but it would not be the last. That would not make Montgomery a household name by the time she announced her retirement in early 2020, but that was never her goal. (My focus) was never the sexy, new shining thing, she told The Imprint of her years in office. I certainly felt responsibility in a very different way. It wasnt so much the lobbyists and people with money. We never had the constituency with money. Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Thursday that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) must include programmes to support SMEs, adding that he will take care for amounts to be allocated for this sector, according to AGERPRES. "We have extended the successful measures - SME Invest and there is a hybrid, a younger brother, Agro Invest, for the agricultural sector, a kind of SME Invest for agriculture. Of course, the programme has been improved. We will see how far it can run this year, for how long we can go on, but I am telling you that there will be other programmes to support SMEs and this is the role of PNRR. There must be programmes to support this sector in the PNNR and I will make sure that there are amounts allocated under the PNRR. SME Invest, I have already said, is moving forward," Citu explained, at a debate organized by the National Council for Small and Medium Enterprises. He said the programme on Measure 3 for SMEs would need to be amended to be improved, adding that a short-term solution could be to eliminate projects that are related to real estate. The head of the Executive also mentioned that solutions are being sought for the programme to support Romanian exports, managed by the Ministry of Economy, one of the options being the allocation of commitment credits. European Council President Charles Michel speaks with Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin, on screen right, via videoconference at the European Council building in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, Pool) European Union leaders are gathering Thursday to try to inject new energy into the bloc's lagging coronavirus vaccination efforts as concern mounts that new variants might spread faster than authorities can adapt. The leaders will meet via videoconference from 1400 GMT (9 a.m. EST). They'll debate ways to ease production bottlenecks and speed up the rollout of vaccines, as well as the severity of restrictions that should remain in place to halt the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 515,000 people across the bloc's 27 nations. "The epidemiological situation remains serious, and the new variants pose additional challenges. We must therefore uphold tight restrictions while stepping up efforts to accelerate the provision of vaccines," the leaders will say, according to a draft summit statement seen by The Associated Press. The European Commission has sealed deals with several companies for well over 2 billion vaccine shotsfar more than the EU population of around 450 millionbut only three have been authorized: jabs from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. Officials say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be approved next month. Not far from from where European Council President Charles Michel is chairing the summit from Brussels, the heads of the big pharmaceutical companies making vaccines will be grilled by EU lawmakers as the meeting goes on. European Council President Charles Michel speaks with Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi via videoconference at the European Council building in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, Pool) The leaders will also weigh whether and when to introduce vaccine certificates, which could help smooth a return to air travel and possibly avoid another disastrous summer holiday season, as the tourism industry and broader economies suffer from restrictions. Southern European countries dependent on tourism, like Greece and Spain, support such a system, but their northern EU partners, like Germany, doubt whether the certificates would work. "First it must actually be clearly resolved that vaccinated people are no longer infectious," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published Thursday in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "As long as the number of those who have been vaccinated is still so much smaller than the number who are waiting for vaccination, the state should not treat the two groups differently." European Council President Charles Michel, left, speaks with Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, right on screen, via videoconference at the European Council building in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, Pool) Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he would prefer a green pass system, similar to Israel's. "Those who are vaccinated should have full freedom, but so should those who just had corona and are immune, and all those who take a test and can prove through the test that they are negative," Kurz told Germany's Bild tabloid. Public pressure to relax measures is building. The Netherlands has eased some lockdown measures in what Prime Minister Mark Rutte called a calculated risk to make the year-long crisis "bearable." Denmark just allowed high school students to partially return to classes. In Belgium, Jean-Marc Nollet, head of the Greens party that is part of the ruling coalition, openly said he no longer followed his own government's limits on social contacts because "I am a human being and human contact is something vital." In this Friday, Nov. 6, 2020 file photo, medical personnel work in the intensive care ward for Covid-19 patients at the MontLegia CHC hospital in Liege, Belgium. Given the spread of the COVID-19, the Czech prime minister is worried about "a total catastrophe" at overburdened hospitals, Germany fears the impact of new variants and the Netherlands is seeing a rise in cases. Among EU leaders, at an EU summit via video on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, there should be little appetite to ease up on travel and other restrictions too soon. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) In this Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020 file photo, medical staff receive part of a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine shipment at the UZ Leuven hospital in Leuven, Belgium. EU leaders on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, during an EU summit video conference, will look at ways to improve the vaccine rollout, as they press pharmaceutical companies to respect the terms of their contracts with the 27-nation bloc. (Nicolas Maeterlinck/Pool via AP, File) In this Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 file photo, frozen vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are taken out to be defrosted at the MontLegia CHC hospital in Liege, Belgium. EU leaders on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, during an EU summit video conference, will look at ways to improve the vaccine rollout, as they press pharmaceutical companies to respect the terms of their contracts with the 27-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File) In this Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 file photo, a healthcare worker administers the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, during the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for those in higher risk categories, at a vaccine center in Overijse, Belgium. Two months after the first needles went into arms, the European Union is still struggling to get its COVID-19 vaccine drive up to speed. EU leaders are meeting on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021 to try to kickstart the process as new virus variants raise concerns that they might spread faster than Europe's response. (Eric Lalmand/Pool via AP, File) In this Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020 file photo, cargo workers move a palette of cool boxes into a pharma transport container during a demonstration on the handling and logistics of vaccines and medicines at the DHL cargo warehouse in Steenokkerzeel, Belgium. EU leaders on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, during an EU summit video conference, will look at ways to improve the vaccine rollout, as they press pharmaceutical companies to respect the terms of their contracts with the 27-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File) But according to the draft statement, the leaders will say that the crisis is far from over, especially as vaccine production lags, and that restrictions on nonessential travel, among other measures, remain valid. With leaders conscious that the pandemic won't end unless it's defeated everywhere, summit talks will also touch on getting vaccines to other countries in need, notably in Africa, through the U.N.-backed COVAX program. Explore further Merkel, Macron defend EU vaccine strategy 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 02:45:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 2,000 infection cases of coronavirus variants have been reported in the United States, according to the latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of Tuesday, the CDC had identified nearly 1,881 cases of the B.1.1.7, which was originally detected in Britain, in 45 states; 46 cases of B.1.351, which was first identified in South Africa, in 14 states; and five cases of the P.1 variant, initially detected in Brazil, in four states. Modeling data suggest that B.1.1.7 could become the predominant variant in the United States in March, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, a new coronavirus variant, known as B.1.526, is spreading in New York City, researchers said on Wednesday. The new variant was first identified in samples collected in New York in November, and by mid-February represented about 12 percent of cases, according to researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. They found that B.1.526 shares some worrying characteristics with B.1.351 and P.1. Several studies have suggested that those new variants are more resistant to some existing vaccines than earlier versions of the coronavirus. Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at The Rockefeller University, said he was more worried about the variant in New York than the one quickly spreading in California. The new variant detected in southern California, CAL.20C, caused a surge in local infections and is spreading through and beyond the United States, according to a research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It possesses mutations in its spike protein that appear to make it not only more transmissible but also helps it to evade antibodies generated by the COVID-19 vaccines, according to researchers. American company Moderna, which makes one of the two authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, is set to launch a clinical trial of a new vaccine designed to combat B.1.351 variant, the company announced Wednesday. Moderna said it has produced enough of its variant-specific candidate vaccine, called mRNA-1273.351, to begin testing it in people. Key indicators of COVID-19 transmission in the United States continue to fall recently, but "it is too early to know if this is a turning point because new, more contagious variants are circulating in the country," Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua. "We hope that the vaccine rollout will outweigh the variants spread," Perlman said. Enditem Yoda's words of wisdom to young Jedi Luke Skywalker are full of wisdom drawn from Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Daoism. (Yuri Turkov/Shutterstock) The Wisdom of a Jedi Master Yoda's Jedi instruction remains relevant, insightful for a galaxy not so far away I remember it well. The year was 1977. After months of anticipation, it was finally here. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away [cue music] I was 9 years old as I read the crawl of those golden-yellow words on the theater screen before they faded into a dark abyss of stars. The stage was set for an epic adventureand enduring wisdom. So begins the tale of Star Wars, and the journey of our hero, Luke Skywalker. Luke finds himself caught in an interplanetary war between the authoritarian regime of the Galactic Empire, and the Rebel Alliance fighting for the Republics freedom. At the core of the story lie the Jedi Knights, galactic guardians of peace and justice who harness an energy known as the Force, the all-encompassing spiritual essence of the universe. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi who initially trains Luke, explains, The Force is what gives a Jedi Knight his power. But as Luke discovers during his Jedi training, while the Force is to be used for good, the dark side always beckons. Star Wars went on to become one of the biggest franchises of all time. My brothers Leo and Chad loved it so much they had every bit of merchandise they could talk my mom into buying, from Star Wars bedding, to lunch boxes, to action figures. It seemed everyone had Star Wars fevera fever that has continued over the years. A Timeless Journey So just why do we love the Star Wars saga so much? Is it the fast-paced action, the captivating creatures (the cantina scene comes to mind), or the galactic starfighters blazing across the screen? Absolutely. But perhaps theres more to our fascination. Perhaps its the heros journey, with its tests and tribulations, trying our flawed heros soul to determine his ultimate fate. Perhaps its the timeless plot of good versus evil playing out, in epic and grand fashion, before our eyes. Or perhaps its the words of wisdom from the Jedi masters, words that resonate deep within uswords that ring of truth. Of all the characters we encounter, perhaps none better embodies ancient wisdom than Grand Jedi Master Yoda. Were first introduced to the emerald-green, 900-year-old Yoda in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back, the second of the original trilogy. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert said of Yoda, In his range of wisdom and emotion, Yoda may actually give the best performance in the movie. The influence Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Taoism had on George Lucas can best be seen in Yodas attempts to teach Luke Skywalker. Lucas believed there was profound wisdom in Eastern teachings, and sought to share this wisdom with his Western audience. Looking back, I have a deeper appreciation for the words Yoda has to impart. Do. Or Do Not. There is No Try Arguably the most well-known of Yodas words of wisdom, this quote has become a slogan in the self-help, motivational, and business world. It summarizes, in essence, the difference between success and failure. As Luke offers a half-hearted Ill try, during his training, Yoda corrects his thinking. Always with you what cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say? Luke bemoans that moving his starship is different, harder, than moving a small rock. No! No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try, Yoda reprimands. Its not that failure is unacceptable, but not giving our all is. The attitude of Ill try gives us an out, allowing for the possibility of failure. In effect, weve undermined our own success by making room for self-doubt. We may be conditioned to thinking this way without even realizing it. Our own experiences and notions also color our view of things, preventing us from seeing things as they really are. Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view, Yoda cautions. Becoming a Jedi master requires great effort and a solemn mind. Yoda tells Luke, A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. Once our minds are committed, there is no room for trywe know we must do. But, distractions are everywhere. Yoda says of Luke: This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing? Hmpf. Adventure, heh? Excitement, heh? A Jedi craves not these things. Being in the present is an important concept in Eastern thought. If our minds are elsewhere, looking to the future or the past, we cant give the task at hand our all. Our intentions also matter. If our starting point isnt right, and our motives are self-serving, our foundation will be unstable. Patience, focus, faiththese things are imperative, but certainly not easy. In fact, Obi-Wan warns, Your eyes can deceive you; dont trust them. It takes faith to break through the illusion created by the eyes and believe in that which we cannot see. This is why Yoda tells Luke, Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. This also serves as a reminder to look beyond the physical reality of the eyes. Of course, despite our best efforts, were bound to have failures, and they have their reasonsbut therein lie our lessons. In The Last Jedi, Yoda reminds us, The greatest teacher, failure is. Its in hardship that we can look in our hearts for the why, uncover our role in things, and improve. Ultimately, it is our thinking thats key. After Yoda uses the Force to lift Lukes starship from the murky swamp, Luke exclaims, I dont believe it! to which Yoda replies, That is why you fail. Let Go of Everything You Fear to Lose Yoda talks of fear many times, a clue that eliminating it is an important part of Jedi training. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering, Yoda tells a young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. In Buddhist thought, things such as fear, anger, lust, jealousy, wealth, and fame are attachments. Attachments are said to be the root of all suffering, and thus, must be given up. As Yoda warns, attachments are fraught with peril and lead to the dark side. Yes, a Jedis strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggressionthe dark side of the Force, are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will, as it did Obi-Wans apprentice, Yoda warns Luke. Obi-Wans apprentice was, we later learn, Anakin Skywalker. In a foreshadowing of whats to come, in the prequel Revenge of the Sith, Yoda tells Anakin, The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. Yoda warns that every fear must be relinquished, including that of deathwhether it be our own death, or that of someone we love. Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. When Anakin asks what he needs to do, Yoda replies, Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. Of course, Anakin doesnt heed Yodas words. He chooses the dark side and comes to embody evil, in the form of Darth Vader. This serves as a reminder that the dark side is always inviting us, tempting us down its bewitching path. You Will Know When You Are Calm Is the dark side stronger? Luke asks. No, Yoda assures him, but the dark side is quicker, easier, more seductive. The dark side can lure a Jedi, gradually contaminating him in ways he may not even realize, altering his thoughts and behavior. As Buddha said, What we think, we become. What were exposed to shapes our thoughts, and thus, who we are. Especially today, there are so many things wed be better off not seeing or hearing, things that blur the line between right and wrong. When Luke asks how he will know good from bad, Yoda replies: You will know when you are calm, at peace passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. This teaching would change the course of the universe, for when Luke eventually has the chance to destroy Darth Vader, he instead shows him compassion. To maintain a state of calm requires self-control. We can then come from a place of compassion, our true nature, rather than vengeance or greed. When were angry, agitated, fearful, or overly excited, we are no longer calm, and we are no longer rational. A calm state of self-control allows us to look inside, to see what is driving us, and what is truly important to us. This introspection is critical to living a complete human life. This is not possible when we are only doing what others tell us, or force us, to do. In fact, Luke never tells Darth Vader what he should do. Rather, he directs Vader to search within himself to uncover the truth, and extricate himself from the dark side. Aligning with good or evil is always a choice. It can never be forced upon another. This is the way of the Jedi, and in Eastern thought, this is the way of the Dharma. Applying It to Our Lives When we apply this wisdom to ourselves, we may find our lives transformed. Research has revealed that remaining calm has a profound effect on our biochemistry and long-term health. Yodas Eastern-inspired wisdom has the real potential to affect our mental and physical health. A clear and tranquil mind can relieve anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure, and reduce heart rate. This state of mind brings out the best in us. So how can we apply some of this wisdom? In my view, it begins with our thoughts. If our thoughts are not aligning with who we want to be, those thoughts are not us and should be ignored and eliminated. Remember, we dont have to believe everything we think. With whatever we do, we should ask ourselves some questions: Are we giving our best effort? Are our motives pure, or are we trying to benefit ourselves? Is our focus on doing the right thing? Are we operating from a place of fear or compassion? Reflecting within is important, because no matter what our justification may be, we are always responsible for our thoughts and actions. Star Wars remains a part of popular culture, despite the passage of time. Roger Ebert summed up our intrigue with Star Wars quite nicely. The characters are not themselvesthey are us We are on a quest, on a journey, on a mythological expedition. The story elements in the Star Wars trilogy are as deep and universal as storytelling itself. Watching these movies, were in a receptive state like that of a childour eyes and ears are open, were paying attention, and we are amazed. The strength of the Jedi comes from selflessness, letting go, and becoming one with all thats around them. This requires self-examination, for thats how growth and learning occur. Like the Jedi, we should make the most of each day, striving always to improve, in our quest to be our best selves. May the Force be with you! Tatiana Denning, D.O., is a preventive family medicine physician and owner of Simpura Weight Loss and Wellness. She believes in empowering her patients with the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and improve their own health through weight management, healthy habits, and disease prevention. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions On Tuesday, a grand jury declined to charge any of the seven Rochester, New York police officers involved in the brutal murder of 41-year-old Daniel Prude. Prude was in the midst of a mental episode last March when police pinned him to the ground until he stopped breathing. He died at the hospital from complications related to asphyxiation after being pulled from life support. Daniel Prude (family photo) Police were responding to a call for help from Joe Prude, Daniels older brother, who was concerned that his brother was having a mental breakdown. Footage of the incident, which police tried to withhold from the public, shows Prude standing naked and delirious in the middle of the street which was covered in melting snow. Officers pointed a taser at Prude, who was being compliant, and placed him in handcuffs. Police covered his head with a mesh hood, claiming concerns over COVID-19, after he began spitting. When he tried to stand up, police pinned him face down on the ground, pushing his head and back to the pavement. After two minutes, Prude stopped breathing. Medics were able to resuscitate him at the scene, but he died a week later. According to his family, Daniel Prude grew up in an impoverished household in Chicago, Illinois. Two of his four siblings died in tragic accidents, which deeply impacted him. In September 2018, when he was living with his sister, one of Prudes nephews died by suicide. Afterwards, he increasingly used phencyclidine, or PCP, which triggered a severe decline in his mental health. Following Prudes death, police employed a series of cover-ups and delay tactics in an attempt to whitewash their crime. A deputy police officer advised then Rochester Police Chief LaRon Singletary against releasing body camera footage of the incident. A June police report showed a note that read, Make him a suspect, referring to an effort to vilify Prude to justify the murder. An internal investigation found that Singletary and other high-ranking officers actively worked to hide and downplay Prudes murder. On September 8, Singletary, his deputy and a commander all resigned. Two other of the departments highest-ranking officials were demoted. It is worth noting that Singletary, who is black, conspired to cover up the police murder of Prude, who was also black. Such a fact should immediately discredit the routine calls for police reform, usually involving more funding for training and hiring minority officers, that follow highly publicized police murders. Yet, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren called for residents to put their faith in such reforms in the police department. New York Attorney General Letitia James has said that she will push for changes in the states use-of-force laws and training on mental health emergencies. This is wholly unconvincing. For years, reform has been the watchword of the Democratic Party regarding police violence. The function of police as guardians of capitalist property relations and social inequality is concealed, and workers are told more oversight and training will stop police brutality. However, despite years of reformsuch as the broad implementation of body cameraspolice have continued to kill people at a steady rate of three people per day. According to mappingpoliceviolence.org, police killed 1,127 people in 2020. The number of police killings has been roughly the same number of people every year going back to 2013, when the website first began collecting data. Tuesdays decision against bringing criminal charges in the Prude killing was made behind closed doors, and the public has been left in the dark as to how it was reached. Attorney General James was granted a request to release minutes related to the investigation, but even this will not tell the full story. Hours after learning of the decision, hundreds of protesters gathered at the spot where Prude encountered the police. According to a police statement, protesters marched to the Rochester Police Department headquarters, climbed over the barricades and gathered at the front door of the building. No arrests or injuries were reported. On the same day, Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against several people involved in his killing and the subsequent investigation. She filed the lawsuit exactly one year after Arberys death near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia on February 23, 2020. The suit states that Gregory and Travis McMichael, father and son, as well as William Roddie Bryan, willfully and maliciously conspired to follow, threaten, detain and kill Ahmaud Arbery. The three chased Arbery down in pickup trucks as he was jogging, claiming they suspected he was behind a string of robberies. After a short tussle, Arbery was shot twice by the younger McMichael, who carried a shotgun. The lawsuit also accuses law enforcement officials and local prosecutors of being actively involved in a cover-up of the investigation. Gregory McMichael is a former police officer and had retired as an investigator for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorneys Office in 2019. None of the three men involved in killing Arbery were arrested until video of the incident went viral in May 2020. The second prosecutor to take up the case had advised the police not to make any arrests in the case, declaring Arberys killing justifiable homicide, before recusing himself when it was revealed his son had worked in the same office as the elder McMichael. The lawsuit also states the defendants were motivated to deprive Ahmaud Arbery of equal protection of the law and his rights by racial bias, animus, discrimination. It also includes complaints of failure to prevent harm and willful misconduct. Separately, an independent investigation released Monday found that Aurora, Colorado police had no legal basis to stop, frisk and use a chokehold on 23-year-old Elijah McClain. McClain died after being restrained by police and given a sedative by paramedics in August 2019. The report stated that police accounts of what transpired do not match the evidence. It states, body worn camera audio, limited video and interviews with the officers tell two contrasting stories. The officers statements on the scene and in subsequent recorded interviews suggest a violent and relentless struggle. The report added: The limited video, and the audio from the body worn cameras, reveal Mr McClain surrounded by officers, all larger than he, crying out in pain, apologizing, explaining himself and pleading with the officers. McClain was stopped by three officers while he was one his way home from a convenience store. Police had been called about a person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms, which police said made them suspicious. McClain was listening to music, and his family explained that he wore the mask because of a medical condition. Police claimed McClain refused to stop and fought back when confronted. Body camera video showed him telling officers, Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking. One officer attempted twice to put McClain in a specialized chokehold, which pressed against his carotid artery and cut off blood to the brain. McClain was held down for 15 minutes before being given 500mg of ketamine. He suffered a cardiac arrest and was declared brain dead on August 27. He died three days later. The report said department investigators, who questioned the officers involved, failed to ask basic, critical questions to determine if their use of force was legal. The report concludes with a recommendation that Aurora police conduct internal reviews. YAKUTSK, Russia -- A shaman in the Siberian region of Yakutia, who has had several attempts to march to Moscow on foot "to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin" stopped by the authorities, has been accused of attacking a police officer. Aleksei Pryanishnikov, legal coordinator for the opposition group Open Russia, said on February 24 that police in Yakutia's capital, Yakutsk, had launched a probe against Aleksandr Gabyshev, accusing him of a "violent act against a police officer" when he was forcibly taken from his home to a psychiatric clinic in late January. No further details were immediately available. Police took Gabyshev to a psychiatric clinic on January 27, less than three weeks after the shaman had announced his plan to resume his trek to the Russian capital to drive Putin out of the Kremlin. Gabyshev first made headlines in March 2019, when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he had started a march to Moscow to drive the Russian president out of office. He then walked more than 2,000 kilometers, speaking with hundreds of Russians along the way. As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views. In July that year, when Gabyshev reached the city of Chita, he led a 700-strong rally under the slogan "Russia without Putin!" At the time, Gabyshev said, "God told me that Putin is not human but a demon, and has ordered me to drive him out." His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia later in September and placed in psychiatric clinic in Yakutia against his will. His forced stay in a clinic was equated by many with a Soviet-time practice to muzzle dissent. Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were harshly repressed. But in isolated parts of Siberia, they are now regaining prominence. With reporting by MBKh Media Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 25 : No doubt, E.Sreedharan popularly known as the Metroman has enjoyed a cult image not only in Kerala, but across the country for his work. He has earned respect cutting across political lines. However, things took a nose-dive from the moment state BJP president K.Surendran, last week broke the news that the 88-year-old will not only join the BJP, but also contest the upcoming assembly polls. Elattuvalapil Sreedharan is credited with changing the face of public transport in India with his leadership in building the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro while he served as the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Later he helmed several other metro projects in key cities. After Surendran played to the gallery, all were waiting for the hugely popular engineer for a confirmation or not, and the moment he came out with the "yes" for BJP, many responded with shock. On Thursday morning, a police official attached to the Ponnani Police station, in Sreedharan's home town in Malappuram, told IANS that quite a few complaints have started coming over phone against Sreedharan for his statement that came in an English TV news channel. "Till now we have received oral complaints against Sreedharan. The police will look into it and do according to the rules. So one will have to wait on what happens to these oral complaints," said the police official who did not wish to be identified. These oral complaints have come following his statement about Love Jihad- (on how a number of Hindu and Christian women were victims of Love Jihad) and that he does not like people who eat beef. There has been a sharp spike in anti-Sreedharan posts on social media following his political decision. Both the CPI-M-led Left and the Congress-led UDF have expressed surprise at his decision Now all eyes are on Sreedharan when he will be officially given the BJP membership when the statewide yatra led by Surendran reaches Malappurram district. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text NASA has revealed a stunning photo of Venus taken by its Parker Solar Probe from 7,693 miles away. The image, taken July 11 last year, is an almost eerie black and white shot of the planet's nightside the side facing away from the Sun. A bright rim around the edge of the planet is the nightglow light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules. NASA's $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe which is focused on studying the Sun and represents humanity's first visit to a star launched in August 2018. Venus plays a massive role in Parker's seven-year mission, however, as it leverages the planet's gravitational pull during multiple fly-bys. This new image snapped in July was taken during the third of seven Venus fly-bys scheduled throughout Parker's mission. NASA's Parker Solar Probe had a up-close view of Venus when it flew by the planet in July 2020. Some of the features seen by scientists are labelled in this annotated image. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artefact from the WISPR instrument PARKER SOLAR PROBE MISSION OBJECTIVES Parker Solar Probe has three detailed science objectives: - Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind. - Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind. - Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles. Advertisement Parker successfully completed its fourth Venus fly-by just last Saturday (February 20). This new image from July was taken by the spacecraft's WISPR instrument Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe. WISPR is designed to take images of the solar corona and inner heliosphere in visible light, as well as images of the solar wind and its structures as they approach and fly by the spacecraft. The prominent dark feature in the centre of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the planet's surface. The feature appears dark because of its lower temperature, about 85F (30C) cooler than its surroundings. That aspect of the image took the team by surprise, according to Angelos Vourlidas, WISPR project scientist from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. 'WISPR is tailored and tested for visible light observations we expected to see clouds, but the camera peered right through to the surface,' Vourlidas said. Though Parker Solar Probe's focus is the Sun, Venus plays a critical role in the mission. The spacecraft whips by Venus a total of seven times over the course of its seven-year mission. Pictured, artist's impression of Parker and the Sun This surprising observation sent the WISPR team back to the lab to measure the instrument's sensitivity to infrared light. If WISPR can indeed pick up near-infrared wavelengths of light, it would provide new opportunities to study dust around the Sun and in the inner solar system. If it can't pick up extra infrared wavelengths, then these images showing signatures of features on Venus' surface may have revealed a previously unknown 'window' through the Venusian atmosphere. 'Either way, some exciting science opportunities await us,' said Vourlidas. Parker's primary science goals are to trace the flow of energy and understand the heating of the solar corona the outermost layer of the Sun and to explore what accelerates the solar wind. Though Parker's focus is the Sun, Venus is playing a critical role in its seven-year mission, which is set to run until 2025. The spacecraft will whip by Venus a total of seven times, using the planet's gravity to bend the spacecraft's orbit and reduce its orbital energy. These Venus gravity assists allow Parker to fly closer and closer to the Sun on its mission to study the dynamics of the solar wind close to its source. In its seven-year run, Parker is making up to 24 close approaches to the Sun (known as a perihelion), with each one closer than the last (its seven approaches of Venus, meanwhile, vary and don't necessarily get closer each time). At closest approach, Parker will be hurtling around the Sun at approximately 430,000 miles per hour fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in a single second. Parker launched on August 12, 2018 and is using Venus's gravity to bend its orbit. These gravity assists allow Parker to fly closer and closer to the Sun. Each new close approach is called a perihelion. Its first Venus flyby was on October 3, 2018 and the first perihelion came on November 6, 2018 (03:27 UTC), about 35.7 Rs from the Sun. Rs stands for solar radius. 1 Rs is the distance from the centre of the Sun to its surface (about 432,000 miles or 696,000 kilometres) PARKER'S VENUS FLY-BYS 1. October 3, 2018 Altitude from Venus: 1,509 miles (2,429 km) 2. December 26, 2018 Altitude: 1,867 miles (3,005 km) 3. July 11, 2020 Altitude: 517 miles (833 km) 4. February 20, 2021 Altitude: 1,482 miles (2,386 km) 5. October 16, 2021 Altitude: 2,370 miles (3,815 km) 6. August 21, 2023 Altitude: 2,487 miles (4,003 km) 7. November 6, 2024 Altitude: 234 miles (378 km) Stats provided in km by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Advertisement It will swoop as close as 3.83 million miles to the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation 'like no spacecraft before it', NASA says. This is well within the orbit of Mercury and about seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before. Parker makes use of a heat shield known as the Thermal Protection System, which is 8 feet in diameter and 4.5 inches thick. At closest approach to the Sun, while the front of Parker Solar Probe' solar shield faces temperatures approaching 2,600F (1,400C), the spacecraft's payload will be near room temperature, at about 85F. The WISPR team captured more observations of Venus's nightside during Parker's latest Venus flyby just five days ago. At just after 20:05 GMT on Saturday, Parker passed 1,482 miles (2,385 km) above the surface as it curved around the planet, moving about 15 miles (nearly 25 km) per second. Mission team scientists expect to receive and process that data for analysis by the end of April. 'We are really looking forward to these new images,' said planetary scientist Javier Peralta, who works on Akatsuki, the Japanese space probe that's studying the atmosphere of Venus. 'If WISPR can sense the thermal emission from the surface of Venus and nightglow most likely from oxygen at the limb of the planet, it can make valuable contributions to studies of the Venusian surface.' The fourth Venus gravity assist at the weekend sets Parker up for its eighth and ninth perihelion, slated for April 29 and August 9. During each of those passes, Parker will break its own record when it comes approximately 6.5 million miles from the solar surface, about 1.9 million miles closer than the previous perihelion of 8.4 million miles on January 17. Parker launched on August 12, 2018 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and just 78 days later became the closest ever artificial object to the Sun, breaking the record set in April 1976 by the Helios 2 spacecraft (a joint venture of West Germany and NASA). The mission is named for Eugene Parker, an American solar astrophysicist at the University of Chicago the first NASA mission named after a living individual. In the 1950s, Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars including our Sun give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With inventory constraints continuing to hold back prospective buyers, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Thursday showing a steep drop in U.S. pending home sales in the month of January. NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 2.8 percent to 122.8 in January after rising by 0.5 percent to an upwardly revised 126.4 in December. Economists had expected pending home sales to come in unchanged compared to the 0.3 percent dip originally reported for the previous month. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale. 'Pending home sales fell in January because there are simply not enough homes to match the demand on the market,' said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. 'That said, there has been an increase in permits and requests to build new homes.' Yun said eight straight monthly increases in permits for single-family homes is a good sign the supply and demand imbalance in the residential real estate market could be easing, as soon as mid-2021. 'There will also be a natural seasonal upswing in inventory in spring and summer after few new listings during the winter months,' he added. 'These trends, along with an anticipated ramp-up in home construction will provide for much-needed supply.' The sharp drop in pending home sales in January reflected substantial decreases in pending sales in the West and Northeast, which plunged by 7.8 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. Pending home sales in the Midwest also fell by 0.9 percent, while pending home sales in the South inched up by 0.1 percent. Data released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed a much bigger than expected jump in new home sales in the U.S. in the month of January. The Commerce Department said new home sales spiked by 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 923,000 in January after soaring by 5.5 percent to a revised rate of 885,000 in December. Economists had expected new home sales to surge up by 1.5 percent to a rate of 855,000 from the 842,000 originally reported for the previous month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de 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. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. A detailed analysis report of the Global Computational Creativity Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments. The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities. The report classifies the market into different segments based on deployment, operating system and application. These segments are studied in detail incorporating the market estimates and forecasts at regional and country level. The segment analysis is useful in understanding the growth areas and probable opportunities of the market. Final Report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry. Browse the complete Global Computational Creativity Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2027 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/53078-computational-creativity-market-report The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the global Computational Creativity market with company profiles of key players such as: Adobe Amazon, Inc. Autodesk, Inc. Canva Google LLC IBM Microsoft Prisma Labs, Inc. Runway AI, Inc. WaveAI Inc. A detailed description of each has been included, with information in terms of H.Q, future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other latest industrial developments. SEGMENTATIONS IN THE REPORT: By Deployment On-Premises Cloud-Based By Operating System Linux macOS Microsoft Windows By Application Marketing And Web Designing Product Designing Music Composition Photography & Videography Automated Story Generation By Geography: North America (NA) US, Canada, and Mexico Europe (EU) UK, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Spain & Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific (APAC) China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia & Rest of APAC Latin America (LA) Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile & Rest of Latin America Middle East and Africa (MEA) Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, South Africa Download Free Sample Report of Global Computational Creativity Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-53078 The Global Computational Creativity Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters Chapter 1 Computational Creativity Market Preface Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Computational Creativity Industry Analysis Chapter 4 Computational Creativity Market Value Chain Analysis Chapter 5 Computational Creativity Market Analysis By Deployment Chapter 6 Computational Creativity Market Analysis By Operating System Chapter 7 Computational Creativity Market Analysis By Application Chapter 8 Computational Creativity Market Analysis By Geography Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape Of Computational Creativity Companies Chapter 10 Company Profiles Of Computational Creativity Industry Purchase the complete Global Computational Creativity Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-53078 Other Reports by DecisionDatabases.com: Global Computer Case Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2027 Global Computer On Module (COM) Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 About-Us: DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains. Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed. For more details: DecisionDatabases.com E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com Phone: +91 9028057900 Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ Source:-https://www.industrynewsengine.com/2020/11/23/computational-creativity-market-2020-covid-19-impact-analysis-report-2027/ More than 50 Texas telephone companies and co-ops have sued the states Public Utilities Commission for reductions it made in payments from a fund meant to guarantee phone service to rural residents. The lawsuit alleges the Texas Universal Service Fund shrank as a result of PUC inaction, leading to a 70 percent cut in payments to phone service providers. Since 1987, the fund has subsidized carriers to offset high costs of providing phone service to rural areas that account for 55 percent of Texas land mass, an area larger than Montana. Currently, the fund doesnt subsidize broadband service. The legal dust-up is more than a spat over a fund based on 34-year-old legislation. Its part of a protracted battle between landline and wireless telephone companies, a sign of how technology is changing how people communicate and how laws struggle to keep up. The debate is also exposing the digital divide the gulf between those who have internet connectivity and those who dont that exists throughout the state. Many rural residents depend on their telephone lines to access the internet, but traditional copper lines have limited bandwidth. And according to the Federal Communications Commission, high-speed internet access, or broadband, is critical to economic opportunity, job creation, education and civic engagement. The TUSFs money comes from a 3.3 percent fee on telecoms intrastate telephone revenue. Starting in 2019, the fund began shrinking at an alarming rate. On ExpressNews.com: Weather disrupting San Antonio internet, cellphone, cable services Between 2018 and 2019, the TUSF saw a $1 billion drop in revenue from which it could extract the 3.3 percent fee, said then-PUC chief operating officer Thomas Gleeson in September testimony to the Texas Legislatures House State Affairs Committee. Gleeson became the PUCs executive director in December. In November, the fund had $51 million, down more than 70 percent from $188 million three years earlier. The TUSF has contracted an average of 20 percent every quarter for the last six quarters. The primary cause was related to billing changes made by many of the wireless (cellular phone) companies, he said. They began allocating a larger proportion of the customers bills to data and away from voice services. And the statute only allows the TUSF assessment to be put onto the voice services. So if someone received a $100 bill and $50 went to data and $50 went to voice, the TUSF could assess 3.3 percent of the $50 for the voice portion. If the same $100 bill shifted to $90 data and $10 voice, then the TUSF fee shrinks significantly. Gleeson also said the state is losing landlines at a rate of three-quarters of 1 percent each month, which is also contributing to the funds declining revenue. According to the FCCs most recent voice telephone service report, Texas landline connections decreased from 3.2 to 2.9 million between 2017 and 2018. The 3.3 percent fee works out to an average of 50 cents on monthly phone bills, said Mark Seale, executive director of the Texas Telephone Association, the industry advocacy group leading the lawsuit. In 2020, PUC staff recommended increasing the rate to 6.4 and then 8 percent to help the fund survive through August 2021, said Gleeson. But despite adjusting the fee rate seven times between 2004 and 2014, the PUC did not raise the rate at the end of 2020 as they had discussed, according to the lawsuit. On ExpressNews.com: Accelerator: NASAs Perseverance lands, San Antonio hypersonics lab rises The PUC knew about the impending funding shortfall for over a year but did nothing to address it even when its own staff recommended immediate action, Seale said. This is the first time in history that the PUC has chosen not to meet legislatively mandated funding obligations. Because of dwindling revenue, the PUC reprioritized how it would pay out the various programs under the TUSF, and the high-cost programs that account for 80 percent of the funds payments took the hit, according to Gleeson. These include the TUSFs programs that subsidize landlines for rural areas. The TUSFs social programs account for 20 percent of the funds payments, including money to help low-income residents pay for telephone service and to support speech- and hearing-impaired phone customers. The PUC has not cut these programs, according to Gleeson. The result of this policy shift is an immediate, drastic cut in funding of the high-cost programs that rural providers rely upon most to keep all Texans connected, the lawsuit states. Thats about $10 million in collective losses anticipated every month that began in January. The Texas Telephone Association filed the lawsuit Jan. 20 in the Travis County District Court. While rural providers will strive to maintain uninterrupted telecommunications service to consumers, it is hard to guess at the ultimate impacts of the severe, growing shortfall of revenues, Seale said. The PUCs inaction could affect investment in new infrastructure, payrolls, network maintenance or other issues and could force rate increases to rural customers. The changes, he said, could increase service times and decrease quality of service for up to 3 million customers across the state. Before his election as Texas House speaker, Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) chaired the House State Affairs Committees, which held a hearing on the dwindling fund in September. The TUSF is one of those legacy funds thats been around a very long time and served a tremendous purpose, but as you get into the digital age and discuss other options rural broadband and broadband in general COVID really shined a huge light on the digital divide in Texas, Phelan said during the hearing. Obviously, in rural Texas versus urban and suburban Texas, I can make an argument that theres still a divide even in the urban areas where individuals just do not have access to internet because of their own personal situation. The PUC declined to comment, citing the litigation. A hearing in the case is scheduled for March 29. Local cuts Guadalupe Valley Telephone Cooperative, or GVTC, is one of the San Antonio-area carriers that benefit from the TUSF. The company serves communities around Boerne, Bulverde, Blanco, New Braunfels and Gonzales. Its seen a decrease in payments from the fund, and the number appears to be trending downward, said GVTC spokesperson John Hill. Obviously, anything of this magnitude would have massive impacts on any business, Hill said. Its hard to know the specific impacts, until we have an understanding of how long this may continue and total amounts. From September to November, the company received $229,648 each month from the TUSFs small and rural incumbent local exchange carrier support program. However, according to numbers provided by the Texas Telephone Association, GVTC has only received $63,555 each month since then, a decrease of $166,093 in monthly revenue. Bruce Forey, founder of BroadMax Group, an internet consulting company, said problems with the TUSF are nothing new or surprising, and carriers are used to dealing with decreases in their allotments. I think the extent of the cut caught everybody off guard, he said. I think the PUC and the Texas legislators need to rethink how to source the Texas Universal Service Fund. He said one idea is to change the law so the fund can assess fees on broadband and wireless data in addition to only traditional telephone hookups. Broadband customers are growing in market share and Texas telephone customers are declining, he added. Selling broadband services would give telephone companies a large base of customers because 2 million Texans mostly in rural areas dont have broadband connections. Why not help these telephone operators reinvent their business and help them become broadband providers instead of telephone providers? he said. To set them up for a growing business versus a business thats struggling to survive. Brandon Lingle writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. brandon.lingle@express-news.net In a nutshell: Fate seems to have it out for CD Projekt Red. After Cyberpunk 2077's very rocky launch, the studio discovered a serious mod vulnerability. Just days later, it was hit by a ransomware attack. Now, it cannot get out fixes of any kind because employees can't access their tools through the studio's VPN due to the attack. On Wednesday, CD Projekt Red announced it needs more time to finish the Cyberpunk 1.2 patch. Version 1.2 is the second of two major updates that CDPR outlined in its plan to fix all that went wrong with its dystopian opus. The patch was due out this month, but the team said it needs until the second half of March to complete the work, citing a recent cyber attack as the cause. Our goal for Patch 1.2 goes beyond any of our previous updates. Weve been working on numerous overall quality improvements and fixes, and we still have work to do to make sure thats what you get. With that in mind, were now aiming for release in the second half of March. 2/3 Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 24, 2021 Earlier this month, hackers hit CDPR with a ransomware attack and made off with source code for The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Gwent. The studio decided it would not be negotiating with the pirates, who subsequently sold that data. However, that did not end CDPR's woes over the incident. On Thursday, employees with the Warsaw-based developer told Bloomberg that most of them work from home and cannot access their workstations through the company's VPN due to CDPR isolating the network from the internet. The studio also asked its developers to ship their home computers to its IT department to be scanned for malware, causing further delay. The employees, who requested to remain anonymous, said they are also dealing with potential identity theft situations. Along with the stolen source code, the insiders claim the hackers accessed the staff's personal information, including Polish identification numbers and passport details. Management instructed personnel to freeze their accounts and notify relevant parties of the security breach. On January 14, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted notice to the Federal Register that it would issue practice guidelines that exempt physicians from the requirement to apply for a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) in up to 30 patients at one time. This exemption has been placed on hold by the Biden administration and may require legislative change to implement. An exemption to the X-waiver has the potential to help reverse the morbidity and mortality associated with the opioid overdose epidemic, although without accompanying changes and attention it will not be enough. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid overdose epidemic fueled by high-potency synthetic opioids have led to increased overdoses. However, national and state leadership, health professions schools, and health care systems in the US have not responded sufficiently. More than 83,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in the US in a 1-year period ending in June 2020, the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and an increase of more than 21% compared with the previous year.2 Nationally, 67% of opioid overdose deaths involved fentanyl in 2018 and drug overdoses increased most among non-Hispanic Black individuals. Despite these devastating losses, access to evidence-based care to prevent opioid overdose and treat OUD remains highly regulated, restricted, and very limited, particularly among Black individuals with OUD and in rural communities. It is estimated that only 18% of individuals with OUD in the US receive highly effective medications, such as buprenorphine or methadone, to treat OUD.3 For many, the COVID-19 pandemic has further limited access to medications for OUD (MOUD). Unlike other medical conditions, treatment of OUD has substantial and unique restrictions imposed by US federal and state laws. Such restrictions do not facilitate access to care; on the contrary, they impede it. Methadone for OUD must be administered or dispensed by an accredited, registered, and certified opioid treatment program. The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000) requires that prescribers of buprenorphine apply for a waiver (ie, X-waiver) to prescribe once certain educational and practice requirements have been met. However, this restriction has outlived any usefulness. Although appropriate training is essential to care for any disease, federal law does not require such training or registration to prescribe for other diseases (and more specifically, not for prescribing opioids for other indications such as pain). However, health professions schools are mandated by entities such as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to provide training to treat most other diseases. As of 2018, only 1 of 191 medical schools provided training to their students that was sufficient to meet the DATA 2000 training requirement. Additionally, neither AAMC nor the ACGME require competency in OUD evaluation and treatment in medical education. Together, the absence of health professions school and graduate education; prescribing restrictions; stigma and misinformation among patients, families, and health care professionals; archaic payment structures and systems that emphasize acute care models over long-term treatment; care largely separate and uncoordinated from the rest of health care; and lack of support for patients' psychosocial needs have impeded the large expansion of MOUD treatment that is required to meet the need. In an effort to address the vast need for MOUD treatment accessibility in the US, the HHS exemption proposed changes as follows. Physicians would need to place an "X" on the prescription, note that the prescription is to treat OUD, maintain separate records for such patients, prescribe to patients in the state in which they practice, and limit prescribing to no more than 30 patients at one time.1 Physicians who want to treat more than 30 individuals with OUD would need to seek additional training through the current 8-hour DATA 2000 mechanism. Notably, these guidelines do not apply to the large workforce of advanced practice clinicians who remain mandated to complete 24 hours of training to prescribe buprenorphine. Relaxing restrictions on physician prescribing does have the potential to expand access to treatment and reduce opioid overdose deaths as it has in other countries. For example, in France, buprenorphine became available in 1995 and an estimated 3% of patients with OUD were treated that year with MOUD; by 2006, 67% of the 180?000 people with OUD were treated with methadone (n?=?26?000) or buprenorphine (n?=?95?000) in a setting with relaxed MOUD regulations.4 Rates of prescribing continue to be high, although over time, initiation of prescribing has shifted somewhat from primary care to specialized addiction treatment centers. While there are some cautionary tales from the rapid expansion of buprenorphine prescribing in France, such as subtherapeutic buprenorphine dosing, it has been estimated that a similar increase in prescribing in the US that occurred in France could have potentially led to an estimated 37?000 fewer deaths in 2018 alone if it were used appropriately, adherence was high, and the same conditions were being treated in the US as in France.4 Inaction is not an option when 40% of counties in the US do not have a single prescriber of MOUD.5 The proposed 2021 HHS guidelines represented progress toward MOUD expansion; however, they were far from enough to address the opioid overdose crisis. The US needs to normalize the treatment of OUD among health care professionals and individuals with OUD. Practicing health care professionals should be encouraged and incentivized to prescribe and obtain any needed training or support. OUD identification, evaluation, and treatment education should be integrated in all health care professions schools and should be implemented throughout all health care systems. It is also important to emphasize that medical management of OUD is effective, that buprenorphine alone at therapeutic doses can improve outcomes and prevent overdose,6 and that detoxification alone is insufficient to prevent overdose and treat OUD. Buprenorphine prescribing by trained health care professionals can promote high-quality care and the new exemption could increase that prescribing. However, much more will need to be done. These additional steps include eliminating limits on the number of patients who could be treated by individual clinicians. One estimate suggests that by eliminating patient limits, the US could potentially treat nearly 800?000 additional individuals with OUD.7 Further needed actions include allowing prescribing by advanced practice clinicians; advocating for addiction training efforts at health professions schools, postgraduate programs, and as part of continuing education to make up for previously absent training; allowing office-based methadone treatment to ensure expansion to all types of MOUD; enforcing parity of benefits and insurance coverage for treatment; and addressing the stigma of addiction and addiction treatment. The effects of regulatory changes should be studied after implementation. Recommendations to Help Ensure Access to High-Quality Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Pass federal legislation to ensure lasting changes on a national scale Eliminate buprenorphine patient limits and Drug Enforcement Administration audits that discourage prescribing; include advanced practice clinician prescribers in any legislative change; and remove restrictions on methadone prescribing and dispensing outside opioid treatment programs Improve and provide training for prescribers and health professional teams at all levels Incentivize training and offset clinician training time; provide a menu of training options appropriate to the needs of the clinician; integrate substantial training into specialty-specific health professions schools, postgraduate programs, continuing education, and maintenance of certification; include patient perspectives in all training; and provide experiential learning, such as apprenticeship models (eg, with mentors), in practice Expand access to all forms of OUD treatment shown to have efficacy Increase access to strategies that reduce consequences of drug use ("harm reduction"); increase access to methadone treatment (eg, via primary care clinicians and pharmacies); and increase access to all treatment options (beyond specialty treatment programs) including medications Address stigma and include patients receiving medications for OUD (MOUD) in educational campaigns Enforce Parity (Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act) to ensure equitable coverage and reimbursement for addiction and behavioral health treatments Ensure equitable access to MOUD in all treatment settings Study the effects of regulatory changes after implementation Comprehensive treatment for OUD, including medical, psychiatric, and social services, can and should be provided by experienced clinicians and should be expanded, but MOUD urgently needs to be more accessible. The proposed HHS exemption would offer progress toward achieving that goal even though it was not, as written, a panacea. Improving access while ensuring high-quality care for individuals with OUD to sustain lasting reductions in opioid overdose deaths will require implementing these guidelines and additional strategies, many of which have been suggested for decades. As the new administration considers how to move forward, enacting an improved version of these guidelines and durable legislative changes to ensure access to high-quality MOUD offers a possibility to meaningfully address the overdose crisis. ### NEW DELHI: All commercial markets across the country will remain closed across the country on 26 February in view of the Bharat Bandh called by the traders' body in protest against GST, fuel price hike, E-Way Bill. The Indian traders' body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has announced that all commercial markets across the country will remain closed on February 26. Traders across the country are demanding a review of the provisions of the goods and services tax (GST) regime. According to the CAIT, the traders will stage dharnas (protests) at as many as 1,500 places across the nation on February 26, demanding the Centre, state governments and the GST Council to keep in abeyance the "draconian" provisions of GST. The CAIT also called for a review of the GST system and its tax slabs to simplify and rationalise it for easier compliance by traders. CAIT Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal said it is also talking to the government on this issue, adding that All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) will also support CAIT's Bharat Bandh call and hold a 'Chakka Jam' on February 26. Addressing a press conference on Thursday, he said, "All commercial markets across the country will remain closed and protest dharnas will be organised in different cities of all states," adding that along with CAIT, over 40,000 traders' associations across the country will support the Bandh. Khandelwal observed that voluntary compliance is the key to a successful GST regime, as it will encourage more people to join the indirect tax system, increase tax base and boost revenue. According to reports, over 40,000 traders' associations across the country will support the Bandh. All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA) will also support CAIT's Bharat Bandh call and hold a 'Chakka Jam' on February 26. Nearly 40, 000 trade associations, who represent eight crore traders of the country, has extended support to the Bharat Bandh call given by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on February 26. The AITWA has also urged the government to abolish E-Way Bill and track vehicles by using Fast-Tag connectivity to E-Invoice and to scrap the penalty on transporters for any time-based compliance target of transit and make diesel prices uniform across the country. Almost 950 amendments have been made so far to GST rules in the past four years, he said, adding that the issues related to glitches in the GST portal and the continuous increase in compliance burden are the major lacunae in the tax regime. Live TV 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. New Delhi: The multinational e-retailer Amazon has stopped selling of toilet paper which had the United States Donald Trump's old and contentious tweet printed on it. The retailers describe the toilet paper as 'A collection of ten of Donald Trump's most controversial tweets' printed throughout a roll of 2-ply toilet paper. A single roll was available for $9.99. While the product may have been removed after complaints, the International Business times reports that the Supplier had sent a tweet to say that they had sold out of the product. We sold out this morning, but a new shipment was already on its way to Amazon and should be available in a few days.https://t.co/5nDZPQtO5h pic.twitter.com/9h7wT68Ugp Toilet Tweets (@ToiletTweeet) August 4, 2017 Among the classic tweets were some memorable messages from the years before Trump was elected as U.S. president. Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2013 One of the more notable tweets from 2014 asked if you are allowed to impeach a president for gross incompetence. Are you allowed to impeach a president for gross incompetence? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2014 Recently trump has criticized Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. It was while Trump was accusing the Washington Post, also owned by Jeff Bezos, of publishing "fake news" that he said Bezos was using the newspaper to protect Amazon from paying higher taxes. Also Read: Donald Trump will no longer tolerate Pakistan's support to militants For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The UAE Cabinet, chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has approved the establishment of the Executive Office of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). The Executive Office will oversee the implementation of the UAEs National AML/CFT Strategy and National Action Plan (NAP), the programme of reforms designed to strengthen the UAEs anti-financial crime system, reported state news agency WAM. Hamid Al Zaabi has been officially appointed as the Director-General of the Executive Office of the UAE, which will report directly to the Higher Committee overseeing the UAEs National AML/CFT Strategy, chaired by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Following the decision of his appointment, Al Zaabi stated: "In light of the vision of the UAEs leadership, and the guidance of the Chair of the Higher Committee overseeing the UAEs National AML/CFT Strategy, the UAE takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously. The scale and complexity of financial crime has increased. So too has the UAEs awareness and understanding of it. That is why the UAE is committed to taking action." The Executive Office will strengthen the UAEs domestic defences against money laundering and terrorist financing while enabling effective enforcement, he added. "The Executive Office is a reflection of the high-level political commitment to establishing and operating a sophisticated financial crime compliance system across all UAE entities, he added. The Executive Office will work as the primary national coordinating body on AML/CFT efforts within the UAE, holding a wide-ranging mandate to assist UAE AML/CFT related entities in enhancing efficiency to better address the countrys National Action Plan (NAP). Its overarching objective is to enable and better equip the UAE in building a strong and sustainable AML/CFT structure in the country. The Executive Offices responsibilities include; improving national and international coordination and cooperation on AML/CFT issues at the policy and operational levels; tackling money laundering and terrorist financing threats by working with regional and international groups, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council Working Group on AMLCFT, G20, and the Financial Action Task Force. This will be done in conjunction with the National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organisations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC). The office will also actively increase information sharing between law enforcement agencies, supervisors, and the private sector; explore and enhance legislation, in coordination with MoFAIC and relevant UAE entities, to further strengthen the UAEs current AML/CFT framework; and coordinate with MoFAIC in ensuring that progress is accurately articulated and reflected to the Higher Committee on AML/CFT under the mandate of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed. There are jobs available in the Hazleton area and there are educational opportunities to train people for these jobs. But students and parents dont know about these opportunities, so a new program is being set up to tell them. A Greater Hazleton Red Carpet forum was held Wednesday on Zoom, detailing a workforce study done by the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development at Wilkes University, a partnership of 13 higher education institutions in Northeast Pennsylvania and the business community. Terri Ooms, the institutes executive director, said there is a disconnect of information across Pennsylvania, which she said is a barrier for students getting family sustaining jobs, and finding the right fit for them essentially in a professional career. Students and parents need more information on available career opportunities about post-secondary education and training, and financial assistance, she said. There needs to be more interaction between businesses and schools in an effort to help educate students. On top of that, the workforce is beginning to suffer from replacement demand, where people retiring are not being replaced by new workers at the rate they are retiring. As we look at workforce development for our future, it is extremely critical that all sectors work hard together to retain workers and to attract new workers to the region, Ooms said. It is a community problem, and everybody has to work together, Ooms said. We need to work together to address gaps in soft skills, communication skills, to increase the awareness and availability of career opportunities, technical training, certification and other post-secondary opportunities, she said. Ooms said there needs to be a central repository or point of contact to connect employers with students. There has to be an ongoing collaboration between businesses, community groups and schools to ensure not only information is shared, but also the curriculum design is in line with what business needs, Ooms said. The central repository Jocelyn Sterenchock, economic development director for CAN DO, said there is an answer to a central repository. That central repository is a new marketing campaign called, Hazleton Works. Learn Here. Earn Here. Students dont realize they have access to information, Sterenchock said. The program has been devised by Posture Interactive, a firm that specializes in home-brewed web development. The marketing campaign consists of graphic design, video content and a website where there will be a central repository of information, said Joey Zarcone, Posture Internationals marketing director. All the opportunities you need are in the Hazleton area, Zarcone said. You can get the training you need here, you can get the job here, and you can have a wonderful life here. Its that awareness that people dont know that we really need to get out there. It will bring all of the resources together into one centralized place. The campaign will be marketed via billboards and video that can be used online and in TV commercials, Zarcone said. Kathryn Bondi, Posture Interactives digital design manager, said the campaign will tell the stories of real people along the entire employment spectrum those who are returning to work, those that are still high school students not sure of their next step, and the parent or adult re-entering the workforce. The campaign will be bilingual. Sterenchock said the website will not be launched until mid-March. Sterenchock said she is looking for businesses who will allow the team to come in and gather content for the website, including taking photos. The study Ooms said the study consisted of in-person, online and telephone interviews of business, education and community leaders. One question asked the business community to identify the most difficult job to fill by job title. The primary sectors found were manufacturing, educational services and construction. The survey also asked businesses to identify starting wages, which ranged $13.75 to $29.75 per hour, an average of $17.70. Transportation, warehousing and manufacturing are the top three, respectively, in job opportunities in the Hazleton area, Ooms said. Local businesses and industry want basic computer skills, and people who are both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking. For soft skills, there is a significant demand for employability skills work ethic, hard work, being a cooperative team player, and also a demand for strong communication skills both written and verbal, Ooms said. Employee referrals is the primary method for job recruiting, followed by online advertising, Ooms said. Collaboration with schools has been a problem. There hasnt been a lot of that in the past, she said. In discussions with business leaders, theyve all indicated there is a renewed interest because they realize a tool like this will help them with recruitment. They are concerned with how to go about the process, and they are also concerned about the internship and apprentice programs. The study also showed students or potential students are challenged by financial resources, transportation and language barriers. There is a need for community organizations assistance to schools generated to help intervene help faculty and parents to help educate students, she said. One of the community organizations that can help and was a partner in the study is Partners in Education. PIE works with business and community partners to bridge the gap between school and the workplace, help the future workforce explore careers for valuable jobs skills and make meaningful professional connections with the ultimate goal of continuing to feed that pipeline of individuals to stay, work and grow in our community, executive director Cathy Colangelo said. NEW YORK - The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has taken possession of former president Donald Trump's tax returns and a wealth of other financial data, officials said Thursday, records deemed central to prosecutors' sprawling criminal investigation into Trump's business activities. The transfer, involving millions of pages of documents spanning eight years, occurred within hours of this week's Supreme Court order rejecting Trump's last-ditch bid to shield the information. In a statement, a spokesman for the district attorney's office confirmed that Trump's longtime accounting firm, Mazars, had complied with its subpoena after 18 months of delay while the former president challenged the matter in court. A team of analysts working for District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., including experts from an outside forensics accounting firm, have been at the ready for months to dissect the records and scour for any evidence of criminal activity at the Trump Organization or by its executive employees. That group includes Trump, three of his adult children - Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump - and Allen Weisselberg, the company's longtime chief financial officer. Investigators are examining whether the values of certain properties in the Trump Organization's portfolio were manipulated to gain tax advantages or favorable loans and insurance rates under false pretenses. They have asked specifically about the company's methods of valuing its Manhattan assets for purposes of seeking loans, said two people familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their knowledge of the investigation. The Trump Organization did not respond to requests to comment. There appears to be some overlap between Vance's probe and a separate but similar civil inquiry by New York Attorney General Letitia James. James, a Democrat like Vance, also is investigating Trump's financial practices, telling the New York Times recently that her team is focused on whether Trump and his company "inflated their taxes for the purposes of gaining benefits" from insurance and mortgage companies "then deflated their very same assets for the purposes of evading tax liability in New York state." She has expressed interest in Trump's property at 40 Wall Street, an office building in New York's financial district, among others, according to public disclosures that were part of a recent lawsuit. Vance is said to be interested in multiple properties as well, including the namesake Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. The New York City Tax Commission, which hears appeals from owners who feel the city has overvalued their property, also has received a subpoena from Vance's office, according to city spokeswoman Laura Feyer. That subpoena was first reported by Reuters. In some cases, owners will contest their property's valuation by providing data about the rental income it generates. Such moves are intended to demonstrate that the income is less than what the city believes. Feyer declined to say which Trump properties are identified in the subpoena. Tax commission records show that, in recent years, Trump's company has applied to reduce its tax valuations at Trump Tower, the Trump Palace and Trump World Tower condo buildings. Before he was elected president, Trump worked with Ladder Capital Finance to refinance debts on his New York real estate. The mortgage lender provided Trump's business with loans when almost no other would. According to city property records, the deals included a $100 million refinancing of Trump Tower, $160 million for the office building at 40 Wall Street and $15 million for the Trump Plaza condo building. Unlike Deutsche Bank, Trump's primary lender, Ladder quickly sold the loans on securities markets. It's unclear precisely why Vance is interested in the buildings. Jack Weisselberg, whose father is the Trump Organization's longtime finance chief, is an executive at Ladder Capital. Multiple banking experts, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preserve industry relationships, said they did not believe Jack Weisselberg had the authority to issue loans without approval from people more senior to him. Attempts to reach Jack Weisselberg were unsuccessful, and Ladder's chief executive, Brian Harris, did not return a request for comment. Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, with whom he had a bitter falling out amid the federal investigation surrounding Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has been interviewed by Vance's team five times - and another round of questioning is set for Friday, a person familiar with the matter said. Cohen, whose split with Trump coincided with Cohen's 2018 conviction for tax evasion and campaign-finance violations, is likely guiding prosecutors through the Trump Organization's inner workings. Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor recruited by Vance to assist with the investigation, conducted much of the questioning during Cohen's most recent interview, the person familiar with the matter said. Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis declined to comment. Trump has rigorously and at times angrily denied any wrongdoing, labeling the district attorney's investigation a "fishing expedition" and part of a political conspiracy orchestrated by Democrats. Nevertheless, he faces unprecedented legal jeopardy for a former president. Vance's investigation is one of two known criminal probes focused on him. The other was opened earlier this month in Atlanta, where the Fulton County district attorney is investigating Trump's controversial conversations with Georgia state officials amid his failed bid to subvert the election results there. The former president also faces defamation lawsuits brought by two women who have accused him of sexual assault. His niece Mary L. Trump is suing him and his siblings over an inheritance dispute. He's being sued by the former tenants of apartments his family once owned, and by people who say they suffered financially after joining a multilevel marketing organization touted by Trump and his children. The former president or his representatives have denied wrongdoing in each of these matters. In Washington, the District of Columbia attorney general, Karl Racine, filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Trump's 2017 inaugural committee misused donor money to benefit the Trump Organization. Trump Jr. was interviewed by attorneys working with Racine, a Democrat, earlier this month. Among the allegations in Racine's suit is that Trump Jr.'s assistant, a Trump Organization staffer, reserved a block of rooms in the company's name at a District hotel during his father's inauguration. The bill for the rooms was $49,000, Racine says, but the Trump Organization didn't pay it. Instead, Racine has alleged, the charges went to a collection agency, and then Trump's inaugural committee paid the bill rather than the Trump Organization. Because the inaugural committee is a nonprofit entity, Racine has alleged the Trump Organization used a charity's money for private gain. The attorney general is seeking to make the Trump Organization pay back more than $1 million, with the proceeds going to charity. The president's son told Racine's investigators that he didn't authorize the charges, according to a court filing from Racine's office on Wednesday. His sister Ivanka also was deposed in the case, which the Trump family has attacked as politically motivated. - - - Fahrenthold, O'Connell and Hamburger reported from Washington. A Rome man is accused of driving into a restricted area of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo Tuesday, speeding into a spot where visitors were walking through the zoo. Posted: Feb 25, 2021 1:21 PM Posted By: WKTV Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions WASHINGTON House Republicans are pushing New York U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, to subpoena Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to testify before Congress about nursing home resident deaths in New York. Twenty Republican members of the Committee on Oversight and Reform that Maloney chairs are demanding the panel examine any links between the high number of nursing home deaths and Cuomos March 25 directive that compelled the facilities to accept COVID-positive residents discharged from hospitals. "The committee must hear the truth, under oath, directly from Gov. Cuomo," the GOP members wrote in a letter to Maloney. Maloney did not respond to a request for comment about the letter Wednesday. Jack Sterne, a spokesperson for the Cuomo administration, called the letter "empty political theater." "Republicans are trying to distract in every way possible from the Congressional investigation into their January 6th coup attempt," Sterne said. "Were focused on managing this public health crisis, including getting as many shots into arms as humanly possible and carefully reopening the economy, and we wont let these antics distract from that work. The letter is part of a broader pressure campaign from Republicans in Congress to get more information about Cuomo's handling of nursing home deaths in the state, following a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James' office that found nursing home deaths were undercounted and that the March 25 directive may have contributed to the high number of fatalities. The congressional push also follows remarks leaked from a recent close-door meeting between state Democratic lawmakers and Cuomo's top aides, including Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, in which DeRosa admitted withholding data on nursing home fatalities from legislators because of concerns about how it might be used in a separate U.S. Justice Department inquiry. Congressional Republicans have sent three document requests to Cuomo since June, the letter said, but the governor has declined to provide the requested information regarding his nursing home order. In recent weeks, Republicans have called for congressional investigations into nursing home deaths in both the House and Senate, but with Democrats controlling both chambers they have no power to orchestrate investigations or hearings on their own. Democrats have also voted down amendments offered by Republicans that would have required governors to certify the accuracy of their nursing home death data. Democrats in Congress have avoided taking congressional action against the Cuomo administration, with several New York members saying they prefer to focus on the issue of nursing home conditions in all states during the pandemic despite the recent disclosure that the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York and FBI have initiated probes of the Cuomo administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in ]nursing homes. U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, recently said: "Politics should never come before people's lives. The secretary to the governors remarks are beyond troubling and warrant a full investigation." U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-Bronx, also supported state officials' calls for a full investigation. In the state Legislature, Democrats have opted not to subpoena Cuomo or revoke his executive powers. Republicans have hounded for Cuomo's resignation and the creation of a bi-partisan impeachment commission to conduct an investigation. Assemblyman Ron Kim, D-Queens the Assembly sponsor of a measure to strip the governor of the emergency powers he has held for a year said last week the governor called him and threatened his political career after Kim's frequent criticism of Cuomo on nursing home issues. Nearly a year ago, Cuomo's administration issued a directive that pushed COVID-19-positive nursing home residents from hospitals back into their care facilities to free up space in what his task force feared would be overwhelmed hospitals a prediction that never came. Cuomo said his order was in line with federal guidance, a claim that was rebutted by the Trump administration's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. James's determined the order was consistent with CMS guidance from early in the pandemic. What is your assessment of climate coverage at the moment? Is there any story that journalists are missing? Climate change coverage has improved since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 2018 special report on global warming. But that coverage still doesnt reflect the threat climate change poses. Were talking about a phenomenon that could result in the premature deaths or displacement of millions of people, along with the extinction of one-third of plant and animal life. Thats not hyperbole. Thats just a scientific estimate. And were already seeing the beginnings of those impacts around the world: from wildfires in Australia and the Arctic Circle to heatwaves in Siberia and extreme rainfalls in Texas. By that measure, if newsworthiness means anything, climate change should be the number one story in the world today. But its not being treated that way in many too many places. In your opinion, what is the nexus between climate change and coronavirus? What are the main similarities between the media coverage of the climate crisis and the pandemic? Both these stories have demonstrated just how intractable the problem of misinformation and disinformation has become. The health of a democracy depends on citizens using shared sets of facts to make rational and empathetic decisions about the world around them. After all, if the facts cant change someones behaviour, then the only recourse to do so is force or faith - both of which are profoundly undemocratic. But climate change and the pandemic show too many people are making irrational and un-empathetic based on fictions. We see that in the anti-masking protests that have happened around the world. And we see that in our continued refusal to take personal and political action that is commensurate with the threat posed by climate change. And that should deeply concern journalists. After all, in a society that becomes unbound from the truth, what is our role? Is there a lesson that journalists and media outlets can learn from COVID-19 in order to improve future coverage of climate-related issues? What would be your main advice to journalists covering the climate crisis during the pandemic? In an emergency, the news media doesnt just provide the public with information about that disaster. They also provide the public with information about what they can do about it - how they can keep themselves and their loved ones safe. We resolve their feelings of uncertainty by telling them to move to higher ground when theres floods, stay indoors when theres wildfire smoke, or - in the case of the pandemic - social distance and wear a mask. But we dont do that when we cover climate change. As a result, its not surprising when our audience tune out of that coverage. Its simply making them feel more uncertain and out of control in an already uncertain and uncontrollable world. So we need to help resolve those feelings by explicitly telling our audiences what they can do about climate change whenever we report on that phenomenon - from private to public action. This isnt about bias. This is about serving our audiences, providing them with the information they need during an emergency. Journalists are always in a rush and audience attention is a finite resource. In a moment where the world faces simultaneous crises - health, economic, environmental - how can journalists and media include them in their stories so none of them is muted? We have never been able to do this and I dont think we can. So, as journalists, we must use our best news judgement to determine whats the most important story for our audiences. Its the kind of triaging we do i newsrooms and on our beats every day. But the problem is we too often seem to diminish the importance of climate change. Perhaps its because we believe its one of those stories everyone already knows about, where theres nothing new to report on? So the challenge is to find new angles that havent been reported on. And the good news is theres lots of them. Thats because climate change isnt just an environmental story. Its a story that affects almost every beat we cover. And weve only just started to appreciate the implications of that. __________________________________________________ The IFJ has organised a new internal experts group on climate, dedicated to the IFJ's global actions and plans on climate crisis. Jennifer Moreau, IFJ ExCom members and Unifor representative (Canada) was elected President of the IFJ Climate Change Action Team (CCAT) and Vice-Presidents Paco Audije (FESP/Spain) and Filemon Medina (SPP/Panama). Members : Zuliana Lainez (ANP/Peru), Maria-Jose Braga (FENAJ/Brazil), Jim Boumelha (NUJ-UK/Ireland) and Zied Dabbar (SNJT/Tunisia). A man wanted over the alleged attempted murder of a woman at a luxury hotel in Sydneys CBD on Tuesday night has been arrested. Police on Wednesday issued a warrant for the arrest of Matthew Donaldson, 41, after a 26-year-old woman was allegedly bashed with a sledgehammer at the five-star Primus Hotel late on Tuesday night. A man wanted over an alleged hammer assault in Sydneys CBD has been arrested in bushland in the lower Blue Mountains on Thursday afternoon. Credit:Police Media A NSW Police spokeswoman told the Herald on Thursday he was arrested in bushland near Lapstone by dog squad personnel about 4.50pm. He was taken straight to Springwood police station and is assisting with inquiries, she said. President Akufo-Addo will receive the first dose of the 600,000 Covid-19 vaccines which arrived in the country on Wednesday. Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the Presidential Advisor on Health who disclosed this said the move is to assure Ghanaians that the vaccines are safe. He added that other reactions like headache, dizziness, or pains are all usual with every vaccination. With Ghana recording more than 80,000 cases and over 580 deaths on account of the virus, Dr Nsiah-Asare noted that it would be in the interest of the country, for Ghanaians to avail themselves to be vaccinated when that opportunity came. We encourage everyone to avail him or herself of the opportunity to be vaccinated. It is safe and we want other Ghanaians abroad to also put out their videos to encourage others in Ghana. Ghana recieved its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines through a UN-backed global vaccine-sharing scheme as part of efforts to enable equitable access to the jabs by low and middle income countries. The consignment, which arrived at the Kotoka International Airport, consisted of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, which are expected to be administered first to frontline health workers, and high-risk persons and people over 60 years, to slow the progression of the disease. The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India. 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 AHMEDABAD : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said this year's budget has negated the notion that welfare state is a socialist prerogative, and added that it has given a directional change to the Indian economy, wherein the government trusts wealth creators and citizens. She lauded the reform of faceless assessment for direct and indirect taxes, saying that tax terrorism will be a thing of the past, but also warned that "technology terrorism" will now gain ground. "This is a budget for new decade. This budget clearly says- private sector we trust you and you are welcome to participate in the development of the country. It's a budget in which we are recognising what a government can do or how far it can do...So it's a budget that gives directional change to the Indian economy," Sitharaman said while addressing a meeting of intellectuals organised by the BJP. "We inherited a system from the USSR, where glories of socialism were spoken about...That only socialism can take care of the welfare of the entire population. They say welfare state is a socialist prerogative," she said. "So we went for socialism, which could not fit into the Indian ethos. We have lived through this...We have lived through some of the dirty times of the license-quota raj," the minister added. The directional change that we are talking about is we have gone through those things (socialism and license-quota raj for industries). Now, we are not suspecting you (citizens and wealth creators) that you are always upto something. We trust you and invite you to participate in the development of the country, she said. Narendra Modi, after becoming the prime minister in 2014, discarded the system of notary saying that citizens can self attest their documents, she said, adding that the system of boiler inspector, who would certify that the boiler in a factory is ok, was also abolished. When you have invested money and are working hard to create wealth by manufacturing goods, then what is the requirement of a third party inspection to give a certificate, she asked. "In the same way, we have changed the tax system, be it direct taxes or indirect taxes. Earlier, we used to hear complaints that we cannot put up with this tax terrorism. Such were the words used. Now technology has been brought in a big way and we hope that no official will call you up and say come and meet me and bring something (bribe) with you," she said. Such a thing will not happen in the future as the government has gone for faceless assessment. Technology, in a large sweeping way, will look at all the transactions taking place, Sitharaman said. Success in identifying the loopholes is better with technology as compared to the past when officers used to interact one-on-one, she said. "Technology can identify where loopholes exist, where people are misusing the system, where people are using it for their own advantage and all this is coming out without one to one interaction," she said. "So technology terrorism will happen next," the finance minister said. She said that corporate taxes are the lowest in India and that is one of the reasons why foreign companies want to set up their base in the country. Speaking about disinvestment, she said, "It is time to take a call till when we will put taxpayers' money in running public sectors, when private sectors can do it. We do not want them to close, but we will invite private sectors to run a better enterprise." She said that the IMF has predicted 11.5 per cent growth in Indian economy this year. "The sentiments on the ground match these predictions as the industrialists I meet are saying that they have sustained demands and their manufacturing units are running at full capacity now," she said. Sustained increase in GST collections also speaks about the revival of the economy, she said. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. In DNA show on Thursday, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke exclusively to Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on new guidelines to curb misuse of social media platforms. The government on Thursday announced the tightening of rules governing social media and streaming companies, requiring them to take down contentious content quicker, appoint grievance redressal officers and assist investigations. READ | Who's the first originator? Know all about it as Centre unveils tougher rules for social media Prasad stated the Centre has asked the OTT platforms to categorise its content in five sections so that people can decide accordingly. He added that people can decide for themselves as per central guidelines which content is apt for children and which are not. On social media platforms, the Union Minister stated that the Centre welcomes criticism and difference of opinion as it is allowed under democracy but if there is misuse and abuse of the platforms, then it should be addressed. He added that it should be registered within 24 hours and resolved within 15 days. READ | Govt lays down guidelines for social media channels and OTT platforms under new IT Rules Speaking on double standards of different platforms, he said that if there is an investigation on Capitol Hill violence then there should also be an investigation on the violence at the Red Fort. He highlighted that the interference of the government is minimum as the social media and OTT platforms, channels should themselves do self regularisation. Your favourite show DNA is Live on Facebook now. Stay connected wherever you are. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will be our special guest tonight. Posted by Sudhir Chaudhary on Thursday, 25 February 2021 The 'Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code', that IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said are designed to curb misuse of social media platforms, requires WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media firms as well as streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video to appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women. READ | What is Voluntary User Verification Mechanism? Any contentious content flagged by the government or legal order has to be taken down quickly. The guidelines require social media intermediaries to appoint a resident grievance officer, who shall register complaints in 24 hours, and file monthly compliance reports. User grievances have to be resolved within 15 days. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) speaks to @sudhirchaudhary on #DNA about the new social media and OTT guidelines. He talks about the importance of identifying the source of all information shared online and more. pic.twitter.com/WXfvMIpEDW Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) February 25, 2021 Also, social media platforms on being asked by court or government will be required to disclose the first originator of the mischievous information that undermines the sovereignty of India, security of the state, or public order. The intermediary, however, will not be required to disclose the contents of any message. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) speaks to @sudhirchaudhary on #DNA about the new social media and OTT guidelines. He says OTT and social media platforms have to practise self-regulation, government interference will be minimum. pic.twitter.com/vKTNE4MhGn Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) February 25, 2021 Beyond streaming and messaging, the code will also set guidelines for digital publishers of news and current affairs content, requiring them to disclose their ownership and other information. Releasing the guidelines, Prasad said the code was needed to make social media and OTT companies accountable for "misuse and abuse". Social media firms should be "more responsible and accountable," he said. The new guidelines follow the government's spat with Twitter over allegedly inflammatory tweets and hashtags supporting farmer protests, with the microblogging service initially refusing to comply with orders to take down about 1,500 such posts and accounts. Twitter complied after it was threatened with penal action. The new rules take effect immediately, though significant social-media providers (based on the number of users) will get three months before they need to start complying. Prasad said concerns have been raised over the rampant abuse of social media platforms and the spread of fake news. "Social media companies are welcome to do business in India and empower Indians. We welcome criticism and dissent but it is important that users of social media are given a proper forum for the resolution of their grievances in a time-bound manner," he said. India is a large market for digital and social media companies and is witnessing strong growth on the back of booming smartphone sales and the availability of dirt-cheap data. The country has 53 crore WhatsApp users, 44.8 crore YouTube users, 41 crore Facebook users, 21 crore use Instagram and 1.75 crore are on Twitter. Prasad said the rules require the 'significant' social media intermediaries to follow additional due diligence including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person and a resident grievance officer. All three officials will have to reside in India. They will have to publish monthly compliance report and detail contents removed proactively. The rules also state that users who voluntarily want to verify their accounts should be given an appropriate mechanism to do so and be accorded a visible mark of verification. Users will have to be provided with a prior intimation and explanation when a significant social media intermediary removes content on its own. In such cases, users have to be provided with an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary. Live TV Eric and Lara Trump were spotted enjoying a lunch date with his mother Ivana Trump in Manhattan on Wednesday after returning to New York City earlier this month. The couple dined with Ivana, 72, at the upscale Italian eatery Altesi Ristorante, one of her favorite restaurants on the Upper East Side, before walking her back to her townhouse. Eric, 37, was the only one who wore a mask when they left the restaurant, with his mother, his wife Lara, and one of their Secret Service agents opting to forgo the protective face covering while strolling through the crowded city streets. City life: Eric and Lara Trump enjoyed a lunch date with his mother Ivana Trump on Wednesday Protected: The threesome was followed by the couple's Secret Service detail Ivana was dressed to the nines in a flashy blue fur coat, which she wore over a black pantsuit. She topped off the look with a large, silver ball necklace that matched the zipper details on her blazer and black flats. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled back in her signature beehive with her bangs framing her perfectly made-up face. She sported thick black liner around her eyes and rosy-pink lipstick, her preferred beauty look in recent years. Ivana's daughter-in-law Lara, 38, was dressed a bit more casually in a blue ribbed top, cropped skinny jeans with a frayed hem, and Golden Goose's intentionally distressed shearling sneakers, which retail for an eye-watering $630. The mother of two kept warm in a lilac wool coat and carried a black leather handbag while strolling down the sidewalk with her husband and mother-in-law. Lara wore black-frame sunglasses and her large gold hoop earring peeked out from underneath her long blonde hair when it blue in the wind. All dressed up: Ivana, 72, donned a lush blue fur coat for the family outing Fun: The family dined at Altesi Ristorante, an upscale Italian eater on the Upper East Side Strolling: Eric, 37, and Lara, 38, walked his mother home after their lunch together Not exactly safety first: Eric was the only one who wore a face mask when they left the restaurant Not blending in: One of the couple's Secret Service agents also went without a face mask Eric, meanwhile, sported a navy half-zip sweater over a crisp white button-down. Instead of a winter coat, he had on a blazer that matched his navy dress pants. Ivana held onto her son's arm as they walked together, while he carried a paper bag that likely contained her leftovers from their lunch date. Eric and Lara said a short goodbye to his mother before they walked back to their home in Trump Tower, where their children Luke, three, and Carolina, one, were likely waiting. The couple was followed by their Secret Service entourage, who trailed them in two SUVs and on foot. Lara and her Secret Service agent passed hundreds of people as they walked down 5th Avenue without masks. Eric and Lara were seen back in New York City earlier this month on the first day of arguments at his father's second impeachment trial. Talking business: Two of their agents chatted behind Eric and Lara as they walked with Ivana Lunch look: Lara was dressed a bit more casually that Ivana in a blue ribbed top and cropped skinny jeans with a frayed hem Pricey: Lara had on a pair of Golden Goose's intentionally distressed shearling sneakers, which retail for an eye-watering $630 On the go: The family crowded a number of people while strolling through the Upper East Side Back into the groove: Eric and Lara returned to New York City earlier this month Dutiful son: Ivana held onto Eric most of the walk home, and he carried her leftovers Daughter-in-law duties: Lara helped Ivana to the door off her Upper East Side townhouse Almost in: Lara watched as Ivana got the keys out of her beloved Lady Dior bag Enjoying the sun: After dropping off Ivana, Eric and Lara walked home together Minding his own business: Eric kept his hands in his pocket as he walked with his wife Former President Donald Trump was impeached by the House last month for inciting the insurrection but was acquitted at his trial, even though the bipartisan majority voted guilty. The weekend before they were seen out in the Big Apple, Eric was at Lake Placid with his family to officiate the wedding of two Trump Organization employees at the Whiteface Lodge resort. In January, following President Trump's departure from Washington D.C., most of the family decamped to sunny Florida. Donald and Melania are living at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach with their teenage son Barron, while his eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, 39, and her husband Jared Kushner, 40, have relocated to Miami with their three children. The Kushner family is currently staying in a luxury apartment at Arte Surfside, one of the city's most sought-after oceanfront buildings. Accessories: Lara had on funky black-frame sunglasses and hoop earrings Up close: The couple didn't maintain their distance when approaching other pedestrians Big bag: Lara carried a black leather tote bag during the outing Layers: Eric paired a half-zip sweater and button-down with his navy suit Wait up: Eric beelined for Trump Tower while Lara trailed behind him Mystery: It is unknown what is next in store for Eric and Lara; unlike the other Trump siblings, they are not believed to be looking for property in Florida They are said to be using the large, unfurnished unit as a temporary home while they build a property on a two-acre plot they purchased on Indian Creek Island also known as the 'Billionaire Bunker' for $31.8 million late last year. Tiffany Trump, 27, and her fiance Michael Boulos, 23, have also been living in Miami and are reportedly looking for houses there, while Don Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle are said to be moving to Jupiter, Florida. It is unknown what is next in store for Eric and Lara; unlike the other Trump siblings, they are not believed to be looking for property in the Sunshine State. The couple has long been based in New York City, where they currently live with their two kids, and it is unclear whether they are planning to try and return to Manhattan life full time. Many believed Ivanka and Jared would no longer be welcome in the same elite Manhattan social circles they once ran in before her father became president, which was thought to be one of the reasons for their move. However, Eric and Lara maintained a far more low-key profile while living in the city. They did not relocate to Washington, D.C. as Ivanka and Jared did early on in Trump's presidency, which may give them a better chance to adjust. Iran Reiterates That It's Up To U.S. To Move First On Saving Nuclear Deal 02/25/21 Source: RFE/RL The United States should take the first step toward saving the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Iran's ambassador in Geneva told the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on February 24. Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh spoke a day after Iran officially began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities in a bid to pressure European countries and Washington into lifting economic sanctions and restoring the landmark nuclear deal. The biggest Biden's blow to Iran's economy: Another 4 years of uncertainty Source: Iranian daily Eghtesad va Sazandegi "The onus is on the offending party to return, restart, and compensate for the damages as well as to reassure that they would not renege again," Ambassador Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh said, reiterating Tehran's long-held position. "There is a path forward with a logical sequence as (Iranian Foreign) Minister (Mohammad Javad) Zarif recently outlined." Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, Iran's ambassador in Geneva (file photo) Iran confirmed on February 22 that it had ended its implementation of an Additional Protocol to the 2015 accord allowing for surprise inspections of nuclear-related sites. The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 withdrew from the agreement that lifted most international sanctions in exchange for Iran's curbing its nuclear ambitions. Trump gradually reimposed crippling sanctions that have impacted heavily on Iran's tattered economy. The new administration of President Joe Biden has sought to reverse that decision, although Iran's violations of the accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) and the move to limit international inspections underscore the difficulty of the task. Iran is demanding that Washington first remove punishing sanctions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged Iran on February 24 to accept diplomatic overtures to preserve the nuclear accord and avoid further violations of its commitments. "In the end, Iran needs to understand that what's important is to de-escalate and accept the offer of diplomacy that's on the table, including from the United States," Maas said. China, which is one of the signatories of the JCPOA and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, said on February 24 that lifting U.S. sanctions on the country is key to breaking the deadlock. "We have always believed that the return of the U.S. to the comprehensive agreement and the lifting of sanctions against Iran are the keys to breaking the deadlock in the Iranian nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily news briefing in Beijing. "The current situation on the Iranian nuclear issue is at a critical point, with both opportunities and challenges," Wang told reporters. China, which has maintained friendly relations and close economic ties with Tehran, has long been against sanctions. Beijing has been working with the other parties in the agreement -- Germany, France, Britain, and Russia -- to maintain the deal after Trump's decision to pull the U.S. unilaterally out. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa The University of Oregon Health Center is open, but because of COVID-19, the vast majority of assistance is provided onine through teletherapy. Because of the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ways in which mental health services are provided have changed signifigantly. (Will Geschke/Emerald) Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Submit Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. A Royal Navy sailor who sexually assaulted a junior colleague after a drunken night out in Tokyo hours after the Prince of Wales visited the ship has been dismissed. Able Seaman Sean Bramwell, 25, had gone for a few drinks with other sailors from his ship following the visit. But a court martial at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, heard when he got back to his ship, AB Bramwell, from Plymouth, crept into the bed of one of his colleagues, got undressed and began kissing her neck before she woke up. She kicked out at him and told him to get out of her bed before he stood up and began trashing her room and swearing at her. The court heard Bramwell, an engineering technician based at HMNB Devonport, then told her to 'shut up you stupid c***' and began knocking items off the drawers in her cabin before slumping down naked in a chair. The hearing heard Able Seaman Sean Bramwell, 25, took his clothes off and got into bed with the junior officer before kissing her neck The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said via a victim impact statement: 'After being assaulted in my cabin while I slept, I no longer felt safe aboard a ship. 'It has ended the career I dreamed of and I lost a significant part of my identity in the process. I felt robbed of my career and the future I planned, which is almost like a bereavement. 'This has led to a depression which has affected every aspect of my life. 'I don't recognise myself and I feel as though a door has been closed on the dreams I held.' AB Bramwell, who had been drinking in the Shinjuku district of the city, argued a margarita he drank was spiked as he had no memory of the attack. Giving evidence during the trial Bramwell said: 'When we moved to Tokyo we had Prince Charles visit and we did the guard for that. 'Everyone was in quite high morale after that; it's not every day that happens.' The engineering technician, based at HMNB Devonport, claimed he must have been drugged before the assault but no drugs were found in his system After drinking two pints, six double vodka oranges and two gin and tonics he claimed a friend asked him to try a bit of a margarita which tasted a 'bit off'. AB Bramwell told the court he essentially blacked out after that and remembered nothing until the next day. He went to the medical office to complain he had been spiked but the court heard there was no evidence of drugs in his system. Michael Green, mitigating, said: 'He has completely abstained from drinking alcohol and is taking steps to try to address his behaviour. 'It is very clear that he demonstrates... a high level of victim empathy. He expresses real regret for what happened and he is aware of the impact of his actions.' Bramwell was dismissed from the Royal Navy in a remote sentencing hearing by Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor, who said: 'Your behaviour clearly breached the trust that must remain among colleagues on a ship. 'Such behaviour has a clear impact on unit cohesion. 'Those who behave as you did can expect to be dismissed.' STOCKHOLM, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Klarna Bank AB (publ) ("Klarna") publishes its Annual financial statement release for July - December 2020, and the full Q1-Q4 of 2020. Our strong results for 2020 were driven by rapidly accelerating momentum in the US, entry into four new markets, and growing consumer and merchant preference for Klarna's elevated shopping experience and strong brand. New product launches including savings accounts in Sweden, current accounts in Germany and Klarna's Vibe loyalty program in the US and Australia enhanced consumer acquisition and retention, and drove adoption of the Klarna app to a record 18 million monthly global users(1). Full year January to December 2020 Record gross merchandise volume with total net operating income breaking USD 1 billion Record Gross Merchandise Volume was achieved across the Klarna platform, up 46% to USD 53bn / SEK 484bn (2019: USD 35bn / SEK 332bn )(2) as Klarna continues to connect retailers with consumers for a superior shopping experience 40% increase in Total Net Operating Income to USD 1.087bn / SEK 10bn (2019: USD 753m / SEK 7.155bn ), breaking the $1 billion threshold for the first time. Strong capital position with CET1 Ratio at 29.5% (2019: 28.1%) Credit losses as a percentage of gross merchandise volume have fallen across all major markets as consumers adopt the benefits of pay later, and our risk models continue to mature. Klarna is well positioned to capture global growth in the retail market and continues to invest significantly in new market entries and expanded product offerings on that basis. Net profit was lower in line with expectations as operating expenses increased to deliver ambitious expansion by building significant scale in the US and other major markets, and launching our pay later offering in four new markets: Australia , Belgium , Spain and Italy . Four further market launches are planned for 2021. Growing retailer and consumer connections globally, through one platform in 17 markets 87 million global active consumers chose Klarna as the preferred platform to shop, pay and bank in 2020. Consumers' demand for convenience, flexibility and products that serve them better continue to drive the global shift from credit to debit. With one platform and one recognisable brand in 17 markets, Klarna is now the global partner of choice for 250,000+ retailers. Klarna in-store is now live in 10 markets, enabling consumers to use Klarna everywhere while delivering a seamless multichannel experience for retailers. US consumers can now shop in over 60,000 physical stores, while in Australia , Klarna is available in any store through the app. As well as a superior online and in-store experience, Klarna makes new connections between consumers and retailers, and in December alone, Klarna delivered 22 million clicks to retailers in the US. We have also established a presence in China to support retail partners scaling to a global consumer base with Klarna. Accelerated growth in the US Momentum in the US accelerated rapidly with a million consumers a month added during the key shopping period in Q4 2020, with 15 million consumers choosing to shop with Klarna by January 2021 . Klarna is the partner of choice for 20 of the US top 100 retailers. At the close of Q4, Klarna was ranked in the Top 10 most downloaded shopping apps in US app stores for the entire period. Several renowned brands have joined Klarna's US retail network, including Macy's, Etsy, Sephora, Saks OFF 5TH, Lululemon, Bluemercury, Rebecca Minkoff and Pandora, bringing the total number of retail partners to more than 6,000. Driving customer satisfaction in 2021 and beyond Consumer satisfaction is driving customer acquisition and retention, with US consumer NPS at 80+, well above financial services benchmark of +34(3). Vibe, the first loyalty program of its kind in our industry, is now live in the US and Australia , and rewards consumers who pay for their goods on time. The program gained immediate traction, attracting one million members during the first three months. Vibe will expand to further markets in 2021. The global platform KlarnaSense, encouraging more mindful shopping, has resonated strongly with consumers and will be launched across markets in 2021. Sebastian Siemiatkoski, Klarna co-founder and CEO commented: "The last year has created unprecedented change in the global economy which has transformed how consumers bank, shop and pay. Klarna has adapted well, supporting retailers to move online at pace while continuing to provide consumers with superior shopping experiences and payment options that meet their evolving needs. 2020 has not slowed Klarna's progress: we scaled to four new markets, broadened our platform to an integrated banking offering in Sweden and Germany, and truly accelerated our growth in the US, where we added 1 million new consumers per month in the last quarter. "2021 is going to be another year of change as consumers will slowly return to stores expecting to see the flexibility they have become accustomed to reflected in the brick-and-mortar experience. Klarna will continue to innovate across channels, geographies and verticals to provide consumers with the transparency, control and flexibility they now demand from banking, shopping and payments, while supporting our partners in their growth ambitions." The full report is available at www.klarna.com. For additional information, please contact: Aoife Houlihan, VP of Communications Phone: +46 (0) 72855 8047 Email: aoife.houlihan@klarna.com / press@klarna.com (1) Global active monthly app users (2) Klarna's results are reported in SEK. To arrive at USD values, the average exchange rates for 2019 and 2020 have been used. 1USD equals approximately 9.5SEK for full year 2019 and 9.2 SEK for full year 2020. (3) Retently, 2020 About Klarna We make shopping smooth. With Klarna, consumers can buy now and pay later, so they can get what they need today. Klarna's offering to consumers and retailers includes payments, social shopping and personal finances. Over 250,000 retail partners including Macys, H&M, IKEA, Expedia Group, Samsung, ASOS, Peloton, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike and AliExpress, have enabled Klarna's innovative shopping experience online and in-store. Klarna is ranked number five on the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, and is one of the most highly valued private fintechs globally with a valuation of $10.65 billion. Klarna was founded in 2005, has over 3,500 employees and is active in 17 countries. Klarna has been backed by Sequoia Capital since 2010 and more recently, Dragoneer, Bestseller Group, Permira, Visa, Atomico, Ant Group and Silver Lake, HMI Capital, TCV amongst others. For more information, visit klarna.com. This information is information that Klarna Bank AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:00 CET on February 25, 2021. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com The following files are available for download: Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:01:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- For Nabil Omeirat, a 60-year-old taxi driver in Lebanon, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has delt a heavy blow to his income. Prior to COVID-19 and the collapse of the Lebanese Lira (L.L.), Omeirat made 30,000 L.L. a day, about 20 U.S. dollars calculated at the old official rate of 1,500 L.L. per one U.S. dollar, but now he can only earn 10,000 L.L. a day, equivalent to around 1 U.S. dollar when calculated at the current market rate. "Ever since the start of COVID-19 in Lebanon, I've been depending on my daughter, who earns as little as 400,000 L.L. a month, for support given the lockdown and the absence of passengers during the pandemic," the father of four told Xinhua as he parked his car on the side of a street in Hamra, an area once bustling with tourists and shoppers. "As you can see, Beirut's streets are empty. No one is asking for our service now," he lamented. Lebanese authorities have, for the past year, imposed several periods of lockdown in order to curb the number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Many workers in different sectors have lost either their jobs or a big part of their income. Taxi drivers were among the most affected since they rely on a daily income for survival. The Lebanese government has lately reduced some of the lockdown measures in the country and allowed drivers to resume work, but passengers are rare these days, according to Marwan Kheir, a taxi driver in his 50's. "Most people are staying at home these days to avoid being infected with the virus in light of the continuous increase in the number of deaths from COVID-19," Kheir told Xinhua. Kheir reminisces about the not-so-distant past when Lebanon received millions of tourists yearly, keeping thousands of drivers busy all year long. "We need a miracle to get over with this virus and be able to work regularly again," he said. Ibrahim Boukhari, vice president of Syndicate of Public Taxi Drivers in south Lebanon, told Xinhua that taxi drivers in Lebanon have already suffered from several difficulties and the pandemic exacerbated their misery. "Today, it is hard to find passengers, and taxi drivers can only carry two passengers at one time instead of four in light of the coronavirus rules imposed by authorities," Boukhari said, adding that this affects drivers' income. Boukhari noted that the biggest challenge facing drivers, besides COVID-19, is the Lebanese central bank's imminent plan to lift subsidies on gasoline soon which, according to some studies, may raise the price of 20 liters of gasoline from around 30,000 L.L. to 90,000 L.L. The price of gasoline has been increasing gradually for the past couple of months while taxi drivers kept their fare fixed. Boukhari said the Central Bank of Lebanon should make an exception by keeping subsidies on gasoline only for taxi drivers at least. The dire situation of taxi drivers in Lebanon prompted several protests by the sector's workers in demand for increased support by the government. Enditem LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla., Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of Catholic Health Services announced today that its CEO, Joseph M. Catania, is retiring from the organization after leading its growth and development over the past 30 years. From his appointment to the position, Catania has continually advanced the Mission of CHS, built a focused and cohesive team, nurtured community partnerships, and focused on serving the most vulnerable within the south Florida community. After decades of guiding the organization through difficult times into fiscal stability and then to remarkable growth, Joe Catania, the only chief executive officer Catholic Health Services has ever had will retire effective September 30, 2021. Catania oversees the management of over 32 facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, offering post-acute continuum health care services as well as vital social services to the community. Four flagship medical campuses, 17 independent senior housing communities, five early education centers and two Catholic cemeteries comprise the scope of Catholic Health Services. With a style of full commitment and ownership, he always accepted personal responsibility, not only for the 6,000 people in the daily care of CHS, but also over 2,500 staff members and their families. His holistic approach to ensuring the security and sustainability of the organization was his overarching goal. "Having served over three decades as CEO, I feel this is the right time for a leadership change. It has been my honor and privilege to serve the community, the Archdiocese of Miami, and lead the great team at Catholic Health Services. I am proud of the people of CHS and the organization we have built," said Joe Catania. "On behalf of the board, I want to thank Mr. Catania for his professional and personal commitment and dedication to Catholic Health Services. His remarkable contributions and leadership have been immeasurable. He has led this organization with courage and confidence through a transformative journey and CHS is a strong market leader thanks to Joe. Given the extended timeline before Mr. Catania retires, the board of directors will begin a thorough and deliberate CEO selection process," shared Ralph E Lawson, Chairman of the Board, CHS. Archbishop Wenski, the corporate member of Catholic Health Services, also thanked Joe Catania for his years of service and especially for his leadership in providing safe and effective care during this pandemic. "Joe Catania has ably led the Archdiocese of Miami's Catholic Health Services. Catholic Health Services, as a ministry of the Archdiocese, makes visible and continues in our South Florida community the healing ministry of Jesus. Joe has overseen a large and complex organization and its accomplishments did not happen by accident but were made possible in large measure through the servant leadership of Joe and his being able to bring competent co-workers to assist in advancing the mission of Catholic health care." Catholic Health Services is a ministry of the Archdiocese of Miami and the largest post-acute provider in the southeast United States. We provide a full continuum of healthcare and social services to the southeast Florida community. For additional information visit, www.catholichealthservices.org Contact: Maria A. Miranda, VP Public Relations (305) 773-0207 [email protected] SOURCE Catholic Health Services Related Links http://www.catholichealthservices.org How Wokeness Captured Big Business A review of Stephen R. Soukups The Dictatorship of Woke Capital Commentary During the 2019 shareholder season, Justin Danhof, general counsel for the National Center for Public Policy Research, tabled a shareholder proposal at Amazons annual meeting. Diversity in board composition is best achieved though highly qualified candidates with a wide range of skills, experience, beliefs, and board independence from management, it read. Uncontroversial, one might think, but Danhof was booed and heckled throughout his presentation. Afterward, a representative for Arjuna Capital (which works with high net-worth individuals, its website says) told Danhof that he was simply trying to protect white males. A representative of the Nathan Cummings Foundation (with $424 million of cash and investments, on its most recent balance sheet) made clear that Danhof was unwelcome and should hasten, lest he be late for his next Klan meeting or book burning. The incident is recounted in Stephen R. Soukups The Dictatorship of Woke Capital (Encounter Books). What explains the greening of Wall Street and corporate CEOs becoming woke and dissing the system that made them rich? In part, it is a cheap way of buying protectionespecially when shareholders are paying, as is the case with Marc Benioff, multi-billionaire CEO of Salesforce. Capitalism, as we know it, is dead, Benioff declared in the New York Times. Described as one of the modern-day robber barons, Benioff earned his billions from a series of acquisitions of profitless software companies and constant stock sales. Benioffs schtick is a confidence game in the true sense of the term, says market analyst Ben Hunt. The cover of the book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital by Stephen R. Soukup. (Encounter Books) Wokeness is not a system of morality with universal applicability. With every breath we take, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared in the wake of George Floyds death, we must commit to being that change, and to creating a better, more just world for everyone. Well, not for everyonenot for the tens of thousands of Chinese workers at Apples Foxconn iPhone factory at Longhua. In 2010, a spate of suicides led Foxconn to install nets outside many buildings to catch falling bodies. Soukup notes that an advantage of Apples arrangement with Foxconn and its Longhua facility is plausible deniability. When that deniability is threatened with removal, Apple acts ruthlessly. In November, its lobbyists worked Capitol Hill to water down the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would require American companies to guarantee that they do not use imprisoned or coerced workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang. What Apple would like is we all just sit and talk and not have any real consequences, says Cathy Feingold of the AFL-CIO. Soukup also documents Disney CEO Bob Igers bullying of states like Georgia and North Carolina for passing laws that he dislikeseven as Iger disappeared minority actors from publicity for the Chinese market of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There is indeed something nauseating about people claiming to be virtuous when theyre not, but to accuse Apple and Disney of hypocrisy would be to miss the point. Wokeness is directed at transforming America, using Wall Street and corporate America to help bring it about. The Dictatorship of Woke Capital provides the best account so far of how finance capital ended up on the woke side of the culture wars. The books great strength is tracing the lineages of woke back to their sources. Soukup identifies two principal streams. The first, an all-American affair associated with progressives such as Richard Ely, Woodrow Wilson, and John Dewey, gave rise to the administrative state and the creation of a class of professional administrators unaccountable to voters and trained in the science of administration to manage society more rationally and carefully than the masses would, if left to their own devices. The second has its origins in Europe, with an assortment of Marxists and post-Marxists such as Antonio Gramsci, Gyorgy Lukacs, and the Frankfurt School. It then proceeded, in the words of the German 1968-er Rudi Dutschke, on the long march through the institutions, the New Left successfully colonizing virtually the entire American system of higher education. If anything, Soukup underplays the impact of Herbert Marcuse and the New Left. They had repudiated vulgar Marxism because the American working class refused to play the revolutionary role that Marx had assigned it, opening the way for the New Lefts rejection of industrialization and what a leading critic of the Frankfurt School called an aesthetic repugnance for industrial society. As willing customers of the merchants of kitsch, the American working class kept the system of oppression in business. The New Left transformed the American working class from oppressed into oppressors. The culture wars are in reality a class war waged against the working class and all those whose livelihoods depend on their workin manufacturing, transportation, and farming and, most of all, in the energy sector. This war will come to an end only when one side or another is beaten and knows it. The presidential election of last Nov. 3 did not produce that outcome. Despite President Bidens calls for unity in his Inaugural address, his actions since indicate the start of a new, aggressive phase in this class war. For that effort, the Biden administration will have enthusiastic allies on Wall Street and among woke CEOs in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. For those looking to understand how we got here, The Dictatorship of Woke Capital is the best place to start. Along the way, Soukup brutally eviscerates many of the ESG and stakeholder myths deployed to justify woke capital. This is a book for our times. From RealClearWire. Rupert Darwall is a senior fellow of the RealClear Foundation and author of Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex and the report The Climate Noose: Business, Net Zero, and the IPCCs Anti-Capitalism. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. TUNIS - A considerable increase in the number of undcoumented migrants who have arrived in Italy from Tunisia has taken place since January 1 of this year, said Romdhane Ben Amor, communications officer for the NGO Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES). He said 558 Tunisian migrants disembarked on Italian shores in January 2021, compared to 94 in the same period last year and 31 in 2019. According to Ben Amor, recent popular protests in Tunisia have fueled a new wave of migration. "The rate of irregular migration has recently grown, led by over 1,400 protests since January," he said. "The demonstrations have seen police respond with excessive violence and arrest young protesters," he said. He said the methods with which the police have faced the protests intensifies frustration among young people and increases the flow of irregular migration. Sixty-five attempts to cross to Italian shores have been thwarted since the start of 2021, compared to 47 in the same period last year and 12 in 2019, FTDES said. Ben Amor said 1,051 people have been arrested for crimes connected to migration since the start of the year, compared to 887 in the same period in 2020 and 223 in 2019. The region of Sfax reported the highest increase in irregular migration to Italy, with nearly 30% of departures, followed by Mahdia (26%), Tunis (over 16%) and Nabeul (about 13%), he said. "The Tunisian Coast Guard has by now become an affiliated force with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), acting by proxy for Frontex, and is dedicated to intercepting irregular migrants outside territorial waters. There is a dangerous tendency on the level of security relations and information exchange on the topic of irregular migration among Tunisia and the European Union," Ben Amor said. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. One of Indias leading commercial refrigeration company, Elanpro (Elan Professional Appliances Pvt. Ltd.), unveils its new logo and tagline today. Upholding its new brand positioning and vision for the consumers, Elanpro redesigned its logo to match its current offerings and solutions. The new logo provides a definite power to the brand. Offering the best solutions in product manufacturing and supplying under one roof is symbolized by roof-shaped bold letter A in the logo. The same letter pointing upward with its peak illustrates the progress of the company. Also, the letter A is extended on both the sides which signifies the objective of growth. The colour combination used in the logo personifies brand traits like reliability, safety, elegance, trust, and establishing a connection with the operating industry. The font represents that we stand tall and establish authority and positioning of experts in the market. The new defined logo is also supported by a strong tagline The Commercial Refrigeration Experts which embodies the brand's quality of delivering innovative, world-class and consistent quality products. Mr. Ranjan Jain, Managing Director, Elanpro said, Being one of the key differentiators in the industry, we stepped forward to redefine our brand positioning. Built on three strategies - offering innovative and transformative products, excellent customer services and upholding trust among its stakeholders, we at Elanpro evolved our vision and mission and redesigned the logo. The newly created logo along with its tagline is synchronized with our defined brand positioning. With expanding our presence in all the major cities and developing an impressive infrastructure and offerings to our end customers, we look forward to establishing and sustaining our brand identity for a longer term. With the recent launch of Portable Covid Vaccine Freezers, Elanpro is expanding its reach in the market. Thus, the new logo developed through a collaborative process reflects the company as a differentiator with a new positioning. A college student found lying with no clothes on and badly burnt along a national highway in Shahjahanpur, UP, claims she was set on fire after some people tried to gangrape her, police said as per a report in PTI. Police sources said some suspects were arrested and the case was almost solved. PTI SP S Anand said that the girl said that three people tried to rape her in a field near Rai Kheda village on February 22 and when they failed, they poured kerosene and set her on fire. He, however, added that she changed her statements on a regular basis was unaware of how she got to the hospital from her college building 3rd floor. "Her condition is stable right now," said Dr SC Saundriyal, director of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Civil Hospital, Lucknow. gvwire.com "Investigations with the help of CCTV footage have found that the girl went out of the college campus from a broken outer wall about 20 minutes after entering the premises and was seen walking alone on a canal road," Anand said. Three teams led by deputy superintendents of police (Dy SPs) and a Special Operations Group (SOG) team have been deployed. We couldnt find anything at this address. Please check the URL or go to the homepage Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesBy CHEYENNEHASLETT, ABC News (WASHINGTON) -- At a historic hearing Thursday, Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden's nominee for assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the first openly transgender person nominated for federal office, told lawmakers she would fight to improve health care access for all Americans if confirmed and deflected inflammatory questions from a GOP senator who likened transgender surgery to "genital mutilation." As the HHS assistant secretary of health, Levine would oversee the nation's public health system amid the pandemic. A pediatrician, she recently led Pennsylvania's pandemic response as the state's health secretary and was the state's physician general before that. She faced questions before the Senate Health committee for about two-and-a-half hours, alongside Surgeon General nominee Vivek Murthy. Just over an hour in, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky began questioning Levine about "genital mutilation" of children, which he compared to a person's decision to transition. "American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones about their biological development and their secondary sexual characteristics," Paul said. He repeatedly asked Levine if she believed minors should be able to make decisions to "amputate their breasts or amputate their genitalia" and if she supports the government "intervening to override the parents' consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia." Levine responded politely that she would like to work with his office to talk about the complexities of transgender medicine. She deflected his misrepresentation of transgender surgery as "genital mutilation," which is defined by the World Health Organization as torturous and inhuman treatment most commonly done in Africa, the Middle East and Asia often aimed at controlling women's sexuality, enforcing premarital virginity and attempting to keep women "modest." "Thank you for your interest in this question," Levine said. "Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. And if I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed as the assistant secretary of health I look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine." Paul said she "evaded the question" and asked again, weaving in an anecdote about 23-year-old Keira Bell in the U.K., who recently took legal action against that country's public health system, the NHS, for not challenging her decision to transition when she began treatment at 16 years old. Bell argued she was not competent to make that choice as a teenager and now regrets it. "Will you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?" Paul asked Levine. Levine again told Paul that there was not a blanket answer to his question, but that she would be happy to meet with him to explain all the different circumstances, decisions and research that goes into transgender health care. "Senator, transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field and if confirmed to the position of assistant secretary of health, I would certainly be pleased to come to your office and to talk with you and your staff about the standards of care and the complexity of this field," Levine said. "Let it go into the record that the witness refused to answer the question," Paul said. Later in the hearing, the committee chair, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, thanked Levine for her medical response to what she called Paul's "harmful misrepresentations" and denounced the senator for being disrespectful to the nominee. "It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us, rather than ideological and harmful misrepresentations like those we heard from Senator Paul earlier, and I will focus on that as chair of this committee. So thank you again for your response," Murray said to Levine. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota also defended Levine. "We need advocates at all levels to make sure that we address that inequity and we fight against discrimination and ensure that everybody, all patients, have access to care, especially amid this crisis which has revealed so many inequities. So I wanted to thank you," she told Levine. Levine answered other questions at the hearing, mostly on her role as chief doctor for Pennsylvania during pandemic, her views on getting kids back into schools, the opioid epidemic and LGBTQ+ health equity. "At its core, my career has been about helping people live healthy lives. As the assistant secretary for health, I would be committed every day to helping the people of our nation and improving our public health. I am both humbled by the opportunity, and ready for the job," Levine said in her opening statement. Levine detailed her tenure in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Mt. Sinai and Lenox Hill Hospital before moving to Pennsylvania, where she worked for Penn State College of Medicine and focused on helping teenagers with medical and psychological problems. She was named physician general of Pennsylvania in 2015, confirmed unanimously to the post, and confirmed twice more by a bipartisan Pennsylvanias State Senate to be secretary of health. "Of course, our focus changed dramatically last year, and COVID-19 became my urgent and primary focus," Levine said. "There is still so much more to do." Copyright 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. A man accused of sending abusive emails including death threats to a number of MPs has had his case sent to the crown court. Paul William Maciver Ritchie appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court by video link on Thursday for a brief administrative hearing. The 34-year-old, from Dolphinton, in Lanarkshire, is accused of 28 counts of sending a letter, communication or article conveying a threatening message against a series of politicians. Alleged victims included former Commons speaker John Bercow, former attorney general Dominic Grieve QC, ex-Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, former home secretary Amber Rudd, one-time London mayoral candidate and cabinet minister Rory Stewart, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, and current Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey. Mr Ritchie, wearing a light shirt, did not enter any pleas during the 12-minute hearing. He spoke to state his name, address and date of birth, and to confirm Conservative former cabinet minister David Mundell was his local MP. Mr Mundell is not one of the alleged victims. Deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram said the matter will be dealt with at Southwark Crown Court in London on 25 March. Court documents show Mr Ritchie is accused of sending former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn an email in March 2019 containing the message You should be hung for treason you f****** terrorist. The same month he sent an email to the Speakers office, saying 1 in 17 million is bad odds for some nutter to pull a Jo Cox on you and your staff, the indictment said, and a week later added in another email: Be careful... (y)ou wouldn't want to get run over. In other messages to Mr Bercow's office, Mr Ritchie is alleged to have threatened: "I'm going to milkshake you, you prick", and made references to Brexit and democracy. In an email on May 2019 to former politician Chuka Umunna, who represented several parties, the defendant is alleged to have written: You have been warned... shut your f****** mouth boy. In July that year, he is said to have followed up with: "If you kill brexit... (w)e will kill you and your entire family." And he allegedly told Mr Stewart in June 2019: "If you block Brexit... you like likely (sic) be assassinated." Court documents allege Mr Ritchie told Ms Swinson she deserved to be hung, and claimed to Ms Rudd that she was "definitely going to be assassinated". In a couple of messages to Mr Blackford the same month, court documents say Mr Ritchie sent the threats "I hope you die" and "I dare you to come to the pub in Westminster and say some of the shit you do in the house". He was released on bail. Additional reporting by PA Deutsche Bank AG is seeking to eliminate between 400 and 450 jobs at one of its two retail networks in Germany as a result of branch closures announced last year. Germanys largest lender expects an agreement on the cuts, which will affect its Deutsche Bank-branded branches in the country, in the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. An exact number hasnt been decided and the figure may still change as talks with works councils continue, they said, asking not to be identified because the negotiations are ongoing. "Were currently discussing with the labor representatives how to develop the private clients business in Germany, how to adapt the branch network and how to reduce jobs. We cannot preempt the outcome of those talks," a spokesman said by email. A decision hasnt been made at the current juncture. Once this has happened, we will first inform our employees and then the public." The reductions are part of Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewings plan to eliminate 20% of Deutsche Banks workforce in a four-year restructuring announced in 2019. But the pace of job cuts at the retail unit has been slow, partly because eliminating jobs is difficult and costly under Germany tough labor laws. Commerzbank AG, the second-largest listed lender in Germany, this year announced 10,000 job cuts, with each one costing the bank about 160,000 euros. Deutsche Bank last year announced plans to close 100 out of its 500 Deutsche Bank-branded branches. Its also shuttering about 100 of its roughly 800 Postbank-branded branches. Talks about associated job cuts there are likely to kick off later this year, one person said. A labor agreement for cuts to the domestic retail workforce would be the first such deal under Sewing, as previous reductions in the banks home market focused on back office staff. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Lynda M. Gonzalez, THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS / Staff Photographer State Sen. John Whitmire barely got the word climate change out of his mouth before the Republican chairman of the committee looking into last weeks electricity grid failures interrupted him. State Sen. Kelly Hancock, a North Texas Republican, told Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, he wanted the committee to focus on what happened last week and not get into a discussion about things like climate change. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. The disengagement of militaries of both India and China from north and south banks of Pangong Tso is a "very good end result" and a win-win situation for both the country, Army chief Gen MM Naravane has said. However, Gen Naravane stressed that there is a long way to go and the next steps towards it are de-escalation and de-induction of soldiers. The Army chief also said there were no signs of an "overt collusion" between China and Pakistan during the Ladakh border dispute but India caters to a long term strategy for not a two, but a two-and-half front war. With the half front, he was referring to internal security. He said there are strategies in place to address other pending issues in eastern Ladakh. Though the disengagement process has commenced, there is a trust deficit, he noted. The disengagement process began on 10 February. "We still have a long way to go. We have to move on to the stage of de-escalation. And of course, after that moving back of the troops, the de-induction of the troops which went to the higher reaches," he said at a webinar organised by Vivekanada International Foundation. While doing so, India will be very cautious as the trust deficit remains, he said. "In doing whatever we are doing, we are keeping in mind that we have to be wary. We will be very cautious. There is trust deficit. Unless that trust deficit is removed, we will, of course, continue to be very wary and watching every movement that happens on either side of the LAC," news agency PTI quoted him as saying. Naravane exuded confidence that with continued engagement with Pakistan, there could be some sort of an understanding because "unsettled borders and violence on the borders help no one". He said China has been in the "habit of creeping forward", making very small incremental changes wherein each change was not big or worthy of a very strong reaction. "Because of these small incremental moves, which were never contested, he (China) has been able to achieve the aim without firing any shot or loss of life. Gen Naravane on South China Sea He also cited the example of the South China Sea where China militarised some of the islands. Naravane said this strategy will not work with India. "I think more than anything else, what we have achieved is that this strategy will not work with us and every move will be met resolutely," he said. He said right from the beginning of the standoff, all sides on the government worked together. Be it at the political level, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to their Chinese counterparts, he said. "We were all in it together. We had our plan chalked out which we had discussed on what should be the way forward. Whatever has panned out, has happened as a result of that. What we have achieved so far is very good," Naravane said. The advice, which was given by the National Security Adviser, also came in extremely handy, and his insight into strategic level affairs definitely helped us chalking out the response, the Army chief stated. "As a result of this whole approach, this disengagement has taken place. I think it is a very good end result. It is a win-win situation. For any agreement to last, both sides should feel that they have achieved something. I think a good outcome that has resulted out of the 10 rounds of talks which have taken place so far," he said. Last week, armies of the two countries concluded the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso in the high-altitude region. However, issues still remain. In the talks held on Saturday which continued till the wee hours of Sunday, India is learnt to have insisted on a faster disengagement process in areas like Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang to bring down tension in the region. Naravane said there are some issues that remain in the area of Depsang, in the area of eastern Ladakh and in other areas along the northern border. "...But we have our strategies in place for that. Do we have anything to negotiate in future? Yes, definitely we have. But I would not, of course, for obvious reasons, what those strategies would be to further and progress our negotiations and come out with a favourable outcome." When asked about the steps to ensure that China does not occupy the heights vacated by India, he said, "We will trust but we will verify and we have put our systems in place to make sure that there is no reoccupation of these heights. It is part of the agreement." Ladakh standoff The border dispute between the Indian and Chinese armies erupted on May 5 following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry even as the two sides continued military and diplomatic talks. Last year, the Chinese military built several bunkers and other structures in the areas between Finger 4 and 8 and had blocked all Indian patrols beyond Finger 4, triggering a strong reaction from the Indian Army. In the nine rounds of military talks, India had specifically insisted on the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Finger 4 to Finger 8 on the North bank of Pangong Lake. The mountain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers. On its part, the Chinese side was insisting on the withdrawal of Indian troops from several strategic peaks on the southern bank of the lake. Around five months back, Indian troops occupied a number of strategic heights in the Mukhpari, Rechin La and Magar hill areas around the southern bank after the Chinese PLA attempted to intimidate them in the area. Gen Naravane also said that from 1 April, the Indian Army is likely to start using SAI (Secure Application for Internet), a messaging platform, for internal communications. He said the application, developed by Colonel Sai Shankar, is undergoing the process of getting cyber and security clearance and data testing. "One of our officers has developed a software application, which is the equivalent of WhatsApp. "We plan to introduce that throughout the Indian Army. It is undergoing cyber clearance, security clearance and data testing. And maybe from April 1, we will only use that for our internal communications," Naravane said at the webinar. With agency inputs Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Britain slapped further sanctions on Myanmar's generals on Thursday for "overseeing human rights violations" since toppling civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as clashes broke out between pro-junta supporters and anti-coup residents. The country has been gripped by a torrent of anger, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets nationwide to call for the release of Suu Kyi and a return to democracy. Some demonstrations have seen a steady increase in force from authorities -- at least five people have been killed since the February 1 coup, while one police officer died in a protest, according to the military. Former colonial power Britain announced sanctions on six generals -- including army chief Min Aung Hlaing -- to send "a clear message ... that those responsible for human rights violations will be held to account," said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. That came after London imposed sanctions on three generals last week, and said it would work to ensure British businesses were not trading with military-owned companies. "The authorities must hand back control to a government elected by the people of Myanmar," Raab said. The announcement followed a tense day in Yangon, where junta supporters carried pro-military banners through the commercial hub -- drawing insults from anti-coup residents. By noon, clashes broke out near Yangon Central station's railway compound, with military supporters carrying pipes, knives and slingshots turning against residents, witnesses said. "They have the right to protest but they should not have used weapons -- none of the pro-democracy demonstrators use them," Zaw Oo told AFP, who had a bruised rib after he was held down by a group of assailants. As dusk fell, some in Yangon's Tamwe township started to protest against their junta-appointed municipal administrator. The demonstration drew riot police to the scene. "After an hour, suddenly heavy security forces came," said Myint Shwe, 29, adding he believed authorities had deployed tear gas against the protesters. Story continues "When we heard a loud bang, everyone including me ran," he told AFP. Truckloads of soldiers and police arrived at the township, blocking off key roads as residents in apartments overlooking the troops banged pots and pans in protest at their presence. - Facebook 'unfriends' military - Disparate strands of Myanmar society have united against the coup, which ended a 10-year experiment with democracy as Suu Kyi was detained in a dawn raid. Protestors have been creative in showing dissent, with anti-coup tattoos and violinists performing revolutionary songs at demonstrations. On Thursday protesters in Mandalay, Yangon and even remote Magway applied thanaka -- a traditional tree bark paste used as sunscreen -- on their cheeks in the design of a three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance. The military has weathered rounds of international condemnation, justifying its power grab by alleging widespread fraud in November elections, which Suu Kyi's party had swept. The latest rebuke came Thursday from Facebook, which banned all remaining accounts linked to Myanmar's military, citing the junta's use of deadly force against protesters. Facebook, along with Twitter and Instagram, is blocked in Myanmar as part of the junta's expanding chokehold on communications, although banned sites can still be accessed using VPNs. The World Bank also confirmed it had told the regime all lending would be cut off from February 1 onwards "as a result of recent developments". - 'From one wife to another' - While Western countries have imposed sanctions, Myanmar's regional neighbours have taken a different tack. On Wednesday, junta-appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin flew to Thailand to meet with his Thai and Indonesian counterparts, in which the need for an "inclusive democratic transition process" was reiterated by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. More than 720 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group. They include Australian economist Sean Turnell, an advisor to Suu Kyi -- whose spouse wrote to the wife of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to plead for her husband's release. "I am writing this personal note to you, Daw Kyu Kyu Hla, from one wife to another wife," Ha Vu wrote in the letter seen by AFP. "I plead you to speak to your husband to let my husband return home to my family in Australia." bur-dhc/aph/mtp The chairman of DMGT has condemned the Australian 'surrender' to tech giants and says its watering down of laws forcing them to pay for news is 'bad for democracy' across the globe. Lord Rothermere said the laws, which were given final approval by Australian senators today, will allow Facebook and Google to 'decide what news is read on social media and what, if anything, is paid for it.' He added that politicians in democracies worldwide must decide if they will let tech giants choose what news the public sees in 'secret deals with the publishers they favour' - or act to ensure 'fair and transparent treatment for all'. DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere has written an open letter condemning Australia's 'surrender' to big tech companies in battle over paying for content In a letter sent to the Financial Times, he wrote: 'Yesterday was a bad day for democracy. Politicians should be very worried about events in Australia. 'Reporting news costs money; but for years Facebook and Google have plundered news content without paying for it, while at the same time extracting ever greater profits from advertising markets they dominate. 'News publishers and governments have worked together to fight for fair treatment. 'Here a new digital regulator is being set up; in Australia Parliament has been debating a law to force platforms to pay for content. 'The platforms responded with blackmail. Google threatened to withdraw search in Australia; Facebook cancelled news. 'A nation was held to ransom - and it surrendered. 'As long as the platforms persuade enough desperate news publishers to sign take-it-or-leave-it deals, there will now be no fair, independent arbitration. 'In Facebook's own words "the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook... to support the publishers we choose." 'In other words Facebook has won the battle. It decides what news is read on social media and how much, if anything, it pays for it. 'Meanwhile Google has signed a global deal with one of its most vociferous critics. News Corp, owner of The Times, has announced that it has won "significant payments" and "the sharing of ad revenue via Google's ad technology services." 'What does it give in return? Will it continue to fight for fair terms of business for all publishers, or are two of the world's most ruthless companies now locked in an unholy alliance, giving rise to unfair competition unless its terms are made public? 'Politicians everywhere have watched events in Australia with increasing alarm. Now they must ask themselves, who makes the rules? In the letter, which was sent to the Financial Times, Lord Rothermere argues the new laws will be 'bad for democracy' by allowing tech companies to choose what news people see He added that politicians in democracies worldwide must decide if they will let tech giants choose what news the public sees 'Do the platforms decide what news the public can read, in secret deals with the publishers they favour? Or will governments and regulators act with genuine resolve, to ensure fair and transparent treatment for all?' Australian ministers have painted the world-first laws as a victory over tech giants, saying Facebook and Google are now striking deals worth millions of dollars with publishers while Facebook's news blockade of the country will come to an end. But critics say the government has capitulated - pulling the teeth out of the legislation and handing tech firms and unfair advantage in negotiations, despite promises to 'level the playing field'. The move also sets an international precedent that countries drafting their own laws - such as the UK, US and EU member states - will be watching with close interest. Australia's new law was designed to tackle the huge power imbalance between news publishers and the giant tech companies which dominate global markets and soak up the lion's share of advertising revenue by forcing Google and Facebook to pay for the news content they use and reveal some of their closely-guarded algorithms and data. For every $100 spent by Australian advertisers online today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country's competition watchdog. Google and Facebook had led opposition to the changes, fearing it would create international precedent that would threaten their business models. Initially, Google threatened to pull its search engine from Australia altogether - but backed down last week and began doing deals with media outlets. Facebook went further, blocking all news content in a hastily-organised ban that also brought down charity pages, emergency services providing Covid information, domestic violence shelters and missing persons groups. Mark Zuckerberg had blocked news content in Australia in protest at the new laws, until ministers agreed to water down the new legislation The ban even brought down the site's own page for a short time. Facebook agreed to restore news and negotiate deals similar to the ones Google has struck, but will do so with increased bargaining power after changes were agreed. Google has been told about the changes and has described them as 'sensible.' Facebook and Google still face the prospect of having to agree deals with media around the world, as the UK, European Union, Canada and other jurisdictions move to regulate the sector. Since their emergence around the turn of the century, Google and Facebook have been largely unregulated and have grown into two of the world's largest and most profitable companies. But a string of scandals about misinformation, privacy violations, data harvesting and their virtual monopoly on online advertising has triggered the attention of watchdogs. Critics of the Australian law have said it is punishing successful companies and amounts to a money grab by struggling but politically connected traditional media. They also lament that there is no requirement in the law that money gained by the media companies from Facebook and Google be spent on expanding public interest journalism rather than just boost profits. Thousands of journalism jobs and scores of news outlets have been lost in Australia alone over the past decade as the sector watched advertising revenue flow to the digital players. A full programme of events for Local Enterprise Week, which is taking place online from Monday, March 1st to Friday, March 5th, has been launched by An Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar. More than 200 virtual events are planned by the Local Enterprise Offices around the country, including Local Enterprise Office Laois, and these include training workshops, information webinars and masterclasses with entrepreneurs and experts, designed to help Irelands small businesses and those looking to start a new business in 2021. Organised by Local Enterprise Office Laois and supported by Enterprise Ireland and Laois County Council, this years theme is Making It Happen. Common topics across the week include starting a new business, resilience and recovery, the green economy, becoming leaner, exploring new markets, doing business online and the new trading relationship with the UK. For the first time, Local Enterprise Week also includes ten Spotlight events and these are open to every business across the country. Highlights from Local Enterprise Week will include How to Start your own Podcast where businesses will learn how to start a Podcast and use this effective tool to promote their business. Businesses will learn how to record, edit and upload, along with all the tools needed to start a Podcast in this step by step podcasting workshop, taking place on Monday 1st March at 2.30pm. Public Relations is a crucial part of any business, now more than ever and in this regard the Local Enterprise Office is delighted to present a one hour workshop on Public Relations. Aimed at small and medium sized businesses in Laois, the Introduction to Public Relations Workshop will offer a practical insight into the most basic knowledge of what exactly PR is, and why it continues to be one of the most effective methods of publicising businesses. Taking place on Tuesday 2nd March at 11.30 am, this workshop is a must for all Laois businesses. As virtual selling becomes the new normal, this interactive seminar will explore what you can do pre, during and post sales call that will improve your confidence and ability to achieve results remotely. Taking place on Wednesday, 3rd March, our Getting Virtually Confident workhop will focus on how to build a rapport with customers, how to improve engagement on your calls, virtual selling skills and exploring what is important to the customer. Throughout the week there are also a number of one to one mentoring clinics on digital marketing, finance and business planning, website healthcheck and Brexit advice. Evelyn Reddin, Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Laois said: Small businesses throughout Laois are being severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and many havent been able to trade fully since last year. "Thats why initiatives like Local Enterprise Week are more important than ever as they showcase all the supports that are available to small businesses and start-ups now. As well as the ten Spotlight events, we are offering a full programme of events over the five days of Local Enterprise Week. "Our advice to all local businesses and to those with a business idea, is to have a look at the events taking place by visiting LocalEnterprise.ie/Laois and to book early. The ten Spotlight events taking place during Local Enterprise Week are: Benefits of Green for your Business Launching Green for Micro on Monday, March 1st at 9.30am (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Dublin City). SpringBack & Step Forward: Building Leadership & Resilience on Monday, March 1st at 11am (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Donegal). Building The New featuring start-ups and innovators on Tuesday, March 2nd at 10am (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Galway). Growing Lean: One Small Step or One Giant Leap, Getting Started with Lean on Tuesday, March 2nd at 2pm (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Kildare). AgriTech Revolution in Farming and Food on Wednesday, March 3rd at 9.30am (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office South Cork). Creative Connections: Enabling your B-2-B Online Opportunities on Wednesday, March 3rd at 2pm (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Carlow) Engage for Growth with David Meade on Thursday, March 4th at 10am (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown). S.M.A.R.Tech for StartUps on Thursday, March 4th at 4pm (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Clare). Masterclass: Health checking your business for its forward journey on Thursday, March 4th at 7pm (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Wexford). Trading Online Voucher Information Webinar on Friday, March 5th at 9.30am (open to all businesses across the country and organised by Local Enterprise Office Fingal). An Tanaiste Leo Varadkar is officially opening Local Enterprise Week at the first Spotlight event, the Green for Micro launch on March 1. Local Enterprise Week will be entirely online this year, with over 200 events taking place. Weve all had to do things a little differently because of the pandemic and Ive no doubt that those participating will find this years week just as useful and interesting. I know many businesses have really relied on their Local Enterprise Office for advice, training and financial help during these difficult few months. Local Enterprise Offices are the point of contact for many of the Governments grants and training schemes, such as the new Green for Micro initiative, the Trading Online Voucher Scheme and the Lean programme. Local Enterprise Week is the perfect opportunity to have a look at what help is available and find what works best for your business, he said. Details for events taking place for Local Enterprise Week, from March 1st to 5th, are available at LocalEnterprise.ie/Laois. Local Enterprise Week is an annual initiative from the Local Enterprise Offices and supported by Enterprise Ireland, local authorities and the Government of Ireland. Over 200 virtual events are taking place from March 1st to 5th, including ten Spotlight events which are referenced in this brochure: https://www.localenterprise.ie/Week/LEW-2021/10-sPOTLIGHT-EVENTS/SPOTLIGHT-Event-Schedule-pdf.pdf A Charleston Southern University business class is promoting a coffee roasted in Summerville to benefit a Latin American nonprofit that houses pregnant sex workers and sex trafficking victims. Sales from two 12-ounce bags of Bebe Beans, a Colombian coffee with tasting notes of cocoa and graham crackers, pay for the costs of housing one woman for a day, said Brian Miller, a Medellin, Colombia, missionary who founded Casa Esther in 2019. The home houses pregnant women, some of whom are young teenagers, who receive food, shelter, medical care and job training on-site. Medellin hosts a large textile industry, so some of the skills taught include sewing and leather work. There also is a computer lab and on-site cosmetology school run mostly by volunteers. Miller has been a missionary in Colombia for 16 years, working with the area's sex trafficking victims, homeless people and refugees while planting a church in the region. He doesn't source the beans himself, letting Derek Hicks of Sunrise Roaster handle those details. Hicks was recruited for the effort by Miller's friend Darin Gerdes, a business professor at Charleston Southern University. When Gerdes heard of Casa Esther last year, he wanted to work a way into helping out the organization into his college curriculum. This semester, students Anna Adamian, Ariana Mael, Katrina Webster and David Darby are working on a public relations campaign to spread the word about Bebe Beans. Their job is to grow coffee sales with a goal of helping Casa Esther house twice as many as the six women it now accommodates. Part of the team's job is to work with Hicks of Sunrise Roaster. Sign up for our food & dining newsletter. We publish our free Food & Dining newsletter every Wednesday at 10 a.m. to keep you informed on everything happening in the Charleston culinary scene. Sign up today! Email Sign Up! "I've had a lot of success in business, and I wanted to give back," said Hicks, who rebranded the Bebe Beans website and set up an e-commerce shop before handing it over to the Charleston Southern University class. Hicks said he drinks the coffee every morning. Altogether, Bebe Beans coffee sales now pay for about 70 percent of Casa Esther's costs, said Miller, who is affiliated with Global Transformation Ministries. The rest comes from individual donors. Colombia's Bogota-Medellin Highway is known as a destination for child sex trafficking. More than 100 cases of child sexual exploitation were filed with authorities every month between January 2013 and July 2018, according to investigative organization Insight Crime. The figure is estimated to be rising, with the number of reported cases having tripled in the last five years. While Casa Esther only houses a handful of women out of tens of thousands, Miller said even a small dent can make a difference. So far, two women who stayed at Casa Esther have given birth, found jobs in the textile industry and moved into their own apartments, Miller said. It's those success stories that fuel him to keep making a difference. Bjoern Wylezich / TNS A 51-year-old Hartford man has pleaded guilty after federal authorities allege he took photos of his sexual abuse of a girl. Ronald Daniel pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single charge alleging he created child sex abuse imagery, according to the U.S. Attorneys office for the District of Connecticut. In my lifetime, the single greatest event that made everyone realize we had problems with the environment occurred June 22, 1969, when Clevelands Cuyahoga River caught on fire. Its not every day that one would expect water to catch on fire (grain alcohol notwithstanding), although it becomes conceivable if highly volatile petroleum derivatives are sufficiently concentrated in an area where a low flash point might be ignited by a chance occurrence at the site of a couple of railroad bridges, as was the case that fateful afternoon. The fire, which witnesses reported reached as high as five stories, began at noon and lasted about 20 minutes before it was brought under control. Whereas the Norfolk and Western Railway Co. and the Newburgh & South Shore Railroad Co. sustained several tens of thousands of dollars in damages, the greater damage was to the city of Clevelands reputation, which subsequently became a national joke and didnt recover until the I.M. Pei-designed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame building opened on the shores of Lake Erie on Sept. 1, 1995. Astute observers will note that it was around the time of the fire that a great migration originated from Cleveland and other parts of Ohio destined for the Holy City a human tide that continues to this day, like the flowing waters of the Cuyahoga itself. The 1969 Cuyahoga fire (Smoke on the Water, if you will and by the way, Deep Purple, the English Rock group and author of that song, finally got inducted into the Hall in 2016) apparently belied Mark Twains euphemistic adage that there aint much education from the second kick of a mule. Another oil slick burned on the Cuyahoga in 1952, causing an estimated $1.5 million in damages without attracting national attention. This time people noticed and there was a reckoning, to use one of todays popular expressions, not that at least some hadnt noticed before. Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman and sportsman, went to the Badlands in 1883, looking for a chance to hunt the big game of North America before they disappeared. Although his writings detail successful outings, they are also laced with lament for the loss of species and habitat. The decimation of bison, the eradication of elk, bighorn sheep, deer and other species convinced him that most Americans falsely and mistakenly believed that Americas resources were inexhaustible. After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt helped create the United Stated Forest Service and established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game reserves and five national parks. Later, 18 national monuments were established through the 1906 American Antiquities Act. All told, some 230 million acres of public land ended up protected under Roosevelts watch. Too late for the famous passenger pigeon and Carolina parakeet, though both declared extinct about the same time all this was happening. Sign up for our new opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! At any rate, I vividly recall reading about the Cuyahoga fire in Time magazine as a 13-year-old and thinking that this was definitely not good. But, frankly, it wasnt just a Cleveland problem. Overall, Charleston actually had very poor water quality back then. People would literally dump their garbage into some of the streams and waterways and think nothing of it. Everybody did it if there was no other convenient recourse for disposal. In 1971, with the opening of the Plum Island plant (jokingly referred to by columnist Ashley Cooper as Fort Gaillard poking a little fun at then-incumbent Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard Jr.), water quality started improving fairly dramatically, and at a time when there was increasing environmental concern and awareness. On Jan. 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, thus introducing what would come to be known as the environmental decade. Later that year, Nixon would create the Environmental Protection Agency, which consolidated environmental programs from other agencies into a single entity, thus becoming the most comprehensive U.S. environmental agency of them all, and the most substantive. Whereas people miss the charm of the old Charleston, in reality they probably dont miss the poor air and water quality that permeated everyones senses back when, such is the progress that has been made on those fronts over the years. Thankfully, although there remain many areas of concern, national environmental awareness has seen a multitude of successes over the past half century, including the establishment of a reasonable balance between those who want to plunder everything and those who want nothing tampered with at all. China has accused Australia of ruining the relationship between the two countries as new figures show tens of thousands of litres of Australian wine were blocked from entering the country in January. In comments that could re-ignite bilateral tensions after two months of relative calm, Chinas Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday night accused the Australian government of stigmatising trade and economic relations. They have adopted restrictive or even discriminatory measures which have ruined the cooperative atmosphere between us, said Vice-Minister Wang Shouwen. China has restricted Australian wine imports. Credit: The ministrys trade data shows more than 20,000 litres of wine from Treasury Wine Estates, including its signature Penfolds label, and shipments from Badgers Brooke Estate were stopped from coming into Chongqing and Shenzhen in January due to labelling issues. Imitations of popular wines have proliferated in China over the past year, with wine-shops stocking Penfunils and Benfords and marketing them as Australian brands. Another self-styled saviour of the GOP, who hails from Donald Trump's "hometown district", was arrested for allegedly participating in the riot at the US Capitol. Philip Grillo, 46, is listed as the Republican party's leader in the 24th Assembly District in Queens. He is facing charges of unlawful entry and attempting to obstruct Congressional proceedings after two witnesses tipped off the Federal Bureau of Investigation, based on a jacket seen in CNN footage with the logo of the Knights of Columbus group in Queens. On his Facebook page, Mr Grillo describes himself as "The Republican Messiah - Republican State Committeeman, 24th Assembly District, Queens NY. President Trumps Hometown District". Im truly upset, Mr Grillos mother told CNBC. According to the arrest affidavit, one of the tipsters knew Mr Grillo from their childhood growing up in Glen Oaks, New York, while a second witness said they've known each other for decades from attending the same schools. I saw him twice in CNN in two separate incidents, the first witness said. Surveillance footage from the Capitol allegedly showed Mr Grillo enter the Rotunda and join a group of rioters that pushed open a door that Capitol Police were trying to push closed. The Department of Justice alleges that Mr Grillo was seen in a YouTube video among the crowd engaged in a "physical confrontation" with uniformed offers as people shouted "fight for Trump". "Grillo was near the front of the crowd. The crowd, including Grillo, was eventually driven back from the door when officers employed a chemical irritant," the affidavit alleges. The FBI submitted multiple photos they say show Mr Grillo entering the US Capitol through a broken window about 2:30 pm on 6 January holding a megaphone. The arrest documents say that Mr Grillo posted a video of Donald Trump's to his Facebook page captioned: "WE WILL WIN!", along with a brief video saying to "believe in the impossible". Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The fleece shorn from a wild sheep found in an Australian forest, has weighed in at more than 78 pounds. According to a report by Reuters, the ailing sheep - named Baarack by rescuers - hadnt been shorn for many years. The fleece it yielded weighed nearly half the weight of an adult kangaroo, the report said. Kyle Behrend, whos with the Edgars Mission Farm Sanctuary, located near Lancefield, Victoria, about 37 miles north of Melbourne, said the person who spotted the sheep contacted the mission, seeking help, Reuters reported. Behrend told Reuters, It would appear Baarack was once an owned sheep, since he had at one time been ear-tagged, however these appear to have been torn out by the thick matted fleece around his face. Behrend added, Sheep need to be shorn at least annually otherwise the fleece continues to grow and grow, as happened here. While Behrend explained that Baaracks hooves were in great condition from running over the rocks in the forest, he was underweight and could barely see, due to the excess wool around his face, the report cited. Behrend said that Baarack is now settling in with other rescued sheep at Edgars Mission, adding that it shows what incredibly resilient and brave animals sheep really are and we could not love them any more if we tried, Reuters cited. Baaracks wool wasnt the heaviest ever recorded. According to a report by USA Today, the weight of Baaracks fleece was impressive, but it was still several pounds off the world record of 41.1 kilograms, or slightly more than 90 pounds. This is a record held by Chris, a Merino rescued in Australia in 2015. Chris died in 2019 at Little Oak Sanctuary, which cared for the animal after shearing his massive coat, the report said. According to USA Today, Little Oak had this to say at the time of Chris death: While the large fleeces often draw international interest, theyre nothing to be proud of. This is no title to covet, as it amounts to being the most neglected sheep in the world. READ MORE: Owning a pet has become quite a thing during lockdown, with animal-lovers willing to fork out substantial sums of money to add a furry friend to their home. Take the price of puppies, which surged to more than 3,000 for some breeds last year, as people working from home or furloughed sought canine company. For pet owners with deep pockets, who are eager to take indulging their pets - and themselves - to a new level, there is now the chance to purchase matching sofas and pet beds. Would you buy a matching sofa and dog bed? These mustard coloured dog beds and human sofas (below) are from Made.com The Moby designs from Made.com are available at 179 for the dog bed and 449 for the sofa Amid the growing demand for pets, fashionable furniture company Made.com has launched a range of cat and dog beds that match its most popular sofas. It means a pet owner can ensure their interior design scheme can remain coordinated despite the new furry addition to their home. The millennial favourite says its pet furniture means that animals can lounge in comfort, just like their owners. Guido Spranzi, of Made.com, said: 'Our pets are considered part of the family, therefore why shouldn't they be treated to a place to rest that is as stylish as their human's? 'These on-trend pet beds are the perfect solution for style conscious homeowners who not only want to spoil their furry friends with a luxe place to snooze, but also want to ensure their interior remains chic.' The pet beds mean that cats and dogs can curl up on a miniature version of what their owners can be sat on. Remember the costs of owning a pet Some new pet owners have been forced to rehome their new cats or dogs, after realising how much commitment they are or having run into financial difficulties due to the pandemic. Before getting a dog or any other pet, make sure you have fully researched the commitments and the costs. Advertisement From luxury pet beds to fashion-forward wardrobes, customised food plans and even their own Instagram accounts, it seems that there's nothing that owners won't do to make their pampered pets feel right at home. Danielle Bayliss, of Quintain Living - which offers pet-friendly homes to rent in London's Wembley Park - said: 'We've welcomed quite a number of new four legged residents during lockdown with their owners enjoying the mental and physical benefits of adding a dog to the family, myself included. 'Unlike some rental properties, pets are welcome at Quintain Living and with the host of amenities and services available for pampered pooches, it's quite simply a dog's life.' It comes after the Government published its new Model Tenancy Agreement, including a bid to encourage landlords to accept tenants with pets. The move was announced a year ago, but the template tenancy agreement has only now been published and is ready to use. It can be used as the basis of agreements with tenants. We take a look at the matching sofas and dog beds... The Kooper dog bed from Made.com costs 129 and is a mini version of the same 449 design created for humans Matching human sofas and dog beds: The Kooper has smooth curves, velvet upholstery and slim brass legs The three styles include the Kooper dog bed that costs 129, almost a third of the human version with the same name, which costs 449. The Kooper has smooth curves, velvet upholstery and slim brass legs, which its manufacturers says is a good fit for cats, mini dachshunds, pugs and small terriers. The Moby in pink velvet costs 449 for the sofa, which has the added benefit of folding down into a sofabed The Moby in pink velvet costs 179 for the dog bed, which has a padded seat and angled copper legs Another style is the Moby in pink velvet, which costs 179 for the dog bed and 449 for the sofa. The dog bed has a padded seat and angled copper legs, and is aimed at border collies or springer spaniels, according to its designers. A smaller version costing 129 is also available for smaller cats and dogs, including jack russells, French bull dogs or beagles. The Kolton in Marl Grey is the cheapest pet bed offered at Made.com, and it costs 99 The Kolton has a quilted shape and dark stain legs, and it is aimed at cats and medium-sized dogs. And finally, the Kolton in Marl Grey is the cheapest pet bed in the range at 99. It compares to 449 for the chair. The Kolton has a quilted shape and dark stain legs, and it is aimed at cats and medium-sized dogs. Emirates will soon resume flights to Newark, giving the Dubai-based airline two flight routes to the New York City area. Emirates will resume daily flights between its hub Dubai and Newark on June 1. The route will include a stopover in Athens, Greece. Emirates US network will be at 10 destinations with the resumption of the Newark route, the Gulf carrier said in a press release on Monday. Emirates is already offering regularly scheduled flights to New York Citys John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The Newark route will be the airlines second to the greater New York City area. Newark is located in the state of New Jersey and is just about 10 miles from New York City. It is a common alternative airport to JFK for people traveling in and out of New York City. Emirates flew to both airports before the coronavirus pandemic. Like other regional airlines, Emirates stopped flying for several weeks last year due to COVID-19. The airline has largely rebuilt its network now. In December, Emirates resumed flights to Istanbul. Emirates is now flying to around 120 destinations, compared to more than150 before the virus outbreak. The further expansion of Emirates North American network could help them recover from the crisis in global travel resulting from the pandemic. Emirates reported losses of more than $3 billion last year. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Community News Editor / Librarian Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989. She can be reached at jmaschino@berkshireeagle.com. The judge who handed down his judgment on Thursday in favour of the extradition of to face charges of fraud and money laundering in India said he had found no evidence of adverse political influence in the case, as claimed by the diamond merchant's legal team. In support of their claims, Modi's lawyers had deposed retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju of whom District Judge Samuel Goozee was highly critical and dubbed the evidence as "less than objective and reliable". "Albeit, some political commentary could be described as ill-advised, there is nothing in the volumes of media, broadcasting or social media links that have been referred to me in the voluminous defence bundles that gives any indication that politicians are trying to influence the outcome of any trial, let alone NDM's (Nirav Deepak Modi) trial or that the trial process itself would be susceptible to such influence," Justice Goozee notes. "I reject any submission that the GOI (government of India) have deliberately engineered a media onslaught. I attach little weight to Justice Katju's expert opinion," he said. With reference to Katju's testimony via videolink last year, Justice Goozee felt it appeared tinged with resentment towards former senior judicial colleagues and described parts of it as "astonishing, inappropriate and grossly insensitive comparisons". "It had hallmarks of an outspoken critic with his own personal agenda. I found his evidence and behaviour in engaging the media the day before giving evidence to be questionable for someone who served the Indian judiciary at such a high level appointed to guard and protect the rule of law," Goozee notes in his ruling. Despite being critical of the "trial by media" and its impact on the Modi case, the Westminster Magistrates' Court judge expressed surprise that Katju, who was a Supreme Court judge from 2006 to 2011, took the "astonishing decision" to brief journalists in relation to the evidence he was giving in the proceedings, "creating his own media storm and adding to the heightened media interest to date". Goozee was also critical of former High Court judge Abhay Thipsay's evidence, another defence witness who had been deposed as an expert on how the case would play out in the Indian courts. The judge noted that Thipsay had aligned himself with a political party (Congress) on his retirement and received adverse commentary in the media as a result, but that he also engaged with and courted the media himself. "Overall, these factors have the effect, in my assessment, of nullifying any weight I would have attached to his evidence," the ruling notes. The UK judge, who found a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering against Modi in the Punjab Bank (PNB) scam case, further declared that there was no evidence which allowed him to find that if extradited the jeweller would be at "real risk of suffering a flagrant denial of justice" as pleaded by his lawyers. He accepted that the accused being a high-profile businessman who made a huge success of the brand in India and worldwide was the target of sensationalised media reporting, but pointed out that such reporting is not unfamiliar to the courts even in the UK. "India is governed by its written constitution which has at its core the fundamental principle of the independence of the judiciary by virtue of the separation of powers between judiciary, the executive and the legislature. There is no cogent or reliable evidence that the judiciary in India are no longer independent, or capable of managing a fair trial even where it is a high-profile fraud with significant media interest, the ruling concludes. The judgment will now go to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, who has two months to order extradition on the basis of the court's findings. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Chinese H-6 bomber flies over the East China Sea in a file picture taken by Japan Air Self-Defence Force and released on July 23, 2019. Chinese aircraft have conducted multiple exercises in the South China Sea region over the past few weeks, including maneuvers in Taiwans air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which experts see as a sustained pressure campaign against Taipei. Groups of Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft flew near the Taiwan-occupied Pratas Islands in the South China Sea twice last week, Taiwans defense ministry said on Twitter. And on Wednesday, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) said that 10 or more bombers belonging to the PLA Southern Theater Command Naval Air Force carried out maritime assault and maritime strike exercises after Lunar New Year festivities ended in mid-February. The CCTV broadcast did not specify the location of these maneuvers, but the Southern Theater Command is responsible for the South China Sea region, and its forces regularly operate in the area. The PLAs flights near the Pratas Islands and Taiwan appear to serve Beijings political interests in the Taiwan Strait. Chinas ruling Communist Party claims that democratic, self-governing Taiwan is part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary. According to Michael Mazza, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Beijing is likely using these operations to convince Taiwan's people, government, and military that resistance is ultimately futile; to scare off other countries from deeper engagement in the Taiwan Strait; to normalize the presence of military aircraft in such a way as to reduce foreign concerns about that presence over time. ADIZ of Taiwan Taiwans Ministry of National Defense regularly publicizes incursions by PLA aircraft into the southwestern part of Taiwans ADIZ, an area between the Pratas Islands and the Taiwanese mainland. The PLA has operated in Taiwan's ADIZ on a near-daily basis since at least September. These operations most often involve only one or two aircraft, but are occasionally much more substantial, Mazza said. The Pratas Islands, which sit roughly 170 nautical miles to the southeast of Hong Kong, are composed of Pratas Island as well as several underwater features and are claimed by both Taiwan and China. According to Mazza, Chinas air exercises could be intended to probe Taiwans defenses and test its responses. He said one day China may seek to occupy the islands to coerce Taiwan into unification or as part of an effort to reinforce control over the South China Sea. Nine PLA fighter and electronic intelligence aircraft entered Taiwans ADIZ on Friday, according to the ROC Ministry of National Defense. And on Saturday, 11 PLA fighters, anti-submarine aircraft, and bombers entered Taiwans ADIZ as part of an annual joint exercise, the ministry said. Mazza also noted that many of the PLA aircraft we've seen flying in Taiwan's ADIZ are anti-submarine warfare aircraft. The United States (and Japan) are among the best in the business at undersea warfare, so the PLA may be seeking to up its ASW [anti-submarine warfare] game. Response to U.S. Some of the PLAs recent maneuvers have appeared geared at responding to the presence of U.S. forces in the region. In late January, PLA aircraft simulated attacks on the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which entered the South China Sea on Jan. 23, the Financial Times reported. According to Taiwans Ministry of National Defense, 13 PLA aircraft entered Taiwans ADIZ on Jan. 23, and 15 entered on Jan. 24. On Wednesday, the Chinese state-run Global Times reported that the recent bomber drills by the PLA Southern Theater Command Naval Air Force came at a time when countries from outside the region, including the U.S. and France, were making provocations in the South China Sea. U.S. carrier groups and other naval assets have sailed through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea several times over the past two months, such as the USS Russels freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the Spratly Islands on Feb. 17. Oriana Skylar Mastro, a China expert at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, said that the uptick in Chinese military activity in the South China Sea demonstrates Chinas desire to communicate to the United States and other potential adversaries that it now has the military capabilities to achieve its territorial goals with force. Such signaling is designed to deter these countries from taking actions Beijing finds unfavorable, Mastro said. As tensions rise, other countries such as France and the United Kingdom are also sending forces through the region. In early February, Frances defense minister confirmed that a nuclear attack submarine had recently completed a patrol in the South China Sea. Additionally, last week Naval News reported that a French amphibious assault ship and frigate will transit the South China Sea twice this year. And in December, Kyodo News reported that the British Navy is planning to send a carrier strike group to Asia for joint exercises with U.S. and Japanese forces. Union Cabinet ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday addressed the media on cabinet decisions on rampant misuse of social media in the country. IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, briefed the media about the Code of Ethics and self-regulation for social media content including streaming platforms, especially over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Social media is welcome to do business but must not overrule the dignity of civilised existence, he added. "The government welcomes criticism and right to dissent but it is very important for the users of social media to have a forum to raise their grievance against the misuse of social media," RS Prasad said. "Of late, some very disturbing developments are observed on the social media platforms. Persistent spread of fake news has compelled many media platforms to create fact-check mechanisms.Rampant abuse of social media to share morphed images of women and contents related to revenge porn have often threatened the dignity of women. Misuse of social media for settling corporate rivalriesin blatantly unethical manner has become a major concern for businesses.Instances of use of abusive language, defamatory and obscene contents and blatant disrespect to religious sentiments through platforms are growing," the government said in a statement. However, highlighting the rampant misinformation in the form of fake news and misuse of social media content, the union minister listed a number of social media regulations in the country. He said that the government will be giving three months of implementation of rules for significant social media intermediaries adding that the cabinet will notify the same soon. "The social media platform will be asked to require to reveal the first originator of the mischievous tweet or message as the case may be and this should only be in the connection to integrity and sovereignty of India," the minister added. 'Posts relating to offences related to the sovereignty of India, security, relations with other states and rape must be removed. If you disable content of a user you must give him reasons," he emphasised. Posts regarding dignity of women will be ordered to be removed in 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf, the new guidelines said. Social media being used by criminal terrorists to cause mayhem, chaos in India, Prasad says, while launching a 'soft touch regulatory mechanism.' "It was found that currently there is no robust complaint mechanism wherein the ordinary users of social media and OTT platforms can register their complaint and get it redressed within defined timeline. Lack of transparency and absence of robust grievance redressal mechanism have left the users totally dependent on the whims and fancies of social media platforms. Often it has been seen that a user who has spent his time, energy and money in developing a social media profile is left with no remedies in case that profile is restricted or removed by the platform without giving any opportunity to be heard," the government statement added. Establishment of Grievance Portal and registration of grievance: -Ministry will establish an online Grievance Portal, as the central repository for receiving and processing all grievances from the public in respect of the Code of Ethics, within three months of the commencement of the rules. -Any person having a grievance regarding content published by an applicable entity in relation to the Code of Ethics may register its grievance on the Grievance Portal. -The Portal shall generate and issue an acknowledgement of the grievance a the benefit of the complainant within 24 hours of its registration, and electronically direct the grievance to the applicable entity for addressing the grievance, and also refer such grievance to the Ministry and the self-regulating body for information and record. Regarding OTT platforms, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "All media platforms must have the same justices, digital, OTT and TV." All OTT platforms need to have a self-regulation body, Javadekar added. Every freedom has to be responsible freedom, the I&B minister said, adding that there will be three-tier platform for OTTs to have to have self regulation bodies headed by a retired judge or an eminent person. Level-I: Self-regulation by the publishers; Level-II: Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers; Level-III: Oversight mechanism. He also informed that media freedom is absolute but with reasonable restrictions adding that OOT platforms will have 13+, 16+ and 'A' categories. Along with that, there has to be a mechanism for parent lock, Javadekar said. The publisher of online curated content shall prominently display the classification rating specific to each content or programme together with a content descriptor informing the user about the nature of the content, and advising on viewer description (if applicable) at the beginning of every programme enabling the user to make an informed decision, prior to watching the programme, the statement read. Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act thereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media., it added.When asked about Australia's passing a law that would make Facebook and Google pay for news earlier, Javadekar informed, "India is following those developments with respect to making social media platforms pay for news content." Earlier this month, the Supreme Court that it was contemplating "some action" on the issue of regulating OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. The ministry had earlier told the top court in a separate case that there is a need to regulate digital media and that the court may first appoint a committee of persons as amicus before laying down guidelines with respect to the regulation of hate speech in the media. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. South Africa: Some schools to start piloting coding, robotics curriculum President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Department of Basic Education is making headway in the national roll out of the new Coding and Robotics Curriculum for schools. The draft coding and robotics curriculum has been submitted to Umalusi for evaluation and quality assurance, and a draft curriculum will soon be gazetted. During the course of this year, 200 schools will be piloting the draft curriculum from Grades R to 3 and 1 000 schools will be piloting the Grade 7 curriculum, President Ramaphosa said. President Ramaphosa was speaking at the 2021 Virtual Basic Education Lekgotla on Thursday. Held under the theme "Equipping Learners with Knowledge and Skills for a Changing World", the annual event aims to address key challenges facing the education sector and to plan for the year, in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), Medium Term Strategic Framework of government and the State of the Nation Address. The three-day engagement will place emphasis on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and the need to ensure that learners have the best possible chance at succeeding in a fast-changing global environment. In his address, President Ramaphosa emphasised that not only must the country adapt to new ways of learning but the education curricula has to respond to the changes in the world of work. In addition to having the right content, technologies and a safe learning environment, young people should be grounded in an ethos of learning and industry. The Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the digital divide in society, particularly with regards to the adoption of technologies for learning and teaching. It underscores the need to intensify efforts to ensure connectivity and equitable access to data. This calls for stronger public-private partnerships to ensure that we mobilise the necessary resources to help our learners. One of the key focus areas of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan is boosting education and skills development, President Ramaphosa said. Commenting on concerns raised by the higher education sector recently regarding the large numbers of learners in subjects that has less demand in the economy, the President said the challenge begins in the early years with subject choices that limit future opportunities for learners, and the poor performance of learners in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. As we review the matric results, one of the prominent indicators of quality is how the country is doing in these STEM subjects. If we are to seize the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), our education system must be reoriented towards its development in our country. President Ramaphosa said studies show that the country lags behind in the information technology skills needed for the digital revolution. It will not be possible for us to build an e-skilled economy as envisaged in the National Development Plan if we do not pay attention to subject areas at basic education level, President Ramaphosa said. Invest in early childhood development Meanwhile, the President reiterated the need to continue investing in early childhood development as the foundation for cognitive development, and create policy certainty where it is lacking. Knowledge and skills for a changing world also include emotional stability, intelligence and an environment where learners are safe from abuse. We need to build stronger social compacts that put learners and their education first. The past year has been extremely difficult, but the people of this country have shown great resilience and resolve. The year ahead will also be challenging, but we now have a clear path to recovery. And with our focus on developing the skills that children need for a changing world, we also have a clear path towards a better future, the President said. Second Chance Programme While congratulating the Class of 2020 for the overall pass rate of 76.2% in the National Senior Certificate examinations, the President encouraged those who did not make it to take advantage of the opportunities provided through the Second Chance Programme. Do not see this as a failure, but as a setback from which you can learn, and from which you can recover, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 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. Three Harvard Law School professors have teamed up with the MIT Press to launch a new journal focused on issues of inequality. The American Journal of Law and Equality will be led and edited by its founders, Randall L Kennedy, the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law; Martha Minow, the 300th Anniversary University Professor; and Cass R. Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor. The new journal is expected to appear once per year and include a diversity of scholarship and views from experts and practitioners from in and outside the legal academy. The first issue, expected this summer, will include essays related to Harvard Professor Michael J. Sandel's recent book, The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?, which "challenges the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind." "I think that legal academic work at its best improves understanding and also improves practice," said Sunstein, who is currently on leave from Harvard in the Biden administration, where he is working as senior counselor at the Department of Homeland Security. "So, my own aspiration [for the new journal] is that we will have a better understanding of the inequality questions that our country faces, and that better understanding will inform better practice." Citing the host of legal questions related to equality - from the Equal Protection Clause, civil rights laws and the criminal justice system to matters of economics, environmental justice, safety and health, and tax - Sunstein said: "There is no other journal that exclusively focuses on these issues in the United States from the standpoint of law. And whether you're on the right, on the left, or on the center, you probably are keenly interested in these things. And it's really the right time to have a focus journal exploring this." For Minow, the goals of the new journal are twofold. "One is to stimulate even more discussion about equality and inequality in the law, both theoretically and practically, in the academy," she said. "By having a whole journal devoted to this subject, we hope both to inspire more attention, and also promote more debate. And the second is, by making this a faculty-led journal, we can use whatever platform we have to push debates and push efforts forward." When they first began discussing the idea last summer, Kennedy's immediate reaction was "let's get cracking." The fact that they'd known each other for years, he believed, would help them get the project off the ground more quickly at a time when the need, he said, was "huge and urgent." "This was the summer of the George Floyd moment," he said. "On the one hand, you have this tremendous upsurge in protest against police misconduct along racial lines. At the same time, we're in the middle of this pandemic, which has underscored so many racial inequities in America. And we also had the anxiety of the coming election. It seemed the perfect moment for a new effort to explore the question of inequality." Like Kennedy, Minow believes the project is an opportunity to "lift up and amplify work on equality and inequality, especially in the wake of George Floyd." It is also, she said, an extension of why she was initially attracted to the study of law. "I was drawn to a legal career because of issues of inequality," she said. "And while there has been some improvement over the course of my lifetime, there have also been tremendous setbacks. I think the law is a tool, but it has so far proved an inadequate tool to address inequality in American society. We have to spend more time on the inequalities that are embedded in the law itself, and in the legal system itself. So, I think that's one reason to turn more attention to the academic, legal study of the subject." For Nick Lindsay at the MIT Press, it is an opportunity to help share new insights on a critical topic. "The MIT Press is thrilled to partner with the American Journal of Law and Equality" said Lindsay, director of journals and open access. "We look forward extending the reach of this important new source of scholarship on equality and the law in the United States." The publication's three Harvard Law editors agree that it will welcome people with a wide range of views and backgrounds, including former government employees, academics with a philosophical bent, economists accustomed to focusing on incentives, as well as specialists in constitutional history. "Our goal is to have a diversity of perspectives represented," said Sunstein. "And we are welcoming submissions from people who have very different points of view on the Constitution and the law. This is fundamentally an academic journal, and perspectives are most welcome." The journal's first issue will include commentary on Sandel's book from approximately 20 people from a variety of backgrounds, his response to those critiques, and three to five articles on a range of different topics. Kennedy believes that beginning with an examination of meritocracy will be an important starting point that will leave a lasting legacy. "All sorts of people from various disciplines -- economics, anthropology, politics, philosophy, law, etc. - are interested in the issue of meritocracy," he said. "In the years to come, when a person is interested in investigating meritocracy and its discontents, we think that this symposium will be one of the sources that they'll want to consult." ### Media Contact Kate Silverman Wilson Community and Resource Development Associate The MIT Press One Rogers Street | Cambridge, MA 02142 kswilson@mit.edu mitpress.mit.edu Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba will pay a working visit to the French Republic on Friday, February 26, the ministry's press service said. "Dmytro Kuleba will hold talks with Minister of European and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as meet with other French officials, representatives of business, media and experts," the ministry said. It is noted that the key subjects of the talks will be the development of a political dialogue between Ukraine and France, an increase in trade and investment, increased interaction within international organizations, and the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. Particular attention will be paid to countering the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the situation in Donbas and the de-occupation of Crimea, as well as diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict within the Normandy format. Police have seized banned gutka worth Rs 11.43 lakh from a truck in Virar area here in Maharashtra, an official said on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, the police intercepted the truck on Wednesday on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway here while it was coming from Gujarat, he said. The police found 22 gunny bags containing gukta hidden beneath boxes of clothes kept in the vehicle, he said. A case was registered against the goods transporter under relevant sections, the official said, adding that no arrest has been made so far. The sale and consumption of gutka, scented and flavoured has been banned in since 2012. In 2018, the state government made sale of gutka a non-bailable offence and enhanced the punishment for it from six months to three years. (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.) South Dakota passes law requiring doctors to help babies born alive after abortion Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has signed into law a bill that requires abortion providers to provide care for any baby that survives an abortion. Known as House Bill 1051, Noem signed the legislation on Wednesday, which passed both houses of the state Legislature with overwhelming support. The pro-life cause continues even after a child is born, and this bill will guarantee the right to life for every baby that is born alive, stated Noem on Wednesday. We expect doctors to treat all children equally, even those born in horrific circumstances. Thats basic human decency. Also known as An Act to maintain the life of any child born alive, HB 1051 states that the same means and medical skills and treatment provided to a child born during a delivery must be employed and provided to every child born alive immediately following an abortion or an attempted abortion. This obligation applies to every physician who performs or attempts to perform an abortion that results in a child being born alive, continued the legislation. Such physician has a physician-patient relationship with that child under the laws of this state, with all of the duties that attend that relationship. Introduced in January, HB 1051 passed the state House of Representatives in a vote of 59 to 8 and then passed the state Senate earlier this month in a vote of 32 to 3. Critics of the legislation included the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that the bill placed politicians between a person and their doctor. If this bill becomes law, obstetricians and pediatricians would be forced to deviate from their best medical judgment and administer futile and painful treatment against the wishes of the parents, under the threat of civil litigation, stated the ACLU. Numerous health care organizations, representing thousands of clinicians, oppose these bills including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Several state and federal legislators have recently sought to pass laws clarifying that medical providers must give proper medical treatment to babies who survive an abortion. These efforts came in response to a controversial 2019 interview that pro-choice Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam gave to WTOP News, in which he appeared to endorse infanticide. When discussing third-trimester abortions in an interview with WTOP, Northam gave the hypothetical example of a baby born with severe deformities or is not viable. In this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, said Northam to WTOP. It would be resuscitated if thats what the mother and the family desired and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother. Last month, Kentucky had a similar born-alive protection law take effect when Gov. Andy Beshear refused to either sign or veto the legislation in question. Im disappointed he didnt sign it, but Im grateful he didnt veto it, state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, sponsor of the legislation, told kentucky.com, adding, Ill take what I can get. Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova has been tasked with organizing the visit of U.S. President Joe Biden to Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. "The top task given to her is to organize the visit of the U.S. President to Ukraine. We have not hosted the U.S. President since 2008, and given the dynamics of our partnership and the role that the United States has played in Ukraine since 2014, I believe that now is the time to do so, especially considering that this is a very special year for Ukraine," Kuleba said during a panel discussion by the American CEPA Center on the future of the Ukrainian-American strategic partnership. "We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of our independence, and we have proved that our understanding of independence is the same as the American understanding of independence. Independence is something that you are always ready to fight for," added the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. According to him, the top priority of Ambassador Markarova will also be the establishment of active and trusting contacts with the new U.S. administration and filling the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States with specific projects. Another important priority, according to the minister, will be security. "It's because everything else depends on security. We need to ensure the security of my country in order to successfully implement changes, transformations, and ambitious economic projects," Kuleba stressed. Related Protesters storm southeast Iran state building after deadly border shootings An officer has been killed in an attack on a police station in southeastern Iran, state media reported Thursday, as unrest in Sistan-Baluchistan province spread to provincial capital Zahedan. The violence began earlier this week when a clash involving fuel smugglers at the Pakistani border triggered attacks on government buildings in the nearby city of Saravan, 270 kilometres (170 miles) southeast of Zahedan, in which at least one person was fatally wounded. Sistan-Baluchistan has a large ethnic Baluch population, that straddles the border and mainly follows the Sunni branch of Islam, not the Shia branch followed by most Iranians. The province has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and Sunni extremists. Zahedan county governor Abouzarmahdi Nakahei said the latest violence was fuelled by "fake" reports of deaths in the unrest in Saravan. "Following the propaganda and rumours by foreign media, criminal elements attacked Kurin police station in Zahedan with light weapons and grenade launchers," Nakahei told state news agency IRNA, without saying when the attack took place. He said the assailants had acted on the "excuse of showing solidarity for the fake deaths at Saravan's Shamsar police station." Police returned fire and the attackers eventually fled, but one officer was killed in the firefight, Nakahei said. Provincial deputy governor Mohammad-Hadi Marashi said several people had been wounded, one of them fatally, when officers at the Shamsar police station opened fire on a crowd on Monday. He said the crowd had attacked the police station after an incident at the border in which Pakistani soldiers opened fire on fuel smugglers attempting to cross into Iran, killing one person and wounding four. On Tuesday, angry protesters attacked the county governor's office in Saravan, damaging property before being dispersed, Marashi said. Provincial police chief Ahmad Taheri told the Tasnim news agency that hundreds had taken part in the Tuesday attack but the situation was now "under control" Short link: Making comparisons between the number of visitors allowed to homes and other settings, such as restaurants and other regulated environments were not necessarily helpful, Mr Andrews said. Why can the restaurant be open but I cant have a big barbecue at home? Well, we know that every home is a much higher risk environment, he said. I know thats a bit counterintuitive because youre with people you know ... but thats exactly the issue, you dont keep the 1-metre distance, you dont necessarily have all the formality that comes in a restaurant or a bar or a cafe. In gyms, the density limit remains at one person per four square metres with classes limited to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors. Loading Victorias State of Emergency will be extended until 11.59pm on March 15. The Premier said the concept of a new normal was very real as more workers would return to office buildings from Monday. That is very important in terms of retail trade, hospitality, food and beverage that whole part of the economy, and not just for the CBD (as important as that is) but in lots of different suburban locations, as well as regional centres, he said. We were on the cusp of moving to that [75 per cent] setting when we had our most recent challenges, so Im very pleased, based on public health advice from the Chief Health Officer, were able to make those adjustments. When the COVID-safe summer rules were announced in early December, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the rules represented the closest return to normal that could be done safely in the absence of widespread vaccine takeup. No international flights, but hopes for a closer to normal Anzac Day However, Victoria will not welcome international flights until new systems are in place to prevent another Holiday Inn-style outbreak of the highly contagious UK variant of the virus and other new strains. Weve got our doctors looking at this very closely what can we do differently in the context of these new strains to minimise the chances of this getting out, Mr Andrews said. Loading Im just not having flights land until Ive had that work done ... by experts in their field. Yet the Premier hopes an Anzac Day parade will go ahead this year. RSL Victoria earlier this month said the traditional Anzac Day march would be cancelled for the second year running because COVID-19 restrictions and safety concerns for elderly veterans made it unmanageable. I want an Anzac Day parade, Mr Andrews said on Friday. One of the great honours and privileges of this job ... to lead that march, is an amazing privilege, an amazing privilege, one that I cherish every year. To be at the dawn service and be in the official party at the dawn service is a deeply emotional and profound thing. I want an Anzac Day service that is as close to normal as possible, thats why were continuing to work with Anzac House and with other groups ... to try and get that. New Holiday Inn cases Friday marks the end of the 14-day incubation period for many close contacts of COVID-positive people infected during the Holiday Inn outbreak, which now stands at 24 cases. Under the governments current approach, secondary contacts or contacts of contacts are put into 14-day isolation once identified. Consequently, the close contacts of Fridays two cases have already been in isolation for 14 days, all but negating the threat to the wider community. Mr Andrews said Fridays new cases were linked to a private function in Coburg, in Melbournes north, that was attended by an infected Holiday Inn worker. Both people have been isolating in hotel quarantine, away from their families. They pose no risk to public health more broadly ... It was obviously late in their 14-day period they have tested positive, Mr Andrews said. I will take this opportunity to thank the many thousands of people who over these last few weeks have been at home, isolating away from other members of the community. We thank them and absolutely acknowledge the sacrifice and the important contribution they have made to protect public health. It does speak to the fact [that with] this UK strain you can very late in that 14-day period become positive. It also speaks to why its so important to have that full 14-day [isolation] period, even in the last few days. Victoria to pay NSW $34 million in quarantine costs Meanwhile, the Andrews government has confirmed it will pay $34.3 million to NSW to cover the cost of accommodating Victorians in hotel quarantine. We intend to reimburse NSW for the cost of providing quarantine for Victorian returned travellers, a government spokeswoman said. NSW has been hosting about 3000 returning Australians a week since last year, including when Victorias quarantine system was shut down from June until December. The Queensland government is so far refusing to pay, insisting it will only transfer the $30 million it owes to NSW once the federal government approves its proposed pop-up quarantine hub near Toowoomba. Premier Daniel Andrews with (L-R) COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar, Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Credit:Chris Hopkins A total of 808 vaccine doses were administered in Victoria on Wednesday, up from 675 on Tuesday and 580 on Monday. South Australia has reopened its border to Melburnians, and Queensland will lift its travel restrictions on the city from 1am on Saturday. Professor Sutton indicated after the five-day lockdown that health officials realised its tracing and isolation model was sufficient to deal with outbreaks involving more infectious strains of the virus indicating that if it was presented with a similar set of circumstances the government might not mandate another lockdown. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 21:13:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writers Li Laifang, Lou Chen and Lyu Qiuping BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China, the world's most populous country, on Thursday declared that it has eliminated absolute poverty. The feat means China has solved absolute poverty, which has existed for thousands of years. The nation's people have now realized their long-cherished wish for ample food and clothing as well as comfortable housing. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has scored a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty and accomplished the arduous task of eliminating absolute poverty, hailing the achievement as another miracle of mankind that will "go down in history." Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the announcement while addressing a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark the country's poverty alleviation accomplishments and award model poverty fighters. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has organized and launched a tough anti-poverty drive that is the largest in scale and strongest in intensity, and benefits the biggest number of people in human history. Under the current standard, the country has lifted all 98.99 million of its rural poor out of poverty, or an average of over 10 million each year, which is equivalent to the population of a medium-sized country. Wang Jincai is a farmer from the Miao ethnic group in Pangru Village of the Ziyun Miao-Bouyei Autonomous County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. "We didn't have enough to eat and lived in an old wooden house with holes everywhere. You could see the stars when you sat inside," he recalled. His family bid farewell to poverty in 2020 and now lives in a new house equipped with running water. Over the past eight years, Xi has presided over seven central poverty alleviation work symposiums, conducted more than 50 investigations into poverty alleviation work, and visited all of China's 14 contiguous impoverished areas. The country has sent over 3 million people to villages as special commissioners for poverty relief and invested fiscal funds totaling nearly 1.6 trillion yuan (248 billion U.S. dollars) into poverty alleviation. More than 1,800 people have lost their lives in the country's fight against poverty. Yang Yalin, Party chief of Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, said that the key to success in poverty alleviation is to firmly rely on the leadership of the CPC. "No matter how hard a nut is, we are resolved to crack it with the concerted efforts of cadres and the masses," he said. When calculated in accordance with China's current poverty line, the country has lifted 770 million rural residents out of poverty since the beginning of reform and opening-up over 40 years ago, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total based on the World Bank's international poverty line. China has met the goal of ending poverty established in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. The elimination of absolute poverty in China is thanks to the CPC's strong leadership and determination, the people-centered philosophy of development, the institutional strength which can bring together the resources necessary to accomplish great tasks, as well as a series of creative and significant ideas and measures such as targeted poverty reduction, domestic and overseas observers have said. Eliminating absolute poverty is a key contribution to accomplishing the CPC's first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, has set a solid foundation for its new journey of fully building a modern socialist country, and has created a "China example" for poverty reduction. Senegalese scholar Ibrahima Niang said China's achievement in alleviating extreme poverty is exemplary, and its experience will contribute to the development of African countries. Despite the accomplishment, the income levels of people who have recently shaken off poverty are relatively low. As Xi said at the gathering, shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and a new endeavor, and further efforts will be made to integrate the work of consolidating poverty alleviation achievements with rural vitalization. Enditem (Xinhua reporters Li Jingya, Xu Lingui, Ma Xiaoran and Liu Xinyu contributed to the story.) (JTA) On the third anniversary of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, parents of the shootings Jewish victims shared their memories and hopes for the future. Several of the 17 students and faculty who were killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were Jewish. In the years since the attack, some of the victims Jewish parents have become prominent activists for gun control and school safety. Fred Guttenberg shared a letter on Sunday that he wrote to his daughter, Jaime, on Twitter. Jaime was 14 when she was killed and would have graduated high school... Pharmacists say that combining leftover COVID-19 vaccines from different vials could save thousands of doses. The process, called 'pooling,' involves taking residual vaccine left behind in one bottle and amalgamating it with a little bit from a second bottle to create one full dose. One pharmacy team at Inova Health System, a nonprofit hospital network in Fairfax, Virginia, told NBC News that if it was allowed to mix remaining vaccines from different vials, it could administer 10 percent more doses every day. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not allow pooling because neither of the vaccines approved in the U.S. contain preservatives, which prevent contamination with bacteria or fungi. Pharmacists at Inova Health System, a nonprofit hospital network in Fairfax, Virginia, say they found that they could combine the leftover vaccine from 80 vials to create an extra 40 full doses. Pictured: Walmart pharmacist Carmine Pascarella draws a dose into a syringe from a vial of the Moderna vaccine in West Haven, Connecticut, February 17 This means the clinic, which typically administers 4,000 doses, could give out 400 additional shots, an increase of 10% daily as the U.S. vaccinates 1.3 million people per day The FDA does not allow pooling because no COVID-19 vaccines contain preservatives, which prevent contamination with bacteria or fungi, but pharmacists say the benefits of increasing supply outweigh the risks Pharmacists told NBC News that pooling is a concept that has been used for other types of medications, such as flu shots and chemotherapy drugs. 'It doesn't look like a lot at the bottom of the bottle,' Dr Stephen Jones, CEO of Inova Health System, told the network. 'But ultimately, in aggregate, that adds up to a lot of doses that end up being wasted, and we're not allowed to use that additional vaccine. 'But there are times where there's almost a full dose at the end of the vial, which is heartbreaking to let that go to waste.' In January, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE revealed that each of its vials actually contains six doses instead of the initial five. However, even after extracting that sixth dose, pharmacists at Inova Health saw residual vaccines in vials of both Pfizer and Moderna. So the team decided to perform an experiment. They told NBC News that they took 100 vials that still had leftover vaccine and found that 80 had a 'significant amount.' By combining the remaining liquid, they were able to have an extra 40 full doses. Most days, Inova Health administers 4,000 doses. That means the clinic could be giving out 400 additional shots, an increase of 10 percent. 'If we can simply start putting them together, using them immediately, we'll increase the amount of vaccines available for free,' Jones told NBC News. However, the FDA says it does not allow clinicians to pool leftover coronavirus vaccines because neither the Pfizer jab nor the Moderna shot were made with preservatives that would prevent the growth of bacteria or fungi if any vials accidentally became contaminated. 'This is an infection control measure,' an FDA spokeswoman told NBC News in a statement. 'Cross-contamination of multi-dose medications through the use of the same needle and syringe has occurred with other medications when this practice was utilized, causing serious bacterial infections. 'If one vial becomes contaminated, this practice can spread contamination to the others, prolonging presence of the pathogen and increasing the potential for disease transmission.' But pharmacists say the benefit of boosting supply far outweighs the risks of potential contamination. An average of 1.3 million people are being vaccinated every day and they say increasing the amount of doses available could help President Joe Biden more quickly reach his goal of 100 million shots in 100 days. 'We would use those doses within 60 minutes,' Melanie Massiah-White, chief pharmacy officer for Inova Health, told NBC News. 'They're not going to sit. They're not going to come to room temperature. We would be able to very quickly get those shots into arms right here in our clinic.' A British Taliban bombmaker serving a life sentence after he plotted to kill MPs in Westminster stabbed a prison officer with a pen in a 'savage' attack, a court heard. Khalid Ali, 31, yelled 'this is going to happen every day for the next 40 years' after hitting the HMP Wakefield officer over the head at least ten times with a frying pan. Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday how the officer suffered a puncture wound as Ali thrust a Biro into his chest and shouted 'I will kill you - Allahu Akbar.' CCTV cameras captured the shocking moment Ali attacked the officer from behind as he walked past him on the maximum security jail's landing in March last year. After the attack Ali, who is serving a 40 year sentence, said: 'Every day this is going to happen. You wanted it. You asked for it. You wanted the terrorist.' Ali pleaded guilty to attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday. Khalid Ali, who was pictured smirking as he was pinned up against a wall when he was arrested in April 2017, was jailed for 40 years in 2018 Pictured: Ali, now 31, when he was detained outside the Houses of Parliament in 2017 The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl QC, increased Ali's minimum term to 44 years. The judge said: 'It seems to me that this was an extremely violent incident. You used full force in the blows. You targeted his head. 'It is suggested this incident was over in a matter of seconds. I counted ten blows to or around the head but there were more off camera. 'At the time you were shouting that you wanted to kill him. I am satisfied that you intended to cause as much damage as you could. 'I do not find it to be a religiously or racially motivated attack. It was simply a reaction to those in authority.' James Gelsthorpe, prosecuting, said the attack happened on the prison's C wing on March 7, 2020. Mr Gelsthorpe said: 'The defendant waits for the complainant to pass him before striking him in a cowardly yet savage attack.' The officer tried to protect himself and took out his baton as his colleagues went to help him. The footage showed Ali holding a frying pan in one hand and a pen in the other. Officers and other inmates who witnessed the incident were shocked by the severity of the attack. One prison employee said it was the worst attack he had seen in 28 years. The FBI previously found his fingerprints from bombs seized from the Afghan battlefield Police released pictures of some of the knives recovered from Ali in Whitehall in April 2017 Mr Gelsthorpe added: 'This was a vicious, unprovoked assault on an unsuspecting member of staff, designed to inflict as much damage as possible in the shortest period of time.' The injured officer realised he had been stabbed in the chest as he was receiving medical treatment. He spent a week off work after the incident and continues to suffer from headaches. Noel Casey, mitigating, said: 'There can be no argument against the sustained nature of the attack. This is a man who is barely 30, facing a tariff of 40 years. 'He has so long to serve that there really is no light at the end of the tunnel.' Ali, a plumber, was handed three life sentences in July 2018 after plotting a knife attack on MPs and police outside the Houses of Parliament in London. The Taliban-trained bombmaker had three knives when he was arrested by armed police in Parliament Square in April 2017 following surveillance by counter-terrorism police. Ali, who had moved from Saudi Arabia to Tottenham and then to Afghanistan during his lifetime, had been in the sights of police since he returned to the UK after spending five years making Taliban bombs used to maim and kill coalition troops. In late 2016, the FBI matched his fingerprints to those on two caches of explosives recovered in 2012. At his sentencing in 2018, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC handed Ali three life sentences. He gave a minimum of 40 years for making IEDs for the Taliban in 2012 and 25 years for the plot to kill in Britain and attract 'maximum publicity and instil terror'. He said: 'I am absolutely sure you were in Afghanistan. You were a valued member of a team making IEDs that were detonated in combat between January and July 2012. 'I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a very considerable risk of your committing offences of violence in the future and cause death or serious injury as a result. I'm sure your plan was to attack and kill someone in central London. 'Your preparations were complete and you very simply had to identify your precise target and his or her death was very likely to be caused by a knife attack. You would kill any police officer you could.' Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - SPC Nickel Corp. (TSXV: SPC) ("SPC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that that the Company filed and obtained a receipt for its final long form prospectus with the Ontario Securities Commission today. The Company has also received conditional approval to list the Company's common shares ("Common Shares") on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSX-V"), and the Common Shares are expected to begin trading on the TSX-V at the opening of the market on or about Monday, March 8, 2021, under the ticker symbol "SPC". In connection with the Company's listing on the TSX-V, the Company issued 29,785,093 special warrants (the "Special Warrants") for gross proceeds of C$5,817,696 pursuant to a warrant indenture (the "Warrant Indenture") between the Company and TSX Trust Company ("TSX Trust") dated December 2, 2020. The Company has provided TSX Trust with notice of the automatic exercise of the Special Warrants. The Special Warrants will automatically convert into 29,785,093 Common Shares on Wednesday March 3, 2021. The Company's President and CEO, Grant Mourre, stated, "We are pleased to be listed on the TSX-V and to successfully become a public company within the timeline initially set in August 2020. We are well funded and in a position to advance our mineral projects in the Sudbury basin. We believe we have multiple opportunities for growth and are excited to embark on the next phase of SPC's development." SPC Nickel Corp. SPC Nickel Corp. (TSXV: SPC) is engaged in the exploration of nickel, copper and platinum group metal mineral projects within the Sudbury mining district of Ontario. The Company's principal objective is to explore and develop the Aer-Kidd Property, and to identify other properties worthy of investment and exploration. Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements concerning the exercise of the Special Warrants, the listing of the Common Shares on the TSX-V and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 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. Further information is available by contacting: Grant Mourre President and CEO SPC Nickel Corp. Tel: (705) 669-1777 ext. 207 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75456 The circumstances surrounding ex-Australia Post boss Christine Holgates resignation over $20,000 in luxury watch purchases will be scrutinised by a Senate committee after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson secured Labors support for an inquiry. Senator Hanson has become a key supporter of Ms Holgate, who quit as chief executive of the postal service in November amid a political backlash over her decision in 2018 to reward four employees with Cartier watches for securing a major deal with three big banks. Pauline Hanson, right, has become a key supporter of Christine Holgate, who intervened to get Pauline Hanson stubby holders distributed to residents in one of Melbournes locked down public housing towers last year. Credit:Peter Rae/Supplied Senator Hanson wants the inquiry by the Senate communications committee to help reinstate Ms Holgate to the top job, claiming she never officially resigned from Australia Post. She wants her job back. She never resigned. She went in to see the chair, she handed him a statement saying listen we need to come to some ending with it, Senator Hanson told Sky News on Wednesday. Bold Rock is among the first in craft to bring the widely loved fizzy flavors of lemonade seltzer to discerning drinkers who value quality ingredients and anytime refreshment. Since 2012, the Virginia and North Carolina-based craft brand has been in the business of helping people celebrate the everyday, and this year, the Bold Rock Hard Lemonade Seltzer Variety 12-Pack will present a new and enjoyable way to do just that. Speaking to the inspiration behind Bold Rock's new Lemonade Seltzer, Artisanal Brewing Ventures' Chief Marketing Officer, Derek Detenber, explains "This segment really took off in 2020 with one national brand achieving substantial share of the category and now other big brands are entering and blazing the trail in terms of consumer education and awareness. But, we believe this segment is very aligned to the ethos of what Bold Rock stands for as a brand. It's a drink that exemplifies fun, being together, and sharing good times. Something we all need in 2021. Our fans know and love us for our commitment to refreshing, approachable, quality driven flavors and with this latest innovation, we invite Bold Rockers to once again Make the Bold Choice." Releasing to markets this March, Bold Rock's Hard Lemonade Seltzer lineup brings a crisp balance of real lemonade flavor and fruit to its 4 variants Blackberry Lemonade Seltzer, Blood Orange Lemonade Seltzer, Strawberry Lemonade Seltzer and Original Lemonade Seltzer. Each style contains 1g of sugar and 3g carbs, clocking in at 100 calories and 5% ABV. Bold Rock Hard Lemonade Seltzer will be available in a variety 12-pack 3 cans of each style - making it a perfect summer sidekick for boat days, pool parties, backyard BBQs and everything in-between. Lemonade Seltzer will see widespread distribution across a rapidly expanding list of states which includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky and Washington DC. Sources: 1. IRI, Total US, FMB Lemonade Seltzer, $ Ranker with CWD, L52 thru 1.17.2021. ABOUT BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Founded in June 2012, Bold Rock crafts a variety of hard cider styles from apples harvested in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. The leading regional cider brand in the United States features two cidery locations: the original Bold Rock Cider Barn in Nellysford, VA, featuring an innovative cidery and tasting room overlooking the Rockfish River, and a second, larger production facility and industrial styled taproom, nestled in the bucolic farm country of Mills River, NC. Bold Rock's award-winning line of hard cider varieties includes the flagship Granny Smith Apple, favorites such as Pineapple and Premium Dry, and the best-selling seasonal cider assortment in the country. In addition to hard cider, Bold Rock has innovated across a wide spectrum of craft beverage to incorporate hard tea, hard lemonade, hard seltzer and ready-to-drink cocktail products which all feature the trademark Bold Rock commitment to refreshment and robust flavor. In November 2019, Bold Rock joined the Artisanal Brewing Ventures family of brands which also includes Southern Tier Brewing Company, Victory Brewing Company and Sixpoint Brewery. Collectively the company is a top 7 regional craft brewer in the United States and has a leadership position in eight of the country's top 50 markets for craft beer. Artisanal Brewing Ventures is headquartered in Charlotte, NC, and has operations in Brooklyn, NY, Lakewood, NY, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and metro Philadelphia. Bold Rock Hard Cider 1020 Rockfish Valley Hwy, Nellysford, VA 22958 Debra Thom [email protected] SOURCE Bold Rock Pennsylvanias plan to shift COVID-19 vaccine toward larger providers capable of higher-volume vaccination was delayed by last weeks storms. The state announced the plan two weeks ago, saying some smaller medical practices, among others, would no longer receive first doses. Its expected to temporarily reduce the number of vaccine providers from more than 700 to 200-300. The shift would be largely based on providers ability to use up at least 80% percent of their first doses within seven days, with the state initially planning to evaluate providers beginning last week. However, winter storms last week substantially interfered with vaccine shipments. As a result, many providers are receiving two weeks worth of vaccine this week, according to state health department spokesman Barry Ciccocioppo. That will delay the process of deciding which providers are able to meet the new requirements, which took the form of orders signed by acting state Secretary of Health Alison Beam and Gov. Tom Wolf. Beam said the shift is intended to improve Pennsylvanias pace in distributing vaccine received from the federal government. It would achieve the public health goal of quickly vaccinating a high number of people while also addressing Pennsylvanias poor national ranking in some measures of vaccine distribution. Some independent doctors are critical of the shift, saying it will make it harder to reach people in underserved areas, as well as hurt their ability to persuade and vaccinate patients who are reluctant. It wasnt immediately clear on Wednesday how many providers are presently receiving first doses of vaccine. Ciccocioppo stressed that all providers will continue to receive second doses for people they previously vaccinated. State officials have called the shift to high volume providers temporary, saying that as the supply grows, more vaccine will eventually be given to smaller providers. Its also expected that the eventual arrival of Johnson & Johnsons vaccine, which received emergency approval this week, will result in more vaccine being given to smaller providers. In addition to expanding the vaccine supply, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doesnt have the special storage requirements of the presently available vaccine -- another factor that favors giving vaccine to large providers. It also requires only one dose, making it less of a burden for providers with small staffs. Ciccocioppo also said Wednesday the state health department isnt tracking the progress of health care systems, which have received the bulk of Pennsylvanias vaccine supply so far, in vaccinating their employees, who are first in line in receiving doses. He was asked about it based on the rationale that, since the systems have been vaccinating their workers since before Christmas, they will eventually have them fully vaccinated, making many more doses available to the rest of the community. Health systems have been criticized for vaccinating some employees not directly involved in patient care, including some who work from home. Ciccocioppo on Wednesday said the health department has discussed it with the systems, telling them if your front line health care workers have been vaccinated, its time to move on to the general public. Zimbabwe is set to receive a further 800,000 doses of the Covid-19 jab from China, indicating the "excellent relationship" between the two nations and the Asian giant's willingness to give the southern African state "preferential treatment" amidst a global "stampede" for vaccines, Zimbabwe's presidential spokesman George Charamba is quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper as saying. Zimbabwe bought 600,000 of the doses from Chinese firm Sinopharm, while the other 200,000 were a donation, bringing to 400,000 the total donated by the Chinese government, the Herald reported. The vaccines would be enough for all front line workers, and a large percentage of the elderly and those with chronic health conditions, the report added. Zimbabwe plans to inoculate about 10 million people. The vaccination programme was launched last week, with Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga taking the first jab in a bid to boost public confidence. Meanwhile, the European Union said that Zimbabwe would soon receive 1.152 million doses under Covax, a scheme spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) to make vaccines more accessible to poorer countries. India has also announced that it will donate 75,000 doses to Zimbabwe. Source: BBC 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 Home Clean Heroes, the residential cleaning franchise enjoyed a strong 2020, thanks in large part to the support of Buzz Franchise Brands, its parent company, which helped the brand implement some effective innovations for the pandemic era. Now, with several franchises set to open and a world laser-focused on in-home hygiene, the brand is positioned to take off in 2021. Despite a world-upending pandemic, Home Clean Heroes saw a sales increase of 11% over the previous year. In the brands corporate owned territory, business picked up towards the end of 2020, when Q4 sales were 10% higher than Q4 2019 and December 2020 came in at a whopping 21% higher than December 2019. Home Clean Heroes responded to the pandemic by launching a new Force Field Disinfecting Mist, an add-on service that is proven to be 99.9% effective at killing viruses, including COVID-19, influenza, norovirus and salmonella. The Force Field Disinfecting Mist involves positively charging sprayed particles with an electrode, and the product has already seen an uptick in interest in cleaning services. The mist has a broad application to any number of office, residential or medical settings. Not only did the brands line of services increase in 2020, but its footprint grew as well. Buzz Franchise Brands set up Home Clean Heroes from its inception as a category killer and disrupter. The skilled franchisor parent company built unique branding and cutting-edge data services into the brands winning formula, and the results are starting to show. In July, the brand signed a deal with FranBridge Capital, a private equity firm with a focus on franchise investments, to open six new locations in the Atlanta area. There are a lot of brands that have processes, but there are few brands that have the systems and support to ensure that the processes are followed every time, said Christian Pillat, FranBridges operating partner said. We believe Buzz Franchise Brands and Home Clean Heroes have the right systems in place to operate successful businesses in each category they operate in. That is why we are excited to partner with them and bring Home Clean Heroes to Atlanta. But the signings didnt stop in Atlanta. Adeola Shabiyi, an immigrant to the U.S. from Nigeria with 20 years experience in corporate America and an HR consultancy under his belt, bet big on the brand by signing on to open its first location in Tampa Bay, Florida. The brand also inked a deal in February in Augusta, Georgia, bringing the states total to two units and the Home Clean Heroes footprint to 5. I chose Home Clean Heroes for a number of reasons, Shabiyi said. The home cleaning service is in demand in all seasons. I also liked that with Home Clean Heroes, I could eventually pull back from day-to-day operations and focus on other important aspects of the business like managing and developing my employees, embedding a culture of customer service excellence, and building the business. Even with a vaccine in distribution, states expect a long-term shift towards working from home. Furthermore, the spread of the virus has brought the worlds attention to cleanliness and sanitation in the home and workplace. Home Clean Heroes, an established brand with proven innovation in cleaning services, looks poised to dominate an industry projected to do nearly $900 million in sales in 2021. Now, the brand is preparing to leverage its strong positioning for even more growth in 2021, targeting new and existing markets across the U.S. for new franchises. The brand hopes to sign 18 new franchisees in 36 territories, and with surging sales numbers, its likely territories will sell quickly. With the whole country working from home and juggling kids, appointments, and their limited space as well as they can, there has never been a better time to invest in home cleaning services, Joe Delatte, president of Home Clean Heroes. Our strong sales and successes in 2020 validate our business concept. If you can make it through 2020, you can make it through anything. For investors looking for a piece of a surging industry in 2021, Home Clean Heroes has the support and infrastructure in place to build your legacy on. ABOUT HOME CLEAN HEROES: Virginia Beach-based Home Clean Heroes is a Buzz Franchise Brand committed to cleaning up your home and freeing up your schedule. Experience super-powered service, refreshingly simple scheduling, and your very own friendly team of professional grime-fighters whose duty is to make your life easier and cleaner. Founded in 2017, the residential cleaning business has set itself apart by providing a tech-savvy approach to the $6 billion cleaning segment, utilizing proprietary technology for operational efficiency including field management software, in-vehicle GPS and data tracking. The brands commitment to providing convenient, customizable and trustworthy home cleaning services has earned recognition from Franchise Gator as one of the Fastest Growing Franchises and as a Top Emerging Franchise of 2021 and by Franchise Connect Magazine as one of the Top 100 Home Service Franchise Opportunities. For more information, visit https://homecleanheroesfranchise.com/. Barry Fagin is Senior Fellow in Technology Policy at the Independence Institute in Denver, and an ACLU National Civil Liberties Award winner. His views are his own. Readers can contact Dr. Fagin at barry@faginfamily.net. Lindsey Boylan, a former staffer for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, alleged Wednesday that he sexually harassed and assaulted her. In an essay posted on the blogging platform Medium, Boylan accused the governor of acting inappropriately with her while she worked in his administration, and forcibly kissing her in 2018. Cuomo denies the allegations. The essay opened with an alleged encounter Boylan had with the governor when the pair were flying back from an event in Western New York in October 2017. Lets play strip poker, Boylan said Cuomo suggested to her. At the time, she was serving as the chief of staff for Empire State Development. I should have been shocked by the Governors crude comment, but I wasnt, Boylan wrote, going on to describe an environment of pervasive harassment that she said affected many women in the office. After she noticed the governor paying an unusual amount of attention to her, Boylan said her boss informed her that Cuomo had a crush on her in 2016. Later, an email from a top Cuomo aide, from which Boylan included a screenshot, said that Cuomo thought Boylan could be the better looking sister of Lisa Shields. At the time, there were rumors that Shields was an ex-girlfriend of Cuomos. Boylan said he began calling her Lisa in front of colleagues after that. It was degrading, she wrote. At the end of the year, Boylan said Cuomo called her into his office for a private audience one evening, which was the first time she said she truly fear(ed) him. After initially turning down the position, Boylan said she became a special adviser to the governor in 2018. Following a one-on-one briefing with Cuomo at his Manhattan office, Boylan said that he kissed her without her consent as she went to leave the room. After that, my fears worsened, Boylan wrote. I came to work nauseous every day. She resigned later that year. Boylan, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress last year against Rep. Jerry Nadler and is now running for Manhattan Borough president, did not return a request for further comment on her allegations. She first went public with sexual harassment allegations in December last year. Yes, @NYGovCuomo sexually harassed me for years, Boylan tweeted, though she offered no specific details at the time. A spokesperson for the governor denied the allegations in December. Soon after her tweets, personnel documents were leaked to the press that accused Boylan of workplace misconduct, including complaints of bullying from Black employees, shortly before she resigned. Cuomos office is pushing back against Boylans latest allegations. As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false, Cuomo press secretary Caitlin Giouard said in a statement. The governors office also specifically disputed Boylans claim about Cuomos comments on a plane ride back from Western New York. Giouard released manifests for every flight Boylan was on with the governor in October 2017 as evidence that at no time was she ever on a flight with just Cuomo, a press aide and a state trooper. (Boylan had written that a press aide was sitting next to her, and a state trooper stood behind her, but not specifically that they were the only people on the plane.) Others whose names appeared on the manifests, including Boylans former boss at Empire State Development Howard Zemsky, denied hearing the conversation about strip poker. We were on each of these October flights and this conversation did not happen, they wrote in a statement. Several lawmakers have commented on the allegations. This is deeply disturbing, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. Clearly, there is no place for this type of behavior in the workplace or anywhere. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie issued a similar statement. I have read the reports. These are serious allegations. Harassment in the workplace of any kind should not be tolerated, Heastie wrote. State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a frequent foe of Cuomos who worked in his administration as assistant general counsel in the Office of Storm recovery, said that she believed Boylan. I have no doubt that this is true, Biaggi tweeted. Ive witnessed similar behavior, and its unacceptable. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a frequent recent critic of the governor and a staunch defender of former President Donald Trump, who has been accused by 26 women of sexual assault, called for Cuomo to resign. The Sexual Harassment Working Group, which is made up of former Albany staffers who have been victims of sexual harassment and abuse, is calling for an independent investigation into Cuomos behavior. Boylans accusations come after fresh scrutiny of Cuomos alleged bullying and abuse of those around him. Earlier in the day, former Cuomo staffer Karen Hinton wrote in the Daily News that the governor is a master of what she called the penis politics of a powerful man. However, she added that he was hardly unusual in this regard, arguing that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio practices a different version of penis politics, because his condescension leaves women on staff feeling especially marginalized. Last week, Assembly Member Ron Kim described a phone call in which the governor allegedly threatened to destroy him, a call that Kim said left both him and his wife shaken. Since then, other lawmakers, staffers and journalists have shared their own stories about allegedly suffering abuse from Cuomo or his administration. Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:39 pm A bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from homes and commercial buildings in Washington state stalled ahead of a Monday deadline for lawmakers to pass bills out of fiscal committees. The Healthy Homes and Clean Buildings bill was requested by Gov. Jay Inslee to help the state meet 2030 greenhouse gas limits set in state law. It was scheduled for a vote in the House Appropriations Committee Monday, but that vote ultimately didnt happen. Lawmakers are still considering other major pieces of climate-related legislation, including cap-and-trade and low-carbon fuel standard proposals requested by Inslee. The 105-day legislative session is scheduled to adjourn April 25. According to the governors office, buildings are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state and result in one-fifth of the states emissions. Washingtons 2021 Energy Strategy includes that buildings require a 10-year market transformation approach that combines transitioning from fossil gas to electrification, with deep levels of efficiency for new and existing buildings, and smart building demand management. Obviously the governor is disappointed that this did not progress, spokesperson Tara Lee wrote in an email Monday. But, he is undaunted and still very committed to this policy. The governor believes that cleaner, healthier buildings are essential to meeting our states climate goals. We recognize that this is all part of the legislative process and that it doesnt always go the way we hope. But, we will pursue this again. The original proposal would have required fossil fuel-free space and water heating in new construction under the 2027 state energy code and set a course for eliminating fossil fuels from existing buildings. Among other details, it would have also created a heat pump and electrification program with an aim to create a workforce and expertise while supporting low-income energy users in the transition from gas to electricity. The clean-energy nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute earlier this month called the bill the most comprehensive legislation to date in the United States aimed at getting fossil fuels out of buildings. We know that confronting the climate crisis is going to be hard, prime sponsor Rep. Alex Ramel of Bellingham said. Those making money under the existing system are always going to resist. Its just not enough to have cost-effective, large solutions to technical problems. We already have those, weve had those for some time. It takes courage and political will. The bill, which was sponsored by 26 democrats and supported by environmental organizations, received vocal pushback from multiple angles, including from the natural gas industry, labor unions, and the construction industry. Opponents argued the proposal would eliminate jobs for people who work on natural gas pipelines and restrict energy choice, among a slate of other critiques. A scaled-back substitute bill made it out of the House Environment & Energy Committee along party lines. Now, even that less-ambitious version seems to be out-of-play for the current 105-day legislative session. Monday was the deadline for lawmakers to pass bills out of fiscal committees in the state Senate and House of Representatives. Prime sponsor Ramel said that, while hes not part of the Appropriations Committee, he partly credits a campaign of misinformation from groups opposing the bill and the remote nature of this session. The bill can still be considered next session. And there are ways for bills and the ideas they contain to stay alive even during the current session: Some can be immune to the deadlines if theyre deemed necessary to implement the budget, or pieces could become part of other legislation or the budget. Opponents Monday afternoon emphasized a desire to give more input in future iterations. The scaled-down version of the bill had retained its central thrust of electrification and elimination of natural gas, Dan Kirschner with the Northwest Gas Association said in a phone interview with McClatchy. What concerned us most is the message we got is, Youre not a valued partner in our clean energy future but youre an impediment to it, he said. That wasnt going to work for us. Caleb Heeringa with the Sierra Club pointed out that the issue was still a little new to many legislators, and its tough to get everything that needs to be done across the finish line in a busy session. Were certainly hopeful, he said. Theres absolutely no way we can tackle the climate problem without addressing building emissions. German airline Lufthansa is to commence a twice-weekly Cork to Frankfurt service this summer connecting the two cities for the first time in eighteen years. Operated by Lufthansa CityLine, the airline will fly a Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft with 75 seats offering two flights per week on Monday and Friday commencing on June 25. The flight will depart Frankfurt Airport at 15.40 local time, arriving at Cork Airport at 16.45. The flight will depart Cork at 17.25 landing in Frankfurt at 20.30 local time, a flight time of two hours and five minutes. Almost 130 countries are yet to receive a single COVID-19 vaccine dose, as ten high-income countries secure the majority. This week, the first COVID-19 vaccine doses from the United Nations-led COVAX initiative arrived in Africa. This is a long-awaited piece of good news in a climate where vaccine procurement for developing countries has been hampered by empty promises, delays, infrastructure challenges and prejudice. While many richer countries have begun vaccinating their populations in earnest, the worlds poorest have been left behind in the global vaccines arms race. This disparity was highlighted by Henrietta Fore, executive director of Unicef, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, in a joint statement. While ten countries had secured 75 percent of the 128 million administered doses, almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, are yet to administer a single dose, they said. Those differences are not a coincidence. The ten countries that have dispersed the highest number of doses so far are developed countries that account for 60 per cent of global gross domestic product, according to the WHO. These countries, according to global research and data analysis outfit Our World in Data, are the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Russia, Germany and Spain. Canada has acquired enough doses to vaccinate every citizen five times. In contrast, most of the countries where no vaccine doses have been administered also report the highest levels of poverty. They are located mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. Health specialists now warn vaccine disparity in the developing world could threaten progress against SARS-CoV-2 in the global North, even as wealthy countries look set to immunize their populations by 2022. Fragmented and preferential access to the COVID-19 vaccine suggests human life is not the same across the world, said Joachim Osur, technical director at Amref Health Africa and dean of the School of Medical Sciences at Amref International University in Nairobi. It boils down to a moral and ethical question [rather] than a medical or economic one, as vaccine nationalism seems to override equity globally, he told SciDev.Net. Osur argues it could be counterproductive for the global North to overlook vaccine progress in poor countries. We live in a global village, as it were, and by ignoring humanity interconnectedness, governments are ultimately rendering a disservice to their own people, those they seek to protect." Joachim Osur, Technical Director at Amref Health Africa and Dean of the School of Medical Sciences, Amref International University To address these challenges, the WHO and partners established the COVAX initiative, a global alliance to accelerate the development of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world. COVAX aims to secure doses for at least 20 per cent of populations in more than 180 countries. Despite its optimistic objectives, several specialists say that COVAX will have a limited impact if there is no incentive for international cooperation to balance access to vaccines. At the G7 Early Leaders Summit (19 February), governments announced a doubling of funding for COVAX, including about US$1.2 billion from Germany and about $600 million from the European Union, plus $2 billion from the United States for 2021. A global vaccination campaign is the only road out of the pandemic, said Germanys economic cooperation and development minister, Gerd Muller. It must not fail for lack of financing. Both for humanitarian reasons and in our own interest. Because it will not be enough to control the spread of the disease only within Europe. Otherwise it will come back possibly in even more dangerous form. From the perspective of developing countries, these and additional vaccine pledges from the UK and France are positive news, said Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit. But they will probably represent only a drop in the ocean. Most poor countries will rely on COVAX to access coronavirus vaccines, but so far the programme has proved disappointing, said Demarais. High expectations, low results With a few exceptions, developing countries have been left behind in the procurement, distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. In Egypt, the health minister announced that vaccinations would begin by the second or third week of January after receiving 50,000 doses from AstraZeneca. But not a single dose has been allocated to the public so far and only 1,300 doses had been administered to medical teams by 29 January. The latest announcement from authorities was that the roll out would begin in March. In Argentina, president Alberto Fernandez publicly promised that ten million people would be vaccinated by February. But as of 17 February, only 633,975 doses have been distributed, with less than 392,000 people receiving the required two doses. In Kenya, the national COVID-19 immunization programme has been put off several times since December. The government announced on 12 February that it would roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine by mid-February through the COVAX facility, but due to supply backlog by the manufacturers, vaccines have not arrived yet. A leaked confidential government document circulating in local media indicated Kenya may have to wait until the second quarter of 2022 to received its first doses. A similar pattern has emerged in South-East Asia. Aside from Indonesia and India, the region has yet to begin vaccinating its population. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines are the laggards in the region, as they do not have clear schedules for when immunization programmes will begin. Delays in the arrival or distribution of jabs are just one part of the problem. Many countries have already faced the challenge of receiving far fewer doses than they require. This is the case in Mali, where the government announced on 21 January that it had placed an order for 8.4 million doses of vaccine (in addition to 1.5 million doses from the COVAX initiative), but that the first deliveries are not expected until the end of March. According to the Mali authorities, this quantity will vaccinate 4.2 million people with two doses each just 20 per cent of the countrys 20 million inhabitants. This is the general trend across Africa. In French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the lions share with seven million doses, for a population of around 84 million. Cameroon and Cote dIvoire, with a combined population of around 25 million, will receive two million doses. We are seeing this in a lot of countries the uncertainty of constantly receiving contradictory messages or, for example, amounts of doses that are promised, which in the end dont arrive, Cristian Castillo, a professor of economics and business studies at Spains Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), told SciDev.Net. Part of that uncertainty is caused by the pharmaceutical companies, which have not yet reached firm and real commitments as to the quantities they will be able to produce. On 4 February, Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, announced that the free distribution of vaccines through COVAX would begin in February with 90 million doses, enough to immunise only three per cent of the African population. The aim to vaccinate 20 per cent of African citizens will be possible by the end of 2021. But, Leopold Gustave Lehman, immuno-parasitologist at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Douala in Cameroon, says that the COVID-19 vaccine is not the priority for some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa now. Our priorities would be to put the money intended for the purchase of this vaccine in the fight against malaria and other infectious diseases. Because, the prevention of these diseases is a concern that requires more attention, he said. Cocktail of challenges There are a range of factors that have impeded vaccine access in developing countries. A non-peer-reviewed analysis (10 February) by the Argentinian Network of Health Researchers, described that in Latin America these factors include saturated health systems that are on the verge of collapse in some countries, such as Colombia and Peru. For Belen Herrero, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Buenos Aires and lead author of the analysis, false promises arise when countries overestimate their possibilities to obtain the vaccines, and refuse to admit their limited resources and capacity for negotiations. Cristian Castillo says logistical difficulties fall into three categories: vaccine environmental conditions, transport infrastructure, and safety. For instance, mRNA vaccines, such as the ones developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna must be transported and stored at temperatures below freezing. That requirement multiplies up to five times the cost of transport compared to conventional freezers, so it is to be expected that only countries with strong economic potential would be able to afford these vaccines, he said. And although these vaccines could be adapted to higher temperatures and other approved vaccines can be stored between two and eight degrees Celsius, a cold chain is still required. Many developing countries lack these facilities. That is why transport matters. Castillo points out that in Africa, air freight transport is almost non-existent, which inhibits the speedy delivery of vaccines to remote areas. In addition, African airport charges are among the highest in the world. Similar challenges appear on land. We find roads difficult to asphalt and others that, even if they are, lack the necessary maintenance to facilitate their circulation. This is a challenge that makes it even more difficult to get the vaccines to the different points of use on time, Castillo said. Conflict and corruption In terms of security, Castillo noted that vaccine shipments can become a clear target of organised crime syndicates and corrupt officials and should be deployed alongside a security network to ensure that the vaccines reach their destination. Conditions for accessing vaccines are especially challenging for countries in conflict, such as Syria, Yemen and Libya, where hospitals and health systems are in crisis. Since these countries may not have the resources to engage in direct negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, they are totally dependent on what the COVAX facility will provide. The philosophy for which the COVAX facility was established is to provide assistance to the neediest countries, and of course the countries in conflict come first, said Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean regional director. For Tammam Aloudat, the deputy medical director at Doctors Without Borders, it is important to keep that promise. He told SciDev.Net that conflict zones were key to contain the pandemic. If they are neglected, they will be a source of new waves of infection, both in their regions and worldwide. The final twist in the cocktail of challenges for the developing world is its political vulnerability and pandemic denialism. In Peru, nearly 500 people, including former President Martin Vizcarra as well as other top politicians and members of their families, were secretly vaccinated with a batch of 3,200 doses of Sinopharm vaccines sent in addition to those officially planned for use in a clinical trial at Cayetano Heredia University. In Argentina, the former health minister who was in charge of the countrys COVID-19 strategy, Gines Gonzalez, also resigned after it was revealed he authorized vaccines for politicians, journalists and business heads who were not in priority groups. Low vaccination rates have so far been seen in countries where political leaders downplayed or denied the scale of the pandemic, such as Brazil and Tanzania. Those countries, which coincidentally are developing countries, whose politicians have not been very favourable to publicly acknowledge the problem [of the pandemic] also contribute to the difficulty in [vaccine] distribution, Castillo said. If a distribution process is finally achieved with global financial aid, but once we have the doses there is no participation of the population, it is going to be nonsense. And this is where politics plays a fundamental role in sending the right message about the importance of getting vaccinated. Global collaboration: The real solution? In the face of global data that reveals some wealthy countries are hoarding vaccines while poorer countries wait for access, world health leaders and organizations, including the WHO, have launched sharp criticisms. I urge countries that have contracted more vaccines than they will need, and are controlling the global supply, to also donate and release them to COVAX immediately, which is ready today to rollout quickly, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference in January. Similar voices have urged regional collaboration to create equal access to vaccines. For the Argentinian researcher Belen Herrero, in this health crisis cooperation and regional integration become key elements to enhance the capacity of countries by complementing actions, not duplicating efforts. Such actions could have contributed, for example, towards strengthening cross-border cooperation; flights carrying equipment and vaccines could be arranged, joint negotiations would facilitate purchases and acquisitions with vaccine producers, all while strengthening regional capacities, she said. Cristian Castillo agrees: It would be useless for the so-called first world countries to worry about vaccinating their own population but forget about these developing countries. It would not make any sense we need to collaborate with these countries. While noting that the COVAX facility was an important initiative to assist lower-income countries to access COVID-19 vaccines, Joachim Osur, from Kenya, says it relies more on the goodwill of wealthy countries than on substantive legal and contractual mechanisms. And that is where we encounter a problem, he told SciDev.Net. Should the UK for instance agree that vaccines manufactured in its own territory be transported to other countries while its own citizens need it? And if the US has enough money to purchase vaccines for its citizens who are dying daily, should it go slow so that Africa, where the pandemic is more protracted, can also receive some doses? Strengthening health systems But, Africa should have been more proactive in securing COVID-19 vaccines, says Peter Ofware, the Kenya director at health and human rights organisation Health Right International. From where I sit, Africa lost the vaccine plot from the moment they allowed themselves to be subject to charity, he says. Ofware says collaboration is indeed needed, but it should focus on strengthening the political and technological development capabilities of poorer countries. The continent [Africa] should have forged collaborative deals with pharmaceutical companies from the word go so that some of the vaccines could be manufactured, cheaply, locally, so they can have easy access, like what is happening in India, he said. Cuba, says Herrero, is another example of a country that has developed vaccine independence and sustainability. Cubas progress in developing its own vaccines shows the importance of supporting scientific research, promoting technological development, strengthening and investing in health systems, in pursuit of sovereign health systems and the populations right to health, wrote Herrero in her analysis. While the world is facing almost 1.5 million deaths from COVID-19, it is also in the countries where there is the greatest devastation that a perspective seems to grow stronger: that the scientific and technological development must be at the center of discussions to contribute to alleviating the global emergencies of the future. [February 25, 2021] Paramount Group and Sarcos Robotics Sign MoU to Bring Highly Dexterous Mobile Robots for Defense Applications to the Middle East and Africa Paramount Group, the global aerospace and technology company, and Sarcos Robotics, a global leader in the development of innovative, highly dexterous mobile robotic systems designed for use in the defense, public safety and industrial sectors, today announced that the companies have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bring revolutionary robotic systems to government and industrial customers in the Middle East and Africa. Through this collaboration, the companies will explore market opportunities and modifications to Sarcos' award-winning robotic systems to address the region's unique requirements in the maritime and aerospace technology arenas. The companies will supply these modified systems to defense, aerospace and commercial customers in the Middle East and Africa. The robotic systems augment human performance through advanced technologies that reduce the risk of injury while increasing personnel efficiencies in operational, logistics and manufacturing environments such as naval shipyards, aircraft factories, or on military transport aircraft and more austere environments, including forward operating and during special operations. Sarcos and Paramount Group will focus their efforts initially on the Sarcos Guardian XO robotic exoskeleton-the world's first full-body, battery-powered wearable robot designed to increase strength and endurance-and the Guardian XT teleoperated dexterous robot, which has been developed to provide human-like dexterity while offering substantially greater strength, stamina and precision on a remote control basis. The Guardian XO, which was named a Best Invention of 2020 by TIME Magazine, will enable defense and industrial workers to lift and manipulate heavy objects up to 200 pounds, such as ammunition, vehicle tires, machinery and plywood, for a full shift or work day, due to its hot-swappable lithium ion batteries. Similarly, the Guardian XT, based on the upper-body portion of the Guardian XO, can be mounted to a variety of mobile bases and can be teleoperated to perform dexterous tasks at height, enabling the lifting and manipulating of heavy objects up to 200 pounds that are out of reach or are at a height that makes the task inherently dangerous for a human worker to prform, such as tasks associated with ship and aircraft production and maintenance and in the construction industry. The Guardian XO and Guardian XT are expected to be commercially available in the United States beginning in mid-2022. The award-winning Guardian S multi-purpose remote visual inspection and surveillance robot, a man-portable, cloud-connected IoT sensor platform, will also be available in the regions. The Guardian S robot has been designed to gather visual and sensor-based data regarding critical assets in various facilities. It can be teleoperated and facilitates two-way, real-time video, voice and data communication, performing tasks such as the detection of hazardous materials and gasses, surveillance operations and first-look inspections of environments that are dangerous or difficult for a human to operate within. The Guardian S robotic platform is available for purchase now. "Sarcos and Paramount share a vision to deliver revolutionary products that improve efficiency and reduce risk of injury in vigorous environments; bolstering workers' strength and amplifying performance in often ergonomically-stressful environments," said Ivor Ichikowitz, Chairman, Paramount Group. "We believe that the market opportunity to make an impact in the Middle East and Africa is significant, and we look forward to working with Sarcos to deliver a version of the company's game-changing robotics, accelerating access to what are today critical technologies, specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of our customers in these regions." "The Middle East and Africa are regions that show incredible promise," said Ben Wolff, chairman and CEO, Sarcos Robotics. "Given Paramount Group's extensive knowledge and experience within this region, we believe they will be an excellent partner to deliver on our vision for a safer, more productive global workforce." Sarcos is an innovator in the development of robotic systems that augment human performance by combining human intelligence, instinct and judgment with the strength, endurance and precision of machines to augment the workforce by enhancing human safety and productivity. For more information about Paramount Group, visit http://www.paramountgroup.com. For more information about Sarcos Defense, visit https://www.sarcos.com. About Sarcos Robotics Sarcos Robotics is the world leader in industrial robotic systems that augment human performance by combining human intelligence, instinct, and judgment with the strength, endurance, and precision of machines to enhance employee safety and productivity. Leveraging more than 25 years of research and development, Sarcos' mobile robotic systems, including the Guardian S, Guardian GT, and Guardian XO, are revolutionizing the future of work wherever physically demanding work is done. Formerly the robotics division of a major defense contractor, Sarcos is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, powered by an innovative team of entrepreneurs and engineers, and backed by Caterpillar, GE Ventures, Microsoft, and Schlumberger (News - Alert) . For more information, please visit www.sarcos.com. About Paramount Group Paramount Group is a leading global aerospace and technology company. It is a leader in defense and security innovation and a trusted partner to sovereign governments around the world, providing ground-breaking products, services and consultancy, including support for peacekeeping missions. Please visit www.paramountgroup.com for more information and follow the company on Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005934/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] TORONTO, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Frontera Energy Corporation (TSX: FEC) ("Frontera" or the "Company") announces that its year-end 2020 results, year-end 2020 independent reserves assessment and 2021 capital plan and guidance information will be released after markets close on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. A conference call for investors and analysts will be held on Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. (EST/GMT-5). Participants will include Gabriel de Alba, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Richard Herbert, Chief Executive Officer, Alejandro Pineros, Chief Financial Officer and select members of the senior management team. Analysts and investors are invited to participate using the following dial-in numbers: Participant Number (Toll Free North America): 1-888-664-6392 Participant Number (Toll Free Colombia): 01-800-518-4036 Participant Number (International): 1-416-764-8659 Conference ID: 91202363 Webcast Audio: www.fronteraenergy.ca A replay of the conference call will be available until 11:59 p.m. (EST/GMT-5) Thursday, March 11, 2021. Encore Toll free Dial-in Number: 1-888-390-0541 International Dial-in Number: 1-416-764-8677 Encore ID: 202363 About Frontera: Frontera Energy Corporation is a Canadian public company and a leading explorer and producer of crude oil and natural gas, with operations focused in South America. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets with interests in more than 40 exploration and production blocks in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana. The Company's strategy is focused on sustainable growth in production and reserves. Frontera is committed to conducting business safely, in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Frontera's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FEC". If you would like to receive news releases via e-mail as soon as they are published, please subscribe here: http://fronteraenergy.mediaroom.com/subscribe SOURCE Frontera Energy Corporation Related Links www.fronteraenergy.ca Reading through the memoirs of former US president Barack Obama, A Promised Land, one reaches the conclusion that Arab governments, especially in the past, wasted time and resources to either appease or oppose the United States when it was in no way necessary. Some made a huge effort in the attempt to challenge Washingtons imagined power over them, avoiding US interference in their day-to-day affairs. Others unsealed their coffers and wasted billions of dollars, thinking this would make the US turn a deaf ear to their problems. Both were wrong. Contrary to the beliefs of many in the Arab world, Obama writes in his nearly 800-page book, the United States is not a grand puppet master whimsically pulling the strings of countries with which it does business. As it turns out the idea that, because of its engagement in Middle East politics, the US made the Arab countries unable to take action or build up power, derailing their progress, is actually wrong. Its a narrative regrettably rooted in the mindset of the Arab peoples even though it was proved wrong again and again. It is true that the United States has acted foolishly in various parts of the world at different times. The attempt to impose an Americanised democracy in Somalia, for example, resulted in a lawless country living under the reign of terrorism and a state of havoc throughout the Horn of Africa. The desire for a regime change in Iraq because this guy wanted to kill my father, as George W Bush, Jr reportedly said of Saddam Hussein, resulted in a hugely divided Iraq still struggling to achieve normalcy. The use of excessive force to counter Al-Qaeda in a once civilised Afghanistan gave way to peace talks with the Qaeda-affiliated Taliban. Though a superpower, the US remains a nation bound by the business it does with other countries, as Obama put it, and it has never really risked that business. When the US imposed sanctions on the Islamist regime of Omar Al-Bashir in Sudan, for example, it still imported the Sudanese gum Arabic necessary for such products as Coca Cola. The United States is always working to ensure that American interests are safeguarded and US spheres of influence are not breached. But that does not mean meddling in the day-to-day running of other countries or enforcing its point of view on their governments now that they have learned the hard way how terrible the consequences can be. Such failures have cost the Americans dearly: loss of life, billions of dollars wasted on ineffective media campaigns to improve the US image, and most importantly the sense, passed from one Arab generation to the next, that the US wants to force a stereotyped model of democracy on people regardless of their own will. The US figures as the Great Satan or a colonial power hell-bent on instilling indecency among otherwise decent people. Egypt is another example of US failure in the region. It was largely thanks to Obamas famous statement Now means now, when furious protesters wanted Mubaraks head on a spike, that the latter stepped down, leaving a huge power vacuum. After Mubaraks fall, the Egyptians had their baptism of fire en route to the democratic transformation and many barked up the wrong tree by electing the Muslim Brotherhood. After they paid a heavy price, the average voter realised that the catchy slogans which the extremist group has advocated for 80 years, most notably the need to distance itself from such colonial powers as the United States, were but a veneer. The group was more than ready to align itself with the United States or even with the devil himself to stay in power. Meanwhile, US failure to understand Arab culture has fuelled anti-US sentiment and discourse, especially since Washington continues to align itself blindly with Israel against the legitimate demands of the Arab peoples concerning the Palestinian cause, historically the Arabs central concern. Obama courageously admitted that the US was indifferent to the searing humiliations endured by Palestinians living in occupied territory. In that department, Obama put it plainly that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have inherited his fathers unabashed hostility toward Arabs, and that his personality wont allow him any compromise or agreement. Though shocking, Obamas words are no surprise. It was not only Netanyahu who wanted everything. In 1972, one year before the Egyptian army humiliated Israel in the October War, Israels iron lady Golda Meir told AP her government would not give up in an inch of the land Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War. The United States is a superpower and it needs to act like one. A country of strict law and order and a vibrant democracy should engage in good faith with the Arab peoples and listen to the voice of their governments when it comes to hectic issues. More explicitly, peoples in such war-torn countries as Syria and Iraq are likely to see campaigns defending their freedom of speech as a luxury at a time when they are toiling to secure their most basic needs. The Biden administration will have a hard time improving a US image tarnished under Trump, But it is Obamas A Promised Land that is a must-read for those who would like to draw lessons on how to better manage their businesses with the worlds super power. *The writer is a former press attache in Ethiopia and an expert on African and international affairs. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: 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. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Muslim leaders in Oldham are being asked to attend training sessions to help increase vaccine uptake after a recent survey found 50% of the community would reject the jab. Oldham Mosques Council has urged prominent members of the community to attend workshops to educate them on the vaccine and on the Islamic point of view of taking it. The survey, taken in December 2020, asked local Muslims if they would accept the vaccine if it were offered to them 28% said yes, 22% said they were unsure and 50% said they would not take it. Members of the Muslim community learn about the benefits of having the Covid-19 vaccine (Peter Byrne/PA) Abdul Basit Shah, spokesman for OMC, said social media was to blame for the rising suspicion and disinformation about the vaccine. He said: The 50% that said no, because their information was based on what they received through social media and now what we are trying to do is we have got the professionals and people who know what they are talking about, and then if they have got concerns they can ask those questions. On the training days, he added: The first phase was to deliver this kind of training to prominent people, people who are volunteers, the champions, the Imams, the Mosque Committees, so they need to be fully informed on three things. Number one, it is about raising awareness, number two, that it is safe to use, and number three, is about encouraging and building peoples confidence, so that people are engaged. The training days, which have been taking place for the last three weeks and will continue for two weeks more, start with a 20-minute talk from an Islamic scholar, followed by a presentation with a local GP and then a question-and-answer session where any concerns can be raised and addressed. Members of the Muslim community in Oldham (Peter Byrne/PA) Mr Basit Shah added: What we are trying to do is to build their confidence so that they then go out into their community and send that message out to their groups, their organisations etc. The programme also aims to reach women leaders and is conducting several womens only sessions. He said: We need to make sure that this rollout is balanced between men and women It is not about division; it is about fairness and equality and we organise this training where people feel comfortable. The council and organisers will then assess the success of the programme through another survey and analysis of vaccine uptake numbers. Mr Basit Shah explained: At the end of the programme, we will do a follow-up of that and the follow-up will be that we are going to carry out another survey in a few weeks to a couple of months time, and then we are going to look at and review what progress we have made. We will see the progress on a number of things; peoples knowledge, peoples attitudes, behaviour, mindsets. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 06:00:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TUNIS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China has decided to donate 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Tunisia, the Chinese Embassy in Tunisia announced Thursday. "In view of the traditional and friendly relations between China and Tunisia, and in order to further support Tunisia's anti-epidemic efforts, the Chinese government has decided to provide Tunisia with 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the form of donation," the Chinese embassy said in a statement posted on its Facebook account. "China reaffirms its readiness to continue to help Tunisia in its fight against the coronavirus to the extent possible," the statement added. In response, the Tunisian Presidency expressed its "sincere thanks to China for this willingness, which reflects the continuous cooperation between the two countries." Enditem 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. New Delhi: The Union Health ministry said on Thursday that an advisory has been issued to all states and Union Territories to expand Covid-19 vaccination to all public healthcare facilities along with medical centres empanelled in the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and PM Jan Aarogya Yojana (PM-JAY) for the next phase of vaccination for people above 60 set to begin from March 1. The ministry said that a meeting was held in this regard on Wednesday where the progress of ongoing vaccination was reviewed. "The meeting was held with all states and UTs on Wednesday to review progress of Covid-19 vaccination drives. They were advised to focus on improving the pace of vaccination," Joint Secretary, Health, Mandeep Bhandari, said. The third phase of vaccination against Covid-19 will begin from March 1 and cover people above 60 and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities. While people will be vaccinated free of cost at government hospitals, those taking the shots at private hospitals will have to pay. "People above 60 years of age and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be vaccinated at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres from March 1," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had said on Wednesday. "The vaccine will be given free of cost at government centres while the private centres will charge for the vaccination. The rate will be decided in next three or four days," he had said. Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry is engaged in talks with vaccine manufacturers and private hospitals to decide the charge for vaccination to all civilians. India launched the world's largest vaccination drive on January 16 for the healthcare and frontline workers. According to government data, over 18 lakh people have been administered two doses of Covid vaccines so far. The cumulative vaccination coverage has crossed 1.3 crore recipients. India's drugs regulator on January 3 approved Oxford Covid-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute, and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country. OTTAWA - The federal government was granted one more month Thursday to expand access to medical assistance in dying even as its efforts to do so stalled in the House of Commons. Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons, in Ottawa, Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. The federal government will be back in court this morning to seek a fourth extension to the court-imposed deadline for expanding access to medical assistance in dying. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - The federal government was granted one more month Thursday to expand access to medical assistance in dying even as its efforts to do so stalled in the House of Commons. Quebec Superior Court Justice Martin Sheehan agreed to give the government a fourth extension until March 26 to bring the law into compliance with a 2019 court ruling. But he suggested this will be the last one. Given that the government is close to finally reforming Canada's assisted-dying law, Sheehan said "it is appropriate to grant a final extension to allow it to end." But he added, if the government can't meet the new deadline, "it must be deduced that this incapacity results from a lack of consensus on the sensitive issues raised rather than exceptional circumstances justifying an extension." Sheehan's decision came just one day before the previous deadline was to expire. The 2019 ruling struck down a provision in the law that allows assisted dying only for those whose natural deaths are "reasonably foreseeable." Bill C-7 is intended to bring the law into compliance with the ruling, expanding access to assisted dying to intolerably suffering individuals who are not approaching the ends of their lives. However, the bill is stalled in the Commons, where the Conservatives refused for the third straight day Thursday to facilitate debate on a motion laying out the government's response to amendments passed last week by the Senate. Conservative MPs talked out the clock on the motion Tuesday and then refused the unanimous consent needed to extend the debate until midnight, despite calling last week for extended hours to allow thorough debate on the issue. They refused unanimous consent again Wednesday to allow the Commons to sit into the night to wrap up debate on the motion. And they refused unanimous consent again to sit Thursday night. The Bloc Quebecois offered to give up its opposition day Thursday, an opportunity for it to set the agenda in the Commons, to allow debate on the motion to continue. The minority Liberal government decided that would be pointless, given the Conservatives' stalling tactics. "Conservatives have twice blocked our proposal that the House sit late to debate this important issue, despite claiming that they want extended hours," Mark Kennedy, a spokesman for government House leader Pablo Rodriguez, said late Wednesday. "Based on this, we now know that Conservatives will continue to obstruct, and cancelling the Bloc opposition day tomorrow will not change anything." The Conservatives were largely opposed to the original bill and object even more strenuously to the amended version the government is now proposing. The bill originally would have imposed a blanket ban on assisted dying for people suffering solely from mental illnesses. The government is now proposing a two-year time limit on that exclusion, six months longer than the time limit approved by senators. The government has rejected another Senate amendment that would have allowed advance requests for assisted dying, as well as an amendment intended to clarify what constitutes a mental illness. It has accepted a modified version of two others. The Bloc has said it will support the government's response to the Senate amendments, assuring the motion's eventual passage. But until Conservatives agree to wrap up debate, it can't be put to a vote. Once the motion is passed, the bill will still have to go back to the Senate for senators to decide whether to accept the verdict of the elected parliamentary chamber or dig in their heels on their amendments. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2021. Millennials availed digital loans in 2020 to meet their emergency fund requirements like medical expenses, and credit refinancing. It is a trend that was not seen in earlier years. There was also a surge in loan demand for home renovation post the lockdown, according to a report by CASHe, a digital lending platform. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle "A year back, millennials were more skewed towards consumer durable purchases," stated the report' Millennial Loan-o-Nomics', which analysed an active pool of over 4 lakh loan applications. As the new situation emerged due to the pandemic, millennials' borrowing behaviour changed compared to earlier years. As many lost jobs or employers cut their salaries, 16% of millennials availed loans for credit refinancing. Those between 30 and 40 years accounted for about 51% of the loans taken. Most borrowers (41%) in 2020 were those earning between 10,000 and Rs-25,000. A year earlier, those with income between 25,000 and 50,000 took most loans. Loan demand was highest, at 81%, from millennials earning 10,000 50,000, and 76% preferred small-ticket loans ranging between 10,000 and 50, 000 The survey also compared Android with Apple phone users. Of the total loans disbursed, 90% were availed by Android users. Most of them used Samsung, Xiaomi and Vivo smartphones. Among cities, most applications were from Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Gurugram and Kolkata. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. NORTHAMPTON A King Street bank was robbed Thursday morning, but police say the suspect was apprehended two hours later in Charlemont. The name of the suspect and the charges were not being disclosed Thursday afternoon, police said. Officers were dispatched to Peoples United Bank at 43 King St. just before 11:30 a.m. The suspect had fled with an undisclosed amount of cash before police arrived. Police used surveillance footage from neighboring businesses to see the suspect leave the bank and drive off in a truck from a nearby parking lot. Easthampton and Massachusetts State Police assisted in the investigation. L.A. Civil Rights Dept., Black Journalists Discuss Challenges of Equity in Media The perspective of Blacks is a critical element of accurate reporting, especially when it comes racially-tinged events such as the rise of White supremacist groups and the inauguration of the first Black woman vice president. But are the people responsible for those reports making an effort to include the minority viewpoint? Thats the question the Los Angele Civil + Human Rights & Equity Department sought to answer on Feb. 23. Through forum called African American Equity in Media, the new city agency known as L.A. Civil Rights brought together three representatives of the citys leading media to review how Blacks are represented in newsrooms and news coverage. LA Civil Rights Executive Director Capri Maddox moderated the event, which featured Beverly White, NBC4 news reporter; Angel Jennings, L.A. Times assistant managing editor of culture and talent; Brandon Brooks, L.A. Sentinel and L.A. Watts Times editor. ADVERTISEMENT In his welcoming remarks, Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas said, In the past year, we have seen communities like ours come together to make it absolutely clear that Black lives matter. Covering these events and standing on the front lines of history are the African American reporters, photographers and newspapers that are so crucial to our nations conversation and how we bring more African Americans into the newsroom to tell our stories. Explaining the reason for the forum, Maddox noted, The conversation today is meant to explore the state of equity in L.A.s newsrooms as well as the challenges and opportunities facing Black journalists. Having representation matters and its important to have a pipeline for people to become reporters and editors. It makes all of us better to share that information more broadly. Maddox opened the session by asking the panel how they started in the field. White, has been with NBC4 for nearly 30 years, said shes been inquisitive all of her life and thought reporting would be a natural fit. After taking journalism classes in her junior year at the University of Texas, she decided to pursue it as a vocation and admitted, Its been a wonderful run thus far. She also cited her late grandfather as an influence, recalling, We used to sit and watch the news together and I fell in love with current events. Jennings was also a curious child and talkative and nosy as well. My mother would say, Stay out of grown folks business, so I learned to listen, remembered Jennings. Listening led to asking questions, which ultimately led me to this field. As a teen, she wrote for her high school newspaper and volunteered for other activities connected to journalism. Jennings received a scholarship to University of Nebraska and said, It was such a great opportunity to study my craft. After serving several internships at media outlets around the country, she landed at the L.A. Times and previously served as a Metro reporter before being promoted to her current position where she also supervises the papers Metro Diversity Fellowship Program. If you like to talk and write, this is a good career for you, insisted Jennings, who also encouraged young people to seriously consider journalism as a profession. ADVERTISEMENT Recounting his journey, Brooks said, I tell people to put yourself in an uncomfortable position because you really dont know what you are capable of until you are in that position. He said, I was fresh out of college, trying to find my way, when he joined the Sentinel about 15 years ago, thanks to an offer from his cousin, Danny Bakewell, Jr., who is the Sentinel executive editor, and his uncle, Danny Bakewell, Sr., who is the executive publisher. I was blessed to work in the family business and I dove in. I worked in Classifieds, Accounting, Accounts Receivable, Production, Editorial and in any and every aspect of the newspaper business. I worked my way up and I just fell in love with it, Brooks said. The Sentinel is an institution. Its been around for 87 years and Im just carrying the torch. I love Black people and Im inspired that everyday, I get to learn about outstanding Black people! Maddox also asked the panelists what has it meant for African American journalists to report on the last year of racial reckoning and what is it like to report on some of the hardships that Blacks have experienced. Regarding her long career at NBC4 and the impact of reporting over the last year, White said, I first came to Los Angeles in the fall of 1992 and was told that I was brought in to deal with the racial reckoning of that era. They didnt call it that, but I was recruited because there were not enough people who looked like me and Im glad they had the foresight to include me. KNBC4 had gone seven years without a Black female reporter. White added that one of the positive changes she has noticed over the year is seeing more reporters of color on the anchor desk. We are changing in this industry and Im proud to be a part of it, said White, who previously served as a president of the National Association of Black Journalists Los Angeles Chapter. There are signs of hope and praise be the memory of George Floyd because his passing awakened everyone and gave a chance for everyone to see the inequalities in the streets. Brooks shared that the significance of the Black Press is being revealed in the midst of racial unrest. Weve always been here to tell the story of Black people, but we were often overlooked by the mainstream media. But, the Sentinel survived due to Black entrepreneurs like Colonel Leon Washington and his wife, Ruth, who founded the paper and set a standard that was followed by Kenneth and Jennifer Thomas, who were the next publishers. Ultimately, the torch was passed to Mr. Bakewell, who understands the importance of Black media, Black perspective and Black ownership. The group also encouraged Black audiences to communicate with media reporters and executives and let them know about good news stories as well as about issues that are important to minority neighborhoods. In addition, the panelists urged listeners not to be discouraged if they dont get an immediate response to their inquiry or comment, but to continue sharing feedback with the media. African American Equity in Media discussion is available for viewing on YouTube.com and Facebook.com/lacivilrights. A North Korean defector was caught on camera crossing a DMZ that is one of the most heavily guarded areas on Earth, then wandered around the South Korean side for six hours before finally being noticed. The man, who has not been identified by South Korean authorities, evaded detection for much of his treacherous journey last week, which involved swimming and crawling through a tunnel. Grainy video footage, obtained by South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun, shows a dark figure passing under a road sign as bright lights flash. The grainy video footage, obtained by South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun, shows a dark figure passing under a road sign as bright lights flash Wearing a diving suit and fins, the man had swum for around six hours in the ocean in the dead of night, coming ashore almost two miles inside South Korean territory, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this week in a report cataloguing a series of failures by border security troops. He then passed under a fence by climbing through a drainage tunnel that security forces had been unaware of, the report said. Despite triggering alarms and appearing on surveillance cameras multiple times, the man was not noticed until around three hours after he came ashore, the JCS said. It took troops several more hours to track him down and detain him. The delays in detecting the man drew fresh criticism of border security, after a similar publicly known case in November, when a North Korean man defected to the South via the eastern DMZ. Defections across the DMZ are rare, as the area is closely guarded by troops from both sides, and is strewn in many places with barbed wire, landmines, and other barriers. After North Korea closed its border with China last year to guard against a coronavirus outbreak, defections through the more usual routes have slowed to a trickle. Wearing a diving suit and fins, the man had swum for around six hours in the ocean in the dead of night, coming ashore almost two miles inside South Korean territory In the other direction, North Korean soldiers and police were ordered to 'shoot on sight' anyone within half a mile of the country's border with China in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. Pyongyang sources only learned of the draconian new measure less than a day before it took effect. Police in the city of Hoeryong said they would kill anyone within such a distance of the boundary 'regardless of their reason for being there', RFA reported. The policy is being enforced along the entire 880-mile border until the end of the pandemic to try and prevent transmission of Covid-19 through contact with people from China. The government has sent ammunition to the police to help carry out the ruthless policy, with sources claiming 'no one will be held responsible for shooting deaths' that occur within such a distance. By Danny Tyree VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calibre Mining Corp. (TSX: CXB; OTCQX: CXBMF) ("Calibre" or the "Company") announces financial and operational results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2020 ("Q4 2020" and "2020", respectively). Annual Consolidated Financial Statements and the corresponding Management Discussion & Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2020 can be found at www.sedar.com (http://www.sedar.com) and the Company's website, www.calibremining.com (http://www.calibremining.com). All figures are expressed in U.S. dollars. 2020 HIGHLIGHTS2 Gold production of 136,009 ounces: Limon produced 64,558 ounces from 428,081 tonnes of ore processed at an average grade of 5.25 g/t Au and an 89.8% recovery rate; and Libertad produced 71,451 ounces from 1,301,076 tonnes of ore processed at an average grade of 1.88 g/t Au and a 92.9% recovery rate. Gold sales of 135,357 ounces generated $242.7 million in revenue, with an average realized gold price 1 of $1,793/oz (2019: gold sales of 38,993 ounces generating $57.8 million in revenue, with an average realized gold price 1 of $1,481/oz). of $1,793/oz (2019: gold sales of 38,993 ounces generating $57.8 million in revenue, with an average realized gold price of $1,481/oz). Net income of $63.4 million (2019: $0.9 million) & basic net income per share of $0.19 (2019: $0.01). All-in Sustaining Cost ("AISC") 1 at Limon, Libertad and on a consolidated basis of $995, $977 and $1,043, respectively (2019: $928, $889, and $959, respectively). at Limon, Libertad and on a consolidated basis of $995, $977 and $1,043, respectively (2019: $928, $889, and $959, respectively). Cash generated from operating activities of $81.3 million (2019: $19.2 million). Paid $15.5 million in deferred acquisition payments to B2Gold, ending the year debt free. Cash investment of $46.6 million in capital, including $13.4 million on exploration and related expenditures. Advanced Pavon development with initial mill feed delivered to Libertad in January 2021. Acquired the remaining 70% interest in the Eastern Borosi Project from IAMGOLD Corporation. Executed exploration option and alliance agreements with Rio Tinto Exploration. Completed an 80,000 metre infill, resource expansion and discovery drilling program. Q4 2020 HIGHLIGHTS2 Gold production of 42,573 ounces: Limon produced 19,006 ounces from 120,109 tonnes of ore processed at an average grade of 5.48 g/t Au and an 89.5% recovery rate; and Libertad produced 23,567 ounces from 381,118 tonnes of ore processed at an average grade of 1.97 g/t Au and a 92.2% recovery rate. Gold sales of 42,335 ounces generating $79.7 million in revenue, with an average realized gold price 1 of $1,882/oz. (Q4 2019: gold sales of 38,993 ounces generating $57.8 million in revenue, with an average realized gold price 1 of $1,481/oz). of $1,882/oz. (Q4 2019: gold sales of 38,993 ounces generating $57.8 million in revenue, with an average realized gold price of $1,481/oz). Net income of $23.3 million (Q4 2019: $3.1 million) and basic net income per share of $0.07 (Q4 2019: $0.01). AISC1 at Limon, Libertad and on a consolidated basis of $1,025, $1,003 and $1,051, respectively (Q4 2019: $928, $889, and $959, respectively). Russell Ball, CEO of Calibre stated: "I am extremely pleased with what the team accomplished during a difficult year which saw us change the way we do business to protect employees, contractors and communities from the COVID-19 pandemic. "The most notable milestone saw our shift in operating philosophy from running each asset independently to a 'hub-and-spoke' approach, allowing us to take advantage of excess processing capacity at the Libertad complex, extending mine life and generating significant shareholder value in the process." CONSOLIDATED RESULTS - Q4 2020 AND 2020 Consolidated Financial Results2 $'000 (except per share and per ounce amounts) Q4 2020 Q4 2019 2020 2019 Revenue $ 79,677 $ 57,763 $ 242,748 $ 57,763 Cost of sales (including depreciation and amortization) (45,086 ) (44,419 ) (133,135 ) (44,419 ) Operating income $ 34,591 $ 13,344 $ 109,613 $ 13,334 Net income $ 23,255 $ 3,130 $ 63,413 $ 920 Net income per share (basic) $ 0.07 $ 0.01 $ 0.19 $ 0.01 Net income per share (fully diluted) $ 0.06 $ 0.01 $ 0.18 $ 0.01 Cash generated from operating activities $ 28,736 $ 20,675 $ 81,261 $ 19,167 CAPEX: Mine development and PPE $ 12,352 $ 9,997 $ 35,576 $ 10,013 CAPEX: Exploration $ 5,886 $ 1,670 $ 15,472 $ 3,796 CAPEX: Acquisition of EBP $ - $ - $ 4,000 $ - Average realized gold price ($/oz)1 $ 1,882 $ 1,481 $ 1,793 $ 1,481 Total Cash Costs ($/oz)1 $ 940 $ 866 $ 878 $ 866 AISC ($/oz)1 $ 1,051 $ 959 $ 1,043 $ 959 Consolidated Operational Results 2 Q4 2020 Q4 2019 2020 2019 Ore Mined (t) 528,213 457,843 1,773,971 457,843 Ore Milled (t) 501,228 453,475 1,729,157 453,475 Grade (g/t Au) 2.81 2.62 2.71 2.62 Recovery (%) 90.9 94.0 91.4 94.0 Gold Production (ounces) 42,573 33,506 136,009 33,506 Gold Sales (ounces) 42,335 38,993 135,357 38,993 OPERATING RESULTS Limon: Q4 2020 Total mine production consisted of 219,428 ore tonnes at an average grade of 4.28 g/t gold. The majority of the mine production originated from the Limon Central (173,651 tonnes at an average grade of 4.51 g/t gold), the Santa Pancha underground mine (29,559 tonnes at an average grade of 3.11 g/t gold), with the remaining tonnes mined from Veta Nueva. Effective June 1, 2020, the Company considers Limon Central Phase 2 to be in commercial production and defers stripping waste material above the average life of mine waste: ore strip ratio. Limon produced 19,006 ounces driven by an average mill grade of 5.48 g/t gold and recovery of 89.5% from 120,109 tonnes of ore milled. Gold production in Q4 2019 was 15,440 ounces, slightly lower when compared to Q4 2020, as a result of higher tonnes processed from operating for 3 months (in Q4 2020) compared to 2 months in Q4 2019. AISC1 was $1,025 in the Q4 2020 period compared to $928 in Q4 2019, due to lower grade ore mined from Limon Central open pit related to the mine sequence. Capital expenditures were $8.9 million, including $1.7 million of capitalized stripping of Limon Central Phase 2, $1.6 million for the advancement of the Veta Nueva underground mine, and $3.2 million for development of the Panteon underground mine. In addition, the Company incurred $1.5 million of exploration costs on exploration and in-fill drilling. In Q4 2020, in-fill drilling was completed at Limon Central, Limon Norte and Veta Nueva. Exploration drilling occurred at Panteon, Tigra-Chaparral and Atravesada. Limon: 2020 Total mine production consisted of 644,492 ore tonnes at an average grade of 4.46 g/t gold. The majority of the mine production originated from the Limon Central open-pit, totaling 522,962 tonnes at an average grade of 4.63 g/t gold, the Santa Pancha underground mine totaling 90,489 tonnes at an average grade of 3.59 g/t gold, with the remaining tonnes mined from Veta Nueva. Limon produced 64,558 ounces driven by an average mill grade of 5.25 g/t gold and recovery of 89.8% from 428,081 tonnes of ore milled. Capital expenditures were $26.8 million, including $13.2 million of capitalized stripping of Limon Central Phase 2, $3.3 million for the development of the Veta Nueva mine, $3.2 million for development of Panteon and $1.7 million of sustaining capital for the San Jose Tailings storage facility expansion. In addition, the Company incurred $4.3 million of exploration costs for resource infill and exploration drilling. Libertad: Q4 2020 The majority of Libertad's mine production consisted of 100,434 tonnes of ore from the Jabali Antena open-pit grading 3.31 g/t and 172,159 tonnes grading 0.68 g/t from "spent ore" stockpiles. Mined production includes 8,534 tonnes of ore purchased from artisanal miners at Pavon at an average grade of 20.41 g/t. The Company's operating philosophy of "hub-and-spoke" resulted in 100,898 tonnes of ore grading 2.86 g/t being shipped from Limon and included in Libertad's mill production (an increase of 26% in tonnes when compared to Q3 2020). Libertad reported gold production of 23,567 ounces from an average mill grade of 1.97 g/t and recovery of 92.2% from 381,118 tonnes of ore milled. Gold production in 2020 was 23,567 ounces compared to 18,066 in the 2019 period from higher grade ores processed. AISC1 in 2020 was $1,003 compared to $889 in 2019 from higher underground mining costs during the ramp up of Jabali underground from the resumption of operations. Capital expenditures totaled $3.4 million, including $2.5 million for advancement at Pavon, which included road construction. Exploration drilling of $2.8 million was spent at Jabali, Rosario, Socorro, Pavon and El Carmen. Libertad: 2020 The Libertad mine had limited operations during Q2 2020 as a result of the temporary suspension in April 2020 related to COVID-19 and the phased in restart during June 2020. The mine reached steady-state operations in early July 2020. The majority of Libertad's mine production consisted of 367,543 tonnes of ore from the Jabali open-pit grading 3.27 g/t and 697,169 tonnes grading 0.75 g/t from previously processed "spent ore" stockpiles. Mined production includes 31,932 tonnes of ore purchased from artisanal miners at Pavon at an average grade of 17.74 g/t. The mill feed included 220,623 tonnes of ore grading 2.80 g/t shipped from Limon, in accordance with our "hub-and-spoke" operating philosophy. Libertad reported gold production of 71,451 ounces from an average mill grade of 1.88 g/t and recovery of 92.9% from 1,301,076 tonnes of ore milled. On August 5, 2020, the Company announced that blasting and mining activities recommenced at the Jabali underground mine, below the Jabali Antena open pit. Jabali underground represents an important long-term source of high-grade ore for the Libertad mill and is a focus of our expanded drilling program. The Company currently maintains three drill rigs completing resource infill and step-out drilling at Jabali, which as at December 31, 2019, hosted an inferred mineral resource of 1.24 million tonnes at an average grade of 7.87 g/t containing 315,000 ounces of gold. Through our expanded drilling program, Calibre sees excellent potential to upgrade inferred to indicated resources while expanding the resource inventory along strike and down plunge to the west. During Q3 and Q4 2020, the Jabali underground mine was being reconditioned and ramping up from the restart of operations and mined 2,648 and 25,252 tonnes of ore, respectively. During Q4 2020, mining the current phase of the Jabali Antena open-pit was completed and Libertad will transition to ore processed mainly from Jabali underground, the commencement of mining from Pavon Norte which occurred in January 2021 and ore deliveries from Limon. Capital expenditures totaled $8.7 million, including $4.7 million for advancement at Pavon, sustaining capital of $1.0 million for the resettlement of households at Bario Jabali and sustaining capital of $0.9 million for Jabali underground development. Expenditures of $8.7 million for combined infill and exploration drilling programs were incurred at Jabali, Tranca, Rosario, Amalia, Socorro, Nancite, Pavon, El Carmen and San Antonio. CONSOLIDATED Q4 2020 AND 2020 FINANCIAL REVIEW Mining Operations During Q4 2020, the Company sold 42,335 ounces of gold, at an average realized price1 of $1,882/oz, for revenue of $79.7 million. This compares to Q4 2019 revenue of $57.8 million from selling 38,993 ounces at an average realized price1 of $1,481/oz. The $21.9 million increase in revenue is from $4.9 million volume variance and $17.0 million from higher realized gold prices. Gold sold of 42,335 ounces in Q4 2020 was an increase of 3,342 ounces over 2019 from higher tonnes processed (3 months of operation in 2020 vs 2 months in 2019 and higher-grade ores processed at Libertad in 2020 from ore deliveries from Limon which did not occur in 2019). During 2020, the Company sold 135,357 ounces of gold, at an average realized price1 of $1,793/oz, for revenue of $242.7 million. The average spot gold price for the year was $1,770/oz. Total cost of sales for Q4 2020 was $45.1 million which included production costs of $36.0 million, royalties and production taxes of $3.6 million, refinery and transportation of $0.3 million, and depreciation of $5.3 million. For 2020, total cost of sales included $133.1 million which included $107.9 million of production costs, $10.1 million in royalties and production taxes, $0.8 million in refinery and transportation costs, and $14.3 million in depreciation. The expenditures for 2020 incurred for nearly a full quarter of operations in Q1 2020, very limited Q2 2020 operations (as a result of the previously discussed COVID-19 pandemic temporary suspension) and nearly a full quarter for Q3 2020 and a full quarter of operations in Q4 2020. Total production costs were $36.0 million in Q4 2020 compared to $39.2 million in Q4 2019. Q4 2019 was negatively impacted by a purchase price adjustment of $8.4 million related to the valuation of metal inventory acquired on the purchase of the Nicaragua Assets on October 15, 2019. Depreciation in Q4 2020 was $5.3 million compared to $2.3 million for Q4 2019. The higher depreciation in Q4 2020 relates to higher mining rates at Limon to enable ore deliveries to Libertad. Total Cash Costs1 for 2020 of $878 and AISC1 of $1,043 per ounce are in line with guidance issued November 4, 2020 of Total Cash Costs1 of $870 to $890 and AISC of $1,050 to $1,070. For the period October 15, 2019 through December 31, 2019, Total Cash Costs1 were $866 and AISC1 were $959 per ounce. The higher costs in 2020 relates to lower-grade ore mined from Limon Central related to mine sequencing and restart costs of Jabali underground. Expenses and Net Income G&A of $1.6 million in Q4 2020 compared to $1.4 million in Q4 2019; G&A for 2020 was $7.7 million compared to $3.5 million for 2019. The increase is the result of increased salaries and wages associated with higher staffing levels including enhancements to the senior management team and compensation plans required for Calibre's transition from exploration to gold producer. The increase is also related to higher levels of overall corporate activity including regulatory costs associated with Calibre's transition from the TSX Venture Exchange to the TSX Stock Exchange and higher professional fees. G&A expenses of $7.7 million compare favorably with the $8 to $9 million guidance issued on November 4, 2020. 2020 share-based compensation was $5.5 million compared to $1.3 million in 2019. The increase in 2020 relates to the granting of options and RSUs in Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 as the Company enhanced its management team and increased staffing levels in connection with the acquisition of the Nicaragua Assets from B2Gold. Current and deferred income tax expense was $6.0 million during Q4 2020 and $22.8 million for 2020 ($3.2 million for Q4 2019 and 2019). Current and deferred tax expense includes alternative minimum taxes and ad valorem taxes paid by the Company. The income tax rate in 2020 was 26% (total taxes divided by net income before taxes) compared to 78% in 2019. 2020 benefited from higher utilization of previously unrecognized tax assets (mainly utilization of loss carry-forwards). Additionally, 2019 was impacted by low pre-tax income which had one of the mines paying the alternative minimum tax. As a result, net income per share was $0.07 (basic) and $0.06 (diluted) for Q4 2020 (Q4 2019: $0.01 for both basic and diluted) and income of $0.19 (basic) and $0.18 (diluted) for 2020 (2019: $(0.01 basic and diluted)). 2021 OUTLOOK (based on a gold price assumption of $1,800 per ounce) Consolidated Gold Production/Sales (ounces) 170,000 - 180,000 Total Cash Costs1 ($/ounce) $950 - $1,050 AISC1 ($/ounce) $1,040 - $1,140 Effective Tax Rate (%) 30% - 35% Growth Capital ($ million) $35 - $40 Exploration Capital ($ million) $14 - $17 G&A ($ million) $7 - $8 2021Growth Capital: Summary/Analysis - Figure 1 (https://calibremining.com/site/assets/files/4486/2021-01-12-cxb-f1.png) 2021Exploration Capital: Summary/Analysis - Figure 2 (https://calibremining.com/site/assets/files/4486/2021-01-12-cxb-f2.png) The Company's initial guidance for 2021 represents a production increase of approximately 30% from 2020 gold production at a marginally higher AISC1 (an increase of approximately 5% using the mid-point of guidance). 2021 gold production is forecast to be relatively constant quarter over quarter; however, the Company expects lower Total Cash Costs1 and AISC1 during the second half of the year by approximately 8%. Growth Capital is also expected to be lower during the second half of the year by approximately 30%. Growth capital outside AISC1 includes underground development at Panteon to bring on a second, high-grade ore shoot, Pavon for the start-up of the mine and Limon stripping in excess of the planned life-of-mine stripping rate, land acquisition and advancing our Eastern Borosi Project, which is expected to be the next "spoke" for the Libertad complex. Q4 2020 AND 2020 FINANCIAL RESULTS CONFERENCE CALL AND 2021 OUTLOOK DETAILS Date: Thursday, February 25, 2021 Time: 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Number: +1 (866) 221-1882 or +1 (470) 495-9179 (International) Webcast Link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/yk6etyhw (https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/yk6etyhw) Conference ID: 9476435 The live webcast can be accessed here (https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/yk6etyhw) or at www.calibremining.com (http://www.calibremining.com) under the Events and Media section under the Investors tab. The live audio webcast will be archived and made available for replay at www.calibremining.com (http://www.calibremining.com). Presentation slides which will accompany the conference call will be made available in the Investors section of the Calibre website under Presentations, prior to the conference call. Qualified Person Darren Hall, MAusIMM, SVP & Chief Operating Officer of Calibre Mining Corp. is a "qualified person" as set out under NI 43-101 has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this news release. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Russell Ball" Russell Ball, Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact: Ryan King Vice President, Corporate Development & IR T: 604.628.1010 E: calibre@calibremining.com (mailto:calibre@calibremining.com) W: www.calibremining.com About Calibre Mining Corp. Calibre Mining is a Canadian-listed gold mining and exploration company with two 100%-owned operating gold mines in Nicaragua. The Company is focused on sustainable operating performance and a disciplined approach to growth. Since the acquisition of the Limon, Libertad gold mines and Pavon Gold Project, Calibre has proceeded to integrate its operations into a 'hub-and-spoke' operating philosophy whereby the Company can take advantage of reliable infrastructure, favorable transportation costs, and multiple high-grade ore sources that can be processed at either Limon or Libertad, which have a combined 2.7 million tonnes of annual mill throughput capacity. Note 1: Non-IFRS Measures: Calibre has included certain non-IFRS measures in this news release, as discussed below. The Company believes that these measures, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, provides investors with an improved ability to evaluate the underlying performance of the Company. These non-IFRS measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to other issuers. Total Cash Costs per Ounce of Gold Sold ("Total Cash Costs") Total Cash Costs include mine site operating costs such as mining, processing, and local administrative costs (including stock-based compensation related to mine operations), royalties, production taxes, mine standby costs and current inventory write-downs, if any. Production costs are exclusive of depreciation and depletion, reclamation, capital, and exploration costs. Total Cash Costs are net of by-product silver sales and are divided by gold ounces sold to arrive at a per ounce figure. All-In Sustaining Costs per Ounce of Gold Sold ("AISC") AISC is a performance measure that reflects the expenditures that are required to produce an ounce of gold from current operations. While there is no standardized meaning of the measure across the industry, the Company's definition is derived from the definition, as set out by the World Gold Council in its guidance dated June 27, 2013 and November 16, 2018, respectively. The World Gold Council is a non-regulatory, non-profit organization established in 1987 whose members include global senior mining companies. The Company believes that this measure is useful to external users in assessing operating performance and the ability to generate free cash flow from operations. Calibre defines AISC as the sum of Total Cash Costs (per above), sustaining capital (capital required to maintain current operations at existing production levels), capital lease repayments, corporate general and administrative expenses, exploration expenditures designed to increase resource confidence at producing mines, amortization of asset retirement costs and rehabilitation accretion related to current operations. AISC excludes capital expenditures for significant improvements at existing operations deemed to be expansionary in nature, exploration and evaluation related to resource growth, rehabilitation accretion not related to current operations, financing costs, debt repayments, and taxes. Total AISC is divided by gold ounces sold to arrive at a per ounce figure. Average Realized Price per Ounce Sold Average realized price per ounce sold is a common performance measure that does not have any standardized meaning. The most directly comparable measure prepared in accordance with IFRS is revenue from gold sales. Note 2: Consolidated financial and operational results for Q4 2019 and 2019 includes the results from the Nicaragua Assets acquired form B2Gold and discussed in the section Corporate Development, since their acquisition, from the period of October 15, 2019 to December 31, 2019 only. Prior to October 15, 2019, Calibre was an exploration stage company with no operations in production. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, including: the Company's projected gold production from Limon (the "Limon Production"); the Company's projected gold production from Libertad (the "Libertad Production"); and outlook, guidance, forecasts, or estimates relating to the Limon Production or the Libertad Production. All statements in this news release that address events or developments that we expect to occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are identified by words such as "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "project", "target", "potential", "schedule", "forecast", "budget", "estimate", "intend" or "believe" and similar expressions or their negative connotations, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond Calibre's control. For a listing of risk factors applicable to the Company, please refer to the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2019, available on www.sedar.com. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect Calibre's forward-looking statements. Calibre's forward-looking statements are based on the applicable assumptions and factors management considers reasonable as of the date hereof, based on the information available to management at such time. Calibre does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change other than as required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Instead of a Federal Government of Nigeria, we could think of The United States of Nigeria or The Commonwealth of Nigeria. The old will pass away for the new We would change the relational mindset between the states and Abuja: The fulcrum would be the states, while the centre would support them, not lord over them. As Ondo and all other States thrive and prosper, Nigeria will thrive and prosper. As a Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, I had the great opportunity to work with all the State governors and State governments. When I launched the Agricultural Transformation Agenda that revolutionised Nigerias agriculture and food security, and turned agriculture into a business, I recognised that success required that I work very closely with all State governments of the federation regardless of party affiliation. I am reminded that we are all members of the same body. The eye cannot say to the mouth that I have no need of you. The hand cannot say to the head that it has no need of it. All members of the body are important and indeed we give greater attention to our weakest parts. Without the States, there will be no Nigeria. Therefore, Nigeria can only be as strong as its constituent States. Ondo State is rich in resources. Consider that it has the second largest deposit of bitumen in the world. With an estimated 37 billion barrels of bitumen reserves in Nigeria, the bulk of which is found in Ondo State, this vital resource remains untapped in the country. Given its vast resources in bitumen, Ondo State should have the best roads in Nigeria. But its roads are barely tarred with bitumen. That is the irony of Nigeria: it imports what it has in abundance and leaves its own resources untapped. The total value of bitumen reserves in Nigeria could be worth up to $1.5 trillion. With an estimated 16 billion barrels in Ondo State, the potential state wealth from bitumen alone could be worth $657 billion. The paradox, however, is that Nigeria spends over N300 billion importing bitumen. The publication The State of States (2018) shows that the vast deposits of bitumen can help Ondo State break into the asphalt shingles market, which is estimated to be worth $10 billion globally by 2022 (The State of States, 2018 edition). Ondo State could become a leading exporter of bitumen into the Africa Continental Free Trade Area. Ondo State also has abundant deposits of metals and minerals, such as granite, gold, marbles, gemstones, lignite, and diorite. The State has one of the largest gas deposits in the world. It could also become a leading exporter and processor of cocoa and earn at least $1 billion per year (see The State of the States, 2018 edition, by www.YourBudgit.com). But nobody eats potential. Ondo States wealth is not seen. It is locked under the ground. The State ranks number 13 of the top 20 States in Nigeria in terms of its GDP, estimated at $8.4 billion. That is the irony of Nigerias States: They are poor in the midst of plenty. They do not maximally explore or leverage what they already have in abundance. The federal system of monthly grants has paralysed them. With stupendous resources, all concentrated at the centre, States are ever dependent on the centre. With the magnetic field of federal revenue allocations, States are constantly pulled, powerlessly into perennial dependency. State governors now spend more time in Abuja than they do in their States, seeking the monthly federal manna. ADVERTISEMENT This financial pilgrimage creates a sense of helplessness and overt dependency on the centre. Like a pendulum, ever moving from side to side in constant motion, so too has this unfortunate dependency become seemingly unstoppable. The truth, however, is that to survive and thrive, States must become financially independent of the centre in Abuja. The United States of America, from which Nigeria derived its federal system, is essentially a coercive federalism. The federal government uses conditional grants to States to mainly support social, infrastructure and insurance programmes. Essentially, these are carrots to get the States to do what the centre expects. Nigerias system is essentially a revenue sharing system. It is less restrictive in comparison to the U.S. federal system. However, in the United States, whose political system we have borrowed, most of the resources of the States come from taxes. Personal income taxes, corporate taxes, property taxes and consumption taxes, as well as administrative fees. Federal grants account for only a small fraction of the resources of the States. The opposite is the case in Nigeria. Federal revenue allocations are the lifeline of State governments. Cut it off and 92 per cent of Nigerian states will fail. To be clear: Only three states in Nigeria can survive without a Federal Revenue Allocation. Nigerias inequality is also extreme. Over 55 per cent of the youth do not have jobs. Rural areas are now zones of economic misery with high rates of poverty and extremely high birth rates. This double whammy continues to perpetuate an inter-generational transfer of poverty. This is a federalism of fiscal dependency. It is a federalism that is fiscally unhealthy for the States and the Federal Government. Because Nigeria depends on oil for over 70 per cent of government revenues, any decline in the price of oil creates fiscal and economic volatilities that reverberate across the States. What is needed is greater economic and fiscal autonomy for the States. The issue is less about state or regional autonomy, but financial and economic viability of Nigerias constituent States. If Nigeria were to be a conglomerate firm, it would not be economically viable because 92 percent of its constituent subsidiary companies are not viable without the support of the holding company. Nigerias federalism does not grow its constituent entities. It simply makes them perpetually dependent. The Nigerian system is therefore not Federalism but Fatherism. The agitations for decentralisation can be understood when viewed in the light of a craving for greater autonomy. But let us face it, political autonomy is meaningless, unless it is backed by greater fiscal self-reliance at the state level. We tend to copy systems that are not well suited to our context. The United States that we copied from, does not control resources at the state level. Instead, the states generate the bulk of their income from taxes. This is not the case in Nigeria. You can only tax people who have livable incomes. That is not the reality. Nigeria has an estimated 87 million people living in extreme poverty. You cannot tax people who can barely afford to eat. This debilitating poverty makes the country highly vulnerable to social and political risks. And it provides fodder for anti-social behaviour and recruitment by insurgents and terrorists. Poverty provides supermarkets for terrorists. The level of indebtedness of Nigeria is extremely high, at N22 trillion. The debt stock of States is over N4.1 trillion. The three states with the highest revenues also have the highest levels of debt. Without incomes and rising debt, many states are essentially not viable. Nigerias inequality is also extreme. Over 55 per cent of the youth do not have jobs. Rural areas are now zones of economic misery with high rates of poverty and extremely high birth rates. This double whammy continues to perpetuate an inter-generational transfer of poverty. Poverty, co-mingled with high levels of unemployment and underemployment has led to an astonishing rise in crime, banditry, and kidnappings. To extricate ourselves from this quagmire, Nigeria must seriously tackle problems of extreme rural poverty, hopelessness, the unemployment and under-employment of its largely youthful population. It is impossible to keep the lid on a kettle that is boiling. When the kettle boils, you need to lift the lid, and let the heat out. For stable governments, the people must be allowed space to express themselves. If nations and states are about people, then the peoples hopes, aspirations and demands must be heard. Sometimes, leaders think all is well when it is not! One of the great dangers of leadership is to rely on others to tell you what is going on. Effective leaders must connect, themselves. You can delegate tasks, but you cannot delegate your vision and responsibility. Effective leaders must listen. They must respect. They must feel. They must communicate. They must act in the best interest of all. There is an urgent need to diversify the source of financing for states across Nigeria. Just take a look at the Nigerians in the diaspora and what they hold in resources. The value of remittances to Nigeria in 2019 was $24 billion. Compare that to the value of crude oil exports at $48 billion. Democracy is more than the right to cast a vote, it is the right of citizens to hold governments accountable. Citizens accountability forums are needed in order for the people to have a say in how their governments are performing. Governments, without citizen accountability, anywhere in the world, are simply democratic dictatorships. Transparency is the core of accountability. Citizens have the right to know. Today, therefore, there is a greater need for e-governance systems to enhance transparency and accountability to the people. That is people-centered governance. That is why the African Development Bank is developing a public service delivery index that will rate governments on the quality-of-service delivery to their citizens. Participatory tax-based financing systems demand participatory governance. While tax rates are low in Nigeria in comparison to several African and non-African countries, this is not a justification to keep increasing taxes. Take the case of Norway. Its tax to GDP ratio is 39 per cent. In Singapore, the tax to GDP ratio is 13.2 per cent. Nigerias tax to GDP ratio is 6.1 per cent. It is easy to make the comparison and say Nigeria needs to raise its taxes to similar levels as in Norway or Singapore. But consider the following: In Norway, like all the Nordic countries, education is free through university. And if you finish your course on time, any loans you took to feed yourself, clothe yourself and maintain yourself, are converted into grants. Singapore, a country that had one-third of Nigerias per capita income at its independence in 1965, today has 100 per cent access to electricity and 100 per cent access to potable water. Also think of the following: The per capita income of Norway is $68,000, while that of Singapore is $65,300. Nigerias per capita GDP is just $2,250. Taxes must therefore take income levels into consideration. The rich must pay more, but we cannot tax the poor to death. We must distinguish between nominal taxes and implicit taxes taxes that are borne by the people but are not seen or recorded. Truth be told, Nigerians pay one of the highest implicit tax rates in the world way higher than Norway and Singapore. Think of it: Many Nigerians provide electricity for themselves via generators; they repair roads in their neighbourhoods if they can afford to. There is no social security system. They provide security for their own safety. They provide boreholes for drinking water with their own monies. This is incredulous: Boreholes are not the way to provide water in the 21st century. Every household should have pipe borne water! Governments simply transfer their responsibility to citizens. When governments or institutions fail to provide basic services, the people bear the burden of a heavy implicit tax. Governments must be people-centered. We must lighten the burden on the people through better, transparent, and accountable governance. If people pay taxes, governments must deliver services. There must be accountability to citizens. Peoples taxes belong to the people, not in the pockets of individuals. The public service is the engine of government. The more efficient it is, the better government runs. The slower and more bureaucratic it is, the slower governments deliver. I remember when I was Minister of Agriculture, I wanted things to move extremely fast. I was surprised it was difficult. While I wanted to move at the speed of a train, the system was set up to crawl. It is critical that productivity and the efficiency of service delivery be measured. Governments should reward top performers. There should be no space for laxity and under-performance. Ministers are not junior presidents. Commissioners are not junior governors. The only people that have social and political capital on the line is the President, at the federal level, and governors, at the state level. Ministers must serve. Commissioners must serve. They must serve the people. By doing so, they make their principal look good. This is not always well understood. When I was a Minister, I set very-high performance indicators for myself and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. When asked to reduce them on the basis of concerns by some that we may not meet the targets, I simply said I was appointed, not elected. If I say I can deliver and I get the support I need and I do not deliver, all you have to do, Mr. President, is to fire me. Each year, we met and even exceeded all our targets. Our team delivered. Governments should set high performance targets for public service and be held accountable. If the people do not see tangible delivery in terms of improved quality of services, they should demand for them. That is why the African Development Bank will support the development of public service delivery indices for state and federal governments in Nigeria. There is an urgent need to diversify the source of financing for states across Nigeria. Just take a look at the Nigerians in the diaspora and what they hold in resources. The value of remittances to Nigeria in 2019 was $24 billion. Compare that to the value of crude oil exports at $48 billion. Remittances to Nigeria accounted for 50 per cent of the value of crude oil exports from Nigeria. Now, that is incredible! States can also become even more financially autonomous through greater fiscal prudence. If States focus on unlocking the huge resources they have, based on areas of comparative advantage, they will rapidly expand wealth for their people. It is clear: Nigerians in the diaspora are Nigerias new oil. State governments should float diaspora bonds targeting specific investments in their states. States can match the diaspora resources to finance infrastructure development. We need a better way of supporting States to finance critical infrastructure. While many roads are federal roads, the challenge is that they pass through state boundaries. The poor condition of some of the federal roads negatively affect the economies of the States. The very high cost of construction makes many of the roads too expensive for the States. As a result, critical roads take forever to complete. People in the states do not care whether a road is a federal road or a state road. They just need good roads. And because it takes forever to complete some of these critical roads, people lose patience. We must learn from others and deliver quality infrastructure, faster. For a comparison, think of the following: The golden quadrilateral road project, the largest in India, with a length of 5,846 kilometres, with four to six express lanes, was started in 2001. It was completed in 2012 in just 11 years. The total cost? $13.2 billion or $2.2 million per kilometre. In Nigeria, the East-West road, of only 337 kilometres, is one that has been on the books for decades. Originally estimated to cost N211 billion in 2006, its cost has since risen to N349 billion, with estimates that it may cost up to N1 trillion by the time the road is eventually commissioned. For a 337-kilometre road, that is a cost of $2.7 billion or $8.1 million per kilometre. It has been 14 years and the road is still not completed. This is also the case with the Lagos-Ibadan express way, a road of only 128 kilometres. After several decades, it is yet to be completed. In all cases, governments are taking on the full load of financing and this raises the costs, slows down the construction process and increases debt levels. It is time for governments to strongly embrace the private sector more strategically and transition into public-private partnerships for all major infrastructure projects. The Federal Government could also allow states to own these roads by delegation. This will allow the states to support their construction by utilising development finance institutions to provide cheaper sources of finance to complete these roads. I am delighted with the progress Nigeria is making of recent on railways. The recent launch of the InfraCo to mobilise N1 trillion for investment in infrastructure, under the public-private partnership, is highly commendable. It will be the first of such fund in Africa. This should help support infrastructure development across the states. States can also become even more financially autonomous through greater fiscal prudence. If States focus on unlocking the huge resources they have, based on areas of comparative advantage, they will rapidly expand wealth for their people. With their increased wealth, they will be able to access capital markets to secure long-term financing to fast-track their growth and development. States that adopt this strategy would have less of a need for monthly trips to Abuja for grants. Instead, part of their federal revenue allocations can be saved as internal state sovereign wealth funds. This can then be used as guarantees against borrowings from capital markets. They would be free from needing to exclusively rely on the Federal Government. As a way out of the economic quagmire, much has been said about the need for restructuring. Restructuring should not be driven by political expediency, but by economic and financial viability. Economic and financial viability are the necessary and sufficient conditions for political viability. Surgeries are tough. They are better done well, the first time. The resources found in each state or state groupings should belong to them. The constituent entities should pay federal taxes or royalties for those resources. The achievement of economically viable entities and the viability of the national entity requires constitutional changes to devolve more economic and fiscal powers to the states or regions. The stronger the states, or regions, the stronger the federated units. In the process, our union would be renewed. With good governance and better accountability systems, and a zero tolerance for corruption, more economically stronger constituent states would emerge! We would unleash massive wealth across the states It would be a commonwealth. Wealth for all, not wealth for a few. A New Nigeria would arise! Our union would be stronger. Our union would be equitable. Our union would be fully participatory. We must be audacious! Instead of a Federal Government of Nigeria, we could think of The United States of Nigeria or The Commonwealth of Nigeria. The old will pass away for the new. We would change the relational mindset between the states and Abuja: The fulcrum would be the states, while the centre would support them, not lord over them. With good governance and better accountability systems, and a zero tolerance for corruption, more economically stronger constituent states would emerge! We would unleash massive wealth across the states. It would be a commonwealth. Wealth for all, not wealth for a few. A New Nigeria would arise! We will need all of us, and not some of us. From the flickers of fading longings of forgotten rural villages, to our boisterous and dynamic urban areas; From the sparks of desire in the eyes of our children, to the heartbeat of hope of our youth; From the yearnings of our women and mothers, to the pride in the heart of fathers for a better tomorrow, and the desires of the old that our end would be better than our past; From the hardworking street vendors and small businesses to the largest business conglomerates we must create a movement of hope. Hope for a better Nigeria! Not a Muslim Nigeria. Not a Christian Nigeria. Not Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria, or Northern Nigeria. But one Nigeria a New Nigeria, created by a renewed commitment to use our diversity as our strength. A New Nigeria, powered by torrents of hope, trust, equity, fairness, and wealth at every level, in every state by all and for all. We have the capacity to do this and make it happen. We must rise above mistrust and divisions and make history. Not the history that is written about us; about Northern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria; Not the history of divisive political parties; but a new history that we commit to write for ourselves the history of a New Nigeria. We are the history makers. So, let us make history for a New Nigeria! For the darkness of today will soon fade. It will not be long before our star shines brighter as a nation. A nation where the majority prosper, not just a privileged few. A nation that provides real opportunities for the youth. A nation where equality of opportunities for women is a reality, not a dream. A nation where hope is ignited, and dreams are realised. A nation known for wealth, not poverty. A nation set on a hill whose light will never be hidden. A New Nigeria that we all are proud to call home. So, help us God! Akinwumi Adesina is the President of African Development Bank (AfDB) Group. PEECH DELIVERED BY DR AKINWUMI A. ADESINA, PRESIDENT, AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GROUP, ON THE INAUGURATION OF HIS EXCELLENCY OLUWAROTIMI AKEREDOLU, SAN, EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF ONDO STATE, FEBRUARY 23,2021 AKURE, ONDO STATE, NIGERIA A Rochester Institute of Technology faculty member is creating new artificial intelligence systems that could empower agricultural researchers, breeders, nurseries, and other users to analyze the roots of their crops with the power of their smartphones. Guoyu Lu, an assistant professor in RIT's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, is receiving a $450,000 New Investigator grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct the research. The project's primary goal is to develop a mobile app and platform that can construct 3D models of a crop's root system and extract important traits about the roots using artificial intelligence technologies. Lu is aiming to create an easy-to-use system that does not require sophisticated and expensive equipment. "Roots play a central role in plant functions and their interactions with their physical environment," said Lu. "If we can accurately estimate characteristics such as the root shape, surface area, branching, and angles in orchards, it can help us understand the interaction of plants with their biotic and abiotic environments and to breed resilient crops." App users will be able to take a short video with their smartphone and receive an efficient, quick, and convenient analysis that reconstructs 3D root models and determines key traits about the plant. The goal is to eventually create a system that can assess the roots of many different types of crops, but the pilot will focus on two different cases: apples and sweet potatoes. Over the course of the three-year project, Lu will collaborate with partners including Associate Professor Awais Khan from Cornell University and Professor Arthur Villordon of Louisiana State University, plus undergraduate and graduate students at RIT. ### MUMBAI: Shares of Max Financial Services hit a 52-week high of Rs938.65 apiece on Thursday on the National Stock Exchange, rising 6.3% from previous close, following the insurance regulator's approval for its deal with Axis Bank. As part of the deal, Axis Bank with its subsidiaries, Axis Securities Limited and Axis Capital Limited, will acquire up to 19% stake in Max Life Insurance, part of Max Financial. Of the total stake to be bought, Axis Bank proposes to acquire up to 9% and Axis Capital Limited and Axis Securities Limited together will acquire up to 3% of the share capital of Max Life in the first leg of the transaction. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Axis Bank and its entities have the right to acquire an additional stake of up to 7% in Max Life, in one or more tranches. Analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services prefer Max Life in listed life insurance space. "The partnership improves the long-term growth visibility/cross-sell opportunity for Max Life. It increases focus towards higher margin products and productivity improvements from the distribution mix. We expect value of new business to grow at 21% cumulative annual growth rate over FY20-23 estimates and operating return on embeded value to grow 20% in FY23 estimates. We maintain our Buy rating on the stock with 3.3 times FY23 estimated enterprise value," brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services said. In August last year, Axis Bank had announced its intention to acquire up to 29% in Max Life. But, in due course, said will acquire 17% share. Max Financial Services Ltd reported a 54% jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs227 crore in for the three month period to December. Axis Bank, on the other hand, reported a 36% year-on-year drop in its net profit to Rs1,116.6 crore in the last quarter. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Mumbai: The Shiv Sena slammed Centre on Thursday saying that after the border standoff with China, India had on the one hand called for a boycott of Chinese products while on the other hand the neighbouring country has emerged as India's top trading partner in 2020. In an article in Shiv Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamana, the party said that while the Centre is once again laying a red carpet for Chinese firms, it should not forget that China is an "untrustworthy and unreliable" neighbour. "... as soon as China pulls back from the border, our government gives it a go-ahead (to do business in India). But the Centre should not forget that China is an untrustworthy neighbour," the editorial said. "The Modi government blew its trumpet about how they blocked China...So what exactly happened in the last eight months that red carpet is being laid for 45 Chinese firms now?" it asked citing the provisional data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The article speaks about last year's move to ban as many as 59 Chinese apps including Tik-Tok and cancelling trade agreements with China while promoting 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. "The border tension between India and China de- escalated last week. The tension in trade ties between the two countries also looks set to reduce. There is a possibility that 45 Chinese companies will be given permission to work in India. In short, the tough stand taken by the Modi government after the COVID-19 outbreak towards the Chinese companies and their investment seems to be easing," the party said. She's never put a foot wrong with her glamorous looks. And Joan Collins cut a stylish figure in a chic white beret as she enjoyed dinner with her husband Percy Gibson in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The actress, 87, opted for a smart black blazer and white trousers to head back to her car following dinner with her husband, 56. Departing: Joan Collins, 87, cut a stylish figure in a chic white beret as she enjoyed dinner with her husband Percy Gibson, 56, in Los Angeles on Wednesday Joan sported a typically sophisticated look after leaving the eatery to head home with her husband Percy. The former Dynasty star sported her signature red lip alongside her white beret as she was helped back to the car. Earlier this month, Joan shared a photo of herself via Instagram from her home in London, where she had been spending the coronavirus crisis, as she posed in front of a potted plant and said she was 'shielding' from winter. Lovely: The actress opted for a smart black blazer and white trousers as she headed back to her car following dinner with her husband Sensational: The former Dynasty star sported her signature red lip alongside her white beret as she was helped back to the car It is unclear when the photo was originally taken, or when Joan and her husband travelled to the USA. For her Instagram post, Joan, who had her first Covid vaccination last month, posed on her balcony at her London home while in a furry hat and coat to keep off the cold weather. In the caption, she wrote: Im #shielding from this bitter #winter #freezing #babyitscoldoutside' Later on Saturday, Joan took to Instagram to share a video from Heathrow Airport from when she travelled to the USA, telling fans she'd travelled for 'business.' 'Shielding': Earlier this month Joan shared a photo of herself via Instagram from her home in London, where she had been spending the coronavirus crisis She wrote in the caption: 'A #ghostly #empty #heathrowairport on my way to #losangeles on business. Only 70 passengers and a crew of 19 on @british_airways' As a dual citizen, Joan is exempt from rules banning British nationals from travelling to the USA if they have been in the UK for the last 14 days. Those entering the USA are required to self-isolate for at least seven days and have a Covid-19 test three to five days after arriving, but as Joan received her vaccine last month it is unclear if this rule still applies to her. MailOnline contacted Joan's representatives for further comment at the time. Empty: Later on Saturday, Joan took to Instagram to share a video from Heathrow Airport from when she travelled to the USA, telling fans she'd travelled for 'business' An Arkansas man has been accused of murdering his mother, stepfather and sister, and abducting his infant nephew, but state troopers were able to track down the suspect and rescue the baby. Madison County sheriff's deputies discovered the bodies at a home on County Road 6041 in Wesley after getting a 911 call about multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds at 5pm on Tuesday, Arkansas State Police said in a press release. The homicide victims were identified as Tami Lynn Chenoweth, 51, her husband, James Stanley McGehee, 59, and her daughter, 26-year-old Cheyenne Chenoweth. Hunter Chenoweth, 22, is suspected of killing three family members and abducting his baby nephew in Arkansas on Tuesday The victims were identified as Tami Lynn Chenoweth, 51, her husband, James Stanley McGhee, 59 (pictured together left), and her daughter, 26-year-old Cheyenne Chenoweth (right) The victims were shot and stabbed inside their home on County Road 6041 in Wesley, Arkansas, on Tuesday evening The victims had been shot and stabbed to death, according to officials. Investigators at the scene concluded that Cheyenne's infant son who was believed to have been at the home at the time of the killings was abducted. State police troopers started searching for two vehicles that had been seen at the home earlier in the day. One of the vehicles, a truck, was found abandoned, but troopers caught up to the other vehicle, a van, just after 10pm along Interstate 30 near Benton, about 200 miles from Huntsville. A passenger armed with a rifle exited the vehicle and began verbally provoking the troopers, state police said. Other troopers moved in from behind and arrested Hunter Chenoweth, 22, of De Queen. State police said the driver of the van was a 25-year-old woman, also from De Queen. Cheyenne Chenoweth's son, who is under age one, was also in the van. Police said the woman was questioned and released. Cheyenne's brother allegedly abducted her son, who is under age one, after the massacre McGehee was a US Army veteran, He and Tami Lynn had been married for four years. They are survived by grown children and multiple grandchildren The child was placed in the care of the Department of Human Services. On Wednesday evening, Hunter Chenoweth was booked into the Washington County Detention Center on three counts of capital murder. Investigators have not offered a motive for the triple murder and child abduction, but a relative suggested that mental illness may have played a role. 'There was a mental illness there, apparently, that the family wasn't aware of,' Samantha Helms, the victims' cousin, told 4029TV. 'We wish he had reached out for help.' A relative claimed that Hunter has been struggling with mental illness, which the family had not been aware of until now. The 22-year-old has a criminal record in Arkansas Helms described her slain relatives as good and 'God-fearing' people, and she expressed a wish that they be remembered for how they lived, not how they died. 'I want everybody to remember for the people that they were, that they went on vacations, that they were normal,' she said. 'They were loved and they would be greatly and severely missed by everybody.' McGehee was a US Army veteran, He and Tami Lynn had been married for four years. They are survived by their grown children and multiple grandchildren. Hunter Chenoweth has a criminal record in Arkansas, which includes charges of domestic battering and endangering the welfare of a minor, stemming from a February 2020 incident. He was picked up again by the authorities in November 2020 on a failure to appear charge. Christophe de Margerie arrives at Yamal LNGs Sabetta terminal - a unique voyage completed A unique voyage along the Northern Sea Route completed. At 16:30 Moscow time on 19 February, LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie completed an experimental voyage en route Sabetta-Jiangsu (China)-Sabetta along a high altitude section of the Northern Sea Route, and moored to Sabetta terminal. For the first time in history, a large-capacity cargo vessel completed a transit passage along the eastern sector of the Arctic in February. On her return voyage, from Cape Dezhnev to Sabetta, the gas carrier was escorted by 50 Let Pobedy icebreaker. The convoy covered a total distance of 2,500 nautical miles along the Northern Sea Route, taking 11 days and 10 hours to complete the journey. Throughout the voyage, the vessel maintained a safe speed, given the ice and weather conditions. The most challenging part of the voyage involved passing through hummocks in the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea. Igor Tonkovidov, President and CEO of Sovcomflot, said: "As a result of the early NSR voyage completed by Christophe de Margerie in May 2020, as well as the current NSR voyage, the navigation in the Eastern part of the Arctic was practically doubled. Increasing the period of Arctic navigation means this high latitude transport corridor can be used more efficiently, which will benefit both the Russian and global economies." The successful completion of this round trip by the gas carrier in January-February 2020 came as a result of many years of consistent efforts by Sovcomflot and NOVATEK to develop the transit potential of the Northern Sea Route. The two companies have been cooperating with Rosatoms ice breaker shipowning arm Atomflot since 2010 to implement a programme to conduct experimental cargo voyages along the Northern Sea Route. The priorities for Arctic voyages include: Studying the icebreaking capabilities of large-capacity cargo vessels when navigating under the typical conditions on the Northern Sea Route during various periods of the year when travelling independently and as part of convoys; Assessing the quality, reliability and timeliness of data that can be obtained about the ice conditions from various sources (AARI, Skaneks, the ice maps of foreign research centres); Assessing the effectiveness of the on-board equipment and mechanisms, as well as the remote surveillance and monitoring systems used to monitor such equipment and mechanisms, in order to detect and eliminate possible malfunctions; Implementing versatile professional training for crews, as well as internships for cadets from vocational schools who are training to become seafarers in the Arctic. Alexander Andreev, Master and Advisor to the CEO of PAO Sovcomflot, noted: "During the voyages of Christophe de Margerie, the company gathered large amounts of information that will be processed and taken into account when planning future voyages. This will allow us to improve the safety of navigation and the economic efficiency of cargo carriage along the Northern Sea Route." Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Queen Letizia of Spain looked chic in a monochrome outfit as she attended a museum opening. The Spanish royal, 48, looked incredible as she re-wore a Felipe Varela white tweed dress with a black belt on Thursday. Queen Letizia was attending the inauguration of the Helga de Alvear modern art museum in Caceres, Extremadura, Spain, with her husband King Felipe VI, 53. She previously wore the two-pocketed dress in 2018, when she visited the New Orleans Museum of Art in the United States. Queen Letizia of Spain looked chic in a monochrome outfit as she re-wore re-wore a Felipe Varela white tweed dress with a black belt in Caceres, Extremadura, on Thursday The mother-of-two kept safe in a white face covering and accessorised with a pair of gold hoop earrings and kept her neck bare of jewellery She paired the white dress with black accessorises, including a thin belt around her waist and a black handbag with gold hardware. The mother-of-two kept safe in a white face covering and accessorised with a pair of gold hoop earrings and kept her neck and arms bare of jewellery. She wore a gold ring on her index finger, with a large gold circle covering the bottom part of the finger. Queen Letizia paired the ensemble with a pair of snakeskin-style pointed stilettos. Queen Letizia was attending the inauguration of the Helga de Alvear modern art museum in Caceres, Extremadura, Spain, with her husband King Felipe. Pictured L-R: Extremadura President Guillermo Fernandez Vara, King Felipe VI of Spain, Queen Letizia, Helga de Alvear, culture minister Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes and architect Emilio Tunon Queen Letizia paired the dress, which she previously wore in 2018 to the New Orleans Museum of Art in the United States with black accessories, including pointed stilettos and a handbag with gold hardware She wore a gold ring on her index finger, with a large gold circle covering the bottom part of the finger She opted for natural makeup, with soft brown eyeshadow, and left her hair down and hanging loose around her shoulders. Meanwhile, King Felipe opted for a grey pin-stripe suit with a blue shirt and a colourful spotted tie. Queen Letizia has been keeping busy as she sported a confetti print dress while greeting audiences at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid earlier this week. She was wearing the 119 Massimo Dutti dress for the third time after first wearing it in 2019, during a state visit to South Korea, and again in January of last year at the FITUR International Tourism Fair in Madrid. She met with a representation of the Spanish Association of Business Women of Madrid, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, as well as members from Generation Code, a group aiming to promote computer science programmes in schools. She opted for natural makeup, with soft brown eyeshadow, and left her hair down and hanging loose around her shoulders Scientists induce artificial 'magnetic texture' in graphene BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Graphene is incredibly strong, lightweight, conductive ... the list of its superlative properties goes on. It is not, however, magnetic -- a shortcoming that has stunted its usefulness in spintronics, an emerging field that scientists say could eventually rewrite the rules of electronics, leading to more powerful semiconductors, computers and other devices. Now, an international research team led by the University at Buffalo is reporting an advancement that could help overcome this obstacle. In a study published today in the journal Physical Review Letters, researchers describe how they paired a magnet with graphene, and induced what they describe as "artificial magnetic texture" in the nonmagnetic wonder material. "Independent of each other, graphene and spintronics each possess incredible potential to fundamentally change many aspects of business and society. But if you can blend the two together, the synergistic effects are likely to be something this world hasn't yet seen," says lead author Nargess Arabchigavkani, who performed the research as a PhD candidate at UB and is now a postdoctoral research associate at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Additional authors represent UB, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Thailand, Chiba University in Japan, University of Science and Technology of China, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Nebraska Lincoln, and Uppsala University in Sweden. For their experiments, researchers placed a 20-nanometer-thick magnet in direct contact with a sheet of graphene, which is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice that is less than 1 nanometer thick. "To give you a sense of the size difference, it's a bit like putting a brick on a sheet of paper," says the study's senior author Jonathan Bird, PhD, professor and chair of electrical engineering at the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Researchers then placed eight electrodes in different spots around the graphene and magnet to measure their conductivity. The electrodes revealed a surprise -- the magnet induced an artificial magnetic texture in the graphene that persisted even in areas of the graphene away from the magnet. Put simply, the intimate contact between the two objects caused the normally nonmagnetic carbon to behave differently, exhibiting magnetic properties similar to common magnetic materials like iron or cobalt. Moreover, it was found that these properties could overwhelm completely the natural properties of the graphene, even when looking several microns away from the contact point of the graphene and the magnet. This distance (a micron is a millionth of a meter), while incredibly small, is relatively large microscopically speaking. The findings raise important questions relating to the microscopic origins of the magnetic texture in the graphene. Most importantly, Bird says, is the extent to which the induced magnetic behavior arises from the influence of spin polarization and/or spin-orbit coupling, which are phenomena known to be intimately connected to the magnetic properties of materials and to the emerging technology of spintronics. Rather than utilizing the electrical charge carried by electrons (as in traditional electronics), spintronic devices seek to exploit the unique quantum property of electrons known as spin (which is analogous to the earth spinning on its own axis). Spin offers the potential to pack more data into smaller devices, thereby increasing the power of semiconductors, quantum computers, mass storage devices and other digital electronics. ### The work was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. Additional support came from the U.S. National Science Foundation; nCORE, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Semiconductor Research Corporation; the Swedish Research Council; and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. WEST SPRINGFIELD Massachusetts announced Wednesday 11 new collaborative regional COVID-19 vaccination sites, but a proposed three-community site at the Big E wasnt one of them. But we are in the running if supply (of doses) increases, West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt said following Gov. Charlie Bakers announcement. If we just had more doses, I think everybody would be happy. But I guess that goes for everyone across the country. The Big E clinic was proposed by Westfield, West Springfield, Agawam and Southwick because the state has pulled back from supplying doses to smaller clinics run by local health departments. On Tuesday, President Joe Bidens administration announced it is increasing the number of weekly vaccine doses shipped to states to 14.5 million, from 13.5 million. Reichelt and Mayors William P. Sapelli of Agawam and Donald F. Humason Jr. of Westfield said they dont know when another round of sites will be announced. State Rep. Michael J. Finn said the Baker administration told him that its priority now is to get more vaccine sites spread out across underserved portions of the state. The Big E, he was told, is close enough to the Eastfield Mall site. The mall, on the other side of Springfield, is about a 30 minute drive from downtown Westfield. Finn noted that the state approved regional partnerships in Northampton and Amherst, Franklin County and in the Berkshires. He said the team at the state Department of Health didnt critique the Big E as a site, or ask for things in the West Springfield plan to be changed or improved. The administration said that we stay in contact, he said. Humason said he wants to see the vaccines available in Westfield, even on a limited basis at pharmacies, because it isnt available now and has not been. Agawam and West Springfield had their own clinics, which proved popular with seniors who want to avoid travel and crowds. People said great things about the West Springfield senior center, Finn said. They loved it. Sapelli said if the state requires large sites with high volumes the minimum capacity is 750 doses a day for five days a week there should be a site for communities west of the Connecticut River. Itll be an even bigger issue as more and more people are eligible for the shots. The Big E was also in the running to be a vaccination site before the Eastfield Mall was selected, officials with the fair said. Local officials west of the river believe the Eastern States Eastern States Exposition is an ideal location, conveniently located with quick access to Interstates 90 and 91. The site is used to dealing with a large volume of visitors; more than 1.5 million people visit the fair every year and crowds can top 170,000 a day on weekends. The plan is to administer vaccines in the Transportation Building, a huge visitors center to the rear of the Avenue of the States. The new and existing regional collaborative announced Wednesday are: Barnstable County Berkshire County Boards of Health Association Franklin County Regional Collaborative Harrington Hospital in Southbridge , in collaboration with local boards of health. Heywood Hospital, in collaboration with local boards of health Lawrence General Hospital, in collaboration with local boards of health Marshfield-Plymouth Northampton and Amherst Randolph Collaboration between Avon, Holbrook, and Randolph Rutland Worcester, Worcester State University, Commonwealth Medicine and St. Vincent Hospital Related Content: Manitoba officials are preparing to delve into the thorny issue of Indigenous identity as they prioritize First Nations people for COVID-19 vaccines, including people who don't have an Indian status card. Manitoba officials are preparing to delve into the thorny issue of Indigenous identity as they prioritize First Nations people for COVID-19 vaccines, including people who don't have an Indian status card. "Too often we see the pretendian phenomena, where people falsely identify as First Nations, or claim distant or tenuous ancestral connections for personal gain," said Dr. Marcia Anderson, a medical officer of health who serves on the First Nations pandemic team. The province has opened up vaccinations for members of the public who are 95 or older, as well as First Nations people 75 and older, recognizing that they face more severe COVID-19 outcomes and have a shorter life expectancy. Dr. Marcia Anderson, public health lead, First Nation Pandemic Response Coordination Team. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) Initially, public health staff will arrange appointments for anyone born before Dec. 31, 1945, who identifies as First Nations. In future, there will be a separate process in which people are asked for their Indian status number, and officials will sort out who can claim to be First Nations without having a status number. Anderson said that might include proof that an immediate First Nations relative has a status number. She noted that arbitrary, colonial laws have removed Indian status from certain groups, such as women who married non-Indigenous men and their children, and those who were given up for adoption in the Sixties Scoop. Too often we see the pretendian phenomena, where people falsely identify as First Nations, or claim distant or tenuous ancestral connections for personal gain. Dr. Marcia Anderson She noted that federal rules that define who qualifies for Indian status weren't designed by Indigenous people, such as whether their blood line includes enough First Nations ancestry. "At this time people will be asked if they self-identify as First Nations, and that response will be considered sufficient," Anderson said. Anderson said "in the coming weeks," a specialized team would undertake this "escalation process," but she did not say who would decide which applicants are faking an Indigenous background. No explanation for 10-day lag The First Nations pandemic team still has given no explanation for the 10 days that Moderna vaccines sat in a freezer while chiefs waited for their communities' booster shots. Manitobas second shipment of Moderna vaccines arrived in Winnipeg on Feb. 6, a few days later than Ottawas initial timeline. click to read more The First Nations pandemic team still has given no explanation for the 10 days that Moderna vaccines sat in a freezer while chiefs waited for their communities' booster shots. Manitobas second shipment of Moderna vaccines arrived in Winnipeg on Feb. 6, a few days later than Ottawas initial timeline. However, the shots did not reach reserves until Feb. 16, causing chiefs to complain about shifting timelines and last-minute notice about the shipments. Moderna says patients are supposed to receive their second dose either 28 days after the first, or as close to that as possible. Yet some reserves didn't receive the second shot until about six weeks later, which is the longest delay Ottawa deems to be safe. The provincial and federal governments have said its up to the First Nations to indicate when they want shots transported, and Dr. Marcia Anderson offered no explanation Wednesday for the 10-day lag. She instead noted that a later round of shipments had beat expected timelines. We were able to start shipping out the second doses earlier than we had anticipated, said Anderson, referencing the delay in Moderna shots reaching Canada. Dylan Robertson Close "We want to make sure that this done in a way that is safe for people and does not exclude our First Nations relatives, who because of the complicated and various processes of colonization do not have Indian status cards," she said, adding she wasnt sure how many people fall into this category. "Our goal will be to ensure that all First Nations people, regardless of their status under the Indian Act, have equitable access to the vaccines," said Anderson. She noted there have been numerous cases recently in which people claimed to be Indigenous so they could get a job or arts funding. CBC halted its series Trickster last fall over allegations director Michelle Latimer had faked her Indigenous ancestry. Latimer denies the allegation and is suing the CBC for defamation. The First Nations pandemic team still has given no explanation for the 10 days that Moderna vaccines sat in a freezer while chiefs waited for their communities' booster shots. Our goal will be to ensure that all First Nations people, regardless of their status under the Indian Act, have equitable access to the vaccines. Dr. Marcia Anderson Manitobas second shipment of Moderna vaccines arrived in Winnipeg on Feb. 6, a few days later than Ottawas initial timeline. "This harms First Nations people by taking away opportunities from qualified First Nations people," Anderson said. "I never imagined that one of the harmful ripple effects would be that non-registered or non-status First Nations people would face the risk of not being able to get a vaccine at a time when they rightly should be able to." David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files) She also announced the launch of a new dashboard that breaks down COVID-19 immunizations among First Nations by tribal council and health region, which she said would be updated on Fridays. None of these initiatives includes Metis people. The Manitoba Metis Federation said it's frustrated it still has no representation on the province's vaccine task force. Federation president David Chartrand noted that many Metis people have relatives with First Nations status, and could get a vaccine by lying about being First Nations themselves. "I pray my people will not be caught in a trap where they trade their identity for vaccination," Chartrand wrote in a statement. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca Marvel J. Olson, age 94 of Alexandria, formerly Lowry, died Thursday, May 27, 2021 at Bethany on the Lake in Alexandria. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 2nd at St Paul's Lutheran Church in Lowry with Rev. Bryan Taffe officiating. Visitation will be one hour pri Moderna Inc. is planning to study multiple approaches to vaccine booster shots that could protect against emerging coronavirus variants, while gearing up to produce more doses of its shots this year and next. In a statement, Moderna said it had completed manufacturing doses of a new version of its Covid-19 vaccine modified to target the South Africa strain, or B.1.351, and shipped it to researchers at the National Institutes of Health for clinical study. The South Africa booster shot is part of a multi-pronged strategy Moderna is taking against new variants, the company said. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle In addition to the South Africa specific booster, the company is testing a third dose of its existing vaccine in a clinical study, and it also plans to test a booster that will combine the South Africa-specific vaccine and its existing vaccine, the company said. Clinical studies will be done both at the NIH and through Moderna. Moderna said it plans to evaluate both the combined vaccine and the South Africa-specific one as an initial shot for people who havent yet been vaccinated. Though its existing vaccine produces neutralizing antibodies against the South African strain, at reduced levels, Moderna is conducting the studies to be ready if researchers and governments decide that booster shots are needed. We want to make sure that people are immune in the long run both against the ancestral strain, which may or may not require a third dose, and against what could be an emerging variant of concern," said Tal Zaks, Modernas chief medical officer, in an interview. In a separate statement, the company said it was making new capital investments to increase manufacturing capacity and said that next year it plans to produce 1.4 billion doses, up from an earlier estimate of 1.2 billion doses. It also raised the low end of its Covid-19 production forecast this year to 700 million doses from 600 million doses. The high end of its range for this ear is unchanged at 1 billion doses. Lower Doses These production estimates are based on the existing dose of 100 micrograms. The company will test booster shots at lower doses, and if some of the production is switched to lower-dose booster shots, the output will be higher, the company said. Moderna is committed to making as many updates to our vaccine as necessary until the pandemic is under control," said Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel, in a statement. We hope to demonstrate that booster doses, if necessary, can be done at lower dose levels, which will allow us to provide many more doses to the global community in late 2021 and 2022 if necessary." In the interview, Zaks said the Food and Drug Administration has agreed in principle" to Modernas plan for increasing the number of doses per vial to as many as 15 from 10. Getting approval for this plan is subject to Moderna providing supplemental manufacturing data to the agency, which will only take weeks, he said. While the studies of booster shots will focus on people who had received Modernas vaccine, Zaks said that mRNA booster shots would be likely to work for people who received other vaccines initially. The company is in talks with other companies and government researchers about studies of Moderna booster shots in people who received another vaccine first, he said. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Speakers announced for Lincoln Dinner The Hispanic Republicans of North Jersey announced the speakers for the Hudson County Lincoln Dinner on Saturday, March 6, from 5 to 9 p.m. at The Factory, 451 Communipaw Ave., Jersey City. The speakers will include Matthew Castaneda, Northeast Deputy Regional Director at Young Americans for Liberty; Billy Prempeh, founder and President of Revive America; Eric Arpert, Campaign Manager for Jack Ciattarelli for Governor; and Pastor Phillip Rizzo, candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. The dinner will include conversation, celebrating Lincoln, and food. Tickets for the dinner are $75 and can be purchased at eventbrite.com/e/lincoln-dinner-tickets-139079202639. Due to Covid-19 space is limited. For early sign-up use discount code 2024 before they run out. Red Cross calls for blood donors Record-breaking cold and winter storms across much of the U.S. have had a significant impact on blood and platelet donations. The American Red Cross is urging healthy individuals, especially those with type O blood, to give now to ensure blood products are available for patient emergencies when help cant wait. Upcoming blood drives in Hudson County include: Tuesday, March 2, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Multi Service Center, 124 Grand St., Hoboken. Wednesday, March 3, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Harborside Plaza 3, 147 Hudson St., Jersey City. Saturday, March 13, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Catholic War Veterans Post 1612, 18 W 23rd St., Bayonne. Red Cross blood drives and donation centers follow safety and infection control, and additional precautions including temperature checks, social distancing, and face coverings for donors and staff. Donors are asked to schedule an appointment prior to arriving at the drive and are required to wear a face covering or mask while at the drive, in alignment with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public guidance. Update on the Jersey City Arts Trust On Tuesday, March 9, the Jersey City Office of Cultural Affairs and the Jersey City Arts Council will hold a public meeting about the Arts Trust funding approved by voters in Jersey City. The meeting will be hosted by the NJCU Center for the Arts and topics covered will include: Reviewing Grant Categories, Priorities and Grant Panel. The public is invited to discuss ideas and questions. Join the Zoom meeting at https://bit.ly/3bH2jTI. Use the meeting ID 914 3967 8976. The password is 02a58GQM. For your input to be taken into consideration, email jerseycityartscouncil@gmail.com. Additional information, such as phoning in to the meeting, can be found at njcu.edu/community/center-arts/professional-development. Accreditation team invites public comment On Friday, March 5, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police (NJSACOP) will examine all aspects of the Secaucus Police Departments Public Safety Emergency Communications Centers policies and procedures, management, operations, and support services. As part of this final on-site assessment, agency employees and the public are invited to provide comments to a NJSACOP Assessor. They may do so by telephone or email. The public may call 201-330-2054 on March 5, between the hours of 10 to 11 a.m. Email comments can be sent to Chief Dennis Miller at dmiller@secaucus.net. Telephone comments are limited to 5 minutes and must address the agencys ability to comply with the NJSACOP Public Safety Communications Centers standards. Contact Chief Miller at 201-330-2045 for information about the standards. Anyone wishing to offer written comments about the Secaucus Police Departments Public Safety Communications Centers ability to comply with the standards for accreditation may email the Accreditation Program Director at hdelgado@njsacop.org or write the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission at 751 Route 73 North, Suite 12 Marlton, N.J. 08053. The Accreditation Program Director for the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police is Harry J Delgado, Ed.S. Accreditation is valid for a three-year period during which time the agency must submit annual reports attesting to their continued compliance with those standards under which it was initially accredited. For more information regarding the Law Enforcement Communications Accreditation Commission, write the Commission at New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, Law Enforcement Public Safety Communications Accreditation Commission at 751 Route 73 North, Suite 12 Marlton, N.J. 08053 or email hdelgado@njsacop.org. Family FUNDay live on Facebook Join the Hoboken Public Library on Family FUNday Saturday, March 6, from 11 to 11:30 a.m., in an interactive comedic sensory based retelling of The Old Tree, based on the book by Ruth Brown. Pigeon Post is going about her usual business when she notices a huge X on the trunk of the old tree. In this interactive event, families can help the forest friends save the tree and the future of their homes. Children will learn how to conserve their trees and plant their own garden. Tune in to the Librarys Facebook Page to join. Slime Kits from Propbox Players will be available at the library to pick up. They are on a first come, first served basis. Email Ashley.Hoffman@Hoboken.bccls.org for any questions or to arrange your slime pick up. Family FUNday is sponsored by Friends of the Hoboken Public Library and contributions from its members. The Hoboken Public Library is located at 500 Park Ave., Hoboken. Sydney businesswoman and fraudster Melissa Caddick is presumed dead after campers found her decomposed foot washed up on a remote beach on the NSW South Coast more than three months after she vanished. The campers found a running shoe with the foot inside at Bournda Beach south of Tathra, on Sunday, police said. DNA tests linked the remains to Ms Caddick, 49, who disappeared from her eastern suburbs home in November. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the shoe matched the size and description of a shoe Ms Caddick was wearing when police raided her Dover Heights house on behalf of the corporate watchdog, ASIC, hours earlier. [The foot] had been in the water for some time. Scientists were able to extract DNA from the foot and match it to a sample of DNA that we had already obtained from a toothbrush belonging to Melissa and from her relatives. Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or contributing today. Frys Electronics shutting down all stores, ending 36 years as a big-box stop for tech enthusiasts Frys Electronics, the big-box chain that was a longtime, one-stop shop for tech enthusiasts, is shutting down after 36 years in business. The company cited changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Frys made the announcement in a statement on its website early Wednesday, where all other content had disappeared. But the writing had been on the wall for at least two years as empty store shelves began to signal that the San Jose, Calif.,-based company was in trouble. Frys operated 31 stores across nine states, including one in Renton, south of Seattle the only Washington location. GeekWire visited that store in October 2019 as internet reports began to circulate that the chain may be struggling in the age of Amazon and increased online shopping. The 152,000-square-foot Renton store was a sea of empty shelves at the time, with very few employees or customers wandering departments ranging from personal computers to televisions to office furniture. But a spokesman for Frys told GeekWire back then that Frys was gearing up for the holiday season and that it was planning to restock over the next several weeks with no plans to liquidate or close any stores. Holding an extension cable to power a CPU in a computer he was fixing, customer Jordan Jones told GeekWire in 2019 that Frys was the last bastion of hardware shopping. He said then that empty shelves were a scary sign for brick-and-mortar retail in general. They used to have all these computer boxes stacked, he said, waving his arm from floor to ceiling at scattered boxes on shelves nearby. Founded in 1985 in Sunnyvale, Calif., Frys had been an electronics institution for decades, once boasting on its website that it catered to the high-tech professional and sold more than 50,000 electronic items in its stores. As rumors of the shut-down began circulating on Twitter Tuesday night, some shoppers shared their appreciation for the chains adherence to a bizarre theme approach to each stores decor. While the Renton store focused on regional history, others had elaborate displays tied to Egyptian history, Atlantis, the Wild West, the Gold Rush and more. https://www.geekwire.com/2021/frys-electronics-shutting-stores-ending-36-years-big-box-stop-tech-enthusiasts/ Our thanks to Stephen G7VFY for spotting this item US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States will vie for a seat at the UNs human rights body, which would cement a US return to a Geneva-based body that was shunned by the Trump administration. The top US diplomat said his country will seek a three-year term starting next year at the Human Rights Council, and acknowledged it needs reform, particularly to end its disproportionate focus on Israel the only country whose rights record comes up for scrutiny at every one of its thrice-yearly meetings. In a video message, Mr Blinken raised concerns about Myanmar, which has faced international criticism over a military coup last month, China over its Xinjiang region, and Russia after the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and demonstrators during protests against President Vladimir Putins government. The United States is placing democracy and human rights at the centre of our foreign policy because theyre essential for peace and stability, Mr Blinken said. The US will seek election to the Human Rights Council for the 2022 to 2024 term. The UN General Assembly makes the final choice in a vote that generally takes place in October every year to fill vacant seats at the 47-member-state council. The US, which currently has observer status, will seek one of three full-member seats left vacant when the current terms of Austria, Denmark and Italy from the Western Europe and other states group expire at the end of this year. In mid-2018, then-US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the council over its excessive focus on Israel, which has received the largest number of critical council resolutions against any country by far, and because it failed to meet an extensive list of reforms demanded by Nikki Haley, the then-US ambassador to the UN. The Trump administration also took issue with the bodys membership, which currently includes China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, all of which have been accused of human rights abuses. Echoing such concerns, Mr Blinken said countries with the worst human rights record should not be members of this council. He also repeated US calls for an end to the councils regular agenda item, known as Item 7, that focuses on Israel and the Palestinian territories. He added that Washington would continue to call out abuses in places like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran and reiterated US calls for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr Navalny and other critics of Mr Putin who have been wrongly detained. The comments came on the last day of the high-level segment of the council session, which lasts until March 23. Other top speakers including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who focused in large part on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on human rights and took aim at Western countries. He spoke shortly before Mr Blinken. The pandemic has exacerbated long-standing problems such as racism and xenophobia and discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, Mr Lavrov said, adding that mass demonstrations in the United States and Europe had exposed persistent systemic inequalities. He also called for greater regulation of social media networks, citing what he called increasing concern about their non-transparent policies. DID YOU KNOW An African American chemist named Percy Julian discovered many of our medicines that we depend upon for healthy living. His research yielded the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills. He was also instrumental in synthesizing the drug physostigmine, which was used to treat glaucoma. Percy Lavon Julian was born April 11, 1899, in Montgomery, Alabama. He was the grandson of former slaves. At that time, he attended school through the eighth grade because there was no high school for Black students. He applied to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He had to attend high school-level classes in the evening so he could catch up to the academic level of his peers. In spite of the discriminatory practices of his early education, he graduated from DePauw University first in his class, with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Julian was determined to get a Ph.D. in his field of study. He was a chemistry instructor at Fisk University, a Black University in Memphis, Tennessee. He continued to follow his dreams and in 1923 he received a scholarship to attend Harvard University to finish his masters degree, but they would not allow him to pursue his doctorate. He continued teaching at Black colleges until 1931 when he received his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in Austria. While in Vienna, Julian developed a fascination with the interesting properties of the soybean and its capabilities. He returned to DePauw to continue his research. His brilliance overshadowed the racial injustice that pursued him. With the soybean, he found a way to inexpensively develop male and female hormones. These hormones would help to prevent miscarriages in pregnant women and also fight cancer and other ailments. He also found a way to provide a synthetic version of cortisone, which was soy based. This product is used to greatly relieve sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis. He next set out to provide a synthetic version of cortisone, a product which greatly relieved the pain of sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis. His work was so dynamic, in 1950, the City of Chicago named him Chicagoan of the Year. Even with all his efforts to make people healthier, the racist society raised its ugly head. His home in Oak Park, Illinois was set on fire by an arsonist on Thanksgiving Day in 1950. A year later, dynamite was thrown from a speeding car and exploded outside the bedroom window of his children. Finally, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. He received 15 honorary degrees as well as authoring and co-authoring more than 160 publications. The DePauw University named a building for him. Percy Julian died in 1975 of liver cancer. Compiled by Shirley Madden, member of the Manistee Area Racial Justice & Diversity Initiative. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions A colored gas is pushed through filtration experiments in Dr. Huangs laboratory in Schrenk Hall. Credit: Michael Pierce, Missouri S&T. Until a vaccine is readily available, a high-efficiency furnace filter used along with other precautions could help protect people from COVID-19 while they spend time together indoors. Dr. Yue-Wern Huang, director of S&T's Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and a professor of biological sciences, is studying bioaerosolsthe particles people release when they speak, sing or cough. He and his team of researchers are observing how viruses travel through the air, how time and environmental conditions affect the viability of viruses, and how proper ventilation can help control viral spread. "As particles travel in time and distance, their physical properties such as size continue to change due to environmental factors like humidity and temperature," says Huang. "The viability of pathogens contained within these bioaerosols is largely unknown right now." Huang uses a portal chamber and a walk-in chamber to create simulations and then studies the behavior of bioaerosols by collecting and analyzing pathogens on various filters. He uses bioaerosols that contain pathogens similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Working with Huang at S&T is Dr. Yang Wang, assistant professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, and Dr. Guang Xu, associate professor of mining engineering. The project is funded by a $330,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Weixing Hao, (left) a Ph.D. student in environmental engineering, conducts air filtration experiments in Dr. Huangs (right) laboratory in Schrenk Hall. Credit: Michael Pierce, Missouri S&T. "This research project is an excellent example of in-depth collaboration between very different disciplines," says Huang. "Dr. Wang is a particle physicist who knows all about aerosol physics, while Dr. Xu is an expert in mining ventilation. We put together our three areas of expertise to create a unique team to successfully pursue this research during the COVID-19 pandemic." So far, the team's findings call for air filters with the highest MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values) rating possible to be used indoors. They also say that that portable air filters could provide additional protection. Even a homemade filter could potentially help. Wang says a box fan with air filters taped to the front and back can provide additional air filtration. Although the world was confined indoors for most of the pandemic-hit 2020, this was no barrier to those with cash buying high-end luxury goods, accessories and upmarket homes, the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index says. The holy grail of handbags: This Birkin in matte Himalayan crocodile leather sold for $US437,330 at Christies auction in Hong Kong in November 2020. Credit:NYT The market for high-end collectables and investments was mixed, with cars, upmarket overseas holidays and artwork hit, with investors preferring to invest in passion sectors, such as bitcoins and accessories. The must-have item, fashion house Hermes handbags, topped the list for the worlds ultra wealthy, as defined as having a net worth of more than $US30 million ($38 million) including their prime residence, and can retail for anything from $US2000 for an everyday shoulder bag, to the Hermes Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Retourne Kelly 25 handbag, which sold at auction by Christies for $US437,330, ($552,487) in November 2020. Cars raced back up to third place in the index in 2020 with growth of 6 per cent Ferrari was one of the preferred choices to grace the garage. Support for water companies as pandemic sheds new light on importance of access to water Improvements aimed at saving water and treating higher volumes of wastewater EBRD joining forces with EU to bring Bulgarias water system in line with EU standards The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union are intensifying their effort to deliver a direct impact on peoples lives by financing upgrades to water supply and wastewater systems in Bulgarias Stara Zagora and Vratsa regions. The water and wastewater utility in Stara Zagora, which serves a population of approximately 326,000 across 12 towns, is investing 52 million in the modernisation of its operations. The investment programme is financed largely by EU grants and the EBRD is providing a 3.7 million loan from its own resources, complemented by a 2.4 million loan from the EUs European structural and investment funds (ESIF). At the same time, the regional utility that serves the cities of Vratsa, Byala Slatina, Mezdra and Kozloduy is implementing a 21.3 million investment programme. The improvements are financed with EU grants, the state budget and a 2.7 million loan split equally between the EBRD and ESIF. Both utilities aim to raise their operations to the standard of EU directives, save more drinking water and treat greater volumes of wastewater before discharge. Both investments are under the Bulgarian ESIF Water Sector Financing Framework, which co-finances strategic investments in water and wastewater infrastructure. To date, financing committed under the framework tops 20 million, of which 11 million comes from the EBRD and the remainder is co-financing provided by the Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria (FMFIB). FMFIB, a fund of funds, entrusted the EBRD to manage up to 115 million of ESIF and the national budget allocated under the Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020. Blended with additional bank resources, this unlocks about 200 million for the development of the local water and wastewater sector. The latest financing comes amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which puts enormous pressure on providers of vital infrastructure to deliver essential services while facing financial constraints. Support for infrastructure providers is a central pillar of the EBRDs response to the crisis. The EBRD responded to the coronavirus pandemic with record investment of 11 billion in 2020 through 411 projects, addressing the urgent needs of the economies where it invests. In Bulgaria, the Bank provided financing worth 100 million last year. To date, it has committed more than 4 billon in almost 270 investment projects in the country. Sorry! This content is not available in your region 3,500 megawatts of waste heat in the form of steam and warm air had been identified around Dublin which could heat many thousands more homes and premises. (stock image) Heat from crematoriums could be used to warm nearby homes under proposals being put to city officials. While acknowledging the idea might seem "eerie", energy expert Donna Gartland said it made perfect sense. Heat generated by all sorts of activities was going to waste when it should be piped into people's homes, she said. Amazon has entered an agreement with South Dublin County Council to pump heat generated by the giant servers at one of its data centres to apartments and public buildings in Tallaght. Read More But Ms Gartland said 3,500 megawatts of waste heat in the form of steam and warm air had been identified around Dublin which could heat many thousands more homes and premises. "We're looking at data centres, cold storage warehouses, wastewater treatment plants, power stations - all of these units that produce waste heat from your bakeries right down to your local crematorium, even though that seems a bit eerie to think about waste heat coming from there." Ms Gartland is chief executive of Codema, the energy advisor to Dublin's four local authorities, and also director of the Irish District Energy Association (IDEA) which is working to make district heating standard in every city and town. District heating works best where development is dense or clustered to minimise the length and cost of pipelines and prevent heat loss along the way. IDEA has calculated there is already enough development of that kind in Ireland to allow for 33pc of heat needs to be met from district heating. With a proper nationwide plan in place, that figure could rise to 57pc. Ms Gartland said heating infrastructure should be part of national policy and state funding the way gas pipelines and electricity networks were. She called for mandatory heat planning at local level so that new developments had to provide for district heating, and she said building regulations needed to be revised. Because waste heat doesnt tick the renewable energy box, the building regulations dont value it in the same way, she said. The potential for district heating was laid out at a conference on Irelands climate action ambitions where speakers repeatedly stressed how far behind the country is in meeting climate targets. We were to have 12pc of heating needs met from renewable sources by 2020 but we managed only half that. We were also to have cut overall greenhouse gas emissions by 20pc by 2020 compared to 2005 but even with activity slowed because of Covid, the reduction when formally calculated later this year is expected to be just a few percent. Professor John FitzGerald of the Climate Action Advisory Council appealed to the research community to speak out about climate. The work of Irish scientists in spelling out the implications for Ireland is hugely important, he told the conference. The Irish political system takes scientific research seriously although it has thus far been very slow to take action. Researchers need to communicate their results and their advice to the wider public. It is not sufficient to publish key findings in academic journals and rely on these results finding their way to the civil service and the wider public by osmosis. A range of items including a flintlock pistol and a leather shoe sole are among a trove of treasure discovered in the same sunken ship that carried the Elgin Marbles. Archaeologists working for the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport have been investigating the shipwreck of the Mentor since 2011 in search of artefacts. The sunken ship was owned by Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, the Scottish nobleman who removed artefacts from the Parthenon early in the 19th Century. The Mentor sunk near the Greek island of Kythira in 1802 while transporting the marbles and other artefacts - all of which were recovered over the following two years and shipped to England on the orders of Horatio Nelson. Underwater archaeologist, Dr Dimitris Kourkoumelis, said they found numerous items since 2011 but the goal of the study is to learn more about the ship itself. The most recent finds include shoe soles, belt buckles, coins, chess pieces, earrings, as well as cooking utensils and other tools. Divers have been working to understand more about the ill-fated Mentor since 2011 and have recovered a number of items from the 19th century One of the objects that was found in the underwater archaeological research at the historic Mentor shipwreck that was carrying the Elgin marbles to England A coin recovered from the wreck of the Mentor. A range of items from the period have been recovered and researchers say they 'paint a picture' of life onboard Wooden cylinder with two holes. The sunken the ship was owned by Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, the Scottish nobleman who removed artefacts from the Parthenon early in the 19th Century HMS MENTOR: THE SHIP OWNED BY BRITISH DIPLOMAT THOMAS BRUCE, EARL OF ELGIN The HMS Mentor sank in 1802 near the Greek island of Kythira while transporting ancient artefacts. The American-built ship was owned by British diplomat and nobleman Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. Among the artefacts being transported were the famous 'Elgin Marbles' - statues taken from the Parthenon. It was en route to the island of Malta where it was set to dock before travelling on to England when it sank. All 12 passengers and crew on board the ship survived the wreck and the cargo was recovered over the following years and taken to England. Advertisement The Mentor was used by Bruce to carry antiquities to England while stationed in Constantinople as Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. When it sank there were a dozen people onboard and they all survived with help from local residents of the island. It was carrying marble sculptures chipped from the badly damaged Parthenon in Athens, known as the 'Elgin Marbles', which are controversially on display in the British Museum in London. Kourkoumelis says the marbles were among 17 cases of artefacts, that are attached to 'the most disagreeable episode of the recent cultural history of Greece'. There were rumours in the 1870s that local divers had seen 'marbles' near the shipwreck, although none were found following an investigation. None have been found in the past few years, but Kourkoumelis says he isn't disheartened, as the small pieces being recovered tell a story of the ship. While the Parthenon artefacts were removed and taken to Britain, it was believed that other antiquities including ancient coins, amphorae, and other items had remained on the seafloor, among the wreck, of which 25 per cent of the hull remains. The new discoveries also include the remains of a flintlock pistol and a theodolite, a measurement instrument believed to have belonged to William Martin Leake. He was a topographer, an artillery captain, a diplomat and an antiquarian who became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and one of the 12 people on board. While its exact history remains unclear, according to Dr Kourkoumelis, the Mentor is believed to have been built in America. 'We are not exactly sure about its history but it seems to originate in the American War of Independence. The French brought it to Europe where it was a cargo ship following the frigates and the cargo ships of the French fleet,' he said. 'It then became implicated in the British and the French war and it was captured by the British. The British didn't want to keep this ship and they sold it to Lord Elgin.' Speaking about the controversial Elgin marbles, as they are now known, Dr Kourkoumelis said that negotiating their eventual return to Greece with the British Museum was 'complicated'. He said that because the British Museum was an independent body, there was one discussion going on with the government and another with the museum. He said: 'This Elgin collection of antiquities is probably one of the most valuable collections of objects that the British Museum has and this complicates the affair.' But he added that the fact that they more or less know exactly where these artefacts came from, and that a lot of them came from what is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, strengthens the Greek argument that they should be returned. Underwater archaeologist, Dr Dimitris Kourkoumelis, said they found numerous items since 2011 but the goal of the study is to learn more about the ship itself One of the objects that were found in the underwater. The Mentor was used by Bruce to carry antiquities to England while stationed in Constantinople as Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Leather shoe section. It was carrying marble sculptures chipped from the badly damaged Parthenon in Athens, known as the 'Elgin Marbles', which are controversially on display in the British Museum in London The metal part of a buckle. While its exact history remains unclear, according to Dr Kourkoumelis, the Mentor is believed to have been built in America He said that he found it very 'difficult' to think about these objects remaining separate from the monuments from which they were taken, especially given that they are still standing and one can easily go and see them. The experts hope to determine if any of the items at the British Museum that are believed to have been taken from the Acropolis in Athens have any traces of seawater on them. This in turn could help establish if any of them had been on board the Mentor when it sank. But he added: 'But I don't think the British Museum will allow us to do that.' 'Here is another problem. At the time that the Mentor sunk - near Kythira - Kythira at this time was part of the Independent Ionian Islands under the protection of Great Britain,' explained Kourkoumelis. While the Parthenon artefacts were removed and taken to Britain, it was believed that other antiquities including ancient coins, amphorae, and other items had remained on the seafloor, among the wreck, of which 25 per cent of the hull remains A theodolite, a measurement instrument believed to have belonged to William Martin Leake (1777-1860) and which has now been recovered from the wreck of the Mentor Wooden pulley with part of its tying rope used during the maintenance process on the ship 'They were independent states in fact, so when the ship sunk, it was in the territorial waters of Kythira. Perhaps Kythira could ask to have the items returned?' Officially known as the United States of the Ionian Islands, they were a Greek state that was a protectorate of Great Britain between 1815 and 1864. Asked if it was possible then that Lord Elgin was therefore within his legal right to remove the artefacts, Dr Kourkoumelis said: 'It is very complicated. Legally? Possibly. Ethically? No.' The Mentor was used by Bruce to carry antiquities to England while stationed in Constantinople as Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire The remains of a flintlock pistol recovered from the wreck of the Mentor. The new discoveries also include the remains of a flintlock pistol and a theodolite, a measurement instrument believed to have belonged to William Martin Leake Speaking about the controversial Elgin marbles, as they are now known, Dr Kourkoumelis said that negotiating their eventual return to Greece with the British Museum was complicated Wooden double pulley and part of the ship. He said that because the British Museum was an independent body, there was one discussion going on with the government and another with the museum He agreed that irrespective of what the rules at the time might have been, most people today would probably concur that artefacts belong in Greece. He said: 'Even just a few years after these incidents, Lord Byron wrote a very nice poem accusing Elgin of having done this robbery from Greece. 'Lord Byron understood very quickly that it wasn't really something legal, or something correct to do.' Dr Kourkoumelis was referring to Lord Byron's seminal poem Childe Harold, in which he says: 'Remove yon skull from out the scatter'd heaps: Is that a temple where a God may dwell?' Asked if it was possible then that Lord Elgin was therefore within his legal right to remove the artefacts, Dr Kourkoumelis said: 'It is very complicated. Legally? Possibly. Ethically? No' Leather shoe section. There were rumours in the 1870s that local divers had seen 'marbles' near the shipwreck, although none were found following an investigation Wooden roller for rolling the antenna on the mast. Many other stanzas were aimed at Lord Elgin and at what Lord Byron perceived to be his rapacious attitude towards the sacred sepulchre of an ancient civilisation Wooden binding. In the meantime, Dr Kourkoumelis said that the new items they have recovered are currently being restored and that they hope to put them on display in a museum in Athens when they are ready Many other stanzas were aimed at Lord Elgin and at what Lord Byron perceived to be his rapacious attitude towards the sacred sepulchre of an ancient civilisation. The British Museum, meanwhile, denies that the artefacts were removed illegally, and says that it sees no reason why they should be returned to Greece. A lengthy page on their website states in part: 'Lord Elgin, the British diplomat who transported the sculptures to England, acted with the full knowledge and permission of the legal authorities of the day in both Athens and London. 'Lord Elgin's activities were thoroughly investigated by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal. Following a vote of Parliament, the British Museum was allocated funds to acquire the collection.' In the meantime, Dr Kourkoumelis said that the new items they have recovered are currently being restored and that they hope to put them on display in a museum in Athens when they are ready. $ 11 million have disappeared which were donated to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. "We have already written that during the war, when Armenians all over the world transferred money to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, these funds were subsequently used not purposefully, and in some cases evaporated. We also wrote that in addition to money laundering during the process of purchasing bulletproof vests at inflated prices, $ 11 million simply disappeared," Deja Vu Telegram channel reported sharing two documents. The first one indicates a one-time cash withdrawal of EUR 285,143 (as an advance payment), the other shows that the goods were allegedly purchased in the amount of 519,750,000 AMD (over EUR 800,000). "These documents exist, but the problem is that both during the war and after it, these goods were not delivered, and the cashed amount is in the possession of several people who did not return the fund's funds to the budget," the channel added. According to Dejavu, these transactions were coordinated by four people, MP Hayk Sargsyan, former head of the government staff Eduard Aghajanyan, MP Andranik Kocharyan, and Minister Hakob Arshakyan. Battle: Anne Roper won an age discrimination ruling against RTE, which is now appealing the award. Photo: David Conachy A CHALLENGE by RTE against having to pay 100,000 compensation to a former executive producer forced to retire at 65 has dramatically collapsed. It happened after Arthur Hall, a member of the Labour Court, had to apologise for accusing the broadcasters barrister of making ageist and sexist remarks. Court deputy chairman Alan Haugh announced the division of the court had decided to recuse itself from the case at the start of the proceedings yesterday. Mr Hall, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions representative on the three-member court, had made comments at the close of the hearing the day before. He had claimed comments by RTEs counsel, Marguerite Bolger SC, could be construed as ageist and sexist. Ms Bolger had been outlining the age profiles of a number of RTE employees during her cross-examination of Anne Roper, the former executive producer who had won a discrimination case against the broadcaster on age grounds. In response to Mr Halls accusation, Ms Bolger replied she had been rarely lost for words and stressed she had always pursued legal cases in accordance with the instructions of her clients and her professional code. The hearing on Wednesday was then adjourned by Mr Haugh without further discussion. Talks were held between the legal representatives and the Labour Court before the start of proceedings yesterday. Afterwards the deputy chairman announced it would stand down from the case as a result of Mr Halls remarks. Mr Hall also publicly offered sincere apologies to Ms Bolger, which she accepted, for any hurt he had caused. They were not directed at you in a personal way. It was just about some comments that had been made, he said. Mr Haugh expressed the Labour Courts regret to all the parties and their legal representatives for what had happened. He said the Labour Court was fully conscious of the inconvenience and cost of halting a case that had already heard evidence over four days between last November and this month. However, Mr Haugh said they accepted the correct course of action was for the case to be passed to another division of the Labour Court. He promised the parties that every effort would be made to have the matter reassigned as soon as possible. RTE is challenging the Workplace Relations Commission award and is arguing that a compulsory retirement age of 65 is necessary to allow it to recruit and promote younger programme makers with fresh ideas to attract younger audiences. The State broadcaster claims such a measure is necessary to ensure intergenerational fairness as financial constraints prevented it from increasing overall staff numbers. Previously Ms Roper outlined a record of successful programmes she had produced at RTE, noting that her series No Country For Women had secured higher ratings than Love Island when it was broadcast at the same time on another channel. (CNN) -- Children who are exposed to tobacco smoke have a greater chance of having high blood pressure, a new study has found. Researchers found 6% of children who were exposed to tobacco smoke had high blood pressure compared to 4% in children who weren't exposed, according to a study published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. The study defined tobacco exposure as a child reporting smoking, living with a smoker or having serum cotinine levels, which measures recent exposure to nicotine, greater than 0.05 micrograms per liter. Data was gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2016. Of the 8,520 children ages 8 to 19 who were surveyed, 3,690, or 43%, had been exposed to tobacco smoke. The high percentage of children exposed is concerning, said Dr. Karen Wilson, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics tobacco consortium, who was not involved in the study. "We think that tobacco smoking is going down when in fact, the rate of adult smokers is decreasing, but children are still likely to be exposed," said Wilson, who is also the Debra and Leon Black chief of the division of general pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital. That exposure can create a ripple effect of negative consequences that persist into adulthood, said study author Dr. Rebecca Levy, research fellow in adult and pediatric nephrology at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York. Children who are around parents and adults who smoke are more likely to start smoking themselves, Levy said. High blood pressure could also be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and other illness later in life, she said. One of the ways to address the high blood pressure in children is to give them medication, but "no one wants to have to give a child medication for blood pressure," Wilson said. The study also found 16% of children who were exposed to tobacco smoke had elevated blood pressure compared to 11% of children who weren't exposed. Elevated blood pressure is defined in the study as levels greater than the 90th percentile for a child's age, sex and height percentiles while high blood pressure refers to those above the 95th percentile. The pandemic could be making it worse Since the pandemic began, Wilson said she's heard reports of increased tobacco and marijuana smoking indoors. This could increase the number of children who are exposed, Wilson said, both by their parents and their neighbors, if they live close to others. "(If) somebody can't go outside to have a cigarette because they're in quarantine or lockdown for Covid, they're more likely to smoke in their apartment or their house," Wilson said. Levy said she hopes the close quarters make parents more aware of how often they're smoking around their children. How to protect children Parents should use this time as an opportunity to educate their children on the negative effects of smoking and encourage them to resist peer pressure, Levy said. Wilson said parents who want to protect their children from secondhand tobacco smoke should consider quitting smoking because it's "the best thing they can do for their own health and for the health of their children." There are a multitude of resources for smokers who want to quit, Wilson said, like nicotine replacement therapy and other medications. She said she believes the key to helping children not be exposed in the future is to reduce the overall smoking rate. If you or your child has high blood pressure, Wilson recommends you consult a primary care physician for guidance on treatment. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Children exposed to tobacco smoke could be at risk for high blood pressure" A warning has been issued about a new Covid-related scam which has been reported in Limerick and elsewhere in recent days. Gardai say they were contacted by a member of the public who alerted them to a text message which she had received. "The text was asking her to click on a link and complete an expression of interest in receiving the Covid-19 Vaccine. Thankfully this lady was satisfied that this text was not genuine and most likely a text scam," said divisional crime prevention officer Sergeant Ber Leetch. "Gardai are very grateful to this lady for reporting the text as it gives me the opportunity to highlight the depths that scammers will go to try to get personal information or money from people," she added. The warning advises anyone who receives a text or email with a link to think before they click on it. "You should pause and consider the intention of the message, could this be an attempt to deceive you or get cash from you?" said Sgt Leetch who stressed that the HSE will never ask you for your bank details or to pay for a Covid-19 test or vaccination. "If you receive a text like this you should take control and ring the HSE at 1850 24 1850 especially if you have any concerns or suspicions. We can stop the spread of scams by learning how to spot them, not believing them and reporting them to gardai," she added. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions [For more Bay Area COVID-19 stories, sign up for the Coronavirus Updates newsletter] Three Bay Area counties have suspended coronavirus vaccine supplies to a San Francisco-based health care provider whose procedures allowed ineligible individuals to cut the line, local officials say. The company, One Medical, is no longer receiving vaccines from San Francisco, San Mateo or Alameda counties, and San Francisco health officials said Wednesday they have directed One Medical to return more than 1,600 doses. When asked about its practices in the Bay Area last week, One Medical officials said accusations that the company knowingly disregarded eligibility guidelines are in direct contradiction to our actual approach to vaccine administration. Early in the vaccine rollout, the counties allocated vaccine doses to One Medical after the company demonstrated it could distribute them efficiently. The company offered free trials of its $199 membership program to people who wanted to sign up for the vaccine. But this month, officials at San Franciscos health department asked One Medical to provide information on how it was administering COVID-19 vaccines after fielding complaints that ineligible San Franciscans were getting vaccinated. The companys response indicated that people who did not meet the states criteria for vaccine eligibility at that time had been inoculated. Because of this and our inability to verify the (eligibility) of this cohort, DPH has stopped allocating doses to One Medical, a health department spokesperson said Wednesday in an email. Five days after One Medical responded to the health departments inquiry, Jonathan Sears, deputy director of vaccine operations for San Franciscos COVID-19 Command Center, directed the company to return 270 vials of Pfizer vaccine containing 1,620 doses that it had listed as saved for other uses. San Mateo and Alameda counties have also stopped allocating doses to One Medical after learning the company allowed line-cutting, according to officials in both counties. One Medical is a membership-based concierge service that offers physician care in 12 cities, and 24/7 virtual care. It has expanded from one location in San Francisco in 2007 to more than 72 across the country. California currently allows vaccines to be distributed to individuals over age 65, as well as health care workers and other categories of essential workers, including teachers, emergency responders and agriculture workers. But, initially, many local health departments struggled with supply shortages that made it difficult for them to expand eligibility past the most vulnerable groups, like people over 75 and health care workers. In early February, San Mateo Countys public health department received complaints originating from two school districts alleging that One Medical was vaccinating teachers not yet eligible based on local and state criteria, according to Rebecca Archer, chief deputy county counsel for San Mateos Office of the County Counsel. After investigating the allegations, the countys public health department found One Medical had vaccinated 70 ineligible individuals, and terminated its contract with the company on Feb. 10, Archer said. Its unclear whether all 70 of those ineligible individuals who got vaccinated were teachers because One Medical did not clarify, she said. Alameda County allocated 975 doses to One Medical in late January so they could vaccinate the Phase 1A health care workers who were their members, according to Neetu Balram, a spokesperson for Alameda Countys Health Department. Phase 1A includes health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, according to the California Department of Public Health. The county stopped allocating doses to One Medical, she said, after the company indicated that they planned to vaccinate more than their health care workers the only approved group prioritized for vaccinations at the time aside from long-term care residents next. The vaccination distribution problem is likely more widespread, as NPR and Forbes also previously reported internal documents and interviews with current employees showing that One Medical had let ineligible people skip the line up and down the West Coast. But One Medical pushed back. We are disappointed to learn that ill-informed hearsay is leading to public misconceptions about our COVID-19 vaccine protocols and, more importantly, has impugned our company values in our efforts to collaborate with Bay Area health officials to administer COVID-19 vaccines. We remain committed to serving our communities and hope that any misconceptions can be cleared up quickly so we can continue doing this vital work, the spokesperson said when a Chronicle reporter asked them about complaints last week. The company did not immediately respond when asked Wednesday for a response to the actions taken by Alameda and San Mateo counties. The California Department of Public Health allocates vaccines to both multi-county entities like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health and local health departments based on their needs, calculated by the current eligibility criteria. To speed up distribution, local health departments typically at the county level can set up contracts with health care providers like One Medical and local hospitals. One Medical set up contracts with multiple Bay Area counties, as it was among the first health care providers in the state with the infrastructure to administer vaccines, according to a spokesperson from San Franciscos Department of Public Health. To their credit, One Medical figured it out early, said Roland Pickens, director of San Franciscos Health Network, which is currently helping the city distribute coronavirus vaccines. The company had infrastructure to get shots in arms quickly, he said. One Medical has also been distributing vaccines in Marin County. Laine Hendricks, a spokesperson for the countys Health and Human Services department, said the agency received an email in late January alleging that One Medical was offering vaccines to people under age 65. That age group was not eligible to receive vaccines at the time. Hendricks said the county is looking into whether One Medical is abiding by the terms of its memorandum of understanding, which states it will follow the countys policies on vaccination. So far, an initial review of the data did not show obvious signs of wrongdoing, Hendricks said. Santa Clara County gave One Medical about 300 doses to vaccinate health care workers on its staff, according to a county spokesperson. It hasnt given the company any more doses since but did not cite any wrongdoing as the reason. Archer, the San Mateo County official, noted that the county has received only one other complaint regarding inappropriate vaccinations separate from One Medical and that complaint turned out to be a false alarm. I think theres a lot of positives in the vaccine story, Archer said. Its a shame this happened with One Medical." Susie Neilson and Meghan Bobrowsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: susan.neilson@sfchronicle.com, meghan.bobrowsky@sfchronicle.com. Landowners who have been cutting their roadside hedges were praised at the recent Callan Thomastown municipal district meeting. Cllr Matt Doran said a lot of hedge cutting had been going on in the region in recent days and it makes some difference to routes where it is carried out. I complement those who have taken on the chore and encourage others to do the same, Cllr Doran said. He noted that it is the landowners and not the council who are responsible for hedge cutting along roads. Declan Murphy, Area Engineer, said it was good to see so many hedges cut and said that Kilkenny County Council was not sending as many hedge cutting notices this year, which is a good sign. Littering Cllr Doran went on to say that while it is fantastic to see the hedge cutting it really shows how much littering there is in rural areas. Farmers, families and community groups have been collecting rubbish, the councillor said, and he appealed to anyone who can to help with the clean up. The Jordan Peele reboot of The Twilight Zone will not be returning following its two-season run. Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg and the entire production team truly reimagined The Twilight Zone for the modern age, said Julie McNamara, Paramount Plus programming chief. They upheld the classic series legacy of socially conscious storytelling and pushed todays viewers to explore all new dimensions of thought-provoking and topical themes that we hope will resonate with audiences for years to come. More from Variety This reboot of the anthology series created by Rod Serling featured Peele as host, producer and narrator, with episodes featuring Ike Barinholtz, John Cho, Taissa Farmiga, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kumail Nanjiani, Chris ODowd, Seth Rogen, Adam Scott, Jacob Tremblay, and Steven Yeun, among others. While the first episode of the reboot drove up CBS All Access level of unique viewers to an all-time high, per the streamer, it will not come back when CBS All Access is rebranded as Paramount Plus on March 4. Wednesday marked a splashy, 3.5-hour presentation of the newly named streamer, offering teasers of reboots of everything from Frasier to Rugrats. Both existing seasons of Peeles Twilight Zone will be available to watch on Paramount Plus. The series was produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Peeles Monkeypaw Productions and Kinbergs Genre Films, featuring Peele and Kinberg as executive producers along with Win Rosenfeld, Audrey Chon, Glen Morgan, Carol Serling and Rick Berg. The Hollywood Reporter first reported news of the cancellation. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A group of Republican senators is asking Amazon.com Inc. to explain why it recently removed a book about transgender issues that had been on sale on the platform for about three years. In a letter to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos dated Wednesday, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Braun of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri said a book by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment," was no longer available on Amazon nor on its Kindle and Audible platforms. Amazon, they wrote, has been unable to provide a sufficient explanation" as to how the book supposedly violated a vague, undefined offensive content standard." An Amazon spokeswoman didnt have a comment regarding the letter. The company declined to provide specifics regarding its decision, saying in a statement earlier Wednesday that it reserved the right not to sell certain content based on its content guidelines for books. All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer and we do not take selection decisions lightly," the statement said. In their letter, the senators wrote that Amazons move openly signaled to conservative Americans that their views are not welcome on its platforms." They requested the company provide documentation explaining its decision, including whether the book violated an Amazon policy. Amazon is the countrys dominant book retailer, accounting for 53% of all books sold in the U.S. and 80% of all ebooks, according to recent 30-day sales data from Codex Group LLC, a book audience research firm. Amazons dominance means any decision to remove a title can have an outsize effect on the books sales. In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Anderson said that because of his professional statushe is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.he has been able to draw attention to Amazons treatment of his book. Other authors, he said, may not be as fortunate. I can make lemonade," he said. But how many others have had their book delisted that we never heard of?" A spokesman for Encounter Books, a nonprofit based in New York City which publishes When Harry Became Sally," said Wednesday that it had been informed by its distributor that the book was removed for violating Amazons content guidelines. Under the category Offensive Content," Amazons content guidelines include a sentence that reads: We dont sell certain content including content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive." Mr. Anderson said he first learned that his book was no longer for sale on Sunday afternoon after a would-be book purchaser called him to say they couldnt find the book on Amazon. Mr. Anderson then looked and also couldnt find it. Its hard to understand," said Mr. Anderson. As far as I know I havent done anything. The book has been saying the same thing for three years." The book, which focuses on a variety of issues including gender identity, was originally published in February 2018. In a tweet Wednesday, Mr. Anderson thanked the group of Republican senators for their support. Leading tech platforms have been under criticism for implementing bans or suspensions of conservative figures. Twitter Inc. earlier this year permanently banned former President Trumps personal account from its service, while Facebook Inc. moved to disable Mr. Trumps Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely. Apple Inc., Amazon and Alphabet Inc.s Google also recently took steps to boot Parler, a social-media app and website that has grown in popularity among conservatives. The actions against Mr. Trump and Parler starkly illustrate the companies influence over conversation onlineand the political nature of their decisions. While lauded by many, ejecting the president and some of his supporters also infuriated others who said it amounts to censorship. Amazon has gotten pushback before over which books it allows on its platforms. In June, journalist and author Alex Berenson said a booklet he had written about the coronavirus pandemic had been rejected by Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazons self-publishing arm. In the booklet, Mr. Berenson argued that estimates about the deadliness of the disease had been overstated and that lockdowns have been counterproductive. Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk criticized Amazons decision on Twitter at the time, and Amazon later said in a statement that the book was removed in error." A day later, the self-published booklet was No. 2 on Amazons Kindle Store bestseller list. A longstanding truism in the book business is that the only bad publicity is no publicity, and that appears to be true for Mr. Anderson as well. The print edition is now sold out at BarnesandNoble.com, but on late Wednesday afternoon the ebook ranked No. 3 on the booksellers Top 100 list for digital books. A spokesman for Encounter Books on Wednesday said the publisher has reordered 5,000 paperback copies. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. 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. The legal aid provision for immigration detainees held in prisons is unlawful, the High Court has ruled, after it emerged a man was unable to access a lawyer for 10 months and had to represent himself. The claimant challenged the legal aid arrangements for immigration detainees held in prisons on the basis that they are less favourable than those in place for people held in immigration removal centres. Non-British nationals who are sentenced to jail for longer than 12 months in the UK are liable to be deported, and can be detained under immigration powers at the end of their custodial sentence pending their removal from the country. Such individuals are usually transferred to an immigration removal centre, where conditions are less restrictive and they have better access to legal advice. However, since the start of the pandemic, the Home Office has sought to hold fewer people in removal centres for Covid-19 safety reasons, placing many in prisons instead. Official data published on Thursday shows the number of people detained in prisons under immigration powers stood at 519 at the end of 2020, an increase of 45 per cent on the previous year. Individuals detained in removal centres have access to an advice surgery that guarantees access to 30 minutes legal advice regardless of means or merit. Those detained under immigration powers in a prison do not. In a landmark judgement, Mr Justice Swift ruled that the Lord Chancellor had breached the claimants right not to be discriminated against under human rights law. Concluding the ruling, he said: The failure to afford immigration detainees held in prisons access to publicly-funded legal advice to an extent equivalent to that available to immigration detainees held in immigration removal centres, is in breach of convention rights. The judgment means the government will be required to remedy the situation to ensure that people in immigration detention are able to access publicly funded immigration advice, and could in the meantime pave the way for others to legally challenge their inability to obtain legal advice while in prison. The claimant, represented by Duncan Lewis Solicitors, was detained in prison and was unable to access a legal aid lawyer for nine and a half months. During this time, he represented himself in his asylum claim with dire consequences, and was unable to successfully challenge the lawfulness of his detention. Jeremy Bloom, the claimants solicitor, said he hoped the ruling would lead to better access among immigration detainees held in in prisons to legally aided immigration and asylum representation, adding that it was currently impossible for many such individuals to secure legal aid. UK news in pictures Show all 51 1 /51 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 4 May 2021 Artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey stand within 100 oak saplings which form part of a living art installation entitled Beuys' Acorns by the UK-based artist duo, outside the Tate Modern in London PA UK news in pictures 3 May 2021 Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie feeds the Gentoo penguins during a visit to Edinburgh Zoo on the campaign trail for the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary Election on May 6 PA UK news in pictures 2 May 2021 Chelsea players celebrate their fourth goal during the Womens Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich, at Kingsmeadow Stadium in south west London. The Blues won the game 4-1, (and the tie 5-3 on aggregate) sending them through to their first Champions League final AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 1 May 2020 Demonstrators during a march through London during a 'Kill the Bill' protest Angela Christofilou UK news in pictures 30 April 2021 Shoppers queue outside Primark in Belfast as shops reopen and hospitality is able to open outdoors in Northern Ireland where lockdown restrictions have begun to gradually ease PA UK news in pictures 29 April 2021 Specialist operators at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, near Telford, Shropshire, clean the Hawker Hunter aircraft displayed within the museum's National Cold War Exhibition, during annual high-level aircraft cleaning and maintenance PA UK news in pictures 28 April 2021 Millions of tulips in flower near Kings Lynn in Norfolk, as Belmont Nurseries, the UK's largest commercial grower of outdoor tulips, offers socially-distanced visits to its tulip fields at Hillington to raise funds for local charity The Norfolk Hospice Tapping House PA UK news in pictures 27 April 2021 Paula Laughton checks one of the newly installed Lego models in the new Lego Mythica land at Legoland Windsor Resort PA UK news in pictures 26 April 2021 A red panda rests on a tree at Manor Wildlife park, which reopened its doors as lockdown restrictions continue to ease, in Tenby, Wales Reuters UK news in pictures 25 April 2021 Sheep climb the hillside as flames from a moor fire are seen on Marsden moor, near Huddersfield AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 24 April 2021 Supporters protest against Manchester United's owners, outside English Premier League club Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium in Manchester AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 23 April 2021 People enjoy the warm weather at City Hall near Tower Bridge in central London PA UK news in pictures 22 April 2021 Uyghurs during a demonstration in Parliament Square, London, which is being held ahead of a House of Commons debate, bought by backbench MP Nus Ghani, on whether Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province are suffering crimes against humanity and genocide PA UK news in pictures 21 April 2021 People walk at the Taihaku Cherry Orchard in Alnwick REUTERS UK news in pictures 20 April 2021 People stand in front of anti Super League banners outside Anfield as twelve of Europe's top football clubs, including Liverpool, launch a breakaway league Reuters UK news in pictures 19 April 2021 Women enjoy sunny weather in Greenwich, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, Reuters UK news in pictures 18 April 2021 Stephen Maguire (right) of Scotland interacts with Jamie Jones of Wales during day 2 of the Betfred World Snooker Championships 2021 at The Crucible, Sheffield PA UK news in pictures 17 April 2021 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburghs coffin, covered with His Royal Highnesss Personal Standard arrives by Landrover Defender at St Georges Chapel carried by a bearer party found by the Royal Marines during the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle Getty Images UK news in pictures 16 April 2021 Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, checks the teeth of "Dentosaurus" during a visit to the Thornliebank Dental Care centre in Glasgow, as she campaigns ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Election AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 April 2021 Myanmar's former ambassador to the UK, Kyaw Zwar Minn, outside his residence in north west London. The ambassador has been barred from entering the Myanmar embassy in Mayfair after he was removed from office PA UK news in pictures 14 April 2021 People take part in coronavirus surge testing on Clapham Common, south London. Thousands of residents have queued up to take coronavirus tests at additional facilities set up after new cases of the South African variant were found in two south London boroughs. 44 confirmed cases of the variant have been found in Lambeth and Wandsworth, with a further 30 probable cases identified PA UK news in pictures 13 April 2021 The core of the Milky Way becomes visible in the early hours of Tuesday morning as it moves over Bamburgh Lighthouse at stag Rock in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 12 April 2021 Rebecca Richardson (left) and Genevieve Florence, members of the Aquabatix synchronised swimming team, during a practice session in the swimming pool at Clissold Leisure Centre in north London, which has reopened to the public. Many facilities have reopened in the latest easing of lockdown include pubs and restaurants who can serve outside, non-essential shops, indoor gyms and swimming pools, nail salons and hairdressers, outdoor amusements and zoos PA UK news in pictures 11 April 2021 A pub staff pins up a sign announcing the reopening of the Fox on the Hill pub on Denmark Hill in London EPA UK news in pictures 10 April 2021 The Death Gun Salute is fired by the Honourable Artillery Company to mark the passing of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the The Tower of London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 9 April 2021 A man arrives to lay a bunch of flowers outside Buckingham Palace in central London after the announcement of the death of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. - Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip, who recently spent more than a month in hospital and underwent a heart procedure, died on April 9, Buckingham Palace announced. He was 99. AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 8 April 2021 Cousin Pascal ridden by James King clears the chair on their way to winning the 4:05 Pool via REUTERS UK news in pictures 7 April 2021 Deliveroo riders from the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain outside Deliveroo headquarters in London, as they go on strike in a dispute for fair pay, safety protections and basic workers rights PA UK news in pictures 6 April 2021 Waves crash over the walls next to Seaham Lighthouse in Durham PA UK news in pictures 5 April 2021 Lusamba Katalay (third from left), the husband of Belly Mujinga joins activists at a vigil at Victoria station in London to mark the first anniversary of the death of railway worker Belly Mujinga who died with Covid-19 following reports she had been coughed on by a customer at London's Victoria station PA UK news in pictures 4 April 2021 People spend Easter Sunday at Hengistbury Head, Bournemouth Jake McPherson/SWNS UK news in pictures 3 April 2021 A woman looks into the camera as she attends a 'Kill the Bill' protest in London EPA UK news in pictures 2 April 2021 Members of the Bamburgh Croquet club play a game following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Northumberland, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 1 April 2021 A family walks in St Nicholas' Park in Warwick, the hot weather which baked much of the UK this week is set to give way to a chilly Easter weekend. PA UK news in pictures 31 March 2021 A woman adds a heart to the National Covid Memorial Wall in London EPA UK news in pictures 30 March 2021 Jamie Klingler from Reclaim These Streets speaks to the media in Clapham Common, south London, after a review by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Thomas Winsor concluded that Metropolitan Police officers did not act inappropriately or in a heavy-handed manner at the vigil PA UK news in pictures 29 March 2021 An aerial photo shows people playing tennis at the Mersey Bowman Lawn Tennis Club in Liverpool northwest England on March 29, 2021, as England's third Covid-19 lockdown restrictions ease, allowing groups of up to six people to meet outside. - People in England rushed outside Monday to enjoy sports, picnics and other previously prohibited activities, as the nation entered the second phase of its coronavirus lockdown easing thanks in large part to a successful vaccination drive AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 28 March 2021 A walrus sleeps on the slipway of Tenby Lifeboat station at Tenby, Wales Reuters UK news in pictures 27 March 2021 Demonstrators attend a protest against a new proposed policing bill in Manchester Reuters UK news in pictures 26 March 2021 Gallery technicians display Andy Warhol screenprints Queen Elizabeth II, from: Reigning Queens screenprint in colours, 1985, left, and Queen Elizabeth II, from: Reigning Queens (Royal Edition) screenprint in colours with diamond dust, 1985, right, at Christies auction rooms in London AP UK news in pictures 25 March 2021 A member of staff, in the pool, cleans the bottom of the pool during pre-opening preparation and cleaning of Charlton Lido, south London, following its closure due to lockdown PA UK news in pictures 24 March 2021 Scottish Green Party co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater on the local election campaign trail in Edinburgh. PA UK news in pictures 23 March 2021 Care home staff at Westbourne House care home in Sheffield hold a minute's silence during the National Reflection day, The first anniversary of the first UK lockdown Tom Maddick / SWNS UK news in pictures 22 March 2021 The sun rises over "The Couple" by artist Sean Henry, which sits off the coast at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 21 March 2021 A man driving with his family in Jersey captured the moment a meteor streaked across the sky on his cars dash cam SWNS UK news in pictures 20 March 2021 Police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest against the lockdown in London Reuters UK news in pictures 19 March 2021 A parakeet eats a cherry blossom in St. James's Park, London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 18 March 2021 Highland cattle lock horns at the National Trusts Wicken Fen Nature Reserve in Cambridgeshire PA UK news in pictures 17 March 2021 A cleaner uses a fogging machine to clean a train carriage early in the morning PA UK news in pictures 16 March 2021 A giant 60-metre wide sand portrait of 12-year-old Ansha from Ethiopia created by WaterAid on Whitby Beach in Yorkshire. The image of the young girl, who spends hours each day collecting dirty water from a river, was created to illustrate how climate change threatens water access for world's poorest PA UK news in pictures 15 March 2021 Five kayaks, each reflecting the shape of a human bone, form Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark) (2021), a sculpture by Teresa Solar, positioned outside Exchange Flags, it's one of the outdoor exhibits in the 11th edition of Liverpool Biennial which opens March 20, 2021, and features a series of outdoor sculpture, sonic and digital commissions by nine different artists. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday March 15, 2021. PA Photo. To align with government guidelines, the second 'inside' chapter will launch the full festival of exhibitions and events hosted by key venues throughout the city in late Spring PA The current arrangements are not fit for purpose; they obstruct access to legal aid for some of the most vulnerable individuals and prevent them from effectively challenging the lawfulness of their detention and from advancing their asylum and human rights claims, he added. Pierre Makhlouf, assistant director for Bail for Immigration Detainees, a charity that intervened in the case, said people in prisons were consistently disadvantaged when accessing justice. He continued: Immigration detainees in prisons often face deportation and permanent separation from their families, children and the communities where they have grown up, causing real suffering to many. Access to legal advice and representation in these circumstances is essential to assist people to put forward their claims to remain in the UK, and indeed so that they can apply for bail to be released from detention. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: We have started a review of legal aid provision for immigration detainees, and will carefully consider the High Courts judgment. Syracuse, N.Y. A Boys & Girls Club in Syracuse is among the locations in New York that will host a pop-up Covid vaccine clinic this week. The Syracuse clinic will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday Feb. 26 at the Boys & Girls Club at 2100 E. Fayette St. The site will host another clinic in a few weeks to provide second doses for those who get vaccinated now. The state has organized dozens of popup vaccine clinics across New York in recent weeks to help reach minority and low-income populations and other underserved groups. The clinics this week will provide Covid shots for over 3,700 people. Clinic host sites and partner health care providers conduct outreach to find eligible New Yorkers and schedule appointments at the pop-ups. The Syracuse site still has appointments available, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomos office. The state is also conducting clinics this week in New York City, Long Island, Binghamton, the Hudson Valley and Livingston and Montgomery counties. You can find the full list of popup clinics online. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources NY schools, county have the power to bring more kids back to the classroom; will they use it? Pandemic authority made Cuomo uniquely powerful; what happens when its gone? NY sets rules for dancing at events: Get down in your own dance zone only Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 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. ANNAPOLIS, MD. Not waiting for more federal help, states have been approving their own coronavirus aid packages, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help residents and business owners devastated by the the pandemic's economic fallout. Maryland and California recently moved forward with help for the poor, the jobless, small businesses and those needing child care. New Mexico and Pennsylvania are funneling grants directly to cash-starved businesses. North Carolina's governor wants additional state aid for such things as bonus pay for teachers and boosting rural internet speeds. The spending also provides fuel for critics who say states don't need another massive infusion of cash from Congress. The Biden administration's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan calls for sending $350 billion to state and local governments. Directing federal money to state governments has been so contentious that the idea was stripped from the previous congressional aid package passed in December. Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has frequently criticized proposals to send more money to state governments, calling it a bailout for Democratic-run states he accuses of overspending. "It's great news that states are doing well, many seeing revenues higher than projected, and are able to help their citizens during this pandemic," he said in a statement to The Associated Press. "House and Senate Democrats should follow the facts and ditch their radical efforts to award wasteful bailouts for failed politicians in states like New York and California." Many governors say continued uncertainty about the ongoing effects of the pandemic on their economies justifies the need for more federal spending. They say their state aid initiatives are targeted at people who remain desperate for help nearly a year after the pandemic began shuttering businesses. In Maryland, where direct stimulus checks were being distributed as part of more than $1 billion in relief, Catrina Garrett said the boost from the state was crucial. Garrett, a 35-year-old single mother with a part-time job, said it will help her pay rent and catch up on bills. "A lot of people will need this, and it will help families that have not been able to provide for their children," said Garrett, who lives in Baltimore with her three kids. Other states are considering significant spending to provide more relief to residents. Governors and lawmakers have said they are concerned the economy and job prospects will deteriorate even further before Congress acts on the Biden plan. A slow start to the nationwide vaccination program also has tempered expectations that inoculations will be widespread soon enough to rescue businesses that have struggled with shutdown orders. Under a bill awaiting the governor's signature, New Mexico would provide $200 million in direct grants to businesses, which could use them to pay rent and mortgages. It's part of a proposed state pandemic relief package that also would provide a $600 tax rebate to low-wage workers, a four-month tax holiday for restaurants as they recover from indoor-dining restrictions and a waiver on liquor store license fees. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said aggressive action is needed to ward off business closures and evictions as Congress deliberates. "The cascading effect, it's actually a problem that most states are grappling with ... waiting for the relief money out of the feds," she said. "We need to be able to hold up, to shore up businesses moving forward, and we want them to have security to hold their current employees and potentially hire more." In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a $7.6 billion relief package that includes $600 in one-time payments for about 5.7 million residents, including immigrants who were left out of previous relief initiatives. Another $2 billon is going to struggling businesses. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, signed legislation last week with bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled legislature for one-time stimulus payments of $300 for certain individuals and $500 for families. It also provides up to $9,000 in sales tax relief for small businesses. "Absent of a federal response, the states are having to step up," said Robin McKinney, co-founder and CEO of the CASH Campaign of Maryland, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income residents file taxes. The spending also shows that many states have proved unexpectedly resilient during the pandemic, with better-than-projected tax revenue and healthy budgets. In California, revenue for the current fiscal year through January was running more than $10 billion ahead of the governor's initial projections. Critics say the stronger-than-expected state finances undermine the Biden administration's plan to direct billions more to state and local governments. Some governors are facing pushback from their own legislatures. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, unveiled a $695 million emergency budget proposal that would use state money on bonuses for educators and school staff, hazard pay for state law enforcement officers, rural broadband and small businesses. While Republicans in charge of the Legislature haven't dismissed his ideas, they are unlikely to pass such a sweeping package. They approved a COVID-19 relief package earlier this month that distributed more than $2.2 billion in federal money for vaccine preparations, to schools and to prevent evictions. They also are still figuring out how to spend another $1.8 billion in federal money that Congress approved in December. "We are addressing the needs," said Republican state Sen. Brent Jackson. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, earlier this month signed legislation using $145 million in reserves from a worker's compensation fund for grants of up to $50,000 to owners of hard-hit bars, restaurants and hotels. The money is expected to be available next month. Industry representatives said the aid is helpful but won't reach many who work in Pennsylvania's 30,000 such businesses. And for some of those who do receive it, the extra state money represents just a fraction of the financial hit they have taken during the pandemic. Susan Williams, who with her sister owns a bar in Pittsburgh and another just outside the city, plans to apply for the grants. Her businesses remain under restrictions that include serving at 25 percent capacity, no seating at the bar and 11 p.m. last calls. The bars are closed part of the week to keep from losing money, and there's nothing left over to pay tax bills that arrived this week. "They know damn well we haven't been open," Williams said. "They basically choked our income, but they're still sending our tax bills. It's insane." ___ Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report. A section of Tema Residents on Wednesday advocated Say No To Lesbianism, Gayism, Bisexual Transgender and queer Intersex Rights, (LGBTQI) movement in Ghana as the act is considered a traditional taboo. In an interaction with the Ghana News Agency at Tema, scores of the residents commended the security forces for closing down LGBTQI office. The physical office must not only be closed, but we must put in measures immediately to ensure they dont operate underground that would be extremely dangerous. We must intensify public education to ensure that they do not lure several other people to join the LGBTQI Community, which is against the laws, traditions and customs of the country, Mr Prince Ofori, a security personnel told the GNA. He admitted that every Ghanaian deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, and the need to respect individual sexual rights, the LGBTQI is against our norms, it is beyond rights as Africans and Ghanaians there are taboos so it is not a good thing to encourage the activities of gays and lesbians on our soil. He explained that it was not possible for a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman because even the Bible abolished it. Mr Ofori who got emotional during the cause of the interview said: "no brother or sister of mine can decide to be gay, it is foolishness and not possible, but even if the person tries it, then maybe he or she will leave the family and go elsewhere to establish the gay family and with that it is up to him or her". Madam Joyce Agbovi, a trader, said it was an abomination as the Ghanaian culture is against such acts and claims that the promotion of the LGBTQI in the country would bring misfortune to the entire nation. She said, "times are hard in the country and LGBTQI is bad luck so things will not go on well, if they are allow to operate freely, therefore the government should drive them out of their office and shut it down". Madam Doreen Yankson, a bank teller, expressed disapproval of the act saying that "I'm a Christian so I don't like the idea of engaging in the act because everything is permissible, but not everything is allowed". She therefore called on religious bodies to educate their members especially the youth to desist from such acts. 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 If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. 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. 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. SCOOBA, Miss. (WTVA) - East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) will use almost $3 million in federal funds to improve walkways and courtyards on its home and Golden Triangle campuses. The Local Public Agencies division of the Mississippi Department of Transportation administered the funds. EMCC plans to use federal funds to improve its sidewalks and courtyards on its Scooba campus. Source: EMCC EMCC plans to use federal funds to improve its sidewalks and courtyards on its Scooba campus. Source: EMCC The funds will also be used to make improvements on EMCC's Golden Triangle campus. Source: EMCC The funds will also be used to make improvements on EMCC's Golden Triangle campus. Source: EMCC The Golden Triangle campus received $1 million. The colleges Scooba campus received $1.9 million. Both of these projects are going to make it much more convenient for our students to get around campus, EMCC President Dr. Scott Alsobrooks said. The courtyard areas will also provide outdoor spaces for students to relax between classes when the weather is nice. This will improve the aesthetics of the two campuses while enhancing the quality of our students experiences while they are here. The college hopes to begin construction next year, with a tentative completion date of late 2022 or early 2023. Read EMCC's full release for more details. FORM Kitchens lets homeowners and remodelers work directly with experienced designers to create and order the kitchen of their dreams directly from their browser - at a fraction of the price offered by traditional retailers FORM Kitchens, an online kitchen design studio that offers made-to-order German cabinetry without the showroom markup, announced today their official launch and availability within the US market. Designs are brought to life with photorealistic renders, created using photographs that the client uploads. FORM allows design-forward homeowners to have the benefits of working with a kitchen studio, but for 30-40% less. New customers can sign up for a free 30-minute remote consultation with a FORM designer by visiting: https://formkitchens.com/. FORM has seen strong demand as the pandemic has caused a surge in both online services and kitchen remodeling. The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) expects 2021 to be a strong year for the kitchen and bath industry forecasting spending to grow 17 percent overall with 22 percent going to new construction and 10 percent to remodeling. FORM offers the same high-end products and 1-1 design support as other European cabinet showrooms. Unlike other players, FORMs design process centers around getting the client photo-realistic visuals as soon as possible and giving clients the most for their budget. Everything is managed through a dedicated web application that streamlines the process. FORM Kitchens is part of a new movement of design companies employing a production custom business model, combining technology and direct sale pricing to disrupt the traditional interior design market, said Danny Soos, co-founder, and CEO of FORM Kitchens. Our clients work directly with experienced designers to create and order the kitchen of their dreams directly from their browser - at a fraction of the price offered by traditional retailers. FORM has already attracted design talent from top brands in the industry including Bulthaup, Boffi, and Poliform. They have also been trusted by several notable clients, including founding art director of Kinfolk magazine Amanda Jane Jones (@amandajanejones), New York DJ Brendan Fallis (@brendanfallis), and boutique hotelier Jayson Seidman (@thebasic). Being able to envision the space so vividly was immensely helpful. I can't get over how real they look - They even recreated our actual furniture...I might have teared up a little bit when we saw the first design, said Amanda Jane Jones. I've also really loved having a dedicated FORM designer. Our designer asked us questions we hadn't thought about before and it really helped us formulate our dreams for the space. FORM has partnered with the most popular manufacturer in Germany to make that high-end European aesthetic and functionality available to a much larger audience. Building on 75 years of experience, they offer advanced design and storage features, usually only available on high-end custom cabinetry. The process is also environmentally conscious, everything is PEFC-certified and meets the most stringent off-gassing standards in the world. It is partly about the product and partly about the process, explained Soos. Our service is for people who find their kitchen inspiration online, but are struggling to realize their vision. We offer the modern styles they want and certainty of being able to see how the end result will look. By streamlining the process, we make it more accessible. Key capabilities and benefits of FORM Kitchens include: Made-to-order German cabinetry at a price comparable to big box stores Save 30-40% vs comparable brands bought locally 1,000s of design, customization and storage options Work 1-1 with highly experienced kitchen designer Design from the convenience of your home and move through the process at your pace Easy-to-use app manages the project for you and helps you stay organized Three full-sized samples shipped to your door Initial design costs $299 instead of the industry typical $2,000+ Incredibly lifelike visuals, created using imagery uploaded by the user Transparent pricing on everything down to individual drawer inserts All cabinetry is built to last and backed by 25 years manufacturing warranty Good for you and the environment - FORM products hold the top certifications and awards for quality, safety, and environmental impact Cabinets pre-assembled to make installation faster and easier Work directly with your existing contractor, or we can help you find a vetted local contractor Priority installation support, in case a question comes up on the job About FORM Kitchens: FORM is an online kitchen design service offering studio-quality kitchens at big-box prices. FORM currently has over 95 live projects in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago, and can ship to anywhere in the US. Founded in 2018, FORM offers made-to-order German cabinetry at 30-40% cost savings over other brands. For more inFORMation please visit FORM Kitchens, How it works, Client testimonials. South Africa resisted adding yet more billions of rand to its ongoing bailout of the countrys bankrupt national airline, sticking to the idea that a private partner can be brought in to salvage the carrier. Administrators for South African Airways have asked for R3.5 billion ($239 million) more in state funding than was allocated in October, according to the countrys Budget Review presented on Wednesday. A further R5.3 billion is being sought from outside entities, according to the document. Yet no further cash was put aside for the carrier by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni. Any reports that more funding will be provided are speculative, he told reporters in an online briefing after presenting the plan to lawmakers in Cape Town. The governments repeated bailouts of SAA have long been controversial, given the countrys economic difficulties and precarious finances. The issue has become even more emotive given travel curbs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which have seen the airlines fleet grounded since March 2020 and showing little sign of an imminent return to the skies. Private Savior Even healthy carriers are expected to struggle for a second consecutive year, with industry body IATA reporting Wednesday the industry could burn through $95 billion in 2021 double the previous forecast. The identification of a new coronavirus variant in South Africa has seen the country placed on many travel blacklists, further limiting SAAs revival hopes. South Africas government has pinned its hopes on the emergence of a private-sector savior, with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan saying this month there are three potential candidates and one will be selected in about a month. The ruling African National Congress is open to suggestions of a private-equity partner in SAA and that government need not even hold a majority stake, Paul Mashatile, the partys Treasurer General, said in an interview. I am not wedded to the notion of a state-owned airline. Not all electric cars are expensive, as China's new favourite zero-emission vehicle is proving. The Hong Guang Mini EV has recently become the nation's best-selling EV, with the super-compact electric model costing from just 3,200 new. The car, which is produced as part of a joint venture between state-owned SAIC Motor (known locally as Wuling) and American firm GM Motors, is less than three metres long, seats four people, has a claimed range of 106 miles and can be charged from a 240V mains socket. China's budget EV: This is the Hong Guang Mini, which is less than 3-metres long, has a claimed range of 106 miles on a single charge and costs from 3,200 The most basic version costs around 3,200, though buyers have the option of a version with air-conditioning, which is priced at just over 3,500. The most expensive trim level is around 4,200. In the most basic form, it is less than half the price of the UK's cheapest new car - the 7,995 petrol Dacia Sandero - and six times less expensive than a Smart EQ ForTwo compact electric vehicle. It is being marketed by China's biggest auto brand as 'the people's commuting tool', providing affordable transport for motorists travelling into big cities. The Mini EV was only launched last summer but has been a huge hit ever since, with over 50,000 orders within months of it coming onto the market. The most basic version costs around 3,200. In January, a total of 25,778 Mini EVs were sold - more than any other electric model The Tesla Model 3 was China's most-bought EV last year, but twice as many Hong Guang Mini EVs were sold last month The car is being marketed by China's biggest auto brand as 'the people's commuting tool', providing affordable transport for motorists travelling into big cities Some 112,000 were registered in China in the second half of 2020, ranking second in the EV sales charts behind Tesla's Model 3, which is produced at the US firm's Shanghai factory. In January, a total of 25,778 Mini EVs were sold, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). That compared to 13,843 for the Tesla Model 3, which costs from 27,000 in the country - some eight times the price of the diminutive Wuling. The diminutive plug-in model is just 2,917mm long, 1,493mm wide and 1,621mm high, making it the ideal motor for urban environments and parking in tight spaces. That makes it around 200mm longer and 79mm talker than the two-seat Smart ForTwo, though the Chinese micro car is around 50mm narrower. It's unclear how well the vehicle would withstand Euro NCAP's rigorous crash tests, though the manufacturer says that 'more than 57%' of the body consists of high-strength steel though buyers have the option of a version with air-conditioning, which is priced at just over 3,500. The most expensive trim level is around 4,200 There is a rear bench for two occupants in the back - and there are even Isofix mounting points for child car seats Its battery and electric motor produces 13kW of maximum power and 85Nm of torque - enough for a top speed of 62mph. The range, according to measurements in China and not the European test cycle - is up to 170 kilometres (106 miles) on a single charge and the battery can be replenished by a household 240V outlet - though the maker doesn't reveal how long this will take. It's unclear how well the vehicle would withstand Euro NCAP's rigorous crash tests, though the manufacturer says that 'more than 57 per cent' of the body consists of high-strength steel. In the most basic form, it is less than half the price of the UK's cheapest new car - the 7,995 petrol Dacia Sandero. And it's six times less expensive than a Smart EQ ForTwo compact electric vehicle Its battery and electric motor produces 13kW of maximum power and 85Nm of torque - enough for a top speed of 62mph The cabin is pretty basic but the seats have lots of adjustment and the car comes equipped with features including ABS and reversing sensors It also comes with anti-lock brakes, a tyre pressure monitoring system and reverse parking sensors. The rear bench is even equipped with two Isofix mounting points to install a child safety seats. With the rear seats in use, there is essentially zero boot space. However, with just a driver and front-seat passenger, the back seats can be folded flat to provide 741-litres of luggage space - 'enough to accommodate two 26-inch suitcases or a stroller,' says the maker. The range is up to 170 kilometres (106 miles) on a single charge and the battery can be replenished by a household 240V socket With the rear bench occupied by passengers, there is essentially no boot space at all. However, the back seats do fold down to provide some luggage room With the back seats flat there is 741-litres of luggage space - 'enough to accommodate two 26-inch suitcases or a stroller,' says the maker Up front, the cabin is mostly two-color textured fabrics and the seats offer four-way adjustment. Speaking to the BBC about the sales success of the budget-friendly Mini EV in China, Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group, said the vehicle fits the local government's strict pollution reduction objectives and bid to come 'the global lead in adopting and promoting innovation of electric vehicles'. 'We remain very bullish on the adoption of budget EVs like the Hong Guang Mini to higher end ones like NIO and Tesla,' he added. One of the biggest reasons why EVs like the Hong Guang are in such high demand is because the Chinese government provides license plates for free and they are guaranteed. While this might not sound all that impressive to British drivers, in many Chinese cities it can take drivers years to get a license plate for a petrol car through various auction systems. And motorists might yet see it sold in Europe. The BBC reports links between Wuling Motor and a Latvian company that could sell a version of the car. However, the price is likely to be twice as high due to European environmental requirements and the vehicle may need to be adapted to meet tougher safety regulations. The driving modes are very simple - just reverse, neutral and drive. Electric windows (switches seen here) are available on higher trim levels Vehicles maneuver along a snow-covered street last week in Euless, Texas. The author says that, sure, the odd falling limb during the winter claims a power line now and then in the Berkshires, but we robust hill tribes are used to cold weather. So, usually, is our power grid unlike such grids in Texas. 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. 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. Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging that Harvard discriminates against Asian-American applicants, has filed a petition for certiorari to U.S. Supreme Court in its case against the school. A liberal district court judge ruled in favor of Harvard and a liberal court of appeals panel affirmed that ruling. Perhaps the non-liberal Supreme Court will take the case and rule against Harvard, whose discrimination against Asian-Americans is obvious. Here is how SFFAs cert petition opens: It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race. League of United Latin Am. Citizens v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399, 511 (2006) (Roberts, C.J., concurring in part, concurring in the judgment in part, and dissenting in part). [D]iscrimination on the basis of race is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, inherently wrong, and destructive of democratic society. City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 521 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment). [E]very time the government places citizens on racial registers and makes race relevant to the provision of burdens or benefits, it demeans us all. Fisher v. Univ. of Tex. at Austin (Fisher I), 570 U.S. 297, 316 (2013) (Thomas, J., concurring). Our nation gave its word over and over again: it promised in every document of more than two centuries of history that all persons shall be treated Equally. Price v. Civil Serv. Commn, 604 P.2d 1365, 1390 (Cal. 1980) (Mosk, J., dissenting). Our constitution, as Justice Harlan recognized, is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 559 (1896) (dissent). The Court vindicated the promise of equality in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), rejecting any authority to use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities. Parents Involved in Cmty. Sch. v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 747 (2007). Ten years later, Congress passed Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to extend Browns command to private universities that accept federal funds. Yet Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 390 (2003), abandoned the principle of racial neutrality that Brown and Title VI vindicated. Grutter did so by improperly affording broad deference to university administrators to pursue a diversity interest that is far from compelling. To this end, Grutter endorsed racial objectives that are amorphous and unmeasurable and thus incapable of narrow tailoring. Unsurprisingly then, universities have used Grutter as a license to engage in outright racial balancing. This case shows that judicial scrutiny under Grutter is anything but strict. But given Harvards flagrant violations of Title VI, it fails strict scrutiny even under Grutter. Harvards mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is appalling. Harvard penalizes them because, according to its admissions office, they lack leadership and confidence and are less likable and kind. This is reason enough to grant review. That Harvard engages in racial balancing and ignores race-neutral alternatives also proves that Harvard does not use race as a last resort. All of this makes intervention that much more urgent. . . . SFFA has also filed a federal lawsuit challenging Yales discriminatory admissions policy. Last Fall, it attempted to intervene in a suit by the Justice Department alleging that Yales admissions practices discriminate against Asian-American and White applicants. That request was denied. This month, the Biden Justice Department withdrew the suit against Yale. Fortunately, SFFA has stepped into the breach with a lawsuit of its own. The Harvard and Yale suits attempt to uphold a fundamental proposition one that shouldnt be subject to dispute. As Edward Blum, SFFAs president puts it: Students applying to undergraduate and post-graduate programs should be judged on their individual talents, character, academic skills, extra-curricular achievements and socio-economic background but not the color of their skin. Overnight summer camps will be included in Phase 4, Step 1 of the Massachusetts reopening plan, allowing them to reopen for the summer. Phase 4, Step 1 begins on March 22 will also allow event facilities to open with 100 guests indoors and 150 guests outdoors. Dance floors will be allowed for weddings and events only. Also during the phase, a number of larger venues will be allowed to reopen with a strict 12% capacity limit after submitting a plan to the Department of Public Health. They include: indoor and outdoor stadiums, arenas and ballparks. Although the announcement comes months prior to when overnight summer camps typically start, it allows for camps to being planning. State Senator Adam G. Hinds said many camps have been unable to begin planning or recruiting employees due to the uncertainty of being authorized to reopen. During summer of 2020, overnight camps werent allowed to open due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a normal year, summer camps play a vital role for childcare, mental health, and education during the summer months for families, said Hinds. Camps will be critical for kids and families this year due to COVID. This is a victory for working parents, and the over 1,000 summer camps across Massachusetts. These closures meant summer camps were hit hard. Hinds said summer camps have a total annual economic contribution of about $1.3 billion and over $220 million in direct paid wages, according to most recent estimates. The Summer Camp Stabilization Fund helped many summer camps persist through the extended closing, the statement said. This included $3 million for summer camps to adapt to COVID protocols and regulations. The Decision by the Baker Administration to allow overnight and day camps to operate this summer is a huge win for the 250,000 children served by summer camps across the Commonwealth, said Matt Scholl, board president of the Massachusetts Camping Association. Children have never needed summer camp more prioritizing camp is a choice to prioritize healthy and thriving children. Related Content: Car Buyers Move Online To Eliminate The Dealer Jerk-Around, Buyer Satisfaction Climbs to an All-Time High Editor's Note: Now what does this say about historic dealer antics...hmmm There was a time when consumers rated the car-buying process roughly on par with a stubborn root canal. But those days are passing into the rearview mirror now, as auto dealers move more steps of the retail process online resulting in consumer satisfaction hitting an all-time high, according to the new Digitization of End-to-End Retailing (DoEER) study by Cox Automotive. With buyers spending less time at dealerships and benefitting from more efficient, digital retailing processes, those who were highly satisfied with the overall shopping experience reached 72%, up from 60% in 2019. The average vehicle buyer now visits only 2 dealerships in the vehicle buying process, down from 2.7 in 2016. According to our data, car buyers have never been happier, notes Cox Automotive Vice President of Research & Market Intelligence Isabelle Helms. Consumers have long asked for a process that is more efficient and requires less time at the dealership. With more steps moving online, thats exactly what they are getting. And it is not just consumers who are benefitting. Dealers, too, are seeing the advantages of a more efficient, streamlined purchasing process. The Cox Automotive Digitization of End-to-End Retailing study was undertaken to measure and understand the shifts in consumer preference toward a more online purchase process. Beginning in August 2020, a total of 1,859 purchase intenders were interviewed, along with 462 franchised auto dealers that offer digital retailing tools. The results of the study are being released today. Digital retailing is not new to the automobile business, and Cox Automotive, among the largest automotive services providers in the world, has been a proponent of the approach for years, offering both the tools and the know-how to help dealers move more of the purchase process online. Still, the Cox Automotive Digitization of End-to-End Retailing study shows that only 1-in-3 franchised automobile dealers in the U.S. offer all the purchase steps online. The shift is on, though. In 2020, 69% of franchised dealers added at least one digital step due to COVID-19, and 74% indicated their customers have used digital retailing tools more since the onset of the global pandemic. Among the most popular activities for shoppers to complete online or at home: Finding information on incentives; calculating monthly payments; applying for credit; and finalizing the vehicle price. Importantly, franchised automobile dealers know what the future holds. In the survey, 75% of dealers agreed that they would not be able to survive in the long run without adopting digital retailing tools and moving more of their sales process online. Digital Retailing is a Win-Win for Consumers and Dealers According to the study, 64% of shoppers want more of the purchase process to happen online, compared to the last time they bought a vehicle. But consumers are not the only ones that see the appeal and the benefit of the shift to digital retailing. Sixty-one percent of franchised dealers note that digital retailing efforts are allowing them to spend less time on a sale; more than half believe it helps them improve the customer experience. Importantly, 75% of dealers agree that digital retailing provides shoppers a more customized experience, a key to higher satisfaction with the shopping process. While interest in digital retailing continues to grow and grew significantly in 2020 during the pandemic Cox Automotive still believes that auto dealerships as physical locations play a critical role in the vehicle buying experience. To be sure, research consistently demonstrates that automobile shoppers still have a strong desire to spend quality time at the dealership, test driving the vehicle and setting up their new vehicle after purchase both hands-on activities that are a lot more fun and informative than filling out paperwork and waiting. Still, the future is digital, and the process is moving online, right down to negotiating the final purchase price. In 2017, research by Cox Automotive showed that 25% of buyers wanted to finalize the vehicle price online. By 2020, that number had jumped to near 40%. Dealers are taking notice: 80% of franchised dealers surveyed in the DoEER study indicated they plan to offer even more parts of the purchase process online in the next 1-2 years. To learn more, download the Digitization of End-to-End Retailing study highlights or read a blog from Isabelle Helms and listen to her present the full study findings during her Cox Automotive Experience session This is The Way Forward: Digital Retailing Insights to Drive Success in 2021. Cox Automotive Complete Retail Concurrent with the release of the DoEER study, Cox Automotive is launching Complete Retail, a revolutionary end-to-end digital retail experience that allows consumers and retailers to complete the shopping and buying processes from anywhere. Complete Retail, the first end-to-end retail experience to bear the Cox Automotive name, is underpinned by and serviced through a suite of the companys most recognized, trusted, and connected solutions: Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book and VinSolutions. Read more information about Cox Automotive Complete Retail on the Cox Automotive Newsroom. About Cox Automotive (Until The Auto Channel Convinced Them Otherwise, Cox Wanted To Just Be A Motorsport Content Provider, oh baby look at them now.) Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global companys more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, VinSolutions, vAuto and Xtime,are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com MACKINAW CITY, MI - Each year, hundreds of thousands of vacationers step onto a Sheplers Mackinac Island Ferry boat for a quick trip to or from Mackinac Island. But this fleet of ferries also offers some special, more leisurely trips, motoring out into the Straits of Mackinac and beyond. Some of these cruises offer an up-close look - and fascinating history tidbits - about historic Great Lakes lighthouses you can only visit from the water. Others give guests a lake-side seat for spectacular fireworks shows. Still others depart in the evening for a guided tour of the night skys delights. If Mother Nature cooperates, you might even see a meteor shower overhead. Sheplers has rolled out its cruise schedule for the 2021 season, complete with trip dates, cruise details and online booking. See Sheplers website for a full list of these spring, summer and fall cruises. President Chris Shepler said while all the tours have a wow factor for passengers, his team is really excited to be able to bring back the Lighthouse cruises after a two-year hiatus. A member of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association hops aboard to narrate these trips. For some lighthouse lovers, its a rare opportunity to see these old maritime sentries. One trip is designed to catch the sunset. Another takes passengers on a trip to the Les Cheneaux Islands archipelago. RELATED: See vintage photos of Sheplers ferry tours Shepler remembers in his early years as a captain some 30 years ago, when high-tech ferry features were not the norm, being on the water in heavy fog or at night sometimes meant relying on a compass and the flashing lights from lighthouses in the Straits. Getting people out to see these is a real treat, he said. This was our way of maybe showing people a little bit of that history, Shepler said. To be able to tell that story and narrative is remarkable. The Night Sky cruises are also are big draw. They are hosted by Mary Stewart Adams, a night sky expert and star lore historian. This summers trips include several that are scheduled during meteor showers, and one under a Blue Moon. Shepler said he was lucky to catch a Perseid meteor shower tour a few years ago. I am not a big stargazer, he said. I know the Big Dipper and maybe a couple others. But we went out and I swear there were five meteors cruising across the sky every minute. And they just kept coming. Its the coolest three hours youve ever spent. Heres the breakdown of the three types of Sheplers cruises planned for this season: 4th of July cruises leave from three ports: Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, and St. Ignace. All cruises depart at 9:15 p.m. and return around 11pm. Spots are limited, so early reservations are recommended. Cost Adults: $40.00 Children (ages 5-12): $20.00 Children (under 5, on lap): Free For more details and to book online, check here. One of Shepler's Lighthouse Cruises is timed for sunset. Photo courtesy of Ami Woods/Sheplers Mackinac Island Ferry. Night Sky Cruises Sheplers team offers this description: Experience a tour of the night sky like no other aboard a Sheplers Night Sky Cruise, narrated by night sky expert and star lore historian Mary Stewart Adams, founder and former program director at Mackinaw Citys International Dark Sky Park. Our Night Sky Cruise schedule begins on the evening of June 23 with a celebration of Summer 2021s first full moon. From full moon explorations to August 21s True Blue Moon Cruise and plenty of amazing starry night opportunities in between, our scheduled Night Sky events on the Great Lakes offer a once in a lifetime opportunity for beginner and experienced star gazers alike. Cost Adults: $31.00 Children (ages 5-12): $19.00 Children (under 5, on lap): Free For more details on the Night Sky Cruises, and to book online, check here. Seats up top allow a great vantage point for getting photos of your favorite lighthouses. Photo courtesy of Ami Woods/Sheplers Mackinac Island Ferry. Lighthouse Cruises This years lighthouse cruise schedule begins on the evening of May 27 with an Extended Eastbound Cruise and wraps on September 12 with the ever popular Les Cheneaux Lighthouse Cruise. Get up close an personal with approximately 20 Guardians of the Great Lakes throughout Lakes Huron and Michigan. Narrated by our friends at the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, each cruise takes guests on a remarkable journey on the open water offering a unique look at these lakeside landmarks. Costs vary depending on the specific cruise. For more details on the Lighthouse cruises, and to book online, check here. The ferry service also offers private charter cruises. For more details, check here. Sheplers will start running its regular trips to and from Mackinac Island later this spring. Ferries will start running to the island from the St. Ignace port on April 21, and from the Mackinaw City port on April 25. For details on tickets and schedules, check the website here. READ MORE Sneak peek at Mackinac Islands Grand Hotel pool renovations: waterslide, cabanas, adults-only area Sheplers new $4M ferry boat gets soft launch before heading to Mackinaw City The Japanese man who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after dying at a hotel in Hanoi carried a Covid-19 variant found for the first time in Vietnam. The Somerset West Point Hotel locked down after a Japanese patient died there During the online meeting on February 24, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long announced that the Japanese patient was infected with the variant CAL.20C. This is also the fifth variant of coronavirus that has been found in Vietnam until now. Tran Dac Phu, a senior adviser at the Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, said this new variant didn't spread very fast and had been found in South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and India. Four other variants were first detected in the UK, South Africa, Rwanda and a G variant in Danang last year. 28 samples from Hai Duong and eight samples from Quang Ninh all carry the variant found in the UK. One sample from Hai Duong carried the variant found in South Africa. The Japanese patient was a 54-year-old man. He was an employee at Mitsui Vietnam and arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport on January 17. He was tested negative twice while being quarantined in HCM City from January 17 to 31. He went to Hanoi on February 1. He was found dead in his hotel room on February 13 and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. A total of 586 samples have been taken in related to the case. Two people were later tested positive. dtinews During a congressional hearing on the rise of domestic terror in the US, Democratic lawmakers condemned false equivalencies and attempts among Republicans to compare an insurrection at the US Capitol to protests against police killings of Black Americans. Equating a movement for justice with white nationalism is ignorant and dangerous on your part, said US Rep Cori Bush. If not for the white supremacy from which you benefit, we would not be in the streets There are not fine people on both sides. There is simply no comparison. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday heard calls from civil rights and criminal justice experts to pressure post-Donald Trump federal law enforcement agencies to tackle white supremacist violence after ignoring or undermining far-right extremism for decades, they said. But Republicans on the committee some of whom were connected to the stop the steal campaign that encouraged rioters on 6 January and supported overturning Electoral College results insisted antifa remained a threat as they condemned political violence without connecting it to their own rhetoric. Their sole witness, Andy Ngo, has promoted deceptively edited videos from protests, criticised as dishonest reporting to deflect attention from far-right violence. Democratic Rep Sheila Jackson Lee said any attempt to link the rise in domestic terrorism threats to antifa was irresponsible and belittles the seriousness of right-wing violence and misidentifies who the perpetrators are. Republican Jim Jordan compared the insurrection at the Capitol mounted by Trump supporters motivated by a lie that the election was stolen from them, in an attempt to overturn votes as lawmakers convened to certify results to the weeks of unrest in Portland, Oregon against police violence and a militarised federal law enforcement presence. What we lived through in one day you and your neighbours in Portland lived through 120 days straight, he said. And yet I dont recall, dont remember the Democrats condemning what was going on in Portland. Ms Bush, an organiser from St Louis, Missouri who emerged from Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the wake of the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, said that its easy for us to talk about protests from the lofty halls of Congress. You have actually no clue what was actually happening on the ground, she said. Im one of those Black Lives Matter protesters youre talking about. Following Mr Trumps election loss, Republican Louis Gohmert filed a lawsuit in an attempt to give former vice president Mike Pence authority to toss out the results. Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa and [Black Lives Matter], he told Newsmax just days before a joint session of Congress to certify Joe Bidens election. At Wednesdays hearing, he said: We know most of the people there that day were Trump supporters, and we know most of the people who went into the Capitol were Trump supporters, but we dont need to completely ignore others that were in the Capitol. He pointed to the case of one rioter who had previously rallied with Black Lives Matter demonstrators. That man, John Sullivan, has been rejected by left-wing organisers and labelled an opportunist and provocateur, whose persona and business interests have adapted to meet his viral moments. At one point, Republican Tom Tiffany asked terror expert Malcolm Nance, who is Black, Why did more minorities vote for President Trump in this election? Im sorry, is that a legitimate question? he answered. Democratic Rep Ted Lieu challenged his GOP colleagues to admit that the 2020 election was not stolen, the big lie that fuelled the rage on 6 January. He condemned Republicans airing a deeply offensive video clip showing the former presidents very fine people on both sides remarks following the far-right violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. It is wrong from my Republican colleagues to somehow whitewash that, he said. Its that same false equivalence we see today. Federal law enforcement has sounded alarms about the rise of white nationalist violence in recent years, meeting a Trump-era Justice Department that remained focused elsewhere. FBI director Christopher Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee in 2020 that people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of racially motivated violent extremist cases. In February, he told the House Judiciary Committee that domestic violent extremism has risen to a national threat priority and poses a steady threat of violence and economic harm as long as its underlying drivers persist, including perceptions of government or law enforcement overreach, socio-political conditions, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and reactions to legislative actions. After Mr Wray said that antifa represents more of an ideology or a movement that an organisation, Mr Trump lashed out, saying the FBI was allowing anarchists and thugs to get way with murder, as he pressured his Justice Department to pursue left-wing groups. The Department of Homeland Security has issued a terror bulletin following the Capitol riots warning that ideologically motivated violent extremists could continue to mobilise to incite or commit violence. Members of the Brennan Centre for Justice and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Better told the committee on Wednesday that the Justice Department must gather accurate data on white supremacist violence to inform a comprehensive national strategy to address it. The problem is that the Justice Department and the FBI choose not to prioritise the investigation and prosecution of white supremacism or white violence as a matter of policy and practice, said the Brennan Centres Michael German. They also warned against expanding powers that would lead to greater racial profiling and abuse of political opponents, following the targeting of Black Americans in the FBIs Cointelpro operations, post-9/11 measures that developed unprecedented domestic surveillance, and a Trump-era Justice Department that sought felony convictions for protesters. Wade Henderson, interim president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Congress should also demand a full accounting of what is being done to address white supremacy in law enforcement. The Capitol riots revealed a growing number of law enforcement officers and military personnel and veterans who participated in the rally that preceded the insurrection, resulting in more than a dozen suspensions and internal and FBI investigations, as well as federal charges against at least two officers. Arent we tired? Arent we as a nation exhausted? said Democratic Rep Val Demings. Doesnt this issue deserve more than a political debate, a lacklustre and half-hearted response? If my colleagues on the other side want to keep score, they will lose. This country is young but its history is ugly and long. Private security contractor and ally of former US President Trump Erik Prince violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, UN investigators have found in a report detailed by US media on Friday. The confidential report to the Security Council, obtained by the New York Times and the Washington Post, said that Prince deployed a force of foreign mercenaries and weapons to strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has fought to overthrow the UN-backed Libyan government, in 2019. The $80 million operation included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Haftar -- including some who were also European Union citizens, the New York Times said. Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother of Trump's education secretary Betsy Devos, drew infamy as the head of the Blackwater private security firm, whose contractors were accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Four who were convicted were pardoned by Trump last year. The accusation exposes Prince to possible UN sanctions, including a travel ban, the Times said. Prince did not cooperate with the UN inquiry and his lawyer declined to comment to the New York Times, it added. An AFP request for comment to the Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, for which Prince is a board member and deputy chairman, went unanswered. Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed uprising led to the toppling and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. The country has in recent years been split between a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, and an eastern-based administration, backed by Haftar, who has faced charges of war crimes. Then-President Trump in 2019 praised the strongman for his role in "fighting terrorism" in Libya. A new interim executive for the country was chosen on February 5 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Switzerland, comprising 75 participants selected by the UN to represent a broad cross-section of society. Haftar has pledged his support for the initiative. 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 The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company A firefighter was shot while battling a fire in northwestern Wisconsin. Justin Fredrickson, 35, responded to a structure fire Friday in the township of Willard. While he was operating a hose line outside the building, a loaded firearm inside discharged and struck Fredrickson in the abdomen. The loaded firearm discharged because of heat conditions caused by the fire, Cornell Fire Department Chief Dennis Klass said in a news release. Fredrickson was taken to a Ladysmith hospital. He was then airlifted to Mayo Hospital in Eau Claire where he underwent surgery. Fredrickson, a 16-year veteran of the Cornell Fire Department, is in critical condition. 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. In the words of John Lennon, war is over (if you want it) the war in this case being the war on COVID-19. The public health emergency is over and yet governors such as Minnesotas egregious Tim Walz continue to control the dials of our lives, as the authorities here refer to them. They have us fighting on like Japanese soldiers who havent heard that the Emperor surrendered. Kevin Roche promulgated 11 theses regarding the epidemic here last week. These are Kevins 11 theses: 1, CV-19 is a serious public health problem, it causes a lot of serious disease and deaths. Is it as bad as portrayed in the media? No. Cases and deaths are counted in an unprecedented way. If we did the same thing with influenza, I think the two pathogens would look pretty similar. And CV-19 appears to be very substitutive of influenza; it kills a lot of people who otherwise would die of influenza. 2. CV-19 is one of a series of coronaviruses, more are likely to arise, this one is likely to become endemic. We better figure out how to adapt to it without destroying our lives. It is going to be around, no matter what we do. 3. Like most respiratory viruses, this one is pretty infectious, fairly easily transmittedin certain conditions. Wish we could tell what those conditions are, but the formula is pretty complex. The conditions are clearly best at certain times of the year in certain geographies. There are likely meteorological factors at work, which interact with other factors, like age, population density, pre-existing immune status and so on. The formula, if there is one, is multi-factorial. 4. Like most respiratory viruses, this one mutates a fair amount and as you would expect, mutations that increase infectiousness are favored. All a virus cares about is replicating; that is its only goal. Whatever furthers that goal, gets selected. Mutations may help evade an existing immune response, but those responses are still likely to minimize disease and limit spread. There is some risk that with a virus that is already widely spread, trying too hard to suppress it could lead to a truly ugly variant. One that, say, had a much more stable lipid envelope and survived on surfaces or in the air indefinitely. A little bit of live and let live wouldnt be the worst approach. So far, none of the CV-19 variants seems particularly worrisome. 5. There is immense heterogeneity among the population in susceptibility to infection, in infectiousness, and in the nature of disease, if any, resulting from infection. The dose needed to cause an infection in a person likely has enormous variation. This heterogeneity likely is largely due to existing immune status variation. How strong and how diverse is a persons innate and trained immune system, does the person have cross-reactive coronavirus adaptive immunity that in some way controls infection or infectiousness. There is an enormous difference in impact of CV-19 among the young and among the frail elderly. 6. We dont know how many CV-19 infections there have been because there are so many asymptomatic or mild cases. Serious illness occurs in well under 1% of cases. I suspect the true fatality rate is around one to two-tenths of a percent. In the general, non-long-term care population, the fatality rate is miniscule. This pathogen, for almost the entire population, has a very low burden of illness. 7. The response to this epidemic has been unprecedented as wellunprecedentedly stupid. It was based on poor data from China, poor modeling from England and everywhere else, and me-tooism among political leaders. Rank panic, hysteria and mass delusion. I think Chinas leaders said we can do whatever we want to our population, lets see if Western leaders are stupid enough to do the same things in their countries. Never before have we attempted to lockdown societies, close schools, close businesses. Pure insanity. 8. The modeling of the epidemic used by governments has been pathetic. No accounting for seasonality, no accounting for that variability in susceptibility or infectiousness, overweighting the value of attempts to suppress. The virus laughs at our models. 9. No intervention has made a significant difference, beyond what voluntary human behavior would have done. We know this by looking at case curves. We might momentarily slow transmission, but it doesnt last. But governments are too pig-headed to admit that they made a mistake and change course. Instead, they have implemented a campaign of terror to convince the population how dangerous CV-19 is and how necessary those futile suppression efforts are. Masks are the worst example of this, as data and science has been twisted and distorted to try to demonstrate an effect that doesnt exist. 10. What the interventions have done is significantly weaken democratic societies, through the use of non-democratic decision-making by mini-dictators. This should horrify people, but has been meekly accepted by most of the population. 11. The interventions have ruined businesses, caused the loss of good jobs, worsened other health outcomes, irreparably damaged the lives of most children, led to further domestic and child abuse, worsened government finances and so on, with no noticeable effect on the progress of the epidemic. The costs of these interventions will far outweigh any damage done by the virus for years, possibly decades. As I noted last week, one of our physician readers has been treating with Walgreens to get his prescriptions for hydroxycloroquine and ivermectin filled. He wrote to update us on his experience with Walgreens: So now I have heard from Walgreens Corp. who informed me that it is actually not their own corporate policy, but rather the individual PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) that rejects payment for the ivermectin if it is being used for the coronavirus. So as you probably know, most third-party payers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Health Partners, etc., contract with PBMs to manage their pharmacy benefits. Whether the third-party payer or PBM or combine decision-making, they basically tell Walgreens what to do. I then have determined that Walgreens will indeed dispense it if the patient pays cash. The current cash price for a course of ivermectin to treat CV 19 is ~ $60. It should not have taken three weeks to learn this, but Walgreens initially was not forthcoming with this amount of candor. So, FYI, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin can easily be dispensed for a cash price that is not for the vast majority of people very expensive. The Minnesota Department of Health took 8 days to provide their legally required response to the questions I submitted last week. Here are my questions and their answers without further comment (I have omitted one question and answer I submitted on behalf of Kevin): 1. Question: In her February 14 Pioneer Press op-ed column, St. Thomas School of Law Professor Lisa Schiltz pleads for the inclusion of those with Down Syndrome in the Phase 1b priority population for vaccination. Will you please state your rationale for not including them? Answer: Following CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice recommendations, MN has prioritized those with Down Syndrome and developmental disabilities living in congregate care facilities by vaccinating them as part of Phase 1A tier 3. For those with developmental disabilities living independently or outside a facility, the CDC recommends that they be in group 1C. We will continue to monitor vaccine access for this group, with a focus on the issue of underlying conditions. [Appearing in a shaded color, the following paragraph was pasted in to the answer.] From the beginning of the pandemic, Gov. Walz has taken a strong stance that those with disabilities should receive equal treatment and access to care. There are many Minnesotans who need and deserve the vaccine right now. While we are currently vaccinating those with developmental disabilities living in care facilities, health care workers, long term care residents, Minnesotans age 65 and older, and teachers, school staff and child care workers, its clear more vaccine is needed. Thats why Governor Walz and Commissioner Malcom have continued to press the federal government to send more vaccine as quickly as possible and will announce more soon about how more Minnesotans can expect to access vaccine in the coming months. 2. Question: Many private schools have been open for full in-person learning since September. You recently advised me that this was the result of largely local decision-making yet the Safe Learning Plan prescribes the learning model that school districts must use at arbitrary county-case rate measures [table omitted]. The only local decision possible is to be MORE restrictive than these guidelines prescribe; less requires permission from Regional Support Teams staffed by MDE and MDH representatives. The Regional Support Teams apply these arbitrary measures somewhat arbitrarily. Some districts have received permission to remain in hybrid, when distance learning would have been required. Other districts have their plans rejected by their Regional Support Team. At the start of the school year, East Sibley school district, for example, voted to start the year in-person, against the Safe Learning Plan guidelines. They were threatened by the state with lost funding and potential jail time for Board members, but the reality also is that Executive Order 20-82 and the Safe Learning Plan clearly authorize the MDE Commissioner to overrule the local school board and administration and close schools if she determines to do so. As a result, many districts across the state dont even bother advocating for students with their RST. Will you please summarize current information suggesting all schools could not be open as many private schools have been? Answer: The Safe Learning Plan allows for local decision-making with the regional support teams in a consultative role and the Minnesota Department of Education in an oversite [sic] role for public schools. Regional support teams themselves were never in a position to approve or deny a plan, though plans that did not meet minimum standards for mitigation, etc. did have an internal process for escalation when needed. As for private schools, MDH and MDE offer consultative services to private schools, though these schools are not overseen by MDE. In addition, to clarify, the Safe Learning Plan was flexible enough to allow for fewer restrictions depending on factors that would be considered in a broader conversation involving local data and abilities to meet all of the minimum health standards. These decisions involved the five-step process below [omitted]. To your question about a summary of implementation of the Safe Learning Plan, wed refer you to the MDE Safe Learning Model Dashboard here. Questions about specific districts can be addressed to the MDE media relations contact. MDH has held press briefings on February 18, 22, and 24 since I last reported. The reporters focus intensely on vaccines. In my written questions this week I asked the department when they will declare the war is over. Not one of the reporters inside the MDH circle of love has bothered to ask. As Kevin notes, we have had a truly retch-inducing spell of listening to CV-19 briefings. In the words of Johnny Burkes lyrics, Whats new? Kevin writes that after listening to over an hour and a half of recordings, I hear that the state has gone full delusional, Commissioner of Health saying that the goal is to have zero cases, hospitalizations or deaths. That is literally not possible, and we have to get past this nonsense (emphasis in original). Kevin adds that time is rapidly running out on Dr. Osterheimlichs prediction of disaster. We are halfway through his 6 to 14 weeks of unmitigated hell, and cases continue to fall. Hmmm, could it be possible that he just doesnt know what he is talking about. Of the recent briefings Im including only the audio of the MDH briefing yesterday (below). If you listen closely, you will hear evidence supporting another of Kevins observations that they are doing their best to keep the terror campaign going. India faced three times the cyber attack than the global average On cyber attack on India, US says cannot allow China to dominate How a warning about ShadowPad, Red Echo saved the national power grid from being hacked RedEcho cyber attack: Ports in TN, Mumbai, scores of power assets in India came under attack India is second biggest target of cyber criminals in Asia Pacific: Report India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, FEb 25: India was the second most attacked country by cyber criminals after Japan in Asia Pacific in 2020, according to an IBM report released on Wednesday. In 2020, IBM Security X-Force observed attackers pivoting their attacks to businesses for which global Covid-19 response efforts heavily relied, such as hospitals, medical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as energy companies powering the Covid-19 supply chain. "India was the second most attacked country in the Asia Pacific. Attacks on India made up 7 per cent of all attacks X-Force observed on Asia in 2020. As security forces tighten noose, Pak-based terror groups resort to cyber recruitment in J&K "Finance and insurance was the top attacked industry in India (60 per cent), followed by manufacturing and professional services," the report said. Ransomware was the top attack type, accounting for around 40 per cent of total cyber attacks. In addition, X-Force observed digital currency mining and server access attacks had hit Indian companies last year. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News "We also witnessed cybercriminals using relief efforts and public health information as spam lures including targeted attacks on critical components of the vaccine supply chain. These all remain issues in 2021," Sudeep Das, Security Software Technical Sales Leader, IBM Technology Sales, India/South Asia, said in a statement. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 9:43 [IST] The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Every nursing home resident and staffer in Pennsylvania who wanted COVID-19 vaccinations have received them, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday. Wolfs announcement marks what he called a milestone in the implementation of the states COVID-19 vaccination plan, which gives top priority to residents and staff of skilled nursing facilities, health care providers, people with serious health conditions, and people 65 and older. Skilled nursing, personal care, and assisted living facilities have been hit hard by the pandemic, which is why this milestone is such an important one for us to recognize because it shows how far we have come in protecting our most vulnerable residents, Wolf said. The state partnered with CVS and Walgreens to administer vaccinations at skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities through the Federal Pharmacy Partnership program. More than 600 skilled nursing facilities in Pennsylvania have received first and second doses of the vaccine, and, in total, more than 315,000 doses of vaccine were administered among all long-term care facilities being vaccinated by CVS and Walgreens, according to the Governors Office. Andreas Chandra, CVS Health district leader, said CVS administered more than 200,000 first- and second-dose vaccinations at more than 500 facilities and is on track to administer all first- and second-dose vaccinations to about 1,800 personal care homes and other long-term care facilities in the state by mid-March. Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said Pennsylvania is going above and beyond the minimum of two vaccination clinics required under the Federal Pharmacy Partnership program to ensure that more vaccination clinics were and will be provided if needed, and that any new residents and staff of nursing facilities receive COVID-19 vaccinations right away. And although the federal government has yet to issue any guidance on loosening visitor restrictions at nursing homes, residents are now safer. Linda Kanarr, CEO of Ecumenical Enterprises, which runs The Meadows in Dallas, said some in-house restrictions there have been loosened. Residents may now congregate for group activities and dining, so long as they keep socially distanced, Kanarr said. Kanarr said the facilities utilized both CVS and Walgreens for COVID-19 vaccinations. Addressing some misunderstandings that jeopardized people being able to receive a second dose of Moderna vaccine within an acceptable time frame after a first dose, Beam said state officials worked with a consultant on a fix and said she could assure anyone who received a first dose will be able to receive a second dose from the same provider within the 42-day window. Lindsey Mauldin, senior advisor for COVID-19 response, said that although vaccine demand still exceeds supply, the federal government this week allocated Pennsylvania the most vaccine since the start of the rollout 225,890 first doses and 180,610 second doses. Asked about a timeline for transitioning vaccination eligibility to Phase 1B, which includes people such as first responders, food and agricultural workers and certain other front-line workers, Wolf said there are 4.5 million people in the Phase 1A category who would need 9 million vaccinations. So far, Pennsylvania has been allocated about 3 million doses of vaccine, Wolf said, so we have a ways to go. Asked his reaction to some legislators calling for an investigation into how state officials handled outbreaks at nursing homes at the beginning of the pandemic, Wolf said he wanted to be as transparent as possible and welcomed any such inquiries. Republicans and state Sen. John Yudichak, I-14, Swoyersville, have criticized Wolf and former health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine for requiring nursing homes to re-admit residents who had tested positive for COVID-19 after their release from hospitals. Beam said state officials were following federal guidelines, including those from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advising that patients hospitalized for COVID-19 should return home where it could be done safely. Beam said state officials made sure nursing homes were advised on cohorting and other protocols for keeping residents safe, and abiding by those federal guidelines was the most prudent course of action. Wolf said decisions to release patients to nursing homes were decisions of individual hospitals because of concerns that health systems would become overwhelmed, and not something the commonwealth said we should do. After the dispute with social media giant Twitter, the government plans to make social media companies fall in line regarding contentious content by erasing it swiftly and assisting in investigations. The government's draft regulation of Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code aim to have tighter control over the powerful big tech firms. The draft regulation aims to make it legally binding for companies to remove content as early as possible but not later than 36 hours after a government or legal order is notified, as mentioned in a report in Reuters. The companies must also assist in investigations or other cybersecurity-related incidents within 72 hours of a request. The rules further say that if any post depicts an individual in any sexual act or conduct then upon receiving the complaint, the companies must disable or remove the same within a day. There must be a chief compliance officer, and another for coordinating on law enforcement as well as a 'grievance redressal officer'. All must be resident Indian citizens. "A publisher shall take into consideration India's multi-racial and multi-religious context and exercise due caution and discretion when featuring the activities, beliefs, practices, or views of any racial or religious group," the draft rules said. The report said it is unclear if the draft regulations would undergo more changes or when they would be implemented. This comes after Twitter resisted orders to remove content over farmers' protests invoking the ire of the government. The social media giant eventually took down some accounts that the government alleged were spreading lies about the protests. Industry sources say new regulations could hit Big Tech firms' investment plans in India. The rules would also apply across other digital and online media, the draft proposal said. The draft rules also call for a 'classification rating' to describe content and advise discretion following complaints over content on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh questioned an Amazon executive for nearly four hours on Tuesday over allegations that a political drama, 'Tandav', hurt religious sentiments and caused public anger. Also read: Twitter gives in, blocks 97% accounts flagged by Centre Also read: Farmers protests: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey likes tweets supporting Rihanna's stand Michelle Rogers with a picture of her father Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War (Niall Carson/PA) The daughter of a Gulf War veteran has described it as a forgotten conflict. Thousands of soldiers from the UK were deployed alongside Americans to the Gulf in 1990 after Saddam Husseins Iraq invaded Kuwait. It has been recorded by the National Army Museum as the largest single deployment of British troops since the Second World War. Expand Close The Gulf War (PA Archive) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Gulf War (PA Archive) Hemel Hempstead-born Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers of the Royal Engineers considered it the most challenging tour of his 40-year army career. This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the conflict. Michelle Rogers said she feels in many ways it is forgotten about. She remembers living in army accommodation in Germany as a child at the time, and her father missing the birth of her brother. She has kept a collection of letters that her father wrote to his family while he was in the Gulf. Expand Close Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire They include accounts of initially having to hang about, a tented camp and not knowing where they were going next, but the observation, it cant be any worse than this. Another letter notes: Who would think that in 1991, I would be sitting in the middle of the desert, I tell you, after this, Im joining the Salvation Army. Other letters observed high levels of poverty and observing locals carving sheep in the middle of the road and Americans swapping kit. They also record ongoing uncertainty, and Staff Sergeant Rogers urged his wife: whatever happens in the next couple of weeks, I dont want you to listen to the radio and worrying, I still dont think anything will happen. One of his final letters refers to clearing minefields and hopes of returning to his family within weeks. His mementos include a desert rats badge. His daughter Michelle said her father served in Germany, Canada, Cyprus and also Northern Ireland where he met his wife and later retired in Co Antrim. She joked that he compared Northern Ireland to a holiday camp after his experiences in the Gulf. I think he was quite traumatised about what had happened, there were a few horror stories, one of his friends was blown up in a hangar, she told the PA news agency. I know that he suffered from PTSD after some of the sights he saw in the Gulf. Unless you saw it with your own eyes, probably no one could guess what happened out there. Expand Close Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire But I know he wouldnt have changed it, its what he wanted to do from no age. The army was his whole life, he joined up when he was 16. Staff Sergeant Rogers died in 2015 at the age of 59 with motor neurone disease. Michelle said soldiers were inoculated against the effects of anthrax and plague, which it had been feared would be used against them in attacks. He was pretty convinced that some of the injections he got was a trigger for his motor neurone disease, she said. I would still be in be contact with some of my dads old friends and maybe coincidence they all have neurological problems. Gulf War Syndrome is recognised in the United States but not in the UK. I think it is forgotten about. One of televisions most intimidating celebrity chefs is none other than Gordon Ramsay. His frequent use of expletives and abusive personality has helped him become a household name. The famous author, restaurant owner, food critic, and reality television star is one of the most influential chefs in the US and abroad. Best known for his role as the head chef of Hells Kitchen, he spews insults at contestants vying for a top spot in one of his illustrious kitchens. His larger-than-life personality matches his physical stature that towers above most of his kitchen staff. Viewers often wonder, just how tall Chef Ramsay really is. The multi-Michelin-star chef Gordon Ramsay | Amy Sussman/Getty Images Born in 1966, the 54-year-old chef reigns from Scotland. As a young child, he and his family moved to England, where he grew to become a world-renowned cooking phenomenon. The high-strung chef got his start in the mid-1980s working in London under the guidance of chef Marco Pierre White. Ironically, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Ramsay left Whites restaurant after growing tired of his rages and the bullying and violence. Ramsay began training in France, learning from some of the best chefs in the world. Upon returning to London, he earned two Michelin stars at the Aubergine, where he owned a 10 percent share of the well-known restaurant. In 1998, the temperamental chef opened Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Londons chic Chelsea neighborhood. By 2001, he had earned another Michelin star, and his fate was sealed. Award-winning original programming Come here youan all new @HellsKitchenFOX is rocking tonight at 8/7c !!!! pic.twitter.com/f5Qa1o9Dfp Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) February 11, 2021 RELATED: Mary Berry Hates Gordon Ramsays TV Empire, and He Isnt Too Fond of Her Either Ramsay became a fixture on American television, first appearing on the Food Network. The British Chef lured audiences with his incredible cooking abilities, fierce temper, attention to detail, and strict demeanor. The first episode of Hells Kitchen aired in 2005 on FOX television and was an instant success. More than 15 years later and the show is still running, now a fixture of American pop culture. In 2010, Ramsay produced the ever-popular television cooking competition program, Master Chef. He also became involved in Gordons Great Escape, Ramsays Best Restaurant and The Big Fish Fight with top celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. The father of four went on to create a multimedia production company, Studio Ramsay, to develop cooking-related television programming. Working in conjunction with One Potato Two Potato, Ramsay has a long list of shows on his resume that include Masterchef Junior, Food Court Wars, and Best New Restaurant. Towering head and shoulders among his peers, the consummate professional stands tall at 6 feet two inches. There are few competitors on his television shows that can meet him eye-to-eye, but they all hold the deepest regard and utmost respect for one of the worlds greatest chefs. The richest celebrity chefs in the world Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis, and Guy Fieri are some of the most well-known celebrity chefs. These television personalities are known for their extensive line of cooking shows, branded kitchenware, and cookbooks. Despite their fame and immense popularity, they make chump change compared to chef Ramsay. All five of these top chefs have a net worth that is less than $100 million. One of the richest celebrity chefs on the planet is Ramsay, with an estimated net worth of $220 million. Wealthy Gorilla attributes his success to his bluntness and fiery temper saying, Gordon carved out a career in the television industry around his culinary experience and personality, that people all over the world love to watch. Ramsays wealth is a combination of his many successful books, television shows, restaurants, sponsorships, and licenses. With worldwide recognition, his name is associated with fine dining and a superior work ethic. Despite enormous wealth, Ramsay is not considered the richest celebrity chef. That title belongs to Chef Alan Wong, the co-founder of Hawaii Regional Cuisine, with several restaurants in Hawaii and one in Japan. Wong has a staggering net worth of $1.1 billion. Nicola Sturgeon has insisted it is downright wrong to blame political influence for the censorship of evidence submitted by her predecessor Alex Salmond to a Scottish Parliament inquiry, amid claims her SNP government is shutting down scrutiny of its actions. Mr Salmond pulled out of a scheduled appearance before the inquiry on Wednesday after parliamentary authorities removed passages from the written submission setting out his case that there was a malicious and concerted attempt to remove him from public life through claims of sexual harassment. In the document, he accused Ms Sturgeon, his former protegee and successor as first minister, of misleading Holyrood and breaching the ministerial code. The former first minister is now reportedly ready to accept an invitation to appear on Friday, with Ms Sturgeon completing the inquirys evidence sessions next Wednesday by answering MSPs questions on the scandal which is convulsing Scottish politics. Mr Salmond called on Scotlands Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC to explain the unprecedented and highly irregular decision by the Crown Office the body responsible for prosecuting crimes in Scotland to demand the redaction of his evidence some 16 hours after its publication by the Holyrood parliament. His spokesperson made clear that the former SNP leader wanted to know whether any political pressure was placed on the Crown Office to intervene. Mr Salmond has instructed his lawyers to request specifically that the Crown preserve and retain all material and communications with all or any third parties which led to their decision to intervene at the very last minute just as he was set to give his evidence, said the spokesperson. But Mr Wolffe told the Scottish Parliament that the decision was made by senior professional prosecutors acting independently to protect the identity of complainants in the harassment case, with no input from him. At no time have I encountered any situation in which ministers have sought to influence a prosecutorial decision, he told MSPs. If any minister were to try to do so, I will not countenance it, nor, I am confident, would any professional prosecutor who acts on my behalf. Speaking at her daily coronavirus press conference, Ms Sturgeon dismissed any suggestion of political interference as a conspiracy theory. Any suggestion at all that these decisions are in any way politically influenced are downright wrong, she said. I would suggest that they go further than that; that they actually start to buy into what is a false and quite dangerous conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact. Ms Sturgeon repeated her assertion that there is not a shred of evidence to support her former mentors claims of a plot to eject him from public life. And she said he had no good reason to dodge the committee hearing on Wednesday. I hope he comes to the committee in early course so that he can say what he wants, put forward any claims that he wants and, crucially, bring forward the evidence, she said. I want to get in front of this committee to answer every and all questions that people have of me, to address all the issues that people have and to rebut, frankly, head on and very directly, some of the wild, untrue, false and baseless claims. The inquiry by the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints was launched after a government investigation of allegations against Mr Salmond was found to be tainted by apparent bias. The former first minister, who was later acquitted of 13 charges of sexual assault in a criminal trial, was awarded a 512,250 payout after he successfully challenged the lawfulness of the process. Scottish Labours interim leader Jackie Baillie, who sits on the committee, said: The credibility of the inquiry into the Scottish governments handling of harassment complaints, and indeed the credibility of the entire parliament, hangs in the balance. And Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: The SNP government and the Crown Office are shutting down scrutiny at every turn. He accused the Crown Office of strong-arming parliament and suppressing evidence, not to protect victims identities but to protect Nicola Sturgeon. Former cabinet minister Liam Fox told the House of Commons that Mr Salmonds allegations would be a damning indictment in a tinpot dictatorship and voiced concern that the affair would bring politics in the whole of the United Kingdom into international disrepute. UK and Australia Collaborate on World First Space Bridge Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) space agencies have strengthened their ties further by signing the worlds first Space Bridge arrangement to increase connection, exchange, and investment. Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology Karen Andrews said the arrangement the two countries signed in Canberra and London on Feb. 23 will connect Australian and UK expertise in the space industry and showcase the strength of Australias space sector. Australias space industry is innovative, globally competitive and growing at a rapid pace, Andrews said in a media release. In addition to Australias strong manufacturing capabilities, our space priorities range from communications to Earth observation, as well as robotics and automationall of which can offer support to the UKs space ambitions. Both countries will also align their approaches to the space industry and adopt a whole government approach to space science and research, trade, and security. The Space Bridge Framework Arrangement is the next step after the UK and Australia 2018 Memorandum of Understanding, which saw both countries promise to work together on building landing sites and working on policy coordination. Minister for Trade, Tourism, and Investment Dan Tehan said the Space Bridge is a huge step forward in enabling the transfer of Australian space-related capability and knowledge. Through the Space Bridge, Austrade will help connect Australian businesses to opportunities in the space sector and promote Australias space industry internationally, increasing trade and attracting greater investment from around the world, Tehan said. View of the Milky Way from Australia (By Australian Space Agency 2020) This world-first agreement between Australia and the UK will reduce barriers to cooperation, address market-entry barriers and help space programs get off the ground faster, helping both countries to develop pioneering space programs and technology, he said. Head of the UK Space Agency Graham Turnock echoed their sentiments, responding that the Space Bridge will help propel the Australian space industry to the next level. This will build relationships that will help both the UK and Australia maximise the vast economic and scientific potential that the space sector offers, Turnock said. It will also help create better opportunities and greater security for people in both nations. Gaborone (Botswana) 23 February 2021 (SPS)- The President of the Republic of Botswana, Dr. Mokgweetsi E.K. Masisi, addressed a letter Tuesday to the President of the Saharawi Republic, Mr. Brahim Ghali, congratulating him and the Saharawi people on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Republic. I wish to extend you, and through you, to the government and people of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, our warm congratulations on your countrys 45th Anniversary of Independence, President Masisi wrote. He further commended the Saharawi President and government for the resilience and relentless efforts towards addressing the question of the Saharawi Republic, considering that he remains convinced that through your visionary leadership and the solidarity of like-minded nations such as Botswana, a sustainable solution will be forged. President Masisi also seized the opportunity to reaffirm my personal commitment, and that of my government, to continue working with you and your government to further strengthen the bonds of friendship and fruitful cooperation that subsist between our two countries, the letter reads. He reiterated the commitment and continued support of my government to the people of the Saharawi Republic in the pursuit for their inalienable right to self-determination, wishing the people of the Saharawi Republic health and safety during this challenging time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (SPS) 090/500/60 (SPS) 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! YES By Simon Mills Simon (pictured) argues that having a candlelit dinner every night is no longer special How ironic that a man who has made a lucrative television career out of eating standing up and talking with his mouth full should suddenly decide to judge how the British public take their own suppers. Masterchef's John Torode says that a TV dinner is bad manners and a surefire romance killer. I disagree. In fact, John, to paraphrase one of your show's catchphrases: 'Opinions don't get much more half-baked than this.' You see, this is 2021, more than 60 years since America's Swanson food company invented the grim yet hyper-convenient TV dinner. We now have frenetic and logistically unpredictable lives. We live versatile and freestyle. The modern way to eat has evolved and progressed in parallel with the modern way of working Sunday breakfast in bed, Monday lunch in front of the laptop, sushi standing up, sandwich in the car. The gastronomic equivalent of hot-desking. So after a few days of this, an early evening pasta-and-Pinot-Grigio dinner, on the lap, with one's wife or girlfriend nestled beside you on the sofa and BBC2's smartarse game show Only Connect just beginning can seem rather romantic. A candlelit dinner every night is no longer special Of course, my girlfriend and I don't manger a l'ecran plat (eat in front of the flatscreen) seven days a week. Particularly during the lockdown, it has really depended on what's on telly . . . and what's in the oven. A binge on the new series of Succession or Call My Agent will be a strictly after-dinner treat accompanied by a simple glass of chilled Albarino. And it would be wrong, say, to have risotto ai funghi porcini with the idiot box distracting from the aroma of the mushrooms. Sometimes, at around 8pm, I love to cook, lay a table, arrange napkins, light a pair of candles, maybe put on some music and open a bottle. But doing this every night would make it less special, less romantic. John, I am aware that you and Lisa Faulkner have teenage kids in the house and want to set a good example and, yes, I know you are still in the honeymoon period of your second marriage and want to be a good husband. But it would be rather gauche to consume, say, a Five Guys burger and fries off a plate, at a table, with a knife and fork. My love and I are not Masterchef fans, by the way. Don't know about you, but I can't bear to watch Torode wolfing down his dinner in a kitchen, for heaven's sake while staring at a TV monitor. I mean, really. NO By Esther Walker When it comes to my marriage, eating in front of the telly is my line in the sand. While Esther (pictured) says that having dinner at the table with her husband is sacred It's not like I'm some romance junkie, reading aloud from a Barbara Cartland novel while my husband, Giles, massages my feet with a rose between his teeth. In fact, after ten years of marriage, standards have most definitely slipped. For example, my husband and I often sit next to each other in bed, happily scrolling through our phones and ignoring each other. We allow the cats to sleep on our duvet, forget Valentine's Day and discuss unappealing health matters. But dinner at the table is sacred. I have two children, aged seven and ten. Even at the best of times, they are all-consuming from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep, which used to be 7pm, now it's more like 9pm. By that time I'm ready to turn in, too. Table dinners with my husband are all I've got off Now that we're all at home together, it's even more intense. My day is packed with print-outs and questions, lunches and snacks. There's nothing that kills intimacy and, therefore, romance in a marriage quite like children talking non-stop about Pokemon. Dinner alone, at the table, with my husband, is all I've got left of my actual marriage. The rest of the time it feels like Giles and I run a two-star internet cafe with the world's rudest customers. My parents ate in front of the TV sometimes, but that was before On Demand TV, when we were all slaves to the schedules. If something my parents wanted to see clashed with Mum's fish pie being ready, then they set off for the telly room with their plates napkins tucked under armpits, cutlery in back pockets. Otherwise it was all of us, at the table, no excuses. My parents have been married for 40 years. Maybe it's not the eatingtogether thing that has kept their marriage thriving. But what if it is? Giles and I chat throughout the day, but there are many days, particularly right now, when the dinner table is the only place we have for uninterrupted conversation. We time the kids' dinner and bathtime so they are both upstairs on their iPads while we eat something that one or other of us has cooked. Sometimes I even light candles. We have a glass of wine (possibly more than one), and we have a conversation. It's not usually about anything much, but we're concentrating, properly, on each other. I'm not sure that's the dictionary definition of romance, but it's a damn sight more sexy than being hunched over our plates in front of University Challenge. Face mask distribution and their mandatory use corresponds with an accelerated reduction in viral transmission - up to 30,000 less cases Face masks likely played a role in reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Italy during the first half of 2020, according to a new study by mathematical modellers, who show that the use of face coverings could have reduced the number of official COVID-19 cases in Italy by up to 30,000 during Spring 2020. Analysing official Italian data, the findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Infectious Diseases, suggest that the protective masks also have important implications for public health decisions around their use. "We found an excellent correspondence between nationwide lockdown and the peak of the epidemic in late March 2020, suggesting that this measure is the main factor in stopping the spread of the virus," said lead author of the study associate professor Morten Gram Pedersen at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova. "Surprisingly, we identified further drops in viral transmission in mid-April 2020 within certain regions, which corresponded well with the provision of free face masks and/or their mandatory use. We did not see this reduction in places that did not introduce any additional local interventions at that time." In early March 2020, Italy was the first Western country to implement drastic measures to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These restrictions, culminating in a full national lockdown between 11th March and 4th May 2020, proved effective at controlling the first wave of the epidemic. The number of new daily cases peaking at around 6,000 in late March to fewer than 300 by early June. The researchers used mathematical modelling to compare official data from eight demographically similar Italian regions that had introduced specific local control measures at different times - or did not impose any additional restrictions beyond the national rules. Each region was effectively isolated from the rest of the country during the nationwide lockdown, making regional comparisons even more relevant. "We found a change point reflecting a peak in the number of new cases for all eight regions that correspond well with the lockdown imposed between the 8th to 11th March 2020 depending on the region," said Pedersen. "Five of the eight regions showed further change points during April 2020 that corresponded well with the introduction of additional general containment measures, mandatory face mask use and/or distribution of free face masks." The team explored alternative explanations for the accelerated decline in new cases in late April 2020 in these regions, including the activity of people using public data from Google and weather conditions. But they found that none of the investigated alternatives could account for the acceleration of the end of the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic. "However, we cannot exclude that other, unobserved events caused the accelerated decline, as this was an observational study," commented Pedersen. "Several recent studies have advocated for the use of face masks, and our work is in line with other recent regional studies in Germany and the USA that correlate widespread face mask use with a reduction in the spread of COVID-19," said Pedersen. "The reopening of society in May did not lead to any change in the decay rate. Therefore, our findings lend further support to the importance of face mask use in addition to lockdowns and other public health measures for the control of COVID-19." Co-author Matteo Meneghini, associate professor at the Department of Information Engineering at Padova, added: "The benefit of face mask wearing appears to be largely a cohort effect operating at the public-health, rather than the individual, level. "We stress, however, that - whenever the situation is critical - face masks are insufficient, and should be used in addition to other containment measures such as partial or total lockdowns, to provide further contribution to public health protection." ### DETROIT, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Benzinga, the largest financial news vendor to North American brokerages, announced today that it will be partnering with Wealth Builders HQ (WBHQ) to help drive their mission of training individuals in trading stocks, options, and futures with their comprehensive trading strategies and high-level market data. Using Benzinga's data, Wealth Builders HQ users will obtain a fundamental understanding of how news flow impacts financial markets. "Benzinga is thrilled to be partnering with Wealth Builders HQ, bringing institutional-grade real-time market activity to retail investors," said Andrew Lebbos, from Benzinga. "Wealth Builders HQ provides retail investors with tools once reserved for Wall Street, a natural alignment with Benzinga's mission: to transform the financial industry and empower individual investors with superior information, data, and tools." WBHQ's products include trading computers, software, books, and more. Through its collaboration with Benzinga, the company will be receiving historical bar data. This data will help its users to keep a pulse on the context necessary for executing profitable trades. Read more about Benzinga's news and data APIs at cloud.benzinga.com . About WBHQ At WBHQ, users will learn how to trade stocks, options and futures like a professional trader regardless of how much they know about the market and how much money they have in a brokerage account. WBHQ offers a number of services to achieve these goals. Its main products include trading computers, trading software, trading books, brokerage opportunities, and more. Its members also have access to a blog with important market strategy information. About Benzinga: Benzinga is a dynamic and innovative financial media outlet that empowers investors with high-quality, unique content that is coveted by Wall Street's top traders. Benzinga provides timely, actionable ideas that help users navigate even the most uncertain and volatile markets in real-time with an unmatched caliber. SOURCE Benzinga Related Links www.benzingapro.com The state has cleared a key hurdle for the widening of Interstate 10 between La. 415 and the I-10/12 split, Louisiana transportation chief Shawn Wilson said Thursday. Wilson said the federal government has approved its environmental assessment of the project and that one of the most visible parts of the overhaul will begin before summer -- the revamp of the College Drive exit for westbound motorists. "This is a significant accomplishment in moving this much-needed project forward," Wilson said in a statement. +2 Taxpayers get first look at $30M College Drive flyover on I-10 in Baton Rouge; see details Taxpayers on Thursday got their first look at details of a $30 million project aimed at making it easier for westbound motorists on Interstate "Past efforts to make these necessary improvements have never reached this stage and it's a testament to this administration, the local, state and federal officials and the hardworking staff of DOTD that we have reached this milestone," said Wilson, who is secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development. The federal action clears the way for the state to launch right-of-way purchasing and to begin the design process. 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 The initial, $360 million part of the work is being financed with federal bonds. Other money is coming from the East Baton Rouge City-Parish -- $12 million -- and the Capital Region Planning Commission -- $24 million. +2 Noticeable work on widening I-10 in Baton Rouge a year away, transportation chief says Visible work on the $360 million plan to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge is likely a year away, Louisiana's transportation chief said Thursday. The work includes the addition of new lanes in each direction through the corridor, which is one of the most heavily traveled in the Baton Rouge area. Wilson said construction from just west of Washington Street to Essen Lane is expected to begin in early 2023. Previous work around the site includes the building of an off-ramp at Terrace Avenue to ease congestion around the Washington Street exit. Two men and a woman had lost track of days as they survived on a diet of coconuts, conchs and rats for more than a month after they were cast Japan's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill to ratify the world's largest free trade deal signed last year by 15 Asia-Pacific countries also including China, South Korea and ASEAN members, according to Kyodo News. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, covering a third of global trade and population, will become the "foundation of trade in Asia," Japanese trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama told a press conference. Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank are taking a 'very modern approach to parenting', a royal expert has revealed. The daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, 30, welcomed her first child, who is 11th in line to the throne, with Jack on February 9 at London's Portland Hospital. The couple were pictured leaving the hospital three days later on February 12. Royal expert Katie Nicholl said the couple are 'thrilled to be parents' and 'absolutely overcome with love and emotion for their little son.' Meanwhile she revealed the couple 'tend to be very modern when it comes to parenting', telling ET: 'They don't want that burden of a royal title [on] their son. I think this little royal is going to grow up an ordinary little boy indeed.' Princess Eugenie, 30, and her husband Jack Brooksbank are taking a 'very modern approach to parenting', Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl has revealed Katie explained that while August is an 'unusual' first name to choose because the baby was worn in February, it was chosen by the couple because they 'really like' it. Her comments come after the couple revealed the name of their son and shared their first family picture over the weekend. The snap was thought to have been taken in the grounds of Frogmore Cottage, where the couple are currently living. Posting a series of photographs on Instagram, the Queen's granddaughter wrote: 'Thank you for so many wonderful messages. Our hearts are full of love for this little human, words can't express. We are excited to be able to share these photos with you.' Royal expert Katie said the Queen's granddaughter and her husband 'didn't want that burden of a royal title for their son' (pictured, on their wedding day in October) Eugenie went on to reveal the name was a touching tribute to Queen Victoria's Husband Prince Albert, whose birth name was Franz Albert August Karl Emanuel, and Prince Philip, who is currently in hospital, writing: 'On his grandfather's birthday weekend, thinking of my grandfather, we are introducing our little boy. He is named after his great grandfather and both of his 5x great grandfathers.' Sarah Ferguson reposted the photographs on her Instagram page and, in her first comments since Eugenie's birth, revealed she and Prince Andrew are 'thrilled' over August's arrival. A body language expert told FEMAIL Princess Eugenie and Jack's 'touchingly casual' photos of the first-time father holding their newborn son suggests the pair will 'share childcare behind the scenes'. The new father broke royal tradition by holding baby August in the photos, appearing 'every inch the first-time, besotted dad', body language expert Judi James told Femail. The couple are 'thrilled to be parents' and 'absolutely overcome with love and emotion' for their new son, according to Katie The photos showed Jack holding the baby son, who had been swaddled in a baby blue blanket with a matching hat atop his head, as little August clutched at his mother's finger. A source previously told People magazine Princess Eugenie is 'doing really well' after giving birth to her baby boy 'via C-section due to her previous spinal surgery for scoliosis'. Eugenie and tequila boss Jack are believed to be residing at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, where the couple spent time before Christmas after being loaned the home by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who now live in the US. It was understood that Eugenie and her cousin Harry reached a 'private agreement' over Frogmore Cottage though it is not known how long it will last. On Saturday, Princess Eugenie confirmed the name on her Instagram page and shared her first family picture with her son alongside husband Jack (left, and right) In the first photographs of the family-of-three, Jack cradled newborn August in his arms while Princess Eugenie could be seen fawning over him The couple's permanent home is Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace, but they spent lockdown at Fergie and Prince Andrew's home on the Queen's Windsor estate. Their baby is the Queen and Prince Philip's ninth great-grandchild and eleventh-in-line to the throne, but will not have a royal title; only the grandchildren of the monarch are automatically entitled to one. Speaking to Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl, a source previously revealed: 'Eugenie knows that a title can be a curse as well as a blessing and she and Jack want their child to live an ordinary life and eventually work to earn a living.' The new arrival weighed 8lbs 1oz and the couple broke with tradition by immediately sharing a black and white photo to Eugenie's Instagram of their baby boy, showing them holding his tiny hand. Princess Eugenie is 'doing really well' after giving birth to her baby boy 'via C-section due to her previous spinal surgery for scoliosis', a royal source told People magazine (pictured leaving hospital last week) Proud new mother Eugenie followed the post with three blue hearts after welcoming her son at the luxury private hospital where Meghan also gave birth to her one-year-old son, Archie. The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of York, Sarah Ferguson and Mr and Mrs George Brooksbank were delighted at the news, Buckingham Palace announced, adding that 'Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well'. The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) charity, which treated Princess Eugenie for the rare condition of scoliosis when she was 12, also wrote: 'Congratulations to our Patron, HRH Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on the birth of their baby boy. We are so delighted for you both and would like to wish you all the very best'. The new mother is currently on maternity leave from her job as a director at Mayfair art gallery Hausery & Wirth, while Jack works for tequila brand Casamigos. JACKSON, MI The father who shot his then 2-year-old son in the face in 2019 is going to prison. Michael Glance, 34, was sentenced to 35 years to life for three felony charges of assault with intent to murder and the statuary mandate of two years for three charges of felony firearms during a virtual appearance before Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson on Thursday, Feb. 25. Glance pleaded no context to the charges on Dec. 11 and has 682 days of time served for the firearm charges. Father pleads no contest to shooting 2-year-old son in face Glance shot his young son, Ryker Glance, in the face on April 16, 2019, during an argument with the boys mother, Nicole McCarthy, at Glances home in the 400 block of Barrett Avenue in Blackman Township. Ryker survived and has had 14 surgeries, with more to happen as he grows, McCarthy testified on Thursday. Im a very caring, compassionate person. But what (Glance) did is inexcusable, McCarthy said. Its evil. The fact that he could look his own child in the face and do what he did just shows the type of person he is. I feel he shouldnt be able to live a normal life because Ryker never will. Blackman-Leoni Township Public Safety Det. Joseph Merritt was the lead investigator on the case and has spent more than 10 years investigating violent crimes, he testified Thursday. Ive seen a lot of really horrible things and Ive dealt with a lot of really horrible things, Merritt said. I think this is the worst thing Ive ever dealt with. As police officers youre supposed to be able to just handle it but theres some things you cant let go of. This is one of those. Visiting Ryker while he was at the hospital was one of the hardest things Merritt said hes ever experienced as a police officer. He said he had an emotional reaction when he saw Ryker laying in a hospital bed with his face held together by rubber bands. Ryker had his hand in front of his face when he was shot, which resulted in the loss of some of his fingers, Chief Prosecuting Attorney Kati Rezmierski said. He just recently started to notice thats hes different, McCarthy said. He gets mad, especially at his hand. Hell get mad and hit his hand because he cant get it to work and doesnt understand why. Hell look in the mirror and point at his face. Glance was coherent and responding in full sentences during the first police interview with Merritt, he testified. During an interview the second day, Glance admitted to shooting Ryker with the intent to kill him, Merritt said. Glance was found mentally incompetent to stand trial on May 22, 2019. A second assessment from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, dated June 19, 2019, however, determined the mental illness diagnosed earlier was in fact faked, Jackson District Court Judge Michael Klaeren said previously. Man who allegedly shot 2-year-old son in face, faked mental illness, report says Glance also had a mental competency examination performed by a doctor hired by his defense team, defense attorney Andrew Kirkpatrick said previously. That exam found while Glance had mental health issues, under Michigan law he was not legally insane at the time of the assault, Kirkpatrick said. Im not trying to excuse his behavior but there are reasons that played into this, Kirkpatrick said on Thursday. I dont think this is an individual that just woke up one morning, clear headed free of any mental issues and said, Today I am going to kill my 2 year old and the mother of my 2 year old. I think he snapped. Glance apologized during the sentencing, saying he had issues with his mental health at the time and doesnt know how it got that bad. I love my son with all my heart, he said. Thats the truth, Glance said. What I did is not right. Every day I suffer. I live with great pain. My soul aches every day with fire and feelings that nobody should have to feel. I want you to know Im truly sorry and this never should have happened. During the shooting, Glance kissed his son then held a pistol to the boys head and pulled the trigger while he was in a car seat, Wilson said during sentencing. The pistol jammed and did not fire, giving McCarthy time to get between Glance and Ryker, Wilson said. Father shot 2-year-old boy in the face intentionally, prosecutors say Glance then walked away from the van and McCarthy tried to drive away but couldnt get it to start, Wilson said. At that point, she saw Glance returning with another gun, Wilson said, adding that Glance then shot Ryker once hitting his hand and head. Glance then tried to shoot McCarthy as she tried to get to safety with her son, but a neighbor was able to help them run away, Wilson said previously. My son has to live every single day, not like the normal children, McCarthy said through tears. He dont have half of his hand, his face is never going to be normal. Read more from MLive: More body camera footage storage available for Jackson police in new contract Jackson County shooting suspect considered armed and dangerous Plan to end criminal history questions on Jackson housing applications moves forward HARTFORD Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday began his legislative push for the full legalization of adult-use marijuana, stressing racial equity and the potential for a sharp reduction in criminal cases. Lamont said his proposal is comprehensive and suggested that the legislature must act this year or lose out on revenue from states such as New Jersey, whose governor signed cannabis legalization in recent days. Massachusetts has had adult-use retail sales for over two years and New York is moving toward passage. In response, the Democratic leaders of the state House of Representatives noted that there are other active marijuana legalization proposals from lawmakers, which contain significant provisions not in Lamonts plan. This has been a long time coming, Lamont told reporters. Weve been talking about this for ages and I think now is the time for legalized adult-use recreational marijuana in a carefully regulated way, with an emphasis on equity and justice. Prohibition doesnt work. Appearing with a leading state lawmaker, a criminal justice expert, two officials from the Department of Consumer Protection, Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim and others, Lamont promised that his bill would allow entrepreneurs from inner-city communities, the prime targets in the failed war on drugs, to get into the future cannabis business in a variety of potential ways. That includes the supply chain from growing and product development to retail sales and even delivery services. Lamonts bill projects modest revenues for the state: $33 million in the first year of sales, fiscal 2023, rising to about $95 million a year, though future estimates remain rough. Some proponents say the state can expect more than $200 million a year in revenue. A public hearing has been scheduled for Friday on the proposal in the Judiciary Committee. Were going to do this in a way that makes sure that the underground market does not have a lot of highly potent, illegal substances fentanyl all the ways the underground market can make this a much-more dangerous market, Lamont said. The Rev. Tommie Jackson of Stamford, an adviser to Lamont on equity, said fairness, justice and equality in the development of public policy is crucial. You want policies that are promoted, that can, that do help and directly and indirectly reduce poverty, he said, estimating that $300 million could be generated to benefit communities in the largest cities. Lamonts bill would also work toward expunging the criminal records of those convicted of marijuana-related charges. Michael Lawlor, a former longtime state lawmaker and criminal justice policy official who now teaches at the University of New Haven, pointed out recent crime statistics showing that during the calendar year 2020 there were more than 7,500 marijuana-related arrests out of a statewide total of 70,000 criminal arrests of all kinds. If you take that out of the flow of business in our criminal courts, you allow prosecutors and judges and police to focus on the higher-risk violent offenders, and by itself that is a good thing, Lawlor said. Youre giving a pathway to erasure of records for people who perhaps a year ago, perhaps a decade or two ago, have been arrested or convicted of one of these marijuana-related crimes. As we all know, the collateral consequences of that type of history are significant. Legal adult-use cannabis would also deal with the underground market, he said. This is really going to put a big dent in the business of organized crime, Lawlor said. Without low-level marijuana laws, the potential police tactic of stopping motorists, then saying they smell marijuana as a pretense for searching a vehicle, would no longer be an option. Florsheim said his city of 46,500 would welcome the opportunity to host a marijuana-related business, because Lamonts bill includes a portion of revenue would go to the local government, and the equity portion would allow local people to enter the business. There is a lot of money that can be made, Florsheim said. There are a lot of opportunities, I think, for the legal commercial sale of marijuana here, done in the right way. He said that less than a hours drive away from his city, there are a half dozen or more dispensaries in Massachusetts that are attracting Connecticut visitors. Obviously these are places that are taking in money hand-over-fist from eager customers. State Rep. Michael DAgostino, D-Hamden, co-chairman of the legislative General Law Committee, called Lamonts proposal comprehensive, with three major components: decriminalization, regulation and revenue-generation. One animating principle and theme that is embedded throughout all those components is equity, DAgostino said. Its very unique and creative what the governor has proposed here. Hes expanded the marketplace for new entrants, so you do not need hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in capital to get into this marketplace. Later on Wednesday morning, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said its too early in the session to commit to one bill or another. Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, co-chairwoman of the Labor Committee, has also filed legislation that is focused on equity. I think we still have a lot of work to do, Rojas said. We have a proposal here that has been presented by one of our members. And certainly we have the governors bill that is out there. Weve got a couple months to figure out all those details and try to get to a polcy proposal that reflects the priorities of a lot of people within the caucus, which is a complicated issue, but I think we can get there. Both the legislative Black and Puerto Rican Caucus and the AFL-CIO on Wednesday supported Porters bill, especially provisions to create new job opportunities in cities. Interested members of the public who wish to testify before the Judiciary Committee on Lamonts adult-use cannabis legislation, may register until Thursday at 3 p.m. by filling out a webinar request . ?? Ahora | La titular de PCM, junto con el viceministro de Gobernanza Territorial y representantes del @Minsa_Peru y @MinCulturaPe, llegan a Ucayali para realizar la supervision al proceso de vacunacion del personal de salud. #PongoElHombro ???????? pic.twitter.com/hPxQT6cax5 63% of Biden voters reject that God is 'all powerful,' 'perfect and just' creator: survey Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A new post-election survey reveals that a majority of those who voted for President Joe Biden don't believe "God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and just creator" who rules over everything in Heaven and Earth today. The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the fourth in-depth report about its 2020 Post-Election Survey last week. The survey was conducted between Nov. 4 and 16, 2020. The latest installment of the survey focuses on the views of Biden's voters as compared to the views of Americans who voted for former President Donald Trump as well as voters and adults as a whole. More votes were counted in the 2020 presidential election than any other in U.S. history. Former Vice President Joe Biden got over 81 million votes, the most votes for any presidential candidate, to President Trumps 74 million, the second-most votes in an election. Their totals also broke the record of votes cast for former President Barack Obama, who received 69.5 million votes in 2008. Biden voters make up a plurality of those surveyed by the Cultural Research Center, accounting for 426 of the 1,000 respondents. Measured at 387, Trump voters were slightly less represented in the sample. While 65% of Biden voters describe themselves as Christian, most (56%) said they see themselves as "spiritual but not religious" and 57% said they were not "deeply committed to practicing" their religion. Additionally, most of the Biden voters held views that were at odds with the teachings of Christianity. For example, 68% of Biden voters believe that "The Holy Spirit is not a living entity but is a symbol of God's presence, power, or purity." Sixty-three percent of Biden voters rejected the notion that "God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and just creator of the universe who rules that universe today" and 72% said that they believe that "a person who is generally good, or does enough good things for others, will earn a place in Heaven." Only 30% agreed that the Bible "is the actual or inspired Word of God and contains no errors." Seventy-five percent of Biden's voters cite something other than the Bible as their most trusted source of moral guidance. Most Biden voters who fit into this category identified their feelings, experiences, friends and family as their sources of moral guidance. Biden voters were more likely than adults in general to believe that "having faith matters more than which faith you have," with 79% of Biden voters and 74% of all adults agreeing with that statement. Biden voters were less likely to identify as Christian than adults as a whole and Trump voters. Seventy-five percent of Biden voters believed that "identifying moral truth is up to each individual; there are no moral absolutes that apply to everyone, all the time." Among all adults, 67% said the same. When asked if they believe that "all religious faiths are of equal value," 68% of Biden voters answered in the affirmative compared to 62% of all adults and 56% of Trump voters. On social issues, Biden voters held divergent views from the adult population as a whole as well as their Trump-voting counterparts. Regarding the issue of abortion, a supermajority (60%) of Biden voters believe that the Bible is ambiguous on the matter, along with a narrow majority of adults as a whole (51%) and a minority of Trump voters (41%). Forty-two percent of Biden voters agree that "the marriage of one man to one woman is God's only acceptable plan for humanity, for all cultures on earth" while majorities of all adults (54%) and Trump voters (69%) believe that God's plan for humanity requires the upholding of traditional marriage and the nuclear family. The idea that only those who have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior will go to Heaven when they die has 15% support among Biden voters, compared to 24% of all adults and 34% of Trump voters. Thirty-seven percent of Biden voters see God as "the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and just creator of the universe who rules that universe today" while 47% of all adults and 60% of Trump voters hold the same view of God. It also found that 31% of Biden voters are active in a Christian church compared to 42% of Trump voters. The share of those who identify as theologically conservative stands at 25% among Biden voters and 42% among Trump voters. One-quarter (25%) of Biden's voters accept the teaching that "absolute moral truths exist and are defined in the Bible," as opposed to 43% of Trump voters. The report also included data about the religious demographics of the supporters of the two major presidential candidates. A plurality of Biden's voters (29%) "don't believe in God/care about God/think God's existence is knowable" while 27% attend a Protestant church, 21% attend a Catholic church, 13% "attend a Christian church, type undetermined" and 9% are non-Christians. Meanwhile, those who attend a Protestant church constitute 42% of Trump's supporters, while Catholics made up 21%, and those who "attend a Christian church, type undetermined" were 13%, non-Christians were 7%, and those who "don't believe in God/care about God/think God's existence is knowable" comprised the rest of his voters at 18%. Overall, Protestant voters surveyed favored Trump over Biden by a 14-point margin (47% to 33%), while the so-called "Don'ts" faith segment preferred Biden to Trump 45% to 25%. George Barna, the director of the Arizona Christian University's Cultural Research Center who conducted the study, warned: "If our government denies the core principles on which it was founded which were originally derived from the Bible in favor of an inconsistent patchwork of modern philosophical preferences, the result will be chaos, constant disputes, and widespread dissatisfaction." According to Barna, "A strong and thriving society requires a stable foundation of truth on which to make just and appropriate decisions. The more the United States puts distance between itself and its moral and spiritual moorings, the less likely we are to have an effective vibrant government and a healthy and vibrant way of life." Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has written to Google to properly share advertising revenues" for content published by newspapers. The moves comes following a deal struck by Google in Australia with Rupert Murdochs Newscorp to do just this. In a letter, President of INS, L Adimoolam addressed Google Indias country manager Sanjay Gupta and said that Google should pay for news generated by newspapers which employ thousands of journalists on the ground at considerable expense",, adding that it is in discussions with the tech giant. INS has asked Google to compensate the Indian newspapers "comprehensively" for using contents published by them and to share its advertising revenues properly. Content generated and published by newspapers at the considerable expense is proprietary, said INS while pointing out that it is this credible content that has given Google the authenticity in India ever since its inception. The Society noted that over the past year publishers across the world have been raising the issue of fair payment for content and of proper sharing of advertising revenue with Google. It has also noted that Google has recently agreed to better compensate and pay publishers in France, the European Union and Australia," stated INS. On Thursday, the two houses of Australias parliament passed the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code" that requires companies such as Google and Facebook, whose primary source of revenue is advertising, to pay local publishers for news content. The Society has also pointed out that advertising has been the financial backbone of the news industry. "However, newspaper publishers are seeing their share of the advertising pie shrinking in the digital space, even as Google is taking a 'giant share of advertising spends', leaving publishers with a small share," it said. Raising an issue that has been a sticking point with traditional media companies around the world, the INS statement referred to Googles role as a search engine, an ad-tech company, and also an analytics firm. It said publishers face an opaque advertising system, as they are unable to get details of Googles advertising value chain. It has insisted that Google increase the publisher share of advertising revenue to 85%, and also ensure transparency in revenue reports provided by it. Alphabets Google last year said it would pay some media groups in Australia, Brazil and Germany for high-quality content, and expects to do more deals with others. The tech giant has for years tried to fend off such demands worldwide in return for using their content, with European media groups among its fiercest critics. Pointing out that the INS is engaged in discussions with Google on these vital issues, the letter also reiterated that "Indian print media is the most credible source of news and information in the country, and newspapers play a vital role in nation-building". Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Two senior US lawmakers on Wednesday said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has failed to turn over a report to Congress on airline engine safety required under a 2018 law. Sam Graves, the top Republican on the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Garret Graves, the senior Republican on the aviation subcommittee, cited Saturday's engine failure on a United Boeing 777-200 plane in urging the FAA to quickly submit the required report. Without the report, they wrote FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, it was impossible for anyone "to know whether the best practices and recommendations to improve airline engine safety could have helped to prevent the engine mishaps that have taken place since the October 2019 safety review." The letter cited other recent engine failures, including a December failure in Japan and the 2018 Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 failure of a CFM56-7B turbofan engine that led to the death of passenger after shrapnel shattered a window. The FAA said this week that after the Japanese incident it had been considering stepping up required inspections. The lawmakers added they were concerned any "recommendations to improve airline engine safety have been languishing for well over a year. Even more concerning is the potential missed opportunity to address similar airline engine safety issues before they occurred again." The FAA did not immediately comment. The engine that failed on the 26-year-old United Boeing 777 and shed parts over a Denver suburb was a Pratt & Whitney PW4000 used on 128 planes, or less than 10% of the global fleet of more than 1,600 delivered 777 widebody jets and only a handful of airlines in the United States, South Korea and Japan were operating them recently. Late Tuesday, the FAA ordered immediate inspections on all 777 airplanes with PW4000 engines after the National Transportation Safety Board said a broken fan blade was consistent with metal fatigue. Operators must conduct a thermal acoustic image inspection of the large titanium fan blades on each engine, the FAA said. Also read: CCI trashes alleged cartelisation case among domestic airlines The chief executive of Costco waded into the political debate over the federal minimum wage, testifying at a Senate hearing on Thursday that the retailer was raising its starting pay to $16 an hour. W. Craig Jelinek, the chief executive, said Costco, which already pays an hourly minimum of $15, had some of the highest employee retention rates of any retailer. This isnt altruism, Jelinek told the Senate Budget Committee. At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages and providing affordable benefits makes sense for our business and constitutes a significant competitive advantage for us. Jelinek was invited to testify by the committees chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next four years. Jelinek said he was not there to endorse the proposed federal minimum wage increase, but rather to discuss how his companys higher-than-average wages had affected his business. Republicans on the committee, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, asked whether Costco, which generated $150 billion in revenue last year, was able to absorb the higher wages because of its size and whether a $15-an-hour mandate was likely to cause smaller retailers to close. In my past experience, wages dont usually put you out of business, Jelinek said. It is how you run your business. Jelinek said the average wage at Costco, which employs 180,000 people in the United States, is $24 an hour. Costcos pay contrasts with that of Walmart, whose chief executive, Doug McMillon, was invited to testify by Sanders but declined to appear. Walmarts average wage is above $15 an hour, but the companys minimum wage is $11 an hour. Sanders pointed to research by the Government Accountability Office showing that some Walmart employees must depend on food stamps and Medicaid to get by on such low wages, calling it a subsidy for the giant corporation. Last week, Walmart said that it was raising the wages of 425,000 workers and that about half of its workforce in the United States would earn at least $15 an hour. But McMillon stopped short of saying whether the company would eventually extend a $15 minimum to all employees. The chief executive of McDonalds, Christopher Kempczinski, also declined an invitation to testify Thursday. The fast food chains average wages are about $12 an hour. Terrence Wise, a McDonalds worker in Kansas City, told the committee that he relied on food stamps to raise his three children and had to live out of a minivan after his family was evicted from their home. I work for McDonalds, one of the richest companies in America, Wise said. This is what generational poverty looks like. This is what I am fighting to end. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Reporter Ben Zigterman is a reporter covering business at The News-Gazette. His email is bzigterman@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@bzigterman). Egypt sent on Thursday a new batch of medical and food aid to Lebanon under as part of an air bridge launched last summer to aid the country deal with the repercussions of the massive blast at Beirut Port in August that killed hundreds and displaced over 300,000. According to an official statement, the Egyptian Embassy in Lebanon said the air base at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport received a military jet carrying supplies from the Egyptian Armed Forces to its Lebanese counterpart. Yasser Elwi, Egypts ambassador to Lebanon, said the aid shipment included medicines and medical equipment to meet the needs of the Lebanese armed forces. He added that the aid also included food assistance to support the armys key role in maintaining stability in Lebanon. The ambassador added that the assistance comes under Cairos commitment to support Lebanese state institutions. The new aid shipment comes nearly a month after Egypt sent 31 tons of medicine and medical supplies to Lebanon to help the countrys health sector deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The last aid shipment from Egypt to Lebanon included 16 tons of baby formula and 15 tons of virus protection supplies, including surgical masks, gloves, and coronavirus protocol medication. Short link: LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Inchcape (INCH.L) reported a statutory loss before tax of 128 million or 35.6p per basic share compared to a profit of 402 million or 79.0p per basic share last year. Profit before tax, pre exceptionals, plunged to 129 million or 23.6p per basic share from the previous year's profit of 326 million or 59.9p per basic share. Revenue for the year 2020 declined 27% to 6.84 billion from 9.38 billion generated a year ago. Duncan Tait, Group CEO, said, 'Our 2020 results came in ahead of recently upgraded expectations, supported by increased resilience of demand for both Vehicles and Aftersales services in the fourth-quarter. The Group's inherently cash-generative business model contributed to the strengthening of our overall financial position during the second half...' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 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. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:49:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- While people in Xinjiang live in growing peace and security, some ill-minded Western politicians and fact-distorting journalists, some of whom have never set foot in China, are engineering a bizarre story of "genocide" in the region, including most recently Canada. -- A spokesperson for China's top legislature condemned the Canadian parliament for passing the Xinjiang-related motion accusing China of genocide, saying it has seriously distorted facts and wantonly meddled in China's domestic affairs. -- Westerners, including Americans, must update their views of today's China, a modern, progressive society following decades of reform and opening up, said Josh Selig, founder and president of China Bridge Content, a New York and Beijing-based content and consulting firm. by Xinhua writer Yang Shilong, Hu Yousong WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- While people in Xinjiang live in growing peace and security, some ill-minded Western politicians and fact-distorting journalists, some of whom have never set foot in China, are engineering a bizarre story of "genocide" in the region, including most recently Canada. While the Chinese government and the Uygur people themselves have tried to shed light on what's happening on the ground, some in the West refuse to listen, adamant in their twisted beliefs of mass killings and rape, which are baseless fabrications. They pass legislation, create fake news, and put aside all the ethics and values they claim to uphold, choosing instead to live in delusion. "MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISCONCEPTIONS" Veteran Canadian Chinese reporter Hu Xian has felt the urge to write a truth-telling story given her anger and shock at the groundless "genocide" accusations made by a few Western countries, including Canada, against China. "I have travelled extensively in Xinjiang, I have many Uygur friends, and I feel I am in a better position to tell what is true with people's lives there than those who voted in (Canada's) House of Commons (on a Xinjiang-related motion)," Hu, editor-in-chief of Montreal-based Symbiosis International Media, said Wednesday in an article "Uygurs in My Eyes" published on her webpage. Combo photo shows Memejan Gheni, a crab catcher, displaying his fresh catch on Sept. 14, 2020 (L) and carrying a bag of crabs off the boat on Sept. 16, 2020 (R) in Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge) Canada's parliament on Monday passed a non-binding motion accusing China of committing "genocide" in Xinjiang. "The Uygur friends I know all feel very happy now. The cities and villages there are safe and secure, life is peaceful and full of hope," said Hu, who is originally from Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, Northern Xinjiang. Xibe, like Uygur, is among one of China's 56 ethnic groups. Hu said that a friend sent her an article titled "What will Urumqi (the Xinjiang capital) look like in three years? Beyond your imagination! You won't regret living in the city." "I can feel his excitement across the screen! Some people say that China has committed 'genocide' against the Uygurs? Nonsense!" said Hu, who shared the story on both her webpage and WeChat moments. Children have fun on Dove Lane in Hotan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Sadat) The so-called "genocide" accusation against China stemmed from a single source: a paper by German far-right ideologue Adrian Zenz in June 2020, according to an investigative report by the independent news website Grayzone. Portrayed as a "China scholar" by Western media, Zenz is a far-right Christian fundamentalist currently serving as an analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, a neoconservative think tank in Washington. "A careful review of Zenz's research shows that his assertion of genocide is contradicted by flagrant data abuse, fraudulent claims, cherry-picking of source material, and propagandistic misrepresentations," said the report. Aerial photo taken on Jan. 21, 2021 shows a railway track snow removing machine in operation in Maytas windy area along the Karamay-Tacheng railway, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu) Zenz defamed the expansion of public healthcare services in Xinjiang as evidence of a genocide, said the report. For example, he pointed to a photograph of Uygur residents of rural regions of Xinjiang receiving a medical consultation at a free health clinic as part of an "effort to enforce the thorough implementation of increasing intrusive birth control efforts." Zenz has also invented statistics and spun tales to justify his false conclusion, according to the report, which also criticized "mainstream Western outlets like the AP, BBC and CNN" for having "accepted Zenz's dubious research as absolute fact," with "their apparent zeal for escalation with China." Westerners, including Americans, must update their views of today's China, a modern, progressive society following decades of reform and opening up, said Josh Selig, founder and president of China Bridge Content, a New York and Beijing-based content and consulting firm, in an interview with Xinhua. Local women sell walnut products via live streaming at an e-commerce service center in Yecheng County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Ma Kai) "I was seeing and hearing a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions about China and for me, and for anybody who spent time in China, it's very sad to hear when people don't understand the real China," said Selig, who has received 12 Emmy Awards. "They don't know what's really going on, and they get their information usually through social media or through some press outlets, but they don't have a full picture." WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON A spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on Wednesday condemned the Canadian parliament for passing the Xinjiang-related motion accusing China of genocide, saying it has seriously distorted facts and wantonly meddled in China's domestic affairs. Emin (2nd L), a resident of Uygur ethnic group, chats with his neighbors in Tacheng City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge) Beijing refuted a similar groundless accusation made by the former U.S. administration of Donald Trump on Jan. 19, one day before president Joe Biden was inaugurated as the country's new president. The claims were made against Xinjiang despite the State Department's Office of the Legal Advisor concluding after a review that there was no sufficient evidence to prove accusations of genocide, according to a recent report by Foreign Policy. "The fact is, in the last four decades or so, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has more than doubled," said Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai in an interview with Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN in response to a question on Xinjiang. "From the year 2010 to 2018 alone, the Uygur population growth in Xinjiang was 25 percent, much higher than the average growth rate in the entire Xinjiang Region. These are facts." Combo photo shows Tutigul Dawut, a local resident who has shaken off poverty by breeding pigeons, smiling at newly-hatched pigeons (L) and introducing her pigeon breeding business to a technician (R) in Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Jan. 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lei) In the last few years, China has focused on two major tasks in Xinjiang -- eradication of terrorism and elimination of poverty, Cui said. "Now, for the last three to four years, there has been no single case of terrorist attack. So people have a much better sense of security and safety now." Aerial photo taken on March 25, 2020 shows seeding machines working in the fields in Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Sadat) Some Western media outlets "bear an important responsibility in adding to the negativity excessively and unfortunately in U.S.-China ties," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua. "It is unfortunate that a lot of very prestigious news organizations in the West on China are no longer news organizations, they have become advocacy organizations," said Gupta. Gupta expressed hope that the Western media could "take a more responsible approach" and be "more factually accurate." "I always tell people, you have to judge for yourself through personal experience," Selig said. "This is the only way to get rid of any misconceptions and any biases that might exist." (Video reporters: Yang Shilong, Hu Yousong, Tan Yixiao; Video editor: Liu Yuting) A woman watches boats pass the Pak Beng pier on the Mekong River in northwestern Laos Oudomxay province, the site of a proposed hydropower dam, Oct. 16, 2009. A court in Thailand has refused to hear an appeal on a case concerning a large-scale Mekong River mainstream dam in Laos, a blow to Thai civic groups concerned about the dams potential transboundary environmental impact. Laos Pak Beng dam project is the northernmost in a proposed cascade of 11 dams on the Mekong Rivers main stream, part of Vientianes controversial economic plan to become the Battery of Southeast Asia, through selling hydropower to neighboring countries. With the Mekong River making up half of the 1,845-km (1,150-mile) border between Laos and Thailand, Thai citizens affected by projects have been complaining to Bangkok. In 2016, the Pak Beng dam project whose developer is the China Datang Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. (CDTO) entered the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement, or PNPCA a requirement before a project can be approved. In June 2017, two Mekong residents groups, the Rak Chiang Kong Conservation Group and the Thai Mekong Peoples Networks from Eight Provinces, filed a petition before the lower Administrative Court to retract an environmental assessment performed by Thai agencies that was used to support the decision by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to allow the project to move forward. The MRC is an inter-government agency that works with the governments of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam to manage the Mekongs resources. The groups contended that the original community survey was flawed in terms of legal compliance and a lack of assessments on the transboundary environment, and in health and social impacts. After an earlier rebuff at a lower court, the groups appealed to the Central Administrative Court, which on Wednesday rejected the request, saying it had no jurisdiction over the case. The petitioned had conducted Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement on Dec, 2, 2016, and June 9, 2017, in accordance with obligations in the Mekong development cooperation agreement, a judge said, referring to the Office of the National Water Resources and Thailands chapter of the MRC. Thailand doesnt have a law requiring transboundary impact assessment, [and] no jurisdiction over projects inside of Laos PDR. The notification, prior consultation, agreement, concerns and suggestions on the Pak Beng hydro-electric dam to the MRC and Laos PDR were done on behalf of the government in line with international protocols. This case is not under the administrative courts jurisdiction. BenarNews attempted to contact the Office of the National Water Resources for comment but received no reply. Wednesdays dismissal comes about three months after Laos independently suspended the project in November to conduct comprehensive assessments on potential environmental and transboundary impacts. Following the decision, Sor Rattanamanee Polkla, the lawyer in the case, said Now the PNPCA is an international obligation that can be carried out by the National Water Resources and the national Mekong River Commission. Thai law does not cover it. That is the end. But Jirasak Inthayos, one of the petitioners, said the decision was concerning because it set a legal baseline that invalidates checks and balances. Im disappointed with Thai agencies because they dont have a role to oppose or stop anything and the document was used as a condition to build the dam, Jirasak told BenarNews. This map shows the locations of hydropower projects in various stages of completion along the Mekong River. The civil opinion survey was just a formality in which they did not really listen and respond to us. The Mekong situation is getting worse and worse. We want the project to stop and careful study must be carried out, he said. Better management Laos released a list of guidelines Thursday for managing dams that seek to minimize water shortages and flooding, state media reported. The guidelines come amid debate on how Laos hydropower strategy has changed the Mekong. The state-run Vientiane Times reported that the guidelines go into effect March 4 and require dam operators to notify authorities when reservoirs are full or when downstream water levels fall to critically low levels. Effective management of water resources and rivers, especially those used by hydropower plants, is seen as crucial as Laos strives to build more dams and become an important exporter of electricity, the report said. Laos has built dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong and its tributaries under its plan to sell around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the countrys economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Activists concerned about the environment have called for better management for all the dams on the mainstream, including those upstream in China. Critics said they hoped for better enforcement of the Lao governments new guidelines. Despite the government of Laos developing and adopting multiple regulations and guidelines related to hydropower in recent years, institutional capacity, enforcement and monitoring remains weak, said Gary Lee, Southeast Asia Program Director for the U.S.-based International Rivers NGO. Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews, contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 09:20:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Bolivian President Luis Arce (L front) talks with Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia Huang Yazhong at Viru Viru International Airport, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Feb. 24, 2021. Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Bolivia on Wednesday for the largest vaccination drive ever in the Latin American country. (Photo by Rodrigo Urzagasti/Xinhua) LA PAZ, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Bolivia on Wednesday for the largest vaccination drive ever in the Latin American country. "Bolivia now has the vaccines. We have the solution ... Now we are going to vaccinate everyone," Bolivian President Luis Arce said at Viru Viru International Airport, where a plane carrying the vaccines from Beijing landed in the morning. Arce also announced that the nationwide vaccination campaign will begin on Thursday, noting that the elderly and people with underlying health conditions will be given priority. Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia Huang Yazhong highlighted the good relations between the two countries on the arrival of the vaccines. "We worked very hard, day and night, so that these supplies could arrive. We have overcome many difficulties," he said. Bolivia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration Benjamin Blanco also said that the arrival of the Sinopharm vaccines is the result of efforts at all levels and the reflection of the "excellent diplomatic relationship between Bolivia and China." Bolivia has so far reported 244,380 cases of the novel coronavirus since March 2020. Enditem Egypt plans to purchase 10 mln doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia at the first stage, the Egyptian Drug Authority informed, cited by the Ad-Dustour news portal. It was reported earlier that Egypt had registered the Russian vaccine for emergency use. "Currently, an agreement is in the works on the supply of the necessary quantity of the vaccine, which is estimated at 10 mln doses at the first stage," TASS cited the authority as saying. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) informed on Wednesday that Egypt had become the 35th state across the globe to approve the use of the Sputnik V vaccine. "The decision to include the Sputnik V into the national portfolio of vaccines [of Egypt] demonstrates confidence in safety and high efficiency of the pharmaceutical," chief executive of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement. The Russian Embassy in Cairo welcomed Egypts decision to register Sputnik V for use on the countrys territory. "This step opens up the path for deliveries of the first-class vaccine to Egypt and will facilitate the expansion of bilateral cooperation in the fight against the pandemic," the embassy said. "We thank our Egyptian partners for their trust and we hope to make a contribution to protecting the population of the friendly country to Russia against the coronavirus. We hope that we will be able to expand the borders of mutually beneficial partnership in the sphere of healthcare and to localize the production of Russian anti-coronavirus drugs in Egypt.". Oklahoma, Feb 25 : A man in the United States' Oklahoma has killed a woman neighbour and cut out her heart before cooking it with potatoes. While obtaining a search warrant, an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation told a judge that Lawrence Paul Anderson killed his neighbour, Andrea Lynn Blankenship, at her home in Chickasha, about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, and cut her heart out before cooking it and serving it "with potatoes to feed to his family to release the demons." He is also accused of killing his uncle, Leon Pye, and a 4-year-old girl, Kaeos Yates, Pye's granddaughter, at his home that same night. His aunt, Delsie Pye, was also stabbed but survived. Anderson was found in another room at the house vomiting on pillows and was arrested by officers at the scene. Anderson later told officers about Blankenship while being interrogated, nydailynews.com reported. He had recently also had a 20-year-sentence commuted by Gov. Kevin Stitt and was released from prison in January. A warning light on your dashboard can be alarming. These symbols usually indicate two things - either its an issue thats straight-forward and can be fixed with a simple DIY job at home. Or its warning theres something more serious, such as an issue with your engine or airbags, for which youll need an expert pair of hands. Warning! An illuminated symbol on your dashboard can be alarming But how do you know which sign needs which level of attention? Here, Halfords technicians reveal what the warning lights on your dashboard really mean so you're able to complete your essential journey with complete peace of mind. How many do YOU recognise? BATTERY WARNING LIGHT There could be a number of issues causing this light to turn on - from a faulty battery to a glitch in the alternator, which could mean the car isnt charging itself when driving. And both of these require expert assistance. If the light doesnt disappear after starting the engine, youll need expert advice - as it could lead to a breakdown. Book in with Halfords for a Free Battery Check, and if you need a replacement battery, you can book online for a handy Halfords Mobile Expert to conduct a contactless visit at your home or work. ENGINE WARNING LIGHT When this light comes on, it could be something as simple as youve forgotten to fasten the fuel cap, or it could be warning theres a major problem. The light means a sensor has found a problem with the engine or the emissions system, such as a failed electric component, and it needs to be looked at as a priority. A vehicle with this light showing will also fail its MOT. Halfords Autocentres technicians will quickly identify the issue with a Diagnostics Test (49.99) , and advise on how to prevent costly component failures. POWER STEERING WARNING LIGHT The most common cause of this light flashing is low power steering fluid or electric steering failure. So, pull over, switch off the engine and - if your vehicle has PAS fluid - check your levels. If they need topping up, you can buy a bottle from Halfords. However if the light is still on (it can also be amber in colour), or youre having to top up often, it could indicate a more serious problem or a leak. It may not be safe to drive, so youll need to call for assistance straight away. OIL PRESSURE WARNING This dashboard warning light could mean theres not enough oil pressure, or that the levels are too low. This should be dealt with straight away or the consequences could be serious - a lack of oil could result in your engine seizing up - and cause engine damage, so dont drive. The light can also be red - this is more serious than when it's amber (which means low oil levels), and means you must stop. Its generally a DIY job (check in the manual) that you could do from home. Simply wait until your engine is cool, then pop the bonnet and pull the dipstick from its tube. Clean it with a cloth so the oil level markers are clear, then insert it back into the tube, then pull it out again. The oil should be between the upper and lower markers. For complete peace of mind, book a 15-point Winter Preparation Service (79.99), which includes an oil level check. A Halfords expert will be able to advise you on the best oil for your vehicle - or find out by using their quick and helpful online vehicle registration checker. TYRE PRESSURE WARNING LIGHT This warning light could mean you have a puncture - or that your tyre pressure is low and needs inflating. Under-inflated tyres make driving more difficult, increases emissions, reduces fuel economy, and affects your braking distance and handling. It also means theyre at risk of overheating, and could lead to a dangerous blowout. And it could be the reason your car fails its MOT. Book a Free Tyre Check and let a Halfords expert inspect the tread depth, wear and damage of your tyres. Theyll also offer you expert advice on the right tyres for your vehicle, should they need replacing. SUPPLEMENTARY RESTRAINT SYSTEM (SRS) WARNING LIGHT When you see this light on your dashboard, it means youll need expert help straight away. This warning symbol could mean theres a serious problem with your airbags - the system has a fault and has been deactivated, so they may not activate in a collision. A state-of-the-art Halfords Diagnostics Test (49.99) will evaluate the diagnostics and a Halfords expert can advise on any necessary repairs. BRAKE WARNING LIGHT The first thing to check if you see this red exclamation mark on your dashboard is whether youve left your handbrake on! If the answer is no, it could mean youre low on brake fluid - or something more serious, such as a problem with your braking system. You may have noticed your brakes feel spongy, or the brake pedal pushes all the way to the floor. Pull over immediately. For complete peace of mind, book in for a Free Brake Check and let an expert check all aspects of your braking system - and advise on any repairs if required. COOLANT WARNING LIGHT If this light flashes on your dashboard, dont ignore it! It means your coolant level is low or that your engine is overheating. Without coolant, your car might overheat or become too hot to function - causing expensive engine damage. It could also mean a leaky radiator or a more serious problem. If youre driving, pull over safely to allow your engine to cool down. Never remove the coolant reservoir cap when the engine is hot. Head to the nearest garage when your engine has cooled down and ask the experts for help. Use Halfords' handy online VRN checker to see which coolant is right for your vehicle. BULB FAILURE Youll see this light on your dashboard when you need to change one of your cars bulbs. Driving without functioning lights is illegal and may lead to fines and points on your licence. So if you see this warning you should replace any faulty bulbs immediately. You can purchase a spare bulb kit from Halfords and keep it in the glove box - the instructions for how to change it will be in your vehicles manual. Or leave it to the experts - but dont delay; a broken bulb could mean your car fails its MOT or police intervention, so don't leave it til the MOT to sort out. As part of Halfords trusted WeFit service, their technicians can advise you on the right bulbs for your vehicle, and they will fit them for you while you wait - with prices for headlight fitting starting at 8*. Through the expert service, you can also have technicians fit wiper blades, car batteries and even dash cams. WASHER FLUID LOW This is an easy issue to resolve! When you see this light, it means your washer fluid needs filling up. Pick up a bottle of Halfords screen wash with antifreeze, which will ensure that dirt doesnt impair your vision while youre driving. Once youve topped up, the light should go off. For total confidence, book a handy 10-point Winter Health Check (15), and a Halfords expert will top up your levels, as well as checking your oil, tyres, battery and brake lights. The health check is free for NHS, HSE, emergency workers, teachers and armed forces until 31 March. SERVICES Free Brake Check Your brakes help to control your speed and help you to stop in an emergency. Book a Free Brake Check with a Halfords technician, and theyll assess all aspects of your braking system so that you can drive into spring in total confidence. If a repair or replacement is needed, youll be given a no-obligation quote. 10 Point Winter Car Health Check (15) For 15, this comprehensive 30-minute check includes assessing your vehicles lights, wiper blade condition, battery health, the windscreen, tyres, screen wash and coolant levels. Follow the brands drive-in, fit and repair system for a safe, contactless visit. Free Battery Health Check The last thing youll want is a breakdown while on an essential journey. Ensure your car battery is in great working order with this Free Battery Health Check, during which a Halfords technician will assess its key indicators - charging and 'cranking' capabilities. They will advise on recommended new batteries if a replacement is required. Free Five Point Winter Car Check Free of charge, this Halfords check includes assessing your battery health, lights, wiper blade conditions, windscreen and MOT due date to ensure your vehicle is in its best condition. Mobile Fitting Service Halfords' mobile technicians can carry out tyre replacements, battery replacements, oil changes and windscreen chip repairs at your home or work with a contactless visit, seven days a week. The safe, contactless service covers 75% of households in the UK. Book online for a time that suits you, and youll be back safely behind the wheel in no time. 30-point Car Safety Inspection (29.99) Whether its a new car or your existing one, this 30-point check is a comprehensive way to ensure you and your family are safe on the road. Halfords trained technicians will inspect your cars key components including brakes, suspension, tyres, wheel bearings and more - so you can drive away with your mind put at rest. Free Tyre Check Making sure your tyres are well inflated with the right amount of tread is essential for driving safely on the road - and avoiding a blowout or a fine. Book for this free check and a technician will assess the condition of your tyres as well as carry out a pressure check and inspect for tread depth, wear and damage to ensure theyre safe and legal. Theyll also be able to advise on - and rectify - any issues. *Fitting price only. Prices correct at time of publication. Halfords Ltd B98 0DE. His son is banned too. The US has banned former general prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka from entering the country. Former general prosecutor escapes discipline with a salary cut Read more The U.S Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, announced that Trnka is ineligible to enter the United States due to his involvement in significant corruption. This designation is made under the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. In his official capacity as the Prosecutor General of Slovakia, Trnka was involved in corrupt acts that undermined the rule of law and the Slovak publics faith in their governments democratic institutions, officials, and public processes, the official statement, provided by the US Embassy, reads. 25. Feb 2021 at 17:54 | Compiled by Spectator staff One of Ireland's most famous cookery schools, Darina Allen's Ballymaloe in Cork, has suspended classes for nine international students stranded by the Level 5 lockdown. Ballymaloe insisted it was not in breach of Covid-19 Level 5 restrictions through holding the cookery courses since January for a small group of international students who arrived over Christmas, went through a two-week quarantine and then agreed to enter a strict 'Ballymaloe Bubble'. The 12,000-per-place cookery programme is operated at the famous Shanagarry complex in east Cork, near the site of the family's world-renowned hotel and restaurant. Read More While the hotel and restaurant closed under Level 5 lockdown controls, it has now emerged that in-person cookery lessons have taken place in a special 'bubble' with nine overseas students who arrived in east Cork over Christmas and just days before the lockdown. Ballymaloe manager Rebecca Cronin insisted the students had arrived before the Level 5 lockdown came into force with strict measures taken to ensure all proper health and safety controls were adhered to. "The Ballymaloe 12-week certificate course would usually host over 60 students on a residential basis," she said. "In line with Government guidance, we took the decision to cancel the January course but given the tight timing of the announcement, a small number of international students had already arrived in Ireland to quarantine prior to the Level 5 lockdown. "We felt we had an obligation to these young people who had travelled alone to Ireland and were understandably reluctant to travel internationally again to get home. "Having taken into consideration their unique and difficult situation and our isolated location, we offered them the option to join our Ballymaloe Bubble once they had completed their 14-day quarantine and agreed to adhere to our very strict lockdown rules. "We have been organising classes and activities for these nine students to keep them occupied but it in no way resembles the experience they should have enjoyed as students in normal times." "We are confident that we made the right decision under the circumstances at the time and given our duty of care." "We take every possible measure to ensure the health and safety of everyone." "However, we are aware of concerns expressed recently and so have decided to cease the classes. The students will make travel arrangements when it is possible and safe to do so." Ballymaloe stressed that no international students have arrived into Ireland during the Level 5 restrictions. Traditionally, the first Ballymaloe course of the year runs from January to March, and attracts students from all over the world. Ballymaloe has declined all course bookings since the lockdown came into effect. The east Cork hostelry was one of the first Irish restaurants to win a Michelin star. Through three generations of the Allen family, Myrtle, Darina and Rachel, it has established itself as one of the foremost cookery training operations in Europe. A Garda source indicated to the Irish Independent that they are not aware of any alleged breach of Level 5 restrictions in respect of hospitality operations in Cork. Ballymaloe House itself remains closed as a restaurant and hotel under the Level 5 lockdown. "It is with great regret that in accordance with the current Level 5 Covid-19 Government restrictions announced in January 2021, Ballymaloe House remains closed until further notice," a spokesperson said. "Our reception team is still on duty to answer any queries you may have and take bookings for late spring, summer, autumn and winter 2021. We will not be charging any cancellation fees should we be forced to close again due to Covid-19 (in 2021)." While Rachel Allen had stepped back from her hectic cooking programme, she continues to deliver lectures at the cookery school. Donald McNeil Jr. resigned over allegations he used the N-word The New York Times has released a report outlining changes it will make to create a 'more diverse and inclusive newsroom' after facing a series of controversies, including the resignation of Donald McNeil Jr. over allegations he used a racial slur. In the report, the Times found examples of racism at the organization including Asian-American employees being confused for other coworkers. The report authors called on the Times to create a 'diversity, equity and inclusion office in Human Resources,' hire recruiters dedicated to hiring people of color and other underrepresented groups, and expand diversity requirements for hiring. Since 2015, the company has increased the amount of women and people of color it hires: with women making up 52 percent of employees and people of color making up 34 percent of employees. The release of the report comes more than two weeks after veteran news reporter Donald McNeil Jr. resigned over allegations he used the N-word during a 2019 trip with high school students. Sophia Shepherd, a white Andover student who was on the Peru trip with McNeil where he used the N-word, claims he also told the group that racism was 'over.' Earlier this month, The New York Times killed a column by Bret Stephens that was critical of Baquet - who initially said 'intent' doesn't matter after McNeil's resignation. Baquet and managing editor Joseph Kahn had said: 'We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent.' 'If you're wondering why it wasn't in the paper, it's because AG Sulzberger spiked it,' Pulitzer-winning Stephens wrote to colleagues. The Times had initially allowed McNeil Jr. to keep his job after complaints he used the racial slur during a company funded school trip to Peru in 2019. Management decided not to fire him after an investigation because they believed he showed 'poor judgment' but did not use the words with 'hateful or malicious' intent. But McNeil Jr. was forced out after 150 Times employees out of 4,500 signed a letter saying they were 'deeply disturbed' by the paper's handling of the incident. Out of those 4,500, only 1,600 are journalists. Stephens had planned to question those comments by Baquet and Kahn in his column titled 'Regardless of Intent,' which was obtained and published by the New York Post. 'This is an argument about three words: 'Regardless of intent.' Should intent be the only thing that counts in judgment? Obviously not. Can people do painful, harmful, stupid or objectionable things regardless of intent? Obviously,' the conservative commentator wrote. 'Do any of us want to live in a world, or work in a field, where intent is categorically ruled out as a mitigating factor? I hope not.' Times Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury later told NBC it had been her decision to shelve the column after consultation with the publisher. Kingsbury told Daily Beast she 'did not feel that this piece rose to her high bar'. Andy Mills, a producer on the retracted Pulitzer Prize-nominated Caliphate podcast, has also resigned from his role after detailing the untrue story of a man who claimed to be a fighter and executioner with the Islamic State in Syria. The New York Times has released a woke' blueprint for the future of their newsroom after controversies A week later, Executive Editor Dean Baquet tried 'to douse a cultural inferno that has been consuming the Times newsroom' during the company's annual State of the Times address, as described by the Washington Post. 'Amid recent events, employees have pointed to a 'star' culture. They have questioned The Times's commitment to fairly enforcing its policies and rules and whether they are clear and rigorous enough in the first place,' according to the Times' new report. The report notes that the paper's executives have 'committed to a review' that is now underway of procedures 'for investigating employee behavioral issues, and for determining the appropriate discipline.' 'The goal of this work is to clarify for all employees what our procedures are, to assess whether they are rigorous enough and to determine how to make them more transparent,' according to the report. A note from Baquet, CEO Meredith Kopit Levien and publisher A.G. Sulzberger indicates that the report was commissioned eight months ago, seemingly after the death of George Floyd last May. 'Eight months ago, against the backdrop of a societal reckoning around race, we commissioned a diverse group of senior leaders from across the company to help us examine how we were falling short within our own walls, and what it would take to change,' the paper's top brass wrote. To lead the authoring of the report, the execs chose 'respected truth tellers': Amber Guild, president of T Brand Studio's marketing solutions team; Carolyn Ryan, deputy managing editor of the paper; and Anand Venatesan, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Head of Operations. 'For many, this report is long overdue. For others, it will be a new and uncomfortable portrait of The Times. For all of us, it is a call to action,' the report authors wrote. Guild, Ryan and Venatesan held in-depth conversations with employees and analyzed workforce data to draw their conclusions, according to the report. 'We have arrived at a stark conclusion: The Times is a difficult environment for many of our colleagues, from a wide range of backgrounds. Our current culture and systems are not enabling our workforce to thrive and do its best work,' the report reads. 'This is true across many types of difference: race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic background, ideological viewpoints and more. But it is particularly true for people of color.' The report noted that Asian-American women at the company have been 'regularly called by the name of a different colleague of the same race.' Graphs included with The New York Times report show the demographic makeup of the company According to the company, black and Latino people are 'notably underrepresented' in leadership and black employees who are not in leadership positions leave the company at a higher rate than white colleagues. However, the report noted that the company has 'made meaningful efforts' to achieve greater diversity in recent years including requiring diverse candidate slates and interview panels for hiring. Women now fill the majority of staff roles including leadership positions, according to the data. Since 2015, the percentage of women at the company increased from 45 percent to 52 percent - and the percentage of women in leadership roles increased from 40 percent to 52 percent. Last year, 48 percent of new hires were people of color though the racial and ethnic makeup of the company remains predominantly white. Sophia Shepherd, a white Andover student who was on the Peru trip with New York Times reporter Donald McNeil where he used the N-word, claims he also told the group that racism was 'over' The percentage of the workforce that is white fell from 73 percent to 63 percent since 2015 and the percentage of leadership that is white fell from 83 percent to 74 percent. 'People of color and particularly women of color remain notably underrepresented in leadership. And the company's focus has primarily been on building a more diverse staff, with less attention to building a more inclusive culture,' the report noted. The company hopes to increase the representation of Black and Latino employees in leadership roles by 50 percent over the next five years. 'Some may question why we have chosen to set a goal for representation specifically for Black and Latino colleagues in leadership: The answer is that it's where we have the biggest representation gaps,' according to the outlet. In order to do that, the newspaper said it needed to fundamentally change its culture, noting that until the 1990s it was an 'unwelcoming place for gay and lesbian people.' 'Our leaders made a choice to change that, and built a culture that instead embraced gay and lesbian colleagues,' the report noted. The New York Times will create a formal ongoing advisory group made of employees to ensure the company continues to hear from employees 'from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.' 'Many employees also want more honest conversations about where they stand and more actionable feedback that can help them achieve their goals,' according to the report. Stories of bias incidents faced by Chinese Americans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as coverage of the 2020 election and its 'signature work like the 1619 project' have reportedly shown how greater diversity has impacted the paper's news coverage, according to the report. 'The newsroom team is using qualitative and quantitative data to analyze how people and communities of color are represented in our coverage, both as sources and as subjects,' according to the outlet. Those county health departments say they are waiting for significantly more doses and/or for demand among seniors and front-line essential workers to diminish. Its not clear when that might happen, though an advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss potential emergency use authorization of a third vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson. If that vaccine is approved in the coming days, it would help boost supply. Photo: The Canadian Press President Joe Biden on Wednesday formally revoked a series of presidential orders and memorandum signed by Donald Trump, including one that sought to cut funding from several cities the 45th president deemed anarchist havens and another mandating that federal buildings should be designed in a classical esthetic. Since taking office last month, Biden has revoked dozens of Trump orders and issued dozens more of his own as hes sought to target foundational aspects of Trump's legacy and promote aspect of his own agenda without going through Congress. The latest slate of revocations targeted a grab-bag of issues, including a few that Trump signed in his last months in office. Trump issued a memorandum in September that sought to identify municipal governments that permit anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities. The memorandum followed riots during anti-police and anti-racism protests over George Floyds killing by Minneapolis police. The Justice Department identified New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed. Those cities in turn filed a lawsuit to invalidate the designation and fight off the Trump administrations efforts to withhold federal dollars. Seattle city attorney Pete Holmes welcomed the Biden revocation, saying he was glad to have this nonsense cleared from the decks." Trump in his Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture intoned that Americas forefathers wanted public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue." The memorandum added that architects should look to Americas beloved landmark buildings such as the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Department of the Treasury and the Lincoln Memorial for inspiration. Another order halted was one Trump issued in the final days of his presidency dubbed the Ensuring Democratic Accountability in Agency Rulemaking." It called for limiting the ability of federal agency employees in making regulatory decisions. Biden also revoked a 2018 order that called for agency heads across the government to review welfare programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing aid and strengthening work requirements for certain recipients. Inc and BioNTech SE said on Thursday they are testing a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus. They are also in talks with regulatory authorities about testing a vaccine modified to protect specifically against the highly transmissible new variant found in South Africa and elsewhere, known as B.1.351, as a second arm of the same study. The companies believe their current two-dose vaccine will work against the South African variant as well as one found in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. But the studies will allow the vaccine makers to be prepared if and when more protection is necessary, they said. "The rate of mutations in the current virus is higher than expected," Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in an interview. "It's a reasonable probability that we would end up with regular boosts. And for potent vaccines, it may be that you need to do a strain change every few years, but not necessarily every year." In the first stage of the first arm of the study, a third 30 microgram dose will be given to as many as 144 people who received the vaccine 6 to 12 months ago in the original Phase I safety trial. Assuming regulatory approval, a redesigned vaccine would also be tested, both as a booster dose in people who have been vaccinated and in people who had not yet received the vaccine, Dolsten said. The trial would not seek to measure the efficacy of the vaccine like their large Phase III trial last year. Instead it would measure the antibody response and study whether blood from recipients can neutralize the new variants, as well as the safety of a third dose. ALSO READ: China approves 2 more domestic Covid-19 vaccines, increasing number to 4 The United States discovered its first case of the South African variant in January and it has since turned up in 14 states, according to US government data. Several studies suggest it is more resistant to existing vaccines than other variants of the Pfizer's Dolsten said that mRNA vaccines like and BioNTech's create a potent response. But the immune response may wane over time. He believes that a third dose of their vaccine will create a similar or better response than the second dose, and could be the logical next step for staying ahead of circulating variants. "We think our vaccine is robustly active against all strains," Dolsten said, noting that the companies "want to be prepared for all options and be data driven - led by science." Dolsten said the new trial would likely be predominantly conducted in the United States. Pfizer and BioNTech also said they were expecting to start additional studies in children between the ages of five and 11 over the next couple of months, and in children younger than five later in 2021. https://bit.ly/3kkJEkt They are also planning studies to further evaluate the vaccine in people with compromised immune systems. Moderna Inc said on Wednesday it is also working with US government scientists to study an experimental booster shot that targets the variant first found in South Africa. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says he is seriously considering taking part in the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence and in the Crimean Platform summit in August this year. This was reported by the press service of the head of state. During a phone conversation, President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Jens Stoltenberg to take part in the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence and in the Crimean Platform summit to be held in August this year. The NATO secretary general said he was seriously considering that possibility. As reported, the Crimean Platform is a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to improve the efficiency of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, respond to growing security challenges, step up international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations, protect victims of the occupying power and to achieve the de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine. The Crimean Platform is expected to operate at the level of heads of state and government, foreign ministers, in the dimension of inter-parliamentary cooperation and expert network. The Crimean Platform is to be launched officially at an inaugural summit in Kyiv in 2021. ish A man claiming to be the inventor of bitcoin has launched a blockbuster lawsuit to recover 3.5billion of the digital currency allegedly stolen from him. Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who lives in Surrey, is trying to sue the developers of bitcoin for his missing money. Wright lost his bitcoin after hackers wormed their way into his personal computer, and stole 'keys' to the addresses of two accounts holding substantial quantities of the currency. Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist living in Surrey who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, is hoping to recover 3.5bn of the digital currency allegedy stolen from him He has now engaged law firm Ontier to pursue the software developers who created the system which bitcoin operates on, claiming that they should be able to regain control of the coins which were taken from him. Ontier yesterday sent formal 'letters before action' to the developers, alerting them of the legal action. Paul Ferguson, a partner at Ontier, said: 'Our client always intended bitcoin to operate within existing laws, notwithstanding the original ethos of independence he envisaged for the digital currency. 'We assert there are identifiable legal obligations attributable to those who develop and control bitcoin.' Wright and his lawyers will argue that the developers were either negligent in allowing the bitcoin to be taken, or had a 'fiduciary duty' to him which they breached. This is a strict legal relationship, usually reserved for company directors, and would mean that the developers had committed to act in the best interests of bitcoin owners, creating a duty of loyalty and care. But Wright's claims may be complicated by the fact that no one knows if he truly is the creator of bitcoin. The idea for the currency was first outlined in a white paper published in 2008 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. A number of people have been linked to the pseudonym, but none have been confirmed as the real Nakamoto. Wright came forward as Nakamoto in 2015, and in 2019 he started pursuing libel cases against people who disputed his identity and called him a fraud. Although Nakamoto created the idea of bitcoin, which relies on an online ledger called the blockchain where all transactions are irreversibly recorded, he was not responsible for its development. He created its software as an open-source code, meaning anyone with the know-how can contribute. Wright has identified 16 individuals who have contributed as key developers. Rather than demanding the money from them, he wants them to use the software to return his stolen coins. Wright's claim is the subject of an investigation by the cyber crime division of the South East regional organised crime unit. Califs AB 5 Contractor Law Could Soon Become National Standard The national equivalent of Californias controversial AB 5 labor law is making its way through the United States Congress. On Feb. 4, House and Senate Democrats re-introduced the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act as HR 842. The federal labor reform legislation calls for several provisions that would strengthen unions and protect workers and has built into it a number of similarities to AB 5, which reclassified millions of independent contractors in California as employees. In the Golden State, that legislation was significantly amended after passage with exemptions for particular classes of freelance workers. ADVERTISEMENT Democrats will always fight to defend the sacred promise to protect hard-working families while safeguarding the fundamental right to join a union. Americas middle class has a union label on it, and as the Democratic Congress works with the new Biden-Harris Administration to Build Back Better, we will do so in a way that tilts the playing field back to American workers and their families, said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) in a statement after the bill was introduced earlier this month. If passed, the PRO Act would implement the ABC test the California Supreme Court standard for classifying a worker as a contractor in all 50 states. The ABC test requires that an independent contractors work is free from the control and direction of the hiring company, and outside of the usual course of the hiring companys business. Independent contractors who fail the ABC test would be reclassified as employees for the purposes of union organizing. The legislation would also weaken right-to-work laws, expand workers collective bargaining rights and authorize the National Labor Relations Board to fine companies up to $50,000 per labor law violation. In California, AB 5 has been met with heavy opposition by the app-based gig companies it went after, including Uber, Lyft and DoorDash. After several months of court battles, Proposition 22 passed in November 2020, exempting app-based gig companies from AB 5. Prop 22 was the most expensive ballot initiative in Californias history; the Yes on 22 campaign was partly funded by Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, Instacart and Postmates, and it included highly persuasive television ads as well as ads in the apps themselves. The majority of African Americans across California who supported the ballot initiative said they did so because they appreciate the independence, flexibility and work-life balance freelance jobs like driving for Uber and Lyft and other contracting positions offer. After the law took effect in 2020, many independent contractors working in fields from office support services to the performing arts said they experienced loss of work. The PRO Act was first introduced in 2019 and passed the Democratic-held House in Feb. 2020. However, the bill died in committee, with the Republican-held senate opposing the legislation. With both the House and Senate now controlled by Democrats, the PRO Act is expected to meet less opposition. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), as well as Congresswomen Karen Bass (CA-37) and Barbara Lee (CA-13), are supporting the bill. Most of the emphasis for the PRO Act has been placed on union organizing, with multiple sponsors saying union organizing is the best way to bolster Americas shrinking middle class. ADVERTISEMENT After decades of wealthy corporations undermining our labor laws and four years of the Trump Administrations attacks on workers rights, the PRO Act will restore workers ability to join together to demand their fair share of the economic growth they drive. This legislation is critical to supporting workers during this pandemic and to building back an economy that works for everyonenot just those at the very top, said Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Patty Murray. However, the PRO Act is reportedly modeled after AB 5, which has been challenged by several industries made up of the independent contractors that it was designed to protect. After months of uproar and negotiations from members of creative fields who lost work due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the law itself, AB 5 was amended in Sept. 2020 to exempt multiple fields including freelance writers, photographers, translators, consultants and real estate appraisers. Reports of independent contractors losing their clients and out-of-state companies refusing to hire California-based contractors spiked when AB 5 went into effect. It is unknown whether the passage of the PRO Act would have a similar effect. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 10.6 million independent contractors in the U.S. as of May 2017. 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. "PayPal's mission to democratize financial services is inherently inclusive, and not only promotes, but demands diversity and equity," said Tracy Brown, global head of talent, PayPal. "Each of these organizations is dedicated to creating career pathways for people of color, and working together, we can build a pipeline that sustainably increases recruitment and retention of underrepresented talent at PayPal." Since becoming an independent company in 2015, PayPal has worked with academic institutions, recruiting organizations and advocacy groups to attract, develop and retain diverse talent. These partnerships will expand PayPal's pipeline of talent and provide development, mentoring and skill building opportunities: CodeHouse : Founded by two recent Morehouse graduates, CodeHouse aims to tackle the diversity gap in the technology industry. As a founding partner of the CodeHouse Scholars Initiative, PayPal will provide four-year undergraduate scholarships to historically Black colleges and universities; provide technical, professional and leadership skills to incoming freshman through their Summer Bridge Program; and participate in their Virtual Tech Exposure Day with 10,000 high school students of color across the country. : Founded by two recent Morehouse graduates, CodeHouse aims to tackle the diversity gap in the technology industry. As a founding partner of the CodeHouse Scholars Initiative, PayPal will provide four-year undergraduate scholarships to historically Black colleges and universities; provide technical, professional and leadership skills to incoming freshman through their Summer Bridge Program; and participate in their Virtual Tech Exposure Day with 10,000 high school students of color across the country. INROADS : PayPal will work with INROADS, the nation's largest nonprofit source of paid internships for diverse, high performing undergraduate students, to sponsor an internship program that includes salaried internships with year-round, comprehensive training, and mentoring and leadership development. : PayPal will work with INROADS, the nation's largest nonprofit source of paid internships for diverse, high performing undergraduate students, to sponsor an internship program that includes salaried internships with year-round, comprehensive training, and mentoring and leadership development. National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) : For more than 50 years, NABA has continued to bridge the skills and opportunities gaps for Black professionals in the business, accounting and finance industry. PayPal will expand its existing partnership with the association to create a student scholarship fund, sponsor a college internship program and mentor and recruit talent from within the NABA student membership population. These efforts are representative of a larger commitment PayPal has made to further embed the principles of diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging into the company culture and business. In addition to these partnerships, PayPal is strengthening its inclusive hiring processes by implementing practices that help mitigate conscious and unconscious biases and blind spots throughout the hiring process from the writing of job descriptions, to reviewing resumes and conducting interviews. "As the tech industry moves to diversify its talent pipeline, there's no better time than now to inspire young people of color to pursue careers in STEM," said Ernest Holmes, president and co-founder, CodeHouse. "Through our partnership with PayPal, we'll be able to enhance our scholars' existing talent and set them up to succeed in their careers." "INROADS is pleased to partner with PayPal in an effort to close the disparity and opportunity gaps for talented, underrepresented students," said Forest T. Harper Jr., president and CEO, INROADS. "When we work together, we can advance racial equity, creating a new tomorrow where our Black and diverse students have access to opportunities that create boundless career pathways for them to become future leaders and entrepreneurs." "Every day, NABA strives to provide our members with the skills, opportunities, and confidence to thrive and advance their careers," said Guylaine Saint Juste, president and CEO, NABA. "This partnership serves as a testament to PayPal's belief in NABA's ability to develop a pipeline of talented Black business professionals who can contribute to PayPal's strategic success." Since June, PayPal has continued to fulfill its $535 million commitment that was designed to provide immediate assistance to Black-owned businesses, while setting the foundation for sustained engagement and progress towards economic equality and social justice. Most recently, PayPal bolstered its support of Black small business owners by providing an additional $5 million in grant funding , as part of its Empowerment Grant Program launched in June. In fall 2020, PayPal invested $50 million in the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Black Economic Development Fund, $50 million in Optus Bank , a Black-owned bank based in South Carolina and $50 million in eight early-stage, Black and Latinx-led venture capital funds. About PayPal PayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years. By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, the PayPal platform is empowering more than 375 million consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. For more information, visit paypal.com . Media Contact: Janine Kamwene [email protected] SOURCE PayPal Holdings, Inc. Related Links https://www.paypal.com/ The City of Plainview Health Department will host a COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Friday from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Health officials will administer a limited supply of the Moderna vaccine at the Ollie Liner Center, 2000 S. Columbia. Appointments are required to receive a vaccine. The Health Department will start accepting appointments at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Those interested can make an appointment online at www.plainviewtx.org or call the Health Department at (806)291-1201. The online portal and the phone line will not be available once appointment slots are full. Those eligible to be vaccinated include front-line healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities; people who are 65 years or older; and people who are 18 or older with a health condition that could create an increased risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms. These underlying illnesses include: cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, down syndrome, heart conditions, organ transplantation, obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease and Type 2 diabetes. Those with a medical condition not listed should check with a healthcare provider regarding eligibility for the vaccine. Our new corporate strategy and website lay out a clear path of available technologies geared to help carriers transform their retail channel and reach their revenue goals. B2B Soft, an industry leader of software and hardware solutions for telco retail, is pleased to announce its new corporate brand identity. This reflects an important step in B2B Softs focus on servicing retail telecom providers. Carriers in the telco retail business are under continuous financial pressure, said Gary Khabinski, CEO, B2B Soft. Our new corporate strategy and website lay out a clear path of available technologies geared to help carriers transform their retail channel and reach their revenue goals. B2B Softs new brand identity includes a new logo and website. The strategy behind the new identity is to deliver content in an efficient, neat, and attractive manner. With this new visual identity, B2B Softs solutions are now directly aligned to the problems that telecom retail carriers face day in and day out. The new website structure enables carriers to easily find what they need without delay. The new website, http://www.b2bsoft.com, presents three distinct product lines for carriers: Direct Retail, Indirect Retail, and Autonomous Retail solutions. Direct Retail is a front end POS built for carrier-owned exclusive stores to streamline their operations. Indirect Retail is front end POS and back end systems, aimed at unifying stores in the dealer network. This enables carriers to have visibility across the entire network of authorized dealers. Autonomous solutions represent self-service kiosks as well as vending and locker stations. They offer more choice and reduce wait time in the store. In addition, they can also be no-touch, supporting todays consumer safety concerns. The new brand strategy for our solutions has evolved as the global telecom ecosystem has grown, with B2B Soft and carriers partnering in innovative solutions and implementations, said Igor Senchenko, CIO, B2B Soft. Our new website makes B2B Softs positioning clearer and more direct. Our solutions are precisely related to problems carriers experience in the front and back end of their store operations. Without further correction, those problems can inhibit revenue growth. ABOUT B2B SOFT B2B Soft is a leader in wireless retail technology, providing Direct, Indirect, and Autonomous Retail Products for Telecom. Our solutions include POS, modules for inventory, operational and analytical reporting, as well as self-service hardware such as kiosks, vending, and locker stations. Our mission is to help telecom operators manage their wireless retail businesses with ease. With our microservice-based solutions, B2B Soft can scale with customer needs. Learn more at https://www.b2bsoft.com. Follow us on social media: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/b2bsoft/ The Deto2x Pack is an oxygenating bubble mask that activates the skins detox system. Fizzy Mint is a refreshing eau de toilette that showers the skin with a fresh scent for both men and women. Moisturizing with a Mask delivers smooth, rejuvenated and firm skin from the first application. Valmont, a Swiss-based beauty brand, will release four revitalizing products in March 2021, including: Deto2x Pack, Moisturizing with a Mask, Hydra3 Eye Serum and Fizzy Mint fragrance Previously: Valmont to Launch AWF5 in 2 New Collections Inspired by Valmonts Deto2x Cream, the Deto2x Pack is an oxygenating bubble mask reportedly designed to activate the skins detox system. Provided in six capsule "doses," the Deto2x product aerates the skin and stimulates cell renewal, resulting in a natural glow and refined texture. Moisturizing with a Mask is now available in a 100 mL container; the original was offered in a 50 mL jar. Moisturizing with a Mask delivers smooth, rejuvenated and firm skin from the first application. Hydra3 Eye Serum is the most recent addition brands skin care range. It is a soothing formula that reportedly prevents small wrinkles before they are set, corrects signs of aging and combats dark under-eye circles and other signs of fatigue. Finally, Fizzy Mint is a refreshing eau de toilette for both men and women. Inspired by the Italian savoir-faire, Fizzy Mint features notes of bergamot, fresh mint and Verbena that according to the company, further accentuate its clean and refreshing scent. Even though the other products in this offering will be launched in March 2021, this mist will be available in April 2021. Advertisement The Queen has made a historic intervention in the coronavirus vaccination drive, suggesting it is selfish not to have the jab. In a video call with NHS officials in charge of the rollout, she encouraged those with doubts to 'think about other people rather than themselves'. The 94-year-old monarch said her jab last month 'didn't hurt at all' and had made her 'feel protected'. Likening Covid to a plague, she said it was remarkable how quickly the inoculation programme had been put into action, helping 'so many people'. A senior royal source said: 'It is a passionately held belief that people need to get out there [and get vaccinated] this is important.' It is highly unusual for the sovereign to take such a firm public stand on contentious issues and her remarks will be seen as a victory for efforts to increase take-up. An NHS vaccine chief said it was an 'incredibly important vote of confidence' in the programme. The 94-year-old monarch (pictured leaving King Edward VII Hospital in 2013) said her jab last month 'didn't hurt at all' and had made her 'feel protected' The Queen has made a historic intervention in the coronavirus vaccination drive, suggesting it is selfish not to have the jab In a video call with NHS officials in charge of the rollout, Her Majesty encouraged those with doubts to 'think about other people rather than themselves' More than 18million Britons one in three adults have had at least one jab. Another 448,962 were given first doses on Wednesday. But officials are concerned that 'vaccine hesitancy' could still undermine the rollout and even slow down the easing of lockdown restrictions. They estimate that around 15 per cent of the population will not take up the offer of a jab, with scepticism highest among the young and minority ethnic groups. The NHS has been working with community leaders and church groups to try to alleviate some of these fears with seminars and Q&A sessions. The Queen was speaking during a WebEx video call with the four 'senior responsible officers' leading the deployment of Covid-19 vaccination across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Queen was speaking during a WebEx video call with the four 'senior responsible officers' leading the deployment of Covid-19 vaccination across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Queen's wise words during call with NHS chiefs 'THINK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE' 'Once you've had the vaccine you have a feeling you're protected, which is I think very important. It's obviously difficult for people if they've never had a vaccine but they ought to think about other people rather than themselves. 'IT'S LIKE THE WAR' It's a bit like a plague, isn't it? Because it's not only here that we've got the virus, but it's everywhere, so it's a strange battle that everybody's actually fighting. Having lived in the war, it's very much like that when everybody had the same idea. THE 'HARMLESS' JAB As far as I can make out it was quite harmless. It was very quick, and I've had lots of letters from people who've been surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine It didn't hurt at all. Advertisement Emily Lawson, who is leading the vaccine deployment programme for the NHS in England, told the monarch: 'We hope everyone who is offered the vaccine will take it up, because it is our best chance to protect both the people who take up the vaccine, their families and their communities.' In reply, the Queen suggested it was selfish for people not to have the jab if offered one, saying: 'Once you've had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you're protected, which is I think very important. And I think the other thing is that it is obviously difficult for people if they've never had a vaccine ... but they ought to think about other people rather than themselves.' After the call Dr Lawson said the Queen's comments were an 'incredibly important vote of confidence in the programme'. She added: 'We just want to make sure we create the conditions where everybody feels able to take up the offer of a vaccination when they're called. And Her Majesty offering her view on that is a huge boost to our confidence and, I hope, to confidence more broadly in the programme.' The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge and Duchess of Cornwall have been thanking volunteers and key workers for their efforts in the vaccine rollout. Earlier this week Prince William made a point of saying on the jab: 'I'd be at the front of the queue if I could, just to prove that it's OK, but I have to wait my turn.' The duchess told volunteers at another vaccination centre: 'It feels like the first step of freedom, I certainly felt like that [after getting the vaccine]. I hope you're able to be reunited with your grandchildren, I think we're all looking forward to that!' The Countess of Wessex is volunteering as a St John Ambulance volunteer at a vaccination centre. More than 10,000 volunteers have been trained for deployment at 2,500 sites around the UK. The Queen had been reluctant to publicly confirm she was going to be vaccinated, with officials arguing that it was 'private medical information'. But she had a change of heart and it was revealed that she and the 99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh had been given their jabs early last month. More than 18million Britons one in three adults have had at least one jab. Another 448,962 were given first doses on Wednesday. Pictured: A man receives a vaccine at the Arnison Vaccination Centre near Durham The Queen's hidden tribute to Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, after their engagement was announced, July 10 1947 The Queen kept Prince Philip close to her heart on Thursday as she donned the very same six-petal diamond flower brooch she had worn when the couple announced their engagement in 1947. The brooch had been gifted to the Queen just weeks before, on her 21st birthday. The Duke of Edinburgh, 99, has been a patient at King Edward VII Hospital in London for eleven days, his condition is described as comfortable and responding to treatment. The brooch was last seen in June 2013 when the Queen wore it to Epsom races in Surrey. Prince Philip was photographed admiring the piece of jewellery on the day. Advertisement The monarch has made only a handful of carefully-worded interventions in government matters during the course of her 69 years as head of state, most notably when she urged people to 'think very carefully' ahead of the 2014 Scottish independence vote. It was later claimed that her comment to a member of public outside church at Balmoral was part of an 'orchestrated' plan to persuade people to vote 'no'. In 2019 she also urged people to seek common ground and never lose sight of the 'bigger picture' in what was widely seen as a reference to the often vitriolic debate over Brexit in a speech to her local Sandringham Women's Institute. A royal source likened this week's intervention to the speech given by the Queen at the start of the pandemic in which she urged people to stay at home and talked about the need to work together to defeat the virus. 'In this engagement and the engagements the family have been doing, it is another example of how we are all in it together,' the insider added. 'The vaccination programme is clearly the most important thing going on. They wanted to thank the people taking part in it.' Insiders said the palace was 'always wary of politics around these things' but stressed the vaccination programme was 'about the nation coming together'. In the video call, Dr Lawson said: 'To have vaccinated nearly 18million people in the UK is a testament to the strength, the will and the importance the Government, the NHS, all of our partners and our citizens have placed on this vaccination programme. 'It really embodies the spirit of the NHS and it's an amazing example of what the service can do when we all pull in the same direction and we work together with partners to deliver.' Addressing the Queen, she added: 'I'm wondering what your experience of receiving the vaccine was and whether that was a positive experience from you, and what other feedback you've heard?' The Queen, speaking from Windsor in pearls and salmon-pink dress, replied: 'Well, as far as I can make out it was quite harmless. It was very quick, and I've had lots of letters from people who've been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine. And the jab was very ... it didn't hurt at all.' From today, hundreds of thousands of people on the official shielding list will be asked to come forward for their first dose. A further ten vaccination sites, including Reading's Madejski stadium and a theatre in Basildon, Essex, will start administering jabs this week. ROBERT HARDMAN: From the Scottish referendum to the struggles of the pandemic... when the Queen speaks out, it packs a real punch During the relentless gloom and uncertainty in the early weeks of this pandemic, the Queen was accused of misjudging the mood of the people. The Times, no less, criticised her 'silence', while pointing out that the monarchs of Spain, Holland, Norway, Belgium and Sweden had all had something to say to their people on the subject. It would, in fact, be more than a fortnight later before the Queen spoke to the nation. When she did, her words resonated around the world. They included one of the most memorable lines of this entire crisis (with a nod to Dame Vera Lynn): 'We will meet again.' Few world leaders have come up with anything as succinct, as appropriate and as reassuring during this entire saga. With the wisdom of one who has endured more crises than most, she had not spoken for the sake of speaking. She had waited for the right moment. And it was the scarcity value of this intervention which gave it such impact. (We didn't hear another squeak from her critics after that). And so it is with this week's regal pronouncement on vaccine sceptics and refuseniks: 'They ought to think about other people rather than themselves.' Queen Elizabeth II and quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus epidemic, displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus On paper, it might seem a statement of the obvious. Yet, it serves as a powerful broadside precisely because of who has said it and the fact that she says these things very rarely. She will have given the matter great thought, just like that brooch she is wearing during the conversation (the same brooch she wore when she and Prince Philip announced their engagement; no prizes for spotting the subliminal message in that). Plainly and very commendably the Queen has decided, once again, that the time has come to intervene. And when the longest-lived, longest-reigning monarch in our history decides to voice an opinion, we really do listen. Nearly one year on from the outbreak of this pandemic, the general consensus is that the monarch in particular and the Royal Family in general have had a pretty 'good war', as people used to say. Through it all, they have all been supporting and recognising the unsung footsoldiers of this pandemic not just those on the frontline but those in the backrooms, too. Some of it has been via video, for obvious reasons, but there have been plenty of proper engagements involving masks, elbow-bumping and palm-pressed 'Namaste' salutations. Along the way, the Royal Family have been happy to thank and encourage, nothing more. So these latest words from the Queen pack a very considerable punch. It was the same in the run-up to the Scottish referendum in 2014 (pictured) Along the way, the Royal Family have been happy to thank and encourage, nothing more. So these latest words from the Queen pack a very considerable punch. It was the same in the run-up to the Scottish referendum in 2014. She voiced a few words which, again, were wholly innocuous on one level: 'I hope people will think very carefully about the future.' Yet the timing, the context and above all the source of the remarks made this another historic intervention. That moment, in turn, was an echo of her celebrated Silver Jubilee address to both Houses of Parliament in 1977, when the Scottish nationalist movement was on the rise. The Queen was less coded on that occasion. Referring directly to 'proposals for devolution', she noted: 'I cannot forget that I was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom.' Again, it might have been a simple statement of fact but it also spoke volumes. It was nothing to do with the creed of Unionism, but rather a heartfelt reaffirmation of the U in UK. We can see a touch of that, too, in this royal conference call. Time and again this pandemic has allowed separatist elements to exploit the divides between Westminster and the devolved assemblies; to stoke up regional resentments. It's now no longer a joke but an article of faith that whatever Boris Johnson does, Nicola Sturgeon has to do differently. Yet there remain a few distinct forces working in the opposite direction, binding the home nations of the UK together. They are the Armed Forces, the vaccine programme and the monarchy. And here we see a celebration of all three in one morale-boosting video. Princess Elizabeth (right) and Princess Margaret after they broadcast on 'Children's Hour' from Windsor Castle in 1940 Other stand-out royal remarks over the years? The Queen's Christmas broadcasts, by convention, represent her own thoughts. These have occasionally strayed into controversy. The Queen was criticised in 1983 (again by The Times) for a perceived swipe at Thatcherism in her Christmas message. 'In spite of all the progress that has been made, the greatest problem in the world today remains the gap between rich and poor countries,' she said, arguing that 'comradeship' and 'tolerance' were as important as technological progress. This was, after all, a message to the entire Commonwealth, not just a home audience. One of her most eagerly-anticipated speeches was her broadcast on the eve of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: 'What I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart' In a few moments, much of the fury which had been coalescing around the symbols of monarchy during that febrile week simply melted away. Equally historic was her very first broadcast, made more than 80 years ago at the height of the Blitz. 'We know, every one of us, that in the end, all will be well,' the 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth assured the children of the British Empire, assisted by her sister 'Come on, Margaret!' As the duo signed off 'Goodnight, children, and good luck to you all' history had been made. That teenage Princess was beginning what has now been the longest broadcasting career of all time. As this week reminds us, eight decades later, just a few words from her can still make all the difference. TALKS over the date when children return to school will continue but the plan laid out by the Executive last week remains in place, Arlene Foster has announced. The First Minister said the health and education departments would continue discussions, with the possibility that primary one to primary three pupils could remain in class through to the Easter break instead of reverting to remote learning on March 22. While primary one to primary three pupils will return on March 8, Mrs Foster said the Executive intended to give more clarity around pupils still not in school by next month. During a meeting of the Executive on Thursday, ministers indicated a desire to avoid years one to three returning to school on March 8 before reverting back to remote learning for a number of days before the Easter break. Education and health officials will work together on decision-making timelines and advise the public at the earliest opportunity, Mrs Foster said. Weve often said theres a role for the kitchen table in every childs education, but it will never be a substitute to the school desk, she added. Ministers and the Executives specialist advisers all agree that school is beneficial from an educational perspective and for childrens physical and mental health. The risk to children from Covid is exceptionally small. The Executive will keep all of these issues under review, as we said we would last week. Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill said getting children back to school safely was the Executives top priority. To put to bed any confusion, the Executives position is what was set out last week, she added. Clearly, were worried about the impact this is having on children and were worried about how quickly we can get children back into school, but it must be sustainable and it must be safe. We must give parents some comfort that its going to be safe for their children. When asked about DUP MP Sammy Wilson comparing Health Minister Robin Swann to a poodle, Mrs Foster said she believed certain tweets should be typed out and then deleted. I know people are frustrated (and) I know people are angry, (but) its certainly not language I would have used, she explained. I think there is a genuine desire to have a debate about the need to get young people back to school and thats a debate we had today. But Mrs ONeill branded Mr Wilsons comments disgraceful. All Executive ministers have a very difficult job in charting our way through the pandemic, not least the Health Minister, she said. I think Sammy Wilsons comments were disgraceful and I would totally dissociate myself from that. This has been a time where there have been threats made towards public representatives and theres been threats towards journalists reporting on different incidents. Thats not acceptable and I think that needs to be called out. Mrs Foster also insisted the DUP had confidence in Dr Michael McBride despite differences of opinion over school returns. I have full confidence in our Chief Medical Officer. He has worked tirelessly, as indeed has the Chief Scientific Adviser and his Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, to bring us impartial advice, she said. Her comments came as the Department of Health announced another five people had died with coronavirus, bringing the local death toll to 2,048. A further 281 positive cases were confirmed, but there was a dip in the number of in-patients, which fell by 15 to 341. There currently are 44 people in intensive care, 32 of whom are on ventilators. 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 Kabul, Feb 25 : Pakistan will not support the Taliban, but aims for enduring peace in Afghanistan, said a senior official of the Pakistan's army. "Afghanistan now is not what it was in 90s and the state infrastructure cannot be trounced easily, and Pakistan also has changed," the Director General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar said as quoted by International The News. "It's impossible for the Taliban to recapture Kabul and that Pakistan would support them. It isn't going to happen," he said over talks about foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. "Even Afghan leaders are admitting that Pakistan has done utmost for peace in Afghanistan," he said. Gen. Iftikhar said that it is for the citizens and the government of Afghanistan to determine the future of their country, how the dialogue process would further, and who they back to take it on. "We only aim for a long-lasting peace in Afghanistan," he said. He added that the policy of the Pakistan government to extend a hand of peace to the neighbours was very clear, according to The News report. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday said that the way had been paved for more serious peace talks with the Taliban, Tolo news reported. The statement comes two days after a meeting was held between heads and some members of the negotiating teams in Doha and the meeting reportedly focused on the continuation of the negotiations. In a meeting with members of Afghanistan's parliament on Wednesday, Ghani said that the move by the NATO alliance to hold off on a decision about the troop pullout will help the Afghan peace process. "The decision by NATO sends a big message," said Ghani. Last week, the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at end of the two NATO Defence Ministers' meetings in Brussels that the military alliance will only leave Afghanistan when security conditions on the ground allow it. Stoltenberg said that at this stage, the alliance has not made a final decision about a troop presence in Afghanistan. "At this stage, we have made no final decision on the future of our presence, but, as the May 1 deadline is approaching, NATO Allies will continue to closely consult and coordinate in the coming weeks," said Stoltenberg at a press conference in Brussels. "We remain committed to our Resolute Support mission, with training and funding for the brave Afghan security forces," he said. "Defence Ministers had a thorough discussion on the situation in Afghanistan. We are faced with many dilemmas and there are no easy options," he said. On Wednesday, also the Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar has traveled to Moscow to discuss the peace talks. "The purpose of this trip is to enhance bilateral relations and to strengthen regional consensus on the Afghan peace," said Gran Hewad, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His trip comes five days after the MoFA reacted to recent remarks by Russian envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, who said he favors an inclusive and transitional coalition government in Afghanistan and that the Taliban has not violated their deal with the United States. MoFA said that some remarks by Mr. Kabulov were "not based on realities in Afghanistan" and in some ways were contrary to official statements by the Russian Federation, which Kabul sees as a "friend." The ministry said that the unjustifiable exaggerations of "a forbidden group in Russia" is in contravention of Russia's willingness to fight against the threat of terrorism and extremism in the region and to achieve lasting peace based on the demand of Afghans. The ministry added that such remarks do not match the two countries' mutual interests. Henderson, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Fresh Promise Foods, Inc., (OTC Pink: FPFI) (hereinafter "FPFI") a publicly traded company under the ticker symbol (OTC Pink: FPFI ) announced today that its' wholly owned subsidiary Human Brands International, Inc (hereinafter, "HBI ") has executed an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Turasu S de PR de RL (hereinafter, " The Company"). Turasu is a San Jose de Gracia, Jalisco Mexico based company involved in the cultivation and sale of highland Blue Weber Agave plants that are used for the production of Tequila. The Company currently owns 100K Blue Weber Agave plants located in the Highland region of the state of Jalisco, a region known for producing high quality Blue Weber Agave. Turasu has recently secured an additional 30 Hectares of land in the region, that will be used for the plantation and cultivation of another 100K plants for this year's upcoming plantation season which will commence this week. The Company intends to plant a minimum of 100K plants per year over the next 5 years. The Company plans to begin harvesting and selling its most mature plants from existing inventory in Q4- 2021, which will be sold to various Tequila producers, including HBI's exclusive distillery partner, Hacienda Capellania, for the production of HBI brands, such as Armero Tequila as well as HBI's rapidly expanding bulk tequila production business. Human Brands International Logo To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7169/75490_9662575c041cc812_002full.jpg According to the latest data from the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT), in the months through October 2020: Tequila production was up 3.8% YOY 1,159,000 tons of agave were used for the production of tequila Exports increased 13.5% The rapid growth in Tequila sales over the past several years has caused increased demand on the supply of Agave, which has caused a shortage of supply, keeping the value of the plant per kilo at a high level over an extended period of time. According to industry experts this is a trend that is not forecasted to change over the coming years based on the growing demand for Tequila globally. HBI is uniquely positioned to benefit from this demand. This latest acquisition is yet another important step in HBI's plan to create a true "Ground to Glass" platform, enabling the Company and its stakeholder's to participate and benefit from every phase of the Companies product pipeline. Please continue to follow FPFI for the latest Company news and updates. About Fresh Promise: Fresh Promise Foods, Inc is a holding company that focuses on acquisition opportunities in the multi-trillion dollar spirit/adult beverage sector and related industries. FPFI primarily targets companies, and/or exclusive production and supply agreements in the Tequila industry. FPFI will also seek opportunities involving uniquely positioned, specialized retail/hospitality locations and brands that will be supported by our underlying business activities. About Human Brands: Human Brands International, Inc. ( www.humanbrandsinc.com ) is a diversified holding company in the spirit and hospitality sectors with a primary focus on the tequila industry. The Company was established in late 2014 to capitalize on the growing alcohol beverage market and changing consumer habits in the industry. The Company currently has several wholly owned subsidiaries that focus on five key areas of business: Agave, Bulk Tequila Production, Brand Development, Import/Export and Hospitality. Human Brands diversified operating divisions currently own and manage over 250k agave plants, several premium spirit brands such as Armero Tequila , Three hospitality concepts,( Santo Coyote , . Santa Cantina , Museo by Santo ) and holds exclusive import/export rights for a variety of spirit brands ( CapCity Beverage ) . The Company's core foundation is built upon its bulk tequila production operations. The Company currently has supply contracts with well-known tequila brands, as well as celebrities and athletes. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve 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. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. Contact: Joe Poe email: Joepoe1@yahoo.com Social: IG/Twitter/FB @humanbrandsinc To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75490 MECOSTA COUNTY, MI - A man reported missing and endangered has been found dead in Northern Michigan, state police said. Richard Lee Wymer, 70, who was last seen Feb. 7 in Mecosta County, was found dead Wednesday, Feb. 24, in his vehicle in Missaukee County. Troopers responded shortly after 5 p.m. to South Jeffs Road near Cadillac Road in Missaukee Countys Butterfield Township on a report of a deceased man in a Chevrolet Suburban, which belonged to Wymer, police said. He was in the drivers seat. The cause and manner of death have not been released with the death still under investigation, state police said. The victim was last seen Feb. 7 shoveling snow on 10th Avenue in Mecosta Countys Wheatland Township before he got in his vehicle and left. Read more: Mecosta County man reported missing, endangered, state police say Disabled Michiganders, caretakers and advocates take issue with low vaccine priority How Michigan classrooms will look ahead of students return since pandemic New Delhi, Feb 25 : At author Paro Anand's Diwali party in late 2018, when Renuka Chatterjee of Speaking Tiger Publishing approached him and said that he must write a family memoir, he was "shell-shocked". "I've written a number of books but it never occurred to me to explore my family in one. I discussed it with my wife who felt it was a great idea," theatre director Feisal Alkazi tells IANS while talking about his latest book 'Enter Stage Right: The Alkazi/Padamsee Family Memoir', which was released at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). Known for theatre productions including 'The Women', 'The Father', 'Female Parts', 'Rashomon', 'Letter's Home', 'Night Mother', 'Odhn' and 'Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Ma', Alkazi says that the first five chapters where he wrote about his grandmother, parents' childhood and uncle Sultan Padamsee's (Bobby) suicide came effortlessly. "I then decided to go to revisit my grandmother's place in Mumbai where I grew up and meet my aunt from the US. My cousin Ayesha Sayani, a filmmaker who had done several interviews with Alyque Padamsee and my mother. For me, it was important that the book was not just a record but emotional and touching," says Alkazi. Sharing 22 chapters with close friends, his sons' girlfriends in order to get an insider-outsider viewpoint, 2020 was also the year when Ebrahim Alkazi passed away. "I put that in the book too. The pictures were already organised as we had done a major exhibition on my father's works a few years ago. I advised the publishers to use visuals extensively." The director-writer says that he came across several interesting facts about the family while researching --- some of them are part of the book. "My aunt told me that my grandmother's eldest and youngest brothers were gay. Also, it is the first time that Bobby's story -- that he committed suicide -- has come out on record. Of course, there are many which I didn't delve deeply into, including my parents' separation. People can always read between the lines," says Alkazi, who has also written two theatre scripts 'Noor' and 'A Quiet Desire' besides directing over 200 plays. The director of Delhi-based Ruchika theatre group, which works extensively with children including those with special needs, attributes this to the fact that his parents belonged to the Montessori school of thinking. "And I had the luxury of studying at Modern School at a time when art was as important as academics and sports. I really flowered as an artist there -- not just theatre but also visual art. An artist like Devyani Krishna was in charge and some of the best art practitioners would visit. There was an immense exposure to the arts -- at home and through education. I have done more than 100 plays with children and teenagers across the country. It is so fascinating that you can enrich the world of the child so much through the experience of art. The process of art making, be it the heritage education work, theatre work, art workshops, library workshops or teacher training has been very close to my heart," says Alkazi, who also heads 'Creative Learning for Change', an NGO that designs, carries out and documents innovate educational projects in gender, environmental and heritage education. Ask him if being a son to a legend like Ebrahim Alkazi was ever a 'burden', and he asserts, "Not at all. I loved it. Moreover, my work is quite distinctive. I was always interested in working in my own space," says the director who also taught at Jamia Millia Islamia for a few years. During the recent lockdown, Ruchika theatre group created an online programme every Friday for 39 weeks. From an hour long theatre performances to music concerts, all involving people from his group, they also opened the arena for visual artists and photographers. "We managed to create a strong community of around 100 people who would watch the productions online every week. Interestingly, during this period, I picked up a Nirmal Verma short story collection which he had given me. As I opened it, there was a note that read 'Feisal, look at the story 'Zindagi Yahan aur Vahan'. Consider it for a theatre production.' This was the first time I was seeing that note. I immediately did a production of the story which revolves around a middle-aged man's affair with a much younger college student. We pulled out some lovely old visuals of Connaught Place. Verma used to come for all my shows and we would chat for long. I knew his brother Ram Kumar too. So far, 25,000 people have seen the live and recorded productions. We as a group had never done anything on Zoom earlier. We also explored some scripts which we would have never done on the stage because they were too niche." Currently rehearsing for his play 'Noor', this time in English, which will also travel to Dehradun, Hyderabad, Bangalore and the US in December, Alkazi says, "We may not have full auditoriums, but at least people are coming back to the theatre." (Sukant Deepak can be contacted at sukant.d@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Mumbai-based Infra.Market has joined the coveted unicorn club after raising $100 million (around 724 crore) in Series C round led by existing investor Tiger Global. It took less than 20 months for the startup to touch the $1 billion valuation since raising seed round from Accel Partners in 2019. Accel Partners also participated in the latest funding round along with other existing partners Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund, Sistema Asia Fund and Foundamental Gmbh. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Infra.Market plans to spend the new funds to enhance its technological offerings, seed newer markets and advance initiatives such as private label brands, direct to retail channel and exports. The startup had raised $20 million in December 2020 in Series B round led by Evolvence India Fund and Sistema Asia Fund. Infra.Market is using technology to help infrastructure and real-estate sectors overcome delays and disruptions caused due to inefficiencies in the construction materials supply-chain," Varun Gupta, director, Digital and Technology Investment Banking, Avendus Capital said in a statement. Gupta said this investment was a strong proof of soaring investor interest in industrial B2B platforms which have demonstrated rapid scaling, healthy economics and value creation in accelerated time frame. Infra.market is an online marketplace where real estate and infrastructure companies can procure construction materials online at a fair price. The platform has seen rapid increase in demand as companies in the sector are increasingly looking to shift their procurement channels after the pandemic. We are delighted to partner with Souvik and Aaditya in the growth journey of Infra.Market which is reshaping Indias construction materials supply chain. With pioneering technology innovation and the ability to stitch together private label brands, Infra.Market is positioned for strong growth, healthy economics and profitability," Scott Shleifer, Partner, Tiger Global Management said in a statement. The startup claims to generate monthly revenue of $2.5 million. It is currently at $400 million gross merchandise value (GMV) and hopes to achieve $1 billion GMV by the end of 2021. We have an amazing team and have amazingly supportive investors - we will continue to disrupt Indias construction ecosystem through our continued focus on operational excellence. The fact that we are profitable at such a young stage is a testament to our team and the culture as an organisation," said Souvik Sengupta, founder, Infra.Market. Founded in 2017 by Souvik Sengupta and Aaditya Sharda, Infra.Market is a B2B startup with more than 400 large clients including construction majors such as Larsen& Tubro, Ashoka Buildcon and Tata Projects. The recent investment spree has propelled several Indian startups into unicorns. According to January report by NASSCOM, India will see rise of 12 more unicorns in 2021, taking the total count to 50, the highest ever in a single year. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Posted Thursday, February 25, 2021 1:44 am - Washington State Journal Outrage over deaths of citizens in police custody sparked efforts by lawmakers to address racial equity, hiring and training, and the use of force within law enforcement. Now, nearing the halfway point in the 2021 legislative session, the steps toward major reform of police tactics have gained support from both sides, though not without controversy. I wouldn't argue that we have complete agreement amongst all of them but we're continuing to work to bring people together and to move the bills, said House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, in a press conference Feb. 22. Use-of-force Lawmakers voted 28-21 to pass SB 5066 Feb. 23, a bill requiring officers to intervene if they see a colleague using excessive force. While it had Democratic support, some Republican lawmakers said it would deter recruitment into law enforcement. This bill will help keep communities safe and will provide the tools and support to reinforce a healthy culture in law enforcement, said Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, the sponsor of the bill, in a statement. House Bill 1054, a highly-watched ban on several use of force tactics, is scheduled for a floor vote. The law would ban an officer from using chokeholds, most forms of tear gas and unleashing K-9 dogs on suspects. The bill remained largely unchanged from its original form. We are at a reckoning with police in this country, so I cant see myself negotiating on those tactics, said one of the bills sponsors, Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent, in an interview. HB 1310, which narrows an officers ability to use deadly or other physical force against a suspect, is waiting to be scheduled for a floor vote, where it is expected to have a high chance of winning approval. The Senate Ways & Means Committee voted Feb. 22 in favor of a bill that would require law enforcement agencies to report incidents of use-of-force and other demographic information to an in-state university. This law, SB 5259, requires the school to create a detailed, interactive and public database with statistics on when an officer fires a weapon, uses less-lethal means of arresting a citizen and when an officer unleashes a canine on someone they intend to arrest. The university would also need to have both the officer and affected persons age, gender, race and ethnicity on the database. Community oversight The Senate will vote on SB 5089, which raises the qualifying age of a law enforcement applicant to 23, and requires them to hold or be on the way to holding a bachelors degree. The Ways & Means Committee members passed SB 5353 Feb. 22, which targets Spokane, Pierce, King, Okanogan, Yakima, Cowlitz, Chelan-Douglas, Walla-Walla, Benton-Franklin, Grant and Snohomish as recipients for a community-law enforcement engagement grant program. The grant would fund these counties efforts in neighborhood organizing and youth programs to increase public trust with law enforcement. Sweeping reform to the Criminal Justice Training Commission will also have a chance to make it through the Senate, with lawmakers putting SB 5051 forward to expand the powers of the CJTC. Currently, the commission establishes standards and provides training to police and local corrections officers. It has the power to certify, and when necessary, to de-certify, officers. The law would also mandate that the commission must include more members from underrepresented communities. The public has the right to know if their tax dollars are paying for officers who have a known history of excessive use of force, said Devon Connor-Green, who testified in support of the bill on behalf of the Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance during its hearing Feb. 1. A similar bill to adjust training and hiring rules in the CJTC, sponsored by Sen. Jesse Salomon, D-Shoreline, will not move forward in the Legislature. Salomon told The Seattle Times he would try again next year, but said he was satisfied with the other training reform bills getting support. SB 5135, crafted by Sen. Mona Das and intended to stop people from summoning a police officer for the purpose of intimidating or discriminating against someone, made it into the Rules Committee Jan. 22, but has yet to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. Last week, House representatives passed three police accountability bills: HB 1088, 1089 and 1001. The first requires law enforcement agencies to tell attorneys if they found evidence in favor of the defendant in a case within 10 days of the discovery. HB 1089 requires the State Auditor to ensure deadly force investigations follow all rules and procedures during the entirety of the investigation, and HB 1001 would establish a grant program to encourage agencies to hire more officers from historically underrepresented communities. The Senate Law & Justice Committee will hear public comment on these bills 8:30 a.m. Feb. 25. Investigating law enforcement The establishment of an independent office of investigations within the governors office also has a high chance of making it to the House floor for a vote. Lawmakers voted in favor of HB 1267 in the House Committee on Appropriations Feb. 19. Another bill poised to make it out of the House is HB 1202, which would automatically grant a cause of action for someone who was injured by forceful police tactics, meaning they would be able to seek civil action against the officer and any present officer who did not intervene. The court would have to pay for the court and attorney costs for the person, and the Attorney General could investigate officers if they suspect the incident represents a pattern of misconduct. Other reform bills already passed out of the Senate include SB 5055, passed Feb. 10 in a 41-8 vote. If it moves on, it will establish an 18-member rotating panel of arbitrators who would hear and decide on officer disciplinary appeals, and ban officers from collective bargaining on these appeals. Another law limiting collective bargaining over certain law enforcement records has yet to move to the floor for a vote, but SB 5436 garnered bipartisan support from lawmakers and still has a chance to pass. Though many police accountability bills with the chance to become law have come from Democratic lawmakers, Republican-led bill HB 1262 got bipartisan support for its expansion of background checks for law enforcement applicants. The bill would add an eye-based truth verification test, a way of analyzing changes in pupil size and eye movement to consider credibility in the person. -- To prevent the sporadic resurgence of COVID-19, China encouraged people to stay put over the holiday this year, which lasted from Feb. 11 to 17. Thanks to the stay-put measure, many enterprises were able to continue holiday production or resume production quickly after the holiday break. -- Apart from boisterous production activities, construction of new projects continued or started during the holiday across the country, injecting new impetus to China's economy. HEFEI/XI'AN/TAIYUAN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Moving back and forth on an automobile assembly line, Zhang Tianshun was conducting function tests for vehicles before they roll off the production line. "My job is to check the functionality of seven parts of the car, including four windows, front and rear wipers and the sunroof. It takes two minutes to test a car for my part, and I need to handle about 200 cars per day. It's even busier than before the holiday," said the young man. Photo taken with a mobile phone shows employees working on the production line at Hefei Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Fangqiang) It was the first time for Zhang to spend the Spring Festival, or China's Lunar New Year, away from his hometown of Zhumadian City, central China's Henan Province. The 19-year-old works at Hefei Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. in east China's Anhui Province. Zhang received a combined subsidy of nearly 3,000 yuan (about 465 U.S. dollars) from Hefei City and the company for not leaving during the holiday. To prevent the sporadic resurgence of COVID-19, China encouraged people to stay put over the holiday this year, which lasted from Feb. 11 to 17. EARLIER WORK RESUMPTION Aerial photo taken on Feb. 21, 2021 shows the International Container Terminal of Hefei Port in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. (Xinhua/Cao Li) The car plant resumed production on Feb. 14, after a three-day break, when most people were still celebrating the holiday. More than 1,700 employees, or 85 percent of its staff, clocked in on the first day of work, including over 800 migrant workers who stayed during the holiday. The manufacturing capacity has returned to the pre-holiday level, with 600 to 700 vehicles rolling off the production line per day, according to the company. "Another production line resumed operation on Feb. 17, whose capacity is around 300 units a day. Cars coming from this assembly line will be exported to Saudi Arabia, Chile and Brazil," said Xue Wen, an engineer with the company. Factories across China are traditionally shut down for a couple of weeks after the Chinese Spring Festival holiday. Thanks to the stay-put measure, many enterprises were able to continue holiday production or resume production quickly after the holiday break. Like the auto factory, China Baowu Taigang Stainless Steel Precision Strip Co., Ltd. in north China's Shanxi Province also saw bustling production activities during the holiday, with more than 100 employees remaining on duty around the clock to handle increasing orders. The company specializes in producing wide super-thin precision stainless steel strips, or "hand-tearable steel," which can be used in folding screens, solar photovoltaic substrates, automobile airbags, high-end coating materials, as well as military and aerospace fields. Video screenshot shows an employee showing the wide super-thin precision stainless steel strips, or "hand-tearable steel," at China Baowu Taigang Stainless Steel Precision Strip Co., Ltd. in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province, Feb. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Hao) During this Spring Festival, the company received a large order from abroad, greatly boosting the morale of employees, said Qu Zhanyou, director of the company's sales department. In the workshop of LONGi Solar Technology Co., Ltd. in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, over 200 skilled workers were busy manufacturing solar photovoltaic modules after the holiday to complete their orders on time. Solar modules of nearly 2 square meters were churned out after a dozen of steps including cutting, welding and pressing. "The output is expected to reach 120,000 modules in February, up by about 50 percent compared with the same period of last year," said Xie Shundong, general manager of the company's Xi'an module plant. BUSTLING CONSTRUCTING ACTIVITIES Apart from boisterous producing activities, construction of new projects continued or started during the holiday across the country, injecting new impetus to China's economy. On Feb. 18, the first workday after the holiday, Anhui announced that a total of 272 projects started construction in the province, with a total investment of over 133 billion yuan, of which 45.3 billion yuan is expected to be implemented this year, according to the provincial development and reform commission. Employees work at the construction site of the first phase of the subway Line 8 in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Cao Li) The bustling construction scene can also be seen at the High-tech Zone of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, where manufacturers and engineers were busy moving in and installing the equipment to make final preparations for a new Samsung semiconductor memory chip production line. The first phase of the project was put into production in 2014, with an investment of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars. Construction of the second phase of the project started in 2018, with an investment of approximately 15 billion U.S. dollars. "More than 1,000 equipment manufacturers and engineers are adjusting equipment on site every day to prepare for the operation," said Sang Hyun Yi, vice president of Samsung China Semiconductor Co., Ltd. With the help of the Chinese government, Samsung's memory chip project has withstood the test of the epidemic, achieving an output value of 73.6 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 43 percent from 2019. During the epidemic, in order to ensure the smooth construction of the second phase of Samsung's memory chip project, Shaanxi Province specially opened up a "green channel" for international chartered flights to receive more than 3,000 equipment installation engineers for Samsung. Since the beginning of this year, the first phase of the project has been operating smoothly. The second stage of the second phase is advancing steadily, which will come into mass production within the year. At present, all Chinese employees and foreign technical personnel have returned to their posts, Yi said. Black History Month has been celebrated in the United States for close to 100 years. But what is it, exactly, and how did it begin? In the years after Reconstruction, campaigning for the importance of Black history and doing the scholarly work of creating the canon was a cornerstone of civil rights work for leaders like Carter G. Woodson. Martha Jones, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, explained: These are men [like Woodson] who were trained formally and credentialed in the ways that all intellectuals and thought leaders of the early 20th century were trained at Harvard and places like that. But in order to make the argument, in order to make the claim about Black genius, about Black excellence, you have to build the space in which to do that. There is no room. This is how they built the room. Equity Raising For Scale-Up of Anode Materials Production Brisbane, Feb 25, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - NOVONIX Limited ( ASX:NVX ) ( FRA:GC3 ) ( OTCMKTS:NVNXF ) is pleased to announce that it is undertaking a capital raising to raise approximately $146 million, comprising:- a fully underwritten placement to institutional and sophisticated investors to raiseapproximately $115 million within NOVONIX's current placement capacity under ASXListing Rule 7.1 (Institutional Placement), through the issue of 39.7 million NewShares (representing approximately 11.3% of the total shares of the Company prior tothe issue of New Shares);- subject to obtaining shareholder approval and completion of the Institutional Placementand SPP, a non-underwritten placement of new shares, at the same issue price pernew share as the Institutional Placement, to each of the following directors of the Company or entities associated with them which will raise approximately $16.45 million in aggregate, with the value of each director's individual placement commitment being:o Mr Trevor St Baker AO - $12 million;o Mr Andrew N Liveris AO - $3 million;o Admiral Robert J Natter - $1.25 million; ando Mr Robert Cooper - $200,000,(each a Conditional Placement, and together the Conditional Placements); and- a non-underwritten share purchase plan targeting approximately $15 million (SPP).Net proceeds will fund expansion capex and working capital to scale NOVONIX Anode Materials production to 10,000tpa under an exclusive technology alliance announced in December with US-based thermal processing solutions expert, Harper International Corporation. This will include new manufacturing site expansion, along with infrastructure and equipment being commissioned over the next 24 months, as well as working capital associated with increased production levels.Subject to prevailing market conditions, NOVONIX management expects that 2,000tpa production levels will provide a basis to secure multi-year contracts and support subsequent plant expansion with access to debt funding.In addition to scaling NOVONIX Anode Materials to 10,000tpa, net proceeds will fund a Research and Development (R&D) program for NOVONIX Cathode Materials (based on the proprietary DPMG technology), and also support NOVONIX's global growth initiatives including organic expansion, partnerships and licensing.The offer price of the Institutional Placement and Conditional Placements is $2.90 per fully paid ordinary NOVONIX share (Offer Price), representing a 11.9% discount to the last traded price of NOVONIX shares on 24 February 2021 of $3.29.The Institutional Placement is fully underwritten by Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited. New shares issued under the Institutional Placement will rank equally with existing shares from the date of issue.Conditional PlacementsNOVONIX also proposes to raise approximately $16.45 million in aggregate pursuant to the Conditional Placements.Admiral Robert J. Natter, Mr Trevor St Baker AO, Mr Robert Cooper and Mr Andrew N Liveris AO have each entered into a placement agreement with the Company, pursuant to which they have agreed to subscribe for new shares under the Conditional Placements.As the issue of shares under the Conditional Placements will be made to certain directors of the Company or entities that are associated with each of them, each Conditional Placement is subject to shareholder approval being obtained for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.11 and for all other purposes (to be sought at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled to be held on or about early to mid-April 2021) (EGM), as well as completion of the Institutional Placement and SPP. The Conditional Placements are not underwritten. Further details of the resolutions to approve the Conditional Placements will be provided in the notice of general meeting for the EGM.Following completion of the Conditional Placement, Mr Trevor St Baker AO or entities associated with him will hold approximately 15.97% of the Company's issued share capital (assuming that the full amount is raised under the Institutional Placement, SPP and each other Conditional Placement).Share Purchase PlanA Share Purchase Plan (SPP) will follow the Institutional Placement with eligible NOVONIX shareholders in Australia and New Zealand offered the opportunity to acquire additional shares in NOVONIX. The SPP will not be underwritten.Shareholders on the NOVONIX register at 7:00pm (Sydney time) on 24 February 2021 (Record Date) with a registered address in Australia or New Zealand will be entitled to subscribe for up to $10,000 worth of NOVONIX shares per shareholder, free of transaction and brokerage costs, through the SPP, subject to eligibility criteria and other terms and conditions of the SPP which will be set out in the SPP booklet and dispatched to eligible shareholders on or around 4 March 2021. Shares issued under the SPP will rank equally with existing shares of NOVONIX.The SPP aims to raise approximately $15 million. NOVONIX may decide to scale back applications should it receive demand above that target or to issue a higher amount above the target, at its absolute discretion (and, if a higher amount is issued, to either accept applications in full or scale back applications, at its absolute discretion). New shares under the SPP are to be issued at the Institutional Placement price of $2.90 per new share.NOVONIX's Chairman, Tony Bellas, said that it was an exciting time for the Company as it begins to rapidly scale production of high-performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries to meet the growing demands of the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) markets in North America."The Company remains well positioned as the only qualified producer in North America of high grade anode material suitable for lithium ion batteries for EVs and ESS. Importantly, the company is continuing to strengthen its position with key relationships across the industry such as Harper International to develop next generation furnace technology systems" Mr Bellas said."The recent approval by the U.S. Department of Energy through an innovation grant of US$5.6 million is indicative of the importance of the work that NOVONIX is doing to develop the North American lithium ion battery supply chain."Mr Bellas said that the Company is progressing its key relationships with Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd of Japan and Samsung SDI of South Korea, both major international manufacturers of lithium ion batteries for EVs and ESS. The Company is also exploring opportunities in new jurisdictions to establish anode production capacity to service the rapidly growing markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia."NOVONIX continues to leverage its team and their expertise by investing in its R&D and commercialisation programs, including the scale up of its Cathode business utilising its proprietary dry particle microgranulation (DPMG) technology", Mr Bellas said.Mr Bellas said that the five-year renewal of the sponsorship of the Dalhousie research program led by Professor Mark Obrovac, and the engagement of Professor Jeff Dahn as Chief Scientific Advisor (commencing June 2021) underscore the commitment to the Company's R&D initiatives, aimed at sector leadership in battery technology and materials production.Mr. Bellas said that he was encouraged to see the support of existing investors and members of the Board of Directors such Trevor St. Baker, Andrew Liveris, Bob Natter and Rob Cooper.To view the timetable, please visit:About NOVONIX Ltd NOVONIX Ltd (ASX:NVX) (FRA:GC3) (OTCMKTS:NVNXF) is an integrated developer and supplier of high-performance materials, equipment and services for the global lithium-ion battery industry with operations in the USA and Canada and sales in more than 14 countries. NOVONIX's mission is to support the global deployment of lithium-ion battery technologies for a cleaner energy future. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Shirley Ballas has had her first dose of the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine. The Strictly Come Dancing judge, 60, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a video showing her being given the vaccine by a medical professional at her local GP surgery. Showing the vaccine was perfectly safe, Shirley encouraged her followers 'young and old' to get it when they are eligible to do so. Vaccinated: Shirley Ballas, 60, revealed on Thursday that she has had the first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as she encouraged others 'young and old' to get it when they can Speaking to followers before getting her first dose, she said: 'Hi everybody, I am absolutely delighted to be getting the Pfizer vaccine. So here it goes.' Shirley then waited as the medical professional gave her the vaccine, and she said she 'didn't feel anything' which was 'absolutely amazing.' She went on: 'I'm encouraging everybody to get their vaccine and then in three months you get another one. So to all of you, stay healthy and get your vaccine.' Support: Shirley shared a video showing her being given the vaccine by a medical professional to show the vaccine was perfectly safe Grateful: Speaking to followers before getting her first dose, she said: 'I am absolutely delighted to be getting the Pfizer vaccine. So here it goes' Delighted: Shirley then waited as the medical professional gave her the vaccine, and she said she 'didn't feel anything' which was 'absolutely amazing' Shirley continued to advise her followers in the caption of her video, saying: 'At last my turn has come to get my vaccine. Im totally impressed with my clinic. 'Straight in , totally organized helpful in every way possible. A little quick jab didnt hurt at all. Friendly atmosphere with everyone on the same journey. 'I urge everyone young and old and everyone in between to take the vaccine. If we all do this together we can get back to some sort of normality. We are all in this together.' She also shared a picture of NHS guide to the vaccine, and a card she was given to show she had her first dose. Encouragement: Shirley continued to advise her followers in the caption of her video, saying: 'I urge everyone young and old and everyone in between to take the vaccine' Official: Shirley also shared a picture of NHS guide to the vaccine, and a card she was given to show she had her first dose Earlier this month, Shirley admitted she turned to her counsellor for support after being inundated with messages from people struggling with their mental health during lockdown. The judge returned to therapy in 2020 after feeling 'overwhelmed' while writing her warts-and-all memoir, Behind The Sequins: My Life. And she admits to using her sessions for advice on how to help others after receiving a flurry of desperate messages from followers across social media. Here to help: Earlier this month, Shirley admitted she turned to her counsellor for support after being inundated with messages from people struggling with their mental health at home Appearing on Morning Live, she explained: 'Some are kind of in a bad place, they cant handle lockdown, they become suicidal and one thing after another. 'So I thought that I would get some more counselling, to learn some more tools, put my own feelings aside and then try to help the other people who are direct messaging me, which I love by the way, and I feel Ive steered many people in the right direction.' The professional dancer attempts to lift spirits by leading an online dance class every Tuesday and Thursday, with boyfriend Danny Taylor often getting involved. She added: 'Im not a counsellor, but I can be there as a support for people, I can make them laugh on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. 'Ive been teaching Danny to dance, my boyfriend, and anybody can dance and move, and it makes you feel better. 'But actually going to a counsellor again and saying help me with these tools so I can help other people was very important.' BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The major European stocks closed lower on Thursday after a cautious session as rising bond yields outweighed optimism about quick economic recovery, prompting investors to lighten commitments in equity markets. Promising new data on Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine, imminent additional stimulus in the U.S., and recent statement from the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell about easy monetary policy for the foreseeable future also helped lift expectations about a swift economic recovery. Other markets in Europe turned in a mixed performance, with a few of them even managing to close with strong gains. The pan European Stoxx 600 slid 0.36%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.11%, Germany's DAX ended lower by 0.69% and France's CAC 40 declined 0.24%, while Switzerland's SMI slipped 0.64%. Among other markets in Europe, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Turkey closed higher. Belgium, Iceland and Ireland ended weak, while Austria, Netherlands, Poland and Sweden settled flat. In the UK market, Standard Chartered fell more than 6% after reporting a 57% declined in annual profit. Intermediate Capital Group lost 4.7%. Polymetal International, Persimmon, Berkeley Group Holdings, Ashtead Group, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Whitbread and BT Group lost 2 to 4%. DS Smith shares gained more than 5% on reports that rival Mondi Pls was exploring a takeover. Mondi shares failed to hold early gains and ended flat. Evraz gained nearly 6% and Anglo American climbed nearly 4%, while Rio Tinto, BP, Burberry Group and Prudential gained 1.3 to 2%. In the French market, Safran fell sharply on weak quarterly results. Airbus Group, Valeo, Air Liquide, Capgemini and Essilor also declined sharply. TechnipFMC soared more than 11%, Unibail Rodamco gained about 3% and Societe Generale surged up 2.7%. Atos, Air France-KLM and ArcelorMittal also rose sharply. In Germany, Bayer plunged more than 6% after reporting a 78% drop in earnings. Linde, MTU Aero Engines, BASF and Deutsche Post also ended sharply lower. On the other hand, Deutsche Bank, BMW, Munich RE, Adidas, Covestro and Deutsche Telekom closed with strong gains. In economic releases, Eurozone economic confidence improved to a one-year high in February on rising sentiment in industry, services and among consumers, reflecting the easing of strict restrictions related to Covid-19 pandemic, survey results from the European Commission revealed. The economic sentiment index rose more-than-expected to 93.4 from 91.5 in the previous month. The score was forecast to climb to 92 in February. German consumer confidence is set to improve in March, survey results from the market research group GfK showed earlier in the day. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose more-than-expected to -12.9 in March from revised -15.5 in the previous month. The expected level was -14.3. France's consumer confidence index fell to 91 in February, while the score was forecast to remain unchanged at 92. Business optimism improved among U.K. business and professional services in the three months to February, while morale weakened in consumer services, the latest quarterly Service Sector Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. New Delhi: Two more people have succumbed to their injuries taking the death toll to three in the explosion at a cracker factory in Haryana's Karnal. The blast took place late Tuesday evening (February 23) at Ghoghripur road on the outskirts of the city. The deceased have been identified as Vijay Kumar, 25, and Kumar Swamy, 28. Bala Kumar, 24, had died on the spot earlier. All three had sustained severe burn injuries. All of them hailed from Tamil Nadu. Another worker, who was seriously injured is undergoing treatment at a hospital. Karnal superintendent of police Ganga Ram Punia said that the bodies had been sent for the postmortem and the family members of the deceased were informed. "We have informed the family members of the deceased. The injured is being treated in the hospital. An investigation is underway," ANI quoted police as saying. A team of ballistic experts led by Jai Singh, DSP of Gharaunda, visited the factory to investigate the cause of the mishap. The district authorities have started a probe to check the fire safety arrangements in the factory. Live TV 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. First there was e. Then came i. Now its +. With the proliferation of streaming platforms, the plus sign has become an all-purpose marker that signals endless hours of on-demand shows. Plus-sign streaming services include ESPN+ (started in 2018), Apple TV+ (2019), Disney+ (2019), BET+ (2019), AMC+ (2020) and Discovery+ (2021). On Wednesday, streaming entered peak plus with ViacomCBSs rebranding of CBS All Access. The company has decided to call it Paramount+. Tacking on the plus sign to the name of a well-known movie studio might be a very effective way to tell customers that the platform offers movies and something extra. Or it could be a disaster, said Mike Carr, the co-founder of the branding company NameStormers. The plus is a great idea short-term and a terrible idea long-term, said Mr. Carr, who has helped come up with names for thousands of clients, including CarMax, the used car company, and Angry Orchard, the hard cider label. Private banks can now compete with their public sector counterparts for government business such as transactions related to taxes, revenue payments, pensions and small savings schemes. The decision, announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman , is expected to improve efficiency and competition while helping smaller banks earn revenue. Embargo lifted on grant of govt business to private banks. All banks can now participate. Private banks can now be equal partners in development of the economy, furthering govts social sector initiatives, and enhancing customer convenience," Sitharaman tweeted. The minister added that the Reserve Bank of India could also, in due course, authorize private banks to undertake government business. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle At present, only state-owned banks and large private banks are eligible to undertake government business, including collecting revenues and disbursing payments under various schemes. While other private banks are allowed to open collection accounts for government departments, they were not allowed to do any cash management business. Reacting to the announcement, Kotak Mahindra Banks chief executive officer Uday Kotak tweeted, It will enable the banking sector to serve customers better. Private and public sector must both work towards sustainable development of India." In 2012, RBI had allowed private banks to handle central and state government business. However, this was reversed in September the same year after the government decided to postpone liberalization" of government business in favour of private banks for three years. Earlier, other private banks had to go through PSU banks or large private banks for servicing our customers for tax collections. Government departments used to discriminate against smaller private banks on the basis of having an extensive branch network requirement. Now, that is not relevant as many aspects of government are becoming tech-centric where smaller banks can play to their strengths," said a senior banker with a small private sector bank. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Bearded seals are loud -- but not loud enough Ithaca, NY-- During mating season, male bearded seals make loud calls to attract a mate--even their "quiet" call could still be as ear-rattling as a chainsaw. Bearded seals have to be loud to be heard over the cacophony of their equally loud brethren. And, increasingly, the noise humans make is adding to the underwater din and could have serious consequences. A study conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Center for Conservation Bioacoustics (CCB) aims to understand how resilient bearded seals can be to changes in ambient underwater noise. The results are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Science. "We wanted to know whether bearded seals would call louder when their habitat grew noisy from natural sound sources," says CCB postdoctoral research associate Michelle Fournet who led the study. "The goal was to determine if there was a 'noise threshold' beyond which seals either couldn't-or wouldn't-call any louder in order to heard. By identifying this naturally occurring threshold, we can make conservation recommendations about how loud is too loud for human activities.' From spring through early summer, the under-ice habitat near Utqiagvik, Alaska, is flooded with the vocalizations of male bearded seals--a sound that can be best described as "otherworldly." These elaborate vocalizations are essential for bearded seal reproduction, but in the rapidly changing Arctic soundscape, where noise from industrial activities is predicted to dramatically increase in the next 15 years, bearded seals may need to adjust their calling behavior if they are going to be heard above the noise generated by ships and commercial activities. But the bearded seals can only do so much. Fournet and colleagues listened to thousands of recorded bearded seal vocalizations from Arctic Alaska spanning a two-year period. Each call was carefully measured and compared to the concurrent ambient noise conditions. What they found is that bearded seals do call louder as their underwater acoustic habitat gets noisier, but there is an upper limit to this behavior. As expected, when ambient noise gets too high, bearded seals are no longer able to compensate in order to be heard. As a result, as ambient noise conditions increase, the distance over which individuals can be detected goes down. "Given that these are reproductive calls, it is likely that the seals are already calling as close to as loudly as possible-the males very much want to be heard by the females," Fournet says. "So, it is unsurprising that there is an upper limit. I'm grateful that we have been able to identify that limit so we can make responsible management choices moving forward." While this work has intrinsic conservation value, a major impetus for pursuing this research is the value of bearded seals-or ugruk in the Inupiaq language-to Alaska Native communities in the high Arctic. Bearded seals are at the center of subsistence and cultural activities in Inupiaq communities. Threats to bearded seals are by extension threats to the communities that rely on them. "This work never would have happened without the insight and guidance of Arctic communities," Fournet says. "It was their energy that led the Cornell Lab to place hydrophones in the water. It is our job to continue listening." ### Reference: Michelle E. H. Fournet, Margherita Silvestri, Christopher W. Clark, Holger Klinck, and Aaron N. Rice. Limited vocal compensation for elevated ambient noise in bearded seals: implications for an industrializing Arctic Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. February 2021. This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 00:30:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Tanzanian President John Magufuli (R, front) attends the inauguration ceremony of Kijazi Interchange in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Feb. 24, 2021. Magufuli on Wednesday inaugurated the Chinese-built state-of-the-art Kijazi Interchange in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, making heavy traffic jams lasting for hours at the busy Ubungo junction history. (Xinhua) DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Wednesday inaugurated the Chinese-built state-of-the-art Kijazi Interchange in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, making heavy traffic jams lasting for hours at the busy Ubungo junction history. In his address shortly after he inaugurated the interchange constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), Magufuli said the construction of the interchange signals an end to nightmares experienced by motorists who spent hours in traffic jams. Magufuli, who named the interchange as Kijazi Interchange in appreciation of the former Chief Secretary John Kijazi who died on Feb. 17, 2021, commended CCECC for completing the project on time. He urged other construction companies undertaking various projects in the country to emulate the aptitude displayed by the Chinese company. Magufuli said the interchange greatly reduce traffic congestion with over 68,000 vehicles passing daily. The Kijazi interchange, mainly consisting of a three level interchange with the maximum height of 17.5 meters and service roads, is the biggest project of its kind in the country. Enditem WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue Universitys Department of Agricultural Economics and Indiana Universitys Robert H. McKinney School of Law have joined forces to create the first MJ-MS agricultural economics and law program in the nation. Students who complete the program will receive a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and Master of Jurisprudence from IU McKinney. This new program will provide students with a multidisciplinary education in agricultural economics and law and equip them to make creative and significant contributions to their companies, the food and agribusiness industries and food and agriculture policies, said Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of the College of Agriculture. This unique offering capitalizes on the strengths of both universities to provide an essential foundation in agricultural law. Purdues agricultural economics program offers an in-depth understanding of the food systems economics and the economic concepts and theories required to make effective decisions in a dynamic industry. IU McKinneys legal training emphasizes understanding regulatory oversight, administrative agencies roles, policy questions and transactional structures. We are delighted to partner with Purdue on this important initiative as it will distinguish graduates in the dynamic agricultural law industry and equip them with the tools they need to be effective changemakers and leaders in this growing field, said Cynthia Adams, IU McKinney vice dean and clinical professor of law. We are happy to announce that interested students can also apply for significant funding as we will be offering two 50% fee remission scholarships toward the M.J. degree for entering students." Students would first receive an MS degree from Purdue University after completing 21 credits from Purdues Department of Agricultural Economics and 15 credits from the IU McKinney School of Law. The student would receive the MJ degree after completing an additional set of 15 law credits from IU McKinney School of Law. The MS in agricultural economics consists primarily of online courses with three required periods of in-person residency. The MJ degree program will be taught through evening, online and hybrid courses. Interested students can also apply for significant funding, Adams said. Entering students are eligible for two 50% scholarships toward the new M.J. degree. Both programs are now accepting applications for the program. Prospective students must separately apply to and be accepted by both universities. The application deadline for Purdue is March 1, and the deadline for IU McKinney is May 1. For more information about the MJ-MS in agricultural law program, contact Ryan Good, Purdues graduate program administrator, at rrgood@purdue.edu. Writer: Kami Goodwin, kami@purdue.edu Sources: Nicole Olynk Widmar, nwidmar@purdue.edu, Ryan Good, rrgood@purdue.edu, Miki Pike Hamstra, mhamstra@iupui.edu Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415; Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu Agriculture News Page 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. King Street Coffee to close as owner looks ahead to new partnership with enterprise hub This article is old - Published: Thursday, Feb 25th, 2021 A popular town centre coffee shop is set to close next month as its owner looks ahead to a new partnership with a local enterprise hub. King Street Coffee Company, located in the Wrexham Bus Station, was opened by brothers Phil and Andy Gallanders at the start of April in 2016. Two years later their offer expanded when Andy launched Bank Street Social across the town. However this morning owner Phil announced that after almost five years in business, King Street Coffee would be closing its doors for good on Saturday 6 March. Instead he and Andy will start a new partnership with Town Square Spaces to open up new coffee shops. Speaking about the decision, Phil said: Weve always been blown away with the support that the people of Wrexham have shown us, especially in the last year with the issues brought about by the Covid situation. Our focus on quality goods and service alongside supporting the local community has led to us being offered the chance to partner with Town Square Spaces to open up coffee shops in future projects. In order to deliver these projects to the best of our abilities King Street Coffee Company will be closing and Ill be joining Andy at Bank Street Social to continue serving top quality coffee and craft beer. The first space operated by Town Square Social will be opening in Rhyl later on this year with plans to expand to town centres all over the UK. 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. New York, Feb 25 : US-based drugmaker Moderna said that it has completed manufacturing of clinical trial material for its variant-specific vaccine candidate against the SARS-CoV-2 variant known as B.1.351 -- first identified in the Republic of South Africa. The company has shipped doses to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Phase 1 clinical trial that will be led and funded by the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). "As we seek to defeat Covid-19, we must be vigilant and proactive as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge. Leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are moving quickly to test updates to the vaccines that address emerging variants of the virus in the clinic," StAphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said in a statement. While initial data confirms that the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine (mRNA-1273) provides neutralizing activity against variants of concern, out of an abundance of caution, the pharmaceutical company is pursuing two strategies against these variants, subject to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review. First, the company is evaluating booster doses of vaccine to increase neutralizing immunity against the variants of concern. Moderna plans to evaluate three approaches to boosting, including a variant-specific booster candidate, mRNA-1273.351, based on the B.1.351 variant, at the 50 Ag dose level and lower. A multivalent booster candidate, mRNA-1273.211, which combines mRNA-1273, Moderna's authorized vaccine against ancestral strains, and mRNA-1273.351 in a single vaccine at the 50 Ag dose level and lower. A third dose of mRNA-1273, the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, as a booster at the 50 Ag dose level. The company has already begun dosing this cohort with the booster. Second, the company plans to evaluate mRNA-1273.351 and mRNA-1273.211 as a primary vaccination series for those who are seronegative. These candidates will be evaluated in a two-dose series at the 100 Ag dose level and lower. A letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed vaccination with the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine produced neutralizing titers against all key emerging variants tested, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, first identified in the UK and Republic of South Africa, respectively. The study showed no significant impact on neutralizing titers against the B.1.1.7 variant relative to prior variants. A six-fold reduction in neutralizing titers was observed with the B.1.351 variant relative to prior variants. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text TikTok users have taken their pranks to the next level by tricking their unsuspecting parents into believing the UK is under nuclear attack. Youngsters on the social media platform are broadcasting a fake BBC News alert onto their living room televisions and filming their parents' reactions. One mother is close to tears as the apocalyptic message announces: 'This is an emergency broadcast from the BBC. Information of a possible nuclear strike against this country has been received. 'The threat level is critical meaning an attack is imminent.' Charlie Davis's mother appeared terrified as she watched the apocalyptic broadcast 'An attack is imminent': How TikTok users are pranking parents TikTok users are finding fake nuclear attack videos on YouTube, before casting them onto their television screens. The clip - which appears to be filmed in a BBC studio - announces: 'This is an emergency broadcast from the BBC. 'Information of a possible nuclear strike against this country has been received. 'Civilians are advised to stay in their homes. Evacuations are currently taking place in the London area. 'All non-essential telephone lines have also been temporarily disconnected. All motorways and airports have been closed for military use.' One particular video features actor Mark Ryes and was produced for an Irish company in 2016. In 2018, the BBC was forced to release a statement telling people the clip was fake. It said: 'A fictional video reporting the onset of thermonuclear war and featuring BBC News branding has been shared widely. 'It is not real but alarmed viewers have contacted the BBC, apparently convinced it is true.' Advertisement Shaun Perrett, who has more than 250,000 followers on TikTok, filmed his mother Tracey Stebbing as her show was interrupted by the fake broadcast. Mrs Stebbing watches in horror as the fake BBC clip announces: 'Civilians are advised to stay in their homes. 'Evacuations are currently taking place in the London area. 'All non-essential telephone lines have also been temporarily disconnected. 'All motorways and airports have been closed for military use.' Shaun films his emotional mother as she fights back tears and says, 'Nuclear strike?..I'm scared.' He manages to keep a straight face as he asks his mother, 'Where are we going to get a shelter from..?' The 25-year-old's TikTok video has amassed 1.4 million views. And Charlie Davis filmed his terrified mother as she ran to the front door and out into the street, after watching the clip appearing to show screaming people running along the street. But experts have told social media users to be careful when posting such pranks online. Professor Beatrice Heuser, an expert on nuclear strategy at the University of Glasgow, warned they could be 'picked up and taken seriously by paranoid Russians who see conspiracies everywhere.' Ross Loudon, 19, got more than 2.2 million views on a video which filmed the reaction of his 40-year-old mother Dawn McMutrie. He films as the emergency broadcast purporting to be from the BBC and Home Office flashes on her screen, telling her 'normal programming has been suspended.' Charlie Davis filmed his terrified mother as she ran to the front door and out into the street, after watching the clip appearing to show screaming people running along the street For millions of Britons who grew up in the 1970s and 80s, the possibility of nuclear war was a real and alarming threat. An unnerving pamphlet produced by Margaret Thatchers government at the height of the cold war in 1980, advised to people on how to survive in the event of a nuclear war as Britain braced itself for any possible attack. Protect and Survive was first published in 1980 to advise the public on what to do in the face of nuclear war. Warning that no part of the United Kingdom was safe, it detailed the effects of a nuclear fall-out, outlined how to plan for survival and recognise the warning signs when an attack is imminent, and gave advice on what to do immediately following an attack and in the days after. The TikTok nuclear attack warning, which does not come from the BBC, can be found among a host of other similar fake videos on YouTube. Professor Beatrice Heuser told The Telegraph: 'Russians have no sense of humour when it comes to this sort of event. 'When in 1984, during a particularly tense period of the Cold War, Ronald Reagan jokingly said in front of a microphone unaware that it was already recording that 'We begin bombing in five minutes', this was massively exploited by Soviet anti-Western propaganda.' OTTAWA The Manitoba Metis Federations campaign to get on the provinces COVID-19 vaccine task force now hinges on whether the group needs to hire a physician. OTTAWA The Manitoba Metis Federations campaign to get on the provinces COVID-19 vaccine task force now hinges on whether the group needs to hire a physician. "Theyve asked us to provide a doctor. Well, we dont need a doctor; the science and medicine have already determined what the vaccines do," President David Chartrand said. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Metis Federation President David Chartrand. Chartrand said provincial officials told an MMF representative last week they would need to provide a physician to gain access to the task force, instead of a pharmacy logistics official the federation had intended to appoint. "What we need is somebody who is more in tune with data, the information on the community, the population locations thats who we need at that table," Chartrand said. A provincial spokeswoman seemed to suggest there was no dispute. "The province will work with health leaders who are chosen by MMF to identify their priorities for vaccine planning," she wrote on behalf of the Health Department. The spokeswoman did not immediately reply when asked whether this referred to the task force or marginal committee work. The province has included the Metis in side efforts such as combating COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy or transportation to vaccine super sites. But Metis have been shut out of the vaccine task force, which decides on priority groups and logistics. A First Nations representative was added around Christmas. "They play games with us," Chartrand said. "Were not going to go to some kiddie table; we want to be in the main room." Both the MMF and the provincial government have accused each other of poor communication. The province insists this has nothing to do with Premier Brian Pallisters frosty relationship with the MMF, but Chartrand feels otherwise. He filed a discrimination complaint against Dr. Brent Roussin and the province last fall. Manitoba has still not signed a COVID-19 data-sharing agreement with the MMF, despite inking contracts with First Nations and Inuit last April. Last month, the MMF announced its own private COVID-19 testing service, arguing it was the best way to get a sense of how the coronavirus is spreading among Metis people. That same week, the Trudeau government urged Manitoba to finally include the MMF on the vaccine task force. The MMF asked Ottawa to instead sidestep the province and work directly with the Metis. Dr. Marcia Anderson, who represents First Nations on the task force, said Wednesday Metis people do not qualify for younger vaccine eligibility. Older First Nations people qualify for immunization before their non-First Nations peers. "At this time they (Metis people) would be considered within the general population category," said Anderson, who is a provincial employee by virtue of being a medical officer of health. "I do understand that they are having ongoing, bilateral discussions with the province on this topic." Chartrand saluted the work for First Nations, but chided both Anderson and the province for designing a policy to recognize First Nations people without Indian status but not Metis people, who often have identical lived experiences such as being adopted in the Sixties Scoop. He suggested Metis would feel tempted to lie about being First Nations, as many could produce evidence of family members who do have status, and thus qualify for the vaccine earlier. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs called that "attacking the invaluable work" of their pandemic team and urged the MMF "to work positively towards protecting our most vulnerable people." dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca You might not believe this, but this red-bodied 86 is in a way stock. It didn't come like this from the factory, but Toyota did make it. To be more precise, this is the 86 style Cb, launched six years ago. It was designed specifically to attract Japanese women, but it's pretty rare.The model was previewed at the 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon as the "86xStyle Cb." It features a unique front end that replaces the pre-facelift one, basically what we know as a Scion. Round headlights are designed to fit within a new nose, features that give this car a distinctively retro look. Othe changes included wheels with a thin-spoked design, available two-tone paint, and deleting the emblems on the side of the front fender, the ones shaped like boxer engines. It looks kind of like a mix between an older Jaguar XK from about 2000 and the 2000GT.It's not unusual for Toyota to make different versions of an existing car. It's a veritable powerhouse in Japan, with its own large city and dealer network separated into "brands" like Toyopet, Corolla, and Netz. Back in the old days, the original 86 we know as the Corolla Trueno also had a version called the Levin, which had square fixed lights instead of pop-ups.When it went on sale back in 2015, the 86 Style Cb retailed for 4,180,582 yen, which was almost $34,300 at the time. It still came with the 200 horsepower 2.0-liter. The one in these pictures belongs to @squaad_zn6, who resides in Taiwan. The kit was retrofitted to the car and matched to custom wheels and a hellaflush suspension setup. 33017 Boatyard collaborates with Lauderdale Marine Center to develop the LMC Customer Experience app. FREMONT, CA: Boatyard pushes the boating industry forward by making it easy for boat owners to communicate with their favorite marinas, dealers, or marine pros with a few clicks on their mobile devices. The company has recently confirmed a new collaboration with Lauderdale Marine Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL, to develop the LMC Customer Experience app. Lauderdale Marine Center is America's largest and premier recreational yacht repair and service facility based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. LMC customers can now request a booking for in-water slips or dry dock, order services for their yacht, handle booking requests, interact with customer services, and much more through the App. Colin Kiley, EVP, Lauderdale Marine Center, comments, "We are constantly working to improve our customer experience, what we like to call the LMCx. Creating an App to provide our clients a seamless communication mode to save time and add efficiency to their busy yard periods was the obvious next evolution. We have already planned for the next round of App upgrades, which will provide customers with the ability to contact, request a quote, and schedule service with our authorized contractors, ever-increasing the LMCx." "The team at Lauderdale Marine Center shares our mission of delivering remarkable customer service experiences to their yacht owners," said Nathan Heber, Founder and CEO of Boatyard, "so it was a privilege for us to collaborate with LMC to develop their Customer Experience app." Enhanced communication is the most crucial advantage for the clients of LMCs. The App helps yacht owners and crew of LMCs connect with customer services while their yacht is in South Florida, the Mediterranean, or elsewhere. Boatyard, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL, is the world's first platform for on-demand boat services. Boat owners can order fuel delivery, boat maintenance, operation, captains, and more from qualified, vetted marine service providers through Boatyards' award-winning mobile App. The Boatyards Software-as-a-Service platform offers digital resources for marine businesses to handle their service requests and provide their clients with remarkable experiences. Located on the New River in Fort Lauderdale, visible from I-95 and near Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, LMC is a 60-acre facility comprising a boatyard, marina, and marine service center providing a full range of repair and services related to the marine industry. It accommodates vessels up to 200 feet with 25 covered slips and 207 berths on the property with 10,000 linear feet of dockage. Prosecution of two Lycoming County residents and one from Centre County charged with breaking into the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot in Washington has taken another step forward. Criminal informations have been filed in District of Columbia federal court against Tammy A. Bronsburg, 49, of Williamsport, Mark R. Aungst, 45, of South Williamsport, and Brian Gundersen, 26, of State College. The three had been arrested several weeks ago on FBI complaints and released on personal recognizance by U.S. Middle District Magistrate Judge William I. Arbuckle III in Williamsport. Charges filed by information instead of by a grand jury indictment usually infer the accused has agreed to plead guilty. However, no plea agreements have been filed. Bronsburg who also goes by Tammy Butry Aungst and Gunderson are charged with entering a restricted building, disruptive conduct, violent entry and demonstrating in a Capitol building. The only difference in the charges is Bronsburg and Aungst are accused of being in proximity of where then Vice President Mike Pence and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris were. At the time of the riot, Pence was presiding over the official count of the Electoral College votes. Harris was there as a senator from California. The FBI affidavit filed in the Bronsburg-Aungst case stated they were observed on a cell phone video on the Senate side of the Capitol near the north entrance door. Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey MacArthur told Arbuckle there was no evidence either Bronsburg or Aungst caused any damage in the Capitol. The three were among those who traveled to Washington to attend a Trump rally that preceded the march to the Capitol. While free on bail, they must stay out of Washington except for court appearances, cannot possess firearms and must report weekly by telephone to a probation officer. Gundersens next scheduled court appearance in Washington is March 5 and for Bronsburg and Aungst, its April 15, all by video. For 40 years, Robert Wu and his wife, Sally, owned a three-bedroom house in Ridgewood, N.J. They reared their son and daughter there, and rented out the house for 20 years when Mr. Wu worked in Hong Kong and China. Their renters were mostly Japanese executives, and except for one they were good tenants, he said. But after Sally died two years ago, the house became too cavernous, too lonely, he said. There were parts of the house I never set foot in. It brought back a lot of memories, so I decided to sell the house and move back to New York. Mr. Wu, 77, grew up in Flushing, Queens, after immigrating from Hong Kong with his family as a young teenager. He studied engineering at New York University and later went into management. I realize that, at my age, the apartment will be the last home that I will have, he said. So I want to make sure it will be a home I dont mind living in for the rest of my life. I wanted to have everything I need, which is privacy, view, convenience, nice construction, good layout, things like that. [Did you recently buy or rent a home in the New York metro area? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com] With a budget of up to $650,000, he began looking for a one-bedroom in Flushing, dense with Asian restaurants and food vendors. I dont like to cook, he said. I was spoiled because my wife was a good cook and she taught Chinese cooking for a while, so having access to ready food was important to me. But while Flushings food was appealing, its teeming sidewalks werent. The frenetic energy does not fit my sentiment right now, he said. I value serenity. As for the housing stock, there were plenty of six-story apartment buildings with elevators, but he found them uninspiring. So he headed south to Forest Hills, a neighborhood he was familiar with from his school days. I had a very good feeling about Forest Hills, he said. With the help of his agent, Christine Wei of Exit Realty One, who was referred by a friend, he saw nearly 40 places. I was feeling guilty that I was overusing the real estate agent, he said. She was almost ready to give up on me. He discovered that Forest Hillss high-rises many built in the mid-1960s and loaded with amenities like parking garages and private outdoor space were more to his liking. Among his options: 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. View the Feb. 18 COVID-19 town hall, the latest in an ongoing series of virtual Emory community conversations providing updates and information about vaccines. When Emory began hosting virtual COVID-19 town halls last year, our primary focus was to provide vital information and share the latest developments with the wider community. At the same time, these forums have provided an incredible glimpse into the important work being done throughout the Emory community in response to the virus as told through the personal stories of those engaged in efforts to understand, treat and mitigate COVID-19. People like Dr. Monique Smith, an emergency physician at Grady Memorial Hospital whos been working on the frontlines of COVID-19 care. Like many of us, shes spent the past year navigating the pandemic with new anxieties and fears. As a wife and mother, those concerns drove her to temporarily isolate from her husband and then 18-month-old daughter for a month last year in order to reduce the risk of infecting them. And though she will tell you that shes been privileged to care for COVID-19 patients, Smith has also felt the heartache of seeing the virus disproportionately impact people in Atlantas Black and Latino communities, where pockets of vaccine hesitancy may remain. Yet the virus continues to present risks and create devastating impacts on lives young and old. During the Feb. 18 town hall, Smith described treating a patient who was barely 20, in prime health and training to become a professional athlete. Over the course of Smiths eight-hour shift, she saw that patient quickly shift from someone who was alert and talking to requiring interventions to help him breathe and keep his heart pumping blood throughout his body. Thats a powerful reminder of the potential impact of COVID19 and why we must remain diligent in continuing to practice basic health and safety protocols, including face masks, hand washing and physical distancing especially in light of the recent surge in cases on campus. Vaccines create hope As Smith has watched the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, and understanding the science that supports it, for me, as a physician, as a Black mom, wife and daughter having seen what I have seen its a little bit of a no-brainer to get the vaccine, she shared. In modern medicine, there is perhaps nothing more central to wellbeing than this idea of vaccines something that science has mastered in order to protect us, to allow us to engage and be healthy and in community with one another, Smith said. You may know that Emory Healthcare has taken a lead role in helping administer the rollout of those vaccines in Georgia, as determined by state guidelines. At the same time, Emory students are also playing an active role in vaccine distribution, contact tracing and community outreach and education part of a broad service effort. For example, at Mercedes Benz Stadium, among Fulton Countys largest vaccination sites, Emory School of Medicine students have been working tirelessly to administer COVID-19 vaccines. Theyve been joined by nearly 200 students from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, whove been participating at COVID-19 vaccinations clinics around Georgia. And the Rollins School of Public Health has assigned student epidemiology fellows to consult with and support health districts throughout the state. Emory stands ready At Emory and across Georgia, interest in vaccines remains high. While we are currently operating in Phase 1A of vaccine distribution, estimates are that we will move to Phase 1B sometime in March. When that happens, and vaccines are allocated, Emory will notify all eligible faculty, staff and students who may fit 1B criteria by email through our HOME system. You do not need to contact us to be added to the list. We are already actively planning for vaccinating the entire Emory community as state phases and vaccine supplies allow. But if you can get a vaccine now, either through Emory Healthcare or elsewhere, please do so. While vaccines offer a vital tool in our fight against COVID-19, remember that they must be paired with the other health and safety practices weve all become accustomed to, both on and off campus. This is a critical moment in our fight; we must be vigilant and partner together. As a community, I know thats something we can achieve. Terrorism in Libya, the Sahel and Sahara, and in Egypt as well, and the clear ability of terrorist organisations to move, cooperate and support each other, necessitate that countries on the continent coordinate and cooperate over security on the bilateral and multilateral levels, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said in a press conference held ahead of the Aswan Forum II, Shaping Africas new normal: Recovering stronger, rebuilding better. Development, security, and stability challenges facing the African continent were addressed during the inaugural forum Aswan Forum I in December 2019. Now the Covid-19 pandemic can be added to the list, and the longer it lasts, the more its impacts on the economy and the development of the continent will be felt. Continental development priorities are clear, said Ahmed Abdel-Latif, executive director of the forum, and the pandemic has cast them in starker perspective and highlighted the urgency with which they must be dealt. The first days sessions of Aswan Forum II, which will be held virtually from 1 to 5 March, will be devoted to discussing the impact of the pandemic, ways to recover from it and strengthen sustainable peace and development, and the need for an integrated response to the growth of terrorism in the shadow of the pandemic. While Aswan Forum II will continue to address issues discussed in the first forum, peace and security, sustainable development, and the links between them, new topics have been added to the agenda. They include, according to Abdel-Latif, developing the infrastructure of the continent, culture and youth and their role in enhancing peace, and climate change and trade in the wake of last months launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The Aswan II Forum will bring together leaders from regional and international organisations, business, civil society, and experts from a range of sectors and the 15 sessions aim is to address problems in the light of action needed on the ground rather than in a theoretical manner, said Hamadi Loza, deputy foreign minister for African affairs. This years forum will follow up on how recommendations made at the end of the first forum have been translated on the ground and will also assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the continent. The participation of the WHO in the Forum sends a clear message about the importance of urgently tackling these challenges, said Loza. The participation of the new US administration in the forum offers an opportunity for the White House to listen to African voices on a host of pressing issues, and for African countries to learn more about US policies towards Africa, Loza added. According to the draft agenda, issues to be discussed include advancing the position of women, security during the pandemic and beyond, tackling forced displacements in national planning and peace processes, the role of arts, culture, and heritage in promoting sustainable peace, and harnessing trade for peace and prosperity. The closing session aims to chart ways in which Africa can recover and rebuild itself better. The Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peace Building (CCCPA), in its capacity as secretariat of the forum, has conducted a series of webinars in preparation for the event. The last of the sessions, focusing on African Youth Voices and the Sustainable Peace and Development Agenda, is scheduled for the day before the start of the forum. A series of workshops geared towards producing action-oriented recommendations to be presented to the forum has also been held. Among the topics discussed were Terrorism in the shadow of the pandemic, Migration in national development planning in the Sahel and Sahara, and Climate change and its impacts on security and development. Plans are also underway for the convening of the third forum in the series, says Loza, who hopes that when we start inviting the parties to Forum III, we find the same positive response we found in Forum II. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: Everyone above 60 years of age and those over 45 years and having other illnesses will be able to get COVID-19 vaccine from March 1 for free at government facilities and for a charge at many private hospitals, the government said on Wednesday. Announcing the next phase of India's vaccination drive, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said a proposal to this effect was approved at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI Vaccine for free "While the vaccine will be given for free at government centres, it will be available for a charge, to be decided later, at many private hospitals," the minister said at a post-Cabinet media briefing. The vaccine recipients will not be allowed to choose between Covishield and Covaxin. India's active caseload at 1.46 lakhs India's total COVID-19 active caseload currently stands at 1.46 lakh (1,46,907) on Wednesday and accounts for 1.33 per cent of the country's total coronavirus cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). Reuters According to the health ministry, the country registered 13,742 new daily cases in the last 24 hours and 14,037 recoveries which led to a net decline of 399 cases in the total active caseload. The ministry said that in the last one week, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Telangana, Delhi and Haryana have reported more than 100 average daily new cases, whereas Kerala and Maharashtra both report more than 4,000 average daily new cases in past one week. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Unesco have collaborated to produce a set of new guidelines focusing on the responsible restart of cultural tourism. The shared values and close ties between tourism and culture stakeholders means both sectors can work together to ensure inclusive access to heritage, as countries around the world recover from the pandemic, a UNWTO statement said. UNWTO invited the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) to contribute to the UNWTO Inclusive Recovery Guide, Issue 2: Cultural Tourism. This is the second set of guidelines relating to the socio-cultural impacts of Covid-19 issued by UNWTO and will continue to be revised, as the situation evolves. Make cultural tourism relevant The publication draws on the insights and expertise of the two UN agencies to analyse the impact of the pandemic on their respective sectors. This includes how lost revenues are severely impacting communities, heritage sites, cultural events, spaces and institutions, while also weakening destinations competitiveness and market differentiation. The guidelines on cultural tourism also stress the need for support from policymakers to ensure the relevance of culture in the emergency and contingency planning within tourism destinations. Cooperation for a better future Alongside the new guidelines, UNWTO is urging the cultural tourism sector to create participatory governance structures, bringing together artists, creators, tourism and culture professionals, the private sector and local communities, for an open dialogue, data exchange and real-time solutions. The document also advocates for better urbanrural connections so as to ensure the benefits of both culture and tourism are enjoyed as widely as possible. As a result of the pandemic, 90% of countries introduced total or partial closures of their World Heritage sites. In many cases, sites of special significance to humanity were closed to the public for the first time in decades. At the same time, the pandemic highlighted the relevance of both tourism and culture. The sudden fall in tourist arrivals has been felt across the globe, while millions of people have turned to virtual cultural experiences for comfort and inspiration. The release of the guidelines comes within the context of the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development 2021, a UN initiative designed to recognize how different manifestations of culture, including cultural tourism, can contribute to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it said. - TradeArabia News Service (Newser) An Oklahoma woman was charged Monday with second-degree murder and more than 100 counts of animal cruelty after investigators performing a welfare check at her property this month discovered a human body and a suspected puppy mill, KFOR reports. Karen Jean Pritchard, 49, was arrested Feb. 13 after authorities received a report that someone was injured or killed at the property in Marlow, per the Duncan Banner. Deputies responding to the report discovered numerous dogsfrom 165 to up to 300, depending on the reportbeing kept in "deplorable" conditions. "They were matted, filthy, scared, and hungry," a Humane Society member tells KFOR. Deputies got a warrant to search the property and found the body of Ashley Nicole Anderson, 31, in an outbuilding. "We believe the victim lived at the same address and may have been there to help with the dogs," Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney tells the Marlow Review. story continues below Per the Banner, Pritchard told police that an argument about taking care of the dogsduring which she said she fired Andersonled to a physical fight. She said that Anderson left and returned the next day "acting psychotic" and they had another altercation. According to an affidavit, Pritchard told someone that she had accidently backed into Anderson with a truck, killing her. Speaking to police, Pritchard reportedly said that Anderson "was hitting her own head on the side of the truck and hitting herself with a pipe." At some point, Anderson fell to the ground, she said, and began to shake. Pritchard and another person reportedly put Anderson in a residence on the property, and Pritchard later discovered that she had died. Pritchard is being held on $1 million bond, according to KSWO. The dogs were rescued by the Humane Society. (Read more crime stories.) SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An experienced managing partner of arguably one of the most successful law firms in California weighs in on how the court system has changed to the advantage of the insurance industry and large and small businesses. See: https://www.penneylawyers.com/ . The statistical data used and personal experience dealing with the pandemic within the court system gives Frederick Penney a unique prospective on this issue. The pros and cons of how these changes affect the average consumer are also discussed. Staggering Statistics Attorneys, plaintiffs, and defendants are becoming more and more frustrated due to lack of access to the court system. Understandably the courts cannot function like they used to prior to the pandemic. As the managing partner and trial lawyer for Penney and Associates law firm in California, I can relate to the frustrations the public, courts and businesses feel. I believe many non-attorneys would say that this is a good thing that the access to the courts is limited so parties are more hesitant to bring lawsuits or will be more motivated to settle their cases. With over 28 years of experience as a trial lawyer I know that the way to get cases settled is to have a sum certain trial date. Many of the cases settle when the reality for both parties that they are about to put their fait into the hands of 12 jurors or a judge looms just over the horizon. Now that the added pressure of courts all but closing their doors for civil trials, the pressure of settling immediately prior to trial is now off. Now cases seem to be dragging on longer as trial dates get pushed out later and later hoping the pandemic will have disappeared. For example, according to the Judicial Council of California from March 2019 through August 2019 Alameda County was able to accommodate 115,671 trials (in one form or another). Whereas from March 2020 through August 2020 Alameda County was able to accommodate only 57,095 trials. This is a staggering 50.6% decrease in trials. The worst in California was Sacramento County that had a 72.9% decrease in cases going to trial from the same time period mentioned above. See: https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/jbbc-20210105-materials.pdf. Without belaboring the point and researching every state's decrease in cases going to trial during the pandemic, I am sure that in some states there were substantial decreases like those noted above. How Do Businesses Save Money So how does the decrease in cases going to trial and the courts being essentially closed for civil trials help business save money? The answer is easy, in expert and attorney fees and costs. First the courts are now turning to Zoom or some similar platform to perform necessary duties such as settlement conference, status conferences, arguments concerning certain motions before the court or any other court mandated hearings. https://zoom.us/ . The courts have also relaxed the requirements of service and rules concerning depositions to accommodate the ability of attorneys and their clients to still proceed with the litigation portion of the case (note, this is performing the work before the trial) while still in lockdown or having limited access to travel and the courts during the pandemic. This was evident the other day when my partners and I were discussing the latest status of cases and the cases that were being prepared for trial. During this discussion is when I knew I had to write about how the pandemic will help businesses save in attorney and expert fees and costs. Normally when experts are used for a trial their depositions are noticed and either the expert must fly out to a place where the attorneys have designated for the deposition or the attorneys must fly to the expert's hometown to take their deposition. Many times, the experts are not even located in the same state of the attorneys. Thus, if you are an attorney that charges by the hour, you usually charge for travel time and expenses. These expenses could be the cost of hotels, airline flights, rental cars, and other sundry items. Even attorneys that are paid on a contingency fee basis still charge expenses to the file such as flights, hotels, rental cars, and gas. Many times, one expert deposition could take a full day if you include the travel time. Or, if the expert must travel to have their deposition taken then they would also charge travel time and expenses. The new norm is to take the deposition of experts via Zoom and attorney's can at times take two or three depositions in one day from their office or home. In one of our cases there are over 50 expert depositions that need to be taken and the attorney's and experts were able to perform theses depositions expeditiously using Zoom. This I believe will be the new norm and standard as the time and expenses saved by having the attorneys and experts not traveling will save clients and business an enormous amount of money. This also goes for the insurance industry that at times pay outside counsel by the hour (note some insurance companies have in-house attorneys a salary to represent their policy holders). Though this has helped business, it is no surprise that it has put pressure on law firms that have less work due to the process of litigating a case becoming more efficient. I have personally known of law firms that are laying off lawyers or breaking up due to the decrease in work. Moreover, there just is not as much work out there than prior to the pandemic. A quick example would be in the field of personal injury. The lawyers in our office have been advised by insurance representatives that on a given month there may be up to 50% less injury claims than the same time in 2019. Many would agree that is a good thing, which one cannot argue. Recent discussions with attorney's practicing areas of law other than personal injury are finding that the personal injury lawyers are now moving into their space. According to the Consumer Federation of America in Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Texas. there have been 23% fewer accidents in September and October 2020 as compared to 2019. Most other states do not have their statistics up to date. In fact, during March through October 2020 Texas saw over ninety-seven thousand less accidents than the year before. Clearly with a substantial decrease in claims the insurance industry has given most auto insurers a few months of premium credits. Only time will tell if that is enough credit to the consumers. See: https://consumerfed.org/press_release/auto-insurance-refunds-needed-as-new-data-show-crashes-remain-well-below-normal-due-to-pandemic-23-fewer-accidents-in-september-and-october/ . What Does the Future Hold What does this mean in the long run? Possibly a decrease in law school admissions, a decrease in the job opportunities for lawyers and possibly the decrease in lawyers' and experts' billable rates? As is in most industries the best lawyers will more than likely survive and have plenty of business, but those at the bottom of the spectrum my be finding that they will need to diversify. As with most professions there has been a decrease in work since the Pandemic. Will it come back? Will the amount of work for lawyers and experts in the legal business find an increase of work after the pandemic? As of February 2021, it looks like the amount of work for lawyers is not increasing and possibly the pandemic may have weeded out many lawyers that were successful just due to the glut of work available for them pre-pandemic. Only time will tell. SOURCE Penney and Associates Related Links www.penneylawyers.com For just $100, you can take your Ted Cruz frustrations out on the senator himself well, kinda. ABC Party HQ in Dallas is selling pinatas depicting the Texas Republican headed on his spur-of-the-moment vacation to Cancun, per New York Post's Yaron Steinbuch. Standing at three-and-a-half-feet tall, the fill-able version of the senator shows him sporting the grey polo shirt, jeans, grey sneakers and Texas flag mask he wore on his return flight to Texas. He's seen with his passport in one hand and rolling suitcase in the other. SO HE WENT TO CANCUN: Internet roasts Ted Cruz for claiming he 'warned Texans early' of snowstorm This isn't the first time the party store has created pinata versions of prominent public figures. They've also featured former President Donald Trump and then U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in his iconic meme image. We just see it as something trending in the news, and want to provide a good laugh for people during these difficult times, said Carlos De La Fuente, one of the party store owners, as reported by Steinbuch. Cruz has defended his impromptu vacation to sunny skies and sunshine, saying he was just trying to be a "good dad" and fly to the resort with his daughters. He claimed the two girls, ages 10 and 12, wanted to take a trip with friends since classes were canceled in the midst of the winter snowstorm. Text messages from Cruz's wife Heidi, which were leaked to the press, disputed those claims. And he was pissed about it. Heres a suggestion, Cruz said, coming to his wife's defense. Just dont be aholes. Just treat each other as human beings. Have some modicum of respect. It's safe to assume Texans aren't planning to forgive Cruz for abandoning his post and rescue pup Snowflake any time soon, because De La Fuente said they've seen a lot of preorders for the pinatas, as reported by Steinbuch. Johann Chuckaree is the epitome of the modern Indo-Trinidadian. The 31-year-old is a proud descendant of East Indian indentured labourers. Prays to Jesus Christ. And plays the pan. The Woodbrook-born musician exuded equal passion for all three during a virtual sitting with the Kitcharee on Thursday night. Oak Brook, IL (USA) - The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is pleased to announce David McIntyre, Ph.D. candidate from Boston University (Boston, MA, USA), as the 2021 SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant recipient. SLAS will award $50,000 per year for two years to Boston University to support McIntyre who will expand his research on accelerating the design-build-test-learn (DBTL) cycle and reducing the testing bottleneck in synthetic biology by combining active learning and droplet microfluidics. "The SLAS fellowship will give me additional freedom and support in my research to explore new ideas as I progress into the latter stages of my Ph.D.," says McIntyre. "Being involved in SLAS will give me a forum to present my ideas and receive feedback from members outside of my field." McIntyre's research entails the use of active learning to: 1) build a multicomponent microfluidic design automation tool by coupling it to a rapid prototyping workflow, 2) automate experimental design and microfluidic operation for biochemical reaction optimization and 3) in collaboration with other groups, perform a massively parallel screen of memory elements for environmental biosensor development as a platform proof-of-concept. These hardware components and software tools will accelerate the speed of programming biology, empowering others to do the same, McIntyre explained, and help realize its near-ubiquitous potential. McIntyre has hope for the future of his research, and the world. "Beyond having the world return to a 'new normal,' I hope to see further adoption of automation high-throughput technologies in the life sciences as it transitions into a more data-driven, engineerable field," says McIntyre. "Personally, I look forward to advancing my research to provide some value to the field and finding what role I can play in the biotechnology and automation community." Judging criteria for the SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant is based on the applicability of the applicant's research to laboratory automation and screening, originality and creativity of the scientific approach, quality of the science, presentation of the research objectives, and the quality and capability of the institution and its educational program to support the grant. ### The SLAS Grant Program was introduced in 2015 to facilitate educational opportunities for outstanding students pursuing graduate degrees related to quantitative biosciences and/or life sciences R&D. This program helps to realize a fundamental tenet of SLAS's mission: to advance the fields of laboratory science and technology by nurturing the next generation of professional scientists. SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and the developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building. For more information about SLAS, visit http://www. slas. org . BAHAWALPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2021 ) :Vice Chancellor the Islamia University of Bahawalpur Prof. Dr. Athar Mahboob has said that the varsity has achieved the status of 4th Generation University, leading towards sustainable development which has made rapid progress in teaching, research, patenting and commercialization of products. He said that the university has become one of the leading universities in the country, which is an important step towards self-sufficiency. For the first time in the history of the university, commercial sale of cotton varieties IUB-222, MM-58 and IUB-13 has started. It is very important that the increase in exports of agricultural economy and textile products will provide valuable foreign exchange which will surely lead to the stabilization of the national economy. This measure will also help in the prosperity of the farmers and alleviation of poverty. Cotton of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur varieties are beneficial to the farmer due to their high productivity and better performance in local, geographical and climatic conditions and their ability to fight diseases. The Vice Chancellor credited the Prof. Dr. Iqbal Director Research and Head of Plant Breeding and Genetics, has congratulated. Meanwhile, a meeting was held for commercial sale of seeds of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur and varieties have been sold to companies offering higher rates. These companies are stable in the market and Islamia University cotton will promote on a commercial scale. IUB-222 has been given sale rights to a company called Kanzo while sales rights of IUB-13 and MM-58 have been given to Sun Crop Company. The sale of these seeds has been transferred to the Islamia University of Bahawalpur. There will be royalties, 4.1, 7.85 and 3.85 respectively for IUB 222, 7.85 and 3.85, which is a significant step towards a self-sufficient university. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Dr. Iqbal while Prof. Dr. Moazzam Jameel, faculty members and representatives of related companies attended the meeting. A pair of armed robbers had dressed up as plumbers in order to gain entry into a Bronx apartment, where police say they spent the next 15 hours beating and torturing two men with a hot iron. According to the NYPD, the violent home invasion took place at around 3pm on Monday at a residence near East 227th Street and Barnes Avenue. Surveillance video captured two men in masks standing outside the home, wearing matching reflective work vests and carrying tool bags. Two men dressed as plumbers to gain entry into a Bronx apartment, where police say they spent 15 hours beating and torturing two victims, one of whom was burned with a hot iron Police said the con men knocked on the door, claiming they were there to fix the plumbing. Upon entering, they threatened the two men who were inside the apartment, ages 28 and 35, with a gun, tied them up and demanded money. Police said the robbers spent the night beating the victims. At one point during the 15-hour ordeal, they used a hot iron on the 28-year-old man's back, leaving him with burns. At around 6.40am the following morning, after the thugs fell asleep, the younger man was able to free himself, flee the apartment and call the police for help. The home invasion took place at around 3pm on Monday at a residence near East 227th Street and Barnes Avenue in The Bronx By the time officers responded to the apartment, the suspects had left along with $2,000 in cash and a cellphone. The second victim was also gone. The younger victim was taken to Montefiore Medical Center to be treated for a head injury and the burns to his back. Police are appealing to the public for help with identifying the suspects, one of whom was last seen wearing a hood with large white lettering seemingly spelling the words 'Members Only' and a colorful face mask. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Editor Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the Best Editorial Writer Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the CNMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His three books are available on amazon.com Two students at an elite private school have filmed themselves lynching a black baby doll before posting the clip on social media. The girls were given the doll, and another white one also hung from the tree, as part of a parenting class. They were wearing the uniform of Trinity College, north of Adelaide, where students' parents pay $6,930 a year for Year 11 and 12. The shocking Snapchat video sparked outrage online with commenters labelling the video 'racist'. Two students at an elite private school have filmed themselves lynching a black baby doll before posting the clip on social media Nick Hately, the headmaster of Trinity College, said he was 'appalled' by the footage. But he told Daily Mail Australia an 'extensive investigation' of the incident which occurred last week found it was 'not racially motivated'. 'One of those dolls was black while the other was white,' he said. In the video, the two girls can be heard laughing as they use the string from their hats to perform the mock hanging from a tree. The girls were given the task of caring for a doll for three days as part of a 'baby simulator' project. 'At the end of this rotation the simulators are turned off and several students thought it would be funny to film themselves deliberately mistreating the simulators,' Mr Hately said. 'They made videos of themselves smacking, banging the simulators on a table, swinging them around by the arms and tying them from their hats up a tree. 'In the age of social media sadly poor behaviour can have widespread implications.' It is understood the girls were given the dolls as part of a parenting class at Trinity College in South Australia (pictured) - where students pay $6,930 a year to attend in Year 11 and 12 The pair were suspended for property damage and bringing the school into disrepute. They sat out remainder of last week as punishment and only returned to school in the past few days. 'Clearly the behaviour was appalling and juvenile and appropriate consequences, re-education and support were provided,' Mr Hately said. The girls vehemently denied claims their actions were racially motivated but Mr Hately admitted some senior students have, understandably, had a hard time accepting this. 'We are providing opportunities for students to express any concerns to us. We take a strong stance against racism,' he said. She lived in a gated complex with CCTV and had called police for help just hours before she died. None of it was enough to save her. It should have been, though she should still be with us. Ms Langhams death came two days after the anniversary of the Clarke family murders. Hannah Clarke was driving her three young children to school on a typical Wednesday morning when her estranged husband doused his family in petrol and lit them on fire. Ms Clarke and her three children Laianah, Aaliyah and Trey all died. The Brisbane mother had taken out a DVO against her killer a few months before her murder, which he breached. Pregnant Gold Coast woman Fabiana Palhares was so afraid of her ex-partner Brock Wall she slept with a shovel beside her bed and arranged for security cameras to be installed at her home. Wall is serving a life sentence after bludgeoning the Ms Palhares to death with an axe and jumping on her stomach to kill their unborn child. She had taken out a domestic violence order, which Wall breached when he broke into her home a few weeks before she was murdered. Six months after the brutal killing, Tara Brown was bludgeoned to death by the father of her child, Lionel Patea, with a 7.8-kilogram metal fire hydrant cover. Five days before her death, police dismissed Ms Browns fears for her life and her initial request for a domestic violence protection order. One officer involved later told an internal investigation it was commonplace for women to make false allegations to further their position in Family Court matters. Ms Brown had been hiding from him at a safe house and friends homes after she was eventfully granted a DVO, which he breached. LNP domestic violence spokeswoman Amanda Camm said a DVO was just a piece of paper that meant nothing unless it was enforced. She said more powers needed to be given to police and courts to crack down on people who broke the restraining orders. Time and time again we hear about people who have breached multiple orders with no consequences, she said. Perpetrators who breach orders or who have already committed acts of violence need to be held to account. I mean, an order is just a piece of paper it only means something if it is enacted by the police force. Ms Camm said GPS tracking devices should be clamped on those who showed an escalating pattern of DVO breaches. GPS tracking is a practical and proactive way we could be starting to manage risk, she said. Every day people are losing their lives to something that is preventable. This is not a virus or a disease it is people making choices about terrorising another individual. LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates, a victim of domestic violence herself, said more than 520 domestic violence applications were made each week in Queensland on average last year. Doreen Langham is believed to have died in the unit fire at Browns Plains. Credit:Facebook According to Queensland court data there were 7206 DVO breaches across the state between July and September last year, representing a 30.5 per cent increase on the same period last year, she told Parliament. Earlier this week we saw another tragic case, a woman killed in a house fire by her partner after she called the police reporting a breach of a DVO taken out against that same person. We must do more, we have to do more, more women are dying. What is the government doing? The state Labor government has tasked former Court of Appeal judge Margaret McMurdo with drawing up draft laws to criminalise coercive control. Known as intimate terrorism, coercive control is a pattern of emotional abuse that can be a precursor to physical violence. A taskforce headed by Ms McMurdo will draw a line in the sand between an unhealthy relationship and controlling behaviour that should be outlawed. Loading The taskforce will report to government by October and Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman hopes to introduce legislation to Parliament in 2022. She said only four countries in the world Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England had criminalised coercive control. Nowhere in this country has there been legislation to tackle this incredibly dangerous behaviour, we have to get this right. Ms Fentiman has also flagged a major review into the way the criminal justice system deals with victims of sexual and domestic violence would be launched in coming months. Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 5:36PM You guys. We know we're not supposed to take them seriously and people get offended when anyone dares to admit that they totally love them. BUT the Golden Globes are enjoyable -- it's a fact. So this year we pour one out for the continually scandal-laden problematic HFPA and what might have been in a non-pandemic-cursed world. The Globes shindig is easily one of the best showbiz nites of each year but it can't possibly hold its usual excitements without all those stars of screen and television milling around drunk both during and inbetween commercial breaks. We wish Amy Poehler and Tina Fey luck at trying to make it lively without a crowd to laugh along with them. It won't be the same without the open bar (on television that is. We're stocking ours up for sad pandemic home viewing) Christopher already handled the TV predictions so it's my turn for the movies. After the jump, foolish predictions in all categories for this Sunday night's virtual ceremony... PICTURE, DRAMA The Father Mank Nomadland Promising Young Woman Trial of the Chicago 7 will win: We think this is going to The Trial of The Chicago 7 because... well, the tide appears to be turning in its favor and it is dull enough to perfectly suit this strange waiting-around season when everyone just wants to move on to next year, presumably vaccinated and sans masks. (If you'd like to look at other predictions, the Gurus of Gold chart is also up. I am off consensus on a few things.) might win: It's worth noting that in the last super sloppy messy Globes year --messy on the Kate Hudson/Music level we mean, so we're talking The Tourist year of 2010/2011 -- the Globes actually exhibited good taste in their winners list, opting for The Social Network over The King's Speech and The Kids Are All Right over The Tourist and Alice in Wonderland and Red (note: do not speak ill of Burlesque in our presence) so it's very possible the HFPA will recover some taste and go with Nomadland instead. PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY Borat Hamilton Music Palm Springs The Prom will win: Going out a limb here since Hamilton would be soooo much like the HFPA to say that they're going to go with Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. It brings some respectable irreverence to the proceedings and Sacha Baron Cohen is definitely having a big year. We thought before the nominations that The Prom had a great shot at winning but the absence of Streep in Best Actress, Comedy suggests they didn't love it but nominated it reflexively... because musical. might win: Hamilton which would be very much like the Globes, both because they don't obsess over influencing or predicting the Oscar vote the way so many groups do (it's not just the Critics Choice!) should win: Palm Springs obviously. The best romantic comedy in years. ACTRESS DRAMA Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Andra Day, United States vs Billie Holliday Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman Frances McDormand, Nomadland Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman will win: This is actually a tough call. Viola Davis' film likely lacks support (given the absence in Picture) and Andra Day and Vanessa Kirby won't be able to benefit from the Globes occassional surprise preference for fast rising stars without the usual hubbub or parties and red carpets and televised excitement. So we think it's a complete toss up between Frances and Carey. We're going to guess Carey Mulligan. might win: Frances McDormand. It'll be close. Remember that time there was a three-way tie? ACTRESS, MUSICAL/COMEDY Maria Bakalova, Subsequent Moviefilm Kate Hudson, Music Michelle Pfeiffer, French Exit Rosamund Pike, I Care A Lot Anya Taylor-Joy, Emma. will win: We think Maria Bakalova is going to ride her season-long strong awards performance to a win here. might win: The Globes used to REALLY love Michelle Pfeiffer and she's not a schmoozer so they loved her on her stardom and talent. But that was a long time ago and their shocking snub of her in 2002 (for a nothing performance from Cameron Diaz no less) still totally haunts us so maybe they don't love her anymore? But if she wins it won't be a total shock because they were obsessed for six consecutive years from 88-93 and the RePfeiffal has to start somewhere -- why wouldn't the Globes want credit? ACTOR, DRAMA Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Anthony Hopkins, The Father Gary Oldman, Mank Tahar Rahim, The Mauritanian will win: Going out on a limb here and choose Anthony Hopkins in The Father. That nomination in Best Picture Drama was no sure thing and makes us believe they really loved the movie. Plus he's stupendous in it and he's actually never won the Globe despite 8 nominations there (yes, he lost for Silence of the Lambs). might win: The common wisdom is Chadwick Boseman but we're not sure the HFPA will feel drawn to a posthumous honor given the absence of a live ceremony where that sort of thing would play so beautifully (not to be crass but we believe these things do psychologically affect voters, even if its subconciously) so if it's not Hopkins or Boseman, I'm going to guess the (happy) surprise of Riz Ahmed. ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDY Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm James Corden, The Prom Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton Dev Patel, Personal History of David Copperfield Andy Samberg, Palm Springs will win: Sacha Baron Cohen. He's having a career moment. might win: Anyone really! Lin-Manuel Miranda is the obvious alternate if they want to honor Hamilton BUT because we think Cohn is way out front we want to propose the possible shock of an Andy Samberg win. SUPPORTING ACTOR Sacha Baron Cohen, Trial of the Chicago 7 Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah Jared Leto, The Little Things Bill Murray, On the Rocks Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami will win: Yes, ANYTHING is possible as Aaron Taylor Johnson's win announced loudly in the year of Nocturnal Animals. We sense this is a tight race, if only because Sacha Baron Cohen also has an opportunity to be honored elsewhere. And given that it's a tight race we're predicting Leslie Odom Jr as a way to honor both One Night in Miami literally and Hamilton spiritually. might win: Anyone but since the Globes aren't opposed to double wins it could well be Cohen here, too. also can we talk about: how annoying it is that they dont have supporting awards for comedy/musical? If you're going to split the leads, split the supporting players too. More stars at your ceremony! SUPPORTING ACTRESS Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy Olivia Colman, The Father Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian Amanda Seyfried, Mank Helena Zengel, News of the World will win: I see three distinct win possibilities so a tight race. Let's say Amanda Seyfried to give Glenn Close some punditry competition later on Oscar night. Plus Globe voters like David Fincher well enough. (Also it's worth noting that the Globes don't owe Glenn Close anything and will feel no remorse about having stiffed here given the 15 nominations and 3 wins over the years) might win: Olivia Colman if The Globes want to send a message about The Father. DIRECTOR Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman David Fincher, Mank Regina King, One Night in Miami Aaron Sorkin, the Trial of the Chicago 7 Chloe Zhao, Nomadland will win: Chloe Zhao. Even if the film loses Best Picture, it's tough to imagine her losing the upcoming Oscars. We think the Globes will want to be part of the coronation, as well as beating the Oscars to "two female director winners over the years" even if it's only by a month's time. might win: David Fincher. The HFPA likes him more than the Academy does, with 4 noms and 1 win versus the 2 noms and 0 wins at the Oscars. SCREENPLAY Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman Jack Fincher, Mank Aaron Sorkin, Trial of the Chicago 7 Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, The Father Chloe Zhao, Nomadland will win: we think Sorkin will breeze to a third Globe win here (he won previously for Social Network and Steve Jobs) might win: ...unless Best Actress isn't enough to show their enthusiasm for Promising Young Woman and they want to announce a new favourite in Emerald Fennell. FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Another Round (Denmark) La Llorona (Guatemala) The Life Ahead (Italy) Minari (US) Two of Us (France) will win: Okay, so at the Gurus of Gold I predicted Minari and that's the sensible thing to predict but now I want to change my vote and suggest that they might not like how everyone attacked them about Minari and just go with what would have won had it not been relegated to this category: Denmark's Another Round it is. might win: But yes, it's probably Minari. SCORE Alexandre Desplat - Midnight Sky Ludwig Goransson - Tenet James Newton Howard - News of the World Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Mank Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste - Soul will win: The Globes only agree with the eventual Oscar choice about half the time but the Critics Awards have suggested that Soul has literally no competition in anyone's hearts this year. So Reznor and Ross to their second Globe win.... but perhaps Mank instead of Soul if they're feeling contrarian but not really. might win: Hmmm. News of the World? ORIGINAL SONG "Fight For You" -Judas and the Black Messiah "Hear My Voice" -Trial of the Chicago 7 "Io Si (Seen)" -The Life Ahead "Speak Now" -One Night in Miami "Tigress & Tweed" - United States vs Billie Holliday will win: "Speak Now" because why not and the Globes don't mind double dipping. So step right up again, Leslie Odom Jr. Also you're the biggest star in the mix this year (it was kind of a strange year for nominations, Globe wise) in this category as they didn't embrace any mega stars like Taylor Swift or Justin Timberlake or what not. might win: Literally any of the other four. There aren't any household names like Madonna or Elton John in the mix this year who the Globes might default to for a TV moment so we have no idea what they might embrace. Ony "Tigress & Tweed" didn't make the Oscar finals in this category... but Globe voters really don't care about what Oscar might like in this particular category and often go their own way. So if they really love "Tigress & Tweed" that might be the winner too. You never know. ANIMATED FEATURE The Croods Onward Over the Moon Soul Wolfwalkers will win: Soul primarly because it's also nominated in Score. might win: Wolfwalkers. Historically the Globes are slightly less beholden to Disney/Pixar than Oscars are so this does have a decent shot at the win. WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS AND WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF OURS? Over 40 members of the 28th Infantry Battalion based at Finner Camp, in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal received their first dose of the Covid Vaccine on Wednesday, February 24.The members received the early dose to enable them to carry out work relating to Covid within the community. Operations Officer at Finner Camp, Captain Neil OConnor said the troops were happy to be receiving their vaccines. These are troops we are going to be using to help the public in various tasks. For example for the duration of the pandemic we have been helping out at swabbing centres throughout the country, in Sligo, Letterkenny and Donegal. They have also been involved in patient transfers in Dublin as well. We are also shortly looking at helping out in vaccination centres throughout the country. So the people who are getting vaccinated here today will be engaged in these tasks, said Capt OConnor. Private Paul OBrien was one of the first to be vaccinated. Its great to get the vaccine, to finally get it over and done with so we can move on with our work, he said. Sergeant Mark Gillen said it was great to see the vaccine being rolled out to the Defence Forces. We are ready to help wherever we might be deployed in the future. We are ready for any task that might come our way" said Sgt Gillen. Defence Force members were required to take a mandatory temperature check before receiving their vaccine. National Ambulance Service Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) members, Intermediate Care Operatives Diane Wood and Michelle Behan as well as Education and Competency Assurance Officers, Mark Sheerin and Kenny Vaughan were on hand to ensure the vaccinations ran smoothly. As part of the Government response, the Defence Forces here in Ballyshannon have stepped up and they have taken on a lot of the healthcare roles that are traditionally done by healthcare professionals, nurses, EMTs, paramedics. They have been working in the swabbing centres around the country. They have been trained by the National Ambulance Service. To help them and assist them in the role, as they are effectively healthcare professionals over this last twelve months during the pandemic, they also need to be treated like healthcare professionals and receive the vaccines early on to allow them to continue with the work in the healthcare settings" said Mr Sheerin. ADVERTISEMENT Temitope Oriola, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Alberta, has been appointed as a special advisor on police act review to the government of the Canadian province of Alberta, authorities said in a statement. The don was hired, for a six-month term, to provide independent advice to the Albertan government to guide its decision as the province seeks to improve its criminal justice system. Meanwhile, Alberta, a western Canada province, had last August appointed Nigerian-born Canadian, Kaycee Madu, as its minister of justice and solicitor general. Upon appointment, Mr Madu had the mandate to see to the changes in the police act and provincial election finance laws proposed by the select special democratic accountability committee. The Albertan government said it set the police act review on course last September, since when it has held 13 engagement sessions attended by approximately 200 organizations representing law enforcement, health and social services sectors, municipalities and indigenous communities. This was followed by almost 15,000 Albertans completing a public survey that covered several topics related to law enforcement, such as the role of police in the community, processes for handling complaints from the public and officer discipline, the government said. Mr Oriola, a PREMIUM TIMES columnist and joint editor-in-chief of African Security, has now been appointed to advise the government on how to review the changes intended for the police act which is expected to be completed this fall. With a body of research and published articles on law enforcement issues, Dr Oriola brings specialized experience and knowledge to reforming policing in Alberta, Mr Madu noted in the statement released Wednesday. Dr Oriolas academic expertise and lived experience will also help us shape the ongoing engagement with diverse and racialized communities and ensure that our work to modernize policing in Alberta continues to be inclusive, he added. Speaking on his appointment, Mr Oriola said he hopes to use his expertise in criminology and as a person of colour to entrench law enforcement practices that rarely rely on force and police organizations that are trusted by all the communities they serve. The academic whose expertise straddles policing and the use of force by police, transnational crimes, terrorism studies, resource conflict and social movements added that his goal was to develop a framework for the state police on how to reduce excessive use of force, while ensuring officer safety. I am pleased to join the team of committed professionals dedicated to retooling the Police Act for 21st century policing. This will provide a socio-legal framework to reduce excessive use of force, ensure officer safety and enhance trust in and legitimacy of police organizations, he said. Mr Oriola is a two-time Carnegie fellow and recipient of the Governor Generals Academic Gold Medal. He is also president of the Canadian Association of African Studies. [February 24, 2021] Gale and Bodleian Libraries at University of Oxford Announce the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bodleian Libraries and Gale, a Cengage Company, are delighted to announce the launch of the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships program. Funded by Gale, the fellowships will support three scholars for a three-month period of research into a digital humanities related topic at the University of Oxford, using the Centre for Digital Scholarship of the Bodleian Libraries. The goal of the program is to encourage emerging digital humanities scholarship in the Asia Pacific region and progress the contribution of non-Western and regional perspectives in the field of digital humanities research. The Bodleian Libraries and Gale would like to congratulate the following candidates awarded the fellowships in 2021/2022 as well as highlight the projects they will be pursuing: Dr. Tuo Chen , research assistant professor, faculty of history, Nankai University, China Project: Dr Chen's project, The Communication Circuit of Chinese Christian Books (1807-1949) , aims to extend his doctoral work on Chinese and Western Book culture and cultural exchange by examining Chinese Christian books. Dr Chen's project, , aims to extend his doctoral work on Chinese and Western Book culture and cultural exchange by examining Chinese Christian books. Dr. Hsuan-Ying Tu , assistant professor in early modern history, school of history and researcher of the Research Centre for Digital Humanities, Renmin University of China Project: With her project, Clientage, Politics and the Elizabethan Regime: Digital Humanities and New Perspectives , Dr. Hsuan-Ying Tu will use the digital humanities to unravel the web of deliberately complex papers left by Elizabethan 'spymaster' Francis Walsingham and others and explore ways to visualize these webs of data and power relationships. With her project, , Dr. will use the digital humanities to unravel the web of deliberately complex papers left by Elizabethan 'spymaster' and others and explore ways to visualize these webs of data and power relationships. Dr. Mark Byron , associate professor in modern and contemporary literature, department of English, University of Sydney Project: Dr. Byron's project, Digitizing Samuel Beckett's novel Watt: The Beckett Digital Manuscript Project and Beyond, aims to widen historical understanding of the novel by placing it within the historical context of its composition during the Second World War. Dr. Byron's ambition is to open complex manuscripts to a wider readership through building digital 'clues' and pathways so readers can explore contexts and the relationships of this work to contemporary issues of political radicalisms and migration. "Welcoming our first cohort of Gale Fellows is tremendously exciting. They are a group of leading researchers and academics who will advance their respective fields through exploring new forms of scholarship using digital techniques and approaches," said Richard Ovendon, Bodley's librarian in the University of Oxford. "The Bodleian Libraries are excited at the prospect of working with these three talented individuals as they pursue ambitious projects that will advance our uderstanding of the humanities, based on our rich holdings of primary sources in both physical and digital form." Along with access to the special collections of the Bodleian Libraries, the fellows will be able to access Gale Primary Sources and the Gale Digital Scholar Lab to assist them with their digital humanities initiatives. "We are thrilled at sponsoring these fellowships and know these three scholars will enjoy a rich experience at the University of Oxford," said Terry Robinson, senior vice president and managing director of Gale International. "Gale will continue to publish rich and varied primary document archives and are fully committed to the ongoing development of the Gale Digital Scholar Lab which, I'm sure the three scholars will make use of at Oxford. Our commitment to enabling digital scholarship is at the core of our values and I look forward to many years ahead of cooperating with the Bodleian Libraries and the University of Oxford." The fellows will start their new posts at the University of Oxford between October 2021 and May 2022. They will be expected to present their work at TORCH (The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities) and can propose to develop a digital resource or other innovative output during their time at Oxford. To learn more about the fellowship projects, visit the Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships webpage . About Cengage and Gale Cengage, an education technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries, advances the way students learn through quality, digital experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher education, professional, library, English language teaching and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights - where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit: www.gale.com/intl. Follow Gale on: Twitter The Gale Review blog LinkedIn Facebook About the Bodleian Libraries The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. It includes the principal University library - the Bodleian Library - which has been a legal deposit library for 400 years; as well as 27 libraries across Oxford including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera. Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian's online image portal at digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk or by visiting the exhibition galleries in the Bodleian's Weston Library. For more information, visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk Media Contact: Kayla Siefker, Gale, a Cengage company 248-915-9624 kayla.siefker@cengage.com SOURCE Gale, a Cengage company [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Shares of Nureca hit an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 666.65 at 10:17 IST on the BSE, a premium of 66.66% over the initial public offer price of Rs 400. The stock was listed at Rs 634.95, a premium of 58.7% to the initial public offer (IPO) price. So far the stock hit a high of Rs 666.65 and low of Rs 603.25. On the BSE, 78 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far. The IPO of Nureca was subscribed 39.93 times. The issue opened for bidding on Monday, 15 February 2021, and closed on Wednesday, 17 February 2021. The price band for the IPO was set at Rs 396-400 per share. The retail individual investors category was subscribed 166.65 times. The non-institutional investors category was subscribed 31.59 times. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 3.10 times. The IPO comprised of public issue of equity shares aggregating to Rs 100 crore (including anchor portion of 11,13,750 equity shares). The net proceeds of the fresh issue are proposed to be utilized towards funding incremental working capital requirements of the company and general corporate purposes. Ahead of the IPO, the company on 12 February 2021 allotted 11.13 lakh shares to anchor investors at Rs 400 per share, aggregating to Rs 44.55 crore. Nureca recorded net profit of Rs 36.18 crore and total income of Rs 122.15 crore in the six months ended on 30 September 2020. Nureca is a B2C company engaged in the business of home healthcare and wellness products. The company has a diversified product portfolio, which primarily caters to home healthcare sector. The company has most of the product lines supporting home health market in India, making it a one-stop solution provider. The company enables its customers with tools to help them monitor chronic ailments and other diseases, to improve their lifestyle. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pashinian announced that he has requested a presidential decree relieving Colonel-General Onik Gasparian of his duties shortly after the Armenian militarys top brass accused the government of misrule and demanded its resignation. Pashinian said Sarkissian must sign such a decree as he addressed thousands of supporters who rallied in Yerevan. If the president of the republic does not sign that motion does it mean he is joining the coup detat? he asked. In the existing situation nobody must try to draw the president into political processes in any way, Sarkissians office said in a statement issued late in the evening. Any attempt to put pressure on the president is unacceptable. The office pointed out that the Armenian constitution gives the president three days to sign or reject decrees proposed by the prime minister. Based on the need to ensure the normal functioning of state bodies, the president has until now not objected to the appointment and dismissal of state officials [proposed by the prime minister.] But amid martial law and the existing crisis, the dismissal of the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces after the above-mentioned statement [by the military] would not be a regular personnel change, it said, pointing to the armys vital role in defending Armenia. It remained unclear whether Sarkissian will agree to fire Gasparian. The presidential office said only that his top priority now is to help de-escalate and end the grave political crisis in Armenia. It stressed that he is not siding with any political faction. Sarkissian was quick to formalize late on Wednesday the sacking of General Gasparians first deputy, Tiran Khachatrian, initiated by Pashinian. The military strongly condemned the sacking in its statement that demanded the governments resignation. Echoing Armenian opposition demands, Sarkissian urged Pashinian to resign and hand over power to an interim government following the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the war in Karabakh on November 10. Pashinian has refused to do that. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) Fourteen people were brutally murdered on February 16 in an apparent attack on a religious site in a Central African Republic town, a human rights group said Thursday. "Testimonies, satellite imagery and photographic analysis confirm the killing of 14 people last week in a religious site in Bambari," Amnesty International said in a press statement. Violence escalated ahead of the December 27 elections after a coalition of six militant groups, which control two thirds of the country, seized several towns and besieged the capital Bangui. Amnesty, a London-based rights pressure group, said many civilians were killed during the election period as government troops clashed with rebels across the country. Bambari, the main trading hub of the Ouaka prefecture, was occupied by militants on December 22, 2020. Government forces launched an offensive to drive them out on February 15. "The organization's Crisis Evidence Lab received and analyzed multiple images and one video that can be geolocated to a religious site in the east of Bambari, showing the bodies of people reportedly killed on 16 February 2021," it said. The people in the photos wore no military clothes, suggesting they were civilians. There was a woman and a child among those killed. The visible damage to the building and bodies pointed to the use of explosives. Amnesty called on the authorities to urgently open a probe into the incident and identify those responsible. It said the government should protect civilians from abuse by both militants and security forces. 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. Sydney businesswoman and fraudster Melissa Caddick is presumed dead after campers found her decomposed foot washed up on a remote beach on the NSW South Coast more than three months after she vanished. The campers found a running shoe with the foot inside at Bournda Beach south of Tathra, on Sunday, police said. DNA tests linked the remains to Ms Caddick, 49, who disappeared from her eastern suburbs home in November. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the shoe matched the size and description of a shoe Ms Caddick was wearing when police raided her Dover Heights house on behalf of the corporate watchdog, ASIC, hours earlier. [The foot] had been in the water for some time. Scientists were able to extract DNA from the foot and match it to a sample of DNA that we had already obtained from a toothbrush belonging to Melissa and from her relatives. The Red-Green Alliance of radical leftists and Islamic jihadists have the same goal of destroying America. As such, it has been a continuing conundrum why liberal Jews support such groups' philosophies. The question of why Jews vote against their own self-interest was analyzed in Norman Podhoretz's 2009 book Why Are Jews Liberals? One overriding reason was that most liberal Jews claim their liberalism stems "from the commandments of Judaism or more broadly the 'spirit' of the Jewish 'religious tradition.'" They often mention the term tzedakah. But tzedakah, which means righteousness, is not social justice. Liberal Jews have taken the left-wing notion of social justice and have distorted the idea of tzedakah to align with radical left-wing ideology. Social justice involves but is not limited to "restrictions on free speech; restrictions on due process protections; support for the Black Lives Matter movement; mass release of criminals from prison; open borders; [and] race and sex preferences in education and employment." This is not Jewish teaching at all. Also, "support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction [BDS] movement is part of the social justice creed, and mob violence is advocated to enforce any and all of these objectives" -- hardly Torah mandates. Hence, to liberal Jews, affirmative action which rests on the premise that racism must be used to end racism is allegedly mandated by their interpretation of Jewish beliefs. Consequently, Rabbi Sidney Schwartz of the Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values in 2008 asked "[i]sn't it obvious that social justice is the primary mandate of Judaism?" And herein is the "fatal flaw of those liberal Jews who would cite Jewish law as the reason for the embrace of leftwing ideology. If the theory were valid, the Orthodox would be the most liberal sector of the Jewish community since they are the most familiar with the Jewish religious tradition and whose lives are the most shaped by its commandments." Yet, the Orthodox "oppose the politically correct liberal positions taken by most other American Jews -- precisely because these positions conflict with Jewish law," i.e., positive euthanasia, premarital sex, unequal justice under the law. Podhoretz maintains that Jewish liberals are embracing views that are actually in conflict with the teachings of Judaism. For most American Jews, "liberalism is not merely a necessary component of Jewishness; it is the very essence of being a Jew. Nor is it a 'substitute for religion'; it is a religion in its own right, complete with its own catechism and its own dogmas and... obdurately resistant to facts that undermine its claims and promises." Dennis Prager states that "[d]espite their secularism, Jews may be the most religious ethnic group in the world. The problem is that their religion is rarely Judaism; rather it is every 'ism' of the Left." Thus, it is a challenge "to shake a liberal Jew's belief in the Left and in the Democratic Party" especially when the Jew asserts that his liberal views are entirely the product of rational inquiry. Yet, when the views are held up to scrutiny, they fall apart. It needs to be emphasized that in voting left, "Jews are actually voting against the interests of the poor and the underdogs of our society." Moreover, Rabbi Seymour Siegel states that "[l]iberalism expects Jews to yield their own interests for the sake of 'progress' and 'justice' even when the Jewish community will be harmed." The Biden administration has fully embraced the Critical Race Theory -- an ideology that states that one race is clearly not worthy and must be shamed and demeaned because of its melanin level. Echoes of Nazism, anyone? Then consider that Biden, who imbibed Obama's belief system, is busy installing radical jihadists to carry out anti-Semitic policies. Joe Biden, "whose biggest bundlers included the Iran Lobby, ended support for American allies fighting the Houthis" and removed the group from the list of designated foreign terrorist organizations. The Houthis' motto is, Death to America. The motto of Irans Houthi Jihadis is, "Allahu Akbar, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam." Joe Biden's nominee for undersecretary of civilian security, democracy, and human rights, Uzra Zeya "played a key role in assembling a book claiming the nefarious influence of the 'Israel lobby.'" As a staffer, Zeya worked for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, "a staunchly anti-Israel publishing group that promoted claims about Jewish media control and dual loyalty to Israel." Moreover, Biden has chosen Hady Amr as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel-Palestine. A year after 9/11, Hady Amr wrote that he "was inspired by the Palestinian intifada" as he discussed his work as the national coordinator of the anti-Israel Middle East Justice Network. In essence, "Bidens move puts Amr, who has repeatedly advocated for a deal with Hamas, and worked closely with a terror state [Qatar] that serves as a major backer of Hamas, in a key policy [making] position." David Wurmser asserts that "Joe Biden has named notorious anti-Semites and Israel-haters to key national security posts." This dangerous process of normalizing anti-Semitism, especially on the far Left, thereby validating it, has now moved the very pinnacles of power in the United States. Regrettably, the Biden Administration is oblivious to this problem and is allowing leftist radicals to place notorious anti-Semites and Israel haters in key national security posts. It would appear that the cognitively compromised Biden is being influenced by Barack Obama and his allies. After all, the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates for the extermination of Israel and the Islamic jihadist infiltration of America, was always welcome to the Obama White House. Moreover the Obama-era official Ben Rhodes recently invoked anti-Semitic tropes in an anti-Israel tirade. That he is a Holocaust Memorial Museum board member tells more about the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mourn for dead Jews but distort the truth about those who wish to live safely as Jews in Israel. In addition, the Biden administration is tapping Maher Bitar to be the senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council. In fact, Bitar spent his college years as an executive board member of the Students for Justice in Palestine, and he organized events at Georgetown featuring Hamas speakers who advocated for terrorism Thus, Bitar who spent years at the forefront of efforts to boycott Israel and has called Israel an apartheid state, would be "coordinating the intelligence content the president sees." Whatever the reason, i.e., political payoff, true ignorance, or personal animus to Jews and Israel, Biden is filling his administration with many who have strongly anti-Jewish or pro-BDS positions despite the fact that the BDS movement is blatantly anti-Semitic. When will the liberal Jews finally renounce the Democratic Party of Jihad that has at its helm, people who despise them? Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib embrace outright anti-Semitism. Yet Jews remain besotted to liberalism and mute in the face of their vicious attacks. Rabbi Berel Wein has written that "[o]ne of the tested methods of discovering whether the deadly gas methane is present in a coal mine is to place a canary in the suspected area. If the canary dies from the... undetectable gas, then everyone clears out of that mine posthaste. The canary is the forecaster of things to come, whether pleasant or unpleasant." Sadly, "in the history of civilization, the Jewish people have performed the role of being the canary in the mine. How the world treats the Jewish people - and especially now the State of Israel, eerily forecasts future world conflicts - certainly for the Western world." American Jewry -- when will you wake up? Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com Image: Ted Eytan Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions View of the Jewish settlement of Nokdim, in the West Bank. Oct. 24, 2017. (JNS) - According to Gabi Harow, a resident of the Israeli settlement of Nokdim in Gush Etzion, there have been massive changes in the landscape since he moved to the community with his family in 2012. "The amount of illegal Arab building and the takeover of the land have grown tremendously," he told JNS. "You see structures going up all the time in our area and in the nature reserves between our community and the Judean Desert." Harow said that Nokdim has been "slowly, slowly" losing its 150 acres of agricultural space. "For residents, losing land, left and right, is a scary thought," ad... Traffic Stop Leads to DUI, Drug Charges for Driver By West Kentucky Star Staff MCCRACKEN COUNTY - A traffic stop Wednesday afternoon in McCracken County led to DUI and drug charges for a Lyon County man.The McCracken County Sheriff's Office said a deputy conducted a traffic stop in the 1200 block of Yarbro Lane. According to the deputy, the driver, 40-year-old Justin Jones of Kuttawa, was under the influence of a substance causing impairment. Jones was also driving with a suspended license.During a search of the vehicle, deputies reportedly found marijuana and methamphetamine. Jones was arrested and lodged in the McCracken County Regional Jail.He's charged with operating on a suspended or revoked license, DUI, possession of marijuana and possession of meth. Farmers have warned of a potential shortage of British leeks ahead of St Davids Day on March 1 (Clive Gee/PA) Farmers have warned of a potential shortage of British leeks, partly due to coronavirus, as people in Wales get ready to mark St Davids Day. The vegetable is one of the national symbol of Wales, along with the daffodil, and can be worn as a badge by those marking the annual celebration on March 1 as well as being used in traditional Welsh meals such as cawl, and leek and potato soup. But the UKs supply is now said to have almost run out due to a 15% surge in demand as more people cook from home during the pandemic, coupled with last springs cold temperatures which led to smaller crops. Expand Close Members of the public wave flags as they gather to watch a St Davids Day Parade in Cardiff (Ben Birchall/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the public wave flags as they gather to watch a St Davids Day Parade in Cardiff (Ben Birchall/PA) On Thursday, the British Leek Growers Association said suppliers are having to import more expensive continental leeks from places like the Netherlands to fill the void and meet demand in time for Waless national day. Chairman Stewart Aspinall told the PA news agency: This unexpected growth in demand, coupled with a harsh spring in 2020, which affected seed populations, means that were experiencing a shortfall, with supply ending earlier than normal. There should be leeks on the shelves, but if people want to keep eating them they might not be able to find British ones. And its at a time when the vast majority of the population are looking to buy more locally sourced produce rather than international ones with a higher carbon footprint. Nic Joseph, owner of Ritec Valley Organics in Penally, Pembrokeshire, which delivers boxes of its own produce to customers, said his leek crops ran out around two weeks ago. He told PA: We are selling some wholesale leeks to a couple of people but not with the box scheme. Id be quite sad if people couldnt buy Welsh produce in Welsh supermarkets if they were looking for stuff for St Davids Day. Tim Casey, who grows leeks for his Bomber County Produce business in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, said suppliers to supermarkets are having to cast their nets as far as Turkey and Spain to make sure orders are fulfilled. He said he and other leek growers crops are down 20% from previous years, while orders are between 10% and 20% up. British has better quality and better freshness, and is more sustainable Tim Casey, Bomber County Produce Mr Casey said: Its not so bad bringing them from Belgium, Holland perhaps, which would be a couple of days on a lorry and of course now youve probably got a day at Dover. But from Turkey youve got two or three days over land before you even get to the Channel, so the freshness definitely wont be there. You can justifiably say British has better quality and better freshness, and is more sustainable. But David Petersen, chairman of the National St Davids Day Parade, said there are alternatives available for anyone not able to get their hands on their leek of choice. Mr Petersen, whose parade will not be able to march through Cardiff city centre on March 1 for the first time in 20 years due to Covid restrictions, said: St David was renowned for eating just bread and water only. So we are encouraging people to have a St Davids Day lunch of bread and water, and donate the cost difference between that and what they would normally eat to the Marie Curie cancer charity. The leek as a national symbol of Wales is believed to go back to the times of druids, centuries before the Romans invaded Britain. They were referred to by Shakespeare in his play Henry V, where the king tells Welsh warrior Fluellen that he wears a leek because I am Welsh, good countryman. ADVERTISEMENT President Muhammadu Buhari has ruled out the possibility of granting amnesty to bandits, kidnappers and insurgents in the country. He said his government would continue to deal decisively with such criminals whom he said constitute a threat to the country and its people. Mr Buhari stated this on Thursday while declaring open a joint security meeting of Northern State Governors Forum, Northern Traditional Rulers Council and delegation from the federal government in Kaduna State. The presidents stance is coming on the heels of agitations by some northern leaders that repentant bandits be given amnesty. Prominent amongst those canvassing amnesty for bandits are the Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, and an Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi. Lawmakers from Zamfara have also called for amnesty for bandits who have killed and maimed others. Treat criminals as criminals At the meeting in Kaduna, Mr Buhari said it was time to treat criminals as criminals and to stop ethnic profiling. Represented by his Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari, the president said security challenges confronting the nation had slowed down the emancipation of Nigerians from poverty and economic deprivation. The president disclosed that he had already directed heads of security agencies to develop plans to end criminality in the country. He said his government would continue to deal with insurgents, bandits and kidnappers. I must appreciate the efforts of the 19 Northern States Governors Forum for their contribution towards national growth and development, especially in this challenging period in our nations being where certain fundamental corporate existence needs to be frankly deliberated upon and actionable resolutions reached, the president said. This meeting is coming at a time when the nation is making steady progress in addressing the many challenges impeding developmental and progress. We are providing critical infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports among others which are critical to economic prosperity of our people as well as opening up economic opportunities for our citizens to pursue legitimate aspirations that grow the economy. At the same time, we are confronting the various dimensions of security challenges that continue to slow down the emancipation of our people from poverty and economic deprivation. The Government shall continue to deal with insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and other criminals who constitute a threat to innocent citizens across the country. Criminals are criminals and should be dealt with accordingly, without resorting to ethnic profiling. I have already tasked the new Service Chiefs to devise new strategies that will end this ugly situation where the lives of our people continue to be threatened by hoodlums and criminals. I expect that at this meeting, your Forum will also discuss and devise ways of building stronger collaboration with the security architecture and the people in defeating criminality across the region and the nation at large. It is pertinent to note that the increased realization of our security, democracy and development indices are inextricably linked. Democracy and rule of law promote stability and in turn reinforce the power to assert freedom and economic progress of our people. 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. Mexican authorities administered their first shots of Russias Sputnik V vaccine Wednesday to residents of the capital, with people lining up at a vaccination station on the citys south side, eager to get any protection they could. Mexico received its first shipment of 200,000 doses of the Sputnik vaccine Monday, and the shots were being given first to people over 60 in poorer neighborhoods. Mexico expects to get 24 million doses of the Russian vaccine, but it is not clear when they will arrive, The AP reported. The mainstay of the countrys vaccine effort up to now has been over 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which has gone mainly to vaccinate frontline health care workers. Mexico also got some AstraZeneca doses from a plant in India and has approved two Chinese vaccines, from CanSino and Sinovac. Forthcoming legislation to legalize marijuana in Pennsylvania, announced Wednesday, is believed to be the first with a Republican as an author, although it likely faces the same uphill fight against opposition from the state Legislatures GOP majorities. Sens. Daniel Laughlin, R-Erie, and Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, outlined the proposal in a memo distributed to fellow senators. Laughlin and Street say regulating it can improve public safety and better prevent minors from getting it, while raising money for the state treasury, boosting the economy and ending the disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws against Black and Latino people. Gov. Tom Wolf, a second-term Democrat, supports the legalization of marijuana, changing his position in 2019. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in 2019 conducted a statewide listening tour on legalization, with overwhelming support voiced a town halls in all 67 counties including those in the Lehigh Valley. Fifteen states have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In neighboring New Jersey, voters last fall overwhelmingly approved a ballot question to legalize it, and Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed legislation to enact a recreational marijuana marketplace. Jeff Riedy, executive director of the Lehigh Valley chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the forthcoming bill is the first legitimate marijuana legalization bill sponsored or authored by a Republican lawmaker in Pennsylvania. Senators Sharif Street and Dan Laughlin must be applauded, as this legislation takes great strides to correct the long-suffered social injustices, while listening to the will of Pennsylvanians, Riedy said in a statement. I know that I speak for NORML Chapters across Pennsylvania when I express our appreciation for the bipartisan efforts to draft this long-overdue legislation, ending the unwarranted prohibition of cannabis. For years, Democrats have introduced bills to legalize marijuana, at least as far back as 1983, when Streets uncle, then-Sen. Milton Street, introduced one, Riedy said. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a subscription. A young man accused in the Thanksgiving 2018 shooting inside the Riverchase Galleria that left Emantic E.J. Bradford dead has been indicted in the wounding of a then-teen and a 12-year-old girl. A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Erron Martez Dequan Brown, 23, on two counts of first-degree assault. Brown has been out of jail on $60,000 bond and on electronic monitoring since his release in late January 2019. The indictment, issued Tuesday, came more than two years after chaotic and deadly incident inside the states largest indoor mall. The shooting happened Nov. 22, 2018. Brian Wilson, 18, and 12-year-old bystander Molly Davis were injured in the incident, and the 21-year-old Bradford was fatally shot by Hoover police. Brown is not charged in Bradfords death. Emantic Fitzgerald ''EJ" Bradford Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr said by the time the case investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Attorney Generals Office was finalized and ready to go to a grand jury, COVID-19 hit and backlogged the system. Once the grand jury started meeting again in the Fall, capital murder and murder cases were prioritized. Brown is represented by Birmingham attorney Emory Anthony. I am disappointed that he (Brown) was indicted based upon the facts and issues involved in this case,' Anthony said. We will allow a jury to hear these issues and we believe he will be found not guilty. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in February 2019 ruled that Hoover police Officer David Alexander whose identity was made public in court records last year - was justified in fatally shooting Bradford. Marshalls announcement followed a more than two-month investigation into Bradfords death and multiple protests over the fatal shooting. Bradfords family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the case. During a previous hearing in the case, witnesses testified that Wilson first approached Brown, followed by a large group of people. Wilson slapped and punched Brown, said ALEA Special Agent Pete Acosta, and Brown then shot Wilson and fled the scene with two friends. Those two friends talked to police and also testified during the hearing. State prosecutors said though Brown, who was arrested in Georgia on Nov. 29, 2018, and his former attorney told a judge he had a concealed pistol permit at the time of the Galleria shooting, they learned his permit had been revoked in the months prior to the Galleria shooting after Brown was involved in a shootout in Birmingham. He was not charged with any crime in that case because he did not fire the shots that wounded the victim. In the lengthy report released by Marshall more than two years ago, which included video of the fatal shooting of Bradford, the attorney general details what investigators believe happened the night Bradford was killed. Officer 1 and his partner were working on-duty in the Galleria when they heard gunfire from 75 feet away. The two officers encountered Bradford within three seconds. Bradford, the report states, held a firearm in a ready position. The two officers charged forward. Several persons were in Bradfords path. Immediately before him, Brian Wilson lay on the ground, bleeding from his gunshot wounds and an 18-year-old (name redacted in report; only identified as AC) stood over Wilson, the report continues. Beyond them, Erron Brown (the initial shooter) and his companions were running for JC Penney, while several innocent bystanders were scrambling for cover. It was then that Officer 1 identified Bradford as an immediate threat to innocent civilians and thus shot Bradford to eliminate the threat, the report adds. The SBI recovered surveillance video from JC Penney and FootAction. The video captures both the shooting of Wilson and the shooting of Bradford, according to the report. Synchronizing the videos, Marshall wrote, suggests the following chain of events, which spans just five seconds: Erron Brown shoots Brian Wilson then, along with his companions, runs into JC Penney. Bradford initially runs in the opposite direction, away from JC Penney, creating a gap between himself and the gunshots. As he creates this gap, Bradford draws his weapon and chambers a round,' Marshall wrote. Bradford then charges back toward JC Penney, gun drawn. Officer 1 shoots Bradford as Bradford is running toward Brian Wilson, (someone) assisting Wilson, Erron Brown (the initial shooter) and several innocent bystanders. Vials of the CoronaVac vaccine, developed by China's Sinovac Biotech, in Bangkok, on Feb. 24, 2021. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images) Indonesian Nurse Dies After Receiving Chinese-Made COVID-19 Vaccine An Indonesian nurse died 17 days after being vaccinated with a first dose of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine in East Java, Indonesian media reported. Erny Kusuma Sukma Dewi, 33, tested positive for the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, and was treated at a hospital, but then died. Her colleagues and friends tested negative for the virus, while her husband tested positive without symptoms, according to Endah Woro Utami, president of Ngudi Waluyo Regional General Hospital in Blitar Regency, the hospital where Demi worked. Her body temperature is normal. [She has] no history of illness. [She is] young. She is healthy before being vaccinated, Utami told Indonesian Kompas on Feb. 21. The nurse cared for COVID-19 patients inside the hospital before becoming sick herself. The Indonesian government has begun a nationwide program to vaccinate all health workers against COVID-19. As a medical professional, Dewi received a first shot of the CoronaVac vaccine on Jan. 28. Before she was able to receive a second injection on Feb. 5, Dewi developed a fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. She visited a local hospital for treatment. On Feb. 6, her condition deteriorated and she was transferred to the hospital she worked at, receiving treatment in the intensive care unit until she died on Feb. 14, according to Utami. A health worker shows a dose of CoronaVac vaccine during a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Ankara, Turkey, on Jan. 27, 2021. (Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images) Utami said Dewi died of COVID-19 but didnt say when she was diagnosed. The secretary of the Blitar branch of the National Union of Indonesian Nurses confirmed Utamis account when he spoke to CNN Indonesia on Feb. 22. Neither Utami nor the secretary said that Dewi could have been infected with the virus because of the vaccine. They said Dewi visited another town after receiving the vaccine. Besides her husband and her patients, nobody she contacted tested positive for the CCP virus. Utami said that he didnt think Dewi was infected at the hospital. CoronaVac was developed and manufactured by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech. Sinovac ran final-stage clinical vaccine trials in Brazil that were shown to have an efficacy of 50.4 percentjust barely surpassing the World Health Organizations 50 percent threshold for regulatory approval. The rate is also lower than U.S.-developed vaccines, with Pfizer-BioNTechs at 95 percent, and Modernas at 94.1 percent. In October 2020, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro questioned the efficacy of Chinese vaccines and wrote on social media, The Brazilian people will not be anyones guinea pig. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated how long after the first vaccination before Dewi passed away. It was 17 days. The Epoch Times regrets the error. ADVERTISEMENT The Commissioner for Health in Anambra State, Vincent Okpala, said on Thursday that the government, through its Ministry of Health, has introduced more aggressive measures, including mobile testing, in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state. Mr Okpala, a medical doctor, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka that the ministry has introduced a drive-through COVID-19 testing where samples would be collected while the residents go about their normal businesses. The commissioner said a mobile truck with medical officers would drive through the streets to collect samples from the people voluntarily. He appealed to the public to avail themselves of this opportunity and go out for free and voluntary testing. The mobile team would also visit churches in the state to counsel the people on the need to go for voluntary testing, he said. The commissioner said the ministry has recorded a high rate of compliance from some parishioners in churches visited in the state which allowed COVID-19 test to be administered to them. People must know their status, it makes the treatment of the virus easier as early treatments will increase the peoples chances of beating the virus tremendously. We know that people may wish to be tested under the new measures because they are very convenient and also help to demystify the myths around the virus, he said. We all need to work together to control the spread of the virus, it is not a death sentence if detected on time, he said. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Anambra State is 1,615 as of February 24, according to the data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. Nineteen people have died so far from the viral infection in the state. Lagos, Nigerias commercial capital, remains the epicentre of the infection, with 55,122 COVID-19 cases, so far. Four hundred and three people have died so far in Lagos from the infection. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria is 153,842 as of February 24. (NAN) [February 25, 2021] CW Bancorp Quarterly Cash Dividend CW Bancorp (OTC: CWBK), the parent company of CommerceWest Bank, announced the approval of a quarterly cash dividend by its Board of Directors. The Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per common share, payable April 1, 2021 to shareholders of record on March 12, 2021. CommerceWest Bank is a California based full service business bank with a unique vision and culture of focusing exclusively on the business community by delivering on customized products and services. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Irvine, California. The Bank serves businesses throughout the state of California. We provide a wide range of commercial banking services, including, remote deposit solution, online banking, mobile banking, lines of credit, M&A / working capital loans, commercial real estate loans, SBA loans and treasury management services. Mission Statement: CommerceWest Bank will create a complete banking experience for each client, catering to businesses and their specific banking needs, while accommodating our clients and providing them high-quality, low stress and personally tailored banking and financial services. Please visit www.cwbk.com to learn more about the bank. "BANK ON (News - Alert) THE DIFFERENCE" Statements concerning future performance, developments or events, expectations for growth and income forecasts, and any other guidance on future periods, constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from stated expectations. Specific factors include, but are not limited to, loan production, balance sheet management, expanded net interest margin, the ability to control costs and expenses, interest rate changes, financial policies of the United States government and general economic conditions. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any such factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect future events or developments. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005252/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] An association representing more than 100,000 local and regional police across Spain has asked the national government to suspend the vaccination of officers against the coronavirus with the AstraZeneca formula. The Confederation of Local and Regional Security Forces claims that it is the vaccine that gives the least protection of all those on the market and, in addition, the association claims that it is causing numerous side effects among the people who receive it. The organisation cites the example in France, where they have had to suspend vaccination among the risk group of police and health workers due to side effects including very strong flu-like symptoms, headaches and high fevers. Additionally, the group points out that in Spain the AstraZeneca vaccine is not recommended for people over 55 years of age - which leaves a large part of the membership they represent out of the vaccination scheme. The Generalitat of Catalonia began to administer the vaccine a few weeks ago to the Mossos de Escuadra regional police force and it has reported similar side effects to those experienced by officers in France. The campaign has now been stalled while vaccines from other manufacturers are being sourced. 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 Kentucky Road Deaths Increased Last Year By West Kentucky Star Staff FRANKFORT - Highway fatalities in Kentucky were 5 percent higher last year, according to preliminary numbers from the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety.Of the 778 highway fatalities last year in Kentucky, 57 percent were not wearing a seat belt. That's up almost 6 percent compared to 2019.Nearly 16 percent of fatalities involved alcohol, 32 percent involved speeding or aggressive drivers, and 19 percent involved driver distraction.Pedestrians and bicyclists accounted for 97 deaths, and motorcyclists accounted for 74 deaths."While numbers are important to identify areas of concern, highway safety is not all about numbers it's about people," said Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Jim Gray. "These are fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers who left loved ones behind. These lives could have possibly been saved with the simple snap of a seat belt."Governor Andy Beshear's latest budget recommends a $3 million highway safety plan with six emphasis areas: Aggressive Driving, Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving, Occupant Protection (seat belts and child seats), Roadway Departure and Vulnerable Road User (motorcyclists, pedestrians and bicyclists)."2020 was a year of devastating loss for Kentuckians, but what makes deaths even harder to accept is when they could have been prevented," Beshear said. "We all have to be more vigilant about personal safety and responsibility behind the wheel if we are going to reverse this trend." Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Roger Crombie grew up playing and working at his familys jerk shop in Clarendon, Jamaica. In San Antonio last summer, he turned that lifetime of experience cooking the distinctive grilled meat of his homeland into Real Real Jamaica, the North Side restaurant he owns with fellow Jamaican Jodi-Ann Brown. She makes the stews and curries; hes in charge of the jerk, a collection of spices, sauces and techniques as ubiquitous in Jamaica as barbecue is in the States. Its a success story that grew from a food truck wrapped in the bright yellows and greens of the Jamaican flag, a flag that also inspires Little Jamaica Foods on the Northeast Side and The Jerk Shack on the West Side. Together, they transport San Antonio to Jamaica, 1,500 miles away, but close enough to taste. All three restaurants have been participating in Black Restaurant Week this week. Originally scheduled to end Sunday, the events been extended through March 7, and Little Jamaica and Real Real Jamaica will participate in that extended date. Black Restaurant Week includes 30 Black-owned restaurants, food trucks and other vendors. They are donating $1 from the sale of special dishes to the San Antonio Food Bank, a donation matched both weeks by the Tim Duncan Foundation, Spurs Give this week and the Valero Energy Foundation next week. On ExpressNews.com: Review: Jamaican heat sets The Jerk Shack ablaze Mike Sutter /Staff The Jerk Shack Its fair to say that The Jerk Shack shook me awake in 2018 with the fiery cooking of Lattoia Massey, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio, and who goes by the nom de guerre Chef Nicola Blaque. It wasnt just me. GQ magazine named The Jerk Shack one of its Best New Restaurants. Her char-grilled jerk chicken ($15 per pound) still bristles with pepper and herbs, and that would be enough, if thats all there was. But shes livened up the menu by adding jerk pork ribs ($30 for a half-rack) worthy of a Texas pitmaster, if that pitmaster listened to Jimmy Cliff. The Jerk Shack, near Our Lady of the Lake University, channels the casual air of a walk-up food stand with Jamaican beef patties ($3) like flaky pot pies you hold in your hand, plus smoky jerk pork tacos ($10 for three) and fried jerk wings with creamy mac and cheese ($15). But it also channels a chef vibe with silky braised oxtails in mahogany gravy served with cabbage and the Jamaican specialty rice and peas ($18). The Jerk Shack family is growing. Last year, the team added the Caribbean wrap stand Mi Roti at the Pearls Bottling Department food hall, and a second location of The Jerk Shack is planned near SeaWorld San Antonio in July. And in case all that plus a pandemic and building a new home for themselves wasnt enough, Massey and her husband, Cornelius, will welcome their second child in June. 117 Matyear St., 210-776-7780, Facebook: @thejerkshacksatx. Open 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Takeout and third-party delivery only. Mike Sutter /Staff Little Jamaica Foods Almartino Stewart introduced me to brown stew chicken, and I thank him for that. The flavors of garlic, paprika and brown sugar intermingled in a rich brown gravy turn chicken into a glowing work of art ($10 for a large plate with two sides). He learned to cook that dish in his native Jamaica. Together with his wife Yolanda, whos from Miami, they opened Little Jamaica Foods near Windcrest in 2013. Their shop carries a greatest-hits list of Jamaican classics that include rustic jerk chicken ($10 for a large plate with two sides) and oxtails that are fall-apart tender without going all fatty, with a disciplined brown gravy like a Sunday roast ($16 for a regular plate with two sides). Side dishes make a big difference here, especially crispy and filling mashed and fried plantain slices and a big helping of rice and peas that reminded me of Cajun dirty rice. Add a cool bottle of Vita Malt, a Jamaican soda thats like a nonalcoholic cross between an English brown ale and gingerbread. 5490 Walzem Road, 210-637-1293, Facebook: @littlejamaicafoods. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; noon to 9 p.m. Saturday. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available. On ExpressNews.com: 3 great new San Antonio Thai restaurants Mike Sutter /Staff Real Real Jamaica The best way to pick a good Jamaican restaurant is to ask someone who knows. Id say Lattoia Massey of The Jerk Shack is someone who knows, and she recommended Real Real Jamaica on San Pedro near Oblate. Get the curried goat and the saltfish with ackee, she said. Right on, and heres why. The goat ($17 with two sides) tamed that rangy beast into tender bites enveloped in brown gravy that spoke just as loud with herbs as it did with garlic and curry. Ackee is a Caribbean fruit that cooks down like scrambled eggs, and it calms the funky flavors of saltfish for a plate thats colorful and filling ($$17 with two sides). Chef and co-owner Crombie does his heritage proud with jerk chicken that wears its skin like a suit of amber silk, jeweled with pepper, garlic and herbs with the best jerk sauce in this report ($13 with two sides). For sides, let me introduce macaroni pie, stacked as tall as a lasagna and bound together all gooey like your favorite mac and cheese. Get that, along with a salty-sweet tangle of cabbage sauteed with every vegetable in the kitchen. But for sheer spectacle, go with red snapper escovitch ($16 with two sides), a whole fish fried to order, delicate and flaky against a background of pickled vegetables. Think of your favorite Mexican restaurants escabeche minus the jalapenos, and youre there. 6828 San Pedro Ave., 210-858-3015, Facebook: @realrealjamaica. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available. msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking 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. Rylan Clark-Neal has criticised influencers for 'lording it up on the beach' in Dubai after they faced backlash for escaping England's coronavirus lockdowns on 'business trips'. In a new interview, the presenter, 32, hit out at reality stars for flaunting their time in the United Arab Emirates on social media under the ruse their holidays are for 'essential work.' The former X Factor star said: 'The things I work on are worthy of doing. I'm not going to Dubai on a plane and taking photos in my bikini.' 'The things I work on are worthy of doing!' Rylan Clark-Neal has criticised influencers for 'lording it up on the beach' in Dubai amid the coronavirus pandemic Admitting he 'can't believe' how lucrative working in the hotspot has been amid the global crisis, Big Brother host Rylan added to The Sun: 'I'm actually going to work and hosting programmes like Ready Steady Cook and showing people how to cook a meal for under a fiver, which is handy right now. 'But I just feel at a time when there are a lot of things going on, seeing pictures of people getting on a plane going to a foreign country and lording it up on the beach for work purposes well, I can't believe how much work there seems to be!' Influencers boasting of sunshine foreign breaks amid the global pandemic faced a furious public backlash after they were criticised by the Home Secretary. 'A lot is going on': In a new interview, the presenter, 32, hit out at reality stars for flaunting their time in the UAE under the ruse their holidays are for 'essential work' (Gabby Allen pictured) Priti Patel hit out at reality TV stars for bragging about their holidays and people 'turning up with their skis at St Pancras Station', adding, 'Going on holiday is not an exemption.' As they shared photos from sun loungers, lockdown had appeared not to apply to so-called influencers and models who 'used loop-holes' to jet off the sunnier climes under the guise of work. But foreign travel - apart from some exceptions - has been illegal since the lockdown law was passed on January 5. There was also confusion over what would constitute an acceptable journey abroad and who would police the policy. At the end of January, the UK Government added the United Arab Emirates to the so-called red list of countries from where travel to Britain is prohibited during the coronavirus pandemic. The ban came as the country saw a surge in coronavirus cases after throwing its doors open to sun-seekers in the New Year. Criticism: Influencers boasting of sunshine foreign breaks amid the global pandemic faced a furious public backlash after they were criticised by the Home Secretary (pictured last month) While many countries shut down travel from Britain after the UK variant was blamed for an exponential growth in cases in Kent and elsewhere, Dubai kept its doors open. But cases have climbed alarmingly for weeks, with deaths also rising to their highest level since the spring, forcing some new restrictions on gyms and bars. The rise in cases caused alarm and the UK first struck the UAE off its travel corridor list and then imposed an outright ban in the last week of January. The ban means anyone arriving home from the UAE will have to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense for 10 days. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions The Emirates Defence Companies Council (EDCC) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (Added), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at building a strategic partnership. It will support the defence and security sector and to align its goals with the industrial strategy of Abu Dhabi to further boost the Emirates competitive advantages. The signing ceremony took place at Tawazuns Pavilion in the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX 2021) and Naval Defence Exhibition (NAVDEX 2021). The MoU was signed by Rashed Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Undersecretary of Added and Matar Ali Al Romaithi, Board Chairman of the EDCC, in the presence of Anas Nasser Al Otaiba, Director General of the EDCC, and a number of senior officials. The MoU provides for cooperation in the areas of research & development, exchange of expertise, aligning industrial strategy with the defense and security industrys role in building a sustainable, knowledge-based economy in the Emirate and promoting the Abu Dhabi Local Content Programme (ADLC) within defence and security sectors. Al Balooshi said that through the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), Added seeks to regulate and develop the industrial sector in the emirate and to sustain innovation as an effective element in Abu Dhabis economy. IDB aims at ensuring a competitive environment in Abu Dhabis emerging industrial sector. The defence and security industry is a promising sector that is poised to add great value to the emirates economic performance in the coming years, he added. He continued by saying the IDB provides incentives that are certainly going to benefit the defence and security industry and reinforce its competitive edge. We look forward to this cooperation with the EDCC in providing an ideal environment for the growth of this important sector and we are very keen to strengthen our strategic partnership by developing joint initiatives and programmes to support local defense companies. The defence and security sector is playing a growing role in support of economic diversification and sustainable development drive, said Al Romaithi. Through collaboration and partnerships with the various Government departments, the EDCC seeks to provide a competitive and attractive environment for the defense and security companies, he added. Al Romaithi noted that the EDCC will work very closely with the Addeds Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) to consolidate defense companies in the national industrial sector and encourage them to develop their services and processes to meet the Bureaus required standards and to garner benefit from the Departments export incentives programmes. This MoU provides a driving force to our endeavours to boost the competitive advantage of the defence companies and to increase the export capacity. The EDCC will also work to promote IDBs services and benefits through its online platforms, brochures and manuals and during its participation in local and international events. The Emirates Defence Companies Council was founded as an initiative supported by the Ministry of Defence, the UAE Armed Forces and Tawazun Economic Council, with the aim of enabling national defence companies. EDCC also seeks to provide an a suitable environment for the defense companies to develop their products and services in according to international standards and best practices and enable them to contribute to the development of industrial sector and to ongoing drive to diversify sources of income for the UAE. -- Tradearabia News Service A SUV was found parked with suspected explosives outside Antilia, the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, in South Mumbai.. Image Source: IANS News A SUV was found parked with suspected explosives outside Antilia, the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, in South Mumbai.. Image Source: IANS News A SUV was found parked with suspected explosives outside Antilia, the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, in South Mumbai.. Image Source: IANS News A SUV was found parked with suspected explosives outside Antilia, the home of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, in South Mumbai.. Image Source: IANS News Mumbai, Feb 25 : In a shock development, an SUV filled with at least 20 gelatin sticks was found abandoned outside Antilia, the lavish multi-storied home of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani, here on Thursday evening, officials said. "A Scorpio with 20 gelatin sticks was found near Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai residence. The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police is investigating the entire matter and the truth will emerge soon," Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said late on Thursday evening. The SUV was noticed at around 3 p.m. after which some people from the vicinity alerted the local police, who rushed to the spot and cordoned off the entire area, sending the state government and the police into a tizzy. Top police officers, including Joint Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nangre-Patil, a team of explosives experts, sniffer dog squad, bomb detection and disposal squad and others rushed to the spot and inspected the SUV in which the gelatin sticks were kept. Minister of State for Home, Shambhuraj Desai, told mediapersons that he has instructed the top police officers to probe the matter thoroughly and ensure that the culprits are brought to book. Desai added that if required, the government would consider other measures, including enhancing the security at the Antilia building and also around the Ambani family, even as the entire locality was brought under a high alert. CCTV footages of the area revealed that the SUV with a couple of unidentified persons in it was driven and parked beside a tree on the Carmichael Road at around 1 a.m. The suspicious persons seemed to have fled after deserting the SUV there, but strangely, it was noticed only after another 12 hours. Mumbai Police spokesperson, DCP S. Chaitanya, said that the gelatin sticks recovered in the SUV were "not an assembled explosive device" but details of the risks they posed would be known only after a thorough probe. Efforts are on to trace the persons who parked the vehicle there, from where they came, what were their diabolic motives, who or what were the exact targets etc., officials said. Antilia and the south Mumbai neighbourhood house the who's who of the Indian corporate world, top politicians, official or private residences of various bigwigs, government officials, diplomats, people from the glamour industry and others. Byjus is on an acquisition spree, with the decacorn seeking to close the deal to acquire exam preparation firm Aakash Educational Services by March. The deal, valued at $700-800 million, would be the biggest in the education space once closed, said sources. Due diligence is going on, said a person in the know. Negotiations are on between Byjus and Aakashs founders as they want to remain invested through some stake, and also run it independently. Byjus declined to comment. According to sources, the deal is being structured in the form of cash and equity. People in the know said Byjus is in talks with new and existing investors, mainly based in the US, to raise fresh capital of $500 million. Aakash Educational Services (AESL) is the biggest education organisation in India. It provides comprehensive test preparatory services for students preparing for medical and engineering entrance examinations. It also provides services related to school and board exams and competitive exams such as NTSE, KVPY, and Olympiads. Aakash has over 33 years of operational experience in the test preparatory industry with a pan India network of over 205 Aakash Centers (including franchisee) and a student count of more than 250,000. The institute clocks an annual turnover of Rs 1,200 crore. In 2019, PE firm Blackstone picked up 37.5 per cent stake in AESL, valuing the company at $500 million. Byjus, valued at $12 billion, has been on a fundraising spree since 2020. The pandemic helped it become a decacorn. It has raised a total of $2.1 billion. Besides the existing capital, the fresh fundraising of $500 million is expected to help Byjus make other acquisitions. There is a need for the firm to justify the $12-billion valuation and scale up revenues rapidly, according to experts. To achieve that, the firm has taken an inorganic route where it is in talks to acquire many firms in India and global market. It was in talks to acquire smaller rivals such as Toppr in a $150 million deal and education firm Scholr, according to the sources. Last year in August, Byjus acquired Mumbai based ed-tech start-up, WhiteHat Jr, which teaches coding to children for $300 million. The countrys $180-billion education sector has gone online to adapt to the new reality, leading to opportunities for firms, including Unacademy, Vedantu, and Byjus. Byjus had almost doubled its revenue from Rs 1,430 crore to Rs 2,800 crore in FY20. Today, the app has over 70 million registered students and 4.5 million annual paid subscriptions. Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda and delivers a special address via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Seeing vaccines as the ultimate solution to a victory over COVID-19, China is not merely pioneering research and development of vaccines, but pushing forward fair distribution and global cooperation of the antidote against the pandemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been calling for international cooperation of the COVID-19 vaccines and fairer distribution to the developing world. MAKE VACCINES PUBLIC GOODS "Containing the coronavirus is the most pressing task for the international community," Xi said when delivering a special address via video link at the World Economic Forum Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda on Jan. 25. "It is especially important to scale up cooperation on the R&D, production and distribution of vaccines and make them public goods that are truly accessible and affordable to people in all countries." "By now, China has provided assistance to over 150 countries and 13 international organizations, sent 36 medical expert teams to countries in need, and stayed strongly supportive and actively engaged in international cooperation on COVID-19 vaccines," he told the Davos event. In his keynote speech at the Summit of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) on Feb. 9, Xi said China will work with CEECs through solidarity, coordination and cooperation, promising that "China will continue to provide vaccines to countries in need to the best of its capability, and do what it can to make vaccines a global public good and promote their equitable distribution and application around the world." During the virtual summit, Xi said that Serbia has received 1 million doses of vaccines from a Chinese company, and there is ongoing cooperation between Hungary and Chinese vaccine companies, adding that China will actively consider such cooperation with other CEECs if there is a need. COOPERATE IN FAIR DISTRIBUTION As countries pin hopes of overcoming the pandemic on the rollout of vaccination campaigns, China has been cooperating with the international community to ensure fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. On Dec. 9, 2020, Xi and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, held a phone conversation, reached a number of important consensus and instructed relevant departments of the two countries to step up implementation of the programs. Among the consensus is actively participating in the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator Initiative and the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX), increasing support for developing countries and ensuring that vaccines are a public good that is effectively accessible and affordable for all people around the world. On Nov. 24, 2020, in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Xi said that China stands ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Germany on COVID-19 vaccines and push for the vaccines to be fairly distributed as a global public good, especially for the benefit of developing countries. On Nov. 21, 2020, in his speech at the G20 Riyadh Summit via video link, Xi called on G20 members to support the World Health Organization (WHO) in coordinating resource allocation to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. "We must first put the disease under control at home and, on that basis, strengthen exchanges and cooperation to help countries in need," Xi said, adding that the G20 should speed up action and support the WHO in mobilizing and consolidating resources and distributing vaccines fairly and efficiently. ASSISTANCE TO COUNTRIES IN NEED According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China has provided vaccine assistance to 53 developing countries in need, and exported vaccines to 22 countries. China also decided to provide 10 million doses of domestic vaccine to the COVAX initiative to meet the urgent needs of developing countries. In a telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Monday, the Chinese president said that China stands ready to work with Egypt to increase vaccine cooperation, cement international solidarity against COVID-19, and promote the building of a global community of health for all. On Tuesday, Egypt received the first batch of China-made COVID-19 vaccines. Also on Monday, in a telephone conversation with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sadyr Zhaparov, Xi said that China is ready to support Kyrgyzstan's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic and deepen bilateral cooperation in such areas as vaccines. Earlier this month, the Chinese side announced a decision to provide Kyrgyzstan with free COVID-19 vaccines. When addressing the 17th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit last November, Xi said that China stands ready to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to enhance policy dialogue on public health, information sharing and cooperation on the production, development and deployment of vaccines. When its COVID-19 vaccines are available for use, China will actively consider the needs of ASEAN countries, he said. 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. New Delhi: The foreign ministers of India and China reviewed the status of military disengagement between the two countries at one friction point in Ladakh on Thursday as the Indian foreign ministry said the two had agreed to work towards a mutually acceptable solution on the remaining issues of dispute. Spoke to State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi this afternoon. Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement," Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar said in a Twitter post. He was referring to a meeting with Wang in Moscow in September last year. On 11 February, the two sides had started the process of disengagement from the north and south banks of the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, one many friction points in the area where Indian and Chinese troops have been in an eye ball to eye ball confrontation since May 2020. The disengagement of troops was completed on 18 February and the two sides held another round of senior military commander level talks on Saturday which however did not produce any breakthrough on disengagement of troops from Depsang, Gogra and Hot Springs areas Ladakh. According to Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava, the two sides had candid and in-depth exchange of views on the remaining issues along the LAC(Line of Actual control) border. Both sides view the smooth and successful completion of disengagement in the North and South Bank as a significant first step as this forms a basis for resolution of remaining issues so as to achieve the eventual goal of complete disengagement in all friction areas," he said echoing a joint statement issued after the commander level talks on Saturday. The two sides have agreed to work towards a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues," he added. Speaking at an event organized by the Vivekananda International Foundation think tank in New Delhi on Wednesday, Indian Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane said Indias agreement with China on disengaging troops at Pangong Tso was a win-win" for both sides. Indian negotiators have a strategy to ensure that they could reach a favourable" outcome with China in disputes in other border areas as well, Naravane said. China was used to making incremental moves that were so small that they were not considered worthy of a reaction, the army chief said. This was Beijings strategy to deal with its neighbours in the contested South China Sea as well, he said. More than anything else, what we have shown is that this strategy will not work with us and every move will be met resolutely," Naravane said of Indias quick and matching response to Beijings attempts to change the status quo along the undemarcated 3,488-kilometre-long India-China border in May last year. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. ROME, FEB 25 - The Italian government on Thursday reiterated its "total willingness" to fund and pursue the goal of making COVID vaccines in Italy, sources said after talks aimed at setting up such production at the industry ministry. Italy is hoping to boost its vaccine rollout with homegrown vaccines. One vaccine is already due to come out in September of this year from the ReiThera biotech company near Rome. (ANSA). China is witnessing a booming sharing economy and vigorous innovation. Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, is home to about 300 of the Fortune Global 500 companies. In 2018, Chengdu proposed to build itself into a leading city of sharing economy by 2020. Over the past years, Chengdu has witnessed a boom in the sharing economy. The sharing concept particularly spawns possibilities in the catering sector, where businesses share not only kitchen space, but also knowledge, skills, and logistics resources. Streamlining takeout Businesses, by sharing kitchen space and cooking equipment, reduce their operational costs and become more responsive in providing customized services. China's shared kitchen platforms are mainly located in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. There are four in Chengdu, among which Cloud Kitchen Piglet is the largest. At present, it has seven shared kitchens in operation, and it is expected that another batch will become operational this year. In a Cloud Kitchen Piglet shared kitchen on Tianfu Second Street in Chengdu's Hi-tech Zone, several food outlets offering takeout beef rice and rice noodles are lined up alongside three other restaurants that you could dine in. These kitchens share warehouses, food preparation rooms, as well as management and food business licenses. The shared kitchen is staffed by store managers and supervisors, who regularly provide entry-level training as well as guidance on food safety and fire safety to takeout owners. There is also a set of management systems to regulate the use of shared space including warehouses and food preparation rooms. Compared with those in first-tier cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, Chengdu's shared kitchen platforms do not have a rent advantage for restaurants. Why then are they popular? According to Lin Xun, founder of "Cloud Kitchen Piglet," the reason lies in the services his platform can provide, which integrate catering resources to better support takeout business operation. Xiang Yong, an entrepreneur in his 30s, quickly earned a share of the takeout market with an exclusive recipe for beef rice noodles with chili peppers. His rice noodle shop deals with more than 10,000 takeout orders on average per month, and up to 600 or 700 orders a day. However, the high demand for takeout orders has led to a shortage of after-sales services, resulting in a lot of negative reviews. Xiang then joined the Cloud Kitchen Piglet platform. Since then, the platform's team has been helping him handle after-sales and customer service so that he could concentrate on the cooking. The help was fruitful. Xiang saw his business model expand to 13 franchise outlets. But half of them failed later because cooks of franchise stores were not able to produce toppings of the same quality. The platform came to help again by inviting supply chain companies to standardize the production of toppings. Xiang now has up to 50 franchise stores. The Report of China's Takeout Industry in 2019 and the First Half of 2020, released by Meituan Research Institute in June 2020, showed that by the end of 2019, there were about 460 million takeout consumers in China, accounting for about half of the country's permanent urban population. The large-scale food delivery industry has prompted some restaurant chains that originally focused on offline stores to shift to the takeout business. Compared with physical stores, takeout businesses require relatively less investment in capital and manpower. A new business can be started even from a kitchen. Therefore, some big brands made use of the takeout service to expand their business scale. When a chain beef noodle catering company in Hangzhou planned to enter the Chengdu market, it found that it would take three to five months to finish market research, site selection, and decoration before opening. However, by partnering with a shared kitchen platform, it could open a shop in a week. After several years of rapid development, a complete delivery logistics system has taken shape in China. Lin Xun said China's food delivery industry will enter a new phase when the focus becomes catering to consumers' demands for higher-quality goods and services. According to the Meituan Research Institute, about 65.7 percent of consumers prefer takeout food provided by trusted brands for food quality and safety reasons. The shared kitchen platform, boasting more efficient management and quality ingredient supplies, can solve these concerns to some extent. Taste of home A shared kitchen is not only a place for business, but also a place offering people a taste of home. At 9 a.m., while most young people are on their way to work and the elderly are visiting parks, Xu Bixiu, in her 70s, was at a community sharing kitchen. In this well-equipped kitchen, she and a dozen neighbors worked together, preparing for a hearty lunch. Around 11 a.m., the main course of Chinese winter melon soup with meatballs was served. Xu and her neighbors sat around the table and shared the fruits of their labor, laughing and enjoying good conversation. Xu is a volunteer leader in a residential community in Chengdu, and also the pillar member of the local art performance team of the elderly. In 2018, the community Xu lives in converted a meeting room into a shared kitchen, where retirees like Xu gather together for community activities. They prepare free food for empty nesters in the community. A neighbor held regular baking classes on weekends, which became popular with the children. The shared kitchen provides a place for people to hold family gatherings during festivals, offering a dining room experience for families and friends. It can also be used to hold activities on special occasions, producing specific "hometown" cuisines for those who come from regions outside Chengdu. Sharing culinary culture For foreigners visiting Chengdu, the best way to get a deeper understanding of the city's culture is to visit family kitchens and cook a meal with the locals. At the food market of Workers' Village in Jinniu District, a group of foreigners were choosing the ingredients they needed from Sichuan seasoning condiments, such as Sichuan pepper, chili peppers, and bean curd, Then, they headed to the Chili Cool House, where they would cook classic Sichuan dishes, such as Mapo Tofu, Twice-cooked Pork, and Kung Pao Chicken under the guidance of chefs specializing in Sichuan dishes. This is the typical culinary culture experience provided by the Chili Cool House. Founded in 2018 by Zhou Hang in his 20s and his two friends, the Chili Cool House aims to provide foreigners with a cultural experience of Sichuan cuisine. After the culinary culture experience package was released, it received rave reviews on the world's leading travel website TripAdvisor and was rated the 2019 Travelers' Choice TripAdvisor Experience. According to Zhou, visitors to his kitchen come from all over the world, most of whom have some knowledge of Sichuan cuisine and are interested in further exploring the cuisine's culture. Among the visitors, a Chinese restaurant owner from Sweden specially came to the kitchen to experience Chengdu cuisine. Before leaving, the visitor bought 100 kilograms of Sichuan pepper to take back to Sweden. Many Japanese visit for Mapo Tofu, a firm favorite. It is a great thrill for Japanese visitors to cook the dish themselves in the city where it originates. Chengdu's shared kitchen concept is a combination of providing management and culinary skills, along with being a place of togetherness and warmth. Li Cuihua is a reporter with the Chengdu Culture magazine. AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vyopta, the Collaboration Intelligence Company, today announced its Vyopta Partner Community grew by 75 percent in 2020, as it has become integrated into its partners' broader IT and UC managed service offerings. Programmatic support for MSPs has led to a 200 percent increase in the number of MSP partners. Vyopta's Partner Program allows Certified Partners to deploy Vyopta on behalf of their customers, many in the Global 2000. To support the Vyopta reselling and managed service partner community, Vyopta will hold its inaugural Collaboration Intelligence Partner Summit to educate and empower its global partner ecosystem. The event will be held virtually on March 4, 2021 and includes three educational and interactive sessions that are customized to executive, sales, and sales engineering audiences. "In the past twelve months, enterprises have gravitated to Vyopta to optimize UC across multiple platforms for the hybrid workplace -- remote and in office," said Marc Haimsohn, Vyopta's Senior Director of Business Development. "We predict another year of explosive growth as we add MSP partners who focus on delivering the best UC user experience to a dispersed workforce. This conference will support our partners as they engage and discuss increasingly multi-vendor and data driven strategies with their customers," he said. Vyopta's customer base spans many verticals including finance, government, technology, healthcare, education, and pharmaceutical, including several enterprises involved in the development of vaccines for Covid-19. Vyopta is uniquely positioned to help large enterprises with mixed-vendor UC environments ensure a positive end user experience while optimizing collaboration, communication and business outcomes. "Diversified works closely with Vyopta, and together we are able to deliver a better collaboration experience with real time monitoring and alerting, and improve our customer's operational agility with business relevant analytics," said Stephen Jenkins, Senior Director of Intelligent Technology Solutions for Diversified Global Services. "Together we can support our customers' evolving workplace, including managed service support for remote workers and for hybrid working environments." "We have seen that when partners and ultimately customers understand Vyopta's value proposition, it becomes an exciting conversation about what's possible, and the opportunities are endless," said Alfredo Ramirez, CEO of Vyopta. "We help our partners deliver higher value solutions while attaining high gross margin recurring revenue subscription sales. We also continue to drive customer revenue retention and expansion through aggressive product innovation." Learn more and register for Vyopta's Partner Summit . About Vyopta Incorporated Vyopta , the Collaboration Intelligence company, is a global leader in comprehensive monitoring and analytics for Collaboration Performance Management and Workspace Insights. By integrating insights from multi-vendor Unified Communications & Collaboration vendors and IOT devices, Vyopta helps organizations deliver the best UC user experience and optimize their UC and real estate investments. Vyopta helps hundreds of organizations worldwide spanning 20+ industries monitor 6 million endpoints and over 20 billion meeting minutes a year. SOURCE Vyopta Inc Related Links http://www.vyopta.com There's more time for San Antonians to dine out while supporting Black-owned restaurants and the San Antonio Food Bank. Black Restaurant Week San Antonio (BRWSA), which grew to include 30 eateries and vendors in the third installment, was extended to become a two-week event on Thursday, per an announcement by retired Spurs legend Tim Duncan, who is donating to the cause. The week was previously scheduled to end on Feb. 28, but will now last until March 7. RELATED: Spurs legend Tim Duncan giving Black Restaurant Week San Antonio an assist Valero Energy Foundation also joined the Tim Duncan Foundation in the effort for the extension. Each participating restaurant is offering BRWSA specials. The two foundations will match each dollar that is donated by the restaurants from the sale of the featured items, providing 21 meals to kids and seniors through the San Antonio Food Bank. The coronavirus pandemic stretched the food bank thin, but the pantry remains a source of help throughout the hardship, which now includes a larger need following the brutal winter storm that left many food insecure. San Antonio Food Bank Chief Resource Officer Michael G. Guerra said the extension was BRWSA Founder Ryane Smith's idea, but Duncan helped get the word out. The Spurs legend also promoted the first week of BRWSA and donated $100,000 during its launch. Duncan also donated $200,000 to the food bank with Spurs Give, the team's nonprofit, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. RELATED: 30 restaurants participating in the largest Black Restaurant Week San Antonio Guerra said he has not received a total for how much has been raised so far. He encourages those interested in eating out to check the BRWSA website for a list of restaurants participating in the extension, as most, but not all will be part of week 2. "Together we can make this the biggest week in the nation in supporting black-owned restaurants," Duncan said in the announcement. Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye Saudi General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) has signed an agreement in the field of military industries with the State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus, a media report said. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was co-signed by Governor of GAMI Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ohali, and Minister of State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus Dmitry Pantus on the sidelines of the Kingdoms participation in IDEX 2021, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The MoU comes as a continuation of the joint cooperation between the two countries in the fields of the defence and security industries, it added. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), the country's apex stainless steel body, has voiced concerns about the impending adverse impact on domestic industry due to the temporary revocation of trade remedial duties on importing stainless steel, as announced in this year's Union Budget. ISSDA, along with four major associations representing MSME stainless steel producers, namely the Wazirpur Industrial Estate Welfare Society, Delhi; Rajasthan Stainless Steel Re-rollers Association, Jodhpur, Rajasthan; Jagadhri Stainless Steel Re-roller Association, Haryana; and Stainless Steel Re-rollers Association, Ahmedabad, Gujarat has urged the government to reconsider this step as it will distort the domestic market by flooding it with subsidised stainless steel from China and Indonesia, and will put several MSME players on the verge of bankruptcy. Presenting the Budget proposals for 2021-22 in Parliament on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that import duties on a host of steel items were being reduced to prevent hardening of metal prices in the country. Also, the Budget temporarily revoked (commencing from February 2 till September 30, 2021) countervailing duty on imports of Certain Hot Rolled and Cold Rolled Stainless Steel Flat Products, originating in or exported from China. Also, provisional countervailing duty has been revoked on imports of flat products of stainless steel, originating in or exported from Indonesia. The anti-dumping duty on certain grades of Cold-Rolled Flat Products of stainless steel has also been discontinued. "The government reversed six trade remedies out of which three relate to stainless steel, which is just 3 per cent of overall steel industry in India. Therefore, it has disproportionately impacted stainless steel, including its MSME sector, and considerably dipped the market sentiment," K.K. Pahuja, President, ISSDA said. "It is noteworthy that MSME sector constitutes about 35 per cent of the domestic stainless steel industry, spread across the country, and is a major supplier for utensils and household segments. However, the installed capacity for manufacturing stainless steel in the MSME sector is 15 lakh tonnes, with less than 50 per cent being utilised. Keeping this in mind, a potential market brimming with unregulated and cheap imports of Chinese stainless-steel goods is expected to make MSME players go bankrupt or turn them into traders," he added. The industry fears that the demand generated by a growth-oriented Budget may be captured by cheap dumped imports by Chinese companies, in and out of China. This will further have an adverse impact on prospective investment in the domestic industry, which has been in financial stress for more than a decade and will lead to loss of employment. "This move is poised to drift away from 'Make in India' stance of the government, while leaving the domestic industry at the mercy of foreign players instead of being Aatmanirbhar," Pahuja said. While China has over 30 per cent surplus capacity for stainless steel production, huge capacity additions backed by Chinese investments have brought the installed production capacity of Indonesia to 30 lakh tonnes in the last 2-3 years, along with an additional 25 lakh tonne capacity in the pipeline. Interestingly, Indonesia's domestic consumption is a mere 0.2 lakh tonnes. Consequentially, the two nations have been dumping subsidised and substandard stainless steel products in India and other global economies in heavy volumes and unregulated manner in the past several years. According to ISSDA, China and Indonesia are also known to provide non-WTO compliant subsidies to the tune of 20-30 per cent to their domestic manufacturers, rendering the global stainless steel market significantly destabilised. Consequentially, all economies have countered this irrational dumping by enforcing additional trade remedial duties. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 21:46:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army received on Thursday medicines, medical equipment and 5 tons of food products from Egypt, the National News Agency reported. Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Yasser Alawi said on the occasion that Egypt's support for Lebanon will continue as long as there is need for it. "This is our duty towards Lebanon," the ambassador said upon the arrival of the aircraft carrying the aid to Beirut's airport. Meanwhile, Lebanese Defense Minister Zeina Akar said that the donations offered by Egypt since the explosions that rocked Beirut's port on Aug. 4 last year contributed to relieving people's suffering amid difficult times. Enditem On February 23, 2021, a bipartisan group of leading Congress members introduced the Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2021. Jim Langevin (D-RI), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, and Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX), the Republican lead on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, are top sponsors of the legislation. The bill, which revives legislation introduced during the last two Congresses, establishes an Office of International Cyberspace Policy within the State Department. It also aims to promote American international leadership on cybersecurity, a primary goal of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which Langevin co-chairs. The bill creates a Bureau of International Cyberspace Policy in the Undersecretary of Political Affairs offices where it will guide policy across a diverse range of areas touched by cyberspace. "I have full confidence that this organizational change is going to best position the United States to reclaim its role as a global leader inside the diplomacy realm, which is very particularly urgent given the ever-changing array of threats that we face," Langevin tells CSO. "[The bill] basically positions the State Department to be much better equipped to advocate on the international stage for cyber diplomacy-related issues. It hopefully undoes the damage that was done during the time of the previous administration," he says. Cybersecurity languished during Trump administration Langevin says that up until Trump took office, both Democrats and Republicans made steady strides forward on cybersecurity. "It was under the Trump administration that, really, we started taking the first major step backward." "What happened when the Trump administration came in is [Trump's first Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson, who I don't think understood these issues, kind of downgraded and muddied the Department's cybersecurity structure and starved it of resources over four years," Christopher Painter, the State Department's first-ever coordinator for cybersecurity under Barack Obama, tells CSO. "It was certainly not a priority for Donald Trump, who really didn't care about these issues. Or he kind of coded them all as 'Russia,' in which he really didn't care about these issues." Pompeo's parting bid to create cyberspace office was doomed In an unexpected move, Tillerson's successor, Mike Pompeo, created a new Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) at the State Department almost as he was walking out the door in early January. The ordinarily staid Government Accountability Office (GAO) strongly criticized this move as rash and unreasoned in a report it released in late January. The State Department, the GAO wrote, has "not demonstrated that it used data and evidence to support its proposal, particularly for the bureau's focus and organizational placement." Langevin says that Pompeo's eleventh-hour effort to create CSET deprioritized international cyber policy by establishing it within arms control. "Basically, the Cyber Diplomacy Act brings that back into focus." Cybersecurity needs cross-cutting authority "The diplomacy aspect of these issues is an important tool in our toolbox as we approach not only combating threats in cyberspace but also as we try to shape a more positive environment," Painter says. "I do think the legislation does several good things. One, it does say, look, this is an important office that has to exist." It's definitely a 'clean-up on aisle nine' on our international front. The Russians ate our lunch. Jim Langevin "The other is to say this really needs cross-cutting authority because all these things are interdependent. When Russians are trying to talk about state control of the, quote-unquote, internet governance issues, they're doing that because it has an impact on human rights online because they're trying to control content online. When I went over to the State Department from the White House to found [the first cybersecurity office], one of the problems is that three different parts of the State Department would talk about the same event with different perspectives, and that doesn't help us." "The sooner that the State Department can start taking a leadership role, the better," Langevin says. "It's definitely a 'clean-up on aisle nine' on our international front. The Russians ate our lunch." SolarWinds requires US to enforce norms The Senate Intelligence Committee held a high-profile hearing on Tuesday to examine the devastating SolarWinds hack. During the hearing, the panel of witnesses, including the CEOs of Microsoft, FireEye, SolarWinds, and CrowdStrike, stressed that better international cyber norms are needed. "We want first to start picking up the pieces and then enforcing norms. We already have a lot of them," Langevin says. "We want to start the process of rewriting the cybercrime treaty, even though we already have one, which is the Budapest Convention. Russia, they don't like it. They want to rewrite it on their own." "It's not that there are not norms," Painter says. "There have been a number of norms agreed to even by China and Russia. It's just, how do you enforce those norms? The hard question here is, is this sophisticated espionage, which it appears to be, or is this something more? Every country does espionage. You're never, ever, ever going to get an agreement that espionage is off the table. It's not going to happen." Time is of the essence when it comes to dealing diplomatically with a devastating event like the SolarWinds breach. "The problem with a treaty, even if that's a desirable end-state in ten or fifteen years, you'd have to get everybody to agree, including Russia and China, in a UN context," Painter says. Response to SolarWinds attackers is a priority During the SolarWinds hearing, the witnesses and Senate panel members also raised the importance of responding to the attackers with punitive actions. "This is also an area where we want to hold bad actors accountable," Langevin says. "We want to close the gap between the violation of international norms and response." Painter underscores the value of holding the attackers responsible. "An even more important thing is, how can we hold countries accountable? How can we prevent them from doing this? How can we protect ourselves?" he says. "If there are no consequences, but people violate those norms or international laws, then those are just words on paper. In fact, you just embolden those people to do it again." Finally, a strengthened US diplomatic stance might help solve the delays in officially identifying the international culprits. Although most experts believe Russia is behind the SolarWinds hack, the US has still not formally attributed it to any particular country. "We also have to get out of the mindset that we're just going to always be using cyber forensics [for attribution]," Langevin says. "We need to use all sorts of intelligence, all assets of national power, working with our allies, to achieve, swifter attribution." Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded higher 63 points higher at 15,060 around 8.30 am, indicating a firm start for benchmark indices on Thursday. Here are the top stocks that are likely to be in focus today: Nureca: Shares of Nureca will list on the bourses today. The IPO by home healthcare and wellness products provider that ran between February 15-17 witnessed 40 times subscription. Services, Axis Bank: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has given its approval for the acquisition of up to 12 per cent stake in Max Life Insurance by and its subsidiaries Axis Capital and Axis Securities. Affle (India): Affle Holdings Pte Ltd, a promoter of Affle (India), on Wednesday, offloaded 3 lakh shares of the company worth over Rs 161 crore through an open market transaction. Cadila Healthcare: Zydus Group owned US-based Sentynl Therapeutics on Wednesday said it has inked a pact with Cyprium Therapeutics to acquire its proprietary rights to CUTX-101, a copper histidinate product candidate for the treatment of Menkes disease. Indiabulls Realty: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposed merger of NAM Estates Pvt Ltd and Embassy One Commercial Property Developments Pvt Ltd into Indiabulls Real Estate (IBREL). Dredging Corp: India is set to attain self-reliance in manufacturing of dredgers with Cochin Shipyard and Dredging Corporation collaborating with IHC Holland BV to locally build equipment. Vodafone Idea: Vodafone Group Plc has nominated Sunil Sood and Diego Massidda as additional directors on the board of its India unit JV Vodafone Idea. Piramal Enterprises: The company has appointed Kalpesh Kikani as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its Rs 11,000 plus crore AUM Alternatives business managed through its subsidiaries and joint ventures. Meanwhile, its subsidiary Piramal Pharma completed the acquisition of Convergence Chemicals. IRB Infrastructure Developers: The company's subsidiary Thane Ghodbunder Toll Road successfully completed concession period of Thane Ghodbunder BOT Project on February 23 and handed over the project to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation. Dr Reddy's Labs: The subject expert committee under Indias drug regulator has not cleared the application of Dr Reddys Laboratories seeking approval to market the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, citing lack of data. Wipro: The IT services major announced the appointment of Rene Mulder as Country Head and Managing Director of its Switzerland operations. Mphasis: Private equity Carlyle Group has emerged as the sole bidder to acquire Blackstone Group-owned Mphasis, in what would be the largest buyout in the Indian IT industry, a media report said. (Natural News) The French Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) warned that 5G technology can interfere with critical aircraft instruments such as landing gear and altimeters. Because of this, they exhorted air travelers to turn off their mobile devices using 5G when onboard an airplane. According to the DGAC, 5G devices can interfere with data sent by altimeters that tell pilots their current altitude while in flight. An agency spokesperson said that using 5G devices mid-flight could lead to risks of interference potentially [resulting in] errors in altitude readings. Turning off mobile phones or placing them in airplane mode during takeoff and landing has been a requirement on many flights for a long time now. The measure aims to prevent earlier versions of mobile networks from interfering with aircraft communication and navigation equipment. But some flights have now permitted passengers to use mobile devices while in flight and have even put up onboard masts for mobile phone calls. Because of this, DGAC sent a bulletin to airlines recommending that 5G devices be turned off or put in airplane mode during a flight. It also issued a guidance that in case a 5G device disrupts an aircrafts equipment, the aircrew should immediately notify air traffic controllers. The ground crew can then alert airport authorities on the matter. According to the French civil aviation authority, 5G causes signal interference from a close frequency source, of a strength that is similar or even superior to that of altimeters. This interference can affect instruments that are extremely critical during landing. DGAC also told mobile networks to ensure 5G cell sites are located an ample distance away from French airports to limit the risk of interference. The authority had already issued restrictions on the signal strength coming from these sites and has been doing further testing since November of last year after French mobile operators were permitted to roll out 5G. DGAC added it will continue monitoring signals from 5G base stations and testing the impact of the new mobile technology on flights. 5G also interferes with overall human health, aside from critical aircraft equipment 5G technology provides faster connectivity and more bandwidth, which translates to higher download speeds for internet users. It uses radio waves with much higher frequencies from three gigahertz to 300 gigahertz compared to earlier technologies, allowing more devices to connect at the same time. But 5G waves travel shorter distances, requiring more masts to carry the signal. 5G waves are also easily blocked by vegetation and walls making 5G boosting technology a necessity within buildings. 5G technology has alarmed environmentalists and consumer watchdog groups from the beginning mainly focused on its negative effects on health. An early instance from 2018 revealed the risks of 5G technology installed in street lamps. Fifty-eight-year-old Mark Steele from the northern English town of Gateshead has raised awareness of 5Gs dangers, citing examples of his fellow residents. He said that a number of people in his town experienced nosebleeds, insomnia and other neurological problems ever since the street lamps were installed in 2016. He further remarked that in his own circle of friends, three women lost their babies within months of the installation of 5G. Of these three women, one baby was born with severe defects and survived for only a few hours. We are seeing babies dying in the womb as these transmitters are situated outside peoples bedroom windows. Its a humanitarian crisis, Steele commented. (Related: 7 Reasons why 5G is a threat to overall health.) Since Steele unveiled the dangers of 5G in 2018, and many subsequent studies have confirmed the risks associated with this technology. EM Radiation Research Trust wrote a letter to the UK government in October 2019, with its main message being: It is not appropriate to impose untested 5G radiation throughout the U.K. Researchers from the trust mentioned scientific literature that outlined the negative effects of 5G waves such as behavioral and developmental problems, fertility damage and increased cell death. They also expressed concern over the fact that special interests and industry lobbying are playing a role in suppressing the dangers of 5G technology. Ultimately, a professor from the University of Edinburgh suggested delaying any further rollout of 5G globally. Physician and epidemiologist John William Frank said that it is best to err on the side of caution by holding up the implementation of 5G technology worldwide. (Related: 5G Danger: Hundreds of respected scientists sound the alarm about health effects as 5G networks go up nationwide.) Check out Radiation.news for more about the dangers of 5G mobile networks. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk 1 DailyMail.co.uk 2 GlobalResearch.ca European Bishops have emphasized the importance of the protection of care of all life in a letter to the President of the European Parliament in the wake of a recent resolution on abortion in Poland. By Vatican News staff writer The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) has questioned some points of a resolution passed by the European Parliament on the so-called "right" to abortion in Poland in November 2020. A letter issued by the Bishops on Monday and addressed to President of the European Parliament, David Maria Sassoli, stressed that the Catholic Church, which seeks to support women in life situations arising from difficult or unwanted pregnancies, calls for the protection and care of all unborn life. Every human person is called into being by God and needs protection, particularly when he or she is most vulnerable, the Bishops said, adding that special safeguard and care for the child, before and after birth is also expressed in international legal standards including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ban on abortion in Poland An October 2020 ruling by the Polish Constitutional court established a near-total ban on abortion in the country, permitting it only in cases of rape or incest, or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. The ban, which came into effect in January, sparked protests in the Polish capital, Warsaw, among groups divided among supporters and opponents of the move. The October court ruling found that a 1993 law allowing abortion in cases of severe and irreversible foetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. It justified its ruling on the grounds that unborn children are human beings and therefore deserve protection under the Polish constitution, which ensures the right to life. The November 2020 Resolution of the European Parliament called for EU institutions to do more to support "sexual and reproductive health rights," including abortion, across member states and to support grassroots and civil society groups that foster the rule of law. The argument of the rule of law The Bishops highlighted in their letter, that neither the European Union legislation nor the European Convention on Human Rights provide for a right to abortion, leaving the matter consequently to the legal systems of the Member states. In this regard, a fundamental principle of the EU is the principle of conferral under which the EU can only act based on limits of the competencies conferred on it by the member States in treaties signed with the goal of attaining the objectives of the said treaties. Observing this principle, therefore, COMECE noted, is a requirement of the rule of law because, as the European Parliaments resolution points out respect for the rule of law is essential for the functioning of the Union. The same rule of law, the Bishops emphasized, also requires respect for the competences of the Member states and the choices made by them in the exercise of their exclusive competences. Conscientious objection Another point of concern for the Bishops is that the Parliaments resolution appears to question the fundamental right to conscientious objection, which is an emanation of the freedom of conscience referred to in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. This, the Bishops underscored, is particularly worrying and should not be promoted, as in many cases, conscientious objectors, especially in the healthcare sector, are subject to discrimination. Equal treatment, non-discrimination At the same time, the Bishops pointed out that in full respect to legal provisions of the Parliaments referrals, in several passages of the Resolution, to the right to equal treatment and non-discrimination; they were concerned that the principle of non-discrimination could be used to blur the limits of the competences of the EU. They warned that this would go against article 51.2 of the EU Charter, which stipulates that the Charter does not extend the field of application of Union law beyond the powers of the Union or establish any new power or task for the Union. COMECE went on to stress the necessity of considering fundamental rights like freedom of thought, conscience and religion in the light of their universality, inviolability, inalienability, indivisibility and interdependence, noting particularly that with regards to the right to conscientious objection, the EU Charter entail the need to respect national constitutional traditions and the development of national legislation. The Bishops also expressed sadness at the lack of condemnation or expressions of solidarity in respect to the unacceptable attacks on Churches and places of worship in the context of the protests ensuing from the law in Poland. Concluding the letter, which was signed by COMECE president Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, and four other Bishop Vice-presidents, the Bishops reaffirmed their availability to provide further clarifications on this crucial issue, which they warn might have a negative impact on the way the Union is perceived by Member States. Jeremy Corbyn has been caught flouting lockdown rules again. He was spotted among a group of 12 outside a closed cafe in north London. The former Labour leader, 71, was not wearing a mask and did not appear to be socially distancing. A spokesman for Mr Corbyn later said: Jeremy attended a funeral for a greatly missed and well-loved former councillor, where Covid-related precautions were taken. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured, was spotted in Finsbury Park outside a coffee shop potentially breaching Covid-19 regulations Earlier in the pandemic, Mr Corbyn was pictured with a group of friends in September when lockdown rules were still in place Under rules for funerals, up to 30 can attend in Covid-secure venues or in public outdoor spaces but social distancing should be maintained between those who dont live together or share a social bubble. Other Covid rules stipulate that only two people can meet outside to exercise, while cafes are not allowed to let people sit down in groups. At around 5pm on Tuesday, the group including Mr Corbyn gathered on seats outside the closed Goods Office cafe in Stroud Green. They appeared to have bought drinks from the Londis next door. The incident came after Mr Corbyn broke rules last year by attending a dinner party with eight others. He later apologised after a photo emerged of the event in October. Then, only six were allowed to meet. The latest covid rule break came the day after Mr Corbyn had called for Matt Hancock to be sacked and replaced with somebody who will obey the law. The cafe is a hotspot for Labour MPs and celebrities, with David Lammy and Harry Enfield both regular customers, according to its owner. The picture suggests only one of the group had their face covered and none were socially distancing. The man who took the photo, a local chef, said: They should all be wearing masks - they were all just chilling and laughing and all with coffees. He added: I like photos with celebrities so I went over.but one of them came towards me and he was like Oh, you need to go away, this is a funeral party. The owner of the cafe, Andrew Poynter, yesterday said the cafe only opened between 9:30am and 3:30pm on weekdays so was closed at the time Mr Corbyn and the group were sat outside. He told the Mail: You can see they were using different coffee cups - theyre ones from the Londis next door. He said lockdown had been dreadful for business and Tuesday had been a terrible day for takings. He said they had only 150 taken and paid out 120 in wages, adding that they were more staying open for the community. A lot of people sit there. I dont mind, Id let anyone sit out there. Its just annoying when they dont clear up. Chief Nursing Officer Charlotte McArdle has confirmed that Army medics who have been assisting in Northern Irelands Covid-19 battle are returning to their military duties this week (Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/PA) Army medics who have been assisting in Northern Irelands Covid-19 battle are returning to their military duties this week, the chief nursing officer has confirmed. The 110 Combat Medical Technicians were deployed to the region last month as hospitals struggled to cope with the post-Christmas surge in coronavirus cases. With infection and hospital admission rates in decline again, Professor Charlotte McArdle told the Assemblys health committee that the medics, who worked as senior nursing assistants at three hospitals, are being withdrawn. They have been a valuable asset to the current nursing workforce at the peak of the pandemic surge and are leaving Northern Ireland this week to return to other duties Chief Nursing Officer Professor Charlotte McArdle These staff are highly trained in acute care and have been a welcome addition in providing direct support to nursing teams across our hospital network, she said. They have been a valuable asset to the current nursing workforce at the peak of the pandemic surge and are leaving Northern Ireland this week to return to other duties. First Minister Arlene Foster later thanked the medics for the support they had provided. She told a post executive press conference in Dungannon: I understand that military assistance which we received from the Ministry of Defence have been redeployed back into their military roles and I simply want to thank sincerely all of those 110 military personnel who came forward and helped us at a critical time here in Northern Ireland huge thanks to them. Prof McArdle said discussions are also taking place about stepping down the Nightingale facility at Belfast City Hospital, with the aim of reducing the number of beds. The Nightingale ICU has been treating seriously ill Covid-19 patients during the surge. Prof McArdle said nursing staff who had been drafted in to work at the Nightingale during the height of the recent wave have now returned to their usual roles. Weve been having ongoing discussions with the (Belfast) trust, particularly in relation to ICU and closing the Nightingale facility and allowing staff to return to their base units, and youll know that many of the ICU staff in the Nightingale hospital actually had to be drafted in from other units. They have all now returned, she told committee members. Expand Close The Nightingale Hospital is located in the tower block of Belfast City Hospital (Paul Faith/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Nightingale Hospital is located in the tower block of Belfast City Hospital (Paul Faith/PA) She said the health department is working with trusts to ensure staff are afforded a period of time off before they return to their previous roles. The chief nursing officer was briefing committee members on the impact of the pandemic on the workforce. There is no doubt that the period from March 2020 until now has been one of the most challenging ever faced by our health and social care system, she said. During this time of unprecedented pressure, nurses, midwives and AHPs (allied health professionals) in Northern Ireland have courageously risen to the challenges in a positive, proactive, and solution-focused way to ensure the delivery of safe, effective and compassionate care to our population. President Biden called Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on her iPhone hours after she toured the site of a tornado that killed a 14-year-old boy in her state. Biden almost instantly signed disaster declarations sought by Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. He invited Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to the White House to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. All are Republicans. None are from states Biden came close to winning. In his first five weeks in office, Biden is spending as much time - if not more - courting Republican governors as he is wooing the senators he needs to pass legislation. It is part of a strategy that lays the groundwork to make something of an end-run around Republicans in Congress, who may be resistant to his ideas, as he looks for outside-the-Beltway allies who might help him make good on his promises of bipartisanship. In some cases, Biden and his administration have leaned on state Republican officials to support his policies, including a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that includes $350 billion in funding for cities and states. In other instances, he has opened a more general dialogue, picking up the phone to offer help after a disaster or to engage longtime friends. On Thursday afternoon, the president virtually addressed the National Governors Association - including some governors who had resisted recognizing Biden as the winner of the presidential election - and urged them to work together on the coronavirus and the economy. "When people in this country need help, they're not Democrats or Republicans, they're all Americans," Biden said. "We have to fight this together, as one, to state the obvious." Governors may be more pragmatic than senators, the White House believes, their desire for funding and other help from Washington making them more open to cooperation. "They've reached out to us early on, even before the president took office, to just listen: 'How do you see it in Ohio? What are you confronting?' " the state's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, said in an interview. "That's helpful. It's always helpful when people listen." In addition, the coronavirus vaccination effort is creating natural channels for the two sides to talk. "Now what overrides everything else is the covid problem and how we get vaccine out," DeWine said. "You find governors are very, very focused on this, and the White House is very focused on this. It's an area where ideological differences are virtually insignificant." During the address to the governors, Biden noted that he often talks to many of them and joked about his trip on Friday to Texas, where he will be joined by Abbott, a partisan Republican and staunch Trump ally. "Governor Abbott, I don't want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to coming down tomorrow to be with you," Biden said. Some GOP governors are aggravated that Biden's White House has not given them a heads-up on energy or immigration policies that have a big impact on their states, and they bristle at the lack of personal outreach they have gotten so far. But Biden receives higher marks from many for his handling of the coronavirus response. "There's not a more bipartisan issue than vaccine distribution," Hutchinson said from Arkansas, a state Biden lost by nearly 28 percentage points. "The dialogue has been consistent, it has been helpful, it has been all working together on the same team to get this project done and covid behind us." Hutchinson, who is vice chairman of the National Governors Association, was among a small group of governors and mayors who met with Biden at the White House this month. Although the Arkansas governor argued that Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan was far too costly, he said he recognizes that Biden has concluded "he wants to go big on it." "He does have a friendly tone with all the governors," Hutchinson said. "It's been impressive in the meetings I've had. He's a good listener, and his team is a good listener. Now, they don't always follow our advice. But they hear us." Biden also benefits from longtime relationships with some of the governors. DeWine served with him in the Senate for 12 years, and he recounted a call shortly before Biden took office. "I started the call, 'Mr. President-,' " DeWine said. "He said, 'Just call me Joe.' I said, 'Mr. President, I'm not going to call you Joe.' " Biden aides say that almost from the moment they got their government-issued phones, they began calling governors about the coronavirus relief package. "We've seen real strong bipartisan support. Unfortunately, the area where we haven't seen as much is here in the Beltway," said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. "But I think folks on the ground who see the need of what it's going to take to combat covid and get the economy back on track are on the same page." West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, for example, has come out strongly in support of Biden's approach, saying the president's $1.9 trillion package is far better than a Republican alternative of $618 billion. "I don't think that America can go wrong being too high, I really don't," Justice said during a coronavirus briefing earlier this month. "I think, today, America's got to go to the higher number." Shortly afterward, Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., a moderate who had been working with Republicans to scale back the plan, indicated he would instead back Biden's proposal. The praise is hardly universal. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said he grew tired of reading in the media about Biden's energy initiatives, which have a major effect on his state, so he called the White House several weeks ago and spoke with Rodriguez. He said he had not heard back from the White House, and he hasn't spoken with Biden. "We haven't had any conversation," he said. "We read about it in the paper. And that's a problem." A White House official told The Washington Post that it had reached out to Dunleavy's office on Wednesday afternoon to set up a deeper dialogue. Dunleavy, who grew up about 10 blocks from where Biden once lived in Scranton, Pa., had questioned whether Biden won the election, and Alaska under his leadership joined a Texas-led lawsuit attempting to overturn the results. Dunleavy had a much stronger relationship with former president Donald Trump, a leader he called "the best president for Alaska since statehood." They met at least nine times, and when Air Force One would make refueling stops in Alaska, Dunleavy said, he would be invited aboard. Beyond such niceties, Biden has rapidly reversed many of Trump's climate change policies and banned new drilling permits on federal land. "I hate to say it, but we're girding ourselves for a couple of long years," Dunleavy said. "Right out of the gate, it's not looking good for Alaska on a whole host of issues." North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican, also said he is frustrated. In mid-December, he requested a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and said he was directed to Rodriguez. "I was at the inauguration and heard the speech firsthand about working together and unity," Burgum said. "And the first couple of weeks has been a barrage of executive orders that have had a direct impact on our economy, our communities, our schools." The most direct contact between the White House and governors comes during a weekly call on the coronavirus response. It's a continuation of a practice started during the Trump administration, but with notable differences. Former vice president Mike Pence used to lead the video calls from the Situation Room, often joined by top health advisers including Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx and Scott Atlas. Now the calls are led by Jeff Zients, Biden's coronavirus response coordinator, who is both more hands-on and less senior than Pence. Biden and Harris do not participate, and the sessions are held via conference call rather than video, making it unclear who is taking part. The calls are more businesslike and streamlined, 45 minutes rather than up to two hours. Some predicted the changes will make the calls less effective. "On a video call, every governor is like, 'If we're not on the call, they're going to see we're not. We need to be on the meeting and interact with the other governors and the Cabinet,' " Burgum said. "With teleconference, I'd guess in a short time you're going to have governors stop calling in and have a staffer call in. . . . It just seems there's been some layers added with less direct contact with the administration." Biden, when it comes to engaging fellow political leaders, appears to fall somewhere between Trump, who often called unprompted to seek input and affirmation, and former president Barack Obama, who was wary of the give-and-take among elected officials. Past connections with him are beneficial, and Biden has been quick to respond to states confronting tragedy or national disaster. Last week, Biden's office quickly scheduled a call with seven governors - most from red states - to discuss the severe winter storm. He opened by jokingly quoting former president Ronald Reagan: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' " At the end of the call, Biden said he wanted to talk more with the governors later about advancing new solar technology that can store power longer. "He was very focused on solving the problem at hand," said one participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation. There was no sort of blame or 'We need to fix this.' It was, 'What does your state need? And if you'd be open to it, we'd love to talk about it more in the future about this solar stuff.' " As Biden begins focusing on his infrastructure plan, potentially his next major initiative, he could turn even more to GOP governors as he faces resistance from congressional Republicans. "There is a big difference - in general, governors have to be pragmatic, and they have to be problem-solvers," said DeWine. "The buck stops with them. Governors talk a lot across party lines. Most issues we deal with, we're as comfortable talking to a Democrat as we are a Republican." [February 24, 2021] StockGraphy Launches 'Community for the Development System of 3D Digital Cultural Heritages' TOKYO, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- StockGraphy Inc. is launching an event, "Community for the Development of 3D Digital Cultural Heritages." StockGraphy will discuss the construction of a wide-ranging utilization system for photogrammetry technology with SHARP CORPORATION through this event. - Transmitting the "present" of shaped objects that deteriorate over the years as 3D digital data to the future - To contribute to the 3D digital archive of more valuable shaped objects, StockGraphy will work toward developing methods to maximize accuracy and establish an expandable production system. Technology to transmitting a shape of cultural property to the future The appearance and values of arts, crafts, and cultural properties will change over time, and it will not be possible to maintain their current state. Therefore, StockGraphy has developed high-precision 3D digitization technology to protect arts, crafts, and cultural properties. In the future, StockGraphy will discuss the 3D digitization technology with SHARP CORPORATION, a leading company in the ara of preserving valuable objects through its technology. "Co-creation" will expand the development system. StockGraphy will digitally preserve cultural properties worldwide. StockGraphy runs "3DCG.iO," a co-creation network with top global 3D meisters. In this initiative, StockGraphy will promote cooperation with 3D digitization meisters based on the activities of 3DCG.iO. StockGraphy will expand the development system by sharing high-precision workflows and aim for large-scale efforts to contribute to the 3D preservation of cultural properties worldwide. * Top image/3D digital archive: Yu / StockGraphy Inc. * Top image/Potters of genome: Manabu Atarashi Contact For inquiries regarding work requests, please contact the following URL. https://www.stockgraphy.com/#contact Related Images community-for-the-development.jpg Community for the Development System of 3D Digital Cultural Heritages StockGraphy Launches "Community for the Development System of 3D Digital Cultural Heritages". Discussing Building a System for Utilizing Photogrammetry Technologies with SHARP CORPORATION. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stockgraphy-launches-community-for-the-development-system-of-3d-digital-cultural-heritages-301235033.html SOURCE StockGraphy Inc. Paul Tasong Archives Paul Tasong has called on Lebialem-based separatist strongman Lekeaka Oliver alias Field Marshal to lay down his weapons immediately or be ready to kiss the viper. Tasong is elite of Lebialem Division in Cameroons South West Region and the countrys Minister Delegate in charge of Planning at Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development. He is also National Coordinator of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the North West and South West Regions His public pronouncement follows the killing of three traditional rulers in Essoh-Attah by armed separatists fighting to transform Cameroons North West and South West Regions into a country called Ambazonia. Speaking at the National Museum in Yaounde on February 16, 2021, Tasong asked anyone who talks to him to take this message to him. Tell him, that we are coming to get him, Tasong thundered at the emotion-packed ceremony. Tell him, that he has one last opportunity to call me to come and take him. The Minister said if Field Marshal fails to seize this opportunity to lay down his weapons and move to the disarmament demobilization and reintegration center, he should prepare himself for the worst. Tell him, that failure to voluntarily come out, he should get ready to kiss the viper. Tell him, that failure to come out will be tantamount to sucking the venom of a dangerous viper, said the Minister. Tell him, to listen to the advice of his own mother who is wondering if shes the one who carried him in her womb for nine months. Tell him, that the Gods of Lebialem are angry. Very angry. Tell him, that if everyone else were to give up on him, I will make it personal between him and me, said the political figure and elite of Lebialem. Tasong says the killing of three traditional rulers on February 13, 2021, by separatist fighters calls for introspection of the situation in Lebialem since March 17, 2018. Armed separatists in Lebialem have reportedly kidnapped for ransom, kidnapped for sex, crippled agricultural activities, looted financial institutions, and killed innocent citizens. Tasong says with all that has happened in Lebeliam Division, nothing proves that the actions of separatists are in any way related to secession as claimed by the merchants of bad luck. Tasong wonders: In the face of all of this, we want to know what these acts have to do with the dream of creating a republic and breaking away from the Republic of Cameroon. How are these acts outlined above connected to the secessionist movement? These men are in no way secessionists, otherwise, those commanding them and who claim to have a breakaway agenda would have called them to order for thwarting their cause if any existed. What is this dream republic that turns against the people it claims to work for? Who are these so-called liberators, who victimize the people they claim to liberate? All the above actions are in no way related to the initial legitimate grievances of the citizens of the NW&SW Regions. These grievances were identified and solutions set in motion since 2017. The moderate majority of Lebialem people is silent and only want to go about their daily activities and to provide for their progenitors especially in the form of education. What have they done to deserve this? The act of killing each other is totally new to Lebialem. Christopher Anu lives in freedom and protection in the USA. He has since 2016, set up an enterprise of death in Lebialem with his brother Lekeaka Oliver alias field marshal as the chief operations manager on the ground. We have lost count of the number of people they have killed, but we know that since January 1, 2021, they have already killed at least six people. The wickedness and evil of the two brothers (Christopher Anu who lives in the USA and Oliver Lekeaka a.k.a field marshal who lives in some bushes in lower Lebialem), reminds us of the biblical story of story Cain and Abel at the time of creation. Brothers killing brothers in search of wealth. The ground that is soaked with the blood of the people of Lebialem will rise to hunt these two thieves who live by the sword, for generations after generations. Lebialem people are again victims of a new brand of thieves, rapists, and murderers with the satanic cravings of blood-thirsty demons. These are enemies of peace operating under the canopy of an illusion. We decry in the most rigid terms these barbaric, beastly, and abominable macabre acts perpetrated on the lives of the fallen patriots of peace and prosperity of our land who stood their grounds and resisted the enemy till the last drop of their blood. While we pray for the souls of the departed to find eternal rest in their creator we pledge our commitment to fish out the perpetrators of this carnage and cause them to shoulder the responsibility of their acts. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close CALGARY, AB, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - Canadian Utilities Limited (TSX: CU) (TSX: CU.X) today announced fourth quarter 2020 adjusted earnings of $186 million, or $0.68 per share, $10 million or $0.03 per share higher compared to $176 million, or $0.65 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2019. Higher earnings were mainly due to stronger results in the Utilities segment from continued cost efficiencies, continued growth in the asset base, and earnings from ongoing transition work related to the long-term contract to operate Puerto Rico's electricity transmission and distribution system. Canadian Utilities Reports 2020 Earnings (CNW Group/Canadian Utilities Limited) Adjusted earnings in 2020 were $535 million, or $14 million higher compared to 2019, excluding the earnings from the Canadian fossil fuel-based electricity generation business and 80 per cent ownership interest in Alberta PowerLine which were sold in 2019. Higher earnings were mainly due to cost efficiencies across the organization, continued growth in the asset base, and earnings from ongoing operations and maintenance transition work in Puerto Rico. Canadian Utilities adjusted earnings in 2020 were $535 million, or $1.96 per share, compared to $608 million, or $2.23 per share, in 2019 including the earnings from the Canadian fossil fuel-based electricity generation business and ownership interest in Alberta PowerLine which were sold in 2019 and which together contributed $87 million in adjusted earnings in 2019. In 2020, Canadian Utilities invested $912 million in capital projects, of which 96 per cent was invested in regulated utilities. The remaining 4 per cent, or $36 million, was invested in a long-term contracted hydrocarbon storage cavern and an industrial water pipeline in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, as well as a solar electricity generation facility in Chile. In the 2021 to 2023 period, Canadian Utilities expects to invest $3.2 billion in regulated utility and commercially secured energy infrastructure capital growth projects. This capital investment is expected to contribute significant earnings and cash flows, and create long-term value for share owners. Story continues On January 14, 2021, Canadian Utilities declared a first quarter dividend of 43.98 cents per share or $1.76 per share on annualized basis per Class A non-voting and Class B common share, a one per cent increase over the 43.54 cents paid in each of the four previous quarters. Canadian Utilities has increased its dividend per share for 49 consecutive years, the longest track record of annual dividend increases of any publicly traded Canadian company. Earnings attributable to equity owners of the Company were $427 million in 2020, $524 million lower compared to 2019. Earnings attributable to equity owners of the Company include significant impairments, dividends on equity preferred shares of the Company, timing adjustments related to rate-regulated activities, unrealized losses on mark-to-market forward and swap commodity contracts, one-time gains and losses, and items that are not in the normal course of business or a result of day-to-day operations. These items are not included in adjusted earnings. This news release should be used as preparation for reading the full disclosure documents. Canadian Utilities' consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2020 will be available on the Canadian Utilities website (www.canadianutilities.com), via SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or can be requested from the Company. TELECONFERENCE AND WEBCAST Canadian Utilities will hold a live teleconference and webcast to discuss our 2020 financial results. Dennis DeChamplain, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, will discuss year-end 2020 recent developments and financial results at 9:00 am Mountain Time (11:00 am Eastern Time) on Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 1-800-319-4610. No passcode is required. Opening remarks will be followed by a question and answer period with investment analysts. Participants are asked to please dial-in 10 minutes prior to the start and request to join the Canadian Utilities teleconference. Management invites interested parties to listen via live webcast at: https://www.canadianutilities.com/en-ca/investors/events-presentations.html A replay of the teleconference will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call until March 25, 2021. Please call 1-800-319-6413 and enter passcode 5919. An archive of the webcast will be available on February 25, 2021 and a transcript of the call will be posted on https://www.canadianutilities.com/en-ca/investors/events-presentations.html within a few business days. With approximately 4,500 employees and assets of $20 billion, Canadian Utilities Limited is an ATCO company. Canadian Utilities is a diversified global energy infrastructure corporation delivering essential services and innovative business solutions in Utilities (electricity and natural gas transmission and distribution, and international electricity operations); Energy Infrastructure (electricity generation, energy storage, and industrial water solutions); and Retail Energy (electricity and natural gas retail sales). More information can be found at www.canadianutilities.com. Investor & Analyst Inquiries: Myles Dougan Director, Investor Relations & External Disclosure T: 403-292-7879 C: 403-828-2908 Media Inquiries: Kurt Kadatz Senior Manager, Corporate Communications T: 587-228-4571 Forward-Looking Information: Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions (including as may be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic), and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation. SOURCE Canadian Utilities Limited Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2021/25/c7736.html Meghan Markle opted for a Canadian-made sustainable pink sapphire ring for her first appearance since quitting the royal family, eagled-eyed fans have spotted. The Duchess of Sussex, 39, appeared alongside the Duke, 36, in a 20-second video to plug their Archewell Audio podcast at a Spotify live stream event broadcast earlier this week. Meghan, known for her love of eco-friendly style, donned a dazzling 862 ring created using recycled gold and ethically-sourced diamonds from Canadian brand Ecksand. This isn't the first time Meghan has worn the stunning piece, with the former actress, who spent years filming the hit US legal drama Suits in Toronto, sporting the ring at the 2019 Endeavour Awards, while pregnant with son Archie, who will turn two in May. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who now live in California, were stripped of their royal and sporting patronages by the Queen last week, and announced they are expecting their second child on Valentine's Day. Meghan Markle (pictured with Prince Harry) opted for a Canadian-made sustainable pink sapphire ring for her first appearance since quitting the royal family, eagled-eyed fans have spotted The Duchess of Sussex, 39, appeared alongside the Duke, 36, in a 20-second video to plug their Archewell Audio podcast at a Spotify live stream event broadcast earlier this week. Pictured, the duchess' ring Eagle-eyed royal fans spotted the glittering ring and were quick to praise the duchess for her selection online. 'Not only are we excited for the Archewell Audio podcast, we are incredibly honoured that Meghan chose to re-wear one of our sustainable jewels during her first public appearance since announcing her pregnancy,' the Ecksand's co-founder Erica Bianchini told People. 'Our commitment to sustainable practices is something Meghan connects with. That's a cause that Harry and Meghan hold close to their hearts,' she added. The ring's description online reads: 'Step into the spotlight. This Ecksand Mosaic ring is a bold statement that will elevate any look, day or night. 'This cocktail ring features a vibrant pink sapphire. The natural diamond pave on the band adds subtle sparkle. 'This pink sapphire ring is cast in classic yellow gold for lifetime wear. The subtle prong setting leaves the focus on the dazzling ethical gemstone.' This isn't the first time Meghan has worn the stunning piece (pictured), with the former actress, who spent years filming the hit US legal drama Suits in Toronto, sporting the ring at the 2019 Endeavour Awards, while pregnant with son Archie, who will turn two in May For her appearance, Meghan also stunned in a 2,600 soft blue Oscar de la Renta gown embroidered with lemons. In the clip, which was filmed at their $14 million Santa Barbara home, the expectant mother looked glamorous in a 60s-inspired cocktail dress, with a dramatic flounced hem and citrus fruit detailing across the bodice and skirt. The Duchess is known for her love of designer brands, and her first maternity wardrobe is believed to have cost over half a million pounds. It was further boosted by decadent jewellery, which adds financial value to several of her outfits. Meghan opted to wear her hair into bouncy glamorous Hollywood curls for the appearance. She swapped her usual low key makeup for a stunning glamorous look, with bold dark eyeshadow, and highlighter. Meanwhile she kept her accessories to a minimal in order to let her dress take centre stage. The royal (pictured left) rarely wears the same outfits twice, selecting new outfits from favourite designers such as Givenchy and Victoria Beckham on almost every appearance The gown is described online as featuring 'a signature lemon motif' which 'adds a Botticelli-inspired quality to this glamorous 60s-inspired shift.' The royal rarely wears the same outfits twice, selecting new outfits from favourite designers such as Givenchy and Victoria Beckham on almost every appearance. During her time as a senior royal, the mother-of-one wore a parade of designer outfits from brands such as Dior, Prada and Chanel and an array of expensive accessories. During the couple's tour of Australia in October 2018, the royal wore an exquisite Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress worth 10,000 to the Australian Geographic Society gala awards. The expectant mother looked glamorous in a 60s-inspired cocktail dress, with a dramatic flounced hem and citrus fruit detailing across the bodice and skirt During the couple's tour of Australia in October 2018, the royal wore an exquisite Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress worth 10,000 to the Australian Geographic Society gala awards at the Shanghai-La hotel And in February 2019, then-pregnant Meghan wore a 1,500 Oscar de la Renta dress decorated with a collection of unique animal and flower prints on it to visit Bristol. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex last year announced they had secured a deal with Spotify, thought to be worth up to 30million. It was commercial deals such as this that put the couple at odds with the impartiality required of those in public service and seemingly led to the permanent split with the Firm. In the brief appearance, Meghan, gushed that they are 'using podcasting to drive powerful conversations', before Harry chimed in 'that inspire, challenge and educate'. 'We created Archwell audio to make sure we can elevate voices that maybe aren't being heard and hear people's stories,' Meghan, who was wearing a 2,645 Oscar de la Renta dress, continues. Harry finished: 'And the biggest part of this is trying to create this community of where you can share, that will encourage everybody else to then share their own vulnerabilities in that safe space.' It is unclear when the video was filmed. Harry and Meghan appeared at the live streamed event alongside celebrities such as Bad Guy hitmaker Billie Eilish and Korean girl group Blackpink. Meanwhile, podcasters including Jemele Hill, Connie Walker and Misha Euceph also discussed the role that podcasts play in sharing people's stories with a wider audience. Red carpet appearances from hit musicians including Jorja Smith and Lizzo were also featured in the Spotify event. The Austrian village of Mayrhofen in Zillertal is to be sealed off after 29 cases of the South African coronavirus mutation were discovered. (Getty) A village in Austria is to be completely sealed off for at least a week after 29 cases of the South African COVID variant were found there. Mayrhofen in Zillertal will only allow commuters in and out during the period it is sealed off, in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus strain. Out of a population of 4,000 people, there are 42 cases of coronavirus including at a kindergarten and a school. At least one of the cases is suspected of being related to the South African variant, according to The Local. Ischgl in Austria is thought to be 'ground zero' for the coronavirus pandemic in Austria. (AP) The find is significant as the village lies in the Austrian state of Tyrol where the Ischgl ski resort, thought to be the ground zero of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, is situated. Thousands of tourists, including at least 180 Britons, caught coronavirus while staying there during the spring holidays in March last year, carrying it back to their home countries. Watch: PM 'very confident' in COVID vaccines amid South African variant concerns The tough new measures in Mayrhofen will mean anyone wanting to leave the village will have to show proof of a negative PCR test taken within the previous 72 hours. All residents will also be tested twice between Friday and Wednesday in an effort to stop a further outbreak. Pupils will be force into remote learning while schools close and most shops will also be shut, aside from chemists and supermarkets. Mask use will also be mandatory in defined public places throughout the Schwaz district. The Local reports that there has been some pushback against mass testing after authorities asked those taking part to film themselves so their identities could be checked. Read more What you can and can't do under current lockdown rules The Tyrol region has seen just 4,000 completed tests returned out of a total of 40,000 that were sent out. The governor of Tyrol, Gunther Platter, has now called for people in the Schwaz area to be given priority for vaccines. Story continues Tyrol has seen 567 deaths from coronavirus, out of 47,168 cases. Total COVID deaths in Austria stand at 8,470. Watch: What you can and can't do during England's third national lockdown Festival's online gambit pays off as more students tune in to master musical instruments like pipa and the harp. Having established itself, in 1995, as one of Beijing's biggest summer arts festivals for children, the annual Gateway to Music, initiated and organized by the Forbidden City Concert Hall, opened its first online courses last summer amid the coronavirus pandemic. After receiving a warm response from both parents and children, the organizers decided to launch a winter camp offering musical training online for children and adults. Starting from the end of February, two veteran musicians: Zhang Hongyan who plays the pipaa Chinese lute with four stringsand harpist Wang Guan, will give a series of online classes to students with or without a musical background. "The winter camp will last until early summer. When the pandemic is under control, these students will be invited to perform live together at the venue," says Xu Jian, the general manager of the Forbidden City Concert Hall, adding that more artists will join in the winter camp to introduce different musical instruments. On Feb 20, Zhang sat among pipa students, ranging in age from primary school students to teenagers, listening to their performances and giving instructions. The two-hour lesson was recorded at the Forbidden City Concert Hall and will be played online, to be shared by more students. "When you pluck the strings, you should use the strength in your wrist. It will keep the sounds clean and neat," Zhang says to Sun Jinxuan, 10, who played Yi Ethnic Dance, composed by Wang Huiran in 1965 for the pipa. "It's also important to listen to yourself while playing the instrument." After listening to students, Ma Chunxiao and Gui Jiayue, both 10, play a piece adapted from a children's song, titled Happy New Year, Zhang says: "it's a great way to learn music with a friend. You both inspire and progress with each other, which is fun". In 2011, Zhang, who teaches at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, launched a summer camp for the pipa as part of the annual Gateway to Music festival. The camp attracts about 200 students of different ages. "I am very proud and happy to see that many young Chinese people love to play a musical instrument which is more than 2,000 years old. Art education is a key aspect of what we do as professional musicians and educators," says Zhang, adding that, when the Forbidden City Concert Hall invited her to launch the pipa training summer camp, it was the first program at the festival dedicated to a traditional Chinese instrument. "Last summer, we tried for the first time to give online courses. It posed great challenges to us since usually music training needs teachers and students to meet in person," recalls Zhang. "We re-arranged our teaching materials for students with or without pipa-playing experience and we gradually figured out ways to effectively communicate with the students through the internet." Sophie spent her childhood in the Loire Valley region of France. She grew up in a family that was appreciative of the artistic world and discovered art during family trips. At the age of 12, she discovered and was fascinated by the painting ""Spring"" by Botticelli during a visit to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (Italy). As a teenager, she was passionate about the works of the Austrian painter, Friedrich Hundertwasser (twentieth century). His treatment of colour and his relationship with nature fascinated her, and he became an important painter for her. In high school, Sophie began to participate in art exhibitions and attended the School of Fine Arts. After graduating, she carried out her dreams of travelling to South America. For a year she soaked in landscapes, colours, warmth and then finally decided to stay and live in Chile for 3 years. On her return to France in 2011, she decided to set up her studio in Mayenne (Loire Valley). Sophie's work draws its energy from an increasingly individualistic and sclerotic society. Nature is in danger, and all that is natural and all that is artificial are contradictory. She combines different materials (ink, acrylic and collage), which reveal a thin and delicate line, as well as a profusion of details. Her work, between washes (diluted colours create different intensities) and collage (newspapers, bits of magazines, fabrics.....) approaches different issues. Women, nature, travel, and loneliness, but also chi l d r e n a r e s u b j e c t s d e a r t o t h e a r t i s t . C o m p a r a b l e t o t h e S p a n i s h p a i n t i n g o f t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y ( J o a n M i r I , P a b l o P i c a s s o ) , a n d t h e c o l o u r i s t p a i n t e r s s u c h a s H e n r i M a t i s s e , W a s s i l y K a n d i n s k y a n d M a r c C h a g a l l ( n i n e t e e n t h / t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r i e s ) , S o p h i e attaches great importance to colour, which arouses emotions and participates in the structure of the painting. Vivid and saturated hues accentuate the surrealist dimension of her painting. We discover there a floating world, dreamlike and wacky, sometimes disturbing, where strangeness mixes with a sense of humour. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 17:48:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Over 400,000 Nepali people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 under the first phase of a vaccination drive, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said. In a press statement on Wednesday, the ministry said a total of 429,705 people who were under the first priority list, were inoculated first doses of vaccine in the first phase. "The second doses will be inoculated eight weeks after the first doses were inoculated," Dr. Shyam Raj Upreti, coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee under the health ministry, told Xinhua on Thursday. The first phase of the vaccination drive had begun on Jan. 27 and ended on Monday. The Nepali government received 1 million doses of Covishield vaccine on Jan. 21. Health workers, sanitization workers, journalists and staff in the diplomatic missions were vaccinated in the first phase. According to the health ministry, as many as 1.4 percent of the around 30 million population of Nepal were inoculated the first doses of vaccine in the first phase. The Nepali government is preparing to launch the second phase of vaccination drive. "We aim to inoculate first doses of vaccine to 3.7 million people aged above 55 years in the second phase," said Upreti. "During this vaccination drive, we hope to get additional vaccine doses from different sources." Nepal is set to receive COVID-19 vaccine from China after China announced early this month that it would provide Nepal with the first batch of vaccine aid. Last week, Nepal's drug regulator granted approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd, under Sinopharm, for emergency use in the country. Enditem Yves here. The financial crisis wiped out a tremendous amount of black wealth. Now we have the pandemic hitting the entrepreneurial members of minority communities disproportionately hard. One of the first restaurants to close here was one I very much liked.and ironically I took out dinner the last night it was open for sit-down service, the very day Birmingham announced that non-essential businesses would close (with very little warning; the policy was presented in the late afternoon and was effective the next day). The manager was shell-shocked. They had a short go at trying to make carry out work and shuttered. The owner was black and I wondered if the reason for his fast action was the expectation, whether true or not, that his landlord, franchisor, and/or bank wouldnt cut him as much slack as they might a white proprietor. This particular restaurant catered to middle income diners and was at the end of the toniest mall in town. Other restaurants in that mall closed later. In other words, I have no reason to think this restauranteur was in a more fragile position than his peers in that mall. But his minority status may have given him a more acute sense of his precarity and led him to move quickly to preserve what he could. And this article describes that minority areas were indeed shortchanged on Covid aid. By Carlos Avenancio-Leon, Assistant Professor of Finance, Indiana University and Isaac Hacamo, Assistant Professor of Finance Department: Finance Campus: Bloomington, Indiana University. Originally published at The Conversation The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on Main Street, with small businesses across the U.S. closing by the thousands. But as bad as the overall scene is, for minority-owned businesses the picture is even bleaker. A survey released on Jan. 27 by advocacy group Small Business Majority found that almost 1 in 5 Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs expected to permanently close their business over the course of the next three months a rate higher than for white business owners. It comes on the back of a report by the Federal Reserve of Cleveland that suggested that the impact of the coronavirus could be over two times larger for Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses than for white-owned enterprises. As scholars who research racial inequities and entrepreneurship, we know that even before the pandemic, Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses were more vulnerable to economic downturns. Minority-owned businesses tend to have lower levels of capital the amount of equity relative to debt than white-owned businesses, making it harder for them to safeguard against unexpected economic downturns. In addition, Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses tend to concentrate in areas and industries that have been especially heavily affected by the pandemic, such as retail and the restaurant business. Lower Income, Less cCapital The gap in capital available to Black and Hispanic business owners is in large part a result of long-standing disparities in homeownership rates. Lower levels of homeownership among Black and Hispanic Americans compromises their ability to use home equity to start or maintain businesses. Even for those who are homeowners, higher mortgage rates, mortgage insurance premiums and property taxes mean they are likely to have less home wealth at their disposition to keep businesses afloat in tough times. Data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances shows that white business owners had almost five times the amount of home equity as their Black and Hispanic counterparts. At the same time, minority-owned companies generated 10 times less income than white-owned ones. In short, this means white-owned businesses typically have more liquidity to weather a sharp decline in revenues, such as has been experienced during the pandemic. Our analysis of data shows that Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs are 25 percentage points less likely to have emergency savings than white business owners, and similarly hold far fewer stocks or other liquid assets. As a result, minority business owners are more often forced to rely on nonbusiness income, such as other family members income earnings and debt to fund their operations. But making interest payments on higher levels of debt drains cash at a time when entrepreneurs may need it the most. Decline in business Compounding the problem is the impact the pandemic has had on clients and customers of small businesses. A large number of minority-owned businesses operate in neighborhoods with high minority populations the very communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, through job loss and illness. This in turn affects demand for products and services provided by minority small businesses, especially as recessions tend to hit Black and Hispanic communities in the U.S. harder and earlier. Data from analytics website SafeGraph shows that foot traffic for businesses in minority neighborhoods has declined more sharply than those in white neighborhoods. Small businesses in all-white neighborhoods experienced nearly no decline in foot traffic during the pandemic. In contrast, small businesses in neighborhoods with a 20% minority composition saw a decline in foot traffic of almost 40%. The sectors that Black- and Hispanic-owned enterprises tend to concentrate in also contribute to the racial disparity in closures. Figures from American Community Survey show that sectors that have been particularly vulnerable in the pandemic, such as retail and restaurant, comprise a larger share of minority ownership. As such, it is no surprise that job losses at the onset of the recession were larger in industries with the highest share of minority business owners. Targeted Assistance Minority-owned businesses in need are also less likely to benefit when the government offers aid in a crisis. And thats what appears to be happening during the pandemic. The federal government created the Paycheck Protection Program last April to provide assistance to small businesses hurt by the coronavirus lockdowns. Administered in two rounds, it offered more than US$500 billion worth of loans that could be forgiven if funds were used to cover payroll. These loans have provided a lifeline to many small businesses. But research found that the first round of the stimulus package was inequitably distributed, with the bulk of the funds given to businesses in neighborhoods with low shares of Black and Hispanic residents. The delay in federal help to minority business owners may have been critical, given the large fraction of business closures that took place in the early months of the pandemic. To mitigate the disproportionate effects of this downturn on minority-owned businesses, we believe it is crucial that the Biden administration begin to target more of its small business aid to Black and Hispanic enterprises and to the worst-hit communities. The consequence of not ensuring that aid is more equitably delivered is further suffering in the Black and Hispanic business community. Pashinyan has called on his supporters to rally in the center of the capital Yerevan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday that an announcement by the armed forces calling for him to resign amounted to an attempted military coup. PM has called on his supporters to take to the streets in Yerevan, Reuters reports. Earlier this day, Armenia's armed forces called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government, Reuters wrote with reference to the Interfax news agency. Pashinyan has faced protests and calls to resign after what his critics say was the disastrous handling of a bloody six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year. War in Nagorno-Karabakh 2020: Background On September 27, the latest round of escalation started in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region. On November 10, all hostilities were ceased in the conflict zone. This was announced in a statement signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Read alsoArmenia surrender. Who's the main beneficiary of Karabakh truce?According to the agreements reached, Azerbaijan and Armenia will hold ground at their current positions. A Russian peacekeeping contingent deploys along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas under the control of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The exchange of prisoners of war, other detainees, and bodies is being carried out. All economic and transport links in the region are being unblocked. Armenia was supposed to hand control of the Kelbajar region to Azerbaijan by November 15, and of the Lachin region by December 1, while retaining the Lachin corridor (5 km wide) to ensure the link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. This shall not cover the city of Shusha. Reporting by UNIAN Bethel's Kris Vallotton says his apology for election prediction was premature, will wait Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Bethel Church Senior Associate Leader Kris Vallotton is backtracking his apology for prophesying that President Donald Trump would win reelection, now saying that he will wait until the final results are tabulated. After much of the media declared Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election on Saturday, the Redding, California, megachurch pastor, who is known in charismatic circles for his books on prophecy and his prophetic ministry, posted a video on his Facebook page, saying that he had made a big mistake in predicting Trump would serve another term in office. He felt he had to apologize for getting it wrong because such a prediction creates a "credibility gap" in his ministry which many have come to trust. Vallotton has since removed the video. "After doing a lot more research, I decided to wait until the official vote count is complete as it appears that there is a significant amount of discrepancy in the process," he explained on his Facebook page Monday, noting that many have asked him why he took it down. "In the meantime I will be praying and believing for the will of the Lord to be done. If the outcome remains the same, I will repost my apology video. If my prophetic word turns out to be right, I will do the chicken dance in my spandex. Gods speed humility is still the way forward!" His words come as a chorus of charismatic and Pentecostal voices who have prophesied Trump would serve two terms as president are maintaining that they indeed heard from God despite media outlets projecting that former Vice President Joe Biden won the race. Some, including Jeremiah Johnson, have asserted that a nefarious plot is presently unfolding to steal the election from Trump. The Trump campaign is currently working on several lawsuits alleging voter fraud in several key swing states. Vallotton said in a Dec. 8 sermon that he believed God was going to give President Trump a second term in a message that centered on sovereign providence. God was intervening in the United States and the world in a remarkably providential way and was about to display His power because He is sovereign over the affairs of humankind, he said. God had been taking him on a journey learning about divine providence, he explained at the time, and six weeks prior to preaching the message in which he predicted Trump would win a second term he had a dream in which he saw the mutilation of children in transgenderism. In the dream, he then heard the voice of the Holy Spirit say that "the iniquity of the Amorites [in America] is complete." He then awoke from the dream and said he could not stop crying for the remainder of the night. In Scripture, when the sin of the Amorites a notoriously wicked people group who dwelled in the land of Canaan was complete, the Israelites were delivered from bondage. Genesis 15 records God telling Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved for 400 years and in the fourth generation would return to the land that God gave him "for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. In a Tuesday post, Vallotton called on believers not to point the "finger of judgment" but to be humble. "This is not about a man winning a political race, but about the Lord healing our land!" he wrote. "Offense, bitterness and judgement will drive our country deeper into darkness no matter who leads. Revivals are never birthed out of being right, they are born out of righteous which is rooted in Jesus redemption and forgiveness. Im concerned that we are losing sight of the fact that our battle not against people but against principalities and powers.What if God is testing the heart of His people? Remember humility + nothing = promotion." Vallotton is the author of several books on prophecy, including The Supernatural Ways of Royalty, and School of the Prophets: Advanced Training for Prophetic Ministry. He is the co-founder of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. SALEM, Ore. Organizations representing producers of Oregon beer, wine, and spirits are sounding the alarm about a bill proposed in the legislature that would majorly hike taxes on alcohol. House Bill 3296, sponsored by Democratic Representatives Tawna Sanchez and Rachel Prusak, proposes new taxes on beer, cider, and wine. The bill proposes an additional tax of $70 per barrel of beer or cider and $10 per gallon of wine. The current taxes stand at $2.60 per barrel of beer or cider and 65 cents per gallon of wine, and the new taxes would be added on top of those existing rates. Reps. Sanchez and Prusak reference the cost of addiction in Oregon as the impetus for the bill, citing statistics that the state's alcohol mortality rate has increased by 34 percent in the past 21 years, killing "five times as many people as all drug overdoses combined." The bill stipulates that tax revenues would go toward addiction recovery measures. The Oregon Beverage Alliance and Oregon Wine Council both released statements this week in opposition to the bill, saying that it would be devastating to Oregon breweries, wineries, and distilleries already suffering from the impact of wildfires and COVID-19 closures. The idea of increasing the tax on small, local wineries that provide important jobs and tourism revenue to the state when we are just beginning to approach recovery from the current economic crisis is incomprehensible, let alone an increase of nearly 1700 percent, said Sam Tannahill, Founder and Winegrower at A to Z Wineworks and Rex Hill winery. As written, this proposal would potentially force most of Oregons prized wineries to simply shut down, as they would be unable to sustain their operations with this drastic of a tax increase. Both groups cited polls, conducted by the Oregon Beverage Alliance, that found 74 percent of Oregonians oppose alcohol tax increases. This appears to be the single largest beer, wine and cider tax increases ever proposed. If the goal is to kill the Oregon beer, wine and cider sectors, this bill is a great start," the Oregon Beverage Alliance said. "Beer, wine, cider and spirits are an essential part of Oregons economy and identity. House Bill 3296 would eliminate these local jobs with a nearly 3,000% tax increase on beer and cider and almost 2,000% tax increase on wine at a time when these businesses are battling a pandemic recession. This is tremendously insulting and would be an unprecedented blow to a sector that has put Oregon on the map." The actual tax increase would be closer to 2,700 percent for beer and cider, 1,538 percent for wine. The Oregon Wine Council estimated that the bill would raise the cost of every bottle of wine sold in Oregon by more than two dollars. It is unfathomable to think that now is an appropriate time to increase any tax on one of Oregons homegrown industries that has suffered the most during the COVID-19 pandemic, let alone one of this magnitude, said Scott Kelley, owner and winemaker at Paul OBrien Winery. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Record-setting snowfall and bitter cold days will pass eventually, allowing cramped, housebound Chicagoans to stretch their legs in the open outdoors once again. So for those looking for a little more elbow room in Chicago, here are 10 homes for sale where bigger backyards, lot size or rooms is definitely better. ROME, FEB 25 - Premier Mario Draghi has completed his government team with 19 women and 20 men appointed as undersecretaries and junior ministers to his national unity government, helping the executive correct a gender imbalance. Six of the new appointees are deputy ministers, four women and two men: Marina Sereni (foreign affairs), Laura Castelli (economy), Gilberto Pichetto Fratin and Alessandra Todde (industry), and Teresa Bellanova and Alessandro Morelli (infrastructure and transport). The biggest party in parliament, the anti-establishment 5-Star MOvement (M5S), got the most posts with 11, followed by the nationalist League party with nine, six for three-time ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), two for ex-premier Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) party, one for the leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) party, one for the centrist Democratic Centre party, and one for the pro-EU +Europa party. They join a 23-strong cabinet made up of eighteen politicians and five technocrats, eighteen men and five women. The Draghi government is backed by every major Italian political party apart from the nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, which is in opposition. (ANSA). 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. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Chinese technology company Xiaomi, which happens to be the number one smartphone brand in the country, is expanding its manufacturing in India. Xiaomi has added three more partners, of which, two will set up manufacturing plants for smartphones and one for smart TVs. The new partnerships are expected to further increase Mi India's manufacturing capacity in India. The two new manufacturing partners - DBG and BYD - will manufacture smartphones for Xiaomi in India. DBG has already set up a smartphone manufacturing plant in Haryana. Xiaomi India's partnership with DBG has increased its monthly manufacturing capacity by about 20 per cent. On the other hand, BYD is setting up a plant in Tamil Nadu. BYD India is also expected to contribute significantly to the production capacity once its operations begin by H1 of 2021. For smart TVs, Xiaomi has also onboarded Radiant Technology as a new manufacturing partner. Other than ramping manufacturing products in India, Xiaomi has increasingly sourced smartphone components locally. Components such as PCBA (motherboard), sub-board, camera module, battery, back panel, USB cable, chargers, boxes and many more components are locally sourced or locally manufactured, which contribute to more than 75 per cent of the value of smartphones. These components are being manufactured by partners such as Sunny India, NVT, Salcomp, LY Tech, Sunvoda to name a few. Manu Kumar Jain, MD, Mi India says, "2020 was an exceptional year, the pandemic led to multiple challenges disrupting the entire global and India supply chain. Despite this, the Mi India team worked together to further expand our local supply chain and manufacturing capability. Being committed to India's growth, Mi India was one of the first adopters of the Honorable Prime Minister's Make-in-India initiative, back in 2015. Today we are renewing our commitment by adding new manufacturing partners such as DBG and BYD for smartphones and Radiant technology for smart TVs. Now 99 per cent of our smartphones and 100 per cent of our smart TVs are manufactured in India and the majority of the components for smartphones will be locally manufactured or sourced from India. We hope to play a small role in building India as a global manufacturing hub." Xiaomi was successfully catering 95 per cent of the smartphone domestic demand via products manufactured in India at its contract manufacturing partner Foxconn and Flex. However, the disruption caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, including lockdowns, shortage of components and more, had increased Xiaomi's reliance on imports as well. However, with the new manufacturing plants, Xiaomi is hopeful to cater to 99 per cent of the domestic demand through made-in-India smartphones. Also read: 'No place for hate': Apple CEO Tim Cook denounces violence against Asians in US Also read: Apple beats Samsung to become top smartphone player for first time in four years In a little more than a month, state public servants will come knocking on the door of Queensland businesses to claw back tax deferred during the height of the pandemic. Payroll tax bills deferred during the first quarter of last year are due on April 7, one week after the federal government guillotines its wage subsidy scheme. JobKeeper payments will end in March. Credit:Wayne Taylor Ms Palaszczuk has been pressuring the federal government to extend JobKeeper for industries that are doing it tough because of travel restrictions. What were asking for is a helping hand in this hour of need, she said. Galway college student imported more than 10,000 worth of MDMA through the post A judge has struck out a drugs charge against a 25-year old college student who imported more than 10,000 worth of MDMA through the post after watching a tutorial on YouTube on how to get illegal drugs through the dark web. At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan struck out the charge after Jack McInerney, of Dough, Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, paid 5,000 to the Court Discretionary Fund (CDF). Judge Durcan told Mr McInerney: You made a stupid decision and the only redeemable factor in this case was the decision was so stupid, really stupid. The judge told Mr McInerney he had decided to punish him in the pocket. He said the 5,000 will be applied to a charitable cause. You are going to enjoy further enhancement in your chosen career, Judge Durcan told Mr McInerney, adding dont ever come back before me again. The judge said as a result of striking out the charge, there will be no record against Mr McInerney. At a previous hearing into the case, Sergeant Aiden Lonergan said that Mr McInerney got involved in the drugs after he heard a few lads in college talking about it and he watched a tutorial video on YouTube on how buy drugs on the dark web. He said Mr McInerney decided that he would try it and make a bit of money. Sgt Lonergan said Mr McInerney had spent 4,000 on purchasing the drugs and had used an address of a friend of a friend for the postage of the drugs. Sgt Lonergan said two separate packages containing a total of 175g of MDMA were detected. Mr McInerney had pleaded guilty possession of the MDMA with intent to sell or supply in April 2018. Previously, Judge Durcan said he would be striking out the charge when the 5,000 is paid over as he accepted Mr McInerney is not a criminal and has not been involved with criminals. Judge Durcan said Mr McInerneys actions were not part of a criminal conspiracy to import drugs. He accepted that Mr McInerney developed a drug habit and pursued that and an easy way of dealing with that was getting cash by running a little mini-mart for his friends. The judge also said Mr McInerney had no previous convictions and was totally co-operative with the gardai. Solicitor for Mr McInerney, Jim Finnegan, said his client has redeemed as much as a human being can. He has shown full remorse in this matter, Mr Finnegan said. I think he will be a good and upstanding member of society if he is given the chance. The court was told previously that Mr McInerney is studying for a Higher Diploma in Financial Analysis in Galway and intends to do a masters in Financial Services in Limerick this year. 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. One of Derry's leading arts centres is on the move. The Void Gallery is moving from its current home at Patrick Street to a new base at Waterloo Place. The move will happen in April. Voids new home will be located at the foot of the Derry Walls and will provide two main gallery spaces and a walk-in education space. The building is street facing with a wide glass front, which will enable the gallery to present its programme, even in lockdown. Chair of the Board of Directors, Void Gallery, Eamonn McCann, said: Relocating to Waterloo Place is a big step forward for Void, and a great move for Derry, too. Art will now have a home at the heart of the city, not set apart but amidst the swirl of everyday life. Visual Arts Development Officer, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Patricia Lavery, said: Huge congratulations to Void on this move to a new space which will bring them right into the beating heart of the city where their work and exhibitions will be experienced and enjoyed by many. Congratulations to all involved. Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Brian Tierney, said: "I want to wish Void the very best of luck as they prepare to move into their new location. "This is a hugely positive move not just for Void but for everyone in Derry and beyond as it will place the arts right at the heart of our city. The central location will attract a new audience and will present a prime opportunity to showcase the work of numerous talented artists who have faced so many unprecedented challenges over the last year. I've heard a lot about the plans that Void has for this space in the months ahead, and they are hugely exciting, so I would like to extend my wishes to everyone at Void and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the space myself." As part of the move, Void has commissioned the artist collective Forerunner to design the gallerys reception and office spaces. Forerunner is a platform for collaborative visual arts practice bringing together artists from different disciplines and backgrounds. The inaugural exhibition will be Before the Cypress Broke, launching April 17th; a fundraising exhibition that was initiated in response to the recent catastrophic events that have taken place in Beirut, Lebanon. William Burns, nominee for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, testifies during his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 24, 2021. Photo: Tom Williams/Reuters President Joe Bidens nominee to be director of the CIA, William Burns, told a Senate committee yesterday that he saw competition with China and countering its adversarial, predatory leadership as the key to US national security. Mr Burns (64), a former career diplomat during both Democratic and Republican administrations, is expected to easily win confirmation to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He has already been confirmed by the Senate five times for his stints as ambassador to Jordan and Russia and three senior State Department positions. Testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Burns outlined his four top priorities people, partnerships, China and technology if he is confirmed. Out-competing China will be key to our national security in the days ahead, Mr Burns said. He called China a formidable, authoritarian adversary that is strengthening its ability to steal intellectual property, repress its people, expand its reach and build influence within the United States. During questioning, Mr Burns said that if he were a US college or university president, he would recommend shutting down Confucius Institutes Beijing-funded campus cultural centers that many members of Congress see as propaganda tools. Mr Burns was introduced at the hearing by bipartisan foreign policy heavyweights former Secretary of State James Baker and former CIA director Leon Panetta. He would be the first career diplomat to lead the agency. Senators from both parties praised Mr Burns during an unusually amicable two-hour hearing. Republican Richard Burr, a former committee chairman, said he looked forward to Mr Burns confirmation. Democrat Ron Wyden praised his record on human rights and said he would support him. Competition with China is a top priority for the Biden administration and for members of Congress, who want a tough line toward Beijing. Russian aggression is a constant concern, especially its involvement in US elections and the recent SolarWinds hack that penetrated government agencies which US officials have blamed on Russian hackers. Mr Burns said the Biden administration would soon produce an assessment of Russia-related issues, including the SolarWinds hack. He said familiar threats persist, including from Russia, North Korea and Iran. He also said climate change, global health issues and cyber threats are great risks, and an adversarial, predatory Chinese leadership poses our biggest geopolitical test. Mr Burns helped lead secret talks with Iran in 2013 that helped pave the way for the international nuclear deal, which was opposed by Republicans. He told the hearing that Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. The Biden administration offered last week to sit down with the Iranians and other parties to the 2015 pact to see if there is a way to return to the agreement, after former president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018. Mr Burns arrival at the CIA would come after a difficult four years under Mr Trump, who frequently disregarded spy agencies findings, especially the determination that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost his chance of winning. Senator Mark Warner, the committees Democratic chairman, stressed that point in his opening remarks. I would like to hear how you plan to reinforce the credo that no matter the political pressure, no matter what, CIAs officers will always do the right thing and speak truth to power, Mr Warner said. Mr Biden has been able to get most of his national security team into place with support from many Senate Republicans as well as Democrats. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines all easily won confirmation. New Delhi, Feb 25 : In a major setback to fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, a UK court on Thursday ordered his extradition in connection with the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, after almost a two-year long legal battle. The District Judge at the Westminster Magistrates' Court, Samuel Goozee, accepted the prima facie evidence against Nirav Modi for money laundering, saying: "I am satisfied that Nirav Modi's extradition to India is in compliance per human rights. The District Judge also said that Nirav Modi has the right to appeal the order. "There is no evidence that if extradited, Nirav Modi will not get justice," the judge said. Goozee also made it clear that he felt that the case for Nirav Modi to face trial in India was strong and that the diamantaire had clear links with "other connivers", including bank officials, in faking 'letters of undertaking' (LoUs) that facilitated huge unpaid loans. The Judge pointed out that Nirav Modi had personally written to the PNB acknowledging the debt and promising to repay it, while the CBI is investigating if Nirav Modi's firms were dummy partners. He also said that these companies were shadow companies operated by Nirav Modi. "I do not accept that Nirav Modi was involved in legitimate business. I find no genuine transactions and believe there is a process of dishonesty," the Judge added. Expressing satisfaction over the detention condition and medical arrangements in India, the Judge said, "Conditions in Barack 12 (at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai) look far better than his current cell in London." The observations came after Nirav Modi's side had argued that he can't be extradited to India due to his worsening mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic and the poor conditions in the Indian prisons. According to sources, the court ruling will now be sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign-off. Depending on the outcome, appeals may be made in the high court by either side. The charges against the fugitive diamantaire centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Stellar Diamonds and Solar Exports for making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the PNB, known as 'letters of undertaking' (LoUs). Arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK had earlier sought to establish that a number of PNB staff conspired with Modi to ensure the LoUs. The LoUs were issued to his companies without required credit checks, sans recording the issuance of the LoUs and without charging the required commission upon the transactions. This resulted in a fraud amounting to nearly $2 billion (Rs 13,500 crore). Nirav Modi was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019 on charges of money laundering, conspiring to destroy evidence and intimidating witnesses. Nirav Modi is facing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a large-scale fraud upon PNB through fraudulently obtaining LoUs or loan agreements. He is also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. Meanwhile, he also faces two additional charges of "causing disappearance of evidence" and "intimidating witnesses" or "criminal intimidation to cause death", which were added on to the CBI case. The ED has attached several assets of Nirav Modi running into crores of rupees in connection with the case. Even Nirav Modi's sister Purvi Modi, a Belgian national, and her husband Maiank Mehta have turned approvers in the loan fraud case. The ED in January this year had said that both became approvers for assisting the agency in the confiscation of two flats in New York, and one each in London and Mumbai, and the balance lying in two Swiss bank accounts and a bank account in Mumbai, totalling to Rs 579 crore. In June last year, the ED had attached four bank accounts of Nirav Modi and Purvi, having a balance of Rs 283 crore, as part of its investigation into the case. Even Nirav Modi's uncle, Mehul Choksi of Geetanjali group who is believed believed to be in Antigua, is being probed in connection with the case. LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / February 22, 2021 / UK-based payments company, Paydek announced it has been awarded Principal Member status from Mastercard. This is a recognition of Paydek's leadership in the online payment industry, affirming its commitment to offering a complex and secure payments platform, while building lasting customer relationships. Being granted a Principal Membership by Mastercard is a milestone every payments company seeks to achieve as it secures access to a wide range of products and services that enable innovation and improve customer offering. This membership will enable a direct relationship between Paydek and Mastercard meant to accelerate the merchant acquisition process, provide more convenient and faster online payment transactions, as well as grant access to extended payment card issuing services, including a white-label scheme. Paydek is constantly working on offering a wide range of best-in-breed payments services and products. With its commitment to customer success in mind, the company is investing heavily in platform development, infrastructure, enhancing security and combating fraud in the payments industry. "Becoming a Principal Member of Mastercard is a milestone Paydek has achieved in order to expand its product and service portfolio. The end goal is for the company to better service its customers while offering them a complete and secure payments experience. Today's announcement marks an important step in Paydek's journey towards offering a complex payments platform, with strong features, but also easy to use for the end-user. ", says Anton Postolnikov, CEO at Paydek. The MasterCard Principal Membership enables new growth opportunities for existing and thousands of potential clients, including merchants, eCommerce companies, payment service providers and financial organizations in the United Kingdom. About Paydek Paydek is a global leader in multi-payment solutions. Paydek was founded in 2009, with headquarters in London. The Paydek platform offers its customers, both corporate and individuals, an array of online and offline payment solutions such as dedicated multi-currency IBAN accounts, mass pay-out solutions, API integrations and prepaid cards via our web based or mobile payment solutions. For more information, visit www.paydek.com Media Contact: Khalida Akhtar mediarelations@paydek.com +44 160 430 0044 SOURCE: DEK-CO (UK) LIMITED View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631236/MasterCard-Awards-Principal-Member-Status-To-Paydek NEW YORK The phenomenon of de Blasio fatigue underpinning New York Citys mayoral race has extended to first lady Chirlane McCray. Since the beginning of Mayor Bill de Blasios administration, McCray has played a high-profile, often criticized role in his administration. But when faced with questions over the arrangement, the mayor has doubled down, lamenting nepotism laws that barred his closest adviser from drawing a city salary: "She cant get paid, so she is doing it as a volunteer." Now, the Democratic candidates looking to succeed him most of whom are trying to run away from de Blasio in one way or another say they would largely scrap or significantly scale back the expansive profile the mayor has carved out for his wife over the last seven years. The lone exception is Andrew Yang. Other leading candidates say their partners will not be part of New York Citys day-to-day governance. My partner will not have a role in my administration, nor will he have program staff, said former mayoral attorney and MSNBC commentator Maya Wiley. FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2020, file photo, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams makes an announcement about early voting, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Adams, a former police officer who served four terms in New York's state Senate before winning the borough president's job in 2013, is a longtime critic of police misconduct running as a pro-business candidate for New York Mayor. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams agreed. My partner would not have a City government role, he said. My wife Elyse [Buxbaum] has a career she loves and excels at. Im the one running for Mayor and neither she nor I have any expectation she will join the administration if I am elected, said City Comptroller Scott Stringer. McCray chairs the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, and co-chairs the racial equality taskforce put together in response to the coronavirus pandemic. She has led a push to diversify the citys statues and monuments and considered a run for Brooklyn borough president this year, but ended up opting out. While not on the city payroll herself, she has a substantial taxpayer-funded staff. And as the mayors guiding light, McCray has significant influence in the administration. But criticism of her role has been persistent specifically her stewardship of a $1 billion mental health program that has been plagued with accusations of mismanagement, many of them first reported by POLITICO. Story continues Its in that light that would-be mayors responded to a series of policy questions posed by POLITICO to 10 candidates. Stringer and Adams are considered frontrunners for the June 22 Democratic primary. But other contenders Wiley, former Wall Street executive Ray McGuire; former Obama budget director and Bloomberg housing czar Shaun Donovan and former non-profit director Dianne Morales also said their partners would play no formal role at City Hall, or that they would divert funding away from the unofficial position. Andrew Yang announces his run for New York Mayor during a news conference in Morningside Park on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen). Yang, whos leading the polls in these early months of the race, embraced a role for his wife Evelyn Yang specifically her advocacy for sex crime survivors. She spoke out during his presidential campaign about being sexually assaulted by a former Columbia University gynecologist, whose no-jail deal with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. sparked further criticism of that offices handling of sexual assault cases, after its light approach toward Harvey Weinstein and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, among others. [She is] a fierce advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse and will continue that vital work as the First Lady of New York City, Yang told POLITICO. He continued: My wife Evelyn is the love of my life, my most trusted confidante, and my partner in everything that I do." That was reminiscent of de Blasios own description of McCray. In a 2017 New York Times profile, he described the first lady as my closest confidante, my partner in all I do, and my No. 1 adviser. Yang tempered his answer somewhat on Wednesday when pressed by Fox 5 News anchor Rosanna Scotto during an interview on Good Day New York. We have basically a co-mayor in New York City. Will your wife be a co-mayor? Scotto asked. Yang said he was grateful to his wife, but stopped short of the co-mayor moniker. I dont think thats the way our partnership works, Yang said Peoples marriages are different. But, Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University, points out that the two for the price of one style of campaigning, popularized by Bill and Hillary Clinton, wasnt a big theme in city politics before the de Blasio era. The city has only had men as mayors, and spouses haven't played as big a role as McCray. New York doesnt have a long history of first ladies doing things, she said. Chirlane McCray is unique in the sense that Bloomberg didnt have a first lady, Giuliani [has a] revolving door of wives and ex wives. And Greer reasons the de Blasio and McCray matchup hasnt been a net positive. A lot of people definitely thought Chirlanes involvement in city politics was an overreach, Greer said. Its been met with very mixed reviews, so I dont think the next first lady or first gentleman will necessarily have a lot of pressure to do anything. Sally Goldenberg contributed to this report. Chairman of the PSD (Social Democratic Party) Marcel Ciolacu on Thursday had a meeting with representatives of NGOs operating in the environment field, during which they discussed the legislative projects that PSD MPs and mayors can support in the context of the "GreenDeal" and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. According to a press release of the PSD, during the discussions, the leader of the Social Democrats stated that the PSD MPs will support the adoption "as soon as possible" in Parliament of the "draft that regulates urban protected natural areas," but also "the initiative that ensures better protection and administration of the green spaces within the urban areas." The same source states that Greenpeace, ActiveWatch, the Romanian Landscape Association and the Association for a Sustainable Organised Society (SOS) have projects that improve Romanian legislation, which facilitates citizens' access to environmental information, but also forestry campaigns.The discussion took place in the context of PSD's reorientation towards a relationship of dialogue and collaboration with non-governmental organizations, the press release also states. California Can Enforce Net Neutrality Law, Federal Judge Rules Judge rejects challenge by internet providers A federal judge in California has ruled that California can enforce its net neutrality law, rejecting efforts from a group of internet service providers seeking to block the measure. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had issued nationwide net neutrality regulations in 2015 under the Obama administration, but later repealed the rules in 2017 under the Trump administration. Californias legislature in 2018 passed SB-822 regarding net neutrality, signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown. The net neutrality bill would prevent internet service providers from speeding up or slowing down, or otherwise changing internet access for end users such as though restricting bandwidth or blocking access to certain websites or services, or offering paid fast internet connection. But the Department of Justice under the Trump administration in 2018 filed a lawsuit to block SB-822, arguing that states do not have the authority to set net neutrality rules. The Biden administration earlier in February dropped the lawsuit. But in a separate lawsuit, four telecom and broadband industry groups led by Verizon and AT&T asked U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez to keep blocking the law. On Tuesday, Mendez, a George W. Bush appointee, denied their request for a preliminary injunction, allowing California to begin enforcing the law. I dont find the plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits at this stage of the litigation, said Mendez in an oral ruling, according to Courthouse News. This is not the type of pervasive regulatory system that left no room for state law. He said that changes by the FCC in 2018 and the federal Communications Act do not clearly prohibit states from adopting their own laws on net neutrality, the outlet reported. He added that it should be Congress, not the judiciary, that is responsible for providing clarity to internet service providers the matter of regulating internet access and speeds. In a joint statement, multiple telecom industry associations challenging the law said they will review the judges decision before deciding on next steps. They urged Congress to set net-neutrality rules for the country rather than relying on states to come up with regulations on their own. A state-by-state approach to Internet regulation will confuse consumers and deter innovation, just as the importance of broadband for all has never been more apparent, read the statement from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, ACA Connects, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and USTelecom. Critics say net neutrality would slow down the internet, make it more difficult to block spam, require the hiring of more government bureaucrats, and discourage investment in high-speed internet. But supporters of net neutrality say that the regulations will provide protections against internet providers favoring their own services by making it harder for customers to access their competitors websites and apps. California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, who played a role in authoring the law, called the Tuesday court decision a huge victory for open access to the internet, our democracy and our economy. The internet is at the heart of modern life. We all should be able to decide for ourselves where we go on the internet and how we access information, he said in a statement. We cannot allow big corporations to make those decisions for us. Matthew Vadum and The Associated Press contributed to this report. As COVID-19 sweeps the world, related viruses quietly circulate among wild animals. A new study shows how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, are related to each other. The work, published recently in the journal Virus Evolution, helps scientists better understand the evolution of these viruses, how they acquired the ability to infect humans and which other viruses may be poised for human spillover. "How did these viruses come to be what they are today? Why do some of them have the ability to infect humans while others do not?" said Simon Anthony, associate professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, and senior author on the paper. Both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 belong to a group called the sarbecoviruses, Anthony said, but they are actually quite different from each other. Scientists have divided the sarbecoviruses into five lineages, with SARS-CoV-1 belonging to lineage 1 and SARS-CoV-2 to lineage 5. Even though these two viruses belong to different lineages they both get into human cells using the ACE2 receptor. "That is striking," Anthony said, "because there are other viruses more closely related to SARS-CoV-1 that do not use ACE2. So how did SARS-CoV-1 end up having similarities to a virus that is more distantly related?" A family tree of viruses Anthony and Heather Wells, a graduate student at Columbia University, constructed a family tree of all the SARS-like viruses. They found that lineage 5 -- which contains SARS-CoV-2 -- is the ancestral lineage. They concluded that most of the lineage 1 viruses related to SARS-CoV-1 lost the ability to use human ACE2 receptors long ago because of deletions in their genome. But SARS-CoV-1 and a few other viruses regained the ability to use human ACE2 at some point. That probably occurred through a process called recombination, Wells said. For that to happen, two different viruses must have infected the same animal at the same time, producing a hybrid virus with the ability to infect humans through ACE2. The family tree also gives insight into the geographic origins of these viruses, Wells said. So far, all ACE2-using viruses have been detected in Yunnan province, implying that SARS-CoV-2 did not originate in Wuhan, where the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, but elsewhere in China. One unanswered question is, why did SARS-CoV-2 emerge now? If this virus has always targeted ACE2, it may long have had the ability to infect humans. So what prompted it to emerge at this time? "There have to be other factors involved," Anthony said. "Having the genetic capacity to infect humans is only part of the story." This study provides evolutionary context for why these viruses behave as they do, Anthony said. It allows researchers to place newly discovered viruses within the family tree and estimate whether they have the potential to infect humans. "We now know that having the genetic potential for spillover doesn't mean it will happen -- but it is important to identify the viruses that are high risk. We can then use epidemiological or ecological studies to investigate how and if people come into contact with bats or other animals that carry these viruses," Anthony said. "It's also a nice reminder that there are a whole lot of viruses out there that we need to understand better -- SARS-CoV-1 and 2 won't be the only ones," he said. ### Additional co-authors on the study are: Tracy Goldstein, Christine Kreuder Johnson, Jonna Mazet, Michael Cranfield and Kirsten Gilardi, One Health Institute and Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine; Benard Ssebide and Julius Nziza, Gorilla Doctors and Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project; Vincent Munster, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington; Michael Letko, and Maria Diuk-Wasser, Laboratory of Virology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Hamilton, Montana; Gorka Lasso, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York; Denis Byarugaba, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda; Isamara Navarrete-Macias and Eliza Liang, Columbia University; Barbara Han, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York; and Morgan Tingley, UCLA. The work was supported by grants from the NIH and by USAID via the PREDICT project. Oakland students could start heading back to classrooms within weeks, with district officials informing parents this week that its critical to reopen schools, starting with the youngest children and most at-risk students across all grades. The goal is to reopen the first schools by mid- to late March, according to a letter the school board sent to families Wednesday. The districts desire to reopen within the next month comes amid a growing call for schools to bring students back to class given the negative academic and mental health impact of distance learning for many students. In recent weeks, there have been protests, lawsuits and legislation in California aimed at encouraging or requiring district and labor leaders to resume in-person learning. More Bay Area districts are starting to bring students back though some teachers and staff have resisted reopening, saying theyre fearful of returning until theyre fully vaccinated. This has been a stressful time with countless challenges, but we have seen many school systems across the country successfully open with sufficient precautions in place to educate students safely, according to the letter. It seems that everyone has come to appreciate like never before how much students benefit from being together in a classroom. A return to classrooms is predicated on the district reaching an agreement with the teachers union. School board President Shanthi Gonzales said the board felt it was important to share we know students are really suffering and its time. We really have to make some movement to get some students back on campus, she said. In addition to the impact on students, Gonzales said the district must also stem the flight of families out of the district. Oakland Unified is down 900 students this year out of a total enrollment of about 36,000. Families are opting to schlep their kids to another district where they can get in-person learning, she said. We have an imperative, a real threat to the district in a significant loss of enrollment. Its already happening. Alameda Unified announced a deal with teachers Wednesday to reopen elementary schools, with a scheduled return to in-person learning on March 15. The district has submitted their reopening plan to county officials and has prepared classrooms and schools for students. An agreement with labor leaders would be the last major hurdle required to reopen, given declining case rates in Alameda County. Union leaders said they expected to meet with Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell on Thursday afternoon and might have an update after that. We are hopeful we can reach an agreement, said Bethany Meyer, spokeswoman for the Oakland Education Association, which represents teachers. Both sides are negotiating in good faith. Meyer said the union brought a new reopening proposal to the district Wednesday and looked forward to a counter proposal today. Meyer said previous proposals by the union have allowed teachers to voluntarily return to teach small, stable groups of the highest-need students. Alameda County is in the most restrictive purple tier currently, but likely to move into red in the coming days. Many Oakland teachers have already received the vaccine with more scheduled in the coming days and weeks, district officials said. The board asked families to fill out an intent to return form by March 2 to provide the district an estimate of how many students would want in-person instruction. Based on interest, the district would be able to start planning, matching up students and teachers at school sites. The district will continue to offer distance learning for those who want it. COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California. Its likely returning students would participate in a hybrid schedule, attending in-person part of the week or part of the day. The priority would be preschool and elementary students as well as those in higher grades with special needs, those who are homeless and others with barriers to distance learning. While middle and high school students except for high priority groups wouldnt likely return for in-person instruction, the board said it plans to offer other opportunities. In grades 6-12, our current thinking is instruction may remain primarily in distance learning until the end of the school year, they said, but all students should have the option of in-person socio-emotional and academic support, and extracurricular activities. Rachel Teisch, a single mom with twin first-grade boys, said the boards commitment to reopening in the near future was fantastic news and she looked forward to her sons returning to their Hillcrest Elementary classrooms. Im ready to go back, ready, ready, ready, she said. My boys are ready. Its been a tough year. Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker [February 25, 2021] Ocean View School District and The Mobility House Pioneer Model for Electrifying School Bus Fleets in Southern California Ocean View School District in Oxnard, Calif., has selected The Mobility House for its extensive fleet energy management expertise around the world to provide smart charging for the district's new electric bus fleet project, construction for which is now complete. The pioneering project consists of four electric buses and four BTCPower chargers, funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and Ventura County Air Pollution Control District as well as electrical charging infrastructure provided by Southern California Edison (News - Alert) . The Mobility House's intelligent Charging and Energy Management system ChargePilot will harmonize Ocean View School District's bus schedules, travel routes, battery life and local utility rates to deliver reliable, clean transportation at the lowest cost to the district. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005236/en/ "This groundbreaking project for the district marks a notable milestone on our journey to electrify our entire school bus fleet and reduce pollution in our community," said Ocean View School District Director of Transportation Bob Brown. "The Mobility House team and their wealth of experience was invaluable for navigating not only the evelopment of a sophisticated charging infrastructure but a new funding landscape as well." The school district is one of the first in Southern California Edison's Charge Ready Transport Program, which provided funding for new infrastructure, such as upgrading the local transformer; adding a panel and meter; laying conduit and trenching; plus providing a 50 percent rebate for the chargers. By deploying The Mobility House's ChargePilot system, Ocean View School District will benefit from scheduled charging times that avoid time-of-use (TOU) rate charges, saving tens of thousands of dollars in the coming years, and also ensure timely student pickup and dropoff without concern over battery range. ChargePilot also provides a proactive alerting system that mitigates charging issues as well as collects charger usage data in compliance with the CEC grant requirement. "School buses are by far the safest way for kids to get to school. But diesel-powered buses are not safe for kids' developing lungs, which are particularly vulnerable to harmful air pollution. Making the transition to electric school buses that don't emit pollution provides children and their communities with cleaner air and numerous public health benefits," said Energy Commissioner Patty Monahan. "The Energy Commission is proud to support this transition to protect the health of children throughout the state, something that will help all Californians breathe easier." "Ocean View School District is to be commended for demonstrating what's possible for other districts in the county around the future of clean school bus transportation," said Zoheb Davar, business development director for The Mobility House. "Our smart charging technology approach aligned fully with the project goals of creating an electric bus fleet that can grow over time. Now the district has the broadest options for future integration of different charging hardware infrastructure knowing our interoperable charging management system will interface smoothly." Ocean View School District is the latest project in The Mobility House's list of optimized electric bus fleets, including projects for Metro Transit in the St. Louis region and the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, two of the largest electric bus fleets in the U.S. and E.U. respectively. Through The Mobility House's ChargePilot solution, operators can manage the charging of electric vehicles in transit depots, commercial office parking lots or multi-dwelling complexes of any size. The Mobility House intelligently distributes available grid power to ensure charging occurs at the most cost-effective times using a secure local and cloud-based solution that is modular, scalable and designed to interface with the broadest range of charging equipment and on-site facility systems. To learn more about The Mobility House charging and energy management solutions, visit: mobilityhouse.com. About The Mobility House The Mobility House mission is to create an emissions-free energy and mobility future. Since 2009, the company has developed an expansive partner ecosystem to intelligently integrate electric vehicles into the power grid, including electric vehicle charger manufacturers, 750+ installation companies, 65+ energy suppliers, and automotive manufacturers ranging from Audi to Tesla. The Mobility House's unique vendor-neutral and interoperable technology approach to smart charging and energy management has been successful at over 500 commercial installations around the world. The Mobility House has 155 employees across its operations in Munich, Zurich and Belmont, Calif. For more information visit mobilityhouse.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005236/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 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. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says he will insist on strengthening NATO assistance in training the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He said this during a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, February 25, Ukrinform reports with reference to the press service of the head of state. The president stressed the importance of cooperation with NATO to maintain security in the Black Sea. He spoke in favor of expanding the Alliance's activities in the Black Sea region and noted that Ukraine is interested in increasing the presence of NATO forces in the Black Sea. The Alliances secretary general noted that NATO will make efforts to increase its presence in the Black Sea, and has already begun to do so. According to Stoltenberg, both NATO and Allies should increase their assistance in training the Armed Forces of Ukraine on a bilateral basis. Stoltenberg said he would insist on that. He also noted that the Alliance will consider how to strengthen support for Ukraine's military within the current comprehensive assistance package. Stoltenberg also thanked Ukraine for its participation in NATO missions. "We continue our participation in NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. Ukraine is ready to take part in the current and future operations of the Alliance," the president assured. As Ukrinform reported, during a press conference following talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Brussels on February 9, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO Allies recognize Ukraine as a potential candidate for NATO membership and support Ukrainian efforts to join the Alliance. On June 12, 2020, the North Atlantic Council recognized Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner. ish Centurion to acquire a Disruptive Water-Soluble Cannabinoid Technology Platform Delivering Rapid Onset, Increased Bioavailability, Premium Taste Profiles and Highly Competitive Cost Structure Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Centurion Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: CTN) (FSE: XJCB) ("Centurion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an Amalgamation Agreement dated February 17, 2021 (the "Agreement"), with HAI Beverages Inc. ("HAI"), whereby Centurion will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares and assets of a wholly-owned subsidiary of HAI ("NewHAI) in exchange for common shares of Centurion (the "Acquisition" or "Transaction"). NewHAI holds all material assets of HAI and the Acquisition will constitute a reverse take-over ("RTO") of the Company. About HAI The HAI team has extensive experience in the beverage and consumer packaged goods industries, founding HAI to capitalize on the disruption of the alcohol beverage market by cannabis infused products. The HAI team's deep understanding of the global beverage market and its experience in developing successful beverage brands, resulted in a proprietary technology platform that delivers: Rapid onset and high bioavailability, providing an experience similar to the sessionability of alcohol consumption; A cost structure competitive with non-infused, mass market beverages; and Multi-format product capabilities. HAI has developed an extensive portfolio of technology and assets related to water-soluble cannabinoids (THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids), including: A range of ready-to-drink beverage products targeting specific consumer groups. Seltzers, sodas, and a variety of carbonated cocktail formulations. Single-serve powdered drink offerings utilizing HAI's dry water-soluble technology. Teas, coffee, and mate (also known as cimarron), including K-Cup single serve formats, using a dry water-soluble formulation. A suite of advanced topical products that utilizes HAI's concentrates to enable rapid transdermal delivery of the active cannabinoid ingredients. The HAI research team has successfully developed multiple infused beverage products containing highly bioavailable cannabinoids that deliver an equivalent experience to alcohol consumption and importantly, result in a rapid onset (within 3 to 5 minutes, compared to other available products having an onset of 15 to 45 minutes). The intellectual property Hai has developed around bioavailability and rapid onset led to HAI's first patent application. Go-to-Market Strategy HAI is implementing a two-prong, go-to-market strategy, focused on: 1) Procuring agreements with current licensed producers to manufacture branded and white-labelled water-soluble cannabis, in ready-to-drink and dry formulations; and 2) Royalty based licensing of intellectual property (the "IP") and processes to 3rd parties. Centurion and HAI intend to pursue a cannabis beverage consumer packaged goods licensing and joint venture strategy anchored on the CannaEden operations in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Through the CannaEden operation, and within legal jurisdiction parameters, the Company intends to initially pursue sales in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Centurion and CannaEden have advanced discussions with multiple South American pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods companies in a co-ordinated effort to quantify potential domestic and international markets as well as determine feasible products and distribution networks. The Company will also continue to develop and advance markets of initial focus for HAI, including Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.-based Latino markets (a significant, but largely underserved, demographic group). Activity in the U.S. would be limited to CBD-infused beverage manufacturing or licensing of IP within the legal guidelines established by the target jurisdictions and policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSX-V"). David Tafel, CEO of the Company commented: "We are incredibly pleased to have finalized the Agreement with HAI. We set out to create a company that would be strongly differentiated and able to deliver outsized value to its shareholders. We believe that HAI through its unique technology platform, exceptional management team, and focused go-to-market strategy, is the right transaction to build on this vision. With the global cannabis industry rapidly transforming, we feel that HAI is uniquely positioned to capitalize on developing opportunities." Bruce Clark, HAI's CEO, additionally commented: "We strongly believe that cannabis infused consumer packaged goods are the future of the global cannabis industry. We have spent several years developing proprietary IP and processes associated with water-soluble cannabinoids. The merger with Centurion and CannaEden represents the next major step in our development as we jointly execute on our strategy, leveraging a brilliant platform for growth in South America, Mexico and North America." HAI Transaction Summary Upon closing, Centurion will issue 30 million shares in exchange for 100% of the issued and outstanding shares and assets of NewHAI. The Transaction will be an arm's-length transaction and will not be a related party transaction, under applicable securities rules. NewHAI shareholders will have the ability to earn up to an additional 38,428,500 million shares upon hitting corporate milestones related to achieving certain revenue objectives. No deposit or advance has been made or is anticipated to be made by Centurion to HAI or NewHAI in connection with the Transaction and HAI will continue to finance its own activities until closing of the transaction. The Transaction is subject to a number of terms and conditions, including, but not limited to, receipt of all necessary Board, shareholder and any regulatory approvals; completion of the financings described below; and approval of the TSX-V. Centurion will provide a summary of any available significant financial information for HAI and NewHAI in the near future and will also confirm in a subsequent news release whether it will retain a Sponsor pursuant to the Transaction and concurrent financing or whether it will rely upon any available exemptions or waivers from the TSX-V. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Trading in the shares of Centurion is expected to remain halted pending receipt of conditional approval from the TSX-V and/or closing of the Transaction. Financing Pursuant to the Agreement, it is a condition of closing that HAI and the Company (the "Parties") will have completed a concurrent financing of a minimum $2,500,000 (the "Financing"). The Parties intend to undertake the Financing by way of private placement at $0.50 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one share purchase warrant. The Parties anticipate that each Warrant shall have a term of 24 months commencing on the Closing Date and shall entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of $0.65. Centurion Consolidation Concurrent with the Transaction closing, the Company intends to undertake a share consolidation whereby 2 common shares shall be exchanged for 1 post-consolidation common share of the Company. The number of stock options, warrants and related exercise prices will also be adjusted in accordance with the consolidation ratio. For reference, the Company currently has 33,639,473 common shares issued and outstanding, as well as 416,667 stock options exercisable at an average price of $.60 per share and 20,112,575 warrants to acquire Centurion shares exercisable at an average price of $0.15 per share. CannaEden Amending Agreement Pursuant to the Company's news release February 7, 2020, the Company has amended its original share purchase agreement (the "CannaEden Amending Agreement") with the Uruguayan group of companies doing business as CannaEden ("CannaEden") to align with the Company's planned share consolidation discussed above and the Financing. The CannaEden Amending Agreement amends certain provisions such that at closing, Centurion will issue 5 million shares (previously 10 million shares) in exchange for 100% of the issued and outstanding shares and assets of CannaEden. CannaEden will have the ability to earn up to an additional 3 million shares (previously 6 million shares) upon hitting the same revenue milestones as discussed above for NewHAI. The Company has also agreed to amend the Bridge Financing provision whereby CannaEden will have the option to receive either cash reimbursement, or common shares of the Company valued at $0.50, for expenditures incurred between execution date of the original share purchase agreement and closing of the Transaction. Board of Directors and Management of the Resulting Issuer Upon completion of the Transaction, it is intended that David Tafel and Jeremy Wright will continue to serve on the board of directors of the Company, and Bruce Clark, Chris Hoffmeister, and Edward Lupton will be appointed representing NewHAI, and as previously announced, Mauricio Zlatkin will be appointed representing CannaEden. Kenneth Cawkell and Joseph Del Campo will resign as Directors of the Company upon completion of the Transaction. Operationally, Bruce Clark will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer, David Tafel will assume the role of Executive Co-Chairman and Jeremy Wright will continue as the Chief Financial Officer. Mauricio Zlatkin will assume the role of General Manager, Uruguay. David Tafel, CEO of the Company commented: "We are incredibly grateful for the tireless efforts of Ken and Joe as Directors of Centurion. Their contributions, advice and friendship have been very valuable to us, and we truly thank both of them. At the same time, we are eager to move forward with this transaction and work with the incoming HAI and CannaEden team members." A brief biography of the Directors and Officers is provided here: Mr. David Tafel - Director, Executive Co-Chairman Mr. Tafel holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario and has over 30 years of corporate structuring, strategic planning, financing, administration and management experience. He has been an officer, director and founder of a number of publicly listed companies and has been instrumental in raising well over $100 million for resource, life sciences and technology companies. Mr. Bruce Clark - Director, President & CEO Mr. Clark is the CEO and co-founder of HAI Beverages, an innovator in alternative beverages. He has deep expertise in beverage manufacturing & operations. As former Vice President at the Pacific West Brewing Company, he engineered two separate turnarounds over a 20-year period. He has been responsible for the successful launch of multiple brands, driving revenues and delivering sustainable solid profitability. Mr. Clark is also the Principal in the Broadwing Group, a project services and holding company that has worked on many commercial ventures over the past 20 years. With a focus on energy, he has been instrumental in the conception, finance, and development of a number of large projects. The Company has remained engaged in all projects participated in. Mr. Jeremy Wright, CPA, CMA - Director, Chief Financial Officer In addition to his current role as a Director and CFO for Centurion Minerals Ltd., Mr. Wright has broad experience working with senior management developing strategies and solutions to business issues mainly related to corporate finance, cost and risk management, and governance. Mr. Wright is a Chartered Professional Accountant (Certified Management Accountant), currently serves as a director for several public and private companies including Pontus Protein Ltd., RAYL Innovations Inc. Mr. Wright previously served as a director of TGS Esports Inc., Freeform Capital Partners Inc., Pacific Community Resources Society and the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association. In addition, Mr. Wright also serves as the CFO for several public and private companies, including Portofino Resources Inc., and Alpha Cognition, Inc. He was previously the CFO for GTEC Cannabis Co., an ultra-premium cannabis producer having three federally licensed production facilities across Canada. Mr. Wright also holds a Bachelor of Arts, with honours in Environmental Economics, from Brock University. Mr. Mauricio Zlatkin - Director, General Manager (Uruguay) Mr. Zlatkin is CannaEden's Managing Partner. A lawyer by training with a degree from Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), he specialized in Finance and Derivatives Trading in Chicago and New York. He has been a member of the Sao Paulo Commodities and Futures Exchange from 1987 until it's IPO in 2007, and with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) from 1995 to present, having acted as a Floor Trader, Broker, Fund Manager and Private Investor. His business ownership career commenced in 2004 after moving to Uruguay where he is currently Managing Partner in a number of companies with activities in the Real Estate, Aviation Services, Hospitality and Winemaking industries. Mr. Chris Hoffmeister - Director, Co-Chairman Mr. Hoffmeister is the CEO of Select Wines, one of Canada's largest wine importers and distributors. Mr. Hoffmeister has 21 years of beverage alcohol marketing and sales experience. Mr. Hoffmeister joined Select Wines in 2011 and helped lead a management buyout in 2017. Prior to Select, Mr. Hoffmeister was at the Mark Anthony Group where he had a wide range of roles including Agency Brands Marketing Director and General Manager of the Wine Division. His marketing experience includes work on world class beverage brands such as Corona Beer, Concha y Toro, Marchese Antinori. Patron Tequila and Remy Martin Cognac. Prior to Mark Anthony, Mr. Hoffmeister was a Principal with Sierra Systems with focus on providing management consulting to companies in the Natural Resource sector. Mr. Hoffmeister is a graduate of Queen's University and a member of the Young Presidents Organization. Mr. Edward Lupton - Director Mr. Lupton is the Executive Chairman of Select Wines, one of Canada's largest wine importers and distributors. Mr. Lupton has three decades of experience as an entrepreneur operating, acquiring and divesting businesses both in Asia and North America including businesses sold to divisions of ADP, the UK Royal Mail and Axel Springer SE. He holds a BA with Honours from Nottingham University, England. Name Change Subject to receipt of any necessary shareholder, Board of Director and or regulatory approvals, and coincidental with closing of the Transaction, the Parties propose to change the name of the Company to HAI Technologies Inc. ABOUT CENTURION Centurion Minerals Ltd. is a Canadian-based company with a focus on South American asset development. The Company's lead investment has been its interest in the Ana Sofia Agri-Gypsum Fertilizer Project. The Company has been actively pursuing business opportunities in the South American cannabis and related products industry. "David G. Tafel" President and CEO For Further Information Contact: David Tafel 604-484-2161 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. Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including, but not limited to, Exchange acceptance and if applicable, shareholder approval. Where applicable, the transaction cannot close until the required shareholder 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 circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the transaction, any information release or received with respect to the transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. This news release contains forward looking statements concerning future operations of Centurion Minerals Ltd. (the "Company"). All forward-looking statements concerning the Company's future plans and operations, including management's assessment of the Company's project expectations or beliefs may be subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual performance and financial results may differ materially from any estimates or projections. Such statements include, among others: conclusions of future economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents and other industry risks; delays and other risks related to construction activities and operations; timing and receipt of regulatory approvals of operations; the ability of the Company and other relevant parties to satisfy regulatory requirements; the availability of financing for proposed transactions, programs and working capital requirements on reasonable terms; the ability of third-party service providers to deliver services on reasonable terms and in a timely manner; market conditions and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions. 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/75471 Rahul Gandhi stoking fear on vaccine, all will be vaccinate by December: Union Minister Fisherfolk need independent ministry, not just a department: Rahul after PM Modi jibe India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Feb 25: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said fisherfolk need an independent fisheries ministry and not just a department within a ministry, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi''s swipe at him. At a public meeting in Puducherry, the prime minister expressed shock over Gandhi''s statement last week that there was no "dedicated" fisheries ministry. At the time, BJP leaders, including Union ministers, had also taken a swipe at Gandhi. Responding to the prime minister''s swipe, Gandhi tweeted, "Dear PM, Fisherfolk need an independent and dedicated ministry of fisheries, not just a department within a ministry." Dear PM, Fisherfolk need an independent and dedicated ministry of fisheries, not just a department within a ministry. PS- Hum do Humare do obviously hurt bad. Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 25, 2021 "PS- ''Hum do Humare do'' obviously hurt bad," he said referring to the jibe he had used against the government recently to allege that it is being run by Modi and his "corporate friends". Modi, in his remarks in Puducherry, said, "Congress leaders say we will make a fisheries ministry. I was shocked. The truth is, it is the current NDA government that had made a ministry for fisheries in 2019." PM Modi underlines support for farmers; attacks Congress-DMK alliance In 2019, the Modi government had formed a Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. In a separate tweet, Gandhi also attacked the government over a media report claiming that the government has started clearing foreign direct investment proposals from China on a case-by-case basis. Gandhi said, "China has understood that Mr Modi buckles under their pressure. They now know they can get whatever they want from him." In another tweet, Gandhi also attacked the government over the issue of employment and asked the government to create jobs for the youth. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 18:33 [IST] British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca and US pharmaceutical major Novavax have told lawmakers that they are ready to scale up their production of COVID-19 vaccines in partnership with the Located in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, the SII is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume. It is manufacturing the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which is known locally as Covishield. Covishield was granted emergency use listing by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this month, allowing it to be supplied to low and middle-income countries around the world. Together with our partner, the Serum Institute of India, we plan to supply over 300 million doses to 145 countries through COVAX in the first half of 2021 as part of our global and equitable access pledge, Ruud Dobber, president of AstraZeneca's biopharmaceuticals business, said. The majority of this supply will go to low and middle-income countries, Dobber told members of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee during a Congressional hearing on 'Pathway to Protection: Expanding Availability of COVID-19 Vaccines' on Tuesday. The purpose of the hearing was to examine manufacturers' ongoing efforts to develop and scale-up production of COVID-19 vaccines in the US. The COVAX or COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access programme is run by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and WHO in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers. Dobber said the company's agreement with the US government cover the development and supply of 300 million doses of its vaccine, should it receive authorisation. The cost of the doses and the dose agreements will provide no profits for AstraZeneca. It's vaccine has received conditional marketing or emergency authorisation in more than 50 countries, and recently, the WHO listed its vaccine for emergency use against COVID-19, he told the lawmakers. Studies conducted today indicated our vaccine is well tolerated and effective. And just this week, we were encouraged to see the first real world evidence from over 5.4 million subjects in Scotland demonstrating a risk reduction of COVID-19 related hospitalisations by 94 per cent after the first dose of our vaccine, he asserted. John Trizzino, executive vice president of Novavax, also gave a similar assurance to members of the Congressional Committee. Scale-up has not begun yet in large scale but we do have a global capacity both with our existing Novavax facilities in the US, our partners in India's Serum Institute, and we believe that we could scale up that new strain very quickly, Trizzino said in response to a question. Covishield is less expensive compared to some of the other vaccines being used such as the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. It also doesn't need to be stored in ultra-low temperatures, which makes it suitable for use in many developing countries that lack necessary storage infrastructure. During the hearing, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, said over 100 countries, led by India and South Africa, have appealed to WHO to put a halt on trade-related intellectual property standard. In other words, to have a waiver that would allow countries around the world, poor and middle-income countries, to be able to manufacture their own vaccines. And it seems to me that this is something that we should do so that we have plenty for us and plenty for the rest of the world, Schakowsky said. In his written testimony, Trizzino said once all of its capacity comes online globally, which it expects to happen in the mid-point of this year, Novavax will have a global capacity to produce approximately two billion doses per year, roughly 150 million doses per month. This includes all of our partners, including During the pandemic, we believe that the federal government and state and local jurisdictions are in the best position to determine how doses are distributed and allocated. We will work with government leaders to ensure that those who need a vaccine get it, he said. Trizzino said Novavax is committed to reasonable pricing, equitable distribution and allocation, and expansive access worldwide, which is what will be required to fully control the pandemic. "To that end, we have a built a strong partnership with the Serum Institute of India," whereby they will deliver significant numbers of vaccine doses to low and middle-income countries throughout the world, he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) may follow Swiss challenge method for price discovery of assets The proposed bad bank, to be floated by the banking industry, will likely follow the Swiss challenge method for price discovery of assets, sources close to the development said. This means that even as an asset is transferred to the new asset reconstruction company (ARC) at a pre-agreed price, bids will be called later from others, and the highest bidder will get the asset. Read more Centre lifts embargo on grant of govt businesses to private banks The Centre has lifted the restrictions on the grant of government businesses to private banks, Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Wednesday. All private sector now will be allowed to conduct government-related banking transactions, such as tax and pension payments. Read more Sebi, Finmin seek detailed report from NSE as trading halts due to glitch Sebi has advised NSE to carry out a detailed root-cause analysis of the trading halt witnessed today and also explain the reasons for trading not migrating to the DR site, said the market regulator. The issue came to light less than an hour after normal trading had commenced, with several brokers complaining of freezing of live price feeds. Read more Allow firms to invest in EL-rated infra projects: Govt to regulators The government has asked all financial regulators to relax investment norms for companies, enabling them to put money into large infrastructure (infra) projects rated expected loss (EL). At present, regulators allow investments only in high-rated infra projects. Read more Plan to monetise 100 public sector assets, drawing Rs 2.5 trillion: PM Prime Minister on Wednesday made a strong case for privatisation of public sector undertakings that he said burdened the taxpayer, and stressed that the government has no business to be in business. He said his regime has set a target to monetise 100 PSUs in oil, gas, airports, ports, power, among other areas, which will draw Rs 2.5 trillion of investment. Read more Voda rejigs board, nominates Sood, Massidda as additional directors Group Plc has nominated Sunil Sood and Diego Massidda as additional directors on the board of its India unit joint venture- Idea (Vi). The nomination and remuneration committee of Idea confirmed the board appointments replacing Vivek Badrinath and Thomas Reisten, who have resigned from the posts. The rejig comes ahead of Vis planned fund raising to help the company upgrade its network and meet the debt obligations. Read more Benefits of diversity: A coin-flip reveals better bitcoin alternatives While bitcoin is the most popular, there are around 6,000-plus altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies) out there. Together, they account for around 34 per cent of the total crypto m-cap. Read more Free vaccines for the 60-plus, comorbid cases in govt hospitals from Mar 1 India will start the next stage of vaccinating those above 60 years of age and those above 45 with comorbidities, such as diabetes and heart ailments, from March 1, the government announced in a Cabinet briefing on Wednesday. Read more case: UK judge to rule on extradition case on Thursday Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who remains behind bars in a London prison as he contests his extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, will find out the UK court's ruling in the nearly two-year-long legal battle on Thursday. Read more Amnesty International chiefs have admitted undermining Alexei Navalny by stripping him of his 'prisoner of conscience' status during a prank call by Russian pranksters. Pro-Kremlin jokers Vovan and Lexus pretended to be Mr Navalny's campaigns chief Leonid Volkov while remonstrating with Amnesty's Acting Secretary General of Julie Verhaar. Mr Navalny, who was locked up last month amid Western anger at Moscow, was yesterday dispossessed of the special title conferred by Amnesty because of anti-migrant statements he made more than a decade ago. The human rights group defended its decision, saying it had been 'bombarded' with complaints and couldn't ignore Mr Navalny's 'hate speech' - which had been seized upon by Kremlin propagandists. In yesterday's Zoom call with 'Volkov', Amnesty's top brass expressed their regret at stripping Mr Navalny of his status and pleaded with the campaigns chief to help them steer the media narrative back onto Mr Navalny's plight and away from his Amnesty status. Pro-Kremlin jokers Vovan and Lexus pretended to be Mr Navalny's campaigns chief Leonid Volkov while remonstrating with Amnesty's Acting Secretary General of Julie Verhaar (left). Also on the call were Marie Struthers (top right), chief of Eastern Europe operations, and Denis Krivosheev (bottom right), head of research for Eastern Europe Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny stands inside a defendant dock during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, Russia February 20. Three days before, on his detention, Amnesty had conferred on him their 'prisoner of conscience' status. But they delisted him after identifying 'hate speech' from the mid-2000s Today, the real Leonid Volkov expressed his disbelief and disappointment at Amnesty, having watched the prank call Amnesty's Acting Secretary General of Julie Verhaar tweeted Mr Volkov on Wednesday to thank him for their conversation. She has since removed the tweet Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty's head of research for Eastern Europe, unwittingly told the pranksters: 'When you were angry you were entirely justified and frankly it's done damage to us as well because frankly in Russia there is no case that's more important and more regretful to undermine - and that's what happened, unintentionally. 'So if we can move forward that's great. We would like to move the media attention away from Amnesty's internal decisions and the language it uses and how it comes to them because this will do more damage. And frankly these are difficult processes for us to deal with. 'Let's move to the message: "Navalny, get him out (of prison)." 'And then if we can be publicly seen to be on the same side, I think this is the best we can do for Alexei.' Marie Struthers, the regional director for Easter Europe, added that Amnesty 'had done more harm than good.' The Amnesty chiefs told the pranksters they were keen to start a 'short, clear and powerful' social media campaign to promote Mr Navalny's cause to demand his release and to 'steer the conversation away from "prisoner of conscience."' Today, the real Leonid Volkov expressed his disbelief and disappointment at Amnesty, having watched the prank call. 'Frankly, - and I hate to say it - this Zoom call alone is, in my opinion, enough to qualify the @amnesty leadership as unfit. In 2021, you can't run a charity with over 300M euro annual budget (!) and to allow yourself to be tricked and humiliated in such way,' he tweeted. It came after Ms Verhaar, the head of Amnesty, tweeted Mr Volkov on Wednesday to thank him for their conversation. She has since taken down the tweet. Mr Volkov wrote: 'Hmm, General Secretary of Amnesty thanks me for the constructive, direct conversation. But only I do not know her, and have never spoken to her; I wouldn't be surprised if she spoke to "prankster Vovan"; I would not be surprised if they make decisions on the basis of such messages.' Earlier, in the Zoom call, Ms Verhaar had told the pranksters: 'We've had a discussion about the fallout that happened yesterday and we're really looking to have this call to see how we can move forward because it was really none of our intention to have this happen. 'We really want Mr Navalny, his case and his unjust detention to be at the forefront of what we're doing. 'And we have some ideas of how we can do that, but we really want to use this opportunity to hear where you are and how we can work together.' The conversation boiled over into absurdity towards the end when the prankster, pretending to be Mr Volkov, apologised for previous critical tweets directed at Amnesty. 'Even my Twitter I am sorry about that, I have wrote that you have ate a lot of sh*t and made your decision, but it's true,' the prankster told the Amnesty officials. But they did not seem to realise they were being fooled as they all smiled and laughed awkwardly while 'Volkov' apologised for his 'radical Twitter style.' Pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) and Alexey Stolyarov (Lexus) have previously targeted Kremlin foes, though Russian officials deny any links to the comedians The real Leonid Volkov: Navalny's chief of staff speaks at a news conference in Berlin in August after the opposition leader was poisoned by Novichok The pranksters also asked about whether Mr Navalny's special status could be reinstated, but the Amnesty officials said this would only make matters worse. Mr Krivosheev said: 'I don't think it would do anyone any good for anyone for Amnesty to flip once again and say no, no, we changed our mind, he is a prisoner of conscience. What I think can help is finding the right way forward. 'And for this reason we want him out as soon as possible and use every possible venue to put as much pressure on the Russian government to get him out. 'And if we could agree on that and not be seen as in disagreement I think that would be very important. 'So rather than looking for a way in which a decision could be changed, I am suggesting that we find the best way to project our message, which is: free Navalny now.' It comes after Mr Navalny's supporters yesterday reacted furiously to Amnesty's decision, accusing the organisation of falling into a Kremlin trap by being drawn towards Mr Navalny's nationalist comments from the mid-2000s - for which he has previously apologised. Critics included Alexander Golovach, a lawyer for Mr Navalny's FBK anti-corruption group, who said he was renouncing the 'prisoner of conscience' status that Amnesty gave him in 2018. Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally, said: 'The procedure for assigning and revoking Amnesty International status has proven extremely shameful.' Navalny, who has carved out a following campaigning against official corruption, has been criticised for past nationalist statements against illegal immigration and for attending an annual nationalist march several years ago. In a 2007 video, he called for the deportation of migrants to prevent the rise of far-right violence. 'We have a right to be (ethnic) Russians in Russia. And we'll defend that right,' he said in the video. Navalny could not be reached for comment as he was in jail. His allies protested the move by Amnesty on Twitter. Ms Struthers told the pranksters that Amnesty 'had done more harm than good' Denis Krivosheev, head of research for Eastern Europe, unwittingly told the pranksters: 'When you were angry you were entirely justified and frankly it's done damage to us as well because frankly in Russia there is no case that's more important and more regretful to undermine - and that's what happened, unintentionally' MailOnline has contacted Amnesty for comment but they were unable to provide a statement specifically about the prank video. In a general statement about Mr Navalny, Ms Vehaar said: ''The speculation around Amnesty International's use of the term 'prisoner of conscience' is detracting attention from our core demand that Aleksei Navalny be freed immediately. 'This distraction only serves the Russian authorities, who have jailed Navalny on politically motivated charges, simply because he dared to criticise them. 'The term 'prisoner of conscience' is a specific description based on a range of internal criteria established by Amnesty. There should be no confusion: nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated. 'Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason we continue to campaign for his immediate release. 'We note that some of Aleksei Navalny's past comments have been actively used by his opponents to discredit him. 'Amnesty International has itself been the target of Russian government smear campaigns, as a result of our consistent condemnation of the Kremlin's appalling human rights record. 'We campaign for the release of unjustly detained people on a daily basis, and we will continue to do so for Aleksei Navalny. 'Navalny's detention for his peaceful opposition and exposure of corruption is unlawful, and we will continue to campaign ceaselessly for his release and his right to freedom of expression.' Australia's top cop has written a scathing letter to Scott Morrison warning politicians to immediately report alleged crimes to police. Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw wrote the strongly-worded memo as arguments rage about the handling of Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins' rape allegations. Commissioner Kershaw said any delay in reporting serious crimes can embolden a perpetrator and allow them time to commit more of them. Ms Higgins claims she was raped by a senior colleague inside Parliament House in 2019 when she was just 24 and a series of ministers failed to help her. She met with the AFP at the time, but did not pursue her complaint as she feared it would hurt her career. However, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has come under fire for waiting four days to tell the prime minister about the allegations after being contacted by the media earlier this month, and not informing police. Since Ms Higgins, 24, (pictured) spoke out earlier this month, three other women have also come forward to accuse her alleged attacker of various sexual offences AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said any delay in reporting serious crimes can embolden a perpetrator and allow them time to commit more offences 'I cannot state strongly enough the importance of timely referrals of allegations of criminal conduct,' Commissioner Kershaw wrote. 'Failure to report alleged criminal behaviour in this manner, or choosing to communicate or disseminate allegations via other means, such as through the media or third parties, risks prejudicing a subsequent police investigation.' Mr Dutton on Thursday defended his startling decision to withhold the accusations from the Prime Minister. The Home Affairs Minister received a briefing about the sensitive matter just days before it was made public. 'I made a judgment that I had received a briefing from the Australian Police Commissioner about a sensitive matter,' he told reporters. 'I took a decision I wasn't going to disclose to the Prime Minister, I think that was the right decision.' Other Liberal Party ministers who had knowledge of the matter ahead of the Prime Minister include Ms Reynolds, Senator Michaelia Cash, House Speaker Tony Smith, and Senate President Scott Ryan. Mr Morrison circulated Commissioner Kershaw's letters on the floor of the House and Senate chambers on Thursday, along with a second letter urging parliamentarians to show 'compassionate support' to victims of crime Mr Morrison continues to claim his staff withheld the the explosive sexual assault allegations from him Commissioner Kershaw took a thinly veiled swipe at those politicians, insisting not reporting criminal offences 'may lead to obstructing, preventing, perverting or defeating the course of justice or the administration of law'. 'It also has the very real potential to compromise the rights of victims and other parties to the alleged offences.' Ms Reynolds was hospitalised on Wednesday just hours before a press club address where she was expected to be grilled about how she handled an alleged rape in her office. The Defence Minister was taken to a hospital in Canberra as a 'precautionary measure' relating to an existing condition on the advice of her cardiologist, she claimed. Mr Morrison circulated Commissioner Kershaw's letters on the floor of the House and Senate chambers on Thursday, along with a second letter urging parliamentarians to show 'compassionate support' to victims of crime. 'These are serious and traumatic events for anyone to deal with It is important that members, senators and their staff feel fully empowered and supported to take the actions recommended by the commissioner,' he wrote. Brittany Higgins (left) took a job with Employment Minister Michaelia Cash (right) after the 2019 election Ms Higgins (pictured) filed an official complaint with the AFP, claiming she was lured to the Parliament House office of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019 and sexually assaulted by a senior government advisor Both Defence Minister Linda Reynolds (left) and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (right) had advanced knowledge of the sensitive allegations and did not inform the Prime Minister Scott Morrison maintained he had no knowledge of the alleged rape until it was reported in the media earlier this month. However text messages shed doubt on those claims. On April 3, 2019, a fellow Liberal staffer told Ms Higgins he had spoken directly with a member of Mr Morrison's staff. 'Spoke to PMO. He was mortified to hear about it and how things have been handled,' he said in the message. 'He's going to discuss with COS no one else. I flagged need for Councillor and desire to be closer to home during election.' PMO refers to the prime minister's office and COS is shorthand for chief of staff. Mr Morrison claims his staff also withheld the information from him. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi directed the government to scale up programs aimed at qualifying rural women pioneers, with the aim of supporting the concept of universal social protection. Sisi's directives came during his meeting on Thursday with Social Solidarity Minister Nevine Qabbaj and Presidential Adviser on Financial Affairs Mohamed Amin, said Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady. During the meeting, the president said that the expansion in such social programs should be implemented in line with the national project to develop Egyptian villages, the spokesman added. The social solidarity minister briefed the president on her ministry's efforts to step up emergency support programs for families and citizens who suffer from social problems that require an immediate intervention for providing the necessary social protection under the mechanism known as "social ambulance". The meeting tackled existing programs to support fishermen, through equipping them with the necessary fishing kits, as part of the State's trend towards providing integrated social protection and economic empowerment for irregular workers. Short link: The Georgia Department of Public Health received notice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that due to the temperature, all Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that would have arrived in the beginning of this week were kept back by the suppliers. BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Trust Walden Company announces the publication of its 2020 ESG Impact Report. The full report can be found at www.bostontrustwalden.com/2020-impact-report. Boston Trust Walden has a rich history of encouraging the companies in which it invests to adopt better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and practices, recognizing that companies that effectively manage sustainability risks are better positioned for success. In this report, Boston Trust Walden shares examples of actions taken to accelerate progress in its focus areas and offers industry-leading measurements and disclosure on the impact of its initiatives. The report highlights the firm's: ESG integration approach Corporate engagement efforts Year-over-year reach and impact results Shareholder resolution outcomes Proxy voting record Public policy initiatives Thought leadership and partnerships "2020 was a year in which we faced a global pandemic, a deepening climate crisis, and a reckoning over persistent and pervasive inequality," stated Amy D. Augustine, Director of ESG Investing. "In light of these challenges, Boston Trust Walden stepped up our efforts, engaging nearly three-quarters of the companies held across investment strategies, encouraging them to accelerate progress on climate and equality, as well as the governance mechanisms that underpin it all." Boston Trust Walden has been at the leading edge of impact investing for over 45 years. In keeping with its tagline, "Principled Investing," this report demonstrates the firm's commitment to an investment philosophy and approach that emphasizes business sustainability. Boston Trust Walden produces this report annually for the benefit of clients and partners. Boston Trust Walden Company is an independent, employee-owned firm providing investment management services to institutional investors and private wealth clients. The firm, including its investment adviser subsidiary Boston Trust Walden Inc., manages nearly $12 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2020. Our team of professionals is committed to a distinctive investment philosophy, disciplined approach, and leadership in impact investing. Media inquiries: Amy D. Augustine, [email protected], (617)726-7289 SOURCE Boston Trust Walden Company Related Links http://www.bostontrust.com 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. You can listen to the latest episode of Today in Pa at this link, or on any of your favorite app including Alexa, Apple, Google, Spotify and Stitcher. Episodes are available every weekday on PennLive. Feel free to subscribe, follow or rate Today in Pa. as you see fit! Today in Pa. Daily Podcast | Feb. 25, 2021 Tiny turtles that were sold as pets by street vendors have been linked to a salmonella outbreak that has caused the death of one person and has sickened at least eight. Four more restaurants in Pennsylvania have received closure notices for failing to follow COVID-19 mitigation orders. A new study has found that the Keystone State has some of the worst spots for truck bottlenecks. And the parachute of the recently launched Mars rover, Perseverance, held a secret message. Those are the stories we cover in the latest episode of Today in Pa, a daily weekday podcast from PennLive.com and hosted by Claudia Dimuro. Today in Pa is dedicated to sharing the most important and interesting stories pertaining to Pennsylvania that lets you know, indeed, whats happening today in Pa. Todays episode refers to the following articles: If you enjoy Today in Pa, consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or on Amazon. Reviews help others find the show and, besides, wed like to know what you think about the program, too. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets with Year 11 students in the canteen during a visit to Accrington Academy in Accrington, England, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, as they prepare for the return of all pupils on March 8. (Anthony Devlin/Pool Photo via AP) England's ethnic minority communities have higher levels of COVID-19 infections and lower levels of vaccine acceptance than other groups, according to a new study that highlights how the pandemic is worsening health inequalities. The study found that 92% of people across England either have received or would accept a vaccine. But that figure dropped to 87.6% for Asians and 72.5% for Blacks, according to the study released Thursday by Imperial College London. Researchers also found that most people of all age groups produced disease-fighting antibodies after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Fewer people tested positive for antibodies after a single dose, with the proportion falling to 34.7% for those 80 and over. Professor Helen Ward, lead author of the report, said it was "encouraging" to see high levels of vaccine confidence and antibody response, while cautioning that the study didn't assess the effectiveness of the vaccine. "Our findings suggest that it is very important for people to take up the second dose when it is offered," she said. "We know that some groups have concerns about the vaccine, including some people at increased risk from COVID-19, so it is really important that they have opportunities to discuss these and find out more." Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets with Year 11 students in the canteen during a visit to Accrington Academy in Accrington, England, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, as they prepare for the return of all pupils on March 8. (Anthony Devlin/Pool Photo via AP) A woman wears protective face coverings as she passes the shutters of a closed shop in West Ealing in London, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. It has been announced that further testing of residents in the London Borough of Ealing will be carried out after additional cases of the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa were detected. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, elbow bumps a Sixth form student during a visit to Accrington Academy in Accrington, England, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021 as they prepare for the return of all pupils on March 8, (Anthony Devlin/Pool Photo via AP) Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, background centre left, meets Sixth form students during a visit to Accrington Academy in Accrington, England, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021 as they prepare for the return of all pupils on March 8, (Anthony Devlin/Pool Photo via AP) The findings are based on a study of more than 154,000 people who tested themselves between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8 using a home finger prick test. Participants also answered questions about their willingness to be vaccinated. The study found that 13.9% of the population had antibodies either from infection or vaccination. Antibody prevalence in unvaccinated individuals was highest among Blacks, 22.1%, and Asians, 20%. Rokhsana Fiaz, mayor of the London borough of Newham, said issues surrounding poverty, unequal access to health care and the concerns of ethnic minorities were well known at the start of the pandemic and should have been factored into the mass vaccination program from the beginning. While the British government has so far focused on large-scale vaccination sites, Fiaz called for a "hyper-local" strategy to reach more people. Newham, a borough where Black, Asian and other minority communities make up 72% of the population, is now having trials offering vaccinations through local pharmacies and religious groups, she said. "In order to address the challenges and the risks for communities from certain minority ethnic groups, we've got to address those fundamental issues of deprivation, inequality and poverty," Diaz told the BBC. "And we've got to be able to address issues of health inequity that have been long-standing features in this country." Explore further UK survey: Ethnic minorities less likely to take COVID jab 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Hrithik Roshan Likely To Be Summoned By The Crime Branch To Record Statement In His Ongoing Tussle With Kangana Ranaut Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranauts legal tussle regarding their alleged affair is far from over. The Krrish actor who in December 2020 appealed for the case to be transferred to the Mumbai Police Crime branchs Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) from the Cyber Cell will reportedly soon be summoned to record his statement. The CIU is investigating Hrithiks complaint against an imposter where he has claimed cheating by impersonation and identity theft. The actor had claimed that an imposter posing to be him corresponded with Kangana leading to accusations of an affair with the actress. The complaint was filed by the actor in 2016 under IPC sections 419 (cheating by personation), section 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act at the cyber police station in Bandra-Kurla complex. Kangana Ranaut had called out Hrithik Roshan in December after his decision to request transfer of the case to the Crime Intelligence Unit. Reacting to the case transfer the Dhakad actress wrote in a tweet, His sob story starts again, so many years since our break up and his divorce but he refuses to move on, refuses to date any woman, just when I gather courage to find some hope in my personal life he starts the same drama again, @iHrithik. Kab tak royega ek chote se affair keliye (When will you stop crying over a small affair)? The actress had in 2016 claimed that she dated actor Hrithik Roshan after working on Krrish 3 with him in 2014. She was slapped with legal notice after she referred to the actor as a silly ex during an altercation. This led to a counter-notice by Kangana threatening the actor of a criminal case against him and refusing to apologise. Hrithik in a legal notice had alleged that he was being mentally harassed by the actress and had received 1439 emails from the actress to which he never responded. He claimed that Kangana was corresponding with an imposter and on the basis of this later filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell. Ideally, those cancer patients who want the shot could get it at their cancer centers rather than in a mass distribution site. But a bumpy rollout and age restrictions have frustrated many people with cancer. Still, if the shot is offered, Dr. Brawley recommends it to his patients in active therapy and to those in follow-up. Certainly, they may not have as strong a response as someone who has an intact immune system; however, they will get some protection and will not be harmed because the current vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer are not produced from live virus (as measles, rubella, mumps and smallpox had been). Live virus vaccines must be avoided by the highly immunocompromised. The Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines, Dr. Brawley explains, are made from messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, by means of a new technology. Its genetic material causes the vaccinated person to create the same proteins that are found in the spikes of the novel coronavirus. The vaccinated persons immune system then recognizes these proteins as foreign and produces antibodies against them, Dr. Brawley said. Another immune cell called a dendritic cell also records the proteins as foreign. Dr. William Nelson, director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, agreed that the worst that could happen to cancer patients inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine is a poor response. The poorest responses will probably occur with people in treatment for B-cell lymphomas and multiple myeloma, he explained, because regimens for these diseases often involve agents targeting antibody-producing cells in the body. For folks undergoing bone marrow transplants, Dr. Nelson advised, vaccinations should probably be timed at three to six months after the transplant to ensure that immune recovery has occurred. As important as the vaccines are, Dr. Nelson urged people with cancer as well as their families and friends to remain vigilant about mask-wearing, social distancing, hand washing, etc. Because cancer patients often experience low white-blood cell counts, their symptoms fever, muscle aches, headache, dry cough can be indistinguishable from those of Covid-19. Now these patients will also need to be rapidly tested for the coronavirus and isolated in a suitable facility to get their intravenous antibiotics infused. When the health authorities in my state, Indiana, announced they would inoculate people over 70, I had no problem signing up online for an appointment. When I went for my first shot at a small medical facility, it was abuzz with people buoyed by high hopes for widespread, so-called herd immunity. My own optimism was shadowed by periodic news stories this winter about mask-less receptions, rallies, protests, parties and raves, and by personal conversations with people scared of inoculation in general. As Eula Biss explained in her brilliant pre-pandemic book On Immunity, fear of the government, of the medical establishment, and of public intrusions into the private body can inhibit the collective trust that achieving immunity requires. Because fearfulness often afflicts cancer patients, they might be especially susceptible to these sorts of trepidations. 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. A Queensland judge has reduced sentences for two youth offenders in the states south-east after finding they were handed down amid court errors or against well-established considerations around the use of detention as a last resort. Decisions in the two reviews, involving Logan-based youth and heard in the Childrens Court of Queensland this year, were handed down last week by president Deborah Richards and come amid an increased focus on the states youth justice system. Both young offenders, based in south-east Queensland, were sentenced late last year after their actions in the months prior. Credit:Louie Douvis In one of the sentence reviews, for a young male referred to under the pseudonym Daniel, Ms Richards overturned the three-month probation period ordered by the initial magistrate and instead ordered him to engage in the states restorative justice program to help him gain insight into the impact of his actions. Daniel was 14 at the time of offending on three occasions across May and July last year involving assault, burglary and stealing charges and had no criminal history. Houston: An improvised explosive device caused blast at a suburban Minneapolis mosque when worshippers were gathering for morning prayers, according to the FBI. No one has been arrested yet. Congregants and neighbours expressed relief that there were no injuries but also reacted with shock and dismay. According to authorities, no one was hurt in the explosion at the Bloomington Islamic Center, but heavily damaged an imams office and sent smoke wafting through the large building. Windows in the office were shattered, either by the blast or by an object thrown through them. When police arrived, they found smoke and fire damage to the building, said Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts. Agents from the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives soon joined the investigation. At a news conference, Special Agent in Charge Richard Thornton said an improvised explosive device caused the blast, but that investigators still must determine who and why. Standout Read: In a Dragon vs Tiger face off, who holds the edge? Indian military's strength check Mohamed Omar, the centres executive director, who was in the building when the explosion erupted, said one worshipper saw a pickup truck speed out of the parking lot after the blast. At a news conference that included clergy from several faiths, Asad Zaman, director of the local Muslim American Society, described the attack as a firebombing. Something blew up, we dont know what, but there was a lot of smoke, and the fire suppression system kicked in and stopped the fire, he said. Neighbours reported waking up to a loud bang or pop, some even feeling the concussion reverberate through windows. Minnesota law enforcement reported 14 anti-Muslim bias incidents last year, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a record high even as other categories have been on the decline. Governor Mark Dayton decried the incident and vowed to stay in close touch with law enforcement about the investigation. Every place of worship, for all Minnesotans of every faith and culture, must be sacred and safe, he said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Penguin Random House says that the two companies combined would generate less than 20 percent of the general interest publishing revenue in the United States. Those numbers come from the Association of American Publishers, a trade association, which based its estimate on the complete U.S. book market. NPDs BookScan, which tracks paper copies sold through most retailers, put the combined company at about 28 percent of all books sold last year; that figure rises to about 34 percent including the books the companies distribute for other publishers. With 15,000 titles published annually, Penguin Random House is a dominant force in the industry. Half of this weeks New York Times best sellers are its books, including Glennon Doyles Untamed, which has been on the list for nearly a year, and Barack Obamas memoir. Simon & Schuster is a powerful player as well, publishing more than 2,400 books a year, including Mary L. Trumps 2020 memoir, Too Much and Never Enough, which sold more than 1.35 million copies in its first week. Perhaps the industrys biggest concern about the merger, especially among agents and authors, is what it will mean for book deals. An agent representing a promising author or buzzworthy book often hopes to auction it to the highest bidder. If there are fewer buyers, will it be harder for agents to get an auction going for their clients, and ultimately, will it be harder for authors to get an advantageous deal? Penguin Random House operates about 95 imprints in the United States, like Vintage Books, Crown Publishing Group and Viking, and these imprints are allowed to bid against one another, as long as another publisher is bidding as well. If the third party drops out, the bidding stops, and the author selects an imprint from within Penguin Random House in what the industry likes to call a beauty contest. A spokeswoman for Penguin Random House said the practice of allowing imprints to compete would continue but that it was too early to say whether Simon & Schuster and its imprints would still count as a third party. Some publishers only offer house bids and do not allow internal competition. Wind energy PPE includes above-the-neck, respiratory, hand, foot, and fall protection, along with protective clothing. Among these, fall protection PPE is the largest and fastest-growing product segment. It is expected to have a CAGR of 5.1% from 2020 to 2025. For further information on this analysis, The Global PPE Market in the Wind Energy Industry is being Driven by Government Incentives and Initiatives, please visit: http://frost.ly/5ax. "COVID-19 stalled the demand for PPE in the wind energy industry due to the temporary delay in wind farm installations. With economies expected to slowly recover and a renewed interest in environment-friendly and sustainable sources of electricity generation, the demand for PPE in the wind energy industry is expected to rise," said Anjan Roy, Senior Research Analyst, Chemicals, Materials and Nutrition Practice, Frost & Sullivan. "Offshore wind farms and electric power grids are expected to further enhance PPE usage. Offshore wind turbines can produce more electricity, owing to the steady wind, but the construction, repair, and maintenance require more manpower than the traditional onshore wind turbine, thus driving the usage of PPE in the industry." Roy added: "Tax and financial incentives along with favorable renewable portfolio standards (RPS) play a critical role in driving wind energy, correspondingly increasing the PPE usage across the world. In the United States, all construction on wind energy systems started by December 31, 2020, can either receive the federal Business Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC) or the federal Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC). In China, regulators approved subsidy-free projects of 11.4 GW of wind energy in 2020. And the UK has lifted its ban on subsidizing new onshore wind farms, allowing floating offshore wind projects, in a new auction scheme announced in June 2020." To expand revenue generation prospects, PPE manufacturers should explore these strategic recommendations: Above-the-neck protection: Major manufacturers will grow by consolidating their positions in existing markets as well as through mergers and acquisitions in unexplored regions. The future for above-the-neck PPE lies in more customized and integrated solutions with multiple functionalities integrated into a single product. Technology will also drive the market with increasing preference for more advanced active communication ear muffs, custom-molded earplugs, protective eyewear, and smart helmets. Major manufacturers will grow by consolidating their positions in existing markets as well as through mergers and acquisitions in unexplored regions. The future for above-the-neck PPE lies in more customized and integrated solutions with multiple functionalities integrated into a single product. Technology will also drive the market with increasing preference for more advanced active communication ear muffs, custom-molded earplugs, protective eyewear, and smart helmets. Respiratory Protection: The development of filter technology has resulted in the rising adoption of non-woven filters in respiratory protection that are expected to replace plastic filters. Increasing awareness of the ill effects of silica and the implementation of respirable crystalline silica standard (29 CFR 1926.1153) are expected to positively influence the volume demand for respiratory protection. The development of filter technology has resulted in the rising adoption of non-woven filters in respiratory protection that are expected to replace plastic filters. Increasing awareness of the ill effects of silica and the implementation of respirable crystalline silica standard (29 CFR 1926.1153) are expected to positively influence the volume demand for respiratory protection. Protective Clothing: This segment is expected to be driven by reusable fire-resistant (FR) clothing because it is comparatively more cost-efficient. In addition, there is an increasing preference for inherent FR clothing over treated FR clothing because the protective capability of inherent clothing does not diminish over time, even after numerous washes. This segment is expected to be driven by reusable fire-resistant (FR) clothing because it is comparatively more cost-efficient. In addition, there is an increasing preference for inherent FR clothing over treated FR clothing because the protective capability of inherent clothing does not diminish over time, even after numerous washes. Hand Protection: Product innovation and diversified product offerings will help market participants remain competitive. Technical innovation includes gloves made of high-performance polyethylene (HPPE), which offers superior grip and protection. The Global Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market in the Wind Energy Industry is being Driven by Government Incentives and Initiatives is part of Frost & Sullivan's global Chemicals, Materials and Nutrition https://ww2.frost.com/research/industry/information-communications-technologies/Growth Partnership Service program. About Frost & Sullivan For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion. The Global Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market in the Wind Energy Industry is being Driven by Government Incentives and Initiatives K595-39 Media Contact: Priya George, Corporate Communications M: +91 98403 55432; P: +91 44 6681 4414 E: [email protected] SOURCE Frost & Sullivan Related Links www.frost.com A tent camp in Matamoros, Mexico, where hundreds of migrants stayed in deplorable conditions after being subject to a Trump-era policy requiring they stay in Mexico until their immigration court date in the US, is being drawn down, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. Over recent years, migrants have set up camp in Matamoros awaiting entry to the US. Immigrant advocates called the situation a humanitarian crisis just feet from the US southern border that formed as a result of harsh Trump-era policies. "The migrant camp in Matamoros has recently been hard hit by extreme weather in northern Mexico. As President Biden continues to rebuild the nation's border management in a way that reflects America's values, addressing humanitarian needs in Matamoros has become a priority," the department said in a statement. "We will work in partnership with the Government of Mexico, and partners on the ground, to facilitate the safe processing of current camp residents who qualify for this program." New arrivals to the camp will not be allowed entry into the US through this process, DHS said. The registration and process "will be done as quickly as possible" with health and safety protocols in place. Individuals will also complete security screening and Covid-19 testing, according to the department. Under the Trump administration, migrants, many of whom were from Central America, were forced to remain in Mexico until their immigration court date in the US. The so-called "remain in Mexico" policy, which went into effect January 2019, was an unprecedented departure from previous protocols, which allowed for the entry of migrants as they went through their immigration hearings in the United States. More than 70,000 people were subject to the program. Many waited months, if not years, in squalid conditions and under the threat of extortion, sexual assault and kidnapping. The Trump administration set up makeshift courtrooms in Brownsville, just across from Matamoros for migrants to attend their court hearings, resulting in many staying in the camp as they awaited their court date. Democratic lawmakers launched investigations into the policy and visited the camp, condemning the Trump administration for kicking migrants, including families and children, back to the deteriorating conditions there. In some cases, the situation on the ground resulted in children separating from their families to try to gain entry into the US. President Joe Biden has called for the end of the policy and started the gradual entry of migrants subject to the Trump-era policy. Last Friday, the administration kicked off the process by admitting 25 migrants who had been forced to stay in Mexico. The clearing out of the Matamoros camp is the latest step in the process. At CIIE, businesses can showcase their Asian and global product debuts. The third edition unveiled 411 new products, technologies and services, 73 of which made their global debut. Tentative deals worth $72.62 billion for one-year purchases of goods and services were agreed to at the event. Among the six exhibition sections of last year's CIIE, the Consumer Goods Exhibition Area was described as the most beautiful and the most popular, according to the "Report on the Media Coverage and Influence of the Third China International Import Expo" released in January 2021. The biggest names in the global consumer goods industry, such as the Swiss luxury brand Richemont, New York-based luxury house Tapestry, world-renowned jewelry and accessories brand Swarovski, and Italy's fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana attended the CIIE last year. Over the past three editions, catering to the increasing demand from global businesses, the scale of the exhibition area has continued to grow, from 30,000 square meters in 2018 to 90,000 square meters in 2020. Many companies report seeing solid results through attending this global trade fair. It was through the expo that third-time exhibitor L'Oreal introduced its new brand, which was ranked No 1 in the international popular makeup category during the 2020 Tmall 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival. The Consumer Goods Exhibition Area of the fourth CIIE is expected to span 90,000 square meters. Themed "Create a Better and Healthy Life Together", the area will be divided into five sections - Intelligent Life and Household Appliances, Sporting Goods and Events, Beauty and Cosmetics, Household Articles and Decoration Design, and Fashion Trends and Works of Art. Following the three objectives of offering new lifestyle products, introducing smart technology, and exhibiting the latest fashion items, the area aims to gather brands from across the world to launch new products and create global fashion trends. Register now at https://www.ciie.org/ciie/f/book/register?locale=en Contact: Nie Qingxin Tel.: 0086-21-67008870/67008988 SOURCE CIIE Related Links https://www.ciie.org Henson says at first the company didn't account for "the human psychological toll on our employees. Especially the duration of the psychological toll, the increased loneliness, the depression, the ability to focus, was difficult for some employees. We had to rethink how we support employees in that situation." The company decided they needed to make the employee review process easier in 2020. All Henson Group employees received the highest rating possible for "showing up" and working. Henson said, "We understood that on top of working full time, they had to deal with all these other issues going on at home, being a caregiver, being a babysitter, being a school teacher, while doing full time work is very stressful simply making it through 2020 was an accomplishment enough." The Henson Group integrated social emotional programs and added events that would boost employee morale. Yoga, stretching, cooking classes, pet shows and even employee happy hours were added to help Henson Group employees get their emotional work connection back. As the pandemic continues Henson says, "For employees their personal life doesn't hang up when they turn on their laptop they're still dealing with personal issues throughout the day." Henson believes if companies are not offering emotional support now they should be and "your employees will thank you for it." He recommends companies add more psychological and emotional support for employees by adding events like Bootcamp, cooking and yoga. "Be creative as possible to support your employees," says Henson. To learn about employee support, companies can visit www.hensongroup.com or read the LinkedIn article under Greg Henson's profile. https://youtu.be/HbMGex6KgQ4 Media Contact: Pressful [email protected] 415-741-5111 SOURCE Henson Group MIDDLETOWN The city health office has begun an effort to reach out to the homebound population and their families to establish a list of individuals who can receive their COVID-19 vaccines at home. Acting Health Director Kevin Elak and his staff are attempting to identify individuals among each age group. Presently, those 65 and older are eligible to be inoculated in Connecticut; Gov. Ned Lamont authorized a new, age-based system Monday. Only recently has the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention permitted health officials to transport open vials of the vaccine which must be kept at freezing temperatures due to very tight restrictions, Elak said. A week or two ago, they relaxed the regulations, allowing us to transport open vials, said Elak, whos working on a plan with his vaccine strike team to visit eligible residents homes. Every time 10 people sign up, health workers will go out, along with someone who can observe any adverse reactions immediately after the shot, such as an EMT, Elak said. So far, within the mass dispensing area that also includes Cromwell, Middlefield and Durham, 10 people have submitted their names. Elak encouraged others to apply. His staff are encouraging people who dont routinely leave home to get a ride to a clinic, or visit a drive-through location. Those without transportation or who would put their health at risk by going out can avail themselves of the mobile service, Elak said. People may experience more symptoms following the second shot, he said, such as chills, body aches or a low-grade fever between 12 and 24 hours after being inoculated, he said. In those cases, he encouraged family and friends to monitor their loved ones reactions, and to consult their doctor with any concerns. Anyone who needs urgent help can call 911. COVID positivity rates have recently fallen significantly in Middletown, Elak said, from 3.6 percent to 1.8 percent. Theyve been cut in half over a weeks time, Elak said, something he attributes to Wesleyan University students returning to campus and undergoing mandatory regular testing. Beginning Monday, school teachers and staff will be inoculated at all eight of the citys elementary schools, he said. His office will be stationed at four sites, with the Community Health Center helping at the other buildings. His goal is to vaccinate everyone there by the end of next week, an aggressive stance that Elak said is dependent upon how many doses he gets from the state. It will include cafeteria workers, janitors, secretaries and other staff. Bus drivers will have a dedicated clinic through DATTCO in Middletown, Elak said. As of March 1, those 55 to 64, as well as school staff, teachers and child care professionals, will be able to sign up. On March 22, people 45 to 54 will be eligible to register, followed by people 35 to 44 on April 12, and everyone 16 and older on May 3. Clinics are being held weekly at Cross Street AME Zion Church, 440 West St., every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon. For information, call 860-817-3330. For information, call the citys coronavirus hotline at 860-638-4965. To learn more about Connecticuts age-based distribution plan, visit portal.ct.gov. VILLANOVA D'ALBENGA, Italy, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The process for the sale of the business complexes of Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation the two companies in extraordinary receivership operating under the Piaggio Aerospace brand - enters its final stage. After the due diligence phase and after having received the relevant authorization from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development, five different entities spread over three continents have been formally invited to submit their offers to purchase the business complexes of both companies. The deadline is set at 6 pm on 5 March. This was announced by the Extraordinary Commissioner of Piaggio Aerospace, Vincenzo Nicastro, during a meeting between the company and representatives of the local trade unions, which took place on February 24. Answering the questions of the workers' representatives, Mr Nicastro pointed out that the letters were sent to those who explicitly confirmed their interest in purchasing the company and who reaffirmed their willingness to take over the business complexes in their entirety. "Having five bidders on the shortlist is a very positive result," commented Mr Nicastro, "particularly if we consider that the pandemic discouraged several overseas entities, especially those that most suffered from travel restrictions." With the full agreement of the Ministry's technicians, Nicastro explained, "I thought it useful at this stage to make the offers non-binding, in order to allow me to start all-round negotiations with those who will submit the best proposal in terms of the industrial plan, guarantees for the future and purchase price." Negotiations are expected to last no longer than a month, to then get to an irrevocable and binding offer. "I intend to start this last phase as soon as possible", pointed out Mr Nicastro, "immediately after we shall get a further authorization requested by the Ministry, which I hope will soon be granted in order not to further slow down the sale process." The Company- which employees about 940 people - is meanwhile carrying forward its production and commercial plans, with some further orders close to being signed. SOURCE Piaggio Aerospace By Fanny Potkin and Anshuman Daga SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Traveloka, Southeast Asia's largest online travel startup, plans to launch financial services in Thailand and Vietnam as it eyes a U.S. listing through a blank-cheque company, its president said. The 9-year-old Indonesian company, which counts Expedia and China's JD.com among its backers, is seeing a strong rebound in its business after the COVID-19 pandemic pummelled demand. The company's president, Caesar Indra, told Reuters in an interview that Traveloka's Vietnam business had surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels, is nearly back to normal levels in Thailand, and is at half of pre-COVID level in Indonesia. "The worst has happened and now we're well prepared for 2021. Domestic travel is driving recovery," he said. "The plan is to invest in fintech in a big way to allow more consumers to travel in the region," Indra said, adding that the travel business had returned to profitability in late 2020. Traveloka, which says it has 40 million active monthly users, is developing "buy now, pay later" services for Thailand and Vietnam markets. "We recently formed a joint venture with one of the largest banks in Thailand to collaborate in the fintech space," Indra said. Traveloka, which has smaller local rivals, is also talking to potential partners in Vietnam, but Indra declined to name the parties. Traveloka's two-year old equivalent service in Indonesia, launched after the firm realised that customers would wait until their paydays to book travel, has already facilitated more than 6 million loans, Indra said. Last year, Traveloka launched "Paylater" credit cards with some Indonesian lenders. It also offers insurance and wealth management services. Indra said the business potential was huge in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, where only 6% of the population of 270 million has credit cards. When asked whether Traveloka might buy a bank in Indonesia, like other start-ups, to expand its financial services, Indra said, "all options were on the table." Traveloka, also backed by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Indonesian venture firm East Ventures, has grown its local lifestyle services in Indonesia, where it offers restaurant vouchers and a food delivery service, as well as a popular rapid COVID-19 testing. Story continues Indra said the company is Indonesia's largest restaurant review app. Traveloka, which has been preparing for a listing, is holding discussions with special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, for a U.S. listing. "U.S. markets have become more appealing because there's more and more appreciation of Southeast Asia as a flourishing region, and by listing in the U.S, we can also provide an opportunity for U.S investors to become part of Southeast Asia's growth story," Indra said. Many SPACs, exchange-listed shell companies that raise money through IPOs and merge with firms by enticing them with shorter listing timelines, have approached Southeast Asian startups. Bridgetown Holdings, backed by Asian tycoon Richard Li, Provident Acquisition and Cova Acquisition are contenders for Traveloka, with a potential valuation of up to $5 billion for the startup, a source said. The firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment made outside normal U.S. business hours.Indra declined to comment but said an Indonesian listing remained an option. (Reporting by Fanny Potkin and Anshuman Daga in Singapore. Editing by Gerry Doyle) [February 25, 2021] Juniper Systems Limited Introduces New Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader for High-Security Industries BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, Feb. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Juniper Systems Limited announces its new Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader. This military-grade, CAC/PIV-compatible smart card reader (SCR) integrates with Junipers Mesa 3 Rugged Tablet, providing the ultimate two-tier authentication solution for data protection in high-security, rugged industries. The Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader offers a compact, integrated design that allows the device to be used in-hand all day. The SCR has been integrated into the existing design of the Mesa 3 Rugged Tablet using the same mounting points as the Mesas corner bumpers. Ports for charging, USB, and headphones have been relocated to the bottom of the SCR for easy access. Our Smart Card Reader on the Mesa 3 Rugged Tablet is perfect for controlling access in volatile locations, such as nuclear facilities, power generation plants, and airports, said Simon Bowe, managing director at Juniper Systems Limited. The Mesa 3s ultra-rugged, waterproof and ustproof design stands up to extreme environments whilst the SCR provides extra levels of security. Flexibility in the design allows the Smart Card Reader to control access to resources by reading a variety of cards, including military common access cards (CAC), employee Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials, and smart cards (Integrated Circuit Cards or chip cards). It features card insertion/removal detection with an automatic deactivation sequence, and supports both synchronous and asynchronous protocols. Developed for industries that require additional authentication, organisations can use the Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader to easily verify employee identities and control access to sensitive information or locations. Common smart card authentication standards have been built in, offering versatility to organisations that issue identity credentials to employees and contractors. Once an image of an organisations existing OS or software program requiring smart card authentication has been installed on the Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader, the proper validation measures are required to access the device or its programs. Applications for the Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader include the military, government agencies, law enforcement, nuclear facilities, airports, public utilities/critical infrastructure, emergency services, medical facilities, and others. The Mesa 3 Rugged Tablet with integrated Smart Card Reader is a powerful Microsoft Windows 10 device offering the security organisations need when users must access sensitive locations or information. The rugged design ensures the device can be used in any environment. Juniper Systems Mesa 3 Smart Card Reader is now available worldwide. About Juniper Systems Limited Based out of Logan, Utah, USA, and Birmingham, UK, Juniper Systems (https://junipersys.com) is a world leader in the design and manufacture of ultra-rugged handheld computers and provides field data collection solutions for use in extreme environments. Since 1993, professionals have utilised Juniper Systems innovative mobile technology in the geomatics, industrial, natural resources, military, utilities and public services markets. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d430fd02-f3be-4870-bb5f-ae09f2ac9fc4 Contact: Simon Bowe, Managing Director +44 (0) 1527 870773 simon@junipersys.com https://junipersys.com Barbara Sanner, Media Contact +1 480 980 0298 barbara.sanner@junipersys.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi: The government's new regulations for social media platforms and over-the-top (OTT) players Thursday (February 25) evoked divergent responses from experts with one section welcoming them, some saying they would be valid till they contain reasonable restrictions while few opposed on grounds of infringement of privacy and free speech under the Constitution. The move drew sharp criticism from Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of digital news platform The Wire who said it amounted to killing freedom of the press. BJP leaders, however, welcomed the guidelines saying they give a fair opportunity to users. The Centre Thursday announced sweeping regulations for social media firms like Facebook and Twitter as well as OTT players such as Netflix, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country. The regulations also make it mandatory for platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp to identify the originator of a message that authorities consider to be anti-national and against security and sovereignty of the country. Renowned journalist Siddharth Varadarajan said, "Granting an inter-ministerial committee of bureaucrats the power to pass judgment on what can and can't be published or to decide on whether a media platform has responded adequately to grievances raised by members of the public has no basis in law and will amount to killing freedom of the press in India." He further said that the existing laws already define the reasonable restrictions on press freedom in India and "any reader or government official with a grievance is free to seek a legal remedy provided it falls within the four walls of the 'reasonable restrictions' defined by the Constitution and 70 years of Indian jurisprudence on them". "The media cannot be compelled to address 'grievances' that go beyond that Lakshman Rekha," he said. Additionally, Bollywood producer Ekta Kapoor and directors Priyadarshan and Vikram Bhatt were among those who welcomed the guidelines, saying there cannot be creative freedom without responsibility. Kapoor, who also runs an OTT platform Alt Balaji, said the new regulations will provide a level playing field to everyone. Priyadarshan, known for films such as "Hera Pheri" and "Hungama", called it "a great step" by the government, while "Ghulam" director Bhatt said the new guidelines should not be confused with censorship. Director Onir, however, said the new guidelines did not favour artists. Political activist and columnist Tehseen Poonawalla was critical about the regulation of digital press, saying it will attack the independence of the media. "The Draft IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 are problematic and attack the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press. The Govt intends to regulate Digital Press & Media with IT rules . This will attack the independence of the media !!" he tweeted. Among the legal fraternity, while senior advocate Ajit Sinha said if the restrictions were reasonable, then the rules can be imposed, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy said it will impact privacy rights and the freedom of press. Sinha, however, added that the prima facie view is that these social media platforms will be governed by the Indian law and the government will have the power to regulate. "The social media rules will be valid till the time they contain reasonable restrictions under Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression). If the restrictions are reasonable then certainly the rules can be imposed," he added. "The prima facie view is that now these social media platforms will be governed by the Indian law...And the government will have the power to regulate... Unreasonable restrictions, if any, in the rules can be the only factor which can be used to challenge them in the court of law," Sinha said. Guruswamy raised the question as to how bureaucrats can decide what the contents of OTT platforms be and the courts are there to hear such concerns. She said end-to-end encryption provided by the platforms to protect privacy of the users would end by forcing to reveal the identity of the originator of the content. "The new Information Technology Rules, 2021, seek to regulate social media intermediaries like WhatsApp and Signal. By forcing the identity of the originator to be disclosed, this will burden the end to end encryption facility that is provided by these platforms. This will impact privacy, speech, express and conscience rights under the Constitution," Guruswamy said. She further said, the rules also forced the OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime to be subjected to oversight by the government, which will impact artistic creativity and expression. "Who are bureaucrats to decide what the content should be? The courts are already there at present to hear concerns. Finally, the rules by seeking to regulate digital media will hurt freedom of press. How can you regulate the press by the IT Act? This has not happened before. What happens to freedom of press, speech expression," she added. Welcoming the regulations, advocate Mrinal Bharti said freedom of speech was of paramount importance but it also entailed responsibility and accountability. "It's a welcome step to regulate this platform. Freedom of speech is of paramount importance but it also entails responsibility and accountability. These rules place importance on self governance and ensure a grievance redressal mechanism, she said. "Since, misinformation and misuse needs to be controlled, these rules will pave the way for it. However, it will be interesting to watch how this unfolds," Bharti said. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said there is a need for an institutional mechanism for all media platforms to exercise a responsible freedom. "TV and print media have certain codes but there are no such rules for OTT platforms and digital platforms yet. There have to be some rules for digital platforms. There is a need for an institutional mechanism for all media platforms as every freedom has to be responsible freedom," he said. Live TV Now we can blame Russia/Soviet on Kennedys murder. That should fit in well with the hate crowd against Russia! ~~RUSSIA DID IT!~~ Lee Harvey Oswald was a KGB associate who was personally instructed by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to assassinate President Kennedy. Sometime shortly thereafter, the Soviets changed their minds, and Oswald was told to drop the plan. But Oswald, harboring a blinding love for all things USSR, refused. Source: Soviets ordered Lee Harvey Oswald to kill JFK: ex-CIA chief Beginning the article with the above paragraph and ending with the below paragraph & a whole bunch of crap in between In the end, there is no doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was trained by the KGB to commit the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the authors write.Even after the KGB ordered Oswald to stand down, Oswald stubbornly went ahead with what he considered his personal mission as bestowed upon him by his hero, Khrushchev. Source: Soviets ordered Lee Harvey Oswald to kill JFK: ex-CIA chief ~~ Lee Harvey Oswald the perfect Soviet Killing Machine! ~~ Hmm WtR [February 25, 2021] Orbis Technologies Awarded Large, Multi-Year Contract to Provide System Development Services to the US Government Publishing Office ANNAPOLIS, Md., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbis Technologies, Inc., a global leader in Component Content Management Software (CCMS), services and solutions, announced this week that it has been awarded a large, multi-year contract to support the development of a world-class custom Component Content Management System for the US Government Publishing Office (GPO). The solution will leverage Orbis' unique experience in XML content management systems, our experience developing MarkLogic NoSQL database, and extensive experience in building semantic data platforms. Orbis to develop a world-class custom Component Content Management System for the US Government Publishing Office (GPO). "Orbis Technologies is proud to support GPO and their XPub program. Our team is uniquely qualified to deliver an optimal, custom solution to the US Government Publishing Office based on our extensive work with leading publishers worldwide," says Brian Ippolito, President & CEO of Orbis Technologies, Inc. About Orbis Technologies, Inc. Orbis Technologies, Inc. is an established global leader in delivering innovative technology to companies ranging from Fortune 50 to the U.S. Federal Government. Orbis specializes in advanced semantic driven component content management system (CCMS) platforms, solutions and services. Their elite team of subject-matter experts helps clients assess, optimize, and build next-generation digital content platforms. Orbis has headquarters in Annapolis (MD) with offices in Audubon (PA), Orlando (FL), Colorado Springs (CO), Durham (NC), Milwaukee (WI) and Rochester (NY), and subsidiaries based in Chennai, India, and Sydney, Australia. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/orbis-technologies-awarded-large-multi-year-contract-to-provide-system-development-services-to-the-us-government-publishing-office-301235955.html SOURCE Orbis Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Assyrian Organization in the UN-led Constitutional Committee for Syria Lavrov met a delegation of the Freedom and Peace Front in Moscow on September 26, 2020 in Moscow. Karam Dawle at far right. ( Asharq Al-Awsat) Geneva, Switzerland (AINA) -- Following a meeting with members of the UN-facilitated Syrian Constitution Committee in Geneva at the end of January, Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, lamented the slow progress of the peace process in Syria. He pointed to disagreements on the process between the two Co-Chairs, representing the Syrian Government and the Syrian Opposition. Pedersen said "a new approach to the talks is needed if they are to continue." The Constitutional Committee was established in September 2019 under United Nations auspices with the aim to formulate a new constitution for the country. The drafting-body comprises of 45 delegates, while the full body has 150 members, equally drawn from representatives of the government, opposition groups, and civil society. The Committee's fourth session was held between 30 November and 4 December 2020. The January 29th session was the fifth gathering. The Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) was a founding member of the Syrian National Council and part of the opposition, the Syrian National Coalition, since its inception (AINA 2020-07-17). Representing Assyrians, the ADO is charged with securing the national rights of the Assyrian people in the new Syrian constitution and sends two members to the UN-led Constitutional Committee. However, it is not represented in the smaller drafting-body. Karam Dawli, a member of ADO's Executive Committee, represents his organization in the Advisory Support Team, which consists of Assyrians, Kurds and Yazidis. He was in Geneva during the recent session of the Constitutional Committee at the United Nations. We had the opportunity to talk with him on various topics, among them the status of the negotiations related to drafting a new Syrian constitution for the country, ADO's view on and role in this process along with the situation in the country in view of the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Abdulmesih BarAbraham (AB): Please update us on the most recent session of the drafting-body of the Constitutional Committee at the UN? Karam Dawle (KD): The meetings of the constitutional drafting-body that took place in Geneva between January 25 and 29, 2021 did not make any progress in the constitutional process. In fact, this was not surprising; this was expected by many observers, not only by the Syrian opposition itself. The expression used by Mr. Geir Pederson, "this session is disappointing," is probably a better description of the session. In our view, and since the start of the work of the Constitutional Committee at the end of October 2019, the delegation of the Syrian regime has engaged in irresponsible time wasting, besides evading the entitlements specified by the regulations governing the working process of the Constitutional Committee; this attitude has continued from the previous four sessions. Therefore, Mr. Pedersen requested earlier the convening of this session, with intent to push the parties to present proposals on a methodology of discussion that would lead to the start of the process of drafting the new constitution. However, the delegation of the government, apart from its rejection of the proposal of the opposition and that of Mr. Pedersen, did not submit any proposals, which was confirmed by Mr. Pedersen in his briefing at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva after the end of the work of the Constitutional Committee on January 29. In all, it can be said that lack of progress and inability to set a date for the sixth session represents a challenge to the Syrian negotiating body (which represents the reference body for the constitutional committee), the United Nations, and the countries of what is known as the Small Group, led by the United States and the European Union. AB: Why is ADO not represented in the drafting-body? And, as understood, you were present at the December session too. What are the blocking issues that hinder making progress in the negotiations? KD: Before answering this question, it seems necessary to clarify what I think is important about the mechanism of representation in the Constitutional Committee. Seven independent opposition parties/blocs1 send delegates to the Constitutional Committee, in its expanded form and to the drafting body. Both the ADO and the Assyrians as an ethnic group do not have a representation as an independent block within the Syrian opposition. The two delegates ADO sends to full body of Constitutional Committee, Mr. Gabriel Moshe and Mr. Abdulahad Stifo, are sent through the 'bloc' of Committee of Independents and the National Coalition respectively. The ADO did not get any seat within the drafting-body because of many factors, the most important being the lack of acknowledgment as an independent bloc. This is an issue we are working on to settle since the formation of the commission, because it represents injustice and prejudice against the Assyrians, an indigenous national component of Syria. Our presence within the drafting-body is important to express our vision and demands by ourselves directly during the meetings of the constitutional committee. The lack of presence however does not mean the absence of our role and our contributions to the work of the Constitutional Committee, which in turn represents the reference body for the drafting-body. No decision, position, or proposal can be passed without the approval of the expanded Constitutional Committee which we are member of. AB: According to a press release of your organization, you have formed an Advisory Support Team consisting of Assyrians, Kurds and Yazidis. Could you explain the mission of this advisory team? KD: The forming of an advisory team is based on an initiative of the European Center for Kurdish Studies, located in Berlin, within the framework of a project funded by the European Union, taking into consideration the imbalance in the representation of the Assyrians, Kurds, and Yazidis in the Constitutional Committee. There is a complete absence of representation of the Yazidis and the Assyrians and the nomination of one single representative of the Kurds. The Advisory Support Team tries to break the imbalance in representation of the people in focus in the Constitutional Committee. AB: How is the view of ADO's with respect to Syria's constitution? KD: In our view, Syria is an independent, sovereign state on all its territories recognized by the UN, and it is a multi-ethnic, multi religions and multicultural state. Its (new) constitution should guarantee the national rights of all its people, including Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis and others, with their languages recognized as national languages, where their cultures represent the essence of Syria's history and civilization. The ADO believes that the Syrian constitution must be based on the principles of democracy, secularism, and respect for human rights, ensuring the peaceful transfer of power and the adaptation of modern laws for political parties and elections that allow equal opportunities to achieve national partnership, and ensure the representation of all Syrians in the administration of the country. Important is the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers while building a professional Syrian army subject to the executive authorities that does not interfere in politics. We also believe that decentralization based on local administrations is the best model for managing the country and ensuring -- among others -- a more equitable distribution of wealth. The ADO always calls for guaranteeing women's rights and the abolition of all laws and legislations that contradict the principle of equality with men, and it works to enable them to equally participate in the management and decision-making process of an administration. ADO considers that any constitutional text should not contradict the principle of full and equal citizenship. Hence, the state that we seek must be identical with "the state of all citizens for all citizens" equally. Therefore, the name of the state should not to be attached to any national designation, religious or ideological characteristic, because that would contradicts the principle of national equality, and also it would be considered a state shy of representing all of its people, even if the name reflects the majority's designation. People's rights should not be measured by numbers. The Assyrians are not a community that immigrated to the land of Syria, rather Syria has been their historical home for thousands of years. While Syria is derived from Assyria, today Assyrians represent what remains of the 'umbilical cord' that connects Syria to ancient Assyria and Mesopotamia as the cradle of civilization. The same criterion also applies to the religion of the head of state and to the sources of legislation. ADO believes that the state should be neutral towards religion; that means, it should have an equal stance toward all religions, including the freedom to choose any belief or philosophical doctrine, even atheism. We believe that religion and belief is up to the individuals, its natural place is at places of worship and civil society platforms, not state institutions. On the issue of managing national diversity, ADO considers the importance of improving the Syrian national bonding according to a new concept of the collective Syrian identity, which is drawn from the state of national, religious and cultural diversity contributing to the formation of this identity. This diversity ought to be manifested in the symbols of the state such as flag, anthem, currency, as well as in the media, education and tourism in order for everyone to feel he is a real part of this country. AB: Has the ADO reached full agreement within Syrian opposition with respect to issues you address above, such as the name of the state (Syrian Republic vs. Syrian Arab Republic), the role of religion in the legislation, secularism, the principles of citizenship, and decentralization? KD: Although we have consensus on many constitutional principles between the various opposition groups, whether in the Syrian National Coalition or within the Syrian negotiating body, discussions are still ongoing on several topics, including the name and identity of the state, religion of the president, role of religion in the legislation, personal civic laws, and the nature of ethnic rights for nationalities other than Arabs. In addition to all that, the degree of decentralization in the administration of the state is a matter of discussion. In this context, it must be noted that everyone agrees on freedom of religion to ensure the freedom to practice religious rites. But we cannot describe the scene, the position to the issues above, as between two parties within the opposition body, because the position of the groups of the negotiating body cannot be placed in one order vis-a-vis all of those principles. For example, those who insist on the survival of the adjective of Arabism in the name of the state, refuse in return to specify the religion of the President. On the other hand, it must be mentioned that the regime insists on the Arab Islamic identity of Syria and regards Islam as the main source of legislation, and Islam as the religion of the head of state. As for ethnic/national rights, there is an agreement among the majority of opposition groups on the right of non-Arab nationalities to practice their language and culture, with differences regarding Syriac, Kurdish and Turkish as second official languages in regions in which they constitute a majority. There are also differences in positions concerning the definition of the 'Syrian people' in terms of its ethnic/national components and explicitly mentioning them in the constitution. On this specific point, ADO bases its demand for constitutional recognition of the existence and national rights of the Assyrians on an equal footing with the rest of the nationalities according to the statement issued by the expanded meeting of the groups of the Syrian revolution and opposition on November 23, 2017 known as the "Riyadh 2 Statement." Unfortunately, we see in the positions of some groups a retreat from the original stance that has been agreed upon, while we consider it a reference document in the work of the negotiating body. As for the issue of decentralization, although everyone agrees on decentralized system, but there are differences in positions regarding the degree of decentralization and the power of the central state versus that of the regional administrations. Another matter that must be taken into consideration is related to the general tendency in the Syrian society where a pre- assumed notion that the Arab Islamic identity is a matter taken for granted in the future Syrian state. It is useful to note that the negotiating body has not yet issued any official document that resolves these points yet. Rather, it focuses on proposals on general constitutional principles agreed upon so far. Some of the opposition forces see that the referendum on the constitution will or should have the final say on these pending issues. Though, the Assyrian Democratic Organization insists that the principles of justice, equality, respect for human rights and the guarantee of the rights of ethnic groups should be ranked among the founding constitutional principles, which can't be amended except under very special conditions and so that no legislation is enacted that contradicts those constitutional principles or what some call supra-constitutional principles. In this context, I need to point out that these issues are essential for the future of our nation. Therefore, we need the efforts of everyone, from political parties, institutions, and personalities to support our political demands for Syria's future. Assyrians need international support to secure their presence. It is not enough to feel that you have the right, but more important is what you are doing to achieve that right. AB: You mention international support. Could you explain the positons of the representatives of the countries of the United States, Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and the European Union which follow the UN-led consultations closely? KD: In the context of our role within the Advisory Support Team we were able to explain our constitutional vision in meetings with representatives of many countries. Their positions were identical to and supportive of our vision and demands, as they consider these self-evident, matters that are no longer topics of discussion in their own countries. They also expressed their support for our request to form an Advisory Support Team affiliated with the Office of the UN Special Envoy. Also these countries are in agreement regarding the political settlement in accordance with the UN Resolution 2254. And they realize the importance of the opposition to remain united to overcome all internal differences impeding the merits of the political process and settlement. They also affirm that they will continue to apply political pressure and isolation on the regime and link the on-going economic sanctions to the political process to achieve real progress toward a political solution. AB: Turkey seems to be still the major backer of the Syrian opposition. How would you assess Turkey's influence on the opposition's vision regarding the future of the Syria? KD: For more accuracy in the use of expressions, the Syrian opposition today includes several bodies, with the exception of the seven groups that make up the negotiating body, who do not receive Turkish support. There are dozens of political parties and alliances opposing the regime outside that framework, including armed radical Islamic factions. Therefore, this question applies to the Syrian National Coalition and a group of armed factions listed under the name "Syrian National Army" deployed in parts at the northern regions. Politically, no one can deny the existence of a Turkish influence on the positions of the coalition forces, which may appear at the tactical rather than the strategic level, and this of course is imposed by geopolitical factors as a result of Turkey's long common border with Syria and the transformation of the Syrian revolution into an armed struggle. This of course is not an exception in Syria, many political movements and armed opposition resort to one of the neighboring countries by virtue of geography, and this of course has a negative and positive consequences and implications. On the other hand, I do not think that Turkey has any role in terms of the coalition's vision for the future constitution of Syria. What some might expect from the manifestations of harmony or sometimes coincidence between the vision of the Turkish Justice and Development Party led by President Erdogan and some of the forces in the coalition, is considered natural, because the Syrian political scene by its nature involves many diverse politically and ideologically motivated actors. AB: In context of pressure you mentioned above, very recently, 95 international personalities campaigned for the lifting of the economic sanctions against Syria in a letter published on January 21, 2021 to US President Joe Biden. Two Patriarchs of the Syriac Churches signed the petition. The dramatic appeal to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation of the Syrian population was supported by press releases and letters to politicians in Germany, France, Great Britain and other countries. What is your view on this? KD: First of all, in principle, neither I nor any Syrian would not wish well for his family and the people of his country, working to provide all that he can relieve them of the heavy daily suffering that they have been living in for about ten years. Therefore, I am in favor of providing all kinds of support to the Syrian people, to be done or carried out by relevant international institutions so that they are protected, secured and able to reach all Syrian regions without exception, and that neither the regime nor its affiliated organizations interfere in the delivery and distribution of aid to the people under their control. We must not forget that the sanctions Western powers (US and Europe) imposed on persons and institutions affiliated with the Syrian regime do not include the humanitarian aspects, especially food and medical, and COVID-19 supplies. AB: Last year in July, the so-called 'Peace and Freedom Front' was established that brought together the Kurdish National Council in Syria, the Assyrian Democratic Organization, the Syrian Future Movement, and the Arab Council in Al-Jazeera and the Euphrates. What do you expect this front to accomplish that ADO and the other groups cannot agree upon within the Syrian Opposition? KD: This Front acquires its special importance from several aspects, the most important of which is that the alliance between these founding groups of the Peace and Freedom Front is a natural collaboration, representing the ethnic groups united by many common issues that bring them closer to each other by virtue of geography and history, extended by the experience of joint interaction within the frameworks of the opposition. The fundamental vision of "future Syria" that they share is greater than any other aspect that bind them. The Front provides the advantage of being able to extend bridges between various opposition groups to achieve greater coordination and consensus, as far as the political vision is concerned. Also, the declaration of this alliance represents a message of reassurance; peace and peaceful coexistence for the inhabitants of the northeastern regions of Syria contrary to some propaganda and rhetoric that contribute to sowing the seeds of separation between the people of the region - Arabs, Kurds, and Assyrians. Although the Peace and Freedom Front project is not limited to the northern and eastern region. The northern region by comparison, with its diversity and richness, and the challenges it faces, makes it an arena for an international and regional conflict that is reflected in the entire Syrian scene, which prompted us to unite the efforts of various components or groups of the region to form a real partnership to face existing challenges and to play the role entrusted to us as political forces working to restore security and peace and achieve political transition in the country. In a way these are the aspirations of all Syrian ethnic and religious components. AB: Last September you were part of a delegation of the Peace and Freedom Front to visit Moscow and meet with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Syrian situation. Similar meeting were obviously held with Turkey and US representatives. What is the outcome of this talks? KD: It seems that so far the announcement of the establishment of the Front and the dissemination of its political vision has met with acceptance by several countries, the first of which was the United States of America, which took the initiative, through its representatives at Al Jazirah, Syria, to hold a meeting with the Front, where they affirmed a supporting view to its vision and positions. Also, a delegation from the Front met with Mr. Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, who expressed his support for our political vision and optimism that the front, with its diversity, will be able to play a prominent role in achieving a political settlement in accordance with international legitimate decisions concerning the country. A delegation of the Front had also a meeting with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Mr. Cavusoglu, who listened to the delegation explaining its goals and political vision. He expressed his satisfaction and showed interests to hold further dialogue and consultations. The Front has also received positive messages from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, many European countries and Canada. The Front will have more meetings to explain its vision not only at the international level, but also with the Syrian opposition forces in an effort to bridge the gap in viewpoints and advance a unified position on various issues related to the political process and the desired constitution. 1 The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, the National Coordination Commission, representatives of the armed factions, the Cairo platform, the Moscow platform, the Kurdish National Council, the National Personalities Committee also known as the Independent Committee. 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. Sydney businesswoman and fraudster Melissa Caddick is presumed dead after campers found her decomposed foot washed up on a remote beach on the NSW South Coast more than three months after she vanished. The campers found a running shoe with the foot inside at Bournda Beach south of Tathra, on Sunday, police said. DNA tests linked the remains to Ms Caddick, 49, who disappeared from her eastern suburbs home in November. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the shoe matched the size and description of a shoe Ms Caddick was wearing when police raided her Dover Heights house on behalf of the corporate watchdog, ASIC, hours earlier. [The foot] had been in the water for some time. Scientists were able to extract DNA from the foot and match it to a sample of DNA that we had already obtained from a toothbrush belonging to Melissa and from her relatives. The swastika-branded man accused of trying to set an Indigenous woman and her daughter on fire using a can of deodorant and a lighter has fronted court following a dramatic citizens arrest. WA Police made several public pleas for the community to help identify the man, who was captured on CCTV walking away from the incident in Gosnells on Saturday. Liam Michael Bradley, 37, made a brief appearance in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday, charged with an unlawful act or omission with intent to harm and conduct intended to racially harass. It followed members of the public spotting the man in Gosnells on Wednesday night and detaining him until police arrived. 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. Communities often display assets that set them apart. Jazz was born in New Orleans. Palo Alto sits at the heart of Silicon Valley. Deadwood boasts a history of gold mining and outlaws. Cody claims the history of Buffalo Bill Cody as its own. Sheridan, though, offers something even less tangible something other communities have struggled to replicate. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form The on Thursday asked the government to take action against illegal and unauthorised pathological laboratories in the capital in accordance with the guidelines issued by the "Take action as directed by the against some of the illegal labs," a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh said to the Delhi government. The high court asked the Delhi government to place before it on the next date of hearing -- April 7 -- the action taken by it against illegal and unauthorised labs. The oral direction from the bench came during hearing of a plea seeking urgent implementation of the Delhi government's Health Bill, 2019, or the Delhi Clinical Establishment Act, 2010. The plea by consumer rights activist Bejon Kumar Misra has alleged that unauthorised pathological laboratories were being operated in the capital without any checks and balances. Advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, appearing for Misra, told the court that the Delhi government on each date of hearing seeks more time to implement the Bill or the 2010 Act, but till date nothing has been done and the citizens need to know which labs in the capital are authorised and which are illegal. Sudhi said some action has to be taken against the illegal labs in accordance with the guidelines issued by the apex court. He also told the bench that the high court in 2018 had directed the Delhi government to take appropriate steps in accordance with the guidelines issued by the to contain illegal and unauthorised labs, but no steps have been taken by the authorities. Misra has alleged that the Delhi government "has not made any efforts towards the regulation of illegal pathological laboratories/diagnostic centres being run illegally, which do not meet the norms and without having qualified pathologists". He has claimed in his plea that according to the National Accreditation Board for Laboratories and Calibration (NABL), there are 1,000 diagnostic laboratories, out of which only 10 per cent are NABL accredited. Misra had moved the high court in 2018 seeking closure of the unauthorised pathological labs and diagnostic centres in the national capital. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of Healths statistics show that more than 80% of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam had only mild symptoms such as mild fever, cough, and fatigue, and recovered on their own after about one week. Covid-19 patients treated in Hai Duong. Photo: Ministry of Health Vietnam has entered the third Covid-19 wave since January 27. Up to 811Covid-19 patients have been recorded in 13 provinces and cities out of a total of 2,403 cases since the beginning of 2020. Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment under the Health Ministry, said in the new wave of epidemic, 83% of Covid-19 patients had mild symptoms, which are difficult to detect at medical facilities. Therefore, the Ministry of Health has issued new guidelines for care of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at medical examination and treatment facilities. The data show that Covid-19 patients have a wide range of clinical manifestations, from asymptomatic infections to severe clinical manifestations. According to the latest guidance of the Ministry of Health, the incubation period of SARS-CoV-2 is 2-14 days, 5-7 days on average. Common onset symptoms are fever, dry cough, fatigue and muscle aches. Some patients have sore throat, stuffy nose, runny nose, headache, productive cough, vomiting and diarrhea. Only 14% of patients with severe developments such as pneumonia or severe pneumonia need specialized treatment at health facilities. About 5% need treatment in intensive care units with acute respiratory symptoms (rapid breathing, difficulty breathing, cyanosis...), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock, organ failure including kidney damage and myocardial damage, leading to death, especially in the elderly and those who have a chronic illness or suffer from immunodeficiency. According to the Ministry of Healths regulations, Covid-19 patients are eligible to declare recovery when their fever has been gone for at least 3 days and they have had 3 consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart from each other. In Vietnam, the number of child patients with Covid-19 is low. Most infected children have milder clinical manifestations than adults, or have no symptoms. Common signs in children are fever and cough, or symptoms of pneumonia. By February 25, there were 604 Covid-19 patients under treatment, including two very serious cases who need EMO intervention. Patient 1536, who is a 79-year-old woman returning from the US, is the most serious Covid-19 case in Vietnam, even worse than former patient 91, a British pilot. The woman is staying at the Da Nang Lung and Respiratory Diseases Hospital. She has a medical history of diabetes and high blood pressure. The Ministry of Health has held six national consultations on her case. Another case in critical condition is patient 1823, a 65-year-old man from Hanois Me Linh District. He has been treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases since February 2. ECMO machine is being used. He tested positive for Covid-19 for a second time. Thuy Hanh The commuters in Kolkata witnessed an unusual sight on Thursday. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a bid to protest against the rising fuel prices, rode pillion on an e-scooter from her South Kolkata residence to the State Secretariat in the adjoining Hooghly district. The helmet clad Chief Minister with a poster hanging around her neck waved at the people as Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim rode the scooter. Rows of cars stopped along the road during the seven km long route as commuters came out in large numbers to capture the incident on their mobile phones. The Chief Minister waved at the curious onlookers as she passed by. Her security officers trailed her closely on other scooters and motorbikes. Other vehicles went on as usual albeit at a distance from the Chief Minister. Upon reaching the State Secretariat after about 40 minutes, the Chief Minister held a press conference wearing a helmet and sitting on the e-scooter. Lashing out at the BJP for fuel price hike, Mamata said that despite promising free LPG connections to people before coming to power, they are now hiking its price. Modi and Shah are selling the country. They are privatising profit making PSUs. This is anti-farmer, anti-youth and anti-people government. We will launch a larger agitation if the fuel prices are not brought down, said Mamata. However, there were more surprises in store. In the evening, the commuters near the State Secretariat saw the Chief Minister leaving the building riding the e-scooter. At one point, she almost tipped over while trying to accelerate. Her security personnel hurriedly pulled up the e-scooter saving her from a fall. After sometime, Hakim started riding the bike and the Chief Minister rode pillion. Centre has to bring down fuel prices or we will launch a bigger agitation. The farmers have already hit the streets and if the people also rise in protest then Modi babu, no matter how you use your agencies, you will not be able to do anything, added Mamata. The BJP, CPI(M) and Congress, however, dubbed it as a "drama before the Assembly elections." This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. You are here: World Flash Iran is in the final stage of manufacturing its first wide-body combat drone capable of flying as far as 3,000 km, Iran Air Force Commander Aziz Nasirzadeh announced on Wednesday. The aircraft, codenamed Kaman-22, has been designed and developed in line with the Air Force's requirements, Nasirzadeh was quoted as saying by Press TV. Kaman-22 is outfitted with different kinds of smart ammunition, as well as diverse optical and electronic warfare equipment, he said, adding that the drone can also endure airborne missions up to 24 hours. It is featured with reconnaissance, surveillance, and intelligence-gathering qualities, and has the capability to take pictures from distant targets, according to the report. "The aircraft will contribute a high combat capability to the Air Force," Nasirzadeh added. 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. Leaked Emails Confirm UN Gave Names of Dissidents to CCP Leaked emails prove that, contrary to United Nations denials, UN human-rights officials did in fact give the names of Chinese dissidents to the communist regime in Beijing before those activists were set to testify in Geneva against the Communist Chinese Partys abuses. In fact, it appears from the leaked documents that the practice of handing over names of Chinese dissidents to the dictatorship was viewed as a usual practice by all involved. The whistleblower told The Epoch Times that it continues to this day, despite UN denials. Chinese communist authorities used the names received from the UN to prevent the dissidents from leaving China. At least one dissident identified by the UN and detained by the CCP before leaving for Geneva, Cao Shunli, died while in detention. If the dissident expected to embarrass Beijing at the UN was already abroad, the CCP frequently threatened or even kidnapped and tortured the persons family, according to UN whistleblower Emma Reilly, who first exposed the scandal. Critics of the regime whose names were handed over by the UN included activists concerned about Tibet, Hong Kong, and the Islamic Uyghur minority in Western Chinaall of which are being targeted by the CCP for various reasons. In February of 2020, The Epoch Times reported on the scandal, and on the retaliation faced by Reilly for attempting to expose and halt the practice. Reillys case at the UN is ongoing. She remains employed there but is under investigation. Prominent human-rights organizations around the world have slammed the UN practice for endangering the lives of dissidents and their families. In comments to The Epoch Times, Reilly described it as criminal and even argued that it made the UN complicit in genocide. For years, the UN denied that its agents were providing the names of dissidents to the CCP. Thanks to leaked e-mails about the practice, however, it is now clear that the UN misled its member governments and the press surrounding the scandal. One of the explosive emails in question was sent on Sept. 7, 2012, from a diplomat at the CCPs Mission to the UN in Geneva requesting information on Chinese dissidents set to testify at the UN Human Rights Council. Following the usual practice, could you kindly heip [sic] me to check whether the persons on the attached list are requesting the accreditation of the 21st session of the HRC? asked the CCP diplomat in an email to a UN liaison with non-governmental organizations. My delegation has some security concern [sic] on these persons. The UN official, whose name was redacted from the leaked email, responded by confirming that two of the dissidents on the CCPs list were in fact accredited and planning to attend. As per your request, kindly be advised that Dolkun Isa and He Geng were accredited by the Nonviolent Radical party, Transnational and Transparty for the 21st session of the Human Rights Council, the UN official confirmed to the regime, with no apparent concern for the safety of either dissident or their families still in China. Isa is the president of the World Uyghur Congress, which advocates on behalf of the Uyghur population of Western Chinas Xinjiang region that is being brutally targeted by the CCP. Numerous official sources around the world say the regime is holding more than a million Uyghurs in re-education camps. Former detainees who spoke with The Epoch Times revealed that they were being raped, tortured, brainwashed, and savagely abused. Isa also serves as the vice president of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), which seeks to be a voice for nations and people groups without representation from a nation-state of their own. The year after that email, at the request of the regimes delegation, UN security attempted to remove Isa from the Human Rights Council chamber. However, Reillyand only Reillyintervened and prevented his ouster. The other dissident identified by the UN in its email to the CCP mission, Geng He, is the wife of imprisoned Chinese human-rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, a Christian who wrote a book about the severe torture he was subjected to by the CCP for his work and beliefs. One of the reasons for the brutal torture of Gao was the fact that his wife was speaking out at the UN, as revealed to the CCP in advance by the UN officials in that email. Another leaked email, this one from 2013, showed the same CCP diplomat again seeking to confirm the identities of Chinese dissidents expected at the Human Rights Council to expose CCP abuses. The Chinese Mission had very good cooperation with you and your section in previous sessions, the CCP diplomat said in to the UN official in the email obtained by The Epoch Times and other media. We appreciate it a lot. This time, I need you to do me a favor again, the CCP diplomat continued. Some anti-Chinese Government secessionists are trying to participate the HRC session [sic] under the disguise of other NGOs. They might pose a threat to the United Nations and the Chinese Delegation. Could you please check and inform me whether the persons I list below have got accreditation for the 22th session [sic] of the Human Rights Council? the CCP diplomat asked. If you have any information, please contact me through email or at [number redacted]. Among the names on the list was Dolkun Isa, again. According to Isa, CCP agents have showed up at his house overseas to try to get him to stop speaking out. CCP operatives also arrested his family in China, including his mother, who died in a Chinese concentration camp in 2018. His older brother was also arrested. And his younger brother has been missing since 2016. CCP media outlets reported that Isas father died, too, though Isa does not know when or where. The Epoch Times attempted to reach the CCP diplomat in question at the Swiss cell-phone number listed in the email, but was unsuccessful. UN human-rights officials responded to that CCP mission email with the names of four activists who were expected to attend the Human Rights Council. The Epoch Times is withholding the names of the activists that are not yet public for their protection and privacy. Reilly was furious and horrified at the same time. This is a hideous practice, but if the UN is going to do it, at least they must make sure its public so people know the danger they are going to be put in, she told The Epoch Times in a video-conference interview from Geneva. This is basic decency and basic standards of humanitydont secretly put these people in danger. Is that too much to ask? Right from the start, the emails reveal that Reilly argued against giving the names of dissidents to the CCP. Instead, she advocated informing the targeted individuals. However, Chief of the UN Human Rights Council Branch Eric Tistounet argued that the list of names was public and that the CCP requests could therefore not be resisted. Indeed, Tistounet suggested acting as quickly as possible to avoid exacerbating Chinese mistrust, the emails show. When did that become part of the considerations? Reilly asked rhetorically in comments to The Epoch Times. News of the emails confirming that the UN was in fact handing over names of Chinese dissidents made a major splash in Turkish media. However, in Europe and the United States, the scandal has barely been mentioned in the press. In remarks to The Epoch Times, Reilly urged journalists worldwide to examine the documents, transcripts of internal court cases, and other evidence to see who was telling the truthand then to report that truth so the people of the world can see what is happening. But Reilly said this is a systemic issue with the UN. The problem with the UN is there are no adults in the room and there is no external oversight, she said, citing other examples of whistleblowers who have been persecuted for trying to do the right thing. Unless the member states act, this is going to continue. Reilly also expressed deep concern about the close relationship between CCP agents and senior officials within the UN human rights system charged with protecting human rights. For years, senior UN officials attempted to mislead UN member states, the media, and the public about the name-sharing scandal, Reilly told The Epoch Times. From 2013 to 2017, the UN claimed the practice was not happening. Much later, in January of 2021, a spokesman for the UN was quoted telling the Anadolu Agency that the practice was stopped since 2015. However, in a Feb. 2, 2017, press release aiming to deflect the escalating criticism, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) admitted that it was indeed confirming to governments the identities of individuals being accredited to attend its human-rights events. Chinese authorities, and others, regularly ask the UN Human Rights Office, several days or weeks prior to Human Rights Council meetings, whether particular [non-governmental organization] delegates are attending the forthcoming session, the UN OHCHR said. The Office never confirms this information until the accreditation process is formally under way, and until it is sure that there is no obvious security risk. Reilly said she was shocked by the language used in the release. The only security checks that are ever done are those done by the Chinese diplomats, she told The Epoch Times. Indeed, transcripts from the case show that Reilly challenged the UN to show any evidence of its supposed security checks before handing over the names. None was provided. It was all about whether these people would cause problems for the Chinese diplomats at the UN, she said. It had nothing to do with keeping anyone safe. This is a major violation of the UNs own rules as well, Reilly said, noting that if governments want to know who is attending they are supposed to ask the plenary in front of other UN member states. Despite the escalating scandal surrounding the practice and the UNs retaliation against the whistleblower who exposed it, Reilly told The Epoch Times that the practice of handing dissident names to the CCP continues to this day. It has now become my personal mission and responsibility to prevent this UN complicity in genocide, she said. Documents obtained by The Epoch Times reveal that some of the highest-ranking officials within the UN system have been involved in an effort to silence, discredit, and retaliate against Reilly for her efforts. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights did not respond to requests for comment on the leaked emails or the broader scandal. In early 2020, the UN OHCHR declined to comment to The Epoch Times, citing ongoing litigation. However, Reilly told The Epoch Times this week that she has given them full permission to comment on the case to the media. Multiple spokesmen for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also declined to comment. Alex Newman is an award-winning international journalist, educator, author, and consultant who co-wrote the book Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy Americas Children. He is the executive director of Public School Exit, serves as CEO of Liberty Sentinel Media, and writes for diverse publications in the United States and abroad. Boris Johnson is an "unrepentant and inveterate liar", who will blame the problems of Brexit on coronavirus, France's former ambassador to the UK has said. In her new book Sylvie Bermann, France's top representative in London during the EU referendum, said the prime minister uses lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power". Describing the prime minister's approach, she said: "The ends justify the means. He has no rules. As French ambassador to Britain between 2014 to 2017 Ms Bermann is among her country's most senior diplomats. She has also previously represented her country as ambassador to China and to Russia. Her book, Goodbye Britannia, the top former diplomat characterises the Brexiter mindset of "reciting a history in which the UK is never defeated, never invaded. This was driven by the idea of a "history that stopped in June 1944, she said. Admitting she did not expect the EU referendum to be lost, she said: How this country whose influence had been decisive in Brussels, which insolently rolled out the red carpet for French entrepreneurs and which Xi Jinping had elected in October 2015 as the gateway to Europe, at the dawn of a golden period, how has it undertaken to scuttle itself? Boris Johnsons temptation will be to hide the bill for Brexit under the Covid carpet, valued at more than 200bn for 2020, almost as much as the United Kingdoms total contribution to the European Union since its accession in 1973, which was 215bn. Ms Bermann's comments recall those of Emmanuel Macron, who in 2018 branded leading Brexiteers such as Mr Johnson "liars" who "left the next day so they didnt have to manage it". Asked on Thursday about the ambassador's comments, the prime minister's spokesperson said: "We completely reject that characterisation. We delivered on what we promised the British people in both the 2019 election and previously during the referendum in terms of returning sovereignty. We've now taken back control of our borders, our laws, and our money." Turkey on Thursday "strongly condemned" what it described as an attempted coup in neighbouring Armenia, where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was facing calls by the military's top brass to resign. "We strongly condemn the attempted coup in Armenia," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Budapest. "We are absolutely against coups and coup attempts anywhere in the world." Search Keywords: Short link: We are focused on novel delivery mechanisms to harness neurological benefits while making these treatments more accessible to patients in need. Psilera Bioscience (Psilera) in collaboration with the University of South Florida (USF) and its Chemical Purification and Screening facility has received DEA approval to research DMT, psilocybin, and psilocin (the active ingredients naturally found in ayahuasca tea and magic mushrooms). Psilera and USF join only a handful of prestigious U.S. universities to undertake psychedelics research. Psilera will initiate research programs in its quest to become the first psychedelics company developing non-invasive, patient-friendly delivery methods for DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine). We are focused on new delivery mechanisms to harness neurological benefits while making these treatments more accessible to patients in need, said Jackie von Salm, PhD, co-founder & CSO of Psilera. To get approval from the DEA to research Schedule 1 drugs, researchers must provide information about their qualifications, research protocol and the institution where the research will take place. The co-founders of Psilera, Drs. Jackie von Salm and Chris Witowski, both earned their doctoral degrees in natural products chemistry from USF and now call their alma mater home in the USF Research Park for their biotech startup specializing in the clinical development of psychedelic analogues. Since its founding in 2019, Psilera has chemically synthesized a number of compounds as a member of the USF Connects incubator program. These psychedelic analogues will be evaluated for safety and efficacy at the USF Health Neuroscience Institute while Psileras novel DMT delivery device will be assessed through forthcoming research partnerships. Were very pleased to build upon our strong relationship with the university and this major milestone will further our understanding of psychedelics and develop next generation treatment options for this promising drug class, said Chris Witowski, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Psilera Bioscience. This approval will enable us to significantly accelerate our neuromodulator pipeline and drug formulations into clinical development. A research powerhouse, USF has received the elite Preeminent status in Florida, ranks among the highest in the nation for academic research funding, and in the top-10 annually for awarded patents. Neuroscience remains a primary focus of the university that includes leading researchers in mood, addiction, and cognitive disorders within Byrd Alzheimers Center and Neuroscience Institutes. The USF Connect incubator hosts several biotech companies and is expanding with construction of new facilities already underway within USF Research Park. About Psilera Bioscience - Psilera Bioscience is a psychedelic-based biotechnology company developing its proprietary neuromodulator pipeline to target central nervous system disorders. Psilera leverages research strengths with executives from the pharmaceutical and cannabis industries to repurpose psychoactive natural products as building blocks for next generation therapies to improve mental health. Denton, TX (76205) Today Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible. 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. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - STEVENS GOLD NEVADA INC. (CSE: SG) (OTCQB: STVGF) (FSE: 311) (the "Company" or "Stevens Gold") is pleased to announce it will dispatch a field crew to its optioned Millennium Gold Property (the "Property") located 4.8 km northeast of Lake Havasu City in Mojave County, western Arizona. High-grade but underexplored low sulphidation volcanic-hosted epithermal gold mineralization on the property will be the target of further prospecting and sampling. The 3,408 acre Millennium Gold Property hosts multiple examples of untested gold mineralization exposed at surface. The only historic drill-tested gold zone at Westley Hill will be confirmed by the Company with its maiden drill program upon receipt of native plant and archeological survey reports required by the Arizona State Lands Department. Additional gold mineralized zones on the property occur as pipe-like breccia zones and occur at structural intersections between faults and rhyolite dykes and domes in the interpreted upper level of a hydrothermal system. One of these gold zones termed "7-Gram Hill" is a west-striking breccia zone with historic assays of 7.05 grams per tonne gold over 8 feet. This zone and surrounding area will be the primary target of additional rock chip sampling and prospecting by the Stevens Gold prospecting crew. Assay results will be released as they are received. The Company is not aware of any legal, political, environmental, or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of the project. Qualified Person The Technical Report was prepared by Dr. Mark Fedikow, P.Geo., of Mount Morgan Resources Ltd. Dr. Fedikow is independent of Stevens Gold Nevada Inc., is a "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved all technical information in this release. About Stevens Gold Stevens Gold Stevens Gold (CSE: SG) (OTCQB: STVGF) (FSE: 311) is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in North America. Stevens Gold is exploring the optioned Millennium Gold property in Arizona. The Millennium Gold property consists of three State mineral leases and 72 BLM claims totaling 3,408 acres and is in the general vicinity of the Oatman mining district where over 2 million ounces of bonanza-grade gold has been discovered and where Equinox's Castle Mountain open pit gold mine is located, please see the Technical Report filed on SEDAR for more information. ON BEHALF OF STEVENS GOLD NEVADA INC. "Charles MaLette" CEO, President, Director & Secretary T: 604-428-5171 E: info@stevensgold.com Forward-Looking Information: This press release includes forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of Stevens Gold. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of Stevens Gold. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "will," "may," "would," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "could" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include that: the Company will dispatch a field crew to its optioned Millennium Gold Property; the 7-Gram Hill" zone and surrounding area will be the primary target of additional rock chip sampling and prospecting by the Stevens Gold prospecting crew; the 7-gram Hill zone has historic assays of 7.05 grams per tonne gold over 8 feet; the Millennium Gold Property hosts multiple examples of untested gold mineralization exposed at surface; and assay results will be released as they are received. Although Stevens Gold believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because Stevens Gold can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information in this news release due to certain material risk factors described in the Corporation's Annual Information Form under the heading "Risk Factors" and the failure to complete the Offering on the terms set forth herein in a timely manner or at all, the risk that regulatory approvals will not be received and the risk that changing circumstances will result in the proceeds being used in a manner other than as set forth herein. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material risk factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information in this news release, unless it is required to do so under Canadian securities legislation. The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75431 Wedding venues have been booked up for two years after Boris Johnson announced people can get hitched from next month. Hopeful brides and grooms face a scramble for places as planners say their phones are ringing 'non-stop'. The PM said on Monday weddings with a maximum of six will take place from March 8, increasing to 15 'no earlier than April 12' and to 30 people from May 17. Those wanting a full-sized wedding were told June 21 was the earliest date all restrictions will be lifted. The announcement triggered a stampede as some wedding suppliers reported a 720 per cent increase in sales, with September to November proving popular months. Soho-based planner Rebecca Brennan-Brown said venues across London have been booked up until the end of 2022. Soho-based planner Rebecca Brennan-Brown (pictured) said venues across London have been booked up until the end of 2022 Hopeful brides and grooms face a scramble for places as planners say their phones are ringing 'non-stop' (file photo) She told the BBC: 'The second Boris Johnson stopped talking, my phone started ringing non-stop.' She said: 'Many venues in London are completely booked out until 2023 and those that aren't yet have hiked up their wedding packages by about 15%.' She added: 'I think I'm still processing what was said because I wasn't expecting there to be no restrictions in June - that feels very quick for me personally.' Industry experts and suppliers saw a rapid rise in bookings with 500,000 weddings predicted to take place in the next year. Decoration suppliers Ginger Ray saw searches peak at a staggering 3,054 on Monday night. Meanwhile founder of the Bridebook app Hamish Shephard revealed the system crashed due to a sharp rise in traffic - with 23,112 couples logging in. He said: 'Get ready for the race down the aisle. Couples should be aware they may face a lot of competition for Autumn dates as brides-to-be rush to plan and book suppliers. 'We saw a 720% spike after Boris Johnson's announcement and it's looking like a huge amount of couples will want to get married between September and November. 'If you have not booked your venue yet, I would highly encourage couples to move quickly.' Hamish Shephard (pictured), founder of leading UK app Bridebook, revealed that following Boris' announcement, the app crashed due to a sharp, sudden rise in traffic Wedding photographer duo Stephanie and Nicole say that they have also seen added interest since Borismr Johnson's announcement He continued: 'It was the busiest night in wedding planning history and the app crashed within an hour of Boris's announcement! 'We saw a high number of couples attempting to download Bridebook to book their venue in the space of a few hours. 'Sadly it was too much traffic to cope with - though I am pleased to say we are now back up and running.' 'It's not surprising given the clarity we now have for the summer peak wedding season and beyond, with next year being set to see 1,000,000 people get married and 500,000+ weddings.' Bridebook says 735 couples will get married on June 21 and adds there is a huge demand for ceremonies across the country. Hamish added: 'By 8pm three venues had commented on our Slack channel that they had had two booking confirmations. 'Consumer confidence is up immeasurably finally, and the wedding industry is ready!' Bridebook bride Alison Mullett, who is due to marry Glenn Mather, told FEMAIL she was one of the lucky ones who has booked in for July 26. Phillipa Lepley (pictured), British couture dress designer, says that since Monday night, they have seen an incredible spike in enquiries Sue Barnes from LGF says that Lavender Green Flowers has already seen a huge number of brides contact them to discuss confirmations on weddings (pictured) Ms Mullett, who was due to get wed on July 26, 2020, said before Mr Johnson's announcement she had planned four weddings - two dates and two different styles. She said: 'This is our fifth attempt to get married! The announcement was totally unbelievable. 'Even though I didn't feel like I was anxious about it, as soon as he said June 21st it felt like the most enormous weight had been lifted. I am still really teary now. I just thought FINALLY!' 'We watched the announcement right until the end to check there weren't any u-turns and then as soon as it was finished we sat at the dining table and went on the Bridebook app. 'The app was down last night, so we ended up pulling out all our old excels and pieces of paper starting to draw up plans, until we got back on this morning.' She said she resumed wedding planning 'straight away', adding: 'We had a bottle of pink Lanson champagne ready to go in the hope we would be happy with the news, which we opened straight away!' Speaking exclusively to FEMAIL, Bridebook bride Alison Mullett, who is due to marry Glenn Mather, jumped on the phone to book a new wedding date following Boris' announcement (pictured, together) Alison (pictured, with Glenn) says she resumed wedding planning 'straight away' - adding: ' We had a bottle of pink Lanson champagne ready to go in the hope we would be happy with the news, which we opened straight away!' 'I took today off work to get ahead and because I just feel so excited! I have been so busy getting in touch with absolutely everybody - all our suppliers and the venue. Relatives and invites will all come next - that is our plan for tomorrow evening.' Ms Mullett continued: 'We're having the whole thing at the venue now as our notice of marriage has expired and the registrars weren't open to renew it, so now we are getting married at the local church and then having the ceremony at the venue, Venue is Heaton House Farm, in Macclesfield. 'I am just so excited to get back planning! We have managed to put it to the back of our minds for so long and try to forget until we have positive news.' 'We have a wedding WhatsApp group with family and close friends on, and we messaged straight away - everyone on it was thrilled! 'We have people planing to come to the wedding from Scotland, Plymouth, Devon and the Midlands - it will just be so brilliant to see everyone in July.' Jess and Max (pictured) initially planned to get married on Saturday 29th May, but have since scheduled their date for August Head of Sales & Marketing at Hedsor House Fran Everist said her team were prepared for good and bad news from the PM's speech. She said: 'Luckily it was positive news for many - the phone started ringing at 4pm yesterday and it hasn't stopped since. 'Our existing couples are our priority and we will be are working through plans with each and every one of our existing couples them carefully, and new enquiries have started to come in thick and fast today.' Monty Clevely, founder of Full Monty Events, a boutique wedding and events planning consultancy, was equally as delighted by the news. She said: 'After the announcement yesterday, I had about 10 brides message and call me saying that they want to resume their planning and get started now that they have been given the green light, which was so exciting. 'I am over the moon that there is now light at the end of the tunnel and I can get back to doing what I love most planning beautiful weddings. 'I am also so happy that brides to be can finally move forward and be excited for their dream weddings to actually happen!' Monty Clevely (pictured), founder of Full Monty Events, a boutique wedding and events planning consultancy, says she was 'so anxious' for the announcement - but was delighted with the news A private client of Monty's told FEMAIL: 'My fiance and I are so thrilled that weddings can finally resume at normal capacity come the end of June. 'We have had to cancel our wedding twice now due to the pandemic and while it was really tough and sad at the time, it's given us extra time to really narrow down exactly what we want for when we can have our special day! 'We are so excited to be working with Monty again so that we can go full steam ahead with the preparations. Wedding gift list companies have also seen a rise: The Wedding Present Company: 'Last night saw our highest evening of guest pledges since December 2020, with revenue more than doubling on previous sales so far in 2021. We saw a +46% increase on same day last year, showing that guest confidence is on the rise! Monday also saw a spike in new wedding list registrations, up 98% compared to the previous Monday. All new registrations were for 2021 weddings bar one, with an average guest list size of 120. Almost immediately after Boris' announcement, we saw a flurry of requests from engaged couples to book a private showroom appointment for when we can reopen our London showroom on 12 April. 'We continue to utilise our Virtual Appointments (born out of lockdown to serve our clients remotely) to get to know our couples and help them get started with their wedding gift list in the meantime. From 4pm Monday we saw: - 22% increase in users to the website Monday night - 10% increase in new users to the website Monday night - 24% increase in organic traffic to the website' Georgie Evans, The Wedding Present Company MD (pictured) The Wedding Shop: 'There was a 50% increase in registrations compared to the previous Monday and 17% increase compared to the previous day. We saw twice the number of appointments being booked compared to the previous day The average guest pledge value was up compared to the same day the previous year.' Prezola: 'Logged in traffic up was up 16% compared to the previous day and we saw a spike in registrations at 7pm. Compared to the previous Monday we were up 40% in logged in users, 35% in sessions and 71% up in page views.' Advertisement 'As soon we heard last night's announcement, we texted her immediately asking for a call today to discuss how best to move forward. 'Thankfully our wedding venue still had a few dates available for this year, so we immediately confirmed that as our first port of call. Then we gave Monty a call to talk through everything!' Kate Beavis, the owner of creative wedding blog and directory Magpie Wedding, said Monday was a 'key day' for couples and wedding suppliers alike. She said: 'Our bride group have almost stopped planning as they didn't want their hopes dashed again. Last night felt like a very different story. 'Our wedding Magpie Wedding Directory (where we showcase amazing suppliers to our couples) had the biggest day every for website hits. 'We usually get a few thousand a day but last night we reached 18, 000 and today looks to be the same, in fact, double! 'Our couples want a sustainable wedding - our Guide To Having An Ethical Wedding was downloaded a record amount yesterday. 'We are now so hopeful that we can put our wedding shows on again too - couples are itching to come out to meet suppliers, to taste the cake samples, and try on dresses!' Nehar Ullah-Donofrio, from Spot On Event, said they have also had a few bookings confirmed since the announcement, which is 'amazing news'. She added: 'I can imagine the venues are very busy though because I myself have allied two venues since this morning to confirm dates and also a few to understand their cancellation policy should there be a change in the rules.' Another couple who were eager to book in a new wedding date was Jess and Max - who do not wish to share their surname. They had planned to get married on May 29 with a Tipi-style wedding. But since the PM's announcement, Jess has been rushing around all of her suppliers trying to arrange a new date, which has since been scheduled for August. Speaking of their plans before the update, Jess told FEMAIL: 'We had all our suppliers in place and remained hopeful that we would still be able to get married in May. 'But planning the little details and getting excited about the day had dropped off as deep down we probably knew we wouldn't be able to have as many guests as we wanted (we planned for 140 and decided that we would go ahead as long as we could have 50 guests). 'The uncertainty really impacted our feelings about the wedding, as it is so hard to be excited and motivated to plan for a wedding we weren't sure would happen!' Jess went on to say how the couple initially felt 'deflated' after the news. 'Whilst we probably had already realised it would be tough, it was much more disappointing hearing it confirmed. 'It was also hard to process that if we had a wedding a month later, there would be no restrictions. 'I also felt really overwhelmed by the need to scramble for a new date, as of course there are many couples in our situation.' But Jess resumed her wedding planning, adding: 'By some miracle, we have got all our main suppliers aligned for a new date in August which we are SO thrilled about.' 'All of my suppliers, especially Caviar & Chips and Sami Tipi, have been so wonderfully supportive throughout the whole process and helping us re-plan.' 'And it wasn't only wedding venues and planners that saw an almost immediate demand from brides-to-be. Sue Barnes, from Lavender Green Flowers, said the firm saw a huge number of brides contact them to discuss confirmations on weddings. She added the announcement has given them the confidence and enquiries are surging again. She added: 'The team are thrilled if somewhat overwhelmed. But we are raring to go!' Dresses and couture overlays patiently waiting in the window of the closed Phillipa Lepley shop Kate Beavis, the owner of creative wedding blog and directory Magpie Wedding says Monday was a 'key day' for couples and wedding suppliers alike Phillipa Lepley, British couture dress designer, said they have also seen an incredible spike in interest. She said: 'Brides are thrilled to be able to resume the process of creating their dress with us. 'They are quickly booking additional virtual appointments so they can be ready for as soon as the shop opens to have their in house fittings. 'It has been a joy to see messages from brides and how happy those who are choosing to go ahead in the next couple of months are feeling. 'We have an additional large pop up space in Chelsea close to our store to manage the backlog of fittings and viewings required. We can see twice as many brides in person when safely allowed to do so, this way we can facilitate the large number of brides who have waited patiently and postponed weddings over the last year.' Stephanie Moran, bridal designer in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, also thinks with all the uncertainty, her clients have light at the end of the tunnel. She said: 'I came to the stage of not booking future appointments so since the announcement I've had so many brides that were on 'on hold' per se, call and email me before I've had a chance to put a plan in place. Stephanie Moran (pictured), bridal designer in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, also thinks with all the uncertainty, her clients have finally got actual light at the end of the tunnel with regards to tying the knot, without restrictions Amy, the owner of Amica Bridal Boutique (pictured), has been inundated with brides contacting them to book appointments to try on dresses or to have their wedding dress altered ready for the big day they've been waiting for Photographer Kate says that almost instantly, she had couples get in touch with her Monday evening following the announcement, weeks after their initial enquiry 'From couture clients to alterations and accessories clients, it's now about planning carefully for the dates ahead to make sure that I can fit it all in as it is vital everyone gets their dream dress; it will be tough, as we have an influx of current and new brides excited about their wedding.' The Wedding Lawyer Pranav Bhanot, founder of The Wedding Lawyer and head of Wedding Law at law firm Meaby & Co LLP, says: 'Since the Government Roadmap last night, we have received approximately 100 enquiries overnight regarding the next steps both suppliers and couples should not be taking.' 'Whilst there is cautious optimism, there is also a frantic rush to get the weddings organised. What we have noticed: 1. Couples are using the Government Roadmap as an opportunity to resolve their disputes about refunds with suppliers and adopt a conciliatory approach to wedding planning. 2. Couples wish to move fast as they appreciate peak weekends over the summer months will be subject to high demand. We have found a surge in consultations, as couples wish to obtain guidance and advice before going ahead with their bookings. 3. Wedding suppliers and couples are asking for us to review new agreements and addendums to existing contracts as a renegotiation of terms and conditions are taking place between the parties following the announcement Monday night. 4. I have been approached by a venues to ask what the Government announcement means for ensuring they can host a COVID-19 Secure event.' Advertisement 'For the wedding industry, this is what we have waited for and we do the job because we love it, so my brides will definitely be walking down the aisle in the dress of their dreams!' Amy, the owner of Amica Bridal Boutique has been inundated with brides contacting them to book appointments to try on dresses or to have their wedding dress altered ready for the big day they've been waiting for. She added: Many brides who got engaged during lockdown feel that they've been robbed of the excitement and buildup to their big day - no dress shopping, hair trials, engagement party or visits to wedding fairs. 'Their experience has been tarnished. Brides-to-be and their families can't wait to be part of the bride experience and have something exciting to do together! We will be embracing them when we can reopen. It's going to be such an incredible time.' And wedding photographer duo Stephanie and Nicole also said they have had added interest since the roadmap was unveiled - although it has not been at the rate of other suppliers. They said: 'It has been the hardest year of our lives - I can't tell you how much more positive we have been feeling in the last 12 hours. 'The phone isn't ringing off the hook yet, but we did see a couple of booking confirmations come through last night and website traffic is up slightly today, so hopefully improvements will continue. 'We can't wait to be back photographing weddings again soon!' Kate Gray, wedding photographer and Owner of Kate Gray Photography, added: 'It is has been a year of uncertainty for the industry, but the announcement yesterday seems to have given some couples that much needed confidence to commit and book their suppliers. 'Almost instantly, we had couples get in touch with us yesterday evening following the announcement, weeks after their initial enquiry. 'It is clear many couples have been sat on the fence waiting for that glimmer of hope for the future, and it seems yesterday provided that.' Kate is urging couples to reach out to potential suppliers as soon as they can. She added: 'We will begin to see a real rush of enquiries, with almost a double season of weddings expected for years 2021 and 2022, as so many couples have decided to postpone or reschedule, and further disappointment could be a real blow to many brides.' As investors pile in to crypto currencies, global regulators are still mulling how best to rein them in. If youre seeing Bitcoin on a bus, its time to buy, is the slogan currently plastered on the sides of Londons iconic red double-deckers. Since the ads were first placed across Transport for Londons overground and underground services last December, prices have skyrocketed. Bitcoin, the worlds largest crypto currency by market capitalisation, has risen by over 72pc in the year to date, according to CoinDesk. And its not the only one. There have been massive gains across the 50 or so cryptocurrencies featured on CoinDesks scoreboard, including Ether, Ripples XRP, joke crypto dogecoin and privacy-focused monero, once favoured by vendors on illegal marketplace DarkMarket before it was busted by Europol last month. And regulators are not happy about it. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described Bitcoin this week as an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions and said the environmental impact where massive amounts of computing power are used to mine Bitcoin tokens was staggering. Irelands Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf has compared Bitcoins bull run to the 17th century Dutch tulip bubble. Personally, I wouldnt put my money into it, but clearly, some people think its a good bet. Three hundred years ago, people put money into tulips because they thought it was an investment. The impending launch of Facebooks Diem (formerly Libra), which uses the same technology as Bitcoin, has prodded the EU into action. If we dont ever move on this whether thats in China or the US or in Europe there might be this global currency which is not managed by any central bank, and which is not controlled in terms of financial stability, said an EU official advising the bloc on how to regulate crypto. Last September, the European Commission published its draft markets in crypto assets regulation (MiCA) and a separate rulebook for distributed ledger technology such as blockchain. It aims to regulate providers of stablecoins, a cryptocurrency pegged to underlying assets, such as Diem, which is linked to the US dollar. The European Central Bank said this week that it wants veto power over the launch of stablecoins under the new rules. Sven Giegold, a German Green MEP and long-standing member of the European Parliaments economic affairs committee, says crypto is a natural candidate for direct supervision. Read More But he says the EUs draft rules have loopholes that could allow criminals to keep using crypto currencies anonymously in different member states to sell drugs, weapons or contraband on the dark web. You download the ledger and you can become your own service provider, so to say, so you dont need a regulated professional entity. And therefore you can also trade in Bitcoin without to anyone lifting your anonymity, he said. The draft rules need to be approved by EU governments and MEPs, with talks expected to start in the summer. Alongside those rules, the European Central Bank is also looking into issuing its own digital cash, which would exist alongside Bitcoin, Diem and other crypto assets to provide a safe and fast way for ordinary people to store or transfer money. The digital euro also lives in this ecosystem when youre not trying to invest in another thing or not trying to use a Facebook service, said the EU official. It will be able to live in this future context of manufacturing 4.0, electric cars, perhaps sharing surface electricity on batteries, paying for tolls thats what were thinking the digital euro could be doing. Central Banks across the world have attempted to launch their own digital currencies with varying degrees of success. You can pay with so-called sand dollars using your Mastercard in the Bahamas. China has enabled ATMs in the city of Shenzhen to trial the digital yuan. And Swedens Riksbank is due to report on its e-krona pilot project in March. But retail banks are afraid of losing customers to the cheaper services that could be offered by the ECB if it decides to launch a digital euro a decision it intends to make this summer. The enthusiasm over the central bank offering the service directly to the citizens is rather limited by the banks, to put it ironically, said MEP Sven Giegold. I see the hesitation also, partly, in the European Central Bank, because they are scared of the losses for the banks. But their job is not to guarantee a technologically outdated revenue flow to the banks. Lory Kehoe, adjunct assistant professor in technology trends at Trinity College Dublin and founder of Blockchain Ireland, says that the digital euro and future regulated crypto assets might not make much of a difference to how banks operate, in the end. Its another financial instrument or asset which the bank will look to use for traditional services, he said. The bank knows how to handle those instruments and the risk associated with them. Its just a different blend. Banks and fintech companies including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon have recently expanded their crypto offerings, while JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are weighing up a similar move. But Irish banks may lack the capacity to do the same. For the banks in Ireland to come out and say that they were able to buy and hold crypto for their customers I would love that, said Lory Kehoe. The Irish banks technology infrastructure is really old, so for them to do almost anything is really hard. So is he still buying Bitcoin? Absolutely. Its part of my investment portfolio but its by no means a substantial part of it. What I would recommend, as part of any portfolio, is that it needs to be balanced. Just because its crypto doesnt mean common sense goes out the window. Wawa customers would be eligible to receive as much as $8 million in gift cards and $1 million in cash reimbursements under a proposed settlement to a class-action suit following a massive data breach in 2019. Affected customers will be eligible to apply for either a $5 gift card, a $15 gift card or up to a $500 cash reimbursement if the settlement is approved by a federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Wawa says it will hand out at least $1 million but not more than $6 million in $5 gift cards to customers who used a payment card at Wawa but didnt experience a fraudulent transaction and spent time monitoring their accounts. Up to $2 million in gift cards worth $15 are available to customers who experienced an actual or attempted fraudulent transaction on a card. Finally, customers who suffered monetary damages in connection with a fraudulent transaction would be eligible to receive up to $500 to cover their out-of-pocket expenses. Out-of-pocket expenses include things like unreimbursed fraud charges, bank fees, replacement card fees, late fees from transactions with third parties that were delayed due to fraud or card replacements and credit freeze fees. Wawa says it will make up to $1 million available for customers in that category. Wawa will set up a settlement website where affected customers would be allowed to file a claim to join the class action lawsuit. The data breach between March 4, 2019 and Dec. 12, 2019 took place at all of the Media, Pennsylvania-based convenience store chains 800 locations. There are more than 250 Wawa stores in New Jersey. The companys investigation revealed customer debit and credit card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names were exposed, but PIN numbers and CVV2 codes were not. Information was exposed due to malware in point-of-sale terminals in stores. Hackers who accessed the payment card information of more than 30 million Wawa customers were sold on the dark web, according to cybersecurity firm Gemini Advisory. Woodbury Heights resident Tabitha Hans-Arroyo filed the federal lawsuit in December 2019. In the lawsuit, Hans-Arroyo alleges she received an email on Christmas Eve from Capital One stating a $2,535.15 Walmart.com purchase was declined because of a lack of available credit. Hans-Arroyo called Capital One to let them know that she had not authorized the purchases. While on the phone, a representative from the credit card company told her that her card was compromised as a result of the data breach, according to the lawsuit. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com Sports Australia, Qatar withdraw from Copa America BUENOS AIRES, FEB 24 (IANS) | Publish Date: 2/24/2021 1:24:58 PM IST Australia and Qatar have withdrawn from this years Copa America due to a clash with 2022 Asian World Cup qualifiers, an official of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said. Both the teams had been invited to participate as the guests in the tournament, scheduled to be held in Colombia and Argentina from June 11 to July 10. Qatar and Australia will not be able to come because there will be qualifying rounds in their continents on those dates, CONMEBOL Secretary General Gonzalo Belloso on Tuesday told Argentine radio station La Red, Xinhua reported. Australia had been drawn in Group A alongside Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay while Qatar were placed in Group B with reigning champions Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. Belloso said the competition would not be modified, apart from the reduced number of fixtures. Originally scheduled for 2020, the 47th edition of the Copa America was postponed by a year because of Covid-19. It will mark the first time the worlds oldest international football tournament will be hosted in the two countries. Despite the ongoing pandemic, Belloso said there was no chance the competition would be cancelled and expressed hope that fans could attend matches. The Copa America is 100 percent confirmed. The idea is that it will be played with stadiums at 30 per cent capacity, he added. 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. The family of missing Co Down woman Lisa Dorrian have appealed to the small group of people they believe know where she is hidden to finally reveal it to allow them to lay her to rest beside her mother. It has been 16 years since the 25-year-old from Bangor disappeared. She was last seen alive at a party in Ballyhalbert Caravan Park on February 27 2005. Expand Close Lisa Dorrian (left) with her sisters Michelle (centre) and Joanne (right) at a house warming party in Bangor, in 2004. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday February 22 2021. See PA story ULSTER Dorrian. Photo credit should read: Family Handout/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lisa Dorrian (left) with her sisters Michelle (centre) and Joanne (right) at a house warming party in Bangor, in 2004. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday February 22 2021. See PA story ULSTER Dorrian. Photo credit should read: Family Handout/PA Wire There have been extensive searches of the area, including of a disused airfield in 2019. Lisas sister Joanne Dorrian said they have received multiple tips but a small group of people are keeping the exact location a secret. Police believe that Lisa is down there, we do believe she is down there but its such a vast area, she told the PA news agency. It sounds so simple, shes on the caravan park, just find her, but its really difficult even with all the technology unless we know where she is. There is a very small group who know, even the fact they have been able to keep it quiet for so long, their loyalties are to each other, but they have to live with this, they have to live with knowing what they have done and what they put us through. Expand Close Police search an airfield in Ballyhalbert, Co Down for Lisa Dorrian (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police search an airfield in Ballyhalbert, Co Down for Lisa Dorrian (Rebecca Black/PA) I see that as some sort of justice outside of the courts, because I cant imagine having to live with that kind of information when you close your eyes seeing things from that night and every time you hear the name Lisa bringing back what happened that night. Her father John said all they are waiting for is someone to talk. From the very first day it was said by police that they needed someone to talk, and thats what we are waiting for, relationships to break up, people to come forward, anonymously if they have to, he said. But we would appreciate any information, any small bit of information. This is still an ongoing investigation, it is still current and we have good police officers working on it. My youngest sister Ciara was eight at the time, she is now 24 ... and we are still campaigning for justice and to find Lisa Joanne said the familys life is now in two parts, before Lisa went missing and after. Its a benchmark for how we reference things, it has changed us as people, she said. My youngest sister Ciara was eight at the time, she is now 24, thats the passage of time from her being a young child to a fully grown women and we are still campaigning for justice and to find Lisa. Joanne believes Lisas disappearance led to their mother Pats death in 2015. I have no qualms in saying that whoever killed Lisa also killed my mum, Joanne said. It's our duty on earth to find Lisa and be able to bury her with mum Joanne Dorrian It was really tragic for the family, another blow between Christmas and New Year, an already difficult time of year now compounded by not having her but we take solace that they are together again now. Its our duty on earth to find Lisa and be able to bury her with mum. With no grave, Joanne says the closest the family can feel to Lisa is at a cherry blossom tree planted in her memory. In the years that Lisa has been missing it has grown into a 15 foot tree. John said the tree and a memorial bench were put in place by Lisas friends when she first disappeared. The tree blooms every year and it is somewhere we can come to, to remember Lisa which we do regularly, he said. Joanne said while it is a comforting place to visit in some ways, it also reminds them that they do not have a grave to visit. So sometimes it is very difficult to come here, because it reminds you that this is not Lisas resting place yet it is the only place we have to come and remember her, she said. But the grounds are beautiful and when the cherry blossom is in bloom, it is lovely, its bright pink and a nice reminder of Lisa and the life that she lived. Expand Close PSNI Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, with Joanne Dorrian and her father John Dorrian at a disused airfield in Ballyhalbert, Co Down where searches for Lisa took place (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PSNI Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, with Joanne Dorrian and her father John Dorrian at a disused airfield in Ballyhalbert, Co Down where searches for Lisa took place (Rebecca Black/PA) Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said he has not given up hope that Lisas body will be found and her family will get justice. She was last seen alive in the caravan around 10pm on Sunday February 27, he said. I believe she was murdered that night or in the early hours of the following morning. There is nothing to suggest that Lisa came to harm at the hands of a stranger, I believe she knew her killer. My focus is very, very clear and thats on the recovery of Lisa and justice for Lisas family and Ive not given up hope that we will achieve either or both. Anyone with information should call detectives on 101 or talk anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. DUBAI can be amusing, in a voyeuristic way, for a week or two. Tallest building in the world and the mall with the shark tank, but its the people, really. Opinion DUBAI can be amusing, in a voyeuristic way, for a week or two. Tallest building in the world and the mall with the shark tank, but its the people, really. There are a quarter-million expats, mostly British or American, living much higher on the hog than they ever could at home but bored out of their minds, like refugees from a Somerset Maugham novel. Drunken buffet lunches on Fridays at one of the big hotels are as good as it gets. Offstage, there are also a couple of million servants, menials and labourers, mostly from the Indian subcontinent. They are probably bored too, but nobody bothers to ask. And there are a quarter-million native-born Arab citizens, most of them quite prosperous but also bored, though the richer ones console themselves with stables of racehorses and the like. The richest of them all is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the absolute ruler of Dubai. The Sheikh has 25 children by his six wives, so he obviously loves children, but unaccountably his daughters keep trying to escape. He recaptures them and locks them up, of course, but its starting to draw unwelcome attention. In the good old days, potentates from the oil-rich parts of the Middle East could get away with anything. When Maktoums daughter Shamsa ran away from the familys compound in Surrey while on holiday in 2000, the Sheikh didnt contact the English police. He just sent his own agents out to find her. They tracked her down a month later in Cambridge, where four Arab men grabbed her on the street, bundled her into a car, and injected her with a sedative. She was flown back to Dubai on a private jet, and has not been seen in public since. (She would be in her early 40s now, but the Dubai government says she is "adored and cherished" by her family.) Two years later her younger half-sister, Latifa, made her first escape attempt at the age of 16. She was caught crossing the border into Oman and brought back to Dubai, where she was jailed for three years. She says she was kept in solitary confinement and tortured. Princess Latifa didnt try to escape again until 2018, when she made it to the coast of Oman with the help of her Finnish fitness instructor, thence out to a yacht in international waters by dinghy and jet-ski, and off to India, from where she planned to fly to the United States and seek asylum. (Good luck with that; Donald Trump was still president.) Unfortunately, eight days later and only 30 kilometres off Goa, they were boarded by Emirati commandos from an Indian Navy ship (Prime Minister Modis government still sucks up to rich Arabs), and Latifa was "tranquilized" again and flown back to Dubai. For the past two years, she has been held in solitary confinement in a seaside "villa." ("Safe with her family," as the Dubai government put it.) But at some point a mobile phone was smuggled in to her, and she began locking herself in the bathroom and sending out secret videos to her Finnish friend, Tiina Jauhiainen. "This villa has been converted into a jail," she said. "All the windows are barred shut. Theres five policemen outside and two policewomen inside the house. And I cant even go outside to get any fresh air." Jauhiainen told the British authorities (because Shamsa had been kidnapped on British soil) and the United Nations, but she didnt go public for fear of compromising Latifas secret phone. That phone went dead five months ago, so now the "family" knows. Fortunately, there is now some support from the British, because Latifas stepmother, Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, took her two children and fled to London in 2019. Last year the British High Court issued a "fact-finding judgment" confirming that both Shamsa and Latifa had been kidnapped and were being illegally held. It denied Maktoums demand that his children with Princess Haya be returned to his custody, and said that the sheikhs campaign of intimidation against her included having a pistol left on her pillow. Thats where it stands at the moment, but now the UN is getting involved: the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said it will soon question the United Arab Emirates about Princess Latifa, and a spokesman said the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention could launch an investigation once Princess Latifas videos have been analyzed. But that may not be enough, because now it has become a question of face for Sheikh Mohammed. He knows what all the other kings and sheikhs of the Gulf are saying about him. Theyre saying, "Why cant Mohammed control his women?" Gwynne Dyers latest book is Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work). 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. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East [February 25, 2021] Supermarket chain MATCH selects Openbravo to drive its supply chain transformation and improve customer service LILLE, France, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The MATCH chain of supermarkets in Luxembourg has implemented Openbravo WMS, a component in the Openbravo Commerce Cloud platform, as a key building block of the transformation of its supply chain. The retailer, part of Louis Delhaize SA food retail group, needed a more sophisticated warehouse management solution to support the modernization of its warehouse operations, which handle 20,000 SKUs and supply 28 stores in Luxembourg. The ultimate goal of this transformation is to improve its service to stores and customers. "MATCH needed a solution that could support a new layout of its distribution center to allow the much more effective use of storage space and capacities," says Luc-Pierre Maes, Managing Partner at aXialyze, the Belgium and Germany-based partner that implemented the project for Openbravo. MATCH wanted to adopt a very-narrow-aisle (VNA) warehouse model which requires paying special attention to the organization of the order picking process as well as a dynamic replenishment of picking locations so as to reduce total travel distance and ensure optimal product availability. The legacy WMS could not support ths new requirement. By adopting Openbravo WMS, Match is improving the productivity of the 50 staff in the warehouse thanks to the smart tasks management feature which automatically presents the list of tasks ordered by priority and travel sequence on the operatives' mobile devices. "We were looking for a solution to support the transformation of our warehouse operations and implement the VNA model in order to optimize warehouse space and reduce significantly the time spent moving goods in the warehouse. We are very satisfied with Openbravo WMS as it has given us the agility we needed at a very competitive cost, allowing us to transform operations in a record time." says Laurent Vanden Brande Supply Chain & ICT Director of Match. About MATCH The MATCH chain of supermarkets is part of the Belgium-based Louis Delhaize Group SA, a leading regional food retailer with operations in north-eastern France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Romania. In Luxembourg, The MATCH chain employs around 800 people in its 28 stores, comprising 13 Match-branded supermarkets and 15 smaller-format Smatch stores. To learn more visit supermarche-match.lu. About Openbravo Openbravo is the omnichannel software platform of choice for brands and retailers seeking to accelerate their digital transformation and omnichannel strategy. Flexible, cloud-based and mobile-enabled, it allows integration between the online and physical channels, personalized, convenient and safer store shopping experiences, as well as intelligent order management with a single and real-time view of inventory. International brands like BUT, Caroll, Rubaiyat, Sharaf DG, Toys "R" Us Iberia and Zodio prefer Openbravo, which today counts over 18,000 back office users and 60,000 point of sale terminals. Visit www.openbravo.com. Contacts: Xavier Places Marketing Director +34 607 676 568 xavier.places@openbravo.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/703504/Openbravo_Logo.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1444705/MATCH_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] BANGALORE, India, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Electric Scooter and Motorcycle Market is Segmented Type (Electric Motorcycle, Electric Scooter), Application (E-Commerce, Retail Store) : Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2026. This report is published on Valuates Reports in the Automotive Industry Category. The global Electric Scooter and Motorcycle Market size was USD 5297.7 million in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 7283.5 Million by the end of 2026, with a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period 2021-2026. Major factors driving the growth of electric motorcycle & scooters market size are improving charging infrastructure, innovative battery technologies, increasing demand for efficient commuting options, and improving design & performance specifications, very less maintenance compared to Internal combustion engine scooter and motorcycle. Request a Sample Copy of the Report For COVID-19 Impact Analysis on Electric Scooter and Motorcycle Market : https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-1Z1154/Global_Electric_Scooter_and_Motorcycle_Market TRENDS INFLUENCING THE ELECTRIC SCOOTER AND MOTORCYCLE MARKET SIZE Increasing demand for high-performance and long-range electric motorcycles is expected to drive the electric motorcycle & scooter market size. The shift in consumer preferences towards electric motorcycles due to an increase in harmful carbon emissions is increasing the Electric motorcycle demand. Electric motorcycles help to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, carbon footprints, and noise pollution, thus gaining popularity over internal combustion engine (ICE) powered motorcycles. Countries implementing regulations and policies in favor of electric two-wheelers are expected to fuel electric motorcycle & scooter market size growth. Many countries have recognized the need for electric power to reduce the increasing pollution from cars. Technological advancements in the field of motors and battery management systems will fuel the growth of electric motorcycles and scooter market size. For example, the development of Interior Permanent Magnet (IPM) engines that provide optimized power and efficiency to enhance the performance of electric motorcycles and scooters. This will, in turn, fuel the electric motorcycles and scooters market growth. These engine's compact size and reduced weight provide enhanced power and acceleration for electric scooter and motorcycle. Features such as low operating and maintenance costs are expected to drive the electric motorcycle & scooter market size growth. Consumers in emerging countries are already affected by the increased cost of petrol. Electrical two-wheelers operating on electricity will definitely reduce the operating costs of these vehicles. Manufacturers are expected to develop electric scooters and motorcycles with a higher range than the current generation of electric two-wheelers. However, the lack of charging infrastructure might hinder the market growth. A widespread and extensive charging infrastructure network is needed for users. View Report Details Before Purchasing: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-1Z1154/global-electric-scooter-and-motorcycle ELECTRIC SCOOTER AND MOTORCYCLE MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS By Type, Electric Scooter type occupies the largest market share and segments reach 98.36 The E-Motorcycle segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period. Manufacturers are focused on developing e-scooters/mopeds because they have a more suitable design to incorporate the electrical propulsion system. By Application, Retail stores were the most used area, accounting for 92 percent of all applications By RegiChina held the largest sales of Electric Scooter and Motorcycle Market share and is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period. China's sales volume took up about 93.42% of the global market in 2017, but it changed in 2018 due to the saturated demand. China's sales share dropped to 92.86% in 2019. At the same time, the export to Europe and the USA increased dramatically. Apparently, many Chinese producers of Electric Motorcycles & Scooters are trying their best to look for a new growing-market. Inquire for Regional Report : https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Auto-1Z1154/Global_Electric_Scooter_and_Motorcycle_Market Key Players: The major players that are operating in the global Electric Motorcycles & Scooters market are Yadea AIMA Lvyuan Sunra TAILG Lima BYVIN Wuyang Honda HONG ER DA Lvjia Slane Opai Electric Supaq Xiaodao Ebike Sykee Aucma EV Terra Motor Govecs ZEV Zero Motorcycles Palla Zongshen Electric Motorcycle "We can also add the other companies as you want" Segment by Type Electric Motorcycle Electric Scooter Electric Scooter type occupies the largest market share and segments reach 98.36 Segment by Application E-Commerce Retail Store Retail stores were the most used area, accounting for 92 percent of all applications Buy Now for Single User + Covid-19 Impact : https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-1Z1154&lic=single-user Buy Now for Enterprise License + Covid-19 Impact : https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-1Z1154&lic=enterprise-user SUBSCRIPTION We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. 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SIMILAR REPORTS : - Electric vehicle market was valued at USD 162.34 Billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 802.81 Billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 22.6%. - Electric Commercial Vehicle market size is projected to reach USD 178560 Million by 2026, from USD 110540 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 8.3% during 2021-2026. - Electric Bike Market is expected to grow from USD 19,719.54 Million in 2019 to USD 36,466.04 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.78%. - Wireless electric vehicle charging market was valued at USD 7.6 Million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 210.1 Million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 36.4% from 2020 to 2030. - Electric vehicle charging system market size was valued at USD 3.18 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 66.27 Billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 45.6% from 2019 to 2026 - Electric Bus Market size will increase from USD 88,632.45 Million in 2018 to USD 183,269.78 Million by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.93%. - Electric truck market size was valued at USD 422.5 Million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 1,893.1 Million by 2027, registering a CAGR of 25.8% from 2020 to 2027. Asia-Pacific accounted for the highest share in the global electric truck market in 2019 in terms of revenue, and LAMEA is anticipated to exhibit a remarkable growth rate during the electric truck market forecast period. - Electric Car Market size is projected to reach USD 1438.8 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 19.40%. - Battery Materials market size is projected to reach USD 53,980 Million by 2026, from USD 40,540 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period 2021-2026. - Solid State Battery Market size is projected to reach USD 13680 Million by 2026, from USD 1172.4 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 50.6% during the forecast period 2021-2026. - Lead acid battery market size was valued at USD 39.7 billion in 2018, and is projected to reach USD 59.7 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.24% from 2019 to 2026. - The lithium-ion battery market was valued at USD 36.7 Billion in 2019, and is projected to hit USD 129.3 Billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 18.0% from 2020 to 2027. - Graphene battery market size was valued at USD 48.8 Million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 398.6 Million by 2027, to register a CAGR of 31.2% during the forecast period. - Electric Traction Motor market size is projected to reach USD 27860 Million by 2026, from USD 12260 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 14.7% during 2021-2026. To see the full list of related reports on the Electric Vehicles ABOUT US: Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs. Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs. To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains detail research methodology employed to generate the report, Please also reach to our sales team to get the complete list of our data sources CONTACT US: Valuates Reports [email protected] For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 For IST Call +91-8040957137 WhatsApp : +91 9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Linkedin - https://in.linkedin.com/company/valuatesreports Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports SOURCE Valuates Reports Primark will announce a sales hit of 1.1 billion over the last six months amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the retailer's parent company Associated British Foods. Bosses added they expect to lose sales of 480 million from store closures in the second half of its financial year as lockdown continues. However, in a more optimistic note, the company says it expects the end of restrictions to be 'very cash generative' with 150 million of sales of spring and summer clothes left over from last year. Primark expects to have 83% of stores trading again by April 26 as governments start easing Covid-19 restrictions, including 153 in England on April 12, based on current guidelines, and 20 in Scotland on April 26. Non-essential shops in England will be able to open by April 12 at the earliest after more than three months of being shut down. Primark has revealed sale losses of 1.1 billion over the last six months amid the coronavirus pandemic (stock photo) The company added that, despite the heavy falls, sales at Primark in the six months to February 27 are still expected to come in at 2.2 billion, as some stores remain open overseas and taking into account sales periods before the new restrictions were introduced. But this is well down on the 3.7 billion in the same period a year earlier, prior to the global pandemic. Just 77 stores are currently open - representing 22% of total store selling space - primarily in the US. ABF said it has saved money through cost-cutting measures to mitigate the falling sales and still has spring and summer stock from a year ago that could not be sold due to the pandemic, which will go into stores when they reopen. Later in the year, stores will also be able to rely on the autumn and winter collections from last year. The company said: 'We expect the period after reopening to be very cash-generative. We expect to sell the 150 million of spring/summer inventory held over from last year, and our cash outlay in the second half for the coming autumn/winter season will mostly benefit from the 260 million autumn/winter stock held over from the first half.' It added that, when stores were open, trading continued to be strong, with sales up 15% on a like-for-like basis compared with last year. However, the number of customers when stores could open was down and trading hours restricted. It added: 'Performance has varied by store, reflecting the prevailing circumstances of our customers including home working, less commuting and very little tourism. 'Like-for-like sales at our stores in retail parks were higher than a year ago, shopping centre and regional high street stores were lower than last year, and large destination city centre stores, which are heavily reliant on tourism and commuters, continue to see a significant decline in footfall.' The company added that it expects adjusted operating profit for Primark in the first half to be marginally above break-even, compared with an adjusted operating profit of 441 million for the same period in the last financial year. Hundreds of shoppers were seen queuing outside Primark in Fort Park Shopping Centre in Birmingham in December. The retailer is expecting a summer spending spree at its stores The company said: 'We expect the period after reopening to be very cash-generative.' Pictured are customers queuing in December Primark is particularly damaged by the lockdown measures as it does not have an online business to offset some losses from store closures. On Brexit, the company said its businesses were well prepared for the end of the transition period and experienced no material disruption to its supply chains. ABFs other divisions in grocery, sugar, agriculture and ingredients are expected to see revenues and profits ahead of expectations, the company added. Discussing the results, Chris Daly, CEO at the Chartered Institute of Marketing said: 'Three lockdowns later, and Primark remains at a huge disadvantage due to its lack of an online sales operation. 'Today's update reflects the catastrophic trading conditions Primark has suffered over the last year, unable to make sales while its competitors such as ASOS and Boohoo are cashing in on the surge in online shopping. 'But the brand's steadfastness of purpose ought to be admired, and with the Prime Minister's roadmap out of lockdown now clearly defined, the retailers' bricks and mortar presence will be critical in restoring footfall to Britain's highstreets. The road map to recovery: The PM's plan sees non-essential stores shut until at least April 12 after Easter 'Primark has been cleverly leveraging its customers' pent-up demand for the brand during lockdown; staying active on its social media platforms to tease fans with sneak peaks of its new stock, and in doing so, gaining thousands of likes and engagement. 'Its marketing team now has a unique opportunity to drive home the importance of choice and variety when it comes to clothes shopping, hoping to convince customers back to stores, by reminding them that Primark can compete both on convenience and price.' The British Retail Consortium's chief executive, Helen Dickinson, said non-food stores have lost more than 22billion over the course of the pandemic. Reacting to shops opening again, Ms Dickinson warned that every day a shop remains closed 'increases the chances that it will never open again'. She said: 'We welcome the additional clarity provided by the Prime Minister. While we are encouraged by a plan for non-essential stores to reopen, the heavy impact of the pandemic means some may never be able to. 'The cost of lost sales to non-food stores during lockdown is now over 22billion and counting. Every day that a shop remains closed increases the chances that it will never open again - costing jobs and damaging local communities.' The logos of mobile apps Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Google and Messenger displayed on a tablet in Lille, France, on Oct. 1, 2019. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images) Canada, Australia Agree on Efforts to Regulate Digital Giants Like Facebook Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has agreed with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison to continue coordinating efforts to ensure digital giants will pay publishers for content shared on their platforms. According to an official statement, the two prime ministers spoke Monday on a range of topics, including the need to regulate social media companies. On Monday, Facebook reversed its decision to ban its news service in Australiawhich had effectively preventing news outlets from posting content on the social media site, coming after the News Media Bargaining Code passed both houses of parliament. The Bargaining Code is a bill that creates a framework for news companies to negotiate a fair remuneration for their content that is shared on digital platforms, particularly on Facebook and Google. Facebook VP Campbell Brown said in a statement that his company had struck a deal with the Australian government and will restore its news service in the coming days. After further discussions with the Australian government, we have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers, Campbell said. Going forward, the government has clarified we will retain the ability to decide if news appears on Facebook so that we wont automatically be subject to a forced negotiation. Google had also threatened to shut down service in Australia because of the proposed law, but has also backed down. The company has been working with Australias big and small media companies in content-licensing deals through its News Showcase. Ottawa has signaled its intention to follow in Australias footsteps as Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has been pushing for legislation that would make tech giants pay Canadian media companies for content posted on their platforms. In November 2020, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-10, which would amend Canadas Broadcasting Act to tax digital giants and protect traditional broadcasters. The legislation would also monitor online hate speech, which has raised concerns about possible encroachment on Canadians freedom of speech. Conversative MP Cheryl Gallant said in a House of Commons debate on Dec. 11, 2020, that the new taxes and regulations will cut Canadians off from a growing, rich, diverse array of new streaming services from across the world. Cheryl said the Broadcasting Act exists because the government had to allocate airwave frequencies for television and radio broadcasters. However, when the internet was introduced, its revolutionary technology no longer required government regulation as it did for traditional broadcasters. The only reason the government is doing this is to stretch the justification of regulating public airwaves into a justification for regulating private viewing, Cheryl said. This is regulating expression. It is a limit on speech. 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. Chennai: Based on intelligence, Air Customs officials intercepted Noormohamed Sultan, 60, of Kanchipuram, on Wednesday (February 24) when he was headed for security hold after clearing immigration, to board flight 6E-65 to Dubai. The officials suspected the passenger because he appeared to be nervous. After his personal search was carried, foreign currency 2000 US Dollars in 100 denomination, valued at Rs.1.45 lakhs were found in his pant pocket. Following which his check in baggage was searched in which the officials found numerous magazines, old books and five covers wrapped with adhesive tape were also found. On being cut open, Saudi Riyals were found to be ingeniously concealed inside a carton box. Apart from magazines and old books, five covers wrapped with adhesive tape were also found. On being cut open, 357,000 Saudi Arab Riyals in denomination of 500 valued at Rs. 68.83 lakhs were recovered. Total, foreign currency worth Rs.70.28 lakhs was recovered and seized under Customs Act read with FEMA (Export and Import of currency) Regulations and the passenger was arrested. Live TV An investor looks at stock prices on a smartphone at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. Vietnams benchmark VN-Index inched up 0.29 percent to 1,165.43 points Thursday, posting a slight recovery from the seven-day low figure recorded in the previous session. The index was mostly in the green in the morning but saw several dips to the 1,150 range in the afternoon before ending with a 3.42-point gain. Trading volume on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, plunged 11 percent to VND13.35 trillion ($582 million). The bourse saw 220 stocks gain and 214 lose. ACB of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), VIC of top private conglomerate Vingroup and GAS of state-owned PetroVietnam Gas Jsc contributed the most to the indexs latest gain. The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks on the HoSE, saw 14 tickers in the green, led by VJC of budget airline Vietjet, which climbed 2.4 percent to this years new peak of VND135,000. It was followed by PLX of fuel distributor Petrolimex, up 1.9 percent to VND58,400, breaking the previous peak recorded in January before the market plunged. Both MWG of electronics retail chain Mobile World and PNJ of Phu Nhuan Jewelry gained 1.4 percent after recording four consecutive drops in a row. HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group rounded off the top five gainers with a 1.3-percent increase. It needs another 1.7-percent gain to return to the January peak of VND44,900. On the losing side, SBT of sugar producer Thanh Thanh Cong Bien Hoa Jsc led with a 1.8 percent fall. It has dropped 6 percent since the market resumed trading on February 17. Foreign investors were net sellers for the fifth session in a row to the tune of VND461 billion, with selling pressure once again highest on VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, followed by HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group and VPB of private lender VPBank. The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, gained 3.5 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.34 percent. Flash Hungary has started to administer China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, as a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic looms, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Wednesday. "Today is an important day because (on) this day we are starting to vaccinate with Chinese vaccines," Orban said in a video message on his Facebook page, after a meeting with healthcare experts. "Officials in charge of the defense against the pandemic will probably also be inoculated" next week, he added. "The situation is not easy, because on one hand we have more and more vaccines, and therefore the number of vaccinated people will increase, but at the same time, a third wave is threatening Hungary," Orban said. Therefore, epidemiologists have asked to have as many citizens vaccinated as possible, Orban said. "It is not possible to talk about easing measures yet, but there is one issue that we will consider: residents of nursing homes -- where more than 80 percent of people are already vaccinated -- suffer a lot from not being able to receive visits and are prohibited from leaving the institutions," he said. "We want to find some humanly acceptable solution here," he added. Hungary currently has five vaccines at hand to fend off the virus, including the Sinopharm vaccine. The first shipment of Sinopharm vaccines purchased by Hungary arrived in Budapest on Feb. 16. The Central European country on Wednesday registered 2,855 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, raising the national total to 410,129, according to official data. In the past 24 hours, 102 people have died from the disease, taking the toll to 14,552 in the country, while 313,450 have recovered. Currently, 4,353 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 407 on ventilators, figures from the government's coronavirus information website showed. As of Wednesday, 471,004 people have received at least the first vaccine jab, while 208,846 have received two jabs, according to the website. NASA's Perseverance rover has captured a stunning high resolution 360-degree panorama of Mars, showing the dusty landscape in incredible detail. The panorama shows the rim of the Jezero Crater where the rover touched down last week and the cliff face of an ancient river delta in the distance. Captured in stunning HD, it was taken by the rover's Mastcam-Z, a dual-camera system equipped with a zoom function to help it focus on distant objects. The newly released panorama was stitched together by NASA from 142 individual images taken by the rover on February 20. Captured in stunning HD, it was taken by the rover's Mastcam-Z, a dual-camera system equipped with a zoom function to help it focus on distant objects NASA says the Mastcam-Z is equipped to take high-definition video, panoramic colour images and 3D images of the Martian surface in incredible detail. The Perseverance team tweeted along with the new image: 'I'm taking it all in. This is the first 360 view of my home using Mastcam-Z. This dual, high-definition camera system sits atop my mast and has zoom capability.' It is located on the mast of the rover, so can also show parts of the vehicle itself, set against the deep rust coloured Martian soil and lighter orange sky. 'We're nestled right in a sweet spot, where you can see different features similar in many ways to features found by Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity at their landing sites,' said Jim Bell from the NASA Perseverance team. Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity are earlier rover missions to Mars sent by NASA. NASA shared a video of the 7-minutes of terror landing on Mars that included this shot of Perseverance's aluminum wheels making contact with the surface for the first time NASA's Mars Perseverance rover's onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam), which is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving, shows the surrounding area on Mars in an image acquired February 22, 2021 The full panorama image was made up of 142 individual pictures stitched together NASA PERSEVERANCE CAMERAS There are 23 cameras mounted to the Perseverance rover including: Nine engineering cameras, seven science cameras and seven for entry, descent and landing. The engineering cameras give detailed information in colour about the terrain the rover has to cross. They measure the ground for safe driving, check out the status of hardware and support sample gathering. There are HazCams for hazard detection and Navcams for navigation. Science cameras record in more detail and can even capture 3D images. The Mastcam-Z on a 2 metre arm has a zoom feature for focusing on distant objects and can film video. The Supercam fires a laser at mineral targets beyond the reach of the rovers arm to analysed the chemical composition of the rock. Advertisement The space agency said the rover's cameras will help scientists assess the geologic history and atmospheric conditions of Jezero Crater and identify rocks and sediment worthy of a closer examination and collection for eventual return to Earth. The camera system can reveal details as small as 3 to 5 millimetres across near the rover and 2 to 3 meters across in the distant slopes along the horizon. The detailed composite image shows a Martian surface that appears similar to images captured by previous NASA rover missions. Mastcam-Z's design is an evolution of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's Mastcam instrument, which has two cameras of fixed focal length rather than zoomable. The two cameras on Perseverance's Mastcam-Z dual cameras are mounted on the rover's mast at eye level for a person 2 meters tall. They sit 24.1 centimeters apart to provide stereo vision and can produce colour images with a quality similar to that of a consumer digital HD camera. On Monday the Perseverance team shared a video version of the Panorama, tweeting 'Landing on Mars is a rush of tension, drama and noise. Then, when the dust clears: tranquility and grandeur.' A number of sensational images, video and even audio clips have already been shared of the Red Planet from Perseverance's array of cameras and equipment. These included a hair raising video showing the '7-minutes of terror' the rover went through as it descended through the Martian atmosphere to land in the crater. The surface of Mars directly below NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is seen using the Rover Down-Look Camera in a combination of images acquired February 22, 2021 The agency also shared an audio file including a very shop clip of a breeze on Mars. More images are being shared all the time, with more than 5,600 raw images already shown on the Perseverance page - including bright red shots of the surface. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterise the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. A researcher and python hunter by the name of 'The Wildman' have joined forces to explore what they believe could be used to fight the coronavirus - and it is hiding in the Florida Everglades. Python hunter Dustin Crum and Daryl Thompson, a researcher, and entrepreneur with Global Research and Discovery Group out of Winter Haven, are looking to the invasive Burmese python to use its squalene, which stimulates a stronger immune response when added to vaccines. Squalene is a naturally occurring oil-like substance found in nature and is commercially extracted from fish oil, particularly from shark liver. However, extracting it from sharks has become a controversial topic among animal activists, but the Burmese python is wreaking havoc on the Everglades and wildlife officials are looking to remove the creature. Crum also notes that one 10-foot snake has enough to make about 3,500 vaccine doses. Although the World Health Organization deems squalene safe for vaccines, it is not on the Food and Drug Administration's list of ingredients in the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Scroll down for video The invasive Burmese python that contains squalene, which is a compound used in vaccines that stimulates a stronger immune response. It is is a naturally occurring oil-like substance found in nature and is commercially extracted from fish oil Squalene was first used in 1997 when 10mg was added to create an influenza vaccine and since then, 'twenty two million doses of Chiron's influenza vaccine (FLUAD) have been administered safely,' according to WHO. However, a spokesperson from Pfizer released a statement saying, 'there is no human or animal products of any sort' in the drug,' which suggests the company's coronavirus vaccine does not contain squalene. The idea of using the compound for in COVID-19 vaccines has become more popular since the pandemic took hold of the world last year, but the main source would sharks and animal activists are not keen on the idea. Stefanie Brendl, founder and executive director of Shark Allies, said: 'Harvesting something from a wild animal is never going to be sustainable, especially if it's a top predator that doesn't reproduce in huge numbers. Although the World Health Organization deems squalene safe for vaccines, it is not on the Food and Drug Administration's list of ingredients in the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines 'There are so many unknowns of how big and how long this pandemic might go on, and then how many versions of it we have to go through, that if we continue using sharks, the numbers of sharks taken for this product could be really high, year after year after year.' In a Facebook post, she added: 'We are not trying to slow down or hinder the production of a vaccine. 'We simply ask that testing of non-animal derived squalene is conducted alongside shark squalene so it can be replaced as soon as possible. And this is why Crum and Thompson are exploring python snakes as an alternative source. Python hunter Dustin Crum and Daryl Thompson, a researcher, and entrepreneur with Global Research and Discovery Group out of Winter Haven, say one 10-foot snake has enough to make about 3,500 vaccine doses There's some really healing properties in the snake. If you go back in traditional medicine, they've been using python and python components for thousands of years, Crum told FOX13. What is squalene? Squalene is a naturally occurring oil-like substance found in nature and is commercially extracted from fish oil, particularly from shark liver. It is also found in a variety of foods, cosmetics, over-the-counter medications and health supplements. The compound was first used in an influenza vaccine in 1997. It has since been added to 22 million since then. Advertisement From his post in Winter Haven, Thompson said the research is being fast-tracked. They will present their findings through Operation Warp Speed to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. 'By studying the metabolic effects, we are going to be able to look and determine a new way to make Squalene. We can create it out of oils or fats such as cholesterol,' he said. Another reason the pair choose pythons is because they are an invasive species that is taking over the Everglades, destroying the area and killing animals native to Florida. 'We are taking a bad situation and making something good out of it. This has the potential to help heal a lot of people and potentially save a lot of lives,' said Crum. Some scientists and the public are not sold on the concept of adding squalene to vaccines. According to WHO: 'A few people have tried to link the health problems of Gulf War veterans to the possible presence of squalene in the vaccines these soldiers received.' The agency continues to explain that it is now known that the compound was not added to the vaccines given to veterans and the confusion was due to 'technical deficiencies in the report.' 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. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Thursday, 25 February 2021 Out March 11 th , Fates Divided is the next dynasty-defining Chapter Pack for Total War: THREE KINGDOMS. Set ten years after the turbulent events of the main campaign, players will bear witness to the bitter end of a once great friendship between two of the foremost warlords of the period as they fight to control the future of China. Forge a new empire with an army headed by two of Chinas mightiest warlords, the merciless Cao Cao and the powerful Yuan Shao, each with their own unique motivations and stories to tell from the 200 CE timeline. Following them into the battle is a multitude of era-defining warriors such as Ye Vanguard Spearmen, Xiongnu Noble Cavalry and Qingzhou Halberds, as well as the chance to control the elite Northern Army should you claim victory over your adversaries. Players can also embark on a new cross-generational campaign as Liu Yan, a man of great ambition and strategy, as he attempts to establish a legacy for his family in the shadow of the Han Empire. Use his unique aspiration mechanic to set the stage for his son Liu Zhang's eventual inheritance, and reap the rewards of your father's hard work, or watch as his best laid plans crumble under your care. The release of Fates Divided will usher in a sizeable free content update to all players of THREE KINGDOMS including faction reworks for Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, a new Imperial Intrigue mechanic, improvements to the Faction Council and much more. More information on the Fates Divided Chapter Pack can be found on the official FAQ here. Click here to pre-order Fates Divided and receive 10% off. Covid: Lebanon, controversy grows over vaccination abuses Ministry defends itself, member of scientific committee resigns (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, 25 FEB - Controversy is growing in Lebanon over news that senior officials and MPs were vaccinated in violation of procedures established between the Beirut government and the World Bank, which is funding a large part of the vaccination campaign, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. After two days of silence, and while regional representatives of the World Bank have threatened to suspend support for the vaccine campaign in Lebanon, outgoing health minister Hamad Hassan gave an interview in recent hours on Lebanese state TV in which he denied any alleged violation of protocol and stated that his ministry is not "under international protection". On Tuesday the World Bank representative for the Middle East, Saroj Kumar Jha, publicly stated that if the violations are confirmed, the World Bank may suspend its financing to Lebanon, a country in financial default that has been experiencing a prolonged and trying economic and political crisis for the past year and a half. Jha's comments came in reaction to press leaks that were later confirmed in which Lebanese President Michel Aoun, his wife and 10 members of his staff, 16 MPs and 23 parliamentary officials were vaccinated without following registration procedures required of all six million residents in Lebanon, as established by the protocol. Parliament Deputy Speaker Elie Ferezli accused the World Bank representative of being "a liar and a hypocrite" and threatened to "expel" him from Lebanon. Meanwhile, a member of the Lebanese National Vaccine Committee announced his resignation, and the international agency that monitors the Lebanese vaccination programme said it was not informed ahead of time about the vaccinations provided to President Aoun and his close collaborators. Similarly, a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies confirmed that the Federation was left in the dark about the vaccination of the head of state. (ANSAmed). SV Premier, a leading luxury real estate brokerage in downtown San Diego, today announced the company has expanded its operations into the La Jolla real estate market. "Our expansion into the La Jolla market marks a milestone moment in the growth of SV Premier as we introduce our world-class marketing and real estate brokerage services to a new market," said SV Premier Chief Executive Officer Gonzalo Martin Vidano. "Over the last 12 years we have been offering our services mostly in downtown San Diego, focusing on the luxury segment of the market and specializing in the high-rise condo buildings located along the downtown San Diego waterfront. Throughout this time, we had the pleasure to work with thousands of very sophisticated buyers and sellers of real estate, both domestic and international, that demand a very high level of service and the latest on technology and marketing best practices. Today, thanks to our constantly evolving service offering package that we have fine-tuned for over 10 years, we offer our clients the very best online exposure for their properties making us one of the top selling brokerages in the downtown San Diego market. Now, we believe it is time to introduce this same level of service and commitment to the La Jolla market as we organically expand our service offering into other luxury real estate markets in the San Diego area. SV Premier announced it has added two new members to their team of luxury property specialists to support the growth into the La Jolla market. The new agents bring an invaluable amount of experience in the San Diego luxury real estate market having been an integral part of the new home sales team for BOSA development Corporation on the sales of BOSAs latest luxury high rise condo buildings in downtown San Diego, Pacific Gate (built 2018) and Savina (built 2019). More information about Pacific Gate can be found at: https://svpremier.com/downtown-san-diego/district/columbia/condos/pacific-gate/ More information about Savina can be found at: https://svpremier.com/downtown-san-diego/district/columbia/condos/savina/ More information related to the San Diego luxury real estate market can be found at: https://svpremier.com/san-diego-luxury-homes/ I believe the La Jolla market needs the type of service offering we can provide and that few real estate brokerages in Southern California can match, and that is the online exposure we can accomplish for our property listings. Combining video marketing, 3D property tours, SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing) and social media campaigns, we are very effective in reaching the set target audience for a property, both domestic and internationally. More information on SV Premiers services covering the La Jolla real estate market can be found at: https://svpremier.com/san-diego/la-jolla-homes/ EDWARDSVILLE Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is returning to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, but it has a new look this year. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at SIUE is hosting the ninth annual event on Saturday, and for the first time, it will be in a free, virtual format. The event is designed for girls in grades 5-8. I didnt know about the Society of Women Engineers, but I heard about Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day when I visited SIUE my senior year in high school (at Brussels) and thats what drew me to the organization, SWE President Emma Schleeper said. I have some younger sisters in fourth and fifth grade now and thats what drew me to being part of the event. For girls, sometimes it can be hard to get involved in hands-on activities. At that younger age, people might think its something odd for you to be involved in, but to get that experience makes it so normalized. Going forward, its something you have the confidence to be a part of. Schleeper is a senior majoring in industrial engineering and will graduate in May. While she didnt get to participate in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day as a grade school or middle school student, the event has become a major part of her collegiate experience. The switch this year to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new set of challenges for Schleeper and other SWE members. The first year I got involved in low-level planning, but the past two years I was vice president, so I was a little more involved in the normal in-person events, said Schleeper, a Golden Eagle native. This year, were taking what normally makes it successful and were trying to bring that into the virtual event in as many ways as possible. The core of the event is activities for fifth- through eighth-grade students in the disciplines of civil, industrial, electrical and mechanical engineering and computer science. This year, those activities will be in the form of prerecorded videos. Weve created subcommittees for each of those disciplines and engineering students that are part of SWE or just wanted to get involved planned activities and recorded videos to interact with the students, Schleeper said. Normally we have engineering professionals who also volunteer to be in different rooms at the in-person events. In a virtual setting, we have some engineering professionals that made videos about each of those disciplines, what their jobs are and what you can do with each of those types of engineering. Lori Tetzner, an instructor in the Computer Science Department at SIUE, is one of two faculty advisors for the SWE along with Jon Klingensmith, an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. For Tetzner, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a chance to give kids an early introduction to the various types of engineering. Most young children do not understand what engineering is, said Tetzner, who has two daughters that earned engineering degrees at SIUE. When you get to high school, you can take physics, but engineering is more than just doing a problem in a book. Youre putting things together and looking at how things work. Engineering is all around us, but we just have to be inquisitive enough to look at it. Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a phenomenal thing that SWE does and they bring in so many people to be a part of it. Theyre a wonderful group of young women and they do a great job with it. For some girls, Saturdays virtual event may lead to a career in engineering, perhaps through a degree from SIUE. Its so hard to keep kids involved, but there is that niche of students that are really interested in engineering, and they may not have an outlet to get involved with it, Tetzner said. I like having an event like this for middle school students because it introduces them to all kinds of projects. All the content will become available at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 27 on YouTube. The videos will remain online for use at any time on or after the event date. To access, search YouTube for SIUE Society of Women Engineers. I think thats a really beneficial part of the virtual environment because educators can use the content after the event, Schleeper said. Also, students that might be intimidated by the pace of the day and doing all of those activities can take it at their own pace and split it up however it works best for them. SWE will not be providing materials as they have in the past. To keep the event highly accessible, all necessary materials are either common household items or inexpensive items to pick up at the store. A materials list will be posted on the SWE Facebook page. That was a little challenging, particularly for the mechanical and electrical engineering activities, which are a little more in-depth, Schleeper said. I think the committees did a great job of still creating useful activities that reflect the disciplines with those more common items to make it accessible for all students. Interested guardians or educators can sign up for SWE emails to directly receive all the information at forms.gle/dpkArxCWwDGdiYUm8. Additionally, SWE will be sharing event information on Facebook at facebook.com/swesiue/. For more information, contact the SWE at swesiue@gmail.com. The ex-Capitol Police chief testified that he believes the riot that happened on Jan. 6 was a "coordinated attack." Fox News reported that on Tuesday, security officials from the Capitol Hill Police including former chief Steven Sund, acting chief Robert Contee from the Metropolitan Police Department, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger appeared in the first Senate hearing to go over the failures in security that led to the breach and riot in Capitol Hill. When questioned if they believed the attack was coordinated, former Capitol Police chief Steven Sund testified how the rioters came fully equipped and attacked when their team was not yet at full strength during that time. Sund testified, "These people came specifically with equipment. You're bringing climbing gear to a demonstration, explosives, chemical spray - you're coming prepared." "The fact that the group attacked our West Front 20 minutes before the event at the Ellipse ended - they were planning on our agency not being at full strength at that time," he added. Sund believed "there was a significant coordination" with the attack given that Capitol Police were "dealing with two pipe bombs, specifically set right off the edge" to draw their resources away. Contee added that rioters have radio communication and used hand signals aside from using chemicals. Irving agreed that with all the information provided, the Capitol Hill riot was indeed a coordinated attack. "Based on the information provided by Contee and Sund, I would agree," Irving said. "The evidence would indicate a coordinated attack." A few days after the riot in Capitol Hill, evidence surfaced that members of the extreme leftist group Antifa infiltrated the Save America Rally by supporters of then President Trump. Credible sources like Alabama Representative Mo Brooks revealed the Antifa to be behind the murderous riot. His claims were backed by former FBI agent who confirmed that at least one busload of Antifa members joined the rally to discredit President Trump and his supporters. Independent Journalist Tayler Hansen also said that has video evidence confirming the presence of the Antifa in the rally. A report by Christianity Daily also revealed that the Antifa already had a protest ready even before President Trump finished his speech at the Washington Ellipse. Raheem Kassam, editor-in-chief of The National Pulse, made an actual timeline of the events that happened on Jan. 6. According to Kassam: At 12:40 p.m., protesters were first seen to be at the Capitol Hill with flash bangs going off while Trump was still making his speech. Around 1:00 p.m., which is 20 minutes later, the police officers were attacked by rioters. At 1:09 p.m. the District Chief requests for the aid of the National Guard. At 1:11 p.m., Trump concluded his speech at the Ellipse. At 1:50 p.m., the protesters had breached the Capitol. At 1:56 p.m., the speech attendees from Washington Ellipse arrived at Capitol. Michael Yon, a war correspondent who has studied leftist tactics for many years claimed that the attack on Capitol Hill was instigated by the Antifa and their agent provocateurs (APs) which was very obvious with their tactics during the attack on Capitol Hill. After a weeklong trial following his impeachment for allegedly inciting insurrection per the Democrats, former President Trump was acquitted by the Senate. Jacqueline Jossa appeared to be in good spirits as she posted a glamorous throwback snap on Wednesday and joked that she currently has 'greasy hair and a headache'. The actress, 28, looked nothing short of stunning as she shared the snap to her Instagram and joked she didn't look like this now and was 'trying to make herself feel better'. She fixed the camera with a pout as she highlighted her natural beauty with a heavy palette of makeup. Stunning: Jacqueline Jossa appeared in good spirits as she posted a glamorous throwback snap to her Instagram on Wednesday The mother-of-two went for a bold pink eyeshadow look and matching pink lip which matched the pink, peach and white striped jumper she sported. Her chestnut tresses were styled in stunning curls which tumbled over her shoulders as she posed. The former Eastenders actress also asked her 3.1million followers if they were excited for the potential end to lockdown on June 21. Stunning: The actress, 28, often looks stunning on her social media but joked that was she currently sitting with 'greasy hair and a headache' 'Trying to make myself feel better': The former Eastenders actress asked her 3.1million followers if they were excited for the potential end to lockdown on June 21 She wrote: 'Currently.. greasy hair... headache and friend on my chin that wont go away. 'Its cheeky of me to post this really but Im trying to make myself feel a bit better. So let it happen. Whos excited for June 21st?' This week, it was concluded that Jacqueline and her former TOWIE star husband, 29, did not break lockdown rules following a police investigation after they visited a puppy. The pair were met with criticism from fans after they embarked on a eight-hour round trip to the Total K9 facility in Cottam, Driffield, to see their new pet with their daughters Ella, six, and Mia, two, last week. Details: Jacqueline and Dan Osborne did not break lockdown rules by travelling from Essex to Yorkshire to visit a puppy over the weekend, a police investigation has concluded However, Essex and Humberside Police ruled the journey a 'legitimate' business trip after influencer Dan explained that he stopped off at the dog breeder while he was travelling for his competition company Prize Paradise. A statement from Humberside Police said: 'On Friday 19 February, we were made aware of reports of an alleged breach of coronavirus regulations. 'Working alongside our colleagues from Essex Police, the claims were thoroughly investigated and a number of enquiries were carried out. Officers have spoken to those involved.' The tattoo shop owner decided to check in with Total K9 about whether their Rottweiler would be suitable for his young children. Meeting: The actress and the former TOWIE star, 29, embarked on a eight-hour round trip to the Total K9 facility in Cottam (pictured with daughters Ella, six, and Mia, two) They added to The Mirror: 'It was found that those concerned had travelled for legitimate business purposes and no breaches were found to be committed.' Fans had criticised Dan - who also shares son Teddy, seven, with ex Megan Tomlin - for his flaunted infraction, before he furiously hit back, shockingly telling his detractors to 'go f*** yourselves'. Earlier in the month, the reality star posed with the pup and added a caption reading: 'Look who we did an 8 hour round trip to go visit.' A journey from the heart of Essex to Driffield takes around three hours and 50 minutes to complete. BANGALORE, India, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Food Robotics Market is Segmented by Type Low Payload, Medium Payload, High Payload and Application Palletizing, Packaging, Processing, Other, Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026. This report is published on Valuates Reports in the Heavy Machinery Category. The global Food Robotics market was valued at USD 402.2 Million in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 745 Million by the end of 2026, growing at a CAGR of 9.1% during 2021-2026. Major factors driving the growth of food robotics market size are Surging demand for food with increasing population and Increasing demand for enhanced productivity in food processing Increasing investments in automation in the food industry Inquire For Sample: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-18Y588/Global_Food_Robotics TRENDS INFLUENCING THE FOOD ROBOTICS MARKET SIZE Growing demand for packaged food is expected to drive the growth of the food robotics market size. In order to maximize their shelf life and appeal to the demand for ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products, there has been a rising need to package food products. Mass production of packaged food products has driven the food robotics market, especially in countries such as the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. Processes are being automated in most large-scale food processing plants to ensure quality and consistency in stock-keeping units (SKUs). The functionality and use of robots have historically been restricted to heavy payloads in transportation equipment. However, with the growing versatility of robots, more industries are accepting automation with mainly low payload robots, such as the food processing industry. In order to comply with health authority requirements, parts such as dairy and bakery in the food & beverage sector reduce human intervention in the manufacturing process. Thus, the food robotics market size is expected to increase with the increase in robots' functionality, including packaging, repackaging, and palletizing. The increase in food safety regulations is expected to increase the growth of the food robotics market size. Robots in food processing help maintain each batch's quality standard and increase the productivity of the overall process. Furthermore, the declining hardware costs, such as sensors and circuit boards, and the parallel developments in AI software have led to the rise in food robotic applications. However, the lack of a skilled workforce is expected to hinder the food robotics market growth to an extent. There is a shortage of people specializing in electrical, embedded, software, and mechanical disciplines that are needed for robotic installation and maintenance. There is also a shortage of highly skilled workers with specialized skills required to build high-value-added robotics integrated with advanced technologies. View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-18Y588/global-food-robotics FOOD ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS Based on type, the low and medium payload capacity segments are projected to grow at faster rates. The low and medium payload capacity systems address packing, repackaging, selecting, and positioning applications. It is expected that the trend of using these automated systems would fuel the growth of the food robotics market size. Based on region, Europe held the largest food robotics market share in 2018, while Japan held the second-largest sales volume market share for food robotics. This dominance of Europe is attributed to the surging presence of food industries and rising labor costs and overheads across this region. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. This is due to growing disposable income among the working population, combined with the increasing need for packaged and processed food. Based on application, the palletizing segment held the largest food robotics market share, accounting for 60% of the global market share. Inquire for Regional Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Auto-18Y588/Global_Food_Robotics Segment by Type Low Payload Medium Payload High Payload "The high payload reached at 60% of global sales volume." Segment by Application Palletizing Packaging Processing Other "The palletizing holds an important share in terms of applications, and accounts for 60% of the market share." Regional Analysis The report offers in-depth assessment of the growth and other aspects of the Food Robotics market in important regions, including the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Brazil, etc. Key regions covered in the report are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Key Players: The major players in the market include ABB, FANUC, KUKA, Kawasaki, Yaskawa, Staubli, Universal Robots, DENSO, Omron Adept Technologies, SIASUN, etc. Buy Now for Single User: https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-18Y588&lic=single-user Buy Now for Enterprise User: https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-18Y588&lic=enterprise-user SUBSCRIPTION We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans. SIMILAR REPORTS : - Food Packaging Robotics Market by Product Type - Automatic Food Packaging Robotics, Semi-Automatic Food Packaging Robotics, Application - Food Industry, Beverage Industry, Other, by key players , by Regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Robotics in Food and Beverage Market by Product Type - Articulated robot, Cartesian robot, SCARA robot, Cylindrical robot, Parallel Robots, Collaborative Robots, Application - Palletizing, Packaging, Pick and place, Processing, by key players , by Regions - North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Global Packing Robot Market by Product Type - Picking, Package, Box Packing, Pallet Packaging, Filling, Application - Food And Drink, Drug, Consumer Goods, Logistics Transportation, Industrial Package, Chemicals, Electronic Equipment, by key players , by Regions - North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Industrial Logistics Robots Market by Product Type - Industrial Logistics Material Handling Robots, Industrial Logistics Palletizing Robots, Industrial Packaging Logistics Robots, Application - Industrial Automobile Logistics Robot, Industrial Life Science and Pharmaceutical Logistics Robots, Industrial Food and Beverage Logistics Robot, Industrial Semiconductor and Electronics Logistics Robots, Industrial Electrical Logistics Robots, by key players , by Regions - North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Loading Robots Market by Product Type - Articulated Robot, Cartesian Robot, SCARA Robot, Application - Food & Beverage, Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Rubber, Plastics & Chemicals, Others, by key players , by Regions - North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Material Handling Robots Market by Product Type - Articulated Material Handling Robots, SCARA Material Handling Robot, Parallel Material Handling Robot, Application - Automotive, Chemical, Rubber and Plastic, Electrical and Electronics, Metal and Machinery, Food, Beverages and Pharmaceuticals, by key players , by Regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Top Robotics Market Product Type - Articulated Robots, SCARA Robots, Parallel Robots, Cylindrical Robots, Cartesian Robots, Application - Automotive, Electrical, Chemical, Food and Beverages, Others, by key players , by Regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Global Smart Robotics Market by Product Type - Industrial Robot, Junior Intelligent Robot, Intelligent Agricultural Robot, Escort Robot, Application - Aerospace, Pharmaceuticals, Food Processing, Engineering, Automotive, Textile, Agriculture, Other, by Regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan, etc. - Industrial Robots market size was 11300 Million USD in 2018 and is expected to 24500 Million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 10.2% between 2019 and 2025. - In 2019, the global Warehouse Robotics market size was USD 2783.7 Million, and it is expected to reach USD 4926.2 Million by the end of 2026, with a CAGR of 8.4% during 2021-2026. 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CONTACT US: Valuates Reports sales@valuates.com For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 For IST Call +91-8040957137 WhatsApp: +91 9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Linkedin - https://in.linkedin.com/company/valuatesreports Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:41 pm The Washington State Patrol (WSP) has made changes to its recruitment program in an effort to increase diversity within the agency. With a goal of hiring 60 troopers from a round of academy classes starting in July, the state patrol is encouraging anyone interested in joining the agency to reach out to a recruiter regardless of their background or experience. Were not looking for the perfect individual, but we are looking for an individual whos the right fit for WSP, because at the end of the day, we know that there are qualified individuals who have a diverse background and wed love to see all of them apply, said trooper and recruiter Bryan Villanueva, who is one of 10 active WSP troopers currently working in Lewis County. WSP was among the law enforcement agencies put under scrutiny this summer due to national protests against police brutality and institutional racism, and WSP made headlines in regard to troopers response to Seattle protests. The agency has since put forward official statements condemning the use of unnecessary force and supporting peaceful protests, but troopers expect that it will take a lot more work to build trust across the state. Sometimes law enforcement gets a bad rap, and Id love to see some of the people who think they can make a change and want their voice to be heard to actually apply and make a difference in their community, bring a little bit of positivity in the community, Villanueva said. New this year, WSP has centralized its recruiting program so recruiters all report back to the main hub instead of separate districts and also hired three new recruiters, two on the west side and one on the east side of the state. Recruiters have also been specially-tasked with working with various minority communities with the goal of building long term relationships. They are working hard to build connections using many creative ways, said Amandeep Puri, who was hired in August 2020 as a diversity, equity and inclusion officer and tasked with reviewing WSPs employment practices and developing strategies for hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. According to WSP, commissioned troopers who are people of color grew slightly from 12.6% in 2011 to 14.4% in 2020, but the numbers are still far from reflective of the states population. We want to send a clear message to the community at large and to our potential candidates that we are hiring and that we strive to be a diverse and inclusive agency, Puri said. To qualify, applicants must be at least 19-and-a-half years old, have graduated high school or completed an equivalency program, be a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident with a valid drivers license, and have no past felonies or DUIs. Anyone who meets these base requirements and is interested in applying should start by getting to know a recruiter such as Villanueva, who can answer questions about WSP and the hiring process. From there, the recruit goes through a four-phase hiring process, starting with a written exam and a physical fitness exam. If they pass, the recruit completes a polygraph and background check, and if those come back clear, they have an oral board interview and finally a psychological and medical exam. If the recruit successfully gets through the hiring process, then theyre accepted into the WSP Training Academy. Once you make it through the hardest part, which I would say is the hiring process, theyre going to give you all the tools that you need and theyre going to teach you everything you need to know in the academy, said Villanueva. While a college degree or previous military experience may help a candidate secure promotions or pay raises further down the road, Villanueva said he wants to assure potential recruits that neither are necessary to have a successful career in the state patrol. Some people think they might not have what it takes, but I think until you actually get out there and try, you wont actually know, he said. Originally from West Virginia, Villanueva moved to Centralia with his wife and baby and joined WSP after finishing his four years in the Navy in 2018. Theres a lot of kids who live in poverty (here) and thats where I came from, he said, adding that one of the things he likes most about being a recruiter is being able to inspire local kids. It doesnt matter where you come from, you can become a law enforcement officer in general and you can become a Washington State Trooper Just being able to go out and give people a little bit of motivation and just show them that were human at the end of the day, I believe thats what really put my heart in it to actually recruit, he said. Historically, only 4-6% of all applicants make it through the full hiring and training process and become troopers. WSP had 42 troopers graduate from the training academy in March 2020 and another 49 graduate in September. After the upcoming course begins in August, the next round of training classes wont start until February 2022. Villanueva encourages anyone who has questions about joining WSP or is interested in applying to reach out to him at 360-485-8753 or bryan.villanueva@wsp.wa.gov. More information is available online at https://www.wsp.wa.gov/be-a-trooper. For nearly 10 years, forestry and grassland bureaus at various levels in China have actively practiced the philosophy of lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and vigorously advanced the countrys poverty alleviation campaign through ecological compensation, afforestation, and the development of ecological industry. These bureaus have completed all the tasks and targets set in the countrys programs designed to promote poverty reduction through ecological conservation and restoration, lifting over 20 million poor people out of poverty. Li Yuhua, a forest ranger in Gongshan Derung and Nu autonomous county, southwest China's Yunnan province, is often seen walking through the mountain forest beside the Derung River in local ethnic clothes. According to Li, she gains a subsidy of 800 yuan (about $124) per month by taking care of the forest. The forest ranger has also been able to take care of her family and engage in various forms of under-forest industries, such as planting black cardamom, growing traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, and raising bees. In 2020, Li secured an annual income of over 100,000 yuan. Over 4,000 forest rangers in the county like Li have been able to work in their hometowns and shake off poverty while guarantee the management and protection of the countys more than 5.71 million mu (about 3,807 square kilometers) of forests. In some regions of China, rangers are also assigned tasks of managing and protecting grasslands and wetlands. Tashi Tsering, a ranger in Changjiangyuan village, Golmud city, northwest Chinas Qinghai province, feels a sense of mission from guarding the ecology of the source of Chinas Yangtze River. The rangers routine work includes checking on local grassland and monitoring whether the grassland is overloaded by cattle and sheep. Qinghai province has created public welfare jobs for protecting and managing forestry and grassland resources. It has hired 49,900 qualified poverty-stricken residents as rangers. By increasing the average per capita annual income of these people by nearly 20,000 yuan, the province has lifted the families of these rangers out of poverty. Chinas forest and grassland areas that suffer from destruction, major areas for ecological protection and regions that are ecologically vulnerable are usually severely impoverished areas. They are the main battlefields of Chinas fight against poverty as well as the core of forest and grassland programs. China has blazed a path of poverty alleviation that features ecological compensation in these areas, said Li Chunliang, deputy head of Chinas National Forestry and Grassland Administration, adding that the country has hired over 1.1 million registered poor villagers as rangers and lifted more than 3 million people in impoverished areas out of poverty. Li noted that China has increased the area of forest and grass resources under management and protection by nearly 900 million mu, thus achieving win-win results in protecting ecology and increasing residents income. In response to the governments call for treating Horqin Sandy Land in Tongliao city, north Chinas Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Chun Mei, a local villager, and her husband have created a wood of pinus sylvestris, acer monoes, and aspens around their house. Every year, the couple takes part in afforestation projects launched by local government. While Chun earns 100 yuan per day by planting and watering trees, her husband gets a daily wage of 400 yuan by leveling the ground with tractor and digging pits for saplings. As the sandy land turns greener and the grasslands could support more cattle, we have also become better-off, said Chun, who has recently renovated her house. Last year, her family gained an income of 100,000 yuan. Under the project of returning farmland to forest, Chama town, Qinglong county, southwest Chinas Guizhou province, has tapped into the huajiao (Sichuan pepper) industry according to local conditions in recent years. The Sichuan pepper trees have helped 11,700 local residents shake off poverty. I earn over 20,000 yuan every year by working in a local Sichuan pepper planting base, and receive a subsidy of 1,200 yuan for each mu of farmland that I have changed into forest and used to grow Sichuan pepper, said Yi Hongzhong, a villager of Chama town who has bid farewell to poverty. While protecting ecology and exploring tourism, Baichao township, Guangyuan city, southwest Chinas Sichuan province, has endeavored to develop itself into a tourist town featuring eco-healthcare. Yueba village of the township, which boasts alpine wetlands and dense primitive forests, has become an Internet-famous tourist destination. In 2019, the village received more than 300,000 tourists, and the per capita income of more than 500 local tourism practitioners reached 28,000 yuan. Yang Xiulin, a resident in Yueba village, has changed his house into a homestay hotel. Last year, Yangs family gained nearly 100,000 yuan from the business. By pursuing eco-friendly income sources for villagers, more and more once-impoverished villages in China have helped rural residents bid farewell to poverty and march toward comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. Newsfrom Japan Tokyo, Feb. 25 (Jiji Press)--Japan, China, Taiwan and five others agreed Thursday to set a cap on saury catches in 2021 at 333,750 tons, about 40 pct lower than in the previous year. The agreement came at an annual meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, according to Japans Fisheries Agency. At the meeting, held online from Tuesday, Japan proposed a lower cap on saury catches, in light of recent poor catches of the fish. China, which had been cautious about a stricter restriction, accepted the Japanese proposal, apparently feeling the urgent need to strengthen fish stock management. Japans saury catches in 2020 declined about 30 pct from the previous year to hit a record low of some 30,000 tons, according to a domestic industry group. Some industry sources believe that poor saury catches are due to overfishing by China and Taiwan in the high seas, as well as higher seawater temperatures. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] [February 25, 2021] Gold Fields Welcomes NERSA Approval Of South Deep Solar Plant JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Gold Fields Limited (Gold Fields) (JSE: GFI) (NYSE: GFI) welcomes the electricity generation licence approved today by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) for the construction of a 40MW solar power plant at its South Deep mine. The acting CEO of NERSA now has to authorise the license, a decision that should be forthcoming over the next two weeks. All the regulatory approvals to proceed with the project are then in place. Gold Fields will update its definitive costings and finalise all the required internal processes to commence the project as soon as possible. The solar plant has the potential to provide around 20% of South Deep's average electricity consumption. Says Nick Holland, Gold Fields' CEO: "The solar power plant will increase the reliability and affordability of power supply to South Deep, ultimately enhancing the long-term sustainability of the mine. "The approval of this licence sends a strong, positive message to mining companies and their investors, potentially leading to decisions being taken to sustain and grow mining operations in the country, especially in deep-level, underground, marginal mines. Enabling companies to generate their own power also gives Eskom room to address operational issues at its power plants." Gold Fields' energy objectives are based on four pillars energy must be reliable, available, cost-effective and clean which promote a shift to self-generation using renewable energy sources. "We are fully committed to making our contribution towards net-zero emissions," says Hollnd. During 2020, Gold Fields successfully implemented solar and wind power plants, backed by battery storage, at two of its Australian mines, Agnew and Granny Smith, and committed to renewables at its other Australian mines, Gruyere and St Ives, as well as the Salares Norte project in Chile when it starts operations in 2023. All its other mines are also reviewing renewable energy options. Since full commissioning of the Agnew microgrid, renewable electricity averages over 55% of total supply at the mine. During 2020, renewable electricity averaged 8% for the Australia region and 3% of total Group electricity. Once the South Deep project is commissioned, renewable's contribution to the Group total will rise to approximately 11%. Holland says: "We expect our investment in renewable and low-carbon energy sources to contribute significantly to our carbon emission reductions over the next few years. Power from the South Deep solar plant will partially replace coal-fired electricity from Eskom, enabling us to significantly reduce our Scope 2 carbon emissions." Notes to editors About Gold Fields Gold Fields is a globally diversified gold producer with nine operating mines in Australia, Peru, South Africa and West Africa (including the Asanko JV), as well as one project in Chile. We have total attributable annual gold-equivalent production of 2.2Moz, attributable gold-equivalent Mineral Reserves of 51.3Moz and Mineral Resources of 115.7Moz. Our shares are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and our American depositary shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Enquiries Investors Avishkar Nagaser Tel: +27 11 562-9775 Mobile: +27 82 312 8692 Email: Avishkar.Nagaser@goldfields.com Thomas Mengel Tel: +27 11 562-9849 Mobile: +27 72 493 5170 Email: Thomas.Mengel@goldfields.com Media Sven Lunsche Tel: +27 11 562-9763 Mobile: +27 83 260 9279 Email: Sven.Lunsche@goldfields.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gold-fields-welcomes-nersa-approval-of-south-deep-solar-plant-301235815.html SOURCE Gold Fields Limited [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Police operating in Tay Ho District of Hanoi are searching for a group of Vietnamese suspects who are accused of targeting foreign women in the area. Photo of sexual predators (left) and two foreign victims (right). This comes after local police forces received sexual harassment complaints from five foreign victims in Tay Ho District on February 24, with an investigation into the matter currently ongoing. They also revealed that in addition to foreign women, the sexual predators had also attacked Vietnamese females. VOV reporters discussed an incident with a British victim who works as an English teacher in Hanoi. The woman stated that she was attacked by four Vietnamese men when she was walking with her friends down Quang An Street on February 16. The suspects were operating two motorbikes and drove directly in front of the foreign women before strangling the victims neck and grabbing her private parts. In another serious incident, a woman from Ireland said she was sexually assaulted twice by a group on motorbikes as she was walking her dog on the street. In response to these attacks, the expat community in Hanoi has created a Facebook group called Hanoi Nightwatch to offer victims a platform to report cases of sexual assault and suggest several ways in which members can protect themselves. So far the group has attracted 2,600 members. Matt Gooch, a staff member of British Council, has been living and working in Vietnam for nine years and said that his friends have been victims of sexual assaults. Matt Gooch, a staff member of the British Council is searching for the sexual predators as his friends are the victims. These incidents have made him very angry and prompted him to search for the sexual predators many times, although he has so far failed to find them. According to police forces, cases involving harassment can now carry a fine of up to US$75, while sexual assaults can lead to more serious criminal charges. VOV For years, Maura Keaney has sent fourth-graders on a scavenger hunt into the past, asking students to traverse Virginia with their families in search of historical markers. They get one point for finding a marker, 10 points for writing a summary of it and an extra 10 points if they snag a selfie with one. The markers, erected by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, commemorate notable people or places in state history. So when Keaney taught the students about Barbara Johns, a Black civil rights activist who led a student strike for equal education in Prince Edward County that eventually became part of Brown v. Board of Education, their next question was obvious. Does Barbara Johns have a marker? When Keaney looked it up and discovered she did not, the students could not understand why - although it's unsurprising in a state where Robert E. Lee alone has accrued more than 200 markers and where 370 of 2,600 total markers honor Black Virginians. This month, state officials rectified that omission, installing a marker honoring Johns in the town where she went to school, Farmville, Va. The white-and-black plate, which calls Johns a "civil rights pioneer," stands on the grounds of Johns's former high school, now a museum, close to the site where she organized the student walkout. It's all because of Keaney's fourth-graders, more than 50 of whom petitioned Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam to advocate for the honor. "I was surprised that they didn't make one for her yet," said 11-year-old Caleb Burley, one of the fourth-graders, "because she was a big part of making Blacks and Whites go to school together." His classmate Serena Anmuth, 11, added: "It was definitely unjust." "She should have a marker," 11-year-old Javier Rodriguez-Aragon said, "so if people walk by, they're going to learn about her life and what she did to help America." None of Keaney's students nor Keaney herself have been able to visit the marker yet. For one thing, Farmville is a nearly three-hour drive from Fairfax County, where the children attend Laurel Ridge Elementary School. Plus, the coronavirus pandemic has rendered travel complicated. But to celebrate in the Zoom era, the executive director of the Farmville museum, Cameron Patterson, tweeted a picture of the newly erected marker Feb. 11 and tagged Keaney, asking her to "please share with your students, [who] helped to make this happen." Keaney emailed the photo to everyone in fourth grade, spurring excited replies from parents and students. On a video call in the fall, Northam and first lady Pamela Northam thanked the students for their efforts. The governor also noted the state's dearth of markers honoring Black Virginians. "Our history is full of change-makers like Barbara Johns. . . . Their stories are a vital part of the Virginia story, and yet those stories have often gone untold," Northam said, before commending the children for their advocacy. "Meeting students like you is one of the best parts of my job." Patterson said the plaque's installation marks a step forward for Farmville and his organization, the Robert Russa Moton Museum, because it means Virginia is starting to tell "the fuller story" of its past. Patterson said more people should know about the Black teenagers in Prince Edward County who helped lead the charge for equality in education - and especially about Barbara Johns, who died in 1991. A little over a half-century ago, Johns, age 16, decided she had had enough of the poor quality of the only school for Black students in Farmville. Class took place in chicken houses and farm buildings, heating was inadequate, and students often had to bring umbrellas to school when it rained because the roofs would leak, according to Justin Reid of the Moton Museum. Johns persuaded her classmates to walk out and demand a learning environment just as nice as the well-appointed White high school nearby. Then she got in touch with the NAACP, which led to a lawsuit - Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County - demanding integrated education. That suit was later incorporated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that led to the federally mandated desegregation of schools nationwide, making it the only student-led suit to be included. "I always tell folks that Barbara Johns was the visionary," Patterson said, "in a story of young people who really used the tools of a constitutional democracy to create change." There has been a recent burst of recognition for Johns. In 2013, the Moton Museum opened a permanent exhibit devoted to Johns, her peers and other residents of Prince Edward County who fought for justice, titled "Children of Courage." In 2017, Virginia dedicated a state office building in her honor. In December, a Virginia advisory committee recommended that a statue of Johns replace a statue of Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall, where it would stand adjacent to a statue of George Washington. Still, when Keaney began teaching her fourth-graders about Johns last academic year, few knew her name. Keaney is not a history teacher but a school-based technology specialist with Fairfax County Public Schools with a hobby - traveling in the state to find historical markers. At her wedding, she used miniature historical markers to direct people where to sit. When she was hired by Fairfax, Keaney's passion for the markers spilled into her work in the form of the annual "History Hunters" scavenger hunt. Then, early in the 2019-2020 academic year, she got an opportunity to utilize her love of history: She began co-teaching social studies classes, partly so she could model how to use online technology. She continued those lectures, as well as the scavenger hunt, through the coronavirus pandemic. The reaction to her lesson on Johns was swift and strong. The kids told Keaney they thought Johns was "the most amazing person in history," Keaney recalled. "We found it unfair that we had never heard of her and neither had our parents," Serena said. "We felt that we should do something about it." Spurred on by her students, Keaney researched how they could apply for a marker to honor Johns. But the cost - almost $2,000 - and the burdensome bureaucratic process they would have to navigate proved daunting. Then, in January 2020, Northam announced that he was holding the first "Black History Month Historical Marker Contest," in which he invited Virginia teachers, students and their parents to submit suggestions for markers honoring people, events or themes related to Black history in the state. The timing was perfect. Keaney could hardly believe it. She immediately encouraged her students to send in submissions. By the end-of-February deadline, her children had sent 55 drafts of a marker to honor Johns. "Barbara was doing the strike she was hoping get blacks and whites to have equal treatment in school," read one submitted by Caleb. "Barbara Johns impacted Virginia a lot." The news that their marker suggestion was among the winners - taking its place among 20 new plaques that will be installed statewide, including 10 specifically suggested by students - electrified Keaney's fourth-graders. Even though the announcement came on Juneteenth, meaning the kids were out of school, student after student messaged Keaney to tell her that they could not believe they had really done it. "They influenced history," Keaney said. "That marker, that iron sign, is going to outlast my lifetime and these kids', too." For Caleb, the marker's installation ushered in a sense of relief: Now more people would learn about Johns, he said. For Javier, it was thrilling evidence that elected leaders sometimes heed students' views: "My voice was heard by very important people in the government," he said, referring to Northam. For Serena, it was proof that children can change society. "You read about all these people who did amazing things at young ages, such as Barbara Johns," she said. "You think, 'Oh wow, that's amazing,' but you never think that you can do something - but we did!" And Olivia Szydlik wishes she could send Johns a message. "I would tell her about the marker," the 11-year-old said. "I would tell her that all of her hard work really paid off." Justin Szabolics (pictured) is accused of being part of Olympic swimmer Scott Miller's alleged $2.2million drug syndicate A third member of swimming great Scott Miller's alleged $2.2million drug syndicate has been charged with supplying four kilograms of crystal meth. Justin Szabolics was one of two men who allegedly picked up the drugs from Miller after the Olympic silver medallist drove the consignment from Sydney halfway to the Victorian border. Szabolics, from Albury-Wodonga, has been charged with participating in a criminal group and supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. The 44-year-old, who was already in Junee prison accused of unrelated offences, appeared before Albury Local Court on Wednesday. Police will allege Miller drove the 4kg of meth - also known as ice - about 280km from Sydney to Yass, where he was met by Szabolics and another man. The drugs were allegedly ditched more than 200km further south after Szabolics and the other man were involved in a high-speed pursuit with police. Miller had allegedly collected a white Toyota Camry from the Balmain area on January 11 after a man wearing high-vis clothing left a red, white and blue striped bag in the car's footwell. The 45-year-old retired athlete allegedly hid the bag, which held eight candles containing meth worth $2.2million, in a secret compartment and left the vehicle in the area overnight. Accused drug runner Scott Miller won a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the 100m butterfly. He was married to TV personality Charlotte Dawson from 1999 to 2000. Dawson took her own life In 2014. The couple is pictured in August 1999 Police will allege Scott Miller drove this Toyota Camry from Sydney about 280km to Yass with 4kg of meth hidden in a secret compartment. The car and drugs were allegedly then handed to Justin Szabolics and another man who headed down the Hume Highway towards Albury A highway patrol unit unsuccessfully tried to pull over the Camry and allegedly gave chase as it reached high speeds. The chase was allegedly terminated shortly before midnight when it became too dangerous, according to sources. Miller is pictured inset top and bottom The next day Miller picked up Wayne Allan Johnson and the pair drove the Camry, which had Western Australian plates, to Yass, according to police. The Camry was then allegedly handed over to Szabolics and another man who drove down the Hume Highway towards Albury. During the journey, a highway patrol unit unsuccessfully tried to pull over the Camry and allegedly gave chase as it reached high speeds. The pursuit was allegedly terminated shortly before midnight when it became too dangerous, according to sources. The next day police found the bag allegedly containing the drugs in long grass near an intersection at Cookardinia, 230km south-west of Yass and just 75km from Albury. It was more than a month before Miller was arrested just after 6am on February 16 at his home at Rozelle, in Sydney's inner-west, and charged with drug supply. Miller sat slumped and shirtless in a chair as police searched his apartment at Rozelle, in Sydney's inner west, just after dawn on February 16 The meth, worth $2.2million, was allegedly concealed in eight candles which were put in a red, white and blue striped bag that was stashed in this hidden compartment This image shows one of the candles allegedly used to smuggle the $2.2million worth of meth. Police claim the drug was moulded into the candle's glass shell Dramatic footage showed police busting down the door of Miller's unit where they allegedly seized 910g of heroin and $75,000 in cash, as well as the white Camry. Miller was pictured shirtless and slumped on a chair while investigators scoured the unit for evidence. More than a dozen police were seen at Miller's apartment block, meticulously sorting through his possessions. One policeman was pictured carrying a set of scales out of the property. Scott Miller (pictured) has admitted having troubles in his personal life in recent years Officers were seen lifting Miller's mattress and inspecting a packet of anti-inflammatory medication as his pet pug waddled excitedly around the unit. Mobile phones, documents, encrypted electronic devices and smaller amounts of allegedly prohibited drugs were taken away for forensic testing. Miller was charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs, knowingly directing a criminal group and dealing with the proceeds of crime. Police allege the 100m butterfly silver medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was the head a syndicate which sought to traffic meth into Albury-Wodonga. Miller has refused to be interviewed by police, did not apply for bail and is on remand at Parklea jail. His high-profile solicitor Greg Goold told Daily Mail Australia it was unlikely Miller would apply for bail in the next six weeks before a brief of evidence was served on his client. On the march: Miller was allowed to put on a striped polo shirt before he was handcuffed and taken to Newtown police station to be charged Bundles of $50 and $100 notes were clearly visible through in police evidence bags Wayne Johnson, 47, who was arrested at Balmain, was charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of drugs, and participating in a criminal group. He has also not applied for bail. The second man Miller and Johnson are accused of meeting in Yass is yet to be charged over his alleged involvement in the syndicate. The investigation into Miller began earlier this year after police discovered a shipment of candles which each allegedly contained half a kilogram of high-quality methylamphetamine. The substance was moulded into glass containers. The New South Wales State Crime Command's Drug and Firearms Squad and NSW Crime Commission have been involved in the investigation. A law enforcement source told Daily Mail Australia: 'You could say Scott Miller has been on the radar of law enforcement agencies across the country for some time.' Investigations are continuing and further charges are expected to be laid. Miller has admitted having troubles in his personal life in recent years. During an interview with 60 Minutes in 2014 he admitted he was battling a drug addiction. About a dozen officers participated in the raid on Miller's home. Above, two officers carry regulation cardboard evidence bags out to waiting police cars Police will allege that about a kilogram of heroin and $75,000 in cash were found in Miller's property (in bags on left). On right, an officer carries out a set of scales He worked as a drug awareness and prevention speaker with the Church of Scientology's Narconon program, according to his LinkedIn profile. Miller is also known for his brief marriage to Sydney socialite and TV presenter Charlotte Dawson between 1999 and 2000. Dawson died by suicide in 2014 following a despicable trolling campaign. Miller claimed on LinkedIn to have been a business development manager for a company called reinteractive. However, sources insisted he only worked very briefly at the business on a trial basis for just three weeks and has never updated his profile. A source close to Miller said he had been working for a trucking company company until recently. Both Miller and Johnson's cases return to Newtown Local Court on April 13. Antony Blinken speaks during his confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Jan. 19, 2021. (Alex Edelman/Pool/Getty Images) U.S. Secretary of State Plans Day of Virtual Visits Friday With Trudeau, Garneau WASHINGTONAntony Blinken will meet virtually Friday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a day of online diplomacy for the U.S. secretary of state. Blinken will meet with Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau and other members of the federal cabinet, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. The visit will follow up on Trudeaus own summit this week with U.S. President Joe Biden, which produced a road map for plans to collaborate on issues like climate change, the economy and COVID-19. We are neighbours, friends and allies, Price said. Agenda items also include defending human rights in the Western Hemisphere and around the world, and bolstering our shared defence and security. That means the conversations will likely include the plight of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, two Canadians who have spent the last two years in custody in China. Spavor and Kovrigthe two Michaels, as they are known in Canadawere swept up in the weeks that followed Canadas arrest in December 2018 of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei and daughter of the companys founder. Meng is facing extradition to the U.S., where she has been charged with violating sanctions against Irana case some observers believe is sure to keep the two Michaels behind bars indefinitely. On Tuesday, Biden vowed to work with Canada to secure their release, but offered no clues as to what specifically the U.S. is prepared to do. Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi would only say the U.S. will continue to seek extradition. Earlier this month, Canada, the U.S. and a coalition of 56 other countries collectively denounced the state-sponsored arbitrary detention of foreign nationals for political purposes. Blinken has endorsed the declaration and called on countries around the world to put an end to this practice, to release those detained under such conditions and to respect the rule of law and human rights. The followup work after Tuesdays bilateral meetings continued this week in other departments as well. Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson spoke Wednesday with John Kerry, Bidens special envoy on climate, to shore up plans for more stringent emissions-reduction targets in advance of a climate summit in April. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra committed to more stringent vehicle pollution standards to push both countries towards a zero-emissions future on roadways throughout the continent. They are also collaborating on new standards for aviation and for seagoing vessels, as well as efforts to develop new clean-tech solutions with an eye toward the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Blinken is also scheduled to meet with a group of Canadian students, as well as with Mexicos foreign secretary and secretary of the economy during a visit to a port of entry facility along the U.S.s southern border. Moderna Inc said on Wednesday it is working with US government scientists to study an experimental booster shot that targets a concerning new variant of the coronavirus, and has raised its global COVID-19 vaccine production goal for this year by 100 million doses, Reuters reported. The US biotech company has produced raw material for a booster shot aimed at addressing the virus variant first found in South Africa that may be more resistant to existing vaccines, it said. It has shipped the vaccine to the US National Institutes of Health, which helped develop Moderna's current vaccine, for additional study. Moderna is experimenting with several potential ways to combat new variants of the virus. They include an additional booster shot that targets the variant now prevalent in South Africa and spreading globally, a combined booster shot that mixes its current COVID-19 vaccine with the experimental shot, and an extra booster shot on top of its current two-dose vaccine, the company said. It will also experiment with using its experimental shot and the combined shot as primary vaccinations against COVID-19, administering two-dose regimens for people who have not yet received a shot and have not been infected. To note, American Armenian businessman Noubar Afeyan is the co-founder of Moderna Inc. The FDA maximum limit of aflatoxin in pet food is 20 parts per billion. FDA states: " Pets with aflatoxin poisoning may experience symptoms such as sluggishness, loss of appetite, vomiting, jaundice, and/or diarrhea. In some cases, this toxicity can cause long-term liver issues and/or death ." Pet owners across the US sent an urgent plea to Dr. Steven Solomon, FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine to take preventive action against mycotoxins in pet food; telling the Agency recalls are not enough. "Proper monitoring of hazards and prevention is vital to pet food safety" said veterinarian Dr. Laurie Coger. "More immediate and consistent action needs to be taken by the FDA, veterinarians, and corn-inclusive pet food manufacturers." The FDA allows pet food to include inferior quality corn, including corn rejected for human consumption due to high risk of mycotoxin producing mold. Increasing the risk, most substandard corn is stored outside exposed to moisture and animal infestations creating ideal conditions for mold and mycotoxin production. While many manufacturers follow Good Manufacturing Practices, some do not. Unless ingredients and pet foods are tested, mycotoxins will wind up in pets' bowls leading to sickness and death. "It's one of the most dangerous threats to pets. Seven hundred thousand tons more corn is used in pet foods than any other ingredient," said consumer advocate Susan Thixton. "We have asked the FDA to investigate more aggressively and issue alerts in a similar manner as the agency has investigated other issues," states documentary filmmaker Kohl Harrington. "We need action taken immediately." Pet owners have asked FDA to: Request veterinarians and pet owners to report any pet illness or death over the last 12 months to the FDA for pets fed any type of corn ingredient pet product; Identify the toxic corn suppliers and trace all customers over the last 24 months; Implement random mycotoxin testing for pet foods and treats that contain a corn ingredient over for the next 12 months; and Issue monthly updates to pet owners providing the number of mycotoxin adverse events received and test results. Pet advocates are asking pet food manufacturers to take preventive action; the potential for more deaths is inevitable if nothing is done. Manufacturers of corn included pet foods are asked to: Provide pet owners aflatoxin test results on the brand's website for every batch of pet food produced; Provide aflatoxin test results on the brand's website for every load of corn (corn-based) ingredient(s) received. "We cannot wait months and months, as with the melamine recalls in 2007 where 10,000+ cats and dogs died from 150 contaminated brands. Action is necessary now," said Thixton. About: Dr. Laurie S. Coger is an integrative veterinarian and founder of Check Your Pet Food which provides a means of independent pet food testing for both safety and nutritional integrity. https://checkyourpetfood.com Kohl Harrington produced the documentary film Pet Fooled about the pet food industry. He is currently working on a sequel. https://www.petschooled.com/ Susan Thixton has been advocating for pet food consumers with regulatory authorities for more than fifteen years. https://truthaboutpetfood.com SOURCE Truth About Pet Food Related Links truthaboutpetfood.com Suicide rates declined overall by 2.1%, among females by 3.2%, and among males by 1.8%, as well as in five states, certain demographic groups, and by certain mechanisms of suicide; however, disparities persist. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States overall, and the second and fourth leading cause among persons aged 1034 and 3544 years, respectively (1). In just over 2 decades (19992019), approximately 800,000 deaths were attributed to suicide, with a 33% increase in the suicide rate over the period (1). In 2019, a total of 12 million adults reported serious thoughts of suicide during the past year, 3.5 million planned a suicide, and 1.4 million attempted suicide (2). Suicides and suicide attempts in 2019 led to a lifetime combined medical and work-loss cost (i.e., the costs that accrue from the time of the injury through the course of a persons expected lifetime) of approximately $70 billion (https://wisqars.cdc.gov:8443/costT/). From 2018 to 2019, the overall suicide rate declined for the first time in over a decade (1). To understand how the decline varied among different subpopulations by demographic and other characteristics, CDC analyzed changes in counts and age-adjusted suicide rates from 2018 to 2019 by demographic characteristics, county urbanicity, mechanism of injury, and state. Z-tests and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess statistical significance. Suicide rates declined by 2.1% overall, by 3.2% among females, and by 1.8% among males. Significant declines occurred, overall, in five states. Other significant declines were noted among subgroups defined by race/ethnicity, age, urbanicity, and suicide mechanism. These declines, although encouraging, were not uniform, and several states experienced significant rate increases. A comprehensive approach to prevention that uses data to drive decision-making, implements prevention strategies from CDCs Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices with the best available evidence, and targets the multiple risk factors associated with suicide, especially in populations disproportionately affected, is needed to build on initial progress from 2018 to 2019 (3). Data from the 20182019 National Vital Statistics System multiple cause-of-death mortality files were analyzed. Suicide deaths were identified by using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision underlying cause-of-death codes U03, X60X84, and Y87.0. Two-digit age-adjusted death rates (per 100,000 population) and confidence intervals were calculated by using the direct method and the 2000 U.S. standard population, rounded to one digit. Data for persons aged <10 years are not shown in results by age group because determining suicidal intent in younger children is difficult and case counts were <20, indicating unstable rates (4). Urbanization level of the decedents county of residence was categorized by using the 2013 National Center for Health Statistics UrbanRural Classification Scheme for Counties (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/urban_rural.htm). The classification levels for counties are as follows: 1) large central metropolitan: part of a metropolitan statistical area with 1 million population and covers a principal city; 2) large fringe metropolitan: part of a metropolitan statistical area with 1 million population but does not cover a principal city; 3) medium metropolitan: part of a metropolitan statistical area with 250,000 but <1 million population; 4) small metropolitan: part of a metropolitan statistical area with <250,000 population; 5) micropolitan (nonmetropolitan): part of a micropolitan statistical area (has an urban cluster of 10,000 but <50,000 population); and 6) noncore (nonmetropolitan): not part of a metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area. Changes in suicide rates from 2018 to 2019 were examined overall and by age, sex, race/ethnicity, county urbanization level, mechanism of injury, and state. Single-race estimates are presented and might not be comparable to earlier years produced by bridging multiple race to a single race choice (https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/mcd-expanded.html). Hispanic and unknown ethnicity include persons of any race. Racial groups exclude persons of Hispanic or unknown ethnicity. Differences in rates between 2018 and 2019 were assessed by using z-tests when deaths were 100 and by using nonoverlapping confidence intervals based on a gamma distribution when deaths were <100; p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant (5). Relative and absolute changes in rates were calculated; however, only relative changes are presented in the text. In 2019, a total of 47,511 deaths were attributable to suicide. From 2018 to 2019, the overall suicide rate declined significantly by 2.1% (14.2 per 100,000 population to 13.9) (Table); among females, the rate declined by 3.2% (6.2 to 6.0) and among males by 1.8% (22.8 to 22.4). Among racial/ethnic groups, rates of suicide were highest in 2019 among American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) persons (22.5 per 100,000) overall, and among AI/AN females and males. Counts of suicide were highest among White persons (37,428). White persons were the only race for whom rates significantly declined from 2018 to 2019, declining 2.2% (18.1 to 17.7) overall, and declining significantly among females and males. Suicide rates did not significantly change from 2018 to 2019 for any other racial/ethnic group examined. Rates in 2019 were highest among persons aged 85 years (20.1 per 100,000), with counts highest among persons aged 5564 years (8,238) (Table). The number of suicides among males was highest for those aged 2534 years, a change from 2018, when counts were highest among males aged 5564 years. Among females, the largest counts and highest rate of suicide were among those aged 4554 years. Rates declined significantly among persons aged 1524 years (3.4%; 14.5 to 14.0), 5564 years (4.0%; 20.2 to 19.4), and 6574 years (4.9%; 16.3 to 15.5). Significant declines also occurred among males aged 1014 years (16.2%; 3.7 to 3.1), females aged 2534-years (8.1%; 7.4 to 6.8), males aged 4554 years (4.0%; 30.2 to 29.0), females aged 5564 years (6.3%; 9.5 to 8.9), and males aged 6574 years (5.0%; 27.8 to 26.4). Suicide rates in 2019 were lowest in large central metropolitan areas (11.2 per 100,000) and increased as the level of urbanization declined, with noncore (nonmetropolitan) areas having the highest rate (20.1 per 100,000); this stepped pattern occurred among both females and males. Rates declined from 2018 to 2019 in two county urbanization levels: large fringe metropolitan (3.1%) and micropolitan (nonmetropolitan) (5.7%). Rates also declined among females in micropolitan (nonmetropolitan) areas. In 2019, the largest proportion of suicides occurred by use of firearms (50.4%), with a rate of 6.8 per 100,000. Whereas males were most likely to die from a firearm-related injury (55.6%) females were equally likely to die from firearm use (31.4%), poisoning (30.0%), and suffocation (e.g., hanging) (29.0%). The rate of firearm suicides declined significantly from 2018 to 2019, by 2.9% (from 7.0 to 6.8 per 100,000), overall, likely driven by a 2.4% decline in their use among males (from 12.6 to 12.3 per 100,000); the rate of firearm suicide among females did not change. The rate of suicide by suffocation among females decreased significantly (10.0%; from 2.0 to 1.8 per 100,000). Rates of suicide by all other mechanisms did not change significantly overall or among females or males. Firearms were the most common mechanism of suicide in 2019 in all county urbanization levels (Figure 1). The percentage of suicides by firearm in 2019 increased in a stepped pattern from the most urban counties (41.7%) to the most rural (i.e., least urban) counties (62.5%). Conversely, suffocation, the second most prevalent mechanism of suicide, followed a largely stepped decrease from most urban (31.4%) to least urban (28.5%) counties; suicides by poisoning followed a similar pattern, from 14.5% (most urban) to 12.9% (least urban). The overall suicide rate declined significantly from 2018 to 2019 in five states (Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Virginia) (Figure 2). The suicide rate among females declined significantly in three states (Indiana, Missouri, and Washington), and rates among males declined significantly in five states (Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and West Virginia) (Supplementary Table, https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/102794). The largest significant overall decline occurred in Idaho (14.6%). Among females, the largest significant decline occurred in Indiana (29.7%). Among males, the largest significant decline occurred in West Virginia (16.1%). The suicide rate increased significantly overall in Hawaii (30.3%) and Nebraska (20.1%), among females in Minnesota (39.6%), and among males in Hawaii (35.1%) and Wyoming (39.6%). Erroneous conclusion on Sri Lanka by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights by Michelle Bachelet Jeria On the webinar conference titled Responding to the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka (A / HRC / 46 / 20). Which took place on Sunday 21st February 2021, attracted an international audience and was heavily oversubscribed. The Right Honourable Lord Naseby from the House of Lords, United Kingdom dropped to bombshell on the human rights allegations made by Michelle Bachelet Jeria, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Council in Geneva. The event went viral and the organisers had to use several media platforms including Facebook live to broadcast the event which highlighted the inconsistencies, weaknesses and misinformation by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Council. Mr Ranjiv Goonawardena Chairman of International Consultants. Which is a consultancy, brokering hybrid of private equity, corporate finance group, facilitated and organised the event. This was achieved in collaboration with London Initiative and the Ontario Centre for Policy Research. The speakers for the event were: The Rt Hon. the Lord Naseby PC from the House of Lords, United Kingdom. The current Ambassador to China, Dr Palitha T. B. Kohona, who was the former Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary & Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York, USA. Dr Mohan Peiris, the current Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York, USA. He was the former Chief Justice, Attorney General. The Moderator for the webinar was Jayaraj Palihawadana, from the London Initiative. He is a practicing solicitor in the United Kingdom. It was expected from the Human Rights Council to diligently investigate every piece of evidence in order to validate impartiality. To seek authentication, leaving no stone unturned. The revelation highlighted by Lord Naseby showing the inconsistences of the Human Rights Councils inability to carry out a proper, impartial type of investigation. Showed that they failed to ask for vital attestation from Her Majesty's Government, in the UK pertaining to the classified report written by Lieutenant Colonel Gash, which has been redacted by the British Government. Her Majesty's representative in the House of Lords is Lord Ahmed of Wimbledon. The Minister of State for the Commonwealth, United Nations at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, provided the following answer to Lord Naseby's written parliamentary question: - Lord Naseby's Question: "To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have supplied to the UN Human Rights Council any (1) redacted, and (2) unredacted, copies of despatches written by Lieutenant Colonel Gash, the former defence attache of the British High Commission in Sri Lanka about events in that country relating to the civil war". Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Answered: "The UK Government has not received any request from the UN Human Rights Council for copies of despatches written by the former defence attache at the British High Commission in Sri Lanka, Lieutenant Colonel Gash, about events in Sri Lanka related to the civil war, and has not provided any." This is completely bias that the UNHRC by Michelle Bachelet Jeria did not ask for corroboration from the UK Government. Neither did Her Majesty's Government provide information to the Human Rights Council. The UK Government sponsored the motion against Sri Lanka. They failed to provide the information which has been deemed classified and as a consequence hindered the whole process which is injudicious. This brings the matter into disrepute by not having provided accurate credible information required to be unclassified for justice and equanimity to prevail. It became very evident during the webinar conference that the Human Rights allegations made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, is absolutely one-sided, very prejudiced against Sri Lanka, not independent and balanced. Based on the webinar the objectives of the Human Rights Council are questionable, due to the prejudice demonstrated against Sri Lanka by undermining its efforts and achievements. The consensus was evident in accordance with the participants present; this is according to a number of politicians and aficionado who participated in the webinar from Sweden, Norway, the European Commission, Switzerland, Germany France Italy, Russia, the United States of America and Canada. Throughout the proceedings, it became clear, that there could be a hidden agenda which might have nothing to do with human rights but rather perhaps as a means to leverage unwarranted pressure on Sri Lanka and its administration on erroneous conjecture. A licence to kill without any fear of any litigation, no international accountability and scrutiny UNHRC proceedings have been sponsored by the UK Government which can be deemed as hypocritical. They are about to bring new legislation, called the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which was introduced to UK Parliament in March 2020. This includes a series of proposals that would exonerate the British Army from any war crime claims of any misconduct, violations of any Human Rights or any extrajudicial killings. The UK Government is a major donor to the Human Rights Council, the sum of US $1,709,532 has been donated according to the annual report voluntary contribution 2021. The Human Rights Council is supposed to be totally impartial and unbiased, unfortunately in this instance they have failed on the basic principles for justice for all, not for the chosen few. The Human Rights Council is not meant to be a weapon to terrorise small and emerging nations of the world as they have evidently done in this case with Sri Lanka, rather be a beacon of light and justice. It has therefore become notably evident that powerful countries seem to have a different approach and mechanism, with regards to alleged Human Rights abuses by adopting a different way of mitigating and distancing themselves for instance: - International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor drops probe into UK war crimes in Iraq The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensoudas office said she was dropping a preliminary probe into alleged war crimes by British troops in Iraq, even though she found a reasonable basis to believe they committed atrocities. The ICC has been under fire by Washington for opening a full-fledged investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by U.S. troops on the territory of ICC member Afghanistan. The former President Donald Trump of America last year-imposed sanctions on Bensouda because of the probe. Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr Palitha Kohona stated: It simply defies explanation that the High commissioner who is highly regarded in the UN system and as a former president of Chile, and as a UN Executive Director for Womens Affairs should have lent her name to this document. It is meticulously detailed, painstakingly crafted and scrupulously structured. But it is based on a multitiered edifice of lies, innuendo and suggestions which go back to previously debunked reports. To an impartial observer its goal is obvious. It kindles hatred and stokes vengeance. It ignores that fact that Sri Lanka formally withdrew from the con-sponsorship of 30/1. At this point, I recall the words of our great sage, the Buddha, Hatred ceaseth not hatred, love ceaseth hated. Nahi Verana Verani. This is what amazes me. She contributes to the now familiar and orchestrated effort of some countries, influenced by a cabal of noisy lobby groups and NGOs to embarrass Sri Lanka, to denigrate Sri Lanka, and its leaders and diminish Sri Lankas achievement in eliminating a ruthless terrorist group. And they seek accountability. Ambassador Dr Kohona, requested to know the answers to the following questions he posed to the conference webinar: Let me ask the question why? Why was the High Commissioners report compiled in this manner? Mr. Miliband, then the UK Foreign Secretary and Mr. Kouchner, then the Foreign Minister of France, visited Sri Lanka Towards the end of the conflict Mr. Miliband, then the UK Foreign Secretary and Mr. Kouchner, then the Foreign Minister of France, visited Sri Lanka, under pressure from the Tamil expatriate groups and a noisy NGO community and almost demanded that Sri Lanka stop the military operation against the LTTE. A group that had terrorized the country for over 30 years causing widespread death and destruction. The President refused to comply and, if I remember right, he told Mr. Miliband bluntly that Sri Lanka was no longer Britains colony to be told what to do by its Foreign Secretary. We proceeded to defeat the LTTE and end the 30-year brutal conflict, with its terrorism. As is abundantly clear from Wikileaks, the UK and France were not alone. The US, Sweden and Norway had this common goal. The rushed visits of Mr. Eric Solheim to Washington are all documented in Wikileaks. It is difficult to attribute a coherent reason for this affection for the LTTE by all these countries, and their representatives. Given that it had been proscribed by these countries. Let me take a few examples; I am not going to go through the entire report of the High Commissioner. I could, but it has been done in the governments response which has been all but ignored along with its withdrawal of the co-sponsorship of 30/1. The Report starts off by adverting to credible allegations of indiscriminate shelling and 250,000 people being interned for months; Immediately a few questions arise. Credible? credible in whose eyes In the eyes of those making the allegations? Eminent Persons Report A number of contemporary reports have emerged, including by the military attaches of the UK and US. They do not speak of indiscriminate shelling. Has the High Commissioner even considered the views of the Eminent Persons report? They dismiss the allegation of indiscriminate shelling. Geoffrey Nice QC. Rodney Dixon QC, Desmond Silva QC, among others were in this group. The resident doctors statements? Have these been taken into account. In any event, the High Commissioner has not considered whether the retaliatory strikes by the military were necessary and proportionate. But her report highlights the allegation made by nondescript entities. Millions who live in makeshift camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen or Libya Then the statement states that the refugees were detained for months in camps. What would the High Commissioner have preferred? For them to live in humpies in the elephant infested jungles? Like the millions who live in makeshift camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen or Libya. You would have seen this on CNN reports in the last couple of days. Children with distended bellies and sunken eyes being thrown bottles of water from passing four-wheel drives of do-gooding NGOs. Is that what she would have preferred? Instead, those in our camps were fed, three times a day, given medical care, children had their schooling, and they had proper shelter. A number of contemporary reports have emerged, including by the military attaches of the UK and US. They do not speak of indiscriminate shelling. Has the High Commissioner even considered the views of the Eminent Persons report? They dismiss the allegation of indiscriminate shelling. Geoffrey Nice QC. Rodney Dixon QC, Desmond Silva QC, among others were in this group. The resident doctors statements? Have these been taken into account. In any event, the High Commissioner has not considered whether the retaliatory strikes by the military were necessary and proportionate. But her report highlights the allegation made by nondescript entities. Nazi Goebbles dictum Repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth In any event, over a thousand sq kms of land had to be cleared of indiscriminately laid land mines. The LTTE had removed the roofing material of the houses as they herded the people with them as they retreated before the advancing military. The metal roofing sheets were melted to make pellets for their IEDs. The people had no houses to go back to A quick inquiry from Mr. Miliband would have revealed this. He visited those so-called internment camps Or is it more convenient to follow Nazi Goebbles dictum Repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth Emotive expression majoritarianism employed by the High Commissioner. The report is critical of military officers who have been assigned responsibilities in government departments and institutions. Sri Lanka is not unique in employing retired soldiers in high positions. Other countries have had presidents who were retired soldiers. In any event, our retirement age for senior officers is 55, an age when a man is not considered to be old anymore. It is difficult to imagine for a poor country like Sri Lanka to waste the talent, experience and skills of a military officer retiring at age 55. I find it difficult to understand the emotive expression majoritarianism employed by the High Commissioner. In a democracy, it is the majority that elects a president or a government. It would be self-destructive for a leader of a government, so elected, not to reflect the views of the majority. Even the protection of antiquities is not spared in the report. This is like saying that the protection of Egyptian antiquities would offend the Muslim population, or the protection of the Parthenon would offend the Orthodox Greeks. The antiquities being protected are part of the entire nations patrimony. LTTE Strategy The LTTE strategy appears to have been simply to keep the civilians as a human shield. This provided the context for most of what happened in the final stages of the war. In the first instance, it was assumed that the human shield would slow the progress of the military. Secondly, a few civilians deaths would force the international community to intervene and save the LTTE. Tamil Selvan has said so on record. Failing all else, it would provide the basis for war crimes allegations once the conflict ended. This would have been particularly useful, if the plan to airlift the LTTE leadership out of Pudumatthalan had succeeded. The LTTE and, now the High Commissioners Report, ignores the fact that the UN Secretary-General, the US Secretary of State and many others had called on the LTTE repeatedly to let the people go. They refused to heed this call. Against this background, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the High Commissioner, in her report simply did not wish to assist a state member of the UN to improve its performance consistent with her mandate, but was determined to embarrass Sri Lanka and push it into a difficult corner. Her task is to work with member states to advance human rights not to act as prosecutor and judge. It is difficult for a country to defend itself against unsubstantiated allegations and insinuations. No domestic legal system would permit that. The High Commissioner has no authority to enforce Council resolutions It was said by Ambassador Dr Kohona, the High Commissioners office appears to have, over the years, misunderstood its role. The Council was never established to isolate countries and chastise them individually. It was designed to help countries to improve their human rights performance. The Councils job is to assist and to encourage, not to punish. This was the objective of those who created the Council in the first place, having terminated its predecessor. The High Commissioner has no authority to enforce Council resolutions. Now she turns to help countries to enforce principles that have never been endorsed by the international community as a whole. The High Commissioners report even suggests punitive measures, in other fora, perhaps to bring Sri Lanka to heel, or to make it an example. Again, it would seem that the Report mistakes her role, and plays into the hands of those wishing to punish Sri Lanka. As to whether this is consistent with the High Commissioners role is hugely doubtful. This reek of vengeance-seeking hatred. Sri Lankas culture It is also important to remember that our culture, Sri Lankas culture, is not based on the values of an eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth principle. Our culture is based on the principles of forgiveness and forgetting not confessional atonement and the justice of the inquisition. It may be difficult for those imbued with these age-old Western concepts to understand this, but lets remember that the world consists of a range and multiplicity of cultural traditions and principles. That is why the Sri Lankan Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) adopted a restorative justice approach rather than a punitive justice approach even for those who may have violated basic norms. Restorative justice takes time. It is not without reason that 12,000 former combatants were rehabilitated to their families. For us, meting out justice does not necessarily mean meting out punishment. History is replete with situations where punitive justice did not succeed in achieving reconciliation, while restorative justice has produced results in almost every instance, for example in South Africa and Uganda. Since the end of the conflict In closing remarks the Ambassador Dr Kohona stated: Since the end of the conflict, the Sri Lankan government has adopted extensive measures to achieve reconciliation. Most land occupied by the military has been returned to the original owners, most infrastructure destroyed during conflict including railway lines, roads, schools, fisheries harbours, temples, and community facilities have been restored. The railway tracks and the sleepers had been used by the LTTE to construct bunkers. Hundreds of missing persons have been accounted for. Much more needs to be done, but we are a poor country. It will take time. There are other parts of the country, in addition to the North and the East which need to be developed as well. Our resources are limited and fresh funds are required. I wish the High Commissioners report had also spared some thought for these aspects as well, instead of purely searching feverishly for guilty parties to punish. If the San Antonio Water System were to buy the massive generators needed to back up its water pumping stations, the cost could go as high as $800 million and could mean a rate increase, officials said Wednesday. Its a public conversation, said Robert Puente, CEO and president of SAWS, noting any rate increase would have to be approved by the SAWS board and the City Council. For now, however, residents dont have to worry about a higher bill. As Puente said last week, SAWS is charging customers the same amount that was billed in either of the last two months, whichever is lower. Since the storm, SAWS has sent out almost 54,000 bills. More than a third of those were adjusted to cheaper billing, Puente said at a San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board meeting Wednesday. Puente said customers havent been charged for about 21 percent of the water that went through as a result of the weather disaster. On ExpressNews.com: Watch Live: CPS and SAWS meet with Express-News Editorial Board Sixty of SAWS 80 water pumping stations were offline at some point during the prolonged freezing weather last week. The unprecedented event has community leaders and customers asking why there werent back-up generators to keep the pumping stations running and calling for their purchase now in case of future disasters. Clouse said a generator powerful enough to run a pumping station costs several million dollars and they havent been needed in the past. If one or two of the water utilitys 80 pumping stations went offline, other stations could compensate for that loss. CPS overall reliability factor is very high, said Scott Clouse, SAWS Chief Operating Officer. Weve never seen justification in the past for spending the type of money it would take to provide redundancy across our system. But last weeks catastrophic outages has SAWS rethinking its crisis-response strategy. Relying on past history and past events and having reliable power and this community only being impacted by icy roads is no longer acceptable for how we go forward, said Jelynne LeBlanc Burley, the chairwoman for the SAWS Board of Trustees Texas needs to embrace that extreme events are part of what we need to do going forward. Theyre here and we need to learn how to prepare for them, she added. SAWS has hired engineering firm Black and Veatch to research and make recommendations for the utility company to avoid loss of power to its pumps in the future. The $250,000 contract requires that the report be given to the SAWS Board of Trustees in 60 days. The report will be made available to the public, too. I think our customers have a right to know whats in there, Puente said. On ExpressNews.com: 'It was like the Hunger Games' DeBerry says as county commissioners deconstruct what went wrong in last week's winter disaster In addition to the powerful generations, solutions could include batteries, joint partnerships with the military and other sources of back-up power. Though SAWS has restored water flowing to the entire community, as many as 100,000 customers could be without water at the moment due to private plumbing issues, Puente said. Though the company does not repair private plumbing, it has set up a fund where customers can apply to get their burst pipes repaired for free. To apply or for more information, visit www.SAWS.org/CPR or call 210-233-FIXX (3499). 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. State-county discussions about the site began in early December, Cardenas said. But the actual build, which involved officials and staff from both jurisdictions, took about 10 days from the time contracts were signed in mid-January to Jan. 19, when the public-facing component was up and running; and to Jan. 21 and 22 when pilot sites for the two counties went live. We had a very, very aggressive timeline. Theres no shortage of interest in trying to get the vaccine, and so it was really kind of an all-hands effort, Cardenas said. Weve had so many situations where weve had to lean on each other and work together in a really strong collaborative way it really came out and showed itself during these moments, so were just really proud of the engagement and the way we have been able to partner up to this point. State CIO Amy Tong, director of the California Department of Technology (CDT), affirmed via email that the California Department of Public Health and CDT partnered with L.A. County to build and pilot myturn.ca.gov. Los Angeles County made crucial design decisions to make My Turn work in their jurisdiction during the pilot phase. The site streamlines the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through county clinics and mega-vaccine events managed by local health departments, medical providers and CalOES/FEMA, Tong said, referring to the California Governors Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Following the two counties, locations in San Francisco and Oakland that use the technology have come online, Tong said, indicating other counties will follow. More than 2 million Californians have used the site to register and learn their eligibility, she said, and more than 382,000 vaccinations have been completed as a result. We had a very, very aggressive timeline. Theres no shortage of interest in trying to get the vaccine, and so it was really kind of an all-hands effort, Cardenas said. Weve had so many situations where weve had to lean on each other and work together in a really strong collaborative way it really came out and showed itself during these moments, so were just really proud of the engagement and the way we have been able to partner up to this point. State CIO Amy Tong, director of the California Department of Technology (CDT), affirmed via email that the California Department of Public Health and CDT partnered with L.A. County to build and pilot myturn.ca.gov. Los Angeles County made crucial design decisions to make My Turn work in their jurisdiction during the pilot phase. The site streamlines the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through county clinics and mega-vaccine events managed by local health departments, medical providers and CalOES/FEMA, Tong said, referring to the California Governors Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Following the two counties, locations in San Francisco and Oakland that use the technology have come online, Tong said, indicating other counties will follow. More than 2 million Californians have used the site to register and learn their eligibility, she said, and more than 382,000 vaccinations have been completed as a result. For the county, the development need centered on a solution or solutions that could handle the tracking and scheduling of vaccine appointments as well as clinic site setup, appointment registration and vaccine administration details, Cardenas said. The project was initially called LAVax, and would use Accenture technology and would connect via interface to CalVax, the state vaccination signup website. After a discussion with state officials, however, Los Angeles County officials decided to join the initiative and become the lead county to pilot the solution. It comprises three main components, the CIO said: My Turn provider, powered by Salesforce, which providers will utilize around vaccine receipt; the My Turn public site, where residents can go to sign up, which relies on technology from Skedulo; and the My Turn clinic element, which officials use to access appointment records when residents receive their actual shots at a county drive-through; its powered by Salesforce. Cardenas estimated the new solutions have reduced the time residents require to receive the vaccine at a drive-through meeting a clinician to getting the shot from more than five minutes to less than half that. Throughput and training, he said, have been improved, and the interface has been accomplished in just four to five intuitively designed screens. Our expansion goal for the state is that they push out to all counties; our goal within the county is to push out to more providers so that we can get a much more consistent experience across all the major sites where people might be vaccinated, so that were not seeing a lot of people struggling, having to jump from appointment system to appointment system to get their vaccine, he said. Its unclear whether this initiative will yield other IT contracts, but Cardenas said connecting with residents who arent tech-savvy remains a huge focus, adding: I think if theres ever a place where were going to be focusing our attention from a technical standpoint, it would be trying to solve that problem . Our expansion goal for the state is that they push out to all counties; our goal within the county is to push out to more providers so that we can get a much more consistent experience across all the major sites where people might be vaccinated, so that were not seeing a lot of people struggling, having to jump from appointment system to appointment system to get their vaccine, he said. Its unclear whether this initiative will yield other IT contracts, but Cardenas said connecting with residents who arent tech-savvy remains a huge focus, adding: I think if theres ever a place where were going to be focusing our attention from a technical standpoint, it would be trying to solve that problem . For other governments contemplating a similar project or engagement, he recommended keeping the process streamlined and expectations minimal. In creating the system, Cardenas said, officials tried to not overcomplicate things and asked, what are the absolute requirements that we have. Doing so and avoiding making a My Turn visit a very significant data collection experience that would prolong the encounter, helped on throughput. An entitys infrastructure may be a limiting factor, the CIO said, noting that L.A. County currently runs five large megapod sites. He praised the countys infrastructure response team, which has helped set up local networks and Wi-Fi, as well as county IT support teams noting this support structure is going to be heavily leaned on as clinics are set up. Deployment of the My Turn COVID-19 vaccination eligibility website recently has already yielded millions of registrations, hundreds of thousands of shots in arms and some significant technology takeaways.The website, myturn.ca.gov , was deployed late last month as a collaboration among state officials; the technology companies Accenture Salesforce and Skedulo; and the counties of Los Angeles and San Diego , which were the first to pilot the site. The reach and impact of My Turn, which lets Californians learn when theyre eligible to be vaccinated and book their shots, are likely to continue to grow. The lessons learned are already considerable, David Cardenas , chief information officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health , told. Among the takeaways: An Australian doctor who was part of the World Health Organization (WHO) team that visited Chinas Wuhan, Dominic Dwyer wrote in a first-person account explaining why the origin of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 is unlikely to be either the seafood market in the city or leaked from Wuhan lab. Arguing against major conspiracy theories claiming that the highly-infectious virus was leaked from a lab researching on pathogens, Dwyer described in an article published for The Conversation that when the team of international experts visited the closed market it was easy to see how the virus could have spread there. Even though the high number of infections in the different markets suggested transmission clusters, it further implied unknown or unsampled chains of transmission. While describing his experience, Dwyer wrote, When we visited the closed market, its easy to see how an infection might have spread there. When it was open, there would have been around 10,000 people visiting a day, in close proximity, with poor ventilation and drainage. Theres also genetic evidence generated during the mission for a transmission cluster there. Viral sequences from several of the market cases were identical, suggesting a transmission cluster. However, there was some diversity in other viral sequences, implying other unknown or unsampled chains of transmission. He concluded Wuhan seafood market as a hotspot that further led to the COVID-19 pandemic. The market in Wuhan, in the end, was more of an amplifying event rather than necessarily a true ground zero, he added. Read - New Study 'finds Evidence' Over Coronavirus Origin: 'Started In Wuhan Lab' Read - WHO Team Discovers Signs Of Wider COVID Outbreak In Wuhan In December 2019, Says Reports Wuhan lab leak is also extremely unlikely Further, in the lengthy explanation published on the site, the Australian scientist explained why the leak from the Wuhan lab is also extremely unlikely. He wrote that the team of international experts sent to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus visited the lab in the centre of all theories, Wuhan Institute of Virology. After speaking to scientists working there, the experts found no evidence of coronavirus antibodies. The WHO team, as Dwyer explained, looked at the closest virus to SARS-CoV-2 that the researchers were working on in the lab, the virus RaTG13. However, all scientists had a genetic sequence for the virus and they had not been able to grow in culture. Dwyer wrote, We spoke to the scientists there. We heard that scientists blood samples, which are routinely taken and stored, were tested for signs they had been infected. No evidence of antibodies to the coronavirus was found. We looked at their biosecurity audits. No evidence. We looked at the closest virus to SARS-CoV-2 they were working on the virus RaTG13 which had been detected in caves in southern China where some miners had died seven years previously. But all the scientists had was a genetic sequence for this virus. They hadnt managed to grow it in culture. While viruses certainly do escape from laboratories, this is rare. So, we concluded it was extremely unlikely this had happened in Wuhan, he summed up. Read - China Refused To Give Raw Data On Initial COVID-19 Cases In Wuhan: Report Read - US Doubts WHO's Wuhan Coronavirus Probe; Says 'will Verify Results Via Own Intelligence' Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Researchers at Cranfield University are working with partners at the University of York to develop a greener way to manufacture textiles for clothing using biomass derived from crop waste. The new process uses low environmental impact solvents to dissolve cellulose produced by bacteria from crop and household waste, such as food scraps and kitchen roll. This creates a viscous honey-like solution which can then be spun into fibers to make eco-textiles for sustainable fashion. The clothing sector is worth 32 billion to the UK economy annually and every year around a million tons of clothes are thrown away. The environmental impact of the sector could be reduced by using more renewable and biodegradable materials such as cellulose. Dr. Sameer Rahatekar, Research Lecturer in the Manufacturing, Enhanced Composites & Structures Centre at Cranfield University, said: "The world's clothing industry is responsible for 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissionsmore than flights and shippingand 20 percent of all wastewater. Our work with colleagues at the University of York offers a low environmental impact solution that could transform how we make textiles and reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfill." Dr. Alexandra Lanot, University of York, said: "This process is the result of work we have done over the last ten years. My hope is that soon we will be able to wear clothes derived from waste instead." Professor Simon McQueen Mason, University of York, said: "The cellulose and bacteria produced out of this waste is essentially virgin quality material which can be used to make brand new textiles with a minimal environmental footprint." Cellulose is a structure found in plants and wood but isn't easy to extract without the use of toxic chemicals such as sulphuric acid and carbon disulphide, which are currently used in manufacturing viscose/rayon cellulose textiles. The manufacturing process developed at Cranfield uses less aggressive solvents which will have a significantly lower environmental impact compared to the viscose/rayon cellulose textiles. The research paper is titled "Manufacturing & characterization of regenerated cellulose/curcumin based sustainable composites fibers spun from environmentally benign solvents." Explore further From old jeans to new T-shirt More information: Marta Gina Coscia et al. Manufacturing & characterization of regenerated cellulose/curcumin based sustainable composites fibers spun from environmentally benign solvents, Industrial Crops and Products (2017). Marta Gina Coscia et al. Manufacturing & characterization of regenerated cellulose/curcumin based sustainable composites fibers spun from environmentally benign solvents,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2017.09.041 Compared with men, women undergo 'significantly faster' cognitive declines later in life that increases their risk of dementia, a new study has warned. Researchers from the US analysed data on the cognitive decline of 26,088 people who were repeatedly tested for global cognition, executive function and memory. At the start of the testing, the average age of participants was 58. The team found that, on average, men and women experienced declines in their memory ability at a similar rate. However, women were found to undergo significantly greater declines in both global cognition and executive function trends linked to increase dementia risk. Compared with men, women undergo 'significantly faster' cognitive declines later in life that increases their risk of dementia, a new study has warned (stock image) '[Our] results suggest that women have greater cognitive reserve but faster later-life cognitive decline than men,' the researchers wrote in their paper. 'Evidence suggests that dementia incidence in Europe and the US has declined over the past 25 years, but declines were less in women than in men.' 'Our findings suggest that women are at risk for delayed identification of cognitive decline, yet more rapid trajectory of decline, suggesting increased risk of dementia and disability compared with men.' This, they added, 'is consistent with research showing that women with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease have faster cognitive decline than men.' In their study, chronic disease expert Deborah Levine of the University of Michigan and colleagues analysed data on the cognitive abilities of 26,088 people including 11,775 men and 14,313 women. Data was pooled from five existing health studies which ran from 19712017. All subjects included in the study had no prior history of stroke or dementia at the time of their first assessment, as such can affect the rate of cognitive decline. The researchers found that at the time of their first cognitive assessment, women had significantly higher performance scores on average in global cognition, executive function and memory than their male counterparts. While the memory capacities of women and men were found to decline over time at roughly the same rate, women were found to experience significantly faster declines in their performance in both global cognition and executive function tests. While the memory capacities of women and men were found to decline over time at roughly the same rate, women were found to experience significantly faster declines in their performance in both global cognition and executive function tests. Pictured, a comparison of the projected decreases in cognitive values (with global cognition left, executive function middle and memory right) starting at age 70 for the average black man and woman According to the researchers, the findings may help improve the provision of health care for women later their lives. 'Women may have greater needs for caregiving and functional support resources, particularly given womens longer life expectancy compared with men,' they said. Alongside this, they added women may also have a more heightened 'need for serial cognitive assessment to allow for earlier detection of cognitive decline.' Women, they added, have a greater risk than men of being diagnosed with dementia based on objectively measured cognitive decline. However, the team warned, 'our findings that women had higher initial cognitive scores suggest informants and clinicians might not observe significant cognitive decline in women until substantial loss and impairment has occurred.' The full findings of the study were published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The detective garda who brought fraudsters Keith Flynn and Lyndsey Clarke to justice has revealed that the spelling mistake which initially alerted a Bank of Ireland fraud official wasn't one they made but instead one they forgot to remove. Speaking in detail about the case to the Irish Examiner, Det Garda Alan McCarthy of Anglesea St Garda Station said the former solicitors had downloaded a template for a Virgin Media utility bill, but omitted to remove a spelling mistake in the template, while they filled out the remainder of the fake bill using six different false identities correctly. Guilty pleas Flynn, 46, and Clarke, 37, were jailed on Monday at Cork Circuit Court having pleaded guilty to charges brought by gardai arising out of an investigation into the large-scale fraud they operated in Cork and Dublin which ultimately cost various banks and credit unions a combined 390,000. The couple, now married, were struck off by the Law Society at the end of 2018, having been first suspended from practising on an unrelated issue in December 2016. It has now emerged that the first three bogus bank accounts all opened under fake identities by Lyndsey Clarke, of Blarney St in Cork were all operational by the end of 2016. The first three bogus bank accounts in the scam were opened by the end of 2016 by former solicitor Lyndsey Clarke of Blarney St in Cork. Picture: Cork Courts Limited Det Garda McCarthy revealed that the first account, with Ulster Bank, was opened in Dublin on November 15, 2016. The second account was opened with AIB, also in Dublin, on December 7 of that year, and the third account again with Ulster Bank in Dublin was opened on December 16. A subsequent Law Society disciplinary tribunal in mid-2018 found the couple had ceased the practice of Keith Flynn and Co Solicitors, in November 2016. They had been suspended from practising that December. Alan Boland of Bank of Ireland's fraud unit first noticed irregularities in some accounts in September 2017, including the spelling mistake common to six accounts. Det Garda McCarthy said it was related to a Virgin Media bill. "You get a template document name, address, account number, billing info, how much outstanding," he said. "It wasn't where they populated it, it was in the downloaded document. The mistake was in it, they didn't notice the mistake. "That shows it wasn't their mistake." He also revealed that when he visited some of the credit unions from which the couple had fraudulently secured loans, they at first refused to believe they had been duped. Flynn's wig and disguise Footage showed former solicitor Keith Flynn withdrawing cash from an ATM in Blackpool, Cork, while wearing a disguise including a wig. Picture: Cork Courts Limited He said footage showed Keith Flynn, originally from Ballintemple, in wig and disguise, withdrawing money from an ATM in the Cork suburb of Blackpool, and that one worker in a credit union later recalled the day Lyndsey had opened an account there because of the wig she was clearly wearing. Det Garda McCarthy also said he understood that it was a "straight transaction" when the couple approached and secured PPS numbers from people known to homeless services, mostly in Dublin. They paid around 100 just for the numbers, which were then used to create 60 fake identities and to open 80 different accounts. Both solicitors jailed Keith Flynn was jailed for four years and Lyndsey Clarke for two years last Monday. Det Garda McCarthy said he built up a rapport with the couple while the file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions as he had to regularly inform them when various accounts were being frozen. However, he said he never had any sympathy for them. "I never get personal with any of the cases," he said. "I detach myself from the people and just focus on my job." Det Garda McCarthy said he felt Clarke and Flynn would have found him fair to deal with and added: "They never showed any remorse to me." *See Saturday's 'Irish Examiner' for more on Cork's fraudster solicitors TOMS RIVER, N.J., Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- John A. Coccaro, MD is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Distinguished Leader in the field of Medicine for his professional excellence, leadership, and commitment as the Owner, Anesthesiologist & Interventional Pain Management Physician at Precision Pain Management. Dedicating his 30-year career to the care and treatment of his pain patients, Dr. Cocarro has garnered a well-deserving reputation for his superior surgical hand skills and exceptional contributions to his community. He has most recently served the Toms River area practicing as a Board Certified Anesthesiologist at Community Medical Center. In his current capacity, he has devoted the past six years as Owner of the Precision Pain Management, LLC in Toms River, New Jersey. He leads a highly trained team with extensive experience treating a wide range of painful conditions, including spinal stenosis, sciatica, herniated discs, auto injuries, pinched nerves, slip and falls, and various types of back and neck pain. Precision Pain Management specializes in a number of cutting edge treatments for acute and chronic pain, such as Vertiflex Superion minimally invasive spinal decompression, minimally invasive lumbar decompression (MILD), and regenerative medicine. Utilizing these procedures, Dr. Cocarro takes pride in reducing the use of opioids dramatically. In light of his academic achievements, Dr. Cocarro's humble beginnings started in Brooklyn, where he completed his undergraduate studies at Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus) with his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Chemistry. Then, he pursued a medical education abroad at St. Georges University School of Medicine. Upon his return to the United States, he went on to study the principles and practice of General Surgery while at Monmouth Medical Center, where he gained valuable knowledge in the care and therapy of trauma and neurosurgical patients. He completed his surgical training in three intensive years. Subsequently, Dr. Cocarro discovered a passion for Pediatric Regional Anesthesia and Adult Pain Medicine while at St Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey. He quickly realized that his surgical hand skills made him well-suited to become a precision interventionist. His post-residency training led him to minimally invasive procedures for treating various spine-related symptoms. Additionally, he holds various certifications through Regenix. Remaining abreast of the latest advancements in his field, Dr. Cocarro is an active member of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, New Jersey Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, and the Society for Neuro Modulation. Additionally, he is active in providing top health care to underprivileged communities, which includes a volunteer mission trip to Haiti with the Hospital of the Sacred Heart in Milot, Haiti. Dr. Cocarro dedicates this honorable recognition in the memory of his uncle, Anthony DiMango, DMD, who inspired him to enter medicine. He also dedicates this in the memory of his mentor, Robert Dorian, MD, who was the Chief of Anesthesiology at St. Barnabas. For further information, please visit https://www.drcppm.com/. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634 [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com LOS ANGELES and SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- POINTek, Inc., a global leader and provider of high performance athermal AWGs announced launching of next generation Ultrawide Broadband Athermal AWG (AAWG) product family including Super Gaussian AAWG. POINTek's new Super Gaussian AAWGs are designed to support 200Gbps data transmission with exceptionally low insertion loss and wider passband characteristics different from conventional AAWGs and this new product is based on a new IP optical packaging technology capitalizing on previous registered athermalization patents. POINTek claims that the new Super Gaussian AAWGs go beyond metro WDM network applications, extending suitably to cable TV networks. Today's Cable TV industry accommodate Coherent Optics devices as seen in recent specifications of Point-to-Point Coherent Optics P2P Coherent Optics Architecture Specification P2PCO-SP-ARCH-I02-190311 and Point-to-Point Coherent Optics Physical Layer 2.0 Specification P2PCO-SP-PHYv2.0-I02-200501 issued by CableLabs. The Super Gaussian AAWGs will sufficiently support the use of P2P Coherent Optics in the cable TV network for the 200Gbps data rate. Specifically, DWDM filter loss was posted 11dB for the 200Gbps DP-QPSK modulation data rate transmission over the dual optical fiber link. The specification depicts the Link Budget of 9.3dB with a projected reach distance of 37.2 Km (assuming optimal fiber loss of 0.25dB/Km). This distance could be shortened drastically not only by the real cable environments with less optimal fiber loss but also by the additional optical components such as DCM or switch. The saving of 6dB for the link budget on POINTek's low insertion loss Super Gaussian AAWG translates into an increase of 24Km additional reach, doubling the total distance reach. Therefore, POINTek's new AAWG is quite suitable for high-speed coherent optics-based technology solution and it meets today's broadband data consumption and delivery in situ. "Our Super Gaussian AAWG represents the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) points of product differentiation for AWG-based optical devices. Our product strategy differs from competitors where they focus on "low price" with some measured risk in reliability and operational instability. Unlike our competitors, we design and make our devices to satisfy a long operational lifetime with our optical packaging technology backed by athermalization IPs, providing our customer with a highly reliable, truly commercial grade product," according to Dr. Donald Yu, CMO of POINTek, operating from Los Angeles, California. Yu explains that the strong and enduring reliability of our AAWG products over all range of environmental conditions constitutes the single most important USP of product strategy, and this strategy was built into all individual AWG devices from brick to chassis, offering the world's highest performance AAWGs. "Now, we have refined our optical packaging know-hows to the Super Gaussian AAWG level of performance," Yu adds. POINTek not only sharpened its optical packaging technology but also made it for Company's distinct USP points in producing high performance AAWGs with following features and characteristics: All AAWG products are different, and POINTek's AAWG are 100% passive and individually customized. Every AWG vendor seeks specific discrimination solutions, but POINTek's optical packaging technique not only enables the company to manufacture all types of customized AAWGs but also refines its athermalization technology one level high, well suited for ultra-wide broadband with low insertion loss. "No commercial AAWG with both 0.55nm FWHM and 2.5dB low insertion loss is available from any AWG vendor on the markets today. Our AAWG is effectively a new class of AAWG called Super Gaussian AAWG," says Dr. T.H. Rhee, CEO of POINTek. "We meet customer's unique operational environment optimally. For example, we can provide our Super Gaussian AAWG with a small form factor package for those customers who require the limited installation space," Rhee adds. POINTek's Super Gaussian AAWG offers a timely and appropriate solution to cable TV's high-speed 200Gbps data delivery. About POINTek, Inc. Launched in 2000 with the goal of developing cutting edge Planar Optical Waveguide Technology, POINTek has become a global leader in the following two decades since its establishment, providing top-quality high performance athermal AWGs. POINTek specializes in packaging and manufacturing AAWG based DWDM optical device products. For more information, visit http://www.pointekinc.com or http://www.athermalawg.com. Media Contact: Donald Yu [email protected] USA +1 (714) 519-4943 SOURCE POINTek Inc. Related Links http://www.pointekinc.com The president signed a decree on her appointment on February 25. Oksana Markarova has commented on her appointment as Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States. "It is a great honor and an even greater responsibility to represent Ukraine in the United States of America," she wrote on Facebook on February 25. "I'm thankful to President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for their trust and ambitious tasks." Read alsoZelensky appoints ex-finance minister as Ukraine's ambassador to U.S. Markarova also noted that she was glad to join the "effective Ukrainian diplomatic army men and women whose tireless work is an integral part of many victories both in the international arena and in Ukraine." "I love Ukraine and believe that our thousand-year history, multiplied by unique resilience despite numerous attacks, and the initiated transformation into a modern, innovative country, together with returning to the European family and future NATO membership, gives us a chance to become a regional leader of a new quality in the 21st century and a trusted strategic partner for the United States of America," she added. Previous developments On November 20, Kuleba said that he had proposed that President Zelensky appoint ex-Minister of Finance Markarova as Ukraine's new ambassador to the United States. Markarova headed the Finance Ministry in Ukraine from June 8, 2018 to March 4, 2020. On February 25, the president appointed Markarova as Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. Reporting by UNIAN 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. Advertisement After steep declines in new coronavirus cases worldwide, infections are now on the rise again across the globe, Johns Hopkins data shows. In the US, the seven-day rolling average of new cases has ticked back up for the past four days in a row, with 74,502 recorded Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And yesterday also brought a moderate spike in new deaths nationwide. More than 3,000 Americans died of COVID-19 for the first time in 10 days. Hospitalizations, however, continue to decline with 54,000 people in in patient treatment. The phenomenon is not unique to the US. The rolling average of new infections is up in every major region of the world - North America, South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Worldwide, 378,250 new cases were confirmed on Wednesday - up nearly five percent from the February 18 low of 361,124 new infections. So what is happening? Vaccines are now being given across the highly-developed world with 66.5 million given in the US, and beginning in poorer countries like Guinea. Densely populated nations where the virus has spread uninhibited - like India and South Africa - are quickly approaching herd immunity. Both of these trends help to push new infections down, but they aren't happening uniformly across the world, or even within large nations like the US, and where there are holes in immunity, viral variants may already be fueling a resurgence, a Financial Times analysis suggests. The rolling average of new infections is up in every major region of the world - North America, South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The overall trajectory of COVID-19 in the US remains promising, but it underscores what public health experts have been warning since cases began declining: The danger has not passed. In California, for example, the COVID-19 death toll doubled in just two months, reaching A total of 28,335,264 people have now tested positive with the virus while some 505,803 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States. California's overall COVID-19 death toll is currently at 50,890, according Johns Hopkins University. The figure accounts for roughly a tenth of all deaths associated with the virus in the U.S. While the nation's most populous state has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., it is ranked 25th in the number of cases per capita because of its large population. The death toll climbed precipitously amid a fall and winter surge that has begun to taper off as cases and hospitalizations drop. Los Angeles County on Wednesday reported an additional 136 deaths, accounting for nearly half of the state's 314 additional deaths. For the past six weeks, cases have been plummeting, including in both Florida and California which took opposite approaches to restrictions, yet had about the same level of positive COVID-19 tests last month - but that has finally started to change with a faster, more sustained decline in cases beginning in the middle of January and continuing through Wednesday. California saw 5,750 new cases and 1,084 deaths on Wednesday, with a test positivity rate of 3.45 percent. In Florida, the test positivity rate was nearly twice that, at 6.76 percent, according to COVID Tracking Project data. The state saw 7,128 new cases and 127 additional deaths. It took 10 months for the state to hit 25,000 deaths on New Year's Eve and less than two months for that number to double. California's overall COVID-19 death toll is currently at 50,890, roughly a tenth of all deaths in the country Deaths have hit the poor, and Latino and black communities especially hard. People working essential jobs have greater exposure to the virus and are more likely to bring it home to others who share crowded living quarters. The death rate for Latinos is 21 percent higher than the statewide figure and 7 percent higher for black people, according to the state Department of Public Health. Latinos comprise a plurality of the population - 39 percent - but 55 percent of cases and 46 percent of deaths. Black people make up 6 percent of the state's population and account for 4 percent of cases and 6 percent of deaths. Whites, by comparison, make up 37 percent of the population but only 20 percent of cases and 32 percent of deaths. Case rates are 38 percent higher in communities where the median annual income is less than $40,000. The news out of California comes as researchers say they have discovered a new COVID-19 variant spreading rapidly through New York City. The variant has the mutations that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, according to two new studies. The B.1.526 variant, which first appeared in samples collected in New York City in November, now makes up about 27 percent of viral sequences deposited into a database shared by scientists called GISAID, according to The New York Times. Caltech researchers told the New York Times they found two versions of coronavirus rising rapidly in the city. They are calling both the B.1.526 variant for now. One carries the E484K mutation, which has independently been found in Brazil and South Africa. Scientists believe that mutation reduces the effectiveness of vaccines. The other has the S477N mutation which may act like a guide for COVID-19 to human cells, optimizing the binding process and possibly increasing infection rates. Britain's B.1.1.7 variant is expected to become the most prevalent form of the coronavirus in the United States by the end of March, according to the Times, and now accounts for about 2,000 cases in 45 states. New York City, which was the epicenter of the pandemic last spring, has recorded 707,695 COVID-19 cases, and 29,025 people have died from the virus. New cases and daily deaths in the city are decreasing, with 24,558 people testing positive and 384 fatalities in the past seven days. The city's test positivity rate is 8.06 percent. The 73 crosses signifying COVID-19 deaths in Nevada County, sit on the hill next to Old Barn Storage Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 in Grass Valley, California In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, National Guard members assist with processing COVID-19 death On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released an analysis of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine showing that the company's one shot version would be effective in combating variants of the virus. The single shot appears to offer more protection against new variants than previously believed with 68 percent effectiveness at preventing moderate to severe illness by the variant in Brazil and 64 percent effectiveness against the South African variant. The federal agency's scientists confirmed that, overall, the vaccine is about 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19. Officials also said J&J's shot - one that could help speed vaccinations in the U.S. by requiring just one dose instead of two - is safe to use. The analysis sets the stage for a final decision that could come as soon as Friday on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic that has already claimed more than 500,000 American lives. If authorized, between three and four million doses will be allocated next week,' Jeff Zeints, the White House's COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said during a briefing on Wednesday. A contract with the federal government guarantees 100 million doses by the end of June, and Zients said the company is working to 'accelerate' production. So far, about 65 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, shots that require two doses several weeks apart for full protection. An FDA analysis found that Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine is safe to use and does protect against COVID-19 and some of its variants. Pictured: Vials of the J&H COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., December 2020 Advertisement German Chancellor Angela Merkel last night warned that new Covid variants risk a third wave of infections sweeping across the country which could provoke another national lockdown. Coronavirus cases have started to increase again in Germany with only four per cent of the public vaccinated, while Britons are already counting down the days to freedom on June 21. Ms Merkel and state premiers in Germany, Europe's most populous country and largest economy, have agreed to extend restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus until March 7. Hair salons will be allowed to reopen from March 1, but the threshold for a gradual reopening of the rest of the economy targets an infection rate of no more than 35 new cases per 100,000 people over seven days. While the Chancellor warns of a looming 'third wave', Germany's biggest-selling newspaper Bild praises Britain's vaccine success with a front-page heading that screamed: 'Dear Brits, we envy you!'. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ms Merkel said: 'Because of (variants), we are entering a new phase of the pandemic, from which a third wave may emerge. So we must proceed wisely and carefully so that a third wave does not necessitate a new complete shutdown throughout Germany.' Vaccines and comprehensive testing could allow for 'a more regionally differentiated approach', the Chancellor also said in the newspaper interview published online last night. 'In a district with a stable incidence of 35, for example, it may be possible to open all schools without causing distortions in relation to other districts with a higher incidence and schools that are not yet open,' she added. 'An intelligent opening strategy is inextricably linked with comprehensive quick tests, as it were as free tests,' she said. 'I cannot say exactly how long it will take to install such a system. But it will be in March.' Ms Merkel described Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, which some essential workers have refused, as 'a reliable vaccine, effective and safe. As long as vaccines are as scarce as they are at the moment, you can't choose what you want to be vaccinated with.' German Chancellor Angela Merkel last night warned that new Covid variants risk a third wave of infections across the country that could provoke another national lockdown Bild's front page yesterday includes the headline: 'Dear Brits, we envy you!', superimposed on a Union Jack and accompanied by the caption: 'The English have announced their return to normality on June 21... and here there's no hope' The death rate has fallen from its January peak but is still higher than during the first wave, when Germany was celebrated for keeping deaths low A two-month 'hard lockdown' has brought Germany's infection rate down, but progress has now stalled with cases on the rise again in the last week Health minister who clashed with Merkel over jab shambles 'fights for his career' as she 'takes revenge' German health minister Jens Spahn is said to be 'fighting for his career' after overseeing a shambolic vaccine roll-out, clashing with Angela Merkel and failing to deliver on a promised rapid-testing scheme. Spahn, who only months ago was being feted by those marvelling at Germany's early success against the pandemic, has seen his approval rating slide five points in a month amid the vaccination chaos and a grinding two-month lockdown. Merkel's decision to postpone a major rapid testing roll-out which Spahn had promised to bring in on March 1 has prompted talk of 'revenge' in German media - after the chancellor accused him of trying to shift blame for the vaccine fiasco to Brussels. With Bild now describing Spahn as a 'ministerial flop', the 40-year-old - who was seen as an outside contender in the race to succeed Merkel as chancellor later this year - is said to be 'frustrated' and 'bewildered' by the setbacks to his career. Like the rest of the EU, Germany is lagging far behind the UK in its vaccine roll-out - with Merkel's government under fire for delegating the task to Brussels. While Britain has given out 27.0 doses per 100 people, Germany has managed only 6.2, only fractionally above the EU average. Spahn's promises of five million doses by the end of January and a jab for all care home residents by the middle of February were also not met. A leaked letter last month revealed how Spahn and some of his fellow health ministers had handed the vaccine task to the European Commission last June. But according to Bild, that led Merkel to suspect that Spahn had organised the leak in order to deflect blame for the slow progress being made in Germany. Merkel is since thought to have brought responsibility for the vaccine programme into the chancellor's office, limiting Spahn's authority. Advertisement Bild's front-page headline has the words 'we envy you', partly in English, superimposed over the Union Jack - with a caption saying that 'the English have announced their return to normality on June 21... and here there's no hope'. The article describes Britons as 'just plain happy', adding that they had 'reacted with overwhelming euphoria' to the PM's announcement on Monday. 'It means: Normal life is coming back! FREEDOM!,' the article published in Wednesday's paper says. 'That's made possible by the successful vaccination campaign,' it says, noting that more than 17.7million people have received a jab in the UK compared to 3.4million in larger Germany. The article goes on: 'While the Brits are already planning their summer holidays, Germany is stuck in lockdown. 'That's because chancellor Angela Merkel, who as recently as Monday was holding out the prospect of loosening lockdown, sounded the alarm again yesterday.' Chancellor Merkel told party colleagues on Tuesday that 'we are now in the third wave', warning that any easing of lockdown after March 7 could only take place gradually. The chancellor, a trained scientist, has long been cautious about a hasty exit from lockdown - and Germany's jab programme is not moving fast enough to protect a large share of the population at this stage. A second Bild article describes Johnson's plans as a 'Corona-Brexit', and asks: 'When will we catch up to the Brits?'. 'The deficit is growing: at the moment the Brits are vaccinating nearly three times as many people per day,' it says. 'Herd immunity on the island [meaning Britain] certainly appears in sight. And that's why the Brits want to open up.' While Ms Merkel has come under fire for letting Brussels take the lead in the vaccine race, the EU's supply problems have been made worse by many Germans' reluctance to take the AstraZeneca vaccine after European leaders voiced doubts about the jab. Germany was among the countries which refused to let over-65s take the jab because of limited trial data, in contrast to Britain where real-world data this week showed the jab cutting hospitalisations in Scotland by 94 per cent. Emmanuel Macron added fuel to the fire in France by casting doubt on the jab's effectiveness and claiming that Britain had taken a risk by approving it so quickly. Ms Merkel's office is now pleading with Germans to take the AstraZeneca shot after only 187,000 of the jabs were administered out of the first 1.5million delivered. 'The vaccine from AstraZeneca is both safe and highly effective,' Ms Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. 'The vaccine can save lives.' EU chief Ursula von on der Leyen has now joined in that effort, saying that she herself would take the vaccine despite her earlier feud with the company. 'I would take the AstraZeneca vaccine without a second thought, just like Moderna's and BioNTech/Pfizer's products,' von der Leyen told the Augsburger Allgemeine. The EU's AstraZeneca problems are set to continue into the spring, with as many as 90million doses expected to be missing from shipments in the second quarter of 2021. An EU official involved in talks with the firm says the company has warned that it may deliver only half of its promised 180million doses from April to June. It comes after Brussels reacted with fury last month when AstraZeneca said it would cut deliveries to the bloc because of delays at a Belgian factory. After AstraZeneca warned of shortfalls but continued to supply Britain in full, the EU published its contract with the firm and claimed to have cast-iron commitments. Brussels also imposed export controls on jab shipments leaving the bloc, but was forced into retreat after initially saying they would apply to Northern Ireland. German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a cabinet meeting in Berlin, Germany German soldiers prepare AstraZeneca vaccines at a former Berlin airport earlier this month, amid widespread reluctance to take the jab despite its proven effectiveness Britain is far outpacing Germany and other EU countries in handing out vaccines to guard against a resurgence of Covid-19 But AstraZeneca's CEO blamed the delays on the fact that the EU had not signed a contract until three months after Britain had tied up a deal last year. AstraZeneca is not exporting vaccines made in the UK, in line with its separate contract with the British government. But AstraZeneca has told the EU it could provide more doses from its global supply chain, including from India and the United States, an EU official said last week. Also under fire is Ms Merkel's health minister Jens Spahn, who has been criticised over the vaccine fiasco and suffered further humiliation this week when his plan to roll out rapid testing from March 1 was torpedoed by the Chancellor's office. The rapid-testing plan will now merely be discussed at talks between Ms Merkel and state premiers on March 3, the chancellor's spokesman said. As recently as last week, Spahn had promised that the publicly-funded tests would be available from March 1 in pharmacies and local testing centres. 'These testing options can contribute to a safe everyday life, especially in schools and daycare centres,' Spahn had said. The government's popularity has also been hit by the prolonged lockdown which has turned Germany's success of last spring into a much bleaker picture this winter. After seeing fewer than 10,000 deaths during the first wave, Germany's death toll is now above 68,000 and a weeks-long decline in cases has now come to a halt. The last seven days have seen 52,419 new cases, up from 50,403 the week before, and the closely-watched R rate has been as high as 1.25. The stagnation means that the infection rate per 100,000 people, currently 59.3, is hovering agonisingly above the level of 50 identified as a benchmark for re-opening. Germany's success in the first wave means its total death rate is still well below Britain's, with 68,740 deaths compared to the UK's 121,305. Gloom: German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned of a looming 'third wave', with the pace of vaccinations too slow to protect a large share of the population The roadmap out of lockdown: Boris Johnson's plans would allow for all restrictions to be lifted by June and significant freedoms to return before then EU is set to receive 90 MILLION fewer AstraZeneca jabs than expected in latest blow to their vaccine drive as Ursula von der Leyen admits she would take the jab despite Europe's scaremongering Europe's vaccine chaos is set to continue into the spring with as many as 90million doses missing from AstraZeneca shipments in the second quarter of 2021. An EU official involved in talks with the firm says AstraZeneca has warned that it may deliver only half of its promised 180million doses from April to June. It comes after Brussels reacted with fury last month when AstraZeneca said it would cut deliveries to the bloc because of delays at a Belgian factory. The new shortage could hamper the EU's ability to meet its target of vaccinating 70 per cent of adults by summer - with Britain promising to offer one dose to 100 per cent by July 31. EU leaders have also made matters worse by raising doubts about the AstraZeneca jab despite its proven effectiveness - with Germany now pleading with its citizens to take the jab after the scaremongering led to low uptake. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, 62, has also sought to quell doubts by saying that she herself would take the AstraZeneca jab. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, pictured, says she would take the AstraZeneca vaccine despite feuding with the firm over supplies to the bloc 'I would take the AstraZeneca vaccine without a second thought, just like Moderna's and BioNTech/Pfizer's products,' von der Leyen told the Augsburger Allgemeine. But she also continued to voice doubts about the UK's strategy of delaying second doses - a move approved by Britain's chief medical officers - as she claimed that the EU was 'catching up' in the vaccine race. The EU supply shortage is seen as one of the main reasons for a widely-criticised vaccine roll-out which is lagging far behind that in Britain. While the UK has handed out 27.0 doses per 100 people, the EU is lagging behind on 6.2 and has not significantly sped up its progress in recent weeks. Von der Leyen defended her policies by pointing out that the EU had handed out 27milion doses in total compared to 17million in Britain - but the bloc of 27 countries has a population more than six times larger. She also noted that Italy had given double-doses to more people than Britain, but it has handed out far fewer doses overall. Catching up to Britain will be made even harder if AstraZeneca shortfalls continue into the early summer, as an EU official told Reuters. AstraZeneca is producing vaccines at two plants in the UK, one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands, but is not exporting its British-made jabs under its contract with UK ministers - although it has offered the EU doses made in India and the US. This woman received the AstraZeneca vaccine in a hospital in Madrid on Tuesday - but elsewhere there has been low uptake after European scaremongering about the product The official said AstraZeneca planned to deliver about 40million doses in the first quarter, less than half the 90million shots it was supposed to supply. It was also due to deliver 30 million doses in the last quarter of 2020 but did not supply any shots last year as its vaccine had yet to be approved by the EU. All told, AstraZeneca's total supply to the EU could be about 130 million doses by the end of June, well below the 300 million it committed to deliver to the bloc by then. AstraZeneca did not deny the EU official's claims, but said it was striving to increase productivity in order to meet its 180million target. 'We are hopeful that we will be able to bring our deliveries closer in line with the advance purchase agreement,' an AstraZeneca spokesman said. Later in the day, the firm added that its 'most recent Q2 forecast... aims to deliver in line with its contract with the European Commission'. 'At this stage AstraZeneca is working to increase productivity in its EU supply chain and to continue to make use of its global capability in order to achieve delivery of 180 million doses to the EU in the second quarter,' it said. A European Commission spokesman declined to comment on confidential talks but said the EU should have enough shots even if the AstraZeneca targets are not met. An EU regulator approved the AstraZeneca jab in late January but the ruling was overshadowed by a furious political row over the delayed shipments. After AstraZeneca warned of shortfalls but continued to supply Britain in full, the EU published its contract with the firm and claimed to have cast-iron commitments. Brussels also imposed export controls on jab shipments leaving the bloc, but was forced into retreat after initially saying they would apply to Northern Ireland. But AstraZeneca's CEO blamed the delays on the fact that the EU had not signed a contract until three months after Britain had tied up a deal last year. AstraZeneca is not exporting vaccines made in the UK, in line with its separate contract with the British government. But AstraZeneca has told the EU it could provide more doses from its global supply chain, including from India and the United States, an EU official said last week. The EU published its 42-page contract with AstraZeneca, pictured, at the height of a bitter row over shipments last month AstraZeneca is now forecast to make up its shortfalls by the end of September, according to a German health ministry document. German officials expect to receive 34million doses in the third quarter, taking the country to its full entitlement of 56million out of the EU's 300million doses. Despite its approval by EU regulators, the AstraZeneca vaccine has met with resistance in some countries - further slowing the European roll-out. Some countries including France and Germany have refused to approve it for over-65s because of limited trial data, despite the firm's assurances that it is effective. French president Emmanuel Macron added fuel to the fire by questioning the jab's effectiveness and claiming Britain had taken a risk by authorising it so soon. The effect of such scaremongering is that only 187,000 AstraZeneca shots have been administered in Germany out of 1.5million due to have been delivered by last week. German leaders have now launched a public relations push to reassure the public that the shot developed at Oxford University is effective. 'The vaccine from AstraZeneca is both safe and highly effective,' Ms Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. 'The vaccine can save lives.' Von der Leyen has now joined in that effort, saying that she herself would take the vaccine despite her earlier feud with the company. What IS behind Britain's vaccine drive slowing down? All the answers to your questions on the AstraZeneca/Pfizer supply issues which ministers say is to blame Britain's vaccine rollout has slowed down over the past month, with ministers and manufacturers pointing the finger at each other for the hold-up. With a successful immunisation drive crucial to Britain's hopes of restrictions getting eased drastically over the next few months, critics say it is vital the programme picks up speed to avoid Boris Johnson's ambitious plans getting derailed. Just 192,000 people were vaccinated on Monday and 142,000 on Sunday, in two of the lowest daily tolls since the mammoth NHS operation began to gather steam at the start of the year. Ministers have repeatedly blamed the supply of vaccines as being the 'rate-limiting factor' of the programme, and the UK's reliance on just two companies' jabs makes the situation precarious. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said there was 'no problem' with the supply chain and Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer, agreed that 'fluctuations' were anticipated. Officials say smaller deliveries were expected because Pfizer had to improve its key factory in Belgium at the start of the year, and AstraZeneca's production was slower to get off the ground than planned. However, both drug giants have insisted that there are no unforeseen issues with the supply chain, as Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland's rollout couldn't speed up until 'the supplies start to flow in greater volumes again'. And the concerns spread wider than Britain when an EU official revealed that AstraZeneca is now set to deliver only half of the planned doses to the continent in the second quarter of this year as the firm recovers from a row with the bloc earlier in the year about its supply commitments. Despite fears that deliveries are slowing down, Matt Hancock has promised 'bumper' weeks in March to compensate for the lag. Supply figures published by the Scottish Government in mid-January appeared to back his claims, which the number of doses being delivered next month set to be significantly higher. Here, MailOnline digs into why Britain's vaccination drive has slowed down: The UK has one of the most advanced vaccination programmes in the world, reaching 18million people already, but Sunday and Monday saw its progress slow down Delivery schedules published by the Scottish Government in January and later removed from its website showed a scheduled dip in stocks in February followed by a surge in availability in March What slowed down Pfizer's vaccine? One of the biggest hold-ups in vaccine delivery appears to have been Pfizer doing maintenance work at its manufacturing facility in Belgium. As part of preparing to produce hundreds of millions of doses for countries around the world, the company admitted in January that it would be delaying deliveries. A frustrated EU Commission said the delay was caused by 'modifications at the plant' and Pfizer planned to have finished them by mid-February. Pfizer confirmed the disruption would affect all countries in Europe and told the Financial Times: 'Although this will temporarily impact shipments in late January to early February, it will provide a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March.' The Scottish Government plans showed that the deliveries from Pfizer would fall by a third from around 128,000 doses in the final week of January to 80-83,000 per week throughout February before spiking back to 130,000 or more in March. Scotland gets around eight per cent of the UK's vaccine supply, suggesting the deliveries for the UK as a whole may have changed from 1.6million per week to 1m. Pfizer told MailOnline there were 'no UK supply challenges' and deliveries were arriving as planned. Pfizer had to make 'modifications' at its manufacturing facility in Belgium which led to delays to deliveries of the vaccine to countries all over Europe What slowed down AstraZeneca's vaccine? The UK's other major vaccine supplier, AstraZeneca, is making up for the majority of jabs being given out and is expected to be supplying 2million doses per week. This rapid pace of delivery came later than expected, however, which delayed the NHS's plans to roll it out to care homes and GP surgeries across the country. Mid-January had been the original target for two million per week, The Times reported at the start of the year, but this was pushed back by a month. In a briefing on January 13 AstraZeneca president Tom Keith-Roach said the commitment would be met 'on or before the middle of February'. AstraZeneca slashes EU delivery expectation by half AstraZeneca told the European Union it would not be able to deliver on the EU's vaccine orders amid supply issues. The firm had committed to supplying the bloc with 180million doses in the second quarter of 2020. But an EU official involved directly in talks with the firm, said the company had warned it could now only 'deliver less than 90million doses', according to Reuters. Britain has ordered 100million doses of the Oxford vaccine and it is one of two Covid jabs being rolled out on the NHS. Asked about the EU official's comment, a spokesman for AstraZeneca told Reuters: 'We are hopeful that we will be able to bring our deliveries closer in line with the advance purchase agreement.' Later in the day a spokesman in a new statement said the company's 'most recent Q2 forecast for the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine aims to deliver in line with its contract with the European Commission.' He added: 'At this stage AstraZeneca is working to increase productivity in its EU supply chain and to continue to make use of its global capability in order to achieve delivery of 180 million doses to the EU in the second quarter.' Earlier this week, AstraZeneca said that although there had been 'fluctuations' in supply at plants, they were still 'on track' with orders with no issues with delivery of the UK-manufactured vaccine. A spokesman for the European Commission, which coordinates talks with vaccine manufacturers, said it could not comment on the discussions as they were confidential. He said the EU should have more than enough shots to hit its vaccination targets if the expected and agreed deliveries from other suppliers are met, regardless of the situation with AstraZeneca. Advertisement The Scottish delivery figures show that AstraZeneca's supplies were also scheduled to be low in February. They would fall from a high of 261,000 doses in a week in late January to none at all in one week in the middle of the month, before escalating to more than 300,000 per week from the beginning of March. A spokesman for AstraZeneca said on Monday that although there had been 'fluctuations' in supply at plants, the firm was still 'on track' with orders. Why are the UK and Europe being affected differently? Pfizer's manufacturing issues appear to affect the European Union and Britain equally, but AstraZeneca's are different because it manufactures the vaccines in different places. The AstraZeneca vaccine is a natural product it is a genetically engineered virus made to look like the coronavirus so must be grown naturally. The cells needed to make the jab will only reproduce as fast as they naturally can, and astronomical quantities of them are needed, which means the process will always take a minimum amount of time. AstraZeneca says it takes three months, on average, to make each batch of the vaccine. Numerous ones are made at the same time but this means that there is an upper limit to how much or how fast one plant can make jabs. And the yields of these natural batches are also not entirely controllable the company said it had not produced as much as it had hoped at the start of the production. Low yields at major European supply plants in Belgium have devastated supply plans on the continent, but Britain makes its own supply in England where the success rate has been higher. Is there an easy solution? The UK's 'lumpy' supply cannot be improved easily because there is no quick fix for such a huge manufacturing operation. Other countries have vaccine orders of equal or higher priority Pfizer is being used widely in Europe, for example, and Moderna is still unavailable to the UK because it was later to place orders than the US and EU. And of the vaccines Britain is already receiving, manufacturing cannot be sped up infinitely. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, explained on Sky News: 'There are always going to be supply fluctuations. 'These are new vaccines, by and large the manufacturers have not made them or anything like them before. 'The process of making a vaccine is one where, basically, you set the equipment up and leave it all to do its thing a bit like beer-making really. 'What you get at the end is not something that you can say is identical every time in terms of the yield, the amount of doses you can then make from that batch.' He added that it will take 'a few months' before the manufacturers can get into a steady routine, he said, and there were also 'global supply constraints'. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam (left), England's deputy chief medical officer, said 'There are always going to be supply fluctuations', and NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens (right) said the pace of vaccination could double in the second phase of the rollout Will the UK's vaccine rollout speed up? Ministers insist that the vaccination programme will speed up significantly in March when supplies become bigger and more regular. The Government is aiming to vaccinate everyone over the age of 50 by May, and Boris Johnson said he plans to offer a first dose to all adults in the UK by July 31. Moderna's vaccine, of which the UK is expecting seven million doses and has already approved for us, will start to be delivered from the end of March. Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, suggested the rollout could even go twice as fast in its second phase in order to keep reaching people at the same rate as now while also giving out the second doses to elderly people. 'Compelling' real-world data from Scotland shows one dose of either jab cuts risk of being hospitalised by up to 95% Covid vaccines being used in Britain are working 'spectacularly well' and cutting hospital admissions caused by the virus by as much as 95 per cent, according to the first real-world evidence of the roll-out. Researchers called the results 'very encouraging' and claimed they provided 'compelling evidence' that they can prevent severe illness. Scientists counted Covid hospital admissions in Scotland among people who had had their first dose of a jab and compared them to those who had not yet received a dose of either the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. In a ray of hope for Britain's lockdown-easing plans, results showed the jabs slashed the risk of being admitted to hospital with Covid by up to 85 and 94 per cent, respectively, four weeks after a single dose. The study carried out by academics from the universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde, as well as Public Health Scotland was the first of its kind. But it currently doesn't have enough data to analyse how well the jabs prevent death or stop transmission of the virus. Lead researcher Professor Aziz Sheikh said: 'These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future. We now have national evidence that vaccination provides protection against Covid hospitalisations. 'Roll-out of the first vaccine dose now needs to be accelerated globally to help overcome this terrible disease.' Advertisement He said at a Downing Street briefing last week: 'In this next phase, the second sprint, actually we're going to be vaccinating a larger number of people than in the first sprint. 'And overall, although supply will vary week to week and we've got to adjust accordingly, we may be giving up to twice as many vaccinations overall given we've got to be doing second doses as well than we have done in the first sprint.' Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said vaccination figures would stay low for the rest of this week in an interview with LBC's Nick Ferrari. He said it will be a 'quieter week' for the vaccine rollout because of a drop in stockpiles, warning that the success of the drive was 'all about supply'. Mr Hancock added: 'We have got a quieter week this week and then we're going to have some really bumper weeks in March.' Pointing the blame at vaccine manufacturers, he also claimed there has been 'ups and downs' in the delivery schedule. Why is it important for the rollout to progress quickly? Britain's vaccination programme must go quickly because the country's entire route out of lockdown hinges on it. Boris Johnson's plans to lift lockdown rules are based on vaccinating the majority of people who are likely to die if they catch coronavirus. The more people who can be successfully vaccinated with at least one dose, the faster the rules can be loosened because the lower the death count of the third wave could be expected to be. A third wave of the virus is now inevitable, with cases expected to skyrocket when lockdown ends, but the impact of this will be more tolerable if the majority of adults in the country are immune to the virus. Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said that Britain will struggle to stick to its plans if vaccination rates don't pick up 'very soon'. Professor Hunter pointed out that the rapid decline in positive coronavirus tests seen earlier in the lockdown appears to be levelling off now, and the number of people being vaccinated each day are dropping lower at the same time. He warned: 'Taken together, these two observations are concerning... 'If more of our vulnerable people were protected from severe disease through immunisation, then we could allow some increase in numbers without posing a substantial extra risk of severe disease and hospitalisation. 'However, a lot of people admitted to hospital with Covid are still not in the groups where vaccination has been completed. 'If vaccination rates do not pick up very soon, then we will struggle to give enough people their first dose before we have to allocate more and more of our available doses to people's second injections. 'This could lead to more potentially vulnerable individuals being unprotected for a lot longer than we had expected as we try to relax restrictions further. This would have the real potential to derail the UK's road plan for coming out of lockdown.' The four astronauts who will fly aboard a SpaceX mission by the end of the year will be a bunch of private citizens with no space experience. One's a billionaire funding the mission; another a health care provider. The third will be selected at random through a sweepstakes, and the last seat will go to the winner of a competition. In the new Space Age, you can buy a ticket to orbit - no need to have been a fighter pilot in the military or to compete against thousands of other overachievers for a coveted spot in NASA's astronaut corps. In fact, for this mission, the first comprised entirely of private citizens, NASA is little more than a bystander. It does not own or operate the rocket that will blast the astronauts into space or the capsule they will live in for the few days they are scheduled to circle the Earth every 90 minutes. NASA has no say in selecting the astronauts, and it will not train or outfit them - that will all be done by Elon Musk's SpaceX. The money to pay for the flight also will not come from NASA - or any other government account. The cost of the project is being born by a billionaire, Jared Isaacman, who has set it up as a fundraiser for St. Jude's Research Hospital and a promotional device for his business, Shift4Shop, which helps businesses set up websites and process payments. This is the new look of human space exploration as government's long-held monopoly on space travel continues to erode, redefining not only who owns the vehicles that carry people to space, but also the very nature of what an astronaut is and who gets to be one. And it comes as NASA confronts some of the largest changes it has faced since it was founded in 1958 when the United States' world standing was challenged by the Soviet Union's surprise launch of the first Sputnik into orbit. Now it is NASA's unrivaled primacy in human spaceflight that is under challenge. Thanks to NASA's investments and guidance, the private space sector has grown tremendously - no entity more than SpaceX, which according to CNBC is now worth $74 billion. The commercial space industry is taking on ever more roles and responsibilities - flying not just cargo and supplies to the International Space Station, but even NASA's astronauts there. The private sector will launch some of the major components of the space station NASA wants to build in orbit around the moon, and private companies are developing the spacecraft that will fly astronauts to and from the lunar surface. Space enthusiasts, including NASA, see enormous benefit in the shift - a new era of space exploration that will usher in a more capable and efficient space industry. But the changing dynamic also has left NASA, which for decades has set the pace for the American space project, with an uncertain role, a development NASA's Safety Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warns could have consequences for years to come. The growth of companies like SpaceX has "tremendous upside potential - and are accompanied by equally tremendous challenges for managing the risk of human space exploration," it said in its annual report, released last month. "NASA leadership in human space exploration is still preeminent, but the agency's role is evolving with critical implications for how risk and safety will be managed." So far, NASA has done well "as it shifts from principally executing its programs and missions to commercially acquiring significant key elements and services," it said. But as the agency continues to evolve "NASA must make some strategically critical decisions, based on deliberate and thorough consideration, that are necessary because of their momentous consequences for the future of human space exploration and, in particular, for the management of the attendant risks." In an interview, Steve Jurczyk, NASA's acting administrator, said the agency is well aware of how its identity and role are changing, and he likened the agency's role to how the U.S. government fostered the commercial aviation industry in the early 20th century. NASA's predecessor, NACA, or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, "did research, technology development to initially support defense . . . but also later on supporting a burgeoning commercial aircraft industry and aviation industry," he said. "So that may be how we evolve, moving forward on the space side. We're going to do the research and the technology development and be the enablers for continuing to support the commercial space sector." NASA has not ceded all ground. It still leads major exploration and science programs that no company could match. Last week, for example, it landed a rover the size of a car on Mars, hitting a precise landing target after traveling nearly 300 million miles. Later this year, it is scheduled to launch the James Webb telescope, which is designed to look back in time to the origins of the universe. And it also recently snagged a sample of rocks and soil from an asteroid 200 million miles from Earth to return them to Earth for study. "NASA works," Rob Manning, the chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said after the Perseverance landed safely on Mars. "When we put our arms together and our hands together and our brains together, we can succeed. This is what NASA does." Those big, daring, push-the-envelope missions is where NASA's future lies, agency and industry officials agree. Not in looking for financial gain, but blazing the trail and opening new frontiers, and then allowing private industry to take over in the way homesteaders expanded into the West. Within NASA, there is still some resistance to that paradigm shift. "NASA feels like that's our domain," said Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight. "And my response is, the solar system is a big place. We at NASA should always be doing the next thing, the thing where the profit motive is not as evident and where the barriers to entry are still too high for the private sector to really make a compelling business case." Jan Worner, the outgoing general director of the European Space Agency, agrees. "I believe space agencies have to change," he said in an interview. "If you are fixed permanently to the same thing that you did in the past, you will you will lose." But NASA officials are concerned that much of the future workforce is going to be attracted to a growing number of commercial companies doing amazing things. There is Planet, for example, that is putting up constellations of small satellites that take an image of the earth every day. Or Relativity Space, which is 3-D printing entire rockets. Or Axiom Space, which is building a commercial space station. Or Astrobotic, which intends to land a spacecraft on the moon later this year. The question NASA faces, then, is an urgent one: "How do you maintain that NASA technical expertise?" Jurczyk said. The agency does not know. "It may mean people are hiring more midcareer from industry or having people come to NASA, then go to industry, and come back. Or a different model where maybe you're not coming to NASA and staying for your 35-, 40-year career," he said. "We're still thinking through that." The workforce dilemma was not on NASA's mind when it embarked on this road in 2006. That is when it awarded relatively small contracts to a pair of private companies, SpaceX and Boeing, to see if they could develop spacecraft capable of bringing cargo to the International Space Station. At the time, SpaceX was largely unknown and on the verge of bankruptcy, with just one successful flight to orbit for its Falcon 1 rocket after three failures. Outside of what Musk once called "the weird rebels within NASA," few thought the program would work. It was not taken seriously by the mainstream aerospace industry or even by NASA's leadership. "Let's just give these annoying commercial people enough money so that they can fail, and we can say, 'That was dumb. We don't have to do that again'," Musk once told The Washington Post. But it did work. And now NASA is relying on the private sector not only to deliver supplies and science experiments to the surface of the moon, but also its most precious cargo - its astronauts - there. Turning over human spaceflight to the private sector was a line many thought NASA would never cross. But last year, SpaceX successfully flew two crewed missions to the space station, and Boeing is hoping to fly its first later this year. NASA has been eager to build on that success and hire private sector companies to build and operate the spacecraft that would take astronauts to and from the surface of the moon. And while NASA's flagship rocket, the Space Launch System, would be used to fly astronauts to the moon and be the most powerful ever built, it has suffered all sorts of cost overruns and technical delays. A test of its engines that was supposed to last as long as eight minutes was cut short after just one because of a technical problem. And the redo of the test was recently postponed by NASA, which said it was looking into a problem with one of the valves. Recently, the NASA Inspector General said the total cost of the rocket would reach $27 billion through 2025. That enormous cost has outraged critics of the space program, who have derided the effort as little more than a jobs program for select congressional districts and dubbed it the "Senate Launch System." Recently, the Bloomberg editorial board called for the Biden administration to "scrap the Space Launch System," asking, "Why is the U.S. government building a space rocket?" "No doubt, the era of government spacefaring had its glories," the editorial read. "But space is now a $424 billion business, with U.S. companies at its forefront. The new administration should embrace this revolution - and bring the power of private enterprise to bear in crossing the next cosmic frontier." Some high-level NASA officials, including former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, have indicated that if the commercial sector can develop lower cost alternatives, the space agency would have no choice but to consider those instead. NASA has already shifted one major mission from SLS - recently it announced that a commercial rocket, and not SLS, as Congress had mandated for years, would launch the Europa Clipper spacecraft that would study Jupiter's moon. That alone would save NASA "over$1.5 billion compared to using an SLS rocket," according to NASA's fiscal year 2021 budget request. NASA has always relied on contractors to build its hardware - from the Apollo Lunar module built by Grumman to the Space Shuttle, built largely by North American Rockwell. But NASA defined the precise requirements, took ownership of the spacecraft and operated them. That is not the case with many of its programs today. It works alongside the companies to validate their rockets and spacecraft and ensure they meet the agency's safety standards. But the hardware and the launch procedures remain in private hands. The private astronaut mission, dubbed Inspiration4, marks the next iteration in this transition. Isaacman, the billionaire founder and chief executive of Shift4Shop, a payments technology company, paid an undisclosed sum for the SpaceX flight. Isaacman, an accomplished pilot, will occupy one of the four seats. Another will go to Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The third is to be raffled off as part of a fundraising effort for the hospital. And the fourth seat will go to the winner of a competition among entrepreneurs who use Shift4Shop's platform. Isaacman has donated $100 million to St. Jude and hopes the fundraising effort will match that. "We will, of course, coordinate this with NASA," Musk said on a call with reporters earlier this month to discuss the mission. "NASA has been briefed on this and is supportive." But it will be SpaceX and the crew that will determine the flight parameters and training requirements, not NASA. "Wherever you want to go, we'll take you there," Musk said to Isaacman on the call. That mission will be followed by a second flight made up entirely of civilians - three wealthy business executives, who are each paying $55 million, in addition to the commander, Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who now serves as a vice president at Axiom. Instead of spending a few days inside SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which has about as much interior room as a large SUV, they will fly to the International Space Station. They will spend eight days there before flying back. Ultimately, Axiom's goal is even bigger - to build a space station of its own. The ISS is getting old and will need to come down at some point. NASA has said that it would eventually get out of the space station business - and outsource that to the private sector as well. Axiom is one of the leading candidates to build the successor. If Axiom is successful, it could then proceed to its ultimate goal: charter missions of private citizens, flying on private rockets to a private space station with little to no involvement from NASA. Those flights would join the suborbital space tourism flights to the edge of space that Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin hope to provide, as early as this year. That would mark the culmination of the long-held dream of opening space to the masses, and build on the first flight of private citizens to space - the flight of SpaceShipOne, a piloted spaceplane, in 2004. After that flight, the spaceplane's designer, Burt Rutan, held up a sign that he hoped would portend a new space age, one where human spaceflight was not dependent on NASA. "SpaceShipOne," it read. "Government Zero." 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! 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. Our Top 5 Magazines + Digital We get it. You live by the Ski Valleys snow report even when youre hours away. You follow every Taos post on Instagram. Our small town occupies a BIG part of your heart. Keep in touch with all things Taos when you subscribe to FIVE of our national award-winning magazines, plus access to the website and e-edition for a full year at the special low rate of just $55. A real-world test of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in more than half a million people confirms that it's very effective at preventing serious illness or death, even after one dose. Wednesday's published results, from a mass vaccination campaign in Israel, give strong reassurance that the benefits seen in smaller, limited testing persisted when the vaccine was used much more widely in a general population with various ages and health conditions. The vaccine was 92% effective at preventing severe disease after two shots and 62% after one. Its estimated effectiveness for preventing death was 72% two to three weeks after the first shot, a rate that may improve as immunity builds over time. It seemed as effective in folks over 70 as in younger people. This is immensely reassuring...better than I would have guessed, said the Mayo Clinic's Dr Gregory Poland. Vanderbilt University's Dr Buddy Creech agreed: Even after one dose we can see very high effectiveness in prevention of death, he said. Neither doctor had a role in the Israel study but both are involved in other vaccine work. Both doctors also said the new results may boost consideration of delaying the second shot, as the United Kingdom is trying, or giving one dose instead of two to people who have already had COVID-19, as France is doing, to stretch limited supplies. I would rather see 100 million people have one dose than to see 50 million people have two doses, Creech said. I see a lot of encouragement on one dose in the results from Israel, which were published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The vaccine, made by and its German partner BioNTech, is given as two shots, three weeks apart, in most countries. The study was led by researchers from the Clalit Research Institute and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, with Harvard University in the US. It did not report on safety of the vaccine, just effectiveness, but no unexpected problems arose in previous testing. Researchers compared nearly 600,000 people 16 and older in Israel's largest health care organisation who were given shots in December or January to an equal number of people of similar age, sex and health who did not receive vaccine. None of the participants had previously tested positive for the virus. The vaccine was estimated to be 57% effective at preventing any symptoms of COVID-19 two to three weeks after the first dose, and 94% a week or more after the second dose. Effectiveness was 74% after one shot and 87% after two for preventing hospitalisation, and 46% and 92% for preventing confirmed infection. Reducing infections gives hope that the vaccine may curb spread of the virus, but this type of study can't determine if that's the case. There were 41 COVID-19-related deaths, 32 of them in people who did not get vaccine. Overall, the numbers compare well to the 95% effectiveness after two doses that was seen in the limited testing that led US regulators to authorise the vaccine's emergency use, Poland said. How much benefit there would be from one dose has been a big question, and now there's some data to help inform the debate, he added. Maybe the right thing to do here to protect the most number of people...is to give everybody one dose as soon as you can. I think that's a very acceptable strategy to consider, Poland said. Israel now has vaccinated nearly half of its population. A newer variant of the virus that was first identified in the United Kingdom became the dominant strain in Israel during the study, so the results also give some insight into how well the vaccine performs against it. Earlier this week, two UK studies suggested benefits even after one dose of the vaccine or a different one from AstraZeneca. The UK is delaying the second shot for up to 12 weeks after the first one to try to give more people some level of protection. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Lancaster County has double the number of licensed kennels than any other county in the state. Yet six months ago, its dedicated dog warden responsible for inspecting that countys 1,000 kennels left and the state Department of Agriculture cannot afford to fill the position. In fact, right now Pennsylvania has only 45 dog wardens being shifted around to cover all 67 counties. Its a situation that state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said should be concerning for Pennsylvanians who regard dogs as mans best friend. Redding and animal advocates are calling on state lawmakers to pass legislation to raise the price of a dog license for the first time in 24 years and lower the dog licensing age to generate more revenue for the departments Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement. Pennsylvania is on the verge of slipping back to being the the puppy mill capital of the East, after working to rid itself of that label in 2008 with the passage of a law that set the strictest standards in the nation for large commercial breeding kennels, Redding said. Pennsylvania's State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said the state is at risk of having its reputation of the 'puppy mill capital of the East' return without a dog license fee increase to hire more dog wardens to inspect kennels. Feb. 25, 2021 Screenshot from Department of Agriculture virtual news conference We are down 14 wardens since 1997. That is a 23% decrease in staff at the same time the number of licensed kennels have increased 19% and the inspections in those kennels has increased 85%. So the trend lines are all going up with the exception of staffing, Redding said. Legislation is sitting in the House and Senates agriculture committees to raise the spayed/neutered dog annual license to $10, from the current $6.50. It also calls for raising the lifetime dog license fee to $49 from the current $31.50, along with other increases for other license categories. Additionally, it lowers the licensing age to eight weeks from the current three months, which dog law enforcement bureau director Kristen Donmoyer said is often the time when puppies ownership is transferred and provides an opportunity to educate new dog owners of the licensing requirement. She said the hope is that change will result in more licenses sold. They estimate now only 50% to 60% of dogs in the state are licensed. Dog wardens perform at least two unannounced inspections each year on licensed kennels to check on conditions and dogs well-being. These officers are the only ones who can enter a kennel without a search warrant and serve as the first line of defense for the dogs housed in them. But less frequent visits due to lack of staffing means less time with eyes on the kennels to correct problems and rescue at-risk dogs of serious neglect, Redding said. It also means less time to respond to dog-related complaints, including ones about stray or dangerous dogs, which then get referred to local or state police who lack dog-specific training as well as are unable to pick up strays. The dog law enforcement bureau, which along with the wardens employs six supervisors and a full-time veterinarian, is funded mostly from the revenue generated from the sale of dog licenses. This year for the first time, department officials said tax dollars are needed to support the bureaus bare-bones operation. Included in Gov. Tom Wolfs proposed budget is a request for an extra $1.2 million to fund the bureau in the current fiscal year and $1.5 million for 2021-22. Redding said the dog law bureau needs about $8.6 million a year to operate. Dog license and kennel fees usually generate about $7.2 million, with about $6.1 million from dog licenses alone. This past year, Donmoyer said due to staffing shortages that limited the time available for dog license canvassing, license revenue is expected to bring in just $5.3 million. The bureau cannot go on at this level, Redding said. We need the support of the General Assembly and we need the support of the public. This license fee increase request is not new. For the past decade, department officials have been asking for one. Redding said it has been a bit of puzzle to understand what the hold-up has been. He said he has testified in legislative hearings that the day would arrive when taxpayer funds would be needed to cover the bureau. And now were here, Redding said. He added that now that the bureau has crossed that threshold the legislation may finally get some action. Nicole Wilson with the Pennsylvania SPCA spoke to the important role dog wardens play in helping to rescue animals left in unsanitary, unhealthy and medically inappropriate conditions. I worry every time I hear that there is one less dog warden on the street because that means theres one less person looking out for the welfare of dogs in the commonwealth, she said. Corporal Mike Spada, an animal cruelty officer with the Pennsylvania State Police who also participated in the news conference, said the wardens serve as a resource to state police to investigate and prosecute animal cruelty cases and return lost dogs to families and ensure stray dogs have a place to go. Having that resource available such as dog wardens helps us make sure that dogs that do become victims have a voice, Spada said. The U.S. Humane Societys Pennsylvania state director Kristen Tullo, who has called for a license fee increase in the past, said, The Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement is on life support, and the Humane Society of the United States encourages the General Assembly to make adequate funding available to ensure that our furry friends health and welfare, as well as the publics health and safety, is protected. Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy. A 32-year-old man was arrested Thursday morning over claims he flashed a pellet gun with a laser sight at a woman on Interstate 93 in Massachusetts while trying to merge into her lane in a fit of road rage, authorities said. The woman reported that while exiting the southbound ramp on I-93 to the Route 60 rotary in Medford around 10:45 a.m., the man tried to merge into her lane. Massachusetts State Police said that as he approached her, he flashed what appeared to be a handgun. Within moments, several troopers descended on the area and located the suspect, who has since been identified as Patrick T. Ingemi Jr., near the Medford Police Station on Main Street, according to a statement from state police. The troopers stopped Ingemi, searched his car and found the pellet gun, which looked like an actual handgun, state police noted. The firearm had an extended magazine and an attached laser sight. The Stoneham man was arrested and taken to the state police barracks in Medford to be booked on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon, according to authorities. He is expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in Somerville District Court. The troopers from our Medford barracks did outstanding work locating the suspect so quickly and taking him into custody without further incident, a state police spokesperson said. Trooper Ryan Resmini was the trooper who first located the suspect vehicle, and he was assisted by Troopers Jonathan Arias and Donald Henry. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company (Newser) "Get used to me," Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told House lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday. They may not have to. President Biden, who can't fire DeJoy directly, has named candidates to fill three empty slots on the US Postal Service's nine-member board, which could give it enough votes to oust DeJoy if all three are confirmed by the Senate, reports the Washington Post. The six current members, including two Democrats, were appointed by Donald Trump. CBS reports that Biden's three nominees are former deputy postmaster general Ron Stroman and former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union Anton Hajjar, both Democrats, and mail voting advocate Amber McReynolds, an independent. story continues below DeJoy, a GOP fundraiser with no prior USPS experience, became postmaster general last year. During Wednesday's hearing, he was criticized over slowdowns in service but said they would continue. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, praised Biden's move. "It is crystal clear that the Postal Services performance and its financial condition have deteriorated significantly, and new and better leadership is urgently needed," she said, per the Post. "I also commend the president for his continuing commitment to appoint individuals who represent the diversity of America." (The six current members are all white males.) Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, also praised the nominees, noting that to keep his job, DeJoy will "have to function in a way that he keeps the support of the board," the AP reports. (Read more US Postal Service stories.) 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. The best friend of wanted man Matthew Donaldson was alarmed when he woke up to find messages allegedly posted to his mate's Facebook page saying 'game over'. Fearing his gaming buddy could be hinting at self-harm, the best mate tried to get in touch with Donaldson, 41. 'Call me please Matt!!' he wrote in a 6.54am message. Hours later, NSW Police accused Donaldson, 41, from Sydney's west, of attempting to murder a Belarussian woman in her 30s in a city's five-star hotel room on Tuesday night. Detectives allege that Donaldson assaulted the woman with a 'small sledgehammer' in a suite at the Primus Hotel on Pitt St, where rooms advertise for $300 a night. A warrant was issued for Donaldson's arrest on Wednesday night. Police said he may be in the Blue Mountains, where he grew up, and armed with a gun. NSW Police on Wednesday issued a warrant for the arrest of Matthew Donaldson, alleging he attempted to murder a woman in her 30s in a Sydney hotel room A man who described himself as Donaldson's best friend sent his mate an urgent message asking for him to call him 'I believed it to be a suicide attempt so I left a message for him to call me,' the friend said. 'I had no knowledge of any of this,' he added, referring to the assault claims. Emergency services rushed to the Primus Hotel about 11pm on Tuesday after receiving a tip-off from an anonymous caller. The woman was found in the hotel room unconscious and covered in blood, police said. Paramedics treated her for cuts to her head and images showed her hooked up to a respirator before being stretchered into an ambulance. Police are searching for Donaldson and have warned anyone who may come across him to not approach him but to contact Triple Zero immediately. Donaldson allegedly posted two images of the inside of a hotel room with the caption 'game over' on Tuesday evening, alarming friends A Belarusian woman was rushed to hospital after she was allegedly assaulted with a sledgehammer in a Sydney hotel room on Tuesday night. She is pictured on a stretcher being treated by paramedics 'Donaldson is described as being of Caucasian appearance, approximately 182cm tall, solid build, with light brown hair,' police said in a statement. 'It's believed he may be in the Blue Mountains area and may be armed with a firearm.' According to his Facebook page, Donaldson went to school in Blaxland and has posted photos from Mt Riverview, both of which are located in the Blue Mountains. The friend said Donaldson was never forthcoming about women or relationships we gamed together' and he was 'in complete shock' about the police allegations. Donaldson's Facebook page features posts about how he spent 25 years gaming as well as photos of a multitude of consoles and a wall stacked entirely with various games. Police remained at the scene throughout Wednesday after a woman was allegedly attacked with a sledgehammer late Tuesday. Pictured, forensic police taking away evidence The alleged assault occurred at the Primus Hotel (pictured), a five-star hotel in Sydney's CBD Investigators said it was likely that the pair had never met before the alleged attack. Donaldson allegedly rendezvoused with the woman in the hotel foyer before taking her up to his room. The woman is understood to be in a serious but stable condition with Acting Superintendent Paul Dunstan saying she 'is very fortunate to be alive'. Primus Hotel is a luxury five-star hotel where rooms cost about $300 a night. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the hotel for comment. A worker at a construction site next door described the chaotic scene when she began her shift at 6:30am on Wednesday. Detectives remained at the 1930s style hotel on Wednesday morning as they collected evidence. Pictured is an officer at the Primus Hotel Police said the woman was found seriously injured in a hotel room. Pictured is one of the 172 rooms at the Primus Hotel 'Everyone was talking about it,' the traffic controller told Daily Mail Australia. 'We heard that someone had come into the hotel with a hammer and hit a woman over the head. 'There were police, news reporters and forensic investigators running in and out of the hotel and it was pretty much chaos at that time.' The young woman said guests she spoke to 'didn't hear anything last night' and were shocked to find out about the grisly incident. 'It's very scary to know that something like this can happen where you work,' the traffic controller said. For confidential crisis support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. [February 25, 2021] H.I.G. Capital Expands European Direct Lending Team with the Addition of Ignacio Blasco H.I.G. Capital, LLC ("H.I.G."), a leading global alternative investment firm with over 35 billion of equity capital under management, is pleased to announce the expansion of its European WhiteHorse Direct Lending team with the addition of Ignacio Blasco as a Managing Director. Ignacio will be based in H.I.G.'s Madrid office. Ignacio has over 28 years of experience in leveraged finance and direct lending, covering a wide range of sectors and investment strategies. Prior to joining H.I.G., he was a Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey in Madrid. Prior to that, he was a Managing Partner of Montalban Debt Funds, after a long and successful career at Societe Generale in Madrid and London. Commenting on the hire, Pascal Meysson, Head of H.I.G. WhiteHorse Europe, said, "We are delighted to welcome Ignacio to the firm. He brings a wealth of knowledge and connections within the Spanish private equity and advisory communities that will prove invaluable to the team as we continue growing our European direct lending activities." About H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. is a leading global alternative assets ivestment firm with over 35 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach: H.I.G.'s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. H.I.G.'s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. H.I.G.'s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of 27 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com. * Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005439/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] TOKYO, Feb 25, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - Mazda Motor Corporation's production and sales results for January 2021 are summarized below.I. Production1. Domestic ProductionMazda's domestic production volume in January 2021 decreased 12.1% year on year due to decreased production of passenger and commercial vehicles.[Domestic production of key models in January 2021]CX-5: 27,399 units (down 19.3% year on year)MAZDA3: 11,380 units (down 12.0%)CX-30: 7,555 units (down 10.5%)2. Overseas ProductionMazda's overseas production volume in January 2021 decreased 11.2% year on year due to decreased production of passenger and commercial vehicles.[Overseas production of key models in January 2021]CX-30: 12,052 units (down 1.2% year on year)MAZDA3: 9,533 units (down 24.5%)CX-4: 5,470 units (down 2.4%)II. Domestic SalesMazda's domestic sales volume in January 2021 increased 1.5% year on year due to increased sales of passenger vehicles.Mazda's registered vehicle market share was 5.2% (down 0.6 points year on year), with a 2.1% share of the micro-mini segment (up 0.3 points) and a 4.0% total market share (down 0.2 points).[Domestic sales of key models in January 2021]CX-30: 2,576 units (down 12.7% year on year)CX-5: 2,035 units (down 25.8%)MAZDA2: 1,951 units (down 10.8%)III. ExportsMazda's export volume in January 2021 decreased 5.0% year on year due to decreased shipment to North America.[Exports of key models in January 2021]CX-5: 22,252 units (down 13.8% year on year)MAZDA3: 12,844 units (up 20.3%)CX-9: 5,108 units (up 0.8%)IV. Global SalesMazda's global sales volume in January 2021 decreased 2.3% year on year due to decreased sales in China and Europe.[Global sales of key models in January 2021]CX-5: 31,771 units (up 0.6% year on year)MAZDA3 (includes Axela): 22,436 units (down 8.4%)CX-30: 16,503 units (up 20.1%)For more information, visit bit.ly/3qWV7cj.Source: MazdaCopyright 2021 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. 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. [February 25, 2021] L&T Technology Services Selected by Airbus for Skywise Partner Programme L&T Technology Services (NSE: LTTS), a leading global pure-play engineering services company, announced that it has been selected by Airbus to provide technology and digital engineering solutions for Airbus' Skywise platform as part of the 'Skywise Partner Programme'. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006261/en/ Abhishek Sinha, Chief Operating Officer and Board Member LTTS with Remi Maillard, President & Managing Director, Airbus India & South Asia, commemorate LTTS joining the Skywise Partner Program (Photo: Business Wire) With more than 130 airlines around the world already connected to Skywise, the platform is playing a very important part in enabling and accelerating digital transformation of the aviation sector as a whole. LTTS will support the airlines in the development of complex workflows, creaion of new interfaces between their existing information systems and Skywise and also provide assistance in their digital transformation with Skywise. LTTS has a set of highly experienced engineers and data scientists who will work exclusively on the Skywise platform and build solutions to address the digital transformation needs of airlines and the fast-expanding Skywise ecosystem. LTTS' demonstrated experience in building digital engineering platforms based on strong domain knowledge help strengthen the interdependencies these digital technologies are enabling. Abhishek Sinha, Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Board, L&T Technology Services commented, "Airbus is one of our valued customers in the aerospace domain, a sector which offers tremendous potential for disruptive business opportunities. We are delighted to be selected as a partner for Airbus Skywise programme, a true reflection of our long-standing partnership with an important market leader like Airbus and our deep understanding of Airbus' product development and customer needs." LTTS has a track record of serving the aerospace landscape for over a decade, helping airlines and aerospace manufacturers maximize their Return on Investments (RoI) and increase quality and output. Having forged strategic alliances with several Fortune 500 companies, LTTS has the strong technical knowledge, aerospace engineering expertise and skilled resources to drive innovation for aerospace and defense customers across the globe. About L&T Technology Services Ltd L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) is a listed subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Limited focused on Engineering and R&D (ER&D) services. We offer consultancy, design, development and testing services across the product and process development life cycle. Our customer base includes 69 Fortune 500 companies and 53 of the world's top ER&D companies, across industrial products, medical devices, transportation, telecom & hi-tech, and the process industries. Headquartered in India, we have over 16,000 employees spread across 17 global design centers, 28 global sales offices and 62 innovation labs as of December 31, 2020. For more information please visit https://www.ltts.com/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006261/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Ireland's data-driven economy is the "ideal climate for our business purpose" Data privacy consultancy Securys is opening in Dublin, its first office outside the UK, to serve Ireland's growth economy of local and multinational businesses, and to help deliver privacy in an increasingly data-driven world. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005504/en/ Ben Rapp, Founder and Principal at Securys (Photo: Business Wire) It is the first step in expansion plans that will see the firm opening additional offices across Europe and beyond over the next few years to serve its global customer base. The largest specialist privacy consultancy in the UK, Securys has earned a reputation for integrating the fundamental human right to privacy into a business proposition that wins client companies a competitive edge. Founder and Principal Ben Rapp says, "Ireland has become a European digital centre on top of its strong domestic economy. The recent expansion of the Irish regulator shows a commitment to privacy that provides the ideal climate for our key business purpose. "We are committed to delivering a commercial advantage for our clients through good privacy measures or Privacy Made Positive, as we call it." Doing data privacy well does more than merely complying with regulation: it increases customer and staff retention and drives sales growth. Securys is pioneering economic, consumer and employee research to help companies understand the positive impact of data privacy in hard numbers. This research helps our clients focus their privacy programmes and supports their budget allocation to privacy. Ben Rapp says, "We are excited about the opportunities in Ireland. The country's popularity as a European base creates a significant business opportunity, particularly given our expertise in supporting large multinationals. "The primary focus will be on the Irish domestic market as well as supporting multinationals in all sectors. We deliver a full suite of privacy needs, from strategic consultancy and implementation to managing data flows. "I've looked forward for some time to opening a European office, as the EU has the most mature privacy market in the world. "Ireland's rapidly expanding business market proves so attractive, we've chosen to take our first step into Europe here, and I couldn't be more delighted." The move comes after two years of intense growth for Securys, with turnover increasing by more than 1,000 per cent. Ben Rapp continues, "We were delighted that Cheryl Rego joined our Irish office in January as a senior consultant, and we'll have a number of other staff joining the office over the next quarter. Cheryl's world-class expertise is going to be a great asset to our clients, and she'll be supported by a strong team, as well as our wider group resources." Cheryl Rego says, "I'm very excited to be playing a part, as Securys helps to shape the future of privacy for some of Ireland's biggest companies. It's great to be working with a consultancy that has such a powerful impact." Further announcements are expected later this year as Securys continues its global expansion within Europe and across the Atlantic. ENDS/ About Securys Securys (https://www.securys.ie) is the UK's largest specialist data privacy consultancy. We're not a law firm, but we employ lawyers. We're not a cybersecurity business, but we've got CISSPs and CISAs on the staff. We're not selling a one-size-fits-all tech product, but we've built proprietary tools and techniques that work with the class-leading GRC products to simplify and streamline the hardest tasks in assuring privacy. We're corporate members of the IAPP, and all our staff are required to obtain one or more IAPP certifications. We're ISO 27001 and ISO 27701-certified and have a comprehensive set of policies and frameworks to help our clients achieve and maintain certification. Above all our relentless focus is on practical operational delivery of effective data privacy for all your stakeholders. Our long and varied collective experience means we go wider and deeper than most. We understand that all businesses particularly the financial, healthcare and resource extraction sectors exist in a multi-dimensional regulatory environment. Each regulator has different priorities; sometimes these bring about real tensions between compliance workstreams. Our job is to understand the regulatory continuum and help our clients meet all of their compliance requirements efficiently and affordably. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224005504/en/ Contacts: Lise Colyer What's Your Story? Communications lise@yourstorycommunications.com, +44 (0)7896 503 804 Worried that the carnival at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo could become a COVID-19 hotbed, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said he worked out an agreement with rodeo organizers cancel the event and the county would make up a portion of the lost revenue. At their Jan. 12 meeting, Bexar County commissioners voted to contribute $741,600 to the rodeo organization for scholarships. Later that week, rodeo officials pulled the carnival from the lineup of events. During the commissioners meeting, however, no one mentioned the deal. The carnival would have been more dangerous than the rodeo shows, Wolff said in an interview. We helped them out, and they canceled the carnival. Revenue from the carnival and other events at the 18-day stock show and rodeo, which ends Sunday, goes to scholarships for high school and college students. Last years event generated $12 million for scholarships. The carnival had been one of the rodeos most popular events. This year, it would have featured as many as 45 rides and 40 carnival game vendors and food stands, said Frank Zaitshik, owner of Wade Shows, the carnivals operator for the past 17 years. The stock show and rodeo attracted 1.9 million visitors in 2020, though its unclear how many visited the carnival. On ExpressNews.com: 'Postpone the rodeo' says Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, concerned about spreading COVID-19 Two days after county commissioners approved the contribution, Cody Davenport, executive director and CEO of San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, announced the carnivals cancellation. The health and safety of our community is of utmost importance, and we greatly appreciate the support and understanding of the community as we navigate these unprecedented times, he said in a statement at the time. In an email to the San Antonio Express-News, Davenport noted the county funding, but did not respond to questions about the carnivals cancellation. His organization has downsized this years event because of the coronavirus pandemic. It moved the rodeo events from the AT&T Center, with more than 18,000 seats, to the neighboring Freeman Coliseum, which seats 8,000. Organizers say they sold only 3,800 seats for each of the 14 rodeo competitions to maintain social-distancing between groups of spectators. Rodeo officials also canceled the fair, which in the past featured five stages for live music. Despite the precautions, Wolff asked Nancy Loeffler, chairwoman of the annual event, in a Feb. 2 letter to postpone it or prepare for the difficult job of implementing and enforcing strict rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Texas other major rodeos in Austin, Houston and Fort Worth have been canceled this year because of the pandemic. Davenport said his organization is conducting the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo safely, requiring all attendees to wear face coverings. If patrons do not comply with the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo safety guidelines upon being asked by our ushers, they will be warned by a supervisor, he said in an email. If needed, non-compliant patrons are escorted offsite by Rodeo police. At Sunday afternoons sparsely attended rodeo competition, ushers held signs directing fans to mask up. A giant electronic screen delivered the same message: Face coverings were mandatory. Yet, many of the spectators didnt wear masks during the two-hour-plus event. Bexar County sheriffs deputies have issued 123 verbal warnings to guests not wearing masks since the stock show and rodeo began Feb. 11, according to Sheriffs Office spokesman Johnny Garcia. However, deputies issued no citations because spectators who received warnings immediately put on their masks, he said. On ExpressNews.com: Expect a very reduced, watered-down 2021 San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo In addition to the Sheriffs Office, the Bexar County Office of Emergency Management is also monitoring mask compliance at the rodeo. Wolff said law enforcement and emergency management officials werent at the Freeman Coliseum in large numbers on Sunday because most remained on winter storm duty. But this week theyll be out in force, he said. They will be out there writing tickets, he said. Zero tolerance. Wolff said the problem is that citations, which carry fines of up to $250, are handed out only after people ignore warnings. I know how difficult it is to enforce mask-wearing, he said. randy.diamond@express-news.net Jo Whiley has claimed her disabled sister Frances 'refused to talk to [her]' of her family when she was offered the Covid-19 vaccine first. Making an appearance on Thursday's edition of This Morning, the BBC Radio One DJ, 55, said her sibling's reaction was 'the cruellest twist' and detailed how the situation was like 'the worst disastrous movie'. Frances, 53, has a rare genetic syndrome called Cri du Chat - a chromosomal condition that results in delayed development. 'It was the cruellest twist': Jo Whiley claimed on Thursday's This Morning her disabled sister Frances 'refused to talk to her' when the DJ was offered the Covid-19 vaccine before her She explained to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: 'It played out like the worst disastrous movie. I got offered my vaccine, which felt like the cruellest twist, she refused to take our calls. 'She refused to talk to me, she refused to talk to my mum and dad, we were calling the home and that showed the impact on her mental health.' At the time she was offered the vaccine, 'fit and healthy' Jo said it was 'mind boggling' she was offered a jab before her younger sister Frances. Struggle: Jo explained, 'I got offered my vaccine, which felt like the cruellest twist, she refused to take our calls. She refused to talk to me, she refused to talk to my mum and dad' Unfair: At the time she was offered the vaccine, 'fit and healthy' Jo said it was 'mind boggling' she was offered a jab before her younger sister Frances, who then contracted Covid-19 Adults with learning disabilities will now all be offered Covid vaccines as part of the top six priority groups, Britain's health chiefs said today after a campaign by Jo Whiley to get her sister jabbed. The JCVI, which decides on who gets the life-saving jabs first, said people with learning disabilities of any kind should be bumped up the pecking order. They will be added into priority group six, which includes all adults with a long-term health condition that puts them at higher risk of severe illness. Tough: Of her sister's battle with coronavirus, Jo said, 'It got very serious, this time last week, the next 24 hours we thought we were gonna lose her' Jo called for people with learning disabilities to get vaccines sooner after her sister, who has a developmental disorder and lives in residential care, was hospitalised with Covid-19 this month. Of her sister's battle with coronavirus, Jo went on: 'We got the news that she had tested positive for Covid, all the people on the care home tested positive and many of the carers, so it was catastrophic. 'It got very serious, this time last week, the next 24 hours we thought we were gonna lose her. I would say to everyone you need to get a oxymeter, that's how we knew she was dangerously ill and we couldn't get the mask on her. 'Because we couldn't get the oxygen in her, and then we ended up 4am on Friday night, Saturday AM, discussing end of life care. Grateful: Jo heaped praise on the NHS for their help with Frances while she battled Covid-19, and said her family felt they were 'extremely lucky' as one person in her care home sadly died Disability: Frances has a rare genetic syndrome called Cri du Chat, which is a delayed development condition Upset: Earlier this month, Jo shared her dismay at being offered a vaccine before Frances 'I woke up on Saturday just imagining this Christmas without my sister, and my mum saying "this is our worst nightmare come true" and it was the thing in the last 12 months we had dreaded.' Heaping praise on the NHS staff who helped take care of Frances, Jo gushed: 'The staff have been incredible, and that proves how challenging it is for people with learning disabilities as they're all so different. 'And staff will try and do whatever they possible can. I Tweeted does anyone know what we can do, and they did put an oxygen tent around Francis, we couldn't sedate her anymore because she reacted in the opposite way. 'You put so much sedatives in her body, they took the sedation away and we just watched, and she fought it on her own.' What is Cri du Chat syndrome? Cri du Chat syndrome, also known as '5p minus' syndrome, is a chromosomal condition that results when a piece of chromosome 5 is missing. The name comes from the French term 'cat cry' or 'call of the cat'. This is because of one of its key identifying symptoms is a cat-like cry that those with the condition make as children. Other symptoms include severe cognitive, speech and motor disabilities and behavioural problems such as hyperactivity, aggression, outbursts and repetitive movements. There are also physical symptoms, with those who have the syndrome often having smaller heads and widely-spaced eyes (hypertelorism). Diagnosis is primarily based on the distinctive 'cat cry' and accompanying physical problems The syndrome, first discovered in 1963, affects around 1 in 50,000 live births and is slightly more common in women than men. The condition is not treatable, though children can undergo speech and physical therapy to help with some of the symptoms. Advertisement She claimed NHS staff believed it was thanks to Frances having a loud voice that she was able to boost her oxygen levels, and she felt they had been 'extremely lucky' as one person in Frances' care home sadly died from the virus. Frances was discharged from hospital on Tuesday, and said on the BBC at the time: 'This is a great day I am so relieved. I'm so happy for all those people who've been living in fear. 'I'm very grateful to the Government for listening, because it's a very complicated situation and it's very difficult to categorise people according to their disability, it's very, very tricky and that's become apparent I think over the past few months. 'And so this is clear, this encompasses everybody, and all those people who have been feeling very neglected, feeling like they don't matter, that we don't care, now know that we will be protecting them. 'This is absolutely crucial and I could not be more delighted. This is a massive step forward.' Speaking about her sister, she added: 'This is the first step in her recovery, its going to be hard work from here on in, but shes doing great.' As part of the JCVI's new drive to get jabs to learning disabled adults, the NHS will also offer the vaccines to adults living in residential or nursing care, as well as those in shared accommodation for people with disabilities. And doctors will do community outreach to find learning disabled people who aren't on the GP register but may still be at risk. Frances was moved into residential care in Northamptonshire in 2015 after her 'challenging behaviour' resulted in her needing specialist care. Emily Mieure covers criminal justice and emergency news. She also leads the News&Guides investigative efforts. She has reported for WDRB TV in Louisville, Ky., WFIE TV in Evansville, Ind., and WEIU TV in Charleston, Ill. David Bowie's daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, known as Lexi, has slammed a troll for their 'perverted and vulgar' response to her posing a snap in a swimsuit. Lexi, 20, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a picture of herself modelling a chic brown swimsuit in her home, and one person criticised her body confidence post by saying she was 'horny today.' Not mincing her words in response, Lexi told the troll to go 'f**k yourself' as she claimed it took her years to learn to 'love her body'. Hitting out: David Bowie's daughter Lexi Jones, 20, slammed a 'perverted and vulgar' troll who criticised her for posing in a swimsuit as she admitted it took years for her to 'love her body' Sharing a screengrab of the troll's comment, Lexi hit out: 'Feels good to love my body after years of hating and disrespecting it. 'No shame in liking how I look in my cowboy swimsuit, but a shame that you're able to twist it into something so perverted and vulgar. 'What a dim witted piece of trash and sad that there are more people like you. Go f**k yourself.' Strike a pose: Lexi, 20, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a picture of herself modelling a chic brown swimsuit in her home Response: A troll criticised Lexi for being 'horny', and she blasted them for twisting the body confidence snap into being 'perverted and vulgar' and told them to 'go f**k' themselves Lexi is a budding artist based in California and is selling her artworks on Depop for up to $300. She is the child of the Space Oddity hitmaker and Somali fashion model Iman, who first met in 1990 at a dinner party. After her birth, it was said that she helped her father put his workaholic attitude 'into perspective' and give him the will to stay healthy after his first heart attack. Happy memories: Lexi was born in the year 2000 to David and Somali supermodel Iman, who were happily married until his tragic death from cancer in 2016 David also had a son, Duncan Jones, from a previous marriage while Iman shares her daughter Zulekha Haywood with a former love. It has been five years since David shockingly passed away at the age of 69, on January 10, 2016, after an 18-month battle with cancer. Iman married the English rocker in a romantic ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland in April 1992 which was later formalised in a wedding hosted in Florence in June. She previously revealed how she did not want Lexi to follow her into modelling or becoming a superstar child of a famous couple, like many of her peers. Carving her own path: Lexi is a budding artist based in California and is selling her artworks on Depop for up to $300 In a 2018 interview with Net A Porter, Iman, 64, said: 'Every agency, every designer, called me to say: "If she wants to, we'd love for her to model for us." 'I said: "No, she doesn't." I know why they wanted to her to model it's because she is David Bowie's daughter. 'She says I am overprotective. But I told her, this can all wait, it isn't going anywhere. 'Have a life that is private while you can, because one day soon it is going to be public, so enjoy this.' Iman and Lexi remain very close and back in May last year, Lexi shared an emotional post after revealing she hadn't seen her mum for six months. Lexi was stuck in Los Angeles during the coronavirus pandemic while her supermodel mother was at her home in New York. In a Mother's Day post, Bowie's youngest child appealed to others to follow the lockdown guidelines so she could see her family again soon. 'Everyone please stay inside I haven't seen my mom for 6 months because we live on opposite coasts and it is very difficult to leave ny right now but I'm a child and I miss her dearly so pls be party poopers this one time so it doesn't take 2 f***ing years to see her again thank you!' she wrote. The two were later reunited in New York. Scottsdale, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Sibannac, Inc. (OTC Pink: SNNC), a Nevada corporation (the "Company"), announced the following: Sibannac, Inc. and NOHO, Inc. (OTC Pink: DRNK) have finalized a plan to effect a cross purchase transaction by each company. After significant market analysis, taking into account the positioning of both companies, their individual strengths and capabilities, as well as a diligence analysis as to the fairness of the proposed transactions, the companies are preparing to enter the following transactions: Sibannac Acquisition Sibannac will purchase the intellectual property of NOHO, consisting of its trademark and proprietary formulations, but NOHO will retain the use of its name and branding, through a separate license agreement, as it moves into production of new consumer products. Sibannac will issue up to $2.8 Million Dollars of Sibannac warrants at a strike price to be determined. Sibananc will register the warrants and issue the same to NOHO in the transaction. NOHO will issue the warrants to the shareholders as a dividend. NOHO Acquisition NOHO will acquire Vestra, LLC, an Arizona company, wholly owned and managed by Sibannac, established as a special purpose company for the ownership of a Sibannac created Delta 8 THC brand - RaD8 (See, RaD8 (rad8life.com). As consideration, NOHO will deliver Ten-Million shares of its Class B Convertible Preferred stock from its treasury, allowing the company to use the shares to purchase the brand. Those shares will be booked by Sibannac as an investment and may be used to fund future acquisitions. Lifetime Branding The creator of the RaD8 brand is the founder of Lifetime Branding, Eric Stoll. Mr. Stoll and his team are career brand builders with extensive experience in the nutrition space, including herbal supplements and candy. Over more than 30 years, Eric has created marketing and ad campaigns for some of the country's most notable brands and has been engaged by Sibannac to create RaD8, as well as the Company's core brand focused in the alternative wellness space. Lifetime and its team have been engaged in building the Sibannac platform since last year and will be continuing its development toward a projected launch in the summer of 2021. Lifetime has an impressive track record not only advancing already established brands for some of the Fortune 500, but also creating new brands from the ground up. Mr. Stoll and his team of marketing professionals and formulators are set to launch Sibannac's wellness brand into key market segments, including wholesale and retail, with initial focus on direct-to-consumer, online sales. Sibannac's CEO, David Mersky, said, "After a lengthy period of evaluation, I am very pleased to announce the asset purchase transactions between NOHO and Sibannac. Having Eric Stoll and Lifetime Branding aboard to oversee the buildout and commercialization processes for both companies is simply a marvelous opportunity. Sibannac is ready to manufacture the products for itself and NOHO in its FDA facility in Scottsdale. Sibannac's product lines, branding and positioning will cater to a different demographic than NOHO, and these transactions allow for a natural fit between the brands and companies." Eric Stoll of Lifetime Branding, said, "We have been working very hard - in stealth mode- over the last year to build the architecture behind Sibannac's new branding platform and are eager to move forward toward the launch. The alternative wellness space is poised for Sibannac to enter the landscape and capitalize where we will have a vertically integrated brand and control the manufacturing. I haven't come across many opportunities like this over my career." Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Noho, Inc. (the "Company"), its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) financing plans; (ii) trends affecting its financial condition or results of operations; (iii) growth strategy and operating strategy. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "can," "believe," "potential" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Media Contact: Info@SNNCINC.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75378 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / VERTICAL EXPLORATION INC. (TSXV:VERT) ("Vertical"or "the Company") would like to refer to journaldemontreal.com, dated Wednesday, February 24, 2021 for the following article: A coalition of Canadian farmers is asking the federal government to invest $300 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that threaten the food supply of Canadians. The organization Farmers for the Climate Transition (FTC) hopes with such federal funding to reduce agricultural emissions by 10 million tonnes, according to the conclusions of a report published by its working group on the occasion of Agriculture Day Canadian. "On Canadian Agriculture Day, farmers are standing up to say we want to be part of the solution to climate change and that is why today we are presenting a much researched plan to help farmers spreading climate solutions across the country," Ian McCreary, Chair of the Task Force, said in a statement on Tuesday. "We urgently need government support to put the plan into action," added McCreary, adding that the impacts of climate change caused damages of $2 billion in 2018 alone. The Farmers Plan includes six lines of action to help Canada meet its 2030 targets in the Paris Agreement. The plan notably suggests less nitrogen in the agricultural sector, the standardization of rotating pastures, the protection of wetlands and the supply of farms with green energies. ABOUT VERTICAL EXPLORATION Vertical Exploration's mission is to identify, acquire, and advance high potential mining prospects located in North America for the benefit of its stakeholders. The Company's flagship St-Onge Wollastonite property is located in the Lac-Saint-Jean area in the Province of Quebec. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Peter P. Swistak, President/CEO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Telephone: 1-604-683-3995 Toll Free: 1-888-945-4770 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). SOURCE: Vertical Exploration Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631873/Vertical-Believes-Its-St-Onge-Deposit-may-be-Benificial-in-the-Reduction-of-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions NAPLES - Fish stocks in the Mediterranean, including those of high commercial value such as hake and grouper, could regenerate themselves if only 30% of the sea was effectively protected, said the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) report "30 by 30: possible scenarios to recover biodiversity and rebuild fish stocks in the Mediterranean". It said currently only 9.68% of the Mediterranean Sea has been designated for protection, with only 1.27% effectively protected. The report said the interruption of unsustainable fishing, illegal fishing, and other damaging activities in selected areas could bring benefits to marine biodiversity and fish populations. The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the French CNRS-CRIOBE, the Ecopath International Initiative, and the Spanish ICM-CSIC. Scientific analysis revealed that if unsustainable fishing and other industrial activities continue at the same levels as today, fish stocks in the Mediterranean will continue to decline. It said the goal of effective protection covering specific areas totaling 30% of the Mediterranean along with sustainably managed activities in the rest of the basin would ensure an increase in fish stocks and a recovery of the marine ecosystem. Results of the study showed that catches of sea breams are predicted to increase by 4-20% and of large commercial demersal fish (that live on sea beds) by up to 5%. An increase in the protected surface area could bring significant potential increases in the Western Mediterranean, such as an increase of up to 45% in the biomass of predators such as sharks. The biomass of commercial species such as groupers could increase by 50%, and bluefin tuna, the most iconic and commercially important fish population in the Mediterranean, could potentially regenerate its biomass up to a record-breaking 140%. "Today we have the scientific proof that protection of key areas of the Mediterranean is an effective way to rebuild the most important fish stocks and stop the dramatic loss of species and habitats that is threatening our sea," said Marina Gomei of the WWF Mediterranean Marine Initiative. "These marine areas have an enormous potential to sustain the fishing sector and local economies, which have already been widely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and increase our resilience against climate change. The next decade must see the Mediterranean Sea once again at the centre of the ecological and economic agendas of our governments if we want to ensure a future for the nearly half-million people who live in the region," Gomei said. At the end of 2021, world leaders are expected to adopt a new Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and invert the loss of nature. More than 50 countries, including Italy, have already called for an effort to protect 30% of the planet by 2030. This effort should then be applied to Mediterranean countries in the regional plan for biodiversity to be adopted in December at the 22nd Conference of the Parties of the Barcelona Convention. To that end, WWF is calling on all Mediterranean governments to promptly develop more ambitious regional and national action plans to provide adequate protection to the Mediterranean Sea. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Union Health ministry said on Thursday that an advisory has been issued to all states and Union Territories to expand Covid-19 vaccination to all public healthcare facilities along with medical centres empanelled in the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and PM Jan Aarogya Yojna (PM-JAY) for the next phase of vaccination for people above 60 set to begin from March 1. The ministry said that a meeting was held in this regard on Wednesday where the progress of ongoing vaccination was reviewed. "The meeting was held with all states and UTs on Wednesday to review progress of Covid-19 vaccination drives. They were advised to focus on improving the pace of vaccination," Joint Secretary, Health, Mandeep Bhandari, said. The third phase of vaccination against Covid-19 will begin from March 1 and cover people above 60 and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities. While people will be vaccinated free of cost at government hospitals, those taking the shots at private hospitals will have to pay. "People above 60 years of age and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be vaccinated at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres from March 1," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had said on Wednesday. "The vaccine will be given free of cost at government centres while the private centres will charge for the vaccination. The rate will be decided in next three or four days," he had said. Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry is engaged in talks with vaccine manufacturers and private hospitals to decide the charge for vaccination to all civilians. India launched the world's largest vaccination drive on January 16 for the healthcare and frontline workers. According to government data, over 18 lakh people have been administered two doses of Covid vaccines so far. The cumulative vaccination coverage has crossed 1.3 crore recipients. India's drugs regulator on January 3 approved Oxford Covid-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute, and the indigenously-developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Barrackpore: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda on Thursday (February 25) asserted that people of West Bengal have blessed that partys Poriborton Yatra and have vowed to rout Mamata Banerjees government from the state. Launched ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections, the BJPs Poriborton Yatra of Nabadwip zone culminated in Anandapuri of Barrackpore district. "The people of Bengal have strengthened the voice of Poriborton Yatra. The people of Bengal have blessed this Yatra, supported it, and pledged to uproot Mamata`s government," he said while addressing the Nabadwip zone Poriborton Yatra culmination rally in Anandapuri. "This Poriborton Yatra is ending today. By going from village to village, we have strengthened the voice of Yatra. I am happy that the people of Bengal have supported this visit and have vowed that we will uproot Mamata Didi`s government," he added. The purpose of the BJPs Poriborton Yatra has been to inform the public about the manner in which TMC has practised corruption and violence. Nadda said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a major contribution to the development of West Bengal. "Modiji has contributed Rs 8,575 crore for the East-West Corridor. Modi ji has given Rs 721 crore for Indias connectivity with Nepal-Bangladesh," he said. During his visit to poll-bound state, Nadda had lunch at the house of a jute mill worker in Gouripur area of Naihati, North 24 Parganas district. Earlier in the day, he visited Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyays Residence and Museum in Kolkata. Live TV Thousands of dogs, cats and other animals flooded Texas animal shelters in the wake the deadly storms either this month. Now more than 100 animals are traveling from the Lone Star State to Massachusetts to find loving homes. Two teams from MSPCA-Angell and Northeast Animal Shelter (NEAS) traveled to Texas on Feb. 23 to pick up more than 100 dogs and cats from Austin Pets Alive. They then began making their way back to the commonwealth. The two teams consisted of eight staff members, four vans and dozens of pet carriers, MSPCA said. It takes two days to travel back with the animals. All the animals then need to have a mandatory 48-hour quarantine before they can be adopted. The earliest the animals can become available for adoption is Tuesday, March 2, the website states. Millions in Texas lost power during Winter Storm Uri. On Monday, it was estimated that 8.7 million residents were under notices to boil their water before consumption. This isnt only impacting people, its also impacting pets. This situation is as critical as it gets for animals because even though shelters like Austin Pets Alive! are doing everything humanly possible to respond to the crisis, there are just too many newly homeless animals, too little space to house them, and too few resources available to meet their needs - and when disasters strike, the animal welfare community comes together to help animals in need, said Mike Keiley, director of adoption centers and programs. Pets are now being loaded up to start their new chapters in Boston! This is all because of your continued support as help other shelters in Texas. pic.twitter.com/VJ7VsHvD6y Austin Pets Alive! (@austinpetsalive) February 25, 2021 Both organizations said they will update their websites when the pets are available for adoption. Check back here for NEAS, and here for MSPCA. For those unable to adopt the animals but still want to help, can donate at www.neas.org/texas, the organization said. Were going to do to all we can for these animals, for as long as it takes to get them into loving homes, said Keiley. Any help that the public can provide will help ensure they receive veterinary care and other essentials, so that they all get the second chance that they deserve. Related Content: A top figure in Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel, who testified against his boss and incriminated Guzman's wife, has had his sentence massively reduced - days after she was arrested. Damaso Lopez Nunez, 55, was a star witness at Guzman's trial, taking the stand for three dramatic days in January 2019. A former prison director known as 'El Licenciado', for his university degree, Lopez Nunez also spoke at length about Emma Coronel Aispuro's involvement in her husband's business, and her efforts to break him out of jail in 2015. Coronel was arrested at Dulles airport in Washington DC on Monday. Her charging documents relied heavily on the testimony of 'Cooperating Witness 1', giving rise to speculation that that was Lopez Nunez. Damaso Lopez Nunez, 55, testified against Guzman in January 2019 and implicated his wife Lopez Nunez was Guzman's right-hand-man and turned on him. Guzman is seen landing in the United States in January 2017, ahead of a trial which concluded in February 2019 Guzman's wife Emma Coronel, 31, was arrested on Monday at Dulles airport in Washington DC On Wednesday Mexican media reported that Lopez Nunez's life sentence had been reduced to just 15 years, meaning he would be a free man in 2032. Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Agencys former Chief of International Operations, who spent decades undercover with Mexican and Colombian cartels, told DailyMail.com that Lopez Nunez was undoubtedly one of the witnesses against Coronel. 'It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out he's one of the witnesses. 'Keep in mind he has already testified that Emma had been the conduit for Chapo and the cartel when they were facilitating an escape. He provided notes he had received from her. 'All these guys who testified against Chapo, they're all getting reduced sentences.' Vigil said that, after turning on Guzman, Lopez Nunez would have a target on his back as soon as he left prison. 'He'll be furious this has leaked,' said Vigil. 'It's a death sentence for him. 'There are people in Mexico who are monitoring this - and I guarantee you, they'll read it. 'I would assume, unless he is really stupid, he's worked out a witness protection agreement.' Coronel is pictured in court on Washington DC on Tuesday, where she was denied bail Emma Coronel, 31, seen in January 2019, was detained on Monday and charged with trafficking One well-placed source told DailyMail.com that the news of Lopez Nunez's sentence would not help prosecutors' case, as it provided a clear motive for informants to provide the most damning testimony possible. 'If anything the government would have wanted to postpone this, so if he testifies against Emma he could still say he had a life sentence,' the source said. 'Now he can be attacked as a witness, with the big reduction he got for snitching.' The source said Coronel's defense would 'absolutely' use Lopez Serrano's sentence reduction in her favor. Lopez Nunez is one of several cartel figures likely to have testified against Coronel, in a bid to reduce their own sentences. They are believed to include Lopez Nunez's own son, Damaso Lopez Serrano, known as 'Mini Lic', who is Guzman's godson. Lopez Serrano turned himself in to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in July 2017, two months after his father was arrested in Mexico City. Father and son had been battling Guzman's sons for control of the cartel following Guzman's 2016 arrest. Damaso Lopez Serrano (left) and Vicente Zambada Niebla could be 'Cooperating Witness 1' Zambada Niebla is pictured testifying against Guzman on January 3, 2019 in Brooklyn Another cartel figure who could have been 'Cooperating Witness 1' is Vicente Zambada Niebla, known as Vicentillo. The son of Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, who is currently believed to run the cartel, Zambada Niebla, 45, also testified against Guzman in New York in early 2019. In May of that year he dodged a life sentence, and instead was given 15 years by the judge, who praised his 'extraordinary cooperation.' This is a deeply personal story for me, not only because its set on the Italian Riviera where I grew up, but because at the core of this film is a celebration of friendship, Casarosa said in a statement back in July. Childhood friendships often set the course of who we want to become and it is those bonds that are at the heart of our story in Luca. So in addition to the beauty and charm of the Italian seaside, our film will feature an unforgettable summer adventure that will fundamentally change Luca. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... New Mexico has attained top status in a statistic with a huge fiscal impact that speaks volumes about the literal health and economic welfare of the state. We are now No. 1 nationally in reliance on Medicaid for health care, with 43% of the states population enrolled in the program for low-income people and which now pays for a shocking three-quarters of the births across the state. The states Medicaid enrollment which exceeds 860,000 was already near the top and grew by about 1.5% a month during the COVID-19 pandemic and the states tougher-than-most restrictions imposed in response to it. Nicole Comeaux, director of the state Medicaid Assistance Division, told lawmakers last month the increased enrollment meant more COVID-inspired federal matching money, which was bumped from $3.65 for every state general fund dollar spent on the program to $4.76. That extra funding is set to expire in April and, unless extended, will leave the state with a $170 million shortfall for the coming fiscal year. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Meanwhile, a state House committee this week approved a budget with $1.134 billion for Medicaid for next fiscal year. Providing more people with health care coverage is a good thing. Gov. Susana Martinez expanded the program, and the Journal Editorial Board supported that. But as a state we need to deal with the fiscal impact and find better ways to get people not only medical care, but financial independence. One major impact of increased Medicaid enrollment is on New Mexico hospitals, which were slammed by last years surge of COVID patients and loss of revenue from patients either ineligible for care under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams order limiting non-emergent procedures or afraid to seek care. The New Mexico Hospital Association estimates the current revenue-vs.-expenses gap caused by COVID around $193 million statewide and thats after more than $350 million in federal funds to shore up hospitals in the state. And COVID costs, many of them unreimbursed, continue. Lovelace Health Systems this week had 52 people whose sole job is to screen people coming into hospitals and clinics. The bigger issue is the growing Medicaid program doesnt pay its way when it comes to reimbursing for actual costs. A presentation to state lawmakers by the 46-member hospital association puts Medicaid reimbursement around 90% of actual costs with federal supplemental payments. Thats lower for hospitals that dont receive the payments. Medicare is better, averaging around 95% of cost, the association says. That means red ink for about 80% of the states population for which reimbursement rates are dictated by the government. Hospitals, for-profit or not-for-profit, pay salaries (about 55% of expenses statewide), buy supplies (11%), and we expect them to invest in the newest technology. So where do they make up the deficit? Mostly from the shrinking private insurance coverage market that accounted for only about 14% of the statewide hospital patient mix in 2019. If you have private insurance, you cant help but notice that your premiums and deductibles keep going up. This dynamic is a much bigger deal here than in a state with a much lower Medicaid population and thus a bigger and more robust private sector with employer-provided health insurance. So whats the bottom line? If we look at more and more Medicaid money from the feds as an economic engine, we do so at our own peril. At best, we get a healthier population that at some point can find a job, many of those jobs out of state. Instead, we need to find a way to kick-start and nourish a private sector that employs people and provides benefits including good health insurance. The latter approach provides hope. The former is just a prescription for a sicker and sicker state economy. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Flags are flying at half-staff across the United States to commemorate the half-million American lives lost to the coronavirus. But theres another tragedy we havent adequately confronted: Millions of American schoolchildren will soon have missed a year of in-person instruction, and we may have inflicted permanent damage on some of them, and on our country. The reluctance of many Republicans to wear masks and practice social distancing is one reason so many Americans are dead. But the educational losses are disproportionately the fault of Democratic governors and mayors who too often let schools stay closed even as bars opened. The blunt fact is that it is Democrats including those who run the West Coast, from California through Oregon to Washington State who have presided over one of the worst blows to the education of disadvantaged Americans in history. The result: more dropouts, less literacy and numeracy, widening race gaps, and long-term harm to some of our most marginalized youth. The sales professionals of The Roskelly Team. Jessica, Laura and their extended team of agents bring with them an impressive track record of serving thousands of individuals and families around Fort Meade. - Terri Bracciale, Baltimore Metro Region President Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, one of the countrys fastest-growing real estate brokerages, welcomes The Roskelly Team, a top-ranked group of real estate professionals serving the area of Fort Meade, Maryland. The team is led by founders Jessica Hood, Tom Roskelly and Laura Roskelly. We are delighted to welcome The Roskelly Team into our company, said Baltimore Metro Region President Terri Bracciale. Jessica, Laura and their extended team of agents bring with them an impressive track record of serving thousands of individuals and families around Fort Meade. We see a team that already embodies our mission, vision and values through their dedication to going the extra mile for every client, and we are excited to support them as they grow their business. Founded in 1999, The Roskelly Team specializes in serving families in the military community seeking to buy, sell or rent a home near Fort Meade, Maryland, and surrounding areas. As veterans and family of service members, these expert Realtors understand the unique needs of those relocating as an inevitable part of military life. We are thrilled to affiliate with a brokerage that aligns with the foundational tenets of our team members and our future business goals, said Hood. Weve known the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty Brand for some time now, and after meeting and collaborating with representatives at all levels of the organization, we are beyond excited to take the tools, technology, customer service and support to the next level for our clients. The Roskelly Team currently comprises seven real estate professionals. They can be reached via their website at https://www.fortmeadehomes.com or by phone at 410-721-6694. About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty (http://www.penfedrealty.com) is a full-service real estate company with an annual sales volume of over $6 billion. The company has over 2,000 agents and almost 60 offices, providing complete real estate services nationwide. PenFed Realty is a wholly owned subsidiary of PenFed Credit Union and is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brokerage network, operated by HSF Affiliates LLC. Membership with PenFed Credit Union is not required to conduct business with BHHS PenFed Realty. We are proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. Equal Housing Opportunity. New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/25/2021 -- Fermentation chemicals are used as the essential raw material in the alcohol industry. The fermentation process produces Ethanol, the main chemical used in the production of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. As a result, increasing demand for alcoholic beverages would play a significant role in driving market growth. Additionally, various other industries including cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food and beverages industry require fermentation chemicals to maintain a smooth flow of the production process. Therefore, the growth of these industries across the globe, in turn, would be responsible for stimulating market demand.The Global Fermentation Chemicals Market size is projected to grow at a rate of 5.5% in terms of value from USD 62.36 billion in 2019 to reach USD 95.99 Billion by 2027. The imposition of strict legislation by regulatory authorities in developed regions like Europe will play a vital role in fueling the market growth in the forecast period. Agencies comprising the European Commission and EPA categorically encourage green chemistry through their regulatory framework, which in turn can be supported by the application of fermentation chemicals. Key participants include BASF SE, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Cargill Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, AB Enzymes, Chr. Hansen A/S, DSM, Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Novozymes A/S, and Evonik Industries AG among others. To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/1347 The high cost involved in the fermentation of lactic acid prevents its uses in the dairy industry. Furthermore, the variation of the production process in the fermentation of ethanol, bacteria, lactic acid may hinder the market growth. The production of eco-friendly fermentation chemicals would open a window of opportunity for its application in the sectors including biomass conversion. For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data have segmented global fermentation chemicals market on the basis of product type, form, applications, and region: Product Type Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; 2016-2026 and Revenue, USD Million; 2016-2026) Alcohol Fermentation Ethanol Others Enzymes Organic Acids Lactic Acid Citric Acid Gluconic Acid Acetic Acid Others Others Form Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; 2016-2026 and Revenue, USD Million; 2016-2026) Liquid Powder Applications Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; 2016-2026 and Revenue, USD Million; 2016-2026) Industrial Applications Food & Beverages Nutritional & Pharmaceuticals Plastics & Fibers Others Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; 2016-2026 and Revenue, USD Million; 2016-2026) North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America MEA To get a Discount on the Fermentation Chemicals Market Report, Click @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/discount-enquiry-form/1347 Further key findings from the report suggest Alcohol fermentation dominated the market with over 50% of the market share in 2018 and is estimated to have a growth rate of 4.8% in the forecast period. Increase in use of alcohols in industrial applications is anticipated to boost the market demand. Increase in alcohol consumption mainly in countries like China, Thailand, India, and Australia together with other markets such as Brazil, Mongolia, Montenegro, and the Caribbean is likely to propel the market growth during the forecast period. Alcohols are also used widely in the making of bread, pickles, and cheese. Industrial applications contributed to the largest market share with more than 45% of the market share in 2018 and is estimated to have a CAGR of 5.2% in the forecast period. The market dominance of industrial applications may be attributed to the application of chemicals for manufacturing products like ethanol, acetic acid, and citric acid. Several products derived are used in the form of additives into food as antioxidants, preservatives, colors, flavors, and vitamins, and are found to be more desirable than food additives produced chemically. North America dominated the market with around 35% of the market share in 2018 and is expected to grow at a rate of 5.1% in the forecast period. Fermentation chemical market in North America is rising owing to the growth of the pharmaceutical and alcohol industry. Read More @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/fermentation-chemicals-market Table of Content- Chapter 1. Market Synopsis 1.1. Market Definition 1.2. Research Scope & Premise 1.3. Methodology 1.4. Market Estimation Technique Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Summary Snapshot, 2016-2026 Chapter 3. Indicative Metrics Chapter 4. Fermentation Chemical Segmentation & Impact Analysis 4.1. Fermentation Chemical Material Segmentation Analysis 4.2. Industrial Outlook 4.2.1. Market indicators analysis 4.2.2. Market drivers analysis 4.2.2.1. Increasing demand from alcohol industry 4.2.2.2. Innovation in pharmaceutical industry 4.2.2.3. Increased investments in R&D 4.2.3. Market restraints analysis 4.2.3.1. High cost of production 4.2.3.2. Availability of raw materials Request customization of the report @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/request-customization-form/1347 Thank you for reading our report. To inquire about customization or any query about the report, please get in touch with us. Our team will make sure the report is best suited to your needs. Browse More Reports Organic Honey Market Isoflavones Market Cool Roof Coatings Market Acute Myeloid Leukemia Therapeutics Market Fishmeal & Fish Oil Market About Reports and Data Reports and Data is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. Our solutions purely focus on your purpose to locate, target and analyze consumer behavior shifts across demographics, across industries and help client's make a smarter business decision. We offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a multiple industries including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Power and Energy. We consistently update our research offerings to ensure our clients are aware about the latest trends existent in the market. Contact Us: John W Head of Business Development 40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City NY 10005 United States Direct Line: +1-212-710-1370 Traffic on the Centenary Highway west of Brisbane will explode by more than 400 per cent over the coming decades, forcing Ipswich authorities to explore options to improve road and public transport routes. An initiative to upgrade transport options between Ipswich and Springfield was among 44 new proposals to be added to the latest Infrastructure Australia priority list, released on Thursday. Traffic congestion is expected to get much worse on the Centenary Highway. Generic image. Credit:Paul Rovere It comes amid predictions the population in the Ipswich council area would more than double from 222,000 residents in 2019 to 558,000 by 2041, with better public transport options needed to reduce reliance on cars. The number of daily trips on the Centenary Highway between Ipswich and Springfield is expected to grow from about 7500 trips in 2016 to nearly 40,000 trips by 2036. Internet providers were instructed to shut access to four Telegram channels. The Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv has ruled to block public access to a number of Telegram channels that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had previously exposed as tools used by Russian assets in their psyops targeting Ukrainian audiences. That's according to the national communications regulator. Read alsoUkraine NSDC hits sanctions on Putin's ally MedvedchukThe judge issued a warrant on February 23, the report says, adding that it covers the following Telegram channels: Resident, Lehitymny, Kartel, Spletnitsa. The National Commission has been told to oblige Internet providers to block public access to the said resources. The decision, which can be appealed, is subject to immediate execution. Background Cybersecurity experts with the SBU reported on February 1 they had exposed a massive Russian intelligence network that was engaged in a subversive activity supervised by Russian special services. The assets hired by the Russian GRU ran a number of anonymous Telegram channels, which have gained prominence on the regional and national scales, the SBU reports. The SBU press service says the aggressor state's intelligence has engaged Ukrainian citizens in setting up and running a number of Telegram channels reporting on politics and spinning the alleged insights and leaks from top offices. The investigation says the asset network was set up by the so-called 85th Main Center of the Special Service at the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (or at what's commonly known as the GRU). It had employed residents of Kharkiv and Odesa, activists of the so-called "Russian spring". Reporting by UNIAN Prior research by two Emory University researchers to characterize the transmission dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), found that the size of the virus's transmission bottleneck was large, i.e., on the order of 1,000 virions. Now, a new study, posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server by the same researchers, focussing on the Austrian region, found that SARS-CoV-2 transmission bottlenecks to be much tighter than previously thought. A new computational analysis using more than 500 deep-sequences was carried out. A combination of genetic and epidemiological data of a wide range of viruses was analyzed to characterize the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in Austria between the period February to April 2020. Further, the researchers investigated the patterns of shared low-frequency variants between the transmission pairs where a de novo genetic mutation was present in the recipient. After a thorough reanalysis, researchers obtained a contradictory result from the earlier paper. They found SARS-CoV-2 transmission bottlenecks are extremely small and tight, i.e., on the order of 1-3 virions. The most significant aspect of this result is that it has shed light on how the virus evolves between hosts. Further, it has also helped understand the process or pattern by which the genetic mutation occurs within the population. The reason for the reanalysis of the data was the presence of a few doubtful elements. The prior research estimated the bottleneck size (using a 3% variant) to be bimodal, with 14 of the 39 transmission pairs having an inferred size. To better understand the above result, scientists reanalyzed the deep sequencing data (transmission bottleneck sizes at 1% and 3%) and found similarities between the obtained result and previous research. However, on conducting further analyses, they found a drop in the bottleneck size. This drop was estimated during a 1% cutoff to a 3% cutoff for every one of the 13 transmission pairs that had donors with a maximum intrahost single-nucleotide variants (iSNV) frequency of >6%. The scientists reported that an increase in the variant calling threshold removes the iSNVs from the analysis. Additionally, a consistent decrease in the inferred bottleneck size may occur if low-frequency donor iSNVs depict large bottleneck sizes and high-frequency donor iSNVs depicting small bottleneck sizes. The current investigation has shown the presence of low-frequency iSNVs across donor-recipient transmission pairs, indicating a significant congruence between their frequencies, revealing a wide transmission bottleneck. However, the high-frequency donor iSNVs, which were rarely present for donor-recipient transmission, would suggest a narrow transmission bottleneck. To understand the conflicting patterns, scientists considered genetic mutations that were present, since the beginning, in the recipient hosts. The genetic variations were present in the "tv plots" as iSNVs were absent from a donor and present in the corresponding recipient. Scientists explained that in a de novo variant having a constant or fixed factor in a recipient sample, no sharing of iSNVs should be observed between a donor and a recipient. Their presence in the recipient can only be observed at subclonal frequencies where rapid intra-host recombination occurs, or the fixed de novo variant occurs several times in different genetic backgrounds. However, the previous study showed shared subclonal iSNVs at remarkably similar frequencies between the transmission pairs and a fixed de novo variant present in the recipient. This result was reanalyzed as shared low-frequency iSNVs are highly unlikely to constitute transmitted genetic variation. The low-frequency iSNVs shared between donor-recipient pairs occurred either spuriously or independently in the recipient (homoplasies). Scientists further pointed out that these factors should be omitted from any transmission bottleneck analysis that involves a transmission pair. In the re-estimation study, scientists have used the beta-binomial method at a conservative variant calling threshold of 6%. 13 transmission pairs with one or more donor iSNVs were found at a 6% cutoff, which indicated bottleneck sizes could only be estimated for these pairs. The increase in the variant calling threshold holds no significance in the bottleneck size estimation. The current study revealed that an estimation of a mean bottleneck size of 1.21, such that 99% of transmissions are successful, is expected to result from 3 or fewer virions. Therefore, this analysis indicates that SARS-CoV-2 has a narrow transmission bottleneck, which is similar in size to influenza A viruses. A small bottleneck size also suggests that infections are commonly initiated at very low viral genetic diversity. Scientists believe that their research would substantially add value to the existing information about SARS-CoV-2 evolution between and within infected individuals. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. 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. Press Release 25 February 2021 More meeting and event professionals have been looking to plan hybrid virtual/in-person meetings and events as the meeting industry adapts to new ways of connecting during the global pandemic. However, meeting and event professionals often require additional information about technology, health protocols, and logistics available to them. Marriott International is offering innovative solutions to help Connect with Confidence and streamline the current planning process. New resources for hybrid meetings and events, including providers and pricing, will be available next month at Marriott hotels across the United States and Canada, and are slated to be available globally in the near future. Advertisements Hybrid meetings have become an essential way for meeting and event professionals to provide an immersive, engaging experience that integrates both virtual participation and in-person experiences through technology. Marriott has curated a list of providers including Encore, Cvent, Convene, MeetingPlay and Hopin that offer technology solutions for hosting hybrid meetings. These providers offer a range of features and services that allow meeting and event professionals to execute hybrid meetings across the Marriott portfolio of hotels in the United States and Canada. Marriott has hosted Connect with Confidence meetings for its customers using the latest hybrid meeting technology. The most recent event included 100 in-person attendees and 800 virtual attendees at Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in January 2021. The attendees were given information about planning and implementing an in-person event incorporating cleanliness protocols, physical and social distancing, redesigned food and beverage, contactless check-in, well-being checks, occupancy monitoring, and more. Survey results from this event revealed that 51 percent of meeting and event professionals are planning to host a hybrid event within the next six to 12 months. When attendees were asked if they would attend another event if it were to be designed with the same principles, 95 percent said they would. Marriott shared insights and best practices from this meeting and others in its Connect with Confidence Hybrid Meetings and Events Insights Guide, which showcases the journey and offers guidance to design and implement hybrid events. The Connect with Confidence event at Gaylord Rockies was held just weeks after Marriott announced the introduction of optional health protocols for meeting and event professionals, including COVID-19 testing. The event implemented many of the protocols, which meeting and event professionals will be able to incorporate into their own group meetings at Marriott hotels in the United States and Canada beginning in March 2021. Photo: Marriott "As the industry navigates this evolving meetings environment together, Marriott is proud to offer meeting and event professionals new hybrid meeting and event solutions, as well as our own best practices and learnings from our hybrid events," said Tammy Routh, Senior Vice President, Global Sales Organization for Marriott International. "We know that meeting and event professionals are currently looking for insights and resources that will help them plan creative and innovative experiences for their customers regardless of whether they are in-person at the hotel or logging in from their home. Meeting and event professionals can work with these leading technology providers to reach a larger audience and incorporate speakers from other locations as they continue to plan future meetings, conferences and events." Marriott has shared the Connect with Confidence Hybrid Meetings and Events Insights Guide on the Marriott Bonvoy Events website. The resource showcases Marriott's reimagined processes and meeting spaces, incorporates the learnings from the January 2021 event and the first Connect with Confidence event in November 2020 at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in Virginia, and explains some of the practical considerations that are necessary to successfully plan and execute a hybrid meeting. In addition to the Connect with Confidence Hybrid Meetings and Events Insights Guide, information about hybrid meetings, including digital content and best practices to help meeting professionals navigate through these changing industry trends and practices, may be found on the Marriott Bonvoy Events website. For more information and resources related to the enhanced meeting and event offerings, visit www.marriottbonvoyevents.com. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) Four people were killed in Wednesday's controversial shootout between anti-drug operatives of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, authorities said Thursday. Aside from the two policemen who were earlier confirmed dead, a PDEA agent and an informant were also killed, PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva told a media briefing. He added that two other PDEA personnel who were critically injured are now stable. A total of three PDEA agents and another police officer were wounded in the shootout. Some 17 uniformed personnel 10 policemen and seven PDEA agents were "directly involved" in the shooting incident, and are now "restricted" and being investigated by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, PNP chief General Debold Sinas said. Villanueva and Sinas said the joint board of inquiry is still trying to determine what really happened on Wednesday, when members of the Quezon City Police District and PDEA operatives exchanged fire near a fast-food restaurant parking lot outside Ever Gotesco Commonwealth at around 6 p.m. Video footage obtained by CNN Philippines shows multiple gunshots fired, one after another. Buy-bust operations Both the PNP and PDEA said they were each conducting legitimate buy-bust operations, refusing to disclose the identities of their targets who remain at large. "Live pa yung mga targets natin (Our targets are live) and we cannot divulge the names of the people," Villanueva said. It's unclear if the PNP and PDEA had the same targets and informants. When asked why they conducted anti-drug operations near a mall, where there are many civilians, Villanueva said it was "a technique." He did not elaborate. Sinas for his part said it was "just incidental." Villanueva disputed claims they lacked coordination, explaining that targets usually go by aliases in anti-drug operations. Ongoing probe Villanueva said all angles are being considered, including the possibility it was a setup planned by a drug syndicate. "Pwedeng maging angle kasi nga nangyari na 'yan before (That's an angle because it happened before)," he said, adding that drug personalities may be going after PDEA because their shabu operations were taking a hit. The anti-drug official also did not rule out the possibility there was sabotage, or that rogue personnel may have been involved. The National Bureau of Investigation is conducting a parallel probe into what was earlier described by the National Capital Region Police Office as a "misencounter." Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, a former top cop, told CNN Philippines he believes it may be a case of poor coordination. He said the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, which he chairs, will also look into the incident through a legislative inquiry next week. READ: Duterte sad over PNP-PDEA 'misencounter,' wants fair probe on incident Malacanang With the permission, all banks would be allowed to conduct government-related banking transactions such as taxes and other revenue payment facilities, pension payments, small savings schemes, etc. New Delhi: The government has lifted the embargo on private sector banks to undertake Central and state government business, which is still a forte of the public sector banks and three large private players in a limited way -- ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank. This step is expected to further enhance customer convenience, spur competition and higher efficiency in the standards of customer services, a government statement announcing the changes said. It will also give additional business opportunity to the banks to earn from taking up huge government business. Private sector banks, which are at the forefront of imbibing and implementing latest technology and innovation in banking, will now be equal partners in development of the Indian economy and in furthering the social sector initiatives of the government, the statement said. Earlier in a tweet, the office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "Embargo lifted on grant of govt business to private banks. All banks can now participate. Private banks can now be equal partners in development of the Indian economy, furthering govt's social sector initiatives, and enhancing customer convenience." With the lifting of the embargo, there is now no bar on RBI for authorisation of private sector banks (in addition to public sector banks) for government business, including government agency business. The government has conveyed its decision to the RBI. Under the agency model, banks earn a fee while working as an agent of the Central bank for collecting revenues as well as disbursing payments towards various state-run schemes. The latest move is yet another acknowledgment of the key role played by the private sector in the overall economic development of the country. Keeping this in mind, the government has also announced a mega privatisation policy in this year's Budget that will see it exiting from several public sector enterprises. While the contours of the rules allowing private banks to take up government business is yet to be drawn up, it is expected that the interested banks would be taken up as the agents of the RBI. This would follow a recommendation by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). Thailand lifts VAT on visiting superyacht charters PHUKET: The Royal Thai Government has removed valued-added tax (VAT) from being levied on all visiting superyacht charters to help support the countrys marine industry. marinetourismeconomics By The Phuket News Thursday 25 February 2021, 04:17PM Andy Treadwell (right), CEO of Verventia and Thailand Yacht Show, at the meeting in Bangkok on Tuesday (Feb 23). Photo: Ministry of Finance The decision to lift VAT on visiting superyacht charters was announced at a meeting in Bangkok late Tuesday (Feb 23). Photo: Ministry of Finance The decision came at a meeting in Bangkok late Tuesday (Feb 23) chaired by the new Minister of Finance, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, and attended by officials from both the Customs and Revenue departments. At the meeting it was finally confirmed that foreign-flagged visiting superyachts will from now on be welcome to spend the winter seasons in Thai waters and offer their yachts for charter without having to pay VAT on the value of the vessel. The meeting marked the culmination of a six-year campaign to bring this all-important change in the local regulations, and thus finally enable a new third destination for the global fleet and a new Superyacht Tourism industry to boost Thailands pandemic-challenged tourism economy. Meeting with Finance Minister Mr Arkhom were Chairperson of K-Bank and Committee of National Reform on Economics, Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul; Andy Treadwell, CEO of Verventia and Thailand Yacht Show; Matthew Na Nagara, Chairman of the Thailand Yacht Business Association (TYBA); and Peerawich Thoviriyavej, Verventia & TYBA Board Member. The campaign started in earnest in 2015 when the then Minister of Transport was tasked by the Prime Minister with launching Thailands own Yacht Show. The show was conceived as a platform to promote the Kingdom as the Marina Hub of Asia and develop an important new yachting industry bringing in significant foreign investment for the benefit of all Thai people, noted a release from Thailand Yacht Show organiser Verventia. Ms Kobkarn, then Minister of Tourism and Sport, became a real champion for the cause, and her unflagging belief in this opportunity remains to this day, despite her having left politics two years ago, said the release. Minister Arkhom was the incumbent Minister of Transport who in 2016 signed the government decree authorising the so-called superyacht charter license, the first three of which were presented to foreign superyacht owners at a ceremony announcing the launch of the new Thailand Yacht Show. It has taken until today to finally agree on the official tax regulations surrounding this initiative, but it could not have come at a better time when Thailand desperately needs a new wave of high quality, high-spending tourists to arrive when we finally see the end of the pandemic hopefully in time for next season, the release said. Mr Treadwell also noted, The whole of the Thai yachting industry has worked together to finally arrive at this point, and TYBA Chairman Matthew Na Nagara and his team have been instrumental in ensuring that enough information and political persuasion has been given to all government departments and administrative organisations to push the initiative to a conclusion. The Thailand Yacht Show itself will now become the centrepiece of a much wider Festival of Luxury Tourism, encompassing a showcase of private aviation at the new Phuket Private Jet Terminal, an international classic car Concours dElegance; a Wellness & Anti-Ageing Expo; a Collectible Art Show and many other luxury sectors that will attract increasing numbers of UHNW [Ultra high Net Worth] visitors to the beautiful island of Phuket over the next 10 post-COVID years. Whilst the headline news is a huge boost for the superyacht industry, bringing as it will new business for all parts of the Asean region right through to Australia and New Zealand, there will also be a massive trickle-down effect into every corner of the leisure boating industry and on-water lifestyle industries throughout the whole of Asia,Mr Treadwell said. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here Hardline Scottish nationalists and sections of the Scottish pseudo-left have formed Now Scotland, described as a grassroots, non-party campaign. The new formation emerged from the All Under One Banner (AUOB) collection of Saltire-waving demonstrators who, pre-lockdown, held monthly marches in favour of an immediate second referendum on Scottish independence. A series of online meetings last year resulted in the group forming Yes Alba, before ditching the name in favour of Now Scotland so as not to offend Gaelic language activists. The new organisation is an adjunct of the most pro-independence faction of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP). Its purpose is to emulate the Yes Scotland alliance of the SNP, Scottish Greens and the pseudo-left Scottish Socialist Party, which mobilised nationalist campaigners prior to the 2014 Scottish referendum. Scottish elections are due this year. The SNP is committed to tabling legislation for a new referendum should it win a majority. George Kerevan, the newly elected member of Parliament for East Lothian, accepts his office at the Haddington Corn Exchange in May 2015 (credit: Angela Wrapson-Wikimedia Commons) Now Scotlands leading lights include George Kerevan, former member of the Pabloite International Marxist Group and the Labour Party, who joined the SNP in 1996. Kerevan, a former associate editor of the Scotsman newspaper, was a Westminster MP for the SNP between 2015 and 2017. His model for Now Scotland is the Catalan nationalist ANC (Catalan National Assembly) which organised a series of demonstrations prior to the 2017 Catalan referendum that were brutally suppressed by the Spanish government. Angus Brendan Macneil, SNP MP for the Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency, is a supporter of former party leader and former First Minister, Alex Salmond. Others involved include Salmond ally Craig Murray (a prominent campaigner for Julian Assange's freedom) and a number of AUOB organisers and supporters of the Wings over Scotland nationalist blog. Salmond is publicly keeping his distance, thus far. Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond in 2007 (credit: Scottish Government-Wikimedia Commons) Two leading members of the pseudo-left Socialist Workers Party in Scotland, Keir McKechnie and Charlotte Ahmed, are also on the new organisation's inaugural committee. An SWP statement in Socialist Worker outlined: The creation of Now Scotland opens up the possibility of a new membership organisation, not controlled by the SNP hierarchy. Those who want to campaign for a radical alternative to the British state and to the limited vision of independence presented by the SNP leadership must seize the moment. The radicalalternative to the British state the hardliners want to see is a Scottish capitalist state, formed in the midst of a protracted and potentially violent carve up of the resources of the British state, and a politically catastrophic division of the working class. Their primary differences with the current SNP leadership are over the speed and legality of the process by which this division of assets is initiated. The SNP is riven with the most bitter disputes on this question between Sturgeon and her former mentor, Salmond, who stepped down from SNP leadership and resigned as First Minister following the 2014 referendum defeat. Following the 2016 UK-yes vote in the Brexit referendum, Salmond let it be known that he felt Sturgeon was too slow in taking advantage of the votewith Scotland voting 62 to 38 percent to remain in the European Union (EU)to press for another independence poll. Sturgeon and her allies have stressed that they intend to proceed in consultation with the British government and state, NATO, and the EU, to ensure the most stable basis to attract investment. Salmond is viewed as a prospective leader of a Plan B movement, which would hold, if necessary, an illegal referendum, along the lines of the Catalan poll in 2017. When it became known that Salmond was seeking a return to active politics, he was targeted by a Scottish government investigation into alleged sexual misdemeanours. He fought back, and in 2019 a judicial review ruled strongly that the Scottish government's investigation was tainted by apparent bias. In 2020, he was found innocent of all charges in a subsequent trial, despite a major police operation trawling for evidence against him. Sturgeon is now in deep trouble and may be forced to resign if found to have breached the Scottish government's ministerial code over the extent of her prior knowledge of the moves against Salmond. At the SNPs last conference, supporters of the pseudo-left and Stalinist-influenced Common Weal Group won between 44 and 50 percent of seats on key committees. Salmond supporter Joanna Cherry MP was recently sacked from a front bench position in the party's parliamentary party at Westminster. The SNPs problems are rooted in the bankrupt and right-wing character of its raison d'etre, Scottish independence. In power for 14 years, the SNP has supervised a relentless assault on social spending, in line with targets set in Westminster but serving the interests of the Scottish bourgeoisie just as surely as their English counterparts. Local authority services to the most vulnerable have been shredded, while living standards for the poorest are abysmal. Scotland recently recorded the worst annual drug death figures, by a huge margin, in the whole of Europe1,264 drug related deaths in 2019, more than double the figure in 2014. In 2018, Scotland registered to 295 drug deaths per million, compared with 81 in Sweden, the next highest, and 76 across the UK. The year to April 2020 saw demand for food banks increase by 47 percent, including a 62 percent increase in the number of children supported. The pandemic has intensified the exposure of the SNPs anti-working class agenda. Its response in Holyrood has been every bit as catastrophic as that of the UK government led by Boris Johnson at Westminster. Scotland reported the highest rate of COVID-19 related care home deaths of any part of the UK. Between March and May, 338 COVID-19 positive patients were released from hospitals into care homes. By August, 47 percent of all COVID-19 deaths were in care homes. A Crown Office investigation has been set up to consider prosecutions over 474 care home deaths. By January, the unit had received 2,242 death reports. The Scottish government has also led the charge to re-open schools with the pandemic still unsuppressedsome primary years are returning this week, in advance of similar moves in England. To maintain a popular base, the SNP relies massively on the wretched, right-wing character of the Labour Party and the refusal of the trade unions to lead any struggle to unite workers against the assault on living standards. It is reported to be heading for a landslide victory in the May elections and a number of opinion polls have recorded narrow majorities for independence. But no faction of the nationalists can offer workers even a minimal alleviation of the relentless destruction of jobs and social services. They champion rival strategies for the further drastic division and impoverishment of the working class. A recent article in the Scotsman from Sturgeon supporters Alyn Smith and Stewart McDonald delivered an anti-Russia rant and hailed the pro-EU Maidan uprising in Ukraine of 2014. According to the pair, this fascist backed coup, which saw street fighting between the neo-fascist Right Sector and government forces and brought the world to the brink of war, was the Revolution of Dignity which took place because the Ukrainian people wanted prosperity and integration with their European neighbours. The SNPs defence and foreign affairs spokesmen hailed the British government's commitment to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum upholding the inviolability of Ukrainian borders, which has repeatedly served as the pretext for military manouevres against Russia. Ukraines social policy of mass immiseration, under conditions of the pandemic, threatens 9 million of the country's 42 million population with extreme poverty, according to the UN. Salmond supporter and blogger, Craig Murray, last year outlined his view that Scottish secession could be based on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision on the right of Kosovo to secede from Serbia. Murray, speaking at an AUOB rally, avoided referring to the succession of civil wars, NATO bombing and catastrophic levels of poverty that were imposed on the working class across the Balkans during the breakup of Yugoslavia, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he made clear he viewed a British civil war over Scottish independence as something for which preparations should be made: There is going to be no process of Independence agreed with the British government. We have to take Independence, not beg for it. At some stage, there is always the danger that the British government may try to react by sending in the British Army to enforce Westminsters will. If we believe we are an independent nation, we have to be prepared to defend ourselves as an independent state should the worst happen. Now Scotland seeks to cover for the reactionary implications of its separatist strategy by relying on the hysterics of the middle class identity politicians and appeals to the trade union bureaucracy. These work to divert immense class tensions, intensified by the pandemicwhich objectively tend to unify workers in Britain and internationallyalong nationalist anti-English lines that portray Scotland as an oppressed nation, rather than part of an imperialist state ruled by a unified imperialist bourgeoisie for more than 300 years. Opening a new axis of struggle for workers in Scotland, across Britain and internationally is urgent. Opposition to imperialism, war and mass poverty cannot be mounted through the creation of a new minor imperialist power in Scotland, with a state apparatus staffed by pseudo-left careerists. It demands a unified movement of the working class across all borders, for an end to capitalist rule and the division of the world into antagonistic nation states, for a socialist Britain, within a United Socialist States of Europe. More than 700 migrant children who crossed into the United States without their parents are being held in the custody of U.S. border patrol as of Sunday. The number was revealed in an internal Customs and Border Protection document obtained by Axios and comes amid a deepening immigration crisis for President Joe Biden during a global pandemic. Record numbers of immigrants are crossing the U.S-Mexico border - many children and teenagers without parents - causing the Biden administration to reopen shelters to hold the children until they can be placed with a guardian. Biden overturned many of Donald Trump's immigration policies with a swipe of his executive pen when he became president - including reversing Trump's policy of expelling minors who arrive without their parents. Since then, the number of minors in federal custody has tripled to more than 7,000 causing the Biden administration to reopen shelters in Carrizo Springs, Texas and in Homestead, Florida, where now-Vice President Kamala Harris protested outside of in June 2019. The Carrizo Springs, Texas facility will hold up to 700 children ages 13 through 17 to allow proper social distancing as the Biden administration struggles to deal with rising tide of immigrants - many unaccompanied minors Children line up to enter a tent at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in February 2019 - the shelter is being reopened due to rising migrant numbers It's also raised questions about the children's welfare after minors were separated from their families under the Trump administration - a policy that the then-president eventually reversed due to heavy public pressure. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday defended the administration's position and said the children were not being kept in cages but 'difficult choices' were being made. 'We have a number of unaccompanied minors children who are coming into the country without their families. What we are not doing what the last administration did was separate those kids, rip them from the arms of their parents at the border. We are not doing that. That is immoral, and that is not the approach of this administration,' she said. Psaki said the administration would not make the 'dangerous' choice of sending kids back across the border nor would they place them with unvetted guardians - leaving the only option of holding them in shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services. She also pointed out that due to COVID precautions, more shelters are needed to give the children space for social distancing. 'We had to expand and open additional facilities because there was not enough space in the existing facilities if we were to abide by COVID protocols,' she said. 'This is a difficult situation. It's a difficult choice. That's the choice we've made,' she added. And the situation could get worse. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement email obtained by The Washington Post shows the Biden administration is already in crisis mode when it comes to immigration policy. 'We need to prepare for border surges now,' Timothy Perry, ICE's chief of staff, wrote in the Feb. 12 email. 'We need to begin making changes immediately.' Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told senior officials 'to prepare for border surges now,' Perry wrote. 'We need to begin making changes immediately. We should privilege action over cost considerations; do what is needed, and the department will work on funding afterward.' The Biden administration is so concerned about running out of shelter space, it authorized shelters to buy airline tickets for minors who already have relatives living in the United States, according to a HHS email obtained by The Post. President Joe Biden facing a mounting immigration crisis amid global pandemic Now-Vice President Kamala Harris was one of several Democratic presidential contenders who protested outside the Homestead facility when the candidates were in Miami for the first presidential debate in June 2019 - Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also protested In the past four months, federal officials have taken more than 70,000 migrants a month into custody. And, in January, the number of unaccompanied children coming over the border was more than 5,700, up from 4,855 the month before. Some Democrats have slammed President Biden for reopening the shelters, which were a flashpoint in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with many contenders blasting the Trump administration for separating children from their families. Harris was one of several Democratic presidential contenders who protested outside the Homestead facility when the candidates were in Miami for the first presidential debate in June 2019. 'This is not okay,' Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter of the Biden administration's decision to re-open shelters. 'This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay - no matter the administration or party,' she wrote. Chase Distillery signs deal with British and Irish Lions Chase Distillery has signed a deal with The British and Irish Lions as an official supplier, making its vodka and gin official spirits of the Lions Tour. As part of the deal, the field-to-bottle distiller will receive commercial rights including in-stadia branding and tickets for both the Castle Lager Lions Series and the Vodafone 1888 Cup match against Japan, scheduled to take place at BT Murrayfield on 26 June. The deal also gives Chase Distillery access to digital and social media rights and to the Lions events programme, and the option to create bespoke content using Lions archive and on-tour footage. The Herefordshire distillery will also have access to Lions players and coaches for commercial appearances and promotions, as well as the opportunity to watch the team train. Ben Calveley, managing director at The British and Irish Lions, said: "It is fantastic to welcome Chase Distillery to our family of commercial suppliers. "In Chase Distillery, we have found a partner who share our passion for excellence, and we are very pleased to have them on board." Founded in 2008, Chase Distillery produces gins and vodkas using potatoes and apples grown on its farm. As well as its flagship spirit, Chase GB Gin, its portfolio includes six other gins, four vodkas and an elderflower liqueur. Director James Chase said: "As a proud British brand, we could not be more excited to be teaming up with the Lions, and to become an official supplier for the series too. "Both the Lions and everyone at Chase Distillery have a shared commitment to be the very best in our fields, so for us, its a perfect partnership. We already have a number of exciting plans scheduled." To launch the partnership, Chase Distillery has released an announcement film featuring a voiceover from British and Irish centre Jeremy Guscott. 26 February 2021 - Bethany Whymark EAST HAMPTON - It has been a fixture in town since 1866. The building was the original Center School and, more recently, the headquarters for the Board of Education. However, the board moved out last year and moved into the new town hall. So the question arose of what to do with the building at 94 Main St. The plan now, which the Town Council voted 6-1 to approve, is to use it for certain education and technology needs. Superintendent of Schools Paul K. Smith plans to re-purpose it to use it as the home of a high school Transition Program for students ages 18 to 22 with special needs. In addition, he has proposed moving the computer technology office to the second floor of 94 Main St. That office is currently housed in Memorial School. There also is a large garage on the property that is used for storage by the schools and the towns recreation department, Smith said in a statement. In a letter he sent to the Town Council, Smith said, Keeping it occupiedallows us to maintain its rich history at a time when our Main Street is undergoing a sense of renewal at the center of East Hampton. In the company of Board of Education Chairman Christopher Goff, Smith attended the Town Councils regularly scheduled meeting this week, which was conducted on Zoom. The internship program would be housed on the first floor and the IT on the second floor, Smith said. The second floor provides much more workshop space for the specialized needs of the technology department, he said. Further, vacating the middle school allows for several people who do not have private space for counseling or office space to acquire that space. The work would require minimal physical changes, such as installing two doors, painting the space, and acquiring some furniture for the second floor, Smith said. Facilities manager Richard Harwood has estimated the work could be done in the next few weeks. The IT department could be brought over to Main Street during the April vacation, Harwood suggested. If the town could not continue to use the garage, both the school and town would require rental storage that would be as costly as keeping 94 Main open for usage, Smith said. But there is pushback to the idea of retaining the building. Registrar of Voters Lori Wilcox said the town had said it would give up the building once the school board moved to the new town hall. Town Councilor Mark Philhower, who voted against Smiths plan, said closing 94 Main St., was a pre-condition for approving the $18.9 million Town Hall project. In addition to the new town hall project, the town has in the last four years also allocated $51 million to renovate the high school. There should be sufficient space without retaining 94 Main St., Philhower said. He asked whether retaining the building would require any renovations. Town Manager David E. Cox said there are some small costs, but that no significant upgrades are needed. And those minimal costs would be cover by existing Board of Education funds, Cox said. Smith said making use of 94 Main St. now doesnt prevent it from being sold in the future, Senator Alex Kasser with members of Connecticut Protective Moms Research shows that DV only presents as verifiable physical violence in 10% of reported cases. However, many DV cases include an abusers escalating use of Coercive Control tactics. This bill could have better protected Jennifer Dulos and would protect countless mothers and children seeking safety." Connecticut Protective Moms, a grassroots group of Connecticut moms working to make family court safer for Domestic Violence (DV) Victims, announces that Senator Alex Kasser has introduced Jennifers Law for the 2021 Legislative session. The bill is named in honor of Jennifer Dulos, the New Canaan, Connecticut, mother who went missing and was suspected of being allegedly murdered by her husband while she was pleading for her and her childrens safety in family court. The focus of the bill is to update and modernize the definition of Domestic Violence (DV) in Connecticut state law to include Coercive Control - a pattern of abuse which is not necessarily physical that isolates, dominates and intimidates a victim into submission through a pattern of behavior. This can include assault, psychological abuse, financial abuse, revenge porn, stalking and other forms of domination and threat. The bill would also prioritize child safety in custody proceedings by making DV, including child abuse, the first factor assessed by the family court in a case involving custody. The bill also requires Coercive Control training by professionals with direct experience working with survivors, as well as legal support for victims seeking a protective order from the Court. Kassers bill would require judges to recognize victims of DV and child abuse and give them the safety and protection they deserve. When women are the victims of abuse, they seek safety for themselves and their children, said Senator Kasser, lead sponsor of this legislation. Often that means staying with the abuser because the danger of leaving is too great. But when victims do summon the courage to leave, we have a responsibility to believe and protect them. Too many women have lost their lives just trying to get free. And too many children have become collateral damage in this struggle. Its time for us to shine a light on DV in all its forms and protect those who need protecting. Women often feel shame and fear when theyre with their abuser and when they leave they are re-traumatized by a society that doesnt believe them. DV is a public health crisis thats been exacerbated by the pandemic. And oftentimes the signs are invisible." Many victims say that the invisible forms of DV - Coercive Control - are more terrifying than physical violence, noted Senator Kasser. Its time to update our systems and beliefs to reflect this reality. Its time to remove the stigma, shame and fear. Its time for real change. National experts agree that DV includes not only physical and sexual abuse, but it includes additional actions used to dominate and control a spouse/partner, making her afraid, powerless and subjugated, said Betsy Keller, founder of Connecticut Protective Moms. These actions are collectively referred to as coercive control. Hawaii passed a coercive control bill in September, 2020. California has one too. Given the national attention on the Jennifer Dulos case, and the fact that DV affects women in every community, Connecticut should be a leader on this issue. In an Op-Ed written by Hon. Family Court Justice Michael Albis published in March, 2020, the Connecticut Judicial Branch publicly supported the key component of Kassers proposal - expanding the legal definition of DV to include Coercive Control. Current law only recognizes continuous threat of present physical pain or physical injury but not other types of threat or injury. The current definition severely restricts what the court can do to protect victims, Albis noted. Judge Albis concluded that by adopting language as suggested by Sen. Kasser, the legislature will allow judges to elevate all DV to the scrutiny it deserves, particularly in cases involving child custody. Research shows that DV only presents as verifiable physical violence in 10% of reported cases. However, many DV cases include an abusers escalating use of Coercive Control tactics. This bill could have better protected Jennifer Dulos and countless other Connecticut mothers and children who have been harmed while seeking safety from an abusive partner in family court, says Danielle Pollack of CHILD USA, a national think tank for child protection. In addition, a way to punish an victim for leaving, abusers who previously had perpetrated violence against their adult partner will often redirect their abuse toward children and/or litigate for control of the children once their adult partner - no longer available to abuse directly - exits the relationship. Unfortunately, family courts often do not recognize this pattern, but Jennifers Law aims to improve the courts capacity to do so. According to Joan Meier, Law Professor at George Washington University Law and Director of the National Family Violence Law Center, who published a 2019 study of DV and family court harmful practices,My family court research is a groundbreaking empirical study of over 4000 cases powerfully affirming the reports from the field, that women who allege abuse particularly child abuse by a father are at significant risk (over 1 in 3) of losing custody to the alleged abuser in family court. Protective parents are often forced to share custody with an abuser while enduring years in contentious family court proceedings. Evan Stark, PhD, MSW, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, introduced the concept of coercive control in his book Coercive Control where he shows most abuse in relationships includes a combination of violent and nonviolent tactics (such as threats, stalking and psychological abuse), introduced over time, that often extend to use of the children to control the mother by threatening to harm them if she leaves or disobeys. The abuser may also use the children as allies in the mother's abuse. To learn more about DV and the Jennifers Law Bill, read more at https://www.connecticutprotectivemoms.org/press. A Policy Brief: Legislating Coercive Control- Jennifers Law provides additional background information. About Connecticut Protective Moms Connecticut Protective Moms (CPM) is a 501 (c) (3) grassroots organization of Connecticut moms who are dedicated to improving the Connecticut Family Court process to validate all forms of Domestic Violence (DV) including physical, coercive control, emotional, verbal, financial and legal abuse. Contact: Jill Rosenfeld admin@connecticutprotectivemoms.org connecticutprotectivemoms.org 203-561-6988 The Australian version of Facebook got decidedly less newsy a week ago, after the company blocked Australian news outlets from posting their stories to its platform, and regular users in that country from sharing news from any media outlet anywhere in the world. (Traffic to Australian news sites fell by as much as 20 percent, according to Axios.) This move came in response to a new law that requires large platforms like Facebook and Google to pay for every news article carried on their networks, something that both companies objected to. To critics of the company, including some members of the government, the move was another sign Facebook has too much power and needs to be regulated. To defenders of the open internet, including World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners Lee, it was a sign of how governments are over-reaching when it comes to legislation aimed at curbing platform power and/or funding journalism. Facebook finally said Monday that it was removing the block on sharing in Australia, as a result of amendments to the law. But the war itself shows little sign of stopping. If anything, Australias pressure on Google and Facebook, and the resulting settlement with the latter as vague as it may be in practice only seems to have increased the interest other countries have in trying to repeat Australias measures. (Microsoft is also trying to help push this kind of legislation, likely for competitive reasons.) Though citizens lost the ability to post news for a few days, media companies are likely to get a windfall as a result (broadcasters like Seven and Nine have already gotten $30 million each from Google). Facebook has committed to investing more than $1 billion in the media industry worldwide over the next three years. Canada has said it is interested in pursuing legislation similar to that proposed by Australia, and legislators in the European Union seem similarly enamored of the code and its ability to squeeze the platforms. New from CJR: Journalists and the looming superstorm of climate disinformation The Australian law is a tougher version of legislation introduced in France and Germany several years ago, after the passage by the EU of new copyright rules on what are called neighboring rights, which apply to aggregators like Google News. The French and German variations of those laws have had mixed results, in part because they are difficult to enforce. In France earlier this week, antitrust regulators released a report that accused Google of failing to comply with the rules requiring it to hold talks with publishers over payment for their content. The search giant signed a three-year deal worth $76 million with a number of French publishers earlier this year, but some smaller news outlets were not included in the deal. According to regulators, Google failed to hold talks with those other publishers in good faith to find an agreement on payment. This helps explain why Australias version of the same legislation imposes mandatory binding arbitration if a platform fails to hold negotiations with a publisher after a certain period of time. Indeed, the binding arbitration requirement was one of the aspects of the Australian code that Google and Facebook most objected to. The clause states that if the companies dont hold talks in good faith, they will be forced into arbitration with someone of the governments choosing, who will then have the ability to name a price the platforms will have to pay. One of the amendments that got Facebook to drop its news ban gave the company an extended time period in which to reach deals with news publishers before the forced arbitration clause was triggered. More important was the government concession that Facebook would only have to sign bulk deals with news publishers, not pay for every piece of news shared by anyone on its platform. And if it signs enough deals the strategy that Google chose to follow from the beginning then the suggestion is that the other aspects of the proposed legislation (which required things like 30 days notice of changes to the recommendation algorithm) will no longer apply. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Australia may feel that it emerged victorious from the battle with Facebook after all, even after capitulating to Facebooks brinkmanship, the countrys news publishers are now going to get cash payments from the social network and from Google, which was the goal of the proposed legislation. And that will no doubt embolden other countries to pursue similar campaigns. But many questions remain unanswered. Even if we assume that Google and Facebook bear some responsibility for the decline of the media industry (which some believe is a stretch), if governments want to support journalism financially, why not impose a straightforward tax on the platforms, or on digital advertising, instead of using copyright as a back door? And if the bulk of the payments from the platforms go to established media outlets like those run by Rupert Murdoch who controls a large proportion of the Australian press, and is widely seen as the impetus behind the legislation what happens to smaller, independent news publishers? Heres more on the platforms and news: Antitrust action : Margarethe Vestager, the European Unions Competition Commissioner, warned on Tuesday that Google or any of the other US technology giants could face potential antitrust action if they threaten to pull out of European markets in retaliation for copyright laws similar to Australias. Vestager told the EUs economy committee that there could be scope for investigating if its actually legal for a dominant provider to stop supplying services, adding that the EU would have a number of tools to use. Unfit for purpose : A group of academics, journalists, and others who call themselves the Real Facebook Oversight Board say the press release about the Australian blockade from Nick Clegg, communications chief for Facebook and former British deputy prime minister, shows that Facebook is unfit to police its platform. The group says that the company spectacularly overplayed its hand in Australia, revealing itself to an entire continent as a bully, and that the companys ban also shut down pages belonging to womens shelters, non-profits, and charities. And yet, we are expected to trust Facebook to police its platform for misinformation during a global pandemic. Return to Spain: Google is negotiating individual licensing deals with Spanish publishers that could allow the search giants news service to return to the country, three sources told Reuters . Google News blocked any Spanish media outlet from its news index in 2014, in response to new legislation that required it to pay for even small snippets of content. The law was one of the first to take that approach, which in turn led to similar rules being adopted by the EU and local versions in France and Germany. Spain is planning to adopt a new version of the legislation that would exclude Google and other companies from the law if they sign licensing deals with individual publishers. Other notable stories: ICYMI: How to count half a million lost lives? Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. The three facilities are located in Etobicoke (2) and London and each location is expected to host four-six physicians, the company said As it continues to expand into the Canadian market, the company plans to add additional specialized medical services, including dermatology and cardiology Empower Clinics Inc ( ) (FRA:8EC) (OTCQB:EPWCF) announced the launch of its first three integrated health centres in Ontario on Thursday, with each location expected to generate C$2.5 million to C$3.6 million in annual revenue. The three facilities are located in Etobicoke (~2,700 sq ft, ~2,900 sq ft) and London (~3,100 sq ft). Each location is expected to host four-six physicians, the company said, and Empower has already secured commitments from 12 physicians to date. "Dr. Aviv Tsimmerman and Dr. Jordan Rabinowitz are executing on our growth initiatives, they are achieving milestones, they are opening our healthcare centers." CEO Steven McAuley said in a statement. "Our approach is based on patients and their needs, the delivery of care, [and] an improved healthcare model that provides advanced technology and access for an improved healthcare outcome." Advanced discussions are currently underway on multiple additional locations as the company begins the rollout of its national clinic expansion strategy, and numerous additional medical doctors and paramedical practitioners have expressed interest in joining the team, the company said. "Having a strategic blend of health professionals allows us to provide an unparalleled integrative healthcare experience." Rabinowitz, Empowers COO, said. "This defines our path to assist millions of Canadians nationwide." Empower plans to open primary care facilities and paramedical healthcare services, with the goal of bringing four to six medical doctors and four to six paramedical practitioners per location. Primary care services include family physicians, walk-in physicians and telemedicine/virtual care, the company said. Paramedical services include chiropractic care, physiotherapy, registered massage therapy, chiropody, acupuncturists, osteopaths and nutritionists Empower expects to generate between $400,000 and $600,000 in annual revenue per medical doctor, per primary care facility, which equates to between C$1.6 million and C$2.4 million annually per location. For the paramedical centers, the company projects C$960,000 to C$1.2 million in annual revenue per location. All told, that totals between C$2.5 million to C$3.6 million in annual revenue per location. As it continues to expand into the Canadian market, the company plans to add additional specialized medical services, including dermatology and cardiology. Empower is currently in advanced discussions with potential partners in each, the company said. Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel (Newser) When President Trump was in office, critics said his immigration policies resulted in children being held in "cages." Now that President Biden has reopened what it calls an "emergency facility" in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for immigrant minors, his critics are accusing him of hypocrisy. Coverage of the controversy: The site: Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the US is reopening the Texas facility, which can hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17. The government says part of the reason is because capacity at permanent facilities has been cut in half because of COVID restrictions. Another factor: The Post notes that the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border is on the rise, with 5,700 apprehensions in January, the highest figure for that month in years. Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the US is reopening the Texas facility, which can hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17. The government says part of the reason is because capacity at permanent facilities has been cut in half because of COVID restrictions. Another factor: The Post notes that the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border is on the rise, with 5,700 apprehensions in January, the highest figure for that month in years. Backlash: Stephen Miller, a top adviser to Trump in the White House, went on Fox News Wednesday night and blasted Biden, notes the Daily Beast. "He came into office and announced that there's an open door, and that young people who come into this country illegally are going to be resettled instead of returned. He is forcing thousands of young children into the arms of smugglers, into the arms of traffickers, into the arms of coyotes ... That is cruel. That is inhumane." story continues below More criticism: Conservative talk radio host Dana Loesch tweeted, "Kids in cages is now 'migrant facility for children.'" That sentiment is widespread on the right, and Fox News rounds up more. Loesch and other critics say the Post is treating Biden differently than it did Trump, though the story includes criticism such as this: "When I read they were opening again, I cried," says San Antonio community activist Rosey Abuabara. "I consoled myself with the fact that it was considered the Cadillac of [migrant child] centers, but I don't have any hope that Biden is going to make it better." Conservative talk radio host Dana Loesch tweeted, "Kids in cages is now 'migrant facility for children.'" That sentiment is widespread on the right, and Fox News rounds up more. Loesch and other critics say the Post is treating Biden differently than it did Trump, though the story includes criticism such as this: "When I read they were opening again, I cried," says San Antonio community activist Rosey Abuabara. "I consoled myself with the fact that it was considered the Cadillac of [migrant child] centers, but I don't have any hope that Biden is going to make it better." Amnesty International: In a statement, the human rights group took note of the reopening, referring to the site as a "detention facility," and warned that it cannot become the "status quo." However, the group also said the Biden administration "has inherited a system that holds unaccompanied children in temporary facilities and it will take time to move away from the system." In a statement, the human rights group took note of the reopening, referring to the site as a "detention facility," and warned that it cannot become the "status quo." However, the group also said the Biden administration "has inherited a system that holds unaccompanied children in temporary facilities and it will take time to move away from the system." Differences: In a separate analysis at the Post, Aaron Blake writes that Biden, unlike Trump, isn't separating children from their parents. Also, children detained under the previous administration were held in large groups behind chain-link fences, he adds. "Whether you called those 'cages' or 'chain-link partitions' or anything else, though, that's not the situation at the border facility the Biden administration is reactivating." In a separate analysis at the Post, Aaron Blake writes that Biden, unlike Trump, isn't separating children from their parents. Also, children detained under the previous administration were held in large groups behind chain-link fences, he adds. "Whether you called those 'cages' or 'chain-link partitions' or anything else, though, that's not the situation at the border facility the Biden administration is reactivating." Rationale: A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services tells the Post the agency is moving toward an approach based on child welfare rather than the "law-enforcement-focused" approach of the Trump administration. And Biden press secretary Jen Psaki said the Carrizo Springs facility is only temporary. It "is never our intention of replicating the immigration policies of the past administration," she said, per the Hill. "But we are in a circumstance where we are not going to expel unaccompanied minors at the border. That would be inhumane." A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services tells the Post the agency is moving toward an approach based on child welfare rather than the "law-enforcement-focused" approach of the Trump administration. And Biden press secretary Jen Psaki said the Carrizo Springs facility is only temporary. It "is never our intention of replicating the immigration policies of the past administration," she said, per the Hill. "But we are in a circumstance where we are not going to expel unaccompanied minors at the border. That would be inhumane." The problem: A post at Axios sees all this as a "brewing crisis" for Biden, who it says is discovering that "it's easier to talk about preventing warehousing kids at the southern border than solving the problem." While it's true that the Biden administration is no longer separating children from their parents at the border, it's also true that more minors are showing up unaccompanied. Plus, it's only February, and border crossings typically peak in the spring. The report says that more than 700 unaccompanied children from Mexico were in DHS custody as of Sunday. (Biden just ended Trump's freeze on legal immigration .) FAMILY THE SECRET LIFE OF DOROTHY SOAMES by Justine Cowan (Virago 20, 320 pp) When five-year-old Dorothy Soames first saw London's Foundling Hospital, it was so imposing that she vomited. Abandoned at the hospital as a baby, Dorothy was sent to the country to be wet-nursed. For many foundlings these years provided the happiest memories of their childhood but for Dorothy they were 'bereft of love or tenderness', with foster parents who barely acknowledged her. Things would only get worse when she was returned to the Foundling Hospital. On arrival the girls, stripped naked and scrubbed, had their hair cut back to the scalp. Dorothy Soames (pictured) was abandoned at London's Foundling Hospital as a baby and had a childhood where physical punishment was common and was 'bereft of love and tenderness' Although the institution had many notable patrons such as Dickens the foundlings were constantly reminded of their lowliness. They were clothed in brown sack-like uniforms and weren't allowed to talk to each other at meals, except on Christmas Day as a special treat. Physical punishment was common. Dorothy became the target of one Miss Woodward, who regularly beat her with such vigour that the bruises remained for weeks. She once nearly drowned Dorothy by throwing her in the school swimming pool she couldn't swim and poked her with a stick until she blacked out. Her mother Lena Weston, 31, asked for her back at during the Blitz, which was denied. But Dorothy (pictured in 1962) escaped and was then allowed to return to her mother The Foundling Hospital was, believe it or not, created with good intentions by Thomas Coram in 1739. In one year, up to 1,000 babies could be left on London's streets and Coram, who lost his mother aged four, 'could never turn a blind eye to the tiny corpses or starving children'. Unmarried mothers were usually thrown out by their families. The hospital, England's first secular charity, was a lifeline to these desperate women as they could simply ring the bell and leave their babies at the gate. On the first day, 117 children were abandoned this way. By the time Dorothy's mother, 31-year-old Lena Weston, turned to the institution in 1932, the admissions process was stricter due to limited space. Only illegitimate children, considered the most vulnerable, with 'respectable' mothers were accepted. Those women the exclusively-male board deemed likely to repeat their 'mistake' were not offered help. Lena explained that the father was a 'commercial traveller' who had taken 'liberties' with her on a walk. Shunned by her family, she felt the child would be better off in the hospital's care. Her pastor and doctor both vouched for her and so Lena's daughter was admitted. The children at Foundling Hospital (pictured) were clothed in brown sack-like uniforms and weren't allowed to talk to each other at meals, except on Christmas Day as a special treat But Dorothy's daughter Justine Cowan (pictured) only discovered her mother's tragic early life at the Foundling Hospital after she died of Alzheimer's But Lena never forgot Dorothy. At the start of the Blitz, she asked for her back, thinking her daughter would be safer in the country. At first, her request was denied but it was Dorothy's 'courage that brought about her freedom'. Along with her friend Margaret, she escaped. Miraculously, the girls made it all the way to Margaret's foster parents in Chertsey, before they were inevitably sent back to the Foundling Hospital. Afterwards to Dorothy's delight she was returned to her birth mother. The headmistress wrote to Lena claiming that, due to her escape, Dorothy was too 'temperamental and difficult' for the hospital to handle. What happened then is a frustrating missing piece in an otherwise compelling story. The next thing we know for sure is that Dorothy arrived in 1950s San Francisco and married a lawyer. Dorothy died of Alzheimer's and her memoir, on which much of this book is based, skips over that part of her life. We can only assume that the pair became estranged. As Dorothy's daughter, Justine Cowan, points out in this gripping biography: 'Once the bond between a parent and a child has been broken, it is difficult to mend.' Dorothy and Justine had a strained relationship, with Justine saying it felt like psychological bullying, but Justine (pictured aged 12) unearthed her past after coming across her memoir Dorothy and Justine had a strained relationship of their own. Dorothy would buy Justine clothes which were too big to make her feel overweight. 'I remember standing half naked in front of her, humiliated, as she forced me to try them, the items slipped off my body,' Cowan recalls. 'There was no compassion in her eyes as tears streamed down my face.' Justine pieced together the puzzle of her mother's early life in her book The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames To Justine, this felt like psychological bullying. 'Sometimes, I secretly wished that my mother had hit me... giving me evidence', she admits. After her mother's death, however, she came across Dorothy's memoir and unearthed her Foundling secret. On a trip to London from the U.S., Cowan visited the Foundling Museum, housed in the old hospital building in Brunswick Square, where she was given Dorothy's file. She pieced together the puzzle of her mother's tragic early life and, in doing so, began to understand, forgive and even feel proud of the woman who had once been so cruel to her. Now, Cowan fondly describes her as 'a girl with a smattering of freckles and silky brown hair, feisty and courageous' who she 'had grown to love'. A group of young people from Ho Chi Minh City had transported agricultural products from the northern province of Hai Duong to the southern metropolis before selling them at zero dong on Tuesday in the hope of easing the burden on farmers in the virus-hit locality. The group, in collaboration with Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union members, transported a total of more than ten metric tons of cabbages, with a budget of over VND40 million (US$1,700). Part of the amount came from donors in response to the call on Facebook for a 'rescue' of vegetables that could not find buyers in Hai Duong due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak and related travel restrictions. The majority of vegetables grown in Hai Duong have been left unsold as authorities in Hai Phong City, a big veggie consumer of Hai Duong, have been restricting goods transport activities for COVID-19 prevention and control. Large bags of cabbages from northern Hai Duong Province are loaded onto a mini truck in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, February 23, 2021. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre With the good intention of the Ho Chi Minh City group, the Hai Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development quickly approved their proposal to ship locally-grown vegetables to the southern metropolis, according to Nguyen Tan Phi, a grassroots-level Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union official. The vehicles transporting the veggies were disinfected before reaching Ho Chi Minh City, Phi added. After their arrival in the city, the rescued cabbages were put up for sale at zero dong at a makeshift stall in front of Phat Buu Pagoda in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. A makeshift stall of cabbages 'rescued' from northern Hai Duong Province is set up in front of Phat Buu Pagoda in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, February 23, 2021. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre On Tuesday afternoon, the stall attracted hundreds of people, who happily took away the free cabbages and made small donations in return to support farmers in Hai Duong. I support such small-but-meaningful activities initiated by the young people, especially during the pandemic hardship, said Thanh Thuy, a resident in District 3. According to the groups plan, they will transport carrot and kohlrabi from Hai Duong to Ho Chi Minh City in the next two days to help farmers reduce their stockpiles. Thanks to a nationwide response, more than half of the unsold vegetables in Hai Duong had been snapped up as of 5:00 pm on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Enthusiastic people help at a makeshift stall of cabbage 'rescued' from northern Hai Duong Province in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, February 23, 2021. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre The latest wave of infections since January 27 has seen a total of 820 locally-transmitted cases logged in 13 provinces and cities. Among them, 636 patients have been reported in Hai Duong Province, 61 in Quang Ninh Province, 27 in Gia Lai Province, 35 in Hanoi, five in Bac Ninh Province, two in Bac Giang Province, 36 in Ho Chi Minh City, two in Hoa Binh Province, one in Ha Giang Province, three in Dien Bien Province, six in Binh Duong Province, four in Hai Phong, and two in Hung Yen Province. The national tally stood at 2,412 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday night, with 1,790 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Healths data. Large bags of cabbages 'rescued' from northern Hai Duong Province are stored at a warehouse in Ho Chi Minh City, February 23, 2021. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre Xuan Phuc (center), a sixth-grade student at Ban Co Middle School, takes a cabbage given away from a makeshift stall in front of Phat Buu Pagoda in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, February 23, 2021. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre A woman donates to farmers in northern Hai Duong Province in front of Phat Buu Pagoda in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, February 23, 2021. Photo: Nhat Thinh / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! In the 2021 Budget Review tabled with finance minister, Tito Mboweni's budget speech, Treasury announced that Section 12J of the Income Tax Act will not be extended past its sunset date of 30 June 2021. Parliament is now faced with the decision whether to accept Treasury's policy and not extend Section 12J, or take an alternative course of action. Dino Zuccollo is the chair of the 12J Association Creating jobs Most investments in last two years Profound mistake One of Treasurys primary objections to Section 12J is that the majority of investments supported by the incentive are in what it believes to be low-risk or guaranteed-return ventures that would have been able to attract funding even without the incentive. This objection seems to relate primarily to property-backed businesses like hotels (whose operations are backed by real estate assets) and asset rental businesses (where risk tends to be mitigated through astute corporate structuring). Since Treasury perceives these businesses as less risky, the view is that they already have easy access to equity capital.However, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted that this view is not correct. Hotels and tourism, for example, have been decimated by the pandemic and have certainly not enjoyed easy access to equity capital over the past year.Similarly, many of the SMMEs that managed to navigate their way through the pandemic will attribute the resilience of their businesses to the existence of an understanding equity provider who continued to provide them with funding at times when all traditional sources of capital had dried up. These equity providers often take the form of Section 12J asset rental structures, providing patient equity capital to SMMEs at a time when they need it most.It should also be highlighted that many South African investors perceive any onshore investment to be risky, especially given our current economic climate and even more so when investing in new, small businesses. The perceived risk of investing locally is the reason why capital flight is exceptionally high at this present time.The Section 12J tax incentive, which was introduced by government with a view to creating jobs and developing small businesses, is an ideal mechanism to help stem capital flight because it incentivises investors to keep their money in the country. This money is then invested in small and medium sized business that help grow the economy and create jobs for a minimum period of five years.Our concern is that the ending of the 12J incentive will precipitate and accelerate the flight of capital out of South Africa. We simply cannot understand the rationale for cancelling one of the few mechanisms available to convince high net worth individuals to invest long-term capital in South Africa and grow our tax base at a time when capital flight is one of the key economic risks to the country.Treasurys view that Section 12Js economic impact has been limited seems to be based on anecdotal evidence over a short period of time. It should be noted that the Section 12J legislation only gained traction following changes to the law in 2016, and as such the majority of 12J investments were made in the past two years.This is far too short a period of time to gauge the resultant impact which these investments have had on SMMEs, which, on average, take at least three to five years to become profitable, grow, and begin employing more people. We believe that the legislation needs to be given more time to operate before any reliable claims can be made about its likely economic impact and consequential decisions be taken regarding the future.Even so, on Treasurys own conservative statistics, qualifying companies have created 8,239 jobs in a remarkably short space of time, and during a recession. Our research shows that, if the 12J incentive was allowed to continue to operate, up to 45,000 jobs would be created in the next five years.We stand by our view that the Section 12J incentive has been extremely beneficial for the South African economy. By revoking the 12J incentive, Treasury is effectively inviting investors to put their money elsewhere (in a different asset class, currency or even country).The 12J Association certainly does acknowledge that the incentive could be targeted better to ensure that only investments which Treasury deems economically beneficial will qualify for a tax deduction. This is something that we could support, and we are open to engaging further with Treasury and Parliament on how this could be structured.It would be a profound mistake, however, for the 12J incentive to be summarily removed from the statute books when it has so much to offer in terms of investment, growth and job creation. If there are unintended consequences of the legislation as it is currently, lets fix these problems so that everybody benefits. It makes little sense to throw the baby out with the bathwater especially as we begin the rebuild of our economy following the Covid-19 pandemic.We will seek to engage further with Treasury on its announcement regarding Section 12J of the Income tax Act, and we hope to take our case to Parliament as it deliberates on the draft revenue bills tabled by the minister. Our goal is to ensure that the 12J incentives economic benefits are maximised, and that South African capital is invested in South African projects. Amanda Burke covers Pittsfield City Hall for The Berkshire Eagle. An Ithaca, New York native, she previously worked at The Herald News of Fall River and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise. Find her on Twitter at @amandaburkec. The spike in home burglaries in San Francisco has stirred concern among residents over how to stay safe or prevent home break-ins, but there are myriad steps residents can take to keep their residences safe. Citywide, burglaries including residential and commercial break-ins are up 58% so far this year, compared to the same period a year ago, according to San Francisco Police Department data. Police and residents suspect the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason for the uptick in burglaries as car break-ins have dropped after shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions emptied the streets of tourists frequent targets of break-ins last March. Its also difficult to arrest burglary suspects, police said, without physical evidence or eyewitnesses. In hard-hit San Francisco neighborhoods like the Richmond and Marina districts, some residents have adopted a siege mentality, banding together to help one another secure their homes and garages. Furlishous Wyatt, a security services manager at San Francisco SAFE, said most home burglaries can be grouped into one of three different scenarios, depending on whether a residence is occupied and whether a burglar confronts the resident. San Francisco SAFE is a nonprofit organization originally created as a project of the San Francisco police in 1976. The organization offers crime prevention, education and public safety services. Before the pandemic, Wyatt said daytime home burglaries often occurred between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. while residents were at work. Most recent burglaries have taken place during the night although daytime burglaries still can happen. These are the three types of home burglaries and how to stay safe, according to Wyatt: If a burglar breaks into an unoccupied residence: All of the doors leading into the house should have a strong, solid construction Glass windows that are within 40 inches of a door and its locking device should be burglar-resistant If you have a mail slot on your door, cover the slot from the indoors so that people arent able to look directly into the home Wyatt recommends a 180-degree wide angle door viewer and a surveillance camera Add additional locks to outdoor gates/entry doors Secure all windows, even if theyre above ground level Make sure you have sufficient lighting, like constant nighttime lighting supplemented by motion sensitive lighting Always lock your bathroom window Secure skylights Make sure your address number is clearly visible so that emergency responders can easily locate your home Trim any bushes or trees that are blocking windows Utilize blinds shades throughout the entire house Take inventory of your belongings with photos or videos Attend the local police community meeting to put a face to your home and meet your neighbors Have a trusted neighbor who can check on your home if youre on vacation If a burglar breaks into the garage while the home is occupied: Dont leave the garage door open if you are not present Add auxiliary locking devices to the garage door Cover the garage door button Make sure the garage door is as strong as any other exterior door Report if something has been stolen from your garage, no matter the size of the object If a burglar breaks into an occupied home and confronts the residents also known as a hot prowl burglary Create a safe haven, also known as a panic room with a landline phone in it. This can be a bedroom or a bathroom Set up an alarm system Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores Realme launched the Realme XT as its first 64MP camera smartphone back in September 2019, and now the company is ready to take a leap to 108MP sensors as it's hosting a Camera Innovation Event on March 2 to showcase its 108MP camera tech. Unlike Realme's first Camera Innovation Event, which was held in New Delhi, India in August 2019 to detail the company's 64MP quad camera setup, this one will be virtual due to the ongoing pandemic and will be streamed live on Realme's global Facebook page and YouTube channel. Realme 7 Pro with 64MP primary camera We don't have any details about Realme's 108MP camera implementation on its smartphones, but a teaser shared by Mr. Madhav Sheth - VP of Realme and CEO of Realme India and Europe - suggests the Realme 8 lineup will be one of the firsts to feature a 108MP camera. The poster also tells us the 108MP primary camera will be joined by three more cameras on the Realme 8 series, one of which will likely be an ultrawide camera, and the other two could be macro and depth units if the Realme 7 Pro's camera setup is anything to go by. But we hope the Realme 8 lineup will mark the telephoto lens come back to the number series. Melissa Gilberts mother was very involved in her career. As the Laura Ingalls actor wrote in her memoir, Prairie Tale, she was at the helm of everything. The Little House on the Prairie stars relationship with her mother wasnt a unique one for a child star. But it did greatly affect the course of her life. Barbara Crane (later Cowan), Melissa Gilbert, Sara Gilbert | The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images Melissa Gilberts mother controlled her entire life Gilberts mother, actor/dancer Barbara Cowan, adopted the Laura Ingalls actor just after she was born. Gilbert started doing commercials as a young child and when Little House took off, Cowan became even more involved in her daughters day-to-day. My mother was at the helm of everything, including my career, my food intake, and how I dressedmy whole life, wrote Gilbert in her memoir. I never questioned her or rebelled. Speaking out against the family was the ultimate form of disloyalty, and disloyalty was not tolerated. Since speaking out against the family was unheard of, Gilbert was sure to turn up the positivity in the interviews she gave as a young actor, even if she wasnt always happy. In an interview back when I was ten years old, Id likely have said that everything was wonderful, everyone in my life was fantastic, I was happy, and life was perfect, she wrote. But most of that was untrue. Because Gilbert was adopted at a young age, she often struggled with the mythology of [her] existence. She had a lot of questions about her identity that she wouldnt find answers to until she was in her 20s. Melissa Gilberts mother got half of what her daughter earned Just after the Little House on the Prairie stars 18th birthday, her mother sat her down and said she thought they should continue to be partners. Without hesitation, Gilbert said absolutely. I was surprised by the statement, wrote Gilbert. I had never considered any other arrangement. Good, and now that youre eighteen, we need to make sure this is okay, Gilberts mother continued. I think it would be a good idea if we drew up papers and, you know, shared everything like partners, fifty-fifty. Rob Lowe, Melissa Gilbert, and Melissa Gilberts Mother Barbara Crane | Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images RELATED: Little House on the Prairie: Melissa Gilbert Had No Idea How Famous She Was When She Was Young Heres How She Learned My mom was still my mom, wrote Gilbert. She was still in charge, the oracle who guided me and who I turned to with questions. Beyond that, she was single, and she deserved to be taken care of. She had sacrificed a lot for me. So Gilbert and her mother signed a contract that gave Cowan half of everything I earned, including my Coogan account, till I turned twenty-five. Around Gilberts 25th birthday is when she started severing her business relationship with her mother. Ultimately, she thought it was best for their relationship. The Little House on the Prairie actor leaned on her mother for support when she met her birth father Also around that time, Gilbert hired a service to help her connect with her birth parents. She learned who her birth father was, David Darlington, and that the woman who had given birth to her (named Kathy) had died in 1980. The Little House on the Prairie actor went to visit Darlington in his home of Las Vegas, Nevada. The meeting didnt go as Gilberthad hoped. When she got back to her hotel room after meeting Darlington, Gilbert cried like a hysterical, inconsolable fiver-year-old. Her then-husband, Bo Brinkman, called Gilberts mother and handed the phone to his wife. She got on the phone and listened to me recount what had happened and how terribly disappointed I was by the outcome, wrote Gilbert. Then she let me cry until I ran out of tears. Cowan told her daughter that finding out about her family was just a part of her story. Now she could move on in peace. Gilbert knew her mother was right. Though theyve been through a lot, Gilbert wrote several times in Prairie Tale that she considered her mother to be one of her best friends. Stuck at home, I devoted myself to Tumblr. What was I trying to accomplish? Mostly, I was interested in knocking people off their pedestals. I also enjoyed being popular, controversial, discussed. When a comedian I had posted about name-checked my blog on Twitter, I was giddy. Then I started receiving threats. Someone sent me a screenshot of a house from Google Maps, claiming to have found my IP address. It wasnt my house, but still. I realized that for every person on Tumblr who looked up to my blog, there were many more, online and offline, who hated it and me. I started posting less and, eventually, stopped posting at all. In the years since, Ive looked back on my blog with shame and regret about my pettiness, my motivating rage, my hard-and-fast assumptions that people were either good or bad. Who was I to lump together known misogynists with people who got tattoos in languages they didnt speak? I just wanted to see someone face consequences; no one whod hurt me ever had. Theres something almost quaint about it all now: teenage me, teaching myself about social justice on Tumblr while also posturing as an authority on that very subject, thinking I was making a difference while engaging in a bit of schadenfreude. Meanwhile, other movements local, global, unified in their purposes and rooted in progressive philosophies were organizing for actual justice. Looking back, I was more of a cop than a social justice warrior, as people on Tumblr had come to think of me. These days, theres no shortage of online accountability efforts, the large part of them anonymously run. Some accounts post typically anodyne but occasionally explosive celebrity gossip. Others are explicitly aimed at naming, shaming and punishing people for all kinds of actions and missteps. My own work fell somewhere in the middle, I think; the information I posted was out in the open, but I was cataloging it to make a case against the veneration of the rich and famous. As many have noted, the coronavirus pandemic has emphasized the distance between celebrities and the rest of us. And their actions have been subject to greater scrutiny the vacations theyve gone on, the parties theyve held, the access theyve had to testing and care during a health crisis that has taken millions of lives. NASA will honor the "Hidden Figure" legend Mary W. Jackson in a building-naming ceremony. NASA Television will host a live ceremony on Friday, Feb. 26, as they officially name the space agency's headquarters building in Washington after Jackson, according to a press release. NASA'S FAMOUS CONNECTION: What NASA's Perseverance mission and 'Stand and Deliver' have in common You may recall Jackson was the subject of the 2016 film "Hidden Figures," which documented the lives of three Black women whose work with the U.S. space program gained worldwide recognition, according to NASA. The film chronicled the struggles faced by Jackson alongside her colleagues Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan as they became key players in the success of NASA's early spaceflights. According to NASA, Jackson was the first Black female engineer at the space agency that started her career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit at Langley Research Center. "The mathematician and aerospace engineer went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal," according to the media release. Jackson retired from NASA in 1985 and passed away on Feb. 11, 2005. The livestream event will feature video tributes to Jackson from former NASA employees and astronauts, elected officials, celebrities, and others as they reflect on her longstanding career and legacy. Members of Jackson's family will join NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk, who will lead the ceremony beginning at 1 p.m. EST. You can watch the livestream ceremony on NASA's social media platforms as well as the NASA app. RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --The global financial group Piemonte Holding announced today the launch of an asset-trading platform entirely based on blockchain technology, the first of its kind in Brazil and Latin America. The tool will allow Piemonte's private investors to trade about R$ 150 million in debentures and investment fund units entirely via the Ethereum blockchain technology, using the secondary market platform created by Piemonte. "This platform is another milestone in our efforts to develop blockchain technology adapted to the Brazilian marketplace. At a time when the global interest in crypto assets continues to grow, demonstrated both by Tesla making billion-dollar investments and by the outstanding results of blockchain funds, we believe that Brazil cannot and should not stay behind", explains Alessandro Lombardi, CEO of Piemonte Holding, a group focused on digital infrastructure (Data Centers) and blockchain technology applications for the financial market. Developed in partnership with the US/Swiss based fintech company Horizon Fintex, the platform is available for download on the Apple Store and can be accessed via smartphone. However, access to trading is only available to Piemonte's private investors at this time. It will be allowed to be broadly used only after the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM) regulates and approves the blockchain technology. After being the first issuer of blockchain debentures in Latin America in December 2019, the Piemonte Smart Bond, Piemonte Holding is now also the first Latin American developer of a proprietary trading platform entirely based on blockchain technology. By issuing and trading securities on the Ethereum network, Piemonte aims to ensure full transparency to both the market and its investors, and to lower transaction costs significantly. Piemonte's bondholders and fund holders can now negotiate as private investors in Piemonte's decentralized market, as long as they qualify and comply with the company's compliance standards. Piemonte Holding's pioneering approach to the provision of blockchain capabilities to the capital market is focused on the digital transformation of the investment world, where mobile applications are used by investors that today seek greater transparency in their transactions. By realizing this vision, Piemonte unlocks the potential to carry out simple and inexpensive negotiations for all market players, allowing financial inclusion at the same time to a Brazilian market that has very high growth potential. "The shift towards digital securities is inevitable and has brought the benefits of greater financial inclusion, broader access, a new pool of investors and improved compliance and transparency processes. The efficiency, speed and resilience of the blockchain technology allows our new investment market to transfer funds quickly and without any information gaps. We are eager for the regulator's opinion on this new technology so that everyone can enjoy it, not only the private investors of our group", says Alessandro Lombardi. Piemonte Holding has worked since 2017 to align its bond offerings with blockchain technology, while strictly following the complex securities and international compliance laws and regulations in force in Brazil. The company's blockchain software supports Piemonte's offerings, from issuance to the secondary market. Its financial instruments were issued on Ethereum in accordance with the ERC-20 standard using the rollup-centric Ethereum 2.0, powered by Horizon Fintex, seamlessly integrated with KYC (Know Your Client), AML (Anti Money Laundering) and stock custody software processes. Piemonte has five instruments on Ethereum blockchain with an issuance number of approximately $ 30 million: Debenture #1 : R$ 33,000,000, Ethereum address 0x88c42289910be3BEA95449627DFa83BbF3d80CEA. Debenture #2 : R$ 66,000,000, Ethereum address 0x7dC89337C29e7B0E71D115B6c6D90c7d45AbE081. Alba Fund #1: R$ 35,000,000, Ethereum address 0x763d2Ed06769155D72d8141AA431A4c1238c5F6e. Alba Fund #2: R$ 10,000,000, Ethereum address 0x4307f0901e6c566a1E505e2b7de458ceD168Ca44. Alba Fund #3: R$ 5,000,000, Ethereum address 0x2BBe86d2E610Ea01bc8FccE9De03ce922A23b798. "We are very proud of being the first to bring this technology to the Brazilian market, as it enables us to go beyond where we currently find ourselves. Thinking about making IPOs with an app that is transparent, open and decentralized, available on the Apple Store, is something that projects us 5 or 10 years towards the future of the digital financial market", concludes the CEO of Piemonte Holding. About Piemonte: Based in Rio de Janeiro and with a branch in New York City, USA, Piemonte combines local and global knowledge, as its platform crosses borders. Piemonte strives for excellence in all its transactions, providing state-of-the-art tools for asset management, administration and financial services. Since 2019, Piemonte has invested in the Elea Project, a data center holding company that is one of the main digital infrastructure investment projects in Latin America. Piemonte's investment platform allows any investor, whether an entrepreneur from a small town or a multinational company, to reach new frontiers. The result of its investments exceeds any expectations. For more information, visit: www.piemonteholding.com Warning: This press release may include forward-looking statements. As the information presented in this press release discusses financial projections, information or expectations about our business plans, results, products or markets, or otherwise make statements about future events, such statements are forward-looking. You can identify these statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "should," "may," "intends," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate," "intend," "plans" or "proposes". While we believe that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, including statements made under the heading "Risk factors" and elsewhere in the offer statement filed with the US Decurities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements are effective as of the date of this press release and Piemonte Holding de Participacoes SA undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable laws. THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO PURCHASE SECURITIES OR A REQUEST OF AN OFFER TO BUY SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE ANY OFFER OR REQUEST IS NOT ALLOWED. SOURCE Piemonte Holding By: Delma Blinson Fifty-six years ago I began my teaching career in a social studies classroom at Garner High School. I taught a freshman course in Government/Geography and a senior course in Advanced Government, along with a section of U. S. History. If I say so myself, I was a good teacher, in large measure because I believed in what I was teaching. I was proud to be an American and wanted every one of my students to understand why. I admired the Constitution and those who founded our nation. I taught my students that they were responsible for making sure that our government did the right thing and that any official, elected or appointed, should be held accountable by the voters. I lied. I did not lie intentionally because I believed that the voters controlled our government. But I was wrong. Not as much then, as how it has turned out. No longer do I believe our government is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. I now know it is a government of special interests and power greedy politicians, with so few exceptions that the honest people either become corrupt or cannot really change the system. I donated hard earned money to a couple of candidates I thought were good people who would be different. I worked hard for a couple of them to help get them elected and re-elected. Then one of those, after two terms, told a group of us who visited him in Raleigh that politics is a team sport. What he meant was that he had to play ball with the big guys and that this is the way it was. I have seldom been so disappointed in a human being in my life. Again, I emphasize that not all public officials are corrupt. But it is rare to find one who has been in office for several terms who has not sold his soul for the metaphorical 30 pieces of silver. Hood Richardson is one of the exceptions. I have worked closely with Hood over the last few years and have never witnessed him do anything dishonest and put his interests above what he believed was best for those he represented. Doug Mercer was another, as is Stan Deatherage. Moreover, I have worked with some very honest school board members over the years. But there is little money involved in those seats. There may be others, but my point is simple: The honest ones are not enough to make our government honest. It is corrupt to the core. And there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans in this regard. If they stay in Washington or Raleigh long enough they all become corrupt, more or less. Its a power thing. I apologize to my former students for misleading them. What we have witnessed in Washington, D. C. this past year perfectly illustrates that our government has gone to the Devil. It is now an evil Leviathan. .I do not feel it can be saved. It must be abolished, and we must begin again with a clean slate and re-create what our Founders intended. This is true in large measure because we have now seen that elections are not always a true reflection of the voters intent. Without honest elections, nothing else much matters. Moreover, the corruption that results from Big Money in politics is incorrigible. It cannot be fixed because those who must reform the system are getting rich off it. Special interests buy whatever they want. Diane Rufino has written a profound treatise that is being published in Beaufort County Now. Every American should read it, reflect upon its truths and then decide whether they will accept tyranny or fight for liberty. Go to Beaufort County Now.com and read: Part I: -A Re-Declaration of Independence - First Installment | Beaufort County Now. So, I have been a student of politics and government since 1965. In those 56 years I have seen so much loss in the values our nation was built upon. Much of that loss has come from our leaders and their governance turning away from the natural laws of Almighty God. The dumbing down of academic standards in our schools has extracted a tremendous cost. The infringement of those traditional values by secular humanism in our colleges and universities has insured that no reform will be quick, no matter what we do. We have lost several generations and it will take much to correct that. The mess could be helped with term limits and I would even now consider dividing the United States into five sovereign governments. Short of that, nullification and interposition would go a long way toward restoring the original federalistic system our Founders intended and in providing a much needed check and balances for the corrupt judicial system. But those measures are spitting into the wind when you realize the depth of corruption that now exists. I do believe the fundamental problem and the essential prerequisite for saving our republic is a Great Awakeninga spiritual revival, if you will, that will expel the evil that has consumed our governments and return our nation to its religious roots. It is not too late. It is always darkest just before the dawn. That new day will come, I pray. It will be led, I predict, not by politicians but by pastors who will gird up their courage to speak the Truth regardless of the consequences and not cease their effort until that dawn cometh. It will not come from weak pastors who allow the government to illegally shut down their churches. I want to make this point very clear: I do not advocate violence, except in self-defense of person or property. Rather, I subscribe to Dr. Martin Luther Kings commitment to non-violence. But I would go further than marches. I believe it is going to take civil disobedience such as Mahatma Gandhi led in India. Patriotic Americans are going to have to grow a backbone and refuse to toe the governments line when those mandates are illegal by Gods law. And once again, because of my guilt, I sincerely apologize to my former students for misleading them. There have been 68,028 more coronavirus vaccine doses administered in Louisiana since the last update on Monday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. Since Dec. 14, the state has administered a total of 925,991 vaccine doses. 332,415 people are now fully vaccinated. The state releases data on vaccinations twice a week, as part of its regular updates on coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The initial doses are the first of two -- spaced three weeks apart -- required for immunity. The Louisiana Department of Health also reported 636 more confirmed coronavirus cases and 25 more confirmed deaths in its noon update Thursday. The number of hospitalizations decreased by eight, and the number of patients in need of ventilators decreased by two. There are also 59,471 total "probable" coronavirus cases in Louisiana, according to the agency's dashboard. What's the latest on vaccines? Watch John Bel Edwards answer your questions in virtual town hall Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards joined Advocate and Times-Picayune editor Peter Kovacs in a live virtual town hall Thursday to discuss the lat These are another few key statewide statistics as of Thursday: Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Total confirmed cases: 427,689 Total "probable" cases: 59,471 Total confirmed deaths: 8,885 Currently hospitalized: 679 Currently on ventilators: 100 Vaccine series initiated: 593,576 (updated twice weekly) Vaccine series completed: 332,415 Presumed recovered: 408,463 as of Feb. 22 (updated weekly) Note: The Advocate and The Times-Picayune staff calculates daily case count and confirmed death increases based on the difference between today's total and yesterday's total of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths. The Louisiana Department of Health releases a daily case count on its dashboard that includes probable cases as indicated by a positive antigen test. That case count can be different than the one listed here. Here are some of the parishes with the highest single-day increase in confirmed coronavirus cases, based on the Thursday report: Orleans: 75 Jefferson: 71 St. Tammany: 68 Caddo: 44 East Baton Rouge: 38 Lafayette: 25 You can view more graphs and charts breaking down the data by clicking here. Louisiana began reopening for Phase 1 on May 15-16 then moved to Phase 2 on June 5. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards extended Louisiana's Phase 2 restrictions twice in August before moving the state to Phase 3 on Sept. 11. The governor then moved the state back to a modified Phase 2 near the end of November. This is a developing story. More details and analysis to come. Specialists bring specialist knowledge, but it must be adapted to the country one is visiting. My own perspectives are sharpened and enhanced by spending time with colleagues in other countries. Western University of Health Sciences President Daniel R. Wilson, MD, PhD, has been named to the Fulbright Specialist roster. Fulbright specialists serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning, and related subjects at academic institutions abroad for a period of two to six weeks at a time. Applications to join the Fulbright Specialists community are reviewed by a peer review panel assembled by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. As a member of the Fulbright Specialist Program, Dr. Wilson will be eligible to travel abroad on behalf of the United States to work on a diverse, short-term collaborative project focused on education and training. The program pairs highly-qualified U.S. academics and professionals with host institutions abroad to share their expertise, strengthen institutional linkages, hone their skills, gain international experience, and learn about other cultures while building capacity at their overseas host institutions, according to Fulbright. Where exactly or how often the Fulbright Specialist Program may take him over the next four years is to be determined by invitations from colleagues at institutions abroad. Its not so much about where it is as it is about the who and the what, Wilson said. What excites me is the idea of collaborating with international professionals and helping as many people as possible. I would particularly love to work with universities in other countries and even develop collaborations on behalf of Western University of Health Sciences both abroad and within the United States. Wilson will retire as WesternU president at the end of June 2021 and, after a sabbatical, plans to serve the University as University Professor. His academic background and professional experience open many opportunities for idea exchange under the Fulbright Specialist program. In every country there are opportunities to have an impact in health care or education or social services, and thats very exciting, Wilson said. Every time I visited another country, I came back with ideas on how we can do things differently here. There is truly an exchange. Specialists bring specialist knowledge, but it must be adapted to the country one is visiting. My own perspectives are sharpened and enhanced by spending time with colleagues in other countries. The U.S. Department of State suspended the Fulbright Program and postponed all Fulbright Specialist projects that have not yet commenced on March 12, 2020. As a result of the suspension, individuals who are recommended by the Peer Review Panel for placement on the Fulbright Specialist Roster will officially be added to the Roster after the U.S. Department of State determines that projects can resume. This will ensure that individuals receive a full, uninterrupted tenure during which time they may be matched to a project. ### About Western University of Health Sciences Western University of Health Sciences (http://www.westernu.edu), located in Pomona, Calif. and Lebanon, Ore., is an independent nonprofit health professions university, conferring degrees in biomedical sciences, dental medicine, health sciences, medical sciences, nursing, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, podiatric medicine and veterinary medicine. WesternU is home to WesternU Health, where the best in collaborative health care services is offered. The Chronicle of Higher Education named WesternU a Great College to Work For in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday termed UK court allowing extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case as a "significant" achievement in its efforts to curb corruption. It also said that the UK court ruling is "a reminder that fugitives, who have eluded the process of law after commission of large value frauds, cannot consider themselves above the process merely because they have changed jurisdictions". In a statement, CBI spokesperson R.C. Joshi said that the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London has accepted the Indian government's contention, holding that the evidence against Nirav Modi is "prima facie" sufficient to order his extradition to India to face the charges. He said that the court also accepted the Indian government's assurances and rejected Nirav Modi's submissions regarding human rights violations, fair trial and prison conditions. Rejecting the defence arguments, the UK Court decided to send his case to the Home Secretary for a final decision, he said. "The judgement also vindicates the painstaking investigation by CBI, especially since Nirav Modi had raised various issues with regard to the admissibility of evidence, the fairness of investigation, trial, prison conditions, availability of health facilities in India and extraneous consideration, with a view to divert attention from his own acts," he said. Detailing the probe against Nirav Modi, Joshi said that the agency had registered the case on January 31, 2018 against the partner of three private firms and others, including then officials of PNB, on a complaint from the bank alleging that the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy amongst themselves to defraud it to the tune of Rs 6,498 crore by fraudulently issuing Letters of Undertaking (LoUs). He said during its investigation, the CBI conducted searches at 42 premises and arrested 15 persons. "A large number of witnesses were examined and voluminous documents were collected. Investigation revealed that the accused PNB officials, in conspiracy with said owners of the firms and others, had fraudulently issued a large number of LoUs to overseas banks for obtaining buyer's credit in favour of said three firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the CBS system of the bank," he said. The CBI spokesperson said that investigation further revealed that the fraud was allegedly perpetrated despite the circulars issued by the Reserve Bank of India. He said that the agency filed first charge sheet on May 14, 2018 against 25 accused including Nirav Modi, and the second charge sheet was filed on December 20, 2019 against 30 accused. These included 25 accused chargesheeted earlier in respect of 150 outstanding fraudulent LOUs which had resulted in wrongful loss of Rs 6,805 crore to PNB including the interest and other charges paid by it to overseas banks which had extended buyer's credit to the said three firms of Nirav Modi on the strength of the fraudulent LOUs. It was also alleged that Nirav Modi, in conspiracy with other accused, had siphoned off the funds obtained as buyer's credit through dummy companies established by him in Dubai and Hong Kong which were shown as exporters of pearls to the three Nirav Modi firms and importers of pearl-studded jewellery from them, Joshi said. Nirav Modi had escaped India on January 1, 2018 before registration of the case by the CBI. A non-bailable arrest warrant was issued by the trial court against him on May 23, 2018 and red notice was also issued against him on June 29, 2018 by Interpol. Joshi said that the first extradition request was sent by the CBI to the UK in August 2018, Nirav Modi was arrested by UK Police in London on March 19, 2019 and his repeated applications for bail were rejected by the Westminster Magistrates' Court and London High Court. He said that after second charge sheet was filed in December 2019, additional evidences were submitted to the court in London for the total fraud amount of Rs 6,805 crore. A second extradition request for the offences of intimidating the witnesses and destruction of evidence was also submitted to the UK government. "The extradition proceedings against Nirav Modi were initiated before the Westminster Magistrate Court in London. In extradition requests, CBI submitted voluminous oral and documentary evidence to substantiate the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misconduct by public servants, destruction of evidence and criminal intimidation," he said. The hearing of the first extradition request was held in Westminster Magistrates' Court, London during May 2020 and the hearing of second extradition request during September 2020. Even the video of the barracks of Arthur Road Prison in Mumbai was submitted by the Indian government was also played in the court, the spokesperson said. "The hearing on admissibility of the evidence was held on November 3 last year and the final submissions by the both sides were made before the court in January 2021," he said. "CBI gracefully acknowledges the painstaking and continuous efforts made by the counsel of the Crown Prosecution service in forcefully presenting Indian government's case and also the efforts of various government agencies, especially officers of High Commission of India, London, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, in coordinating the extradition trial, timely submission of evidences and assurances and prompt follow up of the case at all stages," Joshi added. By Jung Da-min The Korea Defense Industry Association (KDIA) said Thursday that Eugene Kim, chairman of Huneed Technologies, a domestic defense firm headquartered in Incheon, had been named its 17th chairman. The KDIA announced Kim's inauguration at its 2021 general meeting held at the Air Force Hall in Seoul. "We will strive to secure a national defense export strategy and build international level marketing capabilities, with a vision that the Korean defense industry will build up its own competitiveness in the global defense industry," Kim said. He also vowed to push for the improvement of laws and systems to create a favorable business environment for domestic defense firms while also supporting management conditions for KDIA member companies. KDIA was launched in 1976 to foster and develop the domestic defense industry according to relevant industry laws. It counts 681 Korean companies as members, including Korea Aerospace Industries, Hanwha, Korean Air, LIG Nex1 and Huneed, and helps to promote exports of its members by enhancing the competitiveness of the local defense industry. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 21:51:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COPENHAGEN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over "long-COVID" or "post-COVID" symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday. "The disability following SARS-CoV-2 infection lingers on for months with severe social, economic, health and occupational consequences," said Kluge, who identified the issue as "a clear priority for WHO, and of the utmost importance." According to Kluge, a total of 38 million infection cases had been registered in the European Region since the pandemic began, and "one in ten COVID-19 sufferers remain unwell after 12 weeks, and many for much longer." "Yet stories of those who should have 'recovered', but whose lives were still affected by debilitating symptoms soon emerged. Regrettably, some were met with disbelief or lack of understanding," said Kluge. Professor Martin McKee, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also speaking at the press conference, provided further insight into "post-COVID" symptoms. McKee described them as "a varying combination of overlapping symptoms, including chest and muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, and what patients describe as brain fog." "Although many viral infections are self-limiting, making people feel unwell for only a few days before clearing up, others cause long-term problems. Early on, we realized that this new coronavirus was not just causing pneumonia. In some patients it was attacking many different body systems, such as the heart and blood vessels, the brain, and the kidneys," said McKee. In response to the prevalence of the lingering after-effects of COVID-19, Kluge acknowledged that the WHO had earlier in the month "hosted a consultation on post-COVID-19 conditions, focusing on recognition, research and rehabilitation." In addition, Kluge also confirmed that WHO Europe would soon be convening a conference with the chief medical officers of all 53 countries in the European Region to set out a regional strategy to tackle the issue. "As we learn more, we need to make sure patients who have had suspected or confirmed COVID-19, who have persistent -- new or changing symptoms -- should have access to follow-up care. This is where primary health-care has a particularly strong role to play," said Kluge. The regional director further emphasized the need for the region's medical authorities to seriously "listen and understand" the sufferers of post-COVID conditions, if they intended to tackle it successfully. "I am calling upon you, countries and institutions in the European Region, to come together as part of an integrated research agenda, using harmonized data collection tools and study protocols. This will be key to maximize the impact of treatment and improve long-term outcomes for patients," said Kluge. Enditem Understanding the deep and layered history of a certain area, broadening an understanding of transit, or growing economic development are all open to exploration through augmented reality technology in the modern city.The Southern California city of Long Beach, for example, aims to use AR to create immersive exhibits in its historic downtown, while developers in Philadelphia want to use augmented reality to make transportation options more comfortable and welcoming for riders with diverse needs. These are some of the areas several cities and their partners will explore using augmented reality technology. The cities were selected as part of the Augmented Reality Developer Challenge organized by US Ignite and Facebook Reality Labs.In Long Beach, the city will set aside an area of downtown to serve as a testbed for AR creators, said Ryan Kurtzman, smart cities program manager in Long Beach.For example, there may be a team that thinks that a community is stronger when it has a sense of its history, so their vision of education is to take images of historic Long Beach buildings and superimpose them on top of the modern day locations, Kurtzman explained. Or they may want to do an audio tour where each stop uses image recognition to unlock the next audio file.US Ignite selected three locations across the country for the AR Developer Challenge: Long Beach Philadelphia and the Raleigh/Cary region of North Carolina. Each of the three will receive $20,000 with the expectation that they will match that amount with in-kind services, said Mari Silbey, director of partnerships and outreach for US Ignite.Generally speaking, the candidates were supposed to define a challenge they wanted to solve, demonstrate the ability to engage local developers and describe a proposed process for conducting the challenge in the timeframe given, said Silbey.Proposals for the challenge were evaluated against a range of considerations such as the projects ability to attract additional funding, or whether the project addresses a community concern like workforce development, education or health care.The initiative in North Carolina is imploring entrepreneurs and other developers to develop AR tools focusing on areas like workforce development, accessibility and inclusion or economic development.The Long Beach AR Challenge is a fun, unique, equitable and scalable method of engaging the local technology community as well as community members, said Kurtzman, adding that its structured to hone the citys own smart city efforts.It also aligns with the citys Blueprint for Economic Development , which advocates for workforce development and emerging tech industry clusters, Kurtzman added.The city and its partners with California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) will provide mentoring and technical assistance.Our goal is for AR developers of all skill levels to participate, build their expertise, and receive feedback from the local user community, said Kurtzman. RESTON, Va., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, was recently awarded a new project agreement by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to conduct clinical studies of therapeutics for treating COVID-19. The cost-plus-fixed-fee agreement was awarded through the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium. It holds a base value of $22 million and a base period of performance of 24 months. "This award reinforces our commitment to fighting this deadly pandemic," said Liz Porter, Leidos Health Group president. "We are proud to conduct these clinical trials and support our customers' mission to develop life-saving drugs, vaccines and therapeutics for the men and women of our armed forces." Through this contract, Leidos will use a new clinical trial prototype to enable real-time data collection, which will support rapid initiation, amendment and evaluation of studies. Leidos will use the prototype to simultaneously conduct two clinical studies using new drug combinations to treat COVID-19. The studies will seek safe and effective doses and regimens for coronavirus patients. The trials will also pursue enhancements to military success by improving long-term lung function and reducing neurocognitive deficits caused by COVID-19. The Leidos trial prototype aims to enable quicker evaluations and improvements as the study evolves. It uses an electronic data capture system to collect, evaluate and assess symptom severity as well as clinical outcomes in real-time for patients. This could enable the trial's data and safety monitoring board to quickly evaluate potential safety signals or evidence of efficacy. The prototype is also designed to analyze the need for additional patients to show statistical significance. These evaluations could improve potential Phase 3 studies and demonstrate efficacy using the selected drug combination. Leidos is collaborating with Personal Health Insights, Inc., Syneos Health and SCOPE International USA, Inc., on this prototype project. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 39,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $12.30 billion for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2021. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 1, 2021, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SOURCE Leidos Related Links http://www.leidos.com Armenia's defence ministry said on Thursday that the country's army was not a political structure and that any attempts to involve it in politics were inadmissible. The statement was made after the army's general staff and other high-ranking military officials called for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign from his post, prompting the prime minister to decry an attempted military coup. Short link: Varanasi, Feb 25 : Three students of Ashoka Institute of Technology and Management have developed a glacier flood alarm sensor which will alert the people before any natural disaster. Anu Singh, one of the students who developed the alarm, told IANS: "A lot of people lost their lives in the Uttarakhand disaster. We have developed the sensor so that people can be alerted before such disasters. This alarm of the sensor will be placed near the dam or glacier and its receiver will be at the relief centre. The range of the alarm is 500 meter. We are working on increasing the range of the sensor." "It is a rechargeable sensor and on one time charge it works for six months. The total cost of developing one sensor alarm is Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000," she added. Shyam Chaurasia, incharge of Ashoka Institute Research and Development Cell, said: "This sensor alarm will help in saving thousands of lives. This will alert in case of natural disasters like avalanche, cloudburst, flood etc." Senior Scientific Officer of the Regional Science and Technology Centre Mahadev Pandey said that a lot of lives are lost in natural disasters due to lack of forecast. This can be prevented with the help of glacier sensor alarms. If it can given information in advance after increasing the range, it will prove to be a big boon for humanity. Sheryl Sandberg and Top Facebook Execs Silenced an Enemy of Turkey to Prevent a Hit to the Companys Business Amid a 2018 Turkish military campaign, Facebook ultimately sided with Turkeys demand to block the page of a mostly Kurdish militia. I am fine with this, Sandberg wrote. As Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish minorities in neighboring Syria in early 2018, Facebooks top executives faced a political dilemma. Turkey was demanding the social media giant block Facebook posts from the Peoples Protection Units, a mostly Kurdish militia group the Turkish government had targeted. Should Facebook ignore the request, as it has done elsewhere, and risk losing access to tens of millions of users in Turkey? Or should it silence the group, known as the YPG, even if doing so added to the perception that the company too often bends to the wishes of authoritarian governments? It wasnt a particularly close call for the companys leadership, newly disclosed emails show. I am fine with this, wrote Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks No. 2 executive, in a one-sentence message to a team that reviewed the page. Three years later, YPGs photos and updates about the Turkish militarys brutal attacks on the Kurdish minority in Syria still cant be viewed by Facebook users inside Turkey. The conversations, among other internal emails obtained by ProPublica, provide an unusually direct look into how tech giants like Facebook handle censorship requests made by governments that routinely limit what can be said publicly. When the Turkish government attacked the Kurds in the Afrin District of northern Syria, Turkey also arrested hundreds of its own residents for criticizing the operation. Publicly, Facebook has underscored that it cherishes free speech: We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, and we work hard to protect and defend these values around the world, the company wrote in a blog post last month about a new Turkish law requiring that social media firms have a legal presence in the country. More than half of the people in Turkey rely on Facebook to stay in touch with their friends and family, to express their opinions and grow their businesses. But behind the scenes in 2018, amid Turkeys military campaign, Facebook ultimately sided with the governments demands. Deliberations, the emails show, were centered on keeping the platform operational, not on human rights. The page caused us a few PR fires in the past, one Facebook manager warned of the YPG material. The Turkish governments lobbying on Afrin-related content included a call from the chairman of the BTK, Turkeys telecommunications regulator. He reminded Facebook to be cautious about the material being posted, especially photos of wounded people, wrote Mark Smith, a U.K.-based policy manager, to Joel Kaplan, Facebooks vice president of global public policy. He also highlighted that the government may ask us to block entire pages and profiles if they become a focal point for sharing illegal content. (Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization, although neither the U.S. nor Facebook do.) The companys eventual solution was to geo-block, or selectively ban users in a geographic area from viewing certain content, should the threats from Turkish officials escalate. Facebook had previously avoided the practice, even though it has become increasingly popular among governments that want to hide posts from within their borders. Facebook confirmed to ProPublica that it made the decision to restrict the page in Turkey following a legal order from the Turkish government and after it became clear that failing to do so would have led to its services in the country being completely shut down. The company said it had been blocked before in Turkey, including a half-dozen times in 2016. MIAMI CEO Teresa King Kinney Our members want their clients to feel confident about the home-buying process and having fast and easy access to flood insurance information is an important and valuable service" The MIAMI Association of Realtors (MIAMI), the nations largest local Realtor group, has partnered with CartoFront, Inc. to introduce its leading technology platform to simplify flood insurance for the associations 52,000 members. As a free, easy to use and bilingual tool that is integrated directly within every MLS listing, CartoFront offers near-instantaneous flood insurance estimates for REALTORS and their clients. With a click of the CartoFront Raindrop from the MLS listing icon bar, REALTORS can request an accurate flood zone determination, and estimated public (NFIP) and private flood insurance options. Our members want their clients to feel confident about the home-buying process and having fast and easy access to flood insurance information is an important and valuable service, MIAMI CEO Teresa King Kinney said. MIAMI members and their customers will benefit from understanding more about flood insurance, answers to important questions, and having access to CartoFronts platform which offers them the opportunity to educate and demystify flood risk and flood insurance for a particular property, greatly enhancing its salability. CartoFront CEO Jason Harris said, With one in three residential locations at risk of flooding in South Florida our solution allows REALTORS to confidently advise their clients in every transaction. Working closely with Miami REALTORS we have integrated our technology into the REALTORS daily workflow and surrounded it with bilingual education, training, and customer service. In addition to flood zone information and educational support, CartoFront offers one-click access to bilingual customer support via an independent Florida-licensed insurance agency that provides insurance consultation and policy binding. We want to provide a complete, end-to-end flood solution for the Miami REALTORS, adds Harris. Flood historically has been challenging, and our goal is to simplify it for everyone involved. About the MIAMI Association of Realtors The MIAMI Association of Realtors was chartered by the National Association of Realtors in 1920 and is celebrating 101 years of service to Realtors, the buying and selling public, and the communities in South Florida. Comprised of six organizations, the Residential Association, the Realtors Commercial Alliance, the Broward-MIAMI Association of Realtors, the Jupiter Tequesta Hobe Sound (JTHS-MIAMI) Council, the Young Professionals Network (YPN) Council and the award-winning International Council, it represents 52,000 total real estate professionals in all aspects of real estate sales, marketing, and brokerage. It is the largest local Realtor association in the U.S. and has official partnerships with 223 international organizations worldwide. MIAMIs official website is http://www.MiamiRealtors.com About CartoFront Based in Chicago, CartoFront is a SaaS company offering technology solutions that simplify flood insurance for REALTORS, their clients, and insurance agents. CartoFront offers its technology service to MLS networks across the United States as a free member benefit. CartoFront was a National Association of REALTORS 2020 REACH Participant. If you are interested in learning how CartoFront can integrate with your MLS, please contact Jason Harris, CartoFront CEO, at jason@cartofront.com. [February 25, 2021] Radixx And Air Moldova Sign Multi-Year Agreement To Increase Sales And Enhance Customer Experience ORLANDO, Fla. and CHI?INAU, Moldova, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Radixx, a Sabre company and leading airline software retailing provider, has signed a multi-year technology agreement with Air Moldova. The Chi?inau-based airline will utilize Radixx' merchandising, distribution and fulfillment solutions to expand into new revenue streams and power future growth. Later this year, Air Moldova will go live on the Radixx Res cloud-hosted passenger service system (PSS) to deliver flights and value-adding ancillaries to its travelers. Offering industry-leading performance, Radixx' modern microservices-based system provides Air Moldova with flexible and advanced technology that improves the traveler experience and maximizes revenue. Air Moldova will also use Radixx' ezyCommerce retailing solution to provide a superior device-agnostic customer experience, which will differentiate its brand and offers. Radixx ezyCommerce will enable the airline to take advantage of a set of powerful APIs and integrate third-party content to further customize its offers to travelers. As part of its post-COVID-19 recovery and growth plan, Air Moldova will also implement the Radixx Go departure services suite of products to create a safe and efficient airport experience. With mobile devices for ground agents and self-service options for travelers, Radixx Go will streamline existing airport operations, resulting in shorter queues in the airport and a more enjoyable and seamless travel experience. "Our customers are at the core of what we do, and we strive to provide them with products and services of the highest quality," said Alexander Ceban, General Director, Air Moldova. "We've chosen Radixx because of the advanced retailing opportunities its system provides across all customer touchpoints. Its robust APIs allow us to customize our user experience and integrate other solutions, including our own critical applications, which will deliver more value with the expanded data we will now able to access. We are eager to see the positive impact on customers satisfaction and the cost savings derived from a high level of automation across sales and operations." The airline's migration to Radixx is expected to bring significant savings in annual technology operating expenses. Together, the airline and Radixx/Sabre will also develop future functionalities to support their joint objectives. "We are thrilled to be the technology partner for Air Moldova," said Owen Murphy, vice president Sales - Europe, Radixx. "We believe that our innovative retailing capabilities, coupled with technology that enables a touchless, safe travel experience, will be a core factor in the airline's post COVID-19 recovery nd growth. We look forward to collaborating with Air Moldova for years to come." With a comparatively lean cost structure and a flexible business model focused on regional routes, low-cost carriers (LCC) are expected to lead the post-COVID-19 travel recovery.* Since announcing the acquisition of Radixx in October 2019, Sabre has focused on harnessing the growth and innovation of the resilient low cost-carrier market by creating more ways for LCCs to retail and distribute content. As a combined portfolio, Sabre and Radixx offer innovative and comprehensive solutions for all segments of the market from LCC to network carriers backed by best-in-class technology and broad expertise. About Radixx Founded in 1993, Radixx, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, combines an innovative technology approach with unique partnership models enabling airlines of all sizes and business models to be effective retailers and efficient operators. Radixx caters to LCC and ULCC airlines, including the support of GDS distribution. Radixx offers a world-class Internet Booking Engine, Radixx ezyCommerce, a cloud-based Passenger Services System, Radixx Res, and a leading Departure Services Suite, Radixx Go, uniquely designed to enable airlines to increase their profitability and maximize productivity through expanded distribution services. Since 2016, Radixx has delivered its sixth-generation, micro-services-based passenger services system. For more information on Radixx, please visit www.radixx.com. About Air Moldova Air Moldova has become a leader in the civil aviation industry of the Republic of Moldova. Air Moldova is one of the widest recognized brands in Moldova, founded in January 12, 1993, by the decree of the President of the Republic of Moldova. Air Moldova operates direct flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Lisbon, Rom, Milan, Verona, Thessaloniki, Nice, Antalya, Sharm el Sheik and Heraklion. On board of its aircrafts, Air Moldova offers its passengers two classes of service Business and Economy. Currently, Air Moldova holds about 50% from the air passengers flow registered on the local market. About Sabre Corporation Sabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, serving a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and other suppliers. The company provides retailing, distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalized traveler experiences. Through its leading travel marketplace, Sabre connects travel suppliers with buyers from around the globe. Sabre's technology platform manages more than $260B worth of global travel spend annually. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world. For more information visit www.sabre.com. * https://www.aerospace-technology.com/comment/low-cost-airlines-post-covid-19-recovery/ SABR-F Contacts: Media Kristin Hays kristin.hays@sabre.com Heidi Castle heidi.castle@sabre.com Investors Kevin Crissey kevin.crissey@sabre.com sabre.investorrelations@sabre.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radixx-and-air-moldova-sign-multi-year-agreement-to-increase-sales-and-enhance-customer-experience-301235618.html SOURCE Sabre Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Royal Bank of Canada (RY, RY.TO) announced Thursday progress on its climate strategy with an increased commitment to mobilize $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2025. RBC's initial commitment of $100 billion in sustainable financing was achieved in 2020. RBC also commits to net-zero emissions in its lending by 2050 and signs on as a member of Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and the RMI's Center for Climate-Aligned Finance. As part of delivering on its enterprise climate strategy, last year RBC convened an executive-led Climate Working Group, focused on the development of climate-related products & services, risk management frameworks, research & partnerships as well as thought-leadership. RBC will share more information on climate-related commitments and performance in its 2020 ESG Performance Report and 2020 Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Report in early April. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX ROYAL BANK OF CANADA-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de Judas and the Black Messiah, the new film by Shaka King, is a serious dramatization of the abbreviated political life of Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who was brutally murdered in a Chicago police raid in the early morning hours of December 4, 1969. This assassination was one of the most brazen crimes carried out by the American ruling class and its state machine. While the FBI and its notorious director J. Edgar Hoover were widely suspected of involvement in the murders of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. earlier in that decadea suspicion that in the case of Malcolm has been confirmed by new revelations from his family this weekin the killing of Fred Hampton there was little attempt to disguise the operation. Judas and the Black Messiah This is effectively dramatized on screen in Kings film. The cops, on the pretext of serving a search warrant, fire 99 shots, compared to one at most from the Panthers. The incident is described by one attorney as a shoot-in, not a shoot-out. The 21-year-old Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and Mark Clark, 22, are summarily executed after Hamptons fiance Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback), Hamptons lover and comrade-in-arms, eight months pregnant, is hustled out of the bedroom. An extensive investigation, part of a wrongful death suit, shows that the FBI, as part of its COINTELPRO operation of infiltration and provocations directed against left-wing, antiwar and civil rights organizations, conspired with the Cook County states attorneys office and the Chicago police department to assassinate Hampton. The script, by King and Will Berson, reveals something of the political personality of the young Panther leader. Barely out of his teens, Hampton had an unusual ability to articulate the anger and determination of masses of young people fighting poverty, racism and police repression. Hampton was the product of the growing militancy and movement of the working class. His family had moved to Illinois from Louisiana in the late 1930s, part of the Great Migration of African-American workers out of the South in the decades between 1915 and 1970. Hampton was shaped by the growing ferment in both South and North that would erupt in the mass civil rights movement and then the urban ghetto rebellions in Northern cities between 1964 and 1968. The Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, in 1966, in the midst of the social upheavals of that decade. It gave voice, in a very limited and distorted form, to both the growing confidence of workers and youth after the partial reforms won by the civil rights movement and the anger and disgust over continuing economic hardship and police brutality. These upheavals were part of an international intensification of the class struggle, which reached a peak in the years between 1968 and 1975. In the US, the year of Hamptons increasing prominence also saw protests against the Vietnam War unprecedented in their size. As well, 1969 witnessed 412 strikes involving 1,000 workers or more, part of a massive strike wave that continued into the 1970s. The Panthers attracted attention by patrolling city streets with loaded weapons, which was legally permitted in California as long as they were openly displayed. Thousands of youth joined local chapters of the organization within a few short years. The Panthers, however, were unprepared to provide political leadership to their thousands of members. They offered popular free breakfast programs, along with a mixture of black nationalist and Maoist rhetoric. In Chicago, Hampton struggled to appeal to a broad audience, to organize more widely and raise fundamental class issues, if even in a rudimentary form. The film dramatizes his meetings with Puerto Ricans as well as with a group of white workers and youth with roots in Appalachia and the South. The opening moments of the film are particularly important, with Hampton declaring, Were going to fight racism not with racism, but were going to fight with solidarity. We say were not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, were going to fight it with socialism. Words like these convinced Hoover of the FBI (Martin Sheen) that he was dealing with what he termed a possible black messiah, a figure who could spark a broader rebellion. At one point, Hoover, hearing that Hampton may be sent back to jail because of a court decision, tells FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), I want Hampton off the street! Prison is only a temporary solution. He needs to be eliminated. LaKeith Stanfield and Jesse Plemons in Judas and the Black Messiah This is where the role of Judas becomes vital. Bill ONeal (Lakeith Stanfield), a petty thief, is recruited by Mitchell to work as an informant within the Panthers. In exchange, he will get some money and perks such as steak dinners in fancy restaurants, but above all he will be spared a prison sentence of up to 10 years. ONeal was not the only agent sent into the Panthers, but it was he who played the key role in setting up Hamptons murder. The film depicts ONeal, who has quickly been promoted to head of security, as torn over some of the FBI demands, but complying without resistance. When Mitchell demands that he provide a floor plan of Hamptons apartment, the young Judas says, I dont understand. You dont have to understand is the reply. Are you gonna kill him? asks ONeal. He proceeds to furnish the floor plan, and also passes Hampton something that will ensure he is fast asleep when the cops show up for the shoot-in. Deborah (now known as Akua Njeri) gave birth to Fred Hampton, Jr. about a month after his fathers death. Both mother and son are listed as consultants in the new film. The viewers are informed in the closing titles that a wrongful death suit was finally settled in 1982, 12 years after the assassination, for the sum of $1.85 million, divided among the mothers of Hampton and Clark as well as the seven survivors of the attack. No cops or other officials were punished for the state killing. Martin Sheen as J. Edgar Hoover in Judas and the Black Messiah When the eight parts of Eyes on the Prize: II, the documentary history of the US civil rights movement and its aftermath, were broadcast on public television in 1990, they included interview footage with ONeal, who did not openly acknowledge his role, declaring very ambiguously, I was in the struggle. On the day the episode was broadcast in January 1990, ONeal committed suicide. As already indicated, there is much that is truthful and moving in this film, including some incidents of historical significance. One such moment comes in a scene in which a Panther visits the hospital where another member is being treated after being shot by the police. The visitor recites the beginning of If We Must Die, the stirring poem written in 1919 by Claude McKay, then 30 years old. McKay, later known for his role in the Harlem Renaissance, hailed the Russian Revolution and in November 1922 attended the Fourth Congress of the Communist International in Moscow. Recognizing the martyrdom of Fred Hampton, however, does not justify an uncritical evaluation of the Panthers. Their perspective was based not on the international class struggle, but more on the struggle of the global South against the advanced North, including the working class, as elaborated by Frantz Fanon in his Wretched of the Earth and others of that ilk. This meshed with Maoism, with its hostility to the urban working class and sloganeering claim that All power comes out of the barrel of a gun. The Panthers oriented toward layers of oppressed youth, but excluded the decisive sections of the working class. They advanced a mixture of reformist demands and revolutionary incantation, rather than a socialist program to unite every section of the working class against capitalism. Under these conditions, the Panthers were easily penetrated by the police and intelligence agencies. Provocations led to police killings and internal clashes based on suspicions carefully fed by the agents. There is one scene in the film that graphically demonstrates how political inexperience and false theoretical conceptions opened them up to great dangers. ONeal, trying to prove his revolutionary bona fides, shows Hampton a car trunk filled with explosives and urges that it be detonated at some prominent location. Hampton looks at him suspiciously and then erupts in anger at the sheer stupidity of the proposal. He does not recognize it as a provocation, however. The Panthers existed as a pole of political attraction, particularly for African-American youth, for only a short period of time. They appealed to growing anti-capitalist sentiment, including a turn toward Marxism, but they fell victim to police repression and to their own political weaknesses. Their fate must be seen, not primarily as the personal failings of figures like Hampton, but within the context of the wider international crisis of leadership of the working class in the post-World War II period, especially in the 1960s. Stalinism, Maoism and Castroism, with the aid of the Pabloite renegades from the Trotskyist movement, were advanced as nationalist alternatives to the fight to build a conscious revolutionary leadership in the working class based on an internationalist perspective. The New Left was promoted as part of a systematic assault on the role of the working class. The trade unions completed their integration into the capitalist state, strangling the strike movement of that period. Only the Trotskyist movement, then organized in the Workers League, the predecessor organization of the Socialist Equality Party, defended genuine Marxism. Fifty-one years after Hamptons death, the working class faces revolutionary tasks under transformed conditions. The challenges are indicated by a look at the events of the past 12 months: the pandemic, amidst capitalist negligence and incompetence, has brought mass death; continuing police killings, which in the case of George Floyd led to a massive international multiracial and multinational outpouring of protest and outrage; the economic devastation worsened by the pandemic and also increasingly by climate change; and the fascist insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, presaging deepening crisis and the growing threat of fascist dictatorship. Hamptons opening words in the film deserve to be repeated. Black capitalism is no better than white capitalism, and racism and racial appeals cannot be the answer to racism. Despite Fred Hamptons political inexperience and political errors, these words are an indictment of all those today who use the justified anger over police racism and violence to repudiate all that is positive in Hamptons message. The black capitalism that he rejected today finds expression in Barack Obama and the promotion of African-American billionaires. Fred Hampton was murdered, while todays advocates of racial identity politics receive multimillion-dollar grants from the Ford Foundation. Hampton took his stand against the crimes of US imperialism overseas, while the advocates of black capitalism today serve in the Biden cabinet and pledge allegiance to the American military and its intelligence agencies. Hamptons life and tragic death underscore the need for an international revolutionary perspective, including an understanding of the role of the capitalist state and all its institutions. These are the decisive issues that are raised by this film: the ruthless role of the state murder machine, and the urgent need for conscious revolutionary leadership to unite the working class under the banner of international socialism. HOUSTON - (Feb. 25, 2021) - COVID-19 can be diagnosed in 55 minutes or less with the help of programmed magnetic nanobeads and a diagnostic tool that plugs into an off-the-shelf cell phone, according to Rice University engineers. The Rice lab of mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj has developed a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein in blood serum from a standard finger prick. The nanobeads bind to SARS-CoV-2 N protein, a biomarker for COVID-19, in the chip and transport it to an electrochemical sensor that detects minute amounts of the biomarker. The researchers argued their process simplifies sample handling compared to swab-based PCR tests that are widely used to diagnose COVID-19 and need to be analyzed in a laboratory. "What's great about this device is that doesn't require a laboratory," Lillehoj said. "You can perform the entire test and generate the results at the collection site, health clinic or even a pharmacy. The entire system is easily transportable and easy to use." The research appears in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Sensors. Lillehoj and Rice graduate student and lead author Jiran Li took advantage of existing biosensing tools and combined them with their own experience in developing simple diagnostics, like a microneedle patch introduced last year to diagnose malaria. The new tool relies on a slightly more complex detection scheme but delivers accurate, quantitative results in a short amount of time. To test the device, the lab relied on donated serum samples from people who were healthy and others who were COVID-19-positive. Lillehoj said a longer incubation yields more accurate results when using whole serum. The lab found that 55 minutes was an optimum amount of time for the microchip to sense SARS-CoV-2 N protein at concentrations as low as 50 picograms (billionths of a gram) per milliliter in whole serum. The microchip could detect N protein in even lower concentrations, at 10 picograms per milliliter, in only 25 minutes by diluting the serum fivefold. Paired with a Google Pixel 2 phone and a plug-in potentiostat, it was able to deliver a positive diagnosis with a concentration as low as 230 picograms for whole serum. "There are standard procedures to modify the beads with an antibody that targets a particular biomarker," Lillehoj said. "When you combine them with a sample containing the biomarker, in this case SARS-CoV-2 N protein, they bond together." A capillary tube is used to deliver the sample to the chip, which is then placed on a magnet that pulls the beads toward an electrochemical sensor coated with capture antibodies. The beads bind to the capture antibodies and generate a current proportional to the concentration of biomarker in the sample. The potentiostat reads that current and sends a signal to its phone app. If there are no COVID-19 biomarkers, the beads do not bind to the sensor and get washed away inside the chip. Lillehoj said it would not be difficult for industry to manufacture the microfluidic chips or to adapt them to new COVID-19 strains if and when that becomes necessary. ### The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Rice University COVID-19 Research Fund supported the research. Read the abstract at https:/ / pubs. acs. org/ doi/ 10. 1021/ acssensors. 0c02561 . This news release can be found online at https:/ / news. rice. edu/ 2021/ 02/ 25/ chip-simplifies-covid-19-testing-delivers-results-on-a-phone/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Lillehoj Research Group: http://lillehoj. rice. edu Department of Mechanical Engineering: https:/ / mech. rice. edu George R. Brown School of Engineering: https:/ / engineering. rice. edu Images for download: https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0215_PHONE-1-WEB. jpg A system developed by Rice University engineers employs a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in blood serum to diagnose COVID-19 in less than an hour. The system uses an off-the-shelf cellphone and potentiostat to deliver the results. (Credit: Lillehoj Research Group/Rice University) https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0215_PHONE-2-WEB. jpg Programmed magnetic nanobeads paired with an off-the-shelf cellphone and plug-in diagnostic tool can diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less, according to Rice University engineers. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0215_PHONE-3-WEB. jpg Rice University mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj, left, and graduate student Jiran Li developed a system that uses programmable magnetic nanobeads, an off-the-shelf cellphone and a plug-in diagnostic tool to diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) 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 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 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. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Jeff Falk 713-348-6775 jfalk@rice.edu Mike Williams 713-348-6728 mikewilliams@rice.edu Our state government has finally ended the war on marijuana in New Jersey, not only by legalizing it for adults, but by declaring that the practice of arresting children for actions that are now legal for their parents must end. Immediately. Finally. Gov. Murphy concluded this three-year odyssey by signing a bill that standardizes the penalties for possession of cannabis and alcohol by minors. It is undeniably lenient, compared to the decades-old policy of traumatizing a kid with a police record if hes caught with a joint, a tradition that turbocharged Americas legacy of racist enforcement and mass incarceration. Now, a first violation gets the minor a personal warning, a second violation requires a warning sent to his parents, and a third violation comes with a referral to community-based support, such as drug education programs or mentorships. Yes, the law enforcement role is substantially reduced a welcome termination to New Jerseys criminalized response to cannabis use by kids and only a strict monitoring of their usage going forward will determine whether this is a more effective solution than the previous disgrace. We already have the road map: It took education, engagement, and enforcement to torpedo tobacco use among minors, and We can do the same with marijuana, says bill sponsor Sen. Nick Scutari, (D-Union). We did an amazing job with cigarettes. . . .by giving them the necessary information, not by criminalizing it. And lets not quibble here: The previous weed deterrent was a playfield for bigots. Just 13 percent of our kids are Black, but young Blacks accounted for 24 percent of juvenile pot possession arrests in 2018 despite the same usage rates among races. Since 2001, the possession arrests for Black kids have gone up 6% (from 12 to 18%), while white juvenile pot arrests have dropped 6%. If we are committed to social and racial justice, we cannot continue to arrest children wholesale: Nearly 12,000 suspects under 21 were arrested for marijuana in New Jersey in 2016. That was 37% of all pot busts that year. And the prevalence of legal pot does not contribute to a higher use among adolescents, the Centers for Disease Control found. The CDC examined marijuana use among adolescents in the first three states to legalize recreational weed Washington, Colorado and Oregon and found that usage among kids dropped in the after legalization. As Scutari suggested, information is critical. Young people take risks, including experimentation with marijuana, Rutgers juvenile justice expert Laura Cohen told a Senate panel. At the same time, the overwhelming number of children will simply outgrow risk-taking particularly with the kind of public health education that were talking about. The police disagree. The PBA did not reply to calls, but its statement instructs citizens who want to report underage marijuana to not call 9-1-1. Call the governors office or your local state legislator. We have literally been handcuffed. They voice legitimate concerns about how the law creates much guess work and uncertainty when it comes to taking action, but 13 other states legalized marijuana and were able to retrain their police. They figured it out. Our cops will as well. Some lawmakers who opposed the bill claim that police cannot contact parents when they witness minors with marijuana actually, a second violation mandates that they do. But Sen. Teresa Ruiz said it best: If she sees one of her former students with a joint, the only call she makes is to his mom. It takes a village, not a cop. It is true that police can no longer use the odor of marijuana smoke as a pretext to a search, which ACLU-NJ director Amol Sinha says takes away a tool they so comfortably rely on for decades of problematic searches, so Im not surprised they object. It is untrue that police will be subject to a flood of lawsuits under the Deprivation of Civil Rights statute if they search an underage person without consent: That statute already exists we only expanded it to all classes of people, rather than people protected by race, etc. Scutari said. And not only does the statute exist, no cop has ever been convicted under it, the ACLU said. The PBA has yet to acknowledge that the punitive approach was an epic failure that ruined countless lives. It seems more concerned with officer liability than public safety. Police can confiscate a kids weed or alcohol when in the process of issuing a warning, but lawmakers deliberately intended to wall them off, placing the pressure where it belongs on parents to educate and the state to punish those who would distribute to minors. Some will claim this bill endorses underage marijuana use, which is not exactly the case. This is an admission that we have finally learned from a catastrophic misconception that police can raise our kids. Agree w/ @starledger on this one. Let's come up with real solutions that keep kids out of the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and limits police interaction. Ending arrests is the whole point of legalization in the first place. https://t.co/2qTS2hThfd Amol Sinha (@AmolSinha) January 6, 2021 Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Researchers say that governments should look to human rights principles and commitments to help them decide who should get priority for the first available doses of COVID-19 vaccine Human rights law can provide a transparent and fair framework for vaccine allocations, researchers suggest. - All countries face the ethical challenge of how to allocate limited supplies of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines - Researchers say that governments should look to human rights principles and commitments to help them decide who should get priority for the first available doses of COVID-19 vaccine. - A human rights approach would include social vulnerability alongside medical vulnerability in decision-making because health is affected by social factors. - National vaccine roll-outs should take account of these overlapping vulnerabilities As Governments around the world wrestle with the question of designing a fair system to allocate their COVID-19 vaccine supplies for maximum protection against the pandemic, a team of researchers led by Dr Sharifah Sekalala of Warwick Law School propose that existing human rights legal principles should guide their thinking. All 171 states have signed at least one human rights treaty, recognising that people have the right to life and health - but how can this guide decisions on distribution of vaccines when demand outstrips supply? An Intersectional Human-Rights Approach to Prioritizing Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, published in BMJ Global Health, reviews current approaches to vaccine allocation, from the UK age-priority system to Israel's decision to prioritize healthcare workers and first responders, considers these from a human rights perspective, and outlines a model of an ethical intersectional distribution scheme based on human rights legal principles. Lead author Dr Sharifah Sekalala said: "There are three fundamental human rights which need to be reflected in any vaccine distribution programme - the right to life, the right to health, and the right to benefit from scientific progress. "In practice, the right to health means that vaccines should be made available to everyone. If there aren't enough vaccines available, then they should be given as a priority to people who are more likely to contract COVID-19, to those whose health is at higher risk of being compromised as a result of coming down with COVID-19, and to those who are most likely to transmit the virus. "It's also a key human rights issue that vaccines be distributed without discrimination. "Without a transparent framework that considers these human rights to guide decisions, governments are likely to be accused of unfairness or favouritism in their distribution plans." The team recommend that governments adopt an intersectional approach to understand how different vulnerabilities and disadvantages affect a person's health. Taking the example of age and economic status, the paper shows how a fair distribution scheme might prioritize a person from a low-income group compared to a person of similar age from a more well-off background, because economic deprivation, poorer living standards, and worse access to healthcare effectively age that person beyond their years. Dr Sekalala explains: "In the UK many ethnic minority groups are more likely to be in informal or insecure jobs, live in overcrowded housing and have a lower social economic status. This can make it difficult for them to socially distance, thereby making them more susceptible than people of similar age in other circumstances. Data shows the tragic reality is that people from these groups were not only more likely to catch COVID 19 but also to die from it. "A fairer and more effective prioritization system would have to take into account not only vulnerability to infection but also more structural underlying determinants of health that increases their vulnerability to the crisis." Co-author Dr Katrina Perehudoff, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in European and Global Health at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), added: "This dangerous cocktail of social factors combined with low priority for receiving a vaccine can disadvantage people who are already socially vulnerable although they might not be medically vulnerable. This practice, which we also see in vaccine roll-out in the Netherlands and other countries, actually risks increasing the existing inequalities and injustices in society, running contrary to our governments' human rights commitments." ### Sekalala S, Perehudoff K, Parker M, et al An intersectional human rights approach to prioritising access to COVID-19 vaccines BMJ Global Health 2021;6:e004462. https:/ / gh. bmj. com/ content/ 6/ 2/ e004462. full Full list of authors: Sharifah Sekalala, School of Law, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Katrina Perehudoff, Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Michael Parker, Ethox Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Lisa Forman, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Belinda Rawson, School of Law, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Maxwell Smith, School of Health Studies, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada CONTACT Sheila Kiggins, Media Relations Manager, Faculty of Social Science, University of Warwick S.kiggins@warwick.ac.uk 07876 218166 Chinese City With History of Committing Human Rights Abuses Becomes COVID-19 Hotspot Commentary At the start of the new year, a new wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Chinas northeastern Hebei Province unexpectedly made a little-known city the focal point of public opinion. Incidentally, this city has a very dark history, and this pandemic is an opportune time for reflection. On Jan. 2, a case of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus and causes the COVID-19 disease, was confirmed in Xiaoguozhuang village, Gaocheng district, of Shijiazhuang city in Hebei. In just a few days, the entire Gaocheng district was declared the number one high-risk area in the country. By Jan. 13, there were 463 confirmed cases in Hebei, with 195 asymptomatic infections still under observation, according to state-run media Xinhua. The vast majority of cases were concentrated in Gaocheng. Suddenly, Gaocheng had jumped onto the world stage. However, Gaocheng has a dark history that has gotten little public attention so far: it has been a major site where human rights abuses were committed against adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice consisting of simple, slow-moving meditation exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It grew in popularity during the 1990s, with 70 million to 100 million adherents in China by the end of the decade, according to official estimates at the time. Feeling threatened by its popularity, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a systematic elimination campaign in July 1999. Since then, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that tracks the persecution of Falun Gong in China, documented how authorities in Gaocheng followed orders from the highest level of the CCP leadershipformer Party leader Jiang Zemin, who launched the persecution against Falun Gong. On Feb. 1, 2005, Gaochengs 610 Office issued a notice regarding the persecution of Falun Gong that was to be distributed to every town, district, and work unit in the city. The 610 Office is an extralegal agency created in 1999 with the sole purpose of persecuting Falun Gong. It has absolute power at each level of administration in the CCP and its influence trumps that of other political and judicial organizations. The notice instructed all local authorities of the importance of reaching the following goals, called the Three Nos: no going to Beijing to appeal; no local public gathering and protesting; no broadcasting by cable TV. To Falun Gong practitioners, the Three Nos mean the loss of freedom, harassment, fines, arrest and imprisonment, brainwashing, torture, being fired from work, the loss of retirement salaries, the forced involvement of family members and the workplace, even death and the breaking apart of ones family, Minghui.org stated in a March 2005 report. Victims of Abuse According to incomplete statistics, as many as 1,000 people practiced Falun Gong in Gaocheng around 1999, Minghui.org reported. The following are some of the Falun Gong adherents who were persecuted by Chinese authorities in Gaocheng. The cases were documented by Minghui.org. Li Chouren, a local farmer, and several other Falun Gong practitioners were abducted by police on Dec. 23, 2001 and taken to the Gaocheng Detention Center. In order to force Li to give up his faith, he was subjected to beatings, standing for long periods of time, sleep deprivation, being tied up in painful positions, forced to drink urine, and other painful and degrading mistreatment. Before releasing him, the detention center extorted over 1,500 yuan (about $232) from his sisters familya considerable amount for the poor family. Li died of his torture inflicted injuries ten days later. Wu Xiuqin practiced Falun Gong because it helped her regain her health. In 2001, authorities ransacked her home, kidnapped her, and sent her to a brainwashing center in Gaocheng where she was forced to give up her belief. Brainwashing generally consists of the victim being subjected to hours of slanderous propaganda, along with various kinds of torture. The goal is to have the person sign a statement that they will stop practicing Falun Gong. After her release, Wu continued to practice Falun Gong. However, she was kidnapped again on Nov. 3, 2003 for another round of brainwashing and abuse. Lee Wensu was a teacher in Gaocheng and she started practicing Falun Gong because she had heard about the many health benefits people experienced. In 1999, the Gaocheng Bureau of Culture and Education ordered Lees employer to fire her. Soon after, she was illegally detained four times, and the local security bureau extorted 6,000 yuan (about $929). In addition, she was illegally detained at the Shijiazhuang Labor Camp where she did forced labor for three years. Lu Feng was also a teacher in Gaocheng. Local authorities ordered the school administrators to pressure him to give up his faith. Whenever a so-called sensitive day came aroundsuch as July 20, which marked the beginning of the persecution of Falun Gongthe school would force him to write a letter of guarantee that he had given up the practice, or else he would lose his job. Dong Cuifang was a 29-year-old graduate student who had attended Hebei Medical University. Since July 20, 1999, she was repeatedly harassed and threatened by local state security personnel because she had gone to Beijing to petition for Falun Gong. In early 2001, to evade being arrested, she decided to leave home and lived on the streets in the outskirts of Beijing. But in the spring of 2002, Dong was arrested while distributing pamphlets about Falun Gong. She was detained in Beijing Daxing Labor Camp where she was tortured to death on March 20, 2003. Her body showed numerous scars and a hole in her skull. Its often said: What goes around comes around, or You reap what you sow. In China, people would say, Good and evil have their consequences, retribution is sure to follow a crime, and if people dont do something about it, heaven will. As of Feb. 21, Gaocheng and Shijiazhuang city remain under lockdown and many residents have been suffering and protested against the harsh lockdown measures. While Gaocheng has been hit hard by the CCP virus and has been put under the national spotlight, perhaps its time to expose the crimes committed against Falun Gong adherents in this city and for everyone to reflect upon the Chinese traditional belief that good and evil have their consequences. Yuan Bin is a freelance writer and independent scholar on contemporary China issues. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Cool FM owner Bauer Media Audio is set to acquire Newstalk and Today FM in the Republic after it entered into an agreement to obtain the Communicorp Group. Communicorp, which consist of Irelands only two national commercial radio stations, as well as local stations like Spin 1038, 98FM, and Spin Southwest, are to be acquired by German multimedia company Bauer. As well as Cool FM, Bauer also owns Downtown and Downtown Country in Northern Ireland. Its 52 UK radio brands also include nine Absolute Radio stations. It is understood the Bauer Media Audio paid approximately 100m (86.3m) for the Communicorp group. In 2007, Communicorp paid 200m (173m) for Today FM, 104FM and Highland Radio, an indication of how media valuations have collapsed across the industry. Currently, Bauer Media already owns audio businesses in seven other countries excluding Ireland, and have more than 55 million weekly listeners. Communicorp is Irelands largest commercial radio group, with a weekly audience of more than 1.75 million people. Their chairperson, Lucy Gaffney, wished everyone the best with their future endeavours. Communicorp has been at the forefront of Irelands media industry for over 30 years and this agreement marks the culmination of an exciting and dynamic journey, which has enhanced and transformed radio in Ireland, she said. Hundreds of incredibly talented and special people, both in front of and behind the mic, have made that journey possible and I want to thank them for their enormous contribution to the company. President of Bauer Media Paul Keenan also commented on the announcement, saying that Radio is very popular in Ireland with more than 80% of the population tuning in every week. Communicorps award-winning radio stations are reaching record listening highs, and the combination of these highly valued audiences offered alongside fast growing and innovative digital brands means they are well positioned to capitalise on the future development potential of the wider world of audio, he said. This offers more choice for listeners alongside enhanced, targeted solutions for advertisers. Theory could accelerate push for spintronic devices HOUSTON - (Feb. 25, 2021) - A new theory by Rice University scientists could boost the growing field of spintronics, devices that depend on the state of an electron as much as the brute electrical force required to push it. Materials theorist Boris Yakobson and graduate student Sunny Gupta at Rice's Brown School of Engineering describe the mechanism behind Rashba splitting, an effect seen in crystal compounds that can influence their electrons' "up" or "down" spin states, analogous to "on" or "off" in common transistors. "Spin" is a misnomer, since quantum physics constrains electrons to only two states. But that's useful, because it gives them the potential to become essential bits in next-generation quantum computers, as well as more powerful everyday electronic devices that use far less energy. However, finding the best materials to read and write these bits is a challenge. The Rice model characterizes single layers to predict heteropairs -- two-dimensional bilayers -- that enable large Rashba splitting. These would make it possible to control the spin of enough electrons to make room-temperature spin transistors, a far more advanced version of common transistors that rely on electric current. "The working principle behind information processing is based on the flow of electrons that can be either off or on," Gupta said. "But electrons also have a spin degree of freedom that can be used to process information and is the basis behind spintronics. The ability to control electron spin by optimizing the Rashba effect can bring new functionality to electronic devices. "A cellphone with spin-related memory would be much more powerful and much less energy-consuming than it is now," he said. Yakobson and Gupta would like to eliminate the trial and error of finding materials. Their theory, presented in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, aims to do just that. "Electron spins are tiny magnetic moments that usually require a magnetic field to control," Gupta said. "However, manipulating such fields on the small scales typical in computing is very difficult. The Rashba effect is the phenomenon that allows us to control the electron spin with an easy-to-apply electric field instead of a magnetic field." Yakobson's group specializes in atom-level computations that predict interactions between materials. In this case, their models helped them understand that calculating the Born effective charge of the individual material components provides a means to predict Rashba splitting in a bilayer. "Born effective charge characterizes the rate of the bond polarization change under external perturbations of the atoms," Gupta said. "When two layers are stacked together, it effectively captures the resulting change in lattices and charges, which brings about the overall interlayer polarization and interface field responsible for the Rashba splitting." Their models turned up two heterobilayers -- lattices of MoTe2|Tl2O or MoTe2|PtS2 -- that are good candidates for the manipulation of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which happens at the interface between two layers held together by the weak van der Waals force. (For the less-chemically inclined, Mo is molybdenum, Te is tellurium, Tl is thallium, O is oxygen, Pt is platinum and S is sulfur.) Gupta noted the Rashba effect is known to occur in systems with broken inversion symmetry -- where the spin of the electron is perpendicular to its momentum -- that generates a magnetic field. Its strength can be controlled by an external voltage. "The difference is that the magnetic field due to the Rashba effect depends on the electron's momentum, which means the magnetic field experienced by a left-moving and right-moving electron is different," he said. "Imagine an electron with spin pointing in the z-direction and moving in the x-direction; it will experience a momentum-dependent Rashba magnetic field in the y-direction, which will precess the electron along the y-axis and change its spin orientation." Where a traditional field-effect transistor (FET) turns on or off depending on the flow of charge across a barrier with gate voltage, spin transistors control the spin precession length by a gate electric field. If the spin orientation is the same at the transistor's source and drain, the device is on; if the orientation differs, it's off. Because a spin transistor does not require the electronic barrier found in FETs, it needs less power. "That gives spintronic devices an enormous advantage compared to conventional charge-based electronic devices," Gupta said. "Spin states can be set quickly, which makes transferring data quicker. And spin is nonvolatile. Information sent using spin remains fixed even after a loss of power. Moreover, less energy is needed to change spin than to generate current to maintain electron charges in a device, so spintronics devices use less power." "To the chemist in me," Yakobson said, "the revelation here that spin-splitting strength depends on the Born charge is, in a way, very similar to the bond ionicity versus the electronegativity of the atoms in Pauling's formula. This parallel is very intriguing and deserves further exploration." ### Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry at Rice. The Office of Naval Research and the Army Research Office supported the study. The National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, provided computing resources. Read the abstract at https:/ / pubs. acs. org/ doi/ 10. 1021/ jacs. 0c12809 . This news release can be found online at https:/ / news. rice. edu/ 2021/ 02/ 25/ theory-could-accelerate-push-for-spintronic-devices/ Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews. Related materials: Yakobson Research Group: https:/ / biygroup. blogs. rice. edu Rice Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering: https:/ / msne. rice. edu George R. Brown School of Engineering: https:/ / engineering. rice. edu Images for download: https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0301_RASHBA-1-WEB. jpg The image at left shows the crystal structure of a MoTe2|PtS2 heterobilayer with isocharge plots from a model created at Rice University. When the materials are stacked together, mirror symmetry is broken and there is a charge transfer that creates an intrinsic electric field. This field is responsible for Rashba-type spin-splitting shown by the band structure at right, where the spin is perpendicular to momentum. (Credit: Sunny Gupta/Rice University) https:/ / news-network. rice. edu/ news/ files/ 2021/ 02/ 0301_RASHBA-2-web. jpg CAPTION: Sunny Gupta. (Credit: Rice University) 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 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 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. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Jeff Falk 713-348-6775 jfalk@rice.edu Mike Williams 713-348-6728 mikewilliams@rice.edu This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Pfizer Inc announced on Thursday it has begun studying a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, part of a strategy to guard against mutated versions of the coronavirus. Health authorities say first-generation COVID-19 vaccines still protect against variants that are emerging in different parts of the world including the UK and South Africa. But manufacturers are now starting to prepare in case a more vaccine-resistant mutation comes along. Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech SE, said it will offer a third dose to 144 volunteers, drawing from people who participated in the vaccine's early-stage U.S. testing last year. It wants to determine if an additional booster shot given six to 12 months after the first two doses would rev up the immune system enough to ward off a mutated virus. Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech are studying a third dose of their coronavirus vaccine, which is aimed at protecting against future variants. Pictured: A health worker shows a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-1) vaccine, in San Jose, Costa Rica, February 24 Variants spreading across the U.S. including the one from South Africa (purple dot), are better at evading antibodies from vaccine than earlier strains of the virus Researchers believe if the shot is given six to 12 months after the first two doses, it may help stimulate the immune system enough to ward off a mutated virus as the U.S. vaccinates about 1.2 million people per day 'The rate of mutations in the current virus is higher than expected,' Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten told Reuters in an interview. 'It's a reasonable probability that we would end up with regular boosts. And for potent vaccines, it may be that you need to do a strain change every few years, but not necessarily every year.' The vaccine candidate from Pfizer and BioNTech uses part of the pathogen's genetic code called messenger RNA, or mRNA, to get the body to recognize the coronavirus and attack it if a person becomes infected. In the jab, known as BNT162b2, the mRNA encodes for all of the spike protein found on the outside of the virus that it uses to enter and infect cells. It was authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after a clinical trial involving 44,000 volunteers found the shot was 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. The two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first authorized for use in the U.S., in December, after a large global study in 44,000 people found the shot was safe and 95% effective at protecting against symptomatic However, the company's current two-dose regimen produced a weaker immune response against the South African variant. Recently, in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Pfizer teamed up with the University of Texas Medical Branch to test its vaccine against the variant known as B.1.351. Pfizer and BioNTech are also in talks about tweaking their vaccine recipe to better match variants, such as the one from South Africa, after a study found the vaccine offered roughly two-thirds less antibody protection against the variant (right, purple) compared to the most common version of the virus (left, black) They found that only one-third of its neutralizing antibodies were activated compared with its effect on the most common version of the virus prevalent in U.S. trials. However, the pharmaceutical giant said the actual efficacy of its vaccine against the South African variant is yet to be determined. 'While we have not seen any evidence that the circulating variants result in a loss of protection provided by our vaccine, we are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be ready in case a strain becomes resistant to the protection afforded by the vaccine,' Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. 'At the same time, we are making the right investments and engaging in the appropriate conversations with regulators to help position us to potentially develop and seek authorization for an updated mRNA vaccine or booster if needed.' For the new study, researchers will examine volunteers upon injection of the third dose one week later and one month later to see if they developed neutralizing antibodies. Neutralizing antibodies not only kill invading viruses, but prevent them from entering and infecting cells. It currently unclear when Pfizer and BioNTech will have results on the efficacy of the booster shots but, during an earnings call earlier this month, Pfizer R&D chief Mikael Dolsten said preliminary data may be available in early summer. Pfizer and BioNTech are also considering tweaking their vaccine recipe. The companies are in discussions with U.S. and European regulators about a study to evaluate doses updated to better match variants such as B.1.351. Pfizer's approach is different from than of Moderna Inc, which announced yesterday it had made a new vaccine as a booster and had sent doses to the National Institutes of Health for testing. Moderna's vaccine, like Pfizer's, is made with new mRNA technology and also needs to be stored at freezing temperatures. Also like Pfizer, Moderna's shot was found to be less effective against the strain. In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found a six-fold decrease in antibody response against the variant from Moderna's jab. Recently, the FDA said any company developing a booster would have their results analyzed quickly and would not need large efficacy trials to be approved. A century ago, Lenin's communists turned their guns on rebelling sailors once hailed as the "pride and glory" of the Bolshevik Revolution. This picture is one of only a handful in existence of a military victory over the mutinous sailors of Kronstadt that had "a shattering effect on socialists throughout the world" as the ruthless reality of Bolshevik rule was laid bare. The island fortress of Kronstadt lies around 23 kilometers from the shores of St. Petersburg. It was founded by Peter the Great to defend maritime approaches to the former Russian capital. The naval fortress at Kronstadt had a long history of left-wing radicalism, rebellion, and sometimes shocking acts of vengeance. In 1917, after Russia's last tsar was overthrown, the disaffected sailors of Kronstadt seized the commander of the island fortress and bayonetted him to death. After thousands of Kronstadt sailors backed Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks and helped them seize power during the 1917 revolution, the seamen were dubbed "the pride and glory of the revolution." By 1921, four years of civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution, along with the ruthless management of Russia by its new communist rulers, had led to unfathomable human suffering. When Kronstadt sailors were allowed to return to their villages on leave, they were confronted with the contrast between what Lenin's revolutionary socialism had promised and the horrors it delivered. One sailor recalled that "for years the happenings at home while we were at the front or at sea were concealed by the Bolshevik censorship. When we returned home, our parents asked us why we fought for the oppressors. That set us thinking." With the civil war all but over, there was a perception that the ongoing suffering and repression no longer had any obvious justification. On February 28, as thousands of workers in Petrograd were on strike, the Kronstadt sailors piled further pressure on the ruling Bolsheviks by issuing a list of demands, including the restoration of freedom of speech -- though only for their fellow radical leftists -- and for democratic elections. As news of the rebellion spread, fear gripped Petrograd that mass political violence would break out anew. Bolshevik Victor Serge recalled at the time seeing an old woman apparently leaving the city. When he asked where she was going, she responded: "They're going to cut all your throats, my poor little ones. They're going to be looting everything all over again." The Bolshevik response was to issue the sailors at Kronstadt a bloodcurdling ultimatum, threatening that if they did not surrender immediately, the rebels would be "shot like partridges." Families of many of the sailors were then rounded up as hostages. With spring approaching, the Bolshevik leadership worried that the ice around Kronstadt would melt. That would open the island fortress to resupply by sea and make the anti-communist stronghold virtually impossible to capture. Leon Trotsky later recalled, "We were confronted by the danger that the ice would melt away and we were compelled to carry out the attack." On the evening of March 7, author and radical "communist anarchist" Alexander Berkman was walking along Petrograd's main street when he heard the distant boom of artillery. The Russian-American, whose fading hopes for an anarchist utopia had been revived by the Kronstadt rebellion, wrote in his diary: "My heart is numb with despair; something has died within me. The people on the street look bowed with grief.... The thunder of heavy guns rends the air." The first infantry assault by around 20,000 men on Kronstadt was repulsed with the loss of thousands of communist troops. Many of the men plunged through the ice and drowned as artillery from Kronstadt shattered the ice underfoot. But the communists regrouped and rounded up hard-line fighters for another, massive invasion force. Some of the men sang the socialist Internationale anthem as they headed toward the icy wastelands around Kronstadt. Other, less enthusiastic fighters were prodded onward by Bolshevik secret police armed with machine guns to discourage retreat. At 3 a.m. on March 17, a silent invasion force of some 50,000 men crept across the ice from different directions. The attackers were under orders not to speak or light cigarettes as they stalked toward Kronstadt and its 15,000 exhausted defenders. The final battle for Kronstadt raged from dawn throughout the day. The casualties, especially on the Bolshevik side after they had advanced without cover across the featureless ice, were appalling. The Finnish government later requested that the thousands of corpses that lay atop the frozen gulf be removed to prevent their washing ashore in spring and causing an outbreak of disease. The sailors who fell into Bolshevik hands were swiftly shot or sent to one of the early labor camps that would later become gulags. It is estimated some 2,000 Kronstadt sailors were executed, most without trial. Many of the commanders of the communist fighters would eventually suffer the same fate as the sailors. Of the four Bolsheviks who led the suppression of Kronstadt, three were later executed during Stalin's "purges." The fourth, Leon Trotsky, was killed in exile by a Stalinist assassin armed with an ice pick. In a hopeful turnaround during a long pandemic, U.S. nursing homes that were once the epicenter of coronavirus infections are now seeing both cases and deaths fall steeply as the country's vaccination rollout starts to take hold. From late December to early February, new cases among U.S. nursing home residents fell by more than 80 percent, nearly double the rate of improvement in the general population, The New York Times reported. The downward trend in deaths was even more heartening: Even as fatalities spiked overall this winter, deaths inside nursing homes have dropped by more than 65 percent. "I'm almost at a loss for words at how amazing it is and how exciting," Dr. David Gifford, chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of long-term care facilities across the country, told the Times. The good news comes not a moment too soon: Since the pandemic began, the coronavirus has raced through some 31,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, killing more than 163,000 residents and employees and accounting for more than a third of all virus deaths since the late spring, the Times said. But with the arrival of vaccines, which were sent to long-term care facilities starting in late December, new cases and deaths in nursing homes have fallen steeply, outpacing national declines, the Times reported. It offers an early glimpse of what might be in store for the rest of the country, as more and more people get vaccinated. "If we are seeing a robust response with this vaccine with the elderly with a highly contagious disease, I think that's a great sign for the rest of the population," Giffords told the Times. About 4.5 million residents and employees in long-term care facilities have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 2.1 million who have been fully vaccinated. Now, new cases in nursing homes are at their lowest point since May, when the federal government began tracking such data, the Times said. "What is certainly surprising to me is how quickly we're seeing this," Dr. Sunil Parikh, an associate professor of epidemiology and medicine at Yale School of Public Health in Connecticut, told the Times. "It's a dramatic decline," he said, adding that more research was needed to determine whether the first dose of vaccine may offer more protection than previously thought. To try to answer that question, the American Health Care Association looked at nearly 800 nursing homes that received early doses of the vaccine in December and compared COVID-19 caseloads with facilities in the same counties that had not yet held a vaccine clinic. The nursing homes that got the earlier vaccine saw a 48 percent decline in cases among residents, compared with 21 percent among nearby nursing homes, the Times reported. J&J'S one-shot COVID vaccine prevents serious illness A single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson completely prevented hospitalizations and deaths in a large clinical trial, a new review released Wednesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found. What would be the third vaccine to be authorized in the United States for emergency use could be approved as soon as this weekend, the Washington Post reported. The J&J vaccine was more than 85 percent effective at preventing severe illness, including in a region dominated by a concerning variant, but only 66 percent protective overall when moderate cases were included. FDA scientists found the "known benefits" of the vaccine included reducing the risk of symptomatic and severe cases of COVID-19, at least two weeks after vaccination. The review found its efficacy against severe illness "was similarly high across the United States, South Africa, and Brazil." "We know this vaccine prevents 85 percent of the severe disease. . . . It was 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths, and that's really what's important," Nancy Bennett, a professor of medicine and public health sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, told the Post. "Those facts are the most important thing to recognize." The vaccine was less effective in a subgroup of adults older than 60 who also had risk factors for severe illness, but regulators noted there were no deaths or cases requiring medical intervention a month after those older adults received vaccines. Overall, there were seven deaths in the trial, all in the group that received a placebo shot, the Post reported. An FDA advisory panel is set to meet Friday to recommend whether the FDA should authorize the shot for emergency use. Public health officials have eagerly awaited the arrival of the J&J vaccine because it can be stored in a refrigerator for several months, which should ease the challenges of distributing vaccines in sub-zero temperatures, and it doesn't require a follow-up booster shot, the Post said. Pfizer, Moderna say big jump in vaccine supply coming Officials from both Pfizer and Moderna delivered reassuring news about their COVID-19 vaccines to Congress on Tuesday: There will be a sharp rise in the delivery of doses in the coming month, and they will be able to provide enough doses to vaccinate most Americans by summer. By the end of March, Pfizer and Moderna expect to have delivered a total of 220 million vaccine doses to the U.S. government, a significant uptick from the roughly 82 million doses that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says have shipped so far. "We do believe we're on track," Moderna President Stephen Hoge told a House subcommittee after describing how the company has ramped up production. "We think we're at a very good spot." That encouraging news comes as federal regulators plan to weigh the emergency use of a third COVID-19 vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson, later this week. The Biden administration said Tuesday that it expects about 2 million doses of that vaccine to be shipped in the first week after approval, and the company told lawmakers it should provide enough of the single-dose option for 20 million people by the end of March, the Associated Press reported. By summer, Pfizer and Moderna said they expect to complete delivery of 300 million doses each, while J&J aims to provide an additional 100 million doses. That would be more than enough to vaccinate every American adult, the AP reported. Two other manufacturers, Novavax and AstraZeneca, have vaccines in the pipeline and anticipate eventually adding to those totals, the AP said. When asked whether they face shortages of raw materials, equipment or funding that would delay vaccine deliveries, all of the companies testified that they had enough supplies and had already addressed some early bottlenecks in production. "At this point, I can confirm we are not seeing any shortages of raw materials," said Pfizer's John Young. Even with no further interruptions, other issues could still delay or block the United States from vaccinating 70% to 80% of its populationthe critical threshold needed to neutralize the spread of coronavirusby summer. As of Thursday, more than 66.4 million people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including 20.6 million people who have received both doses, according to the CDC. A global scourge By Thursday, the U.S. coronavirus case count passed 28.3 million while the death toll passed 505,600, according to a Times tally. On Thursday, the top five states for coronavirus infections were: California with over 3.5 million cases; Texas with more than 2.6 million cases; Florida with nearly 1.9 million cases; New York with over 1.6 million cases; and Illinois with nearly 1.2 million cases. Curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the rest of the world remains challenging. In India, the coronavirus case count was more than 11 million by Thursday, a Johns Hopkins University tally showed. Brazil had just over 10.3 million cases and nearly 250,000 deaths as of Thursday, the Hopkins tally showed. Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 112.6 million on Thursday, with nearly 2.5 million deaths recorded, according to the Hopkins tally. Explore further Drug executives: Big jump in vaccine supply is coming soon More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus. Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Formula TV journalist Vakho Sanaia was attacked by three individuals in central Tbilisi earlier today. The Georgian Interior Ministry has reported that the three individuals who were under the influence of alcohol attacked Sanaia and his relative. Police say that the detainees face up to two years in prison. Sanaia told Formula TV that he was attacked in Vake district, central Tbilisi, on his way to home from Tbilisi International Airport. According to Sanaia, he and his sister-in-law came to the airport to pick up Sanaias wife, his underage child and a nurse who were in Turkey for treatment. He said that the road was iced and they had to call an emergency service in Vake to help them. Sanaia says that the three individuals, who were under the influence of alcohol were district locals and they expressed aggression to me as a journalist. "They were cursing television and media outlets. I was helping the emergency service staff when one of them ran to me to attack. I felt he was running to me and stood aside. He fell down. However, as the road was iced, I also fell down and two others also ran to me and started to beat," Agenda.ge cited him as saying. He stated that his wife, child and sister-in-law were in the car that time. "My sister-in-law came to help me and she was also attacked," Sanaia said. He stated that the emergency service personnel helped them and police came shortly and detained the individuals at the scene. Sanaia says he sustained multiple injuries on his body. Georgian Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze has condemned the attack. "A timely and effective reaction to the incident must be a message to those who use violence,"Talakvadze said. Lithuania is ready to provide Ukraine with a part of vaccines within the European Commissions initiative for the Eastern Partnership countries, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis. This issue was discussed at a meeting between Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis in Kyiv on February 25, the Government portal reports. In particular, Shmyhal called for continued joint work within the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Lithuanian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. In addition, the Prime Minister noted that he personally and the President of Ukraine intend to take part in the fourth International Conference on Reforms in Ukraine in Vilnius. "We hope that in the near future the Republic of Lithuania will offer a date for the Conference," Shmyhal said. He also thanked the Lithuanian side for its clear and consistent support of Ukraine on all topical issues, primarily related to countering Russian aggression. Shmyhal reminded about the creation of the Crimean platform that is aimed at the de-occupation of Crimea. The first summit is scheduled for August 23. During the meeting, the parties also discussed a vaccination campaign that began in Ukraine. In this context, Shmyhal stressed that currently vaccination is the only way to overcome the pandemic. "According to the nationwide vaccination plan, we intend to vaccinate a total of almost 22 million people this year and next. We have signed contracts with six vaccine manufacturers, two of which are already registered in Ukraine. Doctors and the military are the first to be vaccinated," said the Prime Minister. As reported by Ukrinform, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis was on an official visit to Ukraine on February 23-24. iy LAKE FOREST, Ill., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tenneco Inc. (NYSE: TEN) will participate in the J.P. Morgan 2021 Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference to be held virtually on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. The webcasted presentation is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. Eastern. Brian Kesseler, chief executive officer, and Matti Masanovich, chief financial officer, will give a strategic overview and provide information regarding matters impacting Tenneco's outlook. The live webcast can be accessed by going to the "Investors" portion of its web site at www.investors.tenneco.com . A copy of the slides also will be available under the "Events & Presentations" tab in this section of the website. A replay of the webcast will be available through April 3, 2021. About Tenneco Tenneco is one of the world's leading designers, manufacturers and marketers of automotive products for original equipment and aftermarket customers, with full year 2020 revenues of $15.4 billion and approximately 73,000 team members working at more than 270 sites worldwide. Through our four business groups, Motorparts, Ride Performance, Clean Air and Powertrain, Tenneco is driving advancements in global mobility by delivering technology solutions for diversified global markets, including light vehicle, commercial truck, off-highway, industrial, motorsport and the aftermarket. Visit www.tenneco.com to learn more. Investors and others should note that Tenneco routinely posts important information on its website and considers the Investor section, www.investors.tenneco.com, a channel of distribution. Visit www.tenneco.com to learn more. SOURCE Tenneco Inc. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is quoting at Rs 461.3, up 5.15% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 2.79% in last one year as compared to a 29.53% spurt in NIFTY and a 36.25% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 461.3, up 5.15% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.97% on the day, quoting at 15127.65. The Sensex is at 51196.12, up 0.82%. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has risen around 21.2% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 17.3% in last one month and is currently quoting at 18782.4, up 2.94% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 94.29 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 99.86 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark February futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 454, up 3.45% on the day. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is up 2.79% in last one year as compared to a 29.53% spurt in NIFTY and a 36.25% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. The PE of the stock is 13.24 based on TTM earnings ending December 20. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The COVID-19 virus holds some mysteries. Scientists remain in the dark on aspects of how it fuses and enters the host cell; how it assembles itself; and how it buds off the host cell. Computational modeling combined with experimental data provides insights into these behaviors. But modeling over meaningful timescales of the pandemic-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus has so far been limited to just its pieces like the spike protein, a target for the current round of vaccines. A new multiscale coarse-grained model of the complete SARS-CoV-2 virion, its core genetic material and virion shell, has been developed for the first time using supercomputers. The model offers scientists the potential for new ways to exploit the virus's vulnerabilities. "We wanted to understand how SARS-CoV-2 works holistically as a whole particle," said Gregory Voth, the Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Voth is the corresponding author of the study that developed the first whole virus model, published November 2020 in the Biophysical Journal. "We developed a bottom-up coarse-grained model," said Voth, "where we took information from atomistic-level molecular dynamics simulations and from experiments." He explained that a coarse-grained model resolves only groups of atoms, versus all-atom simulations, where every single atomic interaction is resolved. "If you do that well, which is always a challenge, you maintain the physics in the model." The early results of the study show how the spike proteins on the surface of the virus move cooperatively. "They don't move independently like a bunch of random, uncorrelated motions," Voth said. "They work together." This cooperative motion of the spike proteins is informative of how the coronavirus explores and detects the ACE2 receptors of a potential host cell. "The paper we published shows the beginnings of how the modes of motion in the spike proteins are correlated," Voth said. He added that the spikes are coupled to each other. When one protein moves another one also moves in response. "The ultimate goal of the model would be, as a first step, to study the initial virion attractions and interactions with ACE2 receptors on cells and to understand the origins of that attraction and how those proteins work together to go on to the virus fusion process," Voth said. Voth and his group have been developing coarse-grained modeling methods on viruses such as HIV and influenza for more than 20 years. They 'coarsen' the data to make it simpler and more computationally tractable, while staying true to the dynamics of the system. "The benefit of the coarse-grained model is that it can be hundreds to thousands of times more computationally efficient than the all-atom model," Voth explained. The computational savings allowed the team to build a much larger model of the coronavirus than ever before, at longer time-scales than what has been done with all-atom models. "What you're left with are the much slower, collective motions. The effects of the higher frequency, all-atom motions are folded into those interactions if you do it well. That's the idea of systematic coarse-graining." The holistic model developed by Voth started with atomic models of the four main structural elements of the SARS-CoV-2 virion: the spike, membrane, nucleocapsid, and envelope proteins. These atomic models were then simulated and simplified to generate the complete course-grained model. The all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of the spike protein component of the virion system, about 1.7 million atoms, were generated by study co-author Rommie Amaro, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. "Their model basically ingests our data, and it can learn from the data that we have at these more detailed scales and then go beyond where we went," Amaro said. "This method that Voth has developed will allow us and others to simulate over the longer time scales that are needed to actually simulate the virus infecting a cell." Amaro elaborated on the behavior observed from the coarse-grained simulations of the spike proteins. "What he saw very clearly was the beginning of the dissociation of the S1 subunit of the spike. The whole top part of the spike peels off during fusion," Amaro said. One of the first steps of viral fusion with the host cell is this dissociation, where it binds to the ACE2 receptor of the host cell. "The larger S1 opening movements that they saw with this coarse-grained model was something we hadn't seen yet in the all-atom molecular dynamics, and in fact it would be very difficult for us to see," Amaro said. "It's a critical part of the function of this protein and the infection process with the host cell. That was an interesting finding." Voth and his team used the all-atom dynamical information on the open and closed states of the spike protein generated by the Amaro Lab on the Frontera supercomputer, as well as other data. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Frontera system is operated by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin. "Frontera has shown how important it is for these studies of the virus, at multiple scales. It was critical at the atomic level to understand the underlying dynamics of the spike with all of its atoms. There's still a lot to learn there. But now this information can be used a second time to develop new methods that allow us to go out longer and farther, like the coarse-graining method," Amaro said. "Frontera has been especially useful in providing the molecular dynamics data at the atomistic level for feeding into this model. It's very valuable," Voth said. The Voth Group initially used the Midway2 computing cluster at the University of Chicago Research Computing Center to develop the coarse-grained model. The membrane and envelope protein all-atom simulations were generated on the Anton 2 system. Operated by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) with support from National Institutes of Health, Anton 2 is a special-purpose supercomputer for molecular dynamics simulations developed and provided without cost by D. E. Shaw Research. "Frontera and Anton 2 provided the key molecular level input data into this model," Voth said. "A really fantastic thing about Frontera and these types of methods is that we can give people much more accurate views of how these viruses are moving and carrying about their work," Amaro said. "There are parts of the virus that are invisible even to experiment," she continued. "And through these types of methods that we use on Frontera, we can give scientists the first and important views into what these systems really look like with all of their complexity and how they're interacting with antibodies or drugs or with parts of the host cell." The type of information that Frontera is giving researchers helps to understand the basic mechanisms of viral infection. It is also useful for the design of safer and better medicines to treat the disease and to prevent it, Amaro added. Said Voth: "One thing that we're concerned about right now are the UK and the South African SARS-CoV-2 variants. Presumably, with a computational platform like we have developed here, we can rapidly assess those variances, which are changes of the amino acids. We can hopefully rather quickly understand the changes these mutations cause to the virus and then hopefully help in the design of new modified vaccines going forward." ### The study, "A multiscale coarse-grained model of the SARS-CoV-2 virion," was published on November 27, 2020 in the Biophysical Journal. The study co-authors are Alvin Yu, Alexander J. Pak, Peng He, Viviana Monje-Galvan, Gregory A. Voth of the University of Chicago; and Lorenzo Casalino, Zied Gaieb, Abigail C. Dommer, and Rommie E. Amaro of the University of California, San Diego. Funding was provided by the NSF through NSF RAPID grant CHE-2029092, NSF RAPID MCB-2032054, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health through grant R01 GM063796, National Institutes of Health GM132826, and a UC San Diego Moore's Cancer Center 2020 SARS-COV-2 seed grant. Computational resources were provided by the Research Computing Center at the University of Chicago, Frontera at the Texas Advanced Computer Center funded by the NSF grant (OAC-1818253), and the Pittsburgh Super Computing Center (PSC) through the Anton 2 machine. Anton 2 computer time was allocated by the COVID-19 HPC Consortium and provided by the PSC through Grant R01GM116961 from the National Institutes of Health. The Anton 2 machine at PSC was generously made available by D. E. Shaw Research." A SWIMMER got washed into a sea cave in West Cork and had to be rescued in a daring and "complex" operation by the Irish Coast Guard. Irish Coast Guard Units from Old Head/Seven Heads, along with the Shannon-based, Coast Guard Heli R115, were tasked this evening to a female swimmer who got washed into a sea cave at Dunworley, West Cork. Irish Coast Guard Units from Old Head/Seven Heads, along with the Shannon based Coast Guard Heli R115 were tasked this evening to a swimmer who got washed into a sea cave at Dunworley Co Cork. A very complex rescue was required to retrieve the swimmer to safety. #IrishCoastGuard pic.twitter.com/ygh4gaL6tO Irish Coast Guard (@IrishCoastGuard) February 25, 2021 This evenings sea cave incident in Dunworley was a very challenging rescue but our Old Head/Seven Head CG Team done an excellent job, well done to Irish Coast Guard team member and experienced diver Eammon Barry, who located the casualty in the cave and assisted in the rescue. pic.twitter.com/RTOCLxf6de Irish Coast Guard (@IrishCoastGuard) February 25, 2021 The Irish Coast Guard said on its Facebook page: "This evenings sea cave incident in Dunworley was a very challenging rescue but our Old Head/Seven Head CG Team done an excellent job, well done to Irish Coast Guard team member and experienced diver Eammon Barry, who located the casualty in the cave and assisted in the rescue. "Paramedics from the Coast Guard Shannon based Helicopter R115 landed nearby and were ready to provide medical assistance when the casualty was rescued from the cave. Courtmcsherry RNLI were also tasked to the incident to provide assistance." Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. Premier Brian Pallister leads a government constantly surveying the public for input on its decisions but not all of its decisions. Premier Brian Pallister leads a government constantly surveying the public for input on its decisions but not all of its decisions. While Pallister has sought real-time feedback from Manitobans on issues such as pandemic restrictions and cannabis legalization, he has not opened up the government web portal to capture their thoughts on more controversial and pressing issues, such as supervised injection sites for people with drug addictions. In a string of polls going back nearly three years, about two-thirds of Manitobans support the opening of such facilities. Those sentiments were reinforced, yet again, in an Angus Reid Institute poll released Wednesday, which showed 65 per cent of Canadians, and 63 per cent of Manitobans, favour the sites as a life-saving measure. In the past, the premier has claimed repeatedly, on this issue, he will not govern by public opinion survey. Pallister has also claimed his opposition to so-called safe consumption sites is based more on research than public sentiment. A new Angus Reid poll found 65 per cent of Canadians, and 63 per cent of Manitobans, favour safe-injection sites, like the one above in Vancouver. (Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press files) No one is quite sure what research he's referring to, as the seminal scientific studies on the impact of safe consumption sites, in Canada and around the world, shows they lead to significant reductions in overdose deaths, infectious disease transmission, ambulance calls, and ER admissions. However, even if Pallister wasn't willing to be swayed by public opinion, he should be aware by rejecting both research and the polls, he is pandering to a very slim minority. The Angus Reid Institute pointed out in its detailed survey tables there is there is a direct relationship between partisan affiliation and opinion on supervised injection sites in particular, and government policies on drug use in general. In general, the Angus Reid poll says people who supported the Conservative Party federally, and the Progressive Conservatives in Manitoba, had high levels of support for harsher penalties and compulsory treatment for drug users, and lower support for decriminalizing illegal drugs and supervised injection sites. No governing party can completely ignore the sentiments of its core supporters. However, when the issue is a matter of public health when lives are at stake one would hope even the most hyper-partisan of governing parties would consider the opinions of the gross majority of citizens. Manitoba's Tory premier is not willing to do that, despite the fact in the age of low voter turnout, he didn't really need much support to win government. A man prepares heroin to be injected at the Insite safe injection clinic in Vancouver. Premier Brian Pallister has not been supportive of a similar facility in Winnipeg. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press files) In the 2019 election, the Progressive Conservatives won 47 per cent of votes cast, and were rewarded with 63 per cent of all seats in the Manitoba legislature. In the current electoral system, that legitimately qualifies as a strong majority mandate. However, given 2019 voter turnout was a paltry 55 per cent, Pallister's party only got the support of 25 per cent of all those eligible to vote. In making this observation, it's important to note this is not a criticism of the Pallister government. This is a mathematical weakness that undermines the mandates won by all Canadian governments under its first-past-the-post electoral system. While the numbers do not delegitimize Pallister's claim to a "majority," they do require the premier to take the necessary steps to show he can govern for all citizens, not just those who voted for him. In this particular incidence, it's impossible to get away from the fact Pallister is more concerned about the core of his support, and his own philosophical leanings, and less concerned about broader public opinion or the science on supervised injection sites. Or, quite frankly, in the fate of addicts. The Pallister government has been unable to shake its deeply held philosophical belief that people suffering from mental health and addictions are generally unsympathetic. The premier will trumpet the millions of dollars his government has spent on improving services but, in doing so, will ignore gaping holes in the safety net for mental health and addictions. Poll Loading... Do you think safe-injection sites are a good idea? Yes No Do you think safe-injection sites are a good idea? Yes 60% (463 votes) No 40% (311 votes) Total Votes: 774 View ResultsHide Results It should be noted there have been positive accomplishments by the Tory government on this file. In particular, the creation of rapid access to addictions medicine clinics, which allow people with substance abuse problems to receive specialized treatment and counselling options on a walk-in basis. As positive as the RAAM sites may be, they do not replace the need for safe consumption facilities. The former is about helping people on the longer road to recovery; the latter is about helping addicts stay alive so, one day, they can walk through the doors of a RAAM clinic. Pallister loves to tell people he is a premier for all Manitobans. But by ignoring the clear will of the gross majority on this issue, without providing any evidence to back up his position, Pallister is demonstrating he only cares about the health and welfare of one in four Manitobans. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca Pamela Smith, a longtime commander of the U.S. Park Police, was named the permanent chief Thursday by the National Park Service and said she would immediately move to implement body-worn cameras for a department that has no cameras in its cars or on its officers. Smith, 53, replaces former chief Robert MacLean, who was promoted in August 2019 to head the to the Interior Department's Office of Law Enforcement and Security. The acting chief job was then assumed by Maj. Gregory Monahan, who will return to his post as assistant chief when Smith takes the chief's position Sunday. Smith has been a Park Police officer for 23 years, and she becomes the first African American woman to lead the agency in its 230-year history. Park Police officers are stationed in parks in and around Washington, D.C.; New York City and San Francisco. As a major, she was the first woman to lead the New York field office, and she has also served as deputy chief of the Homeland Security Division and the Field Operations Division. The Park Police have been under scrutiny since November 2017 for their handling of the fatal shooting of an unarmed motorist in Fairfax County, Va., by two officers. Bijan Ghaisar, 25, was shot four times as he tried to maneuver his Jeep Grand Cherokee away from Officers Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya. After federal prosecutors declined to charge the officers in 2019, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano obtained manslaughter indictments last fall against the two officers, which are pending. The officers have said they fired because they feared Ghaisar was about to run over Amaya. The officers were not wearing body cameras and their marked SUV did not have a camera. No Park Police officers or vehicles are equipped with cameras. The shooting was captured by an in-car camera of a Fairfax County police lieutenant who followed the officers' pursuit of Ghaisar down the George Washington Memorial Parkway into a residential neighborhood, where the officers fired 10 shots into Ghaisar's SUV. The Fairfax police chief released the video over federal authorities' objections. Smith said in a news release that she would establish a body-worn camera program for the Park Police within 90 days. She said it would begin in San Francisco, which she said had 42 employees, and be implemented in Washington and New York by the end of the year. "Body-worn cameras are good for the public and good for our officers," Smith said in the release, "which is why I am prioritizing implementing a body-worn camera program within my first 90 days. This is one of the many steps we must take to continue to build trust and credibility with the public we have been entrusted to serve." She said in an afternoon news conference that "I anticipate this will be broadly welcomed by the members of our agency." Kenneth Spencer, president of the Park Police's Fraternal Order of Police labor committee, said he and his predecessors had been pushing Congress and department leadership for cameras for years. He said devising policies for camera use and data storage, for reviewing and releasing footage and other issues "is going to take a while, but it's great that it's finally happening. The officers are ready for it." Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., have introduced a bill requiring all uniformed federal police to wear body cameras, but it was incorporated into a larger crime bill and has passed the House but not the Senate. No Justice Department officers use cameras, and only park rangers use them within the Interior Department, officials have said. It was not clear whether Smith would also change the policy of not discussing cases such as Ghaisar's. After launching the investigation of the shooting and excluding Fairfax police, then-Chief MacLean handed the case over to the FBI and refused to talk about it. Monahan continued that policy during his tenure as acting chief. More than three years after the shooting, the Park Police have not started an internal investigation of the case, pending the resolution of the criminal case against Vinyard and Amaya. At the news conference, Smith said that she was working in New York when the Ghaisar killing occurred, and that "I want to convey my deepest condolences to the Ghaisar family." She said that she had not been involved in the case but that "one of my first priorities as chief of police is to be briefed as to what occurred," and that she was "looking forward to providing a response." The Ghaisar family issued a statement Thursday, saying that "After more than 3 years of silence and lack of leadership, we hope that Chief Smith will bring a new era of integrity and transparency to the Park Police with an emphasis on the safety of the community at large." The family called on Smith to begin the internal investigation of the case and fire the two officers. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., issued a statement supporting Smith's body-camera initiative. "It's been more than three years since Bijan Ghaisar was shot and killed by U.S. Park Police," Warner said, "and his family is still searching for answers to understand what happened to their son and brother that day. While nothing will bring Bijan back, I am glad to see the new leadership of the Park Police taking steps that could help avert more needless tragedies." The Park Police were also criticized for their role in clearing protesters from the area around Lafayette Square before President Donald Trump walked through the area on his way to St. John's Church during social justice demonstrations on June 1, and Monahan testified before Congress to defend his officers' actions. Before that hearing, The Washington Post reported that the Park Police had not recorded any of their radio transmissions on that day because of an improper installation of a new radio system, which Monahan confirmed in his testimony. Monahan also said the Park Police decided to erect a fence on the north end of Lafayette Square, and "there is 100% zero correlation between our operation and the president's visit to the church." Monahan said protesters had been violent at the park for three days before June 1, and that his officers were under assault from projectiles again that day. Smith said Thursday that Park Police officers "followed established procedures and regulations during the civil unrest." People familiar with the selection process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said Monahan did not apply for the chief's position. "Chief Smith's commitment to policing as public service and her willingness to listen and collaborate make her the right person to lead the U.S. Park Police at this pivotal moment in our country," said Shawn Benge, deputy director of the Park Service. "Over the coming months, leadership of the National Park Service will explore opportunities with Chief Smith designed to strengthen our organization's commitment to transparency. Her personal and professional experience make her acutely aware of and ready to meet the challenges and responsibilities that face U.S. Park Police and law enforcement agencies across the nation." Scientists in Munich study how pollen from far distances -- sometimes hundreds of kilometers away -- affects the length of allergy seasons in Germany Allergy sufferers are no strangers to problems with pollen. But now - due to climate change - the pollen season is lasting longer and starting earlier than ever before, meaning more days of itchy eyes and runny noses. Warmer temperatures cause flowers to bloom earlier, while higher CO2 levels cause more pollen to be produced. The effects of climate change on the pollen season have been studied at-length, and according to some scientists, has grown by as much as 20 days in the past 30 years, at least in the US and Canada. But one important element is often overlooked - "Pollen is meant to fly," says Dr Annette Menzel, Professor of ecoclimatology at the Technical University of Munich. "Transport phenomena have to be taken into account." Along with her colleagues, she studied the transport of pollen in Bavaria, Germany, in order to better understand how the pollen season has changed over time. "The transport of pollen has important implications for the length, timing, and severity of the allergenic pollen season," says Dr Ye Yuan, a coauthor on the study. Menzel and her team focused on Bavaria - a state in southeast Germany - and used six pollen monitoring stations scattered around the region to analyze data. Their results were recently published in Frontiers in Allergy. They found that certain species of pollen, such as from hazel shrubs and alder trees, advanced the start of their seasons by up to 2 days per year, over a period of 30 years (between 1987 and 2017). Other species, which tend to bloom later in the year, such as birch and ash trees, moved their seasons 0.5 days earlier on average each year, across that same time period. Pollen can travel hundreds of kilometers and, with changing weather patterns and altered species distributions, it's possible that people are becoming exposed to "new" pollen species - meaning pollen that our bodies are unaccustomed to encountering each year. While it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between local and transported pollen, the researchers focused on pre-season transports. So, for example, if pollen from birch trees was present at the monitoring station, but local birch trees would not flower for at least another 10 days, that pollen was considered to be transported from far away. "We were surprised that pre-season pollen transport is a quite common phenomenon being observed in two-thirds of the cases," says Menzel. As for why it's important to understand how much pollen is from far away, Yuan says that: "Especially for light-weight allergenic [pollen], long distance transport could seriously influence local human health." By examining another element besides simple pollen concentration, scientists can delve deeper into how exactly the pollen season is being affected by climate change. For example, Menzel says that the pollen season may be even longer than estimated based on flowering observations by "taking into account pollen transport, as it has been done in our current study." While the Munich study did not track how far pollen was transported, and only differentiated between local and long-range transport (meaning pollen coming from outside Bavaria), it provides a crucial key in our understanding of annual pollen patterns. Yuan says that future studies should account for "climate change scenarios [and] land use/land cover changes." He also adds that citizen scientists may be able to contribute to pollen studies, who can help collect local observations and contribute to data collection. It doesn't look like the pollen season will shorten any time soon, but more research on the subject can provide a better understanding of global patterns and changes so that we can better address these issues in the future. ### Hindus can never be anti-India, patriotism is their basic character, says RSS chief citing Gandhi RSS chief advocates 'Akhand Bharat', says Pakistan in distress ever since partitioned from India India pti-Deepika S Hyderabad, Feb 25: Advocating the need for ''Akhand Bharat'' (undivided India), RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said countries such as Pakistan which broke away from India are now in distress. Speaking at a book launch here, Bhagwat said ''Akhand Bharat'' is possible through "Hindu Dharm" but not by force. "There is a need to make glorious Akhand Bharat for the welfare of the universe.That''s why there is a need to awaken patriotism for the country," Bhagwat said. More than the present India, the separated parts of erstwhile India, which shed their relevance with the country, have more necessity for the reunification to come out of their "miseries", he further said. Stressing that the concept of ''Akhand Bharat'' is possible, Bhagwat said some people had expressed serious doubts before the partition of the country in 1947 whether Pakistan would be formed, but it happened. India''s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, when asked before partition of the country in 1947, had said the possibility of formation of Pakistan was "dream of fools" though it happened. According to Bhagwat, Lord Wavell (during British rule) also said in British Parliament that God has made India one and so who would divide it. "But ultimately it (partition of India) happened. What seemed to be impossible had happened, so it cannot be ruled out that ''Akhand Bharat'' which may seem to be impossible, will not happen," he said. Alleging that there is unhappiness in the separated regions of ''Akhand Bharat'' which now do not call themselves as ''Bharat'', the RSS chief said the remedy to come out their miseries is reunification with India. "They (separated countries) did all they could, but did not find any remedy.And remedy is reunification (with Bharat) only and all their problems will get resolved," he said. He, however, said the reunification should be done through "humanitys dharm" which according to him is called "Hindu dharm". "Gandhar became Afghanistan.Is there peace and tranquility in Afghanistan since then? Pakistan was formed. From that date till now, is there peace and tranquility?" he asked. He said India has the endurance to overcome several challenges and the world looks towards it to overcome difficulties. With "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (world is one family) belief, India can again offer happiness and peace to the world, he added. For years, Adorable Jasmine sought to break into technology. But the 35-year-old Oakland resident couldnt land even an entry-level gig despite years of nonprofit work, a masters degree and a lot of diligent self-instruction. Jasmine, who is Black, said she encountered racism and sexism at interviews and networking events, but kept trying, eager to leverage tech for social change. Then by serendipity she learned about a school where she could not only get tech training but be paid to learn through an internship. She started at Geekwise Academy now renamed Bitwise Workforce in Oakland last year. The most refreshing thing was that I went from feeling like I didnt really belong in tech to an all-Black cohort where everybody looked like me, and Black women were leading it, she said. It was incredible to have that contrast happen so quickly. Jasmine became certified as a Salesforce administrator through the nine-month program, which was conducted virtually because of the pandemic. She is now working as a project manager at Code for America. She is among some 5,000 people who have gone through Bitwises pay to learn curriculum. More than four-fifths of them have landed tech jobs, many with Bitwise itself, the company said. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Unlike many tech boot camps, which charge big bucks up front, Bitwise places its students, mainly minorities and people from disadvantaged backgrounds, in paid internships so they can earn while they learn. Bitwises co-founders, Irma Olguin and Jake Soberal, each the children of struggling immigrant families, said seeing how the tech industry can transform peoples lives led them to start the parent company, Bitwise Industries, in 2013. We wanted to connect folks from historically marginalized communities to skills that would let them access opportunities in the tech industry, Soberal said. Whats fundamentally different is paying people to learn. If you want to achieve diversity and inclusion in tech, that is the secret sauce. Bitwise supports students in other ways, helping with transportation, child care and even food, for instance. We believe deeply that when you move enough rocks out of the road, folks from all kinds of backgrounds can take advantage of opportunities in the tech economy, Olguin said. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle To make that work, Fresno-based Bitwise Industries has three arms. It trains people in tech skills; it rents commercial real estate to tech companies and others; and it runs a tech consulting division that both generates revenue and provides a place to pair senior talent with apprentices from its tech school. Now, thanks to a $50 million funding round, the 250-person Bitwise, which focuses on what it calls underdog cities, is expanding nationwide. Its first destination outside California will be Toledo, Ohio. We look at investing in tech startups whose core business helps close gaps of access, opportunity or outcome for low-income people and people of color, said Freada Kapor Klein, a partner at Oaklands Kapor Capital, one of the investors. She said she appreciates the companys scrappiness, talent and heart; the marriage of tech and compassion. Bitwises workforce development is needed more than ever with rampant pandemic unemployment, Klein said. Bitwise can put people on a quick and sure footing to a new career, she said. Theyre being upskilled, given access to a whole new industry that will provide them a path to mobility. Interactive Vaccine Tracker: Latest developments Detailed information about the coronavirus vaccines as it becomes available. Among Bitwises consulting projects is OnwardCA.org for California, sister sites in other states, and OnwardUS.org for the nation. The sites connect people to emergency resources for food, shelter, childcare and money; link to career training programs; and list open jobs. Bitwise taps public-private partnerships to help fund its technology education, getting money from government, philanthropists and corporations. Besides Fresno and Oakland, Bitwise has operations in Bakersfield and Merced. It seeks to buy and develop historic buildings in city centers to help revitalize them, provide a home for its tech school and provide space to lease to up-and-coming tech companies that might employ its graduates. Its Oakland launch came at the beginning of shelter-in-place so it is still seeking a physical space there. About 200 people have gone through the Oakland program and another 200 are going through it this year. Its schools teach both traditional tech skills, such as programming, and related areas such as tech support, inside sales, online marketing, user experience/user design. For Jasmine, the hands-on internship was as valuable as the curriculum. I loved the teaching model of having us start to apply what we were learning, such as doing work for the Fresno food bank, she said. We got to work on real problems. Now I feel like I have an advantage in the competitive job market because I was given the space to exercise the skills the industry is looking for. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid Despite various changes in how the province releases information about COVID-19 cases in schools, parents still arent satisfied with the data being made public. Despite various changes in how the province releases information about COVID-19 cases in schools, parents still arent satisfied with the data being made public. Halfway through the academic year, families behind a new letter-writing campaign are calling for more detail about cases in both school and child-care settings, citing heightened concerns about the risk of new coronavirus variants. The group wants daily updates on exposures that include facility names, dates and total cases broken down into student and staff categories, historical data so the public can track trends, and information about variants identified. "In terms of what theyre publicly reporting on, its very, very limited. I think it undermines confidence in the statement that schools are safe and they arent seeing transmission," said Susan Wingert, a mother of two K-12 students in Winnipeg. Manitoba's COVID-19 dashboard for cases among staff and students in Manitoba. Wingert said reporting via an online dashboard, which launched earlier this month, falls short of providing all the information parents need to weigh decisions about sending children to school. The provincial dashboard shows cases among both student and staff populations within the last 14 days, as well as totals dating back to Sept. 1. A map allows users to view recent cases in specific schools, including people who might not have been infectious in a classroom; there is no information on which if any cases were acquired at school. Its a stark contrast to the first-ever alert, which detailed the grade, classroom and time frame at Churchill High School for a student who was asymptomatic but tested positive Sept. 8. Following pushback after that notice, the province began to publish a running list of less-specific notices, including exposure dates and letters sent to families until mid-December. That's when letters disappeared online for more than a month while the province finalized its dashboard. Child-care centres are not included in the provided information. The most recent data shows there were 75 cases, involving 59 students and 16 staff members, during the incubation period prior to Feb. 21. Michelle Driedger, who researches health-risk communication at the University of Manitoba, questions the usefulness of that information if it isnt contextualized. "There has to be a happy medium between full disclosure of absolutely everything and, 'Here, were giving you some information, but in such an opaque environment that you can almost interpret what you want from it,'" said Driedger, a professor of community health sciences and parent of two K-12 students. Buy-in to COVID-19 protocols requires confidence in the system, she said, adding the province should be frank about how exactly it has come to the conclusion schools are safe. Susan Wingert, a mother of two K-12 students in Winnipeg and organizer of a letter-writing campaign, is asking the provincial government for more information and data regarding the COVID-19 cases in school so that parents can make informed decisions about the safety of their children. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) Education Minister Cliff Cullen was not made available for an interview Wednesday. In an email statement, he wrote the province is confident parents are receiving the "appropriate information" on the dashboard while noting letters are still being sent to parents when there is an outbreak. School-related cases represent approximately seven per cent of the number of confirmed cases in Manitoba, to date. School case counts have paralleled COVID-19 trends in the community, said epidemiologist Cynthia Carr, adding its understandable parents are anxious about their children's well-being especially now that the highly contagious B.1.1.7 strain that originated in the United Kingdom has been identified in five Manitoba cases. The founder of EPI Research Inc. has long been an advocate for pool testing in schools to identify the prevalence of asymptomatic spread. As researchers learn more about the new variant, it may be worth investing in both pooled testing and genomics sequencing in positive cases to see if the variant is becoming predominant among young people and patterns are changing, Carr said. She noted Montreal reported 22 variant outbreaks, which are almost entirely in schools and daycare settings, on Wednesday. On the subject of asymptomatic testing, Cullen said in the email the province is seeing its COVID-19 curve bend significantly. "Our government will continue to listen to our public health leaders and take action accordingly," he wrote. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie More than three-quarters of Americans agree with President Joe Bidens message to Congress on COVID-19 relief: Go big. Bidens $1.9 trillion aid bill which includes $1,400 checks to Americans earning less than $75,000 and invests hundreds of billions in combatting the virus finds support among 76% of Americans, according to the latest polling from Morning Consult and Politico. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says the House will vote on the package Friday. During my press conference today, I told reporters that the need for COVID-19 relief remains great; thats why I am bringing the #AmericanRescuePlan to the Floor this Friday. I hope that my colleagues will join in supporting this bill and providing relief to Americans. Steny (Wear a Mask) Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) February 24, 2021 The package has garnered widespread, bipartisan support among the public 60% of Republicans favor the spending; only 17% of Americans oppose it but Republican leaders in Congress have dismissed the relief bill as a liberal wishlist. Even some conservative Democrats have expressed concerns about the hefty price tag and warned that progressives call for a $15 minimum wage could scuttle the entire plan. But at least 52% of respondents strongly support Bidens plan; only 8% strongly oppose it. Seventy percent of Democrats strongly support the measure, which also finds overwhelming support among independents, at 71% in favor and 22% against. More than 2,000 registered voters were surveyed; the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2%. On top of the stimulus checks, Bidens plan includes hundreds of billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and to help reopen schools; significant expansions to the child tax credit; $35 billion to help local governments boost small businesses; a $25 billion restaurant grant program; and more than $350 billion to help state and local governments recover from crippling declines in tax revenue since the pandemic began. Additional jobless aid will be expanded through Aug. 29 and increased to $400 weekly. Senate committees will take up the bill for potential revisions following Fridays House vote. Support for the spending has only increased as more details of the Democrats proposal have been released. Sixty-four percent of voters said in January that they strongly backed additional economic stimulus, and 51 percent said in a separate poll that the federal government should continue spending even at the expense of the national debt, according to Morning Consult. Democrats are using the annual budget reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority vote, a move that sidesteps the need for Republican support and could get the package on Bidens desk by mid-March. In the case of a tie in the evenly-split Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the deciding vote. If Biden signs the bill, the Internal Revenue Service will start issuing checks to millions of Americans within a week or two later. For more on the stimulus checks and how much you or your family may receive, read here. Related Content: NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Washington Prime Group Inc. ("WPG" or the "Company") (NYSE: WPG). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether WPG and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On February 16, 2021, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), WPG disclosed that, on February 15, 2021, Washington Prime Group, L.P. ("WPG L.P."), the operating partnership of WPG, had "elected to withhold an interest payment of $23.2 million due on February 15, 2021 with respect to WPG L.P.'s outstanding Senior Notes due 2024," and that "WPG L.P. has a 30-day grace period to make the interest payment before such non-payment constitutes an 'event of default.'" The SEC filing further advised that, in an event of default, certain counterparties to the senior notes "could accelerate the outstanding indebtedness due . . . making such indebtedness due and payable, which would result in a cross-default with respect to some of WPG L.P.'s or the Company's other indebtedness." Following the SEC filing, WPG's stock price fell $4.59 per share, or 38%, to close at $7.49 per share on February 16, 2021. 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. 7980 Kristina Olney (2nd from the top R), director of government relations for Washington-based nonprofit Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, speaks during a webinar on Feb. 24, 2021. (Screenshot) Countries Should Do More to End Chinas Horrific Forced Organ Harvesting: Experts A group of international advocates is calling on countries, including the United States, to do more to hold China accountable for its state-sanctioned practice of harvesting organs from living prisoners of conscience. On the issue of forced organ harvesting, the international community has remained silent despite the evidence for far too long, said Kristina Olney, director of government relations for the Washington-based nonprofit Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), during a webinar held on Feb. 24. The online event was co-hosted by VOC and the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), a group comprising lawyers, academics, medical professionals, researchers, and human rights advocates. The United States and the rights-respecting nations of the world must confront the evidence of this horrific human rights abuse taking place in China today, and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its complicity. This crime has no place in the 21st century, Olney said. China has been one of the top destinations for transplant tourism, while Beijing has promoted a narrative in U.S. newspapers that organs are sourced from voluntary donations. Previously, the Chinese regime announced that it would stop sourcing organs from executed prisoners from Jan. 1, 2015, and claimed that it would exclusively rely on a new system of voluntary donations. Beijings claim was refuted by a June 2019 report published by a London-based peoples tribunal headed by U.N. war crimes prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. The report concluded, after a year-long investigation, that the state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting for profit was happening on a significant scale in China, with Falun Gong practitioners being the main source of organs. Read More China Still Forcibly Harvesting Organs for Transplantation, Independent Tribunal Finds In China, adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline also known as Falun Dafa, have been the targets of persecution by the CCP since July 1999. According to estimates from the Falun Dafa Information Center, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been thrown into prisons, psychiatric wards, and other facilities, while hundreds of thousands have suffered torture. Allegations of forced organ harvesting from detained Falun Gong adherents first emerged around 2006. There have been a number of congressional hearings and resolutions condemning forced organ harvesting, but until now, there has been no comprehensive legislation signed into law requiring the U.S. government to address this issue, Olney said. This year, three different counties in the state of Virginia passed resolutions condemning Chinas forced organ harvesting. Falun Gong practitioners hold a vigil to commemorate victims of the Chinese regimes persecution of the spiritual discipline since 1999, in Taipei, Taiwan, on July 18, 2020. (Minghui) Olney applauded U.S. lawmakers for introducing the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act in December 2020, calling the bill one of the most comprehensive legislative initiatives ever introduced on the issue of organ trafficking. She added that the bill will be reintroduced in both the Senate and House next week. The Senate bill (S.5016) was introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Dec. 15 last year. On the same day, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J) and Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.) introduced the House version (H.R.8972). Under the proposed legislation, the president would be empowered to impose sanctions on foreign officials and entities that engage in or support the forced removal of vital organs from unwilling victims. We urge the U.S. Congress to swiftly enact this bill, and for international governments to pass similar legislation, Olney stated. Aside from Olney, other participants in the webinar included Ethan Gutmann, a China studies fellow at the VOC and co-founder of ETAC; Sean Lin, communications director for the Falun Dafa Association in Washington; and Nice, a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Lin said that dealing with the issues of forced organ harvesting was more than about simply addressing medical ethics in Chinas transplant industry. Rather, the international community needed to confront the CCPs human rights and other violations directly. If you do not deal with the Chinese Communist Party directly, the rampant forced organ harvesting in China wont stop, he said. Chinese doctors carry fresh organs for transplant at a hospital in Henan Province, China, on Aug. 16, 2012. (Screenshot/Sohu.com) Nice said the tribunal reviewed nothing but evidence and came to the conclusion that China has committed crimes against humanity with its practice of forced organ harvesting. Also taking part in the webinar was Wendy Rogers, a professor of clinical ethics at Macquarie University in Australia. She called for collaboration as no single individual or institution can force China to end its practice. But acting together, professionals and institutions can exert significant pressure on China, Rogers said, adding that their actions will send a strong message that the rest of the world will not tolerate this atrocity. Ivan Vilibor Sincic, a Croatian politician and member of the European Parliament, said at the webinar that the European Union has been afraid of criticizing China because of economic interests. On Dec. 30 last year, the European Union and China signed a comprehensive business investment deal. Critics have condemned the agreementwhich has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament or approved by the EU Councilover Chinas continued human rights abuses and poor labor conditions. Peoples lives must be put first. Its time to stop fearing the Chinese economic power. Europe must take a strong position. And of course, the world must take a strong position on this issue, Sincic said. The 49-year-old Nirav Modi appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, dressed in a formal suit and sporting a thick beard, and showed no emotion as excerpts of the judgment were read out in court. (PTI File Image) London: In a comprehensive win for the Indian authorities, a UK judge ruled on Thursday that fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi not only has a case to answer in the Indian courts but that there is no evidence to suggest he would not receive a fair trial in India. Nirav Modi, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, lost his legal battle against extradition on all grounds as District Judge Samuel Goozee also concluded that there are no human rights concerns that his medical needs would not be addressed as per several Indian government assurances. The 49-year-old appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, dressed in a formal suit and sporting a thick beard, and showed no emotion as excerpts of the judgment were read out in court. "I am satisfied that there is evidence upon which NDM [Nirav Deepak Modi] could be convicted in relation the conspiracy to defraud the PNB. A prima face case is established, the judge said. He similarly concludes a prima facie case to have been established on all counts of charges brought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) money laundering, intimidation of witnesses and disappearance of evidence. "I am not required to exclude all Mr Modi's various alternative theoretical possibilities and narratives; nor exclude his personal interpretation of the evidence, in order to find a prima face case has been established, the judge noted, referring to the extradition case of former Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya as precedent. He accepted that while Nirav's mental health had deteriorated due to the lengthy incarceration in a London prison, excerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, his risk of suicide does not meet the high threshold to satisfy him that his mental state is such that it would be "unjust or oppressive" to extradite him. Under the UK Extradition Act 2003, the judge will now send his findings to the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, Priti Patel. It is the UK Cabinet minister who is authorised to order an extradition under the India-UK Extradition Treaty and has two months within which to make that decision. The Home Secretary's order rarely goes against the court's conclusions, as she has to consider only some very narrow bars to extradition which are unlikely to apply in this case, including the possible imposition of a death penalty. Whatever the ministerial decision, the losing side Nirav Modi has up to 14 days within which to approach the High Court and seek leave to appeal after the Home Secretary has made her decision known. Nirav's legal team did not immediately confirm if he intends to appeal against Thursday's ruling. Any appeal, if granted, will be heard at the Administrative Division of the High Court in London. Nirav Modi, meanwhile, remains on remand at Wandsworth Prison until the Home Secretary's decision to sign off on the extradition order. He was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019, and has appeared via video link from Wandsworth Prison for a series of court hearings in the extradition case. His multiple attempts at seeking bail have been repeatedly turned down, both at the Magistrates' and High Court level, as he was deemed a flight risk. Nirav is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with CBI case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the ED case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. He also faces two additional charges of "causing the disappearance of evidence" and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death, which were added on to the CBI case. AWD SUV The engine in the Sorento is a 2.5-liter, just like the one Genesis uses. It replaces the V6 option and delivers 281 horsepower and 311 lb-ft (421 Nm) of torque. You can have it with, and an 8-speed dual-clutch takes care of the delivery. Yeah, a DSG-rivalling gearbox with paddle shifters in a Kia. The world has gone mad, especially when VW doesn't really use DSG anymore.But Mazda is already known for having a potent turbo engine. The same 2.5-liter we showed you in yesterday's Mazda3 drag race powers this CX-5 crossover. It makes 250 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque. But the main difference is that a six-speed conventional automatic sits between the four-cylinder and the AWD system.So the Kia makes more horsepower from the same sized engine, but it's also visible bigger, and it costs more to buy, making the drag race a little bit unfair. But we want to visualize how far the Kia Sorento has come in just one model year. The first Sorento came to America in 2002 and looks totally outdated next to this.However, this review from the Canadian channel Sam CarLegion argues that the CX-5 is nicer to drive, better value, and feels better put together. It's a common theme for people who are into cars to like Mazdas better. But let's just focus on the objective results of the drag race. We see that the Kia Sorento Turbo has trouble launching, which suggests the twin-clutch gearbox was set up for comfortable shifts. The Mazda pulls ahead initially, but the extra power of the Korean SUV helps it catch up. Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda launched 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in Kolkata months ahead of the Assembly polls. Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign will have more than 200 meetings. In the battleground of West Bengal, Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda launched Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in Kolkata months ahead of the Assembly polls. Nadda will be visiting West Bengal today. Through the move, the BJP aims to reach all constituencies in West Bengal to prepare its manifesto for the state election. Suggestions from across the state will be collected before preparing the partys West Bengal poll manifesto. Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign will have more than 200 meetings with the common people, opinion makers, intellectuals and other important persons in the state. These suggestions will be taken into account when the BJP prepares its manifesto for West Bengal. The party had followed a similar practice ahead of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and also before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. BJP chief JP Nadda is also scheduled to flag off raths for various constituencies which will seek suggestions from common people and also spread awareness regarding various measures and public welfare policies initiated by the Narendra Modi government. The BJP chief will also begin the intellectuals meeting in Science City, Kolkata and visit Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyays residence and museum in Naihati. West Bengal: BJP national president JP Nadda launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla (manifesto) crowdsourcing campaign', in Kolkata. State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also present on the occasion. pic.twitter.com/tnfblr68ro ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 West Bengal: Actor Payel Sarkar joins BJP, in Kolkata. State party chief Dilip Ghosh and national president JP Nadda also present. pic.twitter.com/dmzMLGpZoW ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 Later he will also visit Bibhutibhusan Bhandhopadhyays house and then the Mangal Pandey Memorial, before the conclusion of the visit. Bengaluru: Agritech startup Clover , which sells fresh fruits and vegetables, has launched its direct-to-consumer app Deep Rooted, as it moves away from its business-to-business (B2B) model to focus on a D2C business strategy. The new consumer brand Deep Rooted. Co is a demand-backed cultivation and supply chain solution for fruits and vegetables focused on quality, consistency, traceability and a high degree of predictability, the startup said. Starting with Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Clover will invest around $2 million in creating farmer-facing input-output technology, investing in supply chain and cold storage capacities and communication to grow the brand. Deep Rooted will follow an omni-channel strategy to cater to existing consumer shopping preferences and presence across modern and general trade. With Deep Rooted.Co, our goal is to be Indias largest virtual farmer, facilitated by our full-stack agronomy intervention on the supply side; and an omnichannel presence, along with a consumer-facing app on the demand side. Consumers will get consistent access to zero-contamination, high-quality fruits and vegetables while farmers can experience up to a 3x increase in yield and income improvements," said Avinash B.R, co-founder, Clover. Clover said its experience in B2B, where has over 90 customers in over 175 locations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad allows it to get a head-start in launching a consumer-focussed business-to-consumer (B2C) brand. Avinash said the firms research conducted in September-October last year, found that consumer behaviour is not to plan the buying of fruits and vegetables but to shop for it when the shortage is noticed. We see that consumers are slowly reverting to the pre-covid preference of having the option to shop at neighbourhood kirana and modern trade stores. Deep Rooted.Co will invest in growing its distribution from the current 150 modern trade and neighbourhood stores across Bangalore and Hyderabad to 500 and brand build to aggregate demand over multiple channels, including online via our own consumer app and web e-commerce presence," he added. Fruits and vegetables will be supplied primarily from its owned greenhouse farms and from a network of over 100 small-medium scale land hold farmers. Deep Rooted will deliver most of its produce fresh and in under- 24 hours from farms primarily less than 150 km away from large cities. Gururaj Rao, co-founder, Clover, who also leads the product and technology function said, The Deep Rooted.Co app is a natural progression for us. We are aiming for upwards of 90,000 app downloads by the end of the year. Aside from shopping and regular promotions, we will also over time integrate product nutrition and storage advice, information on key farming practices and also take requests for farm visit schedules to share more around traceability and transparency." In February 2020, Clover had raised over $5.5 million in a Series A funding round, from venture capital (firm Omnivore and existing investors Accel and Mayfield. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Earlier this month, the US news agency Bloomberg carried a report entitled Gulf Reaches Out to Erdogan in Wary Move to Ease Tensions quoting anonymous sources in the region and indicating some kind of potential Gulf-Turkey rapprochement. Though no official confirmation or denial has been given since then, media reports in the region have carried hints that the ice is thawing between Turkey and the Gulf. The gist of the Bloomberg report was that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are holding out for the possibility of better ties with Turkey that could benefit trade and security in a volatile region. But it also cast doubts on the possibility of the success of such moves. The moves are tentative, given the backdrop of long-standing tensions and jostling for influence. They are also likely to fall foul of the Gulf duos insistence that Turkey rein in support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the report concluded. Last week, Emirati media highlighted the cordial exchange between a Turkish minister and an Emirati official on the Emirati Hope probe reaching Mars. Sarah bint Yousif Al-Amiri, UAE minister of state for advanced sciences, thanked Mustafa Varank, Turkeys minister of industry and technology, for his good wishes on the success of the space mission. Al-Amiri said in a tweet that we also believe that space exploration has always been a means to build bridges and advance our collective human understanding. This was in a reply to a tweet by Varank in which he said that each new discovery in space has the potential of increasing international cooperation, serving the interests of the world peace. The success of the UAE in the Hope mission, in which they have been investing for a long time, is worthy of appraisal. Congratulations! Turkish media and Arabic outlets sympathetic to it have been propagating the claim that officials from the Gulf countries have been meeting with their Turkish counterparts in a bid to restore active relations following the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit on 5 January declaring the end of the boycott of Qatar by the Arab Quartet of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. Turkish reports and social media posts by Turkish officials have arrogantly portrayed this as the Gulf coming back to us, similar to the way Doha has been portraying the reconciliation with the Arab Quartet as a victory for its policies. Yet, there has been a shift in Gulf policy, especially with the new US administration in the White House. This has involved a need to prepare for regional challenges without dragging out internal conflicts. From the Qatar crisis to the war in Yemen, the Saudis have felt the need to reassert their stance as leaders of the GCC when US President Joe Biden re-engaged in negotiations with Tehran. Riyadh is keen on including Irans ballistic missiles programme in any negotiated deal between the US and Iran. A semi-official source in the Gulf told Al-Ahram Weekly that pragmatism in politics meant the need to be flexible enough to make tactical shifts without compromising basic principles. You may need to engage to change others positions on controversial issues. Take the [Muslim] Brotherhood, for example. The basic principle is that the group is designated as a terrorist organisation by many countries in the region. That will not change. But pragmatism means that you reach compromises to dilute the support the group gets from other countries in the region, the source said. Since the reconciliation between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours in early January, analysts have been floating the suggestion that the same will soon happen between the Gulf and Turkey. Both share a policy of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its militant offshoots in the region. When the boycott of Qatar started in 2017, the Turkish military presence in the small Gulf country increased to the extent of establishing a Turkish military base in Qatar. Doha has stressed that its enhanced relationship with both Turkey and Iran will not be affected by the reconciliation with the Gulf countries. The reconciliation agreement between Doha and the Arab Quartet also seems vague as its details have not been made public. The Qataris are hailing the achievement of their main objective, which was resolving multiple issues with the Saudis, but the overall situation is still precarious. Bahrain and the UAE, along with Egypt, will not tolerate the continuation of Qatari support for the Brotherhood and militant groups. Even Saudi Arabia, which might have tactically needed to soften positions and unify a camp against Iran, should be wary of Dohas role as a spearhead for Turkish and Iranian influence in the region. A Dubai-based Saudi analyst told the Weekly that Saudi Arabia was committed to coordinating its policy on common issues with its allies. If [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is to continue his rhetoric about Egypt and provide a life-line for the Brotherhood, the Kingdom will not accept a deal with him. The same applies to the UAE, he said. He suggested that meetings might happen, as there has been no formal severance of relations and trade is still ongoing despite the popular boycott of Turkish goods in the Gulf. Officially, Saudi Arabia has not boycotted Turkey. But the unofficial boycott has led to Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia dropping by a remarkable 92 per cent in January year-on-year, according to data released by the Turkish Exporters Union, he said. The UAE is a larger trade partner, with annual trade with Turkey worth more than $8 billion, while Turkey-Saudi trade is less than $5 billion a year. Turkey is keen on reclaiming strong trade and investment relations with the Gulf countries. Its enhanced relations with Qatar over recent years have poured a few billion from Doha into the Turkish economy. However, the dire economic situation in Turkey would be exacerbated by a Saudi and Emirati drop in trade and investment. As the Gulf source put it, Erdogan has proved elusive and volatile, so any rapprochement would be cautious rather than cosy. The next few weeks and months will show if Turkish-Gulf relations are indeed to go from cold to warm, or whether they will continue at a standstill. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Q&A: BC VICE PRESIDENT JOY MOORE In the following Q&A, Joy Moore reflects on her time in Student Affairs and her hopes moving forward for the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success. Q. How did you come to your decision to resign as vice president for Student Affairs? A. It was a decision made from the heart. The work of a vice president for Student Affairs is multifaceted and requires you to be physically present and often available to the students and staff 24/7. Given this, the severity of my husbands condition, and the prognosis of his disease, it became clear to me that caring for Rob and serving as the vice president for Student Affairs would not be possible. As I reflect on my decision, I am ever more resolute that even though you build a plan for how you would like your life to unfold, sometimes the best-crafted plan gets interrupted and suddenly you have to begin to re-imagine your life in a new way. This is the journey I am now on. Q. What will you miss most about your role? A. I will miss the engagement with students and working with them to advocate for important initiatives, resources, programs, and equity. I will miss working with the talented Student Affairs team. They are a dedicated group of professionals who are committed to helping each student have a full BC experience. I will miss the difficult work as well. Acknowledging and addressing the hard work is the best approach for meeting challenges head on. Q. What do you hope to accomplish as executive director of the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success? A. I am hopeful that together we can create an institute that provides first- generation, under-represented, and under-resourced students with the tools, confidence, resources, and positive encouragement they need to embark on a pathway to success in their chosen field. The creation of the institute presents an opportunity for us to reach out to our neighboring cities and towns and nationally to offer students (who otherwise may not have the chance to take advantage of) programming and resources designed specifically to help ensure they are steered in the direction of success. Q. As an alumna and longtime BC administrator, you have a perspective regarding Boston College that spans decades. How has BC grown during that time, and in what areas does it need to continue to improve? A. BC continues to evolve and thrive. Our mission and Jesuit values have kept us true to our work on behalf of students from all walks of life. The faculty are leaders in their field and bring intellectual excitement and energy to the academic life of the community. The students are brighter, smarter, and more engaged. They are passionate about service, helping those less fortunate, and contributing to the common good. All great institutions take a serious and hard look at themselves to assess what they do well and where they need to improve. BC has done this over its 158-year history and is committed to working on areas that emerge as in need of improvement. BC must continue to work on making students of color feel welcomed and equal members of the community. We need greater diversity in leadership positions, and although we have seen significant increases in the hiring of faculty of color, more diversity is needed among the teaching faculty. Also, BC would benefit by continuing to diversify its student body, and in particular the number of BIPOC students. These changes take time and they are not easy, but challenges have not stopped BC in the past from achieving its goals. Q. How has your faith sustained you during this difficult and challenging time? A. I have always been a person of faith and prayer. Yet, as I soon discovered, there are few life-changing events like the diagnosis of terminal brain cancer of your spouse of nearly 36 years that brings you to your knees and deepens your faith and prayerful life in ways you never imagined. I have called on my faith every day since this devastating reality and the outpouring of prayers from the BC community sustain me and my family. For this, I am forever grateful. Jack Dunn | University Communications | February 2021 There was a time when Assam was known for violence, PM Modi changed that: Shah India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: Union Home Minister, Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, new development did not start just in Assam but in the entire northeast. There was a time when Assam was known for violence and agitation, but PM Modi did everything to bring prestige to Assam, Shah said at a rally in Nangaon. He further said that it was the Modi government that conferred the Bharat Ratna for Bhupen Hazarika. The Home Minister also said that Congress leader Tarun Gogoi had made great contributions. He was given the Padma Bhushan under the regime of PM Modi. Ahmedabad will emerge as India's sports city: Amit Shah Shah said that Congress has a system in which they are seen only during the elections. They keep roaming the lanes of Delhi and will be seen only as elections approach. Shah also reminded that it was the Congress that fired bullets on the youth of Assam during the Assam Movement. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News To make Congress win, agitators are contesting under different names to cut into BJP's votes. Their aim is to make Congress win. Everyone knows that they cannot form the government. In fact they themselves too know it, the Home Minister also said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 13:46 [IST] It is an image as heartwarming as any: Young children giggling as the family dog climbs all over them and licks their faces. But new research suggests the bond may be more than playful. "The great news is that this study suggests dogs are paying a lot of attention to the kids that they live with," said study author Monique Udell, an animal behaviorist and associate professor at Oregon State University. "They are responsive to them and, in many cases, behaving in synchrony with them, indicators of positive affiliation and a foundation for building strong bonds." Indeed, dogs may even help children with social development, increasing physical activity, managing anxiety or providing attachment as family structures change, the researchers said. The study recruited 30 youths aged 8 to 17, along with their family dog. About 83% of the kids and adolescents had a developmental disability. The children were asked to walk with their off-leash dogs in a standardized way among color-coded taped lines in a large empty room. Researchers videotaped the experiments, analyzing how much time each child and their dog were moving or stationary at the same time (what they called activity synchrony), how often they were within 3 feet of each other (proximity), and going in the same direction (orientation). The dogs were synchronized with the children at higher rates than expected by chance: about 60% of the total time; 73% of the time when moving; and 41% of the time when stationary. They were in close proximity of each other 27% of the time and moving in the same direction 33.5% of the time. "What we are finding is that kids are very capable of training dogs, and that dogs are paying attention to the kids and can learn from them," Udell said in a university news release. "Sometimes we don't give children and dogs enough credit. Our research suggests that with some guidance we can provide important and positive learning experiences for our kids and our dogs starting at a much earlier age, something that can make a world of difference to the lives of both," she said. Still, the percentages were all lower than found in previous research with adultswho had nearly 82% active synchrony and almost 73% proximity with their dogs. "One interesting thing we have observed is that dogs are matching their child's behavior less frequently than what we have seen between dogs and adult caretakers, which suggests that while they may view children as social companions, there are also some differences that we need to understand better," Udell said. The researchers are now studying more about synchrony and bond quality between dogs and the kids and adults in their families. This includes participation in animal-assisted interventions and increasing the child's responsibility for the dog's care. The findings were published recently in the journal Animal Cognition. More information: The American Kennel Club shares information on how dogs and humans help each other be The American Kennel Club shares information on how dogs and humans help each other be healthier and happier. SOURCE: Oregon State University, news release, Feb. 21, 2021 Journal information: Animal Cognition Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Children are not legally required to wear face masks in schools and should not be sent home if they refuse to wear one, government officials said last night. This week Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that secondary school pupils will have to wear masks if they cannot maintain social distancing in No10's ultra-cautious 'roadmap' out of England's third Covid lockdown. Though masks and regular coronavirus tests are strongly encouraged, officials insisted they are not legal requirements and students should not be 'denied education' as a result of non-compliance. Pupils will also be tested three times at school and once at home for two weeks after schools reopen on March 8, before being asked to test themselves twice a week at home and report the results to their teachers. But ministers have said both these measures are voluntary, and that students must not be kicked out of the classroom if they refuse to comply. However, this has not prevented some parents from reacting angrily to the guidance, with 'hundreds' gearing up to keep their children at home if children will be forced to cover their faces when they go back to school on March 8. Children are not legally required to wear face masks in schools and should not be sent home if they refuse to wear one, government officials said last night. Pictured, pupils wearing masks at Moor End Academy in Huddersfield on September 11, 2020 Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told a Downing Street press conference last night: 'We are also now advising that face coverings should be worn in secondary school classrooms as well as in further and higher education settings unless social distancing can be maintained' Teachers are to take control in school exams free-for-all: Staff will award pupils' A-level and GCSE grades this year as experts warn the policy undermines credibility and universities predict chaos on admissions Teachers will have almost complete control over deciding the GCSE and A-level grades of their pupils this summer, it was announced last night. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said staff will also get to choose how they assess children after exams were cancelled due to the pandemic. Teachers can decide to rely on previous essays, coursework, mocks or any other type of classwork if they wish. They can also choose to set their own 'mini-exams', either of their own making or using questions provided by exam boards but they will not need to enforce exam conditions. Grading decisions will only be altered by exam boards in rare cases where malpractice or questionable standards are exposed. Advertisement Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told a Downing Street press conference last night: 'In line with public health guidance, we are also now advising that face coverings should be worn in secondary school classrooms as well as in further and higher education settings unless social distancing can be maintained. 'Again, this is to help reduce transmission. The risk to children themselves is incredibly low. This is a temporary measure to support the return of schools and will be in place until Easter, when it is reviewed.' However, Molly Kingsley, the co-founder of UsForThem, said that 'hundreds' of parents have contacted the parent campaign group to say they intend to keep their children at home because of the mask mandate. She told the Telegraph: 'It's great that children will be back in school, but it should not be at any price - and certainly not at a price as grave as this. 'Face masks are an untested intervention and one that many respected academics and doctors have raised serious concerns about from a psychological point of view but also due to the potential physical harm and the long-term effects of face coverings on brain development and educational attainment.' Guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) says 'no pupil should be denied education on the grounds that they are not wearing a face covering'. It also states that the tests are 'voluntary', adding: 'Pupils not undergoing testing should attend school in line with your phased return arrangements. 'Schools will have discretion on how to test students over that week as they return to the classroom.' A Government spokesman said it was 'recommending that secondary school pupils wear face coverings in classrooms as a temporary measure until Easter to provide additional reassurance and protection against the transmission of coronavirus where social distancing measures are not possible'. Outlining the wearing of masks in schools, the Government's Spring 2021 Covid-19 response document states: 'The Government also recommends that the use of face coverings in Higher Education, Further Education and secondary schools is extended for a limited period to all indoor environments - including classrooms - unless 2m social distancing can be maintained. 'Face coverings are now also recommended in early years and primary schools for staff and adult visitors in situations where social distancing between adults is not possible, for example, when moving around in corridors and communal areas. 'All children will once again be expected to attend school, as they were in the autumn term.' Year eight pupils wear face masks as a precaution against the transmission of the novel coronavirus as they chat before collecting their food in the dining room of Moor End Academy in Huddersfield, northern England on September 11, 2020 A teacher wearing a face mask teaches Year 6 pupils in a classroom with other pupils participating by video conference at the College Francais Bilingue De Londres French-English bilingual school in north London on June 2, 2020 It comes as Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty insisted that the threat posed by coronavirus to children is 'incredibly low'. Reports at the weekend suggested Prof Whitty was opposing the 'big bang' return but he told a Downing Street press conference that he had 'categorically denied' the claim. Setting out why he supports the return to classrooms next month, he said: 'First thing is, it is absolutely universally accepted that there are huge advantages for children to be at school from a health point of view, mental and physical, as well as from educational and from a life course point of view. 'Those are overwhelming, they are not in any dispute, everyone accepts that and if you keep children out of school, every single one of the children you keep out of school is disadvantaged.' He continued: 'The second point we made at that time which is still the case is the risk to children is incredibly low from going to school and indeed from catching Covid. 'Covid, one of the few good things about Covid is the risk to children, whilst not zero, nothing in Covid the risks are zero, the risks are so much smaller than they are for adults and others. 'Therefore we are confident that schools, given the huge benefits of schools, the very small residual risk is strongly in favour, from the child's point of view, everything is strongly in favour of children, whether primary or secondary, of going to school and the data on that I think are unambiguous.' Tenee Felix is the latest defense attorney to cross the aisle and take a job with newly-elected Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams. Williams announced Tuesday that the former juvenile public defender will lead the office's juvenile division, replacing Niki Roberts, who was fired after Williams took office last month. Both Felix and Roberts ran unsuccessful campaigns for the same seat on the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court bench last year. Felix's move to the District Attorney's Office comes at a time of new prominence for a traditionally low-profile division. Williams hopes to bring a host of services to juvenile court, and said Felix will help the office shut off the "school-to-prison" pipeline. Officials and non-profit leaders who joined Williams during a press conference outside the juvenile courthouse lavished praise on Felix. However, her appointment also drew pushback from the family of a young shooting victim left paralyzed by one of Felixs former clients. Felix, a 2006 graduate of Loyola Universitys law school, has worked since 2009 as a staff attorney at the Louisiana Center for Childrens Rights, which serves as the juvenile public defense agency in Orleans Parish. In the fall, she was one of a slate of seven defense attorneys running on a reform platform for New Orleans judgeships as part of a campaign to flip the bench. Felix placed third in the Nov. 3 primary behind Roberts and Ranord Darensbourg, who won the Section F judgeship in the Dec. 5 runoff. During her campaign, Felix attacked Roberts for a allegedly taking an overly harsh approach to young defendants, echoing similar criticisms from Williams about Cannizzaro. Roberts, a 17-year veteran of the office, said she didnt always agree with Cannizzaros policies. Williams took office Jan. 11 and fired Roberts on Jan. 19, according to office records. +7 New Orleans juvenile court candidates aim for two judgeships on November ballot After years of debate about whether the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court is providing enough services and doing enough to curb car burglaries, tw Williams said Wednesday that hes already implemented major changes like moving all young offenders from the adult to the juvenile jail and halting the practice of transferring juveniles to adult court. He intends to forge new partnerships and secure outside grants to support services for juvenile delinquents, he said. Those programs will represent a sharp break with Cannizaros approach, he said. We have not tried programming, we have not tried interventions, he said. This process starts in earnest with this chief coming in and putting into place a continuum of intervention services, whether its dealing with mental health, whether its dealing with trauma, whether its dealing with addiction. We are building this now. Orleans Parish School Board President Ethan Ashley, Youth Empowerment Project CEO Melissa Webster, Daughters Beyond Incarceration co-founder Bree Anderson and Rev. Pat Watson of the Family Center of Hope took the microphone one after another to offer their support for Felix. 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 However, Felixs selection as the divisions top prosecutor has angered the family of Darrelle Scott, a 21-year-old paralyzed from the waist down when 13-year-old Lynell Reynolds shot him during a botched robbery in March 2019. The young shooters background was heartbreaking: When he was in kindergarten, he was in the house when his uncle shot his brother and sister during a murder-suicide. The following year, his mother was killed and father severely wounded in a shooting outside their house. Prosecutors under Cannizzaro cast Reynolds as a repeat offender whod taken advantage of previous lenience from the court. The 13-year-old was sentenced in 2019 to juvenile life, meaning he could be locked up until hes 21. While she was a public defender last year, Felix asked to have the youth released from an Office of Juvenile Justice youth prison, according to the lawyer for the victims family. The motion is pending before Judge Candice Bates-Anderson. The lawyer representing the victims family, Ralph Brandt, once held Felixs job as juvenile division chief under Cannizzaro. In an interview Wednesday, he said the family is concerned about Felixs new role. While Felix hasnt appeared on the case as a prosecutor, relatives worry that her supervisory position could influence other attorneys on the case, Brandt said. He attempted to file a motion on the familys behalf to have the entire District Attorneys Office recused. "The victim and his grandmother in this case, they dont feel comfortable that theyre being protected by the system," he said. "The victims family here is disturbed, because shes been riding one horse up to this point, and now shes switching horses." The judge denied Brandts attempt to intervene in the case Monday, he said. Williams said the office has made sure that Felix isnt involved in the cases she handled as a defense lawyer. The law is clear about what former defense attorneys like Felix can and cant do when they become prosecutors, he said. We have put up a very clear system that has been approved by every precedent, every law, every rule that is in place, and we will continue to do that," he said. In an apparent reference to the Reynolds case, Williams said it illustrated the need to make sure trauma is treated. "I am reminded every time I come to this building ... of a young person who received all of the resources and weight of the criminal legal system when he made a poor decision," Williams said. "But when he was present when his uncle took the lives of two of his own siblings and then his own life in front of him, he received nothing from the city. The didn't even call his teachers to tell them what had happened to him the night before." Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Our mission team in Northern Nigeria was able to gain access to hard-to-reach people groups by applying what Jesus taught in Luke 10:5-7 when he said, "But whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house." We adopted this strategy by saying, "As-salamu alaykum", to every community we try to reach with the Gospel. This is the instruction of Christ to His disciples and it is now a greeting in Arabic that means "Peace be upon you". The salam is a religious salutation among Muslims when greeting, though it is also used by Arabic speakers of other religions such as Arab Christians, as well as many non-Muslim Indians and Pakistanis who speak Hindi-Urdu. Experiences have shown us that God has strategically placed persons of peace in every community and our ability to identify such persons had helped us immensely to access hard-to-reach and unreached communities with ease. Persons of peace are the gateways for Gospel propagation, and if adequately identified, harnessed and appropriated, lead to bountiful soul harvests. When we wanted to access a particular mission field, we earnestly prayed for God to give us a person of peace. On arrival, we shouted "As-salamu alaykum", meaning "Peace be upon you". One time, an elderly man rushed out of his hut and responded, "wa 'alaykumu s-salam", meaning "and also with you too". We exchanged pleasantries and we introduced ourselves as missionaries who had come to the village to tell the people about Jesus. The man frowned as he heard us mention Jesus. After a few minutes of gazing at us, he said, "Since the existence of this village, no one has ever come to tell us about the God of the Christians. But since you have the boldness to come, I will allow you. I will not be a Christian but I will give you my four wives and fourteen children to join your religion." We were dumbfounded as we had not even proclaimed any message but had already won souls through our introduction. The man moved around and invited friends and neighbors and we preached Christ crucified and a total of seventy six people surrendered their lives to Jesus. He offered our missionary a room in his hut to live while we disciple the converts. The church from those converts in that village grew so much that there arose persecution. On another occasion, we went to a village for the first time for spiritual mapping. As we entered the village, we were confused because we did not know where to go or whom to approach. We hoped to see somebody who might help give us direction to the village head's house. We were at a crossroads and were contemplating which way to follow when a young man sighted us from a distance and approached to demand who we were looking for. We asked him to show us the direction to the village head's house, but he insisted on knowing why we wanted to see the village head. We told him that we were there to preach Christ to them and would like to see the village head for research questions and permission for us to hold a Gospel crusade in the village. He objected to us seeing the village head and told us that the village head would not allow us to hold any meeting concerning the God of the Christians. He asked when we would like to hold the crusade and we told him as soon as possible. Then he told us to go back and come after two days to allow him time to mobilize the villagers. We were surprised at the willingness and zeal of the young man to help us introduce Christ to the community and asked him to tell us why. Then he answered, "Five years ago, I left this village to our local government headquarters and I saw the way Christians were singing and worshiping their God and I decided to join them and become a Christian. I was a Christian for one year and when my stay in the local government headquarters expired, I returned to the village but could not continue with my Christian faith since I am the only Christian in our community. I have been praying for God for the past four years to send people who will establish a church in this village. I love Christianity but I do not have anyone to practice it with." When we returned after two days, we were surprised by the mammoth crowd that the young man had mobilized. We preached Christ crucified in the English language and it was interpreted in Hausa language while our person of peace interpreted in Kambari (the language of the target group). When we made an altar call, over two hundred people surrendered to the saving power of Christ including the village head. Persons of peace are powerful tools in evangelism and missions and Christians should always pray for their emergence whenever they are embarking on any Gospel intervention work. God has already placed them in every community and it is our duty to discover them irrespective of their obscurity. 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. 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. South Africa: Fake news hurting vaccination rollout: Nzimande Government is working tirelessly to deal with the danger of fake news in the fight against COVID-19 and the vaccination plan. Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, believes that while social media is beneficial for communicating, it can be easily hijacked to spread false claims about inoculation. What complicates the fight against COVID-19 is that while people are facing the real threat of losing their lives, fake news and misinformation are causing them to be paranoid, and to doubt the usefulness of vaccines and other public health interventions, the Minister said. Speaking during a virtual conference aimed at dispelling myths about vaccines and Coronavirus variants earlier this week, Nzimande said the discussion underscores the urgency with which government is responding to the pandemic. The current environment is fraught with all manner of conspiracy theories that often result in poor decision-making at both individual and group level. Among these are the 5G myths that have led to cell phone towers being destroyed in some parts of the country, Nzimande said. The public must be informed that the COVID-19 virus is purely biological and has no roots in any Fourth Industrial Revolution technology like 5G. Vaccines The Minister bemoaned how vaccines are being branded as another "pandemic" that should be avoided at all costs. Yet, vaccines have been providing immunity against infectious diseases for over 200 years, in the process saving millions of lives across the globe. Nzimande assured citizens that there is nothing to worry about, as vaccines are backed by science, along with peer-reviewed research and multiple and independent trials. This is to ensure that vaccines administered to the public are safe and efficacious. The Minister cited Edward Jenner, who used cowpox material to create immunity against smallpox more than 200 years ago. This point is made to remind the public that vaccines and vaccination did not arise with the outbreak of COVID-19. Furthermore, there is reason to believe that there will be other pandemics that will need appropriate vaccines in future. Nzimande said government is working towards collaboration with China, Russia and Cuba in the areas of lifesaving shots and vaccine development. The Minister is also advocating for African traditional medicine to be recognised at the highest level in the fight against COVID-19. Social impact A Professor at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Priscilla Reddy, said the pandemic has had a profound social impact on all South Africans and people across the globe. If the myths are not dealt with, we will find that vaccination coverage will fall short of the 67% that is targeted, and the virus will be widely transmitted as we move forward. Lockdown fatigue will ensue with reduced adherence to the social behavioural interventions. Reddy said this could lead to further mutation of the new variant and reluctance from citizens to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. The Professor said vaccination is an important method of preventing infectious disease and second only to clean water in terms of its public health impact. Myths concerning vaccines are damaging. Even as the availability of vaccines increases, if people dont accept the vaccine because of these myths, youre not going to win the battle. Reddy said the negative aspects of vaccines tend to get more publicity compared to factual information. The Professor believes that issues of public confidence and trust must be looked into. This is a devastating and scary pandemic, and it shouldnt be aggravated by the types, methods and styles of information that the public are exposed to. Reddy said the public should be convinced that the conveyers of information have their best interests at heart, rather than personal gains and self-interest. Controversies and arguments [among officials] concerning the science [behind the vaccine] should be handled discreetly, as they can further increase confusion and breach trust. She warned that unclear messages from government or any healthcare organisation will adversely weaken adherence to lockdown measures. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Authorities should overhaul nuclear phase-out policy The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has decided to extend the expiration period of a building plan for two new nuclear reactors by two years until the end of 2023. Yet the decision is seen as an expedient measure to evade responsibility for President Moon Jae-in's controversial nuclear phase-out policy. The extension came Monday, just five days before the authorized construction period for the Shinhanul 3 and 4 reactors in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province, expired. It was made at the request of the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) which obtained the building license for the reactors in February 2017 under the Park Geun-hye administration. The construction of the nuclear reactors, however, was suspended in December 2017 under the phase-out policy of President Moon who took office in May that year after Park's impeachment and subsequent imprisonment for corruption. If the construction period expired as initially scheduled, there would arise a set of problems, including damage compensation suits from contractors as well as a potential backlash from the nuclear power industry and people advocating for atomic energy use. The decision is apparently aimed at avoiding potential damage suits from Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and other contractors which have so far spent 780 billion won ($704 million) on the two-reactor project. If the project is cancelled, the KHNP will face a two-year ban on other power generation projects, including those related to solar and wind energy. The utility operator has managed to avoid the ban with the extended building period. The government, for its part, has only tried to avoid a backlash from both advocates and opponents of nuclear power generation. But it cannot evade criticism for passing the buck on to the next government as Moon's presidency will end in May 2022. Now the administration should overhaul its nuclear phase-out policy which has touched off a controversy over Moon's unilateral drive to shut down existing reactors and stop building new ones. His policy has been attacked for being too idealistic and based on left-leaning ideology. No one would oppose such a policy if it was possible to immediately replace nuclear power with other energy sources such as solar and wind power. As critics point out, it is still too early to wean Korea, a country with no oil and gas deposits, off nuclear energy. The nation still has a long way to go before it can fully harness renewables, and so it is realistic to maintain nuclear reactors to reduce its heavy dependence on electricity generated by coal and other dirty fossil fuels. They are also necessary to meet the government's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. More worrisome is that the Moon administration has ignored growing calls from nuclear experts, industrialists and the public for an overhaul of its energy policy to keep the nuclear energy sector going. In fact, the country has successfully developed nuclear reactors and gained a reputation for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. It showed its technology prowess by building a plant in the United Arab Emirates. It is difficult to understand why the government is trying to undo all this success. Top secret documents have revealed that the assassins who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi used two private jets from a firm that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince had seized as a declassified version of a US intelligence report on Thursday will find that Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing. The documents, which were filed as part of a lawsuit in Canada and obtained by CNN, describes how ownership of Sky Prime Aviation was transferred into the country's $400billion sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, in 2017. Just a year later, in October 2018, the company's Gulfstreams were used to carry out Khashoggi's murder. According to the network, the documents that have established the link between the planes and the prince were filed by a group of Saudi-owned companies as part of an embezzlement suit against Saudi intelligence official, Saad Aljabri. Aljabri had filed a lawsuit in Washington, DC, last year against MBS, initials for which the crown prince is known by, accusing him of sending a hit team to kill him in Canada days after Khashoggi was murdered. Top secret documents have revealed that the assassins who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi (left) used two private jets from a firm that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) had seized Meanwhile, US officials said their intelligence report, for which the CIA was the main contributor, assessed that the crown prince approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi, whose Washington Post column had criticized bin Salman's policies. President Joe Biden, told reporters on Wednesday he had read the report and expected to speak soon by phone with Saudi Arabian King Salman, 85, father of the crown prince, the country's 35-year-old de facto ruler. The report's release is part of Biden's policy to realign ties with Riyadh after years of giving the Arab ally and major oil producer a pass on its human rights record and its intervention in Yemen's civil war. Biden is working to restore the relationship with Riyadh to traditional lines after four years of cozier ties under former president Donald Trump. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday Biden would only communicate with the Saudi king and said the declassified Khashoggi report was being readied for release soon. While Biden restricts his contacts to the king, others in the Biden administration are talking to Saudi officials at various levels. 'We have been in touch with Saudi officials at numerous levels in the early weeks of this administration,' said State Department spokesman Ned Price. The 59-year old Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, and killed by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince. They then dismembered his body. His remains have never been found. Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a 'rogue' extradition operation gone wrong, but it denied any involvement by the crown prince. Five men given the death penalty for the murder had their sentences commuted to 20 years in jail after being forgiven by Khashoggi's family. President Joe Biden plans to call Saudi King Salman ahead of expected release of intelligence report on the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi The Biden administration said it would recalibrate relations with Saudi Arabia and that Biden would speak with the 85-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz (above left) instead of his heir - a change in policy from the Trump administration In 2019, a UN human rights investigator, Agnes Callamard, accused Saudi Arabia of a 'deliberate, premeditated execution' of Khashoggi and called for further investigation. 'There is sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown prince demanding further investigation,' Callamard said after the six-month probe. A classified version of the report was shared with members of Congress in late 2018. But the Trump administration rejected demands by lawmakers and human rights groups to release a declassified version, seeking to preserve cooperation amid rising tensions with Riyadhs regional rival, Iran, and promote US arms sales to the kingdom. Biden's new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, committed at her confirmation hearing to complying with a provision in a 2019 defense bill that required the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to release within 30 days a declassified report on Khashoggi's murder. Biden pledged during the 2020 presidential campaign to reassess US-Saudi ties in part over Khashoggis murder. Since taking office, he has ended sales of offensive arms that Riyadh could use in Yemen and appointed a special envoy to boost diplomatic efforts to end that country's grueling civil war. Bin Salman has denied involvement in the October 2018 murder of Khashoggi. Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 to live in self-imposed exile. He was writing columns critical of the Saudi government - including of both King Salman and MBS - for The Washington Post when he was killed. Biden is working to restore the relationship with Riyadh to traditional lines after four years of cozier ties under former president Donald Trump. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was close to bin Salman - the three men are seen together in Riyadh in May 2017 Biden's call with the king comes after the White House last week announced a recalibration of American relations with Saudi Arabia. 'We've made clear from the beginning that we're going to recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,' Psaki said last week. She said part of that recalibration would include Biden speaking to the Saudi king, instead of MBS - a marked change in policy from the Trump administration. The Biden administration is shifting America's relationship with the Middle East country after Trump made the US's relationship with the Saudis a priority, making his first trip abroad in 2017 to Riyadh. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was close to MBS, who became next in line to the throne in June 2017 after a power struggle ousted a rival. Kushner's close relationship with him - the two were said to text and communicate via apps - raised eyebrows due to its taking place outside of diplomatic channels, Kushner's lack of foreign policy experience and MBS' reputation as a despot. The crown prince has been accused of the torture of human rights activists; the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen which has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis and famine; and the arrest of members of the Saudi royal family in November 2017 where he imprisoned several of his royal cousins in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyad. The president says the new ambassador's key task is to establish an effective dialogue with the new U.S. administration. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed former Finance Minister Oksana Markarova as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States. This is stipulated in presidential decree No. 75/2021, the presidential press service reported on February 25. Read alsoZelensky calls NATO Membership Action Plan Ukraine's immediate goal Welcoming Markarova on the new post, Zelensky praised her patriotism, professionalism, and a "very positive perception in the United States." "I am convinced that these three factors are the formula for success in strengthening the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States," he said. According to him, the new ambassador should focus primarily on establishing an effective dialogue with the Joe Biden Administration. It is also necessary to actively work with the United States Congress, maintain a constant dialogue with legislators and strengthen bipartisan support for Ukraine. He also stressed the importance of involving the United States in the Donbas settlement process, as well as in the efforts to end the Russian occupation of Crimea. Zelensky drew special attention to the need to strengthen U.S. sanctions against Russia, in particular as regards the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. In addition, he says, Washington's support for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic course is also fundamentally important, especially in the issue of adopting NATO's decision to provide Ukraine with a Membership Action Plan (MAP). Also, according to him, one of the ambassador's main tasks is to facilitate the United States' further support for the Ukrainian state's internal transformation to improve the welfare of Ukrainian citizens. "I am also confident that Oksana Markarova will set an example in the development of economic diplomacy: in attracting foreign direct investment in Ukraine, in promoting Ukrainian exports and defending the interests of Ukrainian businesses, which is a particularly important issue for all our diplomats and what I demand of them," he said. Markarova's background Markarova headed the Ukrainian Finance Ministry from June 2018 to March 2020, being first acting minister, and from November 22, she was a full-fledged head of the ministry. She was a member of the National Security and Defense Council. After Markarova's resignation, she founded the Capital Market Development Foundation and launched her own startup. Reporting by UNIAN SLG and Voyages Emile Weber have decided to create a new joint department for their travelling operations. Travel Group Luxembourg will unite 34 different branch offices with more than 130 employees. Voyages Emile Weber and Sales-Lentz Group decided to join forces to better respond to the demands of the ever-changing sector. Furthermore, the travel agencies concluded that this move will help them to counter growing online competition. Marc Sales from SLG annnounced: "Thanks to our historic strength and the daily trust of our loyal clients, we were able to stay operative throughout the pandemic despite massive losses in turnover." Fernand Heinisch from Voyages Emile Weber also commented on the launch of the new agency: "I am looking forward to the journey together. We unite as Luxembourgish companies with a rich tradition and a shared enthusiasm for innovation." Apart from the traditional forms of personal consultation, the new travel agency is set to focus on providing extensive virtual and mobile offerings. Transport Minister Andrew Constance pushed for his top bureaucrat to be sacked after his department did not follow an instruction to clear all trees within 40 metres of either side of all major highways in NSW. Mr Constance issued a ministerial direction to then-Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples directing his department to carry out the mass land clearing of millions of trees along all state managed highways in February 2020, after the Black Summer bushfires. The Princes Highway between the towns of Bodalla and Mogo in January 2020. Credit:Kate Geraghty Mr Staples was fired as Transport for NSW secretary without reason in November, six weeks after a positive performance review with the Premier, taking with him a severance package of up to $830,000. However in a revelation to a NSW budget estimates hearing on Thursday, Mr Constance said that Mr Staples had not complied with his post-bushfire order, which he had raised with him on several occasions, and he did not find that particularly acceptable. A man has been questioned by police and a second person has fled a stand-off with authorities after reports of a man threatening neighbours with a firearm in Townsville in north Queensland. Police were called just before 10am to the residence in the suburb of Garbutt, where an exclusion zone was declared and a warning issued to avoid the area. The declaration, under the Public Safety Preservation Act, was made about 11am with an exclusion zone set up encompassing Clarke, Dearness, Douglas, Ramsay and Chandler streets. Police took one man into custody about 12.15pm but the second person refused to surrender. Californias campgrounds have been shut down for most of the past year because of the coronavirus pandemic and wildfires. But this month, hundreds of campsites across the Bay Area are opening in time for spring. This weeks warm weather, combined with declines in coronavirus infection rates, has jump-started campsite reservations at state, county and regional parks. At least 883 sites at 19 campgrounds are open this week. Saturday night bookings are filling up through early summer at certain popular campgrounds, a review of reservation websites shows. Everybody is dying to go camping, said Norma Gomez, who helps run the campsite reservation service for the East Bay Regional Park District. Just to get out there, breathe some fresh air that helps people. A few gems can still be found across the Bay Area. Last Saturday evening, for instance, both Pantoll and Bootjack campgrounds at Mount Tamalpais State Park had space. When the coronavirus took hold a year ago, campgrounds were closed across most of California. Many remained closed through spring and into early summer, when a sprinkling of camps, primarily in the Sierra Nevada and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, reopened with limited services and camper quotas. The states shelter-in-place framework, initiated in December, closed campgrounds statewide again. Many are just beginning to come back online now. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle Some popular campgrounds at Bay Area parks remain closed, including walk-in sites at Angel Island State Park and the new walk-in sites at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. In addition, campgrounds located in the burn zones of last Augusts wildfires remain closed indefinitely. That includes sites at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Butano State Park, and Memorial and Pescadero Creek county parks. Other long-term closures include Glen and Sky trail camps at Point Reyes National Seashore, and in Santa Clara County east of Morgan Hill, eight formal trail camps and dozens of dispersed sites at Henry W. Coe State Park. State Parks public information officer Jorge Moreno noted that demand for camping and lodging sites often exceeds the available inventory, especially for Friday and Saturday nights. The public is advised to do some research and have alternate parks in mind in case the first choice is booked. Moreno also noted that rangers will continue to monitor that visitors are COVID-safe. Group sizes will be monitored, group campgrounds will remain closed, along with most public areas where people might congregate, such as visitor centers, he said. All visitors should carry masks and wear them when near others. Heres the latest, region by region: San Francisco Peninsula Two weeks ago, Half Moon Bay State Beach became the first major park on the coast to open its campground, with drive-in sites available by reservation only. Portola Redwoods State Park has reopened its drive-in campground with limited facilities. According to district headquarters, the Slate Trail Camp at Portola Redwoods remains closed indefinitely. The Midpeninsula Open Space District opened its trail camp in Monte Bello Open Space Preserve off Page Mill Road, the Black Mountain Trail Camp. A 1.5-mile hike leads to a designated campground, with nearby treks to sandstone formations and hilltop views of the South Bay. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle North Bay Marin County State Parks reopened campgrounds walk-in only, no groups allowed at three major parks: Samuel P. Taylor State Park on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, China Camp State Park on San Pablo Bay east of San Rafael and Mount Tamalpais State Park. At the Marin Headlands, Bicentennial Walk-In opened in early February. Kirby Cove, Haypress and Hawk trail camps are scheduled to open March 12. At Point Reyes, Wildcat Camp on the southern end of the Coast Trail, is open, booked most nights for spring and summer. Coast Camp is also open, on the northern end of the Coast Trail out of the Point Reyes Hostel area. Sky Camp and Glen Camp are in the fire recovery zone with no dates of reopening, and the Bear Valley Trailhead is closed. East Bay At Mount Diablo State Park, the Live Oak and Juniper Campgrounds are open. In the East Bay Regional Park District, the camps reservations only opened at Del Valle, Anthony Chabot in Castro Valley, Sibley Backpack Camp in Oakland and walk-in sites at Sunol Regional Wilderness. Reservations are available four weeks in advance, with no drop-in reservations permitted. Several backpack sites have opened in the Ohlone Wilderness, which extends from the backcountry of Del Valle Regional Park west through Sunol to Mission Peak Regional Park. These are: Eagles Springs No. 1 at Mission Peak; Oak View and Stars Rest at Sunol Backpack Camp, and Doe Camp No. 1; Stewarts Camp; and Boyd Camp No. 1 in Ohlone. Santa Clara County Drive-in campsites, yurts and walk-in camps are now open at Sanborn County Park, Joseph D. Grant, Mount Madonna, Uvas Canyon and Coyote Lake. At Henry W. Coe State Park, the main campground at the headquarters/Dunne Avenue entrance east of Morgan Hill is open, along with trail camps in the vicinity of headquarters. Campsites in the parks interior in the burn zone remain closed. Tom Stienstra is The Chronicles outdoor writer emeritus. Email: tomstienstra2021@gmailcom. Twitter: @StienstraTom An Easton woman is facing more criminal charges after stabbing herself in a Northampton County district court after being told she would be returning to prison. Sonsorrae Barrett, 59, was charged Thursday with possession of weapon and obstructing the administration of law, after bringing a knife into a district courtroom and stabbing herself, Northampton County District Attorney Terry Houck announced. In addition to her bail in a previous case, Barretts bail Thursday on the new charges was set at $8,000 with a 10% option. This situation could have resulted in a far worse outcome, Houck said in a news release. We need to use this incident as a wakeup call for our constables and sheriffs to remain vigilant to the possibility of weapons illegally entering our county and state facilities. Barrett was in court Feb. 11 before District Judge Robert Hawke for a preliminary hearing on aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI and related charges. The judges office and courtroom are in a strip mall at 4330 Lehigh Drive in Lehigh Township, outside Walnutport. At the time, Barrett was free on bail in the DUI case and she waived her preliminary hearing that day, sending the charges to county court. Northampton County Pre-Trial Services informed the judge that Barrett had twice violated her bail by testing positive for alcohol. Hawke then reset her bail to the recommended $75,000, while allowing a 10% option. The judge said when he left the room to complete paperwork, Barrett pulled out what another official said was a paring knife and hurt herself. Barrett reportedly screamed Im not going to jail, and witnesses saw a constable attempting to restrain her, the district attorneys office said. Police officers moved to assist the constable and saw a 7-inch paring knife on the floor within a few feet of Barrett. The constables reported Barrett stabbed herself twice, and one constable pulled the knife out of her abdomen before restraining her on the floor, according to prosecutors. EMS responded and, while the constables kept pressure on Barretts stab wounds, Hawke helped with placing Barrett on oxygen, prosecutors said. Barrett was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for treatment. Surveillance video showed Barrett removing something from the top of her shirt and walking toward the exit, then turning around and thrusting what appeared to be a knife twice in her abdominal area, the district attorneys office said. A call for comment Thursday afternoon to Barretts public defender was not immediately returned. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. General mayor of the Capital Nicusor Dan told Wednesday evening private broadcaster Digi24, that a "technical obstacle" is standing in the way of closing of municipal companies, namely the fact that there is no money for settling the debts that these companies register, according to AGERPRES. The mayor says he found "a current debt of 2.5 billion lei, money that theoretically we should pay on the spot." Asked what generated the debt, the mayor listed the causes that led to its creation and also explained the reason why municipal companies cannot be closed immediately. "From companies, from festivals, from an unreasonable sizing of the budget, from forecasting revenues that were known cannot be made - that's how this debt was reached. Having no money to be able to pay off all debts ... very simplistic: to close a company, you have to pay its debts, put its people aside, see what the inventory items are, and that is when it's over. We don't have the cash flow right now so we can pay their debts off and to be able to rein them to zero. This is the technical obstacle that we are facing so as to close [the companies]," stated Nicusor Dan. He added that when the municipal companies were set up, "there was a political goal, to pay very well some party activists". "The problem of companies must be looked upon globally, they were set up to provide some public services cheaper. For example, public lighting or the care of trees in parks. The problem is (...) how much we, as municipality, were paying before these companies and how much we have been paying after they have been set up? And we see that in many sectors we pay 30%, 40%, 50% more. That is the reason why they must be abolished," said Nicusor Dan. Is there scientific basis to the assertion that global warming is affecting our ability to make decisions and lowering our collective intelligence? As we continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the climate warms around the world, its not only our health and the environment that we have to worry about. A handful of recent studies conclude that a warmer world with higher CO2 concentrations in the air we breathe is likely to make us less intelligent. If the other reasons to battle global warming that weve all heard for years arent enough to convince you, how would you like your great-grandchildren to know that they couldve been so much smarter if you had only biked more and driven less? To wit, a recent study on Heat and Learning from the American Economic Association assessing test scores of some 12,000 school-age kids across the U.S. over a seven-year time span found that in years with more hot days than normal, average test scores declined across the board, signaling a correlation between hot weather and the ability to concentrate and learn. Nowadays, were getting more hot days than ever before, so dont be surprised if it gets more and more difficult to concentrate. Meanwhile, a 2018 study by researchers from the Yale School of Public Health found that air pollution itself has a hugely negative effect on human cognition. Polluted air can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, says Yales Xi Che. But we know the effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education. If we calculate [the loss] for those, it may be a few years of education. Yet another recent study found that humans exposed to high concentrations of atmospheric CO2 (1,000 parts per million) exhibit a 21% reduction in overall cognitive abilities. Essentially, if the air we breathe contains less oxygen and more CO2, then our blood wont be sufficiently oxygenated, leading to a decrease in cellular function, especially in our brains. At our current rate of output, atmosphere carbon levels will likely surpass 1,000 ppm by the end of the century. The upshot of such atmospheric conditions, as reported by James Bridle in his book New Dark Age, could be a 25% reduction in human decision-making ability as well as a 50% drop in more complex human strategic thinking abilities by 2100. Could this decrease in cognitive abilities exacerbate the problem as we will be less mentally equipped to deal with it? Will reduced intelligence among children and adults alike lead to a less functional society, even an idiocracy? Rather than letting society fall into a downward spiral, we must step into our critical roles as deciders of both our environments and our civilizations fate. Scientists have found clear connections between heat and political unrest, so turn these new warmths into an opportunity to get out and make a change. Whether through protesting or striking, we need to speak our voice and stand together for a brighter future both metaphorically and literally. EarthTalk is written by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss for the non-profit group EarthTalk. Send questions to question@earthtalk.org. A father who directed a foul-mouthed rant at airline staff was drunk and fighting with his partner as he boarded a Tigerair flight, a court has heard. Caboolture Magistrates Court was told Colin Kenneth O'Donnell, 49, had staff fearing for their safety after he launched into a verbal tirade at Gold Coast Airport on June 7, 2016, the Caboolture Shire Herald reported. The court heard O'Donnell said 'f**k you wh**e' to one female Tigerair staff member, before telling her 'f**k you, you four-eyed bitch'. He told other staff members to 'f**k off'. A Sydney father was fined a total of $2000 by a Queensland court following an incident which occurred while he was boarding a Tigerair flight in 2016 (stock image) O'Donnell began verbally abusing staff after he was told to lower his voice because there were children around, Commonwealth prosecutor Dylan Kerr told the court. He was gesturing at the female staff member with a closed fist, with Magistrate Andrew Hackett telling the court O'Donnell's actions had the woman thinking 'you were going to physically assault her'. O'Donnell, from Maroubra in Sydney, also pushed police after they arrived on scene. He appeared in court more than four-and-a-half years after the incident, with his lawyer Natasha Shorter telling the court he was unable to return to Queensland at the time of the offending because he could not afford it. O'Donnell pleaded guilty to causing a public nuisance, obstructing police at the airport and failing to appear in court on July 4, 2016. He was fined a total $2000. Magistrate Hackett told O'Donnell his behaviour 'is something you should view with shame'. Prisoners will not be allowed to jump the queue for coronavirus vaccination, Downing Street has said. Ministers are understood to have received recommendations form the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the next round of jabs covering 18-50 year-olds, with a decision expected imminently. It is thought that the committee has rejected proposals for workers in key occupations, such as teachers and police, to be next in the queue or for particular ethnic minority groups to have priority. Instead, they are understood to have recommended continuing to work through the age-range, sending out invitations in 10-year age-bands down to 18. The government aims to offer protection to all adults by July. But the JCVI is believed have accepted that local vaccination teams should be given flexibility to deal with institutions like prisons in a single go, to avoid the need to separate inmates out by age and have multiple visits, potentially wasting vaccine. Downing Street today gave a firm thumbs-down to the idea. Asked if prisoners could potentially receive the jab before others the same age or older - potentially including their victims - Boris Johnsons official spokesman said: That is obviously not the case and is not true. Prisoners wont be prioritised for vaccines. They are vaccinated at the same time as the general public in line with the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) prioritisation groups, no quicker than that. The spokesman confirmed that, while the JCVI makes the recommendation, it is for ministers to make the final decision. The JCVI make their recommendation and we take it forward in terms of the vaccination programme, he said. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi indicated earlier this week that there was no prospect of ministers overturning the experts proposals, saying: We will absolutely follow what they recommend. Schools minister Nick Gibb played down the chances of teachers being given priority, saying that the JCVIs recommendations were driven by data on morbidity, the most vulnerable to hospitalisation and deaths and not on occupation. As the rollout progresses through younger age-groups, we will be vaccinating more and more teachers, he said. Last week there were Covid outbreaks in 92 of the 117 prisons in England and Wales, leading to calls for jails to be treated like care homes, giving priority to vaccinating all staff and inmates. Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Two Atlantic City police officers were in the right place at the right time Saturday when they assisted a woman moments after she gave birth to a baby girl in a car outside a city hospital. Officers Auttika Taing and Justin Peyton were leaving the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center around 5:20 p.m. when a car pulled behind them and the driver flagged down the cops for help, police said in a statement. When the officers went to the passenger side of the vehicle, they saw movement inside the womans stretch pants and heard the baby crying. Taing removed the newborn, carefully unwrapping the umbilical cord around the childs neck, police said. The officers then wrapped the baby in jacket as medical workers arrived to cut the cord. Peyton pinched the cord, while Taing carried the girl into the hospital to be checked. Both officers later met with the baby and mom, reporting both are doing well. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com Burma World Bank Halts Payments to Myanmar After Coup Police (front) and soldiers (on military trucks in the back) stand guard during an anti-military regime protest in Mandalay on Feb. 20. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy YANGONThe World Bank on Monday notified Myanmars military regime that it had put a hold on disbursements for its existing development operations in the country in sectors ranging from electricity and education to health following the military takeover, according to a leaked document. An official from the bank confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the statement is authentic. The bank is carefully following the situation to monitor compliance with its policies, the official said. The Irrawaddy has learned that the bank has also suspended all ongoing projects to which it had commitments. According to the World Banks development project list, the bank is involved in at least 24 ongoing projects in Myanmar worth billions of dollars. In the document, the bank informed the military regimes cabinet that the bank will not be processing any withdrawal applications received on or after Feb. 1, due to the recent developments in Myanmar. The Myanmar military staged a coup on Feb. 1 and detained national civilian leaders State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, along with other National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders and pro-democracy activists. The World Bank said that it would however make direct payments to suppliers, contractors or consultants for which withdrawal applications were received by the bank prior to Feb. 1. Financing proceeds previously disbursed by the bank to a projects designated accounts may be used only for eligible expenditures agreed with the bank, according to the document. In the document, the bank said it may also seek a refund of funds that it deems are not required at this time for the carrying out of project activities. On Feb. 19, the bank said it was gravely concerned about the military coup in Myanmar, saying it constituted a major setback to the countrys transition and its development prospects. You may also like these stories: Lawyer for Myanmars Detained Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says He Has Not Been Able to Meet Her Growing Number of Businesses Shun Myanmar Military-Linked Goods, Services International Community Must Commit to Reversing Myanmars Military Coup New Delhi, Feb 25 : India initiated proposal seeking a temporary waiver of global intellectual property rights rules in view of the pandemic has got wider support with 57 WTO members joining the initiative as co-sponsors. The proposal seeks exemption from a clause in the Trips agreement that poses challenges for countries with limited manufacturing capacity to access medical supplies including diagnostic kits, vaccines, medicines, personal protective equipment and ventilators. The proposal, initially introduced in October 2020 by India and South Africa now reflects voice of a large group of members of WTO with many more supporting from the floor in TRIPS Council since its introduction. Africa Group and LDC Group are the latest co-sponsors. The increase in number of delegations co-sponsoring demonstrates the growing importance of the waiver proposal that aims to ensure uninterrupted flow of medicines, vaccines and medical equipment among countries amid the ongoing pandemic, an official of the commerce ministry said. The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP). India had also raised the urgent need for a Trips waiver at an informal mini-ministerial meeting of around 30 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) earlier this year with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal using the platform asking members to "rise above the narrow interests and entrenched positions" and support proposal. The waiver proposal assumes importance as India along with other WTO members are pushing for a ministerial meeting of the global trading body to ratify the plan an ensure universal access to key medicines even for the least developed nations during the time of the pandemic. Developed countries including US, EU, Japan, UK have been opposing the move for a waiver arguing that it does not address the issue of manufacturing capacity or raw marital development that is currently affecting the global supplies at the time of the pandemic. "...if Waiver will not lead to increase in manufacturing capacity, meaning, no new manufacturers will enter into production of Covid products even with the proposed waiver in place, then how will the commercial interests of existing IP holders be impacted? On the other hand, if manufacturing is going to increase significantly and thereby impacting commercial interests of IP right holders, then are we not agreeing that final objective in the present scenario is to increase manufacturing," said the government official making a strong case for waiver. "We cannot continue to engage in endless discussions while millions of lives and livelihoods are lost to the coronavirus pandemic. We need concerted efforts by all WTO Members to ensure that the WTO makes a meaningful contribution to defeat COVID-19," the official added. Waiver is a legal instrument provided for exceptional circumstances under Article IX (3) of the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO. Since, Covid19 is an extremely exceptional crisis, therefore, the proposed limited, temporary and proportionate waiver from certain provisions of TRIPS Agreement, is perfectly within the framework of Multilateral Trading System. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text NEW YORK (AP) Best Buy said Thursday that it laid off 5,000 full-time store workers earlier this month, even as the companys sales soared during the pandemic as homebound people bought laptops, TVs and other gadgets. The company said it cut the jobs because more shoppers are choosing to buy online instead of coming inside its stores. Best Buy said it will replace the 5,000 full-time employees with 2,000 part-time workers. Best Buys workforce has shrunk in the last year after having to furlough workers when it closed stores during the pandemic. It currently has more than 100,000 workers, down by 21,000, or 17%, from the year before. The company is retraining workers to help with online orders. And more space in stores is being used to ship orders or to get them ready for curbside pickup, where shoppers buy online and fetch their orders in the parking lot. A group of workers has posted an online petition calling for Best Buy to compensate employees for lost wages related to cuts. The petition said the company had begun drastically reducing the hours of employees at 150 stores on Jan. 10. About 792 of the nearly 4,000 signatures were from Best Buy workers, said Shannon Fulfs, the petition organizer who works at a Best Buy in the Omaha, Nebraska area. Fulfs said workers struggled with the sudden loss of income of up to 40% and uncertainty about what to do because they were not told whether the reductions would be permanent. Its just overall been pretty stressful and I dont think they have been making it easier with the lack of information, Fulfs said. Best Buy said it was not realistic to pay employees for hours they didnt work, which is what a small number are asking for in this petition. We told the petitioners that we disagree with their claim, but fully support their right to make it, the company said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. Like any retailer, our business model has always allowed us to adjust staffing to meet customer demand. The companys online sales soared 89% from November to the end of January, compared with the same months a year ago, Best Buy said Thursday. Revenue during that quarter grew 11% to $16.9 billion. Its profit rose nearly 10% to $816 million. Its adjusted earnings per share came to $3.48 per share, beating Wall Street expectations. Sales online and at established stores, a key metric of a retailers health, rose 12.6% in the last quarter and increased 9.7% last year. It expects that number to rise 20% in the current quarter, but growth is expected to slow this year to fall 2% or rise as much as 1%. Best Buy shares fell nearly 6% to $107.05 in morning trading Thursday. Related Content: 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. "Their global experience and leadership, drawn from a variety of backgrounds, will be vital in ensuring we can act more quickly to reduce harm to consumers and ensure market integrity." The FCA has announced four new senior appointments in a bid to drive transformaton and become a "data-led regulator able to make fast and effective decisions". The FCA announced a restructure in December, which brought together two supervision divisions with the FCAs policy and competition functions. Following the appointment of Nikhil Rathi as its chief executive in October, the FCA has now made four further appointments to its executive team. Stephanie Cohen will be the FCAs new chief operating officer and will be responsible for the FCAs operations and business performance, systems and infrastructure, and finances. As COO, Stephanie will play a central part in the FCAs transformation, taking the lead on operational changes to make the FCA more efficient, dynamic, and technologically driven. Stephanie brings over two decades of experience in large financial services firms, including 14 years at BlackRock where she was global COO. Jessica Rusu will join the FCAs as its first chief data, information and intelligence officer. As CDIIO, Jessica will lead the transformation of the FCAs use of data, intelligence and information to effectively oversee the 60,000 firms it regulates. Jessica will evolve the FCAs relationship with big tech companies, fintechs and the wider data science community and champion the FCAs global Innovate agenda. Before taking up her current role as chief data officer at challenger bank Chetwood Financial, Jessica was senior director of finance and analytics at eBay in Europe and has also worked in credit analytics at Ford Motor Company and in stress testing at GE Capital. Sarah Pritchard will become executive director of markets, responsible for the delivery of the FCAs statutory market integrity objective in the combined Supervision, Policy and Competition division. Sarah joins from the National Economic Crime Centre, where she is director. Before joining the NECC, Sarahs career involved stints in a range of government departments in legal and operational roles and in risk and compliance at HSBC. Emily Shepperd will take up the newly created role of executive firector for authorisations. Emily will oversee authorisations, which is the gateway for firms and individuals applying to undertake regulated financial services activity. Emily was most recently director of customer services and change at Aegon UK and before that EMEA COO for Bank of New York Mellon. Clare Cole has been acting director of market oversight since December and now takes up the role permanently. She has worked at the FCA since 2003 and will now be responsible for overseeing the conduct of participants in the primary and secondary markets through the listing, prospectus and market abuse regimes. Nikhil Rathi said: "I am delighted to be welcoming Stephanie, Jessica, Sarah and Emily into the FCA to be part of our executive leadership team. They bring with them a deep understanding of the consumers we seek to protect, the markets we oversee, and all have track records for operational excellence. As we continue transforming the FCA - building a data-led regulator - their global experience and leadership, drawn from a variety of backgrounds, will be vital in ensuring we can act more quickly to reduce harm to consumers and ensure market integrity. "I also congratulate Clare on her appointment as director of market oversight, a role she takes on at an important time for UK markets as the FCA takes forward the work of Lord Hills Listings Review.' 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 Scottsdale, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - NOHO, Inc. (OTC Pink: DRNK), a Wyoming corporation (the "Company"), announced the following: NOHO, Inc. and Sibannac, Inc. (OTC Pink: SNNC) have finalized a plan to effect a cross purchase transaction by each company. After significant market analysis, taking into account the positioning of both companies, their individual strengths and capabilities, as well as a diligence analysis as to the fairness of the proposed transactions, the companies are preparing to enter the following transactions, as an outright acquisition at this time of NOHO by Sibannac would not result in the most equitable disposition to the NOHO shareholders: Sibannac Acquisition Sibannac will purchase the intellectual property of NOHO, consisting of its trademark and proprietary formulations, but NOHO will retain the use of its name and branding, through a separate license agreement, as it moves into production of new consumer products. Sibannac will issue up to $2.8 Million Dollars of Sibannac warrants at a strike price to be determined. Sibannac will register the warrants and issue the same to NOHO in the transaction. Dividend NOHO will issue the warrants to the shareholders as a dividend. The effective date for eligibility for the warrants will be announced at least sixty (60) days of the closing of the effective date for the shareholders of record to participate in the exchange. The exercise of the warrants would put cash into Sibannac as a result. Management hopes this will motivate NOHO shareholders to support Sibannac as well. NOHO Acquisition NOHO will acquire Vestra, LLC, an Arizona company, wholly owned and managed by Sibannac, established as a special purpose company for the ownership of a Sibannac created Delta 8 THC brand - RaD8 (See, RaD8 (rad8life.com). NOHO's CEO, David Mersky, will retire Ten-Million shares of his personal holdings of NOHO's Class B Convertible Preferred stock to NOHO's treasury, allowing the company to use the shares to purchase the brand. As a result of the transactions, NOHO shareholders will receive a dividend of Sibannac warrants and, as a result of Mr. Mersky's contribution of his personal holdings to NOHO's treasury of preferred stock, there will be no dilution to the common shares of the company. "I am very excited to see the organic market support of the company over these last weeks. Although current management has not participated in the recent market activity, the timing of these transactions couldn't be better for NOHO as it moves into the cannabis sector with a cutting-edge brand," said Mersky. Lifetime Branding The creator of the RaD8 brand is the founder of Lifetime Branding, Eric Stoll. Mr. Stoll and his team are career brand builders with extensive experience in the wellness space, including herbal supplements and candy. Over 30 years, Eric has created marketing and ad campaigns for some of the country's most notable brands and has been engaged by Sibannac to create RaD8. NOHO will retain Lifetime Branding directly to continue the buildout of the brand architecture and positioning following the acquisition. Delta-8 THC is a hemp-based cannabinoid derived from compliant hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill. Delta 8, while a THC derivative, does not fall under the Controlled Substances Act as Marijuana, as long as it is derived from hemp containing less than .3% Delta-9 THC. Delta-8 is less potent than the Delta-9 variant contained in Marijuana, but may provide similar effects and, unlike Marijuana, can be sold across most of the United States like CBD. As the company evaluates the regulatory landscape and ongoing litigation typical in the early stages of new cannabis products, NOHO will not yet activate the site for consumer sales, but will continue the branding effort. In the interim period, NOHO will develop the product line for sales directly to licensed dispensaries and build brand equity in anticipation of nationwide sales. The new products will feature CBD and other active ingredients that will allow the company to continue in the hangover market as well as expanding into overall wellness and recovery. NOHO's CEO, David Mersky, said, "After a lengthy period of evaluation, I am very pleased to announce the asset purchase transactions between NOHO and Sibannac. This is a terrific opportunity for NOHO to get back into operations with a cutting-edge brand in one of the most anticipated new product categories in the cannabis sector. Having Eric Stoll and Lifetime Branding aboard to oversee the buildout and commercialization process has given NOHO one of the best creative marketing minds in branding today. I am also in the process of bringing the company's financials current, as NOHO is poised to be an early mover in the Delta-8 space. RaD8 fits squarely into NOHO's core positioning and will appeal to its major demographic. As the company moves the product into further development, it will work with Sibannac on the manufacturing side, using Sibannac's FDA registered facility, to bring the new line of Delta-8 products to market." Eric Stoll of Lifetime Branding, said, "I have known David for over thirty years, but this is the first time we've had a chance to work together. When David approached me to develop a new brand in the cannabis sector, my team and I began an analysis of the potential market opportunity last year and have been creating a couple of brands ever since. I am excited to work with NOHO on RaD8 and bring all of my experience to developing the brand and getting it into revenue in the near future through direct-to-consumer sales." Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements. This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Noho, Inc. (the "Company"), its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) financing plans; (ii) trends affecting its financial condition or results of operations; (iii) growth strategy and operating strategy. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "can," "believe," "potential" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. NOHO Inc. 9535 E Doubletree Ranch Road, STE 120 Scottsdale, AZ 85228 David Mersky CEO Phone: (516)-660-9669 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75381 RENSSELAER, Ind. (WLFI) - This May will mark four years since St. Joseph's College declared suspended operations, but the college is taking steps to bring life back to its campus. The campus has graduated 21 people from its medical certificate programs. Now St. Joseph's College is partnering with a women's addiction recovery organization to provide housing. "It's been so exciting," said Tammy Tidd, Founder of House of Grace. "God knows what he is doing." The collaboration between St. Joseph's College and House of Grace seems like a story of fate. Tidd started House of Grace in Thorntown in 2017. It's a faith-based addiction recovery program for women centered around drug and alcohol abuse. It is a safe place for women coming out of jail or prison and is Indiana Affiliation of Recovery Residents certified. She wanted to open a new recovery home in Rensselaer. "I felt that I needed to bring something up in that area because I had applications for people up north and I've been wanting to expand," she said. So she began the search for a house in the Rensselaer area, but found the search difficult since she would be paying for it herself. It was Jasper County Sheriff Patrick Williamson who connected Tidd with SJC. "We have a lot of residential apartments that are available and open and ready for use," said Beth Graf, spokesperson for St. Joseph's College. They worked out a deal to let House of Grace use several apartments an empty apartment building to open a new recovery house. All House of Grace had to do was be able to furnish the apartments and find house managers to live with those in their program. "This has given us such a huge opportunity to grow in ways we never thought about or dreamt," said Tidd. "We are so happy that they decided to bring a house to Rensselaer," said Graf. "What House of Grace is doing with recovery is exactly in line with our mission. Our mission is to help the underserved." The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 70,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2019. Tidd said the pandemic in 2020 has taken a toll on those suffering from addiction. "Those who struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, it's easy for them to run to that when they are struggling with what's going on around them," she said. St. Joseph's College will provide them with a safe place to continue their road to recovery and even to provide opportunities for their futures. "Once they reach the point in their recovery progress where they are able, we hope they would be able to take one of our classes, better themselves and maybe get a certificate," said Graf. "Make them able to get jobs." Tidd said most of the women she serves have a high school diploma, but some don't, which they work with them to get their GED. She said steady employment and financial security is an essential part of making sure the women can take care of themselves, their families and ultimately stay on the right path once they have left the program. She said the partnership is a match made in Heaven. They already have some women moved and starting their recovery journey on SJC's campus "St. Joe opening up their college and wanting us there, I do believe that God's directed that and this lays us in a place where were going to be able to help more women," she said. Click here to learn more about House of Grace. Click here to learn more about St. Joseph's College's programs. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Governor Gavin Newsom Outside Oakland Vaccination Site View Photo Sacramento, CA California Governor Gavin Newsom says the state is revamping a program aimed at vaccinating residents in underserved communities. After opening mass vaccination clinics in Oakland and Los Angeles, the Governors Office of Emergency Services provided general access codes to about 1,000 community organizations so that groups could help sign up people for set aside slots. The state notes that there has been a higher transmission rate in Black and Latino communities. The organizations were supposed to ensure that everyone signing up met the current criteria, which is 65 and older, or working in select essential sectors. However, the state learned that the codes were being passed along via email, and many people who did not match the criteria were signing up for the spots. The abuse was discovered when a church and daycare center both raised concerns about the slots filling up so quickly. Asked about it this week, Governor Gavin Newsom stated, Were going to go away from group codes to individual codes. We dont like to see those abuses. State officials say it is unclear how many people received vaccinations that shouldnt have. The state will start using individual codes for each person signing up next week, and not a mass code, in hopes of avoiding future-related issues. Get excited 'After Life' fans - Ricky Gervais has shared excitng news about the third and final season of the hit comedy show. Speaking with UK TV host Lorraine, the comedian shared when filming for the show will resume. "Everything going well, we film in April and May and then it takes a few months to edit and then it takes a couple of months to put into a 160 languages," he said. "So, I'm hoping [it will air] by the end of the year." "I've never done a third series of anything," he added. "But it felt right, and I fell in love with the characters, and I think this should be it." We can't wait to see how Ricky wraps up the story of all of these great characters. Lucknow, Feb 25 : A 43-year-old man from Lalitpur, 'wrongly convicted' in a rape case, has finally been acquitted by the Allahabad High Court after spending 20 years in jail. The man has been lodged in the Agra jail since the past two decades after being convicted on rape charges under IPC and the SC/ST Act. During this period, his parents and two brothers died but he was not allowed to even attend their last rites. A Division Bench of the high court finally announced his acquittal on Wednesday. According to reports, a Dalit woman of Lalitpur district, in September 2000, had accused Vishnu Tiwari, then 23 years old, of raping her. Police had booked Vishnu Tiwari under sections 376, 506 of IPC and section 3 (1) (xii), 3 (2) (v) of the SC/ST (Prevention) of Atrocities Act. The case was investigated by the then Narhat Circle Officer, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, who submitted his report against Vishnu. The accused was sentenced to life imprisonment by the sessions court. He was later shifted to Agra jail where he is currently lodged. Vishnu appealed against the sessions court's judgment in the high court in 2005 but somehow the case remained 'defective' for 16 years and could not be heard. Later, the state legal service authority appointed advocate Shweta Singh Rana, as his defence counsel. The Division Bench of high court, comprising Justices Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Gautam Chaudhary, on January 28, stated in its order "In view of the facts and evidence on record, we are convinced that the accused had been convicted wrongly, hence, the trial court's judgment and the impugned order has been reversed and the accused is acquitted. The accused-appellant, if not warranted in any other case, be set free forthwith." Rana said, "Vishnu has been set free by the high court. The local administration has to complete the legal formalities before he walks free." Vishnu's nephew Satyendra told reporters, "My uncle's wrong conviction has shattered our whole family, both financially and socially. I lost my father, uncle and grandparents who died due to shock and social stigma. "A major portion of our family land had to be sold to contest the case. As far as my uncle Vishnu is concerned, his entire life has been destroyed as he spent the best years of his life in jail and that too, for doing no wrong." A suspect for the Oklahoma murder case reportedly admitted to killing his family members and a neighbor. The suspect was identified as Lawrence Paul Anderson and was denied bond on Tuesday. Reports said that Anderson had been arrested for the deaths of three people and the assault of another. Police said that Anderson killed his neighbor on Feb. 9, then killed his uncle and four-year-old niece. Anderson was also said to have stabbed his aunt in both eyes. However, his aunt survived the attack, according to a Crime Online report. One Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent said in an arrest warrant that after killing his neighbor, Anderson cut the woman's heart out and force-fed it to his family. The agent said that Anderson took back the heart to Chickasha. "He cooked the heart with potatoes to feed to his family to release the demons," the agent was quoted in a report. The victims have been identified as family members, Leo Pye, 67; Kaeos Yates, 4; and Delsie Pye, 64. The Neighbor was Andrea Lynn Blankenship, 41. Read more: Dallas Man Kills Girlfriend, Her Mother and Films Them Before Shooting Self in Gruesome Video The Incident Chickasha police arrived at the scene after receiving a 911 call but hung up. Authorities traced the call back to Pye's home. Police forced their wait into the residence when they heard a woman inside crying out for help. Leon Pye and Kaeos were pronounced dead at the scene, while first responders rushed Delsie Pye to the hospital after she was maimed during the attack. Police then arrested Anderson. His alleged killing spree occured just a month after he was released from prison 16 years early. Anderson was sentenced back in 2017 and was set to serve 20 years in prison for drug and firearm charges. However, he was released after Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt commuted his time, according to a Metro report. He was released from prison in January and was staying with his uncle along with his two other victims. Officials said that Anderson was 'throwing up in the living room into some pillows' when they arrived at the scene. Anderson confessed going to Blankenship's house and used his shoulder to knock in the back door. Investigators told a judge that agents wanted to collect pots, pans, and any utensils for cooking from the Pye residence as evidence. The prosecutors also plan to charge Anderson next Tuesday and have said that death penalty is in the options, according to Grady County District Attorney Jason Hicks. Anderson sobbed in court during his first court appearance on Tuesday. He told the judge that he does not want bail. "I don't want no bail, your honor. I don't want no bail," Anderson was quoted in a Daily Mail report. A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $4,000 as of Wednesday to cover Blankenship's funeral costs. Meanwhile, investigators are probing to identify whether Anderson was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime. The four-year-old's parents talked about their daughter's death in an interview, saying that parents should tell their kids they love them. Read more: Murder-Suicide Leaves 2 Dead at Florida Hospital Shooting Burma Myanmar Military, Associates Banned From Facebook, Instagram A sign reading MRTV fake news, referring to the Tatmadaw-controlled broadcaster, is among placards with anti-military regime statements held up by protesters in Yangon on Feb. 16. / Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy Facebook banned all remaining accounts, pages and media entities controlled by the Myanmar military on Facebook and InstagramMyanmars most popular social media platformsas well as ads by military-linked commercial entities on Thursday. Facebook said in a statement: Were continuing to treat the situation in Myanmar as an emergency and we remain focused on the safety of our community, and the people of Myanmar more broadly. It said the ban was prompted by security forces deadly crackdowns on peaceful protesters since the Feb. 1 coup. We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw [Myanmars military] on Facebook and Instagram are too great, it said. The military seized power from the democratically elected government on Feb. 1 and detained government leaders including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, citing its previously raised claims of electoral fraud. Regarding its prohibition of Tatmadaw-linked commercial entities from advertising on the platform, Facebook cited the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmars 2019 report, on the economic interests of the Tatmadaw, as the basis to guide these efforts, along with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These bans will remain in effect indefinitely. The ban does not cover government ministries and agencies engaged in the provision of essential public services, including the Ministry of Health and Sports, and the Ministry of Education. On Feb. 4, the military regime completely blocked access to Facebook and Instagram for a few days, as online campaigns against the coup, including the Civil Disobedience Movement, began to organize on the platforms. The regime blocked Twitter a few days lateraccess has since been restoredand has partially blocked Internet access from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. daily since Feb. 15. Facebook users continue to experience very slow connections when accessing the app. Early this month, Facebook disabled the Tatmadaw True News Information Team page, along with the military-controlled MRTV and MRTV Live pages, for continuing to violate Facebooks policies which prohibit coordinating harm and incitement to violence. Facebook has also reduced the distribution of content on at least 23 pages and profiles controlled and/or operated by the Tatmadaw so that fewer people can see them. With the MRTV and Tatmadaw True News Information pages having been removed, the regime on Tuesday announced the launch of the State Administrative Council True News Information page on Facebook, but it was removed within hours. In 2018, Facebook banned 20 military-linked individuals and organizations, including commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, for their role in severe human rights violations. Between 2018 and 2020, it removed at least six networks of pages run by the Myanmar military for violating its coordinated inauthentic behavior policy. Facebook pledged to continue monitoring the situation in Myanmar and said it will take additional measures if necessary to keep people safe. You may also like these stories: Indonesia, Thailand Seek Peaceful Solution to Myanmar Crisis Australia Demands Immediate Release of Detained Myanmar Government Adviser Myanmar Protesters Call ASEAN Not to Endorse Military Regime The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company "I get very excited when talking about workplace culture, because organizations always evolve," says Crosby. "As our workplaces are joined by different generations, as they become more international, as we really start to focus on recruiting individuals from diverse backgroundsall these things make a workplace environment fluid, and we need to constantly adapt to ensure we're meeting the needs of our community members." Crosby joins Gladstone's leadership team with over 25 years of experience in human resources, employee and labor relations, and academic affairs. Most recently, she was vice president of philanthropy and community engagement at Scripps Research, where she also served as vice president of people services and helped guide the organization in culture-related matters during a time of institute-wide transformation. In her new role at Gladstone, Crosby will provide strategic insights and guidance for recruitment, employee engagement and retention, benefit programs, compensation management, professional development, and training, while also keeping diversity, equity, and inclusion at the forefront of human resources policies and procedures. "We're delighted to have Jennifer onboard," says Gladstone President Deepak Srivastava, MD. "With her broad expertise, she will help us evolve the most nurturing and supportive environment for our people, thereby enabling them to collectively contribute to the most impactful scientific output." From Hospitality to Research Originally from Astoria, Oregonwhere the movie Goonies was filmed, as she enjoys mentioningCrosby has worked in human resources since graduating from the University of Oregon in 1995. After a career that spanned hospitality, environmental engineering, natural foods, and the energy sector, Crosby became the senior human resources business partner of research at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in 2005. "When I started working with the research community, I knew I had found my people," says Crosby. "I love to talk about science and big ideas, and to explore the 'what ifs.'" By the time she left OHSU in 2016, Crosby oversaw a constituency of 2,600 employees as the director of human resources for research and academics, and the director of the office of international affairs. She then took the position of vice president of people services at Scripps Research, managing international services, human resources, postdoctoral affairs, and the counseling office at the organization's two campuses in California and Florida. Crosby's latest position at Scripps Research was in philanthropy and community engagement. Now, with her move to Gladstone, she embraces a return to her passion for human resources and internal operations. "After I met with the people at Gladstone, it just felt like I would be going home," she says. "It was comforting to know that I was speaking the language, and also inspiring to see Deepak's leadership style and his enthusiasm for evolution, for moving into the future while also honoring the past. That really resonates with me." A Refreshing Approach to Human Resources While dealing with serious issues on a daily basis, Crosby knows that the levity in her approach and communication style can seem unusual in human resources. But, in her opinion, it's the key to her success. "I don't put up roadblocks, which is what many people expect if they have experienced very strict or stringent human resources approaches in the past." she says. "I may sometimes slow down to make sure we're doing things legally and excellently, but I always try to find a pathway that enables us to achieve our goals. Ultimately, I'm not making decisions just based on traditional human resources practices, but on how they affect our entire community." For her first 90 days, Crosby is doing a thorough and thoughtful analysis of Gladstonethe human resources programs, the employee experience, and the culture overall. "I want to poke at things and ask lots of questions, and identify areas where we can improve," she says. "I look forward to modernizing certain systems and policies, and implementing many of the tactics laid out in Gladstone's strategic plan, which was clearly a labor of love." She will also collaborate with her colleagues across the organization to help improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)topics of high priority at Gladstonespecifically as they relate to recruitment, retention, and training. In fact, Crosby has experience in this area dating back to her days at OHSU, where she was part of the diversity action plan committee. At Scripps Research, she also co-led a bicoastal committee on gender parity. "My philosophy on diversity is that it has to be part of the fabric of an organization," she says. "It's not a checkbox. It's not something that you do and then say, 'Okay, we're done with diversity.' It needs to be a fundamental part of who we are as an institution, and always considered in our organizational decision-making." One of her first actions will be to hire a new director of DEI to champion the importance and value of a diverse and inclusive environment. And then, work closely with that person to bolster Gladstone's culture through creative DEI initiatives. "All roads in human resources lead back to the workplace environment," says Crosby. "I think some organizations go stale because they forget to constantly look at the makeup of the people and what engages them. We should be asking, 'What gets them excited and makes them want to come to work every day?'" "The thing is, the answer to those questions changes constantly," she adds. "So we need to remain creative, open, and flexible to meet the needs of our people so they in turn can do their best work. That is definitely what motivates me to come into work every day!" About Jennifer Crosby Jennifer Crosby is the vice president of human resources at Gladstone Institutes. She has over 25 years of experience in human resources, employee and labor relations, and academic affairs. Prior to joining Gladstone, Crosby was vice president of philanthropy and community engagement at Scripps Research, where she also served as vice president of people services and helped guide the organization in culture-related matters during a time of institute-wide transformation. From 2005 to 2016, she worked at the Oregon Health & Science University in several positions, including director of human resources for research and academics for which she oversaw a constituency of 2,600 employees. Crosby earned a bachelor of arts in sociology from the University of Oregon. She is a member of the HR Branch of the College and University Professional Association, the Society for Human Resource Management, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the Council of Advancement and Support of Education. About Gladstone Institutes To ensure our work does the greatest good, Gladstone Institutes focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impactunsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco. Media Contact: Julie Langelier | Assistant Director, Communications | [email protected] | 415.734.5000 SOURCE Gladstone Institutes Related Links https://gladstone.org White House senior adviser Stephen Miller at an event at the White House in Washington on July 8, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images) Former Trump Adviser Says Bidens Immigration Bill Could Erase the Very Essence of Americas Nationhood Stephen Miller, former senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, told Fox News on Sunday that a new immigration bill proposed by Democrats would fundamentally erase the very essence of Americas nationhood. On Feb. 18, Democrats formally introduced President Joe Bidens new immigration bill that provides an eight-year pathway to citizenship for about 11 million illegal immigrants and sweeping changes to Trumps immigration and border policy. The bill, named the U.S. Citizenship Act 2021, was cosponsored by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). Ive laid out my vision for what itll take to reform our immigration system and I look forward to working with leaders in Congress to get this done, Biden said in a statement. The legislation put forward by President Biden and congressional Democrats would fundamentally erase the very essence of Americas nationhood, Miller told Fox News. For the first time I believe in human history, this legislation proposes sending applications to previously deported illegal immigrants and giving them the chance to reenter the country on a rapid path to citizenship. This is unheard of. Miller said that illegal immigrants were found and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at taxpayers expense. Now the Biden administration would mail applications for readmission and amnesty to those deported illegal immigrants. This is on top of the fact that the current administration has already dismantled border security, canceling President Trumps historic agreements with Mexico, and with the Northern Triangle countries, restoring catch and release, Miller continued, referring to the Biden administrations ending of Trumps Migrant Protection Protocols program which kept illegal immigrants in Mexico throughout their immigration proceedings. Previously, illegal immigrants were released into the United States to await their cases, and many failed to appear in court. Honduran migrants, part of a caravan heading to the United States, remain in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images) Miller also claimed a memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) engaged in a fraudulent representation in the Texas litigation. Because they are claiming this is a resources issue, Miller continued. I know for a fact that ICE has the resources to remove these public safety threats. This is a policy choice disguised falsely to the court and to the country as a resource issue. That is a lie. And its a lie that threatens public safety. On Jan. 20, Acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske signed a memorandum (pdf) directing DHS components to review and reset enforcement policies, while canceling most of Trumps immigration enforcement policies. The memo prevented ICE from removing the vast majority of criminal illegal immigrants. The memo also froze most deportations for 100 days, a move which was blocked by a federal judge last month when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton brought it to court. The attorney general of Texas is 100 percent right, Miller said. Does the president of the United States have the authority to suspend law at will? Because if he does, its not just immigration, President Biden can rewrite every federal law to his liking. The Department of Homeland Security didnt respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times. Miller went on to say that because ICE is now disallowed from removing the vast majority of illegal immigrants with criminal records, illegal immigrants are being released into the community across the country. Thats a public safety calamity in real-time happening now. This is not theoretical. Miller also claimed that by giving millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, that will mean a net fiscal transfer of trillions of dollars long-term, to pay for their Social Security, medical care, Medicaid, and to pay for state and local services. People cross the Suchiate River on a raft from Guatemala to Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico on Jan. 18, 2021, as a new migrant caravan, mostly of Hondurans heading to the United States is expected to arrive. (Isaac Guzman/AFP via Getty Images) At the end of the interview, Miller said he had spoken with Trump, and hes very excited to make his upcoming address to CPAC. Trump is scheduled to give his speech on Feb. 28 at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida. Miller said Trump would lay out his positive vision for the future of this country. A vision where we stand up to China, as the president was doing before he left office, and reclaim our manufacturing. A vision where our schools are open and our border is closed to illegal immigration. A vision where the Big Tech monopoly is dismantled and free speech and free expression and free thought can reign, because thats what this country is about. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company ISTANBUL About half of Turkeys 18 million school-aged students are expected to resume face-to-face education March 1 as schools reopen for the first time since a two-month session in the fall. The move comes amid broader normalization efforts by the Turkish government to phase out of the coronavirus restrictions in low-risk areas amid an ongoing vaccination campaign. Turkish Education Minister Ziya Selcuk announced the decision Feb. 24 while receiving his first shot of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine during a ceremony marking the launch of an inoculation drive for the nations 1.25 million school workers. We can perfectly run face-to-face education without any problems, Selcuk told reporters in the northern city of Corum. Our schools are ready. The news might come as a relief for some working parents unable to meet child care needs as well as students who have been unable to participate in remote learning courses through the Education Ministrys online class portal. Yet educators and health experts warn school reopenings may be premature amid national COVID-19 infection rates, which surpassed 9,000 daily cases this week for the first time since mid-January. Its early to reopen schools, Dr. Vedat Bulut, secretary general of the executive committee for the Turkish Medical Association, told Al-Monitor. Teachers and school personnel should first be vaccinated. Social distancing guidelines for schools should also be established and made public, Bulut added, saying the number of students to be allowed per classroom remained undefined. Many of Turkeys rural schools resumed in-class education Feb. 15, and under the upcoming school reopening drive students in primary school along with eighth- and twelfth-grade students would return to classrooms across the country on March 1. Turkish schools were initially closed in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and then reopened briefly between September and November before shuttering once more. Since Turkey launched a national vaccination campaign Jan. 14, 7.66 million CoronaVac doses have been administered according to Health Ministry figures. On Wednesday, state officials announced the first phase of the inoculation campaign had been completed, in which medical workers and citizens over 65 years of age were vaccinated. In the campaigns second stage, essential workers and state employees, including teachers, will get the jab. Feray Aytekin Aydogan, a first-grade teacher in Istanbul and member of Turkeys Education and Science Workers Union, said back-to-school programs should follow guidelines laid out by health officials and members of the scienctific community. If they reopen schools as they did in November, then they will just have to be closed again, Aydogan told Al-Monitor. In the first reopening, we lost several teachers as a result of COVID-19 infections. Taking the risks associated with in-class education into account, Aydogan also noted many students had fallen behind in coursework since schools shuttered due to lack of internet access or barriers faced by special needs students, as well as students whose mother tongue is not Turkish. An August 2020 report by UNICEF found one in three students globally were missing out on remote learning courses amid pandemic school closures, and Aydogan said similar rates have been recorded in Turkey. To date, Turkeys Health Ministry has recorded more than 2.65 million coronavirus cases and over 28,000 virus-linked deaths. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca this month announced the launch of coronavirus case data by region for the first time since the pandemic began. Recent figures show a surge in COVID-19 cases in the nations northeast Black Sea provinces, five of which last week accounted for 17% of all new infections in Turkey, while they make up 9.46% of the nations population. The developments prompted the governor of Ordu to ban home visits in the province. This comes as government officials plan to launch a province-by-province tier system on March 1 to better publicize and track regional COVID-19 infection rates. Bulut said normalization efforts were premature for most regions, but social distancing restrictions could be lifted in low-risk areas based on local infection trends. Still, he warned herd immunity, or what he says is more accurately defined as community immunity, was far off for Turkey as 70% of citizens would need to be vaccinated. Right now, Turkey is at 1% community immunity because about 2 million second shots have been administered and these shots provide protection three to four weeks after they are given, Bulut told Al-Monitor. We need another 69% if we want to live normally. New Delhi: In yet another act of provocation by the Chinese media, Peoples Daily has issued a fresh warning to India. The daily has said that India should not underestimate Chinas resolve to defend its territorial sovereignty. The write-up carrying the warning has byline of Zhong Sheng. Peoples Daily has charged Indian troops of crossing the China-India border in the Sikkim sector into the Chinese territory terming it totally illegal. The daily further said China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had on August 2 issued an endorsed paper titled The Facts and Chinas Position Concerning the Indian Border Troops Crossing of the China-India Boundary in the Sikkim Sector into the Chinese Territory giving its side of the story. According to the paper, Indian troops crossed the border on June 18 and illegally stayed in Chinese territory. However, the daily didnt concede that the area in question is a disputed one between Bhutan and China and that China had moved to disrupt the status quo in violation of a 2012 agreement between India and China. The agreement was regarding tri-party discussion in issues related to tri-junction boundary points between India, China and third countries like the one in Doklam. The article said Indian move can be defined as illegal and that it aims at making trouble. It mentioned a convention signed between Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet and said that according to that convention, Doklam was indisputably Chinese territory. It alleged that India made pretexts to justify its illegal action since the incident of border crossing broke out and also said that Indias security concerns over Chinas road-building activity are ill-founded. It said that Indias claim that Dokalam is a disputed area between China and Bhutan is against the truth and law. The Doklam area has all along been part of China and under Chinas continuous and effective jurisdiction. There is no dispute in this regard, it said, adding that India had no right as a third party in the equation to make territorial claims on behalf of Bhutan. It said that Indias position posed a challenge to the sovereignty and independence of Bhutan. China and India ought to sign a new boundary convention in their own names to replace the 1890 Convention, said the daily. The Dokalam stand-off started in mid-June when India accused China of constructing a road in the disputed territory towards Doklam Plateau which was also raised by the Royal Bhutanese Army. The impasse continues and the situation between India and China remains tense. Also read: Doklam standoff: India-China may soon enter into full-scale war; Washington will support New Delhi, says Meghnad Desai Doklam | India should show willingness for peace through deeds: China For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Zinshteins patient, observant approach catches her subjects in moments of damning irony: Eckstein smiles awkwardly whenever the End Times are mentioned by her evangelical allies; the Binghams encourage their poverty-stricken congregation to send their spare change to the Holy Land. When a pastor in Bethlehem explains to Bingham IV that his donations support a theocracy that makes Palestinian Christians second-class citizens, Bingham simply insists that its all part of Gods plan. Zinshteins own Jewish identity brings this doublespeak to a head. In the films striking ending, Bingham IV tries to proselytize to the director and her crew during a sermon. He wants to get them saved right now, he says. His seeming good will cannot disguise his troubling convictions. Til Kingdom Come Not Rated. In Hebrew, Arabic and English, with subtitles. Running time: Running time: 1 hour 16 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas. Jamaican musicians, producers and artists have scored another victory, as the Jamaica Music Society (JAMMS) and UK-based Performance Rights Organization Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), have forged closer ties, in a bid to widen the footprint of global royalty collections, where their recorded music is played internationally. According to a statement from the PPL, the new partnership will see the organization collecting international revenues for JAMMS members across all the major music markets, as well as in far-flung areas such as Australia, South Korea, South Africa and India. Although JAMMS has direct agreements with counterparts in some countries, the addition of PPLs network of more than 100 international agreements with other PROs will support the further growth of JAMMS international collections on behalf of more than 1,400 established producers and performers, the PPL noted. .@PPLUK and @JAMMS4music are happy to announce a closer collaboration that widens the footprint of global royalty collections for Jamaican producers and performers when their recorded music is played internationally. Read more here: https://t.co/jMRs6N1VEB pic.twitter.com/sb24rUy0eU PPL (@PPLUK) February 22, 2021 Both JAMMS and PPL collect revenues for the use of recorded music on radio, television as well as in public places, such as restaurants, clubs, bars, retail stores, hotels, and other venues. Each organization does this in their own country, as well as overseas, through a network of international agreements, it added. JAMMS has in the past brokered reciprocal agreements with foreign collecting societies in various territories, including Holland, Germany and France. The PPL said already under the partnership, money has begun to be repatriated from around the world to the Jamaican music industry. The expanded partnership took effect in 2020 and dozens of JAMMS members have already been benefiting. The expertise of the JAMMS team in regard to local repertoire helps to fuel the effectiveness of the partnership through international royalty claims which are driven by accurate repertoire information, it said. JAMMS General Manager Evon Mullings, is quoted in the release as hailing the partnership which he said will be to the benefits of its members. Our objective is simple, to give our members the best chance of increasing their royalty earnings. This expanded arrangement gives us the global footprint we need to deliver more royalties to more of our members, Mullings stated. The release said JAMMS and PPL have been working together since 2010, when both parties entered into a bilateral agreement for producers which, at the time allowed each organisation to ensure that their respective producer members were being paid for the use of their recorded music in both Jamaica and the UK. Seven years later the PPL signed a unilateral agreement with JAMMS for performers, which was regarded as an industry first marking significant progress for Jamaicas music industry, and which closed what was described as a longstanding gap, which had seen the islands performers miss out on royalty payments where their music was being used overseas. JAMMS, which is a private, non-profit organization established under the Copyright Act of Jamaica, was incorporated in 2006 to administer the intellectual property rights granted to Record Producers, meaning owners of the master sound recordings, according to the organisations website. JAMMS mandate is to manage the broadcasting and public performance rights of its members, through its role as a licensing agency and collecting society, which involves the issuing of licences to music users, including, radio and television broadcasters, webcasters, cable operators, clubs operators, restaurants, gyms, party organizers, show promoters and others. JAMMS role extends, to the collection and distribution of royalties, to its members, on account of royalties paid over from the various music users. The organization also represents the repertoire of major international recording companies such as SONYBMG, UNIVERSAL, WARNER MUSIC and EMI. Over the past several weeks JAMMS has ramped up its social media marketing to potential and current members. Producers and Performers, work on your catalog. Register with JAMMS. Watch your pension grow! it advised on one post. It also posted another targeting session musicians, who are hired by music producers to play whatever instrumentals are needed during a recording session. Session Musicians link up. Weve got you covered also. Performers royalties from across the globe. If youve played on at least 10 songs, link us via musicmaker@jammsonline.com. If you dont make money then you dont make sense Mavado, the company wrote. It also reassured music producers that its agents were working hard on their behalf. While you are busy creating music, we are busy ensuring that your rights are protected so that you can earn. Record producers, contact us at musicmaker@jammsonline.com to find out how you can become a member of JAMMS. Big up to the hundreds of local Producers who already know the score! #musicroyalties, the company wrote. 2020 was a year to forget for IAG; the focus in Friday's results will be on summer bookings A busier than usual Friday is in prospect with at least four FTSE 100 companies scheduled to report. 2020 was a terrible year for British Airways owner PLC ( ) and this is reflected in expectations for full-year revenue, which are around the 1.3bn mark, down from 6.2bn in 2020. Small wonder then that analysts at UBS expect the focus will be on summer bookings, plus the airlines restructuring plans. ( ), the property listings web site, has also seen its business hit by lockdowns and although the government has done its best to ensure that an Englishmans home remains his surrogate pension plan, this has been more beneficial to housebuilders than estate agents and their fellow travellers. The company has been decidedly quiet since its half-year report back in August when it reported revenue was down by just over one-third year-on-year. The company has suspended dividend payments and its share buyback programme but has pledged to consider restoring dividend payments once the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the business becomes clearer; the recent lockdown roadmap announced by the government was heavily caveated so the picture may not yet be clear enough to sanction a return to divis. FRIDAY UPDATE: Rightmove resumes dividend payments after best-ever January for traffic Also reporting will be insurance company PLC ( ), in what will probably be its swan song before the company is carved up by Intact and Danish insurer Tryg. On the economic front, the cupboard is fairly bare, with just the Lloyds business barometer for February, which is not likely to get anyone hot under the collar. Major announcements expected for Friday, February 26 Finals: ( ), PLC ( ), ( ), ( ), PLC ( ), PLC ( ), ( ), WPP Group PLC ( ) Trading statement: Asa International Group PLC ( ) Economic indicators: Lloyds business barometer 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. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Strongly opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans to privatise all public sector banks (PSBs), the Unted Forum of Banking Unions on Thursday said that it could imperil Rs 80 lakh crore hard-earned money belonging to the people. UFBU Convenor Devidas Tuljapurkar said that the move could prove counterproductive as the private sector banks will work towards "accounting profits" vis-a-vis the PSBs which strive towards "social profits". To protest the move to privatise the PSBs, the UFBU will go on a two-day nationwide strike on March 15-16, he said. "India is still confronted by poverty, unemployment, hunger, there is acute economic disparity and geographical imbalances There is a need to implement social sector lending schemes in which the private sector banks hardly contribute," Tuljapurkar said. He pointed out that in the implementation of the Jan Dhan Scheme, the share of private sector banks is less than 5 per cent and their share is also insignificant for other schemes like Mudra, Swadhan, Stand UP India, Make In India, etc. which are intended for employment generation. The common man will be pushed out of the orbits of banking and in turn, development which is unaffordable, while putting at risk Rs 80 lakh crore savings of the people, Tuljapurkar warned. Referring to the "dismal track record" of the private sector banking in India, he said whenever they collapse, it is the PSBs which bail them out. When Yes Bank was on the verge of a crash, the government intervened and the State Bank of India bailed it out, and earlier helped another important private sector NBFC, the ILFS, along with the LIC, he noted. In the past, after the Karad Bank collapsed with the unfolding the Harshad Mehta scam, the Bank of India helped prop it up, and later, the Global Trust Bank crashed with the revelations of the Ketan Parekh scam and it was the Oriental Bank of Commerce which helped it out, he added. "Today, the biggest challenge before the Indian banks is non-performing assets in which the share of the corporate sector is over 70 per cent and they are 'day-dreaming' to be the owners of these PSBs now. It is most unfortunate that the PM is facilitating it which may prove to be disastrous for the savings of the masses," Tuljarpurkar said. Moreover, even now several private sector banks are struggling for survival on account of some of the dealings of the dubious private and corporate sectors, he added. Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) Mauritian health authorities on Wednesday launched a Maternal and Child Health Handbook, aiming at empowering women to make informed decisions about their own health and pregnancy According to the team led by researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Paris Sciences and Letters University, the open water proved crucial in computer simulations, estimations that deemed Alaska's previous weather data and predictions of future sea-ice cover and temperature conditions. The increase in Air Tempreture Colorado National Center for Atmospheric Research's climate researcher and co-author Andreas Prein explained that in Alaska, it's just like you are broadening the ocean next to the state. A group of researchers warns tha Alaska might need to prop for more thunderstorms including the wildfires, floods, landslides, they can bring along - if present climate movements persist. Two research suggest the fast warming State in America could experience a triple number of thunderstorms by the edge of this century. As the air temperature increase, the atmosphere carries more moisture and can also cause more unexpected updrafts - two main factors in lightening. ALSO READ: Death by Indoor Lightning: Yes, It's Possible Arctic Sea Ice Alaska is also impacted by the increased retreat of Arctic sea ice, which is disclosing more open water close-by, enabling more water vapor to enter the air, the researchers describe in the two similar papers released in the Climate Dynamics journal. The initial one was released in September and the recent one on Tuesday. Open water proved crucial in computer simulation and estimations that considered Alaska's previous weather data and predictions of future coming sea-ice cover and temperature conditions, the research team further explained. Andres Prein revealed that in Alaska, it's practically like you are adding the ocean next to the state, once the ice is set in motion, the ocean is increasing a lot of moisture into the atmosphere. The connection between lightning and climate change is still being examined. 2014 Journal Science Study Another science group released one research in the journal Science in 2014 implying there is approximately 12% more lightning for each degree Celsius of atmospheric warming above preindustrial temperature. With heightened thunderstorms, the recent study projects a rise in severe rainfall by 37% by 2100. Future rainfall will be brief bursts of heavy rain, followed by extended periods of dry weather. Such massive rainfall incorporated with dry periods poses possible hazards, including regions already exposed to permafrost thaw, he further said he wished the worst of projections established on presumptions that carbon emissions will remain at the current level of business as usual won't come true. I'm expecting that we can prevent some of that. New Weather Structures in Alaska The National Weather Service in Anchorage with Climatologist Brian Brettschneider illustrated the current study findings as a variety of theory, forming, and planning for the worst. It lays some edges on what might happen in the likeliest drastic scenario, Brian was never included in the research. That knowledge is profitable for emergency planning, infrastructure management, and public policy decisions, often the worst-case scenarios do occur. "New weather structures in Alaska endorse the research' findings to some extent," he said. Thunderstorms have also been frequent in current years in regions where they were formerly unusual. RELATED ARTICLE: Thunderstorm-Induced Asthma in Australia Kills 4 People For more news, update about climate and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! WARCs Spotlight India is a new bimonthly series, with each edition focused on a current topic geared towards helping brands market effectively in India. The series is a capsule collection of expert commentary and insights, tackling each subject from a range of angles. Contributors to the series are highly-regarded industry professionals offering the latest advice into whats working. Launching with the theme Brand Activism in India, this Spotlight edition is the first of five slated for the year and includes eight exclusive pieces bringing together varying points of view, consumer sentiment, data and expert guidance for marketers to draw upon. Meanwhile, WARC has expanded its team in India with Kunal Sinha as Principal Consultant for Advisory and Biprorshee Das as India Editor. As brands and agencies in India look to address the challenges ahead, the right insights and expertise to help craft strategies designed for success are critical. With a shared vision, Sinha and Das, together with Iwaton Consultancy, WARCs commercial partner in India, and the rest of the WARC team, will help brands and agencies in India market more effectively. Ed Pank, Managing Director, WARC APAC, commented, To ensure that brands have access to in-depth local expertise and the latest insights, we have expanded our team in India with Kunal Sinha, Principal Consultant, for WARCs new local advisory service, and Biprorshee Das, India Editor. Kunal Sinha is an award-winning consumer strategy and foresight expert with experience in driving demand generation, market innovation and engagement in fast growth markets. Biprorshee Das is a Mumbai-based journalist with over 14 years of experience writing on varied subjects like finance, advertising and marketing, pop culture, lifestyle and current affairs. Speaking on the Spotlight India edition, Das said, As consumers become more vocal about environmental, political and social causes, there is pressure on brands to speak up too. While many worldwide are answering that call, most Indian brands have stayed silent. Brands are still wary about being outspoken and the recent Tanishq case is a clear example. With little escaping the public eye these days, being vocal about issues that plague society has often proved to be risky business. He further said, That said, should the Indian marketer choose to stay silent and go about its business the way it always has? Or should he or she become braver? The answer will be different for every brand but some core themes have emerged from this edition of our Spotlight series: Any step towards activism needs to be backed up by tangible action that stays true to a brand's core values. And while there is risk involved, as more consumers increasingly become belief-driven in their choice of brands, how can any brand afford to stay safe but silent? If there ever was a time to be outspoken and be heard, it is now. Excerpts from the report: Puneet Das, SVP, Marketing - Beverages, TATA Consumer Products, tells WARC how standing up for a cause must go beyond just communicating it in order to be meaningful, including how Tata Tea issued a "Wake up" call to highlight national issues here. Over the years, The Times of India has been at the forefront of brand activism with popular campaigns raising pertinent issues. Malcolm Raphael, Senior Vice-President and Head - Trade Marketing, Innovations, Creative Strategy, The Times of India, explains how the countrys leading newspaper leads with social activism at its core and talks about initiatives such as Teach India and Aman Ki Asha. Chase Buckle, Head of Global Trends, GlobalWebIndex, explains how brand purpose can also be a competitive differentiator amid the spike in online shopping. Ajeeta Bharadwaj, Chief Strategy Officer, Wondrlab, shares why it is becoming increasingly important for India's brands to be vocal about issues, and how to do so the right way. Ankit Singh, Senior Vice President - Strategy, Leo Burnett Delhi, draws on global parallels to show why Indian brands must stand up for issues and walk the talk. Ashraf Engineer, Principal Consultant, Pitchfork, takes a look at how it is getting harder for Indian brands to separate their values from their business. Suraja Kishore, CEO, BBDO, introduces Brand Activism 101, a strategic framework that marketers in India can follow if they want to champion an issue. The next Spotlight India will be released in April. Spotlight India complements WARCs Spotlight Australia, Southeast Asia and US series, with further market-specific Spotlights being released over the coming months. International Paper acquires Berkley Molded Fiber division Tweet this After seven years of manufacturing outside of Los Angeles, Berkley moved operations into an 80,400 square foot state of the art molded fiber manufacturing plant outside of Reno, Nevada in 2019. Berkley International works with high growth CPG companies who are looking to utilize their sustainable packaging technology for ecommerce and food packaging applications. Berkley MF provides in house design, manufacturing and distribution of custom molded fiber packaging products. Berkley is focused on bringing the domestic molded pulp manufacturing sector a cost-competitive alternative to single use plastic, and foam-based packaging mediums like EPS (Styrofoam). Berkley International, the former parent company will continue to serve their customers and engaged in the sales of molded fiber products. The International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. Contact: Eric Berkley, [email protected] SOURCE Berkley International Related Links https://www.goberkley.com On the 12th of January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that the mystery virus which, according to reports from China, had infected some 50 people in the city of Wuhan, was not SARS following the genetic sequencing of a novel coronavirus. Within two weeks, Wuhans hospitals were overwhelmed, and the city was sent into lockdown as health authorities scrambled to build an entirely new hospital in a record ten days. One year later, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain healthcare systems around the world, with hospitals in Los Angeles, Stockholm, London, Manaus and Lisbon on the brink of being overwhelmed. While vaccines (developed, mass manufactured and hoarded by governments at record speed) have generated hopes of pandemic control, it is nevertheless more than likely that COVID-19 is here to stay. The pandemic may well become chronic as COVID-19 endemically settles alongside (and in syndemic interaction with) an already long list of communicable and non-communicable diseases that are lived and contended with by patients, families, healthcare workers and governments alike on a daily basis. It is in some ways ironic that a communicable disease such as COVID-19 led to the last-minute cancellation of an international conference on Chronic Living, which was planned to take place in Copenhagen in April 2020. Epidemiological transition theory had long informed narratives of a gradual shift away from communicable and towards non-communicable diseases as a sign (or side effect) of societal development and progress. In Herring and Swedlunds words, there was a belief that epidemics were controllable, at least in a Western biomedical context, and less important than chronic, degenerative diseases (2010: 15). Such transition theory has certainly been subject to substantial critique, not least by scholars who have highlighted the fact that non-communicable medical conditions are not solely a problem of the global North, rather they are equally urgent challenges whether in Africa, Australasia, the Americas or Europe (see Manderson & Smith-Morris 2010; Reubi et al. 2016; Vaughan et al. 2021). Indeed, close to 500 researchers from all continents had responded to the call for papers that we sent out for the Chronic Living conference, which will now take place online from 4 to 6 March 2021. COVID-19 and the lockdowns that are being used to (try to) contain it for obvious reasons dominate healthcare policies, media headlines and social media globally, for a time, relegating other diseases into the underlying medical conditions that place some individuals at greater risk of serious complications and death from COVID-19. However, the fact remains that millions of people worldwide continue to live with chronic conditions like type 1 diabetes, cancer, HIV, pulmonary disease, congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, dementia or kidney disease. These are not just underlying conditions. They are medical conditions that profoundly shape the everyday lives of those who have them, as well as the family members and healthcare workers who help people live with these medical conditions, not least in times of pandemic. In this Somatosphere series through a chain of ethnographic accounts contributors explore exactly how various forms of chronic living take shape in a world where genes mutate, kidneys fail, congenitally defect hearts come into the world, cognition declines, immune systems weaken or run awry, affects unmoor, metabolisms unravel and cells divide uncontrollably under starkly different living conditions. For if there is one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare, as a kind of contrast agent injected into the social veins of the world, it is the stratified livability (Manderson, Burke & Wahlberg 2021) that has sedimented following centuries of gross socio-economic inequality, global injustice and racial discrimination. For many, there are multiple medical conditions to contend with, each complicating and often aggravating the others. What we have come to think of as chronic living through our collaborative research project on The Vitality of Disease takes many forms and shapes, depending on the specificities of medical conditions, socio-economic circumstances, care networks and (lack of) access to healthcare. It is with this living with that each contributor to this series is concerned, as their condition(s)-near ethnographic fieldwork (Svensson 2020: 37) especially attunes to the actual often creative and experimental ways in which people go about daily lives swayed by medical conditions, whether as persons living with medical conditions or as their carers and loved ones. This is what chronic living is the manifold ways in which people attend to, experience and take care of themselves and their medical conditions often with the indispensable help of loved ones, in differing life conditions and with stratified access to (life-saving) medical treatment and care (see Manderson & Wahlberg 2020: 431). In 1977, E. Mansell Pattison had argued in The Experience of Dying that once received by a patient, a serious diagnosis resulted in a crisis knowledge of death which involved a chronic living-dying phase as the patient moved towards eventual death. Likewise, in her recent study of end-of-life encounters in Chinese eldercare institutions, Rose Kay Keiming argues that for those cut off from both curative and palliative care, life itself turns pathological, and they find themselves suspended in a state of chronic living (Keiming 2020). At the same time, this Somatosphere series shows how chronic living often extends into the many months, years or decades of living with medical conditions that can and increasingly do precede end-of-life. While epidemiologists and health economists have designated and measured these as disability adjusted or quality adjusted life years (for critical analyses of these measures see Dokumaci 2019; Wahlberg & Rose 2015; Kenny 2015), anthropologists and other qualitative health researchers have instead sought to ethnographically document the different ways in which chronic living comes to be shaped and formed under varying life conditions and within varying political economies of healthcare. Indeed, the contributions to this series show that if we are to understand chronic living in its complexities, we need to take into account the chronic care infrastructures (Langstrup 2013; Heinsen et al. 2021), the everyday experimenting and vital affordances of people who live with chronic conditions (Dokumaci 2017; Mol, Moser & Pols 2010; Pols 2013; Kingod 2020; Mann 2021; Dumit 2012) as well as intimate lived experiences throughout their life courses (Kleinman 1988; Bharadwaj 2016; Lee 2019), not as mutually exclusive domains of study, rather as constitutive of different kinds of chronic living. Many medical conditions are made chronic through access to life-saving and prolonging treatment, which are nevertheless often complicated by the cascading of multiple medical conditions (Manderson & Warren 2016). Sustained access to appropriate health care is crucial given the techno-medical underpinnings of many forms of chronicity (e.g., insulin injections, factor replacement therapy, regular dialysis, antiretroviral treatment, biologics, antidepressants, chemotherapy) yet we know such access is often at best patchy, leading to lengthy struggles for access to treatment, which sometimes succeed and often fail, ending in suffering and untimely death (Moran-Thomas 2019; Whyte 2015). When chronic care infrastructures are in place and maintained with care, they can and often do contribute to the normalization of chronically conditions, as chronically ill patients are encouraged and directed to live well with their medical condition (Benton et al. 2017; Dumit 2012). Indeed, as it becomes possible for increasing numbers of people to live longer lives with serious chronic conditions, a host of new challenges and dilemmas can arise as pertains their chronic at risk (of complications or premature death) status as well as difficult decisions about when end of life care might become relevant. At the same time, we also know from numerous medical ethnographies that people living with chronic conditions are pragmatic, as they embark on pluralistic therapeutic itineraries and devise creative ways to adjust to the chronic homework they are tasked with (Mattingly, Grn & Meinert 2011; Svensson 2020). And finally, phenomenological accounts have shown how people come to terms and cope with chronic conditions which sometimes creep up and often lead to disrupted lives whether biographically or socially (Bury 1982; Becker 1997; Bharadwaj 2016). These lived experiences are, likewise, profoundly affected by the socio-cultural understandings and/or stigmatizations of certain medical conditions within communities and families, leading to isolation and ostracization (Whyte 2015; Mogensen 2020). In these ways, chronic living is a daily reality for an ever-growing number of people and their families and loved ones, and the COVID-19 pandemic has if anything only intensified many of the difficulties these families were already facing. Yet, the ways in which chronic living takes form is dependent not only on failing biologies (all those cascading molecular and cellular disturbances in the bodies of individuals that can and often do eventually lead to organ failures), but perhaps more importantly, on the political economies that determine life conditions and access to healthcare, as well as on the care networks of people living with chronic conditions (Manderson & Wahlberg 2020: 431). Through a chain of paired ethnographic snapshots, this Somatosphere series on Chronic Living zooms in on the temporalities, inequities and everyday forms of experimentation that shape chronic lives among people living with congenital heart defects in Honduras and Denmark, with HIV in Tanzania and Australia, with dementia in South Korea and Denmark, with kidney failure in Mexico and Austria, with (the risk of) cancer in Vietnam and Denmark, with rheumatism in Indonesia and Turkey, and with type 1 diabetes in Denmark an Belize. Such comparative ethnographic glimpses into the everyday lives of people living with similar medical conditions yet in very different socio-economic and cultural settings provides important insights into the very conditions of possibility of chronic living. The series on Chronic Living has been timed to commence as 400 scholars from around the world meet to exchange ideas and experiences of researching forms of chronic living at the international conference Chronic Living quality, vitality and health in the 21stcentury which marks the conclusion of the European Research Council funded project The Vitality of Disease Quality of Life in the Making(grant no. ERC-2014-STG-639275). The idea for the grant was initially conceived in the Somatosphere piece Knowledge of living from November 2014. Series contributors: Kane Race (University of Sydney), Josein de Klerk (Leiden University), Eileen Moyer (University of Amsterdam), Le Hoang Ngoc Yen (Kyoto University), Le Hoang Anh Thu (Australian National University), Laura Heinsen (Aalborg University), Helle Vendel Petersen (Hvidovre Hospital), Ayo Wahlberg (University of Copenhagen), Jieun Lee (Yonsei University), Nete Schwennesen (University of Copenhagen), Simone Anna Felding (German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases), Natasja Kingod (Steno Diabetes Center), Anna Mann (University of Copenhagen), Ciara Kierans (University of Liverpool), Marie Kofod Svensson (Danish Heart Foundation), Nancy Worthington (Independent Researcher), Peter van Eeuwijk (University of Basel and University of Zurich), Arseli Dokumaci (Concordia University), Amy Moran-Thomas (MIT Anthropology) References Becker, G. (1997). Disrupted lives: How people create meaning in a chaotic world. Berkley: University of California Press. Benton, A., Sangaramoorthy, T., & Kalofonos, I. (2017). Temporality and Positive Living in the Age of HIV/AIDSA Multi-Sited Ethnography. Current Anthropology, 58(4), 454-476. Bharadwaj, A. (2016). Conceptions: Infertility and Procreative Technologies in India. Oxford: Berghahn Books Bury, M. (1982). Chronic illness as biographical disruption. Sociology of health & illness, 4(2), 167-182. Dokumaci, A. (2017). Vital affordances, occupying niches: an ecological approach to disability and performance. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 22(3): 393-412. DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1326808 Dokumaci, A. (2019). The disabilitization of medicine: The emergence of Quality of Life as a space to interrogate the concept of the medical model. History of the Human Sciences, 32(5), 164-190. Dumit, J. (2012). Drugs for life: how pharmaceutical companies define our health. Durham: Duke University Press. Heinsen, L., Wahlberg, A. & Petersen, V. (2021) Surveillance life and the shaping of genetically at risk chronicities. Anthropology & Medicine 27, https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2021.1893654 Keiming, R. K. (2020). Chronic Living and Delayed Death in Chinese Eldercare Institutions. Anthropology & Aging, 41(1), 17-30. Kenny, K. E. (2015). The biopolitics of global health: Life and death in neoliberal time. Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 9-27. Kingod, N. (2020). The tinkering m-patient: Co-constructing knowledge on how to live with type 1 diabetes through Facebook searching and sharing and offline tinkering with self-care. Health, 24(2), 152-168. Kleinman, A. (1980). Patients and healers in the context of culture: An exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry, Berkley: University of California Press. Kleinman, A. (1988). The illness narratives: Suffering, healing, and the human condition. New York: Basic books. Langstrup, H. (2013). Chronic care infrastructures and the home. Sociology of health & illness, 35(7), 1008-1022. Lee, J. (2019). Living with/out dementia in contemporary South Korea. Medical anthropology quarterly, 33(4), 501-516. Manderson, L. & Smith-Morris, C (eds). (2010). Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Manderson, L., & Wahlberg, A. (2020). Chronic living in a communicable world. Medical anthropology, 39(5), 428-439. Manderson, L., & Warren, N. (2016). Just one thing after another: recursive cascades and chronic conditions. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 30(4), 479-497. Mann, A. (2021). Abandoning questionnaires Improving quality of life in daily nephrology practice. Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies (NJSTS). 8, forthcoming Mattingly, C., Grn, L., & Meinert, L. (2011). Chronic homework in emerging borderlands of healthcare. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 35(3), 347-375. Mogensen, H. O. (2020). Secrecy and Responsibility in the Era of an Epidemic: Letters from Uganda. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Mol, A., Moser, I., & Pols, J. (Eds.). (2010). Care in practice: On tinkering in clinics, homes and farms. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Moran-Thomas, A. (2019). Traveling with sugar: chronicles of a global epidemic. Berkley: University of California Press. Pattison, E. M. (1977). The experience of dying. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Pols, J. (2013). The Patient 2. Many: About Diseases that Remain and the Different Forms of Knowledge to Live with Them. Science & Technology Studies, 26(2), 80-97 Reubi, D., Herrick, C., & Brown, T. (2016). The politics of non-communicable diseases in the global South. Health & place, 39, 179-187. Svensson, M.K. (2020). At the Heart of Living in-Between: Paradoxes, (In)visibility and Blurred Futures in Families Living with Congenital Heart Defects, PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen Vaughan, M. Adjaye-Gbewonyo, K. & Mika, M. (2021) Epidemiological Change and Chronic Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa Social and historical perspectives. London: UCL Press Wahlberg, A. (2014). Knowledge of Living. Somatosphere. 10 November 2014. http://somatosphere.net/2014/knowledge-of-living.html/ Wahlberg, A., Burke, N. & Manderson, L. (2021) Stratified Livability and Pandemic Effects. In Manderson, L., Burke, N. & Wahlberg, A. Viral Loads Anthropologies of Urgency in the Time of COVID-19. London: UCL Press Wahlberg, A., & Rose, N. (2015). The governmentalization of living: calculating global health. Economy and Society, 44(1), 60-90. Whyte, S. R. (Ed.). (2015). Second chances: surviving AIDS in Uganda. Duke University Press. Share this: Share Email Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr LinkedIn [view academic citations] [hide academic citations] New Delhi: Rakshabandhan, the festival of the beautiful bond between brother and sister, will only be celebrated for two and hour this year. The auspicious day is being shrouded by the lunar eclipse, which is considered ominous in Hindu religion. The ritual is observed on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan, on which sisters tie the sacred Rakhi string on their brother's wrists, and pray for their long lives.In turn, the brother vows to protect her sister any trouble that comes her way and gifts her a loving present. According to the astrologers, the lunar eclipse or Chandra Grahan will take place from 10:33 PM IST on Monday night till 12:48 AM. Bhadra Kaal will be observed till 11:04 AM and Sootak will start at 1:40 PM in the afternoon on Monday. According to Hindu beliefs, no important task should be performed during the lunar eclipse. Last time Rakshabandhan and lunar eclipse fell on the same day was in 2005. It was considered very inauspicious occasion. Although the lunar eclipse will start at 10:53 PM, but its Sutak will start nine hours in advance Rakshabandha muhurat: 11:04 AM to 1:29 PM Also read: Partial lunar eclipse will visible on Monday night in India Raksha Bandhan 2016: Top 5 Bollywood Rakshabandhan songs to celebrate the day For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Marsha Woody Zummos legacy as a dance teacher is synonymous with three things: discipline, respect and excellence. Having founded the Marsha Woody Academy of Dance more than 60 years ago, she instilled those characteristics in every dancer she taught. On Sunday, Zummo, one of Southeast Texas most influential ballet and dance pioneers, died of a stroke in her home in Chappell Hill at age 85. Although Marsha Woody Academy was the place where we studied dance, it was where we learned how to become better human beings, said Robert La Fosse, one of Zummos first students and current guest artist at the New York City Ballet. We came to appreciate the true value of hard work and respect for one another. Marsha created a space for us to learn the discipline and focus to strive to reach heights that even we didnt know we could obtain. What we got from Marsha was the foundation to help us become anything we wanted in life. Five years ago, her slowly deteriorating health led her to retire as a dancer teacher after 65 years teaching some of the most celebrated professional ballet dancers from Southeast Texas. La Fosse is one of the many graduates of Zummos academy, whose other notable alumni include Edmund La Fosse, Kristine Richmond, Glenn Edgerton, Margo McCann, Jennifer Mattingly, Allison Odom, Kendra Saufer and Josh Spell. While her strict teaching style fostered some of the most successful ballet dancers from Southeast Texas, Zummo carefully balanced it by building up students self-confidence. Monique Zummo Steinhagen, Zummos daughter, said her mother made an effort to give students with lower skill levels the same amount of positive reinforcement as her more talented students. She would find something about each student to compliment them on, Steinhagen said. Even if it was something small, shed let them know. I try to instruct my staff to do the same thing. Zummo had already become one of the foremost dance teachers shortly after opening her dance academy in 1956, but she solidified her legacy as one of the regions most prominent dance figures when she founded and assumed leadership of the Beaumont Civic Ballet Company in 1971. The company introduced many young Southeast Texas dancers to professional-level productions such as The Nutcracker. McCann, a former student of Zummos and former 19-year professional ballet dancer with the Texas Ballet theater, recalls her experience of a performance of The Nutcracker as a young dancer and the impact it had on her. When I was 5, I was able to be backstage for The Nutcracker and see all of the bright lights it was magical and glorious, McCann said. As a little dancer, it gave you an opportunity to see a live performance and gave it a big city feel. It made you feel as a part of something bigger, more important and more successful. Zummo encouraged the aspirations of students who hoped to someday step beyond the footlights of Southeast Texas. Richmond remembers the instructor expressing this sentiment and said it spoke to her selflessness. She had no desire to keep us at home, Richmond said. If we wanted to dance professionally, she was going to do everything to enable that. Richmond went on to spend many years as a part of Houston ballet and a few years performing on Broadway. Zummo, who graduated from Vidor High School at 16, studied under world-renowned ballet dancers and teachers including Robert Joffrey, Ben Stevenson and David Howard who took on many of Zummos students and helped them rise to the professional pinnacle of dancing. Zummos dance academy was not limited to ballet but included tap, jazz, acrobat, point and hip hop. Since Zummos retirement, Steinhagen has taken over the dance academy and has been instrumental in the Beaumont Civic Ballet Company. Zummo is survived by Steinhagen, son-in-law Harvey Steinhagen III and three grandchildren. Memorial contributions for Zummo can be made to the Beaumont Civic Ballet. The funeral service will take place at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica in Beaumont. jorge.ramos@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/byjorgeramos Lindsay Lebahn has been named the new program manager for the Plug and Play Topeka Animal Health Accelerator. "We are excited to welcome Lindsay Lebahn to the Plug and Play family. Her experience in Topeka, and her passion for community and startups, make her an ideal candidate to help lead our efforts across animal health and beyond, said Stephen Fay, Director of Corporate Partnerships for Plug and Play. Plug and Play Topeka and GoTopeka, a Greater Topeka Partnership organization, have announced that Lindsay Lebahn will be the new Program Manager for the Plug and Play Topeka Animal Health Accelerator. In her role, Lebahn will oversee programming and manage relationships with participating startups and stakeholders. This hire represents the first on-site staff for the startup accelerator in Kansas, with additional hires to be announced. Im thrilled to help launch Plug and Play in Topeka and be a part of an organization that is at the forefront of innovation. Its an exciting opportunity for us as a community to really advance and shape the animal health and ag tech startups reaching for growth in Kansas," said Lebahn. Lebahn has a rich background in marketing, strategic partnerships and program development. She comes to Plug and Play Topeka with previous leadership and event experience with the Academy of Country Music Awards in Nashville, and most recently with the Bajillion Agency where she served as an Account Executive. Before this, Lebahn was the Executive Director of the Forge Young Talent organization, a workforce attraction and retention initiative of GO Topeka and the Greater Topeka Partnership. Lebahn is a graduate of Rhode Island University. Congratulations to Lindsay. She is stepping into an important role that will guide Plug and Play Topeka during its pivotal first stages and on into the future, said Katrin Bridges, Senior Vice President of Innovation, GO Topeka. Her prior background in marketing and team leadership - and her overall dynamic energy - will help make this role a success. The program aims to bring innovative startups from around the world to Kansas every six months, building upon the regions fast-growing and robust animal health industry. The startups will go through three-month accelerator programs aimed at helping the businesses get off the ground. There is a 70 percent average success rate for companies that go through a Plug and Play accelerator program, measured in follow-on capital raised. Startups selected for the program will receive benefits including office space, mentorship, business development, pitch polishing, deal flow and potential investment. "We are excited to welcome Lindsay Lebahn to the Plug and Play family. Her experience in Topeka, and her passion for community and startups, make her an ideal candidate to help lead our efforts across animal health and beyond, said Stephen Fay, Director of Corporate Partnerships for Plug and Play. As Program Manager, she will play a pivotal role for startups as they access our global ecosystem and discover what Topeka and the regional animal health corridor has to offer. I am confident Lindsay will make this experience seamless and further demonstrate why Plug and Play is the ultimate innovation platform." With Lindsay in this new role, the Plug and Play Topeka story has really come full circle, said Matt Pivarnik, CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership. When Lindsay was previously working for us at the Partnership, we were lucky enough to have her be a part of the team that went out to pitch Topeka to Plug and Play. I firmly believe that her involvement was a contributor to our success in obtaining this new startup accelerator program. Based in Silicon Valleys Sunnyvale, Calif., Plug and Play brings together startups, investors, and corporations to help find new opportunities to advance and shape their specific industry through innovation. Plug and Play Topeka is one of seven North American accelerators with additional campuses in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, North Dakota, and Northwest Arkansas. In 2019 alone, Plug and Play accelerated 1,450 startups worldwide. Its wonderful to see the new employment opportunities being created because of Plug and Play. Not just the jobs created through future startups participating in the accelerator, but jobs that the program itself creates. With this accelerator program, we hope to see many new career opportunities emerge in animal health and ag tech in Topeka & Shawnee County. This is the beginning of significant local economic impact made by the Plug and Play program, said Molly Howey, President of GO Topeka. About Plug and Play Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the company has built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since its inception in 2006, Plug and Plays programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 30 locations globally, giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 30,000 startups and 400 official corporate partners, Plug and Play has created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. The company provides active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs and hosts more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in the Plug and Play community have raised over $9 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit plugandplaytechcenter.com. About GO Topeka GO Topeka creates opportunities for economic growth that provide a thriving business climate and fulfilling lifestyle for Topeka and Shawnee County. The Greater Topeka area in Shawnee County represents a community of 178,915 people, located in the Greater Kansas City region. As the state capital of Kansas, Topeka is home to a dynamic employer base with headquartered companies including Hills Pet Nutrition, Advisors Excel, Security Benefit, Capitol Federal and Evergy. Topeka is located less than 40 minutes from suburban Kansas Citys shops and restaurant districts, less than one hour to downtown Kansas City, including the KC Crossroads District, the River Market and the Country Club Plaza, and an hour from Kansas City International Airport. Topeka is proud to be a part of the #KCHeartland. For more information, visit gotopeka.com. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 22:04:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The situation of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia's conflict-affected northernmost Tigray regional state "still remains very precarious" amid improving situations, a senior United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official has said. Speaking to Xinhua, Ann Encontre, UN Refugee Agency Country Representative in Ethiopia, said the situation of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia's Tigray region "is improving and we are getting access." There were about 100,000 Eritrean refugees residing in the Tigray region before the law enforcement exercise that was undertaken by the Ethiopian government against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters, following the TPLF's alleged attack on the Ethiopian army's northern command based in the regional capital, Mekelle. Eritrean refugees in Tigray reside across four camps that are Shimelba and Hitsats in the Northern part, and Mai-Ayni and Adi Harush in the Southern part; some other refugees also reside in non-camp areas across the region and beyond. "Now, we have access to the two camps in the South, not the two camps in the North; and we have accounted for more or less 30,000 of those refugees," the UNHCR Representative told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview. Noting that the two camps in the south were not that much affected by the conflict, Encontre stressed that the refugees have "remained intact and are still there." "However, what is of concern are the camps in the North, and we are getting access now to areas to give assistance, for instance in Mekelle, where some of the refugees ran away," she added. Despite the military exercises having been officially declared finished by the Ethiopian government before, reports indicate sporadic fighting across areas in the region. The Ethiopian government in December emphasized that the conflict "was not a direct threat to the Eritrean refugees" residing within and outside refugee camps in the region. Noting that refugees are coming forward in very small numbers, she said that the UNHCR have moved some 5,600 refugees out of about 20,000. "We are still hoping that the others will come forward, either to be registered or to be given humanitarian assistance or to be relocated to safe places," she added. "However, the situation still remains very precarious and we don't have full contact with all the refugees," Encontre said. While stressing that the UNHCR is "getting more and more access through the government channels," she emphasized financial constraints, in relation to the UNHCR's recent appeal to urgent financial support to its operations in Eritrean refugees in Tigray as well as Ethiopians who fled into Eastern Sudan. The UN had previously launched an appeal for 170 million U.S. dollars for the Tigray response. According to Encontre, only 65 percent has been received, and "we are still in need of 35 percent of the funding that's been asked for." This was an appeal from November to January, and the UN is set to revive the appeal with the new needs, which is expected to be launched as part of a Humanitarian Response Plan that will be issued in the coming months. The number of Ethiopian refugees seeking asylum in the Eastern Sudan have crossed 60,500, according to recent figures from the UNHCR. UNHCR and partners had launched an appeal for 150 million U.S. dollars to the response in Sudan, of which, half of the money have been received so far, it was noted. The East African country hosts nearly 1 million refugees mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan, who are being hosted across 26 camps and non-camp locations, according to the Ethiopian government. Enditem House Speaker Tina Kotek on Wednesday urged lawmakers to support a bill she introduced that would prohibit officers from arresting people on charges of interfering with police if they are passively resisting a police order. The change brings the law into line with a 2017 ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court that declared the charge cannot be used against people who merely refuse to move after police tell them to do so. Kotek argued that police are misusing the charge, particularly during protests. The arrests have stifled free speech rights and disproportionately affected people of color, she said. In September, police arrested Koteks legislative director on the charge during a protest in Southeast Portland. The charge was later dropped. Simply frustrating an officer by failing to adhere to or comply with their direction is not criminal behavior, Kotek told the House Subcommittee on Equitable Policing. She cited The Oregonian/OregonLives article in August that detailed broad use of the charge against homeless people and people of color. We all know that law enforcement officers have a very difficult job. Its important that they have the tools they need to enforce the law, but misuse of (interfering with police officer) erodes public trust and ultimately undermines their ability to serve the public, Kotek said. We have an important opportunity with this bill to reaffirm the original intent of the law. Koteks bill, together with an amendment she introduced, redefines interfering with an officer. The proposed new law would prohibit a person from intentionally or knowingly acting in a manner that prevents an officer from performing their lawful duties with regard to another person or a criminal investigation. It would remove a clause that now says the misdemeanor charge covers when someone simply refuses to obey an officers lawful order. It would say explicitly that the charge doesnt apply when someone is practicing passive resistance, and that it couldnt be lodged against someone for conduct that would constitute any other criminal offense. This change removes the opportunity for confusing an officers authority to give an order, and instead focuses on deterring behavior that actually prevents an officer from doing their job, Kotek said. Statewide associations that represent police chiefs and sheriffs and a coalition of rank-and-file police and sheriffs deputies were silent on the bill Wednesday, providing no public or written testimony. But the subcommittees vice chair -- Rep. Ronald H. Noble, R-McMinnville, a former McMinnville police chief and 28-year police officer -- expressed some reservations. Noble said hes concerned the bill, coupled with another before the committee to repeal a law that now allows police to declare unlawful assemblies, will actually work to impede free speech. Police will have fewer tools to prevent agitators from disrupting peaceful demonstrations, he said. I think we just have to be careful that when we are trying to get to where we want to protect peoples rights to assemble, that we are not creating unintended consequences of actually putting their lives at risk or their safety at risk because we are unable to as law enforcement provide that safety, he said. Yet by days end, Noble signed onto Koteks bill as a co-sponsor. Michael Selvaggio, lobbyist for the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, said later Wednesday that the rank-and-file group generally doesnt oppose bringing laws into accordance with court rulings. And both the Oregon State Sheriffs Association and the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police also came out in support of Koteks bill with her amendment, according to Jason Myers, executive director of the sheriffs association. A study by Oregons Criminal Justice Commission found that statewide arrests for interfering with a police officer increased by 140% from 2010 to 2019 and then dropped significantly in 2020, despite last years mass racial justice protests. The commission collects and analyzes data on crime to local and state government. Ken Sanchagrin, the commissions executive director, cautioned the legislators that the 2020 drop reflected an overall downward trend in arrests across the state because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, statewide arrests on the charge were greater in the 35 counties outside of Multnomah County before the pandemic hit, then there was a steep decline in those counties, Sanchagrin noted. In Multnomah County, a significant spike occurred in use of the interfering with a peace officer charge once mass protests started early last summer, the commission found. Yet both before and after Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt took office and instituted a new prosecution policy for protests in August, the office didnt pursue many of the cases involving police interference arrests, the data showed. In Multnomah County, a significant spike occurred in use of the charge once the protests started, the commission found. Yet both before and after Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt took office and instituted a new prosecution policy for protests in August, the office didnt pursue many of the cases involving police interference arrests, the data showed Statewide, only about a quarter of interference with police arrests have resulted in a conviction, Sanchagrin said. He also said police across Oregon level the charge disproportionately against homeless people and Black people. Black people made up 9.9% of arrests on the charge in Oregon from 2010 through 2019, though they represent only 3% of the states population, Sanchagrin said. Homeless people made up at least 20% of those charged with police interference in the state, Sanchagrin said. The homeless figures came from jail booking information when someone was confirmed as homeless at the time, he said. Use of the charge has veered from its initial legislative intent, according to the committees staff counsel Gillian Fischer. When the law was first proposed in the late 1990s, according to Fischer, police said it would help officers separate people in domestic violence cases when they cant immediately determine victim from perpetrator and in traffic stops when passengers try to intervene while officers do sobriety tests on drivers. Kotek said the charge has been misapplied, not only in Portland but elsewhere in the state. She cited a 2019 case in Corvallis when a college student faced an interfering accusation after she questioned police and didnt identify herself upon being stopped for allegedly riding her bike outside a bike lane and a September arrest of a Jefferson Public Radio reporter who was covering police evictions of a homeless encampment in a public park in Medford. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon worked on the bill with Kotek. Andrea Valderrama, policy director of Oregons ACLU, said, It is imperative that we move forward with the understanding that the role of police should be to facilitate and protect our freedoms, not control and dictate them. If the bill is to stay alive, the subcommittee would forward it to the House Judiciary Committee for review. The goal is to have a group of bills addressing police violence and systemic racism that can be brought to the House and Senate floors by March, said state Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, subcommittee chair. -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian The UN Security Council is voting on a British-drafted resolution that demands that all parties to armed conflicts "engage immediately in a durable, extensive, and sustained humanitarian pause" to allow for COVID-19 vaccinations. The likely adoption of the draft resolution - diplomats said they expect it to pass - is a key test of cooperation at the United Nations between China and new US President Joe Biden's administration. The 15-member Security Council took more than three months to back a call by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global pandemic ceasefire last year due to bickering between China and former US President Donald Trump's administration. Under pandemic procedure, council members have 24 hours to vote in writing. The result will be announced on Friday. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Russia, France, Britain or China to be adopted. The draft resolution expresses its intention to review specific situations raised by Guterres where COVID-19 vaccination is being impeded and to "consider what further measures may be necessary to ensure such impediments are removed and hostilities paused to enable vaccination". It also asks developed countries to donate vaccine doses to low and middle-income countries and other nations in need, particularly through the COVAX vaccine sharing facility. This is co-led by by the GAVI alliance, which secures vaccines for poor countries, the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the UN Children's Fund. The draft resolution "calls for the strengthening of national and multilateral approaches and international cooperation ... in order to facilitate equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines in armed conflict situations, post-conflict situations and complex humanitarian emergencies". It would also stress the need for international partnerships to scale up manufacturing and distribution capabilities. Short link: Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), presides over a Chairperson's Council meeting of the 13th CPPCC National Committee and addresses the meeting in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, held a Chairperson's Council meeting Wednesday. A work plan for the CPPCC National Committee to carry out democratic oversight was reviewed at the meeting presided over by Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee. While addressing the meeting, Wang said the CPPCC National Committee will continue to carry out consultative supervision following the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan, which is of great significance for the CPPCC to play its role in the national governance system. Wang called on the special committees of the CPPCC National Committee to conduct in-depth investigations and studies, strengthen coordination and cooperation with other forms of supervision and offer relevant suggestions, thus contributing to fully building a modern socialist China. The meeting heard a report on the preparations for the fourth session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. Wang stressed the implementation of the decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee on successfully holding the annual "two sessions" and the requirements of regular epidemic prevention measures. The meeting also heard a report on the exploitation, utilization and protection of data resources. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions In September, Wisconsins leading theater announced plans for a live production of Jacob Marleys Christmas Carol, after upgrading its HVAC systems and negotiating protocols with the City of Milwaukee and with Actors Equity and other unions. Those plans did not work out due to newly restrictive regulations introduced in Milwaukee following the fall resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Athens City and Limestone County superintendents and four others across the state are being accused of multiple counts of fraud and identity theft. One parent told WAAY 31 it makes her question who you can trust, because school officials are supposed to be someone we can trust. Innocent children were used as pawns for a money game," said Deborah Brasher. "They betrayed everyone in the oath they took when they took that point of office. They knew what they were doing. They thought they were above the system, and no one is above the system. No one is above the law. Brasher has two students in virtual learning with Madison County. She's thankful her kids aren't impacted by this, but she feels for the children and parents that are. These poor kids now have to go through and know that the people that they were supposed to be in their best interest were actually stealing their lives," said Brasher. She said it's plain and simple, the people accused were putting hundreds of children's future at risk, all for some extra money. The six people involved are accused of stealing around $7 million in state education funds. This weekend only, drivers can save up to $2,000 on the 2020 Master Solutions Incentive Package Mercedes-Benz Arrowhead Sprinter, a dealership that sells commercial vans to small businesses and as recreational vehicles, is offering a 2020 Master Solutions Incentive Package at a special rate through the end of the month. Small business owners in the Phoenix area looking for an upfitted van can save up to $2,000 if they move quickly to take advantage of this special offer. This offer is available through the end of February, giving customers one final weekend to take advantage of this offer. The special offer is available to customers who purchase any 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris van or 2020 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van with any package from Master Solutions. This offer is not available on other models or model years and is only valid for qualified customers. Master Solutions offers custom, special-order vehicles that are especially popular with small business owners. These custom orders can be filled by a provider chosen by the customer. Custom orders from Master Solutions can be optimized for businesses such as refrigeration and delivery companies, people transporters, plumbers, electricians and many other trades. There is also a mobility package to upfit passenger vans to better fit the needs of disabled clients. Individuals who wish to get a van upfitted often do so for the purpose of camping or living out of their van for an extended period of time. Drivers and small business owners who are interested in an upfitted van are encouraged to visit Mercedes-Benz Arrowhead Sprinter this weekend to save money on their purchase. More information can be found online at the dealerships website, arrowheadmbsprinter.com. 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. Members of the RCMP search the property surrounding an apartment building in Surrey, B.C. on October 24, 2007. The British Columbia Court of Appeal has revealed its reasons for allowing two men found guilty of the first-degree murder of six people in an apartment building in Surrey, B.C., a new hearing to argue an abuse of process. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward Twenty-five years ago, a Boeing 747 flying from New York City to Paris exploded in midair and broke apart just off the coast of Long Island. All 230 people on board the plane, Trans World Airlines Flight 800, were killed, and the wreckage plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean. In the lengthy investigation that followed, the National Transportation Safety Board had workers salvage the remains from the ocean floor and painstakingly reconstruct the plane. When they finished, the reconstruction was moved to a warehouse in Virginia, where it has been used to train plane crash investigators for nearly two decades. But with the lease on the warehouse nearing its end, the agency announced plans on Monday to decommission and destroy the remaining wreckage from one of the deadliest plane crashes in U.S. history. The destruction will erase some of the last physical traces of an expensive four-year investigation that concluded that electrical failure brought down the plane a finding disputed by conspiracy theorists who believed a missile was responsible and that had a lasting impact. Steven Seagal, the 80s and 90s action movie star, may be long past his Hollywood prime, but hes still very much around. These days, hes in Abu Dhabi, attending the 2021 edition of the International Defense Exhibition, also known as IDEX 2021. Hes there in an official capacity as the brand ambassador for the UAE-based Streit Group.Initially set up in Canada, Streit Group has been in UAE since 2005. At this years IDEX, the company unveiled four new armored vehicles, including the countrys first electric tracked vehicle, called STORM. It just happens to be Seagals favorite, and you can catch a better look at it in the video below, shot during a brief conversation with The National News Streit Group makes armored personnel vehicles , luxury and security vehicles, and armored boats. This year, they unveiled STORM, the tracked electric vehicle for both military and civilian use ; DHABI, a state-of-the-art MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle); NISR, a mounted infantry troop carrier and ground support vehicle; and CONDOR, a cost-effective MRAP. Seagal was pretty clear about his personal favorite.The design of the STORM looks like a crossover between a Lamborghini and a Stealth fighter, and is definitely one of the head turners at IDEX 2021, Seagal says in a statement. I believe in Streits mission to save lives around the world and am honored to unveil these vehicles which will contribute to achieving that goal.Speaking to the aforementioned media outlet, Seagal says the STORM is also the one vehicle at the expo hed buy if he was in the market for one. Designed to be multi-purpose, its armored and bomb-proof, and can travel both on land and on water, in addition to being completely silent. And Seagal isnt exactly far off in saying it looks like the love child of a Lambo and a Stealth fighter. Image Credit: Shutterstock/anyaivanova This year, the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy is excited to host a series of talks themed around the pharmaceutical industry. Topics will cover: Biopharmaceuticals The technologies involved, how atomic structures are determined, and biocatalysis. Analytical instruments in pharmaceutical analyses An overview of mass spectrometry, Raman spectrometry, and high-performance liquid chromatography. Lab automation and machine learning The benefits and limitations of these innovations in the pharma industry. The impact of COVID-19 on the pharmaceutical industry How pharma has managed the demands of a pandemic, and the power of collaboration. Biopharma Biopharmaceuticals are drugs whose active substance is manufactured in or extracted from materials of biological origin for the purpose of treating or preventing disease. Although faced with several challenges, biopharmaceuticals have enormous potential. Accordingly, biopharma has become one of the largest and fastest developing sectors in the pharmaceutical industry. Their efficacy in treating previously untreatable diseases is, in part, a testament to the panoply of analytical instruments available at each step of the pipeline. The shifting landscape of medicine and development of nucleotide-based therapeutics will be explored in a talk by AstraZeneca entitled: mRNA TherapeuticsAnalytical and Bioanalytical Characterization. Furthermore, Professor Nakagawa of Osaka University will expound the current and future status of structural biology technologies used in drug discovery research with a focus on our most powerful tools; X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance. The utilization of biocatalysis to support drug development bolsters the power of this industry. The development of methods for quantification of total residual protein in the drug islatravir, synthesized by biocatalysis, will be discussed by speakers from Merck & Co., Inc. Analytical Instruments in Pharmaceutical Analyses Analytical chemistry has transformed the standards and scope of the pharmaceutical industry. Ubiquitous in the development of pharmaceuticals, analytical chemistry helps ensure quality, stability and safety. Mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy and HP-LC three highly popular techniques will be discussed in a series of talks. Firstly, the importance of detecting the genotoxin, nitrosamine, and the development of nominal and high-resolution mass spectrometry will be presented by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Second, the growing applications of Raman spectroscopy will be expounded by Bristol Myers Squibb Co., highlighting the Raman journey from early development to the transferability of in-line and off-line methods at various stages of drug development. Finally, GlaxoSmithKline will outline their method development strategy (MDS) for guiding analysts through a more streamlined approach for screening the various HPLC parameters and evaluating results. Lab Automation and Machine Learning Lab automation can provide an efficient way of managing sections of laboratory workflow that are routine, repetitive and high volume. It can free-up time for skilled staff to attend higher-order tasks and reduce laboratory running costs, as well as improve productivity, reliability, and the safety of procedures. Machine learning, a method using data analysis for automated analytical model building, is founded on the concept that algorithms can improve through experience, identify patterns and make decisions with minimal human intervention. When applied to the pharma industry, it can improve decision-making, optimize innovation, and increase research efficiency. It can also refine many aspects of the pharma industry from screening drug compounds and predicting compound success rates to identifying candidates for clinical trials. At Pittcon, Melodie Christensen from Merck & Co., Inc. will discuss data-science driven categorical parameter selection in the autonomous optimization of a stereoselective Suzuki coupling. In addition, speakers from GlaxoSmithKline will discuss automated product development for long acting injectable (LAI) formulations, and speakers from Merck & Co., Inc. will discuss recent efforts in overcoming the challenges of bottlenecking in synthetic route development formed from time constraints in developing efficient and productive chromatographic methods before each processing step. The Impact of COVID-19 on the Pharmaceutical Industry During the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community was looked to for answers. In response, a vaccine was produced shattering records in both expedience and mass collaboration. Among a host of feats, the rapid response was a testament to scientific progress, which can be attributed to the indispensable power of analytical chemistry. The use of computer-aided drug design for the design, molecular docking and in silico analysis of analogues of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine against a SARS-CoV-2 target will be discussed in a presentation by Naruka Yakubu from the University of Jos. This will be followed by a presentation from Shimadzu Scientific Instruments entitled: COVID-19 and the adaptation to changing analytical demands for the production of hand sanitizers and their ingredients. Conclusion With COVID-19, the vital importance of pharma in society has been reaffirmed. Pharma and biopharma, including the suite of analytical technologies at their disposal, are essential for tackling the challenges that lie aheadnamely, antimicrobial resistance, rising age-related diseases, and the threat of novel pathogens. The past year has witnessed a whirlwind of advancements, with the pharma industry undergoing rapid change. By attending Pittcon, you will be able to understand the latest developments in the pharma industry. LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) The UK has sanctioned another six military top-ranking officers of the Myanmar army, including Commander in Chief General Min Aung Hlaing, for alleged human rights violations following the February 1 coup against President Win Myint and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the UK Foreign Office announced on Thursday. "Today's package of measures sends a clear message to the military regime in Myanmar that those responsible for human rights violations will be held to account, and the authorities must hand back control to a government elected by the people of Myanmar," foreign minister Dominic Raab said in a statement. On February 1, Myanmar's military overthrew the government and declared a year-long state of emergency hours before the newly-elected parliament was due to convene. State counselor Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, along with other civilian officials accused of election fraud, have been placed under house arrest, awaiting trial. The coup triggered mass demonstrations across the country and according to media reports, at least three people have been killed after the police used live ammunition against protesters. The six military figures sanctioned on Thursday add to the 19 previously listed by the UK government. "The measures will stop those individuals from travelling to the United Kingdom, and will prevent businesses and institutions from dealing with their funds or economic resources in this country," the Foreign Office stated. The UK, which has requested the immediate release of Suu Kyi and Win Mint, also announced the temporary suspension of all promotion of trade with Myanmar and will ensure that UK companies in Myanmar are not trading with business owned by the military. The following sites are now offering COVID-19 vaccinations in Shelby County: COVID-19 Vaccination Sites in Shelby County Individuals seeking COVID-19 vaccination in Shelby County can visit https://covid19.tn.gov/covid-19-vaccines/vaccination-locations/ to find information on providers in the county and how to schedule an appointment for vaccination. Shelby County is currently vaccinating people age 65 and older and those in Phases 1a and 1b of Tennessees COVID-19 Vaccination Plan. NASHVILLE, Tenn. The Tennessee Department of Health is working with partners in Shelby County to ensure continued equitable and efficient distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the community. Vaccination appointments are currently being scheduled at multiple sites in Shelby County for residents eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. The city of Memphis is also holding two pop-up vaccination events this weekend in partnership with local faith-based organizations: Feb. 26 Annointed Temple of Praise 3939 Riverdale Road Make an appointment Feb. 27 Cane Creek Missionary Baptist Church 1785 Elvis Presley Blvd. Make an appointment Additional information on COVID-19 vaccination sites operated by the city of Memphis, including hours of operation and how to book appointments for future dates, is available online at https://covid19.memphistn.gov/vaccine/. On Friday, February 19, the Shelby County Health Department reported more than 1,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were discarded due to expiration. The Governor's Unified Command Group immediately deployed state health personnel to provide support, review handling procedures and assess the Shelby County Health Department's inventory of vaccines. This is an ongoing investigation of Shelby County Health Departments handling of vaccine inventory. The Tennessee Department of Health has embedded personnel at SCHD for technical assistance and monitoring of their pharmacy operation, and has formally requested additional on-site assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccine distribution and administration will continue as scheduled, and Shelby County will continue to receive the full population-based allocation of COVID-19 vaccinations. Going forward, TDH will assist SCHD with improving efficiency of operations of their COVID-19 vaccination sites. TDH expects federal partners may also investigate the situation. The mission of the Tennessee Department of Health is to protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of people in Tennessee. Learn more about TDH services and programs at www.tn.gov/health. Connect with TDH on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn @TNDeptofHealth! MISSISSAUGA, ON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Yesterday, Novo Nordisk a global healthcare company with Canadian headquarters in Mississauga, and the University of Toronto (U of T) announced a new research hub at U of T's Mississauga campus that will bring leading public health experts together to help reduce chronic illnesses across the globe. "We are thrilled that Novo Nordisk and U of T chose Mississauga as the home for their new research network that will support our goal of creating a healthier City and world," said Mayor Bonnie Crombie. "In Peel Region, one in 10 residents live with diabetes, which is 40 per cent higher than the rest of Ontario. We understand there is a direct correlation between healthy citizens and the economic productivity of society. Sadly, COVID-19 has impacted vulnerable people more severely such as those who suffer from chronic illnesses which is why we support research in our community to help improve the health of our residents and people across the globe." As part of the City of Mississauga's commitment to reduce Type 2 diabetes among residents, two webinars were hosted in 2020 and 2021 that engaged community stakeholders on how we can work together to put health at the centre of City policies to support a healthier society. "This partnership complements the City of Mississauga's Economic Development Strategy, which emphasizes the importance of creating initiatives that support a healthy lifestyle, as well as the Life Science Cluster Strategy, which cultivates innovation between stakeholders," said Harold Dremin, Acting Director of Economic Development at the City of Mississauga. "Mississauga is home to many newcomers to Canada and the country's largest community-based hospital system, which is why we offer a unique opportunity for researchers to address the root cause of rising Type 2 diabetes in a highly-diverse setting." Novo Nordisk and U of T invested $20 million each to establish the Novo Nordisk Network for Healthy Populations, a network of experts that will draw on U of T's leading public health research. The network plans to explore critical concerns related to chronic disease, research new technologies including virtual care and remote training and support and develop interventions to prevent an unsustainable rise of chronic illnesses. "Fulfilling our company's goal to defeat diabetes, obesity and other serious chronic diseases requires much more than innovative medicine," said Beatrice Clerc, President of Novo Nordisk Canada. "One hundred years after the discovery of insulin, we're proud to once again partner with U of T with the ambition of helping society to address the root causes of Type 2 diabetes and obesity." This network will be a partnership between the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and U of T Mississauga. "The historic investment will build capacity for research and education at U of T. It will bring together existing expertise from across the University and our health-sector partners in Mississauga and the broader region," said U of T President Meric Gertler. "Ultimately it heralds a new era of hope for people facing diabetes and other chronic diseases here in Canada, and around the world." SOURCE City of Mississauga Related Links https://mississauga.ca/ 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. South Africa: N West Premier congratulates class of 2020 North West Premier, Job Mokgoro, has congratulated the Grade 12 class of 2020, who managed to defy the odds and attain a 76.2% pass rate. I am buoyed by the fact that out of 433 schools that taught Grade 12 in the North West in 2020, 288 schools [achieved] 70% and beyond. This shows quality performance against all odds, Mokgoro said. Addressing the hybrid sitting of the North West Provincial Legislature on Thursday, Mokgoro congratulated Jana Geyser from Rustenburg High School, who obtained seven distinctions, attaining above 90% in all her subjects to become the best Grade 12 learner in the province. Mokgoro said to ensure that teachers and learners are better equipped to meaningfully participate in the 4IR, robotics and coding, the roll out of connectivity remains paramount. To this extent, we are increasing access to the internet through broadband and Wi-Fi connection from the current 25% of our learners to 75% by the end of the 2021 academic year. In addition, we are extending access to broadband and Wi-Fi connection to non-teaching staff, such as cleaners in our schools, to enable them to participate in online classes and homework for their own studies, especially in previously disadvantaged communities, Mokgoro said. Mokgoro said the province is intensively promoting maths and science in schools, as well as fast tracking reading revolution programmes. Mokgoro said three additional schools in the province will increase enrolment of learners in the agriculture learning areas, so as to ensure that learners leave school with skills required in the farming sector and business in general. This would in turn encourage young people to participate in food production and create jobs in the farming sector, Mokgoro said. Mokgoro said the outbreak of COVID-19 came with new protocols, among them that learners and teachers had to maintain social distancing. This implied that more classrooms would be needed. Greater effort should be given to providing running water for all schools. Proper fencing will be required, and appropriate sanitation facilities are a must. We do this because the safety of learners is of paramount importance to us. Mokgoro said to ensure the security of learners and teachers, 87 fencing projects have been completed and 27 are under construction. We will be providing 95 more schools with fencing in the 2021/22 financial year. Furthermore, in order to restore the dignity of our learners and educators, appropriate sanitation facilities have been provided, Mokgoro said. He assured that work is underway to extend the provision of water and sanitation to more schools in need. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 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. 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. William Burns, nominee for Central Intelligence Agency director, testifies during his Senate Select Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing in Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 24, 2021. (Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images) CIA Nominee Says He Cut Ties With Chinese Propaganda Group as President of Foreign Policy Think Tank President Joe Bidens nominee for CIA director spoke candidly on Wednesday about the Chinese governments authoritarian bent, and its use of front groups to influence U.S. policy towards Beijing. William Burns also faced questions about his tenure at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which had a relationship with one of the Chinese government front groups. Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee that shortly after he took over at Carnegie in 2015, he severed ties with the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation due to expansion of Chinese influence operations. Despite the claim, Carnegie and the foundation maintained a relationship as late as 2017. William Burns, the nominee for CIA director, called the Chinese government a formidable, authoritarian adversary during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, while facing questions about his tenure as president of a foreign policy think tank that received funding from a businessman and Chinese front group with links to the Chinese Communist Party. During the hearing, Burns addressed a relationship between the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which he took over in March 2015, and the Chinese-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a Hong Kong-based think tank that operates under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. Burns told Sen. Marco Rubio that he inherited Carnegies relationship with CUSEF but cut ties with the group not long after he began his tenure. The career diplomat told Rubio he was increasingly worried about the expansion of Chinese influence operations. Despite Burns statement, Carnegie and CUSEF maintained a relationship for at least two years after Burns took over the think tank. CUSEFs last donation to Carnegie was in 2017, according to a spokesperson for Carnegie and its 2018 annual report. Tung Chee-hwa, the founder of CUSEF, also visited the Beijing-based Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in March 2017, according to its website. Tung was joined by Chen Xu, a communist party-affiliated president of Tsinghua University. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported this month that CUSEF contributed between $200,000 and $500,000 to Carnegie while Burns led the organization. A Chinese businessman who serves on one of the communist partys advisory boards joined Carnegie as a trustee. Zhang Yichen, the businessman, also donated between $750,000 and $1,550,000 to the think tank. Carnegie has used the contributions to help fund the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, which is based in Beijing. We are very fortunate to have Zhang Yichen on our board, Burns said in October 2016, when Zhang joined Carnegie. While Burns tenure at Carnegie may have caused some concerns for Republicans, he offered an aggressive rebuke of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during his opening remarks at Wednesdays hearing. Burns testified that the Chinese government has strengthened its capabilities to steal intellectual property, repress its own people, bully its neighbors, expand its global reach, and build influence in American society. He also acknowledged in response to written questions released before the confirmation hearing that the CCP uses CUSEF as part of a whole-of-government approachto try and influence political, economic, and cultural developments to benefit CCP interests. Burns said in the written response that he agreed that the government mobilizes and directs businesses, non-government organizations and members of the Chinese expatriate community to diversify influence efforts and transmit their views in multiple channels. Burns agreed with the assessment that the Chinese government uses various front groups, including CUSEF and Confucius Institutes, for propaganda efforts in the U.S. Beijing tries to advance its soft power and pro-China propaganda through cultural and educational programs at US academic institutions, Burns said in written responses released before the hearing. During the Trump administration, U.S. officials ramped up scrutiny of Confucius Institutes, which have partnered with more than 65 American colleges and more than 500 K-12 schools. The Trump administration designated the institutes a foreign mission of Beijinga category typically applied to foreign embassies and consulates. The Trump administration attempted to push through a rule on Dec. 31, 2020, that would require American schools to disclose partnerships with Confucius Institutes. The Biden administration withdrew the proposal on Jan. 26. Burns was not asked about the proposal, but he did say that Confucius Institutes use access to university officials to spread positive portrayals of China, and steer conversations from topics sensitive to the CCP. Rubio also quizzed Burns about the DCNFs reporting on invitations he issued on behalf of Carnegie to congressional staffers for an all-expenses-paid junket to Beijing in 2019. The staffers met with Chinese academics, and government officials, including a member of the communist regime and the president of the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), a front group affiliated with the communist party. Burns defended the congressional trip, saying that it was intended to provide congressional staff members with an opportunity to engage directly with Chinese counterparts and to express their concerns about Chinese actions and malign behavior quite directly. I share your concerns about foreign influence operations, he told Rubio at the hearing. By Chuck Ross From The Daily Caller News Foundation Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Nobody will say it publicly, but there are more than a few Liberals and Nationals who think the very fact of the heart condition means Reynolds should find another job. It is a hasty judgment. It is also at odds with at least one lesson from history. Loading Having a heart condition did not stop Kevin Rudd becoming prime minister in 2007 after plenty of publicity about an operation on his aortic valve years earlier. Having another operation in 2011 did not stop him becoming PM again in 2013.When Rudd lost power, either at the hands of Bill Shorten (yes, and others) or the Australian public, it wasnt because of his ticker. So Reynolds can be direct with voters about her condition. For the moment, her office will not even say what it is. It is the wrong approach. The bigger questions are about her head, not her heart. Her judgment, not her compassion. The strongest rebuke on this comes from Morrison himself, who says he should have been told about the alleged rape sooner. Why did she not take that one simple step? Why did she not say: Prime Minister, this debate in the media about the treatment of women in Parliament only scratches the surface. I cant tell you the names but I know of one case that is far, far worse. Perhaps that would not have changed anything, but Morrison said on Thursday she could have given him anonymised information about what happened. Morrison insists he only knew of the alleged rape on February 15, when it was reported in the media. Labor mocks the claim but has no proof he is wrong. Has the Prime Minister misled Parliament? What he has done is quite different. He has placed his neck on a guillotine and put the blade under the control of anyone who can produce a call record, an email or any other evidence that he lied. No Prime Minister takes that risk lightly. Morrison must be very, very confident he is right. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Women Marise Payne at an International Womens Day breakfast on Thursday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Will Reynolds have to go? Morrison made no mention of her rush to hospital when he spoke at the start of question time on Wednesday. He did not praise her, wish her well or update the House on her condition. Only the next day, when asked if her position was tenable, did he comment. Shes doing a great job. It was the answer he had to give. Others are not helping much. Marise Payne, the Minister for Women, has been as visible as a submarine. Very quiet engine, no torpedo. Payne spoke on radio on February 15 and again three days later but has not gone out to defend Reynolds this week. Payne is too silent too often, something her colleagues accept with resignation. But this was a fortnight of Parliament dominated by one issue, the sexual assault of women, and the Minister for Women barely emerged from her office and the Senate chamber. Only when Morrison attended a parliamentary breakfast for International Womens Day did Payne make a brief media appearance. She stood behind the Prime Minister. He did all the talking. Time and again, cabinet ministers choose not to speak up. When police told Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton about the case on February 11 this year, he chose not to tell Morrison immediately about claims of rape in their own wing of Parliament House. Dutton had the discretion to tell the leader. He decided not to do so. Dutton said it was a she said, he said matter. He left it to his chief-of-staff to talk to Morrisons chief-of-staff the next day. No urgency. Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton in Question Time on Thursday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The questions will not go away. And they are not so much about who knew what and when but about who did what and when, because that explains who, if anyone, actually cared. Reynolds seemed to care, even if she failed to do enough. Those who know her describe her as a strong defender of women during her time in the military, where she served three decades in the Army Reserves, gained a Conspicuous Service Cross and reached the rank of Brigadier. Morrison is reluctant to trigger another reshuffle. Reynolds, in turn, is said to be champing at the bit to get back to her job. She may be out of hospital as soon as Friday and could return to her office after a week on leave. That will be a good time for her to take the questions she missed on Wednesday. Anticipating a surge in veterans seeking medical care after the pandemic ends, Department of Veterans Affairs officials said Wednesday that $17 billion marked for the VA in the Biden administration''s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill is needed so that it can continue providing all eligible veterans treatment. Acting VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Richard Stone said the department expects a "bow wave" of veterans seeking care that was delayed or deferred during the pandemic, and anticipates as many as 300,000 additional veterans enrolling in VA care, having lost their health insurance as a result of pandemic unemployment. Stone said the VA is "down by 12,000 surgeries a month" -- such as knee replacements and other types of non-emergency treatment -- that were not done elsewhere, and it expects a surge in appointments in late 2021 and early 2022. Read Next: 39-Year-Old Navy Chief Is 4th Sailor in 20 Days to Die of COVID-19 "When I was in [the Department of Defense] doing wartime funding, we viewed this as what we call contingency operation funding. I view the American Rescue Plan and the [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES] Act as a contingency operation," Stone said Wednesday during a hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The Biden administration's American Rescue Plan includes a $15 minimum wage, $1,400 stimulus checks for those who make less than $75,000 a year, an increase to the child tax credit, funds for the vaccine rollout, and money for reopening schools and supporting small business, as well as money for federal agencies for unexpected expenses related to the pandemic. The House Budget Committee approved the package Monday in a 19-16 vote, largely along party lines, with one Democrat, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, joining Republicans in voting against it. The House is expected to vote on the measure later this week and, if it is approved, it will be considered by the Senate. Under the legislation, $13.5 billion would go to VA health services, including $4 billion for private care in situations where a veteran's doctor determines that non-VA care is best for them. The bill also includes $400 million for training programs for veterans who lost their jobs during the pandemic, and $272 million to help clear the backlog of claims applications that developed as a result of office closures. It would allocate $750 million for state veterans homes to be used to improve care for veterans in these homes, which are not run by the VA. This money would be used for cleaning, personal protective equipment and perceived staffing shortages. The VA has roughly $10.5 million in funding left over from the CARES Act, which was passed last March. Committee ranking Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas asked about that funding and questioned whether the VA needs the $17 billion. "I want to make sure that this care is not occurring in the community, under community care, it's not occurring in the VA," Moran said. Stone said the CARES Act continues to fund COVID-19 treatment for veterans, as well as personal protective equipment, some programs for homeless veterans and community care. As of Wednesday, the VA had logged a total of 225,797 cases of COVID since the start of the pandemic, with 10,342 total deaths. Active cases, however, are declining rapidly, down to 5,530 cases from a high of 20,650 cases on Jan. 11. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime Related: The VA Has Now Administered More COVID-19 Vaccinations Than 42 States Australia's laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news are ready to take effect, though the laws' architect said it will take time for the digital giants to strike media deals. The Parliament on Thursday passed amendments to the so-called News Media Bargaining Code agreed between Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday. In return for the changes, Facebook agreed to lift a ban on Australians accessing and sharing news. Rod Sims, the competition regulator who drafted the code, said he was happy that the amended legislation would address the market imbalance between Australian news publishers and the two gateways to the internet. All signs are good, Sims told Australian Broadcasting Corp. The purpose of the code is to address the market power that clearly Google and Facebook have. Google and Facebook need media, but they don't need any particular media company, and that meant media companies couldn't do commercial deals, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair added. The rest of the laws had passed earlier, so they can now be implemented. Google has already struck deals with major Australian news businesses in recent weeks including News Corp and Seven West Media. Frydenberg said he was pleased to see progress by Google and more recently Facebook in reaching commercial deals with Australian news businesses. But Country Press Australia, which represents 161 regional newspapers across the country, has raised concerns that tiny publications outside large cities might miss out. Sims said he was not surprised that the platforms would strike deals with the large city businesses first. I don't see any reason why anybody should doubt that all journalism will benefit, Sims said. There things take time. Google and Facebook don't have unlimited resources to go around talking to everybody. I think this has got a long way to play out, he added. Chris Moos, a lecturer at Oxford University's Business School, said the latest amendments amounted to a small victory for Zuckerberg. Moos said the legislation would likely result in small payouts for most Australian news publishers. But Facebook could again block Australian news if negotiations broke down. The legislation was designed to curb the outsized bargaining power of Facebook and Google in their negotiations with Australian news providers. The digital giants would not be able to abuse their positions by making take-it-or-leave-it payment offers to news businesses for their journalism. Instead, in the case of a standoff, an arbitration panel would make a binding decision on a winning offer. Frydenberg and Facebook confirmed that the two sides agreed to amendments to the proposed legislation. The changes would give digital platforms one month's notice before they are formally designated under the code. That would give those involved more time to broker agreements before they are forced to enter binding arbitration arrangements. A statement on Tuesday by Campbell Brown, Facebook's vice president for news partnerships, added that the deal allows the company to choose which publishers it will support, including small and local ones. Frydenberg said his department will review the code within a year to ensure it is delivering outcomes that are consistent with government's policy intent. Also read: Google Cloud gets full cloud service provider tag; eyes public sector for growth in India Sri Lanka should respect the rights of its minority Tamils, India on Thursday told the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which of late once again threw the spotlight on the atrocities allegedly committed by the security forces of the island nation during the 2009 crackdown on the rebels. We believe that respecting the rights of the Tamil community, including through meaningful devolution, contributes directly to the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka, Indra Mani Pandey, Indias permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council. Therefore, he added, we advocate that delivering on the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil community is in the best interests of Sri Lanka. Pandey was participating in an interactive dialogue at the UNHRC on the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Sri Lankas progress in investigating allegations of atrocities committed by the security forces of the island nation during the military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. With the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu round the corner, the government led by the BJP over the past few weeks raised its pitch over rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka, nudging Colombo to fully implement the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the Indian Ocean island nation to ensure devolution of power to the local governments in its Tamil-majority Northern and Eastern Provinces. India highlighted the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a tour to poll-bound Tamil Nadu. He had reaffirmed Indias steadfast support to Tamils in Sri Lanka during an earlier visit to the state. Bachelets report last month noted that the failure of the Sri Lankan government to address past violations of human rights had significantly heightened the risk of such violations being repeated. The damning report highlighted the worrying trends over the past year, such as deepening impunity, increasing militarization of governmental functions, ethno-nationalist rhetoric, and intimidation of civil society. Nearly 12 years after the armed conflict in Sri Lanka ended, impunity for grave human rights violations and abuses by all sides is more entrenched than ever, with the current government proactively obstructing investigations and trials, and reversing the limited progress that had been previously made, the report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out. The assessment of the High Commissioner regarding developments nearly 12 years from the end of the conflict raises important concerns, Pandey stated. Kochi, Feb 25 : A Kerala court on Thursday refused to cancel the bail of popular Malayalam film actor Dileep who is an accused in the actress abduction case. It was the prosecution which approached the trial court near here with a prayer that the bail granted to Dileep be cancelled as he has violated the bail conditions. The court however refused to consider the demand of the prosecution that Dileep while on bail was trying to influence the witness. It now remains to be seen, if the prosecution will approach the Kerala High Court. The actress was abducted and assaulted in a moving car in Kochi on February 17, 2017. Dileep was arrested in July 2017 in connection with the case and spent several weeks in jail before securing bail. Dileep has been named as a conspirator in the case and been charged with "revenge crime". In the trial that began last year, the court has by now examined close to 200 witnesses. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Pictured: Rhys Christie, who was today found not guilty of five counts of rape at Bulford Military Court The captain of a Royal Navy ship today sobbed with relief as he was cleared of raping a drunk cadet after she vomited over a pub table. Rhys Christie was found not guilty of five counts of rape after he was alleged to have 'pounced on the vulnerability' of an 18-year-old woman following two nights out. Bulford Military Court heard the teenage cadet had vomited in a pub on one occasion, and had 'no memory' of events until she awoke in Lt Christie's hotel room. But Lt Christie told the court she was a willing participant in all sexual activities, claiming she had indicated her consent by way of a 'wry smile' and 'giving me the eye'. The former commanding officer of the HMS Archer, 29, was today cleared of all charges following a three-day trial and 11 hours of deliberations by a panel. The verdict marks the end of the second trial into the accusations, after the first was scrapped for legal reasons as it neared the end last November. Despite clearing him, the board today told Lt Christie he had 'fundamentally failed' in his role as commanding officer and in his duty of care to cadets. The judge said: 'Having heard the evidence in this case the board considers that your behaviour as commanding officer of HMS Archer fell far short of that expected of a naval officer, and in particular an officer in command of one of Her Majesty's warships, and that it was entirely inconsistent with the core values of the Royal Navy. 'You were no doubt carefully selected for the commanding role of HMS Archer, and as such were an ambassador of the Royal Navy. You fundamentally failed in that role. 'Your behaviour calls in to question your ability to serve in the Royal Navy and we invite your chain of command to consider that issue with care.' Pictured: Lieutenant Christie leaving Bulford Military Court after he was cleared today The former commanding officer of the HMS Archer, 29, was today cleared of all charges following a three-day trial and 11 hours of deliberations by the panel. Pictured: HMS Archer Lt Christie admitted he 'abused his power' by sleeping with the cadet, but had maintained he did not rape her following nights out in Eyemouth, Scotland, and Ramsgate, Kent. Between the two incidents, the pair had consensual sex, the panel were told. Referring to the first alleged incident in Eyemouth, Lt Christie told the trial: 'We were sat next to each other, it wasn't so much playing footsies, it was more her calf rubbing against my calf. 'I bought a round of drinks for everyone and I also bought an additional shot of Sourz for everyone. 'It came out the blue, her being sick. We were all taken aback by it, it wasn't like she deteriorated throughout the evening. 'She got on to her feet, took herself to the bathroom. She wasn't stumbling or falling over, she was a bit shaken.' He admitted she was 'drunk' but 'wasn't unsteady, she wasn't slurring her words. She wasn't outwardly drunk'. Lt Christie said she tried to kiss him in the pub toilet after he brought her a glass of water, to which he said 'no, not here'. Lt Christie, who now serves on nuclear submarine HMS Vengeance, claimed the cadet was a willing participant in all sexual activities, claiming she had indicated her consent by way of a 'wry smile' and 'giving me the eye' When the pair were outside the pub, he asked her 'are we going back to the hotel?', to which he said she gave a 'wry smile'. Lt Christie said they had 'no difficulty' getting back to his hotel room and that although she didn't explicitly give consent to sex he had 'no concerns about her willingness' because she 'gave me the eye'. Referring to the second incident in Ramsgate, Lt Christie told police that the teenager was 'fairly sober'. He told the court: 'She was willing, pulling me in to her when we were kissing. it was a mutual interaction. 'We were both freely partaking in sexual interactions on the two evenings. It was fun, consensual, it was back and forth, I was taking the lead, she was taking the lead, it was nothing but consensual.' Ellie Fargin, defending, said: 'She was not physically taken [to the hotel rooms]. She walked independently, on her own, off in that direction.' She claimed the accusation of rape had been made because the cadet felt 'embarrassed' when people later found out about the relationship. Former state Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) speaks in opposition to a measure that would increase California's minimum wage in Sacramento, Calif., on March 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Orange County Supervisor Candidate Tests Positive for COVID-19 A frontrunner for the Orange County Board of Supervisors vacant District 2 seat has tested positive for COVID 19. Former Sen. John Moorlach has mild symptoms and remains in high spirits, the Republican Party of Orange County said in a Feb. 24 email to its members. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sen. Moorlach and his family during his recovery. For the safety of his staff and volunteers, he will continue to lead his campaign remotely. Moorlach is among five candidates campaigning for the Board of Supervisors District 2 seat, which became available when former supervisor Michelle Steel was sworn into U.S. Congress Jan. 3. He has the endorsement of the Orange County GOP, and significant name recognition due to more than 25 years of political experience. Moorlach previously held the District 2 seat from 2007 to 2014, before joining the California senate. He lost his senate seat during last years election. In an earlier interview with The Epoch Times, Moorlach expressed frustration with the way the state has handled the pandemic. Californias response to the COVID crisis has been erratic and frustrating, he said. The constantly changing rules and restrictions have caused untold harm to our economy, mental health of our residents, and development of our children. I would employ proper guidelines based on data and science so that we can reopen schools and businesses in a safe and responsible way. The bottom line is that we need to quarantine those who are vulnerable, not everyone. The residents of Orange County must practice proper safety protocols and be respectful of others. If elected, Moorlach said his top priority would be ensuring vaccines are available and distributed quickly to all who want or need them. I will also continue to fight to recover funding for the business community. As state senator, I helped provide $500 million from the state budget for COVID relief, and will continue to advocate for Orange Countys fair share. Other candidates vying to replace Steel include Fountain Valley Mayor Michael Vo, Newport Beach mayor pro tem Kevin Muldoon, Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley, and Corona del Mar attorney Janet Rappaport. Notably, Steel announced Jan. 6 that she tested positive for COVID-19, shortly after being sworn into congress. She has since recovered. A special election for the District 2 seat will be held March 9. Share Londoners are huge cryptocurrency fans, having bought more of the digital asset than any other region in the UK according to a new national survey, while cautious Scots have bought the least. The survey of 2,000 Brits, commissioned by money app Ziglu and conducted by OnePoll, found that three in ten Londoners (30 percent) had already bought cryptocurrency, yet only 7 percent of Scottish people had invested in it, followed closely by the south east (8 percent) and Wales (9 percent). Other than London, the regions with the highest numbers of crypto investors are the East Midlands (15 percent) and Northern Ireland (15 percent). Despite having bought the least crypto, Scots who had not bought any were the most curious about doing so (38 percent), followed by Londoners (35 percent) and Northern Irish people (35 percent). But more than half of those living in East Anglia (56 percent), Wales (54 percent) and the South East (52 percent) declared that they would never buy cryptocurrency. Mark Hipperson, Founder and CEO of Ziglu, said: When Elon Musks company Tesla bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, it was yet another step towards mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrency. Now that were firmly on that track, this survey shows how important it is to spread the word beyond London and across the whole of the United Kingdom about how easy and safe it is to buy crypto. The survey also revealed a gender divide on the reasons for buying crypto. Men mainly bought crypto to make money from it (53%) while women chose to invest after hearing positive feedback about it (45%). For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv Share this: Email Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Print Reddit Twitter Tumblr Pocket Like this: Like Loading... Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Action will be taken if social media is misused to spread fake news and violence: Ravi Shankar Prasad Identify first originator, say govts rules to regulate streaming and digital content India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: Concerns have been raised about the rampant abuse of social media platforms and spread of fake news, Information Technology Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, while announcing the new guidelines to curb the misuse of social media platforms. Govt moves to regulate digital content, new rules for OTT platfoms and social media| Oneindia News The Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 for the first time prescribes how digital news organisations, OTTs and social media platforms will be regulated by the government. Social media intermediaries have to appoint grievance officer, who shall register complaints in 24 hours, the minister also said. There will be 2 categories, intermediary which can be social media intermediary and significant social media intermediary, the minister also added. The Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021: Social media platforms upon being asked either by a court order or a govt authority will be required to disclose the first originator of mischievous tweet or message as the case may be. This should be only in relation to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, public order, relations with foreign states, or rape, sexually explicit content etc, the minister said. If there are complaints against dignity of users, particularly women - expose private parts of individuals or nudity or sexual act or impersonation etc, you'll be required to remove that within 24 hours after complaint made. This is designed to respect dignity of women, Prasad further added. We shall notify users number for a significant social media intermediary very soon. They will have to have a grievance redressal mechanism, you will also have to name a grievance officer who shall register the grievance within 24 hours and disposal in 15 days, the IT minister added. Union Minister, Prakash Javadekar said that the government has decided to have a 3 stair mechanism for OTT platforms. OTT and digital news media will have to disclose their details. We are not mandating registration, we are seeking information, Javadekar also said. There should be a grievance redressal system in OTT platforms and digital portals. OTT platforms will have to have a self-regulating body, headed by retired Supreme Court or High Court judge or a very eminent person in this category, Javadekar also said. Javadekar also said that for OTT there should be self-classification of content-13 plus, 16 plus an A categories. There has to be a mechanism of parental lock and ensuring compliance that children do not see that, he also said. The Law Office of David P. Shapiro, a San Diego criminal defense firm, is pleased to announce a new scholarship is being offered by the firm to support the continuing education of persons who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The scholarship is in the amount of $1,000 and will be paid in the form of tuition reimbursement to the college or vocational school selected by the winning applicant. Those affected by autism face numerous challenges. Those challenges may include depression, ADHD, and chronic sleep problems, among others. These issues continue to affect the lives of many with ASD into young adulthood. This is accompanied by related issues, among them failure to pursue educational opportunities and unemployment. This is the fourth time in the last five years the firm has offered an educational scholarship for those affected by ASD, keeping with its strong commitment to assist individuals in their pursuit of their educational goals. The entire LOODPS team believes that by offering this opportunity, they will provide the impetus for all the applicants to pursue educational opportunities at a university, college, junior college, vocational school, or trade school. The application process is open to anyone diagnosed with ASD (DSM-V), whether or not the individual is currently enrolled in or attending school at the time the application is submitted. Those who are interested in applying or learning more about the scholarship or the firms scholarship programs should visit the firms website, which contains the application form, privacy policy, and additional information and requirements for those who may wish to apply. The application deadline is April 1, 2022, and the winner will be selected on or before April 15, 2022. Inquiries concerning the application, or any related matters should be submitted via email to: Law Office of David P. Shapiro 3500 5th Ave Suite 304 San Diego, CA 92103 619-295-3555 michael@davidpshapirolaw.com The owner of a chain of pharmacies has pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining payments from the HSEs Primary Care Reimbursement Service. The scheme is responsible for making payments to healthcare professionals, like GPs, dentists and pharmacists, for the free or reduced costs services they provide to the public. John Corr (55), of Vergemount Hall, Clonskeagh, Dublin appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday morning, charged with 20 counts of deception, contrary to section six of the Theft and Fraud Act, 2001 He had been sent forward for trial from Dublin District Court, where the court heard he is accused of deception of the HSE scheme of various sums ranging from 7 to 220 at Corrs pharmacies in Clarehall and Clonshaugh in Dublin, and its branches at Clogherhead, Blackbull and Mell, in Drogheda, Co Louth. Before Judge Elma Sheahan he pleaded guilty to plea to dishonestly inducing the HSE scheme to make an reimbursement in the amount of 769.14. The offence took place at Corrs Pharmacy, Mell, Drogheda, Co Louth on July 28, 2016. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had previously directed trial on indictment. Kieran Kelly BL, for the DPP told the court on Thursday that the guilty plea is accepted without prejudice to further pleas being required on remaining charges. Corr was remanded on continuing bail to April 19 next for sentence. Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. President Biden is facing a dilemma that he would rather not face. Sometime in the next few months, he will have to pour more troops into Afghanistan or pull out altogether. There is almost no other real option. The United States currently has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, the lowest number since the war began 20 years ago. An agreement that President Trump signed with the Taliban calls for all U.S. troops to leave the country by May 1. In turn, the Taliban pledged to dissociate themselves from terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and to refrain from attacking civilians. They have not complied with either condition. Advertisement So should Biden stay after May 1 or leave anyway? The issue goes beyond numbers. The president and his aides are conducting a policy review, and the review should ask a basic question: What do we want to accomplish in Afghanistan after all this time, and is that goal feasible? If not, should we cut our losses and go home? Advertisement Advertisement Currently, U.S. troops are mainly involved in counterterrorism against al-Qaida and, to some degree, ISIS. In all of last year, just 10 Americans died in Afghanistanonly four of them while fighting. But if U.S. troops are still in the country after May 1, the Taliban will force them into a fightand, for that, the U.S. will need more than 2,500 troops. And if they come under attack from the Taliban, they couldnt do much against al-Qaida either. Reinforcements would be necessary, and more Americans would die, or else the mission would be doomed. Advertisement Complicating matters further is that the U.S. is not the only country whose commitment is at stake. Other NATO countries have about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan. They are unlikely to stick around if the Americans pull out. And if Biden does stay in, theyll still want to know the plan. In his long career, Biden has witnessed calamitous troop-withdrawals and fruitless escalations. He was a freshman senator during the haunting spectacle of U.S. helicopters abandoning the embassy in Saigon, leaving many loyal Vietnamese behind. And he was vice president when Barack Obama, in his first year as president, decided to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, raising the total to almost 100,000, and to adopt a new strategy of counterinsurgency, a.k.a. nation-building. Advertisement Advertisement Biden was the only official in the National Security Council to oppose that troop-surge, arguing instead to deploy a mere 10,000 extra troops and to use them strictly to fight al-Qaida terrorists and to train the Afghan army. He made the case that nation-building wouldnt work, given the corruption of the Afghan governmentand he was right. Obama reached the same conclusion after 18 months of giving it a try, withdrew most of the troops, and adopted Bidens more limited goals. As he left office, Obama kept 8,000 troops in Afghanistannot so much to help reform the country as to use the country as a base for pressuring al-Qaida on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Advertisement Trump was inclined to pull all the troops out, but his advisers, especially Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, convinced him otherwise, selling him on a new strategy that would inspire victory. Actually, it was just a slightly enhanced version of the old strategy, and it brought us no closer to defining victory, much less achieving it. So, after bringing on a more pliant set of advisers, Trump reverted to his original plan. He hired a skilled former ambassador and native Afghan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to head up peace talks with the Taliban (against the resistance of the Afghan government). They struck a deal. May 1 was the pullout date for U.S. troops. But, as noted earlier, the Taliban didnt keep their side of the bargain, and now Biden is on the verge of not keeping our side of it either. Advertisement Advertisement Bidens middle-ground approach from a decade ago wont work now if the Afghan government is tumbling and the Taliban are fighting U.S. forces. So, again, should Biden dip further in or get out? His prior positions, as senator and vice president, make him less than keen to do either. There are some questions that no interagency group has ever seriously asked but that are worth asking now. First, does it matter if U.S. troops are in Afghanistan? The standard answer is that, if we leave, al-Qaida will come roaring back in and, once again, use it as a staging ground for attacking the United States, as they did on 9/11. But one thing weve learned from the various terrorist plots of the last decade is that, if bad guys want to plot attacks on America and its allies, they dont need a training base in Afghanistan to do it. Advertisement Another answerthe one that Obama invoked to justify keeping 8,000 troops in the countryis that its worth having a military base in the area, if just to keep an eye on Pakistan, a turbulent country that has nuclear weapons, and to assure India, which has some presence in Afghanistan as a way of enveloping Pakistan, of our support. This is the most persuasive argument for staying in, even just a little bit, (the humanitarian argument for preventing the Talibans oppressive rule, especially against women, is another) and if its impossible to stay in a little bit, we might have to enlarge our presence a bit. A few years ago, there might have been a way to form an alliance with other powers with converging interests in the regionChina, Russia, possibly Iranbut tensions with all three make this a fantasy now. Advertisement Advertisement One other way outthe only way to avoid the otherwise inescapable dilemmais to strike a deal with the Taliban and the Afghan government to extend the May 1 deadline and to keep talking. The Taliban might not agree to this; they think theyve got us on the run, and, in a way, they do, so why give us a break? Khalilzad, whos still the U.S. emissary, might have to come up with a clever solution to extend this impasse. I dont know what this would be; I hope he has some ideas. Biden may have no choice but to urge him on and give him enormous leeway, whatever he comes up with. Is it kicking the can down the road, as the old saw has it? Yes, but thats better than the alternatives. Advertisement The central problem is the one that Vice President saw back in 2009the Afghan governments corruption. Top U.S. military officers saw that back then, too. In Senate hearings in September of that year, a few months before Obama decided to send more troops, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had an interesting exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham. The Taliban were gaining ground, and Graham wanted to know why. The problem, Mullen said, is clearly the lack of legitimacy of the [Afghan] government. Advertisement Advertisement Graham pushed the point. We could send a million troops, and that wouldnt restore legitimacy in the government? he asked. Mullen replied, That is correct. A few minutes later, under questioning from Sen. Susan Collins, Mullen reemphasized the point. In order to defeat the Taliban, he said, the Afghan government needs to have some legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The core issue is the corruption That threat is every bit as significant as the Taliban. Advertisement Nonetheless, Mullen, Graham, Collins all urged Obamaand Obama decidedto send more troops. Mullen, Gen. David Petraeus, and other U.S. officers also said around this time that there was no way to win the war militarily; it would end only through a political settlement. And yet they all urged waiting until the U.S. and NATO won a few big battles, so we could go to the negotiating table with leverageto get the best deal possible. But we never won a few big battles, and the Afghan government remained corrupt, without legitimacy. And so, President Biden, who saw the situation most clearly in 2009 and endorsed a policy consistent with that vision, is probably stuck in the same dilemma as his predecessorsthough my guess is, he wont fall into the trap of escalation, he wont send any more troops. He will just order his team to find the best way, or the least bad way, to muddle through. A Gold Coast beauty salon owner who helped subject a tourist to a humiliating and violent five-hour ordeal has been sentenced to three years in jail - but immediately released on parole. Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie, 33, and Timothy Andrew Butler, 29, coaxed a Sydney man from Sydney into their car at Noosa on April 14, 2019, before holding him captive, torturing him and stealing money from him. Judge Deborah Richards who let Gorrie go on parole at Maroochydore District Court described her freedom as being 'on a knife's edge'. Gorrie and Butler had been drinking at the Noosa Sofitel with the tourist and his friends before they abducted him. She pleaded guilty to seven charges, including deprivation of liberty and assault but was granted immediate parole after serving 227 days in custody since her arrest. Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie and Timothy Andrew Butler coaxed a Sydney man into their car at Noosa in 2019 before holding him captive, bashing, torturing him and stealing money from him Gorrie was already on a good behaviour bond at the time of the abduction and assault, for stabbing her then boyfriend so hard that a knife went through his hand The court heard the mother-of-two stole the abducted man's ATM card and withdrew $1000 from his bank account and also verbally abused him. As he was being assaulted by Butler, Gorrie told the man: 'Stop being a pussy'. The court also heard Gorrie was already on a good behaviour bond for stabbing her Brazilian boyfriend so viciously in 2017 at Coolangatta that the knife went right through his hand. The conditions of the 2017 bond included her not drinking alcohol, but on the night of the Noosa incident in 2019 Gorrie admitted to drinking heavily. After Butler eventually released the Sydney man around 5.30am - having threatened to kill him if he told police - the man was taken to Noosa Hospital with extensive bruising to his face and body. Butler was sentenced to six years in jail for torture in September 2020 but will be eligible for parole in May 2021. The court heard that Gorrie tried to sell the hatchback on Facebook days later and denied her involvement when she was arrested. Crown prosecutor Christopher Cook said Gorrie aided and enabled Butler's violent behaviour. '(The victim) has suffered not just physically but in many other ways which is evident from his victim impact statement,' Mr Cook said. Gorrie's defence lawyer Nicholas McGhee said she had struggled with alcohol abuse since she was a teenager and that most of criminal history was alcohol-related. Gorrie and Butler were drinking at the Noosa Sofitel with the man and his friends before they abducted him The court heard Gorrie owns two Gold Coast beauty salons, had a 'stable' relationship and two children, the youngest being 14 months old. Judge Richards drew attention to Gorrie's previous violence, said she had lied to police when questioned and had shown no remorse. 'So while it's a knife's edge, at the end of the day I've decided I'm going to let you go on parole today,' Judge Richards said. The welfare of Gorrie's children and her businesses were big factors in Judge Richards' decision to release her on parole. New York Times media reporter Ben Smith has the intensely interesting story How Investigative Journalism Flourished in Hostile Russia. The crazy brave dissident Alexei Navalny turns up in Smiths bullet points: Mr. Navalnys foundation flew drones over Mr. Putins palace, a vast estate on the Black Sea that Mr. Navalny labeled the Worlds Biggest Bribe in a scathing, mocking nearly two-hour video he released on his return to Russia last month. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube. Smith elaborates: Theres a tendency in parts of the American media right now to reflexively decry the rise of alternative voices and open platforms on social media, seeing them solely as vectors for misinformation or tools of Donald J. Trump. Russia is a potent reminder of the other side of that story, the power of these new platforms to challenge one of the worlds most corrupt governments. Thats why, for instance, Mr. Navalny was a vocal critic of Twitters decision to ban Mr. Trump, calling it an unacceptable act of censorship. It figures that Navalny has been CANCELED by Amnesty International, as Tom Goodenough puts it in his Spectator column. (The Spectator has made Goodenoughs column accessible for us this morning.) The editors of Spiked have declared Amnesty International: useful idiots for censorship. Subhead: It has revoked Alexei Navalnys status as a prisoner of conscience, accusing him of hate speech. Below is the Navalny video that has racked up more than 100 million views. It is hilariously derisive toward Putin. The production values are excellent. Although it is not easy to keep up with them, it has English subtitles. Watching the video, I thought, Mister we could use a man like Alexei Navalny right here right now to do Joe Biden. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Actress Yami Gautam began shooting for her upcoming film Dasvi on Thursday in Agra. Her co-stars Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur had already stared shooting for the film earlier. Yami plays a Harayanvi IPS officer in the film and had to learn the language and diction for her role. She has taken workshops for her language, diction and body language. She posted a picture on Instagram and captioned it: "My first day on the set of #dasvi playing #jyotideswal. Proud and honoured to play an IPS office. #jaihind." The actress has also been roped in for Faraar directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, who earlier helmed Pink. She will also be seen in Behzad Khambata's film, A Thursday, which will mark her debut in the OTT space. Yami has three others projects in hand. Dasvi is directed by Tushar Jalota, and the unit started shooting in Agra Central jail two days ago. The police and PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) had to be deployed for security cover to keep local crowds at bay. The shoot is expected to take place in different parts of Agra. * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! London: Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump created an anti-American cult devoted to attacking the norms of American society, a movement which enjoyed strong support in both the mainstream and online media. Clinton said US President Joe Biden was trying to separate Trumps followers from him in a bid to unite Americans, 74 million of whom voted for Trump. The ex-president has not ruled out running again in 2024. Hillary Clinton speaking via video conference. That is our principal political challenge right now, she said. And why I think Biden is approaching it in exactly the right way is because hes trying to separate Trump, the demagogue, from the Americans who may have bought into his slogans and his reality television performances. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday ordered local government units to distribute free face masks while the country is awaiting the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines. "I leave it to the local chief executives... The provincial government, the municipal governments, and the city governments, I require you to buy and give it for free," Duterte said in his weekly national address with the members of his Cabinet. The President has always reminded the public to follow minimum safety protocols, including the wearing of face masks. He said wearing face masks would "save you a lot of trouble and expenses." The Department of Health earlier said masks guarantee 60% to 70% protection from the coronavirus. Duterte said he himself would deliver the face masks if LGUs will not comply. "Ayaw mo magbili? Ako ang mag-deliver. Ibigay mo sa mga tao. Ayaw mo gumastos? Ako ang gagastos," he said. [Translation: You don't want to buy? I will deliver them to you. You distribute it to the people. You don't want to spend anything? I will buy them for you.] The country has yet to receive its first batch of vaccines, with officials blaming a global supply shortage for the delay. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 14:21:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has partially restored electricity supply to the country's restive northern Tigray regional state, Ethiopian authorities said on Wednesday. In a press statement, the Ethiopia Electricity Power (EEP) said electricity has been partially restored to Tigray's regional capital Mekelle and other regional cities since Wednesday noon. The partial power restoration came after technicians from EEP managed to repair the damaged electricity transmission lines, according to the EEP statement. The Tigray regional state had been in a total electricity blackout since Feb. 17, due to a "sabotage" on a high voltage electricity transmission line running from the southern Tigray city of Alamata to Mekelle. The Ethiopian government had previously blamed the sabotage by "Junta remnants" on the Alamata-Mekelle high voltage electricity transmission line for the massive electricity blackout. The term "Junta remnants" is used to refer to forces aligned with the ex-ruling party of the Tigray region, Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) which is currently engaged in conflict with forces of the federal Ethiopian government. Months of fighting between the TPLF, which used to rule the Tigray regional state, and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces has reportedly left thousands of people dead, hundreds of thousands of others displaced, and millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. According to Ethiopian government figures, the conflict has displaced around 2.2 million people, while 4.5 million people are in need of emergency aid. Enditem A Pennsylvania woman who claimed she was under the influence of an alien reptile cult when she shot and killed her boyfriend will stay locked in prison on Earth for a while. A state Superior Court panel ensured that Tuesday by upholding the third-degree murder conviction and 15- to 40-year jail term of 46-year-old Barbara Rogers. Pocono Mountain Regional Police said that on July 15, 2017, Rogers, an Army veteran who had been discharged for medical reasons, placed the muzzle of a pistol against the forehead of Stephen Mineo, 32, in the apartment they shared in Tobyhanna, Monroe County, and pulled the trigger. She then dialed 911. Rogers disclosed that she and Mineo were members of a religious cult, Senior Judge John L. Musmanno wrote in the state court opinion denying Rogers appeal. Rogers stated that she and Mineo had recently become upset with the leader of the cult, who believed that Rogers was actually a reptile. Rogerss and Mineos issues with the cult had caused tension in their relationship. Rogers also stated that she killed Mineo because Mineo wanted her to kill him, and that she was under a large amount of stress due to the issues with the cult, Musmanno wrote. Barbara Rogers must remain incarcerated in the July 2017 fatal shooting of Steven Mineo in the apartment they shared in Tobyhanna, Pa., the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled on appeal Feb. 23, 2021.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com A county jury convicted Rogers of third-degree murder in March 2019 but acquitted her of a more serious first-degree murder charge that would have sent her to prison for life. On appeal, Rogers sought a new trial on grounds that the evidence didnt support her conviction and that county President Judge Margherita P. Worthington, who presided at her trial, should have allowed the jury to consider a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. She argued that the shooting was a reckless act rather than an intentional killing. She also claimed prosecutors should not have permitted to use statements she made to police right after the killing because she was psychologically incapable at that time of giving any trustworthy account of what had happened. Rogers insisted as well that her punishment is too severe and that Worthington didnt take into account her military service and mental health issues and her claims that she was intoxicated when she killed Mineo. Musmanno found the evidence in the case didnt support an involuntary manslaughter verdict. He concluded as well that Rogers statements to police were admissible at her trial because she knowingly waived her right to remain silent when officers interviewed her. He decided Worthington weighed all the factors necessary to impose a prison sentence that was just. The oddity of Rogers case was summed in a recap by the county judge that was cited by Musmanno. Evidence was presented at trial that showed (Rogers) and Mineo had a tumultuous relationship in the weeks leading up to the shooting, Worthington wrote. Indeed, the evidence showed that (Rogers) and Mineo were part of a religious group, led by Sherry Shriner. There was evidence that this group was, in fact, more like a cult and that Shriner had immense control over the majority of her devotees, including Mineo. Approximately two months before the shooting, Shriner began attacking (Rogers] online, claiming that (Rogers) was one of the groups enemies - specifically, a reptile - and insinuating that Mineo should no longer be in a relationship with (Rogers), Worthington wrote. In addition to this ongoing confrontation, the commonwealth presented evidence that Mineo was financially dependent on (Rogers), and that Mineo suspected (that Rogers) was cheating. Shriner, the founder of the on-line doomsday cult linked to the Rogers case, died several months after Mineo. In a June 2019 article in The New Republic, Jake Flanagin wrote that the groups foundational belief is that a race of sentient, devil-worshipping, shape-shifting reptiles from outer space has infiltrated human civilization. Through mind control and body-snatching, these reptilians purportedly seek to install totalitarian world government, thereby bringing about rule of the Antichrist. Shriner described herself as a Messenger of the Most High God and claimed her beliefs were drawn largely from the Book of Revelation. Her own self-published books include Aliens on the Internet, Bible Codes Revealed: The Coming UFO Invasion, and Interview with the Devil: My Conversation with Lucifer. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Stranded Delivery Driver Finds Home With Austin Couple After Her Car Got Stuck During Storms A Texas food delivery driver whose vehicle struck ice outside a couples home became their impromptu house guest. She ended up staying five nights in the couples guest bedroom, and now calls them her guardian angels. Storms encroached as driver Chelsea Timmons tried to complete her last grocery delivery in Austin on Feb. 14. She had hoped to be home to Houston before the snow hit, she posted on Facebook, to sip some wine and eat some Valentines chocolate. However, contrary to what she had decided, her plan didnt come to fruition. Chelsea Timmons with Nina Richardson and Doug Condon (Courtesy of Chelsea Timmons) Pulling up to Nina Richardson and Doug Condons home, west of downtown Austin, Timmonss car started slipping on the inclined driveway. She leaned on the brakes but the car didnt stop and continued to go forward down the driveway, unfortunately bumping into a tree in the front yard. I was just grateful that my car did not hit the house, Timmons told KXAN. Timmons unloaded the delivery and explained to Richardson and Condon what had happened. Her car and the property, she said, were fine; however, the tree was not. Hoping to build traction on the ice, the trio tried epsom salt, bird seeds, and even sand under the tires, but nothing worked. The iced-over driveway of Richardson and Condons home (Courtesy of Chelsea Timmons) Timmons called AAA, but all tow trucks were occupied with emergencies amid the worsening storm. She even tried to get an Uber/Lyft/Taxi to take her to a hotel to stay for that night; however, all to no avail. So the couple, who have daughters of their own, invited Timmons to stay with them that night. When she first came in she was, I think, feeling a little uncomfortable being in a strangers house, but pretty quickly it kind of has moved into her just being part of the family, Richardson told ABC 7. Timmons bakes a coconut cake to show her gratitude (Courtesy of Chelsea Timmons) Over a lovely steak dinner, Timmons told the couple about her dream of opening a bakery. Richardson invited her to try out a new recipe and Timmons set to work baking a coconut cake as a token of her gratitude. Meanwhile, Timmonss Houston apartment building lost electricity and water amid the storms. Me being stuck here actually turned out to be a better situation than it was if I would have made it home, she reflected. Over the next five days, Timmons joined the couple for meals and enjoyed the sanctuary of the guest bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, its own TV, and two cuddly dogs at nighttime. The couple not only helped her through the storm but also didnt let her leave, even though she suggested going to a hotel. Every morning after they say, No worries, stay a bit longer, I go to my room and shed tears of joy How AMAZINGLY BLESSED am I right in this moment?!, Timmons posted on Facebook. Condon confirmed that as soon as weather conditions improved, the couple would send Timmons on her way with food and blankets, just in case. Returning home (Courtesy of Chelsea Timmons) On Feb. 19, Timmons posted a selfie from her car, finally headed home to Houston. She told ABC 7 she was beyond grateful that Richardson and Condon had been not only able, but very willing to let a stranger into their home and keep her safe, warm, and fed. Home safe and reunited with her parents (Courtesy of Chelsea Timmons) If my car was stuck in front of anybody elses house, I dont think that I would be in this situation, she said. Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter 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. Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor says the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania's (UDMR) priority in the 2021 state budget is to further develop healthcare institutions and support large investments, important to the Hungarian community. Also, Kelemen adds, another priority for UDMR is the consolidation of the positions of the local and county councils and the introduction of state financing for the cultural institutions subordinated to the local administrations. "In drafting the budget for 2021, the priority of UDMR was that, by distributing the income tax - remaining as one hundred percent at the local level - to strengthen the position of local and county councils and to introduce state funding for cultural institutions subordinated to local and county administrations. At the same time, the Union considered it extremely important to further develop healthcare institutions and support large investments, which are important for the Hungarian community," Kelemen Hunor said in a press release on Thursday.The Deputy Prime Minister appreciates that the pandemic and the economic crisis that followed in this context represent a difficult and complex task for countries around the world."Romania started from a deficit of almost 10% and provided in the draft law of the state budget its reduction to 7.1%. It is a necessary step for the country not to be indebted in the long run, and for the next generations not to have to repay in the form of debt, the budget costs generated so far. But reducing the budget deficit is not a sufficient measure, because in the meantime we need to have economic growth again," Kelemen said. [February 25, 2021] Tauriga Sciences Inc. Confirms Commercial Launch and Listing of its Tauri-Gum Product Line on Stock Up Express Connecticut Based Online Grocer & Wholesaler, Stock Up Express ( www.stockupexpress.com ), Receives More Than 1,000,000 Annual Online Visitors Recall that on January 25, 2021, the Company Announced that it had Signed a Major Distribution Agreement with Stock Up Express (Effective Date: February 1, 2021) NEW YORK, NY, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, with a proprietary line of CBD & CBG infused Supplement chewing gums (Flavors: Pomegranate, Blood Orange, Peach-Lemon, Pear Bellini, Mint, Black Currant), as well as an ongoing Pharmaceutical Development initiative, today confirmed the commercial launch of its flagship Tauri-Gum product line on Connecticut based online grocer and wholesaler Stock Up Express website. Stock Up Express operates as a division of a leading total services distributor, which generates more than $3 billion dollars in annual sales. This above-referenced commercial launch, of Tauri-Gum product line, officially commenced (went live) on Wednesday February 24, 2021. You may click on the below link to access the Tauri-Gum Product Line on Stock Up Express: https://www.stockupexpress.com (Type: tauri-gum) in Search Line The Company is currently selling its Tauri-Gum product line, on Stock Up Express, in 3 distinct category classifications: (i) retail box (8 Blister Packs), (ii) case (8 retail boxes or 80 blister packs), and (iii) shipment crate (48 retail boxes or 480 blister packs). The Company has been notified by Stock Up Express, that additional product offerings (including its CBD & CBG infused Bath Bombs) will be listed in the near term. The Company is pleased with its the agreed upon gross margins and looks forward to anticipated revenues (from Stock Up Express) during this current fiscal quarter 2021 (January 1, 2021 thru March 31, 2021). ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES INC. Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, engaged in several major business activities and initiatives. The company manufactures and distributes several proprietary retail products and product lines, mainly focused on the Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) Edibles market segment. The main product line, branded as Tauri-Gum, consists of a proprietary supplement chewing gum that is Kosher certified, Halal certified, and Vegan Formulated (CBD Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Mint, Blood Orange, Pomegranate), (CBG Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Peach-Lemon, Black Currant) & (Vitamin C + Zinc Immune Booster Flavor: Pear Bellini). The Companys commercialization strategy consists of a broad array of retail customers, distributors, and a fast-growing E-Commerce business segment (E-Commerce website: www.taurigum.com). Please visit our corporate website, for additional information, as well as inquiries, at http://www.tauriga.com. Complementary to the Companys retail business, is its ongoing Pharmaceutical Development initiative. This relates to the development of a proposed Pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum, for nausea regulation (specifically designed for the following indication: Patients Subjected to Ongoing Chemotherapy Treatment). On March 18, 2020, the Company announced that it had filed a provisional U.S. patent application covering its pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum. The Patent, filed with the U.S.P.T.O. is Titled MEDICATED CBD COMPOSITIONS, METHODS OF MANUFACTURING, AND METHODS OF TREATMENT. On December 18, 2020 the Company disclosed that it had entered into a Master Services Agreement with CSTI to lead the Company's clinical development efforts. The Company is headquartered in Wappingers Falls, New York. In addition, the Company operates a full time E-Commerce fulfillment center located in LaGrangeville, New York. ABOUT STOCK UP EXPRESS ONLINE Convenient Warehouse Shopping: We know you need to buy lots of goods with no time to waste. Thats why we created our virtual warehouse. At StockUpExpress, we sell case-size quantities of grocery, personal care, and household items from hundreds of national and regional brands. Since we are all about convenience, items in our cases are the normal shelf-size, not the jumbo club-size packaging offered at the big box stores. Unlike other e-commerce sites, StockUpExpress has the capability to ship mass amounts of product quickly and efficiently. We cover the heavy lifting and logistics, letting your business or event run smoothly all with just the click of a button. Development for Stock Up Express began in 2014. Our parent company, iMarket Technologies, LLC, was also launched in 2014 and is led by a team of executives with deep experience in warehouse operations, consumer packaged goods merchandising, logistics, and online retailing. Please visit our Website at: https://www.stockupexpress.com DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other periodic filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Contact: Tauriga Sciences, Inc. 4 Nancy Court, Suite 4 Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Chief Executive Officer Mr. Seth M. Shaw Email: sshaw@tauriga.com Cell # (917) 796 9926 Company Instagram: @taurigum Personal Instagram: @sethsms47 Twitter: @SethMShaw Corp. Website: www.tauriga.com E-Commerce Website: www.taurigum.com Attachment Tauriga 02-25-2021 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Shares of zoomed 10 per cent and hit a new high of Rs 738 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in intra-day trade on Thursday on the back of heavy volumes. Till 11:43 pm, around 13.66 million equity shares, representing 5.4 per cent of the company's total equity, had changed hands on the NSE, the exchange data shows. The name of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately. In the past three months, the stock of the Tata Group commodity chemicals manufacturer has rallied 100 per cent, as compared to 5.5 per cent rise in the Nifty50 index. Meanwhile, Tata Sons, the promoter group company of Tata Chemicals, has raised its stake in the company through open market purchases. On December 4, 2020, Tata Sons purchased 2.57 million equity shares, representing 1 per cent equity of Tata Chemicals, at a price of Rs 471.88 per share on the NSE via bulk deal, the exchange data shows. Earlier, on December 2, 2020, Tata Sons had purchased 1.8 million equity shares, representing 0.71 per cent equity of Tata Chemicals, at a price of Rs 420.92 per share on the NSE via bulk deal, data shows. As per December 2020, shareholding pattern, Tata Sons increased its holding in to 31.90 per cent from 29.39 per cent in September quarter and 28.51 per cent at the end of June quarter. During the October-December quarter (Q3FY21), said it witnessed sequential improvement in demand, even as the company navigates the margin pressures through agile execution of cost efficiencies. In the coming quarters, the management expects a greater recovery in production and demand, given the commencement of the vaccination drive in India. The companys basic chemistry product range provides key ingredients to some of the worlds largest manufacturers of glass, detergents and other industrial products. Tata Chemicals currently is the worlds third largest producer of soda ash with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The company has a strong position in the crop protection business through its subsidiary company Rallis India. Ram temple in Ayodhya to be symbol of India's self-respect and pride: RSS India has just one DNA and it is Hindu: RSS leader RSS worker killed in clash with SPDI in Kerala India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 25: An RSS worker was hacked to death in Kerala allegedly by members of the SDPI during a clash in Alappuzha district on Wednesday night. The victim has been identified as Rahul Krishna (22), the RSS shakha mukhya shikshak at Nagamkulangara in Wayalar village panchayat in Alappuzha. The SDPI had held a meeting in Nagamkulangara three days back as part of their state wide protest against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Kasargod last Sunday to flag off the BJP's Vijay Yatra. The SDPI had raised provocative slogans against the BJP. Bengaluru violence: NIA arrests 17 SDPI, PFI activists China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News The RSS had objected to the political speeches. Later both sides took out separate marches. The police said that the RSS workers were attacked after the SDPI march and this led to the clashes and death of one RSS worker. The BJP has now called for a dawn to dusk bandh in Alappuzha on Thursday. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 9:33 [IST] Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) A senator on Thursday appealed to authorities to speed up the process of procuring coronavirus vaccines that will cover healthcare workers, stressing that the frontliners remain on top of the inoculation priority list. In an interview with CNN Philippines, Senator Risa Hontiveros said she sees the arrival of Chinas Sinovac vaccines as a welcome development, but underscored the need for the countrys pandemic frontliners to receive shots that would work for them. Nananawagan ako sa FDA [Food And Drug Administration] at ang sa buong IATF and National Task Force bilisan rin yung pag-procure ng mga vaccines na pupwede sa ating mga health workers kasi sila yung priority sa master list, Hontiveros told The Source. So bilisan at galingan ang pag-procure ng mga vaccines na bagay sa ating mga healthcare workers so that the NTF can remain faithful to the master list even if ang mauunang darating ay isang donasyon na hindi recommended para sa healthcare workers, she added. [Translation: I call on the FDA, the whole IATF and National Task Force speed up the procurement of vaccines that can be used on our health workers because they are the priority in our master list. So lets expedite and do well in procuring vaccines that can be used on our healthcare workers so that the NTF can remain faithful to the master list even if the first vaccines that will arrive are donations not recommended for them.] The initial 600,000-dose batch from Sinovac Biotech to be donated by China will arrive on Sunday, Malacanang announced. The delivery was scheduled days after the product gained emergency use authorization from the FDA, which has cautioned that the vaccine is not ideal for frontliners due to its lower efficacy rate. Hontiveros also urged the FDA and the Health Department to release their full findings of their study on the China-made vaccine, which logged an efficacy rate of 50.4% in late-stage vaccine trials in Brazil. Hontiveros said this will help the public make an informed choice ahead of the rollout of the vaccination program. Military fencing can be seen along the Rio Grande in Laredo, Texas. The opposite side of the river is Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on Nov. 18, 2018. (Thomas Watkins/AFP via Getty Images) 71 Illegal Immigrants Found in Texas Stash House Near Border: Border Patrol Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection found 71 illegal immigrants packed into a single house near the U.S.Mexico border in Pharr, Texas. In a news release from the agency on Feb. 24, agents disrupted what they described as a human smuggling stash house operating in the Rio Grande Valley. When Border Patrol agents arrived on the scene, they found 71 migrants inside the stash house. They were tipped off by officers with the Pharr Police Department. The illegal aliens, they said, were from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras. Three children were found among the group. RGV agents continue to apprehend groups of more than 100 illegal aliens along the Rio Grande. These groups composed primarily of families and unaccompanied alien children (UAC) add to the over 13,500 families and UACs previously apprehended in #RGV, from Oct to Feb. pic.twitter.com/3xvcrQkpsk Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) February 25, 2021 Even with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, human smugglers continue to try these brazen attempts with zero regard for the lives they endanger nor to the health of the citizens of our great nation, the agency said. The U.S. Border Patrol agents of the Rio Grande Valley Sector will continue to safeguard the nation and community against these criminal elements. Separately, Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings wrote on Twitter Feb. 24 that Border Patrol was able to apprehend more than 100 migrants after they crossed the border into the United States. This came as a judge in Texas ruled on Feb. 23 that President Joe Biden couldnt enforce a pause on most deportations until further notice. The Court finds Texas has established by a preponderance of the evidence that it could reasonably expect a 100-day pause to lead to a significant number of criminal aliens and unaccompanied children moving freely within and into Texas who would otherwise be removed, Judge Drew Tipton wrote in the 105-page order. Also on Feb. 24, Biden issued a proclamation to revoke an immigration restriction issued by former President Donald Trump in 2020 amid the CCP virus pandemic. In April 2020, Trump issued Proclamation 10014 to suspend entry into the United States for 60 days to foreigners who didnt have a valid immigrant visa or official travel document. The order also suspended new green cards that allowed for permanent residency to most foreigners looking to settle in the country. The proclamation had several exceptions, including for foreigners entering the country on an immigrant visa as a health care professional to work on alleviating the outbreak caused by the CCP virus. Mimi Nguyen-Ly contributed to this report. Education Minister Peter Weir has said he intends to press the chief medical officer on why schools here cannot fully reopen at the same pace as other jurisdictions as DUP politician Sammy Wilson accused Health Minister Robin Swann of acting as a "poodle" for the CMO rather than a politician. Mr Weir said he will on Thursday raise the issue after DUP politicians said throughout the week they wanted to reassess the situation. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also recently announced a lockdown exit plan, which will see schoolchildren in England return on March 8. In Northern Ireland, only children in preschool, nursery and primaries one to three will return to school on that date. From March 1 in the Republic of Ireland, junior classes and senior students in sixth year will return to school, along with full attendance in all special schools. MP Sammy Wilson has hit out at advice from Mr Swann and Dr Michael McBride, saying Northern Ireland parents are "baffled" at advice on schools reopening here. He said Covid transmission rates are higher in the Republic, where vaccine rollout has been "shambolic" "The English Chief Medical Officer has been clear that on balance, a return to classroom learning would be low risk and beneficial for our children," he said. "The Health Minister needs to show some political independence and start acting as a politician rather than a poodle for the Chief Medical Officer." In a response on Twitter, Robin Swann said: "If I had to chose, I would have always considered myself more of a Jack Russell." Speaking to the BBC's Nolan radio programme, Mr Weir said he supported a full return for schools on March 8 but did not receive the backing of other ministers, including the Health Minister Robin Swann. He said he believes the public needs to understand how the Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride and his counterpart in England Chris Whitty have different positions despite similar levels of transmission in both jurisdictions. "In England the levels of transmission which show per 100,000 a higher rate than Northern Ireland, yet it seems to be that the medical officers are going in completely diametrically opposed directions," he said. "Whether we're entirely in step with England is not the issue, it's that we've seen announcements over the last week from Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland and certainly the pace of change we're looking at in Northern Ireland seems to be out of pace." If the Executive cannot agree on a full return to schools, Mr Weir asked that Northern Ireland be "in step" with other jurisdictions. "We've seen in the last week three reports showing the high levels of efficacy of the vaccines," he said. "There's no action that can be taken which doesn't have some level of impact in terms of the R number, but it has to be balanced. "There is very little evidence of transmission for instance between adults and children. There's a behavioural impact in terms of having schools open, I don't deny that," he said. But education needs to be prioritised when the Executive decides on a plan to ease restrictions, he said. "In a roadmap out of this, if the Executive is to prioritise a sector, it has got to be the education sector. We need to make sure that we are not in Northern Ireland out of sync and making our children second-class citizens with everywhere else in these jurisdictions." Mr Weir said he "doesn't understand" the level of caution. "I think it's detrimental to our children and their education," he said. Stormont ministers are due to review the existing lockdown measures this coming Monday and discuss the next steps in their response to the pandemic. As it currently stands, the plan for Northern Ireland students doing courses for GCSEs, AS, A-levels (in years 12 to 14) and other vocational qualifications like BTec will return to face-to-face teaching from March 22. Pupils in years four to seven in primary school and years eight to 11 in post-primary schools will not be back in classrooms until after the Easter break at the earliest. The Dobrobut medical network is ready to take part in the vaccination campaign against coronavirus (COVID-19) with the Pfizer vaccine if there are specific initiatives from the government or proposals from distributors, the network's medical director Tetiana Anikeyeva said. "If there is an opportunity to get the Pfizer vaccine, which requires special storage conditions, then we would undertake the mission of vaccinating the maximum number of people. We have the infrastructure and capacities for this. But we are still waiting for some specific initiatives and proposals from the government or distributors," she told Interfax-Ukraine. Anikeyeva said "everyone is waiting, everyone is looking to see who will provide a refrigerator that can provide 80 degrees below zero and will be protected from voltage surges." "As soon as the government decides on storage, we are ready," she said. Anikeyeva agrees that COVID-19 vaccine may appear on the private market in the summer. "Some proposals may appear earlier, but I treat these proposals as scams. Such proposals arrive once every two weeks to my mail: do you want to buy a Chinese vaccine, otherwise we will import a batch. However, in fact, for now, the pharmaceutical representatives are only trying to take obligations from us to redeem, if they deliver. But I cannot give such obligations yet," she said. The Repair Shop's Jay Blades has revealed he hit 'rock bottom' after his marriage broke down and his charity went bust - and he spent a week living in his car believing he 'wouldn't see tomorrow'. The modern furniture restorer, 51, who grew up in Hackney, east London, told how he 'fell down' around six years ago and tearfully turned to a friend to borrow 100 for food. In 2015 his High Wycombe-based charity Out of the Dark, which he'd set up with his ex-wife Jade - the mother of his daughter, whom he'd met at 30 while a mature student at Buckinghamshire New University - to help give disadvantaged youngsters practical skills, was forced to close after 15 years due to cashflow problems. Jay, who also has two children from previous relationships, told how he got in his car and drove as far as he could until he needed petrol, by which point he'd reached Wolverhampton. He then spent a week 'effectively homeless' and living in his car in a retail park. Speaking to Susannah Constantine on her My Wardrobe Malfunction podcast, Jay told how he broke down in tears when he finally asked a friend who he'd sold furniture to in the past for help. The Repair Shop's Jay Blades (pictured) has revealed he hit 'rock bottom' after his marriage broke down and his charity went bust - and spent a week living in his car believing he 'wouldn't see tomorrow' 'My marriage broke down, my business, my charity, there was a number of young people I had employed. I was a pillar in the community that people used to go to and ask for support in more ways than one,' he explained. 'When you hit a certain point in your life that you have to ask for help, and you're in my position - I was someone who was super strong for everyone, but then I couldn't ask the people I was strong for to help me build me up, it's impossible... They look at you and go, "Hold on, if I have to support you, who's going to support me?" 'The thing that I did was drive, get away from all that and disappear; I didn't think I was going to see tomorrow... The first way of me asking for help was to cry. I broke down. I broke down in front of a guy I call my brother now, Gerald Bailey, and I just cried and cried. It's the first time I ever cried in front of a man.' Jay admitted it took him a week to build up the courage to ask 'successful businessman' Gerald for 100 to buy food and 'survive' because he felt so much 'shame and embarrassment'. In 2015 Jay's High Wycombe-based charity Out of the Dark, which he set up with his ex-wife Jade (pictured together in 2013) - the mother of his daughter - to help give disadvantaged youngsters practical skills, was forced to close after 15 years due to cashflow problems But he was taken aback when Gerald - who had been alerted to Jay's plight by his ex-wife - replied by offering him a job. 'I'm crying in his car, he's got a beautiful car, white leather interior, I hadn't washed for about a week, I'd been sleeping in my car, and I didn't smell very good, and he just said to me while I'm crying, "I've got a job for you." 'In my mind I said, don't you see me crying? I'm breaking down, I've got nothing, like hello, this is me at rock bottom. This is probably one of the weirdest job interviews I've ever had.' Jay told how Gerald then put him up for a fortnight before moving him in with his mother and step-father, where he stayed for a year and experienced 'a second childhood'. 'It's weird what I'm about to say, but by living with them, they gave me life again, they reborn me... at 45 I was experiencing being born again [sic],' he explained. Jay set up his new business, Jay&Co, in Wolverhampton, where he now lives with his partner Christine Goodman, who works in marketing 'They would cook me food, look after me, I would look after them and it was the most beautiful second childhood I had at 45.' With Gerald's support, afterwards Jay set up his new business, Jay&Co, in Wolverhampton, where he now lives with his partner Christine Goodman, who works in marketing. The ethos of Jay&Co is to source vintage pieces of furniture and home accessories and restore or re-imagine them into works of contemporary design. Around the same time his TV career was beginning to gain momentum. After he featured on Kirstie Allsopp's Handmade Christmas craft show in 2014, he went on to co-present BBC's Money For Nothing alongside Sarah Moore, and is now host of The Repair Shop, which first hit screens in 2017. Chile began its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on February 3, and by Tuesday of this week, fewer than 21 days later, more than three million people had already received at least one dose equivalent to 16% of the countrys 19 million inhabitants. The percentage of vaccines administered not only easily outstrips those of its biggest neighbors such as Argentina (1.65%), Brazil (3.43%) and Mexico (1.4%) but is also above countries such as Spain (9.59%) and very close to the United States (19.44%). The number of vaccines it has available and the speed of the operation, with at least 1,300 vaccination centers in the territory, has turned the South American country into a regional and global example. Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay have called for help from the Chilean authorities, according to the countrys Foreign Relations Ministry. The success of the strategy combines historical elements along with circumstantial ones: the strength of the primary healthcare system since the 1950s, the commercial strength of one of the most open economies in the world and the negotiating skills of its president, Sebastian Pinero, who is a powerful businessman. As a result, his government which is serving a term that started in 2018 and is due to end in 2022 is hoping to vaccinate 15 million people in the first quarter of the year, and as such, reach herd immunity for the Chilean population by the end of June. In May of last year, Pinera ordered the undersecretary for International Economic Relations, attorney Rodrigo Yanez, to work exclusively on closing deals with the laboratories that are manufacturing Covid vaccines. Since then, Yanez has led the negotiations in constant contact with the president. Shortly before the arrival of the first doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine (called CoronaVac), at the end of December, Pinera spoke directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping in order to expedite the bureaucratic process. While he has had serious political problems in this second term in office, the Chilean president continues to be widely recognized for his management abilities, such as those that facilitated the rescue of 33 miners who were trapped underground in 2010 during Pineras first term in office. The focus of Chiles vaccination strategy has been pragmatism as well as the diversity of the laboratories with which it has been negotiating at the same time and via different routes. The management of alternative plans has been particularly beneficial, taking into account the delays being suffered to vaccine deliveries the world over. In Chile, for example, there were no clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but this medication was the first to arrive in the country, with 20,000 doses delivered on December 24. These doses were used to vaccinate healthcare workers assigned to the countrys intensive care units. Whats more, another 10 million doses were secured, and they are due to be delivered during the first quarter of the year. Unlike other countries in the region, Chile has managed to establish a good calendar for the campaign, with exponential growth. From China to the US The country opted for a different strategy with the Sinovac vaccine, given that clinical trials had been carried out in Chile. Paid for by the South American country, the testing process facilitated the availability of the vaccine. The prices were negotiated as well as an ambitious time frame that will allow for the delivery of 60 million doses in three years although the quantities can be increased, according to Chiles needs. Two shipments with approximately four million Sinovac doses have already arrived in Chile. A crucial part of this process was the collaboration agreement reached between the prestigious Catholic University in Chile and the Chinese laboratory. In 2020, we were in an uncertain scenario because we didnt know how each vaccine was going to end up, explains Yanez. There had been no regulatory approvals and the laboratories had only just begun their production chains. But we tried to minimize the risk of the bet, with weekly even daily calls with Sinovac, for example, which allowed us to establish close links. Sometimes these bets pay off, the undersecretary continues, and fortunately with Sinovac it was an excellent bet, considering the availability of the vaccines at an early stage, and which have been complemented with those from Pfizer, which was able to deliver to us earlier but in smaller quantities. A worker leaving the Institute of Public Health in Santiago. Esteban Felix / AP As for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Chile is expecting around five million doses, with a first shipment due to arrive between April and May. At the same time, the Pinera government is seeking to extend its contract with Sinovac, and is also negotiating with CanSino, a Chinese-Canadian company that is also carrying out clinical trials in Chile. Whats more, it is in advanced talks with the Russian manufacturers of the Covid vaccine Sputnik V. The government is seeking to strengthen the inoculation process in the second quarter. According to data from the Chilean Health Ministry, a total of 3,037,063 had been vaccinated by Tuesday. Chile has the capacity to innoculate 87,264 people in a single day, but the speed will start to accelerate even further as younger age groups are called up. Until now, the majority of the over-65s in the country have been immunized with a first dose. From next week onward, they will start to receive the second, given that 28 days will have passed from the first jab. Different risk groups have also been vaccinated, such as older teachers, for example. On Wednesday it was announced that new shipments of Sinovac and Pfizer vaccines would be arriving, meaning that around nine million doses will be available by Friday. This will allow for Chile to progress with the vaccination of the 250,000 teachers in the country, kidney patients who need dialysis, and people aged between 60 and 64. On March 8, the campaign will move onto the chronically ill of any age. Prior commercial agreements Chile has 30 commercial agreements in place with the principal countries and blocs in the world. As such, while it is a small country, it is well-positioned in the global economy and has well-oiled foreign-trade mechanisms that were activated when needed at the time that early negotiations were required for the Covid-19 vaccines. An additional element turned out to be crucial for this strategy: despite the problems in a state that needs modernization and is suffering from a polarized political climate, Chile did not get caught up in bureaucracy and managed to make decisions with ease. It did so from the level of the president down to technical bodies such as the Institute of Public Health (ISP), which can independently authorize medications and vaccines, among other tasks. Before approving the vaccine from Sinovac, for example, its officials traveled to the Chinese companys installations. The Chilean government has placed particular attention on the execution of the contracts, a particularly complicated phase in the process. In recent weeks, undersecretary Yanez has had to manage issues such as import restrictions from the European Union, the interruption of the vaccination schedules and logistical problems such as flight permits. The shipments that are due to arrive this week in Chile with new Sinovac vaccines will arrive in a container for Uruguay. Cooperation exists exclusively in terms of transportation, explained Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris on Tuesday. The Uruguayan government has acquired these vaccines and we are bringing them here from Santiago making use of this journey and they will immediately be sent to Montevideo. The negotiations have been particularly complex with the EU and the United States, which are very inflexible when it comes to their clauses. For the US, Chile hired the Skaden law firm in order to mitigate the risks. The vaccination process was assigned a budget of $200 million (163 million), although the Foreign Relations Ministry estimates that another $100 million (82 million) in North American currency could be required. The government, however, does not believe money was relevant to the success of their strategy given that similar countries in the region have access to the same amount of funding. Teachers wait for their turn to receive the Sinovac vaccine at a vaccination center in Santiago. MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP While the government was criticized during the early stages of the pandemic for not having given the primary healthcare system a key role for tracking and tracing, it is now recognized for having put the vaccination operation in its hands. Despite the vicissitudes that the Chilean health system has faced, such as the privatization onslaught during the Pinochet dictatorship, Chile managed to preserve the structure of a national health system in the entire territory, one that has its origins in the 1950s, explains Socialist doctor Alvaro Erazo, who was health minister in the first government of Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010). Later, the plan to strengthen the primary healthcare system was the first strategic task in the return to democracy, in 1990, he continues. Currently the primary healthcare system is showing its worth and its historical memory, which has been marked by major vaccination campaigns, which are on a level with developed countries. As it has a presence in the whole country, Chile has a huge capacity to distribute vaccines in complex logistical chains, despite its geography, the former minister explains. The first Covid-19 case in Chile was detected nearly a year ago, on March 3, 2020. Since then, in a population of 19 million inhabitants, there have been 805,317 registered infections and at least 20,151 people have died after contracting Covid-19. The Health Ministry is fearful of a rise in cases in March, after the summer vacations come to an end. According to the latest report, only 186 intensive care unit beds are currently available. English version by Simon Hunter. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on annual national programs under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, which approves a regulation on the development of relevant annual programs and an assessment of the results of their implementation. According to relevant decree No. 72/2021 released on the president's website on Wednesday evening, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine annually ensures the development of draft annual national programs under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission for the corresponding years in accordance with the regulation. The Cabinet is entrusted with the approval of measures for the implementation of the annual national program and indicators of the effectiveness of its implementation. In addition, the government coordinates the activities of central executive authorities and other public agencies for monitoring and evaluating the results of the implementation of the annual national program. The Cabinet of Ministers is also charged with regularly informing the public about the progress and results of the implementation of the annual national program. This decree also invalidates presidential decree No. 298 on annual national programs under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission dated October 2, 2018. The decree comes into force on the day of its publication. In the relevant decree published on the President's website in the corresponding decree regulations on annual national programs under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission it is noted that this program is "a systemic document that is developed annually and defines the reforms that need to be implemented in Ukraine in order to achieve the criteria for NATO membership defined by the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), adopted at the meeting of the heads of state of the North Atlantic Council of the Alliance (April 24, 1999, Washington)." The annual national program should contain the following sections: political and economic issues; defense and military issues; resource issues; security and legal issues. "Each section should contain a strategic goal of reforms, goals, expected results and priorities with a planning period of five years," according to the statement. The annual national program is developed taking into account the Results-Based Management international methodology, which is used in the NATO member states. Programs are developed in accordance with the principles of strategic planning and taking into account a number of requirements, including concreteness, measurability, achievability, expediency, certainty in time. "Experts, including foreign, scientists, as well as representatives of civil society institutions can be involved in the work on the development of the draft annual national program, monitoring and evaluation of the results of its implementation," the president said in the document. The regulation spelled out the process of developing such annual national programs, the result of which should be the consideration, approval and submission by the Cabinet of Ministers of the draft of the annual national program together with the draft of the relevant presidential decree for consideration by the head of the Ukrainian state by January 31 of the planning year. "Our digital platform creates completely new opportunities for all market players and allows the Spielwarenmesse to be experienced 365 days a year," comments Ernst Kick, CEO of Spielwarenmesse eG. The innovative tools on Spielwarenmesse Digital will enable visitors to prepare their time in Nuremberg in an even more efficient and targeted manner. At the same time, those retailers and suppliers who are unable to attend the trade fair in person will be able to network digitally whilst gaining an overview of the huge offering at the fair and the latest innovations for 2022. It will also be possible to take part in the popular Spielwarenmesse lecture programme from anywhere in the world. This will include both the Toy Business Forum and the LicenseTalks. Companies will benefit from having access to the biggest industry network in the world which the Spielwarenmesse has built over many decades. Extended presentation opportunities Exhibitors have the choice: For the first time ever, they can appear with a digital virtual profile either on its own or in addition to their exhibition stand. Spielwarenmesse Digital offers three packages: Smart, Connect and Premium. All options include a presentation of the company, its products, and licences as well as important communication and networking features. The Smart package is already included in the marketing package for exhibitors appearing at the physical trade fair in Nuremberg. The Connect and Premium packages additionally offer brand entries and the option to upload press releases. Furthermore, products, brands, or the company itself can be presented in workshops or talks. The Premium package gives firms the option of showcasing up to 50 products and creating a more vibrant company profile. The integral lead tracking feature enables exhibitors who book a digital package to see at any time which participants have visited their profile. Additional services can be reserved for all three packages on request. Further information on the new digital offering can be found at www.spielwarenmesse.de/en/digital. Ernst Kick concludes, "Spielwarenmesse Digital allows companies to uniquely bolster their presence at the trade fair, whilst adding a completely new dimension for retailers and buyers visiting the physical exhibition. We're delighted to offer this pioneering service as a valuable complement to our all-important live event." Note for editors: Reprint free of charge. Images are available at www.spielwarenmesse.de/media. Please provide us with a voucher copy on publication. Spielwarenmesse Spielwarenmesse, the leading international fair for toys, hobbies and leisure, is organized by the fair and marketing services provider Spielwarenmesse eG. The trade fair creates a comprehensive communication and ordering platform for 2,800 national and international manufacturers. The presentation of new products and the extensive industry overview provide a valuable pool of information for annual market orientation for around 65,000 buyers and toy traders from more than 130 nations. Spielwarenmesse has also been a protected word mark in Germany since 2013. Fair dates: Spielwarenmesse Summer Edition 2021: Tuesday to Saturday, 20 24 Jul 2021 Spielwarenmesse 2022: Wednesday to Sunday, 2 6 Feb 2022 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1444416/Spielwarenmesse_Digital.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1444734/Spielwarenmesse_Logo.jpg SOURCE Spielwarenmesse eG Related Links https://spielwarenmesse.de The federal government has awarded five grants to protect coastal wetlands in South Carolina covering sites spanning the entire coastal plain. The awards, announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week, gave the maximum $1 million amount to each project. In all the cases, any additional project cost will be covered by local or state co-sponsors. The program is open to all coastal states, including those that border the Great Lakes. The only other states awarded more grants this year are Virginia and California. "South Carolina's punching above its weight for these federal grants," said J. Raleigh West III, executive director of the S.C. Conservation Bank. "Were putting together some pretty complex real estate transactions and I hope delivering some real benefit for South Carolina." The five conservation awards went to: The River Oaks tract, a 980-acre parcel in the Waccamaw River basin in Horry County. A 1,964-acre portion of Santee Island, a heavily forested habitat for several challenged species along the Santee River in Georgetown County. An 841-acre parcel along the Black River in Williamsburg County which could be part of a future state park. The 974-acre Meyer Lake tract in Jasper County, which includes 3.5 miles of frontage on the Savannah River. The Oaks Plantation, a 194-acre site along the Ashley River in Charleston County with mature maritime forest. The Oaks Plantation is owned by Evening Post Industries, the parent company of The Post and Courier. After the land is put under conservation easement it will be transferred to Drayton Hall Preservation Trust. The trust will eventually open the site to the public as it installs infrastructure such as public bathrooms, said Chief Executive Officer Carter Hudgins. Three of the other sites would be publicly owned by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources as wildlife management areas or preserves, and all four will be opened for public access. "Investing in these and the other projects that have gotten approval for grant funding under this program will provide enormous dividends for the future of our coastal wetlands and the wildlife species that live there," David Lucas, a DNR spokesman, said. Jason Ayers, coordinator of the South Carolina coastal program at the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the Conservation Bank has led the way in the state's grant haul and was particularly effective in putting together many partners to make a project work. This is the first cycle in which the bank was allowed to administer these federal funds after Gov. Henry McMaster gave the bank that privilege last year. Several other aspects of the projects made them competitive, Ayers said. They include the presence of nationally declining forested wetlands; the promise to protect the land into perpetuity; and the potential to spark more conservation nearby. "The quality of the landscapes in South Carolina speak for themselves," Ayers said. "I feel like were playing with an advantage for these federal grants." As the proud mother of a transgender child, Ive felt a wide range of emotions in the past month. On the one hand, Ive felt elation following President Joe Bidens executive orders on LGBTQ nondiscrimination measures and the anti-transgender military ban but Ive also seen harmful, misguided and uneducated conversations about anti-transgender legislation percolate through the statehouse in Texas, where I live. I thought Texas lawmakers had learned a lesson years ago from the intense pressure they faced against a proposed ban on trans people from using the restroom. Yet even now, theyre charging forward on exclusionary bills, including Bathroom Bill 3.0. One such bill would go so far as to deem me a perpetrator of child abuse for supporting my childs transgender identity. These bills in Texas are a relic of the past and dont reflect where we are as a country. Americans have opened their hearts and minds to transgender people, and its well past time that we move away from shameful exclusion and toward the inclusive promise of comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation. While LGBTQ Americans in many states, including Texas, lack these protections, I hope that soon, leaders in Washington will address this major gap. I urge our U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn to support bipartisan federal LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections. Ive been a conservative the majority of my life. For decades, I voted Republican all the way down the ticket. I served as president of the College Republicans, and my husband is the son of a Baptist minister. We raised our children with conservative values. For all of these reasons and more, Im definitely not what most folks in San Antonio expect a fierce LGBTQ ally to look like. Yet here I am, because the greatest responsibility I have is to protect my children. When my son told me he is transgender, I endured a personal and existential reckoning with my own identity that forced me to confront the false narratives I allowed myself to believe. I opened my eyes to the challenges that LGBTQ people face. My awakening was admittedly a slow process. Our son Reid came out when he was 13. At first, I thought it was just a phase. I was isolated and in denial for a good while unwilling to truly hear what Reid was saying, and certainly unable to tell my family or friends at church what we were going through. I finally decided that I wasnt willing to lose a child over anything. So I started educating myself. Through independent research, conversations with transgender people, and a great deal of support from professionals and groups who work with the LGBTQ community, I learned that being LGBTQ is normal. The science is there. Discrimination is wrong and disenfranchises our community. My sons job right now is to focus on being young. As his mom, my job is to protect his future. Ive learned that my superpower is in my story, and my privilege can open doors that get people at the table. So Ive been knocking on as many doors as I can, and I wont stop until he has been afforded the protections he deserves, not simply because hes trans but because he is human. My son is healthier than ever before, our whole family is happier, and I wouldnt trade that for the world. But discriminatory laws and policies affect us every day. Our health care benefits do not cover trans-related care. We have spent roughly $30,000 out of pocket for trans-related care medical and mental health. Reid doesnt use the restroom at school. Its been so difficult to get his ID changed to reflect his actual gender that he has to carry a letter from his therapist everywhere he goes. We spent $3,000 for legal representation to amend his official birth certificate, which is still in the courts. He wants to get a job, but without an amended birth certificate, he might face employment discrimination that I cant protect him from. These injustices hurt people. These injustices hurt families. These injustices hurt entire communities. From one parent to another, I implore Cruz and Cornyn to take action on this critically important issue. By doing so, they would be living their values: As Americans, we agree that everyone should have the freedom and opportunity to work hard, earn a living and be able to provide for their families and contribute to their communities. Those arent just conservative values theyre American values. Lets put them into practice. Paige Davis is a professor of communication and pedagogy. She lives in San Antonio. The YWAM KOHA left Tauranga harbour on Monday for a two-week check-over in Lyttleton, before embarking on a port tour of New Zealand. After 14 months of preparation shes now heading to Lyttleton for dry dock, says YWAM Ships Aotearoa Managing Director Marty Emmett. This legally mandated survey work will include a complete inspection of the hull and mechanical aspects of the vessel. Were excited to go through the survey and finish preparations for the ship to serve as a medical vessel. This is the final thing. We get through this and then were ready to go which will be awesome. The goal all along has been for the ship to take much-needed medical supplies and personnel into the Pacific Islands. It will be in dry dock for 14 days from March 1-14 and then were going to go sail around New Zealand doing port tours in Nelson, Whanganui and Wellington. The ship will be back here in Tauranga at the end of May, says Marty. The ship, which has Tauranga as its home port, will be in Nelson during March and part of April, then Whanganui to mid-April, before going to Wellington until mid-May. One of the reasons for the promotional tour of NZ ports is to connect with YWAM KOHAs NZ supporters, and to find new supporters. The next three months is going to require about $300,000 and so far theyve raised $50,000. YWAM which stands for Youth With A Mission - has called the promotional campaign The Final Push. Marty says they want to invite and ask people to lean in and push with us with raising funds to complete the preparation work that the ship still needs before it can head into the Pacific Islands to fulfil its mission. The YWAM Koha left Tauranga Harbour on Monday. Photo: Supplied. The tour will be an opportunity for people to visit the ship, much like the tours we conducted here in Tauranga. We have strong supporters in Wanganui and Nelson, and were keen for emerging support in Wellington. The strong and versatile New Zealand-based vessel is uniquely designed to carry both people and cargo to remote island communities. Custom built shipping containers, on the ships deck, can serve as dental, medical, surgical, pharmaceutical, or classroom facilities. Koha is a Maori word for 'gift'. The ship was given as a gift to Youth With A Mission. After the tour of New Zealand ports, we are working towards a possible maiden deployment into the Pacific from July. Over the last 14 months its been all hands on deck with the crew and many local Tauranga volunteers continuing to plan, scrap rust, paint, weld and clean. Weve installed a new water maker and a new sewage treatment plant. The ship has been rewired with a new wiring system. And this is on top of our normal maintenance work and painting, says Marty. Before leaving Tauranga the YWAM KOHA stopped at Mount Maunganui to load on a second dental surgery thats been stored there for many months. We are motivated by the belief that every person especially throughout the Pacific should have access to the basic necessities of life, says Marty. We hope people will partner with us in the Final Push. YWAM Ships Aotearoa managing director Marty Emmett inside one of the dental surgeries on board the YWAM Koha. Photo: John Borren/SunLive. Photo: The Canadian Press Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addresses in a conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Following the conference Zarif told journalists the country has started implementing a law passed by the parliament to curb UN inspections into its nuclear program and would no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the U.N. agency. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Germany's foreign minister on Wednesday urged Iran to accept diplomatic overtures coming from the West in order to preserve the 2015 nuclear accord. Heiko Maas accused Tehran of further undermining the transparency it is required to show under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, after Iran began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities Tuesday. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had added 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 20% to its stockpile as of Feb. 16 far past the 3.67% purity allowed under the JCPOA. "In the end, Iran needs to understand that whats important is to de-escalate and accept the offer of diplomacy thats on the table, including from the United States, Maas said. Irans violations of the JCPOA pose a significant problem for U.S. President Joe Biden, who is seeking to reverse the Trump administrations decision to pull the U.S. unilaterally out of the deal three years ago, triggering the re-imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Iran. Iran this week effectively set a deadline to lift those sanctions within three months, after which it said it would erase surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities Maas said the transparency required of Iran under the JCPOA wouldn't be fulfilled during that period. "But we still want to use these three months, together with other partners in the nuclear agreement, to discuss step by step how the U.S. can return to this accord, Maas said. And in particular (the discussion) will be about the sequence of measures. That is, who needs to take which step so that a general agreement can be achieved at the end of which the U.S. are part of this agreement again. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear late Tuesday that his country doesn't have confidence in the accord with Tehran. We have already seen the quality of agreements with extremist regimes such as yours, in the past century and in this one, with the government of North Korea, he said. "With or without agreements we will do everything so that you will not arm yourselves with nuclear weapons. SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Boeing Co is working with regulators and customers to return the 737 MAX to the skies in Asia, a senior executive said on Thursday, where it remains grounded nearly two years after two deadly crashes even though it has returned in other markets. "We're continuing to work with global regulators and our customers to return the 737 MAX to service worldwide," Boeing Vice President Commercial Marketing Darren Hulst told reporters during a briefing on the Southeast Asian market. "But we are going to defer to regulators individually for more ... Lizanne Peters was recently appointed as business unit director at Joe Public Cape Town. She has over 16 years industry experience across various sectors such as FMCG, insurance, investment, banking, healthcare and retail as well as four years' experience as the brand manager at Distell and WWF. Lizanne Peters, newly appointed business unit director at Joe Public Cape Town Congrats on your appointment. How do you feel about it? How and when did this come about? What excites you most about taking on the role as business unit director? Your career spans over 16 years. What are your biggest highlights? What do you love most about your career, the industry and what you do? What is your biggest motivation in life? Covid-19 has certainly changed our lives forever. As business unit director, what approach will you take going forward at Joe Public United? Joe Public United, an integrated communications agency, launched its Cape Town agency in 2020 as the newest addition to the family. It has enabled the group to expand its capabilities and extend its unique offering to markets outside of Johannesburg.Im thrilled to be a part of the Joe Public team. The agency has such a larger than life reputation, and I feel privileged to be welcomed into an agency with such standing.With the Cape Town office opening in 2020, they were seeking someone to occupy a role in account management. I was contacted about the BUD position and jumped at the opportunity to be interviewed, although it was daunting.Firstly to be a Joe. The agency has achieved amazing growth performance over its existence especially over the past few years. Im keen to be part of the team where there is a clear drive to pursue creative excellence that delivers results from both the agency and client perspective.My career has afforded me the opportunity to work on some great South African brands with some of the ad industrys most respected minds. It was a great achievement to assist on the launch of Savanna Dark cider while I was at Distell and then also to work on Loeries-award creative for brands like National Geographic Kids and Mediclinic.The constant challenges and the fact that no two days are the same. Best of all I get to engage with really brave, smart and creative thinkers who inspire me to stretch and apply my mind to different alternatives. I love that being content with the status quo isnt an option. Being restless pushes you to discover solutions and grow in so many ways both personally and professionally.I consider myself to be a life-long learner and wanting to engage with others learning from them both formally and not is what keeps me going. I try not to be complacent.I think this ties into my motivation to resist complacency. If anything, the pandemic has taught me that you shouldnt rest on your laurels even if you think youre at the height of your game. There are always factors you cant control, so you should position yourself in a state of readiness. Being proactive and constantly learning from the past to improve your future and that of others. Also, its great to celebrate the wins but when doing so, its important for me to do it with a sense of humility and to pay it forward to those around you. Atria will manage these new communities through its Atria Retirement brand, which will continue to be led by its president, Kristy Grange. Through the leadership of Kristy and her team, the company has built its successful Atria Retirement brand starting with the Atria Retirement Canada portfolio in 2014. The move underscores Atria's commitment to continue to grow in the moderately priced senior living segment as the company enters what it considers the "Seniors Decade" of the 2020s. "We are excited to take what Kristy and her team have done with Atria Retirement and apply their successful management model to a broader portfolio, as we work to grow each of our key brand segments. In many ways, Atria Retirement is at the leading edge of our future," John Moore, Atria Chairman and CEO said. Moore added, "I also couldn't be more excited to start this relationship with New Senior. President and Chief Executive Officer Susan Givens and her team are great to work with. Together we've worked hard to design a management contract that features true alignment. Our management arrangement creates a partnership that is well-positioned to drive value for both New Senior and Atria stakeholders alike." "Atria Senior Living is one of the most well-respected operators in the business and has a proven track record of driving strong occupancy and financial performance at communities similar to those in our transition portfolio. We have worked collaboratively with the Atria team to ensure meaningful alignment between our companies, and we look forward to beginning this new strategic partnership and finding ways to build upon it as we move forward," said Susan Givens, President and Chief Executive Officer of New Senior. Atria Retirement President Kristy Grange said, "Our team is excited and prepared to apply the things that we've learned and to continue growing our platform. These communities have been well-managed by Holiday Retirement and have the timeless, resident-centric design heritage of William Colson. That history, combined with redevelopment and capital projects, will help independent seniors live their best lives both in the current environment and as we move forward into the future," she said. In addition to operating the 21 communities for New Senior, Atria expects to also carry out capital management, development and redevelopment services. Transition of the communities to Atria Retirement is expected to be complete in April. Moore said the transaction is a major step for Atria in augmenting its robust, segmented senior living management business. Atria Retirement, a lower price point independent living product, complements the rest of Atria's portfolio which includes the brands of Atria, Atria Signature, Atria Park and its new lower price point assisted living brand, Gladwell. A new luxury brand is also coming soon through Atria's joint venture with the Related Companies. Atria is also moving beyond management and development services in senior housing through its recently launched software subsidiary, which offers best-in-class, end-to-end community management applications to other owners and providers under the Glennis brand, Moore said. About Atria Senior Living Atria Senior Living is a leading operator of independent living, assisted living, supportive living and memory care communities serving more than 200 locations in 28 states and seven Canadian provinces, after the New Senior transaction is complete. Atria is the residence of choice for more than 18,000 older people, and the workplace of choice for more than 13,000 employees. We create vibrant communities where older adults can thrive and participate, know that their contributions are valued, and enjoy access to opportunities and support that help them keep making a positive difference in our world. For more information about Atria, visit AtriaSeniorLiving.com. About New Senior New Senior Investment Group Inc. (NYSE: SNR) is a publicly-traded real estate investment trust with a diversified portfolio of senior housing properties located across the United States. New Senior is one of the largest owners of senior housing properties, with 103 properties across 36 states. More information about New Senior can be found at www.newseniorinv.com. SOURCE Atria Senior Living Victory Hill Capital Advisors LLP ("Victory Hill"), a new sustainable energy infrastructure investor headquartered in London, has selected Mercatus to manage its complex and growing investment data. Victory Hill targets direct investments in global energy infrastructure that supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Victory Hill, which recently raised 242.6 million in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, is committed to all aspects of ESG, and its decision to implement a data management platform at the launch of the fund is an example of its own strong focus on data governance. "The Mercatus platform will provide us with the digital platform we need to efficiently scale our business and stay one step ahead of our peers when it comes to managing our data. We wanted to put the building blocks in place for us to scale, otherwise we'd soon hit a wall with Excel. In addition, Mercatus's ability to manage complex valuation models is what set itself apart over its peers" said Anthony Catachanas, CEO of Victory Hill. Victory Hill plans to implement Mercatus to create a single unified data architecture: Valuation Management and Scenario Analysis: It will systematize its valuation process and output and have the ability to perform scenario and sensitivity analysis across the portfolio. It will systematize its valuation process and output and have the ability to perform scenario and sensitivity analysis across the portfolio. Portfolio Monitoring : Victory Hill aims to centralize data across its portfolio, and embed repeatable processes to collect, analyze, and support investor reporting. : Victory Hill aims to centralize data across its portfolio, and embed repeatable processes to collect, analyze, and support investor reporting. Deal Management : The platform will create a workflow around the deal management process and the centralized data will help Victory Hill drive analysis on potential new deals. : The platform will create a workflow around the deal management process and the centralized data will help Victory Hill drive analysis on potential new deals. ESG: Victory Hill can support and monitor its ESG impact through the platform in order to help attain the impact goals of the fund. "Victory Hill is putting itself at an advantage to its competitors by investing in a data platform from the beginning, instead of waiting until legacy systems are already in place," said Haresh Patel, CEO of Mercatus. "We're excited to be a part of Victory Hill's growth and success as it matures." About Victory Hill Victory Hill is a specialist investment firm targeting direct investments in global energy infrastructure that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim of facilitating an orderly energy transition to a Net Zero Carbon future. About Mercatus Mercatus is an investment data management platform for private market fund managers and asset owners that need to solve the complexity of their private investment data. It offers a single platform to manage the entire investment lifecycle: from deal to divestment, asset to fund, debt to equity. It's the only platform in private markets to manage valuation and scenario analysis at scale. With Mercatus, you will trust your data, scale your team, and make better investment decisions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005846/en/ Contacts: Ali Mamujee amamujee@gomercatus.com As Marc Quidit lay in a trauma unit with four bullets in his lower body, his family gathered in their living room and wrestled with an expanding crisis. Quidit and his sister were tending to his store, Dollar Plus & Party Supplies in Vallejo, where two armed robbers entered on Feb. 16. According to surveillance video obtained by KTVU, at least one of the gunman fired shots at Quidit, who may have fired back. A critically injured Quidit was airlifted to John Muir Health Medical Center in Walnut Creek. The family didnt know if Quidit, 49 and the father of three, would walk again. Then Quidits teenage daughter quietly posed a question to the room: How would the family afford her fathers medical expenses? I remember thinking, Her father was just shot today, said Joanne Pomares, Quidits niece. A young girl like her going through trauma should not have to think about how the family is going to pay for medical bills. Pomares did what a growing number of Americans do when faced with a personal financial crisis and a tattered social safety net: She turned to online donations. Pomares GoFundMe campaign raised more than $84,000 for her uncles medical expenses in six days. The Filipino American familys campaign is one of several that sprang up in recent weeks in response to a rash of attacks on people of Asian descent in the Bay Area and beyond. According to GoFundMe, campaigns started on its international platform have raised money for struggling Asian American merchants in the Bay Area and in Maryland, for Asian American advocacy groups in California and New York, and to distribute safety items to older Asian American adults across the region. These online fundraisers, benefiting an ethnic community thats long been neglected, represent the latest twist in an unintentional trend. While we do not view ourselves as a substitute for government support, the fact is that more Americans than we could ever have anticipated, turn to GoFundMe for healthcare-related expenses, a spokesperson for the Redwood City-based company said in an email. A recent report from the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that more than a third of GoFundMe campaigns in the U.S. were created to cover health-care-related costs from the platforms launch in May 2010 to December 2018. Forty-two fundraisers sought $717,125 to help with medical costs in 2010. In 2018, 119,373 campaigns sought $4.6 billion for similar expenses. Its a uniquely American problem that so many people have to rely on crowdsourcing to pay for their health care, said Laurel Lucia, director of the health care program at UC Berkeleys Labor Center. It shows how many people are left out of our system and how unaffordable care has become. The pandemic has only widened the gap, particularly for communities of color. According to a survey the California Health Care Foundation conducted from late 2020 to early 2021, more California adults worried about affording unexpected medical costs and COVID-19 treatment than they did their rent or mortgage. Health-care affordability concerns were especially common among Black, Asian American and Latinx populations and those in low-income communities. For Asian Americans, the pandemic has added heightened xenophobia to health and economic pressures. A report this month from Stop AAPI Hate tallied 2,808 anti-Asian hate incidents in the U.S. from the onset of the pandemic through December 2020. Of those, 1,226 took place in California and more than 700 in the Bay Area. A separate Stop AAPI Hate report in the fall called former President Donald Trump the greatest superspreader of anti-Asian rhetoric for frequently using racist language such as China virus and kung flu to describe COVID-19 on television and his now-defunct social media platforms. Weve been sounding the alarm of anti-Asian racism since March and even before that, said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. Theres been a rise in verbal harassment, intimidation and physical assaults, so its natural for Asian Americans to feel like they may be targeted. The crowdfunding response has sometimes been swifter than the governments. More than $184,000 has been donated to Bay Area store owners and residents, including more than $86,000 for armed security patrols in Oaklands Chinatown, which experienced a spate of attacks and robberies leading into the Lunar New Year. San Francisco residents and friends Zoe Xu, Sunny Chen and Vicki Tan raised more than $10,000 for lanyards connected to whistles and emergency contact cards in English and Chinese. Karmen Sao of South San Francisco raised more than $2,000 to distribute pepper spray and whistles in San Mateo and neighboring counties. Jenna Nguyen of San Jose raised more than $1,500 to pass out alarms to older Asian American residents in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. Whats heartbreaking about the attacks is that it happened to people who cant really defend themselves, so I felt like I had to do something, Nguyen said. Choi said a focus on crime prevention was natural, but the fundraisers also highlight the failure of government institutions to effectively respond. Targeted communities shouldnt have to bear the burden of organizing their own safety, she said. The fear, anxiety and concerns are so real, Choi said. Were seeing the fervor and anger because this issue has been invisible for so long. Pomares said her family doesnt know if Quidit was the victim of a racially motivated attack or a random crime. The armed robbers are still at large. But the family has received a different dose of clarity. Six days after the shooting, Pomares uploaded a photo to her GoFundMe page. The image showed Quidit in his Napa home surrounded by family members with arms outstretched in prayer. Pomares included a message thanking the nearly 2,000 donors and telling them her uncle would walk again. Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika Instagram: @shwanika Nissan is withdrawing its popular Navara pickup truck from the UK and Europe just as a facelifted model line goes on sale in other world markets, a UK media report said. Nissan confirmed to Professional Pickup & 44 the heavily revised 2021 Navara, an updated model with new styling and enhanced safety equipment, would not be coming to the UK, with the automaker continuing to offer the current generation model instead. Sources told Professional Pickup & 44 the current generation model would cease to be available early in 2022, with no replacement planned. The move reflects the recent surprise Mitsubishi Motors decision not to launch any more new models in Europe or the UK it also sells a popular, long-running pickup line, and direct Navara rival, called the L200. There was a hint earlier this week MMC might already be reconsidering that decision at least partly after it was reported to be considering a plan to source a model from its alliance partner Renault to sell in Europe, according to reports in Japan. Those reports suggested the plan could see the Japanese automaker maintain a stronger presence in Europe than had previously been envisaged. Mazda Motors, some years ago, called time on its BT-50 (nee B-series) truck line which, at the time was also produced (in Thailand) and sold as the Ford Ranger, which remains on sale in the UK and Europe. Professional Pickup & 44 noted production of the European Navara was already scheduled to stop at Nissans slated-for-closure Barcelona factory at the end of 2021. The plant in Samut Prakan, Thailand, could have taken up the slack but that factory will produce vehicles for the local southeast Asia and Australian markets while the Rosslyn, South Africa, factory will supply Navara pickups to the African continent. The report added Barcelona production had slowed significantly through 2019 and 2020 with just 40 trucks a day built at one point. A lack of demand as sales plummeted has led to fewer orders to fulfil, leaving the factory operating at a fraction of its 500-plus daily capacity. Nissans production demand had also been hit by the cancellation of the Mercedes-Benz X-Class variant of the Navara, as well as limited European sales of the Renault Alaskan variant. Professional Pickup & 44 also said sales of the Navara had collapsed throughout Europe, even before the effects of the coronavirus pandemic took hold, leaving Nissan to decide to concentrate on higher volume, more profitable markets in Australasia and south eastern Asia. European sales reached over 30,000 vehicles in 2016, dropping by a third to 21,904 in 2019. The pandemic-affected total for 2020 reached just 11,695 units sold, with the UK taking a share of more than 40% of European sales. In the UK, Navara sales dropped from 10,815 in 2017, to just 4,730 in 2020. Last year, its market share reduced to 13.3%, losing its share of the segment faster than Mitsubishi which suffered after announcing the withdrawal from the UK and Europe. According to Professional Pickup & 44, a completely redesigned Navara is expected in 2025, based on the next-generation Mitsubishi L200 platform and, while unlikely, it remained possible this could be introduced to the UK and Europe. Thematic Reports Are you worried about the pace of innovation in your industry? GlobalData's TMT Themes 2021 Report tells you everything you need to know about disruptive tech themes and which companies are best placed to help you digitally transform your business. Find out more Three decades ago, Volkswagen dipped a toe in the European one-tonne pickup market with a built-under-licence variant of Toyotas Hilux called the Taro. In 2009, it launched the in-house built (in Argentina) Amarok, a much larger vehicle. The second generation Amarok had been at one time expected to be built in Argentina and Europe, and assembled in Nigeria and Ecuador, with a chance that production in the US could also be added. However, plans changed and this pickup will now be manufactured by Ford. This also inevitably means that the current model will remain in production for far longer than is ideal. Unless there is a facelift in 2021, generation one will likely live for more than 12 years without any changes to its appearance. I have heard numerous reports of American robin sightings recently, and the symbolism of the robins return excites me. Growing up in Northern Michigan, the American robin is a migratory bird that like many of Michigans older population appears to head off to warmer climates for the winter. Now, in recent times this topic has come under some debate, with many experts saying robins disappear during the winter because the food sources change and often times they are still around, but merely tucked out of sight. However, I am going to believe what my great grandmother taught me and say they are wrong. Either way, in the 30-plus years that I have paid attention to birds, I do know that when I see the American robin reappear, it coincides with the beginning of the end for winter. Although I dont know as much about them as I would like to, I do know birds are actually pretty fascinating creatures. They know more things than most people would give them credit for, and their migratory patterns are no exception. Michigan is defined by its seasons, and each season is easily identified by the direction the birds travel and which birds you can regularly see. For example, one of my favorite things about fall growing up was duck hunting. I was not a particularly good duck hunter. I also wasnt a huge fan of eating duck, although I would admit that was in-part due to the preparation. However, despite these facts I still yearn to go duck hunting, mostly because I loved to be outside during the early fall and watch these birds travel together from one destination to another. About 10 years ago, I started regularly traveling to Mackinaw City on business. In the early spring I would eat my lunch in a park west of the city. On the ground it was a very peaceful place, but I was interested in the action. Several hundred feet in the air you could often see a kettle or group of soaring birds above the straits. These kettles were fascinating to watch because you would often see hundreds of predatory birds like hawks and eagles, along with other birds, including some that would usually be prey, flying in a circular pattern above the straits. These birds are essentially riding thermal updrafts to gain altitude and conserve energy before traveling on. When the robins return each year, they trigger some of these memories, and remind me that the darkest days of winter are behind us and warmer weather is soon to come. Now, I have been around long enough to know that we still face a rollercoaster of weather before we can truly rejoice in the spring, but more often than not, the weeks-long stretches of deep freeze are behind us. The days where temperatures are so cold your nostrils freeze shut are numbered, and soon we will again see more colors of nature than the various shades of grey and white that winter is known for. There was a time that I absolutely loved winter, but in recent years I have noticed a growing disdain for it. I am certainly ready to trade in the black and white for a bit of technicolor. Scott Nunn is the assistant editor of the Huron Daily Tribune. When he isnt complaining about the seasons and the weather, he is complaining about something else. Nunn can be reached at scott.nunn@hearstnp.com. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Kate Ferdinand has hit out at the suggestion she could love her biological son Cree more than her three step-children Lorenz, 14, Tate, 12, and Tia, nine. The former TOWIE star, 29, took to Instagram on Wednesday to host a Q&A session with her fans, when she was asked the question by a concerned follower. Reassuring the fan, Kate wrote: 'People ask me this a lot, and I can only speak for myself as everyone is different 'I love all four children equally and I will never see any difference between my biological and non biological children.' 'The fact we are not blood is not important': Kate Ferdinand hit out at the 'offensive' suggestion she might love son Cree more than her step-children during an Instagram Q&A on Wednesday She went on: 'Lorenz, Tate, and Tia taught me what it feels like to love a child way before I had Cree. 'We worked so hard as a family to get to where we are now, and I take huge offence if anyone even suggests I would love Cree more than them. 'We have been through A LOT as a family, and that I believe has cemented my love for them so deep that the fact we are not blood is not important.' Kate's husband Rio shares his children with his late wife Rebecca, who tragically passed away in 2015 aged 34 following a battle with breast cancer. Blended family: Kate said of step-children Lorenz, Tate, and Tia: 'I love all four children equally and I will never see any difference between my biological and non biological children' Bond: Kate went on, 'We have been through A LOT as a family, and that I believe has cemented my love for them so deep that the fact we are not blood is not important' Another fan admitted to Kate that they were 'struggling' as a full-time step-mother, and said the reality star was an 'inspiration' for her. In response, Kate wrote: 'I hope you are OK. Being a step-mum can be very tough at times. In case no one is telling you, remember you are doing a great job. 'The highs always outweigh the lows, you will get through... You've got this (sic).' Since announcing the arrival of their son Cree in December, former TOWIE star Kate has kept a relatively low profile while she recovers from her C-section at home. When one fan asked how she was doing after the procedure, Kate wrote: 'I found the recovery really difficult at the beginning, where it was so unexpected I couldn't quite get my head around not being able to do the things i thought I would be able too... Supportive: Another fan admitted to Kate they were 'struggling' as a full-time step-mother, and she reassured the woman that the 'highs always outweigh the lows' Recovery: Kate was also asked about her C-section, and she admitted the recovery was 'really difficult' and she struggled with 'terrible guilt' and 'anxiety' 'My emotions were all over the place, I was feeling terrible guilt and my anxiety was at an all time high. I was quite traumatised to be honest! 'No one really warns you of this, I think it's really important that we talk about what happens after giving birth and that not evening is 'perfect' (sic).' She added: 'I am feeling so much better now, finally feeling back to myself ... for anyone in the early stages of a c section recovery my advice is to REST, don't beat yourself up too much & I promise you will feel back to yourself eventually! 'It feels in those first 6 weeks that you will never be able to do anything again but remember you have had major surgery & you will get back to normal, it just takes some time (sic). Kate recently ruled out having any more children following the traumatic birth of her newborn baby and joked motherhood has aged her by a decade. Blended family: The sportsman shares sons Lorenz, 14, Tate, 12, and daughter Tia, nine, with his late wife, Rebecca Speaking to MailOnline in her first interview since welcoming son Cree, the former reality star said the thought of expanding her family makes her feel 'anxious' as she recovers from life-saving surgery. Kate explained she wants to give fellow mums a 'real' perspective of post-baby life, saying she would be 'lying' if she was only uploading glamorous pictures. On the prospect of having more children, Kate said: 'If you ask me right now I would say never ever again. Our house is very hectic as it is. 'We have four kids and two dogs, it's a madhouse. The thought of having another one makes me slightly anxious. 'I'm only 29 but I feel 39 at the moment! But you never know, I might feel different in a few years.' 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. 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. (Newser) A former employee at a Virginia prison says she put in a tampon and headed to workand for that, she was fired. In a sex discrimination lawsuit, dental hygienist Joyce Flores, 48, says she was interrogated for hours at Augusta Correctional Center on July 17, 2019, after a body scan detected the tampon and guards suspected her of smuggling contraband. She was fired two weeks later. She filed a federal lawsuit in November following an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation, the Virginia Mercury reports. The state Department of Corrections asked a judge to dismiss the suit because Flores hadn't shown her gender was a motivating factor in her firing. US District Judge Thomas Cullen refused Monday. "But for Flores's menstruation and use of a tamponconditions inextricable from her sex and her child-bearing capacityshe would not have been discharged," Cullen wrote, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. story continues below Flores explains the trouble started when she went to change her tampon and realized she didn't have a new one on her; she removed the saturated one and put toilet paper in her underwear. She was then asked to submit to a second body scan, which looked different from the firstbecause, she explained, there was no tampon. She offered up menstrual blood as evidence and agreed to searches of her vehicle and work area that she says turned up nothing. Claiming its scanners couldn't tell the difference between feminine hygiene products and contraband, the Virginia DOC barred female visitors from wearing tampons in 2018. The policy was quickly rescinded but visitors wearing tampons were only allowed to see inmates through glass or via video, per the Mercury. Flores says there was no rule against employees using tampons. She wants her job back plus back pay and $300,000 in damages, per the Washington Post. (Read more Virginia stories.) To the Editor: Re Youre Not Too Old for Picture Books (Sunday Review, Feb. 21): Thank you, Pamela Paul, for paying homage to a much-overlooked literary genre, the picture book. After teaching kindergarten for 30 years, I retired with a huge collection of picture books. I donated many of the books to public school libraries but also kept quite a few for myself. When the pandemic hit a year ago, I was not only confined to our house; I also had the tough job of being a caretaker for a spouse with dementia. I decided that one small thing I could do for myself every day was to escape into a picture book. What a delight it has been for me to enjoy the same books that I once shared with my kindergarten students. Eloise, Peter Rabbit, Dr. Seuss (just to name a few): Thanks for keeping me company during these bleak days of isolation. Lynda Jeffrey Plott Washington To the Editor: As the gateway to literacy, picture books finally get the distinguished place in literature that Pamela Paul so aptly credits them for maintaining throughout life. As keepers of the reading flame among young and old, cherished picture books are ones to return to for comfort, pleasant memories and, above all, introducing young readers to a lifetime of appreciating the marriage of words and illustrations. Up to now, the coveted title of Worst College President in America belonged without question to George Bridges of Evergreen State College in Washington, as we noted here back in 2018. But a new challenger has arisen, and has wrested the title from Bridges: Kathleen McCartney of Smith College. We wrote here last week (in The Disgrace of Smith College) about the case of Jodi Shaw, the Smith College staff member hounded out of Smith because she dared to challenge the blatantly racist so-called ideology of anti-racism that is rampant on campuses everywhere. McCartney responded with a public letter disputing Shaw, but without rebutting any of the substantive claims Shaw madea classic non-denial-denial. Today the New York Times reported at length on the Smith controversy, and the portrait it offers of McCartney and Smith College is devastating. Its quite a long story and worth reading all the way through if you have access to the Times, but here are some highlights, beginning with the story of a Black student in 2018 who brought charges of racism against several Smith staff members that a subsequent investigation by an outside law firm Smith hired concluded were unfounded. But no matter to McCartney and the race mongers of Smith, who used the incident to launch on an ongoing Maoist struggle session with the campus, as well as ruining the lives of working class Smith employees who were improvidently branded as racists: In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a Black student at Smith College, recounted a distressing American tale: She was eating lunch in a dorm lounge when a janitor and a campus police officer walked over and asked her what she was doing there. The officer, who could have been carrying a lethal weapon, left her near meltdown, Ms. Kanoute wrote on Facebook, saying that this encounter continued a yearlong pattern of harassment at Smith. All I did was be Black, Ms. Kanoute wrote. Its outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a woman of color. The colleges president, Kathleen McCartney, offered profuse apologies and put the janitor on paid leave. This painful incident reminds us of the ongoing legacy of racism and bias, the president wrote, in which people of color are targeted while simply going about the business of their ordinary lives. The investigation, by the way, found that the Smith security officer was unarmed. Less attention was paid three months later when a law firm hired by Smith College to investigate the episode found no persuasive evidence of bias. Ms. Kanoute was determined to have eaten in a deserted dorm that had been closed for the summer; the janitor had been encouraged to notify security if he saw unauthorized people there. Smith College officials emphasized reconciliation and healing after the incident. In the months to come they announced a raft of anti-bias training for all staff, a revamped and more sensitive campus police force and the creation of dormitories as demanded by Ms. Kanoute and her A.C.L.U. lawyer set aside for Black students and other students of color. But they did not offer any public apology or amends to the workers whose lives were gravely disrupted by the students accusation. This last sentence is a key detail, as it shows that the concern for rich elite whites like McCartney doesnt extend to working class people of modest means, like dining hall worker Jackie Blair: Student workers [like Ms. Kanoute] were not supposed to use the Tyler cafeteria, which was reserved for a summer camp program for young children. Jackie Blair, a veteran cafeteria employee, mentioned that to Ms. Kanoute when she saw her getting lunch there and then decided to drop it. Staff members dance carefully around rule enforcement for fear students will lodge complaints. We used to joke, dont let a rich student report you, because if you do, youre gone, said Mark Patenaude, a janitor. Ms. Kanoute took her food and then walked through a set of French doors, crossed a foyer and reclined in the shadowed lounge of a dormitory closed for the summer, where she scrolled the web as she ate. And youll never guess what happened next! In an interview, [President McCartney] said that Ms. Kanoute deserved an apology and swift action, even before the investigation was undertaken. It was appropriate to apologize, Ms. McCartney said. She is living in a context of living while Black incidents. The schools workers felt scapegoated. It is safe to say race is discussed far more often than class at Smith, said Prof. Marc Lendler, who teaches American government at the college. Its a feature of elite academic institutions that faculty and students dont recognize what it means to be elite. The repercussions spread. Three weeks after the incident at Tyler House, Ms. Blair, the cafeteria worker, received an email from a reporter at The Boston Globe asking her to comment on why she called security on Ms. Kanoute for eating while Black. That puzzled her; what did she have to do with this? This is the racist person, Ms. Kanoute wrote of Ms. Blair, adding that Mr. Patenaude [a janitor] too was guilty. (He in fact worked an early shift that day and had already gone home at the time of the incident.) Ms. Kanoute also lashed the Smith administration. Theyre essentially enabling racist, cowardly acts. . . . Ms. Blair was born and raised and lives in Northampton with her husband, a mechanic, and makes about $40,000 a year. Within days of being accused by Ms. Kanoute, she said she found notes in her mailbox and taped to her car window. RACIST read one. People called her at home. You should be ashamed of yourself, a caller said. You dont deserve to live, said another. Pretty clear from all of this (and other details in the article) that the truly hateful people on the Smith campus are the so-called anti-racists. Then theres this detail: Anti-bias training began in earnest in the fall. Ms. Blair and other cafeteria and grounds workers found themselves being asked by consultants hired by Smith about their childhood and family assumptions about race, which many viewed as psychologically intrusive. Ms. Blair recalled growing silent and wanting to crawl inside herself. The faculty are not required to undergo such training. Of course not. You cant expect elite professors to have to go through such a thing. A few professors have advised Ms. McCartney to stand up more forcefully for line workers lest she lose their loyalty. Asked in the interview about employees who found the training intrusive, the president responded: Good training is never about making people too uncomfortable or to feel ashamed or anything. I think our staff is content and are embracing it. Thats seals it: George Bridges is demoted to the second worst college president in America. Postscript: As for Ms. Blair, the cafeteria worker, stress exacerbated her lupus and she checked into the hospital last year. Then George Floyd, a Black man, died at the hands of the Minneapolis police last spring, and protests fired up across the nation and in Northampton, and angry notes and accusations of racism were again left in her mailbox and by visitors on Smith Colleges official Facebook page. This past autumn the university furloughed her and other workers, citing the coronavirus and the empty dorms. Ms. Blair applied for an hourly job with a local restaurant. The manager set up a Zoom interview, she said, and asked her: Arent you the one involved in that incident? I was pissed, she said. I told her I didnt do anything wrong, nothing. And she said, Well, were all set. This is what passes for social justice at Smith College. (And also amazing that this is reported so well in the New York Times.) VERMILLION COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - The Vermillion County Sheriff's Office is investigating after a person was hit by a vehicle that left the scene. Sheriff Mike Phelps said Edward Silotto, 51, was airlifted to a hospital in Champaign, Illinois after being hit Tuesday around 10:30 p.m. Silotto was later pronounced deceased. According to Phelps, Silotto was walking east on U.S. Highway 36 east of State Road 71, near Dana when he was apparently hit by a vehicle. A passerby found Silotto. The vehicle that hit Silotto left the scene, and has not been located. According to Phelps, anyone with information on the vehicle that involved or circumstances as to why Silotto was walking on the highway, please contact the Vermillion County Sheriffs Office at 765-492-3838 or the anonymous tip online. (CNN) In an analysis released Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration said the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has met the requirements for emergency use authorization another step toward the authorization of a third shot for the United States. The efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against moderate to severe/critical COVID-19 across all geographic areas was 66.9% at least 14 days after the single-dose vaccination and 66.1% at least 28 days after vaccination, according to the analysis, which is meant to brief the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. The committee is an independent group that determines if the vaccine works and if it's safe. After the group meets Friday, it will make its authorization recommendation to the FDA, which typically follows the recommendation. Any time it approves or authorizes a vaccine, the FDA releases an analysis of the clinical trial data that the company has submitted. What the FDA found in the trial data looked good. "There were no specific safety concerns identified in subgroup analyses by age, race, ethnicity, medical comorbidities, or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection," the analysis said. In a briefing document, the FDA said that it has reviewed the data for the vaccine and has determined that it is "consistent with the recommendations set forth in FDA's guidance Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19." Seems to work against variants The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine seems to work better than initial data showed against the virus variant first identified in South Africa. The variant, which is thought to be more contagious, currently makes up the majority of cases in South Africa and has been found in several countries now, including in the United States. According to the FDA analysis, the vaccine showed a 64% efficacy rate in South Africa. That's seven points higher than the interim data that was released by the company in January. Since that time, J&J did some additional sequencing of the cases in the study, and determined that more of them were caused by a variant that could be included in its analysis. Nearly 95% of the cases in the study came from the variant, according to the addendum to the FDA analysis. "The fact that the numbers came up a little bit, once they fully analyzed the data from the time of the initial press release, shows that it's not that different against the South African variant," said Dr. Philip Grant, who was the lead investigator on the Stanford University arm of the J&J vaccine trial. "I think it's going to have to be looked at more carefully, in terms of which vaccines are most effective in different locations." The vaccine has a 72% efficacy rate in the US and a more than 68% rate in Brazil at protecting people from mild to severe/critical disease. The vaccine offered nearly 86% protection against severe forms of the disease in the US, nearly 82% in South Africa and nearly 88% in Brazil. Current COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are also thought to have good efficacy against the variants. Experts have said variants may fuel a surge of cases in the spring in the US, and say that's one reason why it's important to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. "We'll be seeing how much of an impact the variants have and how best these vaccines can address them, whether it will be booster doses, or other vaccines," Dr. Aditya Gaur said, a co-lead investigator on the J&J trial at St. Jude in Memphis. "But I think one could not have asked for better from this first round of vaccine development from a standpoint of how quickly it has happened and how quickly it has started to roll out around the world." May prevent asymptomatic infections The briefing document also hints that the J&J vaccine may prevent COVID-19 without symptoms starting at about four weeks. A January study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that most coronavirus cases are spread by people without symptoms. If a vaccine prevented asymptomatic infection, it might help reduce opportunities to transmit the disease -- not just keep the vaccinated from getting sick. The clinical trial looked for asymptomatic infections among the volunteers at several points after they had been vaccinated. The trial found that the vaccine had "modest" protection against asymptomatic infection from day one through day 29, but after that, it seemed to offer protection. When the volunteers were checked for coronavirus antibodies at 71 days after they had gotten the vaccine, it seemed about 74% effective against asymptomatic infections. "The news about asymptomatic infectious is very encouraging, with all the caveats," said Grant. The document says these findings should be "interpreted with caution" and additional research is needed, since the follow-up time is limited and the number of volunteers in this sample was comparatively small, so "definitive conclusions cannot be drawn at this time." Gaur said there is definitely a "signal here to see that there is efficacy of the vaccine against asymptomatic infection," and he agrees it requires more follow-up studies. A 'favorable safety profile' The analysis of safety data through January, found that the most common side effects associated with the vaccine were pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue and muscle pain. There appeared to be more incidents related to blood clotting and ringing in the ears among those who received the vaccine compared with those who didn't, but the FDA notes, "Data at this time are insufficient to determine a causal relationship between these events and the vaccine." Overall, non-fatal serious adverse events were infrequent, according to the briefing document, and there were no reported cases of anaphylaxis following vaccination. With the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, there have been a handful of severe allergic reactions, but this has been an extremely rare outcome. For example, in the first week of the Pfizer vaccine rollout, there were only 29 cases out of 1.9 million doses administered, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of February 5, there were seven COVID-19-related deaths in the placebo group in the J&J trial and no COVID-19-related deaths in the vaccine group. The experts think this analysis is a good sign that the US could have another vaccine soon. "I would be very surprised if they don't approve this," said Dr. Jeffrey Carson, the lead investigator for the Rutgers arm of the J&J vaccine trial. "The safety parameters look really good and the overall efficacy is over their criteria of 50% without a lot of serious side effects." And what that means, the experts said, is that people should get a COVID-19 vaccine -- any vaccine that's available -- as soon as they can. "Given the effectiveness data that's being shared with the vaccines that are available, in assuming this one gets approved, what we all should be seeking is a vaccine, not trying to look at, which one's better because it's just very, very nuanced," Gaur said. "They're all giving protection against the severe spectrum of the illness." This story was first published on CNN.com Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective, FDA analysis finds Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 03:51:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Palestinian children wait to receive charity meals at al-Zaitoun neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, on Feb. 8, 2021. Samira Abu Amra, a Palestinian woman from al-Zaitoun neighborhood in the east of Gaza city, cooks a massive amount of food twice a week for the neighboring families in need. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) by Sanaa Kamal GAZA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Samira Abu Amra, a Palestinian woman from al-Zaitoun neighborhood in the east of Gaza city, cooks a massive amount of food twice a week for the neighboring families in need. She came up with the idea after a benefactor from Kuwait donated her some money that she decided to share with neighbors by providing them with free food. "The people here rarely eat meat because they cannot afford it, so I am trying to pamper them with delicious meals," the 48-year-old woman said, while holding a large spoon and stirring a potato soup. Gaza is home to thousands of needy families that lack the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and housing. On Mondays and Thursdays, dozens of children queue in front of Amra's house to enjoy her dishes. Mohammed Ahmed, 12, gave an ear-to-ear grin when it was his turn to get the ration for his 10-member family. "My father does not work and we do not have money to buy meat," the boy told Xinhua. "We live in a forgotten area. No one remembers us herr. Only Samira does. She is a poor woman and knows our feelings," Ahmed said. "I feel happy when I see the smiles on the children's faces when they take their food," Amra said, adding she knew "how it hurts when you cannot find food." As one of the most densely populated areas in the world, the Gaza Strip has been under a tight Israeli blockade since the summer of 2007, when Hamas forcibly seized the Palestinian coastal enclave from the forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority. The 2007 crisis also further severed Gaza's access to humanitarian assistance. In September 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian Territory commented that Gaza was on the brink of being unliveable. Amani Sayed, a mother in her 30s, expressed her happiness that she was able to feed her children with Amra's assistance. "It is not easy to see your children (hungry) without food, but what can we do amid these unprecedented economic crises?" she lamented. Sayed said her husband lost his job a year ago when the coronavirus started to spread in Gaza and the Hama authorities imposed lockdown on the enclave. "In the past, my husband and I were able to keep our children afloat, but now everything has changed and the situation has deteriorated," she told Xinhua. According to official Palestinian statistics and the World Bank, the unemployment rate in Gaza, which had reached 46 percent in early 2020, is among the highest in the world. In addition, the poverty rate and the extreme poverty rate in Gaza have risen to 53 percent and 33.8 percent respectively, according to the latest statistics issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Enditem President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he would seek $37 billion in funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the United States as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production. Biden also signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at addressing the global semiconductor chip shortage that has alarmed the White House and members of Congress, administration officials said. The scarcity, exacerbated by the pandemic, was also the subject of a discussion between Biden and a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday. "I'm directing senior officials in my administration to work with industrial leaders to identify solutions to the semiconductor shortfall," Biden said on Wednesday. "Congress has authorized a bill but they need ... $37 billion to make sure that we have this capacity. I'll push for that as well. The White House said his remarks were in reference to measures aimed at boosting chip manufacturing capacity that were included in this year's National Defense Authorization Act but which require a separate appropriations process to garner funding. "We urge the president and Congress to invest ambitiously in domestic chip manufacturing and research," the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said earlier on Wednesday. Biden's executive order launched a 100-day review of supply chains for four critical products: semiconductor chips, large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles, rare earth minerals and pharmaceuticals. The order also directs six sector reviews, modeled after the process used by the Defense Department to strengthen the defense industrial base. It will be focused on the areas of defense, public health, communications technology, transportation, energy and food production. ALSO READ: Chip shortage may cut Ford, GM earnings by a third, Moodys Says The United States has been besieged by supply shortages since the onset of the pandemic, which squeezed the availability of masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment, hurting frontline workers. The chip shortage, which in some cases is forcing automakers to take employees off production lines, is the latest example of supply bottlenecks. "Make no mistake, we're not simply planning to order up reports. We are planning to take actions to close gaps as we identify them," an administration official previewing the executive order said. Democratic lawmakers present at Wednesday's meeting were Senators Mark Warner, Tammy Baldwin, Tammy Duckworth and Maggie Hassan along with Representative Doris Matsui. The Republicans comprised Senators John Cornyn, Mike Braun, Marsha Blackburn, Rob Portman and Representatives John Joyce and Michael McCaul. PRODUCTION CUTS Ford Motor Co said a lack of chips could cut the company's production by up to 20% in the first quarter. General Motors Co said it was forced to cut output at factories in the United States, Canada and Mexico and would reassess production plans in mid-March. Ford praised Biden's plan on Wednesday and said in a statement that it was "incredibly important for our labor force, our customers and our business that we have a commitment to end this shortage as soon as possible." U.S. semiconductor companies account for 47 percent of global chip sales, but only 12 percent of global manufacturing is done in the United States, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. ALSO READ: Foxconn chairman says expects 'limited impact' from chip shortage on clients Biden has been under pressure from Republican lawmakers to do more to protect American supply chains from China by investing in domestic manufacturing of next-generation semiconductor chips. "I strongly urge Biden administration to prioritize protecting emerging and critical technologies, like semiconductors, from the grasp of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)," McCaul said in a recent letter. Under Biden's order, the White House will look to diversify the country's supply chain dependence for certain products, by developing domestic production and partnering with other countries in Asia and Latin America when it cannot produce products at home. The review will also look at limiting imports of certain materials and training U.S. workers. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's foundation has helped support the completion of an emergency relief center in the Commonwealth. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, World Central Kitchen announced that the construction of the first community relief center in Dominica has been completed. The joint effort with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's nonprofit Archewell Foundation aims to develop a series of four relief centers in regions of the world prone to climate disasters - with work having already started on the second in Puerto Rico. The completed center has installed kitchen equipment using solar power and is ready for the schools staff to cook for students and the community. A culinary training program is expected to launch this year, which will help equip chefs with the skills to cook and feed large numbers of people in an emergency. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's foundation has helped support the completion of an emergency relief center in the Commonwealth. Pictured, during a surprise appearance at the #SpotifyStreamOn event this week The completed center (pictured) has installed kitchen equipment using solar power and is ready for the schools staff to cook for students and the community A culinary training program, expected to launch this year, will help equip chefs with the skills to cook and feed large numbers of people in an emergency The Duke and Duchess of Sussex initially announced that Spanish chef Jose Andres's foundation to feed the hungry will be the first recipient of help from their Archewell foundation in December 2020. With Archewell's financial support, both entities hope to feed people in disaster-stricken areas around the world. Meghan and Harry set up the foundation in April last year in the name of their one-year-old son, Archie. The name also stems from the Ancient Greek word 'arche', which means 'source of action'. At the time of the organization's founding, it was reported that Archewell would focus on issues including 'conservation, female empowerment, and gender equality'. Their website says it is 'an organization committed to creating compassionate communities online and off, to serve our collective wellbeing.' World Central Kitchen was founded in 2010 in response to the Haiti earthquake by Andres, a celebrity chef who runs 16 restaurants from New York City, Washington DC, and Miami to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. With Archewell's financial support, both entities hope to feed people in disaster-stricken areas around the world. Pictured, the construction of the first community relief center in Dominica The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are supporting chef Jose Andres (pictured) in his charity Taking to Twitter, World Central Kitchen penned: 'With The Duke and Duchess of Sussexs nonprofit Archewell Foundation, WCK is developing Community Relief Centers in areas of the world prone to climate disasters. The first Center in Dominica is complete & will also serve as a school kitchen' (pictured) He was due to open a restaurant inside the Trump Hotel in Washington DC, but pulled out in 2016 when the president infamously called Mexicans 'rapists'. He has remained a fervent Trump critic ever since. In 2018, Andres was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. 'We are more energized than ever to continue this vital work, and we're proud that it will be hand in hand with Archewell Foundation and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex,' said Andres at the time. 'I have come to know both of them well, and believe that their values are directly aligned with what we stand for at World Central Kitchen.' Andres, 51, has since 2010 devoted much of his energy to WFK, traveling around the world to disaster zones. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's foundation has helped support the completion of an emergency relief center in the Commonwealth. Pictured, March 5, 2020, arriving at the annual Endeavour Fund Awards in London The organization works by parachuting into disaster areas, and then working with local groups to improve the supply chain for those most in need. In their 10 years they have worked in Nicaragua, Peru, Zambia, Uganda, and Cambodia, among other countries. Andres famously brought his team to Washington DC to provide meals for government employees going without pay during the furlough in January 2019. Last week, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Harry and Meghan would not be returning to royal duties. The couple's split from the royal family came after the Duke of Sussex gave up his honorary military duties. Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, MP Singh expressed delight over East Asian countrys first COVID-19 vaccine being made in India, in an interview with Udriin Sonin. As Mongolia began its vaccination drive on Tuesday with the Mongolian Prime Minister and Health Minister taking the first jabs of made in India Covishield, MP Singh noted the "pleasure of donating 150,000 COVID-19 vaccines to the Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister on February 22 before the East Asian country kickstarted its vaccination programme on February 23. MP Singh said, I am glad Mongolias first Covid Vaccine is Made in India Covishield vaccine that arrived from India today (Feb 22) morning. Shortly thereafter, I had the pleasure of handing over the gift of 150,000 doses to the people of Mongolia for health security and safety of healthcare and frontline workers. We are confident that the safety of the target group will be strengthened. This vaccine is recognized by the World Health Organization, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. In India, the vaccine is supplied to 25 countries, and a team that supplies different levels in 25 countries is part of the COVAX program, which brings together 130 countries. According to the World Health Organization, the vaccine is 63.09 per cent effective, he further said on being asked about the vaccine. Read - Mexico Starts Administering Russian Sputnik V Vaccine Read - 19,600 Received First Dose Of COVID Vaccine In Mizoram So Far Seychelles, Afghanistan President thank India for vaccines Meanwhile, following Indias noble gesture of donating COVID-19 vaccines to several nations amid pandemic, Seychelles and Afghanistan expressed gratitude towards New Delhi. On receiving the India-made vaccines, Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan thanked the Prime Minister and the Indian government for choosing the country as the first African nation to deliver Covishield. He said, I thank Prime Minister Modi & the Government of India for making us the first African country to which India has donated the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine." Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani noted Indias exceptional act of solidarity and generosity while kickstarting the nations vaccination programme with made in India vaccines. India had gifted 500,000 doses of Covishield vaccines earlier this month to Afganistan. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar on Monday delivered the second consignment of made in India COVID-19 vaccines, Covishield to Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth during the first day of the two-day visit to the African nation. Taking the foreground amid the COVID-19 pandemic, India has delivered domestically manufactured coronavirus vaccines to a number of nations with the most recent shipments arriving in Mongolia, Maldives, Serbia. Read - Ghana Receives 6L Doses Of Made-in-India COVID Vaccines Under 'Vaccine Maitri' Programme Read - Hungary Becomes First European Nation To Use China's Sinopharm Vaccine The federal governments independent infrastructure adviser wants a massive expansion of renewable energy zones across Victoria, NSW and Queensland, saying more large-scale wind, solar and hydro projects are needed to secure the nations future energy needs. In its latest priority list, released on Friday, Infrastructure Australia has itself added as high priorities both more renewable energy zones and a ramp-up in spending on dispatchable energy that includes batteries and large-scale pumped hydro. Infrastructure Australia says there is scope for a huge increase in investment in renewable energy zones to help offset the retirement of coal-fired power stations in coming years. Credit:Fairfax Media Every year, the agency lists what it sees as the major infrastructure needs of the country. This year, it has expanded its list by a record 44 new proposals, covering everything from wastewater treatment to social housing and railway crossings. The total list of projects now has a combined value of at least $59 billion. Photo: Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images A new COVID-19 strain is spreading at an alarming rate in New York City, according to two academic studies submitted in February. The research from teams at Caltech and Columbia, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggests that the variant known as B.1.526 could dampen the effectiveness of some current vaccine candidates. Below is everything we know about the research, the mutation, and how it may affect the pandemic in New York almost one year after the city was first inundated by the coronavirus. How common is the new strain at this point? The variant known as B.1.526 began showing up in samples collected in New York City in November. To chart its rise, Caltech researchers scanned for mutations among hundreds of thousands of COVID genetic sequences in a database known as GISAID. By mid-February, the Caltech team found that B.1.526 cases had risen to 27 percent of viral sequences in the database. Columbia researchers, meanwhile, sequenced 1,142 samples from patients at the universitys hospital and found that 12 percent had a case with E484K, one of the two variants that makes up B.1.526. Dr. David Ho, one of the Columbia researchers, noted that cases in Westchester, the Bronx, and Queens suggest that there is some level of community spread involved with the new variant. Its not a single outbreak, he told the New York Times. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the homegrown variant likely originated in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in the uppermost area of Manhattan, before reaching other boroughs and is concerningly gaining across the city. In New York City, the portion of new cases caused by this variant strain is a whopping 45 percent, according to city Health Department data from the first week of March. (In total, roughly 65 percent of new cases in the city during the last week were caused by variants, up from 52 percent.) The New York mutation has traveled extensively through the metropolitan region, and individual cases have also been found in 14 other states, including Texas, Wyoming, and Maryland. We certainly are taking the New York variant, the 526, very seriously, Fauci said Monday in a White House press briefing. Its not known whether the strain, like other variants that have emerged the world over, is more transmissible than the original virus. At this point, more study and data is needed around the variant, but Fauci adds that officials need to keep an eye on the variant due to the possibility that it could evade the protection of antibody treatments and vaccines. Fauci appeared on CBSs Face the Nation last week, where he said the variant is not widespread yet, but it seems to be spreading pretty efficiently through the New York City metropolitan area and beyond. He adds that, while not as resistant as the quick-spreading variant originating from South Africa, this New York variant eludes some of the protection of antibodies from monoclonal antibodies, as well as the vaccine. The one thing you want to do is to make sure you do not allow that to continue to spread, the nations top disease expert stressed. How could this strain impact vaccinations? Researchers at Caltech and Columbia determined that the strains found in New York, like other COVID variants, feature mutations on the viruss spike protein, allowing it to penetrate into host cells and cause infections more effectively. B.1.526 is effectively two variants, featuring a pair of common mutations known as E484K and S477N the latter of which may affect how tightly the virus binds to human cells, per the Times. According to a study from Columbia published in January, monoclonal antibodies made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron to treat COVID-19 have no effect against the South African strain, which also contains the E484K mutation. Other studies have also shown that variants with the E484K mutation are less susceptible to vaccines than the strain of the virus on which they were developed. Its not particularly happy news, Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University, told the Times. But just knowing about it is good because then we can perhaps do something about it. Nussenzweig also said that the mutation blocks the activity of a common class of antibodies. People who have recovered from the coronavirus or who have been vaccinated are very likely to be able to fight this variant off, theres no doubt about that. He added that they may get a little bit sick from it. Fauci stressed that vaccination remains a key part of our pandemic-fighting toolkit, adding that the variant could have originated in an immunocompromised person. Its not only important for them [to get vaccinated] for their own health, but that could be the breeding ground of the emergence of variants, Fauci says. That was probably how all this started with 526. How worried should we be? The two studies outlining the new COVID variant in New York made headlines last week, but some experts say its the latest example of the struggle to balance scientific validity, epidemiological relevance, and newsworthiness in the Wild West of COVID preprint studies. We know from many years of experience that any virus, particularly RNA viruses, are going to vary fairly extensively, Colin Parrish, professor of virology at Cornell University, told Intelligencer. Theres very little evidence that most of them will have much effect on the average person, he said. We have to be very careful about presenting these stories that sound alarming. Everyone should really continue to do the best they can in terms of prevention control and getting vaccinated, he added. On Thursday, city health officials rushed to quell the publics concern about the variant: Not all variants are of public-health concern, Dr. Jay Varma, senior public-health adviser to the mayors office said during a COVID briefing. We need to just consider this a variant of interest something that is interesting that we need to follow and track. But it doesnt change anything about our public health concern. We need more data and studies to understand that. What other new COVID strains are circulating in New York? On March 20, Governor Cuomo stated that New York has its first case of the Brazilian coronavirus variant. The patient, who is being treated at Mount Sinai Hospital, is a woman in Brooklyn in her 90s with no travel history. The research on the new mutations in New York was made public the same week that it was announced that two residents of Nassau County were proven to have the South African variant. The Columbia team also confirmed that six cases of the U.K. variant, two cases of the Brazilian variant, and one case of the South African variant were detected in New York City. As of March 21, coronavirus variants accounted for over 60 percent of new infections in New York City, as test positivity rates remain stubbornly high despite the nationwide dip. That the coronavirus is changing in similar ways on different continents the New York, Brazilian, South African, and British variants all feature the E484K mutation suggest that the mutations have resulted in the more effective spread of the virus. What were seeing is similar mutations arising in multiple places, Adam Lauring, a virologist at the University of Michigan, told Scientific American in January. Thats pretty suggestive that these mutations are doing something. And though a two-dose regimen of the Pfizer shot has been proved to protect 90 percent of those inoculated against the U.K. and South African strains, the mutation of the virus over the past year shows that vaccines will need to be adjusted for the long run as the coronavirus becomes a part of life on Earth. This post has been updated. 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. Moderna Inc said on Thursday it expects Covid-19 vaccine sales of $18.4 billion this year, above the $15 billion in sales forecast by Pfizer Inc for the only other vaccine authorized for emergency use in the United States so far. Both vaccines, developed using a technology based on messenger RNA (mRNA), are being distributed at an unprecedented speed as cases mount in the United States, with deaths from Covid-19 surpassing the dire milestone of 500,000. Moderna, whose shares rose 4 per cent to $150.7 in trading before the bell, has been aiming to ramp up production of the vaccine, ... Two San Francisco supervisors called for an investigation Tuesday into a San Francisco nonprofit, focused on an agreement to run the controversial Golden Gate Park Ferris wheel. Supervisors Connie Chan and Aaron Peskin say they want the controllers office to dig deeper into the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance, which would reap some Ferris wheel revenue, in light of the citys public corruption investigation. The potential investigation comes after neighborhood groups and naturalists clashed with city departments, residents and business leaders over whether the city should extend the contract for the Ferris wheel for four years. The San Francisco Parks Alliance was subpoenaed by the City Attorneys Office last year as part of the citys corruption probe. Under the terms of its contract with Ferris wheel operator SkyView Partners, the city gets $1 from every $18 ticket sold. The nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance will receive up to $200,000 of this revenue to help fund the nonprofits $1.9 million yearlong celebration in collaboration with the city and other organizations. Beyond that amount, city revenue will go to the Recreation and Park Department to fund commemorative signage for Golden Gate Parks 150th anniversary, transportation access to the park and general needs, the department said. Our agreements with the nonprofit Parks Alliance, including those involving the SkyStar Wheel, went through a transparent public process and, like any other civic celebration, are open for anyone to examine, a department spokesperson said. The organization said in a statement Tuesday evening that it voluntarily undergoes city and independent financial audits and has cooperated with federal and local investigations. The nonprofit wholeheartedly supports any effort by the City to increase transparency and accountability, the statement read. We embrace this scrutiny and the increased transparency that will result from it, because SFPA does not have, and never has had, anything to hide, the statement continued. The Recreation and Park Commission voted last week to approve the four-year extension on the Ferris wheel, though the Historic Preservation Commission has not voted yet on the deal. The giant wheel was originally scheduled to stay in the park for a little more than a year in honor of the parks 150th anniversary. But as soon as it was unloaded last winter, the pandemic surged, freezing the wheel in place. In a September 2020 presentation to the boards government, audit, and oversight committee, the controllers office explained ties between the nonprofit and former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who was charged with fraud, Chan said. Nuru allegedly solicited donations from private companies or individuals and directed funds to a nonprofit account to influence procurement decisions, Chan said. Chan and Peskin now want to investigate this relationship in light of the recent Ferris wheel agreement. This really raises the question of whether this is a good government practice or whether such practices contribute to the pay-to-play culture among city agencies, Chan said. While we all can agree Ferris wheels are fun, anti-corruption and good government policies are of utmost importance. San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Steve Rubenstein and Dominic Fracassa contributed to this report. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench PARAMARIBO (Reuters) - Suriname launched a coronavirus vaccination campaign on Tuesday with a small batch of donated doses, as the South American nation seeks a steady supply of inoculations. The impoverished country, which has a population of about 600,000, has reported 8,869 cases of COVID-19 and 168 deaths. It hopes to bring in 400,000 doses by the end of the year. It began the inoculation effort with 1,000 doses provided by Barbados and is expecting to receive a donation of 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India as early as this week, Public Health Minister Amar Ramadhin said. "We look forward to negotiating with the Indian government because we know there are more vaccines on their way," said Ramadhin, a physician who was himself vaccinated in a televised broadcast. "We will use the power of negotiation and friendship between India and Suriname." About a quarter of Suriname's population is of Indian descent. Suriname made a $750,000 down payment in 2020 to the World Health Organization-backed vaccine distribution network, COVAX, with the hope of receiving up to 20,000 Pfizer Inc vaccines in early February. That delivery was delayed and Suriname is now expected to receive doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the first quarter. It also hopes to receive 10,000 doses through an agreement between the African Medical Supplies Platform, a nonprofit initiative of the African Union, and the Caribbean Community, a regional cooperation organization. The vaccinations will first focus on about 1,500 healthcare workers, followed by 2,000 residents of retirement homes. Indigenous people are also a priority. Air travel is limited to returnees and those with urgent travel needs. Weekend lockdowns remain in place, although schools opened their doors last week for the first time in 2021. (Reporting by Ank Kuipers; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Mark Heinrich Peter Cooney) A 55-year-old Tewksbury woman who worked as a nurse in the hospice unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in Bedford was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday for stealing morphine meant for dying veterans. Kathleen Noftle was sentenced to 40 months in prison and three years of supervised release, court records show. She pleaded guilty in October 2020 to one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, on Jan. 13, 14 and 15, 2017, Noftle used her position as a nurse to obtain doses of morphine that were meant to be given to the veterans under her care in the hospice unit. Noftle admitted that she mixed water from the sink with a portion of the liquid morphine doses, and then administered the diluted medication to patients orally, authorities said. Noftle then ingested a diluted amount of the remaining drug. Court records said she worked as a nurse at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in a hospice wing. One veteran experienced increased difficulty breathing and increased suffering in his final days due to the diluted morphine, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Investigators had learned that Noftle had previously resigned from her position as a nurse at a different hospital because she failed to follow appropriate procedures involving drugs. There were 60 different instances at the prior hospital, investigators said. Federal records show Noftle was hired at the VAMC as a full-time nurse on March 22, 2015. She previously worked as a registered nurse at Tewksbury Hospital for roughly 29 years. Investigators said Noftle agreed to resign from Tewksbury Hospital instead of undergoing a disciplinary hearing which could have ended with her being fired. Noftle admitted to investigators that she had addiction issues and began to divert drugs away from the facility for about two months, according to a federal affidavit. The former nurse falsified records to cover up her scheme, authorities said. Records from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health records show Noftle failed to follow proper procedures when wasting narcotics on 60 occasions, placing patient safety in jeopardy. Her nursing license is now suspended. Kate Moss showed her support for a good cause on Thursday, as she launched her second range with Save The Children. The model, 47, joined forces with her daughter Lila, 18, to show off the abstract collection made in collaboration with her brand KMA Studio. Speaking about the collection, Kate said the pieces are inspired by her belief in The Butterfly Effect, which states that seemingly minor events can have large and significant consequences. Important: Kate Moss showed her support for a good cause on Thursday, as she launched her second collaboration with Save The Children and her brand KMA Studio In one image Kate posted in the white T-shirt covered with a pastel tie-dye print tucked into tie-dye blue jeans. Meanwhile Lila posed in a hoodie from the range that boasts a similar print, alongside fellow models Samer Rahma and Louis Baines, who are both signed to Kate's self-titled agency. Kate said: 'Having recently launched KMA Studio the team and I wanted to create more sustainable merchandise which also benefits others.' Quirky: The model joined forces with her daughter Lila, 18, to show off the abstract collection inspired by her love of butterflies Dynamic duo: This isn't the first time Lila has collaborated with her famous mother, as the pair both walked the runway for the Fendi show at Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris last month She added: 'Inspired by the ''Butterfly Effect'' theory of small change having a big effect and my love of butterflies, we designed this custom, abstract print. 'Partnering with Save The Children on a limited run of hoodies and t-shirts means we can donate to a greater cause through our small-scale project.' KMA Studio will be donating 5 from each item sold to Save the Children to ensure that disadvantaged children around the world can stay safe and healthy to keep learning. Finlay Pitt, photographer and conservationist, added: 'I am incredibly proud to be involved in this collection for KMA Studio and Save the Children. Since I was five years old, I've dreamt of being a wildlife photographer. 'More recently I've been dedicating my photography to conservation work and I hope this partnership can both shed light and alleviate some of the struggles children face around the world.' This isn't the first time Lila has joined forces with her famous mother for a fashion venture, as the pair both walked the runway for the Fendi show at Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris last month. Eye-catching: The collection of T-shirts and hoodies is also modelled by Louis Baines The limited edition T-shirt and hoodie, priced at 45 and 90 respectively, are made from 100 per cent organic cotton and will be shipped in recycled packaging. Kate become synonymous with the 'heroin chic' aesthetic of the 1990s due to her svelte frame and pale skin, but also branded the term 'awful with no positive interpretation'. She returned to London last August after she had been isolating in her Cotswolds mansion with Lila alongside her long-term partner Count Nikolai von Bismarck and her half-sister Lottie, 22, who now lives in Los Angeles. The troupe were also joined by Kate's hairdresser friend James Brown. Pyongyang, Feb 25 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has presided over a Central Military Commission meeting to discuss the discipline among the military officials and stricter control over the younger officers, state media reported on Thursday. At the expanded military commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party on Wednesday, Kim stressed on the importance of establishing "revolutionary moral discipline" particularly among the younger generation in the Army, according to the Korean Central News Agency. "To establish the revolutionary moral discipline within the KPA is not just a technical issue, but a fatal issue related to the existence of the KPA and success or failure in the army building and military activities," Kim said, referring to the People's Army, Yonhap reported. Kim also called for intensified education and control to ensure that the commanding officers of the "new generation have the proper political consciousness and moral point of view." The meeting also saw a discussion of "a series of shortcomings revealed in the military and political activities and moral life of KPA commanding officers." Kim's criticism appears aimed at tightening discipline among military officers amid challenges from global sanctions and the country's prolonged fight against the global pandemic. Several major commanding officers were dismissed or appointed at the meeting, reflecting an apparent generational change in the organisation. Kim Song-gi was appointed as the Commander of the North's Navy, while Kim Chung-il was appointed the Commander of the Aviation Force. The tile of the Vice Marshal was also conferred on Defence Minister Kim Jong-gwan and Kwon Yong-jin, Director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean Army. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A Stapleton man made repeated threats to the lives of police officers on the North Shore of Staten Island, authorities allege. Manuel Padilla, 43, of Broad Street, made the disturbing remarks toward cops on Saturday during phone calls between about 9:15 p.m. and his arrest around 11 p.m., the criminal complaint alleges. The suspect initially claimed he wanted officers to respond to his home in connection with a domestic dispute, the complaint states. There is going to be bloodshed, the complaint alleges Padilla said to a 911 operator. There is going to be an officer down. Now you get my attention. There is going to be an officer down if nobody adheres to what I am saying. I am warning you. Authorities say that Padilla targeted a police sergeant assigned to the 120th Precinct during the phone conversations. Where are you? You are a p----. I am going to f--- you up and if you dont come down here I am going to go to the precinct, the complaint quotes Padilla as allegedly saying. Padilla claimed he was across the street from the 120th Precinct stationhouse in St. George, where he intended to attack the sergeant and other officers, police say. I am coming to your precinct, he allegedly said. I am coming to your house. I am going to f--- you up. I am going to harm other officers. Padilla allegedly identified himself by name and birth date to police during one of the phone conversations. Later, police say that he admitted making the calls from his phone. Were you the person I was on the phone with when I was arguing with the police? Oh s---, I was talking to a boss? the complaint quotes Padilla as saying. The suspect has been charged with making a terroristic threat, aggravated harassment and harassment. Padilla was released under court supervision and is due back in Criminal Court on April 13. An attorney for the defendant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Building Mongolia's premier precious metals company Flagship mine already generating strong cash flow Advancing Phase 2 expansion plans What Steppe Gold does: Mining is nothing new in Mongolia but it was not until the 1990s, and the transition of the country to a free-market democracy, that the industry was opened up to foreign investment. The famous Oyu Tolgoi property in the country, operated by London-listed major Rio Tinto ( ), is one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world, in which the Mongolian government also owns a 34% stake. The Mongolian economy is growing rapidly and the government knows that mining is a key to sustaining growth. The country's mineral riches are valued at between US$1 trillion and US$3 trillion across coal, copper and gold. Against this backdrop, Steppe Gold Ltd ( ) ( ) (FRA:2J9) began producing gold at its flagship Altan Tsaagan Ovoo (ATO) mine in the country in March 2020. The ATO mine was built in just 14 months with less than US$20 million of capex and is now ramping up output. Steppe also has the Uudam Khundii (UK) gold project, which is an 80:20 joint venture between Steppe and the Bayankhongor provincial government. At ATO, Steppe is targeting annual production in 2021 and 2022 of between 50,000 and 60,000 ounces. It is also now bidding to expand production via a Phase 2 sulphide project, which will see it mine fresh rock ores to generate 150,000 ounces equivalent a year from 2023. How is it doing: Steppe hit a key milestone at its ATO operation in February 2021, with the release of an updated resource estimate that nearly doubled the ounces in the deposit. According to the report, measured and indicated (M&I) resources increased to 41.6 million tons, or 2.2 million ounces, at an average grade of 1.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent ounces 1.4 million gold ounces and 20.5 million silver ounces. That doubled the amount of resources represented at the ATO Gold Mine to 2.45 million ounces of gold equivalent, up from 1.2 million ounces in the previous resource statement. According to the company, the increase in the M&I resource was due primarily to significant expansion through drilling at the ATO 4 Deposit and incorporation of a maiden resource at the Mungu deposit. The ATO 4 Deposit, where mining recently started, shows an M&I resource of 15.7 million tons at 1.6 g/t for a total of 819,000 gold equivalent ounces, while the maiden resource at the Mungu discovery shows an M&I resource of 7.6 million tons at 1.7 g/t for 424,000 gold equivalent ounces. Then on March 24, the group said it had begun procuring major long lead items and was continuing talks on a multi-tranche project debt facility for its Phase 2 expansion project into fresh rock. The aim is to lift output from the ATO mine to 150,000 ounces of gold equivalent a year in 2023. The company said it bought a new crushing plant from a leading international supplier for US$5 million, including its installation and construction, which has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per hour (t/hr), more than three times' the current capacity. Construction of the foundation of the new plant is set to begin in early April this year, and it is scheduled to be operational by July. Alongside the procurement of capital items, the company said it was continuing discussions with Mongolian and international lenders on a multi-tranche project debt facility to finance this Phase 2 expansion, which is expected to include a grinding circuit, a leach/CIP plant, and a flotation circuit. On the financial front, for the first quarter of 2021, the miner said COVID-19 challenges and the cold weather had impacted output in the three months but that the feasibility study into expanding the project remains on track to be finalized this summer. In the three months to March 31, the company mined 179,130 tonnes versus 291,455 tonnes in the previous quarter to December 31, 2020. Revenue for the three months was US$1.634 million (Q4: US$13.2 million) on sales of 945 gold ounces and 861 silver ounces, with average realized prices per ounce of US$1,938 and US$26 respectively. Steppe also noted that it had filed a prospectus to list its shares on the Mongolian Stock Exchange. The miner is targeting at ATO annual production in 2021 and 2022 of 50,000 ounces and then to transition to the fresh rock ores in 2023. Inflection points: New crusher in place Completion of bankable feasibility and project financing for expansion at ATO Uplift in output from ATO What the broker says: Following the first-quarter results, Stifel GMP repeated a 'Buy' rating and put a C$4 price target on the stock. "As expected, ATO did not have any production through Q1. However, stacking activities continued with grades stacked from the low strip ratio open pit remaining strong (1.91 g/t Au + 10.1 g/t Ag) and the company finishing the quarter in a durable liquidity position," the analysts said in a note. "Leaching resumed in early April, and we expect Q2 and Q3 production to benefit from the tonnes stacked through Q1. Steppe Gold put a $1m deposit down on a new crusher that will quadruple capacity and is the first step in the construction of the Phase 2 Sulphide expansion. The Bankable Feasibility Study for the expansion remains on track to be delivered this summer." What the boss says: In its statement with the 1Q results, Steppe CEO Bataa Tumur-Ochir told investors: "There has been a slow start to production in 2021 and the achievement of full year production forecasts are dependent on no further delays on procurement due to COVID 19. Reagent supplies are currently unpredictable and any further delays will reduce production forecasts for 2021. We have now mined over 1.8 million tonnes of ore with 1.4 million tonnes stacked on the leach pad." He added; "With a new fixed crusher in place this summer, we are planning a record year for stacking in 2021. We paused production in the first quarter with prevailing cold weather conditions and we resumed leaching in early April with a successful gold pour in late April." Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com The United Nations has expressed concern over the deportation of over 1086 Myanmar migrants including children and women by Malaysian authorities. The UN experts in a statement, have said that they are "appalled" by the decision of Malaysian authorities. On February 23, the Malaysian authorities proceeded with their decision despite the Kuala Lumpur High court's order to suspend the return of Myanmar migrants. UN experts raise concern over deportation Immigration authorities on February 23 had deported 1,086 migrants to Myanmar including minors and toddlers. However, on the same day, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had already issued an order to suspend their deportation pending a judicial review. UN human rights experts tweeted, "UN experts are appalled by Malaysia's decision to proceed with the deportation to Myanmar of over 1,000 detained migrants, including unaccompanied minors, despite a court order to suspend their return and breaching the principle of non-refoulment". UN experts are appalled by #Malaysias decision to proceed with the deportation to #Myanmar of over 1,000 detained migrants, including unaccompanied minors, despite a court order to suspend their return and breaching the principle of non-refoulement. Read: https://t.co/eP429GPqMa pic.twitter.com/k8rL90Rllo UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) February 24, 2021 The UN experts have even written to the Malaysian authorities to express their concerns and urged that they observe the absolute prohibition of refoulement, reported the website of the United Nations. According to the website, the experts said that states have an obligation not to return a person, whatever their status, to a country where there are substantial grounds to believe that the individual would be at risk of being subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or other serious human rights violations. The UN experts have urged the Malaysian authorities to conduct an adequate assessment of the remaining migrants and provide the necessary protection. Read: Malaysia To Deport 1,200 Burmese Citizens Despite Ongoing Political Instability Read: Myanmar Coup: Internet Blackout For Second Consecutive Day; Services Now Restored Malaysian authorities had last week announced that they are preparing to deport 1,200 Burmese migrants to their home country despite the ongoing political instability caused by the recent military coup. Myanmar is currently witnessing political turmoil with widespread protests taking place against the recent military coup. Myanmar military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1 and detained several political leaders. Read: Ambassadors To Myanmar Jointly Call Forces To 'refrain From Violence' Against Protesters Read: Myanmar Crisis: UN Chief Deeply Concerned Over 'unacceptable' Violence New Delhi: Upholding a 35-year-old man's conviction for assaulting his wife, the Bombay High Court has said the wife's refusal to make tea for husband could not be accepted as provocation for him to assault her, and observed that wife is "not a chattel or an object". In an order passed earlier this month, Justice Revati Mohite Dere said "marriage, ideally, is a partnership based on equality". But, notions of patriarchy and the idea that the woman is a man's property still prevail in society, leading a man to think that his wife is his "chattel", the court observed. The HC also said the testimony of the couple's 6-year-old daughter inspires confidence and cannot be disbelieved. The court upheld the conviction and 10 years' imprisonment awarded to Santosh Atkar (35), a resident of Pandharpur in Solapur district, by a local court in 2016. He was found guilty on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. As per the order, Atkar and his wife had been having disputes since some time. On the day of the incident in December 2013, his wife insisted on going out without making a cup of tea for him. The man then struck her with a hammer, injuring her grievously. As per the case details and testimony of the couple's daughter, Atkar then cleaned the spot of the crime, gave his wife a bath and took her to hospital. She succumbed to her injuries after being in the hospital for about a week. The defence argued that Atkar had been provoked into committing the crime because his wife refused to make tea. The HC, however, rejected the argument and held that there existed adequate evidence, including testimony of the man's daughter, to prove the charges against him. "The deceased, by refusing to make tea for the appellant (Atkar), by no stretch of imagination, can be said to have offered grave and sudden provocation for the appellant to assault her, much less, such a brutal assault," it said. "It would not be out of place to observe that a wife is not a chattel or an object," the HC said. Such cases reflect the imbalance of gender and skewed patriarchy, the socio-cultural milieu one has grown up in, which often seeps into a marital relationship, it said. The court said an imbalance of gender roles exists in society, where the wife is expected to do all the household chores. "Emotional labour in a marriage is also expected to be done by the wife. Coupled with these imbalances in the equation, is the imbalance of expectation and subjugation," Justice Mohite Dere said. Social conditions of women also make them handover themselves to their spouses, she said. "Thus, men, in such cases, consider themselves as primary partners and their wives, chattel," the judge said. She said it is unfortunate that such "medieval notion" of wife being the husband's property still exists, and the wife is expected to do what her husband wished her to do. "Thus, the submission of the learned counsel for the appellant that the deceased by refusing to make tea for the appellant offered grave and sudden provocation, is ludicrous, clearly untenable and unsustainable and as such deserves to be rejected," the HC said while dismissing the man's appeal against his conviction and sentence. The defence also raised questions on the testimony of the couple's daughter, saying it was recorded after a delay of some days and it could not be believed. But, the high court rejected the argument and said, "Her testimony inspires confidence and cannot be disbelieved. There is nothing in the cross-examination of this witness to disbelieve her presence in the house at the relevant time." She (the daughter) is a natural witness, who woke up on hearing the quarrel between her parents and witnessed the assault on her mother by her father, and saw her father clean the spot soon thereafter, the court added. Live TV [February 25, 2021] Lion Electric to Bring Zero Emission School Buses to California's Largest School District Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:NGA) announces that its proposed business combination partner: Lion Electric (Lion), an innovative manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles, today announced that it has secured an order for its all-electric school buses from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). This initial order of 10 LionC school buses, which follows Lion's recent delivery of all-electric school buses to the Twin (News - Alert) Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento, further solidifies Lion's leadership in zero-emission school buses in California and North America. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005735/en/ "LAUSD is possibly the most well-known school district in the United States, and we are pleased to have been chosen as a key partner in their journey toward zero-emission school bus operations," said Marc Bedard, CEO and Founder of Lion Electric. "These all-electric buses signify the district's commitment to improving the local environment and the health of its communities, and we are confident that they will meet and exceed the expectations of the operators and students." LAUSD is the second largest school district in the United States, serving over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools. The district's boundaries stretch across 720 square miles and include the City of Los Angeles as well as all or parts of 31 municipalities and several unincorporated regions of Southern California. Lion collaborated closely with the district in order to ensure its buses met the unique requirements posed by its large and diverse footprint. Each LionC bus purchased has a range of 155 miles on a single charge and incorporates an integrated wheelchair lift. Lion will also provide support and training to LAUSD from its recently opened Experience Center in the region, located in Alhambra, California. The buses are expected to be delivered in spring 2021. The electric buses were funded in part by the California Energy Commission's (News - Alert) (CEC) School Bus Replacement Program, and Lion collaborated closely with LAUSD to add additional options to the base CEC specification to accommodate the unique needs of its routes. Under the program, Lion was awarded five out of the six available categories after extensive evaluations of EV drive system technical specifications, real-world deployments and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) EV capabilities. The CEC ranked Lion not only as the highest performing manufacturer in its technical evaluation, but also the manufacturer with the most cost-competitive bid. Over the last decade, Lion has established itself as a leader in the all-electric school bus industry, having delivered over 300 all-electric school buses in North America with over 6 million miles driven since 2016. Lion's vehicles are distributed and serviced through the company's network of Experience Centers, including two locations in California along with facilities in New York, Washington, Florida and Arizona. About Lion Electric Lion Electric is an innovative manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles. The company creates, designs and manufactures all-electric class 5 to class 8 commercial urban trucks and all-electric buses and minibuses for the school, paratransit and mass transit segments. Lion is a North American leader in electric transportation and designs, builds and assembles all its vehicles' components, including chassis, battery packs, truck cabins and bus bodies. Always actively seeking new and reliable technologies, Lion vehicles have unique features that are specifically adapted to its users and their everyday needs. Lion believes that transitioning to all-electric vehicles will lead to major improvements in our society, environment and overall quality of life. Lion Electric, The Bright Move Thelionelectric.com About Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: NGA) is a special purpose acquisition company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, stock exchange, acquisition, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The Northern Genesis management team brings a unique entrepreneurial owner-operator mindset and a proven history of creating shareholder value across the sustinable power and energy value chain. Northern Genesis is committed to helping the next great public company find its path to success; a path which will most certainly recognize the growing sensitivity of customers, employees and investors to alignment with the principles underlying sustainability. Transaction with Northern Genesis On November 30, 2020, Lion announced that it had entered into a business combination agreement and plan of reorganization pursuant to which, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lion will merge with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: NGA), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company focused on a commitment to sustainability and strong alignment with environmental, social and governance principles. On December 31, 2020, Lion filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) ") a preliminary registration statement on Form F-4 (as amended, the "Registration Statement"), which includes a preliminary proxy statement of Northern Genesis, in connection with their proposed business combination. Upon closing of the proposed business combination, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lion Electric will merge with and into Northern Genesis, and Lion is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the new ticker symbol "LEV". The business combination has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both Northern Genesis and Lion Electric and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, subject to the Registration Statement being declared effective by the SEC, approval by Northern Genesis stockholders as well as other customary closing conditions. Important Information and Where to Find It The Registration Statement filed by Lion Electric with the SEC includes a preliminary prospectus relating to the registration of the securities to be issued by Lion Electric to Northern Genesis' stockholders in connection with the transaction, and a preliminary proxy statement of Northern Genesis in connection with Northern Genesis' solicitation of proxies for the vote by its stockholders with respect to the transaction and other matters as described in the Registration Statement. After the Registration Statement has been cleared by the SEC and declared effective, Northern Genesis will mail a definitive proxy statement to its stockholders. Investors and security holders of Northern Genesis and other interested parties are urged to read the Registration Statement, the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus and amendments thereto and the definitive proxy statement/prospectus (the "Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus"), any amendments to the foregoing, and any other documents filed with the SEC, when available, because they will contain important information about Lion Electric, Northern Genesis and the proposed business combination. Investors and security holders of Northern Genesis may obtain free copies of the Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus (when available) and other documents filed with the SEC by Northern Genesis and Lion Electric through the website maintained by the SEC at http://sec.report or by directing a request to: Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp., 4801 Main Street, Suite 1000, Kansas City, MO 64112 or (816) 514-0324. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, the websites referenced in this press release is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release. Participants in the Solicitation Northern Genesis and its directors and executive officers and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitations of proxies from Northern Genesis' stockholders in respect of the proposed business combination. Lion Electric and its officers and directors may also be deemed participants in such solicitation. Information regarding Northern Genesis' directors and executive officers is available under the heading "Management" in its final prospectus dated August 17, 2020 filed with the SEC on August 18, 2020 (the "IPO Prospectus"). Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, which may, in some cases, be different than those of their stockholders generally, are contained in the Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus and will be contained in other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed business combination when they become available. Stockholders, potential investors and other interested persons should read the Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus carefully when it becomes available before making any voting or investment decisions. When available, these documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. No Offer or Solicitation This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or constitute a solicitation of any vote or approval. No offer of securities, other than with respect to the concurrent private placement of Lion shares as described in the Registration Statement, shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act. Forward-Looking Statements All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" (which shall include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws) within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act. Forward-looking statements may generally be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "may," "will," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "could," "plan," "project," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "target" or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the transaction, including with respect to timing and closing thereof and the ability to consummate the transaction. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of Lion Electric's and Northern Genesis' management and are not predictions of actual performance. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of Lion Electric and Northern Genesis, and are based on a number of assumptions, as well as other factors that Lion Electric and Northern Genesis believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, but there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct or that the Lion Electric's vision, business, objectives, plans and strategies will be achieved. Many risks and uncertainties could cause Lion Electric's actual results, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those factors discussed in the Registration Statement and Northern Genesis' IPO Prospectus, as well as other documents filed or to be filed by Lion Electric or Northern Genesis in accordance with applicable securities laws. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect Northern Genesis or Lion Electric, and there may be additional risks that neither Northern Genesis nor Lion Electric presently know or that Northern Genesis and Lion Electric currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Northern Genesis' and Lion Electric's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Northern Genesis and Lion Electric anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause their respective assessments to change. However, while Northern Genesis and Lion Electric may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Northern Genesis and Lion Electric have no intention and undertake no obligation to do so except as required by applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Northern Genesis' and Lion Electric's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005735/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] BEIJING, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- China on Thursday declared a "complete victory" to its battle against extreme poverty, with 98.99 million rural impoverished citizens lifted above a government-defined poverty line on annual per-capita income. That is a key indication that the country has managed to usher in a moderately prosperous society in all respects on schedule. That is 10 years earlier than the world's most populous country's plan to realize the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The achievement was made on the same year when the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates the centenary since its founding. "This is the great glory for the Chinese people, the CPC and our nation!" Xi said at a gathering to mark the country's accomplishments in extreme poverty eradication and commend role models in that cause, hailing the achievement as "a miracle on earth that should be written into the history." The event was held at the Great Hall of the People in capital Beijing Thursday morning. Reform takes time, arduous work The start was not easy. While in his 30s, Xi was sent down to work in the early 1980's as a grassroots-level official in Zhengding County, northern Hebei Province in the country's call for large-scale poverty relief programs. There he started his reform experiments: rural land contracts. He then later became a secretary of the prefectural Party committee in Ningde, southeastern Fujian Province. "I always felt a sense of unease," Xi recalled in his book "Up and Out of Poverty." "Poverty alleviation is an immense undertaking that requires the efforts of several generations." Over the next two decades, he brought his dream of poverty elimination to the center of China's political life. "Xi's reform is derived from his experience," said Shi Zhihong, a former deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee. "He knew that the rigid old paths would lead nowhere, and reform was a must." Since 2012, the Chinese president has gone down deep traveling to impoverished communities more than 50 times and learned about people's lives. Tailored measures based on practical situations Precision was a key to China's success. The strategy of targeted poverty alleviation was put forward by Xi in late 2013, who compared adopting indiscriminate approaches to "killing fleas with a hand-grenade." Xi called it "the poverty eradication path featuring Chinese characteristics" in his Thursday speech. From household to household, the questions of who exactly needs help, who should provide help, how help should be rendered, and what standards and procedures should be adopted for exiting poverty were answered. To take a step further, the central government has also sent millions of city officials to the frontline - going down to the poorest grassroots and work with individuals in difficult physical circumstances. "So, again how can China eradicate absolute poverty? It's because of the ruling party's philosophy, the goal of common prosperity," Zheng Yongnian, dean of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, told CGTN. Rural infrastructure, education and healthcare all improved. Official data shows over 9.6 million people moved out of their tiny mud-brick houses that may pose safety concerns. Some rural hospitals partnered with their metropolitan counterparts to offer high-quality medical services to rural residents. "Illness-induced poverty is one of the toughest problems in rural areas," said Hu Yi, head of the public hospital in the county of Zhenxiong in Yunnan Province. "Now they don't have to travel far to get treated, not even for serious illness." Rural revitalization: Consolidating the achievements Beijing now aims for more on top of consolidating its already-reached results. It has set goals at achieving the basic modernization of agriculture and rural areas by 2035, and the grand goal of a strong agricultural industry, beautiful countryside and well-off farmers by 2050. A term was raised: rural vitalization. "To speed up the formation of a new development pattern of 'dual circulation' in which domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, it's imperative for agriculture, rural areas and farmers to play a stabilizing and supportive role in maintaining China's economic and social development," said Li Guoxiang, research fellow at the Rural Development Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in a CGTN Opinion piece. For those villages which agriculture products that are sold solely within their vicinity, their markets are wide now thanks to fast-developing e-commerce service. Luo Huimin, a native from Wannian County of Jiangxi Province, analyzed the demands for agricultural products in cities and optimized the supply of agricultural products. He now opens chain stores delivering crops and oil for residents across the country - from Nanchang, provincial capital of Jiangxi, all the way to southern Guangdong Province. With more than 90 people employed - all from Luo's hometown - they are now each receiving up to 15,000 yuan($2,172) every month. According to a survey among 3,378 migrant workers conducted in early 2019, more than 60 percent of respondents said they believe improving public resources such as health, education and infrastructure are convincing them to stay in the countryside or return from the coastal areas. The difficulties in rural revitalization are no less than eradicating extreme poverty, Xi said in Thursday's speech. "But we'll maintain the hard-working momentum and continue to march forward!" Original article: here. Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYyX_i13bl8 After the winter storm has settled and the temperatures returned to the typical Laredo climate, a sense of pseudo-normalcy has returned. However, there are still those facing water, power and structural damage issues. With both LISD and UISD forced to shut down schools during the week of the freeze, employees assessed the damages done and continued their hard work in maintaining campuses and offices. But the districts still faced issues including water line breaks and damaged equipment. According to Angel Velazquez, LISDs Assistant Superintendent of Plant Facility, the district only suffered minor issues. Approximately 10-12 water leaks were reported, and some cafeteria inventory was lost across the campuses and offices of the district. At UISD, the Director of Energy and Environment Department Manuel Menchaca said that the department assessed that 19 elementary, 11 middle, seven high schools and eight department office buildings had issues. This ranged from frozen water fountains, water leaks and a major water issue in the child nutrition area. In the case of electrical powers, three air handler units were damaged and will need replacement. Refrigerators had also lost power in some cases, which led to the disposal of potentially bad food items. In a letter by UISD Superintendent Roberto Santos, he stated that the food production center experienced both a power outage and a broken water line, which resulted in a major loss of food supplies. Amidst the unfortunate circumstances, both districts applauded their staffs effort to continuously work behind the scenes and around the clock to repair and address the issues in time for the return of instruction. And as of Monday, both districts saw the return of remote and on-campus students into their classes. Velazquez commended the staff and praised the plan of action created during the winter storm. Out of the 105 staff members in the maintenance department, at least 45% of employees continued to work through the freeze to review campus and department buildings and turn off irrigation and power systems. Similarly at UISD campuses, the team efforts helped minimize the damages. Enrique Rangel, UISDs Assistant Superintendent of Facilities and Construction, thanked the dedicated staff for their on-site work including on grounds employees, plumbers, electricians and others. But they were not unaffected. Velasquez and Rangel pointed out that a portion of employees were impacted by the storm, leaving some without power or water. In that instance, those that could work continued their duty to maintain the integrity of the districts. And for their efforts citywide, schools reopened for instruction and allowed students to return to their classes, avoiding another day without instruction. There is still work left to be done as plumbers and electricians continue to fix the broken water lines and power failures. Both Menchaca and Rangel said that some areas are still running on generator power as repairs continue. They said that there is currently an ongoing insurance assessment on the buildings and items, but it will be a slow process. Moving forward, preparations will be discussed and improvements to the campus infrastructures. The discussions focus on purchasing generators, solar panels, purchasing shelf stable meals, etc. cocampo@lmtonline.com TAKE OUR SURVEY ~~TELL US HOW WE ARE DOING The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The dawn of a new era When Perseverance touched down on Mars, Sandifer couldnt help but think of future possibilities. I'll tell you, it was just an incredible feeling to be able to support something of that magnitude, in my mind, is the dawn of a new era, he said. This is the most capable rover that's ever been sent to Mars, and with this rover we will be able to see and hear the Martian environment. As a matter of fact, I was able to hear the first wind gusts on Mars that were provided by the Perseverance Rover. That made me think about all of our future plans, he said. It made me think, wow, this one day could be a home to humankind. You know, in a few years we're planning to launch the first woman and the next man to go to the moon and we're going to have a sustained presence on the moon as a part of the Artemis program. These are the building blocks and the steppingstones for our moon-to-Mars space exploration strategy, for humans to travel to Mars in the 30s. The Perseverance Rover is going to send back so much data that is important to science, to understand how a different planet works and the possibility that life might have emerged there, Zirbel said. The pictures and data that the rover is going to send back will inspire another whole generation of people to study science and math so they can help us take the next step in understanding the universe and our place in it. All dreams are possible It is truly an honor to be a Black male working at NASA, being able to support something greater than myself, said Sandifer, referencing the rover landing during Black History Month. I've had great mentors along the way, so one thing that I strive to do is also mentor others. I try to mentor young career professionals and STEM students as often as I can. Even when I was in class at BGSU, there weren't a lot of students who looked like me. And as I am working at NASA, there are not a lot of fellow employees who look like me, so I encourage as many professionals of all races to get involved. Sandifer said that working for NASA has made him realize that all dreams are possible. In the early years, I was focused on developing trajectories and mission designs and trying to figure out if the concepts could be achieved in the second half of my career, he said. Lately, it seems that we've been doing many things that seemed nearly impossible early on in my career. I would just encourage all students not to limit themselves based on pre-conceived ideas of what is possible. Instead, really get out there and give it your all, no matter what your dream is. The West Bengal government has made negative COVID-19 reports mandatory for air travellers from Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. The state health department's notification read, "In view of the increasing trend of COVID cases in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana and in continuation of the earlier order issued last August, this is to inform you that the state government has decided that from February 27 noon, all passengers coming to the state from the four states shall mandatorily carry a COVID negative RT-PCR report." Passengers from these states will have to undergo RT-PCR tests within 72 hours of the flight departure. The regulation will be in effect from February 27. The guidelines further stated necessary instructions will be issued to all airlines in this regard. The state has reported a total of 5, 74,099 COVID-19 cases. Out of these, a total of 5, 60,447 people have recovered, whereas 10,253 have succumbed to the contagion. Number of active coronavirus cases in West Bengal stands at 3,399 as of February 25. West Bengal is not the first state to put these guidelines in place. Delhi has also made COVID-19 negative reports mandatory for people travelling in flights, trains and buses and travellers from Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab. Those entering the national capital via road have been kept out of the purview. Increasing cases of COVID-19 in Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh have been a cause of worry for the central government. With PTI inputs Also read: Covid-19 vaccine not free! Citizens must pay in pvt hospitals; govt to fix price soon The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Mahindra Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra has concluded the sale of its 100 per cent stake in Mahindra First Choice Services (MFCS) to TVS Automobile Solutions, the company said in a stock exchange notification. It has sold the residual stake in the services arm of the used car business for a consideration of Rs 21.5 crore. It has also sold its entire stake aggregating 100 per cent of optionally convertible redeemable preference shares in Auto Digitech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahindra Holdings for a cash consideration of Rs 13.5 crore to TVS. As a result, MFCS and Auto Digitech have ceased to be subsidiaries of Mahindra Holding and of the company with effect from 25 February 2021, it said. Mahindra had announced ceasing a controlling stake in Mahindra First Choice Services on November 26 to TVS Automobile, the announcement on Wednesday marks a complete a exit of the former from the services business. The Mumbai headquartered firm has been exiting loss making businesses as part of the larger capital allocation exercise it initiated since the beginning of this fiscal. The turnover of MFCS for the year ended 31st March, 2020 was Rs 106.52 crores and after elimination of inter-company transactions with the Group, it contributed Rs 106.30 crores or 0.11 per cent to the consolidated turnover of the company. The net worth of MFCS for the year ended 31st March 2020 was negative at Rs53.36 crores and after elimination of inter-company balances with the Mahindra Group, it contributed negative Rs 53.36 crores or negative 0.13 per cent of the consolidated net worth of the company excluding non-controlling Interest, Mahindra said in the filing. Bangui, Central African Republic (PANA) - Many civilians have been killed and others injured during the election period in the Central African Republic (CAR), Amnesty International said on Thursday MATTAWAN, MI - You could immerse yourself daily in the calming scent of lavender if you become the next owner of this Michigan lavender farm. Shades of Lavender Farm just hit the market for $595K and includes the entire farm, business and large ranch home. Its located at 47400 24th Street in Mattawan, just west of Kalamazoo. The farm, business, shop and 2,600 square foot home are all located on a little more than 10 acres. The business is open year-round and features all kinds of lavender bath and body products and lavender food products. We grow the lavender here, we harvest it and we dry it on-site, Janene Rawlinson, owner of Shades of Lavender Farm told MLive. We make products with lavender at the farm shop. Its an open building and store where people can watch the artisans create the lotions, soaps, bath bombs, candles and more. The shop at Shades of Lavender Farm in Mattawan, MI. (Photo by Next Door Photos via Select Realtors) Rawlinson says in the summer, people can also watch the lavender being harvested and see how the lavender is distilled into lavender essential oil. She says she also teaches classes on how to make products with lavender as well as holding yoga classes in the fields. So, why is she selling? Rawlinson says she received a life-changing career opportunity. While I started the farm because of my interest in lavender, I was offered a great position at Stryker. Ive been in the medical community for a long time and Im transitioning back into that. Its just a really awesome opportunity which I couldnt pass up. Rawlinson says she would love to see the next owner continue with the business, but says its ultimately up to that person or persons on what they do with the property and land. For the community it would be nice to keep the lavender farm going, but whomever buys it can do what they want with it, of course. It would break my heart if it gets moved onto something different, but I have no control over that. Theres been a huge embracement in the community and sadness. This has been a thriving business. Here is the full listing to Shades of Lavender Farm. You can also reach out to Katherine Roberts of Select Realtors in Kalamazoo at 269-312-0794 or via email. MORE FROM MLIVE: Michigans whole Dam Store is now on the market for a cool half a million dollars Nostalgic 1950s Michigan soda fountain on market, comes with thriving ice cream business Live in an actual historic Michigan train station, now a home on market for $324K The coronavirus pandemic forced offices to close and meetings to move online that has created a new phenomenon known as 'Zoom fatigue.' Named after the popular video chat platform, the term is used to describe the exhaustion that comes with participating in video conferences, whether it be on Zoom, Google Meet or another application. A researcher from Stanford University recently investigate this idea to determine reasons that could cause people to become exhausted while they are simply sitting in front of a computer. Professor Jeremy Bailenson determined excessive amounts of eye contact, a drop in mobility, video chats increase cognitive load and constantly seeing yourself lead to 'Zoom fatigue However, the expert has also provided solutions for each to help employees revive themselves while spending hours video chatting at least five days a week. Scroll down for video A researcher from Stanford University recently investigate this idea to determine reasons that could cause people to become exhausted while they are simply sitting in front of a computer The coronavirus took hold of the world in 2020, which forced millions into lockdowns in a bid to limit the virus from spreading. Many businesses closed their physical offices, which forced employees to setup a workspace in their home and conduct tasks using video conferencing platforms. And Zoom appeared to take the lead fairly fast the firm said it saw 200 million daily meeting participants by March 2020. Although it will be a year of lockdown for many worldwide, most people are still working from home and feeling the exhaustion from it. Excessive amounts of eye contact, a drop in mobility, video chats increase cognitive load and constantly seeing yourself lead to 'Zoom fatigue Bailenson, who is the founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), examined the psychological consequences of spending hours per day on these platforms. What causes 'Zoom fatigue?' 1. Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense 2. Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing 3. Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility 4. The cognitive load is much higher in video chats Advertisement Throughout the research, Bailenson identified four consequences of prolonged video chats that he says contribute to the feeling commonly known as 'Zoom fatigue.' Bailenson stressed that his goal is not to vilify any particular videoconferencing platform he appreciates and uses tools like Zoom regularly but to highlight how current implementations of videoconferencing technologies are exhausting and to suggest interface changes, many of which are simple to implement. 'Videoconferencing is a good thing for remote communication, but just think about the medium just because you can use video doesn't mean you have to,' Bailenson said. The first reason was identified to be 'excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.' Video conferencing requires users to keep their eyes glued to screens for hours each day, which can be tiring. During in-person meetings, the audience typically looks only at the individual speaking, but when events are held online we tend to look at everyone in the chat room and it seems as if everyone is staring at you. 'Social anxiety of public speaking is one of the biggest phobias that exists in our population,' Bailenson said. 'When you're standing up there and everybody's staring at you, that's a stressful experience.' He continues to explain that when someone's face gets close to ours in real life, our brains process the action as an intense situation that leads to either mating or conflict. The first reason was identified to be 'excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.' Video conferencing requires users to keep their eyes glued to screens for hours each day, which can be tiring 'What's happening, in effect, when you're using Zoom for many, many hours is you're in this hyper-aroused state,' Bailenson said. To combat intense, up-close eye contact he suggests reducing the size of the video chat window. The second cause for Zoom fatigue is seeing yourself on the screen. 'In the real world, if somebody was following you around with a mirror constantly so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, getting feedback you were seeing yourself in a mirror, that would just be crazy. No one would ever consider that,' Bailenson added. Bailenson cited studies showing that when you see a reflection of yourself, you are more critical of yourself. Many of us are now seeing ourselves on video chats for many hours every day. 'It's taxing on us. It's stressful. And there's lots of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences to seeing yourself in a mirror,' he said. The second cause for Zoom fatigue is seeing yourself on the screen, but turning off the camera can provide a break. Another is staring at yourself all day, which can be fixed by using the 'hide self-view' button and the final is constantly deciphering nonverbal cues To avoid staring at yourself, users can activate the 'hide self-view' button by right clicking on their own photo everyone else can see you, but you cannot. Since employees no longer have to walk to a conference room during meetings, many have experienced a decrease in mobility. Bailenson has identified this as a trigger for Zoom fatigue and recommends setting up the camera farther away from the screen to allow yourself room to pace or walk around as if you would in a real world event. And the final reason is 'cognitive load is much higher in video chats.' Bailenson notes that in regular face-to-face interaction, nonverbal communication is quite natural and each of us naturally makes and interprets gestures and nonverbal cues subconsciously. But in video chats, we have to work harder to send and receive signals. However, he suggests have an 'audio only' break by turning off the camera so you do not have to decipher nonverbal activity 'so that for a few minutes you are not smothered with gestures that are perceptually realistic but socially meaningless.' In order to infect cells, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, needs to insert itself into the membrane of human cells; new molecular models show what parts of SARS-CoV-2 are critical for that interaction, revealing new potential drug targets ROCKVILLE, MD - If the coronavirus were a cargo ship, it would need to deliver its contents to a dock in order to infect the host island. The first step of infection would be anchoring by the dock, and step two would be tethering to the dock to bring the ship close enough that it could set up a gangplank and unload. Most treatments and vaccines have focused on blocking the ability of the ship to anchor, but the next step is another potential target. New research by Defne Gorgun, a graduate student, and colleagues in the lab of Emad Tajkhorshid at the University of Illinois addresses the molecular details of this second step, which could inform the design of drugs that block it. Gorgun will present her research on Thursday, February 25 at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society to be held virtually. In order to infect our cells, the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, first attaches a molecule on our cell surface, but then it has to fuse with human cells. Before the pandemic, Gorgun was studying the interactions of molecules that stick to and insert into cell membranes, and when COVID-19 began to spread, Gorgun quickly pivoted her studies to understand how SARS-CoV-2 fused with cells. A small region of the SARS-CoV-2 outer spike protein called the "fusion peptide," inserts itself into the human cell membrane to begin the fusion process. Scientists knew the location and approximate shape of the fusion peptide; however, they did not know exactly how it interacted with and penetrated into the human cell membrane and whether there would be changes in its shape when it stuck to the membrane. Without knowing the three-dimensional interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptide and the cell membrane, it is not possible to design drugs that specifically disrupt that interaction. Using computer simulations, the team merged what is known about the SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptide with the established three-dimensional structures and behaviors of other coronavirus fusion peptides and simulated its interaction with a model human cell membrane. Their simulations reveal how the SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptide interacts with, and penetrates, the cell membrane. "Our study shows which parts of the fusion peptide are important and how it sticks to and sits in the membrane," Gorgun says. Because their model is theoretical, the next step is to repeat their computer experiments in the lab with pieces of SARS-CoV-2 and cell membranes. But having already revealed parts of the fusion peptide that are likely to be critical to its function, those experiments will likely be completed faster and more efficiently. After that, Gorgun says, it will be possible to start testing drugs that disrupt the interaction and could help block SARS-CoV-2 from docking at our cells. ### Due to the significant number of horses east of Manitoba that have been exposed to strangles bacteria, Century Casinos must implement strict measures to protect the best interests of the entire racing community. All horses coming into Alberta from anywhere east of Manitoba must have a negative test for strangles, and that test must be taken within six (6) calendar days of arrival. All horsepeople intending to bring horses in must notify Century Racing Manager Joe Gray in advance of the horses arriving, and provide him proof of the negative test. (ASHA / Century) Shares of RailTel Corporation of India were commanding a premium of Rs 15-17 per unit in the unlisted market ahead of their debut on exchanges on Friday, February 26, implying gains of 16-18 per cent over the issue price of Rs 94 per share. But a correction in the secondary market has dented the pop by nearly 50 per cent for RailTel shares as they were trading at Rs 109-112 apiece in the unlisted market from Rs 122 earlier, said grey market watcher Manan Doshi, co-founder of Unlistedarena.com. Keshav Lahoti, equity research analyst at too shares the view and sees a small premium for RailTel of around 15 per cent. Doshi, however, added that the sentiments around the issue are strong and a solid listing for Nureca on Thursday along with overall bullishness in the market could drive the grey market premium for RailTel higher. The initial public offer (IPO) that ran between February 16-18 had witnessed robust response from market participants and was subscribed 42 times. Most brokerages had a positive view on the company and ascribed a subscribe rating to the issue. Should you sell on listing? Analyst advised against booking profit and exiting the stock in case of a listing at a premium as they believe the company is a long-term bet with good business prospects. "Investors should wait and hold the stock as it is a good story. RailTel has good prospects and it will get business from Indian and private players in the future. I am positive on the company and investors can hold shares for the long-term," said Lahoti. His brokerage had recommended Subscribe to the issue as it believes the company is going to play a key role in the digital transformation of Indian and said the company's margins and return ratios are better than other telecom players with a strong financial position. Astha Jain of Hem Securities recommends booking partial profit in case of listing premium of 12 per cent or above but holding the remaining stock for the long-term on the back of positive industry dynamics and the edge RailTel holds over peers. At the higher price band of Rs 94 per share, RailTels share is valued at an FY20 P/E multiple of 15.8x (to its restated EPS of Rs 5.9). Other railway infrastructure companies (IRCON, RITES and RVNL) are trading at an average P/E of 9.5x. "However, considering the futuristic service and growth plans of the IR and RailTels ability to monetize its existing assets through subscription plans and co-sharing with private operators, we feel that fundamentals are positive for the company," said Choice Broking in an note. Some analysts in their coverage reported had flagged risks such as dependence on the government projects and single-digit PAT CAGR of 7.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively from FY18 to FY20. Clellie Lynch: In the right place at the right time Dallas resident, Julie Dykes Pondt, recalled her experience, and said, "We lost power Sunday night and by Monday morning the temperature dropped to 43 degrees in our home. Power came on for one and a half hours, then off for eight hours, not returning to normal until Friday. Eventually, the main water line broke, and we had two to three inches of water all across our condo. We will have to rip out the drywall, flooring, cabinets and take the condo down to the studs." RainTight General Contracting is serving homeowners and property owners in this process. Miller Weedn, CEO of RainTight, said, "we are deploying teams quickly to protect their health and their assets". In many cases, mold and mildew can cause a serious health concern if not treated quickly and properly. Like Julie, many Texans are in the same situation, scrambling to find companies that can help. Klark Brown with Restoration Advisors is an expert in the restoration business and consults restoration companies across the country. Klark provided the following tips if you have been affected by broken pipes and flooding in your home. Don't procrastinate! Water damage to your walls, floors, ceiling, etc. can have a long-lasting impact. In most policies for residential and commercial properties, there is a Duty Clause that requires the policyholder to mitigate issues to avoid secondary damage. If you do not take action swiftly, and issues develop at a later date such as damage to belongings, mold, and wood rot, then those might not be covered by your insurance when discovered later. Quickly find a certified restoration company to aid in determining what is damaged and to guide in next steps. You may not need to wait for your insurance adjuster as further delays could cause secondary damage. Remember, promptness is the key. It is important to determine what furniture you can keep. Water damaged furniture such as rugs, upholstered furniture, and mattresses, can breed bacteria and mold and often should be inventoried and photographed (for insurance), and possibly discarded. Hire a company like Callbox Storage, a Texas based storage company, to pick up, store, and return stored belongings. Callbox can assist with the pack out and storage of your household items that have not been impacted, so they are not damaged during the repair process. This cost is usually covered by your insurance claim. FEMA has additional resources available as Texas has been listed as a national disaster. For more guidance from FEMA and to see if you qualify for assistance, see https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4586 Callbox Storage is a full service moving and storage company with Texas locations in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and also locations in Phoenix and Seattle. Callbox makes storage simple by proving all the labor for taking things to storage and providing customers with a catalogued photo inventory of what is in storage. Kyle Bainter, CEO of Callbox Storage, is seeing demand rise significantly because of the storm. He stated, "We are seeing a massive influx of customers that need pack out services, moving, and storage, due to this crisis. As a fellow Texan, I am saddened by the recent disaster and for those displaced by the storm. We are glad to be in a position where we can provide a helping hand to those who need it." Restoration and Remediation companies have traveled to Texas from all across the country. Josh Warren, owner of Warren Restoration, made the trek from North Carolina to help get Texas back on track. Warren Restoration is a certified restoration company and they travel across the country to help with disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Irma. In discussing with Josh, he said, "The best advice for those impacted is that they find a certified restoration company to do moisture checks prior to assuming everything is okay. Often, your walls will retain moisture that can cause long-term damage if not appropriately remediated." While we may have a Texas-sized disaster, it is encouraging to see help arrive from all across the country to help. SOURCE Callbox Storage Related Links callboxstorage.com In an interview with the 1in.am news service aired late on Tuesday, Pashinian responded to former President Serzh Sarkisians claim that the Armenian military did not adequately use its Iskander missiles against advancing Azerbaijani troops because of wrong government orders. Sarkisian made the claim earlier this month as he harshly criticized Pashinians handling of the the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10. Let him ask why the fired Iskander did not explode or why it exploded by, say, 10 percent, Pashinian hit back without elaborating. Pashinian went on to suggest that the sophisticated missile system might be outdated. Asked whether it could have indeed malfunctioned, he said: I dont know. Maybe its a weapon of the 1980s. The remarks provoked a storm of criticism in Russia which supplied several Iskander systems to Armenia in 2015. Senior members of the State Duma, Russias lower house of parliament, attacked Pashinian in unusually strong terms. The Iskander is a highly precise weapon, which has repeatedly been proved during military exercises, said Viktor Zavarzin, the deputy chairman of a State Duma committee on defense and security. What Pashinian said about the missile is a complete lie, Zavarzin told the Govorit Moskva radio station. Another Russian lawmaker, Dmitry Sablin, mocked the Armenian premier and questioned his competence. A bad dancer is hampered by other things. This popular saying best describes the Armenian prime ministers claims about the use of the Iskander in the last war and its being obsolete, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Sablin as saying. Vladimir Solovyov, Russias leading political talk show host, and other pro-Kremlin commentators likewise denounced Pashinians remarks widely circulated by the Russian media. Pashinian also came under fire from his political opponents at home. How can 10 percent of a missile explode and the remaining 90 percent not explode after hitting a target? said Seyran Ohanian, a retired general who served as Armenias defense minister during the acquisition of Iskander missiles. I think that [Pashinian] is very far from being qualified to make judgments about them, Ohanian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. But Andranik Kocharian, a senior lawmaker representing the ruling My Step bloc, dismissed the criticism, saying that Pashinians statement must be seriously investigated. If Mr. Pashinians suspicions turn out to be correct we must review everything, he told reporters. Asked whether the remarks could damage Russian-Armenian relations, Kocharian said that Sarkisians claims are more dangerous for Armenias national security. With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the Iskander is known for its precision and ability to overcome modern missile defense shields. Russia prompted serious concerns from the United States and other Western powers when it deployed such missiles to its Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea in 2018. Tesla has told workers it will temporarily halt some production at its car assembly plant in California as it faces a semiconductor shortage, according to a new report. Workers on a Model 3 sedan production line in Fremont were told their line would be down from February 22 until March 7, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. The company advised workers that they would not be paid for February 28, and March 1-3, and urged them to take vacation time if they had it, the person said. The report did not clarify the reason for the halt, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk has not confirmed publicly, and Tesla did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Thursday. However, Tesla said last month that it might face a temporary impact from a global semiconductor shortage, a widening crisis that has drawn executive action from President Joe Biden and boosted shares of chip-makers. Tesla has reportedly told workers it will temporarily halt some production at its car plant in California as it faces a semiconductor shortage. Telsa CEO Elon Musk has yet to comment Other global automakers like General Motors are shutting assembly lines due to chip shortages, as consumer demand has snapped back unexpectedly quickly from the coronavirus crisis. Chipmaker Samsung Electronics said last week that it had suspended its factory in Texas as a winter storm caused power outages. Samsung declined to identify its customers for the factory, but in 2019, Tesla said its self-driving chips are manufactured at Samsung's factory in Texas. It was unclear how much volume or revenue Tesla would lose due to the production halt. The Fremont plant has an annual production capacity of 500,000 Model 3s and Model Ys combined. Tesla, which also has production facilities in China, said last month it may be able to grow its annual sale volume by more than 50 percent this year. Tesla last week reduced the price of its cheaper variants of the Model 3 and the Model Y, the latest in a series of price cuts at a time when legacy automakers are trying to fight back with new models. Workers on a Model 3 sedan production line in Fremont (above) were told their line would be down from February 22 until March 7, a person familiar with the matter said Shares of Tesla dropped as much as 5 percent on Wednesday following reports of the plant idling. Meanwhile, Ford said a lack of chips could cut the company's production by up to 20 percent in the first quarter. General Motors said it was forced to cut output at factories in the United States, Canada and Mexico and would reassess production plans in mid-March. U.S. semiconductor companies account for 47 percent of global chip sales, but only 12 percent of global manufacturing is done in the United States, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Biden has been under pressure from Republican lawmakers to do more to protect American supply chains from China by investing in domestic manufacturing of next-generation semiconductor chips. President Joe Biden signs an executive order on Wednesday aimed at addressing the global semiconductor chip shortage On Wednesday, Biden said he would seek $37 billion in funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the United States as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production. Biden also signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at addressing the global semiconductor chip shortage that has alarmed the White House and members of Congress, administration officials said. Under Biden's order, the White House will look to diversify the country's supply chain dependence for certain products, by developing domestic production and partnering with other countries in Asia and Latin America when it cannot produce products at home. Ford praised Biden's plan on Wednesday and said in a statement that it was 'incredibly important for our labor force, our customers and our business that we have a commitment to end this shortage as soon as possible.' HaveYouHeard group executive creative director, Dan Berkowitz, has been appointed as a judge for the 2021 New York Festivals Advertising Awards. Dan Berkowitz Celebrating the exceptional and innovative content being created today, the New York Festivals runs six international awards competitions to honour and recognise the worlds best work across six different creative fields. They are the Advertising Awards, the Radio Awards, the TV & Film Awards, Bowery Awards, Global Awards and AMEA Awards.Berkowitz, whose first job was to launch Hyground alongside South African advertising legends Brian Searle-Tripp and Bob Rightford, moved to London in 2007 and spent the year freelancing to fund his lust for attending a different live gig every night.He joined Wieden+Kennedy Delhi in 2008 as creative director and spent four years living in the mad chaos of India, working on building iconic local brands and global projects in the London and Amsterdam offices. Berkowitz returned to South Africa in 2012 to join King James as Creative Director and Head of Integration, and currently leads the creative teams in the HaveYouHeard group.Believing that the most successful brands are the ones who have found a place of their own within popular culture, he measures his and his teams work against its ability to answer the question Why would anybody give a shit?Its an honour to represent the local industry in judging global work alongside an international panel, Berkowitz said.I hope to bring a different perspective to the panel South Africans are blessed with the opportunity of growing up in one of the most culturally diverse places on earth. I think our exposure to different ways of life and the understanding and empathy of cultural nuance that brings, coupled with our professional upbringing among brilliant minds in a small country with a big creative reputation, enables us to look at global work through a wider lens.Asked what campaigns impressed him locally and internationally in 2020 Berkowitz said he can always depend on Chicken Licken to crack a couple of golden eggs and whip them into a tasty scramble of homegrown humour and cultural nuance without losing its global appeal and that the brand didnt disappoint this year, with this spot being his personal favourite:On the international front, my colleague Gavin Whitfield recently shared this film out of Ogilvy Thailand for Voiz Creamy Butter Crackers. Its from 2018 so not technically new, but new to me, and I hope there is more work like it this year because I think its the best thing since sliced breadsticks!Berkowitz says his choices were reflective of the mood left by the year that was in 2020. The world deserves a little bit of light-heartedness from the ad fraternity this year. I was reminded recently that while our duty is always to inspire people to take notice and engage with the brilliant things our clients do and the purpose that drives them, its only advertising. We are in the fortunate position to deliver messages in way that can make people smile, laugh and yes, sometimes cry. This year, Im erring on the lighter side.He doesnt feel it was all doom and gloom for the industry though: 2020 pulled the rug out, but every new challenge presented an opportunity to innovate or invent, and thats what we live for as creative people. Beyond the obvious immediate effects of working from home, being sensitive to the mood of the audience in the work and having to reinvent ways of working, especially in the experiential and production space, I feel that one of the best things to come out of the terrible situation that was Covid-19 was the liberation clients felt in taking more risks and trying new things because they had to.Its often a more difficult conversation to have when given the choice between what we know works and heading into uncharted territory that has the potential to work even better. I think considering the successes that both agencies and clients have experienced by being thrust into a totally new deep end, there will be a lasting effect that leads to more innovation on both sides in the future. F1's all-new engine regulations for 2025 must allow "a Cosworth or a Mario Illien" to enter the sport. That is the view of Franz Tost, who leads the Alpha Tauri team that from 2022 will use Honda-based engines that are to be operated by team owner Red Bull. Beyond that, though, Formula 1's engine format will change completely for 2025, and a debate is raging about what it should be in light of the hybrid 'power unit' era being utterly dominated by Mercedes. "I would stick with the V6, and with turbo, but without the MGU-H," Tost told Auto Motor und Sport. "We have to have the MGU-K because we need an energy recovery system. But then the main focus should be on the use of CO2-neutral e-fuels. "This would mean that we meet the emissions requirements and are well positioned for the future." A key focus of the new engine regulations, says Tost, is to attract more manufacturers to the sport. "We need more manufacturers," the Austrian confirmed. "The new engine must therefore also be financially sustainable with a precisely defined budget. "The regulations should also allow a Cosworth or a Mario Illien to build an engine. When the doors are open to new manufacturers, there will no longer be the constraints that we currently have. "In order to save costs, the materials should be restricted and the engine should last a long time so that not as many have to be built," said Tost. (GMM) Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 23:59:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China unveiled a new government body for the promotion of rural vitalization on Thursday as the world's most populous country declared an end to absolute poverty, shifting its policy focus to further boosting rural areas. The new national administration for rural vitalization is the successor to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, which focused on overseeing China's poverty alleviation efforts. Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attended the ceremony for the debut. The launch of the new administration is an important move to consolidate and expand the country's poverty alleviation results and guarantee a smooth transition into rural vitalization, Hu said. He urged the administration to bear in mind its responsibilities, improve mechanisms to prevent people from falling back into poverty, and promote rural vitalization in an all-round way. As the eradication of absolute poverty indicates a new starting point for China, the new administration will work to promote rural vitalization in areas that have shaken off poverty while consolidating poverty alleviation outcomes. The debut of the new administration came after China's announcement of "complete victory" in eradicating absolute poverty, marking the transition of the country's policy priority from poverty alleviation to comprehensively promoting rural vitalization. A grand gathering was also held in Beijing on Thursday to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and to honor its model poverty fighters. Official data shows that the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty over the past eight years. All of the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list. "China will make the comprehensive advancement of rural vitalization a major task in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," said the country's "No. 1 central document" for 2021, which was unveiled on Sunday. The document, a key indicator of policy priorities, said China will set a five-year transition period for counties that have shaken off poverty and gradually shift the policy focus from poverty alleviation toward comprehensively promoting rural vitalization. Enditem The combination of EHS Hero and BasicSafes applications will allow us to provide our customers a more holistic, tech-enabled safety management solution. Simplify Compliance, a leading provider of business information and training solutions, announces the acquisition of BasicSafe, a scalable, web-based system that streamlines environmental health and safety (EHS) workflow management. The BasicSafe applications will complement Simplify Compliances existing safety platform, EHS Hero, which falls within the product portfolio of its human capital management division, Business and Learning Resources (BLR). The pairing of BasicSafe and BLR solutions will revolutionize our safety offering, enabling us to serve our collective EHS audience in a way few others are able to do, says Simplify Compliance Chief Product Officer, David Cella. Through BLRs regulatory content and guidance and BasicSafes accessible software, we can support compliance and supercharge productivity across an organizations entire safety program. Developed in 2007 by a team of engineers and programmers, and spearheaded by founder and former safety professional Kevin Shoemaker, BasicSafe was designed to streamline complex and time-consuming EHS processes like job safety analysis, audits, incident reporting, and document storage. The result is twelve digital applications that support the execution and organization of the most critical safety tasks. BasicSafe is looking forward to working with Simplify Compliance to package critical content and domain expertise to increase value for our customers, says Shoemaker. We see the value in many areas that will help accelerate the combination of the business strengths towards becoming the best-in-class one-stop safety management software as a service. The functionality of BasicSafes applications is enhanced by a core set of tools that it dubs the Virtual Assistant suite, which includes: A database for digitally storing Policies and Procedures; An Action Management tool that allows safety managers to increase accountability through the assignment of tasks; Planner/Scheduler that sets recurring reminders to ensure teams meet critical compliance deadlines; and A Reporting tool that allows managers to track key performance indicators across applications. These applications align with the EHS Hero suite of products, comprising federal and state regulatory information, safety charts and policies, preloaded and customizable safety plans, and one-to-one access to safety experts through its coveted EHS Hotline. The combination of EHS Hero and BasicSafes applications will allow us to provide our customers a more holistic, tech-enabled safety management solution. says Simplify Compliance CEO, Dan Oswald. Plus, were excited to do it with a team who shares our commitment to innovative, quality products built around the needs of the people we serve. About BasicSafe BasicSafe is an internet-based integrated approach to managing safe work cultures and compliance with regulatory requirements. Extensive programming based on proven safety methodologies that target employee training and information access are the backbone of the BasicSafe suite. BasicSafe is built by skilled programmers working in conjunction with experienced safety managers at companies helping to develop this software. Visit http://www.basicsafe.us. About Simplify Compliance Simplify Compliance, Leeds Equity Partners-backed portfolio company, helps its customers learn, comply, and succeed by providing mission-critical regulatory and business information, analysis, and tools. Serving a range of industries, including healthcare, human capital management, and communications, Simplify Compliance provides time-saving products and solutions that help businesses, and their employees monitor compliance, optimize financial performance, and create and implement best practices. Visit https://simplifycompliance.com. About Business and Learning Resources (BLR) As a division of Simplify Compliance, BLR is an industry-leading knowledge provider in the human capital management, environmental health and safety, leadership development, and legal markets. Visit https://www.blr.com. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. COVID-19 means that several Engadget editors have had to start homeschooling their kids while juggling work. Naturally, this has been an excellent time to embrace the gadgets we already own to help keep our kids engaged. We put out a call asking our editors to tell us which devices have proven themselves essential over the last year. Hopefully some of these might be helpful to you as well. Apple iPad with Folio Apple The option that all the parents on staff immediately recommended was Apples base iPad with Keyboard Folio. Ive already waxed lyrical about how I think the slate is with a handful of exceptions the perfect computing experience. In terms of cost, elegance and safety, the entry-level iPad is a great first computer, especially if youre letting young kids use it. Not only do you get the safety of iOS, and the control afforded to parents, but kids really do like using them more than laptops. Mine do, at least, and they find the touch-first display easier to manage than a real computer while theyre learning to read. It helps, too, that a number of the literacy games my eldest is playing are a lot easier to use when youre swiping at a screen. Fair warning, I normally tell anyone looking for Apples Keyboard Folio to wait for a major shopping holiday. Big retailers like Best Buy heavily discount the case when bought alongside the iPad, because its honestly far too expensive to buy full price. If you cant wait, however, then you should check out Logitechs Slim Folio, which is chunkier, more durable and a little bit friendlier to smaller fingers. Kiwi Crates Kiwi Co. Kiwi Co. is a company offering a regular subscription kit, designed to help young kids to learn the fundamentals of STEM. Terrence OBrien, a self-confessed sucker for a good subscription box, uses them with his son, and theyre both very much into the challenges on offer. The crates also get more complex as your kid ages, helping them grow their skills gradually. And its not just STEM topics that these kids can cater to, with Maker Crates allowing you to indulge your creative side making clay pots and punch needle pillows. Atlas crates, meanwhile, can use play to educate your child about the wonders of geography and travel. The toys [right now] are simple but adorable made out of felt, cardboard and wood, says OBrien. And they come with a short book about that months theme, whether its the Moon, simple machines or friendship, he added. And OBrien is excited by whats going to happen when his son gets older, and the packages get a lot more sophisticated. Projects for older kids include sets that help you build your own trebuchet, hydraulic arm or walking robot. Puro Junior Jams Puro If youre trying to work in the same room as your kids are taking their classes, you can find yourself getting distracted by what theyre doing. Thats why, so long as youre keeping an eye on what theyre doing, it might be useful to buy your kid a decent pair of headphones. Devindra Hardawar is a big fan of Puros JuniorJams headphones, a pair of Bluetooth and Wired cans for kids. Puros selling point is that its headphones are limited to 85dB, which the National Institutes of Health list as the upper limit for how loud you should go. The cans are also designed to grow with your kid as they do, with Vegan leather ear cups designed for comfort and decent expandability. They also fold down to help you travel with them easily on those rare for now occasions when you feel compelled to get out of the house. Packing Bluetooth 4.0 means that the cans should have a wireless range of around 30 feet, making them plenty long to run your own silent disco. When the weather is rough and the shelter in place orders are in force, getting your kids enough exercise can be tough. Thats why being able to schedule in a dance party is a great way to burn off some of that restless energy. Kindle Kids Edition Amazon The first time you look at a Kindle Kids Edition, you might be wondering why youd buy this over the regular version. After all, its the same as the vanilla 10th-generation Kindle which you can pick up for far less money. It has the same six-inch, 167ppi front-lit display, same processor and the same 8GB of built-in storage. So its a bit of a rip, right? Not really, and mostly because for the extra twenty bucks, not only do you get a nice color, you also get a two-year worry free guarantee. Which, in Amazon-speak, means that if your rugrat smashes their kindle within the first two years of ownership, itll replace it, no questions asked. In addition, youll get a years Kids+ subscription, including a vast library of kid-friendly literature. Theres also a gamified component, where your budding readers can get badges when they hit certain targets. And theres an added toolset to help kids identify words they struggle with to help them understand the terms theyre missing. Plus, you know, all of this data can filter back to your account, letting you keep an eye on where theyre struggling to offer additional help. Hape Wooden Easel Hape There are plenty of kids easels available on the market, and Ive been using an Ikea model with my kids. Devindra Hardawar recommended Hapes version and, just looking at the product listing, Im already jealous of the model hes using. For a start, its height-adjustable, meaning that you can extend the legs from around 37 inches up to 43 inches, growing along with your kids. Second, the whiteboard side has magnet strips top and bottom, which helps hold the paper roll in place. Of course, most easels hold the paper underneath or beside the chalk tray, meaning that your kids can pull it out across the room on a whim. Here, the roll is mounted at the apex of the easel, making it a little bit easier to keep the roll out of smaller hands. Oh, and the under tray comes with both paint pots and paint pot holders, making life so much easier when it comes to paint time. Having an easel for home schooling may seem retrograde, but we use ours a lot to help with letter formation. Its also a simple way of drawing pictures for guessing games (Who needs to buy a copy of Pictionary when youve got a chalkboard and imagination?) with the kids. Not to mention that my kids love to play at being at school, taking turns being the teacher and scrawling over the chalkboard while Im trying to work sitting on the sofa nearby. Google Arts and Culture Expeditions Google Sometimes, you as a home-schooling parent just have to abandon the curriculum the school is running. You just have to try and share with your kids some of the things that well be able to do when all of this is over. Googles Arts and Culture Expeditions are perfect for this, especially when it comes to sparking a childs interest in a topic. The expeditions empower your kids to explore collections and exhibitions from some of the worlds most prestigious museums. Several more have Street View tours, letting you wander around the buildings as if we werent all confined to our homes. Its something my daughter loves to do, pawing around public spaces and pointing out the cool stuff she notices. A couple of weeks back, I began telling my kids about the British Science Museum, based in London. I proposed to my wife there years back, and we were able to show them exactly where, before heading into the virtual tour of the space hall. That got the kids interested enough that I started showing them videos of SpaceX launches and landings. From there, we began to talk about gravity, and the pitfalls of escaping it. Something that was mostly enabled by Googles Arts and Culture Expeditions. 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. Please purchase a subscription to continue reading. If you have a subscription, please Log In . Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. If you believe you've gotten this message in error, please Log In. Hearst Connecticut Media file TORRINGTON The city is developing plans to reconstruct various roads on the north end of the city, including Alice Street, Benham Street, Brightwood Avenue, Calhoun Street, Eastwood Road, Lorenzo Street, Margerie Street and Pythian Avenue, and the sidewalks on Dawes Avenue, Lois Street and Northridge Avenue, according to a statement. The road construction project includes paving, new curbing, sidewalk replacement and associated miscellaneous work, which will provide for safer vehicular, and pedestrian travel. The project is financed through the City of Torrington Pavement Management Program Bond Fund. Vietnam is in talks with Pfizer for 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2022, along with 60 million doses of Sputnik V from Russia, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long announced on Wednesday. Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long at Wednesday's Government meeting in Hanoi. In a report on COVID-19 vaccine supply to the central Government on Wednesday in Hanoi, the health chief said Vietnam currently has four vaccine options. First, as an eligible recipient country under the WHO-led COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), Vietnam is set to receive some 30 million doses and the health ministry is expending negotiation efforts to ensure that 30 million doses can arrive within this year. The doses from this initiative comprises mostly Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines that can be kept at normal fridge temperature (2-8 degrees Celsius). Second, direct deals with AstraZeneca. Vietnams health ministry is purchasing some 30 million doses via Vietnam Vaccine JSC in Hanoi, with expected delivery throughout 2021. The first 117,600 doses in this order were delivered to Vietnam on Wednesday, and are expected to be administered to frontline medical workers starting in early March. Third, the health ministry is in talks with Pfizer, and Long said theres a chance that the American pharmaceutical firm could supply some 30 million doses to Vietnam in 2022. The health ministry is seeking the Governments approval for eliciting social resources to buy the vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine, however, unlike the Oxford/AstraZeneca, needs to be stored at ultra-cold freezer temperature between -80 and -60 degrees Celsius. Fourth, Minister Long said the health ministry is in talks with Sputnik Vs vaccine developer Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian side said they could supply 60 million doses to Vietnam. The health ministry is expected to give emergency approval to Sputnik V within this week. Earlier, also in a Government meeting, a health official said Vietnam was in talks with Russia to obtain licence rights to produce Sputnik V in Vietnam. We expect that Vietnam will not suffer from vaccine shortage in 2021. The health ministry is also doing its best to implement the rollout plan. This is the biggest vaccination drive in the countrys history with over 100 million doses to administer, Long said. The health ministry is preparing all scenarios and mobilising all units in and outside the health sector to engage in the vaccination efforts, to speed up the process and ensure coverage, Long continued. The progress of Vietnams own developed and produced vaccines are also on point and manufacturing could begin in early 2022. Variant concerns Also at the meeting, health minister Long announced the results of genomic sequencing of current coronavirus clusters in the community. The three cases related to the dead Japanese man earlier this month in Hanoi are infected with 20C variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is predominant in South Korea, Sri Lanka, India and Taiwan but is not present in Japan itself. This is the first time the variant has been reported in Vietnam. The variant is not more transmissible and it is not known whether it caused more severe disease in the patient. The variant making the rounds in Hai Duong Province, the current epicentre of the countrys third infection wave, along with some cases in Quang Ninh Province, is mostly the one first reported in the UK, which is highly contagious but not necessarily resulting in more acute disease. However, there is one sample taken in Hai Duong that is suspected to be the much more concerning South Africa variant which is reported to lower the effectiveness of many existing approved vaccines, including Oxford/AstraZeneca. Long said the health authorities are still conducting mass testing and genomic sequencing to see why this variant is occurring in Hai Duong. VNS 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. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 05:30:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ALGIERS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Algeria on Thursday reported 161 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the North African country to 112,622. The death toll from the virus rose to 2,973 after three new fatalities were added, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement. Meanwhile, 175 more patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 77,743, the statement added. China and Algeria have offered mutual help in the fight against the pandemic. In February 2020, Algeria sent medical donations to help China combat the coronavirus. In return, China has sent several batches of medical aid to Algeria. In addition, a Chinese team of medical experts arrived in Algeria on May 14, 2020 for a 15-day mission to help fight the coronavirus, by sharing China's experience in curbing the spread of the contagious disease. Enditem 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. Have you ever watched in awe at the exploits of Alain Robert, the man with the zen-like calm who is known as the French Spider-man? The sinewy free solo climber from Burgundy has been dazzling the world for over 30 years with his daring hijinks, ascending landmarks such as the Eiffel tower, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the tallest building in the world the needle-like 828m-high Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. Its Roberts lack of any support structure that astounds people. No ropes, harness or any other protective equipment to save him in case he should stumble. Sometimes, he is known to carry a small bag of chalk around his waist. But other than that, nothing. Rather like parenting in a pandemic, then, you might rightly venture. Gone are the protective mechanisms that would allow any sane person to lets face it consider adding children to the unwieldy day to day structures that takes earning a living as a non-negotiable factor. Out is the reassuring net of the childcare system of grandparents and family members. Gone are the supportive ropes and harnesses of playdates and sporting activities, all swept away in favour of a high-wire juggling act of homeschooling and working from home that leaves us whimpering for mercy at the end of the week. And thats just for the lucky ones among us who are still able to work. Do we even have a small bag of chalk on our person to help us scale the breathtakingly monumental edifices that we are clinging to for dear life? Well, to be completely truthful, screen time is doing quite a lot of the heavy lifting these days. Read More And yes, the current situation has to be endured. We know that. Few could argue with the sheer weight of data that shows staying at home is the safe thing for all of us to do right now. But nobody can deny that for parents, right now and particularly those with small children it is hard. Bloody hard, in fact. However, the schools are reopening very soon. So surely things will get easier? Well... maybe. But wed better hold our horses before we make any assumptions here. The phased reopening will see Leaving Cert students returning to school next week, with primary school students from junior infants to second class also returning then. The early childhood pre-school scheme will resume on March 8 with all childcare returning on March 29. Remaining primary school students and fifth year secondary school students will return on March 15, subject to ongoing reviews, while all other secondary school students wont be returning until after the Easter holidays, on April 12. Its a complex schedule that again makes perfect sense from a safety point of view, allowing the authorities to carefully measure each step and see if it has an impact on infection rates. But it is also reasonable to point out that, from a parental point of view, it is a situation that could well prove to be even harder than their current one because of all the variables at play. For anyone with children ranging in ages, there will no longer be any ease of the one in, all in situation where the children can be treated as a single block. Instead, things may start to look a lot like an Alain Roberts climb only with various moving walls and platforms thrown into the mix. A friend with small children told me of his own impending scenario, with his youngest child falling into the early bracket of school reopening, while his two older primary-age children will be kept at home for a few weeks longer. His new routine will involve getting the little child to school in the morning and dragging the other two along for the journey while his wife is working. There will then begin the necessary homeschooling while he attempts to start his own working day. The fallout will likely see two camps of differing energy levels in the house with two children restless after a day spent at home in the company of their working parents, while the little child will be tired out after a proper school day. My friend anticipates some tension. Those of us with older children may fare better. We will have to wait a bit longer for them to get back to school but when they do, a good chunk of the day will be comfortably freed up for work and our lives may begin to look a little more normal. The weather will be improving. And the diminishing guilt in our lives over screen times can only be a good thing. Thats if they do return to school. In the event that infection levels start to rise as schools reopen, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has warned that the Government will not hesitate to make the right decision. We all know what this means. And yes, of course, a return to homeschooling would, undeniably, be the right decision in this case from a public health point of view. While such an outcome might leave us deeply frustrated and fearful for our childrens well-being and education, we recognise that our choices are, to put it mildly, limited. There will be other moving platforms. Leaving Cert students and their parents face the unknown of a brand new challenge in the form of a proper exam amid the additional churning stress of a pandemic setting. While the parents of Junior Cert students will battle their own struggles of trying to keep youngsters motivated until the rest of the year with, on the one hand, the knowledge that the formal exam has been cancelled, and on the other, teachers warning them to knuckle down for school tests if they want to do a subject at honours level for the Leaving. Precious little comfort for parents, then, that things will improve. But we can take some solace from the fact that Alain Roberts suffers from vertigo but doesnt let it stop him from scaling impossible heights. If he can do it, then maybe, so can we. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Working across the public and private sectors, Capita is involved in everything from the management of school libraries to payroll for NHS dentists. And with 35 million end users served every day, it oversees a truly enormous logistical operation bridging government, business customers and more than 61,000 direct employees. In 2019, Capita kicked off a project to introduce automation across its huge web of businesses and functions. To grasp quite how ambitious this has been as an undertaking, IDG spoke to Dr Grainne Watson, Capitas director of automation practice. Improving services and employee experience Our job is connecting businesses and customers with governments and citizens basically helping things work better, she explains on the Innovate to Accelerate podcast series. The institutional focus is on continuous and consistent innovation, and this principle drives the whole automation project: greater efficiency for everybody. The programme was established with two main goals in mind, internal and external improvements: We wanted to improve the user experience for our own staff, and we wanted to improve how our services were delivered. But what does automation mean for Capita in real terms? Dr Watson references one particularly telling example, a healthcare provider which handles pension entitlements. Before automation, the process involved one person checking 82 regional databases and collating the information. It was, she admits, extremely manual, very, very time-consuming and not always 100% accurate. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was introduced to handle the hard work of crosschecking those databases. Efficiency has markedly improved and the job now takes about half the time. How was this achieved? Purely by augmenting what a human does. We took the manual parts away, and let them focus on the important bit: getting the process done. Learning what automation can do for you Automation isnt about taking peoples jobs away its about facilitating important tasks without obliging staff and clients to jump through awkward and unnecessary hoops. So while the technology that underpins the project is obviously vital, Capita has been determined to make education and communication a key part of its strategy. Every manager takes an introductory course to learn about what automation can do for them, while every business unit was asked to appoint an automation champion which means the whole organisation can buy in from the top down and the bottom up. Everyone understands what were doing, why were doing it and how it helps them, says Dr Watson. This is a central tenet of what we do and its essential that everybody views it as such. ServiceNow has been at the heart of the entire project. Capita had had two false starts before approaching their Californian partners, but the third time worked the charm. With such a large project, external expertise is a must for when things inevitably go awry. Saving 35,000 hours a year with one process Capitas entire first-line automation support desk is now completely digital, operating ServiceNows tried-and-true platforms. Every single initial query is handled by bots, and issues are only ever elevated to a human engineer if the question cant be answered automatically and were seeing that, frequently, a bot can. In fact, in one week last year, the ServiceNow platform handled an incredible 61,000 transactions. For some tasks, weve cut handling times by 50%, so you can imagine thats absolutely transformative, Dr Watson enthuses. The project is bubbling over with success stories; one private client, an insurance company, has saved itself 35,000 hours a year after a single process was automated. We wanted to be able to be continually and consistently innovative, and we feel that ServiceNow provides us with the best opportunity to do that, she continues. The platform has integrity. There is a clear schedule of upgrades coming and more features to unlock and that means we can be consistent with what were building. ServiceNow delivers digital workflows which transform old-fashioned, manual ways of working into modern digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity. You can learn more about Capitas automation story, and how the ServiceNow platform has powered its automation project, by clicking here to listen to our podcast interview with Dr Watson. Alternatively, click here to read the full case study. Today host Allison Langdon has opened up on the gruesome injuries she suffered when a watersports stunt for the Channel Nine show went horribly wrong. The journalist, 41, has been off the air since undergoing knee surgery after falling from a hydrofoil during a pre-recorded segment on the Gold Coast on February 4. Speaking on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday, Allison revealed for the first time the extent of her injuries - and said she 'can't wait' to get back to work. Scroll down for video 'I've done a right royal job on it': Today host Allison Langdon has revealed for the first time the extent of her injuries as a result of the botched stunt She listed her injuries after her Today co-host Karl Stefanovic said she'd simply suffered a 'bruised kneecap'. 'I've done a right royal job on it,' Allison said, correcting him, before revealing she'd actually broken her leg and dislocated a knee. 'That sound horrific!' said radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson. Extreme sport: Allison underwent surgery days after seriously hurting her knee while filming a watersports segment for the Today show on the Gold Coast earlier this month 'That sounds horrific!' She listed her injuries in response to her Today co-host Karl Stefanovic saying she'd simply suffered a 'bruised kneecap'. 'I've done a right royal job on it,' she said, adding that she'd broken her leg and dislocated a knee Jackie noted dislocating a knee is particularly painful and there is a high probability of suffering the same injury again. Allison joked that she'll have an impressive scar on the back of her leg after it heals. When asked about her return to Today, she said optimistically: 'I'm desperate to get back, I actually miss Karl and the team. A couple more weeks and then hopefully.' Health update: On Monday, she surprised the Today team by Zooming into the breakfast show to share an update on her recovery. Allison said she was seeing a physiotherapist three times a week and resting up at home with her two children and husband On Monday, she surprised the Today team by Zooming into the breakfast show to share an update on her recovery. Allison said she was seeing a physiotherapist three times a week and resting up at home with her two children and husband. A week earlier, she'd revealed she was finally back home after having knee surgery in Sydney. She shared a photo to Instagram of herself with her children, Mack, four, and Scout, two, and captioned it: 'So nice to get home to these two.' Back home: A week earlier, she'd revealed she was finally back home after having knee surgery in Sydney following her accident on the Gold Coast on February 4. Pictured with her children, Mack, four, and Scout, two In a statement to Daily Mail Australia earlier this month, a Channel Nine spokesperson described what had happened as 'an unfortunate accident'. 'After nearly an hour of incident-free filming of a segment about hydrofoiling, Ally fell awkwardly as she headed back to the marina at the end of the shoot,' they said. The statement added that both Karl and Ally had a 'comprehensive safety induction and a thorough run-through of all aspects of hydrofoiling. The much-anticipated teaser of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming film Gangubai Kathiawadi which stars Alia Bhatt in the lead role, was unveiled on the filmmaker's birthday on February 25, 2021. While praises poured in for the Bhansali-esque world which captured the life of the sex workers in Kamathipura in the 1960s Bombay, fans couldn't stop gushing over Alia Bhatt's fiesty avatar as the mafia queen Gangubai, who bows neither to pimp nor to politician. Alia Bhatt's Gangubai Kathiawadi is based on one of the chapters from Hussain Zaidi's book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai' which talks about Gangubai Kothewali. If you google search this name, you will find pictures of a woman in a crisp white saree with a rupee-sized red bindi on her forehead. Well, Gangubai Kothewali who is known to be one of the undisputed queens of Kamathipura, owned several brothels there. Before you watch Alia Bhatt play this legendary brothel madam on screen, here's all you need to know about the real-life Gangubai Kathiawadi. Born as Gangubai Harjivandas in Kathiawad, Gujarat, she hailed from a family of lawyers. However, a young Gangu harboured dreams of becoming an actress. At the age of 16, she eloped with her lover Ramnik Lal who worked as her father's accountant and landed in Mumbai, the city of dreams. However, her whole world came crashing down when her lover sold her off in Kamathipura for a sum of Rs. 500. After weeks of crying and realizing that she had no other place to go, Gangu decided to stay back. Soon, she became one of the prized prostitutes of Kamathipura who had a knack of making her rich clients relent. According to Hussain Zaidi's book, Gangubai had liaisons with some of the most powerful gangsters in Mumbai, and operated many brothels in the red light area. It is said that when a member of mafia don Karim Lala's gang brutally violated Gangubai, she decided to take matters into her own hands and accosted the dreaded don himself, after Friday prayers. Karim Lala mercilessly beat up her tormentor, and warned everyone against ill-treating his 'rakhi sister.' Post this incident, Gangubai's rise to the top was meteoric as she developed contacts with police and other key people with power, and became one of the mafia queens. It is said that Gangubai never kept any girls in her brothel against their consent. She wielded immense power and was rich enough to be the only brothel madam in the 60s to own a black Bentley car. (The teaser of Alia Bhatt's Gangubai Kathiawadi gave a sneak-peek of this.) In the latter part of her life, Gangubai became an advocate of rights of women who were sold into prostitution. Jawaharlal Nehru who once heard one of her speeches, was impressed by her wit and even approved of her proposal to protect red light areas. Reportedly, Gangubai's photos still adore the walls of Kamathipura. She is one of the women to have her statue bust erected in that area. Well, it would be interesting to watch Alia Bhatt play this powerful woman who embraced the ways of her destiny and swung it in her favour. Gangubai Kathiawadi is slated to hit the theatrical screens on July 30, 2021. ALSO READ: Alia Bhatt Shuts Up Trolls With Her Powerful Act In Gangubai Kathiawadi Teaser; Leaves Netizens Impressed ALSO READ: Gangubai Kathiawadi Teaser: Alia Bhatt Looks Captivating As Gangubai In Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Film The Possessed stars former Bachelorette Angie Kent, Jade Kevin Foster, John Jarratt and Lincoln Lewis. And ahead of its release a number of the stars are seen showcasing their acting talents in the latest trailer for the film. Actress Lauren Grimson shared the nail-biting preview to Instagram on Thursday. It's nearly here! Angie Kent (pictured), Lincoln Lewis and John Jarratt star in a new trailer for horror film The Possessed which is due to be released in July of this year Angie Kent is seen in glasses looking scared as lights in the house flicker amid paranormal activity. John Jarrett is then shown performing a crude exorcism with a number of the other cast members standing behind him. The blink-and-you'll-miss-it trailer ends with one of the cast members looking as if she has been overtaken by the devil. The trailer claims it is based on a true story. Details of the film have been coming out in dribs and drabs over the past few months. Scary: The film follows Jacob Chandler (Jarratt), an ordinary man who is described as having an 'extraordinary gift' as an accidental exorcist Aussies: The all-Australian cast will see Angie join Melissa Tkautz (pictured), Lauren Grimson and Jade Kevin Foster for her big screen debut The film follows Jacob Chandler (Jarratt), an ordinary man who is described as having an 'extraordinary gift'. He is an accidental exorcist and together with his nephew Liam (Lewis), they have forged a career clearing demons from the bodies of their clients. The all-Australian cast will see Angie join Melissa Tkautz, Simone Buchanan, Lauren Grimson and Jade Kevin Foster, for her big screen debut. Back in November, Angie announced her new film gig in an interview with Studio 10. Scary: The film will also star Hey Dad actress Simone Buchanan (pictured) 'I'm absolutely pinching myself that I get to work with such amazing Aussie talent in @christopherleesun latest feature film coming out in 2021, The Possessed!' 'We start filming next month on the Gold Coast! Watch this space ... S**ts about to get scary up in here. Get ya sage out and start praying.' The Possessed is set to be released in July 2021. SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Invoca , the leading Active Conversation Intelligence platform for revenue teams, ended its 2020 fiscal year with record revenue, accelerating growth, and continued momentum in winning over even the most sophisticated marketers. Invoca announced new conversation intelligence products to support sales, eCommerce, and customer experience teams, expanded its executive leadership team, and broadened product adoption across enterprise organizations spanning telecommunications, financial services, insurance, and healthcare. New customer wins included Build.com; Christian Brothers Automotive; Cincinnati Bell; Deluxe Corporation; LegalShield; LifeBridge Health; Media Experts; Neighborhoods.com; Pinnacle Dermatology; RingCentral; Smith & Noble; Tax Defense Network; Windstream; and others. Enterprise Customer Adoption and Accelerated Growth During the pandemic, Invoca customers relied on conversation intelligence to understand and adapt to the ever-changing market needs and buying behaviors. This led to a record-breaking 40% year-over-year increase in expansion bookings and an NPS score of 75. "In today's business environment, revenue teams know that customers' needs are rapidly changing. When it comes to making a high-stakes purchase, customers pick up the phone for advice to find the right product. If businesses don't have the technology to understand those conversations and how they fit with digital experiences in the path to purchase, they'll lose valuable insight into the buyer journey," said Gregg Johnson , CEO of Invoca. "At Invoca, we help our customers focus on what matters mostthe customer interactionwhile gathering the data and delivering the experiences that drive higher revenue." "The main reason that we love partnering with Invoca is that it's an innovation-driven company. They're always doing new things, and I don't ever have to worry about falling behind," said Nataly Huff, VP of marketing at Amplifon Americas. "Invoca is a very powerful solution that has become the linchpin for our entire data structure and digital strategy." New Product Innovation and Integrations During its 6th annual Invoca Summit conference, Invoca announced that it would extend its AI-powered conversation intelligence platform beyond the marketing organization to serve sales , eCommerce , and customer experience teams. The new solution sets enable all revenue teams at business-to-consumer (B2C) brands to create better buying experiences, drive more leads, and increase revenue all while aligning to new customer behaviors brought on by the pandemic. By helping brands understand conversation data and activate it across their technology stack, Invoca enables them to enhance every digital touchpoint and human interaction. During the Summit, Invoca also launched the Invoca Exchange , a marketplace of more than 40 partner solutions and integrations, to simplify the activation of conversation intelligence across customer tech stacks. Featured integrations include Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Adobe, Tealium, and new partnerships with Five9, FullStory, and Criteo. Invoca Summit , which featured inspiring marketers sharing their stories on how they're delivering uncommon results in an uncertain world by tapping into the power of human conversations, is now available for free on-demand . New Executives Hires and Company Awards In 2020, Invoca welcomed former Hootsuite and Yammer executive Dee Anna McPherson as CMO and former Citrix and Imperva executive Jennifer Lovette as SVP of Customer Success. These two executive additions have been critical as the company continues its accelerated growth in helping customers use conversational insights to transform their businesses at scale. Throughout the year, Invoca received multiple recognitions for both its technology and workplace culture, including: More Information: Take a self-guided tour through the Invoca platform: https://www.invoca.com/product/tour Explore the new Invoca Exchange marketplace: https://www.invoca.com/integrations Invoca is hiring. Join the team today: https://www.invoca.com/company/careers About Invoca Invoca's Active Conversation Intelligence platform enables marketing, sales, customer experience, and eCommerce teams to understand and immediately act on the information consumers share via conversations. Through deep integrations with leading technology platforms, revenue teams can turn conversation data into automated action to enhance every digital touchpoint and human interaction, leading to better experiences, more conversions, and higher revenue. Invoca is trusted by top brands like Dish Network, Mayo Clinic, Mutual of Omaha, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, and Truist. Invoca has raised $116M from leading venture capitalists including Accel, Upfront Ventures, H.I.G. Growth Partners, Morgan Stanley, and Salesforce Ventures. For more information, visit www.invoca.com . SOURCE Invoca Related Links http://www.invoca.com [February 25, 2021] Grant Thornton names Beatrix Bernauer as chief risk and compliance officer Grant Thornton (News - Alert) LLP has named Beatrix Bernauer as its chief risk and compliance officer, a new role at the firm. In the role, she will design and execute the firm's enterprise-risk management program and practices, including frameworks and methodologies to support effective risk identification, assessment, mitigation and monitoring. Bernauer, a principal in the firm, has served as Grant Thornton's chief compliance officer for the past three years - establishing standards, policies and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, as well as the firm's own requirements. She has also led the firm's data-privacy program and sustainability-reporting program. In her new role, she will continue to oversee these important areas and also retain her responsibilities as deputy general counsel at the firm. "In the face of ever-increasing risks, companies need leaders who can deliver enhanced enterprise-risk models enabled by technology," says Brad Preber, CEO of Grant Thornton. "Beatrix is the perfect person to do that at our firm: She possesses tremendous subject-matter knowledge, collaborative leadership skills and a deep understanding of Grant Thornton's business." > Bernauer is a licensed attorney in Illinois and registered as in-house counsel in California. She is also CIPP certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She received a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago and a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University. About Grant Thornton LLP Founded in Chicago in 1924, Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading organizations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Grant Thornton, which has revenues of $1.92 billion and operates more than 50 offices, works with a broad range of dynamic publicly and privately held companies, government agencies, financial institutions, and civic and religious organizations. "Grant Thornton" refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another's acts or omissions. Please see grantthornton.com for further details. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005678/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Good morning, Bay Area. Its Thursday, Feb. 25, and three counties are cutting off vaccine supply to a concierge medical service accused of letting people skip the line. Heres what you need to know to start your day. Wylie Wong, a writer in San Jose, encountered a man repeatedly singing racist comments in front of him while he was shopping. Filipino nurse Kyle Navarro said a man spat in his direction and yelled a racial slur when he was locking up his bike outside a San Francisco post office. Judy Lee, who works for the city of San Francisco, was called a racist slur as she left a grocery store. These are just a few of a recent surge of hateful comments and attacks against Asian Americans in the Bay Area. Asian residents say the hostility isnt new, but the sharp increase has put a simmering problem in stark relief. Our lives have been upended by the coronavirus, and now theres the added element of having to worry about our personal safety, Wong said. I just felt like we were more enlightened here, but of course thats not the case. Janelle Bitker reports on what some residents are doing about the rise in attacks and the echoes of history in the hate. Coronavirus Updates Stephen Lam / The Chronicle Early studies show the coronavirus variant thats spreading widely across California is somewhat resistant to antibodies that fight off infection, but the vaccines still should offer plenty of protection, infectious disease experts say. As U.S. regulators review the coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, Bay Area health officials hope the single-dose shot which could arrive next week will speed up vaccinations and help inoculate hard-to-reach populations, including homeless people. 3 Bay Area counties halt COVID vaccine supply to One Medical, saying it let people cut the line. Meanwhile, Walgreens and CVS to offer more vaccine appointments this week and in San Francisco, teachers and grocery store workers are now eligible for a vaccine. S.F. will offer struggling residents $500 in stimulus help. Here's how to get it. Despite pandemic nosedive, S.F.'s rental prices still highest in nation, report shows. Around the Bay Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Precious metals: Catalytic converter thefts are surging across the Bay Area. The thieves rarely get caught. More: What catalytic converters do and why Bay Area thieves are stealing them. Transit infrastructure and expansion: BART, Muni, Caltrain would be big winners in Democrats' COVID stimulus bill. This platter of bad choices: Virgil's Sea Room permanently closes, the latest loss among S.F.'s endangered queer bars. Deadly hit-and-run, shootings: Mayor London Breed, D.A. Chesa Boudin and S.F. police unveil new public safety push. The changes come in the wake of several high-profile violent cases in which officials admitted that the police, the District Attorneys Office and the state parole system didnt work together well. A little shaken: About all these recent little earthquakes in the Bay Area should we be worried? It was a geek paradise Ted S. Warren / Associated Press The long-suspected and finally confirmed permanent closure of Frys Electronics on Wednesday loosed a torrent of nostalgia from tech types who recalled frequenting the quirky, themed stores during their heyday, before the one-two punch of the internet and the pandemic knocked the business off the pedestal of retail geekdom. Chase DiFeliciantonio reports on how Bay Area residents are fondly and not so fondly recalling time spent at the locally founded chain. Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown, Anna Buchmann and Kellie Hwang and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writers at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com, anna.buchmann@sfchronicle.com, and kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com. While being treated at the hospital, Danzler told Chicago police detectives he did not see the shooter. But the next day, according to federal prosecutors, he received a telephone call from the suspected killer himself. During the call, the gunman, identified only as Individual A, taunted Danzler, telling him, he was fast, unlike the other guys, according to prosecutors. LONDON, United Kingdom, February 22, 2021 PANGEA-RISK https://www.pangea-risk.com/ published a special report on GHANA: EAST MEETS WEST FOR CLEANER AND MORE RELIABLE GAS SUPPLY, which examines gass position in the countrys energy mix. While Ghana has the ability to produce decent amounts of natural gas, the infrastructure for supplying gas produced in Ghanas offshore blocks in the west to the industrial east is not fit for purpose, making domestic gas For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. LONG BEACH, Calf., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With 30 percent of the U.S. population still admitting they won't or may not get the vaccine, physicians across the country are joining forces in a viral video initiative inciting Americans to "roll up our sleeves together" and help stop the spread of COVID-19. Feeling a duty to their patients -- and fellow Americans in general -- physicians representing more than 50 communities from Syracuse, New York, to Honolulu, Hawaii, created the "Roll up Our Sleeves" website and video campaign to educate those who are expressing doubt or opposition and urge everyone that "it's time" to get vaccinated and help stop the spread of COVID-19. Already, COVID-19 has taken the lives of 500,000 Americans and over two million people worldwide. Despite this staggering and growing number, a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research shows about one in three Americans definitely or probably will not get a vaccine. "As physicians, we are deeply concerned about continued vaccine hesitancy across the country," says Ben Kornitzer, M.D., Chief Medical and Quality Officer for agilon health, an organization that champions the roles of independent physician practices. "While we encourage all patients to get vaccinated, we feel compelled to do something on a larger scale to urge patients to create herd immunity, which ultimately will stop the infection and help save lives." 'Herd immunity,' or 'population immunity,' happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through the previous infection. The World Health Organization recommends creating herd immunity by vaccination. Anthony D. Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Advisor to the Biden Administration, reports that 70 to 85 percent of the U.S. population would have to be vaccinated in order to obtain herd immunity. The "Roll Up Our Sleeves" campaign is a combined effort of primary care physicians representing more than 50 independent physician practices across the country and agilon health. Their goal is to combat the doubt felt by an alarming percentage of Americans who say they have no plans to get vaccinated. Reasons for the opposition are varied, ranging from concerns about safety and effectiveness to the belief that the vaccine has not been thoroughly tested. For people of color, who have made up nearly 60 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., the message is especially urgent. According to research released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 35 percent of black Americans have expressed hesitancy towards getting vaccinated. The "Roll Up Our Sleeves" video highlights the effectiveness of vaccinations over the past century, such as polio, mumps, and measle vaccines, which have wiped out infections and drastically reduced mortality rates. The website contains information about the effectiveness of the vaccine, side effects, phases of eligibility, tips about how to sign up for vaccines, and resources for healthcare professionals. About agilon health agilon health is transforming healthcare by empowering community-based physicians with the resources and expertise they need to innovate the payment and delivery of care for seniors. agilon health enables physicians to create their own Medicare-centric globally capitated line of business. The agilon health Total Care Model is powered by our purpose-built platform and enabled through a growing national network of like-minded physician partners. With agilon health, physicians are freed from the constraints of the transactional fee-for-service reimbursement model and are able to practice team-based, coordinated care to serve the individual needs of their senior patients and to transition to a sustainable and predictable, long-term business model. The rapidly growing appeal of the agilon health platform, the partnership model, and the network of leading community-based physicians has allowed us to expand to 50 local communities with 11 anchor physician groups, as well as a network of physicians across Hawaii, in fewer than five years. Visit www.agilonhealth.com. SOURCE agilon health In testimony to the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday, Bank of England (BoE) Governor Bailey warned that attempts to pull Euro derivatives clearing to the EU from London would pose a threat to financial stability. He also warned that any under-hand measures to force business away from the City would be resisted very strongly by the BoE and UK authorities. The Pound Sterling has not been affected significantly by the more aggressive rhetoric, although the Euro-to-Pound (EUR/GBP) exchange rate has recovered from 12-month lows to trade around 0.8630 and there will be a longer-term impact if the City does lose ground in the global market. EU asks investment banks to justify London clearing The EU has granted EU banks temporary access to UK-based clearing houses (CCPs) to settle Euro derivatives in order to maintain financial stability, but the temporary access will expire in mid-2022 Brussels has made clear that it expects European banks to reduce their exposures to the UK and wants them to move their euro-denominated trades into the bloc by mid-2022, when the current permit, known as equivalence, expires. The UK and the EU are aiming to reach an agreement on cooperation over financial services regulation by March, but the timetable is set to slip. Bailey told the committee that Brussels will hold talks with investment banks to identify possible technical issues that could hinder the transfer of euro-denominated contracts to the bloc. A working committee will meet on Friday. Baileys assumption is that the agenda is to find ways to drag market share away from London. According to a Reuters report earlier this week, Europe's top banks have been asked by the European Commission to justify why they should not have to shift clearing of euro-denominated derivatives from London to the EU. The EU questionnaire to banks notes; "The current level of exposure to UK central counterparties (CCPs) raises a number of issues for the EU that should be addressed by a reduction in the EUs exposure to UK CCPs. Governor concerned over fragmentation and stability risks According to Bailey, expiry of the permit would result in about 25% of euro derivatives transferring to the Euro-zone. Bailey expected that around 75% of business would remain in London as investment banks focus on efficiency. "By splitting that pool up the whole process becomes less efficient. To break that down it would increase costs, no question about that." Bailey added that; any erosion of the stability of the clearing system would be a concern. The EU document also attempts to address the fragmentation issue; "Doesnt market fragmentation already exist in clearing without any adverse effect on the market?" Bailey warns strongly against EU punitive action The Governor added; The question of equivalence is not about mandating what non-EU market participants must do outside the bloc and the latest efforts by Brussels were about forced relocation of financial activity. If market forces made it uneconomic for banks to shift clearing, Bailey also looked at the potential for the EU to take other measures to shift volumes to the EU. In this context, Bailey also warned that that the EU would have to resort to other measures to force a shift in clearing. To get that by fiat would require something very controversial such as an attempt at extraterritorial legislation, or an attempt to force or cajole banks and dealers to say there will be some other penalty for you unless you move this clearing activity into the Eurozone. He added; That seems to be where debate is heading and would be a very serious escalation of the issue. "It would be very controversial in my view, because legislating extra-territorially is controversial anyway and obviously of dubious legality, frankly. Bailey added; That would be something we would have to resist very firmly. Brexit debate revisited In echoes of the wider Brexit debate, Bailey said he would prefer a deal, but; theres a point beyond which the deal is not worth having. The medium-term outlook for the City of London will be very important for the Pound Sterling value. Standard Chartered warned over the medium-term risks; We think the most important drivers for the GBP in 2021 will be productivity (the slow drain out of the City of London hurts overall UK productivity potential as highly productive finance is replaced with other less productive sectors. It adds; "Our view that GBP gains are capped for now is consistent with our estimate that Brexit has lowered the GBPs fair value by around 7%. Bank of America had thought that Brexit-related issues would have had a larger impact on the pound; This clearly has not been the case but think at some point it will matter particularly through the lens of productivity, trend growth and labour supply. Plans to blow up the U.S. Capitol during President Bidens yet-to-be scheduled State of the Union address in hopes of killing as many members of Congress as possible remains a credible threat, a top security official told lawmakers on Thursday. Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman made the disturbing revelation in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee while justifying the need for keeping strict security measures in place at the Capitol in the wake of the deadly pro-Trump attack on Jan. 6. We know members of the militia groups that were present on Jan. 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union, said Pittman, who took over as chief after her predecessor, Steven Sund, resigned in the immediate aftermath of the assault on the Capitol. Pittman said intelligence agents, likely from the FBI, have come across the threats of mass violence in chatter on encrypted internet forums, underscoring that the prospect of more far-right attacks is of key concern to U.S. law enforcement agencies. Biden was initially expected to deliver his first State of the Union address in February. However, that prospect now appears unlikely, and the White House has not set a date for the annual speech yet. As part of her testimony, Pittman also shed new light on the communication breakdown between congressional security officials on Jan. 6. Sund testified earlier this week that he asked the since-resigned House and Senate sergeants-at-arms to call in National Guard assistance around 1 p.m. on Jan. 6, as the pro-Trump mob began attacking the Capitol. Pittman said she had pulled Sunds phone records and that they confirmed he spoke with former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving at 12:58 p.m. and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger at 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6. Still, Irving claimed in testimony this week that he didnt speak to Sund until after 2 p.m., at which point the rioters had already breached the building. It took several more hours before National Guard troops finally responded to the Capitol attack, which left a police officer and four others dead. Despite the security failures, Pittman said law enforcement agencies did not receive any intelligence before Jan. 6 forewarning of the attack. Although we knew the likelihood for violence by extremists, no credible threat indicated that tens of thousands would attack the U.S. Capitol, nor did the intelligence received from the FBI or any other law enforcement partner indicate such a threat, Pittman said. ___ (c)2021 New York Daily News Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Highlighting the need for an appropriate institutional mechanism for digital media and OTT platforms, the government has issued a digital media ethics code that will be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This Code of Ethics prescribes the guidelines to be followed by OTT platforms and online news and digital media entities. To start with, OTT platforms, also called the publishers of online curated content in the rules, would have to self-classify the content into five age-based categories- U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as "A". The publisher of online curated content shall prominently display the classification rating specific to each content or programme together with a content descriptor informing the user about the nature of the content, and advising on viewer description (if applicable) at the beginning of every programme enabling the user to make an informed decision, before watching the programme. On the other hand, publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act thereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media. A three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been established under the rules with different levels of self-regulation. Level-I will be self-regulation by the publishers; level II - self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers; and level III will be an oversight mechanism. Publisher shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer based in India who shall be responsible for the redressal of grievances received by it. The officer shall decide on every grievance receives within 15 days. There may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body shall be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminent person and have not more than six members. Such a body will have to register with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and will oversee the adherence by the publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that have not be been resolved by the publisher within 15 days. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shall formulate an oversight mechanism. It shall publish a charter for self-regulating bodies, including Codes of Practices. It shall establish an Inter-Departmental Committee for hearing grievances. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting held consultations in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai over the last one and half years wherein OTT players have been urged to develop "self-regulatory mechanism". The Government also studied the models in other countries including Singapore, Australia, EU and UK and has gathered that most of them either have an institutional mechanism to regulate digital content or are in the process of setting-up one. Also read: Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, other OTT platforms now in govt tightrope Also read: New policy for social media, OTT platforms: Key highlights Also read: Govt announces new guidelines for social media, aims to track down first originator of mischievous content France's former ambassador to Britain has launched a scathing attack on Boris Johnson and Brexiteers, branding the Prime minister an 'inveterate liar'. Sylvie Bermann has also taken aim at hardline eurosceptics for 'peddling the myth' that Britain liberated Europe from Nazi rule in the Second World War all by itself. In a new book, Ms Bermann, who was ambassador from 2014 to 2017, saved her most savage language for Mr Johnson, saying he is a man who uses 'lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.' She also claimed Mr Johnson would be tempted to 'hide the bill for Brexit under the Covid carpet'. Writing in Goodbye Britainnia she also attacks the 'partisans of Brexit' who do not allow millions of war dead in other allied countries like Russia to 'disturb the discourse of the Brexiters who peddle the myth that the UK liberated Europe alone and needs no one'. While France does owe Britain for its help during the war, she added: 'It is right to remember that they were not alone and you cannot live with a history that stopped in June 1944'. Downing Street declined to respond to the comments about Mr Johnson today. In a new book, Ms Bermann, who was ambassador from 2014 to 2017, saved her most savage language for Mr Johnson, saying he is a man who uses 'lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.' She also claimed Mr Johnson (pictured together in 2016) would be tempted to 'hide the bill for Brexit under the Covid carpet'. Speaking at an event at the Rusi think tank last night, Ms Berman defended calling Mr Johnson a liar. He would not object to being called that. He knows he is a liar. He has always played with that. He was fired from his first post for that reason,' she said, according to the Guardian. Ms Berman left her UK post in 2017 to become the French ambassador to Russia. She was previously her nation's envoy to China. Her attack came as a former senior Tory minister claimed that the party is no longer a place for pro-Europeans. Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, pictured, said the Conservative Party is no longer a place for pro-Europeans as anyone seeking to run for the party has to show 'real Brexit enthusiasm' Ex-home secretary Amber Rudd, a Remain supporter, said that those hoping to be selected as a candidate for MP had to show real Brexit enthusiasm. She resigned the Conservative whip after Boris Johnson sacked 21 of her colleagues who tried to stop a no-deal Brexit. She did not stand again as an MP in 2019. She said on ITV yesterday: The Conservative Party used to be a place where you could have pro and anti-Europeans, not always in harmony, but it was a home for both. Now there is no place for pro-European Conservatives. Thats a loss because I think theres a legitimate Conservative position which is pro-European, not trying to get back into the EU, but fundamentally pro-European. Those people are not going to be part of the MP selection process in the future. Hundreds of Oregonians will have upcoming second-dose vaccination appointments at the Oregon Convention Center canceled and rescheduled, hospital officials announced Wednesday, so the vaccination site can move to a larger and more accessible location within the sprawling complex. Appointments scheduled for Sunday and Monday will be canceled and rescheduled. Vaccinations will resume Tuesday in the centers Exhibit Hall, which is located next to the entrance from the parking garage and makes for a shorter walk. Organizers of the clinic, which had been housed in the centers Oregon Ballroom, said the new location will allow them to better meet the needs of special populations, including elderly residents. Tamara Hargens-Bradley, a spokeswoman for the four hospital systems operating two mass vaccination sites in Portland, said 200 appointments for second doses have to be canceled and rescheduled. People with appointments will be rescheduled to receive shots Wednesday through March 8. Hargens-Bradley said the move to a new location within the convention center had been planned and is not a result of seeing a 15% reduction in doses this week. Hargens-Bradley said organizers pulled back on scheduling first-dose appointments for Sunday and Monday in anticipation of the move. Organizers in recent days have averaged 5,700 appointments a day, she said. This marks the second time this month that appointments at the convention center have been canceled and rescheduled. Operators closed the facility Feb. 12 through Feb. 14 because of snow and ice. That winter storm also shut down the other mass vaccination clinic at Portland International Airport. More than 858,000 doses of the vaccine have now been administered statewide, with nearly 295,000 people fully vaccinated. -- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt (Natural News) The power grid in Texas was just seconds and minutes away from a disastrous failure that could have resulted in months of total blackout, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said Thursday, Feb. 18. ERCOT, which manages 90 percent of the power grid Texas uses, received intense criticism from state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, for leaving some four million residents without power during a severe winter storm. But ERCOT President Bill Magness insisted that the situation could have been much worse. With Texas nearing its worst-case scenario, Magness said they had to order transmission companies to quickly reduce power. According to a report from The Texas Tribune, ERCOT had to make the quick decision to employ what was intended to be rolling blackouts given the energy that was dropping off the grid. It needed to be addressed immediately, Magness told the newspaper. He also said Texas would have suffered months-long blackouts had they not enforced the rolling outages. Had they not taken that action, Magness claimed state officials would instead be talking about when the entire power grid would be repaired. However, Magness conceded that the rolling power outages did not work as planned simply because the power demand was so large. Transmission providers had difficulty rotating power among millions of Texans. Previously, Magness insisted that the council did not underestimate the gravity of the situation and that it took many steps to prepare beforehand. In a Friday news conference, Magness mentioned that they have legislative and council board meetings set up for next week to address the issues they faced over the past week. Nonetheless, Abbott is firmly determined to reform the council. At a press conference on Thursday, he blamed the outages squarely on ERCOT. He said they havent been reliable for the past 48 hours. The Republican governor has called to reform the council and declared the issue an emergency item for state legislators in the current session. The declaration would allow the Legislature to approve bills on the topic during the first 60 days of the current session, which started on Jan. 12. Legislators would be reviewing the preparations and decisions by ERCOT to get a clear picture of the cause of the power crisis. Furthermore, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has opened an inquiry into the outages. The agency said it will investigate along with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an international regulatory authority based in Atlanta, Georgia. Millions of Texans left without clean water after storm A water crisis also gripped Texas as the winter weather sent water service providers scrambling to ration supplies. The record-low temperatures had caused frozen wells, cracked water pipes and burst water infrastructures. Hospitals in some hard-hit areas even ran out of water and had to transfer patients elsewhere. Texans also had to boil water to make it safe for drinking because water treatment plants were knocked offline. In Houston, officials set up a mass distribution of bottled water at Delmar Stadium for those in need of potable water. (Related: Clean water graphene breakthrough could allow millions to drink filtered seawater.) Follow Power.news for updates on the ongoing power crisis in Texas. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com 1 TheEpochTimes.com 2 CBSNews.com Insider.com House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress has no further plans to punish former President Donald Trump after he was acquitted on impeachment charges by the Senate earlier this month. 'He's gone,' she told reporters Thursday at her weekly press conference. 'What we need is the truth. And that's what we want to find out.' She then lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Wednesday that an investigation into the January 6 insurrection should include a look at broader political violence, which would allow Republicans to point fingers at Black Lives Matter and Antifa. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would not take additional steps to punish former President Donald Trump. 'He's gone,' she said during her weekly press conference on Thursday Pelosi said that Congress would not pursue additional action against former President Donald Trump (left), and then lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) for indicating that a 9/11 style commission looking into January 6 should probe 'political violence' allowing for the inclusion of Black Lives Matter and Antifa 'We could do something narrow that looks at the Capitol, or we could potentially do something broader to analyze the full scope of the political violence problem in this country,' McConnell said. 'We cannot land at some artificial, politicized halfway point.' Pelosi read a portion of McConnell's comments during her press conference. 'It was really quite stunning because in my brief conversation with him on this subject, I had the impression that he wanted to have a January 6, similar to 9/11, commission, but what he said on the floor was really a departure from that,' Pelosi remarked. 'It seemed when he spoke that he was taking a page out of the book of Sen. Johnson. It was really disappointing,' she added. During a Tuesday Senate hearing on the insurrection, Sen. Ron Johnson suggested the violent factions of the crowd were not supporters of President Donald Trump but 'agents provocateur' and also floated that the police had attacked the mostly jovial crowd. Pelosi accidentally called him 'Don Johnson,' asking reporters the Wisconsin Republican's first name. 'Not Miami vice or anything like that,' she laughed when told it was Ron Johnson and not 'Don.' 'Ron Johnson seems to be taking the lead on what the scope would be of how we look at protecting our country from domestic terrorism,' she then said. Pelosi was also asked about the make-up of the commission, as her proposal has House and Senate leadership from both parties picking two members each and then the president, Democrat Joe Biden, picking three individuals including the chair. This could lead to it being lopsided politically - with just four Republicans and seven Democrats. Pelosi countered that the number could be 'easily negotiated.' And she said Biden and Congressional leaders have the option of picking independents. 'The point is the scope,' she argued. 'If you don't know your why, if you don't know your purpose ... then the rest of it is not the important part of the conversation,' Pelosi said. The House speaker argued, 'we have a domestic terrorism challenge in this country.' 'The biggest buckets under that category of domestic violence were white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and the other list of xenophobia, Islamophobia, etc.,' she said. Wego, a leading online travel marketplace in Mena has entered a partnership with Tourism Authority of Thailand to invite travellers to visit the country as soon as the restrictions are eased and borders gradually open to all. GCC remains one of the most valuable inbound markets to Thailand. The country is considered one of the safest destinations to visit during Covid-19. It has been ranked fourth out of 98 countries worldwide for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic in a poll conducted by a prominent Australian-based academic think tank. Thailand is planning to safely and slowly reopen welcoming international travellers to the country with special tourist initiatives, while also remaining vigilant by enforcing strict public health guidelines to protect all during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The new campaign is poised to enhance awareness of Thailands leading tourism destinations including Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Surat Thani, keeping Thailand foremost in travellers thoughts. It sheds the light on the many exciting experiences and iconic landmarks to be seen in Thailand, allowing travellers to enjoy the best Thai tourist attractions and discover each one's history. Wego will provide the ultimate destination guide to its MENA travellers across its diverse targeted marketing channels. Pichaya Saisaengchan, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand for Dubai and the Middle East, commented: Thailand has taken strides in taking the necessary precautions to safely reopen its borders and we cant wait to welcome visitors from the region back to our shores. The Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA) certificate has enabled us to elevate the travel and tourism industry standards of the Kingdom and develop confidence among international and domestic travellers. Thailand radiates beauty and has so much to offer - from nature and beaches to food and culture along with mesmerizing island escapes. We want to convey to travellers from the region to Get Ready for Amazing Thailand 2021 and encourage Arab Millennials and travellers from the Middle East to engage with local communities by discovering off-the-beaten path regions such as Kanchanaburi, Trat and Phang-Nga, in addition to exploring the stunning plains and hills of the Golden Triangle and the white sand beaches of Phuket and Samui. Thailand provides the best of everything, from beaches, food, nature and culture along with the mesmerizing island escapes. In addition to the stunning plains and hills of the Golden Triangle to the wave-lapped white sand beaches of Phuket and Samui. The country radiates beauty and has so much to offer that one visit is never enough. Mamoun Hmedan, Managing Director, Mena and India, Wego, said: Thailand remains one of the top destinations for GCC travellers. Partnering with the Tourism Authority of Thailand gives us the opportunity to promote this marvellous destination to our large audience in the Mena region. We look forward to forging a long-lasting partnership which will benefit both Wego travellers and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. According to a study conducted by Germany-based travel company Tourane in August 2020, Thailand topped the list of the worlds safest destinations to visit during the Covid-19 pandemic. TradeArabia News Service The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the worlds largest trade pact, offers Vietnamese agricultural exporters an excellent opportunity to increase their participation in global value chains, experts said. Le Duy Minh, chairman of the Vietnam Farms and Agricultural Enterprises Association, said the RCEP provides the countrys farm produce with access to a larger market and opportunity to improve their competitiveness. The trade deal brings together the 10 ASEAN member countries, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, which account for 29 per cent of the worlds GDP and have a population of 2.2 billion. The trade pact promises to help increase Vietnams exports since many of the other members have huge demand for its farm produce and processed foods. Thanks to the harmonisation of rules of origin between the members, Vietnams exports could meet all the requirements to benefit from preferential tariffs in countries like Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, Minh said. These countries also have relatively similar import standards and consumer tastes, not to mention the lower transportation and logistics costs they offer thanks to their proximity. It also opens new opportunities for trade with China in new categories such as communications, financial services, logistics, and e-commerce. Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said the trade deal would further increase the countrys agricultural exports to China, already a major market. The RCEP removes tariffs on at least 64 per cent of tariff lines. In 15-20 years Vietnam will abolish 89.6 per cent of tariff lines while its partner countries will remove 92 per cent of its tariffs. Other ASEAN members will remove 85.9 per cent of all tariffs for Vietnam. Nguyen Dinh Tung, the general director of Vina T&T Company, said the RCEP was enabling talks on opening up export markets to more of the countrys agricultural products. Commitments and trade facilitation measures under the deal are also expected to promote the growth of new supply chains, thus boosting international standard agricultural production in ASEAN. However, experts also pointed to a host of challenges such as satisfying rules of origin and quality standards and competition from foreign rivals in both the domestic and foreign markets. Tung said businesses should view free trade deals, including the RCEP, as a chance to improve their product quality, bolster supply chain management and promote competitiveness. VNS Grass pollen grains under light microscope Credit: A. Menzel and Y. Yuan, Technical University of Munich Allergy sufferers are no strangers to problems with pollen. But now, due to climate change, the pollen season is lasting longer and starting earlier than ever before, meaning more days of itchy eyes and runny noses. Warmer temperatures cause flowers to bloom earlier, while higher CO 2 levels cause more pollen to be produced. The effects of climate change on the pollen season have been studied at length, and according to some scientists, pollen season has grown by as much as 20 days in the past 30 years, at least in the U.S. and Canada. But one important element is often overlooked"Pollen is meant to fly," says Dr. Annette Menzel, professor of ecoclimatology at the Technical University of Munich. "Transport phenomena have to be taken into account." Along with her colleagues, she studied the transport of pollen in Bavaria, Germany, in order to better understand how the pollen season has changed over time. "The transport of pollen has important implications for the length, timing, and severity of the allergenic pollen season," says Dr. Ye Yuan, a coauthor on the study. Menzel and her team focused on Bavariaa state in southeast Germanyand used six pollen monitoring stations scattered around the region to analyze data. Their results were recently published in Frontiers in Allergy. They found that certain species of pollen, such as from hazel shrubs and alder trees, advanced the start of their seasons by up to two days per year over a period of 30 years between 1987 and 2017. Other species, which tend to bloom later in the year, such as birch and ash trees, moved their seasons 0.5 days earlier on average each year across that same time period. Trap for measuring abundances of windborne pollen Credit: A. Menzel and Y. Yuan, Technical University of Munich Pollen can travel hundreds of kilometers, and with changing weather patterns and altered species distributions, it's possible that people are becoming exposed to "new" pollen speciesmeaning pollen that our immune systems are unaccustomed to encountering each year. While it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between local and transported pollen, the researchers focused on pre-season transports. So, for example, if pollen from birch trees was present at the monitoring station, but local birch trees would not flower for at least another 10 days, that pollen was considered to be transported from far away. "We were surprised that pre-season pollen transport is a quite common phenomenon, being observed in two-thirds of the cases," says Menzel. As for why it's important to understand how much pollen is from far away, Yuan says, "Especially for light-weight allergenic [pollen], long-distance transport could seriously influence local human health." Perennial perenne, whose pollen is an important cause of allergic rhinitis Credit: A. Menzel and Y. Yuan, Technical University of Munich By examining another element besides simple pollen concentration, scientists can delve deeper into exactly how the pollen season is being affected by climate change. For example, Menzel says that the pollen season may be even longer than estimated based on flowering observations by "taking into account pollen transport, as it has been done in our current study." While the Munich study did not track how far pollen was transported, and only differentiated between local and long-range transport (meaning pollen coming from outside Bavaria), it provides a crucial key in the understanding of annual pollen patterns. Yuan says that future studies should account for "climate change scenarios [and] land use/land cover changes." He also adds that citizen scientists may be able to contribute to pollen studies, collecting local observations and contributing to data collection. It doesn't look like the pollen season will shorten any time soon, but more research on the subject can provide a better understanding of global patterns and changes so that researchers can better address these issues in the future. More information: Annette Menzel et al, A First Pre-season Pollen Transport Climatology to Bavaria, Germany, Frontiers in Allergy (2021). Annette Menzel et al, A First Pre-season Pollen Transport Climatology to Bavaria, Germany,(2021). DOI: 10.3389/falgy.2021.627863 Gettyimagesbank A Singaporean woman has admitted to starving, assaulting and ultimately killing her domestic worker from Myanmar in what prosecutors called one of the worst cases of maid abuse in the city-state. The affluent financial hub is home to about 250,000 domestic workers who mostly come from poorer Asian countries, and stories of mistreatment are common. But the abuse meted out against Piang Ngaih Don was particularly awful, with the helper stamped on, strangled, choked, battered with brooms, and burnt with an iron. Gaiyathiri Murugayan, 40, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to 28 charges including culpable homicide against the 24-year-old maid. She will be sentenced at a later date, and could be jailed for life. "That one human being would treat another in this evil and utterly inhumane manner is cause for the righteous anger of the court; and the law must come down with full force", prosecutors said. The maid was employed by Gaiyathiri and her husband, a police officer, in 2015 to help take care of their four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. But she physically assaulted the victim almost daily, often several times a day, with her 61-year-old mother sometimes joining in, according to court documents seen by AFP. The domestic worker finally died in July 2016 after Gaiyathiri repeatedly assaulted her over several hours. Piang Ngaih Don, who had worked for the family for over a year at the time of her death, was provided with very little food, and was forced to shower and relieve herself with the door open. Only allowed to sleep for five hours a night, she lost about 38 percent of her body weight during her employment, and only weighed 24 kilogrammes (52 pounds) at the time of her death. The prosecution sought a reduced charge of culpable homicide rather than murder punishable with the death penalty in Singapore after taking into account that Gaiyathiri suffered from illnesses including depression. Her husband is also facing multiple charges over the case, police confirmed. (AFP) (Newser) New York City is no longer an "anarchist" place in the eyes of the federal government after President Biden rescinded an order from his predecessor. The September order from former President Trump directed federal agencies to review grants and funds for Democratic-run cities "permitting anarchy, violence and destruction" following protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, per the New York Daily News. The Justice Department later identified three "anarchist jurisdictions": New York City, Seattle, and Portland, Ore. Those cities responded by suing the Trump administration. story continues below The White House announced the order was rescinded late Wednesday, shortly after a reporter asked press secretary Jen Psaki about Biden's plans for the order. "We, of course, are reviewing a range of policies and charting our own path," Psaki said. Seattle city attorney Pete Holmes tells the AP that he's "glad to have this nonsense cleared from the decks." Because Congress controls most spending by federal agencies, the designation was seen as "toothless" anyway, per the Daily News. Biden on Wednesday also scrapped Trump orders requiring that federal buildings be built in the classical style and increasing work requirements for some welfare recipients. (Read more President Biden stories.) The logo of VietinBank seen at a branch in Hanoi. Photo by Shutterstock/TK Kurikawa. Nine Vietnamese lenders, five of them state-owned, have risen up the list of the worlds 500 most valuable banking brands. State-owned Agribank, one of the Big 4 state-owned lenders, jumped 17 places to 173th in the annual ranking put out by U.K. consultancy Brand Finance. Fellow state-owned lenders Vietcombank and VietinBank rose 27 and 61 spots to 180th and 216th. BIDV was at 246th and MB at 374th, up 30 and 12 spots. Of the private lenders, VP Bank rose 37 places to 243rd and the countrys private player, Techcombank, jumped 57 spots to 270th. Sacombank and ACB rose 30 and 23 places to 392nd and 397th. The report said VietinBank was one of 10 fastest growing banks globally last year. "Vietnams banking sector has seen the greatest year-on-year brand value growth of any nation in the rankings with 23 percent," the consultancy said. "Vietnams ability to effectively control and constrain Covid-19 has allowed it to buck the sector-wide trend of declining brand value. "Internal reforms have strengthened accountability in the Vietnamese financial sector, which has had the knock-on effect of boosting not just revenues, but brand reputation and trust." Vietnams banking sector has recorded cumulative brand value growth of 753 percent in the last five years, the second highest rate in the rankings. "Since the Vietnamese government introduced its strategy to boost accountability and the strength of the banking sector, including more stringent capital requirements and greater transparency, customer perception has improved," Brand Finance said. China's ICBC was the world's top bank brand. Chinese banks maintained their dominance in the rankings, accounting for 33 per cent of total brand value and seven of the 10 top climbers. Alhaji Yusufu, a 68-year old businessman, said happiness is to him seeing his grandchildren around him. Every evening as dusk sets in, Mr Yusufu sits under a tree in front of his house, listening to the radio and looking at his kids as they play or run errands for their mothers. On Tuesday, February 23, at about 5.30 p.m., the grandfather saw five of his grandchildren dashing towards the streets public water point, each carrying a bucket. It was his last sight of them alive. They usually run such errands like fetching water from the public tap, for their mothers in the evenings, Mr Yusufu said. I saw them leave the house in a group to fetch water at the tap. No sooner had they left than we heard a deafening explosion. After the storm had settled, we rushed to the scene, and my heart sank when I noticed five of my grandchildren were affected. Three were wriggling in pains, while two were lifeless. It was a sad episode in my life, but what can I do? No one questions God. Mr Yusufu said the five were between the ages of nine and three years. They were among the nine children killed by mortar bombs fired into Maiduguri by Boko Haram terrorists on Tuesday evening. The parents, just like Mr Yusufu, shared their painful experiences in the last hours of their kids. On Tuesday, Boko Haram fighters attacked the Borno State capital from the eastern flank. They fired about a dozen rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) into crowded neighbourhoods during the attack. About sixty civilians, mostly children, were hit by the motorised explosives, with ten of them, including nine children, killed. The other was a man in his late 40s hit by a mortar inside his home where he was reading the Quran. Most of the deaths were caused by the mortar bombs that landed in the Gwange ward of Maiduguri. On Wednesday morning, Governor, Babagana Zulum led hundreds of mourners to join the parents of the slain kids at mass funerals in Gwange and Adamkolo wards of Maiduguri. When PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited Gwange, the streets were deserted, as adults were seen sitting under trees in front of the homes of the bereaved parents. Telltale signs of the attack were evident in the broken branches of the trees, walls with large holes and vehicles with shattered windscreen. The bomb that landed on Gwonge Laying Bori Street was massive. A dented portion of the earth indicated where it landed before exploding to kill and injure the kids fetching water some 50 metres away. While Mr Yusufu was watching his grandchildren skipping to the public tap, about five kilometres away, the terrorists were plotting to fire the mortar bombs that would soon land in the heart of Gwange, a crowded suburb of Maiduguri. Shetima Badamasi, 51, said his 13 year-old daughter, Hajara, was also killed in the bomb attack. I was in my business place in the market when I was called and told that a bomb landed in our street and it affected many children including my daughter, Hajara, he recalled. The blast opened up her face and shrapnel pierced her chest. She was in primary five; we were hoping that by next year she would complete her primary six and then enroll in secondary school. But God plan for her is the best. And I am happy she was devoted to her prayer and faith in Islam. Hajara was the eldest child of his second wife. ADVERTISEMENT Babagana Mustapha, 35, was also in the market when he received the message that his son, aged five, was hit and killed in the blast. I was not allowed to see my son who was still alive but badly injured when he was being rushed to the hospital. He had multiple fractures and his entire face was mutilated. I saw his corpse at about 8 p.m. when the doctors lost the battle to save his life. We buried him together with other children this morning. Another resident, Ali Husseini, who is in his early 40s, said he also lost his daughter in the bomb attack. It is God that destines everything; and I, being a mortal human, have no powers to question Him, he said. I had to rush down when I received the news of the bombing in our area. Upon my arrival, I was told that my daughters corpse had been recovered from the scene, and my friends insisted I should not go to look at her because it was not a good sight to behold. We later retrieved her corpse from the hospital and brought it home. Initially, I thought the bomb had affected two of my children because we could not account for the other child of mine. But I had to thank God when we later found my son, a younger sibling to the one killed in the blast. My daughter was still in her school uniform at the time she went to fetch water at the tap. She had not pulled off her uniform because she had just returned from school and needed to help fetch water at the public tap. She was eight years old. PREMIUM TIMES could not get some of the parents, especially the women, to speak about their dead children because they had not recovered from their emotional seizure at the time our reporter visited. The Tuesday attack was the first in Maiduguri since the eve of the 2019 general election day when insurgents and soldiers fired long-range munition, some of which landed in IDP camps. Tuesdays attack had stirred fears and concerns amongst the residents of Borno because such attacks pose more threat than suicide bombing. Governor Zulum said the attack is a new trend we have to rise and stop. We experienced a similar incident exactly one year ago. The solution is to deploy an appropriate form of technology, which we will have to work on, the governor said. Sources at Kaleri, a suburb of Maiduguri, said they saw the insurgents firing the mortars from a gun truck. Kaleri to Gwange, where the explosive warheads landed, is about five kilometres. Thomas Hassan, a 17 year-old resident of Kaleri, said, while hiding inside out homes and peeping from the windows, we saw men in black, all armed with AK47. Then suddenly, we heard whistling sounds flying over our rooftops and some seconds later we heard an echoing sound of blast far away. They kept on firing. Some of the soldiers guarding the parapet ran away. Only one of them stood his ground and kept on firing at the insurgents before some reinforcements later came that finally forced the attackers to flee. An official in Hai Duong, a female teacher in Hai Phong, and other individuals have evaded medical declarations or given false information, violating the regulations on Covid-19 prevention and control. New Covid-19 infection cases have been found in Hai Duong On February 22, the Hai Duong Police commenced criminal proceedings in a case where the defendant is charged of spreading dangerous infectious disease to humans. The defendant is Nguyen Thi Th, born in 1969, residing in Hai Tan Ward of Hai Duong City, a Covid-19 patient. From February 1 to February 15, Th, who was then suspected of having Covid-19, did not make medical declarations and observed the epidemic prevention measures. Her behavior resulted in the spread of the disease to her husband, child and home help. The residing area where Th and these people are living has been put into quarantine. These are complicated infection cases which have caused difficulties in the fight against the pandemic and economic losses. In another case, Hai Phong City Mayor has requested appropriate agencies to impose the heaviest administrative fine on Hoang Thi Th, 55, a teacher at Tran Nguyen Han High School for her dishonest declaration. The teacher has also received the highest discipline level from the local education department and the Le Chan district authorities. If she tests positive for Covid-19, the female teacher will also face prosecution by the Hai Phong Police. Th visited Hai Duong province, the current epicenter, to celebrate Tet holiday, but after returning to Hai Phong, she reported that she had gone to Hanoi. After discovering her false statement, appropriate agencies forced her to the concentrated quarantine area and pay for expenses during the quarantine time. On February 21, chair of Quy Hop district Peoples Committee Nguyen Dinh Tung said the Dong Hop commune authorities have prepared documents to propose an administrative fine of VND15 million on N.T.H, 23 for her behavior of deliberately reporting wrong information about the A-group infectious disease. H is a factory worker in Cam Giang district of Hai Duong province. When returning to Dong Hop commune to celebrate Tet, she said she was from Hung Yen province in an attempt to avoid quarantine. During Tet days, she met a lot of people without necessary prevention measures. On February 18, when the Hai Duong Police sent a list of localities that have citizens returning from Hai Duong, the woman had to admit her dishonest declaration. On February 17, Pham Van Q, an official in Hai Duong province, was fined VND15 million for his behavior of evading health declaration. Q, born in 1980, residing in Ecorivers urban area of Hai Tan ward of Hai Duong City, who met with Ph, an F1 (close contact) in Hai Duong City. Ph later became F0, patient infected with the virus. Though Q realized that he has relation with a Covid-19 patient, he did not report his case to spend quarantine at home under the supervision of medical units. A group of five men on February 20 were fined VND125 million by the Van Don district Peoples Committee in Quang Ninh because they did not observe regulations on medical examination, supervision and treatment when entering and going out of epidemic-hit areas. The men are Bui Vinh H, 19, and Nguyen Duy C, 47, in Cam Pha; Nguyen Ba T, 55; Tran Van H, 51; and Nguyen Ba D, 52 in Hoang Mai County Town of Nghe An province. On February 19, Nguyen Duy C carried 3 Nghe Ans men in his car. Only C met the requirements to enter the district, while the other three were refused. The men then decided to go to a space under the bridge to escape the eyes of the checkpoint. However, they were discovered. Prior to that, Dam Van H, born in 1977 in Thach Khoi ward of Hai Duong City, who was spending concentrated quarantine in Hai Duong province, escaped the quarantine ward and was fined VND20 million. N.T.T, a woman born in 1988 in Tan Quang commune of Bac Giang province, was found going out and streamlining on Facebook. She was fined VND5 million. Pham Ngoc Th and his girlfriend Pham Thi Ngoc M in Hai Duong City had to pay a fine of VND4 million after a kiss in the park on Thanh Nien street of Hai Tan ward in the context of the lockdown in the locality. They did not wear face masks and went out of their houses, though they did not have necessary things and violated the regulation on keeping necessary distance. Also in Hai Duong City, Le Thanh H, born in 1978, was fined o'VND15 million for selling sugarcane juice in Bach Dang Park. Meanwhile, the local authorities had released the decision on prohibiting the selling of goods in public places to prevent the virus from spreading. Many localities have ordered closure of karaoke shops, cafes and discotheques, but the decision has been ignored by many shop owners. B. Ngoc Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 06:08:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, speaks to journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 25, 2021. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Thursday said that diplomacy is about "managing points of differentiation" while making her debut at the world body. (Xinhua/Xie E) UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Thursday said that diplomacy is about "managing points of differentiation" while making her debut at the world body. "Throughout my time representing America all over the world, I found that diplomacy is about showing compassion. It's about managing points of differentiation, and it's about bringing people together," Thomas-Greenfield, who was confirmed to be the top U.S. UN envoy by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York after officially presenting the credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The senior U.S. diplomat, who has been serving as a U.S. diplomat for more than 35 years, underscored that the United Nations is the world's "most important forum for bringing people in countries together." "I take that seriously as a U.S. diplomat," she noted. Thomas-Greenfield said that "we're clear-eyed about the difficult work that needs to be done from elevating human rights to reforming the UN itself, to addressing conflicts, old and new, around the world." The new envoy, who was preceded by Kelly Craft, stressed that she was "particularly" looking forward to U.S. presidency of the Security Council in March. "We're ready to work," she concluded. Enditem A China-Europe freight train bound for Duisburg of Germany prepares for departure at Tuanjiecun Station in southwest China's Chongqing, Jan. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Tang Yi) CHONGQING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's Chongqing Municipality has been approved as a port of entry for imported drugs, making it the only such entry port in west China and the fourth in the Chinese mainland following Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The permission for entry was granted by China's National Medical Products Administration, a city official told a press conference. Previously, imported drugs had to pass through China's eastern ports to arrive in western regions, and it could take up to 40 days or more for the consignments to arrive in Chongqing, said Luo Li, deputy director of the municipal drug administration. However, after the approval, the time is expected to shorten to around 15 days through the China-Europe freight train service, Luo added. The approval will bring more imports of novel drugs through Chongqing and strengthen the competitiveness of the city's pharmaceutical industry, said Yuan Quan, president of Chongqing Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. It will also prompt foreign pharmaceutical magnates to set up projects involving pharmaceutical research and development and clinical trial of drugs in Chongqing to fast-track the development of pharmaceutical industry clusters, Luo said. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. English Spanish Debrichem offers a very effective, alternative approach to chronic wound care, initiating healing in more than 90 % of cases after one application 1 offers a very effective, alternative approach to chronic wound care, initiating healing in more than 90 % of cases after one application CE mark and ISO 13485:2016 certification are important prerequisites for upcoming launches in markets worldwide Chronic wounds affect 1 2 % of developed countries populations, 2 unsuccessful treatment may lead to enlargement of the wound, bone involvement or in the worst case, amputation 3 unsuccessful treatment may lead to enlargement of the wound, bone involvement or in the worst case, amputation Debrichem soon to be launched in Europe, Hong Kong, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DEBx Medical, the Dutch medical technology company revolutionizing the management of chronic wounds, is excited to highlight today the successful completion of the CE conformity assessment procedure for Debrichem. The innovative topical agent offers a superior alternative to surgical debridement, the current standard of care. Debrichem can now carry the CE mark for a medical device class IIb and has also been awarded ISO 13485:2016 certification. These certifications endorse the quality and safety of Debrichem to treat a high unmet medical need and the strength of the DEBx Medical team to achieve this quickly even in such difficult times. DEBx Medical plans first to launch Debrichem in Europe, South Africa as well as Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia through a network of distribution partners; other markets will follow. DEBx Medical has started consultations with the FDA about the pathway to approval earlier this year. Debrichem is a topical desiccant gel for chemical wound debridement used for the treatment of chronic infected and/or necrotic wounds. This novel product desiccates (dehydrates) the biofilm and the pathogens in the wound bed, debriding the biofilm chemically instead of surgically. Surrounding healthy skin is not affected.4 The data underlying the CE mark approval show that, after a one-time 60-second application, more than 90 % of wounds result in full granulation,1 an important step in the healing process.5 Due to its fast action and applicability outside the surgery room, Debrichem can easily be integrated within standard wound care procedures.4 Being granted the CE mark and ISO 13485 certification for Debrichem in less than two years after founding DEBx Medical is an exciting and important milestone. I am proud of our achievements and would like to thank the whole team involved in this huge effort, said Dr. Bertus Quint, founding CEO of DEBx Medical. Chronic wounds are painful and debilitating and patients have very limited options for healing. With Debrichem, we set out to significantly improve this situation which is frustrating for healthcare professionals and patients alike. We believe that Debrichem has the potential to meaningfully improve health outcomes and quality of life for millions of patients worldwide. In my day-to-day work, I experience the patients despair associated with chronic wounds and the doctors frustration with their inability to provide patients long-term healing. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, the situation has been exacerbated: many of our patients are in high-risk groups elderly, diabetic or chronic cardiovascular patients who now cannot go to the hospital for their urgently needed treatment, said David L. Helfet, MD, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College and Hospital for Special Surgery, New York Presbyterian Hospital. The major advantage of Debrichem is that with a relatively simple, quick, one time application it destroys the biofilm. Removing the biofilm is absolute key to get chronic wounds to heal. Debrichem is an important step forward in the management of chronic wounds and will find its place in the standard of care in a very short time. It may even have the potential to become the new gold standard for debridement in chronic wound care. Chronic wounds are defined as wounds that have not healed, at least in part, after 4 to 12 weeks.6 Physiologically, healing of chronic wounds is corrupted, among other factors, by excess inflammation and a recurrent or persistent, if not drug-resistant, microbial infection, often in the biofilm on a wound bed.4 The current gold standard treatment, maintenance surgical debridement, is a painful procedure performed in a sterile environment. Surgical debridement does not reliably initiate healing of the wound but can be part of an extensive wound management program requiring patients to repeatedly come into the hospital. Not surprisingly, general quality of life is impaired in patients with chronic wounds.6 Chronic wounds are estimated to have a prevalence of up to 2 % in the general population.7 The wound etiology has an impact on outcome, arterial ulcers and venous leg ulcers are notoriously difficult to heal. Chronic wounds are also a common comorbidity of diabetes,8 13 % of patients with diabetes in North America to 17 % in Belgium are suffering from chronic wounds.9 The burden of chronic wounds to healthcare systems and society around the world is substantial, exacerbated by the high rate of amputation in especially diabetic patients which is close to 34 % for diabetic foot ulcers.8 In the UK alone, chronic wounds generated costs of GBP 5.6 bn in 2018. The total wound care costs in the UK increased annually by 8 9 % with chronic wounds accounting for the largest share.10 About Debrichem Debrichem is a disruptive new treatment option to address the infection in chronic wounds. The topical agent offers a superior alternative to surgical debridement, the current standard of care. Debrichem has been demonstrated to remove the biofilm and the pathogens from the wound bed that disrupt the onset of the natural healing process. Out of the more than 1.000 patients treated so far, more than 90 % of chronic wounds started to heal after only one treatment with Debrichem.4 The product is applied in a fast and simple, non-invasive procedure. Healthcare professionals should always consider using local anesthetics when applying the treatment. Debrichem can be used outside a surgical environment which can be particularly useful in situations, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, where patients cannot get to hospitals to undergo surgery, avoiding long-term complications like amputation. Debrichem will be sold through a worldwide network of distributors, with the first market launches expected in Q1 2021. About DEBx Medical DEBx Medical B.V. is a Dutch medical technology company dedicated to revolutionizing the management of chronic wounds by enabling their healing, thereby improving the outcomes for millions of patients. DEBx Medical supports doctors and their patients from diagnosis through treatment, follow-up care, and maintenance of a healthy wound bed. The Company focuses its pipeline on targeting pathogens that corrupt wound healing, aiming to deliver affordable and effective treatment approaches that can easily be applied and implemented in daily clinical practice. Debrichem, DEBx Medicals first product, received a CE mark in early 2021 and will be launched in markets around the world. Debrichem offers a disruptive approach to debridement that has been demonstrated to enable healing of chronic wounds in more than 90 % of cases. Contact: DEBx Medical B.V. Anne Marieke Ezendam, Head, Communications ezendam@debx-medical.com Media Relations: MC Services AG Eva Bauer / Dr. Brigitte Keller phone: +49 89 210 228 80 debx-medical@mc-services.eu References 1 Cogo A et al., J Wound Care 2020;29(Sup7b):6364. https://doi.org/10.12968/jowc.2020.29.Sup7b.1 2 Nussbaum SR et al., Value Health 2018;21:2732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2017.07.007 3 Strohal R et al., J Wound Care 2013; 22 (Suppl. 1): S1S52. https://doi.org/10.12968/jowc.2013.22.Sup1.S1 4 Cogo A et al., Wounds 2021;33:1-8. https://www.woundsresearch.com/article/restarting-healing-process-chronic-wounds-using-novel-desiccant-prospective-case-series 5 http://www.shieldhealthcare.com/community/popular/2015/12/18/how-wounds-heal-the-4-main-phases-of-wound-healing/ 6 Olsson M et al., Wound Repair Regen 2019;27(1):114-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/wrr.12683 7 Martinengo L et al., Ann Epidemiol 2019;29:815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2018.10.005 8 McCosker L et al., Int Wound J 2019;16:8495. https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.12996 9 Zhang P et al., Ann Med 2017;49:106116. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2016.1231932 10 Guest JF et al., BMJ Open 2020;10:e045253. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045253 North Korea's former acting ambassador to Kuwait Ryu Hyun-woo has an interview with CNN in January. Captured from CNN By Yi Whan-woo A North Korean official ranking higher than the country's former Acting Ambassador to Kuwait Ryu Hyun-woo, whose defection to South Korea was recently made public, also fled from the same Gulf state in 2017 and defected to the South, according to a reliable source. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source told The Korea Times that the "higher-placed" official was not a diplomat but was in charge of a construction project involving North Korean workers. They were eventually sent back home after Kuwait enforced the 2017 U.N. Security Council sanctions against the Kim Jong-un regime which was using "their" wage remittances to fund its nuclear and missile programs. The source also wondered why the government didn't reveal anything about the earlier defection. The Kuwaiti government maintains a non-interference stance on North Koreans defecting to Seoul via the South Korean Embassy there, respecting their individual right to travel, and considering such defections a matter between the two Koreas. World Institute for North Korea Studies President An Chan-il, also a North Korean defector, told The Korea Times that he "once heard about a bureaucrat in the construction sector, outranking Ryu, defecting from an unidentified Middle Eastern country around 2019." Over the past five years, three senior North Korean diplomats have safely made their way to Seoul, according to public records. They are former Deputy Ambassador to the U.K. Tae Yong-ho who came to the South in 2016, former Acting Ambassador to Italy Jo Song-gil in 2018 and Ryu in 2019. Ryu was also the son-in-law of Jon Il-chun, who once served as the "top banker" of the North Korean leader. More than 30,000 North Korean defectors live in the South. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks with diplomats in North Korea's Embassy in Vietnam, Feb. 26, 2019, ahead of his summit in the country with then U.S. President Donald Trump. Yonhap Ministers at the Department of Agriculture have expressed regret over the decision of the Environmental Pillar to withdraw from the Agri-Food 2030 Strategy committee. In a joint statement this afternoon, Agriculture Minister Charlie Mc Conalogue and Minister of State for Agriculture Pippa Hackett urged the Environmental Pillar which has 32 members including: An Taisce, BirdWatch Ireland; Friends of the Earth; Hedge Laying Association of Ireland; Irish Peatland Conservation Council; Bat Conservation Ireland; Irish Wildlife Trust; and Native Woodland Trust to reconsider it decision. The statement said: "As ministers, we want to express our regret at the decision of the Environmental Pillar to withdraw from the Agri-Food 2030 strategy discussions. We sincerely hope the pillar will reconsider that decision and engage in the process as we believe it has an important role to play in the development of this policy. Agri Food 2030, under the chairmanship of Tom Arnold, will play a huge role in shaping the future direction of our sustainable agri-food sector. That is why it is crucial to have all stakeholders involved. We understand that the process is ongoing, and there is still time for further collaboration. We would urge all sides to recognise that and do all they can to remain engaged, the statement concluded. Failures This morning the Environmental Pillar representative announced its decision to formally withdraw from the Agri-Food Strategy 2030 committee. It is understood that the decision was made due to perceived failures by the committee to align agricultural production policies with environmental protection and legal obligations. The Department of Agriculture's Agri-Food Strategy 2030 a 10-year strategy to replace Food Wise 2025 is due to be published next month. Leading water NGOs have also announced their support of the environmental sectors decision to withdraw from discussions and, in doing so, has also issued further warnings over the impact of intensive agricultural practices on water quality. Support for independence and Nicola Sturgeon's leadership have plummeted in Scotland in the wake of the SNP civil war over Alex Salmond, a new poll reveals today. A majority of Scots still support breaking up the United Kingdom, but its lead fell by 4 per cent to 52 per cent, according to a survey by Ipsos Mori for STV. At the same time, Ms Sturgeon's personal approval rating fell by 16 points to 32 per cent, among the ongoing turmoil involving sex abuse allegations made against her predecessor. The First Minister was told today by one of her own MSPs that she and other senior figures in the party would have to step down if Mr Salmond can show he has been the victim of a 'stitch up'. Mr Salmond was cleared last March of all sexual assault charges and his supporters demanded a full inquiry into the Scottish Government's handling of the scandal. The fallout has seen him and his supporters line up against Ms Sturgeon and her allies, with a knock-on effect on support for the nationalist party. More than a third (36 per cent) of those polled said that the row had made them think less favourably towards the SNP, including more than a fifth of those who voted for the party at the last general election. However, Ms Sturgeon's party still retains the numbers to seal an overall majority at Holyrood elections in May - if the furious argument does not blow any deeper chasms in party ranks. Allegations, discussions, denials and a 'forgotten' key meeting between Sturgeon and Salmond November 2017: Allegations regarding Alex Salmond's behaviour are raised with the SNP by Sky News. Nicola Sturgeon said she spoke to him about this and he 'denied it'. No further action was taken. March 29, 2018: Ms Sturgeon meets Geoff Aberdein - Mr Salmon's chief of staff - in her Scottish parliament office where she has admitted they discussed the possibility of a meeting with Mr Salmond. Ms Sturgeon after initially forgetting about this meeting says there was 'the suggestion that the matter might relate to allegations of a sexual nature'. April 2, 2018: Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond meet at the First Minister's home. According to Ms Sturgeon, this is the first time she heard of the complaints made against him. Despite this, she has insisted that the matters discussed were party business. September 14, 2018: A judicial review is launched after complaints by Mr Salmond over the fairness with how the claims against him were handled. January 8, 2019: The Scottish government conceded defeat in the judicial review a week before it was due to launch. Mr Salmond wins 500,000 in legal fees. The court ruled the probe into Mr Salmond had been unlawful and tainted by apparent bias. January 2019: Ms Sturgeon tells MSPs that Mr Salmond first told her about a probe into him on April 2. March 23, 2020: Alex Salmond is cleared of all sexual assault charges and his supporters demanded a full inquiry into the Scottish Government's handling of the scandal. October 7, 2020: Ms Sturgeon claims she 'forgot' about March 29, 2018, meeting with Mr Aberdein. January 24, 2021: Speaking on the Andrew Marr show, Ms Sturgeon denies misleading the Scottish Parliament after 'forgetting' to tell MSPs about her meeting with Mr Salmond's aide on March 29, 2018. February 2021: The High Court in Edinburgh rules Mr Salmond's evidence claiming his former chief of staff met with Ms Sturgeon on March 28, 2018, to discuss sexual assault allegations against the former first minister can be released. Advertisement Emily Gray, the managing director of Ipsos Mori Scotland, said: 'This latest poll from Ipsos MORI and STV News shows a fall in support for independence, and a corresponding increase in support for staying in the Union though Yes still has a four-point lead over No. 'That's important for Scotland's political parties, since independence is the top issue voters say will help them make up their minds about which party to vote for in May's Holyrood elections. 'At this point the SNP look on course to win a majority of seats, but the next few weeks are set to be challenging for the party, with the Salmond inquiry ongoing and our poll shows that this issue has started to cut through with Scottish voters.' The Salmond row currently centers on a decision to redact part of his long-awaited evidence to a Holyrood committee. Ms Sturgeon yesterday accused Mr Salmond of spreading a 'dangerous conspiracy theory' after her government censored his testimony accusing her of lying to the Scottish Parliament. The First Minister said her former political mentor now preferred 'creating an alternative reality' in which the 'organs of the state... were all part of some wild conspiracy' against him. She also denied having any influence over the Crown Office's decision to request that his statement be redacted as her government faces growing accusations of corruption. Mr Salmond is now understood to have agreed to appear before the inquiry tomorrow after pulling out of yesterday's hearing over fears that the censorship of his testimony would prevent him from accusing Ms Sturgeon of lying. Civil servants have so far refused to explain why they redacted the most explosive 474 words of Mr Salmond's testimony that could force the SNP leader to resign. Politicians said the separation of power between prosecutors, the civil service and the SNP had become 'indistinguishable' and Scotland's public institutions were allowing themselves to be used for political purposes. SNP MP Alex Neil told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Salmond 'believes that there was a conspiracy to get him'. He said: 'Initially I think he thinks it started off as an attempt to keep him out of public life and not allow him back into the Scottish Parliament after he lost his Westminster seat. 'But I think since then this has grown and he believes that a number of people have been involved in conspiring against him and stitching him up and he believes, in terms of the criminal charges for example, he believes that a number of people, and I am not talking about the complainers here, he believes a number of people tried to stitch him up and stop him from reentering public life and do down his reputation.' Mr Neil said the redacted evidence matters because Mr Salmond 'believes that that is fundamental to his allegations against the Scottish Government and the people who he believes tried to do him down'. It came as Downing Street rejected a suggestion that the creation of a new Cabinet committee on the Union led by the Prime Minister was a sign of 'confusion and panic'. The fury is focused on a decision by the Scottish Parliament to redact Mr Salmond's written testimony against Ms Sturgeon after a request from prosecutors at the Crown Office - just a day before he was due to give evidence to an inquiry in person. Pictured: Mr Salmond in March The committee was set up after Oliver Lewis left his position as the head of Downing Street's Union unit last week. Mr Lewis, a veteran of the Vote Leave campaign, had been in the job for less than a fortnight and had replaced former Scottish MP Luke Graham. The SNP say the changes show the UK Government's campaign against Scottish independence is in 'disarray'. But the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'No, I think it demonstrates our commitment to the Union and the focus the PM has on ensuring that we deliver for all countries of the United Kingdom.' The spokesman said that No 10 officials would continue to work in the Union unit, but the new Union strategy committee would build on existing structures. 'We have the Union policy implementation committee also which is chaired by CDL (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove) which will also meet more regularly,' the spokesman told reporters. 'The Union policy implementation committee is chaired by CDL and that will have officials and other ministers attending as required, they will obviously implement the policy that's decided at the PM-led Union strategy committee. 'That will include, amongst others, the PM, CDL, the Chancellor, Secretary of State for Wales, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Secretary of State for Scotland and Lord Frost.' The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Donald Trump Jr. has claimed that Bruce Springsteen's drunk driving and reckless driving charges were dropped by the federal governent this week because of 'liberal privilege'. The government dropped the charges against 71-year-old Springsteen on Wednesday stemming from an incident in November, after admitting that the rocker's blood-alcohol level was so low that it didn't warrant the charges. When he took a breath test at the park's ranger station, Springsteen's blood-alcohol came back .02, a quarter of the legal limit of .08 in New Jersey, prosecutors said. Yet Trump Jr. argued in a tweet on Thursday that Springsteen's 'privilege' was the only reason he got off the hook. 'I'd say it's #WhitePrivilege but we all know it's really #LiberalPrivilege,' he wrote. The government dropped drunk and reckless driving charges against 71-year-old Bruce Springsteen (pictured left) on Wednesday stemming from an incident in November, after admitting that the rocker's blood-alcohol level was so low that it didn't warrant the charges. Yet Donald Trump Jr. (pictured right) has claimed it was all down to 'liberal privilege' Donald Trump Jr. has claimed that Bruce Springsteen's drunk driving and reckless driving charges were dropped by the federal governent this week because of 'liberal privilege' Don Jr.'s comment came just a day after the news broke that he was deposed this month by the attorney general of Washington, D.C. in a probe of over alleged misuse of funds by the Trump inaugural committee. The president's son, a Trump Organization executive, made a statement on February 11 to a probe launched by D.C. attorney general Karl Racine. Racine is conducting a probe of the 2017 inaugural committee after suing the company and Trump's D.C. hotel for alleged misuse of Trump inaugural funds. Racine accuses the entities of 'blatantly and unlawfully abusing nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family,' something Trump Jr. and the Trump Organization have denied. While the drunk driving and reckless driving charges were dropped, on Wednesday Springsteen pleaded guilty to a third charge, consuming alcohol in a closed area. The Boss was arrested on November 14 near the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in Gateway National Recreation Area, a federal park along the northern New Jersey coast. He was stopped by by park rangers after he was seen pulling over on his motorbike to pose for selfies with fans and accepting a shot of Patron tequila. Alcohol has been banned entirely from the Gateway National Park since 2019, and is prohibited from being brought onto its beaches, parking lots, park grounds, picnic areas and boating docks. Facing a judge and more than 100 onlookers in a video conference, Springsteen sat next to lawyer Mitchell Ansell and admitted he was aware it was illegal to consume alcohol at the park. 'I had two small shots of tequila,' Springsteen said in response to questions from an assistant U.S. attorney. The case was heard in federal court because the park is considered federal land. Wearing a dark blazer, sweater and collared shirt, Springsteen sat next to his lawyer Mitchell Ansell during the appearance before Magistrate Judge Anthony Mautone on Wednesday The judge (top right) asked Springsteen (bottom right) when he would be able to pay the fine by, to which he responded with a smile: 'I think I can pay that right away' U.S. Magistrate Anthony Mautone fined Springsteen $500 for the offense, plus $40 in court fees. 'I am going to impose nothing but a fine,' the judge said, adding that Springsteen has an incredibly clean driving history dating back to 1973, with only three violations, including the use of a handheld phone. 'Rarely would you see a driver's abstract so devoid of any entries. I'm convinced a fine is the appropriate sentence in this case,' Mautone said. 'I think I can pay that immediately, your honor,' Springsteen told Mautone. The federal court then granted the prosecution's request to dismiss the additional two charges of operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and reckless driving because of the lack of evidence that the charges were warranted. A DWI in a national park is a misdemeanor federal offense, carrying a maximum sentence of six months in jail and fines of up to $5,000. Probation can also be up to five years. In an emailed statement, Ansell wrote that Springsteen 'is pleased with the outcome' of the court hearing. 'The prosecutor was unable to provide the necessary evidence and facts as it related to the charge of Driving under the Influence (DUI) and Reckless Driving and therefore, dismissed both of those charges,' Ansell said. 'Mr. Springsteen, who has no previous criminal record of any kind, voluntarily plead guilty to a violation of consuming an alcoholic beverage in a closed area, agreeing to a fine of $500. We want to thank the Court and will have no further comment at this time.' Drinking at Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, New Jersey (as pictured above above) is strictly prohibited since 2019, according to its website Springsteen was arrested near the lighthouse (shown above) in the Gateway National Recreation Area on Sandy Hook back on November 14, 2020 and charged with DWI, reckless driving and drinking in a close area. The first two charges were dismissed on Wednesday A DWI in a national park is a misdemeanor federal offense, carrying a maximum sentence of six months in jail and fines of up to $5,000. Probation can also be up to five years, according to Freeburg Law. Pictured above is a map of the Sandy Hook peninsula According to a probable cause document written by park police at the time of the incident, Springsteen told a park officer he had done two shots in the previous 20 minutes. The officer wrote that he saw Springsteen take a shot of tequila and then get on his motorcycle. The ranger also said he 'observed four out of six clues on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test.' He wrote that the rocker 'smelt strongly of alcohol' and 'had glassy eyes' and that there was a bottle of Patron tequila that was 'completely empty.' The report described Springsteen as 'visibly swaying back and forth' during a field sobriety test and said he declined to provide a sample on an initial breath test. Mautone said Wednesday that the preliminary test is not required and is not admissible in court. He later underwent a breathalyzer test back at the rangers' station, as legally required, where his blood alcohol was found to be .02. While Springsteen's blood alcohol was found to be well within the legal threshold, according to both state and federal law, an arresting officer can still charge a suspect with a level below .08 if they observe sufficient signs of impairment. It is unclear if that was the case in Springsteen's arrest. Sources close to Springsteen had previously called into question the legitimacy of the star's arrest and suggested the charges against him should be thrown out. Springsteen's arrest was first reported just days after 96.4million viewers watched him star in an ad for Jeep during this year's Super Bowl (as pictured above) Speaking to CNN earlier this month, one source said: 'When this is all resolved, I think, people are going to have some serious doubts about the seriousness of this, especially when the actual details of this are revealed, including the blood alcohol level. 'I don't know why they stopped him,' they continued. 'I mean technically you're not allowed to drink in a state park, and I don't know, maybe, if a policeman sees somebody drinking and doesn't give them a ticket, they lose their job.' News of Springsteen's arrest took three months to come to light. It is currently unclear why. However, the incident was first reported just days after 96.4million viewers watched him star in an ad for Jeep during the Super Bowl earlier this month - his first ever commercial campaign. After news of the arrest, Jeep put on pause an ad that ran during the Super Bowl featuring Springsteen in Kansas urging people to find common ground. Jeep said in a statement Wednesday it was unpausing the ad now 'that the matter has been resolved.' 'As we stated previously, we paused the commercial until the facts were established,' Jeep said. Springsteen performed January 20 as part of President Joe Bidens inauguration, singing 'Land of Hope and Dreams' in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The government will liaise with the UK authorities for early extradition of Nirav Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday, hours after a British court rejected the fugitive businessman's plea against being extradited to India. The diamantaire, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab Bank (PNB) scam case, lost his legal battle against extradition on all grounds as District Judge Samuel Goozee also concluded that there are no human rights concerns that his medical needs would not be addressed as per several Indian government assurances. Replying to a query during an online media briefing, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that since the Westminster Magistrate's Court has recommended to the UK Home Secretary for Nirav Modi's extradition, "the Government of India would liaise with the UK authorities for his early extradition to India." On the request of the CBI and the ED, Modi's extradition from the UK was sought in August 2018. He was arrested and produced before the Senior District Judge at Westminster Magistrate's court on March 20, 2019. Since then he is facing extradition proceedings while in judicial custody. The final hearing in this case was held on January 7-8, 2021, while the Westminster Magistrate's Court in London earlier in the day pronounced that he be extradited to India to stand trial. "Dismissing the mental health concerns raised by Nirav Modi, the judge observed that conspired to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses," Srivastava said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 'Nirav Modi has case to answer in India': Big UK Court quotes in PNB Scam case India oi-Deepika S New De;hi, Feb 25: The UK court on Thursday ruled diamond merchant Nirav Modi wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case can be sent back to face charges of fraud and money laundering. "I am satisfied on the evidence that a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering is established," said Judge Goozee, as he read out parts of his judgment in court and concluded that he will send his ruling to the UK''s Secretary of State, Priti Patel. Nirav Modi will not be denied justice if he is extradited to India, adding that Barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai is fit for him. "There is no risk of suicide for Nirav Modi if he is sent to India as he will have access to adequate medical care at Arthur Road jail," the judge said. Nirav Modi can be extradited to India, rules UK Court The manner in which Letters of Undertaking were obtained, "the combination as a whole, takes us to the conclusion that Nirav Modi and co were fraudulently operating", the judge said. "Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence he could be convicted. Prima facie there is a case of money laundering." UK judge also dismissed Nirav Modi defence claims that Law & Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tried to influence case against the billionaire. The Judge said India submitted 16 volumes of evidence. The magistrates' court ruling will now be sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign-off. It is the Cabinet minister who is authorised to order an extradition under the India-UK Extradition Treaty and has two months within which to make that decision. The Home Secretary's order rarely goes against the court's conclusions, as she has to consider only some very narrow bars to extradition which are unlikely to apply in this case, including the possible imposition of a death penalty. Whatever the ministerial decision, the losing side - Nirav Modi - has up to 14 days within which to approach the High Court and seek leave to appeal after the Home Secretary's decision. Any appeal, if granted, will be heard at the Administrative Division of the High Court in London. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 17:11 [IST] 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. Over the years, North Forge Technology Exchange has helped more than 200 companies get off the ground but it has never really had capacity to point its founders to a ready source of capital until now. Over the years, North Forge Technology Exchange has helped more than 200 companies get off the ground but it has never really had capacity to point its founders to a ready source of capital until now. More than 100 people attended the virtual launch on Wednesday afternoon to announce the creation of the North Forge Angel Network in collaboration with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO). NACOs involvement includes educational programming that will make this angel network more inclusive and diverse than old-fashioned, old-boys angel networks. Creating an angel investor network for the companies that are being supported by North Forge has long been the goal of its CEO, Joelle Foster. "The access to capital issue has been going on for a long time in Manitoba," Foster said. "I want to do this right. There are angels lined up. This is happening." Rather than an organic coming-together of enthusiastic high net worth individuals, Claudio Rojas, the CEO of NACO, said there is an understanding that potential angels need to be better informed about what is involved. As well, Foster said there is a need for broader inclusion to bring in investors who might otherwise have been structurally kept out of such activities and for entrepreneurs who dont have their own ready-made networks. "Our mission is to increase access to capital for entrepreneurs around the country, in all regions and for entrepreneurs from all backgrounds," Rojas said. North Forge has almost tripled the number of companies it is supporting over the past year. There are close 90 of them now, with about half of them at or near the stage where they have exhausted the funding from friends and family and need additional funding to get them to the next level. For instance, Brett Carter and his team at Goodeye Technologies started the company just before the pandemic began and have basically worked the past year without a salary. The company uses artificial intelligence-powered software to allow surveillance cameras and security systems to automatically monitor for suspicious activity. "We are a war-time startup, you could say," said Carter, meaning they had all the regular challenges of any startup plus they had to deal with uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic that were beyond their control. "We might be able to do without raising significant capital for a while but it is a natural progression for this type of company that in order to grow we need a strong support system," he said. He credited North Forge as a huge help but said his company will need outside capital to keep growing. "We dont want to be one of those technology companies that has to move to Calgary for a few hundred dollars," he said. "We want to build it where it started." The formal structure of the network and how the deals will be organized still needs to be finalized, but Foster said there are enough of the pieces in place that angels could start hearing pitches from North Forge companies as early as this May. Foster and Rojas believe the fact that there has not been a successful track record of angel networks in the province in the past is due to a few factors. "We need to make sure the business case is there so that it is sustainable. There is a lot of wealth in the province, There are family offices that command significant wealth but they have not had the opportunity to have full access to the innovation economy," Rojas said. For Foster, one of the important elements of the initiative for her is that it brings in people like new Canadians and women who have not traditionally been involved in this type of investment activity. Among other things, NACO and North Forge are involved in efforts to expand the definition of what an "accredited" investor is. Typically securities regulators require a certain threshold of wealth to make such investments. "The problem is that means there are lot of people that are under-represented when it comes to investing," Foster said, for instance, women and new Canadians who may not meet current criteria to be an investor. "We dont have a lot of angel investors because people dont know what investing looks like for tech companies," she said. In collaborating with NACO, North Forge will be offering a robust educational experience through the NACO Academy. "We would not do this unless there was some education behind it," she said. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Avidian Gold Corp (TSXV:AVG)(OTCQB:AVGDF) is pleased to announce that its majority controlled private subsidiary High Tide Resources Corp. ("High Tide or the "Company") has increased its land position by acquiring 35 additional mineral exploration claims adjacent to its Lac Pegma Copper-Nickel-Cobalt sulphide deposit 50 km southeast of Fermont, Quebec in the southern Labrador Trough (see Figure 1). The claims have either been granted or are pending. High Tide now holds a total land package of approximately 2249 hectares. High Tide's President and VP of Exploration, Steve Roebuck, states: "The demand for EV battery minerals is skyrocketing as we move toward a low-carbon economy. High Tide are currently conducting a desk-top study and preliminary modelling based on a review of the historical exploration data from the Lac Pegma area. The potential for copper-nickel-cobalt resource expansion is very apparent and remains the priority, but we are also seeing high potential for additional mineral discoveries beyond the immediate core area and claim staking secures that for the Company's investors." High Tide's data review is currently focused on its copper-nickel-cobalt sulphide deposit and the exploration and resource expansion potential. Diadem Resources' 1996 drilling was focused on near surface mineralization with the average hole depth of approximately 100 metres. Presented below is a table of selected drill holes with copper and nickel percentages. Hole ID Azimuth () Dip () From (m) To (m) Width (m) Cu (%) Ni (%) 96-3 270 50 64.0 91.8 27.8 0.53 0.26 96-22 0 90 94.5 123.0 28.5 0.44 0.34 Including 108.0 118.5 10.5 0.56 0.52 96-24 0 90 70.5 123.5 53.0 0.63 0.25 96-26 0 90 43.4 105.9 62.5 0.87 0.48 96-27 0 90 36.4 101.3 64.9 0.63 0.57 Including 76.4 94.4 18.0 0.73 1.19 96-28 0 90 63.0 83.0 20.0 0.94 0.54 Table 1 - 1996 Lac Pegma select results - intercept width is drilled width. Previous Exploration and 2021 Resource Expansion Prior to Diadem Resources' 1996 drilling, the first exploration program carried out at Lac Pegma was done by Bellechase Mining circa 1955. A report filed on Quebec's MERN website (GM03714B) provides details of a program that consisted of mapping, sampling and scout drilling using a man-portable back-pack drill. Twenty-seven holes were drilled to average depth of 70 feet (33 metres) due to reported poor ground conditions and drill limitations. Results were encouraging with Hole 11 reporting 11 metres of 0.49% Cu and 0.30% Ni from 3 metres downhole. Despite the geology being logged as favourable gabbroic sills, dipping moderate to steeply east, most of the holes were not sampled. The logs noted consistent sulphide mineralization including pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite with sulphide percentages ranging from 1 % to 20% over multi-metre intervals while several holes were terminated in highly mineralized zones. No assays were completed for cobalt, platinum or palladium. The focus of the 1955 Bellechase program was 250 metres to the southwest of the current copper-nickel-sulphide deposit creating a number of high-priority exploration targets for potential resource expansion drilling in 2021. Prior to drilling, a drone-magnetic geophysical survey will be conducted to further refine targets - see Figure 2. Figure 2 - Plan map showing location of 1996 and 1955 drill holes and potential resource expansion toward the southwest Project Geology The orthomagmatic sulphide deposit at the Lac Pegma property is hosted within a gabbro to gabbro-ultramafic sill, intruded along the contacts of the Katsao Formation of Mesoproterozoic age. Based on drilling to date, the deposit presents as disseminated to net-textured, with local massive copper, iron and nickel sulphides. Greater accumulations of sulphide content and grades are associated with the basal portion of the intrusion. These rocks are the equivalent of the Knob Lake District extension south from Labrador, NL. The bedrock geology at the prospect area consists of metamorphosed allochthonous sediments and volcanics that are intruded upon by the Shabogamo Intrusive Suite. The rock types consist of a north trending packages of quartz-biotite gneiss, kyanite gneiss and dolomitic marble represent the original quartzite, siliceous shales and limestone lithologies. Mafic to ultramafic dykes and sills host the mineralization. The Lac Pegma Deposit has undergone amphibolite facies metamorphism and has been complexly folded during the Grenville Orogeny (ca 1.0 Ga). Figure 1 - Project area showing both Lac Pegma with new claims and the Labrador West Iron Project Qualified Person Statement All scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release was prepared and approved by Steve Roebuck, P.Geo., President & VP Exploration of High Tide Resources Corp. who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved this news release. About High Tide Resources Corp. High Tide is a private corporation that is advancing its Labrador West iron property located in Newfoundland & Labrador and its Lac Pegma copper nickel cobalt property located in Quebec. High Tide is majority owned by Avidian Gold Corp with plans to go public in mid 2021. The last exploration program completed on Lac Pegma was by Diadem Resources in 1996 drilling 84 short BQ-diameter diamond drill holes totalling a reported 7678 metres. In a report filed on Quebec's MERN website (GM54771) in May 1997, Diadem Resources reported a non NI 43-101 compliant "indicated reserve of 2 million tons of 0.62% Cu, 0.35% Ni and 0.03% Co." * The Lac Pegma deposit was not assayed for platinum or palladium which are elements commonly found in this type of sulphide deposit. DISCLAIMER: *Please note a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. High Tide Resources has entered into a purchase agreement with Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. ("Globex")(GMX)(GLBXF)(G1MN) to purchase 100% of the Lac Pegma Copper-Nickel-Cobalt sulphide deposit. Please see PR dated February 8, 2021 for more details. About Avidian Gold Corp. Avidian brings a disciplined and veteran team of project managers together with a focus on advanced stage gold exploration projects in Alaska. Avidian's Golden Zone project hosts a NI 43-101 Indicated gold resource of 267,400 ounces (4,187,000 tonnes at 1.99 g/t Au) plus an Inferred gold resource of 35,900 ounces (1,353,000 tonnes at 0.83 g/t Au)*. Additional projects include the Amanita and the Amanita NE gold properties which are both adjacent to Kinross Gold's Fort Knox gold mine in Alaska, and the Jungo gold/copper property in Nevada. *Technical Report on the Golden Zone Property, August 17, 2017, L. McGarry P.Geo & I. Trinder P.Geo, A.C.A Howe International Ltd. For further information, please contact: Steve Roebuck High Tide President & VP Exploration Mobile: (905) 741-5458 Email: sroebuck@avidiangold.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward-Looking Information This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". 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. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, results of exploration, project development, reclamation and capital costs of the Company's mineral properties, and the Company's financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with the activities of the Company; and other matters discussed in this news release. 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. SOURCE: Avidian Gold Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631748/High-Tide-Advances-Its-Lac-Pegma-Copper-Nickel-Cobalt-Deposit During the relentless gloom and uncertainty in the early weeks of this pandemic, the Queen was accused of misjudging the mood of the people. The Times, no less, criticised her 'silence', while pointing out that the monarchs of Spain, Holland, Norway, Belgium and Sweden had all had something to say to their people on the subject. It would, in fact, be more than a fortnight later before the Queen spoke to the nation. When she did, her words resonated around the world. They included one of the most memorable lines of this entire crisis (with a nod to Dame Vera Lynn): 'We will meet again.' Few world leaders have come up with anything as succinct, as appropriate and as reassuring during this entire saga. With the wisdom of one who has endured more crises than most, she had not spoken for the sake of speaking. She had waited for the right moment. And it was the scarcity value of this intervention which gave it such impact. (We didn't hear another squeak from her critics after that). And so it is with this week's regal pronouncement on vaccine sceptics and refuseniks: 'They ought to think about other people rather than themselves.' Queen Elizabeth II and quotes from her broadcast to the UK and the Commonwealth in relation to the coronavirus epidemic, displayed on lights in London's Piccadilly Circus On paper, it might seem a statement of the obvious. Yet, it serves as a powerful broadside precisely because of who has said it and the fact that she says these things very rarely. She will have given the matter great thought, just like that brooch she is wearing during the conversation (the same brooch she wore when she and Prince Philip announced their engagement; no prizes for spotting the subliminal message in that). Plainly and very commendably the Queen has decided, once again, that the time has come to intervene. And when the longest-lived, longest-reigning monarch in our history decides to voice an opinion, we really do listen. Nearly one year on from the outbreak of this pandemic, the general consensus is that the monarch in particular and the Royal Family in general have had a pretty 'good war', as people used to say. Through it all, they have all been supporting and recognising the unsung footsoldiers of this pandemic not just those on the frontline but those in the backrooms, too. Some of it has been via video, for obvious reasons, but there have been plenty of proper engagements involving masks, elbow-bumping and palm-pressed 'Namaste' salutations. In a video call with NHS officials in charge of the rollout, Her Majesty encouraged those with doubts to 'think about other people rather than themselves' Along the way, the Royal Family have been happy to thank and encourage, nothing more. So these latest words from the Queen pack a very considerable punch. It was the same in the run-up to the Scottish referendum in 2014 (pictured) Along the way, the Royal Family have been happy to thank and encourage, nothing more. So these latest words from the Queen pack a very considerable punch. It was the same in the run-up to the Scottish referendum in 2014. She voiced a few words which, again, were wholly innocuous on one level: 'I hope people will think very carefully about the future.' Yet the timing, the context and above all the source of the remarks made this another historic intervention. That moment, in turn, was an echo of her celebrated Silver Jubilee address to both Houses of Parliament in 1977, when the Scottish nationalist movement was on the rise. The Queen was less coded on that occasion. Referring directly to 'proposals for devolution', she noted: 'I cannot forget that I was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom.' Again, it might have been a simple statement of fact but it also spoke volumes. It was nothing to do with the creed of Unionism, but rather a heartfelt reaffirmation of the U in UK. We can see a touch of that, too, in this royal conference call. Time and again this pandemic has allowed separatist elements to exploit the divides between Westminster and the devolved assemblies; to stoke up regional resentments. It's now no longer a joke but an article of faith that whatever Boris Johnson does, Nicola Sturgeon has to do differently. Yet there remain a few distinct forces working in the opposite direction, binding the home nations of the UK together. They are the Armed Forces, the vaccine programme and the monarchy. And here we see a celebration of all three in one morale-boosting video. Princess Elizabeth (right) and Princess Margaret after they broadcast on 'Children's Hour' from Windsor Castle in 1940 Other stand-out royal remarks over the years? The Queen's Christmas broadcasts, by convention, represent her own thoughts. These have occasionally strayed into controversy. The Queen was criticised in 1983 (again by The Times) for a perceived swipe at Thatcherism in her Christmas message. 'In spite of all the progress that has been made, the greatest problem in the world today remains the gap between rich and poor countries,' she said, arguing that 'comradeship' and 'tolerance' were as important as technological progress. This was, after all, a message to the entire Commonwealth, not just a home audience. One of her most eagerly-anticipated speeches was her broadcast on the eve of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: 'What I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart' In a few moments, much of the fury which had been coalescing around the symbols of monarchy during that febrile week simply melted away. Equally historic was her very first broadcast, made more than 80 years ago at the height of the Blitz. 'We know, every one of us, that in the end, all will be well,' the 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth assured the children of the British Empire, assisted by her sister 'Come on, Margaret!' As the duo signed off 'Goodnight, children, and good luck to you all' history had been made. That teenage Princess was beginning what has now been the longest broadcasting career of all time. As this week reminds us, eight decades later, just a few words from her can still make all the difference. (Natural News) Fake President Biden, an imposter whose puppetmasters rigged the election to carry out an illegal, criminal coup against America, may be on the verge of being exposed and removed. Many startling anomalies continue to surface, including the fact that US Marines are, at times, no longer stationed outside the Oval Office, even when Jen Psaki claims President Biden is working inside. For over a century, every U.S. President has given a State of the Union address in either January or February, yet there is zero talk of such an address coming from Biden. Given that everything else about Biden has been a staged theatrical production the fake inauguration, his fake acceptance speech, a rigged election, etc. we must wonder whether the Biden green screen production team will try to pull off some sort of artificial, pre-recorded State of the Union address and claim covid is the reason he cant appear in person. (Isnt it amazing how the plandemic gives full cover to the entire theatrical production were watching here?) On top of all that, 36 Democrats are reportedly demanding Biden give up control over the US nuclear codes, further reinforcing the idea that Biden is obviously not their president. In todays Situation Update, we also delve into the Equality Act, a wholesale attack on Christians, rationality and reason, which would force corporations and hospitals to embrace transgender delusions as if they were biological reality. But theres a twist in all this that I reveal in the podcast. Note also that the intolerant, bigoted Left is practically applauding the straight-up torture of a conservative trans activist named Jessica Watkins, who was stripped naked and left in indefinite confinement in a U.S. prison merely for being present at the January 6th capitol events, even though she committed no violence and did nothing to destroy property. Where is the loudmouthed Left when it comes to the trans rights of conservative trans individuals? Nothing but silence. In truth, the Left doesnt believe in trans rights at all. They only believe in the obedience of the left cult, a dangerous, demented cult of wokeism that demands total obedience and espouses violence against those who reject the cult. Covid-19 vaccines are now linked to symptoms of breast cancer, and in a truly bizarre twist, Pfizer is demanding the nations like Argentina and Brazil sign over their military bases and embassy buildings to the vaccine giant so that Pfizer can be sure they will grant the company absolute legal immunity from all the deaths and injuries caused by their covid vaccines. That story, published at Great Game India, is covered in todays podcast. Listen here and share wherever you can: Brighteon.com/2b206996-feb8-4b43-a3d3-bd0a68ae3a09 Find each days new podcast at: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport P.S. We are carrying out a major migration of the Brighteon back-end system around midnight on Monday, March 1st, so expect possible glitches or short-term outages in the early morning hours of Tuesday. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo displays the N-95 mask he wears during a CCP virus Briefing At Northwell Feinstein Institute For Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y., on May 6, 2020. (Al Bello/Getty Images) New York Democrats Look to Censure Andrew Cuomo Eleven New York State Democrats introduced a resolution on Monday to censure Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo for covering up nursing home deaths and threatening lawmakers. The resolution, signed by elected members of the New York State Democratic Party, condemned Cuomo for his lack of transparency on nursing home deaths and belligerent conduct towards public officials, according to the New York Post. Actions have consequences. I consider it my responsibility as a representative of the Democrats in my community to hold members of our party accountable, from City Council up to the Governor, said Queens Democratic District Leader Emilia Decaudin in a statement to the Post. Democrats introduced this resolution following bipartisan backlash last week to leaked audio of Cuomos top aide Melissa DeRosa allegedly admitting the state hid data on nursing home deaths from the federal government during a closed-door meeting with state Senate Democrats. Similarly, state assembly Republicans announced their intention to form an impeachment commission to investigate Cuomo last week. The resolution also alleged that Cuomo sought to deceive the public and criticized him for making time to write a book and distribute a self-congratulatory poster instead of addressing lawmakers demands for data on nursing homes. During this entire ordeal where the governor claims to not have had time and human resources to comply with requests for information, the governor did have time to write a book congratulating himself for New Yorks COVID-19 response, have a self-congratulatory poster created and circulated before the worst of the pandemic was, the resolution read. Democrats further alleged Cuomos administration repeatedly stymied and refused to comply with requests for data on nursing home deaths due to fear of legal and political accountability, as reported by the Post. Despite the pushback to Cuomos handling of COVID-19, New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs dismissed the resolution as very political. I dont see it going anywhere. There will always be those who will see an opportunity to try to enhance their own relevance. I dont care for this opportunistic action at the state committee, said Jacobs to the Post. By Bradley Stein From The Daily Callar News Foundation Scientists have recently reported that a new variant from California has become the dominant lineage in that state. In a review of their database, they had first identified it in the early part of last summer, laying dormant until the winter surge propelled it rapidly throughout the state. According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), this particular variant grew from 0 percent in September to 50 percent in late January. In this Jan. 12, 2021 file photo, provided by the LA County Dept. of Medical Examiner-Coroner Elizabeth "Liz" Napoles, right, works alongside with National Guardsmen who are helping to process the COVID-19 deaths to be placed into temporary storage at LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner Office in Los Angeles. California reported 669 COVID-19 deaths, the second-highest daily death count, on Saturday, Jan. 16, and the nation's most populous county announced it had detected its first case of a more transmissible strain of the coronavirus. Public health authorities in Los Angeles County confirmed its first case of the variant of COVID-19 first detected in the United Kingdom. It was identified in a man who recently spent time in the county. The man has traveled to Oregon, where he is isolating. (LA County Dept. of Medical Examiner-Coroner via AP, File) This new variant has also been detected in many other US states and has reached places as far as the UK, Singapore, and Australia. It possesses mutations in its spike protein that appear to make it not only more transmissible but also helps it to evade antibodies generated by the COVID-19 vaccines. Scientists have designated the new mutation as the CAL.20C variant spanning the B.1.427 and B.1.429 lineages. It is associated with a mutation in its receptor-binding domain called L452R. Dr. Charles Chiu is the senior author of a study documenting the rise of the CAL.20C variant among 8,000 residents of the Mission District in San Francisco, and first detected the variant on December 31. He told the press, This variant is concerning because our data shows that it is more contagious, more likely to be associated with severe illness, and at least partially resistant to neutralizing antibodies. The devil is already here. I wish it were different. But the science is the science. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Chiu indicated that it would be imperative to drive down infections as much as possible while rapidly moving to vaccinate the population. This assessment was echoed by Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a Georgetown University virologist, who stated, The [UCSF] findings warrant taking a much closer look at this variant. They underscore the importance of pulling out all the stops in terms of both exposure reduction and increased vaccine distribution and access. In a review of 324 people with COVID-19 treated at UCSF clinics or its medical centers, after adjusting for various confounding variables, such as age, gender, and race, those infected with the CAL.20C variant were almost five times more likely to need ICU admission and 11 times more likely to die. Analysis from nasal swabs also demonstrated that patients with CAL.20C carry twice the viral load. Additionally, during in vivo studies, the variant was four times less susceptible to antibodies from previously infected individuals and two times less susceptible to antibodies obtained from people vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Infectious disease physician Dr. Robert Chip T. Schooley, who has been advocating for the Biden Administration to acknowledge the significant role that aerosol transmission plays in spreading SARS-CoV-2, affirmed these findings, stating, The biology of having a higher level of virus would certainly fit the thesis that people would not do well. We are seeing here in Southern California more people for a longer period of time in our ICUs. The study results will undoubtedly need to be confirmed in more extensive epidemiological surveillance but they highlight the dangers these infections pose to communities. Critics had noted that the number of cases requiring admission to the ICU or leading to death, though statistically significant compared to the previous COVID infections, was small and occurred at the peak of the surge when health systems were inundated, which may have contributed to these findings. The B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants share three identical mutations at their spike protein which appear to stabilize the interaction between the virus and the receptor on the human cell it binds to before gaining entry. Specifically, the L452R mutation, primarily circulating in California, has not been found in the other commonly discussed variants. But analysis from GISAID-deposited genomes of the virus has found several recent independent L452R-carrying lineages that have emerged across the globe, suggesting the mutation confers an adaptive advantage for the virus. UCSF scientists conducting benchwork studies on this variant engineered a coronavirus with the L452R mutation. They found the mutated virus they created infected lung tissue 40 percent more readily than the common variants that had been circulating. Given that the B.1.1.7 variant that first emerged in the UK along with the various homegrown variants have been quickly spreading throughout the United States, concerns are growing among scientists that if these variants manage to infect an individual simultaneously, the viruses could swap their mutations and produce a strain even more dangerous than the present versions of the SARS-CoV-2, a situation they describe as a nightmare scenario. The multiplication of more infectious variants of the coronavirus is a direct result of the complete indifference that the ruling elite has shown to the dangers of herd immunity, which means establishing the contagion as endemic, so that everyone is exposed to it and those who survive return to work and producing profits. Notwithstanding the unprecedented scale of death that the pandemic has caused in the United States since March 2020, the emergence of these new lineages that are more transmissible, lethal, and immune-evading, poses a calamitous dilemma for the working class, when coupled with the drive to open schools and resume in-class instruction at warp speed. Just yesterday, Michigan reported that 81 students and staff at 18 school districts, including two colleges, were infected with COVID-19 in school-related outbreaks. Data from Quebec indicated that after January 18, children age nine or younger had the highest rate of relative increase in COVID-19 infections. Data is emerging that the attack rate of the B.1.1.7 variant has its highest propensity for younger people. Though these infections dont appear to cause more severe illness in children, the data implies that not only are children critical in community transmission, but they may also be a necessary component in the selective advantages these variants enjoy. With almost 30 million reported COVID-19 infections, the US has the largest outbreak of cases in any one nation globally. However, without a robust national genomic sequencing program to keep track of these evolving mutations, these variants will continue to spread largely undetected. Countries must develop the ability to systematically follow these developments in real time in order to make rational public-health decisions. The genomic coverage in the US, however, is abysmal. According to Nature, the number of SARS-CoV-2 genomes that the United States has shared on GISAID is less than 0.3 percent of its total number of COVID-19 infections, or approximately 90,000. In comparison, the UK and Denmark have contributed 45 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of the 360,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced and stored on GISAID. The World Health Organizations technical lead, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, warned, We really need to expand this [genomic sequencing], so we have better eyes on the changes in this virus that are happening, especially in areas where transmission is most intense. Dr. Oliver Pybus, an infectious disease expert at the University of Oxford, told Nature, Genomic epidemiology has come of age during this pandemic. However, it isnt the science that humanity has failed to master, but the understanding that the fruits of science belong to the entire human race to make this fragile world a more hospitable home for everyone. Without implementing an international global pandemic-prevention surveillance program, the potential for future outbreaks will haunt the world. An elite Massachusetts liberal arts college has quietly conceded that there was no truth to allegations of racism made by one of their students that 'ruined the lives' of numerous campus workers. Oumou Kanoute was in the canteen at Smith College on July 31, 2018 when she claimed she was profiled for 'eating while black' after a security guard asked her what she was doing. Kanoute, a psychology undergraduate student, posted video of the incident on social media and claimed that she was the victim of racism. However, an independent law firm investigating the incident found that same year that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and cleared all those involved. The case has come to light again after an employee resigned from the school on Friday, citing a 'racially hostile environment.' Oumou Kanoute said that she was 'racially profiled' in the July 2018 incident at the school Kanoute deleted her social media, but her 2018 post was shared on Instagram by sympathizers Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, costs $80,000 a year for the women who attend Kanoute had named staff online, causing one to be hospitalized with stress and another, a janitor who was not present, forced from his job. Kanoute said the security guard may have been carrying a 'lethal weapon' when, in fact, he was unarmed. As a result, Smith forced employees to attend seminars about unconscious bias. The 150-year-old women-only college, whose motto is 'audacity, agency, authenticity,' charges $80,000 a year in fees. About 6.6 per cent of Smith's more than 2,500 undergraduates identify as black, according to college data: 36.3 per cent identify as a person of color. Jodi Shaw, who worked for the residential life department, resigned from the school on February 19, citing a 'racially hostile environment.' In October she began speaking out against the anti-bias training programs, and found a fervent YouTube following. 'I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,' she said. 'Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color. 'Stop demanding that I admit to white privilege, and work on my so-called implicit bias as a condition of my continued employment.' In her resignation letter, published on former New York Times editor Bari Weiss's substack, Shaw said everything changed with Kanoute's accusations. Having graduated from Smith College herself, Shaw said she loved her job, 'but the climate and my place at the college changed dramatically when, in July 2018, the culture war arrived at our campus when a student accused a white staff member of calling campus security on her because of racial bias.' She continued: 'Before even investigating the facts of the incident, the college immediately issued a public apology to the student, placed the employee on leave, and announced its intention to create new initiatives, committees, workshops, trainings, and policies aimed at combating 'systemic racism' on campus. 'In spite of an independent investigation into the incident that found no evidence of racial bias, the college ramped up its initiatives aimed at dismantling the supposed racism that pervades the campus. 'This only served to support the now prevailing narrative that the incident had been racially motivated and that Smith staff are racist.' A janitor spotted a person in the distance reclining in the closed canteen, so called security Shaw began posting criticism of her school in October: she resigned last week Jodi Shaw quit her job at Smith College on February 19, citing a 'racially hostile environment' On the day of the incident, Kanoute, a 21-year-old who was raised in New York after her family emigrated from Mali, was in an empty canteen that was reserved for a summer camp program for young children. Jackie Blair, a veteran cafeteria employee, mentioned to Kanoute that it was reserved for the summer school, and then decided to drop it, according to The New York Times. A janitor, who was in his 60s and poor of sight, and had worked at Smith for 35 years, was emptying garbage cans when he saw a figure reclining and eating alone, in a far corner of the canteen which was supposed to be closed. Campus police had advised staff to call security rather than confront strangers on their own, so the janitor called security. 'We have a person sitting there laying down in the living room,' the janitor told a dispatcher according to a transcript. 'I didn't approach her or anything but he seems out of place.' A well-known older campus security officer drove over to the dorm where the cafeteria was situated, The Times recounted, and was accompanied by a campus police officer. He recognized her as a student and they had a brief and polite conversation, which she recorded on video. 'Hi,' she says. 'How are you doing?' a man says. 'Good, how are you?' she replied. 'We were wondering why you were here,' he says. 'Oh, I was eating lunch, I'm working the summer program, so I was just relaxing on the couch.' He replies: 'Oh, just taking a break. So you're with the program?' 'Yeah. I'm actually a TA,' she says. He replies: 'Oh, so that's what it was. We just wondered.' Kanoute says: 'It's OK, it's just that kind of stuff like this just happens way too often, where people just feel threatened.' On Facebook, she posted a clip of the encounter and called the janitor 'a racist punk' Hours later she wrote on Facebook: 'It's outrageous that some people question my being at Smith, and my existence overall as a woman of color.' She said the officer, who could have been carrying a 'lethal weapon,' left her near 'meltdown'. Kanoute did not mention that Blair had already told her that the empty cafe was closed, except for the summer school students. She wrote: 'I cannot even sit down and eat lunch peacefully. 'I did nothing wrong. I wasn't making a noise or bothering anyone. All I did was be black.' Her case was seized upon. Kathleen McCartney, president of Smith College, immediately apologized to Kanoute The president of Smith College, Kathleen McCartney, responded the next day. 'I begin by offering the student involved my deepest apology that this incident occurred,' she wrote. 'And to assure her that she belongs in all Smith places.' McCartney did not speak to the accused employees and put the janitor on paid leave that day. Blair, the cafeteria worker, was emailed by a reporter at The Boston Globe asking her why she called security on Kanoute for 'eating while black.' Blair was surprised, as she had had nothing to do with the call for security. The next day she discovered that Kanoute had posted her photograph, name and email on Facebook, along with that of another janitor, Mark Patenaude, a 21-year veteran of Smith College, who was not even on site at the time of the July 31 incident. She accused him of 'racist cowardly acts': he left his job not long after. 'I was accused of being the racist,' Patenaude told The New York Times. 'To be honest, that just knocked me out. I'm a 58-year-old male, we're supposed to be tough. 'But I suffered anxiety because of things in my past and this brought it to a whole 'nother level.' He recalled going through multiple training sessions about race and intersectionality at Smith after the incident, which he said left workers cynical. He left his job shortly after. 'I don't know if I believe in white privilege,' he said. 'I believe in money privilege.' Two members of staff have resigned following the July 2018 incident at the elite school The campus is close to the town of Northampton, in Massachusetts For Blair, the canteen worker, stress exacerbated her lupus and she checked into the hospital last year. She was vilified on social media, and around campus. She tried to change jobs within the school, but the accusations of being racist followed her. McCartney met with student government and black campus groups over tea to talk about the next steps the institution would take, such as the anti-bias training. McCartney had previously struggled to find the right tone in the stridently 'woke' college. In 2014, she moderated an alumnae discussion in New York on free speech. A white female panelist argued it was a mistake to ban Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because he used the N-word; the panelist then uttered the word in hopes, she said, of draining its power. Students attacked McCartney for failing to denounce that panelist, and McCartney then requested forgiveness. Later in 2014 she wrote to the college community, lamenting that grand juries had not indicted police officers in the deaths of black men, and commenting: 'All lives matter'. She again apologized. McCartney admitted to The New York Times that, when Kanoute made her complaint that summer, she was under great pressure to act. 'We always try to show compassion for everyone involved,' said McCartney. On September 13, 2018, Kanoute upped the ante and wrote on the ACLU website: 'This summer, I was racially profiled - an all-too-common experience for Black people in America. 'But unlike most people who are targeted for simply existing in their skin, my story of harassment went viral.' Kanoute was raised in New York and attended a Connecticut boarding school before Smith She spoke extensively about the July 31 incident, with interviews at CBS and The Boston Globe Students staged a mass walk-out in support of Kanoute, and urged Smith College to do more to combat what they claimed was widespread systematic racism at the school. Kanoute spoke to The Boston Globe for an article published on September 17, and said her new-found fame was tough to deal with. 'I have to watch how I act. It's hard to maneuver,' she said, describing the experience like 'walking on glass'. 'It's hard to tell who's being disingenuous, who's being opportunistic, who wants to be your friend for who you are, and who wants to know the Oumou that this happened to.' 'I knew that there would be trolls online that would say hurtful things. 'I also knew that if I had just sent an e-mail to the administration, none of this would be happening. It would have just been swept under the rug.' She added: 'Sometimes, I want to forget everything and escape, but I can't do that, because it would be giving up. 'These institutions are not yet built for us. I'm grateful that I get to talk about this.' Kanoute took legal representation from Carl Takei, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU asked Smith College to make changes to its policies, from how it handles police calls to mandatory, in-person, racial bias training for faculty, staff, and incoming students. The ACLU has also asked Smith to create housing for black students who may want to live together - a longstanding request from black student groups. On October 28, 2018, McCartney released a 35-page report from a law firm which was called in to investigate Kanoute's claim. Blair was cleared altogether, and the investigators found no sufficient evidence of discrimination by anyone else involved, including the janitor who called campus police. McCartney began a program of anti-bias training, which many within the staff found intrusive and unhelpful. 'My perception is that if you're on the wrong side of issues of identity politics, you're not just mistaken, you're evil,' said James Miller, an economics professor at Smith College and a conservative. 'It is safe to say race is discussed far more often than class at Smith,' said Professor Marc Lendler, who teaches American government at the college. 'It's a feature of elite academic institutions that faculty and students don't recognize what it means to be elite.' Lendler said the training for working-class employees risks becoming a kind of psychological bullying. 'My response would be, 'Unless it relates to conditions of employment, it's none of your business what I was like growing up or what I should be thinking of,' he said. The janitor in his 60s has since returned to work, but Blair was furloughed and struggled to find another job, with one potential employer asking her: 'Aren't you the one involved in that incident?' The current situation in Formula 1 amid the ongoing covid pandemic cannot continue "forever", Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost insists. Already in 2021, the original calendar has undergone changes as the sport and the wider world continues to grapple with the virus and governments' restrictions. British GP chief Stuart Pringle is desperate for spectators to be able to attend the race in July - and he is even dreaming of a 140,000-strong Sunday sell-out. "We have been hit with a double-whammy because the other side of our business is conferences and exhibitions, and they have not been able to happen either," he said. "Our 70,000 grandstand seats are spread out over three and a half miles," Pringle added. "I want the 2021 British GP to take place with the largest number of fans attending as possible. "That is hugely important to Silverstone so we will do whatever it takes to play our part in proving it is safe to do so. Anything is possible, but it has also been made clear that it is far from guaranteed." Some might scold Pringle or other F1 officials for pushing for the return of crowds so soon, but the British GP chief makes clear that the financial situation is serious. "It has been extremely difficult. We have had no revenue, but have had all the costs of keeping a 550 acre site licensed, serviceable and capable of coming back," he said. It's a similar story for the F1 teams, with Franz Tost admitting that Alpha Tauri - like the Red Bull-owned outfit's rivals - took a major financial hit in 2020. "I don't want to go back to a season like 2020 in which we didn't get a decent amount of money because there were fewer races and not enough spectators," he told Auto Motor und Sport. "This year is also critical because we are developing two cars in parallel, so I really hope that all the races will take place and that spectators will be able to come again so that the organisers can generate income," the Austrian added. When asked if Alpha Tauri could collapse amid the situation, Tost insisted: "Our survival is not at risk. "But obviously Red Bull won't sit there forever if the teams are always in the red. I really hope we can somehow get that back on track," he said. (GMM) STOCKHOLM, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Klarna Bank AB (publ) ("Klarna") publishes its Annual financial statement release for July - December 2020, and the full Q1-Q4 of 2020. Our strong results for 2020 were driven by rapidly accelerating momentum in the US, entry into four new markets, and growing consumer and merchant preference for Klarna's elevated shopping experience and strong brand. New product launches including savings accounts in Sweden, current accounts in Germany and Klarna's Vibe loyalty program in the US and Australia enhanced consumer acquisition and retention, and drove adoption of the Klarna app to a record 18 million monthly global users(1). Full year January to December 2020 Record gross merchandise volume with total net operating income breaking USD 1 billion Record Gross Merchandise Volume was achieved across the Klarna platform, up 46% to USD 53bn / SEK 484bn (2019: USD 35bn / SEK 332bn )(2) as Klarna continues to connect retailers with consumers for a superior shopping experience 40% increase in Total Net Operating Income to USD 1.087bn / SEK 10bn (2019: USD 753m / SEK 7.155bn ), breaking the $1 billion threshold for the first time. Strong capital position with CET1 Ratio at 29.5% (2019: 28.1%) Credit losses as a percentage of gross merchandise volume have fallen across all major markets as consumers adopt the benefits of pay later, and our risk models continue to mature. Klarna is well positioned to capture global growth in the retail market and continues to invest significantly in new market entries and expanded product offerings on that basis. Net profit was lower in line with expectations as operating expenses increased to deliver ambitious expansion by building significant scale in the US and other major markets, and launching our pay later offering in four new markets: Australia , Belgium , Spain and Italy . Four further market launches are planned for 2021. Growing retailer and consumer connections globally, through one platform in 17 markets 87 million global active consumers chose Klarna as the preferred platform to shop, pay and bank in 2020. Consumers' demand for convenience, flexibility and products that serve them better continue to drive the global shift from credit to debit. With one platform and one recognisable brand in 17 markets, Klarna is now the global partner of choice for 250,000+ retailers. Klarna in-store is now live in 10 markets, enabling consumers to use Klarna everywhere while delivering a seamless multichannel experience for retailers. US consumers can now shop in over 60,000 physical stores, while in Australia , Klarna is available in any store through the app. As well as a superior online and in-store experience, Klarna makes new connections between consumers and retailers, and in December alone, Klarna delivered 22 million clicks to retailers in the US. We have also established a presence in China to support retail partners scaling to a global consumer base with Klarna. Accelerated growth in the US Momentum in the US accelerated rapidly with a million consumers a month added during the key shopping period in Q4 2020, with 15 million consumers choosing to shop with Klarna by January 2021 . Klarna is the partner of choice for 20 of the US top 100 retailers. At the close of Q4, Klarna was ranked in the Top 10 most downloaded shopping apps in US app stores for the entire period. Several renowned brands have joined Klarna's US retail network, including Macy's, Etsy, Sephora, Saks OFF 5TH, Lululemon, Bluemercury, Rebecca Minkoff and Pandora, bringing the total number of retail partners to more than 6,000. Driving customer satisfaction in 2021 and beyond Consumer satisfaction is driving customer acquisition and retention, with US consumer NPS at 80+, well above financial services benchmark of +34(3). Vibe, the first loyalty program of its kind in our industry, is now live in the US and Australia , and rewards consumers who pay for their goods on time. The program gained immediate traction, attracting one million members during the first three months. Vibe will expand to further markets in 2021. The global platform KlarnaSense, encouraging more mindful shopping, has resonated strongly with consumers and will be launched across markets in 2021. Sebastian Siemiatkoski, Klarna co-founder and CEO commented: "The last year has created unprecedented change in the global economy which has transformed how consumers bank, shop and pay. Klarna has adapted well, supporting retailers to move online at pace while continuing to provide consumers with superior shopping experiences and payment options that meet their evolving needs. 2020 has not slowed Klarna's progress: we scaled to four new markets, broadened our platform to an integrated banking offering in Sweden and Germany, and truly accelerated our growth in the US, where we added 1 million new consumers per month in the last quarter. "2021 is going to be another year of change as consumers will slowly return to stores expecting to see the flexibility they have become accustomed to reflected in the brick-and-mortar experience. Klarna will continue to innovate across channels, geographies and verticals to provide consumers with the transparency, control and flexibility they now demand from banking, shopping and payments, while supporting our partners in their growth ambitions." The full report is available at www.klarna.com. For additional information, please contact: Aoife Houlihan, VP of Communications Phone: +46 (0) 72855 8047 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] (1) Global active monthly app users (2) Klarna's results are reported in SEK. To arrive at USD values, the average exchange rates for 2019 and 2020 have been used. 1USD equals approximately 9.5SEK for full year 2019 and 9.2 SEK for full year 2020. (3) Retently, 2020 About Klarna We make shopping smooth. With Klarna, consumers can buy now and pay later, so they can get what they need today. Klarna's offering to consumers and retailers includes payments, social shopping and personal finances. Over 250,000 retail partners including Macys, H&M, IKEA, Expedia Group, Samsung, ASOS, Peloton, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike and AliExpress, have enabled Klarna's innovative shopping experience online and in-store. Klarna is ranked number five on the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, and is one of the most highly valued private fintechs globally with a valuation of $10.65 billion. Klarna was founded in 2005, has over 3,500 employees and is active in 17 countries. Klarna has been backed by Sequoia Capital since 2010 and more recently, Dragoneer, Bestseller Group, Permira, Visa, Atomico, Ant Group and Silver Lake, HMI Capital, TCV amongst others. For more information, visit klarna.com. This information is information that Klarna Bank AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:00 CET on February 25, 2021. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/1740/3295517/1378672.pdf Release https://mb.cision.com/Public/1740/3295517/b20c468f9b82d1e7.pdf Press release - Klarna Q1-Q4 2020 Financial Report 1 SOURCE Klarna Bank AB When President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to fight the rebellious Confederate States in 1861, it took little more than a week for the "First Defenders" to arrive in Washington. Many of those volunteers arrived in the capital by train from Pennsylvania -- where infantry and artillerymen were raised from places like Allentown, Reading and Lewistown -- and made their way to the defense of their nation. When Lincoln rode out to meet them, one of the first units he came across was Pottsville's 100-man Washington Artillery, which was already filled with wounded troops. Among the men Lincoln met that day was 65-year-old Nicholas Biddle, a former slave, who was wearing the uniform of the Washington Artillery despite being forbidden to enlist as a soldier. He was also bleeding from a wound on his head, the first blood shed in the Civil War up until that point (the only deaths at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, came from a cannon accident during the fort's evacuation). Where Biddle escaped slavery isn't known, only that he came to freedom through the Underground Railroad and settled in Pottsville. He took a keen interest in the town's two companies of militia, even volunteering to join. But since Black men were forbidden to join as soldiers, he signed on as an aide to its commanding officer, Capt. James Wren. In spite of the Army's regulations, Biddle's fellow Pennsylvanians came to accept the former slave as one of their own and allowed him to wear the uniform of the Washington Artillery. When the militia answered the president's call, Biddle came with them. To get to Washington, Pennsylvania's First Defenders first had to march through Baltimore, which was filled with Confederate sympathizers at the time. Wren told Biddle that the sight of a Black man in uniform would spark outrage in Baltimore and warned him that he could be captured and reenslaved. The aide told his commanding officer that he was marching to D.C. with the trust of the lord and couldn't be scared by the devil himself. The Baltimore Riot of 1861 began as "First Defenders" made their way south to Washington, DC. (Library of Congress) The unit had to march across the city of Baltimore from one train station to another. For most of the journey, they were joined by a regular Army company and protected by local police, which somewhat limited the crowd's violence. As the 475 Union troops moved through the city, residents pelted them with rocks, bottles and anything else that wasn't tied down. When the regular Army unit broke off and made for its station at nearby Fort McHenry, the crowd got even bolder, inflicting broken bones and other injuries. Wren was right about the crowd's response to his African American aide. Being a Black man in uniform, Biddle suffered the worst of the mob. He was hit in the head by a brick as he boarded the second train, which caused a wound that not only knocked him down but caused him to bleed profusely. By the time the 65-year-old Biddle arrived in Washington with his unit, the wound must have looked pretty bad because President Lincoln implored him to seek medical attention. But Biddle opted to stay with the Washington Artillery. The Pennsylvanians remained in garrison in the capital until July 1861, days before the first pitched battle of the war at Bull Run. With their three-month enlistments complete, they returned to Pottsville. Eventually, most of them opted to reenlist for three years and go off to fight with the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry. As a group of former eastern Pennsylvania coal miners, they were instrumental in digging the tunnels under Petersburg, Virginia, that would lead to the infamous Battle of the Crater. Biddle decided to stay in Pottsville, where he spent the rest of his life. When his fellow Pottsville veterans learned that he had died penniless, they chipped in and gave their friend a full funeral, complete with Union-style headstone. -- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook. Want to Learn More About Military Life? Whether you're thinking of joining the military, looking for post-military careers or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to Military.com to have military news, updates and resources delivered directly to your inbox. A Harrisburg businessman has avoided a prison term, but must pay the IRS nearly $361,000 in restitution for failing to fork over employment taxes. U.S. Middle Chief District Judge John E. Jones III sentenced Darasomalee Thach, 36, the former co-owner of a temporary staffing company, Team Work Inc., to 2 years of probation in the conspiracy to defraud the U.S. case and ordered him to pay restitution for all the overdue taxes. Thach failed to withhold and pay employment taxes between 2011 and 2015 in order to maximize his personal profit, Acting U.S. Bruce D. Brandler said. Thach was arrested based on a probe by criminal investigators for the IRS who said Thach failed to report more than $1.6 million in wages paid to his firms employees. Team Work provided day laborers for companies in central and eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. Thursday, February 25, 2021 Jim Garrison, in his book On The Trail of the Assassins, found an entry in Clay Shaw's address book that was curious, to say the least. Here is what he wrote (pages 147-148): "With but one exception, Shaw's entire address book consisted of addresses and phone numbers. That one exception appeared on one of the otherwise unused pages. There, inscribed in Shaw's handwriting, were the words "Oct" and Nov" - which would appear to mean October and November. Then, after an indecipherable scribble - there was scrawled simply: "Dallas." This paragraph was almost repeated word for word in James DiEugenio's book, Destiny Betrayed (page 237): "But there was another entry in Shaw's book that was just as interesting. Although the entire book listed addresses and phone numbers, on one otherwise blank page were scrawled the two abbreviations "Oct." and "Nov." and next to these, the word "Dallas." Here is the page from Shaw's address book: The page is not quite as advertised. Does it look nefarious to you? Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. OTTAWA - The Canadian Armed Forces is reeling after news defence chief Admiral Art McDonald is being investigated for misconduct, only weeks after military police launched an investigation into allegations against his predecessor. Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy Vice-Admiral Art McDonald is seen during an interview with The Canadian Press in Ottawa, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - The Canadian Armed Forces is reeling after news defence chief Admiral Art McDonald is being investigated for misconduct, only weeks after military police launched an investigation into allegations against his predecessor. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan revealed late Wednesday that McDonald had "voluntarily stepped aside" while military police investigate unspecified allegations. He is on paid leave. McDonald took over as the chief of the defence staff last month from Gen. Jonathan Vance, who is now being investigated after allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Vance has denied any wrongdoing and McDonald has not commented. Canadian Army commander Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre has been appointed acting chief of the defence staff. Conservative defence critic James Bezan called Thursday for the government to reveal the nature of the allegations against McDonald, who used his first address as defence chief on Jan. 14 to apologize to victims of military sexual misconduct and hate. In the interest of morale, and for our women and men in uniform to have confidence in the senior leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces, Minister Sajjan must confirm why chief of defence staff Admiral Art McDonald is under investigation, Bezan said in a statement. There is clearly something wrong with the Liberal government's vetting process, said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. "There seems to be a pattern of behaviour with the governments appointed positions." Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said the message from the government must be that the military "can be no less than exemplary. I believe that the people that go into the army, that decide that this is their choice for a career, are good people, and must not be judged as a whole. I believe that there are a few people in the institutions that are not up to the task of being exemplary. In a memo to members of the Forces on Wednesday, McDonald made no mention of allegations against him, but said the "time for patience is over" and the military must "accelerate our culture change." "Our institution can no longer put the burden of change and transformation on those affected by harassment, discrimination, or any form of misconduct. That burden must rest on us. All of us," he wrote. "I as the Chief, along with all the leaders in CAF, need to work every day to earn your trust. And we are all committed to doing so." "If you are considering speaking to anyone with information on (the Vance) case, or any other case of alleged misconduct, you have my support to come forward, to speak up, and to tell the truth. And you can expect to be heard, supported, and protected as you do." The investigation of McDonald has renewed calls for external oversight of the military, which self-polices allegations of sexual misconduct in the ranks. Lawyer and retired colonel Michel Drapeau said the government needs to appoint a permanent and independent inspector general similar to those in other militaries. That person would have the investigative powers to look into allegations of wrongdoing within the Canadian Armed Forces. If, during his investigation, he came across any evidence of a criminal nature, he would be duty bound to stop his investigations and turn the matter to the criminal police, Drapeau said in an email. Barring that, Drapeau said, Sajjan should immediately convene a board of inquiry perhaps headed by a military judge to investigate the allegations against McDonald, with police only involved if the allegations are of a criminal nature. Should police become involved, Drapeau added, it should be the RCMP, not the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the investigative arm of the military police. I do not have confidence in terms of training, experience and independence, Drapeau said of the service, known as the NIS. Additionally, (the military police) and NIS report to the vice-chief of the defence staff, which makes any claim of independence illusory. In addition to criminal offences, Canadian military personnel can also be charged with what are known as service offences, which usually relate to conduct such as drunkenness or having a relationship with a subordinate. Former naval reservist Marie-Claude Gagnon, who founded a group for survivors of military sexual misconduct called It's Just 700, has been raising concerns for years about gaps in the system. She said the time for external oversight of the Armed Forces is now. "External oversight, it's essential," Gagnon said. "Self-policing itself has never worked. It's not a recipe for success. I'm hoping that there's no doubt that there needs to be oversight." In the House of Commons Thursday, Conservative MP Leona Alleslev said a thorough, independent investigation of the allegations against McDonald is critical, but senior officers who may themselves be complicit remain in key positions within the chain of command. "How will the minister ensure that compromised senior officers are not interfering in these investigations to protect themselves?" she asked during question period. Sajjan replied that all allegations would be investigated thoroughly, independent from the chain of command. "And regardless of position, and regardless of rank, we will take the appropriate action because we owe it to our members." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2021. With files from Christopher Reynolds and Jim Bronskill SPRINGFIELD A report of an object floating in the Connecticut River near the Chicopee line Thursday morning triggered a response from area fire departments in rescue boats. The search was called off when the object turned out to be a life jacket. Springfield Fire Department spokesman Drew Piemonte said a member of the public called 911 after seeing what could be a body in the river somewhere north of the North End Bridge. The Springfield, West Springfield and Chicopee Fire Departments responded. State and local officials have been searching the river for a missing Chicopee boy, 11-year-old Aiden Blanchard, who was last seen Feb. 5 walking toward the Medina Street boat launch. The launch is about a mile upstream from where the vest was found. Since he was reported missing, police boats, dive teams and the state police helicopter have repeatedly searched the river without finding any trace of the boy. New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Union Government on Thursday came up with new stringent guidelines for social media platforms along with code of ethics for over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital media. Addressing the media, the Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that social media platforms will be classified under two categories - social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries - with the latter being subject to greater obligations. The government will soon notify a list of significant social media intermediaries soon, the minister said, adding that platforms with a "significant" number of users will be classified as significant social media intermediaries. A benchmark number would be set for the classification, he said. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 mandate that the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims. Intermediaries will have to appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty-four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt, said an official statement. As per the new norms "an intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the appropriate government should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries etc." Further, significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the originator of the information that is required only offences related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse. The norm would be applicable to offences under which an offender would be punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. Intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator, said the statement. Further, the significant platforms will have to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person, a Resident Grievance Officer. The platforms would also have to publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively by the significant social media intermediary. In cases where significant social media intermediaries remove or disable access to any information on their own accord, then a prior intimation for the same shall be communicated to the user who has shared that information with a notice explaining the grounds and reasons for such action. Users must be provided an adequate and reasonable opportunity to dispute the action taken by the intermediary, as per the new norms. The rules will come in effect from the date of their publication in the gazette, except for the additional due diligence for significant social media intermediaries, which shall come in effect 3 months after publication of these Rules. Further, on the online news, OTT platforms and digital media platforms, the government has set up three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been under the rules with different levels of self-regulation. The levels are self-regulation by the publishers, self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers, oversight mechanism self-classification of content. A per the Code of Ethics, the publisher shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer based in India who shall be responsible for the redressal of grievances received by it. The officer shall take decision on every grievance received by it within 15 days. There may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body shall be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminent person and have not more than six members. Such a body will have to register with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This body will oversee the adherence by the publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that have not be been resolved by the publisher within 15 days. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text BEER-SHEVA, Israel, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PointMe, a start-up portfolio company of Incubit Ventures, Elbit Systems' deep-tech incubator, is transforming the way we interact with objects in the physical world. PointMe has developed a solution that is based on an innovative LBS (localization-based services) technology that can transform any object in the physical world into a clickable one, such as a billboard, a screen, a building, a statue, a restaurant and more. Today, PointMe announced that Dr. Gustavo Martinez, a worldwide recognized executive in the marketing and communication industry, joined its advisory board. Dr. Gustavo Martinez to join PointMe Advisory Board Dr. Martinez has an impressive record in the marketing and communication industry, as top ex-executive of WPP. Worldwide Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Walter Thompson ("JWT") Company. He was also president of Europe and Asia at McCann World group, and also spent over 10 years at Ogilvy & Mather in multiple senior management positions, including Global Director of Brand Management, Global New Business Director and Chief Operating Officer, Ogilvy Latina, among other positions. Martinez's marketing and communication career began in Henkel Iberica, and prior to that, he was with a Manager of the Strategic Consulting department at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Dr. Martinez is currently Board Member at ALOOH, the Latin American Out Of Home Association, an organization that groups over 70 OOH companies from all over Latin America, that is also part of WOO (the World Out of Home organization). He is also a board member in various companies and Managing Partner at The Cyranos and Partner at one of the top Global Creative Boutiques with offices in Spain and Latam. Dr. Martinez brings valuable experience to PointMe, as one of its main target markets is OOH advertisement. "The out of home industry is seeking for solutions that will help it to bridge the gap to digitize this market and create interaction with its audience," says Dr. Gustavo Martinez. "Not only do they need to do that in order to be more relevant as a media tool, but they also need to create new value. PointMe's solution will open a new era in OOH, transforming any sign into an interactive one and create new models of remuneration through very precise engagement funnels, very similar to the models of the digital media industry," he concluded. "Having such a recognized professional as Dr. Martinez to join us and believe in our solution is a great boost for us, not only because of his contacts but also because of his ability to guide PointMe to the right direction and improve its solution to meet the industry needs," said Ran Soffer, PointMe's CEO. Dr. Martinez holds a bachelor's and a Ph.D. in economics from the Universitat de Barcelona. He holds a PDG from IESE (Universidad de Navarra), and was a Professor of Marketing and Economics in Spain's School of Economics. PointMe was co-founded in 2019 by Ran Soffer CEO, and Shai Homsky, CTO. Each of them brings vast experience in startups & Fortune 500 companies. Both were part of two successful M&As, one of which was the sale of an Israeli company to Broadcom. The company's VP BD, Shmulik Kitanik, brings more than 20 years of experience in the marketing and advertising industries, working for major agencies such as Publicis, J. Walter Thompson, and Grey. The seed investment was made by Incubit Ventures and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA). https://www.pointme.me/ Media relations: Shmulik Kitanik [email protected] SOURCE PointMe Related Links https://www.pointme.me/ Others might be struggling to access information about the vaccine or how to receive it because of language barriers, Pedroza added. When we talk about equity, (part of that is) ensuring we provide the vaccine rollout in an equitable way. For some people, its easy to sign up on MyTurn or on the countys vaccine interest form, he said. For others, direct outreach from their provider is the more efficient, more equitable way of communicating. OLE Health, in reaching out directly to its patient base, was able facilitate that, Pedroza added, noting that he believed the majority of Wednesdays patients were members of the Latino community. Having stopped by the clinic on Wednesday, he said he was impressed with the efficiency with which the more than 30 nurses were vaccinating patients. What he found even more impressive, he said, was all the work that leads up to the clinic making that call, educating a patient on why its important to receive the vaccine and the process of how to get it. Contact: Joseph Kyzer Joseph Kyzer joseph.kyzer@ncleg.gov Legislation giving North Carolina families the choice to attend in-person summer learning programs in public schools cleared multiple state House committees on Tuesday with support from local superintendents who spoke in favor of the bill. House Bill 82 Summer Learning Choice for NC Families would provide six weeks of classroom instruction, five days a week, for families who choose to participate this summer. The programs are targeted to students falling behind during remote learning but are available to all North Carolina families.The bill is designed to encourage student participation by offering core academic courses mixed with enrichment and physical activities. It provides time flexibility to local school districts by prescribing hours requirements instead of days, allowing districts to tailor the program to their specific needs.Disability Rights NC joined local superintendents in support of the legislation in public comments to the House Education Committee.attorney Meisha Evans with Disability Rights NC told the House Education K-12 Committee.Harnett County Schools Superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming spoke in favor of the legislation on Tuesday.Dr. Fleming said.Mt. Airy City Schools Superintendent Dr. Kim Morrison said her district had over 400 students attend a summer program in 2020, and the success of those classes informed her support for the bill.Dr. Morrison said.Speaker Moore addressed the House Education K-12 Committee on Tuesday.Speaker Moore said.H.B. 82 was approved by the House Education K-12 Committee and the House Committee on Pensions and Retirement on Tuesday. It will also be heard in the House Rules Committee and is expected to be voted on by the full state House of Representatives Wednesday. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The rules on trading with Europe have changed, but these British companies are going from strength to strength under our new relationship with the EU On January 1, the way we trade with the EU changed. New rules and processes came in affecting firms that import or export to the continent. But while many companies have taken steps to prepare for the changes, some haven't, and that could leave their business at risk of disruption. Here, firms that have made the switch reveal their tips and how they have adjusted. 'BEING ABLE TO IMPORT SMOOTHLY IS ESSENTIAL TO WHAT WE DO' With his business dependent on successfully importing and exporting millions of pounds worth of goods every year, Martin Stemp was determined to ensure it continued to run smoothly after the Brexit transition period ended. The owner of RS Aqua, an ocean technology firm based in Portsmouth, secured a UK Government grant to put his staff on a training course to learn how to complete the new customs declarations. The company also spoke to its shipping companies and suppliers and changed their paperwork to make sure it complied with the new rules. Martin Stemp, of Portsmouth-based firm RS Aqua, got a grant to help his staff learn how to complete new customs declarations Having exported outside of the EU before, Martin found the new processes quite familiar. However, he warns: 'You definitely need to plan in advance, you have to be prepared. There is a lot [to do], it's not to be sniffed at but there's support around if you need it. 'I suggest working with the Department for International Trade it has an Export Champions programme and talking to peers in your industry who are already exporting.' 'OUR FIRST SHIPMENT UNDER THE NEW RULES ARRIVED JUST 24 HOURS LATER' With its shoes produced in Italy, belts and buckles made in Slovenia and lampshades crafted in Austria, sustainable clothing company Aqua & Rock couldn't have survived unless it had adapted to the new rules. Dea Baker, of Scottish firm Aqua & Rock, says she hasn't experienced any shipment delays 'I wouldn't have a business if it hadn't,' says founder Dea Baker. 'In all, I work with five European countries and I tend to export most to Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium.' So, last September she began investigating the changes she needed to make to prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period, which included getting an EORI number and changing the company's standard invoices. Following January 1, imports and exports have run smoothly. 'Our first shipment under the new rules was from Amsterdam, and it arrived within 24 hours. I was impressed. I haven't experienced any delays. 'Even when goods come via Dover I'm up in Scotland I haven't had any trouble. 'We've adapted and survived and we're growing we've just employed some more people.' 'PLANNING IS THE REASON FOR OUR BREXIT SUCCESS' To increase capacity, Control Techniques recently picked up its Chinese factory, put it on a train across Siberia, and relocated it in the Mid Wales countryside. It's this commitment to success that led the company, which designs and manufactures electric motor control technology, to start planning two years ago for the end of the Brexit transition period. 'We export to 77 countries, so we had to be well prepared,' says president Anthony Pickering. Anthony Pickering, of Welsh firm Control Techniques, says planning is the key to success 'We made sure our suppliers were ready and had contingency plans in place for example, if the port at Dover became blocked. They had to prove that their suppliers also had a plan, reaching all the way back down the supply chain. 'Planning has been the reason for our success since January 1, because we're reliant on our supply chain. Our factories are full we're absolutely flat out, with orders coming out of our ears. 'We've not missed a beat, and our business is continuing to evolve. There are some delays, thanks to logistics but I think it will figure itself out.' WHAT EVERY FIRM NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE CHANGES Even though a deal with the EU has been secured, doing business with and travelling to Europe has changed. There are new rules on exports, imports, tariffs, qualifications, hiring and travel that you need to follow, or your plans could face disruption. To give businesses more time to prepare, new border controls are being introduced in three phases. If your business imports from the EU, you need to check the new requirements that will start in April and July, and make sure you are ready. To make things easier, businesses can use the Brexit checker tool at gov.uk/transition for a personalised list of actions. The website also contains a host of other helpful information including a 'Check an HGV is ready' service for hauliers, dedicated helplines, webinars with policy experts, step-by-step guides and video explainers. *This article is part of a paid-for partnership with the UK Government Despite its title, Immersive Van Gogh is not an art museum exhibit. There are no Van Gogh paintings whatsoever to see at the former Germania Club. There are no artifacts at all. What people a whole lot of people are buying is a show that lands somewhere between film and theater. Its a high-definition, environmental movie containing original music, images and storytelling. And its adaptable to the shape of the building in which it happens to be playing. In other words, its the kind of immersive, communal experience that conventional wisdom says just got blown away by the pandemic and wont return for years. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Austral Gold Limited (ASX: AGD) (TSXV: AGLD) (the "Company" or "Austral") is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Argentex Mining Corp., has completed its purchase of 5,950,000 units (each a "Unit") in the capital of Ensign Gold Inc. ("Ensign"), a privately-held Canadian company with exploration assets in the state of Utah, U.S.A., for an aggregate purchase price of C$1,487,500 (approximately US$1,171,260), or C$0.25 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one Class A share (each, a "Share") in the capital of Ensign and one-half of one transferable share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional Share at an exercise price of $1.50 for a period of 36 months, subject to an acceleration provision. After adjusting for this subscription, Argentex owns approximately 19.96% of the issued and outstanding Ensign Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 27.22% on a partially diluted basis (approximately 22.90% on a fully diluted basis). About Ensign Ensign is a privately-held federally incorporated Canadian company. It is not a reporting issuer in any Province of Canada, nor is it listed on any stock exchange. It is currently assembling a 5,000-hectare land package on favourable Carlin-type gold deposit geology in the state of Utah with the goal of consolidating the Mercur camp for the first time. Ensign owns 54 patented claims, 370 unpatented claims, and 5 SITLA claims on South Mercur, West Mercur and North Mercur. Historically, this region produced over 3 million ounces of gold and was shut down over two decades ago when gold was selling for less than $300 per ounce. Chief Executive Officer, Stabro Kasaneva commented: "We are pleased to close this transaction with Ensign as this investment is consistent with our expansion plans into North America - investing in one of the first Carlin type discoveries, with significant exploration upside remaining at today's gold prices. The Mercur property is adjacent to the prolific Bingham Canyon mine which has produced over 50 million ounces of gold and over 30 million tonnes of copper on the other side of the mountain range. This represents a modest investment to potentially unlock another gold opportunity for us in North America." About Austral Gold Austral Gold Limited is a growing gold and silver mining, development and exploration company building a portfolio of quality assets in Chile, the USA and Argentina. Austral owns 100% interest in the Guanaco/Amancaya mine in Chile and the Casposo Mine (care and maintenance) in Argentina, and a 26.46% interest in the Rawhide Mine in Nevada. In addition, Austral owns an attractive portfolio of exploration projects in the Paleocene Belt in Chile (including those acquired in the recent acquisition of Revelo Resources Corp) and a 100% interest in the Pinguino project in Santa Cruz, Argentina. Austral Gold Limited is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: AGLD), and the Australian Securities Exchange. (ASX: AGD). For more information, please consult Austral's website at (www.australgold.com). Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Release approved by the Chief Executive Officer of Austral Gold, Stabro Kasaneva. For additional information please contact: Jose Bordogna Chief Financial Officer Austral Gold Limited jose.bordogna@australgold.com +54 (11) 4323 7558 Ben Jarvis Director Austral Gold Limited info@australgold.com +61 413 150 448 Forward Looking Statements Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward- looking statements are statements that are not historical and consist primarily of projections - statements regarding future plans, expectations and developments. Words such as "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", "potential", "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import tend to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements concerning the Company's belief that there is exploration upside at the Mercur property at today's gold prices and that this investment represents a modest investment to potentially unlock another gold opportunity for Austral Gold in North America. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied, including, without limitation, business integration risks; uncertainty of production, development plans and cost estimates, commodity price fluctuations; political or economic instability and regulatory changes; currency fluctuations, the state of the capital markets especially in light of the effects of the novel coronavirus, uncertainty in the measurement of mineral reserves and resource estimates, Austral's ability to attract and retain qualified personnel and management, potential labour unrest, reclamation and closure requirements for mineral properties; unpredictable risks and hazards related to the development and operation of a mine or mineral property that are beyond the Company's control, the availability of capital to fund the Mercur project and other risks and uncertainties identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed on the ASX and on SEDAR. You are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used. Austral cannot assure you that actual events, performance or results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements, and management's assumptions may prove to be incorrect. Austral's forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date hereof and Austral does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75440 TERRE HAUTE, IND. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports over 65 million vaccine doses have been administered to people across the nation. As more people become vaccinated, experts say the sooner we will return to a sense of normalcy. I got it at 7:10 this morning, Randall Johnson, local resident said. Johnson says he's having a good day! Thats because he got the first dose of his COVID-19 vaccine. As the world continues to become vaccinated against the virus, experts are continuing to learn what the side effects are to the vaccine. Krisiti Williams is the Director of Pharmacy at Terre Haute Regional Hospital. She says the side effects she has seen are mild. "It's your typical flu-like symptoms that seem to be lasting about 24 hours, Williams said. Again that is not the majority of patients. The majority of patients do not have any side effects." The vaccine is administered in two phases. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) the two-shot process is to ensure adequate immunity. As the vaccination roll-out continues, experts say COVID-19 cases are rapidly decreasing nationwide. "We can look around and see the COVID numbers have decreased since we vaccinated people, so that's just more people who are immune to it," Williams said. Johnson told us he didn't experience any problems with his first shot. "It was like a mosquito bite, it wasn't even that bad, Johnson said. I have had worse mosquito bites. it doesn't hurt." Despite the risk of minimal side effects, he believes the vaccine is necessary to return to normal life. "It is important if we want to get our economy up and moving that we take all the opportunity to make ourselves safer and healthier." For more information on specific side effects you may see, please visit this website. Additionally, if you are eligible to receive the vaccine, you can visit ourshot.in.gov or call 211 to schedule your appointment. Titular de la PCM: Hemos recibido el primer lote de un millon vacunas y estamos negociando la adquisicion de muchas mas. No permitiremos que este proceso se empane por ninguna razon. pic.twitter.com/ZOoWtecLVX " " Members of the Black Panther Party demonstrate outside the Criminal Courts Building one month after 21 Panthers were charged with plotting to dynamite city stores, a police station and a railroad right-of-way, New York City. Jack Manning/New York Times Co./Getty Images "[Huey Newton said], 'You know, the nature of a panther I looked it up... If you push it into a corner that panther is going to try to move left or right to get you to get out of the way. But if you keep pushing it back into that corner sooner or later that panther is going to come out of that corner and try to wipe out who keeps oppressing it in that corner.' I says, 'Wow, Huey, That's just like black people we're pushed in a corner.'" That's how Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale described how the Black Panther Party got its name [source: Oakland Museum of California]. Advertisement The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Merritt College students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Oakland, California [source: Duncan]. The pair was frustrated by persisting racial inequalities in police treatment, housing, education, health care and other fundamental areas. But a big part of their platform was self-defense defending themselves (and other African Americans) from the police and other people who might want to hurt them. Newton and Seale thought the non-violent civil rights movement championed by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was moving too slowly, and they identified instead with the more radical ideologies put forth by leaders like Malcolm X. Indeed, the original name of the group was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense [source: Oakland Museum of California]. The organization eventually spread to chapters in 48 states and a number of other countries, including South Africa, Japan and England [source: Duncan]. Party leaders developed a specific Ten Point Program that outlined the organization's concerns and demands. Equal opportunity for employment at a fair wage, financial reparations for the enslavement of millions of African Americans, and access to decent housing, education and health care were among the issues listed. They also called for the release of Black and oppressed prison inmates because, in the words of the program manifesto, "We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in United States prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration." The party began to elicit attention by conducting armed patrols of Oakland's poor neighborhoods, which was perfectly legal thanks to a loophole Newton discovered in state law that permitted loaded weapons to be carried openly. So, Panthers walked the streets, witnessing arrests and other police interactions in an effort to discourage brutality [source: Blake]. Not surprisingly, this tactic inspired fearful politicians to change the law, post haste, all the while driving more attention to the Panthers and their cause. BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Some anti-China forces in the West have fabricated and mongered a string of lies about China's Xinjiang, ignoring facts on the ground and continuing their vain attempt to contain China's development. They have invented these lies through methods including, but not limited to, data abuse, distortion of information, fabrication of cases, cherry-picking of source materials, and logical contradictions. For example, the claim that "nearly one million Uygurs are detained," an outright rumor based on two highly dubious "studies." The first "study" was done by the U.S. government-backed Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) with interviews from only eight people. The CHRD applied the estimated ratio shown in this absurdly small sample to the whole of Xinjiang, drawing a crude conclusion that one million people were detained in the "re-education detention camps" and two million were "forced to attend day/evening re-education sessions." The second "study" was authored by far-right fundamentalist Christian Adrian Zenz, who based his "just over one million" estimate on a single report by Istiqlal TV, a Uygur exile media organization based in Turkey that instigates separatism while playing host to an assortment of extremist figures. It is also noteworthy that Zenz is a religious fanatic who has said he is "led by God" to crusade against the Chinese government. His many so-called sources of information, including three women who had claimed to be under "unlawful detention" and forced to undergo compulsory sterilization by the government, have been debunked. In its latest fiasco alleging "systematic rape" in Xinjiang, the BBC sourced only dubious, one-sided oral claims, including from some people who have given contradictory statements, without any credible confirmation or corroborating evidence. The so-called "genocide" in Xinjiang is another lie concocted by anti-China forces. According to official figures, from 2010 to 2018, the Uygur population in Xinjiang rose from 10.17 million to 12.72 million, an increase of 25 percent, higher than the growth rate of 22 percent for all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and much higher than that of the Han population, which is 2 percent. By fabricating lies and building a false narrative, anti-China forces in the West, including in the United States, have smeared China's image, slandered its policies on Xinjiang, interfered in China's internal affairs, and attempted to deceive the international community and disrupt the stability and development of Xinjiang. They can fool some of the people some of the time, but cannot fool all the people all the time. Inflammatory accusations fabricated out of ignorance and prejudice are not difficult to debunk, especially since China has presented a convincing case. That some Western politicians chose to ignore facts and embrace lies, if not out of misunderstanding, can only be explained by their intention to use Xinjiang as a "card" against China. However, these efforts will be in vain, as China's Xinjiang policy serves the best interests of Xinjiang and China, and have been proved effective by Xinjiang's socio-economic achievements over the years, as witnessed by more than 1,200 diplomats, UN officials, foreign journalists and others from over 100 countries who have visited Xinjiang since 2018. China including Xinjiang will continue to follow its proven path of development. The attempt to contain China's development through lies over Xinjiang will not succeed. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sotheby's International Realty is pleased to announce that its affiliated brokers and independent sales professionals achieved a record US$150 billion in 2020 global sales volume, a nearly 32% increase in sales growth year over year, as the definition of home changed for consumers around the world. Due to a longstanding commitment to innovation, Sotheby's International Realty agents were able to seamlessly help clients navigate the changing market dynamics brought on by the global pandemic with existing technology offerings which propelled business momentum. "Agents affiliated with Sotheby's International Realty quickly pivoted to address the impact of the global pandemic," said Philip White, president and CEO of Sotheby's International Realty. "Thanks to innovations we pioneered nearly a decade ago, our affiliated companies and agents made the impossible possible. Their adaptability to serve clients safely further extended our position as a leader in luxury real estate." Long-Standing Commitment to Virtual Technology Paved Way for Success Sotheby's International Realty continued to lead the industry and was well-positioned to meet the needs of consumers as the buying and selling process became increasingly virtual. Sotheby's International Realty agents accelerated the use of the brand's existing video, virtual reality, and live-streaming technology to produce new forms of content that engaged buyers and set a new standard for marketing luxury properties. Currently, buyers can safely tour more than 6,000 properties via virtual reality or video on sothebysrealty.com. Property videos also proved engaging on social media where the brand's YouTube channel delivered 43 million views, or the equivalent of more than one million hours watched. "As a leader in the luxury real estate industry, Sotheby's International Realty is able to anticipate trends," said Chief Marketing Officer, Bradley Nelson. "Our priority remains to present listings in the best possible manner and to provide a superb end-user experience however buyers prefer to search for their new home. Virtual technology has been at the forefront of our marketing strategy for several years and comes as naturally to us as our commitment to high quality service." The brand also unveiled a new website, sothebysrealty.com, available in 14 languages and nearly 60 currency conversions, to continue serving its growing international clientele and fuel referrals worldwide. The website achieved a notable amount of traffic for the brand with 37 million visits in 2020. Property videos on the site produced by Sotheby's International Realty agents were especially popular and played nearly 13 million times in 2020, totaling more than 90,000 hours watched. A Year of Strategic Growth and Record Achievements Despite travel restrictions, Sotheby's International Realty remained committed to expanding its global footprint and achieving strategic growth. In 2020, the brand opened more than 50 new offices across the world, bringing the brand's total presence to nearly 1,000 offices in 75 countries and territories with approximately 24,000 independent sales associates worldwide. The brand's existing affiliated companies around the world continued to grow in 2020. Sotheby's International Realty increased its total domestic presence to 45 states around the country. Sotheby's International Realty facilitated affiliate expansions through 12 domestic M&A transactions, including California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and Washington. The brand also continued to expand internationally in key markets and opened offices in seven new territories. In Europe, the brand expanded to Ukraine, Romania, Montenegro, and in Germany. In the Asia-Pacific region, the brand opened its first office in South Korea and expanded in the Caribbean and Latin American region with two new offices in Paraguay and Antigua & Barbuda. "Our international footprint is one of our greatest competitive advantages," said Tammy Fahmi, vice president, global operations and international servicing. "Our brand's locations are in the most desirable places around the globe, so our clients know they can rely on our local market expertise wherever they are looking to buy or sell." As affluent individuals looked to acquire secondary homes in markets around the world, Sotheby's International Realty agents acted as true global real estate advisors and referral volume surged by 42% to US$2.9 billion in closed sales volume. "Our 2020 results prove what is possible when you focus on quality above all else. We remain proud to be the real estate brand of choice for so many luxury real estate experts and affluent clients. We will continue to work tirelessly to prove their trust has been well placed," concluded White. Sotheby's International Realty Sotheby's International Realty was founded in 1976 as a real estate service for discerning clients of Sotheby's auction house. Today, the company's global footprint spans nearly 1,000 offices located in 75 countries and territories worldwide, including 45 company-owned brokerage offices in key metropolitan and resort markets. In February 2004, Realogy entered a long-term strategic alliance with Sotheby's, the operator of the auction house. The agreement provided for the licensing of the Sotheby's International Realty name and the development of a franchise system. The franchise system is comprised of an affiliate network, where each office is independently owned and operated. Sotheby's International Realty supports its affiliates and agents with a host of operational, marketing, recruiting, educational and business development resources. Affiliates and agents also benefit from an association with the venerable Sotheby's auction house, established in 1744. For more information, visit www.sothebysrealty.com. The affiliate network is operated by Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC, and the company owned brokerages are operated by Sotheby's International Realty, Inc. Both entities are subsidiaries of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY) a global leader in real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation and settlement services. Both Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC and Sotheby's International Realty, Inc. fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. CONTACT Melissa Couch PR Manager Sotheby's International Realty 973-407-6142 [email protected] SOURCE Sotheby's International Realty Related Links https://www.sothebysrealty.com Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. A new study published in Biophysical Society, introduces new molecular models to show what parts of SARS-CoV-2 are critical for that interaction, revealing new potential drug targets for the infection. In order to infect cells, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, needs to insert itself into the membrane of human cells. Most treatments and vaccines have focused on blocking the ability of the infection to the cells, but the next step by the researchers from the University of Illinois is another potential target. New research by Defne Gorgun, a graduate student, and colleagues in the lab of Emad Tajkhorshid at the University of Illinois addresses the molecular details of this second step, which could inform the design of drugs that block it. In order to infect our cells, the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, first attaches a molecule on our cell surface, but then it has to fuse with human cells. Before the pandemic, Gorgun was studying the interactions of molecules that stick to and insert into cell membranes, and when COVID-19 began to spread, Gorgun quickly pivoted her studies to understand how SARS-CoV-2 fused with cells. A small region of the SARS-CoV-2 outer spike protein called the "fusion peptide," inserts itself into the human cell membrane to begin the fusion process. Scientists knew the location and approximate shape of the fusion peptide; however, they did not know exactly how it interacted with and penetrated into the human cell membrane and whether there would be changes in its shape when it stuck to the membrane. Without knowing the three-dimensional interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptide and the cell membrane, it is not possible to design drugs that specifically disrupt that interaction. Using computer simulations, the team merged what is known about the SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptide with the established three-dimensional structures and behaviors of other coronavirus fusion peptides and simulated its interaction with a model human cell membrane. Their simulations reveal how the SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptide interacts with and penetrates, the cell membrane. "Our study shows which parts of the fusion peptide are important and how it sticks to and sits in the membrane," Gorgun says. Because their model is theoretical, the next step is to repeat their computer experiments in the lab with pieces of SARS-CoV-2 and cell membranes. But having already revealed parts of the fusion peptide that are likely to be critical to its function, those experiments will likely be completed faster and more efficiently. After that, Gorgun says, it will be possible to start testing drugs that disrupt the interaction and could help block SARS-CoV-2 from docking at our cells. (ANI) Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. CASS CITY As Dr. Surendra Raythatha moves into his retirement, Hills and Dales General Hospital is honoring his years of service, referring to Dr. Ray as a staple in the Thumbs medical community. According to Danielle Blaine, marketing director at Hills and Dales Hospital, in his early career, Dr. Ray did rotations in many different areas of the hospital, including the emergency room, orthopedics, and general surgery, but ultimately decided to remain a family medicine physician. He sees patients from newborns to elderly, Blaine said. As he began his practice and it continued to grow in Cass City, his patients remained with him, so he has seen many of his patients move into their elderly years under his care. His practice has given him the unique opportunity to treat and care for entire families, which is really helpful in understanding family health history, she added. As a hospitalist on the inpatient unit, Dr. Ray would come to the floor and see his patients two to three times per day, as well as provide care to patients at Northwood Meadows Assisted Living. He has also served as a mentor to medical students and enjoys getting to know them as they pursue their career. To know Dr. Ray is to understand his lifes passion is medicine, Blaine said. For over 40 years he has taken care of his patients and his legacy will live on within the Cass City community for many years to come. Dr. Ray exemplifies the mission of Hills and Dales General Hospital, she added. He has been one of the most well-respected providers of any in the Thumb area, treating every patient with respect and he does not rest until he knows his patients have been cared for. After being honored as Cass Citys Citizen of the Year in 2016, Dr. Ray shared his humble beginnings. Growing up with no electricity, no running water, and no luxuries, his household included many siblings, parents, and extended family. While the education facilities in his small town were sparse, Dr. Rays education took him hundreds of miles away from his family. His future in medicine was forged by his sharp intellect, fearlessness to take risks, and fondness of reading. According to a press release, despite facing many financial constraints, Dr. Ray continued to excel in his schooling and was later admitted to one of the leading and most prestigious medical colleges. He loved medical science and graduated with distinct honors. In 1967, Dr. Ray not only became the first of his family to graduate from college, but also the first physician. He had graduated from M.P. Medical College, in India, with his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. Following his graduation, Dr. Ray settled into practicing medicine before continuing his education. He moved and trained for four years in England, gaining experience in various areas including general surgery, orthopedics, emergency room, and outpatient care. It was then that Dr. Ray had the opportunity to come to the United States, where he would receive admission to Wayne State University for a residency in family medicine. During a one-month rural medicine rotation, Dr. Ray was placed at Scheurer Hospital in Pigeon where he would accept a position after completing his residency. In June 1980, Dr. Ray began practicing medicine at Partner of Pigeon Clinic, P.C. in Huron County. He served patients there for 11 years before pursuing his own practice. While building his practice, Dr. Ray met his wife Nancy and they raised their three children in the Cass City community. In 2012, Dr. Ray became an employed physician of Hills and Dales, where he has been practicing ever since. It is hard to put into words what Dr. Raythatha means to our hospital and to our community, said Jean Anthony, Hills and Dales president and CEO. The care and compassion he has shown his patients will be missed by anyone who had the pleasure of being under his care. He has always been a voice for his patients, a leader within the medical community, and one of the humblest people I have ever met, she added. It has been my true honor to work alongside Dr. Ray and our wish is that he will enjoy his much-deserved retirement. Dr. Rays presence will not only be missed by his many patients, but also by his office staff who are reportedly like family to him. In his absence, Dr. Eric Shoemaker will be seeing patients at Cass City Family Practice, where he has been since July 2020 in preparation for the transition. According to Blaine, Dr. Shoemaker also sees patients on the hospitals inpatient floor. Dr. Francis Ozim, who was the general surgeon at Hills and Dales for many years until his retirement five years ago, shared a special friendship with Dr. Ray and explained that he had a true love for medicine and his patients. Dr. Ray has been known to give his personal phone number to his patients and was always available to attend to their needs, no matter what time of day, Ozim said. After I consulted on his patients, not only would he stay around to find out my opinion, but he would follow me to the operating room because he cared so deeply. I practically had to convince him that assistance from the surgical techs would be good enough for me, otherwise he was prepared and ready to scrub in, he added. Even after surgery, it was no unusual for him to wait in the recovery room until his patients were stable. According to Ozim, nothing was impossible to Dr. Ray when it came to his patients, and if he was left to his own designs he would be practicing medicine forever. He called me on several occasions to inquire about how I was handling retirement, Ozim said. He was surprised to learn that I was happy in retirement. To Dr. Ray, the only thing worth doing is taking care of his patients, he added. Im sure if Nancy, his wife, and Jean Anthony, hospital CEO, would allow him he would continue working until he is 100 years old. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions, hospital staff are unable to hold a proper retirement party. Instead, a celebration amongst Dr. Rays colleague, family, and friends will take place via Zoom before he moves to a warmer climate to enjoy time with his family. The Hasbro company announced Thursday that it will, going forward, market the product formerly known as Mr. Potato Head under the name Potato Head. The toy will still be sold with accessories children can use to make their plastic potatoes into men (or women, or anything they like, as has always been the case, if you think about it), but the top-line brand name will no longer treat masculinity as a default condition. The company also notes that it is not actually even eliminating the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head themselves from its packaging. Advertisement The right-wing cultural apparatus is, nonetheless, engaged. YouTube personality Mark Dice (who has 1.65 million subscribers on the service) responded directly to an Associated Press tweet about the change to propose the secession of Republican areas from the United States, adding that Mr. Potato Head has been canceledhe apparently didnt read the APs actual article, which made clear that this is not trueand that Democrats believe there are dozens of genders. (I must have missed that night of the DNC.) Blogger/radio host/cable guest Erick Erickson called the move an example of Woke-o Haram striking again and asked if Toy Story would be reedited to get rid of Mrs. Potato Head, indicating that he must also not have read the news coverage. Ben Shapiro, who has 3 million Twitter followers and an enormous (if possibly fraud-inflated) Facebook following, asked what would happen if Potato Head identified as a squashsarcasm!and said Barbie must be renamed something more gender-neutral, which, amazingly, indicates that he too did not read the AP or Bloomberg articles about the announcement, because both articles noted that the commercial success of more diverse and realistic Barbie products may have inspired Hasbros move. Matt Walsh, who has nearly 500,000 Twitter followers and writes for Shapiros Daily Wire site, mocked the idea that young girls would be happy to use toys that dont emphasize gender roles. Fox News posted the news under the headline PC Police Strike Again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, right-wing writer about town Stephen L. Miller, who has 200,000 Twitter followers, asserted that the great thing about being a tans potato head is if it changes its mind it can just reach in its own ass and put the penis back on. Not sure about that one. We include this breadth of commentary not only out of grim incredulity but to convey that Slate is not mischaracterizing the wider conservative reaction by elevating one or two fringe voices. A rolling panic about gender and sexuality is one of the few things animating a Republican Party whose entire 2020 platform was Whatever the president wants, especially now that said president has lost. While the right-wing media was warning its audience about toy-gender concerns, two of the most high-profile Republicans on Capitol Hill were also engaged in more substantive gender-issue warfare. Wednesday night Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a hallway sign asserting the existence of two, and only two, genders across from the office of a colleague whose daughter is transgender, extending a dispute that began when Greene tried to block a vote on a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity. On Thursday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used inflammatory language about genital mutilation to question a transgender nominee for a Department of Health and Human Services position. While anti-LGBTQ backlash has long been a force in Republican politics, the days events are the nth recent example of such outrage spam and sheer tribal hostility having mostly superseded economic and foreign policy concerns in the partys hierarchy of priorities. An American conservative is, increasingly, someone who stands athwart history yelling something at an imaginary liberal about a potato toys hypothetical penis and ass. President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits villagers of Huawu village, Xinren Miao township of Qianxi county, Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province, Feb 3, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua] BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday that China has scored a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world's most populous country. Xi made the announcement while addressing a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honor its model poverty fighters. Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list. Since the launch of the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, 770 million impoverished rural residents have shaken off poverty when calculated in accordance with China's current poverty line. China has contributed more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction over the same period. With such achievements, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," Xi said. An illegal immigrant who first entered the US in 2000 and married an American woman emerged from hiding in a St. Louis church where he sought sanctuary for three-and-a-half years for fear that Donald Trump's administration would deport him. Alex Garcia, a 39-year-old Honduran immigrant, finally stepped outside the Christ Church United Church of Christ in Maplewood, Missouri on Wednesday following a promise from President Joe Biden's administration to let him be. Garcia, a construction worker who is married to Carly Zuniga, an American citizen with whom he has five US-born children, was slated for removal from the United States in 2017, the first year of Trump's administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused repeated requests from Garcia, and the community to allow him to stay. Days before he would have been deported, the church in suburban St. Louis offered sanctuary. Garcia first entered the US illegally in 2000 and was deported soon afterward but then re-entered the country in 2004. Since then, he got married to an American woman, with whom he had five children. Alex Garcia, 39, an undocumented migrant and married father of five US-born children, is seen on Wednesday emerging from a suburban St. Louis church where he was given sanctuary for almost four years. Garcia came out of the church after advocates said he was promised by the Biden administration that he would not be deported back to his native Honduras Garcia, a construction worker who lives in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, is pictured above with his five young children Garcia first entered the United States illegally in 2000. He then left the country - only to return in 2004. In May 2010, he married Carly Zuniga, an American citizen Sara John of the St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America said Garcias decision to leave the church came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement declared that he was no longer a deportation priority and that the agency would not pursue his detention or removal. 'After many conversations with ICE, they explicitly told me that Alex is not a priority; that they will not be using federal resources - because its a waste of resources - to try to rip a family apart when they can focus on people who are really hurting our communities,' immigration lawyer Javad Khazaeli told St. Louis Post-Dispatch. An ICE official told DailyMail.com that the agency would neither confirm or deny Khazaeli's claims. A source within ICE told DailyMail.com that Garcia was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Missouri in 2009. A crowd of more than 70 people cheers as Garcia addresses the crowd outside Christ Church United Church of Christ in Maplewood, Missouri on Wednesday 'Thank you everyone for showing support for me and my family,' Garcia said, holding back tears on Wednesday. 'Today is the day I'm going to get out of sanctuary after three years and a half' Garcia, braced by a hand on his shoulder from a son and fighting back tears, told a cheering crowd of about 100 people that he was separated from living with his family for 1,252 days. 'Hi everyone,' Garcia said. 'Thank you everyone for showing support for me and my family. Today is the day I'm going to get out of sanctuary after three years and a half.' 'We are not done yet,' Garcia said, reading from a written statement. 'There is still so much work that has to be done,' he added, nothing that he will be fighting for 'permanent protection.' In his first weeks as president, Biden has signed several executive orders on immigration issues that undo his predecessor's policies, though several Republican members of Congress are pushing legal challenges. Last week, he signed an executive order that will 'promptly cease' Trump's policy of fast-tracking deportations of undocumented migrants, including those like Garcia who were granted temporary stay because they had no criminal records and were married to Americans. Myrna Orozco, organizing coordinator at Church World Service said 33 immigrants remain inside churches across the US and that number should continue to drop. Garcia is seen above hugging his son, Caleb, 13, at Christ Church United Church of Christ in Maplewood on July 12, 2019 Garcia was due to be deported under the previous administration led by then-President Donald Trump Garcia's exit came just two days after House Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, announced she was sponsoring a private bill seeking permanent residency for Garcia. Bush is seen left with Garcia and his wife last week inside the church in Maplewood The Biden administration has pledged not to deport Garcia, who is considered 'low priority' given that he has no criminal record and is a parent to American children 'We expect it to change in the next couple of weeks as we get more clarity from ICE or (immigrants) get a decision on their cases,' Orozco said. Others who have emerged from sanctuary since Biden took office include Jose Chicas, a 55-year-old El Salvador native, who left a church-owned house in Durham, North Carolina, on January 22. Saheeda Nadeem, a 65-year-old from Pakistan, left a Kalamazoo, Michigan, church this month. Edith Espinal, a native of Mexico, left an Ohio church after more than three years. In Maplewood, emotion spilled out during a brief ceremony marking Garcia's departure. The church's bell tolled. Mayor Barry Greenberg's voice broke as he told Garcia he couldn't grant him US citizenship, but he could make him an honorary citizen of Maplewood. He presented a key to the city that Garcia's young daughter immediately took out of the box to play with. 'Oh God, we want to burst into song!' Pastor Becky Turner said during a prayer, but noting that prayer 'isn't enough. We have to do the work that we pray for.' Garcia's exit came just two days after House Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, announced she was sponsoring a private bill seeking permanent residency for Garcia. Bush said Wednesday that she will still push the bill forward. Garcia's two eldest sons hold up signs saying 'Free my dad!' as part of a public campaign to pressure the US government to allow Garcia to remain in the country Caleb Garcia is seen left with his mother in this undated file photo 'ICE has promised not to deport Alex, and we will stop at nothing to ensure that they keep their promise,' Bush said in a statement. Garcia fled extreme poverty and violence in Honduras, his advocates have said. After illegally entering the US in 2000, he was deported soon afterward. Four years later, he crossed into the US again. He hopped a train that he thought was headed for Houston, but instead ended up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, a town of about 17,000 residents in the southeastern corner of the state. He landed a job and met his wife, Carly Zuniga, a US citizen, and for more than a decade they lived quietly with their blended family. Zuniga tried to arrange citizenship or permanent residency for her husband, but his 2000 deportation order precluded him from obtaining legal status. In 2015, Garcia accompanied his sister to an immigration office for a check-in in Kansas City, Missouri, where officials realized Garcia was in the country illegally. Records indicated that Garcia was wanted for deportation after illegally entering the country the first time in 2000. By law, anyone who illegally entered the country and was deported would have to wait 10 years before applying for legal status. He received two one-year reprieves during Barack Obama's administration. Saying prosecutors didnt make their case that he is a public threat, a federal judge Thursday ordered that a central Pennsylvania police officer charged in the U.S. Capitol riot doesnt have to remain under house arrest with electronic monitoring while he awaits prosecution. Those restrictions Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather of the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C, lifted from Joseph Fischer had lasted only two days. They were imposed by a magistrate judge in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg on Tuesday following a preliminary hearing on the riot charges against Fischer, who has been suspended from the North Cornwall Township police. Fischer, 54, of Jonestown, spent five days in Dauphin County Prison following his arrest by the FBI on Feb. 19. Middle District Magistrate Judge Susan Schwab transferred Fischers case to Meriweathers court, where the criminal charges stemming from the Jan.6 riot are being prosecuted. Thursday afternoons 90-minute hearing marked Fischers first appearance in that court in the nations capital. Fischer, 54, is charged with obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. North Cornwall Township police officer Joseph Fischer is charged with participating in the U.S. Capitol riot. Photo: Provided Meriweather lifted the house arrest and monitoring curbs after Assistant Federal Public Defender Eugene Ohm argued that Fischer is no more of a public danger than any of the dozens of other riot defendants who have been released with far fewer restrictions. Ohm accused prosecutors of coming down harder on Fischer simply because hes a cop. The defense attorney said prosecution claims that Fischer was aggressive toward FBI agents and his own chief when he was arrested are vague and insufficient to demonstrate any lingering danger. The government did not say that Mr. Fischer tried to assault any of the officers or said anything that was a threat, Ohm insisted. Fischers alleged conduct during the riot falls on the lighter end of the cases that have come before this court, Ohm argued. Mr. Fischer is accused of being in the Capitol for no more than 3 minutesThere is no allegation that Mr. Fischer did any harm when he was there. There was no violent conduct. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Steiner countered that Fischers supposed aggressive actions toward the FBI agents and his chief and comments he made online regarding the riot, including the statement, We are at war, justified keeping the house arrest and monitoring restrictions in place. Prosecutors did agree that one of Schwabs conditions, a demand for drug testing, should be discarded, although court testimony indicated Fischer told federal officials he had been taking an anxiety medication that had not been prescribed for him. Meriweather let stand Schwabs restrictions barring Fischer from possessing guns or any other weapons, requiring him to stay away from Washington, D.C., mandating that he report to federal authorities weekly, and ordering him to stay within the bounds of the U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania unless granted court permission to travel elsewhere. Fischers next court appearance, a status hearing, is scheduled for March 15. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) A party-list lawmaker urged the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday to take action on hate crimes against Asians in America. Ako Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. expressed concern about the "rising hate attacks" against Asian-Americans amid the global health crisis. "I request the Department of Foreign Affairs to express to the United States authorities, through our embassy and consulates, the necessity of protecting our citizens and fellow Filipinos," he was quoted as saying in a statement. "US authorities should undertake effective responses to the racially-motivated hate crimes, including their root causes," Garbin added. The lawmaker cited recent reports involving a 61-year-old Filipino whose face got disfigured after an attack in the New York subway, and another elderly Filipino woman who was assaulted in San Diego, California. Data from rights group Stop AAPI Hate showed that from March to December of last year, over 2,800 firsthand reports of hate against Asians across 47 states and Washington, DC were reported. It said about 71% were cases of verbal harassment; shunning or avoidance made up about 21%; about 9% of the incidents involved physical assaults; 6% included being purposely coughed or spit on. Meanwhile, according to a report of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, the New York Police Department witnessed an eight-fold increase in reported anti-Asian hate crimes for the first nine months of 2020. READ: As attacks against Asian Americans spike, advocates call for action to protect communities A man accused of walking naked around a local motel while threatening staff has been granted bail at Derry Magistrates Court. Che OConnor, 21, of no fixed abode, appeared in the local court today by way of video link from Hydebank prison for a bail application. He is charged with criminal damage, two counts of assaulting police, resisting police, disorderly behaviour and committing an act outraging public decency on December 10, 2020. The court heard that police received a call from the owner of the Banks of the Faughan Motel who reported that OConnor was was walking around with his genitals out threatening staff. Police officers made their way to his bedroom and noticed that a glass panel had been smashed outside the room. The alleged offence was captured on CCTV. A police officer said the 21-year-old was arrested for criminal damage. When handcuffed he kicked out at police officers, shouted aggressively and continued to resist, according to the police. During questioning at Strand Road Police Station, he admitted all of the charges except for the alleged act of outraging public decency. OConnor told officers, I had my penis out but nobody was about. The court heard that the 21-year-old has an extensive criminal record including 13 assaults. He has also breached bail on 16 occasions and breached suspended sentences, a police officer added. Defence barrister Stephen Chapman said his client regrets his behaviour that day. The defendant is aware that he will not be released from prison until he serves a six months sentence handed to him for a separate incident. The incidents took place a day apart, Mr Chapman said, therefore the principle of totality would have to be taken into account. He asked for his client to be granted bail suggesting the risks could be managed. Deputy District Judge Laura Ievers said she can readily understand concerns expressed by the police. She decided to take a chance but warned him not to break the faith shown by the court because bail could be withdrawn entirely. OConnor was granted his own bail of 500 with conditions that include a prohibition on alcohol and drugs and an order to sign at Strand Road Police Station twice per week. He was also excluded from entering the Banks of the Faughan Motel. The defendants case will appear before the court again on March 25. Paris, TX (75460) Today Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible. iStock/JHVEPhoto (WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- A third COVID-19 vaccine may soon be on the way, says the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA agreed Wednesday that Johnson & Johnson meets the requirements for the emergency use authorization review process. Unlike Moderna and Pfizer's vaccine, Johnson & Johnson offers a single dose vaccine that does not require intense refrigeration. However, the vaccine does have a lower efficacy rating than Pfizer and Moderna's -- but is more effective at preventing serious side effects, hospitalizations and death. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is 66 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 cases with any symptoms and is 85 percent effective at preventing severe illness. In addition, the company states their vaccine is effective against all variants -- but does have less efficacy against the South African variant. J&J also insists its vaccine helps prevent asymptomatic infections, as well. Should FDA grant J&J emergency authorization, the company will have four million doses immediately available and, by March, 20 million doses and 100 million doses by the end of June. As of Thursday, COVID-19 has infected 28.3 million Americans and has killed close to 506,000 people in the U.S., reports Johns Hopkins University. Five weeks after the Nazis marched into Austria in March 1938, pianist Heinrich Heini Portnoj fled Vienna, leaving behind many of his Jewish friends and family. Ultimately, he found refuge in Australia where he went on to have a long and successful career as a pianist, conductor and singing teacher. Among his students were the legendary Joan Carden. Matt Keegan: My recollection of him was as a lovely, gentle soul. Credit:James Brickwood Portnoj never spoke of his life before coming to Australia nor the trauma of not knowing the fate of his family. But now his great-grandson, composer and saxophonist Matt Keegan has memorialised this dramatic life journey in a suite of program music, Vienna Dreaming, which will receive its live premiere on Sunday. Combining electronic and acoustic instruments, it will feature, among others, Veronique Serret on violin and Ben Hauptmann on guitar. In a bid to realign the entirety of its image with its more upmarket aspirations, Peugeot introduced this week the newest interpretation of its logo, the eleventh version since the lion first became associated with the brand more than a century ago.It is meant to replace the ten-year-old badge as the company moves to reposition itself on a more pretentious segment. The new logo will adorn as a coat of arms everything from the automaker's websites to vehicles. It will be accompanied by a more comprehensive change in what the French brand is all about, a change whose full details will probably be revealed in stages.This coat of arms opens the way to a brand ecosystem that is not limited to its visual identity alone. It carries within it a deeper change. A shift in stance; a new state of mind; a new lifestyle, the carmaker said in a statement.Peugeots objective is to offer its current and future customers a brand that meets their requirements. The Peugeot Brand is timeless. It is reinventing itself, over and over again.Historically, the lion logo has been with Peugeot since 1847, being used on the steel products the family by the same name used to make. From this perspective, it is, with all the changes it suffered since, the oldest logo in the industry, despite the fact it didnt get to appear on cars until after the end of the Second World War, in 1948. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Thursday to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development initiatives. According to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for 4 laning of NH45-A - 56 km Sattanathapuram - Nagapattinam package of Villupuram to Nagapattinam project covering Karaikal district in Puducherry at around 11:30 AM. India is proud of Tamil Nadus contribution to national progress. The vibrant Tamil culture is popular globally. Central Government is honoured to be working for TNs growth. Will be in Coimbatore tomorrow to inaugurate various projects. https://t.co/KNLUrFg9mE Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 24, 2021 The capital cost to be incurred in this project is about Rs 2,426 crores. He will also lay the foundation stone of the Medical College Building at Karaikal New Campus - Phase I, Karaikal District (JIPMER). The estimated cost of the project is Rs 491 crore. The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for the development of Minor Port at Puducherry under Sagarmala Scheme. He will inaugurate the Blood Centre at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, which will function as a research laboratory and a training centre for the short- term and continuous blood bank personnel training in all aspects of transfusion. The school education department has announced a holiday for government and private schools as traffic in the city has been diverted due to the Prime Ministers visit. In Tamil Nadu at around 4 PM, he will dedicate to the nation the Neyveli New Thermal Power Project. "It is a lignite-based power plant designed for power generation capacity of 1000 MW and has two units of 500 MW capacity each. Built at a cost of about Rs 8000 crore, the pit head power plant will utilise lignite as fuel from the existing mines of Neyveli, which have sufficient lignite reserves for meeting the lifetime requirement of the project. The Plant has been designed for 100 per cent Ash utilization. The power generated would benefit Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry, with Tamil Nadu having a major share of about 65 per cent," a release said. The Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation the 709 MW Solar Power Project of NLCIL, established over an area of about 2670 acres of land across the districts of Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar. Scenic and spectacular, Puducherry is home to rich history, vibrant culture and wonderful people. I would be in Puducherry tomorrow, 25th February to inaugurate development works relating to infrastructure, ports, healthcare and sports. https://t.co/KNLUrFg9mE Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 24, 2021 The project has been set up at a cost of over Rs 3,000 crore. He will lay the foundation stone of the extension, renovation and modernization of the Lower Bhavani Project System. The extension, renovation and modernization of the Lower Bhavani System has been taken up at a cost of Rs 934 crore under NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance. The Prime Minister will inaugurate the 8-laning of Korampallam Bridge and Rail Over Bridge (ROB) at V.O.Chidambaranar Port. He will lay the foundation stone for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a 5MW grid-connected ground-based solar power plant at V.O.Chidambaranar Port. He will inaugurate the tenements constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme.PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for the development of Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCC) in nine Smart Cities including Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur, Vellore, Tiruchirappalli, Tiruppur, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi. Live TV SPRINGFIELD Industrial hemp production declined slightly in 2020, the second year of legalized production in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that 2,392 acres of industrial hemp, or 87 percent of the acres planted, were harvested during the year. That was down from just over 2,800 acres in 2019. That translated into just under 1.3 million pounds of hemp flower, 48,000 pounds of hemp fiber, 39,000 pounds of seed and 8,500 pounds of hemp grain. The hemp industry, just like many others was hit by the pandemic, David Lakeman, manager of IDOAs Division of Cannabis, said in a statement. Workforce safety challenges, pandemic-related impacts on the market, and some initial issues with processing all contributed to a more difficult year for the hemp industry. Hemp is a variety of cannabis that contains only a small fraction of the psychoactive substance THC found in marijuana. It was a major crop in the U.S. until 1937 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which imposed a heavy tax on anyone who dealt commercially in hemp or marijuana. The fiber can be used in textiles, food and a wide range of other industrial purposes. But in recent years it has become more popular as a source of cannabidiol oil, or CBD, which can be used to treat a variety of medical conditions. Although it is now legal, production of the crop is still highly regulated. Growers and processors must be licensed by IDOA. The agency also inspects crops to make sure they do not exceed the 0.3 percent THC limit. Hemp testing above that amount is eligible for a retest, but hemp that tests above 0.7 percent THC must be destroyed. IDOA is now accepting applications for the 2021 hemp growing season. People interested in growing or processing hemp can do so online at https://agrlicensing.illinois.gov/Industrial_Hemp/. In 1888, William Henry Belk opened a modest store called The New York Racket in Monroe, North Carolina. Three years later, his brother John Belk became a partner and renamed the store Belk Brothers Company. By 1923 they operated 20 stores that generated $10 million in annual sales. In 1955, the sons of William Henry Belk transformed Belk from downtown bargain stores to modern fashion destinations in shopping centers and malls throughout the South. In 1988, a new generation of Belk family members merged all 112 stores into one company. By the time it was sold in 2015 for $3 billion, it had grown to nearly 300 locations in 16 states. This month Belk filed for bankruptcy. Yes, there was a debt-laden buyout. Yes, there was a $135 million payout to its private-equity owner. Yes, there was a thing called a pandemic. But in an analysis of its seemingly swift and sudden decline, The Charlotte Observer detailed three other critically important dynamics that explain how the largest privately owned chain of department stores collapsed. And there is much the church can learn from all three. First, shoppers were going elsewhere. Department stores have been in decline for some time, but nothing matched the nosedive reflected in the retail apocalypse in the final half of the past decade. This from The Charlotte Observer report: Before COVID, the shoppers were going elsewhere. They were going to Amazon or going online, but its not just that, said Barbara Kahn, marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School. It was also that they were going to the T.J. Maxxes of the world. Department stores werent innovating their shopping experience, Kahn said. Lululemon and Sephora, offering similar products to a department store, were. And malls werent drawing people in as they once did. Belk revenue peaked in 2016 at $4.2 billion, according to Moodys. It has fallen every year since. Translation: There was a lack of innovation exacerbated by a late digital push. Its not that people stopped shopping, they simply stopped shopping at department stores in malls that followed the same consumer-attraction model from previous years. Shoppers had moved on; the stores hadnt. Then a second reason for the fall was noted: The growing middle-class of the South buying mid-priced clothing was what helped grow Belk, but the modern retail environment doesnt reward the middle ground anymore, according to Katrijn Gielens, a marketing professor at UNC Chapel Hill. The way it came across is that there was too much stuck in the middle in terms of what Belk was selling, Gielens said. Retail has been dividing itself in two recently. In one direction, there are more high-end stores with a diverse selection, and in the other direction, simple, no-fuss discount stores. Belk was stuck in the middle, a no mans land. A third reason for Belks demise was that they were not able to be very nimble in response to the pandemic. As one analyst phrased it: Belk is a very fragmented brand. My sense of Belk is that it just doesnt have that unified approach. The big problem with Belk is that it has 300 stores, but not 300 unified stores. Too many churches are vulnerable to the trio of dynamics that put Belk into bankruptcy, and the fallout can happen as quickly as it did for the venerable department store chain. Particularly in light of the effect of the pandemic. First, a failure to innovate specifically in terms of the digital revolution in relation to who we are trying to both reach and serve. Do we not realize that people want to check a church out online before attending, therefore making it the new front door? Do we not realize they may attend online for months before an in-person visit? Do we not realize that they want to learn, grow and even interact increasingly online? Do we not know that they are now accustomed to being served digitally in almost every way? No, we do not cater to the consumer desires of the wider world in terms of mission, vision, values or beliefs. But we must cater to the consumer desires of the wider world in terms of how they are wanting and willing to explore the Christian faith (not to mention your church), preferred systems of delivery (how they want to receive what we have to offer), the new nature of community created by social media, and the phygital experience they expect. So, lesson one? Innovate in light of the changing sensibilities of who you are trying to reach, and frame that innovation through the lens of the digital revolution. But a second lesson is equally clear: Avoid no mans land. Too many churches think the middle is the best, safest, most enduring place to position themselves. Neither fully contemporary nor traditional; neither fully oriented toward reaching the unchurched nor seeking out the already convinced; neither fully online nor fully in person. There is a reason they call it no mans land. It is not a land that any man (or woman) particularly wants to inhabit. It has little to no identity, and it is attractive only to those who themselves want little to no identity. Its akin to so-called blended services that attempt to be both contemporary and traditional. They end up being neither, and unattractive to those who desire one or the other. In trying to please everyone you please no one, just as in trying to reach everyone you reach no one. The third lesson is that you simply cannot have a hodge-podge of ministries that are not unified under a singular vision, mission and values. Otherwise, you simply have a bunch of tactics, but no strategy. Having dozens of disconnected, uncoordinated ministries is not as effective as having three that are. Just as the pandemic hastened the trajectory Belk was on, my fear is that it will do the same to many, many churches. If you entered this season unhealthy, bloated with debt, resistant to innovation, indifferent to the digital revolution, in no-mans land in terms of identity with ministries in disunity, you may be in for a rude awakening. Because the ending of the pandemic we hope and pray for with vaccinations and herd immunity will not be what revives your church. It will only be what reveals your church. James Emery White Sources Austin Weinstein and Catherine Muccigrosso, How Belk Went Bankrupt: Inside the Financial Collapse of an NC Department Store Icon, The Charlotte Observer, February 9, 2021, read online. Wikipedia on Belk, read online. About the Author James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunct professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book After I Believe is now available on Amazon or your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit ChurchAndCulture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @JamesEmeryWhite. I refer to it as the George Floyd technique, thats what snuffed the life out of him and that cannot be a lawful technique, Burris said. We see not only violations of his civil rights but also violations against the rights of his mother and sisters, who saw what happened to him. 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. Bill Continuing Early Voting Clears House Panel By The Associated Press, West Kentucky Star Staff FRANKFORT - A House panel has approved a bill to make early voting at polling places a fixture in Kentucky's elections.The measure would allow three days of no-excuse, early in-person voting including a Saturday ahead of Election Day. But it wouldn't continue a pandemic-related accommodation that allowed widespread mail-in absentee balloting in 2020.The bill cleared the House committee Thursday. It now heads to the full House. The measure would still need to win Senate approval to clear the General Assembly.Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams calls it Kentucky's "most significant election-reform legislation" in nearly three decades."I'm grateful to legislators for joining across party lines to support permanent improvements to our election system," Adams said. "As we showed in 2020, we don't have to choose between expanding voter access and enhancing election integrity we can have both." Q&A UB PhD students lead #BlackInX movements Credit: Vladimir Geneus By CHARLOTTE HSU In 2020, powerful online movements emerged to celebrate and elevate the voices of Black scientists. Called the #BlackInX movements, these efforts arose during months of protests against police killings and police brutality. They were a reaction to events, including the Central Park bird-watching incident an episode that highlighted the dangers and harassment that Black people often endure while living their daily lives. Among the leaders of #BlackInX movements are two UB doctoral students: Olivia Geneus, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry who co-founded Black In Nanotechnology, and Raven Baxter, a PhD candidate in the Department of Learning and Instruction who founded Black In Science Communication. (Baxter, a microbiologist and prolific science communicator known as Raven the Science Maven, also created Black In STEM Education, but has handed off coordination of that initiative to other organizers.) Like many #BlackInX movements, #BlackInNano and #BlackInSciComm gained traction on social media, with Black scientists and engineers connecting with one another through hashtags on Twitter and other platforms, and through weeklong virtual conferences held last fall. UBNow recently talked with Geneus and Baxter about their respective #BlackInX movements. Why are the #BlackInX movements exciting and necessary? Baxter: Its exciting because before last year, when all of these movements popped up, there were only a couple of organizations that Ive known of, in all this time Ive spent in STEM, that were centered around Black people. We didnt know where to find each other. We didnt know how to access our community in STEM. Although the #BlackInX movements were triggered by a really unfortunate event being the incident in Central Park with the bird-watchers Im glad that it brought us together to find each other and make these communities and affinity groups to support each other and talk about our shared lived experiences. Its really just spending time to unpack our lives as scientists together and move forward. Geneus: The movement highlights our greatness and shows everyone that we are present and visible. We want to encourage universities to increase representation, diversity and inclusion, and recognize the advancements of Black scientists as they transform the STEM fields. We want to highlight how these disparities translate in industry, to positions that arise after graduate school. We are hoping to expand to help organize a #BlackInX conference that includes all other #BlackInX groups. What are some priorities for #BlackInSciComm for 2021? Baxter: Were planning some outreach initiatives and tapping into our network to see how people want to use their voices in supporting that. We have some people who are Wikipedians, which is a word we use to describe people who can create and edit and monitor Wikipedia pages. So one of the things we are thinking of doing is a Wiki-thon basically, just create entries into Wikipedia for Black scientists and engineers and people in STEM. We want to make sure people are aware of the work that has been done and is being done by marginalized folks in STEM, including the important contributions that theyve made to the STEM field throughout history. And priorities for #BlackInNano? Geneus: As part of our pro-bono initiative, we are partnering with EMO-Haiti, a nonprofit organization, to bring STEM skills and technology to Haitian students currently living in Haiti who have a passion for STEM. We are introducing the Haiti National Robotic Competition to inspire and empower the next generation of Haitian innovators and game-changers. During a six-month intensive program, these students will work in teams to customize and build a robot to solve an identified local issue. Teams will receive robotic kits comprised of necessary resources to build their robots. These students will also have access to a variety of coding courses, workshops and mentoring sessions designed to support them through the program. In addition, experts will be speaking on non-STEM related topics including mental health and entrepreneurship. Each team will have the opportunity to showcase their finalized robot, and a winner will be awarded. This initiative is particularly important because, given the ongoing crises in Haiti including political unrest and economic and educational challenges, as well as the ongoing pandemic, we want to ensure that students have the necessary avenues and support needed to remain engaged in their passion for STEM. The Black in Nanotechnology team is also partnering with a middle school in Atlanta, Georgia Rex Mill Middle STEM School. Our goal is to emphasize the importance of representation to younger individuals who are in middle and elementary school. To expand the percentage of Black individuals in STEM, recruitment efforts must start at the younger educational level. We are still developing this partnership. Raven, how did you become interested in science communication? Baxter: I have always felt like getting the public interested in science and curious about the world around them was really fun and interesting, and Ive always been naturally inclined toward this field. Olivia, where did your interests in nanotechnology begin? Geneus: In high school, I always liked math and science. They were my two strongest subjects. I wanted a career in the field of science, as well as in health, without being a medical doctor. At the time, I was unaware of what that would be. Physics and public health provided the mixture of science, health and medicine that I was always drawn to. Thus, I decided to double major in both subjects. Having enjoyed multiple classes of organic chemistry as an undergraduate, I pursued a PhD in chemistry. UBs rigorous chemistry department made it a natural selection for my pursuit. I chose a principal investigator by attending seminars from different faculty members, and when my adviser presented his research, which was nanotechnology and nanomedicine, I was really intrigued. This was the combination I was yearning for. I was fortunate to be selected as a graduate student and be part of his laboratory based on merit. What is your PhD research about? Baxter: My research is centered around my own science education efforts and understanding the impact and responses to my work from the general public. Im studying viral videos that Ive created, and collecting the abundance of data that exists around my work. Im analyzing it to understand what it is about my style of science communication that people are resonating with. How can we use that information to create more inclusive and culturally relevant science education content on a larger scale? People really want to see or have spaces to be their unapologetic selves. There needs to be a push in the media to provide representation of scientists who dont fit the mold of what people commonly believe a scientist is and what a scientist looks like. People often say if they had a science teacher who was like them, or somebody who communicated in their style, that their path in STEM would have been different. Geneus: Currently I am developing a nanoformulation that is suitable for the targeted therapy of hypoxic regions of glioblastoma multiforme a type of brain cancer. The aim is to develop a drug-delivery system that will be able to cross the blood-brain barrier and target hypoxic regions of glioblastoma. These hypoxic regions are those that have low oxygen levels as well as low pH, and are resistant to chemo- and radiation therapy. Because of that, the tumors tend to metastasize, invade and relapse. My research goal is to improve the oxygen and pH levels within these hypoxic regions, while simultaneously providing imaging capabilities, therefore, making chemotherapy more effective. What motivated you, Raven, to start #BlackInSciComm and #BlackInStemEd? Baxter: I really felt like Black voices in STEM needed support, especially after all that weve been through in the past year. It was really important for me to provide a space where people are reminded that they have a community of people who care about their voice and care about the science that they are passionate about. I wanted to provide a space for people who would like to communicate science and receive resources and training, and a network of people to help boost their skills and access opportunities. Olivia, what was your motivation in starting #BlackInNano? Geneus: Representation and visibility as a Black woman has been almost nonexistent throughout my academic and professional career. This lack of representation has been discouraging. I am in a department where no one on the faculty or very few students look like me. Through the Black in Nanotechnology initiative, we wanted to highlight both the contributions of Black scientists and the barriers they face within the field of nanotechnology. We wanted to build partnerships and networks to push innovative ideas to tackle questions within the field and advocate for Black voices to be heard while inspiring the next generation. Is there anything youd like to add? James Vickers, 44, has been charged with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, simple assault, strangulation, disorderly conduct, harassment and drug possession A woman's hand-written 'Call 911' sign in the window of a Pennsylvania home led to the arrest of her knife-wielding boyfriend after he allegedly beat and strangled her. State troopers said they found a 'visibly distraught' woman who was bleeding after someone who saw the sign called state police to the Unity Township home over the weekend. According to court documents, the woman told troopers she was attacked by her boyfriend, James Vickers, 44, who she said had smashed her phone during an argument on Saturday. The victim told troopers she thought she was going to die because Vickers had strangled her. The woman managed to put up the 'Call 911' sign in the window of the home in the 300 block of Pearl Lane to draw attention. Vickers was arrested on Saturday after a woman at his home in Union Township, Pennsylvania, put up this 'Call 911' sign in the window Troopers who responded to the scene were greeted at the door by Vickers, who they said had a folding knife clipped to a pocket and resisted arrest. He was apprehended after putting up a fight and hurling obscenities at officers. Vickers was ordered held in the county jail on $25,000 bond. He is due back in court on March 1. He was charged with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, simple assault, strangulation, disorderly conduct, harassment and several drug possession counts stemming from the discovery of suspected methamphetamine and pills. The victim suffered multiple cuts to her face but was expected to recover. State troopers arrived at Vickers' home and found the victim injured and bleeding Trooper Steve Limani praised the victim for her actions and said the situation could have been worse had she not put up the sign Trooper Steve Limani, with the Pennsylvania State Police, praised the victim for having the presence of mind to seek help by putting up the sign in the window amid what he described as a traumatic situation. 'With all of those things taken into consideration, we're very lucky that things in this case didn't turn out worse,' Limani told WTAE. According to court records, Vickers pleaded guilty in 2018 to simple assault and strangulation, stemming from two separate cases. He was sentenced to six to 23 months in prison and was released from probation in October 2020, reported TribLive.com. Irelands 9bn hospitality sector will struggle to recover after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions because of a looming staff crisis and a shortage of skilled personnel such as chefs. The Government was warned that extended support measures will now be required to assist an industry crippled by an expected 16-month shutdown and the flood of skilled staff to other sectors of the economy for income reasons. Irish Hotels Federation official and Kingsley Hotel manager, Fergal Harte, said it wont be as simple as pushing a button to restart an industry which directly and indirectly employs one-in-10 Irish workers. The shortage of skilled workers is something everyone is very concerned about, he said. Read More There was an issue over some types of skilled workers such as chefs even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Ireland has now lost an estimated 150,000 hospitality jobs as the Level 5 pandemic control restrictions cost the 9bn industry two of its biggest annual spending events New Year and St Valentines Day. Both St Patricks Day and Easter are also set to prove a wipe-out. In desperation, thousands of hospitality workers have sought employment in other sectors with no guarantee they will transfer back once the Covid-19 restrictions are eased. It is an issue of concern for the IHF and other industry groups. Skilled staff are a crucial part of the sectors recovery. Taoiseach Micheal Martin acknowledged that Irish hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafes have borne the brunt of the economic fall-out from the pandemic. We have to acknowledge that there are thousands and thousands of jobs dependent on (hospitality and tourism). Both the Irish Hotels Federation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland warned that the sector will need extended support to fully recover. Vintners groups warned their industry has been devastated by the pandemic. Mr Martin stressed that recovery now hinges on vaccination and ongoing State-aid packages for critical sectors. Business support will continue - we will not be pulling the rug from any of those supports, there will be no cliff-edge in relation to the supports. "When we come out of Covid-19 and we will come out of it we are going to have to help the hospitality sector to reboot and restart, he said. Oil prices are set to rise by the fastest rate since the 1970s over the next three years, Bank of America said in a new report, joining the growing group of analysts forecasting a return of oil to three-digit territory. The average price of Brent over the next five years, however, will be between $50 and $70 per barrel, according to the bank, as quoted by The National. The bank also said OPEC+ might decide to reverse its production cuts now that Brent is trending above $60, but added that a slow return of U.S. shale to international markets might lead to an extension of the production cut agreement to make sure prices stay higher. "We believe that slower shale growth and oil price stability will likely require a continuation of Opec+'s market management beyond April 2022," the bank's analysts said. OPEC+ is meeting next week to discuss the progress of its agreement in an environment of much tighter supply, and expectations are that some members may push for a production increase. The increase, however, will be moderate, at 500,000 bpd, according to reports. The last Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of OPEC+ met in the first week of February, and the meeting ended without many surprises. For the month of February, another 75,000 bpd was added to the quotas65,000 bpd to Russia and 10,000 bpd to Kazakhstan. For the month of March, production quotas were eased again by the same amount, with the same distribution of the additions. Russia is one of the extended cartel's members that will likely call for a further increase in production. Moscow has a tradition of budgeting for pessimistic oil prices, which increases the benefits from each additional dollar benchmarks gain. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, might like to see much higher prices as its breakeven level, despite the lowest production costs in the world, remains quite high. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The USA has lost the top spot in a global ranking of 'soft power' after Trump's bungled Covid response, a fraught election and mass protests saw perceptions of the country plummet. Germany now sits at the top of the league table, second only to Japan with the UK in third. China has dropped out of the top five also due to its handling of Covid. Meanwhile New Zealand has shot up the ranking largely off the back of its coronavirus strategy with other countries who handled the pandemic will also performing strongly - including Australia, South Korea, Canada and Norway. Germany has come out top in a global ranking of 'soft power' which looks at how countries are perceived and how much influence they have, with the USA pushed down to sixth Professor Joseph Nye, former head of Harvards Kennedy School of Government, said: 'Polls in 2020 showed a serious decline in American soft power around the world. Covid not only killed Americans; it damaged our reputation for competence.' The ranking was put together by Brand Finance, a consultancy that typically assesses the value of company brands around the world. Analysts interviewed some 75,000 randomly-chosen people from 105 countries, and also interviewed 778 experts including business leaders, market analysts, politicians, academics, think-tanks and NGOs, and journalists. Each person was given a sample of the 105 countries from the full list, and asked which ones they were familiar with. For countries people were familiar with, they were then asked to give their opinions on how those countries fared in business and trade, governance, international relations, culture and heritage, media and communication, education and science, and people and values. They were also asked to rank how influential the countries were, give a view on their reputations overseas, and rank how well they hand handled Covid. Scores in each category were then balanced out to create an overall score, which determined the ranking. Plunging down the rankings in 2021 was the US - knocked from its top spot the year previously and down into sixth place, below Switzerland and Canada. The fall was largely due to the country's Covid response which was ranked the worst of any nation in the survey, behind the likes of Turkmenistan, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo. America was knocked off its perch largely thanks to Trump's Covid response which was ranked the world's worst by 75,000 people polled and 750 experts interviewed. New Zealand's response (Jacinda Ardern pictured right) was ranked the best The UK failed to excel in any single category and was also hurt by its Covid response, but performed well across a broad range of disciplines and came out third Researchers credited Trump's dismissal of the seriousness and severity of the outbreak, coupled with high infection and death rates as being behind the ranking. However, the study showed it is still the most-recognised country with the largest diplomatic clout, the most influential arts sector, and whose affairs are most-closely followed by other countries - leaving it high in the table overall. Meanwhile New Zealand, a country which ranked 22nd in the 2020 table, found itself sitting in 16th place this time around as the most-improved country. The survey found the general public ranked its Covid response as the world's best and admired leader Jacinda Ardern, whose handling of the pandemic saw her party win a landslide election victory in 2020 which she was previously predicted to lose. People also scored the country highly as a place they'd like to visit and whose citizens enjoy a good lifestyle, its geographical remoteness meant it scored low for diplomatic influence - keeping it well out of the top 10. Meanwhile neighbouring Australia, which also ranked well in Covid scores, broke into the top 10 from 13th position last year - again claiming the crown as the world's best tourist destination. It has also seen a rise in its international relations score as it took a bigger place on the world stage in 2020 - trading barbs with China over Covid and scoring high for trade, despite getting into an export war with Beijing. At the top in 2021 was Germany, with a score that was almost unchanged from 2020 but due to the falling reputations of its competitors was enough to see it climb from second to first. A chart showing how respondents ranked countries in terms of governance against their Covid response - showing who met expectations and who performed worse than anticipated A graph showing how respondents ranked countries by their international standing against their Covid response, showing who lived up to their reputation and who damaged it Analysts said that while Merkel's reputation has taken a hammering at home in recent years, she remains the most-respected world leader internationally. The country's response to Covid - which has been among the best in hard-hit Europe - also earned praise, though the results do not take into account its vaccine drive which has fallen well behind other countries such as the UK. Germany also performed consistently well in most categories in the survey and was especially popular with expert audiences which rated it top for Covid response, governance, international relations and trade. Second-place Japan's score was also little-changed on 2020 but damage caused to the UK by it's Covid response saw the Asian nation rise to second place in the table. Its success was largely driven by strong trade links and advances in technology and science, which saw people rank it in first place in these categories. Meanwhile the UK held on to third place though its score slipped considerably on the strength of its Covid response which has left it with one of the highest death rates in the world. But a strong performance across a broad range of other categories including media, education, culture and diplomatic influence saw the country perform well. David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said:Despite its economy being dwarfed by the rising dominance of the Eastern giants, China and Japan, the UK continues to be a force to be reckoned with in the soft power arena. 'Throughout the nations long history, it has reaped the rewards of the English language, as the most widely spoken and written language in the world, and the popularity of the British Monarchy with the Queen still head of state to 16 nations globally. 'The soft power prowess the nation has banked will certainly stand the test of time, regardless of any short-term hurdles.' [February 25, 2021] Dolbey is Best in KLAS for Speech Recognition: Front-End Imaging and Computer-Assisted Coding CONCORD, Ohio, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since Dolbey's founding in 1914, the Dolbey name has stood for dependability and industry-leading technology. The Dolbey suite of solutions include physician-facing applications for speech recognition and dictation as well as solutions for document creation and transcription and revenue cycle solutions for clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and computer-assisted coding (CAC). This year, Dolbey earned two Best in KLAS Awards for 2021. Adam Gale, Co-Founder and CEO of KLAS Research, states, "Each year, thousands of healthcare professionals across the globe take the time to share their voice with KLAS. They know that sharing their perspective helps vendors to improve and helps their peers make better decisions. These conversations are a constant reminder to me of how necessary accurate, honest, and impartial reporting is in the healthcare industry. The Best in KLAS report and the awards it contains set the standard of excellence for software and services firms. Vendors who win the title of "Best in KLAS" should celebrate and remember that providers now accept only the best from their products and services. The Best in KLAS award serves as a signal to provider and payer organizations that they should expect excellence from the winning vendors." Fusion Expert earned the 2021 Best in KLAS award for Speech Recognition for Imaging and 100% of surveyed customers agreed that Dolbey avoids charging for "every little thing" and keeps all promises. In the Front-End Speech Recognition for EMRs category, Fusion SpeechEMR received the highest user score and Fusion Narrate eceived the second-highest user score. "2020 and 2021 have been disruptive for patients, providers and vendors and challenged us to shift our product implementation and support models from on-premise to online. Our customers have spoken, and we are thrilled that they have recognized Dolbey's continued commitment to delivering exceptional solutions and support, all validated by KLAS surveys," says Bob Leslie, Senior Vice President and GM of Dolbey. Dolbey's Fusion CAC, computer-assisted coding, also earned the 2021 Best in KLAS Award. This marks the fifth year in a row Dolbey has earned the top rank for computer-assisted coding. About Dolbey Dolbey's award-winning healthcare suite of solutions improves productivity while delivering better documentation which improves patient care. Since 1914, Dolbey has consistently evolved its products incorporating the latest technologies available to meet the demands of the healthcare community. Today, our suite of products includes Speech Recognition, CAPD, CDI, CAC, Transcription and Dictation. About KLAS KLAS is a research and insights firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by amplifying the provider's voice. Working with thousands of healthcare professionals and clinicians, KLAS gathers data and insights on software, services and medical equipment to deliver timely reports, trends and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. Follow KLAS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KLASresearch. For further information, please contact: Traci Miller, Marketing Director 800-878-7828 x119/tmiller@dolbey.com www.dolbey.com Related Images image1.png View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dolbey-is-best-in-klas-for-speech-recognition-front-end-imaging-and-computer-assisted-coding-301235221.html SOURCE Dolbey [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] President Michael D. Higgins has donated dozens of his personal collection of books ahead of the Ireland Reads national reading day today. The President donated an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction, including books of poetry, history and politics according to his spokesman. The collection includes both books bought by the President and others that were given as gifts to President Higgins by the authors. Read More The books are currently being catalogued and indexed by the library service, he added. The donation marks the second time that the President did a spring cleaning of his library during the pandemic. Last February, he made a surprise visit to the Cabra Library in north Dublin where he gifted the library with 700 books from his personal collection. The donation coincides with Ireland Reads Squeeze in a Read campaign in which participants are encouraged to set aside some time tomorrow to read. The initiative, sponsored by public libraries in partnership with leading booksellers and authors like Sebastian Barry and Patricia Scanlan, encourages people to seek solace in the written word. So far, readers across the country have signed up to an online pledge to collectively set aside more than 480,000 minutes tomorrow to read. Mr Higgins, who has published a dozen books of his own writing and poetry, said reading has always been an integral part of his life. Books have played, and continue to play, probably an inordinate role, in my own life. Books are a great friend, he said at launch of the campaign earlier this month. He added that libraries are the oxygen of public life, and most important are the library staff who have, over the years, created an atmosphere for generations of Irish children, women and men. Gurugram, Feb 25 : A Yemeni who was diagnosed with thoracic aneurysm has been treated successfully in a hospital here, doctors said, adding that the ailment has a fatality rate of around 75 per cent. The doctors at Gurugram's Fortis Memorial Research Institute have said that the disease has claimed four of her siblings' lives in Yemen. Wafa Ahmed Saleh Ahmed Al Gahdari (25), was treated by a team of doctors led by Udgeath Dhir, Director and Head, CTVS, Fortis Hospital. The condition of the patient was improved through an intensive and lifesaving procedure - Thoracic Endovascular Repair (TEVAR) At the time of the diagnosis, the patient complained of neck ache which prevented her from completing the everyday work. When she was medically evaluated, it was found that she was suffering from a large thoracic aortic aneurysm. The pain then started affecting her back because the aorta which supplied blood to her spine had ruptured. After a thorough medical examination, it was determined that a thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) procedure needed to be performed, doctors added. Dhir, said, "The aorta is the pipe which supplies the blood to the whole body from the heart. In this case, there were multiple ruptures in the aorta, and it was dilated to the size of 8.1 cm (normal value of 3 to 3.5 cm). A complex dissection involving the arteries which supply blood to the stomach as well were affected. There was a chance that the patient would become paralyzed due to shortage of blood supply involving the spinal arteries. "It was a tricky situation due to the complex anatomy of dissection and aneurysm. We did an endovascular repair by minimal invasive approach. A successful TEVAR procedure involves a meticulous preoperative planning regarding the precise size of the endograft (a device which is placed inside the thoracic portion of the aorta to provide support to the weakened artery), its length, and its relation to critical branch vessels. Now the patient is being discharged. She is in a stable and healthy condition with no complication," Dr Dhir told IANS. Ritu Garg, Zonal Director, Fortis Memorial Research Institute said, "Pandemic and border restrictions on travel should not refrain the sick from receiving best medical treatment. When we got to know of the critical condition of this patient, immediate efforts were made to offer best medical treatment. I am glad that prompt response of the embassies and doctors helped save the patient's life." Newly Appointed CSU Chancellor Plans to Reopen Campuses in the Fall FridayCalifornia State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) was the first of 23 CSU campuses to publicly welcome the newly appointed CSU Chancellor, Joseph I. Castro. During the virtual press conference, CSUDH President Thomas Parham candidly stated, You will not find a more committed leader to student success than Joe Castro. This fall, California State University (CSU) campuses plan to return to in-person education and reopen a majority of classes for in-person, hybrid or virtual instruction. During the virtual press conference, Chancellor Castro described a fistful of arrangements to reopen campuses as well as his goals moving forward. Prior to his new position as chancellor, Castro served as president of CSU, Fresno (CSUF), and during his tenure, Castro notably led CSUF to be a national leader in recruiting, as well as graduating students from diverse backgrounds. ADVERTISEMENT Castro is the eighth chancellor, and the first California native and first Mexican American to be appointed to oversee the 23 CSU campusessucceeding Timothy P. White who retired from the position. I plan to visit all the 23 campuses over the next year or so; initially, that will be virtually and then over time (when its safe), I look forward to doing it in-person, Castro briefly mentioned in Fridays press conference. Despite his past success as CSUF president, Castros new position as chancellor has arrived during a global pandemic, a vast moment that tragically took the lives of millions in less than a year. CSUDH President, Thomas Parham stated, One of the students [Castro] had a chance to meet today [was] a former student and now alumniwho is now physician on the frontline, [and] that is indicative of what we try to do Dominguez Hills. What we do at Dominguez Hills is we transform lives that ultimately transforms America. Castro plans to admit a new protocol relevant to retaining student and faculty safety under annual state appropriation. Briefly noting that, We received good news this week from the governor and legislative leaders. They have agreed to restore the 299,000,000 million dollars that was cut in this current year budget, and thats very good news for Dominguez hills, said Castro. Reference to last summers budget cut due to COVID-19-imposed impacts to the states economy for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which originally ceased all new hires and also led to non-essential layoffs. ADVERTISEMENT Chancellor Castro said, Were one of the best values in the country, and I believe that the return on all investments is very high. President Parham and I are ecstatic about that and it is great news for all of our campuses. In addition to that [Governor Newsom] has pledged other permanent funding, and so we will receive according to his plan, at least 444,000,000 million new recurring dollars in the budget proposal. The Chancellor also described the Graduation Initiative of 2025 as one of my highest priorities. A plan to increase graduation rates and eliminate equity gaps in college degree completion, ultimately to meet Californias needs in todays workforce. He stated, We have been making terrific progress in meeting those ambitious goals at each campus and across the system. I feel confident that with further investments we will meet those targets. Furthermore, he assigned a new committee to accelerate progress relating to equity gaps; such as, The Federal Pell Grant, which is usually awarded to undergraduates whose families have a total income of up to $50,000. Though, in many cases Pell grant money goes to students with a total family income of below $20,000. Castro said, Especially, as it relates to eliminating equity gaps, and those that relate to students from underrepresented backgrounds who received Pell Grants and who are still at many campuses not graduating at the same time as other students. So, were going to work on that across the system, building on the great efforts that have already taken place. With CSU Campuses set to reopen in the fall, Chancellor Castro highly encourages students and faculty to get vaccinated, As we have announced before our intention is to have a majority of our courses in-person throughout the system when we get to the fall. Our success in doing that depends on adequate vaccination inspiring our student, faculty, staff and their families to get vaccinated keeping everyone safe [and] following all the appropriate guidelines, said Castro. The CSU system plans to work with the University of California (UC) system and the Community Colleges (CC) system to create marketing campaign and on campus vaccination, with hopes to maximize the opportunity for [campuses] to repopulate at a higher-level overtime. Chancellor Castro stated, As of two days ago, 16 of our campuses were either approved or are in approval process to provide vaccination or will partner with local public health agencies to offer facilities for vaccination distribution; and there are ten currently operational, including the federal community of vaccine center at Cal State LA, and thats operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and our state. The chancellor noted that however, we [cannot] legally prohibit a student from getting their education or an employee from working if they have not received the COVID-19 vaccine. Qatar Wednesday after the intervention of Tunisian President Kais Saied cancelled the execution of a Tunisian national charged with the murder of a Somalian soldier in the Gulf country, Webdo Tunis reports. Saieds office in a statement said Qatars Emir Cheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani responded favorably to the Tunisian leaders request to cancel Fakhri Landolsis execution scheduled on today Feb. 25. The Tunisian national will on May 1st hear a new condemnation in the replacement of the execution. In detention in a Qatari prison, Landolsi was informed of his execution on Wednesday. He has been sentenced to death after he was charged with belonging to a terrorist organization and participating in the killing of a Somalian soldier in the Gulf country. He, Webdo Tunis reports, has denied any wrongdoing. On Monday, March 1, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Electoral Sentiments, Ukrainians' Attitude to Political Events on Agenda" based on the results of a representative survey conducted by the CATI method from February 25 to February 28, 2021. Participants include analyst, sociologist of the Kyiv Institute of Sociological and Marketing Research Olha Chyzhevska, social psychologist, director of the Kyiv Institute of Sociological and Marketing Research Andriy Diahil (8/5a Reitarska Street). The press conference will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. More info by phone: (096) 344 9267, (063) 374 9233. 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. Half of those who suffered cancer symptoms during the first lockdown delayed getting checked amid fears of over-burdening the NHS, a study shows. The survey of 7,543 found 40 per cent had at least one potential symptom between March and August, and of these 45 per cent did not contact their GP. Potential cancer symptoms include coughing up blood, unexplained lumps and changes in appearance of a mole. The study was a collaboration between Cancer Research UK and Cardiff University, where health psychologist Professor Kate Brain said stay home lockdown messaging also sent a strong message to the public that cancer can wait. The survey of 7,543 people by Cancer Research UK and Cardiff University found 40 per cent had at least one potential symptom between March and August, and of these 45 per cent did not contact their GP (stock photo) Cancer Research UKs Michelle Mitchell said: Its vital people dont delay contacting their GP if they notice any unusual changes to their body. The grim warning comes days after MPs wrote to Boris Johnson warning Britain was facing a cancer disaster. The group of 75 cross-party politicians said 100,000 people could miss out on cancer treatment due to the pandemic, with many dying unnecessarily. Experts called for a concerted effort to remind the public that NHS services are open safely. Professor Kate Brain, a health psychologist from Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine, said people had put their health concerns on hold to protect the NHS. Potential cancer symptoms include coughing up blood, unexplained lumps and changes in appearance of a mole (stock photo, a woman checks herself for an unexplained lump) She said: From the early data we collected after the first lockdown we can see that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected public attitudes to seeking help for signs and symptoms of cancer which may translate into delayed referrals, missed tests and later-stage diagnosis. This suggests the Governments message to stay home, protect the NHS, save lives - which was intended to control the spread of Covid-19 - also sent a strong message to the public that cancer can wait. While we recognise that measures to control the spread of Covid-19 are essential, we also need to send a strong and clear message that cancer cannot wait, that people should contact their GP with any unusual or persistent symptoms and that NHS services are open safely. Associate features editor Margaret Button is the associate editor of Berkshires Week and writes a weekly food. She has been with The Eagle since 2014. Maggy can be reached at mbutton@berkshireeagle.com and on Twitter at @ButtonMaggy. They quickly rose to fame following the success of their Netflix reality series Selling Sunset, which wrapped its third season last summer. And Heather Rae Young was spotted grabbing lunch with costars Chrishell Stause and Mary Fitzgerald in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon. Heather put on an exceptionally leggy display as she arrived to her lunch date in a pair of suede stiletto heels. Ladies who lunch: Heather Rae Young was spotted grabbing lunch with costars Chrishell Stause and Mary Fitzgerald in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon Young, who is engaged to Flip Or Flop star Tarek El Moussa, stunned in a backless blazer with a plunging neckline and a pair of high waisted shorts. Her bright blonde hair was curled and then styled into a braided ponytail that she swept over one shoulder. Heather kept her belongings in a striking studded handbag, but opted to carry her cellphone in her hand as she approached Chrishell and Mary. Chrishell, who recently finalized her divorce from This Is Us actor Justin Hartley, looked to be in an extra jovial mood, while crossing the street with Mary. Legs for days: Heather put on an exceptionally leggy display as she arrived to her lunch date in a pair of suede stiletto heels Jovial: Chrishell, who recently finalized her divorce from This Is Us actor Justin Hartley, looked to be in an extra jovial mood, while crossing the street with Mary Despite wearing masks, the dynamic duo were clearly cracking each other up with their hands intertwined. Stause rocked a patterned puff-sleeved dress that buttoned up the front and cinched at the waist. The 39-year-old All My Children actress paired the statement making dress with some strappy tan heels that showcased her neon pink pedicure. Wedding fever: Taking to Instagram later in the day, the ladies of Selling Sunset revealed that they were all gussied up for an appearance on E! Daily Pop, where they were filmed looking at wedding dresses Mary put her slender frame on display in a leopard print bodycon dress and a white motorcycle jacket. Taking to Instagram later in the day, the ladies of Selling Sunset revealed that they were all gussied up for an appearance on E! Daily Pop, where they were filmed looking at wedding dresses. 'Reunited with my girls Such a fun girls day today and we mayyy or may not have tried on wedding dresses and sipped on champagne all day long,' captioned Heather, who has been documenting every moment of her engagement to Tarek - as well as all the wedding planning - on social media. 'What kind of dress style do you think Im gonna wear for my wedding!? Simple, extravagant, lace, mermaid, ball gown- I wanna hear all your predictions below!!' she concluded. Selling Sunset: Heather, Chrishell, and Mary quickly rose to fame following the success of their Netflix reality series Selling Sunset, which wrapped its third season last summer Happily in love: Heather is engaged to Flip Or Flip star Tarek El Moussa; Heather and Tarek pictured Heather, Chrishell, and Mary posed together for a sweet snapshot in front of a rack of stunning wedding dresses at Galia Lahav in West Hollywood. Heather and Tarek got engaged in July 2020, when he surprised her on an anniversary trip to Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California. The longtime HGTV star was previously married to his Flip Or Flop cohost Christina Anstead, 37, with whom he shares 10-year-old daughter Taylor and five-year-old son Brayden. The couple were married from 20092018. Christina subsequently married English TV presenter Ant Anstead in 2018, who she is now estranged from. 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. BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that China has invested accumulative fiscal funds of nearly 1.6 trillion yuan (about 246 billion U.S. dollars) into poverty alleviation over the past eight years. Customers in Damascus have mixed feelings about new cut-price mystery meat, writes The Levant News. The phenomenon of selling meat of unknown origin is taking Damascus by storm. The meat is on display on the sidewalks and in market stalls outside grocery shops. The meat does not have any certificate indicating its source or place of slaughter, and most of it does not carry the regimes seal of licensed slaughterhouses. These meats are so low in cost that they have started to compete with butcher shops. The sources pointed out that meat is sold abundantly in the Bab Sereija market in central Damascus, and other old markets, at low prices compared to meat at the butchers. The kilogram is sold at 6,000 Syrian pounds, while the official price is almost 20,000 pounds. A large number of residents refused to buy this meat out of fear that it might be damaging to their health, while some saw it as an opportunity to taste red meat, even once, after it had become unaffordable. Those who buy such meat said they did not notice a difference or bad smell, while those who refuse to buy it said that even the butcher shops monitored by the Syrian regime have attempted to sell donkey meat several times, so there is no way they would buy meat whose source is unknown. Not only is meat sold in market stalls and sidewalks, but also laying hen, which is a type of chicken that does not live more than 18 months, and is eventually dispensed of as caring for it is costly and its egg production is not considered profitable. As a result of the exorbitantly high prices, Syrians have been searching for the cheapest alternative while trying to take into consideration quality and health. The Supply Control Authority has been allowing the spread of these unlicensed stalls, with an unusual lack of effort to prevent such phenomena, which raises suspicion and doubts, and begs questions about the identity of those behind the sale of that meat. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Russia's President Vladimir Putin called for restraint from all sides in the Armenian political crisis in a phone call with Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Interfax news agency quoted the Kremlin spokesman as saying on Thursday. Pashinyan has called on his opponents to stop protesting and invited them to hold talks to discuss the political crisis earlier on Thursday, after the military called on Pashinyan and his government to resign. Short link: Headlines: - $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in motion (when will Congress vote?) - California Gov Newsom explains $600 Golden State stimulus check legislation (who qualifies and what else is included?) - Over 150 CEOs sign open letter urging Congress to pass new stimulus bill - Some Democrats oppose Biden's ARP (who and why?) - IRS tax return could decide your third stimulus check entitlement (how does this affect you?) - A boost in the federal minimum wage has been ruled out of the stimulus bill by the Senate parliamentarian. - US consumer spending in January up on previous year's thanks to stimulus check boost - Child tax credit expansion and stimulus check boost could halve child poverty in the US, study explains - Get the latest stimulus check news in Spanish (las noticias sobre los cheques de estimulo en espanol) - US covid-19 cases/deaths: 28.4 million / 508,307 (live updates) Scroll through some of the latest news stories: An Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed Williams was freed Thursday. Among the requirements set by the Prison Review Board, Williams is to have no contact with Quortneys family, must be electronically monitored so he cant leave the house for the duration of his three-year parole and will need to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, the spokesman said. (Natural News) To combat the prolific spread of disinformation online, a cohort of the worlds most powerful tech corporations is working on a project that aims to forever silence opposing voices on the internet. Microsoft, Intel, BBC, and Adobe, along with lesser-known Truepic and Arm, have joined forces to develop new censorship tools, the likes of which the world has never seen. In this age of digital censorship, where prominent buzzwords are used as justification to silence free speech, the coalition sees a new opportunity to trample the First Amendment while claiming some kind of moral high ground for preserving truth online. Theres a critical need to address widespread deception in online content now supercharged by advances in AI and graphics and diffused rapidly via the internet, wrote Microsoft in a celebratory blog post on behalf of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). Our imperative as researchers and technologists is to create and refine technical and sociotechnical approaches to this grand challenge of our time. Were excited about methods for certifying the origin and provenance of online content. Its an honor to work alongside Adobe, BBC and other C2PA members to take this critical work to the next step. The goal of C2PA, according to Microsoft, is to develop content provenance specifications for common asset types and formats to enable publishers, creators and consumers to trace the origin and evolution of a piece of media, including images, videos, audio and documents. Truepic working on open standard for censorship to forever suppress misinformation Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is a huge fan of the plan. He stated during an interview at the Wall Street Journal Summit in London that existing tools for addressing misinformation online are less creative than we need at this point. Thus, they need to be replaced with smart solutions, he says. According to Gates, humanity suffers from an addiction, or what he calls a weakness, to titillating misinformation. Consequently, he and other elitists now feel compelled to come up with some kind of plan to cure the problem. In this case, Gates does not appear to be working on a vaccine for people who believe conspiracy theories. Instead, he is focusing his efforts on new technologies that have the capacity to prevent the spread of unapproved truth before it even gets published online. That stuff spreads so much faster than the truth which is, you know, it comes from a bat, Gates told the media, using skepticism about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic as one prevalent example of misinformation. You know, were still trying to figure out the exact path of transmission, Gates added about the Chinese virus. You dont forward that the same way that you would the conspiracy. Truepic, which is known for its hardware-secured photo capture technology, already has a plan in place to incorporate its video and image verification programs into a full-scale censorship regimen. Truepic was founded on the principle that provenance-based media authenticity is the only viable, scalable long-term solution to restoring trust in what we see online. We firmly believe that ecosystem-wide adoption through an open standard is crucial to the long-term health of the internet, the company announced in a statement. The C2PA will streamline the distribution of high-integrity digital content at scale, a vital step in restoring societys shared sense of reality. As many of our readers will recall, Gates headed up Event 201 back in Oct. 2019. This event predicted, conveniently, the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic that would emerge worldwide just a few months later. More stories like this one can be found at Censorship.news. Sources for this article include: ReclaimTheNet.org NaturalNews.com Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Appia Energy Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQB: APAAF) (FSE: A0I.F) (FSE: A0I.MU) (FSE: A0I.BE) (the "Company" or "Appia") is pleased to announce that bench-scale monazite processing and metallurgical testing (the "Test") has started at the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC"). SRC will be using sample materials from Appia's high-grade rare earth element ("REE"), gallium and uranium Alces Lake property (the "Property"), located in northern Saskatchewan. The goal of the Test is to process monazite-bearing rocks from the Property to produce a mixed REE carbonate. The scope of work will include sample preparation and characterization, monazite beneficiation and monazite concentrate processing, and finally producing a mixed REE carbonate. The recovery of a phosphate by-product will also be examined. Approximately 50 kg of monazite-bearing sample material from the WRCB zone of the Property with a representative grade of ~9 to 10% total rare earth oxide ("TREO") will be used for the Test. The Test is expected to take approximately three months to complete with a full report delivered to the Company. Following the results of the Test, an assessment will be made to pursue the next step of metallurgical testing and convert the REE carbonate to REE oxides. James Sykes, Appia's Vice-President, Exploration and Development comments: "This is a major step forward for the Company. Mineralization grades at Alces Lake are amongst the highest in the world and comparable with mining operations that are successfully producing REE oxides. The test work being carried out at SRC will determine the ease of metallurgical processing and recovery of REE end-products. Monazite is one of the most important REE-bearing minerals producing REE oxides today and we remain confident that the Alces Lake monazite will be processed with similar results to economic REE operations. We are pleased to have SRC performing the Test for us as they are recognized global leaders in this field of research". The Company is fully funded and committed to completing the largest exploration and diamond drilling program on the Property to date during the summer months of 2021. Processing and Metallurgical Test work The Test will characterize the effects of monazite beneficiation by way of gravity and magnetic separation, and flotation testing. Heavy liquid gravity separation will be used to remove primarily light waste minerals such as quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar, chlorite and mica. Magnetic separation techniques will determine the effectiveness of the removal of magnetic iron minerals and other non-magnetic minerals. The remaining concentrate after the two separations will be combined and used to evaluate the effectiveness of flotation testing, which is one of the most common methods to recover and concentrate monazite from ore deposits. The end goal of these processes is to produce a high-grade monazite concentrate with a target grade of 55 to 60 wt% TREO for downstream hydrometallurgical testing. The monazite concentrate will then be ground to a fine powder and followed with caustic cracking where the monazite will be decomposed in a strong basic solution of caustic soda, converting the REE phosphate to REE hydroxides. The solid REE hydroxide will be used for acid selective leach tests and the filtrate and washes will be used for phosphate recovery tests. Acid selective leaching will be used to dissolve the solid REE hydroxide residue and to test the initial separation of REEs from radioactive elements such as Th and U, as well as iron. A REE pregnant leach solution is expected to be produced at the end of the acid selective leaching process. Tests to remove radium and other impurities if any, will also be trialed with subsequent purification processes. Following the purification processes, a purified REE chloride solution is expected to be obtained, which would then be used to precipitate a mixed REE carbonate by the addition of sodium bicarbonate. The liquid portion derived from the caustic cracking process is anticipated to be enriched with phosphate and caustic soda. The solution will be evaporated to recover a phosphate by-product by crystallization. The unreacted caustic soda in the mother liquor can be recycled and reused in the caustic cracking process. Prior to phosphate by-product recovery, the solution might contain radioactive materials and therefore an additional two-step process will be applied to remove the radioactive contaminants and improve phosphate by-product purity. All solid, liquid and radioactive wastes produced from both beneficiation and hydrometallurgical tests will be disposed of following SRC's waste disposal protocols and using their facilities. ALCES LAKE SUMMARY The Property encompasses some of the highest-grade total and critical rare earth elements ("CREE") and gallium mineralization in the world. CREE is defined here as those rare earth elements that are in short-supply and high-demand for use in permanent magnets and modern electronic applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines, (i.e: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) dysprosium (Dy), and terbium (Tb)). The Alces Lake project area is 17,577 hectares (43,434 acres) in size and is 100% owned by Appia. The project is located close to an old mining camp with existing support services, such as transportation (i.e., 15 km from the nearest trail), energy infrastructure (hydroelectric power), a 1,200 m airstrip that receives daily scheduled services, and access to heavy equipment. Since detailed exploration began at Alces Lake in 2017, a total of seventy-four (74) REE, gallium and uranium bearing surface zones and occurrences over 45 km of the System have been discovered on the Property. To date, less than 1% of the Property has been explored with diamond drilling. The Property is located in Saskatchewan, the same provincial jurisdiction that has planned to develop a "first-of-its-kind" rare earth processing facility in Canada, which is scheduled to become operational by 2022. The technical content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Dr. Irvine R. Annesley, P.Geo, Advisor to Appia's Board of Directors, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Appia Appia is a Canadian publicly-listed company in the uranium and rare earth element sectors. The Company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements ("REE") and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as prospecting for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 65,601 hectares (162,104 acres) in Saskatchewan. The Company also has a 100% interest (subject to a 1% Uranium Production Payment Royalty and a 1% Net Smelter Return Royalty on any precious or base metals payable, provided that the price of uranium is greater than US$130 per pound) in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario. The Camp historically produced over 300 million pounds of U 3 O 8 and is the only Canadian camp that has had significant rare earth element (yttrium) production. The deposits are largely unconstrained along strike and down dip. Appia has 92.5 million common shares outstanding, 108.4 million shares fully diluted. For more information, visit Appia's website at www.appiaenergy.ca Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or including the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward- looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information, please contact: Tom Drivas, President, CEO and Director: (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) appia@appiaenergy.ca James Sykes, VP Exploration & Development, (tel) 306-221-8717, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) jsykes@uraniumgeologist.com Frank van de Water, Chief Financial Officer and Director, (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) fvandewater@rogers.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75452 A man is in hospital with a broken jaw and stab wounds after a daytime brawl broke out in Sydney's west. Emergency services were called to the carpark of Westfield Mt Druitt on Carlisle Ave, shortly before 3pm on Thursday following reports of a brawl. Police found a 20-year-old with multiple stab wounds and a broken jaw in the car park. A man is in hospital with a broken jaw and stab wounds after a daytime brawl occurred in the carpark of Westfield Mt Druitt (pictured) Police found a 20-year-old with multiple stab wounds and a broken jaw in the car park on Carlisle Ave (pictured: street view) Paramedics treated him at the scene before transferring him to Westmead Hospital. His injuries are non-life-threatening according to the police. Five males have been arrested and taken to Mt Druitt police station to be questioned over the brawl. The men are assisting with enquiries, NSW police say. Authorities are urging anyone who witnessed the brawl or has mobile phone footage to contact Mt Druitt Police. Investigations are ongoing. Kaiser Health News U.S. District of Columbia Jan. 27 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Doris Ray CDC Arlington County Virginia ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia Mark Riccobono National Federation of the Blind U.S. Health and Human Services Department Robert Redfield CDC CDC Jasmine Reed Bryna Helfer Connecticut Department of Public Health Maura Fitzgerald Deanna O'Brien National Federation of the Blind of New Hampshire New Hampshire's Albert Elia San Francisco Jared Smith Bryan Bashin San Francisco Feb. 9 Alameda County Berkeley Susan Jones Indianapolis Sheela Gunn-Cushman Alameda County Emily Creasy Polk County, Ore. Sachin Dev Pavithran U.S. Logan, Utah The Indiana Health Department Public Health Division of Berkeley and Oregon's Polk County Public Health Utah's Bear River Health Department Alameda County Health Department Neetu Balram Domino's Pizza (TNS) Many COVID vaccination registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels violate disability rights laws, hindering the ability of blind people to sign up for a potentially lifesaving vaccine, ainvestigation has found.Across the country, people who use special software to make the web accessible have been unable to sign up for the vaccines or obtain vital information about COVID-19 because many government websites lack required accessibility features. At least 7.6 million people in theover age 16 have a visual disability.WebAIM, a nonprofit web accessibility organization, checked COVID vaccine websites gathered by KHN from all 50 states and the. On, it found accessibility issues on nearly all of 94 webpages, which included general vaccine information, lists of vaccine providers and registration forms.In at least seven states, blind residents said they were unable to register for the vaccine through their state or local governments without help. Phone alternatives, when available, have been beset with their own issues, such as long hold times and not being available at all hours like websites.Even the federalVaccine Administration Management System, which a small number of states and counties opted to use after its rocky rollout, has been inaccessible for blind users.Those problems violate the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which established the right to communications in an accessible format, multiple legal experts and disability advocates said. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights law that prohibits governments and private businesses from discriminating based on disability, further enshrined this protection in 1990., 72, who is blind and has a significant hearing impairment, ran into such issues when she tried to sign up for a vaccine last month with the's system, used byin. As the outreach director for the, an advocacy center run by and for people with disabilities, she had qualified for the vaccine because of her in-person work with clients.When she used screen-reading technology, which reads a website's text aloud, the drop-down field to identify her county did not work. She was unable to register for over two weeks, until a colleague helped her."This is outrageous in the time of a public health emergency, that blind people aren't able to access something to get vaccinated," Ray said., president of the, wrote to thein early December, laying out his concerns on vaccine accessibility."A national emergency does not exempt federal, state, and local governments from providing equal access," he wrote.Dr., who was then leading the, responded that the interim vaccine playbook for health departments included a reminder of the legal requirements for accessible information.spokespersonsaid in an email that the Vaccine Administration Management System is compliant with federal accessibility laws and that the agency requires testing of its services.But more than two months into a national vaccine campaign, those on the ground report problems at all levels.Some local officials who use VAMS are aware of the ongoing problems and blame the federal government. Arlington Assistant County Managersaid that because VAMS is run by the federal government the county cannot access the internal workings to troubleshoot the system for blind residents.spokespersonsaid the state was aware of "many accessibility issues" with VAMS. She said it had staffed up its call center to handle the problems and was working with the federal government "to improve VAMS and enable the functionality that was promised.", president of the, said she had heard from blind people unable to use the system.health department did not answer KHN questions about the problems.Blind people are particularly vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus because they often cannot physically distance themselves from others."When I go to the grocery store, I do not have the option of walking around and not being near a person," said, a blind attorney who works with the-based TRE Legal Practice on accessibility cases. "I need a person at the store to assist me in shopping."There is no standardized way to register for a COVID vaccine nationwide or fix the online accessibility problems. Some states use VAMS; some states have centralized online vaccination registration sites; others have a mix of state-run and locally run websites, or leave it all to local health departments or hospitals. Ultimately, state and local governments are responsible for making their vaccination systems accessible, whether they use the VAMS system or not."Once those portals open, it's a race to see who can click the fastest," Riccobono said. "We don't have time to do things like file a lawsuit, because, at the end of the day, we need to fix it today."Common programming failures that make sites hard to use for the visually impaired included text without enough contrast to distinguish words from the page's background and images without alternative text explaining what they showed, the WebAIM survey showed. Even worse, portions of the forms on 19 states' pages were built so that screen readers couldn't decipher what information a user should enter on search bars or vaccine registration forms.The new vaccine pages had more errors than states' main coronavirus pages but slightly fewer than state government websites in general, said WebAIM Associate DirectorWhen, 65, who is blind and chief executive of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in, tried to sign up onfor his vaccine appointment, he encountered multiple hurdles. The appointments slipped away. That night theresident received an email from the city ofoffering vaccinations. But after two hours struggling with its inaccessible website, all the slots were again taken, he said in an email.He was only able to get an appointment after his sighted sister signed him up and has since received his first shot."It's an awful bit of discrimination, one as stinging as anything I've experienced," Bashin said., a blind 69-year-old in, had to rely on the Aira app, which allows a sighted person to operate her computer remotely, when she tried to register for her vaccine appointment."I resent that the assumption is that a sighted fairy godmother ought to be there at all times," said, a 49-year-old also in, who also had to rely on Aira to complete preregistration for a vaccine., 23, a visually impaired woman in, said she tried unsuccessfully for a month to make the scheduling apparatus work with her screen reader. She finally received her first shot after her mother and roommate helped her.Even, 43, who is blind and executive director of theAccess Board, an independent agency of the federal government that works to increase accessibility, said he struggled to access vaccine registration information indid not respond to requests for comment.did not answer questions on the issue.Afterreceived complaints from users that its site was not compatible with screen readers, officials decided to move away from its preregistration technology,spokespersonsaid in mid-February. The county has since switched to a new form.If vaccine accessibility issues are not fixed across the country, though, lawsuits could come next, Elia said. Members of the blind community recently won landmark lawsuits againstand the Winn-Dixie grocery chain after being unable to order online.And, Elia said, "this is not ordering a pizza this is being able to get a potentially lifesaving vaccine." * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! Campus Activities Details Why the Stories of U.S. Black Catholic Sisters Matter by Shannen Dee Williams, Ph.D., the Albert Lepage assistant professor of history at Villanova University. This event, in which Professor Williams will discuss topics covered in her upcoming book, Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle, is being sponsored by the Provost's Office, Center for Campus Ministry, Center for Equity and Success and Theology Department. Please check your email for the Zoom information. The Equality Act is the most significant threat to religious liberty in a generation. Image: By Juan Moyano via Canva Today, Congress will consider the Equality Act, which its propoents indicate would ban discrimination toward people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. While discrimination toward people created in the image of God should, indeed, be opposed, the EA does so in ways that significantly disregard religious liberty concerns. Just how far remains to be seen. In all likelihood, based on a briefing I received yesterday, this wont pass the Senate. However, since it will be global news today, it is still important now that we articulate our concerns. The Equality Act will, eventually, pass. The question is what the final version will be. Ive spoken to members of Congress in the House and Senate, and to senior leaders in the Biden administration. Many (not all) assure me that there will be accommodations for the sincerely held religious beliefs of evangelicals, but also for Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, and people of no faith for that matter. However, thats not the rhetoric we are hearing and seeing today, in the halls of Congress and online. And, honestly, I think there is some naivety from some that their more progressive colleagues will actually want to find a compromise. In October 2019 following the CNN Equality Town Hall meeting I tweeted this: 2009: How is my gay marriage going to hurt you? We just want marriage equality. 2019: We want the tax-exempt status of the churches, charities, and colleges revoked for your failure to change your views on gay marriage. As I said in an article then, in the span of one decade the goal posts have been changed from "we just want equality" to "affirm the new orthodoxy on same sex marriageor lose tax exempt status." Let me be clear, I am not talking about churches losing tax exempt status, though that is exactly what some are requesting (and I was responding to Beto ORourkes comment in that tweet). Yet, it is important to note, stripping churches of their tax exempt status would not make it through Congress now or anytime in the near future. However, the Equality Act would indeed impact religious liberty and Christian mission at multiple points. Let me explain. Impact on Evangelicals The Equality Act would have a significant impact on evangelical practice and mission in multiple contexts. An article by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) stated in May 2019, "If the measure became law, many religious schools and charities would have to change their faith-based policies and practices, or face sanctions that could force them to close their doors." At the time, NAE president Leith Anderson wrote a letter to congress arguing the following are likely outcomes if this becomes law: Houses of worship and other religious spaces will be turned into places of public accommodation; Federal funds will be denied to thousands of houses of worship, schools and charities that currently receive them; Religious adoption and foster care providers would be devastated, harming innocent children and families; Many privately funded shelters for the homeless and victims of domestic violence would be rendered illegal, ripping a hole in the social safety net; Core rights would be stripped from religious colleges and universities; Houses of worship, religious charities, and religious individuals will lose the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; and Religious individuals would be forced to take part in weddings and funerals that violate their religious beliefs. As I wrote after the Town Hall meeting: At Wheaton College where I serve, we have a community covenant that aligns our life and beliefs. We affirm the biblical teaching that marriage is designed and created for one man, one woman, and one lifetime. The Equality Act would in essence say that our beliefs are unacceptable and that we must change. Not Only Evangelicals Are Impacted But evangelicalsthough making up a significant percentage of the United States citizenryare not the only group concerned about the Equality Act. In an opinion at NBC News Rabbi Avi Shafran stated the obvious that "no religious American of goodwill wants to see gay or transgender people threatened in any way." However, he added: "But millions of religious Americans of goodwill have deep, faith-based convictions about marriage and sexual identity, including, for example, that marriage is a holy commitment made by a man and woman to each other before God and that the Creator bestowed DNA and morphology as the only arbiters of gender identity. By vilifying those ideas, the Equality Act would vilify all who hold them to be true." He commented that although the act on the surface will expand the 1964 Civil Rights Act to further forbid discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, the Equality Act will go beyond it: "Indeed, contrary to how it is often portrayed, the Equality Act wouldn't simply amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Equality Act would go a step further and herein lies the radical rub by cutting off avenues of appeal for any penalties imposed under the act. Specifically, it would override the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gives people a way to challenge government requirements that they feel impinge on their religious rights." President Biden, along with a Democratic controlled House of Representatives and with the narrowest of majorities in the Senate, could sign this into law. The issue at stake is this question: Can people dissent from the new majority view of marriage? What will be the penalty for those who based on religious conviction disagree with redefining marriage? There are serious, long-term implications for religious liberty here, undermining past laws that have been central to religious liberty for decades. A statement from the ACLU on this issue said: "The Equality Act also clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) cannot be used in civil rights contexts, prohibiting religious liberty which is a core American value from being used as a license to discriminate." Swinging the Pendulum Too Far We should without any ambiguity or hesitancy affirm that all peopleincluding those in the LBGTQ+ communityshould be treated with respect and dignity. Their civil rights matter. But the Equality Act will swing the pendulum too far, creating a new discrimination toward those of religious conviction that go against the cultural flow we now see. The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) explains this radical pendulum swing: "The Equality Act fails to provide essential religious liberty protections that would allow a diverse group of social service and civic institutions to continue to thrive. In particular, as it relates to the sector of faith-based higher education that has religious convictions around marriage, human sexuality and gender, including CCCU institutions, these laws would conflict in ways that would put at risk their ability to hire and operate in accordance with their religious missions and would restrict student choice in an unprecedented way by preventing middle and low income students from being able to take their federal student aid to these institutions. Faith-based higher education has always been an essential element of the diversity of the higher education system in the United Statesmany of the first colleges and universities in the United States were religiousand it is essential that any protections for LGBT persons be paired with the essential religious freedoms that maximize freedom for all." University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock spoke about this unbalanced impact of the Equality Act as well: "It protects the rights of one side, but attempts to destroy the rights of the other side," he said. "We ought to protect the liberty of both sides to live their own lives by their own identities and their own values." Actions have consequences. The apparent consequences of the Equality Act becoming law are deeply concerning to many people of faith; the unintended consequences could be even worse. A group of construction engineering students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) explored potential building materials for Mars along with possible construction methods by making use of NASAs 3D printed pre-existing model for their graduation project, on 23 February. The team included Zenah Helmy, Gehad Ayman, Ziad Abdeen, Reem Gamal, Omar Sawan, and Kareem Reda. The graduation project was supervised by Mohamed Naguib Abu-Zeid, professor of construction engineering, who encouraged the students to venture into this challenging topic. The topic is as interesting as it is challenging, said Abdeen. After all, how could you build on a planet no one has ever stepped foot on? Building on other planets sounds like something out of a movie. I have to admit that when the topic was introduced on the table, I had my doubts. However, fast forward a couple of months of research and work, now I firmly believe in it. ## Building in outer space is no longer an imagination. Instead, its a reality that is unfolding. Inhabiting Mars is indeed becoming a reality explored by NASA, especially after NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover succeeded in landing on the surface of Mars. To start their project, the students gathered a lot of data and information on Mars, from the weather to the planets materials. We encountered many challenges along the way, one of which is that we needed Martian regolith to use in our mixes, but of course, there isnt any Martian soil on Earth, so we found a material with an extremely similar chemical composition and repurposed it to fit the Martian regolith composition. Through their research, the students made use of NASAs 3D printed pre-existing model. NASA launched a 3D printed habitat competition from 2015 to 2019, calling out for building the most sustainable and efficient habitat on Mars using 3D printing technology. For their project, the students located materials on Earth that exist on Mars and, hence, can construct the building on the planet itself with little to no need to transport any materials. They started with a doughnut icehouse designed to withstand intense radiation and massive daily temperature changes while providing a pressurised environment inside for humans to live in over a prolonged period of time. The membrane around the icehouse had to be transparent to allow light inside the building and prevent the feeling of isolation and confinement. The students created Martian concrete, a new kind of concrete that doesnt require water and is more than twice as strong, which they found had a similar chemical composition to the Martian regolith. This research shows how our students think creatively and keep up with the cutting edge of technology, said Mohamed Naguib Abu Zeid, professor of construction engineering and thesis supervisor. They have tackled that challenge by exploring materials, techniques, and means to build on planet Mars. Thinking totally out of the box and dealing with severe and different climatic and physical conditions, they managed to pinpoint several options for such buildings, utilising materials on Mars by simulating Earths existing ones. Another great outcome of this project is to be able to handle complex challenges on planet Earth itself. SpaceX is currently testing its new spacecraft called Starship, which will be the vessel that carries both people and cargo to the Red Planet, said Ayman. The company estimates that the first humans to land on Mars will get there by 2024. The companys CEO, Elon Musk, thinks that there will be a functional colony on Mars in the next 100 years. Our research is just the beginning, and many more in the scientific community will definitely pick up this topic as NASA and SpaceX get closer to making it a reality and making us an interplanetary species, said Helmy, on behalf of the team, This is coming, so we need to prepare and be ready for this reality because if it is not us, then who? And if not now, then when? Short link: German Health Minister Jens Spahn answers questions on the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during a plenum session at the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, on Feb. 24, 2021. (Annegret Hilse/Reuters) German Man Charged With Giving Bundestag Floor Plans to Russian Intelligence BERLINGerman federal prosecutors have charged a German citizen with espionage, saying he passed floor plans of the Bundestag parliament building to Russian intelligence. The man, identified only as Jens F., obtained PDF files with the floor plans during the course of his work for a company that was hired to maintain electrical equipment in the Bundestags buildings, the prosecutors office said in a statement. The charges could further strain ties between Russia and Germany, which protested at the arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny shortly after he returned to Russia from months of convalescence in Germany following his poisoning, allegedly by Russian state security services, last year. According to prosecutors, the suspect decided in 2017 to pass the floor plans to Russian intelligence. He sent a data storage device to an employee at the Russian embassy who mainly worked for Russian intelligence agency GRU, they said. This is not the first occasion in which Russian security services have allegedly spied on Germanys legislature. In 2016, German authorities said the Bundestags computer systems had been the victim of a Russian hacking attack the year before. Reports of further spying could strengthen the hand of opponents of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that is due to link Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea. Critics, including the United States, say the project heightens Germanys dependence on energy from an unreliable and potentially hostile partner. By Maria Sheahan There is an urgent need to increase and improve the logistics arrangement for the domestic steel sector, industry body Indian Steel Association (ISA) on Thursday said. Managing logistics requirements is still challenging and costly for many steel makers in India, Secretary-General Bhaskar Chatterjee said in the Indian Steel Markets Conference 2021 organised by mjunction. mjunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and the Steel Authority of India Ltd, is a business-to-business e-commerce company that also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals. Noting that the steel production and consumption of the metal are expected to grow on the back of government initiatives, the transportation of raw materials to steel mills and finished steel to demand centres is an area to be looked at, he said in his address. Citing a figure from a government study, Chatterjee said, "The freight cost from Jamshedpur to Mumbai can be as high as USD 50 per tonne in comparison to USD 34 per tonne from Rotterdam to Mumbai." In India, Chatterjee said that for every 1 tonne of steel produced, roughly 3 tonnes of raw material needs to be transported. So, even as India doubles its steel production in the next 10 years, the logistic requirement of the domestic steel industry will become virtually unmanageable unless steps are taken to improve the physical infrastructure especially by the Indian Railways, Chatterjee said. The government has set a target to increase India's total installed steel capacity to 300 million tonne by 2030. Addressing further, he said managing logistic requirements is still challenging and costly for many steel makers in the country. The primary raw materials that is iron ore and coal are bulky and so is the product steel, and the process of transporting the raw materials to steel mills or finished steel to demand centres is always arduous. Moreover, most Indian steel plants are located inland unlike in China, Japan or South Korea where they are located closely to the sea. "This system makes the logistic requirement more taxing. Though railways are the naturally referred mode of transportation for steel and meet more than 80 pc of the total logistical requirement of the steel industry. "There are a number of infrastructure constraints in the railways logistical ecosystem which adds to the logistical woes of Indian steel makers," Chatterjee said. Sharing his outlook for the sector, he said the industry has to a large extent negotiated the headwinds caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The steel demand is poised to log a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 7-7.5 per cent between the fiscals 2021-22 and 2024-25. The government's initiative related to housing like Housing for All, Bharatmala project for roads, Sagarmala project for ports, Dedicated Freight Corridors, metros, the bullet train under the railways, and UDAN under the aviation sector will provide great impetus. Besides, mandatory road crash barriers on national highways, rising construction projects, use of pre-engineered buildings and design changing in urban housing will augment the steel demand in the long-term. (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.) Hyderabad, Feb 25 : Over 10.36 lakh graduates are eligible to cast their votes in two constituencies of the Telangana Legislative Council going to polls next month. The number of voters in the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar constituency is 5,31,268 while the same in the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam stands at 5,05,565. The Election Commission on January 18 had announced the number of voters in both the constituencies. The number then was 10,09,279. However, like in the general elections, the poll panel allowed voter enrollment till 10 days before the last date of filing of nominations. As a result, 27,951 more voters enrolled themselves while 397 voters were removed from the rolls. The total number of voters in both the constituencies increased to 10,36,833. The number of voters has doubled compared to the previous election as supporters of all the political parties and prospective candidates actively participated in the voter enrollment drive. The poll authorities will set up 1,530 polling centres in the two constituencies. The actual number of polling booths was 1,162 but this number increased after it was decided to have an additional booth in areas where there are over 1,000 voters. After the scrutiny of nomination papers by the Election Commission on Wednesday, nominations of 74 candidates in the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam constituency were found in order. They include 58 Independent candidates. In the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar constituency, the nominations of 96 candidates were found valid. As many as 82 of the candidates are Independents. Nominations of 15 candidates, all Independents, were rejected in the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar constituency. Papers of two candidates of the Telugu Desam Party and the Dalita Bahujana Party were also not found valid in the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam constituency. Friday is the last day for withdrawal of nominations. The polling will be held on March 14 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. while counting of votes will be taken up on March 17. The tenure of sitting MLCs N. Ramchander Rao (BJP) in Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar constituency and P. Rajeshwar Reddy (TRS) in Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam are coming to an end on March 29. Both the sitting MLCs have been fielded again by their respective parties. The constituencies will be witnessing multicornered contsts. Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has fielded former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's daughter, S. Vani, from the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar seat. The UAEs Minister of Energy and Infrastructure has joined the Abu Dhabi Hydrogen Alliance. Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Cabinet Member and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, affirmed that the Abu Dhabi Hydrogen Alliance contributes strongly to consolidating the position of the UAE in general, and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in particular as a reliable global exporter of hydrogen; and that the Ministry seeks, through entering the Alliance, to extend the bridge of international and national dialogue about Hydrogen, a WAM report said. This came on the occasion of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure joining the Abu Dhabi Hydrogen Alliance, which was established by Mubadala Investment Company, Adnoc and ADQ Holding Company earlier this year; with the aim of establishing Abu Dhabi's position as a reliable exporter of green hydrogen, which is produced by employing clean energy technology; and the blue hydrogen that is produced through natural gas, to international markets, in addition to joining efforts to build a solid hydrogen economy in UAE. The minister explained that the future tendency of the UAE is based on the exploitation of hydrogen sources for energy, meeting the growing demand for it, and ensuring reliable, affordable and low-carbon energy; and that the Ministry has been following the hydrogen dialogue since 2017, as an observer of the international platforms such as the Hydrogen Council and the International Partnership of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells (IPHE); and participating also in the exchange of knowledge through bilateral partnerships with advanced countries as well as with national stakeholders, which affirms the Ministrys endeavour to formulate a long-term energy strategy, in which hydrogen has a major role in its various axes. He added: "The UAE has been a traditional producer of hydrogen and has a great experience in this field. The Abu Dhabi Hydrogen Alliance is gaining great importance at this particular time, and the inclusion of the private sector, research and development and government entities in the alliance is an advanced step in circulating the use of hydrogen as a source of clean energy". He indicated that the UAE possesses the required natural resources, the technological expertise and political stability required to become a major player in the global hydrogen supply chain. The minister continued: "The National Energy Strategy 2050 is a major supporter of the UAEs tendency to produce clean hydrogen, in light of the targets to reach 50% of clean energy by 2050"; and that the UAE has taken various strategies and projects at the national, regional and international levels to face the challenges of climate change, as it realised early the seriousness of the economic, social and environmental consequences of these changes. -- Tradearabia News Service To quell residents frustrations over securing COVID-19 vaccines, San Antonio has launched a text alert service that will notify users when appointments to receive the shots become available. Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Wednesday unveiled the new service, which will text people when appointments open up at mass vaccination sites run by Metro Health, University Health and WellMed. Residents who want to sign up for the service must text VACCINE to 55000 or VACUNA to 55000 to receive alerts in Spanish. Opting into this service will not sign you up or add you to a wait list this is just an additional method to inform the community when new appointments are available, Nirenberg said. Vaccines are considered the most effective weapon to end the pandemic. But because of last weeks deadly winter storm, many vaccination appointments in Bexar County were pushed back. The storm also has made it hard for health officials to track the virus spread in the community because of the drop in COVID-19 testing. In the days before the record-shattering storm that left millions of Texans without power and safe drinking water, San Antonio reported between 550 and 1,350 new COVID-19 cases per day. But the number fell sharply to a low of 77 cases on Sunday after COVID-19 testing sites and medical clinics shut down because of power outages and icy roads. As the city has began to return to normal, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported each day has began to tick up again. San Antonio added 371 new cases on Wednesday, a significant jump from 270 the day before. COVID-19 deaths also continued to rise. Nirenberg reported Wednesday that nine more residents died within the last two weeks the youngest being a Hispanic woman in her 20s who died at Methodist Hospital. The countys death toll since the pandemic snow stands at 2,510. Health officials cautioned earlier this year that deaths would continue to add up after COVID-19 patients swamped San Antonio hospitals, hundreds of them sick enough to need intensive care. Since the peak of 1,520 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Bexar County on Jan. 18, the strain on hospitals has steadily eased. The number of COVID-19 patients dropped to 499 Wednesday, the lowest volume since the weekend before Thanksgiving. Of those hospitalized, 190 needed intensive care, and 115 were being treated with ventilators. Around the height of the surge in January, about 450 people were in ICUs and more than 250 needed ventilators to breathe. One-third of those that were in the hospital were in the ICU, which really means you were in danger, said County Judge Nelson Wolff, referring to Januarys peak. marina.riker@express-news.net NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Jianpu Technology Inc. ("Jianpu" or the "Company") (NYSE: JT). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Jianpu and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On June 15, 2020, in a Notification of Late Filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Jianpu disclosed that the independent audit committee of its board of directors (the "Audit Committee") was conducting an internal review of certain matters relating to transactions between the Company and third-party business entities and, as a result, could not timely file its 2019 annual report. Then, on February 16, 2021, Jianpu announced that the Audit Committee's review had found "certain transactions involv[ing] third-party agents . . . with undisclosed relationships, and some transactions lack[ing] business substance," which the Company characterized as "questionable transactions." Jianpu further advised that, "[a]s a result, certain revenue and associated expenses were inflated or inaccurately recorded" in financial statements for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, and that "certain employees improperly altered supporting documents that were provided to the Company's external auditor." As a result, Jianpu concluded that "the previously issued audited financial statements for the fiscal year 2018 and the auditor's report can no longer be relied upon" and would be restated, and that "investors must exercise caution when using the Company's previously announced unaudited financial information for the fiscal year 2019." On this news, Jianpu's American depositary share ("ADS") price fell $0.60 per ADS, or 13.22%, to close at $3.94 per ADS on February 16, 2021. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby, Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links www.pomerantzlaw.com 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. The broker believes the La Paz asset is strategically located to take advantage of the rare earths revival in the US and has given the company a LONG rating with a 12-month target price of 24 cents. The company is accelerating development of its La Paz rare earths project. ( ) (FRA:1BHA) is uniquely placed to ride Americas necessary rare earths revival to minimise reliance on China, according to a report by Hallgarten & Company analyst Christopher Ecclestone. The companys La Paz project in Arizona hosts a low-grade bulk tonnage rare earth elements (REE) deposit near-surface, has low radioactivity, is in a good mining jurisdiction and easily accessible location and with a dominance of scandium. A second REE project, in Wyoming, was added to the portfolio in August 2020. Ecclestone said: American Rare Earths is one of those sleeper assets from the first REE boom. [The company] is uniquely positioned at the table when the next REE recovery gains traction. Inevitably promoters will attempt to create new stories in the space but the embedded advantage lies with those projects, like La Paz, that have historic exploration work done and resource estimates to hand. The task now is to upgrade the resource while working on securing the all-important relationship with a processor. These factors, along with the political outlook for rare earths in the US have led to the broker giving ARR a LONG rating with a 12-month target price of 24 cents. Potential scandium upside There is more than 1,600 tonnes of high-value scandium contained in the La Paz resource of 28.2 million tonnes containing 95.4 million pounds of REE, which Ecclestone said could make a meaningful contribution to the economics of the project. Scandium is relatively rare with total annual production of 25 tonnes and it's very highly valued and priced at over US$1,000 per kilogram. While the broker cautioned that pricing was opaque as the market was virtually non-existent, he noted that up to two-thirds of La Pazs revenue at current prices was expected to come from scandium. The main use for scandium is in solid oxide fuel cells but it could also potentially be used as a light-weighting alloy with aluminium, particularly in aerospace but also possibly in EVs. The broker said: The problem is currently a supply issue with no primary mines, and that the bulk of production comes as a by-product from titanium streams (or more recently from a nickel-cobalt mine in the Philippines). This has produced a chicken-and-egg dilemma for aerospace majors who will not tool up for scandium-aluminium componentry if they cannot be guaranteed a reliable and substantial supply of scandium. The most recent development in the space has been RTZ talking of moving to commercial production in Canada from its titanium streams there. This potentially will reduce the scandium price, but conversely spur potential demand by creating a further, reliable source of supply (from a major). This ultimately will be a positive for ARR in marketing the output of La Paz by turning a nice metal, traded by appointment, into a mainstream metal. The lanmodulin-based rare earth biosorption technology extracts the lanthanides, yttrium and scandium. Unique processing technology American Rare Earths is working with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Pennsylvania State University (PSU) to enable clean extraction of both scandium and lanthanides from low-grade feedstocks. The researchers have completed a proof-of-concept demonstration of a novel biosorption technology that uses the biological ligand, lanmodulin, for selective scandium and lanthanide recovery without enriching uranium/thorium. Ecclestone said: ARR is aiming to develop the USs first low-grade rare earth mineral processing facility close to the planned mining sites in La Paz County, AZ and Albany County, WY. These deposits are relatively low-grade (300700 parts per million total REEs), being notable for their sheer volume, uncomplicated mineralogy, and low uranium/thorium and high scandium content. ARRs strategy is to leverage the LLNL/PSU biosorption technology and to evaluate the economics of the LLNL/PSU technology to the complete REE supply chain. These activities will hopefully address questions required in order to license and incorporate the technology into its mineral processing platform. Exploration work planned Whilst the initial resource at La Paz provided a solid base case in 2011, the company will target the increasing of grades at depth in ongoing exploration. A nine-hole coring program has been scheduled and is anticipated to begin in March 2021 with initial metallurgical test-work to begin post the drilling program in the second quarter of 2021 and continue into the third quarter. Pending the results of this work, more advanced metallurgical studies should be implemented in 2021. After completion of the confirmation core drilling in March/April 2021 the REE resource will be updated with the new core data. Additionally, the historic drill data combined with the new core information will be used to calculate a maiden scandium resource. The exploration activities planned for the near future should provide the preliminary backdrop for the planned preliminary economic assessment in H2 2021. Rare earth industry risks The broker noted that some of the risks the rare earths industry might face going forward includes: Saskatchewan has issued 1,727 invitations so far in 2021. Saskatchewan PNP invites 299 Express Entry candidates Saskatchewan has issued 1,727 invitations so far in 2021. Saskatchewan PNP invites 299 Express Entry candidates Saskatchewan has issued 1,727 invitations so far in 2021. Saskatchewan PNP invites 299 Express Entry candidates Saskatchewan has issued 1,727 invitations so far in 2021. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Saskatchewan held a new draw on February 25, inviting candidates to apply for a provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence. The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) invited 299 candidates from the International Skilled Worker category. Only candidates who could be eligible for the SINPs Express Entry subcategory were invited in this Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw. Candidates needed an Expression of Interest (EOI) score of at least 70 in order to be invited. They also needed work experience in one of the 70 in-demand occupations listed on the government webpage. Some of the eligible occupations include medical administrative assistants, retail and wholesale buyers, and geological engineers among others. Find out if youre eligible for Canadian immigration The SINP uses the EOI system to select the candidates that have the most potential to succeed in the regional labour market. Candidates need to demonstrate their commitment to settling in Saskatchewan by showcasing their work experience, education, language ability, age, and connections to the province. Saskatchewan gives candidates a score out of 100 according to the International Skilled Worker Points Assessment Grid. The highest-scoring candidates are then issued an invitation to apply for a provincial nomination from Saskatchewan. As of November 2020, Saskatchewan started giving more EOI points to people who can speak both English and French. Express Entry sub-category In the latest invitation round, Saskatchewan only sent invitations to candidates who had profiles in the federal Express Entry pool. The federal Express Entry system manages the pool of candidates for three of Canadas main economic-class immigration programs: Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, and Canadian Experience Class. If candidates in the federal Express Entry pool also filled out an EOI for Saskatchewan, and they scored 70 on the SINPs Points Assessment Grid they may have been invited in the latest draw. Express Entry candidates who apply for and receive a provincial nomination from the province of Saskatchewan are awarded an additional 600 points toward their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. This award effectively guarantees that they will be invited to apply for permanent residence in a subsequent federal Express Entry draw. The same goes for any one of Canadas Provincial Nominee Programs that are aligned with Express Entry. Find out if youre eligible for Canadian immigration CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. As Peoples United Financials board reviewed the final details last week on the banks $7.6 billion sale, a social media staffer posted a reminder of Random Acts of Kindness Day that included a suggestion that people reach out to friends they have not spoken to for a while. As it turns out, Peoples United CEO Jack Barnes had fielded just such a call only several weeks before not quite random, but an outreach that culminated in the mammoth merger with M&T Bank. Both Barnes and M&T Bank CEO Rene Jones described ties between the companies dating back years, including prior, casual discussions of benefits of a combination. Julio Cortez / Associated Press But it was only in December, when Jones called Barnes with the suggestion they take a serious look at a merger, that it came to be with no other companies invited to put in an offer for Peoples United, despite the Bridgeport bank getting assistance from investment bankers and attorneys who have familiarity with other companies shopping for acquisitions. At least a few years ago, we started talking about the possibility of bringing the companies together and ... the pros and cons of what that might look like, Barnes said Monday. Last December, I was asked to have a more serious conversation and I agreed to do that. ... It was a [sole] negotiated deal. There is plenty of precedent for that scenario, including the concurrent merger under way between Huntington and TCF based in Ohio and Michigan respectively, with the new Huntington to trail by a small margin M&Ts $200 billion in assets after the Peoples United merger. In Securities & Exchange Commission filings this month, Huntington and TCF described a similar set of conversations between their CEOs that resulted in a merger agreement in the span of six weeks. But more often than not, other potential acquirers enter the mix at some point in the process including in the case of Farmington Bank, which was bought in 2018 by Peoples United after on-again, off-again discussions over the years. The Peoples United deal came about only after Farmington Bank CEO John Patricks negotiated in 2017 to combine his company with another bank. The two sides were enthusiastic about the prospect before doing a deeper dive that revealed differences in their respective operating models and business plans as described in an SEC filing, and agreeing to go their separate ways. Barnes and Patrick rekindled talks in April 2018, announcing the acquisition agreement in mid-June that year. And in the case of UnitedBank, the Hartford-based company weighed simultaneous interest from Peoples United and another bank in 2018, with the latter deal imploding. UnitedBank circled back around to Peoples United, which was slow to return to the table as it worked through the Farmington Bank deal, but ultimately did reopen talks, culminating in a 2019 acquisition. In a web conference with M&T employees on Monday, Jones confirmed he initiated the December call that led to Peoples United acquisition. M&T is paying a 13-percent premium for shares of Peoples United, pushing the stock to $19.50 Wednesday afternoon, slightly short of previous peaks for the stock on an adjusted basis in 2018 and in 2008, on the doorstep of the Great Recession. Probably over a year and a half ago, Jack and I started talking about the challenges of banking, the large institutions that were out there, and whether our models were still relevant, and how we could make them really relevant, Jones said Monday. We had been talking about that for some time, and then in December I gave Jack a ring. I just really believe that, as I looked at the landscape, we would be better with you and you would be better with us, Jones continued, recollecting how he broached the topic of a merger with Barnes. And so we said, OK, well, maybe thats true lets take a look. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2021) - Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Corporation (TSXV: APC) (FSE: 0E8) ("APC" or the "Company") announces that, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"), it proposes to raise up to $1,250,000 through a non-brokered private placement of up to 6,097,561 units at a price of $0.205 per unit. Each unit will consist of one common share and one transferable common share purchase warrant of the Company, with each whole warrant exercisable for a period of 12 months from the date of closing at a price of $0.27 per share. Finder's fees may be payable in accordance with the policies of the Exchange. All securities issued in connection with the private placement are subject to a 4-month hold period in Canada. The gross proceeds of the private placement will be used as follows: Description: Use of Proceeds Funding of the Company's subsidiary for research and development activities related to the Company's site-selective linker technology for the development of antibody-drug conjugates: $650,000 General working capital: $600,000 Total: $1,250,000 The Company confirms that there is no material fact or material change about the Company that has not already been generally disclosed. Closing is expected to occur on or before March 19, 2021. ABOUT THE COMPANY: Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Corporation, through its subsidiary, Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Inc., has invented proprietary protein conjugation technology which enables the development of superior antibody-drug conjugates through improved site-specific labeling, drug-antibody ratio control and enabling of combination payloads. The technology has compelling pre-clinical data demonstrating improved homogeneity and increased in-vivo potency relative to current state of the art linker technology. The Company believes that the technology will enable the development of safer and more potent antibody-drug conjugate therapeutics and is pursuing licensing and partnership opportunities to advance development and create shareholder value. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Corporation Paul Woodward President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: 604.690.3797 http://www.advancedproteome.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. The securities referred to in this news release have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities for sale, nor a solicitation for offers to buy any securities. Any public offering of securities in the United States must be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements. 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/75738 While the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic many new lessons are being learned every day by nations all over the globe. For example, Brazil and the US have learned that having a leader who does not believe that the virus is a serious threat to life certainly doesnt augur well for the population. 1. Roads. The citys roads are a mess. Significant resources are needed to fix them. 2. Public safety. The crime rate is too high. Police pay and resources come first. 3. More city programs. The city must invest more in city programs and services. 4. Comprehensive plan. The city needs to focus on rebuilding and rebranding. 5. Cut city spending. City officials must get serious about trimming the budget. Vote View Results 7 day print subscribers enjoy unlimited access to yakimaherald.com Enter the LAST NAME and the 7 DIGIT phone number on your print subscription account to connect your print subscription to your yakimaherald.com account. Paul Atanga Nji, ministre de l'Administration Territoriale. Droits reserves Territorial Administration Minister Atanga Nji Paul says armed separatists have no other reason for staying in the bushes given that the state has promised to protect them if they lay down their weapons and abandon the dangerous adventure. Addressing administrative and security officials at a closed-door security meeting in Bamenda Tuesday, Atanga Nji sent a message to Ambazonia fighters, urging them to surrender in their own interest. "If you are afraid to hand your weapons at the Divisional Officer's office or to gendarmes, police, and/or soldiers, go to the bishops, priests, pastors, or traditional rulers. Take the guns to them and they will facilitate your movement to the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, DDR, centers, said Atanga Nji. If you are in a group, and are afraid, take your weapons with you, raise a white handkerchief in your left hands and a peace plant in your right hands to show that you have surrendered. Cameroon has a very professional army. When they see you coming with hands raised, they will protect you and take you to the DDR centers as instructed by President Paul Biya, the minister furthered. He told parents and guardians to stop playing double games and advise their children to leave the bushes in their own interest. Atanga Nji said claims that some fighters want to leave the bushes but do not know how to go about it are unfounded. Reacting to claims that the DDR centers are punishment facilities, Atanga Nji clarified that DDR centers are vocational training facilities that prepare the repentant fighters to better embrace life. Hear Atanga Nji: Those who are headstrong and think they will continue to take up arms against the State are mistaken because only the State has the monopoly of violence. Only the state has absolute legitimacy over violence. It should be well understood. That is why the Head of State has offered other possibilities for the ex-fighters and terrorists to hand over their weapons. They have to drop their weapons unconditionally and they will benefit from direct protection. In addition, it should be said that those who wilfully drop their weapons and other dangerous instruments will not go to jail. Those are instructions from the Head of State, President Paul Biya. When they abandon the dangerous adventure, they know what to do. When they say they should drop their arms, they should drop everything, including the charms and items used. If you think going to the administrative authorities is difficult, go to traditional and religious authorities. The DDR centers are vocational training centers. There is too much talk about the DDR centers. Most of the ex-combatants do not have basic knowledge in professional life. When you leave the DDR centers, you can go on your own and start a new life. The Minister said some ex-fighters told him that they have gained invaluable skills at the DDR centers and the government will give them financial support to start their businesses. Dont wait for the military to come looking for you. The government is helping you to lay down your arms, Atanga Nji said in a message to armed fighters still hiding in the bushes. Vivek Oberoi was recently fined by Mumbai Police for flouting norms by riding his newly acquired motorcycle without wearing a helmet and face mask. The Bollywood actor was reportedly fined Rs 500, and has acknowledged his mistake in a very unique way. Oberoi took to his Instagram account and shared a new take on the 'pawri ho rahi hai' trend. Teasing Mumbai Police he wrote in the caption, "This is for you @mumbaipolice." and also added hashtags like, "#pawtikatgayihai #PawriNahiHoRahiHai". In the video clip, Vivek shows off his bikes and the challan. He can be heard saying, "Ye hum hain, ye humari bikes hain, aur ye humari pawti kat gayi hai." Vivek was fined after the actor posted a Valentine's Day video of the bike-ride with his wife Priyanka Alva Oberoi. Netizens were quick to notice that both in the clip were seen without the necessary protective gears like masks and helmet, while zooming away on electric-blue Harley Davidson bike. The video was captioned as, "What a start of this lovely Valentine's Day, with Main, Meri Patni or Woh! A refreshing joyride indeed!" Mumbai Police reportedly has also filed an FIR against him under IPC Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) along with provisions of the Maharashtra COVID-19 Precautionary Measures 2020 and the Motor Vehicles Act. Vivek also reacted to being called out for the same and tweeted, "Pyaar humein kis mod pe le aaya! Nikle they nayi bike par hum aur hamari jaan, bina helmet ke kat gaya chalaan! Riding without a helmet? Mumbai police will do a checkmate! Thank u @mumbaipolice for making me realise that safety is always most important. Be safe, Wear a helmet & a mask." ALSO READ: Vivek Oberoi's Valentine's Day Video Lands Him In Trouble With Mumbai Police; Find Out How ALSO READ: Vivek Oberoi's Brother-In-Law Aditya Alva Arrested In Connection With Sandalwood Drug Case [February 25, 2021] Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Celebrates Grand Opening of NTS's Multi-Million-Dollar Dynamics Test Building at Robust Santa Clarita Lab NTS, the leader in testing, inspection, and certification solutions in North America, is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of its new multi-million-dollar dynamics test building at its laboratory in Santa Clarita, California. The event featured a socially distanced ribbon-cutting ceremony with elected officials and select customers. The secure test building houses a new, large-force T-4000 dual shaker system, which is critical for helping customers in the new Race-to-Space. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005344/en/ The Santa Clarita laboratory announces the grand opening of a multi-million-dollar dynamics test building, which houses a new, large-force T-4000 dual shaker system. (Photo: Business Wire) Representatives from space, aviation, and defense companies, including Blue Origin, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, were on hand to witness the unveiling of NTS's (News - Alert) new expanded capability. "The qualification and testing of hardware for space flight systems is unique, extensive, and complicated; and is a mandatory, criticl step in delivering the safest and most reliable systems for space exploration. NTS is one of a select few companies that is trusted to test the flight hardware needed for travel to space", said Dr. Chahriar Assad, Chief Scientist and Technical Fellow at The Boeing (News - Alert) Company. NTS dual shaker systems have been used to qualify components for nearly every space launch platform, including the Space Shuttle, Atlas, Delta IV, and Space Launch System (SLS). This rich history in space innovation highlights the undisputed industry leadership of NTS in performing vibration testing on very large assemblies utilizing high output, dual shaker test systems. As a winner of the 2019 NASA Space Flight Awareness Supplier Award-and a multi-decade history in extreme environmental and dynamics testing-NTS continues to serve as the world's most trusted test lab for space testing. The Grand Opening drew attention from several city, state, and federal government officials, including US Congressman Mike Garcia and Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda to acknowledge the significance of the upgrades. Additional distinguished guests included Paul Stump (Captain, Santa Clarita City Fire Department), Justin Diez (Sheriff Captain, Santa Clarita Sheriff Department), Suzette Martinez Valladares (California State Assembly), Kris Hough (Field Representative on behalf of California State Senator Scott Wilks). "Santa Clarita should be immensely proud of the contribution our community is making in the aviation, space, and defense sectors through the work done at companies like NTS. It was an honor to participate in the Ribbon Cutting ceremony at the new NTS Santa Clarita Laboratory and I look forward to seeing all the innovation and opportunity to come as a result," said Garcia. NTS Santa Clarita Lab is a massive test facility with advanced dynamics, environmental, mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic testing capabilities to meet the most extreme testing challenges for military, aviation, and space projects and programs. "We are delighted to continue in the 60-year history commitment to our customers to ensure the best test experience possible," said Francisco Palop, Director of Operations, at NTS, Santa Clarita. About National Technical Systems National Technical Systems, Inc. (NTS) is the leading provider of qualification testing, inspection, and certification services in North America, serving a broad range of industries, including the civil aviation, space, defense, nuclear, telecommunications, industrial, electronics, medical, and automotive end markets. Since 1961, NTS has built the broadest geographic presence in the United States, offering more than 70 distinct environmental simulation and materials testing categories, including climatic, structural, dynamics, fluid flow, EMI/ EMC (News - Alert) , lightning, product safety, acoustics, failure analysis, chemical, and other industry-specific tests. Operating through a network of more than 27 technologically advanced testing laboratories, this geographically diverse footprint puts NTS facilities in close proximity to its more than 8,000 clients, allowing NTS to serve the nation's most innovative companies with industry-leading accessibility and responsiveness. NTS is accredited by numerous national and international organizations and operates its inspection division under the Unitek brand, providing a wide range of supply chain management services. NTS' certification division, which operates under the NQA brand, is one of the largest and most respected global ISO registrars, with active certifications in more than 75 countries. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at www.nts.com or call 800-270-2516. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005344/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. BART expects ridership wont be close to rebounding to pre-pandemic levels for years and is grappling with a crisis without precedent in our history, the transit agencys staff told its board Thursday. The pandemic is expected to cost the train system more than $1 billion in revenue losses through fiscal year 2022. Ridership plunged to 12% of pre-COVID levels under shelter-in-place and has barely budged for nearly a year. Before the pandemic, two-thirds of BART trips had an origin or destination at a Market Street station in downtown San Francisco. Board President Mark Foley said BART cant assume all its five-day commuters will come back. Staff expects ridership to rebound to between 65% and 90% of pre-pandemic levels by fiscal year 2027. The pandemic has triggered a huge drop in BARTs operating revenue, leading to both a near-term fiscal crisis and extraordinary uncertainty for the years ahead, BARTs financial planning director, Michael Eiseman, told the board at a Thursday workshop. He said the collapse in ridership is a crisis without precedent in our history. BART, with 4,192 employees and a $2.42 billion budget this fiscal year, now faces a tenuous financial situation that is forcing the transit system to debate its priorities. Economic recovery, remote work and the future of vaccines and coronavirus variants remain uncertain, but the agency is trying to do what it can to get riders back and keep costs down. While waiting for daily commuters to return, the train system may focus more on serving leisure travelers on the weekend and evenings, directors said Thursday. Transportation experts said transit, vital to supporting essential workers and economic recovery, has been one of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic and BART is one of the agencies in the country that has been most reliant on fare revenue as a percentage of its operating budget. The fact that an agency like BART is struggling is incredibly troubling but also not surprising, said Nick Josefowitz, chief policy officer with nonprofit think tank SPUR. Whatever structural financial challenges BART had before the pandemic are dwarfed by the impact of the pandemic. Josefowitz said that a comprehensive local, state and national response to bring back transit with sustainable funding is needed. The scale of the challenge I think is greater than any one agency can deal with on their own, he said. BART, which cut service by 40% during the pandemic, expects that pre-COVID service levels might not return until 2023, Eiseman said. On this timeline, service may return before full ridership is expected. Over the next 10 years, annual deficits may range from just under $50 million in the best-case scenario and could be up to $200 million. How the agency may make up losses is uncertain. The lifeline of federal stimulus funding $377 million of Cares Act and $104 million so far from the more recent stimulus bill, with more to come in March doesnt completely offset shortfalls. The agency did submit two requests to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse COVID-19 expenses, but hasnt received funds yet. Staffers are advocating for more legislative support and grants. In response to lost revenue, BART truncated expenses and offered a retirement buyout to employees. Eiseman said 286 workers 7% of the workforce took it, although exact savings from the program arent yet known. The agency is not turning to layoffs. A challenge in trying to save money is that 30% of BARTs costs are fixed, such as its pension plan, with a majority of the agencys operating expenses not scaling down proportionally even when service is cut. Further cuts would limit BARTs ability to get more revenue, staff said. Board directors said Thursday that they want to see possible scenarios about which service could be brought back when depending on returning ridership and how the agency will fill gaps if ridership doesnt recover. Board Vice President Rebecca Saltzman wondered whether there could be more frequent off-peak trains for leisure travelers. Director Liz Ames said she would like more investment in capital projects. She stressed moving forward on new, more secure fare gates unanimously supported by the board which arent yet fully funded. General Manager Bob Powers said fare gates are a high priority. Director Debora Allen said safe, clean, affordable transit will get people back the fastest. She pushed for new fare gates and more police enforcement. Foley agreed that safe, clean, affordable transit is the priority with one caveat. Sometimes safety is racist. Sometimes its about privilege, Foley said. He supports a fully staffed police force to keep riders safe and other programs, including crisis intervention specialists and unarmed ambassadors to respond to drug use, homelessness and mental health issues. Union leaders who called into the meeting Thursday praised the agencys collaboration with labor to cut costs without layoffs. This year this is very sobering, Sal Cruz, president of AFSCME Local 3993, said. We all shared the pain this year and Im sure theres still more to come. Transit advocates and riders expressed frustration at the situation. Thats the bad part about BART, a lot of it depends on people paying their fares at the gate with the Clipper card, if they dont try and find a way to improve that, they will be forced to make cuts, said Richard Burnett, who commutes from Vallejo to San Francisco using BART and two buses. Cuts will make getting around even harder than it already is, said Stephanie Beechem, an Oakland resident who doesnt own a car and is a board member for nonprofit Seamless Bay Area. If that becomes a permanent way of life, thats a really scary prospect. Beechem was heartened that BART is trying to still serve essential workers using the system. Darrell Owens, a member of the East Bay Transit Riders Union and lifelong BART rider who lives near North Berkeley Station, said his initial reaction to the news was that BART brought this upon themselves. He said the multicounty transit system historically prioritized suburban expansion, serving car-owning riders with parking lots, instead of car-less riders in dense urban areas the latter of whom are now its most loyal riders. For years we were saying its not an effective transit network, it cant be a suburban commuter shuttle service forever. BART never heeded this warning, and now theyre going to reap what they sowed, he said. Were going to do whatever we can do protect BART and make sure it doesnt collapse. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench It was an unseasonably springlike day on March 5, 1946, when Winston Churchill visited Fulton, Missouri. The former British Prime Minister was ostensibly there to receive an honorary degree from Westminster College. But Churchills real purpose in coming was to urge the U.S. to form an alliance with Britain to keep the Soviet Union from expanding any further. Speaking before an august audience that included President Harry S. Truman, Churchill declared: From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Churchill wasnt the first person to employ the phrase iron curtain" as a political metaphor. Originally a theatrical term for the safety barrier between the stage and the audience, by the early 20th century it was being used to mean a barrier between opposing powers. Nevertheless, iron curtain" became indelibly associated with Churchill and with the defense of freedom and democracy. This was a modern expression of an idea first articulated by the ancient Greeks: that political beliefs are worth defending. In the winter of 431-30 B.C., the Athenians were staggering under a devastating plague while simultaneously fighting Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. The stakes couldnt have been higher when the great statesman Pericles used a speech commemorating the war dead to define the struggle in terms that every Athenian would understand. As reported by the historian Thucydides, Pericles told his compatriots that the fight wasnt for more land, trade or treasure; it was for democracy pure and simple. Athens was special because its government existed for the many instead of the few," guaranteeing equal justice to all." No other regime, and certainly not the Spartans, could make the same claim. Pericles died the following year, and Athens eventually went down in defeat in 404 B.C. But the idea that fighting for ones country meant defending a political ideal continued to be influential. According to the 2nd-century Roman historian Cassius Dio, the Empire had to make war on the lawless and godless" tribes living outside its borders. Fortifications such as Hadrians Wall in northern England werent just defensive measures but political statements: Inside bloomed civilization, outside lurked savagery. The Great Wall of China, begun in 220 B.C. by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, had a similar function. In addition to keeping out the nomadic populations in the Mongolian plains, the wall symbolized the unity of the country under imperial rule and the Confucian belief system that supported it. Successive dynasties continued to fortify the Great Wall until the mid-17th century. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British considered themselves to be fighting for democracy against dictatorship, like the ancient Athenians. In 1806, Napoleon instigated the Continental System, an economic blockade intended to cut off Britain from trading with Frances European allies and conquests. But the attack on free trade only strengthened British determination. A similar resolve among the NATO allies led to the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved and withdrew its armies from Eastern Europe. As Churchill had predicted, freedom and democracy is the ultimate shield against war and tyranny." This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE A $200 million pandemic relief bill aimed at propping up hard-hit New Mexico essential workers and restaurants is headed to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams desk for approval, after breezing through the state House on Wednesday. The 66-1 vote to approve the bill, part of a larger pandemic stimulus package, happened at the end of a long House floor session. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Perhaps tired and screen-weary after lengthy debate on several other measures, House members did not offer any debate on the relief bill before voting to pass it. The past year has been devastating for New Mexicos restaurants and bars, as well as front-line essential workers, like janitors and grocery store workers, Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said after Wednesdays vote. House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, cast the only vote against the legislation. Specifically, the measure, Senate Bill 1, would authorize $600 rebates for New Mexico workers who make less than $15 an hour. It would benefit workers such as Lulu Moreno, an Albuquerque resident who works two jobs to make ends meet. As a front-line worker she works mornings in a school cafeteria and evenings as a shift manager at a fast-food restaurant Moreno said she has been exposed to the coronavirus several times but has managed to avoid testing positive for the virus. Still, she said the pandemic has been stressful, as her children have had to attend school remotely at home alone while she is at work. Im a single mother of two with bills and a mortgage to pay, so that money would be very convenient, she told the Journal. Specifically, the rebates would be targeted at the roughly 200,000 New Mexicans who qualify for the Working Families Tax Credit, which is available to those who make less than $31,200 per year. That could include employees who have been at the front lines of the pandemic working at grocery stores, hospitals and other businesses. However, only U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents would be able to receive the hazard pay bonus, according to a financial analysis of the bill, meaning seasonal workers and some immigrants would not qualify. Restaurant tax holiday The bill approved Wednesday would also authorize a four-month tax holiday starting March 1 for restaurants, breweries, food trucks and other dining establishments. The tax holiday would technically be a gross receipts tax deduction for restaurants, allowing them to retain tax payments. Top-ranking Senate Democrats have said the model is based on a tax break for bars and restaurants that Colorado Gov. Jared Polis authorized in November. The four-month tax holiday in New Mexico would cost an estimated $90 million, as city and county tax declines caused by the policy would be covered by the state. Across New Mexico, the pandemic and restrictions enacted in response to it in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus have taken a toll on parts of the states economy. Although restaurants in most of the states 33 counties have recently been allowed to reopen indoor dining at limited capacity due to reduced COVID-19 spread, many are still facing financial uncertainty. Statewide, taxable gross receipts from the states hospitality and food industries were down by more than $445 million or 21.8% over the previous years levels through the first five months of the current budget year, according to state Taxation and Revenue Department data. Third round of aid The package of bills that have advanced at the Roundhouse represent the third round of targeted financial relief approved by state lawmakers since the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Mexico in March. Legislators passed two relief packages last year in June and November special sessions that earmarked state and federal funds for expanded unemployment benefits, cash assistance and small-business grants, among other programs. This years package includes House Bill 11, which would authorize $200 million in small-business grants and has already cleared both the House and Senate. It also includes measures, Senate Bill 2 and 3, that would pause liquor license fees for one year and overhaul a previously approved business loan program, respectively. Those measures are still awaiting final House approval. Money to pay for the relief package an estimated $400 million would come from New Mexicos cash-flush reserves. There is an estimated $2.7 billion in those reserves. Lujan Grisham has signaled support for the recovery bills, which would take effect immediately upon being signed as long as they pass both legislative chambers with at least a two-thirds majority vote. Before winning House approval on Wednesday, the bill aimed at essential workers and restaurants passed the Senate 42-0. An elderly married couple were found dead in their western New York home as a result of an apparent murder-suicide, after officials say the husband killed his ailing wife and then himself. According to the New York State Police, 84-year-old James Claybrook called 911 at 10.19am on Wednesday to falsely report a burglary in progress at his home in Mount Hope. Officers who responded to the call entered the home in the 2100 block of Mount Hope Road and found Marcia Reitman Currie, 70, lying in bed dead from a gunshot wound. The New York State Police responded to a home in Mount Hope on Wednesday and found an elderly couple dead from an apparent murder-suicide James Claybrook, 84, allegedly shot his wife, Marcia Currie, 70, while she was in bed, and then called the police to falsely report a burglary in progress at their home Officers who arrived at the scene found the husband and wife dead from gunshot wounds in a rear bedroom On the floor of the same bedroom, just steps away from the wife, officers found her husband suffering from a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators said they found no evidence of a forced entry, or signs of a struggle inside. According to the state police, both Claybrook and Currie suffered from unspecified medical issues and 'appeared to be dealing with substantial pain.' Investigators said both Claybrook and Currie suffered from unspecified medical issues and appeared to be dealing with 'substantial pain' Claybrook faked the home invasion to make sure police responded to their home quickly After gathering evidence, including documents found inside the home, and conducting multiple interviews, officials have concluded that the incident was consistent with a murder-suicide. Investigators said that Claybrook shot his wife while she was in bed, then called in the bogus burglary to increase the chance of a rapid police response to his home so that the couple's bodies would be discovered sooner. A neighbor has told News 12 Westchester that Currie was home-bound, and she and her husband kept to themselves. An online obituary indicates that Claybrook lost his first wife to a terminal illness in 2011. WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- https://cpsc.gov/Recalls/2021/Dr-Reddys-Recalls-Prescription-Drug-Blister-Packages-Due-to-Risk-of-Poisoning Recall Summary Name of Products: Imatinib Mesylate Tablets 100 mg, Imatinib Mesylate Tablets 400 mg, Pregabalin Capsules 50 mg, Pregabalin Capsules 75 mg, Pregabalin Capsules 100 mg, Pregabalin Capsules 150 mg, Sevelamer Carbonate Tablets 800 mg, Tadalafil Tablets 5 mg and Tadalafil Tablets 20 mg Hazard: The products are prescription medications that were labeled and distributed by Dr. Reddy's for institutional use only. The prescription medications were distributed by third party wholesalers to retail pharmacies and could have been dispensed to consumers. The packaging of the products is not child resistant and can pose a risk of poisoning if the contents are swallowed by young children. Remedy: Refund Consumers should immediately store the recalled medications in a safe location out of reach of children and contact Dr. Reddy's for a full refund. Consumer Contact: Dr. Reddy's toll-free at 888-375-3784 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or online at www.drreddys.com and click on "Recall" for more information. Report incidents related to children accessing or ingesting these prescription medications to www.SaferProducts.gov. Report adverse events, medication errors, and quality problems related to the use of these products to FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting Program either online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm, download the form at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/getforms.htm or call 800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and submit by regular mail, and return to the address on the pre-addressed form, or submit by fax to 800-FDA-0178. Recall Details Units: About 21,400 Description: This recall involves blister packages of prescription medications. The name and strength of the medication, "For Institutional Use only," "Rx Only," lot number and expiration date are printed on the outside of the package as well as on the individual blister units. The Dr. Reddy's logo and NDC number are printed on the outside of the package. The recalled medications include the following: Recalled Prescription Drugs NDC Numbers Carton Configurations Lot Numbers Expiration Dates Imatinib Mesylate Tablets 100 mg 43598-344-31 3 blister cards of 10 tablets H2000138 2022-0630 Imatinib Mesylate Tablets 400 mg 43598-345-31 3 blister cards of 10 tablets H2000127 2022-0630 Pregabalin Capsules 50 mg 43598-292-66 5 blister cards of 10 capsules T900876 2021-0630 Pregabalin Capsules 75 mg 43598-293-66 5 blister cards of 10 capsules T901021 2021-0731 Pregabalin Capsules 100 mg 43598-294-66 5 blister cards of 10 capsules T901022 2021-0731 Pregabalin Capsules 150 mg 43598-295-66 5 blister cards of 10 capsules T901023 2021-0731 Sevelamer Carbonate Tablets 800 mg 55111-789-11 4 blister cards of 25 tablets T801003, T000009, T900221 2020-1031, 2021-1231, 2021-0228 Tadalafil Tablets 5 mg 43598-575-31 3 blister cards of 10 tablets T000376 2022-0131 Tadalafil Tablets 20 mg 43598-573-31 3 blister cards of 10 tablets T000425 2022-0228 Incidents/Injuries: No incidents or injuries have been reported. Sold At: Beginning in 2018, Dr. Reddy's sold the recalled medications to wholesalers. Ultimately, these medications could have been sold to consumers at retail pharmacies in the United States at prices varying based on quantities prescribed, health insurance terms, and other factors. Importer: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Inc., of Princeton, N.J. Manufacturer: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Ltd., of India Manufactured in: India Footer About the U.S. CPSC The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products has contributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 40 years. Federal law bars any person from selling products subject to a publicly announced voluntary recall by a manufacturer or a mandatory recall ordered by the Commission. For lifesaving information: - Visit CPSC.gov. - Sign up to receive our e-mail alerts. - Follow us on Facebook, Instagram @USCPSC and Twitter @USCPSC. - Report a dangerous product or a product-related injury on www.SaferProducts.gov. - Call CPSC's Hotline at 800-638-2772 (TTY 301-595-7054). - Contact a media specialist. Note: Due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding COVID-19, some of the remedies identified in recall press releases may not be available at this time. Consumers should check with recalling firms for further details. It is important to remember that CPSC and recalling firms urge consumers not to use recalled products. Release Number: 21-089 SOURCE U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Related Links http://www.cpsc.gov Kansas City metro politicos understand that they must toe the line for the Biden Administration and progress at the federal level won't translate to local contests without party "unity" by any means necessary. Accordingly, a recent written letter wrist slap might not be terribly important but serves to demonstrate that progressives aren't going to tolerate any infighting after getting BLOWN OUT OF EVERY MISSOURI STATEWIDE RACE in the 2020 election cycle. Check the Pitch gleaning/blogging more Twitter content news . . . She is known for channelling the Golden Age Of Hollywood glamour through every outfit. And Dita Von Teese didn't disappoint on Thursday as she accentuated her slender curves in a red satin gown adorned with sequin black hearts for Moschino's Milan Fashion Week Show The burlesque dancer, 48, twirled around in the strapless number and exposed her pert bottom in a cut-out heart section, as she modelled the Fall/Winter 2021/2022 women's collection Queen Of Hearts: Dita Von Teese accentuated her slender curves in a red satin gown adorned with shimmering black hearts for Moschino's Milan Fashion Week Show on Thursday Dita completed the look with satin black gloves and she styled her luscious raven tresses in voluminous curls beneath a statement heart headpiece. In a video uploaded to her Instagram account, the model daintily meandered around the room in the sculpted dress before revealing her peachy behind. She enhanced her visage with a slick of red lipstick and decorated her decolletage with two additional black hearts. Also in attendance, Winnie Harlow did her spin on Audrey Hepburn's iconic Breakfast At Tiffany's costume. Hollywood glamour: The burlesque dancer, 48, completed the look with satin black gloves and a statement heart headpiece as she modelled the Fall/Winter 2021/2022 women's collection Clearly inspired by the Hollywood actress, the model, 26, sported Audrey's classic beehive, a sweeping black dress and was dripping in pearls. Winnie shrugged a voluminous pink puff ball coat over her shoulders, while the floor-length gown teased a glimpse of her long legs thanks to a daring centre-split. The fashionista appeared in her element as she posed in front of a cardboard cut-out audience in the outfit which also comprised of pearl stilettos and a cute clutch bag. The pair star in a film for Moschino called 'Jungle Red', alongside Stella Maxwell, Precious Lee, and Hailey Bieber. Timeless look: Also in attendance, Winnie Harlow did her spin on Audrey Hepburn's iconic Breakfast At Tiffany's costume. The film follows the models shifting from from weekday work to relaxing at the weekend with trips to art museums, the theatre and the countryside. Due to the pandemic, traditional fashion week runways have had to be reimagined and creative director Jeremy Scott decided to recreate a scene from George Cukour's 1939 film 'The Women' to showcase the collection. He told CNN: 'I've been very fortunate to be able to find another way of expressing myself outside of the traditional fashion show with having everyone gather together, which is not possible this time. 'The most important thing I always want to communicate with my collections and my work and my shows is really bringing some humor and ... a little joy and levity. 'I think that that's the most important thing I can do in my work.' Mariska Hargitay got bundled up for night shoot scenes in chilly New York City alongside Ice-T for their long-running series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Hargitay, 54, was spotted alongside Ice-T, 63, and co-stars, Demore Barnes, 44, who plays Deputy Chief Christian Garland and Jamie Gray Hyder, who plays Katriona Tamin. The co-stars were spotted hanging out between takes and taking selfies with one another as production continues on the record-breaking 21st season. Bundled up: Mariska Hargitay got bundled up for night shoot scenes in chilly New York City alongside Ice-T for their long-running series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Hargitay was wearing a black NYPD coat with her badge affixed to it with her hair pulled back into a pony tail. She completed her look with black pants and black shoes, always with a smile on her face between takes. She was also seen being helped down off a ledge by two crew members during the night shoot. Mariska's look: Hargitay was wearing a black NYPD coat with her badge affixed to it with her hair pulled back into a pony tail Crew help: She was also seen being helped down off a ledge by two crew members during the night shoot Hargitay's co-stars Ice-T and Demore Barnes were seen wearing matching outfits, with black NYPD coats, black pants and black shoes. It's unclear how much filming remains in the 22nd season of SVU, which is now the longest-running primetime drama series. Hargitay will also reunite with her former co-star Christopher Meloni in a two-hour crossover for his new series Law & Order: Organized Crime. Co-stars: Hargitay's co-stars Ice-T and Demore Barnes were seen wearing matching outfits, with black NYPD coats, black pants and black shoes Meloni's Elliot Stabler and Hargitay's Olivia Benson were partners when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit first debuted in 1999. Meloni left the series in 2011 after the 12th season, and now a decade later Benson and Stabler will finally reunite. NBC will debut Meloni's new series Law & Order: Organized Crime on April 1 as part of a two-hour crossover with SVU, where Benson and Stabler will reunite. Partners: Meloni's Elliot Stabler and Hargitay's Olivia Benson were partners when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit first debuted in 1999 New series: NBC will debut Meloni's new series Law & Order: Organized Crime on April 1 as part of a two-hour crossover with SVU, where Benson and Stabler will reunite Special Victims Unit will continue to make history, with NBC issuing a rare three-season order for the show. The renewal will take SVU through its 24th season, with the network also signing creator Dick Wolf to a new five-year overall. The network also issued three-season renewals for Wolf's Chicago-set shows, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company DGAP-News: Celonic AG / Key word(s): Expansion Celonic AG: Celonic to Boost its Cell & Gene Therapy Production with Facility in the upcoming Life Science Park Rheintal in Stein, Switzerland 25.02.2021 / 16:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Celonic to Boost its Cell & Gene Therapy Production with Facility in the upcoming Life Science Park Rheintal in Stein, Switzerland Basel, Switzerland, 25th February 2021 - Celonic Group, a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), specialized in development and production of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) and bio-therapeutics, today announced a long-term lease agreement for a new production site and office space spanning 91,500 square feet (8,500 sqm) in the WST-222 building at the Novartis-operated Life Science Park Rheintal. In this recently-announced life science park in Stein AG (Switzerland), Celonic will establish development and GMP production capacities for Cell & Gene Therapies (Cell & Gene), next-generation vaccines, and innovative biopharmaceuticals, to support clients from early clinical trials through commercialization. Celonic plans a two-phase expansion, adding up to 20 GMP clean room suites and offices along with laboratories for process development, method development and quality control services. Celonic aims to open the facility for GMP production in Q2 2022, enabling client's access to best-in-class CDMO services from one of the leading state-of-the-art infrastructures in the world. Celonic plans to create up to 250 new, highly-skilled positions in Stein. "This expansion to the Life Science Park Rheintal demonstrates our commitment to address the growing demand for cell and gene therapy manufacturing. With its unique location and on-site services, this state-of-the-art facility will further boost Celonic's expansion into the Cell & Gene space and enable us to offer large-scale ATMP GMP manufacturing from early 2022," said Konstantin Matentzoglu, CEO of Celonic AG. "We are looking forward to establishing a world-class cell and gene therapy facility in this fast-developing life sciences hub operated by Novartis." The development and manufacturing capabilities of Celonic, together with the infrastructure of the Life Science Park Rheintal and the expertise of Europe's leading region for life sciences and pharmaceutical development, will establish the region of Basel and Stein as the central hub for the development and commercialization of next-generation ATMPs to support patients with unmet medical needs. "We would like to warmly welcome Celonic as a new tenant to the new Life Science Park Rheintal in Stein, which offers a comprehensive portfolio of services and an excellent environment for life sciences companies. We look forward to creating an attractive life sciences hub that benefits from the excellent competitive situation in north-western Switzerland," says Javier Hernandez, Head Global Site Development, Novartis Technical Operations. Currently, the Life Science Park is home to more than 2,000 employees from three pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies working in research, development, and production. Caption: New Cell & Gene Therapy Production Facility in the Life Science Park Rheintal in Stein, Switzerland About Celonic Celonic, a global CDMO (contract development & manufacturing organization) for innovative biopharmaceuticals, including cell and gene therapy products, is part of the private and independent family-owned company J.RETTENMAIER & Sohne (JRS-Group), with currently two production sites - in Basel, Switzerland (headquarters) and in Heidelberg, Germany. Founded more than 30 years ago, Celonic has continuously evolved from research projects on GMP manufacturing for clinical materials to commercial market supply. With more than 20 years of experience in GMP manufacturing, Celonic acts as an internationally acknowledged manufacturing partner. For more information, visit www.celonic.com Celonic Contact Details Konstantin Matentzoglu CEO Celonic AG Tel +41 61 564 9150 Soenke Brunswieck VP Cell & Gene Therapy Celonic AG Tel +41 61 564 9150 The Finnish court hearing the war crimes case against former Revolutionary United Front commander, Gibril Massaquoi, heard from two witnesses on Wednesday who said they saw Mr Massaquoi murder their relatives during the Liberian civil war. The witness, now 47, detailed the crimes he said he witnessed near Waterside Bridge on the way from Bushrod Island into Monrovia. We were inside a shop near Waterside looking for food when I heard shooting sound, and the person called his name saying that I am Gabriel Massaquoi, the witness told the four judge panel using one of the names witnesses say Massaquoi used during the war. I saw him while in the shop and he had a pistol in his hand, and after that he ordered us to single file and we did. While in the line, he took two of my brothers under the bridge that was his base and killed them there. I saw Massaquoi firing at the two brothers of mine under the bridge, the man said. Another incident of shooting took place near the bridge and we all escaped after my brothers had been killed. This was the second day of hearings in an undisclosed location in Liberia since the trial moved here from a district court in Tampere, Finland, where the trial is being prosecuted. Mr Massaquoi, who was granted residency in Finland in return for testimony that helped convict former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, and others in the Special Court of Sierra Leone, is facing war crimes charges until the principle of international jurisdiction which holds that crimes committed against all of humanity can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction. Mr Massaquoi has not been moved to Liberia and is watching the proceedings through video link. The second witness, speaking confidently, told the court that Mr Massaquoi had soldiers with him, some with arms and some without. I saw him well and he said he was the commander, the witness told the court. I got to know his name because he was always calling his name as Angel Gabriel Massaquoi, and thats how I heard his name and can still remember it today. The witness identified a rebel by the name of Gabriel Varney as controlling the line of people crossing the bridge while Mr Massaquoi was killing people under the bridge. This witness, like a woman who testified on the first day, could not remember the exact year the events took place. The one I can remember and talking about is the 2000 war where I experienced this thing, he said. The court has directed journalists to conceal the identity of all witnesses in the case to protect them from intimidation and retaliation. The location of the court and a separate location where journalists are watching the trial through video link is also being concealed. Dates have become a key issue in this case. Witness two said he could only remember 2000 but defence lawyers point out that 2000 was before the fighting took place over Waterside Bridge. It is also unclear which factions were fighting at the time of the alleged events. Wednesdays witness said he believed ULIMO was fighting the forces of then-President Charles Taylor, with whom Mr Massaquois RUF had a close relationship. But by 2000, ULIMO and its offshoots, ULIMO-J and K, no longer existed. The faction fighting the government then was the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). The witness could also not remember the peacekeeping group that came to maintain peace during the last phase of the war. When the war escalated and government forces and rebels were shelling each others territories, the West African grouping ECOWAS sent a ceasefire-monitoring group known as ECOMIL before the later arrival of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The witness, like others who were used to the first West African peacekeeping group for a long time, said he remembered ECOMOG coming to intervene in the crisis. ADVERTISEMENT The defence lawyer drilled the witness on inconsistencies between his answers to investigators in the case and his testimony in court. It has taken long time and I am not educated to remember all of those days and dates, the witness said. The only time I know is the year 2000. The mistakes I make here are because the time has gone too far for me to remember all of what you are asking for. Since he (Massaquoi) was the commander and was boasting and killing people, I was able to know him among the many soldiers surrounding him at the time. He was not fat or huge, tall or short. He was of a medium size with light skin. Third Witness The third witness, another male, told the court that Mr Massaquoi killed his wife and mother at the Waterside Bridge where they had gone to find food. As the fighting wore on, shops emptied out and people in the city were starving. The witness said he and his family were living in West Point and had heard that people were finding food at a store across the bridge in Waterside. After waiting for a long time for the women to return the witness said he decided to go in search of them. That was when he said he came upon Mr Massaquoi at the bridge. The witness said Mr Massaquoi had directed the women and others on the bridge to line up in a single file and he was taking people out and killing them for what Mr Massaquoi decided were transgressions. The witness saw the bodies of two men lying under the bridge. And then his mother and wife were pulled out of line. Massaquoi killed my wife and my mom, and he gashed one woman with a bayonet when she resisted going with him under the bridge, though she finally went after receiving wounds from the bayonet, the third witness said. He introduced himself as Angel Gabriel Massaquoi, and I saw him taking up a pistol to shoot, and it was when he shot the two boys I told you about. There was an incident that soldiers from central Monrovia were coming towards us shooting, and thats how we all ran from the place, the witness said. Like other witnesses, the third witness did not know which group was fighting government forces in 2000. He, like the second witness, said ULIMO was the group, but after being asked why ULIMO that was disbanded since 1996, he said government forces told them that they were fighting ULIMO, and as civilians they had no argument to make but to conclude that it was the case. More witnesses are waiting to testify in the case with some expected to come from Lofa County where Mr Massaquoi is accused of committing some of the crimes. This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Johnson & Johnsons much anticipated one-shot vaccine is 'safe and effective' against COVID-19 infection, US regulator said. The vaccine was 72% effective in a US clinical trial, the USFDA mentioned. There were no COVID-19 related deaths in the vaccinated group, according to USFDA. The analysis supported a favorable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA. "The vaccine candidate was 85% effective in preventing severe disease across all regions studied, 28 days after vaccination in all adults 18 years and older," Johnson & Johnson said earlier. The vaccine prevented 66% of moderate to severe cases of COVID-19, according to a company statement. Over 44,000 participants took part in the late stage trial of Johnson & Johnsons coronavirus vaccine. The J&J shot delivers genetic instructions for human cells to create a specific protein of the coronavirus, in order to train the immune system for the live virus. Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. have generated stronger overall efficacy rates, but require two shots. The single-shot vaccine could go a long way toward ending the pandemic, experts said. A one-shot vaccine is considered by the World Health Organization to be the best option in pandemic settings, enhancing access, distribution and compliance," said Paul Stoffels, M.D., vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer, Johnson & Johnson. These topline results with a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine candidate represent a promising moment. The potential to significantly reduce the burden of severe disease, by providing an effective and well-tolerated vaccine with just one immunization, is a critical component of the global public health response," Stoffels added. These results are a testament to the extraordinary efforts of everyone involved in our COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical program, and we are extremely grateful to the clinical trial staff and trial participants for their invaluable contributions," said Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D., global head, Janssen Research & Development. The phase 3 study of 45,000 people across 80 countries potentially included cases of new strains identified in South Africa and Brazil, US pharmaceutical's chief financial officer said. "In terms of supply we're very confident and on track to meet all of our commitments," he added. The pharma giant earlier promised 100 million doses to the US by the end of June, about 200 million doses by the end of the year to the EU with shipments starting in April, and 200 million doses to developing countries that will begin shipping in the second half of the year. The vaccine could become the third to receive emergency use authorization in the US. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. 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. Opponents of the Confucius Institutes rally in front of the Toronto District School Board on Oct 1, 2014. (Zhou Xing/Epoch Times) US Senators Urge Biden to Back Trump-Era Proposal on CCPs Confucius Institutes A group of U.S. senators is calling on President Joe Biden to implement a rule that would require U.S. academic institutions to disclose their relationships with Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes (CI)a Trump-era proposal that was quietly scrapped by Biden last month. We have significant concerns regarding the CCPs [Chinese Communist Party] nefarious actions and urge you to follow through on your commitments to advancing the interests of the American people as we collectively respond to the challenge that the CCP poses, GOP Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter (pdf) to Biden on Feb. 23. The Trump administration on Dec. 31, 2020, submitted a proposal, named Establishing Requirement for Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certified Schools to Disclose Agreements with Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, that sought to ensure colleges and K-12 schools that are certified to host foreign exchange programs disclose their financial ties to CIs and the affiliated Confucius Classrooms. The Biden administration, however, quietly scrapped that proposal on Jan. 26, according to the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which is a division of the White Houses budget office. CIs bill themselves as places to learn Mandarin, study Chinese culture, and land a scholarship. Theyre funded and largely staffed by Hanban, a nonprofit that claims to be non-governmental, but is directly controlled by the CCP, according to a report by the Senate Homeland Security committees investigations subcommittee (pdf). The institutes came under intense scrutiny from U.S. officials under the Trump administration over concerns that they spread Chinese propaganda, restrict academic freedom, and facilitate espionage in U.S. classrooms. We believe it is critically important to better understand and reduce the CCPs influence on the American people, including through the Hanban, its propaganda arm that runs Confucius Institutes through the PRC Ministry of Education, the senators added. The proposed rule is a necessary step in that effort and would bring needed transparency to Confucius Institutes. The senators urged Biden to protect our nations students by enforcing transparency. They cited a report from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that highlights the Chinese regimes long-term goal to exert political influence over U.S. elites through the U.S. education system. Currently, CIs operate in at least 60 colleges and about 500 Confucius Classrooms in grade schools and high schools across the nation. Confucius Institute funding comes with strings that can compromise academic freedom The Chinese teachers sign contracts with the Chinese government pledging they will not damage the national interests of China, the senators said. Such limitations attempt to export Chinas censorship of political debate and prevent discussion of potentially politically sensitive topics. There has been a global pushback against the CCPs CIs, most notably in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In 2013, McMaster University in Canada became the first university in North America to close its CI. The National Association of Scholars, an education advocacy group, reported that as of Feb. 17, 64 CIs have closed or are in the processing of closing. The White House didnt immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times. Frank Fang contributed to this report. Professor Tih Pius, heading the CBCHS Facebook Professor Tih Pius Muffih, Director of Health Services of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC, has warned staff that the number of COVID-19 infections within the structure is at an all-time high. On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, he addressed a 'distress' call to all heads of institutions within the CBC Health Services with the subject, COVID-19 is back. I wish to warn all of us that COVID-19 has come back very aggressively. More staff members have been infected in the last two weeks than were infected in the period March to December 2020. This is not good news to us, Prof. Tih said. According to a copy of the letter obtained by Cameroon-Info.Net, the Director of Health Services has re-instituted decentralized devotions in large facilities. He has also asked his collaborators to intensify barrier methods of preventing COVID-19 including wearing facemasks, washing hands, social / physical distancing, and frequent use of sanitizers. Test all patients for COVID-19 who are admitted in the wards, Prof. Tih ordered. Test all staff who are not well, whether admitted or not. The Director of Health Services of the Cameroon Baptist Convention encourages all the facilities to educate the public through the outpatient department on the COVID-19 preventive measures. Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that a fortnight ago, Governor Lele Lafrique Tchoffo Deben Adolphe said the North West Region is witnessing an increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases. This is evidence of the existence of a second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Region, the Governor said in a statement. His words: Worse of all, during the last 10 days, the Region recorded 116 positive cases of COVID-19 with 5 COVID-19 related deaths. The cumulative statistics for COVID-19 in the North West Region are as follows: 1,189 Persons tested positive, with 935 recoveries, 173 active cases on treatment, and unfortunately 81 deaths (with 40 occurring in Health Facilities and 41 in communities). Governor Lele said Mezam, Boyo, Donga Mantung, and Ngoketunjia Divisions have the most COVID-19 cases. The City of Bamenda still constitutes the epicenter of the pandemic with the highest number of cases reported, he said. The Governor regretted that many people are no longer respecting the COVID-19 barrier measures prescribed by the Government of Cameroon and the World Health Organization. I am therefore calling on the stakeholders in the North West Region especially media professionals and bloggers to step up sensitization of the population on the strict respect of barrier measures against COVID-19, such as the systematic wearing of facemasks when leaving the house, handwashing with soap and running water, maintenance of social distancing at all times, Governor Lele said. These measures should also be strictly respected in all primary and secondary schools, churches and markets. The Governor says the entire population should closely collaborate with the health authorities, to give the Mass Campaign for COVID-19 testing, which is planned for the next three months in all health facilities, schools, and communities, a resounding success. Last week, Public Health Minister Manaouda Malachie said, As we can see, the situation is becoming worrying again. We must scrupulously respect the 13 measures laid out by the Head of State, which have not of course been repealed. Let's only go out when necessary and systematically wear our masks. Cameroon recorded its first Coronavirus cases in March 2020. Since then, 33,749 positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported. Of this number, 523 have died while 31,362 have recovered. The government has announced that people over 60 years and those above 45 with comorbidities can get coronavirus vaccine from 1 March. The vaccine will be offered free of cost at government facilities and for a charge at many private hospitals, the Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided on Wednesday. "The second phase of the world's largest vaccination drive will start from Monday in which anybody above 60 years, that may not be less than 10 crore people in the country, and 45 years plus with co-morbidities will be given vaccines in 10,000 government medical facilities and also over 20,000 private hospitals," Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar told a media briefing. "Whoever goes to the government centre will be administered vaccine free of cost. The Indian government will pay for them. The government will purchase the necessary doses and will send them to all the states." Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle The list of what constitutes a co-morbidity will be finalised and released soon. And the amount that has to be paid in case one opts for private hospitals will also be decided in the next three-four days. The health ministry is in discussions with manufacturers as well as hospitals regarding the same. At vaccination sites, those seeking a dose will need to prove their identity by showing a government-issued identity card. The government had earlier said that it would use CoWin (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) mobile app to help people register for their inoculation and locate the nearest vaccination centres. The app is currently restricted to government employees and users. Once the app is available to the public, users will be able to register themselves with details of the documents required.. India launched the coronavirus vaccination campaign on January 16, and in the period since, the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered to healthcare and frontline workers has crossed 1.23 crore in the country Meanwhile, with 13,742 new infections, India's Covid-19 count has gone up to 1,10,30,176 while recoveries are at 1,07,26,702, according to official data released on Wednesday. There are 1,46,907 active coronavirus cases in the country, which comprises 1.33 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) The Armed Forces of the Philippines said vaccination among its personnel was "not a matter of choice," but they have can choose the vaccine brand they want. "To get inoculated or not is not an option for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, it is a duty. At the most, the exercise of option will be the option to choose what brand of vaccine they will be availing of, but the cost of which will not be paid by the Armed Forces of the Philippines," AFP Spokesperson MGen Edgard Arevalo said at a briefing on Thursday. Arevalo added, Sinovac was the default as it was certified and given Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. He also said in case the vaccine of choice of a soldier is not available, they can still perform their duties as long as it is not close contact, and health and safety protocols are followed. "Any personnel who opts for another vaccine brand who has not been inoculated, dahil ayaw muna nila 'yon, meron silang particular na vaccine na gusto...pwede nila gawing mamili, pero sa oras na kailangan na silang mag-duty...hindi pwedeng hindi siya tutupad sa mga duties na 'yon. They must perform their tasks, but they have to resort to the traditional health protocol," he said. [Translation: Any personnel who opts for another vaccine brand who has not been inoculated, because they want that brand and they want a particular vaccine...they can choose, but when they are called...they must fulfill their duties.] Those whose duties include close contact must be vaccinated immediately. Unit commanders are tasked to monitor and make sure personnel in their areas of responsibility are vaccinated. "Bottomline, it is a duty for military personnel, including civilian human resource to be vaccinated," Arevalo said. READ: 46 sites recommended as COVID-19 vaccination centers AFP Despite the need to vaccinate members of the military, Arevalo said they would still follow the prioritization set by the government. He added the AFP was neither competing nor rushing for the vaccines. The AFP would be informing troops of vaccination information and guidelines. And while there will be penalties for personnel who will not follow orders for vaccination, Arevalo said he is confident such a thing would not happen. [February 25, 2021] Weill Neurohub Joins Forces With Genentech and Roche to Advance Neuroscience Research The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and UC Berkeley today announced a long-term research partnership with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and its parent company, Roche Holding AG, to speed the development of new therapeutics for debilitating brain diseases and disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, ALS and autism. UCSF and UC Berkeley will receive up to $53 million from Genentech over the course of the 10-year collaboration. The partnership, dubbed the Alliance for Therapies in Neuroscience (ATN), is a major milestone for the Weill Neurohub, a joint research collaboration between UCSF, UC Berkeley and the University of Washington. The Weill Neurohub was launched in 2019 with gifts from the Weill Family Foundation to focus researchers from many different disciplines on one of society's most pressing health problems - disorders of the brain and nervous system, which afflict over 1 billion people and represent the leading cause of disability worldwide. Just one year later, the Genentech and Roche partnership provides a powerful mechanism for putting those collaborations into action with a focus on developing long-needed therapies for these disorders. "This represents a perfect opportunity to align the scientific expertise of our great public institutions with innovation that thrives at Genentech and Roche. It also builds upon long-standing relationships with Genentech that help strengthen the collaboration across academia and industry," said Dr. Stephen Hauser, M.D., the Robert A. Fishman Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF and director of the UCSF eill Institute for Neurosciences, a Weill Neurohub partner. Hauser will co-chair the joint steering committee for the ATN. "At Genentech and Roche, we are strongly committed to discovering and developing breakthrough medicines to help improve the lives of people living with neurological disorders, which are some of the most complex conditions to understand and treat," said James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., global head of pharma partnering at Roche. "We are excited to join forces with Weill Neurohub researchers and clinicians to accelerate scientific and clinical advancements for neurological disorders so that we can slow, or even one day reverse, the progression of these conditions." The initial areas of focus for the collaboration are neurodegeneration, CRISPR-based therapeutics, protein degradation, functional genomics in human brain cells, and sleep mechanisms and circuits. A key university collaborator is the Innovative Genomics Institute, a joint research program between UC Berkeley and UCSF founded to leverage CRISPR-based genome engineering, a revolutionary technology invented at UC Berkeley. By harnessing the expertise and resources between academia and industry, joint project teams will aspire to better understand disease pathologies, discover novel targets, generate new preclinical models, and develop novel translatable biomarkers that will further accelerate the development of potential innovative therapeutics for patients with CNS disorders. The initial projects funded under the ATN focus on four key areas of need for neurological and psychiatric disorders: developing biomarkers to track disease progression and the effectiveness of future therapies; understanding molecular pathways of protein breakdown that drive disease; parsing genetic and protein profiles linked to CNS disorders; and developing therapeutics for brain diseases based on CRISPR technologies. "The significant financial commitment and the opportunity to collaborate with counterparts from Genentech and Roche are powerful catalysts to bring in top individual researchers from outside and inside neuroscience and kick-start neurodegenerative disease research at two powerhouse universities that can create a new generation of clinical treatments," said Ehud Isacoff, Ph.D., the Evan Rauch Chair in Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and head of UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, a Weill Neurohub partner. "Our original vision was that the Weill Neurohub would partner with biotech and pharma companies to drive neuroscience research forward. We are thrilled that Genentech and Roche have agreed to be the first to join us in this unique collaboration, not just through direct funding, but also by dedicating scientific resources and expertise from within their own company on the work that we are doing together," said philanthropist Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, chair of the Weill Family Foundation. "We thank Genentech and Roche for their commitment to not only prolonging life, but enhancing the quality of life for millions," said Weill Family Foundation President Joan Weill. Hauser noted that neuroscientists are making tremendous breakthroughs in understanding brain disease at a deep level, in large part by applying 21st century disease models based directly on human cells and their genes. "Now, we have the opportunity to pair those growing insights with the spectacular disease biology expertise, translation and drug development skills of Genentech and Roche to create revolutionary progress toward the therapies that CNS diseases have so long lacked," he said. "This partnership is not about picking off the low-hanging fruit - it's about transforming the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disease, which will require long-term investment and the flexibility to go where the science guides us." While all these diseases of the brain or CNS are incredibly challenging, Isacoff said, "It is really hard to imagine that significant progress will not be made in each of these areas, because the scientific expertise and passion across the teams are so strong. What I am hoping for is that some of these things lead to a breakthrough where, eventually, we are looking back a decade or two from now and saying, 'Holy moly! That is when we turned the corner on neurological disease.' That's the dream." View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005056/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] It has emerged that Ghanas public transport system has been identified as partially compliant in enforcing strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols particularly using nose masks and observing safety protocols. Also, even though the transport operators are enforcing the protocols it has become very clear that some passengers are feeling reluctant to comply with the protocols. As Ghana entangles in the ripple effects of the COVID-19 health crisis, the country is seeking to introduce new innovative ways to meet the new normal and further secure and protect the public from the pandemic. And since public transport remains a potential hotspot for the spread of COVID-19 due to the attitude of some of the passengers after the buses take off, it has become critical for the Government of Ghana to procure COVID-19 Compliant Buses. It is against this background that the Minister-designate for the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah at his vetting before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday 23rd February 2021 announced a major innovation from the transport sector. According to the Minister-Designate, the Government of Ghana is currently in talks with the government of Korea to procure COVID-19 Compliant Buses. Since public transport has been identified as a high-risk environment for the transmission of the virus, we are innovating these buses that come with Automatic in-built and installed internal disinfectant and sanitizer designed for inter-city and intra-city transits. It automatically sanitizes the hands, takes records of temperature, and then sanitizes the whole body. It also disinfects the interior of the buses as and when the passengers get on board and when necessary, the Minister-Designate for Transport stated. Major Economic Benefit According to him, the COVID-19 Compliant Buses will help bring economic relief since the government will be relying on prevention to avoid further financial stress from the health sector as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As a matter of fact, the COVID-19 pandemic brought untold financial stress where the government was compelled to roll out economic relief to the public as a way of mitigating the economic challenges. Funding: Hon. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, further disclosed that the Source of funding for the COVID-19 Compliant Buses will come from the Korea Exim from the government of Korea or likely Afri Exim. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Sorry! This content is not available in your region TANAISTE Leo Varadkar urged businesses to hold firm and save lives as evidence emerged of more firms preparing to break lockdown rules. Mr Varadkar reminded business owners that despite their frustrations, the regulations were there to reduce the burden on the health service. The Governments Living With Covid plan this week offered little hope of any imminent relaxation of lockdown that has been in place since just after Christmas. Read More It has explicitly warned that nearly a year into this pandemic, Covid-19 fatigue is becoming evident and it is understandable. But there have been a number of high-profile cases of businesses prepared to rebel against the restrictions in recent days. Gardai arrested seven people yesterday following the alleged reopening of a salon in Balbriggan, Co Dublin. A woman in her 40s was among those arrested. She was charged for breaches of the Health Act and. A man in his 50s was also charged. But in a separate development, there are increasing concerns that the far-right is insidiously working to encourage business owners to defy the regulations and open up on March 1. The Irish Independent understands letter drops and emails have been sent to businesses in the town Tralee and in other towns, from a subversive group, urging them to open up on March 1. An email, from an anonymous email account Reopening Tralee, has been seen by the Irish Independent. Gardai confirmed they are aware of correspondence circulating among local businesses in Tralee, Co Kerry and officers are making enquiries on the matter. Last night Mr Varadkar, who is Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, told the Irish Independent that businesses must hold firm for this last stretch. I know how difficult the past year has been for everyone but as Enterprise Minister. I am of course particularly aware of the impact on business owners and their staff, he said. Government has put in place a package to help businesses-wage subsidies, direct grants, the commercial rates waiver and VAT reduction, through what I recognise is an exceptionally difficult time. We will continue to look at what more we can do over the months ahead. Meanwhile the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) said any business flouting Level 5 regulations must be shut down immediately. Were calling on all our members and the restaurant sector as a whole, to abide by public health guidelines in the best interests of public health safety and to get our economy reopened as quickly as possible, Adrian Cummins, CEO of the RAI, said. Any business flouting the rules and guidelines should be closed with immediate effect because any breaches of public health puts the lives of the public at risk and the future livelihoods of businesses, especially in the hospitality sector. A spokesman for the Licensed Vintners Association said: We absolutely understand the pressures small businesses and the people dependent on them are under. These are very difficult times for the people in our sector. "However, our position is very clear: all businesses must follow the public health guidelines. A number of pubs are still serving takeaway pints to customers despite concerns regarding crowds gathering outside. However, the sales are not illegal. The LVA would not be drawn on the matter. Neil McDonnell, chief executive of ISME said: While we cannot condone the actions of any individual businesses breaking the Covid-19 guidelines, we understand the immense personal, financial and mental stress many business owners are under having been forced to close for so long. A Garda spokesman said: An Garda Siochana continue to liaise with local business in support of the current public health regulations. Where gardai find potential breaches of the public health regulations which are not declared to be Fixed Penalty Provisions, a file will be prepared for the DPP. An Garda Siochana will adopt the approach of the Four Es which will see gardai engage, explain, encourage, and as a last resort, enforce. Any breaches of the Health Act 1974, such as opening a business during Level 5, can lead to a 1,000 fine or imprisonment for a month, or both. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 01:14:35|Editor: huaxia 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, delivers an important speech at a grand gathering to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) -- Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. -- Combined with poverty-reduction results since the late 1970s, China is responsible for over 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty over the period. -- Xi said the country has blazed a poverty reduction trail and formed an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics. -- Xi demanded efforts to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and initiate a dovetailing drive of "rural vitalization." -- China on Thursday inaugurated a new cabinet body on promoting rural vitalization. BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday that China has secured a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world's most populous country, home to over 1.4 billion people. Xi made the announcement while addressing a grand gathering held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters. With absolute poverty eliminated, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," Xi said in a televised speech. The high-profile event was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang and attended by other senior Party leaders Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng -- all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee -- and Vice President Wang Qishan. A MIRACLE Under Xi's leadership, China launched a monumental anti-poverty campaign on a scale unseen anywhere in the world. Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages have also been removed from the poverty list. The country has met the poverty eradication target set out in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. Combined with poverty-reduction results since the late 1970s, China is responsible for over 70 percent of the global reduction in poverty over the period, World Bank statistics have shown. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the success of China's anti-poverty campaign over the past few years, calling it "the most important contribution" to the global poverty reduction cause. "No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time," Xi said. Xia Sen, former researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, attends a grand gathering to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Bin) At Thursday's gathering, Xi presented medals, certificates and plaques to role models from the country's anti-poverty fight. He also joined other Chinese leaders in presenting awards to individuals and groups for their outstanding achievements in the fight against penury. The recipients include villagers, Party members dispatched to villages to fight poverty, grassroots officials and college researchers. Some of them were honored posthumously. Shi Jintong, a village Party chief in central China's Hunan Province, accepted an award on behalf of his village. Shi's village -- Shibadong -- is where Xi, during a visit in 2013, put forward the "targeted poverty alleviation" strategy that was instrumental in the success of China's poverty eradication campaign. "I feel so honored to meet the general secretary again, yet I am confident at the same time as we have accomplished the task of poverty eradication," Shi said. But not all of China's anti-poverty champions lived to see this day. Over the past eight years, more than 1,800 people died fighting poverty on the front lines. Xi acknowledged these fallen heroes at Thursday's event, saying that their sacrifice and contributions "will never be forgotten by the Party, the people and the republic." A grand gathering is held to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honor its model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) PARTY, PEOPLE, POOLING RESOURCES, PRECISION Summarizing China's experience in conquering poverty, Xi said the country has blazed a poverty reduction trail and formed an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics. He underlined the role of Party leadership, which has provided a "political and organizational guarantee" for China's poverty alleviation efforts. Poverty relief work has been led by the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC with its 90 million members. Party chiefs at all levels were required to assume the primary responsibility for achieving the campaign's ambitious targets. Over 3 million public sector officials were sent from cities and towns to villages to fight poverty "on the front lines." Funds were channeled to assist the fight. Nearly 1.6 trillion yuan (about 246 billion U.S. dollars) of fiscal funds have been invested into poverty alleviation over the past eight years. China also leveraged the political advantage of its socialist system, which can bring together the needed resources to accomplish great tasks. This enabled massive programs, such as those pairing up better-off provinces with others in need to tackle poverty. The country's strategy of targeted poverty alleviation was also highlighted. Xi said poverty eradication is an important embodiment of the Party's fundamental purpose of "whole-heartedly serving the people." "Ending poverty, improving people's well-being and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism," Xi said. A grand gathering is held to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) RURAL VITALIZATION Building on its victory in eradicating poverty, China is moving on to push for higher-level development in its rural areas. Shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavor, Xi said in the speech, demanding efforts to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and initiate a dovetailing drive of "rural vitalization." The rural vitalization strategy was proposed as a key move for the development of a modernized economy at the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017. More detailed plans of the strategy were unveiled in the Party leadership's proposals for formulating an economic and social development plan for the 2021-2025 period and long-term goals through the year 2035. China on Thursday inaugurated a new cabinet body on promoting rural vitalization, which was transformed from the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development. In his speech, Xi said efforts must be made to prevent any large-scale relapse into poverty, and identifying solutions to problems concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers must be the top priority of the Party's work. "China will attach greater importance to the pursuit of common prosperity," he said. (Video Editor: Liu Xiaorui) "During recessions, Black workers are the first ones kicked out and the last ones to be get rehired, says Michael Papadopoulos, a research associate at the New School. So, we would expect that the racial gap in unemployment is going to continue in 2021, because that's how it has always been in normal recessions. However, particular to this recession, is that in order for an older worker to confidently go back into the labor force, they will probably need to, they'll probably need to get vaccinated." And, unfortunately, there is a gap in COVID-19 vaccination rates between Black and white Americans. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data on vaccination rates as of Feb. 16, in the 27 states that report vaccination rates by race, the rate for white people is twice as high as the rate for Blacks (10 percent vs. 5 percent). "If the vaccination rates between whites and non-whites continue to lag, that will make Black older adults less likely to go back to work, Ghilarducci says. Unplanned retirement puts some older adults at risk Despite the difficulties Black workers face in the job market, Ghilarducci says it's important that they continue to look for new jobs rather than retire. Unplanned early retirement can increase the chances of living in poverty as people outlive their savings or encounter unexpected expenses. "Whatever you do, keep on looking to work, because giving up is really bad for your future, she says. If you are unemployed, she also recommends seeking assistance through a federally funded Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) in your region. These programs offer job training and employment opportunities for lower-income adults age 55 and older. AARP Foundation operates many SCSEP programs across the country. Based on the success of the extended unemployment benefits created by federal relief legislation last year, the Retirement Equity Lab also says that Congress should consider permanently offering extended benefits to people age 55 and older, who typically take longer to find jobs even when the economy is strong. Permanently extending these benefits for older adults could help Black older adults stay in the workforce because it often takes them longer to find jobs due to biases based on age and race. Black-owned small businesses also suffer From February to April last year, nearly 41 percent of all Black-owned businesses closed their doors for good, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. But despite the need for assistance, these businesses accounted for less than 2 percent of the 4 million small businesses that received loans during the first round of federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aid. Roughly 50 percent of all small business owners are between the ages of 50 and 88, according to Small Business Trends. Former radio presenter Bryce Ruthven has been causing quite the stir on this season's Married At First Sight after tying the knot with his TV bride Melissa Rawson on Monday night. And messages obtained by Daily Mail Australia seem to prove just how desperate the 31-year-old was to appear on the controversial dating show. Bryce, who reportedly broke up with his ex-fiancee of five years Lana Bongioletti just six months before going on the show, asked former MAFS star Nasser Sultan several times for advice on how to be cast as a groom. Married At First Sight EXCLUSIVE: Leaked messages prove that Married At First Sight star Bryce Ruthven was desperate to get on the show 'You're in': Bryce, who reportedly broke up with ex-fiancee of five years Lana Bongioletti just six months before going on the show, asked former MAFS star Nasser Sultan several times for advice on how to be cast as a groom Nasser, 53, supplied Daily Mail Australia with screenshots of the direct Instagram messages exchanged between the pair back in July and August last year, before Bryce started filming the show on August 26. 'You're in,' Nasser told Bryce in one message. 'Surely this is the end of the process?' Bryce replied. How embarrassing: Nasser, 53, supplied Daily Mail Australia with screenshots of the direct Instagram messages exchanged between the pair back in July and August last year, before Bryce started filming the show on August 26 He added: 'How do you know I'm in? Haha.' In another, he told Nasser he was 'filming my back story in two to three weeks'. Meanwhile, Nasser confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that Bryce was desperate to appear on the Channel Nine experiment. 'I said, "mate, don't do it, you've got a great career in radio",' Nasser explained. 'And he's like, "I want to try, this and that, I'll see how it goes...'' but weekly he was ringing me to get advice.' On Wednesday night's MAFS, Bryce copped the wrath of viewers when he made his TV 'wife' Melissa cry after admitting that she isn't his 'type'. Bryce and Melissa were tasked with the daunting assignment of opening the honesty box. Laying down on the floor of their cabin with a platter of fruit nearby, Bryce asked Melissa: 'What were your first impressions when you first laid eyes on me?' 'Weekly, he was ringing me to get advice': Meanwhile, Nasser confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that Bryce was desperate to appear on the Channel Nine experiment Melissa said that she was instantly attracted to Bryce, and even turned to her grandparents with excitement. She then turned to Bryce and asked: 'Am I your usual type?' After taking a moment to think, Bryce responded: 'It's a tough question. I'll be completely honest. Not 100 per cent. 'I've always gone for the blonde hair, blue eyes, tanned kind of girl, and someone that's, like, usually taller.' Awkward: On Wednesday night's MAFS, Bryce copped the wrath of viewers when he made his TV 'wife' Melissa cry after admitting that she isn't his 'type' Bryce then confessed to his bride that he probably wouldn't go up to her in a bar and buy her a drink. A heartbroken Melissa began to cry, wiping tears away from her eyes. 'But definitely when I first saw you, I was like... "You're not my type, you have got blonde hair. She's not ugly",' he continued. Bryce's candid admission left his bride speechless, and she later told a producer: 'I don't want to be that emotional girl, but it's not a nice feeling.' Brutal: Bryce then confessed to his bride that he probably wouldn't go up to her in a bar and buy her a drink 'Were you hoping that I would say that you were the most gorgeous girl in the world?' Bryce then asked her, before adding that he felt she looked hurt. 'I can't help the way you feel, except that maybe I probably wouldn't have been intimate with you,' she confessed. Bryce and his ex-fiancee Lana reportedly ended their five-year relationship last year, just months before he filmed MAFS. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Bryce and Channel Nine for comment in relation to this story. Paul Maher is being remembered as a savvy political and community leader in the region who seemingly had connections everywhere that helped guide former U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorskis 26 years in Congress. Maher died Friday. He was 87. In the days leading up to Thursdays funeral for Maher, those who knew the influential Democrat have been giving tributes, including his longtime boss. Paul was a well-liked guy and a well-connected guy. There were very few places where he didnt have contacts. He was my lead man in the district in getting in touch with people. He really was my right hand man, Kanjorski said Wednesday. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Maher was employed in banking and finance jobs before entering politics. He started working as Wilkes-Barres coordinator of federal funds in 1971 and later was appointed Luzerne Countys first budget and personnel director in 1975. An elected Democratic State Committeeman for decades, Maher helped Kanjorski in his successful 1984 run for Congress. He started working as a field representative for Kanjorski when he took office in 1985. It turned into a lifetime appointment, Kanjorski said. He helped keep me there for 26 years. Kanjorski, who remained congressman until his defeat in the 2011 election against Lou Barletta, said Maher always kept a great wall between politics and his government job. Mahers obituary notes how Maher represented Kanjorski at countless fundraisers, groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and community events. The obituary lists a wide variety of boards and authorities Maher served on, including the Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority for 30 years. He also was devoted to his church, St. Marys Church of the Immaculate Conception in Wilkes-Barre. He led quite a life, said political consultant Ed Mitchell, who helped Kanjorski assemble his initial congressional staff that included Maher. He was a real good Democrat. He was a steadfast Catholic. And he was a good Irishman. He loved Notre Dame. Mahers priest, the Rev. Duane Gavitt, said Maher was a reliable, kind and humble man. In todays world, how many people could you trust? He was someone you could trust, Gavitt said. He was a man of his word. Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, of Wilkes-Barre, said Maher had been less visible over the last year since moving into an assisted living facility. We felt his loss since that time ... Pashinski said. Paul Maher was a dedicated man to Congressman Kanjorski, to the Democratic Party and to the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. 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. New Delhi: The Bombay High Court on Monday accepted Maharashtra government's statement that children below 14 years will not be allowed to participate in the dahi handi revelry. The HC also declined to issue any directions pertaining to the age and height restrictions for the dahi handi celebrations. The court observed that it is for the state government to bring laws in that respect. "If we enter into that arena, we would be encroaching on the domain of the legislature," said a bench of Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Makarand Karnik. The bench said accidents can occur anywhere. "Is it for us to take care of all situations under (article) 226? Accidents can happen even in a toilet," remarked Justice Gavai. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the state government. He told the court that as per the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, children below 14-years of age will not be allowed to participate in the festival referring to the state governments decision taken in August last year that declared dahi handi as an adventure sport. The court was hearing two public interest litigations (PILs) that expressed concern over the safety of children who participate in the festivities and form human pyramids. On August 11, 2014 the High Court had directed the state government to raise the minimum age of participants to 18 years and to cap the height of human pyramids to 20 feet or four layers. The Supreme Court had on August 17, 2016 refused to relax the conditions set by the High Court like barring youths below 18 years of age from participating in the dahi handi festival and limiting the height of the human pyramid at 20 feet. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... SANTA FE The state House endorsed legislation Thursday to reauthorize and expand a loan program for small businesses struggling amid the pandemic the final approval necessary to send the bill to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The measure, Senate Bill 3, would make an extra $460 million available for the loan program, on top of the $40 million already loaned last year. The maximum loan to a business would be $150,000. Funding for the loans would come from the states Severance Tax Permanent Fund. It won approval in the Senate 35-3 earlier this month and cleared the House on a 51-17 vote Thursday. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ This is an investment in our businesses and the people of New Mexico, said Rep. Marian Matthews, an Albuquerque Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill. House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia, voted against the bill, describing it as an inadequate response to public health regulations that have restricted business activity. They never would have needed this if we let them go back to work, he said. The founder of Kids Company has compared children spending the charity's cash on drugs to middle class parents handing out pocket money. Camila Batmanghelidjh asked why when poor children are given money 'it straight away becomes drugs money'. But the former chief executive added cash-strapped youngsters often did not use handouts to get illegal substances - because 'they are given it for couriering'. She was replying to Woman's Hour host Emma Barnett, who referenced a teenager who in 2015 boasted she spent Kids Company cash on weed. Ms Batmanghelidjh also lashed out at Dominic Cummings as she claimed he briefed against her charity. The heated interview was her first since she won a High Court disqualification battle to stop her holding company directorships as a result of her handling of the charity. Camila Batmanghelidjh (pictured in 2015) asked why when poor children are given money 'it straight away becomes drugs money' Ms Batmanghelidjh also lashed out at former Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings (pictured in December) as she claimed he briefed against her charity Ms Barnett said: 'One of the youngsters helped by the kids company told radio 4's the report that when she was given money... ''we would queue up, sign our names down, get an envelope with 30 and an oyster travel card. ''Then we would go to the shop and buy whatever we wanted with that money. It was weed heaven on a Friday. You could smell weed coming down from the landings''.' 'Kids using money from a charity to go and buy weed. Is that reality? Is that what we have to get used to? What do you make of that?' Timeline of the Kids Company scandal July 2015 - Police launch a probe into allegations of abuse and exploitation at the charity, following the broadcast of a BBC Newsnight report. This was eventually dropped seven months later. August 2015 - Kids Company collapses despite repeated warnings over its perilous financial state just days after it was given a 3million government grant. October 2015 - National Audit Office questions why government money was paid to the charity with 'little focus on what it was actually achieving'. November 2015 - The Public Accounts Committee describes the charity as a failed '13 year experiment' and criticised both the Labour and Conservative governments for continuing to give public money against civil service advice. December 2015 - BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob - who served as chairman of the charity - steps down after being accused of trying to put pressure on BBC journalists reporting on the scandal. 2016 - MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) call on the BBC to reopen its investigation into Mr Yentob, over claims he 'deliberately intimidated' corporation staff. 2017 - Camila Batmanghelidjh publishes her biography. In interviews before its release, she defends sending drug addict called Dave to Champneys spa to relax with a 'chocolate massage' thrown in to boost his self-esteem. The trip allegedly cost 55,000. October 2020 - The Insolvency Service begins its legal bid to disqualify Camila Batmanghelidjh and nine former directors from the charity, including Mr Yentob, from serving as company directors. February 2, 2021 - A judge throws out the bid. Advertisement Batmanghelidjh replied: 'I think that's really interesting. Middle class people give their children pocket money, when it comes to poor people getting pocket money it straight away becomes drugs money. 'If you know what goes on on the street, these children often don't need the cash to buy drugs because they are given it for couriering. 'If you put a microphone in front of a teenagers mouth and you get them to say things they will say things and maybe they go and smoke weed with friends on a Friday but what secondary school doesn't have that problem.' She added: 'What you have to do is deal with it and get children off drugs.' Ms Barnett was referring to comments made by a teenager who used the charity on a Radio 4 segment in August 2015. The child bragged about using charity money to buy drugs just days after it was closed amid claims of financial mismanagement, which were dismissed in court. The youngster said she and her friends would splash the spending money they were given on cannabis. She told Radio 4's The Report: 'We would queue up and sign our names down and get an envelope with 30 and an Oyster travelcard. 'Then we would go to the shop and buy whatever we wanted with that money. It was weed heaven on a Friday, you could smell it coming down from the landings.' The charity, which supported vulnerable young people in London and Bristol had famous backers such as David Cameron but it was wound up in 2015. The closure came shortly after police launched a subsequently-dropped probe into unfounded allegations of abuse and exploitation - aired by BBC Newsnight. Earlier this month, the charity's trustees said they had been 'exonerated' when Mrs Justice Falk concluded no disqualification order should be made against them. Ms Batmanghelidjh also hit out at former Downing Street aide Mr Cummings, accusing him of briefing against the organisation. She said on Woman's Hour: 'I personally think it was a smear campaign and I think there were two targets. 'One is, I believe, David Cameron, because he was seen to have chosen us as Big Society and I think the Brexit team wanted to discredit him, because I don't understand why Dominic Cummings, whom we had never met, was briefing against us in 2015. 'And I think another bit was campaigning for child protection issues and I think the country has no capacity to address its child protection problems. 'And I think we got sandwiched between these two concerns and that was why there was such a ferocious attack on us.' The charity collapsed in 2015, just weeks after it was handed a 3million grant by David Cameron's government with ministers said to be 'in thrall' of founder Ms Batmanghelidjh who was handed piles of taxpayers' cash She then called for Michael Gove to apologise to children who lost support from the collapsed charity. She accused the senior minister on Thursday of having been 'really disingenuous' during the police probe. She said the now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster had initially supported the charity's work and handed her a CBE when he was in the Department for Education. She said: 'By 2015 he was saying he never wanted Kids Co funded, you know, and I find it very difficult when people change colours. 'I can live without Michael Gove's apology but the staff and the children are owed an apology from Michael Gove, (former Conservative MP) Oliver Letwin, all these people who promised that they were going to help us resolve the fact that children were pouring in through our doors, you know, and the reason I clashed with the Cabinet Office was because when I realised they're not taking responsibility.' The Official Receiver brought High Court proceedings against Ms Batmanghelidjh, as well as seven former trustees, including the BBC's ex-creative director Alan Yentob. The OR argued Ms Batmanghelidjh and the former trustees were 'unfit' to hold company directorships as a result of their handling of the charity. But, in a ruling on February 12, Mrs Justice Falk rejected the case and praised the 'enormous dedication' the founder showed vulnerable young people. She ruled: 'The public need no protection from these trustees. 'On the contrary, this is a group of highly impressive and dedicated individuals who selflessly gave enormous amounts of their time to what was clearly a highly challenging trusteeship.' A statement issued on behalf of the former trustees said: 'Kids Company was forced to close in August 2015 following what the judge records as 'unfounded allegations' of child abuse, which made fundraising from private and government sources impossible. 'We are pleased that finally the facts have been gathered and assessed in a court of law, and that Mrs Justice Falk has exonerated both the former trustees and Kids Company chief executive Camila Batmanghelidjh.' Mr Cummings and Mr Gove have been approached for comment. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Time Out Travel Survey reveals over a third of people are planning a city getaway in 2021 LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Time Out , the global media and hospitality brand that helps people explore and experience the soul of the city, debuts its first global Travel Survey. The findings reveal that travellers are in search of a fusion of city and nature for their future trips. This emerging trend follows the results revealed from the global poll of more than 21,000 people, which indicates that more than a third are planning a city getaway this year. Despite the pandemic emptying city centres in 2020, the survey reveals that just as many travellers are craving the unique culture and diversity of city holidays (41%) in 2021 as are planning nature and countryside escapes (42%). More people will be looking to travel with partners (16%) and family (14%) than friends (10%), with the majority (67%) saying they will travel by plane. A fifth of respondents (19%) want to travel to both city and nature destinations this year. This has led Time Out editors worldwide to agree that when travel eventually resumes, there will be a greater pull toward two-part city and nature travel experiences. This 'fusion trip' trend will involve travellers exploring city neighbourhoods and their food and drink scenes, while discovering less-crowded culture spots and attractions. Following a few days of city exploration, travellers will venture out to find nearby nature trails, wide-open spaces and other outdoor activities. Time Out International Editor, James Manning says: "It's been a hard year for city life and for travel, so it's incredibly heartening to see our Time Out Travel Survey identifying a huge interest in city breaks for 2021. We believe that cities will bounce back more quickly than anyone expects, given the huge pent-up demand for food, drink, culture and nightlife. Nevertheless, we're expecting the surge in nature travel to continue too, with many people still preferring outdoor activities. The 'fusion trip' combines the best of both worlds: the vibe of the city, with a wave of travellers discovering the new urban phenomena emerging from the global shutdown, plus the relaxation (and built-in social distance) of a nature trip." Time Out city experts have identified 15 leading city destinations for a 'fusion trip' once international travel reopens: FULL DESCRIPTIONS HERE Kuppam : , Feb 25 (IANS) In his first visit to Kuppam after the recent panchayat polls drubbing, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday vowed that he would continue to fight for the poor in the state. "Despite the hardships being caused, I will continue to stand by the poor and fight for them," declared Naidu, alleging that the government is conspiring to stop him from fighting for the poor. He fondly reminded Kuppam people that they always treated him as a family member. Naidu said Kuppam, the constituency which he has been representing for several years never separated people. Further praising the place, Naidu said the constituency is an example to the state and boasted that Kuppam people saved him in their heart. "Any good initiative we wanted to do, we started from Kuppam," he claimed, saying that the constituency was developed like no other place in India. The TDP supremo alleged that there were many irregularities in the recently concluded rural local bodies elections. Naidu said that he never resorted to corrupt ways in his political life of 40 years. He ridiculed Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy that welfare activities were not just limited to him. The former chief minister issued a warning to the ruling party that he is remembering all the hiccups they were subjecting the TDP cadres to. "I will return everything to you with interest," he fumed. Addressing the party cadres, Naidu alleged that the government did no good in the past two years and compared that some welfare schemes were better in the TDP government than the current YSRCP one. Police in Norristown are looking for a group of men caught on video attacking a pizza-shop owner. Ying Ngov, 56, was beaten by the group after she tried to stop them from stealing beer from her shop, Mama Venezias, Action News 6 ABC is reporting. According to reports, a security video shows the men looking into the pizza shop before putting on masks and going inside. Ngov told the station they stole beer before leaving, and the video shows them running out of her business, reports indicate. She followed, grabbing a snow shovel to defend herself while asking them to pay for the beer, according to reports. The video shows one of the men pushing her to the ground. She got right up, but another man hit her in the face, reports indicate. She dropped to the ground again, and the video shows them continuing to assault her. The family has filed a police report, and authorities say an investigation is underway. Silas Farley, a former New York City Ballet dancer who surprised many by leaving the company early in his dancing career last year, will succeed Jenifer Ringer on July 1 as the head of the dance program at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the school announced on Wednesday. He will be dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, and Darleen Callaghan, the former director of the North Carolina Dance Theater School and the Miami City Ballet School, will succeed James Fayette as associate dean. Ringer and Fayette, who are married and are both former City Ballet principals, began their tenure at the Colburn School in 2014, and have raised the dance departments profile in teaching and professional circles. In a telephone interview, Ringer said she and Fayette want to spend more time with their young children, and to be close to her family in South Carolina, but will retain a relationship with the school and return frequently to teach. Ringer said that Farley, 26, who created a piece with the students during the schools virtual summer intensive and choreographed a section of its virtual production of The Nutcracker, came immediately to mind as a leader for the school. He was also suggested as a candidate by Sel Kardan, the president of the Colburn School. It felt like the right next step, Farley said in a phone interview from Dallas, where he has spent the past year as artist-in-residence in the dance division at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Known for elevating the works of creatives of color, Love.Watts curated a collective of local artists to visually depict the stories of celebrity chef Richard Ingraham, stylist Zerina Akers, comedian/actress/producer Tiffany Haddish and tailor to the stars Teheran Jones of Exclusive Game, through bold and powerful murals in their hometowns. To serve as the storytellers, artists from each city, including Mojo in Miami, Andre Trenier in New York City, Kezia Harrell in Los Angeles, and Markeidric in Atlanta, were paired with each changemaker to showcase modern Black excellence through eye-catching visual art, while bringing color to local communities. Through scannable QR codes on the murals, visitors can also learn more about the stories behind these faces. "The stories and voices of the people in our community should be celebrated every day of the year, not just one month," says Sean "Diddy" Combs. "Through #CIROCStands, we're showing everyone the Black excellence that drives our communities." CIROC is also making a donation to The Black Artists + Designers Guild (BADG) to help support their mission to build a more equitable and inclusive creative culture. "It's an honor to help bring together local emerging artists of color to provide them with a canvas to share powerful stories," says Jordan "Love Watts" Watson. "This iteration of #CIROCStands is another means of regaining and owning the power of Black excellence while continuing to be a celebratory vehicle of success." Learn more about each mural location and the inspiration behind them: Richard Ingraham : "Every plate of food I prepare embodies my passion for the craft of cooking. My unwavering love for my family and the unshakeable strength of culture." 239 NW 26 Street, Miami, Florida Zerina Akers : "We must believe that every sacrifice has a reward and that we are the ones who hold our power." : 1096 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York Tiffany Haddish: "I feel that everyone is on this planet for multiple reasons. I figured out what one of mine was and that is to bring joy." 1200 S Hope St, Los Angeles, California Teheran Jones from Exclusive Game : "Through my work, I hope to pave the way for the next generation's dreams and aspirations." : 333 Peters Street Southwest, Atlanta, Georgia To learn more about the #CIROCStands platform, the voices behind the murals or where you can find the murals, visit @CIROC and @love.watts on Instagram or scan the QR code below! About CIROC Ultra-Premium Vodka Unlike most vodkas, which are made from grain, CIROC Ultra-Premium Vodka is gluten-free and distilled from fine French grapes; a process inspired by over a century of wine-making expertise and craftsmanship. It is the fine French grapes and the fifth distillation in a traditional, tailor-made copper pot still at the historic Distillerie de Chevanceaux in the South of France that give CIROC Ultra-Premium Vodka a distinctive flavor with an exceptionally fresh, citrus taste. The infused vodka flavors in the portfolio to-date include CIROC Red Berry, CIROC Coconut, CIROC Peach, CIROC Pineapple, CIROC Apple, CIROC French Vanilla, and CIROC Mango. In June 2018, Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Makers of CIROC entered the brown spirits category with the introduction of CIROC VS, Fine French Brandy. About Diageo Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, CIROC and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Casamigos, DeLeon, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives and ways to share best practice. Follow us on Twitter for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA. Media Contacts: [email protected] SOURCE CIROC Ultra-Premium Vodka Related Links https://www.diageo.com/ YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The National Security Service of Armenia urges citizens to refrain from any actions threatening the national security and warns that any illegal action will receive a proper response by the law enforcement agencies. We call on our citizens not to give in to provocative actions, observe the legal order and keep vigilance. The state administration authorities of Armenia fulfill their functions. The National Security Service warns that such possible actions can threaten the security of Armenia and any such step could be viewed as a concrete goal on weakening the state. The National Security Service continues taking necessary measures in accordance with the current situation for ensuring and protecting Armenias sovereignty and security, territorial immunity, the NSS statement says. On February 25 the General Staff of the Armenian Forces of Armenia issued a statement, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Cabinet. In his turn Pashinyan commented on the statement, calling it as a military coup attempt. He invited all his supporters to the Republic Square to discuss the ongoing developments. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Ukraine-Bulgaria joint group on tourism to resume work This year, the officials will meet in Sofia after a pause. Reporting by UNIAN If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter One of the most chilling examples in modern times of the accelerating full-spectrum assault on free speech and the First Amendment took place yesterday on Capitol Hill, courtesy of a subcommittee of the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Energy and Commerce. For over three hours on Wednesday afternoon, the subcommittee held a virtual hearing titled "Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media." The target was conservative media in general and Fox News in particular. Conservatives who have bought into the fake meme that Fox News has "gone left" might want to take note of how the authoritarian leftists who have taken control of the Democrat party and their allies in big media have now openly embarked on a carefully crafted and well orchestrated propaganda campaign to destroy Fox News. The Democrats are also targeting FNC's two competitors, Newsmax TV and OANN. Indications of where the hearing would go were provided on Monday, when two of the subcommittee's members, California Democrat reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, sent a letter demanding answers to seven extensive and intrusive questions to twelve of the biggest cable and satellite television providers and streaming services that carry Fox News. The letter challenged the providers to defend their policies that make the Fox News Channel and its two conservative competitors available to Americans. On Monday, Fox News released a brief statement that to date is the channel's only-on-the record comment about these goings on. As the most watched cable news channel throughout 2020, FOX News Media provided millions of Americans with in-depth reporting, breaking news coverage and clear opinion. For individual members of Congress to highlight political speech they do not like and demand cable distributors engage in viewpoint discrimination sets a terrible precedent. The Democrat who ran the hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), chairman of the committee's communications and technology subcommittee, echoed the opinions of Eshoo and McNerney early on in his opening statement. So did his fellow Democrats and three of the four witnesses in this kangaroo court. The only dissenter was George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, a Democrat who sounds like no other Democrat in public life these days. Turley remains an extremely knowledgeable and articulate advocate of free speech and the First Amendment despite receiving what he said were death threats. Screen shot Kristin Urquiza testifies at the House hearing on February 24, 2021. The tone of the hearing was set early on by one of the witnesses, the self-identified "Latinx. Queer" Kristin Danielle Urquiza, who started a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization last year called Marked by COVID. At the hearing, Urquiza blamed her father's death on alleged and unspecified misinformation about COVID-19 that visibly on the verge of tears she insisted was spread by President Donald Trump and his "accomplices, enablers, and complicit parties," mainly Fox News. Let me start by stating the obvious. The primary purpose and entity responsible for my father's death and hundreds of thousands of people in the United States is Donald Trump and his administration. Like everyone I know, my dad received his information through an intermediary. And his media of choice was Fox cable news. I did my best to fight back. But there is no way that one person can compete with the microphone of the office of the president nor the propaganda machine that has become Fox cable news. During the hearing, which lasted almost three and one half hours, almost every Democrat committee member at some point took time out to praise Urquiza. And why not? Last summer, Urquiza spoke at the virtual Democrat Convention in support of Joe Biden a two-minute address that earned her several fawning New York Times profiles. A press release on February 17 announcing the hearing, authored by Doyle and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), spelled out the hearing's purpose and its broad agenda: The prolonged severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attack on our Capitol on January 6 have driven home a frightening reality: the spread of disinformation and extremism by traditional news media presents a tangible and destabilizing threat. Some broadcasters' and cable networks' increasing reliance on conspiracy theories and misleading or patently false information raises questions about their devotion to journalistic integrity. We look forward to hearing from media experts about what is being done and what more can be done to address this growing problem moving forward. The two other "media experts" on the witness list were Black Latina leftist feminist TV reporter and program host Soledad O'Brien and British leftist Emily Bell, director of something called the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism. Bell, whose native country lacks anything close to a First Amendment protecting freedom of speech, was constantly pitching an expanded but nebulous role for the U.S. government to rein in media she and her fellow travelers don't approve of. For her part, O'Brien, a sanctimonious propagandist who wears her various "minority" identities as badges of qualification and honor, began her statement with a vicious attack on Lou Dobbs for what she alleged was an egregious on-air "lie" going back to 2007, when he hosted a program on CNN. The Republicans on the committee, including Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who survived an assassination attempt by a Bernie Sanders acolyte in 2017, were unified in their opposition to the entire undertaking. The most passionate and articulate of the group was Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who represents a largely rural district in Eastern Washington State. Screen shot Rep. McMorris Rodgers testifies at the House hearing on February 24, 2021. Reading her opening statement via a Cisco WebEx video interface that connected everyone who participated in the virtual hearing, McMorris Rodgers said: In all my time on this committee, there has never been a more obvious direct attack on the First Amendment. Elected officials using their platform to pressure private companies to censor media outlets they disagree with that sounds a lot like actions from the Chinese Communist Party, not duly-elected representatives of the United States Congress. Here we cherish free speech and a free independent press. We believe in dialogue and in the battle of ideas. Rather than censor and silence constitutionally protected speech, the answer is more speech. That's the American way. Now more than ever, we need to uphold the First Amendment. It states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." This is unique to us as Americans. It's been fought for and defended all through our history for free expression without censorship from the government. It's foundational to our personal rights and liberties. So, we should all be troubled today on what appears to be an attack on the First Amendment by elected officials to coerce private companies to censor political speech. It's a long, frustrating, and aggravating slog to take in the whole hearing. But for people with some time on their hands and a strong stomach, I highly recommend accessing the complete hearing video archived at YouTube. It represents an early warning and a chilling indication of what the Democrats have up their sleeves as they take a more focused and active aim at their enemies. And while earlier criticisms of the rampant censorship of conservatives by social media as potential violations of the First Amendment have been met with objections that "Big Tech is private industry and it's not the government doing the censoring," yesterday's hearing and what it may portend is different. It's the government taking direct aim at the only examples in the mainstream media that are not a part of the Democrat-MSM authoritarian groupthink alliance. As I emailed a friend while I was watching the hearing live online, "It's must-see TV. But I have a barf bag close at hand." Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. He also appears in the media, including recently as a contributor to OANN, BBC World News, The Glazov Gang, and Fox News. Peter's website is http://peter.media. His YouTube channel is here. For updates on his work, follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka. Like their global counterparts, African enterprises are churning out increasing volumes of data from every transaction and customer touchpoint, yet these troves of information are not being as well utilized as they could be, leading to lost opportunities for business intelligence. One answer to this problem is the data warehouse, essentially a centralized data management system built for analytics and other business intelligence (BI) processes. But while enterprises in Africa and the Middle East are beginning to realize the importance of data collection and analysis, progress has been slow, according to the recent 2020 State of Data & Analytics MEA, report. "Going back five years ago, data, being data-driven and especially analytics were kind of a 'nice to have' for companies," Louise de Beer, Head of BI and Data Science at analytics-driven estate agent Leadhome said in the report. "Then, if you look at reports from two years ago, innovators started playing with data as a differentiator. I think where we are now is that data is becoming a hygiene factor. If you don't have it, what are you doing with your business?" Nevertheless, business leaders are increasingly finding that breaking down silos and centralizing data storage is a challenge, according to the report. The problem ranks second to the poor organizational understanding of the value of data, it stated. Largely, the responsibility of data collection and analysis has fallen on CIO's laps, though recently companies have been hiring chief data officers to specifically handle data management and warehousing. The increasing emphasis on data analysis is causing enterprises to take a fresh look at how they manage data. The Biden administration has already reversed many of the Trump administrations retreats from international agreements and organizations, rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change and the World Health Organization, planning a return to the U.N. Human Rights Council, and attempting to resuscitate the six-country 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. But, notably, the administration has not yet undone one of Trumps most egregious assaults on a multilateral institution: the sanctions on the International Criminal Court. The Trump administration retaliated against the ICC, the Hague-based court set up to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, for its decision to authorize an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, including allegations of torture by U.S. personnel, as well as ongoing investigations of alleged Israeli war crimes in the occupied territories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of the court, but Afghanistan and the Palestinian Authority are, so crimes that occur there are within its jurisdiction. In March 2019, thenSecretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa restrictions on any court officials involved in investigation of U.S. personnel. ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had her visa revoked the following month. Then, the following year, after the court decided to greenlight the prosecutors Afghanistan investigation, the U.S. slapped economic sanctions on those officials, and extended the travel ban to their families. While technically legal, this was bullying behavior that only rallied international support for the ICC. Many expected the sanctions to be lifted immediately after Trump left. Days after taking office, the Biden administration announced a review of the sanctions, but results of that review have not yet been released. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from Slate but told the Guardians Julian Borger last week that the administration is still thoroughly reviewing sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13928 as we determine our next steps. The ICCs advocates are getting impatient. Last week, 80 nongovernmental organizations, religious groups, and academic institutions issued a joint statement calling for the sanctions to be repealed. Advertisement Advertisement Why the holdup? Axios Barak Ravid shed some light on that on Wednesday, reporting Israeli diplomats have been lobbying the administration hard to keep the sanctions in place, arguing that even if the administration disagrees with the sanctions, it should keep them in place as leverage to dissuade Bensouda and her successor from pursuing the investigations into Afghanistan or the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally raised the issue in his conversation with Biden last week. Even before that lobbying, the Biden team had suggested that while they didnt approve of Trumps methods, they shared his concerns about the court. Weve always taken the position that the Courts jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that can consent to it or that are referred to by the U.N. Security Council, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price. In other words, Americans and Israelis should be exempt from the courts jurisdiction, even if they commit war crimes in a country that is a member of the court. Advertisement During the Obama administration, the U.S. was somewhat more cooperative with the ICC. For instance, in 2013, the U.S. turned Congolese Gen. Bosco Ntaganda over to the court, where he was later convicted of war crimes. The U.S. also voted in 2011 to authorize an ICC investigation of crimes against humanity in Libya, albeit only after insisting on immunity for its own citizens. Advertisement However, that was before the Afghanistan and Palestine investigations. The U.S. relationship with the ICC is in a much more complicated place than it was when the Obama administration took over, says David Bosco, an expert on international institutions and professor at Indiana University. The sanctions are something that the Biden administration never would have imposed, but the politics of pulling them off right now given Afghanistan and Palestine are complicated. Advertisement Its not quite clear if theres a way for the U.S. to both lift the sanctions and dissuade the investigations. The U.S. is already not a member of the courtBill Clinton signed the Rome Statute that established the court in 2000, but it was never ratified by Congress and a law passed in 2002, nicknamed the Hague Invasion Act by its opponents, authorizes the use of force to secure the release of any U.S. citizens detained for prosecution by the court. That ought to be enough. Its not realistic at this time for human rights advocates to hope the U.S. will join the court, subjecting its citizens to the same international legal standards for war crimes that we support in Africa and the Middle East, but at the very least, the Biden administration should call off its predecessors bullying overreach. This is the heart-pounding moment a stunt cyclist does a backwards wheelie while riding downhill. Footage shows Danny MacAskill, 35, balancing on his bike's front wheel in the grounds of Aberystwyth University, Wales, as his friend Duncan Shaw directs him. The cyclist, who is from Skye in Scotland, manages to hold the wheelie for nearly a minute before dropping his back wheel and turning round. Danny MacAskill, 35, carefully manoeuvres his bike down a hill at Aberystwyth University in Wales Mr MacAskill, who is originally from Skye in Scotland, shared his footage on Facebook and told viewers: 'Think I might get a Sat Nav and some wing mirrors for next time' During the clip, which was shared on social media on February 24, Mr MacAskill cycles towards a steep hill on the university campus and flips his bike around before elevating his back tyre. Mr MacAskill manages to balance himself perfectly as he clutches onto the handle bars and expertly uses his brakes to slow himself down. As he approaches a roundabout, fellow stunt cyclist Duncan Shaw tells his friend: 'Your right, not that much.' The stunt cyclist expertly manoeuvres himself around the roundabout as Mr Shaw says: 'That's it, keep going.' Just moments later, Mr MacAskill comes to a steeper hill with a speed bump and is warned by his friend: 'Speed bump coming up now.' The cyclist raises his back wheel into the air begins to make his descent down the hill while riding backwards Mr MacAskill manages to balance himself perfectly before reaching a speed bump and flipping his bike round The move performed by Mr MacAskill, which is called a stoppie or an endo, involves lifting the rear wheel of the bike and riding it on its front wheel by applying brake pressure. The technique can help cyclists and bikers manoeuvre their way around tight turns, narrow footpaths and also on challenging trails. Mr MacAskill later took to Facebook to share his impressive stunt with others alongside the caption: '@duncshaw on giving me some much needed directions on this one! 'Think I might get a sat nav and some wing mirrors for next time. #nosewheeliewednesday #wheeliewednesday #bikes.' One social media user wrote: 'So amazing! Unbelievable what you can do on two wheels! Or one in this case.' While another added: 'My shoulders are screaming in pain watching this.' Social media users praised the stunt cyclist for his impressive display, with one calling the performance 'amazing' Another person commented: 'What a life. Amazing the bike! And living a life that he lives.' Meanwhile another added: 'Just insane skills! So fun to watch.' Earlier this month, Mr MacAkill released GoPro footage of himself riding down the Sgurr Dubh Beag mountain on the Isle of Skye. In an Instagram post he wrote: 'This one was fairly enjoyable to ride, just keeping things in control along the way. @gopro #theslabs #dubhslabs #isleofskye #mountainbiking #scotland.' One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 The Cambodian government said Myanmars decision to hold a post-coup election was an internal affair of the ASEAN nation, even as Cambodias military chief granted an audience to the new Tatmadaw envoy in Phnom Penh. The Cambodian government has been silent on the Myanmar militarys takeover of the country, months after the electorate voted back Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party in the November general election. Tatmadaw chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing launched the coup on February 01, just hours before the new parliament was scheduled to convene in its inaugural session. Aung San Suu Kyi, senior government and NLD leaders, and civil society members were arrested, and many more in the following weeks, as a large-scale civil disobedience campaign led by Myanmar citizens has seen daily protests against the February coup. General Vong Pisen, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, granted an audience on Wednesday to the newly-appointed military attache of the Myanmar Embassy in Phnom Penh, Brigadier General Thura Hla Min. An RCAF readout of the meeting reports that Thura Hla Min briefed Vong Pisen on Myanmars political situation. Brigadier General clarified that Myanmar will hold a new general election which will be free and fair and provide assurance to its foreign policy, said the readouts. The Tatmadaw has justified the coup alleging that the November election was plagued with fraud and inconsistencies. It said it needed to take over to ensure a clean election next year. Vong Pisen reaffirmed to military attache that Prime Minister Hun Sens government would respect the sovereignty of friendly countries, shall not interfere in each others internal affairs, and shall especially respect ASEAN Charter. According to the readout, Vong Pisen wished that Myanmar would return to stability, and reinforced their military relations. Po Sovinda, a doctoral candidate at Griffith University, said Cambodias position on the Myanmar crisis reflected Phnom Penhs dislike of what it considered foreign interference in its internal affairs. In theory, they mean that if I dont touch you, you shall not touch me either. Meaning that if Cambodia does not touch Burmas internal politics, Myanmar shall not be able to touch on Cambodias internal politics either, Sovinda told VOA Khmer during a phone call. Sovinda said Vientiane, Hanoi, and Bangkok could share Cambodias position, which would limit efforts made by Indonesia or ASEAN to find a quick resolution, and potential reversal, of the February coup. Sovindas comments come shortly after Myanmars military-appointed Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin made a ten-hour visit to Bangkok, where he met Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. Marsudi has been at the forefront of Indonesias efforts to broker a resolution to the post-coup political stalemate in Myanmar. Koy Kuong, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, said Marsudi also reached out to Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn to discuss the Myanmar crisis. Cambodias position will be in line with the joint position of ASEAN which shall be reached based on consensus principles, Koy Kuong told VOA Khmer in a text message. Indonesias rally for a regional resolution to the Myanmar crisis was first reported by Reuters, which said that Jakarta was proposing a negotiation with Tatmadaw to stand by its promise of holding an election within a year an election where ASEAN member states would send election observers. The revelation resulted in Burmese protestors protesting outside the Indonesian embassy in Yangon to show their disapproval. Protestors have called on Indonesia and ASEAN to honor the November 2020 election won by Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy. Asked whether Phnom Penh would be of a view that Myanmar should hold a new general election, Cambodias Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Koy Kuong said, It is the internal affairs of Myanmar. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer isnt mandating that schools reopen for in-person learning that decision is left to local school boards but she is pleased that 97% of traditional public districts will offer in-person learning by March 1. About 64% of Michigan districts offered in-person learning in January, but that surged to 83% for February. Those numbers include charter schools, while the 97% figure for March 1 does not. Its clear we need to return to in-person learning as soon as possible, Whitmer said, donning an apple-themed mask at her Feb. 24 news conference. Even Ann Arbor Public Schools one of the most visible holdouts against reopening school buildings has announced plans to offer an in-person option by March 25. RELATED: Whitmer hints at relaxing some COVID-19 restrictions in coming days Only 13 traditional districts dont plan to offer in-person learning by March 1, per state leaders. Of those, eight districts plan to allow in-person learning starting sometime in March or early April. Just five districts havent set a date for when students can return to in-person learning, per state officials: Kalamazoo Public Schools Van Dyke Public Schools Southfield Public Schools Harper Woods Schools Flint Community Schools State officials said about 100 charter schools were still offering only remote instructions this month. State orders closed Michigan high schools during the second wave of COVID-19 last fall, but allowed them to reopen in late December if the school districts approved. In early January, Whitmer urged districts to offer an in-person learning option by March 1. Whitmer cited a number of drawbacks to remote learning in her Wednesday news conference. Virtual learning inhibits social and emotional development, doesnt allow for vision and hearing screenings, lets child abuse and neglect slip through the cracks and exacerbates the equity gaps between high- and low-achieving students, she said. Remote learning also forces parents to be part-time teachers, which has led many to quit their jobs and leave the workforce, Whitmer said. Its just not sustainable, Whitmer said. Parents rely on schools as places for their children to learn while theyre working inside and outside their homes. Michigan is rolling out a program where all educators can be tested weekly for COVID-19, regardless of if they have symptoms, Whitmer said. Go to Michigan.gov/schoolcovidtesting for more. Michigan has moved teachers up in the vaccination line but Whitmer said getting teachers vaccinated is not a prerequisite for returning to in-person learning. A survey from early February showed only 6% of Michigan teachers had both vaccine shots, while another 50% had received only the first dose. More than 22,000 teachers took part in the Michigan Education Association survey. Many teachers still have concerns about returning to the classroom, however. About 42% said they were very concerned and another 36.5% were somewhat concerned about the safety of returning to school, per the survey. Whitmer said masking, social distancing, hand washing and getting fresh air into classrooms will help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Teachers work hard during a regular school year, but over this last year, theyve been heroic, Whitmer said. I want them to know that we are so grateful for everything they have done and the sacrifices they have made and all that they will continue to do. Throughout the press conference, Whitmer brought up her $5.6 billion MI COVID Recovery Plan, urging the Legislature to pass a supplemental budget bill that will allow disbursement of federal aid funding. Republicans proposed a $2 billion counter to Whitmers plan earlier this month and negotiations were ongoing in Lansing this week. RELATED STORIES More Michigan students back in class since Gov. Whitmers call for more in-person learning In-person learning coming to Ann Arbor Public Schools in March Read Whitmers $5.6B plan to fund coronavirus recovery for Michigan schools, economy Certain Michigan schools have found a winning formula for vaccinating teachers Race Politics Divide Society and May Lead to Oppressive China Model: Black and White Authors Race relations in America started deteriorating in recent years, reversing the legacy of the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King Jr., said Pat Brown and Dave Brown, authors of the book Black and White: How the Left is Destroying the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr and Our Founding Fathers. Pat Brown, a white woman who married a black man, and her son Dave Brown, said in a recent interview on The Epoch Times Crossroads program that they are deeply concerned about the current cultural trends of people being told that their race should determine their behaviors and viewpoints and that minoritites should feel oppressed. During 1980s and 90s, when Pat Brown raised her non-white children, race relations were getting better, especially between blacks and whites who were getting along, mixing, and enjoying each others subcultures, she said. Pat Brown used to work as a medical sign language interpreter in predominantly black hospitals and said people who she worked with expressed admiration because she knew black American sign language. However, nowaways she is regarded as a white person if she walks into the same hospital she used to work at before, Pat Brown explained. There is a new concept now that only a black person can understand a black person so you should, if youre a black person, you should have a black doctor because white doctors will not do a good job with you, Pat Brown said. According to this view, a black patient deserves a black sign language interpreter who understands them culturally and understands black American sign language but the problem is that a lot of black interpreters did not learn black American sign language, Pat Brown continued. As a result, the hospital will hire a black person who doesnt know it instead of the white person that knows it, Par Brown said adding that its all based on the color of your skin as opposed to [whether] you can do the job and [whether] you are doing the job well, and thats a very sad thing. Race Politics Induce Black People to Behave and Dress Differently No black person should be told that their skin color determines how they talk or dress, said Dave Brown. If a black person is told to talk in a certain way or appear with abnormal fashion, it will affect their prospects in finding a career and moving through a corporate America, Dave Brown continued, so telling black people that they should follow certain black stereotypes in their behavior harms them. Certain politicians try to prove their blackness in some interviews, Dave Brown said. Its really sad because you are who you are. If youre black, its not a choice, its your skin color. Dave Brown gave the example of him liking country music but that not changing his race. Some of the liberals think that all black people think alike, are Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters, and support the democrat policies, Dave Brown said. We want to change that sort of attitude, he added. Pat Brown said that they were more liberal in their views in the past, but at a certain point they moved toward the political center and later they moved a little bit toward conservatism. We saw what the liberal thinking and the policies were doing to the country. We want good policies that make our country move forward and that dont cause a divide, Pat Brown explained. Marxist Influence A man holds a Black Lives Matter sign as a police car burns during a protest in Atlanta, Ga., on May 29, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images) Both authors criticized the defund the police movement spurred by the Black Lives Matter organization. The result of the movement is that police have trouble recruiting people, Pat Brown said, especially blacks who are reluctant to join. The understaffed police are unable to serve the community properly and opportunities are destroyed for black people to get jobs as police officers, she added. The interactions between black communities with law enforcement are getting worse because BLM tries to convince people that they are oppressed by the police, Dave Brown continued. BLM is not a pro-black organization, [they are] a Marxist organization using black people as tools, as their foot soldiers in this revolutionary call to want to destroy our foundation, said Dave Brown. Black Lives Matter, a Marxist organization, intends to make race relations worse and create more frictions and conflicts, contrary to popular belief, Dave Brown said. Patrisse Cullors, a BLM co-founder said in an interview with Real News Network in 2015, We actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia [Garza] in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. Alicia Garza is also a BLM co-founder. According to Marxist philosophy, a new society cannot be built on an old foundation, Dave Brown said. Therefore modern-day Marxists try to erase the foundation that defines America by using the 1619 project, tearing down statues, and convincing people that its racist to appreciate George Washington or Thomas Jefferson who were slave owners and convincing white people that they should abandon all of their history. The Marxist attempt to change the country and society departs from Martin Luther Kings civil rights movement that effected gradual changes benefitting black people, such as more rights and opportunities to enter politics, businesses, and medicine, Pat Brown said. If this tendency had continued, American society would have become more colorblind, Pat Brown said. As the social demographics change due to more black and brown people coming in from other countries, the society would have slowly changed for the better. But America is heading toward the Chinese model where a totalitarian government fused with the private sector works together to oppress people, Dave Brown said. We see that here now with the Democrat party coordinating with social media giants to suppress free speech and punish people for having different political opinions, as well as military members facing ideological tests to check for their support for former President Donald Trump, said Dave Brown. To stop this trend, Dave Brown advises communities to begin organizing to create structures to fight back. He encourages people talk to each other so they stop seeing race by dialogue, by having conversation, by interacting with one another in a positive way. We cant win just by having one guy like Donald Trump have power. We need the organization behind them and that happens at the micro-level so thats what we need to start at, said Dave Brown. Jim brings an incredible wealth of experience building effective and successful teams, processes, and products. We couldnt be more excited about adding his expertise and passion for creating an outstanding customer experience both with our software products and with our services to our team. DealerBuilt, an enterprise ceDMS (customer experience Dealer Management System) provider for automobile dealers nationwide, today announced the appointment of Jim Nelson as Vice President of Operations. DealerBuilt provides a modern, highly-customizable ceDMS platform that empowers each client to realize their unique vision for their dealership. Nelson will be responsible for overseeing the companys software installations, as well as customer service and support, driving company-wide processes that result in a consistent, world-class experience for DealerBuilts clients and network of more than 200 integration and channel partners. In addition, Nelson will direct the product strategy for the companys enterprise ceDMS platform and portfolio of complementary software solutions, ensuring the continued delivery of relevant, innovative products that give dealers flexibility and choice in how they leverage technology and their data within their dealerships. Nelson brings over 30 years of retail automotive experience to DealerBuilt and is a seasoned strategic operations and product executive. He has a strong background in developing and implementing processes that result in improved efficiency and customer satisfaction, as well as guiding the development of market-driven solutions. Nothing is more mission-critical to DealerBuilt than listening to our clients and striving for their 100% satisfaction, said Mike Trasatti, CEO, DealerBuilt. Jim brings an incredible wealth of experience building effective and successful teams, processes, and products. We couldnt be more excited about adding his expertise and passion for creating an outstanding customer experience both with our software products and with our services to our team, Trasatti added. Prior to joining DealerBuilt, Nelson served as Product Director Partnerships at VinSolutions, a Cox Automotive brand. Nelson led the identification and execution of strategic partnerships with automotive technology vendors, cultivated the companys relationships with OEM integration partners, and served as a product liaison to strategic dealer group clients. In his previous role at VinSolutions, Nelson led the strategic development and execution of the product roadmap as Senior Director of Product. He also served as Vice President of Operations prior to the companys acquisition by Cox Automotive, overseeing the performance of the Implementation, Support, Training, and Account Management departments. Nelson significantly scaled these teams and defined standards and processes that allowed them to sustain client satisfaction during a period of aggressive growth and through the companys subsequent acquisition. Before that, he held product training and field sales management roles for several F&I solution providers, leveraging his early career experience leading finance teams in dealerships. Commenting on why he chose to join the company, Nelson stated, DealerBuilt already has a fantastic reputation in the industry for being a true dealer advocate and partner. This is an amazing opportunity to build on that foundation and help the company take its installation and support services to the next level, while continuing to deliver innovative product enhancements and new offerings that our clients love. It comes down to listening and collaborating closely with clients whether thats to execute a successful install at their dealerships, resolve a challenge theyre having with their software, or refine a product enhancement and always having the clients success in mind. Thats how DealerBuilt will, in turn, continue to be successful and grow. DealerBuilt was formed in 2008 to bring to market an enterprise DMS that provides a more dealer-centric alternative to the traditional market offerings. DealerBuilt now partners with hundreds of dealerships and dealer groups. Combining modern, user-friendly technology, a strong legacy of co-innovation with dealers, and an extensive network of integration partners, DealerBuilt delivers a ceDMS solution that is precisely tailored to each dealer clients business processes and enterprise transaction and reporting requirements and empowers them to realize their unique vision for their dealership. For more information visit: http://www.dealerbuilt.com About DealerBuilt DealerBuilt is relied upon by forward-looking auto dealers and dealer groups for its enterprise-class ceDMS (customer experience dealer management system) that empowers each client to realize their unique vision for their dealership. The companys modern, highly-customizable LightYear DMS platform is precisely tailored to each dealer clients business processes and enterprise transaction and reporting requirements, delivering exceptional ease of use for staff and actionable insights for managers. Founded by a CPA who owned dealerships, DealerBuilt has a strong legacy of co-innovation with dealers and serves as a trusted guide as clients optimize their use of technology to more efficiently, effectively, and profitability run their dealerships. DealerBuilt is co-headquartered in Grapevine, TX and Mason City, IA. For more information, visit http://www.dealerbuilt.com or call (888) 808-0733. I have no idea, she said. I just have to try. They work so hard. Theyre so selfless and so kind and so generous and so hardworking. And its heartbreaking to me to see people who give so much end up having to give away the store, so to speak. COVID has just brought out the best in people and the worst of tragedies, and I just want them to get through this. [February 25, 2021] The next new vehicle purchase for nearly 70 per cent of Canadians will be an electric model: KPMG in Canada survey Infrastructure investment needed to accelerate adoption of EVs in Canada as concerns persist over battery life and range TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW/ - Seven in 10 Canadians (68 per cent) who plan to buy a new vehicle within the next five years are likely to buy an electric vehicle (EV), either pure or hybrid, although the lack of a robust charging infrastructure, battery life and range and the purchase price remain persistent concerns, finds a new survey by KPMG in Canada. "Canada's automotive industry is nearing the tipping point, with nearly 70 per cent of Canadians indicating that they're looking to buy an electric vehicle not in a decade's time but in the next five years," says Peter Hatges, Partner, National Sector Leader, Automotive, KPMG in Canada. "Our poll research illustrates huge consumer demand in Canada for EVs, putting the onus on manufacturers and governments alike to shift gears not only to meet the expected surge in EV sales but to invest heavily in the necessary infrastructure." Key Survey Findings: As many as 70 per cent of Canadians plan to buy a new vehicle within the next decade, of which over three in five (62 per cent) intend to make their purchase in the next one-to-five years . of Canadians within the next decade, of which over (62 per cent) intend to make their purchase . Of the 62 per cent of Canadians planning to buy a new vehicle in the next one-to-five years: 68 per cent are very likely or likely to purchase an EV, pure or hybrid are very likely or likely to purchase an EV, pure or hybrid 77 per cent in British Columbia and 75 per cent in Quebec say they are in the market for an EV. By comparison, fewer people in Alberta (54 per cent), the Prairies (48 per cent) or Atlantic Canada (55 per cent) in the market for a new vehicle are likely to buy an EV. in and in say they are in the market for an EV. By comparison, fewer people in (54 per cent), the Prairies (48 per cent) or (55 per cent) in the market for a new vehicle are likely to buy an EV. Men are more inclined to buy an EV than woman (73 per cent vs. 62 per cent, respectively). Nearly four in five (79 per cent) of those aged 18 to 44 comprised prdominantly of Millennials and Generation Z say they are very likely or likely to buy an EV within the next five years, compared to 58 per cent of those aged 45 years and older. (79 per cent) of those aged 18 to 44 comprised prdominantly of Millennials and Generation Z say they are very likely or likely to buy an EV within the next five years, compared to of those aged 45 years and older. 42 per cent in the market for an EV within the next five years are prepared to spend between $30,000 and $49,999 and 20 per cent are willing to spend up to $74,999 . About a third ( 31 per cent ) in the market for an EV within the next five years want to spend less than $30,000 . in the market for an EV within the next five years are prepared to spend between and and are willing to spend up to . About a third ( ) in the market for an EV within the next five years want to spend less than . 83 per cent of Canadians believe the auto makers should be required to invest in a national charging infrastructure. of Canadians believe the auto makers should be required to invest in a national charging infrastructure. 89 per cent want EV charging stations installed at "every gas station" as well as shopping malls and grocery stores. want EV charging stations installed at "every gas station" as well as shopping malls and grocery stores. 61 per cent say the pandemic made them realize that they need a vehicle. They said they would rather drive than take public transport. The Environment: A Big Motivator For those already inclined to buy an EV, they were motivated by environmental concerns, lower operating costs, tax incentives, and the prospect of reduced insurance premiums. For them, tax incentives were much less of an incentive than the environment or lower operating costs. However, when the question of tax incentives was put to all respondents, 70 per cent said they needed tax and/or automotive company incentives to make them change their mind and buy an EV. Those in the market for an EV said they plan to buy: Toyota (23 per cent), Tesla (19 per cent); and Honda (9 per cent). More men than women said they intended to buy a Tesla, 22 per cent vs. 15 per cent, respectively. Women opted for EV models from Toyota (21 per cent). Further, 59 per cent of Canadians planning to buy an EV said they will buy their own charger. This jumps to 66 per cent in Quebec and is only 50 per cent in B.C. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) have not figured out where to charge it overnight but are hoping their condo building will install chargers "soon" and another 12 per cent plan to charge it at the mall, shopping centre, or office. The EV Divide Lingering Doubts The main reasons cited by those planning to buy a vehicle but not an EV are the high cost (60 per cent); limited driving range (51 per cent); lack of charging infrastructure (50 per cent); dubious battery lifespan (30 per cent), limited model options (24 per cent); and recharging time (24 per cent). Other Considerations: 70 per cent of all Canadians are looking for tax and/or automotive company incentives to buy an EV. of all Canadians are looking for tax and/or automotive company incentives to buy an EV. 77 per cent of all Canadians want their EV to run for a minimum of 400 km on a full battery. of all Canadians want their EV to run for a minimum of 400 km on a full battery. Over two-thirds (67 per cent) are concerned about reliably in cold weather. (67 per cent) are concerned about reliably in cold weather. Over half (53 per cent) worry EVs could "blow up the electrical grid" and could be too expensive to operate given electricity prices. (53 per cent) worry EVs could "blow up the electrical grid" and could be too expensive to operate given electricity prices. KPMG in Canada surveyed 2,000 Canadians from January 8 to January 13 leveraging the AskingCanadians panel by Delvinia through their methodify online research automation platform. About KPMG in Canada KPMG LLP, a limited liability partnership, is a full-service Audit, Tax and Advisory firm owned and operated by Canadians. For over 150 years, our professionals have provided consulting, accounting, auditing, and tax services to Canadians, inspiring confidence, empowering change, and driving innovation. Guided by our core values of Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, For Better, KPMG employs nearly 8,000 people in over 40 locations across Canada, serving private- and public-sector clients. KPMG is consistently ranked one of Canada's top employers and one of the best places to work in the country. The firm is established under the laws of Ontario and is a member of KPMG's global organization of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International, a private English company limited by guarantee. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. For more information, see home.kpmg.ca SOURCE KPMG LLP [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] EDITORS NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting a two-day business and networking conference March 9-10, featuring some of the states most prominent industry leaders. Tickets are limited. Gov. Phil Murphy signed three laws that will legalize marijuana in New Jersey and immediately put an end to arrests Monday, but for some, another question lingers: Can I get fired from my job for smoking marijuana? The short answer: for now, maybe. Under the legalization law, companies cannot fire employees unless they can prove they were high while at work using both a physical test for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and testimony from an expert witness. But the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission must still adopt rules and regulations to set this in stone and develop a program to train such witnesses, who will likely be people employed by the company in question. Developing those protocols could take six months. The legalization law says the employee protections section became effective immediately Monday, but are not fully operational without the commissions rules. Its weird to have effective immediately but not yet operational in a statute, said Jennifer Roselle, an attorney with Genova Burns who focuses on employment and labor. She noted the wording does not fully protect employers current drug testing policies or those who want to use marijuana in their free time now. If Im an employer, Im going to proceed with incredible amounts of caution, she said. If Im an employee, who thinks its a free for all right now, I still potentially could lose my job, even if my employer takes the most conservative approach. Its a gamble on both sides. Roselle said the effective immediate but operational down the line wording underscores the complications of building out a new marijuana industry. Nobody knows Jersey politics like NJ.com. Add your email now and dont miss a story. -- Once fully in place, the law will prohibit an employer from firing or refusing to hire a person who uses marijuana while off the clock. But it does permit employers who have reasonable suspicion a worker has gotten high during work, whether by noticing intoxicated behavior or in the aftermath of a workplace accident, to conduct a drug test and have a trained person evaluate them for signs of inebriation. There are no real-time intoxication tests for marijuana as there are for alcohol, which led to complicated policy. THC can linger in the bloodstream for weeks after a person consumes weed. Under the law, if those dual tests determine workers came to the job high, an employer can fire or discipline them. Its going to be very difficult to enforce. I just dont see how its going to work, Sheila Mints, a cannabis attorney with Capehart Schatchard, told NJ Advance Media when the bill passed the Legislature late last year. Its basically created a situation where its going to be difficult to manage it for the next several months depending how quickly the state can get the regulatory structure up and running to resolve all these problems. Possessing and using marijuana carry no criminal penalties as of Monday. But theres still no way to legally purchase it, and likely will not be for months. Ray Cantor, vice president of government affairs at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said the association is interpreting the law to say current drug testing polices can stand for now. But employers need to start preparing for an overhaul in their policies. We think existing law is still in place, he said. [Employers] can still what theyve been doing. But they need to begin to become aware that those rules are going to change. So if youre relying solely on drug tests right now, they should become familiar with what the law is going to require. The employment piece of the law proved controversial during legislative hearings. The law allows companies to conduct regular or pre-employment screenings in addition to testing people under the standard of reasonable suspicion. But it does not let certain employers completely bar people from using marijuana in their free time, even if they work in safety-sensitive positions that involve heavy machinery or driving. Those industries have conducted regular drug tests for years and had zero-tolerance policies for marijuana. Such a safety-sensitive exemption might put the law in conflict with the state constitution. Marijuana became not just legal by the Legislature, but as a constitutionally-protected right when New Jerseyans voted for it in November. Only those who live in New Jersey and work for the federal government can be completely barred by an employer for marijuana use going forward. There are some 49,000 federal employees in the state. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. The woman also starved, suffocated and burnt Piang Ngaih Don with a hot iron. Gaiyathiri Murugayan now faces life imprisonment. Defence attorney: the accused suffers from depression. The police suspend her husband. There are several cases of abuse of foreign workers. Singapore (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The wife of a police officer has admitted that she starved, tortured and then killed the Burmese maid who worked for them. Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for the "evil and inhuman" behaviour of Gaiyathiri Murugayan. The victim, Piang Ngaih Don, died of suffocation in June 2016. At the time of death, she weighed 24 kg. The 24-year-old moved to Singapore in 2015, immediately finding work in the Murugayan home. According to trial reports, her employer tortured the young maid because she found her "slow, unhygienic" and because she "ate too much". Images taken by the house's CCTV cameras show Piang's daily attacks. Murugayan (and her mother) burned her with a hot iron and threw her around "like a rag doll". Her daily meal consisted of a slice of bread soaked in water, cold food or a little rice. The defence asked for a reduced sentence for Murugayan. The lawyers tried to ease the position of the accused by arguing that at the time of the murder she was suffering from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Murugayan's mother and her husband were also accused. Kelvin Chelvam was suspended from the police in 2016. Josephine Teo, the city-state labour minister, called the killing of Piang "chilling". She highlighted the limitations of the control systems of working conditions; the employment agency had made several visits to the murdered maid's place of employment, without reporting irregularities. In recent years there have been several cases of abuse of foreign domestic workers in Singapore. About 250,000 foreign domestic workers work in the city, mainly from the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar. In 2017, a couple ended up in jail for starving their Filipino worker; in 2019 another couple was imprisoned for abusing a Myanmar maid. SHANGHAI, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DeAille Tam, executive chef and co-founder of Obscura in Shanghai, has won the title of Asia's Best Female Chef 2021, sponsored by Cinco Jotas. William Drew, Director of Content at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, says: "DeAille Tam is an enterprising chef whose creative flair, progressive approach and deep understanding of China's culinary traditions is inspiring the next generation." Prior to opening Obscura in Shanghai, China, Tam and her husband - co-founder and chef Simon Wong - embarked on a year-long journey to research the country's diverse cuisines and regions. Inspired by their travels, the pair crafted a menu that celebrates China's culinary heritage in a contemporary context. Obscura is set within Shanghai's three-storey Tang Xiang Cultural Space, home to a private collection of ancient Chinese treasures. Embracing the Chinese traditions of food, wine, tea and incense, Obscura presents elegant interpretations of classic Chinese flavours. Born in Hong Kong, Tam relocated with her family to Canada at age 10. After graduating high school, she pursued a degree in engineering. While at university, she discovered a passion for cooking and dropped out of university to embark on a new gastronomic journey. Tam enrolled in the culinary program at George Brown College in Toronto and eventually earned a post-graduate degree in Italian cuisine. Returning to Hong Kong in 2014, Tam began working at the much-lauded Bo Innovation under the tutelage of acclaimed chef Alvin Leung. Two years later, Leung appointed Tam and Wong as co-executive chefs to launch Bo Shanghai at Five on the Bund, a sister restaurant to the Hong Kong outlet. Tam distinguished herself as the first female chef in Mainland China to earn a Michelin star when Bo Shanghai achieved that status in 2018. Accepting the honour of being named Asia's Best Female Chef, Tam says: "This award marks a major milestone in my career. I am humbled that many industry leaders who I admire have followed my evolution in this industry. I hope to be able to inspire others to pursue their passion." Tam's achievements will be honoured during the online ceremony for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2021, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, on Thursday, 25th March, from 4.30pm (HKT/SG) and broadcast to a global audience via Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Facebook and the 50 Best Restaurants TV YouTube channel. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1441575/Asia_50_Best_Restaurants.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1441574/Asias50Best_Logo.jpg Contact: CatchOn, A Finn Partners Company, Email: asias50best@finnpartners.com, phone: +852 2566 8988 Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - A unit of the Tunisian Navy rescued 24 sub-Saharan illegal migrants, including three found in a critical state of health, the Tunisian Defence Ministry said Wednesday in a statement After months of debate and the looming threat of a lawsuit by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the San Francisco Board of Education has finally ratified an agreement with the district teachers' unions over how to proceed with in-person learning. The catch: There's still no confirmed date for when schools will officially reopen, either for hybrid or full in-person learning. But Superintendent Vincent Matthews said that the district is "getting closer to opening." "The agreement with our joint labor unions over health and safety standards spells out how we can return safely together with our employees, families and students," he said in a statement. The first students expected to return are pre-K to second graders, as well as elementary students with disabilities. The key agreement approved by the district is that teachers must be vaccinated if they are to hold in-person instruction while the city is in the red tier, or substantial risk of COVID-19 spread. Currently, San Francisco is in the purple tier indicating widespread risk, but may move to red within the coming weeks. If the city reaches the orange tier, teachers can return to in-person learning vaccinated or not. There's also established protocols on monitoring students and staff who may be sick with COVID-19 and cleaning classrooms and schools thoroughly. Students, staff and teachers will also be screened before entering campus. And while it remains uncertain what in-person learning will look like, a proposal from the district expects most students to be in school every weekday for 5 hours. For schools with higher demand, however, students will only receive two full days of in-person learning. Board of Education President Gabriela Lopez said in a statement: "We know students and families are struggling right now. We hear you and we see you. We are focused on reopening schools safely as soon as possible." Dealing with over 2,100 insurance companies, each with multiple versions of their own company-specific forms, called for a powerful and flexible solution. Infrrd is providing a solution that is configured to fit State Nationals unique vision for process excellence. Past News Releases RSS Infrrd and State National are working together to elevate State Nationals industry-leading solutions with further breakthrough innovation and technology. Infrrd's AI-native Intelligent Document Processing platform will enable State National to digitize its processes and get information from PDFs, images, emails and paper into its systems more efficiently. Infrrds platform will provide consistency and prevent information bottlenecks. This project stands to have a remarkable impact on processing speed and efficiency, removing customer friction and improving the overall experience for both State Nationals lender partners and their borrowers. State National manages 2.1 million potential document variations. Dealing with over 2,100 insurance companies, each with multiple versions of their own company-specific forms, called for a powerful and flexible solution. Infrrd is providing a solution that is configured to fit State Nationals unique vision for process excellence, explains David Crawford, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation for State National. Companies often struggle with document processing because template-based solutions cant handle the variation across all of their documents, explains Infrrd CEO Amit Jnagal. However, State Nationals decision to innovate and transform its business process with Infrrds prediction-based platform matches State Nationals mission to provide the industrys most advanced solutions. Both companies expect 2021 to be a powerful year in their work together. Innovating in this arena directly affects both customer satisfaction and ROI, Jnagal explains. We are thrilled to partner with State National to help the company transform its data processes, and to help them offer a new level of service to their customers that further enhances accuracy. About Infrrd Infrrd is a leading innovator in applied AI. Its prediction-based Intelligent Document Processing platform automatically classifies and extracts data from documents to fuel more intelligent automation and digital transformation. Enterprises around the globe use Infrrd solutions to automate more, improve employee productivity, accelerate business processes, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. To learn more, visit https://www.infrrd.ai. About State National Companies State National Companies, Inc. is a leading specialty provider of property and casualty insurance services operating in two niche markets across the United States. In its Lender Services segment, the company specializes in providing portfolio protection solutions that insure autos, mortgages, and other collateral for loans made by credit unions, banks, and specialty finance companies. In its Program Services segment, the company leverages its A (Excellent) A.M. Best rating, expansive licenses, and trusted reputation to provide access to the U.S. property and casualty insurance market in exchange for ceding fees. State National Companies is a division of Markel, a Fortune 500 holding company for insurance, reinsurance, and investment operations. To learn more, please browse our website and connect on LinkedIn. The Miradani North target is strategically well located, approximately 10 kilometers south of the Asanko Gold Mine's processing plant on the Datano Mining Lease. A preliminary drilling campaign (Phase 1) was conducted in April 2019 (see news release dated April 30, 2019) which demonstrated encouraging widths of mineralization and grade in multiple parallel zones. A follow-up drill program was completed in Q4 2020 (Phase 2) expanding upon the previous results (see news release dated November 30, 2020). A Phase 3 program of combined step-out and infill drilling to better define mineralization at a 40m x 40m spacing has been ongoing from late 2020 (see news release dated February 1, 2020 and the results below). Phase 3 Highlights (See Table 1 for full results)1, 3 33 holes drilled to date, consisting of 9,285m total ( 7,769m diamond drill and 1,516m reverse circulation). Assay results are awaited on 11 holes. total ( diamond drill and reverse circulation). Assay results are awaited on 11 holes. Hole TTDD20-030 intersected 44.33m at 2.04 g/t, including: 17.33m at 2.0 g/t from 238.67m , and at 2.0 g/t from , 9m at 3.8 g/t from 274m at 3.8 g/t from Hole TTDD20-049 intersected 133.3m at 1.44 g/t, including: 11m at 1.4 g/t from 189m , and at 1.4 g/t from , 23.32m at 1.8 g/t from 225.18m , and at 1.8 g/t from , 21.9m at 2.7 g/t from 259m , and at 2.7 g/t from , 28.4m at 1.5 g/t from 286m . at 1.5 g/t from . Hole TTDD20-050 intersected 10.1m at 6.0 g/t from 163.5m from Hole TTDD20-052 intersected 134m at 1.62 g/t, including: 22m at 1.4 g/t from 117m , and at 1.4 g/t from , 28.1m at 2.0 g/t from 146m , and at 2.0 g/t from , 16m at 1.0 g/t from 182m , and at 1.0 g/t from , 48m at 2.3 g/t from 203m . at 2.3 g/t from . Hole TTPC20-045 intersected 59.23m at 1.44 g/t, including: 20m at 1.5 g/t from 136m , and at 1.5 g/t from , 10.59m at 3.2 g/t from 171.85m , and at 3.2 g/t from , 4.23m at 4.4 g/t from 191m . "Miradani North continues to deliver exceptional drill results," said Greg McCunn, Chief Executive Officer . "With mineralization now shown to extend to a depth of 250m and still open, we have planned a further six strategic holes to be drilled in March to finalize the Miradani North drilling program ahead of an anticipated maiden resource estimate in Q3 2021. Importantly, we have also started the step-out drilling program to expand our knowledge of the more than 5km long trend that makes up the broader Miradani target." About Miradani North - Geological Setting The Miradani North target is situated along the Fromenda shear zone, a laterally extensive structure recognized from airborne VTEM and magnetic surveys and extensively mapped on the ground. The Fromenda shear zone forms part of the prominent northeast striking Asankrangwa gold belt which hosts all nine of AGM's gold deposits. Numerous historical geochemical anomalies and artisanal workings are associated with this feature, making it an attractive exploration target. Mineralization at Miradani North is spatially associated with several narrow, sub-vertical granite bodies that have preferentially intruded along a northeast trending corridor. Mineralization occurs in the granite and in the surrounding deformed sandstone, siltstone and phyllite rock package. Stratigraphy and structure are both steeply dipping to the northwest as they do for most of the Asankrangwa Belt gold deposits. Gold mineralization at Miradani North occurs in quartz veins and in association with silica flooding, pyrite, arsenopyrite, and traces of base metal sulfides, within a broader envelope of quartz-sericite-pyrite and carbonate alteration. Qualified Person and QA/QC Dr. Paul Klipfel, CPG, Senior Vice President Exploration of Galiano Gold Inc., is a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian NI 43-101 and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Dr. Klipfel is responsible for all aspects of the work including the Data Verification and Quality Control/Quality Assurance programs and has verified the data disclosed. Dr. Klipfel is not independent of Galiano Gold Inc. Following is a summary of the data verification and QA/QC measures applied to the program. Certified Reference Materials and Blanks are inserted by Galiano Gold into the sample stream at the rate of 1:14 samples. Field duplicates are collected at the rate of 1:30 samples. All samples have been analysed by Intertek Minerals Ltd. in Tarkwa, Ghana with standard preparation methods and 50g fire assay with atomic absorption finish. Intertek Minerals Ltd. does their own introduction of QA/QC samples into the sample stream and reports them to Galiano for double checking. Higher grade samples are re-analysed from pulp or reject material or both. Intertek is an international company operating in 100 countries and is independent of Galiano. It provides testing for a wide range of industries including the mining, metals, and oil sectors. Table 1. Intercepts for Miradani North drilling1,2 Hole ID From To Interval Grade Intercept Year Drilled (m) (m) (m) (g/t) TTPC19-001 87 89 2 3.2 2m @ 3.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-001 128 141 13 2.6 13m @ 2.6 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-001 152 154 2 1 2m @ 1.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-001 162 172 10 1.1 10m @ 1.1 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-001 197 206 9 0.7 9m @ 0.7 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 68 85 17 1.1 17m @ 1.1 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 91 107 16 1.7 16m @ 1.7 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 114 116 2 1.8 2m @ 1.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 120 122 2 1.2 2m @ 1.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 149 152 3 25.5 3m @ 25.5 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 156 178 22 1.2 22m @ 1.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-002 189 228 39 1.8 39m @ 1.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 32 38 6 0.6 6m @ 0.6 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 84 88 4 1 4m @ 1.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 105 107 2 1.9 2m @ 1.9 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 150 152 2 1.1 2m @ 1.1 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 160 174 14 0.8 14m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 182 189 7 1.5 7m @ 1.5 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-004 199 211 12 1.4 12m @ 1.4 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005 229 231 2 1 2m @ 1.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 294 296.5 2.5 1 2.5m @ 1.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 307 309.3 2.3 0.8 2.3m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 312.7 321 8.27 1.1 8.27m @ 1.1 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 342 353 11 1.2 11m @ 1.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 357 377.75 20.75 1.4 20.75m @ 1.4 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 389.5 399 9.5 0.7 9.5m @ 0.7 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-005A 402.7 416.9 14.2 0.5 14.2m @ 0.5 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 17 19 2 0.6 2m @ 0.6 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 36 39 3 1.7 3m @ 1.7 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 182 193.8 11.8 1.7 11.8m @ 1.7 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 201 203 2 0.8 2m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 242 264.9 22.9 1.5 22.9m @ 1.5 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 270.6 275 4.4 9.2 4.4m @ 9.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 280.6 297 16.4 2.4 16.4m @ 2.4 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 305.1 309.3 4.2 1.7 4.2m @ 1.7 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-006A 315 319.1 4.1 2.2 4.1m @ 2.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 90 94.8 4.8 1.4 4.8m @ 1.4 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 98.2 108 9.83 2.3 9.83m @ 2.3 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 113.6 122 8.45 1.8 8.45m @ 1.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 187 198 11 2.1 11m @ 2.1 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 202 244.6 42.6 2.2 42.6m @ 2.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 248.7 259 10.3 2.2 10.3m @ 2.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-008 270.9 273 2.1 1.3 2.1m @ 1.3 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-009 80 84.3 4.3 2.3 4.3m @ 2.3 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-009 99 155 56 3 56m @ 3.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-009 166 173 7 0.8 7m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-009 192 200.53 8.53 1.2 8.53m @ 1.2 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-009 204.5 223.2 18.74 1.1 18.74m @ 1.1 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-009 234 239 5 0.4 5m @ 0.4 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 145 151 6 1 6m @ 1.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 175.5 181 5.5 0.8 5.5m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 192.4 229 36.6 2 36.6m @ 2.0 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 244.8 251 6.2 0.8 6.2m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 257.7 264 6.3 0.5 6.3m @ 0.5 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 268 270.3 2.3 0.8 2.3m @ 0.8 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTPC19-010 288.8 295.2 6.4 1.4 6.4m @ 1.4 g/t 2019 Phase 1 TTDD20-019 263 265.8 2.75 0.3 2.75m @ 0.3 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-019 301 303 2 1.5 2m @ 1.5 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTPC20-022 288 290 2 2 2m @ 2.0 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTPC20-022 301.3 304.5 3.2 1.7 3.2m @ 1.7 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTPC20-022 382 389 7 1.5 7m @ 1.5 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTPC20-026 19 28 9 2.5 9m @ 2.5 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-027 0 2.3 2.3 0.6 2.3m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-027 5.5 11.4 5.9 0.7 5.9m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-027 177.4 181.8 4.38 0.6 4.38m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-027 302.1 305 2.9 5 2.9m @ 5.0 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-029 183 192 9 1.6 9m @ 1.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-029 241 250 9 0.5 9m @ 0.5 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-029 257.7 261.9 4.22 0.5 4.22m @ 0.5 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-029 272 285 13 1.6 13m @ 1.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 0 8.1 8.1 0.6 8.1m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 188.2 201.4 13.24 1.7 13.24m @ 1.7 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 232.9 240.1 7.29 4.5 7.29m @ 4.5 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 244 253 9 0.8 9m @ 0.8 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 266 272 6 2.3 6m @ 2.3 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 301.1 309 7.91 1.6 7.91m @ 1.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 325 337 12 0.6 12m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTDD20-032 342 358.7 16.7 6.3 16.7m @ 6.3 g/t 2020 Phase 2 TTPC20-024 86 126 40 2.1 40m @ 2.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-024 134 146.6 12.6 2.4 12.6m @ 2.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-024 153.2 155.4 2.24 0.6 2.24m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-024 167 176 9 1.8 9m @ 1.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-024 181 189.1 8.09 0.9 8.09m @ 0.9 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-024 193 195 2 5.1 2m @ 5.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-024 210.5 227 16.5 1.1 16.5m @ 1.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-025 165 172.2 7.16 0.8 7.16m @ 0.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-028 232 241 9 0.6 9m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-028 287 306 19 2.2 19m @ 2.2 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-030 238.7 256 17.33 2 17.33m @ 2.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-030 274 283 9 3.8 9m @ 3.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-030 291 294 3 2.3 3m @ 2.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-030 299 308 9 0.6 9m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 56 60 4 1.1 4m @ 1.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 66 84 18 1 18m @ 1.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 249.46 252.15 2.69 2.4 2.69m @ 2.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 268.8 286.1 17.3 1.2 17.3m @ 1.2 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 298.35 300.61 2.26 1.3 2.26m @ 1.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 334.44 347 12.56 0.7 12.56m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-033 362.9 365.5 2.6 2.5 2.6m @ 2.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-034 104 112 8 2.5 8m @ 2.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-034 148 154 6 1 6m @ 1.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-034 175.1 191.4 16.3 3 16.3m @ 3.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-034 200.2 202.7 2.5 0.6 2.5m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 73 76 3 3.9 3m @ 3.9 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 90 97 7 0.6 7m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 106 119 13 1.4 13m @ 1.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 125 134 9 1.1 9m @ 1.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 142.68 147.11 4.43 0.8 4.43m @ 0.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 150.27 158.48 8.21 0.7 8.21m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-035 165 173.94 8.94 2.7 8.94m @ 2.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-036 215 217.4 2.4 0.8 2.4m @ 0.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-036 242.2 267 24.8 1.5 24.8m @ 1.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 41 50 9 0.6 9m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 70 75 5 0.7 5m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 85 120 35 2.1 35m @ 2.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 129.4 140 10.6 3.3 10.6m @ 3.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 146.86 150.5 3.64 1.3 3.64m @ 1.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 155 161.32 6.32 0.5 6.32m @ 0.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-039 169.18 173.25 4.07 2.9 4.07m @ 2.9 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-040 0 4 4 1.1 4m @ 1.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-040 130.2 132.8 2.6 1.1 2.6m @ 1.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-040 142.7 153.3 10.6 1.6 10.6m @ 1.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-040 156.6 159.7 3.1 0.4 3.1m @ 0.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-040 170.8 188 17.2 1.3 17.2m @ 1.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-041 71 107 36 1.9 36m @ 1.9 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-041 113 115 2 10.7 2m @ 10.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-044 181 186.7 5.7 1.6 5.7m @ 1.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-044 189.8 202.3 12.5 3.2 12.5m @ 3.2 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-044 207 228.6 21.6 2.3 21.6m @ 2.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-045 123 125.37 2.37 1 2.37m @ 1.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-045 136 156 20 1.5 20m @ 1.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-045 171.85 182.44 10.59 3.2 10.59m @ 3.2 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-045 191 195.23 4.23 4.4 4.23m @ 4.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTPC20-047 30 34 4 0.6 4m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 1.2 8.2 7 0.7 7m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 189 200 11 1.4 11m @ 1.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 205 210.4 5.4 2.3 5.4m @ 2.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 225.18 248.5 23.32 1.8 23.32m @ 1.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 259 280.9 21.9 2.7 21.9m @ 2.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 286 314.4 28.4 1.5 28.4m @ 1.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-049 318.4 322.3 3.9 3.1 3.9m @ 3.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-050 163.5 173.6 10.1 6 10.1m @ 6.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTRC20-051 0 2 2 8.4 2m @ 8.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTRC20-051 58 62 4 0.5 4m @ 0.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTRC20-051 69 74 5 0.7 5m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-052 94.7 97 2.3 1.2 2.3m @ 1.2 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-052 117 139 22 1.4 22m @ 1.4 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-052 146 174.1 28.1 2 28.1m @ 2.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-052 182 198 16 1 16m @ 1.0 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-052 203 251 48 2.3 48m @ 2.3 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-052 272 275.28 3.28 0.7 3.28m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-054 231 233.2 2.2 2.5 2.2m @ 2.5 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-054 240.4 249 8.6 0.8 8.6m @ 0.8 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-054 269 272 3 0.6 3m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-055 1.4 8 6.6 0.7 6.6m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-055 196 202 6 1.1 6m @ 1.1 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-055 268 277 9 0.9 9m @ 0.9 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-055 307.5 315 7.5 0.6 7.5m @ 0.6 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD20-055 319 323 4 0.7 4m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD21-059 79.8 84.2 4.4 0.7 4.4m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 TTDD21-059 164 170 6 0.7 6m @ 0.7 g/t 2020 Phase 3 Notes: 1. Intervals indicated are not true widths as there is insufficient information to calculate true widths. However, drill holes have been drilled to cross interpreted mineralized zones as close to perpendicular as possible. 2. Intervals shaded gray were reported previously. See February 1, 2021 press release. 3. Intervals are calculated with the assumptions of >0.4 g/t and <4m of internal waste and displayed as weighted averages About Galiano Gold Inc. Galiano is focused on creating a sustainable business capable of long-term value creation for its stakeholders through exploration and disciplined deployment of its financial resources. The company currently operates and manages the Asanko Gold Mine, located in Ghana, West Africa which is jointly owned with Gold Fields Ltd. The Company is strongly committed to the highest standards for environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighbouring communities. For more information, please visit www.galianogold.com. Cautionary Note to US Investors Regarding Mineral Reporting Standards: As a British Columbia corporation and a "reporting issuer" under Canadian securities laws, the Company is required to provide disclosure regarding its mineral properties, including the AGM, in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. In accordance with NI 43-101, the Company uses the terms mineral reserves and resources as they are defined in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards on mineral reserves and resources (the "CIM Definition Standards") adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. In particular, the terms "mineral reserve", "proven mineral reserve", "probable mineral reserve", "mineral resource", "measured mineral resource", "indicated mineral resource" and "inferred mineral resource" used in this press release are Canadian mining terms defined in accordance with CIM Definition Standards. These definitions differ from the definitions in the disclosure requirements promulgated by the SEC. Accordingly, information contained in this press release may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies reporting pursuant to SEC disclosure requirements. United States investors are also cautioned that while the SEC will now recognize "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources", investors should not assume that any part or all of the mineralization in these categories will ever be converted into a higher category of mineral resources or into mineral reserves. Mineralization described using these terms has a greater amount of uncertainty as to their existence and feasibility than mineralization that has been characterized as reserves. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to assume that any "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources", or "inferred mineral resources" that the Company reports are or will be economically or legally mineable. Further, "inferred resources" have a greater amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. Therefore, United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of the inferred resources exist. In accordance with Canadian rules, estimates of "inferred mineral resources" cannot form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies, except in limited circumstances where permitted under NI 43-101. Neither Toronto Stock Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Galiano Gold Inc. Related Links https://www.galianogold.com/home/default.aspx should self-classify the content into five age based categories --- U (Universal), U/A, (people above 7 years), U/A above (13 years), U/A (above 16 years), and A (all the adults), said the government on Thursday while announcing guidelines for these platforms. "Platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as A," it said. The publisher of online curated content would also be required to display the classification rating specific to each content or programme together with a content descriptor informing the user about the nature of the content, and advising on viewer description (if applicable) at the beginning of every programme enabling the user to make an informed decision, prior to watching the programme. and digital media must also be sensitive to multi-religious content and shall exercise due caution when featuring activities, practices of any racial or religious group, it said. The government also said must have self regulatory body/ies and it must be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminent person and have not more than six members. "Such a body will have to register with the ministry of information and broadcasting. This body will oversee the adherence by the publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances that have not be been resolved by the publisher within 15 days," Notifing the new guidelines for regulating digital media and OTT platforms in the country, the government said that after widespread concerns about issues relating to digital content both on digital media and OTT platforms, many have voiced their concerns about the imperative need for an appropriate institutional mechanism. The new guidelines named as "Digital Media Ethics Code Relating to Digital Media and OTT Platforms" are administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Meanwhile, digital media news platforms would be required to observe norms of journalistic conduct of the Press Council of India (PCI). The government says it provides a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media. A 40-year-old woman died in a wreck on I-75 southbound on Wednesday morning after crashing into the back of a truck. At approximately 9:50 a.m., the Chattanooga Police Traffic Division responded to a fatal vehicle crash at 980 Interstate 75 South. A Kenworth tractor trailer was traveling south on I-75 in the middle lane. A Honda Accord was traveling in the same direction behind the truck. For unknown reasons, the Honda struck the rear of the truck, left the roadway, and struck a guardrail. The driver of the Honda was pronounced dead at the scene by Hamilton County EMS. She was the sole occupant of the vehicle. The driver and passenger in the truck did not report injuries on scene. A culture war over transgender rights erupted on Capitol Hill on Thursday, as a Republican senator attacked President Bidens nominee to a top health post, and two members of the House one the mother of a transgender daughter sparred over legislation that would extend civil rights protections to L.G.B.T.Q. people. The nominee, Dr. Rachel Levine, a former Pennsylvania health secretary and Mr. Bidens pick to be assistant secretary of health, stands to be the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate, and her nomination has been cheered by advocates for transgender rights. But Dr. Levines confirmation hearing briefly turned combative on Thursday, when Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, opened his questioning with a tirade about genital mutilation and a demand to know whether the nominee supported gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy for minors. (An earlier version of this post misstated the day of the hearing.) Youre willing to let a minor take things that prevent their puberty, and you think they get that back? Mr. Paul, who is an ophthalmologist, said at one point. You give a woman testosterone enough that she grows a beard you think shes going to go back looking like a woman when you stop the testosterone? New Delhi: A 20-year-old woman abducted by three men in a car was saved by bikers after hearing her cry for help on Sunday late in Delhi. Delhi police told the media that three men had abducted a girl in a car. The girl cried for help from the running car when her abductors started molesting her. Bikers having dinner at a road-side stall heard the victims cry for help. After a chase of a few kilometers they managed to force stop the car and rescued the girl, said police. Police added that two of the abductors were caught by the bikes after a minor scuffle. While, one of the accused managed to escape. According to police, irate crowd on learning the incident attacked the abductors and torched their car. One of the girls rescuers, Aman Goyal, told the media that the woman was in state of shock and in semi-conscious state when she was rescued. The victim lodged a zero FIR at the Begampur police station which was later transferred to Mangolpuri police station as the abduction had taken place there. An FIR under the IPC sections 354B (use of criminal force on woman with intent to disrobe) and 362 (abduction) against the accused, said DCP (outer) MN Tiwari. The victim in her complaint told the police that she knew one of the accused who had offered her life. Two other men were sitting in the car whom she did not identify. After moving sometime they started molesting me. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. When Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson publicly called for breaching four Lower Snake River dams on February 7 as part of his Energy & Salmon Concept, public reaction, its fair to say, was shock. And although Simpson certainly heard the swift criticism of his plan, voices as wide-ranging as tribes, environmental groups, energy interests and farmers were quick to praise his proposal for its collaborative spirit and attempt to find compromise solutionssomething not heard much out of Washington nowadays. As soon as the plan was released, Columbia Insight wanted to hear more from the 12-term Republican representative about why the Snake River dams issue is so important to him, and what his plans chances for passage into law really are. Columbia Insight: Its been about two weeks since you released your Energy & Salmon Plan. How do you feel about the response so far? Mike Simpson: I have to say its about what we expected. We knew there would be people who would say Hell no! to start with, other people who would be excited about the concept and a lot of others who for now are really sitting back and want to look through the proposal and think more about it. CI: Whats surprised you about the reaction? MS: Whats really been interesting is seeing that the people who are opposed to this proposal tend to focus on only one aspect of the plan: dam removal. Thats all they hear, and then they shut down. My staff and I, weve been working on this plan over three years and have had more than 300 different meetings about it, so weve heard a lot of different points of view. And weve had a lot of discussions and collaborative groups on these issues in the region over the past 25 to 30 years. Every collaborative group over that time has come up with nice ideas that everybody can agree on: increasing the numbers of salmon, clean renewable energy, better efficiency, improving habitats, etc. But when it comes down to breaching the dams themselves, the groups break apart and they just cant go any further. Fundamentally, the people who are opposed to breaching the dams are used to doing things a certain way, and just dont want to change what theyre doing. OK then, I said, if you dont like breaching the dams and still want to save the salmon, then tell me what your plan is? And then theres nothingbecause everything else weve tried for the past 25 to 30 years simply doesnt work. Weve already spent $17 billion on fish recovery and salmon and steelhead numbers here have only gotten worse, to the point where theyre on a clear path to extinction. Are we going to spend $20 billion more over the next 30 years just to have them go extinct anyway? CI: Some environmental groups have been supportive of your planAmerican Rivers in particular released a statement calling it bold, groundbreaking and potentially transformational for the Pacific Northwest. Others have been more cautious, surprised to hear an environmental issue supported by a conservative Republican. Is that unfair? MS: Well, most people live in Idaho because we love our environmentand thats really true all across the Pacific Northwest. Yes, Im conservative, and I also value conservation. The salmon are going extinct. Theres just no way around that. We have to do something about it. To me, this proposal isnt about the impact that it has on us today. Its what do we want the Pacific Northwest to look like in the next 30, 40, 50 years? The decisions we make today will have an enormous impact on the entire region 50 years from now. I dont want our grandchildren someday to say, Why do you call it the Salmon River? There are no salmon here. CI: Where do you anticipate the greatest opposition coming from? MS: Oh, theres plenty of opposition to the concept. There are a lot of organizations that will have to change the way theyre doing things. But this is really the first time that a plan acknowledges the important fact that these dams do have considerable value to a wide range of stakeholdersthats why the plan will cost an estimated $35 to $40 billion. We have to acknowledge the dams value, acknowledge everything that they provide for different groups, and consider that for all of the different stakeholders. Whats it going to cost to make those stakeholders whole? The states? The BPA? The tribes? The farmers? Whats it going to cost to help those grain farmers get their grain down to Portland cheaply, as they can do now by barge without being beholden to trucking or rail? Whats it going to cost to get that clean energy supply replaced before the dams are breached? And it has to be firm power, not just vague plans of future wind turbines. Each of those is a challenge we have to consider. CI: Speaking of the Bonneville Power Administration, how have they reacted to your plan? MS: Weve discussed the concept with them along the way. Really, this proposal started from talking with them. The BPA was having financial difficulties and they still arethe problem is they are not the cheapest power in the Pacific Northwest anymore. Rural electrics will be looking outside of the BPA to buy their power to be able to get it more cheaply. So how can we make them more secure in the future, make them wholeand do something to save salmon at the same time? The BPA gets sued every other day by different interests in the Salmon Wars, as I call them. Now the BPA obviously cant just come out and support the removal of their damsbut we can help to make them whole, to make dam removal make sense by replacing that power. The plan calls for $10 billion in funding for clean energy projects like battery storage, pump storage, hydrogen storage, small modular reactors, increased transmission capacity, increased energy efficiency, new wind and solar power or other new technologies determined by the BPA and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. We have to look at all of the options and likely use lots of them. The other thing weve done with this proposal that many people have overlooked is that well automatically relicense all FERC-licensed dams in the Columbia River Basin greater than 5 megawatts for 35 to 50 years. This is to prevent the slippery slope argument that if we remove these four dams, then theyll just go after the other ones. We have to keep those other dams and their energy secureand put a stop to the fish-related, not safety, litigation around themso they can continue to be reliable sources of energy going forward. CI: Why is this concept so important to act on now? MS: I really dont think we have long to save the salmon before they go extinct. Weve been managing a steady decline in salmon runs for decades. I hear some people say, To heck with the salmonjust let them go extinct. But I dont. We have to act now. And the stars are actually aligned for us to do something about this. The Pacific Northwest delegation in Congress is in a stronger position now than they have been in years. And President Biden has discussed prioritizing a big infrastructure and clean energy stimulus push that could be in the $2-to-3-trillion-dollar range. We have a real opportunity here, all of the different stakeholders, to roll up our sleeves and come together to find a solution to this problem on our own terms, rather than letting someone else decide our fate. CI: Right now this plan is still a concept, as you call it. What are the next steps to get this hammered into actual legislation that can be put before committees and eventually onto the floor for a vote? MS: Well, now that a lot of different people are looking at the concept and thinking about it, the next step is that we have to listen to their different perspectives. We have to talk with them about what the plan does and doesnt do, answer their questions and take their concerns into consideration before drafting legislation. But that needs to happen now. We dont have a lot of time. Id like to see actual legislation happen later this year. CI: Oregon Senator Ron Wyden just released his own sweeping River Democracy Act (with fellow Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley). Are you working with him on this? MS: Ive talked with Senator Wyden about it, and we have briefed his staff on this proposal a few timesin fact, weve briefed the staffs of all the Northwest delegation throughout this process. Wyden is Chair of the (U.S. Senate) Finance Committee, so obviously he would be very important to work with on this. We are talking about a lot of money, $35-$40 billion. But thats only about 1.75% of the anticipated infrastructure bill to be used for the Pacific Northwest and saving the salmon. I dont think thats too much to ask. CI: What about the House Budget Committee? MS: I dont know that the Budget Committee will have much involvement in this bill because it will likely be an emergency appropriation. CI: Based on the sweeping nature of your proposal, sorry, but we have to ask: are you planning to run again in 2022? MS: Come on, manwe just finished an election! [Laughs] Yes, my current plan is to run for reelection in 2022. Does this proposal affect my chances? Sure it does. Ive already heard of people planning to run against me because of it. Thats fine. Thats how this works. Charles Coxe has written about environmental issues ranging from ice road trucking in northern Canada to BASE jumping in the Snake River Canyon for publications including Rolling Stone, Life and Popular Science. Columbia Insights series focusing on the Lower Snake River dams is supported by a grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists. ## Columbia Insight, based in Hood River, Oregon, is an online, nonprofit publication focused on environmental issues of the Columbia River Basin. The new system, which includes energy-efficient pump drives and what Geib described as radar-based reservoir level sensors, allows village staff to access the system through smartphones and tablet computers and includes two factor authentication. Geib said that and other security features protect the Lincolnshire system from the kind of malicious hack recently detected in a water system in the Florida town of Oldsmar. How often do you hear the refrain I wouldnt put my mum/dad/aunty in a home. Its part of our psyche. Anyone who puts their relative in an aged care facility is heartless. The aged care royal commission report will provide more inflammatory material to feed into this pervasive trope. The terrible spate of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened this perception. I would not let my mum be in some of these places, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews remarked. Of course, there are terrible nursing homes, just like there are terrible pubs or terrible train stations. It is outrageous that these sub-standard facilities exist although government funding models seem to encourage them. Only 11 per cent of Australias 2700 aged care facilities are rated as providing a high quality of care, research commissioned by the royal commission found. Our spending on aged care is well below other developed countries and our government has consistently refused moves for more financial transparency. It is inevitably women who end up caring for elderly relatives. Credit:AFR But there are also good homes and they are not necessarily the expensive ones. I have visited many and some are modest but excellent. This area of service provision is often where religious organisations come into their own. Yes, there are lonely and depressed residents in all nursing homes but often this is a side-effect of dementia which, lets face it, is a depressing situation in which to be. The bad reputation, earned and unearned, of our nursing homes matters to women and might be one of the biggest feminist issues of our time. Buckingham Facial Plastic Surgery Center Buckingham Center, a leading facial plastic surgery practice in Austin, Texas, is pleased to announce that it is now offering advanced Swiss Revance injectables to patients. The Revance line of injectables can help patients temporarily resolve various lines and wrinkles for a natural-looking, rejuvenated appearance. Revance injectables include both dermal fillers and neuromodulators. Deep tissue dermal fillers in the Revance line are made from hyaluronic acid (HA), which boosts volume and is found naturally in the skin. HA fillers are perfect for static wrinkles and volume loss. Unlike many other HA fillers, the RHA (resilient hyaluronic acid) fillers from Revance wont move around underneath the skin. There are three levels of Revance RHA fillers, depending on the depth and needs of the patient. The neuromodulator available from Revance, Daxibotulinumtoxin A is ideal for dynamic wrinkles, such as crows feet, frown lines, and horizontal forehead lines. These wrinkles are caused by repetitive muscle movements and can be addressed by injecting a neuromodulator into the facial muscles to relax them. Revances neuromodulator injection is long-lasting and effective. Both types of injectable treatments are temporary but long-lasting and offer incredible results with little to no downtime. Dr. Edward Buckingham, the founder of Buckingham Center, is a highly-respected, double board-certified facial plastic surgeon. Dr. Buckingham and his colleague, Dr. Erin Smith, focus solely on facial aesthetic and reconstructive procedures and insist on an extremely high standard for the practice. New products and services at Buckingham Center must offer patients excellent results with few risks, giving patients peace of mind and the best possible experience. Dr. Buckingham is well-known among his peers and is considered to be one of the top facial plastic surgeons and injectable filler specialists in the country. In addition to his board certifications and impeccable academic record, the doctor is dedicated to training up-and-coming surgeons, contributing to publications, and lecturing extensively. He is on the cutting edge of the field, yet remains fully dedicated to his patients results and well-being. Dr. Erin Smith is a Beverly Hills trained, facial plastic surgeon with extensive training in complex facial surgery under some of the best surgeons in the country. In addition to her cosmetic and reconstructive expertise, she specializes in treating patients with nerve disorders such as Bells Palsy. Buckingham Center is known as one of the top facial plastic surgery centers in Texas due to the training and experience of Dr. Buckingham and Dr. Smith. Dr. Buckinghams philosophy is focused on natural-looking results that refresh the face without it looking overdone. The providers at Buckingham Center offer patients a range of effective surgical and non-surgical procedures, including rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, laser treatments, and a wide variety of injectables, including the Revance line. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian ministry of emergency situations reports that some roads are closed or difficult to pass across the Republic due to weather conditions. The ministry told Armenpress that the Berd-Chambarak highway, the roads leading to the Amberd Fortress and Lake Kari in Aragatsotn province are closed. The Vardenyats Pass is closed for trailer trucks. All roads in Tavush province are partly covered with clear ice. Snowfalls are reported in the province. The Georgian side reports that the Stepantsminda-Lars highway is closed for all types of vehicles. Drivers are urged to use snow tires. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! Violinist Itzhak Perlman, seen here receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015, was among those participating in a kickoff event for Jewish Disability Advocacy Month on Feb. 3, 2021. When Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1963, he performed while seated - a consequence of the polio that left him unable to walk without leg braces or crutches since age 4. "I got a standing ovation, but The New York Times reviewer wasn't sure if that was because of the way I played or because of the fact I was sitting down while playing," recalled Perlman, now 75. "That thing followed me for two or three years. Then people got used to me and they stopped talking about it." The renowned musician and conductor - the winner of 16 Grammy Awards, four Emmys a... A request from ExxonMobil for a 10-year tax break worth an estimated $23 million sailed through the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council on Wednesday. The council, as expected, unanimously approved the tax break by a 11-0 vote. Councilman Brandon Noel was absent from Wednesday's meeting. The council's approval came after some members of the public raised concerns about job creation and retention and voiced anxieties over the negative environmental impacts they believe the chemical company's longtime presence has had on the community. The company is using the tax break, granted through the state's sometimes controversial Industrial Tax Exemption Program, to modernize its oil refinery in Baton Rouge, a project that's expected to spark a major economic boost to the local economy during construction. ExxonMobil is expected to pay higher property tax payments once the 10-year incentive ends, so the company argues the tax break will pay for itself. ExxonMobil tax break request to modernize refinery sails through School Board, next up is Metro Council A request by ExxonMobil for a property tax break worth an estimated $23 million over the next decade won easy approval Thursday from the East Only $230.5 million of the $410 million project is eligible for under the state's tax exemption program, which would provide an 80% property tax abatement worth $23.2 million to the company over 10 years earlier estimates suggested it was a high as $27 million. The project will support more than 2,000 construction jobs, but is not expected to create any new permanent jobs, which also has drawn criticism. 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 request has already sailed through approvals from the state's Board of Commerce and Industry, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and Sheriff Sid Gautreaux. Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Gov. John Bel Edwards also expressed support of the request ahead of Wednesday's meeting. Council Pro Tem LaMont Cole asked if current market projections guarantee the retention of the new jobs promised with the project over the life of the tax break and how many of ExxonMobil's employees live in the city-parish. "Nothing is ever perfectly guaranteed," Gloria Moncada, a vice president with Exxon, told Cole. "We do know that with the recent downturn, we largely were able to keep all the jobs we have here in Baton Rouge. When we do get investments of this size, that improves our competitiveness and helps assure that job retention." Moncada Wednesday night couldn't give Cole an exact percentage regarding employees who reside in the city-parish but said, "a vast majority do." Huntington, WV (25701) Today Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 52F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 52F. Winds light and variable. SECURITY Supply chain hack took a thousand engineers to pull off, tech exec tells Congress NOTE: This story first appeared on FCW.com. Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, told a panel of senators on Tuesday that his company estimates the cybersecurity breach of nine federal agencies and 100 private companies likely took "at least a thousand" skilled and capable people to pull off. "At Microsoft as we worked with customers that had been impacted by this, we stepped back and just analyzed all of the engineering steps that we had seen and we asked ourselves how many engineers do we believed had worked on this collective effort and the answer we came to was at least a thousand, Smith told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "I should say at least a thousand very skilled, capable engineers. So we havent seen this kind of sophistication matched with this kind of scale," he added. The scope and scale Smith described is keeping with the attribution being made by public sector and private sector officials that the hack, which leveraged flaws in IT management software from SolarWinds and products from other vendors to inject malware into computer networks, was perpetrated by Russia. "We went through all the forensics. It is not very consistent with cyber espionage from China, North Korea or Iran, and is most consistent with cyber espionage and behaviors we've seen out of Russia," Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye, said at the Feb. 23 hearing. George Kurtz, president and CEO of Crowdstrike, added that while his company could not corroborate an attribution to Russia, he has not seen evidence to contradict it. Mandia, Smith, Kurtz and Sudhakar Ramakrishna, CEO of SolarWinds, testified today to the panel on intelligence about the impacts of the hack of nine federal agencies and 100 private companies. The committee's chairman, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), said the panel invited an official from Amazon Web Services to testify but the company declined. The White House has continued to say the campaign is "likely Russian in origin," but is waiting to complete a formal investigation before using more specific language. FireEye, which is credited with discovering the initial breach, has been more cautious, saying that the hack was likely the work of a state or state-sponsored actor. Gregory Touhill, the federal government's first chief information security officer and a retired Air Force brigadier general, told FCW in January that formal attribution requires a level of proof that can stand up in court. "When it comes to attribution, what the intelligence and law enforcement community has to do is literally trace it all the way back to the root," he said. Public and private investigators have to gather evidence that "will hold up in court. That's the realm that [FireEye] and others are dealing with. Those who don't have to prove it in court can say whatever they want." In addition to the issue of attribution, multiple senators quizzed the technology executives about stepping up requirements for breach reporting and whether companies would need liability protections to take on that obligation. "The time has come to go in that direction," Smith said in response to a question from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). "We should notify a part of the U.S. government that would be responsible for aggregating threat intelligence and making sure it is put to good use." Mandia agreed with Smith's comments and added that the information shared would need to be confidential because of how quickly circumstances change in the aftermath of an attack. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the White House is planning to sanction Russia in response for the hack, among other things. The Post's reporting also added NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration as part of the list of agencies compromised. Ramakrishna said Monday during an event hosted by a Washington think tank that he feels his company has an "obligation" to speak publicly about the breach because "this is not a one company issue." He and other technology executives will speak to House lawmakers later this week about the effects the breach has had on the public and private sector. Both Ramakrishna and Mandia said this week that in addition to adding malicious code to the SolarWinds Orion IT management software, the hacking campaign also inserted innocuous code into Orion in October 2019 to test whether their method of injecting code worked without attracting attention. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The rally led by Prime Minister of Armenia NIkol Pashinyan ended at Garegin Nzdeh Square. ARMENPRESS reports, addressing his supporters, Pashinyan noted that today they implemented their mission, recording the position of tens of thousands of citizens. The position is the following I think the President of the Republic should sign the decree of releasing the Chief of the General Staff of the post, or Onik Gasparyan should himself submit a resignation letter. Second, we stop our rallies from this moment and suggest that our opposition partners should also do so. We invite the representatives of political forces to hold discussions on the future. The decision on future activities must be made, considering the opinion of the people. Now I will go to the Government, will hold some consultations and will make necessary decisions. Our slogan is the following Velvet is gone, Pashinyan said. At the end of the rally Pashinyan urged to once again respect the memories of the fallen soldiers with a minute of silence. LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis is leading a new travel and tourism age in 2021. While other resourceful countries continue to struggle with COVID-19 and its many variants, the small dual-island nation has become a success story for how travel can be managed safely and responsibly. St Kitts and Nevis first reopened its borders on October 31st. After three months of international visitors, the islands have only reported roughly 40 cases of the virus, no community spread and zero deaths. Lindsey F.P. Grant, the Minister of Tourism, Transport and Ports, spoke to the Caribbean Journal about how the nation achieved this. According to Minister Grant, St Kitts and Nevis has one of the most complete and comprehensive travel requirements in the Caribbean. The dual islands ask visitors to take a PCR test within 72 hours of arrival, utilise the contract tracing app for the first 14 days with obligatory quarantine in an approved hotel. "We have been open for three months and have been welcoming visitors from around the world to our beautiful islands. Tourism is slowly but surely rebounding. Globally, there has been a recent slow down due to the emergence of the variant strains of COVID-19, and we are experiencing that along with everyone else. But the fact remains we are continuing to welcome visitors with every incoming flight," Minister Grant said. Before the pandemic, St Kitts and Nevis enjoyed a budding tourism industry that attracted various demographics to the islands. The Federation is a hotspot for yachters looking for a hideaway location with state-of-the-art docks that can host superyachts of up to 106m. Additionally, the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association recognised St Kitts and Nevis as a marquee destination after attracting one million passengers for two consecutive years. Minister Grant highlighted that "Cruise has been a great success for us. We reached the one million passenger mark in 2018, and again in 2019, we were on track to reach this milestone again in 2020 before COVID-19 set in. The success of the roll-out of the vaccines in the US, the UK and Europe will help cruise resume to St Kitts and [the] Caribbean. So we wait patiently and are optimistic it will return." St Kitts and Nevis' Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme has been pivotal in developing the islands' tourism. Revenue generated under the Programme was responsible for constructing a second cruise pier on the islands that can accommodate three world-class vessels. Established in 1984, St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme is the world's first and longest-standing economic citizenship programme. It empowers wealthy foreign investors and their families to acquire a second citizenship once contributing to the Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF). The fund is hailed as the most straightforward and fastest route to a second citizenship. Investments made to the SGF are channelled into important development projects on the islands, from education to healthcare to tourism. Once undertaking the diligent multi-tiered vetting process, successful applicants gain citizenship, which comes with a plethora of benefits. This includes visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel to 156 countries and territories, the right to live, work and study in the nation and lastly, the option to pass down citizenship for generations to come, securing one's future legacy and that of their families. Contact: +447867942505, [email protected], www.csglobalpartners.com SOURCE CS Global Partners Republican leaders are speaking out against President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill, accusing Democrats of wasteful spending for items like a bridge in Upstate New York. However, the $1.5 million request for the Seaway International Bridge, which connects the U.S. with Canada over the St. Lawrence River, came from President Donald Trumps administration. The bridge is also located in GOP Rep. Elise Stefaniks district in the North Country. This underscores the struggle Republicans have with messaging against this popular legislation, a senior Democratic Senate aide told the New York Daily News on Wednesday. The aide added that a recent Morning Consult poll shows 60% of registered Republican voters are supportive of Bidens $1.9 trillion plan. The package also includes a third round of stimulus checks worth $1,400; a new Child Tax Credit worth up to $3,600 per child; $400 in weekly unemployment benefits; $70 billion towards vaccination centers and Covid-19 testing; $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local and territorial governments; and a raise in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour (from the current rate of $7.25 an hour). But Republicans in Congress are complaining that the bill is bloated with payouts unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately this bill is too costly, too corrupt and too liberal, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday. We watched the swamp come back to Washington: $100 million for a tunnel in Silicon Valley just outside of Speaker Pelosis district, or a bridge for (Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer, or money for schools that two-thirds of it cannot be spent until 2023. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, also used the bill to criticize New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not disclosing data on Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes earlier. If this package was truly about helping all Americans, why did they change the bipartisan budget formula used in all the other Covid packages to reward the blue state governors one governor thats being recalled [in California] and another governor that hid disclosure of how many deaths that were in nursing homes? Theyre clearly rewarding their friends, their donors and their partisan agenda, Smith claimed. But documents obtained by the New York Post show the proposed funds for the Seaway International Bridge, which will go towards maintenance and offsetting a drop in toll revenue, was raised last year by the Transportation Department, then headed by Trump appointee Elaine Chao, who is married Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Due to the pandemic and the associated cross-border restrictions currently enforced between the United States and Canada, paid car and truck traffic on the Seaway International Bridge... has dramatically decreased, transportation officials wrote in a letter to congressional appropriators on May 5, 2020. The Associated Press notes the $100 million for the San Francisco areas BART commuter rail system was also approved previously by the Trump administration and is not in Pelosis district. Still, the funds are part of a GOP rallying cry against Bidens Covid relief bill. (Democrats) have proposed a $1.9 trillion package that is littered with special interest projects, Stefanik told Fox News this week. Only 20% of the bill is even focused on Covid relief and less than 10% is focused on public health... the American people deserve a Covid relief bill thats focused on making sure that we have the vaccines necessary, distribution to rural communities to get those vaccines that are underserved, making sure schools open now... and supporting small businesses to reopen. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, did not specifically comment on the funding for the bridge in New Yorks 21st Congressional District, which she represents. Bidens Covid relief bill would give about $12.7 billion for New York state in total, including $206 million in aid to Syracuse and Onondaga County to help bail out cash-strapped local governments. Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi defended the bills funds for the Empire State. New York was ground zero for Covid in the spring because the federal government kept flights from Europe open weeks after closing them to China a fact federal public health experts now readily admit, Azzopardi told the Post. Weve seen this show before, Republican congress members from other states opposed Sandy aid for New York a fact they forgot when extreme weather caused destruction in their own back yards. Its political and its disturbing. The Associated Press reports the bill is still expected to pass the Democrat-controlled House on Friday, but Senate challenges and changes could come before the legislation arrives on Bidens desk. Two Democrats in the evenly divided Senate have opposed the $15 minimum wage hike, and the GOP has united against minimum wage and other issues like the bridge funds. As of late Wednesday, not one Republican in either chamber had publicly said he or she would back the legislation. Schumer has set a March 14 deadline to pass the bill, before the current round of unemployment assistance and other coronavirus aid expires, and remains optimistic. If congressional Republicans want to oppose all that, my response is: Good luck, Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources NY schools, county have the power to bring more kids back to the classroom; will they use it? New coronavirus variant identified in New York, is spreading Pandemic authority made Cuomo uniquely powerful; what happens when its gone? Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Researchers at Freiburg University discover new functions of the widely disseminated, yet little understood ENDOU enzyme. The family of ENDOU enzymes is found in most organisms, yet its functions are only poorly understood. In humans, it has been connected with cancer. RNA viruses, such as SARS-CoV2, contain a gene corresponding to ENDOU, and this is important for virus replication and the suppression of the immune response. However, so far only a few details of the role of these enzymes are known. The research group led by the molecular geneticist Dr. Wenjing Qi from the University of Freiburg now contributes some more details to its function in a study published by the renowned scientific journal "Nature Communications". They suggest that the gene ENDU-2 could be responsible for triggering tumors in the body from a distance. In addition, the team discovered a novel, seemingly contradictive response: Under stress, ENDU-2 can contribute both to the protection of the organism and to its destruction. The researchers studied the nematode worm C. elegans, which is frequently used for such genetic investigations. More than 60 percent of the genes are similar in worms and humans, including one for ENDOU, which is called ENDU-2. The current theory of tumor development suggests that cells only become cancer cells when errors, called mutations, accumulate in their genes. These arise, for example, from radiation, certain chemicals, or during aging. Qi showed back in 2017 that such errors do not have to occur in the cancer cells themselves, but they can also arise elsewhere in the body. Cancer is therefore triggered remotely, so to speak. The researcher suspected that the damaged cells in this case send signals to accomplish this, which then reprogram the other tissues. They now discovered the signal for this: ENDU-2. ENDOU/ENDU-2 is not only selectively discharged from stressed cells and circulated throughout the body, but it can also bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) of many genes at the site of origin and in the target cells." Dr. Wenjing Qi, Molecular Geneticist, University of Freiburg These mRNAs are the working copies of genes and are needed as blueprints for the production of all proteins and enzymes. What surprised the researcher was that ENDU-2 can perform two different functions under stress: at the site of origin, it cuts and destroys the mRNA, which reduces metabolism and prevents the already stressed organism from making faulty new proteins. At the destination, the RNA remains intact, and ENDU-2 helps these cells to survive. For this, however, it must be dosed precisely; otherwise, it can cause tumor formation. One conclusion that can be drawn from this could be that the worm specifically protects the embryos, i.e. its offspring, in times of great stress. "In this way, it seems guaranteed that whenever the organism's self-healing powers are not sufficient for mother and child, it at least ensures the survival of the progeny", speculates Prof. Dr. Ralf Baumeister, who was also involved in the study and in whose department Qi leads a research group. The Freiburg scientists now know that the loss of ENDU-2 can also reprogram stem cells. These then lose their immortality within a few generations. Next, the team wants to explore which conditions cause ENDU-2 to distinguish between destruction and protection. The German Research Foundation is funding the Freiburg scientists' study. In addition, they are cooperating with BIOSS - Centre for Biological Signalling Studies and the Excellence Cluster CIBSS - Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies at the University of Freiburg. Ministry of Health approves new version of drug register under reimbursement program The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has approved a new version of the register of drugs to be reimbursed under the Affordable Medicines Program, Deputy Health Minister Ihor Ivaschenko said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday. "The Ministry of Health has approved a new version of the register of medicines under the Affordable Medicines reimbursement program. The new register includes 297 items of medicines, which is 33 more than the previous one. In 2021, three new medical items were included in the program," he said. According to the Deputy Minister, full reimbursement is provided for 93 items. "Accordingly, patients with cardiovascular diseases, asthma, type 2 diabetes will receive the necessary medication," Ivaschenko said. 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. Rice export rates in top exporter India eased this week as supplies rose, while neighbouring Bangladesh considered allowing higher imports by private traders as domestic rates continued to soar. Prices for India's 5 percent broken parboiled variety eased to $393-$399 per tonne from $395-$401 last week. "Export demand is stable. New season supplies are rising in southern and eastern states," said an exporter based at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh state. Shipments from India have picked up after Andhra Pradesh started using a deep-water port to export rice to reduce congestion at the Kakinada port. The country's rice output is expected to increase to 120.32 million tonnes in the crop year to June 2021. Bangladesh, meanwhile, could allow private traders to import more rice in a bid to tame rising domestic rates, a senior official at the food ministry told Reuters. So far this year, private traders have been allowed to import 1 million tonnes while the government is buying another 1 million tonnes. Thailand's benchmark 5% broken rice prices eased to $520-$560 per tonne from last week's $540-$560. Some Bangkok-based traders said prices had started to ease slightly due to optimism over the new off-season harvest. "There's not much demand. New supply is gradually arriving. It's likely that prices will continue to weaken," a trader said. Vietnam's 5% broken rice rates were unchanged at $505-$510 per tonne for delivery after March 15. Supplies were building up with around a quarter of the winter-spring crop in the Mekong Delta already harvested, traders said. "We've seen Chinese traders coming to explore rice for shipments to China and other markets, but not many orders have been placed as they are still waiting for the harvest to peak," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. Vietnam's rice exports in February are forecast to have halved from a year earlier, according to the government. Also Read: Bread brand Modern Foods bought by Mexico's Grupo Bimbo A man froze to death in Caddo Parish in the frigid temperatures that blanketed Louisiana and other parts of the south last week, according to state health officials. A release from Louisiana Department of Health on Wednesday said the 61-year-old man's death, caused by exposure-related hypothermia, marks the sixth fatality related to the winter storm. Louisiana sees third death related to extended wave of winter weather The Louisiana Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed three deaths related to winter weather this week. He is the second person to die of exposure. A woman, 74, froze to death in a neighbor's driveway in Lafayette. KSLA in Shreveport reported on Feb. 15 that a homeless man had died from the freezing temperatures, but it isn't immediately clear if the Caddo Parish fatality in the LDH release is connected. The full list of weather-related deaths include: WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday it would provide $77 million in grant funding for state and local governments to combat domestic violent extremism, announcing one of the Biden administration's first concrete measures aimed at preventing attacks by homegrown terrorists. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other Biden officials have told lawmakers that they will do more to address threats posed by violent groups including white supremacists, an urgency that has increased since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. "In the almost 20 years since September 11, 2001, the terrorism threat landscape has changed considerably," Mayorkas said in a statement, referring to the terrorist attacks that led to the creation of DHS. "Today the most significant terrorist threat facing the nation comes from lone offenders and small groups of individuals who commit acts of violence motivated by domestic extremist ideological beliefs." "While we continue to lawfully protect against threats posed by foreign terrorist organizations, we also must ensure adequate focus and funding is provided to combat domestic terrorism, some of which is motivated by false narratives and extremist rhetoric spread through social media and other online platforms," Mayorkas added. The money, part of a larger $1.87 billion pool of grant funding to help state and local governments face threats and emergencies, will "help raise the nation's security baseline," according to Mayorkas. The grants for domestic violent extremism will fund programs aimed at "open source analysis of threats, execution of threat assessment programs, the development and sharing of intelligence across states and between states and the federal government, and the development of training and awareness programs," he said. DHS in recent years has begun turning its attention inward to pay more attention to threats from hate groups, homegrown extremist and violent racists. The 2019 mass shooting in El Paso - the deadliest attack on Hispanic Americans in modern U.S. history - was a catalyzing event for department officials. DHS's Office of Intelligence and Analysis was one of the federal agencies that failed to alert federal law enforcement agencies to plans by pro-Trump groups to storm the U.S. Capitol and attempt to prevent a presidential transition. Pressure from lawmakers on DHS to do more has increased since then. While the FBI remains the lead federal agency for investigating domestic extremist groups and stopping attacks, DHS officials want to leverage relationships with state and local police departments formed after the 9/11 attacks to produce better threat reports and promote preventive strategies. A week after Biden's inauguration, DHS used its National Terrorism Advisory System for the first time to alert the public to the risk of attacks by domestic groups, citing "a heightened threat environment across the United States." In 2019, DHS created the Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, which has hired regional coordinators across the country to help state and local governments identify violent extremists and try to stop them from recruiting and radicalizing others. During recent hearings on Capitol Hill, many Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for DHS to increase its focus on homegrown extremists, though lawmakers have clashed over priorities. Republican members say Democrats were unwilling to condemn violent protesters and anarchists during clashes last summer on the streets of Portland, where DHS agents and officers were sent to protect federal buildings. Many Republicans have insisted federal agencies should prioritize all homegrown violent extremists regardless of ideology, while Democrats note FBI data showing white supremacists have been responsible for more American deaths. LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hotel Association of Los Angeles (HALA) announced today the launch of "Hotels for Homes," a renewed effort to survey hotel owners to determine partners for the City and County of Los Angeles to provide safe shelter for those in need. This is a continuation of the LA hotel community's on-going partnership with the City and County after successfully contracting with 40 hotel and motel properties to house more than 7,000 people as part of Project Roomkey since March 2020. Hotels throughout Los Angeles County are expected to respond to the survey to participate in City and County sheltering programs for members of our community experiencing homelessness. "Our hotels continue to respond to the needs of the Los Angeles community," said Heather Rozman, Executive Director of HALA. "As state and federal government funding now is available to obtain rooms and the public services necessary for sheltering programs, hotels and motels remain willing partners. This presents a unique opportunity for Los Angeles leaders to work with hoteliers to support programs aimed at providing a pathway toward permanent housing." As such, HALA has re-launched a "Hotels for Homes" program to reach out again to greater LA hotels and motels for participation in government shelter programs, updating its list of properties to contract with local governments to open even more doors to members of the community experiencing homelessness. "A hotel's core function is to provide shelter in a caring and generous way," Rozman added. "Hotels are more than just a place to stay, they contribute to the local economy by generating hundreds of millions of local tax dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs. LA's hotels offer a safe place for wildfire evacuees, participate in meal delivery programs during the pandemic, and provide bedding, towels and toiletries for bridge housing sites. LA hotels have been, and always will be, committed to serving their communities." About the Hotel Association of Los Angeles The Hotel Association of Los Angeles has advocated for the Los Angeles lodging industry for more than 70 years through legislative support, coalition building, lobbying and public advocacy. Its members represent a cross-section of the lodging industry, including owners, managers, suppliers and vendors. Media Inquiries: Pete Hillan 831-227-5984 [email protected] SOURCE Hotel Association of Los Angeles [February 25, 2021] Thermo Fisher Scientific Introduces New In-line Measurement and Control System for Manufacturers of Lithium-ion Batteries ERLANGEN, Germany, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The production of lithium-ion batteries is rapidly increasing, driven by the growth in demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Lithium-ion battery manufacturers are seeking to scale operations at an unprecedented rate, whilst maintaining quality, uniformity, traceability and safety in their battery products. The new Thermo Scientific LInspector in-line measurement and control system addresses that demand and is specifically designed to detect defects in lithium-ion battery electrode coatings, electrode calendering and separator films during the manufacturing process while reducing waste and improving battery quality. "Consumers are making choices for clean transport and clean energy, which calls for efficient and economical energy storage. Thermo Fisher is committed to delivering analytical precision for battery manufacturing customers with enabling technologies from the research laboratory to the production line," says Phillip van de Werken, vice president and general manager of the materials and minerals business at Thermo Fisher Scientific. The LInspector measurement and control system offers a combination of improved basis weight determination, increased scan coverage, measurement precision, speed and sensor accuracy, together with novel remote instrument health and status monitoring capabilities. These developments enable coating and thickness control with exceptional accuracy, allowing manufacturers to confidently deliver quality lithium-ion battey products at scale. The new system also includes innovative diagnostic display screens and data reporting purpose-built for battery factory environments. "Lithium-ion battery manufacturers need confidence that they can detect exceptionally small defects in their products. LInspector measurement and control system enables battery manufacturers to consistently qualify the thickness and coating uniformity of battery electrodes during the production process at faster speeds and with greater resolution than ever before," says Tam Nguyen, senior gauging product line manager at Thermo Fisher. "In addition to exceptional precision and control, the LInspector measurement and control system has intelligent instrument performance monitoring (IPM) with secure data archival and full traceability of product defects. These innovations will enable battery manufacturers to improve their product quality and prevent defective batteries from reaching cars, clean energy storage systems and consumer electronics." For more information on the Thermo Scientific LInspector measurement and control system, please visit thermofisher.com/battery . About Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $30 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 80,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. Media Contact Information: Harrison Calato Inkhouse for Thermo Fisher Scientific 603-325-0044 thermofisher@inkhouse.com Secondary Contact Information: Meredith Wilshere Inkhouse for Thermo Fisher Scientific 516-318-2951 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thermo-fisher-scientific-introduces-new-in-line-measurement-and-control-system-for-manufacturers-of-lithium-ion-batteries-301235376.html SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] AxiomSL's survey of financial risk and regulatory compliance professionals in EMEA aligns with North American survey results stressing continued investment in tech infrastructure LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2020 AxiomSL annual user conferences in North America and EMEA regions have produced a clear consensus among global financial risk and regulatory compliance professionals on the most critical issues for the year ahead. According to surveys of participants in both events, automation, remote collaboration, cloud, and data analytics need to be the priorities for risk and regulatory compliance professionals as they chart a course to recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. "Regulatory reporting and risk management tends to be heavily influenced by regional regulatory requirements and pending legislation that will affect risk professionals in their own back yards, but this year has been very different," said Ed Royan, Head of Global Product, AxiomSL. "In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for a more concerted, technology-driven, global response to regulatory reporting - one that addresses the need for seamless collaboration among disparate teams, increased automation, and a continued expansion of data analytics capabilities," Royan continued. "Indeed, firms are seeing the benefits of RegCloud, our secure cloud offering that insulates clients from both technology regulatory changes while enabling efficient outcomes across the global regulatory reporting landscape." Following are some of the key findings of the AxiomSL EMEA client survey: Automation is the top challenge for next two years: Financial risk and regulatory professionals on both sides of the pond say eliminating manual processes is the top challenge their organizations will face over the next two years, with 28% of EMEA respondents and 29% of North American respondents saying their organizations are focused on automation. Financial risk and regulatory professionals on both sides of the pond say eliminating manual processes is the top challenge their organizations will face over the next two years, with 28% of EMEA respondents and 29% of North American respondents saying their organizations are focused on automation. Remote collaboration is the top operational challenge: More than half of respondents to the EMEA survey (51%) cited collaborating with teams while working remotely as the top operational challenge they have faced during the pandemic. Among North American respondents, 41% cited remote collaboration as the biggest operational challenge. More than half of respondents to the EMEA survey (51%) cited collaborating with teams while working remotely as the top operational challenge they have faced during the pandemic. Among North American respondents, 41% cited remote collaboration as the biggest operational challenge. Data analytics and cloud come into focus: After years of resisting cloud adoption, many EMEA and North American financial institutions are finally gearing up to make the move. When it comes to regulatory technology spending over the next two years, enhanced data analytics is the top area of focus among 32% of EMEA and 29% of North American survey respondents. Cloud deployment followed with 23% of the vote among both EMEA and North American respondents. After years of resisting cloud adoption, many EMEA and North American financial institutions are finally gearing up to make the move. When it comes to regulatory technology spending over the next two years, enhanced data analytics is the top area of focus among 32% of EMEA and 29% of North American survey respondents. Cloud deployment followed with 23% of the vote among both EMEA and North American respondents. RegTech budgets largely unchanged for 2021: The majority of EMEA (65%) and North American (70%) financial risk professionals said their regulatory technology budgets were not influenced by the COVID-19 crisis, while 22% of EMEA and 19% of North American respondents said they would spend less as a result of the pandemic. The remaining 13% of EMEA respondents and 11% of North American respondents said their firms would spend more on regulatory technology this year. The two surveys were conducted independently as part of AxiomSL's annual EMEA User Conference, which was held virtually on November 19, 2020, and North America User Conference, which was held virtually on June 18, 2020. Survey respondents represented a cross-section of financial risk and regulatory professionals from global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), regional banks, and foreign banking organizations (FBOs). The full report is available here: https://www.axiomsl.com/impacts-and-trends-in-risk-and-regulatory-reporting/ About AxiomSL AxiomSL, a leading global provider of solutions and managed services, delivers efficient risk and regulatory data-management and reporting outcomes for financial institutions. Clients leverage AxiomSL's solutions across financial, liquidity, capital and credit, shareholding disclosure, trade and transaction, and tax mandates. Its single, fully managed, audit-empowered offering, RegCloud - AxiomSL's ControllerView platform in the cloud, futureproofs clients against technology and regulatory change. AxiomSL's client base spans national, regional, and global financial institutions. These comprise banks with $45 trillion in total assets including 80% of G-SIBs; investment managers with $13 trillion in assets under management; and 30% of the top 60 US broker-dealers representing $44 billion in shareholder equity. It covers 110 regulators across 50 jurisdictions. AxiomSL ranks in the top 20 of the Chartis RiskTech100. For more information, visit www.axiomsl.com Contact us John Roderick President, J. Roderick Public Relations Tel: +1 631 584 2200 Email: john@jroderick.com Shamira Alidina Media Relations Director, Dina Communications Tel +44 (0) 7801 590718 Email: shamira@dinacomms.com Francine Gittins Global Head of Marketing and Communications, AxiomSL Tel: +1 212 248 4188 Email: fgittins@axiomsl.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1093660/AxiomSL_Logo.jpg Ousmane Diop, a 27-year-old from Senegal, arrived in Spains Canary Islands four months ago. At first he was housed in tourist accommodation on Gran Canaria, in the popular tourist destination of Puerto Rico, in the southern part of the island. Then he was told that he would be transferred to Las Raices, a large migrant camp set up by the military on the nearby island of Tenerife. The facilities, located within the city limits of La Laguna, can house up to 1,400 people. At the hotel, all I did was eat and sleep. At the camp, it was going to be worse, and from there they were going to send us back to Senegal, he says. Diop wants to train to be a welder, and has decided to fend for himself even if it means sleeping out on the street. After walking out of the hotel in Puerto Rico, he made his way to the island capital, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He still doesnt have a place to stay. Non-profit groups estimate that there are hundreds of people like Diop who have opted out of the shelter system and are now sleeping in ravines, parks, building doorways and shacks and who depend on the charity group Caritas for food. Others got luckier and found a place to live thanks to groups such as Somos Red, a spontaneous citizen network created specifically to provide assistance to migrants in this situation. We figure there are hundreds of them trying to get by, feeling scared, hiding from the police and other threats in the shape of violence, says Antonio Santana Miranda, a member of Somos Red. Young men from Senegal who opted out of the shelter system are now sleeping in a field on the island of Gran Canaria. Javier Bauluz When the transfers to the camps began, stories began to spread among the migrants that from these centers, theyd be deported back to their home countries, adds this volunteer. They also knew that if they wanted to, they could just walk out and move around freely. So many made that choice, finding themselves out on the street since early February. EL PAIS unsuccessfully queried the Spanish governments delegation in the Canaries, as well as the Office of the Secretary of State for Migrations, to find out how many migrants have refused to go to the camps. The Somos Red citizen group has found accommodation for 23 people. Last Saturday, while a group of citizens marched in a protest against illegal immigration encouraged by the far-right party Vox, Somos Red was distributing clothing to migrants at a city square. Ousmane Diop showed up to collect a few t-shirts and a backpack. Atou Yade, 23, and Samba, 22, picked up warm clothes for the cold nights out in the open. Samba, who has been in the Canary Islands since late November, wants to work as a car mechanic. In Puerto Rico, we were told that if we got sent to Las Raices [migrant camp], it would be the step before getting sent back to Senegal. And I dont want that. I just want some help so I can start working. Its not true that going to Tenerife means that the next day theyre going to get deported, says Mame Cheik, president of the Federation of African Associations in the Canary Islands. In fact, they might have a better chance of going to mainland Spain from these centers. A protest against the Spanish government's immigration policy in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The first migrants to sleep out on the streets of Gran Canaria were mostly Moroccans. They had been kicked out of the hotels for violating the code of conduct, or for being gone for more than three days. But when the transfers to the migrant camps began, the profile began to change. Local authorities in San Bartolome de Tirajana admit that there are at least 100 migrants sleeping in parks. In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the city is providing some support measures, but will not give any specific figures. And in Mogan, city officials said that there are no longer any Sub-Saharan Africans sleeping on the streets. According to the charity group Caritas, the number of people using their food pantries in Gran Canaria grew 72% in January from the previous month. In early January, the organization was handing out between 170 and 190 meals a day. This week, that number had shot up to 370. Nearly all of those new people are migrants who left the apartments and shelter services and are now out on the street, said a Caritas source. Government strategy Ever since the Canaries experienced a new peak in arrivals in mid-2020, the Spanish government with support from the European Union has tried different strategies to stem the flow. The most vulnerable migrants have been taken to the mainland, but these cases are few and far between. Starting in December, and based on legal initiatives to enforce health restrictions derived from the coronavirus pandemic, the police began to block port and airport access to migrants who could have otherwise made the journey with a valid passport. Under pressure, the government has started to speed up the transfers. Sources familiar with the situation said that there have been 3,500 authorizations, but it is unclear how many of these transfers have already taken place. The Interior and Migration ministries have not offered any information about them. Just a few weeks after its opening, the Las Raices camp has become a cursed destination. Several people have been camping outside for days to protest the conditions inside. Its really cold in there, there isnt enough food, and a lot of people are telling us that from there, they send you back to your country, says Ndiak, one of the Senegalese nationals who was helped out by Somos Red in Gran Canaria. Now were afraid that the police will show up any moment, arrest us and deport us. The camp is run by a non-profit named Accem. Sources at this organization told EL PAIS that they are working hard to offer the best possible assistance to the migrants. Putting together an initiative like this one is not simple. Different needs and shortcomings arise on a daily basis, and as soon as we detect them we try to solve them, said Accem spokesperson Santiago Gomez-Zorrilla Sanchez. There are surely things that can be improved on, and we are doing our best to do so. With additional reporting by Maria Martin. English version by Susana Urra. 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. 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. Ali Choriev sits in his office in central Bukhara and struggles to hold back tears. I wasted a lot of time and missed many opportunities. I had a lot of amazing offers. Believe me, you can always find money for bread, but if you dont have human dignity, a voice, its very difficult. Throughout his long career, 55-year-old filmmaker had firmly established himself in the local film industry, even rising to become head of the Bukhara branch of Uzbekkino, Uzbekistans national film agency. But as a stateless person for over 20 years, the feeling of humiliation never left him. I never shared my feelings, this pain, with anyone, even with my family. I didnt want them to worry about me. But in embassies and at the borders they always treat you like a nobody. You travel back and forth to receive one visa, Ali says. I never shared my feelings, this pain, with anyone, even with my family. On 21 April Ali received a phone call with good news: after decades of statelessness, he would be confirmed as an Uzbekistani citizen. Newly elected in December 2016, Uzbekistans President Mirziyoyev had begun to resolve cases of statelessness, based on the existing laws. Coincidentally, that momentous day he received the phone call was Alis birthday. He had turned 52 years old, but with the news of his citizenship, he felt as though he had been re-born. Since then, Uzbekistan has continued efforts to address statelessness: a new law adopted in 2020 entitles some 50,000 stateless people who had permanent residency in the country before 1 January 1995 to citizenship of Uzbekistan. They are among approximately 97,000 people known to be stateless in the country as of the end of 2019; they constitute one of the largest known stateless populations in the world. Statelessness in Uzbekistan dates back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, which put the former republics on course to independence. Previously, citizens of the USSR, which stretched from the Baltics to the furthest corners of Central Asia, could travel freely across the vast country. The dissolution in 1991 saw the reinstatement of borders and separate nationalities. Ali was born in the largely Tajik speaking city of Bukhara. An ethnic Tajik, he moved to Tajikistan in 1980 to study acting and directing. Following his graduation, he worked in the Tajik film industry as a directors assistant and then as a second director. In 1992, he moved to Moscow to work with an acclaimed director and his newly founded film company. He worked in Russia for the next four years. At the time, his family had already settled down in Uzbekistan and received Uzbekistani citizenship. Ali joined them only at the end of 1996, after a window to prove a right to citizenship had closed, and thus found himself stateless. As a filmmaker with projects abroad, Ali needed to travel. He received a grey passport a travel document issued to stateless people which allows them to cross the borders. Applying for foreign visas was a struggle. People were inviting me abroad, I have the ticket, the money, but I cannot go. I have to go to the Russian embassy and apply for a visa. Once a sergeant in Azerbaijan threw the passport in my face. And he was right. He . I was a person without citizenship, Ali says. You know that I crossed the border of my own country illegally? I travelled through an unofficial crossing with Kazakhstan in 2002. My visa expired and they would have deported me. So I had to go back illegally. After returning from each of his foreign trips, Ali had to report back to the Uzbek security services. He had to explain in detail where he was and whom he met. After receiving citizenship, Ali says, the security services have left him in peace. Not being able to vote was another issue that Ali struggled with. While Uzbekistan has always been his beloved homeland, he could not participate in its political life. But in December 2019, he voted in Uzbekistans parliamentary election for the first time in his life. I couldnt sleep the whole night. I woke up early in the morning. It was still dark outside but I couldnt wait to cast my vote, Ali says. I was holding back my tears so that my neighbours dont see me cry. Youre 54 years old and you go to vote for the first time, like a teenager. I couldnt sleep the whole night. I woke up early in the morning. It was still dark outside but I couldnt wait to cast my vote. I was holding back my tears so that my neighbours dont see me cry. After receiving citizenship, Ali travelled with his family to Tajikistan. Visiting a country which during his youth had been his second home was an important symbolic way to celebrate his new status. But that was not the only trip he made. I went to Mecca to thank God for my citizenship. Not only for myself, but for all the other people who became citizens: teachers, workers, nurses. There are so many of us, Ali says. I dont want to leave Uzbekistan, I have travelled enough. Now I want to do something for my country. Uzbekistan is my homeland. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The person who died in a Tuesday afternoon fire in Carteret was identified Wednesday night as a 75-year-old borough man, officials said. When firefighters arrived to the Lowell Street home at 4:51 p.m. for a report a structure fire, they found Mark Levinzon inside the burning home, according to a joint statement from the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office and the Carteret Police Department. Levinzon was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. His cause of death was still undetermined Wednesday night and cause and origin of the blaze remained under investigation, the office said. Nobody else was injured in the fire. Anyone with information was asked to call Detective Keith Cassens of the Carteret Police Department at (732) 541-4181 or Detective Kevin Schroeck of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office at (732) 745-4194. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Texas' power grid was minutes from collapse during Winter Storm Uri last week, officials of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) admitted on Wednesday. Bill Magness, ERCOT's chief executive told the Wall Street Journal that the grid operator came close to losing control of the system through the night on February 15. Magness explained that the storm caused the grid's operating frequency to fall to dangerous levels, which prompted ERCOT to try and stabilize it by ordering the states electricity providers to cut 5 gigawatts of power to customers. He said that just before 2am, the frequency of the grid fell significantly below the normal level of 60 hertz and stayed below 60 hertz for more than 4 minutes until the company ordered more blackouts, according to the Journal. Bill Magness (pictured), ERCOT's chief executive said Wednesday that the grid operator came dangerously close to losing control of the system through the night on February 15 He said that just before 2am, the frequency of the grid fell significantly below the normal level of 60 hertz and stayed below 60 hertz for more than 4 minutes until the company ordered more blackouts. An electrical substation is seen in Houston, Texas, on February 21 Magness said had the frequency stayed below 60 hertz for nine minutes or more, power generators and other equipment could've suffered damage and resulted in uncontrolled outages that could have caused the entire grid to fail. 'That is the thing we cannot allow to happen,' Magness told the Journal. 'If we have a blackout of the system, the system is out for an indeterminate amount of time and its extraordinarily difficult to bring it back.' Magness shed some light on what happened last week during a meeting with ERCOT directors on Wednesday. The meeting marked their first since winter storms brought subfreezing temperatures for days, cutting power to up to 4.3 million people and causing millions of dollars of damages. Six ERCOT directors have resigned and a board nominee declined a seat amid sharp criticism of their performance. Sally Talberg, chairman of the board and one of the six to submit a resignation, said ERCOT 'worked tirelessly' to keep the grid from collapse. She led Magness through a sometimes hour-by-hour review of the loss of power available to the grid and communications with consumers and officials. Texas has no mandatory weatherization standards for the power plants that supply the grid, Magness said, pointing to a likely direction for lawmakers as they begin hearings on the weather disaster on Thursday. The meeting marked ERCOT's first since winter storms brought subfreezing temperatures for days, cutting power to up to 4.3 million people and causing millions of dollars of damages. A family is seen boiling water and lighting candles in Texas on February 15 About 48 per cent of the power generation available in the state was forced offline at the peak of the outages due to cold weather, lack of fuel or mechanical failures, Magness said. ERCOT had ample reserves available through Sunday, when generators began to drop off the grid. Utilities cut power to homes and businesses to prevent serious damage to generators and transmission lines, he said. Plans to rotate outages among consumers could not happen because of the sizeable loss of generation, he said. Randal Miller, who represented independent retail power providers, resigned late Tuesday, leaving the board with seven vacancies. Talberg, ERCOT's vice chairman, Peter Cramton, and three other directors, all of whom live outside of Texas, also submitted resignations. Directors have been widely criticized for their handling of the outage and for not living in the state. Texas Governor Greg Abbott welcomed the resignations, noting ERCOT has assured it had adequate power ahead of the storm. The Republican governor has put much of the blame for the outages on ERCOT and called for investigations. 'The lack of preparedness and transparency at ERCOT is unacceptable, and I welcome these resignations,' Abbott said in a statement. 'The State of Texas will continue to investigate ERCOT and uncover the full picture of what went wrong, and we will ensure that the disastrous events of last week are never repeated,' the governor added. The resignations are effective as of Wednesday, a day before Texas lawmakers are set to begin hearings over the outages in the state Capitol. Historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures in Texas last week left millions without power and water for days. The storm was part of any icy blast across the Deep South that is blamed for at least 80 deaths. The live events industry has launched a hard-hitting campaign highlighting the turmoil its workers are going through, and urging the Government to act now and safeguard the sector's future. The campaign, 'The Government Can't See Us, Can You?' or #GovCantSeeUs, shows the devastation the coronavirus pandemic has wrought on the live events supply chain. Professionals in the sector have shared their stories, revealing how much income they have lost - in many cases 100 per cent - and what Government support they have received, if any. The #GovCantSeeUs campaign by the live events industry highlights the turmoil thousands of workers have been going through for the last 12 months, as most gatherings have been banned The campaign comes as #WeMakeEvents - the group which represents the hundreds of thousands of freelancers, self-employed workers and company directors in the live events industry - revealed the results of a survey which suggested the sector was on the verge of collapse. Pre-pandemic, the UK live events industry brought in more than 70billion a year to the UK economy and supported more than 700,000 jobs. This includes those working across all types of live events, including theatre, music, corporate events, festivals, conferences and almost any form of organised gathering. However, since the first national lockdown was enforced in March 2020, and live events were completely shut down, the vast majority of those working in the sector have faced some form of struggle. The survey, which questioned over 2,800 businesses and individuals in the sector, found that 93 per cent had seen their income fall dramatically as a result of the pandemic. Sixty-five per cent had seen it shrink by more than 50 per cent, while 30 per cent had seen a drop of more than 90 per cent. Yet, 34 per cent of these individuals and businesses said they had received no form of financial aid either, be that Government loans, grants or even the furlough scheme. This is partly because the events industry employs a lot of freelancers, who would not be eligible for schemes such as furlough. As a result, 50 per cent of those surveyed reported having to take work outside of live events to supplement their income. A third had been forced to leave altogether, or said they were considering doing so very soon. Meanwhile, 43 per cent of businesses in the live events supply chain said they didnt have the resources to last until the summer. As part of the campaign, #WeMakeEvents has also penned an open letter to Rishi Sunak ahead of next week's Budget, sharing these figures and demanding the Government recognise the plight the sector is currently in. It says the Government has 'appeared blind' to the issues facing the events industry and urges it to develop a plan for reopening, including Government-backed cancellation insurance. #WeMakeEvents open letter to Rishi Sunak asks for engagement to help the industry develop a plan for reopening, which it says should include Government-backed cancellation insurance It reads: 'The campaign focuses on the fact that the Government has frequently appeared blind to the existential issues facing the live event supply chain. 'Thousands of highly-skilled individuals whose businesses and livelihoods have been seriously damaged have also been deemed ineligible for Government support. 'While we are grateful for the support that you have made available so far during the pandemic, which has helped many, our entire sector has been unable to work due to Government social distancing restrictions so it is essential that we are all given access to adequate support.' The group has asked to end the 'unjust exclusion' of certain freelancers, self-employed people and directors of small businesses from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. It has also asked for further support in the form of 100 per cent business rates relief and one-off grants. It added: 'Once live events can safely reopen, we will do everything we can to rebuild our sector and make our contribution to the recovery of the UK economy. 'However, we need your support now if that is going to be possible - only you can ensure we avoid collapse before reopening.' 'We need Government support to keep our head above water' Neil Hunt is founder of ZigZag Lighting, a stage lighting supply company which supplies lighting to tours, shows and festivals across the country and even abroad. He was halfway through a tour when live events were abruptly halted in March last year. All subsequent events for 2020 were also cancelled, and this appears to be continuing for much of 2021. The firm's turnover has dropped by 98 per cent and all staff have been furloughed, though this is due to end soon. Meanwhile, Neil's application for the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund was turned down. He has applied for the second round, the outcome of which will be revealed in March. He said: 'Trying to survive without work has put immense pressure on us as a business and on me personally. 'Initially, there was some optimism as we thought we could return to work last year. But that didnt happen, and now it has been almost a year without work. 'We really need support from the Government to help us keep our heads above water. Otherwise, there wont be an industry for us to go back to.' Commenting on Boris Johnson's 'Roadmap to recovery' announced earlier this week, the campaign group said it welcomed the positive steps - but it also said that while it is indeed a roadmap to getting out of lockdown, it is not a roadmap to reopening the economy and that more clarity was urgently needed. Duncan Bell, of #WeMakeEvents, said: 'Before any event goes live, it takes many months of pre-production work and huge upfront financial investment - so it is essential that we have adequate warning of when live events can reopen. 'Weve been telling the Government this for almost a year, but yet again they have failed to see or hear our concerns' Julian Knight MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, added: 'Its hugely disappointing that, almost a year since stages went dark, the skilled professionals making up our world-leading creative sector are still falling through the cracks of Government support. 'The DCMS Committee continues to hear evidence on the severe impact the pandemic has had on those in live event supply chains, in our inquiry into the support needed to save the 2021 season of festivals. 'I hope this serves as a catalyst to the Government taking the steps it so urgently needs to, including backing Covid-19 cancellation insurance.' BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Croatia's producer prices declined further in January, figures from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday. The producer price index fell 2.2 percent year-on-year in January, following a 2.5 percent decrease in December. Prices fell for the eleventh month in a row. Prices in the domestic market decreased 2.2 percent annually in January and those in the foreign market fell 3.4 percent. On a month-on-month basis, producer prices rose 0.9 percent in January, following a 1.0 percent increase in the previous month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 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. Sorry! This content is not available in your region A man has plunged to his death from a ritzy apartment block in Sydney's inner suburbs that is home to some of Australia's richest people. Police and three ambulances rushed to the Horizon tower in Darlinghurst just before 8.30 on Thursday morning. A police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia it was a 'self-harm-related incident'. Investigations are ongoing. The Horizon building was designed by famed Austrian-Australian architect Harry Seidler in 1998. Police were called to the scene in Darlinghurst, in the city's inner suburbs, just before 8.30 on Thursday morning (stock image) Famous occupants include actor Jackie Weaver, director Baz Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin, Sothebys art dealer Justin Miller, property developer Bob Ell and Bayswater Brasserie owner Robert Smallbone. In 2019, Francesca Packer-Barham, the niece of billionaire businessman and casino mogul James Packer, bought a $16 million five-bedroom apartment in the complex. David Walsh, who built Australia's acclaimed Museum of Old and New Art gallery in Hobart, listed his ritzy Darlinghurst pad in 2014 for $16million. Just last year, tenants all over NSW won the right to live with their pets because Jo Cooper, who lives in the Horizon building, won a ruling in the NSW Court of Appeal. Ms Cooper was driven to overturn the law by her yearning to keep her miniature schnauzer named Angus in the apartment complex, which had a strata pet ban in place. The unanimous verdict from three judges means no building in NSW can impose a blanket ban on pets. The court ruled the Horizon complex would be responsible for the cost of the hearings, amounting to about $500,000. Lifeline 13 11 14, Beyondblue 1300 22 4636 The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. decided Thursday to withdraw from the Vinh Tan 3 coal-fired power plant project in Vietnam amid growing international concern about climate change, Nikkei has learned. The project is separate from the Vung Ang 2 coal power plant, which the governments of Japan and Vietnam are pursuing together. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has called for the cancellation of Vung Ang 2. Vinh Tan 3, planned for Binh Thuan Province in southern Vietnam, is scheduled to come online in 2024. The 2-gigawatt plant is expected to feature cutting-edge ultra-supercritical technology. OneEnergy, a joint venture of Mitsubishi and Hong Kong's CLP group, holds a 49% interest in the $2 billion project. State-owned Electricity of Vietnam owns another 29%. Chinese companies are handling materials procurement, construction and equipment delivery. New Delhi, Feb 25 : In a major setback to fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, a UK court on Thursday ordered his extradition in connection with the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank loan fraud case, after almost a two-year long legal battle. The ruling of the Westminster Magistrates' Court will now be sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a sign-off, on whose approval he can move an appeal against the court's order in the country's high court. The District Judge of the Westminster Magistrates' Court, Samuel Goozee, on Thursday accepted the prima facie evidence against Modi for money laundering, saying: "Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence that he could be convicted." "The ruling will now be sent to the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will take a final call on the extradition. The Secretary of State has to take a decision within two months or can seek an extension from the high court," said a prominent Supreme Court lawyer, on condition of anonymity. If the extradition is approved, Nirav Modi will have the option to challenge it in the high court. Unless there is an appeal, he must be extradited within 28 days of the Secretary of State's decision to order extradition. As per the legal experts, all criminal cases start in the magistrates' court, but the more serious criminal matters are committed to the Crown Court. Appeals from the Crown Court go to the high court, and potentially to the Court of Appeal or even the Supreme Court. According to the UK Supreme Court's official website, not all orders made by lower courts can be appealed to the apex court. "In most cases, to bring an appeal to the Supreme Court, you must first apply to the court which handed down the judgment to ask for permission to appeal," it said. The founder of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India in a Rs 9,000 crore loan defraud cae, had also approached the UK High Court which had dismissed his appeal against extradition on April 20 last year. The high court had also rejected his plea to move the Supreme Court against the dismissal of his appeal challenging the lower court's approval of his extradition to India. Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi was arrested on an extradition warrant on March 19, 2019 on charges of money laundering, conspiring to destroy evidence and intimidating witnesses. The charges against Modi centers around his firms Diamonds R Us, Stellar Diamonds and Solar Exports for making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the PNB, known as 'letters of undertaking' (LoUs). He is facing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a large-scale fraud upon PNB through fraudulently obtaining LoUs or loan agreements. He is also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud. Meanwhile, he also faces two additional charges of "causing disappearance of evidence" and "intimidating witnesses" or "criminal intimidation to cause death", which were added to the CBI case. The ED has attached several assets of Nirav Modi running into crores of rupees in connection with the case. Risk maps to predict West Nile virus spread a year in advance Knowing the environmental and human-related variables that characterize the favorable areas for the incidence of the West Nile virus, a flavivirus that is transmitted from birds to humans by mosquitoes, is essential to identify those places in Europe at high risk of experiencing outbreaks, even before these are registered, thus enabling preventive measures to be taken. Researchers of the Biogeography, Diversity and Conservation Group of the University of Malaga have developed risk models for West Nile Fever, the disease caused in humans by this virus, which, based on historical incidence data, may predict areas of future outbreaks a year in advance, as well as detect their intensity. Artificial intelligence to develop risk models Particularly, using modelling based on fuzzy logic and artificial intelligence, they have analyzed the incidence of the disease in Europe in 2017 to explain and restate the "abnormally high" data of 2018, the year with the highest number of cases registered so far, a total of 1605. The results have been recently published in the scientific journal PLoS Negl Trop Dis. "Based on the analyzed data, we could successfully predict the places where the disease appeared, the intensity of outbreaks and the time they occurred", explains Raimundo Real, scientist of the Animal Biology Department of the UMA. This expert asserts that anticipating the possible incidence of the disease may lead to taking preventive measures specifically in risk areas. These measures include early spraying, advising the population on measures to avoid bites or controlling the water points where mosquitoes breed. Likewise, healthcare centers could be warned about the possible disease incidence in the area, contributing to early diagnosis and improving prognosis. Spatial and environmental variables For the development of the risk maps, the researchers used a spatial model related to bird migration routes, which act as reservoir of the virus. On the other hand, they determined that the environmental risk factors are high temperatures, presence of river courses, low altitude areas, which usually have a warmer climate and conditions of higher humidity, and the presence of certain livestock facilities, such as stables and poultry farms, which, as they assure, are the most favorable factors for the spread of the virus. "We have observed that high temperatures speed up the life cycles of mosquitoes, shortening their gonotrophic cycle -period between the time mosquitoes feed on blood and the time they feed again-, therefore, in warmer areas mosquito bite rate is also higher, facilitating the transmission of the virus", emphasizes the professor of the UMA. Early warning: basin scale Likewise, rivers are related to the presence and proliferation of mosquitoes, so rivers also contribute to a higher infection rate. "In 2017, the outbreaks began in the lower areas of large river basins and spread to higher areas, which highlights the importance of river basins in the propagation of outbreaks", says Raimundo Real, who adds that, consequently, the early warning should be based on a basin scale. This way, the Head of the Animal Biology Department of the UMA states that some Spanish provinces of western Andalusia, southern Extremadura and southwestern Castilla-La Mancha, especially the lowest areas of the Guadalquivir and Guadiana valleys, are European sites that are environmentally favorable for the transmission of the disease, which directly affects the human nervous system. ### The study "Predicting the spatio-temporal spread of West Nile virus in Europe" is part of the National Plan project "Analysis of risks in Spain associated with the changing biogeographical basis of zoonotic diseases in humans", which is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the ERDF. The study has been also conducted in collaboration with the International Vaccination Center of Malaga of the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare. Bibliography: Garcia-Carrasco, J. M., Munoz, A. R., Olivero, J., Segura, M. y Real, R. (2021). Predicting the spatio-temporal spread of the West Nile virus in Europe. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15(1), e0009022. https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1371/ journal. pntd. 0009022 This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. If 'Jai Bangla' makes us pro-Bangladesh, what about BJP's 'Sonar Bangla': Abhishek India pti-Deepika S Kolkata, Feb 25: Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday wondered how the BJP call the ruling party of West Bengal pro-Bangladesh for chanting "Jai Bangla (hail Bengal)", when its own slogan "Sonar Bangla" (Golden Bengal) is part of the national anthem of Bangladesh. Banerjee, also the youth wing president of the TMC, alleged that water was poured at a helipad to prevent him coming to at Matua stronghold Thakurnaga. "They (BJP) call us pro-Bangladesh for chanting Jai Bangla slogan. But what about their own slogan 'Sonar Bangla' which is the national anthem of Bangladesh," Banerjee said while addressing a public meeting at Thakurnagar. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee rides pillion on electric scooter to protest fuel price hike "Jai Bangla" was a popular slogan during the Bangladesh liberation war, while the BJP is promising people to make the state "Sonar Bangla" if voted to power in the coming assembly election. "I am a Bhumiputra of this soil. I am not an outsider like you. The voters of Bengal will reject you," he said apparently referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda who held public meetings here recently. Around 500 cases of black fungus in Delhi, injections in short supply: Kejriwal COVID-19 Vaccine: Sputnik V-makers have agreed to supply jabs to Delhi, says Kejriwal Not the time to fight with state governments: Arvind Kejriwal on West Bengal chief secretary transfer CM Kejriwal has full Z plus cover, says Delhi cop after AAP claims security team was cut India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Feb 25: A day before Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal''s roadshow in Gujarat''s Surat, sources in the AAP government alleged on Thursday that his security cover has been scaled down, a charge denied by the Union Home Ministry. Joint Commissioner(Security) of Delhi Police ID Shukla said Kejriwal has a Z+ security cover and his "complete Z+ security" is being maintained. "The development at the behest of the BJP leadership has come two days after the Aam Aadmi Party''s impressive performance in the Gujarat civic body polls," a source claimed. The number of commandos of the Delhi Police in Kejriwal''s security has now been reduced from six to two, the sources alleged. However, officials at the Home Ministry said no such decision has been taken by it. According to police, Kejriwal has been provided with Z+ security which comprises of a pilot, an escort, a close protection team, a house guard, spotters, searching/frisking staff and others in form of 47 plainclothes security personnel and 16 personnel from the CRPF. The security cover provided to the chief minister remains unchanged and there has been no reduction in the number of security personnel provided to him, they said. Four of the six commandos have been replaced due to administrative reasons, police said, adding that this is a normal procedure as per the Yellow Book. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj demanded the Centre to clarify the reasons behind the "petty decision" to reduce Kejriwal''s security cover. "The MHA has withdrawn four police commandos from Arvind Kejriwal''s security. It''s sad and regrettable that the Centre could compromise with someone''s security like this," Bhardwaj said. He said Kejriwal was attacked several times in the past and yet he has a security cover comprising of only six police commandos which is negligible as compared to that of other CMs or central government ministers. Bhardwaj said the move comes two days after the AAP''s "grand" performance in Gujarat civic body polls. The AAP has won 27 seats in the municipal polls in Surat, where the party convener will attend a roadshow on Friday. Kejriwal had termed the party''s success in Gujarat as the beginning of a new politics in the state. The Biden administration has already reversed many of the Trump administrations retreats from international agreements and organizations, rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change and the World Health Organization, planning a return to the U.N. Human Rights Council, and attempting to resuscitate the six-country 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. But, notably, the administration has not yet undone one of Trumps most egregious assaults on a multilateral institution: the sanctions on the International Criminal Court. The Trump administration retaliated against the ICC, the Hague-based court set up to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, for its decision to authorize an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, including allegations of torture by U.S. personnel, as well as ongoing investigations of alleged Israeli war crimes in the occupied territories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of the court, but Afghanistan and the Palestinian Authority are, so crimes that occur there are within its jurisdiction. In March 2019, thenSecretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa restrictions on any court officials involved in investigation of U.S. personnel. ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had her visa revoked the following month. Then, the following year, after the court decided to greenlight the prosecutors Afghanistan investigation, the U.S. slapped economic sanctions on those officials, and extended the travel ban to their families. While technically legal, this was bullying behavior that only rallied international support for the ICC. Many expected the sanctions to be lifted immediately after Trump left. Days after taking office, the Biden administration announced a review of the sanctions, but results of that review have not yet been released. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment from Slate but told the Guardians Julian Borger last week that the administration is still thoroughly reviewing sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13928 as we determine our next steps. The ICCs advocates are getting impatient. Last week, 80 nongovernmental organizations, religious groups, and academic institutions issued a joint statement calling for the sanctions to be repealed. Advertisement Advertisement Why the holdup? Axios Barak Ravid shed some light on that on Wednesday, reporting Israeli diplomats have been lobbying the administration hard to keep the sanctions in place, arguing that even if the administration disagrees with the sanctions, it should keep them in place as leverage to dissuade Bensouda and her successor from pursuing the investigations into Afghanistan or the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally raised the issue in his conversation with Biden last week. Even before that lobbying, the Biden team had suggested that while they didnt approve of Trumps methods, they shared his concerns about the court. Weve always taken the position that the Courts jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that can consent to it or that are referred to by the U.N. Security Council, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price. In other words, Americans and Israelis should be exempt from the courts jurisdiction, even if they commit war crimes in a country that is a member of the court. Advertisement During the Obama administration, the U.S. was somewhat more cooperative with the ICC. For instance, in 2013, the U.S. turned Congolese Gen. Bosco Ntaganda over to the court, where he was later convicted of war crimes. The U.S. also voted in 2011 to authorize an ICC investigation of crimes against humanity in Libya, albeit only after insisting on immunity for its own citizens. Advertisement However, that was before the Afghanistan and Palestine investigations. The U.S. relationship with the ICC is in a much more complicated place than it was when the Obama administration took over, says David Bosco, an expert on international institutions and professor at Indiana University. The sanctions are something that the Biden administration never would have imposed, but the politics of pulling them off right now given Afghanistan and Palestine are complicated. Advertisement Its not quite clear if theres a way for the U.S. to both lift the sanctions and dissuade the investigations. The U.S. is already not a member of the courtBill Clinton signed the Rome Statute that established the court in 2000, but it was never ratified by Congress and a law passed in 2002, nicknamed the Hague Invasion Act by its opponents, authorizes the use of force to secure the release of any U.S. citizens detained for prosecution by the court. That ought to be enough. Its not realistic at this time for human rights advocates to hope the U.S. will join the court, subjecting its citizens to the same international legal standards for war crimes that we support in Africa and the Middle East, but at the very least, the Biden administration should call off its predecessors bullying overreach. Amidst escalated tensions in Afghanistan, the German government has said that it was preparing to keep its troops in the war-torn nation until next year if needed. As per the law, the foreign deployment of German soldiers requires approval by Bundestag, which is granted annually. The deadline of the previous deployment was set to lapse in March, however, the Angela Merkel administration, on February 24, approved a new draft mandate that enables the German troops to be stationed in Afghanistan till January 31, 2022. In January 2015, NATO launched the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) to train, advise and assist Afghanistans military institutions. Currently, it numbers around 10,000 troops from 36 NATO Allies and partner countries. Out of the total, Germany's troop's number to 1,100, making it the second-largest contributor to the alliance. Defending the decision, Germanys Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Mass, asserted that withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should be tied to progress in slow-moving peace negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban, rather than slavishly bound to the May 1 deadline. The Trump administration in February 2020 inked the Afghan Peace deal with the Taliban and Afghanistan administration. As per the terms of the pact, the US has till May 1 to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan. While the newly appointed Biden administration is currently reviewing the pact, the Taliban has have resisted suggestions of even a brief extension. Read: Afghan Govt, Taliban To Begin Peace Talks In Doha, Experts Hope For A Lasting Ceasefire Read: Seychelles, Afghanistan Express Gratitude To PM Modi For Made In India COVID Vaccine Doses Explosions in Kabul Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated. At least three were killed, including a child, and 20 others injured in a deadly roadside explosion that rocked Afghanistans capital, Kabul on Sunday, February 21, a police official said. Ferdaws Faramarz told the Associated Press agency that the first two blasts tore through the motorcades 15 minutes apart, targeting a police vehicle. A child nearby was fatally wounded, and 5 other civilians in the immediate vicinity were killed, including the driver. The explosive device, according to the police, was attached with the magnets to the vehicle and was detonated using a remote control. A third explosion rocked a bustling, overcrowded commercial market, claiming one civilian and critically wounding two police officers. Read: US President Joe Biden Would Not Be Okay If The Taliban Ruled Afghanistan: WH Read: Afghanistan: Roadside Explosions In A Crowded Market Kill 3 Including A Child; 20 Injured (With inputs from the Associated Press) 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. 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. Seeing his son get excited about online learning, Thu decided to register him for an English online class run by an overseas Vietnamese who teaches via Zoom. However, the boy later said he was overloaded and tired of online learning. The same thing happened with her older son. It was easier to study online last year, when by sons were in fourth and eighth grades. They prefer online study because they did not have to get up early to go to school. But things are different now, she said. As the kids are in the final grades of primary and secondary levels, they have to do more exercises and feel stressful, she explained. As schools have closed amid the new Covid-19 outbreak and organized online classes, Thu has had to buy one more laptop for the younger son. They also need a smartphone, in case of computer troubles. Thus older son plans to take the entrance exam to the high school for the gifted, majoring in foreign languages. He has three learning periods in the morning and another three in the afternoon. He also has two English, one mathematics and one literature lessons with private tutors a week. My son complains that he feels tired and suffers from eyestrain as he has to sit too long in front of computer. However, he has no other choice than studying hard because he will have to take one of the two most important exams in his life this summer, she said. Thu hopes that the teachers at school will re-design their lesson plans so students dont have to look at computer screen intently for too long. La Mai Huyen, a mother in Hanoi, also is embarrassed as her children have to study online. My daughter is in second grade and she could not study online without the parents help. I have to leave a laptop at home for my son, a seventh grader, to study online and I am insecure about that. I am afraid that he would use the laptop to access the websites with bad content, she explained. Huyen also complained that she has become busier since the children have shifted to study online. I have to check notices from teachers sent to my phone regularly and I have to print documents that serve my childrens lessons, she complained. Ha Van Dung, a ninth grader in Thai Binh, also complained he is tired of learning on the computer every day. This puts pressure on me. My mother urges me to study harder and harder all the time, he said. Thuy Nga Vietnam embraces digital transformation, online teaching in education sector Thai Van Thanh, director of the Nghe An Education and Training Department, said if there are favorable conditions, online teaching will bring big benefits, especially in remote areas. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Cal Bank has partnered with Saham Insurance to unveil a new product targeted at customers of the bank and particularly the medium enterprises' sector. The new partnership by Cal Bank and Saham which has been made available to customers on the banks digital platforms will improve insurance penetration in the country. This is due to the role the bank will be playing in getting its customers to buy an insurance product from Saham. At the launch of the product in Accra, the Managing Director of Cal Bank, Philip Owiredu explained the category of customers to be insured under the policy. Saying the product is made available to all their customers, but particularly, car and homeowners including Small and Medium Enterprises, due to the kind of operations they are involved in. He noted that buoyant insurance industry is critical to the growth of the Ghanaian economy especially in this time of COVID- 19 pandemic and that Cal Bank is demonstrating its readiness to partner with insurers to support its relevance for national development. Managing Director of Saham Insurance, Mabel Nyarko Pobley explaining the need for everyone to have an insurance policy, she said the partnership is necessary because it will increase insurance penetration in the country. She also assured customers of enhanced offerings and customer-centric services under the new partnership. The Commissioner of National Insurance Commission, Mr Justice Yaw Ofori on his part said the contributions of the bancassurance sub-sector is increasingly growing and having a significant impact on the insurance industry and remains an attractive business arrangement as it enables both the insurers and banks leverage. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video If they come back to our facility, we will be giving them the same vaccine they got for the first shot, Stamp said, adding the health department will likely dedicate one are for people getting second doses of Moderna and another for those receiving the Pfizer vaccine. The local airport may hire a company to offer COVID-19 tests for airline passengers. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board heard a presentation on the idea Thursday from Dr. Sheeva Rajaei, CEO and chief medical officer of Rapicare, based in Horsham, a Philadelphia suburb. The airport board also hired a new full-time public safety director and authorized the installation of a Bitcoin sales machine. Rajaei, a cardiologist, said the company would provide antigen test results in five minutes and PCR test results within 48 hours guaranteed. One of the benefits that we see for the airport is that really this provides a great deal of comfort for passengers, Rajaei said. I think one of the biggest fears and the reason why theyre not traveling is because they just dont feel safe. So being able to give a patient easy access to testing, should they choose before they get on their flights, will potentially increase the number of passengers in the future. The antigen test costs $65; the PCR test, considered the gold standard for COVID-19 testing, costs $165, Rajaei said after the meeting. The company would set up a small kiosk in the airport terminal and perhaps pay rent for the space, she said. In terms of international travel, you all probably know its a requirement, for all countries practically if youre traveling internationally, to have a PCR test. Some of them accept a rapid antigen but regardless, you need some sort of testing, Rajaei said. Domestic travel right now is still up in the air. The company has a drive-thru testing center in Horsham but is only beginning to try to expand to airports, Rajaei said. Many larger airports already offer testing, she said. The idea intrigued airport board members, but member David Pedri said the board should publicly seek proposals to gauge other companies interest. I think its a great service, (Im) really interested. I just couldnt support it without going through the RFP (request for proposals) process, he said. In other business, the board hired retired state Trooper Lt. Floyd P. Bowen Jr., 51, of Forty Fort, as the new airport public safety director at $60,000 a year. Bowen, a Scranton native, retired in January 2020 as commander of the state police barracks at Blooming Grove. Before that, he directed the state polices criminal records and investigation division, according to his resume. The airport needed a replacement because the last new hire, Gary Vogue, resigned in July after only 3 months on the job to remain with the state police. Longtime Public Safety Director George Bieber retired Jan. 31, 2020. The board also agreed to let Hugo Amusements Inc. of Scranton install the Bitcoin machine. Bitcoin is a digital currency thats grown in popularity around the world over the last decade. The airport will earn $450 a quarter or 1.5% of gross sales, whichever is higher, with a guarantee of at least $1,800 a year. Erin Shirreffs works Bronze and Four-color cafe terrace, both on view at the Clark, are like visual art versions of that old game Telephone where you start with a word, whisper it around a circle and end up with something entirely different. To create Bronze, she used a page from an art history book (written by Julia Busch) that reproduced a picture (taken by photographer Rudy Burckhardt) of a bronze sculpture (made by artist David Silva), which was inspired by ancient Roman marbles. Shirreff enlarged the print enough to reveal the traces of the sculptors hand, printed it on aluminum sheets, cut up the sheets and arranged them in a frame. The result is an enigmatic, layered composition that bears no obvious resemblance to the source material, yet is intimately connected with it. Shirreff followed a similar process with Four-color cafe terrace, using a print of a photograph of a terra cotta sculpture by Anthony Caro, based on a Henri Matisse oil painting from 1915. Here, the circular and blocky shapes in her work retain an echo of the original filtered through four incarnations in multiple mediums, created over 100 years. As these two works suggest, Shirreff is fascinated by the experience of looking, and specifically the disparity between encountering art in three-dimensional space as opposed to on the page or the screen. An image literally flattens the experience of an object onto the page in the case of sculpture, youre only seeing one side of it, she said in a recent interview from her home base in Montreal. (A native of British Columbia, she holds an MFA from Yale and spent many years living and working in New York City.) Theres something about that Ive always found inherently compelling the object you cant fully grasp on the page. I love the mystery. There are all these layers and veils between you as a viewer and the original gesture of the artist that first moment when the artist manipulated the material. Remainders, a selection of the artists recent work, will be at the Clark through January 2022, mounted not in a gallery but in nontraditional viewing spaces. Her series Figs hangs in the museums library, which makes sense, Shirreff says, because the pieces chosen for the show come out of my own love of looking at books, specifically looking at artwork on the printed pagethe limitations of that experience but also the imaginative possibilities that come from looking at images you dont completely understand. For Figs, an ongoing series, Shirreff constructs small plaster objects, photographs them and then slices the images and combines them in new ways. The scale of the objects, the relationship between them and their material are all ambiguous to the viewer. The end result is an image that looks like a whole object, but then you realize its actually made of two different halves, she said. So part of the work is a recognition that theres all this missing informationtheres a strong sense of incompletion." Also on view at the Clark is her 39-minute video, Still, a seamless loop that tracks through textured, grayscale images of static objects in informal arrangements. They might be buildings in a nighttime city or machines in an abandoned factory, or something else entirely. Intentionally slow and meditative, Still invites the viewer to simply watch, without recognizing or categorizing what theyre seeing. That moment when you surrender yourself to an object can be very unnervingyou dont quite know what youre looking at or what it means, Shirreff reflected. I think it takes time for that experience to unfold and be meaningful, and I dont know how equipped we are to pay that kind of attention anymore. I think its why people end up taking pictures in museumsthey can think theyll go back and look at it later. It gives a certain level of comfort, like youve grasped something even if you havent. If you go Erin Shirreffs "Remainders" When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday Where: Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown, Mass. RTHK: Biden's CIA pick stresses China threat Veteran US diplomat William Burns, nominated to lead the CIA, pledged on Wednesday to keep the agency free of politics and said China would be his biggest focus if confirmed. Burns was picked by President Joe Biden to replace retiring Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel and to help restore an air of independence after former president Donald Trump allegedly tried to manipulate the country's spies for political reasons. He told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his career in the Middle East and Russia made him appreciate the value of untainted intelligence. "I learned that good intelligence, delivered with honesty and integrity, is America's first line of defence," he told the panel. "I learned that intelligence professionals have to tell policymakers what they need to hear, even if they don't want to hear it. And I learned that politics must stop where intelligence work begins." He said Biden stressed that "he wants the agency to give it to him straight." "And I pledged to do just that, and to defend those who do the same." Burns also told the panel that China was the main challenge the country faces, echoing views stated by Biden and other top officials of his administration. "Out-competing China will be key to our national security in the decades ahead. That will require a long-term, clear-eyed, bipartisan strategy, underpinned by domestic renewal and solid intelligence," he said. He said that while in some areas, like nuclear non-proliferation, the United States can cooperate with Beijing, it is nevertheless "a formidable, authoritarian adversary." The CIA in particular has faced challenges, with China having recruited a number of US diplomats and spies over recent years and also, starting a decade ago, bringing down the CIA's own network of informants in the country. Burns also stressed in a statement to the hearing that the fight for technological superiority in espionage, including the use of artificial intelligence, will also be a key part of his mission. Until his nomination Burns was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading Washington foreign policy think-tank. If approved as expected by the Senate, Burns will be the first career diplomat to lead the CIA. But he has deep experience in security and intelligence matters after spending over three decades in the US foreign service, including a stint as ambassador to Russia from 2005-2008. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. UpCountry Magazine Editor/Features Digital Editor Jennifer Huberdeau is the acting features editor. Prior to The Eagle, she worked at The North Adams Transcript. She is a 2020 New England First Amendment Institute Fellow and a 2010 BCBS Health Care Fellow. JACKSONVILLE, Ore. -- Restaurants in Jacksonville are preparing to offer limited indoor dining starting this weekend. Under current state health guidelines for counties in the "High Risk" level, Jackson County restaurants can only have up to 50 people indoors. Businesses like the Jacksonville Inn say they have a long to-do list to take care of before they can seat people at their tables. Theyll have to order kitchen supplies and do some maintenance work. Co-owner Jerry Evans says he looks forward to seeing people dine indoors again, but says the pandemic is still taking its toll on the restaurant industry. It's almost impossible to be profitable right now, Evans said. We can keep people employed, but it's going to be an absolute disaster for the industry if we don't get through this pandemic thing it's just very, very difficult. Christian Hamilton, co-owner of Bella Union, says he looks forward to having indoor dining again, but hes also a little apprehensive. I noticed that three counties raised in risk level, which I find concerning, Hamilton said. I don't want to every two weeks have to make another change. So, although we're excited, it's with a little bit of apprehension. Hamilton says theyll be busy trying to get a hold of staff and making sure they have enough restaurant supplies. WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmation hearing for Deb Haaland, nominated to become the first Native American interior secretary, morphed Tuesday into a proxy fight over the future of fossil fuels as lawmakers from oil- and gas-producing states grilled her regarding the Biden administration's plan to transition the country toward green energy. Nearly all the Republican members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee questioned Haaland about her past statements regarding the need to stop drilling on federal lands managed by the Interior Department. President Joe Biden, who says the country needs to transition away from burning fossil fuels in an effort to mitigate climate change, has paused new drilling leases on public lands and waters - a sharp departure from the Trump administration, which sought to expand drilling. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asked in rapid succession if the federal government should permit new gas wells and coal leases in states that rely heavily on them. "The state of Wyoming has collected over a billion dollars annually in royalties and taxes from oil, gas and coal produced on federal lands within our borders, within our borders and Wyoming isn't the only state that benefits from energy production on public lands," he said. "We shouldn't undermine America's energy production and we should not hurt our own economy. Yet that's precisely what the Biden administration is doing by signing an executive order to ban all new oil, coal, gas leases on federal lands, the president is taking a sledgehammer to Western states' economies." Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, flagged the executive order Biden signed on his first day in office that placed a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). "You've got to understand, [Alaskans are] looking at this and saying, 'Wait a minute, why is this administration out to get us?' " Murkowski told Haaland. "I don't think they're out to get us, but I do think that there is a definite threat to the resource industry that our state is blessed to be able to host." Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton. And Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., said Haaland's views "are frankly alarming" to her constituents, and asked what she would say to people who could lose jobs if oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was limited. Through it all, Haaland - who would also become the first Native American Cabinet secretary if confirmed - remained calm, stressed that she wanted to work with supporters and opponents alike, and kept her answers short. Haaland, 60, sought to defuse aggressive questions from Republicans by reminding them that she was named the most bipartisan freshman congresswoman during her first term in the House as a Democrat from New Mexico, a seat to which she was reelected in November. And she repeatedly stressed that any changes to fossil fuel production would be Biden's decision, saying her role if confirmed would be to execute his policy. "I couldn't agree more that collaboration is important," Haaland said during the more than two-hour-long hearing, which adjourned at noon and is scheduled to continue at 10 a.m. Wednesday. "I was the highest-rated freshman in Congress on bipartisan collaboration. We can have different views. We can think differently. I feel like the people of New Mexico sent me to Congress to get work done and that's exactly what I've done." On the question of oil and gas leases, Haaland said Biden paused new leases to review them and that it did not amount to a ban. At any rate, she added, leasing permits currently under review are going forward. Haaland also emphasized that although she and the president support solar, wind and other clean energy to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet, the transition to renewables would be slowly phased in as fossil fuels continue to dominate the American energy agenda. Interior oversees nearly 500 million acres of surface land and almost 700 million acres of resources that lay beneath it. On top of that, it manages 2.5 billion acres on the outer continental shelf, about 50 million acres of Native American land held in trusts, more than 400 national parks, 500 wildlife refuges and a water supply for 31 million people. The value of that and more generates $12 billion for treasury, $315 billion to the U.S. economy and nearly 2 million jobs, said Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., the committee chairman. Although nearly every Republican on the committee appeared either hostile or cool to Haaland's bid to lead Interior, only Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said outright that he would vote against her nomination. Haaland was not without Republican supporters - they just weren't in the Senate. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, introduced Haaland to the panel and lavished her with praise. Young called Haaland a friend who reached across the aisle to work with him on the House Natural Resources Committee. "It's my job to try to convince her she's not all right and it's her job to convince me she's . . . right," he said. Biden has a right to choose his own Cabinet, he added. "I'm supporting her because she's American Indian. As you mentioned, it's a long time overdue." Haaland repeatedly said she would "work my heart out" to make sure that American workers are able to transition to good paying, green energy jobs. "I'm not a stranger to the struggles many families across America face today - I've lived most of my adult life paycheck to paycheck," said Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. She spoke about the labor that will be in demand to restore the land disrupted by mining, cap old wells leaking methane, and repair and upgrade national parks. The stark difference between Haaland and others who have been nominated for Cabinet level positions showed when Manchin asked Haaland a perfunctory question after swearing her in to testify. "Do you hold any funds in a blind trust?" "No," replied Haaland, a single mother who at times has relied on food stamps. India s huge capacity to make coronavirus vaccines is helping the country take on China in the battle to gain political influence across the developing world. Competition among poorer nations to get cheap or free vaccines to fight the pandemic had given China a golden chance to strengthen ties in emerging markets it has been courting for years. And initially Beijing seemed in a strong position. It suppressed the domestic spread of Covid-19 last year and accelerated the production of shots. At the same time, India was struggling to contain one of the worlds worst outbreaks of the virus, with nearly 100,000 cases a day, while a nationwide lockdown sent its economy into recession for the first time in 25 years. But Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been reticent in sharing details of their pivotal vaccine trials crucial for building public trust around the world, and new domestic outbreaks reinforced the urgency of inoculating Chinas own 1.4 billion population, a task that could take years. Meanwhile, India sent millions of doses to neighboring Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, allowing them to begin vaccinations earlier than if they had waited for Chinese doses. Because of their gift, Sri Lanka has been able to start vaccination immediately," said Eran Wickramaratne, a Sri Lankan opposition lawmaker who received one of the Indian shots. Most Sri Lankans would be thankful for this." So far, New Delhi has managed to ship nearly 6.8 million free vaccines around the world. China has pledged around 3.9 million, according to publicly available information compiled by Bloomberg, some of which have yet to arrive. Beijing and New Delhi have long competed for influence in Asia, and tensions between the two have risen since the pandemic struck, including their most violent border clash in decades. India has banned hundreds of Chinese apps, including ByteDance Ltd.s TikTok, sought to attract investors away from China and boosted security ties with Japan, Australia and the U.S. The rapid growth of Chinas economy -- now roughly five times the size of Indias -- has allowed Beijing to forge ties with poorer countries by loaning tens of billions under its Belt and Road Initiative. But Covid has given India a diplomatic opportunity to pursue its aspirations of becoming a global power. Its pharmaceutical industry, especially the Serum Institute of India, had already made the South Asian nation the main supplier of essential medicines to the developing world. Now its allowing India to push back against Chinas growing influence. A case in point is Myanmar, which has been rocked by a military coup and shares borders with both China and India. Beijing promised to send around 300,000 doses but has yet to deliver anything, while New Delhi quickly delivered 1.7 million shots. Indian Vaccines New Delhi recognized early on that Indian production capacity would be crucial to beating the pandemic, said Ashok Malik, a policy adviser to the Ministry of External Affairs. Last year, when Indian manufacturers were exporting the anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine -- hyped by then President Donald Trump -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi was already talking to world leaders about providing vaccines, he said. Not that India doesnt need doses itself. It too has more than a billion people to protect, and while China swiftly suppressed Covid-19, India was unable to prevent the virus from spreading rapidly. New Delhi says its prioritizing its own population. But Indias ability to manufacture vaccines was always going to outstrip the nations ability to inoculate all of its own citizens. And the countrys leaders can now deploy those millions of surplus vaccines to win friends and influence abroad.. In Bangladesh, the process of vaccination has started and its going very well, at least in the cities," said Meghna Guhathakurta, who is set to get the Indian dose in Dhaka this month. She said her relatives in the Indian city of Kolkata havent been contacted and dont know when they will get vaccinated." Even as the Covid death toll in India passed 156,000, compared to less than 5,000 official deaths in China, New Delhi promised it wouldnt engage in vaccine nationalism and block exports. Its domestic vaccine producers were free to sell to richer nations, but the government promised to buy supplies for smaller countries, as well as its own citizens. Officials organized trips for foreign ambassadors to visit pharmaceutical hubs in Pune and Hyderabad, and assured neighbors in South Asia, the Indian Ocean and even distant Dominica and Barbados theyd get affordable vaccines and would receive initial shipments for free. Since then, India has exported a total of more than 33 million shots -- three times as many doses as it has administered domestically, where the slow pace of vaccinations has prompted criticism and the new option for some of securing jabs at private clinics. India, with all its problems, has been true to its word," Malik said. Indias vaccine diplomacy has helped soothe some prickly relationships with neighbors in South Asia, where it has been fighting an increasingly sharp diplomatic battle with China," said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, who has edited books on health challenges and foreign policy. New Delhi is pushing back." Even on Chinas borders, Indian shots are showing up. Mongolias prime minister received one of 150,000 free doses delivered by India. On the other hand, Indonesias Joko Widodo, Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the president of Seychelles have taken Chinese vaccines. Indias vaccine industry -- which is delivering shipments to both developing and developed economies -- has even helped ties with some industrialized nations suffering hold ups in deliveries of western doses. Canada, whose prime minister irked Modis administration by expressing support for protesting Indian farmers, asked the Serum Institute to expedite shipments. Both the Indian-produced shots and the Chinese ones have been criticized for being potentially less effective than the vaccines of Pfizer Inc. and Moderna. India is currently shipping Covishield, a locally-produced Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and exporting Bharat Biotech International Ltd.s home-grown Covaxin shots for clinical trials. Demand for Indian shots is expected to jump once Covaxin wins regulatory approvals, and Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddys Laboratories begins shipping the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. Chinas Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd., Sinovac Biotech Ltd., CanSino Biologics Inc. and Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co. Ltd. have exported doses to countries including the UAE, Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and Brazil for clinical trials, and Beijing has promised to provide vaccine aid to more than a dozen other countries. For developing nations hammered by the pandemic, being able to begin inoculations for high risk groups with cheap and plentiful shots that have a 60% or 70% efficacy rate in trials is better that having small amounts of a more expensive vaccine that may not be available for months. People were a bit wary of the vaccines, as they came from India. Now the mistrust is largely gone," said Rashidul Mannan, after getting a dose of the Indian vaccine at a booth in Dhaka. I think people will look more positively to India now than before." Developing nations will also have access to millions of shots from the Covax initiative, a program led by the World Health Organization designed to acquire doses for poorer countries. Covax aims to deliver nearly 150 million doses in the first quarter of 2021, and 2 billion by the end of the year. Still, with western pharmaceutical firms largely focusing on rich nations struggling to contain their own outbreaks, many poorer countries will rely for at least part of their inoculation program on donations and purchases from China and India. For China, free vaccines could help soften some of the ill will its generated through recent geopolitical spats, such as its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis pledge to donate 500,000 doses to the Philippines was scrutinized in a congressional inquiry in the Southeast Asian nation. The countrys vaccine procurement chief Carlito Galvez told lawmakers that Manila should set aside" differences with Beijing on competing maritime claims, prompting shocked responses from an opposition lawmaker. Galvez later told the Senate: We will not compromise our stake." One place where Chinas influence still dominates is Indias arch-rival Pakistan, recipient of some $70 billion of Chinese financing for infrastructure. Like Brazil, Pakistan gave Chinas vaccine makers the chance to carry out clinical trials they had been unable to complete at home when the number of domestic cases subsided. Pakistans health chief Faisal Sultan called it banking on an old relationship." We lent a hand on the science part, making sure that we would have credible data for its efficacy," Sultan said in an interview. China is also having success in Africa and Latin America -- major investment regions for Beijing. By early February, Beijing had sent vaccine aid to more than a dozen countries including Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea. In the end, the competition between China and India to provide vaccines, especially to nations where their strategic interests overlap, are likely to help not only those nations but the rest of the world. China is facing formidable competition" in its vaccine diplomacy, said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. For countries on the receiving end, thats a good thing." This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. 'This Just Works' is expected to attract over 20,000 entrepreneurs, leaders and marketers from businesses of all sizes from around the world across three dates in spring 2021. The events will include 40-minute sprints on February 25 and March 25, and a half-day event on April 22, 2021. Attendees will walk away from the two sessions and the event with actionable takeaways to improve the customer experience they offer their customers. Unlike traditional conferences or webinars, this anti-conference series will offer quick, no-frills, actionable marketing hacks that attendees can implement the same day. Attendees will hear from ActiveCampaign partners dedicated to helping growing businesses including SurveyMonkey, Unbounce, Zapier and Zendesk. In addition, featured speakers include: Jonah Berger ( February 25 ), marketing professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and international best-selling author of Contagious , Invisible Influence and The Catalyst ( ), marketing professor at the Wharton School of Business at the and international best-selling author of , and Tara-Nicholle Kirke ( March 25 ), CEO of Transformational Consumer Insights and the author of The Transformational Consumer ( ), CEO of Transformational Consumer Insights and the author of Laura Gassner Otting ( April 22 ), Washington Post best-selling author of Limitless and motivational keynote speaker ( ), Washington Post best-selling author of and motivational keynote speaker Maria Pergolino ( April 22 ), CMO of ActiveCampaign and B2B marketing expert known for building world-class go-to-market teams "One of the aspects of ActiveCampaign I'm most proud of is our focus on ongoing education and training for our customers and the broader ecosystem of growing businesses," said Jason VandeBoom, founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign. "Entrepreneurs, small business owners, and emerging brands need to know the latest and most effective tools and techniques that will help take their business to the next level. That's why I'm thrilled to bring together some of the experts dedicated to business growth and share their best practices during 'This Just Works.'" Last year's 'This Just Works' attendees found the content to be highly effective, including several Twitter users: "I am so impressed by the #ThisJustWorks virtual conference hosted by @ActiveCampaign and @DigitalMktr. Amazing speakers, TONS of marketing hacks, yoga, creative break out sessions and a bingo card which I almost completely filled out. #marketing #learning," said @TanyaBotten . . "Big thanks to @ActiveCampaign and @DigitalMktr for putting on a great day of talks for #ThisJustWorks. Learned a lot and really enjoyed hearing from such smart pros," said @RyanBaum . . "Hosting online events is hard but @ActiveCampaign and @DigitalMktr have been killing it at the #ThisJustWorks event," said @hakimian45 . Learn more About ActiveCampaign ActiveCampaign's category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform (CXA) helps over 130,000 businesses in 170 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to 500+ pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation, CRM and machine learning for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat and text. Over 70% of ActiveCampaign's customers use its 300+ integrations including Shopify, Square, Facebook, and Salesforce. ActiveCampaign scores higher in customer satisfaction than any other solution in Marketing Automation on G2.com and is the 2020 Top Rated Email Marketing Software on TrustRadius. Pricing starts at just $9/month. Start a free trial at ActiveCampaign.com . Contact: Sophie Kelner (317)987-2776 [email protected] SOURCE ActiveCampaign Just a couple of years ago Nirav Modi was sharing the limelight with some of the biggest celebrities in India and abroad. Nirav Modi, a third-generation diamantaire, who grew up in Antwerp, Belgium who launched a jewellery brand after his name in 2010 soon found success and his clients included the likes of Priyanka Chopra to Kate Winslet. BCCL But all the glitz and glamour came crashing down in early 2018 after it emerged that he was running a huge banking scam, which defrauded the Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore Since then he has been declared a fugitive economic offender and has been in jail in the UK for nearly three years now. Following is the chronology of the case and its origin: January 29, 2018: Punjab National Bank (PNB) files police complaint against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others accusing fraud to the tune of Rs 2.81 billion. February 5, 2018: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launches an investigation into the alleged scam. BCCL February 16, 2018: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seizes a cumulative Rs 56.74 billion worth of diamonds, gold and jewellery from Nirav Modi's home and offices. February 17, 2018: The CBI makes first arrest in the case. Two PNB employees and an executive of Nirav Modi's group were detained. February 17, 2018: Government suspends passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi for four weeks in connection with the PNB fraud. February 21, 2018: CBI arrests CFO of Nirav Modi's firm and two other senior executives of his firms. It also seals his farmhouse in Alibaug. February 22, 2018: The ED seizes nine luxury cars belonging to Nirav Modi and his firms. February 27, 2018: A magistrate's court issues a bailable arrest warrant against diamond trader Nirav Modi. June 2, 2018: The Interpol issues Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi for money laundering. June 25, 2018: The ED moves a special court in Mumbai seeking Nirav Modi's extradition. August 3, 2018: The Indian Government sends a request for the extradition of Nirav Modi to the UK authorities. August 20, 2018: The CBI officials request Interpol Manchester to detain Nirav Modi after the latter informs about his presence in London to Indian authorities. December 27, 2018: The UK informs India that Nirav Modi is living in the country. The Telegraph March 9, 2019: British newspaper 'The Telegraph' confronts Nirav Modi on London's streets and confirms his presence in the country. March 9, 2019: The ED says the government of the UK has sent an extradition request of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi to a UK court for further proceeding. March 18, 2019: Westminster Court in London issues arrest warrant against fugitive Nirav Modi after the Indian government request was forwarded to the court by the UK Home Office March 20, 2019: Nirav Modi arrested in London and produced in Westminster Court, which denies him bail. March 20, 2019: Nirav Modi sent to Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Wandsworth till March 29 March 29, 2019: A Westminster Magistrates Court in London rejects Nirav Modi's second bail application, saying there are "substantial grounds" to believe that he will fail to surrender. The judge fixes April 26 as the next date of hearing when he will appear via video link from jail. May 8, 2019: Nirav Modi denied bail for a third time, to remain in UK jail. June 12, 2019: UK court rejects Nirav Modi's bail for fourth time over fears he would abscond. August 22, 2019: Nirav Modi's remand extended till September 19, UK extradition trial expected in May 2020. November 6, 2019: UK court rejects Nirav Modi's new bail application May 11, 2020: Nirav Modi's five-day extradition trial in PNB fraud case begins in UK May 13, 2020: Indian govt submits more proof against Nirav Modi in money laundering case September 7, 2020: UK court given fresh video tour of Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail December 1, 2020: Nirav Modi's remand extended, final hearings in 2021 January 8, 2021: UK court decides to pronounce judgement in Nirav Modi's extradition case on February 25 February 25, 2021: UK court rules Nirav Modi can be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering. Building and launching a mobile app can be daunting. How do you ensure your product aligns with best practices? Where do you find customers? And how do you protect your intellectual property (IP)? Add digital marketing and product scaling into the mix, and it becomes easy to see how mobile app development can overwhelm entrepreneurs. Fortunately, ACT | The App Association has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to connect successful tech and business leaders with entrepreneurs around the world to foster collaboration and help innovation bloom across cultural borders. In one of the first sessions of this program, Marc Fischer, Co-Founder and CEO of mobile app development firm Dogtown Media, will discuss the $1.7 trillion global app economy with 40 Kenyan software developers, IP lawyers, and entrepreneurs. Hosted and organized by the Kenya Copyright Board, the event will delve into topics such as the latest trends in app development, the business opportunities that this technology provides, and the main challenges in this industry. ACT | The App Association is a non-profit trade association that represents over 5,000 small businesses that power the $1.7 trillion app economy. The App Association aims to create an economic environment that inspires innovation and entrepreneurship by acting as a leading industry and policy voice on the app economy in Washington, D.C. and across the globe. WIPO is a global forum for all aspects of intellectual property. A self-funding institution of the United Nations, it leads the development of a balanced IP system that enables innovation for the benefit of all. Currently, the forum has 193 member states. The Kenya Copyright Board is an organization that strives to sustainably advance the growth of creative industries through administration and enforcement of copyright. It is responsible for organizing legislation on copyright, conducting training programs on this topic, and informing the public about any changes to related rights. Fischer is CEO and Co-Founder of Dogtown Media, a Venice Beach-based mobile technology studio that leverages disruptive design strategies and dynamic development to deliver industry-leading apps. To date, Dogtown Media has created over 250 mobile apps in industries including Healthcare app development, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence. AL Jasoor, the UAEs armoured vehicle specialist and exclusive supplier of the Rabdan 8x8 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, has announced its collaboration with EOS Defence Systems, a leading Australian technology company operating in the space, defence and satellite communications markets. The partnership marks the first time a vehicle is fitted with the R800, a remote weapon system that offers lighter-weight gimbals, advanced electro-optics applications, transformative stabilisation and multiple weapon mounting options. AL Jasoors signature vehicle will take centre-stage in highlighting the companys best-in-class offerings at the EDGE pavilion. As the industry registers a global uptick for weapon stations that optimise full-size, medium-calibre turret capabilities without the limitations that large, cumbersome, and invasive structures may impose, EOS R800 remote weapon system meets the growing demand for sophisticated armaments, while setting new benchmarks for firepower that is significantly lighter than others in its category. Employing the same interface as other EOS remote weapon systems, the R800 features modular state-of-the-art capabilities and boasts the added capacity to mount the Mk44S 30x173 mm cannon with dual ammunition feeds as well as a coaxially mounted machine gun and an anti-tank or air defence artillery missile package. The addition of the Mk44S allows the system to leverage the range and effectiveness of existing 30x173 mm ammunition. As the name implies, the R800 weighs 800 kg with a traverse of 360 and an elevation from +55 to -30. The remote weapon system is optimised for tracked and wheeled vehicles, such as the Rabdan 8x8, and features a direct-drive sensor unit that minimises high-frequency road and vehicle vibration from degrading the operator video image. In addition, the remote weapon system is equipped with various sensors including a day camera, a thermal camera, and an eye safe laser rangefinder. Built to endure extreme environmental conditions and terrain, with capabilities that allow soldiers to operate and observe from a protected position using stabilised precision day and night optics and laser, the R800 can detect and engage targets from distances of up to 3 km with increased accuracy and reduced collateral damage. Speaking on the occasion, Fahad Al Absi, CEO, AL Jasoor, said: As a world-leader in remote weapon systems, EOS brings to the table decades of experience in manufacturing precision systems that are versatile in addressing the most exacting end-user demands. We are delighted to be the first in this class of vehicles to integrate the new generation R800 onto our Rabdan 8x8 fleet. We believe this synergy with EOS will mutually benefit our trusted business partners and stakeholders. For his part, AbdulRahman AlBlooshi, CEO of EOS Advanced Technologies in UAE said: EOS is proud to partner with AL Jasoor in bringing to market this enhanced next generation remote weapon system. The R800 is an overall capable system that upgrades the armament capacity of vehicles without compromising payload or requiring the extensive modifications of a full turret system. AL Jasoor works relentlessly to meet the nations diverse armoured vehicle requirements, with a strong vision for manufacturing land platforms in order to address the future needs of the UAEs domestic and export markets. AL Jasoor is part of the Platforms & Systems cluster within EDGE, an advanced technology group for defence that ranks among the top 25 military suppliers in the world. -- Tradearabia News Service A bill to prohibit the use of puberty-blocking medications, hormones, and surgeries as transgender therapies for minors won approval today in the Alabama House Judiciary Committee. The Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, by Rep. Wes Allen, R-Troy, was approved by a vote of 11-3 and moves into position for a vote by the House. Todays vote came two weeks a after the committee heard from doctors on both sides of the issue and a father of a transgender daughter who opposed the bill during a public hearing. The committee added an amendment by Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, the committee chair, that removed a prohibition on counseling minors about transgender therapies. Hill said he wanted licensed psychologists to be able to do the work they are trained for. A similar bill by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, has won approval in a Senate committee. Voting for the bill were Allen, Hill, and Reps. Tim Wadsworth, R-Arley; Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery; Dickie Drake, R-Leeds; Allen Farley, R-McCalla; David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook; Mike Holmes, R-Wetumpka; Phillip Pettus, R-Killen; Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga; and Matt Simpson, R-Daphne. Voting against it were Reps. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma; Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove; and Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa. Doctors who opposed the bill at the public hearing two weeks ago said medications and hormones are never prescribed hastily for minors and come only as part of a carefully controlled therapy. They said it was wrong the the Legislature to interfere in decisions that should be between doctors, patients, and parents. Doctors who supported the bill said gender dysphoria affecting children usually subsides as they get older and that its better to reinforce their identity with their biological sex. The ACLU of Alabama released a statement today opposing the House and Senate bills. We are disappointed that Alabama lawmakers have once again set out to take away the healthcare choices of everyday Alabamians, and just like the abortion ban in 2019, this anti-trans bill is unconstitutional, Dillon Nettles, director of policy and advocacy for the ALCU of Alabama said. If HB1 or SB10 pass and is signed by the governor, it could represent another costly lawsuit for the state. Lawmakers have enough on their hands with COVID-19 and the DOJ lawsuit over Alabamas prisons that the last thing they should be wasting taxpayer money on is involving themselves in a medical issue that they have no expertise or training on. Faulkner, who voted for the bill, said he listened to what he believed were sincere viewpoints on both sides and tried to make the best decision. Faulkner said he believes the other committee members approached a difficult issue the same way. Front and center was the love and thoughts for these children that are dealing with this issue, Faulkner said. And my heart goes out to the children who are dealing with this and the parents as well, and the doctors. The Human Rights Campaign Alabama, which advocates for LGBTQ people, issued a statement critical of Allens bill and another bill approved by the House Education Policy Committee today. That bill would prohibit K-12 public schools from participating in athletic events where biological males compete in events for females and vice versa. Todays votes are deeply discouraging, especially given that legislators have heard compelling testimony from transgender students and people who love them sharing their heartfelt stories about the importance of inclusion, Human Rights Campaign Alabama State Director Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey said. These bills do not solve a problem because no problem exists, here in Alabama or anywhere in this country. Every transgender child deserves access to medically-necessary, best practice care and the vast majority of people agree. No transgender student athlete is trying to game the system they simply want to be able to participate and be included. This story was edited at 9:05 p.m. to correct the spelling of Rep. Allen Farleys name and add a statement from the Human Rights Campaign Alabama. This story was corrected at 8:06 a.m. Feb. 25 to say that Dillon Nettles statement is from the ACLU of Alabama, not the SPLC. The Government is urging all those eligible to apply to secure their status in UK law (Steve Parsons/PA) People from Poland and Romania have made more applications to the EU settlement scheme than any other nationality, figures show. EU citizens and their families are asked to apply to the Home Office scheme by June in order to carry on living and working in the UK now the Brexit transition period and freedom of movement has ended. A total of 5,060,600 applications have been received since the scheme opened in March 2019, according to provisional Home Office figures to the end of January. More than 5 million applications to the EU #SettlementScheme.#EUCitizens have 4 months to apply before the 30 June 2021 deadline. #SettledStatus Support is available seven days a week by telephone and by email. Find out more and apply now ai https://t.co/2ta1Nk88dC pic.twitter.com/q8VDo8YDbj Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) February 25, 2021 More than 2.4 million of those (2,497,600) have been granted settled status, allowing them permanent leave to remain. A further two million (2,039,800) have been granted pre-settled status, meaning they need to reapply after living in the country for five years to gain permanent residence. Meanwhile, 38,900 applications have been refused, 51,400 were withdrawn or void and 50,600 were deemed invalid where the Home Office decides someone is not eligible to apply or has failed to provide sufficient proof of residence. As of December 31 2020, 4,916,280 applications had been received, with 90% received in England, 5% in Scotland, 2% in Wales and 2% in Northern Ireland, according to Home Office figures published on Thursday. In total, there were 4,569,010 applications received from EU nationals, 45,550 received from other EEA and Swiss nationals and 301,660 received from non-EEA nationals. European citizens are our friends, family and neighbours which is why Im really proud weve already surpassed five million applications to the hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme Kevin Foster, minister for future borders and immigration The top nationalities to apply were Polish (911,240), Romanian (836,980), Italian (472,300), Portuguese (354,190) and Spanish (301,790). The Home Office said the top five nationalities combined represented around 60% of applications received. Polish and Romanian nationals were consistently among the highest application numbers within England, Scotland and Wales, while in Northern Ireland it was Polish and Lithuanian nationals who accounted for the largest number of applications. Minister for future borders and immigration Kevin Foster said: European citizens are our friends, family and neighbours which is why Im really proud weve already surpassed five million applications to the hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme. I would urge all those eligible to apply now to secure their status in UK law. The scheme is designed to be simple and straightforward but support is available seven days a week by telephone and by email, and weve funded 72 organisations across the UK to provide assistance to those who need help applying. President Donald Trump walks toward reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Sept. 29, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) In Final Days, Trump Gave Up on Forcing Release of Russiagate Files, Nunes Prober Says After four years of railing against deep state actors who, he said, tried to undermine his presidency, Donald Trump relented to U.S. intelligence leaders in his final days in office, allowing them to block the release of critical material in the Russia investigation, according to a former senior congressional investigator who later joined the Trump administration. Kash Patel, whose work on the House Intelligence Committee helped unearth U.S. intelligence malpractice during the FBIs Crossfire Hurricane probe, said he does not know why Trump did not force the release of documents that would expose further wrongdoing. But he said senior intelligence officials continuously impeded their release usually by slow-walking their reviews of the material. Patel said Trumps CIA Director, Gina Haspel, was instrumental in blocking one of the most critical documents, he said. CIA Director Gina Haspel arrives for a briefing with members of the U.S. House of Representatives about the situation with Iran, at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 8, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Patel, who has seen the Russia probes underlying intelligence and co-wrote critical reports that have yet to be declassified, said new disclosures would expose additional misconduct and evidentiary holes in the CIA and FBIs work. I think there were people within the IC [Intelligence Community], at the heads of certain intelligence agencies, who did not want their tradecraft called out, even though it was during a former administration, because it doesnt look good on the agency itself, Patel told RealClearInvestigations in his first in-depth interview since leaving government at the end of Trumps term last month, having served in several intelligence and defense roles (full interview here). Trump did not respond to requests seeking comment sent to intermediaries. Although a Department of Justice inspector generals report in December 2019 exposed significant intelligence failings and malpractice, Patel said more damning information is still being kept under wraps. And despite an ongoing investigation by Special Counsel John Durham into the conduct of the officials who carried out the Trump-Russia inquiry, it is unclear if key documents will ever see the light of day. Patel did not suggest that a game-changing smoking gun is being kept from the public. Core intelligence failures have been exposedespecially regarding the FBIs reliance on Christopher Steeles now debunked dossier to secure FISA warrants used to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. But he said the withheld material would reveal more misconduct as well as major problems with the CIAs assessment that Russia, on Vladimir Putins orders, ordered a sweeping and systematic interference 2016 campaign to elect Trump. Patel was cautious about going into detail on any sensitive information that has not yet been declassified. Continuously Impeded in Public Disclosure Patels work on the House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of its former Republican chairman, Devin Nunes, is widely credited with exposing the FBIs reliance on Steele and misrepresentations to the FISA court. Yet congressional Democrats and major media outlets portrayed him as a behind-the-scenes saboteur who sought to discredit the Russia investigation. Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 19, 2019. (Shawn Thew/Pool/Getty Images) The media vitriol unnerved Patel, who had previously served as a national security official in the Obama-era Justice Department and Pentagona tenure that exceeds his time working under Trump. Patel says that ensuring public disclosure of critical information in such a consequential national security investigation motivated him to take the job in the first place. The agreement I made with Devin, I said, Okay, I dont really want to go to the Hill, but Ill do the job on one basis: accountability and disclosure, Patel said. Everything we find, I dont care if its good or bad or whatever, from your political perspective, we put it out. So the American public can just read it themselves, with a few protections here and there for some certain national security measures, but those are minimal redactions. That task proved difficult. The House Intelligence Committees disclosure efforts, Patel said, were continuously impeded by members of the intelligence community themselves, with the same singular epithets that youre going to harm sources and methods. And I just highlight that because, we didnt lose a single source. We didnt lose a single relationship, and no one died by the public disclosures we made because we did it in a systematic and professional fashion. But each time we forced them to produce [documents], Patel added, it only showed their coverup and embarrassment. These key revelations he helped expose include Justice official Bruce Ohrs admission that he acted as a liaison to Steele even after the FBI officially terminated him; former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabes false statements about leaks related to the Hillary Clinton email investigation; and the FBIs reliance on the Steele dossier to spy on Page. There is actually a law that prevents the FBI and DOJ from failing to disclose material to a court just to hide an embarrassment or mistake, and it came up during our investigation. It helped us compel disclosure. Assessing the Intelligence Community Assessment For Patel, a key document that remains hidden from the public is the full report he helped prepare and which Trump chose not to declassify after pressure from the intelligence community: The House Intelligence Committee report about the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The ICA is a foundational Russiagate document. Released just two weeks before Trumps inauguration, it asserted that Russia waged an interference campaign to help defeat Hillary Clinton. Despite widespread media accounts that the ICA reflected the consensus view of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, it was a rushed job completed in a few weeks by a small group of CIA analysts led by then-CIA Director John Brennan, who merely consulted with FBI and NSA counterparts. The NSA even dissented from a key judgment that Russia and Putin specifically aimed to help install Trump, expressing only moderate confidence. The March 2018 House report found that the production of the ICA deviated from established CIA practice. And the core judgment that Putin sought to help Trump, the House report found, resulted from significant intelligence tradecraft failings that undermine confidence in the ICA judgments. Along with that March 2018 report, Patel and his intelligence committee colleagues produced a still-classified document that fleshed out the ICAs tradecraft failings in greater detail. We went and looked at it [the ICA], and looked at the underlying evidence and cables, and talked to the people who did it, Patel says. According to Patel, the ICAs flaws begin with the unprecedentedly short window of time in which it was produced during the final days of the Obama White House. In two to three weeks, you cant have a comprehensive investigation of anything, in terms of interference and cybersecurity matters. Patel said that still classified information undermines another key claimthat Russia ordered a cyber-hacking campaign to help Trump. The March 2018 House report noted that the ICAs judgments, particularly on the cyber intrusion sections, employed appropriate caveats on sources and identified assumptions, but those were drowned out by partisan insistence that Russia was the culprit. Constrained from discussing the material, Patel said its release would lend a lot of credence to skepticism about the Mueller reports claim that Russia waged a sweeping and systematic interference campaign to install Trump. That skepticism was bolstered in July 2019 when the Mueller team was reprimanded by a U.S. District judge for falsely suggesting in its final report that a Russian social media firm acted in concert with the Kremlin. (Muellers prosecutors later dropped the case against the outfit.) We had multiple versions, with redactions, at different levels of classifications we were willing to release, Patel said. But that was unfortunately the one report, which speaks directly to [an absence of concrete evidence] thats still sitting in a safe, classified. And unfortunately, the American publicunless Biden actswont see it. Confirming earlier media reports from late last year, Patel says it was Trumps CIA Director Gina Haspel who personally thwarted the House reports release. The report sits in a safe at CIA headquarters in Langley. The CIA has possession of it, and POTUS chose not to put it out, Patel says. He does not know why. Outrageous Reliance on CrowdStrike Another key set of documents that the public has yet to see are reports by Democratic National Committee cyber-contractor CrowdStrikereports the FBI relied on to accuse Russia of hacking the DNC. The FBI bowed to the DNCs refusal to hand over its servers for analysis, a decision that Patel finds outrageous. The FBI, who are the experts in looking at servers and exploiting this information so that the intelligence community can digest it and understand what happened, did not have access to the DNC servers in their entirety, Patel said. For some outrageous reason the FBI agreed to having CrowdStrike be the referee as to what it could and could not exploit, and could and could not look at. According Patel, Crowdstrike CEO Shawn Henry, a former top FBI official under Mueller, totally took advantage of the situation to the unfortunate shortcoming of the American public. CrowdStrikes credibility suffered a major blow in May 2020 with the disclosure of an explosive admission from Henry that had been kept under wraps for nearly three years. In December 2017 testimony before the House Intel Committee showed he had acknowledged that his firm did not have concrete evidence that Russian hackers removed any data, including private emails, from the DNC servers. We wanted those depositions declassified immediately after we took them, Patel recalled. But the committee was thwarted, he says, by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under Dan Coats, and later by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff once Democrats took control of Congress in January 2018. According to Patel, Schiff didnt want some of these transcripts to come out. And that was just extremely frustrating. Working with Coats successor, Richard Grenell, Patel ultimately forced the release of the Henry transcript and dozens of others last year. Still classified, however, are the full CrowdStrike reports relied on by the FBI, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Patel said their release would underscore Henrys admission while raising new questions about why the government used reports from DNC contractorsthe other being Fusion GPS Steele dossierfor a consequential national security case involving a rival Republican campaign. Doubting Reliability of CIAs Kremlin Mole The CIA relied on another questionable source for its assertion that Putin personally ordered and orchestrated an interference campaign to elect Trump: a purported mole inside the Kremlin. The mole has been outed as Oleg Smolenkov, a mid-level Kremlin official who fled Russia in 2017 for the United States where he lives under his own name. According to the New York Times, some CIA officials harbored doubts about Smolenkovs trustworthiness. Patel said he could not comment on whether he believes Smolenkov relayed credible information to the CIA. Im sort of in a bind on this one, still, with all the classified information I looked at, and the declassifications weve requested, but have not yet been granted. Patel did suggest, however, that those who have raised skepticism about the CIAs reliance on Smolenkov are rightly trying to get to the bottom of the story. But until that ICA product that we created, and some of the other documents are finally revealedif I start talking about them, then Im probably going to get the FBI knocking at my door. Will Key Documents Be Released? On his last full day in office, President Trump ordered the declassification of an additional binder of material from the FBIs initial Trump-Russia probe, Crossfire Hurricane. A source familiar with the documents covered under the declassification order confirmed to RealClearInvestigations that it does not contain the House committees assessment of the January 2017 that Patel wants released. Nor does it contain any of the CrowdStrike reports used by the FBI. In addition to those closely guarded documents, Patel thinks that there is even more to learn about the fraudulent surveillance warrants on Carter Page. The public should see the entire subject portion of the final Carter Page FISA warrant, Patel said, as well as the underlying source verification reporting in which the FBI tried to justify it, despite relying on the Steele dossier. By reading what the FBI used to prop up that FISA, the American public can see what a bunch of malarkey it was that they were relying on, Patel added. The American public needs to know about and read for themselves and make their own determination as to why their government allowed this to happen. Knowingly. And thats not castigating an entire agency. Were not disparaging the entire FBI because of Peter Strzok [the FBI agent dismissed, in part, because of anti-Trump bias] and his crew of miscreants. Same thing goes for the intelligence community. If they did some shoddy tradecraft, the American public has a right to know about it in an investigation involving the presidential election. FLINT, MI Former prisoner Michael Thompson wants change for the incarcerated. While he served 25 years behind bars, he saw the need first-hand for connection and mentoring, building a workshop first-hand to help prisoners cope and ultimately better themselves while in prison and before release. Thompson has a unique take on how he mentors. Instead of sticking to a guideline or textbook, he would level with inmates and speak from experience. I was knocking down the walls with them and they were getting emotional, breaking down, crying and these guys werent there for no certificate, Thompson said. They were just there, they came on their own. Thompson said he wants to assemble a board of people to examine the records of people imprisoned in a process he coined red light, green light. After review, if the people incarcerated on a charge such as felony murder or another crime were put away, they would get a green light for further review and possible advocacy efforts and others might get a red light and wont get the same treatment as someone who got the lighter light, he said. They just need to go into a guys files and not just forget about them and bury them, and just leave it alone and say, Well you did the crime, you pay the time. They are still human beings, they are still human beings, Thompson said. Thompson was sent to prison to serve a 42- to 62-year sentence after he was convicted in 1996 on five felony counts related to selling marijuana to an undercover law enforcement officer in 1994. The charges included three drug charges: possession with intent to sell, conspiracy to possess with intent to sell and selling marijuana, and two weapons charges. Watch the video above and below to hear about his experiences, and what he hopes to do to continue to work with prison reform. Read more on: Im happy that Im free: Michigan man released from prison after serving 25 years for marijuana case I feel like a million bucks: Daughter of Michigan prisoner granted clemency rejoices Michigan prisoner seeks clemency in marijuana case after serving more than 20 years in prison Michigan prisoner seeks clemency in marijuana case after serving more than 20 years in prison Michigan AG horrified by Michael Thompsons 42-to-62 year sentence for 1994 marijuana case Sick with COVID-19, inmate cant get out of prison even with AG, prosecutor backing him Muskegon inmate with coronavirus receives meeting with parole board after AG support Thompson contacts COVID-19 Thompson receive meeting with Parole Board Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the breakign news as of 25.02.21: The Armenian army joint staff on Thursday issued a statement noting that the army demands the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan and his government. The statement was signed by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, his deputies, heads of departments, and commanders of all corps. The Armenian army has expressed its resolute protest over the dismissal of the First Deputy Chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff. At the suggestion of the PM, President Armen Sarkissian had dismissed Tiran Khachatryan, who had reportedly mocked PM's words about the alleged flaw of the Russia-made Iskander missile systems. Following the incident, the Armenian army noted that the PM and the government are no longer able to make proper decisions for the Armenian people. After this statement, Nikol Pashinyan made a Facebook post, noting that he had signed the necessary documents to dismiss Onik Gasparyan, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces. PM also noted that considered this statement a military coup attempt, and he urged his supporters to gather Republic Square in Yerevan. Numerous political scientists and analysts, however, called the PM's aforesaid announcement an attempt to lead to civil strife and bloodshed. After the statement of the Armenian army, a tense situation unfolded near the government's building. Pashinyan's supporters and opponents have gathered there. Collisions between citizens periodically took place - resolved thanks to the intervention of police officers. After the regular government's meeting, Pashinyan left the building and joined his supporters. The PM said that his resignation cannot be a solution to the issue. After that, Pashinyan marched through the central streets of the capital. He walked, surrounded by police officers, which lined up in several rows. By the way, many social media users noticed that most of the participants in the march were police officers, some of whom were in civilian clothes. The opposition Homeland Salvation Movement, in turn, quickly gathered a rally, supporting the Armenian army's statement. Back in 2018, Pashinyan was holding his own rallies in Armenia demanding the resignation of the then authorities. The rallies are being held in Armenia day-by-day as people are still demanding the current government's resignation. People are protesting in Yerevan even amid the violence that police are using towards the protesters. Responding to a request to comment on the events currently unrolling in Armenia, the Russian MFA said these are "Armenia's internal affair." The ministry did not add anything to this comment. Russian president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has also refrained from commenting on PM Pashinyan's statement on Russia-made weapons. By the way, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that Russia-made Iskander ballistic missile "did not explode" or "exploded by 10%," arouses great disputes both in Armenia and Russia. According to experts, Pashinyan questioned the efficiency of Russia-made weapons. Russian military journalist Yuri Kotenok, in turn, noted that Pashinyan's statement is dictated by his US partners. While Russia has decided to refrain from interfering in Armenia's internal affairs, Turkey condemns the "coup attempt" in Armenia. According to them, one can criticize and demand the resignation of the government, but to overthrow the government with the help of the army is unacceptable. Armenian experts assessed Turkey's statement as the support for PM Nikol Pashinyan. YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian has addressed a call over the ongoing situation in the county. The statement of the President says: Dear compatriots, Today, when we havent yet overcome the consequences of the war unleashed against Artsakh, when we have thousands of losses and wounded, when there are serious regional threats, we, unfortunately, are again in a critical situation which could lead to unpredictable consequences for out state and statehood and irreversible losses. There is martial law in the country. The external danger is real the statement on the ceasefire is not a peace treaty. Armenia and Artsakh are facing multiple challenges. I call on everyone the state authorities, law enforcement agencies, political forces and all citizens to show restraint and common sense: any reckless speech or action increases the tension and further deepens the crisis, do not give in to provocations and refrain from calls for hatred and intolerance: our people cannot allow separation, any attempt of destabilizing the state and endangering the statehood must be denied, unconditionally act within the framework of the Constitution. Once again reaffirming the role of the Presidential institute as a balancing structure, I am urgently initiating steps aimed at finding ways for mitigating the tension and peacefully solving the situation. Taking the country to shocks will be a disrespect to the memory of our thousands of sons fallen during the war. I call on all of you to be vigilant, sober and restrained. On February 25 the General Staff of the Armenian Forces of Armenia issued a statement, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Cabinet. In his turn Pashinyan commented on the statement, calling it as a military coup attempt. He invited all his supporters to the Republic Square to discuss the ongoing developments. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan 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. WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Capitol Counsel announced today that Senator Patrick (Pat) Roberts (R-KS) will be joining the firm as a Partner. Kansas' elder statesman, Roberts retired from the U.S. Senate in January after serving four terms. He also served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a U.S. Marine. "Senator Roberts has served his nation proudly for more than 50 years; from the U.S. Marine Corps, to the halls of the U.S. Senate, he embodies the no-nonsense, authentic approach that made him a respected statesman. His unmatched experience offers our clients best-in-class strategic advice, and we are honored to have him join our team," Shannon Finley, Capitol Counsel Partner, said today. Pat Roberts was born in Topeka, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State University. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1958, attaining the rank of Captain. Before beginning his political career, Roberts worked as a newspaper publisher in his home state. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980, rising to serve as the Chairman of the powerful House Committee on Agriculture. In 1996, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Roberts never drew serious opposition and was elected by wide margins over four statewide campaigns. At the time of his retirement in 2020, Roberts was the long-standing Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. He is the only person in U.S. history to serve as chair of the agriculture panels in both chambers of Congress. In those roles, Roberts played a major part in eight Farm Bills, the cornerstone laws governing American agriculture. In addition to his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Roberts also served on the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He also served as past Chairman of the Committee on Intelligence and was the first ever Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. Roberts is a member of the Marine Corps Caucus. As a Capitol Counsel Partner, Roberts will serve as a senior counselor to the firm's clients. He will offer his insights and advice about legislative strategy and his deep understanding of the executive branch. "I have been honored to serve the citizens of Kansas and of the United States and look forward to this new chapter. I believe positive policy achievements are possible with hard work and good will. I look forward to joining the team," Senator Roberts said today. Capitol Counsel continues to add depth to their expanding team. Last month it was announced that John Jonas and Martie Kendrick had joined the firm, coming from Akin Gump. Also, Jim Davidson moved to the firm from Polsinelli. And in December, Obama Administration alum, Robert Diamond, fresh from the Biden Campaign, announced he was joining Capitol Counsel. About Capitol Counsel Capitol Counsel is a full-service, bipartisan and bicameral advocacy firm recognized for its expertise in tax, health care, financial services, energy, commerce, and trade. For more information on Capitol Counsel, please visit our website at www.capitolcounsel.com or contact John D. Raffaelli at (202) 861-3200. SOURCE Capitol Counsel Related Links http://www.capitolcounsel.com Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Australia's laws forcing and to pay for news are ready to take effect, though the laws' architect said it will take time for the digital giants to strike media deals. The Parliament on Thursday passed amendments to the so-called News Media Bargaining Code agreed between Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday. In return for the changes, agreed to lift a ban on Australians accessing and sharing news. Rod Sims, the competition regulator who drafted the code, said he was happy that the amended legislation would address the market imbalance between Australian news publishers and the two gateways to the internet. All signs are good, Sims told Australian Broadcasting Corp. The purpose of the code is to address the market power that clearly and Facebook have. and Facebook need media, but they don't need any particular media company, and that meant media companies couldn't do commercial deals, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair added. The rest of the laws had passed earlier, so they can now be implemented. Google has already struck deals with major Australian news businesses in recent weeks including News Corp and Seven West Media. Frydenberg said he was pleased to see progress by Google and more recently Facebook in reaching commercial deals with Australian news businesses. But Country Press Australia, which represents 161 regional newspapers across the country, has raised concerns that tiny publications outside large cities might miss out. Sims said he was not surprised that the platforms would strike deals with the large city businesses first. I don't see any reason why anybody should doubt that all journalism will benefit, Sims said. There things take time. Google and Facebook don't have unlimited resources to go around talking to everybody. I think this has got a long way to play out, he added. Chris Moos, a lecturer at Oxford University's Business School, said the latest amendments amounted to a small victory for Zuckerberg. Moos said the legislation would likely result in small payouts for most Australian news publishers. But Facebook could again block Australian news if negotiations broke down. The legislation was designed to curb the outsized bargaining power of Facebook and Google in their negotiations with Australian news providers. The digital giants would not be able to abuse their positions by making take-it-or-leave-it payment offers to news businesses for their journalism. Instead, in the case of a standoff, an arbitration panel would make a binding decision on a winning offer. Frydenberg and Facebook confirmed that the two sides agreed to amendments to the proposed legislation. The changes would give digital platforms one month's notice before they are formally designated under the code. That would give those involved more time to broker agreements before they are forced to enter binding arbitration arrangements. A statement on Tuesday by Campbell Brown, Facebook's vice president for news partnerships, added that the deal allows the company to choose which publishers it will support, including small and local ones. Frydenberg said his department will review the code within a year to ensure it is delivering outcomes that are consistent with government's policy intent. The Belagavi District Court, under the Karnataka Judiciary, has called for online applications from eligible and interested candidates for filling Thirty-One (31) Peon posts in the Belagavi District Court through direct selection to be posted in Belagavi District, Karnataka in India on a fulltime basis. The online application-cum-registration process towards the same started on February 25, 2021 and closes on March 25, 2021 by 11:59 pm. CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Peon posts in the Belagavi District Court Organisation Belagavi District Court Educational Qualification SSLC/Class 10/Matriculation or equivalent Experience Freshers can apply Job Responsibilities null Skills Required null Job Location Belagavi District Salary Scale Rs. 17,000 to Rs. 28,950 per month Industry Karnataka Judiciary Application Start Date February 25, 2021 Application End Date March 25, 2021 Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021: Age Criteria And Fees Candidates interested in applying for Belagavi District Court Jobs 2021 through Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021 must have completed 18 years of age and not be more than 35 years as on March 25, 2021 with relaxation (upper age limit) up to 3 years (OBC - 2A/2B/3A/3B) and 5 years (SC/ST/CAT-I) respectively as specified in the Belagavi District Court Notification 2021. Candidates must pay a prescribed amount of Rs. 200 (Gen/OBC - 2A/2B/3A/3B) as application fee for Belagavi District Court Jobs 2021 under Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021 through online/challan mode. However, SC/ST/CAT-I and PWD candidates are exempted from paying the application fee as mentioned in the official Belagavi District Court Peon Notification 2021 given at the end of the article. Also Read: BBMP Recruitment 2021 For 120 GDMO And Specialist Doctors Posts, Online Application Starts From February 23 Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021: Educational Eligibility Desirous candidates applying for Belagavi District Court Peon Jobs 2021 through Belagavi District Court Peon Recruitment 2021 must have passed SSLC/Class 10/Matriculation or equivalent from a recognised Board/Institution as specified in the Belagavi District Court Peon Notification 2021. Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021: Selection And Pay Scale The selection of candidates to Belagavi District Court Peon Jobs 2021 through Belagavi District Court Peon Recruitment 2021 will be done through Shortlisting and Written Test/Interview as mentioned in the Belagavi District Court Notification 2021. Candidates selected as Belagavi District Court Peon Jobs 2021 through Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021 will be paid emolument in the pay scale of Rs. 17,000 to Rs. 28,950 per month. Also Read: BECIL Recruitment 2021 For Senior Programmer Posts, Register Online Before March 10 Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021: How To Apply Candidates applying for e through Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021 must register online on the Belagavi District Court website from February 25, 2021 and submit their applications on or before March 25, 2021 by 11:59 pm. Download Belagavi District Court Recruitment 2021 Notification PDF for Peon posts The round attracted renowned international investors from all around the globe, including Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), the privately held investment company for Louis M. Bacon, founder & CEO of Moore Capital Management, LP; John Snow, Previous U.S. Secretary of Treasury; Alejandro Agag, the founder and Chairman of Formula E and a pioneer in EV racing as well as Edward Norton a three-time Academy award nominated actor, writer, director and co-founder of multiple technology companies such as CrowdRise and EDO. Having served as the UN Ambassador for Biodiversity for over 10 years and a long-time advocate for decarbonisation and environmental sustainability, Mr. Norton is one of the great brand ambassadors for e.GO in its mission to transform and reimagine the urban mobility. With its four-seater passenger car, e.GO Life, and its disruptive production platform, Next.e.GO Mobile SE offers one of the most sustainable electric cars. "We are very pleased with the success of the Series B funding and more so with the quality and impact of our great investors, who have joined the Next.e.GO journey in driving the transformation of carbon-free urban mobility and offering true life-cycle sustainability" says Ali Vezvaei, CEO of nd Group B.V. and Member of the Board of Directors at Next.e.GO Mobile SE. The production of the e.GO Life at Plant 1 in Aachen, Germany, is scheduled for June 2021, making Next.e.GO one of the only Western independent BEV manufacturers that commences production this year. In parallel, the company is working closely with suppliers of electronics and plastic components to ensure timely progress on all fronts. Employees will be gradually brought out of short-time working. Production will initially focus on a special limited edition e.GO Life NEXT, celebrating this major milestone in the company's journey. Only available to the first 1,000 customers, the limited edition is priced at 22.990 including VAT, after manufacturer's environmental bonus. "We are very grateful for the continued enthusiasm, commitment and patience of our customers and fans and are equally happy to finally be able to accept their orders" says Professor Gunther Schuh, founder and Chairman of the Administrative Board at Next.e.GO Mobile SE. The special edition e.GO Life NEXT will be delivered to customers as early as July 2021 onwards. Copyright - Next.e.GO Mobile SE Next.e.GO Mobile SE Next.e.GO Mobile SE, headquartered in Aachen, is a manufacturer of electric vehicles and sustainable mobility systems. On the RWTH Aachen Campus, 400 employees of Next.e.GO Mobile SE use the unique network of science and business with 420 technology companies as well as a comprehensive research infrastructure. Agile teams are working on various cost-effective and particularly durable electric vehicles for short-distance traffic. ND Group B.V. nd Group B.V. is a Private Equity and Holding company, headquartered in the Netherlands. Founded in 2008, the firm is primarily focused on EV, Alternative Energy, Fintech, HealthTech, Industrial assets and real estate. Contact: Next.e.GO Mobile SE Public Relations Campus-Boulevard 30 52074 Aachen T +49 241 47574-227 [email protected] ND Group B.V. Public Relations Flight Forum 880 5657 DV Eindhoven, The Netherlands Phone: +31 40 30 40 50 1 [email protected] SOURCE Next.e.GO Mobile SE Turkey "strongly condemns" the military coup attempt in Armenia, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday during his visit to Hungary. "We condemn all military coups or coup attempts, no matter where they take place across the world," Cavusoglu said in response to a question in a joint news conference with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto. People of a country have the right to criticize their governments or demand their resignation, he said, adding: "It is unacceptable for a military to call for the resignation of an elected government." Reminding the normalization process and the cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cavusoglu noted: "There is an important opportunity for the stability of the region, and this needs to be evaluated well," Anadolu Agency reported. "But it is also crucial to keep the stability in the region for all relevant countries, and such attempts like military coups have a destabilizing impact," he added, stressing the significance of trilateral format meetings with the regional countries The Armenian military on Thursday called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Onik Gasparyan, the chief of General Staff of the Armenian army, along with other senior commanders released a statement calling for Pashinyan to step down. Pashinyan blasted the military's call as a coup attempt, and urged his supporters to take to the streets to resist. Women have been disproportionately hit by the effects of the Covid pandemic and are bearing the burden of homeschooling and caring, according to Dr Rhona Mahony. When Dr Mahonys term as master of the National Maternity Hospital ended in 2018, she was hailed as a leading voice for Irish women by colleagues. She will now turn her attention to the elderly after being appointed to the board of HaloCare, a healthcare company that aims to helps older people to live safely and independently in their own homes. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Dr Mahony believes both women and the elderly have suffered a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic as she reflected on a difficult year on the frontline. Women have been disproportionately affected in terms of childcare and homeschooling as around 70pc of healthcare workers are female, she said. I work in maternity and weve been lucky in that we havent had a huge problem with Covid infections, so thats been extraordinarily fortunate. We have only had 88 cases to date in Holles Street, the majority of which have been incidental. We have not seen a lot of very ill women as pregnant women are cocooning and the visual bump means people keep their distance a lot more, so its been remarkable how fortunate we have been in terms of a low-incidence rate. The pandemic has resulted in some women having to give birth alone. Partners were also not allowed to attend the 20-week anatomy scan for most of 2020 due to restrictions and high case numbers. Holles Street is one of the few hospitals that did not stop Covid-19 positive women from having a designated person at their labour and birth. While Dr Mahony said that while it was heartbreaking family couldn't visit expectant mothers, perspective was important. When you put it into context and compare it to people who cant see their relative who is dying, we do feel very fortunate in the maternity care area. Im very conscious of people who have lost husbands, wives, mums and dads and havent been able to visit them. I think that for all of us, our lives have changed and theres a fear of what will come, hence why Ive become so interested in technology. HaloCare is an Irish start-up based in Co Carlow that uses a range of technologies to provide 24/7 support for older adults, their carers and family. Dr Mahony said the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the burden of isolation and how devastating it could be for elderly people. Its not about providing acute care in a nursing home. Its about living well, living as long as possible and living safely in your own home. Safety is one of the main components as we know for elderly people falling is a big issue, so HaloCare has developed really hi-tech sensors which allow us to sense the movement of a person, so you can tell if they stumble or fall. There are also motion detectors which can detect gas such as carbon monoxide and temperature. Its not a case of Big Brother watching you as there are no cameras or videos. The technology uses radar and microwave technology to sense falls in a way that is really unobtrusive. In addition there are also social elements which will use digital technology to help people connect with their families. Dr Mahony also currently serves on the boards of the St Vincents Healthcare Group and the Little Museum of Dublin, while working as a consultant obstetrician at the National Maternity Hospital. When asked for her thoughts on the vaccine roll-out across the country, she said there were always going to be glitches but shes remaining positive about the future after a stressful year. I think its brilliant that vaccines are starting to arrive. It will help us get over this pandemic and I think it will allow us to live better. We can see in frontline workers already there has been a massive drop in infections. I think Covid will end up being an accelerator to better healthcare and delivering healthcare better in Ireland. One of the great things about digital technology is it does open up opportunities. It can take out unnecessary steps and make treatment about the patient themselves and not the system. Throughout her career, Dr Mahony has always advocated for womens rights. She was outspoken in her support for repealing the Eighth Amendment in the lead-up to the referendum and has actively sought improved healthcare for women. She said the recent report by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission which laid bare the horrific treatment of women who gave birth outside marriage was difficult to fathom. It is heartbreaking what women went through. It is so awful to think of women having babies in a country that rejected them and who were incarcerated at such a vulnerable time. One of the worst elements was the lack of education about contraception and their bodies. That was State policy influenced by the church. It was used to disempower women and we must be very glad that times have changed. Cool: People love Easter eggs. That's why game developers almost always leave little messages and surprises for players to find. But Easter eggs are not only for video games. They can also be found in movies, television shows, and NASA space missions. Last Friday, NASA successfully landed the Perseverance rover on Martian soil. The mission went off without a hitch, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) began broadcasting the first images almost immediately. However, some pictures and videos taken during the landing were not available until this week. One video of the landing revealed Monday showed a perfectly framed shot of the Perseverance parachute unfurling. The chute's red and white coloring seemed random, but JPL hinted that the team might have left people secret messages to find. "In addition to enabling incredible science, we hope our efforts in our engineering can inspire others," said Allen Chen, entry, descent, and landing lead during a Monday press conference. "Sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find for that purpose, so we invite you all to give it shot and show your work." It took the internet about six hours to figure out that the coloring on the parachute actually spells out the Perseverance mission's motto: "Dare mighty things" in binary. Chief Engineer Adam Steltzner confirmed the message later via Twitter. The tweet also pointed out that the chute's outer ring spelled out the landing coordinates: 3411'58" N 11810'31" W. It looks like the internet has cracked the code in something like 6 hours! Oh internet is there anything you cant do? For those who just want to know: #Mars2020 #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/yTJCEnbuLY Adam Steltzner (@steltzner) February 23, 2021 Another Easter egg discovered among the thousands of images released so far is a "family onboard" sticker commonly seen on Earth-bound minivans and SUV. However, Perseverance's family includes itself, past Mars rovers, and the Ingenuity helicopter, which should soon be providing some excellent aerial views of the red planet. I wonder what other secrets observers might find. Chen made it clear that there are many, saying, "People can't resist putting a little personal touch in their work, but the vast majority of these will never be known even by me." 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 A highly-critical report from the Public Accounts Committee accused the Education Authority (EA) of continually delivering a sub-standard service. (Ian West/PA) Families and children with special educational needs have been failed by a dysfunctional system, a Stormont watchdog has concluded. A highly-critical report from the Public Accounts Committee accused the Education Authority (EA) of continually delivering a sub-standard service. It called for an independent external review. A child has special educational needs (SEN) if they have learning difficulties and are assessed as requiring special help. Statements are legally binding documents issued by the EA, setting out a child's needs. Almost one in five of the school population here is deemed to have SEN. In 2019/20, this equated to 67,224 children - 19,200 have a statement. Most attend mainstream schools. Last September a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) called for an urgent overhaul of the system. Auditors found demand was rising with key targets routinely missed. A 26-week deadline for issuing statements was broken for nearly nine out of every 10 children assessed. A review into issues around assessment has been running for 13 years and cost 3.6m but is incomplete. None of the recommendations from a previous NIAO report, published in 2017, have been fully delivered. The Audit Office findings have now been considered by the PAC. It noted that from 2015 to 2020, the department and EA spent more than 1.3bn supporting children with SEN, with costs rising each year. Committee chair William Humphrey said: "We have been disappointed to find a culture within the Education Authority that has allowed it to continually deliver a sub-standard service for far too long. "These weaknesses have failed both families and children with Special Educational Needs." Mr Humphrey said committee members were surprised to discover that the EA does not know how many children are seeking to access SEN support. During evidence sessions, the PAC heard that 38% of Statutory Assessments are now exceeding the 26 week timeframe - down from 85% during 2019/20. . While MLAs welcomed the EA's commitment to reducing delays, they expressed concern that children and their families had been failed for many years. The report states: "There have been unacceptable delays in the SEN Statutory Assessment process. The PAC believes there has been a culture within the EA whereby the continued failure of the Statutory Assessment process and the delivery of a sub-optimal service with deep rooted and systemic weaknesses was tolerated for far too long." It added: "Whilst the commitment for improvement is welcomed, the committee remains concerned at the number of children that have been failed and how long these failings have been allowed to continue. In PAC's view there are elements of dysfunctionality within the EA." Education Minister Peter Weir said: "My department is giving urgent consideration to the contents and recommendations within the report. "In response to various reports in this area there is a programme of improvement already under way which has seen a significant improvement in the performance of the Education Authority on SEN statutory assessment and statementing processes in recent months." Education Authority chief executive Sara Long said: The findings of this report and previously published reports remain a key priority for the Education Authority. We know that we must do better for our children with special educational needs or disabilities. We are committed to making the improvements that are needed, and a significant programme of work is underway. There remains much to do, and these recommendations further strengthen our commitment to transform services and supports for our children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities, and their families." Chimpanzees and humans "overlap" in their use of forests and even villages, new research shows. Scientists used camera traps to track the movements of western chimpanzees - a critically endangered species - in Guinea-Bissau. Chimpanzees used areas away from villages and agriculture more intensively, but entered land used by humans to get fruit - especially when wild fruits were scarce. Researchers from the University of Exeter and Oxford Brookes University say the approach used in this study could help to inform a "coexistence strategy" for chimpanzees and humans. "Understanding how wildlife balance the risks and rewards of entering environments used by humans is crucial to developing strategies to reduce risks of negative interactions, including disease transmission and aggression by animals or humans," said lead author Dr Elena Bersacola, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall. "Using 12 months of data from 21 camera traps, our study produced hotspot maps that show how humans and chimpanzees overlap in their use of forests, villages and cultivated areas." Chimpanzee use of space was linked to the availability of naturalised oil-palm fruit, and the study also shows that chimpanzees access high-risk orange, lime and papaya fruits in response to nutritional necessity rather than preference alone. The study used a "landscape of fear" framework, based on the idea that animals learn about risks and the resulting fear shapes their decisions over where and when to feed, travel and rest. Researchers are increasingly incorporating humans as agents for shaping the wildlife's landscapes of fear. The team in this study were cautious not to let the chimpanzees become "habituated" (used to humans, and therefore not fearful). "Elena got around this problem by setting up a patchwork of camera traps throughout one chimpanzee community's home range and monitoring their use of space," said Dr Kimberley Hockings, of the University of Exeter. "The methods and analyses Elena used are new and exciting and have helped us understand human-chimpanzee coexistence across the landscape. "This is important because western chimpanzees are critically endangered and these shared landscapes are crucial for their persistence. "These methods can also be applied to other threatened wildlife that are being pushed into ever-increasing human-impacted landscapes across the globe." Professor Catherine Hill, of Oxford Brookes University, said: "Our modelling approach generates fine-resolution space-time output maps, which can be scaled-up to identify human-wildlife interaction hotspots. "Our method provides the necessary tools to understand and more effectively manage human-wildlife coexistence at different spatial scales, including the management of resources important to both." ### The paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is entitled: "Chimpanzees balance resources and risk in an anthropogenic landscape of fear." Why does it seem as if with each and every Cabinet nominee, Biden or whoever is calling the shots is poking a thumb in the eyes of every pro-American conservative? Because that is exactly what these people are doing. If "personnel is policy," then the Biden administration's policy is mediocrity and leftism. Beginning with Kamala Harris! She was so unpopular as a presidential candidate that she dropped out before Iowa! She was loathed in CA as A.G. for her harsh and unfair treatment of African-Americans. Her personal behavior in CA is a matter of record. Harris is not a particularly smart woman, nor does she conduct herself with any grace or class, yet Biden selected her as his running mate! Already people are sick of her bobble-head laugh and general unseriousness. It is impossible that the Democrats do not know that Merrick Garland is nearly as senile as Biden, terrified to utter a word that might tank his confirmation. He is so willing and anxious to be the next tool of the radical left that he could not form a coherent sentence. He pretended not to know what the word "illegal" means with regard to the border. He eagerly expressed his approval of the destruction done by Antifa and BLM but the oh, so carefully planned pseudo-insurrection of January 6 will be a primary focus of DOJ investigation. Oh, and he will seek out white supremacy wherever it is lurking. Garland's performance was an embarrassment. His lack of knowledge and expertise is on a par with every other Biden nominee. YouTube screen grab (cropped). Surely, they know that Neera Tanden is a vicious and thoroughly dishonest far-left activist without a shred of decency. They know as well that Xavier Becerra has no experience in anything but racial politics. Why on Earth would anyone think he is qualified to run HHS? All of these nominees have been selected not because they are competent, or because they have experience in the field to which they are being assigned. They have been chosen because each is absurd. Each has been nominated to make clear the left's contempt for this country. Biden's administration is purposefully appointing blundering, inferior people to important positions. Then there is Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden's pick for ambassador to the U.N. Like many of his appointees, she is a pro-China, proConfucious Institute tool of our most dangerous foe. Then we have Deb Haaland, nominated to be secretary of the interior. Here are a few of her positions. Gen. Lloyd Austin has been confirmed as secretary of defense. Once confirmed, he awarded a $49M contract to Raytheon, his former employer, proving that he is a member of the swamp in good standing. There is probably no way Trump could have adequately judged the depth and breadth of the corruption that characterizes the swamp, the oligarchy that is determined to transform the U.S. into a despotic Marxist/Maoist tyranny. Anthony Blinken is Biden's secretary of state. Sadly, he is no Mike Pompeo. He will surely let China and Russia have their way with America, all in the name of promoting globalism, the -ism that, if successful, will be the end of the United States as founded. He may well be China's actual sleeper agent since Biden is so clearly and seriously cognitively challenged. Blinken is among those of the Biden team who, like Deb Haaland and NYT writer Tom Friedman, admire China's form of totalitarianism and want to implement it here. Biden has chosen Gina Raimondo to be commerce secretary. She has a failed record as governor of Rhode Island. In fact, RI was named the worst state in the nation for business! Jennifer Granholm was the worst governor of Michigan until Gretchen Whitmer was elected. Who on earth decided she should be energy secretary? She was a disaster for her state; again, Biden has picked the biggest failure on energy to be his energy secretary. Choosing Granholm is like appointing Hunter Biden to head up a task force on drugs and pedophilia, like picking John Kerry as climate czar, the man who travels the world in his own private jet and emits more carbon than most cities but berates the rest of us for driving to work. And what is there to say about Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary? He was a small-town mayor who pretty much ruined South Bend and is suddenly qualified to run the U.S. Transportation Department? This may be the silliest appointment of all. There are more (Janet Yellen, Vanita Gupta, Kristin Clarke), but suffice it to say there is a pattern here. Each of the persons Biden has selected has failed up, been promoted for his skin color, sexual orientation, sex, or leftist credentials, no matter how much damage he has done in previous positions of power. Not one has been appointed for his talent, skill or actual experience for the job he is about to hold. The Democrats are indeed poking their thumbs in the eyes of every Trump-supporter and are scraping the bottom of the barrel to do it. They are actively trying to destroy America, and they are doing it with the relish of a serial killer, with the abandon that defines the psychosis that is Trump Derangement Syndrome. How much damage can they do? This much! And they are about to do much, much more. Why are so few Republicans fighting back with the fury 75 million of us feel? 'Tis a mystery. The Canadian Press Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she experiences huge waves of anxiety before speaking to the media and revealed she has suffered long bouts of depression. Osakas agent, Stuart Duguid, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the worlds No. 2-ranked tennis player was pulling out before her second-round match at the clay-court tournament in Paris. The stunning move came a day after Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the U.S. at age 3, was fined $15,000 for skipping the postmatch news conference after her first-round victory at the French Open. She also was threatened by all four Grand Slam tournaments with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension, if she continued with her intention which Osaka revealed last week on Twitter to not do any press during Roland Garros. She framed the matter as a mental health issue, saying that it can create self-doubt to have to answer questions after a loss. First and foremost we are sorry and sad for Naomi Osaka. The outcome of Naomi withdrawing from Roland Garros is unfortunate, French tennis federation president Gilles Moretton said Monday. We wish her the best and the quickest possible recovery. And we look forward to having Naomi in our tournament next year. Moretton said the four major tournaments, and the professional tennis tours, remain very committed to all athletes well-being and to continually improving every aspect of players experience in our tournament, including with the media, like we always have." In Monday's post, Osaka spoke about dealing with depression since the 2018 U.S. Open, which she won by beating Serena Williams in a final filled with controversy. I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly, Osaka wrote, explaining that speaking with the media makes her anxious. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris, Osaka wrote. I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. She continued: Anyone that knows me knows Im introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that Im often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety. ... I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the worlds media. Williams was asked about Osaka on Monday after winning her opening match in the first scheduled night session in French Open history. I feel for Naomi. I feel like I wish I could give her a hug because I know what its like. ... Ive been in those positions, Williams said. We have different personalities, and people are different. Not everyone is the same. Im thick; other people are thin. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently. You just have to let her handle it the way she wants to, in the best way she thinks she can, and thats the only thing I can say. I think shes doing the best that she can. Osaka has never been past the third round on the French Open's red clay. It takes seven victories to win a Grand Slam title, which she has done four times at hard-court tournaments: the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020; the Australian Open in 2019 and this February. Here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences, she wrote. Tennis players are required to attend news conferences if requested to do so. The maximum fine of $20,000 is not a big deal to Osaka, the worlds highest-earning female athlete thanks to endorsement contracts totaling tens of millions of dollars. Mental health and awareness around it is one of the highest priorities to the WTA, the women's tennis tour said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman. We have invested significant resources, staffing and educational tools in this area for the past 20-plus years and continue to develop our mental health support system for the betterment of the athletes and the organization. We remain here to support and assist Naomi in any way possible and we hope to see her back on the court soon. Other players, notably 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and No. 1-ranked Ash Barty, have said they respect Osakas right to take a stance but explained that they consider speaking to reporters part of the job. After Osaka's post Monday, several athletes in tennis and other sports tweeted their support. Martina Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam champion, wrote: I am so sad about Naomi Osaka. I truly hope she will be ok. As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental & emotional aspect gets short shrift. This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference. Good luck Naomi- we are all pulling for you! Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry wrote that it was impressive taking the high road when the powers that be dont protect their own. major respect. ___ AP Sports Writers Sam Petrequin in Paris and Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report. ___ More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press As soon as this spring, Midland residents and visitors could see a new mode of transportation hit the streets electric scooters. On Feb. 8, Midland City Council gave approval to Bird Rides, Inc. to operate a fleet of about 100 stand-up electric scooters throughout the city. The scooters offer a flexible, sustainable and fun way to move about the city. It can offer residents without vehicles a way to work as well as offer tourists a fun activity. During the council meeting, Bird spokesperson Michael Covato helped answer some of the following questions. An additional Bird spokesperson helped provide additional information to the Daily News to curate this list of everything you need to know before Bird e-scooters appear this spring. Why Bird? Bird Rides, Inc. is a Santa Monica, California-based company that also operates a fleet of e-scooters in Detroit. However, its not the only shared electric scooter company out there. Others you might have heard of include companies like Lime, Spin and Razor. However, Bird Rides was the company to approach the City at this time to implement a fleet. Representatives determined Midland would be a good market and engaged in conversations with city staff. What makes Birds e-scooters unique? Bird e-scooters have their own unique features, such as "warm-up mode," which gently accelerates the scooter up to speed, allowing the rider to become comfortable before going faster. Another unique feature is the quick start option, which is for experienced riders, that automatically detects when a Bird scooter is in range and offers riders the opportunity to unlock it with the tap of a button. In addition, Bird has a helmet selfie program that rewards the rider for wearing a helmet. If they submit a picture of themselves wearing a helmet, they receive a credit for their next ride. How much will these cost the city? There is no upfront cost or investment to have the e-scooters operate in the city, since Bird will profit from them being here. Bird only required a Memorandum of Understanding from the city. However, Covato explained to council that they would make the effort to have a working relationship with the city to make the launch and long-term maintenance smooth and successful. In terms of a commitment, we simply want the support or the understanding of the city before we do a launch so that you know that you have someone you can reach out to here internally, Covato said. How will these impact the city? The e-scooters are meant to act as a complementary option of transportation, to supplement current options in Midland. They cover what Covato called the last mile, which means the scooters help transport pedestrians all the way to their ultimate destination. For example, if a person drives from their home to downtown Midland and parks in the Larkin parking garage, a scooter could transport them directly to a local shop or eatery downtown. If after a year, the scooter fleet is not working out or isn't being used, Bird can remove the fleet from the city. During the Feb. 8 council meeting, Covato provided these statistics: 56% of rides end in front of a local business. For Midland, it will cost, on average, $5 for a typical ride, as 60% of rides in the U.S. are less than five miles. The scooters have increased accessibility to jobs by 16% by offering a mode of transportation to someone who otherwise would not have a reliable way to get to work. How does renting a scooter work? To hire an e-scooter, you will have to download the Bird app via a smartphone and create an account. Each e-scooter contains a URL code that can be scanned by the phones camera within the app to unlock it. Once unlocked and paid for, the ride can begin. Riders begin by kick-starting the e-scooter to get it moving. Once at a minimum speed, the electric motor engages to power the e-scooter forward. There is also a manual brake for users. Ending the ride is as simple as tapping a button in the app and snapping a picture of the parked scooter. Who can use them? Users must be 18 or older to operate a Bird e-scooter. The app will ask users to submit a photo of their ID. It can also be a great alternative to biking for someone who has knee pain, is wearing high heels and/or is wearing a dress. How much does it cost? An average 15-20-minute ride will cost users between $5-7. It costs $1 to use the scooter and then users are charged an additional per-minute fee. According to a Bird spokesperson, the per-minute fee is determined based on city-specific criteria. Where can they go/not go? Using a geo-fencing technology, Bird can program where the scooters can and cant travel. They are intended to be used on streets with speed limits of 35 mph or less, on sidewalks and trails. The City of Midland will encourage riders to avoid sidewalks when an appropriate street is available. However, initially, the Pere Marquette Rail Trail will be off limits, since it is already heavily used by bicyclists and pedestrians. If a scooter is taken to an off-limits area, it will slow down to 1.5 mph and start beeping and flashing, and the rider will get a notification telling them to return to the designated ride areas. In general, I think youll find that people tend to self-police, Covato said. If they did not feel comfortable taking a bicycle on a street, they would not be taking one of these scooters. So, I dont think youll see these on the highway, essentially. In addition, the scooters can tackle hills with a 20% grade or less. Bird operates in hilly terrains, such as in San Francisco, and Covato said he has no doubt the scooters could tackle Midlands hills. How many e-scooters will there be in Midland? About 100. When would they be installed? The exact launch date is yet to be determined for Midland; however, a Bird spokesperson said the e-scooters will likely arrive sometime this spring, when the weather changes. At that time, Midland Director of Planning and Community Development Grant Murschel said the city wants to host a launch event in collaboration with Bird to engage residents. Who will manage the fleet of scooters locally? Bird is looking to partner with local individuals and organizations to maintain the fleet of scooters in what it calls its Fleet Manager program. The chosen individuals will be provided the data-backed education necessary to manage the fleet successfully. This will likely be a fairly small group of individuals dedicated to the task, a Bird spokesperson told the Daily News. At this time, we are unable to commit to a specific figure. During a council meeting, Covato explained that the managers will essentially be running the business in town. We can provide, again, at no upfront cost, the technology that has hundreds of millions of R&D dollars behind it from a multi-billion dollar company directly to somebody within the community to essentially launch their own business, with full support and backing from Bird on an ongoing basis," he said. Are these safe to use amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Covato said scooters are one of the safer ways to travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, since they are independent and open-air, as opposed to something like a shared transit or bus. He also explained the scooters are also sanitized daily by the fleet managers, but not in between individual rides. Riders should use their own discretion when determining how safe they feel using the shared e-scooters. How safe are e-scooters? Covato explained that studies have shown e-scooters have the same incident rate as bikes. So, they are about as safe as bicycles. Helmets are encouraged and Bird will give a ride credit to users who snap a helmet selfie on the app. Where would they be installed? The location of the scooter parking stations, or staging locations within Midland, are yet to be determined; however, Bird will have about 50-65 locations within the city. Are they operational 24/7? No. The scooters will be inoperable from midnight to 4 a.m. How fast do they go? The scooters are capped at 15 mph, which is well under the 25 mph maximum that Michigan Vehicle Code permits for such scooters. They can legally be driven on streets that are marked with speed limits of 35 mph or less. How long does a scooter go on one charge? Bird e-scooters can go about 30 miles on one charge, which is far more than an average trip. Will the scooters be available year-round? No, they will be stored in the winter months. Bird calls it hibernating. How do you reserve a scooter so that no one else takes off with it? Theres an electronic lock inside each scooter that can be activated by a user. When activated, no other user can operate the scooter. In addition, a GPS sensor will create a notification if someone tries to move a locked scooter. How do you return/park them? A rider can drop off a scooter wherever they reach their destination. When a Bird rider is done, they must snap a picture of their scooter to prove they have parked it appropriately. Those photos can be audited regularly to ensure proper parking and provide further community education, if needed. What if the scooters become clutter in the city? Covato said from data theyve collected in other cities, they know one person can effectively manage a fleet of 100 scooters. Bird expects their Midland partners to routinely move the scooters back to staged parking locations, where riders will expect to find them. There is also a way for residents to report a concern if they see a scooter presenting a nuisance, through email, phone or social media. What federal and state laws apply here? Riders of e-scooters must follow the requirements of the Michigan Vehicle Code that pertains to electric personal assistive mobility devices (Section 660). This code requires that riders use them similarly to how someone would use a bicycle on a street or sidewalk. They can be operated at a speed of not more than 15 mph and can only be operated on streets with a speed limit of 35 mph or less. They must be ridden on the furthest right portion of a travel lane and must utilize an on-street bike lane if one is available. Where can I learn more? In addition to the Bird website, Midland residents can visit the citys new webpage, cityofmidlandmi.gov/sharedmobility Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. The city of Chicopee will turn a vacant piece of property downtown into a Swiss army knife of a park to help entrepreneurs promote their businesses, give the community another spot to gather, show off the benefits of the neighborhood and market the empty lot. Center Park will be created at 181 Center St. The .28-acre lot that has housed a gas station dating back to the 1920s, most recently one called Racing Oil. The property has been vacant since 2004 and the city foreclosed on it in 2009 for a lack of tax payments. In 2017 the city received about $340,000 in federal grants to evaluate and clean up contamination on the land so it could be used again. After the work was completed, the city in 2020 requested proposals for anyone who wanted to purchase and develop the land but received no response. The project, funded with a $10,000 Commonwealth Places Grant and a $10,000 MassDevelopment Grant, is also being constructed with volunteer help from A. Crane Construction, Interstate Towing, the Ondrick Company and the ROCA program. Officials are hoping the property will be ready for a ribbon-cutting in mid-April, said Julie Copoulos, director of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce. The project is being developed in a partnership with the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce and multiple city departments including the mayors office, planning department, parks and recreation and the treasurers office. The Transformative Development Initiative, which is designed to increase vibrancy in the downtown area surrounding Center and Exchange streets, is also involved with the initiative. I think of it as the Swiss army knife of a park. It can be used however people want to access it, said Patrick McKenna, assistant city planner. The park will be laid with crushed stone and the A. Crane Company has agreed to build a shade pavilion. There will also be electricity and a large container placed on the site that can be used for storage, Copoulos said. The park is essentially going to be a community space. The city hopes to attract food trucks and a variety of outdoor activities. For example, a local yoga studio may hold an outdoor exercise class at the site, an art studio could hold a craft class there or a new entrepreneur could set up a booth to showcase some of their products, Copoulos said. We are looking for creative ways to engage the community and create a space that brings people downtown, she said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, science has shown gatherings are safer outside when masks are worn and people can social distance and she is hoping that Center Park will become a safe spot for small groups to gather, she said. The exact system of booking the location has not been developed yet. Copoulos said she is expecting businesses and community groups will be able to use the space for free or for a nominal fee. While the plot of land is relatively small and considered an infill property, studies show the property is significant because it is just a few parcels away from one of the gateways, or entrances, to the city. The hope is the project will highlight the land, show what is possible for the parcel and help sell it and help redevelop the center of the city, McKenna said. And if the property is sold, the equipment such as the picnic tables that are to be built by ROCA and the canopy, can be placed in a container and moved to another location so a new pocket park could be developed, McKenna said. Related Content: The UN refugee agency said the Indian coast guard had answered its plea to look for a boat carrying believed to be adrift in the Andaman Sea without food and water for several days. The boat was believed to have left Bangladesh two weeks ago and then broken down at sea, with the UN and rights groups reporting many of the about 90 refugees on board now suffering acute dehydration. Their families are worried many may have already died. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday it does not know the boat's exact current location. The agency on Monday had alerted nearby nations to look for the boat and said it was prepared to offer humanitarian assistance if it was found. The mother of a 25-year-old man on the boat said she was worried about his fate. Oh God, save all of the people that are stuck in the boat including my son with your divine magic. Put them somewhere on the coast of the river. Please fulfill the wishes of my son to go there, said Nasima Khatun. Is my son alive? Has anything happened to him because of hunger? I do not know anything about what my son is doing, how he is surviving. He only took 4 liters of water, she said. Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project that monitors the Rohingya crisis, said they had heard at least eight people had died on the boat. Lewa said they boarded the boat on Feb 11 to reach Southeast Asia but its engine broke down. She said the Arakan Project has been unable to contact the refugees for several days. We had talked to them. But now they are traceless. They have no water or food, they are drinking sea water and dying, Lewa said by phone. The UN refugee agency appreciated the Indian coast guard's deployment of their search and rescue team, said Catherine Stubberfield, spokesperson for the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. Given that the refugees are still adrift at sea, immediate disembarkation is absolutely critical to meeting their most basic human needs and ensuring that their safety is no longer threatened, she said in an email. P N Anup, a spokesman for the Indian coast guard, said he had nothing to say as of now. Authorities in Bangladesh said they had no information about any boat that recently carried Rohingya out of Bangladesh's waters. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company When Prime Minister Scott Morrison received one of the first COVID-19 vaccines in Australia on Sunday, the cameras were eager to capture the doctor giving him the shot. Less in the public eye was the nurse who administered the first vaccine, given to aged care resident Jane Malysiak, a few minutes earlier. The government and health authorities know that nurses are the true drivers of vaccination programs; Australias childhood vaccination program is the envy of the world, with 95 per cent uptake, and nurses are key to that success. Yes, we have our wonderful scientists and public health officials to guide us out of this pandemic, but when it comes to what happens on the ground, ensuring Australians are prepared, informed and comfortable to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, nurses are the true experts and will administer most of the doses. A nurse gives Jane Malysiak Australias first COVID-19 vaccination on Sunday. Credit:Edwina Pickles Yet so far, nursing associations have been excluded from the decision-making process when it comes to the vaccine rollout. They were involved from the start after the swine flu outbreak in 2009, but inexplicably have been left out of this far greater logistical exercise. The government wants 80 per cent of Australians to be vaccinated by October. Nursing associations can help determine how to deploy the nations health workforce to achieve this target. After all, there are 82,000 nurses working in primary health care in Australia, with half of them working in aged care, a priority sector for vaccination, and another 14,500 are in general practice, where most Australians will receive their vaccinations. The Port of Tauranga is reporting improved profits, despite widespread disruption to cargo volumes. Profitability increased for the first six months of the 2021 financial year - Group Net Profit After Tax for the six months to December 2020 was $49.4 million, a 2.3 per cent increase on the same period the previous year. This is despite a 1.3 per cent decrease in total trade volumes, to 13.1 million tonnes, reports the Port. Container numbers decreased 4.6 per cent, compared with the previous corresponding period, to 612,988 TEUs1. (TEUs = twenty foot equivalent units, a standard measure of shipping containers). Port of Tauranga Limited chair David Pilkington says the mid-year financial results are very pleasing, considering the volatility in cargo volumes over the period and reflected the stability offered by the diverse companies in the group. We have managed to maintain income throughout a challenging six months. Port of Tauranga handled near record volumes of containers in the months of October and December. However, lower-than previous demand from June to August, and vessel delays in November, dragged down the year-to-date container volumes. Its a similar story when we look at overall cargo tonnes. Volumes decreased 1.3 per cent for the six month period, yet volumes in December 2020 were 15.1 per cent higher than the same month in 2019. David says severe vessel delays out of Auckland since September had significant flow-on impacts on Port of Tauranga. We have done our best to accommodate diverted import and export cargoes from Auckland. However, we have had to limit our assistance as we have been constrained by the lack of availability of additional rolling stock and train drivers for the rail link between Tauranga and Auckland. The average cargo exchange per container vessel was 21 per cent higher in December 2020 compared with December 2019, due to the cargo bypassing Auckland. Late arriving vessels have been slow to pick up exports, exacerbating container yard congestion. Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns says the January 1 introduction of penalties for shippers rolling cargo or leaving their containers on the wharf for excessive time, has provided some relief from yard congestion. The peak export season is now in full swing. We need all parts of the supply chain to do their bit and we are very grateful for the cooperation of importers and exporters in improving terminal productivity, says Mark. Unfortunately, the threat of congestion remains and is unlikely to dissipate until Ports of Auckland sorts out its operational problems. We accommodated a container vessel at our Mount Maunganui bulk cargo wharves in December to try and alleviate the pre-Christmas stress for retailers. New Zealands ability to absorb the worldwide disruption caused by Covid-19 has been severely constrained. Port of Tauranga has applied for the Covid-19 recovery fast-track resource consenting process for its proposed berth extension at the Tauranga Container Terminal. The fourth berth will be created by converting 220 metres of cargo storage land to the south of the existing wharves. The $68.5 million project will create an estimated 368 jobs through the construction phase and more than 81 permanent jobs after completion. No Government funding is sought for the project and it is frustrating that the consent process takes so long. Mark says the project could help ease congestion in the Upper North Island supply chain, especially with the prospect of the Ruakura Super-hub and inland port at Hamilton coming on stream. The inland port, being developed in partnership by Port of Tauranga and Tainui Group Holdings, is due to open in 2022. Image via Getty/Tasos Katopodis A retired NYPD officer and former Marine turned himself in at the FBIs Hudson Valley office on Monday for allegedly assaulting a cop during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, CNN reports. Thomas Webster, 52, has been accused of striking a Capitol police officer several times with an aluminum pole holding a Marine Corps flag. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gianforti shared body cam footage following the metal pipe incident, which shows that Webster also attempted to take off that same officers face shield and gas mask, choking him with the chin strap. His alleged behavior has earned him the nickname eye gouger on social media. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Prosecutors allege Webster was berating the officer before attacking him, saying, per HuffPost, You fucking piece of shit. You fucking Commie motherfuckers. Come on, take your shit off. Take your shit off. Webster allegedly wore a bulletproof vest at the time of the incident, which prosecutors believe suggests he was prepared for a physical altercation. Webster allegedly brought a gun with him to Washington D.C. Even though he said he left it in his hotel, its against the law for someone to bring a weapon to D.C. Webster claims he was punched by the Capitol officer before going on the offensive. However, prosecutors say they cannot corroborate his account after reviewing body cam video that was taken 10 minutes before their confrontation escalated. Webster was honorably discharged by the Marines, and retired from the NYPD in 2011. He has no prior arrests. Websters lawyer James Monroe said he advised him to surrender after discovering that images of his face at the Capitol were making the rounds on social media. Webster has been charged with assaulting police officers with a deadly weapon, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, knowingly entering a restricted area, disorderly conduct in a restricted area, engaging in physical violence in a restricted area, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. A judge has granted the prosecutors request to have Webster remain in custody until his next hearing. Story continues Hes scheduled to appear in court on March 3. Related Articles More Complex Sign up for the Complex Newsletter for breaking news, events, and unique stories. Follow Complex on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok The questions we ask about 5G. Photo: Shutterstock Australia is one of the most sceptical countries in the world when it comes to 5G, new research has found. Software testing consultancy Prolifics Testing analysed the most common 5G search terms used on Google and found Is 5G dangerous?, Does 5G have health risks?, and Does 5G spread coronavirus? were being widely used by curious consumers around the world. At top of the list was the United States, accounting for 374,000 such searches a month, followed by the United Kingdom with 93,400 searches. Australia sat in third place, with Aussies conducting 32,970 5G health-related 5G searches a month. The least concerned countries were Mexico, Austria and Denmark, each with fewer than 2,000 searches. Source: Prolific Testing What is 5G? Prolifics Testing also looked at the number of searches relating to 5G in general and found the term What is 5G? cropping up frequently. Americans were the most interested, notching up 127,400 searches a month relating to learning more about the next generation connectivity technology. UK citizens were nowhere near as interested as the Americans, with just 24,200 searches a month, followed by Canada on even fewer just 15,100 a month. The least curious countries were the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland, with around a thousand such searches a month. Respondents to the survey came from 155 countries. Amaravati, Feb 26 : The Andhra Pradesh government has seized some stocks of antibiotic medicines which were not manufactured up to the standard required. "These are not fake medicines but medicines which were not manufactured up to the standard," AP Drugs Control Administration Director General S. Ravi Shankar Narayan told IANS. DCA has seized different strengths and combinations of substandard manufactured antibiotic Azithromycin from Rajahmundry, Bhimavaram and Vijayawada. "It is not of the standard quality in the sense that it doesn't comply with the label claim. Composition is not as per the claims," said Narayan. According to him, the DCA is currently engaged in tracing back the medicine to the dealers with an aim to ultimately reach the manufacturer. "Once we come to know of the manufacturer and get hold of him, we will be recording his statement and then filing a complaint," he said. Finding the actual manufacturer is a step by step backward process which, Narayan said, will take some effort and time. He said DCA directly cannot straightaway go to the manufacturer on the label of the medicine as the label itself can be fake. "Suppose if a company has directly made it and sold it, I will be reaching the original company. If somebody else in between has manufactured and sold it, we will be stopping in the middle and holding him responsible," noted Narayan. Meanwhile, all the stocks of the faulty antibiotic existing with the distributors and retailers have been recalled, and seized and the court intimated. Narayan, a senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, said the retailing pharmaceutical outlets have been issued showcase notices as to why due diligence was not done by them while procuring these stocks of Azithromycin. Meanwhile, the DCA dispatched two teams of officials to Uttarakhand in search of some dealers, even as the manufacturer's address has been traced to the northern state. Flash The first batch of the Chinese Sinovac Vaccine has arrived in Singapore, according to an update on the official website of the Chinese Embassy to Singapore. "On Feb. 23, the first batch of Chinese Sinovac vaccine purchased by the Singaporean government arrived in Singapore," said the update. The arrival of the Chinese vaccine is believed to contribute to Singapore's efforts to defeat the virus and restore normal order of life and economic development, said the Chinese embassy. China will continue to work with Singapore to enhance cooperation on vaccine and epidemic control, build a global community of health for all, and win the final victory in the fight against the epidemic, added the embassy. Singapore has made advanced purchase agreements with the Sinovac vaccine in addition to other two vaccines. The city-state government said earlier they were still assessing the Sinovac vaccine before it is rolled out to the public. Opposition group al-Fateh al-Mubin has sniped several government members in south Idleb, according to North Press. On Wednesday, the armed opposition groups targeted the Syrian government forces sites, and sniped several government members in areas of Idleb, northwestern Syria. Military sources told North Press that the al-Fateh al-Mubin operations room group [a coalition of Syrian opposition members] targeted military positions of government forces in the village of Kafr Battikh, southeast of Idleb with heavy artillery shells. Al-Fateh al-Mubin sniped two government members in the Bureij area near Kafr Nabl south of Idleb, the sources added. On Wednesday morning, it also sniped a governmental member in Maarat Mokhus in the southern part of Zawiya Mountain, south of Idleb. On Tuesday, Russian warplanes targeted the opposition fortifications on the frontlines of the town of al-Bara, south Idleb, with high-explosive missiles, without casualties reported. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. ROCHESTER, Minn. - A set of bills in the Minnesota legislature is looking to add opiate addiction as a qualifying condition for the state's medical cannabis program. The bills, which are set to be reviewed by committees in both the state house and senate, are sponsored by State Representative Erin Koegel (DFL), and State Senator Chris Eaton (DFL). Director of Minnesota's Office of Medical Cannabis Chris Tholkes tells KIMT right now there is very little research on treating opiate addiction with medical cannabis, and existing research is inconclusive. However, Director Tholkes says there are some indications treatment with cannabis might have some degree of effectiveness. "We see some clues that it is helping people. We hear anecdotal stories all the time from our patients, that it's helping them either completely eliminate opioids or greatly reduce them," Director Tholkes said. Some of those indications come from surveys conducted by the Office of Medical Cannabis itself. Director Tholkes tells KIMT healthcare providers who work with the program report over 60% of their patients with intractable pain have reduced their opioid use. Tholkes says similarly, over 60% of patients who were using opioids when they first registered for the medical cannabis program say they have reduced or eliminated their opioid use after six months. While the survey results provide a degree of insight, Director Tholkes says the information does not amount to a clinical study. "I think that there is some hope there, I just think that there isn't quite the robust research body of evidence for opioid use disorder that some folks might want to see." Director Tholkes says the lack of evidence isn't limited to the use of cannabis in treating opiate addiction. She adds research on therapeutic uses of cannabis as a whole are limited because of its federal designation as a schedule one substance. Residents urged not to drop their guard and stick to covid restrictions as Wrexham schools reopen to foundation phase pupils This article is old - Published: Thursday, Feb 25th, 2021 Residents across Wrexham are being urged not to drop their guard as schools reopen to foundation phase pupils. From tomorrow (Friday 26 February) those aged between three and seven will return to the classroom for the first time since before Christmas. Face-to-face learning in schools had been suspended by Welsh Government, apart for the children of critical workers and vulnerable learners subject to certain criteria. However last month the Welsh Government announced plans to begin a phased return for schools, starting with the youngest primary school pupils. Wrexham Council had taken a more cautious course of action compared to some local authorities in Wales and decided to postpone the reopening of schools to these age groups due to the high levels of coronavirus in the area at that time. Due to a decrease in recent weeks with rates in Wrexham currently the lowest in the region Wrexham Council confirmed that schools would reopen to foundation phase pupils from tomorrow. But people are being urged not to drop their guard, with Lead Member for Education, councillor Phil Wynn, urging parents and guardians to not hang around the school gates talking to others at pick up and drop off times. Cllr Wynn said: Were very pleased to see children returning to our schools but theres still lots of restrictions in place to limit the transmission of Covid-19 in our communities. We all need to remain patient for a while yet to ensure we dont return to square one when we had the highest number of positive cases in Wales. Please continue to work from home where possible, wear a face mask when dropping off and picking up your child, dont hang about the school gates talking to other parents, school bubbles apply in schools only and children should not be mixing out of school. We should also be mindful that we can only meet up to four people from two different households when we exercise outdoors. If we all do this we can hopefully see further progress being made to lift restrictions and get our older children back to school. Speaking last week First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that it was the Welsh Governments intention for the all primary school pupils and some older students to return from March 15. The cooperative model is rooted in inclusion and access. Why, then, does our countrys credit union industry, and the broader cooperative movement, remain primarily white? Its a question that many people in this space dont seem to feel comfortable asking, and Google provides few satisfactory answers. The question becomes particularly puzzling when we take into account that poverty disproportionately affects people of color, and building financial stability is one of the core credit union operating principles. Even the NCUA names serving the underserved as a core commitment. As the CEO of a recently converted worker cooperative (with, as of now, a primarily white employee base), I have been practicing curiosity and leaning into questions about race that I would have avoided even two years ago. If there is a disparity in the racial composition of credit unions and cooperatives, I believe there are valuable lessons to be learned by digging in. A little research revealed a rich history of black-owned cooperatives that have largely flown under the radar. Black History Month is a fitting time to bring this hidden legacy to the forefront. What can we learn from the history and present reality of black-owned credit unions and cooperatives to help us more deeply live the cooperative principles in our organizations today? Looking Back Professor Jessica Gordon Nembhards seminal book, Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice (you can find a summary here) highlights Black cooperatives role as a force for change in critical periods throughout American history, especially during the 1880s, 1930s-40s and 1960s-70s. What did these periods have in common? Nembhard reports they were times when Black Americans recognized cooperatives could play a critical role in creating the economic independence that would help them achieve political rights. When black communities worked together to set up their own cooperative stores, gas stations, health insurance, worker co-ops and credit associations, black consumers could tap into services, jobs and financing that were either prohibitively expensive or impossible to access otherwise. Second, these were eras when black organizations actively supported cooperative economics as a means of independence and empowerment. During the 1880s, labor unionsmany of which were integrated in their early daysfought for the right to control their own work and created cooperative mills, farms and exchanges. By the 1930s, Booker T. Washingtons Black Negro Business League was holding conferences and trainings to create an integrated system of cooperative societies throughout the U.S. As the civil rights movement gained strength in the 1950s and 1960s, there was less overt support for cooperativesthey were often tainted by associations with Communism during the McCarthy era. But the civil rights movement continued to recognize the power of the cooperative model and quietly supported it behind the scenes. In 1967, the five major civil rights organizations used grant money from the Ford Foundation to set up the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, which developed a variety of cooperatives (farming, supply, credit unions, housing, workers) and is still in operation today. Lest these descriptions paint too rosy a glow of the early days of cooperatives in black communities, lets acknowledge the ugly realities many of them faced. In Collective Courage, Dr. Nembhard stressed the downside of cooperative success unwanted notice and, all too often, violence and destruction from the white community. Black-owned cooperatives that are thriving today The legacy of black-owned cooperatives persists today in fact, the largest worker cooperative in the United States today, the South Bronx-based Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), is owned primarily by black and Latinx women. According to Lisa Barclay of Food Co-Op, The cooperative provides benefits almost unheard of in the home-care industry, from small interest-free loans to free income tax preparation services to paid vacation and health insurance. Not to mention dividends! Theres also the Ujamaa Collective, founded in Pittsburgh by African-American craftswomen to create a fair trade marketplace for their wares. According to its website, Ujamaa aspires to form and empower a cooperative business network that works collectively to provide economically vibrant, green and sustainable communities for people of African descent. In the food space, Taharka Brothers is a Baltimore, Maryland-area ice cream company that became a worker-owned cooperativeand a majority black-owned companyin late 2020. ChiFresh Kitchen, a worker-owned cooperative in Chicago, creates healthy and affordable meals for those facing food insecurity because of COVID. Even more important, the organization gives formerly incarcerated women meaningful employment and, because of its cooperative structure, both the chance to have a say in every decision the company makes and a share in future profits. The cooperative recently received a $100,000 grant from the American Heart Associations Social Impact Fund because it addresses multiple issues related to equity while empowering the people affected by those issues. And Mandela Grocery, a black grocery co-op in West Oakland, Calif. has 10 worker-owners, sources products from California farmers and entrepreneurswith a focus on farmers and food makers of colorand recently celebrated its 11th anniversary. The co-op described its location as a site of food apartheid where systemic racism has limited local access to fresh food. What about black-owned credit unions? Black-owned credit unions have offered black Americans alternative ways to save and borrow for more than a century and were especially valuable during the Jim Crow era. According to the Southern Oral History Program, North Carolina has long been a hub for black credit unions. The first credit union for black North Carolinians was founded in 1918, another eight were set up by 1920 and during the 1940s the state boasted 55 black credit unionsnearly as many as all other states combined. Participants in this oral history project reported being turned away from white-controlled banks as late as the 1970s and appreciating the critical difference black-owned credit unions made in their lives. Is there a black-owned credit union near you? To be honest, the answer is probably not, as there are fewer than two dozen across the country (check out this article in Shoppe Black for the complete list) and except for a handful of exceptions in Texas and California, most are East of the Mississippi. That said, there have been some exciting recent developments in the credit union space around diversity, equity and inclusion. For instance, The African-American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC), founded in 1999, heads an initiative called Commitment to Change: Credit Unions Unite Against Racism. One of the initiatives main goals: to provide a safe space for leaders to talk about the impacts of current events, particularly with regards to police brutality, and create ways to achieve sustainable change. In other recent developments, USC Credit Union in Los Angeles has proposed starting a credit union that serves historically black colleges and universities as a way for black colleges and universities to scale up, expand services, and lower their operating costs. Just announced in late January 2021, a strategic alliance between CUNA and the African-American Credit Union Coalition will include annual membership and meeting exchanges, a scholarship program and an online community for AACUC. And founded in mid-2020, the Credit Union Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Collective (CU DEI Collective) calls on all members of the credit union movement to apply our cooperative principles to create real, meaningful, transformative, and sustained change. The future of black-owned cooperatives Weve delved into the history and assessed the present state of black-owned cooperatives. What might the future hold? There is no doubt that the cooperative model is powerful. In fact, one of the five primary reasons I decided to transition the marketing agency I co-founded, PixelSpoke, to a worker-owned cooperative last year was the models potential for reducing inequality. As The Nation points out, The equity principle of worker-owned cooperatives could be especially crucial for communities of color, as a path toward expanding community investment and closing the abysmal racial wealth gap. Whether in regards to worker-owned or member-owned cooperatives, its important to keep this equity principle front and center. As I discussed in a June 2020 CUInsight article, Why credit unions should speak up in support of Black Lives Matter, finding more intentional ways to meet the financial needs of black Americans is both a credit union responsibility and an opportunity. Plus, there is ample evidence that multiracial membership will drive future credit union growth. While some of the industrys recent DEI efforts give me hope, we also need to acknowledge that our system has a long way to go. When it comes to leadership, fewer than 3% of U.S. credit unions are headed by a black CEO. According to Inclusiv, formerly the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, as of 2019, Minority-owned credit unions are closing at the staggering rate of roughly one per week and African American credit unions, which make up 50 percent of all minority-owned credit unions, are among the fastest to decline. What can we do? First, take a look around your own credit union. Does your staff reflect the community you serve? What about your Board and your Executive Team? Is your culture inclusive? Do all staff members have equal opportunities to grow and thrive? As Amber Fielder, VP of Marketing at USE Credit Union, points out in a recent episode of The Remarkable Credit Union podcast, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) should be a critical core competency for all credit unions. As marketers, she says, were in the unique position to push DEI in our organizations. Second, take a look at your membership. Do your members reflect the full range of the communities you serve? What groups are being left out? How can you reach them and engage with them to better serve their needs? How can you iterate and innovate when it comes to your product mix? Point West Credit Union (a PixelSpoke client) is a great example of a credit union that has intentionally evolved its products to meet the needs of underserved immigrant communities. Lastly, in keeping with the cooperatives helping cooperatives principle, lets prioritize partnerships with black-owned cooperatives, including other credit unions, to support their work, amplify their impact, and enrich our collective communities. Good morning, its Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. One year ago today, the first U.S. military serviceman was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was 23-year-old Army soldier stationed in Korea and was immediately quarantined. That night, seven Democrats debated in Charleston in the run-up to South Carolinas presidential primary. By any historical measure (prior to 2016), two of the seven candidates simply lacked qualifications for the job. Thirty-eight-year-old Pete Buttigieg had charisma and presence, but serving as the mayor of a small American city wasnt considered the requisite experience. Meanwhile, San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer had never held elective office of any kind or served as a wartime commander in the military, as had every president before Donald Trump. In hindsight, we tend to view the outcome of presidential nomination campaigns as obvious, the logic of the winner clearly making sense after the fact. But these contests over many states and many months are not foreordained. And in large fields, unpredictable chemical reactions take place among the candidates, which happened last year during the South Carolina primary, even as many commentators were already conceding the nomination to Bernie Sanders, whod swept to victory in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. But when his six main rivals took aim at him in the Palmetto State that night, as they needed to, Vermonts Democratic Socialist senator didnt know how to expand his appeal. Queried about his past praise of communist tyrants, Sanders dug in his heels. When dictatorships, whether it is the Chinese or the Cubans, do something good, you acknowledge that, he said. Pressed on whether he was hostile to Israel, Sanders called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a reactionary racist. Meanwhile, picking up where she left off a week earlier in Nevada, Elizabeth Warren continued her personal mission of dismantling Mike Bloombergs campaign over how women were treated in his company. For their part, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden squabbled over who should get credit for gun control legislation. Looking back, however, the issue that was really hanging over everyones head was the new coronavirus. In a moment, Ill offer an observation about how this danger was perceived one year ago today by the nations top political leaders. First, Id direct you to RCPs front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion columns spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following: * * * The Wokes Pandemic Power Grab. J. Peder Zane writes in his semi-weekly column that the COVID-19 crisis is the excuse the left has been waiting for to turbo-charge its influence. Russiagate Files Trump Couldnt Force Into View. Intelligence officials prevailed upon the president not to release secret Trump-Russia material, which former congressional investigator Kash Patel outlines for Aaron Mate of RealClearInvestigations. Pensions Need Help From Congress. At RealClearPolicy, former U.S. Treasury and SEC official Michael D. Scott argues that a group of multi-employer pension plans heading toward insolvency deserve the assistance provided by the latest COVID relief bill. Getting China Policy Right. Also at RCPolicy, Charles Freeman and Daniel Rosen lay out considerations the Biden administration must factor into its relations with Beijing. Congress Misdirects Health Premium Subsidies. At RealClearHealth, Dean Clancy assails a provision in the relief bill that benefits the affluent. Assessing Electric Vehicles. RealClearEnergy reprises, and updates, Geoffrey Pohankas take on the three models hes driven. Getting Rid of the SAT Essay Helps No One. At RealClearEducation, Steven Zhou warns that colleges will assess applicants personal statements to evaluate writing ability, and he argues that those statements are poor indicators of college outcome. How Atheists and Believers Morality Differs. RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy examines the findings of a new study. Mike Nichols Inspiring Life. RealClearMarkets editor John Tamny reviews Mark Harris's biography of the legendary stage and screen director. * * * The first person to mention the coronavirus in the Democrats Feb. 25, 2020, debate was Mike Bloomberg, who blurted out that President Trump had defunded the Centers for Disease Control, a claim so odd no one responded to it. Moments later, moderator Gayle King of CBS noted that the CDC had said that its not a matter of if the coronavirus would spread to the United States, but when. Turning to Amy Klobuchar, King asked, The question to you is this: Would you close the borders to Americans who have been exposed to the coronavirus in order to prevent an outbreak here in this country? With that, they were off and running. The candidates answers werent particularly insightful in the early stages of the pandemic (you can read a transcript here), but they did tell you something about each of them. Klobuchar urged listeners to go to the CDC website; Joe Biden touted his previous experience dealing with the Ebola outbreak. Sanders went after Trump in caustic language: In the White House today, we have a self-described great genius. Self-described. And this great genius has told us that this coronavirus is going to end in two months. April is the magical day that this great scientist we have in the White House has determined. I wish I was kidding. That is what he said. What do we have to do? Whether or not the issue is climate change, which is clearly a global crisis requiring international cooperation, or infectious diseases like coronavirus, requiring international cooperation, we have to work and expand the World Health Organization. Obviously, we have to make sure the CDC, the NIH, our infectious departments are fully funded. This is a global problem. As I say, caustic. But not necessarily inaccurate or unfair. The man in the White House was fiddling while Rome burned -- and not only Rome. The rest of Italy. New York, too, and California -- this awful pathogen was already here. But Bernie Sanders own blind spot was the WHO. That organization, apparently under pressure from China, where the virus originated, was stubbornly refusing to even call the outbreak a pandemic. Using the word pandemic now does not fit the facts, but it may cause fear, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. This was idiotic, as was the response of the man in the White House to the Democrats debate. CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world, Trump tweeted during the debate. No matter how well we do, however, the Democrats talking point is that we are doing badly, he added. If the virus disappeared tomorrow, they would say we did a really poor, and even incompetent, job. Not fair, but it is what it is. The virus didnt disappear the next day, and still hasnt. Joe Biden is presiding over a nation in which more than half a million people have died. It is what it is, the former president said. But did it have to be that way? Carl M. Cannon Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics @CarlCannon (Twitter) ccannon@realclearpolitics.com 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. Recall Newsom Campaign Says It Has Collected Enough Signatures to Trigger Vote The campaign to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reached 1.8 million raw signatures, says a campaign official. About 1.83 million signatures have been counted as of Feb. 25, Rescue Californias Anne Hyde Dunsmore told The Epoch Times. Although Dunsmore said 1.8 million unverified signatures should be enough to trigger the recall election, she said the campaign will continue its efforts and could reach as many as 2 million signatures by the March 10 deadline. To succeed, the campaign must collect 1,495,709 verified signatures. More signatures are needed as many are discarded during the validation process. Were just making sure we are finishing what we started, Dunsmore said. Were just getting incoming [signatures] and [it] is paying off. All of the work that weve done in the timeframe that we needed to do it in, we did. Its complicated for people to understand that you cant do these things overnight. Volunteers will continue collecting signatures at numerous booths around the state. Meanwhile, the California Republican Party is making calls to people who have received the petition but not returned it. We have so much evidence that weve done what we needed to do to get to where we needed to be, Dunsmore said. And its on track. Everything we thought we needed to do and did to get to the end game is happening. Cole Patterson, who worked as the Republican National Committees state data director in the 2020 election, has been tracking the recall efforts. He shared various trends with The Epoch Times based on the signatures collected. Orange Countys actually doing a lot of heavy lifting, Patterson said. Orange County has about 8.04 percent of Californias total registration, and they actually have received 16.42 percent of the entire amount of signatures received statewide, so their over-indexing rate is 204 percent. In the case of Orange County, the victories of Congresswomen Michelle Steel and Young Kim last November spurred a lot of Republican enthusiasm across the county, which could be one of the reasons for Orange Countys success in getting signatures, Patterson said. Pattersons data also revealed that Californias five most populated countiesLos Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino, which account for 53 percent of total registered voters in the stateaccount for 55 percent of received signatures. There are 11 countiesincluding Kings, Placer, and Calaverasthat have received signatures from more than 10 percent of their 2020 registered voters, meaning that in those counties, more than 1 in 10 people have signed the petition to recall the governor. Despite the 11 counties accounting for just 5.64 percent of the states voter registration, they made up 14.18 percent of recall signatures, Patterson said. Its not only a Republican effort; more than 10 percent of registered Democrats and 20 percent of non-party preference voters have signed the petition as well, according to Patterson. Signature numbers jumped during two distinct timeframes: when Newsom was caught eating dinner with friends at the French Laundry last November, and when he imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on residents in December. Patterson said, Then the stay-at-home orders were renewed indefinitely on Dec. 29, and then we saw an increase of 370,000 signatures received by county registrars. Secretariat of Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) commemorated Khojaly Genocide committed by Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992, according to the GUAM. The Secretariat noted that the GUAM Member States must join forces to prevent such tragedies from happening again. During the Karabakh war, the Armenian military committed an act of genocide against the population of Azerbaijans Khojaly town on Feb. 26, 1992. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women, and 70 old people were killed as a result of the massacre. A total of 1,000 civilians became disabled in the onslaught. Eight families were completely annihilated, 130 children lost one parent, while 25 lost both parents. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown. Biden Administration Holding Child Migrants at Border for Up to 5 Days President Joe Bidens administration is holding child migrants at the southern border for up to five days, in violation of an agreement that stipulates children should only be held at Customs and Border Protection facilities for a maximum of 72 hours in most cases. There were some delays last week because of weather and because some of these facilities to safely move these kids to did not have power and were not in a place where they couldthey had the capacity to take in these kids and do it safely. That is not our objective; that is not our goal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington. So some, unfortunately, did stay four days, five days, or longer. But the objective is to move them as quickly as possible to the HHS-sponsored facilities. Winter storms struck Texas and other southern states earlier this month, leading to widespread power outages and other issues. Under the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, border agents are supposed to transfer a minor from border facilities to more permanent housing, run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), within three days in most cases. The 72-hour limit was strengthened in 2008 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The objective is to move kids, unaccompanied minors, as quickly as possible, under 72 hours, to these HHS-sponsored facilities, Psaki said. Customs and Border Protection didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. The U.S. flag flies at half-staff at a port of entry at the U.S.Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on Feb. 24, 2021. (John Moore/Getty Images) Asylum-seekers wait in line to get a meal at a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, on March 31, 2020. (Veronica G. Cardenas/Reuters)Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, told Breitbart that border agents were holding more than 800 minors as of Feb. 22, with 212 remaining in custody over the 72-hour limit. The facilities are such that social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic isnt possible, according to Judd. Psakis admission came as the administration faces criticism for reopening a child migrant holding facility run by HHS in Texas that was shuttered after a short time following its opening during the Trump administration. This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay no matter the administration or party, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter on Feb. 23. The human rights of migrants and migrant children is not a partisan issue. The fact is this is shameful. @POTUS must reverse course, added Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Psaki said the situation is difficult because unaccompanied children are crossing the border and must be dealt with. We only have a couple of choices. What we are not doing is dividing these kids and separating them from their parents at the border, which is what the last administration did and why President Biden, or then-candidate Biden and then-candidate Harris, were outspoken at the time about these kids being pulled from their parents, she added. What we are doing is working as quickly as possible to process these kids into these HHS facilities, which have been revamped, which have medical and educational services available, so that we can then transfer them to families. Thats what our approach is. A male customer who was with a woman and waiting to be served at a restaurant in Mexico opened fire and struck one of two armed suspects who attempted to mug him, shocking surveillance video shows. The suspects were seen in the footage approaching the man moments after he had sat down at a sidewalk table set up outside Midam Korean barbecue restaurant in the Mexico City neighborhood of Lomas de Chaputelpec at 5pm on Sunday. The muggers surrounded the man and reportedly ordered him to give up his cellphone and watch. A mugger (pictured standing in the striped shirt) approaches his target outside a Mexico City restaurant Sunday before he was shot in the abdomen and right arm. His accomplice (pictured in the white sweatshirt) remains at-large Midam, a Korean barbecue restaurant in the Mexico City neighborhood of Lomas de Chaputelpec, was the scene of a shootout between one of their customers and two men who attempted to mug him Subsequently, the mugging victim pulled a gun from his right side and fired multiple shots at the armed assailants, striking one of them in the abdomen and right arm. The suspects then retreated and returned fire as the man and his female companion ran away and escaped in a vehicle. According to Imagen TV, the injured assailant took himself to an area hospital and was treated for the gunshot wounds. Muggers struggle during their failed robbery attempt at a Mexico City restaurant on Sunday. One of the assailants was shot in the abdomen and also struck on the right arm in a shootout with their target, who along with a female companion managed to escape unharmed A mugger (pictured in the striped shirt) takes off running after he was shot in the abdomen moments after he tried to steal a watch and cellphone from a restaurant customer in Mexico City on Sunday The man was questioned by authorities who were canvassing city hospitals for a possible shooting victim and identified himself as a merchant who had been the victim of an attack. However, law enforcement investigators were able to learn that he had actually been shot during the botched mugging attempt after reviewing the security camera footage and retrieving the blood soaked t-shirt that he was wearing the moment he was shot. The wounded suspects accomplice remained on-the-run. The UK granted asylum or offered some form of protection to almost 10,000 people last year - falling by more than half that of 2019, new figures show. Protection in the form of asylum, humanitarian protection, alternative forms of leave and resettlement was offered to 9,936 people in 2020, said the Home Office. This figure is 52 per cent lower than in 2019 and is the lowest level since 2014. The Home Office said the fall in the latest year is due to fewer initial decisions being made on asylum applications - 14,365 last year compared with 20,766 in 2019 - as well as the pause to resettlement activity since March 2020 due to the pandemic. Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said: 'These figures show how broken the asylum system is, which is why we are working as fast as possible to fix it. The UK granted asylum or offered some form of protection to almost 10,000 people last year - falling by more than half that of 2019 (pictured: a Border Force vessel arriving at Dover Marina) The number of people offered protection in the form of resettlement (bottom line), asylum and alternative forms of leave (middle line) totalled 9,936 in 2020. The total number of people granted asylum or some form of protection (top line) fell by more than half that of 2019 'We will deliver a long-term plan to make the system firm and fair, which removes people who have no right to be here while providing protection to those who genuinely need our help. 'We have already changed the law meaning those who have travelled through safe countries will have their asylum cases treated as inadmissible.' There were 823 grants of protection through resettlement schemes in 2020, 85 per cent fewer than in the previous year. The vast majority were resettled in the first quarter before resettlement activity was paused during the second and third quarter of 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic. The Home Office recommenced resettlement activity in December 2020 when eight refugees were resettled. There were 29,456 asylum applications in the UK in 2020, an 18 per cent decrease from the previous year. The Home Office said this latest figure will have been impacted by the measures taken in response to Covid-19. In 2020, there were 14,365 initial decisions made on asylum applications, and 46 per cent of these were grants of asylum, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave - a decrease of 52 per cent compared with the previous year. The number of asylum applications lodged in the UK in the years ending December 2011 to December last year, dropping after the Covid pandemic was declared The top 10 nationalities claiming asylum in the UK and the grant rate at initial decision (shown by percentage) in 2019 and 2020. The most applications in both 2019 and 2020 came from Iran, while Eritrea and Syria had the highest grant rates last year The immigration statistics also show that there were an estimated 39.5 million passenger arrivals in 2020 (including returning UK residents) - a 73 per cent (106.8million) decrease compared with 2019. The Home Office said this was driven by significantly fewer passenger journeys in the last three quarters of 2020, when there was an 87 per cent (101.7million) decrease compared with the same period in the previous year, due to the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic. Figures show there were just under one million visas granted in 2020, 69 per cent fewer than the previous year. Of these, 51 per cent were to visit, 23 per cent were to study (excluding short-term study), 13 per cent were to work, four per cent were for family, and nine per cent were for other reasons. The figures also show that there were 170,692 applications for British citizenship in 2020, two per cent fewer than 2019. The number of asylum applicants to the top five countries in the EU+ and the UK for the years ending November 2014 to November last year, with Italy receiving the smallest number of applications in 2020. The other EU+ category includes all other countries that are European Union member states, part of the European Economic Area and Switzerland Applications for citizenship by EU nationals rose by 20 per cent compared with the previous year to 59,229. EU nationals now account for 35 per cent of all citizenship applications compared with 12 per cent in 2016, while applications made by non-EU nationals fell by 11 per cent in 2020 to 111,463. There were 130,568 grants of British citizenship in 2020, 18 per cent fewer than the previous year. The Home Office said this fall was due in part to the pandemic response and comes after a period of relative stability since 2014. The statistics also state that the number of people entering detention in 2020 was 14,773, 40 per cent fewer than the previous year. Although in part affected by the pandemic, the Home Office said this continues a general downward trend since 2015 when the number entering detention peaked at more than 32,000. President Joe Bidens ordering of a 100-day review of vulnerabilities in Americas supply chains highlights the dependence the US, and other developed economies, have on third-country suppliers, especially China, for products and technologies critical to their medical, industrial and defence sectors. Bidens initial review will cover computer chips, medical equipment, large capacity batteries and rare earths, with another 12-month review of other sectors including technology more broadly and food production. The more urgent analysis, which comes amid a global shortage of the semiconductors critical to most modern manufacturing, from cars to smartphones to defence technologies, flows from a pandemic-inspired recognition of how concentrated, China-based and vulnerable most modern supply chains are and against the backdrop of the severe stresses in the relationship between the US and China. President Joe Biden has ordered a review of vulnerabilities in Americas supply chains. Credit:AP Most developed countries, including Australia, found themselves scrambling for personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals at the onset of the pandemic, taken aback at how dependent they had become on China, and are now assessing how to re-shore the most critical manufacturing capacities. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on February 25 informed that the Indian coast guard found a boat carrying Rohingya refugees adrift in the Andaman Sea and provided them with food, water and medical care. The Indian coast guard had answered a UN agency's plea to look for the boat carrying Rohingya refugees believed to be adrift in the Andaman Sea without food and water for several days. According to the Associated Press, about 90 refugees, including some children, started the journey to seek better lives. The boat was believed to have left Bangladesh two weeks ago and then broken down at sea, leaving the refugees suffering from acute dehydration. Given that the refugees are still adrift at sea, immediate disembarkation is critical to meeting their most basic human needs + ensuring their safety is no longer threatened. -@CatherineUNHCR tells @AP #Rohingya refugees need to be safely landed ashore.https://t.co/17gwa9kUaR UNHCR Asia Pacific (@UNHCRAsia) February 25, 2021 The UNHCR had said that it does not know the boats exact current location. Earlier this week, the UN agency had alerted nearby nations to look for the boat and said that it was prepared to offer humanitarian assistance if it was found. Chris Lewa, who is the director of the Arakan Project that monitors the Rohingya crisis, said they had heard at least eight people had already died on the boat. FILE - IN this Feb. 15, 2021, file photo, Rohingya refugees headed to the Bhasan Char island prepare to board navy vessels from the south eastern port city of Chattogram, Bangladesh. The United Nations said Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, that a group of Rohingya refugees is adrift in a boat in the Andaman Sea without food or water, and that their families are worried that many may have already died. (AP Photo, File) READ: UN: Boat With Rohingya Refugees Adrift Without Food, Water READ: UN Agency Seeks Help To Find Rohingya Boat Adrift At Sea Refugee boat is traceless According to AP, Lewa said that Arakan Project has been unable to contact the refugees for several days. She informed that the organisation had spoken to the refugees, but then later they were traceless. The refugees had no water, no food and they were drinking seawater and dying, Lewa said. Following assistance from the Indian coast guards, the UNHCR appreciated the deployment of the nations search and rescue team. Catherine Stbberfield, who is the spokesperson for the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said that given that the refugees are still adrift at sea, immediate disembarkment is absolutely critical to meeting their most basic needs and ensuring that their safety is no longer threatened. Bangladesh authorities, on the other hand, said that they had no information about any boat that recently carried Rohingya out of Bangladeshs waters. It is worth noting that over one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are living in crowded camps in Bangladesh, including more than 700,000 who fled after Myanmars military conducted a harsh counterinsurgency operation in 2017 involving mass rape, murders and the torching of the villages. Muslin-dominated Malaysia has been a common destination of boats arranged by traffickers who promise the refugees a better life abroad. Bangladesh has said that ultimately it is up to Myanmar to take the refugees back and has called on the international community to put pressure on Myanmars government to ensure their safe return. (Rep image: @SknYusuf/Twitter) READ: Myanmar-based Rohingya Arrested From Ghutiari Sharif READ: Bangladesh Sends More Rohingya Refugees To New Island H-E-B is supporting the Texas food banks residents are leaning on in the wake of recent winter weather. The Texas grocery chain announced a $1 million donation on Wednesday to support 18 food banks in Texas as the state recovers from a week-long winter and utility crisis which left residents cold, hungry and in the dark. The effort was highlighted by Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show Wednesday afternoon. HIDALGO: Lina Hidalgo makes 'Time' 100 list for 2021 In addition to the monetary donations, H-E-B also donated $100,000 worth of Meal Simple meals to food banks. H-E-B responded to the need for water, whether due to lack of pressure or busted pipes, by gathering donations from supplier partners. Zen Water and Florida-based Publix donated 10 truckloads of water each. Proud Source Water also committed a truck of water. The end result was 21 trailer loads of more than 725,000 bottles of water, according to the announcement. The grocery store is also providing a way for customers to get in on the giving. Shoppers will be able to donate in the checkout lane or online. Funds generated will go directly to food banks affiliated with Feeding Texas. MACK GIVES BACK: What Mattress Mack told Ellen Degeneres about Houston's winter storm recovery DeGeneres noted H-E-B's commitment Texas, saying she sends her love to the state. "Thank you, H-E-B," she said. "Our hearts go out to all of you affected by the storm." The new assistance is an added ply to the hunger relief work H-E-B ramped up in response to the coronavirus pandemic. H-E-B's Hunger Relief Program, started in 1982, donated 41 million pounds of food to food banks throughout 2020. Winell Herron, H-E-B's president of public affairs, diversity and environmental affairs, said the donations are to help Texans get "back on their feet." "H-E-B is here for Texas, and we will do everything we can to support those in need across our great state," Herron said in a statement. Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye The city's Animal Care Services is looking to find homes or the owners for hundreds of animals it rescued during last week's severe winter weather. Shannon Simms, the director of ACS, said the city shelter rescued about 200 animals. The shelter already was at capacity before the weather rescues, according to officials. It normally has between 250 and 300 animals. Simms said the shelter received a high volume of calls for pets outside in the snow, but 60 percent of those calls were for animals who had adequate shelter, causing delays for the already short-staff to find animals in need. "The 200 we rescued is actually pretty low for what I would have liked for us to help," Simms said. ACS took the pet if they determined the animal's condition wasn't going to improve during the severe weather or if it was in distress. Often times, the owner was absent or dogs would escape from the home. Another challenge ACS faced were the road conditions. Not only did the snow and icy roads hinder crews from driving around, pet owners had a difficult time getting to the shelter, forcing many dogs to stay at the crowded shelter. Many dogs did have microchips, making it easy for ACS to pull up the owner's information and return them, freeing up space in the shelter. ACS typically does not deliver pets to owners but made an exception last week. There are still many dogs that have not been claimed, and ACS is working to get those pets in a foster home or adopted. "We want them out of here quickly because a kennel is not a home," said ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood. "Time is always of the essence because they don't stop coming, so we are dependant on our relationship with the community." The shelter rescues about 30,000 animals a year. ACS was so busy last week, it is still responding to calls of neglected pets, partly to educate owners about providing adequate food and shelter no matter the weather conditions. Owners looking for their pets can first visit the ACS website to find photos of all of the animals in the shelter's care. You also can visit ACS, located at 4710 Texas 151, to see if your pet was rescued. Norwood said pet owners may have to wait upon arrival because the shelter is only accepting visits by appointment due to the pandemic. The Delhi High Court on Thursday adjourned the batch of petitions it is hearing for legalisation of same-sex marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Special Marriage Act, and the Foreign Marriage Act to 20 April. The government has informed the Delhi HC that it has prepared its reply to petitions seeking the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Back in October and November last year, the high court had issued notice to the government on three pleas regarding the legalisation of same-sex marriages. In the last hearing, the Bench headed by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw had extended a final opportunity for the Centre to file its reply before adjourning the matter to today. Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the reply has been prepared and is in the process of being affirmed. He added that the reply would be filed during the course of the day. The Delhi HC has taken this submission on record. After dates were given by the Court for the filing of counter-affidavit and rejoinders, the matter was posted for further hearing on 20 April. The petitioners have submitted that denying recognition to same-sex couples amounts to a violation of Articles, 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. She is expecting her first child with husband Iain Stirling in the coming weeks. And Laura Whitmore looked radiant as she displayed her growing baby bump while getting ready to film Celebrity Juice on Thursday. The Love Island host, 35, showcased her sense of style as she donned a white long-sleeved mini dress with a floral print. Stunning: Laura Whitmore looked radiant as she displayed her growing baby bump while getting ready to film Celebrity Juice on Thursday Laura added height to her frame with a pair of white ankle boots while she styled her blonde locks into an updo for filming. The former MTV star, who joined Celebrity Juice last year alongside Emily Atack, added to her look with a gold necklace. Alongside her snaps, Laura wrote: 'Show 2!! Bun on the head and one in the oven. New series @celebjuice coming April'. Earlier this month, the Irish beauty revealed she has no plans to give up working when she becomes a mother. Outfit: The Love Island host, 35, showcased her sense of style as she donned a white long-sleeved mini dress with a floral print The model told how her mother Carmel having a child 'out of wedlock' in 1980s Ireland taught her 'there's nothing you can't do'. Speaking to The Telegraph, Laura said: 'All my friends from school are doctors or teachers. 'The fact that I even thought it was possible to go off and work at MTV came from my mum because her attitude was: "If you want to, then why not?" 'When people ask if I'm going to give up work this year because of the baby, I'm like, "Why? Mum did it in '80s Ireland!"' Glamour: Laura added height to her frame with a pair of white ankle boots while she styled her blonde locks into an updo for filming Laura has documented some of her pregnancy on social media and previously said she is due in 'early 2021'. The star is hoping to be back at work this summer for the next series of Love Island which was pulled off air last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Laura and Iain tied the knot in a private ceremony in Dublin City Hall in October, with Laura's half-brother Adam and Iain's sister Kirsten acting as witnesses. Brokerage firms IIFL Securities and Axis Securities will acquire the accounts of Karvy Stock Broking after winning the bids conducted by exchanges and depositories. While IIFL will get the demat accounts of Karvy with depositories NSDL and CDSL, Axis Securities will obtain the trading or broking accounts. IIFL Securities Ltd has emerged as the successful bidder for demat accounts held by Karvy with NSDL and CDSL. The said transfer of demat accounts is subject to the remittance of the bid amount and submission of the necessary documents in relation thereto," IIFL said in a statement to the exchanges. IIFL Securities will get more than 1.1 million demat accounts with the BSE, NSE and Metropolitan Stock Exchange (MSE) with assets worth 3.01 trillion under management. Once the process is complete, the customer base of Axis Securities will surge from 2.5 million to over 3.6 million," a statement by Axis Securities said, adding that the transfer will help Karvys broking clients to continue with the access to securities market and have the benefits of Axis Securities trading platform. On 6 February, the NSE, BSE and MSE issued a circular to transfer the trading and demat accounts held by Karvy Stock Broking Ltd to another member or participant through a formal bidding process based on certain prescribed eligibility criteria. NSDL had said that the funds raised from the bidding will be utilized for the settlement of claims of investors of Karvy, after recovering the outstanding dues of market infrastructure institutions. Karvy had misused power of attorneys from its clients to facilitate unauthorized transfer of clients securities to its demat accounts. In November 2019, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India had barred the brokerage from taking new clients after it was found have to misused client collateral worth more than 2,000 crore for its own trades. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. A freight train carrying dangerous goods has been derailed near Coffs Harbour, where some carriages toppled into floodwaters and thousands of litres of fuel spilt as heavy rains drench the Mid North Coast region of NSW. Emergency services crews were called to the rail line at Nana Glen, about 25 kilometres north-west of Coffs Harbour, after the derailment about 1.45am on Thursday. A freight train has been derailed at Nana Glen, near Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid North Coast. Fire and Rescue NSW said about half of the 1500-metre train had been derailed, with one locomotive toppling into a paddock. Two others remained upright. Sixteen carriages jackknifed and four landed in floodwater. One locomotive leaked up to 8000 litres of diesel. Fire crews said they managed to stem the fuel spill by midday on Thursday. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held a hearing titled The Rise of Domestic Terrorism in America. The stated purpose of the hearing was to shed light on the warning signs and signals prior to the [January 6] attack on the Capitol. The Republicans at the hearing used the event to demonstrate their continued support for Donald Trump and argue that last months fascistic attack on the US Capitol was the inevitable and understandable response to last years mass protests against police violence, which they absurdly characterized as riots by left-wing terrorists led by Antifa. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., speaks at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs & Senate Rules and Administration joint hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, to examine the January 6th attack on the Capitol. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) The ranking Republican on the subcommittee, Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, set the tone in his opening remarks by showing a video of Donald Trumps infamous statement after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he praised the neo-Nazis who dominated the event as fine people. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, put forward most explicitly the basic line of the Republicans, declaring at one point, What was going on every day for 120 days in Portland was the same as January 6. This was essentially an apologia for the attempt by fascistic forces whipped up by Trump to seize and likely execute members of Congress in order to prevent the certification of Joe Bidens victory and establish a presidential dictatorship under Trump. In response, the Democrats for the most part chastised their Republican colleagues and pleaded with them to act more responsibly. They refused to point to the direct political complicity of Biggs, Jordan and most other Republicans in Congress in the promotion of Trumps lies about a stolen election and their open or tacit support for the far-right militia forces mobilized in his effort to overturn the election results. Biggs not only voted against the certification of the Electoral College vote in the wake of the mob attack on the US Capitol, he was a prominent promoter of the Stop the Steal campaign that led up to the January 6 insurrection. Jordan was also one of the 139 Republican House members who voted against certification. Chairing the hearing was Texas Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. She set the tone for most of the Democrats on the subcommittee, defining the attempted coup and the growth of fascistic and white supremacist forces entirely in racial terms. Throughout the proceedings, Jackson Lee repeatedly thanked her Republican colleagues for their contributions. The four witnesses who appeared were: *Wade Henderson: Interim president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights *Michael German: A fellow with the Brennan Center for Justices Liberty & National Security Program. German spent 16 years as a special agent with the FBI, where he worked undercover, penetrating far-right militias. *Malcom Nance: The executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project. A frequent guest on MSNBC as an intelligence expert, Nance spent 20 years in the US Navy specializing in counter-intelligence and naval cryptology. *Andy Ngo: A disciple of the ultraright-wing founder of Project Veritas, James OKeefe, and the author of Unmasked: Inside Antifas Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy. He gained prominence on Twitter by embedding himself within fascist groups, such as Patriot Prayer, and selectively editing and sharing footage of alleged far-left violence in the Pacific Northwest. Of all the witnesses, former FBI agent German provided the most substantive testimony. He pushed back on suggestions that new domestic terrorism laws were needed, noting that there were already 52 laws on the books to deal with terrorism. The problem was not a lack of statutes or resources, he said, but the fact that the Justice Department and the FBI deliberately chose not to focus on white supremacist and far-right groups following the September 11, 2001 attacks. In relation to the January 6 attack, German said it was obvious well in advance that far-right groups were planning to attack the Capitol. He noted that armed right-wing militias had stormed the Oregon capitol less than two weeks before. With few exceptions, the Republicans at the hearing addressed their questions solely to Ngo, who served as a sounding board for the lies and libels against the hundreds of thousands of youth and workers of all races and ethnicities who marched peacefully in response to last Mays police murder of George Floyd. He provided expert testimony, devoid of facts, as to the nefarious role of the nebulous Antifa in organizing the mass protests. When Jackson Lee asked Ngo to name a single leader of Antifa, Ngo admitted that he could not. What neither side seemed particularly interested in was bringing to light factual information about the fascistic groups involved in the January 6 attacks, such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the III Percenters and the Boogaloo Bois, including their political and financial backers and their connections to the police, military and intelligence agencies. DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Product Type; Procedure; End User, and Geography" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. According to this report the global infertility treatment devices and equipment market is expected to reach US$ 1,973.68 million by 2027 from US$ 1,050.00 million in 2019; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% from 2020 to 2027. The report highlights trends prevailing in the market, and drivers and hindrances pertaining to the market growth. The key factors driving the growth of the market include increase in the incidence of infertility in both sexes and rising number of fertility clinics and infertility services with government support. However, the high procedural cost of reproductive techniques hinders the market growth. Based on product type, the infertility treatment devices and equipment market is segmented into ovum aspiration pumps, sperm separation devices, sperm analyzers systems, micromanipulator systems, incubators, and others. The ovum aspiration pumps segment held the largest share of the market in 2019 and is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period. The growth of the segment is attributed to the developments done by the companies for the ovum aspiration pumps. For instance, in April 2018, KITAZATO CORPORATION, a Japan-based medical technology company signed a strategic partnership with Brazil-based distributor SPECTRUN. The new distributor will supply various ART (Artificial Reproduction Technology) products in Brazil. The range of product includes oocyte pickup needles and associated devices. Such development is expected to increase the access of product, which will eventually drive the segment growth by 2027. Microptic, Coopersurgical, Inc; Cook Medical LLC; Dxnow; Eppendorf AG; AB Scientific Ltd; Hamilton Thorne, Inc; Rocket Medical Plc; Invo Bioscience; and Vitrolifeare among the leading companies operating in the infertility treatment devices and equipment market. The companies have adopted inorganic and organic growth strategies to expand their global footprints and product portfolios to meet the rising demand for the infertility treatment devices and equipmentand services. For instance, in September 2020, INVO Bioscience, Inc. developers of INVOcell has established a joint venture to operate dedicated invocell fertility clinics in Mexico. The new jointly-owned operation, named Positib Fertility, S. A. de C. V. (Positib Fertility) is likely to focus on establishing fertility centers dedicated to offering INVOcell, with the initial center to be located in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. Reasons to Buy Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the Infertility treatment devices and equipment market. Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies. The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the global Infertility treatment devices and equipmentmarket, thereby allowing players across the value chain to develop effective long-term strategies. Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets. Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it. Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin security interest with respect to client products, segmentation, pricing and distribution. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 1.1 Scope of the Study 1.2 Report Guidance 1.3 Market Segmentation 1.3.1 Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - By Product Type 1.3.2 Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - By Procedure 1.3.3 Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - By End User 1.3.4 Global Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - By Geography 2. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Key Takeaways 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Coverage 3.2 Secondary Research 3.3 Primary Research 4. Global Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment- Market Landscape 4.1 Overview 4.2 PEST Analysis 4.2.1 North America - PEST Analysis 4.2.2 Europe - PEST Analysis 4.2.3 Asia Pacific - PEST Analysis 4.2.4 Middle East and Africa (MEA) - PEST Analysis 4.2.5 South and Central America (SCAM) - PEST Analysis 4.3 Expert Opinions 5. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Key Market Dynamics 5.1 Market Drivers 5.1.1 Increasing Incidence of Infertility in Both Sexes 5.1.2 Rising Number of Fertility Clinics and Infertility Services with Government Support 5.2 Market Restraints 5.2.1 High Procedural Cost of Reproductive Techniques 5.2.2 Risks Associated with Infertility Treatment 5.3 Market Opportunities 5.3.1 Growing Number of Product Launches and Developments 5.4 Future Trends 5.4.1 Rising Emphasis on In Vitro Fertilization 5.5 Impact analysis 6. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Global Analysis 6.1 Global Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Marker Revenue Forecast And Analysis 6.2 Global Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market, By Geography - Forecast And Analysis 6.3 Market Positioning of Key Players 7. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Analysis - By Product Type 7.1 Overview 7.2 Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Revenue Share, by Product Type (2019 and 2027) 7.3 Ovum Aspiration Pumps 7.3.1 Overview 7.3.2 Ovum Aspiration Pumps: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 7.4 Sperm Separation Devices 7.4.1 Overview 7.4.2 Sperm Separation Devices: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 7.5 Sperm Analyser Systems 7.5.1 Overview 7.5.2 Sperm Analyser Systems: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 7.6 Micromanipulator Systems 7.6.1 Overview 7.6.2 Micromanipulator Systems: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 7.7 Incubators 7.7.1 Overview 7.7.2 Incubators: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 7.8 Others 7.8.1 Overview 7.8.2 Others: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Analysis - By Procedure 8.1 Overview 8.2 Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Revenue Share, by Procedure (2019 and 2027) 8.3 Assisted Reproductive Technology 8.3.1 Overview 8.3.2 Assisted Reproductive Technology: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.3.3 In-Vitro Fertilization 8.3.3.1 Overview 8.3.3.2 in Vitro Fertilization: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.3.4 Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection 8.3.4.1 Overview 8.3.4.2 Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.3.5 Others 8.3.5.1 Overview 8.3.5.2 Others: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.4 Artificial Insemination 8.4.1 Overview 8.4.2 Artificial Insemination: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.4.3 Intrauterine Insemination 8.4.3.1 Overview 8.4.3.2 Intrauterine Insemination: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.4.4 Intratubal Insemination 8.4.4.1 Overview 8.4.4.2 Intratubal Insemination: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.4.5 Intracervical Insemination 8.4.5.1 Overview 8.4.5.2 Intracervical Insemination: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.5 Fertility Surgery 8.5.1 Overview 8.5.2 Fertility Surgery: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.5.3 Tubal Ligation Reversal 8.5.3.1 Overview 8.5.3.2 Tubal Litigation Reversal: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.5.4 Varicocelectomy 8.5.4.1 Overview 8.5.4.2 Varicocelectomy: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.5.5 Laparoscopy 8.5.5.1 Overview 8.5.5.2 Laparoscopy: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 8.5.6 Others 8.5.6.1 Overview 8.5.6.2 Others: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 9. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Analysis - By End User 9.1 Overview 9.2 Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Share, by End User, 2019 and 2027, (%) 9.3 Hospitals and Other Healthcare Facilities 9.3.1 Overview 9.3.2 Hospitals and Other Healthcare Facilities: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 9.4 Fertility Clinics 9.4.1 Overview 9.4.2 Fertility Clinics: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 9.5 Clinical Research Institutes 9.5.1 Overview 9.5.2 Clinical Research Institutes: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million) 10. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market Analysis and Forecasts To 2027 - Geographical Analysis 10.1 North America: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market 10.2 Europe: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market 10.3 Asia Pacific: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market 10.4 Middle East and Africa: Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market 10.5 South and Central America: Infertility Treatment Devices And Equipment Market 11. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market 11.1 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.2 Europe: Impact Assessment Of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.3 Asia Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 11.4 Rest of the World: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic 12. Infertility Treatment Devices and Equipment Market- Industry Landscape 12.1 Overview 12.2 Growth Strategies Done by the Companies in the Market, (%) 12.3 Organic Developments 12.3.1 Overview 12.4 Inorganic Developments 12.4.1 Overview 13. Company Profiles 13.1 Microptic 13.1.1 Key Facts 13.1.2 Business Description 13.1.3 Products and Services 13.1.4 Financial Overview 13.1.5 SWOT Analysis 13.1.6 Key Developments 13.2 Cooper Surgical, Inc. 13.2.1 Key Facts 13.2.2 Business Description 13.2.3 Products and Services 13.2.4 Financial Overview 13.2.5 SWOT Analysis 13.2.6 Key Developments 13.3 Cook Medical LLC 13.3.1 Key Facts 13.3.2 Business Description 13.3.3 Products and Services 13.3.4 Financial Overview 13.3.5 SWOT Analysis 13.3.6 Key Developments 13.4 DxNow. 13.4.1 Key Facts 13.4.2 Business Description 13.4.3 Products and Services 13.4.4 Financial Overview 13.4.5 SWOT Analysis 13.4.6 Key Developments 13.5 Eppendorf AG 13.5.1 Key Facts 13.5.2 Business Description 13.5.3 Products and Services 13.5.4 Financial Overview 13.5.5 SWOT Analysis 13.5.6 Key Developments 13.6 AB Scientific Ltd. 13.6.1 Key Facts 13.6.2 Business Description 13.6.3 Products and Services 13.6.4 Financial Overview 13.6.5 SWOT Analysis 13.6.6 Key Developments 13.7 Hamilton Thorne, Inc 13.7.1 Key Facts 13.7.2 Business Description 13.7.3 Products and Services 13.7.4 Financial Overview 13.7.5 SWOT Analysis 13.7.6 Key Developments 13.8 Rocket Medical plc. 13.8.1 Key Facts 13.8.2 Business Description 13.8.3 Products and Services 13.8.4 Financial Overview 13.8.5 SWOT Analysis 13.8.6 Key Developments 13.9 INVO Bioscience 13.9.1 Key Facts 13.9.2 Business Description 13.9.3 Products and Services 13.9.4 Financial Overview 13.9.5 SWOT Analysis 13.9.6 Key Developments 13.10 Vitrolife 13.10.1 Key Facts 13.10.2 Business Description 13.10.3 Products and Services 13.10.4 Financial Overview 13.10.5 SWOT Analysis 13.10.6 Key Developments 14. Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fyumg3 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: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com 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 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 WESTPORT School officials will administer two surveys over the coming months as part of their effort to examine the districts equity, as well as get an idea of the issues facing students. The equity survey is being done in partnership with New York University as part of a larger effort to examine any disparities within the district, including by race, gender, sexual orientation, language and religion. Superintendent Thomas Scarice said they launched this study because its important to have an inclusive school. Its always a priority to be equitable, he said. The other survey is conducted by the Search Institute, which the district has worked with for more than 20 years, and builds on its previous behaviors survey. It will look at relationships, as well as substance use and the impact of COVID and recent racial justice movements. Equity study Anthony Buono, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, said the district has already done a lot on diversity, equity and inclusivity, but this study was important because it would create a multi-year action plan that takes a systemic approach. This study really provides us with a foundation to launch this work, he said. The study will look at benchmark assessments, enrollment in AP and honors courses, disciplinary referrals and outcomes, as well as special education and gifted identifications. It also uses surveys, student and family focus groups and school visits if COVID allows. This mix of qualitative and quantitative data will then be used to create a root cause analysis report, which will ultimately be used by the district and NYU to co-create the action plan. The plan will be led by a team made up of teachers, board members, administrators, parents and staff that will be able to oversee the work over multiple years. Some board members worried about the timing of this study because they didnt want to pull teachers from the classroom when in-person instruction has already been so impacted by COVID. NYU was selected from 10 applicants and awarded the contract this month. The university will be paid using $50,000 that was allocated for professional development last year, but was unable to be used do to COVID. Officials plan to gather data now through March. The surveys will be administered in April. The school visits are expected to happen in late April or early May. The focus groups will happen either virtually or in person in May with the analysis expected to be completed in June. The action plan should be done this summer and officials hope to start implementing parts of it next school year. Karen Kleine, the boards vice chairwoman, questioned the need for this action plan. She said it seemed like a negative approach and she wasnt sure there was a problem in the district, let alone a multi-year one. Other members and officials said students have shared instances of micro-aggressions. Buono also said there have been anti-Semitic symbols in schools and data showed inequities. Board member Youn Su Chao applauded the effort. She came to the U.S. as an immigrant child 40 years ago and said she never could have imagined a school taking her own experience so seriously then. Its so impressive to me the degree of intentionality and just desire to affect change, Chao said. Search Institute survey The district has used the Search Institutes attitudes and behaviors survey, which looks at substance use and perceptions around it, for years, but this will be the first time using the developmental relationships one. This survey will also look at substance use and perceptions, allowing the district to compare trends over the years, but it adds a few new categories to create a baseline on some areas for issues students are facing. In addition to substances, it will examine relationship framework, social and emotional learning, equitable practices and the impact of COVID and racial injustice based off current events. Only the high school students will be asked about the last two. The survey looks more at the relationships students have with their peers and adults. It feels more relevant than ever in the time of COVID when peoples relationships in many cases are fractured or fraught, said Margaret Watt, the prevention director for Positive Directions. The survey is funded by a state grant. It will be given to 150 students in each grade from seventh through 12th grade. The plan is to administer it in March so results would be available in April and could already be used to address identified issues this school year. Valerie Babich, the districts psychological services coordinator, said more districts are starting to use this newer survey, including Fairfield and Norwalk. The current plan is to give it to students online with parents having the choice to opt-out but several board members worried having the survey online would take away the anonymity of the students answers and could be used against them by tech companies, such as Google. They instead suggested students complete the survey with paper and pencil or explain everything to families and let them opt-in, which those presenting the survey said wasnt feasible. While how the survey is given is still being debated, officials and board members seemed receptive to the content, though some members also questioned the timing of it and whether it made sense to establish baselines during such abnormal circumstances. There will also be a chance for focus groups following the results and the final report will be shared with the public and officials. There are really a lot of ways we can use this data, Watt said. Previous survey results have helped shape health curriculum, community programs, trainings and even the creation of the teen center. Officials expect to use these results in a similar fashion. kkoerting@newstimes.com Maharashtra: Lockdown scare hurting fishermen more than coronas return by Amey Tirodkar February 25,2021 | Source: News Click Sudhakar Gantandel from Harne port of Ratnagiri district returned from deep-sea on Monday evening after he got a call from his partner telling him about a rumour of lockdown in Maharashtra. "Everyone is saying that a lockdown is imminent. That is why Prakash (Sudhakar's partner) called me back. Why waste diesel and human resources for fishing if there will be no market? There is already huge losses in business for the last year," said Sudhakar on phone. As the number of coronavirus patients is increasing in the state, there is indeed a possibility of lockdown in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray while addressing the state on Sunday evening said that the number of patients and situation would be considered while bringing back lockdown. "If you don't want lockdown then start using the mask, maintaining a physical distance. If you want lockdown like back then you will not use mask," he said. Since then, the number of patients has been increasing by more than 6000 per day. So, people are anticipating a lockdown by March 1. The fishermen community has three broad types. One category is small-time fishermen who go fishing in the nearby sea and earn their bread and butter. The second type of fishermen is those who generally go fishing for one to two days with their medium-size boats. And, the third type of fishermen generally go in deep sea with big trawlers, for four to six days. Sudhakar Gantandel is from the third category and has 12 fishermen on his two trawlers. "My per day expenses include diesel (for trawlers) plus salaries of fishermen and their food. Twelve fishermen are given 350 rupees each. So, 4,200 rupees per day for fishermen. We cook ourselves and the food cost goes up to 1500 rupees. And we need diesel of 2000 rupees per day for one trawler, so that comes to 4,000 rupees per day. So, our daily expenses run into 10,000 rupees approximately," explained Sudhakar. Therefore, when they go fishing for six to eight days, one trip costs Sudhakar around 75 to 80 thousand rupees. "If we can't come with fish more than one lakh rupees in one trip, there is no reason to go. This time, we could have come back with more fish but there was no guarantee of the market due to lockdown. Therefore we decided to return," he said. This is the story of big fishermen. Now those 12 persons won't have work until Sudhakar goes back for fishing. The fear of a lockdown has snatched their work for at least eight days and each one of them lost Rs 2500 to Rs 2700. The smaller fishermen who own one single small boat and do traditional fishing are facing their own problems because of rumours. Yogesh Bhandari, from Girye village of Sindhudurg district, has a small boat. He goes fishing at 3 or 4 am every day and returns to the coast by 10 am. He brings back fish of around Rs 2500 to Rs 3000. He, along with his cousin and partner Mahendra Bhandari, need Rs 1000 to Rs 1200 daily as boat expenses--mainly for diesel and travel to take fish from coast to market. Generally, these smaller fishermen do fishing near coastal areas. So, they get fish of smaller size, which are not so popular among sea food lovers. These fish sell in local markets mainly. But as there is the fear of coronavirus, people are avoiding going to fish markets. These fishermen like Yogesh sell their fish showing customers the freshness of fish as the small fishermen do not have the capacity to keep fish in cold storage. "Our fish sell has gone down to 1000/1200 rupees--that too on Sundays and Fridays when people generally consume non-veg food. On the other hand, expenses on diesel are increasing. The return of coronavirus and the fear or lockdown are the reasons for this," said Yogesh. The auction of fish at Malad is famous and popular in Mumbai and its suburban area. Vanita Koli, a fisherwoman from Malad, is one of those hundreds of fish sellers who buy fish here and go back to their local area to sell. She is also experiencing a downfall in demand. "My sell has gone down by almost 50%. I can see in Malad market that people don't come like earlier. We too are hearing about a lockdown, so nobody wants to take the risk and buy fish here," said Vanita. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has warned on Twitter to not spread rumours about the lockdown. "We will take strict actions against those who are spreading rumors about the lockdown, be it on Whatsapp or other social networking sites," said Deshmukh. But it is not helping on ground as increasing number of patients and the CM's statement (above mentioned) is being received together as a sign of impending lockdown. This is a pop quiz. You will first be asked to identify the state. After identifying the state, you will be asked to vote on whether the states legislature is the dumbest in the United States. Place your hand or a piece of paper over the bottom portion of your screen to prevent peeking at the answer. Here goes. No state in the United States has had single-party political rule at the state level longer than this state. The ruling party has held a majority in both houses of the state legislature for 81 of the last 91 years (thus eliminating Nebraska). The last time the minority party held a majority on the state supreme court was in the 1920s. The state has the worst ranked K-12 public education system in the country. It has 7 state universities that grant four-year degrees but only one is ranked academically in the top 500 in the U.S. (#484). It is estimated that an astounding 46% of the adults in the state are functional illiterates. This state is ranked as having the highest property crime rate and the second highest violent crime rate in the country. It has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the country and an incredible 43% of the population is on Medicaid. It is ranked as the 5th worst-run state in the country. The state is blessed or cursed with vast oil and natural gas deposits. The fracking revolution has caused an explosion of production of these deposits and a tax revenue windfall for the state. In recent years, 30% to 40% of the entire states budget has come from the oil and natural gas industries. Nonetheless, 80% of the states congressional delegation is opposed to fracking. Fracking rig (photo credit: Loadmaster, CC BY-SA 3.0 license). Despite the tax bonanza from the oil and gas industry, two state legislators have introduced a bill to ban new fracking permits in the state for four years. In response, the legislative finance committee has issued a fiscal impact report describing what would happen to the state's revenues if the fracking ban were instituted. The following is the estimated minimum impact in millions of dollars. General Fund Oil & Gas School Tax (includes reserve distributions) Oil & Gas Conservation Tax Natural Gas Processors Tax Gross Receipts Tax Federal Mineral Leasing (Royalties & Bonuses) State Land Office Bonuses Personal Income Tax Total General Fund Severance Tax Bonding Fund (Severance & Tax) General Obligation Bonding Capacity Land Grant Permanent Fund (SLO Royalties) TOTAL STATE REVENUES Local Governments Gross Receipts Tax Ad Valorem Taxes Total Local Government TOTAL REVENUE CHANGE FY22 $(145.8) $(7.8) $(1.4) $(284.7) $(106.5) $(15.0) $(138.2) $(699.2) $(170.8) $(18.1) $(536.5) $(1,424.6) $(172.2) $(54.1) $(228.3) $(1,650.9) FY23 $(251.4) $(13.2) $0.0 $(582.4) $(271.1) $(15.0) $(140.9) $1274.1) $(292.6) $ - $(717.4) $(2,284.2) $(352.4) $(110.6) $(462.8) $(2,747.0) FY24 $(323.0) $(16.9) $ 0.0 $(682.7) $(375.0) $(15.0) $(143.7) $(1556.2) $(374.5) $(46.9) $(852.8) $(2,830.5) $(412.8) $(148.5) $(561.3) $(3,391.8) FY25 $(385.3) $(20.1) $ 0.0 $(759.2) $(458.4) $(15.0) $(146.6) $(1784.6) $(445.7) $ - $(895.8) $(3,126.1) $(459.0) $(181.1) $(640.1) $3,766.2) The report also notes that production from newly fracked wells peaks within the first three months of completion and rapidly declines over the next two years. After 12 months, it is estimated that oil and natural gas production would decline by 40% and 22%. By June of 2025, it is estimated that oil production would be 70% below current levels and natural gas 45% below current levels. Despite the compelling evidence of the financial devastation that the bill would cause, the bill has reported out of committee. What state am I? (Theme music from final Jeopardy.) The answer is NEW MEXICO (of course)! Cites: fiscal impact report; single party control of state legislature; illiteracy rate of 46%; #1 in property crime and #2 in violent crime per capita; worst public schools in the country; only one of 7 public universities ranked in top 500 (#484); 43% of the state is on Medicaid; 5th highest state unemployment rate and ranked as the 5th worst run state in the country (up from last place). Is the New Mexico Legislature the dumbest in the United States? If it passes this anti-fracking bill wiping out 30% of its tax base, it sure is. You can vote by telephone or by email with the sponsors of the bill. I'm certain that they would be delighted to hear from the readers of the American Thinker! Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 01:27:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday urged the United States to "immediately" end economic pressures against Iran paving the way for negotiations. "The new U.S. administration must immediately halt the economic terrorism operation. Once it does so, there will be a path forward. Then, we can negotiate," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV. Iran still wants the 2015 nuclear deal, commonly known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to remain strong, but its survival hinges on the U.S. abandonment of its economic pressures, he said. "We will talk within the framework of the JCPOA, not about the JCPOA," Rouhani said. "It is not possible to add two more articles (to the present pact)." Washington and its European allies have called for an expanded nuclear deal with Tehran which the latter has vehemently rejected. Iran has also dismissed the inclusion of other parties in possible negotiations between Iran and other members of the JCPOA. Enditem In SJF probe, NIA seeks details of bank accounts to check remittance of foreign funding India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Feb 25: Furthering its probe into the Sikhs for Justice case, the National Investigation Agency has sought details of the social media accounts, Aadhar and bank account numbers of the persons recently examined by the agency. 16 persons have been examined by the NIA so far in connection with the SJF case. The SJF, a pro-Khalistan outfit is banned by the Indian government. Sources tell OneIndia that there have been a lot of funds that have been channelised in the past couple of months. Over USD 1 lakh has been collected in the name of the farmer protests, the official cited above said. Bigger picture: Toolkit aimed at fanning violence to strengthen Kashmir-Khalistan desk The source further added that the agencies are looking into the source of funding. While there is no harm in collecting funds in the name of the protests, the NIA is looking to find if money is being collected in the name of the protests, but is being diverted to fund separatist activities of the SJF. The probe was ordered after the SJF, a proscribed organisation arranged protests in front of Indian missions abroad. After the financial trail was found the ambit of the probe was widened. The probe was handed over the NIA after the foreign nations where the protests were organised did not take action. The NIA after a recent amendment has foreign jurisdiction and hence was handed over the probe. Investigations have found that funds have been coming in from Canada, US and UK. The official cited above said that this money is being collected by the SJF in the name of the protests. However not all is going towards the protests. A good part of it is being diverted towards subversive and propaganda activities of the SJF. While the farmer unions have decried this action, an Ministry of Home Affairs official said that if funds are coming from abroad, then the agencies have every right to known the source of the same. The NIA had on December 15 filed a fresh FIR. In it the agency said that the SJF was sending foreign funds through NGOs to pro-Khalistani elements for on ground campaign and propaganda against the Government of India. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News An NIA officer said that so far they have summoned 40 persons as witnesses in connection with the SJF case. The NIA is also examining the role of the Khalsa Aid, which had recently provided foot massagers to the farmers who are sitting in protest against the three farm laws. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 9:18 [IST] HALFMOON After months of speculation, Trader Joe's is building a store in The Crossings in Halfmoon, Supervisor Kevin Tollisen said. It will be the Capital Region's second location of the popular niche grocer, which has 19 other stores across New York. Trader Joe's first Capital Region store, on Wolf Road in Colonie, opened Aug. 3, 2012. More: The best things to try on your next Trader Joe's trip "We are very excited for this for Halfmoon," Tollisen said. "Even in a COVID pandemic climate, businesses are coming to Halfmoon ...Certainly, it will be welcomed by the residents." The stores are known for their quirky attributes, from crew members in Hawaiian shirts to inexpensive wines and other items. The Capital Region's first store arrived in part thanks to the efforts of a local college professor, Bruce Roter, who waged a multi-year effort. Now, the Capital Region will have two. Best of 2021: Vote now for the Capital Region's best health food store/co-op As first reported by the Albany Business Review, the store is expected to be 12,500 square feet and be built on 4.83 acres of vacant land next to Berkshire Bank. Richard Harris, coordinator of the town's planning department said, they are uncertain when the store will open. "They are moving pretty quick," Harris said. "It will open sooner rather than later." Harris said that the town just learned that it was a Trader Joe's when the store, which also has a Colonie location, presented plans for the building's interior. "The engineer and the landowner had a nondisclosure agreement," Harris said. "That's OK, but one of our planning board members said it was consistent with a Trader Joe's." That led to months of speculation that the building plan was for a Trader Joe's. There is already an Aldi around the corner from the Halfmoon site as well as a nearby Market 32, Walmart and Target that sells groceries. But Tollisen said the Trader Joe's will be an excellent addition. "This is a unique grocery store, with a different product line," Tollisen said. "A lot of people are passionate about Trader Joe's." Trader Joe's is operated by the European company Aldi Nord, which also operates Aldi stores in northern Germany and in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Spain, while the Aldi store across Route 9 from the new Trader Joe's is operated by Aldi Sud, which operates Aldi stores in southern Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia and China, as well as the U.S., according to trade publication Winsight Grocery Business. The two branches have operated separately for at least 60 years, apparently after a disagreement between the founding Albrecht brothers, the trade publication said. But both have lagged in the development of e-commerce, and earlier this month the two branches formed a partnership to close the e-commerce gap, according to the German trade publication Lebensmittel Zeitung. Eric Anderson contributed to this report CHAMPAIGN, Ill. --Many climate models focus on scenarios decades into the future, making their outcomes seem unreliable and problematic for decision-making in the immediate future. In a proactive move, researchers are using short-term forecasts to stress the urgency of drought risk in the United States and inform policymakers' actions now. A new study led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai examines how drought propagates through climate, hydrological, ecological and social systems throughout different U.S. regions. The results are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "The same amount of precipitation, or the lack of thereof, in one region could have very different impacts on the hydrologic cycle, streamflow and water storage in another region," Cai said. "The impacts of droughts are closely related to climate and environmental characteristics, and both together can have very different impacts on human water usage and supply." For example, the team predicted that lack of rainfall in the Southeastern region poses a greater risk than it does in the Southwest. The Southwest has a relatively large water-storage capacity, unlike the Southeast, which has a limited storage capacity and faces increased demand. Their prediction proved accurate, according to their models. Cai and co-author Tushar Apurv compiled previously collected meteorologic, soil and hydrologic data from 30 regions around the U.S. from the past few decades. Using this data, they calculated a ratio representing how severe the hydrologic droughts are relative to meteorological droughts in these regions. This ratio helped them determine where water availability and water supply deficits have been occurring over time. The study reports that precipitation deficits have decreased in Northern parts of the U.S. and increased in the Southwestern and Southeastern regions due to climate change, the researchers said. As a result, the Southwest has experienced severe drought effects on ecosystems in the area in recent years, which is likely to continue into the next decade - with severe drought conditions already in place since August. However, according to the study, the forecasted Southeastern drought could lead to a very different outcome than the Southwestern drought. "If this trend of increasing drought severity persists, as also predicted by other studies, the Southeast could be at very high risk for extreme drought, which might not have been realized in the past," Cai said. "This will expose their water-supply infrastructure to stress beyond its design limit." In other words, there is a risk that the Southeast may not be as well prepared to handle near-future drought as the Southwest, which appears to have the situation better controlled, Cai said. The researchers plan to explore more detailed studies on some of the watersheds to help uncover solutions, but they are more eager to flag the attention of policymakers right now. "We think this study provides the scientific support needed to punctuate the immediate threat posed by drought," Cai said. "We see our results as an incentive for decision-makers to bring drought mitigation to the forefront of environmental and water-management policy." ### Cai also is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment - which supported this study - and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Editor's notes: To reach Ximing Cai, call 217-333-4935; email xmcai@illinois.edu . The paper "Regional drought risk in the contiguous United States" is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau . DOI: 10.1029/2020GL092200 Through close and enduring collaboration BillerudKorsnas and Tetra Pak aim to push the figure of renewable material from wood fibre in carton packages towards 100%. Already today the figure is about 70%. New innovations to further increase the sustainability of packages are since long top of the agenda for both companies. Our mission is to challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future. 70 % renewable is a good start, and the only way that we can solve the major sustainability challenges we face is to do it together, says Malin Ljung Eiborn, Director Sustainability and Public Affairs. The collaborative innovation takes the form of a number of defined projects where experts from the two companies work together. BillerudKorsnas also works together under the auspices of Treesearch, a Swedish collaboration platform for fundamental research, knowledge and competence-building in the field of new materials and specialty chemicals from forest raw material. It involves academia, industry, private foundations and the Swedish government, and aims to turn pioneering fundamental research into high-tech innovations to meet the climate challenge. Treesearch is important because we can get advanced research on new materials and new applications, but also because we have an opportunity to build competence, with skilled people coming into the industry who will be able to develop more innovative products in the future, says Malin Ljung Eiborn. BillerudKorsnas and Tetra Pak are long term partners in the quest to achieve package that is hundred percent from renewable resources. "We want a package that is hundred percent from renewable resources. We need a lot of innovation to find these new materials that can create a good barrier. We have to act together to transform the industry. And there are so many challenges, so much innovation to do, says Eva Gustavsson, Vice President Materials & Package at Tetra Pak. -- Tradearabia News Service 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. George H.W. Bush's affair with his assistant led to his 1992 presidential loss to Bill Clinton after Hillary made the liaison public in a bombshell Vanity Fair interview. Bush's affair with blonde beauty Jennifer Fitzgerald was rumored in 1974 when the soon-to-be-president served as chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China. The affair led to Bush's wife Barbara considering suicide and Bush's mother Dorothy Walker Bush, the formidable family matriarch, wasn't happy either, tearing into her son to 'fix it' or risk his political future, a new book reveals. It appears Dorothy's warning should have been heeded, because two decades later Hillary Clinton's very public reveal helped cost Bush a second term. The details are included in 'Grace & Steel: Dorothy, Barbara, Laura, and the Women of the Bush Dynasty' by J. Randy Taraborrelli, who has previously written biographies about Jackie Kennedy and Beyonce among others. Bush is seen sitting beside his assistant Jennifer Fitzgerald. The pair were rumored to be romantically involved in the 70s and the affair became public two decades later thanks to Hillary Clinton. Wife Barbara is seen sitting behind them Hillary told about the affair in a Vanity Fair interview, which is believed to have cost Bush the 1992 presidential election. Bill Clinton seen shaking hands with Bush in 1995 Hillary said in her Vanity Fair interview that she was having tea with Ann Cox Chambers, chair of Atlanta Newspapers Inc at the time, who told her: 'Everybody knows about George Bush...the establishment, regardless of party, sticks together. They're gonna circle the wagons on Jennifer and all these other people.' Dorothy Bush, who was 91 at the time, said: 'This is all Hillary's fault' because she had 'stirred up' the controversy. The details are included in 'Grace & Steel: Dorothy, Barbara, Laura, and the Women of the Bush Dynasty ' by J. Randy Taraborrelli, our Tuesday, March 2 The timing of the interview was hypocritical, but did the job. Bill Clinton had been accused of having an affair with Gennifer Flowers in January 1992 - the Vanity Fair interview came out in May of that year. Bush angrily denied it but it was a factor in him losing to Bill Clinton and making him a one-term President. Only then did Fitzgerald and Bush finally go their separate ways. A source said that they 'just stopped being in each other's lives'. Bush left a message and she didn't call back, and that was it. Dorothy warned the future president decades before that the 'stories will follow you forever' about his relationship with Jennifer Fitzgerald. When Bush protested that 'it's not what it looks like,' his mother batted it away and said: 'Phooey. It's always what it looks like.' The confrontation happened while Dorothy was visiting Bush in 1974 in China where he was the chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China. Dorothy's warning proved prescient as Bush refused to banish Fitzgerald from his orbit, even when he became President. The book, which is out on Tuesday on St Martin's Press, says that Bush hired Fitzgerald to be his 'special assistant' just before he left for China as the country's liaison, a post awarded to him by Gerald Ford. At 42, Fitzgerald was seven years Bush's junior and was born in England to a British military officer father and a mother from a wealthy Boston family. She was pretty and petite and had blond hair which she wore in a short and stylish fashion - and caught Bush's eye. Before Bush left for Beijing in the Fall of 1974, he and Barbara had a 'heated argument' about Fitzgerald and he insisted there was nothing going on. A month after they arrived Barbara still wasn't comfortable with it and decided she needed some space so she returned to the US, leaving Bush alone with Fitzgerald in China. It would be the first Christmas that Bush and his wife would spend apart in 37 years - and it was when Bush supposedly cheated on her. Taraborrelli quotes an unnamed source as saying that it happened on a two week trip Bush and Fitzgerald took which began the day after Barbara left, with a first stop in Honolulu, Hawaii. The affair is said to have contributed to Bush's wife Barbara considering suicide because she was so depressed Dorothy Walker Bush warned her son George H.W. Bush that the rumors about his relationship with assistant Jennifer Fitzgerald would 'follow you forever,' according to a new book. Bush is seen with Dorothy in 1983 The source said: 'I think that's where it happened. Prior to Hawaii it had just been a flirtation. 'In Hawaii I believe it turned into an affair, first the Sheraton Waikiki and then at an apartment Bush leased in (the neighborhood) Kahala.' The source said that despite Bush being balding with a receding hairline 'he had power' and having served as US ambassador to the UN and chair of the Republican National Committee his career was on the rise. After Hawaii the lovers went to Tokyo for the rest of their work trip and returned to China in December. Thousands of miles away in the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, Dorothy began to hear the rumors about the affair. Dorothy's caretaker, who appears under a pseudonym 'Virginia' to protect her identity, said Dorothy initially thought it was 'completely preposterous' but after speaking to Barbara she didn't get a straight answer. Taraborrelli writes that Dorothy realized you have to 'nip these things in the bud' and moved up her pre-planned trip to China by a week to speak to her son face to face. Virginia said that after a few days of acclimatizing herself, Dorothy had the chance to see her son with Fitzgerald and 'knew what was going on' immediately. Virginia said: 'I did too, you could sense it.' Virginia said: 'Mrs Bush (Dorothy) was clear. 'Fix it,' she told (her son), 'otherwise, these stories will follow you forever.' Bush said: 'It's complicated.' His mother said: 'Phooey. Is that really the hill you want to die on, son?' Bush said: 'It's not what it looks like.' His mother fired back: 'It's always what it looks like.' During another conversation later on Bush tried to claim to his mother that Fitzgerald was just his secretary. Dorothy scolded him and said: 'That's weak George. Don't be weak.' Virginia said: 'I sense it wasn't just his marriage she was worried about. It was also any political ramifications down the line.' Dorothy, the formidable family matriarch, (pictured) tore into her son over the affair and told him to 'fix it' or risk his political future. The confrontation happened while Dorothy was visiting Bush in 1974 in China where he was the chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China Bush did tell Fitzgerald it was over and that it had been a 'very bad idea.' On the flight home Dorothy thought she had done her part and said: 'All's well that ends well.' But Bush did not fire Fitzgerald and when Barbara returned to China to find her still working in her husband's office she was shocked. Barbara made a conscious effort to move past the affair but she still hated Fitzgerald, once quipping to a friend that 'I hate her presumption' when they happened to run into her at a restaurant. Upon their return to the US at the completion of his posting, Bush took up a new job as director of the CIA but Barbara fell into a deep depression. Taraborrelli writes that she would consider slamming her car into oncoming vehicles because she felt so despairing about the world. He offers a number of reasons for her gloom: she had felt 'invisible' in her marriage and the rise of feminism had made her feel she hadn't made enough choices for herself. Or maybe she was still concerned about Fitzgerald who Bush had refused to cut ties with. Two months earlier he had taken her to meet Frank Sinatra at the home of his brother, Jonathan Bush, without telling Barbara. Sinatra wanted to help the CIA and Bush 'couldn't resist' meeting him, even though he didn't take the offer seriously. Toma DiBella, a friend of Sinatra's who was present, said: 'I had my eye on this dame sitting next to Bush. Attractive, middle aged, doting on his every word, nice enough, pretty, she kept reaching over and touching his hand, making eyes at him. 'Bush said she was his secretary. Didn't have no steno pad with her, though.' Barbara found out the next day and was furious. She would later recall of this time in her life that she was 'very depressed, lonely and unhappy.' Taraborrelli writes that Barbara was suffering from a 'textbook case of clinical depression' as well as anxiety, one of several bouts in her life. A relative recalled Barbara having tea with her around this time and she suddenly became emotional and said that she felt as if she was 'surrounded by black cotton'. Taraborrelli writes that Barbara suffered from a 'textbook case of clinical depression' during the affair as well as anxiety, one of several bouts in her life The author delves into the tensions between Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan when their husbands were Vice President and President respectively Elsewhere in 'Grace & Steel', Taraborrelli delves into the tensions between Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan when their husbands were Vice President and President respectively. Nancy 'had it in for' Barbara because she considered her a rival and Barbara felt the same because Nancy reminded her of her domineering mother Pauline Their relationship got so bad that Nancy snubbed Barbara openly, once walking away from her mid sentence during an event in the White House State Room. Barbara once told an assistant: 'She's my mother all over again. Look at the way she stares at me. No one has looked at me like that since I was 12.' Taraborrelli goes into extensive detail about just how mean Pauline was and he writes that he made Barbara so paranoid about her weight she smoked for 25 years to keep her figure slim. Pauline would tell her: 'Eat it today and wear it tomorrow' and once said when Barbara put on a yellow dress to be a bridesmaid: 'My god, you look like a school bus in that thing.' In school Barbara became a bully like her mother and would call her group of girls to inform them who they wouldn't speak to the next day. One friend called it 'dreadful' and said Barbara 'controlled' them all. When Barbara was sent home with a note saying she'd been mean to other girls her mother chased her round the house with a wire hanger and when she tripped and fell over, beat her. 'Grace & Steel' describes Barbara and Bush's utter heartbreak over the death of their three-year-old daughter Robin Bush in 1953 from leukemia - the family are pictured without Robin George and Barbara Bush pose for a picture with their children (left to right) Dorothy, Neil, Marvin, Jeb and George in 1980 - the year before he took office Barbara later told some friends: 'Thank goodness you two have a mother who is there for you all the time. I didn't have that and boy did I suffer. You have no idea how much I suffered.' 'Grace & Steel' describes Barbara and Bush's utter heartbreak over the death of their three-year-old daughter Robin Bush in 1953 from leukemia. Barbara banned anyone who couldn't contain their emotions from visiting the hospital so as not to upset the little girl. But Bush could 'barely stay in the room for more than a few minutes' before he welled up. Taraborrelli writes that Barbara told him: 'If you cry, you have to leave.' He obeyed but one time after Robin convulsed he cried and Barbara told him: 'Don't you dare. Not here.' After Robin died all the grief that Barbara had kept bottled up burst out of her and was 'in the grips of such despair she could barely function.' It 'came upon her like a fierce storm, brutally washing over her', the book says. Barbara told a friend: 'I can't do this anymore. I want out of this', suggesting she was considering suicide again. The book also goes over the rocky road to acceptance by Columba, the Mexican girl that Bush's son Jeb decided to marry when she was 19. Jeb and Columba are pictured at George H.W. Bush's casket in 2018 The book also goes over the rocky road to acceptance of Columba, the Mexican woman that Bush's son Jeb married when she was 19. When Jeb told Barbara she told him: 'Sorry but that's not going to happen'. Bush's response was: 'Oh, hell no.' Columba gradually won them over but caused a political headache for her husband in 1999 when he was governor of Florida and she was his first lady. After flying back from France she landed at Atlanta airport and claimed that she had $500 of items to declare. But when dozens of receipts fell out of her passport and customs agents matched them up to the items in her bags they realized she had bought a lot more. Columba was fined $4,100 and the story was leaked to the press immediately. Taraborrelli writes that the incident was the result of years of tensions over money between Jeb and Columba because he put her on a monthly budget because he was so tight with his cash. Jeb 'treated her as if she was always about to bankrupt them' even though his business affairs had made him a multimillionaire. Map and location of the study area in CaiqueneCadique, Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. (a) Cantanhez National Park includes a road network and approximately 200 villages and settlements. (b) Map of CaiqueneCadique study area showing the 21 camera trap sampling sites and respective 200 m buffers where availability of chimpanzee foods was quantified. The forest block is shown in green and the heterogeneous matrix outside the forest block includes cashew orchards and shifting cultivation fields shown in pink, roads, three villages, five settlements and four abandoned villages. (c) Estimated home range of CaiqueneCadique chimpanzees using 100% minimum convex polygon (MCP) analysis of 1380 direct and indirect observations of chimpanzees collected between 2013 and 2018. MCP analyses were ran using the R package ADEHABITATHR version 0.4.1967. The base layers in a-c panels consist of modified Copernicus Sentinel-2 data from 25 January 2017 (RGB colour and grey scale). Credit: Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83852-3 Chimpanzees and humans "overlap" in their use of forests and even villages, new research shows. Scientists used camera traps to track the movements of western chimpanzeesa critically endangered speciesin Guinea-Bissau. Chimpanzees used areas away from villages and agriculture more intensively, but entered land used by humans to get fruitespecially when wild fruits were scarce. Researchers from the University of Exeter and Oxford Brookes University say the approach used in this study could help to inform a "coexistence strategy" for chimpanzees and humans. "Understanding how wildlife balance the risks and rewards of entering environments used by humans is crucial to developing strategies to reduce risks of negative interactions, including disease transmission and aggression by animals or humans," said lead author Dr. Elena Bersacola, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall. "Using 12 months of data from 21 camera traps, our study produced hotspot maps that show how humans and chimpanzees overlap in their use of forests, villages and cultivated areas." Chimpanzee use of space was linked to the availability of naturalized oil-palm fruit, and the study also shows that chimpanzees access high-risk orange, lime and papaya fruits in response to nutritional necessity rather than preference alone. The study used a "landscape of fear" framework, based on the idea that animals learn about risks and the resulting fear shapes their decisions over where and when to feed, travel and rest. Chimpanzees in CaiqueneCadique often use the roads located at the centre of their home range and frequently feed on cultivated foods. The camera trap images (right) show a chimpanzee entering Caiquene village to feed on orange in October 2017. Credit: Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83852-3 Researchers are increasingly incorporating humans as agents for shaping the wildlife's landscapes of fear. The team in this study were cautious not to let the chimpanzees become "habituated" (used to humans, and therefore not fearful). "Elena got around this problem by setting up a patchwork of camera traps throughout one chimpanzee community's home range and monitoring their use of space," said Dr. Kimberley Hockings, of the University of Exeter. "The methods and analyses Elena used are new and exciting and have helped us understand human-chimpanzee coexistence across the landscape. "This is important because western chimpanzees are critically endangered and these shared landscapes are crucial for their persistence. "These methods can also be applied to other threatened wildlife that are being pushed into ever-increasing human-impacted landscapes across the globe." Professor Catherine Hill, of Oxford Brookes University, said: "Our modeling approach generates fine-resolution space-time output maps, which can be scaled-up to identify human-wildlife interaction hotspots. "Our method provides the necessary tools to understand and more effectively manage human-wildlife coexistence at different spatial scales, including the management of resources important to both." The paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is titled "Chimpanzees balance resources and risk in an anthropogenic landscape of fear." Explore further Chimpanzees unite against a common enemy More information: Elena Bersacola et al. Chimpanzees balance resources and risk in an anthropogenic landscape of fear, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Elena Bersacola et al. Chimpanzees balance resources and risk in an anthropogenic landscape of fear,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83852-3 We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form (Natural News) The mother of a Capitol Police officer that died during the unrest on Jan. 6 believes her son died of a stroke, not a blow to the head like mainstream media outlets were quick to claim without evidence. Articles published by news sites like the New York Times, CNN and NBC claimed that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, 42, was hit in the head by a fire extinguisher during the Capitol unrest. This supposedly caused his death the next day. However, his mother, Gladys Sicknick, 74, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview published on Monday, Feb. 22, that was not really the case. He wasnt hit on the head, no. We think he had a stroke, but we dont know anything for sure, said Gladys. Wed love to know what happened. Sicknicks brother also disputed the narrative that had been spread by the mainstream media. Ken Sicknick told ProPublica that Brian had texted him the night of the unrest. He said his brother was in good spirits and had returned to the department. He texted me last night and said, I got pepper-sprayed twice, and he was in good shape, said Ken. An official statement from the Capitol Police claimed that Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on duty. Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, the Capitol Police statement said. Brians father, Charles, 81, told Reuters that early on Jan. 7, he and other members of his family were told that Sicknick had a blood clot in his brain and that he had suffered a stroke. As Brians family was traveling from their homes in New Jersey to Washington, D.C., the family was told that Brian was being kept alive on a ventilator. He was dead by the time his loved ones got there. Medical examiners have not released an official report on Brians cause of death, and the autopsy report has similarly not been released. Due to the confusing circumstances regarding his death, investigators are now reportedly exploring other potential causes. These include the possibility that Brian became ill after ingesting a chemical irritant, such as the pepper spray he told his brother he got hit by multiple times. It is also possible that he had an undiagnosed pre-existing condition that was exacerbated by his confrontation with the people at the Capitol. Brian Sicknicks death immediately politicized and covered up Despite the Sicknick familys earnest desire to be given privacy and for Brians death to not be politicized, it was immediately seized upon as a prime example of the savagery of the pro-Trump mob that assaulted the Capitol. Less than 24 hours after Sicknicks death, without an autopsy or an investigation into the actual cause of his death, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately called for the perpetrators of the attack on Sicknick to be brought to justice. We will not forget, she said. On Feb. 13, right after the Senate voted on the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden released a statement that mentioned Sicknick. In the statement, Biden referred to the police officer as losing his life protecting the Capitol from a riotous, violent mob. House Democrats also used Sicknicks death during the impeachment trial. In a memo, they referred to the officer as having been killed by insurrectionists who struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher. The New York Times initially claimed, based on anonymous sources, that Sicknick was beaten to death. In the two articles published by the paper that mentioned Sicknick, both said he was attacked by a mob, and one person in that group struck him with a fire extinguisher. During the impeachment trial, the New York Times quietly corrected itself. The first article that mentioned Sicknicks death titled Capitol Police Officer Dies From Injuries in Pro-Trump Rampage was edited to show that the paper had received new information. New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police. (Related: NYT retracts claim that pro-Trump rioters smashed Officer Sicknick in the head with a fire extinguisher.) The New York Times has not published an official apology. The Associated Press parroted the Times report, while Slate ran an article that bore the headline Police Officer That Rioters Hit With Fire Extinguisher Dies, Making Capitol Siege a Murder Scene. These incendiary headlines allowed politicians to brand the riot as a murderous insurrection. Investigative journalist and left-wing activist Glenn Greenwald noted that Sicknicks death was highlighted so much because the mainstream media has no other example of the pro-Trump mob deliberately murdering anybody. He pointed out that none of the other four deaths that occurred during the incident were given much attention because they were not done inflicted by the protesters. The only other person killed with deliberate violence was a pro-Trump protester, Ashli Babbitt, unarmed when shot in the neck by a police officer at close range, added Greenwald. Learn more about what actually transpired during the unrest at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by reading the latest articles at Rioting.news. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com DailyMail.co.uk TheBlaze.com TheFederalist.com Smartphone payment methods like Apple and Google Pay were used for more online purchases last year in Britain than physical debit cards were, a new report suggests. So-called 'mobile wallet' payments were used for just under a third of all online transactions in 2020, with debit cards used for 29 per cent, according to payment processor Worldpay. Cards were the most popular method for in-person purchases, accounting for 49 per cent, with physical cash comprising just 13 per cent of all payments and the likes of Apple Pay just 8 per cent. 18% of UK adults were registered for the likes of Apple Pay in 2019, according to official figures While the decline in cash usage is unsurprising, with it accounting for just 23 per cent of payments in 2019 even before coronavirus led to a move towards contactless payment methods, Worldpay said mobile wallets had overtaken debit cards three years earlier than expected. Worldpay's findings in its latest Global Payments Report, based on its own payment data and a survey of 4,000 people in the UK, also found mobile wallets were the most popular way of buying things online in France, Germany, Russia and Spain. Overall, such payments accounted for more than 25 per cent of all online purchases in Europe last year, although only 7.2 per cent of in-person payments. Such mobile wallets could account for two in five payments in the UK by 2024, Worldpay forecast, and 13 per cent of in-person payments. 'This research shows the speed and scale of the transformation in consumer attitudes we have seen over the last 12 months', Worldpay's Pete Wickes said of the findings. 'The shop floor is now in the palm of our hands and consumers expect the same hassle free and convenient retail experience - whether it's on the go, in store or from the comfort of their living room.' 2019 saw cash usage decline at the expense of debit cards and contactless payments. It could account for just 9% of transactions by 2028, UK Finance estimated The latest official figures from banking trade body UK Finance found mobile wallets were increasingly popular in the UK, although not quite as popular as Worldpay's report may suggest. Some 18 per cent of UK adults were registered for mobile payments with the likes of Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay in 2019, just under four in five of whom made a payment. 48 per cent of those registered made a payment fortnightly or more frequently. Shopping on your smartphone: Mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay made up more online shopping purchases than debit cards did, Worldpay's findings said Unsurprisingly, usage was found to be dominated by younger generations who have grown up with smartphones. Close to 30 per cent of 16-24-year-olds and nearly 40 per cent of 25-34-year-olds were registered, UK Finance found. But usage could have been turbocharged by the coronavirus pandemic, which saw Britons having to resort to online shopping for large portions of 2020 and Government guidelines advising the use of contactless payment methods. 'The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the shift towards digital and touch-free payments by two to three years', PayPal told This is Money last year. Meanwhile one in 10 Britons surveyed by market research firm Forrester said they had used a smartphone to make an in-store payment for the first time during the pandemic. Mobile wallet payments comprised more than a quarter of all online purchases in Europe last year, although they still lag behind debit cards when it comes to in-person purchases And Worldpay's Pete Wickes previously told This is Money: 'Mobile enabled contactless payments have been growing in popularity for some years, but 2020 has seen them take off in the UK, thanks in part to the pandemic encouraging more people to embrace digital forms of payment.' Commenting on Worldpay's report, Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who has looked into the growth of digital payments, said: '2020's figures are completely driven by the coronavirus. 'Witness how France, which had severe lockdowns, had larger declines in cash than Germany, where the restrictions were less encompassing. Whether that's a sustainable shift is unclear. Mobile wallet usage in 2019 was dominated by younger generations 'For the UK, the physical nature of a debit card is integrally linked to the ability to purchase in person. 'Thus, I'm less sceptical as the key word is not "debit card" but rather "physical". 'If you believe that consumer behaviour will be permanently altered by the experience of the pandemic then perhaps these trends will continue, although the levels will snap back. 'Put another way, I suspect payments made in the pubs and stands around a Premier League game are not nearly as "online". When fans come back, older payment mechanisms will rebound.' UK Finance told This is Money: 'Prior to the pandemic, almost 5million UK adults were making mobile payments fortnightly or more frequently, whilst younger people were more likely than older people to use digital wallets, according to our research. 'Whilst digital payments are a popular payment method, the industry recognises that technology is not for everyone so is working with the Government and regulators to ensure that access to cash is preserved for those that need it.' Months after sharing the trials of operating a buffet amid the pandemic, Daisy Li, owner of Moonstar Buffet in Daly City, will close her 30-year-old business but will pivot once more. Moonstar Buffet will now operate in conjuncture with MoonChef, its sister company at 405 S. Canal St., South San Francisco, where it will continue to serve meals to-go from a central kitchen. Moonstar Buffets physical location in Daly City will close by the end of the month, which coincides with the termination of its lease. KTSF first reported its closure. Moonstar is still existing and will share the location with MoonChef, Daisy Li, owner of Moonstar Buffet, told SFGATE. It was a difficult decision, but the lease was also ending. The buffet style isnt going to work after the pandemic for a while. Customers will still be concerned about COVID. Li shared that had it not been for the ongoing pandemic, Moonstar Buffet would not have closed. But around September 2020, she began to seriously consider closing the longstanding business, and then in January 2021, Moonstar Buffet posted on Facebook that it would begin operations from MoonChefs central kitchen by Jan. 11 (later changing the date to Jan. 18). Visual Street Films Last July, SFGATE spoke to Li about the operational disparities buffets had in comparison with other restaurants. At the time, Li shared that her business was barely making enough sales to pay her staff, despite pivoting to takeout and eventually delivery. There were many inherent challenges to transforming Lis buffet into a takeout model during the pandemic, but she believed that shifting customers' habits was one of the hardest obstacles to overcome. We are not a regular restaurant that has a signature dish our signature is the buffet itself, Li told SFGATE in July. [Customers] want to be able to select what they want and pick pieces within the pan. Moonstar Buffets upcoming closure comes as Bay Area restaurants learned Tuesday that San Mateo and Marin counties moved into the red tier of Californias four-tier, color-coded reopening plan, which allows restaurants to begin indoor dining at 25% capacity. (Daly City is in San Mateo County.) Visual Street Films Lis decision to operate within the shared central kitchen was one way she realized that she could continue to run Moonstar to some degree, while also keeping her employees staffed, she said. Li said that her focus now is to do more nonprofit work and continue to provide meals to seniors in need. MoonChef continues to prepare thousands of meals for seniors and has been throughout the pandemic. While Li is saddened by the new pivot, she also looks ahead to turning a new leaf. The pandemic is pushing my journey [but] our mission is to feed the needy, Li said. Fiona Lee, SFGATE deputy managing editor, helped contribute to this report. The swastika-branded man accused of trying to set an Indigenous woman and her daughter on fire using a can of deodorant and a lighter has fronted court following a dramatic citizens arrest. WA Police made several public pleas for the community to help identify the man, who was captured on CCTV walking away from the incident in Gosnells on Saturday. Liam Michael Bradley, 37, made a brief appearance in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday, charged with an unlawful act or omission with intent to harm and conduct intended to racially harass. It followed members of the public spotting the man in Gosnells on Wednesday night and detaining him until police arrived. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form MIDDLETOWN As Catholic schools across Connecticut face persistent challenges, including declining enrollment and financial struggles, Xavier High School remains a pillar of stability. Since 2019, the school has seen both its enrollment and endowment increase, according to a press release. Xavier is one of only three Catholic schools in Connecticut to avoid a decline in enrollment during the same period. Despite the difficulties all Catholic schools continue to face in todays ever-changing education climate, Xavier is committed to growth and long-term success, Headmaster Dave Eustis said in a prepared statement. Xavier provides a tailored educational program for all of our students. We take the time to learn our students strengths and weaknesses and then place them academically in programs that allow them to grow. Earlier this month, the National Catholic Educational Association announced Catholic school enrollment across the nation had dropped 6.4 percent from the previous year the largest single-year decline in nearly 50 years, according to the news release. As Catholic schools deal with the ongoing pandemic and new obstacles, Xavier was able to buck the trend with a focus on the student experience. Xavier provides an open and caring environment for young men, Eustis said. By providing spiritual development, a first-class academic and extracurricular program, we graduate well-rounded students and prepare them for higher education. The school also remains in a strong financial position. This year, Xavier saw its endowment grow to the highest number in school history. It has nearly doubled over the past four years to $11.4 million, Eustis said. On Feb. 17, the school returned to full in-person learning. Lyricist-poet and censor board chief Prasoon Joshi has penned a poem on the 21-day national lockdown. His composition evocatively tries expressing the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for all to stay indoors over 21 days is essential to Image Source: IANS News Lyricist-poet and censor board chief Prasoon Joshi has penned a poem on the 21-day national lockdown. His composition evocatively tries expressing the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for all to stay indoors over 21 days is essential to Image Source: IANS News Mumbai, Feb 25 : Prasoon Joshi, Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), on Thursday reacted positively to the government's decision to impose stringent guidelines on social media and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. "Measures taken for a level playing field and empowering consumers would provide clarity for content creators of emerging platforms. Responsible and accountable mechanisms will only bring in more quality and maturity in a commercial creative industry. @PrakashJavdekar @rsprasad," Prasoon Joshi tweeted. "Initiative by MIETY @MIB_India to balance business interest of digital, SM platform & empowering users provides clarity. In a commercial industry even a creatively commercial one-if the audiences' share of wallet is asked for, their share of voice needs to be taken cognisance of," the CBFC chief mentioned in a separate tweet. Earlier on Thursday, the Union Government came up with new stringent guidelines for social media platforms along with code of ethics for OTT platforms and digital media. Social media platforms will be classified under two categories -- social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries -- with the latter being subject to greater obligations. For OTT and digital media platforms, the government has set up three-level grievance redressal mechanism under the rules, with different levels of self-regulation. The first early signals have emerged that vaccination is leading to a fall in Covid-19 cases among nursing home residents and health staff, it was announced today. HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said in the week to February 14 there were 482 cases in residential centres and this fell to 91 last week. He said the fall in Covid-19 among hospital staff is quite significant peaking at 1,000 cases in early January. This dropped to 91 last week and the current level of cases is down to 50. Read More He said: That is a very severe drop and it is very difficult to attribute to the fall in community transmission alone. He added: The most likely explanation is that we are now seeing an early vaccine effect. Dr Henry also said experts are working on revising the visiting policy at nursing homes and he hopes visiting can resume in a safe incremental way, We are just coming out of serious surge in cases and the timing of this is important. Referring to the fall in cases linked to vaccine he said there is good evidence from Israel and Scotland about the impact vaccination is having on cases of the virus. What we are seeing here now are early signals which, based on international experience, we can increasingly be confident and translate into robust evidence. That shows that in the week ending February 14 there were 482 lab reported cases in residential care setting and in the week ending February 22 there were 91. Thats a big drop and while some may be due to community transmission falling it is very tempting, not just from optimism bias, to say there is the beginnings of a vaccination effect. He also referred to the latest study from the United States showing an 80pc drop in deaths in nursing homes with the roll out of vaccination programmes. He said this supports the strategy of prioritisation of groups by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee. When you get it out to a high impact area you see a big impact in what really matters- illness, hospitalisation and death. While the population are understandably impatient about getting the vaccines this highlights the impact of getting it out to high risk groups, he added. The number of nursing home staff who are out of work has fallen to 350 from a high of more than 1,000. However, there have been problems in getting the vaccine to some patients aged 85 and older in the community. Some GPs have warned of problems in getting deliveries of vaccines for patients aged 85 and older. In some cases the correct number of deliveries of vaccines did not arrive while other practices got too many. Up to the end of last week 14,614 people aged 85 and older got the vaccine. HSE chief Paul Reid said work is now underway to address these problems. In some cases GPs have not been able to buddy up with other doctors in rural areas. Groups with underlying illness who were moved up the priority list for vaccination will know in a week or two when they will get the jab, He said he was concerned at the high level of movement across society including people going to work, in transit and moving between households. He warned there could be a significant risk to the healthcare system if people were to lose focus at this stage. The HSE hopes to deliver around 100,000 vaccines this week and 359,559 vaccine doses were administered up to February 22. So far 226,000 people have had one dose and 133,325 are fully vaccinated. Figures show that there has been an increase in positivity levels among close contacts of infected people and in one case a person found to have the virus had 38 contacts. Meanwhile the latest correspondence to Government from the National Public Health Emergency Team said that normal life may yet be some time away and impact of vaccination is uncertain. The letter written in advance of the Governments new Covid plan said the long term future of this virus is unknown and reaching herd immunity from vaccination alone is unlikely. It would need to cover all adults not alone in Ireland but globally and it would also need to be effective in stopping the virus passing from one person to another. The correspondence also highlighted the potential impact of new variants of the virus which could mean it is circulation in future years. It emphasises the need for a strong public health response here as well be testing and surveillance to find out what forms of the virus are circulating. The infrastructure of the health service including deficits in the workforce need to be addressed. Credit: CC0 Public Domain When healthcare workers become ill during a disease outbreak, overall case counts and mortality rates may significantly increase, according to a new model created by researchers at Penn State. The findings may help to improve interventions that aim to mitigate the effects of outbreaks such as COVID-19. "Each year dozens of potentially lethal outbreaks affect populations around the world. For example, Ebola ravaged western Africa in 2014; Zika damaged lives in the Americas in 2015; and now we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemicCOVID-19," said Katriona Shea, professor of biology and Alumni Professor in the Biological Sciences, Penn State. "Healthcare workers are essential to providing care during such outbreaks. Yet, their exposure to the diseases they treat means they too may become victims of the outbreak. Conventional epidemic models do not usually consider this important driver of quality of care, and may thus underestimate epidemic burdens." In their new model, the researchers investigated the direct impact of the loss of healthcare workers on outbreak outcomes. Specifically, they examined the impacts of healthcare workers becoming infected and unable to work on case counts and mortality. In the model, they refer to this as 'loss impact.' They also examined 'redundancy,' which they define as the minimum number of health care workers required to provide adequate care. "When the loss impact is high, declines in quality of care for each infected healthcare worker are more extreme," said Amalie McKee, former Ph.D. student at Penn State and now adjunct professor in analytics, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. "Higher health system redundancy represents a healthcare system that is safeguarded and able to withstand the loss of more healthcare workers before it cannot provide adequate care." McKee explained that the model assumes that quality of care determines the rate at which vaccines are administered, the probability of dying from infection and the rate of recovery from infection. The model also assumes that vaccines grant lasting immunity and that health care workers are vaccinated at a higher rate than the general population. It also assumes a basic reproduction ratio (R0)or the number of cases generated by one case in a population that is fully susceptibleof roughly 2, which is roughly consistent with recent outbreaks of COVID-19, Ebola, pandemic flu and SARS. In addition, the model assumes a 0.1% percent baseline chance of dying from disease, which is lower than that for Ebola and SARS, but a conservative estimate of mortality associated with COVID-19. Finally, the model assumes that healthcare workers are infected at a rate that is 50% higher than the general population. The results will publish today (Feb. 25) in the journal Epidemiology and Infection. According to the researchers, the model predicts that high loss impact a large drop in quality of care for each healthcare worker that is infectedpaired with low redundancy a healthcare system that is not able to withstand the loss of workerscauses the most severe epidemic outcomes with respect to case counts and mortality. "This outcome represents a fragile health system that has a rapid decrease in quality of care after only a few healthcare workers are infected," said McKee. In contrast, the mildest outcome results from the combination of high system redundancy and high loss impact. "This combination represents a strong health system with a minimal decrease in quality of care until nearly all healthcare workers are infected, McKee added. Results of the team's model predict that when declining quality of care is considered, total disease cases could increase by up to 15% and the total number of deaths could increase by as much as 1,716%. The model also predicts that the number of vaccinations administered will decrease by 10.8% and the number of individuals that recover will decrease by as much as 8.9% when declining quality of care is considered. "We demonstrate the importance of considering the loss of healthcare workers on epidemic outcomes," said Shea. "Addressing such losses will allow epidemiologists to anticipate, plan for, and mitigate negative outcomes." For example, she noted, to address problems of low redundancy, in which quality of care drops significantly when only a few workers are infected, healthcare providers and governments could recruit and train volunteer workers. "In the COVID-19 pandemic, moving medical personnel from less-affected locations, recruitment of recently retired healthcare workers and accelerated graduation of final-year medical students have all been used to sustain the health care system in pandemic hotspots," said Shea. The team's model also suggests a benefit to managing healthcare workers differently from the rest of the population in order to slow the decline in quality of care. This strategy has been effective in the COVID-19 pandemic, as healthcare workers have been prioritized for limited supplies of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 vaccinations. Shea said, "We show that the inclusion of quality of care in disease outbreak models may significantly impact predicted health outcomes and can therefore inform medical interventions related to healthcare workers who are the primary source of care in epidemics." Explore further Black healthcare workers at highest risk of contracting COVID-19 More information: Analysing how changes in the health status of healthcare workers affects epidemic outcomes. Epidemiology & Infection. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2021, e42 DALLAS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- It's clear that Covid-19 is here to stay. The virus has already made a significant impact on the daily lives of Americans everywhere. Not only has it changed the way that people socialize, do business, and spend their money, but it has also had a profound effect on what was always considered normal behavior. While in the past people wouldn't think twice about attending a big event or booking an overseas holiday, these decisions have now become far more complex. It's clear that there is a desperate need for tools to help everyone better acclimatize to this "new normal." Entering your test results and immunization records are so easy and retrieving them is even easier. Now you can always have yours and your family's records available when needed. The Premier smartphone Covid app based on bank level security standards. You will be the only person that can share your info. You are in complete control with our App. All Life Transitions is offering their brand new app called COVID1Stop which is the Premier Smartphone app for recording Covid information. COVID1Stop (www.COVID1Stop.com) gives the user complete control of his or her personal data by saving all information in a personalized digital vault based on bank level security standards. Vaccination passports have been in the news recently, but not everyone is comfortable with the idea of having their personal information stored by a large institution. The COVID1Stop solution solves this problem your data is yours alone. COVID1Stop gives users the capability to display Covid-19 information on screen, or to share it electronically using smartphone transfer solutions. COVID1Stop CEO Leon McKenzie is excited to be able to offer a practical tool that will help users deal with any situations where their Covid-19 status is required. "Having your personal and family Covid-19 history readily available is fast becoming a necessity. COVID1Stop is a personalized, ultra-secure app which has been developed in line with bank level security standards and ensures that you have complete control over who sees your personal information. Our software team took the time to develop a way for people to keep their private info just that - private. We couldn't think of a better way for people to access and share their information than on their own personal smartphones!" he said. Learn more about the COVID1Stop solution at www.COVID1Stop.com. All Life Transitions, LLC is a nationally branded company providing services and solutions to individuals involved in a Life Transition. Our COVID1Stop solution allows you to record your Covid journey. Since the start of the pandemic, AllLT has been working to provide solutions that will help those impacted by the most significant Life Transition any of us will experience. Media Contact Leon McKenzie All Life Transitions www.COVID1Stop.com 214 676-7212 [email protected] SOURCE All Life Transitions, LLC Chinese regiment commander Qi Fabao shouts to an Indian soldier who wants to negotiate with him at Galwan Valley, a IndiaChina border region, in June 2020. (Screenshot/Weibo) Chinas Death Toll in Bloody IndiaChina Border Clash Remains a Mystery Chinas state-run media announced on Feb. 19 that four Chinese soldiers died at Galwan Valley, an IndiaChina border region, in a violent face-off on June 15, 2020, while an Indian officer said Chinas death toll was 45. It was the first deadly clash on the ChinaIndia border in the past four decades. After the bloody fight, India announced that 20 soldiers had died and honored them several times. China didnt announce any deaths for eight months, until Feb. 19. China and India had troops in a standoff for months at multiple locations along the disputed ChinaIndia border in the Ladakh region. On Feb. 10, troops from both sides began to disengage. Indian army soldiers rest next to artillery guns at a makeshift transit camp before heading to Ladakh, near Baltal, southeast of Srinagar, on June 16, 2020. (Stringer/Reuters) Conflicting Death Tolls On Feb. 17, Indian General Officer Lt. Gen. YK Joshi told News18 India that at least 45 Chinese soldiers had been killed in the clash and that China achieved nothing except loss of face. In the past eight months, family members revealed that their loved ones were Chinese soldiers at the border who had died in the Galwan Valley clash. The Chinese regime denied the reports, and Chinas death toll became a mystery. On Feb. 10, the state-run Russian TASS news agency reported that 45 Chinese servicemen died in the clash. Yao Cheng, a former Chinese naval officer, told overseas Chinese-language radio Sound of Hope on Feb. 23 that his China information channels counted the tombs of the dead soldiers and reported to him that more than 40 Chinese soldiers had died in the clash. Some [of my information channels] told me that the death toll is 42. I think this number is accurate. Yao also said that both China and India had pulled back frontline troops from the disputed area. The current international situation forced both of them to cease fire, he said. Yao believes that the Indian side has concerns about U.S. President Joe Bidens policy on China, and the Chinese side needs to focus on the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, which are more critical. Yao said he received different death toll numbers from different information channels in China. He said he believes the real one is 42, which was reported by several of his channels. The Chinese regime has a habit of underreporting its death tolls. The Korean War (19501953) is a good example. The Beijing regime announced Chinas death toll as lower than 200,000, but estimations from the United States, UK, and South Korea put Chinas death toll between 400,000 and 600,000. Indian army soldiers near Zojila mountain pass, which connects Srinagar to the union territory of Ladakh, bordering China, on Nov. 26, 2020. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images) What Started the Conflict? Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) claimed that Indian soldiers attacked first, and the New Delhi side said that PLA soldiers ambushed Indian troops on patrol. PLA Daily reported that regiment commander Qi Fabao was injured and three others were killed during the battle. A fourth death was reportedly caused by a soldier falling into a cold river on the way to the frontline. However, a video taken on-site that was first released by the Chinese web portal NetEase on Feb. 19, shows that Qi insulted an Indian soldier who came to negotiate. If you dont want to fight, you must get out of here [border area]. Get out! Qi shouted to the Indian soldier in the video. I dislike you guys. I will kill all of you if you dont get out. Chinese netizens commented under the video that they believed Qis aggressive attitude angered Indian soldiers and triggered the clash. DOJ Watchdog Criticizes Trumps Firing of IGs, but Omits Key Facts in Matter Commentary Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general who wrote the Dec. 9, 2019, Review of Four FISA Applications, recently reaffirmed his earlier statements that Trump fired two inspectors general for doing their jobs and called Trumps presidency a challenging time particularly in the last year during a Feb. 10 online discussion hosted by Harvard Law School and moderated by Jack Goldsmith. The interview came just a few weeks after Horowitzs office announced on Jan. 15 that it was initiating a review to examine the role and activity of DOJ and its components in preparing for and responding to the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The IGs office also is investigating whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election. In a wide-ranging discussion that also included journalist Bob Woodward, Trump was repeatedly vilified, particularly by Woodward and Goldsmith, with Woodward stating that he believed that you could argue Trump should be impeached for the handling of the virus. Goldsmith stated that Trumps performance during COVID was an utter failure of leadership. Neither man acknowledged Trumps early actions in shutting down travel from China on Jan. 31, 2020, nor did Horowitz exhibit any signs of disagreement with Goldsmith and Woodward, although he was clearly more careful with his wording. At one point during the discussion, Goldsmith noted that the Trump administration represented a most extraordinary and unprecedented assault on our norms and our institutions. Goldsmith then asked Horowitz, what happens when a president is elected precisely to break norms. Horowitz responded, saying, I agree with Bob and I agree with you. That was what happened here, it was norm-breaking. Horowitz continued, stating that norms didnt matter. He told Goldsmith that it was certainly a challenging time for the IG community and then segued into Trumps firing of two inspectors general. Horowitz stated that it could fairly be said that both IGs were fired not for misconduct but for doing their jobs. But in making this claim, Horowitz overlooked crucial facts behind Trumps firing of Intelligence Community IG Michael Atkinson. When Trump fired Atkinson, he noted that it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General. Atkinson had bestowed the status of whistleblower on a then-unnamed individual who made a formal complaint on Aug. 12, 2019, alleging that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25, 2019, phone call to investigate the Bidens for political purposes and that Trump had made military aid to Ukraine contingent on the Biden probe. Zelensky publicly denied that he was pressured by Trump, stating that There was no blackmail. I had no idea the military aid was held up, during a press conference. Nevertheless, these allegations led to the first impeachment of Trump on Dec. 18, 2020, by a Democratic-led House. The Senate acquitted the president of the charges on Feb. 5, 2020. Paul Sperry of Real Clear Investigations alleged that the whistleblower was a then-33-year-old CIA employee named Eric Ciaramella, a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House who had previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia collusion investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Ciaramella also allegedly met with [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam] Schiffs Democratic staff for guidance' prior to filing his complaint, according to Sperrys article. Ciaramella reportedly had no direct knowledge of the phone call but instead had received leaked details of the call from one of the American officials who were on the call with the president. Later reports indicated that it was Alexander Vindman who was the source of the information. According to an unclassified version of an opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on Sept. 3, 2019, the complaint was sent by Atkinson to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire on Aug. 26, 2019, with Atkinson maintaining the allegations were an urgent concern and were therefore subject to the Intelligence Community Whistle Protection Act (ICWPA). However, as Maguire later testified, he felt that the allegations did not appear to fall into the statutory framework of the ICWPA and as a result, he consulted the OLC. After a review that included Atkinson, the OLC determined that the alleged misconduct is not an urgent concern within the meaning of the statute and did not require that the DNI transmit the complaint to the intelligence committees. The complaint does not arise in connection with the operation of any U.S. government intelligence activity, and the alleged misconduct does not involve any member of the intelligence community. Rather, the complaint arises out of a confidential diplomatic communication between the President and a foreign leader that the intelligence-community complainant received secondhand. The question is whether such a complaint falls within the statutory definition of urgent concern that the law requires the DNI to forward to the intelligence committees. We conclude that it does not. The OLCs opinion noted that the matter was being addressed through the appropriate legal channels as Atkinsons letter and the attached complaint have been referred to the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice for appropriate review. Rather than accepting the opinion from the OLC, Atkinson sent the complaint to Schiff, who responded with a public letter to Maguire on Sept. 10, 2019, demanding that the complaint be sent to his committee immediately. Schiff also falsely accused Maguire of withholding from the Committee an authorized and protected whistleblower disclosure. In addition to the OLC opinion, there was also an even more fundamental disclosure issue at play. As Maguire stated in his testimony, many of the allegations in the complaint are based on a conversation between the President and another foreign leader and as such, were subject to executive privilege. As Maguire noted, because of [the Executive Privilege], we were unable to share the details of the complaint with the committee. Notably, Atkinson admitted in his letter that he did not request access to records of the Presidents July 25, 2019, call with the Ukrainian President. Had he done so, he would have discovered numerous discrepancies between the complaint and the actual call by the president. These important details should have been well known to Horowitzparticularly given his status as the DOJs inspector general. That Horowitz was either unaware of these crucial details or chose to simply ignore them is alarming. In addition to his position on Atkinson, Horowitz also stood by an earlier finding that the FBI complied with its policies in opening the Crossfire Hurricane investigation in July 2016. This finding had been disputed by both former Attorney General Bill Barr and special counsel John Durham, both of whom felt strongly enough to issue statements on the matter. Durhams statement noted that we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the reports conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened. Barr issued a longer statement, noting that in his view, The Inspector Generals report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions. Barr continued, noting that he believed the evidence used by the FBI was insufficient to justify the steps taken. Horowitz did repeat past criticisms of the FBIs actions, noting that the FBI failed in numerous ways in its representations to the Justice Department and to the FISA Court in seeking FISA applications for Carter Page. Horowitz also stated that his two primary findings have stood the test of time. Jeff Carlson is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. He is a CFA Charterholder and worked for 20 years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the high-yield bond market. He also runs the website TheMarketsWork.com and can be followed on Twitter @themarketswork. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Canada Nickel Announces Grant of Options and RSUs and Implementation of Salary Equity Program Posted by Publisher Internet Canada Nickel Company Inc. (\Canada Nickel\ or the \Company\) (TSX-V: CNC) (OTCQB: CNIKF https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/canada-nickel-company-inc/) is pleased to announce that it has granted an aggregate of 265,000 restricted stock units (\RSUs\) and an aggregate of 540,000 options to certain officers and directors of the Company as a long-term incentive and 2020 annual performance awards, all in accordance with its restricted share unit plan (the \RSU Plan\) and option plan. The options vest over three years, are exercisable at a price of $3.63 per share and expire five years from the date of grant. The RSUs vest one year from the date of grant. ?This week marks our first anniversary for what has been an outstanding year as a public company.? At our founding, each member of our management team elected to receive a portion of their salary in equity, and this year we are pleased to offer a Salary Equity Incentive Program to all employees.? All of the Company?s senior management have elected to maximize their participation in this program.? As CEO, I will participate to the maximum extent by again taking one-third of my salary in equity. In addition, I have extended the redemption date of my 2020 RSUs by one year.? Our team is looking forward to an equally exciting 2021.? The Company is also pleased to announce that it has implemented a salary investment incentive program (the \Salary Incentive Program\) under which employees and key consultants may elect to receive up to 33% of their base annual compensation in equity as share-settled RSUs based on a share price value of $3.63 granted under the terms of its RSU Plan (the \Elected Amount\). The Company will top-up Elected Amounts by 10%, subject to the limitations under the RSU Plan. The Salary Incentive Program is intended to align the interests of employees, consultants and directors with those interests of the Company. An aggregate of 84,711 RSUs, which will vest one year from the date of grant, have been granted to certain directors and officers of the Company under this program. In addition, the Company has implemented an RSU rollover arrangement under which holders of RSUs granted in March 2020 and scheduled to be redeemed in March 2021 are being provided with the option to extend the applicable redemption date of the RSUs by twelve months in exchange for a supplemental grant equal to 10% of the number of extended RSUs. The newly-issued RSUs will vest one year from the date of grant. 147,050 RSUs have been granted under these arrangements to certain directors and officers. Finally, the Company has agreed to issue a total of 135,000 common shares in settlement of $472,500 owing to certain service providers, subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Such shares will be subject to a four month hold under applicable securities laws. About Canada Nickel Company Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulphide projects to deliver nickel and cobalt required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel and cobalt in low political risk jurisdictions. Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain information that may constitute \forward-looking information\ under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, ?future exploration and development results, and corporate and technical objectives. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals, the future? demand for metals, the results of drilling, inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the property, environmental liabilities (known and unknown), general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, results of exploration programs, risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals, and the impact of COVID-19 related disruptions in relation to the Company\-\-s business operations including upon its employees, suppliers, facilities and other stakeholders.? There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. Canada Nickel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. For further information, please contact: Mark Selby, Chair and CEO Phone: 647-256-1954 Email: info@canadanickel.com In Europe: Swiss Resource Capital AG Jochen Staiger info@resource-capital.ch www.resource-capital.ch .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE After nearly a year of evaluations and treatment, a man accused of killing a homeless Las Vegas man has been found competent to stand trial. Seig Chavez, 41, was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence more than a year ago in the August 2019 killing of William Skip Smith. Soon after court proceedings began in February 2020, competency evaluations were ordered in his case. Chavez was found to be incompetent to face his criminal charges after his arrest and was ordered to undergo mental health treatment for a year. On Feb. 2, state District Judge Flora Gallegos remanded the case back to San Miguel County Magistrate Court after Doug Davis, a doctor with the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute, found Chavez to be competent. Now, Chavezs case is back in 4th Judicial District Court. He entered a not guilty plea in the case Monday morning. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ In August 2019, Las Vegas police officers were sent to the alley between Fifth and Sixth streets, where they found Smiths body, according to court documents. A person saw Smith in the alley the night before but didnt call police because he thought Smith was passed out drunk. But when the same person saw Smith lying in the alley the next morning, they knew something was wrong and alerted law enforcement. Police found that Smith had been stabbed several times, and there were spots of blood trailing down the road. They checked local business security video and discovered that Smith was with Chavez the night of his death, court documents say. A worker at a nearby restaurant was able to identify Chavez out of a photo lineup as the person Smith left the business with. In an interview with police, Chavez said he picked Smith up because he likes to help homeless people with rides, food and cigarettes, according to court documents. Police obtained search warrants for Chavezs vehicle and say they found the upholstery in his truck and several knives that had traces of Smiths blood. 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Throwback Thursday is a weekly article in which we look back at our favorite TV episodes from the past. Ice, The X-Files season one episode of isolation, quarantine, despair, and death, hits different in these pandemic times. It hits even worse if you recently read this article. Did The X-Files teach these scientists nothing? Anything in the Arctic or Antarctic ice should be left buried and untouched. Ice is an episode that shows the real beginnings of Mulder and Scullys lifelong trust of one another. The distrust of others in the group starts early on, when Mulder and Scully meet up with Da Silva, Hodge, Murphy, and Bear at the hanger, and is only amplified by the isolation of the location. It is Mulder and Scully who come together when everything is falling apart. By the episodes end, it appears as though a big step has been taken in their relationship. A step of trust. Ice didnt set out to delve into the complexities of mind-control and brain chemistry, but to play homage to a classic horror film, and to add layers to the burgeoning Mulder/Scully partnership. Its never been a secret that this episode was influenced by The Thing, the 1982 John Carpenter movie that contains some of the ickiest practical effects of all time. While The X-Files doesnt have the cool puppetry and body-horror effects of The Thing, theres one particular scene, involving poor Bear, that is uncomfortable to watch. More than anything, its the makeshift surgery, with no anaesthetic and nothing but hope for the best, that will make the viewer squirm. Speaking of Bear, Jeff Kober as the doomed pilot might be one of the shows most underrated guest-stars of its entire run. The hints of aggression in the character can be seen from his first introduction at the hanger, and as the character unravels the aggressive side of his nature is heightened, making the small space inside the research facility seem even smaller. It is Bears death, after the extraction of the parasite, that further intensifies the feelings of isolation. The team wont be able to leave until the weather clears and another plane can get through. The duality of Mulder and Scully comes through strong in this episode. Not as much in contrasting beliefs in unexplained phenomena, although that is present, but in how to tackle the parasites. Scully wants to learn how to kill them, while Mulder isnt instantly convinced thats the right course of action. Hes also not sure theyre of this earth, and he has some decent proof to back that up early on. Its an episode where theres tangible proof the parasite exists, so their contrasting sides come through in a different way. Its not about if its real, but how it arrived, and how to solve the problem of its existence. Part of Scullys refusal to believe Mulders theory in this episode is not just because its part of her character but is also drawn from the atmosphere of the situation. She doesnt just refuse to give any credence to his ideas but argues against his ideas with vehemence. Is it the isolation heightening their conflicting beliefs, or is she infected too? The conflict aside, Scully appears more at home with the X-Files cases now. By having physical, tangible evidence that she can examine, Scully takes control of the investigation; up until this episode Mulder always seemed to be the lead. Ice fast became a favorite episode for this xphile during season ones original run, and to this day the atmosphere hasn't dissipated. If anything, its more difficult to watch now. It hits different; it hits harder. It settles uncomfortably around you, the quarantine, the isolation, the emergence of a new virus/parasite to infect us all... Random fact: Bears plane is a New Zealand registered Cessna that was once a Mount Cook Airlines aircraft but now appears to reside in Whakatane. The stock footage is likely of the plane flying through NZs Southern Alps. COVID: Lockdown has been rough. But at least we werent sharing a space with this group, an infected dog, and some alien worms, I suppose. One final thing: its been almost thirty years and I still cant pinpoint the moment Da Silva was infected. She touches a lot of things door handles, the dog, evidence without gloves, but so do a lot of the team. Any insights? Bhopal, Feb 25 : In Madhya Pradesh, the dispute over the counting of votes in the urban body elections is intensifying even before the dates of the polls have been announced. While the Congress is demanding a paper ballot, the BJP says the Congress is already searching for excuses for its impending defeat. Both the BJP and the Congress are engaged in preparations for urban body elections in the state. For both the parties, this election is very important in the backdrop of rising prices and the farmers' agitation. Every time, in the run-up to the elections, the issue of EVMs vs paper ballot leads to feuds between the two parties. The Congress has put its weight behind a paper ballot. Leader of the opposition and former chief minister Kamal Nath has said that the credibility of EVMs has been questioned in all the elections in which they have been deployed in the state. The BJP has, predictably, taken a swipe at the Congress's demand for a paper ballot. Said state BJP chief Vishnu Dutt Sharma: "A minister known for creating confusion, deceit and pursuing the politics of hypocrisy is approaching the election commission. The Congress has lost its credibility as a political party. Digvijay Singh is one leader who himself says that wherever he goes the Congress loses votes. The Congress has been become scared after the results of the Gujarat urban body elections and has now begun to look for excuses for defeat." News Microsoft Updates Java for Azure Spring Cloud Microsoft continued to beef up its support for Java developers in both the cloud and its popular, open source, cross-platform code editor, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), with new updates to Azure Spring Cloud since the Spring Boot-based service reached generally available (GA) status last September, along with the regular monthly update to Java in VS Code. Azure Spring Cloud is a fully managed service jointly built and operated by Microsoft and VMware. It's designed to help developers create modern microservice patterns for Spring Boot and Steeltoe .NET Core apps by eliminating boilerplate code and accelerating app development in the cloud. Spring Boot is an open source Java-based framework used for developing stand-alone, production-grade Spring-based apps; Steeltoe is an open source project for developing cloud-native .NET microservice applications. Although .NET and Java are often characterized as competing alternatives, Microsoft has been catering more and more to users of languages other than its flagship C#, including Java and Python, among others. Since reaching GA in September, Azure Spring Cloud has received numerous updates, including: Seven more regions were enabled, making Azure Spring Cloud available in 18 regions of Asia Pacific, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, India, Korea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States. Full APM Capabilities are provided via a Java in-process agent for Application Insights, an extensible Application Performance Management (APM) service. Specific functionality includes: Visibility into all applications with distributed tracing, including paths of operation requests from origins to destinations and insights into applications that are operating correctly and those with bottlenecks. Logs, exceptions, and metrics in the context of call paths offer meaningful insights and actionable information to speed root cause analysis. Insights into application dependencies -- SQL Database, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, JDBC, MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis, JMS, Kafka, Netty / WebFlux, etc. Performance data for every call into operations exposed by applications, including data-like request counts, response times, CPU usage, and memory. Custom metrics conveniently auto-collected through Micrometer, allowing you to publish custom performance indicators or business-specific metrics and visualize deeper application and business insights. Ability to browse, query, and alert on application metrics and logs. Secure communication with external resources is provided with the ability to get static outbound public IP addresses of Azure Spring Cloud applications in order to communicate with things like databases, storage and key vaults. Because some network environments are protected by firewalls that allow only whitelisted IP addresses inbound to internal networks, developers can now, for example, whitelist an Azure Spring Cloud app in Azure Database for MySQL. "You can explicitly add all the outbound IPs of your Azure Spring Cloud apps." More about that is available here. Azure Spring Cloud extension for Visual Studio Code: "Besides feature requests for the Azure Spring Cloud service, we also received requests from developers about how to deploy and manage apps in their familiar environment. You can now use Azure Toolkit for IntelliJ or Azure Spring Cloud extension for VS Code to quickly create, manage and deploy apps to Azure Spring Cloud." Microsoft provided more information about the Azure Spring Cloud extension in its regular monthly update to Java in Visual Studio Code. "The release underlines that VS Code is not only good for tasks like editing, running, debugging and testing, but also provides a seamless end-to-end experience for working with services," Microsoft said. "For Java developers on Azure, extensions are also available for other services like Azure App Services, Azure Functions, and many more." Also detailed were several testing improvements, including three ways to run tests: Running from Test Explorer: "Test Explorer offers the most comprehensive support for testing. In addition to run cases individually, you can Run All Tests." Running from JAVA PROJECT Explorer: "JAVA PROJECT Explorer provides access to all project related functionality including testing. You can run tests at project level or at individual package or class level." Running from CodeLens: "CodeLens is a VS Code feature that provides context-aware actions through link next to your code. When VS Code detects testing annotation in code, it will provide a link of 'Run Test' and a link of 'Debug Test' next to the annotation for you to quickly place an action without jumping out of your code." Coincidentally, the VS Code dev team recently shed light on its efforts to address longstanding requests for improved testing support. "Each implementation of testing presents a different set of features, UI, and idiomaticity," the team said. "Because there is no sanctioned approach to tests in VS Code, extension developers tend to make bespoke implementations, as we've seen in the Python and Java language extensions. Ideally, like in debugging, a VS Code user would have just about the same experience as they work between projects and languages." Other new goodies included in the January 2021 update to Java in VS Code improve accessing testing reports and referring envFile in launch.json for debugging. While there is no roadmap for what's coming in Java in VS Code, Microsoft did indicate its future plans for Azure Spring Cloud: Managed Virtual Network: allows users to be in control of inbound and outbound network communications for Azure Spring Cloud and enables Azure Spring Cloud to interact with systems in on-premises data centers or Azure services in virtual networks. Autoscale: automates the upscaling or downscaling of the application based on load or schedule -- thus providing cost-efficiency and better performance. E2E TLS: allows users to encrypt and securely transmit sensitive data among applications or from app to the backend. Azure RBAC for managed Spring Cloud Config Server/Service Registry: allows users to authenticate with AAD (Azure Active Directory) token for accessing to managed Spring Cloud Config Server/Service Registry by Azure Spring Cloud service. Integration with third-party APM solutions: enables out-of-box experience with other APM tools such as New Relic, App Dynamics and Dynatrace for Azure Spring Cloud apps. "We are excited about the improving developer experience we are creating for Azure Spring Cloud service," Microsoft said. "Your feedback has been instrumental in shaping these features, keep the feedback coming." AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zenoss Inc., the leader in AI-driven full-stack monitoring , today announced VTX1, a leading broadband service provider offering internet and telephone services to approximately 27,000 customers in South Texas, has selected Zenoss Cloud to upgrade their IT infrastructure. "Our customers rely on VTX1 for clear, fast and dedicated broadband service and support," said Sebastian Ivanisky, CTO at VTX1. "Our transition to Zenoss Cloud gives us additional visibility into our infrastructure and provides real-time views into service health and availability so we can deliver reliable, "always on" service to our customers throughout South Texas." Zenoss Cloud is the leading AI-driven full-stack monitoring platform that streams and normalizes all machine data, uniquely enabling the emergence of context for preventing service disruptions in complex, modern IT environments. Zenoss Cloud leverages the most powerful machine learning and real-time analytics to give companies the ability to scale and adapt to the changing needs of their businesses. To learn more about Zenoss Cloud, visit https://www.zenoss.com/product . "We are excited to have been selected by VTX1," said Greg Stock, chairman and CEO of Zenoss. "With service areas covering more than 41,500 square miles, we recognize the importance of ensuring VTX1's IT services and applications are always running. Zenoss Cloud has been designed from the ground up to support these complex needs." About Zenoss Zenoss works with the world's largest organizations to ensure their IT services and applications are always on. Delivering full-stack monitoring combined with AIOps, Zenoss uniquely collects all types of machine data, including metrics, dependency data, events, streaming data and logs, to build real-time IT service models that train machine learning algorithms to deliver robust AIOps analytics capabilities. This enables IT Ops and DevOps teams to optimize application performance, predict and eliminate outages, and reduce IT spend in modern hybrid IT environments. Zenoss is recognized in the 2019 Gartner Market Guide for AIOps Platforms . For more information about Zenoss, please visit https://www.zenoss.com . About VTX1 Companies VTX1 Companies was established as a cooperative in 1952 with the purpose of providing telephone service to rural subscribers deemed unfeasible by larger companies. The company has grown to become a leading broadband service provider offering fiber and wireless internet and telephone services to customers in South Texas. VTX1 Companies' service area covers approximately 41,000 square miles and it is the second largest rural internet service provider in Texas. For more information about VTX1 Companies and its telecommunications services, please visit www.vtx1.net or call 800-446-2031. Zenoss Media Contact Jill Ford [email protected] SOURCE Zenoss Inc. Related Links http://www.zenoss.com BERNARDSTON State Police arrested a 26-year-old Vermont woman after they found crack cocaine and fentanyl in the car she was riding in Monday night. Shelby Adams, of Eden Mills, was charged with trafficking in cocaine and heroin and conspiracy to violate the drug laws, State Police officials said. Trooper Adam Couture pulled over a Toyota SUV heading northbound on Interstate-91 shortly before midnight because it had a loud and defective exhaust and a broken license plate light. After realizing neither the driver nor Adams had a valid license plate, he ordered the vehicle towed and conducted an inventory of it, police said. During the examination, he found 56 baggies containing what is believed to be fentanyl and about 106 grams of crack cocaine in the passenger side area. Adams was then arrested, police said. The operator, a 42-year-old Vermont man, was issued a criminal summons and permitted to leave the scene, police said. PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Oregon Tourism Commission, dba Travel Oregon, has awarded $913,000 for the development, enhancement and stewardship of key visitor experiences that are COVID-19 appropriate, will aid in economic recovery, enhance local livability and provide access to a diversity of explorers through the Destination Ready program. "These 'Destination Ready' projects are crucial in ensuring visitors and Oregonians have access to safe and enjoyable experiences as we rebuild Oregon's tourism economy while navigating the pandemic," said Todd Davidson, CEO Travel Oregon. "Communities across the state rely on tourism as an essential component of their economic fabric. These communities need visitor-ready attractions and experiences that continue to prioritize public health measures and Travel Oregon is excited to support these local initiatives that will play a significant role in the state's economic recovery." Originally announced as a $250,000 opportunity, Travel Oregon received more than $4 million in requests through 135 applications. In response to this high demand, the agency reviewed internal program dollars and reallocated resources to increase the award amount $913,000, which allowed 34 projects to be awarded across the state. Projects will be managed by the agency's Destination Development team and range from direct investments to more collaborative projects, where staff will work closely with awardees through implementation. The Destination Ready program awardees are: Greater Hells Canyon Council ($21,711) to help with mapping and trail maintenance operations for The Blue Mountains Trail, a 556-mile thru-hiking experience through northeast Oregon. ($21,711) to help with mapping and trail maintenance operations for The Blue Mountains Trail, a 556-mile thru-hiking experience through northeast Oregon. Salmonberry Trail Foundation ($22,000) for trail improvements and a new volunteer program in support of the Salmonberry Trail. for trail improvements and a new volunteer program in support of the Salmonberry Trail. Mt. Hood & Columbia River Gorge Regional Tourism Alliance ($30,000) towards creation of a Columbia Gorge Waterfall Corridor hop-on-hop-off trolley system. ($30,000) towards creation of a Columbia Gorge Waterfall Corridor hop-on-hop-off trolley system. Visit Central Oregon ($40,000) to launch "Navigate Oregon" transportation pilot project in partnership with Oregon -based transportation company, Northwest Navigator. to launch "Navigate Oregon" transportation pilot project in partnership with -based transportation company, Northwest Navigator. Eastern Oregon Visitors Association ($20,000) for land stewardship and maintenance efforts to prepare Eastern Oregon's most visited public lands for the coming season including Wallowa Whitman National Forest, The Owyhee Region, The Steens Mountain Wilderness and the Alvord Desert. for land stewardship and maintenance efforts to prepare most visited public lands for the coming season including Wallowa Whitman National Forest, The Owyhee Region, The Steens Mountain Wilderness and the Alvord Desert. Discover Your Forest ($12,500) to help install trailhead signage in the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests that will promote stewardship by providing visitors access to resources and information to get involved in supporting their national forests. ($12,500) to help install trailhead signage in the and Ochoco National Forests that will promote stewardship by providing visitors access to resources and information to get involved in supporting their national forests. Trailkeepers of Oregon ($11,100) to integrate the Take Care Out There responsible recreation messaging pillars into materials used by the Trailhead Ambassador program. to integrate the Take Care Out There responsible recreation messaging pillars into materials used by the Trailhead Ambassador program. Travel Southern Oregon ($40,000) to make important infrastructure improvements to Spring Creek access points that address high-use impacts at Collier State Park. ($40,000) to make important infrastructure improvements to access points that address high-use impacts at Collier State Park. Cascade Volunteers ($18,175) to work with tour operators to create voluntourism travel packages that will both support local lodging properties and trail recovery efforts in the wildfire-impacted McKenzie River corridor. to work with tour operators to create voluntourism travel packages that will both support local lodging properties and trail recovery efforts in the wildfire-impacted corridor. Applegate Trails Association ($25,171) to fund installation of a vault toilet and safe recreation signage in the East Applegate Ridge Trail trailhead parking lot. ($25,171) to fund installation of a vault toilet and safe recreation signage in the East Applegate Ridge Trail trailhead parking lot. Mt. Hood & Columbia River Gorge Regional Tourism Alliance ($31,375) for design and construction of a comprehensive trail signage program for 8.6 miles of new hiking trails developed by Mt. Hood Meadows in 2020. ($31,375) for design and construction of a comprehensive trail signage program for 8.6 miles of new hiking trails developed by Mt. Hood Meadows in 2020. Port of Cascade Locks ($25,000) to fund enhancements to Cascade Locks Port parking lot that will provide access to multiple recreation modalities. ($25,000) to fund enhancements to Cascade Locks Port parking lot that will provide access to multiple recreation modalities. Southern Oregon Trail Alliance ($16,622) for rehabilitation of sections of the Taylor Creek Trail following the Klondike Fire and construction of five trailhead kiosks along Taylor Creek Trail. ($16,622) for rehabilitation of sections of the Taylor Creek Trail following the Klondike Fire and construction of five trailhead kiosks along Taylor Creek Trail. Eastern Oregon Visitors Association ($24,500) for updates to six Eastern Oregon Farm Trail brochures with distribution, and creation of a new on-the-ground kiosk. ($24,500) for updates to six Eastern Oregon Farm Trail brochures with distribution, and creation of a new on-the-ground kiosk. Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance ($15,000) for updates to East Gorge Food Trail brochure, creation of new bilingual signage, trainings and a digital footprint for businesses. ($15,000) for updates to East Gorge Food Trail brochure, creation of new bilingual signage, trainings and a digital footprint for businesses. Visit Corvallis ($13,400) for updates and distribution of a Mid-Willamette Valley Food Trail brochure and digital footprint audit, and assistance for businesses. ($13,400) for updates and distribution of a Mid-Willamette Valley Food Trail brochure and digital footprint audit, and assistance for businesses. Rogue Valley Vintners ($31,300) for a "digital footprint" audit and technical assistance to support for 19 wineries in the Rogue Valley improve their on-line information and presence. ($31,300) for a "digital footprint" audit and technical assistance to support for 19 wineries in the Rogue Valley improve their on-line information and presence. US Farm Stay Association ($11,500) for a "digital footprint" audit and technical assistance for 12 farm stays across Oregon to improve their on-line information and presence. ($11,500) for a "digital footprint" audit and technical assistance for 12 farm stays across to improve their on-line information and presence. Columbia County Economic Team ($28,600) to develop four bike hubs that include rack, bench, repair station, signage and an informational kiosk in three communities in Columbia County . to develop four bike hubs that include rack, bench, repair station, signage and an informational kiosk in three communities in . Prosper Portland ($50,000) to offer safe experiences on bicycle and foot and enhance locations where people can stop to enjoy local businesses along the Portland Green Loop. ($50,000) to offer safe experiences on bicycle and foot and enhance locations where people can stop to enjoy local businesses along the Portland Green Loop. City of Coburg ($11,700) to develop a bike hub that includes a fix-it station, lockers, picnic table, signage and device chargers on the southern anchor of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway. to develop a bike hub that includes a fix-it station, lockers, picnic table, signage and device chargers on the southern anchor of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway. City of Westfir ($17,506) for bike hub development to complement wash and repair stations for the mountain bike destinations of greater Oakridge and Westfir area. ($17,506) for bike hub development to complement wash and repair stations for the mountain bike destinations of greater and area. Tugman State Park ($23,378) for the installation of an ADA accessible kayak launch on Eel Lake. ($23,378) for the installation of an ADA accessible kayak launch on Eel Lake. Willamette Valley Visitors Association ($50,000) for enhancements along the Willamette Water Trail including portable floatation devices, safety kiosks, river guardians, river sanitation support and discovery paddles for BIPOC community groups. for enhancements along the Willamette Water Trail including portable floatation devices, safety kiosks, river guardians, river sanitation support and discovery paddles for BIPOC community groups. Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife ($25,000) to make infrastructure and accessibility improvements to establish Marr Pond as the only ADA accessible fishing facility in Wallowa County . to make infrastructure and accessibility improvements to establish as the only ADA accessible fishing facility in . Tillamook Coast Visitors Association ($10,000) to install two kayak launchers at water access points in Nehalem and purchase an additional beach wheelchair for the Netarts / Oceanside area. ($10,000) to install two kayak launchers at water access points in and purchase an additional beach wheelchair for the / area. City of Garibaldi ($16,715) for additional infrastructure for trash receptacles as well as COVID-19 appropriate visitor seating for the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad. for additional infrastructure for trash receptacles as well as COVID-19 appropriate visitor seating for the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad. Portland Bureau of Transportation ($47,600) for development and implementation of temporary wayfinding and placemaking for 20 Portland Healthy Business Plazas directing people towards outdoor dining areas in high-visitation neighborhoods. for development and implementation of temporary wayfinding and placemaking for 20 Portland Healthy Business Plazas directing people towards outdoor dining areas in high-visitation neighborhoods. Albany Downtown Association ($43,487) for enhancements to parking and public spaces to increase outdoor seating and expand outdoor dining in historic downtown Albany. ($43,487) for enhancements to parking and public spaces to increase outdoor seating and expand outdoor dining in historic downtown Albany. City of Cottage Grove ($30,000) for construction of three outdoor public parklets in that will support restaurant and business activity the Downtown Cottage Grove Historic District. ($30,000) for construction of three outdoor public parklets in that will support restaurant and business activity the Downtown Cottage Grove Historic District. City of Florence ($44,161) for additional seating areas, trash receptacles and bike racks in Florence's Old Town and along the Port of Siuslaw's Boardwalk. ($44,161) for additional seating areas, trash receptacles and bike racks in Old Town and along the Port of Siuslaw's Boardwalk. City of John Day ($35,000) to create a community "pit stop" with food truck stalls, improved parking and new public restrooms. to create a community "pit stop" with food truck stalls, improved parking and new public restrooms. Port of Bandon ($20,000) for creation of an outdoor seating area along Bandon's historic waterfront. ($20,000) for creation of an outdoor seating area along historic waterfront. The Dalles Main Street ($50,000) to expand the 2020 Parklet/Pedestrian Bypass infrastructure to support additional outdoor dining on main street in 2021. About Travel Oregon The Oregon Tourism Commission, dba Travel Oregon, works to enhance visitors' experiences by providing information, resources and trip planning tools that inspire travel and consistently convey the exceptional quality of Oregon. The commission aims to improve Oregonians' quality of life by strengthening the state's tourism economy that employs thousands of Oregonians statewide. Visit traveloregon.com to learn more. SOURCE Travel Oregon Related Links http://www.traveloregon.com Prime Minister said that his government will provide support for the development of After laying the foundation stone for various projects at on Thursday, Modi said, "The people of are talented. This land is beautiful. I am here to personally assure all possible support from my government for the development of Puducherry." Puducherry recently saw political turmoil after the Congress government fell early this week. Earlier, Tamilsai Soundararajan replaced as lieutenant governor (LG) of Puducherry. Soundararajan was shifted to the Union Territory from Telangana, where she was the governor. The prime minister said that across India farmers are innovating and it was the government's duty to ensure their produce gets good markets. "Good roads do exactly that," said the prime minister, after laying the foundation stone for the four-laning of Sattanathapuram-Nagapattinam Highway section, which will draw industries to the area and generate job opportunities for local youth. The capital cost to be incurred in this project is about Rs. 2426 crore. "The coast is the soul of Puducherry. There is so much potential in fisheries, port, shipping and the blue economy," said Modi after laying the foundation stone of Puducherry Port Development under Sagarmala Scheme. "Puducherry has a lot of potential for industrial and tourism development that will provide a lot of employment opportunities," he said. He added, one sector that will play a key role in the coming years is healthcare. Nations that invest in healthcare will shine, said Modi, after laying the foundation stone of the medical college building at Karaikal New Campus- Phase I, Karaikal District (JIPMER). The estimated cost of the project is Rs 491 crore. "Prosperity is closely linked to good health. In the last 7 years, India has made many efforts to improve fitness and wellness," said the PM, adding that the DBT has helped several beneficiaries under various schemes. Modi will lay the foundation stone for the development of a minor port at Puducherry under Sagarmala Scheme. Estimated to be built at Rs 44 crore, it will provide connectivity to Chennai and facilitate cargo movement for industries in Puducherry. From Puducherry, he will fly to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu to launch projects worth over Rs 12,000 crore. President's Rule was imposed in Puducherry following a recommendation by the Union Cabinet after a Congress-led government lost power in the Union Territory in a vote of confidence. The notification, signed by President Ram Nath Kovind, said the decision was taken after the president received a report from the administrator of the Union Territory of Puducherry on February 22. It said after considering the report and other information received by him, the president was satisfied that a situation had arisen in which the administration of the Union Territory of Puducherry could not carry on in accordance with the provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 (20 of 1963). "Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 51 of the Act and of all other powers enabling me in that behalf, I (a) suspend, until the constitution of the 15th Legislative Assembly of Puducherry, in relation to the said Union Territory of Puducherry...," the notification said. The president also suspended the operation of various provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 (20 of 1963), thus imposing central rule in Puducherry. The notification also said the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory is placed under suspended animation. V Narayanasamy, who led the Congress government in Puducherry, resigned on Monday ahead of the confidence vote after his government was reduced to a minority following a spate of resignations by his party MLAs and a DMK legislator in recent days. This comes a day after the Union Cabinet had approved a proposal to impose President's Rule in Puducherry after a Congress-led government in the union territory lost power during a vote of confidence. Announcing the Cabinet decision on February 24, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters that the decision was taken as no party came forward to stake claim to form the government in Puducherry following the resignation of the chief minister V Narayanasamy. Subsequently, the Lieutenant Governor had recommended President's Rule there and the Union Cabinet has approved the same, the minister said. After the President's assent, the assembly will be dissolved, Javadekar said, while adding that further necessary steps for administrative work in Puducherry would be taken soon. He also noted that the model code of conduct was expected to come into effect soon after the Election Commission announces the dates for elections there, along with four states. Narayanasamy, who led the Congress government, resigned on Monday ahead of the confidence vote after his government was reduced to a minority following a spate of resignations of his party MLAs and a DMK legislator in recent days. Meanwhile, in Puducherry, Narayanasamy cautioned the voters against supporting the alliance comprising BJP, AINRC and AIADMK in the coming assembly polls and claimed these parties would have no qualms to merge the Union Territory with Tamil Nadu. Addressing party workers during a demonstration, he said, "my government was toppled through undemocratic and scrupulous designs and the conspiracy hatched by the BJP in coordination with the AINRC and AIADMK." Best-selling gummies are now available for online purchase at lunchboxalchemycbd.com in all 50 states Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - SLANG Worldwide Inc. (CNSX: SLNG) (OTCQB: SLGWF) ("SLANG" or the "Company"), a leading global cannabis consumer packaged goods (CPG) company with a diversified portfolio of popular brands, today announced its best-selling CBD gummies, Lunchbox Alchemy CBD are now available for purchase online via the Company's newly launched e-commerce platform. Founded in 2014, Lunchbox Alchemy CBD has become one of SLANG's most popular products, sold in over 600 stores across 40 states. Lunchbox Alchemy's e-commerce store will meet the needs of a wider customer base through its digital marketing efforts and by reaching consumers directly. The launch of the e-commerce store is particularly timely, with CBD sales projected to reach $22B by 2022, according to research from Brightfield Group. Chris Driessen, CEO of SLANG, said, "With the introduction of our new e-commerce platform, SLANG can interact directly with end consumers, starting with our Lunchbox Alchemy CBD gummies. Online CBD sales is a new revenue channel for our company and allows us to capture improved unit economics." The vegan gummies are infused with Full-Spectrum Hemp Extract derived from Oregon-grown hemp and crafted with organic and all-natural ingredients. Four varieties of gummies, including Daily Full Spectrum; Relief Full Spectrum; Sleep Full Spectrum and THC-Free Broad Spectrum, are now available for online purchase at https://lunchboxalchemycbd.com in several mixed-fruit flavors of pineapple, strawberry, and black raspberry. Dosing is available in a 25mg/gummy per serving or a double strength 50mg/gummy per serving. Production and fulfillment of all e-commerce orders will be handled in-house through SLANG's Oregon and Colorado infrastructure that has been acquired in recent months. To be added to SLANG's email distribution list, please email SLNG@kcsa.com with "SLNG" in the subject. About SLANG Worldwide Inc. SLANG Worldwide Inc. is a global leader in the cannabis CPG sector with a diversified portfolio of popular brands distributed across the United States. The Company specializes in acquiring and developing market-proven regional brands as well as launching innovative new brands to seize global market opportunities. For more information, please visit www.slangww.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such 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. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the completion of the Acquisition. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management of SLANG at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to regulatory risks, risks related to the COVID-19 global pandemic, changes in laws, resolutions and guidelines, market risks, concentration risks, operating history, competition, the risks associated with international and foreign operations and the other risks identified under the headings "Risk Factors" in SLANG's final long form prospectus dated January 17, 2019 and "Risks and Uncertainties" in the management discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2019 and six months ended June 30, 2020, each as filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. SLANG is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. Media and Investor inquiries Investors@SLANGww.com KCSA Strategic Communications Phil Carlson / Elizabeth Barker SLANG@kcsa.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75354 With 1,390 new deaths recorded on Wednesday, Brazil surpassed the milestone of 250,000 deaths from COVID-19, one day after reaching 10 million infections. This abominable number represents 10 percent of all coronavirus deaths on the planet, in a country that does not even constitute 3 percent of the worlds population. Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against the government's response in combating COVID-19 and also asking for the extension of emergency aid by the federal government amid the pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) This week also marks one year since the confirmation of the first COVID-19 case in Brazil, on February 26, 2020. After this long period of suffering and hardship imposed upon the Brazilian working masses, the pandemic remains totally out of control, with thousands of lives being lost every day and various parts of the country being pushed to the limit. The northern region of Brazil as a whole has suffered a severe impact in recent months. Amazonas, whose capital Manaus had a health care collapse in January, has already recorded more COVID-19 deaths in the first 54 days of this year than during all of 2020. The number of hospital admissions in the state remains high, and hundreds of patients in serious condition await an ICU bed. This week, shocking images were released of a hospital in the city of Parintins where intubated patients are being strapped to their stretchers for lack of sufficient sedatives. The neighboring state of Acre declared a state of public calamity on Monday. The state is facing the catastrophic combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, an outbreak of dengue fever, and floods that have already affected 130,000 people in 10 of the states municipalities, including the capital. Hospitals are on the verge of collapse, and a record 621 new cases were recorded on Tuesday. The right-wing governor Gladson Cameli, of the Progressive Party (PP), said he only has resources for the next three months and compared the situation to a third world war. It is highly likely that the more contagious P.1 variant of COVID-19, originally discovered in Manaus, is circulating in Acre, which received patients after the hospitals collapsed in the neighboring state. The Brazilian Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that cases of this new variant have already been reported in 17 states in all five regions of the country. In the southeast region, the Sao Paulo government of Governor Joao Doria, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), has decreed a so-called restrictive curfew to allegedly limit the circulation of people between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., which will go into effect next Friday. The state, which has seen more than 58,000 deaths and nearly 2 million confirmed cases, registered its highest number of ICU patients this week. The situation is especially devastating in municipalities in the countryside of Sao Paulo. Last Sunday, Araraquara declared a lockdown, which was followed by smaller municipalities in the region. With cases of community transmission of the P.1 variant of COVID-19, the city reached maximum capacity in its hospitals last Tuesday. Other cities like Campinas, with more than a million inhabitants, have also reached maximum capacity of its ICU beds, and the cities of the industrial ABC region are approaching the same level. The brutal conditions faced in the Amazonian hospitals are being reenacted in Sao Paulo. This was underscored this week by the resignation of 15 of the 24 resident doctors at the Pimentas Bonsucesso Municipal Hospital, in Guarulhos, in the Greater Sao Paulo region, in protest over the lack of medications and the precarious conditions of the medical unit. According to one of the residents, interviewed by the newspaper Agora, The situation really got worse at the end of last year and the beginning of this one, because there was no way to replace the medications, which were in short supply. The same doctor reports that, as in the hospital at Parintins, there is a lack of sedatives for intubated patients: This doesnt allow them to relax, preventing the equipment [ventilators] from working effectively. I witnessed a [COVID-19] patient die by biting the hose [that takes oxygen to the lung], because the intubation was not working, due to the fact that he was conscious. The northeast region of Brazil has had the largest increase in infections in the last week, up by 26 percent. The state of Ceara, governed by Camilo Santana of the Workers Party (PT), has practically filled up its ICU beds, and the number of cases and deaths is increasing, especially in countryside municipalities. Bahia, the largest state in the region, governed by Rui Costa also of the PT, recorded on Tuesday the highest number of ICU admissions for the fifth consecutive day. The situation is equally critical in the southern region of Brazil, with its three states recording a hospital occupancy rate close to or above 90 percent. Last Friday, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite of the PSDB, declared the suspension of activities in public places from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., just like his party colleague in Sao Paulo. The state also has a record rate of occupancy of ICU beds. In the face of this catastrophe, Brazils fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro maintains his policy of war on lockdowns, declared in just these terms in May of last year. At an official event on January 28, Bolsonaro gave a frantic speech: The policy of closing everything did not work. The Brazilian people are strong, the Brazilian people are not afraid of danger. We know who are the vulnerable, the elderly and those with comorbidities. The rest have to work! On this Tuesday he made this same point once again: Lockdowns didnt solve anything last year, will they solve it this year? Now, how will the economy look? Speaking on behalf of the Brazilian ruling class, this would-be Mussolini seeks to push the working class to its death in infected workplaces in order to maximize capitalist profits. All parties in the Brazilian political system have aligned themselves with this criminal policy. Seeking to free itself and its allies from responsibility for the pandemic catastrophe, the traditional newspaper of the bourgeoisie, O Estado de Sao Paulo, declared in its Wednesday editorial: One doesnt arrive at a state of calamity like this without an unbelievable succession of errors. Brazils situation is the worst possible. Contributing to this result were the neglect and incompetence of President Jair Bolsonaro and his Health Minister, Eduardo Pazuello, the uncontrolled spread of a new strain of coronavirus identified in Manaus, the P.1 variant, potentially more contagious, and the careless behavior of many citizens who, following the bad example of President Bolsonaro, insist on disregarding the protective measures recommended by health authorities. The response of Bolsonaro and the Brazilian establishment to the pandemic was not a succession of errors, but a conscious policy of social murder. The development of the coronavirus variant identified in Manaus, treated by Estadao as a misfortune, is the most conclusive proof of the devastating consequences of the nefarious herd immunity policy adopted by the ruling class. In the same anti-scientific spirit, this newspaper maintains that the resumption of face-to-face classes is absolutely safe, and has viciously attacked the teachers in Sao Paulo who are militantly opposing the reopening of classrooms in the midst of such a state of calamity. O Estado de Sao Paulo accused the educators of denying the new generations the basic training they need to emancipate themselves socially, culturally and professionally. And morally. It continued: [I]n a period of enormous difficulties like the present, by refusing to accept their share of sacrifices and resorting to strike action to make it impossible for the school year to begin, the teachers miss the opportunity to give a lesson of civility to their students and to society itself. There is no essential difference between this grotesque demand that teachers accept their share of sacrifices and Bolsonaros fascistic back-to-work speech. Estadao is acting as no more than a mouthpiece for the PSDB government in Sao Paulo, which has now enacted a farcical lockdown, fighting the supposed careless behavior of many citizens, without backing down a single inch in its criminal reopening of schools, which will put more than 30 percent of the states population, between educators and students, in the streets and into enclosed classrooms. A notable event this week was the departure of renowned Brazilian scientist Miguel Nicolelis from the scientific committee of the Northeast Consortium. Nicolelis had assumed the direction of this committee in early 2020 with the perspective of contributing to a science-based policy to combat the pandemic. The researcher has been warning of the need for a real policy of social distancing. Either the country goes into a national lockdown immediately, or we wont be able to handle burying our dead in 2021, he tweeted in January. As Folha de Sao Paulo reported, [p]eople close to him say that the decision is due to Nicolelis dissatisfaction with the failure of governments to adopt the guidelines indicated by the committees scientists. The newspaper also reported that one of the committees participants stated that their feeling is that the governors are not acting so differently from the federal government. The same political forces behind the Northeast Consortium, the PT and its allies in the so-called opposition to Bolsonaro, such as the Maoist Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), are also behind the reactionary Brazilian unions that are fighting to break the teachers strikes in Sao Paulo and throughout Brazil, and to prevent their unification with different sections of the working class to promote a general strike that stops all non-essential production and puts the pandemic under control. These interests were clearly expressed by the ABC Metalworkers Union (SMABC), the political cradle of the PT and one of the main Brazilian trade unions, which responded to the farcical restrictive curfew of the PSDB government in Sao Bernardo do Campo, not by demanding a real policy of social distancing that shuts down factories and other workplaces, but by suggesting that the government makes the measures more flexible to allow workers to get to their jobs! The president of the union, Wagner Santana, declared: Sao Bernardo is not isolated from the other cities. We have to think about the worker who will leave the company at night and wont have transportation. We will not accept that, after a workday, the worker has no way to return home and is exposed on the street to the dangers of the early morning. These are compelling proofs that no political force connected to the capitalist state, no matter in which shade of red it tries to disguise itself, offers a genuine basis to effectively stop the spread of the virus. Only the independent political mobilization of the working class guided by a socialist and internationalist program will put an end to the continuing nightmare of the COVID-19 pandemic. CHICAGO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Market by Product (Instruments, Software, Service), Technology (Cell-Based Assays, Label-Free), Application (Drug Discovery, Biochemical Screening, Research), End User (Pharma & Biotech, CROs)- Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global High-Throughput Screening Market size is projected to reach USD 26.4 billion by 2025 from USD 15.3 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period. Browse in-depth TOC on "High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Market" 432 Tables 40 Figures 319 Pages Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=134981950 The HTS Market growth is driven mainly by factors such as increasing R&D spending by pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, technological advancements in high-throughput screening market and the availability of government funding & venture capital investments. Emerging markets and growing applications in life sciences research are also factors expected to provide growth opportunities for players in the market. The consumables segment accounted for the largest share of the product & services segment in the high-throughput screening market in 2019. On the basis type of product & service, the HTS Market is broadly segmented into consumables , instruments, services, and software. In 2019, consumables accounted for the largest share of the high-throughput screening (HTS) market. This can primarily be attributed to the wide use of reagents & assay kits in HTS techniques, increasing pharmaceutical R&D, and rising government funding for life sciences research. The drug discovery segment accounted for the largest share of the application segment in the high-throughput screening market in 2019. Based on application, the HTS Market is categorized into four segmentsdrug discovery, biochemical screening, life sciences, and other applications. The drug discovery application segment accounted for the largest share of the market in 2019. The key factor driving this segments growth is the increasing number of clinical trials and rising pharmaceutical R&D expenditure. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=134981950 The Asia Pacific region is the fastest-growing region of the high-throughput screening market in 2019. In 2019, Asia Pacific region accounted for the fastest-growing region of the HTS Market. It is also estimated to grow at the highest CAGR in the market during the forecast period, this is mainly due to factors such as the rising R&D spending, growing public-private partnerships, and increasing government funding are factors driving the growth of the market in this region. Some of the prominent players in the high-throughput screening market are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (US), Danaher Corporation (US), PerkinElmer, Inc. (US), Tecan Group Ltd. (Switzerland), AXXAM S.p.A. (Italy), Merck KGaA (Germany), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (US), Promega Corporation (US), Corning Incorporated (US), and Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg). Speak to Analyst: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=134981950 Browse Adjacent Markets: Biotechnology Market Research Reports & Consulting Browse Related Reports: 3D Cell Culture Market by Product (Hydrogel, Hanging Drop, Bioreactor, Microfluidics, Magnetic Levitation), Application (Cancer, Stem Cell, Toxicology, Tissue Engineering), End User (Pharmaceutical, Biotech, Cosmetics), Region - Global Forecast to 2024 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/3d-cell-culture-market-191072847.html Cell-based Assay Market by Product (Reagents, Microplates, Cell Lines, Assay Kits, Instruments, Services), Application (Drug Discovery, Research), End User (CROs, Biopharma Companies, Research Institutes), Geography - Global Forecast to 2024 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cell-based-assays-market-119917269.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. 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Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra 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/high-throughput-screening-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/high-throughput-screening.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets The number of private education management organizations (EMOs) and the schools they operate has more than doubled in the past decade and the number of students they serve tripled in the past decade, according to the 15th Edition of the EMO Profiles report published by the National Education Policy Center. The new report finds that student enrollment in EMO-operated schools has grown from 600,000 in 2008-09 to 1.95 million in 2018-19. The growth of nonprofit EMOs has outpaced growth of for-profits. The size of the EMO virtual school sector is also increasing and is likely significantly larger than reported as a result of the pandemic. The EMO Profiles report provides a comprehensive inventory of close to 650 EMOs and more than 3,700 EMO-operated public schools across the country. Identifying and profiling EMOs is challenging, given the interconnected webs of nonprofit and for-profit organizations and trusts, corporate or organizational owners and fundraising entities that provide services, own property, and play other roles. More than 90% of EMO public schools are charter schools. In fact, EMOs have been the key vehicle driving charter school growth over the past two decades. This stands in stark contrast to the claims of proponents that charter schools would be locally run, innovative, autonomous, and highly accountable. While these promises prompted widespread initial support for charter school reform, the evidence presented in the EMO Profiles report suggests that EMOs have undermined local control and the autonomy of charter schools, restricted innovation, and created obstacles for transparency and accountability. The 2017-18 school year marked the first time that a majority of charter school students were enrolled in privately managed schools. By 2018-19, just over 53% of all charter students were in schools operated by private EMOs. If policies remain as they are and current trends continue, approximately 66% of charter school students will be enrolled in privately managed schools by 2025 and close to 80% of charter school students will be in privately managed schools by 2030. Rather than addressing school reform with local, autonomous, and highly accountable public schools, charter schools have instead been used as a vehicle for privatization of our public-school sector. Currently, an overwhelmingly large proportion of new charter schools are started by private EMOs. These for-profit and nonprofit EMOs make key decisions about when and where to start new schools in furtherance of their monetary interest in increasing market share. Another striking pattern is the consolidation of the sector. New or existing EMOs are aggressively purchasing independent charter schools or charter schools that are owned by other EMOs, further cementing the private-sector behavior of those operating charter schools. What are EMOs? EMOs are private companies or organizations that operate public schools. They can be either for-profit or nonprofit entities, and as documented in the Profiles report, the differences between for-profit and nonprofit EMOs are small and largely inconsequential. To establish whether a private entity has executive control of a public school and is therefore an EMO, the following factors are among those Profiles researchers considered: who started the school; who owns the facilities, equipment, and materials; who employs the teachers, administrators, and staff; who recruits and enrolls students; who prepares and controls the budget; and who owns or is responsible for the school model and curriculum. Some in the charter school establishment have argued that the term EMOs should not be applied to nonprofit entities. Instead, they have coined the term charter management organizations, or CMOs, for nonprofit entities that run charter schools. NEPCs EMO Profiles report refers to both for-profit and nonprofit operators as EMOs for a number of reasons. Management contracts reveal similar conditions and feesexcessively high management fees and salaries for EMO executives are similar across both types of EMOs. Both for-profit and nonprofit EMOs undermine local control and centralize governance in often-distant HQs. Transparency and access to information is hampered in both nonprofit and for-profit EMOs. Profiles report authors, for example, sent FOIA requests to public charter school boards and were told that the school does not need to comply. Another reason for broadly referring to for-profit and nonprofit management companies as EMOs is that many self-identified CMOs have diversified their business modelsjust as the for-profit EMOs have doneand now provide services and management for both charter and district schools. Finally, the boundary between for-profit and non-profit EMOs is fluid. Nonprofits have coverted to for-profits and vice versa. This fluidity was no doubt influenced by the decision of some states to impose restrictions on for-profit EMOs. Given the trends and the ways in which EMOs have developed, we make the following recommendations: To ensure genuine accountability, a charter school board should be in place before an application for charter status is submitted. Such boards should have control and oversight of budget. Authorizers should not permit charter applications from EMOs. If charter school boards contract with an EMO, the authorizer should be required to approve both the management agreement and leases or other agreements related to facilities and property. Charter school boards should be required to receive training relative to their legal and fiscal responsibilities, ensuring they function as intended as responsible representatives of public charter schools and the taxpayers supporting them. When contemplating a relationship with an EMO, a school board should require three or more bids from potential contractors. School boards should refuse sweep contracts, which allow an EMO to secure all revenues with a guarantee to leave a small year-end balance. Sweep contracts mask the actual budget and limit transparency by the governing boards and the public. EMO contracts should have stringent requirements for transparent reporting. States should not exempt nonprofit EMOs from restrictions placed on for-profit EMOs. Federal and state agencies should award start-up grants and financial support only to independent charter schools. Find Profiles of For-Profit and Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: Fifteenth Edition, by Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino, Christopher Shank, Najat Elgeberi, Caryn Davidson, Fanny Hernandez De Alvarez, Brandy Jurdzy, Judith Larsen, Dung Pham, Kelly Ruder, Laura Urdapilleta, & Jessica Urschel, at: https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/emo-profiles-fifteenth-ed The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: https://nepc.colorado.edu The Manhattan district attorney has 'millions of pages' of Donald Trump's tax returns and financial records, the prosecutor's office said Thursday. Cy Vance's office spokesman, Danny Frost, said it had received the documents within hours of the Supreme Court refusing to hear Trump's attempt to keep the records from them. They were handed over by his longtime accounting firm Mazars, which had promised to comply with the subpoena as soon as it was upheld by the courts. Vance's prosecutors are investigating whether Trump committed tax fraud through inflating the value of his properties to get loans and deflating them for tax purposes, and are also believed to still be investigating hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal over their claims of having sex with him. In a three-word statement after the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, Vance said only: 'The work continues.' Trump had blasted the ruling on Monday, saying: 'This investigation is a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our Country.' In a nearly-400 word statement, clearly dictated by Trump himself, he recited a litany of past complaints by the former president: calling the investigation a 'witch hunt,' blasting former special counsel Robert Mueller, and falsely claiming he won the election. Blow: The Supreme Court ruling means a Manhattan grand jury must be provided with Trump's tax returns by his longtime accounting firm Mazars USA Hand them over: Only a tiny portion of Donald Trump's tax returns have ever seen the light of day but Manhattan DA Cy Vance now has the approval of the Supreme Court to subpoena the ex-president's longtime accounting firm for them. Stepping up investigation: Cy Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney has hired a high-profile former prosecutor who led the case against John Gotti and who just re-interviewed Michael Cohen, Trump's one-time Mr. Fix-it WHAT COULD PROSECUTORS FIND IN DOCUMENT TROVE? The millions of pages of Trump documents are not just his tax returns, but the paperwork which underlies them: internal company documents, emails, spreadsheets and memos, and banking records from lenders, which were used by accountants to generate the returns. That means prosecutors, who are now assisted by forensic accountants from private firm FTI, can try to reconstruct the thought process which led to the tax declarations - and look for any evidence of wrongdoing which went into them PROPERTY ISSUES Cy Vance's team is known to be looking at whether Trump changed the declared value of his Manhattan property empire for his own advantage. They pounced on claims by Michael Cohen, his Mr Fixit-turned-deadly-enemy, that the Trump Organization increased its claimed value for buildings when asking banks for loans, then decreased the values for tax authorities. Both would be offenses. PAYMENTS TO IVANKA? Consulting fees given to Ivanka Trump have raised eyebrows because she was also an employee of the Trump Organization. If the consultancy fees were given to evade or avoid tax, that could be of interest to Vance. His team will also be looking for any other payments to other people which they may conclude were an attempt to avoid tax. CAMPAIGN FINANCE The probe was launched initially in the wake of payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, allegedly to silence them from making allegations of sex with Trump. Evidence that further implicates him in making payments may be a campaign finance issue, and if there are other - so far unknown - payments to other people for other reasons, those too could be of interest. THE TRUMP FAMILY FORTUNE Trump is being sued by his niece Mary who alleges he and two of his siblings - his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and late brother Robert - swindled her and her brother out of their rightful inheritance thought an orchestrated system which was also designed to avoid tax. She bases her claim on a previous treasure trove of older tax documents. Alleged crimes from the mid-1990s and earlier are likely to be covered by the statute of limitations, but prosecutors may look for similar patterns to those she alleges to see if there is an attempt to structure inheritances for younger generations of Trumps at the expense of the public purse. Advertisement 'So now, for more than two years, New York City has been looking at almost every transaction Ive ever done, including seeking tax returns which were done by among the biggest and most prestigious law and accounting firms in the U.S. 'The Supreme Court never should have let this "fishing expedition" happen, but they did. This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo,' the statement said. It even went into the first person - using the word 'I' repeatedly. The justices' ruling did not - and will not - make Trump's tax records public but gives Vance access to eight years of returns. The high court's action is a blow to Trump because he has for so long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The justices did not disclose whether the court was split on taking the case, although at times justices who want to take a case but have been outvoted will make public their dissent. None did so Monday. The ongoing investigation the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency. The ruling against Trump came just days before his planned political comeback, which will be a speech to the conservative conference CPAC on Sunday. But the ruling indicates how litigation could hang over a Trump comeback - and Vance's probe is not the only one. In Georgia, the Fulton District Attorney, Fani Willis, has opened an investigation into attempts to overturn the election result, which includes Trump's infamous call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger saying to him: 'I just want to find 11,780 votes.' And Merrick Garland, Joe Biden's nominee for attorney general, faces deciding on whether the DOJ should investigate Trump over the January 6 MAGA rally. Trump was given one piece of good news by the justices, when they rejected a plea from Stormy Daniels to overturn a ruling that she could not sue Trump for defamation for Tweeting that she was a 'con job.' But the Manhattan probe is the most advanced. Vance has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records. In one court filing last year, however, prosecutors said they were justified in demanding the records because of public reports of 'possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.' Part of the probe involves payments to two women - porn actress Daniels and model McDougal - to keep them quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs. In July, the justices in a 7-2 ruling rejected Trump's argument that the president is immune from investigation while he holds office or that a prosecutor must show a greater need than normal to obtain the tax records. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump nominated to the high court, joined that decision. It was issued before Trump's third nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court. As part of its July decision, the high court returned the Vance case and a similar case involving records sought by Congress to lower courts. And the court prevented the records from being turned over while the cases proceeded. Since the high court's ruling, in the Vance case, Trump's attorneys made additional arguments that his tax records should not be turned over, but they lost again in federal court in New York and on appeal. It was those rulings that Trump had sought to put on hold. The Supreme Court waited months to act in the case. The last of the written briefs in the case was filed October 19. But a court that includes three Trump appointees waited through the election, Trump's challenge to his defeat and a month after Trump left office before issuing its order. The court offered no explanation for the delay, and the legal issue before the justices did not involve whether Trump was due any special deference because he was president. Vance has hired a high-profile attorney with decades of experience with white collar crime cases as it ramps up its investigation. Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor for the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, joined Vance's team as a special assistant district attorney earlier this month. Pomerantz has already hit the ground running, conducting an interview with Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen last Thursday, Reuters reported. His hiring is part of a flurry of recent activity in Vance's investigation into the Trump family business, a probe which has been open for two and a half years. Pomerantz, 69, has long been called a leading figure in New York legal circles, having served as chief of the criminal division in the US Attorney's Office for SDNY from 1997 to 1999 before moving into private practice with the law firm Paul Weiss. As a private attorney, Pomerantz has regularly represented major companies and officials in state and federal prosecutions, including cases brought by the US Department of Justice. He has handled matters involving charges of corporate misconduct, financial fraud, tax crimes and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a federal law used to prosecute organized crime and ongoing criminal activities. The attorney is credited with helping form the legal definition of racketeering in a RICO case he defended in 1988, according to the New York Times. Pomerantz launched his career with two impressive clerkships, with Judge Edward Weinfeld in Manhattan and Justice Potter Stewart on the Supreme Court. He went on to serve as a federal prosecutor for the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, where he rose through the ranks to lead the appellate unit. Pomerantz left the US Attorney's Office in 1982 for private practice, where he worked on more than two dozen cases involving organized crime at a time when prosecutors dramatically escalated efforts to put Mafia bosses behind bars. Claims: Allegations that Trump paid Karen McDougal to silence her about an affair are part of Vance's probe The Manhattan district attorney's office hired Mark Pomerantz (pictured in 2008), a high-profile attorney with decades of experience with white collar crime cases, this month as it ramps up its investigation into Donald Trump's business dealings Pomerantz interviewed Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen (pictured) last week Donald Trump Statement on Ruling This investigation is a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our Country, whether it was the never ending $32 million Mueller hoax, which already investigated everything that could possibly be investigated, Russia Russia Russia, where there was a finding of No Collusion, or two ridiculous Crazy Nancy inspired impeachment attempts where I was found NOT GUILTY. It just never ends! So now, for more than two years, New York City has been looking at almost every transaction Ive ever done, including seeking tax returns which were done by among the biggest and most prestigious law and accounting firms in the U.S. The Tea Party was treated far better by the IRS than Donald Trump. The Supreme Court never should have let this fishing expedition happen, but they did. This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo. These are attacks by Democrats willing to do anything to stop the almost 75 million people (the most votes, by far, ever gotten by a sitting president) who voted for me in the electionan election which many people, and experts, feel that I won. I agree! The new phenomenon of headhunting prosecutors and AGswho try to take down their political opponents using the law as a weaponis a threat to the very foundation of our liberty. Thats what is done in third world countries. Even worse are those who run for prosecutorial or attorney general offices in far-left states and jurisdictions pledging to take out a political opponent. Thats fascism, not justiceand that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country wont stand for it. In the meantime, murders and violent crime are up in New York City by record numbers, and nothing is done about it. Our elected officials dont care. All they focus on is the persecution of President Donald J. Trump. I will fight on, just as I have, for the last five years (even before I was successfully elected), despite all of the election crimes that were committed against me. We will win! Advertisement He returned to SDNY in the late 90s to oversee more major organized crime and securities fraud cases, including the prosecution of Gambino boss John A Gotti. Pomerantz left the SDNY again in 2000 to join Paul Weiss. One of his biggest cases to date was defending then-senator Robert Torricelli (D - New Jersey) against allegations of campaign finance violations in 2002. His experience in both prosecuting and defending white collar criminals will likely prove invaluable to Vance's office in its investigation of Trump. 'He worked both sides of the street, so he's not going to be biased by virtue of temperament,' Robert S Litt, a former general counsel for the Director of National Intelligence who has known Pomerantz since the 70s, told the Times. Vance also recently issued roughly a dozen new subpoenas in its investigation of Trump, two sources close to the probe told Reuters last week. One of the subpoenas went to Ladder Capital Finance LLC, a major creditor used by Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, to finance the former presidents commercial real estate holdings, the sources said. Vance's office has also conducted interviews with Ladder's staff, one source familiar with the matter said. Ladder did not reply to requests for comment. The district attorney's office has said little publicly about the probe, but noted in court filings that the investigation was focused on 'possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct' at the Trump Organization, including alleged falsification of records, and insurance and tax fraud. It is the only known criminal inquiry into Trump's business practices. Separately, New York state Attorney General Letitia James is leading a civil probe into whether Trump's company falsely reported property values to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits. Both investigations are examining whether Trump's company placed artificially high values on several major commercial properties in documents used to secure favorable loan arrangements, while diminishing the value of those properties in filings used as a basis for calculating its tax bills. Cohen's interview with Pomerantz - his fifth interview with Vance's office - was not previously reported and it is unclear precisely what issues were covered. But it signals intense interest in Cohen's intimate knowledge of the financial affairs of the Trump Organization. Cohen declined to comment. A representative for Trump and a lawyer for the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. In court filings, the Trump Organization has denied that the company inflated assets. Trump, a Republican, has described the New York investigations as politically motivated. Vance and James are both Democrats. Cohen, who describes himself as Trump's longtime, do-anything fixer, is in home confinement serving a three-year sentence on charges related to payoffs he made during the 2016 presidential race to buy the silence of two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump. Under a plea deal, Cohen cooperated extensively with prosecutors - an arrangement that also would help protect him against further prosecution for evidence he provides in the Vance probe. Cohen, a potential high-profile witness for Vance, pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges in the hush-money case, as well as allegations of lying to Congress about negotiations concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that never materialized. 'I think Cohen may be more valuable than people are giving him credit for,' said Daniel Alonso, Vance's top deputy from 2010 to 2014 and now in private practice. 'He obviously has committed perjury. He has credibility issues. But the perjury he committed was allegedly at the behest of Donald Trump, at least tacitly. I don't think that calling Cohen a perjurer ends the story, because that opens the door to the explanation of why he perjured himself.' An elderly British widow was threatened with a permanent ban from Facebook after the social media platform mistook her posts about knitting woollen pigs as 'hate speech'. Rita Rich-Mulcahy, 81, who lives in a retirement village south of Adelaide, Australia, challenged herself to knit 100 five-inch pigs for charity after the death of her husband. But after sharing photos of her creations on the social media site and innocently responding to friends' comments Facebook issued her with two warnings. A friend commented on Mrs Rich-Mulcahy's page 'white rabbits, white rabbits' on February 1, to which she responded 'No, white pigs, white pigs!'. That earned her the first 'hate speech' warning. Eighty-one-year-old Rita Rich-Mulcahy, who lives in a retirement village south of Adelaide, Australia, challenged herself to knit 100 pigs for charity - she has made 79 so far Then she posted a picture of a 'hi-viz piggy'. That earned her a second warning. A third warning could leave her with a permanent ban. 'Now I have two strikes against me with no way to appeal. So the bot will watch everything I type now. It is ludicrous,' said Mrs Rich-Mulcahy, originally from Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. Her Facebook page is devoted to the woollen pigs she knits. Mrs Rich-Mulcahy added: 'Facebook obviously use a bot to trawl around Facebook and I had made two comments, totally innocent, which the bot saw as hate speech. 'If I ditch Facebook I would lose my great connection with my Shropshire friends.' Mrs Rich-Mulcahy's Facebook page is devoted to the woollen pigs she knits (pictured) Here 'hi-viz piggy' can be seen speaking through a megaphone. The post earned her a second warning. A third warning could leave her with a permanent ban However Facebook has since responded to the widow's appeal, telling her: 'Our systems made a mistake here and the comments have now been reinstated. 'We do sometimes make mistakes when reviewing content, which is why we give people the opportunity to appeal against our decisions.' Mrs Rich-Mulcahy emigrated to Australia to teach European languages and art in 1965. She is the daughter of a former Mayor of the Borough of Wenlock, Joe Rich (Joseph Rich Avenue in Madeley, Shropshire is named in his honour). Speaking of her late husband she Mrs Rich-Mulcahy said: 'I married John Mulcahy, an engineer, here in Oz. He passed away a year ago. Here a knitted woollen pig called 'Hamadeus', clutching a roll of sheet music and a baton 'I joined a knitting group on Facebook when I lost my husband as a way of dealing with my grief and set myself a target of knitting 100 small pigs, each being a play on pig-related words, as in Pigcasso, Francis Bacon, Hamlet, Hamplify, and so on. I am up to 79! The series is called pigtales and I call the pigs Wittyknits.' She plans to show the five-inch high woollen pigs to raise money for The Smith Family, a charity which helps disadvantaged Australian children to create better futures through education. Mrs Rich-Mulcahy added: 'I have always loved pigs and grew up next door to a field of pigs owned by neighbour, Joe Cox the milkman. I always drew pigs when a little child.' After her posts were restored by Facebook, she added: 'You have made an old lady very happy today. It may seem a small thing to most people, but to someone who had never even had an overdue library book, being charged with using hate speech was frightening.' Dr Alex George has stated that reality stars need to be 'role models' after they faced backlash for jetting to Dubai in lockdown. The former Love Island star, 30, said influencers should be 'sharing the right message' by reminding their followers to adhere to Covid restrictions, after many defended their trips under the ruse that they were 'essential work.' Speaking on ITV's Peston on Wednesday, Alex said: 'It's tricky I'm a big believer that you can only control what's in your own sphere of influence.' Scroll down for video Speaking out: Dr Alex George, 30, has stated that reality stars need to be 'role models' after they faced backlash for jetting to Dubai in lockdown He added: 'But I think it's important we all share, we all give out the right message we all do our bit everyone's trying to stay at home keeping everyone safe. 'Come on let's show the right messages and be a positive role model.' Dr Alex has been praised for working tirelessly as a doctor on the NHS frontline during the pandemic, alongside campaigning for mental health awareness after his brother Llyr's tragically took his own life in 2020. Hitting back: Reality stars and influencers including Chloe Ferry (pictured in Dubai last month) have faced backlash for jetting abroad under the ruse of it being 'essential work' Views: Speaking on ITV's Peston on Wednesday, Alex said: 'It's tricky I'm a big believer that you can only control what's in your own sphere of influence' Speaking out: He added: 'But I think it's important we all share, we all give out the right message we all do our bit everyone's trying to stay at home keeping everyone safe' The star previously stated that he believes some of his Love Island co-stars are being 'unfairly tarnished' and aren't worthy of criticism. 'I think there's this tarnished thing of what an islander would be and is and all this stuff, and I think sometimes that's unfair,' he told Metro. 'There's a lot of people trying to do their best.' 'Look at Camilla [Thurlow], and the way she has behaved afterwards. There are a lot of people out there who are trying to be positive influences after the show. To assume that everyone only cares about making a quick buck I think is quite unfair. 'I do think if you do go on Love Island you've got to bear those kinds of things in mind, and the challenges that come with that.' Work: Since Dubai joined the UK's travel ban list, some stars including Gabby Allen (pictured) have clarified they're living in the UAE and insisted they haven't broken Covid restrictions A slew of reality TV stars and influencers have been trolled online after being slammed by Home Secretary Priti Patel for jetting abroad under the ruse of a 'work trip' despite strict COVID-19 travel rules. Many stars, such as Chloe Ferry, Arabella Chi and Ellie Brown, have since returned home while other celebrities including Georgia Harrison, Gabby Allen and Amber Gill have insisted they're living in the UAE and so haven't broken travel rules. After Dubai joined UK's travel ban list, celebrities including Chloe Sims have been flocking to Mexico's bars and beaches as it establishes itself as the latest COVID getaway destination. The country appears to be the new destination of choice for global jet-setters and could rocket in popularity. Travel abroad is now banned from the UK without a legally permitted reason, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced last month, as she criticised influencers for 'showing off in sunny parts of the world'. Many stars insisted their trips are for 'work purposes', with several influencers forced to hit back at fans after they were criticised for jetting off on holiday during the global pandemic. A doctor explains the patient's condition after the surgery. (Photo provided to Xinhua) CHENGDU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese man was discharged from hospital after an artificial heart powered by China's aerospace technology was implanted into him to replace his failed organ. Called HeartCon, the medical device functions as a pump to deliver blood to the whole body, significantly alleviating the symptoms of heart failure. "I feel much better. I couldn't stand up before, but now I can live normally with the small device," said the 30-year-old patient surnamed Li. After months of treatment, he was discharged from the West China Hospital of Sichuan University on Monday as his heart condition improved. Li had been suffering from chest tightness and shortness of breath since 2019. He had waited anxiously for a heart transplant, but there was a lack of donors. His obesity also left him in a critical condition. On Jan. 13, a medical team implanted an artifical heart into the patient at the hospital. "As a lack of donors limits human organ transfers, the artificial heart will be a very promising cure to prolong lives of patients who are in advanced stages of heart failure," said An Qi, lead of the team and the hospital's chief heart surgeon. According to An, the artificial heart weighs only 180 grams. Implanting a HeartCon requires tiny wires to pass through the patient's belly to connect a controller and two external batteries. Each battery lasts for 10 hours. The patient also gets a shower pack to keep the device from getting wet while bathing. The implantable device in the patient is the third-generation HeartCon, developed by a tech company affiliated with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country's leading rocket maker. Xu Jian, chief engineer of the HeartCon project, said the artificial heart works like a rocket's servomechanism, which is driven by a hydraulic pump. A servomechanism uses feedback to control an operation. "The servomechanism on a rocket has higher requirements of speed and power, while the artificial heart demands more focus on safety and comfort as it is small and needs to be implanted," Xu said. Scientists used magnetic and fluid levitation, which are used in rocket servo technology, to make the device in the nature of a mechanical pump to support heart functions while causing less damage to patient's blood than previous types. In 2020, the domestically made HeartCon was given a clinical trial permit by the National Medical Products Administration. There are at least 16 million people aged above 35 with failing hearts in China. For patients who are in advanced stages of heart failure, drugs are ineffective. Many die while waiting for a heart transplant. The doctors believe the artificial heart will become the most effective tool to treat heart failure other than organ transplants. Alabamians should not be hesitant to take Johnson & Johnsons new COVID vaccine when it becomes available, even if the efficacy numbers are less impressive than the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said Thursday. This is a vaccine that prevents deaths and prevents even serious illness and hospitalization at exactly the same rate as the other vaccines, Harris said. And so, the best vaccine to take is the one that you have offered to you. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve an emergency use authorization for a third COVID vaccine, this one developed by Johnson & Johnson, in the coming days. The J&J vaccine has some advantages over the other two as well. It requires only one dose, and does not need the same kind of deep-freeze storage as the other vaccines do. While the reported efficacy of the J&J vaccine at preventing any kind of illness is around 72% -- compared to 95% for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines -- Harris said the vaccines clinical trial data shows that it still protects recipients from severe COVID illness and death at the same rates as the other two. In terms of preventing serious illness and hospitalization and in preventing death, theyre all three equivalent, theyre all three, in fact, identical, Harris said. No one who got J&J vaccine died from COVID. And, in fact, no one who got J&J vaccine had a serious allergic reaction like weve seen with the mRNA vaccines. And in a situation where there is not enough supply of vaccines to go around, Harris said this third option is a welcome tool to getting more people vaccinated and reducing spread of the disease. Please dont shop for them and please dont wait around because you think ones better than another, Harris said. What is efficacy? The term efficacy is used roughly to mean effectiveness, but there are many misconceptions about what it actually means. For instance, some might assume that if the Pfizer vaccine shows 95% efficacy that 5% of people who take it still got COVID. That is not correct. According to the Pfizer clinical trial data, in a trial that involved more than 43,000 participants, only eight people tested positive for COVID after receiving the two-dose vaccine, compared to 162 in the placebo group. The researchers then calculated that the shots reduced participants chances of getting COVID by 95%. Some of the J&J trials were also conducted in South Africa, where a new, more transmissible variant was highly prevalent, so just looking at the efficacy numbers may not be a true apples-to-apples comparison. How much, how soon? Harris said he does not have any information on how much J&J vaccine Alabama will receive when and if the emergency use authorization is granted, but it may take longer to begin the rollout. He said he has seen media reports that J&J has between two to three million doses ready to ship, but has not gotten any word from the government or J&J about what to expect. Because vaccine allocations are based on population, Harris said Alabama generally receives about 1.5% of the amount made available to the whole country, or 15,000 doses per million manufactured. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had ramped up production and had begun plans to ship doses to states before their emergency use authorizations were granted, but Harris said that hasnt happened yet with J&J. We do know J&J vaccine is not going to be pre-positioned in states ready to go the way that the Pfizer and Moderna products were, Harris said. J&J told Congress this week that it expected to provide 20 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by summer. Digital infrastructure company Equinix Inc and telecoms giant Vodafone are to build a new subsea hub as part of the massive 2Africa cable system that will directly connect 16 countries in Africa to Europe and the Middle East. The hub, called GN1, will be in Genoa on Italy's northwest coast, a site the partners describe as well-positioned to be a key location on the global subsea cable map. GN1 is being built in line with global environmental standards and will contribute to a portfolio of some of the most energy-efficient data centres in the world. GN1 is expected to utilize 100 percent renewable energy. Vodafone, the 2Africa cable consortium's lead for European landings, will land the cable system at Genoa and use Equinix's GN1 facility as a strategic interconnection point for the subsea cable system, creating stronger connectivity in Europe. Equinix hosts over 2,950 cloud and IT service providers on its global platform and can support subsea cable systems in 40 subsea-enabled metros around the world. First announced in these pages in May last year, 2Africa is one of the world's largest submarine telecommunications cable projects, driven by a large group of partners that includes China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. Responsibility for landing the 2Africa cable is split between the 2Africa parties depending on location. The cable will circumnavigate the continent of Africa, directly connecting 16 countries to Europe and the Middle East. It will deliver internet capacity and reliability, underpinning the further growth of 4G, 5G and fixed broadband access, not to mention Africas ongoing digital transformation and the development of its digital economy. Her younger sister Elizabeth Olsen recently spoke about wanting to succeed on her own terms in Hollywood. And on Wednesday, Ashley Olsen, 34, was spotted arriving at her office in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. The former child star, who found fame with twin sister Mary-Kate on TV's Full House, is now based in the Big Apple as a fashion designer. Heading to work: Former Full House child star Ashley Olsen, 34, arrived at her NYC office Wednesday bundled up in a full-length black overcoat and a black knit beanie Ashley was dressed in a full-length black overcoat and chunky soled black shoes. She wore a black knit beanie pulled down over her long blonde hair and donned a face mask. She had a scarf wrapped around her neck and checked her phone as she entered the building accompanied by a burly bodyguard. Low key: Ashley, who is now a fashion designer, had a scarf wrapped around her neck and checked her phone as she entered the building accompanied by a burly bodyguard Split: Ashley has managed to stay under the radar while her twin Mary-Kate has recently undergone a high profile divorce from her French husband Olivier Sarkozy (pictured in 2015) Siblings: Ashley found herself back in the spotlight when her actress sister Elizabeth, 32, addressed the industry's nepotism (Ashley, Mary-Kate and Elizabeth pictured in 2016) Ashley has managed to stay under the radar while her twin Mary-Kate has recently undergone a high profile divorce from her French husband Olivier Sarkozy. Mary-Kate's five-year marriage to Sarkozy, 51, officially ended in divorce last month, with a judge signing off on the couple's agreed settlement on January 25. However, Ashley found herself back in the spotlight when WandaVision star Elizabeth, 32, addressed the industry's nepotism while giving an interview to Grazia Magazine. Merit: 'Nepotism is a thing and Im very aware of it. And of course, Ive always wanted to do it alone,' WandaVision star Elizabeth insisted in an interview with Grazia magazine Elizabeth, whose credits also include Red Lights, Avengers and Wind River, insisted that she had always wanted to succeed on her own merit and not because of her famous last name. 'Nepotism is a thing and Im very aware of it. And of course, Ive always wanted to do it alone,' she said. Elizabeth studied at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Art and made her acting debut in Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011. After playing Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Avengers movies, she's now starring in the Disney+ original series WandaVision opposite Paul Bettany. Owned and operated by descendants of WWII General George S. Patton, Green Meadows is founded on the Patton family's heritage of veteran advocacy, community service and organic agriculture. The company mission is simple: to bring exceptional cannabis products to Southbridge and surrounding communities, while engaging with consumers, particularly veterans, on ways these products may enhance personal health and well-being. "Our values are rooted in positive social engagement," says Bob Patton, Manager and Chief Executive Officer. "Southbridge is an historic commercial center undergoing major revitalization with both public and private sponsors. We at Green Meadows couldn't be prouder to participate in this resurgence and to call this diverse and vibrant community home." Green Meadows is currently approved to serve adult use customers. Medical licensing will follow early this spring with the addition of cultivation and processing to organic standards to its operation. In a rarity for Massachusetts, the company has taken "locally grown" to a whole new level by locating its cannabis production alongside its dispensary in a restored 19th century mill building in downtown Southbridge. Ultimately Green Meadows will feature its own products grown to the highest organic standards along with a curated selection of quality products from other sources. Old Traditions Made New - Family, Veterans and Cannabis The Patton family's support for military veterans dates back generations. It grew stronger in light of the difficult experiences and related burdens of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) endured by many veterans of the recent Iraq-Afghanistan era. Bob Patton's father, George S. Patton IV, founded Green Meadows Farm as an organic fruit and vegetable farm after retiring as an army major-general in 1980. Combining his devotion to organic, sustainable agriculture with the medical potential of cannabis for veterans and others was the original inspiration behind the family's cannabis venture. Where to visit Green Meadows in Southbridge Southbridge is located at the intersection of I-90 and I-84 just north of the Connecticut border. Green Meadows' dispensary, in the town's "Globe Village" neighborhood, sits across the street from its own newly built parking lot; a sheltered courtyard leads visitors into the brick mill building whose ongoing renovation mirrors projects occurring throughout town. Green Meadows' cultivation and processing facility is in the same building. The industrial space has been completely remodeled to deploy organic and "green" horticultural principles across the entirety of the Green Meadows operation. Regular hours for the dispensary will be Monday Thursday 10:00am 7:00 pm Friday Saturday 10:00 am 8:00 pm; Sunday 11:00 am 6:00 pm. Media Contact Nicole Stenclik: 716.226.6989 or [email protected] Connect with us: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenMeadowsMA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenmeadows_ma/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Greenmeadows About Green Meadows: Green Meadows is a cannabis company based in Southbridge, Massachusetts committed to providing its customers with the highest quality cannabis products through both curation, and ultimately cultivation. It plans to open an adult use dispensary in Southbridge at its 35,000-square-foot cultivation, extraction and dispensary facility; medical cannabis sales and production will also commence, all pending regulatory approval. Founded by the Patton family, Green Meadows is committed to veteran and diversity employment, as well as the continued scientific study of the potential benefits of cannabis in treating PTSD and other conditions of urgent importance to improving the quality of care for our veterans. For more information, visit: https://greenmeadows.com/ SOURCE Green Meadows Farm Related Links https://greenmeadows.com STERLING HEIGHTS, MI A Michigan police officer is on unpaid leave amid an internal investigation related to an image he is accused of sharing on Facebook that jokes about the death of George Floyd, WXYZ Detroit reports. The alleged post by a Sterling Heights officer includes an image of Floyd on the ground with a Minneapolis Police officers knee on his neck and is captioned with, When you gotta change a tire but dont wanna get your trousers dirty, the TV station reports. Floyd died shortly after the image was taken on May 25, 2020. His death sparked police brutality protests over the summer. The officer who knelt on Floyds neck was later fired and murder charges were brought against him. The officer who joked about Floyds death on social media could face serious discipline, up to termination, Sterling Heights Police Chief Dale Dwojakowski told WXYZ. The department has a social media policy that prohibits posting content that could be inflammatory against any religion, race or gender. The city of Sterling Heights disavows the abhorrent imagery and messaging that appeared in the post, says the citys official statement on the incident. Immediate action was taken by the police chief upon learning of it, including placing the officer on unpaid administrative leave and initiating an internal disciplinary investigation. The police department is committed to completing the investigation and disciplinary process as quickly as possible. It must be clear that there is no place for hateful and offensive content like that with our community, the statement continues. It does a grave disservice to the city, the dedicated men and women of the police department who protect and serve each and every Sterling Heights resident and business, and all those who call it home. We remain committed to building and ensuring a tolerant and accepting city that is inclusive and safe for all. READ MORE: Brother, 14, charged in homicide of 10-year-old sister Waiting for court hearing since October, man dies in Michigan jail Whitmer hints at relaxing some COVID-19 restrictions in coming days New Delhi, Feb 25 : India is fighting one of the toughest battles against the Covid-19 outbreaks. The battle turned intense after daily cases resurged following a few weeks drop from a peak of over 90,000 infections in mid-September to a little over 10,000 in early February. It has begun to rise again in many states along with thousands SARS-CoV-2 mutations. The genetic diagnostic laboratories in India have detected over 24,000 mutations in the strains of SARS-CoV-2 in the last one year, top officials told IANS this week. Although scientists believe these mutations do not translate into variants, but there exists an uphill task to vaccinate the country, as the virus continues to mutate. Speaking to IANS, Mrinalini Darswal, a doctor turned IAS officer who is pursuing doctoral studies in public health with a focus on Covid-19 at Harvard University, said: "We are in a position to launch modified vaccines within weeks due to the technical know-how we have gained over the last year." Excerpts of the interview: Q: COVID-19 has already started mutating, and it will continue to mutate as the vaccination drive progresses. Cases infected with three main reported variants from the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been found in India. Do you think Indian vaccine platform can address these mutations and continue to provide vaccines effective against the virus? A: The resurgence in cases of Covid-19 seen in various states in India could be due to waning of earlier immunity or reinfection with new and more contagious strains. Emergence of mutations in Coronavirus is a concern across the globe. India has also reported new and unique mutations in addition to the UK and South Africa ones. We would know what mutations need modified measures, if they need these at all, as soon as ICMR and other research institutions come out with findings on the variants among the infected. Fortunately, most existing vaccines seem to work against the new variants, albeit with variable potency. All prevent severe disease as per extant research. As more data comes in, we would either tweak existing vaccines or start using the new and more effective ones. Again, we are in a position to launch modified vaccines within weeks due to the technical know-how we have gained over the last year. We also have more than 20 more candidate vaccines in various development stages, and many of these are likely to be effective against the new variants. Existing manufacturers are also working on improving existing formulas and designing boosters for the new strains. WHO also recommends going ahead with current vaccination regimens. Q: These mutated variants spread faster. In the future, they are most likely to replace existing variants. The UK variant is deadlier for older age groups, and the South Africa variant is evasive but not lethal. In this backdrop, what is the learning for the vaccine development program in India? A: India has emerged as a global leader in vaccine development against Covid-19. We were able to roll out our indigenous vaccines very early. Those have proved to be very safe and effective and logistically superior to those of Moderna and Pfizer. UN and WHO chiefs have thanked and appreciated India heartily for its rapid pace of vaccine development and supplying the vaccines to other countries, directly and through WHO's vaccine alliance. This year's budget also has made provisions for new institutes for research in infectious diseases and viruses. At the global level, WHO has enhanced its genomic surveillance and information sharing on new variants. It advises countries and manufacturers to be prepared to adjust to the SARS-CoV-2 viral evolution, including potentially providing future booster shots and adapted vaccines if found to be scientifically necessary. Indian National Task Force on Covid-19 is already on the job. A genomic surveillance consortium, INSACOG, has been formed under NCDC's (National Centre for Disease Control) leadership, New Delhi, for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2 in the Country. Hopefully, we will be able to stay ahead of the virus by rapidly modifying existing vaccines and getting new vaccines wider in coverage of variants to stop the pandemic finally. We have been successful with influenza (flu), a similar virus that mutates every year. Being a pharma leader, India has the technical edge of developing new and improved vaccines in the required time. Q: New strains will continue to emerge. When do you see the Indian population developing herd immunity, would it be by 2021 end? A: Sero surveillance shows pockets of the population in Indian cities have antibodies against the novel Coronavirus. But that is at a level not sufficient for developing herd immunity. Unfortunately, there is a resurgence of infections in many states indicating new variants might be replacing the older, making earlier immunity less protective. If that is the case, we might never be able to rely on herd immunity for Covid-19, with it developing into a case similar to the common cold and annual flu. Also, vaccinating the entire population on the planet to achieve herd immunity would take many years- seven, at least if the current vaccination rate is maintained. That, too, if the virus remains unchanged for all these years. Therefore, the better strategy is to cover vulnerable groups and to keep infection rates low and manageable. Other measures like wearing masks, hygiene, and social distance will stay extremely relevant besides vaccines to achieve that aim. Q: When do you think we will have data to determine the need and timing of booster shots for future vaccination programs? A: As we continuously monitor and research how long the immunity will sustain for different vaccines, we might know the answer as time progresses. Moderna research says the response lasts for four months; others say longer. Since the immune response to the virus is mediated by antibodies that we measure (B cell immunity) and other fighter chemicals like cytokines and interferon (T cell immunity), we need to see what type of response lingers. Any combination may persist and provide immunity for longer or shorter periods. We will know only after more studies and more time. Whatever may be the case, we are ready to adapt our response quickly to emerging needs and new variants. Q: In future, will booster shots sufficient to address SARS-CoV-2 viral evolution, or is there something else that the vaccine developed should focus on? A: We do not have answers to these questions as yet. Research is continuing in parallel as the first line of vaccines is administered. One can only assess the longevity of immunity in inoculated individuals, the protection against variants, and the need for booster shots as data becomes available from people who are getting vaccinated. Q: Do you think, after Covaxin phase 3 trial results are out, it will help in determining the need for booster dose in future? A: It would be too early for any vaccine currently available to know the long-term effect and persistence of immunity. We must monitor the immune response in vaccinated people for a longer time to answer this question. (Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed NEW DELHI : India on Thursday said it will seek early extradition from the UK of jeweller Nirav Modi, wanted for his alleged involvement in the 14,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud. This comes after a UK court ruled that Modi could be extradited to India after dismissing arguments like his mental health worsening during the pandemic and poor Indian prison conditions, news reports said. Thursdays order is one more step to Modis extradition, but it could still take months before Indian authorities can bring him back given that there are many rounds of appeals that could come in the way. I am satisfied that Nirav Modis extradition to India is in compliance per human rights," UK district judge Samuel Goozee was quoted as saying. He added that Modi had the right to appeal. In New Delhi, foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said that since the Westminster Magistrates Court has recommended Nirav Modis extradition to the UK Home Secretary, the government of India would liaise with the UK authorities for his early extradition to India." There is no evidence that if extradited Nirav Modi will not get justice," the UK judge said, agreeing with Indias submissions, according to the news reports. He made it clear that he felt the case for the jeweller to face trial in India was strong and that Modi had clear links with other connivers" including bank officials in faked letters of undertaking that facilitated the clearance of huge unpaid loans. I do not accept that Nirav Modi was involved in legitimate business. I find no genuine transactions and believe there is a process of dishonesty," the judge was quoted as saying. Nirav Modi, 49, appeared via video link from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London at the Westminster Magistrates Court, the reports said. Albeit, some political commentary could be described as ill-advised, there is nothing in the volumes of media, broadcasting or social media links that have been referred to me in the voluminous defence bundles that gives any indication that politicians are trying to influence the outcome of any trial, let alone NDMs (Nirav Deepak Modi) trial or that the trial process itself would be susceptible to such influence," Goozee noted, according to PTI. I reject any submission that the GoI (government of India) have deliberately engineered a media onslaught. I attach little weight to Justice Katjus expert opinion," he said. Modi was arrested in 2019 from a metro station in London on an extradition warrant. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. University Health is seeking ways to vaccinate even more San Antonians in anticipation of an eventual increase in supply as the federal government moves closer to authorizing a third COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly one-third of the COVID-19 vaccines in Bexar County have been administered by University Health, with the majority given to residents at its Wonderland of the Americas mass vaccination site. President and CEO George Hernandez said officials were looking for a way to scale up even while catching up on appointments delayed by the winter storm. Even though we had that horrible weather last week, we were able to vaccinate people at Wonderland of the Americas for two days out of the five. And then we opened up Saturday to make up for Monday, he told board members at a Bexar County Hospital District meeting Tuesday night. Officials with WellMed, a group of primary care physicians that cares mostly for senior patients, announced it had reopened its appointment hotline for first doses, having received a batch of 30,000 vials that included a two-week backlog of vaccine delayed because of the storm. The increase is not a reflection of what will come, said Dr. Michael Almaleh, WellMeds chief cardiologist. I believe we will get back to normal. The state is expected to continue supplying WellMed about 9,000 doses per week for its community vaccination clinics, Daniel Calderon, vice president of corporate communication, said in an email. University Health also saw a windfall of new doses because of earlier delays, but Elliott Mandell, chief pharmacy officer, said it did not signal a significant weekly increase in the short term. On ExpressNews.com: WellMed clinics getting another 30,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, reopening reservation hotline We got the first and second doses for this week, and the second doses for last week that we didnt get during the snowstorm, so we got 38,000 doses at University Health, he said via email. The supply is not growing and were not even close to completely vaccinating the 1A and 1B groups. That could begin to change as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration moves closer to authorizing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Once approved, the company says 100 million doses of its one-shot vaccine could be delivered by the end of June. Hernandez said Wonderland can handle up to 5,000 doses a day, but to do much more theyll need to find another site like Wonderland, the old Crossroads Mall, which has ample parking and an accessible location at Interstate 10 and Loop 410. In addition, the second vaccine distribution location would need to be secure enough that computers could be left overnight, Hernandez said. Chief Operating Officer Ed Banos says the system plans to hire an additional 50 employees to work at the expanded vaccine sites. But as of now, were able to handle all of the doses were given in five days without overworking our staff, Hernandez said. The Wonderland site is designated by the state as a hub for the general public, but the system also administers shots at University Hospital, its Robert B. Green campus and other small clinics. Dr. Margaret Kelley, a local OB-GYN and the county hospital boards secretary, asked Hernandez whether theres been an improvement in accessibility to the vaccine, particularly for health care workers or those most in need. She noted news articles about those eligible who cannot get their hands on a vaccine. On ExpressNews.com: I have this fear that if I get COVID, Im going to die San Antonio health care workers plead for vaccine Right now, vaccines can be given to health care workers, long-term-care residents, anyone 65 and older and those 16 and older with a chronic medical condition including cancer, Type 2 diabetes and pregnancy. Hernandez said University Health has been reserving some of their doses for vulnerable populations that meet state criteria, such as first responders, school employees and those who work at domestic violence shelters. He said he was open to suggestions and invited Kelley to share her concerns with him after the meeting, She thanked him for the wonderful effort. University Health officials say as of Monday they had administered 121,017 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and have been scheduling appointments a couple of weeks out, even before vaccine shipments are confirmed. According to Texas Department of State Health Services records, the system has been allocated 171,365 COVID-19 vaccine doses within the past 11 weeks. People are advised to download the mobile app and check University Healths website for updates. Staff writer Elizabeth Zavala contributed to this report. laura.garcia@express-news.net Austrian authorities have placed Boris Mazo, a former employee of the Russian Culture Ministry who is wanted in Russia for fraud and embezzlement, into pre-extradition detention despite the insistence of his defense team he cannot be transported for medical reasons. A court in Vienna ruled on February 25 that an independent expert will examine Mazo to make sure that he is able to make the trip safely to Russia, where he is accused of embezzling 450 million rubles ($6.1 million) from the state. Former Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Pirumov, who was arrested in 2018 and is currently under house arrest in Moscow, is also a suspect in the case. Investigators say that Mazo, Pirumov, and other former officials of the Culture Ministry also laundered up to 800 million rubles ($10.8 million) illegally obtained via fraudulent activities. Austrian authorities detained Mazo in November at Spain's request. Spanish investigators say Mazo might have laundered money he stole in Russia through the purchase of an expensive property in the southern city of Marbella. However, the Austrian court decided to extradite Mazo to Russia, not Spain. In 2017, Mazo and Pirumov were convicted in Moscow of embezzling 164 million rubles ($2.2 million), but the judge ruled then that the time spent by the two men in pretrial detention was sufficient punishment. 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Carriers were selected for their consistency, best all-around performance, and excellent collaboration. The list welcomes nine newcomers and honors eleven carriers for a second consecutive year. The Top 20 Carriers list was established in 2017 in accordance with the companys guiding philosophy that the benefits experience should be simpler, more rewarding, and more enjoyable for all. Cigna, EyeMed, and Guardian, top this years list as all-around best carriers. The full rankings are as follows: Aetna Ameritas* Blue Shield of CA* Cigna* Delta Dental* Empower EyeMed* Guardian* HealthJoy John Hancock* Kaiser Permanente* LegalShield* Mutual of America 401(k) Optum Regence Teladoc United Concordia Unum Voya 401(k)* VSP* *Indicates inclusion on the list for consecutive years The methodology considers several scoring categories: the average duration of implementation, consistency of experience across multiple implementations, a relationship survey score, as well as the client volume put into production in the prior year. Our collaboration with carriers is integral to our mission of providing the best benefits experiences, said Colleen Bryson, Vice President of Customer Success at EverythingBenefits. Our annual top 20 list is meant to recognize the carriers that are leading the industry and setting the bar higher for all. In addition to this list, Lincoln Financial Group, Reliance Standard, and ManhattanLife are recognized for being pioneers of benefits innovation as they are early adopters of the LIMRA Data Exchange Standards (LDEx) which are designed to standardize the data exchanged between insurance carriers and benefit administration technology companies for non-medical employee benefits. EverythingBenefits partners with 600+ benefit providers to make benefits enrollment and administration a less strenuous undertaking. To view a complete list of our carriers, please visit https://www.everythingbenefits.com/insurance-carriers-list. About EverythingBenefits EverythingBenefits is a leading provider of next-generation, end-to-end benefit technology solutions and services that help businesses of all sizes and their employees experience benefits in more meaningful ways. By leveraging an open business model, EverythingBenefits partners with enterprise resource planning systems, human capital management (HCM) companies, benefits carriers, in addition to benefit brokers, independent agents and other providers. The companys philosophy is that technology should make life simpler, more rewarding, and more enjoyable. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.everythingbenefits.com or connect with us via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. EverythingBenefits Public Relations Phone: 800-689-3568 Email: pr@everythingbenefits.com Caracas : "Terrorists" attacked a military base in Venezuela's third-biggest city of Valencia today, but soldiers defended it and arrested several people, officials said. "In the early morning hours, terrorist attackers entered the Paramacay Fort in Valencia...," Diosdado Cabello, a Socialist Party leader, said on his Twitter account. The situation was under control with "various terrorists detained," he added. Local media and social networks spoke of a possible military uprising at the base against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, but there was no immediate confirmation. One video was posted in which a man presenting himself as an army captain declared a "legitimate rebellion." Around him stood 15 other men dressed in camouflage, some of them armed. He demanded the "immediate formation of a transitional government and free elections." The head of the armed forces, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, tweeted: "They couldn't do anything against the FANB (military)... They try to assault it with terrorist attacks. They can't." The reported unrest occurred as a new assembly with supreme powers and loyal to Maduro starting sitting in Venezuela, a week after it was elected in polls marred by violence and allegations that the results were tampered with. The opposition and dozens of countries say the new body is illegitimate and serves only to create a "dictatorship" by bypassing the opposition-controlled legislature. In its first act on Saturday, the body, the Constituent Assembly, ordered the dismissal of the country's attorney general, Luisa Ortega, who became a vociferous critic after breaking ranks with Maduro. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. On the night of Feb. 24, 1942, the citizenry was shocked to hear the air raid sirens going off and attackers in the skies overhead: The Battle for Los Angeles was on. However, with all the munitions discharged into the sky that evening, nothing seems to have actually been hit. Despite the certainty that every person felt that they were attacked in the dead of night, no evidence was around to prove the assault. From that seed sprouted a belief that there was an attacker, but one with defenses beyond anything on Earth. During this quiz our returning challenger, Charleston County public librarian Sarah Fretz is facing off against another local librarian, Jennifer McCafferty. They may know their way around the printed fact but can they decipher the truth about visitors from beyond the stars? Sign up for the Charleston Hot Sheet Get a weekly list of tips on pop-ups, last minute tickets and little-known experiences hand-selected by our newsroom in your inbox each Thursday. Email Sign Up! Questions 1. Five years after the infamous Battle of Los Angeles, this New Mexico town became the No. 1 locale for UFOs after it was reported that aliens were picked up there and transported to Area 51. 2. What was the name of the book about an alien encounter that Orson Welles adapted for radio so well that, according to legend, he scared the East Coast of the U.S. into thinking an attack was underway? 3. In Hopkinsville, Ky., a family allegedly had a terrifying late-night fight with extraterrestrials which lasted until dawn. Those who remain skeptical about the encounter think the farmers encountered what nocturnal raptor? 4. While serving as governor of Georgia, this former U.S. president claimed to have witnessed a UFO in the skies over Leary in 1969. 5. Multiple encounters with alien craft were reported in Rendlesham Forest in the early 1980s, making the incident one of the most famous international encounters. In what country is the forest located? 6. A private pilot named Kenneth Arnold was flying near Mount Rainier when he saw nine shiny objects rocket by at super speed. What popular term for UFOs was coined in response to his sighting? 7. This Arizona town was rocked in March 1997 by mass sightings of lights flying through the sky, most famously in a V shape. 8. In 1987, author Whitley Strieber wrote of his purported close encounters with aliens. This book was later successfully adapted into a film with Christopher Walken starring as the author and codified the idea of the Greys. What was the book called? 9. Formed in the mid-1990s, this rock band shares its name with the term for ghostly UFOs seen by pilots during World War II over the skies of the Pacific and European theaters. 10. What color are the fireballs that have been seen rocketing through the airspace of military bases since the 1950s? Correct answers 1. Roswell. 2. "War of the Worlds." 3. Owl. 4. Jimmy Carter. 5. England. 6. Flying saucer. 7. Phoenix. 8. "Communion." 9. Foo Fighters. 10. Green. Sarahs Answers 1. Roswell. 2. "War of the Worlds." 3. Owl. 4. Jimmy Carter. 5. England. 6. Flying saucer. 7. Phoenix. 8. "Fire in the Sky." 9. Foo Fighters. 10. Blue. Jennifers Answers 1. Roswell. 2. "War of the Worlds." 3. Owl. 4. George H.W. Bush. 5. England. 6. Flying saucer. 7. Phoenix. 8. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." 9. Unidentified Flying Objects. 10. Green. With a score of 8 to 7, it looks like the truth was out there for our returning player. Stay tuned next week for another thrilling match up of Head2Head Trivia! Pastel buildings. Electric blue waters. Vespas. Wine. Pasta. Bikinis. Boardshorts. Grottos. When you think of southern Italy, you probably envisage somewhere like The Amalfi Coast, Positano or Camogli. But theres another side to the countrys south. One of rural charm, 2 houses, and hotels built inside abandoned buildings. These hotels, constructed amid medieval architecture, ghost towns and remote countryside, make for what CNN Travel has called the ingredients for a horror movie. They could also, CNN Travel reports, actually be the recipe for the perfect Covid-era hotel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pierannunzi Silvia (@solocosebuonebelle) First, the backstory: since the 1990s, Italy has been pioneering a tourism model known as albergo diffuso or scattered hotel. These involve installing a full hotel into various buildings of a largely abandoned village. Most of these centuries-old villages have suffered from depopulation as residents move to bigger cities in search of work the same problem that has inspired many Italian villages to sell off homes for next to nothing. RELATED: Tiny Italian Village Flooded With Interest After Offering Houses For Bargain Prices In response to this exodus, some entrepreneurs have been scooping up cheap properties, doing them up, and renting them out to tourists. This style of holiday could be increasingly popular as we come out of These Unprecedented Times. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ItalyWow APP (@italy_wowapp) As travel begins to return with the prospect of a vaccine, CNN Travel reports, its likely that many tourists will still favor accommodation that offers the prospect of social distancing which is where scattered hotels come into their own. Santo Stefano di Sessanio is one village in which this phenomenon is taking place. Previously referred to as a glorified care home, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a tiny medieval village in Abruzzo a region east of Rome, in October last year offered to pay people $13 thousand a month to move there (and set up a business within its walls). Santo Stefano di Sessanio is far from alone in this diffuse hotel project; there are now 150 scattered hotels throwing their doors open across Italy, according to CNN Travel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@martina_latte) Its a concept mirrored to a degree all over the world, as Australias changing coastal culture and sea change movement shows. RELATED: Pretending Im In Greece: How Australians Are Coping Without An Overseas Jaunt This Summer Crucially, CNN Travel has also reported that this scattered hotel concept could help save Italys tourism economy from languishing too long in a face mask filled hole. In the wake of the pandemics devastating impact on Italys tourism economy which represents 13% of the countrys GDP these are likely to play a vital role in helping revive the sector, with more traditional hotels still facing challenges in adapting to the Covid era. RELATED: Glorified Care Home In Rural Italy Lures Young Travellers With Outrageous Offer Nunzia Taraschi, director of Sextantio Albergo Diffuso, told CNN Travel, We already have requests for rooms in December. We had clients that just weeks ago were staying at Sextantio and said they felt safer here than back home in the city. Santo Stefano di Sessanio is a fortified medieval village, located in the mountains of Abruzzo at 1250 meters above sea level, inside the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga national park. Its website calls it a classic example of an Italian medieval hill town, with perimeter walls encircling houses and squares. During the last century the modernisation of rural Italy compromised the architectural heritage of many of its countryside villages and towns. But Santo Stefano, like many more remote Mediterranean mountain villages, was deserted when its impoverished inhabitants left in search of work. Paradoxically, the abandonment saved the town from architectural abuse. Read more about the town here. Read Next French actor Gerard Depardieu today spoke for the first time about being charged with raping and sexual abusing a young actress, saying: 'I am innocent'. The 72-year-old film star broke his silence on Thursday after Paris prosecutors confirmed he faced trial and prison for the attacks allegedly carried out at his 45million mansion in 2018. 'There is no proof, there is nothing against me and therefore I am very serene,' Depardieu said in an interview in Italy's La Repubblica. 'I can only reject all the accusations as clearly as possible, as I've already done in front of the investigators.' French actor Gerard Depardieu (centre) was bacl working on the set of a new police drama in Paris despite being charged with raping and sexually abusing a young actress in the city Depardieu with Isabelle Huppert at the Palais Des Festivals During the 68th Cannes Film Festival in 2015 Gerard Depardieu and his former wife Elisabeth at premiere of JacquesMartin, Theatre Fontaine, Paris, April 6, 1978 Depardieu noted that the accusations made by the 22-year-old complainant, who cannot be named because of legal reasons, were originally thrown out by examining magistrates following nine months of enquiries. He said: 'For me, the investigation was closed for lack of evidence. In court, I will reaffirm my innocence. I am innocent and I have nothing to fear'. The actor, who is free without any bail conditions, said his next meeting with judges was on March 10. Depardieu said he had 'a feeling of sadness and perplexity in front of a completely unfounded story, and by all the media hype generated by an investigation that I considered as closed.' Depardieu is one of numerous powerful men in the Paris arts establishment who have been accused of abuse following the creation of the #MeToo movement which encourages women to make their complaints about sex attacks public. But Depardieu lashed out at such media coverage, denouncing 'an era dominated by a continuous and ruthless flow of information pouring out online.' Depardieu said he had 'a feeling of sadness and perplexity in front of a completely unfounded story, and by all the media hype generated by an investigation that I considered as closed' He said: 'It's like we're living with headphones all the time that broadcast bad news and often false or biased information. I hate it all.' Depardieu, who made his name in Hollywood hits such as Green Card, is currently working on the set of a new police drama in Paris. He was pictured and videoed on the banks of the River Seine last Friday, as he shot a scene from 'Maigret And The Dead Girl' with co-star Jade Labeste, 25. French media has reported that there is CCTV footage of Depardieu performing a sex act on his alleged victim in August 2018. The victim has said that she was in a state of 'denial' when she returned to his home after the initial alleged assault, and that she was then assaulted for a second time. The footage was retrieved by judicial police officers investigating a series of alleged attacks carried out by the 72-year-old actor in August 2018. He admits a 'consensual relationship' with the 22-year-old year old complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but vehemently denies any wrongdoing. In turn, the complainant has told police she was attacked after visiting him as a family friend, and receiving advice about her career. Now the French media report that investigating sources say that the CCTV was retrieved from Depardieu's mansion on the Left Bank of Paris during a nine-month investigation that started in September 2018. 'In August 2018 the accused was giving the complainant advice about her career as an actress, and she visited him at his Paris home,' said the source. 'There are lots of text messages between the two they were in regular contact, discussing all kinds of matters. 'It was on August 7 that the complainant says she was first raped. Video footage in the accused's house shows them sitting and talking, and then a sex act was filmed. 'The pair made their way upstairs to a bedroom, one after the other, but there was no camera inside the bedroom.' At the time, the complainant was suffering from Tetany a medical condition caused by low blood calcium that causes spasms and cramps, said the source. The complainant has told police that she was 'ill and confused' about what was happening, and 'in a state of denial' returned to Depardieu's home on August 13, when a second rape allegedly took place. 'It was two weeks later that she told her mother about what had happened, and then she went to police,' said the investigating source. Beyond the CCTV, evidence includes 'disturbing text messages', in which Depardieu is said to referenced the late French singer Monique Serf, who was known as Barbara, and who was sexually abused by her father. The 72-year-old actor was photographed as he shot a scene from Maigret and the Dead Girl with co-star Jade Labeste (left), 25 Last Friday, Depardieu was pictured back working on the set of a new police drama in Paris despite being charged with raping and sexually abusing a young actress in the city. The 72-year-old was photographed on the banks of the River Seine, as he shot a scene from Maigret and the Dead Girl with co-star Jade Labeste, 25. Depardieu, a divorced father-of-four, spends a lot of time in Italy with his long-term partner, the wine entrepreneur and novelist, Clementine Igou. Other big names in French cinema accused of rape in recent months include the director Luc Besson, whose films include Nikita and The Fifth Element. Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, one of France's best known TV presenters, was this month accused of rape. Georges Tron, France's former Secretary of State, last week began serving three years in prison after a court found him guilty of raping an employee in his office and at the home of a co-defendant. Gerald Darmanin, France's current Interior Minister, is also at the centre of a rape enquiry. Prosecutors in Paris have confirmed that Depardieu (right), a divorced father-of-four whose long-term partner is the wine entrepreneur and novelist Clementine Igou (left), has been charged with 'rapes' and 'sexual abuse' Such scandals have led to demonstrations by women's groups at high-profile showbusiness events, as they call for women actors to stop working with allegedly abusive men. On Wednesday, Depardieu's lawyer, Herve Temime said: 'I'm convinced that at the end of this investigation, Gerard Depardieu will be exonerated of all guilt. 'If there is a case where the presumption of innocence has more meaning than ever, it is this one,' said Mr Temime. Mr Temime said his client was now free on bail, and was 'sorry that this information [about the case] has been made public.' The complainant's lawyer, Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, said that she hoped her client's 'private sphere will be respected' as the case unfolds. Hyderabad: A 17-year-old girl, worried over how other girls like her would cope with the demands during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, not only managed to help 100 other girls continue with their studies but also generated online content that others want to use, in the state as well as in in the rest of the country. According to Smriti Marar, the strong urge to do something for other students was a result of the time she spent at the Naandi Foundation two years ago where she learnt about various resources and progammes available for students in class ten. I wanted to do something so girls in class 10 can go on and complete their 12th grade, she said. Out of this desire to help came Project WE, an NGO Smriti founded. The goal is to help other girls of my age grow as independent, self-sufficient women. She started classes online creating content designed to provide life skills, making the best of opportunities and for making smart plans that would help other girls achieve their dreams, of continuing with their education as well as learning and developing skills that would assist them in other spheres of their lives. I first started tutoring at home 22 girls from a junior college in Madhurangar. They are now in degree colleges, Smriti said. But with many of these students coming from economically challenged families, staying connected online was a challenge, as was the case with 85 other junior college students that Smritis Project WE began working with subsequently. The only way to help them continue with their academic lessons online, as well as offerings from Project WE was to equip them with smartphones. Smriti said she, through her NGO, launched a fund-raising drive and managed to generate `10 lakh in donations during the pandemic lockdowns. We bought smartphones gave them to the students and also paid for data packages and the connections, she said. On the content Project WE created, Smriti said the animated programmes were created for easy learning. Even as the weekly schedule of following the videos and learning from them was drawn up, one on one interaction was constant to understand the students abilities. The curriculum, she said, consists of self-development, self-care, technological literacy, and financial literacy. That the online lessons that Project WE created were interesting and useful for students was proven not just with the girls who were part of the programme benefitting from them but when a larger non-governmental organization displayed interest to take these video lessons nationwide. Also willing to use them as part of its own online education plans is the Board of Intermediate Education in the state. Fifteen of the junior college students from the second batch that Project WE has been mentoring and assisting, have been selected to join Mahindra Pride School run in collaboration with Naandi Foundation. The selected students will be provided job-oriented training as they pursue their academics. Another 38 are set to join degree colleges, Smriti said, adding that she will continue with her work to help more girl students achieve their full potential. Roger Crombie grew up playing and working at his familys jerk shop in Clarendon, Jamaica. In San Antonio last summer, he turned that lifetime of experience cooking the distinctive grilled meat of his homeland into Real Real Jamaica, the North Side restaurant he owns with fellow Jamaican Jodi-Ann Brown. She makes the stews and curries; hes in charge of the jerk, a collection of spices, sauces and techniques as ubiquitous in Jamaica as barbecue is in the States. Its a success story that grew from a food truck wrapped in the bright yellows and greens of the Jamaican flag, a flag that also inspires Little Jamaica Foods on the Northeast Side and The Jerk Shack on the West Side. Together, they transport San Antonio to Jamaica, 1,500 miles away, but close enough to taste. All three restaurants have been participating in Black Restaurant Week this week. Originally scheduled to end Sunday, the events been extended through March 7, and Little Jamaica and Real Real Jamaica will participate in that extended date. Black Restaurant Week includes 30 Black-owned restaurants, food trucks and other vendors. They are donating $1 from the sale of special dishes to the San Antonio Food Bank, a donation matched both weeks by the Tim Duncan Foundation, Spurs Give this week and the Valero Energy Foundation next week. On ExpressNews.com: Review: Jamaican heat sets The Jerk Shack ablaze Mike Sutter /Staff The Jerk Shack Its fair to say that The Jerk Shack shook me awake in 2018 with the fiery cooking of Lattoia Massey, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio, and who goes by the nom de guerre Chef Nicola Blaque. It wasnt just me. GQ magazine named The Jerk Shack one of its Best New Restaurants. Her char-grilled jerk chicken ($15 per pound) still bristles with pepper and herbs, and that would be enough, if thats all there was. But shes livened up the menu by adding jerk pork ribs ($30 for a half-rack) worthy of a Texas pitmaster, if that pitmaster listened to Jimmy Cliff. The Jerk Shack, near Our Lady of the Lake University, channels the casual air of a walk-up food stand with Jamaican beef patties ($3) like flaky pot pies you hold in your hand, plus smoky jerk pork tacos ($10 for three) and fried jerk wings with creamy mac and cheese ($15). But it also channels a chef vibe with silky braised oxtails in mahogany gravy served with cabbage and the Jamaican specialty rice and peas ($18). The Jerk Shack family is growing. Last year, the team added the Caribbean wrap stand Mi Roti at the Pearls Bottling Department food hall, and a second location of The Jerk Shack is planned near SeaWorld San Antonio in July. And in case all that plus a pandemic and building a new home for themselves wasnt enough, Massey and her husband, Cornelius, will welcome their second child in June. 117 Matyear St., 210-776-7780, Facebook: @thejerkshacksatx. Open 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Takeout and third-party delivery only. Mike Sutter /Staff Little Jamaica Foods Almartino Stewart introduced me to brown stew chicken, and I thank him for that. The flavors of garlic, paprika and brown sugar intermingled in a rich brown gravy turn chicken into a glowing work of art ($10 for a large plate with two sides). He learned to cook that dish in his native Jamaica. Together with his wife Yolanda, whos from Miami, they opened Little Jamaica Foods near Windcrest in 2013. Their shop carries a greatest-hits list of Jamaican classics that include rustic jerk chicken ($10 for a large plate with two sides) and oxtails that are fall-apart tender without going all fatty, with a disciplined brown gravy like a Sunday roast ($16 for a regular plate with two sides). Side dishes make a big difference here, especially crispy and filling mashed and fried plantain slices and a big helping of rice and peas that reminded me of Cajun dirty rice. Add a cool bottle of Vita Malt, a Jamaican soda thats like a nonalcoholic cross between an English brown ale and gingerbread. 5490 Walzem Road, 210-637-1293, Facebook: @littlejamaicafoods. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; noon to 9 p.m. Saturday. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available. On ExpressNews.com: 3 great new San Antonio Thai restaurants Mike Sutter /Staff Real Real Jamaica The best way to pick a good Jamaican restaurant is to ask someone who knows. Id say Lattoia Massey of The Jerk Shack is someone who knows, and she recommended Real Real Jamaica on San Pedro near Oblate. Get the curried goat and the saltfish with ackee, she said. Right on, and heres why. The goat ($17 with two sides) tamed that rangy beast into tender bites enveloped in brown gravy that spoke just as loud with herbs as it did with garlic and curry. Ackee is a Caribbean fruit that cooks down like scrambled eggs, and it calms the funky flavors of saltfish for a plate thats colorful and filling ($$17 with two sides). Chef and co-owner Crombie does his heritage proud with jerk chicken that wears its skin like a suit of amber silk, jeweled with pepper, garlic and herbs with the best jerk sauce in this report ($13 with two sides). For sides, let me introduce macaroni pie, stacked as tall as a lasagna and bound together all gooey like your favorite mac and cheese. Get that, along with a salty-sweet tangle of cabbage sauteed with every vegetable in the kitchen. But for sheer spectacle, go with red snapper escovitch ($16 with two sides), a whole fish fried to order, delicate and flaky against a background of pickled vegetables. Think of your favorite Mexican restaurants escabeche minus the jalapenos, and youre there. 6828 San Pedro Ave., 210-858-3015, Facebook: @realrealjamaica. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available. msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking Laos issues new guidelines for better dam management aimed at minimizing flooding and shortages. A woman watches boats pass the Pak Beng pier on the Mekong River in northwestern Laos Oudomxay province, the site of a proposed hydropower dam, in a file photo. A court in Thailand has refused to hear an appeal on a case concerning a large-scale Mekong River mainstream dam in Laos, a blow to Thai civic groups concerned about the dams potential transboundary environmental impact. Laos Pak Beng dam project is the northernmost in a proposed cascade of 11 dams on the Mekong Rivers main stream, part of Vientianes controversial economic plan to become the Battery of Southeast Asia, through selling hyrdopower to neighboring countries. With the Mekong River making up half of the 1,845-km (1,150-mile) border between Laos and Thailand, Thai citizens affected by projects have been complaining to Bangkok. In 2016, the Pak Beng dam project whose developer is the China Datang Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. (CDTO) entered the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement, or PNPCA a requirement before a project can be approved. In June 2017, two Mekong residents groups, the Rak Chiang Kong Conservation Group and the Thai Mekong Peoples Networks from Eight Provinces, filed a petition before the lower Administrative Court to retract an environmental assessment performed by Thai agencies that was used to support the decision by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to allow the project to move forward. The MRC is an inter-government agency that works with the governments of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam to manage the Mekongs resources. The groups contended that the original community survey was flawed in terms of legal compliance and a lack of assessments on the transboundary environment, and in health and social impacts. After an earlier rebuff at a lower court, the groups appealed to the Central Administrative Court, which on Wednesday rejected the request, saying it had no jurisdiction over the case. The petitioned had conducted Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement [PNPCA] on Dec, 2, 2016 and June 9, 2017, in accordance with obligations in the Mekong development cooperation agreement, a judge said, referring to the Office of the National Water Resources and Thailands chapter of the MRC. Thailand doesnt have a law requiring transboundary impact assessment, [and] no jurisdiction over projects inside of Laos PDR The notification, prior consultation, agreement, concerns and suggestions on the Pak Beng hydro-electric dam to the MRC and Laos PDR were done on behalf of the government in line with international protocols. This case is not under the administrative courts jurisdiction. BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, attempted to contact the Office of the National Water Resources for comment but received no reply. Wednesdays dismissal comes about three months after Laos independently suspended the project in November to conduct comprehensive assessments on potential environmental and transboundary impacts. Following the decision, Sor Rattanamanee Polkla, the lawyer in the case, said Now the PNPCA is an international obligation that can be carried out by the National Water Resources and the national Mekong River Commission. Thai law does not cover it. That is the end. But Jirasak Inthayos, one of the petitioners, said the decision was concerning because it set a legal baseline that invalidates checks and balances. Im disappointed with Thai agencies because they dont have a role to oppose or stop anything and the document was used as a condition to build the dam, Jirasak told BenarNews. The civil opinion survey was just a formality in which they did not really listen and respond to us. The Mekong situation is getting worse and worse. We want the project to stop and careful study must be carried out, he said. This map published by AFP shows the locations of hydropower projects in various stages of completion along the Mekong River. Better management Laos released a list of guidelines Thursday for managing dams that seek to minimize water shortages and flooding, state media reported. The guidelines come amid debate on how Laos hydropower strategy has changed the Mekong. The state-run Vientiane Times reported that the guidelines go into effect March 4 and require dam operators to notify authorities when reservoirs are full or when downstream water levels fall to critically low levels. "Effective management of water resources and rivers, especially those used by hydropower plants, is seen as crucial as Laos strives to build more dams and become an important exporter of electricity," the report said. Laos has built dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong and its tributaries under its plan to sell around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the countrys economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Activists concerned about the environment have called for better management for all the dams on the mainstream, including those upstream in China. Critics said they hoped for better enforcement of the Lao governments new guidelines. "Despite the government of Laos developing and adopting multiple regulations and guidelines related to hydropower in recent years, institutional capacity, enforcement and monitoring remains weak," said Gary Lee, Southeast Asia Program Director for the U.S.-based International Rivers NGO. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Bridgewater: Vice President Mike Pence has pushed back against a news report suggesting he is laying the groundwork for a possible presidential bid in 2020 if President Donald Trump does not run. In a statement released by the White House, Pence said yesterdays story in The New York Times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team. He added that the allegations in this article are categorically false. The formal rebuttal of a news report by the vice president was an unusual move. In it, Pence also said his team will focus all our efforts to advance the presidents agenda and see him re-elected in 2020. The report details efforts of several Republicans looking ahead to 2020, calling it a shadow campaign. It notes Pences political schedule and active fundraising, though it also says unnamed advisers have signaled that hed only run if Trump doesnt. The article noted Pence has set up a fundraising committee. Called the Great America Committee, it can accept checks of up to USD 5,000 from individual donors. Pence raised about USD 1 million at a Washington fundraiser last month, attended by dozens of lawmakers and featuring remarks from White House adviser Ivanka Trump. Also Read | US President Trump to attend ASEAN, APEC summits: Pence Trump has not suggested he wont seek a second term. But his first six months in office have been turbulent, marked by staff infighting, legislative struggles and a series of investigations. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also dismissed the report and said Pence is readying to run in 2020 for re-election as vice president. Vice President Pence is a very loyal, very dutiful, but also incredibly effective vice president, and active vice president, with this president, said Conway on ABCs This Week. He is a peer to the president in the West Wing. Also Read: Mike Pence visits Japan to reaffirm ties as North Korea tensions rise New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an emailed statement: We are confident in the accuracy of our reporting and will let the story speak for itself. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. A federal judge in Harrisburg has approved a $2.95 million settlement in an overtime pay dispute that will benefit hundreds of current and former employees of Loves Travel Stops in 40 states. The deal sanctioned by U.S. Middle Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson is expected to generate average payments of $3,627 to operations managers who claimed they were improperly classified as being exempt from overtime pay. The settlement marks the end of a battle launched in 2017 by four former operations managers who sued the Oklahoma-based firm. Loves officials denied any violations. One of the lead plaintiffs in the case is Zachary Given of Hershey, who worked at Loves stores in Middletown and Cumberland, Maryland, in 2014 and 2015. The three other main plaintiffs were from Indiana, Ohio and Oregon. Loves operates more than 420 stores across the country. The settlement calls for $1.5 million to be paid out to current and former operations managers who opted into the suit. Extra payments totaling $37,500 are to be made to the lead plaintiffs. Of the remaining money, more than $1.3 million is to be paid to the law firms that represented the workers, plus $137,195 in expense reimbursements. Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha Jr. also said Thursday that there was no timeline in sight to move on from the current phase 1b, but there is some discussion for an in-between expansion for people with chronic conditions before the entire phase 1c begins for suburban Cook County. About 35% of the 65 or older population in that jurisdiction has at least gotten the first dose, he said, and officials want that number to be closer to 45 to 50%. Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Texas officials are launching a new program to vaccinate homebound seniors, deploying 1,100 National Guard troops next week to reach vulnerable Texans who cant make it to a pharmacy or other vaccination site. The main goal that we have in the vaccination process right now is obviously to save lives and to reduce hospitalizations, Gov. Greg Abbott said at a Thursday news conference announcing the initiative. Medically and mathematically, the best way to do that is to vaccinate our seniors as quickly as possible. A decision on whether essential workers should be prioritised for the Covid vaccine is expected within the next two weeks. Patricia Donnelly, the head of the local vaccination scheme, said the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) was debating the issue. There have been growing calls for groups such as teachers to be prioritised in the rollout. To date, the Department of Health has said it will not deviate from the JCVIs advice, which currently recommends that healthcare workers and the most medically vulnerable members of society be prioritised. The advice was updated this week to allow for adults with learning disabilities to get a jab, It followed calls from broadcaster Jo Whiley, whose sister has a learning disability and is recovering from Covid-19, for the vaccine to be made available to people with a learning disability. Read More Speaking to the Assemblys Health Committee yesterday morning, Ms Donnelly said: The JCVI sets policy, and so far they have focussed on priority group one to nine. They have been debating the issue of essential workers and we are expecting that the JCVI will report in the next week or two about their debate and their advice on essential workers. She also responded to concerns over the uptake of the vaccine by clinical extremely vulnerable (CEV) people, reiterating advice that it was not yet considered safe for those people to return to work. DUP MLA Pam Cameron, the deputy chair of the committee, said she was worried that only 36,000 CEV patients had received a vaccine, given that 200,000 people across Northern Ireland had been sent shielding letters. Mrs Donnelly said there was concern among CEV patients about leaving their homes to attend vaccination clinics. What our trust colleagues would tell us is that, when invited, some of them (CEV patients) are very slow to come forward, she added. Within my own family, we have a younger member who is very unwell with a very complex cancer, and I know she found it very difficult to come forward. Having shielded for a year, you dont feel necessarily safe going out. You may not feel very well. Read More What Ive been advised is that it takes longer, so we have a steady number of individuals coming forward, and we understand they may need to think things through and they may need encouragement and confidence to do that, so that is definitely part of the issue. Responding to a query by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll on complaints that employers were pressurising CEV staff to return to work after a first dose of the vaccine, Mrs Donnelly said the pre-existing shielding advice remained the same. I heard the chief medical officer give an answer to this very recently, and he said the guidance is very definitely that they continue to shield, she explained. You have already heard me say that one dose will give you a degree of immunity. However, it takes some time to build up. Its not until you have your second dose, and some time after that, that you will have the greatest levels of immunity. So, I think the advice is, if someone has been asked to shield, it is not considered that one dose would be sufficient to override that advice. The committee is to write to the Department of Health, asking it to improve the guidance available for the public with regards to CEV people. Mrs Donnelly also spoke of the expectation that vaccine supplies would increase next month, enabling an expansion of the immunisation scheme. A mass vaccination centre is to be opened at the SSE Arena in Belfast in April. Mrs Donnelly said the South Eastern and Belfast trusts had been working together to set up the facility. Under the plans, the two trusts hospital vaccination centres will be collapsed, with patients from both trusts going to the new facility instead. 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 George Shultz, with book, at a 2017 Limmud FSU conference with, from left to right, Julius Berman, Natan Sharansky and Chaim Chesler. TEL AVIV - On Feb. 11, 1986, Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky - freed after enduring nine years in Russian prison on false charges of treason and espionage - stepped off a jet that had carried him straight from Germany and out into the Israeli sunshine. "It was a very dramatic day, starting in a Soviet prison, then meeting my wife in Berlin after 12 years, then finishing at Ben Gurion Airport, and finally visiting the Kotel" in Jerusalem, said Sharansky, recalling the events of 35 years ago as if they were part of a John LeCarre spy thriller. "I was so overwhelmed, I thought maybe it was a... SEATTLE, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tango Card, the B2B company that makes rewards easy to send and awesome to receive, announced today that Monica Williams has joined Tango Card as CFO. Monica was previously Vice President FP&A and Treasury at Zillow Group and CFO at Avvo, Allrecipes, and Pro.com. She joins Tango Card's leadership team as the company continues to experience significant growth. Monica Williams joins Tango Card as CFO. www.tangocard.com Tango Card makes rewards easy to send and awesome to receive. "The last few years in the rewards and incentives industry, and at Tango Card specifically, have been remarkable," says David Leeds, CEO and Founder. "Companies around the globe continue expanding their reward and incentive investments to drive business results: to engage and recognize their employees, to increase revenue and reduce churn, and to reduce costs in their business. As they make these investments, they seek out Tango Card because we offer scalable, easy-to-use solutions. Over the last year, the coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on our industry as companies seek more ways to recognize and thank their employees with real-time digital solutions." "As our business continues to scale organically and through acquisition and as it increases in complexity, we see the opportunity to add incredible talent in strategic areas," says Leeds. "When we began recruiting a CFO, Monica immediately stood out. Her experience as a CFO in growth companies was a great fit for us. Just as important, however, was how she gets things done. Her combination of experience, values, and fit with our team and culture was second to none, and I feel fortunate she felt the same way." "This is an amazing time to join Tango Card, which has a large and loyal customer base and an incredible growth opportunity ahead," says Williams. "I look forward to partnering with the talented leadership team and helping the company execute on an aggressive and attractive strategic growth plan. I'm also excited to learn more about the fascinating rewards and incentives industry." About Tango Card Tango Card is the leader in fulfilling digital rewards and incentives. We bundle easy-to-use technology, great rewards, and expert service to help companies get the most out of their rewards programs. With headquarters in Seattle and offices in Boise and Omaha, our Reward Delivery Platform supports thousands of enterprise clients in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.tangocard.com. Contacts Tango Card Scotty Greenburg: [email protected] 1.877.558.2646 SOURCE Tango Card Riga City, Latvia -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/25/2021 -- The inception and distribution of Al Buraq certifies that it is possible to bridge the gap between modernism and the pivotal traditional values that are sacred to the community. Running on the blockchain Althash, the Al-Buraq is an HRC20 crypto-currency token developed for operations on the website Al-Burq. The Al-Buraq website runs with a purpose to propagate the teachings of the Holy Quran and the token will be used by the students to buy digital prints of the holy Quran and to reward the teachers contributing towards the cause. What are Althash and Al-Quran? Althash is a Blockchain as a Service platform that has been running with HTMLCoin since 2014. As a blockchain, Althash provides access to the governments and other large-scale institutions to utilize its DApps creating ability. The participants can create DApps via Althash and distribute the same with their users for a wide array of purposes and motives. The Althash blockchain claims to provide the best of both worlds by leveraging the security of Bitcoin and the flexibility of Ethereum proffering a new and more accessible blockchain to the users. Al-Buraq is the website which helps the students who want to learn about the holy Quran and the teachers who are interested in propagating those teachings. The role of Al-Buraq is that it acts as a medium of exchange on the website between the operators, students, and the teachers. Al-Buraq Token and its Use Cases The Al-Buraq token has recently been integrated on the Al-Buraq platform. However, this integration has also been done to spread awareness and teachings of Islam and the Holy Quran to Muslims. To facilitate these teachings, call centers have been set up from where the teachers can take calls and do their work. Since the teaching methods are digital, there is ease of distribution in the country and world. One of the most important use cases of the Al-Buraq token includes reward for teachers and allowing students to buy the digitized products related to the Holy Quran from the website. The Al-Quran is also a DApp created on the Althash blockchain and works as a global platform for the purposes set forth by the operators. Al-Buraq website also offers web-hosting plans and other services like sale and registration of domains. The hosting plans offer unlimited number of website hosting with a Cpanel and no-limit SSD webspace. How users can Acquire Al-Buraq? The development team of Al-Buraq have a motive which translates to help users utilize a cryptocurrency that is running on the HRC20 Althash blockchain which is using HTMLas gas, to give better access to the educational DApps sector. You can join HTMLCOIN Group on telegram https://t.me/officialhtmlcoin or Al-Buraq Group on telegram https://t.me/AlBuraqToken to receive tip and rain via Codex Wallet Bot. Recently, Al-Buraq started a bounty campaign. As per their marketing policy the project is giving away 100,000 BURQ one BURQ equal to 10 HTML coin so it means 1 Million HTMLCoin. The project is listed on the platform Blockchain Official For giveaway go HERE Another way to acquire the Al-Buraq is by playing the quiz. The Dapp also hosts a quiz, where users can win Al-Buraq tokens just by answering correctly. Tokenomics of Al-Buraq The Al-Buraq token runs under the ticker name BURQ and has a total supply of 200 million. The HRC20 token has been pre-allocated between the quiz, honorarium teachers rewards, the development team, and reserved for future partnerships plus marketing. Where 20 million for their VIP's, 100 million tokens are reserved for the quiz and honorarium, 35 million for the team, and 45 million for the partnerships and marketing efforts. Conclusion Althash, Al-Quran, and Al-Buraq are working collectively to promote the teachings of the Holy Quran in the Muslim community. This is a one-of-its-kind cryptocurrency and is available for the community to use, learn, and propagate. Partnershps In a partnership with Cryptocurrency Checkout platform Cryptocurrency Checkout is a Non-Custodial Payment Gateway providing plugins that make accepting multiple cryptocurrencies for your products and services as easy as entering your wallet addresses, and copying some code into your website or application. https://cryptocurrencycheckout.com/verified/burq In a partnership with https://www.wehostfiles.com/ they are accepting Al-Buraq as payment method against their services which is usecase of BURQ . Podcast on Google: You read and recite daily one Ayah of Holy Quran on Google Podcast The official presentation of the project on YouTube https://youtu.be/5nKFp7_6muw About Cryptoshib Criptoshib tries to keep crypto enthusiasts updated with the latest happenings and stories from the crypto world. We try to post stories about projects and people of the crypto and blockchain communities from around the world. Social Links: Website: https://al-buraq.net/ Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/AlBuraqToken Group Al-Buraq https://t.me/AlBuraqToken Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AlBuraqToken Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. Gov. Greg Abbott continued Wednesday to focus blame for last weeks deadly power outages on the states electric grid managers, telling Texans in an evening address that the legislative session will not end until we fix these problems. Speaking just hours after key board members of the Energy Reliability Council of Texas resigned under pressure, and the night before lawmakers were set to begin hearings on the outages, the governor said he was already in talks with legislative leaders on how to add more power to the grid and ensure we never run out. He pointed to natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind and solar, which generate electricity for about 26 million Texans. Each of these power sources failed to fully produce because of inadequate safeguards, Abbott said. COUNTERPOINT: Democrats blame GOP neglect, weak laws for deadly Texas power outages Republicans in control of the Legislature have ignored previous calls to mandate winter weather protections at power plants, but appear motivated to do so this session. They have not discussed similarly winterizing natural gas production, which provides most of the fuel for the states electric grid. As in earlier remarks, Abbott did not mention the role of the Public Utility Commission, which regulates electric companies and whose commissioners he directly appoints. Nor did he talk about the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas producers. At the worst of the crisis, more than 4.5 million Texans were without power. Dozens of deaths have been tied to the frigid conditions. Millions more lost access to clean water over several days, and homeowners across the state have been working this week to fix damage from burst water lines. Some customers under variable rate plans have reported getting astronomical electricity bills. It is outrageous for residents to be saddled with skyrocketing power bills, Abbott said. The state has temporarily barred electric companies from turning off power to customers who cannot pay. Democrats in the state have joined the call for a full investigation into the outages and are pushing reforms to the states energy grid, including more aggressive oversight, weatherproofing of power plants and looking at other solutions, such as connecting with grids in other states. The Texas power grid is isolated from the national grid. Energy experts have said the outages were years in the making, a product of weak oversight, limited planning and an energy market that runs without emergency surpluses. We tend to view all of these extreme weather events as high impact, low frequency, and we have not done anywhere near enough planning and thought about how bad it could get, said Alison Silverstein, an energy consultant in Austin. Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin, questioned the ERCOT resignations, saying in a call Wednesday that some of the board members who were criticized for living out of state actually brought valuable experience. It robbed us of expertise in the areas that do get cold winter weather more often, he said. If we just had people who live in Texas, we generally think about the summer. jeremy.blackman@chron.com Queensland's Deputy Premier has ripped up a tax invoice from the New South Wales government and called Scott Morrison a 'school bully' for telling the state to pay for its quarantine hotel costs. Steven Miles filmed himself destroying the $30million bill charging for the 7112 travellers with Queensland addresses who were held in New South Wales quarantine from March 29 to September 30 last year. Queensland has said it won't pay up until Prime Minister Scott Morrison allows a proposed national quarantine hub near Toowoomba in the state's south-east. Deputy Premier Steven Miles pictured ripping up a NSW government invoice 'Scott Morrison has given the go ahead for NSW to send Queensland taxpayers a $30 million bill for their quarantine program, even though it's 100% a federal responsibility,' Mr Miles wrote. 'He's like a school bully telling us we have to give our lunch money to New South Wales. 'We're not going to pay this bill, not while the Commonwealth refuses to endorse our plan for a national quarantine centre.' NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who has repeatedly clashed with QLD Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk over border closures, described Queensland's excuse for not footing the bill as 'lame'. 'Queensland's quarantine hub issue is with the federal government, while this is a direct debt they owe to the people of NSW and they need to do the decent thing and pay up,' Ms Berejiklian said. The invoice (pictured) requested $30.1million for holding QLD residents in quarantine Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) is demanding Queensland to foot its hotel quarantine $30M bill NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet went a step further by describing it as a political stunt. 'We acted in good faith in this process and it is disappointing that this agreement is now being treated in this way,' he said. NSW quarantined 7,112 arrivals during March and September who listed Queensland as their state of residence, according to an invoice tabled in Queensland parliament. An additional 4,991 arrivals who didn't record an Australian address were allocated proportionally across states and territories and was included in Queensland's bill, which is due March 19. More than 7K returned travellers in hotel quarantine in NSW last year listed Queensland as their state of residence. Pictured: A quarantine hotel in Sydney But Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles is refusing to back down until the federal government caves in to its demands. 'Scott Morrison is like a school bully telling us we have to give our lunch money to NSW,' he said. 'We will not be paying that bill, not while the Commonwealth refuses to endorse our plan for a national quarantine centre.' Miles came under heavy fire from 2GB breakfast radio host Ben Fordham over his comments. 'This bloke is a child,' Fordham told listeners on Thursday. 'He's got a problem with the Commonwealth because they don't like his silly idea so he takes our money hostage. 'In the dope department, he's a world record holder. Give him the gold medal!' YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The Police of Armenia released a statement on the ongoing political developments in the country, urging the citizens to observe the public order. The Police of Armenia ensure the preservation of public order and security in accordance with its functions. Due to the current situation the Police urge everyone to strictly observe the public order, show vigilance, restraint and not to give in to provocations, the statement says. On February 25 the General Staff of the Armenian Forces of Armenia issued a statement, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Cabinet. In his turn Pashinyan commented on the statement, calling it as a military coup attempt. He invited all his supporters to the Republic Square to discuss the ongoing developments. Currently Pashinyan is marching across Yerevan with his supporters. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Myanmar juntas top diplomat in talks with Thailand, Indonesia WORLD: The Myanmar juntas foreign minister visited Thailand yesterday (Feb 24) as regional powers tried to broker an end to three weeks of deadly unrest triggered by a military coup. Myanmarviolence By AFP Thursday 25 February 2021, 09:03AM Protesters hold signs as they take part in a demonstration against the military coup in front of the Indonesian embassy in Yangon, Myanmar yesterday. Photo: AFP. The talks came as an anti-coup protester died in detention, a local rescue organisation said. Four others have been killed in the crackdown. Foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin held talks with his counterparts from Thailand and Indonesia in what was the first known face-to-face meetings between a senior junta member and foreign government officials. The military has weathered a storm of international condemnation for ousting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a February 1 putsch, while dissent within its borders has been vociferous with daily nationwide protests. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said she expressed concerns about the safety and welfare of Myanmar citizens and reiterated a need for an inclusive democratic transition process. We ask all parties to exercise restraint and not use violence to avoid casualties and bloodshed, she told reporters in Jakarta. Marsudi has been on a shuttle diplomacy mission over the past two weeks discussing the Myanmar crisis during visits to Brunei and Singapore as well as phone calls with other Southeast Asian counterparts. She had hoped to travel to Naypyidaw after her visit to Bangkok to directly convey messages from Indonesia and other countries but confirmed the visit had to be postponed. Stop negotiating with them Earlier yesterday, the Indonesian embassy in Myanmars commercial hub Yangon saw hundreds of protesters gather for the second consecutive day. Angered that Jakarta was talking with the junta government - officially named the State Administration Council - demonstrators carried signs reading: Stop negotiating with them and Indonesia, dont support dictator. The Militarys State Administration Council is not our legitimate government, said participant Seinn Lae Maung, who had a Myanmar flag painted on her face. Please respect our votes and do hear our voices. Marsudi later hit back at the criticism, warning: To do nothing is not an option. Since the February 1 coup, Myanmar has seen a torrent of anger and defiance from hundreds of thousands of protesters nationwide demanding the release of Suu Kyi. The military has justified its actions by alleging widespread electoral fraud in Novembers elections, which Suu Kyis party had won in a landslide. Since taking power, the junta has ordered nightly internet blackouts and arrested hundreds of anti-coup protesters, while security forces have steadily stepped up enforcement tactics to quell demonstrations. They have deployed tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against protesters, as well as isolated incidents of live rounds. The post-coup death toll rose on Wednesday as a 20-year-old man who was arrested and sustained a leg injury at a protest last weekend in Mandalay, Myanmars second largest city, died. (His mother) ran to me, crying and hugging me, saying her son had died, said Khin Maung Tint from Mandalay Rescue. That followed the deaths of three other protesters, including 17-year-old Wai Yan Tun, who was shot in the head Saturday after security forces opened fire during a Mandalay protest. One man in Yangon was also shot dead while patrolling his neighbourhood against night arrests. Yesterday families and friends paid tribute to 30-year-old Tin Htut Hein who had been patrolling Yangons Shwephyitha Township when he was gunned down. Some mourners wore T-shirts with his face printed on the front, while others placed roses on a sign that said dictatorship must fail. Protests continued across the country yesterday, from Yangon - where ethnic minority groups dressed in traditional outfits and waved flags - to Mandalay, where protesters rode elephants who had Down with Military Dictatorship scrawled across their bodies. Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since she was detained in dawn raids. The Nobel laureate is facing obscure charges for having unregistered walkie-talkies in her residence and for breaking coronavirus rules. She is expected to go on trial March 1. But while methadone might not be banned, court papers made it clear that its hardly ever administered: County attorneys said the jail has given it to only five inmates over the last five years, and last gave it to a nonpregnant inmate in 2016 (pregnant inmates who are dependent on opioids are usually given methadone to prevent harm to the fetus during withdrawal). Sharonda Hines is currently completing a yoga teacher training program with Svyasa Houston, initiated by the Indian American organization Hindus of Greater Houston. An army veteran, Hines hopes to share the practice with other veterans. (photo provided) 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. HOLYOKE Mayor Alex Morse is a finalist to become town manager of the Cape Cod town of Provincetown. Morse and two other candidates were interviewed by the Provincetown Select Board in a public meeting held remotely on Wednesday night. The board did not make any decisions and is expected to continue deliberations on Thursday. Morse announced in January that he would not be running for re-election for mayor this year. He is serving his 10th year in the position after being elected as the citys youngest mayor when he was 22 and shortly after graduating from Brown University. Im excited for this opportunity. It is a special place for me and a place that I have visited often, he said. Morse is also the citys first openly gay mayor. Provincetown, with a year-round population of about 3,000 people that increases to as high as 80,000 in the warm months, is a well-known summer resort that attracts people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Morse said the interview went well and gave him a chance to highlight his experience as mayor and the things he has done in Holyoke. I want to pivot away from being a candidate but I want to do what I think Im good at after being mayor for 10 years, he said. Morse last year unsuccessfully tried to unseat U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield in a bruising campaign. He previously ran four successful campaigns for mayor. While he said he loves his hometown of Holyoke, Morse said he is ready to move onto the next chapter of his career. If offered the position, Morse said he is willing to leave the mayor position before his term is completed, but said his start date would be subject to negotiations. The other candidates for the position are Jennifer Pinck, of Provincetown, who founded a construction management company and Kevin Hepner, of Boston, a certified public accountant who has leadership experience in finance and administration. Related content: Woolly mammoths would have lived another 4,000 years in some parts of Eurasia if it weren't for human hunters, according to a new study. Australian experts performed computer simulations of woolly mammoth interactions with humans and climates based on evidence from fossils and ancient DNA. The findings suggested a warming climate forced them further north into smaller patches of tundra, but hunters 'dealt the final blow' when they reached those areas. Experts have previously blamed woolly mammoth extinction on meteor impacts, volcanoes, habitat loss and even disease, as well as humans and climate change. Woolly mammoths were elephant-like animals that evolved in the arctic peninsula of Eurasia around 600,000 years ago. The last mammoths died out around 4,000 years ago, after the construction of the pyramids at Giza, Egypt THE DEMISE OF THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH For the study, Fordham and his team simulated the woolly mammoth population's late history from 21,000 years ago until their eventual extinction 4,000 years ago. The model accounted for shifts in the climate, which affected vegetation, forcing the mammoths northwards, as well as the movements of human hunters. The team ran the simulation over 90,000 times with a range of variables such as different intensities of human hunting at different times. The scenario that best matched evidence from the mammoth fossil record and ancient DNA appeared to be a combination of both factors. Fordham's model also found woolly mammoths survived longer than currently thought in several remote locations in northern Eurasia, suggesting there's more remains to be discovered. Advertisement Woolly mammoths descended from ancestors in Africa and were widespread in northern Europe, Asia, and North America during the last Ice Age. However, by 11,000 years ago, they all had died out, except for small isolated populations that existed for another few thousand years until they died out too, marking the species' extinction. This new research suggests the woolly mammoths that died out 11,000 years ago on open tundra could have held out for another 4,000 years if it weren't for hunters. 'In the absence of humans, we would expect woolly mammoths would have persisted for an extra 4000 years in some areas,' Damien Fordham at the University of Adelaide in South Australia told New Scientist. 'We've been able to show that humans had a much longer role on that extinction pathway.' Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was one of the last in a line of mammoth species to exist before its extinction 4,000 years ago. Woolly mammoths co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used their bones and tusks for making weapons and art. However, the cause of their extinction is uncertain, with intense debate on the roles of human hunting and climatic change. Earlier this month, another team of researchers concluded that woolly mammoths and other megafauna were driven to extinction by a near-glacial climate and sudden drops in temperatures. In 2015, British researchers claimed to put 'the nail in the coffin' on the debate after comparing extinction events in different areas with the spread of humans. Yet another genetic study in 2008 concluded that climate change and disease was the most probable causes of extinction. They laid the blame squarely on humans after finding that whenever prehistoric people spread to on continents and islands, the creatures quickly died out. 'You will find some people who adamantly argue that it's only climate or only humans,' said Fordham at the University of Adelaide, who has authored a new pre-print paper describing his findings. 'It was generally thought, for mammoths, if humans had a large impact, it was near the end, once their range had contracted.' For the study, Fordham and his team simulated the woolly mammoth population's late history from 21,000 years ago until their eventual extinction 4,000 years ago. The model accounted for shifts in the climate, which affected vegetation, forcing the mammoths northwards, as well as the movements of human hunters. The team ran the simulation over 90,000 times with a range of variables such as different intensities of human hunting at different times. The scenario that best matched evidence from the mammoth fossil record and ancient DNA appeared to be a combination of both factors. Woolly mammoths were covered in thick brown hair to keep them warm in their freezing conditions, which would often fall to as low as 50C. Fordham's model also found woolly mammoths survived longer than currently thought in several remote locations in northern Eurasia, suggesting there's more remains to be discovered. 'These refugia are in places where there hasn't been lots and lots of effort put into trying to find fossils,' Fordham told New Scientist. 'People should be sending out expeditions to find fossil material.' It's already know that woolly mammoths were widespread in the northern hemisphere from Spain to Alaska during the last ice age some 100,000 to 15,000 years ago. However, global warming that began 15,000 years ago meant their habitat in Northern Siberia and Alaska shrank. They were forced back to several 'pockets', including Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean and St Paul island in the Bering Sea. On Wrangel Island, some woolly mammoths were cut off from the mainland by rising sea levels and that population survived another 7,000 years. The population on St Paul island, meanwhile, eventually died of thirst because they could no longer access fresh water, a 2016 study reported. Around 4,000 years ago the last surviving mammoths who lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean died out suddenly According to a study published last year, the last woolly mammoths were so inbred that they had limited sense of smell and fertility problems. Researchers found genetic mutations that may also have caused diabetes and neurological problems in DNA samples from the tooth of a mammoth that lived on Wrangel Island, 87 miles off Russia's north coast, about 4,300 years ago. The mutations are thought to provide evidence of the health of many woolly mammoths on the island, which had suffered decades of inbreeding due to their isolation. If confirmed, Ms. Haaland would make history as the first Native American to head a cabinet agency. She would also play a central role in advancing President Bidens climate change agenda as the head of an agency that oversees more than 500 million acres of public lands, including national parks, oil and gas drilling sites, and endangered species habitat. And she would be charged with enacting one of Mr. Bidens most contentious proposals: the banning of future leases to conduct hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas on public lands. On Tuesday, Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, told Ms. Haaland, I almost feel like your nomination is sort of this proxy fight over the future of fossil fuels. That proxy fight has ignited as Republicans have expressed concerns about Ms. Haalands history of pushing to shut down fossil fuel drilling and pipelines positions that go far beyond those of Mr. Biden. During her two-day Senate hearing this week, Ms. Haaland, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, sought repeatedly to persuade Republicans that, in her role as the head of a federal agency, she would carry out the agenda of the president, rather than push her past personal positions. In particular, Republicans pressed her again about her past remarks, such as an interview in 2019 in which she said, I am wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands, and her participation with the Standing Rock Sioux protesters in North Dakota in 2016 who camped out for months in opposition to the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Rep. Waters Statement on the U.S. Surpassing 500,000 COVID-19 Related Deaths Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement after the United States surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 related deaths. I am deeply saddened that our nation has reached the grim milestone of 500,000 deaths from COVID-19. My heart aches for the 500,000 people who have tragically lost their lives and the millions of friends and loved ones who are left with broken hearts. Having lost my beloved sister to this devastating virus, I understand the indescribable pain so many are feeling. ADVERTISEMENT The 500,000 people we have lost are our fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and coworkers. They include many of our nations health care heroes the doctors and nurses who contracted the virus while caring for their patients. They include elderly nursing home residents people who suffered disproportionately because they are some of our nations most vulnerable. They include essential workers who were exposed to the virus while working to maintain basic public services and keeping our pharmacies and grocery stores open. They include people of every race and ethnicity and come from every corner of our country. The tragedy of this milestone is compounded by the fact that so many of these deaths were preventable. The previous administrations failure to take this pandemic seriously from its inception allowed the virus to spread throughout our land, overwhelming our hospitals, shutting down much of our economy, and sickening millions. However, I am encouraged by the fact that President Biden and the experts he has chosen to serve in his administration are implementing a serious, comprehensive pandemic response and have proposed a $1.9 trillion economic and healthcare relief package. My colleagues and I are working hard in Congress to pass this proposal and get help to those who so desperately need it. I am thankful to have met with President Biden earlier this month to discuss the American Rescue Plan and the mandate we have to pass a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package that meets the scope and size of this crisis. From direct payments, more funding for vaccine distribution, and enhanced unemployment benefits to urgently needed assistance for our renters and homeowners, increased support for small businesses, and funding to ensure our children have food to eat the American Rescue Plan is vital to our recovery. Nevertheless, we must remember that it will take a sustained commitment by each and every one of us to bring this horrific pandemic to an end. As we remember all those we have lost, let us recommit ourselves to stopping the spread of the virus so that their deaths will not be in vain. Let us follow the scientific guidelines carefully and consistently. Let us wear our face masks, wash our hands, and practice social distancing. Let us do everything we can to protect ourselves and our loved ones. ADVERTISEMENT Let us work together to end this pandemic once and for all. Contec Global, the UK-based conglomerate with a strong footprint in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) in delivering sustainable AgriTech programmes, has marked a strategic tie-up with Maithri Aquatech, a ldeading Indian developer of innovative air-to-water technology, to bring large-scale sustainable water solutions to the Middle East and Africa. The partnership aims to deliver a business of over $200 million in atmospheric water generator (AWG) solutions in the region over the next three to five years, said the statement from Contec Global. Based in south Indian city of Hyderabad, Maithri Aquatech is a company which has developed Meghdoot (messenger of rain in Sanskrit), an affordable and sustainable air-to-water solution as part of the Make in India initiative. The Meghdoot solution can generate potable water from air on a highly scalable basis going up to over millions of liters per day, without relying on any traditional water sources. With water being a universal requirement and the basis for life on this planet, the company markets its products to B2C, B2B and B2G segments and has seen its application across a wide variety of sectors ranging from residential, commercial, agriculture, real estate and health and wellness sectors. It is the only AWG solution approved by Indias Ministry of Water besides being a part of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, committed to achieving UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6&7). The two entities will work together to provide safe, potable, clean water on a sustainable basis, it added. As per the deal, the duo will focus on capacity building using Contec Global and Maithris joint expertise in delivering turn-key AWG projects for drinking water and micro-irrigation in acutely water-stressed areas. Contec Global has strong business interests in agriculture, energy, information technology, automobiles, and manufacturing. Through Greenfields, its business that focuses on creating sustainable and profitable AgriTech solutions, the UK group works in many Middle East countries in organic farming, providing bio-inputs that contribute to an increase in agricultural yield and reduces farming costs by up to 60 per cent. Some of Contecs ongoing initiatives include converting barren desert land into healthy livelihood alternatives, adopting multiple approaches including water and soil conservation, dryland farming, afforestation, pastureland, and animal husbandry development, and restoring the ecological balance. Contec Global is strengthening its presence in Middle East & Africa in providing sustainable water solution through Maithri Aquatechs air-to-water technology, which is already widely deployed by governments, NGOs and private sector leaders. On the tieup, Chairman Dr Benoy Berry said: "We are excited with this opportunity to showcase an innovative and cost-effective technology to deliver end-to-end water solutions for clients across the MEA. In line with our core focus, the partnership with Maithri expands Contec Globals offering to cover scalable water solutions that are capable of producing water from air on a mass scale and on a sustainable basis." "Our solution is best suited to address the freshwater problem, which is expected to assume critical dimensions in the coming years," he added. Maithri Aquatech Founder and Managing Director Ramkrishna Mukkavilli said: "With the Mena region focused on ensuring national-level food and water security, our AWG solution is ideally placed to meet water requirements sustainably, as our technology creates a perennial and decentralised water generating source." The air-to-water solutions are suited to address the water scarcity challenge facing Mena region, which has an average water availability per person of only 1,200 cu m per year, compared to 7,000 cu m per year in other regions. They will also help address the water scarcity problem in the Middle East, where about 85 per cent of all water withdrawals are for agricultural purposes. "In addition to making countries and communities water-secure, it will have a tremendous positive impact on the environment. Our vision is to be the largest air water company in the world by providing a viable solution to mitigate one of biggest existential problems faced by our planet," explained Mukkavilli. "Through our partnership with Contec, we are building a global organisation with the best-in-class talent and state-of-the-art production facilities," he added. When Maria Quinto-Collins started filming her son at her home in Antioch, Calif., on Dec. 23, he was already on the floor, unresponsive. In the footage, a pair of officers with the Antioch Police Department can be seen rolling the son, Angelo Quinto, from his stomach onto his side. Ms. Quinto-Collins can be heard asking, repeatedly, What happened? Mr. Quinto, 30, never regained consciousness; he died three days later. Last week, his family filed a wrongful-death claim against the city. It said that the two officers, who had responded to a call from Mr. Quintos sister, knelt on Mr. Quintos back for nearly five minutes to subdue him and that he had died as a direct consequence of the unreasonable force used against him. The claim, which seeks punitive damages, was filed on Feb. 18 against Antioch, which is in Contra Costa County, about 45 miles east of San Francisco. The city has 45 days to respond. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. John Lewis & Partners has announced plans to fund a three-year programme in Inner Mongolia in a bid to safeguard the future of the cashmere sector. The three-year programme is run by the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) and aims to support the expansion of the SFAs new Cashmere Standard from Mongolia to the Inner Mongolia region of China. Climate change and increased global demand for cashmere are putting pressure on the fragile ecosystems the cashmere industry relies upon. In response to this, SFA developed a global standard to promote best practice in land management, animal welfare, fibre processing and supply chain transparency; ensuring the long-term viability of the cashmere sector. John Lewis is funding the training of 420 herders in Inner Mongolia on the global standard. Training will be provided by a leading animal welfare NGO, the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW), together with experts from a local agricultural university. Once the herders have completed their training, they will carry out self-assessments against the requirements of the Standard and undergo independent farm inspections before being given SFA accreditation. In the first year, the programme will focus on animal welfare, before expanding to cover the protection of biodiversity and how to secure herder livelihoods in the long term. Its very important to us and our customers that all of the raw materials in our products are sourced in a way thats good for the animals, land and people involved in their production, said Marija Rompani, partner and director of ethics and sustainability for the John Lewis Partnership. We have committed to ensuring all key raw materials in our own-brand products will be from sustainable or recycled sources by 2025. Were very proud to be a pioneer member of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) and to play a part in developing their global standard for sustainable cashmere production. This work will protect the welfare of the goats, the land and the livelihoods of thousands of families who are dependent upon the production of cashmere fibres. Una Jones, CEO and founder of the SFA added: We are delighted to have the support of John Lewis, a respected brand, and their suppliers. Together with our other pioneering partners we are confident we can lead the way in developing the cashmere industry to achieve consistent high standards and protect the livelihoods of those dependent upon it. As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic rages on, several virus variants have been emerging with mutations in the structural and non-structural proteins. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds to the host angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, facilitating viral entry into the host cell. Studies have shown many different mutations in the spike protein over the last twelve months. The first significant spike protein variant emerged with a mutation from aspartic acid (D) to glycine (G) at position 614, leading to increased viral fitness, replication, and binding to ACE2 and conformational changes within the protein. Several other variants have emerged over the past few months, raising concerns about changes to transmission, nature of the disease, and viral fitness. When SARS-CoV-2 infects humans, our immune system rapidly responds against the viral spike protein. The receptor-binding motif in the spike protein interacts with the ACE2 receptor and is a key target of neutralization for antibodies. Longitudinal studies have found that the antibodies to the spike protein can remain in the body for at least a year following infection. The mRNA-1273 vaccine encodes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and triggers a potent neutralizing antibody response to the virus that lasts for several months. The B.1.351 variant originated in South Africa has three mutations in the receptor-binding domain and many other mutations in the spike protein, all of which may influence viral binding to the ACE2 receptor and viral resistance to neutralization by antibodies. Comparing antibody binding and viral neutralization against two different SARS-CoV-2 variants Researchers from the US recently compared antibody binding and viral neutralization against 2 SARS-CoV-2 variants that emerged in different parts of the world. The researchers used sera from spike mRNA vaccinated and naturally infected individuals against a circulating B.1 variant and the emerging B.1.351 variant. The study is published on the preprint server bioRxiv*. EHC-083E (the B.1 variant) belongs to the B.1 PANGO lineage and was isolated in March 2020 from a nasopharyngeal swab of a patient in Atlanta, GA. This variant has the D614G mutation in the viral spike protein. The B.1.351 variant was isolated in November 2020 from an oropharyngeal swab of a patient in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This variant of the virus contains amino acid mutations (L18F, D80A, D215G) within the viral spike protein and deletion at positions 242-244 (L242del, A243del, and L244del), K417N, E484K, N501Y, and D614G. Neutralizing antibodies for B.1.351 variant are produced early in the infection phase The researchers observed decreased antibody binding to the B.1.351-derived receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and neutralization power against the B.1.351 variant in sera from both infected and vaccinated individuals. Their longitudinal convalescent COVID-19 cohort assessed the impact on antibody binding to the receptor-binding domain and neutralization across the SARS-CoV-2 variants. Interestingly, most convalescent COVID-19 individuals showed less impact on neutralization against the B.1.351 variant at longer durations post-infection. This showed that neutralizing antibodies for the B.1.351 variant is produced early during infection and last for several months. Most SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals showed binding and neutralizing titers against the B.1.351 variant in both acute and convalescent sera According to the observations, most sera samples from acute and convalescent COVID-19 individuals showed antibody binding to the B.1.351-dervied receptor binding domain. Most samples also showed a neutralizing capacity for the B.1.351 variant, and the effector functions of these neutralizing antibodies might contribute to SARS-CoV-2 infection control. To summarize, although decreased by a few folds, most SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals showed binding and neutralizing titers against the B.1.351 variant in acute as well as convalescent sera. Moreover, all mRNA-1273 vaccinated individuals still maintained viral neutralization. These findings agree with previous notions that natural infection- and vaccine-induced immunity can offer protection against COVID-19 in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant. Our results show that despite few fold decrease, most infected individuals showed binding and neutralizing titers against the B.1.351 variant in acute and convalescent sera, and further, all mRNA-1273 vaccinated individuals still maintained neutralization. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. CLEVELAND, Ohio A group of Hispanic advocates has mounted an 11th-hour effort to prevent the demolition of a vacant building in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood that was once home to a prominent Mexican American social club. The Club Azteca building in the 5600 block of Detroit Avenue sits on one of seven plots of land where local development company Bond Street Group wants to add a mid-rise building with apartments, office and retail space. The developer and club leaders came to an agreement last year that paves the way for the 1,900-square-foot buildings demolition after a decade of inactivity and neglect that the club leaders said rendered it unsalvageable. It also meant a clean break for the club itself, which has struggled to pay taxes on the property and twice faced foreclosure in recent years. Club leader Ruth Rubio said she received assurances from Bond Street officials that they will work together to figure out how to honor the legacy of Club Azteca, which is still active despite a dwindling membership. The development company also said it is committed to receiving input from Club Azteca. But advocates who gathered outside the building Wednesday morning and spoke at a virtual Cleveland Landmarks Commission meeting the next day said they were taken aback by news of its possible demolition. They said they only recently learned that the developer planned to raze it and that going through with the demolition would be equivalent to whitewashing the history of what was once a prominent gathering place for Clevelands Hispanic community, which makes up about 12 percent of the citys population. Why was this going to be razed? Veronica Dahlberg, executive director of HOLA Ohio, said Wednesday. Because it erases history. It keeps us in a perpetual state as outsiders; that we dont belong here. They do not yet have a plan ready to buy or pay for improvements to the building, and their focus now is to prevent demolition. Selina Pagan, president of The Young Latino Network, said she and others would like to see a demolition decision postponed until at least May so that we can organize and see what resources can become available to us. The Cleveland Landmarks Commission, which must approve any demolition and development plans because the site is in a historic district, made no decisions Thursday about demolishing the building or the sites future use. Commissioners encouraged the advocates and the development company to meet to see if they can agree on how to best honor the buildings legacy to the Hispanic community and Cleveland. Bond Street Principal Justin Strizzi said the development team reached out to the opposition this week. Some commissioners also expressed concern about the designs for the proposed future building. A lot has happened in the last couple of days, commission Secretary Donald Petit at the outset of a presentation about the site and proposed project. He later added that I think we kind of underestimated how much people care about this building. City Councilwoman Jenny Spencer, whose ward includes Detroit-Shoreway, said during the meeting that I ultimately had a blind spot during this process insofar as not seeing the broader significance of the building for Clevelands Mexican American and Latinx community beyond the immediate membership of Club Azteca. She thinks giving everyone more time will help interested parties explore viable options to preserve the club and buildings legacy. A rendering of the proposed Waverly and Oak development, created by Dimit Architects. Club Azteca was formed in 1932, and Clevelanders may know it for its well-known celebrations for Cinco de Mayo, Mexican Independence Day and Christmas. It bought the building and opened it in 1957 after members completed years of extensive renovations. The clubs original aim was to use the building as a place for Mexican Americans to gather and promote their heritage and arts. Bond Street, run by principals Strizzi and Todd Leebow, wants to raze the building and the neighboring Vietnam Market grocery store and barber shop, which are still open, to make way for what the company calls Waverly & Oak. The developers plan includes create a seven-story building that not only includes 122 apartments but 6,700 square feet of co-working space and more than 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground level. An underground parking lot would include more than 100 spaces. To make this plan come to fruition, Leebow and Strizzi have agreements to buy seven land parcels. Six of those belong to the Mayekar family that runs the Vietnam Market and barber shop. The Cuyahoga Land Bank owns the seventh parcel, which includes the Club Azteca building. Club Azteca donated the property to the Land Bank in December as part of an agreement that includes Bond Street paying off tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding property and state taxes the club owed. The county filed a foreclosure suit in 2019, and it marked the second time in a decade the club faced such a lawsuit. The deal to donate the property was made, in part, to prevent it from being sold at a sheriffs sale, said Adam Stalder, executive director of the Detroit-Shoreway Community Development Organization. Its in a pretty area that developers are certainly looking at closely, Stalder said. The worst thing that could have happened is some out-of-town investor that has no connection to the community gets a hold of it. Strizzi said at Thursdays meeting that we recognize and we take very seriously that this is a key piece of property in the evolution of Gordon Square and the evolution of Detroit Avenue. An advisory panel to the Landmarks Commission recommended demolishing the building during a Feb. 10 meeting. The developers have also sought online input from residents not only on their own but through the Detroit-Shoreway development corporation. Spencer acknowledged in an interview Wednesday not only the potential loss of the Club Azteca building but also the Vietnam Market. She said she is a pragmatist and thinks it would be financially challenging to restore the building and create a business model that allows it to operate into the future. In addition to HOLA Ohio, members of The Young Latino Network, Comite Mexicano de Cleveland and other groups gathered outside the building Wednesday for a news conference. Children stood behind the speakers wearing colorful, traditional china poblana dresses. This is a historic landmark, said Roberta Duarte of The Young Latino Network. It represents the Mexican community and Latino, Latina, Latinx community. All the endurance, perseverance, passion, cultures, rich history, and I invite you all to join us in this movement. Dahlberg said it was disappointing that public officials hadnt stepped in, when preservation of other places was made more of a priority. And no, putting a plaque on the site is not going to do, Dahlberg said. We want to save the building. Cleveland burlesque performer Bella Sin, who came to the U.S. from Mexico, said during Thursdays meeting that I understand you spoke to the Club Azteca owners, and so Im happy that those feelings are being accounted for. Im disappointed that we werent accounted for. She later added that the building itself has never stopped being of use, even if there were no people inside of it, noting how it symbolized the presence of Mexican Americans in the community. An interior shot of the Club Azteca building on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland. Still, the new pushback on the buildings proposed demolition puzzled Rubio because of what she felt was a lack of support for the club in the past few years. She said Wednesday that she reached out to leaders in the Mexican American community about five years ago after becoming the club leader, seeking help to revive the Club Azteca organization as one focused on culture and arts. She said she did not get the necessary support, in part because of a reputation caused by the club using the Detroit Avenue building as a nightclub for many years. My thing is, where were they when we needed the help? she said of the advocates. Rubio, 62, has been with Club Azteca since she was 8 years old because of her parents Jose and Zulema Carreons involvement. While her parents worked there, I would spend a lot of my evenings there in the back of the bar, sleeping on the floor, she said. From the 1980s on due to financial issues, the club gradually used the hall more for a nightclub until it closed the building about a decade ago, Rubio said. Once she got inside of the building a few years later, she said she saw it was trashed. The building had been neglected and suffered extensive water damage from a caved-in roof, she said. Regardless, Rubio said she feels the club and its mission are not inextricably tied to the building. Thats why she is comfortable with Bond Streets plan, along with assurances that the developers will allow Club Azteca to give input on how to best honor the club through the new development. Weve come to the end of the line. Weve decided to kind of bow gracefully, and we would like it to be done in a way to where it will be worth its legacy, Rubio said of the building, adding that the hope is the club itself will continue. With a vote potentially a month or more away, Landmarks Commission members appeared encouraged that talks may continue. As for the plans for the proposed apartment building, some commissioners expressed concerns about its planned size. Strizzi said in a statement Thursday evening that the company appreciated the input during (the) meeting, and look forward to productive conversations about how to move the project forward in a way that appropriately honors the important Latinx heritage of our city and its residents. It wasnt clear how the commission leaned on the proposed demolition of Club Azteca, though commissioner Michele Anderson said she and others saw a very distressed building during a recent tour. Im not about to say that it absolutely needs to be torn down, Anderson said. It possibly could be restored and renovated. But the roofs probably been leaking for years. And Im sure theres not only rot and deterioration but mold issues. So people need to be aware of that. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Average cost increase to electricity in Canada at different levels of decarbonization, with new transmission (black) and without new transmission (red). New transmission lowers the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (Authors), Author provided As the recent disaster in Texas showed, climate change requires electricity utilities to prepare for extreme events. This "global weirding" leads to more intense storms, higher wind speeds, heatwaves and droughts that can threaten the performance of electricity systems. The electricity sector must adapt to this changing climate while also playing a central role in mitigating climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced a number of ways, but the electricity sector is expected to play a central role in decarbonization. Zero-emissions electricity can be used to electrify transportation, heating and industry and help achieve emissions reduction in these sectors. Enhancing long-distance transmission is viewed as a cost-effective way to enable a clean and reliable power grid, and to lower the cost of meeting our climate targets. Now is the time to strengthen transmission links in Canada. Insurance for climate extremes An early lesson from the Texas power outages is that extreme conditions can lead to failures across all forms of power supply. The state lost the capacity to generate electricity from natural gas, coal, nuclear and wind simultaneously. But it also lacked transmission connections to other electricity systems that could have bolstered supply. Long-distance transmission offers the opportunity to escape the correlative clutch of extreme weather, by accessing energy and spare capacity in areas not beset by the same weather patterns. For example, while Texas was in its deep freeze, relatively balmy conditions in California meant there was a surplus of electricity generation capability in that regionbut no means to get it to Texas. Building new transmission lines and connections across broader regions can act as an insurance policy, providing a back-up for regions hit by the crippling effects of climate change. Average cost increase to electricity in Canada at different levels of decarbonization, with new transmission (black) and without new transmission (red). New transmission lowers the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Author provided Transmission is also vulnerable to climate disruptions, such as crippling ice storms that leave wires temporarily inoperable. This may mean using stronger poles when building transmission, or burying major high-voltage transmission links. In any event, more transmission links between regions can improve resilience by co-ordinating supply across larger regions. Well-connected grids that are larger than the areas disrupted by weather systems can be more resilient to climate extremes. Lowering the cost of clean power Adding more transmission can also play a role in mitigating climate change. Numerous studies have found that building a larger transmission grid allows for greater shares of renewables onto the grid, ultimately lowering the overall cost of electricity. In a recent study, two of us looked at the role transmission could play in lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Canada's electricity sector. We found the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lower when new or enhanced transmission links can be built between provinces. The value of enabling new transmission links between Alberta and B.C. as greenhouse gas emissions reductions are pursued, Author provided Much of the value of transmission in these scenarios comes from linking high-quality wind and solar resources with flexible zero-emission generation that can produce electricity on demand. In Canada, our system is dominated by hydroelectricity, but most of this hydro capacity is located in five provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. In the west, Alberta and Saskatchewan are great locations for building low-cost wind and solar farms. Enhanced interprovincial transmission would allow Alberta and Saskatchewan to build more variable wind and solar, with the assurance that they could receive backup power from B.C. and Manitoba when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. When wind and solar are plentiful, the flow of low cost energy can reverse to allow B.C. and Manitoba the opportunity to better manage their hydro reservoir levels. Provinces can only benefit from trading with each other if we have the infrastructure to make that trade possible. A recent working paper examined the role that new transmission links could play in decarbonizing the B.C. and Alberta electricity systems. We again found that enabling greater electricity trade between B.C. and Alberta can reduce the cost of deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by billions of dollars a year. Although we focused on the value of the Site C project, the analysis showed that new transmission would offer benefits of much greater value than a single hydroelectric project. The value of enabling new transmission links between Alberta and B.C. as greenhouse gas emissions reductions are pursued. (Authors), Author provided Getting transmission built With the benefits that enhanced electricity transmission links can provide, one might think new projects would be a slam dunk. But there are barriers to getting projects built. First, electricity grids in Canada are managed at the provincial level, most often by Crown corporations. Decisions by the Crowns are influenced not simply by economics, but also by political considerations. If a transmission project enables greater imports of electricity to Saskatchewan from Manitoba, it raises a flag about lost economic development opportunity within Saskatchewan. Successful transmission agreements need to ensure a two-way flow of benefits. Second, transmission can be expensive. On this front, the Canadian government could open up the purse strings to fund new transmission links between provinces. It has already shown a willingness to do so. Lastly, transmission lines are long linear projects, not unlike pipelines. Siting transmission lines can be contentious, even when they are delivering zero-emissions electricity. Using infrastructure corridors, such as existing railway right of ways or the proposed Canadian Northern Corridor, could help better facilitate co-operation between regions and reduce the risks of siting transmission lines. If Canada can address these barriers to transmission, we should find ourselves in an advantageous position, where we are more resilient to climate extremes and have achieved a lower-cost, zero-emissions electricity grid. Explore further Up to 90% of electricity from solar and wind the cheapest option by 2030 This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ERIELL Group ("ERIELL"), an international oilfield services group and Enter Engineering ("Enter"), one of the largest EPC contractors in Uzbekistan are pleased to announce a second cohort of Uzbek students has successfully gained places at United World Colleges ("UWC") schools, due to organisational and financial support from both companies. The UWC National Committee of Uzbekistan ("UWC Uzbekistan") enables gifted Uzbek students to widen their horizons and study in UWC schools globally. The program is financially and operationally supported by both ERIELL and Enter and led by Nigora Ibadova - Advisor to the Chairman of ERIELL and Enter and the chairman of the national committee of UWC Uzbekistan. After a rigorous, multi-phase process of selection overseen by UWC Uzbekistan with the ongoing support of ERIELL and Enter, 3 Uzbek students among 182 applicants, have successfully earned places at: UWC Dilijan ( Armenia ) - 2 students ) - 2 students UWC Li Po Chun ( Hong Kong ) - 1 student The three students follow in the footsteps of the inaugural cohort of eight Uzbek students, four of whom began their education at UWC schools in Italy, India, Hong Kong, and Great Britain, in September 2020 with the remaining four deferring their studies for next year. Bakhtiyor Fazylov, Chairman of ERIELL Group and Enter Engineering, said: "I congratulate the three students who have secured the brilliant opportunity to study at UWC schools in Armenia and Hong Kong. I have no doubt they will be excellent representatives of Uzbekistan. "Uzbekistan is demographically the youngest country in Eurasia. Our companies ERIELL and Enter strongly support Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's policies focusing on the education and on new opportunities for the young, along with his recommendation that 2021 be declared the 'Year of Supporting Youth and Strengthening the Health of the Population'." Founded in 1962, UWC's network now has 10,786 students from over 160 countries in their 18 schools on four continents. UWC schools complement the high academic standards of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which UWC helped develop, by prioritising experiential learning, community service and outdoor activities. UWC's President is HM Queen Noor of Jordan. Its alumni include Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and recently appointed Finance Minister of Canada and Jostein Solheim, former CEO of Ben & Jerry's. Notes to Editors About Enter Engineering Enter Engineering is a market leader in industrial construction in Uzbekistan with a global headcount of over 24,500 employees; with a global headcount of over 24,500 employees; Founded in 2012, Enter Engineering has been in the market of industrial construction for about nine years and implemented significant projects of various complexity in midstream and downstream stages; The Group has performed complex gas field developments, which include construction of energy, infrastructure, and civil facilities; and The majority of EPC projects, production bases and the primary offices of Enter Engineering are in Uzbekistan and Russia . The company also has representative offices in Singapore , the UAE, China , South Korea , and the Czech Republic About ERIELL Group Hundreds of motorcyclists lined the streets of Derry to pay tribute to Gordon 'Corky' Curry who died in a road crash earlier this week. The family of Mr Curry, who was buried in Ballyoan Cemetery after a private funeral due to coronavirus restrictions, said the father-of-four from Tullyally was "dearly loved and will be sadly missed". Mr Curry, who is survived by partner Angela, children Melissa, Sarah, Katie and Cayden, mother Pearl and the wider family circle, was a member of The Shamrock Motorcycle Tourers. Motorcyclists lined the street in tribute to him and drove down the Glenshane Road. Founder of the Tourers Kevin Breslin described him as " a great man and really big hearted". Colleagues at the Sandwich Company restaurant at the citys Diamond where Mr Curry worked also paid tribute to him. In a social media post, they said: "With the heaviest heart we say goodbye to one of the funniest, happiest guys at Sandwich Company, Gordon, also known as Corky. "You were a ray of sunshine and always a laugh to be around." Expand Close The funeral of Gordon 'Corky' Curry / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The funeral of Gordon 'Corky' Curry Mr Curry, who was in his 40s, died after his motorcycle was hit by a car on the Glenshane Road in Londonderry. The road was closed in both directions for several hours at Altnagelvin Hospital following the accident at around 5.30am. HEFEI, China Walk around the sprawling auto factory in central China, and the wealth pouring into the countrys electric car industry quickly becomes clear. Rows of bright orange, 15-foot-tall robots 307 of them, mainly from Sweden whir with activity. They glue lightweight aluminum panels to vehicle frames using aerospace-grade adhesives. In an industry in which speed can mean cost efficiency, the assembly line plods along at half the pace of many lines elsewhere. Even by the standards of the $1.6 trillion global car industry, an operation like this doesnt come cheap. In fact, the Chinese operator of the factory, a company called Nio, loses thousands of dollars on every car it makes. State-run companies last year mustered a combined $2.7 billion to bail it out. But Nio, or Chinese companies like it, could be the future of the global car industry. General Motors and other major names are increasingly betting that the next generation of rides will be powered by batteries alone, without a drop of gasoline or diesel. If so, China has invested so much money in the industry that it could hit the accelerator with ease. While the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic many new lessons are being learned every day by nations all over the globe. For example, Brazil and the US have learned that having a leader who does not believe that the virus is a serious threat to life certainly doesnt augur well for the population. WAKE FOREST, N.C., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced societies solve many types of problems extremely well including for science investigations, technology developments, and product engineering. However, we don't currently solve adequately another large class of problems related to human activities, and we are getting increasingly worse at solving them. Dr. Barry Borgerson just published his first article, Our Mysterious Problem-Solving Deficiencies, in a series of 12 articles as an invited Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine. Brainz Magazine Executive Contributor Dr. Klaus Schwab, founder and chair of the World Economic Forum, asserts in his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution that advanced societies are at a major technology-driven inflection point. However, he also notes we are stuck in "non-disruptive thinking" that may block us from taking advantage of these technologies. Schwab then points out that we don't have the necessary "social models" or "institutional frameworks" to diffuse the technologies effectively. This article explains why we cannot currently manage our social models and institutional frameworks as successfully as we manage our technologies. "The World Is Changing Before Our Eyes, and We Can't Do Anything to Stop It," said Nic Robertson, CNN's international diplomatic editor (November 3, 2018). "We are watching [the growing political chaos in the West], aware of what's happening, but without seeing a way to hold it back." You will find out in Borgerson's Brainz article the underlying mental nature of our growing political dysfunction. Future articles will show a way to solve chronic business and political problems and many others. We can reverse many deteriorating activities in the West but not if we try to solve them one problem at a time. Human nature creates hidden perceptual "lenses" that cause us to have powerful realities (including assertions, assumptions, theories, certainties, "truths") "in here" (that is, in our mind) that sometimes do not correspond to realities "out there" (that is, in the world outside of our mind). These articles will model directly that elusive and often self-deceptive part of the mind, which we currently refer to indirectly in many ways including "paradigm," "worldview," "culture," "weltanschauung," the "box," "cult," and "status quo." Our automatic perceptual lenses block our increasing needs to conquer technology-caused "soft" success factors in business such as leadership development including methodical capabilities to transform counterproductive behaviors and to change cultures rapidly. This mysterious part of the mind also controls technology-enabled vulnerability to populist simplistic solutions and disinformation including Big Lies in politics. Additionally, understanding and managing the same part of the mind will create new possibilities to overcome such chronic problems as drug addictions and high prisoner recidivism. Dr. Borgerson's Brainz Magazine articles will enable you to learn the fundamentally elusive and illusive aspects of human nature that cause so many types of debilitating problems and to acquire a different type of capability to conquer the ones that affect you, your family, your career, your company, and even your country. Contact: Barry Borgerson [email protected] 248-345-6022 SOURCE Barry Borgerson Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions President on Thursday declared that has achieved a "complete victory" in its fight against absolute by lifting over 770 million people out of it in the last four decades, calling it another "miracle" created by the world's most populated country. Absolute has been eradicated in China, Xi announced while addressing a gathering held here to mark the country's accomplishments in alleviation and honour its model poverty fighters. "No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time," Xi said. Xi said that all poor people in rural areas have been lifted out of poverty. With this, China, which has a population of around 1.4 billion, has achieved the UN goal of poverty eradication 10 years ahead of the 2030 deadline, he said. Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list, he said. Since the launch of the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, 770 million impoverished rural residents have shaken off poverty when calculated according to China's current poverty line, he said. has contributed to more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction over the same period, Xi, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of (CPC), said. With such achievements, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," he said. Xi said since he assumed power, China has invested accumulative fiscal funds of nearly 1.6 trillion yuan (about USD 246 billion) into poverty alleviation over the past eight years. He said according to the World Bank's poverty line, the number of Chinese people lifted out of poverty over the past 40 years accounts for more than 70 per cent of the global total. China considers extreme rural poor are those with annual per capita income of less than USD 620, or about USD 1.69 a day at current exchange rates, which compared closely with the World Bank's minimum standard of USD 1.90 a day. Eradicating rural poverty has been a key initiative of Xi since he came to power in 2012. At that time, China had about 100 million poor people, mostly living in remote areas. He has made effective use of targeted eradication of extreme poverty besides crackdown against corruption as the main political goals to consolidate his power in the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) emerging as its most powerful leader after Mao Zedong heading the party, the presidency and the powerful military. With the removal of the two-five-year term rule, Xi, 67, like Mao now has a lifelong tenure in power instead of retiring next year. His claim of poverty eradication came ahead of the CPC's centenary celebrations this year. The CPC also boosts of being the world's only Communist Party with longest tenure in power in the one-party state since 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded. Xi's claims of poverty eradication however were dented by Premier Li Keqiang's revelation last year that China has 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1000 yuan (USD 140). While the average per-capita annual income in China is 30,000 yuan (USD 4,193) but there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan (USD 140), not enough to rent a room in Chinese cities, Li said, addressing his annual press conference here in May 2020. Besides the eradication of the extreme poverty, China is also expected to declare a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the middle of this year. In 2049, China will achieve its second centenary goal of building "a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious," state-run Global Times reported. Martin Raiser, World Bank country director for China, said told the state-run media recently that China has been "very effective" in identifying poor households, as part of its targeted approach in poverty elimination. Raiser also noted e-commerce played a key role in the country's fight against poverty. Eliminating absolute poverty shows that China's development has entered a new era, Yu Shaoxiang, chief research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. China's achievement in poverty alleviation shows the progress of the country's "whole nation system" - China can concentrate its efforts and resources to do major things and realise development, Yu said. In his address on Thursday, Xi said that shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavour. Xi said the CPC has been working to improve people's livelihood since its foundation and over 10 million poor people were lifted out of poverty on average each year since he took over power. He said some 25.68 million poor people in China from 7.9 million households have seen their dilapidated houses renovated since late 2012. Over 9.6 million Chinese people have been relocated from impoverished areas since late 2012, he said. Also, 28 ethnic minority groups with relatively small populations have shaken off poverty collectively since late 2012, he said. "Improving lives in rural areas key to securing victory to build a moderately prosperous society by 2021," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ANN ARBOR, MI Following the announcement of a March return to the classroom in a hybrid learning format, Ann Arbor Public Schools parents and teachers are feeling a wide range of emotions about how the final months of the school year will play out. While much of the feedback during Wednesdays Feb. 24 board meeting was offered prior to AAPS unveiling its plan to begin transitioning students to hybrid learning on March 25, several parents and teachers expressed feelings on in-person classes that ranged from concerns about health and safety to a desire to accelerate the timeline of bringing students back. Ann Arbor Education Association President Fred Klein said the unions top concern is that all staff have the opportunity to be fully vaccinated before any return. While the AAEA is hopeful that will happen, if progress on getting teachers and staff vaccinated slows, Klein said the union will urge the district to push the return dates back until all staff asked to return have had access to the vaccine. We are hopeful that will happen, and that vaccine availability will align with the proposed phased-in return dates for various AAPS staff, Klein said. Parent Amanda Shutko said she hopes the district will prioritize getting students with the greatest need back into the classroom, even if that means delaying the start of in-person learning for the full student population. Under the approved plan, preschool, young fives and kindergarten students will start in the hybrid learning format first on March 25, along with small groups of students most in need of in-person learning in grades 6-12. This phase also would include students with high-level specialized learning needs at all levels. First- and second-grade students are slated to return in the hybrid format on April 5, followed by students in grades 3-5 on April 12. Middle and high school students also will begin a phased-in return to the hybrid format on April 12. We seek assurance that those with the greatest need will be clearly defined and properly supported by AAPS, as well as assurance that the district is preparing appropriate summer and fall programming with special consideration to student mental health supports required due to this unique school year, Shutko said. As the parent of a kindergarten student, Mike Lawrenchuk applauded AAPS first step toward offering more in-person learning, but encouraged the district to look for more ways to increase opportunities for face-to-face learning as the current school year progresses. I think a more creative approach would benefit students, especially younger students, he said. It seems like the asynchronous Wednesdays in particular could be allocated towards in-person activities. Other parents believe the proposed return to the classroom doesnt allow enough face-to-face instruction for high school students, and particularly seniors, who have not yet had in-person school this year. Our seniors have missed out on all senior experiences this year, parent Amy Pufhal said. We ask that they be prioritized in getting back into the buildings for classes. There has been no plan shared about the phased return for grades 6-12. Please start with grade 12, as they have very few AAPS opportunities left before graduation. Reaching a consensus on a return came after news that progress has been made in getting AAPS teachers vaccinated via a partnership with Michigan Medicine and IHA that was announced Tuesday. The Washtenaw County Health Department is working with Michigan Medicine and IHA to vaccinate approximately 1,200 elementary school educators on Saturday, Feb 27. In addition to the vaccinations, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has permitted AAPS to expand rapid testing for students and staff in school buildings, school officials said. Parent Emily Sippola, who has two children attending AAPS, said shes concerned about a return to the classroom for teachers given the struggles the county has had in getting vaccine supply for teachers and staff. All teachers must have had the chance to obtain both doses of an mRNA vaccine at least 14 days prior to returning to the classroom or we are knowingly putting them in harms way, she said. Thurston Elementary fourth-grade teacher Allison Scovone said she was shocked by the proposed dates for the start of hybrid learning, speculating it will be difficult to get teachers and staff both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine before the targeted date for hybrid learning beginning. In the best-case scenario, all staff will have gotten their first vaccination by this Monday with a second dose on March 29th, she said in comments submitted in writing. After the 10 days it takes to be fully effective, it will be April 8th. Yet, the proposal has Pre-K thru 2nd students and teachers returning before then, which goes against the promise of allowing all staff to have the opportunity to be fully vaccinated before returning. When it returns, AAPS will divide classes into cohorts sorted by last name. Students with last names starting with A through L will attend in-person classes on Monday and Tuesday, while students with last names starting with M through Z will attend on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday will remain a virtual day for all students. Teachers will instruct both students in the classroom and those watching remotely. READ MORE: In-person learning coming to Ann Arbor Public Schools in March Ann Arbor Public Schools hopeful return to in-person learning will help re-establish trust Vaccination frustration: Washtenaw County has states lowest percentage of vaccinated teachers Visit our resource centre giving you access to our toolkits, publications, alerters and crossborder guides all in one place President Joe Biden on Wednesday formally revoked a series of presidential orders and memorandums signed by Donald Trump, including one that sought to cut funding for cities Mr Trump deemed anarchist havens. Another had mandated that federal buildings should be designed in a classical aesthetic. Since taking office last month, Mr Biden has revoked dozens of Trump orders and issued dozens more of his own as he has sought to target foundational aspects of Mr Trumps legacy and promote aspects of his own agenda without going through Congress. The latest slate of revocations targeted a grab-bag of issues, including a few that Mr Trump signed in his last months in office. Expand Close Donald Trump had sought to withhold federal funding from cities deemed anarchist havens (Steve Parsons/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump had sought to withhold federal funding from cities deemed anarchist havens (Steve Parsons/PA) Mr Trump issued a memorandum in September that sought to identify municipal governments that permit anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities. The memorandum followed riots during anti-police and anti-racism protests over George Floyds killing by Minneapolis police. The Justice Department identified New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed. Those cities in turn filed a lawsuit to invalidate the designation and fight off the Trump administrations efforts to withhold federal dollars. Seattle city attorney Pete Holmes welcomed the Biden revocation, saying he was glad to have this nonsense cleared from the decks. Expand Close Joe Biden has been moving swiftly to promote his agenda since taking office without going through Congress (Evan Vucci/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Joe Biden has been moving swiftly to promote his agenda since taking office without going through Congress (Evan Vucci/AP) Mr Trump, in his Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture drive, intoned that Americas forefathers wanted public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue. The memorandum added that architects should look to Americas beloved landmark buildings such as the White House, the US Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Department of the Treasury and the Lincoln Memorial for inspiration. Another order halted was one Mr Trump issued in the final days of his presidency dubbed the Ensuring Democratic Accountability in Agency Rulemaking. It called for limiting the ability of federal agency employees in making regulatory decisions. Mr Biden also revoked a 2018 order that called for agency heads across the government to review welfare programmes such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing aid and strengthening work requirements for certain recipients. 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. Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:36 pm Both the Chehalis and Centralia city councils were asked by Lewis County commissioners to submit a letter opposing the plan by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to acquire 9,600 acres of land owned by TransAlta. The wildlife refuge has been described by WDFW as a rare opportunity to manage a landscape that allows room for the creation or restoration of high-quality wildlife habitats, such as wetlands and grasslands to benefit waterfowl, amphibians, mammals, reptiles and fish. The 9,600 acres excludes the 100-plus acres of land in the Industrial Park at TransAlta (IPAT), which are zoned for industrial, manufacturing and commercial development. Lewis County commissioners have expressed their concern with the proposed project stifling future economic development. Chehalis city councilors each agreed to submit the letter, drafted by the county, which expressed strong opposition to the public wildlife refuge, after hearing from Cody Duncan, a business developer with TransAlta. The Centralia city councilors heard from Duncan and from Kessina Lee, Brian Calkins and Cynthia Wilkerson with WDFW, as well as from Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer and Lewis County Assessor Dianne Dorey. Meyer and Dorey both expressed concerns with disruptions to the tax base when TransAlta shuts down operations in 2025. The shutdown was established by an agreement between the state and TransAlta, made almost a decade ago. In April of 2011, then-governor Chris Gregoire, TransAlta executives and members of the environmental and labor communities signed legislation to transition the state off of combustible coal power. Councilor Rebecca Staebler was more open to the public wildlife refuge and felt it would be beneficial to the community to explore the possibilities with WDFW. Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston called for more communication and transparency from WDFW and TransAlta moving forward. After discussions, the Centralia city councilors voted to direct staff to draft a letter that more clearly reflected the views of the council rather than submit the letter drafted by the county. The video of the Centralia City Council meeting is available on the video-streaming platform AV CaptureAll. Amaravati, Feb 25 : The Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP has boycotted Telugu news channel ABN Andhra Jyothy and its vernacular sister daily Andhra Jyothy, alleging that these two are working as a "Telugu Desam Party (TDP) pamphlet". "BJP has decided to boycott ABN TV and Andhra Jyothy, which have been working as a TDP pamphlet and in complete negation of media standards and moral values," alleged BJP state office secretary P. Srinivas Rao. This move from the state branch of the national party comes at a time when its general secretary Vishnu Vardhan Reddy was assaulted with a slipper by a fellow TV panelist and Amravati activist Kolikapudi Srinivasa Rao on Tuesday night on an ABN Andhra Jyothi debate. Following the incident, the news channel invited Rao again on Wednesday and interviewed him, which incensed the BJP. "It is a shame that the ABN TV channel has allowed a TDP sympathiser to viciously attack BJP state general secretary Vishnu Vardhan Reddy after inviting him to a discussion programme. Instead of registering a case against the attacker for his criminal conduct, ABN TV again invited the attacker to the discussion to protect the interests of TDP and gave it a clean chit for the ugly episode," alleged P. Srinivas Rao. Further, P. Srinivas Rao said the party has also decided to shun the news channel and its sister daily and alleged that both the entities are working under the guise of media to protect the interests of TDP. "From now onwards, BJP representatives will not attend any debates on ABN TV and the party will not invite ABN group to the party's press conferences," said the party state office secretary. However, if the media house invites anybody in violation and peddles their interviews as BJP's voice, he said the party will initiate legal and other "appropriate" action against ABN. "The boycott will have immediate effect and will continue until the Andhra Jyothy management unconditionally apologises to the Andhra Pradesh BJP," added P. Srinivas Rao. Meanwhile, V. Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs alleged that TDP supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu and his party have stooped to a new low, including their leaders losing civility and decency. "The 'chappal' attack on BJP leader Reddy on a live TV debate is deplorable. Condemn the attack strongly. This new political culture of TDP must be opposed by all," said Muraleedharan. Echoing him, BJP national secretary and AP co-incharge Sunil Deodhar has also condemned the slipper attack. "I strongly condemn the 'chappal' attack on BJP leader Reddy by a TDP goon during an ABN TV debate. Naidu you have stooped to such low level politics by sending paid dummies. Feel ashamed of you destroying the great Telugu culture by doing such gutter politics," said Deodhar. Other senior BJP leaders such as G.V.L. Narasimha Rao and Somu Veerraju have also condemned the attack. The TDP has issued a fact check statement replying to Deodhar's criticism and clarified that Kolikapudi Srinivas is not an official representative of TDP and he did not participate in the debate on behalf of the principal opposition party in AP. Kolikapudi Srinivas has been protesting the trifurcation of the capital city into three and got enraged when Reddy called him a "paid artist" as BJP alleges that those opposing the trifurcation do so as the land value in Amaravati region will plummet. When IANS contacted the debate moderator on ABN Andhra Jyothy, Venkata Krishna, for his views on BJP's allegations, he responded cryptically, "We are not willing to respond." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The word icon is thrown around too much these days, but Katori Halls drama The Mountaintop is about a true American icon, civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on the evening before his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. The word "icon" is thrown around too much these days, but Katori Halls drama The Mountaintop is about a true American icon, civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on the evening before his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. Despite Kings importance in American history, the play is not intended as a sober historical document along the lines of Ava DuVernays 2014 film Selma. Depicting an entirely fictional encounter between King and a motel maid named Camae, there is an element of fancy to what might otherwise be seen as a grim last-night-on-earth premise. That presumably will inject a little light into the drama, which will be streamed by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre beginning Feb. 26 to March 14. More light: the show will offer theatregoers a virtual return to the RMTC mainstage, where the roles of King and Camae will be played by Winnipeg actors Ray Strachan and Cherissa Richards, directed by RMTCs associate artistic director Audrey Dwyer. For Strachan, who won the first ever Winnipeg Theatre Award for best actor for his work in the 2018 Winnipeg Jewish Theatre production of The Whipping Man, that might help mitigate some of the pressure to play this seminal figure, which was challenging enough. "Im a very visual person," Strachan says. "So Im blessed to be able to go onto YouTube and watch the man preach, watch his nuances, watch how he walks, watch how he moves." Kings mellifluous vocal style wasnt required for the play, since it takes place behind the scenes of Kings public persona. "To be honest, I dont get to do the MLK preaching voice very often in this play," Strachan say. "Thats kind of taken away. "MLK is kind of taken off his pedestal in this particular play, so I kind of get to experiment and research and try and figure out what he sounded like behind the scenes," Strachan says. "I find it challenging that way." HUGH CONACHER PHOTO Actor Ray Strachan, who plays Martin Luther King Jr. in The Mountaintop, says he has found it challenging to experiment and research the behind-the-scenes life of the civil rights icon. The role of Camae a maid with a startling secret allowed Richards a more playful role. While its not strictly historical, it is rooted in the playwrights own life. "Camae" is an abbreviation of Katori Halls mothers name, Carrie Mae, who, as a young girl, was forbidden from seeing Kings "mountaintop" speech in Memphis because her mother feared the location might be bombed. "Both of these characters are larger than life, yet Camae is not all that she seems," Richards says. "So I think its a fun thing to carry throughout the play. "The playwright has done a really great job of simply finding out who these people are as human beings," Richards says. "I think she has really been able to unearth the man inside the myth and I think shes really explored Camae that way as well. "She wrote from her own experience. Her family lived near where MLK made this famous speech on this famous mountaintop night. Her grandmother wouldnt let her mother go to the speech, so its very close to her heart," Richards says. "This story is embroiled in her DNA." HUGH CONACHER PHOTO Cherissa Richards and Strachan in The Mountaintop which imagines an encounter between King and a motel maid named Camae on the evening before his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. The play has weathered some controversy since it portrays King as a man and not a saint. Director Audrey Dwyer defends that choice. "Katori Hall has written a very brilliant sketch of him and shes really asking us to see him as a human as opposed to an icon," Dwyer says. "So for me, it was very important for me to think about the difference between who he is in public and who he is in private." PTE audio tales draw on Winnipeg history Click to Expand Posted: 7:00 PM Feb. 24, 2021 When we meet 89-year-old Lillian Gibbons in Stories Houses Tell, a new audio work from local playwright Ellen Peterson, she is in a boat on the Amazon, struggling to write a letter before she dies. Im having trouble with words, Lillian confesses. This isnt just a source of frustration for her, but pain. Read Full Story "The play shares a very particular moment of time for him," Dwyer says. "Its really an exploration in a conversation on all of our parts in terms of how to craft a piece that is about ones humanity. "Ive never had a ride with a character quite like this, going from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, and going back to the highest of highs again," says Strachan. "Its very fulfilling as a Black actor, to be able to go into my culture like this. "Its fulfilling, its exciting, its challenging," he says. "I feel blessed to be able to do this." Tickets for The Mountaintop are $20 (plus GST) and are available at royalmtc.ca. randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing Max Asset Services (MAS), a subsidiary of Max Group's listed entity Max Ventures & Industries, announced its entry into the 'Managed Office Spaces' business with the launch of 'WorkWell Suites' at the newly developed office complex Max House, Okhla. The company plans to operationalize nearly 2 lakh sq. ft. of managed office space in the Delhi NCR over the next 3 years. Max Asset Services has planned a low capex model for building this capacity. Managed Office Spaces is gaining due to the increasing acceptance in companies, of flexible office spaces as a rental option. Flexible workspaces as a segment has grown rapidly to now form a notable ~10% of the new office leasing in India, as per a recent Cushman & Wakefield report. Co-working and Managed Office Spaces are the two most popular formats of Flexi-office space. MAS's first Managed Office Spaces offering at Max House, Okhla has a total leasable area of 14000 sq. ft. with a total sitting capacity of 200 seats. It will cater to corporates with a team size of between 20 to 100. Max House, Okhla, comprising ~1,05,000 sq. ft. of leasable area was launched for leasing recently by its sister company Max Estates. The current footprint of MAS's managed offices stands at 34,000 sq. ft. with top tier clients like a US based ed-tech firm and a top engineering MNC. In addition, MAS provides the WorkWell experience to 24,000 sq. ft. of conventional office space clients delivering the best of wellness, technology and hospitality for their office operations. Conscious of the increased concerns about hygiene and health, WorkWell Suites offer health and safety protocols such as Advanced MERV13 Air Filtration, Contactless Entry, Automated Temperature and Mask detection system, Shoe Sanitisation and vehicle disinfection facility etc. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) and agreed to strengthen cooperation in several areas including agriculture. The agreement came as visiting Pakistani Prime Minister met here with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for bilateral ties, the Xinhua news agency reported. During the meeting on Wednesday, Khan underlined the "exceptional quality" of the Pakistan- relations with mutual trust, understanding and support. The Pakistani Prime Minister emphasised the importance of building robust economic partnership between the two countries characterised by enhanced bilateral trade, investments and commercial cooperation. He emphasised the importance of regional cooperation through the platform of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the opportunities for regional prosperity through the China- Economic Corridor, a flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative. For his part, Rajapaksa expressed his wish to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries and also exchanged views on sharing technical know how in order to promote agriculture in both countries. --IANS int/rs (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company ATLANTA, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Church's Chicken , one of the largest quick-service restaurant chicken chains in the world, recently recognized top performers across their domestic restaurant system during the year 2020. Individual awards were distributed to 34 team members, including Market Leader of the Year, Top Scorecard Performance, Regional General Manager of the Year, and others. Juan Zapata of Harlingen, TX received the distinctive honor of Market Leader of the Year. The awards are traditionally distributed at the company's annual ELC Conference, but was conducted virtually this year in consideration of COVID-19. "Our people play such a vital role in our organization and it gives us great pride to be able to recognize their achievements," said Pete Servold, EVP of Franchise and Company Operations with Church's Chicken. "The individuals who we honored with the 2020 awards demonstrated that despite a challenging year, they were able to continue to shine and lead by their exemplary performance and dedication. These team members are outstanding representatives of the Church's brand and Our Texas Way." Other top recognitions were awarded to Santos Alvarado for Top Scorecard Performance, and Regional General Manager of the Year was awarded per zone, Zone 1 - Vanessa Martinez (Edinburg, TX) and Zone 2 - Meshanda Varnado (Hammond, LA). Team members were recognized for their sales, customer service, and operational performance. In addition to receiving a trophy, individuals were also awarded a $200 gift card. The following were the 2020 Church's award recipients. Top Profits RGM* and ML*: Zone 1 - RGM Maria Flores (San Benito, TX) ML Santos Alvarado (Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, TX) Zone 2 - RGM Danaisa Chance (Albany, GA) ML Kirt Coleman (New Orleans, LA) Top 3 - Highest Sales: Zone 1 - Maria Flores (San Benito, TX) Jose Marrero (Alamo, TX) Alex Garcia (Rio Grande, TX) Zone 2 - Danaisa Chance (Albany, GA) Kathleen Wilson (Selma, AL) Delores Givens (Augusta, GA) Market Leader Highest Average Unit Volume: Zone 1 - Eduardo Mederos (Miami, FL) Zone 2 - Kirt Coleman (New Orleans, LA) People Award: Zone 1 - ML Miguel Luna (Weslaco, TX) RGM Olga Aguirre (Mission, TX) Zone 2 - ML Ardie Taylor (Birmingham, AL) RGM Kathleen Wilson (Selma, AL) Most Improved: Zone 1 - ML Ali Irtiza (Memphis, TN) Zone 2 - ML Mose Walker (Montgomery, AL) "Our Texas Way": Zone 1 - ML Fernando Rangel (Mission/RGC, TX) Zone 2 - ML Andres Lopez (Baton Rouge, LA) Highest Overall Satisfaction: Zone 1 - ML Oscar Andrade (Brownsville, TX) RGM Josie Gutierrez (Hidalgo, TX) Zone 2 - ML Mose Walker (Montgomery, AL) RGM Joshua Martin (Spartanburg, SC) Speed of Service: Zone 1 - ML Oscar Andrade (Brownsville, TX) RGM Josie Gutierrez (Hidalgo, TX) Zone 2 - ML Mose Walker (Montgomery, AL) RGM Joshua Martin (Spartanburg, SC) Highest Average Unit Volume "Off-Premise" Sales: Zone 1 - ML Tim Ovind (Tampa, FL) Zone 2 - Tresa Ray (St. Louis, MO) *ML = Market Leader; RGM = Regional Market Manager "This year, we added the Our Texas Way award to recognize team members who embody the culture of our organization, which centers on people, community, and service to others," added Servold. "We applaud each of these individuals and are incredibly grateful for all their efforts." For more information about Church's Chicken, visit www.churchs.com or follow their Facebook and Instagram pages. About Church's Chicken Founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 1952 by George W. Church, Church's Chicken is one of the largest quick-service restaurant chicken chains in the world. Church's specializes in Original and Spicy Chicken freshly prepared throughout the day in small batches that are hand-battered and double-breaded, Chicken Sandwich, Texas Tenders, Honey-Butter Biscuits made from scratch and freshly baked, and classic, homestyle sides all for a great value. Church's (along with its sister brands Church's Texas Chicken in the Americas and Texas Chicken outside the Americas) has more than 1,500 locations in 26 countries and international territories. During two national media windows the brand drove sales performance that outpaced the broader QSR category. For more information, visit www.churchs.com. Follow Church's on Facebook at www.facebook.com/churchschicken and Twitter at www.twitter.com/churchschicken Contact: Kim Miller 866.571.3449 [email protected]inklinkmarketing.com SOURCE Church's Chicken Related Links https://www.churchs.com/ Thousands of soldiers were deployed in 1990 and 1991 during the Persian Gulf Wars Operation Desert Shield and then Operation Desert Storm. The mission was to evict Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator who had invaded Kuwait. Operation Desert Shield began in August 1990 when the United States participated in the defense of Saudi Arabia in case of an attack by Iraq. Hussein had been issued an ultimatum - get out of Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991, or be attacked. On Jan. 17, Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm. Bombs pummeled Iraqs military targets. In Pennsylvania, we watched as our soldiers went off to war. Then on Feb. 25, 1991, at 8:30 p.m. an Iraqi Scud missile attack on a barracks in Saudi Arabia killed 13 Pennsylvania soldiers - members of the U.S. Army Reserve 14th Quartermaster Detachment - a water purification unit - stationed in Greensburg. That unit had been in Saudi Arabia only six days. In all, 28 reservists were killed in that attack. Stacey (Akra) King of Swatara Township served in the 14th Quartermaster unit and survived the attack. She was wounded and received a Purple Heart. Operation Desert Storm ended on Feb. 28 when President George H.W. Bush called for a cease fire after Iraqi forces either surrendered or fled Kuwait. On the day the cease fire was announced, families of solders in the 131st Transportation Company, a Williamstown-based National Guard unit were relieved. A soldier in that unit was injured in the Scud missile attack but at the time his family said he was doing fine. The Morning News of Erie had reported that the family of another Pa. soldier in the 14th Quartermaster Detachment was told by him that the missile attack was just horrible. He told his father they had just gotten a Scud missile alert and he and the others got up and went for their masks. Then the building just came down. There were people lying everywhere. He said all that was left was the frame. Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. soldiers in December 2003 and executed on Dec. 30, 2006, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Remote Workforce Move Here, Make Money (TNS) A program to lure remote workers to Tulsa with a $10,000 grant now lets recipients spend that money on buying a home.The program offered by Tulsa Remote builds on the organization's goal of attracting people from other states and developing a workforce that doesn't rely only on local job creation.It's the latest example of Oklahoma's drive to put itself on the map, at least to tech-centric startups, engineers and other highly skilled workers. Three startup founders recently toldthat living here has tangible and intangible benefits compared to more well-known tech hubs like Austin or Silicon Valley in California.Podchaser founder Bradley Davis moved to Oklahoma City from Kentucky in part because he was impressed by the opportunity to help build an ecosystem in a mid-size city. "I think it's just a common millennial feeling; you want to be part of something, part of a movement, part of a growth story," Davis said. "While places like New York or San Francisco are awesome, full of smart people, you really can't have a significant impact on the growth of a city that's already matured."And while Oklahoma's largest metro area has the Innovation District and is the home of Techlahoma, a techy collective of young professionals, Tulsa is vying to take market share of the incoming workforce with its cash-based incentive.Two years ago, state lawmakers also entered the fray by offering a $2,200 tax credit for software or cybersecurity employees who have a bachelor's degree.Tulsa Remote recipients will get a lump-sum grant of $10,000 once they buy a home in Tulsa. Previous grants were doled out over time as a stipend to augment salaries, an option remains available for people accepted into the program."We moved from Austin to Tulsa a little over a year ago and have been thrilled with our decision," said Taylor Brown, chief technology officer at You Need A Budget and Tulsa Remote member. "My wife and I were looking for a place to raise our son and Tulsa has been a great fit for our family. Tulsa Remote helped welcome and connect us to the city from the day we arrived."Tulsa Remote was launched three years ago by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. It aims to build a thriving community of remote workers in Tulsa, offering social and networking opportunities, group activities, connections to local volunteering, civic engagement opportunities and more.Home ownership builds on this mission by helping Tulsa Remote members establish long-term roots in neighborhoods throughout the city, the organization said.To receive the full cash grant towards a home purchase, accepted members must purchase an owner-occupied residential property in Tulsa and will receive a single lump sum upon the completion of the home purchase. Tulsa Remote also offers virtual and in-person visits for members to get acquainted with neighborhoods, amenities and locations that will fit their lifestyle, including a $500 travel reimbursement.Airbnb is also partnering with Tulsa Remote to help members "try before they buy" with a $150 Airbnb coupon for a stay in the Tulsa neighborhood of their choice."This new program makes home ownership more attainable for many program applicants," said Sofia Noshay with Tulsa Remote. "With greater flexibility in how to apply the $10,000 grant, it not only gives members the opportunity to reach long-term financial goals but also establishes them in our community through home ownership and immediate connection with our network."Applications and more information on Tulsa Remote can be found at TulsaRemote.com. To be eligible for the program, individuals must be a permanent resident of the United States, show consistent income, be at least 18 years of age, currently live outside of Oklahoma with the ability to work remotely and commit to moving to and living in Tulsa for at least one year.In previous years, Tulsa Remote had an application deadline and a limited number of applications, but in 2019 the program began a continuous application and admission process with no limits, said Executive Director Ben Stewart.To date, more than 50,000 people have applied. Remote workers from Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies have resettled through the program."Since Tulsa Remote launched in 2018, we were blown away by both the quantity and quality of our applications," Stewart said. "Tulsa Remote has now welcomed more than 600 people to Tulsa and more significantly, retained over 90 percent of members by integrating them into the broader Tulsa community through activities which introduce members to Oklahoma, provide coworking space in partnership with 36 Degrees North and offer community volunteer and service opportunities." ADVERTISEMENT The police have revealed the identity of two officers who lost their lives during a deadly attack on Tuesday on a police station in Abia State, Nigerias South-east. The victims are Vincent Gonze, an assistant superintendent of police, and Emmanuel Okoronkwo, a sergeant, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the police spokesperson, Frank Mba, at the force headquarters, Abuja. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the gunmen razed a part of the Abayi station, burnt down police operational vehicles, and stole weapons. Mr Mba, a commissioner of police, said the police were able to kill four of the gunmen and also recovered some arms and ammunition. He said the gunmen, about 200, were armed with AK47 rifles and machetes, including petrol bombs and other explosives. The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has commiserated with the family and friends of the deceased officers, he said. The spokesperson said the police have begun investigations into the attack, and that perpetrators would be prosecuted in due course. He called on proprietors of medical facilities in and around Abia to report to the nearest police station any person found seeking medical treatment as a result of bullet wounds and other related injuries. This is the second time, in less than a month, that police stations in Abia State have been attacked. Some gunmen on February 1 attacked Umuoba Police Station in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state and killed a police inspector. The gunmen razed the station, burnt down police operational vehicles, and carted away arms and ammunition. Several Nigerian states have been grappling with security challenges, including kidnapping and other crimes. (NAN) With the Red River turning a surprisingly clear blue-green shade in its upstream sections, the absence of its usual muddy, pinkish color is being blamed on dams and polluting factories. The Red River flowing through Lao Cai has been surprisingly clear for about a week, February 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Ngoc Trien. For a week now, the Red River section that flows through Lao Cai Province has become so clear that there are some shallow areas towards the banks where the river bed can be seen at a depth of one meter. While this looks like a welcome development, experts say this is happening because of "withheld" alluvium and pollution caused by factories on the river banks. The Red River, over 1,100 km long, originates in China and flows through Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc and Hanoi. The river section that flows through Vietnam is about 510 km long. Nguyen Thi Lan, a resident of Lao Cai, said the water of the Red River in her neighborhood is normally a thick brown color, and if seen from afar, it looks like a pinkish strip. "It is really strange now that the river has such a clear green shade," she said. Locals swim in the Red River in 2017. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh. Vu Dinh Thuy, deputy director of Lao Cai's Natural Resources and Environment Department, said this is not the first time the Red River has changed character and color. This phenomenon has been happening around this time of year for the past five years, Thuy said. "Maybe the reason is that the natural alluvium that has always flowed down naturally from further upstream has been absent, and also northern Vietnam has had no rainfall this season (to muddy the waters)." Dao Trong Tu, Chief of Executive Board of the Vietnam Rivers Network, also set out two possible reasons for the changes seen in the Red River. He said a series of hydropower plants and reservoirs operated by China further upstream could have held back alluvium. The other reason, he said, could be the pollution caused by factories operating in upstream areas and along the banks of the river. Tu added that theory of pollution would require specific monitoring and study of the water samples to arrive at a final conclusion. [February 25, 2021] Document Security Systems Builds Out DSS Securities Ecosystem through Investments in WestPark Capital and BMI Capital ROCHESTER, N.Y., Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Document Security Systems, Inc. (NYSE American: DSS) (DSS), a multinational company operating businesses in brand protection technology, blockchain security, direct marketing, healthcare, real estate, and securitized digital assets, today announced the expansion of its DSS Securities, Inc. business through an equity interest in WestPark Capital, Inc.(WestPark) and an investment in BMI Capital International LLC (BMI). This is a major milestone that falls directly in line with our plans to fill out the ecosystem around DSS Securities and builds upon our recently announced collaboration to develop a digital securities exchange business in the US, stated Frank D. Heuszel, CEO of DSS. DSS executed two separate transactions designed to grow its DSS Securities division, signing a binding note and stock exchange letter of intent to own 7.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of WestPark and acquiring 24.9% of BMI through a purchase agreement. We have participated in the blockchain space since its earliest days, commented Richard Rappaport, Chairman and Founder of WestPark. DSS Securities is extremely well positioned in the industry with its recent JV with Coinstreet Partners and GSX Group, and we believe this is the beginning of a lasting, mutually rewarding relationship. WestPark is a full-service investment banking and securities brokerage firm which serves the needs of both private and public companies worldwide, as well as individual and institutional investors. BMI is a private investment bank specializing in corporate finance advising, raising equity, and venture services, providing a global one-stop corporate consultancy to listed companies. From corporate finance to professional valuation, corporate communications to event management, BMI services companies in the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, and Australia. Change is constant in the markets, added Robert Trapp, CEO of BMI. We are excited to work with DSS Securities as they capitalize on the wealth of opportunities presented by the latest seismic shifts revolutionizing the securities industry. Heuszel continued, The transformative potential of digital securities is extremely exciting. Working closely with WestPark and BMI, we can ap into established channels to accelerate the development of a secondary market in securities tokens, what we believe will be the next evolutionary stage in capital markets development. This is a great opportunity that provides a conduit to propel widespread interest in our digital security exchange, added Jason Grady, COO of DSS. We plan to continue to invest in these and other similar ventures as opportunities warrant, effectively allocating the capital we have available to drive growth and maximize returns. Regulated digital securities exchanges provide a single point of access to issuance, listing, trading, and settlement of digital securities for public and private companies issuing equities, debt, investment funds, real estate, and commodities. In addition to providing an alternative to current public markets, digital securities exchanges are positioned to tap into the $6.5 trillion private company market, which is estimated to be growing 2x faster than public markets. About Document Security Systems, Inc. DSS is a multinational company, operating businesses in brand protection technology, blockchain security, direct marketing, healthcare, real estate, and securitized digital assets. Its business model is based on a distribution sharing system in which shareholders will receive shares in its subsidiaries as DSS strategically spins them out into IPOs. Its historic business revolves around counterfeit deterrent and authentication technologies, smart packaging, and consumer product engagement. DSS is led by its Chairman and largest shareholder, Mr. Fai Chan, a highly successful global business veteran of more than 40 years specializing in corporate transformation while managing risk. He has successfully restructured more than 35 corporations with a combined value of $25 billion. For more information on DSS visit http://www.dsssecure.com. DSS Investor Contact: Dave Gentry, CEO RedChip Companies Inc. 407-491-4498 Dave@redchip.com Safe Harbor Disclosure This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions 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. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the Company's intended use of proceeds and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, include: risks relating to our growth strategy; our ability to obtain, perform under and maintain financing and strategic agreements and relationships; risks relating to the results of development activities; our ability to attract, integrate and retain key personnel; our need for substantial additional funds; patent and intellectual property matters; competition; as well as other risks described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the prospectus and in our other filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, our reports on Forms 8-K and 10-Q, all of which can be obtained on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made and reflect management's current estimates, projections, expectations and beliefs. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Stoltenberg in his talk with Zelensky notes that bill on reforming SBU will accelerate alliance into NATO NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg discussed topical issues related to the implementation of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic course and the possibility of deepening practical cooperation with the Alliance, the press service of the Ukrainian president said. Stoltenberg, in the course of conversation, praised the undisputable progress on many issues and Ukraine's focus on continuing the reform of the defense sector. In his turn, Zelensky added that Ukraine is committed to reform the anticorruption sector and implement the essential judicial reform. "Stoltenberg noted that the draft law on reforming the Security Service of Ukraine [draft law 'On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine 'On the Security Service of Ukraine' regarding the improvement of the organizational and legal basis for the activities of the Security Service of Ukraine'], which is currently being considered by the parliament, will help accelerate the progress on the Euro-Atlantic path," a message posted on the website of the President's Office says. The President stressed the importance of cooperation with NATO to maintain security in the Black Sea. He spoke in favor of expanding the Alliance's activities in the Black Sea region and noted that Ukraine is interested in increasing the presence of NATO forces in the Black Sea. [February 25, 2021] Optiv Names Omaha Senior Lauren Harris Recipient of $40,000 Scholarship Optiv Security, a security solutions integrator delivering end-to-end cybersecurity solutions, today announced the recipient of its Black Employee Network (BEN) scholarship. Lauren Harris, a student-athlete committed to the admissions process at Princeton studying biology and computer science from Omaha, Nebraska, has been selected as the winner as part of the company's overarching Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006035/en/ Lauren Harris, the recipient of Optiv's Black Employee Network scholarship. (Photo: Business Wire) Lauren will receive $10,000 each year for four years while at Princeton. Optiv is also awarding $500 grants to each of the three runner-up students to help cover the cost of books. "As we reflect on the importance of diversity in our industry and Black History Month at large, it's an easy choice to start making a bigger difference in our communities through funded scholarships," said Optiv CEO Kevin Lynch (News - Alert) . "We intend to announce a new scholarship recipient each year until we are sponsoring four students concurrently. On behalf of all of Optiv, we are proud to celebrate Lauren Harris as our first scholarship recipient and cheer her on as she commences her higher education journey. It's through the incredible drive, passion and leadership of young people like Lauren who will pave the way for a better future." Q&A with Lauren Harris What are you most proud of so far? Maintaining a 4.0 GPA while juggling extracurriculars and my passion for running track is something I'm very proud of. I'll continue to be a student-athlete and run track at Princeton. What does diversity mean to you? It's extremely important to me, especially since Omaha is predominantly white. I led an effort at my school to implement diversity training after meeting with my principal. The result of that was a diversity board that plans events and educates students and faculty on diversity, as well as the hiring of the school's only Black employee. What are your career goals? I am planning to use my degree in molecular biology and computer science to start a bio-cybersecurity firm. I hope to be able to use my voice to keep fighting for diversity in what has traditionally been a male-dominated field. "Optiv believes we are most powerful when our voices are diverse," said Noland Perrilloux, client manager with Optiv and BEN committee chair. "I feel very privileged to be part of Optiv and help foster the company's efforts to invest in creating more opportunities for young Black people such as Lauren, and ultimately, help increase diversity in the cyber and information security fields." BEN is entirely employee driven and part of Optiv's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative. This initiative supports multiple affinity groups including the Optiv Women's Network, Pride and Optiv Veterans Engagement Team and Supporters as well. To learn more about opportunities at Optiv, visit our career page. Follow Optiv Twitter (News - Alert) : www.twitter.com/optiv LinkedIn (News - Alert) : www.linkedin.com/company/optiv-inc Facebook (News - Alert) : www.facebook.com/optivinc YouTube (News - Alert) : https://www.youtube.com/c/OptivInc Blog: https://www.optiv.com/explore-optiv-insights/blog Optiv Security: Secure your security. Optiv is a security solutions integrator - "one-stop" trusted partner with a singular focus on cybersecurity. Our end-to-end cybersecurity capabilities span risk management and transformation, cyber digital transformation, threat management, security operations, identity and data management, and integration and innovation, helping organizations realize stronger, simpler and more cost-efficient cybersecurity programs that support business requirements and outcomes. At Optiv, we are modernizing cybersecurity to enable clients to innovate their consumption models, integrate infrastructure and technology to maximize value, achieve measurable outcomes, and realize complete solutions and business alignment. For more information about Optiv, please visit us at www.optiv.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006035/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The daily death toll from coronavirus infection in the United States returned to the 3000-plus level after a gap of 10 days. With 3230 new deaths reporting in the last 24 hours, the total U.S. COVID-19 fatalities rose to 505890, as per Johns Hopkins University's latest data. 73392 new cases of coronavirus infections were reported in the country in the same period, taking the national total to 28334981. A total of 54,118 COVID patients are currently admitted in the U.S. hospitals, according to COVID Tracking Project. Out of this, 11,026 patients are admitted in Intensive Care Units. More than 20 million Americans, or 6.4 percent of the total U.S. population, have so far been fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. collaborative volunteer-run effort to track the pandemic. Average test positivity rate has fallen to the lowest level in several months. Out of 1.46 million people tested for the virus, only 4.84 percent were diagnosed with the disease. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has concluded that the single-shot coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson has 'known benefits' in reducing both symptomatic and severe illness from coronavirus infection. After verifying data submitted by Belgian company Janssen, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, the U.S. regulator said its vaccine meets requirements for emergency use authorization. FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on Friday to recommend authorization to the FDA. If the decision is positive, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will become the third Covid-19 vaccine to be authorized in the U.S. It is reportedly considered a cost-effective alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna shots. A Columbia University Medical Center research report says that a worrying new coronavirus variant has been found in New York City and elsewhere in the Northeast. Another study has found that Covid-19 antibodies developed from a previous infection could significantly lower the risk of a person becoming re-infected. 'The main takeaway is that being antibody positive after natural infection is associated with partial protection against a new infection,' said Dr. Douglas Lowy, who was an author of the study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged to proceed 'wisely and carefully' before reopening public places to avoid a third wave of Covid-19 outbreak. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) - Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said initial findings from the panel tasked to probe the killings that had marked the administration's war on drugs, showed that law enforcement failed to follow protocols during anti-illegal drug operations. Facing the United Nations Human Rights Council, Guevarra said state forces asserted in many cases that the suspects in these deadly operations resisted arrest or fought back. However, the inter-agency review panel led by the Department of Justice discovered that there were no full examinations made on the weapons allegedly used by the suspects, nor was there any effort to verify the weapons' ownership. "It was also noted that among others, in more than half of the records reviewed, the law enforcement agents involved failed to follow standard protocols pertaining to coordination with other agencies and the processing of the crime scene," said the secretary. Guevarra said the report has been forwarded to police officials, who in turn informed him that they have begun internal investigations and recommended administrative and criminal actions. "It is now the immediate task of the review panel to ensure that these recommendations have been acted upon and carried out by the proper disciplinarian authorities," said the justice chief. Guevarra created the panel in June 2020, following a report from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, that found "serious human rights violations" in police operations under the Duterte administration. That time, Guevarra said the panel will look into all 5,655 anti-drug operations that resulted in deaths. President Rodrigo Duterte has been known for his ironclad stance against illegal drugs that launched a bloody war at the beginning of his term. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency counted 5,903 deaths in drug-related operations from July 1, 2016 to Sept. 30, 2020, but figures from human rights advocates reached up to 27,000 "extrajudicial" killings. The Human Rights Watch said the DOJ's report only told that the department was "asleep" when the drug war killings intensified, as the lapses in protocol have already been "obvious" to affected communities. The organization blamed the President who in the past had repeatedly encouraged the killing of druglords and drug suspects and even assured police of their legal protection. Duterte had maintained that he will take responsibility for all the lives lost in his notorious war on drugs. "The failures to investigate these killings were baked into the 'drug war' model from the start, with the police prepared to act because they knew that not only can [they] get away with it, but that they're supposed to get away with it," said Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch's Deputy Asia Director. Robertson called for transparency from the police on its internal investigations and punitive measures against officers found at fault. He also urged the DOJ to ensure its recommendations will be followed. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions A New York City family and its lawyer are calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediate release a 48-year-old father-of-three who was detained last month and had to be hospitalized due to a severe heart condition. Edward Alonso was on his way to work at a bagel shop he opened with his partner Rocio Molina before the COVID-19 pandemic when ICE agents arrested him on January 28. He is currently being held at the Orange County Jail in Goshen, New York. Alonso, who emigrated illegally to the United States from Mexico as a teen, saw his health condition worsen last week when he started suffering chest pains, according to Make The Road New York, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to undocumented immigrants. Edward Alonso, pictured with his girlfriend Rocio Molina, is currently being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Orange County Jail in Goshen, New York, after agents detained him January 28 while he was on his way to work at a bagel shop he co-owns with Molina, which opened before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Alonso has been hospitalized due to a severe heart ailment, according to Make The Road New York, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to undocumented immigrants Edward Alonso, pictured with his children, could be deported to Mexico unless ICE agrees to release the 48-year-old Babylon, New York, bagel shop owner Babylon Bagel in Babylon, New York, was opened by Edward Alonso and his girlfriend Rocio Molina before the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country. Alonso used his business to prepare meals that were donated to frontline workers at area medical facilities and also stood on the street corners in the New York City borough of Queens to hand out food to other undocumented immigrants and residents who were also impacted by the epidemic Make The Road New York said Alonso has a history of stroke and also wears a cardiac monitor, and during his imprisonment reported 'severe headaches and other frightening health symptoms.' As part of President Joe Biden immigration reform plan, ICE announced last Thursday that it would 'focus the agency's civil immigration enforcement and removal resources on threats to national security, border security and public safety.' Under ICE's new measure, Alonso's family argues he would not be considered a priority for deportation, although he could be removed from the country and returned to his native Mexico as early as next week. Rocio Molina (left) told El Diario La Prensa that the life of her boyfriend Edward Alonso is 'at greater risk' as long as he remains in custody of ICE due to his severe heart condition, which required him to be hospitalized last week Rocio Molina (left) and Edward Alonso (right), an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has been living in the United States since he was a teen and now faces deportation 'We submitted an urgent request for his conditional release,' said Jaqueline Pearce, a lawyer with Make The Road New York, in an interview with El Diario La Prensa. 'Alonso is a much loved member of the community and needs to be released immediately. We are deeply concerned that once he is released from the hospital and returned to the Orange County Jail, his health will deteriorate even further.' ICE is citing two cases in justifying the deportation order. Alonso was arrested in 2020 and hit with domestic violence charges. In 2007, Alonso pleaded guilty to using a vehicle and a fake Social Security card to transport undocumented immigrants. He served eight months in prison and was deported, but crossed the Mexico-United States border in 2010 to reunite with his three US-born children. Dr. Katherine Lamperti, a medical consultant with Make The Road New York, told Spectrum News 1 that Alonso should be released by ICE because the staff at the jail can't provide him the specialized attention that his medical condition requires. Alonso's release is also being championed by the same community that benefited from his generosity when he donated meals to hospitals and also stood on a corner and gave food out to undocumented immigrants and other residents at the height of coronavirus epidemic. Alonso's pending deportation drew the attention of U.S. Representative Grace Meng, who reached out to Tae Johnson, ICE's Acting Director, and the New York field office. 'Every day that Alonso is in detention puts his life at greater risk,' Molina said. 'For the past month, we have been concerned for his health and we want him to return home where he belongs so that he can receive the medical care he desperately needs.' The new owners of Asda have appointed another heavyweight director to their petrol station empire to allay concerns over governance. Mohsin and Zuber Issa announced that Dame Alison Carnwath would be installed on the board of EG Group as the head of the audit committee. It comes weeks after former Marks & Spencer boss Lord (Stuart) Rose was hired as chairman. Mohsin and Zuber Issa announced Dame Alison Carnwath (pictured) would be installed on the board of EG Group as the head of the audit committee The moves come as the billionaire brothers ready for a potential stock market float. But the appointment of Carnwath, 68, may raise eyebrows. The former investment banker has served on the boards of FTSE titans including BP and Barclays, and is a non-executive director at Zurich Insurance. She was also chairman of landlord Land Securities between 2008 and 2018, and was awarded her damehood in 2014 for services to business. But she is no stranger to controversy. As head of the remuneration committee at Barclays, she rubber-stamped Bob Diamond's pay packet, worth up to 17million, causing outrage. She later said she had urged the bank to give the former chief executive 'zero bonus' but was overruled. The Issas said: 'The appointment of Alison clearly demonstrates a commitment by the shareholders to put in place a board that is consistent with those of a public company of equivalent scale.' Mohsin, 49, and Zuber, 48, bought their first petrol station in Bury in 2001, growing EG Group to 6,000 forecourts on three continents on the back of 7billion of junk debt. The debt-fuelled expansion has fuelled criticism the business is not sustainable. In October, Deloitte resigned as auditor due to concerns over governance and internal controls. Criticism mounted after they announced their 6.8billion acquisition of Asda, the UK's third-largest supermarket, backed by TDR Capital. The pair bought it with just 780million of their own, raising a further 2.75billion in a record sterling junk bond sale. They then immediately announced the sale of Asda's petrol stations to EG, and the sale and leaseback of Asda's logistic network. In the past month they have registered offshore companies in Jersey to manage Asda finances. And they have pledged to invest 1billion over three years. Independent retail analyst Richard Hyman said: 'They are making a statement to the wider world, whether it's for floating or raising capital, to give reassurance that they've got very experienced and professional leaders. They're upping the ante and probably are preparing for a float.' Israels parliament passed a law Wednesday allowing the government to share the identities of people not vaccinated against the coronavirus with other authorities, raising privacy concerns for those opting out of inoculation. The measure, which passed with 30 votes for and 13 against, gives local governments, the director general of the education ministry and some in the welfare ministry the right to receive the names, addresses and phone numbers of unvaccinated citizens. The objective of the measure valid for three months or until the Covid-19 pandemic is declared over is to enable these bodies to encourage people to vaccinate by personally addressing them, a parliament statement said. Israel, a country of nine million people, has administered the two recommended jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus to roughly a third of its population. As it emerges from lockdown, the country is restricting certain services, including access to gyms and indoor dining, to the vaccinated only, giving a so-called green pass to the fully inoculated. That too has raised concerns about unequal access for those exercising their right to not be vaccinated. A growing body of evidence suggests that a massive change is underway in the sensitive circulation system of the Atlantic Ocean, a group of scientists said Thursday. The strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of currents that includes the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream, is now "in its weakest state in over a millennium," these experts say. This has implications for everything from the climate of Europe to the rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast. Although evidence of the system's weakening has been published before, the new research cites 11 sources of "proxy" evidence of the circulation's strength, including clues hidden in seafloor mud as well as patterns of ocean temperatures. The enormous flow has been directly measured only since 2004, too short a period to definitively establish a trend, which makes these indirect measures critical for understanding its behavior. The new research applies a statistical analysis to show that those measures are in sync and that nine out of 11 show a clear trend. Prior research had suggested that the AMOC was at its weakest point in a millennium or more, and suggested a roughly 15 percent weakening since about 1950. But when it comes to the latest evidence, "I think it just makes this conclusion considerably stronger," said Stefan Rahmstorf, an author of the research and an oceanographer with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. The study was published in Nature Geosciences by scientists from the Potsdam Institute, Ireland's Maynooth University and University College London. The AMOC is driven by two vital components of ocean water: temperature and salt. In the North Atlantic, warm salty water flows northward off the U.S. coastline, carrying heat from the tropics. But as it reaches the middle latitudes, it cools, and, around Greenland, the cooling and the saltiness create enough density that the water begins to sink deep beneath the surface. The water then swings back southward and travels all the way to the Southern Hemisphere, submerged, where it makes its way to the Antarctic as part of a global system of ocean currents. The entire system is known as the ocean's thermohaline circulation ("thermo" meaning heat and "hyaline," salt), and it plays many critical roles in the climate. It is also referred to as the global ocean conveyor belt, because it redistributes heat worldwide. In the North Atlantic, most important is the transport of heat northward, which has a moderating effect on Europe's climate in particular. But the circulation can be weakened by making northern water more fresh and less salty, and therefore less dense. That's what climate change - through a combination of more rain and snow, more melting of Arctic sea ice, and huge freshwater pulses from Greenland - is thought to be doing. The AMOC has captured the popular imagination because of its depiction in the lurid sci-fi film "The Day After Tomorrow," in which various disastrous events occur after a sudden halting of the current. Nothing nearly so dire is underway, and scientists say that although a shutdown is possible in the future as climate change continues, steady weakening is the more likely course in the near future. The late climate scientist Wallace S. Broecker wrote in 1997 that the AMOC is the "Achilles' heel" of the climate system, citing evidence that it has switched on and off repeatedly over the course of Earth's history, with the power to flip warming periods to intense cold in the Northern Hemisphere. Scientists do not expect anything so severe in our future, especially because greenhouse gases will continue to cause offsetting warming. However, they note that even the modest slowing of 15 percent has been accompanied by odd temperature patterns in the ocean and the significant upending of certain key fisheries, such as lobster and cod off the coast of New England. In particular, a recurrent "cold blob" has been observed in the ocean to the south of Greenland - a large region that is bucking the overall global warming trend and instead showing a marked cooling pattern. Scientists think this is evidence that less warm water is reaching this region than previously, and that it may also be a result of runoff from the melting ice sheet. At the same time, warm water has lingered instead off the coast of the northeastern United States, where the Gulf of Maine is showing some of the fastest-warming ocean water anywhere in the world. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State who co-wrote a major 2015 study with Rahmstorf showing a slowing AMOC, said the cold blob has been "remarkable" in its staying power. Mann said that the cold blob's presence since 2015 has helped convince him that the ocean current's slowdown is a robust finding. "The remarkable persistence of the cold blob since the publication of our article has convinced me, 'Yeah, it's real.' " At the same time, though, the latest study does rely on so-called proxy evidence, rather than direct measurements of the circulation. To give an example, one of the proxy-based studies, published last year, uses sediment collected from the seafloor to the south of Iceland, and the microscopic organisms it contains, to detect a shifting of water types over time. It therefore infers more warm water arriving in recent decades as opposed to colder conditions over hundreds of prior years. The current study's conclusions are, by necessity, only as good as the proxies are. And the complexity of different currents in the Atlantic, as well as different definitions of the AMOC, can call into question what the proxies are actually measuring, said Marilena Oltmanns, an oceanographer at the National Oceanography Center in the United Kingdom. Still, Oltmanns noted, "I think it is commendable that the authors used so many different proxies. So, even if only one of these proxies is linked to the AMOC, it should be sufficient to justify their conclusion." Rahmstorf understands the concern, but thinks the big picture nevertheless presents a major shift. "The proxies from different regions are measuring different aspects of a complex 3D AMOC circulation," he said. "To me, the key is that all these pieces of the AMOC puzzle fit together so nicely in the proxy data." Shares of GameStop are surging again in a puzzling sequel to last month's frenzy, with the rally immediately following a cryptic tweet about soft-serve ice cream from a key board member. At Thursday's opening bell, GameStop stock jumped another 80 percent, to $164, one day after the shares soared more than 100 percent, raising fears that small investors swept up in the mania could again loose big. The rally began late on Wednesday, soon after GameStop board member and activist investor Ryan Cohen tweeted a mysterious image of McDonald's soft-serve ice cream accompanied by an emoji icon of a frog. The renewed mania also followed GameStop evangelist Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, revealing last week that he had doubled his stake in the struggling video game retailer, after he testified in Congress: 'I like the stock.' GameStop board member Ryan Cohen's cryptic ice cream tweet of Wednesday was obsessively analyzed on Reddit for clues to the company's future At Thursday's opening bell, GameStop stock jumped another 80 percent, to $164 On Reddit and Twitter, small traders scrutinized Cohen's ice cream tweet in a frenzy of speculation, searching for clues it could contain about GameStop's future. Cohen, the billionaire founder of online pet-supply retailer Chewy, last year disclosed that he'd taken a 13 percent stake in GameStop, and joined the board touting plans to reinvent the company as an online platform. Ryan Cohen owns 13% of GameStop, and is an activist investor with a board seat Users of the Reddit board WallStreetBets, who have pushed to buy up GameStop shares and view Cohen as the company's savior, obsessively analyzed his tweet for signs of inside information following the ouster of CFO Jim Bell on Tuesday. One enterprising researcher discovered the following quote on the website of Volition Capital, a major Chewy investor: 'Chewy's first official board meeting included two slides, a lot of laughter and a trip to McDonalds for soft serve.' When Twitter user @vestro shared the theory, his tweet was 'liked' by Volition Capital's managing director, pouring fuel on the bonfire of speculation. 'Holy f**k!' wrote one Reddit user. 'Ryan Cohen has the reigns [sic] as CEO and they just had their first board meeting... Same as he did at Chewy!' Other users speculated that the frog symbol represented the classic arcade game Frogger, or is a 'long-used symbol of transition and change, from tadpole to frog.' Web sleuths discovered info on a Chewy investor's site that at the company's first board meeting, Cohen had taken the board out for McDonald's soft-serve GameStop shares remain well below their peak last month of $483 at the height of the frenzy Reddit discussion threads were buzzing again about GameStop on Thursday, with members exhorting others to pile into the stock as the rally gathers steam. 'Bought lots more #GME today, let's keep fighting !!,' wrote one Reddit user Fundssqueezzer, while another user Responsible_Fun6255 said, 'Rise of the planet of the ape: GME edition'. It led to concerns that amateur investors would pile into the stock at an inflated price in a gamble that it will rise further. Last month, some small investors lost hundreds of thousands when they poured their savings into GameStop shares, only to see the bubble burst. 'It's a pretty risky play to try and buy now ... what we might (see) at the open of the cash market is some people trying to get in,' Oriano Lizza, premium sales trader at CMC Markets in Singapore, told Reuters. However, some of GameStop's most ardent promoters are standing behind the stock. On Friday, one day after testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Keith 'Roaring Kitty' Gill revealed on Reddit that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he was holding, from 50,000 to 100,000. Keith 'Roaring Kitty' Gill revealed on Reddit last week that he had doubled the number of shares of GameStop he was holding, after testifying in Congress: 'I like the stock' A brokerage account screenshot posted by Gill showed that he sunk $2 million into another 50,000 shares of GameStop, at an average price of about $40 per share Gill, who had already made about $13 million in profits from his trades, plowed about $2 million of his gains into the trade, paying about $40 per share to increase his stake. He had testified in Congress: 'GameStop's stock price may have gotten a bit ahead of itself last month, but I'm as bullish as I've ever been on a potential turnaround. In short, I like the stock. GameStop shares skyrocketed in January as retail investors, urged on by popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, bought the stock as a way to punish hedge funds that had bet massively against it. The squeeze 'personally humbled' Melvin Capital's Gabriel Plotkin, whose firm was bailed out with a $2.75 billion dollar lifeline supplied by hedge fund Citadel's Kenneth Griffin and Point72 Asset Management's Steven Cohen. The risky trading strategies employed by some traders on Reddit have drawn the ire of investing legends such as Charlie Munger, long time business partner of Warren Buffett. 'It's really stupid to have a culture which encourages as much gambling in stocks by people who have the mindset of racetrack bettors,' said Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman, at a conference on Wednesday. Robinhood slams Charlie Munger's 'elitist' comments calling small traders 'a bunch of gamblers' Online trading platform Robinhood on Thursday responded to Munger's remarks, after the billionaire investor accused the company of profiting off 'gamblers' who treat the stock market like a casino. 'To suggest that new investors have a 'mind-set of racetrack [betters]' is disappointing and elitist,' a Robinhood spokeswoman said. 'In one fell swoop an entire new generation of investors has been criticized and this commentary overlooks the cultural shift that is taking place in our nation today,' she added. 'Robinhood was created to allow people who don't have access to generational wealth or the resources that come with it to begin investing in the U.S. stock market,' the spokeswoman said. Charlie Munger, the longtime business partner of Warren Buffett, on Wednesday warned that the stock market bears signs of a bubble, reflecting a 'dangerous' gambling mentality 'It should be celebrated that we are seeing market investors begin to diversify, and that education and awareness about the values of investing are diffusing further into previously untapped generations,' she added. At a conference on Wednesday, Munger, 97, lamented the recent mania for GameStop, in which amateur investors encouraged each other online to buy the gaming retailer on platforms including Robinhood. 'It's really stupid to have a culture which encourages as much gambling in stocks by people who have the mindset of racetrack bettors,' he said. 'A lot of them crowd in to buying stocks on frenzy, frequently on credit, because they see that they're going up, and of course that's a very dangerous way to invest.' 'That's the kind of thing that can happen when you get a whole lot of people who are using liquid stock markets to gamble the way they would in betting on race horses,' he said of the GameStop saga. Munger said commission-free trading apps like Robinhood were partly to blame for the bubble. 'And the frenzy is fed by people who are getting commissions and other revenues out of this new bunch of gamblers. And of course, when things get extreme, you have things like that short squeeze,' he added. 'And it's really stupid to have a culture which encourages as much gambling in stocks by people who have the mindset of racetrack matters,' said Munger. 'It's a dirty way of making money.' Nobody underestimated the challenges facing Stormont ministers when they took office last January. A health service with the worst waits in the UK; the poorest performing economy in these islands; key infrastructure projects lingering in limbo - and then along came Covid. It has been a baptism of fire for the Executive. If seasoned, stable governments have struggled during the pandemic, our five-party one can hardly be expected to have handled it perfectly. Yet, unfortunately, Stormont has failed to meet even the lowest expectations. The individual performance of ministers varies from the professional to the pitiful. But, collectively, the Executive's response to coronavirus has too often been shambolic. The blame does not lie with the smaller parties around the table. It is the dysfunctionality at the heart of the DUP-Sinn Fein relationship that has proved poisonous during the pandemic. The new administration started on a wave of optimism on January 11, 2020 - a blissfully naive day before social distancing, the R-rate and furlough had even entered our vocabulary. At the first meeting of the Assembly Arlene Foster told MLAs how it was "time for Stormont to move forward and show that 'together we are stronger' for the benefit of everyone". Michelle O'Neill spoke of her hope for a unity in determination to deliver "a stable power-sharing coalition that works on the basis of openness, transparency and accountability, and in good faith and with no surprises". It has hardly gone as promised. Both women's parties have fallen well short of these aspirations in their response to Covid. Closing schools was the first issue on which they clashed. On March 12 the Executive collectively decided that educational establishments would remain open despite the Republic shutting theirs. O'Neill said they were "guided by the science". Less than 24 hours later came Sinn Fein's U-turn. It was a response to the feeling on the ground - especially in the nationalist community - with parents keeping their children home. Foster continued to back the UK-wide strategy to keep schools open. Sinn Fein's solo run was lambasted by UUP leader Steve Aiken. "They are playing party politics with health, and that is utterly reprehensible," he said. Next came a major row over PPE. On March 27 Sinn Fein Finance Minister Conor Murphy announced that a "very significant order" from China had been placed with the Irish Government. Just a week later he was forced to confirm that the order was not completed, and the plan had failed when "major economic powers entered the global race". On April 2 O'Neill declined to express confidence in Health Minister Robin Swann when quizzed on BBC's The View programme. Nine days later she criticised him over his "failure to consult minister colleagues" about his decision to ask the Army to help distribute lifesaving equipment and plan for a Nightingale hospital at the site of the former Maze Prison. Four days later O'Neill said she would "not stand in the way" of the Army's deployment in the fight against coronavirus. By May the rows had fizzled out and the Executive bedded down. The DUP and Sinn Fein appeared to realise that the public was not impressed by continual squabbling and it was in both their interests that it stopped. On May 24 the First and Deputy First Ministers gave a joint interview to Sky News. Foster said: "I'm not saying it's a good thing we've had a global pandemic but I think it shows that we have come together and that we can work together in the way that we have." O'Neill also said that Covid had brought them closer together. She revealed that they had shared worries about their mothers, who had both been admitted to hospital during the pandemic. Both joked that they were spending so much time together they could form their own social bubble. It wasn't quite the 'Chuckle Sisters' - the natural warmth and rapport that characterised the Paisley/McGuinness relationship was missing - but it was a clear attempt to move forward. Bobby Storey's funeral blew those efforts asunder. Sinn Fein's uncompromising approach to fighting Covid-19 went out the window. It was proven to be very much a case of 'Do as I say, not as I do' with public health guidelines breached, Two days after the funeral Foster called on O'Neill to step aside pending PSNI and Assembly standards investigations. When she refused to do so the First Minister ended their joint Press conferences. These eventually resumed in September, but relations between the two parties took another downwards turn the following month. Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots suggested that nationalist areas had significantly higher coronavirus infection rates than unionist areas, and that the Storey funeral was the cause of the differential. His remarks sparked widespread anger and were quickly shot down by the Department of Health. In November Swann's proposal for a two-week extension of coronavirus restrictions was defeated in the Executive after the DUP employed the cross-community veto. There is currently a DUP-Sinn Fein ceasefire on Covid, but rest assured it is only temporary. Disagreements over the pace of reopening the economy are inevitable, perhaps particularly in regards to hospitality. The vaccine rollout has been highly successful, and there is a widespread desire in Northern Ireland to get back to normal as soon as possible. But if a new variant of the virus develops that is resistant to existing vaccines, major tensions will again open up over lockdown restrictions. With an Assembly election scheduled for May 2022, the parties will be going into campaigning mode early this summer. With opinion polls suggesting Sinn Fein could emerge as the largest party - making O'Neill First Minister - and Irish Sea border tensions thrown into the mix, it will be the mother of all election battles. This will not involve "differing well". The uneasy peace between Stormont's big two should be enjoyed while it lasts. Anti-coup protesters display images of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, Thursday, February 25, 2021. Social media giant Facebook announced Thursday it was banning all accounts linked to Myanmar's military as well as ads from military-controlled companies in the wake of the army's seizure of power on Feb. 1. (AP) Bangkok: Facebook said it has banned all remaining accounts linked to the Myanmar military on Thursday, citing the junta's use of deadly force against anti-coup demonstrators. The move, which takes effect immediately, applies to the military and entities controlled by the armed forces on both Facebook and Instagram. It also bans all "military-linked commercial entities" from advertising on the platforms. "Events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have precipitated a need for this ban," the social media giant said in a statement. "We believe the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw on Facebook and Instagram are too great," it added, using the Myanmar name for the country's armed forces. Security forces have steadily increased the use of force against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding Myanmar's junta relinquish power. Three anti-coup protesters have been killed in demonstrations so far, while a man patrolling his Yangon neighbourhood against night arrests was also shot dead. The military has used Facebook to boost its claims that voter fraud had marred an election last November that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi had won in a landslide. In recent years, the social media giant has banned hundreds of army-linked pages after being criticised for its ineffective response to malicious posts in the country. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top brass were booted from the platform in 2018, a year after a military-led crackdown forced around 750,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Thursday's announcement follows Facebook's decision on the weekend to ban a page run by the regime's "True News" information service. Evergreen Aviation Museum and Pittock Mansion are the latest Oregon attractions to announce they are reopening as Oregon modifies coronavirus risk levels county by county. Gov. Kate Brown modified coronavirus risk levels for several counties this week, including two of Oregons largest. Clackamas and Washington counties will move into the moderate risk category as of Friday. Multnomah Countys move earlier this month from Extreme to High Risk is allowing some attractions and museums to reopen under reduced capacity. Check our list of popular destinations to determine which are currently open, or will be opening soon, and which are still closed. The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum pictured during the The McMinnville Food and Wine Classic. File photo. (Charles Hillestad) Evergreen Aviation Museum will open Friday, Feb. 26. Reservations are encouraged for the McMinnville attraction in Yamhill County, now considered a High Risk county. Under this level all museums are able to reopen at 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is smaller. Masks are required. Maximum six people per group. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Admission $10-$20; evergreenmuseum.org/covid19-updates Pittock Mansion and views of Portland from the mansion during a light dusting of snow or Portland Feb. 27, 2019. Mark Graves/Staff Mark GravesMark Graves Pittock Mansion reopened Thursday. The historic home is currently offering advanced timed tickets that must be purchased online prior to visiting. Face masks are required and must be worn properly throughout the duration of the visit. Safety protocols include open windows, air cleaners, and a socially distanced one-way path. Maximum group size is limited to 10 people. There might be short waits outside the Mansion before entry. Details: pittockmansion.org The Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem reopened Thursday, Feb. 25 with three new exhibitions. Timed entry tickets are required and can be purchased online at willamette.edu/go/hfma. With federal and state guidelines constantly evolving, the museum recommends visiting the website for the most current information and visitor guidelines. Hours of operation are noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. The Oregon Zoo went to full-time earlier this month. Oaks Park Roller Rink reopens Monday, March 1. Read more here. Newport's Oregon Coast Aquarium. File photo/ The OregonianLC- The Oregonian The Oregon Coast Aquarium has been open since Jan. 30. Bends High Desert Museum has been open for more than a month. A new exhibit is launching March 6, Cosmic Microscapes: Seeing Into Rocks from Oregon & Space. Still closed Museums and attractions that remain closed for now include: The Oregon Historical Society is taking steps over the coming weeks to comply with the new guidelines, and will announce a reopening date in the future. Details: ohs.org/covid-19-news-and-resources.cfm Portland Childrens Museum remains closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19, according to the museum. Check the website for Museum at Home activities; portlandcm.org/covid-19-updates The Portland Art Museum is closed to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic.Jamie Hale/The Oregonian The Portland Art Museum remains closed due to the ongoing pandemic. Following the recent change in risk categories for Multnomah County, museum officials are working on staffing and safety protocols. Please check back for a reopening date; portlandartmuseum.org/ Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals near North Plains is closed in accordance with orders from Governor Kate Brown to slow the spread of COVID-19, and will remain closed through the end of the orders for Washington County, according to the museums website; ricenorthwestmuseum.org/ Salems Bush Barn Art Center remains closed; salemart.org/bush-barn-art-center The Enchanted Forest in Turner normally would have a Spring Break opening, and then summer hours. But recent winter storm damage will likely have the park closed until at least summer. Rosemarie Stein, events@oregonian.com Over 430 Eyewear Styles and All-In-One Pricing The brand new store houses over 430 styles of eyeglasses, ranging from Airframe lightweight glasses, to Alternative Fit frames, suited for low nose bridges, and more. Adult and Kids sizes are available. The store will continue to feature signature 30-minute prescription glasses (depending on lens availability). Glasses start at $60, with premium quality lenses included: high index up to 1.74, aspheric, UV cut, anti-glare, and hard coatings all at no extra charge. Customers can continue to use their out-of-network vision insurance benefits for reimbursement. JINS has two other stores in the Bay Area: San Francisco's Union Square (flagship) and Santa Clara's Westfield Valley Fair. Customers' health and safety is JINS' number one priority, they have COVID-19 safety measures in place, and details can be found here . Eye exams for now will not be available at opening. Grand Opening Special: Free Blue Light Glasses until 3/14 JINS at Hillsdale Shopping Center kicks off their grand opening with a special promotion to welcome the surrounding community. For every customer in the first 2 weeks: With any purchase of glasses or sunglasses, get 1 free JINS SCREEN Boxed blue light glasses (ready-made as non-prescription). Available in Adult and Kids sizes (regular retail $50 for Adults and $30 for Kids). Limited time offer until March 14th, 2021. Limited Time Offer: $60 $0 Blue Light Lenses With more working from home or distance learning, many are spending alarming longer hours looking at digital devices each day. JINS wants to help in these times. They have a limited time offer for free blue light lens upgrades ($60 regular retail). Available online and in stores. Their blue light lenses called JINS SCREEN block blue light and reduce digital eye strain, as proven in the clinical study conducted by Keio University. JINS has already sold over 12 million pairs of blue light glasses in the US and Japan. About JINS JINS believes in Eyewear Fit for All. With stylish, innovative eyewear and thoughtful design, they encourage customers to explore their personal style, without having to worry about budget. Not only are they here to help you see the world better, but they also want our world to be a better place to see. Their Cases for Causes program collaborates with local nonprofits, with beautifully designed cases to support their missions. 100% of case sales goes back to the nonprofits. The brand has 640 retail stores globally in Japan, China, Taiwan, Philippines, and Hong Kong, including 6 U.S. stores, in the San Francisco Bay Area: Union Square, San Jose, San Mateo, and in Los Angeles: Sherman Oaks, Arcadia, and Torrance. Find JINS on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter . For additional information, visit: https://www.jins.com/us JINS Press Contact JINS US Marketing [email protected] SOURCE JINS Eyewear Related Links http://www.jins.com Irish musician Jim Corr is taking legal action against Twitter for suspending his account. The step was taken for an alleged violation of the social media company's policy on "Covid-19 misleading information." But the guitarist and member of chart-topping band The Corrs claims the move was an unlawful breach of freedom of speech. His lawyers are now seeking an injunction at the High Court in Belfast to have his account reinstated. Mr Corr said: "I am challenging Twitter over the suspension of my account with almost 50,000 followers. "Twitter is acting in conjunction with the Irish government who admitted working with social media companies in order to shut down and stifle certain voices with certain views in a blatant and unacceptable attack on free speech." The firm suspended his account last December for the alleged violation of its rules. Mr Corr vehemently denies breaching any regulations and contends that the step has damaged his reputation. Belfast firm KRW Law wrote to Twitter last month, claiming censorship and requesting an immediate reinstatement. Expand Close The Corrs racked up 40 million album sales worldwide / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Corrs racked up 40 million album sales worldwide Read More Lawyers representing the company responded by insisting that its actions were lawful. "Your client violated the Covid-19 Misleading Information Policy on multiple occasions, and this policy makes it explicitly clear that an accumulation of multiple violations will result in suspension," correspondence on behalf of Twitter stated. Denying that any defamatory action had been taken, the letter said reasons for the step were not published. It also confirmed that legal proceedings will be contested. With the dispute now set to go to court, KRW Law solicitor Colin McMenamin claimed: "For the Twitter account of Jim Corr to have been suspended demonstrates, again, the unregulated power a social media platform such as "Twitter has in both violating the data rights protection of individuals, causing damage to individual reputations and, significantly, determining the scope of individual speech." A new national survey shows the share of Australians willing to be vaccinated against coronavirus remains at 76 per cent, despite government efforts to reach 95 per cent acceptance. The University of Melbourne survey on vaccine attitudes found about 24 per cent of people around the country were still hesitant about being immunised against coronavirus. A new national survey shows the number of Australians willing to be vaccinated against coronavirus remains at 76 per cent, despite government efforts to bring the number closer to its aspirational target of 95 per cent. Credit:AP It also found 73 per cent of the 1000 respondents nationally voiced support for compulsory vaccination of all citizens once a safe and effective vaccine becomes available in Australia. While about three quarters of respondents revealed they were either likely or very likely to get vaccinated against the virus, about 11 per cent said they were unlikely to be vaccinated at all, while 13 per cent were unsure. WASHINGTON Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers the U.S. Postal Service faces a dire financial outlook, as lawmakers considered reducing retiree health care costs to bolster the service plagued by slow delivery. DeJoy, embattled since service plunged last summer ahead of an election that featured unprecedented volumes of mailed ballots, called the services congressionally imposed requirement to fund retiree health benefits decades in advance unfair and unaffordable. Mail delivery still hasnt recovered from the drop in on-time delivery that began after DeJoy made changes such as cutting overtime and extra trips by delivery trucks. The changes were put on hold in August but performance lagged, with first-class mail falling below 63% on-time delivery the week before Christmas, according to a document posted online by the Oversight Committee. Service has rebounded slightly to 80% of first-class mail being delivered on-time in early February, according to the committee document. Many people across the country and on this panel have grave concerns, and recent events have aggravated them, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform that held the hearing. The Postal Service faces a decline in mail volume as well as the requirement to pay for health benefits for future retirees. Maloney called it a dire financial situation that requires us to act. Newly selected postal Board of Governors Chairman Ron Bloom agreed that Congress should lift the retirees funding requirement. A bill under consideration would eliminate the mandate to fund retirees health care years in advance, and require Postal Service retirees to enroll in Medicare, at savings of $10 billion over 10 years, according to a summary released by the committee. DeJoy on Feb. 9 said he was working on a 10-year plan, and Maloney said that lawmakers have been trying to get information about the new strategic plan, which has yet to be made public. DeJoy on Tuesday said he wouldnt divulge details because the plan is still being formed. Our dire financial trajectory along with declining mail volume and other problems all demand immediate action, DeJoy said. We see a path forward to sustainability, and good service. Mailed ballots were delivered on time, Bloom said on Tuesday. Lawmakers remained critical of mail slowdowns. Some have called for President Joe Biden to name new postal governors to revive the struggling service. Democratic lawmakers have urged Biden to appoint new members to the Postal Services Board of Governors, and some have called for DeJoys departure. Three of nine presidentially-appointed seats on the board are open, giving Biden a chance to assemble a Democratic majority. The governors select the postmaster general, and under Republican leadership last year chose DeJoy, a shipping executive and donor to former President Donald Trump. On-time delivery nationwide for first-class mail dropped to 64% in December, and was lower in many areas, 33 U.S. senators said in a Feb. 17 letter to DeJoy outlining what they called unacceptable delays. The Postal Service has cited heavy package volume and worker absences due to COVID-19. The senators in their letter cited concerning practices including management rejecting overtime requests. ___ Todd Shields of Bloomberg News wrote this story. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2021 Bloomberg L.P. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC Standard & Poors Global Ratings has revised its credit rating outlook for Meridian Energy Limited (MEL) to BBB+/Stable from BBB+/Negative. Standard & Poors stated that the revised outlook to stable reflects their view that Rio Tintos decision to continue operations at its NZAS smelter until at least 31 December 2024, eases previously forecast pressure on earnings and energy margins. At the same time, Standard & Poors affirmed Meridians BBB+ long-term issuer credit rating and A2 short term issuer credit rating. Please see the link below for details: Standard & Poors Outlook Revision Source: Meridian Energy Limited 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. 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Related News: 1st June 2021 Morning Report Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Update Following Canterbury Flooding Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 31st May 2021 Morning Report The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) Media Reporting Regarding Potential Class Action Synlait Milk Limited (NZX: SML) Forecast Milk Price Update General Capital Limited (NZX: GEN) Continues on Its Strong Growth Path Third Age Health Services Limited (NZX: TAH) Announces Preliminary Full Year Result EROAD Limited (NZX: ERD) Better Positioned for Future Growth Green Cross Health Limited (NZX: GXH) Full Year Results to 31 March 2021 Thousands of girls from some of Australia's top private schools have claimed they were sexually assaulted in a petition demanding students be taught about consent. Among the disturbing accounts shared since Kambala School alumni Chanel Contos, 22, launched the petition on February 18, one horrifying theme emerges - most of their alleged rapists were their boyfriends or close male friends. Many anonymously revealed they lost their virginity to their rapists - who went to elite Sydney boys' schools including The King's School, St Ignatius College Riverview, and Cranbrook - while they slept, or were too drunk to consent. One girl wrote that she was a 15-year-old virgin in 2016 when she met her first boyfriend who had a 'rape fetish', and assaulted her repeatedly throughout their relationship. Former Kambala student Chanel Contos, 22, (pictured) started the petition when she realised last year she and her friend were both sexually assaulted by the same person as teenagers 'On our first date I told him I didnt even want to kiss and he forced one on me... later he coerced me into losing my virginity before the legal age, which I insisted I did not want to do,' she said. RAPE AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN AUSTRALIA - There were 374 juvenile sexual assault cases reported in NSW in 2020. - Chanel Contos gathered thousands of rape and sexual assault testimonies from private schoolgirls. - About 38 per cent of women aged 18 to 24 have experienced sexual harassment. - 66 per cent of 14-year-old boys have been exposed to sexual material within the last 12 months. - 72 per cent of children between 14 and 17 have been exposed to porn in the past six months. - About one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence. - Only 28 per cent, or 14,994 cases, of alleged rape victims come forward in NSW. - Only three per cent of rapes reported to NSW Police in 2018/19 ended in a conviction. - About 346 cases were withdrawn. Source: ABS and NSW Police Advertisement The student, from Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney, claimed the Cranbrook boy 'manipulated' and 'forced' her into having sex on countless occasions, or would rape her when she was asleep or too drunk to say no. 'One time I regained consciousness while drunk to him picking me up, putting me in bed and saying "sorry" after he had raped me,' the teenager said. Eventually, he told her about his 'rape fetish', and joked with his friends at a party about gang raping her. Another victim, from Kincoppal in Rose Bay, said her first boyfriend went to catholic boys boarding school Saint Ignatius College Riverview and was 'obsessed' with taking her virginity. 'One time we were in bed together he kept asking to "just put the tip in", even though I kept saying no repeatedly,' she wrote in the petition. She felt pressured into sex and was worried he wouldn't like her anymore if she refused. 'I had been assaulted before and while he was trying to push himself inside me I started having flashbacks and crying,' the girl said. He only stopped because she was 'sobbing too hard'. A teenage girl from St Catherine's said her ex boyfriend from Moriah College often touched her body without asking and eventually 'coerced' her into sex, despite saying no 'literally 20 times' 'I was overwhelmed and confused, but surely it must have been fine, because he was my first love,' she wrote. 'It hurt so much that I shouted in pain, but he carried on, and said "that was it" when he felt my hymen "break".' Ms Contos (pictured) said she hopes the petition will bring change to sexuality education to students across Australia Chantel Contos' petition now has signatures from close to 7,000 former and current school students across Australia The girl said one of her school friends was also raped by a boy who she considered to be her best friend. 'I once asked her if it was normal to feel sad after making out with her boyfriend, and she told me "yes" and that those feelings would go away,' she said. 'Now I realise we had both been assaulted and didn't know what was okay, or normal.' Another St Catherine's student said she woke up in complete darkness in 2017 to find her boyfriend 'inside me', despite telling him earlier that she was too tired. 'I rarely said no to sex, so he continued to ask. Eventually, sometime after I had fallen asleep, he started touching me. When I opened my eyes to find him inside of me, I felt sick,' she wrote. Hundreds of girls who attended Sydney private schools has claimed they were sexually assaulted and raped by private school boys. Pictured: Chanel Contos is calling for better sex education Ms Contos said Kambala High School (pictured) gave her a 'great consent education but they gave it too late' SCHOOL RESPONSES TO THE PETITION St Catherine's School Headmistress Dr Julie Townsend said the testimonials were 'heartbreaking'. 'It is clear from these girls' testimonies that many of them have suffered in silence for years, and we need to ensure that, not only do they understand what assault is, but know their rights in reporting it and charging someone,' she said. Kambala Principal Shane Hogan said he will give information to parents about consent and respectful relationships. '[We are] commending the bravery of the young women to call out this behaviour and calling on any Kambala girls or old girls who have experienced this to contact us to access our on campus counselling support and support,.' Cranbrook School Principal Nicholas Sampson said schools 'need to take further action' and pledged to review of the school's pastoral care, including holding mixed gender education programs. 'All of us at Cranbrook need to be grateful for the courage of these young women in speaking out,' he wrote, linking to the petition. 'Society makes it very hard to raise issues of this type.' Saint Ignatius' College Riverview Principal Dr Paul Hine said the school 'fully supports' the allegations against students being referred to the police. 'Non-consensual sex is a crime and this message is given unequivocally to our students as part of their education,' he said. The Scots College Dr Ian Lambert, wrote to parents and said the school would review its education programs. 'It is a wake-up call for us all,' he said. 'They are to be commended for their bravery in standing up and speaking out. Source: Daily Mail Australia and The Guardian Advertisement A victim from Kambala said her boyfriend forced her into anal sex while she was drunk on her 18th birthday, 'despite screaming no and yelling in pain'. She said he manipulated her into feeling as though she had done something wrong, adding that she only realised it was rape years later. One girl from Kincoppal said she had been dating her boyfriend, an ex Riverview student, for 11 months when she got 'really drunk' in 2020. While the couple often engaged sexually, they hadn't had penetrative sex because she wanted to remain a virgin. 'We had spoken about it at length,' she said. 'He proceeded to do it in the shower and I woke lying on the shower floor realising what had happened.' The morning after, he said: 'I know I didnt rape you, because I did a sexual consent course at university and what I did was not rape.' He broke up with her two months later. Ms Contos' petition now thousands of testimonies from woman aged between 13 to 50-years-old from across Australia. Pictured: Testimonies from victims Testimonials on the petition have accused unnamed students from Sydney's most exclusive all-boy schools, including St Ignatius Riverview (pictured) Another girl said she kissed a boy from The King's School in 2016, before he bought her multiple drinks when they were at a bar together at the age of 18. 'He kept telling me to skol them and then would buy me more,' she said, before the situation took a dire turn and he lead her back to his room. 'He started taking off my clothing. I was so drunk I passed out on his bed. I woke up in the middle of the night without any clothes on to him having sex with me.' She panicked and pretended to be asleep until he stopped, before running from his house the next morning without her phone, wallet and 'half my clothing'. Chanel Contos started the petition because she was sexually abused at the age of 13. She was forced to give oral sex to a boy when she was in Year 8, but did not realise she had been raped or learn about consent until she attended a sex consent class in Year 10 that presented by a former police officer. I was sexually abused and I also found out last year when I was talking with my friends that the same person who did it to me did it to another one of my friends,' she told The Project on Tuesday. The now 22-year-old said she couldn't sleep the night she found out and felt as though she could have stopped it but she didn't realise at the time that it was wrong. 'I just felt anger - why didn't I know it was wrong? Why couldn't I stop that?,' she said. Ms Contos previously told Daily Mail Australia she 'knew that something had to be done'. At least 1,500 former students have signed the petition or shared stories of their own alleged assaults. Pictured: Chantel Contos, who said she was forced to perform oral sex on a boy Chanel Contos' petition nearly has 7,000 signatures from men and women across Australia 'The realisation you've been sexually assaulted, it's a hard thing to go through'. Ms Contos said despite her school giving her a 'great consent education, they gave it too late.' 'A lot of people are already sexually active by 15 or 16, and you need to have this consent training before you become sexually active', she said. 'People who have contacted me have said they received no consent sexual education, especially boys schools said that it was minimal to none.' Ms Contos' petition now has thousands of testimonies from woman aged between 13 to 50-years-old from across Australia. Chantel Contos (pictured) is calling for schools to provide consent sexual education to students from a young age Her former school Kambala has reached out to her following the petition and asked her to work with them to help them teach consent to young students. It is estimated one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence, but only 28 per cent of alleged rape victims come forward in NSW. Of the incidents reported to NSW Police in 2018/19, only about three per cent ended in a guilty conviction. If the sexual assault charges make it to court, 34 per cent result in a guilty conviction, according to 2018/19 data provided to the Law Reform Commission. If this story has raised issues for you, please contact 1800 Respect 1800 737 732, Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 224 636, Domestic Violence Line 1800 65 64 63 Viruses mutate all the time, including the coronavirus that's caused the global covid-19 pandemic. Although most of the changes are innocuous, several mutants have sparked alarm, and three variants that emerged in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil have caused particular concern. Studies suggest they are more contagious, and some evidence points to one of them being more deadly, and another driving reinfections. Vaccine developers are working on new versions after early data from South Africa indicated AstraZeneca's inoculation was less effective against the variant circulating there. 1. What's a variant? During replication, a virus often undergoes genetic mutations that may create what are called variants. Some mutations weaken the virus; others may yield some advantage that enables the variant to proliferate. Variants with distinctly different physical characteristics may be co-termed a strain. A variant that deviates significantly from its viral ancestors may be identified as a new lineage, or branch on the evolutionary tree. In general discourse, however, the terms are often used interchangeably. 2. How widespread are these variants? The variant that emerged in England in September, B.1.1.7, contributed to a surge in cases that sent the U.K. back into lockdown in January. Other countries followed, particularly in Europe. In the U.S., health officials have warned the strain could become dominant as soon as March; President Joe Biden toughened rules in his first days in office to try to contain it. In southern Africa, hospitals faced pressure from a resurgence driven by another variant, 501Y.V2 (also known as B.1.351). Brazilian researchers, meanwhile, have warned that a so-called P.1 variant spotted in Manaus, Amazonas state, in December may have driven a surge in cases that strained the health system and led to oxygen shortages. Researchers in Los Angeles reported a novel strain, denoted as CAL.20C, linked to a surge of coronavirus cases in Southern California, though less is known about its effect on infectivity or disease severity. Insufficient surveillance in most countries, including the U.S., has obscured recognition of variants circulating in many places. Improved monitoring has led scientists to discover more strains in New York and elsewhere, though less is known about their importance. 3. What are the concerns with these variants? Broadly, they pose different concerns of varying degrees. These relate to their: --Transmissibility, or propensity to spread, --The severity of illness they cause, --Neutralization capacity, or the likelihood they will infect people who have recovered from a previous bout of covid-19, and --Potential impact on vaccination through their ability to evade the protection that immunizations are designed to generate. 4. How quickly have the strains spread? Rapidly, aided by year-end holidays traditionally associated with increased family and social mixing. As of Feb. 23, imported cases or community transmission of the B.1.1.7 variant from the U.K. had been reported in 101 countries, according to the WHO. Several European nations, notably Spain, France, and Denmark, reported a rapid increase in detections in February. In the U.S., scientists have estimated that infections caused by B.1.1.7 are doubling every 10 days. As of Feb. 23, scientists have found the 501Y.V2 variant that first appeared in South Africa in early August in 51 countries, while 28 countries are reported to have detected the P.1 variant first seen in Brazil, according to the WHO. 5. How are the variants increasing transmission? They appear to have some advantage over other versions that has enabled them to quickly predominate, although factors such as people congregating indoors more in colder weather may also contribute to spread. The U.K. strain has acquired 17 mutations compared with its most recent ancestor -- a faster rate of change than scientists typically observe. A U.K. advisory group said in December that the B.1.1.7 lineage may result in an increase in the basic reproduction number, or R0 (the average number of new infections estimated to stem from a single case) in the range of 0.39 to 0.93 -- a "substantial increase." 6. So why are cases falling? Worldwide, by late February the number of new covid-19 cases reported weekly has fallen steeply from a peak in early January. That's coincided with more stringent public health measures -- from physical-distancing and mask-wearing requirements to lockdowns -- as well as rising rates of infection- and vaccine-induced immunity. Some scientists have speculated that SARS-CoV-2 may have a seasonal pattern, causing comparatively more infections in late autumn and early winter-type weather. It's possible cases may climb again as more-transmissible variants seed fresh epidemics. 7. How many mutations are there? Many thousands of mutations and distinct lineages have arisen in the SARS-CoV-2 genome since the virus emerged in late 2019. A variant with a so-called D614G mutation emerged in early 2020. By June, it had replaced the initial strain identified in China to become the dominant form of the virus circulating globally. Months later, a novel variant linked to farmed mink was identified in a dozen patients in North Jutland, Denmark, but doesn't appear to have spread widely. As SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate, more mutations will arise, potentially leading to more variants. 8. Are some mutations more important? Yes. Scientists pay most attention to mutations in the gene that encodes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which plays a key role in viral entry into cells. Targeted by vaccines, this protein influences immunity and vaccine efficacy. The B.1.1.7, 501Y.V2, and P.1 variants all carry multiple mutations affecting the spike protein. That raises questions about whether people who have developed antibodies to the "regular" strain -- either from a vaccine or from having recovered from covid-19 -- will be able to fight off the new variants. 9. What do we know so far? In January Public Health England found those previously infected with the "regular" coronavirus are likely to mount an effective antibody response against the B.1.1.7 variant. But the same month the first known instance of a recovered covid-19 patient being reinfected with the P.1 variant was reported in Brazil. That strain has several key mutations in common with the 501Y.V2 strain from South Africa, that was associated with some 4,000 reinfections in people who had already experienced covid-19 in an earlier epidemic. In a Jan. 28 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, virologist John P. Moore and vaccinologist Paul Offit described the 501Y.V2 variant as "more troubling" because of its potential for reducing vaccine efficacy, due to its particular spike-protein mutations. 10. How effective will vaccines be? Data are emerging, and no clinical studies have directly compared different vaccine types and their ability to protect against the new strains. Overall, nine vaccines have proved effective in clinical trials at preventing severe disease and death from covid-19. The studies suggest, however, that some may not be as good at stopping less severe illness in countries where particular variants predominate. Notably: --Shots from both Novavax Inc. and Johnson & Johnson showed lower efficacy in South Africa compared with other countries. --South Africa announced plans in early February to halt its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine. An interim analysis of clinical trial results there found two doses of the vaccine didn't protect recipients against mild-to-moderate covid-19 from the 501Y.V2 variant, though researchers speculated that the regimen might still protect against severe illness. A WHO advisory panel cautioned that the 21-to-35-day interval between the first and second doses isn't optimal for inducing immunity and larger studies are needed. --A study published Feb. 24 of almost 1.2 million people in Israel, which has inoculated a higher percentage of its population than any other country, estimated that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 92% effective in preventing all infections. By the end of the surveyed time period, as many as four-fifths of the infections in Israel were caused by the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K. --Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found a single jab of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech shot bolstered the immune response in 10 patients who had recovered from a SARS-CoV-2 infection early in the pandemic. The concentration of neutralizing antibodies in the recipients' blood increased about a thousand-fold, and they appeared potent against the 501Y.V2 variant first identified in South Africa. 11. What are drugmakers doing? Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford who conducted the initial research on the AstraZeneca vaccine, said that "efforts are underway to develop a new generation of vaccines that will allow protection to be redirected to emerging variants as booster jabs, if it turns out that it is necessary to do so." The new shot could be ready for the fall, she told the BBC. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, as well as Moderna, have said their own results indicate their vaccines should still work against the strain detected in South Africa, despite the reduced potency. Nevertheless, Moderna said on Feb. 24 that it sent the National Institutes of Health doses of an experimental vaccine against the strain for testing in an early-stage trial. It plans to develop and test a third-shot booster against that variant as well as a combination, or multivalent, vaccine that would include the new innoculant. Pfizer has said it's starting the development of a booster against the new mutations. Novavax said it started working on new versions of its vaccine targeting the emerging strains in January and expects to select ideal candidates for either a booster or combination shot. Such alterations aren't unheard of -- it happens annually with seasonal flu, which evolves quickly. Unlike flu, coronaviruses have a genetic self-correcting mechanism that minimizes mutations. 12. Could different vaccines be used in combination? Potentially, yes. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, announced in January as much as $140 million in funding for additional clinical research to optimize and extend the use of existing vaccines. This could include "mix-and-match" studies of different shots used in combinations that may improve the quality and strength of the immune response. Such studies could be useful in optimizing the use of available inoculations, including the AstraZeneca shot, according to the WHO. 13. Are there any other implications? Yes, treatments and diagnostics could be affected. Researchers in South Africa found a theoretical risk that some antibodies being developed for therapeutic use could be ineffective against the 501Y.V2 variant prevalent there. But studies at Columbia University support tests by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals showing that its antibody cocktail, which was granted emergency-use authorization in the U.S. and administered to Donald Trump, is effective at neutralizing 501Y.V2 and the variant first identified in the U.K. Drugmakers are using combinations of antibodies that target separate features of SARS-CoV-2 to decrease the potential for so-called virus-escape mutants that could emerge in response to selective pressure from a single-antibody treatment. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said new strains might undermine the performance of some PCR-based diagnostic tests. The impact, though, isn't likely to be significant, according to the WHO. 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. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prides himself of his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week, he had yet another opportunity to expose the extent of this friendship. On Feb. 19, Syria agreed to release an Israeli woman detained by its security services after crossing the border into the country. The release was achieved after elaborated discussions between the sides, mediated by Moscow. Jerusalem agreed to free two shepherds who had crossed the border into Israel, and to shorten the sentence of Nahal al-Makat from the Druze Golan Heights village Majdal Shams. Another component of the deal was revealed only later on. Israel agreed to purchase an unknown number of the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V to be donated to Syria. Netanyahu was quick to thank his Russian friend for the release deal. "Several days ago, a young Israeli woman crossed the border to Syria. I spoke twice with my friend Russian President Vladimir Putin. I requested his assistance in returning her, and he acted. I would like to thank him for again having joined in an effort to bring Israeli citizens back to the country," Netanyahu stated. Netanyahus office stressed that Netanyahu spoke with Putin twice on this issue, and that the State of Israel appreciates the actions of the Russian president. In January 2020, Netanyahu boasted of his friendship with Putin for another, yet somewhat similar reason. He had managed to secure the release of Israeli backpacker Naama Issachar, convicted in Moscow for transporting drugs into the country. Netanyahu even arrived personally in Moscow to welcome Issachar upon her release and bring her back home. It was two months only before the March 2 elections in Israel that year. Neither Netanyahu nor Putin raised the issue of an alleged deal. Only later it was revealed that as a gesture of goodwill, Israel agreed to assist Russia in some legal real estate issues regarding the Russian church in Jerusalem. This give-and-take relationship has many facets, and on several fronts and frontiers. For the past few years, Israel and Russia are coordinated, to some degree, on movements in Syrian skies, to avoid any misunderstandings between the two armies. Foreign publications have attributed to Israel several aerial attacks in the past few weeks of Iranian targets in Syria. Israel has not taken responsibility for these attacks. On Jan. 18, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed these strikes, hinting that coordination between the two countries was not as extended as Moscow would like it to be. If Israel is really forced to respond to threats to the Israeli security coming from the Syrian territory, we have told our Israeli colleagues many times, 'If you see such threats please give us the information,' Lavrov noted. Directly addressing Israeli leadership, Lavrov continued that Moscow did not want Syria to become an Israel-Iran war battlefield. So, our dear Israeli colleagues, if you have facts that your state is facing threats from the Syrian territory, report the facts urgently and we will take every measure to neutralize the threat, he said. Jerusalem did not respond to these comments publicly, but the fact that aerial attacks against Iranian targets in Syria continued well after Lavrovs remarks speaks volumes. While Israel appreciates greatly bilateral coordination for the safety of its jets and for the safety of Russian jets, it will not curb its campaign against Iranian entrenchment in Syria. In an apparent reference to Lebanon and Syria, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Feb. 8, We will not hesitate to uproot the Iranian entrenchment near our borders. Israeli and Russian priorities on Syria are not exactly diverging. While Moscow would like to preserve the Assad regime, Israel is focused on battling Iranian presence there. Russia is also hoping to play a role in the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and perhaps even in future talks between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and Israel and the West Bank Palestinian leadership. An example for such involvement was registered Feb. 6, when Hamas and Fatah delegations held talks in Moscow with Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali to discuss the internal-Palestinian rift and upcoming Palestinian elections. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met with both delegations separately to discuss these same two issues. Jerusalem is aware of the Russian involvement. Evidently, for now at least, Moscow has better and deeper ties with both Palestinian groups than the new Biden administration. Like the case of the Moscow-Assad axis, here too, Jerusalem chose not to confront Moscow publicly on sponsoring Iranian involvement with Hamas and the Palestinians. Netanyahu comprehends the limits of his friendship with Putin. [This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.] [FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE] San Diego, CA February 24, 2021Publisher, Crytivo alongside the development team, Soda Den are excited to announce that the project is both funded in less than 24 hours and has already hit its first stretch goal! Players will be able to choose between a variety of wedding locations. Roots of Pacha is a CO-OP Life Simulator that take place in a Stone Age. Developers are heavily inspired by games like Harvest Moon, Stardev Valley, and Clan of The Cave Bear. Kickstarter Page Watch Trailer ROMANCES STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED Romance is a staple in the farming sim genre. In Roots of Pacha, players will be able to choose between a forest, beach, or a cave wedding location with a specially designed wedding outfit. NEXT GOAL: WATER BENDERFishing is fun, but fishing on a boat is double the fun! Find a sweet spot in the middle of the lake and catch a whole new variety of fish. Or maybe sail from a beach dock to a nearby coral reef. Playing with friends? Time for a fishing trip together! Watch the Trailer Roots of Pacha is a co-op farming and life simulation game set in the stone age. Help your once nomadic clan settle in a promised and fertile land. By connecting with nature youll develop Ideas to evolve, enrich your culture, relationships, and discover the mysteries of Pacha, mother nature. Important Features, that appear in the closed Alpha Evolve the clan with Ideas like irrigation and animal taming. Farm and find wild seeds that can be domesticated. Befriend and taime wild animals with your favorite markings. Fish with minigames that challenge your steady hand. Bond with NPCs by giving gifts or sharing a dance. Customize your character with the latest stone age fashion. Ride ostriches, guanacos, boars, and more, eventually creating a riding league. Build your home and design tapestries and pottery Construct buildings and expand your village. Playable alone but developed with Co-Op in mind, including cut scenes. Mine in the depths of the world to find precious resources. Solve the mysteries of Pacha and her totems. Important Future Features You can pet a baby mammoth and other animals. Fill your kitchen with prehistoric appliances and utensils. Collect all the recipes in the stone age cookbook. Breed animals to discover new species. Date & marry your fellow Pachans. Participate in primitive festivals and rituals to Pacha. Important Links Kickstarter | Website | Discord | Media Kit Platforms PC | Nintendo Switch About the Developers Roots of Pacha is being developed by Soda Den, a studio led by two brothers with one in San Diego, California, and the other in Cordoba, Argentina. They grew up playing Harvest Moon but it was reading Clan of The Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel that sparked their creative fire. About Crytivo Crytivo is an indie developer and publisher, founded in 2017 by Alex Koshelkov in San Diego, California. Crytivo works with game developers around the globe to help bring to market the best, most creative indie games in the world. In a statement issued Thursday, the general staff of the armed forces called for the countrys civilian leadership to resign, blaming Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who negotiated the settlement, of trying to deflect blame onto the military. For a long time, the Armenian armed forces patiently endured discrediting attacks by the current government, but everything has its limits, the statement said. The armed forces of Armenia honorably fulfilled their duty. In a speech beamed live on Facebook, Mr. Pashinyan said that he would fire the chief of the general staff, Onik Gasparyan, and that a military coup had begun. He then called on supporters to gather in a central square in the capital. As a crowd milled about, fighter jets flew two low sorties over the city, their engines screaming. But there was no sign of tanks, the deployment of troops or any other indication that a military coup was actually underway. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) Special Envoy to China and columnist Ramon "Mon" Tulfo, who recently admitted having received shots of the COVID-19 vaccine made by China's Sinopharm last year, disclosed on Wednesday that "thousands" of government officials have also been inoculated by his source despite the absence of regulatory approval in the Philippines. Tulfo said he was not aware of the exact number but he was told that officials from the executive, legislative, military, police and local government received the same vaccine he got in October 2020. He mentioned that Cabinet secretaries and members of the Presidential Security Group, as earlier reported, were vaccinated. "Legislative, Executive, and police, miiltary, yes," Tulfo told CNN Philippines' News Night. "I'm not aware of the numbers but I was told that it's by the thousands." He did not reveal where and from whom he received the doses but shared that the vaccination took place in a private property and his supplier was "a philanthropist." Tulfo added that he received the first dose alongside a former provincial governor, and the second dose with a police official, whose names he refused to disclose. Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration allowed the President's security to use the unregistered Sinopharm vaccines through a "compassionate permit" in the absence of Emergency Use Authorization. However, Tulfo said that at the time of his vaccination alongside other state officials, he was not aware of the permit. Only three manufacturers have been granted Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA US' Pfizer BioNtech, UK's AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac. Regulators and health officials have repeatedly warned against the use of unregistered vaccines due to the potential health risks. Conflict of interest Tulfo said he accepted the unregistered vaccines because he was applying to be a local distributor for Sinopharm. He denied that this venture would be in conflict with his position as envoy to China, by arguing that he did not use his position to get the supplies. Tulfo said he is not even sure if he is still an envoy since he was unable to have his appointment renewed when it lapsed supposedly in March 2020. He was also not informed if the appointment was revoked. "The appointment was neither revoked or renewed so I was in limbo," said Tulfo. FDA Director General Eric Domingo said the agency will investigate Tulfo for using smuggled vaccines. Intellitec Solutions, based in Newark, DE, will feature Dynamics 365 Business Central at their eighteenth annual spring User Group from May 17th 21st. In order to meet the current demand, this will be a virtual event conducted entirely online. Hosted semi-annually, the Intellitec Solutions User Group is the Mid-Atlantics longest running partner led forum for end users of Microsoft Dynamics. Fueled by the success of past sessions as well as the latest updates to Dynamics Business Central more than 30 clients are expected. While the experience is virtual, attendees will receive the same value as the in-person events provide. Intellitec will be presenting valuable information to help end users make the best use of their investment. As in previous years, attendees will have the ability to easily ask one off with questions regarding their software, with dedicate staff available to answer questions. Clients interested in attending should contact Intellitec Solutions at 866-504-4357, or visit the registration page. About Intellitec Solutions Intellitec Solutions is a leading ERP and CRM provider strategically located along the influential business corridor between Washington and Philadelphia. Specializing in Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics 365 and Sage Intacct, they have conducted thousands of engagements helping companies in diverse industries choose and implement software solutions to improve financial or customer relationship management. Using a proven system designed to maximize efficiency and business insight, Intellitec Solutions team of seasoned professionals provides value-added expertise to their clients. For more information or to schedule a demo of our solutions, please visit http://www.intellitecsolutions.com or call 866-504-4357 All products mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GCFLearnFree.org is a free online distance educational platform launched by Goodwill Community Foundation of Eastern North Carolina. This free learning resource is available regionally, nationally and internationally. GCF was recently instrumental in providing hardware, technical and financial support to establish Computer Learning Centers utilizing the GCFLearnFree platform in two prison rehabilitation programs located in the Dang District of Nepal. Goodwill Community Foundation The need for these rehabilitation programs was recognized by Anup Kumar Shrestha, Founder and Managing Director of Community Service Center of Nepal. While watching a television news broadcast about prisoners helping one another, Shrestha was inspired to find a way to provide opportunities for prisoners to develop skill sets that will allow them to successfully re-enter society. Shrestha established the Computer Learning Centers in the prisons of Dang and Tulsipur to provide learning tools related to computers and technology. GCF, in conjunction with local Rotary Clubs and the Community Service Center, provided each of the centers with ten computers, along with printers and other essential peripheral equipment. An offline version of GCFLearnFree.org was installed on each of the computers with topics, lessons and videos teaching technology, math, language and other skills. "Here you are physically inside the prison, but through unlimited knowledge, you will be able to broaden your level of consciousness and level of thought," Shrestha told the prisoners during the opening ceremonies. He urged them to educate themselves through these new learning tools to become good citizens. "Since the launch of GCFLearnFree.org in 2000, our goal has been to create, develop and fund a venture that would meet the needs of users through an accessible platform globally," said the Rev. Dennis McLain, GCF president and founder of GCF Global Learning and GCFLearnFree. "It is deeply gratifying that that we can adapt that venture to provide hardware and software to provide offline learning rehabilitation opportunities on an international basis." GCF Global Learning is committed to an ongoing process of change and evolution to consistently enhance free online learning opportunities. About Goodwill Community Foundation (GCF) Goodwill Community Foundation (GCF) continues to be a leader in an era of change by funding the training required for the emerging world where technology is integrated into everyday life. The mission of GCF is to create and fund education and life enrichment opportunities regionally, nationally and internationally for people who desire to improve the quality of their lives. A Durham-based tax-exempt organization, GCF funds support education and life enrichment programs, youth organizations and disaster relief efforts. GCFLearnFree.org and GCFAprendeLibre.org have provided free lessons for people in North Carolina and globally since 2000 to improve their technology, math, and English skills. All GCF programs are funded through revenue generated from the value of donated items to 41 Goodwill Community Foundation stores throughout eastern North Carolina. For more information on GCF, visit http://www.GCFGlobal.org. For media inquiries contact: Jenny Burke, Martin Communications [email protected] (919) 621-1619 Related Images goodwill-community-foundation-logo.png Goodwill Community Foundation Logo gcf-global-logo.png GCF Global Logo SOURCE Goodwill Community Foundation Colombo, Feb 26 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has highlighted that the he believes and supports resolving all regional conflicts through dialogue, insisting that Pakistan offered dialogue to India also. "Initiating wars gives rise to more disputes. We offered India to hold talks but the country did not pay heed to it," he said during his two-day visit to Sri Lanka. "Immediately when I came into power, I approached our neighbour India and explained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the way forward for the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue," he added. Khan said that even though his efforts to bring India to the dialogue table did not succeed, he was optimistic that "eventually sense will prevail". "The only way the subcontinent can tackle poverty is by improving trade relations," he said. "Pakistan wishes for the Kashmir dispute to be resolved according to the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and this can be only achieved through dialogue," he added. Pakistan PM's visit to Sri Lanka was focused on increasing trade relations between the two countries, with a special focus on bringing both countries closer in sharing defence capabilities. "Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka have remained affected by terrorism, with tourism declining as a result," he said. "Better relations between the countries in the region can help achieve the cause of eradicating poverty," he added. Taking the opportunity, Khan also offered Sri Lanka to become part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), highlighting that it would lead towards prosperity and development of the entire region. During the two-day visit of Pakistan premier to Sri Lanka, a new defence credit line facility of $50 million was opened for the Sri Lankan government. In a statement, it was stressed that both Pakistan and Sri Lanka need to build stronger partnership for supporting each other, specially in dealing with matter of security, terrorism, organised crime and drug and narcotic trafficking as well as intelligence-sharing. "Islamabad and Colombo also expressed satisfaction in the existing bilateral cooperation in the field of defence and noted that the elevation of staff-level talks to defence dialogue has further provided an opportunity to expand security sector relations," read an official statement. Pakistan PM's visit to Sri Lanka is being seen as Islamabad's efforts towards attracting support and forming alliance with regional forces, aimed at becoming a regional front liner of connection among the regional countries. Discovery Park to Display Southern Artist Showcase By Katie Jarvis, DPA Marketing Assistant UNION CITY - Discovery Park of America will open the next Southern Artist Showcase on Thurs., March 4, 2021, in Art Hall. This collection is on loan from the West Tennessee Regional Art Center (WTRAC) in Humboldt, Tenn. This is the second exhibit on which Discovery Park and the WTRAC have partnered.The Caldwell Collection, Works by Southern Self-taught Artists will include artwork from various Southern artists including Ludie Amos (1935), Jimmy Lee Sudduth (1910-2007) and Burlon Craig (1914-2002). All of the artists featured were self-taught, embracing their passion in lieu of any formal training. Each of the artists style is unique to their own influences.Ludie Amos was born in Georgia in 1935 and was one of ten children. One of her chores was to push the needle back up through the quilt as her mother sewed for her family. Her mother passed away when Amos was nine, and she was sent to Cleveland to live with her aunt. Transitioning from being one of ten children to a household where she was an only child, Amos found she had a lot of time on her hands. She discovered an interest in and talent for creating art in a variety of mediums. Discovery Park will have one of Amoss handmade, one-of-a-kind dolls, Glimpses, on display in this years Southern Artist Showcase.Jimmy Lee Sudduth, another artist whose work will be featured, was born in Alabama and created art using the natural materials around him. All of his pieces were made with mud mixed with sugar water and color extracted from weeds and vegetables. Sudduth rarely used an actual paint brush. Instead, he used his fingers to paint skyscrapers, chickens, old houses and the Statue of Liberty. Sudduths artwork to be on display includes Man With Fish Head, Indian, Statue of Liberty, Alligator, Man in Blue and Lady in Red.The exhibit will also feature the pottery of Burlon Craig. He was born in North Carolina and grew up on a farm with his parents and nine siblings. When Craig was in the first grade, he watched potter Will Bass mold clay and became immediately interested in pottery. In the 1930s, Craig worked with multiple potters to improve his art using the clay that he dug up from the banks of the Catawba River in North Carolina. Craigs alkaline glazes were made of crushed glass bottles, wood ashes, iron cinders, water and clay that he would grind on the hand-turned, water-powered stone mill. In the 1980s, Craigs pottery shop became a mecca for students of the Catawba Valley alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition because he retained all the old techniques. Several of his face pitchers and other pottery pieces will be on display in this exhibit.Self-taught Southern artists have in common a powerful belief that they simply ARE artists, and most seem driven to express themselves visually, said Bill Hickerson, executive director of the WTRAC. Some work within established traditions, while others create their own distinct art forms.The WTRAC collection was donated by Dr. Benjamin and Gertrude Caldwell for the purpose of cultural education for people of all ages throughout West Tennessee. By extending their collection to Discovery Park, the WTRAC is fulfilling both the Caldwells intended vision and Discovery Parks mission to inspire children and adults to see beyond, said Jennifer Wildes, senior exhibits director for Discovery Park. We hope the artwork will inspire our guests to see what type of art they can create themselves.This exhibit will be open March 4 through Sept. 27, 2021 and is included with park admission or membership. The Southern Artist Showcase: The Caldwell Collection, Works by Self-taught Artists is sponsored by The Citizens Bank (TCB).Discovery Park is strictly following all recommended health and safety guidelines. All guests three and older are required to wear masks when visiting.Photo caption: Discovery Park of Americas senior exhibits director, Jennifer Wildes, carefully unpacks pottery by Southern artist Burlon Craig with the painting, Lady in Red, by Jimmy Lee Sudduth pictured in the foreground. Relatives could go on foreign holidays together this summer using a family vaccine passports app being rolled out by British Airways. The VeriFLY app allows up to nine family members to upload proof of vaccination on one pass. The family feature will be rolled out on BA flights by the end of the week, initially only for showing proof of recent negative Covid tests before boarding. But software giant Daon, the firm behind the pioneering technology, said the app could be adapted to include proof of vaccination for large families within days or weeks. It comes after the World Health Organisation warned that vaccine passports were not the answer for reopening borders, given that there are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission. Relatives could go on foreign holidays together this summer using VeriFLY, a family vaccine passports app being rolled out by British Airways Daons Europe chief, Clive Bourke, told the Mail: If I was travelling, I would just add companions on my pass for my family, my wife and my kids and so on. Its very smooth, it makes it a lot easier. Can you imagine everybody in the family having to take out their pass versus one person doing it? That will go live in the next day or so. Asked how quickly the app could be adapted to include proof of vaccinations as well as tests, Mr Bourke added: Its actually designed in a way that we expected vaccines to become another credential type. So the [negative] Covid test result is a credential type, and then the vaccine would be another credential type. Some countries already say theyd like to see a vaccine credential as part of the entry requirements, Israel for example, so it would be somewhere between days or weeks, probably less than two weeks to have that capability available for vaccine certification also. Richard Treeves, of BA, said: It goes live this week and essentially that means up to nine family members can travel using the same application. The app will initially only show proof of recent negative Covid tests before boarding, but software giant Daon, the firm behind the technology, said the app could be adapted to include proof of vaccination for large families within days or weeks The technology has already been shown to officials at the Department for Transport, which is leading a taskforce launched by Boris Johnson to look into how holidays can safely be resumed. It will report to ministers on April 12 and vaccine passports are seen as one potential long-term measure. They could unlock foreign travel from May 17, but no sooner than that under Mr Johnsons roadmap for lifting lockdown. Travellers would create individual profiles on the VeriFLY app before entering their destination of travel, when it would tell them what they need to upload in order to be given the access granted status needed to show at check-in gates. Companion travellers could be added to individual profiles under the family feature. If the destination of travel was one allowing in inoculated Britons, proof of vaccination would need to be uploaded along with any test results if they are also required. Mr Bourke said he expects health authorities could start issuing proof of vaccination in digital format, such as a QR code, which would be scannable and more easily uploaded. But the app could also be adapted to scan and upload paper verification before being checked by moderators to ensure they are genuine. Dont we all kind of wish we could be breathtakingly selfish sometimes? The author Tori Telfer on female con artists In Her Words is available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Historically, the lives of male con artists have been well chronicled. Female con artists? Not so much. All of our beloved, slippery, conniving con artist heroes are men Frank Abagnale, Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, said Tori Telfer, author of the new book Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion. But women, Ms. Telfer said, need credit for being good con artists, too. Women are naturally presumed to be conniving and two-faced, she said. Think of Hamlets bitter complaints about women to Ophelia: God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another. Yet when we hear about con women, she explained, it somehow surprises us. She pointed to Anna Delvey (whose real name is Anna Sorokin) and Elizabeth Holmes, to whom, she said, the media had reacted with shock. ( ) ( ) (FRA:38A) enjoyed a productive second half of 2020, progressing the development of its 12CQ quantum computing qubit processor chip and A1 Biochip lab-on-a-chip technology. The company also advanced patents and international patent applications (IPAs) associated with the 12CQ chip as well as establishing commercial partnerships. Looking forward to 2021, the company will also continue to explore opportunities for the sale and divestment of its historical mineral exploration tenements, which will allow it to focus on technological developments. 12CQ chip The 12CQ chip is a world-first technology that Archer is building for quantum computing operation at room-temperature and integration onboard modern electronic devices. Rapid progress was made during the half-year with the technological development of the 12CQ chip to meet significant milestones required for the early-stage validation of the successful operation and commercialisation of the semiconductor chip device. The first major technological milestone in the operation of its 12CQ chip is related to qubit control, with the successful completion of the control measurements expected to be major validation of the commercial viability of the 12CQ chip. Qubit control Archer has now built several qubit control devices (QC Devices) required for 12CQ chip development and has engineered and commenced operating the infrastructure and specialised equipment required to perform qubit control using various QC Device configurations. It has completed the preliminary stages of its quantum measurements towards qubit control by successfully characterising optimised and unoptimised QC Devices.The qubit control measurements are ongoing and are being performed in parallel to other technology development work packages which during the half-year have included theoretical modelling of the qubit system. Computational quantum mechanical theory During the half-year, the company announced for the first-time computational quantum mechanical theory was developed that accurately models the behaviour of the qubit material at the core of the 12CQ chip. Computational models validate the origins of experimentally observed quantum phenomena in the qubit material and allow the company to predict future quantum behaviour. The quantum information (qubit) in Archers chip design is in the form of an electrons quantum property of spin, so it is critical to have developed accurate models predicting the electronic properties of the qubit material for the successful development of the 12CQ chip. The state-of-the-art setup where the first quantum control measurements are being performed on Archers 12CQ qubit material. A1 Biochip developed in-house Archer also made a step-change in advancing its graphene-based biosensor technology development to newly commence its lab-on-a-chip A1 Biochip development. This was possible in a short period of time as the company brought its biotechnology development in-house and is now able to miniaturise its biosensing processes to chip-formats while retaining its IP. With this process, the company no longer requires prototyping sensor materials, graphene inks, graphite, 2D/3D printing, or circuit boards (manufactured in Asia). Biochip development will involve designing these components for further miniaturisation (micron to nanoscale) and are intended to incorporate graphene materials, both aspects which are required to validate commercial advantages of ultra-sensitivity and device integration. Additionally, the A1 Biochip related patent application is progressing in the International Phase in the patent granting procedure -the first of two main phases. Commercial partnerships During the half-year, Archer continued to establish and strengthen its commercial partnerships, including contributing to the global IBM Q Network, that it joined in May 2020. The IBM Q Network is a community of Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, start-ups and national research labs working with IBM to advance quantum computing. Archer held a joint webinar with IBM in August discussing the development of quantum computing and its applications to an audience of more than 320 attendees. The company was also invited to the panel of speakers of an event held by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), which is Australia's peak representative body for the technology industry. In December, the company announced that it had entered into a collaboration with a leading Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning company, Max Kelsen. Archer and Max Kelsen will use IBMs Qiskit open source programming framework and cloud-based quantum computers to implement novel quantum algorithms developed that validate practical quantum computing applications relevant to the 12CQ chip technology. This will centre around real uses that would benefit from quantum processors onboard technology at room temperature, such as quantum artificial neural networks. Further developments In January, the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer had published a comprehensive independent report: Australian Semiconductor Sector Study: Capabilities, opportunities and challenges for NSWs meaningful participation in the global semiconductor value-chain (scoping study). The company contributed to the development of the scoping study, which identified the largest areas of opportunity for the scale-up of companies (such as Archer) in the global semiconductor industry. These areas include enhancing domestic capability in semiconductor design, fabrication and prototyping as it relates to the commercial translation of advanced materials and quantum computing technology. On January 20, the company announced the granting of a Japanese patent associated with its 12CQ chip technology, which gives Archer access to the high-value Japanese market for the 12CQ chip - the first step in its efforts to access global markets. Additionally, on February 22, Archer announced it had achieved electronic transport in a single qubit at room temperature, which is fundamental to the successful development of the 12CQ chip. MT. MORRIS TWP, MI -- Westwood Heights Schools is preparing to send students back to the classroom Monday. The Westwood Heights Board of Education approved a Return to Learn Plan for Hamady Middle School, Hamady High School, McMonagle Elementary, Academy West Alternative High School and Academy West Adult Education Program at a Wednesday, Feb. 17 board meeting. Students will return to school Monday, March 1. As we approach the one-year anniversary of our students working from home, we are now prepared to allow students back into our buildings, said Superintendent Pete Toal. Our staff has had the opportunity to receive the (COVID-19) vaccine, and the number of new cases in the county is falling rapidly. Students will attend school Monday through Thursday, according to an adjusted school day schedule, according to the district. Fridays will be virtual for all students, allowing the staff to help students recover lessons, attend professional development and develop blended lessons. Families who are not comfortable returning to in-person learning are able to continue virtual classes. The district will implement social distancing, masks and enhanced sanitizing in the buildings. Safety provisions also include arrows on the floor to control traffic flow and ensure proper social distancing, temperature check kiosks located at all of the main entrances, plexiglass barriers, personal protective equipment and on-the-hour sanitation in populated areas. Staff will also be offered on-site COVID-19 tests. Families that have chosen to remain virtual will be able to revisit this decision to allow their students to return on April 5, according to the district. Read more about the Return to Learn plan here. On Jan. 8, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has strongly encouraged schools to offer an option for in-person instruction no later than March 1. Read more on MLive: Grand Blanc schools approves plan for hybrid in-person learning Retiring Grand Blanc superintendent, successor reflect on future of countys largest school district Grand Blanc superintendent retiring after more than 30 years with district Flint-area administrators reflect on school year amid coronavirus pandemic New CDC guidelines set a high bar for Michigan schools to resume in person Michigan governor calls for in-person learning to resume by March 1 Parent beyond frustrated after Flint schools postpones in-person option 3 days before kids were scheduled to return South Africa: Inmates must be equipped with skills, says Lamola Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola says inmates must be equipped with skills that will make them employable and enable them to create opportunities for themselves and their respective communities. No correctional centre should ever breed hardened criminals who, upon their release, terrorise communities with their newly acquired sophisticated and most brutal acts of criminality. Our centres should not be breeding grounds for criminals but rehabilitated inmates who can be boilermakers, plumbers, carpenters and farmers, Lamola said. Announcing the inmates 2020 Matric results on Thursday, Lamola said education is an effective rehabilitation tool. The Minister said the department has created a conducive environment for learning in all correctional centres. Education is a fundamental pillar of our correctional system. In our centres, education must always be structured and used to equip inmates to build social capital so as to improve their well-being whilst incarcerated, and post-incarceration in order to realise a second chance in life, Lamola said. The Minister said they have accepted that COVID-19 has changed the way of life and introduced a new normal in daily routines, and that his department has adapted to the new normal. One of the approaches we implemented and intensified was access to online tutoring and learning by inmates. Most of the inmates responded positively to this approach. They confronted significant challenges and COVID-19 could not hinder their desire to do well in their studies. The education of inmates was also affected and faced various challenges when our country was placed under lockdown in March 2020. This disrupted our educational programmes, Lamola said. In preparation for the 2020 school year, the department ensured that each correctional centre school drew up a curriculum recovery plan to make up for the lost time. This also meant that inmates needed to complete the majority of related activities in their cells. What also assisted us were the educational programmes that the Department of Basic Education broadcasted on television and radio stations, which inmates had access to. As DCS, we are gearing our systems towards online education offerings as classroom teaching and learning continue to experience disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Relevant equipment and other tools are being procured in order for inmates to be able to access online digital content. These resources will be used by offenders to access curriculum content, as well as to view lessons on relevant platforms, Lamola said. Results For two years in succession, Correctional Services has registered 160 students. For the past five years, the inmate matric pass rate has been as follows: In 2015 72.9% pass rate; 2016 72.1%; 2017 76.7%; 2018 77.3% and in 2019 82.6%. For the 2020 academic year, full-time learners achieved a pass rate of 86.3%. When inclusive of part-time learners, the pass rate at correctional centre schools is 81.3%. The best performing learner is Lwazi Chamane from Usethubeni Youth under the Durban Management Area in Kwa-Zulu Natal, with an average of 80.6% and four distinctions in IsiZulu, Life Orientation, History and Tourism. USethubeni registered 19 inmates and all 19 achieved Bachelor passes. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. In the early 1980s, Melvin Whitfield was working for a health nonprofit in West Africa when he came to a realization: Few of the children he encountered had dolls, and the dolls he did see were modeled after white European faces and bodies. Mr. Whitfield, who is Black, returned to Washington in 1983, around the time his girlfriend, Loretta Thomas, was coming to to her own doll-inspired despair after trying to find a toy for her niece. It was the height of the Cabbage Patch Kids craze, and toy stores were filled with their cherubic white faces; the few Black dolls scattered among them were made with the same shape and features, but used brown fabric. The Whitfields, who married in 1984, decided to design an alternative to the Cabbage Patch Kids. After three years of development and experimentation, they released Baby Whitney, one of the first realistic mass-produced Black dolls. Military hospital No. 66 received 7,200 doses of a vaccine against the coronavirus. A COVID-19 vaccination campaign has been launched in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, as the first batch of vaccine has arrived at military hospital No. 66. The hospital has received 7,200 doses of the vaccine, the JFO HQ's press center said on Facebook on February 25. Read alsoAt snail's pace, COVID-19 vaccination campaign gradually unfolding in Ukraine Hospital personnel and mobile paramedic teams will get vaccinated, it said. "Tomorrow [February 26], teams consisting of an anesthesiologist, a general practitioner, and a nurse will be visiting JFO units to conduct the vaccination," it said. "It must be noted that the vaccination is completely voluntary. First, all patients will be examined by a doctor, who will measure their body temperature, blood pressure, and collect anamnesis data, and then it will be decided whether they can be vaccinated. Such factors as a fever, acute illness, or allergic reactions to components of the vaccine are absolute contraindication." Vaccination in Ukraine On February 22, the Ukrainian Health Ministry registered the Oxford / AstraZeneca (Covishield) COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine was developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and authorized by the UK, the European Union, and India. On February 23, the first batch of the Covishield vaccine arrived in Ukraine. On February 24, Ukraine launched a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign. About 160 healthcare workers were first who got vaccinated. Reporting by UNIAN Katherine Tai, nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, testifies during the Senate Finance committee hearings to examine her nomination in Washington, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis /Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Bidens Trade Pick Says Chinese Regime Is Both Rival and Partner President Joe Bidens nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, on Feb. 25 pledged to work with allies to hold the Chinese regime accountable for its unfair trade practices. In remarks at her confirmation hearing conducted by the Senate Finance Committee, Tai described the Chinese regime as simultaneously a rival, a trade partner, and an outsized player whose cooperation well also need to address certain global challenges. We must remember how to walk, chew gum, and play chess at the same time, she added. Tai, who grew up in Taiwan and is a fluent Mandarin speaker, is the top trade lawyer for the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. She also previously served for several years as head of China enforcement at the trade representatives office. I know firsthand how critically important it is that we have a strategic and coherent plan for holding China accountable to its promises and effectively competing with its model of state-directed economics, she said. The Trump administration placed tariffs on $360 billion worth of Chinese goods in response to the regimes expansive state-sanctioned campaign to steal U.S. intellectual property (IP). It also entered into trade negotiations with the regime in an attempt to force Beijing to overhaul a range of unfair economic practices, such as heavy subsidies for domestic industries, forcing U.S. companies to transfer IP as a condition to enter the Chinese market, and currency manipulation. While the two sides entered into a phase one trade deal in January 2020, in which the Chinese regime promised to buy an additional $200 billion over the next two years, Beijing has so far fallen short of these purchase commitments. It also pledged to carry out structural changes, including protecting intellectual property, stopping forced technology transfers, and providing transparency on foreign exchange practices. The Biden administration is currently reviewing Trump-era trade policies, and has yet to say whether it will keep the tariffs or the phase one trade deal. Asked whether she would push the Chinese regime to implement structural changes it promised in the phase one deal, Tai replied that Beijing needs to deliver on those pledges. She said that discussions with the regime in Beijing to get it to make good on structural reforms is absolutely worth exploring with China, but noted that those are roads that have been well worn by U.S. trade representatives before me. We need to be exploring all of our options, Tai added. Tai also emphasized building a united front of U.S. allies to combat Beijings predatory practices, while acknowledging that working with others was hard work. We must also impart the values and rules that guide global commerceand we must enforce those terms vigorously, she said. Tai is respected by members of both sides of the aisle, who have praised her ability to build consensus across ideological divides. Clete Willems, former deputy director of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times earlier this month that Tai is highly qualified for the job. She really understands China, and she spent a career trying to get the U.S. and other allies to work together to push back against Chinas unfair trade practices, Willems said. Emel Akan and Reuters contributed to this report. The Australian law that makes it mandatory for companies like Google and Facebook to pay for news they use is ready to be enforced. Australia's Parliament has passed the final amendments to the News Media Bargaining Code, and according to AP, they were changes agreed upon by the country's treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. If you'll recall, Facebook blocked publishers and users from sharing news links in Australia in response to the proposed law. The social network also mistakenly prevented government agencies and non-profits from posting on their Pages in the process, but it reversed their ban a few hours later. Days later, Facebook agreed to talk to and enter negotiations with Australian officials. The social network said the officials "agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address [its] core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognize the value [its] platform provides to publishers relative to the value [it] receive[s] from them." One of those changes would require authorities to give tech companies a months notice before they are formally designated under the code. That would give the companies more time for negotiations. Facebook agreed to reverse its policy and roll back its news post ban before this coming weekend as a result. Rod Sims, the regulator who drafted the code, said he was pleased with the changes. As Financial Times has noted, the government will appoint an arbitrator who can set the rates that need to be paid if negotiations between tech and media companies don't work out. Frydenberg said the goal is to ensure media companies are "fairly remunerated for the content they generate, helping to sustain public-interest journalism in Australia." Thus far, Google already signed agreements to pay for content from News Corp and Seven West Media outlets. Credit: CC0 Public Domain While there's a famous horror-movie spoof about killer tomatoes, no one seems to have made one about caterpillarsthe insect pests that eat the juicy red fruits of summer. Perhaps the time is ripe, with inspiration from a new study at Pennsylvania State University. Scientists found that a caterpillar called the tomato fruit worm not only chomps on tomatoes and their leaves, but also deposits enzyme-laden saliva on the plant, interfering with its ability to cry for help. If it all sounds a bit improbable, starting with the concept of plants crying for help, scientists also scoffed at that idea when it was first proposed a few decades ago. But it has been shown time and time again that when under attack, plants can emit chemical distress signals, causing their peers to mount some sort of defense. A classic example is the smell of a freshly mown lawn, which prompts the release of protective compounds in nearby blades of grass that have yet to be cut. In some cases, plant distress signals can even summon help from other species. That's what happens with the tomato. When caterpillars nibble on the plant's leaves, the leaf pores release volatile chemicals that are detected by a type of parasite: a wasp that lays eggs inside caterpillars. (Not to overwork the horror-movie analogy, but as with the hapless astronauts in the "Aliens" franchise, it doesn't end well for the caterpillar.) So the Penn State researchers wondered: Could the caterpillars strike back? In a series of experiments, they found that the answer was yes, illustrating a previously unknown strategy in nature's age-old contest between predator and prey. The key is the enzyme in the caterpillar's saliva, which inhibits the opening of pores in tomato-plant leaves, said Po-An Lin, the study's lead author. That means the leaves are less able to release the distress signals, and presumably less able to attract wasps that could come to the rescue, he said. The researchers did not use actual wasps in the study, as the insects' ability to detect these signals is well established. But the team measured the diameter of the leaf pores and the levels of distress signals that were emitted after being exposed to caterpillar saliva. The scientists did so both for caterpillars whose saliva contained the enzyme and for those that did not, as a result of having their genes "edited" using the popular laboratory technique called CRISPR. Sure enough, the enzyme-deficient saliva failed to silence the plant's distress call. That made for a convincing case, said Chris Martine, a Bucknell University plant geneticist who was not involved in the study. "This is incredibly cool," he said. "I'm definitely going to teach this." It is not yet clear how the findings could be used in agriculture, but there is no question that help in deterring the caterpillars would be welcomed by those who grow tomatoes and other crops. This species of caterpillar also feeds on corn, cotton, soybeans, strawberries and cannabis, and is well established in North and South America, said Penn State entomology professor Gary W. Felton, the study's senior author. "It's a very successful caterpillar," he said. Depending on the crop in question, farmers give it different nicknames, such as the corn earworm or the cotton bollworm. One preventive strategy might be to breed plants that are less susceptible to the enzyme's effects, he said. Felton has been researching the insect's salivary enzyme for more than 20 years. In previous studies, he and colleagues showed that it suppresses the production of nicotine in tobacco plants, making those plants less toxic for the insect to eat. But the new study, in which he and Lin collaborated with several other universities, marks the first evidence that the enzyme can interfere with a plant's cry for help, Felton said. As sober-minded scientists, Felton and Lin did not phrase it that way, ascribing human emotions to what is essentially a bit of chemical one-upmanship between plant and insect. But when university communications specialist Sara LaJeunesse wrote in a news release that it seemed "like a scene from a horror movie," Felton was willing to have a sense or humor about it. After all, the title of the study, published in a journal called New Phytologist, begins with the words, "Silencing the alarm." By triggering the closure of the leaf pores, the caterpillar enzyme may harm the plant in more ways than one. In addition to being less able to release alarm chemicals, the closed pores likely are less able to regulate the plant's temperature, Felton said. He credited Lin, a Ph.D. candidate who was studying drought stress in the tomato plants, for coming up with the idea for the study. "He's the brains behind it," Felton said. "I give him all the credit for pulling this together." Felton's lab now plans to study whether a similar phenomenon might occur with other types of caterpillars, applying for grants from the usual types of agencies that fund academic research. But maybe a Hollywood studio could sweeten the deal? Explore further Study uses CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing to study function of insect salivary enzyme More information: PoAn Lin et al. Silencing the alarm: an insect salivary enzyme closes plant stomata and inhibits volatile release, New Phytologist (2021). Journal information: New Phytologist PoAn Lin et al. Silencing the alarm: an insect salivary enzyme closes plant stomata and inhibits volatile release,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/nph.17214 2021 The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Facebook has reversed its controversial ban on Australian news a week after removing millions of posts but not without warning content could be taken down again at anytime. The federal government's landmark news media bargaining code received the final tick of approval on Thursday when parliament's lower house agreed to the changes, which were made after negotiations with Facebook and Google. The lifting on the ban came into effect 1am on Friday, allowing 17 million Australian Facebook users to read and share news again after a eight day ban. The company's vice-president Campbell Brown has warned Facebook retained its right to take Australian news content down again in the future. It comes after a tumultuous battle between the Australian government and the tech giants who both threatened to limit services across the nation if the bill was passed. Facebook has agreed to restore Australian news on its site after agreeing to pay for content Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg described the bill as a significant milestone. 'This legislation will help level the playing field & see Australian news media businesses paid for generating original content,' he tweeted on Thursday. The social media platform was condemned by politicians and users around the world after it blocked 25million Australians from viewing and sharing news articles on February 18 amid a dispute about the terms of the code. The 'arrogant and disgraceful' move - which also banned charity, health authority and emergency service pages - came after Australia's ground-breaking news media bargaining code passed the lower house of Parliament on February 17. Following talks with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, the government made some last-minute changes to the law before it was finalised on Thursday which appeased the tech giant and convinced it to undo the ban. Facebook has advised the government it will restore Australian news pages. Pictured: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with wife Priscilla Chan 'Obviously that was a major engineering feat for them to wipe the Facebook platform of Australian news media content,' Mr Frydenberg told 2GB on Thursday. 'I think there was understandable outrage across the broader community as to what Facebook did. 'But since that time there's been extensive discussions with the company and we've reached a solution and a way forward.' Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese tried claim some of the credit. 'The government and the opposition and this parliament have been prepared to take tough decisions,' he told reporters. 'We have been prepared to stand ground, to legislate for a code and to do that in order to defend Australia's national interests and defend the jobs of journalists. Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg (pictured) held talks with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to overturn controversial ban on Australian news Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims is confident the heavily amended code will still curtail the immense market power of digital platforms. 'Google and Facebook need media but they don't need any particular company and that (previously) meant media companies couldn't do commercial deals with Facebook or Google,' he told ABC radio on Thursday. 'The purpose of the code is to give them the potential for arbitration, which helps their bargaining position, and therefore helps them reach fair commercial deals.' So far, large media organisations including News Corp and Nine have been the main beneficiaries of deals struck with the online behemoths. Google responded to the new law by striking multi-million deals but Facebook banned Australians from viewing news on its website last week in a 'disgraceful' protest at the new rules. Pictured: Posts were blocked on the Daily Mail Australia Facebook page Mr Sims is not surprised. 'In any situation like this you would expect deals to be done with the bigger players first and then work down the list,' he said. 'Given this is supporting journalism, it's naturally going to see more money going to those who've got the most journalists but I don't see any reason why anybody should doubt that all journalism will benefit.' Google threatened to pull its search engine from Australian users before backing down and striking multiple deals worth millions of dollars with media companies. In recent weeks, it has brokered agreements with News Corp, Nine Entertainment, Guardian Australia and Seven West Media. Facebook signed an in-principle agreement with Seven West Media after the government agreed to change its landmark code. Earlier this month, as part of its ongoing effort to racialize every aspect of human existence, the New York Times Magazine published an article by Harpers editor Rachel Poser about the work of Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a race-obsessed professor of Classics at Princeton University (He Wants to Save Classics from Whiteness. Can the Field Survive?). Padilla upholds the view that his disciplinethe study of ancient Greek and Roman history and cultureis a mainstay of the conception of whiteness and should be done away with. In the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David in 1789, the year of the French Revolution, the founder of the Roman Republic, Lucius Junius Brutus, contemplates the fate of his sons, whom he put to death for conspiring to restore the monarchy. The field of classics is primarily concerned with the Greco-Roman world, a series of societies that spanned the millennium lasting roughly from the formation of the Greek city-states around 600 BC to the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. The culture was instrumental in the development of modern society. For centuries it has been invoked by the ruling classes in Europe and Americaas well as by those who would challenge the existing rulers. Roman conquest, spreading from the Italian peninsula starting in the third century BC, united many of the peoples of ancient Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa, and created a dominant culture that spoke two now-extinct languages, ancient Greek (the parent of Modern Greek) and Latin (the parent of Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian). Scholars of classics normally learn to read both of these languages and to study the literature written in them, and sometimes other significant languages of the period as well, including Phoenician, Sumerian, Aramaic, and Hebrew. The field is strongly associated with the archaeology of the places where the Greeks and Romans lived, as well as the study of history, government and many expressions of religion and artpainting, sculpture, literature, epic poems, drama and comedyfor which the Greco-Roman civilization has been deservedly renowned. Padilla, of Dominican parentage, grew up impoverished, as Poser relates in a snap biography, at one time living in a homeless shelter in New York City. He entered an elite high school on scholarship and then attended Princeton where he was one of the few blacks to study classics. As he developed an academic career, Padilla initially studied Roman slavery, but soon began to have doubts about its legitimacy. What for so many is the most liberating aspect of the study of the ancient worldits challenge to ones conception of his or her own time and placePadilla admits to having found unacceptably threatening. The scholar sensed that his pursuit of classics had displaced other parts of his identity, Poser worriedly writes. Picking himself back up for battle, Padillas subsequent career has aimed to reverse the alleged whiteness of classics by imposing critical race theory upon itand on academia as a whole. At Princeton, Padilla last year led a crusade that demanded racial quotas for all levels of staffing and the formation of an administrative review board that would ferret out microaggressions and oversee the investigation and discipline of racist behaviors, incidents, research and publication. Padilla is indifferent to the implications of such an Inquisition for academic freedom, labor rights, and even freedom of speech. I dont see things like free speech or the exchange of ideas as ends in themselves, he tells Poser. Padilla deploys similarly aggressive measures against his subject. Dismantling structures of power, he writes, will require writing an entirely new story about antiquity, and about who we are today. If the classics disagrees with himboth as a field of study and as a realm of historyit should be destroyed. Poser writes approvingly that if classics fails his test, Padilla and others are ready to give it up. The Times author herself thinks it is time to get rid of the classicsa formulation that appears three times in her article. To be blunt, this is the rhetoric of the privileged, arrogant, and self-satisfied elite. How many recent college graduates, it may be asked, are at all familiar with Thucydides or Plutarch? In fact, the great majority of American studentsregardless of their racial backgroundhave almost no access to the study of classical antiquity. Politicians have gutted the study of the humanities in the public schools. College and universities have likewise shifted resources to professional training programs. Rigorous education in classics, the hallmark of the college liberal arts education of the 19th century, has vanished. Even as a potential field of study, classics exists at a diminishing number of elite colleges and universities such as Princeton, from whence the self-satisfied Padilla hurls his thunderbolts. Deploying the typical method of the Times, Posers article is based on a crude, almost comical, amalgam. She observes that the fields attempt to shed its self-imposed reputation as an elitist subject overwhelmingly taught and studied by white men, has gained a new urgency because it has supposedly been embraced by the far right. Stretching her point to the breaking point, Poser notes that some protesters at the 2017 fascist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, carried symbols of the ancient Roman state alongside anti-Semitic ones, and that the neo-Nazi website, Stormfront, has the symbol of the Athenian Parthenon on it. Then, leaping from the far-rights preposterous invocation of Greco-Roman heritage, Poser concludes, without any irony, the correctness of Padillas view that Classics has been instrumental to the invention of whiteness and its continued domination. The fascists would not disagree! Posers (and Padillas) assumptions about the reactionary and racist character of classical studies are repeatedly shoved down the readers throat without evidence. Poser states, for example: By 2015, when Padilla arrived at the Columbia Society of Fellows as a postdoctoral researcher, classicists were no longer apologists for ancient slavery. At what time were classicists apologists for ancient slavery? It is true that southern planters in the years before the Civil War used the example of Greece and Rome, both slaveholding societies, to justify their enslavement of blacks, just as they used the Bible for the same purpose. Over the centuries in Europe and America, however, there was no common agreement on this view. The planters conception that the Greek and Roman use of slave labor was morally superior, in any case, was smashed along with the Confederacy in 1865. Padilla comes close to blaming the Greeks and Romans for racismhe seems angered by distortions and gaps in the archive, and ruminates that [w]hen folks think of classics, I would want them to think about folks of color. Of course, Padilla knows that no concept of biological race or color-race existed in the ancient Mediterranean. He takes a different line of attack. Joined by Poser, he insists that the subsequent history of Europe makes the study of classical literature part of a dangerous, racist tradition. Poser points an accusing finger at the Enlightenment, the movement of thought in the 18th century that sought to level feudal absolutism and the anti-scientific authority of religion. Enlightenment thinkers such as Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rosseau were those who in France prepared mens minds for the coming revolution, as Friedrich Engels said. Diderots famous Encyclopedie has no entry for race and its entry for negro suggests that skin color may be mutable. But for the racialists the Enlightenment was truly the worst of times. Poser and Padilla claim that it was the Enlightenment that created a hierarchy with Greece and Rome, coded as white, on top, and everything else below. Poser of course is forced to acknowledge that revolutionaries, including the black revolutionaries in Haiti after 1791, found inspiration in the figures from the Greek and Roman past. Generations of intellectuals, among them feminist, queer and Black scholars, have seen something of themselves in classical texts, flashes of recognition that held a kind of liberatory promise, she writes. But Poser always returns to associating the classics with race. Classics and whiteness are the bone and sinew of the same body. They grew strong together and may have to die together, she says, paraphrasing Padilla. The language that is used to describe classical antiquity, Poser further says, in the world todaythe classical tradition, legacy or heritagecontains within it the idea of a special, quasi-genetic relationship. This is nonsense. Scholars in the subfield of the classical tradition seek out the influence of Greece and Rome in all of world culture ranging from the Arab philosophy, where it had an enduring presence, to Tibetan poetry. Posers piece, in line with the New York Timess now-discredited 1619 Project, seeks to impose the contemporary obsession with race, and its pseudo-intellectual conceits such as whiteness, on the past. It is a blunt instrument aimed, in this instance, at a crucial branch of world literature, history, and philosophy. The racialist tendency has material roots in present social conditions, particularly in the strivings of the upper-middle class for special privileges, under conditions of terrible poverty for the vast majority, of all races the world over. But it has also become possible because of the decades of the suppression of Marxism in both the working class and in literary and historical studies. The founders of scientific socialism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, like most educated people in the 19th century, were trained in the classics. Both men were highly conversant in the history and literature of Greece and Rome. As they studied the development of class society, they were able to place the Greco-Roman world in the broader context of world history. Marxs doctoral dissertation was on a topic of ancient philosophy, and he read the plays of Aeschylus, the founder of tragic drama, in the original Greek for pleasure. Because of the influence of Marxism, millions of ordinary people in the 19th and 20th centuries understood that the path for socialism was being prepared by capitalism through its creation of a world economy, the extraordinary development of the productive forces, and especially through its calling into being of an international working class. These were the immediate prerequisites for a socially equal society. But the development of capitalism had, in turn, been based on previous accomplishments. As Engels put it, against Padillas forebears who moralized against slavery in the Greek and Roman worlds, Without slavery, no Greek state, no Greek art and science, without slavery, no Roman Empire. But without the basis laid by Hellenism and the Roman Empire, also no modern Europe. We should never forget that our whole economic, political and intellectual development presupposes a state of things in which slavery was as necessary as it was universally recognized. In this sense we are entitled to say: Without the slavery of antiquity no modern socialism. In other words, socialism could only be constructed on the full assimilation of the accomplishments of earlier societies, not only economically, but also culturally. Capitalism had already demonstrated this. Beginning in the 14th century, in the period that later came to be known as the Renaissance, the emerging bourgeoisie had revived the technological and intellectual achievements of Greece and Rome, a recovery made possible in part owing to the preservation of those achievements by Arab scholars. The works of Dante and Milton are unthinkable without the accomplishments of the great Roman poet, Virgil, the author of the Aeneid, which both modern poets knew thoroughly, and Shakespeares development of a distinctly bourgeois tragedy could only have emerged after the ancient tragedy of Sophocles and Euripides. There was a definite ideological component to this process. The rising capitalist class fortified itself against its feudal masters with the history of ancient social conflicts in Greece and Rome, including in its struggle for the abolition of monarchy and the establishment of democratic rights. The works of art, from sculpture to poetry, had an objective content in depicting reality, which helped to teach the bourgeoisie in its revolutionary phase how to think and feel and act. Bourgeois culture carried this legacy to all corners of the world, where it became a part of the foundations of world culture. The novel, for example, now written in every corner of the world to express life in artistic form, only came into existence by a complex development that included Greek and Roman models in Britain and France. To Marxists, it has never been a matter of either celebrating or condemning the Greco-Roman world. The astonishing feats of that epoch expressed the highest material culture that could be achieved given the mode of production. Just as crucially, the fall of the Greco-Roman world demonstrated that social orders, civilizations, and indeed entire historical epochs, collapse under certain conditions. This remains a profound lesson. The New York Times sees no value in the study of classical antiquity, besides the spoils that can be shaken down using the vulgar racialist weapons of the present. One cannot imagine a more backward and arrogant conception of human culture. (Newser) Add Paramount+ to the ever-growing list of streaming services you'll just have to subscribe to if you want to relive your younger years. The ViacomCBS streaming service (currently known as CBS All Access, until March 4) is rebooting Frasier, with Kelsey Grammer returning to the role of Dr. Frasier Crane, the Los Angeles Times reports. He first played the psychiatrist in Cheers starting in 1984, per the Hollywood Reporter, and then on NBC's Frasier, which ended in 2004. Production on the show is slated to begin this summer, after Grammer completes work on the first season of an ABC series he's starring in alongside Alec Baldwin. The actor says he "gleefully anticipate[s] sharing the next chapter" in Frasier's journey, though it's not clear whether the character will still be a Seattle radio host this time around. story continues below It's also not clear what other characters might return; sources tell TVLine there are no deals yet (emphasis theirs) for David Hyde Pierce (Niles), Jane Leeves (Daphne), or Peri Gilpin (Roz). But perhaps a clue to some plotlines we might see can be found at @FrasierContempo, the Twitter account run for years now by TV writer Joe Cristalli, who will write the reboot along with Chris Harris of How I Met Your Mother. Grammer has also been interested in reviving Frasier for years, and back in 2019 he told James Corden that he envisioned a reboot as dealing with "a different story, basically. ... Same group of characters but in a different setting. Something has changed in their lives." He noted that John Mahoney, who played Frasier and Niles' father Martin, had died in 2018, "and we would probably deal with that a little bit with Dad being gone." (Read more Frasier stories.) British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca and US pharmaceutical major Novavax have told lawmakers that they are ready to scale up their production of COVID-19 vaccines in partnership with the Serum Institute of India. Located in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, the SII is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume. It is manufacturing the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which is known locally as Covishield. Covishield was granted emergency use listing by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this month, allowing it to be supplied to low and middle-income countries around the world. Together with our partner, the Serum Institute of India, we plan to supply over 300 million doses to 145 countries through COVAX in the first half of 2021 as part of our global and equitable access pledge, Ruud Dobber, president of AstraZeneca's biopharmaceuticals business, said. The majority of this supply will go to low and middle-income countries, Dobber told members of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee during a Congressional hearing on 'Pathway to Protection: Expanding Availability of COVID-19 Vaccines' on Tuesday. The purpose of the hearing was to examine manufacturers' ongoing efforts to develop and scale-up production of COVID-19 vaccines in the US. The COVAX or COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access programme is run by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and WHO in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers. ALSO READ: More COVID-19 vaccines on the way; Serum, Dr Reddy's, Biological E in advanced stages Dobber said the company's agreement with the US government cover the development and supply of 300 million doses of its vaccine, should it receive authorisation. The cost of the doses and the dose agreements will provide no profits for AstraZeneca. It's vaccine has received conditional marketing or emergency authorisation in more than 50 countries, and recently, the WHO listed its vaccine for emergency use against COVID-19, he told the lawmakers. Studies conducted today indicated our vaccine is well tolerated and effective. And just this week, we were encouraged to see the first real world evidence from over 5.4 million subjects in Scotland demonstrating a risk reduction of COVID-19 related hospitalisations by 94 per cent after the first dose of our vaccine, he asserted. John Trizzino, executive vice president of Novavax, also gave a similar assurance to members of the Congressional Committee. Scale-up has not begun yet in large scale but we do have a global capacity both with our existing Novavax facilities in the US, our partners in India's Serum Institute, and we believe that we could scale up that new strain very quickly, Trizzino said in response to a question. Covishield is less expensive compared to some of the other vaccines being used such as the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. It also doesn't need to be stored in ultra-low temperatures, which makes it suitable for use in many developing countries that lack necessary storage infrastructure. ALSO READ: Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine effective, safe: FDA During the hearing, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, said over 100 countries, led by India and South Africa, have appealed to WHO to put a halt on trade-related intellectual property standard. In other words, to have a waiver that would allow countries around the world, poor and middle-income countries, to be able to manufacture their own vaccines. And it seems to me that this is something that we should do so that we have plenty for us and plenty for the rest of the world, Schakowsky said. In his written testimony, Trizzino said once all of its capacity comes online globally, which it expects to happen in the mid-point of this year, Novavax will have a global capacity to produce approximately two billion doses per year, roughly 150 million doses per month. This includes all of our partners, including Serum Institute of India. During the pandemic, we believe that the federal government and state and local jurisdictions are in the best position to determine how doses are distributed and allocated. We will work with government leaders to ensure that those who need a vaccine get it, he said. Trizzino said Novavax is committed to reasonable pricing, equitable distribution and allocation, and expansive access worldwide, which is what will be required to fully control the pandemic. "To that end, we have a built a strong partnership with the Serum Institute of India," whereby they will deliver significant numbers of vaccine doses to low and middle-income countries throughout the world, he said. ALSO READ: Ghana first foreign nation to receive Serum Institute's Covishield under COVAX Facility The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Grant Robertson announced today. Changes have been made to the Banks Monetary Policy Committees remit requiring it to take into account government policy relating to more sustainable house prices, while working towards its objectives. The Committee retains autonomy over whether and how its decisions take account of potential housing consequences, but it will need to explain regularly how it has sought to assess the impacts on housing outcomes, says Grant Robertson. A direction has also been issued (under section 68B of the Reserve Bank Act) to the Reserve Bank requiring it to have regard to government policy on housing in relation to its financial policy functions. The Bank will have to take into account the Governments objective to support more sustainable house prices, including by dampening investor demand for existing housing stock to help improve affordability for first-home buyers. The Reserve Banks objectives remains the same, which is to maintain price stability, support full employment and promote a sound and stable financial system. The Minister has also asked the Reserve Bank to provide advice on debt-to-income ratios and interest only mortgages. I want to understand the extent to which interest-only mortgages (particularly to speculators) pose risks to financial stability, and whether restrictions should apply. Some jurisdictions, like Australia, have in the past applied restrictions on interest-only mortgages due to financial stability risks. Following the Banks request that the Government allow it to make use of tools such as debt-to-income ratio limits, Ive asked for further advice on how the Bank might implement such tools. I have made clear that in principle I would want these to apply only to investors. Its important that any potential restrictions do not disproportionately affect first-home buyers and low-income borrowers. Todays announcement is just the first step as the Government considers broader advice about how to cool the housing market. We know the rapid increases we have seen in recent months are not sustainable, which has meant many first-home buyers are struggling to access the market. Well be making further announcements in the coming weeks on other policy responses, Grant Robertson said. The South African governments decision to send an empty South African Airways aircraft to fetch a batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines from Brussels is a waste of money. This is the view of Grant Back, commercial airline pilot and chairman of the South African Airways Pilots Association. The SAA flight to fetch the next batch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines left for Brussels last night after a previous delay. The flight was initially set to depart on Sunday, but was grounded for a few days as it was not up to global aviation standards. ENCA reported that there are around 4 to 5 cabin crew on the flight and that the chief pilot is Vusi Khumalo. Speaking to ENCA, Back said the aircraft which is used for this flight is an Airbus A340-600 a long-range, wide-body passenger jet airliner capable of carrying 379 passengers. It costs R200,000 per hour to fly this aircraft. With a flight time of around 10.5 hours to Brussels, it will cost over R4 million for a return flight. Add other costs like overflight clearances and landing fees, and the total price tag to bring home one pallet of 80,000 vaccines is around R5 million. If this was the only option to get the vaccines to South Africa, Back said they would have supported it without hesitation. There is, however, a much cheaper option, which has been used before. You can get a lot more vaccines into the belly space of a commercial aircraft that is flying to South Africa with passengers, he said. To use an empty Airbus A340-600 with 4 engines to fly to Europe and back for a single pallet of vaccines is a waste of money. The only thing I can think of is that this is a photo opportunity or a publicity stunt, he said. Grant Back interview Now read: No more tax funding for new SAA in latest budget On Feb. 14, a year after Public Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced the first coronavirus case in Lebanon, his ministry launched the Lebanon National Deployment and Vaccination Plan. Lebanon has recorded 359,320 cases of the virus, with 4,446 deaths, according to the World Health Organization figures. But no sooner had the vaccination plan been announced that scandals began to erupt. On Feb. 19, the Health Ministry said it had halted accreditation for the Rayak Hospital in the town of Baalbek (60 kilometers, or 27 miles, from Beirut) as a COVID-19 vaccination center due to its violations of the priorities and standards set in the national vaccination plan. The ministrys decision came after the publication of photos of citizens receiving their vaccinations before their turn arrived. On Feb. 23, reports emerged that a number of parliamentarians had been inoculated in parliament, not in a designated center accredited by the Health Ministry. The 16 members of parliament were also accused of jumping the line despite prioritization for medical health workers and the elderly in the first stage of the vaccination drive. The World Bank threatened to suspend its funding for Lebanons vaccination campaign over these violations. Of note, the World Bank approved on Jan. 21 a $34 million loan to fund Lebanons vaccination drive. In a Feb. 17 statement, the World Bank vice president for the Middle East and North Africa region, Ferid Belhaj, said, We will monitor fair and transparent distribution to priority groups as agreed with the government. Raising awareness, encouraging people to register, and ensuring fair & transparent distribution are key to make this a real success. Following the reports of the parliamentarians receiving the vaccine, the media office of the Lebanese presidency announced that President Michel Aoun and his wife got inoculated, along with 10 of his close associates. The deputy speaker of parliament, Elie Ferzli, told Al-Monitor that 25 members of parliament have contracted coronavirus so far, adding, The Public Health Ministry has followed up on these cases via the adviser to the health minister. Representatives of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) were present on the day the parliamentarians received their vaccines they are assigned by the World Bank to monitor the vaccination process. He said that 26 parliamentarians were contacted to receive the vaccine, but nine of them had already received their shot in hospitals. Only 11 parliamentarians received the vaccine, and the process was not secret but done in cooperation with all the concerned parties. Caretaker Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hassan, had allowed lawmakers to receive COVID-19 shots "to thank them for passing an emergency law", as he explained in an interview with Tele Liban. "MPs who received the vaccine did not take the turn of others. They were registered on the platform, and their vaccination was not random at all," he affirmed. Al-Monitor learned from discussions that took place inside the parliament that coordination was conducted between the parliament's secretary-general and Mahmoud Zalzali, an adviser to the health minister. The minister had tasked Zalzali with preparing for the vaccination of the legislators. At 8:30 p.m. Feb. 22, Zalzali informed the parliaments secretary-general that the date for the vaccination of parliamentarians over 70 was set for Feb. 23. The Health Ministry had created a vaccination platform for citizens to register their names to receive the vaccine, and said the vaccine is free and will be available to all residents in Lebanon. The ministry aims to vaccinate 70% of the population this year and next. But a study by the Crisis Observatory at the American University of Beirut warned that Lebanon will not reach herd immunity before June 2025. Some 732,088 people had registered their names on the vaccination platform as of Feb. 24 including 77,310 medical health workers, 81,787 people over 75, and 97,714 people ages 65-74. The number of people 55-64 who registered was 80,907. On Feb. 13, Lebanon received the first batch of 28,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from Belgium. Fadi Sanan, the director general of Health Ministry, told Al-Monitor, Any person on Lebanese territories can register on the platform to receive the vaccine. He said, The ministry will not differentiate between Lebanese citizens and other nationalities. This is a health right for everyone. On Feb. 17, Hassan welcomed Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Rodakov and discussed methods to bring the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Lebanon. Sanan said, The talks about bringing the [Russian] vaccine to Lebanon through the Health Ministry and the private sector have progressed. He also said, As of the end of this week [first week of vaccination], 22,000 citizens have received the vaccine. The other batches of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive consecutively and increase gradually in the coming weeks. Abdul Rahman al-Bizri, the head of Lebanon's National Committee for the Coronavirus Vaccine, said in a Feb. 22 press statement, We need 10 to 11 million doses of vaccines and we have so far secured 6.3 million of them. We will try to get more doses through donations from civil society and the industrial, bank and technical sectors. The Health Ministry has reserved 2.1 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses, and the first five batches were to arrive weekly as of mid-February as follows: 28,080 during the first week, 31,590 during the second week, 41,120 during the third week, 32,760 during the fourth week and 36,270 during the fifth week. Negotiations are currently underway with AstraZeneca to reserve 1.5 million doses. As part of efforts to raise awareness about vaccination, the Health Ministry has launched a media campaign to encourage citizens to register with the vaccination platform. Lebanese actor Salah Tizani, 93, was among the first people to receive their inoculations as part of efforts to raise awareness among the elderly to take the vaccine. Sharaf Abu Sharaf, head of the Order of Physicians, told Al-Monitor, The current vaccine amounts are enough to vaccinate 50% of the Lebanese population by the end of 2021. We need to vaccinate 80% to achieve herd immunity. I hope the Russian and Chinese vaccines will meet the required needs. He added, 50% of doctors, i.e., about 5,000, received the vaccine so far. Doctors are encouraging people in their clinics and during conferences to take the vaccine. On the reports of violations, Abu Sharaf said, I disagree with the exceptions happening in the vaccination campaign. Priority should be given to the rest of the medical corps, as well as the elderly and people suffering chronic diseases. A medical source at Dar al-Amal Hospital in Baalbek told Al-Monitor that the hospital has received the vaccine, and that the medical staff has been inoculated. He added, The hospital can do 198 vaccines per day. What of Syrian refugees in Lebanon? Dalal Harb, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told Al-Monitor, The vaccines for the Syrian refugees and the Lebanese people are the same. According to the Health Ministry's national Vaccination plan, they have to register and wait for their turn, as per the criteria specified by the ministry over four phases. Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita as per 2021 UNHCR figures, with 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 200,000 Palestinian refugees, as well as thousands of other nationalities. The UNHCR and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, continue to offer logistic support to supply the targeted groups of refugees and displaced with the vaccine. The first phase of the vaccination campaign targets medical staff and people over 75, while the other phases target prisoners, teachers and other labor sectors. Harb added, Refugees are using the same vaccination centers as the Lebanese people, and the UNHCR supports awareness campaigns, helps refugees and answers their questions. No one is safe until everyone is safe. This applies to the vaccine as well. She added, Since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed among Syrian refugees in Lebanon in April 2020, 3,046 cases have been recorded so far [among the refugees], including 2,762 living in urban settings, 92 currently hospitalized and 138 deceased patients. It seems the situation is the same for Palestinian refugees when it comes to the vaccine. Majdi Karim, executive director of Al-Shifaa Association for Medical and Human Services, who manages seven dispensaries that cater to the Palestinian refugee camps in the north, south, Baalbek, Sidon and Tyre, told Al-Monitor, Numbers of infected people are on the rise in Palestinian camps, especially in south Lebanon. The UNRWA has encouraged the refugees to take the vaccine because it is the only way to stop the outbreak of this dangerous pandemic. Karim said, According to the latest updates Feb. 16, the cumulative number of cases [among Palestinian refugees] amounted to 5,872, including 1,059 active cases, 133 hospitalized cases and 195 fatalities. The percentage of fatalities is 3.3%, which is high. Therefore, it is necessary to abide by the precautionary measures and social distancing and to take the vaccine. He added, Palestinians are being vaccinated through cooperation and coordination between the UNRWA and the Health Ministry. Vaccination of medical staff and people 75 and up has started at the Saida Governmental Hospital. He added, Ten coronavirus cases were recorded in a week among aid workers from the association in Ain al-Hilweh camp. It is important to administer the vaccine to curb the intensity of infections. Hospitals in Lebanon have reached their maximum capacity, and some patients are receiving treatment in ambulances. Al-Shifaa Association is supplying oxygen to the houses of patients with mild and middle coronavirus infections. Al-Aqsa Hospital in Ain al-Hilweh has also been equipped, in cooperation with the Green Crescent and the Palestinian Civil Defense, to offer the necessary health care and medical services to coronavirus patients. WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More than half of small businesses (56%) plan to spend more compensating their employees in 2021 than last year, according to a new report from Clutch, the leading B2B research and reviews firm. Clutch surveyed small business owners and managers in 2019 and 2021 to learn about what compensation and benefits they offer employees. The data reveals increased demand for health benefits, paid time off, and flexible work schedules. Clutch finds that 56% of small businesses expect the cost of compensating their employees to increase in 2021. Small business plan to offer a variety of new benefits in 2021. Experts say that having benefits and a compensation plan is essential for any business. "I think it's just standardized practice," said Matthew Burr, founder and president of Burr Consulting, an HR consulting firm. "Vacation, PTO all that stuff is expected in our society now. You're not going to be able to recruit and retain people if [you don't offer basic benefits]. It's not going to work out in your favor." To decide which specific benefits to provide and how to offer them, companies evaluate their own workforce and business needs. Health Benefits Important in 2021 Forty-five percent of small businesses (45%) provide their employees health benefits. Health benefits are the most frequently offered benefit. Ted Liu, founder and CEO of Just SEO, a search engine optimization firm, says that there are 2 reasons why offering health benefits is a popular compensation strategy: Health benefits demonstrate commitment to an employee Health benefits reassure employees and improve worker productivity Experts say that committing to employees and providing them with the structure and stability to be productive is especially important right now. "Health benefits have never been more critical than during the midst of a pandemic," said Courtney Quigley, a business reputation consultant for Rize Reviews, an online reputation management company. "This pandemic brought fears and anxiety that changed the way people work, eat, buy, and live." Providing health benefits is a compensation strategy that can help employees feel secure financially and personally, which will remain a priority even after COVID-19. Family Leave and Flexible Work Schedules Important During Remote Work The two benefits that companies are most likely to offer for the first time are family leave (14%) and flexible work schedules (13%). The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged employees' work-life balance and made it difficult to avoid burnout. "[Companies] need to ensure that people are disconnecting from technology and not burning out by working 24 hours a day," said Matthew Burr, founder and president of Burr Consulting, an HR consulting firm. With family leave, a new parent knows that they can keep their job while still taking time to care for a newborn. A flexible work schedule allows an employee with childcare responsibilities to schedule their remote work around virtual school hours. Read the full report here: https://clutch.co/hr/recruiting/resources/small-business-employee-benefits For questions about the survey or comments on the finding, contact Seamus Roddy at [email protected]. About Clutch The leading B2B research, ratings, and reviews firm, Clutch connects small and medium businesses with the best-fit agencies, software, or consultants they need to tackle business challenges together and with confidence. Clutch's methodology compares business service providers and software in a specific market based on verified client reviews, services offered, work quality, and market presence. Contact Seamus Roddy 202.350.4344 [email protected] SOURCE Clutch Father McGivney Catholic High School was awarded a $5,500 grant from Allstate Foundation. Allstate and The Allstate Foundation contributed nearly $46 million to public service projects reaching nearly every community in the country, including Glen Carbon. This program has allowed Stobie Pace Insurance Group the ability to provide Father McGivney Catholic High School with $5,500 in grant money through the Allstate Foundation. We are so honored to be able to utilize our agencys corporate program to give back to such an incredible school so deeply rooted in Catholic values, said Jay Stobie, co-owner of Stobie Pace Insurance Group. It has been our great honor to be part of the Father McGivney family. Father McGivney used the grant money to purchase a new camera system in its gym, which has allowed the school to live stream events. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we have been unable to host many in-person events, said Elizabeth Moody, development director at Father McGivney. This new camera and technology system have allowed us to share many amazing events with the McGivney parents, supporters, and families. We have live streamed masses, events, and activities. Our Catholic Schools Week Mass had over 1,000 views on Facebook Live. We are very grateful for Stobie Pace Insurance Group and Allstate Foundation, this generous grant has been such a blessing to our school. 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. Donald Tober, the Sweet'N Low tycoon who jumped to his death from his luxury Park Avenue apartment last month, has left his wife a $30million fortune, court records show. The magnate, 89, had been battling Parkinson's disease when he leapt from the 11th floor of his plush $10 million Manhattan home on January 15. The CEO and co-owner of artificial sweetener company Sugar Foods, left his wife of 48 years Barbara, a renowned journalist and editor, his entire estate. Donald Tober, the Sweet'N Low tycoon who jumped to his death from his luxury Park Avenue apartment last month, has left his wife Barbara a $30million fortune The wealthy Sweet'N low Magnate plunged from the 11th floor of his Manhattan apartment complex The will filed in his Manhattan Surrogate's court last week showed Tober had no children and Barbara will inherit his $30million wealth, according to the New York Post. Tober's will, filed in October 2018, reads: 'I give the balance of my estate to my wife if she survives me.' She receives his Park Avenue apartment where the couple lived and all of their belongings including furniture, art and cars. Tober also specified that all his stock in Sugar Foods should be sold off. The CEO and co-owner of artificial sweetener company Sugar Foods, left his wife Barbara his entire estate Sugar Foods' best known product was Sweet'N Low artificial sweetener, known for its distinct pink packets. According to Restaurant News magazine, 80 percent of US food establishments used Sweet'N Low by the mid-1990s The executors of his estate should 'distribute to my wife outright all proceeds of such sale' to be placed in a trust 'for the exclusive benefit of my wife', the will shows. Other documents show the total value of the estate to be worth around $30million. Sugar Foods, which stopped distributing Sweet'N Low 15 years ago, boasted annual revenue of $286million in 2018. Tober's father, Harry, founded the company back in 1948. Tober, who graduated from Harvard Law School, joined the company in the 1970s - helping to transform it into a multi-million dollar business. Donald and Barbara Tober are pictured at the American Ballet Theatre Spring Gala at New York City's Lincoln Center in May 2019 Sugar Foods became famous for distributing condiments, snacks and sweeteners in bright packets to restaurants and hotels around the world. However, the company was best known for distributing Sweet'N Low, an artificial sweetener known for its distinct pink packaging. According to Restaurant News magazine, 80 per cent of US food establishments used Sweet'N Low by the mid-1990s. Tober was behind the push to place the artificial sweetener in restaurants around the world. 'Don's had as much to do with building Sweet'N Low into a household name as anyone ever has with a product,' Steve Odell, the president of Sugar Foods, once stated. Barbara receives her husband's Park Avenue apartment where the couple lived and all of their belongings including furniture, art and cars 'Every packet of Sweet'N Low sold today can be traced back to a single sales call that he probably made or at least had a part in.' There have been more than 500 billion Sweet'N Low packets produced around the world. Sugar Foods no longer distributes Sweet'N Low, but it is still one of the country's leading food production companies. The company currently employs 800 people across the US and Mexico, and Tober was still working as its CEO. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the Culinary Institute of America Tober had been married for 48 years to Barbara - a high-powered journalist and editor, who spent more than 30 years as the Editor-in-Chief in Brides magazine. The Tobers were also prominent philanthropists, having co-founded the New York City Meals-on-Wheels program. They were also regular donors to the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Juilliard School. According to friends, the long-time couple were 'seasoned world travelers, avid equestrians and skiers'. Vaccination against coronavirus has begun in Kyiv, the press service of Kyiv City State Administration reports. "Today, February 25, a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 with Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine provided by the Health Ministry has begun in the capital," the statement reads. Head of the Oleksandrivska Clinical Hospital Department will be one of the first to be vaccinated. Vaccination against coronavirus in Ukraine started on February 24. As of February 25, some 136,328 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the city of Kyiv, including 652 new cases recorded in the past day. As reported, on February 23, 500,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine, purchased at the expense of the state budget, were delivered to Ukraine. They were purchased through the Crown Agents British procurement agency. In total, Ukraine intends to purchase 12 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca and NovaVax at public expense. ish Researchers in Italy have conducted a study showing that patients who had tested positive for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) still had neutralizing antibodies against the virus 10 months later. SARS-CoV-2 is the agent responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to pose a global public health threat and has now claimed the lives of more than 2.49 million people. The researchers evaluated antibody responses over the course of 10 months among 30 people who were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Umbria region of Italy between the 1st and 30th March 2020. At ten months post-infection, 19 (63%) of the individuals still had detectable levels of neutralizing immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, no cases of reinfection occurred among any of the participants, despite a surge in daily infections with mutant strains occurring in the Umbria region during the study period. A pre-print version of the research paper is available on the medRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review. Concerns surrounding antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 Since the COVID-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019, studies have shown that humoral (antibody) responses among recovered patients can last anywhere from three months to more than eight months. The SARS-CoV-2 virus expresses four key structural proteins, among which the spike (S) protein and nucleocapsid (N) protein are the most immunogenic. The spike protein is the main structure the virus uses to bind to and gain entry to host cells. As the initial stage of the infection process, the spike binds to the host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) via its receptor-binding domain (RBD). The spike RBD is the main target of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, which can be detected as soon as six days following confirmation of infection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Studies published in 2020 have raised concerns regarding the duration of immunity provided by these neutralizing antibodies, warning that rapidly waning immunity could lead to false-negative immunoassay results. Improved understanding of immunity offered by the antibodies developed against SARS-CoV-2 is critical, writes Puya Dehgani-Mobaraki from Associazione Naso Sano in Umbria, Italy and colleagues. What did the researchers do? The researchers conducted a longitudinal observational analysis of 114 patients in the Umbria region who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time quantitative PCR between the 1st and 30th March. They conducted sequential serological tests over a ten-month period among 30 of the participants who attended all of the follow-up visits. Blood samples were collected at six different time (T) points, with the first sample taken two months post-infection in the month of May (T0). Further samples were then taken one month (T1), three months (T2), five months (T3), six months (T4) and eight months (T5) after T0. The presence and persistence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies were assessed using two commercial chemiluminescence immunoassays (CLIA), with the CLIA positivity cut-off set at >1.01. The participants were divided into those with mild disease (n=17) and those with a moderate-to-severe disease (n=13). Bar plot for IgM and IgG positivity over ten months for all participants (n=30). (CLIA cut-off >1.10) . B; Baseline , T0-T5 are the six sequential serological test time points. What did the study find? The team reports that anti-spike-RBD IgG was detected in 19 (63.3%) of the 30 participants at T5 ten months after infection was initially confirmed. Among both the mild disease group and the moderate-to-severe disease group the trend of SAR-CoV-2-specifc IgM titers stayed below the CLIA positivity cut-off (>1.01) and significantly decreased over the ten-month period. By contrast, the IgG titer trend stayed above the CLIA positivity cut-off in both groups and no significant changes in titer were observed. Furthermore, our study reported zero cases of reinfection despite the fact that the Umbria region currently is experiencing a surge in daily cases with mutant strains, concludes the team. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Organizers trying to arrange a pro-Indian government rally in Brandon say theyve received threats from people on the other side of the conflict. Advertisement Advertise With Us Organizers trying to arrange a pro-Indian government rally in Brandon say theyve received threats from people on the other side of the conflict. A farm bill introduced in India last year that deregulated crop pricing has drawn intense opposition from farmers worried that crop prices will be driven down, resulting in the loss of their livelihood. Clashes between farmers and the government in India have been prolonged, with the death toll as of Monday estimated to be 150 people. Participants in a small pro-farmer rally held signs on Monday at the corner of the intersection of 18th Street and Victoria Avenue. On the other side, local pro-government supporters had wanted to hold a car rally on Feb. 27, but have since withdrawn their application, according to a spokesperson for the City of Brandon. A post on the pro-farmer Punjabi Cultural Association of Brandon Facebook page had alleged on Monday that the pro-government rally had its permit revoked by the city for lying on its application. The Facebook post advised PCA members not to hold a rally in opposition to the pro-government side, but said the organization stated it would be distributing banners, posters and flags in case the other side held a surprise rally. The post also asked for Punjabi cab drivers in the city to keep an eye out for activity but asked supporters to be respectful in their interactions in the community and on social media and to not boycott businesses in town owned by people supporting the other side. Pro-government organizers Shambhu and Tushar Patel told the Sun by phone on Tuesday that they had received dozens of calls and messages since they posted a poster on Facebook for the proposed rally with their phone numbers on it. "At this moment, we have cancelled the rally. We are not holding any sort of rally," said Tushar. "Because they have gone so far, they have been abusing, they have been threatening us and we have submitted one application to the police station this morning saying we are getting threats. Somebody told me do you want to die or what? I have (gotten) 20-plus calls like that. Shambhu has gotten more than 60, 70 calls." A spokesperson for the Brandon Police Service confirmed to the Sun that an organizer of the planned car rally had called on Tuesday to express concern over threats they said theyd received. PCA secretary Shinderpal Gill and president Gurpreet Singh said during a visit to the Suns offices Tuesday afternoon that they were unaware of any death threats, though some on the pro-farmer side had made some comments on the post advertising the pro-government car rally before it was deleted. "Its not a personal thing," said Gill. "It is just about Indias government only." Gill said she was not aware of any threats having been made against the pro-farmer supporters in Brandon. They said theyd dropped off an application at Brandon City Hall earlier in the day asking for permission to hold their own car rally either this Saturday or Saturday next week. According to students involved in Mondays protest, they will continue to hold signs in support at the same intersection every day going forward. cslark@brandonsun.com Twitter: @ColinSlark When police broke into Andrea Lynn Blankenships home in Chickasha, Oklahoma, on February 12, they found her body stabbed and her chest mutilated. Earlier that day, the victims neighbour admitted to breaking into Ms Blankenships home, cutting out her heart and taking it back to his uncles house, police said. He cooked the heart with potatoes to feed to his family to release the demons, an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said to a judge in a request for a search warrant. Lawrence Paul Anderson then allegedly killed his uncle and his uncles four-year-old granddaughter in a gruesome case that has rocked the city of 16,400. Anderson (42) was charged on Tuesday with three counts of first-degree murder and two felony charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and maiming. Anderson was denied bond and its not clear whether he made a plea. Police have not said whether they suspect a motive in the slayings. Police first learned of the crimes on February 9, when they received a 911 call from someone inside the home of Leon Pye, Andersons 67-year-old uncle. Anderson had been staying with his uncle and aunt, 64-year-old Delsie Pye, after Republican Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commuted his 20-year prison sentence for drugs charges. He was released on January 18 after serving a little more than three years in prison. When police arrived at the home, they heard someone inside yelling for help and then found Leon Pye and his four-year-old granddaughter, Kaeos Yates dead. His wife, Delsie, was maimed with stab wounds in both eyes, KFOR reported. Ms Delsie and Anderson, who was also injured, were transported to a hospital for treatment, OSBI said. While in custody in the hospital on February 12, Anderson admitted to killing Ms Blankenship (41) police said. Anderson said he had walked to her house and used his shoulder to slam into the back door to break it open. He then fatally stabbed her and cut her heart out, he later told OSBI agents. Then he walked to his aunt and uncles home, where he cooked it and tried to force them to eat it before attacking them, The Oklahoman reported. After he recovered at the hospital, police transported Anderson to jail. Anderson is scheduled to return to court on April 1. Washington Post New Delhi: Reliance Jio has invited applications from suitable candidates for over 1,900 posts in its sales and distribution team. According to Reliances Jio Infocomm website, there are vacancies available in various parts of the country including places like Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajstahan, Odisha and Karanatka. The company has full plans to expand its reach all over the country by strengthening its team. The company has called for candidates with 10 plus 2/ITI/Certification in device care for the post of a senior digital repair specialist. The applicant must have zero to four years of experience to apply for the post. The website has listed skills like good communication skills, customer focus, problem solving for this positon. Reliance Jio is also looking for candidates with five to seven years of experience for the position of sales lead. Preference will be given to candidates with a MBA degree. The company will also recruit more than 120 people in its customer service team. The positions available under customer service and sales team include digital sales specialists, assistant managers, digital repair specialists, home connect techies and relationship managers. Mukesh Ambani led Reliance industries had launched JioPhone 4G VoLTE feature phone last month. The company has referred the phone as India Ka Smartphone and aims to have 50 crore customers. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Montreal: As Canadians nurse their pandemic blues by baking bread and pies with zeal, a mystery has engulfed the nation: Why is the countrys butter so hard and difficult to spread? In normal times, such a question might have remained the preserve of foodies, bakers and butter fanciers. But with Canadians across the land stuck at home, the butter conundrum has spawned fervent social media chatter, scientific rumination, conspiracy theories and even the creation of a dairy working group. Perhaps inevitably, Canadians are calling it Buttergate. The state of Canadas butter The mystery began several months ago when Canadians, among them Julie Van Rosendaal, a Calgary-based cookbook writer, noticed that their butter was too hard to spread on toast and didnt melt easily. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Kathmandu: The political crisis in Nepal started after PM K P Sharma Oli suddenly decided to dissolve parliament and announced elections in December stating that there is a lack of cooperation on key policy issues by leaders of the rival faction of his ruling party. Later on February 23, Nepal Supreme Court rejected PM Olis decision and reinstated the Parliament in the nation. On Wednesday (February 24), one of the close aides to Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli revealed that the PM has decided against resigning and has left it to the parliament to take a call on his future. "The prime minister will not resign now. There is no question about that," Surya Thapa, the aide, told Reuters. "He will face parliament," Thapa added without providing details. "Oli should pack up his bags and go to Balkot," said 25-year-old Purna Khadka, a protester whose face was painted in the colours of the party flag. In the latest developments, several members of the anti-Oli faction are brazenly against his autocratic style of governing. The fraction also added that the SC verdict proved his inability to function effectively. This power struggle between the two fractions, among Nepals Communist leaders and the ruling party, is expected to intensify further which might lead to a split in the parliament. "The political flux will finally reach a climax with a change of prime minister," said Krishna Pokharel, a professor of political science at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University. Meanwhile, as per the reports, vice-president of the CPN, Bamdev Gautam, has urged the Prime Minister to step down. So far, Bamdev Gautam has maintained a balance between Mr. Oli and his rivals Prachanda and Madhav Kumar Nepal. Live TV Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Our vaccine is experimental, and we, the people, are being herded into a mass drug trial such as the FDA has never before attempted. That is the unembellished truth. Nobody in authority wants to mention this truth. Instead, there's a long trail of rah-rah news propaganda, about fabulous new stadium-parking-lot vaccine sites (because what else would a parking lot at a stadium be used for these days?), numbers of doses available, and reports about the elderly in nursing homes doing a dance of joy at getting their jabs and maybe being let out of jail to see family and people other than one another. These generally come with an interview of somebody in a nursing facility who calls the rest of us, those who don't want to be guinea pigs, "fools" and tells us to just "get on with it" so we can finally hug Mom. Nothing is said of potential ill effects. The fact that this drug trial has claimed a good number of victims already is never mentioned. Nor do we hear about the mRNA injection causing potential long-term problems, despite much speculation on censored sites. While the media glossed over co-morbidities in COVID stats, when it comes to deaths after getting the jab, if the deaths and adverse effects are mentioned at all, it's with the disclaimer that the victim had other issues, too. If you try to access information from the CDC about adverse reactions, there's not a word that I could find. Cases and Deaths are listed on the vaccine page, referring only to COVID itself. Moreover, in California, we have a governor doing public appearances warning us about so-called variants that might still get us sick. He does this to justify keeping the state shut down, despite a huge diminution of cases. Magnanimously, he assures us he will keep us from living life to protect us from these mythical, potentially more lethal variants. He's flat-out lying. Why? Perhaps it's because the government knows that if we open the state, and get back to normal life, fewer of us will want to take the vaccine. As I wrote about here a few days ago, the other reason is that once we open, we'll see with our own unmasked eyes exactly what has been done to our economy in the name of keeping us "safe." If you want a thorough exposition of the lethality (or lack thereof) of the new variants, here's a good article covering the subject, that also concludes, as I have, that people will not want to be vaccinated if they know the truth. The crux of it is, variants are not more lethal, and reports touting that they are were not peer-reviewed or necessarily factual. Virus variations are expected are minor. To quote my favorite conclusion from the article's several experts, "[t]he general 'direction of travel' is to become less injurious but easier to transmit, eventually joining the other 40 or so viruses which cause what we collectively term 'the common cold." If the vaccine is an experiment, if the cases are plummeting, and if the state is still stepping on our necks both to keep us from noticing the devastation and to make us desire the vaccine, then what is the logical conclusion? My guess is, it's all about making some people some money and, in the process, changing the country for the worse. That's a harsh conclusion; perhaps another explanation is that we have a case of Munchausen by (government) proxy, whereby the State wants us ill so it can be seen as our savior. But that takes us only so far. A British article on vaccines and cash touts the altruism of the manufacturers and shows governments themselves as the biggest funders. Yes, there are the Gates Foundation, Alibaba, and Dolly Parton, too. But if the government is all in on funding these vaccines, and pushing them on us, it is basically using our tax money to pay for a forced vaccination. What better way to justify coming tax hikes? "The rich" will undoubtedly be sacrificed in the name of holy vaccination. Democrats may finally get their wealth tax. We all know that once the government starts taking a percentage of the "rich" people's savings every year, it won't be from the tech oligarchs; they will have had ample time and expertise to protect what's theirs. No, the "rich" will be those who have assiduously saved, invested, and worked hard. Once they're done with the top tier there, the trickle-down taxes will start moving down the economic ladder. Vaccinations will serve as an effective way to push socialism or, dare I say, communism. (Note: American Thinker is not taking a position on vaccinations. Instead, unlike the mainstream media, it is offering different viewpoints on the subject so readers can weigh the data and arguments.) Image: Injection by CDC on Unsplash. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks edged up slightly on Thursday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sent out a dovish message in his second day of testimony before a congressional committee. Positive developments on the vaccine front also boosted hopes for a faster economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. On the data front, German consumer confidence is set to improve in March, survey results from the market research group GfK showed earlier in the day. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose more-than-expected to -12.9 in March from revised -15.5 in the previous month. The expected level was -14.3. 'Consumers are recovering somewhat from the shock that hit them after the hard lockdown in mid-December,' Rolf Burkl, GfK consumer expert, said. The benchmark DAX inched up 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,000 after gaining 0.8 percent the previous day. Banks advanced, with Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank both climbing around 3 percent. Reinsurance group Munich Re gained 0.8 percent. The company expects net profit to bounce back this year after more than halving in 2020. Pharmaceutical and chemical conglomerate Bayer slumped 4 percent after reporting fall in fourth-quarter profit and sales. Aixtron shares surged 14 percent. The provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry reported slightly higher net result and revenue for the full year 2020 and said it expects stronger growth in 2021. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 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. Art Dubai today announces an updated gallery list for its 2021 edition, reaffirming the fairs commitment to providing a physical platform and marketplace for artists and galleries from across the Global South. This year, the fair will move to a new location at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in a purpose-built venue that will ensure the highest Covid-19 safety protocols, creating a secure, safe and flexible environment for participants and visitors. The fair will take place from March 29 to April 3. Held in the strategic partnership with Dubai Culture, Art Dubai 2021 will feature 50 leading Contemporary and Modern galleries from 31 countries, showcasing a diverse selection of artworks, artists and practices, reflecting the multicultural identity of the city. Alongside galleries from major and emerging international art centres, visitors will encounter galleries from across the Middle East and South and East Asia, including from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, India, Vietnam and Philippines and a strong representation from across the African continent including galleries from Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and Tunisia. Ten of Dubais top galleries will also take part, reflecting the growing market and rapidly developing scene of the Emirate. Art Dubais Artistic Director, Pablo del Val, commented: In-person events are the heart and soul of the art world and ours is a sector that has like so many others been significantly impacted by the events of the last 12 months. "As we begin to navigate our way out of the pandemic, we feel a keen responsibility to do everything we possibly can to support the artists, galleries and many service providers who depend on a vibrant and dynamic global commercial art sector. Art Dubai has also announced a number of innovations for the 2021 fair. These include a collaborative new partnership with exhibiting galleries, whereby participation costs are partly based on sales, and a Remote Participation Programme that will support those galleries who are unable to travel to Dubai in person, by using new technologies to connect them digitally with fair visitors who are discovering their artworks in person. The fair will be produced in accordance with the highest Covid-19 safety protocols; holding the event over six days, in a purpose-built structure at DIFC will provide the safest possible environment for exhibitors and visitors by better controlling access and will also allow visitors to take advantage of DIFCs world-class restaurants and facilities. Isabelle van den Eynde, founder of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai), commented: I have always believed in the energy of Art Dubai and, in spite of everything, this year is no exception. Art Dubai has remained faithful to its vision. They have persevered. I am confident the upcoming event, in its new format, will dynamise the scene yet again. Kristin Hjellegjerde, founder of Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (London, Berlin, Nevlunghavn), commented: In these times we have to find alternative ways to keep growing. Art Dubais innovative approach and commitment to make the fair happen works very well for us. Having taken part in many previous editions of the fair, we trust the team to make this a great success, whether circumstances mean we can be there in person or not. Nathalie Obadia, founder of Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris, Brussels) commented: The city of Dubai has strengthened its position as a strategic crossroads thanks to ambitious fine art projects in the Middle East. As Art Dubai has become an essential fair in the region and one of the few to be held this spring, it was vital in relation to the promotion of our artists to be at this rendezvous. - TradeArabia News Service CAIRO As a foreign policy priority for Cairo, Egypt seeks to strengthen its ties with Burundi and the Nile Basin countries, to limit Turkeys expansion in East Africa and protect its national security from any threats. Egypt and Burundi share a historical relationship as Nile Basin countries. Burundian Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Shingiro hosted Egyptian Ambassador to Burundi Yasser Al-Atwi on Feb. 13 in the capital, Bujumbura. During the meeting, the two diplomats discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties between their countries. In the same week, on Feb. 18, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received a phone call from his Burundian counterpart. The conversation touched on the bilateral relations, ways to strengthen them and coordination to hold a joint committee in the coming period. These developments, experts and observers told Al-Monitor, can also be seen as part of Egypt's efforts to block Turkeys influence in East Africa. East Africa has been a vital arena for Turkish maneuvers in recent years, with the Red Sea forming a global trade artery between Asia and Europe. Yet Turkeys quest to establish a foothold in the Nile Basin countries is seen by Egypt as a threat to its national security and to that of other Arab countries. Tariq Fahmy, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor over the phone that strengthening relations with Burundi is one of Egypts foreign policy priorities. Burundi is an important country for Egypt not only because of the African geographic connection but also because it is one of the Nile Basin countries. Building stronger ties aims to preserve Cairos interests, protect its water security, and shrink the presence of Turkey and any forces opposing Egyptian national security. Along with its strong relations with Cairo, Fahmy noted that Burundi has strong ties with Turkey, Iran and Israel. He explained that Egypt wants to win Burundi to its side on the issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Egyptian water security. He asserted that Turkeys presence in the African continent, especially East Africa, started growing significantly in recent years. This poses a threat to the Egyptian and Arab national security and their strategic interests, Fahmy warned. Therefore, Egypt placed on top of its foreign policy priorities boosting ties with the African brotherly countries, intensifying its presence in them and providing them with development support. For this purpose, Egypt seeks stronger coordination with African Union countries, especially the Nile Basin countries such as Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, South Sudan and others. This will allow it to preserve water security, curb the influence of Turkey and ward off the threat of any other hostile forces to its interests. He continued, Ethiopia is using Turkey as a trump card to pressure Egypt on the Nile water and the Ethiopian dam issues. Addis Ababa requested Ankara's mediation in its border dispute crisis with Sudan, in response to Cairos support to Khartoum. This pushed Egypt to focus on strengthening its relations with the Nile Basin countries in the recent period. These countries will have a major role in the Nile water crisis by pressuring Ethiopia to stop its water plans, especially after Congo assumed the presidency of the African Union. Mona Omar, the former assistant foreign minister for African affairs, believes the Egyptian-Burundian relations are strong and historic. She explained, Ethiopia had called for a framework agreement for the Nile Basin countries, known as the Entebbe Agreement, in 2010, and Egypt and Sudan rejected it due to its severe harm to their water security. Burundi only signed this agreement after the January 25 Revolution of 2011 that toppled the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak. But the Burundian parliament has yet to ratify it as an expression of its support for Egypt and its water security concern. Naturally, Egypt and Burundi will have strong ties. Their relationship is not new; it extends for many years. In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Omar added, Egypt is keen to train Burundian cadres in all fields to provide them with the necessary expertise that they will transfer to Burundi to push development efforts forward and increase investment. Among African countries, Burundi has the largest number of participants in training courses held by Cairo. Also, Egyptian investors and experts support Burundi in many fields such as energy, agriculture and water. She affirmed that Egypt seeks to increase the number of Egyptian investors and companies in Africa to preserve its interests. Egypt believes having strong ties with the Nile Basin countries will allow it to reinforce its national security and counter any threats, whether by Turkey or others. She said, Global powers, not only Turkey, are racing to control the African continent and striving for a presence there. They seek to exploit this continent's rich wealth and raw resources and to market their products and goods to its population that exceeds 1 billion. Therefore the increasing Egyptian presence in Africa is all the more important. Basant Fahmy, a former member of the parliamentary Economic Committee and a professor of economics at Cairo University, believes the Egyptian economy has gained strength. She told Al-Monitor, Giant Egyptian companies with experience in energy, agriculture and infrastructure could be the gate to the African continent. The Egyptian economy can fortify the African national economy and preserve its national security from any external threats, whether from Turkey or other regional power. She continued, Egypt has been the gateway and axis of the African continent since ancient times. It has enormous expertise in energy, construction, agriculture and water, and surpasses Turkey. African countries, especially Burundi, a Nile Basin country, ought to tap on this experience to their own support development efforts. Economic power is one of the most important means for Egypts expansion in Africa and for countering any attempts to threaten Cairos national security. On another note, Basant stressed the need to activate the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement that went into effect Jan. 1. She explained that the Egyptian products must be of high quality and reasonably priced in order to be able to penetrate the African market. This will bring positive results, not only at the economic level by boosting Egyptian exports, but also at the political, as it will curtail Turkey or other powers regional influence, Basant concluded Ghana has become the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines through the World Health Organizations COVAX program on Wednesday, a joint statement issued by UNICEF Ghana and WHO Ghana said. The shipment, consisting of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, arrived at 7 am GMT Wednesday on an Emirates flight at Kotoka International Airport, in Ghanas capital Accra. The Minister for Health-designate, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu led a government delegation to receive the consignment.As the plane carrying the vaccines landed, state-run Ghana Broadcasting Corporation journalist Abdul Hayi-Moomen declared: The flight carrying the vaccines that we so much look forward to receiving, I believe hope has arrived. The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India, in the Indian city of Pune, and are part of the first wave of Covid-19 vaccines headed to low and middle-income countries, the joint statement added. Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard, said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. With the first shipment of doses, we can make good on the promise of the COVAX Facility to ensure people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines. The vaccines will be first administered to health workers, people over 60, and those with underlying health conditions, according to a statement from the Information Ministry. They also plan to secure additional vaccines through external agencies, the statement said. Last month, India and the African Union announced plans for the Serum Institute to supply 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa. Ghana has reported at least 80,759 cases of COVID-19 and 582 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Source: cnn.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 ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mechanical Technology, Incorporated ("MTI" or the "Company"), (OTCQB: MKTY), the parent company of MTI Instruments, Inc. and EcoChain, Inc. ("EcoChain"), a cryptocurrency mining business powered by renewable energy, announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed Aly Madhavji ("Aly" or "Mr. Madhavji") as a member of the Board, effective immediately. MTI's Board of Directors now has eight members, including Mr. Madhavji. Mr. Madhavji will be placed in the class of directors with a term that will expire in 2022. Mr. Madhavji is the Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund. He also consults leading organizations, such as the United Nations, on emerging technologies. Mr. Madhavji is a Limited Partner at Loyal VC and Draper Goren Holm, an award-winning author, a Senior Blockchain Fellow at INSEAD and recognized as a "Blockchain 100" Global Leader by Lattice80. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD and a Master of Global Affairs, as a Schwarzman Scholar, from Tsinghua University. Michael Toporek, CEO of MTI, commented, "Mr. Madhavji's knowledge and passion for emerging technologies will be a valuable asset to our Board as we work to grow and scale the Company's EcoChain cryptocurrency mining facilities. His expertise and key relationships with blockchain start-ups and consulting with companies and government agencies will also be a great resource for MTI and we welcome him to MTI and the Board." Aly added, "EcoChain's business model to develop cryptocurrency mining facilities powered by renewable energy is an impressive application of leading-edge technologies. I am thrilled to join the Board and contribute my insight to the successful buildout of the business plan." About MTI MTI is the parent company of MTI Instruments, Inc. and EcoChain, Inc. Through MTI Instruments, MTI is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of test and measurement instruments and systems that use a comprehensive array of technologies to solve complex, real world applications in numerous industries, including manufacturing, electronics, semiconductor, solar, commercial and military aviation, automotive and data storage. Through EcoChain, MTI is developing cryptocurrency mining facilities powered by renewable energy that integrate with the blockchain network. For more information about MTI, please visit https://www.mechtech.com. Forward Looking Statement This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current expectations, as of the date of this communication, and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements herein with respect to the successful execution of the Company's business strategy. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, our ability to establish and maintain the proprietary nature of our technology through the patent process, as well as our ability to possibly license from others patents and patent applications necessary to develop products; the availability of financing; the Company's ability to implement its long range business plan for various applications of its technology; the Company's ability to enter into agreements with any necessary partners; the impact of competition, the obtaining and maintenance of any necessary regulatory clearances applicable to applications of the Company's technology; and management of growth and other risks and uncertainties that may be detailed from time to time in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact Information: Jess Olszowy [email protected] Investor Relations: Kirin Smith, President PCG Advisory, Inc. 646.823.8656 [email protected] SOURCE Mechanical Technology, Incorporated Related Links https://www.mechtech.com/ A suspected human smuggler drove off from a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint when an agent asked him if he could search the trunk, according to an arrest affidavit. Jose Lopez arrived in a gray vehicle at the checkpoint on Interstate 35 on Feb 17. An agent then asked him if he could search the trunk of the vehicle after a K-9 gave a positive alert. Lopez then allegedly sped off from the checkpoint. Agents caught up to the vehicle and pulled it over to discover two people inside the trunk. The individuals were immigrants who were in the country illegally. Agents were then alerted to a maroon vehicle involved in the smuggling attempt. The driver of that vehicle was identified as Rigoberto Higle. Lopez, Higle and the two immigrants were taken into custody for further investigation. In a post-arrest interview, Lopez stated that he did not have a valid drivers license on him. He allegedly added that he was to be paid $250 per immigrant for taking them to San Antonio. Lopez admitted that when (agents) asked to look in the trunk, he panicked and fled from the checkpoint while the (immigrants) were still in the trunk, states the affidavit. Higle acted as a lookout during the smuggling attempt, according to court documents. Higle admitted he was to be paid $100 to scout for and follow the vehicle driven by Lopez, which was loaded with (immigrants) in the trunk, all the way from Laredo to San Antonio. Higle was to be paid once he arrived in San Antonio with Lopez, the affidavit states. Lopez and Higle were arrested and charged with transport, attempt to transport and conspire to transport immigrants who were in the country illegally. Burma Lawyer for Myanmars Detained Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says He Has Not Been Able to Meet Her Daw Aung San Suu Kyi campaigning ahead of the Nov. 8 general election. / The Irrawaddy YANGONA lawyer for detained Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said he hasnt yet been able to meet her and obtain the power of attorney required to represent her in court, and feared that she would be deprived of her right to legal counsel, as her next hearing will be held early next week. After the coup on Feb. 1, the Myanmar military regime arrested the State Counselor and sued her on two obscure charges relating to possessing walkie-talkies and breaching COVID-19 restrictions. She has been remanded in custody. The state counselor said during a hearing last week that she wanted a lawyer to represent her in court. However, her lawyer U Khin Maung Zaw told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he hasnt yet obtained power of attorney from her. He said he had submitted all the necessary paperwork to the relevant authorities since Feb. 16 for Daw Aung San Suu Kyis signature. Her next hearing is scheduled on Monday. But up to now, we havent got that power of attorney from her. If we dont have that power of attorney, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be deprived of her rights to stand with legal counsel, said the lawyer. U Khin Maung Zaw said that unless the paperwork was done in two or three days, he wont be allowed to attend the court as her legal adviser, meaning Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would be tried at the next hearing without a lawyer to defend her. The lawyer said his application to have a meeting with his client had also fallen on deaf ears. As lawyer and client, criminal law procedure requires [that I] receive her instructions, and it is also the pre-trial right of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a defendant, he said. The military regime initially sued her under the Export and Import Law, accusing her of possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies. The charge carries up to three years imprisonment. During her most recent hearing, they slapped her with one more charge under the Natural Disaster Management Law, probably for breaching COVID-19 restrictions during the election campaign. If found guilty, she would face another three years imprisonment. People across the country have taken to the streets for more than two weeks to demand her release and an end to the military dictatorship. On Tuesday, foreign ministers of the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US) and the high representative of the EU reiterated their call for the immediate and unconditional release of those detained arbitrarily, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. The G7 said it continued to stand with the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy and freedom, condemning the coup. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Police Fails to Probe Headquarters Raid: NLD Myanmar Foreign Minister in Bangkok to Meet Indonesian Counterpart China Says It Will Work With ASEAN to De-Escalate Situation in Myanmar Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:57 pm Youd think that Lewis County Seniors (LCS) operates a Meals on Wheels program given the hundreds of seniors they deliver pre-made meals to every month. Since the pandemic, theyve converted their Twin Cities senior center to a meal-prep hub, and have gotten meals into the hands of often-isolated seniors even during the recent snowstorm. But the Meals on Wheels program, awarded on contract by the regional Area Agency on Aging, has been controlled by a much larger organization Catholic Community Services for several years. Now, LCS wants it back. Executive Director Glenda Forga says LCS used to operate the program, and much more, before things were slowly fragmented off throughout the years. This was a very large operation in Lewis County in one point in time, she said. And when I was hired in October of 1999, all the pieces were together. LCS will bid on the contract this July. And with all the work theyve done during the pandemic, theyre fairly confident theyll be able to wrestle back control. Part of it is proving ourselves to them, Pe Ell site manager Nora Davis said. And weve definitely done that. Because of the COVID-19 emergency, LCS is allowed to deliver meals to seniors homes or through delivery drop points despite not holding the Meals on Wheels contract. Since last March, the program has exploded, with meals served more than quadrupling its given LCS the chance to shine and confirm their ability to operate a Meals on Wheels program. We invented the wheel as we went, and all our jobs have completely changed, Davis said. Davis and Forga also say their program has highlighted that too many local seniors were going underserved by Catholic Community Services, a large agency that they see as not plugged into the community. Unlike Catholic Community Services, LCS used to be a county agency and still regularly reports to the Board of County Commissioners. Theyve also played a role in getting seniors connected to COVID-19 vaccines. Glenda points to her familiarity to the area as one reason why LCS could successfully run the Meals on Wheels program. Im from here. Ive lived here all my life. I know this county like the back of my hand, she said. If LCS is not awarded the contract, theyll have to turn over their homebound clients to Catholic Community Services as soon as its safe for seniors to return to congregate sites. Their chances of regaining control of the program will be boosted if theyre awarded money from the Building Community Fund, a grant funded through the state that could finance a larger kitchen at the Twin Cities senior center to serve as a production hub for the nonprofit. A larger kitchen in the works could show that LCS is already working to increase capacity. LCS had an interview for the grant program, and is now waiting to see if the state Legislature will fund it. If so, LCS could build a larger kitchen a project likely to cost near a million dollars and dedicate two to three staff members to produce Meals on Wheels food. Increased freezer capacity means they could have a backlog of frozen meals to deliver to seniors. And even without a Meals on Wheels program, Forga says the kitchen could still be instrumental to other expansions, like more nutrition sites around the county, where seniors can get hot meals and socialize two days a week. The nonprofit is trying to expand their reach to more isolated areas, where seniors are less able to drive to a senior center. As exciting as the possibility of expansion and a Meals on Wheels program is, LCS is simultaneously staring down the potential for calamity. In June, a month before they bid on the Meals on Wheels contract, their FEMA funding will expire. No alternative funding source has been identified. My only option is find more money or lay people off, Forga told county commissioners Tuesday. With fewer staff, she said, they would be working our fingers to the bone. According to Davis, the situation would be similar to the first few months of the pandemic, when operations ramped up exponentially with too few sets of hands. She remembers some staffers working 21 long days in a row. But even with the grim possibility on the horizon, LCS is optimistic about their future. They have plans for things like a joint senior/child daycare a growing trend of intergenerational care that can improve outcomes for Alzheimer's patients and young kids. The skys the limit. And weve already proven that through this last year, Forga siad. Theres so much energy and excitement right now. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Springfield Police have located the man sought in connection with a homicide Wednesday evening in a Springfield home. Police said Christopher Wilcox, 46, has been located and there is no further threat to the community. Detectives said Wednesday night that the incident occurred just after 6 p.m. in a house at 68th Place and Forsythia Street in Springfield. Police arrived to find one person dead inside the house. There were multiple people inside the house when police arrived. Police had said Wednesday night that Wilcox was considered armed and dangerous, and they had warned people not to approach him. His vehicle, a black 2006 Mazda Tribute with Oregon license plate "012 DBT," has also been located as of Thursday morning, police said. Police have not released details of the relationship between Wilcox and the person who was found dead. This is a developing story. Stay with KEZI for the very latest information. Admin gears up as Hisar farmers get set to protest today Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu hoists black flag at his residence in support of protesting farmers Samyukta Kisan Morcha appeals to farmers to peacefully participate in 'Bharat Bandh' on Friday India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Feb 25: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), spearheading anti-farm laws protests at Delhi borders, appealed to farmers on Thursday to peacefully participate in a 'Bharat Bandh' called by transport and trade unions on February 26. Traders' body CAIT has said that all commercial markets across the country will remain closed on February 26 in view of its 'Bharat Bandh' call demanding a review of the provisions of the goods and services tax (GST) regime. The Morcha, in a statement, said it supports the 'Bharat Bandh' called by transport and trade unions on Friday. "We appeal to all farmers in the country to support all the 'Bharat Bandh' protesters peacefully and make the Bandh a success," it said. PM Modi underlines support for farmers; attacks Congress-DMK alliance The outfit also condemned the management body of DAV School in Gopalapuram, Chennai, for allegedly publishing "prejudiced and presumptive" questions on farmers' tractor rally on Republic Day, in an exam conducted by it. The farmers protesting at Delhi borders for three months demanding repeal of the Centre's three farm laws and MSP for their crops will celebrate "Yuva Kisan Diwas" on Friday. On this day, all the stages of SKM will be operated by the youth. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 23:11 [IST] Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. 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. Two of Lady Gagas French bulldogs were stolen Wednesday night in Los Angeles, according to reports. The pop stars dog walker was shot with a semi-automatic handgun during the robbery. The dog walker is recovering well, a source told CNN. Lady Gaga is offering a $500,000 reward for the return of the dogs, Koji and Gustav -- with no questions asked. The news no doubt has shocked both the 34-year-old Gaga and her millions of fans. Earlier this week, the most remarkable thing going on with the famously outre performer was that she was now pitching her own brand of Oreo cookies. Guilty Eats critic Sarah Perchikoff wrote that Oreo and Gaga could have done something amazing with unique flavors but they just covered a plain cookie with vibrant colors. Its incredibly disappointing. I've learned recently that there are Lady Gaga Oreos and I... don't know what to do with this information now. pic.twitter.com/IU60JZSAcg Alu (@AluHealz) February 25, 2021 The high-profile marketing campaign for the Gaga Oreos highlights her Born This Way Foundation, which is dedicated to helping young people create a kinder and braver world. Washington Post food critic Tim Carman, this very morning, also weighed in on the Gaga cookies, noting that, in her new album Chromatica, Gaga examines the emotional trials she faced early in her career as she tried to hold onto her sense of self while being objectified. The Lady Gaga Oreo gives you a representation of that artificiality [shes worked to overcome], in cookie wafer form, tinted a shade of pink that you rarely see in commercial foodstuffs. Carman added that the soft creamy inside of the cookie is green, a color associated with harmony, restoration, peace. Lady Gaga, in Rome working on a movie, is now hoping for peace and harmony to win out with the safe return of her beloved dogs. The Los Angeles police are searching for the person responsible for the attack and robbery; the shooter reportedly sped from the scene in the 1500 block of North Sierra Bonita Avenue in a white vehicle. -- Douglas Perry dperry@oregonian.com @douglasmperry The U.S. regulator that approved the flawed Boeing Co. 737 Max design has continuing weaknesses and is vulnerable to future high-risk safety concerns, a government watchdog report found. The Transportation Departments Inspector General said that the Federal Aviation Administration hasnt put in place thorough oversight of Boeing employees entrusted with approving aircraft designs and continues to struggle with limited engineering resources. The report, which hasnt been released, was reviewed by Bloomberg News. It was first reported by the Seattle-Times. Two 737 Maxes crashed, partly as a result of a flawed design in the flight-control system, killing 346 people and leading to a 20-month grounding. While FAA and Boeing followed the established certification process for the 737 Max 8, we identified limitations in FAAs guidance and processes that led to a significant misunderstanding of the system on the plane linked to the crashes, according to the report, which was written by Matthew Hampton, assistant Inspector General for aviation audits. The Max 8 is one of several versions of the plane. That flight control feature, known as Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, automatically pushed down the noses of the two planes that crashed after a malfunction. Pilots eventually lost control on a Lion Air flight off the coast of Indonesia and on an Ethiopian Airlines flight near Addis Ababa. The report repeats findings from other investigations of the 737 Max as well, such as that FAA officials werent given details about design changes to the plane and the agency didnt have the expertise and manpower to adequately oversee the company workers approving aspects of the plane in behalf of the government. Congress in December passed legislation requiring changes at the FAA and strengthening its staffing in the division that oversees Boeing. In a response appended to the report, the FAA said it is taking numerous steps to reform its certification process. It has agreed to all 14 of the Inspector Generals recommendations and said they would be completed by 2025. Boeing, in a statement, said it had cooperated with the Inspector Generals review and has already implemented several of the recommendations that it calls for and made other safety improvements. We appreciate the Inspector Generals review of the 737 Max design and certification, as well as the recommendations to strengthen and improve the regulatory process, the company said. Top Photo: The Boeing Co. 737 Max airplane taxis after landing during a test flight in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Topics Aviation Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Legend Power Systems Inc. (TSXV:LPS)(OTCQB:LPSIF) ("Legend Power" or the "Company"), a global leader in commercial electrical system solutions, today announced it will release its Q1 2021 financial results for the three months ended December 31, 2020, on Monday, March 1, 2021. The Company has also scheduled a conference call to provide a business update and discuss its Q1 2021 financial results for Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 11:00 AM ET (8:00 AM PT). The call will be hosted by Randy Buchamer, President & Chief Executive Officer and Steve Vanry, Chief Financial Officer. CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS: DATE: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 TIME: 11:00 AM ET (8:00 AM PT) DIAL-IN NUMBER: North America Toll-Free Dial-in Number (877) 201-0168 International Dial-in Number - (647) 788-4901 ONLINE LISTENING Legend Power Q1 2021 Audience Webcast CONFERENCE ID: 3871453 REPLAY: Available at: www.legendpower.com About Legend Power Systems Inc. Legend Power Systems Inc. (www.legendpower.com) provides an intelligent energy management platform that analyzes and improves building energy challenges, significantly impacting asset management and corporate performance. Legend's proven solutions support proactive executive decision-making in a complex and volatile business and energy environment. For further information, please contact: Steve Vanry, CFO + 1 604 671 9522 svanry@legendpower.com Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations + 1 647 503 1054 sean@sophiccapital.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks, uncertainties and factors are described in the periodic filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including the Company's quarterly and annual Management's Discussion & Analysis, which may be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements other than as may be required by applicable law. SOURCE: Legend Power Systems Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631853/Legend-Power-Schedules-Q1-2021-Financial-Results-Release-and-Conference-Call 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. Lawyers representing the Texas Education Agency filed an appeal Wednesday asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a temporary injunction that has slowed Education Commissioner Mike Moraths plans to strip power from all nine Houston ISD school board members. The filing comes nearly two months after the Third District Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, ruled that Morath did not follow laws and procedures that would give him the authority to temporarily replace HISDs school board with a state-appointed board. TEA pledged in late December 2020 to appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. If the states highest court overturns the injunction, TEA leaders could install a new board that could vote to end HISDs lawsuit. HISD trustees remain in power as the lawsuit remains active. Board members met Thursday with their superintendent search firm, which proposed naming a lone finalist for the job by late May or mid-June. HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan has held the post since March 2018, when Richard Carranza left to lead New York Citys public schools. Morath moved in November 2019 to seize power from trustees in the states largest district, citing chronically low academic performance at Wheatley High School, multiple findings of misconduct by board members and the continued presence of a state-appointed conservator overseeing changes in the district. In each case, Morath said, state laws gave him the authority to issue sanctions against HISD, including the boards ouster. However, a Travis County judge issued a temporary injunction in January 2020 halting the move and the Third District Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. The appellate court found Morath misinterpreted laws relating to Wheatleys poor academic ratings and the conservators presence in HISD. The appellate court also said TEA officials failed to conduct a proper review of the states investigation into board misconduct, which stemmed in part from five trustees quickly-reversed votein 2018 to replace Lathan . In their filing Wednesday, state lawyers representing the state argued the Third District Court of Appeals erred in its interpretation of laws and regulations on all three fronts. The lawyers also claimed HISD should not be able to sue the state over an administrative matter. This case is of immediate importance to HISD students, Assistant Solicitor General Kyle Highful wrote in the appeal. And the court of appeals misinterpretations of the law endanger TEAs future efforts to assist failing schools. Each of the three issues considered by the Third District Court of Appeals largely fell along technical lines. When it came to Wheatley High School, the appellate judges ruled that the Fifth Ward campus had not triggered a state law passed in 2017 that mandates sanctions in a district with any campus scoring five consecutive failing grades under the state academic accountability system. Although Wheatley received failing grades in 2013 through 2017 and 2019, the campus did not receive a rating in 2018 due to Hurricane Harvey. The gap led to confusion under state law about whether Wheatley triggered sanctions. Morath tried to clarify the matter through rulemaking authority granted by state lawmakers, employing language that would result in Wheatley triggering sanctions in 2019. However, the appellate court ruled that a trial court should consider whether Morath had legal authority to issue the rule. The appellate justices also ruled that HISD could not be punished under a law allowing sanctions in a district with a conservator present for more than two years. While state-appointed conservator Doris Delaney has served in HISD since 2016, the appellate justices said her appointment only related to a campus, Kashmere High School, as opposed to the district. State leaders argued there is no legal distinction between a campus-level conservator and district-level conservator. Still, TEA officials clarified in March 2019 that Delaneys authority stretched across the district, primarily focused on several long-struggling campuses. Finally, the justices said the TEA did not properly offer HISD an opportunity for an informal review by the commissioner or a designated hearing examiner following the states investigation into board misconduct. TEA investigators concluded five board members violated the Texas Open Meetings Act prior to their vote to oust Lathan, several board members overstepped their authority on multiple occasions and two trustees violated procurement laws. State officials argued the TEA met the standard for an informal review when Deputy Commissioner of Governance and Accountability Jeff Cottrill examined the investigators findings and HISDs response. However, the two justices ruled Cottrill does not qualify as a hearing examiner. The term is not defined in state education law, but the two justices said the phrase is considered synonymous with the term administrative law judge. The court didnt say (TEA) is prohibited from taking action, but rather that before they do, statutory requirements have to be met, Kevin OHanlon, a lawyer representing HISD, said in December 2020. jacob.carpenter@chron.com ja jacob.carpenter@chron.com Among them are Russia's RBC, LiveJournal, as well as From-ua, Novostiua.org, ZapadMedia, Infopressa, and others. Kyiv's Holosiyivsky District Court has ruled to block access to 426 websites in Ukraine, including those of Russian and Ukrainian media. That is according to Ukraine's National Commission for Communications and Informatization Regulation (NCCIR) published on its website on February 24. The court has effectively blocked Russia's RBC, From-ua, Novostiua.org, ZapadMedia, Infopressa, LiveJournal, Telegram statistics service TGStat, GistGitHub, Cryptowiki, etc. The ruling was handed down as a response to a criminal offense under Part 3 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (gross fraud, or fraud committed through unlawful operations involving computers). The sanction provides for imprisonment for a term of three to eight years. Read alsoUkraine's SBU puts fringe blogger Shariy on wanted listThe court ruling is subject to immediate execution. However, it can be appealed at the Kyiv Court of Appeals within five days. Background On February 23, the Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv ruled to block public access to a number of Telegram channels that the SBU Security Service of Ukraine had previously exposed as tools used by Russian assets in their psyops targeting Ukrainian audiences. The list includes such channels as "Resident", "Lehitymny", "Kartel", "Spletnitsa", and "Resident". The National Commission has been told to oblige Internet providers to block public access to the said resources. On February 1, it became known that SBU cybersecurity experts had exposed a massive Russian intelligence network that was engaged in a subversive activity supervised by Russian special services. In particular, it ran a number of regional and all-Ukrainian Telegram channels. The investigation says the asset network was set up by the so-called 85th Main Center of the Special Service at the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (or at what's commonly known as the GRU). It had employed residents of Kharkiv and Odesa, activists of the so-called "Russian spring". At the moment, the culprits work from Tiraspol in the Russian-controlled "Transnistrian Moldovan Republic". It has been established that the "main manager" of the agent network is an Odesa citizen, one of the organizers of the Odesa "Anti-Maidan". Now he is wanted under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Reporting by UNIAN Dr. Lee completed a fellowship in the Plastic Surgery Research Lab where he published numerous book chapters and journal articles. Dr. Lee is a Harvard-trained plastic surgeon serving patients in the greater Boston area. He specializes in cosmetic procedures of the face, breast, body, as well as nonsurgical treatments such as Botox and Juvederm. Dr. Lee's vision for patient care blends both safety as well as optimal aesthetic outcomes. I am first and foremost a doctor. My primary objective is to keep things safe and if something is unsafe or not worth the risk, I will tell you. I also tell all of my patients that I always reserve the right to change the plan if it becomes a safety issue. "By utilizing the most advanced techniques coupled with an in-depth understanding of the human body, Dr. Lee is able to achieve outstanding outcomes which result in extremely happy patients!" Education and Training Dr. Lee grew up in the northeast and graduated from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania with honors (magna cum laude). From there he went to medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine where he made the decision to become a surgeon. After medical school, he completed his training in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Harvard Medical School hospital. During this time, he also completed a fellowship in the Plastic Surgery Research Lab where he published numerous book chapters and journal articles. He also traveled extensively giving presentations at the national and international level advancing the field of plastic surgery. From there, he was accepted to the Harvard Plastic Surgery Combined Residency Program where he further refined his surgical skills in all aspects of plastic surgery. Dr. Lee then completed his training as a fellow in Craniofacial Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Breast surgery is by far the most commonly performed aesthetic surgery in the world. Whatever the goal, Dr. Lee will make an accurate assessment and then formulate a safe, customized plan just for you. Learn more about Dr. Jeffrey Lee by visiting: https://hauteliving.com/hautebeauty/member/dr-jeffrey-lee/ ABOUT HAUTE BEAUTY NETWORK: Haute Beauty is affiliated with the luxury lifestyle publication Haute Living. As a section of Haute Living magazine, Haute Beauty covers the latest advancements in beauty and wellness, providing readers with expert advice on aesthetic and reconstructive treatments through its network of acclaimed doctors and beauty experts. For more about Haute Beauty, visit https://hauteliving.com/hautebeauty/ Contec Global, the UK-based conglomerate with a strong footprint in the Middle East & Africa in delivering sustainable AgriTech programmes, has marked a strategic tie-up with Maithri Aquatech, the developer of innovative air-to-water technology, to bring large-scale sustainable water solutions to the Middle East and Africa. The partnership aims to deliver a business of over $200 million in atmospheric water generator (AWG) solutions in the region in the next three to five years. The two entities will work together to provide safe, potable, clean water on a sustainable basis. They will focus on capacity building using Contec Global and Maithris joint expertise in delivering turn-key AWG projects for drinking water and micro-irrigation in acutely water-stressed areas. Contec Global has strong business interests in agriculture, energy, information technology, automobiles, and manufacturing. Through Greenfields, its business that focuses on creating sustainable and profitable AgriTech solutions, the Group works in many Middle East countries in organic farming, providing bio-inputs that contribute to an increase in agricultural yield and reduces farming costs by up to 60 per cent. Some of Contecs ongoing initiatives include converting barren desert land into healthy livelihood alternatives, adopting multiple approaches including water and soil conservation, dryland farming, afforestation, pastureland, and animal husbandry development, and restoring the ecological balance. In MENA, its initiatives such as the Great Green Wall are helping transform the landscape through good agricultural practices. The concentrated R&D backed efforts also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and bring down genetically modified organisms (GMO) from the food chain through sustainable, affordable, and precision-farming practices. Contec Global is strengthening its presence in Middle East & Africa in providing sustainable water solution through Maithri Aquatechs air-to-water technology, which is already widely deployed by governments, NGOs and private sector leaders. It is the only AWG solution approved by Indias Ministry of Water besides being a part of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, committed to achieving UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6&7). Dr Benoy Berry, Chairman of Contec Global, said: We are excited with this opportunity to showcase an innovative and cost-effective technology to deliver end-to-end water solutions for clients across the Middle East and Africa. In line with our core focus, the partnership with Maithri expands Contec Globals offering to cover scalable water solutions that are capable of producing water from air on a mass scale and on a sustainable basis. Our solution is best suited to address the freshwater problem, which is expected to assume critical dimensions in the coming years. Ramkrishna Mukkavilli, Founder and Managing Director of Maithri Aquatech, said: With the MENA region focused on ensuring national-level food and water security, our AWG solution is ideally placed to meet water requirements sustainably, as our technology creates a perennial and decentralised water generating source. In addition to making countries and communities water-secure, it will have a tremendous positive impact on the environment. Our vision is to be the largest air water company in the world by providing a viable solution to mitigate one of biggest existential problems faced by our planet. Through our partnership with Contec, we are building a global organisation with the best-in-class talent and state-of-the-art production facilities. The Contec Global Maithri Aquatech alliance is a sustainability improvement opportunity for both our companies. By providing our solutions through Contec Globals established distribution system in the Middle East, it will help transform governments, corporates, communities, and others from being net consumers of water to becoming net producers of water, on a sustainable basis, added Dr Berry. The air-to-water solutions are suited to address the water scarcity challenge facing MENA region, which has an average water availability per person of only 1,200 cubic metres per year, compared to 7,000 cubic metres per year in other regions. They will also help address the water scarcity problem in the Middle East, where about 85 per cent of all water withdrawals are for agricultural purposes. TradeArabia News Service The war crimes trial of Alieu Kosiah was thrown into turmoil on Thursday as one of the Liberian witnesses flown to Switzerland to testify on Mr Kosiahs behalf told the court he will not return to Liberia because his life is in danger following his testimony. It will be better for me to be jailed with Kosiah because my life will be protected, he told the Swiss Federal Criminal Court prosecuting Mr Kosiah for war crimes in connection with Liberias 14-year civil war. My life is not safe in Liberia. The man had arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday and was to return to Liberia on Thursday. He is one of several witnesses called by Mr Kosiah himself to help him establish his defence that he was not guilty of the war crimes for which he is accused by the seven plaintiffs in the case. Judge Jean-Luc Bacher told the 40-year-old that he had agreed to the terms and conditions of his participation before boarding the plane, which did not permit him to stay on. The judge said his protection was in the hands of the Liberian government, not that of Switzerland. But the man insisted he did not want to go back to the West African country. You say I free to go back home but I am not free to go back home, he said in verbal sparring with Mr Bacher that lasted several minutes. The witness said he was afraid people loyal to Mr Kosiah would retaliate against him for his testimony. I am evidence. Liberians are good at destroying evidence. I need to be protected. Mr Bacher asked him to talk to prosecution lawyer Andreas Muller and immediately called off the proceedings. Mr Kosiahs lawyer, Dimitri Gianoli, did not respond to a late text asking for comment. The mans actions will cast a chill on all the ongoing European investigations of Liberians accused of war crimes. Finding witnesses with strong, clear memories of the atrocities they witnessed and also the courage to testify has been a challenge for investigation teams. International governments may be less willing to undertake a case that risks witnesses claiming asylum because of their testimony. The mans actions may influence the other witnesses in the trial who are in Switzerland awaiting their turn to testify over the next two days. Should the man eventually be granted asylum that could also influence the thinking of potential witnesses in the future. None of the witnesses flown to the US in the trials of Mohammed Jabbateh and Thomas Woewiyu in Philadelphia claimed asylum. The move comes as a Finnish court has begun proceedings in Liberia against accused war criminal Gibril Massaquoi. Rather than bring the Liberian witnesses to Finland, the Finnish court decided to go to them in Liberia. But having witnesses testify on Liberian soil presents other challenges, including the fear that they will feel less free to speak. New Narratives has agreed to the plaintiffs lawyers requests to conceal the identifies of the witnesses because of their credible fear of retaliation. European media covering the trials has observed the same precaution. Kosiah initiated me In extraordinary testimony on Wednesday, the witness whom Mr Kosiah and his lawyer presumably thought would absolve Mr Kosiah of the alleged crimes, made a clear case that Mr Kosiah had recruited him as a child soldier, a war crime itself. The man, now 40, told the court that Mr Kosiah recruited him when he was a child in 1992. He said Mr Kosiah and other rebels had captured him when he was 12, in Todee, Montserrado County. Later they trained and assigned him as a bodyguard to Mr Kosiah with whom he stayed in Tubmanburg, Lofa, Bong and Monrovia between 1992 and 1998. He said he and other children had been caught up in a gun battle between Mr Kosiahs United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) and their rival the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor, who later became president. He (Kosiah) was the one who initiated me in the revolution. He took me to be his son, the 40-year-old man said. He saved my life. I took him to be my second god. Everywhere he was going I had the right to be there, and everywhere I was he had the right to be there. That is why I know a lot about him, he said, adding that he tasted Mr Kosiahs meals before the commander ate them. He told the court that he and Mr Kosiah fought many battles together, surviving ambushes and mines. He showed the court scars on his limbs that he said were the result of those events. The man said he was in contact with Mr Kosiah in Switzerland before Swiss authorities began investigating him for war crimes. ADVERTISEMENT Mr Kosiah served as director of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Liberian National Police between 1995 and 1996 following a cease-fire agreement among warring factions. He fled Liberia to Switzerland in 1997 after Mr Taylor won the elections. A year later, he was granted asylum and lived there peacefully as a married resident until his arrest in November 2014. All seven Liberians who lodged the complaint against Mr Kosiah have testified to the court already, detailing all 25 counts of murder, cannibalism, rape, sexual enslavement, forced transportation, looting and recruitment of a child-soldier. Mr Kosiah, 45, who faces a maximum 20-year sentence in this mountainous, central European country, denies all of those charges. He says he was not in Lofa between the early and mid-1990s when he is accused of having committed the acts. The manthe second former ULIMO fighter to testify in the trial expected to end on March 5dismissed the charges against Mr Kosiah. He denied Mr Kosiah, killed, raped, looted and forced civilians to head-carry loot long distances. He was a good man. He was one of the commanders that saved peoples lives in Lofa, he said, answering a question from the Judge Bacher. If you go to Lofa, people will praise him. I never saw him looting, the man said. Kosiah was uncharacteristically calm throughout the mans testimony, not even seen much flipping through his papers nor chatting to his lawyer Dmitri Gianoli as he had done during previous testimony. Wednesdays witness also told the court several times that ULIMO committed crimes, something the court has heard throughout since this trial resumed on February 15. He admitted hearing about the butchering of civilians in Foya District and placing of their body parts in wheelbarrows, which the plaintiffs in this trial have spoken of. He conceded that some civilians were tied with their hands locked behind their backstorture known as duck-fowl tie bay. He said ULIMO forced villagers to transport looted goods. ULIMO looted, I will not lie to you, he said, adding that it did not have external support so had to loot to support their war. We did the transport because we needed food. After his testimony, the court heard another former ULIMO rebel. The trial will continue on Thursday with another surprising defence witness another ex-ULIMO commander who has also been charged with war crimes in connection to the Liberian Civil War. This report was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. DETROIT, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TiiCKER, a Detroit-based fintech startup that engages, verifies and rewards retail investors through stock perks, today announced an exclusive reward for shareholders of metro Detroit-based public companies. Shareholders on the TiiCKER platform who own stock in a local publicly traded company like Ally Financial (Tii: ALLY), DTE Energy (Tii: DTE), Ford (Tii:F), General Motors (Tii:GM), Masco (Tii:MAS), Penske Automotive (Tii: PAG) or Rocket Mortgage (Tii: RKT) will receive a free t-shirt from locally owned boutique apparel company, Detroit is the New Black. "Detroit has seen a resurgence in the last decade as the city has welcomed new startups, retailers, residents and public companies," said Jeff Lambert, founder and CEO of TiiCKER. "TiiCKER is proud to call the city home, and we wanted to show the love to shareholders investing in their hometown stocks." To discover the more than 30 companies on the platform eligible under the TiiCKER Detroit Perks program, visit www.TiiCKER.com/DetroitPerks or any of the company brand pages. Any individual investor can create a TiiCKER account and link their online brokerage for free to redeem eligible stock perks. "Retail investors buy what they know, and they also buy local, investing in the hometown success story, the entrepreneurial startup turned public company that their friends and family work for and that gives back to their community," said Lambert. "We know there are hundreds of thousands of retail investors in Metro Detroit and we wanted to connect them directly to the Detroit public companies they own for the first time ever thanks to perks and the TiiCKER platform." TiiCKER connects consumers to brands they know and love, rewarding their loyalty with unique perks. These perks reinvent how individual investors are rewarded for brand loyalty, as a recent national Harris Poll survey shows that 82% of investors would invest in a brand or product they love and 77% of investors are more likely to buy stock of a company of they received a shareholder perk or reward. The TiiCKER Detroit Perks giveaway is available to the first 1,000 eligible TiiCKER users with verified share ownership between Feb. 25 and March 13, 2021 (313 Day). Other rules and regulations apply. See www.TiiCKER.com/DetroitPerks for more details. Detroit Is the New Black was founded by fashion designer Roslyn Karamoko who created the brand to reflect the dual connotation of the phrase trendy and desirable, as well as the true spirit of Detroit. TiiCKER founder Jeff Lambert was the brand's lead investor and helped bring the woman and Black-owned brand to its now iconic retail store on Woodward Ave. downtown. About TiiCKER Launched in 2020, TiiCKER invented direct shareholder marketing through its web-based and app software platform that provides consumers and investors a revolutionary way to connect with the brands they love through perks. For individual investors, TiiCKER provides unique access to shareholder perks, commission-free trading, and insights needed to discover and stay close to the brands they follow. For its public company brand partners, TiiCKER enables companies to engage, verify and reward consumer shareholders to better serve their investors and maximize the Shareholder Lifetime Value of their consumer shareholders. For more information, visit TiiCKER.com CONTACT: Valerie Pesonen, 616-258-5769, [email protected] SOURCE TiiCKER LAist only exists with reader support. If you're in a position to give, your donation powers our reporters and keeps us independent. Our reporting is free for everyone, but its not free to make. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now. By Bernard J. Wolfson | California Healthline The twinkle in his eyes, the delight in his smile, the joyous way he moved his disease-withered frame. They all proclaimed a single, resounding message: Grateful to be alive! "As my care team and my family tell me, 'You were born again. You have to learn to live again,'" said Vicente Perez Castro. "I went through a very difficult time." Hell and back is more like it. Perez, a 57-year-old cook from Long Beach, California, could barely breathe when he was admitted on June 5 to Los Angeles County's Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He tested positive for covid-19 and spent three months in the intensive care unit, almost all of it hooked up to a ventilator with a tube down his throat. A different tube conducted nutrients into his stomach. At a certain point, the doctors told his family that he wasn't going to make it and that they should consider disconnecting the lifesaving equipment. But his 26-year-old daughter, Janeth Honorato Perez, one of three children, said no. And so, on a bright February morning half a year later, here he was -- an outpatient, slowly making his way on a walker around the perimeter of a high-ceilinged room at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, one of L.A. County's four public hospitals and the only one whose main mission is patient rehab. Perez, who is 5-foot-5, had lost 72 pounds since falling ill. His legs were unsteady, his breathing labored, as he plodded forward. But he kept moving for five or six minutes, "a huge improvement" from late last year, when he could walk only for 60 seconds, said Bradley Tirador, one of his physical therapists. Rancho Los Amigos has an interdisciplinary team of physicians, therapists and speech pathologists who provide medical and mental health care, as well as physical, occupational and recreational therapy. It serves a population that has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic: 70% of its patients are Latino, as are 90% of its covid patients. Nearly everyone is either uninsured or on Medi-Cal, the government-run insurance program for people with low incomes. Rancho is one of a growing number of medical centers across the country with a program specifically designed for patients suffering the symptoms that come in the wake of covid. Mount Sinai Health System's Center for Post-Covid Care in New York City, which opened last May, was one of the first. Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Davis Health and, more recently, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles are among the health systems with similar offerings. Rancho Los Amigos treats only patients recovering from severe illness and long intensive care unit stays. Many of the other post-covid centers also tend to those who had milder cases of covid, were not hospitalized and later experienced a multitude of diffuse, hard-to-diagnose but disabling symptoms -- sometimes described as "long-haul covid." Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey is one of L.A. County's four public hospitals and the only one dedicated to rehabilitation. The hospital serves mostly Latino, low-income patients. (Heidi de Marco/Kaiser Health News) The most common symptoms include fatigue, muscle aches, shortness of breath, insomnia, memory problems, anxiety and heart palpitations. Many health care providers say these symptoms are just as common, perhaps more so, among patients who had only moderate covid. A survey conducted by members of the Body Politic Covid-19 Support Group showed that among patients who'd experienced mild to moderate covid illness, 91% were still experiencing some of those symptoms an average of 40 days after their initial recovery. Other studies estimate that about 10% of covid patients will develop some of these prolonged symptoms. With more than 28 million confirmed cases in the U.S. and counting, this post-covid syndrome is a rapidly escalating concern. "What we can say is that 2 [million] to 3 million Americans at a minimum are going to require long-term rehabilitation as a result of what has happened to this day, and we are just at the beginning of that," said David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai Health. Health care professionals seem guardedly optimistic that most of these patients will fully recover. They note that many of the symptoms are common in those who've had certain other viral illnesses, including mononucleosis and cytomegalovirus disease, and that they tend to resolve over time. "People will recover and will be able to get back to living their regular lives," said Dr. Catherine Le, co-director of the covid recovery program at Cedars-Sinai. But for the next year or two, she said, "I think we will see people who don't feel able to go back to the jobs they were doing before." Rancho Los Amigos is discussing plans to begin accepting patients who had mild illness and developed post-covid syndrome later, said Lilli Thompson, chief of its rehab therapy division. For now, its main effort is to accommodate all the severe cases being transferred directly from its three public sister hospitals, she said. The most severely ill patients can have serious neurological, cardiopulmonary and musculoskeletal damage. Most -- like Perez -- have lost a significant amount of muscle mass. They typically have "post-ICU syndrome," an assortment of physical, mental and emotional symptoms that can overlap with the symptoms of long-haul covid, making it difficult to tease out how much of their condition is a direct impact of the coronavirus and how much is the more general impact of months in intensive care. The large, rectangular rehab room where Perez met with his therapists earlier this month is half-gym, half-sitcom set. Part of the space is occupied by weights, video-linked machines that help strengthen hand control and high-tech treadmills, including one that reduces the pull of gravity, enabling patients who are unsteady on their feet to walk without falling. "We tell patients, 'It's like walking on the moon,'" Thompson said. At the other end of the room sits a large-screen TV and a low couch, which helps people practice standing and sitting without undue stress. In a bedroom area, patients relearn to make and unmake their beds. A few feet away, a small office space helps them work on computer and telephone skills they may have lost. Perez was a cook at a hotel restaurant before he fell ill, so his occupational therapy involves meal preparation. (Heidi de Marco/KHN) Because Perez was a cook at a hotel restaurant before he fell ill, his occupational therapy involves meal preparation. He stood at the sink, rinsing lettuce, carrots and cucumbers for a salad, then took them over to a table, where he sat down and chopped them with a sharp knife. His knife hand trembled perilously, so occupational therapist Brenda Covarrubias wrapped a weighted band around his wrist to steady him. "He is working on getting back the skills and endurance he needs for his work, and just for routine daily activities like walking the dogs and walking up steps," Covarrubias said. Perez takes a break during his therapy. He could barely breathe when he was admitted to Los Angeles County's Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in early June of last year. (Heidi de Marco) Perez, who immigrated to the U.S. from Guadalajara, Mexico, nearly two decades ago, was upbeat and optimistic, even though his voice was faint and his body still a shell of its former self. When his speech therapist, Katherine Chan, removed his face mask for some breathing exercises, he pointed to the mustache he'd sprouted recently, cheerfully exclaiming he had trimmed it himself. And, he said, "I can change my clothes now." Weeks earlier, Perez had mentioned how much he loved dancing before he got sick. So they made it part of his physical therapy. "Vicente, are you ready to bailar?" Kevin Mui, a student physical therapist, asked him, as another staff member put on a tune by the Colombian cumbia band La Sonora Dinamita. Slowly, shakily, Perez rose. He anchored himself in an upright position, then began shuffling his feet from front to back and side to side, hips swaying to the rhythm, his face aglow with the sheer joy of being alive. This story was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been moved to an undisclosed detention centre outside Moscow that may be a prison camp, his lawyer and a member of a rights organisation said today. Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was jailed this month over alleged parole violations related to an embezzlement case he said was trumped up for political reasons, something the authorities deny. Though his lawyers did not immediately say what prison he was sent to, Russian news reports indicated Navalny, 44, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia from his maximum-security jail in Moscow. Eva Merkacheva, a member of Moscow's public monitoring committee for human rights, said Navalny was sent to a standard penal colony, the location of which should be disclosed when he arrived there. His lawyers have said he is due to spend two-and-a-half years behind bars, with Vadim Kobzev claiming that moving Navalny was against the law and adding that his relatives had not been informed of his whereabouts. Navalny was arrested last month upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. His detention has fuelled political tensions between Moscow and Western governments, which are preparing additional sanctions against Russian officials. Alexei Navalny has been moved to an undisclosed detention centre outside Moscow that may be a prison camp, his lawyer and a member of a rights organisation said today Russian news reports indicated Putin critic Navalny would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia from his maximum-security jail in Moscow. Vadim Kobzev claimed that moving Navalny was against the law and adding that his relatives had not been informed of his whereabouts New Cold War: Western nations prepare to slap Russian officials with additional sanctions over Navalny jailing President Biden prepares to announce sanctions on Russia over poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny The Biden administration is preparing to issue sanctions on Russia over the jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny . According to Politico , the US is expected to coordinate with European allies a sanctions rollout against Russia in the coming weeks. Sources told the news outlet that US sanctions on Russia would be the Biden administration's first major step in holding the country accountable for human rights abuses, which President Joe Biden lists as a priority for his foreign policy agenda. The Biden administration is preparing to issue sanctions on Russia over the jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny No immediate details of the response were revealed, but one source claimed that the US is 'considering available policy options'. 'We won't stand by idly in the face of these human rights abuses,' the official said. Daniel Fried, who served as assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the State Department, told Politico: 'I don't think we can stop [Russian President] Putin from sending Navalny to a penal colony. But by acting quickly now, at least it's in Putin's calculation that the US is willing to act.' The Biden administration is also not starting from scratch as it relates to sanctioning Russia. The administration received a comprehensive sanctions package from the previous administration. Sources told the news site that the package proposed three types of sanctions: Magnitsky Act sanctions on the individuals who detained Navalny; sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act); and sanctions under Executive Order 13382. EU imposes sanctions on Kremlin officials in response to crackdown on Putin critic Alexei Navalny European Union foreign ministers have agreed to impose sanctions on four senior Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin in response to the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny . Russia 's foreign ministry on Monday blasted the move amid the crackdown on Kremlin critic Navalny and his supporters. EU foreign ministers earlier Monday agreed to impose sanctions on four senior Russian officials, diplomats told AFP, after Navalny's associates urged the ministers to go after oligarchs accused of funding President Vladimir Putin's rule. The imprisoning of Putin's best-known opponent sparked nationwide protests that saw thousands of demonstrators detained The diplomats did not name the targeted individuals nor give details about them. The sanctions are the first under the EU's new system to punish human rights violators, and will reportedly ban the officials from reentering the bloc. 'We reached a political agreement to impose restrictive measures against those responsible for (Navalny's) arrest and sentencing and persecution,' EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after chairing the meeting in Brussels. Leonid Volkov, a senior associate of Navalny, welcomed the news, saying: 'Even if it's too little... it's the first time personal sanctions are applied with regard to human rights violations, so it opens the way for further negotiation on this with Europe.' In a statement, Russia's foreign ministry called the new sanctions 'disappointing' and said they were prepared under a 'far-fetched pretext'. 'In obedience to bloc school of thought and anti-Russian stereotypes, Brussels is again instinctively pushing the broken sanctions 'button,'' it said. Advertisement Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies - claims he has ridiculed. Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated - and which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled to be unlawful. Navalny's arrest fuelled a wave of protests that drew tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days. Russian officials have dismissed demands from the US and the EU to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters. Moscow also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny's life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him. The Russian government has rebuffed the court's demand as unlawful and 'inadmissible' meddling in Russia's home affairs. Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny's jailing. Since Navalny's arrest, Russian officials and state news media have aggressively tried to discredit him, a change from the previous tactic of largely ignoring him. Some of the criticism has emphasised anti-migrant views expressed years ago as he was rising to prominence. Amnesty International this week stripped Navalny of his designation as a 'prisoner of conscience' because of those views. 'Navalny had, in the past, made comments which may have amounted to advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility,' the organization said in a statement Thursday. The statement denied the move was in response to external pressure, but news reports have suggested Amnesty International was targeted in a coordinated campaign to discredit him. 'These were not independently acting activists ... these were people who would like to defame Alexei as the most prominent opponent of Mr. Putin,' Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of Navalny's anti-corruption organization, said in a conference call on Thursday. Amnesty International said rescinding the prisoner-of-conscience designation does not change its demand for Navalny to be freed. 'There should be no confusion: nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated,' it said, 'Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason we continue to campaign for his immediate release.' It comes after Amnesty International chiefs admitted undermining Navalny by stripping him of his 'prisoner of conscience' status during a prank call. Pro-Kremlin jokers Vovan and Lexus pretended to be Mr Navalny's campaigns chief Leonid Volkov while remonstrating with Amnesty's Acting Secretary General of Julie Verhaar. Mr Navalny was yesterday dispossessed of the special title conferred by Amnesty because of anti-migrant statements he made more than a decade ago. The human rights group defended its decision, saying it had been 'bombarded' with complaints and couldn't ignore Mr Navalny's 'hate speech' - which had been seized upon by Kremlin propagandists. In yesterday's Zoom call with 'Volkov', Amnesty's top brass expressed their regret at stripping Mr Navalny of his status and pleaded with the campaigns chief to help them steer the media narrative back onto Mr Navalny's plight and away from his Amnesty status. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty's head of research for Eastern Europe, unwittingly told the pranksters: 'When you were angry you were entirely justified and frankly it's done damage to us as well because frankly in Russia there is no case that's more important and more regretful to undermine - and that's what happened, unintentionally. 'So if we can move forward that's great. We would like to move the media attention away from Amnesty's internal decisions and the language it uses and how it comes to them because this will do more damage. And frankly these are difficult processes for us to deal with. 'Let's move to the message: 'Navalny, get him out (of prison).' 'And then if we can be publicly seen to be on the same side, I think this is the best we can do for Alexei.' Marie Struthers, the regional director for Easter Europe, added that Amnesty 'had done more harm than good.' The Amnesty chiefs told the pranksters they were keen to start a 'short, clear and powerful' social media campaign to promote Mr Navalny's cause to demand his release and to 'steer the conversation away from 'prisoner of conscience.'' Today, the real Leonid Volkov expressed his disbelief and disappointment at Amnesty, having watched the prank call. 'Frankly, - and I hate to say it - this Zoom call alone is, in my opinion, enough to qualify the @amnesty leadership as unfit. In 2021, you can't run a charity with over 300M euro annual budget (!) and to allow yourself to be tricked and humiliated in such way,' he tweeted. It came after Ms Verhaar, the head of Amnesty, tweeted Mr Volkov on Wednesday to thank him for their conversation. She has since taken down the tweet. Mr Volkov wrote: 'Hmm, General Secretary of Amnesty thanks me for the constructive, direct conversation. But only I do not know her, and have never spoken to her; I wouldn't be surprised if she spoke to 'prankster Vovan'; I would not be surprised if they make decisions on the basis of such messages.' Earlier, in the Zoom call, Ms Verhaar had told the pranksters: 'We've had a discussion about the fallout that happened yesterday and we're really looking to have this call to see how we can move forward because it was really none of our intention to have this happen. Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny stands inside a defendant dock during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, February 20, 2021 Leonid Volkov expressed his disbelief and disappointment at Amnesty Amnesty's Acting Secretary General of Julie Verhaar tweeted Mr Volkov on Wednesday to thank him for their conversation. She has since removed the tweet Alexei Navalny's life is in danger and he must be released from prison immediately, European Court of Human Rights demands Europe's top human rights court has ordered Russia to release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny after ruling that his life is at risk. The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that was posted on Navalny's website on Wednesday demands that Russia set him free immediately and warns that failing to do so would mark a breach of the European human rights convention. Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption investigator and President Vladimir Putin 's most prominent critic, was arrested last month upon returning from Germany , where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation. Earlier this month, a Moscow court sentenced Navalny to two years and eight months in prison for violating terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and the European court has ruled to be unlawful. In its Tuesday's ruling, the ECHR pointed to Rule 39 of its regulations and obliged the Russian government to release Navalny, citing 'the nature and extent of risk to the applicant's life.' 'This measure shall apply with immediate effect,' the Strasbourg-based court said in a statement. Advertisement 'We really want Mr Navalny, his case and his unjust detention to be at the forefront of what we're doing. 'And we have some ideas of how we can do that, but we really want to use this opportunity to hear where you are and how we can work together.' The conversation boiled over into absurdity towards the end when the prankster, pretending to be Mr Volkov, apologised for previous critical tweets directed at Amnesty. 'Even my Twitter I am sorry about that, I have wrote that you have ate a lot of sh*t and made your decision, but it's true,' the prankster told the Amnesty officials. But they did not seem to realise they were being fooled as they all smiled and laughed awkwardly while 'Volkov' apologised for his 'radical Twitter style.' The pranksters also asked about whether Mr Navalny's special status could be reinstated, but the Amnesty officials said this would only make matters worse. Mr Krivosheev said: 'I don't think it would do anyone any good for anyone for Amnesty to flip once again and say no, no, we changed our mind, he is a prisoner of conscience. What I think can help is finding the right way forward. 'And for this reason we want him out as soon as possible and use every possible venue to put as much pressure on the Russian government to get him out. 'And if we could agree on that and not be seen as in disagreement I think that would be very important. 'So rather than looking for a way in which a decision could be changed, I am suggesting that we find the best way to project our message, which is: free Navalny now.' It comes after Mr Navalny's supporters yesterday reacted furiously to Amnesty's decision, accusing the organisation of falling into a Kremlin trap by being drawn towards Mr Navalny's nationalist comments from the mid-2000s - for which he has previously apologised. Critics included Alexander Golovach, a lawyer for Mr Navalny's FBK anti-corruption group, who said he was renouncing the 'prisoner of conscience' status that Amnesty gave him in 2018. Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally, said: 'The procedure for assigning and revoking Amnesty International status has proven extremely shameful.' Navalny, who has carved out a following campaigning against official corruption, has been criticised for past nationalist statements against illegal immigration and for attending an annual nationalist march several years ago. In a 2007 video, he called for the deportation of migrants to prevent the rise of far-right violence. 'We have a right to be (ethnic) Russians in Russia. And we'll defend that right,' he said in the video. Navalny could not be reached for comment as he was in jail. His allies protested the move by Amnesty on Twitter. MailOnline has contacted Amnesty for comment but they were unable to provide a statement specifically about the prank video. Pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov (Vovan) and Alexey Stolyarov (Lexus) have previously targeted Kremlin foes, though Russian officials deny any links to the comedians The real Leonid Volkov: Navalny's chief of staff speaks at a news conference in Berlin in August after the opposition leader was poisoned by Novichok In a general statement about Mr Navalny, Ms Vehaar said: ''The speculation around Amnesty International's use of the term 'prisoner of conscience' is detracting attention from our core demand that Aleksei Navalny be freed immediately. 'This distraction only serves the Russian authorities, who have jailed Navalny on politically motivated charges, simply because he dared to criticise them. 'The term 'prisoner of conscience' is a specific description based on a range of internal criteria established by Amnesty. There should be no confusion: nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated. 'Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason we continue to campaign for his immediate release. 'We note that some of Aleksei Navalny's past comments have been actively used by his opponents to discredit him. 'Amnesty International has itself been the target of Russian government smear campaigns, as a result of our consistent condemnation of the Kremlin's appalling human rights record. 'We campaign for the release of unjustly detained people on a daily basis, and we will continue to do so for Aleksei Navalny. 'Navalny's detention for his peaceful opposition and exposure of corruption is unlawful, and we will continue to campaign ceaselessly for his release and his right to freedom of expression.' A federal appeals court took steps Thursday toward reviving Californias voter-approved ban on possessing large-capacity gun magazines, setting aside a panels ruling that declared the ban unconstitutional and granting the states request for a new hearing before a larger panel. The ban on magazines holding more than 10 cartridges was part of Proposition 63, a November 2016 initiative whose sponsors included then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. They said the weapons were commonly used in mass shootings and had little to do with the constitutional right of self-defense. But U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego blocked the law in 2017, two days before it was scheduled to take effect. In a suit by a National Rifle Association affiliate on behalf of five gun owners, Benitez said, Disarming Californias law-abiding citizens is not a constitutionally permissible policy choice. A panel of the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld his ruling in a 2-1 decision last August. But the full appeals court said Thursday that a majority of its judges had voted to rescind the panels ruling and grant a new hearing before an 11-judge panel, at a date not yet scheduled. Benitezs order still prohibits the state from enforcing the ban on possessing large-capacity magazines. He has also declared unconstitutional a 2000 state law banning sale of the gun magazines and a 2013 law prohibiting their purchase, but has allowed the state to enforce those laws while it appeals his rulings in separate proceedings. Large-capacity magazines have been used in many horrific mass shootings around the country, including right here in California, said Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose office is defending the state law. Thats why todays decision by the Ninth Circuit to rehear this case is critical. The NRA said it was not surprised by the courts order, and would continue to fight to defend the Second Amendment in California and throughout the country. Federal courts have upheld similar bans on gun magazines in other states. In 2015, a different three-judge Ninth Circuit panel allowed Sunnyvale to enforce a ban on possessing the magazines within city limits, a ruling Becerras office cited in defense of the statewide ban. But the panel in the August ruling said the justifications for restrictions in a small, affluent community like Sunnyvale, with a crime rate less than half of Californias average, could not be applied statewide. Those who live in rural areas where the local sheriff may be miles away, law-abiding citizens trapped in high-crime areas, communities that distrust or depend less on law enforcement, and many more who rely on their firearms to protect themselves and their families can have a legitimate need for high-capacity magazines to defend themselves, Judge Kenneth Lee said in the majority opinion. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko (TNS) The state Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that would begin to overhaul Wisconsin's aging unemployment insurance system, which officials have blamed for the backlog of claims spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.The bill, which passed the Senate 27-3 last week, passed the Assembly 89-0 and now heads to Gov. Tony Evers, who has said he plans to sign it. The legislation also includes a temporary extension of the state's one-week waiting period to receive unemployment benefits and adds liability protections against COVID-19-related lawsuits for businesses, schools and governmental entities measures that were included in coronavirus relief legislation Evers vetoed earlier this month.Evers had originally called on the GOP-led Legislature to convene in special session earlier this year to discuss a proposal to spend $5.3 million to begin updates on the state's unemployment system, which uses 60-year-old computer programming language.Republicans on the state's budget committee removed funding from the bill last week. As written, the state Department of Workforce Development would first need to use any available federal dollars to begin updates and secure permission from the GOP-led committee for the use of state dollars. The bill allows DWD to begin seeking bids from companies to update the unemployment system, which has been estimated to cost at least $80 million.Like many states, Wisconsin has been inundated with unemployment claims since the pandemic began, while DWD has faced mounting ridicule for its slow response to addressing the backlog of claims. State Republicans have placed the blame on a lack of leadership from the Evers' administration, while DWD officials have said an unprecedented number of claims, paired with GOP-authored unemployment laws and an antiquated processing system, complicated the adjudication process and exacerbated delays.Speaking with reporters before the Assembly session Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, blamed Evers for the state's unemployment system issues citing state audits released last year that found fewer than 1% of calls to the state's call centers were answered between March 15 and June 30 and that DWD was responsible for 11 of the 13 weeks it took, on average, for the department to resolve initial unemployment claims filed in the early weeks of the pandemic. In September, Evers fired former DWD Secretary Caleb Frostman over the persistent backlog of claims."The legislation before us today provides a very simple and easy road map for the governor to finally move forward at DWD," Vos said.Democrats countered that the state has known for years that the unemployment system needed updates and Republicans, who have controlled the Legislature for a decade, should have acted sooner."I wish that we had just allowed Governor Evers to have the funding needed since he has already requested it in this bill and the budget," Rep. Dave Considine, D-Baraboo, said in a statement. "However, I am glad to come together with my colleagues to start this long road of creating a better system for those in need."Republicans also added items to the bill to waive the one-week waiting period to collect unemployment benefits until March 14 and extend limited liability protections from coronavirus-related lawsuits to schools, businesses and governments.Evers said in a statement last week the proposed legislation was "not enough, but it's at least a step in the right direction.""While I wish the Legislature would have provided the funding we asked for that we need to fix this system once and for all, I'm glad the Legislature is finally taking this issue seriously after years of inaction," Evers said.Evers has also proposed in his 2021-23 biennial budget $79 million in spending to immediately upgrade the state's unemployment system and an elimination of the state's one-week waiting period for unemployment benefits. However, it remains to be seen how much of the Democratic governor's budget will be changed by Republicans.The one-week waiting period was temporarily waived back in April, but it was reinstated on Feb. 6. The state has missed out on $1.3 million in federal unemployment funds for every week since the waiting period was reinstated.In addition to legislation reinstating the waiver, DWD has taken initial steps seeking to waive the one-week waiting period requirement through an emergency rule. However, the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau has reported that DWD does not have the authority to waive the rule. The LRB said DWD does have authority to waive work search requirements for unemployment claims, which the department has done. New Delhi, Feb 25 : With the Centre confirming presence of two variants of novel Coronavirus in a few states, the Delhi government has started making preparations to counter any eventuality. The Arvind Kejriwal government-run Lok Nayak Hospital has prepared a special ward to house the patients who are affected by mutant strains of SARS-VCoV-2. The move has come after the Union Health Ministry confirmed presence of two strains of two variants of novel Coronavirus in a few states as well as a rising number of cases infected by the UK, Brazil and South African variant, the hospital said. "The government has instructed us to make a special ward for such patients. We have demarcated a separate building for this purpose since these variants are found highly infectious and transmit more easily," Dr Suresh Kumar, director, Lok Nayak told IANS. He also said that the ward will have separate resources as well to control the exposure. "The staff deputed in that ward will provide service exclusively there. They will not be allowed to intermingle. This is to contain transmission," Kumar added. Delhi government's health department has chalked out initial plans to deal with the mutant strains. So far, Lok Nayak is the only facility in the national capital which is treating the patients who are found infected from the UK variant. The government will now be using the hospital for all those who would be found infected with the different variants of Covid-19. "We had 26 patients of the UK strain. While most of them exhibited mild symptoms, two experienced severeness and were admitted to the ICU for a few days. They were given Remdisivir and have been discharged. Currently, we have only eight such patients in the hospital," Kumar informed. Putting breaks to week-long speculations over the finding of new strains in Maharashtra, the Union Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday about detection of two new variants of the novel coronavirus other than the Brazilian, the UK and South African in the country. The variants, N440K and E484Q have been found circulating in a few districts of Maharashtra, Kerala and Telangana. On Monday, LG Anil Baijal had also stressed upon the adoption of cluster-based surveillance, testing and genome sequencing strategy during a meeting of Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), which he chaired. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia has released a statement, warning that any anti-constitutional process, involvement to that process, no matter who will conduct it, will receive the strongest legal assessment. The risks of the February 25 statement of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, the discussions and comments on it in public and social platforms have created preconditions of domestic public, political instability in the Republic, and their possible developments can lead to unpredictable, catastrophic consequences for our state and people from security perspective, with serious treats to the legal and constitutional order. Therefore, the Office of the Prosecutor General calls on to stay within the regulations of the Constitution of Armenia and avoid irresponsible actions, refrain from any initiative endangering the legal order in the country, the attempts of engaging the Armed Forces to the domestic processes, any action directed against the public order, the Office said in a statement. On February 25 the General Staff of the Armenian Forces of Armenia issued a statement, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Cabinet. In his turn Pashinyan commented on the statement, calling it as a military coup attempt. He invited all his supporters to the Republic Square to discuss the ongoing developments. Currently Pashinyan is marching across Yerevan with his supporters. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan 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. The Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello on Thursday said the federal government has refused to support his state in the rescue of 41 people... The Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello on Thursday said the federal government has refused to support his state in the rescue of 41 people abducted from Government Science College, Kagara. Bello disclosed this while receiving the Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu in the states Government House. According to Bello: At the moment, we do not feel any Federal presence here. The Inspector-General of Police sent us four mobile units but we are to shoulder the financial responsibilities. So, where is the support? There is no support from anyone. Yes, we had a delegation (Federal Government delegation) that came to visit and commiserate with us but that was all. So, we are left to ourselves. We have already made a commitment that we will bring back the children safely with or without anyone. Bandits had recently abducted 27 students and 14 others from the Kangara area of the state. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Spontaneous group music making is associated with a number of wellbeing benefits, even if the performers are not in the same room, a study shows. Online improvisation sessions by an international group of musicians enhanced mood, lowered levels of loneliness and promoted a feeling of community during the first COVID-19 lockdown, the research found. The study is the first to investigate the effects of global online music making during the pandemic. Researchers at Edinburgh College of Art examined the experiences of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestraa diverse group of players which includes musicians who have performed with the National Jazz Orchestra and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra began improvisation sessions as a way of staying connected during lockdown. Musicians from other parts of the world were also invited to the Zoom sessions. Researchers interviewed a sample of 29 musicians who took part in twice weekly music sessions from March 2020 to June 2020. Music communities As well as boosting their mood and providing community, the musicians reported that the sessions gave them an opportunity for artistic development. The findings also show that improvisation is well suited to digital music making as it facilitates creativity between musicians, the researchers say. This is despite previous studies finding that latency issuesthe time taken for sounds to travel via the internet from one location to anothercan affect online music making where musicians are required play in sync. Researchers say the results can help understand the benefits of online group music in providing emotional supportparticularly for creative professionals who may have been adversely affected socially and economically by the pandemic. "There have been many reports of music being used as a potent form of communal activity during the pandemic. These included local communities chanting a song of support in Wuhan, Italians singing from their balconies in Sicily and a DJ playing dance music for the community from his balcony in Glasgow. These vivid examples of music providing social support are supported by a growing body of evidence highlighting how music can enhance health and wellbeing in both clinical and non-clinical contexts," says Professor Raymond MacDonald, chair of music psychology and improvisation. The study is published in Frontiers in Psychology. Explore further Can improvisation bring audiences back to classical music? More information: Graeme B. Wilson et al. The Social Impact of Musical Engagement for Young Adults With Learning Difficulties: A Qualitative Study, Frontiers in Psychology (2019). Journal information: Frontiers in Psychology Graeme B. Wilson et al. The Social Impact of Musical Engagement for Young Adults With Learning Difficulties: A Qualitative Study,(2019). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01300 This is a contributed article by Phil Richards, Chief Security Officer at Ivanti. If you still thought that ransomware was a hobby criminal's pastime, it's time to rethink your risk profile. Five years ago, ransomware criminals were 'spray and pray' merchants, distributing their wares via phishing attacks to anyone whose email address they happened across. This software would lock up a victim's files, which could just as easily be family photos as sensitive business documents. Those days are mostly over. Welcome to the even more complex world of ransomware 2.0. Today's ransomware operations are far more strategic. Groups such as REvil (also known as Sodinokibi) and Netwalker write increasingly sophisticated malware, but they then grant affiliate groups access to that code. These groups are the ones that seek out and infect potential victims using complex techniques. These groups now target specific companies. While large enterprises are on their list of victims, ransomware mitigation company Coveware also found that small and medium-sized businesses are a common target for ransomware criminals. When engaging their victims, ransomware affiliates use the kinds of attack chains traditionally associated with advanced persistent threat (APT) groups. These include advanced reconnaissance techniques to understand their targets, followed by malware attacks carefully crafted to hit their targets' weak spots. These attacks might take more time and effort to plan, but for those on the wrong side of the law, the rewards are often worthwhile. This precision model has prompted a marked rise in both the size and volume of ransom pay-outs as companies find themselves with no alternative but to pay for lost data. Coveware found that in the third quarter of 2020, the average ransom payment increased over 31% from the quarter before to reach over $233,000. An analysis by cryptocurrency forensics company Chainalysis also found that ransomware payments using cryptocurrency rose 311% overall in 2020. Tracking the high cost of ransomware In some cases, the data that ransomware encrypts is crucial to operations. Even if companies are able to recover their data, the whole process can cost millions in lost business, legal fees and consulting costs. Phishing is a major attack vector for ransomware crooks, reports Coveware, making up over a quarter of infections in Q3. That's a problem for companies trying to build cybersecurity awareness among lots of employees, it takes just one error to infect a network. Phishing is also a particular danger for board-level executives. The C-suite is an ideal target for the phishing attacks that often carry ransomware. Research carried out in May 2020 by MobileIron (acquired by Ivanti) revealed that the C-suite is the most likely group in a company to ask for relaxed security protocols. According to the 350 IT decision makers surveyed, almost one in three of these high-ranking executives did so. That spells trouble for companies targeted by ransomware criminals. Over half (60%) of IT decision-makers believe that C-suite executives are the most likely targets for a malicious attack, according to the MobileIron (acquired by Ivanti) research. That number rose to 78% when asked specifically about phishing attacks. Protecting the C-suite Ransomware business models are now expanding into another lucrative area: double extortion. Not content with merely encrypting data, ransomware criminals are now exfiltrating it first. They will lurk on infected networks for weeks or even months, moving laterally through the system and grabbing sensitive files. They will steal the information to give them another monetisation opportunity. Even if a victim can recover the encrypted files, the criminals threaten to publish the information unless the company pays up. Once compromised in this way, victims can find themselves subject to repeated blackmail attempts, not just from the original perpetrator but from their affiliates. We have seen multiple examples of these attacks and they are becoming more frequent. Coveware found approximately half of all ransomware attacks used exfiltration in Q3. The C-suite's tendency to request relaxed security controls makes them especially vulnerable to phishing attacks. These executives also devise strategy, determine direction and make the biggest decisions. Arguably, this makes their data more sensitive and thus more desirable. For these reasons, companies should sharpen their focus on C-suite security now. A multi-layered approach to security should include a data backup plan, but it should also address awareness among senior executives, a thorough risk analysis, and a focus on process controls. These measures will help ensure that board-level executives don't become the soft underbelly of your company, ripe for attack. Phil Richards is the Chief Security Officer at Ivanti. With more than 20 years' experience, he has previously served as the Head of Operational Security for Varian Medical systems, CSO for Fundtech Corporation and as Business Security Director for Fidelity Investments. In his security leadership roles, Richards has created and implemented information security policies based on industry standards, and led organisations to clean PCI DSS and SSAE SOC2 compliance certifications and has implemented security awareness training. cs Domee Shi (;[1] Chinese: ; pinyin: Shi Zhiyu; born 1989) is a Chinese-born Canadian storyboard artist and director for Pixar since 2011. She has contributed to multiple films, including Inside Out (2015), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Outside of her storyboard career, Shi directed the 2018 short film Bao, becoming the first woman to direct a short film for Pixar.[2] Bao won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards, and also earned nominations for the 43rd Annie Awards, the International Online Cinema Awards, and the Tribeca Film Festival.[3] Shi was born in 1989 in Chongqing, China as an only child before immigrating to Canada at the age of two with her parents.[4] She spent half a year in Newfoundland before moving to Toronto, where she grew up learning about art from her father.[5] She was influenced by her father, who had been a college professor of fine arts and a landscape painter in China.[5][6] About her mother, Shi says that "She's not a super outwardly emotional person," but Shi took a lot of inspiration and guidance from her mom when directing Bao.[7] Shi recalls that "My Chinese mom was always making sure I never wandered away too far, that I was safe." She also states that her favorite dumplings are "the boiled pork and chives dumplings that my mom would make for me growing up."[6] During her childhood, Shi watched many Studio Ghibli and Disney films, which exposed her to Asian cinema and animation.[8][9] As a high school student, Shi binge-watched anime, read manga, and became the Vice President of her school's anime club.[5] She joined online art communities and uploaded her fan artwork to DeviantArt.[10] This became her first exposure to an environment of like-minded people that helped her establish a network with other artists. "I could follow artists, and I could email them. In the past, you'd have to be in California or know a guy who was friends with this other guy that worked at Disney or something," said Shi.[11] Thus Shi was inspired to enroll at Sheridan College for her post-secondary education.[10] At Sheridan, Shi studied animation, graduating in 2011.[12] During her second year attending school, she enrolled in a course taught by Nancy Beiman, whose class she credits for her pursuit of storyboarding. Shi created a short film for an assignment during her last year at Sheridan. In 2009, she undertook an internship with Chuck Gammage Animation as a clean-up artist, inbetweener, storyboard artist, and animator.[13] Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, a lecturer of the Central University in Accra, has rubbished Amnesty International's position on the closing of the LGBTQI office in Accra. He described as 'nonsense' for Amnesty International to condemn the closure of the LGBTQI office. The opening of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) office in Accra courted the anger of many Ghanaians. The Police on Wednesday, February 24 stormed and locked down the office of the group at Ashongman Estate in Accra. The Police is said to have picked intelligence that a five bedroom house suspected to be housing homosexuals had been opened at Ashongman Estate. This led the Police to immediately raid the house. Following the closure of the office, Amnesty International condemned the Police saying, "when the rights of individuals are clearly violated, then that becomes a serious issue of concern''. ''The circumstance under which the facility was invaded is what we consider to be a clear violation of the very laws that we all seek to uphold. "The question we like to ask again is whether or not the individuals who were found in that particular facility were seen engaging in any act, if they were not then clearly its an issue of the security agencies engaging in an act that is not supported by our laws," Amnesty International stated. Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah expressed disappointment in Amnesty International. He wondered why the group would support an act that the entire nation frowns upon and the country's laws prohibit. "Let us not entertain this foolishness . . . We're living in our country and have made laws to prohibit this thing. Why don't we say we have created Armed Robbers Association? Do you think if it were armed robbers who had formed an association and opened an office and made a sign board in addition, the CID would have slept on it?" he fumed. Watch video below Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Photo: (Photo : 3 Things Everyone Should Know About Drug Charges) Recreational and prescription drugs have been an everyday feature in Western life for decades, and regular drug use is normalized in film, television, and popular culture. One thing every parent will struggle with at some point or another is how to talk to their children about the dangers of drug use. Even the most hands-on and attentive parenting style will not ensure that your kids don't experiment with drug use in high school or college, however, and the last thing you want is to get a phone call late at night saying that your child has been arrested on drug charges. This is why it is so important for the young adults in your family to understand the basic facts about the legal and health dangers of illicit drug use, and to educate yourself about how the law applies to substance abuse. To that end, here are three basic facts about drug use and the law that everyone should know. 1. Not All Drug Charges are the Same All drug charges are a serious matter, but that doesn't mean all drug charges are the same. Most countries distinguish between different categories of drugs and different categories of offense, based on how addictive the substances are and their potential for abuse. Offenses related to Schedule I substances like heroin, Schedule III substances like anabolic steroids, and Schedule IV substances like Xanax or Valium will be treated differently, just as simple possession and possession for the purposes of trafficking carry different sentences. 3. There are Options Available for Fighting Charges Being convicted of a drug-related offense, whether it be for simple possession, possession with the intention to traffic, or trafficking, can have a far-reaching impact on just about every aspect of a person's life. This is why it is important to explore the legal avenues for fighting these charges before making the decision whether or not to plead guilty. If a member of your family has been charged with illegal use of a controlled substance, it is important to get the advice of an experienced criminal lawyer like Jeff Reisman Law who specializes in navigating this complicated and sensitive are in our justice system. 3. Drug Charges Don't Necessarily Mean a Criminal Record Just because you've been charged with possession or trafficking does not automatically mean you will have a criminal record. Even if you are found guilty, there are circumstances in which the court may decide to give the offender an absolute discharge. One of the reasons to hire a criminal lawyer who specializes in drug-related offenses is that they will have a comprehensive knowledge of the options available and can help ensure that a youthful indiscretion doesn't come to define a loved one's life. Drug use is a basic reality of life in 21st century North America, and one of the most unhelpful messages a parent can send their children is that drug use - either recreational or medical - is a taboo subject. Between the recent movement to legalize cannabis to the opioid epidemic sweeping Canada and the U.S., it is important to be able to have an honest conversation about drugs, health, and the law. By destigmatizing drugs as a topic of conversation, you open a door for every member of your family to share their struggles, stay accountable, and hopefully avoid drug charges altogether. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Revenue increased to 5.3 billion (+9%, +8% CER[1]) net sales to 5.1 billion (+8%, +7% CER) Underlying profitability (adj. EBITDA[2]) was 1.4 billion (+1%, -4% CER) or 27% of revenue R&D update: bimekizumab filed with FDA and EMA for psoriasis; timelines for late stage pipeline confirmed - despite pandemic Financial outlook for 2021: Revenue expected to reach 5.45 - 5.65 billion, adjusted EBITDA[2] 27 - 28% of revenue, Core EPS[3] of 5.60 - 6.10 expected Outlook 2025: revenue of at least 6 billion and adj. EBITDA margin in the low to mid-thirties BRUSSELS, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "We are very impressed by our employees and partners for their resilience and achievements during 2020. Together we continued to serve patients, took good care of each other and joined forces in the global response to COVID-19. 2020 was another year with good performance in execution of our patient value strategy, ensuring sustained growth for the company also in the longer term," said Jean-Christophe Tellier, CEO UCB. "For the first time we share our growth ambition for 2025, despite upcoming patent expirations. Based on our strong portfolio and the promising late-stage pipeline, we aim to lead in specific populations by 2025, creating value for patients now and into the future. Also, we made progress in the sustainability areas that are critical to our long-term success and our contribution to society." UCB's 2020 financial results 2020 revenue reached 5.3 billion (+9%; +8% at CER). Net sales went up by 8% to 5.1 billion (+7% CER), driven by the sustained growth of UCB's key products. Underlying profitability (adjusted EBITDA2) reached 1.4 billion (+1%; -4% CER) reflecting higher investments into the future of UCB, namely product launches and product development. Driven by other expenses, profit was to 761 million (-7%, -14%) of which 732 million (-7%; -15% CER) is attributable to the UCB shareholders. Core EPS[3] were 5.36 after 5.20 in 2019. The Board of Directors of UCB proposes a dividend of 1.27 per share (gross), +2%. Acquisitions and agreements In October 2020, UCB acquired a new campus located in Windlesham, Surrey for its U.K. operations supporting cutting-edge research and development, early manufacturing and commercialization of medicines. The acquisition reflects UCB's commitment to retain the U.K. as one of its three global hubs for research and development, alongside Belgium and the U.S. In November 2020, UCB acquired Handl Therapeutics, a rapidly growing and transformative gene therapy company based in Leuven, Belgium and entered into a new collaboration with Lacerta Therapeutics, a Florida based clinical stage gene therapy company. The new acquisition and collaboration will together serve to rapidly accelerate UCB's ambition in gene therapy. Regulatory approvals Vimpat (lacosamide) - In October 2020, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion on a license extension for the anti-epileptic drug Vimpat as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (PGTCS) in adults, adolescents and children from 4 years of age with idiopathic generalized epilepsy - approved in the European Union in December 2020. In November 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Vimpat as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in patients 4 years of age and older and Vimpat injection for intravenous use in children four years of age and older. R&D update Bimekizumab - In September 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepted marketing application submissions for bimekizumab for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. In July 2020, the Phase 3b study BE RADIANT, comparing bimekizumab to Cosentyx (secukinumab) for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, met all co- primary and ranked secondary endpoints, achieving significantly greater efficacy than secukinumab. Dapirolizumab pegol: in August 2020, UCB and its partner, Biogen, included the first patients into the Phase 3 program with dapirolizumab pegol in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) despite standard-of-care treatment. First headline results are expected in H1 2024. Rozanolixizumab: UCB is focusing its resources to new patient populations with autoantibody mediated neuro-inflammation and high unmet medical need. With these patients potentially benefitting from rozanolixizumab, UCB is preparing the start of two clinical programs already during 2021 - next to the ongoing Phase 3 studies in generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). People living with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) are a heterogenous and complex patient population, with approximately only 30% having detectable autoantibodies. While the Phase 2a study in CIDP patients supports the conduct of a confirmatory clinical study, UCB decided to prioritize autoantibody mediated neuro-inflammation indications over CIDP. Bepranemab (UCB0107) Initiation of a Phase 2 study in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is planned for mid-2021, following the partnership agreement with Roche/Genentech. This will allow to evaluate the potential of bepranemab in a tau-mediated disease and subsequently explore options in different tauopathy populations, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). In context with the pandemic, there are no changes to the expected timelines for the late stage pipeline projects. Net sales break-down by core product Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) - 1799 million (+5% Act, +7% CER): for people living with autoimmune and inflammatory TNF mediated diseases, driven by continued growth in the U.S. and stable net sales in Europe despite volume growth, reflecting the competitive landscape. Strong growth contributors were new patient populations in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis Vimpat (lacosamide) - 1072 million (+10% Act, +12 CER), continues to reach more and more people living with epilepsy, reflected in strong growth in all regions. Keppra (levetiracetam) - 788 million (+2% Act, +5% CER), for patients living with epilepsy, the continued generic erosion in the U.S. has been compensated by recovery from a local, one-time rebate adjustment in 2019 in Europe and continued growth in international markets including in Japan where the UCB team took over distribution of E Keppra from partner Otsuka in October 2020. Briviact (brivaracetam) - 288 million (+31% Act, +33% CER), for people living with epilepsy, is driven by significant growth in all regions Briviact is available to patients. Briviact has a different mode of action from Vimpat and differentiates from Keppra Neupro (rotigotine) - 319 million (-2% Act, -1% CER), the patch for Parkinson's disease, was almost stable in a competitive market environment Nayzilam (midazolam) Nasal SprayCIV, a nasal rescue treatment for epilepsy seizure clusters in the U.S. is successfully launched since December 2019 and reached net sales of 26 million. Evenity (romosozumab) had its first European launch in March 2020, for the treatment of severe osteoporosis in postmenopausal women at high risk of fracture, and reported net sales of 2 million, impacted by the pandemic which significantly impedes outreach to new patient populations. Evenity is being launched globally by Amgen, Astellas and UCB since 2019, with net sales outside Europe reported by Amgen and Astellas. 2020 FY financial highlights Revenue in 2020 increased by 9% (+8% CER) to 5 347 million and net sales increased by 8% (+7% CER) to 5 052 million. Net sales before "designated hedging reclassified to net sales" were 5 022 million with a plus of 5% (+7% CER). This growth was driven by the resilient UCB product portfolio - despite the pandemic. Royalty income and fees were 96 million, plus 22% and benefitting from a one-time royalty recognized. Other revenue increased by 28% to 199 million due to higher contract manufacturing, milestones and other payments from R&D partners. Gross profit reached 3 984 million, with a plus of 9% (+8% CER) and reflecting a slightly improved gross margin compared to 2019. Operating expenses went up to 2 891 million (+14%; +16% CER) reflecting 10% higher marketing and selling expenses of 1 221 million - driven by the launch of Cimzia in active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA) in the U.S. and the launches in Japan and China, the launch of Nayzilam in the U.S. and Evenity in Europe as well as launch preparations for bimekizumab for people living with psoriasis, zilucoplan and rozanolixizumab in myasthenia gravis and include expenses in connection with accelerated digital transformation in the pandemic context to better interactions, targeting and marketing 23% higher research and development expenses of 1 569 million - which include for the first time the R&D expenses for the acquired Ra Pharma, Engage Therapeutics and Handl Therapeutics R&D programs. Ongoing high investments in UCB's progressing pipeline encompass five late stage assets and include expenses in connection with digital transformation for better patient experience and faster development time. Slightly lower R&D expenses due to the pandemic related to the recruitment pause in the first half 2020 were compensated by higher pandemic related expenses for the safety of patients as well as ensuring patient recruitment in the second half of the year. Hence, the R&D ratio reached 29% in 2020 after 26% in 2019. with +1% almost stable general and administrative expenses of 196 million, reflecting lower costs due to COVID-19 pandemic compensated by digital business transformation activities and the contribution to the UCB fund ( 5 million) in connection with COVID-19 pandemic. Other operating income doubled to 95 million after 48 million in 2019 - driven by an income of 96 million in connection with the commercialization of Evenity in collaboration with Amgen, after an income of 8 million in 2019, compensating mainly UCB's marketing & selling as well as R&D expenses. UCB's share to the total Evenity contribution has turned to positive earnings for the first time. In 2019, "other" operating items were impacted by one-time positive contributions from investment grants, gain on divestiture and release of provisions. Underlying operational profitability - adjusted (recurring) EBITDA[4]- reached 1 441 million (+1%, -4% CER) driven by continued revenue growth and higher operating expenses, reflecting the investments into the future of UCB, namely into product launches and clinical development. The adjusted EBITDA ratio for 2020 (in % of revenue) reached 27%, from 29% in 2019. Total impairment, restructuring and other income/expenses (formerly called "non-recurring") were expenses of 122 million after 50 million in 2019. In 2020, this includes fees related to the acquisitions, restructuring expenses and an increase of provisions. In 2019, UCB strengthened its operating model to ensure maximum agility to meet the growth expectations for the years ahead, leading to higher restructuring expenses. Net financial expenses went down to 93 million from 107 million in 2019, thanks to lower hedging costs, reduction of interest payable due to the repaid bond in March 2020, compensated by higher interest expenses due to the debt financing of the Ra Pharma acquisition. Income tax expenses were 119 million compared to 146 million in 2019. The effective tax rate is 13% after 15% in 2019. Profit amounted to 761 million (after 817 million), of which 732 million (after 792 million) is attributable to UCB shareholders and 29 million (after 25 million) to non-controlling interests. Core earnings per share, which reflect profit attributable to UCB shareholders, adjusted for the after-tax impact of to be adjusted items, the financial one-offs, the after-tax contribution from discontinued operations and the net amortization of intangibles linked to sales, reached 5.36 after 5.20 based on 189 million weighted average shares outstanding (+1%) Dividend - The Board of Directors of UCB proposes a dividend of 1.27 per share (gross), +2%. Outlook 2021: For 2021, UCB is aiming for revenues in the range of 5.45 - 5.65 billion thanks to the current core product growth and new patient populations being served, based on current assessment of the ongoing pandemic. UCB will continue to advance its late stage development pipeline and prepare upcoming launches to offer potential new solutions for patients. Underlying profitability, adjusted EBITDA, is expected in the range of 27 - 28% of revenue, reflecting the high R&D and marketing & sales investment levels. Core earnings per share are therefore expected in the range of 5.60 - 6.10 based on an average of 189 million shares outstanding. The figures for the outlook 2021 as mentioned are calculated on the same basis as the actual figures for 2020. Outlook for 2025: For the first time UCB shares its growth ambition for 2025, despite upcoming patent expirations. Based on the strong product portfolio and the promising late-stage pipeline assets, UCB aims to lead in specific populations by 2025, creating value for patients now and into the future. Revenue in 2025 are expected to reach at least six billion and the underlying profitability (adj. EBITDA) should reach the low to mid-thirties in percent of revenue. Outlook 2021 & 2025: Based on UCB's current assessment of the Covid-19 pandemic, UCB remains confident in the fundamental underlying demand for its products in the short-term and its prospects for long-term growth. UCB will continue to closely follow evolving COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences to the business environment diligently to assess potential near- and mid-term challenges. Changes to the Board of Directors: In October 2020, UCB announced that at the UCB Annual General Meeting on April 29, 2021, Evelyn du Monceau will have reached the statutory age limit and will step down as Chair and Director of the Board of UCB SA/NV. She will retire from the Board after 4 years as UCB's Chair and over 35 years as UCB Board member. The mandates of Albrecht De Graeve, Viviane Monges and Roch Doliveux will expire at the Annual General Meeting of April 29, 2021 (AGM 2021). Roch Doliveux informed the Board that, for personal reasons, he will not be candidate for a further renewal of his mandate and will therefore leave the Board and UCB at the end of the term of his current mandate (i.e. the AGM 2021). The Board will propose the following appointments to the AGM of April 29, 2021: The appointment of Mr. Stefan Oschmann as independent Director. If elected by the AGM 2021, Stefan Oschmann will become the Chair of the Board in replacement of Mrs. Evelyn du Monceau. The appointment of Mrs. Fiona du Monceau as Director. If elected by the AGM 2021, she will become Vice Chair of the Board in replacement of Pierre Gurdjian, who will stay in the Board as independent Director for the remainder of his mandate. Fiona du Monceau is a representative of the Reference Shareholder and does not qualify as independent Director in accordance with the criteria of the 2020 Code. The appointment of Mr. Jonathan Peacock as independent Director. Jonathan Peacock meets all criteria of the 2020 Code and the Board to qualify as independent Director. If he is elected by the AGM 2021, Jonathan Peacock will become the Chair of the Audit Committee in replacement of Albrecht De Graeve. The renewal of the mandate of Albrecht De Graeve as Director. Albrecht De Graeve will qualify as independent Director only for the first year of his renewed mandate of 4 years (until the General Meeting of 2022). If re-elected, Albrecht De Graeve will stay as independent member of the Audit Committee for one additional year (until the General Meeting of April 2022). From the General Meeting of 2022 until the end of his mandate (2025) Albrecht De Graeve will remain non-independent member of the Board and will no longer be member of the Audit Committee. The renewal of the mandate of Mrs. Viviane Monges as independent member of the Board. If her mandate is renewed by the AGM 2021, Viviane Monges will remain independent member of the Audit Committee. In January 2021, UCB announced the cooptation of Professor Susan Gasser as new member of UCB's Board of Directors, to be ratified at UCB's next General Assembly on April 29, 2021. Prof Gasser replaces Professor Alice Dautry who has reached the statutory age limit. The cooptation of Prof Susan Gasser was conducted in accordance with both the statutory rules of UCB and the BCCA. If approved at the next general assembly, Prof Gasser will qualify as an independent Board member and serve a 4-year mandate. She would also be appointed as a member of the Scientific Committee of the Board. The mandate of Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) will end at the AGM 2021. By application of the European and Belgian mandatory rotation rules applicable to external auditors, PwC is no longer eligible for re-election as an external Statutory Auditor. Based on a selection process overseen by the UCB Audit Committee, the resultant recommendation and approval by the company's works council, the Board will therefore propose the appointment of the audit firm Mazars Bedrijfsrevisoren - Reviseurs d'Entreprises CVBA/SCRL as its statutory auditor for a mandate of 3 years (legal term) at the AGM of April 29, 2021." Sustainability is UCB's business approach and critical to long-term success and UCB's contribution to society. In this context, the company made progress to enable access to its solutions for all patients who need them and started to report on the access performance. As part of the broader aim to foster a positive working environment for all employees, UCB launched of a new health safety and well-being index. UCB continued to work to minimize its impact on the environment and to protect our planet's health, working towards ambitious environmental targets. 2020 also saw a sustainability governance framework established comprised of the new internal Sustainability Governance Committee and an External Sustainability Advisory Board that gathers external experts to provide an outside perspective on UCB's approach. As of 2020, UCB is a participant in the United Nations (UN) Global Compact and UCB committed to make the UN Global Compact and its principles an integral part of its business strategy, day-to-day operations and organizational culture. Find the FY financial reports on UCB website: http://www.ucb.com/investors/Download-center Today, UCB will host a conference call/video webcast at 08.00 (EST) / 13.00 (GMT) / 14.00 (CET). Details are available on https://www.ucb.com/investors/UCB-financials/Full-year-financial-results About UCB UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 7 600 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of 5.3 billion in 2020. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news Forward looking statements This press release contains forward-looking statements including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "seeks", "estimates", "may", "will", "continue" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions which might cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of UCB, or industry results, to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: the global spread and impact of COVID-19, changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms or within expected timing, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, competition from other products including biosimilars, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws, and hiring and retention of its employees. There is no guarantee that new product candidates will be discovered or identified in the pipeline, or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Movement from concept to commercial product is uncertain; preclinical results do not guarantee safety and efficacy of product candidates in humans. So far, the complexity of the human body cannot be reproduced in computer models, cell culture systems or animal models. The length of the timing to complete clinical trials and to get regulatory approval for product marketing has varied in the past and UCB expects similar unpredictability going forward. Products or potential products which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to disputes between the partners or may prove to be not as safe, effective or commercially successful as UCB may have believed at the start of such partnership. UCB' efforts to acquire other products or companies and to integrate the operations of such acquired companies may not be as successful as UCB may have believed at the moment of acquisition. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products and/or devices after they are marketed. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of UCB's products that implicate an entire class of products may have a material adverse effect on sales of the entire class of affected products. Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment, including pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement activities and outcomes. Finally, a breakdown, cyberattack or information security breach could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UCB's data and systems. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on any of such forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labelling in any market, or at any particular time, nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be or will continue to be commercially successful in the future. UCB is providing this information, including forward-looking statements, only as of the date of this press release and expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report or reflect any change in its forward-looking statements with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, unless such statement is required pursuant to applicable laws and regulations. Additionally, information contained in this document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. [1] CER = constant exchange rates [2] adj. EBITDA = adjusted (recurring) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization charges. In compliance with the ESMA Alternative Performance Measures guidelines, recurring EBITDA, is renamed into "adjusted EBITDA". The calculation methodology remains unchanged. [3] Core EPS = core earnings per share [4] adj. EBITDA = adjusted (recurring) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization charges. In compliance with the ESMA Alternative Performance Measures guidelines, recurring EBITDA, is renamed into "adjusted EBITDA". The calculation methodology remains unchanged. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1140810/UCB_logo.jpg BEIJING, Feb. 25 -- The USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) sailed through the Taiwan Strait on February 24. China is firmly opposed to it, said Senior Colonel Zhang Chunhui, spokesperson for the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command, in a written statement on Thursday. The PLA sent naval and air forces to conduct whole-process tracking and monitoring on the US destroyer, said the spokesperson, adding that the US move artificially increased the risk factors in the Taiwan Strait and deliberately undermined regional peace and stability. The troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command keep high alert all the time and are ready to respond to any threats and provocations, stressed the spokesperson. By comparison, even though it was built largely by enslaved laborers, the Capitol includes only one small object recognizing their lives and work: a slab of sandstone bearing a plaque, titled the Slave Labor Commemorative Marker, that was unveiled in 2012. Every object in the Capitol is a marker of the debates about who fought for a right to belong in the United States, Lewis said. It is everywhere, from the buildings erected by enslaved men and women to commissioned paintings, to even the dome of the Capitol overseen by Congressman Jefferson Davis. And when it comes to ensuring that difficult aspects of the nations history are preserved, even some lawmakers are saying the conversation shouldnt be relegated to figures from the past. Two Democrats, Representatives Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Andy Kim of New Jersey, have called for preserving the damaged glass door panes leading to the Rotunda that were cracked during the Capitol riot. In a letter to the House leadership, Phillips and Kim wrote: Throughout the Capitol, keen eyes can still find impressions of our history, including chisel marks on the columns in the crypt left by those enslaved by early Americans to build the Capitol, a bullet hole in the desk of Republican leadership in the House chamber from the 1954 attack by Puerto Rican nationalists, and an inlay patch on the desk of traitorous former Senator Jefferson Davis marking where Union soldiers attacked the desk with bayonets during the Civil War. Just as these reminders of our complicated past remain, so too must some of the damage caused by the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions While temperatures across the state are now a stark contrast to the brutal conditions felt throughout last week, Texans are sharing the suffering they endured in testimonies posted online to hold government officials accountable. Namely, Gov. Greg Abbott. Groups like Move Texas and Workers Defense Action Fund are helping collect thousands of testimonies from residents who were left to fend for themselves in freezing, dark homes in an effort called "#AbbottBlackout. While in-person testimony is limited during hearings in the Texas Legislature due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organizations are working to ensure the harrowing stories are not sidelined and instead, are all over the feeds of state leaders Thursday, as officials look into the ERCOT system failure. RELATED: Ellen applauds H-E-B's $1 million donation to Texas food banks in storm aftermath Move Texas, a non-partisan group, created a user-friendly forum where Texans are able to share stories of how their communities banded together to survive freezing temperatures without power or water in the energy crisis, Charlie Bonner, communications director for the group, said. "There's nothing that replaces real people sharing their lived experiences," he added. "It's critical. Especially to those who have lived through a crisis due to government failures. We are really intent on people's stories being told and the truth getting out there." Bonner is reading the submissions as they are entered in the system. RELATED: CPS disabled autopay feature in wake of energy crisis "The biggest thing people are feeling is that they were abandoned," he said. "The feeling that state leaders weren't going to do anything was profound." Move Texas is encouraging college-aged communities to sound off. Workers Defense Action Fund, is also collecting stories detailing the "extremes" people went through. The social media accounts for the group are sharing some of the submissions ahead of the hearing. A San Antonio woman wrote about burning her bed frame to keep warm. Two young children have been brutally mauled by a dog in New Zealand, leaving one suffering a partially-severed ear. The seven-year-old and nine-year-old were rushed to hospital after the attack in Ford Street, in Opotiki on Saturday around 7pm. Police police Sergeant Mike Mackenzie said it's believed that the dog had jumped over a fence before attacking the children. The seven-year-old and nine-year-old were rushed to hospital after the attack in Ford Street, in Opotiki on Saturday around 7pm 'One of the kids had an ear almost severed,' he said. The police sergeant said the canine involved was considered a 'dangerous' dog and pending an investigation the animal may be put down. Council officers said two dogs had been removed from the property and impounded, including the one involved in the incident. Investigations are continuing. Los Angeles, Feb 25 : Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are all set to get candid in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. The couple will be seen talking about the estrangement from the royal family. "There is a lot of tension between them and the royal family," a source said, according to E! News, in the CBS special on March 7. "The interview is going to shine a light on what they have been through. Meghan and Harry are relieved they are away from it all," the source added. On February 20, the Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple will not be returning to their royal duties, adding that Harry would give up his honorary military titles. The couple has officially been released from their royal duties. They stepped down as working members of the British monarchy last year, and it was agreed the situation would be reviewed. They subsequently moved to Santa Barbara, California. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Knife crime offences have doubled in just six years to go above 50,000 for the first time since records began, newly-published figures lay bare. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that offences involving knives or sharp instruments rose by six per cent from 47,388 to 50,019 in England and Wales in the year before the first Covid-19 lockdown was imposed. Of these offences, 22,012 (44 per cent) were for assault with injury or assault with intent to cause serious harm, and 21,961 (44 per cent) were used in a robbery. However, NHS hospitals in England reported an eight per cent fall in admissions for assault by a sharp object between April 2019 and March 2020. The ONS also found that homicides have risen seven per cent to 695 offences including the Grays lorry incident with 39 homicide victims in the same period. Recent figures also show that knife crime soared by 25 per cent after the first lockdown was eased last summer and have sparked concerns of an 'eruption' of violence once current Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that violent crime was likely to 'rebound' after the shutdown, following the murder of aspiring lawyer Sven Badzak, 22, who was stabbed to death in North London. Policing Minister Kit Malthouse told the Times: 'We are working closely with the police and others to stop this senseless bloodshed, particularly as Covid restrictions are eased over coming months.' The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that offences involving knives or sharp instruments rose from 47,388 to 50,019 in England and Wales Sadiq Khan calls for police officers to be stationed in London's SCHOOLS when they reopen to stop a spike in violent crime sweeping the capital Putting police officers in schools when they fully reopen could help prevent a surge in violent crime in the capital, the Mayor of London has claimed. Sadiq Khan said the Met will use safety officers and targeted policing in areas of high violent crime in a bid to avoid a spike when the Covid-19 lockdown lifts. He was speaking after going on patrol in Bethnal Green, east London, with Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick and violence suppression unit officers. He said: 'One of the things that we've been looking at, in those parts of the world where they've come out of lockdown sooner than us, is there has been, I'm afraid, a surge in violent crime. 'Actually, in some cities around the world - Chicago, New York have been two examples - even during lockdown there have been big increases in violent crime.' Sadiq Khan said the Met will use safety officers and targeted policing in areas of high violent crime in a bid to avoid a spike when the Covid-19 lockdown lifts Advertisement Annual Home Office statistics published today show that between April 2019 and March 2020, police recorded 4,344 threats to kill with a knife - a 22 per cent increase on the previous year. The number of robberies also went up from 18,518 to 20,196, while there were 20,425 knife assaults with intent to cause serious harm - roughly the same as the previous year. The Times reported that the number of sexual assaults using knives increased from 156 to 196 but the number of rape offences involving knives fell eight per cent to 483 in the same period. The past six years have seen a rise in the number of recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, following a previously downward trend. The year ending March 2020 was the highest number since the year ending March 2011, the earliest point for which comparable data are available. The ONS said these increases are thought to largely reflect a real rise in the occurrence of knife or sharp instrument offences. However, improvements in crime recording practices may have also contributed to the recent increases in these types of crime. As expected, the number of police recorded knife crime offences is considerably higher than hospital admissions for assault by sharp object. Hospital admissions data capture the most serious offences, and for the large majority of knife offences recorded by the police the victim does not require hospital treatment. Trends in hospital admissions for assault with sharp objects and police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments followed a similar trend between the year ending March 2011 and the year ending March 2016. However, police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments have risen more steeply in recent years compared with hospital admission figures. It comes as ONS figures showed the number of knife offences in July to September 2020 increased by 25 per cent to 12,120 offences. There was also a 13 per cent rise in 'threats to kill' offences involving a knife, up from 1,124 offences to 1,270, when compared with the same period last year. Police warned there could be a similar increase when the country comes out of lockdown, with a senior policing source telling the Telegraph: 'We expect to see crime across the board rise, knife crime, retail crime and public order will all do so as they did last time.' Barnardo's chief executive Javed Khan said the 25 per cent rise after the first lockdown gave 'an idea of what might erupt once restrictions are lifted and life begins to return to normal. 'Children and young people have spent months out of school and away from their support networks, leaving many vulnerable to exploitation and control by criminal gangs who have seized on the disruption,' he added. 'With rising unemployment and poor job prospects, some young people are finding it hard to believe in a positive future, and see no alternative but to turn to a dangerous way of making money, carrying knives to protect themselves.' NHS hospitals in England reported 4,674 admissions for assault by a sharp object between April 2019 and March 2020, a decrease of eight per cent compared with the previous year The same figures showed that domestic abuse rose by 10 per cent up from 769,611 to 842,813 offences in the year to September. It peaked in June, when police received some 68,648 reports of domestic abuse-related crimes, up from 61,212 in March. Stop and search row Police use of stop and search on black and Asian suspects to find drugs should be curtailed as it risks alienating minority communities, a police watchdog says today. A report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary calls for a 'national debate' on how the controversial tactic is used. Black people are nine times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched, official figures show. The report says: 'The likely damage to police community relations caused by large numbers of drugs possession searches, especially those that find nothing, may outweigh the benefits derived from such searches.' Advertisement Stalking and harassment offences increased by 15 per cent in the year ending September 2020 compared with the previous year, while recorded drug offences increased by 16 per cent to 198,780 offences. The Metropolitan Police has vowed to put more officers on the streets of London to tackle a feared surge in violent crime as lockdown is eased. Police chiefs fear that lockdown has fuelled tensions between rival gangs who have been using social media to trade insults online. In a statement, Commander Jane Connors, the Met's Violence Lead, said the force was prepared to take on violent criminals post-shutdown. She said: 'We are ready and prepared to deal with any potential violence that may become apparent as the lockdown restrictions ease. 'This operational activity already places us on the front foot to prevent any emerging incidents of violence. This surge activity gives officers the ability to assess intelligence and identify certain areas where there is a risk for these crimes to occur. 'Officers will then be deployed to these locations to focus on deterring these crimes and making communities feel safer. Our presence will be noticed, you will see officers on the streets carrying out a range of activity. 'This will also include the prevention of crime with reassuring the public at the forefront of officers' minds whilst carrying out their duties. We want to hear from anyone who may have information that can protect our communities.' The governments COVID-recovery stimulus has encouraged urban sprawl to Perths fringes and caused building costs and timelines to blow out, a planning industry event heard on Tuesday. At the pre-election event, Planning Minister Rita Saffioti, opposition planning spokesman Tjorn Sibma and Greens South Metro MLC candidate Brad Pettitt responded to concerns voiced by event hosts the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Australian Institute of Architects and the Planning Institute of Australia. We bulldoze our way up and down the coast through a biodiversity hotspot, Mr Pettitt told the audience. Credit:Allan Johnson AIA WA president Peter Hobbs said the housing stimulus favoured people signing up for house and land packages and had unintended consequences, including driving up construction costs. Brickies are charging $2 a brick, plumbers and sparkies are in huge demand and booked for months, he said. New Delhi : Realty firm Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd on Thursday said it has acquired 7.89 acres of land to develop a residential project in Bengaluru. The project will offer about 5 lakh sq ft of carpet area. The launch of the project is planned for FY 2022, the company said in a regulatory filing. It did not disclose the deal value and the name of the seller. "Bengaluru is one of the most stable residential real estate markets in India and a priority city for the growth of our residential business. "Our latest land acquisition in the city is in line with our strategy of deepening our presence in well-established, end-user driven markets with a track record of quick absorption and consistent demand for high-quality residences by trusted brands," Mahindra Lifespace Developers Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Subramanian said. Established in 1994, Mahindra Lifespace Developers is the real estate and infrastructure development business of the USD 19.4 billion Mahindra Group. The company's development footprint spans 25.1 million sq ft of completed, ongoing and forthcoming residential projects across seven Indian cities; and over 5,000 acres of ongoing and forthcoming projects under development/management at its integrated developments/industrial clusters across four locations. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating a deputy after a video surfaced showing him pulling his gun and threatening to kill a motorist on Monday. George Dickerson and his coworker merged onto the South Loop from US-59 Monday afternoon when he was caught in a funeral procession, ABC13's Mycah Hatfield reports. He attempted to pass the procession and entered the lane occupied by two officers on motorcycles. IN TEXAS: Turns out Texans don't save money under our deregulated electricity market Dickerson said the officer in front of him slammed on the brakes, causing Dickerson and the deputy behind Dickerson to do the same. The deputy behind him then parked and pulled out his gun "in the middle of the freeway." "He went around the truck, stopped and parked in front of us," Dickerson told ABC13. "I'm in the left lane in the middle of the freeway and he gets off his bike with his gun drawn and comes at me, and as soon as I see his gun drawn, I put my hands in the air and said, 'I don't want any trouble.'" The deputy can be seen in the video with his gun drawn as he opens Dickerson's truck door while Dickerson has his hands up. "I'll I'll f------ kill you," the deputy can be heard saying in the video. "Do that s--- again, and I'll f------ kill you." The department has not identified the deputy. WAIT: Looking for an affordable generator? There's a sales tax holiday soon in Texas "I was terrified," Dickerson told ABC13. "I had a gun to my face. He's threatening to kill me because I stopped my truck. I didn't want to hit this guy. I stopped my truck and he is threatening to kill me because he thought I did it intentionally, I guess." Dickerson's coworker captured the exchange on video. The video has since been posted several times on Reddit. The Harris County Sheriff's Office told ABC13 that the deputy has been placed on administrative leave. The office wrote on Twitter that anyone with information on the incident should contact its Internal Affairs Division. As of Feb. 23, Dickerson had not heard from the sheriff's office, according to Hatfield. "What are they doing out there if they're pointing guns at regular citizens?" Dickerson told ABC13. New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (February 24) jumped into the sea at the Thangassery beach during his visit to Kerala's Kollam district to campaign for the upcoming assembly elections. Gandhi spent about 10 minutes swimming alongside the fishermen before returning to the shore. He jumped from the boat when he saw some fishermen jumping into the sea after casting their net to catch fish. "He jumped without informing us. All of us were stunned but he was very cool. He spent around 10 minutes in the seawater. He is an expert swimmer," a party functionary was quoted as saying by PTI. Check out the video here: #WATCH| Kerala: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dip in the sea with fishermen in Kollam (24.02.2021) (Source: Congress office) pic.twitter.com/OovjQ4MSSM ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 Gandhi reportedly did not remove his clothes - a blue T-shirt and khaki trousers - before jumping. He changed after reaching back to shore. He spent around two-and-a-half hours in the sea, interacting with the fishermen and enjoying fish curry cooked by them on the boat. During his campaign, Gandhi sought to reach out to fishermen in poll-bound Kerala. He told fishermen that his party would include their needs in its election manifesto. He also expressed admiration for their work in sea braving all odds. Gandhi reiterated his claim made in Puducherry that there was no 'dedicated' ministry for fishermen. Comparing the fishermen with farmers, he said "like farmers farm the land, you farm the sea. Farmers have their ministry in Delhi but you don't have a ministry in Delhi. "I understand and respect what you do. I admire what you are doing. Many times, we eat the fish but we will not understand the hard work behind and how it reached our plate," the Wayanad MP said. Live TV Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 25 Feb 2021: The Report Drug Discovery Informatics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Mode (In-house, Outsourced), By Workflow (Discovery, Development), By Services (Sequence Analysis Platforms, Docking), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028 The global drug discovery informatics market size is expected to reach USD 5.63 billion by 2028 registering a CAGR of 11.3% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Use of drug discovery software for gaining market intelligence owing to several advantages, such as rapid drug design & synthesis, efficient tracking of disease evolution, and data integrity management, has increased significantly among the researchers in the recent years, driving the industry growth. The growing demand for novel molecules is driving the adoption of informatics solutions targeted towards speeding up the entire drug discovery process by identifying rational drug molecules via the target macromolecule interaction. Companies operating in the market are receiving funding for expanding their drug discovery platforms, further supplementing the market growth. For instance, in September 2020, Ardigen signed an agreement with the National Centre for Research and Development to access its funding for developing novel technology. This technology was aimed at revolutionizing the development of T-cell receptors-based therapies for immuno-oncology. Ardigen has previously developed a neoantigen prediction platform namely, ArdImmune Vax, which deploys ready-to-use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bioinformatics solutions for the identification of optimal sets of neoantigens as targets for adoptive cell therapies and cancer vaccines. In addition, chemical informatics solutions have gained considerable traction in the past year, particularly in addressing the needs associated with the recent Covid-19 pandemic. For instance, a research study performed in January 2021 showcased the application of chemical digital solutions in accelerating the search of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors by data analysis of previous activity data of SARS-CoV main protease (Mpro) inhibitors. In addition, the QSAR models helped in the data mining of molecules for rapid Covid-19 drug discovery. Hence, the need to facilitate drug development for Covid-19 is expected to propel the industry expansion over the coming years. Access Research Report of Drug Discovery Informatics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/drug-discovery-informatics-market Drug Discovery Informatics Market Report Highlights The discovery workflow segment accounted for the largest share of 59.19% in 2020 owing to the increased focus of pharmaceutical companies on the development of novel drug candidates The development workflow segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028 owing to a rise in the number of drug candidates in the clinical development phase The outsourced mode segment led the market in 2020; however, the in-house mode segment will generate the maximum revenue by 2028 growing at the fastest CAGR over the forecast period owing to high demand for such platforms & services across Asia Pacific countries Led by the U.S., North America led the global market in 2020 due to the presence of key market players and established R&D infrastructure in the country Key industry participants focus on strategic acquisitions to sustain the market competition For instance, in January 2021, Selvita acquired Fidelta to enhance its integrated drug discovery service offerings and expand business in the Europe market List of Key Players of Drug Discovery Informatics Market Certara Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH Infosys Ltd. Charles River Laboratories Eurofins DiscoverX Products Jubilant Biosys Selvita Novo Informatics Pvt. Ltd. ChemAxon Ltd. Albany Molecular Research Inc. Oracle Accenture Agilent Technologies, Inc. Illumina, Inc. Access Press Release of Drug Discovery Informatics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-drug-discovery-informatics-market Foreign killers and rapists are living in upscale waterfront apartments on Christmas Island after controversially winning appeals against their deportation. Leaked documents from the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre revealed criminals are freely living among this island's horrified 1,200 locals. According to The Australian, the convicted criminals all won appeals against the Morrison Government's attempts to deport them to their country of birth. The Christmas Island Australian Immigration Detention Centre (pictured above) was first opened in 2008 Some convicted criminals are living in luxury waterside apartments on Christmas Island (pictured above) after winning appeals against the Morrison government pushing for their deportation In almost all cases, the men are citizens from other nations who were jailed for committing serious crimes in Australia. None of them are asylum seekers or arrived by boat. After completing their sentences they were sent to Christmas Island to await deportation, which the vast majority are, but a small number won appeals. Criminals cannot be kept in immigration detention after they win their appeals, and so are put up in the apartments until a flight back to the mainland can be arranged. The detention centre at Christmas Island was empty until August last year after it stopped being used to house asylum seekers years ago. The Australian Border Force then informed local residents that criminals would be housed there, alongside almost 300 staff. Following an outcry from the community, the ABF were quick to state the safety of locals would not be compromised. Local woman Lin Gaff echoed the thoughts of many when she labelled the development 'concerning' in a letter to the Home Affairs department. 'This (new) information concerns me on a number of levels. 'We usually know who we are dealing with, and as a result of this trust do not lock our doors, cars or valuables,' she wrote. 'To keep local residents in the dark about this massive change in their own community is outrageous.' Some luxury waterside apartments on Christmas Island (pictured above) are the envy of many A number of locals are said to be 'concerned' after it was revealed a number of convicted criminals are now freely residing on Christmas Island The Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre was first opened in 2008 before it was closed a decade later. It was controversially reopened in March of 2019 only to then again closed weeks later, having cost $185million to upgrade. The government initially reopened the detention centre in reaction to the passing of the medical evacuation bill at the time. This law allowed refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru to be evacuated to Australia if medical treatment was required. Christmas Island is an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, located south of Indonesia. New Delhi, Feb 25 : India and Pakistan reviewed the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, and agreed for strict observance of all agreements, and understandings, Indian Army said on Thursday. A joint statement was issued in New Delhi and Islamabad. It stated that the Director Generals of Military Operations of India and Pakistan held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. "The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere," the statement said. It further pointed out that in the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGMOs agreed to address each other's core issues and concerns which have the propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence. Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the LoC and all other sectors with effect from midnight February 24 and February 25, 2021. "Both sides reiterated that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding," the statement said. On Wednesday, Indian Army Chief General M.M. Naravane, while speaking at a webinar organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation, said that there is definitely a great improvement in the internal security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He, however, stated that Pakistan-promoted terror still remains a threat. Indian Army Chief said that Pakistan is committed to the strategy of supporting terrorism in all its forms as terrorist launchpads continue to be operated and terrorists continue to be there on the other side of the LoC looking for an opportunity to cross over. Image Source: IANS Infographics India, Pak agree for strict observance of all LoC agreements. General Naravane expressed confidence that with continued engagement with Pakistan, there could be some sort of an understanding because unsettled borders and violence on the borders help no one. "We always want peace and tranquility in our border areas, whether it be the western front or the northern front and the Line of Actual Control. Or whether it is on the Indo-Myanmar border, we are always looking for peace and tranquility and our role is to ensure that so as the rest of the nation can develop," he said. Talking about terrorism, General Naravane said the winter months are always a little bit of a lull period when the passes are closed and snowfall is heavy. He said with the waning of winter, as the passes open and the onset of summer, the army is always prepared for a fresh influx from across the border. "But having said all that, there is definitely a great improvement in the internal security situation in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. When I say that, I don't say that just based on the emotion but on various parameters you can judge the figures," General Naravane said. -- Syndicated from IANS She faced a spectacular fall from grace following her Australian Idol win 16 years ago, after escaping conviction for the possession of ice and weapons in 2017. But on Thursday, Kate DeAraugo - now three years sober - revealed she's completely turned her life around, and has made a surprising new career change along the way. Speaking on The Morning Show, Kate told surprised hosts Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur: 'I'm actually starting a [certificate] three in civil construction. Change: On Thursday, Kate DeAraugo - now three years sober - revealed she's completely turned her life around, and has made a surprising new career change along the way 'It just means I am learning to operate big machines and excavators and... build stuff. It is really random but Ive really enjoyed it. 'I got out there and did traffic management for a while, and it has just sort of carried on to looking at other avenues in construction.' The 35-year-old - who sang in the girl band Young Divas alongside former Idol contestants including Ricki-Lee Coulter - added: 'It opens up lots of opportunities to work on big civil sites and building big projects. I love it.' Kate made headlines for all the wrong reasons in June 2017 when she was caught by police carrying .43 grams of ice in Shepparton, as reported by The Shepparton News. Police also allege she was caught five days later with ice, and that she was illegally carrying a large knife and a tomahawk. Winner: It's been 16 years since Kate won Australian Idol back in 2005 Girl band: Kate (far left) went on to form part of pop girl band Young Divas in 2006, alongside other Australian Idol contestants Emily Williams (second left), Ricki-Lee Coulter (far right) and Paulini Curuenavuli (second right). The band parted ways in 2008 She was reportedly also caught driving under the influence of drugs and had faced up to 15 years in jail. However, in November 2017, Kate avoided conviction after pleading guilty to possessing ice, drug driving and weapons offences. She was handed a 12-month community correction order in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to eight charges. She was also disqualified from driving for a minimum of six months. Dark past: Kate made headlines for all the wrong reasons in June 2017 when she was caught by police carrying .43 grams of ice in Shepparton, as reported by The Shepparton News Speaking about her troubled past, Kate added: 'It's no secret that mental health, depression and addiction has been a big part of my story. 'It's a big topic and one that I'm really happy to talk about, but potentially a little heavy for 9:30am on a Thursday morning. 'The good news is is that I'm nearly three years in recovery now. It was a dark time, but an incredible learning experience now that I'm out the other end.' City of Milwaukee employee pay 2020 Feb. 25, 2021 Search the 2020 salaries and compensation data for more than 7,700 City of Milwaukee employees. Click on an employee's name to see a detailed breakdown of overtime, compensatory and other kinds of pay, as well as hire dates. Some names are withheld by city officials due to their position or other life circumstances. View the 2019 Milwaukee salary database here. More data: Dig into salaries, education, weather and more with WISCONSIN DATA ON DEMAND. To say that watchmaking is the preserve of men is something of an understatement. There are indeed few women who have carved out a place for themselves in the industry. There are however some exceptions, and Jasmine Audemars is one of them. She has had two lifelong passions: journalism leading her to become editor-in-chief of the prestigious Journal de Geneve for 12 years and watchmaking. In 1992, she took over from her father as Chair of the Board of Directors of Audemars Piguet, the only watchmaking brand still in the hands of its founding families. She was both a curiosity and a truly outstanding exception. Jasmine Audemars likes to describe herself as a keeper of the temple, seeing herself as upholding family values, with a responsibility to pass on their ethos of boldness and tradition within the company. The handover came right in the middle of the mechanical watch revival, at a time when Audemars Piguet had everything going for it. Jasmine Audemars Audemars Piguet Under her leadership, Audemars Piguet made unprecedented progress. Like all of the Vallee de Joux-based watchmakers, the firm had its share of troubles and setbacks but above all, reaped a harvest of success. The partnership with Alinghi, which won the Americas Cup in 2003 and again in 2007, was one such achievement. It was a wild bet, with a contract scribbled on a piece of paper. But in the end, amazingly, it paid off, recalls Jasmine Audemars. The maison lost no time in teaming up with the world of the arts, from the Montreux Jazz Festival to the Art Basel show. Then too, there was its pioneering environmental commitment through the Audemars Piguet Foundation, also chaired by Jasmine Audemars since 1996, which is engaged in forest conservation. On the industrial side, the firm has acquired a production facility commensurate with Jasmine Audemars appraisal of its ambitions. In addition to vertical integration of the Manufacture, an ambitious construction programme is underway to establish a full-blown watchmaking campus in Le Brassus, the village where Audemars Piguet started out almost 150 years ago. What better way could there be to prepare for the future? *Written by Christophe Roulet *On the occasion of GMT Magazine and WorldTempus' 20th anniversary, we have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the last 20 years in watchmaking in The Millennium Watch Book, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. This article is an extract. The Millennium Watch Book is available on www.the-watch-book.com, in French and English, with a 10% discount if you use the following code: WT2021. Order now Education Minister Norma Foley said advice on whether the rapid Covid-19 tests should be used in schools was expected in mid-March. The HSE has not recommended them for schools although unions have been seeking a speedier ways to identify cases of infection. Known as antigen tests, they are less accurate than the PCR test but have the benefit of not having to go to the lab. Senior medics, including Prof Jack Lambert of the Mater Hospital, have also called for the use of rapid testing in settings where large numbers of people congregate. Read More They have criticised a lack of urgency by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) towards its deployment. As schools prepare for wider re-opening Department of Education said that the HSE will continue to use PCR tests for testing all index cases and close contacts within the school community The wider use of antigen test in schools and other community settings is being explored by a group headed by Dr Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) who is now also a member of Nphet. Ms Foley told RTEs News at One today that Professor Fergusons determination was expected in mid-March and if antigen tests were recommended for school communities, that would be the case. As schools re-open Ms Foley said public health experts would continue to treat any incidence of Covid in those settings on a case by case basis. The adjudication will happen on the ground, no two schools will be the same, she said, The return of pupils to school is happening on a phased basis and each stage, after next Monday, March 1, will depend on the public health landscape. If the initial stage of the return triggers a significant increase in Covid infection, the plan may stall. Ms Foley said there was a burden on all of society to do what needs to be done to ensure we will be in position to have a full re-opening of schools. [February 25, 2021] Bessemer Venture Partners Closes $3.3 Billion Across Two Funds; Welcomes Amazon.com Veteran Jeff Blackburn as Partner Bessemer Venture Partners, a global early-stage venture capital firm, today announced the close of two new funds, adding $3.3 billion of capital for investing in promising technology companies at their early and subsequent growth stages. Additionally, the firm welcomed five new partners, including Jeff Blackburn, who joins Bessemer Venture Partners from Amazon, alongside the promotion of existing Bessemer investors Mary D'Onofrio, Mike Droesch, Tess Hatch, and Andrew Hedin. "Today marks an incredible milestone at Bessemer as we launch our latest and largest funds and add five exceptional investors into the partnership," said Jeremy Levine, a partner in Bessemer's New York office. "I'm proud to celebrate the success of Mary, Mike, Tess, and Andrew, and I am excited to welcome Jeff to the firm. Having known Jeff for 15 years, I'm a great admirer of his stunning track record as an innovator and leader paired with his deep humility. I know his peerless experience leading one of the world's greatest tech and consumer brands will benefit our team and the many founders who partner with Bessemer." Blackburn joins Bessemer following a 22-year career at Amazon, first joining the e-commerce giant after its IPO and then spearheading its growth in the core marketplace business and expansion across Amazon Advertising, Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Amazon Studios. Most recently, Blackburn served as senior vice president of worldwide business development. He oversaw dozens of Amazon's minority investments and more than a hundred acquisitions across all business lines - including retail, Kindle, Echo, Alexa, FireTV, advertising, music, streaming audio& video, and Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) . At Bessemer, he will apply his innovative mindset and considerable experience -- as an investor, operator, and leader - toward existing and future Bessemer portfolio companies. "Having been part of Amazon for more than two decades, I'm excited to begin a new chapter helping customer-focused founders build breakthrough companies," said Blackburn. "I've known the Bessemer team for many years and have long admired their strategic vision and success backing early-stage ventures." Blackburn's arrival and the promotions of D'Onofrio, Droesch, Hatch, and Hedin all coincide with the close of Bessemer's eleventh flagship fund, BVP XI, and their second opportunity fund, BVP Century II. The majority of the $3.3 billion across both funds will focus on early-stage investments, consistent with the firm's time-honored approach of starting with seed and Series A investments and sticking with companies at every stage of their growth. The firm continues to expand with a leadership team of 21 partners and over 45 investors, advisors, and platform team members positioned all over the world - Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Boston, London, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, and Beijing. Bessemer Partner Byron Deeter added: "Our partners work one-on-one with our CEOs, but they also benefit from the growing scale and support from our entire platform. With our new funds and expanded partnership, Bessemer is even better equipped to help the best entrepreneurs - across all stages, sectors, and geographies - build incredible companies." About Bessemer Venture Partners Bessemer Venture Partners is a global early-stage venture capital firm. With a portfolio of more than 200 companies, Bessemer helps visionary entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to create companies that matter, and supports them through every stage of their growth. The firm has backed more than 130 IPOs, including Shopify, Yelp, LinkedIn, Skype, LifeLock (News - Alert) , Twilio, SendGrid, DocuSign, Wix, and Fiverr. Bessemer's team of investors and partners are positioned all over the world in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Boston, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, and Beijing. https://www.bvp.com/ Follow @BessemerVP View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225006258/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said that ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) will begin trading ICE Murban Crude Oil Futures and related cash settled derivatives against Brent and WTI on March 29. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said that ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) will begin trading ICE Murban Crude Oil Futures and a range of related cash settled derivatives against Brent and WTI, as well as inter-commodity spreads, on March 29. Murban futures will go to physical delivery two months ahead and, as such, the first Murban futures contract to expire will be the June 2021 contract month, which will expire at the end of April 2021. Adnoc moved to forward pricing of its crude oil in March 2020 and currently prices Murban using Platts Dubai to identify its selling price. The company will move its pricing mechanism for Murban to the ICE Murban Futures Contract in the first month of lifting for this new contract. Accordingly, this is targeted for June. Adnoc also confirmed that Upper Zakum, Das and Umm Lulu grades will be priced at a differential to the announced Murban price. While the new ICE Murban Futures Contract will be used to identify the price of Murban two months ahead, Adnoc will announce the price for Upper Zakum, Das and Umm Lulu crude grades early in the month before the month of loading (known as M-1). Khaled Salmeen, Adnocs Executive Director of Downstream Industry, Marketing and Trading (DM&T) said: We continue to see very strong support from our customers, traders and other market participants for IFAD and the new ICE Murban Futures Contract. Todays announcements are another important step as we prepare, together with ICE, our customers and our partners, for the launch of this important new exchange and futures contract. IFAD is established in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an International Financial Centre that practices and applies English common law. ICE is the operator of the exchange and the majority shareholder. Adnoc, BP, GS Caltex, INPEX, ENEOS (formally known as JXTG), PetroChina, PTT, Shell, Total (TOTSA) and Vitol are partnering with ICE to support the launch of IFAD. TradeArabia News Service Normally in January, Tamara Ralph presents a runway extravaganza as part of Paris couture week. This year, however, Ms. Ralph, the creative director of Ralph & Russo, alongside her longtime partner in life and business, Michael Russo, decided to postpone the latest collection because of the pandemic. A few days later, the Australian fashion designer also unveiled a look of a different kind: motherhood. Not to mention the redesigned relationship status between her and Mr. Russo that first made headlines last year. It turns out that the pair quietly ended their engagement. Instead, Ms. Ralph has started a family with her new partner, the Anglo-Indian billionaire Bhanu Choudhrie. Their first child, Haliya, was born on Jan. 28 the same date as the Ralph & Russo couture show that didnt happen. Its a complete blessing, Ms. Ralph said a week before the birth on a call from her home in London. A marijuana sample from the Catalyst Cannabis Company in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Costa Mesas Illegal Cannabis Dispensaries Could Be Committing Tax Fraud: Mayor As Costa Mesa prepared to move forward with its retail cannabis plans, its mayor called out illegal dispensaries operating within the city. Speaking during a special study session on Feb. 23, Mayor Katrina Foley said that under-the-table marijuana dispensaries could be committing tax fraud. They [customers] are paying sales tax; its not getting collected and sent to the government agencies, Foley said. Its just getting pocketed. In most instances theyre not paying their employees properly, they dont have workers comp or unemployment. Those employees are not cared for as well. Her comments came during a discussion of Costa Mesas Measure Q, a retail cannabis tax and regulation measure that passed last November with 65 percent support. It allows for recreational cannabis dispensaries and deliveries to operate within the guidelines adopted by the city council. However, the city has not yet processed any legitimate dispensaries. I think we all agree that we want to shut down the wrongful actors as quickly as possible, and not let it drag out for a long time and impact the adjacent businesses, or the residents, or also just the customers who dont know that its an illegal operation, Foley said. Although the Measure Q ballot measure passed, Costa Mesa is still working on an ordinance to implement the initiative. It means that retail cannabis dispensaries are still illegal within the city, Costa Mesa spokesperson Tony Dodero told The Epoch Times via email. Currently there are no legal dispensaries in Costa Mesa, Dodero said. The city does follow-up with investigations if we learn of illegal operations, usually through our code enforcement team. However, a simple Google search reveals at least 11 illegal cannabis retail dispensaries operating within city boundaries. Many of these illegally operating dispensaries will get a business license for another category, and then begin to operate the illegitimate dispensary, Costa Mesas city manager said. To do business in Costa Mesa, you have to do it legitimately, you have to follow the rules, and it wont be acceptable for you to just establish a business in our citys boundaries without conforming to the legal framework and the regulatory process that we put forward, Lori Ann Farrell Harrison said during the meeting. Each new dispensary will provide the city a monthly tax receipt based on their actual sales of cannabis. The tax revenue from the dispensaries will earn an estimated $3 million per year if the dispensaries retail sales of cannabis are taxed at the full 7 percent rate. The city council will consider adding 7.25 full-time positions to serve the retail cannabis industry during its next meeting on March 2. The new positions will cost the city an estimated $1.2 million in staffing fees. We would generate the fees [from revenue taxes] in a way that over time it would recoup the costs, Harrison said. In comparison to Costa Mesas proposal of 7.25 new positions, Santa Ana has 10.5 full-time employees that serve up to 30 dispensaries. Long Beach has 8.5 full-time employees also capped at 30 dispensaries. The plan accounts for two code enforcement officers who will be responsible for identifying illegitimate dispensaries and deliveries within the city and issuing citations for businesses that havent obtained proper building permits. Different cities have taken different approaches to enforcing their retail cannabis ordinances. Santa Ana has hired six police officers for their retail cannabis staffing, and 3.5 full-time positions for permitting. Santa Ana took a hybrid approach, which is what we would recommend as well, Costa Mesas manager said. A hybrid approach to the ordinance deals with addresses administrationpermitting, and code enforcementand law enforcement to mitigate illegal dispensaries and criminal activity. Harrison said that Long Beach has had occasions where law enforcement needed to get involved in its retail cannabis-related manners. Costa Mesa is in the process of revisiting their model and looking to see what kind of more active role law enforcement can take. We have illegal dispensaries currently in the city and want to make sure that were not encouraging the behavior of operating illegally in the city. [We need to make] sure that we have enough resources in law enforcement to be able to enforce the ordinance and make sure that were promoting good business conduct in the city and going through the proper channels to get permitted, Harrison said. Dispensaries are only permitted in commercial zones, while deliveries are permitted in commercial zones and the green zone. He added, Making videos where you can do multiple takes to get your lyrics right, or shooting short films out of sequence, does not replace what is missing. All of us live theater people have the same problem we thrive on the live audience experience, where there is risk in every performance and everyone is counting on each other to create a fleeting piece of art, he said. As for whats ahead, Martin said, From the theaters view, we are in a sort of semi-hibernation, waiting for a metaphorical spring to arrive. Lucky Penny, he added, is getting by because we dont have a payroll, and the SBA loan/grant opportunities make a big difference. He also said the Napa community has come forward with much-appreciated support during the past difficult year, which shut down their 2020 season. We are starting to talk with a venue with outdoor space in Napa and if vaccine rollout improves maybe we can produce something this summer and fall outdoors, Martin said. We hope so. Its hard to say when we will again be able to seat 100 people in our little black box. But theres no point in worrying, its out of our control. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Kalrock-Jalan consortium will invest around Rs 1,375 crore in over two years. The consortium which won the bid to revive the grounded airline last October plans to start with domestic services using 5-7 new aircraft and will fund the investment through mix of equity and debt, it informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) today. The amount would be utilised for start-up expenses and paying creditor dues, it is learnt. While most of its fleet was repossessed, still has twelve aircraft including Airbus A330, Boeing 737 and Boeing 777 planes. However, the consortium does not plan to use the existing fleet and aims to relaunch the operations with new aircraft. The tribunal began hearing on the resolution plan from Tuesday. In the first hearing, Kalrock-Jalan consortium disclosed it would pay Rs 1,183 crore to lenders over the next five years. Today, it prayed for airport slots while seeking approval to the resolution plan. Counsels of Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA sought time till next Tuesday to make written submission on the issue of slots and traffic rights. The matter will be again heard next Wednesday. The tribunal is also hearing an application of Sahara Group which is challenging the resolution plan. Sahara Group sold Air Sahara to in 2007 and two sides are locked in a bitter legal battle over the purchase consideration. The litigation is still pending in the Supreme Court. The Group has said that its Rs 1,600 crore claim against Jet was secured by a non-disposal undertaking given by Jet over a 750,000 square feet property in Bandra Kurla complex area of Mumbai. The Group today requested the tribunal to exclude this property from the assets in the resolution plan and sought direction to resolution professional to treat it as a secured creditor. Ashish Chhawchharia, the resolution professional, has opposed Group's plea arguing that it is not a secured creditor under the provisions of the insolvency and bankruptcy code. " The resolution professional has filed its reply challenging the Sahara group application, " a person aware of the matter said. Healthcare Australias boss has stepped aside after an investigation found the company misled the government over the qualifications of a doctor who gave the wrong vaccine doses to patients in Queensland. A third health provider will also be brought in to handle the vaccine rollout after it was revealed on Wednesday that HCA would not be able to finish vaccinating all aged care residents on schedule by the end of the week. Healthcare Australia provided false information to the Australian government, Mr Hunt said. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Health Minister Greg Hunt was confident the phase 1a rollout would be completed within the six-week timeframe, with more than 17,500 people vaccinated across the country so far. Will we achieve it in that timeframe that we are expecting? Thats my expectation, he said. Facebook announced Wednesday it plans to invest $1 billion to "support the news industry" over the next three years and admits it "erred on the side of over-enforcement" by banning news links in Australia. Why it matters: Facebook is following in Google's footsteps, after last October the company pledged to pay publishers over $1 billion during the next three years to create and curate high-quality journalism for its Google News Showcase. News outlets' push for Facebook and Google to pay for content on their platforms is garnering support in Australia and also Europe notably in the U.K., where a lawmaker on a media committee described Facebook's move in Australia as "bully boy action." Of note: The announcement comes days after the tech giant struck a deal with Australian lawmakers to pay local publishers for their news content over the government's new media code, ending Facebook's temporary ban on sharing news links on its platform in the country. The law came into effect on Thursday morning local time, after the Australian government agreed to change some of the terms following the deal with Facebook. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a joint statement the code "will ensure that news media businesses are fairly remunerated for the content they generate, helping to sustain public interest journalism in Australia." LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb has today announced the launch of a new travel insurance partnership with global online travel company Travix. The collaboration sees the offer of Chubb's comprehensive travel insurance plans to customers using Travix websites when making their travel arrangements. The proposition includes a range of travel insurance benefits relevant to each traveller's individual needs and type of booking. Customers can also arrange immediate cover via the Travix websites when booking their trip. With the support of Hepstar, the travel ancillary product optimisation specialists, the collaboration promises to develop and deliver personalised product offers to customers across EMEA, the United States, Latin America and Asia Pacific. "We are proud to have the opportunity to work with Travix in the global online travel distribution space. Chubb aims to provide Travix customers with quality insurance products and services in a simple and straightforward way, powered by our robust technology, and to help Travix optimise the programme in partnership with Hepstar," said Ruben Rivero, Head of Travel Insurance, Continental Europe A&H, Chubb. "We are happy to strengthen our relationship with Hepstar in combination with our new partnership alongside Chubb. Through this partnership we take another step forward with regards to the optimisation of our products. This enables us to deliver better customised solutions and improve the value to our customers," said Michiel Delaere, President, Travix. "Hepstar has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with both Travix and Chubb. This collaboration will see each party contribute in their area of expertise with the goal of changing the way travel insurance is packaged and perceived by travellers," said Heinrich Brand, COO, Hepstar. About Travix Travix is a global online travel company headquartered in the Netherlands operating in almost 40 countries, across 43 websites and 5 brands, including CheapTickets, Vliegwinkel, BudgetAir, Vayama and Flugladen. About Hepstar Hepstar is a global travel ancillary aggregator that uses e-merchandising tools and machine-learning to optimise how products are presented to customers. About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/324916/Chubb_Logo.jpg Related Links chubb.com SOURCE Chubb EDWARDSVILLE Three people face felony charges filed Feb. 23 after attacking police or medical personnel in separate incidents. Loran R. Collins, 32, of Granite City and Jonathan J. Gagen, 28, of Madison, were charged with aggravated battery, both Class 2 felonies, in separate incidents. Adam C. Weeks, 33, of Collinsville, was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. All were separate incidents and the cases were brought by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on Nov. 30 Collins fought with a Granite City detective, causing lacerations to the officers hand that required stitches. Bail was set at $50,000. On Dec. 20 Weeks allegedly punched and wrestled with a nurse performing their duties. Bail was set at $30,000. On Dec. 21, Gagen allegedly grabbed an officers face and scratched their eyeball. Bail was set at $50,000. Other felony criminal charges filed Feb. 23 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include: Makayla L. Beverly, 18, and Brianna R. Soucy, 20, both of Edwardsville, were charged with retail theft over $300, both Class 3 felonies. The cases were presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On Jan. 20 the two allegedly took miscellaneous food, clothing and household items valued at more than $300 from the Glen Carbon Walmart, 400 Junction Drive. Bail was set at $20,000 each. Carmen A. McGraw, 31, of St. Louis, was charged with offenses relating to a motor vehicle, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. On Jan. 12 McGraw allegedly was found to be in possession of a 2010 Jeep Liberty. Bail was set at $40,000. William F. Mohr, 59, of Edwardsville, was charged with criminal damage to property over $500, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. On Jan. 16 Mohr allegedly damaged a Kienstra Concrete building at 278 Lakefront Parkway, Edwardsville. Bail was set at $20,000. Brittany L. Geisen, 27, of Alton, was charged with disorderly conduct/misuse of 911, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Nov. 14 Geisen allegedly made a false 911 call regarding a domestic disturbance. Bail was set at $15,000. Mathew T. Lofland, 45, of Springfield, Illinois, was charged with driving while license revoked, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Feb. 21, Lofland allegedly was found driving a vehicle on Vandalia Street, Collinsville, while having a revoked license. It was noted he had multiple prior related convictions. Bail was set at $15,000. (JTA) President Joe Biden, saying domestic terrorism was the greatest threat in America and white supremacists are the most dangerous people, pledged to focus his Justice Department on the rise of white supremacy. Biden, in Milwaukee on Tuesday at his first town hall as president, fielded a question from Joel Berkowitz, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, about what Berkowitz termed the ongoing threat from white supremacists in the wake of the Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol. A number of far-right groups and figures were involved in the insurrection.... [February 25, 2021] Kasasa Collaborates with Protective to Offer Flexible Life Insurance Through Kasasa Care Kasasa, an award-winning financial technology and marketing provider, has collaborated with Protective Life Insurance Company (Protective) to enable community financial institutions to offer flexible life insurance that can save consumers up to 31% on coverage compared to its competitors. Through this association, Kasasa banks and credit unions will be able to offer life insurance within Kasasa Care, an online marketplace and referral program developed to offer non-interest income partner products and services that have proven to be beneficial to consumers. Community financial institutions will be able to meet customers' unique life insurance needs with a number of coverage options that can be added onto employer-provided coverage, low, flat premiums and a streamlined approval process. Additionally, customers can upgrade to permanent life insurance up to five years before their initial policy ends. "Protective is excited to partner with Kasasa to offer simplified ssue term coverage through Kasasa Care," said Jeff Hackett, Managing Director of Affinity and Direct Channels at Protective. "Life insurance is an important part of a healthy financial plan across a wide range of ages, incomes and stages of life. We look forward to protecting families and keeping this promise as we've done for more than a century." Most life insurance policies require lengthy application processes and medical exams, causing delays in getting the protection needed. The Protective Series Simplified Issue Passport term is a quick and easy way to apply for up to $250,000 in term life insurance. In place of a medical exam, Simplified Issue allows customers to apply for coverage by answering medical questions over the phone. "Life insurance is an investment in your family's future, but many of us don't have enough," said Keith Brannan, CMO of Kasasa. "We are thrilled to participate with Protective to enable Kasasa banks and credit unions to help customers provide for their future at a rate that lets them live to their fullest today. By offering products that existing and potential customers value, community financial institutions can deepen customer relationships while better positioning them to compete for their fair share of the market." Kasasa selected Protective because of its mission and ongoing commitment to serving people and doing the right thing for employees, distributors, and most importantly, customers. The company's willingness to innovate, offer sales support and provide excellent customer service also made it a valuable partner. Protective has provided protection to families for more than 110 years through life insurance, asset protection and retirement products. About Protective Life Corporation Protective Life Corporation (Protective) provides financial services through the production, distribution and administration of insurance and investment products throughout the U.S. Protective traces its roots to its flagship company, Protective Life Insurance Company - founded in 1907. Throughout its more than 110-year history, Protective's growth and success can be largely attributed to its ongoing commitment to serving people and doing the right thing - for its employees, distributors, and most importantly, its customers. Protective's home office is located in Birmingham, Alabama, and its 3,000+ employees work across the United States. As of September 30, 2020, Protective had assets of approximately $125 billion. Protective Life Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. (TSE:8750). For more information about Protective, please visit www.Protective.com. About Kasasa Based in Austin, Texas, Kasasa is a financial technology and marketing provider committed to driving results for over 900 community financial institutions by attracting, engaging, and retaining consumers. Kasasa does this by providing innovative banking solutions that increase loan volume and non-interest income to help drive immediate sources of revenue in a low-rate environment. Its branded retail products, world class marketing, and expert consulting enable community banks and credit unions to recapture market share. For more information, please visit www.kasasa.com, or visit them on Twitter or LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005667/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] As the Texas Legislature starts hearings today to investigate the catastrophic power failure during last weeks storm, the Environmental Defense Fund has published a report outlining policy recommendations for extreme weather and natural disasters. The New York-based environmental group said Texas should mandate that power plants, transmission lines, natural gas producers and pipeline operators prepare for natural disasters made worse by climate change, including wildfires, hurricanes, floods, drought, heat waves and winter storms. In addition, ERCOT -- the state grid manager -- should use 20-year and 30-year extreme weather forecasts to predict long-term peak power demand and to better allocate resources. EDF called on ERCOT to identify power plants that are at risk of sea level rise, storm surge, flooding, tornadoes and extreme weather events. EDF also called on Texas lawmakers to examine ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission, which oversees the grid manager, to ensure they can maintain the grids reliability and fairly protect consumers from excessive energy bills in Texas competitive market. The PUC should develop new guidelines for utilities to implement rotating outages imposed by ERCOT fairly among Texans, and to require utilities to install more remote-controlled switches to execute these mandated outages when electricity demand far exceeds power generation capacity. PERFECT STORM: Energy supply chain slashed by extreme weather Lawmakers should pursue stronger building codes and energy efficiency measures to help reduce the power load on the grid, EDF said, starting with low-income and multifamily housing to make them more resilient and safer for residents during weather disasters and power failures. Non-essential office buildings should be required to install remotely controlled electric systems that can reduce power use by 60 percent during rolling outages, EDF said. Finally, EDF said lawmakers should conduct a study of the costs and benefits of connecting Texas to outside power grids in the U.S. and Mexico. The state should also acknowledge that electrical and water systems are interdependent, and bolster water systems against power outages and reduce power plants reliance on water. Texans are suffering, EDF said in its report. They deserve a crisis response that addresses their needs now and protects them from future weather-energy threats. [February 25, 2021] Innophys to Begin Marketing "MUSCLE SUIT Every" in Europe on Acquisition of CE Certification Showing It Meets Local Safety Standards TOKYO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tokyo-based Innophys Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Innophys") is set to begin marketing "MUSCLE SUIT Every," a work-assisting robotic suit it has developed and sells, in European Union (EU) member countries in 2021 as the powered exoskeleton obtained CE certification on Dec. 10, 2020, showing it meets safety standards in Europe. Photo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106291/202102151006/_prw_PI1fl_9Tl3sEnD.jpg Image: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106291/202102151006/_prw_PI3fl_1C661fs3.jpg - Innophys to begin marketing "MUSCLE SUIT Every" in EU member countries in sequence MUSCLE SUIT Every's CE marking now allows the wearable work-assisting exoskeleton to be sold in 31 European countries -- 27 EU countries plu four-member countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Innophys will partner with local sales agents in EU countries, including France, Germany and Spain, to market its product after deeming that it can expect demand in the region because its product can help prevent work-related accidents in the manufacturing and farming sectors and assist aging and nursing care workers. - MUSCLE SUIT Every official global website The official global website on MUSCLE SUIT Every provides information relating to the product in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Polish and Dutch as of February 2021. The URL of the MUSCLE SUIT Every official global website: https://innophys.net/musclesuit/ Those interested in becoming Innophys sales agents should visit the following website: https://innophys.net/musclesuit/contact/ About MUSCLE SUIT Every MUSCLE SUIT Every is a work-assisting robotic suit that lightens the load on the user's back when the user performs hard work, such as lifting up a heavy item or person and maintaining a half-crouching position. The powered exoskeleton, which weighs only 3.8 kilograms, provides up to 25.5kgf of assistive force to its user. By the end of December 2020, the number of the product sold had surpassed 16,000 units. The device can be used at various work sites, including nursing care, manufacturing, logistics, construction and farming, since its artificial muscle uses compressed air to provide assistive force without relying on electric power. Photo2: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106291/202102151006/_prw_PI2fl_6jX16q42.jpg SOURCE Innophys Co., Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The excellent site Lensvid, which has been analyzing and presenting CIPA data for the camera and lens industry for ten years (CIPA is the Camera & Imaging Products Association, which succeeds the Japan Camera Industry Association), has presented its information in simpler form this year, analyzing the years 20102020. Summary first: there's that little box that says, "The entire camera market in 2020 saw 97% drop compared to 2010." (That's looking at numbers of units, not profit or gross, but wow, still....) 2020 was obviously the pandemic year, and COVID-19 did no favors for camera and lens sales: year-on-year there was a 58% drop in shipped cameras from 2019 to 2020 and a 63% drop in the number of lenses shipped. Respectively, that's 8.7 million down from 14.8 million, and 8.7 million down from 13.8 million. Pretty bad, but there's no way of telling how much the "coronavirus economy" is to blame for that. Would we see a bounce-back if/when COVID-19 largely goes away? Mirrorless has gone down from its high in 2018 but in 2020 made up a greater share of the market than it ever had before. Unfortunately, Micro 4/3 took a one-two punch as Olympus sold its camera and lens division and exited the camera business, and Panasonic turned its attention away from the smaller format and toward the vigorous development of full-frame mirrorless product lines. Should you care? I'm not sure if I was ever overly concerned with the industry and its fortunes. Medium-format photography in particular was a saturated, moribund market when I came along, with tiny profit margins, mainly held afloat by the smallish number of professionals and wannabe-pros who would invest heavily, but infrequently, in expensive equipment. I was a darkroom specialist early on, and the darkroom market was really a backwater. The biggest business development in the camera industry when I was young was the onset of the so-called point-and-shoot, all-in-one compacts the public loved for their simplicity. Those just didn't have all that much to do with me or people like me. The closest I ever got to a point-and-shoot that was important to me was the Konica Hexar, a fixed-lens, autofocus interpretation of the Leica M6. (I did review the Contax T2. Contax to me in those days was like Fuji is now). The Hexar wasn't even really a point-and-shoot unless your definition was pretty encompassing. Enthusiast interest in cameras as business commodities is really a post-internet-era thing. I went to art school, and identified, then and since, as an art photographer. And although some art photographers have fetishized cameras, few of them felt strong fealty to the business as such. In a park in Georgetown one day I ran into David Hume Kennerly, then the unofficial White House photographer, and during our short conversation (I was a student), asked him what camera he shot with. "It doesn't matter," he repeated emphatically, "it doesn't matter." That's the way the majority of photographers in those day felt about it. I'd say it was actually actively uncool to care too much about gear. What mattered was what you did with it. In 2021, yes, of course I'm concerned about photography as a pastime and a pursuitI'm interested in its culture, and cultures don't survive in vacuums. But there is more interest in cameras now than ever beforeit's just that most people are buying cameras as one feature of their smartphones, rather than as separate dedicated single-purpose devices. That's market shift, is all. It labels the traditional manufacturers' troubles as an instance of "creative destruction" rather than implosion or catastrophe for the medium itself. It certainly doesn't signal a shift of public interest away from taking pictures (or capturing images as the same thing is expressed now). As far as "our end of the market" goes, I'm concerned, yes, but not panicked. We had a lot of good choices back in the '80s when I went to art school, and we have a lot of good choices now. There were 5.2 million DSLR and mirrorless ILCs sold in 2020. If you compare that to the top end of the market in 1985 when I graduated from the Corcoran School of Art with a degree in photographysetting aside all those point-and-shootswell, I don't know for sure, but I'll bet the players at that time would be plenty impressed with that figure. Yes, I was sad we lost Olympus; but consider that, thanks to Andreas Kaufmann, Leica survived to thrive in the digital era, which looked pretty darned unlikely at times during the transition. I would have bet against it. And Panasonic was definitely not a player when I came up. Fuji was mainly a film manufacturer. Lose some, win some. Consider, too, that in the late '90s and early 2000s, plenty of people were predicting that photographers wouldn't be able to buy film at all in five or ten years. And yet here we are, still with a lot of choices in films and papers. So: the numbers are dramatically bad, but maybe really only in contrast to the transitory high point of an expanding market in 201013. The numbers wouldn't look so bad if you counted smartphones. CIPA, and photo enthusiasts, might not count those as cameras, but the people who buy them do. Mike Book o' This Week: Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The definitive 4th edition of this perennial bestseller, in print since 1979! The above link is a portal from TOP to Amazon. The book is also available at Amazon Canada. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Here's a handy portal to B&H Photo: Original contents copyright 2021 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.) Featured Comments from: Brian Small: "I'm 57. All the cameras I will ever need have already been made." John Camp: "Cell phones are the point and shoot cameras of the 21st century, so we don't need point and shoots as a distinct segment anymore. And while there may have been (I'm sure there were) some art photographers who used point-and-shoot camera in the '80s and '90s, just as David Hockney famously used consumer Polaroid cameras, most serious art, pro and news photographers did not, because they were too limited. So, I think we're going back to the pre-2000-like photo environment where serious photographers use professional cameras, and people taking family snapshots (and a few odd professionals and art photographers) use cell phones. "The big bump that camera companies enjoyed in the first part of this century was mostly a sales illusion caused by enormous jumps in the quality of digital cameras in that time period. I don't know how many cameras I bought between 2004 (Nikon D2 for me) and 2015, but I bet it was ten or twelve, at least. Probably a new camera every year, or more than one. So many I can't even remember them all. Since 2015, for me, the number is three (two GX8s and a Nikon Z6) and I still have and use all three with nothing on the horizon that will cause me to seriously upgrade, unless I back up the Nikon. I believe that there will always be enough enthusiasts to support three or four camera manufacturers, but the companies will be smaller and tighter, and the new releases will be fewer. And that's fine." robert e: "It occurs to me that these numbers also follow a half-dozen or so years of technological sufficiency for general photography. There was a time when most of us, up- and down-market, anticipated steady progress in noise suppression, or low-light sensitivity, or responsiveness, or dynamic range, etc. These days, there seem to be more and more of us who feel that our cameras are not what's limiting what we can achieve (not even the camera in our phone, often)." Bernard: "I see a huge upside: 97% of fixed-lens camera sales are gone, but they've been replaced with a much larger number of smartphone cameras. Should we pine for the days of near-disposable digicams that would stop working after 18 months? How about the demise of the 110 blister-pack camera sold at the supermarket checkout? I'm not. I certainly don't miss having to save-up my allowance for weeks to get a cartridge if 110 or 126 film processed. Kids growing-up today have access to great photography equipment, and you can bet that this will lead to a generation of great photographers, all over the world. That can't be a bad thing." David Raboin: "Photography is doomed. That's why I bought a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." Dillan: "I do worry a little. It seems much more difficult for companies to shrink than it is for them to grow. If they get the timing wrong, companies are left paying for unsold product and unneeded production lines. I fear that there may be more casualties than Olympus. "As for my own position in the market, your essay gave me some comfort. You are right. We did have decent choices before digital. I worry that photography will become too expensive for the likes of me, but again, you are right: where there is a market, there will be a supplier. The remaining market is likely to be larger than it was pre-digital, so my worries are likely unfounded. Thanks for tackling this subject, Mike." David Dyer-Bennet: "Pocket computers were in SF well before they were real; Niven and Pournelle had them in The Mote in God's Eye in 1974. "But then Edward E. Smith had portable radio phones in 1928 (not with cameras though). "Robert A. Heinlein had portable phones at least as early as Space Cadet (1948)with the remarkable insight of a character finding his phone a cumbersome leash, and finding ways to avoid that. "Both those 'phone' examples, unlike Dick Tracy's '2-way wrist radio,' connected to the phone system, and could call or be called by ordinary phones." s.wolters: "In 2011 we celebrated my aunts 95th birthday. At that occasion I was the only one who brought a camera and I took many pictures of the family. Everybody wanted to pose. The next day I made made them happy by digitally distributing the pictures. "In 2016 at my aunts 100th birthday I wanted to repeat my act. But nobody was interested in me taking pictures. They all had their own smartphone. They took the pictures themselves, mainly of themselves. And of course they shared a countless number of images of babies. The role of photography has changed a lot in the last decade. It already changed our lives drastically in the last one and a half century or so, in how it plays an important role in supporting our memory. But now it also got a dominant role in our relationships and how we communicate." The latest COVID vaccine is likely days away from approval, which means it could be in Colorado as soon as early next week, the state's chief medical officer said Thursday. Dismissing fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's "mental health concerns," UK extradition and district judge Samuel Goozee on Thursday ruled that Modi will be extradited to India to stand trial. He said Modi has a case to answer for in India, and that Barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai is fit for him. The judge said, "mental health concerns" as cited by Modi were not unusual in a man in his circumstances. Nirav Modi conspired to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses and he won't be denied justice if he's extradited to India, the UK judge ruled. "I am satisfied there is a prima facie case. Now the order awaits to be ratified by the UK Home Secretary. Nirav Modi can challenge this verdict in the appeals court on a point of law," the extradition judge said. He added that submissions from Nirav Modi conflict with his statements. Also, there is no evidence that if extradited, he will not get due justice in India, justice Goozee said. The UK judge said how LoUs (letters of understanding) were obtained concludes that "Modi and Co" were operating fraudulently. "Many of these are a matter for trial in India. I am satisfied again that there is evidence he could be convicted. There's a prima facie case of money laundering," the judge ruled. The judge said he agreed with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) that Nirav Modi tried to show post facto that he was sorting out the LoU issue with the bank and that his link with bank officials had been established. "I am satisfied that there is evidence that Mr Modi could be convicted. I have considered the case and made the following findings: LOUs issued in the same manner between 2011 and 2017 without appropriate measures. Transactions were not entered in the CBS system of the bank in a way to mislead. There are clear links between Nirav Modi and other connivers including bank officials in question," the judge ruled. He ruled that Nirav Modi personally subsequently wrote to Punjab National Bank, and acknowledged the debt he promised to repay. The CBI is also investigating that Nirav Modi firms were dummy partners. "I do not accept that Nirav was involved in a legitimate business. I find no genuine transactions and believe there is a process of dishonesty. These companies were shadow companies operated by Nirav Modi," the judge said. Nirav Modi is the main accused in the Rs 13,500 crore fraud involving the Punjab National Bank. He has been lodged in London Jail since March 19, 2019, after a request from CBI and ED, and faces extradition to India. Also read: Nirav Modi to remain in custody until extradition judgment on Feb 25 Also read: Nirav Modi to be extradited to India? UK court to seal his fate on Feb 25 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Ft. Campbell Troops Deploying to Aid Vaccinations By West Kentucky Star Staff FORT CAMPBELL - Soldiers from Fort Campbell are being deployed to help with COVID-19 vaccination efforts.The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) will deploy about 130 Soldiers to Orlando, Florida, to support the whole-of-government vaccination effort.The base Office of Public Affairs says the soldiers are projected to deploy on Friday.The 101st Airborne Soldiers are part of the U.S. Armys larger effort to support FEMA vaccination centers. SACRAMENTO, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Released today by California Forward (CA FWD) with support from Wells Fargo, "Regions Build Together A Housing Agenda for All California," provides a regions-up housing agenda consisting of 14 practical actions that can relieve the state's persistent housing crisis. "For the state to fulfill its promise as a place of opportunity for all, the state along with a broad coalition of regional and philanthropic stakeholders must work together to increase the housing supply so that all residents can live affordably near their jobs," said Micah Weinberg, CEO of CA FWD. "Regions Build Together provides a comprehensive regions-up agenda bringing economic, policy and political components together to address the state's urgent need to create the housing our residents need." Even after a decade of robust economic growth, California has failed to make substantive progress on addressing the housing needs of its population. The California Dream Index shows the number of Californians paying less than 30% of their income on rent the standard threshold for affordability has stagnated. Between 2010-2019, home ownership rates have actually declined by 4.5%. Wells Fargo sponsored the development of this report, speaking both to the commitment of the organization and the important thought-leadership role philanthropy can play in helping address the state's housing needs. In 2019, Wells Fargo announced a commitment of $1 Billion in philanthropy through 2025 to confront the U.S. housing affordability crisis. "Having a safe and affordable place to call home is essential to help lay the foundation for wellness, dignity, and economic opportunity, yet far too many people in California are struggling financially and facing housing instability," said Eileen Fitzgerald, head of housing affordability philanthropy with Wells Fargo. "This report brings to light the vital need in California for innovative housing affordability solutions that address racial equity and together can build a more inclusive, sustainable future where everyone can have a quality and affordable place to call home." The report looks at the state through nine regional housing markets. It identifies 14 actions across six areas consisting of: financing and funding; coordination, collaboration and regional alignment; land and labor dynamics; innovative transformation and community change; regulatory process and fees; and, accommodating diversity and mitigating disincentives. "A state perspective of the housing crisis doesn't provide an accurate view of where we are today," said Paul Granillo, President and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, one of the regional partners who contributed to the report. "By looking at local and regional housing trends, barriers and efforts, along with a broader statewide perspective we're able to get a fuller picture of the opportunities that can be replicated or scaled up at a state level." Three key actions from the report will be featured in CA FWD's Building Equitable Economies: Regions Build Together webinar today at 11 a.m. and include: Strategically re-envisioning financing solutions and the network of community investment actors : Better financing options will aid both market rate and below market rate housing developers in their work. Lift to Rise, a nonprofit working in Riverside County is pursuing this key action using a Capitol Absorption Framework model to coordinate with government, private and nonprofit developers, banks and other key stakeholders in systems-level work that makes the community investment network visible to all participants. Better financing options will aid both market rate and below market rate housing developers in their work. Lift to Rise, a nonprofit working in is pursuing this key action using a Capitol Absorption Framework model to coordinate with government, private and nonprofit developers, banks and other key stakeholders in systems-level work that makes the community investment network visible to all participants. Connecting housing with transportation in ways that maximize affordability and sustainability while minimizing displacement risks : Particularly in high density areas, strategies to increase housing affordability need to be transit-centered, given the already overwhelming burden of traffic congestion on the health and well-being of many of the state's residents. Green Means Go, an initiative of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), makes the case that GHG emissions should be predicated on infill development. Particularly in high density areas, strategies to increase housing affordability need to be transit-centered, given the already overwhelming burden of traffic congestion on the health and well-being of many of the state's residents. Green Means Go, an initiative of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), makes the case that GHG emissions should be predicated on infill development. Enabling localities to better achieve housing goals by incentivizing increases both in the number of homes allowed and by promoting innovative housing options: As an example, increasing the below market rate housing stock involves finding ways to increase the number of units per acre, especially for rental housing. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which are secondary detached housing units on a single-family lot, have been legalized across California following state legislative initiatives and offer another transformative option. Adding ADUs in a community is an effective way to increase units in high opportunity neighborhoods with a minimum of planning and development costs. The Bay Area Council Economic Institute, the Inland Empire Economic Partnership and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation developed the regional chapters of the report detailing the current state of affordability, unique challenges, and potential solutions to develop the regions-up housing agenda. The detailed chapters covering the nine regional housing markets include the Bay Area; Central Coast; Central Valley; Greater Los Angeles; Imperial and San Diego; Inland Empire; Northern California; Orange; and, Sacramento. ABOUT CA FWD California Forward (CA FWD) leads a statewide movement, bringing people together across communities, regions and interests to improve government and create inclusive, sustainable growth for everyone. A 501(c)(3) organization, CA FWD drives collective action to identify solutions that can be taken to scale to meet the challenges the state is facing. CA FWD serves as the backbone for the California Stewardship Network, an alliance of regional economic development leaders, and is home to the California Economic Summit and the California Dream Index. Contact: Jania Palacios 520.404.7643 [email protected] SOURCE CA Fwd Related Links www.cafwd.org Meridian Public Schools Superintendent Craig Carmoney, at the invitation of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, spoke during Whitmer's news conference Wednesday about how his school district has navigated the challenges of COVID-19 and catastrophic dam failures over the past year. After Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun each gave updates about the state's response to COVID-19, Khaldun introduced Carmoney, who spoke at the podium for about seven minutes. Carmoney was named 2021 Michigan Superintendent of the Year last fall by the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, and was appointed by Whitmer earlier this month to the Student Recovery Advisory Council. "Thank you, Gov. Whitmer, for your leadership and support of 1.5 million students in Michigan," Carmoney began, noting that Whitmer's back-to-school roadmap last summer provided a "blueprint" for districts to return to in-person learning. The superintendent said almost 90% of Meridian students are now learning in-person, which he emphasized is especially important in the face of the concurrent crises of the pandemic and the flooding resulting from the failures of the Edenville and Sanford dams. "Fortunately, by following recommended protocols in the back-to-school roadmap, such as wearing masks, cohorting, enhanced cleaning, hand washing, and refreshing the air flow, we were able to safely return to school," he said. Meridian has not had a single case of transmission of COVID-19 in its schools, Carmoney said. "We have received significant support from our local health department, which most recently provided us with two vaccine clinics," he continued. "I'm grateful for the continued decline in state and local COVID numbers, and, like all of you, I look forward to the time we can put this virus behind us. Schools and educators have never been more needed." Carmoney then addressed his role on the Student Recovery Advisory Council. "(We) will work to support and ensure that our students and educators (around the state) are provided with the tools and plans that they deserve," he said. "This council will focus our efforts in support of all students, and will look to address inequities that exist, provide recommendations to support academic and trauma recovery, and ensure our 1.5 million students can safely return to the classroom. "We have amazing students that want and need for us to tackle these important challenges," Carmoney added. He concluded his remarks with a tribute to his own school district, and to educators throughout Michigan. "Lastly, I'd like to say thank you to my amazing students and staff at Meridian. It's an honor and a privilege to serve you," Carmoney said. "Thank you to all the educators in this state who are working hard every day to make a difference in the lives of our children." When Whitmer returned to the podium after Carmoney had finished, she offered a note of praise to him in light of the flood relief efforts that he coordinated in the Meridian schools immediately after the dam failures. "Over the last 12 months there have been a lot of challenging moments," Whitmer said. "The night of the breach of the two dams in your area was a low point. But when I came to Midland the next day and saw what was happening in your schools and saw the community come together, it was one of the most inspirational days of the last 12 months. Thank you for your leadership and for being here today." ALBANY A professional poker player who has allegedly held a deep grudge against the New York State Gaming Commission for 45 years has been charged in U.S. District Court with repeatedly mailing suspicious-looking powder to the commission's headquarters in Schenectady. Brent Carter, 72, of Las Vegas, who won gold bracelets in the World Series of Poker in 1991 and 1994, was charged with the federal crime of spreading a hoax. The materials he allegedly sent turned out to be sugar, drywall, birdseed and talcum powder -- the latter sent after investigators had spoken to Carter. A criminal complaint depicted Carter as a man with a burning resentment toward the Gaming Commission dating to 1976, when it temporarily suspended Carter's license to compete in horse racing due to allegations of cheating. The Gaming Commission later cleared Carter and reinstated his license but Carter's bitterness remained, according to the affidavit of a Schenectady police detective on the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force that investigated the case. In 2018, Carter left chilling voicemails for Gaming Commission employees that referenced the Oct. 1, 2017, Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 60 people and injured 411, the affidavit said. "Well it looks like the shooter in Las Vegas missed you guys. As long as you're not available, you should be made permanently not available," Carter said in a Oct. 5, 2018, voice message to a Gaming Commission employee, according to the affidavit. The next month, the affidavit said, Carter left a message on an employee's voicemail labeling commission employees as "all criminals anyway, evil, dishonest people, just unprosecuted criminals," adding, "Why have innocent people killed when you could have the Office of Inspector General people eliminated from their dirty deeds." The complaint said Carter, formerly of Oak Park, Ill., sent four envelopes from Las Vegas to the Gaming Commission between April 2019 and January 2021. The first one, labeled as "CRITICAL EVIDENCE," contained a mixture of substances that, when tested, were identified as "birdseed, dirt, a paperclip, and hair." The next letter, sent to the Gaming Commission in June 2019, contained a white powder that, when tested, turned out to be sugar. A few days later, another envelope contained powder that was drywall, the complaint said. In October 2020, when investigators interviewed Carter in Las Vegas about the letters and voice mails, Carter told them he wanted to clear up his horse racing suspension, that he was experiencing nightmares because he could not locate his horses. He claimed that the Gaming Commission -- which had sent him multiple letters informing him he was not suspended -- had not responded to him. "I think sometimes if you try to make a point by being funny, you can create more trouble," Carter told investigators, according to the complaint. Investigators informed Carter that the envelopes were treated as hazardous materials, which required testing at a lab. Carter, in turn, said the Gaming Commission "have been hazardous materials to his life," the complaint said. When told it was a federal crime to mail such envelopes, Carter allegedly stated: "I guess in my mind I didn't think this out but when I sent stuff, the garbage or junk, whatever, I sent, I guess it was revenge or trying to slow down their thinking." Despite the warning, Carter allegedly mailed another letter to the Gaming Commission on Jan. 28 this year, which was determined to be talcum powder. Federal prosecutors in Albany charged Carter with conveying false information and hoaxes. Carter pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christian Hummel, who released Carter with conditions. If convicted, Carter faces a maximum of five years in prison and one year of post-imprisonment supervised release, but could face far lesser penalties under federal sentencing guidelines. Brad Maione, a spokesman for the Gaming Commission, said it appreciated the work of the FBI and the U.S Postal Inspection Service and will continue to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's office as the case proceeds. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 17:46:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces on Thursday arrested a suspected member of the Islamic State over spying on a military command post in Istanbul, local media reported. Police units acted upon a tipoff that a man who climbed a tree was secretly monitoring the Yenibosna Military Police Battalion Command on the European side of the city, the state-run Anadolu agency reported. Istanbul is Turkey's largest city and built on two continents, divided by the Bosphorus Strait. According to the agency, the incident happened at around 2 a.m. local time (2300 GMT) on Feb. 20 during the nationwide weekend COVID-19 lockdown. Police reportedly found several digital materials, images and documents about the suspect that are related to the Islamic State. Following a police investigation, the suspect named as "Muhammed Yahya E." was identified as a member of the group and arrested upon court order on Thursday, the agency added. The Islamic State has been blamed for a spate of deadly attacks in Turkey since 2015. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 12:30:51|Editor: huaxia 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, delivers an important speech at a grand gathering to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday hailed the country's achievement of eradicating extreme poverty as a miracle that shall "go down in history." Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and award its model poverty fighters. In his speech, Xi declared a "complete victory" in the fight against poverty through joint efforts from all ethnic groups. Over the past eight years, China has lifted 98.99 million poor rural residents under the current poverty line out of poverty, with 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 poor villages removed from the poverty list. Eliminating poverty in rural areas is a key contribution to accomplishing the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Xi stressed. Since late 2012, China has built or upgraded 1.1 million km of rural roads, provided a reliable supply of power to rural areas, and expanded fiber-optic internet access and 4G signal coverage to more than 98 percent of its poor villages. During the same period, some 25.68 million impoverished people from 7.9 million households have seen their dilapidated houses renovated, and more than 9.6 million people have been relocated from impoverished areas. In addition, 28 ethnic minority groups with relatively small population have shaken off poverty collectively. Xi said the country has created a "China example" of poverty reduction and made great contributions to global poverty alleviation. China has lifted 770 million rural residents out of poverty since the beginning of the reform and opening-up over 40 years ago when calculated in accordance with China's current poverty line, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total according to the World Bank's international poverty line. China has met the poverty eradication target set in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule, Xi said. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close 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. South Korea began delivering its first supply of COVID-19 vaccines to centres across the country on Thursday. Doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were transported to community health centres and nursing hospitals ready for the start of the nation's vaccination programme which is due to get underway on Friday. Residents and employees at long-term care facilities will be the first to receive the jabs in the first phase of the programme. Separately, some 55,000 doctors, nurses and other health professionals treating COVID-19 patients will begin receiving the shots developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on Saturday. South Korea aims to vaccinate more than 70% of the population by November. But a safe return to a life without masks is highly unlikely this year, considering various factors including the growing spread of virus variants, said Choi Won Suk, an infectious disease professor at the Korea University Ansan Hospital. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) I wouldnt call it a supercycle but there are expectations that we will see about three years of good prices, said Diego Hernandez, president of Chiles National Mining Society (Sonami), which represents the countrys top miners. No one was smart enough in 2020 when it comes to prices. No one was able to predict that the growth would be so dynamic. These times are very interesting when it comes to demand it is high and is rising, Polish copper producer KGHM CEO Marcin Chludzinski told Reuters. In terms of prices, we can expect a better situation than last year, he said. Copper is the mineral of the moment, of the decade and maybe the next decades, said Nexa Resources CEO Tito Martins, adding that the Brazilian company is looking to expand its copper assets in the next few years. Mining firms in Chile, the worlds No.1 copper producer, warned that costs could rise as labor unions and vendors also try to cash in on the trend. If negotiations get complex, this could lead to possible stoppages, hitting the copper supply, said Alejandra Wood, Santiago-based head of the Center for Copper Studies (CESCO). She added most firms were not likely to dramatically alter investment plans due to the rally, except perhaps fast-tracking some marginal projects. The challenge they face is not falling into the trap of thinking this scenario will be something long-term, and thus abandoning the discipline of maintaining costs low just to increase production, she said. By Mining.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: 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. Infra.Market has joined the unicorn club after raising $100 million in a Series C round. This round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from other existing investors Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund, Sistema Asia Fund and Foundamental Gmbh. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Infra.Market on the transaction. The company had raised a seed round from Accel in June 2019, and has achieved the unicorn status in less than 20 months. Following the $100-million round, the company has raised $150 million so far. Founded by Souvik Sengupta and Aaditya Sharda in 2016, the Mumbai-headquartered technology firm is a one-stop marketplace for construction material. The company seeks to offer an enhanced procurement experience to players in the construction ecosystem. It is digitally transforming the construction material supply chain by aggregating the capacity of small manufacturers and adding a technology and services stack. The start-up is targeting the $140-billion construction material market, with a focus on the infrastructure sector. The company, which has been profitable for the past four years, currently has gross merchandise value (GMV) of $400 million, and is targeting a GMV of $1 billion this year. We will focus on geographic and product expansion to achieve this target. Further, the focus on higher spend in infrastructure, as mentioned in the Budget, will help us expand further, said Sengupta. The company is expected to benefit from the 34 per cent increase in allocation for infrastructure projects, announced in the Union Budget. We are seeing rapid acceleration in demand, given that infrastructure and real estate are looking to shift their procurement in order to get consistent quality and minimise delays, said Sengupta. With pioneering technology innovation and the ability to stitch together private label brands, Infra.Market is positioned for strong growth, healthy economics, and profitability, said Scott Shleifer, partner at Tiger Global Management. Infra.Market focuses on construction products under its own brands and aims to solve existing issues such as a lack of price transparency, unreliable quality, fragmented vendor base, and inefficient logistics. More than two-thirds of its sales are contributed by the companys own brands, which include concrete, stone material, chemicals, and cement. The firm is about to launch in-house brands in paints and plywood soon. The company caters to both institutional customers and retail outlets in the construction material sector, and supplies across 10 states. In addition, it exports to markets such as the UAE, Singapore, and Bangladesh. Scoil Mhuire National School in Mooncoin is to get an extension, according to local Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan. The school is one of several across the country to be granted approval for the extension under additional accommodation announcements for 2021, Deputy Phelan confirmed. The investment will provide provision for two mainstream classrooms as well as two special education and training classrooms and a special education classroom for junior classes. Deputy Phelan welcomed the investment and said he looks forward to further good news for other schools in the region in the coming months. Terrile said that she wrote to the town hall in 2007 reporting cracks at the front of her fathers grave but also never received an answer. In 2019, she reported more cracks, and the town hall fixed them, she said. A couple of weeks ago, in a visit to the graveyard, she noticed that the same cracks had reappeared. We encourage all parties to exercise calm and restraint and to de-escalate tensions peacefully, without violence, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said in a statement. The United States is committed to supporting Armenias democratic reforms, in line with our shared values, and stresses the importance of democratic institutions and processes as Armenians look to address their political differences through dialogue, it added. Political differences must be resolved peacefully and in strict adherence to the principles and processes of parliamentary democracy, read a separate statement released by the EUs foreign policy spokesman, Peter Stano. In a clear reference to the Armenian militarys demands for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians resignation, Stano said: In line with the Armenian Constitution, the armed forces shall maintain neutrality in political matters and shall be under civilian control. Maintaining the democratic and constitutional order is the only way Armenia can effectively tackle the challenges it is confronted with. The militarys top brass voiced its unprecedented demand amid ongoing anti-government rallies staged by Armenian opposition groups. Pashinian rejected and condemned it as a coup attempt. By contrast, opposition leaders voiced support for the army generals. In the highly popular mockumentary series called The Office about the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) werent always an item. Although years would go by before they made things official, even in season 1, it was obvious they had an attraction toward one another and feelings were developing. But before things became official between them, Jim had two girlfriends. John Krasinski as Jim Halpert | Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank Amy Adams Katy Moore in Seasons 1 and 2 of The Office Amy Adams | Paul Treadway/Barcroft Images Getty Images The accomplished actor Amy Adams had a small stint in the series, appearing in three episodes in total. Her arrival to the series happens in season 1, episode 6 called Hot Girl. She sells her purses in the conference room when Michael Scott (Steve Carell), the Regional Manager, takes a liking to her. But its Jim who wins her over, and he offers to give her a ride home and they go for a drink, which upsets Michael, as he was going to take her home. Jim and Katy form a new relationship, but things fizzle out because of Jims feelings for Pam, who is currently engaged to Roy Anderson (David Denman) at the time. After Roy sets a date for the impending nuptials, Jim and Katy watch the couple dance and kiss. Jim breaks up with Katy when she asks if that will ever be them. Jims feelings for Pam are undeniable, and he realizes that he cares about her, so he dumps Katy. However, more time will pass before Jim and Pam are together at last. Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly kiss more than once RELATED: Why Rainn Wilson Said The Office Had to End Despite the undeniable connection between Jim and Pam, they wont make things official until season 4. Pam kisses Jim while drunk in season 2, episode 1 called The Dundies, but she stays engaged to Roy, who shes been with for years, until season 3 when we learn she canceled the wedding plans, according to Dunderpedia, The Office Wiki Fandom page. Despite Jim telling Pam his true feelings about being in love with her, she dismisses it, and they even share another kiss in season 2, episode 22 called Casino Night, which seems to lead nowhere for a while. Karen Filippelli as Jims Girlfriend in Season 3 Rashida Jones as Karen Filippelli in The Office | Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Jim takes a transfer to the Stamford, Connecticut branch of the company, and a major reason behind the change is the situation with Pam. Its there that he meets Karen Filippelli (Rashida Jones) who works in sales, someone hell eventually start dating in season 3. When the Stamford office is closed though, Jim returns to Scranton with Karen as well. Jim tells Karen about how he feels about Pam at one point, but they continue to be together, which is kind of strange. To top it off, Pam admits to Karen in season 3, episode 15 called Ben Franklin that she is in love with Jim. New developments emerge when Jim is honest with Pam about his feelings later on after she had already told him that she canceled the engagement with Roy because of him. While Jim, along with Karen and Michael, interview for a promotion in a corporate capacity, Jim sees a note Pam left for him, and things change in season 3, episodes 24 and 25 called The Job. He heads to the Scranton office, totally ditching Karen. Finally, Jim asks Pam to go to dinner with him, and they finally start a relationship. Jim reportedly breaks up with Karen, and that was the end of things. She transferred out of Scranton as the Regional Manager of the Utica branch, and Jim and Pam became the happy couple we all know and love. However, Karen does return in an episode in seasons 4 and 5, and she gets married and has a child. Jim and Pam become engaged in season 5, episode 1 called Weight Loss. And they marry at Niagara Falls in Season 6, Episode 4 called Niagara. The happy couple becomes a truly iconic staple in the series, and they go on to have two children together. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) Four kidnapped Chinese nationals were rescued, while 11 suspects were arrested in separate operations in Quezon City and Pampanga, the Philippine National Police said on Thursday. The PNP said a Chinese woman was first saved at a medical clinic along N.S. Amoranto Avenue, Quezon City on Wednesday evening. Authorities nabbed her three captors, identified as Chinese national Mou Yun Peng, Malaysian national Liang Khai Chean, and a Filipino named Benjie Labor. The motive behind the kidnapping is still unclear. Another operation was conducted later that night after the woman revealed there are other kidnap victims held in a safehouse in Barangay Sta. Cruz in Mexico, Pampanga, where she had been detained, police said. This led to the rescue of three more abducted Chinese and the arrest of eight more unnamed suspects, two of whom are also Chinese while six are Filipinos. The PNP said investigators are "still establishing the true identities" of the eight other arrested people. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Dennis Realty & Investment Corporation is proud to recognize Nicole Parker as the 2020 Juanita Dennis Award Recipient. This achievement speaks volumes to the character, determination, and dedication that Nicole demonstrates as a real estate professional but to truly understand the value of receiving this award, you must understand a little bit about the matriarch for whom it is named. Juanita Dennis is described and remembered as an achiever, a top producer, and a motivator. She began in the real estate industry in 1973 when being an aggressive female go-getter wasnt exactly popular but she wasnt deterred. Her vision, determination, and goal-oriented mindset allowed her to climb the ladder to success in real estate, while setting the standard for those she mentored. Juanita was a woman who believed in working hard, and it was her commitment and dedication combined with an honest, strong work ethic, that made her an inspiration for those following in her footsteps. Throughout her career, Juanita maintained an impeccable reputation among her clients, peers, and colleagues. Carl Stratton, the managing broker of Dennis Realty, says that it is Juanitas persona that he has built the companys foundation upon and believes that her values are the driving force behind the companys success today. Carl is dedicated to maintaining Juanitas vision for success which includes providing support, leadership, and growth opportunities to his team. Each year one agent is selected who fervently strives to achieve this elite status and we are excited that Nicole Parker has been selected for this honor. If you know Nicole, then you already know that her values align with those of Mrs. Dennis. Nicole is a driven, goal-oriented achiever who dedicates herself to getting it right. As a top producer, Nicole not only closes deals but she does so with the admiration of both her clients and colleagues. We are honored to have Nicole Parker as one of our professionals and we are extremely proud of her representation of what we call The Dennis Difference. Please join us in congratulating Nicole on this tremendous achievement and on continuing the tradition of excellence in real estate. For more information on Dennis Realty & Investment Corporation visit DennisRealty.com or call 813-949-7444. About Dennis Realty & Investment Corporation In business since 1973, Dennis Realty provides real estate and property management services in both the residential and commercial markets throughout the Tampa Bay area. As a member of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, Dennis Realty assists clients locally and globally. Dennis Realtys main office is located in Lutz, FL with satellite offices located in Hernando Beach, Brooksville, Dade City, and St. Petersburg. Lutz Office - 1022 Land O Lakes, Blvd., Lutz, FL 33549 Hernando Beach/Spring Hill Office - 3263 Shoal Line Blvd., Hernando Beach, FL 34607 Brooksville Office - 203 West Jefferson Street, Brooksville, FL 34601 Dade City Office - 37237 Meridian Avenue, Dade City, FL 33525 St. Petersburg Office - 222 2nd Street North, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 In addition to specializing in residential and commercial real estate and property management, Dennis Realty also has agents that are expert Business Brokers. To learn more about how Dennis Realty and Investment Corporation can help you, please visit us online at http://www.dennisrealty.com or at http://www.dennisrealtyrentals.com. 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. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF REGULATION 11 OF THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS 2019/310. 25 February 2021 Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc ("Conroy Gold" or "the Company") UPDATE ON PROPOSALS FOR JOINT VENTURE PARTNERSHIP Approach by Demir Export A.S. proposing Joint Venture Partnership Letter of intent signed with Demir Export Discussions with Anglo Asian Mining plc ended Demir Export to expend in work commitments (except Demir Export in-house costs, Operator fees and Minimum Regulatory Work Commitments) of 4.5 million to earn-in 25% option in the project in first phase of earn-in period Demir Export to expend in work commitments (except Demir Export in-house costs, Operator fees and Minimum Regulatory Work Commitments) of an additional 4.5 million to earn an additional 15% option in second phase of earn-in period, again in the project Expenditure by Demir Export of the additional funds required to reach construction-ready status to earn-in an additional 17.5% option in third phase of the earn-in period of a given development thus increasing Demir Export's holding to a total of 57.5% in that development At construction-ready status at Clontibret and /or other developments, Conroy Gold to retain 42.5% interest with various options including a "Carry Loan" on capital expenditure to commercial production whilst still retaining 25% interest Under the terms of the letter of intent, Demir Export to make cash payment of 1 million to Conroy Gold on final approval of the definitive agreement Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc (AIM: CGNR), the gold exploration and development company focused on Ireland and Finland, is pleased to announce that it has, on 25 February 2021, signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Demir Export A.S. ("Demir Export") for a proposed joint venture on an earn-in basis over the twelve licences held by Conroy Gold along its 65km district scale gold trend in the Longford-Down Massif in Ireland. Demir Export is a long established mining company with interests in iron, coal, gold and base metals, including zinc and copper, in Turkey (Demir is the Turkish for iron), and has a strong in-house technical team with mining and exploration expertise. It brings over 60 years of mine operating experience to bear on the project and places a strong emphasis on the adoption of international environmental, and health and safety management standards. Demir Export belongs to the Koc Family who also own the largest industrial conglomerate in Turkey, a Fortune Global 500 Company and Turkey's leading investment holding company. In conjunction with the signing of the LOI with Demir Export, the Company has today terminated discussions with Anglo Asian Mining plc ("Anglo Asian") in respect of the previously announced proposed joint venture agreement. Details of the heads of terms signed on a proposed joint venture with Anglo Asian were announced by the Company on 21 July 2020. The Company's eight gold exploration licences in Finland and one other licence owned by Conroy Gold in Ireland are not subject to the proposed joint venture partnership with Demir Export and will remain 100% owned by Conroy Gold. Demir Export has been granted a right of first refusal over these other licences in connection with any potential joint venture arrangements until 31 December 2021. The Joint Venture Project The primary focus of the joint venture project (the "Demir Export JV" or "Project Inis") is the development of the gold deposit in the Clontibret licence to construction ready status and bringing it into operation as a gold mine. The parties further aim is to have the other licences given the same status one after the other, hence providing a foundation for a long-term relationship between the parties. The parties will carry on discussions for the transaction on an exclusive basis and it is acknowledged by both Conroy Gold and Demir Export that time shall be of the essence in finalising a definitive agreement between the parties. Key Terms The LOI sets out the key commercial terms and conditions that Conroy Gold and Demir Export have negotiated and agreed on in relation to the Demir Export JV. The document addresses in detail the key terms and proposed structure of the earn-in together with setting out the respective responsibilities of the parties in relation to operatorship and the functions of the Joint Management Committee. Investment by Demir Export will be directly into special purpose companies holding each licence or group of licences. Demir Export will make a cash payment of 1 million to the Company upon final approval of the Definitive Agreement in recognition of prior work carried out in relation to the project. The Earn-in Period will be divided into three phases: For phase 1: expenditure by Demir Export in work commitments (except Demir Export in-house costs, Operator fees and Minimum Regulatory Work Commitments) of 4.5 million will earn a 25% interest in the project. For phase 2: expenditure by Demir Export in work commitments (except Demir Export in-house costs, Operator fees and Minimum Regulatory Work Commitments) of 4.5 million will earn an additional 15%. For phase 3: expenditure by Demir Export of the additional funds required to reach declaration of construction-ready status (i.e. a bankable feasibility study or equivalent) - for Clontibret and/or other mine developments will earn an additional 17.5% interest thus increasing Demir Export's holding to a total of 57.5% in the development(s). Conroy Gold, after construction ready status is achieved, may either retain its 42.5% interest in Clontibret and /or other mine developments by participating pro rata in the expenditures for mine construction, or avail itself of a number of options including diluting its interest or being carried for the expenditures through to commercial production with a "Carry Loan" for a 25% interest with pay back on 50% or greater portion of the net profits due to Conroy Gold within a maximum payback period of six years. It is envisaged that initially the licences in the Demir Export JV may be divided into three Licence Groups, namely the Clontibret Licence, the two Northern Ireland Licences, and the remaining nine licences in the Republic of Ireland, with separate jointly owned companies, the Joint Venture Companies, owning the Licences or Licence Groups. A Joint Management Committee (the "JMC") will be set up to oversee, plan and execute the various plans, in the work programme of Demir Export JV. The JMC will be comprised of four members, two from each party, but with a Demir Export representative having a casting vote, with appropriate minority protection rights. It is anticipated that Conroy Gold will be appointed as operator for an initial two year period after which the matter of operatorship will be reviewed. The Demir Export JV remains subject to, inter alia, the completion of due diligence and the entering into of definitive documentation including the final joint venture agreement. In addition, the proposed joint venture, should it proceed on the basis anticipated under the LOI, will be subject to the Company seeking shareholder approval as it would be classified as a fundamental change of business pursuant to Rule 15 of the AIM Rules for Companies. For the avoidance of doubt, Conroy Gold would, on completion, continue to be classified as an operating company and not a cash shell pursuant to AIM Rule 15. Furthermore, the proposed joint venture will be subject to any other relevant Stock Exchange requirements, and to government or any other regulatory approvals. As such there can be no guarantee that the proposed joint venture will complete nor as to the final terms or timing of the Demir Export JV however that it is agreed between the parties that the terms of the LOI will form the basis for the definitive agreement. Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman, commented: "My colleagues and I look forward very much to working with the Demir Export team on the joint venture partnership-Project Inis, and building the foundations for a long term, successful relationship. The comprehensive nature of this Letter of Intent should facilitate us progressing through the next stage of the transaction. Demir Export has the mining expertise and the financial resources not only to bring the Clontibret gold deposit to construction ready status and into operation as a mine, but also to advance the significant gold potential of the other licences along the gold trend to the same status." For further information please contact : Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc Tel: +353-1-479-6180 Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman Allenby Capital Limited(Nomad) Tel: +44-20-3328-5656 Nick Athanas/Nick Harriss Brandon Hill Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Tel: +44-20-3463-5000 Jonathan Evans First Equity Limited (Joint Broker) Tel: +44-20-7330-1883 Jason Robertson Lothbury Financial Services Tel: +44-20-3290-0707 Michael Padley Hall Communications Tel: +353-1-660-9377 Don Hall Visit the website at:www.conroygold.com Vietnam is concerned about cases of using or threatening to use force in international relations, which go against the UN Charter and harm international peace and security, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN said. Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN Quy was addressing an UN Security Council (UNSC)s videoconference Arria-formula meeting on February 24 themed Upholding the collective security system of the UN Charter: the use of force in international law, non-state actors and legitimate self-defense with the participants of nearly 30 member countries of the UN Security Council and the UN. He stressed that all countries are obliged to build friendship relations and form a culture of upholding the UN Charter and international law as well as abiding by principles in sovereignty and territorial integrity, not interfering into internal affairs of other states, not using or threatening to use force, and dealing with disputes peacefully. The diplomat said that the UNSC should work to enhance the observance of international law and promote the role of international law and UN Charter as a vital tool in maintaining international peace and security, while increasing its coordination with regional organisations and international legal agencies in coping with disputes, maintaining peace and preventing conflicts. He underlined the need to avoid the abuse and re-explanation of the UN Charter, suggesting the UNSC continue to creating favourable conditions for countries to get access to affairs and documents of the council to promote open and transparent discussions in the field. Noting that this topic has been mostly discussed among scholars, Naz Modirzadeh, Director of the Harvard Law School Programme on International Law and Armed Conflict, said that all countries are authorised and responsible in building international law, including the responsibility in protecting the principle of not using force. She proposed that all countries should actively engage in open discussions on the theory of the rights to self-defence and improve the capacity to get access to announcements and discussions at the UNSC in the field. Participants at the event underlined the principle of not using or threatening to use force, which is a foundation for the collective security system in line with the UN Charter and the UNSC's function in maintaining international peace and security. They affirmed that the only exception is the case that is allowed by the UNSC or to implement the right to self-defence. They called for the upholding of the UN Charter in maintaining international peace and stability, while exchanging ideas on the explanation and application of Article 51 of the UN Charter on the legal basis for the use of force as a means of self-defence, as well as on the situation in specific countries and regions./. VNA WESTPORT Innovative residential construction techniques may one day make the use of wood obsolete. The gray European-influenced, modern-style house at 319 Bayberry Lane in Westport is an example of construction for strength without sacrificing aesthetics. Paul Gudas, a construction innovation specialist at the Norwalk-based Skyview Builders, built it over two years using insulating concrete form construction, or ICF. Under the process, hollow foam blocks are stacked, reinforced with steel rebar and filled with concrete. The method is more environmentally friendly, energy efficient, safer, and longer lasting than many other construction techniques. ICF construction can withstand strong storms and hurricane-force winds, according to some industry experts. That is believable when one considers this house was built with 23 tons of steel and 80 tons of concrete, according to Mikhail Faifman, the homes listing agent. This home is packed with cutting edge technology, automation and materials, he said. Contributed photo / Faifman Group It was built using commercial construction techniques and materials to create a maintenance-free structure without compromising the comfort for residential use, he said. Construction was completed in 2020 on this 10,132-square-foot concrete, steel, stone and stucco house. It was built in the Coleytown neighborhood on a two-acre level lot, enjoying a wealth of privacy yet conveniently close to the center of town and public schools. The private setting is enhanced by the homes adjacency to the 39-acre Newman-Poses Preserve. Here you will find well-established trails through woodland, wetland, open fields, stands of old white pine, and a trail beside the Aspetuck River, according to the website for the Aspetuck Land Trust, which manages the protected open space. Stone pillars mark the entrance to the long private lane that leads to the 13-room house. According to Faifman, the owner of this house will have the privilege of naming this lane. The driveway concludes at the forecourt in front of the house, which has an attached three-car garage. Across the courtyard there is a detached four-car garage that can be converted into a guest house or home office with its own separate heating and cooling systems. Contributed photo / Faifman Group Inside, there are special design features throughout. Faifman said this home boasts Klar Studio triple glazed windows that are floor to ceiling in every room. The windows are uncompromising in quality and energy efficiency, he said. There are radiant heated floors throughout the house, including in the attached garage and the finished lower level. The house is fully automated. Everything can be controlled from a single application on the owners cell phone, including the designer-grade lighting, the sauna and the temperature setting in the house and the in-ground swimming pool. Contributed photo / Faifman Group In the dining room there is a large built-in display shelving unit with smoked glass doors. Like every element in the house it was custom made. Sliding glass doors in the dining room open to the outdoor kitchen, pool, outdoor fireplace, and porcelain patio. Porcelain does not get hot in the summer the way slate or bluestone does. The gourmet kitchen is outfitted with hand-made cabinetry, a center island with a waterfall countertop, a touchless faucet and Miele appliances. This house has six bedrooms, five of them on the second floor. The master suite is in a private wing and has a large, luxurious bath and custom walk-in closet. The finished third level is the coolest kids room ever with (four) built-in bunks and areas for crafting, Faifman said. If thats true then the finished lower level is the coolest adults space. It features a wine cellar, a large full-service bar, a sitting room, and a spacious home gym. While the house is in a private setting it is only about a mile from the Merritt Parkway and convenient to the Post Road (Route 1) and downtown Westport. For more information or to set up an appointment to see the house contact Mikhail Faifman of Faifman Group and William Raveis Real Estate at 646-455-7997 or mikhail@faifmangroup.com. The U.S. Air Force is testing new counter-drone systems that use either direct energy or microwaves to take out unmanned drones that pose a threat to troops and bases overseas. The service announced this month that it has been testing an upgraded laser system, known as the High Energy Laser Weapon System 2, or H2, through a series of experiments that began last summer at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. H2, made by Raytheon Technologies, is a modified version of the company's High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon, and is capable of defeating dozens of unmanned aerial system targets with increased precision over its predecessor, a news release states. Read Next: The Air Force May Soon Be Shopping for a New Fighter Jet The HEL system was first tested in 2019 and deployed in early 2020, according to Raytheon officials. "[The H2] experiment has many notable U.S. Air Force firsts, including the complete training of and operation of the system by Security Forces airmen, the first directed energy [counter-Unmanned Aerial System or c-UAS] capability, and the first integration with a base," said Lt. Col. Jared Rupp, director of the Directed Energy Combined Test Force, or DE-CTF, in the release. "The first phase proved that H2 was capable of integrating with a fielded radar and fielded command and control system, and it completed the kill chain by shooting down UASs at operationally-relevant ranges," Rupp said. H2 was then "successfully deployed and integrated overseas," he said, without disclosing the location. Four systems were tested in 2020, three of which were deployed, according to the release. The service will next test "three versions of the [HEL] and two different high-power microwave systems" in coming weeks, it added. The news follows the U.S. Army's announcement Wednesday that it will partner with the Air Force on its Tactical High Power Operational Responder, or THOR, which can disable a drone's electronics at certain ranges. During its development phase, THOR was referred to as the Tactical High-power Microwave Operational Responder. While high-energy lasers can kill one target at a time, high-powered microwaves "can kill groups or swarms, which is why we are pursuing a combination of both technologies for our Indirect Fire Protection Capability rapid prototyping effort," said Army Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of hypersonics, directed energy space and rapid acquisition for the Army, in a separate release. "The system output is powerful radio wave bursts, which offer a greater engagement range than bullets or nets, and its effects are silent and instantaneous," added Amber Anderson, THOR program manager. THOR, developed by the Air Force Research Lab and housed at Kirtland, looks like a standard Conex box with a satellite dish strapped to it. The Pentagon has been on a yearslong quest to give base defenders and Security Forces troops better tools to deter easily obtained unmanned systems, which may aim to disrupt base operations or spy on aircraft. As an interim solution, the Army -- which was tasked with overseeing the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office -- last year authorized seven defensive countermeasures out of 40 proposed systems "to primarily detect, access, and engage with enemy drones," according to the service. The systems fall into three categories: fixed and semi-fixed systems, mobile mounted systems, and handheld dismounted systems, which range from highly sophisticated technologies to basic zappers or radio jammers, the Army said at the time. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: New Pentagon Team Will Develop Ways to Fight Enemy Drones Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. 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. Cherokee Nation has removed a 'blood clause' in its Constitution that was an obstacle to the descendants of black people it enslaved before the Civil War attaining full citizenship of the tribe. The change on Monday came after years of racial friction between members of the Cherokee Nation and thousands of descendants of black people, as well as a series of legal and political battles. Descendants of black people once enslaved by the Cherokee Nation, known as Freedmen, have long been fighting to win equal status as members of the tribe. This would include the right to run for tribal office and receive full benefits, such as access to health care and housing, according to the New York Times. The Oklahoma tribe this week eliminated language in the Cherokee Constitution that based citizenship of the Cherokee Nation on being descended 'by blood' from tribal members listed on a 19th-century census. By doing so, the tribe has taken a big step towards resolving the historic issue, as it effectively codifies a 2017 federal court ruling that stated that Cherokee Freedmen should have all the rights afforded to tribal citizens in the tribe's Constitution. The ruling was based on an 1866 treaty that laid out the terms of emancipation. The decision drew varying reaction, with some members of the tribe's legislature accusing of the court and the Principle Chief's office of exceeding their authority by unilaterally changing the Constitution, according to Tulsa World. Cherokee Nation has removed a 'blood clause' in its Constitution that was an obstacle to the descendants of black people it enslaved - known as Freedmen - before the Civil War to attaining full citizenship of the tribe. Pictured: Freedmen protest in Tulsa in 2007, file photo The Cherokee nation has an estimated 8,500 enrolled citizens of Freedman descent. Before the 2017 ruling, there have been around 2,900 enrolled Freedmen citizens, and another 5,600 since, Julie Hubbard, a spokeswoman for the Cherokee Nation, told the New York Times. Cherokee Nation is one of the largest tribes in the country, with around 380,000 enrolled citizens, more than half of which live within the tribe's northeastern Oklahoma reservation. 'This is a big win because what this means is that the tribal government, including the tribal courts, are working to uphold the 1866 treaty obligation to the Freedmen,' Marilyn Vann - a Cherokee citizen and president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association - told The Times. Originally from the South, Cherokee and other Native American nations purchased enslaved black people as laborers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were then taken along with the tribes as they themselves were driven further west by white settlers. After the Civil War and the 1866 treaty, the practice of owning slaves came to an end, black people were guaranteed freedom, and the freed black people and their descendants would 'have all the rights and privileges of native Cherokees.' Pictured: The Seal of the Cherokee Nation at the Cherokee War Memorial on the Nation's Capital complex. Descendants of black people once enslaved by the Cherokee Nation, known as Freedmen, have long been fighting to win equal status as members of the tribe. File photo Pictured: The Cherokee Nation supreme court in Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma However, this promise wasn't kept, and Freedmen were excluded and forced to fight for their rights, their efforts escalating in the past several decades. Tens of thousands of descendent of Freedman have questioned whether they were being afforded the equal rights by the Cherokee Nation, promised in the treaty. On Monday, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court unanimously ruled the 'by blood' language should be removed from the Constitution and to make related laws illegal. Pictured: Cherokee Nation Attorney General Sara Hill, who praised the decision 'The 'by blood' language found within the Cherokee Nation Constitution, and any laws which flow from that language, is illegal, obsolete and repugnant to the ideal of liberty,' the ruling states. 'These words insult and degrade the descendants of Freedmen much like the Jim Crow laws found lingering on the books in Southern state some fifty-seven years after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.' The Times reported that Sara Hill, the attorney general for the Cherokee Nation, said that she fought for the removal of the 'by blood' language after it was used to cast doubt on Ms Vann's candidacy for an at-large tribal council seat. 'The federal court and Cherokee Nation Supreme court concluded in 2017 that Cherokee Nation is bound by the Treaty of 1866 to recognize descendants of Cherokee Freedmen as full citizens. Cherokee Nation has abided by those court orders and will continue to do so,' Attorney General Hill said. 'Provisions in Cherokee Nation's constitution and laws that deny descendants of Freedmen all the rights and obligations of Cherokee citizenship violate our 155-year-old Treaty obligations and are void. Cherokee citizens of Freedmen descent are simply this: Cherokee citizens.' Originally from the South, Cherokee and other Native American nations purchased enslaved black people as laborers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were then taken along with the tribes as they themselves were driven further west by white settlers. Pictured: The Trail of Tears, painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942, commemorating the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal When Ms Vann declared her candidacy in December, a challenger to her position as well as a Cherokee Nation citizen claimed she did not meet the 'by blood' constitutional requirement. The complains pointed to an amendment in 2007 to the tribe's constitution 'to limit citizenship in the Cherokee Nation to only those persons who were descended from individuals who appeared on the Dawes Rolls as Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware by blood.' More than 75 percent of Cherokee citizens voted to approve the change. The Dawes Rolls was a list of members of the tribe created in the last 19th and early 20th century, The Times says. 'I saw those words being thrown around as if people wanted to give them new meaning again, and I thought it was time to get those words removed from our law and our constitution,' The Times reported Ms Hill as saying, 'because I could see they were being used to belittle and demean the rights of Cherokee Freedmen.' Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation said the Cherokee Nation tribe needed to confront its history of enslaving people, and the repercussions of failing to recognize Freedman as citizens still being felt to this day. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. (pictured in 2019, file photo) of the Cherokee Nation said the Cherokee Nation tribe needed to confront its history of enslaving people, and the repercussions of failing to recognize Freedman as citizens still being felt to this day He also said that the tribe had shifted towards regonizing the Freedmen as citizens since the 2017 ruling, and agreed that any anti-Freedmen should be removed from the Constitution, fulfilling a promise made by Cherokee ancestors. 'The United States government has broken all of its treaty obligations,' he said. 'The Cherokee Nation is better than that.' 'We ought to be a nation that keeps its word,' he said. 'I think this just reaffirms that what we are doing is the right thing, which is achieving the equality our ancestors believed in 155 years ago.' However, Tribal Council member Wes Nofire (pictured) criticised the decision, saying 'we now have a broken government However, Tribal Council member Wes Nofire criticised the decision, saying 'we now have a broken government. 'They do not lawfully have the authority to do what they have done. When you have a court or a principal chief that don't recognize the limits of their own power, it becomes tyranny.' Nofire, along with Council members Harley Buzzard and Julia Coates, released a statement calling for a vote on the change. 'The foundation of our democracy is at stake when any one branch of Government believes they have the supreme authority to amend, alter or strike any part of the Constitution without a vote by the People,' The statement said. 'We hope that the Justices of the Supreme Court will allow our intervention and follow the proper process of the Constitution by either an amendment or a Constitutional Convention.' 'Ultimately, it has to be up to the people what to do,' Nofire said. Other tribes are seeing similar legal challenges unfolding. The Freedmen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation - also in Oklahoma - were given the same rights under the 1866 treaty, but were disenfranchised from the tribe in 1979. Their fight for re-entry continues to this day. 3 1 of 3 Photo provided/New York State Police Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Photo provided/New York State Police Show More Show Less 3 of 3 AUSTERLITZ A Columbia County man faces a raft of criminal charges after a raid revealed 59 illegally possessed firearms, including 16 assault rifles and two handguns, as well as a wild monkey, State Police said Thursday. Authorities seized the Capuchin monkey from the rural town of Austerlitz residence of Gary M. Wood while executing a search warrant on Tuesday, which also netted 17.7 grams of cocaine and $3,250 in cash from the 289 Rigor Hill Road residence. The monkey was turned over to the state Department of Environmental Conservation in good condition, state troopers said. The Telegraph A convicted murderer who illegally entered the UK with 68 other Albanian migrants is claiming asylum because he fears he will be killed by the victims family in a blood feud if he is deported. The Albanian killer, who shot dead a mother in front of her eight-year-old daughter, is also claiming he is a victim of trafficking after being brought into the UK on a fishing boat for which smugglers were charging up to 3,000 per head, according to court papers seen by The Telegraph. He has been held in detention since November as he fights deportation at a cost of thousands of pounds to the taxpayer. It has included at least three court hearings where his lawyers have unsuccessfully sought to secure his release despite fears that he will abscond and is a threat to public safety. The court documents reveal that even while in detention in April, he was caught in possession of a class A drug which was tested and found to be cocaine. Official inquiries have revealed that as well as the 15-year sentence for murder, he has been jailed for two years for theft in Albania, and 16 months for another unknown offence. The murderer, who has been granted anonymity by the court, was among 69 Albanians who have been able to remain in the UK after a legal bungle let them off criminal immigration charges. Their fishing boat was intercepted off the coast of East Anglia on Nov 18 on its way from Belgium in an operation that involved 250 National Crime Agency, police and Border Force officers. But plans to prosecute them for illegal entry to the UK were abandoned because when arrested they had not yet set foot on British soil a key criteria under the law. Within two days of arriving in the UK, the Albanian killer lodged an asylum claim and, according to the court documents, was also emailing the authority that investigates modern slavery in pursuit of a trafficking claim. It was, however, nearly a full month before his allegations of trafficking were revealed to the UK authorities, at the end of December. The 42-year-old claimed he had been trafficked to Greece as a teenager, and beaten and forced to work there. The Albanian also alleged he had been a victim of torture, saying he had been bullied and beaten by police officers while in prison. He served 12 of the 15 years to which he was sentenced for shooting dead the woman in front of her eight-year-old daughter at her home in a central Albanian village. He arrived in Britain after travelling through Germany, Sweden and then Belgium before taking the fishing boat to the UK. The case comes as the Government is preparing to overhaul asylum laws and crackdown on illegal migrants by making it easier and quicker to deport them. A government source said: Our new plan for immigration means that criminals like this will never make it into the country in the first place and speed up the removal of those who should not be here. As the Albanian, known only as AM, was held before the end of the transition period, the more lenient EU laws on deportation require the UK to show that he is a genuine, present and serious threat. New post-Brexit immigration laws which took effect from Dec 31 bar any EU citizen sentenced to at least a year in prison from the UK. Under the new rules, asylum seekers will also be required to present all their claims in one go, rather than mounting multiple successive appeals. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions A West Bank man and woman have been charged with barging into a Harvey motel room to rob a groom and his wedding party about an hour before the nuptials were scheduled to take place. Jerrold Jackson, 20, and Alicia Sturdivant, 18, are also accused of stealing the groom's car for a getaway vehicle for themselves and two unidentified accomplices after the holdup at the motel, located in the 1700 block of 11th St., according to court and arrest records. The Jefferson Parish district attorney's office on Monday charged Jackson and Sturdivant, both of Harvey, each with four counts of armed robbery and one count of auto theft. Jackson was also charged with aggravated flight from an officer and a second count of auto theft in a separate case, according to court records. The holdup occurred Dec. 12. The groom, a 21-year-old Gulfport, Mississippi, resident, was staying at the motel with relatives and friends as they prepared for the wedding, which was being held at the Harvey home of a relative, the Sheriff's Office said. About 3 p.m., four strangers, one armed, entered his motel room through an open door and demanded the belongings of the groom, his brother and two friends, all from Mississippi, authorities said. As the gunman pointed his weapon, his accomplices patted down the victims, stealing mobile phones, wallets, cash and other property. 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 robbers also took the keys to the groom's 2017 Honda Civic, the Sheriff's Office said. They hopped into the car and drove off. Some of the property was later recovered, after the robbers tossed it from the car window during the getaway. Jackson was arrested the next day after leading deputies on a chase through Metairie in the stolen Honda, authorities said. He was still wearing some of the same clothing he wore during the robbery, they said. Sturdivant was arrested Jan. 4 in Harvey. No details were available about how she was linked to the holdup. Jackson and Sturdivant are scheduled to be arraigned March 10. Both were being held Wednesday at the parish jail in Gretna. Bond for Jackson was set at $735,500, for Sturdivant at $625,500 bond. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 16:27:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Ending absolute poverty in the world's most populous country is nothing less than a history-making moment. Alleviating poverty is a common and enduring challenge to humanity. China has a population of 1.4 billion and has used the past decades, since 2012 especially, to tackle the challenge with unparalleled efforts. The result: bringing close to 100 million people out of poverty in eight years and a farewell to absolute poverty. For the 100 million, the changes are real -- it is an ill man being able to afford treatment, a mother having a job, a family moving out of a ramshackle shelter, or a student no longer having to climb a cliff to go to school. Improved lives give these people hopes and dreams. Thursday's gathering to mark the country's complete victory in its fight against poverty evoked strong emotions in many who would agree the great struggle won attests to the nation's resolve, character, and strength. The Communist Party of China (CPC), inspired by socialist ideals to eliminate poverty, improve people's livelihood, and realize common prosperity, has put poverty fight as a top policy goal. The CPC's efforts came from a simple and clear purpose -- to deliver real benefits to the people. The efforts are neither for scoring political points nor creating a battlefield to compete with other countries' systems or governance. China set its poverty line at a per-capita annual income of 2,300 yuan at 2010 constant values, or 2.3 U.S. dollars in terms of purchasing power parity per person a day. This standard is higher than the World Bank's benchmark of 1.9 U.S. dollars per person per day. By 2020, a person making less than 4,000 yuan a year could be listed as impoverished. Besides the numerical target, China ensured the impoverished people have "two assurances" (adequate food, adequate clothing) and "three guarantees" (access to compulsory education, basic medical services, and safe housing). The country has conducted the strictest assessment to ensure that the quality and standards of the poverty relief work are not compromised. World Bank data say China contributed to 70 percent of worldwide poverty reduction in the last 40 years. Over the last eight years, unabated attention and a sustained push from Chinese President Xi Jinping have ensured continued momentum. Under his leadership, efforts against poverty have been woven into every fabric of Chinese life, in which reducing poverty is a consensus and constant call to action. Exploring wisdom and ways, China has accumulated a vast pool of experiences in battling poverty. With almost surgical precision, the country established a targeted poverty-relief database and rolled out specific prescriptions to fight poverty for different people. With flexibility and ingenuity, farmers succeeded in experimenting with new cash crops or raising a new type of cattle. With mass mobilization, three million "first secretaries" and cadres were sent to villages to help stamp out poverty. Both public and private sectors undertook poverty-relief projects. With robust government funds, roads and bridges were built, and over 9.6 million people were relocated to more hospitable areas. Proper checks and supervision mechanisms made sure the results of poverty reduction can stand the test of time. As an old saying in China goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." In addition to external assistance, China has fostered among the poor an awareness of escaping poverty through self-reliance. It has focused on improving their skills through training programs and providing them with jobs instead of giving grants. In this way, the poor have become more involved in poverty alleviation programs. The victory over absolute poverty and regional poverty speaks volumes of the leadership of the CPC and the strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China's poverty alleviation is a success, but far from a full stop. China remains the biggest developing country globally. It still faces problems caused by unbalanced and inadequate development. Eliminating absolute poverty is a new starting point. China has already made arrangements for consolidating the achievements in poverty alleviation and rural vitalization, including a five-year transition period during which major supportive policies and assistance for the poor will remain stable. The world still has 700 million people living in extreme poverty with a yawning gap between the rich and the poor in many countries. China's victory comes as an encouraging sign. It has quickened the pace of global poverty reduction, therefore cementing confidence in the ultimate eradication of penury. While striving to cure poverty at home, China has also actively supported the cause in other developing countries. It is committed to creating wealth and opportunities for people in other countries through aids and initiatives like the Belt and Road. All roads lead to Rome. No country should blindly follow others' steps or take their development paths as the only viable one. But China's victory in poverty reduction has at least offered hope and provided a valuable reference to the world, especially the developing and least developed countries, given its holistic approach in planning and perseverance in implementation. Looking ahead, China expects exchanges and mutual learning with the international society in the spirit of shared development and win-win cooperation. China also wants to ensure that the benefits of poverty reduction reach more people around the world. China's victory in the fight against absolute poverty merely marks another beginning -- the beginning of more miracles yet to be worked, and a path toward an even brighter future. Enditem Agriculture Minister on Thursday said the government is promoting bamboo plantation as it can help boost farmers' income. The minister virtually addressed the inaugural session of 'National Consultation on Opportunities and Challenges for Bamboo in India'. The two-day event on the bamboo sector is jointly organised by National Bamboo Mission, Niti Aayog and Invest India, according to an official statement. Tomar said the "government is putting in due diligence in developing the bamboo sector since it is evident that it can be a key crop to double farmers' income, increase employment opportunities and improve the livelihood of the people, especially in the North East region". The minister emphasised the formation of FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisations) to encourage small and marginal for taking up the bamboo plantation. He urged the states to send proposals for the formation of FPOs in the bamboo sector. As it is very difficult to identify the species and quality of bamboo at the seedling stage, the minister appreciated the 'National Bamboo Mission' for preparing the guidelines for accreditation of nurseries and certification of planting material. "States are now in the process of accrediting nurseries and details are available in the public domain to guide and industry as to where they can get good planting material," he added. Tomar said bamboos have been planted in an area of 15,000 hectares in the last three years. The agriculture minister noted that the government will promote the use of bamboo in premium eco-tourism destinations, modern buildings and resorts. He also said the use of bamboo will be encouraged in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Rural for which the Ministry of Rural Development has prepared the necessary models. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A regional court in Istanbul, on February 24, convicted an official from a private airline and two pilots for their involvement in former Nissan Motor Co. chairman Carlos Ghosns escape out of Japan in 2019. Both the pilots, Noyan Pasin and Bahri Kutlu Somek, maintained their innocence throughout the trial. The Turkish court, discreetly, acquitted two other pilots for illegally smuggling a migrant and two flight attendants for failing to report a crime. International fugitive Carlos Ghosn, who led Nissan Automobiles for two decades, has been accused of breach of trust for using the companys assets for personal gains, and violating secutrities laws by not fully disclosing compensation. In November 2018, a Japanese Law enforcement agency arrested the 66-year-old businessman in Tokyo for questioning over false accounting. However, in December 2019, Ghosn made a sly and sordid escape out of Japan. He was flown from Osaka to Istanbul on a private plane and then transferred onto another plane to Beirut. Since Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan, Ghosn remains protected in Lebanon where he lives with his wife. While the four additional convictspilots and flight attendantsdenied having knowledge about Ghosn's presence on the plane, the airline official, Okan Kosemen, claimed he was made aware that Ghosn was on the plane to Istanbul only after it landed. He admitted helping smuggle Ghosn onto the second, Lebanon-bound plane but claimed he was threatened and feared for his family's safety. Read:Nissan Ex-CEO Tells Japanese Court Ghosn's Pay Was Too Low Read:High Court Denies Accused Ghosn Smugglers' Bid To Stay In US Meanwhile, the airline company MNG Jet admitted playing a role in Ghosn's escape but denied knowledge of it. Speaking during the trial, a representative clarified that an employee had falsified flight records so Ghosn''s name didn't appear in the passengers' list. Kosemen, Pasin and Somlu are expected to appeal against their conviction. Read: Man Wanted In Carlos Ghosn's Escape Accuses US Of 'betrayal' Read:Trial Over Ghosn Smuggling Continues In Istanbul Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court has cleared the way for the extradition of an American father and son wanted by Japan in the escape of former Nissan Motor Co. boss Carlos Ghosn. Michael Taylor, a US Army Special Forces veteran, and his son are accused of helping Ghosn, who led the Japanese automaker for two decades, flee the country last year with Ghosn tucked away in a box on a private jet. (With inputs from the Associated Press) Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 04:30:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close QUITO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's National Police on Thursday morning foiled an escape attempt by inmates at the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil amid a new riot in the prison, the Minister of Government Patricio Pazmino said. "During the early hours of February 25, police thwarted escape attempt, seized 5 firearms, 5 feeders and 52 rounds of ammunition," the minister posted on his Twitter account. After successive violent incidences in Ecuadorian prisons, Pazmino ordered the country's governorships to permanently activate security committees in the provinces to overcome the "prison crisis." According to local media, at least 130 inmates attempted to escape, 123 of whom have been recaptured, while seven are still at large. The riot was put down by police forces, the National Police said, while not officially confirming the death of four prisoners in their cells as reported by local media. On Wednesday night, General Commander of the National Police Patricio Carrillo announced new riots in two prisons in Guayaquil and Cotopaxi, a day after 79 prisoners died in clashes between rival gangs rioting in several prisons in the South American country. Carrillo said that amid the new riots, the National Police "deployed its operational and tactical units, which have made it possible to reestablish order and security for officials and prisoners." The 79 deaths during Tuesday's riots exceed the number of deaths in 2020, when there were 51 murders in the prison system, according to government data. Enditem SHANGHAI, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Biologics ("WuXi Bio") (2269.HK), a global company with leading open-access biologics technology platforms, today announced that the company has been named a winner of the 2021 CMO Leadership Awards for a fourth year in a row. The company is proud to receive this distinction in all six award categories capabilities, compatibility, expertise, quality, reliability, and service and across the three respondent groups - Big Pharma, Small Pharma, and Overall (combined Big and Small Pharma). Based on research from Industry Standard Research's Contract Manufacturing Quality Benchmarking annual online surveys, more than 70 contract manufacturing organizations were evaluated on more than 23 different performance metrics. Research participants were recruited from Pharma and Biopharma companies of all sizes and were screened for decision-making influence related to working with contract manufacturing suppliers. "This year's presentation of Outsourced Pharma and Life Science Leader's CMO Leadership Awards adds a level of importance to what already are the most meaningful awards in the drug development and manufacturing outsourcing industry awards that represent the highest level of accomplishment as evaluated by actual customers," says Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor and Conference Chair, Outsourced Pharma. "We are thrilled and honored for the fourth straight year to be granted these CMO Leadership Awards in all six core categories," says Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics. "It is a great testimony to the efforts made by each of our employees around the globe and to the satisfaction of our partners. WuXi Biologics has been working with greater urgency with its partners to develop solutions to address the global pandemic. Looking ahead to our work throughout 2021, WuXi Biologics will continue to leverage our expertise and technology platforms to provide the highest level of project excellence and customer service. We are proud to partner with our global clients and industry peers to develop vital biologics treatments for the benefit of patients worldwide." About WuXi Biologics WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK), a Hong Kong-listed company, is a leading global open-access biologics technology platform offering end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop, and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing. The company's history and achievements demonstrate its commitment to providing a truly one-stop service offering and strong value proposition to its global clients. As of June 30, 2020, there were a total of 286 integrated projects, including 141 projects in pre-clinical development stage, 125 projects in early-phase (phase I and II) clinical development, 19 projects in late-phase (phase III) development and one project in commercial manufacturing. With total estimated capacity for biopharmaceutical production planned in China, Ireland, the U.S., Germany, and Singapore exceeding 300,000 liters after 2023, WuXi Biologics will provide its biomanufacturing partners with a robust and premier-quality global supply chain network. For more information on WuXi Biologics, please visit www.wuxibiologics.com SOURCE WuXi Biologics You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions All European allies are also facing the threat, General Wolters says. The Russian Federation remains a threat to the United States despite economic sanctions imposed. That's according to U.S. European Command Commander Air Force General Tod Wolters. "Russia engages in destabilizing and malign activities across the globe, with many of those activities happening close to home [in Europe]," the commander noted. "Russia remains an enduring existential threat to the United States and our European allies," he said, adding that this is despite "widespread international condemnation and continued economic sanctions." Wolters says Moscow "seeks to maintain a sphere of influence from the Soviet era." To this end, he notes, Russia is employing unconventional tools such as private military companies "to intimidate, weaken and divide" U.S. allies and partners. Read alsoUkraine, U.S. defense chiefs talk Enhanced Opportunities Partnership implementationU.S. adversaries amplify these malign activities and foment instability with disinformation and destructive cyber campaigns, testing national governments and multinational institutions, the EUCOM commander said. If left unchecked, such activities could escalate into more aggressive behavior, Wolters believes. "We're in an era of global-power competition. Winning in this era is ensuring that global power competition does not become a global power war," he emphasized. Reporting by UNIAN amc movie theater in new york city After nearly a year of collecting dust, New York Citys movie theaters can finally reopen. Theaters in the citythe second biggest film market in the US, behind only Los Angeleswill reopen March 5 at 25% capacity, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday. Masks and social distancing will be mandatory. Theaters, which shut down in New York City in mid-March last year, are among the last indoor business to be allowed to reopen, as state officials were reportedly concerned about airflow. All theaters that reopen will be required to meet enhanced ventilation standards, according to a press release from Cuomos office. The state allowed theaters in some counties to reopen with those same restrictions in October, but so far only about a quarter of the states 280 theaters have returned to operation. Hollywood studios have been waiting for New York City and Los Angeles to reopen theaters before they release their backlog of big-budget movies. Together, the states of New York and California account for nearly 20% of US movie ticket sales. New York City reopening its theaters offers a glimmer of hope for an industry thats been devastated by the pandemiceven as film industries in other countries like China flourish. With New York back up and running, US studios might be inclined to hold tight on their late spring and early summer release dates, rather than continue postponing them. Disneys Black Widow and Universals F9both expected to be among the highest-grossing films of the yearare tentatively scheduled for theatrical release in May. Shares of AMC Entertainment, the biggest theater chain in the US, jumped almost 15% yesterday afternoon on the news. In a statement, AMC CEO Adam Aron said it was an important step towards restoring the health of the movie theatre industry and announced AMC will reopen all 13 of its theaters in the city March 5. The company has flirted with bankruptcy in recent months due to the pandemic. Regal Cinemas, the countrys second largest theater operator, closed all of its locations in October indefinitely and has not yet revealed plans to reopen in New York or anywhere else. Story continues Whether or not theaters can operate profitably at 25% capacity depends on their size and funding. Most major chains, which have about 200 seats per screen on average, are likely able to keep the lights on with such capacity restrictions. But many arthouse and independent cinemas, which tend to have far fewer seats per theater, cant stay open while meeting that benchmark. According to IndieWire, several of New Yorks smaller theaters wont reopen immediately. The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) applauded the New York news, but pushed for loosened restrictions. New York City is a major market for moviegoing in the U.S.; reopening there gives confidence to film distributors in setting and holding their theatrical release dates, and is an important step in the recovery of the entire industry, NATO said in a statement. We look forward to expanding the capacity from 25 percent to 50 percent in the very near future so that theaters can operate profitably. Theaters are currently open in 49 of 50 US states (New Mexico being the lone holdout), and most are operating between 25 and 50% capacity. Provided ventilation is good, theaters are safer than indoor dining, because everyone faces the same direction and generally doesnt talk. Most states require moviegoers to keep their masks on at their seats whenever theyre not eating or drinking, but its unclear how much thats being enforced. No US Covid-19 outbreaks have been traced to movie theaters. In October, Japan was able to ease capacity restrictions on theaters, but the country also had significantly less transmission of the virus than the US does now. Japan has not traced any outbreaks to theaters either. Hollywood still has a long way to go to recover from its year-long pause. But if ever there were a sign that better days are aheadfor studios and theaters alikeits that New York City is finally going back to the movies. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: 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. Oregon has lifted its ban on concessions sales at the majority of movie theaters across the state. The Oregon Health Authority released new guidance Wednesday allowing movie theaters in counties deemed high, moderate or lower risk for coronavirus spread to sell popcorn, soda and other concessions as long as they adhere to safety regulations. Its really good news, said Robert Perkins, the owner of Cornelius Cinemas, which operates nine indoors screens and a drive-in theater. Perkins said the indoor portion of the theater has been open since Feb. 12, when the state shifted Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties from the extreme risk to high risk category, enabling movie theaters to resume operations at 25% capacity or with 50 people total, whichever is smaller. Washington and Clackamas counties will shift to moderate risk on Friday, enabling theaters in those counties to operate at 50% capacity or with 100 people total, whichever is smaller. Perkins said being able to sell concessions will make a massive difference for the theater, which relies on food and drink sales for at least a third of its revenue. Some Portland area movie theater operators opted not to reopen earlier this month, saying that the states ban on concessions made it financially infeasible. In a letter sent to Gov. Kate Browns office earlier this month, the National Association of Theater Owners said that Oregon was the only state in the country that was banning the sale of concessions at movie theaters at all levels of reopening and called on the state to lift its ban. Liz Merah, a spokesman for Gov. Kate Brown, defended the states ban concession sales at the time, even though the state was already allowing indoor dining with limited capacity at restaurants in counties deemed high risk or lower. At the time, Merah said that the state felt a ban on concession sales was needed because movie theaters patrons can spend more than two hours in rooms where there can be a lack of ventilation and added difficulty monitoring face covering compliance. But the state changed course Wednesday. As with all reopening decisions, we are proceeding with caution as COVID-19 numbers decline, Merah said Wednesday. Our office and the Oregon Health Authority have been in ongoing conversations with theater operators about how we can best support these businesses, while also working to slow the spread of COVID-19. Tom Ranieri, the owner of Cinema 21 on Northwest 21st Avenue, said he was cautiously optimistic about the rule change and hoped that he would now be able to move up his timeline for reopening. But he said it would still take time for him to rehire staff, secure films and prepare to resume operations. Ranieri said he was disappointed that the state didnt tell movie operators in advance that they were considering lifting the ban on concessions or contact them after making the change Wednesday. Ranieri learned of the rule change only after reviewing the updated guidance on the Oregon Health Authoritys website. Ranieri also said he was concerned that the state could change course again. Brown is currently reevaluating the risk level of counties every two weeks. Theres definitely some optimism and obviously, were pleased with it, Ranieri said. But it would be really great if there wasnt so much confusion, so much reversal of course, if they let us know ahead of time what theyre thinking. Its not a business that you can just reopen. We have to get films to play. I have to get staff ready to come back. Jeff Martin, the owner of Joy Cinema in Tigard, wasnt aware that the state had lifted the ban on concession sales until he was informed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. He said he would have to review the guidance, but hoped to reopen the theater soon. Our plan is to open as soon as we can, realistically, Martin said. According to the Oregon Health Authoritys updated guidance, theaters in high, moderate and lower risk counties can sell concessions as long as they ensure that customers maintain six feet of physical distance when purchasing food and drinks and wear masks when not eating or drinking. The guidance says that movie theater operators must also ensure that theaters are adequately ventilated with fresh air with the state recommending the use of HVAC or other ventilation systems that make three to six air changes per hour. But the state is not requiring that theaters use specific types of ventilation systems. Along with Cornelius Cinemas, several other Portland area theaters are already open, including Living Room Theaters in downtown Portland and several theaters owned by Portland brewpub and hotel chain McMenamins. Cinemark announced Tuesday that Century 16 Eastport Plaza in Southeast Portland and Century 16 Cedar Hills in Beaverton will open Friday for limited capacity. -- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg WASHINGTON As a candidate, President Biden left no doubt what he thought about how the United States should deal with Saudi Arabia. His plan, he said, was to make the Saudis pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are. Mr. Biden was equally blunt about the Saudi royal family. There is very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia, he said. Now, as president, Mr. Biden must deal with that government, whether it has redeeming value or not. And he must navigate a series of campaign promises to cut off arms shipments and make public the American intelligence conclusions about the role of Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and the de facto leader of the country, in the killing of the dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That process appears likely to begin this week when Mr. Biden plans to hold his first conversation with the ailing King Salman. And while the call will be full of diplomatic pleasantries, officials say, the real purpose is to warn him that the intelligence report is going to be declassified and published. The White House would say little about the carefully sequenced set of events, other than that no conversation between the two men had yet been scheduled though clearly one was in the works. Washington: Asserting that President Donald Trump will no longer "tolerate" any support to militants, US National Security Adviser Gen H R McMaster on Sunday asked Pakistan to change its "paradoxical" policy of supporting selective terror groups. US officials have often accused Pakistan of helping the militants, a charge Islamabad denies. "The president has also made clear that he, that we need to see a change in behaviour of those in the region, which includes those who are providing safe haven and support bases for the Taliban, Haqqani Network and others," the National Security Advisor, McMaster, was quoted by MSNBC as saying. "This is Pakistan in particular that we want to that we want to really see a change in and a reduction of their support for these groups," he said, in response to a question on Afghanistan and terrorism in the region. He said that Trump is making clear that the US will no longer "tolerate" any support for the Taliban or related groups. "Of course, you know, a very paradoxical situation, right, where Pakistan is taking great losses. They have fought very hard against these groups, but theyve done so really only selectively," he said. Pakistans two neighbours -- both India and Afghanistan have accused it of being selective in its war against terrorism. McMaster said that Trump has lifted restrictions on US armed forces in Afghanistan. He also defended Trump's strategy on winning the war in Afghanistan by giving unrestricted powers to the US military based in the war-torn country. "The president has said that he does not want to place restrictions on the military that undermine our ability to win battles in combat". "He has lifted those restrictions, and you are beginning to see the payoff of that as well," the top US national security advisor said. Also read: Terror attack: Pakistan Army launches countrywide crackdown on militants Afghanistan blast: Taliban Suicide bomber kills NATO soldier, 6 personnel injured For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The European Union can complete the procedure of introducing new sanctions against Moscow by March 5. The measures will come after Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny had his suspended sentence converted into real prison time, a diplomatic source in Brussels said. "The active work on sanctions is underway. The process is expected to be completed by March 5 at the latest, and the sanctions will come into force," TASS cited the source as saying. Childrens rights activist blasts judges decision allowing gay throuple to be named as legal parents of 2 kids Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Children's rights activist decried a California judge's ruling allowing three men to be listed as the legal parents of two children born to surrogate mothers using donor eggs as being the consequence of laws that sacrifice the wellbeing of children to benefit the desires of adults. The homosexual male throuple includes Ian Jenkins, Alan Mayfield and Jeremy Allen Hodges. The three-way relationship happened after Jenkins and Mayfield, who met nine years ago, invited Hodges to join the couple eight years ago. The two children who belong to the trio of men are half-siblings. Jenkins wrote a memoir about the throuple's unorthodox relationship in the book, Three Dads and a Baby. Last week, the three men, who are now the legal parents of two children a 3-year-old and a 14-month old appeared on "The Morning Show" in Australia to speak about this unusual arrangement and how they received a favorable result in court. "We weren't sure that we could have all three of us on the birth certificate so it became a court process," Mayfield said during the interview. "It was a pretty interesting, tense courtroom scene where at first it seemed we were not going to be granted that and we asked to speak in court and plead our viewpoint and the judge ultimately changed her mind and granted us legal parentage for our child before she was born." For all three men to be placed on the birth records serves legal purposes. Hodges added: If our child, God forbid, was to end up in the hospital, one of the parents might not be able to go visit them. It was really important to be recognized as the family that we are, and thankfully we live in California, which is a state that, after some teeth pulling and fighting, actually did then allow us to do that, so that was amazing." Katy Faust, founder of children's rights organization Them Before Us, and the author of a recent book of the same name, noted in a Monday interview with The Christian Post that much of the media is framing their coverage of these adult men as being victims of a system that did not make it effortless to acquire someone else's children. "Of course the real victims are the two motherless children who were intentionally separated from the woman who provided half of their genetic identity, the woman to whom they bonded during their first 9 1/2 months of life, and who will be starved of the daily maternal love that all children crave," Faust said. But people should not be surprised by the newest manifestation of "modern family," she asserted, as it was "the inevitable result of centering all legal and cultural conversations about family around the desires of adults. "That slippery slope of 'if the adults are happy the children will be happy' which began with no-fault divorce, normalized single mothers by choice, insisted gender is irrelevant to parenting during the gay marriage debate, is now championing male throuples raising motherless children," she added. "Until we recognize that children have a natural and fundamental right to be known and loved by both their mother and father, you can expect more wild variations of the modern family, as children become the acceptable sacrifice on the pyre of adult desires." 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. Materials impossible to obtain with existing methods can be produced using a solid, nanostructured silica solvent. Scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow presented an innovative approach to the production of substances with unique physical and chemical properties. A team of physicists from Cracow (Poland) has succeeded in developing a flexible method for producing solid, two-dimensional silica solvents to produce materials with unique optical, magnetic and structural properties. The term "solid solvent" here means a substance which, when immersed in a solution of the appropriate molecules, binds them to its surface in strictly defined proportions and in a defined manner. This achievement is the work of a team headed by Dr. Lukasz Laskowski from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Science (IFJ PAN) in Cracow. The results of the team's many years of work have just been presented in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. New materials are often produced by depositing specific atoms or chemical molecules on a suitable substrate, such as silica or carbon. The problem here, however, is controlling how the molecules are deposited. The difficulty is easy to understand using a simple example. Take a rubber ball, coat it with glue and throw it into some feathers. When you take the ball out, you find that there are more feathers in some places than in others on its surface. The reason for this situation is the fact that there is no control over how individual feathers stick to the ball. "In molecular engineering, the situation is even more complicated," says Dr. Laskowski and presents the issue: "Suppose that after years of research you finely managed to find a way to control the distance between the feathers stuck to the rubber ball. What would happen if we suddenly needed to stick on not feathers but, let's say, glass beads? You would probably have to change the glue. Changing the glue and the glued element would mean that new methods would have to be devised to control the distance between the elements being stuck on. Again, this would require several years of research, which would not necessarily be successful." The Cracow physicists, funded by the Polish National Science Centre, decided to solve the problem described above in the following way. Instead of struggling with successive searches for new methods of uniformly depositing all sorts of different ions or particles on carriers, they developed one method of coating a silica substrate with anchoring units. Here, each molecular anchor is bound on one side to the substrate, while the other side can capture an ion or a molecule of a specific type from the environment. What is particularly important is that this method makes it possible to maintain statistical control over the density of distribution of the anchors on the carrier's surface. The problem of designing new materials has thus been radically simplified. Currently, its most significant point is the relatively simple and fast development of an anchor with one end attracting the currently required ions or molecules. "In our method, the key role of the solid solvent is played by silica nanostructures. We produce them in conditions such that when they form, they are immediately covered by a regular grid of anchoring units with a density strictly adjusted to our current needs," explains Dr. Magdalena Laskowska (IFJ PAN). The ability to statistically control the distance between anchors, which exists at the stage of producing the silica solvent, allows scientists to precisely select the amount of substance bound on the silica particles' surface. At the same time, it becomes possible to maintain control over the interactions of the molecules trapped by the anchors and even over their orientation. "In traditional processes for producing new materials, molecules of certain chemical compounds can become deposited on a surface in such a manner that their molecular structure changes. The molecules then often lose their properties and become virtually useless. This happens when molecules bind to the substrate using fragments that determine their physical or chemical properties. However, we can take these unruly molecules and compact the number of anchors on a solid solvent in such a way that the molecules, after binding, still have active areas and retain their original functionality," explains Ph.D. student Oleksandr Pastukh (IFJ PAN). When a suitably prepared silica solvent is immersed in a solution with the target ions/particles, the anchors on its surface capture and bind them, which spontaneously leads to the assumed molecular structure formation. The newly formed material now simply needs to be filtered, washed with a solvent to remove any dirt, and dried. Mastering the technology of producing solid solvents with precisely controlled anchor distribution allowed the IFJ PAN researchers to reverse the traditional process of designing and synthesizing materials. Instead of examining already manufactured materials to find applications for them, the Cracow researchers first learn about current needs, for example, in optoelectronics or photonics, then with these in mind, design the properties of the material, determine its molecular structure, and finally synthesize a substance with exactly the properties required. During the synthesis, a key role is often played by a solid solvent, with which it is possible to control the proportions between molecules taking part in the reaction with extraordinary precision. "Once the material has been produced, we test it to compare its actual physical and chemical properties with the required ones. If there are discrepancies, we repeat the synthesis with slightly changed parameters. If that does not help, we make adjustments at the molecular design stage," PhD student Andrii Fedrochuk (IFJ PAN) explains in more detail. The method using nanostructured silica solvent is particularly interesting due to the possibility of producing materials with unique non-linear-optical characteristics, for example, with a precisely tuned second or third harmonic component of light (which means that the light wave leaving the material has doubled or tripled frequency in relation to the wave incident on the material). Interesting applications are also opening up in the field of medicine. It is becoming possible to develop new materials that would allow the molecules to retain their strong biocidal properties when added to dental fillings or paints. ### The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently one of the largest research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A wide range of research carried out at IFJ PAN covers basic and applied studies, from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly publication output of IFJ PAN includes over 600 scientific papers in high-impact international journals. Each year the Institute hosts about 20 international and national scientific conferences. One of the most important facilities of the Institute is the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB), which is an infrastructure unique in Central Europe, serving as a clinical and research centre in the field of medical and nuclear physics. In addition, IFJ PAN runs four accredited research and measurement laboratories. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium: "Matter-Energy-Future", which in the years 2012-2017 enjoyed the status of the Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics. In 2017, the European Commission granted the Institute the HR Excellence in Research award. The Institute holds A+ Category (the highest scientific category in Poland) in the field of sciences and engineering. CONTACT: Dr. Lukasz Laskowski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences tel.: +48 12 6628260, 6628217, 6628263 email: lukasz.laskowski@ifj.edu.pl Dr. Magdalena Laskowska Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences tel.: +48 12 6628390 email: magdalena.laskowska@ifj.edu.pl SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS: "Nanostructured Silica with Anchoring Units: The 2D Solid Solvent for Molecules and Metal Ions" M. Laskowska, O. Pastukh, A. Fedorchuk, M. Schabikowski, P. Kowalczyk, M. Zalasinski, L. Laskowski International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21(21), 8137, 2020 DOI: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 3390/ ijms21218137 LINKS: Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Gold eased on Thursday as U.S. Treasury yields hovered near a one-year high, tarnishing bullion's appeal, although a softer dollar and the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to an accommodative policy limited its fall. Spot gold fell 0.6% to $1,792.81 per ounce by 0757 GMT. U.S. gold futures eased 0.4% to $1,791.60. "Rising longer dated yields are a primary weighing factor on the precious metals," DailyFX strategist Margaret Yang said, adding that reflation hopes could push yields even higher. Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields held close to a one-year peak hit in ... Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-26 04:06:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A cleaner wearing a mask disinfects a toilet in Ankara, Turkey on Feb. 26, 2021. Turkey announced 9,572 new COVID-19 cases, including 658 symptomatic patients, and 73 more deaths from the disease, pushing its tally of infections to 2,674,766 and its death toll to 28,358. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua) CAIRO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in Iran surpassed 1.6 million on Thursday after 8,206 new infections were confirmed. Meanwhile, Iraq issued new restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said the total number of COVID-19 cases in Iran surged to 1,607,081, while its death toll climbed by 94 to 59,830. The Iranian police announced on Thursday a travel ban on four provinces and seven cities to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The four provinces include the Khuzestan Province bordering Iraq, and the northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan, as well as Teymour Hosseini. The Iranian authorities have also banned travels to the tourist cities of Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Kish, and Qeshm to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Also on Thursday, Iranian health officials started vaccinating elderly people, war veterans and nursing home workers against COVID-19. In Iraq, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, also head of the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, ordered several new measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The new instructions included preventing people's movement between provinces except for humanitarian reasons, and banning gatherings and maintaining social distancing. Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Thursday 4,074 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 684,362. The ministry also reported 27 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,351. The total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 2,271 to 627,718. Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the ministry, said that "there is a special plane that will fly in the upcoming Saturday to transport the vaccines, and new batches will arrive after that in succession." The Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs has approved the emergency use of China's Sinopharm and Britain's AstraZeneca vaccines. Turkey announced 9,572 new COVID-19 cases, including 658 symptomatic patients, and 73 more deaths from the disease, pushing its tally of infections to 2,674,766 and its death toll to 28,358. A total of 6.65 million people in Turkey have so far received the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, including 1.44 million who have received two shots, according to the Turkish Health Ministry. Israeli Ministry of Health reported 4,725 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the tally in the country to 767,233. The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 5,685 after 36 new fatalities were added, while the total recoveries rose by 6,421 to 721,957. Israel entered on Thursday night a three-day night curfew in a bid to prevent the traditional mass celebrations during the Jewish holiday of Purim and stop the spread of the coronavirus. Morocco announced 386 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the North African country to 482,514. The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 467,541 after 726 more were added, while the death toll rose by six to 8,598. Jordan recorded 3,827 new COVID-19 cases and 16 new deaths, taking its tally of infections to 380,268 and its death toll to 4,627. The total recoveries in the kingdom climbed by 1,579 to 342,600. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed 3,025 new coronavirus infections and 18 more deaths, pushing its tally of COVID-19 cases to 381,662 and its death toll to 1,182. The total recoveries in the UAE climbed by 4,678 to 375,059. In Lebanon, the health ministry reported 3,469 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 366,302. Lebanon's COVID-19 death toll went up by 52 to 4,560, while the total recoveries rose by 3,453 to 281,194, according to the ministry. Lebanese caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan vowed on Thursday to request 300,000 more vaccines from AstraZeneca to vaccinate Palestinian refugees. Lebanon aims to vaccinate 80 percent of its population. In Syria, Health Minister Hasan Ghabbash said on Thursday that Syria will start giving COVID-19 vaccines to its medical staff from next week. At a press conference, the minister said Syria had obtained the vaccines from a "friendly country," without naming it. The next stage will be vaccinating the people aged over 55, mainly those with chronic diseases. On Wednesday, Syria reported a total of 15,343 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 9,468 recoveries and 1,008 deaths. In Libya, the National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Thursday said that 23 positive cases of COVID-19 variant were recorded in the country. The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Libya stood at 131,833, including 118,791 recoveries and 2,156 deaths, the center said in a statement. The Qatari health ministry on Thursday announced 465 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 162,268. Qatar's total recoveries rose by 540 to 152,327, while the fatalities remained unchanged at 257 for the fourth day running. The Omani health ministry confirmed 288 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total confirmed cases in the country to 140,588. The tally of recoveries in Oman increased by 299 to 131,684, while its death toll climbed by four to 1,562, according to a ministry statement. Ghanaian Commercial Pilot, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist Kwadwo Safo Jnr turned a year older on Wednesday 24, 2021 and he was surprised on his special day. Kwadwo Safo Jnr who is also the chief executive officer of Kantanka Automobile, marked his thirty-fifth birthday as his loved ones organize a surprise party to celebrate his new age. Kwadwo Safo Jnr, son of Apostle Kwadwo Safo Kantanka and his wife arrive at his surprise birthday party to meet his loved ones dressed in all-white gathered at his plush mansion to make his 35th birthday memorable. His wife Ohemaa said few word to express her love for husband on his birthday and his beautiful mother also took the microphone to shared her story on how lucky she is to have Kwadwo Safo Jnr as her son. Kwadwo Safo Jnr and his pretty wife took to the dancefloor to started the party and party continued with enough to eat and drink. He later cut special birthday cake to climax his special day. Watch exclusive coverage of his lavish birthday party below: Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/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 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. Data mirroring in two cloud instances ensures data resiliency and continuity TIE Kinetix announced today that a custom-made Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) is now available to new and existing FLOW Partner Automation customers. The DRC supports real-time disaster recovery with continuous data replication in two cloud locations and ensures business continuity in under five minutes. "No business can afford extended downtime, data loss, or lack of support in a crisis situation. It's even worse when something happens and you know that it could have been prevented," says Juan Vicente Vidagany Espert, CTO, TIE Kinetix. "Not to mention, a traditional recovery process could last a few days. Our DRC gets you up and running in a matter of minutes, and it's complete with 24/7 support. You can't put a price on that level of security." The added security comes from the assurance that all data is continuously replicated in more than one public or private cloud instance for SaaS and Managed Services customers respectively, as well as the comfort that support can be reached outside of normal business hours. This extends to multi-location support, along with the guarantee that the location in which the data is stored is in line with individual business and legal requirements. Supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a revived interest in the topics of supply chain resiliency and business continuity. Electronic document exchange is repeatedly flagged as a high-priority item in these discussions and has received increased media attention as a result. The DRC is part of a larger company initiative to migrate existing customer data to two clouds: Microsoft Azure (for all customer data) and Google (for front-end application data). This is in line with the company's strategic 2016 decision to move away from local cloud suppliers in favor of the two major cloud suppliers listed. "We recognize that many of our customers are actively seeking new ways to ensure business continuity in the case of an unexpected event," says Jan Sundelin, CEO, TIE Kinetix. "We're doing everything we can to address the immediacy of this need by upgrading our cloud infrastructure and providing our customers with a tailor-made solution for their concerns." The cloud migration decision and new DRC enable TIE Kinetix to provide their customers with the best possible business continuity assurance. This level of security would not be possible without the combined infrastructure of Microsoft and Google, both of which have highly secure data centers around the world and provide the option to store data in any given region. Additionally, both suppliers offer global and regional compliance for country- and industry-specific needs. This includes, but is not limited to, the following certifications: ISO 27001, ISO 9001, GDPR, SOC 1,2, and 3, PCI DSS, WCAG, GxP, EU-US Privacy Shield, and CDSA. TIE Kinetix supports all EDI and e-invoicing standards worldwide and is dedicated to providing their customers with best-in-class service. With the advantages of the Microsoft Azure and Google Clouds in combination with the DRC, TIE Kinetix customers benefit from near-unlimited scalability, high reliability, and enhanced data protection. For SaaS customers, the DRC will be included on all premium service-level agreements (SLA) going forward. SaaS customers with a standard SLA may also request a custom DRC for an additional monthly fee. Managed Services customers are also eligible for the DRC following an individual quote. Download Brochure About TIE Kinetix At TIE Kinetix, we deliver Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to companies, governmental institutions, and their suppliers, to help them exchange all business documents electronically and simplify supply chain processes as a result. FLOW Partner Automation, our software platform, empowers its users to engage in smart business exchanges and streamline communication through seamless integration with any existing system. Since 1987, we have supported all EDI and e-invoicing standards and communication methods worldwide. Today, our global team of experts share their knowledge with our 2,500+ customers, facilitating the exchange of over 1 billion documents through FLOW each year. TIE Kinetix is a public company (Euronext: TIE), and has offices in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Australia, and the United States. For more information, visit www.TIEKinetix.com, and follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Xing, and YouTube. END OF PRESS RELEASE View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005192/en/ Contacts: TIE Kinetix N.V. Patrick van Boom T: 781-272-4252 E: info@TIEKinetix.com W: www.TIEKinetix.com In the wake of the sudden spike in coronavirus cases in India, several state governments have made a Covid-19 negative report on arrival mandatory for people. The move was necessitated seeing the upward trajectory of Covid cases from five states- Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. As new coronavirus cases crossed the 13,000-mark for the third time in six days on Wednesday, the Centre rushed multi-disciplinary teams to nine states and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir most of whom are witnessing a surge to support them in effectively tackling the pandemic. Here is the list of states that now require negative Covid-19 report: Delhi The Delhi government is likely to ask travellers from five states, including Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, to show negative COVID-19 test report before entering the national capital, officials said on Wednesday. They said an official order will be issued soon and it will be effective till March 15. People travelling on flights, trains and buses from these states will have to produce a negative test report before entering Delhi. The requirement of the negative COVID-19 test report is likely to be implemented from Friday night, officials said. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle West Bengal The West Bengal government on Wednesday made it mandatory for passengers travelling on flights from Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana to produce negative COVID-19 reports. According to a notification issued by the health department, passengers should undergo RT-PCR tests within 72 hours of the flight departure. Karnataka For travellers from Maharashtra or Kerala, a Covid-19 negative certificate is now mandatory in Karnataka. This is applicable to everyone irrespective of the mode of travel. For air passengers, the test report has to be within 72 hours prior to the flight. Maharashtra While travelling to Maharashtra from Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Goa, Rajasthan and Kerala, travellers will need a negative RT-PCR test and this is applicable to all travellers irrespective of their mode of travel. For air passengers, the test report has to be within 72 hours prior to the flight. Uttarakhand The covid-19 test is mandatory for people coming from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. "Due to the rise in COVID19 cases in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, travellers from these states have to undergo testing on arrival in Uttarakhand at state borders, railway stations and Dehradun airport," said Dehradun District Magistrate. Manipur The Covid-19 test is mandatory for passengers coming from Maharashtra and Kerala. This applies to passengers coming by air. Jammu and Kashmir Passengers from all states arriving in Srinagar need to provide a negative RT-PCR test. Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Ladakh People entering Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Ladakh from all states have to carry Covid negative report. This rule is applicable to all modes of transport. India's COVID-19 count has gone up to 1,10,30,176 while recoveries are at 1,07,26,702, according to official data released on Wednesday. There are 1,46,907 active coronavirus cases in the country, the data stated. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. A NEW cafe run by a teenager has opened in Henley. Geo Cafe has taken over the premises in Friday Street vacated by the Hot Gossip coffee shop when it moved to Reading Road last year. It is an off-shoot of the Geo Cafe in Prospect Street, Caversham, which is run by Zezva and Keti Maglakelidze and sells Georgian food, bread and coffee. The Henley cafe is run by their 19-year-old daughter Alexandra, who was unable to go to university due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mrs Maglakelidze said: As she has asthma shes classed as vulnerable during the pandemic and she couldnt go to university and she doesnt know when she can go. So for her own wellbeing and for something for her to focus on, she will run the second store. We also decided to open it because we had a lot of customers from Henley in the Caversham store and we had a lot of orders from the Henley area as well. The Maglakelidzes, who have two other children, Lile, nine, and Cecily, eight, moved to Caversham from Georgia 20 years ago and opened their cafe in 2018 at the suggestion of a neighbour. Mrs Maglakelidze, 46, said: I used to have the window open when cooking and my neighbour would come over and say, What is that? It smells so different. The recipes we have are so unique to Georgia and she was encouraging us to start up a business. We started as a pop-up street trader in 2014 with only 200 as that was our budget and four years later we had opened the cafe in Prospect Street. The cafe now employs 14 people. Mrs Maglakelidze, who worked as a journalist in Georgia, taught herself to cook at home when they moved to Caversham to connect with her native country. As well as the cafe, she started a second business, RG Bread, which operates from the cafe and offers deliveries of vegetable, fruit and bread boxes for those shielding during the pandemic. The cafe has been running a takeaway service since the first lockdown in March. Mrs Maglakelidze said customers had been supportive, adding: I cant say how grateful we are. I tried to give one woman some freebies as she is a regular customer but she said she couldnt take anything free as she wanted to support us. People come and they dont need everything that they buy but they want to help us so we can survive. Now weve been able to open a second store the pandemic has really brought out the good things in people. The Friday Street cafe is open from Wednesday to Sunday. Delhi: India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate content on social media, making Facebook , WhatsApp and others more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing details on the originators of messages. The rules -- part of an effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modis nationalist government to tighten the leash on Big Tech -- come after Twitter recently ignored government orders to drop content related to farmers protests. A roadside mobile accessory vendor waits for customers near Delhi, India, where the government has rolled out new regulations for social media companies. Credit:AP India is the largest market by user numbers for both Facebook and WhatsApp. The new rules issued by the government, called the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, will be legally enforceable. The outlet that released the tape has said nothing about the source of the leak. The latest leak has exposed what appears to be phone talks purportedly held in 2014 between Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ally in Ukraine, MP with the Opposition Platform - For Life Party Viktor Medvedchuk and Putin's aide (at the time) Vladislav Surkov. The conversation in question, released by Censor.net, covers the topics of power supplies to the occupied Crimea and prisoner swap in Donbas. The outlet has said nothing in its report about the source of the leak. Authenticity of the tapes has not been independently verified. The two men on the tape are heard discussing an electricity supply scheme, which involves Russia's Inter RAO energy company and its branches in the occupied peninsula. Read alsoUkraine NSDC hits sanctions on Putin's ally MedvedchukIn addition, the two were talking prisoner swap in Donbas. During the conversation, Medvedchuk tells Surkov that it was [former Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko who invited him to engage with the prisoner swap, while Vladimir Putin "supported" the idea. "It was offered by our dear Petro Oleksiyiovych [Poroshenko]... And supported by Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]... To participate in the prisoner swap For me," Medvedchuk said, asking if Surkov would mind. Surkov purportedly answers that he doesn't. Speaking about Russia's proxy forces in Donbas, Surkov refers to them as "our proteges there" and promises to help with the swap. Reporting by UNIAN The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The Welsh Conservatives have called on the devolved government to reverse the introduction of an all-Wales nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ). Last month, the Welsh government said it would introduce the controversial measure across the whole of Wales in a move that had angered farming groups. Agricultural pollution incidents 'remain very high' in Wales, according to the Welsh government, averaging over three per week in the last three years. It said some of these had led to the contamination of drinking water sources and the destruction of plant and aquatic life in parts of waterways. The Welsh government's motion to introduce the new rules will be brought before the Senedd in early March. But numerous farming groups believe the plan would not be effective in delivering water quality improvements, and would instead increase burdensome regulation and costs. Welsh Conservative rural affairs spokesperson, Janet Finch-Saunders, said the plan was a 'real kick in the teeth' for farmers. On numerous occasions Labour promised farmers they wouldnt introduce these regulations while we were still dealing with the coronavirus crisis. Theyve broken that promise and shown farmers and the Welsh public you cant trust Labour when it comes to protecting livelihoods and the food security of Wales and our UK. Welsh Conservatives would scrap these plans after Mays Senedd election but we hope ministers listen to our calls today and reverse this decision immediately." However, the Welsh government's announcement on 27 January highlighted that the industry had the past four years to address the issue. Support worth 1.5 million will be issued to help farmers improve water quality and 11.5m of capital funding to improve nutrient management infrastructure. The Minister for Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said last month: "Agricultural pollution has affected water bodies across Wales for far too long. "We continue to face a rate of more than three agricultural pollution incidents per week, and against such a backdrop, we are bound to do all we can protect the public and the environment. "This also provides an opportunity for farmers to uphold exceptional standards that in turn will bolster the image of Wales agricultural industry." Initial 'good practice requirements' for the NVZ roll-out will be introduced from 1 April 2021. Statehouse Reporter Danny Jin is the Eagle's Statehouse reporter. A graduate of Williams College, he previously interned at the Eagle and The Christian Science Monitor. Danny can be reached at djin@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter at @djinreports. Turkeys main opposition has mounted an emphatic campaign calling the government to account on why the central bank burnt through $128 billion in foreign reserves in back-door hard currency sales that began in early 2019, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogans son-in-law presided over the economy. The campaign has forced Erdogan on the defensive, raising a slew of questions about the legality of the sales and who benefitted the most from them. The issue is grave not only because of the pathetic state of the central bank reserves today, but also the huge profiteering that might have taken place in the sales. Back in July 2020, Al-Monitor reported that Turkeys central bank had come to rely on peg legs to fix its reserve numbers after selling about $70 billion in foreign reserves via public banks amid the slump of the Turkish lira. The banks database shows that the sum reached $128 billion by Nov. 6, when Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak resigned under controversial circumstances. Albayrak, who is married to Erdogans eldest daughter, has been away from the public eye since then. Hard currency transactions to ensure market stability are part of the job of central banks but, needless to say, they require transparency. The records of the Turkish central banks buying and selling auctions until 2016 are available on the banks website. In contrast, the sales that began in February 2019 have been opaque and indirect via the treasury and public banks or through the back door, as some economists describe them. Questions over the sales increased after the central banks new governor, Naci Agbal, assumed his post in November. Durmus Yilmaz, a former central bank governor who is now a lawmaker for the opposition Good Party, could not hide his dismay during a parliamentary session in December. I worked at the central bank for 35 years. Ive seen hard currency shortages and even foreign reserves next to zero, but never have I seen or heard of negative reserves, he said. The bank has to shed light on its foreign exchange sales, he urged, calling on Agbal to conduct a retrospective inspection. Who made the decision for those sales? How much foreign exchange was sold? To which parties and at what price? he asked, but his questions remained unanswered. The issue flared up anew in mid-February as the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) launched a campaign on social media, titled, Where is the son-in-law? Where are the $128 billion? The campaign has reverberated strongly with the public, forcing Erdogan on the defensive. Speaking at a gathering of his party Feb. 22, Erdogan argued that the central banks foreign reserves had actually increased under his 18-year rule, reaching $132 billion at one point and standing at $95 billion at present. He went on to praise Albayrak, crediting him with steps of historical importance to strengthen the Turkish economy. Albayraks replacement, Lutfi Elvan, was also quick to defend his predecessor, denouncing the CHPs unfair and base discourse against him. More importantly, Erdogan acknowledged the foreign exchange sales, though he defended them as proper. Neither the foreign exchange has vaporized nor any abuses, unfair profits or legal and moral irregularities have taken place, he said. Still, the sales remain dubious and require judicial action to ascertain their legality. Moreover, suspicions are rife that the sales conducted through means other than transparent auctions have resulted in huge gains for some buyers. How? By selling them dollars below the market price. If a dollar was sold for 6.5 Turkish liras while the market price was 7.5 liras, for instance, a one-lira advantage per dollar would mean a profiteering of 128 billion liras ($17.75 billion) in total. According to Kerem Alkin, an economist close to Erdogan, The reserves have not vanished, as some raucous economists claim they have simply changed place. In a recent article in the pro-government daily Sabah, Alkin tacitly acknowledges that big companies indebted in hard currency were among the buyers, writing that the $26 billion increase in the real sectors foreign exchange assets in 2019 and 2020 originated directly from central bank reserves. As previously reported in Al-Monitor, the Turkish companies with foreign exchange deficits are mostly businesses close to the government involved in Ankaras so-called megaprojects, many of which have hit financial dire straits. To make up for the massive gap created by the sales, the central bank resorted to short-term borrowing through currency swaps, putting borrowed funds in the place of reserves. As of Feb. 15, the banks gross reserves stood at about $95 billion, as Erdogan said. Yet $82 billion or 85% of that sum comes from foreign exchange that banks have deposited in the central bank under legal obligations. Thus, the net reserves amount to only $13.4 billion. Moreover, the central bank is saddled with swap liabilities of $58 billion, which do not figure in its balance sheet but in another accounting rubric. Ultimately, the central bank has no real reserves but a negative reserve of $45 billion. Its swap liabilities include $16 billion in funds secured from Qatar and China. The government will struggle to suppress the debate over the $128 billion drain, with the opposition bound to make it an election issue down the road. And the precarious state of reserves will hardly help Ankaras efforts to regain the confidence of foreign financiers and investors. The website BestValueSchools.org is looking to pay five people $1,000 each to watch the first five seasons of "Friends" and talk about them on social media. You must be 18 or older, allowed to work in the United States, and be active on social media. Once you're done, you have to rank the episodes. And, yes, there are more prizes available. Click HERE to learn more about the rules and how to apply. New Delhi: A court here has directed Delhi Police not to take any coercive action against Managing Director and Director of the Ford India in a case of cheating. Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Kumar granted the relief to company's President and Managing Director Anurag Mehrotra and US national and Director David Allan Schock, while hearing their anticipatory bail applications on February 24. According to the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi police, a complaint was filed by Libra Cars, the Ford dealer for the GT Karnal Road, New Delhi area, alleging cheating and criminal breach of trust on the ground that 'Ford India' had violated the terms of the agreement between the parties by appointing another dealer within a radius of 10 km from the complainant's showroom. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal appeared for Mehrotra, while advocate Rohit Kochhar represented Schock. In his order, the judge said, I am of the considered view that since both the accused persons are Director and Managing Director of the Ford India and which has large business in India, hence there is no chance of absconding from the investigation or jurisdiction of this Court." The court also noted the undertaking given by the accused persons to join the investigation either physically or by VC. It also observed that the investigation was at an initial stage. Investigating officer is also directed to file the fresh progress report of the investigation on the next date of hearing. Be put up for further consideration on March 17," the judge said. The counsel had claimed before the court that the FIR was "a litany of lies, fabrication and deceit, and had been orchestrated by the complainant with the mischievous and unlawful objective of evading his own legal financial obligations towards Ford India." Advocate Aggarwal told the court that there was a delay of more than 18 months on part of the complainant in the registration of the case. He said the dispute between the parties was purely civil in nature and the FIR did not disclose any criminality on the part of his client. According to Aggarwal, Ford Motor Co. is a Fortune Global 500 Corporation, and one of the largest automobile manufacturing companies in the world with annual revenues of approximately Rs. 12 lakh crores, and almost 200,000 employees spread across 200 countries. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Roasted Cauliflower with Spinach and Lentil Salad from the Art Gallery of NSW cafe. Credit:James Alcock Martha, a 40-something food writer who lives in England, was a teenager when she first went upstairs and got into the space under [her] desk and sat still like a small animal that instinctively knows its dying. The novel is about trying to carve a life and love - particularly with her doctor husband Patrick and her droll sister Ingrid - in, and in between, the spaces shaped by mental illness. There are numerous doctors visits, psychologists and prescriptions; theres the assumption that maybe Martha is simply too sensitive and difficult; and the entreaties that she ought to just try. But through it all Marthas sardonic voice: describing Patrick as looking like he is enduring a minor medical procedure without anaesthetic the first time they have sex; communicating with her sister exclusively by texting pictures of Kate Moss drunk; deliberately failing an eye test because she felt so bad for her optometrist after he fell off a stool. Meg Masons first attempt at Sorrow and Bliss caused her far more sorrow than bliss. Credit:James Alcock And if the reading experience lives up to the name of the novel, so too did the writing of Sorrow and Bliss. Mason, 43, has spent most of her working life as a freelance writer, a profession that makes itself evident during the course of our lunch as she moves aside a peace lily that sits on the table between us; shelters my recorder from background noise; opts for a photograph-friendly roast cauliflower, spinach and lentil salad and, every so often, edits her own quotes with a thats boring for your readers. Masons got the journalists skill for lulling those around her into conversation, a natural charisma and charm but a cautiousness about the comments that slip out of her control. Born in New Zealand, she moved to Australia with her parents, who worked in education and agriculture (there we are again, not especially thrilling for readers), when she was 16. She studied English and History at the University of Sydney, before moving to the United Kingdom with her husband in 2000, where she lived on the outskirts of London and worked as a journalist, before returning to Australia. Loading After publishing a memoir about becoming a young mother, Say It Again In A Nice Voice, in 2012 and her first novel You Be Mother in 2017, Mason had a deal and a deadline for a second novel. She wrote it. She hated it. It featured vignettes of Martha and Patrick - whose relationship is at the heart of Sorrow and Bliss - on different Christmas Days during the course of their lives. In economics they call it the sunk-costs fallacy; Mason thought she was too far into the novel to stop. She sent the finished manuscript to her publisher, Catherine Milne, who, according to Masons recollection, responded: Im sure theres something in here that can be salvaged. We had a long champagne-fuelled come-to-jesus conversation where we said its not working, Milne tells me before my lunch with Mason. I said, you know its not good, its not working. I think you should put it away and give yourself a break and decide what you want to do, either junk it or start again from scratch. Meg just went away, went very quiet, and I think wept. Decide what you want to do, either junk it or start again from scratch. Meg just went away, went very quiet, and I think wept. Publisher Catherine Milne Theres no doubt about that last part. She wept. And then wept some more. Mason can confidently say she ruined Christmas 2018 for her husband, and their two daughters, aged 14 and 17. She thought her writing days were done. She avoided bookstores because she couldnt endure looking at the new releases. I was just so depressed, and I didnt know what to do next. Writing was all Ive ever really wanted to do as a full-time thing, and then to discover that you cant do it, that youve reached the end after not that long... Mason says. But with no expectation comes a form of liberation. Mason was hanging up laundry when the first scene of Sorrow and Bliss - Patrick and Martha encountering a woman awkwardly struggling to eat a canape in one mouthful at a wedding - came to her. I think the definition of a writer is someone who just cant help themselves. As much as you want to quit, and you tell everyone youre never doing it again, one day, you just need to write this one little thing down. Thats what I did, but it was never to be a novel, and it was never to see the light of day, Mason says. Verdura Salad Bowl with Vegan Roasted Pumpkin. Credit:James Alcock I think I wrote it for about six months before I showed it to my publisher and even let her know that I was doing it. I was just beavering away in secret, which I think is what the key was, because it was just this complete abandon. Thats why its turned out so differently to the other two, because I just put in everything that I wanted to put in, Mason says. This time round Mason banned the use of a thesaurus, something she found herself doing out of desperation while writing her other books. There was no need to be novelistic, she told herself, as what she was writing would never be a novel. Martha doesnt slump, collapse or sink onto sofas, she sits down. The result is a pared-back style that packs an emotional punch because of what is left unsaid far more than what is said. I wouldve thought Id have to convey it with lots of fancy, heavy, novelly language, Mason says. But it turns out, I guess, just by saying it, it seems to have made it more powerful. Because I think people hear it as more realistic, or they feel like its true. Its hard to see how it works. And that was just no fun because it was so easy compared to what I was doing before. The Art Gallery of NSW provided not only a quiet space to write, but affirmation that although a solitary pursuit, the artists creative struggle is a shared one. Mason would take breaks from her desk (she wont reveal precisely where it is as she says there are only three in the research library) to wander around the collections. The receipt. Credit:Fairfax There must be so much collective struggle. Do you know what I mean? In all the paintings, and all the art thats been created. I think it just made me feel better when I was looking at it, thinking, everybody who tries to make something is going to have an awful time of it, at some point. One of the features of the novel that will have book clubs reaching for more wine is Masons decision not to reveal Marthas eventual diagnosis but to refer to it, obliquely, as two dashes. Mason had reasons: she was worried about naming a real condition and fictionalising some of the symptoms; she didnt want her book to be shoe-horned as being based on a specific mental illness; and mainly she was concerned about misrepresenting others real-life experience. So in the end, it was no [naming of the] condition. And I think that means that people have been able to transfer whatever they think it is into that little space. And to me, again, the overall thing of the book is the not knowing. Thats whats defined everything. Its not the condition. Its the sense that Martha didnt know. And she knew, but she didnt know what it was. The 114-year-old Dixie Beer logo on the brewery tower in New Orleans was painted over on Wednesday as the new Faubourg label is set to hit store shelves after the famous lager was rebranded in the wake of the George Floyd killing. Faubourg Beer will be available for purchase in the coming weeks after the company that brewed it decided to rebrand its entire operation and drop the Dixie name in response to the protests following the killing of George Floyd. What this means is were in the final countdown to the official introduction of Faubourg, brewery manager Jim Birch told The Times-Picayune when asked about the sign above the water tower in New Orleans East. This past November, the Dixie Brewing Company, which produced New Orleans oldest beer, decided to rebrand as Faubourg Brewing Company. The Dixie Brewing Company, creators of Dixie Beer, a 107-year-old New Orleans lager, is rebranding itself by dropping the word 'Dixie' from its name On Wednesday, workers painted over Dixie Beer signs on the brewery tower and removed insignia and signage inside the brewery. The above file photo shows part of the brewery in New Orleans East On March 22, the company web site and official social media handles will reflect the new name - Faubourg Brewing Company. Faubourg is the French word meaning 'neighborhood' or 'suburb' We decided to retire the name Dixie this past June, as the nation undertook critical conversations about social justice issues, according to the company website. Additionally, the community is at the heart of why we do what we do, and we thrive on the idea of our beer bringing people together. Our name must speak to the diversity of the city we call home as we encourage unity and inclusivity in New Orleans and across the country. The company will officially change its website and social media handles to reflect the Faubourg name on March 22. Later that same week, the name will be seen on draft handles in the brewery tap room. Gayle Benson, the owner of the NBA's Pelicans and NFL's Saints, controls a majority stake of the brewery. She said she wanted to change the name to one that was more 'unifying' The company will distribute kegs full of the new beer to bars and restaurants in The Big Easy by the end of March. Shoppers can expect to buy the first cans and bottles of Faubourg in May. Last spring, the company began soliciting suggestions from the public as to the new name, receiving over 5,400 online submissions of names they believed represented the community and culture of New Orleans. It decided on Faubourg - a French word that is often interchangeably used with neighborhood - because it is a unifying name that celebrates every corner of New Orleans, according to the company. Last June, New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson decided to begin the process of rebranding Dixie Brewery, which reopened last year in New Orleans after being shuttered since Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005. Tom Benson, Gayles late husband, purchased the brewing company in 2017. Its product had been brewed out of state since the storm. Gayle Benson said they always intended to return production to the city and did so in January 2020. In a statement, Benson said she wants to make sure the brand represents the entire community. Since opening, the brewery has been extraordinarily successful in attracting thousands of people to visit New Orleans East and enjoy good food, great beer and good company in a beautiful setting. We have been gratified to see the diversity of our customers who visit from all corners of New Orleans, our region and from around the country, Benson said. In December, Dixie State University in St. George, Utah voted to change its name and remove 'Dixie' - though the decision is facing resistance among the Republican-controlled state legislature in Salt Lake City Last spring, the country music band Dixie Chicks (seen above from left to right in 2014: Martie Erwin Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer) officially changed their name to The Chicks after seeing a Confederate flag on Instagram labeled 'The Dixie Swastika' History: The Dixie flag is one of the designs often used to designate the Confederate States of America, and has long been considered a symbol of racism stemming from America's slavery past We recognize, however, that our nation and community are currently engaged in critical conversations about racism and systemic social issues that have caused immeasurable pain and oppression of our black and brown communities. As New Orleans and the country evolves, Benson said they felt it was necessary to reflect on the role of the brewery and how it can make our home more united, strong and resilient for future generations. WHAT DOES THE WORD 'DIXIE' MEAN? The map above shows the Mason-Dixon Line separating Maryland and Pennsylvania There are several competing theories for how the pre-Civil War Southern states came to be known by the nickname Dixie. The most widely accepted explanation centers around the Mason-Dixon Line, the 1767 boundary that separated Pennsylvania and Maryland. Initially drawn by English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the line was originally intended to settle a border dispute between the two British colonies. But in later years, it became the de facto demarcation point that separated the southern slave states and the free states in the North. It is believed that terms like Dixie and Dixieland were used as slang terms in order to refer to areas south of the Mason-Dixon Line. After the American Revolution, the newly formed United States was divided over the question of slavery. The states in the North sought to phase out slavery while those in the South wanted to keep the institution in place. After the North defeated the South in the Civil War, slavery was outlawed with the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868. But Southern symbols hearkening back to the days of the Confederacy continue to live on - igniting debate and causing controversy. Source: History Channel Advertisement There is no word on the new name of the brewery or when the change will occur. Dixie Brewery originally opened in 1907. The new facility is open to the public and boasts a bar, cafe, outdoor space, museum and games. The brewery also offers tours, showing parts of the production process. After research and reaching out to community leaders, she said they felt the Dixie brand would be a sign of rebuilding following the storm. The company will continue to brew a very limited amount of Dixie Lager each month according to the traditional recipe in order to complement our beer museum to show guests the evolution of New Orleans historical beer brands over time. The new Faubourg brand will be inspired by the original Dixie recipe though it will be produced through a modernized brewing process to remove adjuncts such as rice while retaining the very best elements of a true German Wurtzburg-style lager. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in the custody of Minneapolis police in late May. Video that went viral on social media showed one officer with his knee pressed against Floyds neck for more than 8 minutes while Floyd can be heard saying he could not breathe. Floyds death and the video sparked nationwide outrage, igniting mass protests, demonstrations, and in some instances rioting and looting. It also led to a national reckoning over racial disparities and injustices. The incident also prompted public institutions and businesses to discard symbols, images, names, statues, and other identifying features that had links to Americas history of racial intolerance. In the South and other parts of the country, scores of cities and local governments removed statues of Confederate soldiers and generals. In December, a university in Utah voted to drop Dixie from its name an example of the nations reexamination of the remnants of Confederacy and slavery. The move to rename Dixie State University has run into resistance among state lawmakers in Salt Lake City, particularly Republicans who make up the majority of the legislature. Last June, the country music band Dixie Chicks decided to drop Dixie from its name. They are now known simply as The Chicks. Collision With Train Kills Two Near Ullin By West Kentucky Star Staff ULLIN - Two people were killed Tuesday in a Pulaski County crash involving a vehicle and a train.According to Illinois State Police, the accident happened about 11:30 am on Old US Highway 51 near McIntosh Farm Lane just south of Ullin. Police said a pickup truck was turning from the highway and began to cross the nearby railroad tracks. The truck entered the path of a northbound train and was struck. The vehicle was pushed about 1/2 mile before the train could stop.Police said the driver of the pickup, 76-year-old Lanny Stocke, and his passenger, 74-year-old Betty Stocke, both of Carmi, were killed in the crash.The train did not derail. The crash is still under investigation. Rotunda Rumblings Contractual obligations: Ohio is paying at least $3.6 million to Accenture to develop the statewide coronavirus vaccine signup, after a system developed for the federal government was not able to work for Ohio, state officials told Laura Hancock. The cost may go up if Ohio adds additional services and as more people schedule appointments, since the contract only covers 1 million people. Party time: A push to list partisan affiliations for state judges on the November ballot has resumed, Andrew Tobias reports. Companion bills were introduced in the Ohio House and Senate this week that would apply to races for the Ohio Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals. Bill sponsors say the measure is meant to better inform voters, but the change also could have major ramifications for future state Supreme Court races, in which Democrats have made electoral gains in recent years. Then there were 10: Derek Jancart and Alexander Sheppard have been charged with violently entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, among other offenses, according to a federal complaint the ninth and tenth Ohioans accused of breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Acquaintances tipped off federal investigators that they may have been at the insurrection, the Associated Press reports. Fraud control? Advocates for low-income Ohioans say a bill in the Ohio Senate that aims to stem people from fraudulently obtaining services will result in fewer people getting food aid, Medicaid and unemployment. Hancock reports how Senate Bill 17 would require picture IDs on Ohio Directions food aid cards, limit peoples liquid assets to qualify and other provisions. Renewed energy standards? New legislation from Republican state Sen. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls would roll back part of the scandal-ridden House Bill 6 that guts the states renewable-energy and solar-energy standards. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, Senate Bill 89 would require that utilities get 0.5% of their power from solar from 2026 on, and it would indefinitely continue the states renewable-energy standards, which are currently set to end in 2027. 17,000 dead: The number of Ohioans who have died with COVID-19 was 17,045 on Wednesday, Hancock reports, due to numbers the Ohio Department of Health is adding from previous months, when it fell behind on reporting coronavirus deaths. Trump card: President Donald Trump endorsed Bob Paduchiks bid to lead the Ohio Republican Party, essentially clinching the job for his former state campaign chairman. As Tobias reports, Trump said in a statement issued through his political action committee that Paduchik has his full and complete endorsement to replace Jane Timken, who resigned her position to run for the U.S. Senate. The state GOP is expected to fill the job on Friday. Paduchiks opponent, former state Rep. John Becker, said he plans to stay in the race. Mail dominance: U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs grilled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at a congressional hearing Wednesday about long delivery delays, citing constituents who waited weeks for checks and other important mail to reach its destination, Sabrina Eaton reports. Rep. Jim Jordan also questioned DeJoy, but used his time to complain about Democrats and rail against mail-in voting during the presidential election. Chips ahoy: After meeting with U.S. Sen Rob Portman on Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order launching a review of U.S. supply chains and directing federal agencies to identify ways to secure them against a wide range of risks and vulnerabilities, Eaton writes. The order is an effort to keep the United States from being at the mercy of foreign countries for critical goods like semiconductor chips used in the auto industry, where Portman said a shortage could lead to layoffs at Ohio auto plants. Gas up, pay up: The average price for a gallon of gasoline jumped 22.8 cents this week in Ohio, marking the sharpest increase during a winter month since February 2013. This weeks average is $2.64 a gallon, according to federal tracking, Rich Exner reports. This is the highest price since before the pandemic. The increase is being blamed on rising crude oil prices and refinery shutdowns brought on by winter weather in the Gulf Coast and parts of the Midwest. Lobbying Lineup Five organizations that lobbied on House Bill 641 from the last legislative session, which would have added autism spectrum disorder as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. The bill didnt pass, but its back again this year. State lobbying forms dont require people to disclose whether they are for or against a bill. 1. Nationwide Childrens Hospital 2. Greater Cleveland Partnership 3. Green Investment PartnersLLC 4. Ohio Attorney Generals Office 5. Ohio Department of Public Safety On the Move The NFIB, the small-business association in Ohio, announced the re-election of officers to its statewide Leadership Council for one-year terms. Chris Ellis of Helping Hands Healthcare Inc. in West Chester is chair. Albert Macre of Albert F. Macre & Co. in Steubenville is vice-chair. Kelly Moore of GKM Auto Parts in Zanesville is chair of the NFIB Ohio PAC, a political action committee. Ty Baker-Baumann of REBSCO, Inc. in Greenville, Darke County, is the immediate past chair of the Council. Birthdays Ex-Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton Straight from the Source I didnt vote to overturn an election. And I will not be lectured by people who did about partisanship. -U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, referring to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, an Urbana Republican, during a congressional hearing looking into mail delivery problems with the U.S. Postal Service. Jordan had said Democrats purposely drummed up criticism over the USPS before the election. Connolly argued back that former President Donald Trump was the first to cast doubt on voting by mail. Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free. Katrina Wells, right, a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente, gives a COVID-19 vaccine to Janet Pattison, left, at the Kaiser clinic in Loveland, Colorado Feb. 13, 2021. The Kaiser clinics around the state were holding an educator-focused vaccine drive, with hopes to vaccinate thousands of teachers over the course of the weekend. v The new conditions come after a bitter negotiation between CTU and the district over the reopening of schools, during which the union argued unsuccessfully that educators should not be required to resume in-person teaching until receiving their vaccines. Lightfoots public health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, had retorted that if all the shots offered during the current inoculation phase were rerouted to teachers, the most vulnerable Chicagoans such as residents 65 or older would be put on the back burner. Arwady also said vaccinations were not a requirement for teachers to return to classrooms. Los Alamitos The Beechcraft King Air Sacramento Joel Lane U.S. Forest Service Orange County Fire Authority California Silverado Canyon Carlos Calvillo Los Angeles Fire Department (TNS) s there a fire? How big? Where is it going?When it comes to fighting fast-moving wildfires, information is key and until recently data from the sky had to wait.Oftentimes, an air crew flies over a blaze, capture images, lands and works the data soaking up crucial time as firefighters on the ground battle for a while without vital information.But now a small plane equipped with a state-of-the-art camera and a satellite sits at the ready at the Joint Forces Training Base in, poised to deliver real-time infrared video and photos to decision-makers on the ground in seconds.Right to firefighters' cell phones.200 is staffed around the clock. An identical plane sits in, though it is primed to go up only 12 hours a day.Between them, they can cover the entire state, each capable of hustling to a fire at 260-miles per hour.is no stranger to how things used to be.With more than 40 years in the, he has spent half of that on the ground with hotshot crews. The other half has been tied to the air, now as an air-attack-group supervisor with theLane is an air traffic controller of sorts: He helps orchestrate attacks on fires."Up until just recently, (air crews) had to land, find a computer, find internet, put in a thumb drive, make their maps and send them to a computer," Lane said. "But to us, 30 minutes or one hour is like reading yesterday's newspapers."With this," he said, "we're able to have them (the images) within seconds."From October until mid-April, the state is paying about $7.2 million to have the planes infirefighters' arsenal. The state could extend that, or take a break from the planes.When the wind-driven Bond fire hitin early December, the new technology was put to use.Once airborne, the flight crew, typically three strong, used the infrared- and sensory-camera systems to create fire-perimeter and behavior maps among other visuals, and sent them with the onboard satellite system.Data can be livestreamed, too.The special camera created images of the Bond burning in one spot, but also projected, with different colors, the expected spread and size with forecasted times. Using infrared, the crew can map the perimeter of the fire and detect hotspots.Software considers such factors as terrain, weather, wind, brush, trees, burn scars, structures and estimated pockets of people.The photos show the areas around the epicenter, how many acres the fire could consume and how many homes it could hurt. With that insight, firefighters can better tell which homes must be evacuated."This really helps figure out where to get people out and where to take them to," Lane said. "It was highly accurate."As many as 25,000 residents were told to flee their homes.On some fires, the crew takes to the air multiple times.Forecasting where a blaze can go is crucial and some expert firefighters do it manually, said, assistant chief at the"A (fire-behavior analyst) would manually use information, like weather, topography, the last time the area burned ... and come up with calculations," Calvillo said. "Now, you have a computer that does that in minutes."Calvillo, a 33-year veteran at the LAFD, has been involved with implementing the program with the planes and satellites.The software helps firefighters make solid predictions."The model paints a very clear picture of the threats of the incident," he said. "And that becomes a very powerful tool."As the fire changes, so do the models and projections, he said, allowing firefighters to alter their plans in tune with the blaze."For the incident commander on the ground ... they're just looking up at a big ball of fire burning up the hill," Lane said.Oftentimes when fatalities and accidents occur during fires, Lane said, it's during chaotic periods when no one knows exactly where the fire is going. He hopes these cameras and technology become the norm and help avoid that."I think this has the capability of actually saving lives, not only on the firefighter side but on the civilian side," he said. Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. Events take place online unless otherwise noted: THURSDAY The Purpose of Power book club: Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza discusses her book The Purpose of Power. Hosted by Mannys. 5 p.m. More information is here. Eugenics: A discussion on the history of the eugenics movement in the U.S., featuring excerpts from the documentary A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics, Genetics and the American Dream. Hosted by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. 6:30 p.m. More information is here. FRIDAY CSU chancellor: Joseph Castro, chancellor of the California State University system, in conversation about priorities for higher education in California. Hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California. 11 a.m. More information is here. Housing and climate change: A discussion on the intersection between housing policies and climate change, with Mountain View City Council Member Pat Showalter and Justin Wang, advocacy manager for the Greenbelt Alliance. Hosted by Silicon Valley at Home. Noon. More information is here. Anti-racist classrooms: A discussion on creating an inclusive and anti-racist educational climate during the pandemic. Participants include Shawn Ginwright, professor of Africana studies at San Francisco State University; Oakland schools Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammel; and Alison Briscoe-Smith, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Wright Institute Clinical Program. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here. Vaccines, COVID and the Black community: Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and state Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris hold community discussion on the importance and availability of vaccines and the impact of COVID-19 on the Black community. 2:15 p.m. Join meeting here. SATURDAY Abortion rights: A forum on how abortion restrictions disproportionately affect Black and Indigenous women and other people of color. Hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice America with special guest Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Noon. More information is here. Stand for Asians: A rally and march in opposition to anti-Asian American hate crimes. Speakers include San Mateo City Council Member Amourence Lee, Millbrae Anti-Racist Coalition founding members Steve Hom and Katie Nolan-Stevaux, and @FromHerePodcast host Dawn Lee. 1 p.m. at San Mateo Central Park (back of bleachers), 50 East Fifth Avenue, San Mateo. More information is here. Climate change: Citizens Climate Lobby holds a California regional conference with plenaries, panels and workshops on achieving carbon fee and dividend investment goals to drive sustainable policies. 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. More information is here. Health justice: Santa Clara County community leaders hold a forum on inequities in the health care system and how to fix them. Hosted by the Santa Clara County Single Payer Health Care Coalition. 2 p.m. More information is here. TUESDAY Extremism in the U.S.: A discussion on the spread of extremism and what can be done about it, with Seth Brysk of the Anti-Defamation League. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 5:30 p.m. More information is here. WEDNESDAY Bolstering the African American community: A discussion with San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here. MARCH 4 Reopening schools: A discussion about school-reopening issues in California. Participants include Joe Boyd, executive director of the California Teachers Association; Ricardo Cano, education reporter for CalMatters; Suzanne Kitchens, president of the California School Boards Association; and Ron Williams, president of the Association of California School Administrators. Hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California. 11 a.m. More information is here. Obamacare: HuffPost senior national correspondent Jonathan Cohn on his new book, The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 3 p.m. More information is here. Women in science: A discussion on women in science to mark International Womens Day. Participants include Chrissy Garcia, collections manager of geology for the California Academy of Sciences; Alejandra Hernandez-Agreda, research fellow at the academy studying coral-microbe interactions; Melanie Malone, assistant professor at the University of Washington, whose research focuses on the social complexities of environmental policies; and Suzanne Pierre, lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, a research and social change collective. Hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. 7 p.m. More information is here. MARCH 6 Womens March event: A webinar on building community and equity, hosted by the Womens March Foundation. Noon. More information is here. MARCH 8 Women shaping a more equitable future: Celebrating efforts by women and girls around the world to make a more equitable world. Keynote address by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis. Hosted by the Benicia-Vallejo and Danville-Alamo-Walnut Creek branches of the American Association of University Women. 5 p.m. More information is here. To list an event, please email Chronicle politics editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com Marco Muzzo, right, leaves the Newmarket courthouse surrounded by family on Thursday, February 4, 2016. Parole board officials say a drunk driver who killed three children and their grandfather in a Toronto-area crash still has difficulty recognizing that his attitude towards alcohol prior to the incident was problematic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Christopher Katsarov Hyderabad, Feb 25 : Two days after Telangana stopped issuing a daily media bulletin on the Covid-19 situation, the Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the state government to resume it to provide information to people on a daily basis. A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy asked the government to resume releasing information within 24 hours. The court asked the authorities to update all information like number of cases, recoveries, tests and vaccinations on the portal of the Health Department, observing that providing information to people is important, especially when the cases are rising in some states which led to fears of a second wave of the pandemic. It referred to the increase in number of cases in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka. Counsel of a petitioner brought to the notice of the court that the Director of Public Health discontinued issuing bulletins despite the fact the court is monitoring the Covid situation in the state. The court also sought a report from the state government on the steps to prevent a possible second wave, suggesting that the authorities prevent gathering of large number of people in public places. It also directed that another serum survey be conducted in the state and recommendations of experts on the basis of findings of such a survey be implemented. The government submitted a report to the court about the tests conducted since January 25. According to the report, 1,03,737 RTPCR tests were conducted from January 25 to February 12, and the number of antigen tests during the same period was 4,83,266. Meanwhile, Director of Public Health, Dr G. Srinivasa Rao said 22,850 healthcare workers were given second dose of the Covid vaccine on Thursday. With this, the cumulative number of healthcare workers administered second dose increased to 1,31,391. Out of 3,31,097 healthcare workers targetted for first dose, 1,95,850 took the vaccine. The authorities had also targetted to vaccinate 2,57,239 frontline workers and of them 93,677 have so far received the first dose. The director said mop-up sessions for the first dose for healthcare and frontline workers will be conducted across the state till February 28 while mop up sessions for the second dose for healthcare workers will be conducted till February 27. By adding CTW to our partners portfolio well be able to improve the quality of our services. The extensive features of the CTW pricing system will enable us to expand Kiwi.coms product range and reach new customers across the globe. Kiwi.com is an online travel-tech company and the worldwide leader in virtual interline trips. Kiwi.coms technology and its proprietary data create a global network of more than 800 ground and air carriers. The self-connect solution allows Kiwi.com to combine carries that dont cooperate by providing travelers with seamless travel experience. The CTW Platform is the most accurate airline pricing system on the market as evidenced by ATPCOs own ratings - in full industry compliance with all IATA mandates and ATPCO fare rules. It is also the only system to offer two years of historical flight schedules and fares with up-to-the-minute accuracy, which is crucial for the post-ticketing servicing. With its cost-effective technology and ability to handle all refund, reissue, and revalidation scenarios CTW is enabling the automation of even the most complex transactions and itineraries that previously required painstaking manual calculations. Kiwi.coms Chief Product Officer Petra Vaskovych commented: By adding CTW to our partners portfolio well be able to improve the quality of our services. The extensive features of the CTW pricing system will enable us to expand Kiwi.coms product range and reach new customers across the globe. CTW CEO Assen Vassilev added: Partnering with industry leader Kiwi.com validates the enormous efforts we have put into becoming the most technologically advanced and accurate pricing system on the market. CTWs goal is to create new market opportunities in multiple airline technology segments that were previously technologically impossible or prohibitively expensive. About Kiwi.com: Kiwi.com was founded in 2012 by Oliver Dlouhy and Jozef Kepesi. The travel tech company was created for travelers by travelers. Its proprietary algorithm Virtual Interlining allows users to combine flights and ground transportation from more than 800 carriers, including many that do not normally cooperate. Kiwi.com powers more than 100 million searches every day and employs 2,000 people worldwide. About CTW: CTW has developed several generations of airline shopping and pricing systems. The CTW Platform provides complete shopping, fares and pricing, reshopping and ancillaries. CTW Network connects content providers and retailers worldwide. CTW Platform currently provides final pricing and repricing for 20% of all ARC/BSP issued airline tickets in the world and has operations in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania. https://ctw.travel/ Contacts: Carol Barnes, Head of Global Communications, Kiwi.com; email: pr@kiwi.com Andrew Cuomo, Chief Commercial Officer, CTW; email: acuomo@ctw.travel 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. animeshc Newbie Join Date: Sep 2020 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 15 Thanked: 233 Times Re: Let there be lights! Aurora hunting in Finland Day 2 (Snowmobiling on Inari Lake, with a twist) The highlight for this day was supposed to be a 4 hours snowmobiling tour on the Inari lake and staying in the Aurora hut, but little did we know that fate was smiling at us. It was just too beautiful a place to stay in bed for long and we were up early. We looked out the window and we were definitely the Alices in a Wonderland. There are few instances in our lives that give us pure unadulterated joy and even after years when you look back at them, they put a smile on your face. Remember the time your crush waved and smiled at you in school unexpectedly or the times when you took your team to victory in a sports match (or for the Bong foodies like me, when you last had a cup of Mishti doi in Kolkata), this morning was one such instance for me. I think after this point, I might run out of adjectives to describe the place and will let the photographs do the talking. http://youtu.be/ZVqSOLoIH2s Attachment 2125211 Of-course we lost track of time and scrambled to reach the snowmobile tour meeting point. The instructors looked at our McMurdo Parka III jackets, smiled and politely asked us to put on the overall winter suits (provided as part of the tour) instead. They said it was going to be extremely cold given the bright sunshine (remember latent heat of vaporization) and our jackets might not be enough. So, out went an entire week and a few hundred dollars of shopping! The plan was to drive for about 2 hours to one of the other properties of the same resort, break for lunch and return. It just took a few minutes to get used to the bike and then it was like driving on a four lane highway with no traffic whatsoever, which in other words is sheer pleasure! Picture this, crystal clear blue skies with the sun beating down, mother earth covered with snow till the horizon, forests on both sides and just the sound of your bike to disturb the otherwise pin drop silence, this indeed was the driveway to heaven. One could forgive me for comparing myself with Salman bhai driving through snow in one of his spy movies. We stopped a couple of times along the way for clicking pictures. Goes without saying that the cold was bone piercing. It is one thing standing in -15 and another thing driving a bike at 50 kph. Whatever little skin around the eyes was open was numb, the hands were shivering and even with the snow boots and woolen socks, the feet turned cold. We had brought along hand and foot warmers, but we realized at the last minute that they need to be kept in open for about 20-30 mins before they warm up. We had only been able to give them 5-10 mins in the morning rush and were regretting it now. About 2 hours into the drive, just before reaching our destination, the twist arrived. Well it was a literal twist (a U-Turn) to begin with. Not sure if there was lapse in concentration or a brain freeze (or the consequence of comparing myself with an actor not known for his driving skills), but the bike went over a soft patch of snow on the turn and as I tried to accelerate to get out of it, I saw the picture perfect world going up side down (both literally and as it turned out later, figuratively too). We had toppled! The first thought which came was the stern instruction in the beginning to not crash the bike at any cost. I looked at the bike, only the visor had been damaged. It didnt look that bad. But as I turned my attention to P, the concern immediately changed. I had fallen off a bit far from the bike but P wasnt so lucky and her leg was stuck beneath the snowmobile. I tried lifting it and it didnt even move. I thought of waiting for help but the look in her eyes pleaded and instructed me at the same time to do otherwise. With all my might, I tried again and lifted it enough for her to take the leg out. I helped her get up but she couldnt stand. The situation looked really bleak now. We were in the middle of nowhere, she was in tremendous pain and the instructor told us that the nearest medical attention was at least 2 hours away. We would have to drive the snowmobiles back to our resort and then take a cab to Ivalo to reach the closest hospital. He took P along with him on his snowmobile and asked me to follow along in the damaged one. The romantic story had become a rescue mission now, the hero was battered, a bit bruised and shaken to the core. Just having crashed a bike, it was hard enough for me to drive it again but now I had to drive it a lot faster to catch up with the bike ahead (who understandably was trying to rush back) and that too without the visor which meant the cold winds were punching me front on. My clothes had been ruffled up which meant the wind was sneaking in through multiple places and it wasnt the driveway to heaven anymore (or maybe it was, in a more literal sense now!). And of course, a plethora of thoughts were going on in the head around how it happened, what could have I done differently, her well being, the future of the trip, figuring out the medical insurance process, the potential reaction of our parents and so on. Those were probably the toughest 40 mins I have ever endured. What I didnt realize at that time was that the accident sequence would continue to haunt and keep playing on a repeat loop in the head for way longer. By the time we reached back, the taxi was waiting for us and we were off to the hospital. A preliminary examination in the emergency room (which included a nerve jarring effort of taking the boots out of the leg) concluded that an ex-ray followed by an appointment with the Ortho was required. The leg of-course was extremely swollen, a basic painkiller was administered. What followed were an anxious couple of hours for the ortho consultation. Desperate times often lead to profound realizations and one such was that hungry, tired and tensed are not the best combination of emotions. A morning that promised so much, had turned into an afternoon of despair (any resemblances to the career of Prithvi Shaw are purely coincidental). In between, we met another traveller who had broken her leg and was being shifted to Rovaniemi for the operation. We prayed to all the gods (old and new!) that we didnt meet the same fate. We were so elated coming out of the doctors room that one might have wondered if it was some other kind of good news. The doctor had ruled out a fracture!, though she said one point in the ex-ray wasnt clear and asked us to get it examined once back. She prescribed some painkillers, bandaged the leg, administered walking sticks and also gave a fit to fly certificate for the flight back (apparently airlines need one in-case of a plastered/bandaged leg). Thankfully the snowmobiles already had an insurance policy and our insurance wasnt needed. So in-case you are planning to crash a snowmobile and end up in a hospital, dont worry about the insurance With rejuvenated spirits, we headed back to the resort where another critical question was awaiting us. A beautiful sunset on the way back The leg wasnt broken but it was still damn painful and walking was a problem. Today was the day of our stay in the Aurora hut which meant walking up and down about 500 m on a slippery slope every time you had to come to the main lobby/restaurant. The resort management refused to provide us transport to the hut (which I felt was quite harsh) and after slightly heated negotiations, they agreed to drop us to the room with our luggage just once. The other option was to continue staying in the normal room close to the lobby but this trip had been our torch bearer against practicality, we couldnt let a damaged leg change that. Not only we decided to stay in the aurora hut, but also boldly asked for the room at the end so that our night sky view was unhindered (There is a fine line between boldness and stupidity and we were playing right on the edge of that). We spent our evening marvelling at the beauty of the room and resting our tired bodies. By evening, the weather had worsened significantly, clouds had taken over the night sky and the winds threatened to blow away the hut. But the temptation of a free Sauna dragged us out of our room late in the evening (things we do for free stuff). After a relaxing Sauna and the first proper meal of the day, it was time for our next adventure! The storm had intensified and due to it, there was fresh covering of soft snow which made walking difficult. With the leg too swollen to put on the boot, P wore a normal shoe on that leg and the snowboot on the other (who knew she would inspire a new fashion in the IPL!). As a result, the leg started to get wet in the snow and it was a real struggle with the cold and pain. After a treacherous 20 mins walk in the storm, we reached our room and now it wouldnt open! We struggled for 5-7 mins (trust me, they felt like a lot more) and panic started to kick in. There was no one in the vicinity, no network to call up the lobby and the winds were so strong that the things in our hands were getting blown away. We even dropped the key once in that darkness but thankfully caught it before it flew away too far. The only option now was to head back to the lobby and find help, P of-course couldnt walk and needed to stay behind. The idea to leave her wasnt particularly exciting (the Game of thrones fan inside me was imagining a white walker waiting for me when I returned). Not for the first time in the trip, we realized that these extreme temperatures meant a lot more than simple numbers. As I had mentioned above that ours was the last room but as I started to head back, I noticed in the dim torch light that there was another hut ahead of us. We were in the wrong room!! If I ever write a book on my not so intelligent moments, this would surely make it to the top 5. The bad weather meant there were no chances of seeing the aurora. With thoughts echoing those of Kareena Kapoor from Jab we Met where she prays for no further adventures on the trip, we retired to bed. Contd.. The highlight for this day was supposed to be a 4 hours snowmobiling tour on the Inari lake and staying in the Aurora hut, but little did we know that fate was smiling at us.It was just too beautiful a place to stay in bed for long and we were up early.We looked out the window and we were definitely the Alices in a Wonderland. There are few instances in our lives that give us pure unadulterated joy and even after years when you look back at them, they put a smile on your face. Remember the time your crush waved and smiled at you in school unexpectedly or the times when you took your team to victory in a sports match (or for the Bong foodies like me, when you last had a cup of Mishti doi in Kolkata), this morning was one such instance for me.I think after this point, I might run out of adjectives to describe the place and will let the photographs do the talking.Of-course we lost track of time and scrambled to reach the snowmobile tour meeting point. The instructors looked at our McMurdo Parka III jackets, smiled and politely asked us to put on the overall winter suits (provided as part of the tour) instead. They said it was going to be extremely cold given the bright sunshine (remember latent heat of vaporization) and our jackets might not be enough. So, out went an entire week and a few hundred dollars of shopping!The plan was to drive for about 2 hours to one of the other properties of the same resort, break for lunch and return. It just took a few minutes to get used to the bike and then it was like driving on a four lane highway with no traffic whatsoever, which in other words is sheer pleasure!Picture this, crystal clear blue skies with the sun beating down, mother earth covered with snow till the horizon, forests on both sides and just the sound of your bike to disturb the otherwise pin drop silence, this indeed was the driveway to heaven.One could forgive me for comparing myself with Salman bhai driving through snow in one of his spy movies.We stopped a couple of times along the way for clicking pictures.Goes without saying that the cold was bone piercing. It is one thing standing in -15 and another thing driving a bike at 50 kph. Whatever little skin around the eyes was open was numb, the hands were shivering and even with the snow boots and woolen socks, the feet turned cold. We had brought along hand and foot warmers, but we realized at the last minute that they need to be kept in open for about 20-30 mins before they warm up. We had only been able to give them 5-10 mins in the morning rush and were regretting it now.About 2 hours into the drive, just before reaching our destination, the twist arrived. Well it was a literal twist (a U-Turn) to begin with. Not sure if there was lapse in concentration or a brain freeze (or the consequence of comparing myself with an actor not known for his driving skills), but the bike went over a soft patch of snow on the turn and as I tried to accelerate to get out of it, I saw the picture perfect world going up side down (both literally and as it turned out later, figuratively too). We had toppled!The first thought which came was the stern instruction in the beginning to not crash the bike at any cost. I looked at the bike, only the visor had been damaged. It didnt look that bad. But as I turned my attention to P, the concern immediately changed. I had fallen off a bit far from the bike but P wasnt so lucky and her leg was stuck beneath the snowmobile.I tried lifting it and it didnt even move. I thought of waiting for help but the look in her eyes pleaded and instructed me at the same time to do otherwise. With all my might, I tried again and lifted it enough for her to take the leg out. I helped her get up but she couldnt stand.The situation looked really bleak now. We were in the middle of nowhere, she was in tremendous pain and the instructor told us that the nearest medical attention was at least 2 hours away. We would have to drive the snowmobiles back to our resort and then take a cab to Ivalo to reach the closest hospital. He took P along with him on his snowmobile and asked me to follow along in the damaged one.The romantic story had become a rescue mission now, the hero was battered, a bit bruised and shaken to the core. Just having crashed a bike, it was hard enough for me to drive it again but now I had to drive it a lot faster to catch up with the bike ahead (who understandably was trying to rush back) and that too without the visor which meant the cold winds were punching me front on. My clothes had been ruffled up which meant the wind was sneaking in through multiple places and it wasnt the driveway to heaven anymore (or maybe it was, in a more literal sense now!). And of course, a plethora of thoughts were going on in the head around how it happened, what could have I done differently, her well being, the future of the trip, figuring out the medical insurance process, the potential reaction of our parents and so on.Those were probably the toughest 40 mins I have ever endured. What I didnt realize at that time was that the accident sequence would continue to haunt and keep playing on a repeat loop in the head for way longer.By the time we reached back, the taxi was waiting for us and we were off to the hospital. A preliminary examination in the emergency room (which included a nerve jarring effort of taking the boots out of the leg) concluded that an ex-ray followed by an appointment with the Ortho was required. The leg of-course was extremely swollen, a basic painkiller was administered.What followed were an anxious couple of hours for the ortho consultation. Desperate times often lead to profound realizations and one such was that hungry, tired and tensed are not the best combination of emotions. A morning that promised so much, had turned into an afternoon of despair (any resemblances to the career of Prithvi Shaw are purely coincidental).In between, we met another traveller who had broken her leg and was being shifted to Rovaniemi for the operation. We prayed to all the gods (old and new!) that we didntmeet the same fate.We were so elated coming out of the doctors room that one might have wondered if it was some other kind of good news. The doctor had ruled out a fracture!, though she said one point in the ex-ray wasnt clear and asked us to get it examined once back. She prescribed some painkillers, bandaged the leg, administered walking sticks and also gave a fit to fly certificate for the flight back (apparently airlines need one in-case of a plastered/bandaged leg).Thankfully the snowmobiles already had an insurance policy and our insurance wasnt needed. So in-case you are planning to crash a snowmobile and end up in a hospital, dont worry about the insuranceWith rejuvenated spirits, we headed back to the resort where another critical question was awaiting us.A beautiful sunset on the way backThe leg wasnt broken but it was still damn painful and walking was a problem. Today was the day of our stay in the Aurora hut which meant walking up and down about 500 m on a slippery slope every time you had to come to the main lobby/restaurant. The resort management refused to provide us transport to the hut (which I felt was quite harsh) and after slightly heated negotiations, they agreed to drop us to the room with our luggage just once. The other option was to continue staying in the normal room close to the lobby but this trip had been our torch bearer against practicality, we couldnt let a damaged leg change that. Not only we decided to stay in the aurora hut, but also boldly asked for the room at the end so that our night sky view was unhindered (There is a fine line between boldness and stupidity and we were playing right on the edge of that).We spent our evening marvelling at the beauty of the room and resting our tired bodies.By evening, the weather had worsened significantly, clouds had taken over the night sky and the winds threatened to blow away the hut. But the temptation of a free Sauna dragged us out of our room late in the evening (things we do for free stuff).After a relaxing Sauna and the first proper meal of the day, it was time for our next adventure! The storm had intensified and due to it, there was fresh covering of soft snow which made walking difficult. With the leg too swollen to put on the boot, P wore a normal shoe on that leg and the snowboot on the other (who knew she would inspire a new fashion in the IPL!). As a result, the leg started to get wet in the snow and it was a real struggle with the cold and pain. After a treacherous 20 mins walk in the storm, we reached our room and now it wouldnt open! We struggled for 5-7 mins (trust me, they felt like a lot more) and panic started to kick in. There was no one in the vicinity, no network to call up the lobby and the winds were so strong that the things in our hands were getting blown away. We even dropped the key once in that darkness but thankfully caught it before it flew away too far. The only option now was to head back to the lobby and find help, P of-course couldnt walk and needed to stay behind. The idea to leave her wasnt particularly exciting (the Game of thrones fan inside me was imagining a white walker waiting for me when I returned). Not for the first time in the trip, we realized that these extreme temperatures meant a lot more than simple numbers.As I had mentioned above that ours was the last room but as I started to head back, I noticed in the dim torch light that there was another hut ahead of us. We were in the wrong room!! If I ever write a book on my not so intelligent moments, this would surely make it to the top 5.The bad weather meant there were no chances of seeing the aurora. With thoughts echoing those of Kareena Kapoor from Jab we Met where she prays for no further adventures on the trip, we retired to bed.Contd.. Last edited by animeshc : 24th February 2021 at 14:01 . UPPSALA, SWEDEN - LIDDS AB (publ) announced today that a collaboration agreement has been signed with the R&D and Production company PharmIdea SIA in Riga, Latvia. PharmIdea focuses on anti-cancer drugs and sterile formulations. The collaboration enables LIDDS to expand the manufacturing of new product candidates, e.g. including biomolecules and cytostatics, in addition to the already existing collaboration with Recipharm for Liproca Depot. "We are very pleased to have closed this agreement with a dedicated mid-sized R&D and Production site relatively close to Uppsala and with a long-term experience of production of anti-cancer drugs for European pharmaceutical companies. The agreement allows us to work in parallel with several important product candidates that are close to entering clinical trials," said Monica Wallter, CEO of LIDDS. LIDDS is preparing a clinical Phase I trial with intratumoral injections of NZ-TLR9 for treatment of solid tumors in patients with head/neck-, breast cancer, melanoma, sarcomas and lymphomas. The incidence of these cancers is more than 3 million patients yearly. The development of the NZ-TLR9 formulation will be the first project within the collaboration between LIDDS and PharmIdea. "LIDDS has an exciting drug delivery technology, NanoZolid, that suits very well with the anti-cancer profile and the collaboration strategy of PharmIdea. LIDDS has already performed several clinical trials for various indications which is impressive and very promising for the future," said Vitalijs Skrivelis, CEO of PharmIdea. For more information, please contact: Monica Wallter, CEO, +46 COLUMBUS, OhioScammers are continuing to target Ohios beleaguered unemployment benefits system, as tens of thousands of claims filed last week have been flagged for fraud. At least 29,000 of the 101,825 new jobless claims filed in Ohio last week -- more than 28% -- are suspected to be fraudulent, according to data released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The overall number of new claims filed last week fell by about 45,000 compared to the previous week. The number of ongoing claims for traditional benefits also rose to 322,542 last week the highly weekly total since last September. However, that figure, too, is likely inflated because of fake claims. Other economic indicators, including company notifications to the state about upcoming mass layoffs, indicate Ohio should not be seeing such a rise in claims. ODJFS has said its review of all the new claims will create delays in processing some legitimate claims. Even before now, most Ohioans have faced longer-than-usual wait times to get benefits, as the state has been inundated with an unprecedented number of claims because of the coronavirus crisis. In recent months, scammers have targeted other states with a similar bombardment of claims. In January, a surge in bogus filings led Kansas to shut down its unemployment benefit processing system. Until recently, Ohio -- like many other states -- has found far more fraudulent claims among Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits than they have among traditional unemployment benefits. Thats because, until the new federal stimulus package passed in December set new rules, less documentation was required for PUA benefits than for traditional unemployment benefits. The number of Ohioans receiving federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits, however, went down to 235,695 claims last week, compared to 244,758 claims the week before, according to ODJFS statistics. ODJFS has paid out at least $331 million for nearly 57,000 bogus federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims -- which amount to 3.6% of the $9.1 billion-plus in PUA payments made in Ohio. About $6.57 million has been paid to more than 6,300 fake traditional unemployment claims, according to department director Kimberly Henderson. Since the coronavirus crisis arose in mid-March, causing widespread unemployment as businesses were closed and saw sales plummet, ODJFS said it has distributed a total of more than $8.6 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 941,000 claims. Earlier this month, ODJFS stated in a release that it is putting into place a more robust identity verification system for traditional unemployment claims. However, the department hasnt provided details on the changes they making on the grounds that criminals could exploit such information to evade the safeguards. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Gwyneth Paltrow is once again under fire for being on the wrong side of science, this time for saying she is treating lingering COVID-19 symptoms with intuitive fasting and infrared sauna sessions. The 48-year-old actor wrote in a blog post on her lifestyle website Goop that she has been experiencing long-tail fatigue and brain fog after contracting COVID-19 early on. Gwyneth Paltrow is again clashing with scientists. Credit:Netflix She said she sought advice from a functional medicine practitioner and had since been fasting daily until 11am and eating a mostly ketogenic and plant-based diet, with no sugar or alcohol and lots of coconut aminos. She is also taking supplements in service of a healthier gut, which she said were critical for me right now. Everything Im doing feels good, like a gift to my body. I have energy, Im working out in the mornings, and Im doing an infrared sauna as often as I can, all in service of healing, she wrote. A North Carolina woman who lied to get a coronavirus relief loan spent the money on shopping excursions to Nieman Marcus, Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton and diamond stores, federal prosecutors said. Jasmine Johnnae Clifton, 24, appeared in court Monday and was later released on $25,000 bond, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina. NRFit offers a safer connector for healthcare providers Around the world, hospitals are doing the right thing by adopting connectors made to a unified global standard. One near miss, patient injury or death is one too many. All hospitals across Japan have completed adoption of ISO-compliant NRFit neuraxial connectors designed to improve patient safety by reducing the risk of medical device misconnections, the Global Enteral Device Supplier Association (GEDSA) announced today. NRFit replaces legacy connectors that are prone to wrong-route delivery of medication, which can result in patient injury or death. To address patient safety concerns, the ISO standard used in NRFit (80369-6) was developed by international clinical, technical and regulatory experts in partnership with global manufacturers, suppliers and distributors. All medical devices that connect to the neuraxial route will eventually use the ISO 80369-6 design, including spinal needles, syringes and syringe caps, monometers and others. Around the world, hospitals are doing the right thing for patients by adopting connectors made to a unified global standard, said Michael Cusack, Executive Director of GEDSA. One near miss, patient injury or death is one too many. GEDSA is a nonprofit organization formed to help introduce the new standards and help guide the transition to safer connectors for healthcare providers and their partners. Under the guidance of the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, NRFit is now used in more than 8,000 hospitals and more than 100,000 outpatient clinics across the country. Strong collaboration among hospitals and distributors was key to a smooth launch across thousands of care facilities, said Yoshihisa Kato, medical marketing director in Japan for Smiths Medical. We also conducted intensive outreach and education for clinicians to ensure they understood the importance of the change and how implement the transition. Next Step: Safer Enteral Feeding Connectors Japan is now moving forward with adoption of ENFit enteral feeding devices made to the same rigorous global ISO standards. Like NRFit, ENFit replaces legacy devices that are prone to misconnections. For instance, medication meant for a feeding tube can be accidentally sent into an IV instead, with potentially tragic results. While global NRFit adoption is in its early stages, hospitals throughout Europe have successfully adopted ENFit- branded ISO 80369-3 compliant devices over the past two years. ENFit adoption is nearing completion in Australia and New Zealand with China and Brazil ready to adopt in 2021. In the United States, leaders in patient-centric care are now using ENFit, including the Mayo Clinic, Sharp Memorial, Banner Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente. Nearly half of top 25 hospitals in the US News & World Report rankings have adopted ENFit, according to feedback collected by GEDSA through its membership. NRFit and ENFit are the first steps for hospitals in a longer-term process of implementing a comprehensive system of ISO-compliant connectors across care settings, Cusack said. By setting a single global standard, we can reduce complexity and risk to fully protect patients. Visit StayConnected.org to learn more. Connect with us on social media: LinkedIn Facebook YouTube Twitter MANILA -- The Philippines will let thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate much-needed coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on Tuesday. The Philippines, which has among Asias highest number of coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its healthcare workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year. Alice Visperas, director of the labour ministrys international affairs bureau, said the Philippines was open to lifting the cap in exchange for vaccines from Britain and Germany, which it would use to inoculate outbound workers and hundreds of thousands of Filipino repatriates. Nurses are among the millions of Filipinos who work overseas, providing in excess of $30 billion a year in remittances vital to the countrys economy. We are considering the request to lift the deployment cap, subject to agreement, Visperas told Reuters. Britain is grappling with the worlds sixth-highest coronavirus death toll and one of the worst economic hits from the pandemic, while Germany has the 10th most infections globally. While the two countries have inoculated a combined 23 million people, the Philippines has yet to start its campaign to immunise 70 million adults, or two-thirds of its 108 million people. It expects to receive its first batch of vaccines this week, donated by China. The Philippines wants to secure 148 million doses of vaccines altogether. The British embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment while calls to Germanys mission went unanswered. In 2019, almost 17,000 Filipino nurses signed overseas work contracts, government data showed. While Filipino nurses have fought to lift the deployment ban to escape poor working conditions and low pay at home, the workers-for-vaccine plan has not gone down well with some medical workers. We are disgusted on how nurses and healthcare workers are being treated by the government as commodities or export products, Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of the Filipino Nurses United, told Reuters. CAIRO - Palestinian-Egyptian dissident Ramy Shaath, who has been incarcerated for more than a year and a half in Tora prison in Cairo and whose judicial case is being monitored by Italy, is being held in "inhumane conditions" sharing a 25-square-metre cell "with 10 and up to 18" other prisoners, said Shaath's wife Celine Lebrun-Shaath, in a petition published on the website of Amnesty International. She said this month she received a 10-day permit to visit her husband. "I was able to take Ramy in my arms for the first time in 19 months," she said. Ramy Shaath is the son of Nabil Shaath, the former Palestinian foreign minister who was the chief negotiator at the time of the Oslo Accords. He is accused in a rather controversial way of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Egypt as a terrorist group. The accusations are considered spurious by human rights NGOs, who highlighted that Shaath was a peaceful activist who only wanted to create a political platform in view of elections. His judicial case, as part of the European Union monitoring mechanism, is being closely followed by the Italian ambassador to Egypt. In a hearing that took place in Cairo on 10 February, in addition to a French diplomat, an Italian diplomat also participated. Britain was being dirty. The world had opened up. Along with Europe, Britain stretched across the globe, colonising old lands, settling new nations. But indigenous people were already there, guardians of these lands. So they were captured and taken as slaves, or killed, or worse. In some cases, under Italian born Columbus, Latino people were fed to dogs alive, for fun. Now there was a particular group of Christians in a town called Clapham, in England. They read the newspapers, saw the slaves passing through, and thought to themselves, We dont believe God is well pleased with this sort of behaviour. These Christians were The Clapham Sect. The Clapham Sect knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ is far more than going to heaven when you die. They knew that Christianity is actually about God restoring His broken Creation, and as a part of this rectifying human injustices. William Wilberforce was a part of The Clapham Sect who we know ended the slave trade in Britain. They started the SPCA. They wrote hymns and poems, some of which we still sing in Churches today. They led the Church Missionary Society and had ties with the Aborigines Protection Society. And it was The Clapham Sect who first decided that when Britain colonises another land they must form a treaty with the indigenous people of the land. They believed that the murder, the thievery and the torture must stop. To achieve this they needed to give rights to the indigenous people of the lands being colonised. A treaty would achieve this. Lord Glenelg was the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1835. He was also the son of Clapham Sect member Charles Grant. It was through this connection that The Clapham Sect swayed Britain to set terms for sovereignty and land purchases in New Zealand. Lord Glenelg persuaded The New Zealand Company, back in England, to form a treaty with the Maori of Aotearoa. The Treaty of Waitangi was dreamed up and instigated by Christians back in England in the early 1800s. However like any creation event tale, after the forming of something very good there comes a Fall. Christian missionaries were responsible for the translation of the Treaty into Te Reo Maori. Intentional or not, translation error resulted in much suffering. The English translation of the Treaty of Waitangi did not correspond well to the Te Reo Maori translation. It was understood differently by the Maori chiefs and British colonisers who signed it. To make matters worse, new waves of overseas settlers didnt think the treaty belonged to them. They continued settling into Aotearoa as though they were settling into any other New Land with their Eurocentric mentality. At times, Christian missionaries were allied with Maori to help protect their rights from being taken from them. Rights that existed because of the treaty. At other times, Christian missionaries were involved in kidnapping Maori from central North Island to take them as slaves. The relationship was left broken. Yes it is true that Christ forgives my sins, through his blood that was spilt on the cross, so that I may live in harmony with God. But this is hardly half the gospel. Christ forgives our sins, through his blood that was spilt, so that we may fulfil our vocation as human beings. We are made to tenderly shine Gods image to the world around us. A vocation we fail. But Gods kingdom is being launched onto Earth as we speak, and us Christians are the ones who are called to be ambassadors of Christ. Thanks to the Cross, we can participate in Gods restorative work in the world where wrongs are being righted. This is the gospel. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. (2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 18-19). This passage does not say that Christ is reconciling me to himself. He is not reconciling the Church to himself. He is reconciling the entire created cosmos himself! This includes me, sure but its not actually about me. But He is going about this reconciliation through the Church. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We get too preoccupied with the thought that Christ is reconciling me to himself. We run our Churches this way. We forget that he is actually reconciling the world to himself through us. All of creation is being reconciled into harmony through Christ, and mending broken relationships between different ethnicities is meant to be a part of this. Jesus teaches, When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew chapter 5, verses 23-24). Our worship to God is meaningless if we are not going about reconciling a broken relationship with our brothers and sisters first. The Church was the catalyst for the relationship between Maori and Pakeha. A relationship thats been broken. Now, today, our worship is waffle if we arent interested in reconciling the brokenness of such relationship to bring about restoration. And thats something to be freaking out about. A cheap and safe drug widely used against parasites cuts Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths by about 75 per cent, a study shows. More than 30 trials across the world found that ivermectin causes repeated, consistent, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes at all stages of the disease. The peer-reviewed study, to be published in the US journal Frontiers of Pharmacology, says the evidence is so strong that the drug used to treat head lice and scabies should become a standard therapy everywhere, so hastening the global recovery. Study co-author Professor Paul Marik, director of emergency and pulmonary care at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in the US, said: The data is overwhelming we are in a pandemic, and this is an incredibly effective way to combat it. If we use ivermectin widely, our societies can open up. More than 30 trials across the world found that ivermectin causes repeated, consistent, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes at all stages of the disease (stock image) Other medications have been touted as effective treatments for combating coronavirus, only for trials to dash hopes notably with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug. An earlier study by Professor Andrew Hill of Liverpool University also concluded that ivermectin cuts death rates by around three-quarters. He recommended there should be larger trials before it was approved by UK regulators. A new trial of ivermectin as a Covid treatment is due to start shortly at Oxford University. Dr Tess Lawrie, director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy in Bath, convened an online summit of international experts last weekend to discuss the new data. It included evidence that widespread use of ivermectin in parts of India and South America has led to a big reduction in infections and deaths. The peer-reviewed study, to be published in the US journal Frontiers of Pharmacology, says the evidence is so strong that the drug used to treat head lice and scabies should become a standard therapy everywhere, so hastening the global recovery (file image) Yesterday Dr Lawrie submitted a 97-page report to the World Health Organisation, urging it immediately to recommend ivermectin to treat Covid. The drug, taken in tablet form or as drops, is licensed in Britain only as a treatment for parasitic worms, head lice and scabies. It has been used by hundreds of millions of patients over the past 30 years, mainly in developing countries, and at around 50 per patient less in some countries is far cheaper than other new Covid treatments, such as the rheumatism drug tocilizumab, which costs 1,000 per patient. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it was aware of the global study into the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19 and that its evidence would be reviewed. New Delhi: Insurance sector regulator Irdai on Thursday withdrew its circular on dividend payouts for 2019-20 by insurers in the wake of COVID-19, citing improving economic conditions, and said they should take a conscious call on dividends for the current year. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) had in April 2020 asked insurance companies to manage their resources prudently. It had directed all the insurers to align their dividend payouts for 2019-20 so as to be in conformity with their strategies to ensure they have adequate resources for the protection of interests of the policyholders. The Authority has been assessing the economic position both at global level and at the Indian context, in general and the insurance sector in particular, Irdai said on Thursday. The regulator said it has assessed the situation based on the financial results of the insurers for quarters ended September and December 2020. It observed that the performance of the insurers in terms of business is gradually reviving, albeit at a slower pace vis-a-vis the pre-COVID levels. "Considering the revival phase of the economy in general and the insurance industry in particular, and taking into account the solvency position of the insurers, it has been decided to withdraw the applicability of the circular dated 24th April 2020 mentioned above with immediate effect," it said. However, insurers are requested to take a conscious call in the matter of declaring dividends for FY 2020-21 considering their capital, solvency and liquidity positions, it said further. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. President on Thursday declared that has scored a "complete victory" in its fight against by lifting over 770 million people out of it in the last four decades, calling it another "miracle" created by the country that will go down in history. Absolute has been eradicated in the world's most populous country, Xi announced while addressing a gathering held here to mark the country's accomplishments in alleviation and honour its model poverty fighters. has a population of around 1.4 billion. "No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time," Xi said. Xi said that all poor people in rural areas have been lifted out of poverty. With this, has achieved the UN goal of poverty eradication 10 years ahead of the 2030 deadline, he said. Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list, he said. Since the launch of the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, 770 million impoverished rural residents have shaken off poverty when calculated according to China's current poverty line, he said. China has contributed to more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction over the same period, Xi, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), said. With such achievements, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," he said. Xi said since he assumed power, China has invested accumulative fiscal funds of nearly 1.6 trillion yuan (about USD 246 billion) into poverty alleviation over the past eight years. He said according to the World Bank's poverty line, the number of Chinese people lifted out of poverty over the past 40 years accounts for more than 70 per cent of the global total. China considers extreme rural poor are those with annual per capita income of less than USD 620, or about USD 1.69 a day at current exchange rates, which compared closely with the World Bank's minimum standard of USD 1.90 a day. Complete eradication of poverty in China was the main goal announced by Xi when he came to power towards the end of 2012. At that time, China had about 100 million poor people, mostly living in remote areas. He has made effective use of targeted eradication of extreme poverty besides crackdown against corruption as the main political goals to consolidate his power in the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) emerging as its most powerful leader after Mao heading the party, the presidency and the powerful military. With the removal of the two-five-year term rule, Xi, 67, like Mao now has a lifelong tenure in power instead of retiring next year. His claim of poverty eradication came ahead of the CPC's centenary celebrations this year. The CPC also boosts of being the world's only Communist Party with longest tenure in power in the one-party state since 1949 when the People's Republic of China, (PRC) was formed. Xi's claims of poverty eradication however were dented by Premier Li Keqiang's revelation last year that China has 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1000 yuan, (USD 140). While the average per-capita annual income in China is 30000 yuan ((USD 4,193) but there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1000 yuan (USD 140), not enough to rent a room in Chinese cities, Li said, addressing his annual press conference here in May 2020. Besides the eradication of the extreme poverty, China is also expected to declare a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the middle of this year. In 2049, China will achieve its second centenary goal of building "a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious," state-run Global Times reported. Martin Raiser, World Bank country director for China, said in an exclusive interview with CGTN recently that China has been "very effective" in identifying poor households, as part of its targeted approach in poverty elimination. Raiser also noted e-commerce played a key role in the country's fight against poverty. Eliminating absolute poverty shows that China's development has entered a new era, Yu Shaoxiang, chief research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. China's achievement in poverty alleviation shows the progress of the country's "whole nation system" - China can concentrate its efforts and resources to do major things and realise development, Yu said. In his address on Thursday, Xi said that shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavour. Xi said the CPC has been working to improve people's livelihood since its foundation and over 10 million poor people were lifted out of poverty on average each year since he took over power. He said some 25.68 million poor people in China from 7.9 million households have seen their dilapidated houses renovated since late 2012. Over 9.6 million Chinese people have been relocated from impoverished areas since late 2012, he said. Also, 28 ethnic minority groups with relatively small populations have shaken off poverty collectively since late 2012, he said. "Improving lives in rural areas key to securing victory to build a moderately prosperous society by 2021," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday afternoon spoke to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed several matters. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the EAM asserted that the implementation of the Moscow Agreement and review of the status of disengagement along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh was discussed. "Spoke to State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi this afternoon. Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement," he tweeted. Spoke to State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi this afternoon. Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement. Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 25, 2021 A five-point agreement was reached between Jaishankar and Wang at a meeting in Moscow on September 10, 2020, on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave. The pact included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements and protocols on border management and steps to restore peace along the Line of Actual Control. India on Thursday said it has not conceded any territory as part of the disengagement agreement with China and asserted that it has rather enforced observance of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to prevent any unilateral change in the status quo. At an online media briefing here, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said there has not been any change in India's position on the LAC and the mutual redeployment as a result of the disengagement process should not be misrepresented. Asked about the recent agreement on the de-escalation process in Ladakh's Pangong Lake area, he said the factual position has been very well conveyed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and in a Defence Ministry statement, which he said was aimed at setting the record straight in view of certain misleading and misinformed comments that appeared in the media. "... India has not conceded any territory as a result of this agreement. On the contrary, it has enforced observance and respect for LAC and it has prevented any unilateral change in the status quo," Srivastava said. Last week, armies of the two countries which have been locked in a standoff in eastern Ladakh concluded the withdrawal of troops and weapons from north and south banks of Pangong Tso in the high-altitude region. However, issues still remain. During the talks, India is learnt to have insisted on a faster disengagement process in areas like Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang to bring down tension in the region. Explosive-laden drones that targeted Saudi Arabia's royal palace in the kingdom's capital last month were launched by Iran-backed militia from inside Iraq, officials claim. A source within the militia in Baghdad told The Associated Press three drones were launched from the Iraqi-Saudi border by a relatively unknown faction, and crashed into the royal complex in Riyadh last month. The move exacerbated regional tensions amid the kingdom's yearslong war against neighbouring Yemen's Houthi rebels. Earlier this month, the rebels targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with bomb-laden drones, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire. And a group believed to have links to Iran wounded several Americans and killed a foreign contractor in a rocket strike on a US base in Iraq just days later. The Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, however, denied carrying out the attack that targeted Saudi Arabia's Yamama Palace on January 23. The comments by the senior Iraqi militia official mark the first time an Iran-backed group has acknowledged that Iraq was the origin of the attack, and points to the challenge Baghdad faces in halting attacks by Iranian-backed militia factions in Iraq. It followed a claim of responsibility allegedly issued by a little-known group called Awliya Wa'ad al-Haq, or 'The True Promise Brigades,' that circulated on social media, calling it retaliation for a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group in a Baghdad shopping district on Jan. 21. The militia official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack, said the drones came 'in parts from Iran and were assembled in Iraq, and were launched from Iraq.' He did not disclose where along the border the drones were launched and did not provide more details about the group claiming the attack. Iran-backed groups have splintered significantly since the Washington-directed strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad more than a year ago. A group believed to have links to Iran wounded several Americans and killed a foreign contractor in a rocket strike on a US base in Iraq Both were key in commanding and controlling a wide array of Iran-backed groups operating in Iraq. Since their deaths, militias have become increasingly unruly and disparate. Some Washington-based analysts argue the militias have become splintered only to allow them to claim attacks under different names to mask their involvement. A U.S. official said Washington believes the January 23 attack on the Yamama Palace was launched from inside Iraq. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate or say how the U.S. came to this conclusion. An Iraqi official, also speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the U.S. intelligence was shared with Iraq's government. Launching a strike from Iraq would pose a challenge to Saudi air defenses, now focused on threats from Iran to the northeast and Yemen from the south. Such drones also are small enough and fly low enough to the ground to not be picked up on radar. The attack comes as Iraq seeks to deepen economic ties with Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies over a variety of investment projects. Last week, Iraq's President Barham Salih visited the United Arab Emirates and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein visited Saudi Arabia this week, apparently to discuss the attack. Earlier this month, more than a dozen 107mm rockets were fired at the American military complex in Erbil airport that has hosted troops deployed as part of the international alliance fighting ISIS since 2014. Earlier this month, the rebels targeted an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with bomb-laden drones, causing a civilian plane on the tarmac to catch fire US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was 'outraged' and vowed to 'hold accountable those responsible' without giving details on the injured Americans. The bombardment was claimed by a shadowy group calling itself 'Guardians of Blood,' which US forces believe is one of many which have sprung up in Iraq as fronts for pro-Iranian factions. Iran condemned the attack and strongly denied rumours it was involved in the incident, before the United Nations then warned Iraq could spin out of control following the first attacks on Western forces in almost two months. Just days earlier, a passenger plane was engulfed in flames in Saudi Arabia after an airport was targeted in a drone attack later claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The group were said to have targeted the Abha International Airport in the south-west of the country, causing a passenger plane on the tarmac to catch fire, according to the kingdom's state television. The Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack soon afterwards, with military spokesman Yehia Sareai saying the group used four bomb-laden drones to target Abha airport. 'This targeting comes in response to the continued aerial bombardment and the brutal siege on our country,' Sareai said, noting that the Houthis consider the airport a military not civilian target. 17/02/2021 Uganda has committed to implement the international Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (AEOI) by 2023. The commitment made by the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the honorable Matia Kasaija, makes Uganda the 116th Global Forum member to commit to start AEOI by a specific date. Maria Jose Garde, Chair of the Global Forum, said I am delighted to welcome Ugandas commitment to the AEOI Standard. As for the 115 other committed jurisdictions, the Global Forum will monitor Ugandas progress in delivering its commitment to start exchanging automatically by September 2023 and updates will be provided to our members and the G20. The Global Forum Secretariat will assist Uganda in implementing the Standard and in addressing any challenges that may arise. This powerful new tool will help generate additional taxable revenues for Uganda, by allowing it to identify cases of tax evasion, and will certainly increase tax compliance. The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels. Background information: For more information, please contact gftaxcooperation@oecd.org. A convicted criminal who mowed down and fatally struck his fiancee after she broke up with him is looking for love on a dating website six months after being released from prison. Charles McKenzie Ross Evans, 47, was freed last August was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars for the death of circus performer Alicia Little, 41, at their property in Kyneton in regional Victoria in December 2017. The mother-of-four suffered catastrophic injuries from being crushed against a water tank by the Toyota HiLux her fiance was driving and died at the scene. Evans was sentenced to four years jail with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and failing to render assistance after a motor vehicle accident. An initial murder charge was downgraded after striking a deal with prosecutors. He relocated to Forbes in central-west NSW to live with his mother following his release from a Victorian prison six months ago and has since joined online dating in his quest for a fresh start. Charles McKenzie Ross Evans (right) has joined a dating website since his release from jail after serving time over the death of his fiancee Alicia Little (left) in late 2017 Evans will remain on parole until December 2024 and is banned from drinking alcohol and driving as part of his current parole conditions. He has been spotted around the country town and has joined popular dating site Elite Singles, news.com.au reported. A profile on the site states Charles, 47, of Forbes is 'enjoying life' and looking for 'love, happiness, friendship, chemistry' in a relationship. The online profile adds he would ask for more wishes if he had one wish. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Elite Singles for comment. The dating site describes itself on its website as a partnership service designed for Australian singles looking for a long-term commitment and attracts 20,000 new members each month. The Elite Singles profile state Charles, 47, from Forbes says he's looking for love happiness, friendship and chemistry in a relationship Mother-of-four Alisha Little (pictured) was killed in 2017 after being hit with the Toyota HiLux Evans was unremorseful and attempted to shift the blame over Ms Little's death when he was approached by Seven News at Melbourne Airport following his release on parole last year. 'I've got nothing to say to you,' he said. 'Mental illness caused her death, not me.' Ms Little's family was left shattered by the news of Evans' release. 'I just need people to know him - to know his name and to remember him,' her mother Lee told Seven News at the time. Evans had been living with Ms Little in Kyneton, 87km north-west of Melbourne at the time. He had allegedly been in an abusive relationship with her four years before she died on December 28, 2017, two weeks after he proposed to her. But by Christmas the relationship was irreparable and she decided to end the relationship. Alicia Little died at her property (pictured) in Kyneton in regional Victoria in 2017. The mother-of-four suffered catastrophic injuries from being crushed against a water tank by the Toyoa HiLux her fiance was driving The Victorian Supreme Court heard in 2019 how Ms Little called police and begged for help moments before the car hit her. In the 24 hours before her death, she texted her mother to say she was breaking up with Evans In the next 24 hours there's going to be a lot of drama,' she wrote. The next day she was hit by Evans' car. 'Two weeks prior to her death you had asked for her hand in marriage,' Justice Lesley Taylor told Evans during sentencing. 'Your four-year relationship had been marked by episodes of family violence.' The court heard Ms Little had called police on various occasions about allegations of abuse. But by Christmas 2017, the relationship was irreparable and she decided to end the relationship. 'You said in the background, words to the effect of ''bring your brother, bring your uncles, I don't f***ing care, I am an Evans, bring the lot of them''.' Evans had been living with Alicia Little (pictured) in Kyneton and proposed to her just two weeks before she died in December 28, 2017 Charles McKenzie Ross Evans pictured at Melbourne Airport after he was released parole in August 2020. He has since started afresh in a NSW country town She called police as Evans was 'abusive and drunk', the court was told. Evans took Ms Little's phone, got in his Toyota HiLux at the back of the property, and drove around a water tank and a fence between 12 km/h and 16 km/h. He put on the brakes and skidded for 2.2 metres after hitting his partner. 'The force of the impact caused Ms Little to rotate clockwise, 180 degrees, as the vehicle was skidding,' Justice Taylor said. The court heard after hitting Ms Little, Evans dashed to a friend's house and complained she had bitten his nose. He called her phone twice, told others he saw her 'alive and well' on the verandah when he left and that she had committed suicide. 'Your actions caused the death of Ms Little. Ms Little was crushed between the water tank and your car tyres,' Justice Taylor said at the sentencing. 'You did nothing to assist Ms Little. You left the scene.' The defendants and two dozen other gunmen stormed the base to demand that then President Serzh Sarkisian free Zhirayr Sefilian, the jailed leader of their radical opposition movement, and step down. The gunmen, who took police officers and medical personnel hostage, laid down their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces which left three police officers dead. All but two members of the armed group called Sasna Tsrer were set free pending the outcome of their trials shortly after Sarkisian was toppled in the 2018 Velvet Revolution led by Nikol Pashinian. The two other members remained behind bars because of facing murder charges denied by them. The court convicted one of them, Smbat Barseghian, of murdering Colonel Artur Vanoyan and Warrant Officer Yuri Tepanosian and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. But it found the other defendant, Armen Bilian, not guilty of the killing of the third police victim, Warrant Officer Gagik Mkrtchian. The presiding judge, Mesrop Makian, said that prosecutors did not provide sufficient evidence in support of the accusation. He said they must order a new investigation into the circumstances of Mkrtchians death. Bilian was released from custody despite being convicted of other criminal charges and sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison. Bilian remained unrepentant about the deadly attack, saying that he and his comrades waged a legitimate struggle against Sarkisian. We still have a lot to do to have justice established in Armenia, he told reporters after his release. The seven other defendants were sentenced to between 6 and 8 years. They were found guilty of illegal arms possession, hostage taking and seizure of state buildings. The defendants continued to deny the accusations and said they will appeal against the verdict. All of them except Barseghian will remain at large at least until higher court rulings on their planned appeal. Varuzhan Avetisian, the Sasna Tsrer leader who got a 7-year jail term, has repeatedly defended the armed attack on the police facility located in Yerevans southern Erebuni district. Some relatives of the slain policemen present in the courtroom were also not satisfied with the verdict. Tepanosians wife said his convicted murderer should have been sentenced to life imprisonment. May all members of this group be tried by God, she said. The 2016 attack was condemned by the United States and the European Union. We abhor the actions of Sasna Tsrer and others who use violence or who threaten to harm others to serve their political agenda, Richard Mills, the then U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said in 2018. A New Jersey landlord accused of demanding sexual favors from tenants in exchange for housing is continuing to work toward a settlement with federal authorities, who filed a lawsuit against him last summer for allegedly harassing low-income tenants for more than a decade, according to court documents. In August, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Joseph Centanni, of Mountainside, alleging he violated the Fair Housing Act for sexually harassing tenants and applicants on multiple occasions since at least 2005 as a landlord in Elizabeth. The parties have now asked for a delay in court proceedings, as settlement negotiations continue, according to court documents filed last week. Over the past several weeks, the parties have begun to explore potential resolution of this matter before the defendant devotes substantial resources to discovery, prosecutors wrote on Feb. 19, asking for a 60-day extension of all dates in the cases scheduling order. NJ Advance Media reported in November that the two sides were engaged in settlement negotiations. The lawsuit was brought against Centanni as part of the DOJs Civil Rights Divisions Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative. Housing experts say it is common for those cases to be settled. Centannis attorneys declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations, although they previously said their client denies the allegations. He categorically denies all allegations of sexual harassment or other misconduct and intends to fight the allegations in court before a jury of his peers, the attorneys said in a statement in November. The lawsuit claims Centanni, who owns hundreds of rental units in Elizabeth, allegedly demanded sexual favors in order to obtain housing, exposed his genitals to prospective or current tenants, offered housing benefits, like reduced rent or excusing late rent, in exchange for oral sex, and initiated eviction actions, or threatened to do so, against tenants who objected to or refused his sexual advances. According to the lawsuit, Centanni had approximately 120 tenants using Housing Choice Vouchers and collected more than $100,000 each month from the federal program. Centanni had been accused of using his position as a powerful landlord to prey on tenants or prospective tenants, before the DOJ lawsuit. Three tenants have made sexual assault allegations against Centanni to the Elizabeth police department since 2017, according to police reports obtained by NJ Advance Media through an Open Public Records Request (OPRA). At least two of the reports were forwarded to the Union County Prosecutors Office, although Centanni has never been criminally charged by their office. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Pennsylvania movie theaters ditch mask mandate Three chain movie theaters have announced that masks are no longer mandatory for moviegoers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Police run through a residential neighborhood while dispersing a crowd of about 400 rioters in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 14, 2020. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) 5 Oregon Counties to Vote on Joining Idaho Five Oregon counties will ask voters during the next election whether they want to leave the state and join Idaho. Oregon is a powder keg because counties that belong in a red state like Idaho are ruled by Portlanders, said Mike McCarter, president of Move Oregons Border, in a statement to news outlets. Voters in Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur, and Sherman counties in Oregon will decide in May if they want to move forward with moving the states border, he said. It is not a vote to secede from Oregon because a county cant do that, McCarter told KTVB. Its a measure that says, County commissioners, your citizens of your county want to see you work towards this process. McCarter said residents of those counties are unhappy with Gov. Kate Browns COVID-19 restrictions, Antifa-related violence in Portland, and the states legislative bias against rural Oregon counties while prioritizing Portland. This state protects Antifa arsonists, not normal Oregonians, it prioritizes one race above another for vaccines and program money and in the school curriculum, and it prioritizes Willamette Valley above rural Oregon, McCarter said, according to The Washington Times. The initiative has significant hurdles to overcome since Oregons state Assembly and Senatewhich are both controlled by Democratswould first have to approve it. After that, the U.S. House and Senatealso controlled by Democratswould have to approve the measure. While opponents have said that residents in those areas should just move to Idaho, McCarter said it isnt so simpleor even possible for some residents. We love our communities. Were tied into them, he said. Its just the state government that we cant stand. McCarter told KTVB that the chances of passage are slim but he remains hopeful. The misconceptions are out there, that we want to come in, that we want to change this and we want to change that; we dont want to change anything with Idaho, he said. We just want to come alongside the rural counties. All of a sudden were adding a 71 percent population increase without a single Oregonian moving into the current state of Idaho. Thats a boom for the state economy. Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney said in December 2020 that the Move Oregons Border, or Greater Idaho, campaign concerns him. I dont think we would, but that doesnt mean we shouldnt act like it wouldnt happen, because if we act like it, then maybe well really sit down and really think real hard about this rural-urban divide, Courtney, a Democrat, told local station KATU-TV. According to McCarter in the Washington Times interview, the group has had to contend with Big Tech companies as well. Facebook removed the Move Oregons Border page, which had more than 12,000 followers, although the group has accounts on Twitter, Gab, Parler, and Telegram. We dont know why because Facebook wont show us the six posts it claims violated their standards, the group stated. Benson Hill maps findings of consumer sensory panels, food formulation testing and farmer fields all the way back to the plant genomic level using advanced data analytics techniques. This enables the company to unlock the genetic diversity within crops and develop ingredients that are better from the beginning, creating new dimensions for food science and a suite of new opportunities for product innovation and differentiation using fewer and simpler ingredients. With St. Louis-based venture capital firm Lagomaj Capital, Benson Hill is breaking ground on a new Crop Accelerator, a state-of-the-art, controlled environment research facility located near Benson Hill's new headquarters in the 39 North Innovation District. The 47,000 square-foot Crop Accelerator will feature 20,000 square feet of dynamically adaptive Conviron growth houses and chambers, equipped with multi-channel LEDs, additive CO2, temperature, humidity and lighting controls. The innovative facility will enable plant breeding to develop varieties up to four years faster than traditional research facilities and is part of the company's contribution to a more responsive food system that reconnects farmers and consumers in more sustainable ways. The Crop Accelerator will allow rapid development of feed, food and ingredients positioning farmers and food companies to grow and deliver products with the attributes consumers are looking for, including improved taste and nutrition. "Our philosophy is guided by the idea that capital is fuel enabling people to do great things and driving innovative solutions to major challenges," said Felix Williams, founder of Lagomaj Capital. "Our investment in the Crop Accelerator is a physical representation of our belief in the impact that Benson Hill's technology and model can have on the health and sustainability of food and agriculture. We are proud to be developing a facility of this scale and prestige in our hometown." Benson Hill is also announcing the addition of three experts to the company's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to enhance expertise in food science, data science and plant biology in new and integrated ways. Mark Matlock, Gary Fogel and Julia Bailey-Serres will join the board's distinguished, interdisciplinary experts providing external scientific review and strategic guidance to research and product development efforts. Food science expert Mark Matlock will help Benson Hill further develop insights between plant genetics and consumer benefits. Matlock was a leading scientist and driving force with the Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) for 40 years, where he authored or co-authored 10 U.S. patents. As Senior Vice President of Research, his business contributions at ADM include early exploration of plant-based protein products and acquisitions of Wild Flavors and Biopolis. Data science expert Gary Fogel, Ph.D., will support the company as it continues to hone the capabilities of its food innovation engine, CropOS. Fogel is the CEO of Natural Selection, Inc. and also maintains an Adjunct Faculty role with the Computational Science Research Center at San Diego State University. Gary is an expert in machine learning, particularly in the application of computational intelligence to problems in biology, chemistry and medicine. Plant biology expert Julia Bailey-Serres, Ph.D., will offer strategic guidance as Benson Hill seeks to better leverage the genomic diversity of plants to help solve for challenges in the food system. Bailey-Serres is Distinguished Professor of Genetics, Director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology, at the University of California, Riverside. She currently holds the University of California MacArthur Foundation Chair. Bailey-Serres is known for her research on mechanisms of plant adaptive responses to environmental stresses. "The Crop Accelerator facility will allow Benson Hill to bypass the delays of seasonal field testing by coupling this state-of-the-art facility with our CropOS technology platform, further leveraging the power of both plant science and data science with AI/ML predictive crop performance algorithms," said Jason Bull, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer of Benson Hill. "With the addition of world-class scientific talent that traverses the food science, data science and plant biology fields, we are creating food that is better from the beginning by design and intent." About Benson Hill Benson Hill moves food forward with Cloud Biology and the CropOS platform, a cutting-edge food innovation engine that combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics. Benson Hill empowers innovators to unlock nature's genetic diversity from plant to plate, with the purpose of creating healthier, great-tasting food and ingredient options that are both widely accessible and sustainable. More information can be found at bensonhill.com or on Twitter at @bensonhillinc. SOURCE Benson Hill Related Links https://bensonhill.com/ Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Berger said when he read the findings of the first probe, "it was pretty clear to me we needed to do a follow-on... Editor: Despite the frequent and terrible actions in this world, including our country, by humanity, there are still many good people walking Police have released images of a man they suspect punched a bus driver in the face on the Gold Coast. Police have released images of a man after a bus driver was punched in the face at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. The driver, who had parked at the Broadbeach South Light Rail Station about 8.40am on January 31, is believed to have spoken to a passenger who was eating food onboard the bus. Police say the man then punched the 58-year-old driver in the face, causing swelling and bruising to his eye, bleeding from his nose and a small cut. The suspect is described as Caucasian, about 175 centimetres tall with a slim build and very short hair, with tattoos on his right forearm and right calf. The evaluation is part of the Phase 1/2/3 trial and will study a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2, at 30 g that will be given to Phase 1 participants to evaluate the safety and tolerability of a booster vaccine Discussions with regulatory authorities are ongoing regarding an additional registration-enabling study using an mRNA vaccine with a variant sequence; this would provide a flexible solution for rapidly adapting the vaccine for use against the B.1.351 lineage or other new strains that may emerge as possible immune escape virus variants Based on in-vitro studies conducted to date and observations from real world evidence, the Companies have not observed changes to neutralizing antibody levels that would predict a significant reduction in protection provided by two doses of BNT162b2 New York and Mainz, Germany, February 25, 2021 - Pfizer Inc. study in the United States who will be offered the opportunity to receive a 30 g booster of the current vaccine 6 to 12 months after receiving their initial two-dose regimen. The study is part of the Companies' clinical development strategy to determine the effectiveness of a third dose against evolving variants. Separately, in order to be prepared for any potential future strain changes, Pfizer and BioNTech are in ongoing discussions with regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency, regarding a registration-enabling clinical study to evaluate a variant-specific vaccine having a modified mRNA sequence. This study would use a new construct of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine based on the B.1.351 lineage, first identified in South Africa. This could position the Companies to update the current vaccine quickly if the need arises to protect against COVID-19 from circulating strains. In alignment with the updated guidance issued by the FDA regarding emergency use of vaccines to prevent COVID-19 which provides recommendations for evaluating a modified vaccine to address variants, the Companies are hoping to pursue the validation of future modified mRNA vaccines with a regulatory pathway similar to what is currently in place for flu vaccines. "While we have not seen any evidence that the circulating variants result in a loss of protection provided by our vaccine, we are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be ready in case a strain becomes resistant to the protection afforded by the vaccine. This booster study is critical to understanding the safety of a third dose and immunity against circulating strains," said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer. "At the same time, we are making the right investments and engaging in the appropriate conversations with regulators to help position us to potentially develop and seek authorization for an updated mRNA vaccine or booster if needed." "Our proactive clinical development strategy aims to create the foundation today, that will enable us to address the challenges of tomorrow. We want to be prepared for different scenarios," said Ugur Sahin, CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech. "Therefore, we will be evaluating a second booster in the current regimen as well as preparing for a potential rapid adaption of the vaccine to address new variants which might escape the current version of our mRNA-based vaccine. The flexibility of our proprietary mRNA vaccine platform allows us to technically develop booster vaccines within weeks, if needed. This regulatory pathway is already established for other infectious diseases like influenza. We take these steps in order to ensure a long-term immunity against the virus and its variants." Administering a third dose will provide an early assessment of the safety of a third dose of BNT162b2, as well as its immunogenicity. The study will evaluate up to 144 Phase 1 participants in two age cohorts, 18-55 and 65-85 years of age. This study will include trial participants who received the two doses in the Phase 1 study 6 to 12 months ago in order to assess the boostability of BNT162b2. Thus, the study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of a third vaccination irrespective of the level of antibody titers of the trial participant. Participants will be assessed at the time they receive the third dose, then one week and one month after, and Pfizer and BioNTech plan to study the ability of the sera from those participants to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 strains of interest. The participants will continue being followed in the study for up to 2 years as originally planned. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vaccine, which is based on BioNTech proprietary mRNA technology, was developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer. BioNTech is the Marketing Authorizations Holder in the European Union, and the holder of emergency use authorizations or equivalent in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other countries in advance of a planned application for full marketing authorizations in these countries. AUTHORIZED USE IN THE U.S.: The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is authorized for use under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION FROM U.S. FDA EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION PRESCRIBING INFORMATION: Do not administer Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to individuals with known history of a severe allergic reaction (e.g., anaphylaxis) to any component of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Appropriate medical treatment used to manage immediate allergic reactions must be immediately available in the event an acute anaphylactic reaction occurs following administration of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine recipients for the occurrence of immediate adverse reactions according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines ( https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/ (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/)) (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/)) Immunocompromised persons, including individuals receiving immunosuppressant therapy, may have a diminished immune response to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may not protect all vaccine recipients In clinical studies, adverse reactions in participants 16 years of age and older included pain at the injection site (84.1%), fatigue (62.9%), headache (55.1%), muscle pain (38.3%), chills (31.9%), joint pain (23.6%), fever (14.2%), injection site swelling (10.5%), injection site redness (9.5%), nausea (1.1%), malaise (0.5%), and lymphadenopathy (0.3%) Severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been reported following the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine during mass vaccination outside of clinical trials. Additional adverse reactions, some of which may be serious, may become apparent with more widespread use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Available data on Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine administered to pregnant women are insufficient to inform vaccine-associated risks in pregnancy Data are not available to assess the effects of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine on the breastfed infant or on milk production/excretion There are no data available on the interchangeability of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine with other COVID-19 vaccines to complete the vaccination series. Individuals who have received one dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine should receive a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to complete the vaccination series Vaccination providers must report Adverse Events in accordance with the Fact Sheet to VAERS at https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html (https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html) or by calling 1-800-822-7967. The reports should include the words "Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine EUA" in the description section of the report (https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html) or by calling 1-800-822-7967. The reports should include the words "Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine EUA" in the description section of the report Vaccination providers should review the Fact Sheet for Information to Provide to Vaccine Recipients/Caregivers and Mandatory Requirements for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Administration Under Emergency Use Authorization Please see Emergency Use Authorization About Pfizer: Breakthroughs That Change Patients' Lives At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products, including innovative medicines and vaccines. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at www.Pfizer.com . In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.Pfizer.com and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer News , LinkedIn , YouTube and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer . Pfizer Disclosure Notice The information contained in this release is as of February 25, 2021. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments. This release contains forward-looking information about Pfizer's efforts to combat COVID-19, the collaboration between BioNTech and Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, the BNT162 mRNA vaccine program, the mRNA platform and regulatory pathway and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine (BNT162b2) (including qualitative assessments of available data, potential benefits, a potential booster dose and a potential new variant-specific vaccine, expectations for clinical trials, the anticipated timing of regulatory submissions, regulatory approvals or authorizations and anticipated manufacturing, distribution and supply) involving substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including the ability to meet anticipated clinical endpoints, commencement and/or completion dates for clinical trials, regulatory submission dates, regulatory approval dates and/or launch dates, as well as risks associated with preclinical and clinical data (including the in vitro and Phase 3 data), including the possibility of unfavorable new preclinical, clinical or safety data and further analyses of existing preclinical, clinical or safety data; the ability to produce comparable clinical or other results, including the rate of vaccine effectiveness and safety and tolerability profile observed to date, in additional analyses of the Phase 3 trial and additional studies or in larger, more diverse populations upon commercialization; the ability of BNT162b2 to prevent COVID-19 caused by emerging virus variants; the risk that more widespread use of the vaccine will lead to new information about efficacy, safety, or other developments, including the risk of additional adverse reactions, some of which may be serious; the risk that preclinical and clinical trial data are subject to differing interpretations and assessments, including during the peer review/publication process, in the scientific community generally, and by regulatory authorities; whether and when additional data from the BNT162 mRNA vaccine program will be published in scientific journal publications and, if so, when and with what modifications and interpretations; whether regulatory authorities will be satisfied with the design of and results from these and any future preclinical and clinical studies; whether and when a Biologics License Application for BNT162b2 may be filed in the U.S. and whether and when other biologics license and/or emergency use authorization applications may be filed in particular jurisdictions for BNT162b2 or any other potential vaccines that may arise from the BNT162 program, and if obtained, whether or when such emergency use authorization or licenses will expire or terminate; whether and when any applications that may be pending or filed for BNT162b2 (including a potential Biologics License Application in the U.S.) or other vaccines that may result from the BNT162 program may be approved by particular regulatory authorities, which will depend on myriad factors, including making a determination as to whether the vaccine's benefits outweigh its known risks and determination of the vaccine's efficacy and, if approved, whether it will be commercially successful; decisions by regulatory authorities impacting labeling or marketing, manufacturing processes, safety and/or other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of a vaccine, including development of products or therapies by other companies; disruptions in the relationships between us and our collaboration partners or third-party suppliers; risks related to the availability of raw materials to manufacture a vaccine; challenges related to our vaccine's ultra-low temperature formulation, two-dose schedule and attendant storage, distribution and administration requirements, including risks related to storage and handling after delivery by Pfizer; the risk that we may not be able to successfully develop other vaccine formulations; the risk that we may not be able to create or scale up manufacturing capacity on a timely basis or maintain access to logistics or supply channels commensurate with global demand for our vaccine, which would negatively impact our ability to supply the estimated numbers of doses of our vaccine within the projected time periods as previously indicated; whether and when additional supply agreements will be reached; uncertainties regarding the ability to obtain recommendations from vaccine technical committees and other public health authorities and uncertainties regarding the commercial impact of any such recommendations; uncertainties regarding the impact of COVID-19 on Pfizer's business, operations and financial results; and competitive developments. A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof captioned "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results", as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com . About BioNTech Biopharmaceutical New Technologies is a next generation immunotherapy company pioneering novel therapies for cancer and other serious diseases. The Company exploits a wide array of computational discovery and therapeutic drug platforms for the rapid development of novel biopharmaceuticals. Its broad portfolio of oncology product candidates includes individualized and off-the-shelf mRNA-based therapies, innovative chimeric antigen receptor T cells, bi-specific checkpoint immuno-modulators, targeted cancer antibodies and small molecules. Based on its deep expertise in mRNA vaccine development and in-house manufacturing capabilities, BioNTech and its collaborators are developing multiple mRNA vaccine candidates for a range of infectious diseases alongside its diverse oncology pipeline. BioNTech has established a broad set of relationships with multiple global pharmaceutical collaborators, including Genmab, Sanofi, Bayer Animal Health, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Regeneron, Genevant, Fosun Pharma, and Pfizer. For more information, please visit www.BioNTech.de . BioNTech Forward-looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" of BioNTech within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may include, but may not be limited to, statements concerning: BioNTech's efforts to combat COVID-19; the collaboration between BioNTech and Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine (including a potential second booster dose of BNT162b2 and/or a potential booster dose of a variation of BNT162b2 having a modified mRNA sequence); our expectations regarding the potential characteristics of BNT162b2 in our clinical trials and/or in commercial use based on data observations to date; the ability of BNT162b2 to prevent COVID-19 caused by emerging virus variants; the expected time point for additional readouts on efficacy data of BNT162b2 in our clinical trials; the nature of the clinical data, which is subject to ongoing peer review, regulatory review and market interpretation; the timing for submission of data for, or receipt of, any marketing approval or Emergency Use Authorization; our contemplated shipping and storage plan, including our estimated product shelf life at various temperatures; and the ability of BioNTech to supply the quantities of BNT162 to support clinical development and market demand, including our production estimates for 2021. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on BioNTech current expectations and beliefs of future events, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the ability to meet the pre-defined endpoints in clinical trials; competition to create a vaccine for COVID-19; the ability to produce comparable clinical or other results, including our stated rate of vaccine effectiveness and safety and tolerability profile observed to date, in the remainder of the trial or in larger, more diverse populations upon commercialization; the ability to effectively scale our productions capabilities; and other potential difficulties. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see BioNTech's Quarterly Report for the Three and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2020, filed as Exhibit 99.2 to its Current Report on Form 6-K filed with the SEC on November 10, which is available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and BioNTech undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law. Pfizer Contacts: Media Relations Jerica Pitts +1 Investor Relations Chuck Triano +1 BioNTech Contacts: Media Relations Jasmina Alatovic +49 Investor Relations Sylke Maas, Ph.D. +49 The post-World War II era has relied on multilateralism, even at the height of the Cold War. Multilateralism not only provided the two superpowers with a mechanism to settle their differences peacefully but also gave Third World countries a necessary platform to articulate their demands and visions through the United Nations and other international bodies created after World War II. Thus both developed and developing countries saw multilateralism as an important vehicle to debate international questions of mutual concern and to try to settle disputes through peaceful means. A commitment to the Charter of the United Nations has been the bedrock of international relations ever since the end of World War II. International diplomacy through multilateral institutions empowered all nations with only very few exceptions to cooperate for the common international good through these institutions. However, the four years of Trumps presidency undermined the belief in multilateralism. The former American president put international institutions on the spot, questioning their impartiality and relevance to American interests even though the record shows that the United States is among the countries that have benefited from engagement with multilateralism. Some analysts even accuse America of using international institutions to further and defend its own interests. If we take the Middle East as an example, we find out the United States used its veto power more than 40 times to block Security Council Resolutions against Israeli policies in the Middle East because of its close alliance with Israel. European leaders were worried that a second Trump term would deal multilateralism a deadly blow. The election of Joe Biden and the composition of his national security team have pushed multilateralism back to the front and centre where it should be as one of the main guarantors of international peace and security. Friday 19 February will indeed be remembered as the day that saw the rebirth of Multilateralism and a recommitment to it as the underlying premise of international cooperation. The first event on that day was a virtual G7 conference hosted by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The second event was the annual gathering of the Munich Security Conference in which Biden addressed the world directly for the first time since he was sworn in last month. The two events combined were a clear repudiation of Trumps rejection of international cooperation. The United States and the worlds most industrialised countries reiterated their commitment to working together to tackle global challenges. The G7 virtual conference released a statement just before the annual Munich Security Conference started, in which all seven members said, Drawing on our strengths and values as democratic, open economies and societies, we will work together and with others to make 2021 a turning point for multilateralism and to shape a recovery that promotes the health and prosperity of our people and planet. In order to help the developing countries deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the G7 pledged $7.5 billion in financial support to Covax. Still the turning point for the future of multilateralism came in Bidens remarks, addressed to the conference from the East Room at the White House: I am sending a clear message to the world. America is back. On the same day, the American government officially rejoined the World Health Organisation; Trump had decided to withdraw from it at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden also announced that the American administration has pledged $2 billion to Covax, with the promise of an additional $2 billion to urge others to step up their efforts. He referred to his first presidential national security memorandum that focused on surging health and humanitarian response to defeat Covid-19 and to better prevent and prepare for the next pandemic. Generally speaking, the American president stressed that the world must not return to the reflective opposition and rigid blocks of the Cold War. Competition must not lock out cooperation on issues that affect us all. He pointed out that the United States will cooperate closely with its European partners and with other European countries to deal with problems. On the other hand, he spoke of the urgent need to initiate a multilateral effort to respond to the pandemic, to what he termed the international economic crisis, climate change and other issues. Biden talked about cooperating with Europe on a host of international questions such as the rise of China and confronting a resurgent Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, whom he accused of trying to sow division between the United States and Europe. In this context, he called on Europeans to cooperate with the United States on preparing to compete on a strategic level in the long haul with Beijing. He also talked about the importance of ensuring that the benefits of growth should be shared in an equitable manner and not limited to the few. Among the major topics addressed in Bidens remarks to the Munich Security Conference is the question of nuclear proliferation and the need to prevent terrorist groups from acquiring the materials used to make nuclear weapons, also referring to Iran. He reiterated that the United States would cooperate with its European and other strategic partners to ensure Tehran does not have a nuclear bomb. Biden told the Munich Security Conference that Washington is prepared to reengage in negotiations with the P5+1 on Irans nuclear programme. He added, we must also address Irans destabilising activities across the Middle East, and we are going to work with our European and other partners as we proceed. One day earlier, the American administration informed the European Union that it would accept an invitation from its European allies to talk with Iran and the other five signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal. Not only is America back, as Biden assured the Munich Security Conference, but international diplomacy too is getting ready to play a leading role in tackling international questions with a direct impact on international peace and security. *The writer is former assistant foreign minister. *A version of this article appears in print in the 25 February, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday and discussed the implementation of their 'Moscow Agreement' on the border standoff in eastern Ladakh as well as reviewed the status of disengagement. A five-point agreement was reached between Jaishankar and Wang at a meeting in Moscow on September 10 on the side-lines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave. The pact included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements and protocols on border management and steps to restore peace along the Line of Actual Control. "Spoke to State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi this afternoon. Discussed the implementation of our Moscow Agreement and reviewed the status of disengagement," Jaishankar said in a tweet on Thursday. Last week, armies of the two countries which have been locked in a standoff in eastern Ladakh concluded withdrawal of troops and weapons from north and south banks of Pangong Tso in the high-altitude region. Also Read: Biden revokes Trump administration's ban on green card applicants The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company 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. A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday urged Taiwan authorities to return to the common political foundation of the 1992 Consensus. Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks when asked to comment on the recent remarks made by Chiu Tai-san, the new head of Taiwan's mainland affairs council. Chiu had expressed the expectation that the mainland and Taiwan would resume exchanges and the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. "Whether the Taiwan side accepts the 1992 Consensus bears on the fundamental nature of cross-Strait relations, and it is also a touchstone for testing the so-called 'goodwill' of the Taiwan authorities," Ma said. He stressed that as long as the Taiwan side recognizes the historical facts of the 1992 Consensus and its essence, there will be no obstacles for the two sides in conducting exchanges and communications. An Iranian woman who died of a heart attack while waiting to be executed was allegedly still hanged. The woman, named in reports as Zahra Ismaili, was reportedly made to watch as 16 men were hanged in front of her while waiting her turn at Rajai Shahr Prison, west of the capital Tehran. The mother-of-two had been convicted of killing her husband, who was a senior official in the Ministry of Intelligence, according to The Times. Her lawyer, Omid Moradi, claimed her husband had allegedly been abusive to both her and their daughter and that she had acted in self-defence. Mr Moradi is said to have described how the events unfolded on Wednesday in a Facebook post, which claimed his clients body was still hanged after she collapsed, to allow her husbands mother to kick a chair away from beneath her. According to the Iran Human Rights Monitor (HRM), the post, which has reportedly since been deleted, said Ismailis death certificate gave her cause of death as cardiac arrest. Mr Moradi reportedly wrote: It states cardiac arrest as cause of death because yesterday 16 men were hanged before her eyes. Zahras heart stopped and she died before she was taken to the gallows. They hanged her lifeless body, and the victims mother personally kicked the stool from under her feet so she could see her daughter-in-laws corpse on the gallows for even a few seconds. Ismaili was one of three women to be executed in Iran in recent weeks in the prisons of Ardabil, Sanandaj and Karaj, according to the Iran HRM. This brings the total number of women executed during Iranian president Hassan Rouhanis tenure, which began in August 2013, to 114, the website, run by human rights activists, said. Cayuga County COVID-19 update Cayuga County reported its 87th death of the COVID-19 pandemic. A woman in her 80s has died after testing positive for the virus and being hospitalized. The county health department admitted 19 new cases on Tuesday. There are 145 active cases in mandatory isolation. Three people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are hospitalized at Auburn Community Hospital. Nirav Modi, the diamond merchant wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab Bank (PNB) scam case, on Thursday lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts. While this may be construed as a huge win for Indian government, an RTI reply published by IANS news agency last year shows India's record in catching economic fugitive offenders in last 6 years has been patchy at best. In a candid admission, the Centre has stated that of the 72 absconding economic offenders, the government has managed to bring only two in the past nearly six years, as per a reply under the Right To Information (RTI). On January 4, 2019, the government had submitted the names of 27 businessmen who had defaulted on bank loans or other economic offences since 2015. A year later on February 5, 2020, the Minister of State for Finance S.P. Shukla informed the Lok Sabha that a total of 72 Indians charged with frauds or financial irregularities are currently abroad and efforts are being made to bring them back to the country. Mumbai RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge, taking the 2019 reply as the base, filed an application with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seeking details of those from among the 27 absconders who were successfully brought back home. "I was shocked to learn that till date only 2 of the fugitives have been brought back to India to face the laws... They are Vinay Mittal and Sunny Kalra. "The RTI reply doesn't comment on the other absconders, many of whom are very big names," Ghadge told IANS. As per the MoSF reply to Lok Sabha in 2019, the hit-list included both individuals and families: Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Neeshal Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Nitin J. Sandesara, Dipti Chetankumar Sandesara. Besides, Sunny Kalra, Sanjay Kalra, S.K. Kalra, Aarti Kalra, Varsha Kalra, Umesh Parekh, Kamlesh Parekh, Nilesh Parekh, Ashish Jobanputra, Priti Ashish Jobanputra, Hitesh N. Patel, Mayuri Patel, Rajiv Goyal, Alka Goyal, Pushpesh Baid, Jatin Mehta, Eklavya Garg, Vinay Mittal, Sabya Seth and Ritesh Jain. MoSF Shukla further said that the government is making an all-out effort to bring back the culprits by Look Out Circular, Red Corner Notice, extradition requests or action under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, depending on the cases. The government said the extradition option is quite complicated as it involves the legal process as per bilateral treaties, if any, with the concerned country and its own domestic laws, even as the number of fugitives tripled in a year. Both the offenders Sunny Kalra and Vinay Mittal were finally brought back to face various charges of allegedly duping public and private sector banks of huge amounts. Mittal, extradited from Indonesia in 2018, is accused of defrauding 7 banks to the tune of around Rs 40 crore, while Sunny Kalra brought back by CBI in March 2020 is charged with a Rs 10-crore loan fraud involving Punjab Bank (PNB). Ghadge said that two other queries pertaining to the Look Out Circular and Red Corner Notice against the absconders, was forwarded to the CBI and Ministry of Home Affairs who flatly declined to enlighten on the issue, prompting a First Appeal which is pending. "Merely hauling back the small fries won't instill fear among the white-collar criminals... The government must catch the big fish like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nitin J. Sandesara, Lalit Modi, etc. to curb the loot of public monies," Ghadge said. As per an earlier statement in Lok Sabha in March 2018, the government had said that 31 economic offenders had fled abroad, and many of them also figured in the list provided a year later in 2019. The 2018 list included Ami Nirav Modi, Sanjay Bhandari, Soumit Jena, Vijaykumar Revabhai Patel, Sunil Ramesh Rupani, Surender Singh, Angad Singh, Harsahib Singh, Harleen Kaur, Nithin J. Sandesara, Hemant Gandhi, Ishwar Bhat, M.G. Chandrasekhar, C.V. Sudeer, Nausha Kadeejath and C.V. Sadiq. Cannes Lions and its official representative in South Africa, Ster-Kinekor recently announced this year's jury. With only one month to go until two years' worth of Lion-winning work is awarded, we touched base with some of the local jury members for a preview of what to expect. Next up, Lufuno Mavhungu... [February 25, 2021] Ontario Science Centre announces new board chair John Carmichael TORONTO, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - The Ontario Science Centre is pleased to announce the appointment of John Carmichael as Chair of the Board of Trustees, effective February 21, 2021. Carmichael, who first joined the board in December 2019 and has been Vice-Chair since May 2020, replaces outgoing chair Ann Louise Vehovec. "On behalf of the Government of Ontario, I want to congratulate John Carmichael on his appointment to the Ontario Science Centre as Chair of the Board of Trustees," said Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries. "I look forward to working with John, and I am confident that his knowledge and experience will make him an ideal person to helm one of our province's greatest and most cherished attractions. I would also like to thank outgoing chair Ann Louise Vehovec for her dedicated service on the board and outstanding eadership as chair." CEO Paul Kortenaar said the Ontario Science Centre is delighted to welcome John as chair of the board. "He brings a wealth of experience from both the world of business and government, as well as fundraising skills for charitable organizations, which will help our organization continue to succeed as we prepare to reopen our doors to visitors while continuing to offer virtual experiences," Kortenaar said. Carmichael is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council, and previously operated one of the largest General Motors car dealerships in the Greater Toronto Area. He was also Member of Parliament for Don Valley West from 2011 to 2015. He has served as President of Rowing Canada, as well as a board member of the Canadian Olympic Committee and North York General Hospital Foundation. "I am excited to take on this new position because I believe in the Ontario Science Centre and the important role it plays in our community," said Carmichael. "I remember accompanying my children on field trips, and now treasure visits with my own grandchildren. It is a truly special place that continues to inspire learning, curiosity and discovery." Kortenaar also thanked Vehovec for her eight years of service on the board, including three years as board chair. "I want to thank Ann Louise for her leadership and dedication to the Centre's success supporting the development of a new Strategic Plan and the delivery of a milestone 50th birthday year that celebrated our rich history and impact, raised our profile and set us on a path for the future with an historic fundraising campaign." About the Ontario Science Centre Guided by our mission to inspire passion for the human adventure of discovery, the Ontario Science Centre strives to be a global leader in lifelong learning, a vital link in Ontario's education and innovation ecosystems and a convener of public dialogue about technology, science and society. The Centre has welcomed more than 54 million visitors since opening as a Centennial project in 1969, pioneering an interactive approach now adopted by science centres around the world. An agency of the Government of Ontario, the Centre relies on funding from the province, as well as donations from generous individuals, corporations and foundations that share the Centre's vision to contribute to a more curious, creative and resilient world. Learn more at OntarioScienceCentre.ca. SOURCE Ontario Science Centre [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Tricia Suriani, of Brattleboro, fills out her ballot while her 2-year-old daughter, Clemencia, draws a picture inside a voting booth at the Brattleboro polling site at the American Legion on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. Rumor mill: Samsung and Apple have long been rivals in the smartphone world, but could they also soon have competing laptop SoCs? According to a new report, the Korean firms 2019 partnership with AMD to create an RDNA-powered GPU for mobile devices could lead to an Exynos-based laptop with integrated Radeon graphics. According to ZDNet Korea, a Windows 10 Samsung laptop featuring an Exynos SoC with an integrated AMD GPU will arrive later this year, sometime after the release of the next, and possibly last, Galaxy Note handset. There have been rumors that Samsung wont launch another Note, but it seems the company hasnt given up on the series yet. Samsung earlier this year said that its next flagship product would use an Exynos SoC featuring AMDs RDNA graphics tech. It was assumed this would appear in one of the companys premium smartphones, such as the Galaxy Fold, but it could land in laptops first. These will differ from AMDs integrated GPUs in its APUs; Samsungs version will be custom. Apples M1 chips have been widely praised for their performance compared to Intels alternatives, and Samsung will be hoping to replicate this with its in-house solution. It wont be the companys first foray into Arm-based laptopsthe Samsung Galaxy Book S is one of several machines powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cxbut the Exynos SoC could more closely match the M1 and CPUs from Intel/AMD in terms of performance. The report also states that the laptops display, memory, battery, and storage will all come from Samsung itself, suggesting it will feature one of the firm's new OLED screens. Earlier this week, we heard that Samsung is set to reveal its RDNA-based mobile GPU at an event this June, so we may discover more about the laptop in a few months. TCHRD researcher Tenzin Dawa (left) and executive director Tsering Tsomo (right) are shown at a press conference in Dharamsala, India, Feb. 23, 2021. Chinas development drives in Tibet have pulled the region closer to economic and cultural integration with Beijing but have failed Tibetans themselves, creating a dual economy that has seen rural Tibetans moved from traditional grazing lands and into urban areas where the best jobs are held by Han Chinese, according to a report released this week. Driven by state interests, Beijings plans for developing Tibet have left Tibetans alienated and isolated from meaningful development and modernization, says the report by the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Distorted Development: Chinese Discourses on the Right to Development and its Implementation in Tibet. The international community has repeatedly condemned the Chinese government for their violations of human rights inside Tibet, said TCHRD director Tsering Tsomo, speaking at a press conference in Dharamsala on Tuesday to announce the release of the report. But the Chinese Communist Party has explicitly ignored this by highlighting what it calls the heightened Chinese model of development and infrastructure, which it says is lifting Tibetans out of poverty in Tibet, Tsomo said. The Chinese government insists that the economic welfare of the people is their most important right, Tsomo said, adding, However, they have threatened all other fundamental rights by making them subordinate to economic rights. And the government has also failed to provide any disaggregated data to show the number of Tibetans who are actually benefiting from this development, she said. Chinas development policies in Tibet are designed to assimilate the region and its people into the framework of a single Chinese national identity rather than to meaningfully improve the lives of Tibetans, TCHRD says in its report, pointing to the widespread forced removal of Tibetan herders from traditional grazing grounds. Because Chinas development policy has succeeded in urbanizing rural Tibetans and erasing their land rights, it has succeeded in creating pristine wilderness through depopulation, sinicizing economic centres in towns and cities ensuring investments and profits flow back to China Proper, the rights group says. It has also built infrastructure, including highways and railways, to pull Tibet and its resources closer to China, extracting natural minerals and resources, and building hydroelectric power to fulfill distant coastal Chinas thirst for energy. 'Remittance economy' Bilingual education schemes that undermine the teaching of the Tibetan language have further disadvantaged Tibetans looking for employment in profitable sectors of the economy, while Tibetan herders forced from their land have been left unprepared for a shift to the modern job market now dominated by Chinese migrants, TCHRD says in its report. Preferential investment by China in Chinese companies in Tibetan urban areas has meanwhile ensured that profits flow out of Tibet and back to China, making Tibet a remittance economy. In the future, as China accelerates and intensified efforts to move Tibetans to urban centres, this will mean a continued pattern of marginalization and alienation from economic opportunities that are already dominated by migrants, TCHRD sayds. Tibetans insufficiently prepared for the socioeconomic shift from rural living to the modern job market will continue to be relegated in job opportunities in favor of migrants, and directly marginalized by policy implemented in the name of development. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against Chinese rule. Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings. Reported by Ugyen Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney. Toby Hudson, 19, was initially unable to speak to a doctor in Weymouth, Dorset due to a faulty phone system and eventually gave up and decided to try again the next day A university student died from sepsis after trying 25 times to get through to a GP surgery before being wrongly diagnosed with tonsillitis, an inquest heard. Toby Hudson, 19, was initially unable to speak to a doctor in Weymouth, Dorset due to a faulty phone system and eventually gave up and decided to try again the next day. When he did get through to a receptionist, Mr Hudson was told he could not have an appointment for at least 48 hours because he was registered at another surgery in Southampton, Hampshire. Mr Hudson instead decided to go to an urgent care walk-in centre, where he was wrongly diagnosed with tonsillitis and given a course of antibiotics. His condition deteriorated rapidly over the next 24 hours, and his parents eventually called for emergency services when he became unconscious. The teenager went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance, but was delayed in getting to Dorset County Hospital because a secondary team of paramedics initially attended the wrong address. Mr Hudson died on July 4, 2019, two days after he first sought help at the Wyke Regis and Lanehouse Medical Practice. A post mortem found he died from multiple organ failure due to sepsis which stemmed from infectious glandular fever. An inquest into his death in Bournemouth heard Mr Hudson had previously been a patient at the Weymouth practice. He then moved to Southampton to study chemistry and registered at a new clinic close to the campus. Mr Hudson had been suffering from a cough for around two months before he returned to his family home in Weymouth in the summer of 2019. He had swollen glands, 'puffy' tonsils and a sore throat when his parents told him to speak to a GP. Giving evidence, Dr Matthew Brook, a partner at the Wake Regis and Lanehouse Medical Practice, admitted issues with the phone system due to a high patient load. Dr Brook said: 'We were having tremendous problems with our phone system which could not handle a much higher number of calls. 'We had updated the system but it was not working correctly. There was a queuing system but in a lot of cases people were waiting a long time and then hanging up. 'We have had a review since then and nobody recalled taking the call from Toby.' Mr Hudson died on July 4, 2019, two days after he first sought help at the Wyke Regis and Lanehouse Medical Practice in Weymouth, Dorset Dr Brook insisted that the correct procedures had been followed. According to national guidelines, temporary residents should only be seen by a GP if they do not require urgent care. He said: 'With temporary residents, receptionists are told to ask whether a patient needs an urgent appointment, within 48 hours. 'If they do require one within 48 hours we refer them to the urgent care unit. 'If not, the patient is re-registered and we are then able to make an appointment.' Nurse practitioner Briony Jefferis said she was 'not remotely worried' about Mr Hudson's symptoms when she examined him at the urgent care centre in Weymouth Community Hospital. She said: 'I met with Toby on July 3. He was seen by a triage nurse and then by myself around ten minutes later. 'He had a normal temperature of 36.1 degrees, a heart rate of 102bpm and rated his pain at an eight out of ten. 'He did not show any signs of sepsis and his symptoms were consistent with those of tonsillitis. 'He was given penicillin and told to return if he did not feel an improvement over the next two days. Neither myself nor the triage nurse were remotely worried.' Mr Hudson's father, Peter, described the day of his son's death on July 4. The father explained how the teenager was taken from his home to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, but on the way went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance. A second crew had to be called, but they initially went to the family's home address rather than where the ambulance was stopped. It was almost 15 minutes before they arrived at the correct scene. Mr Hudson was later taken into theatre at the hospital but died later that night. His father said: 'I felt there was no urgency. I had to press for action to be taken and for our concerns to be heard. 'There were issues with communication. The backup crew went to our home address and at from what neighbours have told me they had trouble finding the house. 'They were knocking on doors before they realised what had happened. 'They then had to travel almost three miles to where the ambulance actually was through Weymouth summer traffic and through roadworks. 'We have a lot of concerns about his care.' The inquest continues. A fantasy themed amusement park in Utah, called Evermore, sued Taylor Swift for trademark infringement over the use of her most recent surprise album of the same name and related merchandise. Now, just weeks later, the company that handles the rights for the pop star's music and other trademarks, has filed a countersuit against the park. In the new legal filing, Swift's TAS Rights Management claims Evermore Park routinely played Swifts music on its grounds 'without authorization or license agreement,' according to Rolling Stone. Legal battle: Taylor Swift's company that handles the rights for the pop star's music and other trademarks, has filed a countersuit against Evermore Park, a theme park in Utah In the suit, TAS claims Evermore Park was regularly engaged in copyright infringement, which includes regularly playing three songs -- Love Story, You Belong With Me, and Bad Blood -- during performances without a proper license. It also accuses Evermore of repeatedly ignoring messages from BMI, the performance rights organization, regarding the legal matter, and instead continued 'to benefit from the free and unauthorized public performance of [the songs], despite actual knowledge of the liability and substantial penalties imposed by the Copyright Act to protect artists.' TAS is seeking a court order for Evermore Park to pay enhanced statutory damages for each infringed upon work and performance. Countersuit: Swift's TAS Rights Management claims Evermore Park routinely played Swifts music on its grounds 'without authorization or license agreement,' according to Rolling Stone The pop superstar's countersuit also accuses Evermore Park of repeatedly ignoring messages from BMI, the performance rights organization, regarding the legal matter Earlier this month, the park's CEO Ken Bretschneider claimed Swift's use of Evermore for her ninth studio album title caused 'actual confusion' that affected the parks online presence negatively, and that it 'infringes on the park's merchandise designs'. At the time, attorneys for Swift came out publicly and called the claims 'frivolous'. And in the TAS countersuit, Swift's team maintained that BMI tried to communicate with Evermore, but only responded after leaning that the countersuit was imminent. Evermore Park does not feature any major rides, instead it has trained actors who portray fantasy characters as the main attraction The battle of Evermore: The small fantasy-themed park opened in Pleasant Grove, Utah in September 2018, which was more than two years before Swift's Evermore album dropped The small fantasy-themed park opened its door in Pleasant Grove, Utah in September 2018, which was more than two years before Swift's Evermore album dropped in December 2020. Unlike more traditional theme parks, Evermore Park does not feature any major rides, instead it has trained actors who portray fantasy characters as the main attraction. Those characters invite guests, dubbed World Walkers, to interact with them, and ask questions, discover their backstory, join one of Evermore's guilds, and help them with different tasks. Swift's Evermore album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Swift the only woman in U.S. history to amass eight consecutive number-one debuts. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company UPDATE 3 p.m.: This story has been updated with a response from the mass vaccination clinics operators. Seniors hoping to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the Portland areas two mass vaccination clinics once again ran into major roadblocks Thursday -- three days after the appointment scheduling websites for the clinics failed them for the first time. The problems appeared even worse Thursday -- with the Oregon Health Authoritys website apparently crashing for some users, stating that the site was Not Found. That website serves as a portal to reach the appointment scheduling web pages for Portland International Airports drive-through clinic and the Oregon Convention Centers walk-up clinic. Seniors trying to schedule at the Convention Center Thursday morning said the scheduling page was slow to load or failed to load at all. Sometimes they encountered a message stating Our site is really busy at the moment. Please try again later. Some reported a box popping up that wouldnt let them proceed without entering an eight-digit code that they hadnt been sent. Some who called 211 to schedule appointments said they heard a recording telling them to call back Friday. Others said they were put on hold and then suddenly disconnected. Two said they were on hold for six hours before the line suddenly hung up. Officials with the Oregon Health Authority did not respond to questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive about what went wrong Thursday. But in a tweet, the agency acknowledged a brief outage with the website Thursday morning. This was a technical issue and not related to the volume of visitors on the site, the agency said. This issue is now resolved -- thank you for your patience. After Mondays initial failures, the vaccination clinics operators said the scheduling sites moved slowly because of the massive number of people visiting them at the time. They said they had fixes either in place or underway to improve site stability and user experience moving forward. Thursday, the operators indicated some level of defeat. Until more vaccine becomes available, and, consequently, more appointments become available, potentially on different days at different times, there isnt a good fix, spokeswoman Tamara Hargens-Bradley said in an email. Hargens-Bradley said she doesnt know how many people tried to access the Portland areas scheduling sites Thursday, but many, many thousands were eligible for the 3,400 appointments available for booking starting at 9 a.m. The scheduling site for the airport, run by Oregon Health & Science University, can accommodate 4,800 visitors at a time, she said. The scheduling site for the Convention Center, run by Legacy Health, can handle 3,800. Even with Thursdays problems, the airports online appointments were gone in 10 minutes and the Convention Centers in 90 minutes, Hargens-Bradley said. Gorjean Armen, a Portland resident who is 70 and became eligible to book an appointment starting this week, experienced the systems failures firsthand. She said once she made it to the scheduling site for the Convention Center Thursday, she saw a bank of appointments available. Ten times she unsuccessfully tried to book one of those appointments, with the site sometimes indicating someone else had taken the time slot before she could complete the check-out process, she said. Once, the site simply told her an error had been made. That was among various other problems Armen encountered before all the appointments were gone. She estimates that shes spent about 12 hours this week searching for appointments -- Monday and Thursday at the Portland areas mass vaccination clinics and in the days in between at local pharmacies. She will try again 9 a.m. Monday, when the Portland areas clinics are next scheduled to release new appointments for booking. But the competition will increase, with more than 250,000 residents ages 65 to 69 to become eligible for the first time. Its all come to naught, Armen said. And I dont feel very positive about getting an appointment on Monday, when it opens up to all those younger people. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter -- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee New Delhi, Feb 25 : Over 18.5 lakh healthcare workers who had received the first dose of vaccines since the launch of Covid immunisation drive, have been inoculated with the second and final dose, whereas 2,44,511 of them received the second shot on Thursday, the Union Health Ministry said. So far, the second dose vaccination has covered 55.23 per cent of those healthcare workers who are eligible to receive their second dose of vaccines, as per the ministry's data. A total of 18,60,859 healthcare workers have been vaccinated with the second dose till February 25, the 14th day from the start of second dose administration, against 30,68,734 vaccinated till January 29, the 14th day of the first dose vaccination, the data showed. Meanwhile, 3,95,884 vaccine doses were given through 12,988 sessions to healthcare and frontline workers till 6 p.m. on Thursday, the 41st day of the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination, as per the provisional report shared by the ministry. "Out of this, 98,382 beneficiaries were vaccinated for the first dose and 63,458 received the second dose of vaccines," it added. Meanwhile, the cumulative figure of vaccine doses has reached 1,30,67,047 across the country. "These include 65,82,007 who have taken the 1st dose including 46,24,181 frontline workers and 18,60,859 of those healthcare workers who have taken the second dose," the ministry said. Five cases of Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) have been reported related to the 1st dose vaccination and 3 cases related to the 2nd dose. The said informed that seven states and a UT have vaccinated more than 80 per cent of the registered healthcare and frontline workers for the first dose. These are Bihar, Odisha, Tripura, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The ministry also said that 45 deaths among vaccine beneficiaries have been recorded so far (23 deaths in hospital and 22 outside), while 51 have been hospitalised so far, of which 26 were discharged after treatment, two are under treatment, and 23 persons have died. "In last 24 hours, one person has been hospitalised at AIIMS Bhubaneswar. He is stable now," Joint Secretary, Health, Mandeep Bhandari, said. The ministry however clarified that no case of severe AEFI ot death is attributable to vaccination so far. "The hospitalisations and even deaths post vaccination are not found linked with vaccines. Besides, their rate of occurrence to the vaccination is only 0.0004 per cent," Bhandari said. The vaccination of the healthcare workers started on January 16 while the frontline workers started receiving the vaccine shots from February 2. From March 1, Covid-19 vaccination will be extended to people aged 60 years and above and those aged 45 years and above with comorbidities. ADVERTISEMENT The University of Fort Hare said Edwin Ijeoma, the professor of public sector economics whose South African citizenship was revoked by the Bhisho high court, had been suspended for misconduct since last year. The universitys spokeswoman, Tandi Mapukata, told PREMIUM TIMES in an emailed statement that Mr Ijeoma was facing allegations of serious misconduct for which he has been placed on precautionary suspension since October 16. She said Mr Ijeomas expulsion as a South African citizen only coincided with his suspension for alleged wrongdoing, adding that an investigative hearing on the allegations began Wednesday. The disciplinary hearing commenced today (Wednesday) and is still in progress. The university will issue a follow-up statement regarding the outcomes of all processes outlined above, Ms Mapukata said without providing details of the allegation. Ms Mapukata further said the University of Fort Hare was keeping tabs on the court ruling revoking the South African citizenship of the embattled Nigerian professor who reportedly renounced his Nigerian citizenship much earlier. We can confirm that we are now in possession of the judgement. We are also taking urgent advice on the appropriate due process to follow regarding the future of Prof Ijeomas employment with the university, Ms Mapukata added. Mr Ijeoma, who arrived in South Africa from Nigeria on a study permit in 1998 to study at the University of Pretoria, was left in the lurch over the week after his South African citizenship was nullified by the countrys ministry of home affairs after he was convicted for dubiously marrying a South African woman to obtain citizenship by naturalization. Authorities had exempted him from immigration restrictions due to his marriage to the South African, but he divorced her in 2017 after the couple was unable to have a child. Thereafter, he was joined in South Africa by a Nigerian woman, Anne Tomo, whom he had listed as his sister, ultimately leading home affairs officials to charge him for bigamy. He was convicted for the same offence. Mr Ijeoma has not responded to an email sent to him by PREMIUM TIMES Thursday. Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has said drama should address the coronavirus pandemic. He told the BBCs Inside Culture With Mary Beard that if he wrote a script inspired by health-related issues, it would be about Covid-19. Mercurio said: It feels now that if I were to write about medicine it probably would be directly related to the pandemic, because I think that drama should address that. (Ian West/PA) Quite what canvas that should be in, I dont know. Mercurio also discussed the sixth series of Line Of Duty, which the BBC said earlier this month was coming soon. He said the series had been shot so the pandemic is invisible. What we did decide to do was we snuck in a few allegorical points in relation to the current situation, so sharp-eyed viewers should look out for those, he added. Jed Mercurios appearance on Inside Culture With Mary Beard is on BBC Two on Thursday at 7pm. Detectives believe that two men who were arrested after they were discovered acting suspiciously at an ATM in west Dublin on Wednesday evening may have travelled into the country to commit a financial crime spree. The pair, aged in their late 20s and mid 30s, are understood to be Moldovan nationals who only arrived in Ireland last week. Gardai have not yet established where they had been living after arriving in this country. One of the suspects has convictions for major theft offences in Russia and Moldova and officers are trying to establish if the duo are working for a major international organised crime gang. Gardai announced details of the arrest operation today. Gardai in Ballyfermot arrested two men following an incident in Palmerstown Village yesterday evening, Wednesday 24, February 2021, a spokeswoman said. At approximately 6.30pm Gardai observed two men, aged in their late 20s and mid 30s, behaving suspiciously at an ATM on the Old Lucan Road. "Gardai proceeded to search the men and the vehicle they were travelling in. Items, known as skimming devices, were seized during the search. She said both men were arrested and taken to Clondalkin Garda Station where they are currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. Gardai in Clondalkin are liaising with the Gardai from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) during this ongoing investigation, she added. It is understood officers have observed damage to the bank machine that the men were allegedly interfering with. The arrests in west Dublin yesterday are the first made in relation to skimming since two suspects were arrested in a different case in last February. Skimming involves criminals placing devices in an ATM which scan the details of a persons ATM card when it is placed into a machine. Once installed, they are used to record data and PIN numbers from people's cards at the ATM. The criminals then use the information from cloned cards to withdraw cash at different locations. Officers are probing whether 80 in very crisp notes seized from one of the men detained in Clondalkin Garda Station is a result of skimming. Last November, a Romanian father-of-two pleaded guilty to stealing more than 120,000 from ATM machines, using cloned cards in a sophisticated operation in which bank machines in several counties were targeted over a five-month period. Danile Munteanu (31) was arrested at the Co Meath address where he lived in March, 2019, after a GNECB surveillance operation. He is due to be sentenced next month. Trim Circuit Criminal Court heard that hundreds of transactions where cloned cards had been used to withdraw money from the accounts of innocent Bank of Ireland customers were carried out incounties including Monaghan, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Galway, Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin. Some customers had their entire accounts cleared out as amounts of up to 700 at a time were withdrawn without their knowledge. They included juveniles and people in their 80s, and one person had more than 7,000 stolen from their account. 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. 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. Egypt insists that any accord over the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) must preserve its water rights as well as serve the interest of all parties, Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Mohamed Abdel-Aty told Congolese official Alphonse Ntumba, according to an official statement. In a meeting in Cairo with Ntumba, the coordinator of the panel concerned with the DRC's presidency of the AU, Abdel-Aty stressed Egypts keenness on reaching a fair and binding legal agreement that takes into account the interests of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The two officials discussed Sudans proposal, which Cairo backs, to form an international quartet committee to mediate the stalled negotiations on the dam. Abdel-Aty stressed that Egypt supports its African counterparts in Nile Basin countries in providing drinking water for its citizens and implementing rainwater harvesting and other projects. Their meeting comes hours after Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the Congolese official that Cairo backs Khartoums proposal on forming the quartet committee comprising of the US, the EU, the UN and the AU to mediate the GERD negotiations. The mediation talks will be sponsored by Felix Tshisekedi, the president of the DRC, the current head of the AU. Shoukry expressed hope that the proposed methodology would push the negotiations forward and assist the three countries in reaching the desired agreement as soon as possible. Since last year, the AU has been mediating the talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the decade-long dispute caused by the GERD. The last round of AU negotiations, mediated by South Africa, the former president of the AU, stalled in January due to Khartoum's withdrawal from the latest meetings in objection to the methodology upon which the talks had been held. Sudan called for granting a bigger role to the experts involved in the talks instead of holding direct discussions between the three nations. Ethiopia, as well as Egypt, rejected Sudan's demand. The efforts to resolve the crisis come amid worries over controversial plans by Addis Ababa to complete the second filling in July without an accord with Cairo and Khartoum. Egypt fears the project will significantly cut its crucial water supplies from the River Nile, while Sudan has concerns over how the reservoir will be managed. Ethiopia says the massive project, which it hopes will make it Africas largest power exporter, is key to its development efforts. Short link: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks to his office at the conclusion of former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 13, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) McConnell Questions Legitimacy of Pelosis Commission to Probe Capitol Breach Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) proposed commission to investigate the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, calling its composition partisan by design. The Congress has yet to finalize the structure of the commission, which Pelosi said will be modeled after the one established by President George W. Bush to examine the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. It is reported, however, that Democratic leaders had proposed a panel that would have seven members appointed by their partyincluding three picked by President Joe Biden with subpoena powerand four appointed by Republicans. McConnell took issue with the unequal representation and unbalanced subpoena authority, saying that the probe wont be seen as a legitimate, bipartisan effort by the public. An inquiry with a hard-wired partisan slant would never be legitimate in the eyes of the American people, McConnell said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. An undertaking that is uneven or unjust would not help our country. The Kentucky senator then criticized Pelosi for not trying to make the 1/6 commission as bipartisan as its precursor. Chaired by former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a Republican, the 9/11 commission consisted of five Democrats and five Republicans. Both Democratic Republican commissioners were granted the power to subpoena witnesses and documents, although they used majority votes when making important decisions such as issuing subpoenas. The 9/11 Commission was intentionally built to be bipartisan, McConnell said. Fifty-fifty bipartisan split of the commissioners was a key feature. It both helped the effectiveness of the investigation itself, and help give the whole country confidence in its work, and its recommendations. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made a similar comment earlier in the day, saying that the commissions design is politically-driven and that Pelosi is setting up a system to fail. Speaker Pelosi is doing it all wrong, McCarthy said. First, its not bipartisan, 7-4. Secondly, they dont allow subpoena power for the minority and the majority to work together. Meanwhile, former 9/11 commissioners are expressing concerns about the apparent partisanship in the 1/6 commission, reported Politico. That does not sound to me like a good start; it sounds like a partisan beginning, said former Indiana Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat who vice-chaired the 9/11 commission. Hamilton was joined by Kean, who told Politico that the anticipated 1/6 report wont have as much confidence from the American people unless there is equal representation on the commission. Temple in Srinagar that was closed due to militancy, reopens after 31 years on Panchami Srinagar-Leh national highway to reopen for regulated traffic from February 28 India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Jammu, Feb 25: The Jammu and Kashmir government has said that the Srinagar-Leh national highway will be reopened for vehicular traffic on February 28, officials said. In a meeting to review the status of Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri (SSG) road, Kashmir Divisional Commissioner PK Pole convened that the highway will be open for civilian traffic from February 28. On that day, the road will be officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh for traffic movement, they said. During the meeting, it is reportedly said that it was given out that the road stands cleared for one-way traffic but based on a weather advisory, the road shall be opened for civilian traffic from February 28, they said. Odisha gets highway Eighteen patrolling units It was informed during the meeting that several advisories need to be issued in view of the slippery road condition and avalanche warnings, including allowing the plying of vehicles with chains for both HMVs and LMVs and one-way traffic at Zojila pass to avoid accidents. China's strategy won't work with India | Army Chief Gen Naravane | Oneindia News The Kashmir divisional commissioner said both advisories shall be put in place to prevent any exigency while there shall be proper timing to allow movement of vehicles from Sonamarg and Minamarg. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 8:45 [IST] Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. She's Married At First Sight's Kmart-obsessed bride who wed millionaire James Susler during Wednesday night's episode. But just hours before her nuptials aired, Jo Todd looked in her element as she enjoyed a shopping trip at the budget superstore. The 39-year-old kept things casual in a pink jumper and leggings as she visited a Kmart store in Melbourne with her two sons. Back at it! Married At First Sight's Kmart-obsessed bride Joanne Todd ditched her wedding ring as she enjoyed a shopping trip to the budget retailer with her two sons on Wednesday Shopping trip: The 39-year-old kept things casual in a pink jumper and leggings as she visited a Kmart store in Melbourne with her two sons She teamed her ensemble with a pair of comfortable black sneakers and covered her face with a mask. Jo styled her long blonde locks straight and opted for a neutral palette of makeup. However, she was notably not wearing her wedding ring from the series, hinting that things don't end well for her and James. Casual: She teamed her ensemble with a pair of comfortable black sneakers and covered her face with a mask Out and about: Jo held her mobile phone as she walked out of the Kmart store with her boys On Wednesday night's episode, insecure mother-of-three Jo married a confident Lamborghini-driving, Rolex-wearing millionaire. But despite the odds being stacked against them, she and James appeared to really hit it off. 'I'm s**ting myself,' she told producers after she arrived at her wedding ceremony. 'I'm nervous in case I stuff this up, in case he doesn't like me, in case I don't like him, because he is marrying a stranger and meeting them for the first time,' she said. Shopping time! Jo held her children's hands as they arrived at their local shopping centre Wedding: On Wednesday night's episode of Married At First Sight, insecure mother-of-three Jo married a confident Lamborghini-driving, Rolex-wearing millionaire. But despite the odds being stacked against them, she and James Susler appeared to really hit it off 'We're going to be a massive Brady bunch': While Jo originally had doubts about not being able to find a partner, things began to quickly blossom for the pair But while Jo originally had doubts about not being able to find a partner, things began to quickly blossom for the pair. 'We're going to be a massive Brady bunch,' she said after learning James has three children of his own. 'We're getting along like a house on fire, but I noticed that he has this Rolex watch, so I am worried that we are from completely different worlds,' she added. 'I'm a Kmart shopper and he looks like a Rolex shopper, so this will be interesting.' Married At First Sight continues Thursday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine Doubts: 'We're getting along like a house on fire, but I noticed that he has this Rolex watch, so I am worried that we are from completely different worlds. I'm a Kmart shopper and he looks like a Rolex shopper, so this will be interesting,' she said Hamburg customs official Rene Matschke with some of the cocaine that was found in over 1,700 tins of wall filler shipped from Paraguay. Photo: Cathrin Mueller/ REUTERS German customs officials have found more than 16 tons of cocaine in containers that arrived in Hamburg from Paraguay, authorities said yesterday. Another 7.2 tons of cocaine were seized in Belgium and a suspect was arrested in the Netherlands. The Hamburg customs office described the find in the German port as the biggest quantity of cocaine ever seized in Europe and one of the biggest single seizures worldwide. The Dutch national prosecutors office, referring to the overall haul, said that never before has so much cocaine been intercepted in a single operation. The drugs were found in a search on February 12 of five containers from Paraguay that had been flagged as suspect in a risk analysis by several European customs authorities, the Hamburg office said. They had detected clear irregularities in three containers, which were loaded with putty in tin cans but appeared also to contain other wares. Customs officers found the cocaine hidden in more than 1,700 cans. The freight document linked to the shipment was addressed to a 28-year-old man in the Dutch town of Vlaardingen, who was arrested yesterday, prosecutors in the Netherlands said. Investigations prior to his arrest led Dutch authorities to another shipment of containers that were on their way from Panama to the Belgian port of Antwerp. A search by Belgian customs officials on Saturday uncovered 7.2 tons of cocaine hidden in a container of wood blocks. The total haul in Hamburg and Antwerp more than 23 tons would have had a street value of several billion euro, according to the Hamburg customs office. Using a different measure of price, Dutch prosecutors estimated the wholesale value of the combined shipments at some 600m. The announcement of the cocaine haul came a day after Dutch prosecutors said they co-operated with Britains National Crime Agency to intercept more than 1.5 tons of heroin worth 45m at Rotterdams port in a container full of Himalayan salt that originated in Pakistan. Dutch police arrested five suspects on suspicion of involvement in the drug transport, which they said was the largest heroin cargo ever intercepted in the Netherlands. Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg are the EUs three busiest freight ports. Sharma, who grew up hearing stories of the richness of Africa from two of his grandparents who were born there, decided to help. Having previously raised over $60,000 for various charities, he decided to roll up his sleeves and create the project. "To me, helping other people is the most important thing someone can do. I am incredibly grateful for these world-class artists who have agreed to participate in the challenge. It is all about trying to make a difference in the lives of children who need our help," said the 17 year old Sharma. "I am also thrilled to collaborate with Flying Kites and HATCH on this project." The event will start with Sharma auctioning off Drive Carefully Me - a Paul Newman portrait, then challenging 20 other notable artists to do the same. The 2-week challenge will end with the release of Sharma's 46664 - a portrait of iconic South African leader, Nelson Mandela. "Flying Kites is thrilled for the opportunity to partner with Evan and participate in his incredible vision of the CovART challenge," stated Leila De Bruyne, Executive Director of Flying Kites. The Challenge will go live today and remain live for 2 weeks, ending on March 9th. To learn more about the CovART Challenge, please visit: www.covartchallenge.com About The CovART Challenge The CovART Challenge is a fine art auction started by teen artist Evan Sharma to raise funds for children in Africa affected by COVID19. Partners include Flying Kites and the HATCH Experience. Funds raised for the challenge will help provide 250,000 meals for vulnerable children. SOURCE CEH Inc Related Links https://covartchallenge.com/ "Do not eat, sell or serve El Abuelito brand cheeses or recalled queso fresco cheeses," a February 2021 FDA release states. The Connecticut Department of Public Health has also issued a warning about the the soft cheese brand due to the appearance of Listeria monocytogenes found in samples collected from a Connecticut store in February. "The samples were collected as part of an ongoing investigation into a multi-state outbreak of listeriosis. Testing is ongoing to determine the source of the outbreak," a release states. One illness has been reported in connection to eating the product. "DPH advises consumers not to eat any El Abuelito Queso Fresco cheese until further notice. Immune-compromised individuals and others at high risk for infection, such as pregnant women, young children and the elderly, should avoid all Hispanic fresh and soft cheeses," it states. Rebecca Tyson, of Whitehall Township, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early January, with mild symptoms initially that worsened into a severe headache, body aches and muscle fatigue that felt like she had weights tied to her arms and legs. I had some breathing issues where I felt like I was almost breathing in moist air, she said. Through her physician, she was identified as a candidate for a potentially life-saving outpatient treatment known as monoclonal antibody therapy. She arrived at St. Lukes Hospital-Easton Campus for her appointment on a Sunday, the infusion took an hour, plus an hour for observation, and she drove herself home with zero side effects. Two days later, her symptoms were gone, save for some manageable minor fatigue. I was back at work in a weeks time, she said. I know this infusion is meant to stop the progression of your symptoms, but I was fortunate enough to actually experience resolution of most of my symptoms from COVID. Tyson shared her story Wednesday at the former Easton Hospital in Wilson Borough as St. Lukes University Health Network celebrated its 1,000th COVID-19 patient treated with monoclonal antibodies. It was the second milestone marked by St. Lukes in the battle against the coronavirus in less than a week in Northampton County, which earlier this week claimed the states highest rate of new COVID-19 infections. On Friday at St. Lukes Hospital-Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township, the network marked 100,000 vaccine doses administered. St. Lukes in November became eastern Pennsylvanias first health-care provider to offer the treatment in an outpatient setting, opening the first clinic at the Easton Campus followed by another at St. Lukes Hospital-Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg and a third location at St. Lukes Hospital-Miners Campus in Schuylkill County. In randomized trials that led to emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, about 15% of patients who got a placebo ended up being admitted for COVID-19 compared to about 4% of those who actually got monoclonal antibodies, said Dr. Peter Ender, St. Lukes section chief of infectious diseases. Thats quite impressive as far as being able to keep people out of the hospital and keep them out of the emergency department, he said. St. Lukes own data shows a nearly 50% decrease in hospitalizations for those who received an infusion and an almost 40% decrease in emergency department visits, he said. Under the federal emergency use authorization, monoclonal antibodies are available for people likely to face complications from COVID-19, including those over age 65 or with a body-mass index over 35, along with patients battling diabetes or chronic kidney disease; who are immunocompromised; or who are ages 55 and up with hypertension, cardiovascular disease or certain lung diseases. Children ages 12 and up with certain medical problems may also be candidates, said Dr. Dennis McGorry, senior regional director for St. Lukes Physician Group. Monoclonal antibodies work against the COVID-19 virus spike protein that allows the virus to adhere to human cells and eventually enter the cell, and prevent the virus from replicating just like antibodies made in response to being vaccinated or from having the disease itself, McGorry said. Unlike the vaccine, theres no shortage. We have plenty of treatment for people that meet the criteria, Ender said. The physicians described a host of network employees who make the antibody infusions possible, from doctors to nurses to clinical pharmacists to IT personnel and others. This has been a real team effort for the monoclonal clinic as well as treating every patient in the Easton community that comes to us, said Linda Grass, president of St. Lukes Easton Campus. Those attending Wednesdays celebration included St. Lukes staff, Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., Phillipsburg Mayor Todd Tersigni, and representatives of Democratic lawmakers U.S. Rep. Susan Wild and state Sen. Lisa Boscola. The event comes nearly a half-year since St. Lukes purchased Easton Hospital effective last July 1, following threats by its previous for-profit owner to close down the facility even as the coronavirus was sickening people and claiming lives across the Lehigh Valley, northwestern New Jersey and beyond. When St. Lukes was in the process of acquiring Easton Hospital, it gave all of us hope for this area, this part of our county -- Easton, West Easton, Wilson, Glendon, Palmer, Forks -- and the people of the Slate Belt who historically made use of Easton Hospital, that there would be a hospital here for those people and we are very grateful to St. Lukes for that, McClure said. And when we learned that monoclonal antibody treatment was being given here, it shined a bright light of hope, a beacon, across the county, across the Valley, across the river, that lives would be saved, he continued. And while the doctors will tell you were not out of this yet -- were not -- they have saved lives with this treatment and we are so grateful that they are doing it here. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Colorados new jobless claims dipped slightly from the previous week for the week ending Feb. 13 at 12,151, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said Thursday. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Award winning market research company Fact.MR's global hydrogen sensor market opines a moderate outlook for 2021, owing to commencement of recovery in APAC automotive market. Although, demand for hydrogen sensors grew at around 3% from 2016-2020, the market is expected to grow at over 6% CAGR through 2031. Innovation in technology and investment in research and development remain key focus areas for manufacturers. The rapid standardization in the developing countries is also bolstering the demand for hydrogen sensors. Industry giant like Siemens is investing in the fuel cell drive which remains a lucrative category. For instance, in November 2020, Deutsche Bahn and Siemens entered the Hydrogen age by developing a joint project to develop fuel cell drives for trains. Countries investing in the renewable technology, especially developed regions, is expected provide stimulus. This is especially true for US and Western European countries. The United States Department of Energy's Fuel Cell Technology is bracing the development of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source in the country. To ensure the US security, the fuel cell technologies support the department of energy in addressing the environmental and energy challenges through advanced science and technology solutions. "Customers using macro scale hydrogen for the application of synthetic compounds and petrochemicals will in general produce it on premise paving its way for the increased utilization of the product. The alarming awareness for the renewable sources and the advantages of using hydrogen as a fuel source will foster the consumption." says a Fact.MR analyst. For more Insights into the Market, Request a Sample of this Report https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=3401 Key Takeaways Growing electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to create demand for hydrogen sensors Rising investment in hydrogen technology for power generation a key opportunity Germany to remain a lucrative market, owing to well-established automotive industry in the region to remain a lucrative market, owing to well-established automotive industry in the region Chinese government is leaning toward developing more sustainable hydrogen infrastructure and promoting the usage of fuel cell vehicles US remains the most lucrative hydrogen sensor market Competitive Landscape Key industry players analyzed by Fact.MR include Honeywell International, City Technology, Figaro Engineering, Nissha FIS Inc., SGX Sensortech, Siemens AG, MSA Safety Inc., Membrapor AG, Makel Engineering, and Aeroqual among others. Foray into new markets, and a strong focus on R&D remains a key strategy of market players. In 2020, Figaro Engineering launched a new hydrogen sensor product, TGS6812-D00, for hydrogen detection and Fuel cell power safety with updated features like low cost and gas leak detector in FCEV. Also, Siemens signed an agreement with the State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC) China to develop and foster an environmental friendly usage of hydrogen. Get Customization on this Report for Specific Country https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=3401 German energy group RWE AG plans to install a transferrable hub where green hydrogen is injected into the system and develop a joint venture with ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe to build the plant in Lingen. That will be able to produce 1.7 tonnes of hydrogen per hour making both the companies a major contributor to the market. More Insights on the Hydrogen Sensor Market In its latest report, Fact.MR provides a detailed analysis of the global hydrogen sensors market, providing historical data for the period of 2016-2020 and forecast statistics for the period of 2021-2031. In order to gain a better perspective of the global market potential, its growth, and scope, the market is segmented on the basis of technology type (Electro chemicals, Metal-Oxide Semi-Conductors, Thermal Conductivity, and Catalytic), by Maximum Measurement Range (<2000 ppm, <5000 ppm, <10,000 ppm, <20,000 ppm, and above 20,000 ppm), by Utility (Fixed and Portable), End-user industries (Industrial, Transportation, Residential & Commercial), and across seven major regions of the world (North America, Latin America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and MEA). Key Questions Covered in the Report How will the hydrogen sensors market shape in 2030? Which country is the major contributor for the hydrogen sensors market? How is North-America the leading region for hydrogen sensors? the leading region for hydrogen sensors? Which are the major industry players for the hydrogen sensors market? What is the impact of COVID-19 on the market share of hydrogen sensors? Request More Information about Report Methodology https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=3401 Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Healthcare Domain Chemical Sensors Market: Fact.MR's extensive study on the chemical sensors market brings to fore important insights concerning major growth dynamics, including the drivers, restraints and opportunities across key regions. The report provides a holistic overview of the expected trends and shares of prominent manufacturers investing in chemical sensors. Oxygen Sensors Market: A recent study by Fact.MR on the cables and leads for medical equipment market offers a detailed forecast. The study analyzes crucial trends that are currently determining the growth of the oxygen sensors market. This report focuses on salient features, such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities for key market players along with key stakeholders. Gas Sensors Market: The gas sensors market study published by Fact.MR offers a comprehensive analysis and focused views on major trends expected to provide shape to future growth prospects. The report provides detailed analyses of the significant drivers, trends, challenges and opportunities prevailing for the forthcoming decade across key geographies and segments. About Fact.MR Market research and consulting agency with a difference! That's why 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies trust us for making their most critical decisions. We have offices in US and Dublin, whereas our global headquarter is in Dubai. While our experienced consultants employ the latest technologies to extract hard-to-find insights, we believe our USP is the trust clients have on our expertise. Spanning a wide range from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare & retail, our coverage is expansive, but we ensure even the most niche categories are analyzed. Reach out to us with your goals, and we'll be an able research partner. Contact: Sudip Saha US Sales Office: 1140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 United States Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583 E: [email protected] Corporate Headquarter: Unit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates SOURCE Fact.MR .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE New Mexico is famous for UFO incidents alleged to have occurred in such places as Roswell, Socorro and Aztec, so its no surprise another close encounter was reported to have taken place Sunday in the skies over northern New Mexico. American Airlines confirmed that a recording of a radio transmission from a pilot who reported seeing something unusual fly overhead at a high rate of speed is indeed authentic. The recording was made by Steve Douglass, a self-described stealth chaser from Amarillo. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Do you have any targets up here? the pilot of American Airlines Flight 2292 asks Federal Aviation Administration traffic controllers. We just had something go right over the top of us. I hate to say this, but it looked like a long, cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast right over the top of us. The reply from the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center cant be heard because local air traffic in Amarillo walked over it, Douglass says on his blog, Deep Black Horizon. The FAA released a statement that said air traffic controllers did not see any object in the area on their radarscopes. American Airlines confirmed to the Journal that the recording was authentic. Following a debrief with our Flight Crew and additional information received, we can confirm this radio transmission was from American Airlines Flight 2292 on Feb. 21, an American Airlines spokesman wrote in an email. He referred any additional questions to the FBI. The FBI is aware of the reported incident, the agency replied to a Journal inquiry. While our policy is to neither confirm nor deny investigations, the FBI works continuously with our federal, state, local and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public. According to flight data gathered by Douglass, the incident occurred at 12:29 p.m. Sunday while the aircraft flying from Cincinnati to Phoenix was at an elevation of 37,000 feet. Its location at the time of the radio transmission was west of Clayton, in the northeastern corner of New Mexico. The flight path continued north of Santa Fe and left New Mexico airspace west of Gallup. Douglass, who wrote a book titled The Comprehensive Guide to Military Monitoring, says no significant military aircraft presence was noted on ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-broadcast) logs. A spokeswoman at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque said she had heard about the purported UFO encounter in the media but not from anyone affiliated with the military. We have no knowledge of this. Were not aware of anything, Lally Laksbergs told the Journal. Messages left for a public affairs officer at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico were not returned Wednesday. Efforts to reach Douglass were unsuccessful. He works for Amarillo television station KVII as a photographer, and the station interviewed him. He said he was listening live when the pilot radioed in the sighting. I heard this aircraft, basically above all other aircraft, because the tone in his voice was so excited, he said. Douglass said that he talked to an ex-military pilot about the incident and was told that for the pilot to see the object it must have been coming at them practically head on. So whatever it was came fast, right at them and right over them, which gave them a big enough scare that they had to report it, he said. Douglass said that when the military conducts flight tests it notifies the FAA, which makes sure there are no commercial airline flights in the area at the time of the test. If the military cant explain what it is, whats flying out there that we dont know about? he asked . Editors Note: This story has been updated to include comment from the FAA. WAARDENBURG, Netherlands, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As one of the first Esri partners in Europe, Tensing has officially been awarded the Esri Utility Network Specialty. This recognition is given only to partners who have proven expertise in the field of utilities, the new Utility Network data model, and the implementation of services using the ArcGIS Utility Network Management Extension. Tensing is one of the leading Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Data Integration consulting companies in the Netherlands and has built up a great deal of knowledge and experience around the utility sector over the years. With a view to helping organizations secure the supply, continuity and quality of their network in an efficient and sustainable manner, Tensing has already supported several big and smaller utility clients in Europe succeed with the implementation of the Esri Utility Network. This expertise is now recognized with the receipt of the Utility Network Specialty. It should be noted that this specialty is not just awarded based on years of experience and the amount of Utility Network implementations which a partner has made. To qualify for the award, Tensing had to undergo a thorough audit by Esri which tested their knowledge, technical skills, and experience. "We are honoured to receive the specialty award, and to be a part of the select group of recognized utility specialists worldwide," notes Otto Huisman, International Business Director of Tensing. "While there is increasing awareness of the great benefits of the Utility Network, finding the right implementation partner is paramount to a successful implementation and transition. The Utility Network Specialty is here to help organizations find an experienced implementation partner. It's like Esri's seal of approval for knowledge and reliability around the Utility Network." With the Utility Network, Esri offers a GIS environment specifically designed for the Utility Industry. The platform offers future-proof asset management with all necessary functionality for network modeling, editing and analysis. The Utility Network allows users to create, manage and share network data from one single platform, visualized on any device, at any time. Geographic data in particular is valuable here, because it enables location-driven support for critical business processes. This allows users to visualize the status of the network and ensures quick and appropriate responses to emergencies and efficient construction or maintenance processes can take place. The switch to the Utility Network offers many advantages, but is also an extensive project. Guidance by an experienced consultancy and implementation partner is therefore critical. Tensing is an Esri Gold Partner and offers a proven approach for Utility Network implementation. About Tensing For more than 30 years, Tensing has been making geographical data accessible and applicable to a wide audience. With the largest team of certified Esri and FME professionals Tensing is able to help organizations transition towards data driven operations and optimize their business processes through the application of spatial intelligence. Since 2020 Tensing is part of the Avineon Group. For more information, please visit www.tensing.com | https://www.tensing.com/en/industries/utilities [February 25, 2021] Renesas' Intersil-Brand Radiation-Hardened ICs Onboard the Hayabusa2 Six-Year Asteroid Samples Retrieval Mission Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that its radiation-hardened (rad-hard) integrated circuits (ICs) were onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft that returned asteroid samples to Earth in an armored re-entry capsule on December 6, 2020. Operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Hayabusa2 launched onboard the H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center on December 3, 2014. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005273/en/ Renesas' Intersil Brand ICs Onboard Hayabusa2 Spacecraft (Graphic: Business Wire) Arriving at the Ryugu asteroid on June 27, 2018, the Hayabusa2 asteroid samples retrieval mission was designed to explore the origins of the planets, the water of Earth's oceans and source of life. Hayabusa2 carried multiple science payloads for remote sensing and sampling, and its four small rovers investigated the asteroid surface and analyzed the environmental and geological context of the surface and subsurface samples collected. Renesas' Intersil-brand rad-hard ICs were deployed throughout the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Renesas' Intersil-brand rad-hard solutions included a linear regulator, voltage reference, PWM controller, MOSFET drivers, quad comparator, 8-channel and 16-channel multiplexers, and RS-422 receivers & drivers. "Our industry leading rad-hard ICs managed several Hayabusa 2 spaceflight subsystems," said Philip Chesley, Vice President, Industrial and Communications Business Division at Renesas. "We are thrilled and honored to have played a key role in the Hayabusa2 six-year mission to help explain the origin of life on Earth and the birth of the solar system." The Renesas Intersil brand has a long history in the space industry spanning more than six decades, beginning with the founding of RadiationInc. in 1950. Since then, virtually every satellite, shuttle launch and deep-space exploration mission has included Intersil-branded products. Renesas leverages this experience to deliver efficient, thermally optimized and highly reliable SMD, MIL-STD-883 and MIL-PRF 38535 Class-V/Q Intersil-branded products for the defense, high-reliability (Hi-Rel), and rad-hard space markets. Renesas Intersil-brand rad-hard ICs support subsystems for mission critical applications in data communications transfer, power supplies and power conditioning, general protection circuitry, and telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C). Deep space is a challenging environment for spaceflight and asteroid exploration systems, particularly due to the intense radiation environment encountered in nearly all mission profiles. Design, layout, certain process technologies, and manufacturing steps like burn-in and total dose testing of ICs ensures predictable performance and prevents system failure while in flight and on long duration robotic and crewed missions to other planets. Renesas' Intersil-Brand Spaceflight IC Capabilities Include: >300 space-qualified radiation-hardened products available Consistent design and manufacturing in Renesas' MIL-PRF-38535-qualified facility located in Palm Bay, Florida Renesas' Intersil brand is one of only ~15 RHA Defense Logistics Agency (Land and Maritime) QML suppliers All products are fully Class V (space level) compliant All products are on individual DLA SMD drawings For additional information on Renesas' Intersil space and hi-reliability solutions or its low dose rate radiation testing facility, please visit: www.renesas.com/solutions/key-technology/rad-hard.html. About Renesas Electronics Corporation Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power, and SoC products, Renesas provides comprehensive solutions for a broad range of automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT applications that help shape a limitless future. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (Remarks) All names of products or services mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005273/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] (Photo : Naim Benjelloun from Pexels) Consuming raisins rinsed in gin helped the 105-woman from New Jersey to survive COVID-19. In what seems to be a strange case, a 105-year-old woman said that she managed to survive COVID-19 through eating raisins soaked in gin. Surviving pandemic was not new anymore to the woman, as she also got through another pandemic before coronavirus, the Spanish Flu which wiped out one-third of the world's population from 1918 to 1920. How Did the Old Woman Survive COVID-19 Through Gin-Soaked Raisins? In a report by Fox News, Lucia DeClerk, a native of New Jersey said that prayers really worked especially when she was a COVID-19 positive patient. The oldest patient who was confined at the Mystic Meadows Rehab and Nursing Center added that she avoids eating junk food as much as possible, but she has a secret to share about her survival. DeClerk stated that she soaked raisins in the gin. A jar-full of the beverage is all she needs which she will keep for nine days. She added that she specifically eats nine raisins after the preservation and their taste is similar to candies. In an interview by the New York Times, the administrator said that DeClerk was reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 after she received her second Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. At the time of detection, the old woman underwent isolation for two weeks until she exhibited few symptoms of the virus. After that, she was able to wear again her favorite sunglasses with a knit hat in her room. People were wondering how DeClerk pulled through the horrific virus that could also kill a younger individual with a weak immune system. The case of this New Jersey woman set it apart from others, as many said that DeClerk has a strong body to combat her condition, despite her age. Besides her secret gin raisins formula, DeClerk has been relying on her healthy lifestyle through consuming natural aloe vera juice. Moreover, she also applies baking soda when brushing her teeth, so that leaves a fact that she loves living as naturally as possible. Read Also: Disease-Detection Device Can Sniff Cancer and COVID-19 Like A Dog's Nose One of DeClerk's grandchildren, Shawn Laws O'Neil, said that they are always wondering about their grandmother's actions. They suspected that she was crazy, only to find out that their speculations were all debunked! DeClerk Outlived Her Three Husbands The old woman is truly a survivor of two pandemics. According to CBS, DeClerk used to live in Hawaii when she was only two years old. At the time, the Spanish flu started but fortunately, she was still living up to the moment. The centenarian has also managed to outlive her three husbands and the death of her one son. It was an unfortunate fate to lose several loved ones, but DeClerk has been thankful that she was still breathing and living to the fullest. Another Solution to Prevent COVID-19 In a report by Glamour, Dr. Kathleen Jordan, the senior vice president of Tia Women's Health Clinics, said that applying dual layers of facemask is also applicable to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Jordan continued that a single disposable and washable mask seems to give the user more comfortability, than using two similar masks. Related Article: Johnson & Johnson's One-Dose COVID-19 Vaccine Is Effective in Providing Protection From Contagious Variants, New Analyses Show This article is owned by Tech Times. Written by Joen Coronel 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The long saga surrounding the disappearance of over a thousand immigrant children from Yemenite Jewish families took an important turn this week. After almost seven decades, the government finally recognized the suffering of their families and decided Feb. 22 to compensate them each for their loss. The plan approved by the government sets aside a sum of 162 million shekels ($50 million), which would be distributed to families based on the following criteria: 150,000 shekels ($46,000) is to be given to each family who received no information about the death of their child in real time, including the circumstances of the childs death or an as yet unidentified place of burial (also including the families of children whose burial places were only identified significantly later than the death of the child). In the event that the committee responsible for the investigation concludes that the fate of the missing child is still unknown, the family is to receive 200,000 shekels ($61,000). Furthermore, the government announced that the state will officially recognize that these children were taken away from their parents. The official statement said the government expresses its "regret over the events that occurred in the early days of the state and recognizes the suffering of the families whose children were part of this painful affair." On the other hand, the government rejected the families demand that what happened was part of an institutional attack against the families of the abducted children, or that it exploited parents who were new immigrants from an undevelopped state. It came as no surprise that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for this decision now, just one month before the upcoming election. Inevitably, it will serve his interests. He not only congratulated the government for making this decision, but promised he would ask the education minister to include the story of these children in state-sanctioned textbooks. As he put it, People need to know about what happened. While this is a significant milestone in the yearslong, Sisyphean struggle of the families impacted by the tragedy, even it will not bring them closure. The episode will remain a festering sore on Israeli society at large. The pain and suffering associated with it will continue to be passed down from one generation to the next. Three official commissions of inquiry investigated the scandal over the years: the Committee to Locate the Yemenite Children, the Committee to Investigate the Fate of the Missing Yemenite Children and the Official State Commission of Inquiry into the Disappearance of the Children of Yemenite Immigrants from 1948 to 1954. In addition, another parliamentary committee of inquiry was formed in 2016 to further investigate the incident. This latter committee put the case of the missing children back on the national agenda. What set it apart was that families were now able to use the most advanced methods, including DNA testing, to find out what happened to their children. Of course, many of the parents had died by then or were very elderly and infirm. Nevertheless, every effort was made to test their DNA, since this would not be possible later. These evoked chilling accounts of babies who were taken from hospitals but never returned. Their parents were told that they died of disease, but the families refused to accept this, believing instead that the truth was being hidden from them. They were convinced that their children were taken by the state and handed over for adoption. After hearing the testimonies and studying the documents, the committees all reached the same conclusion. The children were all in bad physical shape due to harsh living conditions. Many of them were being raised in tents in which the government housed the new immigrants. They got sick, died and were buried. But the families refused to accept that the mystery was solved. Many of them continued to believe that the country was hiding something from them. They thought that their children were abducted by the government in an organized manner, coordinated by the state, and that they were handed over for adoption to the families of Holocaust survivors with no children. In some cases, the families even believed that their children were smuggled overseas. An important development for these families occurred in 2017, when the government of Israel first recognized that a gross injustice was perpetrated against them and established a commission of inquiry to investigate what really happened. As a result, hundreds of thousands of classified documents, stored in the State Archives for 70 years, were released for review ahead of schedule. These included the confidential conclusions of previous commissions of inquiry, along with testimonies. This was a major step forward by the state. It was evidence of a genuine desire to deal with the issue. Children disappeared from the embrace of their parents and families. The scandal is still seared in the hearts of their families. We feel that we have a moral obligation to investigate the incident and get to the truth. As of today, we will enable the families to try to reach closure. The data being declassified will, first and foremost, eliminate the skepticism that these families have toward state institutions, and allow them to move forward. It will heal the wound, and in so doing, strengthen Israeli society, said then-Minister Tzachi Hanegbi of the Likud, who was appointed by Netanyahu to coordinate the issue. This shift in government policy resulted in the media beginning to take the matter seriously. Journalists also began to investigate the testimonies and claims, instead of rejecting them out of hand as little more than ridiculous rumors. The rise of social media also helped. Dozens of internet groups were formed, and families began to share information, including information from overseas. Not a single journalist was willing to listen at first. They all waved me off, when I tried to interest them in the story. They thought the whole case was ridiculous, and that a series of committees of inquiry had already investigated it, Nurit Koren told Al-Monitor in 2017 when she headed the Special Committee on the Affair of the Disappearance of Yemenite, Eastern and Balkan Children. She then was a Knesset member representing the Likud. Koren, the child of Yemenite immigrants, made the search for the truth about these children into her life mission. She even attempted to pass legislation to exhume the childrens bodies. With great insight, she focused her campaign on having the state take responsibility for what happened. At the time, she accused the official institutions of the state of engaging in acts of organized crime that targeted an already hard-pressed population. As she put it, In the 1950s, Yemenite immigrants were perceived as coming from a primitive culture. It was said that they didnt know how to care for their children, so they were taken away to residential facilities. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion gave the order. On Feb. 23, she told Al-Monitor that there can be no doubt that the fact that an Israeli government recognized the injustice is a huge step forward, but that this is not enough. She promised the fight will continue. Unfortunately, the state did not take responsibility for what happened. The financial compensation it is offering is not enough, and more than any money, these families want to know the truth. There is still a lot that should be done, like examining the graves and declassifying material that remains classified. Only half the work got done. I am flooded with phone calls from the families, so it is obvious that the struggle will continue. We will insist that an official day of remembrance is proclaimed. I am no longer a member of Knesset, but this just cause still burns within me. I will continue to lead it on a volunteer basis, until the state takes full responsibility. 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. New Delhi: With an eye on Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal, the BJP on Thursday launched the 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' campaign to unseat the ruling Trinamool Congress government from power in the state. BJP president J P Nadda, who had arrived in the state on Wednesday night, launched the campaign along with an election manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in West Bengal. Launching Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in Kolkata. https://t.co/m8ExpCEOAX Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) February 25, 2021 State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and the party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were also present on the occasion. West Bengal: BJP national president JP Nadda launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla (manifesto) crowdsourcing campaign', in Kolkata. State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also present on the occasion. pic.twitter.com/tnfblr68ro ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021 "We'll accept over 2 crore suggestions from people. We'll make available approx 30,000 suggestion boxes across WB. Around 100 boxes will be kept in 294 assembly constituencies. Our workers will go from door to door with 50 boxes and 50 will be placed at strategic locations,'' the BJP chief said. This campaign will go on from 3rd to 20th March in every Vidhan Sabha constituency, the BJP chief said in Kolkata. "We're making efforts to work towards making 'Sonar Bangla', with the inclusion of contributions of Swami Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in prestigious history of WB.'' the BJP chief said. Nadda said, ''There are around 10 crore farmers in the country, of these around 73 lakhs are in Bengal itself. 7 installments of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi have already been released but the farmers of Bengal have remained deprived of it.'' According to a statement released by the party, Nadda will address a conference of the intelligentsia, among his other engagements during a daylong stay in the poll-bound state. BJP's national media in-charge Anil Baluni had earlier said, JP Nadda will launch the "Lokkho Sonar Bangla Manifesto Crowdsourcing" programme on Thursday. Baluni said this while referring to the party's poll promise of rebuilding the state as "Sonar Bangla". The BJP chief will also pay tributes to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the composer of Vande Mataram, at his residence and museum. Nadda's programme schedule includes lunch at the house of a jute mill labourer and prayers at the Anandpuri Kalibari temple, followed by a "Parivartan Yatra" rally. In the evening, he will visit the ancestral home of renowned Bengali writer Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay to pay his tributes, followed by a visit to the West Bengal State Armed Police headquarters to pay homage to the martyr Mangal Pandey pillar, the statement said. The party will seek suggestions from two crore people in West Bengal for its election manifesto ahead of the Assembly polls. Through this campaign, the BJP will directly engage with the citizens of West Bengal in crafting a vision for the state for the next five years by inviting them to give their suggestions. "Two crore suggestions will be collected by the party and will be used in the creation of the BJP's manifesto for West Bengal," the party said. The saffron party will use 294 specially designed LED raths, one for each Assembly constituency of the state. "Suggestions will be collected through 294 LED `raths` travelling the entire state and suggestion boxes will be placed in each of these vehicles along with a mobile or tablet to video record people's aspirations," BJP leader Amit Malviya said. About 30,000 suggestion boxes will be placed across the state (100 in every constituency) to reach out to citizens in every corner of the states. "People can give a missed call on 9727-294-294 and record their aspirations. Citizens can also send their suggestions via Whatsapp or SMS on this number. They can also visit the specially designed website for the purpose or send their suggestions via email," he said. For the `Lokkho Sonar Bangla` campaign to collect suggestions from the people for its manifesto, the BJP also held meetings with representatives of different communities. In recent times, the BJP had sought suggestions before preparing its election manifesto. For the 2019 general election, the BJP crowdsourced suggestions for its manifesto. In the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls also the BJP took suggestions from common people. Polls for 294 seats in the West Bengal Assembly will be held in April-May. The BJP, riding high on its success in the last general election in the state, is leaving no stone unturned to uproot the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government. In 2019, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. Live TV Pirate celebrates LA, NY $10 an hour pro recording studios launch with 30,000 FREE hours giveaway Adding recorded in LA or NY to your track credits just became a whole cheaper with the opening of new facilities by global recording and rehearsal space provider Pirate. Already with 400 locations in the UK, Germany, and Ireland, Pirate recently added recording and rehearsal studios in New York City and this week, Los Angeles, to its portfolio. Pirate plans to expand to other major U.S. cities during 2021 and 2022 with Chicago the next scheduled opening. Pirate operates 24-hour, keyless, contactless, affordable recording and rehearsal studios perfect for creation during the pandemic. Rates start at $10 per hour depending on the specific studio, significantly less than traditional recording studios. What Each Pirate Studio Offers All Pirate sites follow a basic design template that works with a particular propertys characteristics while also offering top-level gear. As an example, the West Adams site in Los Angeles has 13 recording rooms, outfitted with monitors, interface, microphones and headphones, two podcast studios, six small and two large DJ rooms and three rehearsal rooms, plus parking. For most sessions, customers only need to bring a laptop and USB cable in order to start working. We saw an opportunity to make studios more affordable for people simply by being open all the time, says Pirate co-founder David Borrie. This had the added benefit of giving artists better accessibility, letting them use the studios at the times that suited them. Since then, weve just tried to identify the types of studios artists need and build them, trying where we can to break down the barriers that stop artists from creating the music and stories we love. How To Get Free Studio Time To introduce two new Los Angeles (West Adams and Silver Lake) locations, Pirate is offering 30,000 hours of free studio time to new customers. Each new customer can receive a complimentary three-hour session in any of their rooms from February 24 until March 23, 2021. To book a new customer free session, go to WWW.PIRATE.COM and the specific Los Angeles studio location and use the offer code NEWPIRATE Pirates new U.S. studios are located at: LA West Adams 4713 West Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90016 LA Silver Lake 2807 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026 NYC Gowanus 156, 6th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USA NYC Ridgewood 1519 Decatur St, Ridgewood, Queens, NY 11385, USA NYC Bushwick 110 Scott Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237, USA Free For Non-Profits Non-profits and charities in the above neighborhoods can apply for space As part of its commitment to the local areas where their studios are located, Pirate is also offering unused studio hours to neighborhood charities. Non-profit organizations will be able to use the studios for appropriate endeavors. Time will be open during non-peak hours (generally Monday-Friday, 9AM12Noon) depending on availability. Share on: (Newser) A Lithuanian man has survived an incredible 14 hours in the Pacific Ocean after falling off a cargo ship during a 3,500-mile supply run. The Silver Supporter's chief engineer, Vidam Perevertilov, felt dizzy after a night shift in the engine room as the ship traveled from Tauranga, New Zealand, to the remote Pitcairn Islands, and went out on deck to get some fresh air. It was 4am on Feb. 16. Perevertilov's son, Marat, who communicated with his father via message chat, tells Stuff that the 52-year-old may have fainted as he doesn't actually remember the plunge. He was not wearing a life jacket and was then some 400 nautical miles from the nearest land. He struggled to stay afloat until the sun came up, then made a last-ditch swim for a far-off black dot, which turned out to be an old unanchored fishing buoy. story continues below The ship's crew realized the engineer was missing around 10am. They turned the ship around and headed for the location they'd been around 4am, when Perevertilov had last completed a work report. "What happened next was nearly inexplicable," says Marat: A crew member reported hearing "a weak, human shout on the starboard side of the ship" as the ship was running search patterns. For 10 minutes, nothing, then a lookout spotted a raised hand in the water. The BBC reports Perevertilov had shouted at the sight of his ship on the horizon around 6pm. "He looked about 20 years older and very tired but he was alive," clinging to "a piece of sea rubbish," Marat tells Stuff. He adds his father opted to leave the buoy behind "so it could save another person's life." (Read more survival stories.) .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal Lets hope Fluffy and Fido like green chile. The Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department rescued two dozen cats and dogs from Texas animal shelters affected by last weeks extreme winter weather. Two Albuquerque employees journeyed to the Lone Star State earlier this week to pick up 13 dogs, including a mother and two pups, and 11 cats collected from shelters in the coastal town of Ingleside and the central Texas town of Junction. The two shelters are temporarily closed as they recover from a week of bitter cold, snow and ice storms, power outages and flooding from burst pipes. Helping our neighboring state in their time of need is the right thing to do, said Carolyn Ortega, Animal Welfare Department director. Im proud of my staff for working so quickly to put a plan together to help give these Texas pets a safe and warm place to stay, until they find their forever homes. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Mayor Tim Keller checked in on the furry Texas transplants at the Westside Animal Shelter on Wednesday. Albuquerque gained 24 new residents today, and I know there will be plenty of folks lined up to give them a good home, Keller said. When the chips are down, thats just what neighbors do. The animals were vaccinated before the trip to New Mexico. They are under observation in city shelters for a few days, and some will be available for adoption beginning Saturday. The good news is Pennsylvania no longer sits among the bottom-dwelling states in vaccinating people against COVID-19. The bad news is Pennsylvania is still Pennsylvania. This means that even at its best and no matter the issue, its hanging around or just below the middle of states. This week, for example, 28 states have vaccinated higher percentages of their populations. But there used to be 38. So, were making progress in climbing toward mediocrity. Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Wolf chants his mantra: We need to do better. Youll be happy to know hes tapped a bipartisan legislative task force to work on the problem. And just hired an international management firm, the Boston Consulting Group, you know, to manage things. The contract runs from now to August. The estimated cost is $11.5 million. And, yeah, its like saying, Look, we have no idea what were doing, lets pay somebody else to do it. But it seems to be a popular move. New York state hired the same firm to work on vaccine plans; Connecticut hired the firm last May, for $2 million, to help its reopening efforts; Rhode Island contracted the firm for $1.85 million worth of COVID-related assistance. So, Pennsylvanias boldly going where other states have gone before just in a bigger way. This new aggressiveness comes after a befuddled, patchwork of rollout efforts that frustrated countless folks who fruitlessly sought vaccine appointments online or by phone, only to come up empty over and over again. Then came admission of a colossal screwup related to second-dose Moderna vaccines (as in there isnt enough), forcing maybe 100,000 Pennsylvanians to delay and reschedule second shots. The Health Department reported the goof, which had been playing out for weeks, as basically nobodys fault. This even though the department first urged vaccine providers to use second-dose allotments for first-shots, then said providers erred in doing so. Go on, shake your head. Or find comfort in the inspiring words of Wolf on the day the screw-up was revealed: We will look for ways and find ways to make the system even better. No wonder we need a global consultant. Now, our sole self-proclaimed independent state lawmaker (in a state in need of many more independents) is pushing a bill to create a vaccine czar. Sen. John Yudichak, of Luzerne County, said in a statement that former Health Secretary Rachel Levine (currently with the Biden Administration) left the state last month with no coherent plan in place to get vaccines to citizens. He said the Health Department has created confusion and doubt, that Wolfs task force is six months too late, and we need a logistics czar to manage private-sector experts in vaccine distribution. Folks should be outraged that eight weeks after we get the vaccine from the federal government, we create a legislative task force to figure out how to get it to people, Yudichak tells me. Indeed. And maybe $11.5 million buys us better days. But, as Ive noted in past, everyone, everywhere knew a vaccine was coming. Anyone with a semblance of sense knew distribution meant giant challenges. And planning, task forces and vaccine czars should have been in place last summer. Its almost as if those in charge, politicians and their minions, were preoccupied with something else. Campaign 2020? Paring down the governors emergency powers? Debating COVID restrictions? Partisan politics? Re-impeaching an impeached ex-president? But that cant be. That would be morally repugnant, right? So, we blame the feds in general, anonymous providers, the supply chain, the weather, the scope of the problem, anything or anyone to avoid the truth: government leaders in both parties blew opportunities to build a system to better distribute vaccines. As a result, any prospect of crisis performance improving public confidence or trust in government was squandered. Now, however, UPMC is offering registration for vaccine appointments. Penn State Health is opening vaccination centers. And Democratic state lawmakers are pushing legislation to offer the kind of statewide vaccine registry that the Democratic Wolf administration declined to offer. So, maybe, at last, theres an awakening. Maybe things are starting to get done. And maybe Pennsylvania can continue its climb to mediocrity and beyond. John Baer may be reached at baer.columnist@gmail.com. More from PennLive The $100,000 Club: 11,337 Pa. state government employees made the roster in 2020 Amid policing backlash, Pa. State Police struggles to evolve: This is a crisis President Volodymyr Zelensky assures that Ukraine is serious about reforms in the defense sector, and insists that the next goal of the state is to obtain NATOs Membership Action Plan (MAP). The head of state wrote this on his Twitter account. Pleased to hear from Jens Stoltenberg that the door of NATO is open for Ukraine. Grateful that you personally and the NATO members support us in NATO membership aspirations. Our immediate goal is MAP. We are serious about reforms, as they are first of all enhancing our defense sector," the tweet reads. The president also stressed that cooperation with NATO is crucial for Ukraine. "We are reinforcing our army by adhering to Alliances standards, sharing practical experience, developing strategic partnership and friendship," he explained. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg previously tweeted that NATO strongly supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We discussed the importance of reforms and the security situation in the Black Sea region. We remain committed to strengthening our close partnership, he wrote. As Ukrinform reported, during a press conference following talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Brussels on February 9, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO Allies recognize Ukraine as a potential candidate for NATO membership and support Ukrainian efforts to join the Alliance. On June 12, 2020, the North Atlantic Council recognized Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner. ish Restraining order against ex-Ivanovo Regions Governor extended again in embezzlement case The press service of Moscow's Basmanny District Court 12:13 25/02/2021 MOSCOW, February 25 (RAPSI) The Basmanny District Court of Moscow on Thursday extended a restrictive order against auditor of the Account Chamber and ex-Governor of Russias Ivanovo Region Mikhail Men charged with embezzling 700 million rubles (over $9 million) until March 30, the courts press service told RAPSI. The defendant is prohibited from using Internet and leaving home, excluding daily 2-hour walks. Investigators believe that in 2011 Men acting as Governor of the Ivanovo Region organized a criminal group to embezzle the budget funds allocated as a loan for the regions support. Other defendants are ex-first deputy chairman of the Ivanovo Regions government Pavel Konkov and Managing Director of the Ivanovo Broiler enterprise Dmitry Grishin. Richmond reversed plans on opening a safe parking program for the homeless at Hilltop Mall after opposition from neighbors, instead opting to move forward with a smaller site that will fit 25 vehicles instead of 100. The City Council voted late Tuesday night to open the site at the Civic Center parking lot at 25th Street and Barrett Avenue. Three council members voted against the plan, including Mayor Tom Butt, who said the site is too small to accommodate the growing RV population on city streets. The Hilltop NIMBYs were triumphant last night, Butt wrote in his newsletter on Wednesday. The City Council was suitably intimidated by this show of force and caved in, he added. The plan was a response to two growing RV encampments on city streets. Staff found 84 vehicles at the two sites in 2019, but said the number had grown. Overall, homelessness in Richmond spiked 23% from 2017 to 2019 to 333 people. Other Bay Area cities are also struggling to respond to the homelessness crisis as state and local budgets are slashed due the pandemic-induced recession and neighborhoods fight some solutions. The controversy in Richmond began after the City Council directed staff at a Feb. 2 meeting to evaluate the Hilltop Mall as a possible location for the safe parking program that would have access to power, water and social services as well as on-site security. The malls owners have struggled to redevelop it into housing or office space. Butt said the mall, which is losing Macys on March 30, is in the process of being sold to San Francisco-based Prologis, an industrial developer that has agreed to lease land for the safe parking program. More than 2,200 people signed a petition against the proposal, saying the mall site pushes homeless people out of sight, out of mind and is too far from city services. Opponents urged the council to instead consider a city-owned unpaved lot near the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP), a community group that helps the homeless. It is ludicrous to move the safe parking site to a commercial parking lot that is literally surrounded by homes, two schools with a third school one block away in a far corner of Richmond that is out of reach from city government and services, one man said of the Hilltop site during public comment. On Tuesday, staff from GRIP gave a presentation in support of opening the parking site near the offices. But the council rejected the proposal and said it was unclear if the organization is capable of handling the contract instead opting to contract with Housing Consortium of the East Bay, an Oakland nonprofit. The criticism against GRIP comes after the county sent a letter complaining of GRIPs management of the Project Roomkey hotels, a state program to house the homeless during the pandemic. A director at GRIP declined to respond to the complaints at the meeting. At the meeting, Councilwoman Gayle McLaughlin said she would support the Civic Center location given the amount of opposition to the Hilltop Mall lot. Do we want to set up a safe vehicle park with the current level of opposition from the neighbors? McLaughlin said. I do not think the RV community would feel welcome under the circumstances. City staff said the safe vehicle program at the Civic Center parking lot will be fenced in and wont affect COVID testing services on another part of the lot. The total cost of the parking program, which will include on-site security and social services, is $560,000. The city plans to use $300,000 of its affordable housing impact fees and a $260,000 state grant to fund it. If the state grant is not spent by June 30, the city will lose those funds. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani The 19-year-old pharmacy student in Hyderabad who was found to have falsely told the police that she was abducted and raped by an auto driver and her accomplices, died by suicide on Wednesday. Killed self due to depression The police said that the student was rushed to a hospital where a doctor declared her dead. Speaking to TNM, Ghatkesar Circle Inspector said, "This morning (Wednesday) at 11 am, the doctor declared her dead. At 10:55, she was brought to the hospital. She tried to take her life by suicide. She seems to have done it because of depression. The young woman was found unconscious at her uncles residence on the outskirts of Hyderabad, police said. According to family members, she was in a state of depression and consumed sleeping pills in excess, Ghatkesar police inspector N Chandra Babu said. A case of suspicious death has been registered and an investigation is on. 2nd attempt in 24 hours Family members told police that it was her second attempt to kill herself in the past 24 hours, according to a police official who did not want to be named. Prima facie, it appears to be a suspected suicide, Babu said. We have got the post-mortem done and are sending the viscera sample to a forensic laboratory for examination. We will be able to disclose the exact cause of death only after forensic examination. Girl faked abduction, rape The woman was staying at her uncles house since the second week of February, after police said she faked her abduction and alleged a rape attempt. On February 10, the students parents called local police on a toll-free number, alleging that miscreants abducted their daughter. They said their daughter managed to make a quick call to alert them. Police rescued the woman from a nearby village. Later, police concluded she misled her parents and police. She was neither abducted, nor raped, local police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat told reporters on February 13. After collecting all the evidence and talking to the victim again, she confessed that due to family issues, she wanted to leave her house, and she informed her mother. Later on, due to police involvement, she panicked and out of fear, weaved a false story, the police had said in a press statement. The police had closed the case withdrawing all the charges. The auto drivers had asked her about why she singled out one auto driver and framed him. She told them that they had a spat once over auto fare, the police said. If you know anyone battling with depression or other mental health issues, please reach out to someone who can help. AASRA Foundation: 022 2754 6669 Samaritans Mumbai: +91 84229 84528 / +91 84229 84529 / +91 84229 84530 Sanjivini Society for Mental Health: +911124311918 We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 02:55:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A policeman asks people to leave the Pigeon Rocks, a famous tourist attraction in Beirut, Lebanon, on Feb. 24, 2021. Lebanon recorded on Wednesday 3,513 new COVID-19 cases and 62 new deaths, raising the number of infections to 362,833 and death toll to 4,508 respectively, the Health Ministry reported. (Xinhua/Liu Zongya) BEIRUT, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon recorded on Wednesday 3,513 new COVID-19 cases, raising the number of infections to 362,833, the Health Ministry reported. Meanwhile, death toll from the virus went up by 62 to 4,508. Jacques Mokhbat, member of the national committee for the administration of COVID-19 vaccine, said on Wednesday that only 29,000 people in Lebanon have been vaccinated so far. "If the process remains that slow, we will not be able to reach herd immunity before 2027," he said. On Feb. 14, Lebanon started its vaccination campaign with employees in the health sector and the elderly above 75 years old. Enditem Envoy Triples Its Technology Partner Community; Projects 100 New Integrations Arriving on Platform in 2021 As it continues to help companies prepare for a hybrid work model, workplace platform Envoy has seen significant growth in demand for new integrations and an increase in its community of integration partners. At its current rate, Envoy plans to add 100 new integrations in 2021 alone, bringing its total number of integrations to more than 150 and surpassing the available integrations on any other platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005294/en/ Envoy plans to add 100 new integrations in 2021 alone, bringing its total number of integrations to more than 150 and surpassing the available integrations on any other platform. (Graphic: Business Wire) This increasing demand for integrations points to a shift in how companies are designing their physical spaces and processes as they plan to welcome employees back into the office. Envoy's platform and integrations enable businesses to customize their workplace tech-stack, while providing a unified employee experience. In February 2020, Envoy launched an open API developer platform to make it even easier for developers to build integrations and help shape the workplace of the future; Envoy's community of technology partners has grown 300% since then, as the move to a hybrid model highlights the need for new and improved workplace tech. Requests from customers wanting to integrate new tools on Envoy's platform are up 200%. "It's clear that hybrid is the future, and the time is now for companies to modernize their workplace tech and get their teams excited to be back together in person," said Larry Gadea, Envoy founder/CEO. "We've long been believers in an integrated workplace platform; there won't be a one-size-fits-all approach to building the ideal workspace. Companies need a platform that can grow with them and play well with the tools that they use every day. Envoy is the platform that's bringing all of those pieces together, so that we can make the most of our time in the office and do our best work wherever we are." In the last year, Envoy has introduced new integrations designed to keep the workplace safe, including door access solutions, thermal cameras, space utilization sensors and more. Recent, notable integrations include: Density: launched in June 2020, this integration helps manage safe workplace capacity in real-time. Athena: launched in September 2020, this integration brings contactless fever detection to workplaces to keep everyone on-site healthy. Flir: launched in October 2020, this integration also brings contactless fever detection to workplaces to keep everyone on-site healthy. These integrations bring additional layers of security, safety, and compliance to Envoy Protect, the company's product to manage the health and safety of the workplace, which has helped facilitate more than four million employee sign-ins since it was first introduced during the summer of 2020. Envoy has seen increased demand for the product as more businesses reopen their workplaces, with Protect currently in use in more than 5,700 locations around the world. These recent health and safety integrations complement Envoy's integrations that help employees better collaborate and enable productivity; these include integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams and Active Directory, Google Drive, Aruba, and more. For more details, please visit: https://envoy.com/integrations/. About Envoy Envoy is transforming modern workplaces with products that make office life easier and work more meaningful. Envoy's workplace platform has redefined how offices welcome visitors, keep employees safe, book rooms and desks, and manage deliveries in over 14,000 locations around the globe. Companies like Slack, Pinterest, and Warby Parker rely on Envoy to create an unrivaled first impression and keep their people, property, and ideas safe. Envoy is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, Initialized Capital and others. For more information, please visit envoy.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005294/en/ Contacts: Kate Miller media@envoy.com 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. 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. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Debra Goodsell held several stacks of papers as she surveyed the lobby inside Clinton Town Hall. Each sheet documented a COVID vaccine appointment for a senior in the town. Goodsell, the executive director of the Clinton Senior Center, kept an eye on each entrance last week waiting for anyone to arrive. Eventually, Ronald Notartomaso stood behind his mother, Betty, as he pushed her wheelchair through the tight opening on the side of the building. Bettys eyes squinted, signaling a smile under her mask, as she approached Goodsell. Im Betty! she said. Hi, Goodsell responded. For a couple of hours, Goodsell repeated the routine with about 70 seniors who were at least 75 years old and eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Betty Notartomaso received the COVID-19 vaccine at Clinton Town Hall as part of UMass Memorial Health Care's mobile vaccination program. Rather than forcing residents like Betty or her son to sit in front of a computer for hours scanning the states website for an illusive vaccination appointment, the Clinton Senior Center and UMass Memorial Health Care collaborated to bring the vaccine to seniors as part of the health care providers Mobile Equity Enhancement Program. Last Wednesday, UMass administered about 80 vaccines to seniors, including 11 who received the first dose of Moderna in their home. Sixty-nine others though, came to Clinton Town Hall for their first dose. Goodsell greeted them all, ironing out any last-minute nerves. If theyre not comfortable, theyre not going to participate, Goodsell said. They need to have that level of comfort. But this is Clinton, If you go 5 miles in any direction youre out of town. We all know each other. Were all family. This week represents the fourth week a few dozen vials of Modernas vaccine traveled north from UMass Memorials university campus to Clinton Town Hall. UMass plans on expanding the program to other communities when vaccines become more widely available. The program suns on Wednesdays and Fridays. Appointments are provided for individuals. If the process is running ahead or behind schedule, Goodsell alerts the patients with a phone call. Last Wednesday, the staff was running about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. After arriving, individuals are ushered to a socially distanced seating area. Many of the theater fold-down chairs are paired together in sets of three. UMass Memorial Health Care and the Clinton Senior Center worked together to bring the coronavirus vaccine to seniors in the town. Once seated, a UMass Memorial staff member comes to them for registration, to confirm information and to administer the vaccine. After receiving the vaccine, individuals remain in the same seat for the 15-minute advisory window following the shot. Staff wrote the time a person could leave on a red piece of paper and taped it on the floor in front of them. While reading over some of the materials, one man, actually lost track of time as a nurse told he, Youre good to go! Really, thats it? the man said. Appointments are made through the Senior Center. Individuals can have a friend or loved one bring them to Clintons town hall or the Senior Center can provide transportation. I was relieved to get this call, Eleanor Gunderson said. Gunderson came with a friend, Patty Hazel, who she refers to as family. Im very relieved, Hazel said. Im praying it gets us back so we can start functioning and we can get out again and visit. Eleanor Gunderson receives Moderna's COVID vaccine at the Clinton's Town Hall as part of UMass Memorial Health Care's mobile vaccination program. Gunderson lives in senior housing with muscular dystrophy. For months the 82-year-old went without visitors including her home health aids. At 6-months-old, Gundersons father nicknamed her Smiley. A mask covered her mouth, but couldnt muffle her outgoing personality that even as a baby earned her the nickname. As she sat in the corner of the auditorium inside the Town Hall, Gunderson chatted with staff members and flagged down any television camera covering the event. The last year has been tough, Gunderson said. Living in senior housing and of course we were quarantined more or less. We couldnt have company or anything. Next month, Gunderson will turn 83. Shell receive her second dose of the vaccine on St. Patricks Day. Still weeks away, Gunderson couldnt help but look toward the future, one entirely removed from what became normal over the last 11 months. She described being around people. Not living with the nervous feeling that she could contract a deadly virus. But what she spoke most longingly of was a visit to Nevada to see her only son. Or maybe they can come here, Gunderson said. Because by that time, gee, I hope it will be over. Related Content: A teen is in hospital and another in custody after a student was stabbed during a fight in a rural high school. A teen is in hospital and another in custody after a student was stabbed during a fight in a rural high school. RCMP said on Wednesday a fight had broken out around 9:20 a.m. between two 15-year-olds inside Prairie Mountain High School in Somerset, about 150 kilmetres southwest of Winnipeg. The boy who was stabbed is in stable condition in a Winnipeg hospital while the other student is in custody facing a charge of aggravated assault. A spokesperson for Prairie Spirit School Division superintendent Cheryl Mangin said "there is no current threat to students at this time. "This is an isolated incident." Pembina Valley RCMP are continuing to investigate. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. If youre a New York City public school student, you may be wondering why your student MetroCard hasnt been renewed yet. Schools distribute MetroCards that let eligible students get to and from school and school-related activities for free. They are usually good for three free rides each school day, and are valid for one semester. Students get a new one each semester. But high school students who are eligible may not have gotten a new MetroCard for this semester just yet. A Staten Island resident reached out to the Advance/SILive.com earlier this month inquiring why her granddaughter, a student at New Dorp High School, didnt get a new MetroCard this semester. Thats because high school buildings havent reopened yet. The city Department of Education (DOE) reaffirmed that student Metrocards are used for transportation to and from school. When high schools reopen for in-person learning, new student MetroCards will be issued to those eligible, the DOE stated. Student MetroCards are different from regular MetroCards sold to the public. They can only be used by the student to whom the card was assigned for traveling to and from school and school-related activities between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. on school days. So how do you know if youre eligible for a student MetroCard? Transportation eligibility is based on a students grade level, walking distance between home and school, and existing accommodations based on a medical condition, housing status, or safety assessment, according to the DOE. Students who live less than 0.5 miles away from their school arent eligible for a student MetroCard. Under eligibility requirements, students in grades 7-12 receive a student MetroCard each semester. There is a special four-way student MetroCard for students whose trip to school requires more than one transfer each way, and you must request this type of card at your school. Other MetroCards for extended service could be available in certain circumstances, and are subject to approval by your school and the DOE. If you lost your MetroCard or it was stolen, report it to your school right away. Your school will deactivate the missing card and provide a new one. For more information about how to use your student MetroCard, you can read the MTAs Best Way to and from School brochure. School Zone: A new newsletter with the updates you need as our schools try to get back to normal. Enter your email address here and hit "subscribe" to receive this weekly newsletter: FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Mr. Bidens staffing choices are being subjected to a comity litmus test as well. The nomination of Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget has stalled in the Senate not because Ms. Tanden is ideologically radical or unqualified, but because she is known as a meanie on social media. Her Twitter pugilism demonstrates exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend, sniffed Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is among those Ms. Tanden has attacked. A spokeswoman for Senator Mitt Romney of Utah expressed similar concern about the threat Ms. Tanden posed to comity and respect. Even Senator Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia, has gotten in on the action, declaring his opposition to Ms. Tanden in the interest of charting a new bipartisan course. But its the push to pass more Covid relief that seems to have really reminded Republicans how much they cherish bipartisanship. They charge that the presidents $1.9 trillion plan is too costly and not targeted enough. Few members of the minority in either chamber are expected to support it. The $600 billion counteroffer made by a group of Republican senators did not come close to meeting Mr. Biden halfway much less meeting the magnitude of the crisis and some Biden aides suspect Republicans are mostly looking to bog down negotiations, as in the Obama years. So Democrats are set to pass a bill using a maneuver known as reconciliation, which would allow the bill to pass with a simple majority of votes i.e., without any Republicans. During the Trump presidency, Republicans used reconciliation to pass tax cuts, and they tried, unsuccessfully, to use it to repeal key elements of Obamacare. Now they are denouncing the process as a thuggish affront to bipartisanship. Power-drunk Democrats arent even interested in compromise, they charge with conspicuous umbrage. Senator Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican, has been especially outspoken on the matter. He recently lamented to CNNs Dana Bash that Democrats passing a relief bill through reconciliation would poison the well for other bipartisanship we will need on so many issues. For those keeping track at home, Mr. Portman was among the senators who backed using reconciliation for the 2017 tax cuts and for gutting Obamacare. Unencumbered by self-awareness, Mr. Portman expanded on his concerns in a Feb. 23 op-ed. Biden faces an early choice, Mr. Portman lectured. He can act on the hopeful bipartisan rhetoric of his inaugural address and his presidential campaign or contradict that message by trying to jam a $1.9 trillion bill through reconciliation with no G.O.P. support. A medical worker in a booth talks with her colleague at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. AP Gov't prepares for vaccine shots as 1st batch of 1.5 million doses begins to ship Trucks and ships carrying the first batch of some 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines headed across the country Thursday, marking the start of the long-awaited vaccination program in South Korea, where COVID-19 cases are nearing 90,000 since the first confirmed case in January last year. The nationwide distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine for some 750,000 people, mostly health care workers and patients at nursing homes, came as the country is set to kick off the free inoculation campaign Friday. The vaccine doses were produced at a local plant by SK Bioscience Co. under a manufacturing partnership deal with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The sealed one-ton truck, escorted by the police and military vehicles and personnel, first left a cold chain logistics warehouse in Icheon, 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul, around 5:50 a.m. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 11:04:34|Editor: huaxia 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, delivers an important speech at a grand gathering to mark the nation's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday that China has scored a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world's most populous country. Xi made the announcement while addressing a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honor its model poverty fighters. Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list. Since the launch of the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, 770 million impoverished rural residents have shaken off poverty when calculated in accordance with China's current poverty line. China has contributed more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction over the same period. With such achievements, China has created another "miracle" that will "go down in history," Xi said. IN NUMBERS: Over 16,500 fresh cases reported India reported 16,738 fresh infections on Thursday, taking the cumulative caseload to 11,046,914, according to a report in the Scroll. The daily cases are the highest since January 29. The country saw 138 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 156,705, according to central health ministry data. The total recoveries have surged to 10,738,501, while the active caseload is at 151,708. As many as 12,671,163 healthcare and frontline workers have been inoculated since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Read more here Coronil is only a supplement, no Covid cure: U'khand Ayush official According to a top AYUSH ministry official in Uttarakhand, Patanjali Ayurved's Coronil drug can only be used as a supplement to manage Covid-19, similar to Vitamin C, Zinc, and other multi-vitamin pills, a report in ThePrint said. Last Friday, the company relaunched its Coronail tablet claiming that the Modi government had upgraded the drug as a "supportive" treatment for Covid-19. Coronil had earlier been approved as an "immunity booster". The founder of the consumer goods company Baba Ramdev had also made a claim that the drug the first evidence-based drug for Covid-19. Read more here The new Covid-19 mutations that are sparking concerns in Maharashtra Multiple new Covid-19 mutations identified in Maharashtra have caused worry as their discovery coincides with a recent surge in cases, a report in the Scroll said. Researchers found the E484K mutation in four blood samples collected from Amravati. In all four cases, the infected people had not travelled outside of the district and had not come into contact with each other, but their families had tested positive. Researchers also found the N440K mutation in a sample from Yavatmal. This mutation was found in Andhra Pradesh and parts of North India late last year. Over 250 samples have been sent to Punes BJ Medical College for genome sequencing, to determine whether the E484K and N440K variants are the reason behind the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in Amravati, Yavatmal, and the neighbouring Akola district. Read more here Ola and Uber stare at a bumpy ride in post-Covid India Even though ride-hailing firms such as Uber and Ola returned to Indian roads with a slew of safety precautions such as temperature checks and car sanitisation after each ride, business remains subdued as most offices and schools are still operating remotely, a report in the Quartz said. The work-from-home phenomenon which is popular in the IT industry appears to be a major obstacle for Ola and Uber as employees from this sector accounted for nearly half of the rides. Read more here Paperwork needed to register for the second phase of the rollout In order to register for the second phase of the vaccination programme that will target the elderly, recipients will need an election ID card or an Aadhaar ID, a report in The Indian Express said. The beneficiary will have to download the Co-win app and register following which the back-end will fetch the data from two sources: Aadhaar and electoral roll. The application will proceed only if the age data match, the report said. Read more here Typha grows very aggressively, blocking waterways and invading agricultural fields. We thought that if we could find ways to use it, people might actually want to go out and chop it themselves, says Rick Kohn, UMD. As part of an ongoing project years in the making, Richard Kohn of Animal and Avian Sciences at the University of Maryland is collaborating internationally to provide a multi-faceted solution to an invasive weed wreaking havoc in Nigeria. By exploring the potential uses of Typha (commonly known in the U.S. as cattail), Kohn and his collaborators have worked directly with the people of the Hadejia Valley to offer Typha as an elegant solution to two major problems: the health and deforestation problems caused by excessive use of firewood as the main cooking fuel, and the lack of animal feed options during the dry season. Not only can properly harvesting and drying Typha reverse the adverse effects this weed causes for irrigation and rice production in the area, but it can also be converted into biogas for a clean cooking fuel or animal feed for local livestock. This solution has the potential to create significant improvements for the region and beyond, with positive environmental, human health, and economic impacts. Typha is a major problem in Africa, says Kohn. It grows very aggressively where there is over fertilization, blocking waterways and invading rice and other agricultural fields. Before this project, it was basically being chopped down and left on water banks to rot because it wasnt seen as being worth anything. But we thought that if we could find ways to use it, people might actually want to go out and chop it themselves. With funding from the World Bank, Kohn and his collaborators across the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the Federal University of Gashua Nigeria, the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources Nigeria examined this problem in the Hadejia Valley from an agricultural, environmental, socio-economic, and human health perspective to provide the most sustainable solutions possible. There were multiple problems we were looking to address with Typha, explains Kohn. First, coming up with an alternative cooking fuel was a big focus. The people mostly cook with firewood, so they are contributing to deforestation in the area causing local climate changes and also burning wood in the home that causes a lot of health problems. An estimated 95 thousand people are dying a year from the smoke in this region. Second, livestock gets very thin in the dry season due to lack of available feed, causing loss in productivity. It also leads to a lot of conflict between herders and crop farmers because livestock end up eating the crops other farmers are trying to grow. We thought maybe we could help solve both of these problems and make the Typha useful. Getting to the point where the Typha was usable as biogas and animal feed didnt come without challenges. According to Kohns team, the drying process was particularly difficult since the plant is 80% to 90% water. If you cut it and let it dry like hay, it essentially rots before it is usable. The team found, however, that if you cut it longitudinally, it dries fairly quickly and can then be put to use. The team then analyzed different stages of Typha maturity to see when in the plants lifespan it is best cut and used for biogas or animal feed. They found that particularly the immature Typha is quite useful for animal feed and can improve animal performance, while it can be used to produce biogas at immature and mature stages of life. Overall, however, Typha proved to be a viable source of both feed and biogas for the region. The next hurdle with using Typha as biogas in the long term as Kohn describes is the maintenance of the systems used to digest the Typha and harvest the methane for cooking fuel. Building family-sized and commercial units has been a success, and we have seen support for the process as these systems are built and implemented, says Kohn. But where often these systems break down is when it comes time to clean them out and maintain them. That is what remains to be seen, but we are hopeful given the economic opportunities that it will continue to take off. The economic opportunities are particularly exciting for the women in the region, explains the team. Eva Iglesias with the Polytechnic University of Madrid says, There is an important role for jobs here because maintenance and adopting machinery is very important. It provides the opportunity of offering the services of chopping the plant and makes it valuable. For women especially who cant leave the house to work for cultural reasons, they identified this as a business opportunity for them specifically. Many of the women have goats that are often their main source of income, so it gives them an opportunity to feed their goats and is a good strategy to help close the gap and empower women. Ahmad R. Musa with the Federal University of Gashua Nigeria adds, Women and youth were excited to be involved in the project and that this might be something that could change their lives. The Royal Highness of Hadejia even expressed his happiness for this project. Kohn and collaborators are all looking forward to the benefits this work can bring to the region, across Nigeria, and potentially beyond into other countries as a model for dealing with invasive plant species. I consider this a very successful collaboration, and there is a high opportunity for acceptance and adoption, says Fernando Escribo, project coordinator with the Polytechnic University of Madrid. It can also apply to other projects in other countries as invasive weeds grow dramatically across Africa and around the world. We hope that there will be great opportunities for entrepreneurship in the area coming from our work. To learn more about this work, watch the researchers give a talk as a part of the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources International Agriculture Speaker Series. The recording of the lecture is available here: https://go.umd.edu/IAS YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The opposition Homeland Salvation Movement demanding the resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan is rallying in the Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan. The ARF member Gegham Manukyan, one of the coordinators of the movement, said they will not give in to provocations and urged law enforcement agencies to thwart any such attempts. Manukyan said the law enforcement agencies ought to join the militarys calls for Pashinyans resignation. The ARF member Artsvik Minasyan added that they support the Armenian military. Meanwhile, PM Nikol Pashinyan has called on his supporters to rally in the Republic Square after the Armed Forces General Staff issued a statement calling for his resignation. Pashinyan said this statement amounts to an attempted coup. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan This item is available in full to subscribers. Attention subscribers We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription. If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here. Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing. This Dec. 2, 2020 photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows vials of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine protects against COVID-19, according to an analysis by U.S. regulators Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration's scientists confirmed that overall, it's about 66% effective and also said J&J's shot, one that could help speed vaccinations by requiring just one dose instead of two, is safe to use. (Johnson & Johnson via AP) Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis released Wednesday by U.S. regulators that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic. The long-anticipated shot could offer the nation a third vaccine option and help speed vaccinations by requiring just one dose instead of two. Food and Drug Administration scientists confirmed that overall the vaccine is about 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, and about 85% effective against the most serious illness. The agency also said J&J's shot is safe. The analysis is just one step in the FDA's evaluation. On Friday, the agency's independent advisers will debate if the evidence is strong enough to recommend the shot. With that advice, the FDA is expected to make a final decision within days. The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 this week, and the vaccination drive has been slower than hoped, hampered by logistical and weather delays. So far, about 44.5 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna, and nearly 20 million of them have received the second dose required for full protection. Tests showed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 95% effective at protection against symptomatic COVID-19. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is part of the FDA advisory panel that will scrutinize the J&J data on Friday and cautions that none of the vaccines have been directly compared. Still, he was encouraged that one dose of the J&J vaccine appears as good at preventing serious illness as its two-dose competitors. "This is a vaccine to prevent you from going to the hospital and dying at a level that's certainly comparable" to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, he said. J&J tested its single-dose option in 44,000 adults in the U.S., Latin America and South Africa. Different mutated versions of the virus are circulating in different countries, and the FDA analysis cautioned that it's not clear how well the vaccine works against each variant. But J&J previously announced that the vaccine worked better in the U.S.72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19, compared with 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa. South Africa recently began giving the J&J vaccine to front-line health workers on a test basis after deciding that a vaccine from rival AstraZeneca had not shown strong enough study results against the particularly concerning variant spreading there. "I was reassured" that despite different variants, the J&J shot still protected against serious illness, said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief. "That's pretty robust data." In case the vaccines eventually need to be updated, manufacturers are working on adjustments to their recipes. Moderna announced Wednesday that it is ready to begin testing experimental doses that better match the South African version of the virus. Across all countries, the analysis of the J&J vaccine showed protection began to emerge about 14 days after vaccination. But by 28 days after vaccination, there were no hospitalizations or deaths in the vaccinated group compared with 16 hospitalizations and seven deaths in study recipients who received a dummy shot. The FDA said effectiveness and safety were consistent across racial groups, including Black and Latino participants. All of the world's COVID-19 vaccines have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible. It would not be surprising if one dose turned out to be a little weaker than two doses, and policymakers will decide if that's an acceptable trade-off to get more people vaccinated faster. J&J has another large study underway to see if a second dose of its vaccine works better, raising the prospect that countries could eventually add a booster if one turned out to be warranted. Like other COVID-19 vaccines, the main side effects of the J&J shot are pain at the injection site and flu-like fever, fatigue and headache. No study participant experienced the severe allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, that is a rare risk of some other COVID-19 shots, although one experienced a less serious reaction. The FDA said there were no serious side effects linked to the vaccine so far, although it recommended further monitoring for blood clots. In the study, those were reported in about 15 vaccine recipients and 10 placebo recipients, not enough of a difference to tell if the vaccine played any role. J&J was on track to become the world's first one-dose option until earlier this month. Mexico announced it would use a one-dose version from China's CanSino, which is made with similar technology as J&J's shot but initially was developed as a two-dose option until beginning a one-dose test in the fall. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines now being used in the U.S. and numerous other countries must be kept frozen, while the J&J shot can last three months in a refrigerator, making it easier to handle. AstraZeneca's vaccinewidely used in Europe and Britainis made similarly and also requires refrigeration but takes two doses. If the FDA clears the J&J shot for U.S. use, it will not boost vaccine supplies significantly right away. Only a few million doses are expected to be ready for shipping in the first week. But J&J told Congress this week that it expected to provide 20 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by summer. European regulators and the World Health Organization also are considering J&J's vaccine. Worldwide, the company aims to produce around a billion doses by the end of the year. 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A brewing political fight over the creation of an independent commission to investigate the January 6 riot at the Capitol is focused not only on the partisan makeup of the panel but also over the scope of the probe and how the commission would examine domestic extremism. Republicans are balking at a plan put forward by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to create an outside commission with more Democrats than Republicans, and one whose mandate they say would go beyond just the security failures of the January 6 insurrection. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday that Pelosi's plan "sets the stage" for a politicized and cherry-picked inquiry into domestic violent extremism beyond January 6, while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Pelosi in a letter this week that Congress should not include predetermined conclusions about what the commission should investigate. "We could do something narrow that looks at the Capitol or we could potentially do something broader to analyze the full scope of political violence here in our country," McConnell said. "We cannot land at some artificial politicized halfway point." McConnell did not mention Antifa or the violence that occurred during protests of police brutality last year, but his comments implied that Republicans will push to include those events in a broad investigation into domestic extremism in the US. "The partisan panel wouldn't get to decide which other incidents are and are not relevant," McConnell said. "Rioting and political violence are abhorrent and unacceptable no matter what the cause. These are not forms of political speech. For almost a year now we've seen political violence and riots become an increasingly normalized phenomenon across our national life. None of us should accept that." Pelosi's draft proposal included findings from the FBI director and an intelligence threat assessment that concluded that home-grown terrorism and extremism is in part the product of racism, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the drafting of the legislation. The draft also includes language that attacks in the future could be motivated by "false narratives." The Republican resistance to Pelosi's plan underscores the political tensions surrounding the creation of an independent commission to investigate what happened on January 6 -- and how it should address former President Donald Trump's role in inciting the rioters who attacked the Capitol. One top House Republican who voted for impeachment, House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming, has said the commission should investigate the lies surrounding the election being stolen from Trump, while other Republican leaders have argued for a narrower focus. The initial fights over how the legislation to establish the commission should be crafted is a sign that partisan fighting could ultimately scuttle the effort, given how much politics are intertwined in the attack on the Capitol in a way they were not after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In the House, Pelosi could push through legislation to create the commission with only Democratic votes, but Democrats will need GOP votes in the Senate to clear a 60-vote threshold. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Wednesday he hoped for the House to take up legislation to create the commission next month, before the House breaks for a recess. Hoyer acknowledged the politics were more challenging now than when the 9/11 Commission was created. "There were no Republicans and Democrats on 9/11," he said. McCarthy requested changes in letter to Pelosi McCarthy sent a letter to Pelosi this week with a number of specific requests related to the formation of the commission. In addition to asking that the commission contain an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, McCarthy requested that the mission of the group be determined by its members -- and not the legislation passed by Congress, according to the senior Democratic aide. The letter said that the legislation forming the commission should have "no inclusion of findings or other predetermined conclusions which ultimately should be rendered by the Commission itself." Pelosi has said the House will take up legislation to create a commission modeled after the 9/11 commission in order to get to the bottom of the events of January 6. Her draft proposal included House and Senate party leaders appointing two members each, with President Joe Biden appointing two members and the chair, making the party breakdown seven Democrats to four Republicans. At her weekly press conference last week, Pelosi cited a letter the 9/11 commission wrote about what should go into the commission, saying it largely lined up with her plan. "As soon as we came to terms with that in the last few days, we sent it to the Republicans to see what suggestions they may have, because for this to work, it really has to be strongly bipartisan," Pelosi said. "So, we'll hear back from them on that, and I'm excited about that." The speaker's office has responded to McCarthy with specific edits to the discussion draft that included the findings and purposes of the commission, the Democratic aide said, but they have not heard back. The debate over the findings and purposes of the commission is a significant hold up in the negotiations over the formation of the group, the aide said. Democrats have concerns that the GOP counteroffers to the commission are not aimed at balancing the power of the group, but as a tool to delay it or prevent it from being formed in the first place. At a news conference Wednesday, McCarthy emphasized the need for changes to Pelosi's plan, calling for an even partisan split on the commission and for both sides to have subpoena power. Both McCarthy and McConnell cited criticisms from Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the 9/11 commission, over the notion that the commission wouldn't have an equal partisan balance. "Don't take it from me, take it from the Democratic and Republican leaders of the 9/11 Commission, an inquiry with a hardwired partisan slant would never be legitimate in the eyes of the American people," McConnell said Wednesday. Cheney says commission should look at false election claims But just like Trump's impeachment itself, there's a split among Republicans about whether the commission should examine the former President's role. Cheney, whose House GOP conference post was challenged after she voted to impeach Trump last month, said Tuesday that the commission must look at how the false claims about the election result fueled the insurrectionists who tried to disrupt congressional certification of the election. "It needs to really be bipartisan and really be, you know, populated with serious individuals who will take a clear-eyed look at what went on," Cheney said at an event at the Reagan Institute. "And I think that also has to include what went on in terms of questioning the outcome of the election, and the extent to which, you know, there really was the President and many around him who pushed this idea that the election had been stolen. And that is a dangerous claim. It wasn't true," she added. Asked about Cheney's comments Wednesday, McCarthy said, "I wouldn't predetermine what to do." "I've been very clear that after January 6 we came out first with the 9/11-style commission just as Hamilton and Kean has said, in a clear way," McCarthy said. "It's only Speaker Pelosi that's only trying to make this partisan and others." The trust remains low on both sides, including with Democrats still furious over Republicans who embraced Trump's false conspiracies about the election and voted to try to overturn Biden's win. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic conference chair, told reporters Wednesday that McCarthy "doesn't always operate in good faith," adding that McCarthy "has continued to provide aid and comfort to the insurrectionists, including by voting with those objections" last month. "All of that said, Speaker Pelosi still presented the framework to the Republicans, which then, of course, instead of leading to some kind of good faith conversation from them, they immediately launched into a partisan political attack," Jeffries said. This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday. Among the residents of Lebanons Rashidieh, Shatila and Bourj Al Barajneh refugee camps are the artisans behind Kissweh, an embroidery studio that draws on the traditional motifs of Palestinian folk art to fashion exquisitely handcrafted needlepoint pillows. Kissweh, founded in 2017 by Claudia Martinez Mansell, who is based in Los Angeles and is also a member of the United Nations humanitarian operations, takes its name from the Arabic word for trousseau the collection of textiles, garments, jewelry and other items ceremonially prepared by a brides family in anticipation of her wedding. But the company chose to focus exclusively on pillows, determined to create something timeless and capable of being enjoyed by all. The cushions come in a variety of sizes and colorways from traditional Palestinian reds and blues to less expected shades, like lilac and sage. To make them, one of 30 craftswomen who range in age from 18 to 70 and are, in many cases, members of the same family works with quality linen and cotton thread to first create pieces of embroidery that employ motifs, like classic geometric patterns, and spiritual references, like the star of Bethlehem and the Moon of Ramallah; other recurring symbols include cypress trees, feathers and damask roses. Each embroidery takes two to three weeks to create, after which the completely unique designs are taken to a sewing center in Beirut, where one of three other women on the Kissweh team stitch them together, matching the patterns to colorful linen backs and zippers. As Martinez Mansell says, the pillows are a reminder, and a discovery, of the rich history and craftsmanship of the Middle East. A portion of the proceeds go to Beit Atfal Assumoud, a nonprofit that supports refugees. From $320, kissweh.com. Chubb has launched a digital platform for selling selected insurance coverages to digitally savvy consumers, primarily through affinity, company and digital broker partners of Chubb to their members, employees and customers. The platform, Blink by Chubb, represents a new brand focused on delivering easy, effortless and affordable insurance products. The first product out of the launch is personal cyber protection, with others including sick pay, travel, life and gadget coverages planned. The cyber policy is now available in 25 states. It offers $10,000 in cyber protection coverage for one household. Increased coverage limits can be purchased for extended protection for up to five additional households. A Chubb survey revealed there is a significant gap between those who are concerned about personal cyber security (more than 80%) and those who have cyber insurance protection (just 16%). Blink offers flexible, customizable coverage options. Policies are modular, and written in plain, understandable language. Chubb says the coverages will be crafted for consumers who are just beginning to identify their insurance needs and for those who know exactly what coverages they want. Consumers will have the ability to select coverage options they need now, at their current stage of life, through brands they already love and trust, said Laura Bennett, senior vice president of eConsumer for Chubb in North America. Blink will appeal to consumer-savvy companies looking to create added value and increase customer loyalty through an insurance offering backed and sold by an industry leader like Chubb. Whether its an offer made alongside a purchase, or an integrated experience using Blink APIs, Blink reimagines how customers experience insurance in the digital world. Bennett said Chubbs partnership approach allows it to connect Blink where there are natural tie-ins for partner companies to offer their consumers an extra option while in purchasing other products and services. Also, while the products are paid for by the customer, employers can add them to their employee benefit packages. Bennet said Blink is designed as an end-to-end, do-it-yourself consumer digital experience that is outside the carriers established independent agency quote and issue systems. Among Chubbs various digital platforms, Chubb Marketplace is a platform for agents that digitizes the underwriting and selling of small business products while also streamlining the process for small business customers. The sale of products on the website is provided through Chubb Insurance Solutions Agency Inc. Blink is an exciting evolution for Chubb, allowing us to help ease first-time, or digitally-savvy, insurance consumers into the right coverage at the right time in their lives, said Sean Ringsted, executive vice president, Chubbs chief digital officer. Topics Mergers Chubb New York, Feb 26 : The US has welcomed the agreement between India and Pakistan reaffirming their commitment to a ceasefire along the Line of Control, President Joe Biden's spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Thursday. "This is a positive step towards greater peace and stability in South Asia, which is in our shared interest and we encourage both the countries to keep building upon this progress," Psaki said during her daily briefing in Washington. She said, "The US welcomes the joint statement between India and Pakistan that the two countries have agreed to maintain strict observance of ceasefire along the Line of Control starting February 25." Asked whether Pakistan was doing enough to combat terrorism, Psaki did not give a direct reply. She said, "We remain closely engaged with a range of leaders and officials in the region, including those in Pakistan. But in terms of an assessment of that, I would point you to the state department or the intelligence department." The two neighbours' director generals of military operations (DGMO) announced the agreement reaffirming the ceasefire on Thursday. Their joint statement said that after a "free, frank and cordial" assessment of the situation along the border, they agreed "in the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders. The two DGMO agreed to address each other's core issues and concerns which have the propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence". (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Whatfix , a leader in Digital Adoption Solutions ("DAS"), today announced the Whatfix Assist app for Microsoft Teams. Whatfix Assist is an in-app experience that combines search with collaborative capabilities to create seamless content accessibility and shareability. With Whatfix Assist, users can now search for any support content and share with other users all within Microsoft Teams. With the rise of remote work, users working on collaborative projects face challenges relating to searching and quickly accessing important and helpful information. Project documentation, support articles, design briefs and other vital content may reside in multiple formats and silos across the enterprise. Whatfix Assist aggregates distributed content from multiple repositories such as Microsoft SharePoint, Atlassian Confluence and Salesforce Service Cloud, into a central location and enables users to search and share content with others. Users get access to vital content from within Microsoft Teams without the need to search and share from different locations. Whatfix Assist significantly reduces the time users spend on finding and sharing helpful content with support for static content such as text and PDF documents, as well as dynamic content such as Whatfix Flows. Whatfix is one of the first Digital Adoption Platforms on Microsoft AppSource to offer these capabilities as an app exclusively for Microsoft Teams. "We take pride in providing our customers the tools they need to implement digital transformation in their organization," said Khadim Batti, CEO and co-founder, Whatfix. "Our Whatfix Assist app brings on-demand, self-help experience inside Microsoft Teams so that users can collaborate remotely without the growing pains associated with new technology adoption. Users now have the ability to remotely access information and on-demand help in a centralized location." "In the new normal of remote and hybrid work, the need to maintain business continuity through collaboration amongst distributed workforces has increased significantly. Whatfix Assist on Microsoft Teams empowers users with contextual, interactive and real-time self-help," said Daniel Canning, Director, Microsoft Teams Marketing at Microsoft Corp. Whatfix Assist is free to download for web and desktop versions of Microsoft Teams and can be found at Microsoft AppSource. To learn more about Whatfix and its Digital Adoption Solutions platform, please visit https://www.whatfix.com/ . About Whatfix Whatfix is a Digital Adoption Solution that disrupts Application Training, Learning, and Support content by providing Contextual, Interactive, Real-Time, and Autonomous user guidance - driving additional adoption and productivity gains. Whatfix has a proven record of increasing employee productivity by 35%, reducing training time and costs by 60%, reducing employee case tickets by 50% and increasing application data accuracy by 20%. Whatfix is based in San Jose, San Francisco, London, Melbourne, Sydney and Bangalore. Media Contact Frances Robinson Lumina Communications for Whatfix [email protected] SOURCE Whatfix Related Links https://www.whatfix.com Chuck around and find out. Photo: Brandon Bell/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images For decades, Democrats have lived in terror of the American publics (reputed) allergy to taxation. In 2016, the partys presidential nominee was so afraid of antagonizing her nations IRS-averse electorate, she promised not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year a pledge that spared all but the top 2 percent of individual earners from the specter of slightly higher tax rates. Four years later, the Democratic standard-bearer decided that Hillary Clintons mercy was insufficiently broad, and vowed to exempt middle class Americans at the bottom of the top 1 percent from any and all tax hikes (despite the fact that Donald Trump had lowered rates in the interim). Meanwhile, like pizza chefs condemned to cook pies exclusively for lactose-intolerant sufferers of celiac disease, Democratic policy wonks have been forced to concoct sorry substitutes for social democratic programs, lest their recipes send the voting public into the political equivalent of anaphylactic shock. And yet, Democrats are about to let the IRS unleash large, surprise tax bills on millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The cause of this development is simple, and its adverse political implications long foreseen. Unemployment benefits qualify as taxable income, a reality that often takes recipients by surprise come tax season. But in ordinary years, the number of Americans facing large, unanticipated IRS bills as a result of receiving unemployment benefits is sharply limited by three factors: (1) The number of Americans who typically collect unemployment benefits for an extensive period of time tends to be small, (2) state unemployment insurance offices tend to withhold a percentage of UI benefits for tax purposes, and (3) (lamentably) Americas unemployment benefits tend to be quite low, at least by OECD standards. But 2020 was no ordinary year. Roughly 40 million Americans qualified for unemployment benefits at some point last year, with nearly 5 million remaining jobless long enough to see their benefits expire. Thanks to the CARES Acts federal unemployment benefits, for much of 2020 Americas wage-replacement rates were among the most generous in the world, with the nations jobless collectively taking home $580 billion in benefits by years end. Finally, as state UI offices were inundated with jobless claims, many neglected to withhold any taxes from the federal benefits they dispersed. According to an analysis from the Century Foundation, only 40 percent of UI payments in 2020 had taxes withheld, while the average UI recipient collected approximately $14,000 in UI income. Taken together, these figures suggest that millions of households are going to face a significant, surprise tax bill, absent congressional action. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders has long called for tax forgiveness on UI benefits accrued during the pandemic, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Iowa representative Cindy Axne have introduced legislation that forgives taxes on the vast majority of UI income. For whatever reason, however, Democrats failed to find a place for the provision in their $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package. Some lawmakers are currently pushing to add tax forgiveness to the bill. But the legislative strategy that Democrats are using to get the relief bill through the Senate makes the task of adding new provisions more daunting. The COVID-relief package is a budget reconciliation bill, a category of legislation that is immune from the Senate filibuster. In order to pass such a bill, however, Congress must first pass a budget resolution that places a ceiling on the legislations total cost. That ceiling is now fixed at $1.9 trillion, which means that adding tax forgiveness to the bill would require subtracting some other funding priority from it. Fortunately, Democrats have some low-pain options for swapping in the tax forgiveness funds. As Slates Jordan Weissmann notes: At the moment, Democrats are planning to give state and local governments $350 billion in unrestricted aid to help patch up their budgets, on top of additional money for schools and transit. As I wrote last week, thats likely a bit more than they need at this point, and conveniently, the state and local funding is assigned to the Senate Finance Committee section of the bill. Democrats could almost certainly get away with shrinking the pot by $50 billion, which is how much Goldman Sachs estimates Americans will owe in taxes on their jobless benefits. If it turns out states do need more help down the line, Democrats can add it to a bill next year. Notably, even if one disagrees with Weismanns assessment of how much fiscal aid states require, Democrats could still append the difference to their upcoming, second reconciliation bill. States and municipalities wont blow through $300 billion in a matter of weeks. There is no huge time crunch on getting them that last $50 billion. But Democrats have no time to spare if they want to avert an epidemic of surprise tax bills; Americans are already receiving them. As Emily Peck of Huff Post writes: Julie Evans thought shed get a refund from the IRS this year, so she got to work on her taxes first thing in January. A former administrative assistant, Evans was out of work for all of 2020. To save money, she is living with her adult children in Kent, Washington, and scraping by on unemployment benefits. The idea of $400 or so [refund] was enticing, she said. Instead, Evans got a shock: a $1,600 tax bill. I dont know where Im going to come up with the money, the 59-year-old told HuffPost. If Congress doesnt act, the Treasury Department might be able to unilaterally forgive a portion of the taxes that UI recipients owe, according to the Century Foundation. But such relief would be partial and convoluted to administer. The Democratic Partys fear of broad-based tax increases and resulting disinclination to establish new, universal social programs is frustrating but understandable. Raising taxes on the middle class is a genuinely politically risky endeavor, given the American publics (understandable) lack of faith in their government. But if the party is going to prioritize low taxes for the upper-middle class over social insurance for all, the least it can do is to not let the IRS hit the recently jobless with multi-thousand-dollar tax bills (and/or hoover up their $1,400 checks) because it couldnt find $50 billion for targeted tax forgiveness in a $1.9 trillion bill. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company [February 25, 2021] Evolugen and Gazifere announce one of Canada's largest green hydrogen injection projects to be located in Quebec GATINEAU, QC, Feb. 25, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Evolugen, the Canadian operating business of Brookfield Renewable, and Gazifere Inc., an Enbridge company, are proud to announce one of Canada's largest green hydrogen projects for injection into a natural gas distribution network in Quebec. The Quebec-based companies, as part of a collaboration formed to advance the development and use of green hydrogen, announced plans to build and operate an approximately 20 MW water electrolysis hydrogen production plant in the Outaouais region. The facility will result in significant reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and generate considerable benefits regionally, provincially, and nationally. The companies unveiled details of the ambitious project at the annual symposium of Quebec's renewable energy production association (AQPER) taking place today. The plant will be built in the Masson sector of the City of Gatineau, adjacent to Evolugen's hydroelectric facilities, which will power the electrolyzer. An estimated capacity of approximately 425,000 GJ of green hydrogen will be produced for injection into Gazifere's natural gas distribution network, making this the first project of its kind in Canada. The project will remove approximately 15,000 metric tons in GHG emissions per year, in addition to generating significant local economic benefits, including new jobs and additional property tax revenue. This innovative project represents the first phase in the creation of a regional green economy ecosystem centered around the production, distribution, and use of green hydrogen. With ongoing support from the municipal, provincial, and federal governments, Evolugen and Gazifere are well positioned to leverage numerous strategic assets, including access to natural resources and the expertise of the local workforce. The two companies are working together to develop the Outaouais region and put Quebec and Canada at the forefront of the movement to economically reduce GHG emissions. "As an experienced renewable energy generation developer, owner and operator, Evolugen sees green hydrogen as a natural progression and fit in its portfolio of clean energy solutions. This project aligns with and furthers Evolugen's objectives to put its capital, expertise and resources to work to support governments, businesses and communities in reaching their energy transition and decarbonization goals." Josee Gibord, Evolugen CEO "Green hydrogen can play a major role in Quebec's energy transition by offering a sustainable, low-carbon energy solution. With the production, transportation and distribution of green hydrogen, Gazifere has the ambition to provide its customers with an increasingly diversified portfolio of renewable natural gas options. This is another important example of Enbridge's multi-market approach to green the natural gas grid while continuing to meet the demand for safe, reliable and affordable energy." Cynthia Hansen, Executive Vice President & President, Gas Distribution & Storage, Enbridge "Hydrogen's time has come. It will lower our emissions and create jobs. Projects like this will get us to net zero." The Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr., Canada's Minister of Natural Resources "Clean hydrogen presents Canada with an opportunity to leverage our resources and world-leading clean tech sector to drive innovation on transformative technologies and reduce polluting emissions. Evolugen and Gazifere stand out and excel in this field." Stephane Lauzon, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors and Member of Parliament for ArgenteuilLa Petite-Nation "Hydrogen is seen as a solution to tackle the various energy transition challenges and Quebec has undoubtedly a significant potential in this new sector. We are fortunate to be able to produce green hydrogen thanks to hydroelectricity, which is a renewable energy available at a very competitive cost. In this context, Evolugen's project is a concrete example that demonstrates all the potential associated with the production of green hydrogen in Quebec.'' Jonatan Julien, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Minister responsible for the Cote-Nord region "Green hydrogen is one of the most promising energy sources to decarbonize Quebec's economy. Furthermore, thanks to its hydroelectricity, Quebec is very well positioned to become a leader in this field. As a government, our role is to create a supportive economic environment for innovative companies like Evolugen and Gazifere. This is why we have set aside funds within the 2030 Plan for a Green Economy to support green hydrogen sector development.'' Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change "I am very proud of this hydrogen injection project achievement here in our region, Papineau. There is a clear need to support the energy transition to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This project is an ideal opportunity to diversify the Outaouais economy." Mathieu Lacombe, Member for Papineau, Minister of Families and Minister responsible for the Outaouais region ''We must combat the impact of climate change on our population and infrastructure by showing leadership in energy transition, prioritizing both the development and use of renewable energy. Which is why we are proud to support Evolugen and Gazifere's innovative project which will contribute to the fight against climate change while generating important economic benefits for our region, including job creation in this new sector.'' Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, Gatineau mayor "CREDDO is proud to join forces with Gazifere and Evolugen to help make this sustainable energy project a success. Renewable natural gas and green hydrogen have enormous potential to fuel a green, inclusive, and successful economic recovery. That's why CREDDO is putting its expertise to work and rallying the community's key stakeholders around this innovative project, which will give Outaouais a seat at the energy transition table." Benoit Delage, Executive Director, CREDDO About Evolugen Evolugen currently owns and operates 61 renewable energy facilities in Canada, including 33 hydroelectric facilities, 4 wind farms, and 24 solar sites, with a total installed capacity of 1912 MW. As a renewable energy industry leader, Evolugen provides sustainable solutions designed to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future in Canada. Evolugen is a Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. company. Brookfield Renewable Partners is one of the world's largest publicly traded renewable energy companies. About Gazifere Gazifere is a private corporation employing 110 people, and a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc. Established in the Outaouais region since 1959, it is one of two distributors of natural gas in Quebec. The company serves more than 43,500 residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial customers and owns and operates a 1,000 km gas supply system. Gazifere holds a franchise for the Outaouais region and currently supplies the city of Gatineau as well as the municipality of Chelsea. Gazifere has been committed to energy efficiency for many years and began supplying renewable natural gas in 2020. It intends to become the first natural gas distributor in North America to offer an all-green, fully renewable energy portfolio before 2050. SOURCE Evolugen [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Odisha: Renovation of Gobari river starts to make way for fishing vessels February 25,2021 | Source: The New Indian Express The Drainage Division under Water Resources department has recently started renovation of the 5 km long Gobari river, a tributary of Mahanadi at a cost of Rs 6 crore to spruce up its bed to make it navigable for fishing vessels. Currently, the water level of the river is inadequate for operation of fishing vessels due to which dredging in the river up to five feet depth is being carried out. The rivers embankments too are being stone-packed, said executive engineer of Drainage Division, Kendrapara Bankabihari Samal. Due to littoral drifts or sedimentation, flood water does not flow into the river during monsoon. Sand deposits and illegal constructions near the river further affect the water flow. Samal said 30 per cent of the work is already over and the project will be completed within six months. However, residents of several villages located near the river alleged the renovation work is not only sub-standard but also moving at a snails pace. Biswanath Behera, a retired engineer said inadequate flow of water in the river is affecting agriculture and environment in the riverside villages. He said over 20 cattle and other animals are slaughtered at an abattoir in Dilawarpur village and the waste is being dumped into the river. But, no steps have yet been taken by the authorities concerned. Hoping that renovation of the river will help farmers, Haripada Das of Thakurapatana village said they are not able to draw water from the river for irrigating their fields now. Gobari river was once the lifeline of hundreds of villages and thousands of farmers. The river was famous for navigation during pre-Independence period. However, with improvement in road transport, boats gradually stopped, said former principal of Kendrapara College, Nanda Kishor Parida. newindianexpress.com 2021 Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. Events take place online unless otherwise noted: THURSDAY The Purpose of Power book club: Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza discusses her book The Purpose of Power. Hosted by Mannys. 5 p.m. More information is here. Eugenics: A discussion on the history of the eugenics movement in the U.S., featuring excerpts from the documentary A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics, Genetics and the American Dream. Hosted by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. 6:30 p.m. More information is here. FRIDAY CSU chancellor: Joseph Castro, chancellor of the California State University system, in conversation about priorities for higher education in California. Hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California. 11 a.m. More information is here. Housing and climate change: A discussion on the intersection between housing policies and climate change, with Mountain View City Council Member Pat Showalter and Justin Wang, advocacy manager for the Greenbelt Alliance. Hosted by Silicon Valley at Home. Noon. More information is here. Anti-racist classrooms: A discussion on creating an inclusive and anti-racist educational climate during the pandemic. Participants include Shawn Ginwright, professor of Africana studies at San Francisco State University; Oakland schools Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammel; and Alison Briscoe-Smith, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Wright Institute Clinical Program. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here. Vaccines, COVID and the Black community: Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and state Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris hold community discussion on the importance and availability of vaccines and the impact of COVID-19 on the Black community. 2:15 p.m. Join meeting here. SATURDAY Abortion rights: A forum on how abortion restrictions disproportionately affect Black and Indigenous women and other people of color. Hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice America with special guest Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Noon. More information is here. Stand for Asians: A rally and march in opposition to anti-Asian American hate crimes. Speakers include San Mateo City Council Member Amourence Lee, Millbrae Anti-Racist Coalition founding members Steve Hom and Katie Nolan-Stevaux, and @FromHerePodcast host Dawn Lee. 1 p.m. at San Mateo Central Park (back of bleachers), 50 East Fifth Avenue, San Mateo. More information is here. Climate change: Citizens Climate Lobby holds a California regional conference with plenaries, panels and workshops on achieving carbon fee and dividend investment goals to drive sustainable policies. 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. More information is here. Health justice: Santa Clara County community leaders hold a forum on inequities in the health care system and how to fix them. Hosted by the Santa Clara County Single Payer Health Care Coalition. 2 p.m. More information is here. TUESDAY Extremism in the U.S.: A discussion on the spread of extremism and what can be done about it, with Seth Brysk of the Anti-Defamation League. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 5:30 p.m. More information is here. WEDNESDAY Bolstering the African American community: A discussion with San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here. MARCH 4 Reopening schools: A discussion about school-reopening issues in California. Participants include Joe Boyd, executive director of the California Teachers Association; Ricardo Cano, education reporter for CalMatters; Suzanne Kitchens, president of the California School Boards Association; and Ron Williams, president of the Association of California School Administrators. Hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California. 11 a.m. More information is here. Obamacare: HuffPost senior national correspondent Jonathan Cohn on his new book, The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 3 p.m. More information is here. Women in science: A discussion on women in science to mark International Womens Day. Participants include Chrissy Garcia, collections manager of geology for the California Academy of Sciences; Alejandra Hernandez-Agreda, research fellow at the academy studying coral-microbe interactions; Melanie Malone, assistant professor at the University of Washington, whose research focuses on the social complexities of environmental policies; and Suzanne Pierre, lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, a research and social change collective. Hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. 7 p.m. More information is here. MARCH 6 Womens March event: A webinar on building community and equity, hosted by the Womens March Foundation. Noon. More information is here. MARCH 8 Women shaping a more equitable future: Celebrating efforts by women and girls around the world to make a more equitable world. Keynote address by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis. Hosted by the Benicia-Vallejo and Danville-Alamo-Walnut Creek branches of the American Association of University Women. 5 p.m. More information is here. To list an event, please email Chronicle politics editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com WASHINGTON (WTVA) - The U.S. House approved a bill to rename the Postal Service office in downtown Tupelo the Colonel Carlyle 'Smitty' Harris Post Office, Congressman Trent Kelly, R-Miss., announced Wednesday. The building is located at 500 West Main Street. Col. Carlyle 'Smitty' Harris served during the Vietnam War. | Source: Office of U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss. Col. Carlyle 'Smitty' Harris served during the Vietnam War. | Source: Office of U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss. On April 4, 1965, Harris F-105 fighter-bomber was shot down over North Vietnam. He was held captive at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" for eight years, During this captivity, he used tap code to communicate with his fellow prisoners. Following his military career, Harris completed law school and joined the Mississippi Bar in 1981. Harris published "Tap Code" in 2019 which recounts his survival. The next step in the legislative process is for a U.S. senator to introduce a companion bill in the Senate. Related - Former Vietnam POW speaks about his capture Open this link to watch Kelly's full speech or watch the video below. International region winners rise to the occasion, helping customers navigate an unpredictable year Mitel, a global leader in business communications, celebrated the winners of its annual Global Partner Awards during a special virtual ceremony at the company's 2021 Mitel Next partner event. Recipients for the International region were recognised for their contributions to supporting customers at a time when many organisations were faced with operational and business continuity challenges due to COVID-19. Winners of this year's awards served as MVPs for their customers, enabling them to quickly adapt and pivot. For the International region, winners included the following Mitel partners: MiCloud Flex Partner of the Year Aqura Australia MiCloud Connect Partner of the Year PepNet Australia Hospitality Partner of the Year The Company Germany Contact Center Partner of the Year Avalon Israel SWA Partner of the Year CSP Turkey Distribution Partner of the Year Westcon International Healthcare Partner of the Year Zetacom Netherlands Cloud Partner of the Year Opus Telecoms UK Service Provider Partner of the Year British Telecom UK Government Partner of the Year Airbus DS France Collaboration Partner of the Year Orange Business Services France Rising star Partner of the Year Maticmind Italy "The circumstances of 2020 accelerated the need for digital transformation far beyond what we could have imagined. Our partners worked shoulder to shoulder with customers to not only weather those early days of the pandemic, but to modernize their technology to drive positive business outcomes through more effective communications and collaboration capabilities," said Scott Peterson, Chief Revenue Officer, Mitel. "We applaud their achievements across a diverse range of categories and solutions from cloud to on-premises. Congratulations to these well-deserving partners and thank you for showing what it means to be 'Strongest Together.'" Additional Facts Mitel is a leading provider of cloud communications, enabling more than 5 million users, including 1.5 million UCaaS customers (Source: Synergy Research Group). Eastern Management ranks Mitel best in value for UCaaS and hosted PBX solutions. About Mitel A global market leader in business communications powering more than two billion business connections, Mitel helps businesses and service providers connect, collaborate and provide innovative services to their customers. Our innovation and communications experts serve more than 70 million business users in more than 100 countries. For more information, go to www.mitel.com and follow us on Twitter @Mitel. Mitel is the registered trademark of Mitel Networks Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005776/en/ Contacts: Media EMEA APAC Sandrine Quinton +33 (0)1 30 96 43 01 sandrine.quinton@mitel.com "Kingdom: Ashin of The North" screenwriter shared some interesting details about the much-awaited drama series! The drama's screenwriter Kim Eun Hee and director Kim Sung Hoon joined in the content roadshow event "See What's Next Korea 2021" on February 25, and they were able to share hints about the Bonus story drama! Director Kim Sung Hoon and Screenwriter Kim Eun Hee Shared their Thoughts about the Drama Director Kim Sung Hoon expressed when the two seasons of the hit Netflix original series "Kingdom' were introduced in January 2019 and March 2020, there were a lot of positive and happy reactions from the viewers all over the world. He shared that he felt overwhelmed with the positive results of the drama. The director revealed that at first, he felt worried that "Kingdom" might not be accepted as it is a new genre for others, but he thinks that there was more synergy abroad. And Netflix is really very supportive, and they are fearless, disruptive, and unbiased when it comes to new ideas and attempts. Kim Eun Hee also shared her side and revealed that she also felt really worried at first, but as the show broadcasted, a lot of viewers showed positive responses, which made her feel motivated to create good content for the series. Director Kim Sung Hoon and Screenwriter Kim Eun Hee Reveals some Interesting Details of "Kingdom: Ashin of the North" To make things clear, "Kingdom: Ashin of the North" is a special or bonus story of "Kingdom" 1 and 2. Kim Eun Hee answered the question as to why she opted to create a special episode instead of a third season; the screenwriter disclosed that they could not neglect the story of the saengsacho (the resurrection plant). So with a lot of brainstorming, she decided to create a special episode thinking that it would be more interesting for the viewers. Director Kim Sung Hoon further explained that the first season functions as the cornerstone of the world, and 'Kingdom: Ashin of the North' will be a stepping stone to go beyond 'Kingdom 3.' "Kingdom: Ashin of the North" will focus its story on Jun Ji Hyun's character as Ashin. She is a mysterious woman that Chang's (Joo Ji Hoon's) group encountered while traveling North on their quest of uncovering the secret behind the saengsacho. Kim Eun Hee also released a sneak peek photos of Jun Ji Hyun as Ashin and revealed that looking at her attire, Ashin is the heir of the Northern Yeojin tribe village who lives near the Yalu River. And the viewers can think of her as the closest person related to the secret of the saengsacho. The production also shared that they are already done with the filming of "Kingdom: Ashin of the North," and they are already gearing up for the drama's release; and according to the Director, the drama is likely to be released within this year. Are you excited to witness Jun Ji Hyun's acting prowess in the unique drama? Share your thoughts below! Kdramastars owns this article. Written By Liza Parker The incident of a North Korean man who reportedly defected to South Korea after crossing the heavily guarded border and roamed around unchecked for hours has sparked outrage in Seoul. The episode took place last week when the man crossed over to South Korea after swimming for several kilometres, a lapse in security the South Korean army said it will address. According to local Korean news reports, security officials acknowledged that the man was captured on CCTV more than half a dozen times before the guards finally apprehended him. It is not the first such event; just a few months ago, in November 2020, another North Korean man, claiming to be a gymnast, had crossed over the fence in the demilitarised zone between the two nations and went undetected for about 14 hours. In this latest instance, it is revealed that the North Korean nationals movements set off alarms. It was only after the man moved several kilometres along a road that he was finally spotted by a guard and was apprehended. The security agencies acknowledged that the guards failed to abide by due procedure in detecting the unidentified man. Though security is routinely reviewed and tightened, every year hundreds of people, including many women, defect from North Korea to South Korea and China, the other country with which it shares a border. They routinely try to cross the border even at risk of being caught by North Korean forces or being deported. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 12:37:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A medical worker prepares a dose of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at the Sabiha Uzun Maternal Child Health Center in Ankara, Turkey on Jan. 15, 2021. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua) "We thank the people and the administration of China. Sinovac has helped overcome a serious hurdle in mass inoculation in Turkey and other countries. It makes lives better," the head of a Turkish medical company said. ANKARA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Anti-COVID-19 vaccines developed by China save lives and are an important tool for defeating the global pandemic as they have proved very successful in mass inoculation programs across the world, a Turkish expert said. In a recent interview with Xinhua, Canturk Alagoz, CEO of Keymen Pharmaceuticals, and the distributor in Turkey of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese Sinovac Biotech pharmaceutical company, said his country was grateful to the people and government of China for this safe product, the CoronaVac. The Turkish firm also conducted clinical trials of the Sinovac jab in Turkey. "It has a very good safety profile. The Phase III trials have been yielding important immunogenicity results," Alagoz said. "We thank the people and the administration of China. Sinovac has helped overcome a serious hurdle in mass inoculation in Turkey and other countries. It makes lives better," the head of the medical company said. The vaccines have also gained recognition from scientists around the globe, Alagoz added. "This vaccine saves lives, we have seen it in the global fight against the pandemic, especially in developing countries," he said, praising China's practice in making a vaccine against this deadly disease and sharing it with other countries. Workers unload a shipment containing boxes of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines at Istanbul Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 25, 2021. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Xinhua) "China has worked extensively to develop this vaccine and at the end has been successful. China's attitude to share it with the rest of the world is right and fair, you cannot beat this disease only by thinking about it yourself, you have to share knowledge," he said. Turkey launched in mid-January a mass inoculation drive with the Sinovac jab, aiming to vaccinate 60 percent of its population ultimately. Some 7.5 million people have been vaccinated so far, essentially health workers and the elderly, according to data from the health ministry. Education Minister Ziya Selcuk received his first shot on Wednesday. Teachers are next in line as Turkey plans to reopen schools as of March 1. The vaccine is voluntary and free of charge. Alagoz said he believes that China's scientific efforts to fight COVID-19 and produce vaccines have helped strengthen bilateral cooperation and friendship with Turkey. "This is a serious service towards safety and health. Our trade cooperation was already growing and this vaccine has demonstrated that we can cooperate in other fields as well," the expert said. Sinovac has announced earlier that it will export semi-finished jabs to some countries, and help build local filling and packaging lines in importing countries to improve production capacity and efficiency. Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11, 2020. So far, it has recorded some 2.6 million infections and over 28,000 deaths. Having earlier renounced his Nigerian citizenship, Edwin Ijeoma, a professor of public sector economics at the University of Fort Hare, was left in the cold after his South African citizenship was revoked by the countrys ministry of home affairs. He is now stateless. Mr Ijeoma, who arrived in South Africa from Nigeria on a study permit in 1998 to study at the University of Pretoria, was found guilty of fraudulently relying on a bigamous marriage to a South African woman to obtain citizenship by naturalization, local media Times Live reported. The don was granted permanent residency in the southern African country the same year he graduated from the University of Pretoria, after being exempted from immigration restrictions due to his marriage to a local woman two years earlier. By 2005, the academic, who obtained a PhD in economics in 2003, was granted South African citizenship through naturalisation, but in 2007 he divorced his South African wife, ostensibly because the couple was unable to conceive a child, according to Times. Thereafter, the newspaper added, he was joined in South Africa by a Nigerian woman, Anne Tomo, who, in her application for permanent residence, attached a copy of her 1993 marriage to him in Nigeria, tipping off home affairs officials that Mr Ijeoma had committed bigamy. Officials said on both occasions when Mr Ijeoma made submissions to immigration authorities in South Africa, when he was asked to indicate an immediate family member still residing in Nigeria, he listed Anne Ijeoma as his sister not his wife. Officials held that Mr Ijeomas sole mission in marrying the South African woman was to acquire citizenship, and he has now had his citizenship revoked by the ministry of home affairs. The verdict followed a suit he filed against the home affairs ministry before the Bhisho high court. The courts acting judge, Mickey Mfenyana, upheld the initial judgment from 2020 which found Mr Ijeoma guilty of falsifying his marital status to the department, thereby making his South African citizenship null and void. The judge further held that her ruling cannot be appealed, adding that another court will not differ from her finding as Mr Ijeoma was disingenuous, if not dishonest, and that there was no reason to interfere with the ministers decision. Ms Mfenyana further held that Mr Ijeoma had presented contradictory reasons for his bigamous actions. That as an African man, he believed he was entitled to marry more than one wife; and that he represented himself as single because he was not aware that South Africa recognised customary marriages, Times quoted Ms Mfenyana as saying. The judge noted that Mr Ijeoma concealed his marriage in Nigeria from officials on three occasions: when he applied for permanent residence in South Africa, when he got married in the country and when he applied for citizenship. That, the judge held, was highly improbable for an academic, who by his own admission is of good and sound mind and an intellectual giant, to have remained ignorant of the implications of not disclosing his Nigerian marriage throughout his stay in the country and his encounters with immigration matters. In defence, Mr Ijeoma told the court he obtained a permanent residence permit because of his good and sound character rather than his marriage to the South African woman. He argued that the human affairs ministry failed to consider his intellectual contribution to the country as a result of his research as an academic, and his role at the Africa Unions New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD), where, according to his LinkedIn profile, he is a pioneer research specialist. Ms Mfenyana rebuffed this saying it was stated in the exemption certificate he got that marriage was the basis for his exemption. She also recalled that in 2015, Mr Ijeoma pleaded to home affairs to have compassion on him, that he obtained citizenship by naturalisation as a result of the marriage. PREMIUM TIMES email sent to the University of Fort Hare on what steps might be taken after the courts finding against Mr Ijeoma has not been replied. ADVERTISEMENT SALEM -- When high water flooded Wallace Marine Park and Cascades Gateway Park this winter, Lisa Letney lay awake hearing the sounds of a storm that would wash away tents and belongings in areas where Salem has allowed unsheltered people to camp because of Covid. After reading a news article about the flooding, she thought about how she could help. Blankets would get soaked and buying lots of handwarmers could get costly, so she harkened to an old school style of warming up hot potatoes. In the old days you would put hot potatoes in your pocket when you were walking to school, she said, recalling a story her grandmother had told her. The potatoes served a dual purpose: they kept people warm and filled their bellies. Letney put a shoutout on Facebook in January, and within a couple of days volunteers baked 80 pounds of potatoes. Many of those who helped were volunteering for the first time, she said. She and other volunteers passed them out to people under the Market Street Bridge and in Wallace Marine Park in mid-January. While she was there, she met women living in the encampments that helped her hand out the spuds. She choked up thinking about a woman who had no toilet, running water or a garbage can that only asked her for a candle so she could keep warm. Its the women that are keeping me going. Going out there and recognizing them, it made it real when I went out there, Letney said. Letney had a Facebook page she created for her soap making projects called Dirty Little Hippy, but turned that into a page to ask for donations and to rally volunteers. She wants to keep it simple. A 10-pound bag of potatoes costs about $2.50 at Grocery Outlet, Letney said. In the last month, her group has handed out 400 pounds of hot baked potatoes and has also given out emergency blankets, gloves, hats, scarves and earmuffs. Its completely exploded, she said. On Valentines Day, volunteers with Dirty Little Hippy, Caring Connections, Riot with Love, Kindness Closet and Helping Hands Resources hosted an event at Wallace Marine and the Fairgrounds Pavilion to hand out food, clothes and other warming items. Letney keeps a spreadsheet of all the handwarmers and other items that have been distributed. Now, shes turned her attention to collecting tampons for the women in the camps. People can donate using her Amazon wishlist. Letney said there are people who want to help, but dont know where to start. Baking potatoes is something people can easily do, she said. Theres literally no risk in it, Letney said. That was appealing to people. Shes thinking of creating a website for people to sign up to volunteer and renting a storage unit to collect donations because of how her potato idea has taken off. But it wont always be spuds. Letney is already thinking about what she could hand out in summer, like frozen water bottles. I didnt expect all this to happen so big and so fast, but it feels right and Im going to keep going with the flow, Letney said. Iraq has argued that Syria should be reinstated to the Arab League, writes Al-Masdar. Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, stressed the need to return Syria to its seat in the Arab League while noting that this would achieve the principle of integration in Arab work and coordination. The Iraqi minister expressed during a meeting with a group of Gulf officials on Monday, his happiness with the escalation and growth of bilateral cooperation in the Iraqi-Saudi relations. Hussein praised the tripartite mechanism between Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt. During the meeting, the Iraqi Foreign Minister touched on the recent meetings of the League of Arab States at the ministerial level and the need to activate the mechanisms of Arab action within the League. He pointed to the need to return Syria to its seat within the Arab League to achieve the principle of integration in Arab work and coordination. Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2012, marking the first time in the organizations history that one of its founding countries has had its membership suspended. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. LOS ANGELESRock Candy Toys on Thursday announced that they will be celebrating Womens History Month all March long with multiple weekly tributes to some of the industrys leading females from all walks of the adult industry. Women's History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. As a brand with business connections and friendships to companies from all facets of the adult industry, Rock Candy Toys is extending the celebration of Womens History Month to honor the women behind some of the industrys leading companies from the realm of adult retail, media, adult films and more. Throughout the month of March, Rock Candy Toys will be spotlighting three adult industry female professionals per week on social media in honor of their achievements and contributions to the biz. Stay tuned to Rock Candy Toys social media to find out fun facts about these hardworking boss babes. Among the female professionals to be spotlighted on Rock Candy Toys social media as part of their Womens History Month weekly tributes will be the companys adult retail customers, Lynda Mort VP from ECN, female adult film director Jacky St. James, AVNs Sara Harter and Megan Stokes from NMG Management, among others. Rock Candy Toys sales director Tracy Leone explained why it was important for the company to celebrate the women of the adult industry. Rock Candy Toys simply just wanted to give a shout-out and send some love to all of the hardworking women of the industry, she said. Its a way of us saying thank you for everything you do. As a woman in the biz, I feel it's important for us to keep uplifting and supporting one another especially these days, we wanted to send out some positive vibes with everything going on! Follow Rock Candy Toys on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to follow along with our Womens History Month tributes to the women of the adult industry all month long! Rock Candy Toys social media shout-outs will be accompanied by special gifts to the women featured, as a special thank you from the company. For more information, visit RockCandyToys.com and BedroomProducts.com, call (800) 899-8386 or email [email protected]. City Wants Input from South Side Residents By West Kentucky Star Staff PADUCAH - Paducah city leaders are inviting people from Paducah's south side to meetings in March to discuss growth and beautification.The meetings will be held from 5:00 - 6:30 pm on Thursday, March 4 and Thursday, March 11. Both events will be held at Soirees Events & Catering 2069 Irvin Cobb Drive.In a city press release, Mayor George Bray said empowering the southside was a priority of Commissioner Raynarldo Henderson.Bray said, "The Board agrees that listening to the citizens and business owners in this section of Paducah is the first step in developing a plan for its growth and beautification. I look forward to hearing from the residents and business owners about what will create and maintain a positive, uplift for this vital area."Masks are required for the meetings. Light refreshments will be served. Singapore -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/24/2021 -- Covid-19 has made businesses across the globe rethink and reimagine their people, processes, and technologies. Transformation and digitalisation have become imperative for business sustenance and growth, regardless of the organisations size. In Singapore's Budget 2021 address, finance minister Heng Swee Keat emphasised the need for innovation, deep regional and global connections, and redesigned job roles for Singaporeans to keep up with the demands of the new economy. Like many other countries in Asia, for Singapore to emerge stronger from the global pandemic it to needs to leverage technology and build data capabilities, but also deploy creativity, to boost business and employee resilience. Asia Pacific countries are implementing actions on a large scale to achieve their renewable targets. Solar power, electric, wind and water are all set to be part of the world's fastest growing energy industry. Thus, creating an abundance of jobs when it comes to achieving these renewable targets especially in industry specific sectors such as; renewable energy, the water and environmental industries, building services and technology. Established in 2012, LVI Associates based in Singapore has gained an extensive history working with businesses and people throughout Asia within all divisions of the renewable energy sector - identifying opportunities for all involved to reach their full potential and thrive. The firm holds expertise in a wide range of different areas of infrastructure, including; building services, construction, renewable energy, water, environmental, transportation, forensics, and technology. Renewable energy careers in Singapore cross through many of these areas and involve working for a broad and exciting spectrum of organisations, from agile enterprises to internationally renowned names in business and development. In the majority of discussions regarding global warming, renewable energy usually tops the list of changes countries need to implement. As an effect of this global shift towards renewable energy, some of the greatest creative minds have worked together to make instruments that have been fundamental in tackling climate change. The cost of such instruments has dramatically decreased since they were first conceived in 2010, solar power costs plummet across South Asia and the Pacific coast. However, this reduction in cost has been vital to the emergence of renewable energy as a viable source of power. This news is paramount when it comes to the growth in further jobs being created throughout these sectors. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), advances in renewable energy will lead to an increase in employment in the sector of up to more than 24 million people, compared to recent figures of around 9.2 million, making it a compelling industry to further a career in. LVI Associates were specifically founded to give candidates and clients peace of mind that their recruitment process is in expert hands and as part of the Phaidon International Group they work alongside 70+ industry leading organisations who all utilise LVI Associates as their go-to recruitment agency to source the renewable energy talent they need. A multitude of career defining jobs are currently available through the firm, including; Water Facilities Team Lead, Waste Water Practice Leader, Senior PM Land Development, Business Development Manager Rural Irrigation Sales, Senior Manager Solar Operations and Director of Construction Wind, to name just a few. "Like many sectors, 2020 marked a defining moment for recruitment. Challenged by uncertainty, but unwavering in our commitment to our clients, we enter 2021 with a sense of duty to clients and candidates", commented Luis Rolim, Global Marketing Director at LVI Associate. He went onto say, "as we reflect on the challenges of virtually securing and retaining talent, we're inspired by a team who have demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and continue to help all our clients secure top talent on a global scale." To find out more information about Engineering careers in Singapore visit https://www.lviassociates.sg/. For any media enquiries please contact Gary Elliott at Iconic Digital 020 7100 0726. For all other enquiries please contact LVI Associates Singapore: +65 3165 1400. For more information about LVI Associates Singapore services, please go to https://www.lviassociates.sg. About LVI Associates Singapore LVI Associates Singapore is the leading specialist recruitment agency for the infrastructure sector. Reimagining recruitment for this fast moving and innovative industry has enabled the firm to bring together the brightest talent and key enterprises to help continue to drive the sector forward. Almost 80 prisoners have died during riots across four jails in Ecuador, including 18 who were found dismembered. On Wednesday, officials raised the death toll to 79 in what has become one of the bloodiest outbreaks of prison violence in the country's history. Even as authorities said they had regained control following the initial riots, the head of Ecuador's national police wrote on Twitter on Wednesday night that a new mutiny was under way in a prison in the port city of Guayaquil. Police and troops were stationed at detention centres in the cities of Cuenca, Guayaquil and Latacunga, where gangs on Tuesday fought one another with knives, guns and handmade weapons in what authorities said was a coordinated outbreak of violence. Almost 80 people have died in prison riots across four jails in Ecuador, including 18 prisoners who were found dismembered at one site. Pictured: Police Guard a prison in Guayaquil On Wednesday, officials raised the death toll to 79 in what has become one of the bloodiest outbreaks of prison violence in the country's history. Pictured: The relative of an inmate waits for news outside a prison in Guayaquil Relatives of inmates hold signs outside the Guayaquil prison where police said a second riot had broken out on Wednesday night. Some of the messages read: ' We want justice and information' and 'Our families have made mistakes but they are human beings' Police and troops were stationed at detention centres in the cities of Cuenca, Guayaquil and Latacunga, where gangs on Tuesday fought one another with handmade weapons in what authorities said was a coordinated outbreak of violence. Pictured: A coffin leaves a prison in Cuenca following a riot Pictured: A relative of a deceased prisoner cries outside the prison in Cuenca, where one of the riots took place Inmates' relatives remained outside the prisons on Wednesday hoping for news of their loved ones as pickup trucks and hearses carried coffins away from the jails. The gangs began a battle for leadership within the prison system in December when a leader of Los Choneros, considered the system's most powerful gang, was killed at a shopping centre several months after being released. Several of Tuesday's confrontations took place in maximum security areas of the Guayaquil and Cuenca prisons. Prison authority SNAI said all of those killed in the rioting were prisoners, with first reports citing 50 dead, before rising to 62 and to 79 in the latest report. The gangs began a battle for leadership within the prison system in December when a leader of Los Choneros, considered the system's most powerful gang, was killed at a shopping centre several months after being released. Pictured: Relatives of a deceased prisoner mourn in Cuenca On Wednesday night, the families of prisoners attempted to block authorities from entering the Guayaquil prison, where fresh violence had broken out Several of Tuesday's confrontations took place in maximum security areas of the Guayaquil and Cuenca prisons. Pictured: Police stand outside the Guayaquil prison on Wednesday night as another riot broke out inside Prison authority SNAI said all of those killed in the rioting were prisoners, with first reports citing 50 dead, before rising to 62 and to 79 in the latest report. Pictured: Inmates' family members react as police move in to control a second riot at Guayaquil prison on Wednesday night A further dozen inmates and police were injured, according to official data. 'Thanks to the actions carried out between this institution and the National Police, the situation ... is under control,' authorities added in a statement. But on Wednesday night, Patricio Carrillo, the head of Ecuador's national police, warned of a new riot at the Guayaquil prison, saying officers were preparing to enter again 'with necessary force'. Aside from those killed, a dozen inmates and police were injured in the riots. Pictured: Police outside Guayaquil prison on Wednesday night Officials gather mobile phones, guns and dozens of knives that were seized from one of the four prisons in Ecuador A police officer's body camera captures the moment a group of inmates at a jail in Guayaquil, were caught escaping in the midst of the first riot at the prison, which left at least 31 inmates dead Some four hours later, Carrillo wrote on Twitter that 'order and security' had been restored at the facility. SNAI had confirmed the new riot on Twitter, saying its agents were coordinating with police, but gave no further details. Pictures appeared to show the relatives of inmates attempting to block police from entering the prison. Ecuador's prosecutor's office has started an investigation into the riots and said in a statement that it had found 18 dismembered bodies in one of the prisons. In a televised address, President Lenin Moreno acknowledged that the country's prison system was overpopulated by about 30 per cent and lacked sufficient funding and personnel. In a televised address, President Lenin Moreno (pictured) acknowledged that the country's prison system was overpopulated by about 30 per cent and lacked sufficient funding and personnel [File photo] The riots began after authorities dismantled cocaine processing laboratories and seized 128 tonnes of drugs in 2020 - a record for the Andean country - Moreno said. 'What happened yesterday was not causal, it was organised from outside the prisons and internally orchestrated by those who dispute leadership and drug trafficking throughout national territory,' he said. 'What happened yesterday is not a coincidence, it is a consequence,' Moreno said, adding that he would seek international help in the country's fight against organised crime. In 2019, Moreno declared Ecuador's prison system in a state of emergency after 24 people were killed in a wave of violence. The riots began after authorities dismantled cocaine processing laboratories and seized 128 tonnes of drugs in 2020 - a record for the Andean country - Moreno said. Pictured: Inmates' relatives cry outside a prison in Guayaquil on Wednesday In the first major challenge to Connecticuts new age-based vaccine plan, the non-profit Disability Rights Connecticut filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services claiming the policy constitute disability discrimination and calling on the agency to order its changes. The complaint calls on the HHS Office of Civil Rights to direct Connecticut to immediately revise its COVID-19 vaccine policy to include individuals with underlying medical conditions, regardless of their age, who are at increased risk of COVID-19 infectionas a priority in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. DRCT is also urging the Office of Civil Rights to advise the State of Connecticut that it must have a process for people with disabilities to request and obtain reasonable modifications to the states age-based vaccine eligibility policy. The policy announced Monday by Gov. Ned Lamont establishes a system where all Connecticut residents yet to be immunized will be vaccinated based on their age, except teachers and child care providers who will have special clinics. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends individuals with medical conditions that put them at risk for coronavirus and essential workers receive the vaccine ahead of middle age people. Lamont said Thursday the complaints criticism of the state was misdirected, pointing out the CDCs list of medical conditions that put people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 doesnt include individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities. Their real frustration ought to be with the CDC, Lamont said. Residents, including those with underlying medical conditions, have been among the loudest voices questioning the governors new plan, which upended weeks of indications that vaccines would soon focus on these groups. Across the country, many groups are pushing to add people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to the lists of vaccine eligible individuals that states have crafted. The Centers for Disease Control added Down syndrome to its list of high-risk conditions in late December, but each state makes its own decisions about its vaccine distribution plan. Connecticuts new policy has apparently been developed in the belief that it would be easier to administer. But merely because it may be easier does not make it right, said Deborah Dorfman, Executive Director of Disability Rights Connecticut. The state has now put more than 1 million people ahead of individuals in their 20s or early 30s, for example, who have a disability that would have made them eligible to receive a vaccination just days from now. DRCT filed its complaint Wednesday and requested the agency investigate and issue findings on an expedited basis. Last year, DRCT and other groups filed another complaint with the Office of Civil Rights which resulted in the state Department of Public Health agreeing to change its state policy that prevented most people with disabilities who were hospitalized from having a support person with them. emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson Migrants: Tunisia, 24 rescued off Kerkennah, one dead Once reached hospital in critical condition (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, FEBRUARY 25 - The Tunisian Navy on Wednesday rescued 24 African migrants, three in critical condition, aboard a boat that was about to sink 23 km off the southern coast of Kerkennah, said the Tunisian defence ministry in a statement. It said one of the three migrants taken to hospital in critical condition died. All the others were transferred to the port of Sfax and handed over to the Tunisian National Guard for reporting to judicial authorities. The migrants said they set out on Tuesday night with the intention of reaching Europe.(ANSAmed). Al Drago/Getty ImagesBy MEG CUNNINGHAM, ABC News (WASHINGTON) -- Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he believes President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general could look into conspiracy charges surrounding former President Donald Trump's potential involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Certainly we know that the activities of this group, this mob, this insurrection are being held to account by the Department of Justice, over 200 have been arrested and 500 under investigation, Durbin told Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein on ABCs Powerhouse Politics podcast Wednesday. In his Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing on Tuesday, attorney general nominee Merrick Garland told senators he plans to pursue leads wherever the investigation takes us, in response to a question from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., encouraging Garland to look upstream for connections. Durbin said he interpreted Garlands answer as not ruling out any potential players involved in the violence on Jan. 6. So as of the event, and everything that followed, there's an active investigation, been described as one of the most historic and complex investigations in the history of the Department of Justice, just to put it into perspective. But I took that upstream question to mean what happened, what preceded this event? What planning? What type of conspiracy, if there was one? What was it that led to this and the different groups that seem to merge together on that day? Durbin said. Regardless of the investigation and potential criminal charges against Trump, which Durbin told Karl and Klein he didnt feel comfortable making predictions about, he said he believes Trump will be held responsible. I think morally, politically, historically," Durbin said. "I think what I've read so far, there is clarity in connecting President Donald Trump with provoking and inciting that mob to its violence. Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that he'd like to see the 9/11 style commission being pursued to investigate Jan.6. focus on a rise in domestic terrorism. I think we're gonna follow the model with the 9/11 commission, he said. "I think we ought to follow that model, and it'd be a good one. What are we doing about this rise in domestic terrorism? I have been pushing this issue long before January 6, because I can see it happening in Charlottesville and many other places, where groups inspired by white nationalist, white supremacist and far-right leanings, were becoming more militant and brazen in their activity, he added. Karl asked Durbin about his view of Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, and his announcement that he would vote against Neera Tanden, Bidens pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget. With a 50-50 Senate, any person can stop the train, Durbin said. And in this situation, Joe, if he hasn't stopped that he slowed it down, because the White House and supporters of Neera Tanden have to find a Republican vote to replace him." He added that Tanden's confirmation is "still within the realm of possibility. Durbin said there must be outreach from the White House to members of the Senate as the process of confirming Bidens nominees goes forward. He noted that the pressure was on for Biden to prove his negotiating skills, but that the White House is still in startup mode. They are also in the startup mode, and a new president right off the bat has to show his skills in dealing with Congress to put together his team, his Cabinet...I have asked in the most general way, whether some of these Republicans were consulted. And the White House has said it'd become increasingly difficult to get through the staff to the member, he said. So I don't know where the blame lies. But I will just say, the bottom line is this. There has to be an outreach by the White House to every senator who could conceivably support their nominees and an offer to discuss it. That is just basic Senate 101. And I hope that if it hasn't happened to this point, it will from this point forward, he added. Manchin also said he does not support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which is currently a part of Bidens $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Durbin said passing the wage increase will be a difficult fight, but one that is overdue. If it is permitted in the reconciliation bill, I hope that debate goes forward. I'm not suggesting that it's going to be easy. In fact, it may be a problematic issue. But we shouldn't walk away from this, Durbin said. This is long overdue," he said. "And I'm willing to be open and open-minded when it comes to suggestions on how to do it differently. Copyright 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. The tenant association for a 340-unit apartment building in Newark that had been without hot water for eight days earlier this month said Wednesday the water is now lukewarm. Building B at Pavilion Towers, which consists of two buildings along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, had been without hot water since Feb. 11, said the tenant association president, Janise Afolo. Heated water, albeit lukewarm, began flowing again on Sunday, she said. The residents are telling me that the water situation has improved, Afolo told NJ Advance Media. But the water is not hot. Its just warm. Its lukewarm. So its not like they can take a nice, relaxing shower. The buildings property manager is a company called Salman Capital, which Alofo said has never met with the tenant association since it took over around 2018. Salman Capital did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The property is located in the citys Central Ward and the councilwoman there, LaMonica McIver, said the water temperature is still not up to par. She was told work crews were there on Wednesday. The city has issued fines and the owners are supposed to appear in court next week, said McIver. ...Pease note that we have also put in a request to the Rent Control board to reduce the rent based on (the tenants) not having hot water. At least eight code violations were given to the property manager because of the hot water, McIver said last week. Its unclear if more citations have been given since then. City code indicates hot water must be supplied at all times at a temperature no less than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. McIver said the water is at about 120 degrees but should be closer to 150 degrees. Matters involving code violations are usually held in municipal court. Tenants in Newark who are experiencing similar issues with utilities can report them to the city by calling 973-733-4311. To report heating issues in other municipalities, visit nj211.org. Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. An updated resource estimate at the Mongolian project saw the measured and indicated (M&I) resources increase to 41.6 million tons or 2.2 million ounces at an average grade of 1.7 grams per ton (g/t) gold equivalent ounces Stifel's analysts said they continue to rate the stock as one of their 'Top Picks in the gold space' Stifel GMP on Thursday upped its price target on Steppe Gold Ltd ( ) ( ) (FRA:2J9) to C$4.00 from C$3.90 a share, a day after the miner doubled the resource at its ATO gold mine to 2.45 million gold equivalent ounces. Steppe Gold released an updated resource estimate at the Mongolian project that saw measured and indicated (M&I) resources increase to 41.6 million tons or 2.2 million ounces at an average grade of 1.7 grams per ton (g/t) gold equivalent ounces 1.4 million gold ounces and 20.5 million silver ounces. The company, meanwhile, is preparing a bankable feasibility project on the ATO operation that is due to come out in the second quarter of 2021. Overall, gold and base metal grades were lower than we had expected, but silver grades beat our expectations, driven by the maiden resource at the Mungu sulphide deposit, the Stifel analysts said in a note to clients. Repeating a Buy rating on the stock, they added: We have increased our target to C$4.00 and continue to rate the stock as one of our Top Picks in the gold space. STGO offers excellent value, in our view trading at a discount to peers on spot P/NAV and 2021 P/CF metrics. Steppe Gold's stock trades around US$2.10 a share in New York and around C$2.65 a share in Toronto. Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham 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 HONG KONG, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- There is no evidence to support Washington's narrative of China's engagement in "debt-trap diplomacy," said an article published Sunday by South China Morning Post. "There is no evidence China aims to deliberately push poor countries into debt as a way of seizing their assets or gaining a greater say in their internal affairs, researchers and analysts said -- countering Washington's narrative that China was engaging in 'debt-trap diplomacy,'" the article said. Deborah Brautigam, a professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University and founding director of the China Africa Research Initiative (Cari), considers the "debt-trap" narrative a myth, it said. After scrutinizing thousands of Chinese loan documents, mostly for projects in Africa, Cari reported that it has not found any evidence that China seizes the assets of other countries if they fail to pay loans, the article said. The revelation comes at a time when dozens of African countries are either in or at a high risk of debt distress. Most of the countries -- including Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia, which are among the top borrowers from China -- have sought debt relief. Beijing has since provided some debt relief to more than 20 countries and, for some countries, has cancelled interest-free loans that were maturing in 2020, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. For instance, noting some reports that China seized the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota when the South Asian country fell behind in servicing its debts, the article said that instead of the port being seized by China, Sri Lanka privatised 70 percent of the Chinese-financed port to a Chinese firm, citing Cari researchers. "The U.S. narrative on debt-trap diplomacy was flawed because of its lack of nuance," David Shinn, a professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, was quoted by the article as saying. "The real issue is China's holding of 20 percent of Africa's debt, not debt-trap diplomacy," Shinn said. 0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% of weekly deaths compared with start of vaccinations July Sept. Nov. Jan. 2021 Feb. 7 Vaccination rollout begins Deaths among nursing home residents have dropped significantly since vaccinations began. All U.S. Covid deaths Deaths among nursing home residents Source: New York Times database ; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Data shown is normalized compared with the weekly deaths for the week ending Dec. 20, 2020 and is through Feb. 7. Throughout the pandemic, there has been perhaps nowhere more dangerous than a nursing home. The coronavirus has raced through some 31,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, killing more than 163,000 residents and employees and accounting for more than a third of all virus deaths since the late spring. But for the first time since the American outbreak began roughly a year ago at a nursing care center in Kirkland, Wash. the threat inside nursing homes may have finally reached a turning point. Since the arrival of vaccines, which were prioritized to long-term care facilities starting in late December, new cases and deaths in nursing homes, a large subset of long-term care facilities, have fallen steeply, outpacing national declines, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. The turnaround is an encouraging sign for vaccine effectiveness and offers an early glimpse at what may be in store for the rest of the country, as more and more people get vaccinated. From late December to early February, new cases among nursing home residents fell by more than 80 percent, nearly double the rate of improvement in the general population. The trendline for deaths was even more striking: Even as fatalities spiked over all this winter, deaths inside the facilities have fallen, decreasing by more than 65 percent. 0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% of weekly cases compared with start of vaccinations July Sept. Nov. Jan. 2021 Feb. 7 Vaccination rollout begins New cases among nursing home residents are at their lowest since data collection began in May. All U.S. Covid cases Cases among nursing home residents Source: New York Times database ; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Data shown is normalized compared with the weekly deaths for the week ending Dec. 20, 2020 and is through Feb. 7. Im almost at a loss for words at how amazing it is and how exciting, said Dr. David Gifford, the chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of long-term care facilities across the country. If we are seeing a robust response with this vaccine with the elderly with a highly contagious disease, he said, I think thats a great sign for the rest of the population. Experts attribute the improvements in large part to the distribution of vaccines. About 4.5 million residents and employees in long-term care facilities have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 2.1 million who have been fully vaccinated. Other factors, including the steep drop in new infections nationwide in recent weeks, may have contributed as well. In 10 states, at least half of deaths are linked to nursing homes. Visit our tracking page to see the hardest-hit states and facilities. Today, new cases in American nursing homes are at their lowest point since May, when the federal government began tracking such data. What is certainly surprising to me is how quickly were seeing this, said Dr. Sunil Parikh, an associate professor of epidemiology and medicine at Yale School of Public Health in Connecticut, where weekly cases in nursing homes had dropped from several hundred around the holidays to as little as 30 statewide during one recent week. Its a dramatic decline, he said, adding that more research was needed to determine what role community transmission played and whether the first dose of vaccine may offer more protection than previously thought. In one promising sign, the American Health Care Association, the industry group, looked at nearly 800 nursing homes that received early doses of the vaccine in December and compared caseloads with facilities in the same counties that had not yet held a vaccine clinic. The nursing homes that got the earlier vaccine saw a 48 percent decline in cases among residents, compared with 21 percent among nearby nursing homes. In some nursing homes, four out of five residents or more have now been vaccinated. Some states, such as Connecticut and West Virginia, have reported finishing vaccinations at all nursing homes, but many employees and a smaller share of residents nationally have declined to get the shot. At Valley Senior Living in Grand Forks, N.D., more than 90 percent of residents agreed to be vaccinated. The high rate of uptake, combined with low levels of community transmission, has meant that life is slowly inching back to normal for the 400 or so people who live in the facilitys nursing and assisted living centers. Residents are now allowed to visit with loved ones again, one or two people at a time. They are singing in choirs, albeit masked and spaced apart. There was even a recent Mardi Gras parade, complete with beads and music. It is a marked change from much of the past year, when outbreaks there led to months of shutdown and at least 12 deaths. Things are better, said Garth Rydland, the chief executive at Valley Senior Living. You kind of knock on wood every time you say something like that, but now, I feel a lot more confident. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 19:39:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- India's drugs controller has rejected vaccine maker Bharat Biotech's request to conduct clinical trials of Covaxin on children and asked the company to submit its report on the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, local media said Thursday. The drugs regulator's rejection came after hearing an application by Hyderabad-based pharma company on Wednesday sought approval for Phase 3 clinical trials of Covaxin on children between 5-18 years of age. The subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation asked the company to produce efficacy data on adults for its vaccine before seeking permission to test Covaxin on children. "The efficacy data is top priority and they will also have to produce that data that has been asked for by the experts before more permissions are granted," local daily Hindustan Times quoted drugs controller officials as saying. Covaxin is already approved for use in India for adults in a clinical trial mode based on the safety and immunogenicity data the company submitted. The company is yet to submit the Phase 3 efficacy data to the drugs controller. Apart from Covaxin, India has approved Covishield from the Oxford University-AstraZeneca being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, for emergency use in the country. The vaccination drive in India started on Jan. 16. At present healthcare and frontline workers are being vaccinated. The second phase will begin next month. Enditem 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 Idlebs Salvation Government has given all of its staff a 20 percent pay rise, the second in four months, writes Enab Baladi. The Salvation Government, which has influence in the Idleb Governorate and part of the western countryside of Aleppo, northwestern Syria, decided to raise the monthly wages and salaries of all its employees by 20 percent. This is the second increase within the span of four months. In its Decision No. 170, issued on Wednesday, February 24, the Salvation Government said that the increase in wages is the result of the changing economic situation and the rise in prices in the region. The decision includes increasing the salaries and wages of permanent and temporary employees, regardless of the duration of the contracts they signed with the Salvation Government. Residents of Syrias northwestern region suffer from difficult economic and living conditions for several reasons, most notably the lack of income, the scarcity of job opportunities, and the outbreak of the coronavirus. Prices did not ameliorate with the improvement of the value of the Turkish lira, which is approved for commercial transactions in northern Syria, as the price of 1 dollar fell to 7.20 liras, according to the Turkish website Doviz, which monitors currency exchange rates. The exchange rate had reached more than 8 liras in the past months. Furthermore, Watad Petroleum, an oil company in northern Syria, adjusted its fuel prices without specifying the reasons. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. AB Ignitis gamyba approved Kruonis Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Powerplant expansion plan AB Ignitis grupe (hereinafter the Company) informs that on 24 February 2021 the Supervisory Board of its subsidiary AB Ignitis gamyba approved the decision of the Management Board of AB Ignitis gamyba to approve the expansion plan of the Kruonis Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Powerplant (hereinafter Kruonis PSHP) and initiate the first stage of the development a tender for technical consultation services. In 2020 the technological feasibility study and the socioeconomic analysis of the 5th unit of Kruonis PSHP were carried out, which aimed to determine the possible variants to modernise the powerplant. During the technological feasibility study, several possible scenarios of Kruonis PSHP expansions were assessed from the possibility to modernise the current unit, to the possibility to install a new 110225 MW hydropower unit. After assessing the needs of the energy distribution system operator and according to the recommendations of the socioeconomic analysis, it was decided that the most reasonable solution is to install a 110 MW hydropower synchronous unit. The conclusion of the socioeconomic analysis states that, should such hydropower unit be built, the public would benefit by more than EUR 150m in the long-term. The first procurement will select the contractor, which will help AB Ignitis gamyba to prepare the technical requirements for the new unit. AB Ignitis gamyba notes that the approval of the business plan is not tantamount to the investment decision. AB Ignitis gamyba will decide on the investment into the expansion of Kruonis PSHP only after the results of the contractor procurement are received and after the assessment of the construction costs. The expansion of Kruonis PSHP would contribute towards implementing the goals of the National Energy Independence Strategy (hereinafter NEIS). It must be noted that NEIS stipulates that the synchronisation project of Lithuanias electricity system is a strategic priority for national security. The new hydropower unit in Kruonis PSHP is necessary in order to ensure the energy system demand of the state, to reduce the energy dependency on the imported electricity by retaining local, reliable and competitive electricity generation while increasing the internal energy generation capacity at the same time. The expansion of Kruonis PSHP is also set out in the key technical document presented by the Government for the preparation of synchronisation with the networks of Continental Europe. According to the preliminary assessment, the 5th hydropower unit of Kruonis PSHP will commence operations in 2025. For more information please contact: Arturas Ketlerius Head of Public Relations at Ignitis Group arturas.ketlerius@ignitis.lt +370 620 76076 LESSONS FROM THE PAST 18- Need To Move Forward Some time back, I had written about a chief executive officer (CEO) who was insecure, worked for 12 hours a day in the office, had no hobbies, was married to his assignment foot, arm and shoulder, and expected undiluted loyalty (adulation) from his subordinates. I worked on his team for a few years. During this period, I tried to revamp the marketing department with some new blood. One of the product managers I hired was an MBA, from a premier instituteand my vision was that if we have a team of about three of such a description, we would have a 'crack team' in tune with the times! It was a year since Ron was selected and we were all very happy with him. So when we had our first planning meeting for the introduction of a new product with a huge potential, I invited Ron to join in. Ron was very pleased. He spent many days preparing a draft marketing planreplete with diagrams, time schedules, analysis of prospective competitor moves, and so on. At the meeting I gave a short introduction and then got Ron to make the full presentation. It was exhaustive and something that had never happened in the company before. Somewhere towards the end of the meeting, the CEO raised some doubts. It was because he had not absorbed all the nuances properly. Ron gave the answers, which to me, were satisfactory. Perhaps he should have shown sufficient gravity, since the questions came from the CEO. Ron seemed to have answered 'too facilely'. The CEO felt that Ron had proved him wrong. After the meeting, the CEO told me privately, Ron seems too big for his boots. I do not think he will fit in well with this company. He thinks he is too smart with his MBA! I immediately understood that Rons fate was sealed. Over the next six months, I made sure that Ron found another job in the industryand I was not wrong. He made good progress in the next five years and much later became a 'star' in the industry! I had also written about another CEO, who was not confident about dictating letters and reportsand all the time sought help from his aides (senior managers who then wasted their time, doing this work on behalf of the CEO. Can one learn to dictate? Can one learn to read faster and save a lot of time? Can one learn to improve vocabulary? Yes, one can do any or all of the above, which will improve efficiency- but irrespective of the age and the positionone must have the will to learn. Which also means that top management must have humility. Prof Jean Pierre Lehman of IMD, Geneva refers to humility being essential for todays managereven more than 50 years ago, because it enables him to keep learning, without being held back by barriers of pride. And with computer programs nowit is so easy and convenient! When I had won a scholarship to Germany to study- it was subject to my learning to read and write in German, I had just four months to do this, and get a certificate from an approved German teacher in Bombay. Dr Margarthe Spiegel, who retired as Professor of German from the University, and now gave language tuitions, got me to read chemistry books, and speak reasonably fluently, in just four months! From the first day, when I rang the bell to the apartment. She opened the door and said Bittesitzen sie sich". I was confused. She translated and assured me that it will be the last time she will translate, or speak to me in English!! And it worked. Forty years ago, I did an informal survey of reading speeds of 40 senior managers in 10 companies. I found it averaged 200 words a minute. The accepted average for a graduate is 500 words a minute. Imagine the amount of timein a lifetime of readingthat we have (or will have) wasted, by not cultivating a reasonable reading speed. John Kennedy, former President of the US was said to have had a reading speed of about 1,200 words a minutewith comprehension. That is why he relied least on secretaries to brief himbecause he had already glanced through the papers on his table! The technological revolution is changing the environment for every oneand specially for senior management and CEOs. This segment is generally part of the old, who now find themselves in a changed environment. I can see the challenge clearly- because I am very much a part of it. Many of us who are not millennials, need to keep learningif we are to move forward. Some may retire, and others die, before this becomes necessary for success, or even for survival. For the rest, they had better take the 'MOVE FORWARD' vaccine! (Natural News) Before bringing your young child to his or her next appointment with the pediatrician, you might want to first investigate what that medical professional believes about transgenderism. One mother learned the hard way that her sons pediatrician is an LGBTQP the P stands for pedophile pervert who attempted to groom the boy to transition into a female. After sending the boys mother out of the room for a private consultation with the underage boy, said pediatrician started probing the boys personal life. She told him, a ninth grader, to use a condom when he has sex, and also asked him if he is comfortable with his gender. To be clear, the boy is a boys boy, meaning he loves sports, enjoys working on his body to make it stronger and more masculine, and as his mom says, is obviously, and very apparently, comfortable with all aspects of boyhood. Still, the boys pediatrician attempted to get him to question his gender identity. Call me old-fashioned but giving a child hot tips on how to make the most of their sex life and doing it in a room alone with the kid after kicking the parent out sounds like grooming, writes Peachy Keenan for The American Mind, a publication of The Claremont Institute. According to Keenan, she was told by the pediatrician that she had to leave the room so the pediatrician could ask her son about drugs and alcohol. Instead, the pediatrician took the opportunity to talk to the boy about sex and permanently altering his body to become a girl. They already teach kids how to use sex toys and more in our American middle schools, so I shouldnt have been shocked by this relatively benign doctor visit, Keenan adds. Some evil genius will soon launch a line of sex toys designed and marketed specifically for children. Size XXS anal plugs, with the letters of the alphabet on them for educational purposes. Maybe David Hogg can produce these after his pillow triumph! American medicine is an absolute joke A devout Catholic, Keenan says she taught her son well. He was actually more offended by the line of questioning surrounding wearing a condom than he was with being asked whether or not he is comfortable with his gender. At the same time, not all young boys are as secure in their identities and as well-raised as Keenans son. Many of them become prey for the medical establishment, which is now being headed up federally by a mentally ill man who thinks that he is a woman. This same mentally ill man, who was appointed by China Joe, warned last year that anyone in his home state of Pennsylvania who wanted to attend an orgy during the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdowns should be sure to wear a mask. Fortunately there is a vaccine to the diseases inflicted on kids by a depraved culture and by their doctors, Keenan concludes. Its painless, and there are no adverse side effects. Faith in God is the only thing that can stop them, Im afraid. Its corny, I know, but there is no other way, and it still might not be 100% effective. You can only fight great evil with something powerful enough to counter it. My sons health was protected by this invisible and mighty force field. Parents, activate your force fields immediately, before its too late And you might need a new doctor. More related news about the sexual abuse of children in America at the hands of the medical establishment can be found at Gender.news. Sources for this article include: AmericanMind.org NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com TheNationalPulse.com NaturalNews.com Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or contributing today. Colombo, Feb 25 : Pakistan and Sri Lanka agreed to strengthen cooperation in several areas including agriculture. The agreement came as visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met here with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for bilateral ties, the Xinhua news agency reported. During the meeting on Wednesday, Khan underlined the "exceptional quality" of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations with mutual trust, understanding and support. The Pakistani Prime Minister emphasised the importance of building robust economic partnership between the two countries characterised by enhanced bilateral trade, investments and commercial cooperation. He emphasised the importance of regional cooperation through the platform of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the opportunities for regional prosperity through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative. For his part, Rajapaksa expressed his wish to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries and also exchanged views on sharing technical know how in order to promote agriculture in both countries. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he would seek funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the United States as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production. Biden also signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at addressing the global semiconductor chip shortage that has alarmed the White House and members of Congress, administration officials said. The scarcity, exacerbated by the pandemic, was also the subject of a discussion between ... Advisory Board Announced Geo Week will support a future vision, in which professionals and organizations that understand the full spectrum of data needs, work processes, software integration, and standards in both geospatial and BIM will be tomorrows technology leaders. Organizers of Geo Week, the single powerhouse event that brings together AEC Next Technology Expo & Conference, International Lidar Mapping Forum, and SPAR 3D Expo & Conference, have announced an impressive list of influential leaders within the geospatial and built world industries who will be participating on the 2022 events Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is responsible for recommending conference topics and speakers, reviewing submitted abstracts, consulting on the program, and acting as a resource to develop different aspects of the event. The 2022 event will take place February 6-8, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. In addition to Diversified Communications technology events coming together, powerful partnership events will also take place at Geo Week, including the ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) Annual Conference and USIBDs (U.S. Institute of Building Documentation) Annual Symposium. The Geo Week Advisory Board is comprised of industry leaders who will help craft programming, recommend speakers, and deliver critical insights to geospatial and built world professionals at the launch of the highly anticipated event in 2022, said Lee Corkhill, Group Director at Diversified Communications, organizer of the event., The Board represents a mix of key market vertical players, top vendors, and regulatory experts to address the most pressing issues facing the geospatial, 3D and built world environments today. Board members are at the top of their fields and they are ready to bring their connections and commitment to delivering the best conference and expo the geospatial and built markets have ever seen. Members of the 2022 Geo Week Advisory Board include: Dr. Qassim Abdullah, Vice President & Chief Scientist, Woolpert, Inc. Kelly Cone, Vice President of Industry Strategy, ClearEdge3D Kevin Dowling, CEO, Kaarta Danielle Dy Buncio, Co-Founder & CEO, VIATechnik Martin Flood, Vice President, Special Projects, GeoCue Group Inc. Birgitta Foster, Program Lead, Asset Management, Sandia National Laboratories Thomas Haun, Chief Operating Officer, Turner Mining Group Kourosh Langari, BIM Manager, Caltrans Robert Mankowski, Senior Vice President, Digital Cities, Bentley Systems, Inc. Amar Nayegandhi, Senior Vice President, Dewberry Engineers, Inc. Cody Nowak, Founder, CUBE Scott Simmons, Chief Standards Officer, OGC Dr. Jason Stoker, Physical Scientist, USGS Dan Stonecipher, Senior Director of Innovation, PROCON, Inc. Dr. Stewart Walker, Managing Editor, LIDAR Magazine Geoff Zeiss, Principal, Between the Poles Bios may be found here. The coming together of AEC Next Technology Expo & Conference, International Lidar Mapping Forum, and SPAR 3D Expo & Conference to form Geo Week reflects the increased integration between the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies. Geo Week is at the forefront of this integration, providing education, technology, and resources for professionals in industries including AEC, Asset & Facility Management, Disaster & Emergency Response, Earth Observation & Satellite Applications, Energy & Utilities, Infrastructure & Transportation, Land & Natural Resource Management, Mining & Aggregates, Surveying & Mapping, and Urban Planning/Smart Cities. Bentley Systems Senior Vice President of Digital Cities and Advisory Board Member, Robert Mankowski, had this to say: AEC Next, ILMF, and SPAR 3D coming together to the Geo Week 2022 event reflects what we see happening in the infrastructure industry. As owner-operators and engineering project delivery firms strive to improve the performance of their assets and projects, they are turning to digital twins, which require, among other things, the convergence of reality modeling, GIS, BIM, and engineering models. Geo Week 2022 is set to provide infrastructure professionals with visibility into the core technologies, best practices, and real-world examples of how digital twins are driving better outcomes. Said Advisory Board member Kelly Cone, Vice President of Industry Strategy, ClearEdge3D, While Im looking forward to ANY event I can actually attend in person; Im particularly excited about the conjunction of SPAR 3D, AEC Next, ILMF into a single event for 2022! Far too often we silo ourselves into an industry, but this is precisely why innovations are slow to migrate from one industry to another. The geospatial industry is responsible for the information the built world is constructed upon; and there is so much overlap in technology, processes, and knowledge. Bringing these three events together is a great opportunity for us all to learn from each other and share the tools and processes each industry is excelling at applying. According to Corkhill, there will be content that addresses the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies independently of one another and attendees will have access across all conference sessions. The event represents a continuum, with individuals and organizations from all corners of industry at differing levels of adoption. Geo Week will support a future vision, in which professionals and organizations that understand the full spectrum of data needs, work processes, software integration, and standards in both geospatial and BIM will be tomorrows technology leaders, said Corkhill. The event will feature multiple tracks with content clearly identified as relevant to one or more of the audience groups feeding into Geo Week. The International Lidar Mapping Forum (ILMF) audience has historically been comprised of precision measurement professionals in surveying and mapping who use airborne and terrestrial lidar and related remote sensing technologies. The AEC Next audience has historically been comprised of professionals in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) that use technologies such as reality capture, automation, AI and XR to bid and manage projects and improve workflows. The SPAR 3D audience has historically been comprised of professionals who use 3D capture, scanning, visualization and modeling technologies across a variety of verticals. Geo Week takes place February 6-8, 2022, with conference programming and exhibits Sunday, February 6 through Tuesday, February 8. Additional features of the programming are vendor-delivered Product Previews, Exhibition Theaters, workshops, and conference programming hosted by ASPRS and USIBD. About Geo Week Geo Week is part of a network of events and media for the global geospatial and built markets organized by Diversified Communications, a leading organizer of conferences, trade shows, and online media with 15 years in the technology arena. Geo Week, taking place February 6-8, 2022, is the new brand name of previously stand-alone events AEC Next Technology Expo & Conference, International Lidar Mapping Forum, and SPAR 3D Expo & Conference, and reflects the increased integration between the built environment, advanced airborne/terrestrial technologies, and commercial 3D technologies. Powerful partnership events will also take place at Geo Week, including ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) and USIBD (US Institute of Building Documentation). Diversified Communications also produces Geo Week ENewsletter, SPAR 3D ENewsletter, AEC ENewsletter, GeoBusiness Show (UK), Commercial UAV Expo Americas, Commercial UAV Europe and Commercial UAV News. For more information, visit http://www.geo-week.com. About Diversified Communications Diversified Communications is a leading international media company with a portfolio of face-to-face exhibitions and conferences, online communities, and digital and print publications. As producers of these market-leading products, Diversified Communications connects, educates, and strengthens business communities in over 14 industries including technology, food and beverage, healthcare, natural and organic, and business management. Established in 1949 and headquartered in Portland, Maine, USA with divisions and offices around the world, Diversified Communications remains a privately held, third generation, family-owned business. For more information, visit http://www.divcom.com. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 04:47:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Wednesday two initiatives to prevent repeat offenses and gun violence in the city. The first is an agreement among the justice partners to implement coordinated efforts to prevent individuals from committing repeat offenses in San Francisco. The second is an initiative aimed at preventing gun violence as part of an effort with the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco's Street Violence Intervention Program, the announcement said. "To confront the public safety challenges we face in San Francisco, we all need to acknowledge where we are falling short and where we can work together to do more," said Breed. "Whether it's dealing with the challenges around people committing repeat offenses and ending up back on our streets, or the struggles we are having with gun violence in many parts of our City, we need creative and collaborative solutions." The first initiative, which is a partnership between Sheriff Miyamoto, Police Chief Scott, District Attorney Boudin, and Adult Probation Chief Fletcher, will coordinate efforts to prevent individuals from committing repeat offenses in San Francisco. Each agency has committed to improving communication to support swift and coordinated responses designed to promote public safety. In the gun violence intervention program, the strategy that will be used in San Francisco draws explicitly from the Oakland Ceasefire strategy, the Boston Reentry Initiative, and the Chicago Project Safe Neighborhoods, all of which have been rigorously evaluated and found to be successful at significantly reducing severe violence and reducing the re-arrest rate among participants as well, the announcement said. San Francisco is also receiving California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant over the next three years to help reduce shootings, break the cycle of recidivism, and build trust between the community and the Police Department. Enditem Company builds upon more than $4.2 million in contributions to Children's Wisconsin cancer initiatives since 2013 MILWAUKEE, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This year, approximately 10,500 children in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer. Among those diagnosed, blood cancers, like leukemia, are some of the most common forms of pediatric cancer. To support those affected both nationwide and in its hometown of Milwaukee, Northwestern Mutual, through its Foundation, today announced a $5 million commitment to Children's Wisconsin to support its MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Northwestern Mutual. (PRNewsFoto/Northwestern Mutual) The funding, which will span across five years through 2025, represents the company's largest standalone donation connected to its national philanthropic cause of childhood cancer. The partnership will launch both in-hospital navigator and psychosocial programs to help guide patients and families through diagnoses, treatment and recovery. It will also expand existing programs and services, such as the Northwestern Mutual Day Hospital for Childhood Cancer, to continue to provide outpatient care for children with cancer and blood disorders. "Through this contribution, patients and families will experience individualized patient support and greater access to resources for navigating their journeys from diagnosis to healing," said Eric Christophersen, president, Northwestern Mutual Foundation. "We're proud to help strengthen the exceptional care childhood cancer patients receive at Children's Wisconsin." This donation will also support patient care and a community navigator for families impacted by sickle cell disease, an often life-threatening blood disorder that occurs in nearly 1 out of every 400 African American births. Like childhood cancer, sickle cell disease is a life threatening condition in need of novel and comprehensive therapies. It is a natural extension to the company's Childhood Cancer Program, and also aligns with its commitment to addressing racial disparities through a Sustained Action for Racial Equity Task Force. Story continues "Since their first gift in 1978, the Northwestern Mutual Foundation has been a steadfast supporter of the Children's Wisconsin mission," said Meg Brzyski Nelson, president, Children's Wisconsin Foundation. "This $5 million commitment will help every single child and family who turn to Children's Wisconsin when they are diagnosed with childhood cancer or blood disorders." When a child is diagnosed with cancer, a blood disease or immune deficiency disorder, finding the right medical care is every family's first and most important step. Today, more and more families are choosing the MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children's Wisconsin, the largest cancer program in Wisconsin and one of the top programs in the country. The multidisciplinary center provides sophisticated treatments and cutting-edge research for the common to the rarest and most complex childhood cancers and blood disorders. To recognize the donation, the hospital will also feature the Northwestern Mutual Welcome & Information Center at the main entrance of its new Clinics Building 1 at Children's Wisconsin Hospital-Milwaukee location. Since 2012, Northwestern Mutual's Childhood Cancer Program has focused on advancing childhood cancer research, providing family and patient support and serving as a resource to families managing the long-term effects of cancer treatment. With the support of Northwestern Mutual employees and financial advisors nationwide, the company has contributed more than $35 million and funded over 455,000 hours of research through the program. About Children's Wisconsin Children's Wisconsin is the region's only independent health care system dedicated solely to the health and well-being of children. The hospital, with locations in Milwaukee and Neenah, Wisconsin, is recognized as one of the leading pediatric health care centers in the United States. It is ranked in nine specialty areas in U.S. News & World Report's 2019-20 Best Children's Hospitals report, which includes the MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Children's provides primary care, specialty care, urgent care, emergency care, community health services, foster and adoption services, child and family counseling, child advocacy services and family resource centers. In 2019, Children's invested more than $130 million in the community to improve the health status of children through medical care, advocacy, education and pediatric medical research. Children's achieves its mission in part through donations from individuals, corporations and foundations and is proud to be a member of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. About Northwestern Mutual Foundation The mission of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation is to improve the lives of children and families in need. The Foundation has given more than $400 million since its inception in 1992 and is designed to create lasting impact in the communities where the company's employees and financial representatives live and work. We accomplish this by combining financial support, volunteerism, thought leadership and convening community partners to deliver the best outcomes. Our efforts are focused nationally on curing childhood cancer, and locally on education, neighborhoods and making our hometown of Milwaukee a great destination. Visit Northwestern Mutual Foundation to learn more. About Northwestern Mutual Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 160 years. Through a holistic planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what's most important. With $308.8 billion in total assets, $31.1 billion in revenues, and $2 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than 4.75 million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. The company manages more than $200 billion of investments owned by its clients and held or managed through its wealth management and investment services businesses. Northwestern Mutual ranks 102 on the 2020 FORTUNE 500 and is recognized by FORTUNE as one of the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2021. Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (securities), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) (fiduciary and fee-based financial planning services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Cision View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/northwestern-mutual-commits-5-million-to-childrens-wisconsin-and-the-macc-fund-center-for-cancer-and-blood-disorders-in-largest-standalone-donation-301235736.html SOURCE Northwestern Mutual LEBANON, Ore. A man has been charged with murder in connection with a death at a homeless camp in Lebanon on Wednesday morning. Ronald Andrew Mowdy, 27, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Linn County Circuit Court. He is scheduled for arraignment Thursday at 3 p.m. Lebanon police responded to a disturbance call at 3199 Burdell Blvd., in Lebanon at 10:35 a.m. on Wednesday. The person reporting the disturbance said two men were yelling inside a homeless camp in the area. Police responded and found one man dead. His identity has not been released while police try to locate his family. Police said Mowdy has an extensive criminal history with the Lebanon Police Department that includes thefts, trespassing, narcotics and disturbances, as well as outstanding warrants for his arrest. Police are still investigating what happened, but said there is no ongoing threat to the community. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Detective James Glover at 541-258-4326 or Detective Sergeant Ryan Padua at 541-258-4325. Councilmember Harris-Dawson Provided Vaccines for the People Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, channeling his instincts as an organizer, launched a community-based effort to get South Los Angeles residents that are 65 and older vaccinated as quickly as possible. Harris-Dawson and his staff personally called nearly 1,000 seniors who had participated in the Emergency Senior Meals program that provided over 50,000 meals to seniors during the pandemics onset. This time, the councilmember was calling to connect them to local vaccines rather than free meals prepared by local restaurants. Despite the different goal, the team had incredible success calling residents 65 and older. Over 2,000 seniors and healthcare workers received vaccines at local sites across South Los Angeles as a result. In a time of so much social isolation, my team and I were excited to pick up the phone and have conversations with the elders we built relationships with during the meals program, said Councilmember Harris-Dawson. These calls provide an opportunity for us to check in on our seniors and allow them to interact with a real person rather than a piece of technology. I will continue to do all that I can to ensure seniors in our communities are informed during every step of this pandemic, and that communities who are the hardest hit during this pandemic can receive the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. In L.A. County, more than 1 million residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine. According to a new state report that provides a snapshot of vaccine distribution, White Californians so far have received 32.7% of the first available doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 16% for Latinos, 13% for Asians, 2.9% for Black people and 0.3% for Native American populations. Health officials contribute this shockingly low percentage of Black residents receiving the vaccine to lack of accessibility. The councilmembers efforts to ensure local residents and their loved ones can get vaccinated quickly and efficiently has led to over 2,000 seniors receiving the vaccine with 90% identifying as either Black or Latino. His office will continue this effort to ensure every resident in South Los Angeles is able to access the vaccination. ADVERTISEMENT Mobile pop-up sites at different locations throughout the district were activated to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines. Councilmember Harris-Dawsons team will continue to launch new sites every week and work with community-based organizations, senior homes and local churches to ensure residents in South Los Angeles are aware of the vaccination sites. The office is also working to address transportation concerns that may prevent others from accessing vaccination sites. Additional sites will be activated in the coming weeks, and the possibility of door-to-door vaccine distribution will be explored. Vaccination sites will rotate weekly and allow residents to receive both doses of the vaccine at the same location. For more information on COVID-19 vaccines, visit mhdcd8.com/covid-19-vaccines/. Click here to opt in for text updates from the office of Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson regarding COVID-19 vaccine distribution. A husband has been charged with murder after his 82-year-old wife was found dead inside their Gold Coast home. The bloodied body of Robyn Beever is understood to have been found by a family member on Thursday afternoon after they arrived at the couple's house in Varsity Lakes to check on the pair. Ms Beever's husband Max, 82, was also found inside the house and was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital where he remains under police guard. On Friday morning, police confirmed he has been charged with one count of murder. Robyn Beever (left) was found dead inside her Gold Coast home on Thursday afternoon. Her husband Max (right) was also found at the residence and has since been charged with murder Beever will appear in Southport Magistrates Court on Friday, pending hospital clearance. It's understood Ms Beever suffered significant injuries and an axe was reportedly found at the house on Gerona Circuit. Police earlier said the 82-year-old's death was being treated as suspicious. Detective Inspector Chris Ahearn on Thursday said they were in the early stages of their investigations and he was unable to confirm how long Ms Beever's body had been in the house. Initial investigations suggested neighbours did not hear a disturbance at the suburban family home before emergency services were called. The couple had lived on Gerona Circuit for almost 20 years, with no reported history of domestic violence between the pair. Police (pictured at the scene) were called to the couple's home on Gerona Circuit, Varsity Lakes, about 1:30pm on Thursday The death has left the neighbourhood reeling in shock, with residents describing the pair as a 'typical old couple'. 'I just can't believe it, this is the sort of street where everyone says hello,' one woman told the Gold Coast Bulletin. Kamen Nepia, who lives three houses away from the couple, said her family would always wave at them as they passed their home. 'They always had the garage open and were sitting in there. Like typical old people they were always fussing over their house,' she said. ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Phosphorus trichloride refers to a slight yellowish fuming liquid. Making of phosphorus oxychloride is one of the predominant uses of phosphorus trichloride. This chemical is an important component in the making of phosphate ester insecticides. This chemical also finds utilization in the synthesis of various other significant chemical compounds, such as phosphorous penta chloride, phosphoryl chloride, thiophosphoryl chloride, and phosphonic acids. These chemical compounds are utilized in the production of herbicides, insecticides, plasticizers, oil additives, and flame retardants. Such extensive use of the chemical is expected to support development of the global phosphorus trichloride market over the forecast timeline, from 2019 to 2027. Pungent in odor, Phosphorus trichloride is similar to that of hydrochloric acid. Driven by urbanization and growing population, agricultural industry is likely to observe immense growth in the near future. Growth in the agricultural sector is expected to generate demand for phosphorus trichloride. This chemical finds extensive use as a fertilizer in the agricultural sector. High demand from the agricultural industry is likely to open up plethora of opportunities for the global phosphorus trichloride market in the near future. Request for Covid-19 Impact Analysis on Phosphorus Trichloride Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/Covid19.php Based on the growing awareness about this chemical and high demand from several end use sectors, the global phosphorus trichloride market is anticipated to clock a growth rate of ~4.95% CAGR over the forecast tenure, from 2019 to 2027. Key Findings of Phosphorus Trichloride Market Study High Demand of this Chemical for Use in Pesticides to Spell Growth for the Market The growth of the global phosphorus trichloride market is likely to be influenced by high demand of this chemical from various end use industries. Phosphorus trichloride is widely utilized in the form of pesticide intermediate. This compound is widely utilized in the making of organophosphorus pesticides, such as glyphosate. Pesticides like glyphosate are an active component of many fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides. Download PDF Brochure - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php Tremendous rise in the population has generated very high demand for food, through the availability of arable land is limited. This calls for increased efficiency in farming methods so as to cater to the rising demand from the ever-growing population. In addition, governments of different countries are coming up with subsidies to diminish the cost burden of pesticides on the cultivators. Such initiatives are estimated to motivate the farmers to use more pesticides. Rising demand for pesticides is likely to foster development of the global phosphorus trichloride market over the analysis timeline, from 2019 to 2027 Rise in the Price of Phosphorus is Expected to Impede Growth of the Market Usually, the power needed for the extraction and smelting of phosphate rock and for the manufacturing of phosphorus-derived fertilizers comes from fossil fuels. This results in pollution, depletion in the supplies of fossil fuels, and additional greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). As both phosphorus and fossil fuels are weakening and non-renewable resources, it is anticipated that the cost of production and the extracted phosphorus will rise over the next few years. The spike in the price of phosphorus is therefore foreseen to hinder the growth of the global phosphorus trichloride market significantly in the immediate future. View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/3906 Phosphorus Trichloride Market: Key Driving Factors In the processing of chemicals, such as triphenylphosphine and phosphites, phosphorus trichloride is often utilized as an intermediate. In the forecast timeframe, growth in the global chemical industry is expected to boost demand for phosphorus trichloride as an intermediate element. There has been a rise in the demand for this chemical for utilization in the production of pesticides and herbicides in the agrochemical industry. This factor is primarily driving the growth of the global phosphorus trichloride market. Purchase Premium Research Report on Phosphorus Trichloride Market @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php Phosphorus Trichloride Market: Key Market Participants With many large-scale and medium-scale producers functioning in the market, the global phosphorus trichloride market is considered to be fragmented in nature. Key players operating in the global market are AkzoNobel N.V., Solvay SA, Mosaic Company, The Syngenta Group, and Monsanto Company. 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Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Mr. Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Press Release Source: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/phosphorus-trichloride-market.htm Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com SOURCE Transparency Market Research 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. The logos of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are seen in a combination photo from Reuters files. (Reuters) Democrats New Big Tech Reform Agenda: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Commentary Congressional Democrats recently initiated discussions with the Biden administration on cracking down on Big Techs abuses of fair marketplaces and the American people. While these leaders attention to this crucial public policy matter is noted and appreciated, the policy prescriptions they seek to impose are not all peaches and cream. With the balance of power equally divided in the U.S. Senate, congressional Republicans must use their leverage to properly call the balls and strikes on their colleagues efforts to rein in these digital monopolies and ensure that their initiatives dont do more harm than good. Pardon me for my skepticism when it comes to Democrats releasing any grip of power, especially with respect to the powerful technocratic forces that elected President Joe Biden. Lets be clear, though, theres a lot to like about what the Democrats have already done and proposed. In fact, many of their proposals include significant overlap from ideas that President Donald Trump and his allies have pushed in public statements, legal filings, and on the congressional floor. So there may be some hope. For example, Reuters reporting indicates that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is advocating for the White House to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This provision of the law allows the Big Tech companies to receive treatment as platforms in the laws eyes instead of as publishers, shielding them from accountability for user-posted content. Theres something clearly wrong when companies that censor user contenta role traditionally reserved for publishersdont receive the same treatment as them. Thats why both Republicans and Democrats, including former President Trump, have taken objection to Section 230. Wyden deserves kudos for raising this issue with the White Houseand given the negative way that the current president has described the provision, it appears that theres real hope for reform. According to Reuters, otherssuch as Democratic Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committees antitrust subcommitteehave called on the Biden administration to throw the nations antitrust books at the Big Tech giants, a move that would track with a 400-page report his subcommittee issued in October. Doing so is supported by the vast majority of the intellectual class and political grassroots of both parties and could lead to the outright breakup of Facebook, Google, Twitter, and the rest of the tech giants. Lets also not forget that the Democrats have played a crucial role in many of the monumental legal cases that Big Tech currently finds itself fighting. For example, the Obama administration filed a key brief against Google in the Google v. Oracle Supreme Court case to be decided this summer. Critics of Google say this case could be the last nail in the coffin for the search engine giants habit of stealing its competitors intellectual property to monopolize the digital marketplace, and in many respects, the country will have Democrats to thank for it. But in this post-Jan. 6 Capitol riot partisan political climate, it appears that for every good Democratic Big Tech proposal to fend off these monopolies abuses, there are several others that will do more harm than good for free speech and free markets. For instance, Democratic Representative and Homeland Security Committee member Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) has already asked the White House to crack down on platforms that boost radicalizing content that triggers violence. The question, of course, is what triggers violence? To many on the left, words they disagree with constitute violence. This summer, we saw this with a newly trending phrasesilence is also a form of violence. Violence is not the only action that the left is using to demand more censorship of the free flow of information. Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) also wants to meet with the White House about the spread of disinformation, gender-based attacks online and steps toward content moderation. She has also asked the White House in writing to label white supremacy as a national security threat. Again, nearly anything can be termed racist. In Oregon, for instance, the state has declared that demanding students show their work in long-form math is a form of white supremacy. So is teaching Shakespeare in the classroom, apparently. Liberals used to believe in the First Amendment. They used to respect arguments they disagreed with while opposing censorship. Now, far too many have changed their tune. Universities and college campuses have bred a generation of people who believe differing opinions should be shouted down and canceled, and this school of thought has now found its way into the halls of Congress. Congress should want to take power away from Google, Facebook, and Twitter in its Big Tech crackdown, not empower them with more decision-making abilities. To the extent that Democrats desire to curb Big Techs monopolistic influence, Republicans should embrace them with open arms, but they cant allow the party to cede more power to Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai. The goal of Big Tech reform should be to protect the First Amendment and the free flow of information in the digital square. Anyone who believes that emboldening these predatory companies to take further regulatory action against the American people is kidding themselves. We must agree on this basic fundamental principle, that without free speech, theres no freedom! Bill Martinez is an award-winning marketing and broadcast journalist and host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Bill Martinez Show. Find out more at BillMartinezShow.com. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. BENGLAURU : Digital payments firms will be forced to look at speeding up their revenue plans as compliance expectations from the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may increase operating and compliance costs. RBIs recent directions on digital payment security is the latest addition to the list of compliance requirements that banks and fintech firms will have to adhere to in the next six months, causing payment operating costs to almost double and, in some cases, triple. Global and domestic payments firms in the past had to incur significant costs to adhere to RBIs data localization norms as well as know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines, which also gave rise to new payment instruments such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The finance ministrys decision to slash merchant discount rates (MDR) to zero for UPI and RuPay transactions, starting January 2020, further impacted revenues of payment firms leading to heavy lobbying for its reversal. With checks in place, overall compliance costs will go up significantly with mid-scale fintechs and banks expecting capital expenditure to almost double and in some cases triple. While large payment entities and banks may have already been following some of RBIs guidelines; smaller firms will most likely be playing catchup to the minimum threshold requirements," said Bhavik Hathi, MD of management consultancy Alvarez & Marsal. Hathi added that the positive of increasing compliance costs will be innovation around cybersecurity, with avenues of growth opening for tech-based intervention to curb frauds, and reduce costs. It was clear that payments will not garner revenues for the ecosystem, however mounting compliance costs is putting more pressure on firms to capitalise on existing customers and cross sell products aggressively. Revenue timelines will be cut shorter and global firms will look to make value for the long-term investments made," added Hathi. With RBI being prescriptive about security norms, bank partnerships with fintechs will also now come under the radar of the central bank. Banks will have to work out models as new guidelines will uplift control requirements. Due to this, costs will go up requiring regulated entities to manage, especially when digital payments are already a wafer thin margin business. We are likely to see bank/ regulated entities led consortiums come up defining baselines for security, risk and fraud mitigation, for third party payment providers," said Kunal Pande, partner, KPMG India. In recent years, fintechs including PhonePe, Paytm, Mobikwik and PineLabs diversified from core payment offerings to distribute financial services to customers and merchants alike - scouting for different revenue streams. Dynamic regulations will cause investment thesis in the fintech space to change, which otherwise witnesses ridiculous amounts of spends on customer acquisition and advertisements. Look at eKYC norms which changed the thesis for wallet-only companies," said a payments analyst, on condition of anonymity. Efforts to cross sell financial services still have to take off in a big way for these firms. For instance, financial services distribution contributed just 10% of PhonePes overall revenue as of April 2020, co-founder Sameer Nigam told Mint last year, as the company looks to doubling down on hyperlocal commerce and home entrepreneurs this year to increase revenue. PhonePe and Mobikwik didn't respond to queries. On the other hand, Paytms acquisition of general insurer Raheja QBE still faces regulatory hurdles, as the company pushes to double down on credit distribution instead. Profits from account openings with Paytm Payments Bank continues to be its saving grace for the otherwise loss-making parent - One97 Communications Ltd. Payment companies are pivoting to neo-banking solutions and playing in digital adjacencies of insurance, wealth management, bookkeeping or credit. Overtime revenue models for these fintechs have gotten hedged. But the biggest impact will come from large digitisation in areas such as health care and supply chain which will open opportunities for fintechs," said Vivek Belgavi, partner, fintech leader, PwC India. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Johnson Cauthen, Director of Solutions Engineering for RapidScale Im excited to join Rapidscale at an inflection point in our growth and to help take the business to the next level. RapidScale, a Cox Business company, welcomes Johnson Cauthen to the team as director of solutions engineering. Reporting to Duane Barnes, interim general manager and vice president of RapidScale, Cauthen is responsible for growing the solutions engineering team and leading them in providing technical solutions for partners and clients across Rapidcales portfolio of managed cloud services. Cauthen has 25 years of extensive experience in IT, including servers, applications, databases, and desktop support, with a strong focus on data center networking. Since 2013, he has been a technology leader and has led engineering teams for Hosted Solutions, Tierpoint, and Pureport. As vice president of solutions engineering, he was responsible for IT environment assessments during pre-sales discussions, customer onboarding, and in-life customer support. With another year of outstanding growth for the solutions engineering team and the company, RapidScale is equipped more than ever to deliver managed cloud solutions to our partners and their clients, said Duane. Johnson is a respected and reputable industry leader with proven track records. With him on board, Im confident well continue to meet and even exceed the technology needs of our customers. Cauthen plans to use his technical and leadership experience to continue to scale the solutions engineering team and provide high-quality, innovative cloud solutions for RapidScales growing customer base. Im excited to join Rapidscale at an inflection point in our growth, and to help take the business to the next level, said Johnson. Im particularly eager to work with the amazing team that has been assembled here. I am fortunate to have worked with many of these team members in prior roles and I know they are all laser-focused on providing best-of-breed solutions while ensuring the highest possible level of customer service and satisfaction. About RapidScale Flexible enough for the SMB and powerful enough for the enterprise, RapidScale, a Cox Business company, is a global managed cloud services provider helping organizations increase IT productivity, improve security, and empower remote workforces. Some organizations partner with RapidScale to manage portions of their IT, while others offload it all. Through our global network of data centers and our 24/7/365 high-touch support team, we obsess over creating an exceptional IT experience through a human approach to managed cloud. For more information on RapidScale, visit http://www.rapidscale.net. Cox Communications owns Cox Business and is a facilities-based provider of voice, video, and data solutions for commercial customers. More information about Cox Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, is available at http://www.cox.com. About Cox Business The commercial division of Cox Communications, Cox Business provides voice, data, and video services for more than 355,000 small and regional businesses nationwide, including health care providers; K12 and higher education; financial institutions; and federal, state, and local government organizations. The organization also serves most of the top-tier wireless and wireline telecommunications carriers in the U.S. through its wholesale division. For more information, please visit http://www.coxbusiness.com. Media Contact Nikki Salazar nikki.salazar@rapidscale.net San Antonio police are enlisting the public's help in identifying human skeletal remains found behind a Southeast Side nursing home. On Nov. 4, officers were called to The Rio at Mission Trails nursing home in the 6200 block of S. New Braunfels Avenue around 11:30 a.m. after a visitor said they saw human bones behind the facility. The remains belong to a Caucasian or Hispanic female between 20 and 40 years of age, police said Wednesday. The woman stood 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-7 tall with brown wavy hair. A bracelet was found on her body. Officials ask anyone with information to call the San Antonio Police Department at 210-207-7635 or the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office at 210-335-4011. The remains were about 15 to 20 yards behind the building in a wooded area, SAPD spokesperson Doug Greene said at the time. The area where the remains were found was near a frequently used walking trail. They appeared to have been scattered about by animals, making it difficult for police to determine how long the remains were behind the nursing home. Investigators estimated several months. Police did not have many leads, a cause of death or identity, but female clothing and alcohol bottles were found near the remains. "There is little evidence around, but CSI is collecting and documenting as much as they can," Greene said. Police searched through missing person files and canvassed the area. The nursing home had not reported any of their residents going missing in the months prior to the discovery. New Delhi, Feb 25 : Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir has picked top IRTS officer Ranjan P Thakur to help J&K's industrial outreach. It is learnt that some weeks back, Sinha had asked Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to help locate highly-rated officers to assist him. Thakur is a highly rated railways officer (IRTS, 1990 batch) and has been DRM Danapur; PS to then minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni; ADG Doordarshan (DTH); and Brand Head Shatabdi Express. Thakur is an alumnus of St Stephen's, IIFT and IIM Indore. Until this week before moving to J&K, Thakur was Executive Director (Fuel Transportation) NTPC. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE The former Santa Fe parks and recreation director is accusing Mayor Alan Webber of scapegoating him and other city employees after the statue of Diego de Vargas was recently found on a private lot, instead of city property. John Munoz, who left his position as director Feb. 5, said the mayor and other city officials were informed of the de Vargas statues whereabouts soon after it was removed in June from its Cathedral Park location. Webber told the Journal on Feb. 16 that Munoz had misled him and said the statue was being stored in a secure city location. Munoz has denied that claim. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ In none of the conversations we had none of the emails that we corresponded on did I communicate or intimate that, he said. Webber and Munoz have both told the Journal a vendor was hired to remove the statue, which was ultimately stored on the companys property for the past 10 months. Both declined to name the vendor, but pictures of the removal show a truck from Lamoreux Crane Services of Santa Fe removing the statue. Representatives from the company have not confirmed they had the statue and referred the Journal to a city spokesperson. Munoz said Santa Fes reorganization last summer meant he no longer was responsible for city parks, including the de Vargas statue. He also said he had expected Webber to move quickly on a proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission that would address the statues fate, something that never came to fruition. The city is still forming such a committee. This is one of the most important and controversial issues of our time, Munoz said. Had it been discussed and handled and shared with the public months ago, I think we would have had some resolution. Webber said the statues final resting place, whether it is returned to Cathedral Park or another location, will probably be decided through the newly formed CHART process. Webber had the statue removed from Cathedral Park in June to have it placed in safekeeping over fear the statue would be damaged. He took the action days after a demonstration over the removal of another Spanish colonial governor, Juan de Onate, turned violent. The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company First Lady Jill Biden says she felt like a 'failure' after her divorce from her first husband, admitting she thought there was something 'wrong with her' because she was unable to make the relationship work. The 69-year-old sat down with popstar and daytime host Kelly Clarkson for her first solo TV interview as First Lady, during which she addressed the breakdown of her marriage to Bill Stevenson, which ended in 1975 after just five years. But while the professor admitted that she placed the blame for the split on herself, she said that she didn't meet second husband Joe, 78, until after she the break-up - despite her ex-husband telling DailyMail.com that the couple had an affair, which ultimately destroyed his marriage. Opening up: Jill Biden had admitted that she blamed herself for her divorce from her first husband while chatting to Kelly Clarkson in her first solo TV interview as First Lady 'Healing': The 69-year-old said it 'took her a long time' to 'heal' after her split from ex-husband Bill Stevenson - and she said that her relationship with Joe, 78, happened 'unexpectedly' Together: Jill (pictured with Joe in 1988) said that she met Joe after she split from her husband - contradicting his claims that the couple had an affair which ended the marriage Sitting down in the East Room of the White House, Jill told Kelly that she took 'a long time' to 'heal' after the divorce, before 'unexpectedly' meeting Joe at a time when she didn't believe she would marry again. 'It took me a long time, it took me at least a year to get on my feet again,' she said. 'I didn't know anybody who had been divorced, I felt like it was a failure on my part [and] I lost my self esteem because I kept thinking, "What's wrong with me, why couldn't I make this work?"' She kept the details of her first meeting with Joe vague - saying only that they had met once before they officially went on a 'blind date', but making clear that their relationship started after her divorce. Speaking out: Bill and Jill officially divorced in 1975, however he told DailyMail.com exclusively in August that he first suspected his wife was romantically involved with Joe in August 1974 'And then... just unexpectedly, I met Joe and I had met him once before but it was kind of a blind date when he called me,' she said. However her account of how, and more importantly when, her relationship with Joe began directly contradicts that of her ex-husband, who told DailyMail.com exclusively in August 2020 that he believes the couple became romantically involved months before he and Jill divorced. Bill said that he and Jill first met Joe when the then-New Castle County Councilman was campaigning for a Senate seat - a campaign to which Bill donated $10,900. At the time, Joe was married to his first wife Neilia, who died in a car crash not long after. Bill first suspected that Joe and Jill were having an affair in August 1974, months before his divorce, saying: 'I asked Jill to leave the house, which she did. Her father was begging me to take her back when he found out what was going on. He asked me to give her a second chance, but I wasn't interested. 'I considered Joe a friend. I'm not surprised he fell in love with Jill. Everyone who meets Jill falls in love with her immediately. It's hard not to.' When speaking to Kelly, Jill did not make any suggestion that her relationship with Joe started before the end of her marriage, saying that she 'wouldn't have met Joe' had she not gone through a divorce. 'I look back on it now and I think, if I hadn't gotten divorced, I wouldn't have met Joe, I wouldn't have the beautiful family I have now,' she told Kelly - who is herself going through a divorce from ex-partner Brandon Blackstock. New beginning: The professor joked that she only agreed to marry Joe because she 'fell in love' with his sons Hunter and Beau, whose mother was Joe's late first wife Neilia Family: Jill, pictured with Joe, their daughter Ashley, Hunter and Beau said she is grateful for her 'beautiful family' - which only happened as a result of her divorce 'So I really think things happen for the best. And I think over time, I don't know how long it's been for you, over time you heal.' That line almost exactly parroted what Bill told DailyMail.com last August, when he said: 'I'm not bitter because, if it wasn't for my divorce, I would never have met my wife Linda and she's the greatest thing in my life,' he said. Jill and Joe have often publicly stated that they began dating more than 40 years ago after falling in love on a blind date. When approached on Wednesday, Bill said he did not wish to comment on his exs latest claims about the end of their marriage. He has a book due out this spring that he has promised will go into greater detail about the split. Speaking from his Wilmington Delaware home last year, the 72-year-old told DailyMail.com: 'I don't want to hurt anyone. But the facts are the facts and what happened, happened.' But the way the Bidens tell their love story, Joe saw a picture of Jill in March 1975 after her marriage had crashed. She was in an advertisement for local parks that he saw while passing through Wilmington Airport with his brother Frank. He told Frank that was the kind of girl he would like to date and Frank said: 'Why don't you then? I know her,' and passed on her number, according to Jill's 2019 autobiography Where The Light Enters. Speaking about her decision to marry Joe - who proposed to her five times before she said yes - Jill joked that she only agreed because she 'fell in love' with his two sons with late wife Neilia, Hunter and Beau. Heartbreak: Speaking about the death of her stepson Beau from cancer in 2015, Jill admitted that she lost her faith because she truly believed that 'God would let him live' Looking ahead: Jill (pictured in church in Wisconsin in 2020) credited a fellow churchgoer with helping to restore her faith, revealing the unnamed woman became her 'prayer partner' 'I love those boys so much and I tell Joe that was the reason I married him, because I fell in love with the boys,' she told Kelly. The First Lady also opened up about her spiritual struggle in the wake of Beau's death from cancer in 2015, explaining that she lost faith in God after he passed away at the age of 46 because she had 'prayed and prayed' for his recovery, and truly felt that he would be spared. 'I prayed so hard every single day that he was going to live and I felt like he was such a special person that God would let him live,' she said. 'I just prayed and prayed and it just wasn't meant to be. When we lost Beau it was hard for me to keep my faith because I had believed so strongly in prayer and that he would make it.' Jill explained that it wasn't until a year ago that she began to rediscover her faith, revealing that she only did so with the help of a fellow churchgoer who asked to be her 'prayer partner'. 'It took me a long time,' she explained. 'We were in a church just a year ago and Beau's been gone almost six years, and a woman came up to me in the church and she said, "Jill, I want to be your prayer partner." And I said, "Prayer partner?" I hadn't even heard of a prayer partner.' The woman - whom Jill did not name - began phoning, emailing and texting Jill a few times a week, with the First Lady crediting the prayer sessions for helping her to 'find her faith again'. 'It was like God was saying to me, "OK Jill, you've had time, time to come back." I felt like that was a gift that she gave to me,' she recalled. Sneak peek: Kelly's interview with Jill took place in the East Room of the White House, however the First Lady gave her a tour of the property after their sit-down Tradition: Jill said that she and Joe are adjusting well to life in the White House, revealing that they still make a point of eating dinner together every night Furry friends: The first couple's German Shepherds Champ (right) and Major (left) also got to enjoy a few minutes of fame on camera Despite life in the White House being much busier both for Joe and Jill, she revealed that the couple is still doing their best to maintain family traditions - like Sunday night dinners, which have long been a staple part of the Biden schedule. Similarly, Jill and Joe still endeavor to eat dinner together every night - during which time they turn off their phones and simply spend time 'talking for a while'. 'He's so busy, I'm so busy, but we do have dinner together,' she said. '[There are] no phones, the phones have to be off. 'And we have dinner in this beautiful home, and there's a fireplace in the dining room and we light the fire and we sit and talk for a while. And then he has to go back to work late into the night, and I'm grading papers.' Jill gave some insight into the goals she hopes to accomplish during her time as First Lady - noting that helping to get the US through the pandemic is her top priority, particularly when it comes to the mental health and safety of children. 'It has been so tough, and I see it in my own classroom, on Zoom of course, it's been really hard for teachers and parents and kids,' she said. 'I think that we're all struggling and I think when we get back into the classroom, mental health is going to be a big issue. We have to help heal these kids. Kids have been dealing with food insecurity, domestic violence, child abuse, so many things that they are going to be bringing back with them into the classroom. 'Teachers are going to need help. That's one of the things I love about Joe, I love about those dinners at night, I can say, "Joe, we need this. You have got to do this. We're counting on you the teachers are counting on you."' Similarly, the First Lady expressed concern over the pressure that has been placed on mothers during the pandemic, saying that COVID has 'really exacerbated everything that moms have to handle'. She was full of praise for her husband's handling of the pandemic thus far - and believes that Joe's presidency has already provided relief for many Americans, revealing that 'so many people' have told her that they feel like 'they can breathe' and that there is 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Syracuse, N.Y. The governor has said kids should be back in school 5 days a week. The Onondaga County executive wants students back in school. Parents in some CNY districts are protesting on street corners, trying to convince districts that their children should be back in the classroom five days a week. The data is clear: Covid-19 has not been spreading in schools. Kids who are not in the classroom are suffering academically and emotionally. And teachers have now received the vaccine. So whose decision is it about when and how to bring kids back? The state Department of Health said it is up to each district to decide, in consultation with the county where the district is located. In emails to Syracuse.com, the state department of health said districts have the power to make those decisions. County health departments have the authority to get involved in those choices if they want, the state and Onondaga County said. But a county health department can also choose to stay silent on the issue and leave the matter up to a district. When health departments weigh in, they can set the minimum requirement, like changing the social distancing from 6 feet to 3 feet. But they cannot require districts to change to 3 feet if they dont want to. That means schools remain the ultimate decision-makers on when and how kids come back to the classroom. Districts and school board lawyers across the state said they have been confused. Some districts are waiting for the state to make a decree. Others have decided the wait has been long enough. Theyve seen how remote schooling has hurt kids while fears about infection have not been borne out. In Onondaga County, the health department is in the middle of deciding whether to reduce the personal distancing required in schools from 6 feet to 3 feet. County Executive Ryan McMahon said hes personally in favor of the change but hes leaving the decision up to the health commissioner. We have so much data, McMahon said. A recent batch of more than 1,000 school tests did not turn up a single case of Covid-19. Thats been the pattern since shortly after students returned to school from break, he said. My own personal opinion based on my own personal experience is that this can be done safely, McMahon said. Several districts in Onondaga County said they are considering changing from 6 to 3 feet if the county approves it. The change would allow far more kids to attend school in person. Some said they would jump at the chance to bring kids back as soon as the county made the change. We would change the two days a week to four days a week for sure,' said Liverpool Superintendent Mark Potter. The details still need to be worked out with staff and teachers, he said. They would hope to shift to all five days in the spring. Officials in Syracuse, North Syracuse and Jamesville-DeWitt said they are considering a change to 3 feet and how they might be able to do it. Baldwinsville said it, too, supports bringing kids back, but they would like more clarity from the state on who has the authority to decide. It and other districts said the state has given them conflicting advice. In other counties, districts have already made the choice. Union-Endicott, a Broome County school district of 3,800, decided to bring students back 4.5 days a week by reducing social distancing and using desk dividers. The county there said the decision was up to them, said Superintendent Nicole Wolfe. She said the states guidance was already clear: Districts have always had the option to use barriers instead of social distancing. Earlier this month, she gave a PowerPoint presentation that laid out the sections in the state guidance and the CDC guidance that allow the district to reduce distancing and use barriers, instead. Parents and teachers spoke for three hours. The board voted, unanimously, to make the change. Students will begin attending school 4.5 days a week next month, starting with grades K-2. The district will continue to offer fully remote learning for the 40 percent of families who chose that option, Wolfe said. Our parents are struggling. Our students want to be back in school; they want to be with their peers, Wolfe said. If Onondaga County allows schools to space students 3 feet apart, its unclear whether they will require physical barriers like the ones the Broome County district plans to use. The most common ones are clear desk dividers. The city of Syracuse already uses the dividers in classrooms where students are already spaced 6 feet apart. Wolfe said she took some of her cues from Windsor, a nearby school district that was already using barriers instead of social distancing. That district has been using barriers in all of its elementary schools so all those students could come to school five days a week, said Jason Andrews, the superintendent of the district of 1,800 students. Some middle- and high-school students also come five days week. Andrews said everyone was nervous in September, but the results have been clear: Were 22 weeks in and weve not had a single case of school spread. Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime at 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people, public affairs and the Syracuse City School District. Contact her anytime email | Twitter| cell 315-470-2246. Press Release February 25, 2021 Speech of Senator Francis Pangilinan at the Usapang KP (Kalayaan sa Pamantasan) Forum Mga Abugado at Serbisyo Publiko: Wagas! 25 February 2021 Magandang hapon sa aking co-panelists, Justice Antonio Carpio at Commissioner Grace Pulido-Tan. Sa mga reactors IBP President and Chairman Domingo Egon Cayosa, Commissioner Luie Guia, and Atty. Michael Tiu. Sa mga moderators Ms. Malou Mangahas at Atty. Raffy Aquino. Sa mga kapwa abogado at serbisyo publiko. Sa mga kapwa Isko at Iska. Sa lahat ng nanonood sa Usapang KP, magandang hapon, at happy 35th People Power anniversary to all! February 25 falling on a Thursday is providential because it suits our Throwback Thursday discussions, or TBT as Frankie and Miel, my teenage daughters, call it. Everyone in this panel knows what happened thirty-five years ago today. We also know that every revolution or uprising is borne out of suppression and oppression. Kung ang panahon ng Hapon noong World War II ang defining moment para mga magulang at lolo't lola natin, then for our generation, it was martial law. For the millennials and our younger participants here, what would be the defining moment? Covid? Perhaps. The administration's failure to address Covid? Perhaps. The worst economic crisis since World War II? The worst health crisis in a hundred years? Perhaps. And how do we respond? The unilateral termination of the DND of its 1989 agreement with UP disallowing the military and police in all its campuses under certain conditions is threatening to bring back an ugly past reminiscent of martial law days. And no one is convinced of the military officials' statements that it would respect the university's much-valued academic freedom, especially with armed men perhaps going around and beyond our Oval. Paano na kung may isang diskusyon at debate sa isang klase tungkol sa teorya ng sosyalismo, komunismo, o liberation theology? Aakusahan ba ang propesor ng inciting to sedition? Paano kung ang isang grupo ng estudyante ay dini-diss ika nga ang administrasyon habang kumakain ng fishballs at ng pritong lumpia? Aarestuhin ba sila? Tatakutin? Paano na kung may isang stage play ang mga estudyante ng theatre arts tungkol sa rebolusyon at pag-aarmas? At sumisigaw ng ibagsak? Huhulihin ba sila dahil sa illegal possession of firearms? Or inciting to sedition. Oo, ganyan ka-absurd ang mga ginagawa ng nasa kapangyarihan -- at lalo na sa mga di nila ginagawa sa pag-manage ng pandemya. The danger is real, given the spate of killings and harassment, arrests and detention of people who have been red-tagged by the military. During raids, many of those arrested decry how firearms would suddenly turn up inside their homes, offices, or vehicles. Although horrified by these incidents, many Filipinos being Filipinos would come up with the humorous remark that the police and the military have become "plantitos and plantitas" -- meaning experts in planting evidence, including that of drugs. After perfecting the vilification and murder of "addicts" na nanlaban, red-tagging has been quick and easy. Let us not forget that the abrogation of the decades-old accord came at a time when the tougher Anti-Terrorism Law is being implemented. What followed were pronouncements accusing UP as among the schools that have become breeding grounds of rebels. Or red-tagged as former rebels, captured or killed. The historical events that have shaped UP as an epicenter of activism remain fresh in the minds of the community. The wounds of martial law that have taken a toll on its best and brightest have yet to heal. This explains the university's strong opposition to the termination of the accord. Academic freedom No less than the 1987 Constitution, in Article 14, Section 5 provides that "academic freedom shall be enjoyed in all institutions of higher learning." Retired Associate Justice Vicente Mendoza expounded this, saying: "It is essential to the existence of a university as a sanctuary of learning, by giving it the right to determine what to teach, how it shall be taught, who may teach, and who may be admitted to study." Vicente G. Sinco, the eighth president of UP, has written: "There is but one cause which can write finis to the existence of the University and that is when it can no longer advance the frontiers of knowledge;...when students and professors...grovel in abject obedience to authority; when it submits its judgment to outside directives." Justice Frankfurter, the most revered US Supreme Court magistrate on the subject of academic freedom, stated: "It is the business of a university to provide that atmosphere which is most conducive to speculations, experiment, and creation." Education Secretary Liling Briones, who hails from our own NCPAG, has in her many years as educator and now as education chief pushed for an "education that truly liberates and promotes critical thinking." Without academic freedom, students and professors may have reservations about discussing ideas, researching further, investigating, freely taking their learning to new heights -- lest they may be branded terrorists or communists by state agents now freely allowed to roam the campus. This will impede critical thinking and analysis, exploration, and excellence. I am reminded that some 500 years ago, Galileo was excommunicated for saying that the earth was not the center of the universe. Ignorance is dangerous in that sense. Because academic freedom is the freedom to think, speak, move, and even dissent. It is a freedom that everyone is entitled to. A freedom that UP allowed its students, activists or not. And a freedom that everyone must enjoy. Liberation The UP-DND Accord worked all these decades because it made sense. Students and professors must feel safe in their beliefs and convictions, and must find the university a safe haven. Yes, there have been UP students who took up arms, as there have been UP students who have become Presidents of the country, government officials, tycoons, social workers, doctors, artists, inventors. Education, when allowed to flourish, can take people to their dreams -- even unexpected dreams. I was 19 when Ninoy Aquino was shot in 1983. There were massive protests and students were tear-gassed, truncheoned, and arrested. Tulad ng stereotype ng UP student, naging aktibista ako pagkatapos ng Aquino assassination. That was my defining moment. I started questioning what was happening around me. I thought eventually, mamumundok ako like the others because it was the only way, at that time, to fight the dictatorship -- I thought. It was a shift too radical from my original dream of becoming like Neil Armstrong, an astronaut -- from the moon to the mountains -- which I thought that time was needed and the only way to serve. Ibang-iba siguro ang buhay ko ngayon kung hindi ako naging "woke" and [in] UP, and [with] the academic freedom we enjoyed despite the dictatorship's threats to the UP as an institution. According to the Gallup Strengths Finders Test I took some time back, strengths ko raw ang responsibility and belief. We are responsible for what we love. Mahal natin ang Inang Bayan. We value values. Things that were internal and external to me matched. When the improbable happened -- a dictator would be disposed in a peaceful revolt -- and democracy was restored in 1986, there were debates in the protest movements, in the radical progressive movements for or against armed and parliamentary struggle. I chose to pursue the electoral possibilities that the new democratic space presented and ran in the first local elections since the restoration of democracy in 1988. Serve the people or STP was how we activists used to sign off our letters. And activism has kept me on this path of serving our country and our people. Sabi nga sa modified UP Naming Mahal, dito maglliingkod sa bayan natin. Senate and HoR bills In our pending bill at the Senate and its counterpart measure by Congressman Kit Belmonte at the House, we seek to uphold academic freedom and protect UP and non-UP students and faculty from unreasonable interference or restriction by authorities. We are pushing to establish all state universities and colleges as "freedom parks" where no permit will be required to organize and hold public assemblies. We also propose to prohibit uniformed personnel from interfering with peaceful protest actions by SUC constituents within their premises. We also want law enforcers to notify the proper SUC official before serving search or arrest warrants on any SUC student, faculty, or employee, or even an invited participant in any official activity. The same requirement will be imposed when law enforcers have to "invite" these people for questioning. Warrants have to be served in the presence of members of the SUC police or security force, and at least two faculty members designated by the appropriate SUC official, will be there as witnesses. Schools should be safe spaces for the students, professors, and personnel. They should feel secure and unafraid. As we guide our children in their education, we should also trust them to do the right thing, stand their ground, and be on the right side of history. I'm reminded by my father who was concerned about my being a student leader in the time of the dictatorship. And now I know how it feels when Frankie speaks up and posts messages critical of the status quo. Let me end by sharing a quote from another UP College of Law alumnus, the late Senate President, Liberal Party stalwart, and gentle sage and fighter Jovito Salonga. In a speech entitled "The Educated Man", he said educated people are those whose "interest is less in knowing who is right but more importantly, in discerning what is right and defending it with all the resources at [their] command." They have "a deep reverence for the inherent worth and dignity of every human being." Whenever they talk about good government, they are "prepared and willing to sacrifice [themselves] for it." They live "a life of relevance to the world in which we live, a sharing in the problems of [their] time and doing whatever [they] can with intelligence and fairness and understanding." That is what a UP education has given us. This is the effect of academic freedom on education. That is what education everywhere ought to be. Maraming salamat, at magandang hapon sa kanilang lahat. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. One of New Yorks most progressive political parties announced their support Thursday for one of the candidates running to replace City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore). The Working Families Party (WFP) announced in a press release that it endorsed Amoy Barnes, currently a staffer with the city Department of Education, because of her long career of public service and community activism on the North Shore. I feel fortunate to count the Working Families Party not only as an endorsement, but as an ally in the fight for a city and country that works for everyday people, Barnes said. That means tackling regressive revenue structures, reimagining our justice system and protecting workers. WFP describes itself as a progressive grassroots political party building a multiracial, feminist movement of working people to transform America. Founded in New York in 1998, the party has endorsed a number of progressive candidates running on the Democratic line, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. The party had endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) in the 2020 primary before she dropped out. New York WFP Director Sochie Nnaemeka described Barnes as a progressive stalwart who is ready to fight for the transformative change her neighbors deserve. As a lifelong Staten Island resident, Amoy knows firsthand the ways in which our city has underserved her community, Nnaemeka said. We know that shes going to hit the ground running in City Hall, and were thrilled to join the team working to get her there. Neither major local party chose to endorse a candidate in the crowded race that features more than a dozen candidates. A Democrat has held the seat, the 49th City Council District, since its creation in 1992. Democratic Party Executive Director James Clinton told the Advance/SILive.com on Monday that they look forward to supporting the winner of the June 22 primary. Barnes previously earned the endorsement of a labor coalition called Road to Justice NYC, which includes one of the citys largest unions 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. The coalition, which also includes Make the Road Action and Community Voices Heard Power, credited Barnes for her service in government and described her as a leading progressive who will fight for racial and economic justice. Previously, Barnes volunteered at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton when it was known as St. Vincents Hospital interned for former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and worked as director of constituent services for the office of State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn). Currently, she works as the director of the Staten Island office of the DOEs Transition College and Access Center. In that role, Barnes works with Individualized Education Program students to help determine their next steps after high school. Barnes and her competitors will face off in the June 22 primary ahead of the Nov. 2 general election. A list of candidates who have filed paperwork with the New York City Campaign Finance Board can be found on the boards website. Solar pioneer Thierry Lepercq spoke with pv magazine about recent plans of the HyDeal consortium to deploy 95 GW of solar and 67 GW of hydrogen capacity in southern Europe by 2030. Record low green hydrogen prices are easily achievable as solar PV has already reached the required cost level and effects of scale in procurement and manufacturing of electrolyzer capacities will help reduce production costs, he says. Lepercq is also convinced that the consortium will begin selling solar-powered hydrogen at 1.5/kg when the initial supply to industrial customers begins in September 2022.pv magazine: ... 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. Rugrats is returning to screens after 17 years. It was confirmed on Wednesday that a CGI reboot of the iconic cartoon series is in the works on Paramount+ and will premiere later in 2021. Rugrats originally aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 2004 and focused on the adventures of a group of toddlers who could speak the moment their parents backs were turned. Back to the play pen! Rugrats is returning to screens after 17 years as Paramount+ announced a CGI reboot of the iconic cartoon series on Wednesday Speaking at ViacomCBS' investor day, Nickelodeon bosses unveiled a first look at the Rugrats reboot that showed Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster, Angelica Pickles, Susie Carmichael and Phil and Lil DeVille following their CGI makeover. It's just the latest childhood favourite the streaming service are bringing into the modern age, following news that revivals of iCarly and Dora The Explorer are also in the works. It's also been confirmed that the series' original voice cast of E.G. Daily (Tommy), Nancy Cartwright (Chuckie), Cheryl Chase (Angelica), Cree Summer (Susie) and Kath Soucie (Phil and Lil) will be reprising their roles. Hilarious: Nickelodeon bosses unveiled a first look at the reboot, after the original series aired from 1991 to 2004 According to Variety, Ramsey Naito, president of Nickelodeon Animation said: 'Rugrats is one of the most iconic cartoons recognised by fans around the globe, and this original version is one we are taking great care and pride in creating for a brand-new audience. 'Having the voice cast behind these special characters come together is one of the essential pieces to making the show recognisable and we can't wait to watch this talented group bring them to life again.' Rugrats debuted on screens in 1991 and quickly became a fixture of 90s TV, documenting the hilarious adventures of Tommy and his friends when their parents weren't watching. Despite production being halted in 1993 after just three series, but after airing two critically-acclaimed Jewish-themed episodes, the series was quickly revived following a boost in ratings. Amazing: The series, which focused on toddlers Tommy Pickles and his friends, sparked three movies, with the first in 1998 (pictured) earning $141 million worldwide Fun: A sequel, titled Rugrats in Paris that introduced a slew of new characters for the series, aired in 2000 The show was named as Nickelodeon's longest-running cartoon before being surpassed by Spongebob Squarepants in 2012. It was also adapted into a big-screen film in 1998 and the sequel Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in 2000 and the Wild Thornberrys crossover Rugrats Go Wild in 2003. Rugrats even sparked a sequel series titled All Grown Up, which following a pilot film in 2001, aired for five series from 2003 to 2007, and followed the famous babies struggling with the daily perils of being pre-teens. It comes after Paramount+ also confirmed they'd be reviving the acclaimed sitcom Frasier, with star Kelsey Grammar saying he 'anticipated sharing the next chapter of Dr Crane,' 17 years after the show concluded. Paramount+ will launch in the US on March 4. Rugrats is set to air on the streaming service later in 2021. Photo: The Canadian Press Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy Vice-Admiral Art McDonald is seen during an interview with The Canadian Press in Ottawa, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Admiral Art McDonald has voluntarily stepped down as Chief of Defence Staff due to an investigation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Admiral Art McDonald has voluntarily stepped down as chief of the defence staff as he is investigated on unspecific allegations. Sajjan said in a release late Wednesday that the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service is doing the investigation. Sajjan said he takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and continues to take strong action on any allegation of misconduct that is brought forward "no matter the rank, no matter the position." Sajjan said as of Wednesday he has appointed Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre as acting chief of the defence staff. He said he will have no further comment at this time due to the ongoing investigation. Military investigators are probing allegations of sexual misconduct against McDonald's and Eyre's predecessor, Gen. Jonathan Vance. Global News has reported that Vance allegedly had an ongoing relationship with a woman he significantly outranked, and that he made a sexual comment to a second, much younger soldier in 2012, before he was appointed chief of the defence staff. Vance has denied the allegations raised by Global and The Canadian Press has not verified them independently. Photo taken on July 21, 2019 from Xiangshan Mountain shows the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang) BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland witnessed a substantial increase in investment from Taiwan businesses in 2020 despite the economic toll of COVID-19, said a mainland spokesperson at a press conference on Wednesday. "Taiwan's economy cannot develop without the mainland," said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, when responding to a media question about the Taiwan authority's economic policy. The mainland was the first to emerge from the pandemic and reopen its economy in 2020, Ma said when explaining the reasons for the increase. China was also the only major economy that registered positive economic growth last year, he said. Ma also attributed the increase in investment from Taiwan to the mainland's efforts to create an enabling business environment and support to Taiwan-funded businesses. In 2020, China drew up a blueprint for the next five and even 15 years, inked the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, and wrapped up negotiations on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with the European Union, said Ma. "These create broad space for the development of Taiwan compatriots and Taiwan-funded businesses on the mainland," said Ma, noting that stronger cross-Strait cooperation will bring economic prosperity to Taiwan and benefits to Taiwan compatriots. Shillong, Feb 25 : Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that information technology based Parliamentary Research and Information Support (PRISM) was launched in the Budget session of the Parliament to provide information to the MPs round the clock. The Speaker said that he is keen to set up a similar modern research wing in the Legislative Assemblies in the states to provide round the clock support to the members. "We are trying to compile the proceedings and debates of the Parliament as well as the state Legislative Assemblies on a single platform through NeVA (National e-Vidhan Application)," Birla said while addressing the members of the Meghalaya Assembly on his maiden visit to the hill state. He said that progressive use of information and communication tools such as e-Parliament and e-Office in the functioning of the Parliament has significantly helped the members fulfil their obligations in an effective manner. "I am sure that the use of virtual platforms -- e-notice, Members' Portal and other such facilities will help bridge the digital divide and create a people centric, sustainable and development oriented society. I have also made it my foremost priority in the Parliament to make women and young and newly elected MPs aware of the various parliamentary conventions and practices," Birla said. Claiming that India has set examples of democracy for the entire world, the Lok Sabha Speaker said that India's representative institutions such as the Parliament, Legislative Assemblies and the local bodies are the temples of democracy, where public representatives give voice to the hopes and aspirations of the people. He said that it is important for all the democratic institutions -A the Parliament, Legislative Assemblies and local bodies, be it in the form of autonomous district councils or panchayats - to work in harmony so that the collective responsibility towards the people is fulfilled. "Democracy can be strengthened only when all constitutional institutions work in tandem and cooperate with each other within their respective constitutional jurisdictions," he said. Birla, who is on a two-day visit to Meghalaya, said that the northeast region has immense potential and capabilities, hence this region can lead the country on the path to progress. "Working with dedication and commitment, Meghalaya can act as a model of development and prosperity for the entire nation," he said. Referring to former Lok Sabha Speaker late P.A. Sangma, who hailed from Meghalaya, Birla said that Sangma made significant contributions towards strengthening parliamentary democracy and constitutional practices. "It is a matter of great pride for us. We should take inspiration from the standards set by him," he said. "The beauty of Meghalaya is unparalleled and it is called 'the abode of clouds'. Meghalaya is one of the most picturesque states not only in the northeast, but in the entire country," Birla said. The Lok Sabha speaker on Thursday also inspected the Rs 127 crore under construction building of the new Meghalaya Assembly here. On Friday, Birla would inaugurate the Outreach and Familiarisation Programme for the local bodies of Meghalaya and the other northeastern states. The programme would also be attended by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, Union Minister Rameshwar Teli and other dignitaries. The Outreach and Familiarisation Programme for the panchayati raj institutions of the country is being organised by the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) and the Lok Sabha Secretariat with a focus on enhancing participatory democracy through greater awareness of the procedures and processes followed by democratic institutions functioning at various levels from the grassroots to the apex level. Government TechnologyIn this months installment of the Innovation of the Month series, we highlight a project called FloodNet.nyc: Street-level Flood Sensing and Data Sharing for Urban Resilience . As high tides and high-intensity rainstorms are projected to occur more frequently due to climate change, this team aims to monitor and record frequent, hyperlocal street-level floods in New York City. MetroLabs Ben Levine spoke with Andrea Silverman, Brett Branco, Charlie Mydlarz, Elizabeth Henaff, Ricardo Toledo-Crow and Tega Brain about their project.What was the origin of this project and who has been involved in it?The project began as two separate initiatives, one at New York University (NYU) and one as a partnership between the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (SRIJB) and the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at the City University of New York (CUNY). The NYU team has been studying the impact of contaminants in sewage-influenced flood water, and we realized that we needed data to understand when floods happened, so that we would know when to sample. When we looked around for flood data, we realized that there is little to no systematic data on hyperlocal floods available, not only in New York City, but in other cities as well. This motivated us to start designing flood depth sensors, as part of a project that we originally called FloodSense.Meanwhile, SRIJB had been hosting the Community Flood Watch program in neighborhoods around Jamaica Bay. The program documents floods as reported by the residents through photographs and descriptions. These reports chronicle high-tide floods an indication of the effects of sea level rise and are used to support forecasting models and assist city services. We started our flood sensor project to complement the Flood Watch reports by continuously measuring and recording the floods and water levels, at near real time, and at the locations where frequent flooding occurs.Both projects were proceeding concurrently, in different neighborhoods of New York City. Both project teams had been in communication with the NYC Mayors Office of Resiliency and Mayors Office of the Chief Technology Officer, who suggested we meet to discuss our ideas and goals. We promptly started collaborating on sensor development and data management, and now we share the underlying technology, have merged data streams, and call the project the FloodNet Consortium.What is the current state of flood data and citizen access to it in New York City?Much of the existing formal flood data focuses on catastrophic events like hurricanes. But non-catastrophic floods that occur at a more local level including "sunny day," tide-related nuisance floods and floods related to inundated sewer systems had only been recorded through community reports to the Community Flood Watch program and New York Citys 311 service request portal. For example, 311 is the main recourse available to NYC residents to report flooding events, and there are thousands of street-level flood complaints reported to 311 each year. This data is publicly accessible, but does not include important information like flood depth, and flood location is not always accurately reported.Additionally, the community reports are not systematically collected. Community members may not report floods every time they occur, for example if the event happens in a location and at a time when no one is present to observe it. Or if a flood occurs at a particular location regularly, there may be reporting fatigue. There are some systematic data sets collected by NOAA and USGS tide and stream flow gauges placed in the waterways surrounding the city. However, there are only a few sensors deployed, so the data collected does not necessarily reflect actual flooding on streets. Therefore, the goal of our project is to make the first systematic, continuous and accessible record of regular and catastrophic street-level flood events in the city.How will your project improve the collection of flood data?Since the beginning of the sensor design process, the team has consulted with city agencies and community partners to understand sensor use cases, design needs and deployment locations, which has informed all aspects of the program. As a result, we designed real-time flood sensors that are small, low cost, easy to install, powered with solar cells and utilize simple data transmission. We made sure they are easy to construct with an open-source design to encourage community participation in their construction and deployment. Their low cost enables us to deploy a larger network of sensors with finer spatial resolution, to record flood events that are more local. We use a novel telemetry network (LoRaWAN through "The Things Network") to transmit the data, which we are in the process of setting up as the basis for a broader, low-cost open communications network that the city can use for additional projects using low-cost sensors.We were given permission to deploy the sensors on street infrastructure by the NYC Department of Transportation and Verizon, and have so far installed eight sensors to test different designs and monitor performance. Pilot sensors have been installed in the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn, which experiences floods from the overflow of inundated storm water sewers, and in Hamilton Beach on Jamaica Bay, which suffers from tidal floods. The sensors were able to detect and report street-level floods with a high degree of accuracy within the first month of deployment.How will this be used by the city in their preparation for and response to flooding, and how will citizens engage with it?We are currently working in close partnership with community groups and city agencies to develop an online portal for the sensor data that can be used by a range of stakeholders to access flood data in a meaningful and usable way. Our goal is to make the data immediately available to users with a simple access interface to encourage interested parties to view the data and participate in the project. These users include residents who may want to keep track of flooding, city agencies that need up-to-the-minute information about flooded streets, and academics studying sea level rise or the impact of contaminated flood waters.The data portal is a work in progress, but so far there have been a number of stated interests for the data. For example, our community partners who live in flood-proned areas already have a deep understanding of the locations and frequency of flood events, but have stated a need for more systematic data from sensors that monitor flood levels continuously to facilitate advocacy work and data-driven discussions with policymakers around solutions to address flooding in their neighborhoods. There is also interest in a centralized resource for day-to-day decision-making about living with water, like when to move your car from one block to the next to avoid being impacted by rising waters.We meet with our partners from the city on a weekly basis. In addition to a desire to use sensor data to confirm community reports of flood events, our city agency partners have described an interest in using the sensors to collect data for resiliency and transportation planning to validate complex hydrological models developed for future flood predictions, and to provide hyperlocal data that could be used to activate the citys emergency response center in a more local and targeted manner. City agencies also view these data as a novel baseline data set to monitor changes in flood extent and patterns into the future.Ultimately, we are very interested in seeing how the flood sensor data is actually used; its one thing to collect the data, but the true assessment of the project's impact will be whether it's used, how and by whom. This will help us iterate the design and deployment strategies to improve useability, and also understand who to work with down the line for action toward resiliency, whether that be emergency response, policy change, improved forecasting, zoning or infrastructure upgrades, or something else. It's an important open question, and one we will continue to assess.Could this be applied on a larger scale, either in more cities or at the state level? Where do you see the project going from here?Many communities around the world are struggling with street-level flooding, and some have implemented community or sensor-based flood monitoring, including the CoastSmart Communities program in Annapolis, Md., and the Smart Sea Level Sensors project in Chatham County, Ga., to name a few. We imagine that our sensors will have applicability to these communities as they strive to collect more data on urban flood impacts.Our project is still in a pilot phase, but we have been intentional in the way we have been documenting the project to make it accessible for others to use. All the designs and code are open source and available on github ; we welcome others to use these as-is or build off of them. One thing we have noticed is that the characteristics of a particular urban landscape or flood typology can dictate sensor design constraints, such as mounting strategies, sensor choice and power options. So we imagine that while this research is translatable to other cities and communities, they might have constraints and design specifications that are different from ours. Nonetheless, we have tried to make these devices as transferable and scalable as possible, for example by implementing solar power so that they are not dependent on a grid.Ultimately, flooding is a complex problem at the intersection of climate science, city planning, environmental engineering and social equity. We imagine that this sensor project will play a key role in what will have to be an ecosystem of systems that address this issue from all the above perspectives, and that this data will be most successful when integrated with other flood monitoring programs, policymaking and community engagement. 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. In a country convulsed with weeks of protests against military rule, people in the war-torn northern half of Myanmar's Rakhine state are standing down out of fear, ambivalence, and, in some quarters, support for the ouster of the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, local residents told RFA. The northern townships of Rakhine have been a war zone for two years, with the conflict between Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) having killed 300 civilians, injured more than 700, and, at its peak, displaced roughly 230,000 people to makeshift refugee camps. On top of enduring widespread atrocities committed by government troops over the past two years, the citizens in the northern half of Rakhine were disenfranchised in the November 2020 elections after Myanmar election authorities cancelled voting due to security concerns, and then ruled out a make-up vote. The fresh grievances are part of what the predominantly Buddhist Rakhines, a population of some 2.2 million also known as Arakanese, say is a long history of neglecting their interests and rights in what they consider to be their historic homeland on the Bay of Bengal coast next to Bangladesh. Security is yet another reason that northern Rakhine citizens arent taking to the streets, despite a de facto cease-fire in their region since the Nov. 8 election. We are already under military rule. If we go out into the streets and protest, it could result in heavy causalities, said a young resident of Mrauk-U township who declined to give his name. He recalled a rally in January 2018 when officials banned an annual Buddhist event marking the fall of the ancient Arakan kingdom in Mrauk-U 233 years earlier, sparking protests and the attempted takeover of a government building that was met with police gunfire that killed seven people and injured 13 others. We learned our lesson, the resident said. We prefer a civilian government without a doubt, but under the given situation in our region, we have to stay quiet to be safe. Myanmar ethnic minorities join in an anti-coup protest in the country's largest city, Yangon, Feb. 24, 2021. Credit: RFA No differences between NLD and junta In the southern half of Rakhine state, which has a lower percentage of ethnic Rakhines and has been largely free of conflict, activists and civil servants joined the nationwide wave of anti-coup protests that has drawn up to a million people since the military took over the Myanmar government on Feb. 1. Several northern Rakhine residents said they see little difference between Aung San Suu Kyis deposed civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government and the junta and will not protest against the military regime that ended democracy because Rakhines never had it in the first place. We dont like the dictatorship no matter what, but the interests of Rakhine people have been ignored under the civilian government for the past five years, said Nyo Aye, chairwoman of the activist organization Rakhine Womens Network. This is the widespread sentiment among our people, she added. Rakhine-based political analyst Soe Naing Htun said residents largely believe that the previous civilian administration was not any different from the current military regime. Under the past five years of the NLD government, there have been successive armed conflicts, combat, and human rights violations, he said. The civilian government didnt do anything to protect the local citizens. he said. They did nothing but aid the persecution, so there is a widespread opinion among the Rakhine public that it wont make any difference. Before the Arakan Army hostilities flared up, northern Rakhine erupted in brutal communal violence pitting Rakhines against Rohingya, culminating in a scorched-earth military crackdown that killed thousands of the ethnic Muslims and drove more than 740,000 others into neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar ethnic minorities join in an anti-coup protest in the country's largest city, Yangon, Feb. 24, 2021. Credit: RFA ANP wants concessions In another sign of low trust in the civilian government, the Arakan National Party (ANP), whose lawmakers hold the majority of seats in the Rakhine state parliament, have agreed to join the State Administration Council, the formal name of the junta government, in exchange for concessions from the regime. The ANP wants the AA, a 12-year-old force thought to have 7,000-9,000 fighters, and its political wing, the United League of Arakan, removed from the official list of designated terrorist groups. It also seeks the release of Rakhine political prisoners, including politician Aye Maung and social critic Wai Hin Aung, and civilians arrested and charged for allegedly abetting the AA. Some local residents told RFA that they support the arrests of Aung San Suu Kyi, Rakhine state minister Nyi Pu, and other leaders, though they do not condone the military coup. But Tun Lwin, a resident of Kyaukphyu township, said Rakhines should participate in the protests against the military regime without backing the NLD. I think we should go out into the streets and participate in the protests to fight against the 2008 constitution and the military regime, he said. The cause should not be to fight for the NLD party. Social worker Soe Naing, who lives in the state capital Sittwe, said that Rakhines are confronting a risky choice between local, immediate interests and long-term objectives. For the best interest of Rakhine state alone, I welcome and support the ANPs decision to cooperate with the military, he said. But if you look at it from the perspective of contributing to the military dictatorship, then the ANP will go down in history as a traitor, he said. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / 2020 has been a memorable year for Ryvu. Menarini, the partner sponsoring SEL24/MEN1703 development, completed the Phase I part of the Phase I/II trial in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and presented the first ever data with an in-house developed asset. In April 2020, Ryvu signed a discovery agreement in inflammatory diseases with Galapagos. Ryvu could receive up to 53.5m (1.5m paid upfront). On the internal R&D front, the company has terminated two preclinical stage projects for strategic reasons (A2A/A2B antagonist and SMARCA2 inhibitor) and submitted a clinical trial application to start a new Phase I/II trial with SEL120 in solid tumours. Notably, the FDA granted an orphan drug designation for SEL120 in AML in March 2020. The share issue in July 2020 will support existing plans for the next two years. Our updated valuation of Ryvu is PLN1.17bn or PLN63.6/share vs PLN68.9/share previously. Our valuation of Ryvu is PLN1.17bn or PLN63.6/share, vs PLN1.10bn or PLN68.9/share previously. The R&D assumption changes had a slight net negative effect, which was partially offset by higher net cash after the recent share issue. The main changes include the removal of the A2A/A2B antagonist and SMARCA2 inhibitor projects, while we have added a new indication - TNBC - for SEL120. Click here to view the full report or here to sign up to receive research as it is published. All reports published by Edison are available to download free of charge from its website www.edisongroup.com About Edison: Edison is a leading research and investor relations consultancy, connecting listed companies to the widest pool of global investors. By focusing on the volume and quality of investors reached - across institutions, family offices, wealth managers and retail investors - Edison can create and gauge intent to purchase, even in the darkest pools of capital, and then make introductions via non-deal roadshows, events or virtual meetings. Having been the first in-market 17 years ago, Edison now has more than 100 analysts covering every economic sector. Headquartered in London, Edison also has offices in New York, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv and a presence in Athens, Johannesburg and Sydney. Edison is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Edison is not an adviser or broker-dealer and does not provide investment advice. Edison's reports are not solicitations to buy or sell any securities. For more information, please contact Edison: Jonas Peciulis +44 (0)20 3077 5728 healthcare@edisongroup.com Learn more at www.edisongroup.com and connect with Edison on: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-group-/ Twitter www.twitter.com/Edison_Inv_Res YouTube www.youtube.com/edisonitv SOURCE: Edison Investment Research Limited View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631623/Ryvu-Therapeutics-RVU-Rebalancing-RD-Pipeline-Towards-Clinical-Stage MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ancero, a leading full-service IT provider specializing in cloud solutions and managed IT services, is excited to announce the company's relocation to a modern, open professional space at 5000 Dearborn Circle, Suite 300, in Mount Laurel, NJ. Ancero analyzed potential spaces with an eye towards optimizing collaboration and productivity for in-office and remote team members. The new space will support these goals, providing a vibrant setting that reflects Ancero's business strategy and technology heritage. Ancero LLC "We are so proud of our team and the tremendous advancements of the past few years, particularly our expanded voice and data cloud solutions portfolio, which supports today's 'work from anywhere' business environment," said Robert Hogg, Managing Partner at Ancero. Ancero's professional space will house the modern technology required to deliver the kind of service the company's clients have grown to expect over the course of 21 years. More importantly, the new location will provide a dynamic environment that enables each team member to grow, thrive, and reach their full potential. "The new office has been designed with more of an open layout, which will facilitate increased collaboration and creativity," said Paul Boyer, Managing Partner at Ancero. "The open plan provides high levels of flexibility and agility; we have also accounted for proper distancing of workspaces. We will continue to rotate staff until we can operate safely at full capacity." Less than a mile from Ancero's former offices on Briggs Road in Mount Laurel, the new professional space keeps the company in close proximity to Route 38, Interstate 295, and the New Jersey Turnpike. The property is managed by Strategic Funding Alternatives (SFA), LLC, a commercial real estate investment firm in Moorestown, NJ. About Ancero Ancero is a privately held, full-service IT provider that helps small to medium size businesses leverage cloud solutions to drive growth, collaboration and productivity. Founded in 1999, Ancero applies 20 plus years of innovation and industry expertise to ensure operational excellence for businesses throughout the Northeast. Ancero maintains a System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type II certification that covers all of its facilities, business processes, and cloud services. For more information, call 856-210-5800 or visit www.ancero.com. Media Contact: Shandi Hyde-Hogg [email protected] 856-210-5815 SOURCE Ancero LLC Related Links http://www.ancero.com 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. AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With nearly a third of the U.S. population still admitting they won't or may not get the vaccine, Pioneer Physicians Network has teamed up with physicians across the nation in a viral video initiative inciting Americans to "roll up our sleeves together" and help stop the spread of COVID-19. Feeling a duty to their patients and fellow Americans, Pioneer Physicians Network joined forces with other physicians from Syracuse, New York, to Honolulu, Hawaii, to create the "Roll up Our Sleeves" website and video campaign to educate those who are expressing doubt or opposition and urge everyone that "it's time" to get vaccinated and help save lives. Already, COVID-19 has taken the lives of over 500,000 Americans and over two million worldwide. Despite this staggering and growing number, a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research shows about one in three Americans definitely or probably will not get a vaccine. "We were happy to participate in a national video involving physicians from all over the U.S. urging Americans to get the vaccine -- which will ultimately create herd immunity and stop the spread," says Gary Pinta, M.D., President of Pioneer Physicians Network. "Some of our patients are wary about getting vaccinated and we let them know they have nothing to lose and everything to gain." 'Herd immunity' happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through the previous infection. The World Health Organization recommends creating herd immunity by vaccination. The CDC reports that 70 to 85 percent of the U.S. population would have to be vaccinated in order to obtain herd immunity. The campaign is a combined effort between agilon health and primary care physicians representing more than 50 independent physician practices across the country. Their goal is to combat the doubt felt by an alarming percentage of Americans who say they have no plans to get vaccinated. The "Roll Up Our Sleeves" video highlights the effectiveness of vaccinations over the past century, such as polio, mumps, and measle vaccines, which have wiped out infections and drastically reduced mortality rates. The website contains information about the effectiveness of the vaccine, side effects, phases of eligibility, tips about how to sign up for vaccines, and resources for healthcare professionals. View the national video here. View Pioneer Physicians Network video here. SOURCE Pioneer Physicians Network ArtsBuild is seeking candidates for the next Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute, a monthly nine-part series designed to fully engage participants in the local arts community. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 26.Launched in 2005 in memory of long-time board member and arts advocate A. William Holmberg, Jr., the annual Institute offers behind-the-scenes site visits to cultural and educational institutions, case studies of arts agencies, keynote speakers, panel discussions with community leaders about current issues facing the arts community and a unique forum for pursuing shared goals among arts leaders, business leaders, educators and philanthropic foundations.Participants will interact directly with local arts organizations and the broader Hamilton Countys arts sector.A colleague encouraged me to apply for the Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute program early in my career as a way to get plugged into Chattanoogas leadership culture, said Stratton Tingle, Holmberg Institute graduate and executive director of SoundCorps. Just one year after graduating I found myself serving on several nonprofit boards and committees. The program gave me the education, vision and connections that I needed to start serving my communitys needs.The Holmberg Institute provides many opportunities for networking and strengthens individual talents and skills needed to serve as volunteers, board members and fund raisers. Participation is open to residents in and around Hamilton County who have demonstrated passionate support and advocacy for the arts and who have made a commitment to making a difference in the quality of life for our community.Classes will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on the last Thursday of each month from April through December. The cost to participate is $300, and there are payment plans and scholarships available. Applicants should complete a Google Form by Friday, March 26. The link to the Google Form is accessible at https://artsbuild.com/arts-leadership . For questions related to the Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute e-mail Amy Lowdermilk at amy@artsbuild.com. A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a legislation to monitor and address the impacts of China's censorship and intimidation strategies. The legislation, introduced on Wednesday, would require President Joe Biden to establish the Censorship Monitor and Action Group, an inter-agency task force to oversee the development and execution of a strategy to better understand and respond to the ramifications of China's censorship of Americans and US companies. The task force would create an annual report, complete congressional briefings and be chaired by the National Security Council staff and include a vice chair from the National Economic Council staff with representation from a broad range of US government agencies. The legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senator Jeff Merkley -- who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will be the Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on for the 117th Congress along with senators Marco Rubio, Elizabeth Warren and John Cornyn. In addition, the bill would require a non-partisan research organisation or federally funded research and development centre to develop a report detailing major trends, patterns, and methods of China's censorship and intimidation and their effects on the US. This information is critical to crafting best practices for American industries and companies, the US government and individual Americans. The ability to express oneself and make one's voice heard is a fundamental human right -- one that billions around the world cherish, and billions more yearn for, said Merkley. We must monitor and address the impacts of China's censorship and intimidation of Americans and our companies, so we can create a strategy to safeguard this bedrock freedom and hold those accountable who suppress and destroy it, he said. According to Senator Rubio, the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party continue to use censorship and intimidation to bully American companies on issues deemed sensitive to the CCP. By highlighting Beijing's coercive efforts against American citizens and companies, this interagency task force will shine a light on the long arm of China's authoritarian reach, he said. "For years, the Chinese government has weaponised political censorship in order to intimidate and silence anyone who opposes them. Texans who speak their minds should never have to live in fear of recriminations from a foreign adversary like the Chinese Communist Party," said Senator Cornyn. "This legislation would urge President Biden to take critical steps to combat China's rampant and dangerous regime of censorship, and I am proud to support it," he said. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for stopping once and for all China's predatory practices. On the Senate floor, Schumer said he has asked the chairs and members of our relevant Senate committees to begin work on legislation to enable the US to outcompete and create American jobs. At the core of this effort will be the Endless Frontier Act. This is bipartisan legislation that Senator (Todd) Young and I have drafted together over a year ago. It would surge resources into the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce to advance American innovation in a number of critical technologies, he said. "The new legislation must achieve three goals: one, boost American competitiveness by investing in our economy and our workers; two, leverage our alliances abroad; and three, stop once and for all China's predatory practices, Schumer said. He alleged that for decades, China has "effectively cheated and stolen its way to economic growth: engaging in brazen theft of American intellectual property via cyber operations, forced technology transfers, the dumping of cheap goods into our economy, and, for a while, the pernicious manipulation of its currency". American workers, academics, and businesses of all sizes have paid the price to the tune of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of wealth. More recently, China has directed its energy, and mercantilist policies, towards beating the US and like-minded countries to the pole position on all the leading technologies of the 21st Century, he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Blogger Anatoliy Shariy, who on Thursday, February 25, did not appear for interrogation at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was put on the national wanted list. The SBU press center told Interfax-Ukraine, the intelligence service investigators familiarized the blogger's lawyer with the materials of the proceeding, which served to report the suspicion of his client. Shariy's lawyer was also handed a petition to choose a preventive measure for Shariy, which will then be sent to the court. Earlier, the SBU announced a suspicion of committing a crime to blogger Shariy, who "carried out illegal activities to the detriment of the country's national security in the information sphere." Law enforcement officials said that Shariy's goal was to aggravate the social and political situation in Ukraine and incite interethnic and inter-confessional hatred within the Ukrainian state. According to media, Shariy currently resides in Spain. Former MP of Ukraine and member of the Supervisory Board of Ukrzaliznytsia Serhiy Leshchenko said in Telegram, citing his sources that "The Prosecutor General's Office is preparing documents for the extradition of Anatoliy Shariy from Spain, as well as putting him on the wanted list through Interpol." Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. At 16, Margaret Zhang started her own fashion blog in Sydney. Now, aged 27, she will take control of the Chinese edition of the Vogue fashion magazine powerhouse. Anna Wintour, Vogue global editorial director, made the announcement on Thursday, saying she was delighted that Margaret is our new editor-in-chief of Vogue China. Margaret Zhang during New York Fashion Week in 2019. Credit:Getty Her international experience, exceptional multi-platform digital expertise and wide-ranging interests are the perfect combination to lead Vogue China into the future, Ms Wintour said. Zhang, who rocks a crop of vivid blue hair, has more than 1.2 million followers on Instagram and is a regular in the front row of fashion shows across the globe. Teenage girl dies after saving younger brother when they fell in frozen lake A teenage girl has died after saving her brother when they both fell into a frozen lake in Ohio, officials said. An officer who responded to the drowning incident also died, authorities said. The 16-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy fell through the ice near boat docks at Rocky Fork State Park in Hillsboro on Tuesday evening, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The 911 call came in around 6:30 p.m. By the time the Paint Creek Joint EMS and Fire District arrived, the girl was under the ice, according to Lt. Branden Jackman. The water was 36 degrees, he said. PHOTO: A 16-year-old girl died while rescuing her brother, 13, from a frozen lake in Hillsboro, Ohio, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. An Ohio Department of Natural Resources officer also died from a medical emergency while responding. (WCPO) The boy was taken to the hospital in stable condition, but his sister was recovered by divers unresponsive, authorities said. She has not yet been identified. "She got him out, before she succumbed," Jackman told Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO. While at the scene, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Officer Jason Lagore suffered a medical emergency and was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the department said. It did not provide details on the medical emergency. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. A 15-year veteran of the department, Lagore founded its first K-9 academy and led its Division of Parks and Watercraft K-9 training program. "Our hearts are with the family and loved ones of Officer Jason Lagore, who died in the line of duty last night, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz said in a statement Wednesday. "Our law enforcement officers and their families carry a unique and challenging burden of responsibilities, and we are deeply grateful for their service." Lagore is survived by his wife, two young sons and K-9 partner, Sarge, the department said. On Wednesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ordered flags lowered on public buildings and grounds in Highland County and several other locations "in honor of his life and service." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Jackman had a message for Ohioans the day after the deadly incident. "Don't go out on the ice," he told WCPO. "It caused a very bad tragedy last night." Teenage girl dies after saving younger brother when they fell in frozen lake originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Casey Batchelor has admitted she's glad she 'lived my life to the full' before she became a mother. The glamour model, 36, who is expecting her third child with fiance Dane Goodson, has compared partying on 'private jets and yachts' during the height of her career to starting her days at 4am with daughters Florence, two, and Sadie, 13 months. In a new interview, the former Celebrity Big Brother star also defended having her kids within a three-year span as she insisted she's used to 'disrupted sleep and early mornings'. 'I partied on private jets and yachts': Casey Batchelor has admitted she's glad she 'lived my life to the full' before she became a mother The yoga instructor said: 'I spent my twenties partying, going out to all hours of the morning. Now I have completely switched my days around. I lived my life to the full with the partying, private jets and yachts. 'I message one of my mum friends, laughing at how much our lives have changed. I am so happy that I really enjoyed my life prior to the kids, had such a great time because now I know I am ready to move to the next stage in my life.' The TV star added that she's open to expanding her family further and is planning to walk down the aisle by the time she's 40 amid her two-year engagement to the office supply owner, also 36. Changes: The glamour model, 36, has compared partying on 'private jets and yachts' during the height of her career (pictured in 2015) to starting her days at 4am Three's company: The yoga teacher already has daughters Florence, two, and Sadie, 13 months Casey told The Sun: 'If we do have the fourth I would have spent the whole of my thirties being pregnant. It will be quite nice to have some normality back in my forties. I cant wait to get married. I want all the children at the wedding. 'Whether we go for a fourth one will determine when the wedding happens. I said I want to be married by the time I am 40. When you are in that baby mode, you are used to disrupted sleep, used to early mornings.' Confirming the exciting news to OK! magazine earlier this month, the mum-of-two said that although she'll have a 'crazy' household to manage, she feels 'happy and fortunate' at how easy she they have found it to conceive. 'Whether we go for a fourth one will determine when the wedding happens: The doting parent is expecting her third child with fiance Dane Goodson The brunette is due in June and is having another girl, after previously confessing she wants to have a son. She reasoned: 'It would be lovely to have a boy, because we have two girls. But three girls would be amazing because it would a girl gang and Dane would be the king of the castle.' The reality star also revealed she is planning a C-section birth after a horrific experience giving birth to first daughter Florence - suffering pain that was equivalent to a brain tumour. She explained: 'I had to have an epidural at 8.5 cm because my body was going into so much shock. I was just having fits and being sick all over myself, because I had no breaks between contractions.' 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. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Linda Thomas-Greenfield presented her credentials as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday, officially taking on one of the most challenging jobs for the Biden administration of helping to restore the United States as a top multilateral player on the global stage after former President Donald Trumps unilateral America First policy. The longtime career diplomat thanked President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, who swore her in on Wednesday, for choosing her for the distinguished position and said she was thrilled to be at the United Nations. The United Nations is the worlds most important forum for bringing people and countries together, Thomas-Greenfield told reporters immediately afterward. This administration knows that when America is at the table and acting in accordance with our values, the United States is an indispensable institution for the advancement of peace, security and collective well-being. She said the Biden administration is clear-eyed about the difficult work that needs to be done, from elevating human rights to reforming the U.N. itself to addressing conflicts old and new around the world. Thomas-Greenfield reiterated what she said when she was nominated for the U.N. post: Multilateralism is back and diplomacy is back and America is back and were ready to get to work. The United States takes over the rotating presidency of the powerful U.N. Security Council on Monday and the new ambassador, who only arrived in New York on Thursday morning, said with a smile, I not only had to hit the ground running, Im actually hitting the ground sprinting. Thomas-Greenfield, who rose to be U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs before retiring after more that 35 years during the Trump administration, will be the third African-American, and the second African-American woman, to hold the U.N. post. Her confirmation on Tuesday was hailed by Democrats and advocates of the United Nations who had lamented America First unilateral approach to international affairs and rejoiced at Bidens return to multilateralism. Story continues At the Senate hearing on her nomination, Thomas-Greenfield described China as a strategic adversary that threatens the world, and called a speech she gave in 2019 that praised Chinas initiatives in Africa but made no mention of its human rights abuses a mistake. The Senate voted 78-20 to confirm her with Republican opponents saying she was soft on China and would not stand up for U.S. principles at the U.N. Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Wednesday that representing the United States as a diplomat around the world, I found that diplomacy is about showing compassion, its about managing points of differentiation and its about bringing people together. When she presented her credentials to secretary-general Guterres, she said coming to the United Nations was made all the more wonderful because I knew you were here. Guterres served as the U.N.s refugee chief before his election to the U.N. post and Thomas-Greenfield recalled working with him in the past on refugee issues. So Im looking forward very anxiously to getting to work and working on many of the key issues that we know are before the United Nations and we know that people around the globe are looking to us for, he said. Guterres warmly welcomed Thomas-Greenfield, calling the United States a fundamental pillar of the United Nations and of international cooperation" and telling her, you are not only a very distinguished diplomat, but a very passionate citizen of the world," with a strong commitment to refugees. He then invited her for private talks. Russias deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told a group of reporters Wednesday that the red carpet will be rolled out for Thomas-Greenfield and Moscow is ready to work with President Joe Bidens administration -- but it takes two to tango. We are looking forward to interactions with her, he told a group of reporters Wednesday. You can count on our most favorable attitudes and positive emotions towards her as a member of our Security Council family. But he said Americas view that Russia is an enemy and a threat hasnt changed under Biden, so its very difficult to imagine how the interaction with us might change with such starting points of the positions of the new administration. Nonetheless, Polyansky said the U.S. and Russia can work together but it takes two to tango, and really were ready to dance." But we need a good and reliable partner who knows all the moves and who respects us as a country with certain positions, doesnt view us as a threat and sees our obvious national interests in many issues, he said. Thomas-Greenfield said at her Senate hearing that Washington will be working not only with allies but to see where we can find common ground with the Russians and the Chinese to put more pressure on the Iranians to push them back into strict compliance with the 2015 agreement to rein in their nuclear program. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018 and Biden has indicated the U.S. will rejoin it, though how that might happen remains a major question. Polyansky said Russia welcomes the positive developments on the Iran nuclear deal and the U.S. agreement to extend the START nuclear agreement, adding that Moscow is ready for serious and meaningful discussions first and foremost in the area of strategic stability. Kanye West is a very generous rapper, even reported to give millions worth of gifts, including jewelry, for his wife, Kim Kardashian. This included a $1 million diamond necklace by renowned jeweler Lorraine Schwartz, her 15-carat diamond engagement ring worth $3 million, Cartier bracelets, and a vintage Cartier necklace. The couple, who were married for seven years, is currently headed to a divorce. Just days before the KKW Beauty mogul filed for divorce, West reportedly tried to sell some of the sparklers he bought for her. As per The Sun (via the Daily Mail), the 43-year-old award-winning rapper visited two jewelers to get some of the items appraised. According to their source, "In the last two weeks, Kanye was attempting to sell jewelry he had purchased for Kim to at least two top jewelers." The reason why he's selling these is heartbreaking. The source explained, "Kanye recently said, 'I don't want to be connected to the Kardashian brand anymore,' but he was so torn because he still very much loves Kim." They added, "He was talking about he didn't want to be reminded of the past." In the end, the "Jesus Walks" hitmaker never ended up selling the jewelry. Kim Kardashian, Kanye West Divorce Since last year, the former power couple has had little to no contact with each other. The last one was in October at Kim's 40th birthday. That same time, reports surfaced they disagreed over something at the Polynesia resort where the mom-of-four celebrated. It is also one of the topics that kickstarted reports that they were officially over. The Sun's source further said that Kanye West wants them to work things out. But unfortunately, Kim Kardashian was already "done." The "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star filed for divorce from her scandal-hit husband last Friday. The SKIMS creator is asking for joint and physical custody of their kids, North (7), Saint (5), Chicago (3), and Psalm (21 months). Additionally, the tension started in July when Kanye West tried to run for the US presidency and disclosed some very private information to the public. He also embarrassed the Kar-Jenner clan by calling the matriarch "Kris Jong Un." Kim Kardashian, Kanye West Net Worth TMZ reported that neither party would contest their prenup and are already far along in their agreement about splitting their assets. Currently, Kim Kardashian has a net worth of about $1 billion because of her makeup, fragrance, and intimate lines. Kanye West has a reported net worth of $1.3 billion, crediting his music, concerts, shoe, and clothing lines. See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles JTA ) Jewish groups are criticizing NBC for airing an offensive portrayal of an Orthodox Jew on one of its medical dramas. The objectionable storyline occurred on an episode of Nurses, a Canadian hour-long drama following a group of nurses in a Toronto hospital. In the episode, a young Hasidic patient is told he will need a bone graft to heal his broken leg, leading his devout father to recoil at the possibility of a dead goyim leg from anyone. An Arab, a woman. The incident occurs in the series eighth episode, Achilles Heel, which originally aired on NBC on Feb. 9. The episodes initial U.S. broadcast attracted nearly 2 million viewers, and NBC has also made it available for viewing on its website and its streaming network, Peacock. Jewish organizing groups such as StopAntisemitism and JewishOnCampus have tried to mobilize online pressure campaigns against NBC for airing the episode, and the American Jewish Committee tweeted that the depiction was disgusting. The Anti-Defamation League called for NBC to pull the episode and review their standards for approving dramatic content so that this doesnt happen in the future. ADVERTISEMENT Allison Josephs, who blogs about Orthodox life as the founder and director of Jew In The City, also harshly criticized the episode. The idea that such a surgery would be problematic in general or problematic because of where the bone came from not only is categorically false according to Jewish law, it is a vicious lie that endangers men who walk around with curled side locks and black hats, Josephs wrote. Some critics of the episode have also linked it to a controversial joke made on NBCs Saturday Night Live last weekend, in which comedian Michael Che suggested that Israel has only vaccinated its Jewish residents. Although NBC produces SNL, it did not produce Nurses; the network acquired the series U.S. broadcast rights as part of a broader international acquisition strategy from American television networks whose content mills have run dry due to COVID-19-related production difficulties. The episode originally aired on Canadas Global Television Network in February 2020. The show has already been renewed for a second season in Canada, where it attracted around 1 million viewers per episode. Canada is home to an estimated 392,000 Jews, of which around 44% affiliate with the Orthodox or Modern Orthodox movement, according to estimates from a 2018 joint study from the Berman Jewish Databank. Requests for comment to NBCUniversal, as well as to a representative for the episodes credited writer, Laura Good, were not returned. Lets block ads! (Why?) The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia, is seen Feb. 20, 2007. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images) Australia Rejoins Ranks of Worlds Top 10 Soft Power Nations Australia has risen on the global rankings of soft power, bumping off Russia to claim tenth place, while China and the United States slid down in the wake of the CCP virus pandemic, an index has revealed. Soft power, according to Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye, who coined the term, is a nations ability to influence the international arena through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion. Additionally, soft power determines peoples travel destinations, spending habits on consumer goods, and where they send their kids to study, Melissa Conley Tyler, from the University of Melbournes Asia Institute, told Sydney Morning Herald. Australia rejoined the top 10 after ceding the position to Russia last year. The report, by Brand Finances Global Soft Power Index, revealed that Australias successful handling of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, was a key factor to its return to the top 10, along with its reputation as a famous tourist destination, and the reputation of its peoples generosity. That said, Brand Finance CEO David Haigh told Sydney Morning Herald that Australias overall score was possibly hampered by the strict lockdownswhich occurred mostly in Victoriaand the unpredictable internal border closures. Its also likely that Australias strict border controls and quarantine measures elevated negative perceptions, despite being effective in managing the spread of the virus, [and] sparked criticism about the restriction of movement, Haigh said. Commenting on China, he said it is coping with a torrent of bad press for its virus mismanagement, its suppression of human rights, environmental pollution, and open conflict with nations such as Australia. However, he believed Chinas soft power in developing countries will be unaffected. A health worker collects a nasal swab sample from a man to test for COVID-19 at a testing site outside Yichangdong Railway Station in Yichang, in central Chinas Hubei province on Jan. 28, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Germany replaced the United States as the number one soft power superpower for its international relations, trade, and governance, according to the report. Stability, steadiness, and accountability are the German virtues, which seem to pay off in the Global Soft power Index 2021, Ulf-Brun Drechsel, managing director of Brand Finance Germany, said. Sitting at number 2, Japan became the only Asian country to make it into the top 5, being praised for its stable economy, high-quality products, and leading-edge technology. While Japans embrace of automation and AI are believed to be driving its future growth potential, its slowing economy and ageing population remain a looming threat, according to the report. The UK, despite having the highest COVID-19 death rate in Europe, secured its position at the third spot, closely followed by Canada and Switzerland. The United States fell from the top spot to fifth, while China dropped from fifth place to eighth. A year of political turmoil and widespread virus outbreaks are responsible for Americas sharp ranking drop, making it the fastest falling nation in the soft power index. The wave of Black Live Matter protests, the turbulent election, and high COVID-19 infection rates are believed to have dented Americas reputation and influence as a safe and secure nation, the report said. A police officer in riot gear stands guard as protesters gather near Black Lives Matter Plaza during a protest in Washington on Dec. 12, 2020. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images) The report also noted that although Chinas influence has been boosted through the hard cash and soft influence of the Belt and Road Initiative, the impact of COVID-19 has turned Western countries attitude towards China markedly negative. Despite providing much of the worlds personal protection equipment, it is accused of politicising exports and boasting, George Yeo, former minister of foreign affairs of Singapore, said. Even though China is the most important supplier of vaccines to the developing world, its vaccines are denigrated as being less advanced and effective, he said, The current western antipathy towards China has deep causes, which the pandemic has made worse. New Zealand boasted the fastest growth in the index, climbing from 22 to 16. Although failing to claim a spot in the top 10, it was crowned as the nation with the most effective handling of the pandemic. The index said that a countrys soft power depends on five criteria including familiarity, reputation, influence, response to COVID-19 and the seven soft power pillars. The pillars are listed as business and trade, culture and heritage, media and communication, education and science, people and values, governance and international relations. Brand Finances Global Soft Power Index is recognised as the worlds most comprehensive research study on perceptions of nation brands. Its research draws from a survey of 75,000 respondents from 105 countries. Private legal practitioner, Lawyer Faisal Ibrahim says recording sexual intercourse of same sexes in Ghana is legitimate. He noted that contrary to the position of some lawyers that it is a breach of privacy for one to take video of persons having sex privately, it is acceptable if it is a case of unnatural carnal knowledge. He therefore charged Ghanaians to monitor the activities of homosexuals, record videos and report them to the Police. ''It is not a breach of privacy if you can record a criminal act ongoing. In fact, you're helping the work of the Police. So, when you spot two men having sex and you have a phone, you can record it. The Police will be happy with you as evidence before the court and they will be prosecuted because per Section 104, unnatural carnal knowledge is a crime'', he said during Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''. He was reacting to the advocacy of the rights of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) group in Ghana. The group is said to have established offices in Accra to advance their agenda and activities. However, the Police today have raided and shut down a five bedroom house at Ashongman Estate suspected to be house people engaged in homosexual activities. The security officers stormed the house with owner of the property and closed it down but no arrest has been made yet. The Police reportedly picked intelligence that the house is an office for the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, Queen and Intersex (LGBTQI) group. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video "She understands when I'm there, and starts smiling and recognizes my voice and face, Perez says. You can tell that she perked up and tried to talk to me, though I wasn't able to understand [her words]." New York City psychotherapist Josh Jonas says these intense reunions make people realize how much they've missed, especially when it comes to physical touch and the companionship of family and friends. There have been many feelings of isolation and a loneliness that's overwhelming, he says. You don't know until you feel it in your body how much we need people. Catching up on birthdays and holidays Before their recent reunion, Perez had not seen his mother face-to-face for 10 months. He would drop off food and supplies outside her home, but to avoid infecting her with the coronavirus, he didn't enter. And although he waved to her through a window, she didn't really see me, he says. Her only form of human interaction was with her caregiver, and del Sol often called for her sons by name, even though they couldn't visit. But as soon as he felt confident his coronavirus immunity had kicked in, Perez went to see his mother. While he plans to visit more frequently when she is also vaccinated, she's currently unable to travel to a vaccination site and no doses are yet available in her area for housebound patients. On his first visit, he was surprised to see that her cognitive functions had not declined as much as he anticipated during her months of isolation. But the loneliness hurt her in other ways, he says. "She didn't know there was a pandemic going on, he says. Once her family wasn't able to go see her, I'm sure it caused a little more depression and disorientation." Medical experts warn that getting a vaccine doesn't mean people should open the floodgates on socializing and reconnecting. It remains unclear whether those who are vaccinated can transmit COVID-19. MarkAlain Dery, M.D., medical director of infectious diseases for Access Health Louisiana, says those who are vaccinated should continue to wear masks in public, practice social distancing and handwashing, and try to make sure that before face-to-face meetings take place, all parties have been vaccinated. Still, reunions are happening across the country, as family and friends catch up on what's been missed. After receiving the vaccine because of her work in hospitals, Melissa Kennedy, 38, felt like a little girl again when she hugged her also-vaccinated mother, Debbie Jez, 66. Kennedy even yelled Mommy! when they embraced. Though they both live in Chicago, Jez has asthma, so her family followed strict social distancing protocols during the pandemic to protect her. The two, along with Kennedy's sister and nieces, had a fancy brunch, where they opened Christmas and birthday presents they hadn't been able to exchange in person. "Seeing her was the biggest thing I wanted to check off my freedom to-do list, Kennedy says. It was the first time I'd hugged and kissed my mom in almost a year. It was great, and I felt like a child again." A recent report by Egypts National Centre for Studies on the state of terrorism in the larger Middle East during the month of January reported a high rate of terror attacks in Syria. Syria saw 28 terror attacks during the month of January, the report noted. The first monthly State of Terror Report, which was published by the NCS earlier this month, noted that both Afghanistan and Somalia came in second in the number of attacks, with each suffering 24 attacks during the past month. The security situation in both countries, the report noted, is unstable given the continued lack of political stability with Somalia possibly set to face a new rough phase and given the withdrawal of US troops from both countries. However, the report noted that continued intelligence cooperation between the US and both Somalia and Afghanistan would still be consequential in the battle against the Al-Shabab in Somalia and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The report counted a total of 110 terror attacks in the larger Middle East, 88 of which were in countries with political instability. However, the report noted that despite the security deficiency from which they suffer, neither South Sudan and nor Libya recorded terror attacks during the month of January. Algeria, however, came back with a single terror attack that was followed by security operation that led to the killing of all suspected terrorists. Many countries in the region are intensifying their counterterrorism efforts, the report noted. Egypt, for one, is still hard at work to quell terror cells in Sinai. The biggest success story of January, the report noted, came in Iraq with the elimination of Gabbar AlIssawi, the leading Islamic State (IS) figure who was killed by Iraqi law enforcement on 28 January, one week after Baghdad was hit with deadly twin suicide attacks. Suicide attacks, kidnappings and murders were all reported during the month of January in the NSC report, which was titled The fall of Gabbar. The report added that in several cases, terror groups used drones to carry out their terror attacks. Meanwhile, the report noted that leading terror groups in the region, especially IS and Al-Qaeda, are moving to consolidate ranks with an aggressive online media campaign. Short link: As an internationally recognized 1% for the Planet member company, Live Dream Colorado supports Trails and Open Space Coalition in their work to protect natural outdoor spaces in the Colorado Springs area. Live Dream Colorado, led by broker owner Lauren D Collier, recently donated $2,453 to Trails and Open Space Coalition (TOSC). Trails and Open Space Coalition, represented by Executive Director Susan Davies accepted the donation on February 22nd. Davies says, The pandemic made our shared outdoor spaces even more invaluable. Parks, trails and open spaces proved to be the safest places for us to recreate and recharge. TOSC immediately reached out to local leaders encouraging them to keep trailheads and parks open, which they did. Then TOSC created a tool 'Get out Spread Out' for users. The short videos gave our community safe, active options in all corners of our region. TOSC did what so many of us were forced to do this past year get creative and remain resilient for the good of our community. 1% for the Planet is a global organization founded in 2002 by the owners of Patagonia to support environmental giving. 1% for the Planet inspires people to support environmental organizations through annual membership and everyday actions. They advise on giving strategies, certify donations, and amplify impact. There are thousands of business members and nonprofit partners worldwide. Live Dream Colorado is a Colorado Springs real estate brokerage firm dedicated to providing expert-level skills, zealous advocacy for clients, community philanthropy, uncompromising ethics, and first class service. Realtor Lauren D Collier believes that property ownership is a meaningful personal experience for every person, bringing freedom, responsibility, stability, and comfort. We joined 1% for the Planet to give back to our community. And we chose Trails and Open Space Coalition as our nonprofit partner because they preserve the outdoor environment in Colorado Springs, which makes for our incredible quality of life here. We dont take that for granted, and we want to do our part to preserve it, says Live Dream Colorado owner Lauren D Collier. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. Workers are seen next to a cage with mice inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 23, 2017. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images) GOP Reps. Urge IG to Investigate NIH Relationship With Wuhan Lab A group of Republican Representatives sent a letter on Tuesday to Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm requesting an investigation into the National Institutes of Healths (NIH) connection with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. The letter was prompted by an editorial published by The Washington Post questioning the role of the WIV research lab in the pandemic. The lab is partially funded with U.S. tax dollars. The tax funds were made available to WIV through NIH subgrants from the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance. Recently, The Washington Post, which had regularly dismissed the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted from a lab leak at WIV, finally published an editorial board column embracing the lab leak hypothesis calling for an investigation into the research lab that was funded in part with U.S. tax dollars from NIH, wrote the lawmakers. U.S. intelligence has said that the P4 lab at the WIV could be the source of the virus. A fact sheet released by the U.S. State Department last month stated that it had reason to believe several researchers at the institute fell ill with COVID-19-like symptoms in the autumn of 2019. A researcher at the institute has denied the claim, saying there was zero infection among lab staff and students. A recent report by a team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts who visited Wuhan did not rule out the possibility that the virus was leaked from the P4 lab, although it said that such an event was extremely unlikely. Last week, WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggested that more research was needed to study the different theories about the origin of the virus. The Republicans letter pointed to a growing number of experts, including those at the State Department, who believe that the pandemic, which has killed more than half a million Americans and almost 2.5 million people worldwide, might have been caused by CCP-led coronavirus research at the WIV gone wrong. The lawmakers criticized the federal health agency for supporting the CCP-controlled Wuhan lab. The NIH, unfortunately, has played a major role in supporting WIV and this treacherous research and the promotion of spurious claims dismissing the NIH-funded labs potential role in the COVID-19 pandemic, the letter reads. The NIH did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the letter from The Epoch Times. The 28 lawmakers want answers to a set of questions related to how much the NIH knew about coronavirus research being conducted by the WIV. They specifically want to know if and when the NIH has been made aware of any such risks and whether the NIH was briefed on the concerns raised by the State Department in 2018 about the potential pandemic risk? The lawmakers also shared their concern about taxpayer monies going to Chinas WIV. In light of all this, we are gravely concerned about the NIHs relationship with both EcoHealth and WIV, and the agencys handling of allegations that the COVID-19 pandemic was potentially caused by an NIH-funded laboratory at WIV. We also are alarmed that WIV is eligible to receive additional funding from the NIH through 2024, the letter states. The Republicans are demanding a prompt and thorough investigation into the NIH response to biosafety concerns at the WIV. Frank Fang contributed to this report. Mumbai, Feb 25 : Actor Varun Sharma calls his next release Roohi the crazier sister of the 2018 Rajkummar Rao starrer Stree. After Stree released in 2018, there has been a slew of horror comedies including Laxmii, and upcoming projects as Phone Bhoot, Bhoot Police, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, besides Roohi. Varun, however, is not scared of the competition. "There is no fear as such. It is a new genre that got explored widely through Stree and we feel that Roohi is Stree's much crazier sister and the genre is widely accepted and people got exposed to and they liked it and I feel a lot of other films also. Whichever content is liked by people at the end of the day is (going to be made)," Varun told IANS. He added: "We really hope that the audience really enjoys (Roohi) as much as we enjoyed making the film. I mean there is nothing to fear about. " Roohi also stars Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor. Directed by Hardik Mehta, it is scheduled to hit the big screens on March 11. The film follows the eerie yet hilarious misadventures of Bhaura, played by Rajkummar, and Kattanni, essayed by Varun, as they cross paths with a mysterious girl named Roohi, played by Janhvi, in a jungle. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text 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. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Journalists covering mass street protests against Myanmars military junta are increasingly reporting threats, arrests and harassment from authorities tightening a crackdown on opponents of the Feb. 1 coup in what a local press watchdog called an attempted news blackout. In a spate of incidents this week witnessed by or described to RFA reporters, Myanmar journalists reported being kicked and shot at with slingshots while also facing threats or attempts arrest them, even when identifying themselves as media. On Wednesday foreign correspondents clubs (FCC) in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines released a joint statement saying they are deeply concerned by harassment and intimidation of the media in Myanmar following the Feb. 1 coup. At least six journalists had been detained as of Feb. 20, 2021, while countless more have been subject to threats and intimidation by security forces and those associated with the military regime in their reporting, it said. Journalists from RFA and other outlets experienced harassment while covering mass protests Wednesday. Journalists from RFAs Burmese Service and local outlet 7-Day News were recording and taking photos of a crowd of about 200 protesters that had gathered in front of State High School No. 1 in the capital Naypyidaw, when they were ordered by their commander to arrest the reporters and confiscate their cameras. About nine or 10 police trucks came on the scene with their lights and horns blaring. We were by the side of the road taking pictures when we heard the commanding officer say, Get those reporters! Get them! a reporter who requested anonymity for safety reasons told RFAs Burmese Service. We started running into the nearby streets and alleys. Three of us went into nearby houses to hide. Some of those who climbed fences tore their clothes. We dont know whether anyone was arrested or not, said the reporter. A freelance reporter from the capital, who had been among those trying to take pictures, told RFA, One of the police trucks came towards me. I heard one of them saying, Why is that guy taking pictures? I thought they were going to arrest me, so I ran into a nearby house. I tore my trousers when I was running away. A photographer who witnessed the incident told RFA that prior to Wednesday, the authorities would allow media to be present as long as they were clearly labeled as media. He said the reporters at the school in Naypyidaw on Wednesday were wearing jackets and helmets with newspaper logos. But today, some of the police came at us with their guns at the ready. We were only 20 feet away, the photographer said. We waived our hands and signaled to them that we were about to leave, and they agreed, but as we turned around, a military truck arrived and, I think it was a Lieutenant-Colonel, pointed his fingers at us and ordered his men to arrest us. So, we had to flee, the reporter said. A reporter in Yangon told RFA police tried to arrest journalists on the scene where authorities were breaking up demonstrations in front of the Japanese Embassy Wednesday. Videographer Kyaw Zay Win told RFA that police kicked him in the head and face while he was covering a protest on Feb. 18 in Mandalay. He said they were aware that he was a reporter and not part of the protest. Journalists in Myitkyina, the capital of northern Kachin state, reported that police attacked them with slingshots, while in the Irrawaddy region, a freelance reporter said he and other reporters were followed by military police in civilian clothes when they left protests they had been covering in the city of Pathein. In addition to the reports of threats and intimidation, the military government has also told domestic media outlets not to use certain words in their reporting. On Tuesday, coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing said that news organizations describing the Feb. 1 military takeover in the Burmese language as a military takeover would be punished and have their license suspended. Wednesdays statement from the FCCs condemned the military government for trying to control the narrative in this manner. The military regime has also proposed a law that would require local internet service providers to disclose user information to authorities, and to remove content deemed to cause hatred, destroy unity and tranquility or be untruthful news or rumors. Anyone who posts misinformation or disinformation could face up to three years in prison if they are deemed to have done so with the intent of causing public panic, loss of trust or social division, the statement said. We urge the State Administration Council to allow journalists to do their jobs without fear of reprisal, and support the call by the Committee to Protect Journalists to the junta authorities to cease and desist harassing, detaining and threatening the media, the FCCs said. Myint Kyaw, formerly the joint secretary of the Myanmar Press Council, told RFA that threatening or detaining journalists for covering a peaceful protest amounted to an attempt to impose effectively a news blackout. This should not happen under any circumstances. It is unacceptable and we condemn this, he said. Reported by RFAs Burmese Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong. The Telegraph Cancer patients who decided not to seek treatment during lockdown are now overwhelming emergency units at hospitals across the country, health chiefs have warned. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said A&E units were struggling to cope with the number of people seeking emergency treatment for cancer, hip and knee operations and other serious ailments after deciding not to come forward for help during the pandemic. It comes after the NHS put some treatments on hold to allow hospitals to cope with an influx of Covid patients and to protect vulnerable cancer patients from infection. The move led to a huge rise in people missing urgent cancer checks over the past year, while some people have been left waiting two years for vital orthopaedic surgery. Mr Hopson warned that the striking surge in non-Covid patients meant some hospital trusts were already at 97 per cent bed capacity and may struggle to cope with a rise in cases if the full lifting of restrictions goes ahead on June 21. We have two problems at the moment, he said. We have a backlog of people on the wards because they have been brought in for a planned or delayed operation. But we also have a surge in patients coming into the emergency department. Thats much more difficult to control. NHS trust leaders are seeing significantly more patients coming into A&E than they were expecting. And the thesis is that these are people who didnt seek treatment during lockdown, but have now got to the point where it's so serious, they do have to come forward. Mr Hopson said many of these patients were having to spend multiple days longer in hospital because their ailment was at a more "complex" and advanced stage. Thats the potential issue with unlocking on June 21, he said. If you've got 97 per cent occupancy, and then you suddenly get even a relatively small number of COVID patients, that gets to be really quite complicated. We are also seeing higher levels of acuity in patients referred from GPs. Mr Hopson continued: "For a hospital, there is a major knock on in terms of the number of patients that then have to be admitted, and then also the complexity of the treatment. "If you leave too long, then it becomes much more complex to treat. In other words, they have to spend longer in hospital. "We're not saying let's definitely delay June 21. That's for the government to decide. We're saying there are some really finely balanced decisions and judgments." Dear Amy: Im in my 60s and undergoing cancer treatment, therefore immunocompromised. At both of my appointments with my surgeon, she has worn a loose fitting, thin, cloth mask. She has to get very close to me face to face to examine me. This has made me extremely uncomfortable, and frankly angry. She has unnecessarily caused me additional stress during the most stressful period of my life. I didnt say anything to her either time, because it felt too awkward. In about a month she will have my life in her hands, and I dont want her having any potential negative feelings toward me when I go under the knife. Ive written an anonymous letter about this, which I havent sent. I want to report her primarily so she will use adequate PPE, but I dont want repercussions. How should I handle this? Cautious in Colorado Dear Cautious: Dear Cautious: Your question reveals that the trust you should have may be missing with this surgeon. I shared your question with a friend who is a cancer surgeon with 30 years of experience at a major cancer center. He and I share concern about you, and his response follows: Patient safety is paramount, not just during surgery, but also before and after. Almost everyone is nervous before surgery, but you should not also carry the anxiety of mistrust with you into the operating room. You should be cautious, because no matter how many operations your surgeon has done, this is your one. Since COVID, I always wear a surgical mask and will frequently add a face shield when seeing patients. Your surgeon should create an environment where you are able to express your concerns and ask questions. Ideally, you should raise your concern directly to her. How she responds will be very revealing. If she apologizes and thanks you for bringing this to her attention; thats a good sign. If she is defensive, you should seek another surgeon. You and your loved ones are your best advocates, but if your hospital has a patients advocates office, report your concern to them. They may not be surprised by your report, and if needed, can help you to change surgeons. They may help with either having a family member join for a critical in-person conversation with your surgeon, or if thats not possible, listen to the consultation over the phone. Many patients are stressed and will not remember what their doctor says, so that extra pair of ears helps. There are many fine cancer surgeons out there. For critical and important insights, read reviews of them. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS.gov) is working to make this information more transparent with star ratings and many hospitals advertise these scores. Surgeons are professionals with extensive training and a team to help them give you the best possible care. At the end of the day the surgeon should be there for YOU, not the other way around. Never forget that! Amy Dickinson, author of the 'Ask Amy' column.TNS Dear Amy: A recent letter [Joyful Libby User in Rochester, NY] included the advice to listen to audio books while on a walk. You endorsed this idea. Please dont! Please leave your ears open! As a longtime user of bike paths for biking, I cant tell you how many walkers will step in front of me even after I call out to them. The ones with earbuds or headphones often do not hear my warning that I am about to pass them. This is even more important in an urban setting, where walkers have been known to walk into traffic while listening, instead of paying attention to their surroundings. On group runs and rides, we are always advised not to wear listening devices. Playing it Safe Dear Playing it Safe: You are absolutely right! A study I looked at found that injuries among pedestrians wearing headphones tripled between 2004 and 2011, with most accidents occurring in urban areas. These injuries can be catastrophic. (I live in a rural area and dont use earphones; I just stick my phone in my pocket and play audio, transistor radio-style. This carries risks, too.) Dear Amy: Your response to Deathly Afraid was kind and supportive, but this new mom reported that she thinks about death every day. You should have suggested that she see her physician immediately. She might have serious postpartum depression. Concerned Dear Concerned: Thank you for alerting me to this omission. I agree. PPD can affect mothers even up to a year after giving birth. (You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.) 2021 Amy Dickinson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Read more advice: Ask Amy: Separated soulmates are eager to connect Dear Annie: Looking to hop off the hamster wheel Dear Abby: Children cut off stepmother with dads power of attorney (TNS) The cast of Dallastown Area Middle School's production of "Freaky Friday The Musical" spent more than half of their rehearsal time practicing over Zoom.Students practiced their songs and choreography virtually during the first five weeks of rehearsals, according to the musical's director, Vannesa Trauger. The show opens Thursday and will be viewed virtually, with audience members watching the production via a prerecorded livestream.Across York County, schools are preparing their spring musicals while balancing the added obstacles of doing so during a pandemic. Dallastown Area High School is preparing to premiere two musicals in April that will also be available to watch through a livestream.Other school districts are taking a different approach to performances. South Eastern School District, for example, will hold performances of its high school musical, "Swingtime Canteen," in March, offering tickets for both in-person and digital viewing, according to a news release.Melissa Porrovicchio, secretary to the South Eastern superintendent, said in an email that the school's auditorium will be at 10 percent of its regular capacity to allow students a sense of normalcy in performing for a live audience. Audience members will be seated more than six feet apart, and everyone must wear a mask, she said.Dallastown Area Middle School just finished recording its show, and Trauger said it was more stressful than performing a live production. She said the cast had to record the show's opening scene, one of the longest scenes in the show, multiple times, and she felt more pressure to get everything right.Student Julie Cioffi, 14, said the show was recorded less like a live production and more like a film, with long breaks between each scene.Though the high school hasn't recorded its shows yet, student cast members said they expect the process to lack the same thrill as performing in front of an audience."We definitely won't have the same energy," said 18-year-old Riley Sharp.However, student Milana Schechtman, 18, said the experience is useful to some students who are interested in pursuing a career in the film industry.Both the high school and middle school shows conducted many of their rehearsals over Zoom. Trauger said the middle school began rehearsals in November and didn't start rehearsing in person until January because of school closures and winter break.Student Jules Gutekunst, 13, said the Zoom rehearsals brought many challenges. Actors couldn't learn their moves with their scene partners, and it was difficult to practice group songs."Everybody couldn't unmute and start singing, or else it would be total chaos," Jules said.Because of this, Trauger said it was relief when in-person rehearsals began in January and most students knew their material. Students at the middle school and high school rehearsed their shows with masks on and with sanitizers readily available, according to Amy Anderson, musical director for the high school.The high school shows are also different this year in that there are multiple musicals, each with a smaller cast than usual.The shows, "Beauty and the Beast Junior" and "Frozen Junior," have 28 and 32 cast members, respectively, Anderson said. Usually, she said, the high school performs one spring musical with up to 70 students in the cast.There is a lot of crossover between the casts. Sharp will perform as both Gaston in "Beauty and the Beast Junior" and Elsa in "Frozen Junior." Student Collin Snyder, 18, said this gives students the opportunity to explore multiple roles at once.Last year, Dallastown Area High School's musical was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schechtman said it was important to her and the rest of the cast that they had the opportunity this time."We've already lost so much this year," Schechtman said.For middle school student Julie and castmate Sophia Papayannis, 14, participating in the musical is especially important because they attend their classes fully remote. Rehearsals were one of the only opportunities each of them had to get social interaction with their classmates."I just needed to be with people and socialize," Sophia said. The Canadian Press As COVID-19 vaccine supplies ramp up across the country, most provinces and territories have begun planning to give second doses in the coming weeks. More than 23 million people across Canada have now had at least one dose of a vaccine. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says by the summer, Canada will have enough vaccines so that every eligible resident will have gotten their first dose, and by September, it will have enough doses for everyone to be fully vaccinated. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has recommended that Canada turn toward the ultimate goal of fully immunizing the population, now that supplies of COVID-19 shots are increasing. The advisory panel said those at highest risk of dying or becoming severely ill should be prioritized for second shots, either after or alongside first doses for anyone else who is eligible for a vaccine. Since the novel coronavirus is still circulating in Canada, NACI is still recommending that the second dose be received up to four months after the first dose, in order to maximize the number of people who get at least one shot. Here's a list of the inoculation plans throughout Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador All people in the province aged 12 and older can now book an appointment for a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. So far 2.19 per cent (11,446) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Nova Scotia Appointments for an initial COVID-19 vaccine shot are now open to people 12 years of age and older. Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is the only one approved for use in children aged 12 and up. The Moderna vaccine is only available for those 18 and older. Under the province's accelerated vaccine plan, someone who received their first dose of vaccine on March 22 and is due for a second dose on July 5 will now be able to reschedule their second appointment for as early as the week of June 20. The province has stopped the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine as a first dose. The Health Department says the decision was based on "an abundance of caution'' due to an observed increase in the rare blood-clotting condition linked to this vaccine. The department also says it will reschedule anyone who was to receive AstraZeneca to instead be inoculated with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna "in a timely manner." --- Prince Edward Island In Prince Edward Island, residents as young as 16 can book a COVID-19 vaccine. People 16 years and older who have certain underlying medical conditions, pregnant woman and eligible members of their household can also get a vaccine. So far 8.11 per cent (12,868) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- New Brunswick Residents in New Brunswick aged 12 to 17 are now eligible to book an appointment for a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Officials also say residents 55 and older who received an Astra-Zenaca vaccine for the first dose at least eight weeks ago can now get a second dose of the vaccine with informed consent. So far 5.08 per cent (39,633) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Quebec In Quebec, all residents 12 and older can book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment. The province's health minister says Quebecers 12 to 17 years old will be fully vaccinated by the time they return to school in September. Quebec also says it will shorten the delay between first and second doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to eight weeks from 16 weeks. The province says more than 5.8 million doses of vaccine have now been administered, with more than 58.1 per cent of the population having received at least one dose. --- Ontario All adults in Ontario can now book COVID-19 vaccine appointments. People turning 18 in 2021 can book Pfizer-BioNTech shots. Youth aged 12 and older can also book appointments across Ontario. They can book through the provincial online portal, call centre and through pharmacies offering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the only shot authorized by Health Canada for use in youth aged 12 and older. Ontarians, meanwhile, are getting the option to shorten the interval between COVID-19 vaccine doses. Most people are being scheduled for doses four months apart, but officials say the new interval could be as short as 28 days. The plan will start with seniors aged 80 and older this week and the province will later offer second shots based on when people received their first. People will keep their original appointments if they dont re-book. The province aims to see all eligible Ontarians fully vaccinated by the end of September. Ontario is also resuming use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine but only as a second dose. Those who received the first dose of AstraZeneca between March 10 and March 19 during a pilot project at pharmacies and some doctor's offices in several Ontario communities will be first in line to receive their second dose. Ontario says more than 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered across the province. So far 4.68 per cent (687,894) of the population has been fully vaccinated --- Manitoba Manitoba is using the Pfizer vaccine for everyone aged 12 and up, and the Moderna vaccines for people aged 18 and up. These are available through a few channels including so-called supersites in larger communities. The province is also allowing anyone 40 and over to get an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through pharmacies and medical clinics, subject to availability. People 30-39 can get a shot if they have certain underlying health conditions such as chronic liver failure or severe obesity. The province has opened up second-dose appointments to all Indigenous people aged 12 and up, to people with certain medical conditions such as severe heart failure and Down syndrome, and anyone who received their first dose on or before March 29. Provincial health officials say they now expect 70 per cent of Manitobans aged 12 and older to get a dose by the end of June. So far 7.75 per cent (106,678) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Saskatchewan Saskatchewan says it reached the step two threshold of its reopening roadmap released last week, with over 70 per cent of residents age 30 and older having received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That means restrictions will begin to be relaxed June 20, which includes easing capacity limits on retail, personal care services, restaurants and bars, although they must still maintain physical distancing among occupants or have barriers in place. The rules also raise caps on private indoor gatherings to 15, while capacity limits jump to 150 for both public indoor gatherings and all outdoor assemblies, whether public or private. Premier Scott Moe says once 70 per cent of the entire adult population is vaccinated, Saskatchewan can move to the third step of its plan and remove almost all of the remaining public health orders. Saskatchewan residents aged 12 and older are now eligible to book their first COVID-19 vaccine appointment. A school immunization program for those aged 12 to 18 will be introduced in June, but eligible residents of that age can also be immunized at clinics offering the Pfizer vaccine. Anyone 85 and older or anyone who received their first vaccine dose before February 15 can now book their second dose. Anyone diagnosed with cancer and solid organ transplant recipients will be receiving a letter of eligibility in the mail which will allow them priority access to a second dose. There are drive-thru and walk-in vaccination clinics in communities across the province. The province says 6.60 per cent (77,767) of the population has now been fully vaccinated. --- Alberta Every Albertan aged 12 and older is now eligible for a vaccine. As of May 27, 60.3 per cent of Albertans over the age of 12 had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The milestone means the province's second stage of easing restrictions can begin on June 10. It is subject to hospitalizations being below 500 and trending downwards. Some of the restrictions that would be lifted include allowing outdoor gatherings including weddings and funerals with up to 20 people. Restaurants would be allowed to seat tables with up to six people, indoors or outdoors. Retail capacity would also increase, and gyms could open for solo or drop-in activities with three metres of distancing. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, has said people who are immunocompromised can book a second dose three or four weeks after their first shot. All other Albertans are eligible to get their second dose three to four months after the first. For the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the province lowered the minimum age to 30. They are, however, reserving the remaining supply for second doses when people are eligible. More than 250 pharmacies are offering immunizations. So far 8.82 per cent (388,200) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- British Columbia British Columbia is setting an end-of-summer target for everyone in the province to receive their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has also announced a decrease in the time between the first and second dose of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, cutting the interval to eight weeks from 16 weeks. But the interval for people who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose and are waiting for their second AstraZeneca shot may take longer. Henry said the province is waiting for results from international data on AstraZeneca, including the effectiveness of mixing vaccine shots and ongoing concerns about rare blood clots. Henry said the rollout of second doses will be similar to the first dose, with those at the greatest risk at the top of the list. Seniors, Indigenous people and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable were to start getting their invitations to book a second shot by the end of May. The province will try to ensure that everyone gets the same vaccine they were first administered, but a shortage of the Moderna vaccine may mean people will have to substitute it for a Pfizer shot. Henry said the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has reviewed the evidence on using different vaccines and has updated the guidance, confirming that while it is preferable to have the same product, it's not always possible. Pfizer and Moderna are the same type of vaccines. Families can get vaccinated together in B.C. as the government allows youth between the ages of 12 and 17 to get their COVID-19 shot. The shots will be administered at community clinics instead of in schools based on feedback from families, with 310,000 children in B.C. eligible to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been approved for that age group. As of Friday, about 3.1 million doses of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines had been administered in B.C., which means about 63 per cent of those eligible have got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. So far 3.14 per cent (160,885) of the population has been fully vaccinated. --- Nunavut Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson says Nunavut has placed an order for doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with the federal government to vaccinate people ages 12 to 17 in the territory. The Moderna vaccine is currently the only one available in Nunavut. Nunavut has opened vaccinations to anyone 18 and older. It is also offering shots to rotational workers coming from Southern Canada. In the territory, 36.44 per cent (14,113) of the population has now been fully vaccinated. --- Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is now offering vaccinations against COVID-19 to young people between 12 and 17. The territory, which has only been using the Moderna vaccine, recently exchanged some of that for doses of the Pfizer product, which Health Canada has now approved for anyone as young as 12. So far 51.74 per cent (23,344) of the territory's population has been fully vaccinated. --- Yukon The territory is now vaccinating children aged 12 to 17. The government says clinics in most communities will be held in schools, while those in Whitehorse can get their shot at the Coast High Country Inn Convention Centre. The children will be getting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The territory says because of limited supply and stricter handling requirements, the vaccine will only be available for a short time. It says second doses for those 12 to 17 will start on June 23 and medical travel will be supported for youth who aren't able to make the clinic date in their community. The Moderna vaccine is available to adults 18 years of age and older. The government says 59.34 per cent (24,763) of the population has now been fully vaccinated. --- This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2021. The Canadian Press President Joe Bidens aides are urging Asian American groups to mount a last-minute campaign to try to rescue his budget chief nominee, Neera Tanden, as her prospects for Senate confirmation dwindle. Those groups are calling and sending letters to Senate offices and advocating for Tanden on social media to try to combat what they are calling structural racism and institutional racism. Their efforts have been actively encouraged by the White House and presidential transition staff, which remains in place to help with Senate confirmations, along with the Democratic National Committee, according to two people familiar with the conversations. It is incredibly frustrating to watch because we are talking about individuals who are preeminently qualified, but also coming from communities that have been screaming at the top of their lungs to be visible and valued by this country, said Gregg Orton, national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Tanden has seen her nomination stall in recent days amid opposition from senators of both parties. Objecting lawmakers have cited her partisan, personal tweets, including those that have gone after them individually. But Democrats and interest groups say she is being unfairly targeted because of her gender and race. Many of the groups being asked to help rescue Tandens nomination had been backing her since late last year. But they as well as prominent Indian Americans across the country began to redouble their efforts Friday after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he would oppose her confirmation, putting it in peril. The groups are focused on three senators who have yet to declare their intentions: Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Budget Committee; Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a moderate who sometimes breaks with her party; and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who sits on the Homeland Security Committee. They are also reaching out to two long-shot senators, hoping to change their minds: Manchin and John Cornyn (R-Texas), who co-founded the Senate India Caucus, but this week called on Biden to withdraw Tandens nomination. Story continues In addition to contacting Senate offices, groups have flooded social media using hashtags, such as #IStandWithNeera. A #YESNeera campaign that used the words Yes to Progress Yes to Women Yes to AAPIs reached more than 77.2 million people, according to the AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee that works to mobilize Asian American and Pacific Islanders voters. The push from the groups comes as a pair of Senate committees postponed votes on Tandens fate on Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs one of those committees, conceded that the support was not yet there to confirm Tanden. Should Tanden make it through the committees, her nomination would still need to pass through the full Senate. And Manchins opposition means that she would need at least one Republican to support her in order for that to happen. But Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, both moderate Republicans, also said they would oppose Tandens nomination. She is being held to a much higher standard, even though nobody disputes her background and qualifications to be OMB director, said Shekar Narasimhan, AAPI Victory Fund chair. Its becoming apparent this higher standard applies primarily to nominees of color, and it particularly hurts with historic nominations like Neeras. The White House has insisted that it still publicly supports Tanden, though some Democrats on Capitol Hill have already begun to support a possible replacement: Shalanda Young, the former clerk and staff director for the House Appropriations Committee. But by Wednesday evening, even chief of staff Ron Klain, Tandens No. 1 champion within the White House, was acknowledging the reality of her plight. "If Neera Tanden is not confirmed, she will not become the budget director, we will find some other place for her to serve in the administration that doesn't require Senate confirmation," Klain said on MSNBC. The White House referred questions about the push by Asian Americans to the presidential transition. A transition official acknowledged the effort, saying it had been ongoing since December. Asian Americans have been fuming for weeks that Biden failed to name a Cabinet secretary of Asian American or Pacific Islander descent, though he tapped two for Cabinet-level positions: Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, and Katherine Tai to be U.S. trade representative. Asian Americans have served in presidential Cabinets, including Donald Trumps, since 2000. We would like to see progress in having a seat at the table, said Madalene Mielke, president and CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies. Cabinet-level appointments are important and at the same time, in the words of over 100 members of Congress, close to equal is not equal. Still, after Biden nominated Tanden, Asian Americans began to push for her confirmation and even urged Vice President Kamala Harris, herself the daughter of an Indian mother, to try to persuade her former colleagues in the Senate to support her. Albert Shen, president of the Texas chapter of the Asian American Action Fund, called Tandens selection a direct rebuke to the last four years of Trumps Make America Great Again homogeneous policy agenda. A network of prominent Indian Americans with personal connections to Republican senators began to reach out to the lawmakers in December, urging them to meet with Tanden and give her a chance, according to a person familiar with the situation. Were trying to get her in the door, the person said. All were saying is taking a call, give her a fair hearing. A group of more than 50 Asian American businesses sent Cornyn a letter in early February urging him to support Tanden, citing the hate crimes toward Asian Americans following former President Donald Trumps demonization of China during the coronavirus pandemic. Neil Makhija, executive director of IMPACT, an Indian American advocacy group, said his organization worked with the presidential transition to set up a meeting with Tanden after her nomination to ask how they could help. This week, IMPACT is drafting a letter to be sent to the leaders of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget committees touting the possibility of Tanden serving as the first woman of color and first South Asian American budget chief. Even as she achieves historic milestones at the highest levels of our government, Ms. Tanden has never forgotten where she came from: a South Asian immigrant family that relied on this countrys social safety net to survive, according to a copy of the draft letter. Going from a childhood of food stamps and Section 8 housing to public service in President Joseph R. Bidens Cabinet, Neera Tanden has lived the full arc of this countrys promise. Hamish Macdonald has choked back tears after being moved by the heartbreaking decision faced by a daughter whose father has early-onset Alzheimer's. The Q&A host was visible emotional when hearing the story of Tim Granger and his daughter Prue on Thursday night's episode shining a spotlight on aged care in Australia on the eve of the final report of the Royal Commission into the sector. Ms Granger revealed how the family was grappling with the difficult reality her father would have to be placed into an aged care facility at such a young age. Mr Granger was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's five years ago when he was just 51. 'I think what makes it scary is that he's so much younger. He's going to potentially be going in his 60s or sooner, which we really want to avoid,' she said. Q&A host Hamish Macdonald (pictured) fought back tears as he listened to the heartbreaking decision faced by a woman whose father has early-onset Alzheimer's on Thursday night's program 'But if that occurs how can he live his best life in these facilities that aren't really set-up for him at his age. It's an issue. More people are getting diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.' Ms Granger, who teared up as she explained her father's devastating story, raised her concerns the aged care sector was not equipped to handle Alzheimer's patients. 'I'm scared because I think it's not something that you think is going to happen so soon. We would like to be able to support him for as long as we can. But the reality is we probably can't,' she told the program. 'We also have financial concerns because we liked to be able to put him in a facility that will support him and his needs but I don't know if we could afford that or if we would get in. 'Listening to everything everyone is saying and bringing up, it's scary, really scary.' Ms Granger's words moved Mr Macdonald to tears, with the host struggling to maintain his composure as he proceeded with the show. Prudence-Rose Granger appeared on Thursday night's Q&A program alongside her father Tim Granger (pictured together, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's five years ago 'I'm so sorry to hear that that's a choice you've got to make as a family. I'm sorry,' he said. Mr Granger, who is an advocate for Dementia Australia, told of his fears over the difficult decision faced by his family. 'When the time comes to go... its going to be difficult. It's going to be very hard for them, very hard,' he said. Police are investigating after images appeared online showing a group of masked men in Co Antrim alongside 'IRA' graffiti warning drug dealers to leave the area. DUP MLA Pam Cameron has urged police to urgently investigate the pictures, saying the photos were linked to a paramilitary group and had left residents living in fear. Photos emerged on social media of men standing outside Ballydonaghy Meadows in the Crumlin area wearing camouflaged jackets with their faces covered, holding what looks like some kind of firearm. One of the pictures is captioned 'RAD' with a tricolour. Graffiti also appeared in the area warning 'IRA territory drug dealers out'. Over the years a number of republican vigilante groups have emerged. The most notable include Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) in the north west and Action Against Drugs (AAD) in the Belfast area. A PSNI spokesperson confirmed they are investigating reports of criminal damage in the area. "A report was made at around 9.30am on Wednesday that graffiti had been sprayed on property in the Ballydonaghy Meadows area of Crumlin," the PSNI spokesperson said. "Police are also aware of images circulating on social media and enquiries are continuing." Mrs Cameron said it was believed the photos were linked to a paramilitary group. "The sinister images shared on social media last night purporting to show armed members of the paramilitary group known as 'RAD' need to urgently be investigated by the PSNI," the South Antrim MLA said. "Local residents in Crumlin should not have to live in fear of this criminal gang." Alliance MLA John Blair said the images were shared with him by a number of constituents. He said they were "truly appalled" by the gathering and described the area as an "established, settled and shared neighbourhood". "I have spoken to local police and have been able to assure the constituents that have contacted me that police are following it up accordingly," he said. DUP councillor Matthew Magill added that "there is no place for such activity in Crumlin or anywhere else". We are not prepared to hold that a minority, residing or remaining in any city or town where smallpox is prevalent and enjoying the general protection afforded by an organized local government, may thus defy the will of its constituted authorities, Harlan wrote. We are unwilling to hold it to be an element in the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States that one person, or a minority of persons, residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have the power thus to dominate the majority. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions UUP councillor Richard Holmes tells Liam Tunney about the effect coverage of the financial scandals had on the council, and discussed the development of its commercial side. The following is an extract from a longer interview, available in podcast form here. Liam Tunney: Why did you get involved in politics in the first place? Richard Holmes: It goes back to when the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed in 1985. I was only 13 years of age but was becoming politically aware. Even then, I felt a great sense of betrayal. I couldn't understand how the government could do that to us. I started off at Anglo-Irish protest marches with my dad, and when I went to Queens, Peter Weir got me signed up to the Queens Ulster Unionists. I joined my local Young Unionists and got involved in elections thereafter, ran campaigns for years and then ran for council back in 2011 and somehow managed to get elected. LT: What has your biggest achievement been? RH: One of the things I found difficult in council when I went in was the complete lack of commercial focus. Some things take an eternity to do, cost the earth, and every year the rates pitch starts at double figures and somehow ends up at 5-6%. I got a Causeway Enterprise Fund set up to support start-up businesses with grants of up to 10,000. I thought there was something we could do locally to help entrepreneurs. There are a number of businesses in the local area who have been able to use that money to help them get a start and hopefully we'll see them do fantastic things in the decade ahead. LT: What has been the biggest challenge? RH: Getting the commercial focus into council was a major challenge, and I suppose over the last few years the PR of unsubstantiated allegations around the financial situation has created a very toxic atmosphere. It has lingered for a few years now and it's been difficult trying to get that dealt with and have an atmosphere where we can get on with proper council business. You had the BBC turning up to film meetings because you have the same amount of debt that over half of the councils in Northern Ireland have. When you're being presented as a financial basket case, it's really really annoying, particularly when we have done so much to rein in costs and hold down rates. People look at their mortgage and think it's awful debt, until they realise everybody on the street has the same mortgage and the same level of debt. Councils run in debt because very little they do actually generates a profit. You don't charge people to go to a play park, but play parks still cost money to build and maintain. A small number of councillors over the last few years have just created a toxic environment and the focus of senior managers has been trying to manage that coverage and dealing with freedom of information requests and audits. LT: One of the other areas where figures were low was co-operation between councillors. Is that something you see as a problem? RH: I think it has got worse since Covid happened and we've gone remote. Previously, you could find yourself on numerous occasions in the canteen with representatives from across the political spectrum, trying to do deals. Politics works better when there is a cross-party consensus. It's difficult getting that when most of us are remote and there are very few in the chamber now. You lose those relationships that we'd worked hard to build up. It's got to the stage now in council where you think a bus shelter would go down cross-community lines. It doesn't make for good governance and I can't wait for the day we can all go back into the chamber and start building those cross-party relationships again. LT: You spoke following a Conradh na Gaeilge presentation at a recent meeting and mentioned the barriers unionists have with the language around paramilitary association. How can the barriers be broken down? RH: It's probably going to be difficult. We all know Protestants kept the language going, and it has such an important part in our history. Every townland name in Ireland comes from the old Irish, and that's fascinating, but when unionists see Sinn Fein trying to ram this down our throats, those things have an impact. It feels like it's being thrust upon them. I have no issue with people learning Irish and with money going in to keep languages alive, I think that's really important. I have no issue with Irish street signage where there is a demand, the same as Ulster Scots, but it can be seen to be triumphalist and to mark out territory, and that's the bit that makes it difficult for unionists. LT: You used a line in a 1996 interview about sending 'a line-up of pensioners' to Westminster. Looking at the make-up of unionism in Westminster now, is that an issue? RH: There is always an issue in politics of knowing when to get out. You always need that churn of younger people coming through. It's important to get younger people coming through at council level and MLA level because too much is left for older people and retired people. Experience is great, but we've all had that radical element where we want to change the world and that enthusiasm is missed in politics if it's not there. LT: Locally, what would your priorities be? RH: One of the things locally would be getting the Ahadowey play park sorted and then Coleraine Leisure Centre has been a festering sore for about ten years. The building is 40-50 years old and needs replaced. Unfortunately, leisure centres cost a lot of money and leisure is changing dramatically. We have the Garvagh bike trails set up, which are proving very popular, and there are various walkways. We are trying to get finance in place for a Greenway from Ballymoney to Ballycastle., Leisure centres are a challenge, and with the four legacy councils, we are probably the only council outside Belfast who will finish up with four leisure centres. Fires that appear to have been deliberately set destroyed more than 500 structures this week in and around Ethiopia's Gijet town, an analysis of satellite imagery shared with Reuters has found, adding credence to reports of continued conflict in parts of the northern region of Tigray. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory over a rebellious regional force, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), at the end of November after its fighters withdrew from the region's main cities and towns. But sporadic fighting continues in some parts of Tigray, according to residents and United Nations assessments. The government has acknowledged isolated incidents of shooting but has said that most fighting has stopped in Tigray. Mulu Nega, head of Tigray's government-appointed interim administration, told Reuters he had sent a team to the Gijet area to investigate. The DX Open Network, a security research organization based in Britain, analysed images collected by private satellite operator Planet Labs on Sunday and Tuesday around Gijet and three nearby settlements, which are about 35 km (22 miles) southwest of the Tigray regional capital Mekelle. They showed at least 508 structures that appeared to have been destroyed by fire over that period, the network said, citing the blackening of earth and vegetation, ash circles indicative of roof collapse, and debris from collapsed walls and ceilings. A fire detection service run by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which uses visible and infrared imagery captured from space, detected numerous fires in the area on Monday, according to its website. The DX Open Network said the absence of fire clusters or scorch marks connecting burnt structures in the images it analysed makes it unlikely that the fires were all accidental, and there was no evidence of craters to suggest they might be the result of shelling. "These factors support the analytic judgment that this was an intentional effort by a conflict party to destroy this civilian habitation area, and not the product of combat," it said in its analysis. It was not clear from the images who might have set the fires. The prime minister's spokeswoman and the head of a government task force on Tigray did not respond to messages seeking comment. Reuters has been unable to reach TPLF officials since early December. Both sides in the Tigray conflict, which began in early November, have accused each other of abuses and denied responsibility for carrying them out. Reuters could not reach people in the area by phone. Communications to Tigray remain patchy, and the government tightly controls media access. Short link: For a country that barely feeds itself, Defense Chief Administration Secretary Peter Odoyo thinks highly of it. The CAS made some remarks that would lead most Kenyans to question reality. He was speaking on Tuesday at the Kisumu Port, where he had gone to inspect the progress of the building of a Sh1.2 billion passenger and cargo vessel. The vessel is being built by the Kenya Navy. While not stating the expected completion date, Odoyo noted that building the vessel at home will save the country Sh1.6 billion. The Kenya Navy has been underutilized but now the armed forces we are at work, he said. It will be bigger than the MV Uhuru, Odoyo added, referring to the recently revived cargo vessel at the port. The CAS however went a step further, claiming that Kenyas armed forces have the capacity to do even greater things. He said that we can build a moon landing rocket and even war tanks. He also revealed that we have the capacity to build an aircraft carrier and not just any aircraft carrier; the largest in the world. Kenyans, dont be fooled. We have the capacity and experts. Give Kenya Navy money and they will build for a ship that can carry even 100 aircraft, a rocket to the moon and a war tank that can hit something at 50km, he is quoted by The Star. At a capacity of 100 aircraft, our aircraft carrier would likely be the grandest ever built. By comparison, the worlds largest Aircraft Carriers, the Gerald R Ford Class, and the Nimitz-class have an aircraft capacity of under 90 planes each. Only a handful of countries in the world have built an aircraft carrier. The US in fact has more carriers in its fleet than all countries combined. Many rich countries have been unable or unwilling to produce a single one. Im therefore struggling to believe that this country possesses the technical expertise to build one, with only the financial resources lacking. And lets not get started on the moon rockets. BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Biocytogen , a company dedicated to accelerating therapeutic antibody discovery, has announced the acquisition of a third Beacon Optofluidic system. The new instrument, developed by Berkeley Lights, will support the expansion of Biocytogen's antibody discovery service platform in the greater Boston area for collaborations across the globe. Founded on its successful gene editing platform, Biocytogen recently developed humanized immunoglobulin mice that carry the full variable region repertoire ( RenMab ), as well as a related common light chain strain, RenLite. Generation of fully human antibodies in these models minimizes the time required to develop high-affinity antibody therapeutics with favorable pharmacokinetic properties. Biocytogen's integrative use of Berkeley Lights' industry-leading light-sorting technology further accelerates the process, due to the rapid screening of thousands of single B cells for antibody hit generation. Together, these technologies allow for the generation and discovery of fully human antibodies in a matter of weeks. About Biocytogen Biocytogen is an international biotechnology company that provides a comprehensive portfolio of products and preclinical services to accelerate new drug discovery and development. Biocytogen's expertise in gene editing has led to the generation of an extensive catalog of humanized mouse models that have been used to validate antibody drugs undergoing clinical development at its subsidiary, Eucure Biopharma. Biocytogen collaborates with global partners to discover therapeutic antibodies using its flagship RenMab model. For more information, please visit https://biocytogen.com/ and click the service brochure. Media Contact: Jenna Frame jframe@biocytogen.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1358305/Biocytogen_Logo.jpg This is in response to Jersey Shore locals say the Sierra Club is all wet on sand replenishment, a recent Paul Mulshine column: After spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on beach replenishment projects, our beaches are still in ruin after the past couple weeks of winter storms. The New Jersey Sierra Club is not against beach restoration; however, we dont support pumping millions of cubic yards of sand that only washes out at the next storm. We cannot keep dumping more sand over and over again. That is the definition of insanity. Instead, we need to look at a holistic approach that works with our natural systems. It is important for towns to restore their beaches, but it seems counterproductive to resort to an expensive option that continues to fail year after year. We need to build dunes appropriately, restore marshes and tidal wetlands to protect against beach erosion and to save our properties from storm surge. An overall, comprehensive approach would include elevating structures and moving them back from the waters edge. New Jersey has already started to buy out flood-prone properties using $300 million in Hurricane Sandy relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. However, we need to do more, especially with climate change, flooding and sea level rise getting worse. We are still building in vulnerable areas and granting permits under regulations that dont protect against climate change or storm impact. We need to be more resilient, meaning our ability to anticipate, prepare for and respond to storms or climate-related events. This is a team effort on local, state and national levels. We need to work together to find a solution that is environmentally and economically sound. Jeff Tittel, Director, New Jersey Sierra Club, Trenton Use health industry supply chain to ramp up vaccinations Though there is light at the end of the tunnel, New Jersey is one of the states hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, after 10 long months of personal and commercial restrictions, we experienced our highest weekly case totals, an auspicious start to the new year. The response, meanwhile, has been a mix of individual successes and continued delays. Morris County is showing what success looks like thanks to the leadership of the Morris County Commissioners who, in partnership with Atlantic Health, quickly staffed the states COVID-19 mega-site vaccination center at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall. A bright, modern facility staffed by professionals, the mega-site is a welcome, tangible sign of progress. And, it opened just as many more people became eligible for the vaccine. There are, however, still delays in obtaining enough doses to administer. While more than 4 million New Jerseyans are now eligible to receive the vaccine, they are competing for about 200,000 available doses at any given time, a tremendous disparity that threatens new-found feelings of hope. The solution is better integration with the health-care supply chain. This started earlier this month with the availability of vaccines at some CVS and Rite Aid stores, but should expand to other New Jersey pharmacies and major health-care distributors. I encourage our state officials to lean on this supply chain and existing infrastructure to get communities their needed vaccine doses. These health-care experts have experience in administering mass vaccinations and supporting our communities. We need more shots directly in the arms of people across Morris County, across New Jersey, and across the country. The health-care supply chain can help us do that. Michael Inganamort, Council President, Chester Township To Star-Ledger, Murphys the Teflon governor Watch out. The Star-Ledgers bias is showing, again. Youre applying a double standard, again. If we had a Republican governor in office while the Edna Mahan prison scandal was occurring, it would be on the front page every day, and it would be warranted. This needs to come off the editorial page and more resources from the reporting staff need to be applied. Get some serious pressure on Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy for accountability. Every day. This is reminiscent of the passes Murphy has gotten for the COVID-19 nursing home death debacle, the pandemic-related closures of Motor Vehicle Commission offices and the unemployment benefit delay fiasco. Any one of these would be cause for more extensive reporting and for blaming the governor. They certainly rise to the level of a bridge closure during the Chris Christie administration. If you want to know how to cover these stories, just pretend the current governor is a Republican. Now, Ill make a prediction. No matter what happens between now and Election Day in November, you will endorse Murphy for four more miserable years. Guaranteed. Gene Domowicz, Hillsborough Earth first, Mars second Yes, the landing of Perseverance Rover on Mars was an incredible achievement. But, with experts stating that there is only a decade or two left to work on saving our own planet from climate catastrophe, going to Mars does not accomplish anything toward that necessity. We spent many billions of dollars to satisfy our curiosity while our planet needs our first priority. Skip space exploration until we know we have saved the Earth. John Gilris, Whippany Sorry! This content is not available in your region The White House on Thursday said it would keep working with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as he faces allegations he sexually harassed a former aide. Cuomo is head of the National Governors' Association and President Joe Biden addressed their winter meeting on Thursday afternoon. The event took place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. The New York Governor introduced the president and the two men had a friendly exchange about what food would be served when in-person meetings can take place again. 'We do miss our White House visit Mr. President,' Cuomo said in his introduction. 'And we look forward to a possible invitation next year, fingers crossed. And maybe even an extra special meal to make up for the absence of. Of course, I would recommend the Italian food, but the way the NGA operates I'd have to put that up for a vote.' Biden responded he'd love to see the nation's 50 governors in-person at the White House next year and added that he'll 'have whatever food you want. We can go around- each one of you can just order individually.' New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced President Biden at the annual National Governors Association meeting and the two men had a friendly exchange about what food would be served when in-person meetings can take place again Missing from their talk was any mention of the controversies Cuomo is facing in his home state, including calls for an investigation after Lindsey Boylan - who worked as a special advisor to Cuomo in 2018 - charged in an essay published to Medium Wednesday that Cuomo asked her to play strip poker and kissed on the lips without her permission. Cuomo has denied the allegations. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that all women should be heard and treated with dignity when these allegations are made. But she didn't denounce Cuomo, who supported Biden during the presidential campaign. 'The president has been consistent in his position: when a person comes forward; they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Their voice should be heard not silenced. And any allegation should be reviewed,' Psaki said when asked about the matter at her daily press briefing. The White House said it would keep working with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as he faces allegations he sexually harassed a former aide - Cuomo is seen above in the Oval Office during a Feb. 12 meeting with Biden on COVID relief White House press secretary Jen Psaki said administration would work with Cuomo as part of their COVID relief efforts But, she added, the administration would continue to work with Cuomo as part of their efforts on COVID relief. 'Governor Cuomo is also the governor of one of the largest states in the country that has been one of the hardest hit with millions of people still suffering from an ongoing pandemic and an economic crisis,' she said. 'And our focus is to continue working with governors from across the country, from a range of states on how we're helping people in their states. He also is still head of the National Governors Association and hence he's at the event today.' Cuomo is facing fallout from the allegation. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an independent investigation into claims. In Wednesday's Medium post Boylan claimed she was taking a plane ride with Cuomo in 2017 when he asked her to play strip poker. 'I should have been shocked by the Governor's crude comment, but I wasn't.' She further alleged that during a one-on-one briefing with the Governor to update him on economic and infrastructure projects he kissed her without permission. 'We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue. As I got up to leave and walk toward an open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed me on the lips. I was in shock, but I kept walking. 'I had complained to friends that the Governor would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,' she wrote. In an essay published to Medium Wednesday, Lindsey Boylan -who worked as a special advisor to Cuomo in 2018- charged that the Governor asked her to play strip poker and kissed on the lips without her permission. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pictured on Wednesday. The Governor is currently mired in a number of scandals Boylan had already alleged in tweets in December last year that Cuomo 'abused his power' and sexually harassed her for years. Cuomo's press secretary Caitlin Girouard issued a statement Wednesday saying Boylan's latest allegations are untrue. 'As we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false,' she stated. Cuomo, who was praised early for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in his state, is now facing a number of scandals, including charges he covered-up the number of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes. More than 15,000 people have died in New York state's nursing homes and long term care facilities from COVID-19, but as recently as last month, the state reported only 8,500 deaths. The numbers, while accounted for in the full state death totals to the state, were not ascribed to nursing homes for residents who died in hospitals rather than within the facilities. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have now also begun investigations into the matter. The governor said it was not responsible for bringing coronavirus and more deaths into long-term care facilities. Biden has long held up Cuomo as an example for officials to follow on the pandemic. Last spring, then-presidential candidate Biden classified Cuomo's response to the raging as the 'gold standard'. 'Your governor of New York has done one hell of a job. I think he's sort of the gold standard,' he said at the time. Psaki defended Biden's comments in her briefing on Thursday. 'Let's put all the comments in context, which sometimes is a missing from these conversations,' she said. 'At the time, which was, I believe, April of last year, the president spoke out and said, positive things about a range of governors - Democrats and Republicans - who are stepping in when there was a vacuum of leadership at the federal level, when they were getting no information, when they were getting no help, and no guidance from the former Trump administration,' she noted. 'He made some positive comments about Governor Cuomo, and his role in New York at the time as he did about a range of governors,' she added. The University of Texas at Austin is suspending the SAT and ACT test score requirement for fall 2022 applicants, citing continued limited access to testing opportunities for students due the COVID-19 pandemic. The continuation of the temporary suspension will ensure that testing limitations related to COVID-19 do not affect a students ability to apply, or be considered for admission, to UT Austin, the university said in a statement. The flagship university is the latest among schools across the country to extend the temporary hold on the traditional application requirement. Earlier this year, multiple ivy league universities and others had extended their test-optional policies through 2022. In Texas, Rice University in Houston made a similar announcement. The University of Houston System also said it would remain test-optional through fall 2022 and would consider making the change permanent. Baylor University also made the standardized tests optional through fall 2023 and said it will reevaluate the policy for future years. Texas A&M University has also extended its policy to 2022 and anticipates 2023 will be test optional as well. Last year, multiple Texas universities temporarily scrapped the testing requirement for 2021 applicants as the College Board cancelled test exams and large exam sites were closed, including Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University. Elsewhere, other universities had already started to get rid of the standardized test requirement for admission even before the pandemic forced them to announce a temporary pause. Test-optional advocates have argued for years that standardized tests do not demonstrate a students true ability and instead create barriers for students of color and those who are low-income and may not have the resources to hire tutors or attend test prep classes. Now that schools were forced to adopt these policies, experts said its likely they will become more permanent. Once the pandemic is over [universities will] be able to really look back and say, Okay, is there a substantial difference to classes prior to my [test-optional] policy and after? and largely discovering no, said Akil Bello, a senior director of advocacy and advancement at FairTest, an advocacy group that tracks testing policies at universities across the country. Other higher education experts are more cautious, arguing that colleges need some kind of standardized metric. According to a recent survey of university admissions officers by the ACT, many school officials who shifted their universities to test-optional policies because of COVID-19 said they were somewhat unlikely to reverse back to requiring the test for admission. The survey said before the pandemic approximately 50% of four-year institutions did not require standardized tests for admission. An additional 30% of schools enacted an optional policy at some point in 2020. In Austin, St. Edward's University had been planning to permanently waive ACT and SAT requirements for months, Dean of Admissions Drew Nichols told The Texas Tribune last spring. We have come to find out the SAT is not exactly predictive of whether or not a student is successful on our campus, Nichols said, adding that students with low scores often have a stellar first semester and vice versa. Last year, the University of California system announced its campuses would begin phasing out the ACT and SAT immediately. By 2025, university officials hope to make both exams obsolete. I think it's a positive step in the right direction toward helping make access to higher ed more equitable, more reasonable, and simpler, said Bello. It adds very little value to the prediction of who is going to succeed and who won't and that minor value added is far outweighed by the problems it creates. Disclosure: Baylor University, Rice University, Southern Methodist University, St. Edward's University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) launches its first quit menthol cigarette campaign to address the risks and harms of menthol tobacco use within communities most exposed to menthol Black communities, LGBTQ, and young adults. Menthol and other flavors in tobacco hides the harsh taste of tobacco with a cool or minty flavor which can result in smokers inhaling deeper into the lungs resulting in greater exposure to the harmful and addictive chemicals. Black communities are among the highest groups of menthol smokers in LA County. Also, according to the 2018 California Youth Tobacco Survey, all high school students in LA County who reported smoking cigarettes only smoked menthol/mint cigarettes. "The tobacco industry has disproportionately marketed menthol cigarettes in Black communities as well as towards LGBTQ and youth. Over 12 percent of African American smokers in LA County reported smoking menthol cigarettes compared to just over 3% of white smokers," said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. "Public Health continues the efforts towards reversing the harmful effects tobacco has done in these communities." The Black community uses menthol tobacco products at a higher rate than other smokers. For decades, the tobacco industry has used aggressive advertising tactics to attract Black, LGBTQ, and young people to use and become addicted to menthol cigarettes. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has just released a new report titled, Stopping Menthol, Saving Lives, documenting the tobacco industry's heavy and deliberate marketing in Black communities, especially towards Black youth, for more than 60 years and as a result the impact the Black community has unfairly suffered from tobacco use. This media and public education campaign satirizes cigarette ads, acknowledging the impact of glamour and style, using these attributes to help inform about the health risks of smoking menthol cigarettes. The campaign will work with Los Angeles based Black-owned media and Spanish media networks for in-language messaging and to reach the audiences most impacted by the tobacco industry's marketing tactics. The campaign efforts will include radio, online and social media advertisements, as well as place-based and outdoor advertisements such as posters at convenience store locations. The campaign encourages people to call 1-800-NO-BUTTS (1-800-45-NO-FUME in Spanish) for free counseling and help to start a quit plan. People can also visit LAQuits.com/menthol for resources to help quit. The Department of Public Health is committed to protecting and improving the health of over 10 million residents of Los Angeles County. Through a variety of programs, community partnerships and services, Public Health oversees environmental health, disease control, and community and family health. Nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health comprises nearly 4,100 employees and has an annual budget of $1 billion. To learn more about Los Angeles County Public Health, visit PublicHealth.LACounty.gov , and follow LA County Public Health on social media at twitter.com/LAPublicHealth , facebook.com/LAPublicHealth , instagram.com/LApublichealth and youtube.com/LAPublicHealth . Los Angeles County Department of Public Health works to protect health, prevent disease, and promote health and well-being. For more information contact: Sibongile West o: 310487-8289 [email protected] SOURCE The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Related Links http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/ 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. A week after winter weather crippled the state's electric grid and knocked out power and water to residents, Bexar County officials are beginning to assess how CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System might have fallen short in responding to the emergency. At the same time, SAWS is paying a public relations firm owned by Bexar County Commissioner Trish DeBerry, who took office in January. DeBerrys firm, the DeBerry Group, signed a one-year, $175,000 extension on its marketing contract with the water utility last October, while DeBerry was running for office. At the time, DeBerry argued that the contract extension was not a conflict of interest because the county does not have any oversight of the city-owned SAWS. But in the aftermath of the storm, DeBerry has taken a keen interest in pursuing a postmortem of the crisis and any communication breakdowns that occurred between the city, county and utilities. This week, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff appointed DeBerry as a county liaison to a new panel formed by Mayor Ron Nirenberg that will investigate how city government responded to the emergency. Wolff also appointed Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert as a liaison for the county. I think shes got six months left, Wolff said of DeBerrys contract with SAWS. I dont think shes renewing it. In this particular case, (DeBerry and Calvert) are just observers. They dont have any say in what the committee will be doing. Its just to keep us informed of whats going on. On ExpressNews.com: CPS Energy cut power to SAWS pump stations Others were more troubled by DeBerrys contract with a utility she is supposed to be scrutinizing. The jury is still out over how SAWS really performed in the debacle last week, said Alan Montemayor, chair of the executive committee of the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club. I really believe these kind of officials should recuse themselves from any of the deliberations and the reports on what happened. Its just too tempting to take the party line, if you will. DeBerry said her contract with SAWS would not influence her role in assessing the water utilitys performance. She said she asked plenty of tough questions of both CPS Energy and SAWS at a commissioners court meeting on Tuesday. Im able to successfully extract myself from a contractual relationship with SAWS versus what is in the best interest of my constituents, DeBerry said. Nonetheless, DeBerry took more direct aim at CPS Energy at Tuesdays meeting. There was more grilling of CPS Energy than there was of SAWS, SAWS CEO Robert Puente said on Wednesday at a meeting with the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board. At Tuesdays meeting, DeBerry pushed for county representation on the CPS Energy board but not the SAWS board. And she lay more blame for the cascading energy and water crises at the feet of the energy utility than the water utility. On Feb. 15, under orders from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to shed power, CPS Energy shut down a major SAWS pump station near the University of Texas at San Antonio without first conferring with the water utility, causing at least four other pump stations to lose power, according to SAWS officials. A day later, SAWS agreed to allow CPS Energy to cut power to at least a dozen other pump stations. As a result, about 40 percent of homeowners in San Antonio suffered water outages or low water pressure. Residents in DeBerrys North Side precinct were among the hardest hit and the last to have water service restored. Wolff called SAWSs decision to allow CPS Energy to shut down its pump stations a mistake that created a water crisis on top of an energy crisis. DeBerry gave the water utility a pass. I dont blame SAWS for that because at the end of the day, in order to have running water, you have to have energy to propel water, DeBerry said. So the decision later look, the entire grid is going to go out unless we do something about this. At one point, a massive fire destroyed a North Side apartment complex in DeBerrys precinct, displacing 130 residents. Firefighters were slowed by hydrants on-site that did not produce water, forcing them to shuttle water from hydrants nearly a quarter of a mile away. They were trying to get water from the swimming pool to be able to fight that fire, DeBerry said at Tuesdays meeting. They were resorting to water from the JW Marriot to be able to fight that fire. DeBerry spoke to SAWS officials during the crisis. Her questions, I think, were just general, Puente said, in what is the status of particular neighborhoods getting water and pressure issues. Puente deflected a question about whether DeBerrys contract with SAWS was a conflict of interest. Whether its a conflict in her realm obviously is a question for her, he said. We renewed this contract before she got elected, so I think thats a question that shed have to answer. bchasnoff@express-news.net A paedophile private tutor was allowed to continue teaching due to a shocking lack of regulation in the industry, a court has heard. A judge said he was deeply concerned to learn that Yi Liu had still been able to teach despite pleading guilty to groping four young students. The 63-year-old was jailed following a Mail investigation that revealed dozens of private tutors had continued working despite previous convictions. Unlike teachers, private tutors are not required by law to have criminal record checks to work with schoolchildren. A judge said he was deeply concerned to learn that Yi Liu (pictured) had still been able to teach despite pleading guilty to groping four young students Campaigners have called for all those working in the profession to undergo a mandatory Enhanced DBS background check. Southwark Crown Court heard how Liu had taught children maths for two decades despite a previous conviction dating back to 1998. In 2018, he was arrested and charged with groping four boys between eight and 13 years old in their family homes over the previous six years. One 11-year-old victim told his parents that the tutor had put his hands down his pants in his bedroom during a lesson, the court heard. Police spoke to a further three victims, who had complained of Lius creepy behaviour and in particular how [he] would touch them around their genitals Liu had been allowed to work alone with the boys in their family homes on a wealthy street, in west London where the average house price cost 1.2m. One of the parents told officers he had been recommended and was used by a lot of families in the area. But the court was told that despite being charged in 2018 he had continued to teach children and was still doing so despite pleading guilty in December. Sonya Saul, prosecuting, said Liu could have been stopped if the private tutoring profession had any vetting procedure in place. Instead, the onus was on honesty and integrity of the convicted person to tell the parent of the child about the fact of conviction. She said it had enabled Liu to exploit the lack of regulation. In November last year, Liu had convinced a mother with a heavily edited version of events in order to continue teaching her teenage daughter. She said the parent had recommended Liu as a wonderful teacher to her friends without knowing the truth and there was every risk she would have continued to do so. Ms Saul said: If the defendant were a qualified school teacher, he would be subject to checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service and he would have been banned altogether from teaching on conviction Judge Gregory Perrin said Liu had abused the trust of parents and had offended repeatedly against multiple victims for many years. He said: It is of deep concern that following enquiries made by the prosecution that youve continued tutoring and have not made full disclosure of your offending. Judge Perrin sentenced to Liu to 18 months in prison on January 18. He also imposed a sexual harm prevention order covering all children under the age of 18 following an application by the prosecution. Barry Kogan, defending, said Liu had since accepted the incidents were sexually motivated and that he sincerely apologises. He asked the judge to spare Liu a prison sentence because he presently had an inability to come to terms with his shame and disgrace He said medical reports from last year showed Liu had been diagnosed with depression and appeared to be in the early stages of Alzheimers. Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis have discussed Lithuania's support for the vaccination strategy for the Eastern Partnership countries. "The Deputy Prime Minister thanked her Lithuanian counterpart the support for Ukraine in receiving access to the vaccine and noted that Lithuania is one of Ukraine's closest allies," reads a report post on Facebook page of Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna. During the meeting, the parties also discussed the implementation of the Association Agreement and Ukraines gradual integration into the internal market of the European Union and Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic course and the importance of providing Ukraine with a NATO Membership Action Plan to strengthen security and stability in the region. In addition, the officials considers the issues of Ukraine's role in maintaining security in the Black Sea region, application of a new EU sanctions mechanism for human rights violations and the possibility of imposing sanctions for appropriate actions in temporarily occupied Crimea. Olha Stefanishyna thanked Lithuanian partners for supporting Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic movement. As reported by Ukrinform, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis was on an official visit to Ukraine on February 23-24. iy 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. WASHINGTON - Standing on the Capitol steps on Jan. 6, Richard Michetti allegedly took a break from the rioting to argue with his ex-girlfriend over text message. After sending photos and videos of the mob and boasting how he had avoided tear gas, Michetti parroted President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud. "If you can't see the election was stolen you're a moron," Michetti wrote in a text to the woman, according to court documents. The next day, the woman he had insulted promptly told the FBI that her ex was at the Capitol, handing over to law enforcement the string of texts, photos and videos he had sent to her. Michetti, who lives in Ridley Park, Pa., has now been charged with knowingly entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and obstruction of Congress. If convicted, Michetti, who was arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Philadelphia, faces up to 20 years in prison, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. Neither Michetti nor his attorney, federal public defender Kathleen Gaughan, immediately responded to a request for comment late Wednesday. Michetti joins the growing list of more than 200 people who have been charged in the insurrection. Many of the alleged rioters were identified by law enforcement through text messages sent to family and friends that bragged of their presence in D.C. last month. The ex-girlfriend, who is not named in a 10-page statement of facts, told the FBI that Michetti had texted her on Jan. 5 that he was taking a train to Washington from his home in the Philadelphia suburbs. Michetti told her that he was going to Washington because he believed the election had been stolen - a false claim relentlessly echoed by Trump following President Biden's win. After Trump urged his supporters in a Jan. 6 speech in front of the White House to march to the Capitol as Congress was certifying the election results, Michetti, wearing a Chicago White Sox hat, dark hoodie and surgical mask, joined the thousands who breached the building minutes later, federal agents said. "It's going down here," he texted his ex at 2:06 p.m., court documents show. "We stormed the building they held us back with spray and teargas and paintballs." The Trump supporter told his former partner that while his eyes were burning, he and the thousands there were doing the right thing to "stop the vote it's fraud this is our country." Around 4:30 p.m., after Trump finally called for rioters to "go home" hours into the insurrection, Michetti, who sent the woman two videos from inside the Capitol, called his ex a "moron." "This is tyranny," he texted her later that evening. "They . . . told us 'we rigged the election and there's nuthin you can do about it' what do you think should be done?" After reaching out to law enforcement the next day, Michetti's former partner was interviewed by FBI special agents on Jan. 11 and helped identify her ex in photos and videos sent to authorities by other tipsters. Footage from Capitol security cameras also captured the Delaware County man in various parts of the building, including the Rotunda, federal agents said. The FBI also got a receipt from Michetti's one-night stay at a hotel one block away from the Capitol that showed he had checked out on the day of the insurrection. Michetti was released this week on unsecured bail with electronic monitoring, according to the Morning Call. His next court appearance by video is scheduled for Monday in federal court in Washington. POTTSVILLE Schuylkill County bars, hotels, motels and restaurants will have help recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic with the county set to receive more than $1.6 million from the state to help smaller businesses survive. Thats for small businesses in the hospitality area, anything that provides food, drink or accommodations, County Administrator Gary R. Bender said Wednesday of the $1,601,084 approved for local businesses. It is very specific. The money is part of $145 million transferred from the state Workers Compensation Security Fund under Act 1 of 2021. Other sections of the law channel some of the money to the Department of Education for schools and the Department of Human Services for rental and utility assistance. Eligibility is for businesses with fewer than 300 full-time employees and with net worth under $15 million. Commissioner Gary J. Hess, who runs a catering business, hopes county companies take advantage of the program. Its hopefully something that can help the cash flow, he said. I want to make sure they get it. Commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington said the program is better than the one for dispensing money under the federal CARES Act. This one (the amount of money received) is based on population. To me, its fair, he said. Some county business leaders criticized the county for the distribution of the money in the CARES Act program, saying more should have gone to small businesses. Robert S. Carl Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, had been one of those critics, but is open-minded about the new program. Theyre two different processes, he said. It needs to be administered by an economically eligible entity. Carl hopes the money will get where it needs to go. We support fully restaurants and the hospitality industry in seeking government assistance, he said. We want to make sure ... that they get the opportunity to apply. Carl said that while the chamber has no direct involvement with the program, it will help with communicating the existence and workings of it to members and nonmembers alike. The county will not administer the program itself, Bender said. Instead, it will be required to have either a certified economic development organization or a community development financial institution do the work, he said. That organization will award the grants and disburse the money, Bender said. The county, in cooperation with that organization, will develop the application. Under the program, individual grants cannot be less than $5,000 or exceed $50,000. Three organizations meet one of the two administrative criteria, according to Bender: Metro Action Inc., the Northeast Pennsylvania Alliance and the Schuylkill Economic Development Corp. Bender said the county must sign a contract with the administering organization by March 1 and start accepting applications for the program by March 15. The deadline for applying for money is June 15, he said. The county is developing a website to help companies deal with the application process, Bender said. Hess said the hospitality industry has sustained significant losses throughout the pandemic, and was hit especially hard by restrictions imposed during the Christmas season. Restaurants ... definitely took a hit on the chin, he said. Once these businesses are gone, its hard to bring them back. Hetherington said the county is eager to distribute the money, but the amount is not infinite and companies should start assembling tax returns and other necessary documents. Its a first-come, first-served basis, he said. When the moneys gone, its gone. Killeen, TX (76540) Today Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. Low 67F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. Low 67F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible. Motorists in Argentina were shocked to discover a swarm of mosquitos had created a terrifying tornado-like formation high into the sky. Video footage recorded yesterday by a driver on Route 74 between General Madariaga and Pinamar in Argentina shows a huge dark tower looming in the sky further up the road from the motorist. The enormous tower-like shape appears to stand hundreds of feet tall, but upon closer inspection, the entire structure is made up of mosquitoes. In the video footage, the shocked motorist can be heard saying: 'It's getting bigger and bigger, I've never seen anything like this before.' An enormous dark tower looms in the sky up ahead of one driver on Route 74 between General Madariaga and Pinamar in Argentina, yesterday The sighting of the bizarre twister-like formation comes after the Buenos Aires region of Argentina was invaded by mosquitoes. Juan Jose Garcia, a researcher at the Centre for Parasitological and Vector Studies (CEPAVE) told local media: 'Heavy rains caused flooding resulting in large pools of stagnant water where female mosquitoes lay their eggs.' He added that this often results in the birth of 'huge numbers' of insects which 'invade cities'. Despite the enormous number of insects, Garcia said that they do not pose a threat to humans but do have the potential to interfere with farming activities. As such, he said that no action was necessary to deal with the large numbers of insects, and instead people should just see out the next 15 days. The raging, twister-like shape is made up entirely of mosquitoes. The insects have invaded the Buenos Aires region of Argentina in huge numbers recently After this time period, the insects should begin to die off. Despite Garcia's advice, many locals have called on the authorities to fumigate the flying pests. The Directorate of Zoonosis of the municipality of Pinamar responded to the requests, claiming that fumigation would be ineffective as it would only kill a tiny fraction of the mosquito population in the area. A directorate spokesperson said: 'Fumigation brings with it the risk of introducing toxic chemicals into the food chain which will have a knock-on effect towards the insect's natural predators.' Due to these environmental concerns, the municipality says it 'reserves fumigation for extreme cases where there is a real threat to the general public health'. Locals are being encouraged to use insect repellent, ensure their windows have good-quality mosquito nets, and to keep water sources covered when they aren't in use. Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 4:55 pm After a quiet start to 2021, Southwest Washington Fairgrounds staffer Pat Slusher Jr. says the fairgrounds might be busier than ever this year despite the pandemic. Lewis County announced this week that the fairgrounds can begin scheduling events again under Phase 2 of the states reopening plan. I think were going to have more (events) than weve ever had, because were getting calls from out of county, Slusher said Tuesday. People are dying to do things. The announcement means that bookings can resume, but itll be a week or so before Slusher and other fairgrounds staff have a clear picture of the 2021 events schedule. Everybody cant turn it on a dime. Everybodys got to contact all their vendors and go through all those things, he said. Per state guidelines, fairground events can resume at 25% capacity or 200 people (excluding staff), whichever is fewer. For very large venues over 100,000 square feet, events will be capped at 300 people. First, the fairgrounds has to bring back its staff after several months of virtually no events. The pandemic and subsequent cancelation of the 2020 fair induced major economic decline for the facility, which ultimately led to the county laying off its fair and events manager. Whats clear so far, Slusher said, is that the Country Chicks market with over 100 vendors selling shabby chic home goods will likely be back in June, and the gun show is set to return. He noted that residents should not take the recent cancelation of the Spring Youth Fair as an indication of what the fairgrounds schedule will look like in coming months. In a normal year, the fairgrounds are activated for events about 200 days out of the year. Now, events will have to be scheduled alongside jury selection still being held at the facility to maintain social distancing between jurors as well as mass vaccination events. Slusher, along with Public Health Director J.P. Anderson, said the mass vaccination events and fairground events will not interfere with each other. It will be coordinated and vaccine work will not be inhibited, Anderson said via text. Slusher said itll be like putting together a puzzle, and that hes not majorly concerned about scheduling around vaccine events. Lewis County helped Providence set up the communitys first COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic in late January, later finalizing an agreement to continue using the fairgrounds for that purpose. Another clinic is planned for next week. County officials also submitted a proposal at the states request detailing how the fairgrounds could be used as one of the state-run mass vaccination sites. A full-time, state-run vaccination clinic would certainly throw a wrench into the fairgrounds plans for events. But it doesnt seem to be in the cards, according to Anderson. Weeks after submitting their proposal, county officials have yet to hear back, and are unsure if the state still has plans for more mass vaccination sites, which have been criticized by some local officials as being inaccessible and hindering local efforts. Slusher says the level of callers expressing interest in hosting events is likely due to other event spaces being converted into full-time vaccine sites. The Benton County Fairgrounds and the Clark County Fairgrounds, for example, host two of the states four mass clinics. Wenatchees Town Toyota Center and the Spokane Arena host the other two. There are other facilities where theyre taking them over full-time, and thats not the case here it wont hinder anything, Slusher said. The thing about the fairgrounds, and a lot of people dont realize, is its really a multi-use type of facility. We can accommodate a lot of different things going at one time. MORE: Electric Vehicle Content Library (1995-2021) TROY, Mich.--With some encouragement, undecided battery electric vehicle (BEV) shoppers can become likely purchase considerers, which is good news for automakers expanding their EV product lineup, according to the inaugural J.D. Power U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration (EVC) Study,SM released today. Currently, more than half (59%) of new-vehicle shoppers fall into the somewhat likely or somewhat unlikely categories when it comes to considering a BEV for their next purchase or leasea significant window of opportunity for future EV sales. Right now, the projected BEV supply outweighs consumer interest. And for every new-vehicle shopper seriously considering BEVs, theres another at the opposite end of the spectrum, said Stewart Stropp, senior director, automotive retail at J.D. Power. To avoid a potential ongoing inventory surplus, it behooves manufacturers and retailers to identify why shoppers in the middle ground arent completely sold on the technology, and how to get them over the hump into the very likely consideration camp. The study finds that firsthand experience with BEVs plays an important role in purchase consideration. Among respondents who say they have owned or leased a BEV in the past, 46% are very likely to consider another, while only 6% say they are very unlikely to consider purchasing another BEV as their next vehicle. This is similar to findings in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership StudySM in which, even among dissatisfied owners (overall satisfaction scores below 600 on a 1,000-point scale), 65% say they definitely will consider an EV for their next purchase. The EVC Study also finds the very likely ratio among respondents who have simply ridden in a BEV is nearly three times that of those who have never been in one (20% vs. 7%, respectively). Half of respondents have never been in a BEV, highlighting a critical need for automakers and retailers to create opportunities for consumers to familiarize themselves with these vehicles. Anything stakeholders can do to get more people into electric vehicles, whether its experiential events, take-home test drives or other proactive efforts, will help break down the preconceptions people have about BEVs and drive higher consideration, Stropp said. Following are key findings of the 2021 study: Vehicle use outweighs range anxiety: Among heavy-use drivers, the prospect of eliminating gasoline expense seems to neutralize range anxiety. Very likely consideration is more than three times higher among those who take more than 10 road trips per year compared with those who dont take any (34% vs. 10%, respectively). The ratio is similar among those who commute more than an hour (35%) compared with those who have no commute (9%). Consideration by current vehicle segment: The very likely ratio among current owners of premium brands (36%) is more than twice that of mass market brand owners (15%). The study also finds consideration by current vehicle brand ranges widely from 46% to 96% in the premium segment and 36% to 60% in the mass market segment. Information begets consideration: Nearly one-third (30%) of non-considerers cite a lack of information as a reason for their lack of consideration. To consider BEVs, shoppers need to be better informed about them and the ownership proposition they offer. Time frame for non-considerers to become considerers: Four in 10 (41%) non-considerers say they will consider a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in the next two to four years while 27% say they will consider a BEV in the same time frame. Tesla tops luxury brands considered: More than one-fourth (27%) of shoppers who are considering a BEV select a Tesla model as their top choice, citing performance as the main driver. However, among these respondents, reasons they might consider another brand include better performance; better purchase price; and better features, functionality, technology or capacity. Its worth noting that only 4% of respondents among whom Tesla is the top choice say they are only considering a Tesla. One could argue this indicates that, while Teslas appeal is clearly formidable, its not absolute and could be displaced by a worthy alternative, Stropp said. The U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration (EVC) Study is a new industry benchmark for gauging EV shopper consideration. Survey respondents for the inaugural study included 9,030 U.S. new-vehicle intenders in market to purchase or lease within 12 months. The survey was fielded December 2020-January 2021. For more information about the U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration (EVC) Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/automotive/electric-vehicle-consideration-study. J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies. 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. 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. In the lead-up to Rare Diseases Day on Sunday February 28 - Associate Professor Kim Hemsleys studies into childhood dementia are helping to unlock answers that can assist treatment of these largely unheralded conditions. Image Credit: Flinders University Associate Professor Hemsley leads the Childhood Dementia Research Group, within the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI) at Flinders University, which is a team of medical researchers whose goal is to identify and test treatments for childhood-onset dementia. Around the world, 700,000 children and young people are living with childhood dementia. People are surprised and very saddened when I tell them that unfortunately yes, children get dementia too. It's typically something associated with aging, Hemsley, Associate Professor, FHMRI at Flinders University Due to the limited awareness of childhood dementia, she is using the attention focused on Rare Diseases Day as an opportunity to spread the word and help gain wider public attention for rare disorders and work being undertaken by the Childhood Dementia Research Group. Rare Diseases Day is an important international campaign that aims to raise awareness of what it means to be rare. There are more than 300 million people worldwide living with a rare disease. Through doing research into more than 6000 rare diseases, the global medical fraternity works towards more equitable access to diagnosis, treatment, care and social opportunity. Hemsley Childhood dementia is among the most surprising rare diseases in the minds of the general public. There are more than 70 different genetic causes of dementia in children and according to a recent study by the Childhood Dementia Initiative there are 2300 Australian children living with this condition at present. Sadder still is the fact that less than 5% of the disorders have a treatment and most children never reach adulthood. The aim of our work is to develop treatments in the lab and see them move into the clinic so that these children and their families can have a normal life. People can learn more about this disease by visiting an informative website - https://www.childhooddementia.org/what-is-childhood-dementia The Childhood Dementia Research Group recently had findings of an NHMRC-funded project published in international journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications, highlighting the potential for using widely available retinal imaging techniques to learn more about brain disease and monitor treatment efficacy. Sanfilippo syndrome - an untreatable form of childhood-onset dementia - is one of a group of about 70 inherited conditions which collectively affect 1 in 2800 children in Australia, making them more common than cystic fibrosis and better-known diseases. Associate Professor Hemsley says this research work fits neatly into the key message for Rare Disease Day 2021, which is: Rare is many. Rare is strong. Rare is proud. We encourage everyone to take part in this campaign, because awareness leads to empowerment and with the whole community supporting action, we will move further down the path to finding crucial medical solutions. It is not realistic for the Government to think that half the population would be vaccinated by the end of April, a leading Immunologist Professor has warned. Professor Tomas Ryan of Trinity College Dublin said that even with the most ambitious targets set by the Taoiseach, it was not realistic to think that half the population would be vaccinated by April. "Realistically half the population might have had a single dose of the vaccine by the end of June," he told Newstalk Breakfast. Prof Ryan said that while Covid-19 was "on its way out, it could be some time before a widespread vaccination programme was completed. If we come out of this lockdown and we don't have low enough case numbers, we could easily be heading quickly towards a fourth wave. He said there was too much of a presence of the new variant in the population at the moment. He said that having half the population vaccinated by April could present "a very risky situation" which would be ideal for variants to emerge that were vaccine-resistant. However, he acknowledged that some aspects were improving, but not at as fast a rate as some would like. Prof Ryan said the 14-day average was "looking good" in places like Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny and other counties, but not declining in Dublin, Galway and Offaly. This lockdown is a longer lockdown than any of us would have liked - that's almost certainly due to the B117 variant which is now dominant in the population - which means it is going to be a slightly longer lockdown, or the alternative is we could find ways of going harder, he said. On 4 February the German energy giant RWE announced it wassuing the government of the Netherlands. The crime? Proposing to phase out coal from the countrys electricity mix. The company, which is Europes biggest emitter of carbon, is demanding 1.4bn in compensation from the country for loss of potential earnings, because the Dutch government has banned the burning of coal for electricity from 2030. If this sounds unreasonable, then you might be surprised to learn that this kind of legal action is perfectly normal and likely to become far more commonplace in the coming years. RWE is suing under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a little-known international agreement signed without much public debate in 1994. The treaty binds more than 50 countries, and allows foreign investors in the energy sector to sue governments for decisions that might negatively impact their profits including climate policies. Governments can be forced to pay huge sums in compensation if they lose an ECT case. On Tuesday, Investigate Europe revealed that the EU, the UK and Switzerland could be forced to pay more than 345bn in ECT lawsuits over climate action in the coming years. This amount, which is more than twice the EUs annual budget, represents the total value of the fossil fuel infrastructure that is protected by the ECT, and was calculated using data gathered by Global Energy Monitor and Change of Oil International. With ECT-covered assets worth 141bn (or more than 2,000 per citizen), the UK which in 2019 became the first major economy to pass a net zero emissions law is the country most vulnerable to future claims. In 2019 the European Commission called the ECT outdated and no longer sustainable, and more than 450 climate leaders and scientists and 300 lawmakers from across Europe have called on governments to withdraw from the treaty. But in response, powerful interests have mobilised to not just defend the treaty, but to expand it to new signatory states. These interests include the fossil fuels lobby keen to keep its outsized legal privileges; lawyers who make millions arguing ECT cases; and the Brussels-based ECT Secretariat, which has close ties to both industries and whose survival depends on the treatys continuation. A Bodyguard for Polluters Supporters of the ECT make a number of controversial claims to prevent countries from leaving the treaty and persuade new countries to join. But their myths and misinformation are easily debunked. For example, ECT supporters say the treaty attracts foreign investment, including into clean energy. However, there is no clear evidence that ECT-style agreements do this: a recent meta-analysis of 74 studies found that investment agreements effect on increasing foreign investment is so small as to be considered zero. And while ECT supporters claim the treaty protects renewable investments, in reality it predominantly protects and prolongs the fossil-fuel dominated status quo. In recent years only 20% of investments protected by the ECT covered clean energy, compared to 56% for coal, oil and gas. By protecting the status quo, the ECT acts as a bodyguard for polluters. As the RWE example shows, when a government decides to phase out coal or cease oil and gas operations, fossil fuel companies can demand steep compensation via the ECT. So with no public benefits and clear risks for climate action, why are countries hesitant to leave the treaty? Two more myths are preventing them from taking action. Firstly, ECT proponents claim that an ongoing process to modernise the treaty will fix its flaws. But modernisation has proceeded at a snails pace since 2017, and is unlikely to succeed given resistance from powerful ECT members like Japan, whose companies have used the ECT to take legal action against other governments. Leakedreports show that the talks are stalled due to the requirement to take decisions unanimously. No signatory state has proposed removing its dangerous corporate courts, which take the form of arbitration tribunals run by three private lawyers. No state has proposed a clear exemption for climate action. No ECT member wants to exclude protection of fossil fuels from the modernised treaty any time soon. In short: the negotiations around ECT modernisation will not bring the treaty in line with global climate commitments. Secondly, ECT supporters claim that leaving the treaty offers no protection against costly lawsuits. The ECTs sunset clause which allows investors to sue a country for 20 years after its withdrawal from the treaty makes a unilateral ECT exit useless, it is claimed. In practice, however, withdrawing from the ECT significantly reduces countries risk of being sued and avoids carbon lock-in from new fossil fuel projects. The ECTs sunset clause only applies to investments made before withdrawal, while those made after are no longer protected. At a time when the majority of new energy investment is still in fossil fuels, not renewables, this is important. The sooner countries leave, the fewer new dirty investments will fall under the ECT and be locked-in by its legal status. Italy took the necessary step of withdrawing from the ECT in 2016. Going forward, if multiple countries decide to withdraw together say, the EU bloc, supported by allies such as the UK or Switzerland they can further weaken the sunset clause. Countries that withdraw could adopt an agreement that excludes claims within their group, before jointly leaving the ECT at the same time. That would make it difficult for investors from those countries to sue others from the group. This week a European-wide petition has been launched so that citizens can call on their governments to end the ECT madness. Leaving the outdated, climate-killing ECT is a no-brainer. It is not just good governance, but the logical step for all who take global warming seriously. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Synaptogenix, Inc. (OTC: SNPX), an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that it will attend two upcoming scientific industry conferences. On Thursday, February 25th, Dr. Daniel Alkon M.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer, will present a virtual poster at the 9th annual Neurodegenerative Drug Development Summit. The virtual posters begin at 5pm ET and the Synaptogenix presentation can be accessed via the following link. Click Here: Neurodegenerative Drug Development Summit Also, on Sunday, March 14th at 10am ET, Dr. Daniel Alkon M.D. will present at the 15th International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases (AD/PD 2021). The presentation title will be "Evidence for Generality of a Neuro-Regenerative Therapeutic Strategy with Bryostatin." "The Pre-clinical and clinical findings discussed will include data citing a significant improvement, 4.8 points above baseline Severe Impairment Battery scores, in pre-specified cohorts of advanced Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients in a recent pilot Phase II trial that persisted at least 30 days after the last Bryostatin dose was administered," stated Dr. Alkon M.D. Additional information can be found at: AD/PD 2021 Dr. Alan Tuchman M.D., Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are excited to continue talking about data from our pilot phase II AD studies and look forward to sharing additional updates on our ongoing Phase II trial under enrollment at this time." About Synaptogenix, Inc. Synaptogenix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that has historically worked to develop novel neuro-regenerative drug therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Synaptogenix has conducted clinical and preclinical studies of its lead therapeutic candidate, Bryostatin-1, in Alzheimer's disease ("AD"), and preclinical studies for rare diseases such as Fragile X syndrome, Niemann-Pick Type C disease, and Rett syndrome, as well as multiple sclerosis, autistic spectrum disorder, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation to Synaptogenix for Bryostatin-1 as a treatment for Fragile X syndrome. Bryostatin-1 has already undergone testing in more than 1,600 people in cancer and AD studies, thus creating a large safety data base that will further inform clinical trial designs. Additional information about Synaptogenix, Inc. may be found on its website: www.synaptogen.com. Forward-Looking Statements Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Phase 2 study and further studies, and continued development of use of Bryostatin-1 for AD and other cognitive diseases. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other influences, many of which the Company has no control over. There can be no assurance that the clinical program for Bryostatin-1 will be successful in demonstrating safety and/or efficacy, that we will not encounter problems or delays in clinical development, or that Bryostatin-1 will ever receive regulatory approval or be successfully commercialized. Actual results and the timing of certain events and circumstances may differ materially from those described by the forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties. Additional factors that may influence or cause actual results to differ materially from expected or desired results may include, without limitation, the Company's inability to obtain adequate financing, the significant length of time associated with drug development and related insufficient cash flows and resulting illiquidity, the Company's patent portfolio, the Company's inability to expand its business, significant government regulation of pharmaceuticals and the healthcare industry, lack of product diversification, availability of the Company's raw materials, existing or increased competition, stock volatility and illiquidity, and the Company's failure to implement its business plans or strategies. These and other factors are identified and described in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. Contact information: Investors and Media Investor Relations Brett Maas Hayden IR [email protected] (646)536-7331 Robert Weinstein Chief Financial Officer Synaptogenix, Inc. [email protected] SOURCE Synaptogenix, Inc. Related Links http://www.synaptogen.com FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bodleian Libraries and Gale, a Cengage Company, are delighted to announce the launch of the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships program. Funded by Gale, the fellowships will support three scholars for a three-month period of research into a digital humanities related topic at the University of Oxford, using the Centre for Digital Scholarship of the Bodleian Libraries. The goal of the program is to encourage emerging digital humanities scholarship in the Asia Pacific region and progress the contribution of non-Western and regional perspectives in the field of digital humanities research. The Bodleian Libraries and Gale would like to congratulate the following candidates awarded the fellowships in 2021/2022 as well as highlight the projects they will be pursuing: Dr. Tuo Chen , research assistant professor, faculty of history, Nankai University, China Project: Dr Chen's project, The Communication Circuit of Chinese Christian Books (1807-1949) , aims to extend his doctoral work on Chinese and Western Book culture and cultural exchange by examining Chinese Christian books. Dr Chen's project, , aims to extend his doctoral work on Chinese and Western Book culture and cultural exchange by examining Chinese Christian books. Dr. Hsuan-Ying Tu , assistant professor in early modern history, school of history and researcher of the Research Centre for Digital Humanities, Renmin University of China Project: With her project, Clientage, Politics and the Elizabethan Regime: Digital Humanities and New Perspectives , Dr. Hsuan-Ying Tu will use the digital humanities to unravel the web of deliberately complex papers left by Elizabethan 'spymaster' Francis Walsingham and others and explore ways to visualize these webs of data and power relationships. With her project, , Dr. will use the digital humanities to unravel the web of deliberately complex papers left by Elizabethan 'spymaster' and others and explore ways to visualize these webs of data and power relationships. Dr. Mark Byron , associate professor in modern and contemporary literature, department of English, University of Sydney Project: Dr. Byron's project, Digitizing Samuel Beckett's novel Watt: The Beckett Digital Manuscript Project and Beyond, aims to widen historical understanding of the novel by placing it within the historical context of its composition during the Second World War. Dr. Byron's ambition is to open complex manuscripts to a wider readership through building digital 'clues' and pathways so readers can explore contexts and the relationships of this work to contemporary issues of political radicalisms and migration. "Welcoming our first cohort of Gale Fellows is tremendously exciting. They are a group of leading researchers and academics who will advance their respective fields through exploring new forms of scholarship using digital techniques and approaches," said Richard Ovendon, Bodley's librarian in the University of Oxford. "The Bodleian Libraries are excited at the prospect of working with these three talented individuals as they pursue ambitious projects that will advance our understanding of the humanities, based on our rich holdings of primary sources in both physical and digital form." Along with access to the special collections of the Bodleian Libraries, the fellows will be able to access Gale Primary Sources and the Gale Digital Scholar Lab to assist them with their digital humanities initiatives. "We are thrilled at sponsoring these fellowships and know these three scholars will enjoy a rich experience at the University of Oxford," said Terry Robinson, senior vice president and managing director of Gale International. "Gale will continue to publish rich and varied primary document archives and are fully committed to the ongoing development of the Gale Digital Scholar Lab which, I'm sure the three scholars will make use of at Oxford. Our commitment to enabling digital scholarship is at the core of our values and I look forward to many years ahead of cooperating with the Bodleian Libraries and the University of Oxford." The fellows will start their new posts at the University of Oxford between October 2021 and May 2022. They will be expected to present their work at TORCH (The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities) and can propose to develop a digital resource or other innovative output during their time at Oxford. To learn more about the fellowship projects, visit the Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships webpage . About Cengage and Gale Cengage, an education technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries, advances the way students learn through quality, digital experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher education, professional, library, English language teaching and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights - where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit: www.gale.com/intl. Follow Gale on: Twitter The Gale Review blog LinkedIn Facebook About the Bodleian Libraries The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. It includes the principal University library - the Bodleian Library - which has been a legal deposit library for 400 years; as well as 27 libraries across Oxford including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera. Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian's online image portal at digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk or by visiting the exhibition galleries in the Bodleian's Weston Library. For more information, visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk Media Contact: Kayla Siefker, Gale, a Cengage company 248-915-9624 kayla.siefker@cengage.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1443321/Dr__Tuo_Chen.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1443322/Dr__Hsuan_Ying_Tu.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1443319/Dr__Mark_Byron.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1443519/Gale_A_Cengage_Company_Logo.jpg Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, on Thursday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting vaccine equity. He also said your commitment to COVAX and sharing COVID-19 vaccine doses is helping more than 60 countries start vaccinating their health workers and other priority groups. COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX, is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines led by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and others. Last month, the Ministry of External Affairs announced that India plans to supply 1 crore or 10 million vaccine doses to Africa and 10 lakh to United Nations health workers under GAVI's COVAX facility. On Thursday, WHO's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to Twitter to say: Thanks India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting #VaccinEquity. Your commitment to #COVAX and sharing #COVID19 vaccine doses is helping 60+ countries start vaccinating their #healthworkers and other priority groups. I hope other countries will follow your example. Thanks & Prime Minister @narendramodi for supporting #VaccinEquity. Your commitment to #COVAX and sharing #COVID19 vaccine doses is helping 60+ countries start vaccinating their #healthworkers and other priority groups. I hope other countries will follow your example. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 25, 2021 On Wednesday, Ghana became the first country in the world to receive vaccines acquired through the United Nations-backed COVAX initiative with a delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India. The vaccines, delivered by UNICEF, arrived at Accra's international airport early Wednesday and are part of the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines being sent by COVAX, an international cooperative programme formed to make sure low- and middle-income countries have fair access to COVID-19 vaccines. Covax plans to roll out over 2 billion doses by the end of the year, with at least 1.3 billion going to lower-income countries at no cost to their governments. (With inputs from agencies) Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The Junta de Andalucia expects to reach the summer with half of the population vaccinated. This has been stated by the regional minister of Health, Jesus Aguirre, in a regional parliamentary appearance. But he warned that the vaccination plan, which will be presented before the Juntas Governing Council next Tuesday, is for several months, or possibly for a year or more. The Junta de Andalucia will approve, next Tuesday, the vaccination 'Plan 500,000', which refers to the number of weekly doses to be administered in the region, and which includes the planning of mass vaccination points. The Health minister drew attention to the need for vaccinations to be carried out away from health centres, except in small towns, to avoid crowds of people and the consequent risk of infections. According to Aguirre, the Covid vaccination strategy implemented by the regional government is working well, delivering an average of 150,000 doses per week, and it is expected that at the end of April or the beginning of May there will be a massive increase in the delivery of vaccines. With the implementation of the plan, the Junta forecasts that between 50 and 60 per cent of the population will be vaccinated by June, although Aguirre has warned that the vaccination strategy will last at least one year, so it is important to have adequate mass vaccination centres for the duration. He pointed out that it is impossible to know if new strains or variants of the virus will appear in the future that will force the campaign to continue for longer than expected. MONTREAL - The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec posted a return of 7.7 per cent in 2020, below its benchmark index of 9.2 per cent as the investment fund plans changes to its portfolio in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Charles Emond, president of Quebec's Caisse de Depot pension fund, speaks to the media at a news conference Thursday, February 25, 2021 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz MONTREAL - The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec posted a return of 7.7 per cent in 2020, below its benchmark index of 9.2 per cent as the investment fund plans changes to its portfolio in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The investment fund's performance was dragged down by real estate investments, which suffered during the pandemic. The Caisse's real estate portfolio, which includes shopping centers and office buildings, declined 15.6 per cent in 2020, the Caisse said. "In an unprecedented environment characterized by sharp contrasts between the various asset classes, CDPQ delivered returns that, overall, meet the needs of its depositors, Caisse president and chief executive officer Charles Emond said in a statement Thursday. The returns come after a turbulent year in financial markets, which saw stocks plunge at the start of the pandemic only to recover ground throughout the rest of the year as governments around the world mobilized to help the economy. The Caisse's depositors require a 6 per cent average return over the long term, the Caisse said. The investment fund's annualized return over five and 10 years was 7.8 per cent and 8.6 per cent, respectively, the Caisse said. Still, the Caisse plans to alter its portfolio in response to the pandemic, particularly in real estate. The pandemic and associated government measures have taken a heavy toll on investments like commercial real estate as more people work remotely or order goods directly to their homes. "In real estate, certain sectors continue to struggle with significant challenges that the pandemic has only intensified," Emond said. "During the year, we continued to transition this portfolio, including through various acquisitions in promising sectors." As of Dec. 31, the Caisse's net assets stood at $365 billion, it said, up from $248 billion in 2015. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2021. If the Manitoba legislatures respectful workplace policy prevents an MLA from criticizing a politically appointed government official, it is in need of immediate revision. If the Manitoba legislatures respectful workplace policy prevents an MLA from criticizing a politically appointed government official, it is in need of immediate revision. Paul Beauregard, who stepped down as treasury board secretary in January, filed a harassment complaint last year against NDP MLA Adrien Sala. An excerpt of the results of that complaint was released by Mr. Beauregard in a politically charged statement last week. Mr. Beauregard, who was hand-picked by Premier Brian Pallister in 2017 to implement governments balanced-budget agenda, alleges he was repeatedly harassed and bullied by Mr. Sala when he made accusations about Mr. Beauregards role in awarding a lucrative government contract to Bell MTS. It is a dubious claim. The role of the Opposition is to hold government accountable and to criticize decisions when it doesnt agree with them. That scrutiny is not limited to elected officials; it applies to senior political advisers as well, many of whom wield more power than most government MLAs. Advisers often act on behalf of senior cabinet ministers (as Mr. Beauregard, who worked as an executive for Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. prior to joining government, did in the Bell MTS affair). As such, they must be held accountable for their actions in an open and transparent way. Holding senior political advisers accountable for their actions is not bullying or harassment; it is a normal and necessary part of the political process. This is especially true for senior officials with ties to the party in power. Mr. Beauregard, who was appointed last month by Mr. Pallister to a new senior government position as a "technical officer," was a regular financial contributor to the PC Party of Manitoba prior to his appointment. He donated money to Mr. Pallisters leadership campaign in 2012. Unlike most senior bureaucrats, Mr. Beauregard did not rise through the ranks as a career civil servant. According to the statement released by Mr. Beauregard, the investigation found Mr. Salas criticisms constituted "repeated humiliation and intimidation causing lasting, harmful adverse effects on his physical and psychological well-being." MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Former treasury board secretary Paul Beauregard That is an absurd claim. If Mr. Beauregard, one of the most powerful figures in the Pallister government, feels humiliated and intimidated by the criticisms of an Opposition MLA, perhaps he should rethink his career choice as a partisan appointee in the provincial government. Even more preposterous is Mr. Pallisters comparison this week of Mr. Beauregards situation to genuine workplace harassment cases, including sexual harassment, that have taken place at the Manitoba legislature in recent years. Former NDP cabinet minister Stan Struthers was accused by multiple women, including staff who worked for government, of inappropriate touching. He issued a written apology in 2018. Former MLA Cliff Graydon was expelled from the Tory caucus in 2018 after making inappropriate comments to female staff, including inviting some to sit on his lap or lick food off his face. He was accused of groping another woman at a PC party function. Comparing those victimizations to a political dust-up between an MLA and a powerful government adviser undermines the severity of workplace harassment cases, especially those involving women in power-imbalance situations. It trivializes the pain and anguish they endured. What the results of the investigation into the Sala-Beauregard affair reveal is the need for the legislative assembly to revise its workplace harassment policies. MLAs should be free to question and criticize the actions of senior officials in government. The policy should be amended to reflect that. It should not be used to advance the partisan interests of government, as it clearly was in this case. LOGANTON A large family-owned meat processing business in Clinton County says it has been forced to shut down temporarily because it can no longer apply food processing residuals (FPR) on snow-covered fields. The state Department of Environmental Protection on Feb. 9 ordered the applications to stop but did not tell Nicholas Meat in Greene Twp. outside Loganton it had to cease production, spokesperson Megan Lehman said Wednesday. The Environmental Hearing Board Friday denied Nicholas latest appeal of the order, leaving the company no alternative but to shut down, said Brian Miller, director of sustainability. The company has 3.5 million gallons of storage capacity but, according to DEP, generates 150,000 gallons of waste daily. Other options have been explored including hauling the residuals miles away to a treatment facility, but Miller said they are not viable in the short term. Talks are continuing with DEP and he expressed hope the issue can be resolved so the closure is temporary. The approximately 350 employees continue to be paid for now, he said. The closing, which took effect at the end of the workday Tuesday, also impacts 150 contract workers and hundreds of farmers and cattle buyers, he said. The closing, which took effect at the end of the workday Tuesday, also impacts 150 contract workers and hundreds of farmers and cattle buyers. Nicholas Meat processes approximately 600 cattle a day compared with 150 to 200 in 2013, and there is no place in the region that can handle that number, Miller said. That growth, coupled with an unusually long-standing snowpack and no backup plan, is the genesis of this issue, Lehman said. Nicholas Meat maintains it has safely applied the nutrient-rich and organic residuals to farmland year-round, including when snow is present on fields, in accordance with the relevant regulations for more than a decade. But, DEP pointed out last October it imposed a civil penalty of $6,500 on an area farmer because FPR from Nicholas that was spread on his land got into an unnamed tributary of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The application of residuals on snow-covered ground has never been permissible and Lehman suggested field and weather conditions might have been different at the times that Nicholas claims applications have occurred, of which DEP was aware. The plant closure will disrupt food retailers and affect Pennsylvania consumers access to a local and consistent beef supply, including grass-fed, natural (antibiotic and hormone-free) and organic beef products, a company news release claims. Hundreds of farmers and cattle buyers across Pennsylvania and the surrounding states count on Nicholas Meat to harvest their cattle, it says. Robin C. Brandt, who helped develop the Food Processing Residual Management Manual for DEP, claimed at a news briefing hosted by Nicholas that the application equipment used today cuts through the snow. Brandt, who is technical director of Material Mattes Inc. of Elizabethtown, urged DEP to revoke its compliance order claiming todays technology was not available when the manual was written. DEPs action, which followed numerous complaints, is driven by the increased potential for runoff during the melting process and to uncertain field conditions under the snow, Lehman said. Miller disputed DEPs claim that it had not expanded storage for the waste in the past eight years while increasing the number of cattle being processed. It added 2.5 million gallons in storage space several years ago, he said. It plans to construct a sustainable resource facility that will enable 90 percent of the water to be reused in the plant and convert solids into organic, nutrient-rich fertilizer, he said. Those who are complaining about the FPR applications are in the minority, contends Justin Snook, a dairy farmer who lives in the area and is president of the Clinton County Farm Bureau. DEP has not required Nicholas to do anything with the FPR already applied to snow-covered ground, Lehman said. This case remains open and DEP will continue to monitor the situation and could require further action if warranted, she said. The NSW government has approved more than 400 applications to harm or interfere with Aboriginal heritage sites over the past five years, including 84 applications since last year. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Don Harwin told the hearing that every Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit had been ratified in the past 12 months, adding that conditions were attached to the approvals to mitigate impacts. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Don Harwin at Budget Estimates on Thursday. Credit:Steven Saphore The NSW government was unable to identify any knock backs to permits submitted over the past five years. Pressing Mr Harwin over the issue, Greens MP David Shoebridge said NSW was overseeing a scheme of managed destruction rather than managed protection. He said the damage to Aboriginal heritage sites was replicating what had occurred when Rio Tinto blew up 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia. JERSEYVILLE Ameren Illinois announced Wednesday it is preparing to start Phase 2 of a two-year project designed to enhance energy service reliability, flexibility and load capacity of the companys local electric grid for customers in Jersey and Macoupin counties. In March electricians will begin making equipment upgrades to Anerens Jerseyville, Piasa Junction and Brighton substations. The firm is adding high-voltage switching components to each substation to potentially reduce the duration of an outage allowing the company to re-route power between the three substations. The company is also expanding the Brighton and Piasa Junction substations. The investment is estimated at $7.9 million. At the Piasa Junction Substation, crews will build a new substation just north of the existing one. The fence around the site will be expanded to accommodate the new substation. A new 14MVA transformer will be installed along with other equipment such as smart switches to modernize the structure. The existing substation will be decommissioned and removed. At the Jerseyville Substation, crews will be installing new 69-kilovolt breakers and switches to help re-route power between the local substations. At the Brighton Substation, crews will expand the site to the north and east. Two H-frame steel structures will be constructed as the location is converted into a 69-34-12 kilovolt substation with supporting equipment. A new transformer and control house structure will also be added to the site. Last year Ameren crews replaced power lines and about 300 power poles covering 13.5 miles between Jerseyville and Brighton. More than 50 composite fiberglass poles were erected at strategic points along the 13.5-mile route to storm harden the lines to able to better withstand high winds during storms. A new three-mile circuit tie was also constructed between the Piasa and Brighton substations, making the grid more resilient and enabling Ameren to re-route power between the substations during an outage. This phase of the project was a $10.5 million investment. The upgrades are part of our overall statewide plan to build a cleaner, greener, more resilient grid, said Kim Voypick, Director of Western Region Electric Operations, Ameren Illinois. With these enhancements, Ameren Illinois is taking proactive steps to prepare for the future needs of our electric customers. Since 2012, Ameren has implemented hundreds of projects, added new technology and strengthened poles, wires and distribution equipment. Company officials said that, as a result, reliability has improved by an average of 22 percent and the time of an outage has been reduced by 16 percent. Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and 816,000 natural gas customers throughout central and southern Illinois. 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 [February 25, 2021] CI Global Asset Management Files Preliminary Prospectus for World's First Ether ETF CI Global Asset Management ("CI GAM") announced today that it has filed and obtained a receipt for a preliminary prospectus for CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF ("ETHX" or the "ETF"). When launched, it is expected to be the first ETF in the world to invest directly in Ether, the cryptocurrency built on the Ethereum blockchain. "Cryptocurrencies are transforming the financial world, and we are excited to launch the world's first ETF investing directly in Ether, one of the most highly valued cryptocurrencies," said Kurt MacAlpine, Chief Executive Officer of CI Financial, the parent company of CI GAM. "CI is quickly establishing a leadership position in this space, having launched CI Galaxy Bitcoin Fund and recently filing a preliminary prospectus for CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, in partnership with blockchain and cryptocurrency experts Galaxy Digital. With these funds, we are reducing the friction points that investors have traditionally faced in buying and holding cryptocurrencies. CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF is an important addition to that lineup as this emerging asset class gains increasing interest and validation." CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF will trade on the TSX under the ETHX ticker and is designed to provide investors with a convenient way to gain exposure to Ether through an institutional-quality fund platform. ETHX will invest directly in Ether with its holdings priced using the Bloomberg (News - Alert) Galaxy Ethereum Index ("ETH Index"), which is designed to measure the performance of a single Ether traded in U.S. dollars. The ETH Index is owned and administered by Bloomberg Index Services Ltd. CI GAM will be the manager of the ETF and Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP ("Galaxy Digital") will act as the Ether sub-advisor for the ETF. As sub-advisor, Galaxy Digital will execute Ether trading on behalf of the ETF. Galaxy Digital is a diversified asset management firm dedicated to the digital asset and blockchain technology sector. The team has extensive experience spanning portfolio management, capital markets, mining, operations and blockchain technology. "Ethereum is the leading candidate to be the base layer of Web 3.0, and Ether is a growth asset that provides investors exposure to the explosion of decentralized applications," said Mike Novogratz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Digital Holdings. "We are thrilled to expand our advisory relationship with CI," said Steve Kurz, Partner and Head of Asset Management. "The CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF represents a global first, giving investors a simplified path to benefit from the potential growth of this important asset class." CI GAM's leadership in the cryptocurrency market is aligned with its goals of modernizing its asset management lineup to respond to evolving investor needs and includes CI Galaxy Bitcoin Fund (TSX: BTCG), which launched on the TSX in December 2020, and a preliminary prosectus for CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (TSX: BTCX). A preliminary prospectus dated February 24, 2021 containing important information relating to ETHX has been filed with the securities commissions or similar authorities in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. The preliminary prospectus is still subject to completion or amendment. A copy of the preliminary prospectus is available on www.sedar.com. There will not be any sale or any acceptance of an offer to buy the securities until a receipt for the final prospectus has been issued. About Galaxy Digital Galaxy Digital Capital Management L.P. is an affiliate of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (TSX: GLXY) ("Galaxy Digital Holdings"). Galaxy Digital Holdings currently operates four distinct business lines, which include: Trading, Asset Management, Principal Investments and Investment Banking. Galaxy Digital Holdings' CEO and Founder is Michael Novogratz. The Company is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands (registered office) and New Jersey. Additional information about the Company's businesses and products is available on www.galaxydigital.io. About CI Global Asset Management CI Global Asset Management is one of Canada's largest investment management companies. It offers a wide range of investment products and services and is on the Web at www.ci.com. CI GAM is a subsidiary of CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX, NYSE: CIXX), an independent company offering global asset management and wealth management advisory services with approximately C$231.8 billion in total assets as at January 31, 2021. The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities nor will there be any sale of such securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with an investment in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell units of an ETF on recognized Canadian exchanges. If the units are purchased or sold on these Canadian exchanges, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying units of the ETF and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them. Please read the prospectus before investing. Important information about an ETF is contained in its prospectus. ETFs are not guaranteed; their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. This communication is provided as a general source of information and should not be considered personal, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice, or construed as an endorsement or recommendation of any entity or security discussed. Individuals should seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding any particular investment. Investors should consult their professional advisors prior to implementing any changes to their investment strategies. Certain statements in this document are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements ("FLS") are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," or "estimate," or other similar expressions. Statements that look forward in time or include anything other than historical information are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results, actions or events could differ materially from those set forth in the FLS. FLS are not guarantees of future performance and are by their nature based on numerous assumptions. Although the FLS contained herein are based upon what CI Global Asset Management believes to be reasonable assumptions, CI Global Asset Management cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these FLS. The reader is cautioned to consider the FLS carefully and not to place undue reliance on FLS. Unless required by applicable law, it is not undertaken, and specifically disclaimed that there is any intention or obligation to update or revise FLS, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. CI Global Asset Management is a registered business name of CI Investments Inc. CI Investments Inc. 2021. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210225005360/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The humanitarian disaster that has left millions of people without power, water and other essential services due to a winter storm in Texas has culpritsmost immediately, the energy companies and the entire state government of Texas. The very politicians and corporate giants who claim that schools must be open for in-person learning because it is in the best interests of the youth are responsible for the circumstances that directly led to the deaths of at least four Texas children last week due to hypothermia and house fires. Millions more have been traumatized by living for days without heat, water and adequate food. The body count of adultsthe parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of Texas schoolchildrenwho died due to exposure or lack of access to water, is still rising. Rates of COVID-19 are expected to increase due to desperate people having to shelter together in an effort to survive. In this Feb. 23, 2021 file photo, volunteer Ben Harper prepares to hand out drinking water at an apartment complex without water in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) Those who allowed this to happen do not care about children. They do not care about education. They care about their money, and no amount of human suffering is to get in the way of their pursuit of profits. Even as thousands are still without basic resources and families confront home repair and power bills in the tens of thousands of dollars, school systems across the state are gearing up to force educators and children back into classrooms as quickly as possible. The events of the last two weeks in Texas were predicted and entirely preventable. The dangers posed to the population by a deregulated power grid and a completely un-winterized energy supply system were well-known. The storm was accurately forecast in terms of its strength and severity. Yet, the grossly misnamed Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) falsely claimed it could handle the anticipated surges in demand as a result of the winter weather. The most murderous liethe fiction that kept many Texans in their homes instead of seeking alternate shelter ahead of timewas this: the blackouts would be issued on a rolling basis. The first warnings that went out to electricity customers indicated that power cuts would rotate on a 25-40 minute basis. Hours later, this was revised to two to three hours. By the next morning, millions woke up to find their electricity had gone out overnight. Finally, the power companies simply declared that they would get things up and running as soon as possible. The Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee insists on this: workers must mount an irreconcilable struggle against the private utilities, profiteering billionaires and government representatives responsible for this disaster. Their crime cannot go unanswered. We demand: 1. A thoroughgoing investigation into the Texas power crisis conducted by elected representatives from workplaces and neighborhood rank-and-file committees. This includes an examination of the logic that guided the selection of where to throttle electricity and which zip codes or business districts were prioritized to have their lights stay on. Publicly available outage tracking data from the ONCOR website shows disproportionate concentrations of outages in working class zip codes, while the wealthiest areas and vacant buildings within commercial business districts maintained power. 2. The criminal prosecution of every individual, politician and corporation responsible for the Texas disaster. 3. The cancellation of all utility bills charged to household consumers during the crisis and the immediate return of any money already taken from workers bank accounts. 4. Full payment to Texans for food loss, flooding damage, burst pipes and damaged vehicles, to be paid for by expropriating the profits of the regional energy monopolies. 5. Immediate weatherizing of the existing electrical grid so it is sufficiently prepared for the increased demand during both heat waves and snowstorms, regardless of cost. The notion that it is too expensive to ensure that Texans are not placed in mortal danger from an unannounced and extended blackout is completely false; magnates within the industry are simply unwilling to incur costs in order to maximize profit. 6. The transformation of all power-based utilities (electricity, natural gas, coal, nuclear) and water systems into publicly-owned enterprises, managed and operated in the best interests of the population and society as a whole. It is already obvious that ERCOT, at the behest of the energy interests that steer its decision-making, will argue against the imposition of even the most limited mandatory requirements to secure the energy grid as an unacceptable intrusion by the federal government into the regional market. Workers in Texas have witnessed firsthand the catastrophic result of private, independent, and deregulated utilities. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that disasters of this magnitude do not repeat themselves. The Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee has been working since the summer to defend the lives of teachers, students and their families. The public relations assault on teachers in the drive to open up in-person schooling serves the same corporate bottom line pursued by ERCOT in its unwillingness to enforce basic measures to keep the power grid operating. Join the Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee to carry forward this fight ! President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been urged to demonstrate his commitment towards gender equality, equity and all-inclusive governance by giving more women and persons with disability the opportunity to serve in his government. According to the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation (HDMF), it is the opportune time for President Akufo-Addo who serves as the AU Gender Champion for Africa and Co-Chair of the Eminent Advocates of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and is also the current Chairman of ECOWAS to justify his enviable credentials to the world. The Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation, an NGO promoting the interests, transformation and wellbeing of women and persons with disability, expressed the view that President Akufo-Addo who now has all the powers at his disposal to increase the representation of women and PWDs will not want to impair his credentials, legacy and global credibility by relegating, downgrading and marginalizing women and persons with disability in his government. The Executive Director of the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation, Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba who made the call on behalf of the Foundation appealed to the President to make deliberate appointments of women and persons with disability as Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Council of State members, Chief Executive Officers, Ambassadors, Board Chairpersons, Managing Directors, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives amongst others. This, the Foundation observed will not only increase their participation in the governance of this country but shall also increase their representation and involvement in decision making. The Foundation upheld the need for Ghana to increase the participation and representation of women and persons with disability in both the local and national government structures. Though commendable, the Executive Director said the appointment of a few women and one physically challenged person as Regional Minister for the Oti Region so far is still not enough to demonstrate the Presidents commitment towards the promotion of all-inclusiveness and gender equality, especially as Ghana turns 64 years. Mr. Joshua Makubu becomes the third Minister with disability after the appointments of the former Regional Minister for Central Region, Mr Kwamena Duncan in 2017 and Dr. Henry Seidu Danaa as the Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs in 2013. Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has so far submitted names of forty-six (46) Ministers-designate to Parliament for vetting and approval. They include 30 Ministers and 16 Regional Ministers. Eight (8) of the appointees are women - two (2) Regional Ministers and six (6) Ministers of state and one male person with disability. With about 41 more Ministers to be appointed, the Foundation calls on the President to give special recognition to persons with disability and women to ensure their fair representation and active participation in the decision-making processes of Ghana. The Foundation said that President Akufo-Addo who was also appointed by the former AU Chairperson, President Alpha Conde as the Chairman of the AUs Committee on Gender and Development in 2017, is expected to ensure that women and PWDs are well-placed within the scheme of national affairs especially in his second term as President of Ghana. Ghana has over 3 million persons with disability representing 10% of the population whiles women constitute over 51%. But the nation after signing on to several international conventions, treaties and compacts is still struggling to place women and persons with disability at where they rightfully deserve or create the requisite equal opportunities and recognition for them to harness their full potentials. In Ghanas House of Legislature [Parliament] where all critical decisions are discussed and formulated into laws, womens representation since the country returned to constitutional rule in 1993 is still like a drop of water in the ocean. The 30% threshold [affirmative action] for womens participation agreed upon by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the 1995 Beijing Conference by the UN, is yet to have full expression in Ghana. To date there has never been a person with disability in Ghanas Parliament. The Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation places a high demand on President Akufo-Addo to appoint at least 10% women and 5% persons with disability out of the 30% of the Government appointees into the various assemblies in the next District Level and Unit Committee Elections in 2023. The 2020 Ghanas election produced only 37 female members of parliament out of the total of 275 representing 13%, the 2016 election produced 36 females representing 12.75% and 2012 produced 29 female MPs. All the outcomes from all the elections fall below the 30% minimum threshold. The time is apt for real change for equity, equality and inclusiveness for in particular women and persons with disability in the development and government structures and there is no better person to ensure this at the moment than the President through his appointments. Source: peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The 19th Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent to Lebanon carries out a joint emergency medical rescue drill with multinational peacekeeping units under the UNIFIL on February 23, 2021. By Lei Yang BEIRUT, Feb. 25 -- The 19th Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent to Lebanon carried out a joint emergency medical rescue drill on February 23 with multinational peacekeeping units including French air medical emergency team, Italian helicopter team and Brazilian ground support team under the UNIFIL. The joint ground-air emergency medical rescue drill for COVID-19 patients was deployed by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for the first time. The drill scenario was the urgent transfer of a severe COVID-19 patient to the hospital in the mission area for treatment. During the drill, the Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent demonstrated excellent capabilities and professional means, which won praise from the UNIFIL inspection and evaluation team. Through the drill, Chinese medical team members further improved their emergency response capabilities in the pandemic context, accumulated experience in carrying out joint ground and air rescue, and strengthened cooperation with local medical system. A review by US regulators of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine has found it is safe and effective. It paves the way for it to become the third Covid-19 vaccine to be authorised in the US, possibly within days. The vaccine would be a cost-effective alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and can be stored in a refrigerator instead of a freezer. The Belgian company Janssen, which is owned by the pharmaceutical giant, said its data showed the product was highly effective against severe disease. It comes as Ghana became the first country to receive coronavirus vaccines through the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative. The briefing document published by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives more detail on the data submitted by Janssen to the regulator. The FDA concludes that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has "known benefits" in reducing both symptomatic and severe illness. Results from vaccine trials conducted in the US, South Africa and Brazil found its efficacy against the worst outcomes of the virus was "similarly high" but overall protection was lower in South Africa and Brazil, where virus variants have become dominant. Data showed it was more than 85% effective at preventing serious illness, but only 66% effective overall, when moderate cases were included, when considering cases at least 28 days after vaccination. Notably, there were no deaths among participants who had received the vaccine and no hospital admissions after 28 days post-vaccine. An external committee of experts will meet on Friday to recommend whether the FDA should authorise the vaccine, possibly adding to a coming surge in vaccine availability in the US. Source: BBC 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 'End of the road': Episcopal Church officials react to losing $100M property dispute with breakaway diocese Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Officials in The Episcopal Church are reacting to the United States Supreme Court opting to not reverse a decision granting a breakaway diocese $100 million in church properties. In a list of orders released Monday, the Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear the combined cases of All Saints Episcopal Church v. Diocese of Fort Worth and The Episcopal Church et al. v. Diocese of Fort Worth. As a result, an earlier decision from the Texas Supreme Court in favor of the breakaway Anglican diocese will be allowed to stand, with a lower court judge tasked with implementing it. Bishop Scott Mayer of the Episcopal diocese said in a statement released earlier this week that while he was disappointed with the Supreme Court decision, we live in hope. I ask for your prayers and urge us all to stay focused on the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and on our mission and ministries in the days ahead, stated Mayer. In the wake of this decision we remain committed to preaching the gospel as we celebrate the sacraments, care for those in need, and strive for justice and peace. The statement included a letter from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, head of The Episcopal Church, expressing his sorrow and disappointment that the Texas Supreme Court decision will stand. We are today the Episcopal branch of that 1st century Jesus Movement. You, dear people of God, are those baptized and committed to this Jesus and his way of love today, Curry said. This is nothing less than following Jesus in the work of Gods mission for the sake of the world. And what was true for them in the 1st century is true for us in the 21st. Katie Sherrod, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worths communications director, told Episcopal News Service that eight congregations will be looking for new houses of worship due to the decision being allowed to stand. They have found places to thrive, but they had to start over with nothing, said Sherrod, adding that when it came to the court case, this is effectively the end of the road. In 2008, a majority of the Fort Worth diocesan leadership voted to leave The Episcopal Church due to differences stemming from the denominations increased acceptance of homosexuality. The leadership opted to join the more theologically conservative Anglican Church in North America, with litigation ensuing over the dozens of church properties owned by the diocese. In 2018, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals ruled in favor of The Episcopal Church, arguing that the national denomination rightfully held the ownership of the properties. Individual members of a parish may decide to worship elsewhere; a majority of individual members of a parish or diocese may decide to do so, stated the ruling, in part. But when they leave, they are no longer Episcopalians as identified by TEC; they become something else. And that something else is not entitled to retain property if that property, under the terms of the deed, is held in trust for a TEC-affiliated diocese or congregation. However, in May 2020, Texas Supreme Court partially reversed the earlier ruling against the breakaway group, citing changes made to the dioceses constitution and canons in 1989. MILAN, FEB 25 - An Italian Web entrepreneur who has already been detained on suspicion of drugging and raping an 18-year-old girl over the course of 20 hours in Milan in October on Thursday received a second arrest warrant on charges of drugging and raping a 23-year-old woman on Ibiza in July. Tech millionaire Alberto Genovese, 43, who allegedly tied up, drugged and raped the Milan girl, has requested house arrest in order to get off his drug addiction. Prosecutors' requests for a further arrest for six episodes against two other girls who have come forward were however rejected by judges. It also emerged Thursday that Genovese said in a chat with a friend last April that he sometimes felt guilty because he was "less than an animal". A Milanese preliminary investigations judge on Thursday rejected Genovese's plea to be released to house arrest in a rehab clinic. Genovese allegedly carried out his sexual violence offences with the participation of his girlfriend, Sarah Borruso, who is under investigation but has not been arrested. (ANSA). Nicholas Huynh / New York Times Three Chronicle reporters were named winners of the prestigious George Polk Award for military reporting for their coverage of the coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and the plea for help sent by the commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier. Chronicle staff writers Matthias Gafni, Joe Garofoli and Tal Kopan won the award, announced Wednesday by Long Island University in New York, which since 1949 has honored investigative reporters across media platforms. Bruce Springsteen is an icon in the music industry. While the E Street Band frontman is one of the most recognizable faces in the business and has been a newsmaker for decades his daughter, Jessica Springsteen, recently started making headlines for her own career. Heres more about The Boss daughter and what she does for a living. Bruce Springsteen and his daughter Jessica Springsteen | Debra L Rothenberg/FilmMagic Jessica Springsteen is Patti Scialfa and Bruces only daughter Jessica Rae Springsteen was born on Dec. 30, 1991. She is the only daughter of the Born in the USA artist and his second wife, bandmate Patti Scialfa. Jessica has two brothers Evan Springsteen and Sam Springsteen. We had our kids late. I was 40 when our first son was born, and they showed a healthy disinterest in our work over all the years, Bruce stated in a 2017 interview with The New York Times. While Jessica didnt want to follow in her parents musical footsteps she credits where they raised her for what became her passion and profession. (L to R): Bruce Springsteen with daughter Jessica Springsteen, and wife Patti Scialf | Roy Rochlin/WireImage Where Jessica grew up Jessica spoke to Upscale Living Magazine about growing up on her familys 300-acre farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey. We moved full-time to our farm. We were always surrounded by animals as kids, which was really nice, she told the publication. We had chickens, cows, pigs you name it! Jessica developed a love for riding horses when she was a child. I started riding when I was about 4 or 5, she said. My parents always said I was competitive straight away, but I just loved to be around horses. I never wanted to miss a lesson; I was committed and took it very seriously from a young age. Jessica Springsteen on her horse during competition in London | Mike Marsland/WireImage I think the chemistry between you and your horse can vary from ride to ride. Some horses, you get on immediately with and you pick right away, and others, it can take a little bit longer and be a bit of a struggle, the musicians daughter explained in an interview with CNN. But I think you have to be patient, and it has to be a mutual give and take between the horse. Jessica is now a professional equestrian. Her riding achievements include representing the U.S. as an alternate rider in the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning the American Gold Cup in 2014, and earning the top spot in a five-star Grand Prix jumping competition in 2016. RELATED: Bruce Springsteens 10 Greatest Songs of All Time Jessica plans to compete in the upcoming Olympics Jessica Springsteen at an equestrian competition in London | Mike Marsland/WireImage) As a professional equestrian Jessica has traveled all over the world for competitions. In 2020, she told Upscale Living Magazine that she lives in Belgium but her home base is in Florida. She had planned to be in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games before they were postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the time, we were working towards making the shortlist for the Olympics by staying consistent with our results. I was aiming towards certain events with my horse, without overdoing it, so I could have her peaking this summer, Jessica said, adding, Of course, plans have changed, and weve had to adjust, but for us, our routine is always pretty consistent. Bhopal/Gwalior, Feb 25 : The return of Babulal Chaurasia, the former Hindu Mahasabha councillor from Gwalior to the Congress has kicked up a storm in the state's political circles. Chaurasia was inducted in the party on Thursday in the presence of former chief minister and now Congress chief Kamal Nath. Pictures of his joining the grand old party have gone viral on social media and triggered a political debate. Former Congress state president Arun Yadav has reacted to a picture of Chaurasia with the slogan: "Bapu we are ashamed. Long live Mahatma Gandhi." Taking a swipe at Chaurasia joining the Congress, state home minister Narottam Mishra said: "For the Congress, the so-called Gandhis are more important than Mahatma Gandhi who is there only to get votes. The incident has revealed the party's double standards." It may be recalled that in 2014, after being denied a Congress ticket, Chaurasia left the party and joined the Hindu Mahasabha to fight elections from ward no 44 and emerged victorious. On November 15, 2017 he participated in a programme organised by the leaders of the Hindu Mahashabha on the occasion of a temple being built for Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse. He had even worshipped Godse on the occasion. Pictures of his actions in events supporting Godse are now going viral on social media. Chaurasia maintains he was originally with the Congress and has again returned to the party's ideology. House lawmakers spent over an hour locked in a tense debate Wednesday afternoon on an unsuccessful transparency amendment to the Legislatures 2021-2022 Joint Rules before ultimately adopting a rules package to govern interactions between the two branches that strips a few elements of the Senates proposed reforms. The House approved a rules package on a 128-31 vote that would keep a notice requirement for committee hearings at 72 hours, rather than the one week proposed by the Senate; make public only the names of committee members who vote against favorably reporting a bill, instead of providing a complete accounting of how all members vote, as the Senate version would; and remove Senate language which would have mandated that committees share copies of public testimony when asked by members of the public. Most of the debate Wednesday centered on an amendment (8) that would have made details of all committee votes public, mandated a one-week notice for committee hearings, and made public testimony on bills available to the public upon request. The House rejected the amendment on a 36-122 vote with nearly all Republicans and eight Democrats voting in favor. Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, the amendments lead sponsor, argued that it promoted transparency and accountability within the House. The Somerville Democrat said she wanted to caution her colleagues that transparency would not thwart progressive legislation. Underlying that [argument] is saying that we have to do our work behind closed doors and I dont believe that is the case. And I believe that that is an unfortunate and sometimes elitist argument to say that we cannot show our votes to our constituents and to our voters, she said during a floor speech. We do not have a strong democracy by voting behind closed doors, or being afraid of our voters for voting us out of office. Second Assistant Majority Leader Sarah Peake shot back at Uyterhoeven, saying she would try not to be insulted by her remarks and not take what should be a policy argument that somehow turned into an attack on members of this body personally. They are not elitist arguments. They are shared experiences from experienced and yes, effective legislators, Peake said. These are the arguments of people who come here every day, to do their best, to work their hardest, who have years of experience, who have rolled up their sleeves, and actually gotten something done. Peake and Rep. Marjorie Decker argued that committee votes to advance bills in the legislative process are different from floor votes to pass or enact a bill. Part of Uyterhoevens amendment would have required committees to release any public testimony that is readily capable of being reproduced upon request. The amendment allowed committees to redact sensitive personal information. Opponents to the amendment argued that flexibility is key to managing a committee as well as negotiating potentially controversial legislation. Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, a co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, said committee staff would face an increased burden if they had to post thousands of pages of public testimony. She said offices do not have technical capacity to do that, adding, Ive never known a chair to keep something secret when the public asks for it. Peake agreed. The burden to staff of posting every bit of testimony on the website is expensive, burdensome, but most importantly, unnecessary, she said. We need to allow the chairmen to continue to have flexibility for what public testimony they release and what ... they will not release and redacting names isnt going to be good enough. Uyterhoevens amendment closely mirrored language included in the Senates version of the joint rules -- requiring committees to share public testimony upon request and allowing them to redact sensitive information. The amendment would have ensured that testimony is available upon request, the Somerville Democrat said, while leaving committees with the discretion and ability to protect constituents testimonies in the event that it may harm their health, wellness, or safety. Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, voted against the amendment and said he received backlash when his committee posted testimony online about the policing reform bill last session after his panel opened a public comment period on the topic rather than holding a public hearing. Back in July, people were getting very angry with us that we were posting their testimony. They didnt realize it was going to be public, he told the News Service shortly after the vote on the amendment. It was kind of a lesson in terms of some of the trappings that you can get into when you put that much amount of public testimony out there. Act on Mass, an advocacy organization which has been pushing for changes including those in Uyterhoevens amendment, said the rejection vote came as a disappointment. Uyterhoeven is a co-founder of Act on Mass. Its shocking that many of the arguments against the amendment blamed constituents for our lack of understanding of how the State House functions when thats precisely what we are asking for: to stop being shut out of the legislative process, Act on Mass campaign manager Ryan Daulton wrote in a statement. This vote was a blatant signal that representatives care more about power than their constituents. Mariano, in turn, appears to be seeking more transparency on the way that groups like Act on Mass operate on Beacon Hill. The House has pushed off debate of the House Rules -- normally done in tandem with the Joint Rules -- until as late as July while a special study looks into how grassroots and advocacy groups interact with lawmakers. Wednesdays session was the first rules debate with Mariano in the speakers chair, and the first session of the new legislative season where representatives substantively debated and sorted through amendments to a bill. A spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a conservative-leaning government watchdog group, said it was the same old tactics. [Mariano] may be new to the role of [s]peaker, but is employing old tactics to keep the status quo in place and prevent debate or scrutiny in the House, spokesman Paul Diego Craney wrote. ...Rank and file lawmakers need to decide what side of history they want to be on, the side of transparency or at best, Marianos pawn. Debate ran around three hours Wednesday, including the hour spent deliberating on Uyterhoevens amendment. The Senate now decides how to handle the Houses changes -- whether to accept them, offer further amendments, or initiate a conference process to work out a compromise, mostly likely in private negotiations. Both branches will meet in informal sessions Thursday at 11 a.m. A new COVID-19 variant spreading through New York City has mutations that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, according to two new studies. The B.1.526 variant, which first appeared in samples collected in New York City in November, now makes up about 27 percent of viral sequences deposited into a database shared by scientists called GISAID, according to The New York Times. One of the studies was led by a group at California Institute of Technology and published online on Tuesday. The other cited by the Times was conducted by researchers at Columbia University but has not yet been made public. Neither study has been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal, the outlet noted, but experts not involved with either study called the results worrying. New York City, which was the epicenter of the pandemic last spring, has recorded 707,695 COVID-19 cases, and 29,025 people have died from the virus. New cases and daily deaths in the city are decreasing, with 24,558 people testing positive and 384 fatalities in the past seven days. The city's test positivity rate is 8.06%. A new COVID-19 variant spreading through New York City has mutations that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, according to two new studies People walk through a neighborhood among those that have seen some of the highest number of city COVID-19 deaths on February 23, 2021 in the Queens borough of New York City Caltech researchers told the New York Times they found two versions of coronavirus rising rapidly in the city. They are calling both the B.1.526 variant for now. One carries the E484K mutation, which has independently been found in Brazil and South Africa. Scientists believe that mutation reduces the effectiveness of vaccines. The other has the S477N mutation which may act like a guide for COVID-19 to human cells, optimizing the binding process and possibly increasing infection rates. The Caltech researchers discovered B.1.526's rise by scanning a database for mutations in hundreds of thousands of viral genetic sequences. 'There was a pattern that was recurring, and a group of isolates concentrated in the New York region that I hadn't seen,' Anthony West, a computational biologist at Caltech. told the Times. Columbia University researchers identified the variant with a different method: by analyzing the genetic sequences of 1,142 samples from patients at their medical center. The number of new daily deaths in NYC are decreasing after the post-holiday surge In their study, researchers identified that 12 percent of the patients at their center had been infected with the variant containing the E484K mutation. Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, said cases carrying the mutation were dispersed throughout the metropolitan area - but most were in nearby Manhattan neighborhoods like Washington Heights and Inwood. 'We see cases in Westchester, in the Bronx and Queens, the lower part of Manhattan and in Brooklyn,' Dr. Ho said. 'So it seems to be widespread. It's not a single outbreak.' Ho's team also found six cases of the Britain's B.1.1.7 variant - as well as two infections with Brazil's P1 and one with South Africa's B.1.351 variant, neither of which had not previously been reported in New York City. A chart shows the increase of the British B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 in the United States A chart shows an increase in the number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in New York City Britain's B.1.1.7 variant is expected to become the most prevalent form of the coronavirus in the United States by the end of March, according to the Times, and now accounts for about 2,000 cases in 45 states. Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, was not involved in the new research efforts but called the B.1.526 variant 'one to watch.' 'Given the involvement of E484K or S477N, combined with the fact that the New York region has a lot of standing immunity from the spring wave, this is definitely one to watch,' Andersen told the Times. Michel Nussenzweig, a Rockefeller University immunologist who was not involved in either study. said: 'It's not particularly happy news.' 'But just knowing about it is good because then we can perhaps do something about it,' he said. Nussenzweig added that he is more worried about the variant in New York than the one quickly spreading in California because the E484K mutation interferes the antibodies from vaccines and treatments nearly everyone makes. Denton, TX (76205) Today Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Heavy thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible. Barcelona, Madrid and other cities in Spain have been shaken by protests over the imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasel, who was sentenced to nine months in prison for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy on Twitter and in his music. Alfonso Beato reports from Barcelona. Never before in over 1000 years the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as Gulf Stream System, has been as weak as in the last decades. This is the result of a new study by scientists from Ireland, Britain and Germany. The researchers compiled so-called proxy data, taken mainly from natural archives like ocean sediments or ice cores, reaching back many hundreds of years to reconstruct the flow history of the AMOC. They found consistent evidence that its slowdown in the 20th century is unprecedented in the past millennium; it is likely linked to human-caused climate change. The giant ocean circulation is relevant for weather patterns in Europe and regional sea-levels in the US; its slowdown is also associated with an observed cold blob in the northern Atlantic. "The Gulf Stream System works like a giant conveyor belt, carrying warm surface water from the equator up north, and sending cold, low-salinity deep water back down south. It moves nearly 20 million cubic meters of water per second, almost a hundred times the Amazon flow," explains Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, initiator of the study to be published in Nature Geoscience. Previous studies by Rahmstorf and colleagues showed a slowdown of the ocean current of about 15 percent since the mid-20th century, linking this to human-caused global warming, but a robust picture about its long-term development has up to now been missing: This is what the researchers provide with their review of results of proxy data studies. "For the first time, we have combined a range of previous studies and found they provide a consistent picture of the AMOC evolution over the past 1600 years," says Rahmstorf. "The study results suggest that it has been relatively stable until the late 19th century. With the end of the little ice age in about 1850, the ocean currents began to decline, with a second, more drastic decline following since the mid-20th century." Already the 2019 special report on the oceans of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with medium confidence "that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has weakened relative to 1850-1900." "The new study provides further independent evidence for this conclusion and puts it into a longer-term paleoclimatic context," Rahmstorf adds. From temperature to flow speed changes: the art of reconstructing past climate changes Because ongoing direct AMOC measurements only started in 2004, the researchers applied an indirect approach, using so-called proxy data, to find out more about the long-term perspective of its decline. Proxy data, as witnesses of the past, consist of information gathered from natural environmental archives such as tree rings, ice cores, ocean sediments, and corals, as well as from historical data, for instance from ship logs. "We used a combination of three different types of data to obtain information about the ocean currents: temperature patterns in the Atlantic Ocean, subsurface water mass properties and deep-sea sediment grain sizes, dating back from 100 to ca. 1600 years. While the individual proxy data is imperfect in representing the AMOC evolution, the combination of them revealed a robust picture of the overturning circulation," explains Levke Caesar, part of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit at Maynooth University and guest scientist at PIK. As proxy records in general are subject to uncertainties, statistician Niamh Cahill from Maynooth University in Ireland tested the robustness of the results in consideration of these. She found that in 9 of the 11 data sets considered, the modern AMOC weakness is statistically significant. "Assuming that the processes measured in proxy records reflect changes in AMOC, they provide a consistent picture, despite the different locations and time scales represented in the data. The AMOC has weakened unprecedentedly in over 1000 years," she says. Why is the AMOC slowing down? An AMOC slowdown has long been predicted by climate models as a response to global warming caused by greenhouse gases. According to a number of studies, this is likely the reason for the observed weakening. The Atlantic overturning is driven by what the scientists call deep convection, triggered by the differences in the density of the ocean water: Warm and salty water moves from the south to the north where it cools down and thus gets denser. When it is heavy enough the water sinks to deeper ocean layers and flows back to the south. Global warming disturbs this mechanism: Increased rainfall and enhanced melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet add fresh water to the surface ocean. This reduces the salinity and thus the density of the water, inhibiting the sinking and thus weakening the flow of the AMOC. Its weakening has also been linked to a unique substantial cooling of the northern Atlantic over the past hundred years. This so-called cold blob was predicted by climate models as a result of a weakening AMOC, which transports less heat into this region. The consequences of the AMOC slowdown could be manifold for people living on both sides of the Atlantic as Levke Caesar explains: "The northward surface flow of the AMOC leads to a deflection of water masses to the right, away from the US east coast. This is due to Earth's rotation that diverts moving objects such as currents to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. As the current slows down, this effect weakens and more water can pile up at the US east coast, leading to an enhanced sea level rise." In Europe, a further slowdown of the AMOC could imply more extreme weather events like a change of the winter storm track coming off the Atlantic, possibly intensifying them. Other studies found possible consequences being extreme heat waves or a decrease in summer rainfall. Exactly what the further consequences are is the subject of current research; scientists also aim to resolve which components and pathways of the AMOC have changed how and for what reasons. "If we continue to drive global warming, the Gulf Stream System will weaken further - by 34 to 45 percent by 2100 according to the latest generation of climate models," concludes Rahmstorf. This could bring us dangerously close to the tipping point at which the flow becomes unstable. ### Article: L. Caesar, G. D. McCarthy, D. J. R. Thornalley, N. Cahill, S. Rahmstorf (2020): Current Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakest in last millennium. Nature Geoscience [DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00699-z] 2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning -- 4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS. We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover. We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come. Kristyn Watkins got her first menstrual cycle when she was 10 years old and then suffered from what she describes as debilitating, heavy periods for nearly the next three decades. "As a young child, I thought it was normal to have an extremely heavy flow and it continued my entire life," Watkins, 37, told "Good Morning America," adding that she often felt embarrassed about her heavy periods. "I never talked about it with anyone my whole life because it's a private thing." Watkins said her mother had experienced the same complications, as had Watkins's grandmother, whom she said underwent a hysterectomy at age 32 because of her excessive bleeding. "I remember my mom saying, 'Oh, I know honey, Nanny and I are going through the same thing and know it's hard,'" said Watkins, a school principal in Indiana. "I don't think they realized that it wasn't normal either." Watkins lived with her heavy periods -- which would often force her to stay home or stay near a restroom -- without knowing any better or having any relief until the age of 33, when she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Georgia. PHOTO: Kristyn Watkins poses with her daughter, Georgia. (Kristyn Watkins) "I thought my cycle was heavy before I had children, and after I had her, it was even worse," said Watkins, who finally spoke about her menstrual bleeding with her OBGYN, Dr. Todd Rumsey, chief medical officer of the Cameron Memorial Community Hospital in Angola, Indiana. "I realized in talking to him that, 'Oh my gosh, this isn't normal,'" said Watkins. "I was suffering when I didn't have to be." MORE: How tracking their periods helped USA women's soccer team win the World Cup Menstrual bleeding that lasts more than seven days or is very heavy is called menorrhagia. It affects more than 10 million American women each year, or one out of every five women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Story continues Non-surgical treatments for menorrhagia include treatments like iron supplements, birth control pills, hormone therapy and over-the-counter painkillers like Advil, according to the CDC. Watkins, now a mom of three, chose a more invasive treatment for menorrhagia, undergoing an endometrial ablation last December. PHOTO: Kristyn Watkins, of Indiana, poses with her husband and three children. (Courtesy Emma Lucas) Watkins's procedure was performed by Rumsey using the Cerene Cryotherapy Device, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019. Rumsey is the first doctor in the U.S. to perform a commercial Cerene cryoablation, the first of which he performed last December. "The procedure itself is designed to decrease heavy menstrual flow and reduce the need for hysterectomy in treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding," Rumsey told "GMA." "I caution my patients that there isn't a device [to stop periods] but what they all are designed to do is to decrease your need for hysterectomy." While traditional endometrial ablations use heat and therefore require anesthesia, the Cerene cryoablation allows for patients to undergo the procedure in a doctor's office because it does not require general anesthesia, according to Rumsey. The procedure takes less than seven minutes and works by freezing the endometrial lining of the uterus, Rumsey said. PHOTO: Dr. Todd Rumsey, center, holds the Cerene cryotherapy device used to help ease women's menstrual cycles. (Cameron Memorial Community Hospital) "This is a non-hormonal way of managing the menses," he said, adding that the recovery from the procedure is just a few days compared to possibly weeks for a hysterectomy, which is still an option for women. "I believe that hysterectomy may be very appropriate for some women, and when that's the case, allowing that woman to proceed is very important," he said. "If we can offer medical or surgical options that do not pose significant downtime or significant long-term risks, I think that is of advantage to a woman." MORE: Scotland becomes 1st nation to provide free period products for all Watkins had to wait until after she had her final child to undergo the procedure, because while it does not cause infertility, it does make future pregnancy risky. It is highly recommended that patients use contraceptives after the procedure, according to the FDA. Women also have to undergo screenings prior to the procedure to make sure their heavy bleeding is not due to underlying causes like cancer or fibroids, according to Rumsey. He said when women think about whether they have a heavy period or not, they should think about whether their period is a disruption to their daily lives. "When the menstrual flow is disruptive to a woman's day, her ability to interact with others, when it gets into the way of her being the employee or the boss, the wife, the best friend, the mom, the sister, when it gets in the way of doing those things, then we need to have a discussion as to how can we make this less disruptive," said Rumsey. "For it to take away from your ability to do those things is not OK." Watkins said she has noticed a marked difference in her periods since undergoing the procedure, saying she feels like a "new woman." "This is something that's been in my family for a long time and I feel sad thinking about my mom and my grandmother and my great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother," she said. "Think about how many people are going through the same thing and have never told anyone or they just thought that was normal." PHOTO: Kristyn Watkins, left, poses with her grandmother in this undated family photo. (Courtesy Kristyn Watkins) While Watkins was once extremely private about the subject, she is speaking out now in hopes of helping other women. "I want people reading this to know that it's not normal to have to stay close to a restroom for close to one week out of the month for fear of what may happen," she said. "We know our body better than anyone. If you feel as though something isn't right, say something." New tool helps women who suffer from heavy menstrual cycles originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com Details of how the U.S. authorities will recover about $10.7 million ordered to be restituted by the convict, Obinwanne Okeke, have emerged. Court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES covers how the total $10,679,166.54 (over N4 billion at the official exchange rate of N381 to $1) will be recovered from him. Mr Okeke, 33, also known as Invictus Obi, was on February 16 sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Eastern District Court of Virginia following his guilty plea to multi-year wire fraud in June last year. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the judge, Rebecca Smith, ordered Mr Okeke to restitute $10.7million as proceeds of his fraud to the U.S. government in addition to the jail term. Mr Okeke, who had already spent 19 months in detention as of the time of his sentencing, was also ordered to undergo three years of supervised release after serving his complete jail term. On completing his jail term, Mr Okeke will be presented before a duly-authorised immigration official of the Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation review, said the judge. The official will determine whether to immediately deport him or make him undergo the three years supervised release in the U.S. Restitution enforcement Our reporter sifted the details of how the restitution is to be enforced by U.S. authorities in court documents relating to the February 16 sentencing. The documents include the courtroom minutes, as well as forfeiture and the restitution orders of the court. The Restitution Order and Consent Order of Forfeiture were jointly signed by the judge, the Acting U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Raj Parekh, Mr Okeke, and his defence lawyer, John Iweanoge. From the court documents, the U.S. authorities will recover a large chunk of the restitution funds through the monetary judgment issued by the court against Mr Okeke. The judgment issued in the restitution order captures $10.7 million to be recovered. The U.S. authorities are empowered to enforce the monetary judgment by taking over assets, credit, or monetary claims Mr Okeke may have in the country. Ms Smith, the U.S. judge, ordered that restitution is due in full and payable immediately from assets known and unknown and including assets identified in the Presentence Report. The Government may enforce restitution at any time, she added. Forfeitures Part of the funds will also be recovered from identified assets ordered to be forfeited by Mr Okeke, a Forbes celebrated young Nigerian entrepreneur. The assets include his white gold emerald cut engagement ring with small accent diamonds. The other forfeited assets are two cars back home in Nigeria, and N280,555,010 translating into about $700,000 which the Nigerian government had seized from him. ADVERTISEMENT In addition, the court also encouraged Mr Okeke to participate in the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Financial Responsibility Programme to enable him to comply with the provisions of the financial plan and to meet his financial obligation in accordance with the law. Periodic payments If with the forfeitures, judgment enforcement, and other steps taken by Mr Okeke during his prison term, the amount restituted is still not complete, he will be made to make periodic payments during his three years of supervised release. The court ordered that beginning from 60 days of his release from prison and transiting into the supervised release phase, the convict will pay either $1,000 or 25 per cent of his net earnings, whichever is greater. The restitution order read in part: If restitution is not paid in full immediately, the defendant shall pay to the Clerk at least $1,000 per month or 25 per cent of net income, whichever is greater, beginning 60 days after release from any period of confinement, or 60 days after sentencing if no confinement is imposed. All payments shall be made to the Clerk of Court, United States District Court, 2400 West Avenue, Newport News, Virginia 23607. Disbursement to victims Three victims of Mr Okekes fraud to whom the restituted funds will be paid were identified in the documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES. They are: Unatrac Holdings LLC in Washington DC, which was duped $5,429,166.54; Orient Insurance PJSC, duped $ 5million, and QBE European Operations which lost $250,000 to the fraudsters. The court ordered that the Clerk of Court shall distribute the funds to Unatrac first and to the remaining victims on a pro-rata basis. Background U.S. authorities said Mr Okeke and his conspirators who remained at large, through subterfuge and impersonation engaged in a multi-year global business email and computer hacking scheme that caused $11 million in losses to his victims. Thirty-three-year-old Mr Okeke, also known as Invictus Obi, had in June last year pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. With his guilty plea, he was able to have one of the two counts initially filed against him dropped. He also conceded to restitution and forfeiture of his seized assets. The plea agreement with the U.S. authorities helped him to limit his sentence to 10 years imprisonment instead of the maximum penalty of 20 years that could have been imposed on him if found guilty after a full-blown trial. ADVERTISEMENT The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it will challenge a court decision that declared its sanctions against Oando Plc unlawful. The commission said it was not in the know of the Abuja High Court order, lifting its ban on oil driller Oando Plcs right to conduct Annual General Meeting (AGM) more than 20 months after the regulator blocked the privilege. The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the commission) has been drawn to several publications in the media, where it is reported that a shareholder of Oando Plc, purportedly obtained a judgement from the Federal Capital Territory High Court against the commission, Abuja-based SEC said in a statement Wednesday. It informed the general public that it was never at any time served with court processes with respect to the purported matter at the FCT High court. The commission will consequently take all necessary steps to verify and set aside the purported decision of the said court, SEC said, however. The court granted reliefs sought by an Oando shareholder, Patrick Ajudua, who challenged SECs embargo on the energy firms AGM since June 2019. Mr Ajudua argued that the decision breached his right to freedom of association. Justice O.A. Musa granted the plaintiffs prayer after Mr Ajudua invoked Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution as well as articles 9,10 & 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights to draw support for his claim to free association right. On Wednesday, the news pushed shares in Oando up by as much as 10 per cent to N3.41 per unit, the maximum daily gain limit permitted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Oando, dual-listed in Lagos and Johannesburg, came into the eye of the storm in 2019 when auditors from Ernst and Young said its chances of continuous survival as a corporate entity were under threat although it posted a profit jump the preceding year. Post-tax profit climbed to N28.8 billion by almost half but Ernst and Young noted the company recorded comprehensive losses for the year of 18.3 billion naira and, as that date, current liabilities exceeded current assets by 63 billion naira, in Oandos earnings report for 2019. A material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the company and the groups ability to continue as a going concern, the auditing firm concluded. The purchase of an oil and gas facility from Houston-based hydrocarbon explorer ConocoPhillips catapulted Oandos debt to $2.5 billion. ALSO READ: Oando share price appreciates after court ruling An inquiry into a heated shareholder wrangle by SEC and NSE following an allegation of insider dealing complicated matters for a company, whose board had been indicted for corporate governance lapses, internal control failure, management compromise and oversight abuse in a separate forensic audit conducted by Deloitte & Touche LLP. That caused the regulator to ban Chief Executive Wale Tinubu and his deputy, Mofe Boyo, from the boards of public companies for five years. Both Mr Tinubu and Mr Boyo were compelled by the London Court of International Arbitration a year earlier to pay $680 million to Ansbury Investment Inc as settlement for a financial management and shareholding dispute in Oando. Oandos shares closed in Lagos on Thursday at N3.35 per unit. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 22:26:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A woman wearing a mask walks on a street in Paris, France, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Jing) "The disability following SARS-CoV-2 infection lingers on for months with severe social, economic, health and occupational consequences," warned the WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge. COPENHAGEN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over "long-COVID" or "post-COVID" symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday. "The disability following SARS-CoV-2 infection lingers on for months with severe social, economic, health and occupational consequences," said Kluge, who identified the issue as "a clear priority for WHO, and of the utmost importance." According to Kluge, a total of 38 million infection cases had been registered in the European Region since the pandemic began, and "one in ten COVID-19 sufferers remain unwell after 12 weeks, and many for much longer." "Yet stories of those who should have 'recovered', but whose lives were still affected by debilitating symptoms soon emerged. Regrettably, some were met with disbelief or lack of understanding," said Kluge. A COVID-19 patient holds the hand of a medical worker to show his appreciation in an ICU ward of a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, on May 7, 2020. (Photo by Francisco Avia/Xinhua) Professor Martin McKee, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also speaking at the press conference, provided further insight into "post-COVID" symptoms. McKee described them as "a varying combination of overlapping symptoms, including chest and muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, and what patients describe as brain fog." "Although many viral infections are self-limiting, making people feel unwell for only a few days before clearing up, others cause long-term problems. Early on, we realized that this new coronavirus was not just causing pneumonia. In some patients it was attacking many different body systems, such as the heart and blood vessels, the brain, and the kidneys," said McKee. In response to the prevalence of the lingering after-effects of COVID-19, Kluge acknowledged that the WHO had earlier in the month "hosted a consultation on post-COVID-19 conditions, focusing on recognition, research and rehabilitation." Medical workers treat a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, on Nov. 5, 2020. (Photo by Francisco Avia/Xinhua) In addition, Kluge also confirmed that WHO Europe would soon be convening a conference with the chief medical officers of all 53 countries in the European Region to set out a regional strategy to tackle the issue. "As we learn more, we need to make sure patients who have had suspected or confirmed COVID-19, who have persistent -- new or changing symptoms -- should have access to follow-up care. This is where primary health-care has a particularly strong role to play," said Kluge. The regional director further emphasized the need for the region's medical authorities to seriously "listen and understand" the sufferers of post-COVID conditions, if they intended to tackle it successfully. "I am calling upon you, countries and institutions in the European Region, to come together as part of an integrated research agenda, using harmonized data collection tools and study protocols. This will be key to maximize the impact of treatment and improve long-term outcomes for patients," said Kluge. By Anna J. Park Dirk Lukat, CEO of Schenker Korea, has been re-elected for another two-year term as chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK), the economic organization announced earlier this week unveiling its new board of directors for the 2021-2023 term. There has been a slight change in the nine-member board. Philips Korea country leader Donghee Kim and?IKEA Korea country retail manager Fredrik C Johansson have been newly elected to the board of directors. Oerlikon Balzers Korea managing director Jan Benggard,? AXA Korea President & CEO Gilles Fromageot, Finnair Oyj general manager Dong-Hwan Kim, Mercedes-Benz Korea Vice President & CFO Gerd Bitterlich, Diageo Korea finance director Elizabeth Kyunghee Nam, and Kim & Chang senior attorney Kay-Jannes Wegner have been re-elected as board members. ? "We will continue to help navigate the difficult months that lie ahead and serve our members and the European business community in Korea. The chamber will continue to work closely and collaborate with Korean and European authorities to create a better business environment for our members," Lukat said. ? Established in 2012, the ECCK is a business association of European companies active in Korea. Representing the common voice of the European business community, the ECCK provides members with information, communication and access pertaining to the business and regulatory environment of Korea. Currently, the chamber consists of 360 member companies. Successful subrogation against power companies is not a given. In determining whether the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) may be sued for its clear negligence in failing to properly winterize power production facilities and the power grid that it runs in Texas, the issue is currently in limbo. The Texas Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether ERCOT will be granted governmental immunity. There are a myriad of reasons Texas has seen power outages, but many of the failures are likely tied to simply being unprepared for extreme cold weather. In Texas, power is generated from natural gas, coal, nuclear, and wind. This is not unsimilar to power generation in states that inhibit colder climates. It is clear that all of this equipment has the capability to be winterized and made to operate in sub-freezing temperatures. The issue is that the power providers in Texas have not undertaken the time and investment necessary to properly winterize their equipment. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North America Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)warned Texas a decade ago that its power plants couldnt be counted on to reliably churn out electricity in bitterly cold conditions, when the last deep freeze in Texas plunged four million people into the dark. The FERC and the NERC had both recommended that utilities use more insulation, heat pipes, and take other steps to winterize plants strategies commonly observed in cooler climates but not in normally warmer weather climates such as Texas. ERCOT clearly mishandled the winter storm that rolled through Texas over the past week. ERCOTs failures left millions of Texas residents without power and without heat for days in below-freezing temperatures. On February 16, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott declared the reform of ERCOT an emergency item this legislative session. In declaring this item an emergency, the Governor is calling on the legislature to investigate ERCOT and ensure Texans never again experience power outages on the scale they saw last week. Governor Abbot stated that Far too many Texans are without power and heat for their homes as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. This is unacceptable. Reviewing the preparations and decisions by ERCOT is an emergency item so we can get a full picture of what caused this problem and find long-term solutions. I thank my partners in the House and Senate for acting quickly on this challenge, and I will work with them to enhance Texas electric grid and ensure that our state never experiences power outages like this again. As noted above, the Texas Supreme Court will be reviewing whether or not ERCOT will be given governmental immunity. ERCOT is the agency tasked with management of the states primary electric grid. ERCOT operates under a quasi-governmental fashion. ERCOT has some of its responsibilities set forth in Texas law and also has a board of directors that answers directly to the Texas Public Utility Commission, a state agency. ERCOT was sued by a company alleging that it improperly manipulated projections of the states future power needs after coming under political pressure to encourage new power plant construction. ERCOT raised the affirmative defense of sovereign immunity. An appeals court agreed with this position and the case has been appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to decide. The Dallas Court of Appeals ultimately held that (1) ERCOT is a private corporation exercising power delegated to it by an administrative agency pursuant to legislation; (2) ERCOTs power includes rulemaking authority that is binding on market participants; and (3) ERCOT is subject to broad oversight by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which can decertify it. Based on the reasoning of the SRO immunity cases described above and the nature and purposes of sovereign immunity, the court of appeals concluded ERCOT is entitled to sovereign immunity from private damages suits in connection with the discharge of its regulatory responsibilities. Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. v. Panda Power Generation Infrastructure Fund, LLC, 552 S.W.3d 297 (Tex. App. Dallas 2018). If ERCOT is deemed to have sovereign immunity, they will be protected from tort liability for their actions leading up to the power outages that affected millions and led to what will ultimately be damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars from burst pipes and the subsequent property damages. If not, ERCOT will be able to be sued just like any other corporation. Given that they operate in a quasi-governmental capacity, ERCOTs status as a governmental entity entitled to tort immunity will rest solely in the hands of the Texas Supreme Court. This is likely to be a difficult task. The Texas PUC controls ERCOTs funding, budget, operations, discipline, and governance. Nothing ERCOT does today is free from the states direct oversight. The Texas PUC has vast authority over ERCOT. ERCOT is essentially doing the State of Texas work with the states money and under the states supervision and regulation. The liability for governmental units is controlled by the Texas Tort Claims Act, which is addressed in Chapter 101 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code. The specific section spelling out the limited circumstances when the government can be held liable is as follows: Sec. 101.021. GOVERNMENTAL LIABILITY. A governmental unit in the state is liable for: (1) property damage, personal injury, and death proximately caused by the wrongful act or omission or the negligence of an employee acting within his scope of employment if: (A) the property damage, personal injury, or death arises from the operation or use of a motor-driven vehicle or motor-driven equipment; and (B) the employee would be personally liable to the claimant according to Texas law; and (2) personal injury and death so caused by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property if the governmental unit would, were it a private person, be liable to the claimant according to Texas law. The Texas Tort Claims Act does not create new legal duties; it only waives governmental immunity in circumstances where a private person similarly situated would be liable. In order to establish tort liability, a plaintiff must prove the existence and violation of a legal duty owed to him by the defendant. The existence of a legal duty is a question of law for the court although in some instances it may require the resolution of disputed facts or inferences which are inappropriate for legal resolution. Fort Bend County Drainage Dist. v. Sbrusch, 818 S.W.2d 392 (Tex. 1991). Certain public utilities, e.g., electric utilities, are considered proprietary functions and their activities may not be entitled to immunity under the Tort Claims Act. However, this typically applies to municipalities. ERCOT is not a municipality. It should be noted that under the Texas Tort Claims Act, notice must be given within six months after the date of the incident. See Tex. Civ. Prac. Rem. Code 101.101. The notice must reasonably describe: (1) the damage or injury claimed; (2) the time and place of the incident; and (3) the incident. The potential exposure from the losses sustained by property owners as a result of the power outages will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The ruling of the Texas Supreme Court will have overreaching implications for the residents of Texas and the insurance companies who cover those citizens. A favorable ruling will open the door for subrogation claims to proceed forward. An unfavorable ruling will shut that door completely. Given the six-month notice requirement, companies will need to act fast in putting ERCOT on notice of their claims, so as to protect any potential right they might have in the future. Another obstacle which must be navigated is the existence of subrogation-killing tariffs which contain limitations of liability. Electric utilities in Texas, as they do elsewhere, operate pursuant to publicly filed tariffs. Texas is unique because for the last 22 years, it has operated under a system of deregulation. Control of the entire states power generation and delivery system is given to a market-based assemblage of private generators, transmission companies, and energy retailers. This frontier system of power distribution resulted in cheaper power for Texas residents; but it also apparently allowed the energy catastrophe of last week. There was little incentive and no oversight of investing in weather protection or maintenance. A winter event like the one just experienced was not planned for. Tariffs often limit liability for negligence, but retain liability for gross negligence and/or willful misconduct. These obstacles will create interesting subrogation challenges for the many property subrogation claims which are already being referred to MWL. A young woman was found hanged at her family home after telling her GP she had been raped on a family holiday, an inquest heard today. Rachael Gallagher had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after she was attacked as a teenager during a holiday abroad. An inquest into her death at Bedfordshire Coroners' Court heard the 26-year-old was found by her parents at their home in Luton last October. Ms Gallagher's parents have since paid tribute to their 'beautiful and funny' daughter and raised more than 4,000 for the mental health charity, Mind. Rachael Gallagher took her own life at her family home in Luton in October last year In the month before her death, Ms Gallagher had told her doctor that she was attacked while on a teenage holiday abroad which had left her suffering from PTSD. A police officer told the hearing that the night before Ms Gallagher died, she had an argument with her parents Peter and Jackie, but it had been resolved. The officer told the court: 'Her parents believed everything was okay and Rachael had told them she was going to stay at a friend's house. They last saw her at 10pm. However, at 5.45am her mother went downstairs and found Rachael.' The 26-year-old was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene on October 9. In a statement her GP said: 'She was last seen on September 9. On her visit she explained she had received death threats and that the police were involved. 'However she did not mention anything about her mental health or thoughts of self-harm. During her visit she mentioned she was raped on holiday in Greece when she was aged 17. 'She had a long standing history of mental health problems starting when she was only 14, with anorexia. In 2008, she overdosed and in 2015 she attempted to take her own life.' Ms Gallagher's parents have since paid tribute to their 'beautiful and funny' daughter and raised more than 4,000 for the mental health charity, Mind Deputy manager of Wardown community mental health team, Adrian Sabo, said: 'On October 1, police attended Rachael's home address for a welfare check as she was not responding to police who were trying to contact her. 'There was an ongoing investigation and she was unhappy about how they had dealt with it. She talked about her trauma in the past which affected her mental health and how she suffered with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.' Coroner Tom Stoate recorded a verdict of suicide. Rachael's father, Peter Gallagher, who attended the inquest virtually, raised more than 4,000 for the charity Mind after the death of his daughter. In a tribute on GoFundMe, he wrote: 'On October 9, 2020, our lives got covered by the darkest of shadows when our beautiful, funny and wonderful daughter Rachael Louise Gallagher made the choice to say goodbye to this world and take her steps to the next. 'We never in a million years expected anything like this to happen. Jackie and I have found so much comfort in the out-pouring of love from family members, friends and work colleagues that helped with all the dark periods. 'Rach bravely fought against many issues in her life and Jackie and I felt it would be a fitting tribute to raise money for a local charity that would benefit from donations rather any floral tributes in honour of the brightest light of our lives.' Aspen, CO (81611) Today Scattered thunderstorms early, then becoming clear after midnight. Low 39F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then becoming clear after midnight. Low 39F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%. A proposal to restore the former Derry to Strabane railway line is on track. Derry City and Strabane District Council has given its support to the proposal. At the council's monthly meeting tonight, SDLP councillor Steven Edwards put forward a motion on the issue. He asked that the council recognise the 'strategic, social and economic' benefit of restoring the former Great Northern Railway line between Strabane and Derry. The Great Northern Line ran from what is now the Foyle Valley Railway Museum at Foyle Road in Derry. Some of the old track remains alongside the 'out the line' walkway on the Foyle Road. The Great Northern Line ran from Derry to Strabane and on to Omagh and Dublin. The line was closed in 1958. Cllr Edward's motion said the restoration of the line would be an 'essential first phase' of getting Strabane and County Tyrone reconnected to the Irish railway system. His motion said the council would call on the Department of Infrastructure to conduct a feasability study supported by a business case to 'enable this proposal to be put into effect as soon as possible'. The motion also stated that the council agree to write to the Minister for Infrastructure to show their support for including rail expansion to Strabane in the Regional Strategic Transport Network Plan to 2035. In addition, the motion said the council would support the Minister in working with the Irish government on future rail expansion in the north west. A number of councillors spoke at tonight's meeting in support of Cllr Edwards's motion. DUP Alderman Keith Kerrigan proposed an amendment to the motion which stated that the local council write to a number of other councils in regards to the feasibility of restoring the rail link from Derry to Portadown. This amendment was accepted and when the changed motion was put to a vote it was supported unanimously. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds in California cannot be prosecuted in adult court, where they would face sentences of up to life in prison, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday, upholding a 2019 state law that was challenged by prosecutors. The law requires youths younger than 16 to be tried in juvenile court. The maximum confinement for juveniles is up to age 25, although a juvenile court judge could then order a safety hold requiring placement in a medical center. Prosecutors from a number of counties argued that the 2019 law violated a provision of a 2016 ballot measure, Proposition 57, that allowed them to charge 14-year-olds as adults if a juvenile court judge decided the case belonged in adult court, based on the crime and the youths record. But that law actually limited prosecutors authority to try juveniles as adults. Under a 2000 ballot measure, Prop. 21, prosecutors could charge 14-year-olds in adult court for serious crimes on their own, without review by a juvenile court judge, as the law had previously required. Prop. 57, sponsored by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, reinstated the pre-2000 requirement of juvenile court approval for adult prosecutions and allowed the Legislature to enact further changes in juvenile law as long as they were consistent with the intent of Prop. 57. That intent, the court said Thursday, was to keep youths out of prison and return them to the juvenile court system, which focuses more on rehabilitation than on punishment. Quoting a state Assembly committee analysis of the 2019 law, the court said the prosecution of 14- and 15-year-olds as adults in California dated from the 1990s, a period where the state was getting tough on crime, but not smart on crime. Societys views have changed since then, based on scientific research about juvenile development as well as the financial and social costs of steadily rising prison populations, Justice Joshua Groban, a Brown appointee, said in the 7-0 ruling. He noted the U.S. Supreme Courts 2005 ruling banning the death penalty for offenders under 18, and its 2012 decision striking down state laws that required life in prison without parole for crimes committed by juveniles. California lawmakers were entitled to conclude in 2019 that 14- and 15-year-olds accused of serious crimes should be tried in juvenile court, where they are more likely to receive appropriate education and emotional and psychological treatment, and less likely to reoffend after their release, Groban said. One of the stated purposes of Prop. 57, he said, was to stop the revolving door of crime by emphasizing rehabilitation, especially for juveniles. Groban also noted that the states voter guide said the ballot measure was intended to save money by reducing wasteful spending on prisons. The ruling makes California the first state to prohibit adult prosecutions of youths under 16, said the Sentencing Project, a group working to reduce imprisonment. It said those prosecutions have disproportionately affected racial minorities. The ruling does not affect prosecutions of 16- and 17-year-olds, who can be tried in adult court for serious crimes if a juvenile court judge grants the prosecutors request after reviewing a youths record and background. The case came from Ventura County, where a 15-year-old identified as O.G. was charged with two gang-related murders in 2018. A state appeals court said prosecutors could seek to try him in adult court, ruling that the 2019 law barring such prosecutions violated Prop. 57 contrary to rulings by seven other appeals court panels in similar cases. The law has been enforced in parts of the state but is on hold elsewhere to await the state Supreme Courts ruling, which keeps O.G.s case in juvenile court. Groups that backed the 2019 law praised the ruling. Now the state will focus on rehabilitating young people, said Elizabeth Calvin of Human Rights Watch. Youth who are sent to the adult system miss out on the treatment, education and services offered in the juvenile system. Youth kept in the juvenile system are less likely to commit new crimes. The California District Attorneys Association, representing most prosecutors in the state, argued for continued authority to try the youths as adults. The association was not immediately available for comment. But attorney Kymberlee Stapleton of the pro-prosecution Criminal Justice Legal Foundation said the ruling would require the state to release some of the most violent juvenile criminals in the country. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said he was disappointed that the court had not allowed adult prosecutions of youths in cases of murder and serious sex crimes, but agreed with the overall goals of promoting rehabilitation and reducing prison spending and overcrowding. The ruling was applauded by the liberal California Prosecutors Alliance, representing district attorneys in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties. Research shows that rehabilitation works, and by rehabilitating our children, we will make it less likely that they will commit new crimes, said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, the former district attorney in San Francisco. The case is O.G. vs. Superior Court, S259011. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Small merchants-focused credit supplier BharatPe has grown 10 times during the fiscal year so far, surpassing its full-year target of lending 1,000 crore of loans, and now expects to end the fiscal disbursing over 1,250 crore, a top company official said. So far, BharatPe has given loans to over 1.1 lakh merchants across 75 cities. It lists Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune as its top performing cities where credit demand has been led by customers/merchants from groceries, food and beverages, and fashion, retail and beauty segments. Suhail Sameer, group president at BharatPe, said it has benefited hugely from the lockdown-induced credit crunch that small traders and self-employed have faced, helping it emerge as one of the largest B2B fintech lenders, disbursing 200 crore to its merchant partners consistently month-on. The company's monthly disbursal has been consistently clipping at 200 crore, helping it grow over 10 times so far this year. It hopes to close the year at 13 times of what it did last year, which was 100 crore, Sameer told PTI on Thursday. Given the run-rate it is clocking now, it has set an internal target of disbursing 7,500 crore next fiscal and a customer target of 10 lakh small merchants and kiranas, he added. BharatPe offers loans in the range of 20,000 to 7 lakh, for up to 12 months. It prices them in the 18-24 per cent range depending on the tenor and collects through its QR code, he said, adding the borrower can repay in daily installments too as most its repeat borrowers are small SMEs and small retailers. All its loans are unsecured, but it will be launching a secured lending product shortly, he added. To reach the next year's target, it is working on expanding the lending portfolio and will be offering a host of secured and unsecured lending products for merchants as well as distributors and wholesalers. Despite being fully into unsecured lending, its bad loans are only at 2.3 per cent, he said, adding as much as 67 per cent borrowers are repeat customers. Its active loan book is only 650-700 crore and half of the lending is met through equity capital and the rest through debt, Sameer said. The company has around 1,500 crore in equity and to lend 7,500 crore next fiscal, it may have to take debt of around 2,000 crore. Recently, BharatPe raised $108 million in series-D equity round, at a valuation of USD 900 million, from existing investor Coatue Management apart from the other existing institutional investors Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo and Sequoia Capital. Last month, it had raised $35 million in debt from venture debt providers like Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital. Prior to that, it had raised 50 crore in debt from Trifecta Capital, 90 crore debt from Alteria Capital, 60 crore from InnoVen Capital, and 49 crore from ICICI Bank. Last November, BharatPe, co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018, toppled Google Pay to become the No 3 UPI P2M (merchant payments) player. It has deployed over 50,000 PoS machines which do transactions of over 900 crore per month. As many as 18 of its angel investors have exited the company in the recent series-D round, taking back returns of as high as 80 times in two years, it claimed earlier this week. The company has already returned 102 crore cash to its secondary investors as against initial angel round of 1.9 crore. Some of the angel investors who backed it include Akshay Munjal of Hero Group, Kunal Shah of Cred, Amit Lakhotia of Park , Mitesh Shah of Bookmyshow, Nipun Mehra of Pine Labs, Nitin Gupta of PayU, and Kunal and Dhruv Bhushan of Habbit, among others. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. [MUSIC PLAYING] archived recording (SINGING) When you walk in the room, do you have sway? kara swisher Im Kara Swisher, and youre listening to Sway. My guest today is actor and comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen. This year, hes been nominated for three Golden Globes, including for the Netflix film, The Trial of the Chicago 7. In that, he plays 1960s civil rights activist, Abbie Hoffman. But the world knows Baron Cohen best as the characters that have come before. Ali G archived recording (sacha baron cohen) Booyakasha. Check this out, yo. kara swisher Bruno archived recording (sacha baron cohen) So why is being gay so out this season? kara swisher and of course, Borat. archived recording (sacha baron cohen) Jagshemash. My name Borat. I like you. I like sex. Is nice. kara swisher I love Borat. Yet my personal favorite performance is one Baron Cohen actually delivered as himself. It was a keynote address at the 2019 Anti-Defamation League Summit. In it, he called out some of the biggest names in tech. archived recording (sacha baron cohen) The Silicon Six all billionaires, all Americans, who care more about boosting their share price than about protecting democracy. [APPLAUSE] This is ideological imperialism six unelected individuals in Silicon Valley imposing their vision on the rest of the world, unaccountable to any government and acting like theyre above the reach of law. kara swisher The Silicon Six why didnt I think of that? Yes, Sacha Baron Cohen and I share a hobby, and its calling out immensely powerful people. And lets talk about a group you called the Silicon Six. And these are terms you coined for Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Susan Wojcicki of YouTube, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, also the founders of Google. You and I share a passion for calling out their nonsense. This is, of course, my job. So what motivated you to take them on? sacha baron cohen So, listen, Ive truth be told, Ive always been reluctant to be a celebrity. Ive always been wary of using whatever fame Ive got to push any political views. But under Trump, the racism, the anti-Semitism, misogyny that I hinted upon occasionally in the first Borat movie burst into the open. It was spewed by Trump but has really been spread by social media, especially Facebook. And I was appalled by Trumps Muslim ban and the White nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Therefore when the ADL invited me to receive an award in 2019, I considered it for the first time. I had been wary of the dangers of social media for a number of years. I had been trying to get other celebrities to talk about it, because of my inherent reluctance. And no one really cared. And then when I did bump into people from Silicon Valley at Hollywood parties because, yes, billionaires want to go to Hollywood parties to meet celebrities kara swisher Oh, Ive been there with them. sacha baron cohen Yeah, I would try and get them in a corner and say, listen, this is going on. And this is going to lead to the end of democracy. And Id give them my whole spiel, and their answer would be, oh, I thought you were going to be a bit funnier. So, at one point, I had quite a heated discussion with one of them at an art gallery opening in San Francisco about Holocaust denial, just asking why they were allowing Holocaust denial. And they said, no, were not. Weve sorted that out. And I pulled up a website. Like, what about this? And it was a website saying that the six million was a lie. And it was Holocaust denial site. And they said, well, thats just really just showed both sides of the argument. And I said, what argument? Theres an argument about whether the Holocaust existed? And then you have this fundamental realization that a lot of these people, theyre incredibly smart in a tiny area, but they should not be given the reins of power. I mean, its so mad that this handful of people have the power of emperors. kara swisher Right. sacha baron cohen This period will be looked on as absurd that governments did not intervene earlier, that these people were allowed to profit off spreading lies that lead to mass death. kara swisher OK, so you dont break into character often. Youre usually Ali G or Borat or Bruno, but you decided to give this speech as yourself. Why? sacha baron cohen Well, it was specifically that it was a year away from the election. And I believed that Trump and Trumpism would win again by spreading lies, conspiracies, and hate through social media, conspiracies about the election, and through racism and hate. And there was a predisposition for that stuff to succeed and be more digestible and watchable on social media. For example, as you know, YouTubes algorithm changed to make it more engaging. If people watch it more, they can increase the sales of advertising, right? Facebook and Google and YouTube are all about advertising. And the way to do that is, you make the next thing that you see increasingly more extreme. Its this kind of radicalization algorithm, which is why I felt I had to say something. I didnt think it would have much of an impact. I felt my ambitions for my career were pretty limited, growing up in Northwest London. I wanted to join a theater company called Theater de Complicite So I never thought I was going to have my own TV show. I never thought Id be given the money to make a movie. I didnt know anyone who was a successful actor. So by the time I got to 2019, Id sort of accomplished everything that was beyond my wildest dreams. So I felt that that speech might end my career, for people to say, what the hell is he lecturing us about something he knows nothing about? Just stay in your lane. Stop being just be funny. And by the way, a lot of the responses I got on Twitter and Facebook were just shut up and be funny. kara swisher And be funny. Stay in your lane. They do it to a lot of people. sacha baron cohen Yes, a lot of that stuff is really organized by these troll armies. kara swisher Yes, they are. sacha baron cohen Theyre something else. These armies of trolls are used to intimidate people on social media. So actually, its not really a place where theres much freedom of speech, because particularly, if youre a minority or a woman, or you say stuff thats to the left, you are bullied. So I felt compelled as a human. I was very reluctant to do it, and kara swisher Well, it worked out well. And one of the things I appreciated and you made in the speech was the distinction you made. And Ill quote you saying, This is not about limiting anyones free speech. This is about giving people, including some of the most reprehensible people on Earth, the biggest platform in history to reach a third of the planet. Ive spent years trying to explain why social media companies cant hide behind the First Amendment. Why do you think thats such a difficult message to get across? sacha baron cohen Oh, its difficult because theyve been saying it for so many years. So theyve been lying, right? When Mark Zuckerberg just says, Im the defender of free speech, he is lying, right? The U.S Constitution says that Congress Congress, not companies Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech. So that does not apply to private businesses like Twitter and Facebook. If they want to ban violent rhetoric and harassment, they have every right to do so. And the analogy I made in the ADL was that if a neo-Nazi comes goosestepping into a restaurant and starts threatening customers and saying he wants to kill Jews, the restaurant owner has every legal right and actually a moral obligation to kick that Nazi out. And so do the internet companies. So the idea that they are the defenders of free speech is ludicrous. I mean, they make editorial decisions continually. They dont allow nipples, but they did allow Nazis, so. kara swisher Yeah, they dont allow nipples. sacha baron cohen I mean, its a lie, right? Its a lie that theyre using to make money. kara swisher But as a creator and comedian, the First Amendment is critical to your work. Would you be OK with Twitter, for example, deplatforming the Borat handle because its not a real person, or adding a disclaimer to a hateful or heated tweet? Would you worry about that yourself as a comic? sacha baron cohen No. I mean, if they gave a handle explaining that it was satire, I think thats fine. I mean, Borat is satire. I think the role of comedy is important. Its not as important or as crucial as respecting and buttressing up the fundamental pillars that protect democracy. So for example, there was a lot of talk by Zuckerberg of him coming up the election about freedom of speech, which, obviously, Im a huge defender of. But what about free and fair elections, which are the fundamental pillar of democracy? No one was talking about that, and the Trump government realized that they could undermine that other pillar. There are a number of pillars that buttress up democracy. One of them is protest. So, free and fair elections is probably the most crucial one, particularly in an election year. And they were completely undermining it by spreading the #stopthesteal hashtag, and beforehand by spreading the idea that mail-in ballots were subject to corruption. kara swisher On January 6th, around 5 p.m., you tweeted at Mark, Jack, Susan, and Sundar, saying its time to ban Donald Trump from your platform once and for all. I did the same thing and was quite worried about what was about to happen as I saw it unfold. Did you think it was going to get this bad? sacha baron cohen Yes, thats why I made Borat. Borat was an attempt of mine to do what I could prior to the election to infiltrate Trumps inner circle because I felt he was so dangerous and because I was convinced that conspiracies would end in violence. I made a show called Who is America?, where I took a conspiracy theorist who believed in the danger of Antifa and by the end of the episode, which was I had spent two days with him, he believed that he had murdered three members of Antifa. Its a crucial thing where these people who were marching on the Capitol are not necessarily bad people. Its the people who are spreading these lies and conspiracies. If you believe in the conspiracy, then everything you do from there is logical. If you really believed kara swisher Or have been made to believe. sacha baron cohen Yeah, if youve been made to believe that Biden was a pedophile and a cannibal and had stolen the election and Trump had won, then yes, its logical to march on Washington and maybe to try and overturn that vote. Its the conspiracy theory and those who spread it and make money that are at fault. kara swisher Where do you stop the thing Trump should be banned outright from all these platforms, including YouTube, which is something youve talked about a lot. sacha baron cohen Yes, I believe in permanently banning him. The worlds largest platforms have banned the worlds biggest purveyor of lies, conspiracies, and hate. The impact was actually huge. One study, done by Zignal Labs, found that after Twitter removed Trump, there was a 73% drop in disinformation about the election on social media. So we dont want YouTube and Facebook or Twitter to lift their suspensions and allow Trump back on to spread his lies and incite violence. You know, he still has complete freedom of speech. He has probably more free speech than just about anyone in the world. He puts out statements that make headlines. He can go out and give a speech any time he wants. But the idea that his free speech has been abridged is ludicrous. kara swisher You can also make the argument, as several people have to me, is that Hitler didnt need Twitter, Mussolini didnt need Instagram. Stalin didnt need TikTok, although I cant believe Im saying that in one sentence. But they didnt need these things. And they managed to be as malevolent as they were. Do you think it amplifies the malevolence? sacha baron cohen I really dont agree with that. I mean, if you look at Goebbels, the first thing he did was his social media was radio. He realized that was the new medium, and he realized that, for example, in Austria, if the Nazis took over a lot of the programming on radio, that they could make the invasion and the taking over of Austria easier. Fascists and autocrats are experts on new ways of spreading disinformation. They need them, and they specialize and they focus in on these new media, precisely because theyre unregulated. So thats what makes social media perfect for autocrats. kara swisher Do you have high hopes for the Biden administration or this Congress to do anything, whether breaking them up or changing section 230 to remove liability protections? I know in your 2019 speech, you suggested Zuckerberg and other social media CEOs should get jail time, if their platforms continued to be tools of violence or election interference. sacha baron cohen Yes, I think there needs to be regulation. In virtually every other industry, you can be sued for the harm you cause publishers. You can be sued for libel. People can be sued for defamation. Im still being sued by Roy Moore. kara swisher Oh, really? sacha baron cohen Yes, thats another story. But these companies cant be sued, right? Because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Currently, Facebook and companies like it cannot be held liable for the death they cause. I think thats completely insane, right? So if you look at how it should work, when Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, for those of you who use his wonderful product, went on Newsmax the other day and started spewing lies about the election, the host shut him down. Why? Because Newsmax can be sued. But Facebook and social media companies spread the very same lies to millions of people because theyre protected by 230. So you already have some exceptions to Section 230. Social media companies, as you know, they can be held liable for hosting content related to criminal conduct like copyright infringement, sex trafficking, prostitution, and child pornography. So my point is if they could be held liable for enabling pedophiles who use their site to endanger kids, then why cant we hold these companies responsible for those who use their sites for advocating the mass murder of kids because of their race or religion. If your actions online cause harm or death in the real world, you should be liable. I think its quite simple to fix this, which is, instead of making money off lies that cost lives, I believe that these social media companies should create jobs that save lives, right? There are three problems that I think you could solve at once. One, which is even during the pandemic, Facebook and social media companies are making massive profits by spreading lies and conspiracies about COVID and vaccines, right? They are profiting off of death. Two, Facebook and other social media companies and when I speak to them, they go, Sacha, were overwhelmed. How are we meant to do it? Theres so much stuff being uploaded every day. They claim that their artificial intelligence catches most of the inappropriate content, but they claim that their real world content moderators cant keep up with the volume. The third problem is because of the pandemic, millions of people are unemployed. So my thought is kara swisher Hire these people. sacha baron cohen Why cant Mark Zuckerberg yeah, youre absolutely right. Why cant they hire hundreds of thousands of people to enforce their policies as content moderators? They can afford it. General Motors, at its peak in the 70s, employed more than 800,000 people around the world. Last year, Facebook made $86 billion, and they did it with 50,000 employees. Facebook could hire Americans to help protect American democracy, hire Brits to protect British democracy, and the same all over the world, right? It would put people to work. It would stop the lies, save lives, and buttress our democracy. kara swisher I like this idea. sacha baron cohen Great, I was hoping you would. [LAUGHS] [MUSIC PLAYING] kara swisher Well be back in a minute. If you like this interview and want to hear others, hit Subscribe. Youll be able to catch up on Sway episodes you may have missed, like my conversation with former Parler CEO John Matze. And youll get new ones delivered directly to you. More with Sacha Baron Cohen after the break. Most recently, Baron Cohen appeared in The Trial of the Chicago 7. The film is based on the true story of anti-war protests held during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Baron Cohen plays Abbie Hoffman, a founder of the 1960s Yippie movement and an activist with a sense of humor. Hoffman found space for comedic stunts even in the face of his highly politicized prosecution. I wanted to know what drew Baron Cohen to the project and why he thought the story was still relevant 50 years later. sacha baron cohen Ive been connected to incarcerate for 13 years, and its been getting increasingly relevant. And I think its about the power of peaceful protest when standing up against injustice and the bravery of those people that do that. Its also about the persistence of systemic racism. The film shows the horrific treatment of Bobby Seale, who was the only Black defendant. And we were actually filming this prior to the protests over the murder of George Floyd. And so, really, its a tribute to anyone who stands up against injustice, from Ukraine to Moscow to Kenosha to Portland. When I read the script the second time, it was actually during the hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. And the hearings were supposed to be about justice, but what we saw at the time was profound injustice, to me. Professor Ford was swearing that her allegations were true. And I remember one of the committee asked Brett Kavanaugh to swear before God that what he said was correct, and that was enough for the committee member. And it felt like we were seeing two parallel justice systems here one a modern one where shes appealing to fact and proper recollection and evidence, and one depending on belief in God. I mean, it could have been half a thousand years ago. I couldnt believe it was happening. It seemed like a perversion of justice, a system that didnt work. And I felt more compelled than ever to play Abbie. kara swisher Did you know the story of Abbie Hoffman before you took this part? sacha baron cohen Id first learned about him when I was studying in Cambridge, hosting my undergraduate thesis on Jewish activists in the civil rights movement. And I was particularly inspired by left-wing Jews who went down South to fight systemic racism. Abbie Hoffman was one of them. He was a guy who was ready to sacrifice his life to fight against racism and fight for justice. And also, what inspired me was he was a Yippie. His antics and pranks got all the attention, but he was deadly serious. He was risking his life to fight racism and fight the war in Vietnam. But his conviction was completely pure, and he was ready to sacrifice his life. kara swisher The films writer and director, Aaron Sorkin, recently wrote that part of the reason it took 14 years for the film to be made is because he didnt immediately get Hoffmans character. Sorkin said, quote, I thought he was a clown, not particularly clever. And I wasnt seeing the heroism. That changed when he saw archival footage of Hoffman at a press conference, a moment you recreate in the film. archived recording Would you have taken $100,000 to call the whole thing off? Yeah, sure, I would have taken $100,000. As for calling it off, how much is it worth to you? Whats your price? To call off the revolution? Whats your price? My life. kara swisher Talk a little bit about this moment of being a hero. sacha baron cohen Well, its interesting. You were talking about Aaron, and my first meeting with Aaron was 13 years ago. And this was the debate, actually, which was, is Abbie Hoffman a hero? I felt strongly that he was. Aaron, at that time, thought, no, he was this fool. Its telling that Aaron chose to replicate that scene from reality. So everything else is Aarons painting rather than a photograph. Hes using his brilliant screenplay skills to create this wonderful story. But there, he recreates that scene pretty much word for word because he thinks its crucial, and so do I, which is underneath the layers of this clown in this seemingly fool is this deadly serious, brave protester, whos ready to risk his life. And the antics were the more I read about him and I tried to read everything I could and watch everything I could. I went down to archives and heard old stand-up that hed done. Everything was intentional with Abbie, even his comedy. He was very, very influenced by Lenny Bruce. He tried to emulate the way that Lenny delivered gags. He was actually even influenced by Lennys trial. That convinced Abbie that they would go to jail. It didnt matter what would happen during the trial. The aim of the trial was not to declare their innocence. It was to convince people back home that the war in Vietnam was immoral. And he was using these tactics of the bouffon, which is a type of theater that I studied under this French clown teacher. That itself is an absurd sentence to hear. kara swisher Ah, the years of French clown teaching. sacha baron cohen Exactly, but I did actually actually, coincidentally, my wife studied under his rival French clown teacher, but anyway. kara swisher Wait, theres two? sacha baron cohen There were two. So I studied in LEcole Philippe Gaulier. And my wife studied in LEcole Jacques Lecoq. And there was a kara swisher [LAUGHTER] Oh, my god. sacha baron cohen very serious break-off at one point where Philippe Gaulier broke off from his mentor, Jacques Lecoq, probably over a debate over red noses. Im not sure. kara swisher Right, right, so. sacha baron cohen But this guy, Philippe Gaulier teaches actually, both of them teach theyre some of the only people in the world who teach this style of theater called bouffon. Bouffon is an early form of satire. Its a medieval form, where, essentially, the dispossessed in medieval society, who were generally forced to live outside the villages and they were heretic priests, gay people, Jews. Those with disabilities were allowed in once a year. And they would try to put on these plays called bouffon plays that were intended to be really funny, but were intended to completely undermine and destroy the powerful and the establishment. And I felt, looking at Abbie, that he was a bouffon. Like, saying he would levitate the Pentagon, bringing thousands of people to do that, or kara swisher So they were stunts. They were stunts that were of political stunts to be effective. sacha baron cohen Yes, to be effective, and they were effective, because as Aaron the final script brings in this argument with Tom Hayden. He says this is the reason were doing that. We didnt have the resources. This is how Im getting attention. Abbie was incredibly aware of the media. And that was something that became very clear in Aarons later scripts, where theyre going to demonstrate where the cameras are. archived recording Inside the bar, its like the 60s never happened. Outside the bar, the 60s were being performed for anyone who looked out of the window. [GLASS SHATTERING] sacha baron cohen He knows that the whole purpose is to get attention and get into the living room. So he knows that theyre not going to win. Theyre going to try and win the hearts. kara swisher Whats interesting is, you do that, too, and I hate to say it this is something Trump does rather well. He plays for the stunt, for the audience. His is malevolent. Hes sort of the evil clown, sort of the clown from It, I guess. sacha baron cohen I mean, yes, Trump is a cometitian. He was very aware of the power of humor to engage his audience. I dont find him funny, but his crowd found him really funny. So, yes, thats part of the reason why he was so effective and so entertaining. Abbie knew that mocking the establishment would be his key. He used to say that sacred cows made the tastiest hamburgers. And he realized that if he could make people laugh, he could gain attention and recruit more people to the cause. I mean, everything he did, the more I read about him, was incredibly intentional, even though he gave this kind of loose kara swisher Yes, right. sacha baron cohen feeling. Even the length of his hair was an attempt to influence hippies to go out and risk their lives to demonstrate against the war in Vietnam. kara swisher Right, Hoffman is obviously a left of center character. This opens up him to criticism in the film. For example, theres a scene where his more buttoned-up co-defendant, Tom Hayden, calls him out on doing this. archived recording My problem is that for the next 50 years, when people think of progressive politics, theyre going to think of you. Theyre going to think of you and your idiot followers passing out daisies to soldiers and trying to levitate the Pentagon. So theyre not going to think of equality or justice. Theyre not going to think of education or poverty or progress. Theyre going to think of a bunch of stoned, lost, disrespectful, foul-mouthed, lawless losers. And so well lose elections. kara swisher Well, it strikes me that 50 years on, this meme of progressive as idealistic sort of hippies and rebel rousers still exist. Do you think its fair to characterize Hoffman or modern day progressives like this? sacha baron cohen Well, again, Im not a historian of that particular period. I specialize more in the early 60s. But yes, I mean, Sorkin is a master. And what hes trying to do is bring these issues into the present. So, yes, this is about the debate between the left and the far left, which he beautifully encapsulates in the hatred of Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden. He actually got that from sitting down with Tom Hayden, where they were, in effect, these brothers that hate each other. And at the end of the movie, they love and respect each other. I mean, I feel that change starts with pressure in the streets. They were both aware of that. Abbie felt that they needed to win elections, but they needed to push society to. archived recording And winning elections, thats the first thing on your wish list. Equality, justice, education, poverty, and progress, theyre second. If you dont win elections, it doesnt matter whats second. And it is astonishing to me that someone still has to explain that to you. OK. sacha baron cohen But you do see this kind of interknit scene struggle within the left. I mean, we are far less effective as a force often because there is less uniformity. There is less of an ability to say, OK, eyes on the prize, which the Republicans were able to do. Lets concentrate on winning the election and fall into line. Instead, there is often an attempt to destroy each other again. kara swisher And whats interesting is when you go fast forward, his life ended sadly. Did you think about that at all when you were playing him, where he was headed, since you knew the end of the story? sacha baron cohen Yes, I mean, the truth is Abbie battled depression and later took his own life. And I felt he was somebody who was struggling quietly. And I wanted to capture that seriousness and that subtlety, the contrast between his public dynamism and his sensitivity and occasional private pain. But yes, I mean, its hinted at, and its shocking when you see it on screen. You find out what happened to all the characters, and you find out that Abbie died later on. If you compare him to the rest of Chicago Seven, Jerry Rubin, I think he became a stockbroker. kara swisher A yuppie, yeah. Remember, he yippie to yuppie sacha baron cohen Yeah, Tom Hayden obviously had a political career. But Abbie never sold out, and he remained true to his ideals. So I fell in love with him. kara swisher So you recently tweeted, Borat is an absurdity, and the Chicago Seven really happened. But the message is the same when leaders lie, people die. Can you expand what you meant by that? sacha baron cohen Yes, I mean, these were first, heres a tweet. So Im trying to sum up stuff very quickly and kara swisher Yeah, Im familiar with Twitter. I know. sacha baron cohen [LAUGHS] Its not the most subtle form of kara swisher No. sacha baron cohen communication, which is why its so effective. But Vietnam was a lie, right? There was no moral basis for that. And then with Borat, I was trying to say, these lies that were being spread by Trump, whether about coronavirus or about the election, would lead to death and were leading to death. I was trying to create some connection between the two. kara swisher You did a lot of things in Borat that and all your characters, where you got them to do things. Like, you got the cake person to put um, Jews sacha baron cohen Yes, Jews will not replace us. kara swisher Jews will not replace us, which was the Charlottesville thing. You put a series of conspiracies everywhere, and they quickly take over. You think its unfair at all to do it that way, or do you think its again, getting back to Abbie Hoffman, its a way to get out the truth from people to be doing these different things? I dont know what to call them. What do you call them? Are they pranks? Are they sacha baron cohen I prefer not to call them pranks. I mean, essentially, what I do is I point the camera, and people act as they do. So, some people end up appearing dreadful. Rudy Giuliani didnt come out looking great. Its something that I realized very, very early on the first time I did Borat, which was, I took Borat when I was 25 years old to a pro foxhunting rally. And it was a way to get these members of the upper class to really say what they believed about criminals and ethnic minorities. I said, in my country, we have Jews. We give them a head start, and we let them run. You think we should do it here? And then, well, I suppose if it was fair and you gave them at least 20 or so minutes, then yes, I suppose that you know. So it was a fascinating insight to me. When I started Borat first, I actually pitched it as a documentary. So I was going around the BBC and Channel 4, just going, this is a new way to have these documentaries, which are trying to shed light on topics, but kara swisher On what people really think. sacha baron cohen Yeah, what they really think and what theyre saying behind closed doors. kara swisher So speaking of closed doors, I want to ask you about Giuliani. So let me give the context. You filmed him. Hes caught with his hands down his pants after a fake journalist, your co-star Maria Bakalova had removed his mic after an interview. Was there any footage we didnt see? And why did you not wait a little longer before bursting out of the closet to see what he would do? How did you make that call? sacha baron cohen So, that was a difficult call. So Rudy, we were told, was coming with a cop, who he employs. As you know, Rudy has a tremendous amount of respect amongst the NYPD. And we were told that the cop would sweep the room. As a result of that, we built a little hideaway for me inside a wardrobe. And I essentially stood there for an hour while the interview was going on. My only means of communication was a cell phone with the director and Jason Woliner and the producer, Ant Hines. And so they were essentially saying, OK, go in now. Theres one time I actually went in there three times. The first time was in a room service trolley, which we did ended up not showing. A room service guy brings in a room service trolley. Im actually hiding underneath there. I poked my head out from underneath the tablecloth with a sign to my daughter, saying, Dont do it. And shes like, you know, and essentially, Rudy was slightly suspicious. He turns around, I had to put the tablecloth down. In the end, I removed that. The second time, I came in as a sound guy. And the third time, I came in to stop what was happening. But yeah, I was relying on the Jason Woliner, the director, and Ant Hines to text me. And the worrying thing was wed done everything to try and make sure that the interview went well. We had hidden cameras. Amazingly, by the way, Rudy, the presidents lawyer, signed a contract in which he allows the use of hidden cameras. So hes not the most diligent at reading contracts. kara swisher Wow, no. Well, we know that. sacha baron cohen But the one thing we didnt have was enough battery in the phone. So I had about 3% of battery when I got in there, switched on the phone. kara swisher Do you wish you had waited longer to see what I thought you were correct in your thing. He, of course, denies it. Other people it was like internet detective work on the internet on Twitter for days and days, what he was doing precisely. sacha baron cohen Well, I think what you saw is what he did, is what it is. I trust the audience, and everyone can watch the movie and judge for themselves. But essentially, I had to keep Maria safe. We had an escape plan. I was going to run down the stairs, but actually, Rudys bodyguard gets me and pushes me into the room and says, youre staying here until the cops arrive. And then suddenly, Im Borat. Borat doesnt understand what a chair is. Hes like, what is this machine with four legs? Suddenly, Borat has a real understanding of the law. Excuse me, sir. This is my room. I have paid for it. Under the law, you are not permitted in my room. You must leave now. And hes like, no, youre going to stay in here. No, that is false imprisonment. You are not allowed to. I am instructing you to leave. And then, essentially, I left with the security guard. We ran down the steps. Rudy calls the cops, lies to them, and says that a federal crime has been committed. And as a result, the cops search the room. kara swisher Yeah, what is the fallout from the whole thing? sacha baron cohen I think tellingly, Rudy has not sued, because he knows that he would lose. But it does make you wonder what did Rudy try to do to other female journalists. And I think the wonderful thing about it was we had no idea how impactful or how pivotal Rudy would be in the final month of the election and post-election in spreading this lie. The fallout is that the whole world has seen Rudy for what he is. kara swisher Which one do you prefer, the characters that you have or this sort of Abbie Hoffman, which is a more sort of pure acting experience? sacha baron cohen I prefer playing Abbie Hoffman. I mean, Ive loved playing Borat, but its sometimes dangerous, and theres no fun in going out when its dangerous. I want this to be the last Borat movie. And its far more enjoyable and relaxing to be an actor in the hands of other masterful screenwriters and directors. Its nice having a trailer. Its lovely having craft services and chatting to the fantastic cast of Chicago 7 in between takes. Its not a fun experience making Borat or Who is America?. Its difficult. My crew, the directors, my co-writers and producers, theyre taking not insignificant risks by going out and shooting at gun rallies where they risk arrest or being beaten up or kara swisher Sure. sacha baron cohen We were told at that gun rally that if they found out that you were an infiltrator or not a believer, that they would get COVID-positive people to spit at you. So that quite apart from the fact that so many people were carrying semi-automatic weapons. And finally, I got surrounded in the getaway car by an angry crowd who were carrying guns and trying to pull me out of this vehicle. kara swisher Right. Well, you were an infiltrator. sacha baron cohen Its not pleasant. There is some exhilaration when you manage to survive it. And I think Maria Bakalova certainly experienced that. She was so nervous before every scene, but brilliantly pulled off everything we threw at her. And then she was exhilarated. But for me, its a little more heavy. Because I escaped from the gun rally, and my main concern as a producer is, have the rest of the crew got out? Have we got the footage out, and is everybody safe? So, no, Im not returning to that style of comedy again. kara swisher What are you doing next? sacha baron cohen I am not doing anything. kara swisher Oh, all right. sacha baron cohen I am unemployed. I am taking a break. [LAUGHS] kara swisher All right, I have one last question. Mark, Jack, and Sundar will speak in Congress again on March 25th. If you were on the dais, very briefly, what would you ask, and what character would it be? sacha baron cohen I would probably ask them as myself. Was it worth it? Was the huge amount of money that youve amassed worth the destruction that youve wreaked on democracy and the deaths that youve caused? Was it really worth becoming even richer? kara swisher I like Sacha Baron Cohens voice of all of them. sacha baron cohen You like the Northwest London voice. OK, its yours. kara swisher Yes, I like it. It feels genuine. I dont know. Maybe its not. Thank you so much, and good luck with the Golden Globes. sacha baron cohen Kara, thank you for having me on. Im a massive fan of yours. I listen to your podcast, and I read your articles. kara swisher Thank you so very much. sacha baron cohen Thanks a lot. kara swisher All right, bye. sacha baron cohen Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] kara swisher WASHINGTON The acting chief of the Capitol Police warned lawmakers on Thursday that extremist groups that carried out the Jan. 6 riot want to blow up the Capitol and kill lawmakers around President Bidens first formal address to Congress, calling for security measures deployed after the deadly attack to remain for several more weeks. We have no intention of keeping the National Guard soldiers or that fencing any longer than what is actually needed, the acting chief, Yogananda D. Pittman, told a House Appropriations subcommittee. We know that members of the militia groups that were present on Jan. 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible, with a direct nexus to the State of the Union. Extremist groups and militia members were among the hundreds of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol last month in an attempt to stop the certification of Mr. Bidens victory and keep President Donald J. Trump in power. The violent rampage caused injuries to nearly 140 police officers and left five people dead. Afterward, tens of thousands of National Guard troops were sent to the Capitol, which is now fortified on all sides with tall fences topped with razor wire. ROME, FEB 25 - The State funeral for the late Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Luca Attanasio, and his Carabiniere police escort Vito Iacovacci, who were killed in an attack in the African country on Monday, took place at Rome's Santa Maria degli Angeli Basilica on Thursday. Premier Mario Draghi, Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and the Speakers of the Senate and the Lower House, Maria Elisabetta Casellati and Roberto Fico, were among the officials in attendance to pay their respects. The coffins of the slain servants of the State were covered by the Italian flag. The relatives of the two men were in the front row. These included Attanasio's widow, who was wearing a black veil and held her three young daughters in her arms. In the funeral homily, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said Attanasio and Iacovacci has put themselves at the service of other people "at the cost of losing heir own lives". "There is anguish that too many men are bewitched by money and plot the death of a brother," he added. "There is anguish because justice is not respected. "Luca Attanasio and Vittorio Iacovacci were torn away from this world by the claws of ferocious violence, which will only bring more pain. "Evil only brings more evil". Cardinal De Donatis also passed on the condolences of Pope Francis. Attanasio, Iacovacci and a Congolese driver, Mustapha Milambo, were killed on Monday while travelling from Goma to Rutshuru in the east of the African country where they were planning to visit a UN World Food Programme (WFP) school feeding programme. The DRC government has blamed the attack on Rwandan Hutu rebels, who have said Congo and Rwanda troops are to blame. Attanasio and Iacovacci were killed in an attempted kidnapping that tragically ended in a firefight and were not executed by their captors, autopsies performed in Rome on Wednesday suggest. (ANSA). The Army said Wednesday that Maj. Gen Scott Efflandt, who was the acting commander of Fort Hood last year when Spc. Vanessa Guillen vanished from the post and later was found dead, will serve in a support role at U.S. Army North at Fort Sam Houston. He was one of more than a dozen Fort Hood leaders who were suspended or removed from their jobs in December after an outside investigation found a deficient climate that raised risks for female soldiers at the post. Efflandt had been scheduled to command Fort Bliss in El Paso, but the promotion was set aside as the Pentagon launched multiple investigations following Guillens death. Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said he would be reassigned as special assistant to Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson, Army Norths commander, but not as her deputy commanding general as was incorrectly announced a day earlier. Smith said Efflandt has not arrived at Army North and did not know when he would be there. He will be assigned to duties commiserate to his rank and experience, she said. The job has existed in the past, at least on occasion. Brig. Gen. Willard Burleson was special assistant to Lt. Gen. Perry Wiggins, Army Norths commander at the time, from April to May 2016 before deploying. On ExpressNews.com: Army punishes 14 at Fort Hood as it releases report on Vanessa Guillen's death Guillen went missing in April, and by the time she was found, nationwide outrage had built over the Armys investigation into her disappearance and allegations by her family that she had been sexually harassed. A fellow soldier bludgeoned her to death with a hammer at Fort Hood, then dismembered and buried her body near the Leon River several miles from the post with the help of his girlfriend. Guillens family and numerous sexual assault and harassment victims have accused the post itself, home to 37,000 troops, of being the reason she was killed because of its attitude and response to sexual misconduct cases. On ExpressNews.com: As search intensifies, family slams Army response to missing Fort Hood soldier The Pentagon responded to the public pressure with a pair of investigations. An independent panel visited the post from Aug. 30 to Sept. 15. Another probe, called an AR 15-6, initially focused on Guillens death but was expanded to include the posts entire chain of command . It is being overseen by Gen. John Murray, head of the Austin-based Army Futures Command. Smith, the Army spokeswoman, called Efflandts new job a temporary reassignment pending final outcome of the AR 15-6 investigation. The Fort Hood Independent Review Committees 136-page report, released Dec. 8,, found a permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment at Fort Hood, said Chris Swecker, a North Carolina lawyer who chaired the five-member panel. The panel also found Fort Hoods Criminal Investigation Command detachment was under-experienced and over-assigned, which hampered investigations of sex crimes and soldier deaths, and that the posts leadership knew or should have known of the high risk of harm to female soldiers. One committee member, former Bexar County veterans service officer Queta Rodriguez, said the panel conducted hundreds of interviews and discovered a shocking number of credible sexual assault reports. The report made nine findings and 70 recommendations relating to areas including Fort Hoods Sexual Harassment and Response Program, known as SHARP. On ExpressNews.com: Under sex crimes spotlight, Army didnt take long to shake up Fort Hood command Then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said a new policy on missing soldiers would be implemented and ordered a Fort Hood organization called the People First Task Force to address the independent review committees recommendations. Fort Hoods top commander, Lt. Gen. Pat White, was deployed to Iraq for 13 months and not on the post at the time Guillen went missing. He was not disciplined. sigc@express-news.net The company also recorded an 82% reduction in its net loss for the quarter as selling, general and administration expenses fell by 39% Nerds On Site said its management has focused on driving new business and streamlining internal processes and operations Inc ( ) (OTCMKTS:NOSUF) reported its financial results for 2Q 2021, as the companys revenue rose 7.7% to $2,452,312, along with a 22.5% bump in its gross profit, following increased demand for its services as more people worked and learned from home due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. also recorded an 82% reduction in its net loss for the quarter as selling, general and administration expenses fell by 39%. In response to unpredictable COVID conditions, NERDS management have focused on driving new business and streamlining internal processes and operations, Nerds On Site CEO Charles Regan said in a statement. He added: NERDS has quickly evolved its capabilities to respond to a new set of opportunities to serve home-based work and school requirements that did not exist a year ago. We see these business areas continuing in the future and we are committed to supporting businesses and families to increase efficiency and safety in home environments that require technology and innovation to serve multiple purposes going forward. The company noted that it has seen increased demand from existing and new small and medium-sized enterprise clients to implement secure NERDS WorkZone setups in their team members homes, condos and apartments, as COVID-19 circumstances continue to impact both work and personal lives in all NERDS markets. Nerds On Site added that its NERDS SchoolZone setups have been assisting families to create secure, and distraction-free in-home classroom settings for their children's online school sessions. The company provides cybersecurity and mobile IT-support services for small and medium-sized enterprises as well as for corporate and residential users. It offers more than a dozen services, including network installation and support, PC setup, tailored software services, website design and hosting, and wireless networking. It also runs round-the-clock network security and device monitoring, on-site and remote support, and IT-asset management, among other services. Nerds On Site, which operates in 10 cities across Canada and three US states - Florida, Nevada and North Carolina - has teams of carefully chosen technology specialists ready to visit homes or workplaces to diagnose problems on the spot and offer ongoing managed solutions to prevent problems occurring in the first place. Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com CEO panel headlines virtual benefit to support regional nonprofits and communities in need CHICAGO, IL (Feb. 16, 2021) The Midwest Division of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a unique nonprofit organization dedicated to helping communities and enriching lives, will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a panel of distinguished insurance industry CEOs during its annual Blazing the Trail Benefit on March 4. This years event will virtually convene industry professionals and leaders, as well as representatives of local nonprofits, to recognize the philanthropic achievements of the industry and give back to those in need throughout the Midwest. The CEO panel will feature four senior executives from leading global companies discussing critical current challenges and opportunities in the industry, and the future of the business workplace in the wake of 2020. Panelists include Lori Goltermann, CEO, Aon US, Commercial Risk Solutions, Health Solutions; Peter Eastwood, President & CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance; Kara Raiguel, President & CEO, Gen Re; and Kristof Terryn, CEO Zurich North America; and moderated by Bonnie Boone, EVP, Healthcare, Gallagher. As we celebrate our tenth anniversary, the IICF Midwest is proud to gather the insurance community and offer this unique opportunity to hear from such respected industry leaders, and reflect on an extraordinary year of giving, said Sabrina Hart, Executive Vice President/Central Zone Executive and Chair of the IICF Midwest Division Board of Directors. Our nonprofit partners are relying on our support more than ever as they struggle to meet the increasing demands in underserved communities, particularly so during the pandemic. Through our Blazing the Trail Benefit we raise vital funds for those in need and inspire giving and hope. Proceeds from the Blazing the Trail Benefit will benefit IICFs Midwest Community Grants Program, through which grants are awarded to local nonprofit and charitable organizations focused on education, safety and health. Last years event raised $465,000 and grants were presented to fourteen Chicagoland nonprofits. Since its founding in 2011, IICFs Midwest Division has granted more than $3.5 million to over 150 nonprofits. IICF Midwest is one of five divisions, four based in the US and one in the UK, of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, which has granted a total of $42 million globally since its inception in 1996. Were incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of the insurance community in the Midwest, said Kelly Hartweg, Executive Director the IICF Midwest Division. The IICF Community Grants well award in 2021, to nonprofit organizations serving Chicago and many other Midwestern communities, will help make a real difference in the lives of so many facing food insecurity, homelessness and other life-affecting challenges during these uncertain times. This years Blazing the Trail Benefit is made possible through generous insurance industry support including the following Platinum Sponsors: Aon, CNA, CRC Group, Great American Insurance Group, RT Specialty, Zurich and all event sponsors. For more information regarding the event and sponsorship opportunities, please visit the IICF Midwest Benefit Event website or contact Kelly Hartweg at (773) 991-2149 or khartweg@iicf.com. About the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) is a unique nonprofit that unites the collective strengths of the insurance industry to help communities and enrich lives through grants, volunteer service and leadership. Established in 1994, IICF has served as the philanthropic foundation of the insurance industry for more than twenty-five years, contributing $42 million in community grants along with 300,000 volunteer hours by more than 110,000 industry professionals. IICF reinvests locally where funds are raised, serving hundreds of charities and nonprofit organizations, for maximum community impact. IICF is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. Learn more at www.iicf.org or follow us on social media: @doubleicf. Media Contact: Alisa Breese Vice President, IICF Communications abreese@iicf.com (949) 412-2143 [February 25, 2021] New Video Streaming Startup, Relax Scenes, Launches Indiegogo Campaign to Support Their Expansion PEACHLAND, B.C., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A British Columbia, Canada Company founder has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to take his business, Relax Scenes Nature video streaming to the next level. Carl Miller of Peachland says he started his company about a year ago and that Relax Scenes is aimed at, "transforming the way people use their TV's to access the beauty of nature." Miller says, "We feel that accessing the relaxing and therapeutic benefits of nature is more important now than ever. As such we have started an Indiegogo campaign so that we can purchase the apps to make our streaming service more accessible. Miller is hoping to raise $34,000 U.S. on Indigogo, a crowdfunding website that allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Miller says he realized through his own experiences thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand, "what an incredibly positive effect being in nature for long periods has on the human spirit." Miller then decided t start capturing and sharing these beautiful natural places with people who might not be able to see them for themselves. Hence the idea for Relax Scenes. "Over the last three years, we have been shooting videos and developing Relax Scenes our nature video streaming service that specializes in stunning static Nature scenes with natural ambient sounds," says Miller. "My dream is to change how people use their TVs by providing a window to Nature that they can open and experience the feeling of being in Nature whenever they want," Miller says. Miller says he will use the money he hopes to raise to add branded apps that can be installed on almost any Smart TV, on media players like Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and Android TV, which is how they were designed to be viewed. "Relax Scenes looks amazing on a big Screen" he added. "We need to add Relax Scenes Apps so our Nature videos can be accessed everywhere. Unfortunately the cost of these Apps is just well outside of our budget. We've taken Relax Scenes as far as we can on our own, and now we need the public's help through our Indiegogo fundraising campaign* to take our Nature streaming service to the next level!" *Contributors to the RS Indiegogo Campaign will receive a 3-month, 6-month or 12-month subscription (at a 37% discount over the regular price) or an RS business license (at a discounted rate) depending on the amount of the contribution or the Indiegogo Perk selected. All Perks include unlimited Relax Scenes Nature video streaming & access to the new apps when they are release in June 2021 (60-90 days after our Indiegogo completes successfully) Photos: https://www.prlog.org/12859576 Press release distributed by PRLog View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-video-streaming-startup-relax-scenes-launches-indiegogo-campaign-to-support-their-expansion-301235217.html SOURCE Relax Scenes [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] India reported the second highest number of cyber attacks after Japan in the Asia-Pacific region in 2020, according to the annual IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. According to this report, India accounted for 7 per cent of all cyber-attacks observed in Asia in 2020. The report added, "Finance and insurance was the top attacked industry in India (60 per cent), followed by manufacturing and professional services." Ransomware is the topmost cyber attack threat comprising 23 per cent of the attacks. Sodinokibi (REvil) ransomware alone made minimum profits worth $123 million, as per the IBM report. Besides this, digital currency and server access attacks also affected Indian companies last year. India/South Asia security software technical sales leader Sudeep Das told news agency IANS, "We also witnessed cybercriminals using relief efforts and public health information as spam lures including targeted attacks on critical components of the vaccine supply chain. These all remain issues in 2021." Besides this, Europe has experienced more attacks in the year 2020 than any other region, with ransomware emerging as the top culprit. Europe also reported twice as many insider attacks as North America and Asia combined in the year 2020. The IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index has been formed on the basis of insights and observations after evaluating more than 150 billion cyber security events across over 130 countries. With agency inputs; by Mehak Agarwal Also read: Remove questionable content within 36 hrs; assist in probe by 72 hrs: Govt's new social media norms ARNPRIOR, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Plaintree Systems Inc. (CSE:NPT) ("Plaintree" or the "Company"). Quarterly Statements for the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2021 ending December 31, 2020 Plaintree announced today that it has released its unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and related management discussions and analysis for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2020. During the three and nine months ended December 31, 2020 of fiscal 2021, Plaintree realized revenues of $2,954,372 and $8,003,727 respectively, comparable to $3,157,877 and $14,331,912 for the same periods of fiscal 2020. Net (loss) income was $(31) and $85,252 in the three and nine month period ending December 31, 2020 respectively, as compared to net (loss) income of $(782,726) and $401,157 for the comparable periods ending December 31, 2019. "Q3 for us was a continuation of Q2 and Q1. Each quarter saw a high level of quoting activity for the Triodetic mining sector business but delay after delay when it came to actual securing of orders. Finally, in Q4, we have received a number of actual orders and we are now quickly ramping up production." said David Watson CEO. "As a further indication of the dynamic nature of our mining business, in the last three weeks our raw material suppliers have increased their prices by a previously unheard of 65%! Of course, the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak injects a level of uncertainty into all businesses." About Plaintree Systems Plaintree has two diversified product lines consisting of Specialty Structures and Electronics. The Specialty Structures Division includes the former Triodetic Group with over 40 years of experience, is a design/build manufacturer of steel, aluminum and stainless steel specialty structures such as commercial domes, foundations for unstable soil conditions and flood zones, for free form structures, barrel vaults, space frames and industrial dome coverings and Spotton Corporation, a design and manufacturer of high end custom hydraulic and pneumatic valves and cylinders. The Electronics Division includes the legacy Hypernetics and Summit Aerospace USA Inc. businesses. Hypernetics was established in 1972 and is a manufacturer of avionic components for various applications including aircraft antiskid braking, aircraft instrument indicators, solenoids, high purity valves and permanent magnet alternators. Summit Aerospace USA Inc. provides high precision machining to the aerospace and defense markets. Our facility includes 5 axis CNC precision machining of complex castings and large ring parts such as turbine and assembly shrouds as well as assembly & pressure seals. Summit will support requirements from concept, prototype and throughout production. Plaintree's shares are traded under the symbol "NPT". Shareholders and Investors can access Company information on CSE's website and receive full Company disclosure monthly. For more information on Plaintree or to receive stock quotes, complete with trading summaries, bid size and ask price, brokerage house participation, insider reports, news releases, disclosure information, and CSE and SEDAR filings, visit the CSE website at www.cnsx.ca or the Company's website at www.plaintree.com. Plaintree is publicly traded in Canada on the CSE (NPT) with 12,925,253 common shares and 18,325 class A preferred shares outstanding. This press release may include statements that are forward-looking and based on current expectations. The actual results of the company may differ materially from current expectations. The business of the company is subject to many risks and uncertainties, including changes in markets for the company's products, delays in product development and introduction to manufacturing and intense competition. For a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to the company's business, please refer to documents filed by the company with the Canadian regulatory authorities, including the annual report of the Company for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 and related management discussion and analysis. Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. For further information: Lynn Saunders, CFO (613) 623-3434 x2223 SOURCE: Plaintree Systems Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/632158/Plaintree-Systems-Inc-Announces-Second-Quarter-Fiscal-2021-Results Beyond barbecues and ceremonies: Recognizing Memorial Day For many, Memorial Day weekend is about gathering with family and grilling or attending a parade. Some find a more personal way to honor the holiday. Strong early evidence has been seen in Ireland of a protective impact from the coronavirus vaccine. As of February 22, 359,616 doses of the coronavirus vaccine 226,291 first doses and 133,325 second doses had been administered. Professor Philip Nolan said significant progress is being made in the pandemic. As of February 22nd, 359,616 doses of #COVID19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland: a226,291 people have received their first dose a133,325 people have received their second dose Department of Health (@roinnslainte) February 25, 2021 And very hearteningly he said we are beginning to see strong early evidence of a protective impact of vaccination in the cohorts who are receiving the jab. He said the seven-day moving average of cases over the week to Wednesday was 737, down from 816 in the previous week. The daily number of new cases reported on Thursday was 613. He said there is also progress in terms of Covid patients in hospitals. Even though the number of deaths reported here per days sadly remains high, the seven-day moving average is about half what it was four weeks ago, he said. So were seeing continued improvement in all indicators. I'm afraid the boring truth is that if people can continue what they are doing we will get there, we are going on the right track Dr Ronan Glynn Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said Ireland has gone from being among the worst in the world six, seven weeks ago in relation to the virus, to now being in the top 10 in Europe. He urged the public to continue doing what youre doing in terms of following public health advice. Its boring, people want me to be able to say do this and thatll be the panacea, but Im afraid the boring truth is that if people can continue what they are doing we will get there, we are going on the right track, he said. If people can just stick with this for the next number of weeks and if we can continue to suppress down the numbers, we will be in a much brighter place by the end of March and well be able to give people a lot more certainty about what lies ahead. In terms of variants, three cases of the Brazilian variant and 15 cases of the South African variant have been detected in Ireland. There is also one confirmed case of the B1525 variant first identified in December in the UK and Nigeria. Earlier a further 35 deaths of people who had tested positive for coronavirus were notified and another 613 confirmed cases of the virus. As of 8am, there were 591 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of whom 138 were in intensive care. ADVERTISEMENT The Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello, said he has received little or no support from the federal government towards the rescue of the 42 persons abducted from Government Science College, Kagara, last week. Bandits abducted the persons, including 27 students, three workers and 12 members of their families in the school located in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State. According to a statement by the governors media aide, Mary Noel-Berje, on Thursday, Mr Bello made the remarks during a visit by a former Abia governor, Orji Kalu, in Minna. Mr Kalu, who was in Niger to sympathise with the governor over the incident, had called on the federal government to set up a joint security committee to expedite action for the release of the abducted persons. In his response, Mr Bello supported the call from Mr Kalu, pointing out that at the moment, he has little or no support from the government at the centre but reiterated the state governments commitments to securing the release of the abductees, the statement noted. The statement, however, did not elaborate on the area of support the federal government was failing to offer. Ms Noel-Berje did not return calls from our reporter seeking clarification of the statement. Earlier on Wednesday, Mrs Noel-Berje had told this newspaper the state government was making efforts for the unconditional release of the schoolboys and without payment of ransom. She reminded PREMIUM TIMES that the government had earlier secured the release of travellers earlier abducted in the same area, saying this was done without payment of ransom. The governor and other officials at Government House are having sleepless nights while making efforts to rescue the schoolboys and we are hoping and praying that they will be rescued soon, the spokesperson had said. She was embroiled in the infamous 'Ubergate' scandal back in 2018, after a private phone conversation between her husband Peter Stefanovic and his brother Karl was leaked. And on Thursday, Sylvia Jeffreys reflected on the saga in a candid interview with the Australian Women's Weekly. The Channel Nine star admitted that she suffered a 'rocky point in her career' but the scandal brought her and husband Peter closer together. Scadal: Sylvia Jeffreys (pictured) admitted she suffered 'a rocky point in her career' following 'Ubergate' saga that involved her husband Peter Stefanovic and his Today host brother Karl 'A few years ago, professionally, that was a rocky period. But, personally, it just drew [me and Peter] closer together,' she said. 'It made me so appreciative of the choice I made in marrying him because I know I've got a rock-solid partner to get me through anything that comes our way. She added: 'And that's what puts all the external noise into perspective. You've got the most important thing in your life sorted the rest can unfold around you.' 'That was a rocky period': The Channel Nine star said she suffered a 'rocky point' but the scandal brought her and husband Peter (pictured) closer together 'Ubergate' unfolded in March 2018, when New Idea magazine obtained a transcript of a private phone conversation between Peter and Karl Stefanovic, in which the brothers candidly discussed their Channel Nine colleagues. The conversation had been overhead by an Uber driver, who was listening as his passenger Peter spoke to Karl loudly on speakerphone. It was widely reported the driver had recorded the conversation, although he denied that in his interview. 'It made me so appreciative of the choice I made in marrying him because I know I've got a rock-solid partner to get me through anything that comes our way,' Sylvia said During the conversation, Peter complained about his role on Weekend Today and the Stefanovic brothers also criticised Nine staffers and executives. Sylvia told Stellar Magazine in 2019, her husband Peter was deeply affected by the incident at the time. 'He's a sensitive person, so he felt huge remorse through that period... He felt the ramifications and felt terrible for his brother and for how it played out at a pretty difficult time for Karl as well,' she said. 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 Syracuse, N.Y. For nearly a year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has had the power to make law in New York. The authority given to him by state lawmakers in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic allows him to issue directives that govern actions in everyday life. Can I buy a car? Visit my parents? Go to the office? Get a hair cut? His emergency powers currently touch everything in the state, says Caitlin Anderson, a lawyer with Bond, Schoeneck & King in Albany who tracks changes in state law. Its broader than any other governors powers in the country. Those extraordinary powers were needed back in early March, even some of the governors critics say, when it wasnt clear how the state would respond as Covid-19 barreled toward New York and the nation. We didnt even know if wed be able to meet, said Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, the top Republican in the state Assembly, said of the need a year ago to react fast to the spreading virus. Now, clearly we can, he added. Barclay and other Republicans have been calling for weeks to strip Cuomos emergency authority to make law on his own. Now, some Democrats are joining the chorus though its not yet loud enough to convince Democratic legislative leaders to end the Democratic governors pandemic powers. New York Assemblyman Minority Leader William A. Barclay, R-Pulaski, speaks to reporters after listening to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo deliver his State of the State address at the state Capitol, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, in Albany, N.Y.Hans Pennink | AP Photo When those extraordinary powers end, the dozens of orders issued in the past 11 months would fade within a months time, Albany watchdogs said. Yet as governor of a state with a strong executive branch, Cuomo would retain the ability to wield power over much of New Yorks government, from writing the budget to filling key roles throughout the state. And, of course, hed still have the power to declare emergencies, as hes done for snowstorms, tornados and Superstorm Sandy. Those more traditional emergency powers allow Cuomo, and past governors, to suspend activities, such as stopping commercial truck traffic on Interstate 81 in snowstorm. That changed in early March when lawmakers gave Cuomo new emergency powers. Instead, these new powers allow Cuomo to issue new directives -- essentially new laws created and signed by one person. The legislation expanding these powers also came with $40 million in early Covid-19 relief, something that many lawmakers a year ago were hesitant to vote against. At the same time, the Legislature has the power to vote to rescind each and every new order, something they havent done. These extraordinary powers werent meant to last forever. The original legislation, signed into law on March 3, called for Cuomos pandemic powers to expire on April 30. If and when that happens, what comes next? The executive orders already on the books would expire but not overnight, Barclay and others said. Thats because each order comes with a 30-day effective period, which Cuomo can renew each month. Without the extra power, those renewals wouldnt happen and each order would expire within days or weeks, according to Barclay. Some expirations such as how many people can eat in a restaurant might be welcome to some, Anderson said. But other orders could be missed. If the emergency powers go away, she said, bars would not be able to sell alcohol to go. Thats been their source of revenue. Consider local government meetings. Another order allows them to meet virtually. If that goes away, theyll have to meet in person, Anderson said. Of course, the state Legislature could take up these various issues and enact legislation that would extend the changes. That could prove challenging for lawmakers who havent yet reached consensus on the central question: Should Cuomos powers continue? Plus, the lawmakers have had months to step in, yet in most cases havent done so, said Cameron Macdonald of the Government Justice Center, a nonprofit group that provides free legal help to people fighting local or state government rules. The legislature has had a year to figure out how to make laws around this stuff and they havent bothered to do that, Macdonald said. Theyve allowed the governor to take all the glory and all the heat for these decisions. Thats not the way its supposed to work either. Even if stripped of these extraordinary powers, the governor in New York remains a powerful executive. That power grew under Republican Gov. George Pataki, who nearly two decades ago won a lawsuit against then Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver that stripped lawmakers of some of their ability to rewrite the governors proposed budget. Its continued, Barclay said, as Cuomo has made more appointments to commissions, courts and authorities during his three terms as governor. And, of course, the governor retains the power to declare an emergency to address unexpected disasters. Its unclear whether lawmakers will allow these pandemic powers to completely expire, the watchdogs said. Instead, Cuomo and lawmakers may emerge from budget negotiations in late March with another version. It also depends on the virus itself, and whether new cases continue to decline as vaccinations continue to rise. Macdonald said he hopes the entire experience will prompt lawmakers to rewrite the states emergency powers laws. He said it would be smarter to give more county officials more power in deciding what stays open and who goes to work in a crisis. The governors had this statewide, one-size-fits-all policy, Macdonald said. That didnt always make sense, he said, when the virus was raging in New York City but scarce in the North Country. Its an argument for the local governments at this stage to take a larger role. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share with a Syracuse-area reporter? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. Wyoming Business Tips for March 1-7 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 guest author Patricia Brewer, export finance manager, Small Business Administration Office of International Trade It is a tough time to be a small-business owner, trying to support production and manage your team -- all during a global pandemic -- while looking for ways to diversify your customer base. Have you considered the international market? By using e-commerce opportunities, exporting could be a COVID response strategy for small businesses. The primary benefit to exporting is resiliency. After the Great Recession, many exporting businesses attributed their survival to their diversified markets. Exporting can feel daunting, but resources, such as the U.S. Commercial Service, can help small-business owners research foreign markets and buyers. State Trade Expansion Program grants are available to travel to trade shows or translate a companys website. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has three export loan programs designed for companies entering exporting or expanding exports. -- The Export Express program can cover international marketing costs, foreign trade shows, e-commerce, and international patent and trademark protection. The loan limit is $500,000, and your lender receives a 90 percent guarantee from the SBA for amounts less than $350,000. -- The International Trade Loan (ITL) can be used to purchase machinery, retool production or acquire a bigger facility. -- Once you are in the export market and generating a steady stream of sales, you might find yourself in need of working capital. Those foreign sales can be used as collateral under the Export Working Capital Program (EWCP). Through the EWCP, you can purchase inventory and pay wages that support your export orders. The loan limits for the ITL and EWCP are $5 million, and your lender receives a 90 percent SBA guarantee. Whether a small-business owner is new to exporting or already exporting, the SBA can help small businesses through export finance options with their banks. The SBA can work together with small businesses to figure out what works best for them. To contact Brewer, email her at patricia.brewer@sba.gov. Small-business owners may be interested in an upcoming SBA webinar on exporting and trade Thursday, March 4. To join the event at 2 p.m., go to the Wyoming SBDC Network website at www.wyomingsbdc.org/events/export-and-trade/. You also can sign up for no-cost, confidential assistance with international trade and other small business topics from your local Wyoming SBDC Network adviser. The Wyoming SBDC Network offers no-cost advising and technical assistance to help Wyoming entrepreneurs think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. In 2020 alone, the Wyoming SBDC Network helped Wyoming entrepreneurs start 95 new businesses; support 6,954 jobs; and bring a capital impact of $18 million to the state. 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. SBA. All opinions, conclusions and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. 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. A two-year-old girl died a month after she ingested cleaning liquid at a bar in regional NSW while her mother worked nearby, Callie Griffiths-I'Anson was at the Oaklands Hotel in southern NSW, where her mother worked, when she gained access to the bar area and ingested caustic alkali liquid used to clean soda glasses. Her lips were bleeding, she struggled to breathe and Callie was flown to the Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, nearly four hours' drive away. A Victorian coroner is looking into whether the care provided by the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne was adequate. Callie Griffiths-I'Anson was at the Oaklands Hotel (pictured) in southern NSW, where her mother worked, when she gained access to the bar area and ingested caustic alkali liquid used to clean soda glasses She was put into a medically induced coma before being transferred out of intensive care and then released from hospital in early January 2018. Callie went back for a review and was cleared to go home again. After returning to regional NSW, her condition worsened. She was being fed via a nasogastric tube and appeared pale, listless, irritable and uncomfortable. Callie's parents woke one month and one day after the original incident to find their daughter making a gurgling noise. She went limp and stopped breathing. Her family tried to resuscitate her, but she was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The death was referred to the NSW Coroners Court, but transferred to Victoria because of concerns raised about the care provided by the Royal Children's Hospital. Coroner Paresa Spanos was told on Thursday Callie's mother called to speak to the hospital's on-call surgeon the night before the girl died. The hospital said they'd get back to the family but didn't until a few days later, in a call offering condolences about Callie's death. Her lips were bleeding, she struggled to breathe and Callie was flown to the Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital (pictured) The family was told the doctor had been in surgery until 1am and there were concerns about disturbing them at that hour. Ms Spanos will examine the nature of medical care provided to Callie, the decision to discharge her and whether those arrangements were adequate given how far away the family lived. The circumstances of how Callie ingested the cleaner are not the focus of the inquest. She had been at the hotel under the care of staff members because her mother had to duck next door to the post office. A colleague saw what happened to Callie and immediately raised the alarm. The girl's parents and hospital staff who treated her are expected to give evidence at the inquest, to be held at a date to be fixed. COVID-19 restrictions similar to those that were in place at Christmas are set to return, with the government expected to relax rules that have lingered since the end of the five-day lockdown. Nine senior Victorian ministers will meet on Friday morning to finalise a plan to ease mask restrictions and allow more people inside homes, provided there are no new locally-acquired cases. Thursday was the sixth day in a row with no new local cases. Premier Daniel Andrews with (L-R) COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar, Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Credit:Chris Hopkins The intention, according to two government sources familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details are subject to change, is to revert to a set of rules resembling the COVID-safe summer restrictions that were in place before an outbreak in late December that was traced to a Thai restaurant in Black Rock. Before that cluster which stemmed from NSW 30 people could gather inside a home. This number was cut to 15 before New Years Eve and has been limited to five indoors and 20 people outdoors since last Wednesday as health officials have attempted to transition out of the snap lockdown without risking more infections. Michelle Rogers with a picture of her father Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War (Niall Carson/PA) The daughter of a Gulf War veteran has described it as a forgotten conflict. Thousands of soldiers from the UK were deployed alongside Americans to the Gulf in 1990 after Saddam Husseins Iraq invaded Kuwait. It has been recorded by the National Army Museum as the largest single deployment of British troops since the Second World War. Expand Close The Gulf War (PA Archive) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Gulf War (PA Archive) Hemel Hempstead-born Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers of the Royal Engineers considered it the most challenging tour of his 40-year army career. This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the conflict. Michelle Rogers said she feels in many ways it is forgotten about. She remembers living in army accommodation in Germany as a child at the time, and her father missing the birth of her brother. She has kept a collection of letters that her father wrote to his family while he was in the Gulf. Expand Close Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire They include accounts of initially having to hang about, a tented camp and not knowing where they were going next, but the observation, it cant be any worse than this. Another letter notes: Who would think that in 1991, I would be sitting in the middle of the desert, I tell you, after this, Im joining the Salvation Army. Other letters observed high levels of poverty and observing locals carving sheep in the middle of the road and Americans swapping kit. They also record ongoing uncertainty, and Staff Sergeant Rogers urged his wife: whatever happens in the next couple of weeks, I dont want you to listen to the radio and worrying, I still dont think anything will happen. One of his final letters refers to clearing minefields and hopes of returning to his family within weeks. His mementos include a desert rats badge. His daughter Michelle said her father served in Germany, Canada, Cyprus and also Northern Ireland where he met his wife and later retired in Co Antrim. She joked that he compared Northern Ireland to a holiday camp after his experiences in the Gulf. I think he was quite traumatised about what had happened, there were a few horror stories, one of his friends was blown up in a hangar, she told the PA news agency. I know that he suffered from PTSD after some of the sights he saw in the Gulf. Unless you saw it with your own eyes, probably no one could guess what happened out there. Expand Close Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle Rogerss mementos of her dad Staff Sergeant Keith Rogers who fought in the first Gulf War. Picture date: Wednesday February 24, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEFENCE Gulf Rogers. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire But I know he wouldnt have changed it, its what he wanted to do from no age. The army was his whole life, he joined up when he was 16. Staff Sergeant Rogers died in 2015 at the age of 59 with motor neurone disease. Michelle said soldiers were inoculated against the effects of anthrax and plague, which it had been feared would be used against them in attacks. He was pretty convinced that some of the injections he got was a trigger for his motor neurone disease, she said. I would still be in be contact with some of my dads old friends and maybe coincidence they all have neurological problems. Gulf War Syndrome is recognised in the United States but not in the UK. I think it is forgotten about. New Delhi: The government on Thursday (February 25) said that OTT platforms are expected to self-regulate and appoint a self-regulating body. In a joint press conference by Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar, the Union ministers announced new guidelines to curb the misuse of social media platforms. When asked about OTT censorship, Prasad said, we are trusting self-regulation on OTT. "There should be a grievance redressal system in OTT platforms and digital portals. OTT platforms will have to have a self-regulating body, headed by retired Supreme Court or High Court judge or very eminent person in this category, Javadekar added. Here are a few web series which ran into controversies and sparked off the debate of OTT regulation and censorship: 1. Tandav Helmed by Ali Abbas Zafar, Amazon Prime Videos web series Tandav was embroiled in controversy since its release in January 2021. The makers were accused of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus. A few scenes created furore on social media with netizens demanding to Boycott Tandav. Several FIRs were also filed against the makers and director Zafar and actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. After the Tandav row, Javadekar had said that the I&B ministry will soon release guidelines for OTT platforms. Following the huge social media outcry, the makers had apologised and also dropped some parts from the show. The ensemble cast includes Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover and Kritika Kamra among others. 2. Mirzapur Amazon Primes web series Mirzapur came under fire for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, insulting Hindu Gods and portraying Uttar Pradesh in a bad light. An FIR was also filed against the show by a journalist who claimed that the series hurt his religious sentiments and portrayed the district poorly. A complaint to the Supreme Court was also filed by a petitioner who alleged that the town Mirzapur had been portrayed in a bad light. The web series stars Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, Ali Fazal, Vikrant Massey and Rasika Dugal in prominent roles. 3. Aashram Bobby Deol starrer Aashram courted controversy for controversial portrayal of Hindu saints. In the MX Player web series, Bobby plays a self-styled godman who is shown as a rapist and also indulging in drugs and various crimes. Directed by Prakash Jha, the series received flak and a plea was filed against the makers in Jodhpur court over the same. 4. A Suitable Boy Netflix's web series 'A Suitable Boy' faced backlash over a kissing scene in the backdrop of a temple. The BJP leaders alleged that the show hurt religious sentiments. Netflix was accused of insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses leading to Boycott Netflix becoming one of the top trends on social media. A Suitable Boy is Mira Nairs TV adaptation of Vikram Seths novel of the same name which was released on Netflix on October 23. The star cast includes Ishaan Khatter, Tabu, Tanya Maniktala and Rasika Dugal. The chief executives of the biggest airlines in the United States are set to meet virtually with the White House National Climate Adviser and an economic adviser to the President to discuss ways to reduce their carbon footprint, Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources. The CEOs of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and Southwest Airlines are among the participants in the meeting with National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy and economic adviser Brian Deese. According to the report, the topics of discussion will include switching to renewable fuels to curb carbon dioxide emissions from air travel. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that the airlines had partnered with biofuels producers to lobby the Biden administration for a substantial increase in biofuels subsidies, arguing that this would help them recover from the pandemic more quickly and more greenly. However, biofuels for aircraftmade from waste oils, including cooking oil and animal fatare a lot more expensive than oil-derived jet fuel, and airlines are in no position to foot the bill for such a switch. The government, on the other hand, could pay for the more expensive fuelthree to four times costlier than jet fuelpassing part or all of this additional cost to taxpayers. The news highlights the importance of strong government support for emission-reduction initiatives and plans. The talks between the airline chief executives and the White House advisers are, in fact, part of a broader effort by the administration to engage with various industries and federal agencies on President Bidens energy agenda. Regarding airlines, Reuters noted in one of its reports that the National Air Transportation Association had scheduled a meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration to discuss a biofuels incentive of $2 per gallon. According to analysts, this would be among the most expensive government incentives in the United States. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. 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. The privacy regulator overseeing Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.s Google and Apple Inc. in the European Union expects to boost its tally of big tech decisions this yearand rejects complaints that its enforcement has been too slow. Helen Dixon, who leads Irelands Data Protection Commission, said her office is on track to make draft decisions in roughly half a dozen privacy cases involving big technology companies this year, compared with just two last year. The pipeline is very strong. The momentum is building in terms of concluding these inquiries," Ms. Dixon said in an interview. Ms. Dixon is one of the worlds most influential privacy regulators because the data commission she leads is in charge enforcing the EUs General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, for companies that have their regional headquarters in Ireland. Two cases, involving Facebook, are already on Ms. Dixons desk for draft decisions, she said. Five others, including one involving Google and others involving Facebook subsidiaries, are nearing the end of their investigations, with final reports either submitted to the companies for a final round of comments or received back, she added. Ireland in December also submitted a draft decision in a case involving WhatsApp, a Facebook subsidiary, for approval to fellow EU privacy regulators. The Irish data commission is currently considering a number of their objections, Ms. Dixon said. A final decision is possible in the coming months. A Google spokesman confirmed the company had received Irelands investigative report, adding: We are continuing to cooperate fully with the office of the Data Protection Commission in its inquiry." Facebook declined to comment. The plans to ramp up the Irish data commissions output come as Silicon Valley is coming under unprecedented scrutiny around the globe. U.S. federal and state officials have filed antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook, while competition regulators in the EU are examining other cases involving Amazon and Apple. A showdown between tech companies and Australia over a new law has given added prominence to the question of whether publishers should get paid for news available via tech platformsand if so, how much. But Ms. Dixon is facing increasing pressure from some privacy activists to speed up her enforcement of the EUs flagship privacy law. Nearly three years after the GDPR went into effect, there have been few major decisions or fines against big tech companies. The first cross-border fine against a prominent tech company under the law was Irelands 450,000-euro fine, equivalent to about $547,000, in December against Twitter Inc. Instead, the largest European privacy fines against big tech companies in recent years were issued last fall by Frances privacy regulator, CNIL, which used a separate law, called the ePrivacy directive, to fine Google and Amazon.com Inc. a combined $163 million. Ms. Dixon says fines are important but only part of the picture. She said Wednesday that Irelands cases take a long time because they have so far involved novel, complex law, and companies must be given their due-process rights to respond substantively to all allegations during an investigation. There are unrealistic expectations about the nature of these inquiries and how quickly they can conclude," Ms. Dixon said. There tends to be a view that just because somebody tweets that something is a breachI should have written a decision and slapped on a fine the day beforeand this is just nonsense." In addition, Irelands draft decisions in cross-border cases like those involving tech giants must be reviewed and finalized along with the EUs other privacy regulators as part of the GDPRs power-sharing rules. In the Twitter case, that process, including squabbling over the amount of the fine, added half a year between the draft decision and the final fine. Bigger fines may be coming from Irelands data commission. WhatsApps Irish unit in November reported in corporate filings that it had set aside 77.5 million for potential fines from the commission. Ms. Dixon declined to comment on the amount of any fine she recommended in the draft decision that she shared with her EU counterparts in December. Some of the cases also drive toward the core of some tech companies business model. One set of cases nearing decisions looks at allegations from a privacy-advocacy group that users are forced to consent to Facebooks terms and conditions, and whether the company actually needs personal data for advertising to provide its service. Also on Ms. Dixons plate: a separate battle with Facebook over whether the social network will have to suspend at least some transfers of data about its EU users to servers in the U.S. The commission told Facebook in August that it believed a ruling from the EUs top court last summer required Facebook to suspend some such transfers, because of concerns about U.S. surveillance authorities access to the data. Facebook appealed to stop Ireland from issuing an order, which is now paused pending a judicial review in Ireland. Ms. Dixon said the regulator fully defended its position in a December court hearing, and that a decision is expected in coming months. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Gov. Eric J. Holcomb, the Indiana State Department of Health and other state leaders will host their media briefing to provide updates on COVID-19 and its impact on Indiana. Posted: Feb 25, 2021 8:58 AM Haiti - UN : Declaration by France to the Security Council on the situation in Haiti Following the presentation this week to the Security Council of the report of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) on the situation in Haiti. Ms. Nathalie Broadhurst Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations intervened. Intervention by Ms. Nathalie Broadhurst : "I would first like to thank the Special Representative, Ms. La Lime, for her extremely enlightening presentation [...] Mister President, France observes with great concern the deterioration of the situation in Haiti. We have said it over and over again that the solution to the current crisis is political. And as we know, due to the lack of elections, Parliament has not been sitting for a year already. The Haitian authorities govern by decree and some of these decrees are a source of concern, in particular the one creating the National Intelligence Agency, the one expanding the charge of 'terrorism' or the one which led to the dismissal of three judges, however. irremovable according to the Constitution. I say it without ambiguity, this situation is not sustainable in the long term. An election was announced this fall and that is of course a step in the right direction. It is also necessary that these polls contribute to a way out of the crisis and do not add to the current confusion. In our opinion, three conditions must be met in order for Haiti to return to the path of stability. First, minimum security conditions must allow the polls to be held in satisfactory conditions. Second, the authorities should speed up the distribution of identification cards to ensure the widest possible voter turnout. Third, an impartial electoral judge must be established in such a way that the results are accepted by all. A constitutional amendment has also been announced; it is not for us to comment on this process. But we only hope that the driving forces of the country will be able to debate the text, its long-term institutional implications and above all, that it does not result in further delaying the conduct of the various elections. Mister President, When it comes to security and respect for human rights, the authorities must do more. I ask the question bluntly: how is it possible today that Jimmy Cherizier is still at large? Those responsible for the La Saline massacres https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32294-haiti-justice-2-years-after-the-la-saline-massacre-the-legal-file-is-at-a-standstill.html or of Bel Air https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30084-haiti-flash-overwhelming-un-report-on-the-bel-air-massacre.html must be brought to justice. I also note that the investigation into the assassination of Monferrier Dorval is not progressing https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31661-icihaiti-pelerin-5-assassination-of-the-president-of-the-bar-of-port-au-prince.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31905-haiti-flash-assassination-of-me-dorval-killers-and-accomplices-identified.html The fight against impunity must be the priority of the authorities. Faced with the resurgence of violence, in particular the increase in kidnappings by gangs, the Haitian state must redouble its efforts. The Haitian National Police must see its resources further increase and consolidate and it must be irreproachable to ensure respect for the rule of law. We have to look at the situation with lucidity: the credibility of institutions is deeply shaken today in Haiti, in particular by the cases of corruption which destroy the confidence of the population. Nearly four million Haitians live in extreme poverty and suffer from food insecurity, as several of my colleagues have recalled. This situation can only increase social divides and tensions. Mister President, The work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and of the entire BINUH team is indispensable, and we pay tribute to her. This work, in support of political dialogue and in matters of governance, is essential. In conclusion, I wish to reaffirm that France on a national basis, but also through the action of the European Union and the International Organization of La Francophonie, stands more than ever alongside Haiti and the Haitians." HL/ HaitiLibre WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked a proclamation from his predecessor that blocked many green card applicants from entering the United States. Former President Donald Trump issued the ban last year, saying it was needed to protect U.S. workers amid high unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden rejected that reasoning in a proclamation on Wednesday rescinding the visa ban. The Democratic president said it had prevented families from reuniting in the United States and harmed U.S. businesses. Also Read | Indias tricky options in the Myanmar muddle Biden, a Democrat, has pledged to reverse many of Trump's hardline immigration policies. Immigrant advocates had pressed in recent weeks for him to lift the visa ban, which was set to expire on March 31. Biden left in place another ban on most foreign temporary workers. In October, a federal judge in California blocked Trump's ban on those foreign guest workers as it affected hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses that fought the policy in court. Curtis Morrison, a California-based immigration attorney, who represents people subject to the ban said Biden will now have to tackle a growing backlog of applications that have been held up for months as the pandemic shut down most visa processing by the State Department. The process could potentially take years, he said. "It's a backlog that Trump created," Morrison said. "He broke the immigration system." The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. With the many things that Elon Musk does, it's hard to keep track of what he is doing. After all, it seems like the billionaire does quite a number of things all at once. From Tesla's remarkable success during 2020 despite the pandemic to the company's recent move of investing $1 billion in Bitcoin, it's hard to stay updated of what exactly the business giant is up to. Now one of his major projects, Starlink, reportedly boost its speed for current users as it tries out a new update. How Fast Is Starlink's Internet Speed? Elon Musk recently announced an update for Starlink on Twitter, revealing that users should experience a boost in internet speed. With a lot of people inquiring about when Starlink will reach their area or country, Musk is reportedly still expanding its vessel of satellites in outer space to be able to provide fast internet connection for its users. For the fortunate few who are already testing out Starlink, there haven't been much bad reports regarding the speed. Following the thread of that Tweet, according to Keith Dorschner, the speed of the users Starlink went from 89 Mbps up to 140 Mbps which was a whopping 51 Mbps increase in internet speed. How Fast Will SpaceX Internet Be? Another user commented on the thread showing their internet speed going from 250 Mbps up to 280 Mbps. Although it is only a 30 Mbps upgrade, the main fact that the internet speed was able to reach 30 Mbps is still pretty remarkable. An article on February 22 by CNBC revealed that Elon Musk announced that the speed will double up to 300 Mbps. Although the speeds weren't really 300 Mbps, with more updates, users might be able to experience this speed through the Starlink internet connection. SpaceX has previously announced that they believe that Starlink would cost a whopping $10 billion for them to build, but the returns will be at an estimate of $30 billion per year. While Elon Musk's net worth has recently gone down, dropping his title as the richest man in the world, the many plans that the Tesla CEO has over the years should help him be able to get back his title of richest man in the world. This even more good pic.twitter.com/YqPcQiWdlQ Gajendra Godara (@_GajendraGodara) February 25, 2021 Read Also: Mysterious Constellation: Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites Paint A Dazzling Show In Space How Much Will Starlink Internet Cost? An earlier article by CNBC notes how the service is expected to cost just $99 per month for Starlink users. While it might be a lot to think about as of the moment with the Starlink internet speed still being established, the price was originally attached for the "initial Starlink service"--which means that the price might be subjected to change when the official Starlink internet service is finally solidified. As of the moment, the company notes that there are still thousands of Satellites that they expect to send into space in order to create their solid Starlink network. Related Article: Elon Musk Sends His First Ever Tweet Through Space via Starlink, and it Worked OneUnited Bank encourages all Black Americans to come together in solidarity to focus on One Transaction in 2021 that will increase their net worth and help close the racial wealth gap. That transaction could be savings and investments into stocks, bonds, real estate, a profitable business, an improved credit score, home ownership, life insurance or a will. The Solidarity Visa Debit Card and the Bank's other unapologetically Black Visa Debit Cards offer its new AutoSave service that automatically transfers change from card purchases to a savings account. AutoSave makes saving easier to help Black Americans build wealth. "As the largest Black owned bank in the country, we promote a vision to move the Black community forward from a social and economic perspective" states Kevin Cohee, Chairman & CEO of OneUnited Bank. "Last year, the Harriet Tubman Card represented the importance of America's currency reflecting the tremendous contribution of Black Americans and the importance of diversity in our society. This year, the Solidarity Card represents the importance of utilizing our newly organized community to affect positive change. The OneTransaction program is designed to educate and inspire the entire community to work together, in solidarity, to close the racial wealth gap." In partnership with Visa, OneUnited Bank is holding a FREE, state-of-the-art OneTransaction Virtual Financial Conference on June 19th (Juneteenth), a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. The Conference, which has already attracted thousands of attendees, has expert presenters in business and personal finance including Tiffany Aliche, The Budgetnista, an award winning financial education teacher, Karen Hunter, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and host of The Karen Hunter Show on Sirius XM Urban View, Daymond John, globally recognized from ABC's Shark Tank, founder and CEO of FUBU and a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, Calvin Martyr, founder of #BlackOutDay2020 and The Blackout Coalition, Everett Sands, founder and CEO of Lendistry, a Black-owned SBA Preferred Lender, Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist and author of upcoming book "What To Do With Your Money When Crisis Hits", Kemberley Washington, CPA and Tax Analyst with Forbes Advisor among others. Media Inquiries: Suzan McDowell, Circle of One Marketing, [email protected] , or by phone at 305-576-3790. ABOUT ONEUNITED BANK: OneUnited Bank is the premier bank for urban communities, the largest Black-owned bank, the first Black internet bank and a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Its mission is to provide affordable financial services to support economic development in urban communities and maintain superior financial performance to maximize shareholder value. OneUnited is an FDIC insured bank and an equal housing lender. SOURCE OneUnited Bank Related Links https://www.oneunited.com NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has proposed a ban on the purchase and renting of farmland by foreigners ahead of the expiration of a moratorium on land sales. Toqaev said on February 25 that "in order to stop rumors" he had ordered the drawing up of an outline of a law "banning the buying and renting of Kazakhstan's farmland by foreign persons and companies." "The land issue has always been very important for our nation. It is a fundamental and sacred symbol of our statehood.... I also ordered the formation of a commission on land reform by March 25," Toqaev said. The government's moratorium on farmland sales to foreigners is set to expire later this year. The five-year moratorium was introduced in 2016 after thousands ofpeople demonstrated in unprecedented rallies across the tightly controlled Central Asian state against the government's plan to attract foreign investment into agriculture by opening up the farmland market. The protests stopped after the government withdrew the plan, but two men who organized the largest rally in the western city of Atyrau, Talghat Ayan and Maks Boqaev, were sentenced to five years in prison each after being found guilty of inciting social discord, knowingly spreading false information, and violating the law on public assembly. Ayan was released on parole in April 2018, and Boqaev was released earlier this month. Opposition groups have announced rallies across the country on February 28 with land reform as one of their main demands. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a scathing attack on the DMK and Congress said the leaders of the two parties "brainstorm" on looting the people. Launching the BJP's election campaign in Tamil Nadu from this industrial city which is about 500 kms from Chennai, Modi said the leaders of DMK and Congress "brainstorm" on the methods to loot the nation. The Prime Minister said the nation is seeing two distinct styles of politics - the opposition's misgovernance with corruption and the ruling BJP-led NDA's governance with compassion. "Both the methods are very different. For the opposition what matters is personal gains. They want to capture power to fill their pockets," Modi charged. DMK and Congress leaders brainstorm on how to loot and those who give most innovative ways to loot are rewarded with posts and ministries," he said. Modi said the opposition's style of politics is based on bullying and harassment. Continuing his attack on DMK, Modi added that whenever that party comes to power it promotes a "strongman culture". In every district, the DMK has anti-social elements who trouble innocent citizens, he alleged. Modi alleged DMK party cadres do not leave any chance to extort money. According to him, it is the women who suffer because of this and added that everyone knows how the DMK had treated late Chief Minister and AIA DMK leader J. Jayalalithaa. Leaders who troubled Jayalalithaa were rewarded by DMK and Congress, Modi said. On the other hand, NDA's approach to governance is with compassion, he Modi. He said when crores of new bank accounts were opened (Jan Dhan scheme) it was the poor who gained the most. Similarly, it was poor people who benefited under the world's largest health care programme - Ayushman Bharat - and when heart stents and knee replacements were made cheaper. Modi charged that the DMK has lost the right to be called an "all-Tamil Nadu party" as it last won a full electoral majority 25 years back. Attacking the Congress and DMK, the Prime Minister said the two parties are suffering from internal contradictions. Both parties have tried to launch and relaunch their respective "first families" without success, he said. "There is a continuous family drama there. DMK and Congress are so busy in internal matters that they cannot deliver good governance in Tamil Nadu," Modi said. On the other hand, the NDA is united like a family and its focus is on people's welfare. He said DMK ruled Tamil Nadu for many years. Congress was at the Centre for many years but didn't bother about the demand of the Devendra Kulla Vellar community. It was the current AIA DMK government in Tamil Nadu and BJP-led NDA government at the Centre that agreed to the demand of Devendra Kulla Vellar community. With Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu around the corner, Modi said during the last few years, the people of India had given a strong message. He said the people want development-oriented governance and good governance and have kept the anti-development parties at a distance. Modi said the NDA government at the Centre and Tamil Nadu's AIA DMK government is a classic example of cooperative federalism. The Prime Minister said the NDA government gives top priority to the welfare of small businesses and farmers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, emergency credit of about Rs 14,000 crore was sanctioned to about 3.5 lakh micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) in the country and about 25,000 MSMEs in Tamil Nadu also benefitted, Modi said. He said the central government is equally focussed on the development of the vibrant textile sector and seven textile parks will come up in the country in three years. The central government's focus was on providing a life of dignity and prosperity for small farmers, Modi said while listing out schemes like Kisan Credit Card, crop insurance and others. Modi, who often quotes from Tamil literature within and outside India, said he takes great pride in Tamil culture and the Tamil language is the oldest. He said the Centre has permitted engineering and medical education in regional languages which would benefit the students. "The NDA stands for regional aspirations and national progress. The development works launched today must be seen in that spirit," Modi said. SEOUL: South Korea has set the ball rolling for the nationwide Covid vaccination roll out as the first batch of about 1.5 million vaccine doses headed to the country, which is nearing 90,000 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year. The nationwide distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine for some 750,000 people, mostly health care workers and patients at nursing homes, came as the country is set to kick off the free inoculation campaign on Friday, Yonhap reported. The vaccine doses were produced at a local plant by SK Bioscience Co. under a manufacturing partnership deal with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The first shipment for a total of 55 container trucks was delayed for around two hours at the site due to extra caution about maintaining storage temperatures, health authorities said. A total of 1.57 million doses of vaccines under AstraZeneca's full two-dose regimen will be delivered to a total of 1,900 long-term care hospitals and public health centers across the country for the next five days. The first batch of AstraZeneca's vaccine is enough to provide jabs to 785,000 people, which is 35,000 higher than the previous estimate. The AstraZeneca vaccine is deemed more convenient for mass inoculations as its storage temperature is 2 to 8 C, compared with the vaccine by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. that requires ultra-cold chain storage. According to health authorities, a total of 289,271 people, or 93.6 percent of the patients and people working at facilities including sanatoriums, nursing facilities and rehabilitation facilities will receive the first shot. France, Germany to strengthen COVID-19 controls at common border North Korea's Kim appoints new Navy, Air Force Chiefs in 'generation shift' in Army New corona strain carries a worrisome mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) questions President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Defense, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 19, 2021. (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images) Sen. Cotton, Rep. Banks Introduce Bill to Counter CCP Propaganda Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced legislation on Feb. 24 that would counter propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill, named the Countering Chinese Propaganda Act (pdf), would create a new sanctions authority against state-backed disinformation networks. Its aimed at the CCPs propaganda system, or United Front Work Department (UFWD), an overseas influence arm of the Chinese regime that serves to further the CCPs interests abroad. The UFWD has previously been described by Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping as a magic weapon that will help bring about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The legislation is based on recommendations from the RSCs National Security Strategy and would require the secretary of state to examine whether the UFWD meets the criteria to be sanctioned under this new authority. It is part of a larger effort from the RSCthe largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hillto confront the threat posed by the CCP and to hold President Joe Bidens administration accountable for weak policies on China, Banks told The Epoch Times last week. In a statement, Cotton said that the UFWD is used by the Chinese regime to spread propaganda and that the bill would put an end to their tactics. The Chinese Communist Party expands its disinformation campaign each dayconcealing information regarding the origin of COVID-19, lying about its oppression of Uyghurs and other religious minorities, and infiltrating American universities and businesses, Cotton said. The bill states, The United Front Work Department is involved in espionage campaigns, political warfare efforts, malign disinformation, utilizing the Chinese diaspora abroad, and infiltration of educational institutions, all with the goal of softening opposition to the Chinese Communist Party and its policies throughout the world. The text of the bill cites an investigation by ProPublica released on March 16 last year, that found that the UFWD was connected to a network of fake and hijacked Twitter accounts that were covertly spreading CCP propaganda about COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, to global audiences. The UFWD, Cotton said, is just another venue for the CCP to spread its propaganda and to co-opt foreign groups to toe the CCP line. Banks said the UFWD directly participates in the Uyghur genocide and the oppression of Christians in China, but its ultimate goal is to spread those persecutory tactics around the globe. The leadership in Washington may have changed, but Chinas political warfare hasnt, he said. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) speaks to The Epoch Times in March 2019. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Its fallen to Congress to expose and counter Communist Party disinformation. We cant back down now. A number of other measures including the Stop Funding the PLA Act, which would protect U.S. investments from flowing to Chinas military-industrial base, are being introduced by the RSC, according to Banks. Weve made countering communist China a platform of the RSC for the first time, under my leadership, Banks told The Epoch Times. It deserves our attention, and as the largest caucus, our members understand this is the greatest threat that we face and that we have to confront it. The anti-CCP agenda will be a top priority for the organization over the next couple of years, he said. Bowen Xiao contributed to this report. Traders need to learn how to navigate volatile markets by implementing a solid trading plan and adopting sound risk management. This article provides effective tools for traders looking to trade post release. Other articles in this series: Post-release trading strategies 1. Trend following strategy This strategy involves the use of multiple time frames, as well as, well-defined levels of support and resistance that come into play after a news release. Traders can adopt this strategy when the current market price is approaching a well-defined level of support or resistance but isnt quite there yet. The volatility after the news release has the potential to push the market toward the trendline. If price respects the trendline, traders can look to trade in the direction of the trend and trade the potential bounce. The following 4 points are of assistance for this type of trade: Determine trend direction on a daily chart Draw support and resistance lines Select a forex time frame anywhere from 1 4 hours Buy near support in uptrend and sell near resistance in downtrend Keep in mind that news releases have the potential to break through longstanding levels of support and resistance which underscores the importance of using tight stops when pursuing this strategy. 2. Dual spike breakout strategy This strategy involves waiting for market volatility to reveal a range before trading a break of that range and makes use of a five-minute chart. For illustrative purposes this section incorporates the US Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) release as this often has the greatest potential to move the market. After the NFP release, wait 15-minutes for three five-minute candles to close. Take note of the highest price and the lowest price of the three closed candles. Next, place an entry order to go long at the highest price and an entry to go short at the lowest price. Once an order is triggered, targets can be set at twice the distance of the high/low channel while stops can be set above resistance for short trades and below support for long trades. The disadvantage of this strategy is that volatility can push price above or below the short-term range, triggering an entry order, and then immediately reversing to hit a stop loss. This strategy can be applied in the following way: Customize the chart settings to show 5- minute charts Take note of the highs and lows of the first three candles Set entry orders when price breaks above or below the range Set stops and limits Delete the unfilled order Dual spike forex news trading strategy 3. News Reversal Strategy The market can trade in one direction immediately after a major news release only to reverse and trade in the opposite direction. The news reversal strategy looks to trade the news after the release and focuses on a sudden, sustained reversal in direction after a strong initial move in price. The reversal could be the result of algorithms or, the market as a whole, feeling that there was an overreaction in price prompting trades in the opposite direction. The downside of this strategy is that no reversal takes place and the price continues trading in the direction on the initial spike. How to implement the news reversal strategy: Initial spike in price: News with great market moving potential generally lead to a spike in price as the news is released. Look out for a reversal : Traders can wait 10-15 minutes for the reversal to bring price back to where it was before the release. Entry: Enter as price breaks above/below pre-release levels. Set multiple target levels : Traders should consider setting multiple target levels. As one is triggered, traders can take profit on half of the position and adjusting the stop on the remaining position to breakeven. Trading forex after the release: Conclusion Trading the news after the release can be a more conservative way to approach news trading. This is due to the emotions from the news release subsiding allowing a trader time to plan a technical set up for their trade. Regardless of your trading approach to news trading, risk management and utilizing small amounts or no leverage is critical to maintaining capital in your account to make the next trade. Boost your forex trading knowledge Download our free currency forecasts to stay abreast with the DailyFX expert view on forex market movements. If youre just starting out on your forex trading journey, download our free New to Forex trading guide to get to grips with the basics. Trading after the news FAQ section What type of news is most likely to move the market? US economic data is so influential within global currency maekets that it is generally seen as the most important news. Additionally, it is important to note that not all news releases lead to increased volatility. Rather, there are a limited number of major news releases that have previously produced the greatest potential to move the market and some of these include: We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Cyber White House plans executive action in response to massive breach In response to a wide-ranging hack involving SolarWinds IT management software and other commercial products, the White House is planning executive action to address cybersecurity gaps. Hackers inserted a trojan into SolarWinds network management software that nine federal agencies and about 100 private-sector companies uploaded, allowing intruders to dwell undetected in their systems for months. About 18,000 organizations downloaded the tainted update, and the damage could be more widespread, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, said in a Feb. 17 press briefing. The scale of potential access far exceeded the number of known compromises. Many of the private sector compromises are technology companies, including networks of companies whose products could be used to launch additional intrusions, Neuberger said. In response, "we're also working on close to about a dozen things," she said, adding that eight items will likely be included in "upcoming executive action to address the gaps we have identified in our review of this incident. Neuberger, who is leading the federal response to the breach, said the intelligence community is continuing to investigate the actors behind the compromise and declined to attribute the attack to any specific country or group. "Until that study is complete, I will use the language we previously used, which was to say an advanced persistent threat actor likely of Russian origin was responsible," she said. Neuberger said the government is currently focused on expelling hackers from federal networks, modernizing federal IT to better protect it against this kind of attack and considering "potential response options to the perpetrators." The administration aims to modernize federal defenses by building back better, she said: Were absolutely committed to reducing the risk this happens again. If you cant see a network, you cant defend a network. And federal networks cybersecurity need investment and more of an integrated approach to detect and block such threats. The White House has been careful in recent weeks not to provide any forecast of how or when it will respond except to say the president reserves the right to do so in the time and manner of his choosing. "This isn't the only case of malicious cyber activity of likely Russian origin either for us or for our allies and partners, so as we contemplate future response options, we are considering holistically what those activities were," she said. Neuberger also acknowledged that other, yet undeclared victims within the government or private sector may emerge as the investigation continues. This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to Defense Systems. (CNN) Over the last year, the worldwide web has started to look less worldwide. Europe is floating regulation that could impose temporary bans on US tech companies that violate its laws. The United States was on the verge of banning TikTok and WeChat, though the new Biden administration is rethinking that move. India, which did ban those two apps as well of dozens of others, is now at loggerheads with Twitter. And this month, Facebook clashed with the Australian government over a proposed law that would require it to pay publishers. The company briefly decided to prevent users from sharing news links in the country in response to the law, with the potential to drastically change how its platform functions from one country to the next. Then on Tuesday, it reached a deal with the government and agreed to restore news pages. The deal partially relaxed arbitration requirements that Facebook took issue with. In its announcement of the deal, however, Facebook hinted at the possibility of similar clashes in the future. "We'll continue to invest in news globally and resist efforts by media conglomerates to advance regulatory frameworks that do not take account of the true value exchange between publishers and platforms like Facebook," Campbell Brown, VP of global news partnerships at Facebook, said in a statement Tuesday. But if such territorial agreements become more common, the globally-connected internet we know will become more like what some have dubbed the "splinternet," or a collection of different internets whose limits are determined by national or regional borders. A combination of rising nationalism, trade disputes and concerns about the market dominance of certain global tech companies has prompted threats of regulatory crackdowns all over the world. In the process, these forces are not just upending the tech companies that built massive businesses on the promise of a global internet, but also the very idea of building platforms that can be accessed and used the same way by anyone anywhere in the world. And the cracks only appear to be getting deeper. "I do think there is a global tendency towards fragmenting the internet much more than it has been fragmented in the past," Daphne Keller, director of the program on platform regulation at Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center, told CNN Business. As recent events have shown, a platform doesn't need to be banned or shut down outright for that fragmentation to happen. In response to Australia's effort to make it pay publishers, When Facebook stopped showing links from news outlets to its Australian users, users outside the country could also no longer access content from Australian news outlets. The temporary move ran against the very premise of the internet serving as a tool for the free flow of information globally. In India, when warned that it was "welcome to do business" but "must also respect Indian laws," Twitter sought a middle ground by withholding some accounts that were using what the government called "incendiary and baseless" hashtags which means those accounts weren't visible within the country but could still be accessed outside. (The South Asian nation has also shown a greater willingness to go after foreign tech companies, proposing major restrictions on their operations and, amid a diplomatic standoff with China, banning TikTok and dozens of other Chinese-owned apps.) It's a very different landscape from the one that allowed US tech firms to accumulate enormous wealth and power. With notable exceptions such as China and North Korea, Facebook and its peers were able to launch their products all over the world with little pushback. Now that openness may no longer be a given. "What's legal in Sweden isn't legal in Pakistan, and so we have to find some way to reconcile that with the way the internet works," Keller said. The result is that "either platforms voluntarily or governments forcibly are erecting geographical barriers, so that we see different things in one country than in another." The great retreat While Facebook isn't the only tech company in the crosshairs of governments around the globe, it is perhaps more emblematic than any other Silicon Valley business of the promise of a global internet running up against various countries' laws. Five years ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was talking up his goal of reaching 5 billion users, or the majority of the world's population. Already, the company has more than 3 billion monthly active users across its various apps, in a testament to its rapid expansion all over the world. "We want to make it so that anyone, anywhere a child growing up in rural India who never had a computer can go to a store, get a phone, get online, and get access to all of the same things that you and I appreciate about the internet," Zuckerberg said in a 2013 interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. Even in China, where the government's online censorship apparatus known as the Great Firewall has locked Western tech companies out for decades, Facebook and Google both sought to make concessions to be allowed in (albeit with little success). Now, Facebook is instead turning to what's become an increasingly tried-and-tested playbook for the tech industry: threatening to pull its products out of markets in the face of unfavorable regulation. In 2014, Google shut down its Google News service in Spain after the country passed a similar law to the one Australia is now contemplating. In Australia, too, it threatened to pull its search engine out of the country over the same media law before ultimately giving in and signing deals with some of the country's top publishers. This time, at least, the playbook seemed to work somewhat for Facebook. But there are signs that countries around the world including the United States are more willing to play hardball and follow each other's leads on reining in Big Tech. Those companies are ultimately dependent on continued access to billions of users around the world, and governments have shown they are willing to cut off that access in the name of protecting their citizens and sovereignty online. The stakes will only get higher if more governments jump on the bandwagon. "It's kind of a game of chicken," said Sinan Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Business and author of "The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy and Our Health." Aral says companies such as Facebook and Google will encounter a slippery slope if they start to exit every market that asks them to pay for its news, which would "severely limit" the content they can serve their global user base. "They have a vested interest in trying to force any one market to not impose such regulations by threatening to pull out," he said. "The other side is basically saying: 'If you don't pay for the content, you're not going to have access to our market of consumers or the content in this market.'" As the internet fractures, global regulators coalesce A fight over news in Australia is a relatively small part of the clash between tech and governments, which has largely been focused on issues such as censorship, privacy and competition. But the response to Facebook's move in Australia has shown that a more international effort to rein in Big Tech may be gathering momentum -- and with it, the potential for additional fracturing of how internet services function from one country to the next. As his government faced off against Facebook last week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a warning to the social media giant: what you do here may come back to hurt you in other countries. "These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behavior of Big Tech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them," he said in a Facebook post. "They may be changing the world, but that doesn't mean they run it." On Tuesday, Morrison said Facebook's decision to restore news was "welcome," adding that the government remained committed to proceeding with its legislation to ensure "Australian journalists and news organisations are fairly compensated for the original content they produce." Several other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada are now considering similar legislation against social media companies and many of those countries are talking to each other about how best to do that. "It would be extremely useful if governments would come together in some kind of transnational process and come up with a treaty or some kind of standard about who gets to reach out and affect content and information outside their national territory," Keller said, "because that's what a lot of them are trying to do, but they haven't, and so as a result you get this very fragmented patchwork." If that increased fragmentation is allowed to reach its natural conclusion, however, the consequences could be dire. "If the eventual outcome of that is that we have social media platforms in every major country or market that are separate, then what we will have is an information ecosystem that is completely bifurcated or splintered across the globe," Aral said. "What that portends is a citizenry that has completely different sets of information about local events, about world events, and perhaps a very splintered worldview of reality." This story was first published on CNN.com 'The worldwide web as we know it may be ending' The U.S. government has determined that a one-shot COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is safe and offers partial protection against the disease. In an analysis released Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the vaccine was about 66 percent effective during global trials in preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The American company said last month that nearly 44,000 people participated in the trial. Its effectiveness was between 66 percent and 72 percent in the United States, 57 percent in Latin America and in South Africa, where a new variant of the virus has spread. Although the vaccine's effectiveness appears less robust than Moderna's and Pfizer's, the results pave the way for final government approval for emergency use of a third vaccine that is easier to administer. The FDA analysis also said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could help accelerate vaccinations because, unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, two doses are not required. 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. New Delhi, Feb 25 : More than 90 days have passed since farmers began their agitation on the borders of the national Capital. With every passing day, the nature of the problems they face also changes. Having weathered the vagaries of Delhi's chilling cold, farmers are now facing the harsh sun during the day. So, on Thursday, to fight the harsh sun, the farmers erected a tent in front of the main stage at Ghazipur border. One of the farm leaders told IANS: "Actually many media reports claimed that farmers had deserted the protest site. But the facts are otherwise. Owing to the harsh sun, the activists were retreating into the shade. Now that the stage is shielded from the sun, the number of activists in front of the stage is again swelling." Apart from a tent, the farmers at the border are also equipping themselves with coolers and fans in the tents so that those participating in the agitation are not inconvenienced. Thousands of farmers from across the country have been camping at the national Capital's borders against the three farm laws, since November 26 last year. Eleven rounds of talks between farmers and the government so far have not made any headway. Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Minister of Justice Stelian Ion labeled on Thursday as "inappropriate" the criticism brought by certain members of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) regarding the meetings he had with the ambassadors of some states, including the representatives of the US Embassy in Bucharest, claiming that it is not about any interference in Romania's internal affairs. Present at the debates in Parliament on the budget, Stelian Ion was asked by journalists how he commented on the criticism of some CSM members of his meetings with the representatives of the United States Embassy. "It is inappropriate. It seems to me absolutely normal to have relations with the United States, relations with other partner states, to have communication with these states. They are our partners, they are not enemies. It is natural for these discussions to be continuous, permanent (...) On the other hand, this idea of non-interference in internal affairs, I have heard it in other periods. Interfering in the internal affairs of Romania is out of the question. We discuss issues related to CVM, compliance with the obligations we have assumed. No one from abroad is coming to impose new solutions on us, as one tries to suggest in a very dangerous way," the justice minister said.Several CSM judges have harshly criticized Stelian Ion in connection with his recent meeting with representatives of the US Embassy in Bucharest.Also, Judge Gabriela Baltag accused that such meetings with representatives of the embassies of other states would represent "an attack on the independence and sovereignty" of Romania. HORRY COUNTY Trapped in the back of a Horry County Sheriffs Office transport van and allegedly left to die by two deputies, Wendy Haywood Newton and Nicolette Green had no idea they would spend their last moments of life in Marion County floodwaters after Hurricane Florence. McLeod Health in Loris, as well as its staff, played a role in the death of Newton on that fateful day in 2018, according to a recently filed lawsuit. Days before Hurricane Florences arrival in September 2018, Newton felt anxious and realized treatment was needed, so a medical transport arrangement was made to take her to Loris from North Carolina, where she lived, according to the lawsuit. After arriving accompanied by her daughter Newton allegedly told hospital officials that a gowned figure known as Penelope had tormented her mind for years. Newton was given medication and later placed in an emergency department room for transport to another facility with a psychiatric bed, according to medical records. The lawsuit states a doctor superfluously determined that the medications provided to Newton were not working and that he would do papers to have her confined. Court records said the hospital contacted a mental health counselor who also authorized transporting Newton to another facility despite perils associated with increasing flood waters and road closures. Later in the afternoon, on Sept. 18, the lawsuit said, the hospital contacted law enforcement to transport Newton but were told that the Horry County Sheriffs Office could not do so at the time because of flooding caused by Hurricane Florence. The lawsuit said that hospital staff signed transport documents affirming Newtons transport was not likely to cause material deterioration of her medical condition despite the fact they knew, or should have known, of the dangerous flood conditions existing at that time. Court records said that Newton was discharged on the same day and turned over to the custody of the Horry County Sheriffs Office. Two deputies transported Newton in the small middle compartment of a caged prisoner van along with another patient who was headed for care related to paranoid schizophrenia, according to the lawsuit. Sign up for our Myrtle Beach weekly update newsletter. Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Myrtle Beach area. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Myrtle Beach news staff. Email Sign Up! Court records said that while on the way to Darlington, the two deputies not named as defendants in the lawsuit drove through a flooded road near the Pee Dee River on Highway 76. The deputies, Stephen Flood and Joshua Bishop, climbed out of the van while Newton, 45, and the other passenger, Green, 43, of Myrtle Beach, could not escape. The firings of Flood and Bishop were announced several weeks after both women drowned. In 2019, Flood and Bishop were each charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Flood, who drove the van, also faces two counts of reckless homicide, an offense that carries up to 10 years behind bars. Their criminal cases are still pending in Marion County. As a direct and proximate result of the acts and omissions of the defendants, Newton died a slow and horrific death crammed inside a tiny metal cage with another woman whom she did not know as they helplessly watched the flood waters rise inside their compartment and, as a direct and proximate result, sustained damages including extreme mental anguish, shock, horror, pain and suffering, the lawsuit said. The family of Newton is asking for appropriate damages, both actual and punitive, based on plaintiffs medical expenses, pain and suffering, permanent impairment and other related damages. A McLeod Health spokesperson said the hospital does not comment on pending lawsuits. ANNAPOLIS, Md., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbis Technologies, Inc., a global leader in Component Content Management Software (CCMS), services and solutions, announced this week that it has been awarded a large, multi-year contract to support the development of a world-class custom Component Content Management System for the US Government Publishing Office (GPO). The solution will leverage Orbis' unique experience in XML content management systems, our experience developing MarkLogic NoSQL database, and extensive experience in building semantic data platforms. "Orbis Technologies is proud to support GPO and their XPub program. Our team is uniquely qualified to deliver an optimal, custom solution to the US Government Publishing Office based on our extensive work with leading publishers worldwide," says Brian Ippolito, President & CEO of Orbis Technologies, Inc. Renault Group headquarters in France / Courtesy of Renault Samsung By Nam Hyun-woo Renault Group Executive Vice President Jose Vicente de los Mozos / Courtesy of Renault Samsung The New York Times For months, Rosanne Boyland had been worrying her family with bizarre notions she had picked up on the internet: Actor Tom Hanks might be dead, she said. A national furniture chain was trafficking children. Many prominent Democrats were pedophiles. Then, early in January, she texted her older sister that she was heading to Washington, D.C., with a friend to support President Donald Trump and protest what was happening in the country. Im going to dc, she wrote. I dont know all the deets yet. Boyland, 34, was one of five people who never made it home from the Jan. 6 protest, which erupted in violence when hundreds of people stormed into the Capitol. Her death has left her family grappling to understand how Boyland, who they say had never voted before 2020, wound up waving a Dont Tread on Me flag amid a crowd of fanatic supporters of the former president before walking up the steps of the Capitol to her death. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Their frustration deepened further last week when Republicans in the Senate blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to look into the origins and the handling of the attack on the Capitol. Why anyone would NOT want to find out what happened, even just to prevent it from happening again, is beyond me, Boylands older sister, Lonna Cave, said in a text message after the vote. For months before the rally, Boyland had bombarded her friends and relatives with messages and links to long videos about the fantastical theories she had come to accept as fact. Many of the false claims spilled from QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy-theory movement that rose in popularity over the course of his presidency and promoted the idea that many Democrats and celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring a theory that 15% of Americans believe, according to a poll last week. Many of its supporters falsely believed that President Joe Biden had stolen the election, and some attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally. Boylands sudden fixation so alarmed her family members and friends that some of them asked her to stop talking to them about politics or just to stop talking altogether. Some of her closest friends believe that Boyland was a vulnerable target for the conspiracy theorists. After a stint in drug rehabilitation, she had returned to her parents home and largely avoided drugs for several years, her family said. But the isolation brought about by the pandemic was making it harder. QAnon filled a void in her life, they said, helping distract her from thoughts of returning to drugs even as it acted as a different kind of hallucinogen. I was worried that she was trading one addiction for another, said Blaire Boyland, her younger sister. It just seemed like, yes, shes not doing drugs, but shes very obsessively online, watching all these YouTube videos and going down the rabbit hole. The family is also still struggling to understand how she died. From the video of the chaotic siege, it appeared that she had died after being caught in a crush of rioters. But the autopsy by the Washington medical examiners office did not find evidence of trampling and concluded that she had overdosed on amphetamines. Family members said it was likely that the only amphetamine in her body was the Adderall she took every day by prescription, although it appeared that she might have taken at least twice her prescribed dose. We just want to find out what happened, to be able to rest, Cave said. This has been so messed up. We just want to grieve the normal way. A Descent Into Conspiracy Theories For years, Boyland had been barred from voting because she had been convicted of felony drug possession, but she had also shown little interest in politics until 2020. In the fall, though, free from probation, she made it clear early on that she planned to cast a ballot for Trump. She registered to vote Oct. 3, a month before the election, records show. She was so happy that she was able to vote, recalled Stephen Marsh, 36, a friend of Boylands who said that she had been so thrilled that she had called his mother. She was so excited about it because her past made it difficult for her to participate. But her increasing absorption in the QAnon community was by that time pushing some of her closest friends away. I care about you, but I think it would be best if we didnt talk for a while, Sydney Vinson, a friend since childhood, texted her on Oct. 3 after Boyland had sent her a long text message and screenshots about purported government manipulation of the news media. Please dont send me any more political stuff. Boyland was the middle of three sisters, growing up in Kennesaw, Georgia, a city of 34,000 people about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta. She and her sisters were close as children, and her younger sister said she had been inspired by Boylands assertiveness and confidence. Even then, she had a penchant for conspiracy theories, her sisters said, but harmless ones, such as the existence of extraterrestrials or of Bigfoot. But when she was about 16, her life took a turn when she began dating an abusive boyfriend, her sisters said. She would blame black eyes on soccer practice and once came home with an unexplained shoulder injury. Around that time, she also got hooked on opioids. She eventually dropped out of high school, and her relationship with her family became strained. In 2009, when she was 23, she was charged with felony drug possession. Several other cases would follow, the most recent in April 2013, after which she was given five years of probation. It was only in July 2014, when she learned about the pregnancy of her older sister, Cave, that she pledged to be a better role model for her niece, her sisters said and from that moment on, with a few brief relapses, she was largely sober. She was always talking about how she couldnt wait to be the aunt that was the cool aunt, said Cave, who gave birth to her first daughter in March 2015. She now has two daughters, ages 5 and 6. Boyland grew close to both of them, often picking them up from school and documenting milestones in their lives. She spent much of her time going to group meetings and counseling other people who were struggling with drugs. At one point, she hoped to become a counselor herself. When the pandemic arrived, though, she had to spend much of her time alone at her parents house, and her in-person group meetings were canceled. She told her sisters that she frequently felt an urge to begin using drugs again. She was really struggling, Blaire Boyland said. She tried doing the Zoom meetings, but she wasnt getting anything out of it. She felt out of control. Her friends began noticing that she was posting about conspiracy theories and about Trump. Before long, she was texting them about PizzaGate, a conspiracy theory that included false claims about Democrats trafficking of children in the basement of a pizza shop in Washington. Ive mostly been watching it all on youtube, Boyland said in a text message to Vinson, her childhood friend. What most captured her attention, Vinson said, was the Save the Children slogan that QAnon members used to spread false claims about Democrats trafficking of children. She cared about kids a lot, Vinson said. She thought she was fighting for children, in her own way, and just trying to spread the word about underground pedophile rings and just all of these things. I think QAnon had this way of making these things seem really believable. At about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, Boyland began the roughly 10-hour drive to Washington with a friend, Justin Winchell. They parked in Virginia and took a bus into the city to see Trump at the rally, where he riled up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims that his election loss had been rigged. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump told the crowd. Boyland headed with many of the other protesters down the street to the Capitol. The Chaotic Siege Boyland could barely be made out at first in the footage of the crowds surge up the Capitol steps a short figure, outfitted in a black hoodie and American-flag sunglasses. She disappeared into the mob inside the tunnel that presidents use when they emerge for their inaugurations. It was the scene of some of the days most brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and videos showed rioters crushing police officers between doors and warning that the crowd could become dangerously packed. Just minutes later, after a push by the police that sent the crowd tumbling back out of the tunnel, she could be seen lying on her side, after which two men dragged her away from the door and began trying to resuscitate her. It appeared to be a case of trampling. But then the medical examiner concluded that she had died of acute amphetamine intoxication, a ruling that left her family convinced that she had not relapsed into drug abuse flummoxed. She had been taking Adderall regularly under a doctors prescription and had not been seen to have any adverse effects, they said. Several forensic pathologists and toxicologists who reviewed the autopsy report said in interviews that the level of amphetamine in her blood most likely from the Adderall had been enough to be potentially fatal. Iain McIntyre, a former chief toxicologist at the San Diego County medical examiners office, said the level could be consistent with her having taken both of her 30-milligram daily doses at the same time, something Cave said her sister sometimes did. McIntyre said the high dosage of amphetamine, along with the raucous scene, her heart disease and obesity, could have been enough to make her heart stop. The day after Boyland's death, Caves husband, Justin, told reporters that Trump had incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans. Then came a spate of cruel messages to the family from all sides people who said they were glad Boyland had died, and others who had been infuriated by Justin Caves comments. The Caves were left wondering what they had missed and how they could have helped Boyland before she fell too deeply into the conspiracy theories. Thats part of the reason I feel guilty, because none of us thought too much about it when she started looking into it, Lonna Cave said. I understand that she was somewhere she shouldnt have been. But she would not have been here if it werent for all the misinformation. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company The coffins of the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio, right, and Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio Iacovacci are draped with the Italian flag ahead of their state funeral in Santa Maria degli Angeli church, in Rome, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo/) Italy Honors Slain Ambassador and Bodyguard, Prays for Congo ROMEItaly paid tribute to its ambassador to Congo and his bodyguard who were killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy, honoring them with a state funeral and prayers for peace in Congo and all nations torn by war and violence. Carabinieri paramilitary police carry the caskets of the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio and Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio Iacovacci, draped with the Italian flag, at the end of their state, in Romes Santa Maria degli Angeli Church, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo/) Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the popes vicar for Rome, presided over the solemn funeral at the Santa Maria degli Angeli basilica that was attended by Premier Mario Draghi, top lawmakers, representatives of the armed forces, and relatives of the young men. Ambassador Luca Attanasio and Carabiniere paramilitary officer Vittorio Iacovacci were killed north of Goma on Feb. 22 when an armed group stopped them as they traveled in a two-car convoy to a World Food Program school feeding project. WFPs Congolese driver, Moustapha Milambo, also was killed in the attack. A Carabinieri officer attends the funeral of the Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio and Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio Iacovacci, in Rome, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo/) Italy has formally asked the U.N. for an inquiry into what happened amid questions about whether U.N. security arrangements were sufficient for the mission. In his eulogy, De Donatis decried the stupid and ferocious attack and said it was right that Italy, Congo, and the community of nations weep over such violence that tore Luca and Vittorio from this world. The casket of Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio Iacovacci, draped in the Italian flag, is driven away at the end of the state funeral for Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio and Iacovacci, in Rome, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo/) Let us pray together that today is a day in which the prayer for peace in Congo and in all nations torn by various forms of war and violence is raised to heaven, he said. He denounced how so many Congolese feel the constant threat of danger from rebel groups knocking at their door, saying the country had been cruelly devastated by violence that sees their children die every day. But he praised the men for working for peace and looking out for others even at the cost of their own lives. If this the fate of peace workers, what will be the fate of the rest of us? he asked. Zakia Seddiki, wife of the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio, holds one of her children at the end of the state funeral for Attanasio and Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio Iacovacci, in Rome, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo) The funeral, carried live on state RAI television, featured masked Carabinieri officers as pallbearers and altar servers, with a military band performing Chopins haunting Funeral March as the flag-draped coffins were carried in and out of the basilica. Domenica Benedetto, partner of Italian Carabinieri police officer Vittorio Iacovacci, arrives for the state funeral of Iacovacci and the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo Luca Attanasio, in Romes Santa Maria degli Angeli Church, on Feb. 25, 2021. (Andrew Medichini/AP Photo) After the service, the socially distanced crowd applauded as the two hearses pulled out of the piazza carrying the coffins for burial, flanked by a police escort. Attanasio is survived by his wife and three young daughters, at least one of whom attended the funeral, as well as his parents and siblings. Iacovacci is survived by his fiancee and other family members. By Nicole Winfield Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions Pupils wearing facemasks as a precaution against the transmission of the CCP virus arrive to attend Moor End Academy in Huddersfield, northern England on Sept. 11, 2020. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images) UK Government Defends Asking Secondary Pupils to Wear Masks in Classrooms The British government has defended its recommendation that secondary school pupils should wear face coverings inside classrooms when they return to school next month, a move that has attracted criticism from parents and lawmakers. We are recommending that secondary school pupils wear face coverings in classrooms as a temporary measure until Easter to provide additional reassurance and protection against the transmission of coronavirus where social distancing measures are not possible, a government spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times on Thursday. In its roadmap out of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus lockdown, unveiled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, the government recommended that the use of face coverings in secondary schools is extended to all indoor environmentsincluding classroomsunless 2 metre social distancing can be maintained. According to the government, the wearing of face coverings in classrooms is being introduced for a limited time until Easter and will be kept under review. It also said the recommendation will not apply in situations where a face covering would impact on the ability to take part in exercise or strenuous activity, for example PE lessons. This new recommendation represents a significant shift in the governments stance on the wearing of face coverings in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Johnson said to the media that asking pupils to wear masks inside classrooms would be clearly nonsensical, as you cant teach with face coverings, you cant expect pupils to learn with face coverings. The big question for @BorisJohnson is: what has changed? School closures have already led to 840 million missed school days. Current proposals severely impact upon childrens opportunities to catch up. This cannot happen.#NOMASKSINCLASS pic.twitter.com/8Cv2NVLnDX UsforThemUK (@UsforThemUK) February 25, 2021 Parent campaign group UsForThem posted Johnsons past remarks on Twitter and asked What has changed? School closures have already led to 840 million missed school days. Current proposals severely impact upon childrens opportunities to catch up. This cannot happen, the group said. Conservative MP Huw Merriman said on Twitter he was disappointed that face coverings are to be worn in classrooms, which he called a backwards step which wont help with catch-up. The government spokesperson responded to criticisms by saying, Throughout this pandemic, we have based our guidance on the latest scientific and medical advice, and we will continue to keep our guidance under review and update it as required. The Department for Educations operational guidance (pdf) stressed that it was a recommendation rather than an order. No pupil should be denied education on the grounds that they are not wearing a face covering, it states. QINGDAO, China, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS ) (the "Company" or "SOS") announced today that it entered into a definitive agreement with Leibodong Hydropower Station("Leibodong") in Hejiang County, Luzhou, Sichuan. Pursuant to the definitive agreement, Leibodong will supply SOS with electricity and physical space to house crypto mining rigs for a term of three years in order for SOS to operate its own cloud crypto mining and big data center. Pursuant to the definitive agreement, Leibodong shall lease SOS with its own physical site or sublease physical site which are expected to be approximately 1350 square meters (approximately 14531.28 square foot) for SOS to house about 3500 sets of crypto mining rigs. The rent is about RMB 3.50 (approximately $0.5422) per square meter per month. SOS Chairman Yandai Wang commented, "We are glad to enter into the definitive agreement with with Leibodong after three weeks' of negotiation since we entered the framework agreement on February 3, 2021. I am very pleased with the deal. The sustainable and cost-effective crypto mining supply chain is one of key success factors for cloud crypto mining. The Leibodong Cloud Crypto Mining Center based in Hejiang County, Luzhou, Sichuan sets an example and standard on how SOS will continue to secure cheap electricity in regions with rich renewable energy resources, such as Sichuan China. We will continue to search for cheap and sustainable power plant to execute our aspiring strategy of cloud crypto mining." About SOS Limited SOS is an emerging blockchain-based and big data-driven marketing and solution provider, with a nationwide membership base of approximately 20 million in China. Recently, SOS started to get ready to roll out its cryptocurrency mining business and plans to develop insurance and security management solutions for digital assets and cryptocurrencies. The core infrastructure of SOS' marketing data, technology and solutions to insurance and emergency rescue services is built on big date, blockchain-based technology, cloud computing, AI, satellite, and 5G network, etc. SOS Limited, through its operating subsidiary, SOS Information Technology Co., Ltd. ("SOS") is a high-technology company providing a wide range of services to its corporate and individual members, including marketing data, technology and solutions for emergency rescue services. SOS transforms digital technology into data-driven operations through the research and development of big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, blockchain and artificial intelligence. We have created a SOS cloud emergency rescue service software as a service (SaaS) platform with three major product categories, including basic cloud (medical rescue card, car rescue card, financial rescue card, mutual assistance rescue card), cooperative cloud (information rescue center, intelligent big data, intelligent software and hardware), and information cloud (News Today, E-Commerce Today). This system provide marketing-related data, technology solutions, and technology-driven big data to clients such as insurance companies, financial institutions, medical institutions, healthcare providers, auto manufacturers, security providers, senior living assistance providers and other service providers in the emergency rescue services industry. For more information, please visit: http://www.sosyun.com/ Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements made herein are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," "outlook," and "project" and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. Such forward-looking statements include timing of the proposed transaction; the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of the parties;, SOS's estimated and future results of operations, business strategies, competitive position, industry environment and potential growth opportunities market acceptance of our products; the ultimate impact of the current Coronavirus pandemic, or any other health epidemic, on our business, our research programs, healthcare systems or the global economy as a whole; our intellectual property; our reliance on third party organizations; our anticipated financial and operating results, including anticipated sources of revenues; our assumptions regarding the size of the available market, benefits of our product offering, product pricing, timing of product launches; management's expectation with respect to future acquisitions; statements regarding our goals, intentions, plans and expectations, including the introduction of new products and markets; and our cash needs and financing plans and etc. These forward-looking statements reflect the current analysis of existing information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, caution must be exercised in relying on forward-looking statements. SOS may not realize its expectations, and its beliefs may not prove correct. Due to known and unknown risks, our actual results may differ materially from our expectations or projections. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact our expectations and projections can be found in our periodic filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. SOS's SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov . SOS disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE SOS Limited Photo: The Canadian Press Albertas COVID-19-era budget made a hard landing Thursday with an $18.2-billion deficit but also a promise that good times will return. Finance Minister Travis Toews said as vaccines continue to be given and businesses open up, Alberta is on track to start its rebound in the back half of this year. Albertas economy is now expected to reach pre-COVID levels by 2022, one year earlier than expected, Toews told a news conference prior to introducing the 2021-22 budget in the legislature. (But) Albertans continue to face one of the most difficult times in our history. Were ensuring that were resourcing our health-care response adequately to meet the pandemic challenge (and) were positioning the economy for growth and a rebound. For now, the eye-popping deficits continue $20.2 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31 and the $18.2 billion forecast in the coming fiscal year. Toews and Premier Jason Kenney have called Albertas economic bludgeoning a rare triple black swan caused by the pandemic, the resulting global recession and an oil-price war that further depressed prices. The medium-term outlook is for more red ink. Alberta is on track to carry $98 billion in tax-supported debt this year, rising to more than $132 billion by 2024. The province's debt a decade ago was $5.1 billion. Annual spending on debt interest is closing in on $3 billion. The budget delivered on promises to avoid tax increases in a province that has the lowest per-capita tax regime in Canada and is the only one with no retail sales tax. The fiscal plan calls for $57 billion in spending, along with a minimum $1.1 billion to fight COVID-19 and another $1.8 billion in pandemic spending if needed. That's on top of $5.8 billion in COVID-19 spending last year. The health budget is to rise by about $1 billion to $21.4 billion. Non-renewable resource revenues, the traditional foundation of Albertas economy, are expected to bring in $2.9 billion, about half of what they were before the pandemic. Oil prices have rebounded in recent weeks to above US$60 a barrel for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate, but Toews said the province cant count on or budget for renewed boom times. Were focused on what we can manage and were looking to ensure that were delivering government services most efficiently. Toews said the United Conservative government remains committed to reducing public-sector, per-capita spending to match that in comparable provinces like British Columbia and Ontario. Indicators suggest the overall fiscal future, while not rosy, is brighter. Real gross domestic product, or GDP, is expected to rise 4.8 per cent this year after a 7.8 per cent decline in 2020. Albertas unemployment rate, estimated at 11.4 per cent last year, is expected to slowly decline to 7.3 per cent by 2023, close to its pre-pandemic level. The government also promises to continue strategies to diversify the economy. It's budgeting $3.1 billion to encourage expansion in high-tech, pharmaceuticals, aviation and tourism. The failed Keystone XL pipeline has Albertans on the hook for almost $1.3 billion so far. A year ago, Kenney promised $7.5 billion in direct investment and loan guarantees for the cross-border megaproject before it was cancelled a month ago by United States President Joe Biden. London: Australia has entered the top 10 nations with the most effective soft power, according to a leading index in which the United States dropped five points, ceding first place to Germany. New Zealand was the fastest-rising nation propelled by Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns personal popularity and the nations suppression of coronavirus although it missed out on a top 10 spot, coming in at 16th, in Brand Finances Global Soft Power Index. Soft power is used to describe a countrys attractive power, its ability to influence through its reputation, as opposed to hard military power, according to Melissa Conley Tyler, from the University of Melbournes Asia Institute. She said it had real effects including where people travel, which consumer goods they buy and where they send their children to study but was notoriously difficult to measure. The United States standing collapsed in the second year of the rankings, falling from first place to fifth but Britain, which has the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe, remained unchanged in third place. China fell just three places, from fifth to eighth. A White Island survivor who suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body in the explosion has shared his painstaking fight to recover movement in his hand. Jake Milbank was working as a tour guide when the volcano erupted off the coast of Whakatane on New Zealand's North Island on December 9, 2019 - claiming the lives of 22 people. He spent four months in hospital after the devastating blast and made 25 trips to the operating room during his stay. But 14 months on, the 20-year-old is bracing to undergo yet another painful surgery as he struggles to regain function in his badly-burnt right hand. Jake Milbank (pictured) was leading a group of tourists when the volcano erupted off the coast of Whakatane in New Zealand on December 9, 2019 The 20-year-old shared a picture of himself in hospital on Instagram (pictured) as he went into surgery on Thursday 'Over the last year the grafting scar on the back of my right hand has contracted significantly, which has led to the loss of function of my pinky finger,' Mr Milbank wrote on Instagram on Thursday. 'This may not seem that bad, but in fact over half of your grip strength can be lost without your pinky doing its job. 'While I am very grateful to even have my hands in the fist place, it will be great to have full use of my hand once again!' Alongside the post, Mr Milbank shared an image of him in his hospital bed and a series of photos of his hand from different angles, showing his littlest finger fixed in a bent position while the others could open or close. He said surgeons planned to remove the large scar from the back of his hand and put a 'flap' from his thigh - rather than a graft- in its place. 'A graft is just the skin without a blood supply, whereas a flap is transferred with its blood supply intact,' he explained. 'Skin flaps are supposed to heal much faster, with minimal scarring.' Mr Milbank said the grafting scar on the back of his right hand (pictured) has contracted significantly over the past year, resulting in his littlest finger losing function He said surgeons planned to remove the scar and replace it with a flap of skin from his thigh In December, Mr Milbank marked the one-year anniversary of his first major recovery milestone on Christmas Day by sharing a photo of the moment he took his first steps from his hospital bed. 'Bang on one year ago today - only 16 days after the eruption, my physiotherapist walked into my hospital room and told me that for the first time I would be getting out of bed, and I did just that,' he wrote. 'I was helped out of bed and after a few very small, painful steps, plopped back down.' The picture showed Mr Milbank head was covered by white bandages, with only his eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears visible. His body was also bandaged, with a plastic covering dressed on top. 'This was probably one of the first times my family realised that I was really going to be okay, the best Christmas present they could ask for after such a stressful month,' he wrote. He ended the post on a positive note, writing: 'Ive been having an awesome Christmas with friends, family and plenty of food, definitely an improvement on last year! Hope everyone is doing the same, and I wish you all the best for the new year!' He marked the one-year anniversary of his recovery on Christmas Day by sharing a photo of the moment he took his first steps from his hospital bed (pictured) The blast claimed the lives of 22 people including Mr Milbank's White Island Tours colleagues Hayden-Marshall Inman and Tipene Maangi (Milbank is pictured on White Island) Milbank has been remarkably optimistic throughout the ordeal despite suffering burns to 80 per cent of his body in the deadly blast. He had been leading a group of tourists around the island off the coast of Whakatane in New Zealand when the explosion happened. He endured two weeks in a coma, four months in hospital and countless hours on the operating table. His body has been left scarred from head to toe, leaving him unable to sweat or regulate his temperature. The anniversary came as a legal battle over responsibility for the disaster began, with authorities in New Zealand filing safety violation charges. The island had been a popular tourist destination before the eruption on December 9. But many people now question why tourists were allowed to visit, especially after experts monitoring seismic activity raised the volcanos alert level two weeks before the eruption Mr Milbank (pictured on White Island) is now looking to the future. He plans to spend the summer diving, hunting, surfing, partying and hopes to get his skipper's licence early next year The island had been a popular tourist destination before the eruption on December 9. But many people now question why tourists were allowed to visit, especially after experts monitoring seismic activity raised the volcanos alert level two weeks before the eruption. The names of the 10 organisations and three individuals charged are being kept secret for now by authorities under New Zealands legal rules. But two agencies which rely on public funding GNS Science and the National Emergency Management Agency have disclosed they are among those charged. Some of the others charged are likely to include private companies which took tourists to the island. The individuals charged were either company directors or managers. Operators at oil refineries, chemical manufacturers, and petrochemical plants across Texas, mainly throughout the upper Gulf Coast, alerted state regulators that, thanks to the winter storm last week, they might have leaked millions of pounds toxins and greenhouse gases into the air. The Arctic freeze in Texas took the lives of many Texans, and thanks to blackouts caused by the state's grid, more than 4.5 million consumers were without electricity for days last week. Check out these pics from @Entergy, one of our power providers. Ice drapes machinery. Right now more than 4 million Texas homes are without power - these pictures help explain why. #KHOU11 #Htownrush #winterstorm2021 #houston pic.twitter.com/ZpqsSUzIN9 Lauren Talarico (@KHOULauren) February 16, 2021 In the harsh weather, plants that stumbled offline prompted the Texas Electric Reliability Council to order power outages to prevent overloading the grid. Related Article: Natural Gas: The Other Reason Why Texas Had Power Shortage, Not Just Snowstorm Pollution Amidst the Calamity Industrial plants, particularly those that manufacture goods produced from oil and natural gas, such as gasoline, diesel, and plastic building blocks, are often affected by storms and power outages. According to an overview of research by the Texas advocacy organizations Environmental Protection Fund, Climate Texas, and Air Alliance Houston, these plants spewed 3.5 million pounds of extra waste into the air after the power crisis. That's about the same amount of air pollution emitted last summer during Hurricane Laura, when, according to the Houston Chronicle, facilities in the Beaumont and Port Arthur areas reported releasing an unprecedented 4 million pounds of pollutants. To keep employees safe, stop spills, and deter much worse pollution, manufacturing plants usually shut down in advance of hurricanes. Many plants did the same before Winter Storm Uri. Still, many toxins and climate-warming greenhouse gases such as nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds were also triggered by emergency shutdowns. Chemical plants and refineries usually emit emissions well past what their state allows when they burn off waste gases during emergency shutdowns and eventual re-starts after a storm passes. Power outages and system faults have also lead to unnecessary pollution, businesses told the state in their surveys. According to the study, approximately 200 facilities in 54 counties recorded excess pollution between Feb. 11 and Monday. Unpreparedness Elena Craft, senior director of climate and health at the Environmental Protection Fund, said in a statement that Texas is not preparing for too severe weather, and the state's inability to plan is damaging communities, including those near high-risk chemical plants. Because of the legacy of government-imposed apartheid and income disparities, which have resulted in unequal health effects from air pollution for Black and Latino people, communities surrounding manufacturing facilities are mostly majority Black and Latino in Texas. One study by researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota showed that the Back and Hispanic communities experience more than 50 percent more emissions than they create. In contrast, white populations experience 17 percent less pollution than they produce. Overall Report According to a storm report by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's environmental regulatory agency, recorded power problems at 39 of its more than 200 air quality monitors, including 14 in Houston. According to the TCEQ, the monitors were all operational as of Sunday. This week, the department deployed extra mobile air sampling vans to sample contaminants. ALSO READ: "Freeze-off": Texas Intense Snowstorm Froze Power Supplies For the latest weather updates, don't forget to follow Nature World News! "Viral Injustice" | Main | Noticing some notable criminal justice panels at CPAC 2021 In this post earlier this month, I wondered aloud about when we might reasonably expect Prez Biden to make needed appointments to the US Sentencing Commission. This issue remained on my mind when I was recently asked to write a commentary for ASU's new Crime and Justice News site. Specifically, I decided to write on "Reviving the U.S. Sentencing Commission," and here is an excerpt from this commentary (links from original): [F]ederal sentencing politics and policy development have transformed dramatically in recent years. Presidents Obama and Trump did not agree on much, but they both supported and signed major federal sentencing reform legislation designed to reduce punishment levels. Huge majorities in Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010 and the FIRST STEP Act in 2018, demonstrating strong bipartisan support for impactful changes to federal sentencing laws and practices. Congress even titled its 2018 legislation to signal the law was to be just the first in a series of reform steps for the federal justice system. Meanwhile, a global pandemic and heightened concern about racial injustices in 2020 have only increased calls for change and further heightened the moral and practical imperatives for the U.S. Sentencing Commission to pursue big and bold sentencing reforms. But, problematically, the U.S. Sentencing Commission presently cannot advance any reforms because persistent vacancies have crippled its ability to function. Open commissioner slots were left unfilled in the final years of the Obama Administration, and new nominees advanced by President Trump in March 2018 were controversial and got a cold shoulder from the Senate. Remarkably, the agency Congress created to advance sound sentencing policies and practices lacked a quorum for much of the Trump Administration as Congress debated, enacted and oversaw the initial implementation of the landmark FIRST STEP Act. As of this writing, the Commission currently has only a single Commissioner; the agency now needs six new confirmed members to get back to full strength and at least three new commissioners to be somewhat functional. The current vacancies not only create a critical need for President Biden to revive the U.S. Sentencing Commission, but also provide a critical opportunity to reimagine who serves on this Commission and how it approaches its work. Circa 2021, we have not just bipartisan political support for meaningful criminal justice reforms at local, state and federal levels, but also a wide and diverse array of individuals with a deep reserve of sentencing expertise and experiences. President Biden must make it a priority to nominate a full slate of new commissioners with diverse backgrounds and experiences who will advance an ambitious, grand view of how the Commission can and should seek to meet our current criminal justice moment. In a letter to Democratic Senators following his election, President Biden signaled an interest in nominating for judgeships individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life. This sentiment can and must carry over to nominations to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which has historically been dominated by persons with prosecutorial backgrounds. With millions of persons federally prosecuted in recent decades and with a third of all U.S. adults burdened with some kind of criminal record, representing Americans in every walk of life in this context must include individuals involved in the justice system. In his pioneering 1972 book, Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order, Judge Marvin Frankel first advocated for a Commission on Sentencing to include lawyers, judges, penologists, and criminologists, ... sociologists, psychologists, business people, artists, and, lastly for emphasis, former or present prison inmates. As Judge Frankel explained, having justice-involved persons on a sentencing commission merely recognizes what took too long to become obviousthat the recipients of penal treatment must have relevant things to say about it. Judge Frankels insights remain ever so timely a half-century later, and the federal system can now follow a recent sound state example: Brandon Flood was appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons in 2019, not despite but largely because of his lived experience as an inmate and his numerous encounters with the criminal justice system. President Bidens could and should consider going even further by including multiple persons with diverse, direct experiences with U.S. justice systems in his nominations to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The life of Emma Coronel Aispuro reads like a soap opera script: teenage beauty queen marries drug kingpin, helps him escape from prison, becomes famous as she stands by his side when he's tried and convicted, and then gets arrested herself. Now the 31-year-old's story could be reaching it's climax, as US officials look to her to help take down her husband Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's operation, the Sinaloa cartel. Coronel and Guzman, who is more than three decades her senior, tied the knot when she was 18 in 2007 and went on to spend the majority of their married life with Guzman either in jail or on the run as one of the world's top drug lords. When Guzman finally went on trial in 2019, Coronel stepped into the spotlight, attending court in designer outfits with their two twin daughters in a show of loyalty. Coronel had refused to cooperate with investigators and turn on her husband - who was easily convicted anyway and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. After Guzman was put away, Coronel leaned even further into her newfound fame, garnering a 579,000-strong following on social media, launching a clothing brand in the US and appearing on a reality show about mafia families. Everything came crashing down on Monday when Coronel was arrested at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, and charged with drug trafficking after an informant accused her of masterminding Guzman's Hollywood-style escape from a Mexico prison in 2015. US investigators are said to be confident that putting pressure on Coronel will finally make her crack and cooperate - potentially providing information that could bring the Sinaloa cartel down altogether. The life of Emma Coronel Aispuro (pictured) reads like a soap opera script: teenage beauty queen marries drug kingpin, helps him escape from prison, becomes famous as she stands by his side when he's tried and convicted, and then gets arrested herself When her husband Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman finally went on trial in 2019, Coronel stepped into the spotlight, attending court wearing designer outfits in a show of loyalty US officials are said to be confident that bringing charges against Coronel will finally convince her to turn on her husband, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (pictured) and the Sinaloa cartel Coronel has been charged with one count criminal complaint with a conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, five kilograms or more of cocaine, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, and 500 grams or more of methamphetamines for unlawful importation into the US. According to prosecutors, she helped run her husband's drug empire between 2014 and 2017, and she also participated in two plots to spring him from prison - one in 2015 - which was successful - and another in 2016, while he was awaiting extradition to the US - which was not. Coronel has been enmeshed in the cartel world all her life, having grown up with a father and brother who were both drug traffickers. Coronel was arrested at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, on Monday and charged with drug trafficking When she married Guzman, then 50, the families 'merged' and he brought her brother and father in to be his 'top lieutenants', according to former DEA Chief Mike Vigil . 'Emma Coronel has always been a narco princess,' Vigil told the Sun this week. 'The cartels trust their family members more than anybody else. 'She can provide a lot of information that can lead to US-based indictments against Sinaloa cartel members.' It remains unclear whether Coronel intends to cooperate, or if she plans to continue standing by her husband's side. Vigil said he thinks it could go either way. 'Her life is in danger if she cooperates,' he said. 'Her motivation for co-operating would be her young twin daughters. She goes to jail, she has a life without them.' The Sinaloa cartel, which was established in Culiacan in the 1980s, has only increased its power in the wake of Guzman's arrest, authorities say. It continues to send millions of dollars of drugs into the US each month under the presumed leadership of Guzman's longtime partner, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada. Zambada is believed to be sharing that role with Guzman's sons - Jesus Alfredo Guzman, Ivan Guzman and Ovidio Guzman, who go by the moniker 'Los Chapitos'. The cartel's leadership structure has long been elusive, but cooperation from someone as high up as Coronel could change that. The Sinaloa cartel has held its power even after Guzman's arrest and continues to send millions of dollars of drugs into the US each month under the presumed leadership of Guzman's longtime partner, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada (pictured) Guzman's sons - Jesus Alfredo Guzman, Ivan Guzman (left) and Ovidio Guzman (right), who go by the moniker 'Los Chapitos' - have also taken a more active role in the cartel since his arrest The Department of Justice has not confirmed when or how Coronel agreed to turn herself in on Monday. At a virtual court appearance on Tuesday, her attorneys said they were not immediately seeking bail. The hearing was delayed because an interpreter hadn't been called. US Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather said prosecutors had provided sufficient reason to keep Coronel behind bars for now. She is facing a minimum of 10 years in prison but a maximum of life and a fine of up to $10million. A date does not appear to have been set for her next hearing. At a virtual court appearance on Tuesday, Aispuro's attorneys said they were not immediately seeking bail. Aispuro is pictured in a court sketch of the virtual proceedings along with her lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman (top left) and US Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather (top right) In the wake of her arrest, speculation arose that Coronel, who lived in relative obscurity before Guzman's trial, may have put a target on her own back when she embraced the limelight. Her actions violated unwritten rules about family members, especially wives, keeping a low profile. Until the trial, 'Emma had remained anonymous like practically all of partners of Sinaloa cartel capos,' Adrian Lopez, executive editor of Sinaloa's Noroeste newspaper, told the Associated Press. Then, 'she begins to take on more of a celebrity attitude. ... This breaks a tradition of secrecy and a style specifically within the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel.' Late last year, the Mexican investigative journalist Anabel Hernandez - who has written extensively about the Sinaloa cartel, including a 2019 book about the diary of cartel leader Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada's son - said a source told her that Coronel's mother, Blanca Aispuro, was worried about the turn her daughter's life was taking. Concern was also building among Guzman's sons and Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, said Hernandez, who was the first journalist to ever interview Emma Coronel. 'Her mother was also worried that an enemy cartel could harm Emma because she was unleashed, was out in the street a lot, the clubs, excessive in her social life,' Hernandez said the source told her. 'Her mother worried something like that could happen or she could become a target of the government.' Coronel walks out of Federal Court flanked by bodyguards and US Marshalls after her husband was found guilty of drug trafficking charges in 2019 After Guzman was put away, Coronel leaned even further into her newfound fame, garnering a 579,000-strong following on social media, launching a clothing brand in the US and appearing on a reality show about mafia families Guzman has been married numerous times; as was made clear in his trial in New York, he has been far from faithful. Sitting in the courtroom, Coronel heard a woman testify to how she and Guzman made a dramatic escape from a middle-of-the-night raid on one of his hideouts by Mexican marines. She described hopping out of bed, locating a secret hatch and running through a drainage tunnel, a naked Guzman leading the way. 'Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I didn't,' the woman said, tearfully. Coronel was there each day smiling, blowing kisses to Guzman, 'but in reality they tell me that Emma was very, very mad and very hurt,' Hernandez said. 'And so, when the trial ended she decided to take revenge and the way to get revenge was to make her husband see what he was losing.' Coronel was born in San Francisco, but grew up in the mountains of Durango bordering Guzman's Sinaloa state in an impoverished area known as the Golden Triangle. She and Guzman married in 2007, when she had just turned 18 and he was 50. 'I don't imagine she really had many options to say no, I won't marry you,' Hernandez said. Coronel is pictured above in photos from her beauty queen days - before she met Guzman and married him in 2007 when she was 18 For a time, Coronel's father, Ines Coronel Barreras, allegedly took charge of moving the Sinaloa cartel's marijuana across the border into Arizona. In 2013, he was arrested with one of his sons and other men in a warehouse with guns and hundreds of pounds of marijuana across the border from Douglas, Arizona For years, Emma Coronel's only public image was a photograph from 2007, when she was crowned the beauty queen of the festival in Canelas, the town where she grew up. She wore an enormous crown and a closed mouth smile, and looked directly at the camera. After their wedding, she disappeared from public view until it was reported in 2011 that she had given birth to their twin daughters in Los Angeles County. On February 22, 2014, she was with Guzman and their daughters in the Pacific resort town of Mazatlan when he was captured by Mexican marines. Guzman was sent to the maximum security Altiplano prison outside Mexico City while his lawyers fought his extradition. On July 11, 2015, Guzman escaped through a milelong tunnel that had been dug to the shower in his cell. In January 2016, Mexican marines recaptured Guzman in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. The next month, Coronel gave her first ever interview to Hernandez, complaining repeatedly about the conditions in which Guzman was being held. Coronel told Hernandez she had learned of his escape from the Altiplano prison from television. 'If I had known something I wouldn't have been able to sleep or eat from desperation,' she said. 'I had no idea.' Guzman was extradited to the United States - but not before Coronel was involved in planning yet another escape attempt that never came to fruition, US prosecutors say. Coronel and her designer wardrobe made a splash at the El Chapo trial. Photographers elbowed each other to capture her arrivals and departures. Coronel and her designer wardrobe made a splash at the El Chapo trial with their seven-year-old twin girls in tow Coronel arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court on January 29, 2019, for her husband's trial At one point, she wore a burgundy velvet blazer that matched one she had sent to Guzman to wear that day. Afterward, she commissioned a courtroom artist to recreate the show of solidarity - a souvenir. Coronel strode the courtroom confidently. She played with her hair while waiting for proceedings to start and chatted amicably with reporters sitting behind her. She carried crackers and cookies in her purse, sometimes offering snacks to reporters. Every morning, Guzman sought her out as he entered the courtroom. He smiled and waved hello. One day she chatted and laughed in the courtroom with Mexican actor Alejandro Edda, who played Guzman in the Netflix series 'Narcos: Mexico.' In the trial's sixth week, she brought her seven-year-old twin daughters, dressed in matching jeans and white jackets; their father clapped to them softly, as if to play with them. After Guzman was convicted Coronel posted a statement thanking Guzman's attorneys, and her mother and sister for taking care of the twins while she was attending the trial. She said the trial had been difficult. Her name had come up in testimony: Damaso Lopez, one of Guzman's former lieutenants, testified that he met several times with Coronel and Guzman's sons to plan the drug boss' escape from the Altiplano prison. And he said Coronel had relayed messages from her husband. Coronel was unrepentant. 'What I can only say about that is that I have nothing to be ashamed of,' she wrote. 'I am not perfect but I consider myself a good human being and I have never hurt anyone intentionally.' Lopez, the editor of Noroeste, and Ismael Bojorquez, editor of Riodoce, a news outlet known for its investigations into Sinaloa's underworld, both expressed shock that Coronel had traveled to and from the US after the trial. Hernandez suspects US authorities noticed Coronel's change in lifestyle and spotted an opportunity to pressure her at a moment when she may be more open to betraying her husband. Although Coronel has posted only five photos on Instagram (@therealemmacoronel), she has more than 563,000 followers. For her last photo, posted in December, she posed in a white wedding dress, part of a fashion collection. And for a photo posted on her July birthday, she was resplendent in red lipstick, a black leather jacket - and a crown in her long, dark hair, an echo of the small-town beauty queen she was so long ago. 'Happy birthday to me,' she wrote. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. 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Mam | Media And Advertising Manu Sharma is new VP & GM of Carl Pei-led Nothing India Nothing, the technology company founded by Carl Pei who also co-founded OnePlus, has brought on Manu Sharma as the vice president and general manager of its India unit. Read More... Mam | Marketing Wondrlab strengthens creative team with new hires Wondrlab has strengthened its creative team by bringing in Rahul Mahajan as senior creative director art, Abhijeet Kalan as creative director art, and Sagar Desai as associate creative director art. Read More... Mam | Marketing Duff & Phelps unify company under Kroll brand Duff & Phelps, the world's premier provider of services and digital products related to governance, risk and transparency, today announced plans to transition the company name to Kroll. Read More... Patna, Feb 25 : With the Bihar government facing criticism for "ineffective" implementation of the liquor ban, BJP Legislative Councillor Sanjay Paswan on Thursday said that the state government should reconsider it to avoid smuggling and attacks on security forces. "After the attack on the police officer in Sitamarhi, the situation became more serious here in Bihar," he said. Paswan also slammed the state Home Secretary. "The Home Secretary is my good friend but he is unable to handle the department. After a series of incidents taking place in Bihar, he should step back from the post," he said. In reaction, Janata Dal-United MLA Gulam Gaus said: "It could be his (Paswan's) personal view. Nitish Kumar is very serious about liquor ban and he cannot compromise on it." Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is on backfoot after a series of incidents in Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Kaimur and Rohtas where over 20 persons lost their lives after consuming suspected poisonous liquor in the last 15 days. This was followed by the incident in Kunwari village under Majorganj police station in Sitamarhi district on Wednesday where a sub-inspector was killed and the village chowkidar sustained gunshot injuries in a shootout with liquor mafia. Nitish Kumar had implemented prohibition in 2016. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form SHASTA COUNTY- Calif. The Shasta County District Attorneys Office arraigned on charges two people who were arrested in a sting in Anderson for human trafficking on Feb. 21, according to the Shasta County District Attorneys Office. Ravanaur Gohleston, 28, of Yuba City, was charged with pimping and pandering of a minor and an adult. He is also charged with human trafficking of a minor for a sex act. His bail is set at $25,000. Gohleston's next court appearances are set for March 3 at 8:30 a.m. and March 4 at 9 a.m. at the Shasta County Superior Court. Johnathan Lee, 25, from Stockton, is charged with pimping, pandering and allege a prior strike conviction. His last strike was in 2019 when he was found guilty of shooting at an inhabited dwelling. Lees bail is set at $100,000. His next court appearances are set for March 3 at 8:30 a.m. and March 4 at 10:30 a.m. Both have been issued no-contact orders, preventing them from contacting a victim in the case. The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, refused to grant fresh bail to the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Taskforce Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina. Ruling on the matter, the judge, Okon Abang, said Mr Maina, who jumped bail last year, has disappointed the court, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. He said the defendant, who is being prosecuted for laundering N2billion in pension funds, failed to place sufficient materials before the court to support his fresh application for bail. Dismissing the application, the judge held that the application lacked merit. Mr Maina, earlier granted bail by the judge, evaded trial and fled to the Republic of Niger last year. The defendant, whose escape landed his surety, Ali Ndume, a serving senator, in jail for few days, was later apprehended after the court issued a warrant for his arrest. Mr Maina was brought back to court on December 4, 2020, even though the judge had ensured his trial continued in his absence. He had barely spent three weeks in remand when he filed another bail application on December 24, asking for fresh bail, anchored on his alleged deteriorating health. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the anti-corruption agency prosecuting him before Mr Abang, had opposed the fresh bail application, insisting that the man was not deserving of a second chance. No justification for fresh bail Mr Abang ruled on Thursday that Mr Maina was a flight risk, having fled to the Republic of Niger and Chad in violation of the courts terms and conditions for the previous bail granted him. The judge said the medical report of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital. which he presented to back his claim of a condition that could only be looked after outside prison walls, rather, showed that was not under any medical emergency. The judge similarly rejected Mr Mainas application for an order directing the EFCC to release his confiscated property, including a BMW car. PREMIUM TIMES had reported the hearing of Mr Mainas fresh bail application on February 19. EFCCs prosecuting counsel, Mohammed Abubakar, at the hearing, urged the court to dismiss it, insisting that that the defendant did not deserve a second chance. Mr Abubakar said the affidavit filed by the defendant in support of the bail application showed that he took the premeditated decision to jump bail and showed no remorse about it. The 1st defendant/applicant (Maina), without any remorse, stated in paragraph 9 of his affidavit that, as a result of the order for his arrest, he decided to seek a better medical facility for the treatment of his knee and was eventually referred to a military hospital in Chad Republic and Niger Republic where the knee surgery was successfully carried out, Mr Abubakar said. The prosecutor said the implication of Mr Mainas claim was that his jumping bail was a premeditated decision. It was a decision he took by himself in disobedience to the gracious order of this honourable court in releasing him on bail, he added. ADVERTISEMENT Secret trip to Chad revealed He noted that Mr Maina, by his claim in his affidavit, unwittingly confessed to travelling to the Republic of Chad, a fact hitherto unknown to the prosecution. Mr Maina embarked on the trips despite the fact that his American and Nigerian passports were already seized by the court as part of the bail conditions earlier granted him. It is also clear by this paragraph that while we thought that the 1st defendant applicant fled to Niger Republic, he is now informing the court that he also went to Chad Republic while his American and Nigerian passports are in custody of the court, he said. Trip to save me from amputation But Mr Maina had stated in his fresh bail application that his leg would have been amputated if he did not travel to Niger Republic for medical care. Earlier, whilst giving reasons for Mr Mainas bail application on Friday, his lawyer, Sani Katu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, urged the court to grant fresh bail to Mr Maina, to enable him to attend to his deteriorating health. He also gave an assurance that his client would not abuse the privilege. EFCC, had also on February 4, informed the judge, that Mainas son, Faisal Maina, who is also standing trial on money laundering charges before the same judge, had jumped bail and fled to the U.S. (NAN) 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. Paris, TX (75460) Today Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible. Bhubaneswar, Feb 25 : The Odisha government on Thursday directed screening of people entering the state from 12 high-risk states to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection. The states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra has written a letter to the District Collectors, Municipal Commissioners, Directors of Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda airports and East Coast Railway's General Manager, Operations, in this regard. He asked the authorities to strengthen surveillance at airports and railway stations to prevent a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Odisha. "The passengers disembarking at airports and railway stations coming from and through the above states will be screened by thermal screening and those found having symptoms or fever will be tested by Rapid Antigen Test on site. If found positive, they will be put in isolation and treated as per the protocol," Mohapatra said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sought to underline his government's commitment to the farmers, saying it has strived to ensure their prosperity and dignity without any dependence on middlemen. In a statement that comes amid the sustained protests by farmers outside Delhi for nearly four months opposing the new Central farm laws, he said the NDA also wanted to bring a paradigm shift in the agricultural sector. For years, small businessmen and small farmers were ignored but the "NDA government has given topmost priority to these two sections," he said in his address at a public meeting in this western town of poll-bound Tamil Nadu. "It has been our honour to work for the small farmer of India. In the past seven years our efforts for small farmers are aimed at giving them a life of prosperity and dignity," he said. With the launch of initiatives, including soil health cards, the government wanted to bring a paradigm shift in the agriculture sector, he said. Taking a swipe at the DMK-Congress combine in Tamil Nadu, PM Modi said their "meetings are like corruption hackathons" where "their leaders sit and discuss on how to loot." The NDA's governance was one with compassion while the opposition was "misgovernance with corruption," he alleged. PM Modi dedicated to the nation key projects in Tamil Nadu, including the 2x500 mw Neyveli new thermal power plant, and laid the foundation stone for important initiatives in the state. Among the initiatives were those in the shipping sector, where the Centre has identified Rs 6 lakh worth projects to be implemented under the Sagarmala scheme between 2015 and 2035 in the country, he said. Reciting from the Tamil classic Tirukkural, the second time on Thursday after doing the same at a government function in Puducherry earlier, he hailed farmers, even as he laid the foundation stone for an extension, renovation and modernisation of the Lower Bhavani Project System. It will irrigate over two lakh acres of land and benefit the ryots in Tirupur, Erode and Karur districts in the state, he said. Referring to the particular couplet from Tirukkural, PM Modi said, "the farmers are the ones who truly live and all others live because of them, worshipping them." The Prime Minister inaugurated the widening of the Korampallam surplus course beige and rail overbridge (ROB) including widening of the road at VOC Port in Tuticorin, saying it will greatly benefit the port. "The Government of India's commitment to port-related development can be seen through the Sagarmala scheme. About 575 projects at a total cost of Rs six lakh crore have been identified for implementation during the 2015-2035 period," he said at a government event after inaugurating various projects and laying the foundation stone for others. Waterproofing Leroy Merlin: South Africas newest retail outlet applied the Penetron System to protect ground floor concrete slabs, below-grade water storage tanks, and the parking garage deck. The complete Penetron System provided VDVL, the project contractor, with a fully reliable and permanent concrete waterproofing solution. The official December 2020 opening of the Leroy Merlin Fourways in Gauteng is already the companys fourth retail outlet in an expanding South African network. The Penetron System was specified to waterproof the projects key concrete structures. Leroy Merlin is a French home improvement and furniture retailer known for its flat pack furniture, inspiring room mockups, and speedy service. The company maintains a global network of stores across Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. The companys newest flagship store in South Africa, the Leroy Merlin Fourways, features an enormous 15,000 m2 of floor space and is situated adjacent to the well-known Fourways Mall in Gauteng. Protecting Exposed Concrete The Penetron System was specified by the project engineers at WSP Consulting to waterproof key concrete elements of the project, explains Jonathan Whitehead, Technical Engineering Support at Penetron South Africa. These include the exposed ground floor concrete slabs, the below-grade water storage tanks, and the parking garage deck. Penetron-approved applicators waterproofed the concrete floor slabs with PENETRON, a topically applied crystalline material. The two 800,000 liter water tanks a drinking water storage tank and a firefighting water tank and the attached sectional retaining walls were cast with PENETRON ADMIX-treated concrete supplied by Scribante Ready-Mix. PENEBAR SW-55 waterstop strips were installed to permanently seal the construction joints. The 1,000 m2 (11,000 ft2) concrete parking deck was waterproofed with a topical application of PENETRON to ensure durability of the slab. A combination of PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR was used to fill the form-tie holes, waterproof construction joints and repair cracks throughout the new retail outlet. Waterproofing Unaffected by Climate PENETRON ADMIX is easily mixed in during batching and unaffected by climatic conditions. It quickly becomes an integral part of the concrete and lasts for the life of the concrete. Topically applied to concrete, PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR also provide the same self-healing capabilities as PENETRON ADMIX-treated concrete. All hairline cracks that form throughout the service life of the concrete will now automatically self-heal in the presence of water. The complete Penetron System provided VDVL, the project contractor, with a fully reliable and permanent concrete waterproofing solution, concludes Jonathan Whitehead. The Penetron Group is a leading manufacturer of specialty construction products for concrete waterproofing, concrete repairs and floor preparation systems. The Group operates through a global network, offering support to the design and construction community through its regional offices, representatives and distribution channels. For more information on Penetron crystalline technology solutions, please visit http://www.penetron.com, email: CRDept@penetron.com or contact our Corporate Relations Department at 631-941-9700. Even the hated Chinese are not as censored as the Russians within the USA. Any excuse to ban a Russian site, Russian Tweet, Russian on Facebook? Will be used and it is accelerating fast.I am not even Russian, just live in Russia, and have been through the bans left and right NEW YORK, February 12. /TASS/. Social network Twitter removed 100 accounts allegedly associated with Russia, the company announced on Tuesday. Source: Twitter removes 100 accounts allegedly associated with Russia, aimed against US, EU, NATO World TASS Bottom line is that you will all be censored. They just start with the ones that you will not worry about first I was banned from Tweet Tweet because I knew McCain personally and was lambasted off the internet for truth Then I upset Zero Hedge with the truth My my people dont like me and all I talk about is truth, not fantasies, but truth. Fantasies are being spouted by main stream media. Like recently WtR is full of lies from the main stream media of the western world Russians in the USA? Better be learning how to look over your shoulder? I know how the Gov, works and they are gunning for Russians and Chinese first. They might blow up the Middle East, but hate Russians and Chinese with a passion in the USA Gov WtR 818 Shares Share The model minority is a term that denotes Asians in the U.S. East Asians, in particular, have been the target of xenophobic hate crimes and microaggressions since the outset of COVID-19. When a former presidential administration used hate and fear to garner power, it does not surprise me, that Sinophobia runs rampant during these times. The NYPD reported a 1,900 percent increase in Asian-American hate crimes in 2020. As an East Asian female pulmonologist on the frontlines, I have witnessed and experienced racism. I know I am not alone. Id like to share from me and my familys personal experiences. These events most likely would not have occurred if I or my family members were white. Hard as that sentence is to write, there is sad truth in its meaning and implications. Earlier on during the pandemic, a patient asked me, How much money do you think China owes us? Me being a Chinese-Taiwanese American, who also teaches, and practices mindfulness asked with curiosity, but also feeling a seething, smoldering pang in the chest of concurrent hurt and anger, asked back, What do you mean by that? Well, because of coronavirus. How many billions of dollars do you think they owe us? Other Asian-American female physicians have shared that patients have refused their care because of their race. One shared that the patient asked for a doctor without COVID. And yet another shared that a family member was told to go back to their own country. There is a lot of suffering in silence happening on many levels, but I will not remain silent. I commiserate, in community with what East Asian women health care professionals may have been enduring during this pandemic. I need not remind readers about what the stereotypes of East Asian women are in the U.S., and really in the world. I know full well that I buck this stereotype intentionally. When videos of the Asian elderly promenading then being physically assaulted become viral, there is likely an under-reporting of crimes like this. The verbal abuse that is endured day in and day out is unimaginable. My own father, who religiously used to walk outdoors for one to two hours daily, no longer does this not only because of COVID but because of the sheer verbal abuse hes endured on the sidewalks. Im grateful he lives next-door and is willing and able to help watch my children while my husband and I work. He used to take my youngest out in her stroller with him on his fitness walks. He shared a particular incident that has stuck out in my minda white person was walking on the same sidewalk, walking towards my masked father, who was pushing a stroller as he was walking towards this person. With seemingly no provocation, the person shouted angrily towards my father, Are you going to move out of the way or what? One would think logically and that one might presume that a solo walker with easier maneuverability would walk along the street for a few feet to keep physical distance, but no, instead this person expected, no demanded, that my elderly Chinese-American father pushing his granddaughter in a stroller be asked to be inconvenienced and move for this person. A similar incident occurred when I was also walking and pushing my youngest in a stroller. I encountered a white person with their aggressive dog who yelled at me to Stop! put her hands up angrily as she started walking back towards where she just came from to cross the street. My extended familys next-door neighbors placed dog excrement in their yard. As someone who tries to assume positive intent, I honestly cannot help but wonder if these incidents would have occurred if my family members were white. Alas, it is a fact that since the COVID-19 pandemic started, anti-Asian violence has been on the rise. Racism against Asians has, like racism in general, been woven into the fabric of the U.S. Lets not forget about the tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants that helped build the transcontinental railroads at wages up to 50 percent less than that of their white counterparts. There was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the 1917 and 1924 Immigration Acts. Lets not forget about the Japanese Internment, when innocent people were displaced and imprisoned because of their ethnicity. Other examples exist in history. Other, more heinous acts of violence, racism, microaggression have occurred and continue. For the model minority, staying silent can no longer be an option. I ask you to call it out. Speak out. Share your story. If you are an ally and witness it, I ask you to call it out, hold space, ask your Asian colleagues, and be ready to listen to the answer to this question: How are you? Many are not ok. As uncomfortable as any of this may be, its in the discomfort that change may occur. Ni-Cheng Liang is a pulmonary physician and founder, the Mindful Healthcare Collective. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Piers Morgan has helped to raise a staggering 21,000 for a 100-year-old Yorkshire war veteran who was left shocked and upset after his home was burgled while he was undergoing an operation in hospital. Former RAF flying boats pilot Len Parry, from Skipton, North Yorks, who escaped from the Japanese after being taken prisoner in Singapore during the Second World War, kept nearly 4,000 in the safe which he used for emergencies and to give to his grandchildren for their birthdays. The entire safe was stolen, but among the gloom there was good news as friends set up a fundraising page on his behalf, which was then spotted by Good Morning Britain Piers, 55. Taking to Twitter, the presenter revealed he'd put in 1,000 of his own money before urging others to do the same, with the current amount up to an impressive 21, 534. Appearing via video link on Good Morning Britain alongside his son-in-law Edward, Len thanked strangers for raising the impressive sum - before revealing he'll be donating much of it to charity. When asked what he was planning to do with all of the money, Len replied: 'Well obviously a lot of it will go to charity. The family will get together and decide what we're going to do with it all.' Len Parry, 100, from Skipton, North Yorks, who escaped from the Japanese after being taken prisoner in Singapore during the Second World War, appeared on Good Morning Britain today and told how he was burgled while he was undergoing an operation in hospital The widower had checked into Bradford Royal Infirmary for a small procedure but lost his balance as he was taking his jumper off and banged his head on the ground. Pictured, Len's injuries The widower had checked into Bradford Royal Infirmary for a small procedure but lost his balance as he was taking his jumper off and banged his head on the ground. Doctors recommended he stay overnight for observations which is believed to be when the opportunistic thieves struck. 'I'd been in hospital for about two days,' explained Len. 'I had to go upstairs for a cheque out of the safe and there was no safe there, of course. I went into shock, obviously. 'The safe was bolted to the floor but they used a crowbar to get it out and take it away.' When asked how he felt after realising the safe that contained all of his money and valuables were gone, Len added: 'It's not just the money, it's all the documents - passports, driving license and all that sort of thing. Taking to Twitter, Piers Morgan revealed he'd put in 1,000 of his own money before urging others to do the same, with the current amount up to an impressive 21, 534 (pictured) Len (pictured right, and left, son-in-law Edward) escaped from the Japanese after being taken prisoner in Singapore during the Second World War 'The confusion you a have to go through to retain your bank books and all that business - it's a bit roughly really.' Len went on to explain how he'd saved that money for a purpose, adding: 'I like to keep a bit of money to one side to pay tradesmen and things like that.' But when the Yorkshire Post found out about it, they decided to tap into the kindness of the community. Speaking of the moment he learned a fundraising page had been set up to try and get some of that money back, Len admitted: 'It was a bit embarrassing to be truthful. 'I know it's a wonderful thing for people to contribute all this amount of money and I very much appreciate what's going on at the moment.' War veteran Len Parry had been recovering in Bradford Royal Infirmary when the thieves broke into his home and took the safe The former RAF flying boats pilot was taken as a prisoner of war, but managed to escape when the Japanese soldiers got drunk while guarding the captives Len's son-in-law Edward added: 'I'd like on behalf all of the family to thank everybody who has contributed to this fundraiser. I think it's absolutely marvellous that the Yorkshire Post has got behind him and done this.' 'I've been married to his daughter for nearly 45 years now and know Len very well and it did upset him very much indeed. It's something a guy of 100 obviously shouldn't have to go through.' Len was born in Burnley, Lancs., and left school at the age of 14 to work as an apprentice gas fitter. He was taken prisoner in Singapore during World War Two but managed to flee when Japanese soldiers got drunk while guarding the captives. After being demobbed in June 1946, he returned to being a gas fitter. He moved to Skipton in 1950 to marry his beloved wife Muriel and the couple had three children - Nigel, Rosamund and Nicholas. Anxious to get himself back in the spotlight, President Obama came out of his lair and, for the first time, touted support for reparations for black people, owing to the U.S. history of slavery. According to Fox News: Obama said he believes reparations are "justified" and that "there's not much question that the wealth the power of this country was built in significant part not exclusively, maybe not even the majority of it, but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves." The former president claimed that a reparations proposal didn't make its way through the lawmaking process during his presidency due to "the politics of White resistance and resentment." "And what I saw during my presidency was the politics of White resistance and resentment. The talk of 'welfare queens' and the talk of the 'undeserving' poor. And the backlash against affirmative action," Obama said. "All that made the prospect of actually proposing any kind of coherent, meaningful reparations program struck me as, politically, not only a nonstarter but potentially counterproductive." This happens to be the wokester signature issue of the day, now that the federal government is turning on the money spigots for every cause under the sun. Fox pointed out that this wasn't Obama's earlier position on reparations, an idea he opposed during his 2008 election. But instead of saying he'd changed his mind owing to the need to be "on the cutting edge" of fashionable leftist thought, and therefore still relevant, the vacay-happy ex-president declared that only the resentful bitter clingers of this country were responsible for stopping him in his redistribution-of-the-wealth socialist dream. In other words, whitey did it. Naturally, he was supercilious and patronizing, demonstrating clearly enough that he hasn't changed a bit: Obama went on to say it was "perfectly understandable why working-class White folks, middle-class White folks, folks who are having trouble paying the bills or dealing with student loans, wouldn't be too thrilled" about the prospect of "a massive program that is designed to deal with the past but isn't speaking to their future." That line above is strikingly similar to his signature: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." See, pudknockers, he's got your number. He knows you better than you know yourself. And the only reason you think this is a bad idea is that it isn't about "the future." So many things wrong with this statement that it's hard to unpack. Number one, very few people in the U.S. bear any responsibility, ancestral or otherwise, for slavery. The U.S. has some 300,000,000 people, largely owing to the effects of mass immigration as well as natural population growth. In the South just ahead of the Civil War, about 1.7 million people were in families that owned slaves, or 30.8% of the entire white free Southern population. According to a leftist researcher at Duke University, whose analysis nevertheless has some merit: The confederacy's 11 states had 316,632 slave owners out of a free population of 5,582,222. This equals 5.67 percent of the free population of the confederacy were slave owners. "That, however, does not tell us the extent of slave ownership. To better understand the extent of slavery's impact, we need to realize a slave owner was the one person in a family who legally owned slaves. That person was usually the patriarch. There would be a spouse and sons and daughters who directly benefited from the family's slave ownership and who stood to inherit enslaved people," wrote Mackey. So, according to the Census of 1860, 30.8 percent of the free families in the confederacy owned slaves. That means that every third white person in those states had a direct commitment to slavery. I am inclined to agree with him on the percentage, because slavery in the South saw most of its growth after 1850, and there had been a cotton commodity boom, with the South holding a near monopoly. But it remains a mighty small percentage of the current U.S. population responsible for perpetrating slavery. One area where the professor goes off the rails is that he counts entire families as slave-holders, which would include kids, who would have been the majority in any Victorian-era household, those same kids the open borders lobby say "had no choice" in their parents' decision. They may have benefited from slave labor, but it wasn't by choice. What's more, all of that wealth generated by slavery was destroyed. The cost to the South of the Civil War by the war's end has been estimated at $3 billion. The "value" assigned to the slaves was $2.7 billion. And the GDP of the area was $735,000,000 (vs. the North's $3.365 billion) by this estimate. The Civil War wiped out in one swoop the entire calculated value of the slave population because the people were freed, zeroing out that claimed value, while the infrastructural and other accumulated capital value of the place got wiped out in the war itself. The South remained poor and dependent on sharecropping and cotton for about a century after the war's end. The wealth now seen in the South is recent and not built on any of that earlier wealth. Meanwhile, let's sort out who pays and who gets paid. What does the guy whose family was slave-holders on one side and slaves on the other get? What does the illegal alien, who has absolutely nothing to do with America's economic development, pay or get? What responsibility do the vast majority of Americans descended from immigrants pay? Does that include African immigrants, whose ancestors may have sold the ancestors of today's black Americans into slavery? And who's to say all slave-holding families were monoliths? What's the responsibility of the son of a slaveholder in a border state or some place like Tennessee who decided to fight for the North? Or the Southern Illinois kid who decided to fight for the South? In a brother-against-brother war, that kind of thing happened. And let's talk about Kamala Harris, whose family in Jamaica actually held and sold slaves do we put her on the reparations list or the cough-it-up list? And what of the millions of people who don't know who their ancestors were? Pay? Or get paid? What of the people who can show descendence from slaves but appear to be white? Should they get reparations based on blood percentage, despite experiencing absolutely no cultural or social consequences of appearing to be black? The reality, is at this point, is that it's impossible to sort out the good guys and bad guys among the ancestral populations without a lot of fraud going on, and that's assuming the idea of descendents paying for the misdeeds of their fathers has merit at all, which it does not in a free society where everyone presumably has individual free will. What Obama is trying to do is cover up the failings of the Great Society, the vast 1960s-era welfare system associated with failed president Lyndon Baines Johnson, which did more to destroy the black family, which is responsible for the success of any group of people, more than anything. During Jim Crow and well into the 20th century, the black family, even with discrimination, was stronger and more resilient than the families of whites. Incomes and education levels rose sharply, in stark contrast to the unintended consequences of the Great Society, which almost literally forced black men from the home and their families. The horrible program decimated the black family and contributed to a huge host of social problems that come of young men anywhere being forced to grow up without the guidance of their fathers. That's why black social indicators have fallen and lugubrious liberal and leftist "help" for the black community is effectively poison. Obama's a big-time supporter of state welfare handouts, in that big love he has for expanded government power. His yelling for reparations is a means of hiding the fact that Democrat policies have devastated the black family and forced many to need remedies. The remedies, though, are things he can't handle: intact families, schools that teach with results to show, a fair and evenly applied rule of law, work opportunities based on a business climate that permits job creation, and a knowledgeable celebration of our common American culture. None of those things happens under a redistributionist society that he's always championed. As usual, he's a divider, and now he's found himself a fashionable vehicle to express it with his call to reparations. What Obama should be doing in ascertaining blame for the troubles in the black community is doing what he does best: looking in the mirror. Image credit: Ari Levinson via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image filtered with Graphite by BeCasso. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Fans of online comedy sensation Erastus Ayieko Otieno, best known as Flaqo, can finally put faces to the names Mama Otis and Baba Otis. Flaqo made a name for himself as one of the most popular digital content creators in Kenya by making videos of hilarious impressions of a typical Kenyan family. The first family character that gave Flaqo his break-out video was Mama Otis, whom he said was derived from his mum and two aunts. As Mama Otis popularity continued to grow, sooner rather than later Flaqo introduced Baba Otis. While he has since added other characters such as Bakari the choirmaster, Mama Kinston, and others, it is Mama Otis and Baba Otis who have proved to be the most popular. Also Read: Meet Mama Otis Comedy Sensation, Flaqo 411 Naturally, a section of Flaqos 423k Instagram followers has always been curious about his parents, who they associate with Mama Otis and Baba Otis characters. On Wednesday, Flaqo fulfilled their wishes as he paid a heartwarming tribute to his parents through a post on Instagram. He also shared a series of photos from his family album, giving his fans a better understanding of his characters. My Parents through my growth fed me endless content, knowledge and guided me through understanding life shared Flaqo. Here are the photos and Flaqos respective caption for each. Slide1: The real mama Otis , my mamaAs a teenager before she suddenly produced human beings from her body. Slide 2:Dnt let the mali safi looks deceive you, my mum could blend us na viboko kama Juice, this mama is loud even neighbours feared herBut still My mum is a caaaatch you guyz. Slide 3:Yuhpmy parents Slide 4:The real Baba Otis a very understanding man, very wise n few strong words that strike guilt in you Slide 5:The products, Flaqo Henry and Sheryl, dirty n playful AFTulikuwa na duka which niliangusha juu ya kukula stock zote Military conscription in Ukraine to be held in April-June, Oct-Dec, recruits to not serve in Donbas President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on the timing of regular conscriptions for military service in 2021, recruits will not serve in Donbas. According to relevant decree No. 71/2021, in 2021, the transfer to the reserve of servicemen who have served out certain terms of military service is planned to be held in April to July and October to December. "In January 2022, the military who were called up in July 2020 will be dismissed (due to the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ukraine)," the president said in the document. According to the decree, "the conscription of Ukrainian citizens for military service will be carried out from April to June and from October to December 2021." The draft commissions will start work on April 1 and October 1, 2021, respectively. Preparatory activities for the draft will start on March 1 and September 1, 2021. "Conducting conscription for military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine ensures the ratio of the proportion of conscripts to the proportion of contract servicemen 15:85%. Thus, the proportion of conscripts in the total number of troops will continue to decrease every year," the presidential press service said in the statement. The presidential press service said that according to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decision on urgent measures to protect Ukraine and strengthen its defense capability, dated August 28, 2014, enacted by presidential decree No. 744 dated September 24, 2014, they were drafted into the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, conscripts are not involved in combat missions in the area of the joint forces operation. Vilnius, Lithuania, 2021-02-25 14:10 CET -- Notice is hereby given that the sole shareholder of "Terseta" UAB, legal entity code 303556959, with a registered office at Jogailos str. 4, Vilnius (hereinafter - Company) - closed-end real estate investment fund for informed investors "Lords LB Baltic Fund IV" (hereinafter - Shareholder) intends to increase the authorized capital of the Company in order to comply with the requirements of the Joint Stock companies law of Republic of Lithuania, ensuring the positive equity of the Company. According to preliminary, unaudited data, equity of the Company was negative on the 31st of December, 2020, equal to: -139'548 (minus one hundred thirty nine thousand five hundred forty eight euros) EUR. The action to increase the authorized capital of the Company is planned to be completed till 31st of March, 2021. Planned: 1. To increase the authorized capital of the Company from 2'500 (two thousand five hundred euros) EUR till 1'002'500 (one million two thousand five hundred euros) EUR by issuing 1'000'000 (one million) ordinary registered shares of the Company, with a nominal value of 1 (one euro) EUR each (hereinafter - New Shares) 2. After the issuance of the New Shares, the authorized capital of the Company will be divided into 1'002'500 (one million two thousand five hundred) ordinary registered shares, with a nominal value of 1 (one euro) EUR each. 3. The total issue price of all New Shares planned by the Company is equal to 1'000'000 (one million euros) EUR. The issue price of each planned New Share is equal to 1 (one euro) EUR. 4. All the New Shares intended to be issued by the Company will be acquired by the Shareholder, the New Shares would be paid in the following order: By redeeming part of the bonds, according to the 7th of December, 2020 Bond subscription agreement No. OBL-TER-20201207. 978'023 (nine hundred seventy eight thousand twenty three units) units of bonds of 1 (EUR) would be redeemed, together with accrued interest 21'977 (twenty one thousand nine hundred seventy seven euros) EUR - a total of 1'000'000 (one million euros). 5. All other terms and conditions of subscription and payment for the New Shares will be defined in a separate Subscription Agreement for the New Shares concluded between the Company and the Shareholder. 6. After signing of the Subscription Agreement for the New Shares, the new wording of the Company's Articles of Association will be approved, replacing clause 3.1 of the current Articles of Association, according to the following wording: "3.1 The authorized capital of the Company equals 1 002 500 (one million two thousand five hundred) euros. The authorized capital is divided into 1 002 500 (one million two thousand five hundred) ordinary registered shares of the nominal value of 1 EUR (one euro) each." Rytis Zaloga Direktorius Email: rytis.zaloga@lordslb.lt Phone: +370 650 32044 Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- This time is different may be the most dangerous words in business: billions of dollars have been lost betting that history wont repeat itself. And yet now, in the oil world, it looks like this time really will be.For the first time in decades, oil companies arent rushing to increase production to chase rising oil prices as Brent crude approaches $70. Even in the Permian, the prolific shale basin at the center of the U.S. energy boom, drillers are resisting their traditional boom-and-bust cycle of spending.The oil industry is on the ropes, constrained by Wall Street investors demanding that companies spend less on drilling and instead return more money to shareholders, and climate change activists pushing against fossil fuels. Exxon Mobil Corp. is paradigmatic of the trend, after its humiliating defeat at the hands of a tiny activist elbowing itself onto the board.The dramatic events in the industry last week only add to what is emerging as an opportunity for the producers of OPEC+, giving the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia more room for maneuver to bring back their own production. As non-OPEC output fails to rebound as fast as many expected -- or feared based on past experience -- the cartel is likely to continue adding more supply when it meets on June 1.CriminalizationShareholders are asking Exxon to drill less and focus on returning money to investors. They have been throwing money down the drill hole like crazy, Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer for CalSTRS. We really saw that company just heading down the hole, not surviving into the future, unless they change and adapt. And now they have to.Exxon is unlikely to be alone. Royal Dutch Shell Plc lost a landmark legal battle last week when a Dutch court told it to cut emissions significantly by 2030 -- something that would require less oil production. Many in the industry fear a wave of lawsuits elsewhere, with western oil majors more immediate targets than the state-owned oil companies that make up much of OPEC production.We see a shift from stigmatization toward criminalization of investing in higher oil production, said Bob McNally, president of consultant Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official.While its true that non-OPEC+ output is creeping back from the crash of 2020 -- and the ultra-depressed levels of April and May last year -- its far from a full recovery. Overall, non-OPEC+ output will grow this year by 620,000 barrels a day, less than half the 1.3 million barrels a day it fell in 2020. The supply growth forecast through the rest of this year comes nowhere close to matching the expected increase in demand, according to the International Energy Agency.Beyond 2021, oil output is likely to rise in a handful of nations, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada and new oil-producer Guyana. But production will decline elsewhere, from the U.K. to Colombia, Malaysia and Argentina.As non-OPEC+ production increases less than global oil demand, the cartel will be in control of the market, executives and traders said. Its a major break with the past, when oil companies responded to higher prices by rushing to invest again, boosting non-OPEC output and leaving the ministers led by Saudi Arabias Abdulaziz bin Salman with a much more difficult balancing act.Drilling DownSo far, the lack of non-OPEC+ oil production growth isnt registering much in the market. After all, the coronavirus pandemic continues to constrain global oil demand. It may be more noticeable later this year and into 2022. By then, vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 are likely to be bearing fruit, and the world will need more oil. The expected return of Iran into the market will provide some of that, but there will likely be a need for more.When that happens, it will be largely up to OPEC to plug the gap. One signal of how the recovery will be different this time is the U.S. drilling count: It is gradually increasing, but the recovery is slower than it was after the last big oil price crash in 2008-09. Shale companies are sticking to their commitment to return more money to shareholders via dividends. While before the pandemic shale companies re-used 70-90% of their cash flow into further drilling, they are now keeping that metric at around 50%.The result is that U.S. crude production has flat-lined at around 11 million barrels a day since July 2020. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the outlook is even more somber: at the end of April, the ex-North America oil rig count stood at 523, lower than it was a year ago, and nearly 40% below the same month two years earlier, according to data from Baker Hughes Co.When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz predicted earlier this year that drill, baby, drill is gone for ever, it sounded like a bold call. As ministers meet this week, they may dare to hope hes right.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P. DANBURY The state has a new tax commissioner. The state House approved former Mayor Mark Boughton to be head of the states Department of Revenue Services Its an honor to be able to serve the residents of Connecticut, so I look forward to it, Boughton said. Boughton has been serving as commissioner for about two months, but Wednesdays vote makes his position official. After leading the city for about 20 years, Boughton resigned as Danburys mayor in mid-December when the governor nominated him for the position. Gov. Ned Lamont reached across the aisle in picking Boughton, a Republican, who ran unsuccessfully three times for governor. Boughton served an unprecedented 10 terms as mayor and had already decided not to run for an 11th term when Lamont offered him the job. Boughton said he and the governor want to avoid raising taxes, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. We want to maximize the taxes that we have, make sure we collect everything that is owed to the state of Connecticut and make sure we do that with compassion given the challenges of COVID, he said. He said he has been working on various initiatives, including an online tax filing system. The goal is eventually to move all filings online, he said. The net result is that our residents will have a much easier time filing online, Boughton said. Boughton still lives in Danbury and is leading a committee working on the proposed $90 million career academy that he had championed as mayor. The closure of Nangal Hydel Channel for one month for repair will affect a quarter of water supply to the national capital in summer, which could lead to an unprecedented water crisis and even law and order situation, Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Raghav Chadha said on Thursday. Chadha said a letter has been written to the Union government to postpone the repair and undertake it some other time. "The blind closure of the channel will affect supply of 232 MGD (million gallon per day) of water supply from the Beas river to Delhi for one month in March-April. It is 25 per cent of water supply in Delhi and could lead to unprecedented water crisis and even law and order situation," he said. Chadha said the Delhi government is in constant touch with the Centre over the issue and hoped that the impending crisis will be averted. He said they have also appealed to the Jal Shakti Ministry to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the issue. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. New Delhi: Attacking the CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala for the increasing attacks against BJP-RSS workers, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday alleged that incidents of violence always increased in the state, whenever the LDF came to power. He also charged that the political opponents of the ruling dispensation were being killed in a most brutal and barbaric manner in the state and added that it was the state governments responsibility to ensure that those indulging in violence were brought to book. Here the highlights from the press conference by Arun Jaitley at 4:15 PM in Kerala: #Awards would've been returned,parl wouldn't have been allowed to function&campaigns would've been carried out within&outside country:Jaitley #Let's assume if the kind of political violence in Kerala had taken place in BJP or NDA ruled state, what would've happened?: FM Jaitley #Political will & determination by state Govt needed to discipline its own cadres rather than let them loose on political opponents: Jaitley #I pray that this environment doesn't continue for long, hope state Govt takes action against recurrence of any such incident:Jaitley #Police is expected to be fair, if these two things don't happen then environment of violence won't end: Union Minister Arun Jaitley #It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that perpetrators of these crimes are brought to book: Union Minister Arun Jaitley #The kinds of wounds inflicted on Rajesh would have embarrassed even terrorists: Arun Jaitley on attacks on RSS members in Kerala #Sad that every time LDF is in power, incidents of violence increase. You have political opponents being killed: Arun Jaitley in Kerala Earlier in on Friday, Jaitley met the relatives of deceased RSS karyakarta Rajesh Edavakode in Thiruvananthapuram. Rajesh was murdered in Kozhikode. While addressing a gathering, Jaitley said this kind of violence will neither suppress ideology in Kerala nor it will be able to scare their workers. He said it will only strengthen their determination to work harder against those who are perpetuating these kinds of operations in the state. The senior party leader condemned such violence and said: "even enemies would not be as brutal as those were involved in the murder." He said Rajesh was an ideal karyakarta and he was the lobe bread earner of his family. This kind of violence will neither suppress ideology in Kerala nor it will be able to scare our workers: Arun Jaitley in Thiruvananthapuram pic.twitter.com/8Xm1QThBkQ ANI (@ANI_news) August 6, 2017 Several clashes took place between BJP-RSS activists and CPM activists in last month. It will only increase their determination to work harder against those who are perpetuating this operation: A Jaitley in Thiruvananthapuram ANI (@ANI_news) August 6, 2017 Also Read: Dattatreya Hosable demands stern action in killings of RSS activists in Kerala For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. 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). DUBLIN, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "U.S. Structural Pest Control Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The U.S. structural pest control market by revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% during the period 2021-2026. The U.S. structural pest control market share is highly affected owing to the frequent outbreak of infectious diseases. Since the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the US, maintaining health and hygiene for personal wellness has gained momentum. As the disease is highly contagious, it has become crucial for residential, commercial, and industrial places to maintain the highest standards of hygiene to ensure public and employee safety. There is an increased demand for pest control services from medical centers, public offices, educational institutions, hotels, and restaurants. Another important factor contributing to the growth of the market in the US is the introduction of digital and smart pest control technology. Although the penetration of digital technology is currently low, it is expected to gain momentum soon with the growth in the U.S. structural pest control market. U.S. Structural Pest Control Market Segmentation The U.S. structural pest control market research report includes a detailed segmentation by type, method, application, geography. High affordability of general pest control services is one of the major factors influencing the growth of the segment. The growing incidence of pest infestation has increased the demand for these services. General pest control services are largely based on the usage of low-toxic chemicals and mechanical devices, which help to reduce the growth of ants, mosquitoes, and rodents. Rodent elimination services are observing a spike among consumers as rodents alone are responsible for several disorders, including gastric diseases. Connected devices and remote monitoring systems for rodents are opening opportunities for services and customers. Easy availability and high cost-effectiveness are the major reasons responsible for the high adoption of chemical and mechanical methods. The spread of the COVID-19 virus across the US has driven service providers to opt for chemicals that are effective against coronavirus. Owing to the high efficiency, vendors are focusing on developing effective chemicals with the fusion of ethyl alcohol. Chemical methods are more popular than mechanical ones as they are highly effective in insect extermination and are less complicated. They are highly preferred in commercial and industrial industries, especially in workplaces, hospitals, and manufacturing units because this application method is efficient for large rooms and preventive facilities. The demand for pest control services from the residential sector is projected to be high in the US during the forecast period. In the industrial sector, a majority of industries have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, and hence pest control services are expected to decline for the short term, particularly in the logistics industry. In the commercial sector, office spaces, coworking spaces, and travel and hospitality shut down, and hence the overall services were impacted during Q1 & Q2 2020. However, with the reopening of commercial and industrial activities in the country, the market is expected to revive soon, bringing opportunities for vendors in the US. Residential-sector plague infestation is increasing, especially in high-density areas such as metropolitan cities, where population mobility is currently high. INSIGHTS BY VENDORS Rollins, Terminix, Ecolab, Anticimex, and Rentokil are the major pest control companies in the US. The U.S. structural pest control market is extremely competitive, therefore an approach to acquire well-established, leading firms, is often adopted to expand in the market. The market, on the whole, is growing steadily due to the rise of the bed bug infestation in the US, with an annual growth projection of bed bugs at around 2.9%. As part of the inorganic growth policy, vendors are engaging in M&As to extend their reach to other states and increase their revenue and profit margins. These inorganic projects supplement vendors' organic growth strategies and thus provide access to a broader client base. KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED 1. What is the future outlook and growth projections of the U.S. structural pest control market? 2. What are the upcoming trends for the pest control market? 3. Which are the largest companies in the structural pest control industry in the US? 4. What segments are expected to account for the highest pest control service market share during the forecast period? 5. What is the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. structural pest control market? Prominent Vendors Anticimex Ecolab Massey Services Inc. Rentokil Rollins Terminix Truly Nolen Other Prominent Vendors Arrow Exterminators Cook's Pest Control Dodson Pest Control Eastern Termite & Pest Control Hulett Environmental Services Ehrlich Lindsey Pest Services Rose Pest Solutions ABC Home & Commercial Services Abell Pest Control Home Paramount Plunkett's Pest Control Clegg's Pest Solutions Excel Pest Solutions US Pest Protection Assured Environments Key Topics Covered: 1 Research Methodology 2 Research Objectives 3 Research Process 4 Scope & Coverage 4.1 Market Definition 4.2 Base Year 4.3 Scope of The Study 5 Report Assumptions & Caveats 5.1 Key Caveats 5.2 Currency Conversion 5.3 Market Derivation 6 Market at a Glance 7 Introduction 7.1 Overview 7.1.1 Key Highlights 7.1.2 Regulatory Standards 7.2 Impact Of COVID-19 On Structural Pest Control Services 8 Market Opportunities & Trends 8.1 Continuous Disease Outbreak 8.2 Demand For Digital Pest Control 8.3 Demand For Vector Control Services 9 Market Growth Enablers 9.1 Increase In Mergers And Acquisitions 9.2 Rise In Pest Intolerance 9.3 Pest Insurance Coverage 10 Market Restraints 10.1 High Cost Of Structural Pest Control Services 10.2 Competitive Marketplace 10.3 Dip In Construction Sector 11 Market Landscape 11.1 Historical Data 11.2 Market Overview 11.3 Market Size & Forecast 11.4 Vendor Focus On Structural Pest Control Market in US 11.5 Market By Pest Type 11.6 Market By General Pest Type 11.7 Market By Pest Method 11.8 Market By Application 11.9 Market By Commercial Application 11.10 Market By Industrial Application 11.11 Five Forces Analysis 12 Pest Type 12.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine 12.2 Market Overview 12.3 General Pest Control 12.4 Rodent Control 12.5 Insect Control 12.6 Other Pest Control 12.7 Termite Control 13 Pest Control Method 13.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine 13.2 Market Overview 13.3 Chemical 13.4 Mechanical 14 Application 14.1 Market Snapshot & Growth Engine 14.2 Market Overview 14.3 Residential 14.4 Commercial 14.5 Corporate Office Space 14.6 Hospitality 14.7 Hospitals 14.8 Educational Centers 14.9 Retail Outlet 14.10 Shopping Malls 14.11 Gym And Fitness Center 14.12 Government Centers 14.14 Other Commercial Sectors 14.15 Industrial 14.16 Food Industry 14.17 Pharmaceutical Industry 14.18 Logistics Industry 14.19 Warehouse 14.20 Manufacturing 15 Region For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2kq80u 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 A trophy hunter's main agenda is to kill wild animals for fun and then brag about it. They compete with each other to win prizes in trophy hunting and earn the top prize from Safari Club International and such. To win this, a trophy hunter would have to kill over 300 wild animals in several different categories. There are nearly 50 such categories. Animal activists and conservationists have been trying for decades to get the trophy hunters to stop but a recent incident from South Africa has made it clear that there is no end to their sadistic need to kill an animal. Here are some incidents involving the killing of wild animals by trophy hunters that will leave you questioning humanity. A South African farm owner is on the receiving end of severe backlash after she posted pictures with the heart of a giraffe she shot and killed during a trophy hunting trip earlier this month. Merelize van der Merwe took to Facebook to show off the bloodied organ. She said she had been wanting to hunt a 'big black giraffe bull' since 2016 and was pictured holding a gun next to the dead body of a large giraffe. Ever since she posted pictures of her 'romantic getaway' on the social media platform, people condemned her actions and even her Facebook account was flagged for animal cruelty. However, no action has been taken yet. Facebook 2. US trophy hunter paid $110,000 (Rs 79.78 lakh) to kill rare Astore markhor mountain goat in Pakistan American hunter Bryan Kinsel Harlan paid a record $110,000 to shoot a rare Astore markhor mountain goat on a tourist expedition to Pakistans northern Himalayan region of Gilgit-Baltistan. The hunter was captured on video climbing through mountains in Pakistan's northern Gilgit region. Before shooting the goat, he high-fived with guides and then pulled the animal by its horns. According to Pakistani media, this was the highest ever paid for a hunt in the country. Many people called the killing cruel and lashed at the hunter on social media. MarketWatch 3. Trophy hunter crept up on a sleeping Zimbabwe lion and shot it Guy Gorney, 64, of Manhattan, Illinois had sneaked up on a sleeping lion and shot it. He enjoyed the slow kill as the poor lion writhed in pain. In an interview a few laters after the incident, Guy said he has no remorse and has killed over 70 animals such as elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo. Needless to say, once the incident became public knowledge, the hunter was called out for his inhumane actions. Facebook 4. American trophy hunter killed a mountain lion and posted a picture covered in blood A blonde woman killed a mountain lion and a picture of her covered in the animal's blood was shared by wildlife activist group Prairie Protection Colorado (PPC) on Facebook. The photograph showed a blonde woman holding the body of a dead mountain lion and another showing her smiling and displaying her bloodied hands. Local media had identified her as Franchesca "Franny" Esplin. This was shared as the caption when the photographs were posted on social media: 'This is the mentality of people who kill predator species for sport and fun. Make no mistake that Colorado's wildlife policies and officials support this insane looting of Colorado's wildlife.' Facebook 5. US hunter killed a giraffe and said its meat 'tasted delicious' Tess Talley of Kentucky, USA killed a giraffe in South Africa in 2017. Pictures of the same went viral in 2018 and her insensitive comments on how the meat is delicious and the skin would make fabulous pillows led to a lot of backlash from animal activists and animal lovers. In an interview with CBS News' Adam Yamaguchi, Talley had revealed that she has made decorative pillows and a gun case out of the slain giraffe, which she described as "delicious." Also read: Giraffes May Join The List Of Extinct Animals Due To Rampant Trophy Hunting CBS 6. A couple kissed next to the dead body of a lion they had killed This trophy couple's idea of 'romance' was to kiss while sitting next to the dead body of a lion they had just killed in cold blood. The Canadian couple had hunter the animal down in South Africa. Media reports had suggested that the lion had been bred in captivity and confined in a small enclosure at a canned hunt facility. These are establishments that profit off the exploitation of animals from cradle to grave. Humane Society 7. Donald Trump Jr. had hunted argali sheep during a trip to Mongolia Protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, an argali sheep was killed by Donald Trump Jr. during a trip to Mongolia which outraged Americans. According to a ProPublica report, Trumps hunt was partially funded by U.S. and Mongolian taxpayers because each country sent security services to accompany the presidents eldest son and grandson on the trip. It was also reported that Trump Jr. did not have a Mongolian permit to kill the argali. He was issued a permit by the Mongolian government only after he had already departed the country. This was clearly a hasty attempt to cover up a violation of Mongolian law. Humane Society/ Retro What are your thoughts on trophy hunting? Let us know in the comments. Also read: These Eight Cases Of Brutal Animal Cruelty Shows How Much We Have Failed As Human Beings Help India! Bhim Army Chief supremo Chandrashekhar Azad has been featured in TIME magazines annual list of 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future. TwoCircles.net looks at the story of the young leaders rise among the masses. Aas Mohammad Kaif, TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles Late in the day on April 20, 2017, a video was going viral on social media. In this video, a young man clad in a blue shawl and bearing a serious look on his face was instructing the youth of the society on some issue. The young man sitting among seven-eight youths was saying that the youth should understand the conspiracy in the uproar that took place in the village Sadak Dudhli that day and should not quarrel with the Muslims. They are our brothers. This dispute has been created by the people of BJP due to political malice. They want to increase their supremacy by making Dalits and Muslims fight among themselves. Both communities are weak and struggling. If they fight with each other, they will move towards their downfall, he declared. The young man speaking in the video was unknown to the world till that day, but he was a hero to those for whom the message was issued. The video was shared on WhatsApp and reached peoples homes. The climate changed within a single night. Hope turned to despair for those cultivating hate in the morning. The planners of the Dalit and Muslim riots failed. The youth of both sides did not fight. The young man speaking in the video was Chandrashekhar Azad, the convener of the Bhim Army. The elements involved in plotting the riots were so confident that they even attacked the residence of Saharanpurs Police Captain. Even his nameplate was broken. They created ruckus in the Police chiefs residence. Still, the riots did not happen, even though all the possible pieces of the riots were laid. The atmosphere was very heated. This tension among both the communities developed due to a procession. On the Ravidas Jayanti, a quarrel occured in the Sadak Dudhli, a village situated 5 kilometres away on the Saharanpur-Dehradun highway. It was propagated that the procession of Ravidas Jayanti was stopped in the Muslim dominated area and people from the Dalit community have been attacked. Rumours were doing rounds. A rumour was being spread that the Dalits deliberately took the yatra off the fixed route and shouted slogans outside the mosque. The rumour spread all over Saharanpur. The district of Saharanpur, which is predominantly Dalit and Muslim, had come under a pile of gunpowder. Anees Gada of Sadak Dudhli says that the video of Chandrashekhar has come again. After the incident of Ghadakuli, Azad has resided in the hearts of the Dalit youths and every Dalit youth of Saharanpur followed his instructions. This video made a double impact. One was that all the misconceptions among Muslims had been dispelled, and secondly, the Dalit youths understood that people of Hindu organizations were conspiring by firing from their shoulders. Later, it became clear. Hundreds of youths from Hindu organizations had participated in this Ravidas procession. The flamboyant Chandrashekhar Azad had read into this. Naturally, after this incident, Chandrashekhar Azad became an eyesore for a particular group. Twenty days after this incident, on May 9, Chandrasekhar Azad was made the prime accused in the violence that occurred in the protest against the atrocities against the Dalits. Locals believe that Chandrashekhar Azad was made the accused over the political displeasure caused to the Hindu organisations due to his efforts in the Sadak Dudhli incident. Following this, Chandrasekhar Azad became such an eyesore that he was arrested and every time his date was extended. Apart from him, more than 200 Bhim Army activists also went to jail. After the May 9 violence in Saharanpur, the women sat on a dharna in the Ravidas temple in Ramnagar village in harsh winter. Demonstrations started in favour of Chandrasekhar Azad. The circumstances were such that a Bhim Army worker from prison would come out on bail and immediately hold a meeting. President of Bhim Army on Delhi Road (Police did not dare to arrest him here too.) Chandrashekhar Azad came out of jail after 15 months. A local activist of the Bhim Army, Praveen Gautam says that even after this, the government kept up all the efforts of repression. Cases were registered against his brother, family and other colleagues, he said. Chandrashekhar Azad came out as more mature after coming out of jail from Saharanpur. Do not celebrate my release. We are economically weaker sections. In such a situation, we should not spend money. Spend this money on the wedding of our sisters. Hundreds of innocents have been sent to jail in the incident of 2 April 2018, let us try to get them out of jail. The mission of the Bhima Army will now be spread across India. We will stand with every Majloom and Destitute, he declared. Arvind Gautam of Meerut says that Chandrasekhar Azad has been getting negative press and his image of a goon was being created in a particular media. It was being told that they are misleading the Dalit youth. The government could have been happy to send him to jail but it was good for Chandrashekhar Azads strong mental building. Chandrasekhar got time in jail and his statement after coming out of jail was reflecting this mature thinking, he said. Today the world has accepted the leadership of Chandrasekhar. His mention in the TIME magazines 100 most influential people is proof that he has kept the pledge to stand up for the weak. This is the reason that despite the anti-CAA protests and all efforts to tarnish his image in the Hathras incident, society did not let his trust in him weaken, says Gautam. Reacting to the development, Mohsin Rao of Saharanpur says that it is not surprising at all. This is quite normal. It is also a matter of courage to speak openly about the society from which Chandrasekhar came from. This society has always been oppressed. Now if the son of a Dalit is mentioned in a magazine like TIME, then he will give trouble to some so-called high people. But his success is good. There is a lot of potential in him, he said. Last year, Chandrashekhar Azad formed a political party. Although he could not get much traction due to the lockdown. He was discussed a lot during the Bihar elections but did not get the required vote. Dayachand Bharti of Bijnor says that forming his party is a politically right decision. This is a backup plan for society. It has much depth and it will not be understood by everyone. It is a different matter that revolution suits Chandrasekhar. He fights the war of the weak in a powerful way. Dalit youth have accepted him as their leader. Now, he has been featured in TIME Magazine. Wait a little, his time will also come, he said. These words of Dayachand Bharti are also reflected in the fact that The Great Chamar board is installed in the Dalit dominated villages of western Uttar Pradesh. Here Chandrashekhar Azad is a hero among the Dalit youth. They cannot hear a word against Chandrashekhar Azad. Vikas Jatav of Muzaffarnagar says that he stands with the society in all kinds of crises. Today, he is not new but has been tested. He belongs to us and we belong to him. We all know he is the son of a poor household like us. He too has lived a life of paucity. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he added. Surveillance video showed Edwards, dressed in all pink, getting out of the passenger side of the SUV and walking away, and Grayer getting out of the drivers side, walking after Edwards for a little, then getting back in the SUV and driving off, prosecutors said. The SUV is last seen on surveillance video on the Near West Side about 2 a.m. that day, but was never located after that. Medical Discovery News is hosted by professors Norbert Herzog at Quinnipiac University, and David Niesel of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Learn more at www.medicaldiscoverynews.com. One panel will discuss whether tech companies are "colluding to deprive us of our humanity." One speech will explore what to do when a social media network "de-platforms" a conservative by deleting his account. And seven main-stage panels or speeches will litigate the 2020 election, with panelists who mostly - and incorrectly - argue that Donald Trump won. The Conservative Political Action Conference, which begins this week, has evolved from a fractious meeting of Republicans and libertarians into a celebration of the 45th president and the airing of his grievances. Trump will close out the event with his first speech since leaving the White House, minutes after a 2024 presidential straw poll that he's expected to win. The arguments among some elected Republicans about whether they should retool their agenda to prevent future losses, or revisit their alliance with Trump, will have to happen somewhere else. "The idea that we're going to come up with some kind of conservative platform at CPAC, it rings a little hollow," said Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the conference. "Right now, half the country" feels cheated "by the media coverage of the election. So we're going to go back and cover the facts that most people in the media canceled." The facts haven't been kind to that argument. Dozens of lawsuits and Trump's Justice Department found no evidence of fraud last year that would have altered the election results. But polling since Nov. 3 has found strong majorities of Republican voters agreeing with Trump and supporting his false take on the election. That has left CPAC in the same place as the larger Republican Party as they head toward the 2022 midterm election: wedded to Trump even as he alienates millions of potential voters. The conference, founded in 1973, is usually held near Washington, with a crowd that can grow to 10,000 people. It moved this year to Orlando, Fla., where local covid-19 restrictions allow an indoor gathering if attendees are socially distanced and masked, and complete a quick health survey. That will cut the full crowd at festivities that begin Thursday down to perhaps 3,500 - still one of the largest conferences in the country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with all but the priciest tickets sold out for weeks. Scaling a four-day convention down to a virtual Zoom-fest was never considered, and it might have clashed with the theme - "America Uncanceled," a reference to the Republican idea that "cancel culture" is punishing conservatives for their beliefs. Some prominent Republicans, whose criticism of the election myths have angered party activists, won't be in attendance. Former vice president Mike Pence, a regular guest who against Trump's wishes refused to declare the electoral college vote invalid, will not attend, and has kept a low profile since attending the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a one-time winner of CPAC's presidential straw poll, has been disinvited since becoming the first senator to vote for convicting an impeached president of his own party. (He also voted to convict earlier this month after Trump's second impeachment.) Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who hasn't attended since 2014 and who excoriated Trump after voting to acquit him earlier this month, wasn't invited, with a CPAC director telling McClatchy that he could return in 2022 "to address the improvements to election laws" Republicans are pushing through state legislatures. Of the 47Republican members of Congress scheduled to speak at CPAC, just nine voted to uphold every state's election results on Jan. 6. None voted for impeachment. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who led a Trump-backed lawsuit to undo Biden's win in Pennsylvania, will speak about "the devaluing of American citizenship" alongside Rep. Paul A. Gosar of Arizona, an early organizer of "Stop the Steal" rallies. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who had resisted the transition to the Biden administration, will speak about the Bill of Rights. There's more on the schedule than just 2020 recriminations or election law briefings. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who voted to challenge election results on Jan. 6, will lead a panel on "the angry mob and violence in our streets"; three panels will focus on "big tech" and related "monopoly" issues; and one will discuss "protecting women's sports" from transgender athletes. A series of panels, including one with former Trump trade representative Robert Lighthizer, will focus on the economic tussle with China. Conservative activists whose social media access has been limited, including podcaster Dan Bongino, will explore the weekend's "cancel culture" theme. But there will be less debate about what conservatives stand for than at many prior conferences, and far less than the last CPAC that unfolded after Republicans lost the White House and Congress. In 2009, after the GOP's last federal wipeout, rising stars like then-Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said that the party had lost its way under George W. Bush, and a new generation of true conservatives was ready to lead. "What the public rejected in 2008," then-ACU Chairman David Keene said onstage, "was incompetence." In 2021, Schlapp said, some of what conservatives used to fight over had been settled by Trump. Some immigration restriction measures, which were "considered racist when they were brought up," he said, proved potent to "a lot of union Democrats, a lot of diverse people." Trump had won new voters for the party without the predicted costs among Latino voters, just like he had delivered on deals with Israel despite warnings that he would destabilize the Middle East, Schlapp said. "Even though Donald Trump is a one-term president," he said, "there's this feeling among Republicans that he was a huge, smashing success." Still, for reasons including in-party squabbling and the covid-era Orlando move, the conference will be smaller this year. The National Rifle Association, which had been a six-figure co-sponsor in the past, is not a sponsor this year; the organization did not respond to a question asking why. There will be fewer exhibitors, and some Republican organizations like WinRed, the party's donation portal, are skipping the 2021 event after sponsoring in 2020. Schlapp's predecessor at the ACU, Al Cardenas, had criticized Trump's immigration policies; he was no longer attending the conference, he said, and focused on his work with the bipartisan group No Labels. Despite the anti-cancellation theme, CPAC organizers have also kept some people off the stage. Previous CPACs barred or disinvited speakers who had advocated white supremacy. This week, after the liberal watchdog group Media Matters published antisemitic tweets by a Black commentator named Young Pharoah, CPAC disinvited him from a panel of Black conservatives. Schlapp said that action did not amount to canceling Pharoah. "Cancel culture is a desire to push somebody out of polite society, destroy their ability to make a living, and take away their voice," Schlapp said, saying that Pharoah's views were "abhorrent" and worth keeping offstage. "If that person wants to air those views," he added. "I don't think they should be illegal. Just do it on someone else's dime." Some Republicans who had been comfortable at CPAC in the past are staying away from anything associated with Trump. On Wednesday, reporters asked House GOP leaders if Trump should be speaking at the conference at all. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who'll speak on Saturday, said that he should. House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who will not attend, said that he shouldn't. "I don't believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country," Cheney said. "On that high note, thank you very much," McCarthy said. He walked to one exit, Cheney to another. MONTREAL - With spring just around the corner, people will soon be able to return to outdoor workouts, and with government restrictions beginning to lift in some provinces, they might even be able to go back to their usual gym routines. A woman wears a face mask on her chin while exercising at a fitness centre and gym, in North Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck MONTREAL - With spring just around the corner, people will soon be able to return to outdoor workouts, and with government restrictions beginning to lift in some provinces, they might even be able to go back to their usual gym routines. But for those who prefer guided workouts or arent ready to face the health risks of visiting a gym, there are ways to get many of the same benefits while keeping a tight budget. Throughout the pandemic, options for at-home workouts and other solo fitness offerings have proliferated. They include free, pre-recorded home workouts that require limited or no equipment, exercise bike rental programs at gyms and spin studios, and even private workout space available for rent. In many cases, these offerings are cheaper and provide more variety for your money than a traditional gym membership. Econofitness, for example, a major gym chain in Quebec, offers free at-home workout videos on its YouTube channel, many of which require no equipment. For people with paid memberships, which range from $10 to $34 a month, it also offers varying tiers of specialized programming, from pre-recorded workouts to live classes held over Zoom. With the YouTube channel, you get very good at-home workouts, said Renaud Beaudry, vice president of development for Econofitness. Its good to start if youve never worked out in a gym before. Some online platforms cater to people with more experience with workout classes. Amanda Zweig, a Montreal-based personal trainer and spin instructor, co-founded a platform called FitFomo with other local trainers, selling pre-recorded workouts for $29.99 a month. The platform now regularly publishes content from five trainers and covers a variety of workouts, Zweig said, including videos for Pilates, barre, high-intensity interval training and strength training, which are uploaded twice a week. For people who are wondering how to choose from the many fitness platforms that are out there, Zweig recommended sampling different ones. Other subscription-based online workout platforms include YYoga at Home, by the Vancouver-based yoga chain YYoga, and virtual classes from R Studios, which has locations in Halifax and Dartmouth, N.S. The best thing to do is to try out the free trial, Zweig said, noting that most platforms offer customers the option of testing the service for one or two weeks. You have to just try and see what works. Lyndsay Schneidman, who subscribed to FitFomo after having worked with Zweig and another trainer on the platform before the pandemic, said she appreciated being able to do the workouts on her own schedule. She had sampled other platforms but liked having the variety of different classes from multiple trainers on FitFomo, she said. Some classes may require more equipment than others. Still, Zweig said that for under $100, people can purchase two sets of weights one lighter, between one and five pounds, and the other between five and thirty as well as a set of resistance bands, which should offer enough equipment for a variety of home strength workouts. Many gyms and spin studios have also been renting out cardio equipment on a monthly basis throughout the pandemic, for people who are looking for flexibility. The gym at Concordia University in Montreal, for example, had been offering spin bike rentals for $45 per month, its website says, but the program is currently sold out. For more equipment-intensive workouts, Silofit, a Montreal-based startup, offers its customers the ability to rent out a small gym space, fully stocked with weights and cardio equipment, where people can work out in private. Before the pandemic, the app was mostly used by trainers looking for space to work with clients, but now, around half of the people making bookings are just looking for a place to work out, said Wilfred Valenta, the companys CEO and co-founder. Gym spaces range from 500 to 1,000 square feet and cost between $20 and $45 per hour, depending on the size of the space. Each of them is professionally cleaned in between sessions, Valenta said. The company will have 12 locations in Toronto and three in Montreal by the end of March, Valenta added. Even once lockdown restrictions are completely lifted, Valenta sees fitness continuing in what he called a hybrid model. That model consists of people doing some workouts at home and only going to gyms for specialized classes, personal training sessions, or workouts that require additional equipment. Schneidman said she is unlikely to buy another gym membership after the pandemic, saying that she was happy with her home workouts. Still, she may add in-person training sessions to her routine once it becomes an option, she said. I was someone before COVID that absolutely hated home workouts, she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2021. 25 February 2021 TECTONIC GOLD PLC ("Tectonic Gold" or the "Company") SPECIMEN HILL TECHNICAL PROGRESS AND DIAMOND JOINT VENTURE UPDATE Tectonic Gold plc (TDIM: TTAU), the Intrusive Related Gold System ("IRGS") explorer, is pleased to share technical findings from our collaborative research program with CODES and diamond production results from our Deep Blue Minerals joint venture in South Africa. Specimen Hill CODES Research Highlights: Collaborative programme with world leading ore deposit research centre Genetic confirmation that copper and gold samples are close to the intrusive source Reaffirms drill targeting and informs plan for higher density drilling campaign Deep Blue Production Highlights: January production over 220cts Ramp up program going well Moving into deeper and higher grade ore so expect continued production increases Mr. Brett Boynton, Managing Director - Tectonic Gold Plc " Tectonic has an ongoing research collaboration with "CODES" (The Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences) at the University of Tasmania. Major gold companies such as Newcrest also work with CODES, so this collaboration gives Tectonic an open technical forum across industry and academia. Using advanced analytics we looked at chemical associations from the rocks at various depths to build a picture of the temperature and pressure of the gold and copper bearing fluids that came up with the intrusive to form the deposit at Specimen Hill. From this we have confirmed, amongst other things, that our methodical drilling program is moving through the deposit towards the intrusive source. We will take this information back into the model to further refine our follow up campaign with higher density drilling for resource definition. It is important to get the same positive response from a range of tests to confirm our thinking. Often explorers hit an intersection of gold and are encouraged to drill without a clear roadmap and they end up putting in a lot of unsuccessful holes and running out of money. Working with CODES keeps us disciplined and on track. Deep Blue Minerals JV Highlights: Our joint venture with AIM listed Kazera Global Investments is really coming into its own now with the production ramp up program progressing well. Initial production in December was around 50 carats, so delivering this significant increase in output as we move into the higher-grade zone is an excellent result. Tectonic has a non-diluting 10% interest in Deep Blue and holds 20 million shares in Kazera, with options for another 20 million shares at 0.5p." About Tectonic Gold: Tectonic Gold is a specialist gold exploration company, focused on the identification and delineation of large-scale, multimillion-ounce Intrusion Related Gold Systems ("IRGS"). Tectonic Gold holds a number of gold discoveries in the New England Orogen in Eastern Australia, a prolific gold region that is home to Australia's two largest gold production companies, Newcrest Mining and Evolution Mining. Rio Tinto, one of the largest copper companies in the world has recently taken a large tenement alongside Tectonic's Specimen Hill project Qualified Persons: Mr Jonathan Robbeson - BSc (Hons1), MEconGeol, MMinEng, (CP Geo) is a full-time employee Signature Gold Limited and is a registered Chartered Professional (Geology) with the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM - 304542). Mr Robbeson has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the Note for Mining Oil & Gas Companies, June 2009, of the London Stock Exchange and the 2012 Edition of the 'Australian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' (JORC Code). Mr Robbeson consents to the inclusion in the release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. JORC Table 1 information for this release on Specimen Hill can be found on the Company website. The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement. For further information, please contact: Tectonic Gold plc Brett Boynton Sam Quinn www.tectonicgold.com. @tectonic_gold +61 2 9241 7665 Financial Adviser, Corporate Adviser and Broker VSA Capital Limited Andrew Raca - Corporate Finance Andrew Monk - Corporate Broking +44 20 3005 5000 Ends The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. 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. Flash At least 18 people were killed by unidentified gunmen in two local government areas of Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, a government official said Wednesday. Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner for internal security and home affairs in the state, who confirmed the recent attacks in a statement, said the attacks happened between Monday and Tuesday in Igabi and Chikun areas of the state. He said the gunmen attacked soft targets in Igabi and Chikun areas in the last 48 hours. Aruwan said security agencies reported the attacks to the state government, adding that investigations into the incidents were in progress, as troops continued to intensify patrols in the general areas. He said the state governor Nasir El-Rufai expressed sadness over the development and prayed for the repose of the souls of those killed by the bandits while sending condolences to their families. Meanwhile, the commissioner said the Nigerian Air Force jet raided bandits' hideouts in several locations in Chikun and Igabi, killing several bandits. Groundbreaking guide offers roadmap to transforming educational outcomes for African American students As educators grapple with learning loss and inequities worsened by the pandemic, a pioneering new work has been released to guide them in meeting the unique circumstances of Black students that school systems have failed to address. Supporting the African American Learner: A Guide for Transforming Beliefs, Systems, and Practices for Black Students, is the result of a collaborative initiated by the Los Angeles County Office of Education with the Riverside County Office of Education, UCLAs Center for the Transformation of Schools and the Center for Powerful Public Schools. California educators have no time to waste in closing longstanding opportunity and achievement gaps, said LACOE Superintendent Debra Duardo, head of the nations largest regional education agency. Our guide points the way with effective strategies and best practices to benefit our African American students, the teachers who serve them and the communities in which they live. ADVERTISEMENT Los Angeles Countys 80 K-12 districts serve one-third of Californias more than 324,000 Black students. The county has the nations second highest population of Black students after Cook County, Illinois. In 2019, findings of the Beyond the Schoolhouse Policy Report revealed that achievement data for African American students were the lowest among all groups in Los Angeles County. The guide offers a roadmap to address the specific factors that inhibit and impede equitable educational opportunities and outcomes for Black students, such as low expectations, punitive discipline practices and limited access to college-prep academics. Real, sustainable change requires the action of bold leaders who are willing to take a hard look at policies, practices and beliefs that have failed Black students for 150 years, said project leader Kathryn Edwards, LACOE director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our guide provides a clear pathway for confronting and dismantling systemic issues in education that continue to hinder achievement and opportunity for Black students. The guide is founded on four principles: ADVERTISEMENT Exploring belief systems and shifting deficit-based mindsets that are barriers to effective engagement Creating educational systems that facilitate and support learning Ensuring and sustaining culturally relevant, high-quality instruction Mitigating the accumulation of disadvantage With the launch of Supporting the African American Learner, LACOE will initiate a state- and countywide effort to implement the roadmap through outreach, legislative advocacy and professional development for district administrators and teachers. To view and download Supporting the African American Learner: A Guide for Transforming Beliefs, Systems, and Practices for Black Students visit www.lacoe.edu/AALearner. The Los Angeles County Office of Education, based in Downey, is the nations largest regional education agency, providing a range of services and programs to support the regions 80 school districts and some 2 million preschool and school-age children. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 22:15:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LILONGWE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Malawi will require a total of 114 million U.S. dollars to vaccinate the country's population of 18 million against COVID-19, Minister of Health and Population Services, Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda has disclosed. The Minister told Parliament Wednesday that the amount includes the cost of the vaccine, AstraZeneca, which Malawi has settled for, and all logistics involved in the implementation process. Earlier in the month, Malawi President, Lazarus Chakwera, announced that his government had settled for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine out of at least 8 types of vaccines available. The president said through AU's Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), under the COVAX initiative, Malawi will, by the end of February, acquire the first consignment of 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, enough to cover 750,000 people. The Malawi leader added that there will be additional consignments coming into the country to vaccinate up to 3.8 million people as a matter of urgency. Recently, the president announced that through the AU, the country will acquire 100,000 additional AstraZeneca vaccines especially for health workers. "Health workers must be first in line because they are our last line of defense: They put their lives at risk to save lives every day and they share in the devastation we feel from losing loved ones to this virus," said Chakwera in his recent weekly update on COVID-19. The pandemic's prevalence rate in Malawi continues to decline with the current positivity rate slightly below 15 percent from 21 percent earlier in the month. Since Malawi registered the first cases of COVID-19 in April 2020, over 1,000 people, including cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, traditional chiefs, and scholars, have died, with over 800 of the people having died in January and February alone. Enditem The third try might be the charm for an effort to overturn Alabamas prohibition on teaching yoga in schools. The House Education Policy committee approved a bill, from Rep. Jeremy Gray, D-Opelika, that would lift the ban, which has been in place since 1993. The bill almost made it through during the 2020 legislative session, but COVID-19 cut that session short. Gray said the pandemic has upped the importance of lifting the ban and allowing teachers to incorporate yoga practice into their classrooms. I think its even more important with COVID, with distance learning, Gray told AL.com, adding that many teachers have contacted him, asking if the previous bill passed, because they want to offer yoga to their students this school year. They had a lot of kids trying to cope with the stress of not being able to see their peers, not going to school, and just with what was going on in the world, Gray said. Yoga and meditation have been banned in Alabama schools since 1993, when the Alabama State Board of Education prohibited it based on the practices association with eastern religions. Yoga doesnt have to be religious, proponents say, and its benefits are well-documented. Annie Damsky has been teaching yoga to children and families for the past decade, mostly in her studio and at camps, but also in afterschool programs in public and private schools in the Birmingham area. She agrees with Gray that children can get both physical and mental benefits from practicing yoga. Through her business, Villager Yoga, she teaches children of all ages, as young as two years old. To opponents of lifting the ban because of the belief that yoga is connected to religion, Damsky said, Yoga is not a religion. It is a practice. It is a tradition. I think the name we attach to it might bring out the wrong connotation of what we think it is. Most people think of a downward dog or a tree pose when they think of yoga, she said, but theres nothing magical about the names or the poses. Those are body stretches that are probably happening in schools already to warm them up or cool them down in P.E., she said, or increase flexibility or strength or balance. What those postures also do, when theyre incorporated with breathwork, is help with focus and clarity, she said. Damsky said school requires children to be still much of the day behind a desk or a computer. Yoga can help release built-up energy. She said shed like to see the prohibition lifted, and would like to see classroom teachers take mindfulness and stretching breaks before and after regular class periods, too. Mindfulness techniques can help children calm themselves before tests and presentations, as well. All of that excess energy and stiffness and tension that can get stored in the body while you concentrate or when you focus on something, she said, youve got to get up and move. Gray said a Republican senator has offered to carry the bill in the Senate and believes it has a good chance of passage to become law. For Subscribers Why South Dakota county officials are shirking state-given water rights Grant County could be the thirteenth county to repeal their drainage ordinance in the past decade. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Advertisement At least one in seven people in England now have antibodies to Covid-19 from a past infection or a vaccine, a mass blood testing survey has revealed. The REACT-2 study, run by Imperial College London, used finger-prick tests on over 150,000 people to test for signs of immunity against the coronavirus. Out of more than 154,000 participants testing themselves between January 26 and February 8, 13.9 per cent tested positive for antibodies. Antibodies in the blood can only be produced if the body has encountered the coronavirus before or if someone has been vaccinated, and their presence usually indicates somebody is unlikely to get sick with the virus again. The proportion of people testing positive in England has more than doubled over the course of the second wave because of a massive number of infections and the beginning of the UK's vaccine rollout. In November, before the discovery of the fast-spreading Kent variant that caused an explosion of cases over Christmas - and before the vaccine rollout began - just 5.6 per cent of people tested positive. The study found that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has been in use since December, produced 'very high levels' of protection in people who received it. It also suggested that a single dose of a vaccine for someone who had had Covid-19 already had the same effect as a second dose in someone who hadn't - but they urged everyone to still take up both doses when they are offered them. The REACT researchers created a model of how the first and second waves looked, based on people's antibody test results and when the people testing positive had experienced symptoms of Covid. The graph follows the exact same trajectory as the official testing programme in the second wave (below), suggesting its estimate of the first wave is correct but no public testing was available then to measure the size of the outbreak The researchers found that people in all age groups showed strong antibody responses to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with lower antibody levels in older people after a single dose, but still detectable immunity The proportion of people testing positive for antibodies remained high for over six weeks after they had been vaccinated, the study showed (top graph) Antibody prevalence in unvaccinated people remains highest in London (16.9 per cent), and in people of black (22.1 per cent) and Asian (20 per cent) ethnicities, as well as those aged 18-24 years (14.5 per cent). This means those are the groups most likely to have caught coronavirus already and recovered. The researchers told a briefing that the percentages of people testing positive for antibodies could be considered the minimum number who had some immunity against the virus. Others may have lower antibody levels so test negative, but still have other types of immunity, and some people may have caught it early on and then lost their immunity over time, they suggested. New findings in the study focused on the effects of vaccination and how it is building immunity in the population. UK'S COVID VACCINES ARE WORKING, EARLY STUDIES SHOW Covid vaccines being used in Britain are working 'spectacularly well' at slashing hospital admissions in Scotland and preventing even mild infections among health workers in England, the first real-world data revealed this week. Public Health England and top researchers in Scotland published two separate papers linking up coronavirus data with vaccinations, revealing that jabs are both bringing down hospital admissions and preventing infections. A single dose of Pfizer's vaccine can cut the risk of testing positive with or without symptoms by 70 per cent, PHE found, rising to 85 per cent after a second jab. And a dose of either Pfizer and AstraZeneca reduces someone's risk of developing Covid severe enough to need hospital treatment by between 85 and 94 per cent, according to a separate study in Scotland. PHE's study showed that the Pfizer jab gave 57 per cent protection against Covid among over-80s from dose one, and this appeared to rise to 88 per cent after a second jab, although this data is preliminary. There was not enough information to make the same analysis for Oxford/AstraZeneca's jab. Experts dubbed the findings 'very encouraging', 'a good sign' and 'reasons to be optimistic' they come as Boris Johnson outlined Britain's route out of lockdown, with schools expected to properly reopen in England from March 8, with further measures being loosened in the following weeks. Government advisers on SAGE are still cautious, warning that 94 per cent protection 'is not 100 per cent' and that millions will still be at risk of Covid even with high vaccine coverage. Advertisement More than 17,000 of participants in the latest round of the study had received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, mostly of Pfizer's jab. The data indicates that 87.9 per cent of recipients over the age of 80 tested positive for antibodies after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. This rose to 95.5 per cent for those under the age of 60 and 100 per cent in those aged under 30. Professor Paul Elliott, director of the programme at Imperial College, said: 'Overall there's very high effectiveness in terms of antibody positivity from two doses of the BioNTech, and also from a single dose in people who have had prior infection, that much we know. 'And also, although there is some fall off in positivity with age, at all ages we get that very good response to two doses of the vaccine. 'And in terms of the confidence in the vaccine, it's very, very high, although there are some groups where it's a bit low, and that includes some ethnic minority groups and some younger people.' For individuals who received a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab over 21 days before their blood test, the proportion testing positive for antibodies was 94.7 per cent in those under 30, 73.7 per cent at 60 to 64 years to 34.7 per cent in those aged 80 and over. And of those who had previously had confirmed or suspected Covid-19, 88.8 per cent were testing positive for antibodies, according to the study. The research also looked at people's attitudes to the vaccine, with promising results. More than 90 per cent of those surveyed reported that they would be willing to accept, or had already had a vaccination. But vaccine confidence varied by age, sex and also by ethnicity, highest in those of white (92.6 per cent) and lowest of black (72.5 per cent) ethnicity. The three most common reasons for vaccine hesitancy were scepticism about how well the vaccine works, concern about long-term health effects, and worries about side effects. Other common concerns shown in free text comments were around current and planned pregnancy, future fertility and specific allergies or other health issues. Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said: 'These findings shed more light on rates of antibodies across the UK and among different groups, as we continue to strengthen our understanding of Covid-19. 'It is fantastic to see over 90 per cent of people surveyed would accept or had already accepted a vaccine, as we continue to expand the rollout. 'I urge anyone who has been invited for a vaccine to book an appointment. 'And while we are seeing rates of the virus gradually decline it is important we all hold our resolve and follow the rules as we deliver on our cautious but irreversible approach to easing lockdown.' In a ray of hope for Britain's lockdown-easing plans, results showed vaccines slashed the risk of hospital admission from Covid by up to 85 and 94 per cent, respectively, four weeks after the first dose. The graph above shows how the vaccines worked in different age groups. The figures are average for both of the jabs A Scottish study this week showed that both vaccines offer a high level of protection against being hospitalised with Covid from just two weeks after a single dose, with the protection kicking in only a week after injection. There were not enough data to compare the two, the scientists said, although AstraZeneca's appears to work better in the early stages Out of 23,324 health workers in the Public Health England study, 89 per cent were vaccinated by February 5. There were 977 cases of coronavirus recorded in people before they were vaccinated, compared to 71 among people who were three weeks post-vaccination, PHE's Dr Susan Hopkins said Researchers say the findings on antibody response following a single dose align with existing research that suggests those aged over 80 take longer to develop a response to infection and the immune response is not as strong. Antibodies are just one component of the body's immune response produced by Covid-19 infection or vaccination. Vaccines also induce T-cell related protection, independent of antibody production. Scientists say T-cell responses may vary significantly between vaccines and may be particularly important in influencing duration of protection. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) noted that in Pfizer's clinical trial, protection against coronavirus was very high (89 per cent) between 14 and 21 days after vaccination, despite very low levels of antibodies measured at the same time. This suggests that early antibody response does not correlate with clinical protection, researchers say. Professor Helen Ward, lead author for the React study of population prevalence, said: 'Our findings suggest that it is very important for people to take up the second dose when it is offered. 'We know that some groups have concerns about the vaccine, including some people at increased risk from Covid-19, so it is really important that they have opportunities to discuss these and find out more.' The word rebuild has been the focal point of a lot of discussions around recovery. How can we rebuild our place economies back to pre-pandemic levels? How can we rebuild the footfall to our city centres? And how can we do this so that our places are more resilient against future shocks? The smartest response isnt to just recreate the same processes as we were used to pre-pandemic, but to understand how we can refine and improve our everyday normal. The pandemic has exposed our weaknesses and now we need to ensure that we address these in order to be more resilient against future shocks. Smart operating models for more sustainable cities Finding smarter ways of working is at the core of building resilience into our cities and our countries. But what does smart mean in practice? Technology is clearly part of the answer - but it is not necessarily the only answer. In this article well explore what place brand and marketing teams can learn about the use of tech, data, and smarter ways of working from Smart City initiatives. Published in 2018, the ISO standard for smart city operation (ISO 37106) evolved from a five year process of research and engagement with city leaders, and draws on an earlier British standard in use in over 100 countries. ISO 37106 provides a practical framework for delivering city-wide change at scale: shifting from being a siloed city to one that drives innovation and collaboration across its vertical silos. The focus is on four key areas: focussing on end outcomes; cross-silo governance; citizen-centric service transformation; and data-management. Source: BSI Groups summary guide of ISO 37106 There are a variety of ways that this smarter approach to place governance can be achieved, not a one-size-fits-all model. But there is one core tenet that underlies the ISO approach to smart operating models the ability to apply collaborative governance to cross-vertical challenges, and citizen needs. We know from our 2021 place branding survey that just under half of place branders feel the collaboration between their tourism and economic development bodies could be more effective; this model could be at the core of effectively realising these collaborative ambitions. After all, as the standard states: The traditional operating model for a city has been based around functionally-oriented service providers that operate as unconnected, vertical silos which are often not built around user needs. Smart city leaders need to. develop an integrated city operating model, which is focused around citizen and business needs, not just the citys organisational structure." Collaborative governance in practice Lets put it into context. A tourist visiting a city has hundreds if not thousands of touch points throughout their customer journey. From visa acquisition, to transport to and within the country, to the hospitality and leisure industry. In some cases, it could even involve medical services or the police. The delivery of these functions rests in hundreds of different departments and it absolutely should. The expertise held by different teams is what makes them great at their jobs. However, the ISO standard suggests imposing a virtual customer responsibility framework over the top of this existing framework of disconnected verticals. By identifying the areas which are relevant to a tourist you can create more channels for collaboration and cross-governance within tourism without having to rebuild the organisation from the ground-up. And by assigning the ultimate accountability to a single key stakeholder, you ensure that there is a team of people with the responsibility for making sure that all the individual parts stay on track. Done right, it can be a powerful driver of change. ISO has also developed a maturity framework ISO 37107 to help cities measure their performance against the ISO 37106 framework. Piloted by cities including London and Glasgow in the UK, Dubai, Moscow, Sydney and Tianjin, this provides a self-assessment framework that can help you see how smart your city is. Try it - and let us know here at City Nation Place what you think! What learnings are there for place brand and marketing organisations? While the focus of ISO 37106 is very much on city governance, theres a lot that can be applied within a destination marketing or economic development organisation particularly around collaboration and more effective data/resource management. By establishing smarter processes in your organisation, you can work more efficiently, more effectively, and free up the time of your team to explore new endeavours. And whats more, you can establish communication channels between teams or with other key stakeholders and partners that will allow you to be more responsive and agile in the face of a sudden change or an unexpected crisis. If everyone has a clearer understanding of what their roles and responsibilities are, then youll have less chance of people duplicating work during a scramble to respond to a crisis. This is why governments opt for empowering citizenship by opening data and highlight the importance of the individual commitment, explained David Groisman, Director General of Management Exchange and Chief Resilience Officer at Buenos Aires. When the information is freely available, the creativity of an entire community can help to co-create innovative solutions. Smarter tech and the future of cities and nations Of course, we have to acknowledge the impact that tech has on the management and governance of a smart city or organisation. A few years back, the CTO of Industry Solutions for Huawei shared that All the systems of government use are silos. They are not connected together. For a smart city to work, you need an integrated, independent system. It has to be an open IT infrastructure and there must be great connections you cant have a smart city without connections. While technology shouldnt be the core driver of a smart initiative, it can be a great enabler of the intra-connectivity and data management that can drive smarter decision making. But how are places using smart city technology effectively to address our most pressing challenges? COVID-management in China: The Chinese track and trace app encouraged people to sign in whenever they arrived in a location so that the local CDC were aware of your movement. Theres an application infrastructure that stretches across cities and across the nation, but the actual delivery is very local. Thats important, shared Jonathan Woetzel, Managing Director at McKinsey Global Institute. [Cities] have to take charge of their responsibility to help their residents and their visitors feel safe. The Chinese track and trace app encouraged people to sign in whenever they arrived in a location so that the local CDC were aware of your movement. Theres an application infrastructure that stretches across cities and across the nation, but the actual delivery is very local. Thats important, shared Jonathan Woetzel, Managing Director at McKinsey Global Institute. [Cities] have to take charge of their responsibility to help their residents and their visitors feel safe. Crisis simulations in Newcastle, UK: Newcastle has created a digital twin of the city that allows them to accurately simulate different crises and understand where the greatest stress points are going to be. As well as helping the city to address problematic areas before a crisis hits, in the event of a flood or other major catastrophe, it can be used to help the city direct emergency services to the areas that are going to face the greatest challenges. Newcastle has created a digital twin of the city that allows them to accurately simulate different crises and understand where the greatest stress points are going to be. As well as helping the city to address problematic areas before a crisis hits, in the event of a flood or other major catastrophe, it can be used to help the city direct emergency services to the areas that are going to face the greatest challenges. The Sharing Cities project: London, Lisbon, Milan, Bordeaux, Burgas and Warsaw have been working collaboratively to understand how investment in smart technologies can address our most pressing urban challenges and prove that these solutions can be scaled and replicated across other European cities. London, Lisbon, Milan, Bordeaux, Burgas and Warsaw have been working collaboratively to understand how investment in smart technologies can address our most pressing urban challenges and prove that these solutions can be scaled and replicated across other European cities. Building a digital society in Estonia: Estonia have taken the one-stop shop to the next level by building an efficient, secure, and transparent ecosystem where 99% of governmental services are online. As well as allowing a far easier end-user experience, its supported Estonia through the creation of several digital solutions that have helped the nation to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges of smart city technology There are challenges inherent in focussing on tech as the solution to your problems however, which is why smarter ways of working and wide-spread engagement have to be part of that solution as well. For one, integrating technology into your organisation and your place is a costly and time-consuming process. Cisco have recently announced that theyre shuttering many of their existing smart city programmes, for example simply because the challenges they were addressing arent as pressing anymore. After all, you dont need to focus on smart traffic management if your workforce isnt commuting due to the surge in working from home. It will also be key to close the digital divide. For more digitally enabled countries, that will involve ensuring that you dont leave certain communities behind building 5G infrastructure will allow much more rapid advancements in smart city management, but if much of your population still dont have a reliable internet connection, then it may not be most pressing solution. And for countries that are further behind in implementing digital solutions, closing the digital divide will be essential in delivering competitive value for investors and residents alike. In Singapore, for example, a new national movement embraces digital technologies as a lifelong pursuit that will enrich lives. The Digital for Life Fund that the government has launched has the dual focus of building digital resilience and promoting digital literacy and wellness which will encourage healthier and more sustainable habits within their population. Lastly, as long as there have been smart city solutions available, there have been concerns of over-surveillance, of new and oppressive ways for the state to police their communities. Googles proposed Sidewalk Labs in Toronto is a particularly high-profile example of how a lack of citizen engagement led to fierce opposition from residents and concerns around privacy and data management. Transparency and a comprehensive citizen engagement strategy could be the key towards assuaging many of these concerns. These challenges need addressing if we are to build effective and resilient smart cities and organisations, but they arent the be all and end all. And if you can create a cross-silo collaborative approach, it will create a far more resilient foundation for all your future smart initiatives. Source: https://www.citynationplace.com/are-smart-cities-the-key-to-resilience Credit: CC0 Public Domain An international study coordinated by the University of Helsinki provides new information on the connection between symptoms of depression and smoking dependence. The results support the importance of understanding the reasons behind smoking dependence to be able to help depressed smokers to quit, and thus possibly relieve depression symptoms. It has been widely reported that smoking is more common among the people suffering from depression than in the population in general. The actual mechanism of this association, however, remains unclear. So far, studies about the association between smoking dependence and depression are very rare. This study, led by researchers from the University of Helsinki, focused on the different self-reported motivation factors for smoking. The work was carried out in collaboration with the Universities of Wisconsin and Missouri U.S., where the questionnaire was initially developed. The study was based on more than 1400 Finnish twins who were smokers and provided smoking and depression information by responding to questionnaires. The results were published on February 24th in the esteemed scientific journal Addiction. The study found that smokers who were more dependent were also more likely to be depressed. Of the different motives for smoking examined, the motives related to high levels of craving and automatic smoking behavior, as well as smoking to regulate emotional states were found to be the most strongly related to depression. "Our results suggest that depressed persons are not smoking because of taste or taste-reward related to smoking. Rather, depression seems to be related to primary dependence motives and the regulation of mood," says Senior Researcher Maarit Piirtola, the first author of the study from the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland at the University of Helsinki. The unique twin study setting enabled the study team to rule out familial influences, including shared genetic vulnerability, by examining the association between depression and smoking dependence within twin pairs, especially within identical pairs. According to Senior Researcher Tellervo Korhonen, who led the study, it is important to understand the individual underlying reasons that maintain smoking dependence, so that tailored and multidisciplinary smoking cessation support can be provided. Even though this study gives strong new evidence about the relation between smoking dependence and depressive symptoms, the researchers highlight that this was a cross-sectional analysis. "Therefore, we could not show which happens first: smoking dependence or depression among daily smokers," says Professor and Research Director Jaakko Kaprio from the University of Helsinki. Explore further Smoking associated with increased risk of COVID-19 symptoms More information: Maarit Piirtola et al. The associations of smoking dependence motives with depression among daily smokers, Addiction (2021). Journal information: Addiction Maarit Piirtola et al. The associations of smoking dependence motives with depression among daily smokers,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/add.15390 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. Bielat Santore & Company has partnered with SCORE New Jersey to present a free webinar series intended to inform hospitality industry professionals of available financing avenues that may assist in their recovery from Covid-19. This three-part webinar series will guide small businesses through the process of seeking out and securing financing for working capital, acquisition or refinancing of existing debt. The first webinar will feature a panel of banking professionals from New Jersey commercial lending institutions. The webinars are scheduled to take place at 10:00 am EST on Thursdays, March 4th, 25th and April 15th. To register, visit https://monmouth.score.org/. Since the global pandemic began, Bielat Santore & Company has been a resource for restaurant industry professionals, making it their mission to assist the hospitality industry in a transition back to normal. In addition to their weekly Restaurant Industry Daily Alert email bulletins providing the most up-to-date industry news, the firm has also distributed free resources which include their Restaurant Opening Playbook, an e-book entitled 100 Days of Darkness and a whitepaper Selling a Restaurant Amidst a Pandemic. Soon to be released is their newest resource, The Little Black Book on Small Business Financing. All of these informative reference works can be found on the companys Resource Library page on their website at https://www.123bsc.com/resource-library/. SCORE is a nationally recognized volunteer organization comprised of professionals and mentors with extensive knowledge and experience to help small businesses succeed. Their wide range of services include mentoring, hosting informative webinars and courses on various topics, an extensive collection of E-guides, blogs, videos and other educational content, workshops, roundtable discussions as well as other networking opportunities. About Bielat Santore & Company Bielat Santore & Company is an established commercial real estate firm. The companys expertise lies chiefly within the restaurant and hospitality industry, specializing in the sale of restaurants and other food and beverage real estate businesses. Since 1978, the principals of Bielat Santore & Company, Barry Bielat and Richard Santore, have sold more restaurants and similar type properties in New Jersey than any other real estate company. Furthermore, the firm has secured in excess of $500,000,000 in financing to facilitate these transactions. Visit the companys website, http://www.123bsc.com for the latest in new listings, property searches, available land, market data, financing trends, RSS feeds, press releases and more. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Ahead of Rare Disease Day (28 February), four leading children's research institutions on three continents are joining forces to decipher paediatric illnesses, including rare diseases, and find better treatments. The four paediatric hospitals -- Boston Children's Hospital; UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London); the Murdoch Children's Research Institute with The Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne); and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto -- are working together to evaluate genomic data, clinical data from patients, and scientific and medical expertise to accelerate discovery and therapeutic development. The partnership, known as the International Precision Child Health Partnership (IPCHiP), is the first major global collaboration around genomics and child health. The founding partners anticipate that additional institutions will join the collaboration in the future. Of the more than 7,000 rare diseases that affect millions of individuals globally, only a few hundred have approved treatments. Many of these diseases mean children suffer their whole lives, or may die early from complications, sometimes just a day after birth. IPCHiP's goal is to enable the world's top experts in paediatrics and genomics to work together to improve diagnosis, implement personalised treatment decisions, and develop new therapeutic targets and treatments that will benefit children around the world. IPCHiP's first project will involve epilepsy in infants, bringing together efforts already underway at the four hospitals. Investigators at each site will enrol babies under age one with epilepsy, sequence their genomes, change treatment based on the findings when appropriate, and follow the children's development long term. No patient will be identifiable from the data used, and no patient data will be shared across international borders. The study will compare infants who receive a genetic diagnosis with those who don't. Through this project, IPCHiP will establish systems to evaluate data responsibly across the different institutions. The study will pioneer the use of rapid genome testing in epilepsy and will recruit 100 babies initially, with a larger study planned. After initial seed funding by each institution, the collaborative anticipates additional funding through national health and medical research grants within each country, industry contracts, and philanthropic efforts. The collaborative as a whole has received support from the International Venture Philanthropy Network. ### Notes to Editors Quotes by country: UK Professor Rosalind Smyth, Director of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: "Our partnership will enable us to combine the collective power of our research effort to answer questions about rare diseases in children, which we are not able to answer by working only within our own centres. This will mean that we can move much more swiftly to effective treatments where none currently exist. "We're bringing together the world's top experts in genomics, rare disease, paediatric medicine, and computational science to develop precision approaches to benefit children everywhere. In addition, we think our large patient cohorts will enable partnership with industry when a discovery advances to clinical trials." Dr Amy McTague (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), who is leading the epilepsy project, GeneSteps, in the UK, said: "We know that for at least 50% of babies with epilepsy, there is a genetic cause. For some, having a specific genetic diagnosis can change treatment and we want to know if finding the genetic problem earlier improves epilepsy and development in the long-term." Professor Helen Cross (Great Ormond Street Hospital, GOSH), President-elect of the International League Against Epilepsy, added: "This world-first collaboration, supported by the GOSH NIHR BRC and Young Epilepsy, is a unique opportunity for us to work together for patients with rare diseases such as genetic epilepsy. "This exemplifies GOSH's ambition to be a Research Hospital, where research is embedded across our care of children with rare and complex diseases. The new Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, where Dr McTague is based, also allows our work to draw from expertise at UCL's Institute for Child Health and GOSH, while the hospital's global reputation means we will be able to work with a large number of children and their families." USA David A. Williams, MD, chief scientific officer of Boston Children's Hospital said: "We're looking to combine the strength of each institution and find areas where we can pair genomic data with phenotype data to find answers for these patients. We will prioritize projects that have the possibility of making a difference in their care, by developing new therapies and perhaps by repurposing an existing drug. "We're bringing together the world's top experts in genomics, rare disease, pediatric medicine, and computational science to develop precision approaches to benefit children everywhere. In addition, we think our combined patient cohorts will enable partnership with industry when a discovery advances to clinical trials." Annapurna Poduri, MD, MPH, who is leading the Boston Children's Hospital arm of the epilepsy project, said: "We hope to demonstrate the impact of an early genetic diagnosis in babies with epilepsy. Will children who obtain a precise genetic diagnosis have changes in treatment and fewer seizures? Will these changes improve survival and developmental outcomes? This collaboration is an opportunity to systematically provide answers to these questions, starting with a pilot of 100 children and hopefully extending to several hundred children in the coming years." Australia Professor Kathryn North AC, Director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, said: "IPCHiP brings together the clinical and research strengths of the four leading children's medical research institutions internationally. This is a critical mass of leading researchers together with a critical mass of patients. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts when it comes to genomic collaborations. "So much of paediatrics deals with genetic, often 'rare' diseases, and so the combination of complementary research strengths, experience and patient cohorts will empower greater research collaboration. Ultimately, this partnership will help us find answers that families are desperately seeking, and the treatments their kids desperately need, much more quickly. "This is a research collaboration bringing together the best minds in the world to accelerate discovery research and develop effective therapies for the world's most precious resource - our kids." Professor John Christodoulou AM, Director, Genetics Theme, MCRI; Chair in Genomic Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, said: "Being able to harness the expertise of global leaders in paediatrics and genomics gives us an unprecedented opportunity to be able to deliver rapid genetic diagnoses at scale to the sickest kids, which we believe will transform the lives of these children and their families." Dr Katherine Howell, Paediatric neurologist and clinician-scientist, The Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, said: "Having a prompt genetic diagnosis guides our choice of seizure medication, with dramatic effect. We've had a glimpse with individual babies of the possible benefits of prompt genetic diagnosis, but we now want to understand how much benefit this approach might provide to all the infants we see with these devastating conditions. "In Melbourne we only see about 30 babies with these epilepsies every year, but by following the outcomes of hundreds of infants with epilepsy who receive cutting-edge genetic sequencing, genetic counselling and precision treatments across the IPCHiP consortium, we will be able to treat genetic epilepsy faster, more precisely and with better outcomes." Canada Dr. Stephen Scherer, Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) at SickKids, said: "SickKids has been championing a new approach to paediatric medicine - Precision Child Health - which includes using genomics to better classify disease so it can be treated earlier and more effectively. Through IPCHiP, we can now share our expertise and resources to fuel new discoveries. By doing so, we are taking a huge leap forward in moving medicine toward data-driven treatments that take into account individual differences in each child's genes." Dr. Vann Chau, Neurologist and Project Investigator in the Neurosciences & Mental Health Program at SickKids, who is leading the SickKids arm of the epilepsy project, said: "Rapid whole genome sequencing can help us find the cause of early onset epilepsy quicker and among a greater number of patients, giving clinicians the critical data they need to choose the most appropriate treatment sooner. Our hope is that this collaboration will help create new and tangible changes in medical practice to cut diagnosis from months to days, and lessen the burden on our patients and families living with epilepsy." Dr. Greg Costain, Staff Physician in the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics, and Scientist-Track Investigator in the Genetics & Genome Biology Program at SickKids, said: "At SickKids, we have a successful track-record of conducting genomics research studies that translate from the bench to the bedside," says "With this new international partnership, we hope to responsibly leverage research technologies and specialized expertise from world-renowned institutions to help ourselves and our colleagues provide the best care possible for all our patients and families." For more information, case studies (UK and Australia) or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact: (UK) Sophie Vinter, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0)20 3108 7787, E: s.vinter@ucl.ac.uk (USA) Erin Tornatore, Boston Children's Hospital T: 617-919-3110, E: erin.tornatore@childrens.harvard.edu (Australia) Tom Keeble, MCRI communications manager, T: +61 400 764 084, E: tom.keeble@mcri.edu.au (Canada) Jessamine Luck, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), E: Jessamine.luck@sickkids.ca CONSENT: A Memoir, by Vanessa Springora. Translated by Natasha Lehrer. (HarperVia/HarperCollins, $27.99.) When this book was published in France last year, it was a sensation. It recounts the time when the author, at 13 years old, was approached at a party by a grown man she calls G.M., the first encounter in what became a two-year sexual entanglement. In France G.M. was instantly recognizable as Gabriel Matzneff, the acclaimed writer whose sexual predilections for young girls and even younger boys were well known and regarded with fond indulgence. Springoras book is a memoir of abuse that has been lavishly praised for transcending its type even as it affirms the genres inherent power, rebuking received notions about sex and narrative, our critic Parul Sehgal writes. Consent is a Molotov cocktail, flung at the face of the French establishment, a work of dazzling, highly controlled fury. LINER NOTES FOR THE REVOLUTION: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound, by Daphne A. Brooks. (Belknap/Harvard University, $39.95.) Old-guard taste makers, Brooks writes, still seem hesitant to imagine a pop (culture) life with Black women at its full-stop center rather than as the opening act, the accompanying act or the afterthought. Liner Notes for the Revolution is in explicit conversation with Lipstick Traces, Greil Marcuss genre-bending study of punk; both books seek to uncover a subterranean current between artists and thinkers who may never have been aware of one another. The book is at its best, our critic Jennifer Szalai writes, when it is inviting voices to talk to one another, seeing what different perspectives can offer, opening up new ways of looking and listening by tracing lineages and calling for more space. BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad. (Random House, $28.) This memoir from a young survivor of acute myeloid leukemia provides an unlikely road map to the new not-normal of the pandemic era. Through her treatment and subsequent cross-country road trip, Jaouad (who wrote about her cancer in a column for The Times) demonstrates the courage it takes to live with unanswered questions. It is common instinct to insist that we can remain in place, intact, even as the world as we know it dissolves, Chanel Miller writes in her review. It is harder to accept that were hurtling toward the unknown, changing in unsettling and permanent ways. To cope, Jaouad does not seek an escape from her agony; she seeks conversion to make use of it, turn it into something meaningful. In the quiet she learns to hear herself. WE RUN THE TIDES, by Vendela Vida. (Ecco, $26.99.) In her sixth novel, about the rift that develops between eighth-grade best friends at a San Francisco girls school in 1984, Vida captures the unstable sensation of early adolescent reality, in which outlandish lies can seem weirdly plausible and basic facts totally alien. Vidas San Francisco is ramshackle and eccentric, home to heiresses but also tide pools of counterculture backwash, Molly Fischer writes in her review. The affectionate specificity of the portrait she offers is one of the books real pleasures. THE BLACK CHURCH: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Penguin Press, $30.) Relying heavily on the voices of myriad scholars and clergy members, Gates explains in this engaging companion volume to his new PBS series that the Black church was the soil in which Black culture and political action flowered. To tell the story of the Black church is something of a risk even to a scholar as secure as Gates, for voices in the arena of racial justice have long diminished religion as overly safe and accommodationist, Jon Meacham writes in his review. Yet Gates writes here as a historian, and the historian can chronicle progress, assess its origins and commemorate its course while noting its incompleteness. South Africa: Sisulu recommits to root out maladministration Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has reiterated her commitment to turn the department around and root out maladministration. This comes after the High Court Gauteng Division, Pretoria, ordered Metric Industrial Suppliers CC to pay back more than R27 million earned fraudulently to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). The fraudulent invoices were submitted to the department between April 2006 and November 2009. The invoices of goods were not purchased by the department from the supplier, nor delivered by the supplier to the department. The departments former Supply Chain Management Head, Rick Nel, created fictitious purchase orders and delivery notes in respect of invoices submitted by Anand Pillay of Metric Industrial Suppliers and accepted by Nel, allegedly acting on behalf of DWS. In one of many fraudulent transactions, the documents reflected that the purchase order was dated 8 May 2007 but the service delivery note and invoice were both dated 24 April 2007. The anomaly in the supposed transaction is that the actual delivery had taken place prior to the goods even being ordered. This is against the departmental policies and the procurement regulations. The fictitious purchase orders, delivery notes and invoices were for the delivery and supply of timber and shutter boards in Levubu, Thohoyandou. The Special Investigative Unit (SIU) investigated the transactions, as part of Presidential Proclamation R54 of 2012. The Proclamation authorized the SIU to investigate all issues relating to the procurement and contracting for goods, works services by or on behalf of the DWS and payments made in relation thereto. The SIU investigations uncovered evidence that points towards the commission of the offences of fraud, theft and the contravention of the provision and combating of corrupt activities Act, No 12 of 2004 on the part of Nel and Pillay. The court ruled that Metric Industrial Suppliers pay the Department of Water and Sanitation R27 510 067, 17 together with interest thereon at the prescribed rate of interest from time to time, calculated from 11 February 2014. Metric Industrial Suppliers has also been ordered to pay the departments legal costs. The Minister, listed as the plaintiff in the case, has expressed her satisfaction on the judgement delivered by the High Court Gauteng Division. We are working very hard as a team to rid the Department of Water and Sanitation of fraud and corruption and we are also looking at audit findings and investigating any other misconduct related matters. We are winning our legal cases one at a time. As a result, our zero tolerance for corruption [which we have adopted] is becoming part of our culture, Sisulu said on Thursday. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. An Ohio police officer died of an apparent heart attack on Tuesday night as he took part in a rescue mission to pull a 16-year-old girl from a frozen lake. The teen also died by drowning after becoming trapped under the ice near a private dock at Rocky Fork State Park for four and a half hours before she could be rescued. According to WCPO, she had plunged into the water to save her 13-year-old brother, who later managed to escape and raised the alarm. Jason Lagore, 36, an officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, was among the first responders who rushed to the scene at around 6.30pm on Tuesday when a construction worker called 911 on finding the panicked 13-year-old. The department said in a statement that the father-of-two suffered medical emergency shortly after the rescue attempt began and also fell into the water. Scroll down for video Jason Lagore (pictured), an officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, died on an apparent heart attack on Tuesday night as he tried to rescue a girl, 16, from a frozen lake Jason Lagore is said to have suffered a medical emergency in the initial stages of the rescue. He is pictured above with his wife Michelle. The couple has two young sons The 16-year-old also died after spending four and a half hours trapped under the ice First responders tried to save him, and he was taken to Highland District Hospital in Hillsboro, but medical staff were unable to resuscitate him. The Highland County Coroner said preliminary results indicate Lagore had a heart attack, WLWT reports. The teens who fell into the water have not been identified. According to Lt. Branden Jackman of the Paint Creek Joint EMS and Fire District, the 13-year-old was freezing and screaming for help when he was found by the construction worker. 'I'm at Rocky Fork. I had some little kid come up to me and said his sister's in the water dead,' the caller told 911, according to WLWT. 'He come running up to us saying, "Somebody please help me, please help me".' Local EMS responded to the call alongside the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and dive teams. The 16-year-old was pulled from the water unresponsive at 11pm. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The coroner said she drowned. 'By the time our crews got there, she was under the ice,' Jackman told WCPO. 'After the fact, it turns out that she got him [her brother] out before she succumbed.' Lagore had served for 15 years and was responsible for the first ODNR K-9 academy. He is pictured above with his wife, Michelle. The couple have two young sons Officer Jason Langore (pictured) is being remembered for his work on the K-9 training program. He was well respected across the state for his expertise working with K-9s Lagore is survived by his wife, Michelle (pictured together above), and their two young sons 'Don't go out on the ice. It caused a very bad tragedy last night,' Jackman also warned. 'You look at water and you think, "Oh, it's just water". Thirty-six-degree water is no different than a three-story house fire. They'll both kill you just as quick.' The 13-year-old boy was also taken to Highland District Hospital to be treated for hypothermia and is said to be in a stable condition. Tributes have since been pouring in for the officer who died in the line of duty. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has ordered flags to fly at half-mast in Lagore's honor at locations including the statehouse and at public buildings throughout Highland County. They will remain at half-mast until the evening of his funeral. Officer Jason Lagore is pictured with his K-9 partner, Sarge The Highland County Coroner said preliminary results indicate Lagore had a heart attack Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement: 'Officer Lagore acted with extreme courage to go to the rescue of these two kids; his example demonstrates the very highest valor.' Lt Jackman said Lagore's death 'affects us all'. 'We all feel it because we're all family,' he added. 'Our hearts are with the family and loved ones of Officer Jason Lagore, who died in the line of duty last night,' said Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz said Wednesday. 'Our law enforcement officers, and their families carry a unique and challenging burden of responsibilities, and we are deeply grateful for their service.' The department added that Lagore is survived by his wife Michelle, two young sons and K-9 partner, Sarge. He had served 15 years with the department and was responsible for the first ODNR K-9 academy. The incident took place near a private dock at Rocky Fork State Park The 13-year-old screamed and was heard by construction workers in the park Lt. Branden Jackman of the Paint Creek Joint EMS and Fire District (pictured above) said Lagore's death 'affects us all'. 'We all feel it because we're all family,' he added Lagore also led the Division of Parks and Watercraft K-9 training program and was well respected across the state for his expertise working with K-9s. He was said to be a dedicated officer who enjoyed deer and turkey hunting and loved history. 'He assisted on countless, countless search and rescues, bringing closure to families and also finding people and being able to help them,' Lagore's friend, Shaun Lentini, told WLWT. 'He was well respected. He did a lot of training around all of Ohio. He worked with a lot of organizations with search and rescue. 'When he wasn't working, he loved hunting. He was a guy that I went over his house for dinner and he'd send me home with some deer,' he continued. Loveland Symmes Fire Department also paid tribute to Lagore in a Facebook post. 'Our Dive and Sonar team responded last evening to the tragic event where Officer Lagore died from a medical emergency,' it said. 'Our prayers to all involved in this most tragic event including the family of the young lady and Officer.' The FOP Lodge 149 has established an online fundraiser for Lagore's family. The incident is being investigated by the Highland County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Philippine police today launched a 'review' into as many as 27,000 deaths said to have occurred in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, amid claims innocent people were killed in 'systemic executions'. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made an unprecedented admission to the United Nations of widespread police failures yesterday, with Human Rights Watch describing it as an 'astounding disclosure'. Guevarra said police had in many cases failed to examine weapons and crime scenes after officers had shot dead suspected drug dealers. Protesters today marked the 35th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, with signs reading 'Oust Duterte' Funeral workers carry the body of one of three men killed during a police operation against illegal drugs in Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines, in August 2017 The body of an alleged drug user lies dead after being shot by unidentified assailants in Navotas, Metro Manila, Philippines, July 26, 2017 His comments to the Human Rights Council mark the first time the government has publicly questioned its own narrative that the thousands of people killed in President Rodrigo Duterte's drugs war were all armed and had resisted arrest. Activists accuse the government of turning a blind eye to systematic executions and cover-ups by police in a crackdown Duterte once warned could result in 100,000 deaths. Philippines' Commission on Human Rights estimated the number of drug-war killings could be as high as 27,000 back in 2018. Police deny allegations of murder. Rights groups and victims' families have urged the International Criminal Court to indict Duterte for crimes against humanity. Police spokesman Ildebrandi Usana in a text message said a team had been set up to 'look into and discuss essential issues raised by the secretary'. Guevarra in his statement said the ministry had reviewed many incident reports where police said suspects were killed in shootouts. 'Yet, no full examination of the weapon recovered was conducted. No verification of its ownership was undertaken. No request for ballistic examination or paraffin test was pursued,' he said. 'In more than half of the records reviewed, the law enforcement agents involved failed to follow standard protocols.' It is the first time the government has publicly questioned its own narrative that the thousands of people killed in President Rodrigo Duterte's drugs war were all armed and had resisted arrest Contacted by Reuters, Guevarra said he had no further comment, but would build on his remarks 'with concrete positive action'. Duterte's spokesman, Harry Roque, said the findings 'prove that our domestic legal system is working and other institutions should not meddle'. John Fisher, HRW's Geneva director, said the Philippines was trying to head off an international investigation. 'If they can admit that their previous denials of police misconduct were false, what else are they hiding?' Fisher said. President Joe Biden issues brief remarks at the White House in Washington on Feb. 22, 2021. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Biden Revokes Trump Immigration Restriction Issued Amid Pandemic President Joe Biden late Wednesday issued a proclamation to revoke an immigration restriction issued by former President Donald Trump in 2020 amid the CCP virus pandemic. In April 2020, Trump issued Proclamation 10014 to suspend entry into the United States for 60 days to foreigners who did not have a valid immigrant visa or official travel document. The order also suspended new green cards that allowed for permanent residency to most foreigners looking to settle in the country. The proclamation had several exceptions, including for foreigners entering the country on an immigrant visa as a healthcare professional to work on alleviating the outbreak caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. At the time, Trump said his order was needed to protect jobs for Americans amid increasing unemployment due to the government mandated shutdowns of businesses amid the CCP virus pandemic. Biden in his Wednesday proclamation said that Trumps entry suspension does not advance the interests of the United States. To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here, Biden wrote in his proclamation. President Donald Trump waves as he arrives on Air Force One at Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wis., on June 25, 2020. (Evan Vucci/File/AP Photo) In June, Trump issued Proclamation 10052 to extend Proclamation 10014 and expand the restrictions to include nonimmigrant visas: H-1B visas for skilled workers, H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers, J-1 visas for cultural exchanges, and L-1 visas for workers being transferred within multinational corporations. On Dec. 31, 2020, when both proclamations were to expire, Trump issued Proclamation 10131 to extend the restrictions until March 31, 2021. Bidens proclamation means Proclamation 10041 is lifted ahead of that date. Biden left in place the ban on most foreign temporary workers as outlined in proclamation 10052. In October 2020, a federal judge in California blocked Trumps ban on those foreign guest workers as it affected hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses that fought the policy in court. Biden wrote in his proclamation that Trumps Proclamation 10041 also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world. And it harms individuals who were selected to receive the opportunity to apply for, and those who have likewise received, immigrant visas through the Fiscal Year 2020 Diversity Visa Lottery. Proclamation 10014 has prevented these individuals from entering the United States, resulting, in some cases, in the delay and possible forfeiture of their opportunity to receive Fiscal Year 2020 diversity visas and to realize their dreams in the United States, Biden added. Reuters contributed to this report. The draft state science and technology program for the aviation industry development until 2030 is balanced, realistic and aimed at maintaining the leadership positions of the Ukrainian aviation engine building in the world, Director of the state-owned enterprise Ivchenko-Progress Ihor Kravchenko said. "Taking into account the economic condition of our state, the program is minimized in terms of costs, but is aimed at the development of high technologies and the aviation industry," Kravchenko told Interfax-Ukraine. He recalled that the term of the previous similar state program ended in 2009, and the following governments did not adopt the aviation development program. "Over the next two years in the field of aircraft engine building, Ivchenko-Progress plans to certify the D-436-148FM engine for the An-178 aircraft, as well as for the development of a line of aircraft to further improve the An-148 and An-158 aircraft. I think that the points of this program will be successfully completed, since we have been working on the engine for a long time, and the An-178 is already flying with experimental engines. We need to complete the work on this engine and carry out its certification," the director of the Ivchenko-Progress enterprise said. According to him, within the framework of the Program-2030, a new engine may be developed, which may be introduced in six-eight years - this is a completely new AI-28 engine, which will replace the 148-FM engine. "In recent years, we have been introducing new developments only at our own expense, which was clearly not enough. A new helicopter engine of greater power will also be created," Kravchenko said. Director of Ivchenko-Progress believes that the adoption of the program will contribute to the development of the helicopter business. "If the helicopter that Motor Sich modernizes and makes costs about EUR 5 million, then the new helicopter that Ukraine is buying is EUR 25 million in the civilian modification, and in the military one EUR 35 million! The difference is five-seven times!" Kravchenko said. He added that helicopters currently account for over 20% of Motor Sich's production. "About 100 helicopters have been sold, although the company began to deal with them from scratch, they have buyers," the director of Ivchenko-Progress said. The director recalled that Motor Sich provides for 18,000 jobs directly at the enterprise and tens of thousands of jobs at such subcontractors as Ivchenko-Progress, FED, Kommunar. Kravchenko stressed that since the program has been worked out by all the main executors, the document does not require any changes to date. "We need to quickly adopt this program so that the aviation industry develops. If there is such a signal from the state, then young specialists will be enrolled in aviation specialties in greater numbers. It is necessary to show the whole world that Ukraine intends to preserve the aviation industry. This signal will be positively conceived in foreign markets as well, since Ukraine trades with more than 100 countries of the world, the investment climate in the aviation industry will improve," he said. In his opinion, only high technologies can ensure high prosperity for Ukraine. The director of Ivchenko-Progress gave an example that a kilogram of an aircraft engine costs about $4,000, and a kilogram of wheat costs $0.2. "The most successful countries invest billions of dollars in the development of high technologies. And our state has also turned not in words, but in deeds to the implementation of the development of high technologies," Kravchenko said. Lawmakers have called for Joe Biden to withdraw his nomination for Xavier Becerra, California's first Latino attorney general, as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In a letter dated Feb. 22, 11 senators and 75 Republican congressmen, led by Senators James Lankford and Tom Cotton, have expressed their concern over the president's nomination for Becerra, CBN News revealed. "We write to express our grave concerns regarding the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Mr. Becerra's lack of healthcare experience, enthusiasm for replacing private health insurance with government-run Medicare-for-all, and embrace of radical policies on immigration, abortion, and religious liberty, render him unfit for any position of public trust, and especially for HHS Secretary," the letter said. The letter continued saying that Becerra has insufficient experience for the role. "Our nation cannot afford to lose valuable time in this battle by installing an HHS Secretary who is not up to the challenges we face. But that is exactly what you propose to do by nominating Mr. Becerra, a man with no meaningful experience in healthcare, public health, large-scale logistics, or any other areas critical to meeting our present challenges," it added. In addition to their concern is the lawyer's support for "radical policies," such as replacing Americans' private health insurance with Medicare for All, which the lawmakers said is a "dangerous" policy. Moreover, they have noted that Becerra sought to decriminalize illegal immigration, extending "expensive government benefits" for illegal immigrants. The lawmakers also reminded Biden of Becerra's stand on abortion ban and support for an anti-religious legislation. "He opposed the 2003 partial-birth abortion ban and cosponsored legislation that would force religious employers like Hobby Lobby to cover the morning-after pill, even in the face of sincerely held religious objections," the letter further stated. The letter further pointed out Becerra's "contempt for anyone who doesn't agree with his radical leftist agenda," prosecuting social conservatives and religious groups, as well as forcing Californian churches into lockdown. The legislators then warned that his confirmation would divide the country and "endanger lives." Xavier Becerra, @POTUS nominee for HHS secretary is one of the country's most ardent abortion advocates- even directly calling for violations of federal conscience protection laws. I joined @SenTomCotton & 70 other members calling on President Biden to withdraw his nomination pic.twitter.com/ZPRdUybGcZ Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) February 22, 2021 According to CNN, Becerra told the senators during the hearing that they could "find some common ground" on the issues concerned. But Sen. Mitt Romney responded, "I think we can reach common ground on many issues, but on partial birth abortion, it sounds like we are not going to reach common ground there." Sen. Tom Cotton has been reportedly campaigning against Becerra, saying that he "will put the health insurance" at risk and warned that senators who would vote for him "will face a reckoning from voters in the next election." His confirmation would make Becerra the first Latino to lead the department. Becerra was born in Sacramento, California in 1958. He studied Bachelor of Arts in Economics in Stanford University and earned his Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School. He was a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving 12 terms in Congress. He is known for many controversial policies and acts, including pushing abortion on people of faith, such as a group of nuns called the Little Sisters of the Poor. Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott says the Australian government needs to urgently boost its diplomatic and foreign aid footprint across the Indo-Pacific region to keep up with Chinas growing influence and avoid becoming a second-order economy. Ms Westacott has warned developing countries in the region are increasingly turning to Beijings controversial Belt and Road Initiative to finance infrastructure projects, which should be a wake-up call for Australia. BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott says a proposed Chinese fishing park in PNG should be a wake-up call. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In a speech to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday, Ms Westacott said a memorandum of understanding between a Chinese company and the Papua New Guinea government to build a $132 million fishery park on the island of Daru even if speculative should be a wake-up call. The Morrison government has been facing criticism from Labor and national security experts for not stepping in soon enough to stop the proposed facility on Australias doorstep. WESTFIELD The Grant family has been an important part of milestones in many peoples lives for 61 years, and it is those people and special times that Bob Grant will miss the most when Andrew Grant Diamond Center closes its doors for the last time on Saturday. Grant took over the business from his father, Andrew, in 1985 and spent 47 years in the business. Throughout the years, he has helped couples find the perfect engagement ring, helped people pick out gifts for all occasions, and has repaired and updated countless pieces of jewelry. For a lot of people Im the only person who has touched their jewelry, he said. Since announcing the closing, Grant has been inundated with a steady stream of people coming into the store some to buy jewelry or have it repaired, but most to say goodbye. Im humbled and flattered, to say the least, he said. A lot of people are panicking because were leaving, and they needed to get things done. The business has been successful, Grant said, because it is family-run, laid-back and comfortable. Generations of families have walked through the doors, and he can tell how old hes getting by the way customers refer to him. To the older customers who knew his parents, he is Bobby. More recent ones call him Bob, and to new customers his name is Mr. Grant. Some even call me Andrew, he added. I dont mind being called Andrew. That was my father. Andrew Grant Diamond Center opened in 1960 on Elm Street, where it stayed until 1997. The business then relocated to East Main Street where Five Guys now stands, and from there it moved again to its current spot on Southwick Road. A series of events including the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the temporary closing of the store last March led the Grants to decided to close sooner than they originally thought they would. First Mom passed, and I inherited the house in Florida, then we were forced to close, Grant said. The three months they spent together at home, said his wife, Lynne, gave the couple the opportunity to have in-depth conversations about the future for the business and for them personally. Before, we were so busy we didnt have a chance to talk about anything, she said. When COVID hit it gave us time to think and reassess. The Grants may be moving to Florida, but Bob will still be in the business, selling jewelry online and repairing what is shipped to him. The biggest thing for me is that Im not going away, he said. I wont be at this physical location, but people can call, email, text and reach me on Facebook. The website will be up and running and the phone number will be active. 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. Crossing the 500,000 We needed some good men and they were not We are still living the nightmare of a now former and incompetent American president who let us down because only he knew how to write the script. He left a lot behind. Its in the history books and permanent record. The former President Donald Trump did not hunker down and lead the nation in our epic pandemic battle. He downplayed its potential significance, sidelined and muzzled our experts, did not evangelize masks, social distancing, and hand washing, encouraged the avoidance of shutdowns, and nourished his allies and the right-wing media who amplified his mistruths and hid his incredible leadership faults. He cheered on governors who mimicked his nostrums, and demeaned mayors and governors who knew they had no other choice. He knew that Wuhan had been locked down in order to crush the spread of the "highly efficient" virus and he knew he had to block its propagation here in the USA with extraordinary measures and he chose defiance. Here below is the final script from the Tom Cruz, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson "A Few Good Men." Woody Harrelson played the role of Downey: Downey: I don't understand... Colonel Jessup said he ordered the Code Red. Galloway: I know, but... Downey: Colonel Jessup said he ordered the Code Red! What did we do wrong? Galloway: It's not that simple... Downey: What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong! Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie. I ask all in Connecticut and in America to remember this when President Trump addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (a group of aspiring young Republicans) in Florida this coming Saturday February 27. Sen. Josh Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz are among the other featured speakers. Ken Camarro, Fairfield Psalm 118 begins and ends on a notion of praise. The nation of Israel is in a state of rejoicing. Enemies have been defeated and Gods people are in a heightened state of gratitude. The writer seeks to highlight both the gratitude and the reason for praise - Gods unending love. In fact, the writer specifically repeats a certain phrase five times, first at the beginning of the chapter and then at the end. His faithful love endures forever. This is not the only passage in the Bible that speaks to God having an enduring love for His people. God has been described as having an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) and a love that is not contingent upon any external force (Romans 8:37-39). The reason we even understand love is because of God (1 John 4:19). Psalm 118 is a significant passage because it underscores Gods love but also provides an example of people turning to God in response and giving Him thanks. This entire passage can be read as praise and mentions specific examples of Gods provision. This passage in particular is important to modern-day Christians because it highlights how faith in God guarantees victory. This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made Meaning Unlike the other books in the Bible, the Book of Psalms has at least 7 different known authors. David wrote most of the psalms, but there are 50 other passages without confirmed authorship. We witness this very fact with Psalm 118 as a passage with no attributed author. There are some who believe David authored this psalm, but there is no conclusive evidence. Interestingly, this chapter within the Old-Testament occurs in the middle of the Bible itself. The same number of chapters appear before and after Psalm 118, depending on the Bible version. This psalm opens with an invitation to different people to give praise to God. The psalmist invites the Nation of Israel, the House of Aaron, and even Gentiles to offer thanks (Psalm 118:1-4). In those same verses, the writer says why. His faithful love endures forever. The chapter continues, and the psalmist highlights more reason to give praise. God is described as a helper whom the psalmist depends on for defense from the enemy (Psalm 118:7). Their ability to find comfort in God is so pronounced that for them, God is a refuge (Psalm 118:8). In the tenth verse, the writer says, All the nations surrounded me. This sentiment is echoed through Christian history where people have been persecuted for their faith, most notably Jesus. Despite the persecution and attacks from others, the Lord has delivered the psalmist. This does not mean that Christians have not and will not suffer or die, as Jesus did, but in the end, Gods plans supersede the enemy. That truth is shown through Jesus resurrection and the Great Commission He gave the disciples, reminding them, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). No matter what obstacles a believer faces, God is always present. The psalmist knows this. That sense of Gods companionship is mentioned further into the passage also. I will give thanks to you because you have answered me and have become my salvation (Psalm 118: 21). Gods love exists in this present life and will be available later in Heaven also. The Lord has supported the psalmist in dealings with others and also within themself (Psalm 118:18). As mentioned in the beginning, Gods love does not end. Thus, Gods love continuing after a natural death is only logical. There is a shift in tone toward the end of this chapter. Instead of praising God for the present day and what He has done, the thanks turns to praise for what God will do (Psalm 118:25). The psalmist offers blessings to God in advance before the blessing comes! This reveals their trust in God to deliver His people always. Many of the Psalms have motifs such as suffering, or hope. The writer of Psalm 118 repeatedly expresses gratitude for Gods love. Throughout the entire passage, the tone is consistently positive and appreciative of God. The rejoicing is also not limited to the psalmists praise. In addition to the praise invitation given in the beginning, the psalmist speaks from a group perspective in verse 25. Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success! Gods blessings are not reserved for one person, but for an entire nation. This verse can be interpreted as an invitation for later generations of Christians to beseech God for the same sort of blessings that the psalmist experienced then. The very last line is a final reminder of Gods everlasting love. Read Psalm 118 - This Is the Day that the Lord Has Made Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. Let Israel say, "His faithful love endures forever." Let the house of Aaron say, "His faithful love endures forever." Let those who fear the Lord say, "His faithful love endures forever." I called to the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me [and put me] in a spacious place. The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? With the Lord for me as my helper, I will look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in nobles. All the nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I destroyed them. They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I destroyed them. They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I destroyed them. You pushed me hard to make me fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the righteous: "The Lord's right hand strikes with power! The Lord's right hand is raised! The Lord's right hand strikes with power!" I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord disciplined me severely but did not give me over to death. Open the gates of righteousness for me; I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it. I will give thanks to You because You have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God and has given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give You thanks. [You are] my God; I will exalt You. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. (Psalm 118 CSB) What Is the Day That the Lord Has Made in Psalm 118? In Psalm 118, we read a number of memorable verses that are often quoted within Christian communities, including verse 24. This is the day the Lord has made; lets rejoice and be glad in it. The day the Lord has made can be interpreted in two ways: first as today, present day. Secondly, this can be interpreted as the day of deliverance. The first interpretation results from the clear context of the passage. The writer here is giving God thanksgiving for His blessings, past, present, and future. As the psalmist sings their own praise, they also invite others into thanksgiving. With this in mind, the day the Lord has made is currently happening. The psalmist does not suggest delaying praise for any reason. If Gods love endures forever then the psalmist wants to offer praise in the now. The second interpretation of that verse makes sense because the psalmist mentions praise that will be given to God now and upon receiving deliverance. The Lord is constantly making the day, and the psalmist knows a day of deliverance is not a question. The day of deliverance is inevitable, and thus God deserves praise. Both then and now. Why Should Christians Rejoice in This? There are a few lessons Christians can be reminded of today when reading over Psalm 118. God Delivers If the psalmist wants to offer praise for a blessing yet to be received, then they must be confident in Gods ability. As with other passages such as Psalm 126:5, there is no indication given to discern when God will deliver. That lack of knowledge does not impede upon the praise given to God in this chapter. The same should apply to Christians today. Even without knowing when, we can rest assured that God delivers His people because He always does. Trust The psalmist briefly mentions trust early in the chapter. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humanity. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in nobles (Psalm 118:8-9). Go deserves more trust than people. Why? His love endures forever. Even without the life of Jesus yet to be lived, the psalmist believes in God. Thus, believing in God for Christians today should theoretically be easier because we have accounts of Jesus, but also accounts of people like the psalmist believing even without knowing Jesus in the same way. Gods Love Recognizing Gods love as an unyielding presence in our lives will remind us that no matter what we face, God is always by our side (Romans 8:37-39). The truth about Gods love enduring forever is mentioned throughout the Bible. The more we commit to believing and remembering His love, the less influence our enemies (internal or external) will have over our lives. Instead, we will be able to live more often like the writer of Psalm 118, rejoicing in Gods deliverance, and being happy with the day the Lord has made. Always. Sources: Further Reading How Can "This Is the Day the Lord Has Made" Encourage Trust and Hope? What Does Psalm 118:24 Mean by "This Is the Day that the Lord Has Made"? This Is the Day that the Lord Has Made The Amazing Meaning of Psalm 118 Photo credit: Unsplash/Phil Thep Aaron Brown is a freelance writer, dance teacher, and visual artist. He currently contributes articles to GodUpdates, GodTube, iBelieve, and Crosswalk. Aaron also supports clients through the freelance platform Upwork. This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today. "Be Still and Know that I Am God" "Pray Without Ceasing" "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" "All Things Work Together for Good" "Do Not Fear" Evangelical sex scandals and our false holiness Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As a former Muslim, one of the most appealing aspects of Christianity is that God commands monogamy. So it especially pains me seeing the numerous sex scandals pouring out of the evangelical church recently. In an article in The Christian Post, many well-known pastors and leaders have come out strongly against the despicable abuse committed by the late Ravi Zacharias, ranging from rape, spiritual abuse, and unwanted touching of numerous women. They encourage not only repentance of any leaders still engaging in illicit sexual behavior, but they also advocate for accountability of all church leaders who are in a position to manipulate the spiritual and emotional needs of their members. Though first accused in 2017 of unwanted sexual advances, Zacharias's conduct went unchallenged and was only revealed upon his death. And this past November, news broke that former Hillsong Church Pastor Carl Lentz was fired for "leadership issues and moral failures" after one of several extramarital affairs became public. Though Lentz is now removed from his leadership position at Hillsong, a staff member also reported his inappropriate conduct as far back as 2017, but it was vehemently denied. In both cases, action is only taken once the behavior becomes publicly undeniable and many lives are irreparably harmed. As Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore so aptly put it regarding the Zacharias sex abuse reveal, "This awful report coming on the heels of so many other situations detailed before should rouse the conscience to ask not just how sadists can get into places of Christian leadership, but whether we have created a situation where the very presence of a conscience is an impediment to advancement in. some sectors of American Christianity." I was a devoted Muslim for over 20 years and can attest to the abuse that many Muslim women endure the worse of which is being forced into illegal, polygamous relationships where both the women and children have no legal rights and are subject to constant mistreatment and ridicule in the community. Though many Muslim men do not engage in polygamy, the practice is permissible under Islamic law. That air of legitimacy causes the most harm because it gives the man a religious justification to force a woman's acceptance. For myself and other former Muslim women, one of the most attractive teachings of Christianity is about marriage. A husband and wife become one flesh[1] and have a responsibility to one another of honor and love.[2] Adultery and other forms of sexual depravity are repeatedly condemned throughout the Bible. The Apostle Paul explicitly warns believers that God's wrath will come on the "sons of disobedience" who engage in sexual sin.[3] Jesus said even lusting after a woman was committing adultery in the heart.[4] With such stern warnings, how can we allow such behavior to go unchecked in the Church? Simply apologizing after the fact that Christian leaders are caught and wishing them well in their future endeavors is not solving the problem, nor is it creating a sense of accountability. For the rest of the Church, who has to face the ridicule of outsiders who accuse us of hypocrisy and corruption, such an approach is offensive. Church members, elders, and leaders must demand stricter policies for investigating claims of misconduct if they want to demonstrate their commitment to the Gospel of Christ. The Lord warns, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."[5] Being aware means the onus is on us to safeguard the community against people who could harm the body of believers with false doctrine. Whether it is outright misstatements of God's word or actions that implicitly condone conduct against Biblical doctrine, allowing such behavior to go unchecked can have far-reaching consequences. It not only damages the reputation of Christians as a whole but causes irreparable harm to the many who suffer at the hands of these individuals. In contrast, the Lord tells us, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."[6] Though tension exists between these two concepts, many other tenets of the Gospel warn that teachers will be held to a higher standard and encourage the body of believers to confess their sins to one another and to admonish fellow believers who are stuck in sin. Viewed in its totality, the Gospel teaches us accountability and holiness. "For the Scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am Holy.'"[7] The Church is one body, and when one part is hurting, we all suffer. Each of us has a responsibility to live a life that honors one another and the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. Though all of us at times fall short, the Lord holds our leaders to an even higher standard, and the Church should do the same. Yes, judgment is for God alone, but that is not an excuse to let evil actions run rampant. If we fail to hold fast to the sacred tenets that set us apart as followers of Christ, we risk becoming the exact type of people that Christ warned us about. "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'[8] [1] Mark 10:69 [2] 1 Peter 3:7 [3] Ephesians 5:3-6 [4] Mathew 5:28 [5] Mathew 7:15 [6] Mathew 7: 1 [7] 1 Peter 1:16 [8] Mathew 7:22 President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during his State of the Nation Address that the digital migration process will be completed by the end of March 2022. Hidden behind this new deadline is the chilling message that incompetence will be tolerated, as long as it comes with political loyalty. This may seem like a big leap in logic, but let me explain. The digital migration process was supposed to have been completed by November 2011, but corruption and incompetence prevented progress. One deadline after the next was missed, including the International Telecommunication Unions June 2015 deadline to switch from analogue to digital TV. Over a decade later, and South Africa is still trying to figure out how to get digital migration done. This is hurting South Africa. The process is crucial to free up valuable spectrum and advance the broadcasting industry. Ramaphosa knows this. He even said during his SONA the completion of digital migration is vital to South Africas ability to effectively harness the enormous opportunities presented by technological change. So, if the President realizes the importance of digital migration, why is he tolerating such a poor performance in this area? The answer lies in politics. The communications ministry has always been a place to reward political loyalty. The foundation was laid by former President Thabo Mbeki when he appointed Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri as communications minister in June 1999. During Matsepe-Casaburris time in office, South Africas telecommunications sector and the country as a whole suffered terribly. Consumers and businesses paid sky-high prices for communications and the industry is still trying to recover from her obsession to protect Telkoms monopoly. Despite these failures, she was a protected political ally and remained in office until her death in 2009. Over the next decade, the communications department had some of South Africas most controversial ministers. They include Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Dina Pule, Faith Muthambi, and Nomvula Mokonyane. Scandal after scandal rocked the department and the ministry became synonymous with corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement. The only truly productive minister was Yunus Carrim. Under his leadership, the wheels started to turn and rapid progress was made with digital migration. He was, however, unceremoniously booted from his position because he would allegedly not play ball when it came to shady dealings related to South Africas digital TV specification. A look at the communications ministry over the last fifteen years clearly shows that political loyalty, instead of excellence, is rewarded. There is no punishment for incompetence. Missed deadlines are overlooked. Even corruption is no big deal. Going against the wishes of the President or the party, however, will see you fired in a flash. President Ramaphosas acceptance of the missed digital migration deadlines without any punitive action is a clear sign that this status quo remains. Political loyalty guarantees protection. Competence is optional. The increasing demand from different end-use industries for flexible packaging formats has contributed to the growth of the market for jumbo bags. In the flexible packaging market, packaging creativity has opened the way for diverse manufacturers to switch from rigid packaging types. DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Future Market Insights: FMI states in its recent study on the jumbo bags market that the market will record an impressive CAGR through 2030, and the market's valuation is expected to surpass US$ 5.8 Bn. By 2021. Demand for jumbo bags is anticipated to continue surging due to the increasing demand for durable, cost-efficient, and less space-consuming packaging "Jumbo bags manufacturers around the world have been capitalizing on the rising demand from various industries. The inclination towards spending on effective solutions for bulk packaging and safe delivery has been noticed also in the food products & agriculture, building & construction and pharmaceuticals industries." says the FMI analyst. Request a report sample to gain comprehensive market insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2060 Jumbo bags Market - Important Highlights For bulk packing, Category C jumbo bags are strongly recommended because of their industrial standards. The growth of the chemical & fertilizer business is fueling the market for jumbo bags. Throughout the forecast era, FMI has predicted it to remain the dominant end-user. Jumbo bags with a size of 200 kg - 750 kg are more common on the market and are expected to remain highly sought after over the forecast era. North America led by the US is estimated to dominate the market during the forecast years. Jumbo bags Market - Drivers Flexible packaging types are gaining popularity due to many benefits over rigid packaging formats which are driving the growth of the market. Jumbo bags or bulk bags are primarily used to carry and package bulk goods from different end-use industries, such as chemicals & fertilizers, building & construction, food & agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, minerals & mines, etc. the demand from these industries are boosting the growth of the market. Also, there is a growing market for jumbo bags due to the industrial need for compact and personalized bag sizes with damage-proof shipping characteristics. We Offer tailor-made Solutions to fit Your Requirements, Request Customization@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-2060 Jumbo bags Market - Restraints Strict government guidelines about the sustainability of the product are hindering the growth of the market. The onset of COVID 19 is anticipated to harm the market. COVID-19 Impact on Jumbo bags Market The jumbo bags market growth is anticipated to be hampered owing to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. At different stages, the COVID-19 pandemic is now influencing the global economy, and the effect is also seen on the automotive aftermarket. Growth is forecast to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and is likely to see a substantial decline in demand in 2021. Because of uncertainty in the retail and supply chain markets, profitable growth has also been slowed, with a variety of end-use industries affected in many countries. However, as markets continue to improve, the economy is likely to put itself on a course of recovery. Competitive Landscape The jumbo bags market players are leaning towards the expansion of the production facilities besides opting for strategic collaborations to attain a competitive edge. for instance, Berry Global Group Inc. has launched a new Lightweight Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC) product range, DriBulkTM Container Liners, which provides a reliable, inexpensive, and convenient option for several end-use industries, such as agriculture, minerals, chemicals, food, and other industries, to ship, transport and store dry bulk products. A few of the key companies functioning in the global market include Berry Global Group, Inc., Greif Inc., Conitex Sonoco, AmeriGlobe L.L.C, PT. WIHARTA KARYA AGUNG, BAG Corp, Halsted Corporation. Contact Sales for Further Assistance in Purchasing this Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/2060 About the Study The study offers readers a comprehensive assessment of the jumbo bags market. Global, regional, and national-level analysis of the latest trends influencing the market is covered in this FMI report. The study provides insights based on packaging type (Type A, B, C, D), design (U-Panel Bag, Four Side Panel, Baffle, Circular/ Tabular, Cross Corner) application (Building & Construction, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Food Products & Agriculture, Pharmaceuticals and across key regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, China, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa). Explore FMI's Coverage of the packaging Industry Stick packaging market: Get insights on the outbound stick packaging market through FMI's report covering detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis for projection period 2020-2030. Drum liners market: FMI's exhaustive study on the drum liners market covers the latest trends, innovations, key players, and popular strategies for the period 2020-2030. Stick packaging market: Obtain detailed analysis on the stick packaging market through FMI's report covering competitive analysis, key regions, and segmental analysis for 2020-2030. About Future Market Insights Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in Dubai, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and make critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. A team of expert-led analysts at FMI continuously tracks emerging trends and events in a broad range of industries to ensure that our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers. Contact Mr. Abhishek Budholiya Unit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates MARKET ACCESS DMCC Initiative For Sales Enquiries: sales@futuremarketinsights.com For Media Enquiries: press@futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/jumbo-bags-market Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/jumbo-bags-market SOURCE: Future Market Insights View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631886/How-Expansion-of-theflexible-packaging-industryis-Spurring-Growth-of-Jumbo-bags-Market-Future-Market-Insights-Report-Analyzes The battle lines have been drawn in the oil supercycle debate. On one side stand those who see oil investment cornered by capital discipline and environmental curbs, and on the other those who see US shale and the OPEC+ producer group providing enough supply reinforcements. But oils fate could lie in the broader commodity boom. A swathe of commodities assessed by S&P Global Platts have started 2021 with a bang. Copper, arguably the most critical of industrial metals, has burst beyond $9,000/mt for the first time in a decade. And high-profile investment banks have talked up the prospect of a commodity supercycle a protracted upward rise in prices due to a structural shift in the way demand outpaces supply. Goldman Sachs head of commodity research, Jeff Currie, said in a recent interview with Platts that there is a risk copper could more than quadruple in value, taking oil prices into triple digits Copper is the only thing we know that can conduct electricity at the rate needed, so I'm really curious as to how high some of these can go," Currie said, adding that I want to be long oil and hang on for the ride. JP Morgans head of oil and gas Christyan Malek told Platts last month that the odds of oil prices spiking above $100/b in the coming years have narrowed due to limitations on US shales ability to meet a looming $650 billion capex shortfall. "While you have seen demand reset, we are going to see a lot of pent-up demand recover in the medium term, particularly the second half of this year, but the reality is it will be like a race to the bottom and supply is being diminished more than demand it's not zero-sum," Malek warned. While US shale has been able to respond quickly to deficits and higher oil prices in the past, there are bigger question marks this time given the financial condition of the industry due to bankruptcies and the greater ownership of shale assets by oil majors that have to keep a closer eye on ESG targets and investor returns. US oil output is around 2 million b/d lower than its pre-COVID-19 peak at 11 million b/d. Some $14 trillion was pumped into the global economy in 2020, according to the IMF, and this, along with Chinas demand strength and a weaker dollar, has helped to lift consumption for everything from iron ore and corn to energy. Certainly, construction activity remains strong, driving demand for petrochemicals and steel. Industrial activity is up across two-thirds of countries and fiscal stimulus in developed countries and increased disposable income are boosting trade. However, Chris Midgley, head of Platts Analytics, warns that as with all commodities the risk of a rebound in supply ahead of structural recovery in the economy remains and it may be a bit early to declare a full supercycle. He added that doubts remain as to whether the fiscal stimuli can maintain momentum. Standard Chartered Banks head of commodities research, Paul Horsnell, was also skeptical. Couching an oil market view in terms of supercycles is perhaps similar to a pop band on a comeback tour finding it best to just play the old songs, however dated they might now be, he noted. For oil there is also the might of OPEC+, with the oil alliance having wrestled the oil market back from the eye-catching and head-scratching depths of negative oil prices in the US in April last year, with an historic 10 million b/d production cut deal. Meanwhile, the global Dated Brent benchmark is now in the mid-$60/b range, having climbed from its April low of around $13/b. The producer grouping spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and Russia is to meet in early March, with speculation building around how fast they will unwind from current output quotas, including the ending of an additional voluntary 1 million b/d Saudi reduction for February and March. OPEC+ will have an important say in how the oil supercycle plays out. Oil prices are now at a level that could bring at least the smaller US operators back and even start to tempt renewed longer-cycle upstream investment. However, core OPEC+ countries will also want to increase market share and reap the rewards. A fine line will need to be walked between unwinding from the deal without it unravelling. Key oil consuming countries such as India have already made their voice heard over higher oil prices, while China will be less inclined to buy strategically at these prices. Meanwhile, there are no guarantees that consumption of key transport fuels globally will return to normal any time soon, especially with jet fuel demand acting as a drag. While the seeds of a supercycle may be being sown in 2021, whether it will bloom in later years remains very much dependent on choices still to be made by OPEC+, energy companies and policy makers in the months ahead. London-based Paul Hickin is associate director at S&P Global Platts. Views are his own. Editor: Making Lackawanna and Luzerne counties great again means there must be a change in the no-jobs, no-pay mentality that our area generates. What are officials in both counties doing to attract or encourage potential new businesses to come to our area? Have they made possible businesses aware of what we can offer? It seems that our local political activities dont fully realize that the loss of jobs equals a loss of income, loss of home, car insurance, etc. Who has the responsibility for something favorable to happen and change this deplorable situation? Has there been any thought to send knowledgeable area representatives to promote our area to existing or potential manufacturers? It seems very little, if anything, is manufactured in the United States. Is that just due to sheer negligence? How can we give thought to developing jobs in our area other then the multitude of warehouse work that already exists? We must be positive and aggressive and promote all the pluses of living and working in our area. Another unaddressed issue is that just about everything we buy is made in a foreign country under deplorable conditions or is made overseas and sold in the United States. Can anyone show information that, along with these foreign products, provides detail about possible health hazards, such as COVID-19 or other viruses? We realize COVID-19 is an airborne virus that came from China. There may be more and perhaps deadlier viruses. So much for making America great again, let alone Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. JIM MASTERS DUNMORE Editor: The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump ended with 43 Republican Senators voting to acquit him. Trump and these senators may believe they are the winners. They are not; Russia and China are the winners. A former KGB officer stated the Russians had been grooming Trump since the 1980s. A Russian military academy text book laid out how Russia would return to world leadership. Their highest priority was to take down the United States. Their plan was to gut the State Department of senior diplomats, undermine our intelligence agencies and discredit our free press. Russia was not able to accomplish this in the 20 years after laying out this plan. Trump achieved all these objectives within his first two years in office. Good return on your investment, Russia. Videos used as evidence during the impeachment trial reportedly are being used as training tools for Chinas equivalent to our FBI. The purpose is to show the inferiority of our form of government to their form of government. The attack of the executive branch on the legislative branch evidenced in the videos is their justification in stating their form of government is more stable than ours. While Trump showed much disdain for our Constitution through his incitement of his mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, our democracy withstood the assault. The killer of our democracy and the viability of the Republican Party is the 43 senators who voted to acquit. PHYLLIS C. REINHARDT SCRANTON Editor: How can Republicans claim to be the Blue Lives Matter party? House impeachment videos put the hypocrisy of claiming Blue Lives Matter on full display for the entire world to see. Former President Trumps militia brutalized municipal police from Washington, D.C., and Capitol Police, the Senates very own squad of blue lives, on Jan. 6. In all, 140 officers were injured. One officer suffered brain damage; another was blinded. One brave officer was bludgeoned to death by the violent mob; two others took their lives days after the insurrection. How can Republican senators read Trumps tweets, listen to recordings of his endlessly repeated big lie about a stolen election, his incessant urging for supporters to take back our country and not make the connection between his words and the insurrection on Jan. 6? Retired Gen. John Kelly and Chris Christie, former members of Trumps inner circle, saw the indisputable connection and publicly called out Trump for inciting the insurrection. Republican senators say they care about the Capitol Police, and all men and women in uniform, but their actions speak louder than words. What they really care about is preserving their Senate seats and protecting their standing with Trump, who assembled the mob and lit the match that caused the insurrection. Failure to hold Trump accountable invites future attacks on the peaceful transfer of power and on the men and women in uniform who take the brunt of this kind of political violence. MARY BRUCE SERENE STATE COLLEGE Editor: If theres a point where mass delusion becomes absurdity, it was reached on the Feb. 15 editorial page. A letter writer made efforts to canonize Donald Trump in a submission with the headline, Trump loves nation. This erudite diatribe starts with former President Trump having single-handedly orchestrated the elimination of COVID-19, when thousands continue to die of it every day. It goes on to credit our ex-president with establishing alternate care facilities for coronavirus patients, when their existence was initiated not by the denier in chief, but by states themselves. She said Trump pressured vaccine makers to increase production, while in truth he passed on an opportunity to secure quantities of vaccine that went to other countries. As far as her statement that Trump shut down states until the pandemic was under control, facts show just the opposite. His rejection of the spreads magnitude actually encouraged states to loosen restrictions, declaring that the protection of the economy was a bigger priority than controlling the disease. Finally, she offered credit to Trump for negotiating the reduction of North Koreas long-range missile testing, when in fact the exact opposite occurred. The talks failed and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is pursuing such weapons at a more rapid pace than ever. So, you can see how black gets turned into white and lies can be spun into truth. EARL BAILEY SCRANTON A 62-year-old man who on Wednesday rear-ended a car parked on the side of a Lancaster County road Wednesday has died of his injuries, police said. The unidentified Martic Township resident was driving south around 4:50 p.m. on the 3500 block of Willow Street Pike South when he rammed into the back of a Toyota Highlander, Pequea Township police said. A 40-year-old from Lebanon was driving the Highlander and had three passengers, police said. They said an 11-year-old boy from that car was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The 62-year-old man who was not wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash was taken to the hospital, but later died, according to police. He didnt have any passengers, police said. The crash took place on a divided highway, with two lanes on the southbound side and a 55 mph speed limit, according to police. A lane restriction was in place while police investigated and cleared the crash. Anyone who witnessed the crash or saw either vehicle beforehand is asked to call Chief John Michener at 717-945-7546. READ MORE: Pa. woman rescued from abuse after putting Call 911 sign in window: police Teen charged with murder in shooting death of his 10-year-old sister in Michigan Police search for suspects in beating of Pa. pizza-shop owner Photo credit: Cupra From Autoweek Cupra Born EV production is confirmed for later this year, with the 311-mile EV hatch being closely based on the VW ID.3. The Cupra brand was spun off from SEAT, Volkswagen's Spanish division, just three years ago and adopted the name of the popular SEAT Cupra model. VW wants to offer variety in its EV range, with the Cupra Born playing the role of an upmarket performance and design offering, but positioned in price below Audi. Volkswagen has added another electric model to its global lineup, and it's from a brand that you probably haven't seen in person or even heard about. The automaker spun off the Cupra brand from its Spanish division three years ago, taking on the role of a performance-oriented but still affordable wing of SEAT, which VW has owned for decades. The Born electric hatch will be the brand's own version of the ID.3, with production set to start later this year. Named for Barcelona's El Born neighborhood, the Cupra Born will use the VW MEB platform that underpins the ID.3 and ID.4 EVs and will be closely linked to the hardware of the ID.3, offering a more adventurous exterior and interior design. The Born looks very aggressive compared to the ID.3 while still sharing its profile, and it's this mix of design and premium interior materials that Cupra is betting on to distinguish itself from other MEB siblings. Photo credit: Hearst Owned Offering 311 miles of range in the WLTP cycle, Cupra is betting on the Born to open up new markets, which for now don't include the U.S. or Canada. The hatch will feature a 77-kWh battery, corresponding to the longest-range version of the ID.3 menu, and it will also offer fast-charging capacity, being able to get 162 miles worth of juice in 30 minutes. Starting later this year, the Born will be produced alongside its other siblings at Volkswagen's Zwickau plant in Germany, which has been the original home of the group's MEB platform. VW has been busy adding EV-building capacity to other plants in Germany since then. Story continues Photo credit: Cupra One of Cupra's goals is boosting its product range in the direction of electrification, so the Born will add to a roster that already includes six plug-in hybrid variants. It will also be offered on a subscription basis in some markets as part of a pilot program that the VW Group has wanted to get into. "The Cupra Born will be a game-changer in the electric market with its stimulating design and instantaneous performance," said Cupra President Wayne Griffiths. "This vehicle will contribute to reducing global CO2 emissions and meeting European targets. With this car we intend to contribute to the electrification of Spain and the world through its emotional sportiness, and we want the next generation of young challengers to be part of this transformation. That's why this vehicle will also be offered under subscription contracts, with a monthly fee that will include the use of the vehicle and other related services." As tempting as it would be to frame the Born's scheduled production launch as targeting Tesla, the reality is that it's Tesla that will soon need a sub-Model 3 vehicle to battle the growing number of small and inexpensive electric hatchbacks that are filling western Europe's rapidly growing appetite for EVs, especially in the Netherlands and Norway. But Cupra is also seeking to expand its presence in Turkey, Israel, and Mexico. "Cupra has surprised everyone in these three years and has even continued to grow during the pandemic," Griffiths added. "These great results make us optimistic to push harder in 2021. This year we're looking to double the sales volume of 2020 and reach a mix of 10% of the companys total volume." Would you like to see VW offer the ID.3 hatch stateside? Let us know in the comments below. A young man who was freezing on a night last January with nowhere to stay jumped into the back seat of a garda car and asked officers to take him to their station. 31-year-old David OLearys actions cost him 200 yesterday at Cork District Court where Judge Olann Kelleher fined him. The young man who had been staying at Cork Simon Community at the time pleaded guilty to the offence of trespassing in the car without permission. Eddie Burke, defence solicitor, said of OLearys action on the night of January 12: He hopped into the back of the garda car. It was just too cold on the street and he asked them could they put him up in the Bridewell. Sergeant Gearoid Davis said the young man was taken to the Bridewell but he was arrested and he should not have jumped into the back of the patrol car without permission. Mr Burke said: It was a desperate measure. Judge Kelleher said the defendant had caused people a lot of trouble by his actions and then when he should have been in court for this case he failed to appear and a bench warrant had to be issued for his arrest. Mr Burke said David OLeary was now accommodated in a hostel organised through Cork Simon Community. The background to the January 12 incident was that Garda Conor OCallaghan was dealing with another incident outside Cork Simon Community at Andersons Quay when OLeary opened the door of the official garda vehicle and sat into the back seat without permission and demanded to be arrested as Simon had refused to take him into the shelter. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE New Mexicos teacher pension fund would benefit from stepped-up taxpayer-funded contributions under a bill that won Senate approval Thursday. Senators voted 36-6 to pass the measure, Senate Bill 42, which would also extend for two more years a program for retired educators who return to the classroom. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The legislation is sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, a retired teacher who said changes are necessary to put the Educational Retirement Board on more stable financial footing. I really think maintaining the viability of the fund is a commitment New Mexico makes to its educators, Stewart said during Thursdays floor debate. Specifically, the bill would increase the taxpayer-funded employer contribution rate paid into the pension fund by 1 percentage point over each of the next four years taking the rate from 14.15% to 18.15% by the 2025 budget year. Employee contribution rates into the fund would not change. Increasing the employer contribution rate would not be cheap for the state. The estimated price tag would start with an additional $34 million in the coming year and rise to an additional $136.2 million by 2025, according to a fiscal analysis of the legislation. Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, who voted against the proposal, said lawmakers should look at structural changes to the ERB not just higher contribution rates. I agree we need to fix this but I dont think this solves the problem, Sharer said. Financial concerns over New Mexicos two large public retirement systems have played a key role in downgrades to the states credit rating in recent years. While its not in danger of short-term insolvency, the ERB had an unfunded liability of $9 billion as of July, a figure that reflects the difference between assets on hand and current and future benefits owed. But several senators pointed out that, even if approved, the stepped-up ERB employer contribution rate would still be smaller than the taxpayer-funded contribution rate for state employees under New Mexicos other pension fund, the Public Employees Retirement Association. This is a dollar fix that has to happen, said Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup. For her part, Jan Goodwin, the ERBs executive director, said she was pleased with Thursdays vote in the Senate, which sent the bill on to the House for consideration. The strong bipartisan support for this bill acknowledges that this is well-needed legislation, Goodwin told the Journal. The teacher pension fund currently has more than 61,000 active members and pays benefits to nearly 51,400 retirees. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The Clifton resident accused of slaying one man and wounding another as the victims sat inside a car in Mariners Harbor last year has been indicted on murder and other charges. Godkhaliq Daugherty, 19, pleaded not guilty Wednesday at this arraignment in state Supreme Court, St. George. Prosecutors allege Daugherty fatally shot Prince Edmonds, 21, of New Brighton last Sept. 14. The events unfolded about 1 p.m. near the corner of Richmond Terrace and Lockman Avenue, said authorities. A dramatic video released by police shows an armed individual, who cops say is Daugherty, approach Edmonds and a 22-year-old man seated inside the car. Daugherty fired several shots at the victims from the drivers side, hitting both men, allege police. The defendant then ran westbound on Richmond Terrace and entered a gray, four-door Honda Civic driven by a second individual, police said. The Civic drove off westbound on Richmond Terrace. Edmonds suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his torso and died at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, police said. His friend was struck once in the left shoulder and found his own way to Richmond University Medical Center, said authorities. Daugherty, who remained at large for over four months, allegedly told detectives the shooting was a case of mistaken identity, said a source with knowledge of the investigation. Edmonds was not the target, he said, according to the source. Prince Edmonds, 21, was fatally shot on Sept. 14, 2020. Daugherty allegedly has ties to the Only the Africans gang, the source said. The defendant was nabbed on Jan. 28 at about 3:20 p.m. At the time, he and another man, Jerome Edwards, 22, of Port Richmond, were seated inside a vehicle in Clifton. The car was by the corner of Palma Drive and Park Hill Avenue near PS 57. Officers found a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9 semiautomatic pistol in the vehicle, said police. Police say they found this 9 mm handgun in a car occupied by Godkhaliq Daugherty and Jerome Edwards on Jan. 28, 2021 in Clifton Edwards also was arrested. He, too, has been indicted. However, Edwards is only charged with criminal weapon possession, criminal firearm possession, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration with respect to the Jan. 28 incident. He has not been implicated in Edmonds death. Edwards pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday. He remains held in lieu of $300,000 bond or $75,000 cash bail, online state court records show. His next court date is March 15. Said his lawyer Alberto Ebanks: As former counsel to various law enforcement agencies, and as a former New York City prosecutor, I can tell you that charging decisions are made only after both the NYPD and the district attorneys office have conducted an investigation. It appears that in this case the investigation resulted in a decision to not charge my client. That speaks for itself, said Ebanks, referring to Edmonds killing. Daugherty was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, assault, attempted murder, attempted assault and weapon possession, stemming from the Sept. 14 episode. Hes also accused of weapon and firearm possession, resisting arrest and obstruction related to the Jan. 28 collar. Daugherty remains held without bail. His next court date is March 23. Manuel Ortega, his attorney, declined comment. Edwards, meanwhile, has a criminal record. In May 2019, he was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of criminal firearm possession, said the indictment. KYIV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has officially appointed former Finance Minister Oksana Markarova as the countrys new ambassador to the United States as he seeks improved ties with Washington. In a February 25 statement announcing her appointment, Zelenskiy called Markarova a "high-caliber professional" and said he hoped she would not only strengthen political relations with Washington but help attract foreign investment to the country. Markarovas appointment comes as Zelenskiy seeks to build strong bonds with the new Biden administration following troubled relations with his predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden and Zelenskiy have yet to speak. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba proposed Markarova in late November 2020 shortly after Biden's victory. Kuleba defended his decision at the time to nominate someone outside the foreign service for perhaps the nations most critical ambassadorial posting, saying she is well known in the United States, including at the State Department, Treasury Department, and at the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ukraine is seeking more funding from the IMF to deal with the impact of the coronavirus. Markarova served as finance minister from June 2018 until March 2020, when she was dismissed along with other officials by Zelenskiy. Prior to that, she worked as a deputy finance minister, helping secure lending from the IMF. Morgan Williams, the president of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, a Washington-based trade lobby group, hailed the appointment as sending positive signals about reforms. "[Markarova] is considered a heavyweight in international circles, a reformer, and she hits the ground running in Washington because she knows a lot of the folks. It is a strong appointment, he told RFE/RL. The new ambassador will have a lot on her plate, including lobbying the United States for sanctions against Nord Stream 2, the Russian natural-gas pipeline that will reroute energy exports around Ukraine. Zelenskiy is seeking to convince the Biden administration to impose further sanctions on the project to halt its completion. Manchester, NH The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides for the right of the people to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. But what does that mean and how does it work? On March 15, from 6:30pm - 8 pm, the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and the New England First Amendment Coalition are celebrating Sunshine Week with an expert, online panel discussion, Keeping the Light On: Holding Government Accountable. This webinar will examine the values of open and responsive government and how we all play a role. The conversation, moderated by Casey McDermott, reporter and editor at New Hampshire Public Radio, will feature Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director, ACLU, New Hampshire; The Honorable N. William Delker, Justice, NH Superior Court; Emily Gray Rice, City Solicitor, City of Manchester, NH and Gregory V. Sullivan, Malloy & Sullivan, a First Amendment Law specialist and board member of both host organizations. This event is free and open to the public. It will be hosted online and pre-registration is required. To register, visit the Nackey S. Loeb Schools website: loebschool.org/register/sunshine-week, or email loebschool@loebschool.org. Sunshine Week is a national initiative supported by the American Society of News Editors to educate the public about the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy. You can learn more about the co-hosts of this New Hampshire event at loebschool.org and nefac.org. A couple who spent their first nights apart in seven decades due to lockdown were reunited in time for their 70th wedding anniversary. Frank Howell, 90, and his wife Joan, 93, have been inseparable since tying the knot in 1951 and had never spent longer than a few days apart. But retired carpet fitter Frank was forced to move into Astley Hall Nursing Home in Stourport, Worcs, last September with dementia and bladder cancer. As a result the devoted couple were kept apart for five months until they were finally reunited on February 2 when Joan joined her beloved husband following a fall. Frank and Joan Howell were reunited after several months apart in time for their 70th anniversary last week It meant the lovebirds were able to celebrate Valentine's Day as well as their platinum anniversary together last Friday. The great-grandparents toasted the occasion with tea and cake surrounded by balloons while opening cards from well-wishers - including one from The Queen. Staff say the pair, who have both had the Pfizer jab, now spend all day together 'holding hands and having a natter' and their quality of life has improved dramatically since they were reunited. When asked the secret to a long and happy marriage, former nurse Joan said: 'Like every marriage, you have your arguments and your moments but that's what happens. You have to stay true to each other.' 'I love Frank very much and always have.' The couple, who have two sons, four granddaughters and one great-grandson lived all their lives in Kidderminster where Frank worked for the family carpet business until retiring in 1995. The devoted couple, pictured on their wedding day in 1951, have been practically inseparable ever since Frank and Joan Howell were kept apart for five months because of the pandemic but are now together again at Astley Hall Nursing Home Son Andrew, 60, said: 'In these days and at their age it's quite an achievement. 'Unfortunately we were not able to be there with them but we're so glad they were able to spend the day together. 'It was brilliant to get a telegram from The Queen. They were really pleased with that. 'Dad went in for end of life care because he has severe bladder cancer and was only given a few weeks to live but he has thrived in there. 'Then mum had a series of unfortunate incidents including falling at home and breaking her hip and wrist and had to go into hospital. She actually ended up getting Covid but had mild symptoms for her age. The happy couple spent their anniversary looking over old photos with members of staff Among the well wishers on their anniversary was The Queen who sent a telegram to congratulate them 'They don't share a room and are on different floors but they can see each other every day like they've done since they married when dad was 20.' Many of the UK's 400,000 care home residents have spent nearly a year in isolation without being able to hug their family members due to the pandemic. And several of those who were able to have visitors have done so through screens and windows. From March 8 homes will be reopened to allow visits from one friend or family member who will be permitted to go indoors to hold hands but not hug or kiss as long as they have tested negative for Covid and are wearing PPE. Care home manager Matthew Cox said: 'It's been really incredible to bring people back together during these difficult times. 'It has shined a light on what we have to look forward to for the future of our residents, our hardworking staff and the people that we love.' The Kremlin is concerned by the developments in Armenia after the army demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign in a move Pashinyan said looked like an attempted coup, but believes it is exclusively a domestic affair of the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. "We are following the developments in Armenia with a sense of concern," Peskov said when asked about the Kremlins view on the situation in Armenia. "And believe this to be exclusively a domestic affair of Armenia our very important and close ally in the Caucasus." Earlier on Thursday, the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff issued a statement demanding resignations of the prime minister and government in light of the current situation and recommending that the use of force should be avoided. The general staff also noted, "the prime minister and the Armenian government are no longer able to make adequate decisions in this crisis and the crucial situation for the Armenian people." Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan then sacked Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan, slammed the militarys demand as an attempted coup and called on his supporters to rally in Republic Square in downtown Yerevan. Murdoch University has started its new year by flagging the sudden departure of two deans, with reports more than a dozen students have been wrongly enrolled in defunct courses, one of whom was an international student whose visa was now in jeopardy. The universitys College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education is at the centre of the turmoil, having also readvertised the job belonging to a senior technician tasked with organising students labs, with teaching workloads across science, technology, engineering and mathematics not formalised. Murdoch University. Credit:Aja Styles In an email sent out to staff on Wednesday, the university said the colleges Dean of Academic Operations, Associate Professor Graham Hardy, and Dean of Learning and Teaching, Professor Mark Israel, have decided to leave, with last Friday being their final day. The pair had only served in their roles for about 1 years and attempts by WAtoday to reach them before publication were unsuccessful. The junior senator from Texas found himself in yet another Twitter spat. This time, it's over the nomination of Xavier Becerra to head the Health and Human Services department. Ted Cruz and GOP company cried foul in a letter to President Joe Biden that Becerra was unqualified for the position because he's not a physician. CANCUN FALLOUT: Now you can take out your frustrations on Ted Cruz ... sort of Becerra famously sued the Trump administration more than 100 times as attorney general of California. He's a staunch supporter of the Affordable Care Act and would lead the department as it continues to battle through the pandemic. "(Obamacare) has been life-changing and now through this pandemic, we can all see the value in having greater access to quality health care at affordable prices," Becerra said told the New York Times in June. "Now is not the time to rip away our best tool to address very real and very deadly health disparities in our communities." On Fox News, Cruz derided Becerra as a "trial lawyer" who shouldn't be in charge of the department as the pandemic rages on. He also pointed out that Becerra, in defending people's access to contraception, wound up suing a group of litigious Catholics who intervened in a federal lawsuit. He echoed some of his comments on Twitter, which got the attention of noted historian Kevin M. Kruse. Kruse poked the senator even further, defending Becerra's reputation as former U.S. congressman and attorney general of California. Cruz doubled down. Kruse pointed out that the department's last head was also a trial lawyer, appointed by former President Donald Trump and confirmed by senators, including Cruz. "... Almost none of the HHS/HEW secretaries in US history have been scientists or doctors," Kruse tweeted. "That includes the last one you happily voted to confirm." Cruz responded by calling the historian a "lefty pundit." Kruse appears to have ended the back-and-forth and has yet to respond. Cruz has already moved on to tweeting about the gender of toy potatoes. It's a fair criticism that Bacerra is not a physician leading the department. Before Biden announced his nominee, several prominent doctors advocated for a pick who's a physician and were shocked when he was announced, according to the New York Times. But even after pushing for a doctor to lead the department, experts praised the nomination. Dr. Ada Stewart, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, told The Times that Becerra was a "good choice." "Weve already seen his commitment to health and equity, and those things cant be overlooked," Stewart said. Whether Cruz's arguments have merit is overshadowed by his rolling in the mud on Twitter, of which there's no short supply. While he and 10 other Republican senators signed off on the letter asked Biden to withdraw the nomination, Bacerra is expected to be approved without any issue, according to Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo News. The couple married in 2015. The divorce was initiated last year by the husband, who was identified only by a surname, Chen, according to news reports. The wife, whose last name is Wang, had been taking care of the couples son after she and her husband started living apart in 2018. Emotionally together," Chabad will be hosting Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff on Sunday, March 14 at 10 a.m. Zuroff is the chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the director of the Center's Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs. For four decades, he has played a major role in facilitating the prosecution of many Nazi war criminals all over the world. He is the author of four books (translated into 15 languages) and numerous articles on Holocaust-related issues and their impact on the Jewish world. His latest book is "Our People; Discovering Lithuania's Hidden H... Railways Minister-designate, John Peter Amewu has withdrawn a description he made about Mr John Dramani Mahama to the effect that the Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in last years elections, was a conman. He withdrew the comment after appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament during his vetting on Wednesday February 24. Mr Amewu, when he was the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, descried former President Mahama as a conman who failed to honour promises his administration made for the mining sector. His comment came after the former Ghanaian leader delivered what they consider as an unfavourable assessment of governments anti-galamsey efforts. What has Mahama been able to do? Today, we have created a lot of mining districts, weve created 12 mining districts and 33 satellite districts. We are bringing mining back to the decentralization level. The small-scale mining which was in the status quo was supposed to have mining communities. These were not inaugurated in all the years Mahama was President, we have just inaugurated them, bringing mining to the community of the owners of the resources. Decentralization, this is the approach, so I am so disappointed in [Mahama]. He cannot address the problems. Im telling the small-scale miners that this gentleman is a con man. Hes deceiving them and if they dare go in for him just because of galamsey, this country will come down, he said about Mr Mahama When asked what informed this comment and whether he himself is also a conman, by Awutu Senya West Lawmaker Gizella Tetteh Agbotui during the vetting Mr Amewu who is also MP for Hohoe said Mr Chairman, I am not a conman. Yes it is on record that I have used that word. It was in reaction to a statement that I issued when I was the Lands minister, the implications and the dictate of that word was in a context at the time I was issuing that statement. The conman was not directed to what the interpretation might have been made. Of course, it was not an appropriate word to use at the time. In that context I have withdrawn that word. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has hailed the verdict of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London to extradite Nirav Modi as a significant achievement in the context of CBI's efforts to curb corruption. In a statement issued, the CBI said that the judgement is a reminder that fugitives, who have eluded the process of law after committing large value frauds, cannot consider themselves above the process merely because they have changed jurisdictions. "The judgement also vindicates the painstaking investigation by CBI, especially since Nirav Modi had raised various issues with regard to the admissibility of evidence, the fairness of investigation, trial, prison conditions, availability of health facilities in India and extraneous consideration, with a view to divert attention from his own acts," says the CBI statement. The UK court accepted the contention of Government of India to extradite Modi. The court delivered the verdict today, wherein it held that the evidence against Modi is prima facie sufficient to order his extradition to India to face the charges. The court also upheld the assurances of Government of India and rejected the submissions of defence regarding human rights violations, fair trial and prison conditions. Rejecting the arguments of defence, the Court decided to send his case to the Secretary of the State, UK for final decision. ALSO READ: Nirav Modi extradition verdict: Too early to celebrate, say legal experts CBI had registered the case on January 31, 2018, against the partner of three private firms and others including then officials of Punjab National Bank (PNB) on a complaint from the lender alleging that the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy to defraud it of Rs 6,498 crore (approximately) by fraudulently issuing Letters of Undertaking (LoUs). During investigation, CBI conducted searches at 42 premises and arrested fifteen persons. A large number of witnesses were examined and voluminous documents were collected. Investigation revealed that the accused officials of the PNB, in connivance with said owners of the firms and others, had fraudulently issued a large number of LoUs to overseas banks for obtaining buyer's credit in favour of said three firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in the CBS system of the bank. Investigation further revealed that the fraud was allegedly perpetrated despite the circulars issued by RBI. The first charge sheet was filed on May 14, 2018, against 25 accused including Modi. The second charge sheet was filed on December 20, 2019, against 30 accused persons, including 25 accused charge-sheeted earlier in respect of 150 outstanding fraudulent LOUs which had resulted in wrongful loss of Rs 6,805 crore (approximately) to PNB. This included the interest and other charges paid by the bank to overseas banks which had extended the buyer's credit to the said 3 accused firms of Nirav Modi on the strength of the fraudulent LOUs of PNB. ALSO READ: Nirav Modi to be extradited to India; Arthur Road Jail fit for him, rules UK court It was also alleged that Modi in conspiracy with other accused had siphoned off the funds obtained as buyer's credit through dummy companies established by him in Dubai and Hong Kong. These companies were shown as exporter of pearls to three Nirav Modi firms and importer of pearl-studded jewellery from these firms. Modi had fled India on January 1, 2018, before CBI registered the case. Non-bailable arrest warrant was issued by the trial court against him on May 23, 2018, and red corner notice was also issued against him on June 29, 2018, by Interpol. The first extradition request was sent by CBI to the United Kingdom for Modi's extradition in August 2018. Nirav Modi was arrested by UK Police in London on March 19, 2019. His repeated applications for bail, were rejected by the Westminster Magistrates' Court and High Court, London. After second charge sheet was filed on December 20, 2019, additional evidences were submitted to the Court in London for the total fraud amount of Rs 6,805 crore. In addition, second extradition request for the offences of intimidating witnesses and destruction of evidence was also submitted to the UK government. The extradition proceedings against Modi were initiated before the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. In extradition requests, CBI submitted voluminous oral and documentary evidence to substantiate the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal misconduct by public servants, destruction of evidence and criminal intimidation of evidence. The hearing of first extradition request was held in Westminster Magistrates' Court, London during May 2020 and the hearing of second extradition request was held during September 2020. The video of barrack of Arthur Road Prison in Mumbai, submitted by Government of India was also played in the court. The hearing on admissibility of the evidence was held on November 3, 2020, and the final submissions by the both sides were made before the court in January 2021. ALSO READ: ED attaches Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Group's assets worth Rs 14.45 crore 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. CNN is giving actor Stanley Tucci more time to explore Italy, renewing his series for a second season. Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy debuted on Valentine's Day on CNN, earning 1.52 million viewers, according to Deadline. The second episode, which aired on Sunday night, improved to 1.64 million viewers in the fast nationals, while coming out on top in the 25-44 demographic. Renewed: CNN is giving actor Stanley Tucci more time to explore Italy, renewing his series for a second season Debut: Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy debuted on Valentine's Day on CNN, earning 1.52 million viewers, according to Deadline The series follows the 60-year-old actor as he explores different regions of Italy and their respective culinary scenes. The first episode followed the actor as he explore the food and drink of Naples and the Amalfi Coast, while the second explored Rome. The third episode, which airs on Sunday, takes The Witches star to the Bologna region of Italy. Culinary guru: The series follows the 60-year-old actor as he explores different regions of Italy and their respective culinary scenes The second season will debut in 2022, though it's unclear when production may begin. The new season will follow Tucci as he explores, 'the culinary delights and cultures of several new regions throughout Italy, one of the world's most fascinating and beautiful countries,' according to the network description. Executive producers for Searching for Italy are Adam Hawkins, Eve Kay, and Stanley Tucci for RAW, Amy Entelis and Lyle Gamm for CNN Original Series. Second season: The second season will debut in 2022, though it's unclear when production may begin Tucci himself reacted to the news by sharing Deadline's headline of the renewal, adding, 'Can't wait! I'm starving ....' The actor also voices Bitsy Bradenham on the Apple TV Plus series Central Park, which was also renewed for a second season, debuting this summer. He has also signed on to play adventurer Frank Wild in the new AMC series La Fortuna, though it's unclear when that show will debut. Can't wait: Tucci himself reacted to the news by sharing Deadline's headline of the renewal, adding, 'Can't wait! I'm starving ....' Tucci will also reprise his role as Dr. Abraham Erskine from the 2011 Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger in the new series What If...? later this year. He will also portray Merlin in The King's Man, the third installment in the Kingsman movie series, debuting on August 20. He also has Jolt, with Kate Beckinsale, Jai Courtney, Bobby Cannavale and Laverne Cox in post-production, and The Man Who Saved Paris in pre-production. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 16:42:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Feb. 17, 2021 shows the first batch of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at Blaise Diagne International Airport in Dakar, Senegal. (Xinhua/Xing Jianqiao) As COVID-19 infections and deaths are still surging in Africa and other less developed areas, it is urgent for the international community to come together to reject vaccine nationalism and promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, so as to make them accessible and affordable to all. by Xinhua writer Cao Kai NAIROBI, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- With the timely arrival of China's Sinopharm vaccine, Senegal on Tuesday officially began the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, taking one step further in its fight against the pandemic. The delivery once again showed not only the solid friendship between China and Africa, but also China's honoring of its commitment to making Chinese COVID-19 vaccines a "global public good" accessible and affordable to people around the world. During the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 held last year, China pledged that African countries will be "among the first to benefit" from Chinese vaccines. It has walked the talk indeed -- China has donated to Zimbabwe a batch of Sinopharm vaccine, and will offer another batch soon. Other African countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Egypt and Morocco have also received Chinese vaccines which enabled them to launch their vaccination campaigns. A healthcare worker shows a Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at Wilkins Hospital in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, Feb. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Shaun Jusa) So far, China has provided vaccine assistance to 53 developing countries in need, and exported vaccines to 22 countries. It has also decided to provide 10 million vaccine doses to multilateral vaccine alliance COVAX to meet the urgent needs of developing countries, many of which are in Africa. "These vaccines are certainly providing a new light of positivity for the people of Zimbabwe in these tough times ... a light at the end of a dark tunnel," said Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa. In fact, China, a country that firmly believes that solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon against the virus, has been fulfilling its responsibilities as a major country and fighting shoulder to shoulder with African countries against the common threat facing mankind ever since the outbreak. Apart from delivering anti-epidemic materials and sending medical teams to African countries, China has also become the biggest helper among the Group of 20 in terms of relieving African debt. By the end of 2020, it had signed debt service suspension agreements with 12 African countries, and reduced or waived the interest-free loans of 15 African nations. As Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo put it, China's longstanding support to Africa's fight against the pandemic is a testament to the friendship between the two peoples. Medical workers take part in a vigil in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec. 31, 2020. (Photo by Yeshiel/Xinhua) Viruses know no borders. Leaving the world's least developed areas unvaccinated will inevitably perpetuate more infections and deaths across the world, and prolong the global fight against the pandemic. Sadly, it is happening -- despite efforts by countries like China, there is still a huge disparity in global vaccine distribution as some rich countries are hoarding vaccines. According to Duke University's Global Health Innovation Center, as of mid-January, high-income countries, which represent only 16 percent of the world's population, had taken 60 percent of available doses. The world faces a "catastrophic moral failure" because of unequal COVID-19 vaccine policies, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned, adding it is not fair for younger, healthy people in richer countries to get injections before vulnerable people in poorer ones. Vaccination is not a race among countries, but rather a race against time. As COVID-19 infections and deaths are still surging in Africa and other less developed areas, it is urgent for the international community to come together to reject vaccine nationalism and promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, so as to make them accessible and affordable to all. Let's do a little experiment, shall we? Place a piece of paper over the head of the woman pictured above and just look at the rest of her. Fabulous, isn't she? She looks slightly edgy, well put together and ready for anything wolf whistles, even. Remove the piece of paper. Has your verdict changed? Are you thinking that, given the model is 64, she should be in a droopy tweed skirt, flats and dreary M&S cardigan, hoping to remain invisible? That by wearing a mini, she is mutton dressed as foetus, and who on earth does she think she is? Well, I think she looks fantastic. There is still much debate about whether Mary Quant invented the mini in 1964; the French believe Andre Courreges got there first. Barbara Hulanicki, who founded the iconic Biba store in 1964, once told me: 'The crucial difference is that, back then, we didn't expect to stay young for ever. When you got married, there was no longer any pressure to look young.' Jumper, 159, winserlondon. com; skirt, 81.75, karenmillen. com; shoes, 69, hobbs.com; earrings (worn throughout) 95, merola.co.uk Jumper, 59.95, massimo dutti.com; leather skirt, 195, and check scarf, 85, reiss. com; shoes, 215, russelland bromley. co.uk Polo-neck, 79, tedbaker.com; dress, 22.40, laredoute. co.uk; boots, 270, reiss.com Jumper, 109, whistles.com; scarf, 10.20, asos.com; skirt, 27.99, zara.com; boots, 49.99, hm.com Women were meant to settle down and become mums, which inevitably meant stopping having fun, and covering their knees. The original mini died in 1968, after four short (literally) years, killed by the Pill (women grew hips) and feminism (women grew brains). And now? We know full well we can wear what we choose. Today, we 50 and 60somethings are a different species to our mums' generation. We've had great nutrition, gyms, Pilates and careers. We've lived and laughed. No way in hell are we going to stop now. Just look at the preternaturally ageless Amanda Holden, 50, who braved a mini in January. Jumper dress, 89, whistles. com; shoes, 135, ghbasseu. com; necklace, 110, jcrew. com; bangle, 12, oliver bonas.com Cape, 149, winser london.com; skirt, 29.50, marksand spencer.com; boots, 345, russelland bromley.co.uk Blazer, 89.99, zara. com; v-neck jumper, 14.99, hm.com; poloneck, 90, jigsawonline. com; skirt, 22, next.co.uk; shoes, 85, stories .com The catwalks for spring/summer have unleashed a mini revival notably Miu Miu, Chanel and Giambattista Valli, which all featured minis, from the preppy to tweed and even bright white. This green pleated version by Karen Millen (far left), and the brown pleated one from Zara (middle) are my favourites. And if you hate your knees, as I do, the Russell & Bromley boots (second from right) are just the ticket. There is a trick to getting this look right. I never thought I would type this, as I always sport bare legs (even in snow). But with a mini, wear tights and only black will do; you are not a royal, so avoid anything American Tan or shimmery. And 20-denier plus: you'll feel more 'dressed'. Avoid super-high heels as you'll come across a bit town-centre-on-a-Friday-night and, yes, I'd say that to a woman aged 20, too. Have the hem hit the narrowest part of your thigh and, as in these photos, layer volume and coverage elsewhere: a cape, a roll-neck, mannish tailoring. The best accessory of all, of course, is confidence. Remember, leggings and skinny jeans can be far less forgiving. So if you like your legs, just go for it! When social media began fluttering the night of Feb. 17 with supposed news and pictures that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was flying to Cancun, there were three reasons to be skeptical. First, while the man with the Come and Take It mask looked like the Cruz who wore a Come and Take It mask during President Joe Bidens inauguration that didnt mean it was him. Second, if it was Cruz, those could have been old photos taken months or years ago. Third, its hard to think the Harvard Law School-educated Cruz would be so stupid, insensitive and tone deaf to travel to Cancun during a historic and deadly winter storm that left millions of his constituents without power. He was. Sigh. The senator then compounded his faux pas with layers of excuses and lies as thick as the snowfall he was fleeing. In an initial statement to CNN, Cruz said: With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. An adult blaming their mistakes on their 10-year-old and 12-year-old daughters is always a bad look. Its especially awful when it confirms and cements a pattern about character. In 2016, Donald Trump mocked Cruzs wifes looks and falsely suggested Cruzs father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The trashing of his wife and father didnt refrain Cruz from becoming such a Trump toady that he shamelessly aided the ex-presidents attempt to overturn the election results of 2020. By the time Cruz stood in front of his house, the next day, admitting his mistake, he was the subject of countless memes and GIFS. People have defended Cruz by saying, as a senator, there was little he could do regarding the power grid, which is ridiculous. He is one of the states two highest elected federal officials, positions that have a symbolic power beyond those laid out in the Constitution. During a catastrophic emergency, people expect a senator to visit hard-hit areas, see how people are doing, comfort them, listen to them and learn what they need to be a better advocate for them. This is what elected officials at all levels of government sign up for. That Cruz wasnt moved to do this as he booked flights to Mexico is stunning. Even if he couldnt see the inherent humane value in physically helping victims of the storm, certainly he could see the political consequences of skipping town? New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used her huge social media following to raise $5 million for Texans hurt by the storm and traveled to Houston, over the weekend, to see the damage and talk to people. Former U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke, who narrowly lost to Cruz in the 2018 election, organized volunteers who have made about 900,000 wellness checks and delivered food and water to Texans, especially seniors. Besides the substantial material goods they provided, Ocasio-Cortez and ORourke demonstrated the importance of compassionate presence, of being there, wherever there is, when people are hurting. We have called for Cruz expulsion from the Senate for supporting Trumps attack on democracy, which led to a blood-thirsty attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. That call remains. Cruzs role in one of the most shameful episodes in our history, and his flight to Cancun during the storm, showed the senators self-interest comes before that of his constituents and his country. He doesnt deserve your vote. With the Sex and the City gang set to come back for new episodes on HBO Max, fans can expect to once again dive into Carrie Bradshaw's extravagant Manhattan life. But while Carrie's life was always over-the-top think Upper East Side apartment, enviable designer shoe collection, and a social life packed with restaurants and nightclubs fans have frequently pointed out over the years that she couldn't possibly maintain it on a freelance writer's salary. Though the situation may have been a bit less dire in 1998, crunching the numbers today reveals that Carrie would be racking up thousands of dollars of debt a month. Get ready: Crunching the numbers on Sex and the City reveals that Carrie Bradshaw would be racking up thousands of dollars of debt a month Income: Angelic Diamonds estimates that as a freelance writer today, she'd make $81,800 before taxes, or $4,793 a month after taxes Angelic Diamonds did the math on how Carrie's pricey lifestyle would hold up today, and found that the dating columnist could seriously benefit from a financial literacy course. Glassdoor estimates that freelance writers in New York City earn, on average, between $39,000 and $88,000. As Carrie was already pretty established with her own newspaper column when the series kicked off, Angelic Diamonds estimated she would fall on the higher-paid end of the spectrum, giving her a salary of $81,800 before taxes. New York City has some of the highest taxes in the country, with residents paying on the federal, state, and city level. Based on filing as a single person and not contributing at all to a retirement fund Carrie's take-home pay would likely amount to $57,515 annually, or $4,793 a month. Now comes the spending. Carrie lived in a studio apartment on the Upper East Side at 245 E. 73rd St. Angelic Diamonds estimates that she'd spend $3,250 on rent. No roommates! Carrie lived in a studio apartment on the Upper East Side at 245 E. 73rd St. Angelic Diamonds estimates that she'd spend $3,250 on rent Wow! Carrie doesn't cook, meaning all of her meals are purchased on-the-go or at restaurants. Angelic Diamonds estimates that, on average, she'd spend $2,720 per month on meals CARRIE'S ESTIMATED SPENDING EXPENSE PRICE Rent Bills (electric, internet) Taxis Breakfast (bagel and coffee) Lunch (with a drink) Dinner Cocktails at brunch with the girls Designer shoes TOTAL INCOMING PER MONTH TOTAL OUTGOING PER MONTH MONTHLY DEBT $3,250/month $220/month $20/day $7.65/day $18/day $65/day $12 each $2,117/month $4,793 $9,099 $4,306 Apartment prices fluctuate in any given neighborhood, and New York City rent prices are currently quite low due to the pandemic meaning if she were renting right now, she could really be spending as little as $1,700 to live on her block, according to Street Easy. But assuming her rent is $3,250, that would leave Carrie with just $1,543 to spend on everything else each month. And she certainly doesn't come in under budget. Carrie famously doesn't cook, meaning all of her meals are purchased on-the-go or at restaurants. Angelic Diamonds estimates that, on average, she'd spend $7.65 every day on breakfast (for coffee and a bagel), $18 on lunch (with a drink), and $65 on dinner plus a little extra for brunch with the girls on the weekend. That would bring her total spending on meals to $2,720 per month which already puts her $1,177 over budget. She'd also need about $220 a month for her electric and gas bills and internet, plus $20 a day on taxis. Finally, there's the fashion. Carrie is constantly buying new clothes and accessories, and she's hardly shopping at H&M. Spend away! Among the items in her closet or multiple pairs of Louboutins and Manolo Blahniks and if she bought one new pair of each a month, she'd be spending about $2,117 Yikes! Ultimately, according to Angelic Diamonds, Carrie would only be making $4,793 a month but she'd be spending $9,099 a month, racking up $4,306 of debt each month Among the items in her closet or multiple pairs of Louboutins and Manolo Blahniks and if she bought one new pair of each a month, she'd be spending about $2,117. She also owns a Christian Dior dress ($3,500), Vivienne Westwood skirt ($740), Dolce & Gabbana coat ($2,395), Fendi Baguette bag ($2,290), Dior Saddle bag ($3,950), a Verdura Target brooch ($24,500). Ultimately, according to Angelic Diamonds, Carrie would only be making $4,793 a month but she'd be spending $9,099 a month, racking up $4,306 of debt each month. This isn't the first time viewers have crunched the numbers to estimate how much Carrie was really spending and while the amounts have differed every time, everyone comes to the same conclusion that she's terribly bad with money. In 2011, Stephanie Georgopulos did her own math for Thought Catalog, estimating that Carrie made just $15,400 per year as a freelance writer in the late '90s and early '00s, considering her only writing for much of the show appears to be a single weekly newspaper column. Her estimated spending, though, was $22,000 a year, accounting for $750 per month on a rent stabilized apartment, $49 per month on cigarettes, $132 per month on drinks, and $303 per month on shoes. In 2018, James Jackson of BuzzFeed did his own math with some not-so-pretty results. He estimated that Carrie was paid $4,000 pre-tax each month, but spent five times that on expenses, including $14,583 on shopping alone. Those numbers came out to $17,000 worth of debt every single month, or $200,000 of debt a year. Over the course of six seasons of the show, she'd have come away with over $1.2 million in debt. Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) workers union decided to go ahead with the bus strike from Monday to press for their demands, including timely payment of salaries. The bus strike would put citizens to inconvenience as Raksha Bandhan is being celebrated on Monday. The BEST employees and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been at the loggerheads for the past few days over several issues, including irregular payment of salary. The BEST employees union led by Shashank Rao, which claims to have support of 16,500 workers, said, We wanted a written assurance from the BMC administration but they did not give it. Now, we have decided not to report to duty from midnight. No bus will ply tomorrow. The Maharashtra government has warned of invoking Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), 2011 against the employees who go on strike. We want a solution and it lies with the BMC, which says BEST employees are its own. BEST employees should get all the facilities that a BMC employee gets. We want a letter from the the civic commissioner admitting that BEST is very much part of BMC, he said. The union had already announced that it would go on strike from August 7, which prompted the civic administration to hold an urgent meeting today and hold talks with the various unions of the BEST. Around nine unions of the BEST formed an action committee, which has been holding talks with the administration. Even Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tried to intervene in the matter this afternoon, though it failed to resolve the issue. The last meeting with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was also failed to satisfy the union, which is why it decided to go ahead with the strike. There are over 35,000 employees working in the transport section of the BEST. In the last 12 years, the BEST fleet has gone up, but number of commuters is now less than 30 lakh, which was earlier over 40 lakh, a BEST official said. BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagade said, We have agreed to make payment to our employees before August 10. Similarly, BEST will pay the salary by 10th of every month. We have taken this decision irrespective of the financial crisis BEST is facing. [February 24, 2021] Community Catalysts to Partner with STRIVE on Unique Online Program Community Catalysts of California today announced a new partnership with STRIVE. This partnership makes Community Catalysts of California the exclusive California provider of STRIVE WorldWIDE online educational content to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in California. Community Catalysts of California and STRIVE will be working together over the next few months to implement Community Catalysts of California's online educational program. Community Catalysts of California will also be seeking funding approval from state regional centers. "We are very excited to be partnering with STRIVE to bring this very innovative and accessible service option to California to better meet the needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism," says Wendy Forkas, CEO at Community Catalysts of California. "Everyone at STRIVE is thrilled with this new partnership with Community Catalysts of California. We are proud of the STRIVE WorldWIDE platform and very excited to expand the program to California. We feel that Community Catalysts of California is a great fit for our goals and a significant next step for our program," said Dr. Anne Ryan, the Program Director of STRIVE WorldWIDE. The benefits of this new partnership include. Access of STRIVE WorldWIDE educational content t individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in California Proven and successful online service option for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism First-of-its-kind post-secondary programming designed with neurodiverse learners in mind which can serve as a bridge to other traditional post-secondary programs About Community Catalysts of California: Community Catalysts of California is a nonprofit 501(c)(3), organization that provides community-living skills training, residential support, in-home respite care, crisis intervention, rapid re-housing, vocational counseling, job placement and other services to individuals and their families throughout California. Various private, federal, state, and local agencies as well as generous donors in the community support us. We have successfully provided services for thirty-eight years creating limitless pathways for individuals and their families to belong where they live, work, learn, and play reaching their highest level of self-sufficiency and independence. For more information about Community Catalysts, please visit our website, http://www.communitycatalystscalifornia.org, or call 858-292-2024. About STRIVE: STRIVE is a Maine-based 501(c)(3) organization that serves individuals with intellectual disabilities as well as individuals with mental health issues. After providing services in-person to Maine residents for over 20 years, STRIVE WorldWIDE is a first-of-its-kind effort at bringing these services online to teach independent living skills. For more information on STRIVE, you can visit www.pslstrive.org or call (207) 879-0847. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210224006217/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The company has also boosted its financial and compliance capabilities with the appointment of two key officials a new company secretary and chief financial officer. Samples at the Mt Dimer Mining Lease, which is highly prospective for Archean gold. ( ) has completed a 26-hole, 3,367-metre, drilling campaign at the Mt Dimer Mining Lease in WAs Goldfields four days early and within budget. This was mainly due to the efficiency of drilling, logistics and geology teams along with excellent ground conditions. All samples from the campaign have been dispatched to the laboratory where tests for gold-silver mineralisation are being undertaken and results are expected shortly. To model JORC-compliant resource TSC CEO Simon Phillips said: Thanks to the excellent work of our drilling, logistics and geology teams, the campaign at the Mt Dimer Mining lease has been completed well ahead of schedule. The next priority, as the assays are returned, is for our geology consultants to model up a JORC-compliant resource and be across the regulatory process to start-up mining operations. Geology consultants will factor in historical and upcoming assays to model a JORC-compliant resource estimate for Mt Dimer. The company has also mandated these consultants to review the regulatory processes and timelines to potentially re-start mining operations. With TSCs strategic agenda focused on three projects in WAs Goldfields, the companys board has decided to relocate the head-office from Adelaide to Perth from March 1, 2021. Key appointments To enhance its capabilities in Perth as well as its financial and compliance capabilities, the company has appointed Dale Hanna as company secretary and Amy Fink as chief financial officer and collectively they will bring more than 40 years experience to the team. Hanna has more than 20 years experience in working in CFO, company secretary, corporate advisory and governance roles, and has worked with many listed-ASX groups primarily involved in the mining and natural resources sectors, ranging from exploration, development and production phases. He is a chartered accountant and secretary, with current memberships at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and Governance Institute of Australia respectively. Fink is an experienced chartered accountant, with a professional career spanning 18 years across Ernst & Young (Perth), publicly listed groups - predominantly in the mining exploration sector - large private entities and NFPs. Other than Australia, she has worked extensively in the UK in a variety of roles and has a Bachelor of Accounting and Finance from Curtin University and is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Phillips added: The board would like to thank outgoing CFO & company secretary Damien Connor for his invaluable contribution to TSC over his time with the company, and welcome Dale Hanna and Amy Fink to the team. Next steps Next steps at the Mt Dimer Mining Lease comprise the following priority tasks: Progress releasing assay results; and JORC modelling drilling data and reviewing the process to recommence mining operations. The geology consultants are continuing to formulate exploration plans for TSCs other WA Goldfields properties, including: 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. "To give this bill a favorable report as amended, all in favor say aye... aye... Anyone opposed...Thank you committee. We're one step closer in delivering wine, beer and spirits," That is the unanimous approval from the Alabama House Judiciary Committee in Montgomery on a bill that would allow for home delivery of wine, beer and spirits in the state of Alabama. It's called SB-126 and WAAY-31 spoke with business owners who would love to see this bill become law. Managers are saying this could help with revenue but if the bill passes and some believe it could help save a life as well. At Phat Sammy's, chef and partner, Jeremy Esterly says he loves to see his customers come out and have a good time. But if someone wants more than a few drinks, patrons can get them delivered and not have to worry about driving drunk... and helping the business stay out of trouble. "if they just stay at home and they're continuing to drink then it also kind of helps out in that regard, too, and reduces some of the liability on our end," he said. In the text of the bill, it says a restaurant or related business can sell drinks to be delivered through a third-party service like GrubHub or Uber Eats, or by hiring their own drivers. The participating business would need to purchase an additional license and once delivered the customer would need their ID present to be allowed a hand-off. Wednesday afternoon, there was an amendment added and passed that now includes craft breweries to be part of the fun, and Yellowhammer Brewery told us this is a big step for places like them. "Happy to be a part of the retail community and to helping the public adjust to all these changes we're having to go through right now," said Ethan Couch. Ethan Couch is the general manager at Yellowhammer and told us customers have been begging them to do this since last year when they started doing to-go beer sales. He says this could also make it safer for those who aren't comfortable dining out yet. "We did curbside delivery and now if we can do home delivery, that would make it even easier and better for people who are struggling with this part of the pandemic," he said. Though many bars declined to comment Wednesday night, lots of people told us theyre excited to hear about this and hope it pulls all the way through. "It makes sense for us to do this too, because it's just going to increase revenue and hopefully more exposure for those that are afraid to come out," said Esterly. Even though the bill passed quickly and unanimously, it still needs to pass in the full House and Senate. Honduras will acquire 70,000 doses of Russias Sputnik-V vaccine against COVID-19, Foreign Minister Lisandro Rosales said on Wednesday, making it the second direct deal the Central American country has signed, Reuters reports. Rosales told local television channel HCH the country hopes to negotiate another delivery from Russia for a similar number of doses. Honduras is also expecting a 5,000 dose-donation of Moderna Incs COVID-19 vaccines from Israel, allocated for medical personnel. Scheduled to arrive on Thursday, it would be the first batch of vaccines to land in the country. Married At First Sight's Bryce Ruthven broke his wife Melissa Rawson's heart by telling her she wasn't his usual type during Wednesday's episode. But on Thursday, the 31-year-old radio host said that despite Melissa not being the type of woman he'd normally go for, they actually had sex often on their honeymoon. Bryce told The Kyle and Jackie O Show: 'It's a honeymoon, so what would you reckon? There was a fair bit going on.' What a dog! Married At First Sight's Bryce Ruthven has revealed he slept with Melissa Rawson many times on their honeymoon despite telling her she's 'not his type'. Pictured on a late-night grocery run during filming in Sydney in October KIIS FM host Jackie 'O' Henderson said the pair's active sex life made his thoughtless comments about Melissa's appearance 'so much worse'. Defending himself, Bryce replied: 'Obviously if I'm sleeping with Melissa, there is some sort of attraction there, so I understand why people are saying some things.' 'You're not going to sleep with someone on the first night that you're not attracted to in some way,' he added. Confession: During Wednesday's episode, Bryce bluntly told his wife she wasn't the type of woman he'd normally go for Bonking: Bryce spoke about the pair's sex life on Thursday, telling The Kyle and Jackie O Show: 'It's a honeymoon, so what would you reckon? There was a fair bit going on' 'I thought she was gorgeous, just not my normal type,' Bryce clarified, to which host Kyle Sandilands responded: 'There's nothing wrong with that then, so you did answer honestly, you still had sex with her.' Bryce continued: 'Melissa is an amazing human being and I don't have a bad word to say about her, and obviously last night [on the show] I had a few words I could have said differently.' The interview comes after the couple were spotted arriving back at their apartment in Sydney, which they shared while filming the Channel Nine dating show. Attraction: 'Obviously if I'm sleeping with Melissa, there is some sort of attraction there, so I can understand why people are saying some things,' he told the hosts Spotted: The interview comes after the couple were spotted arriving back at their apartment in Sydney, which they shared while filming the Channel Nine dating show They'd been for a late-night grocery run in October when they were spotted by a Daily Mail Australia photographer. Melissa appeared in much better spirits compared to her sorry state on Wednesday's episode. She was glammed up for the outing, wearing a full face of makeup which included foundation and pink lipstick. The Melbourne-based workplace trainer wore a tangerine top which she paired with black jeans and an oversized trench coat. She completed her look with white Adidas sneakers. Domestic bliss? They'd been for a late-night grocery run in October when they were spotted by a Daily Mail Australia photographer Good mood? Melissa appeared in much better spirits compared to her sorry state on Wednesday's episode, when she was left heartbroken on her honeymoon Occupied: Bryce appeared to be more focused on his iPhone than holding hands with his wife Bryce appeared to be more focused on his iPhone than holding hands with his wife. The outspoken radio announcer opted for comfort in a red hoodie, which he teamed with black jeans and thongs. During Wednesday's episode, Melissa burst into tears after Bryce said she wasn't 100 per cent his type. Cruel remark: 'I've always gone for the blonde hair, blue eyes, tanned kind of girl, and someone that's, like, usually taller,' Bryce told Melissa on their honeymoon 'I've always gone for the blonde hair, blue eyes, tanned kind of girl, and someone that's, like, usually taller,' he told his bride on their honeymoon. Bryce then confessed he probably wouldn't go up to Melissa in a bar and buy her a drink, which made her burst into tears. 'But definitely when I first saw you, I was like... "You're not my type, you have got blonde hair... She's not ugly!"' he continued. Married At First Sight continues Thursday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine A man who stabbed his wife to death outside a Sydney hospital was fixated on the belief that she was having affairs with random strangers on the street, and believed she was conspiring to harm him or tamper with the brakes on his car, a court has heard. Mourad Kerollos, 62, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court accused of murdering his wife Gihan Gigi Kerollos, 47, as she left work at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick at about 8.30pm on May 18, 2019. Mourad Kerollos is led from court by Corrective Services on Thursday. Credit:Rhett Wyman Mr Kerollos does not deny he killed his wife of 24 years by stabbing her in the neck, but has entered a plea of not guilty due to mental illness. Acting Justice Peter Hidden must decide in the judge-alone trial if Mr Kerollos was so mentally ill at the time that he is not liable for murder, or if his liability is reduced to manslaughter. 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. Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran has discussed with Minister of National Defense of Canada Harjit Singh Sajjan the current security situation in Ukraine and around the borders, the website of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. During the conversation held on Thursday, the heads of the defense departments of Ukraine and Canada paid attention to the course of the practical implementation by Ukraine of the status of NATO partner with expanded capabilities and specified the directions of concentration of efforts in this area. "Our Canadian partners are constantly helping strengthen the institutional capacity of the Ukrainian defense department. Modern principles of defense management and democratic civilian control are being introduced, and leaders at the strategic and operational levels are being trained. Canada provides every opportunity to improve the skills and field training of units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the framework of the Operation UNIFIER. Therefore, Canada's key role in training the defense and security forces of Ukraine is undoubted," Taran said. In turn, the Minister of National Defense of Canada assured his Ukrainian counterpart of continued support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders, as well as in the implementation of military reform measures. Kakhaber Kemoklidze, who was appointed head of the government administration by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia in early February, has announced his resignation. "It is exactly after a decade of an active, dynamic and challenging service, the time has come for me to bid farewell to you as a civil servant and a former intelligence officer. I have always thought what to say in the event where this day would come," Kemoklidze wrote in a Facebook post yesterday. Kemoklidze said that throughout the past ten years, he had an honour to work with special people and leaders under both the previous and current governments. In his post Kemoklidze thanked former PM Gakharia for being a selfless (often physically inexplicable) hard worker, a remarkably quick thinker, a bearer of the right state values and an exemplary manager for many. In conclusion, he also wished success to new Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. "Although differences in terms of political views, religious beliefs, ethnicity, worldviews and so on, consolidating and uniting society is what Georgia needs as many challenges lie ahead. The strength of this country is only in Unity!" Kemoklidze said. "I say goodbye to you temporarily, we will meet again!" he concluded. NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Laugh.Events , an events company providing laughter as a service, and specializing in producing virtual comedy experiences for corporate audiences, today announced a new campaign, Employee Appreciation Month , focused on helping organizations celebrate their employees working remotely during the pandemic. Starting March 5th, Employee Appreciation Day, through March 31st, Laugh.Events will offer 20% discounts across all virtual corporate shows. These private shows are typically 15 minutes ( Sit Back and Laugh ), 30 minutes ( Laughing and Bonding ), or 60 minutes ( Workplace Variety Hour ). To culminate the campaign, Laugh.Events will offer a public virtual comedy show featuring some of NYC's best stand up comedians. To show their appreciation, this show will be free to all healthcare workers. "It's important for organizations to invest in the employee experience and build a strong foundation for a virtual corporate culture, especially as remote work becomes more common," said Kevin Hubschmann, founder of Laugh.Events. "Employees have had a difficult year adjusting to this new work environment and are struggling to maintain a sense of work/life balance. We're proud to unveil our Employee Appreciation Month campaign to celebrate employees around the world by coming together and sharing moments of laughter." Laugh.Events provides personalized comedy experiences to help employees bond through laughter. Personalized activities such as New Hire Trivia, Workplace Bingo and Workday Update put a spin on the traditional Zoom meeting and are hosted by some of NYC's most renowned stand-up comedians. Using fun facts submitted by audience members to customize their routines, the result is a show that creates memorable interactions and inside jokes that teams will talk about long after the event is over. Organizers looking to make their event even more special can add variety through discounted partnering organizations including: WineKey , Mixology Mixers , Hodde Bros Beverage Co. and Dan Chan Magic . For more information on Laugh.Events or to book a show, please visit laugh.events . About Laugh.Events Laugh.Events creates unforgettable comedy experiences for audiences who are looking to unwind, laugh, and have fun. These experiences come in the form of live in-person comedy (when safe) and virtual corporate experiences with your team or entire company. SOURCE Laugh.Events Related Links https://laugh.events Queenslands border will open to all of Victoria from Saturday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed. Ms Palaszczuk said the hotspot declaration for greater Melbourne would be revoked at 1am on Saturday, meaning interstate travellers would no longer have to quarantine upon entry to Queensland. Incoming passengers are screened by police as they arrive at the domestic terminal at Brisbane Airport. Credit:Dan Peled The only time Queensland had no interstate restrictions since the borders were first closed in March 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic reached Australia was for eight days in December. Greater Melbourne was declared a hotspot on February 13, that ends on Saturday, Ms Palaszczuk told Queensland Parliament on Thursday. Los Angeles County on Wednesday reported another 806 deaths from coronavirus during the winter surge, pushing California's toll above 50,000, or about one-tenth of the U.S. total from the pandemic. The county, which has a quarter of the state's 40 million residents, said the deaths mainly occurred between Dec. 3 and Feb. 3. The Department of Public Health identified them after going through death records that were backlogged by the sheer volume of the surge's toll. "It is heartbreaking to report on this large number of additional deaths associated with COVID-19 and a devastating reminder of the terrible toll the winter surge has taken on so many families across the county," Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County's health director, said in a statement. Johns Hopkins University put California's overall COVID-19 death toll at 50,890. The grim figure comes days after the U.S. recorded a half-million deaths. While the nation's most populous state has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., it is ranked 25th in the number of cases per capita because of its large population. The death toll climbed precipitously amid a fall and winter surge that has begun to taper off as cases and hospitalizations drop. Los Angeles County on Wednesday reported an additional 136 deaths, accounting for nearly half of the state's 314 additional deaths. The state has begun to ease more restrictions on businesses after lifting a stay-home order about a month ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to reopen schools soon despite opposition from teachers unions. It took 10 months for the state to hit 25,000 deaths on New Year's Eve and less than two months for that number to double. When the state hit the 40,000 death mark on Jan. 30, it had recorded 3,800 deaths in the previous week. In state figures reported through Tuesday, it recorded 2,370 deaths over the past week. Because of a lag from infection to illness to hospitalization and death, the number of deaths have fallen more slowly than infections. But deaths are expected to continue to drop. Deaths have hit the poor, and Latino and Black communities especially hard. People working essential jobs have greater exposure to the virus and are more likely to bring it home to others who share crowded living quarters. The death rate for Latinos is 21% higher than the statewide figure and 7% higher for Black people, according to the state Department of Public Health. Latinos comprise a plurality of the population39%but 55% of cases and 46% of deaths. Black people make up 6% of the state's population and account for 4% of cases and 6% of deaths. Whites, by comparison, make up 37% of the population but only 20% of cases and 32% of deaths. Case rates are 38% higher in communities where the median annual income is less than $40,000. Explore further California reports record 695 virus deaths in a day 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Flash Two police officers were killed and four others injured during a shootout between the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents outside a mall in the capital Manila on Wednesday night, police said. Police Major General Vicente Danao, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said the injured include a police officer and three PDEA agents. PDEA spokesperson Derrick Carreon told a television interview that the drug agents were conducting a buy-bust operation at the mall in the Quezon City suburb when the shootout broke out. The mall management confirmed that the shootout took place past 6 p.m. local time. "We have secured all access to the mall, so all shoppers are safe inside," the mall said in a statement. The police said that a joint board of inquiry composed of personnel from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the PDEA will be established following the shootout. "In the interest of determining the truth behind the incident, a joint PNP-PDEA Board of Inquiry will be formed to determine what transpired and who should be held liable," the PNP said in a statement. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit 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. California African American Museum Appoints Cameron Shaw as Executive Director The California African American Museum (CAAM) announced that Cameron Shaw has been appointed executive director. She has served the Museum as deputy director and chief curator since September 2019. We are delighted that Cameron Shaw has agreed to lead the Museum into the future, continuing CAAMs remarkable trajectory. She has admirably navigated CAAMs closure due to COVID-19, all the while strategizing and fundraising for several exciting initiatives to come once Los Angeles museums are allowed to reopen, said Board President Todd Hawkins. Shaws appointment follows the retirement of George O. Davis, the executive director since 2015. During her tenure at CAAM, Shaw has been overseeing the Museums curatorial affairs, department of education and public programs, and marketing/communications. Highlights of her leadership include the successful pivot of the Museums public programs from in-person to virtual, necessitated by the pandemic and considerably broadening CAAMs audience nationwide, and the recruitment of three key staff members: Alexsandra Mitchell, manager of education and public programs; Susan D. Anderson, history curator; and Taylor Renee Aldridge, visual arts curator. ADVERTISEMENT Shaw has garnered major support for the Museum, including an Art Museum Futures Fund Grant from the Mellon Foundation and a Getty Pacific Standard Time 2024 research grant for World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project, which she is co-curating with Yael Lipschutz. Other notable accomplishments include the creation of ongoing video productions to experience exhibitions online and provide an archive of recent programmatic offerings, and enhanced website content, including original essays by CAAM staff published on the Museums blog, 600State. Later this year the Museum will be the only West Coast venue for Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch, a travelling exhibition co-organized by the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, New Orleans, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, which is the first project in a multi-year collaboration that Shaw has arranged between CAAM and the Rivers Institute. She also plans to invigorate CAAMs publishing program, beginning with the publication this fall of a catalogue for the current exhibition Enunciated Life, as well as a partnership with the Rivers Instituteand Siglio Press for a catalogue of the work of artist Troy Michie in advance of a forthcoming exhibition at CAAM. Im honored and excited to be CAAMs executive director, says Shaw. Against the current backdrop of a global pandemic, racial inequality, and the changing needs of museum audiences, it is clear that there continues to be an urgent need for cultural organizations that center, contextualize, and support African American contributions and experiences. CAAM has long been that critical space in Los Angeles, and I look forward to meeting this moment by presenting new scholarship and innovative public experiences through which all visitors can see Black art, history, and culture valued and reflected. A native of Los Angeles, prior to her time at CAAM, Shaw was the executive director of New Orleans-based Pelican Bomb, a non-profit contemporary art organization that was a forum for exhibitions, public programs, and arts journalism. Shaw lectures and moderates panels on topics including values-based institution building, translating theory to practice, rethinking organizational sustainability, and creative publishing strategies. She was chosen for the NAMAC National Leadership Institute in 2013 and the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators in 2016. Shaw holds a B.A. in History of Art from Yale University, where she worked at the Yale Center for British Art, and early in her career she interned in curatorial departments at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Later she was research manager at David Zwirner gallery in New York. In addition to her curatorial practice, Shaw is a widely published writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Art in America, New Orleanss Times-Picayune, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and BOMB Magazine, as well as in numerous books and exhibition catalogues on Chris Ofili, Nick Cave, Tameka Norris, and other artists. Her writing awards include a Creative Capital| Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-Form Writing in 2009 and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation | Art in America Writing Fellowship in 2015. ADVERTISEMENT About the California African American Museum CAAM explores the art, history, and culture of African Americans, with an emphasis on California and the West. Chartered by the State of California in 1977, the Museum began formal operations in 1981 and is a state-supported agency and a Smithsonian Affiliate. In addition to presenting exhibitions and public programs, CAAM houses a permanent collection of more than 4,000 works of art, artifacts, and historical documents, and a publicly accessible research library containing more than 20,000 volumes. Visitor Information The California African American Museum is presently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit caamuseum.orgfor current online program information. The MCA advised investors to verify the status of Nidhi companies before investing in them after it found that many such firms were not complying with the rules set for them. Several applications filed by firms for declaration as a Nidhi company have been rejected as they were found to be unfit. Investors are advised to verify the antecedents and status of a Nidhi company especially their declaration of their status as Nidhi Company by the central government before becoming its member and investing their hard-earned money in such firms the MCA said in a statement. A Nidhi company is a non-banking financial company doing the business of lending and borrowing with its members or shareholders. It is notified as a Nidhi company by the government under Section 620A of Companies Act, 1956. 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. We definitely encourage folks like this executive director (Tendaji) to be able to really continue to work with us and help us and challenge us to be able to make sure that we are thinking about this the right way, Rizki said. Advocates and residents at the end of the day really come into play to ensure that were doing this and thinking about this very collaboratively. We think we have. We would definitely like to do more. February 25, 2021 SBM Offshore is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) together with Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) for a 26.25 years lease and operate contract for the FPSO Almirante Tamandare, to be deployed at the Buzios field in the Santos Basin approximately 180 kilometers offshore Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Under the contract, SBM Offshore is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and operation of the FPSO. SBM Offshore will design and construct the FPSO Almirante Tamandare using its industry leading Fast4Ward program as it incorporates the Company's new build, Multi-Purpose Floater (MPF) hull combined with several standardized topsides modules. SBM Offshore's fourth Fast4Ward MPF hull has been allocated to this project. The FPSO will be the largest oil producing unit operating offshore Brazil and one of the largest in the world, with daily processing capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil and 12 million m3 of gas. Furthermore, the FPSO will have a water injection capacity of 250,000 barrels per day and a minimum storage capacity of 1.4 million barrels of crude oil. The FPSO will be spread moored in approximately 2,000 meters water depth. Delivery of the FPSO is expected in the second half of 2024. Bruno Chabas, CEO of SBM Offshore, commented: "SBM Offshore is proud to announce that Petrobras has awarded the Company the LOI for the 6th FPSO development in the world class Buzios field in Brazil. This award for one of the largest production units in the world demonstrates the trust placed in our ability to reliably deliver large-scale FPSOs and the agreement again confirms the significant value we bring to our clients with our industry leading Fast4Ward program. SBM Offshore teams look forward to starting the execution phase in order to continue to deliver value to one of our key clients Petrobras". Corporate Profile The Company's main activities are the design, supply, installation, operation and the life extension of floating production solutions for the offshore energy industry over the full lifecycle. The Company is market leading in leased floating production systems, with multiple units currently in operation. As of December 31, 2020, the Company employed approximately 4,570 people worldwide spread over offices in our key markets, operational shore bases and the offshore fleet of vessels. SBM Offshore N.V. is a listed holding company headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It holds direct and indirect interests in other companies. Where references are made to SBM Offshore N.V. and /or its subsidiaries in general, or where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies "SBM Offshore" or "the Company" are sometimes used for convenience. For further information, please visit our website at www.sbmoffshore.com . The Management Board Amsterdam, the Netherlands, February 25, 2021 Financial Calendar Date Year Annual General Meeting April 7 2021 Trading Update 1Q 2021 - Press Release May 12 2021 Half Year 2021 Earnings - Press Release August 5 2021 Trading Update 3Q 2021 - Press Release November 11 2021 Full Year 2021 Earnings - Press Release February 10 2022 For further information, please contact: Investor Relations Bert-Jaap Dijkstra Group Treasurer and IR Telephone: +31 (0) 20 236 3222 Mobile: +31 (0) 6 21 14 10 17 E-mail: bertjaap.dijkstra@sbmoffshore.com Website: www.sbmoffshore.com Media Relations Vincent Kempkes Group Communications Director Telephone: +31 (0) 20 236 3170 Mobile: +31 (0) 6 25 68 71 67 E-mail: vincent.kempkes@sbmoffshore.com Website: www.sbmoffshore.com Disclaimer This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. Some of the statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those in such statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results and performance of the Company's business to differ materially and adversely from the forward-looking statements. Certain such forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "may", "will", "should", "would be", "expects" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or the negative thereof, or other variations thereof, or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, or intentions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this release as anticipated, believed, or expected. SBM Offshore NV does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update any industry information or forward-looking statements set forth in this release to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Nothing in this press release shall be deemed an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. Attachment Infra.market, a construction materials focused online marketplace that sells mostly its own brands, is the latest to join the unicorn club in the country with the latest USD 100 million funding led by Tiger Global, valuing it at USD 1 billion. The Thane-based online marketplace founded in 2016 has reached the coveted unicorn status within 20 months of raising its seed round from Accel Partners in June 2019, a company official told PTI on Thursday. The year 2020 saw 12 unicorns being created in the country and the latest Nasscom report sees the number soaring to 50 this year. And Infra.market is the maiden entry this year. "The series-C round of USD 100 million led by will enable us to enhance technological offerings, seed newer markets and advance our private label brands which contribute more than two-thirds of our sales, and expand our direct to retail channels and exports," Infra.market said in a statement on Thursday. The latest funding round values the marketplace at USD 1 billion, it added. Its existing investors, who also participated in this round, include Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund, Sistema Asia Fund and Foundamental Gmbh. Infra.market, a one-stop marketplace for quality construction materials, which are mostly its own brands, was founded by Souvik Sengupta and Aaditya Sharda in 2016. As a procurement marketplace it leverages technology to provide an enhanced procurement experience for all players in the construction ecosystem that is worth USD 140 billion. Its gross merchandise value stood at USD 400 million in 2020 and the company is aiming to scale past USD 1 billion by the end of this year, Sengupta said. It caters to both institutional customers and retail outlets in the construction materials sector and supplies across 10 states and exports to Dubai, Singapore, and Bangladesh, among others. Infra.market's own private labels contribute more than two-thirds of its sales, of which 10 per cent are exports. Sengupta said Infra.market has been digitally transforming the highly inefficient construction materials supply chain by aggregating the capacity of small manufacturers and adding its technology and services stack. Scott Shleifer, a partner at Tiger Global, said with its pioneering technology innovation, Infra.market is reshaping the construction materials supply chain ecosystem in India. Its ability to stitch together private label brands, has helped it position itself for strong growth, healthy economics and profitability. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction. (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.) Screenshot of an online video showing the aftermath of an explosion at a restaurant in Xicheng district, near Zhongnanhai, the CCP's headquarters, in Beijing, on Feb. 23, 2021. Explosion Occurs at Restaurant Near Government Headquarters in Beijing An explosion leveled a restaurant in Beijing and left several people injured, raising security concerns ahead of a major political gathering of Chinas political elite next week. However, the story was immediately removed from all media outlets in the mainland due to the sensitivity of the matter. The Epoch Times interviewed the wife of the restaurant owner. On Feb. 23, an explosion destroyed Defeng Restaurant and a house that was attached to it. Among the seven people injured, two were in critical condition, and all were sent to the hospital for treatment, according to Chinas state broadcaster CCTV. The cause of the explosion is unknown. The blast drew immediate attention because the restaurant was situated near Zhongnanhai, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)s headquarters in Beijing, from which it was only 650 meters away, Radio Free Asia reported. The timing of the incident is also sensitive because it occurred a week ahead of the Two Sessions, the main annual political gathering of Chinas top leaders, which will start on March 4. Chinas rubber-stamp legislaturethe National Peoples Congress and its advisory bodythe Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conferencewill convene to enact policies and agendas. More than 5,000 delegates from around the country typically participate. On the afternoon of Feb. 24, The Epoch Times learned from the wife of the restaurant owner that the family had just returned to Beijing from visiting family in their home province of Sichuan for the Chinese New Year. The wife requested to remain anonymous due to security concerns. She said that her husband received a call from the local police station on the morning of Feb. 23. At that time, our whole family was scared to death. My husband rushed over to the site, she recalled. It was a very bad explosion. We were barred from entering. We were told it was dangerous to walk in. Our losses are heavy. One or two hundred thousand yuan, I guess. The woman wasnt sure what caused the explosion. We ordered one gas cylinder. At most two cylinders can be kept at the same time. We cant figure out why the explosion occurred were in such a mess. When asked about the casualties, she replied: I dont know if there were any deaths. When we got to the site, the injured had already been carried into the ambulances. The woman said that they are expecting to be summoned by the local authorities for questioning at any time because the incident is a delicate matter. Mostly because it [the restaurant] is so close to Zhongnanhai and the [Two] Sessions will be held very soon, she said. Now were incredibly nervous and dare not go anywhere. They may call us for information at any time, she added. The Epoch Times has discovered that CCTV and other state-run media outlets, including news portals Sohu, NetEase, Sina, and The Paper, took down the story. Chinese social media platform Weibo may have also removed the story because a keyword search on the topic yielded no results. Xiao Lusheng and Hong Ning contributed to this report. Travel bans have been key to efforts by many countries to control the spread of COVID-19. But new research aimed at providing a decision support system to Italian policy makers, recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggests that reducing individual activity (i.e., social distancing, closure of non-essential business, etc.) is far superior in controlling the dissemination of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The research, which has implications for the United States and other countries, found that limiting personal mobility through travel restrictions and similar tactics is effective only in the first phases of the epidemic, and reduces in proportion to the spread of infection across a population. In the study, "Modelling and predicting the effect of social distancing and travel restrictions on COVID-19 spreading" the researchers, led by Alessandro Rizzo, visiting professor in the Office of Innovation at NYU Tandon and professor at the Politecnico di Torino, and Maurizio Porfiri Institute Professor of mechanical and aerospace, biomedical and civil and urban engineering at NYU Tandon and a member of the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), detail a data modeling framework for isolating the differential efficacy of different COVID-19 intervention policies. Since their method benefits from a low computational load (it can easily run on a personal computer), it can be a valuable decision support system to policy makers, toward the implementation of combined containment actions that can protect citizens' health, while avoiding total closures, with all their economic, social, and psychological consequences. While this project was focused specifically on Italy, the results are revelatory for virtually any country relying on travel restrictions to stem the spread of the pandemic. We look forward to using US data to tune the model and give specific answers to combat this delicate phase of the pandemic." Maurizio Porfiri, Institute Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace, Biomedical and Civil and Urban Engineering, NYU Tandon Added Rizzo, "We are particularly satisfied with this model, as it provides very detailed answers even though it relies only on aggregated sources of data - a further guarantee of people's privacy." The work includes a realistic representation of demographic data and travel patterns of both commuters and those taking long-distance trips, using only aggregated and publicly available data, without resorting to individual tracking devices. It follows upon a study on the spread of Covid-19 in New Rochelle, New York predicting the diffusion of COVID-19 in medium sized cities and provinces, published as the cover of Advanced Modeling and Simulations (Wiley). The investigators, including Francesco Parino of Politecnico di Torino and Lorenzo Zino of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, also found that selective lockdown policies, for example restriction only on the activity of the elderly, seems not to have a great effect on the overall transmission of the epidemic. Deploying their algorithmic framework to model scenarios in which restrictions are lifted, discovered that restrictions on social activity must be gradually removed to avoid a second wave, while the timing and swiftness of removal of travel restrictions seem not to have a great effect on the transmission. In view of the scarce resources and the inherent slowness of vaccination campaigns, the research group is now engaged in the use of the model to assess the effect of different vaccination policies, toward the definition of vaccination rollouts that will aim at providing an optimal outcome in spite of the limited resources in terms of vaccine doses and operators. On Staten Island, there are two very basic principles all elected officials abide by: Dont raise tolls and dont make traffic worse. In her first two months of office, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis violated both. In one of her first acts as a member of Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis voted against billions of dollars in emergency aid that the MTA said is essential in order to avoid devastating toll hikes and prevent service cuts. Apparently, the 25 cent increase were already facing wasnt enough for Malliotakis. Then again, it was the Republican-led opposition in the Senate to desperately needed transit funding, with the blessing of Malliotakis throughout 2020, that pushed the MTA to raise tolls in the first place. The only consistent thing about Malliotakis seems to be that when its a choice between her party or Staten Island, shell choose her party every time. As the former district director for Congressman Rose, Ive seen firsthand how hard it is to protect our toll discounts without our own congresswoman ripping us off. During Roses term, the Port Authority threatened to eviscerate our discounts for our Jersey Bridges. It took a bipartisan coalition, led by Rose and Borough President Oddo, to save them. Then-Assemblywoman Malliotakis wasnt in a single meeting. During the 2020 campaign, Malliotakis opposed every COVID-relief package passed by the House of Representatives, even as the MTA was on the brink of bankruptcy. Due to the Republican opposition in the Senate, COVID aid was held up for months on end, all with our future Congresswomans blessing. Small businesses closed, our schools stayed shut without funding to help them open, and the MTA announced that without immediate federal dollars, they would need to raise tolls, as well as cut service. Malliotakis will claim she signed a letter advocating for that aid, yet whenever a bill came to the floor, Malliotakis opposed it, because thats what the Republican Party asked. Like the worst kind of politician, Malliotakis tried having it both ways. Thats always who she has been. The only difference is now her brand of politics, the kind every proud American hates, is going to cost Staten Islanders money. On Feb. 11, Malliotakis had a chance to put Staten Islanders first. Instead, she voted against $30 billion in transit funding, a huge sum of which would go to the MTA. Without that aid, the MTA warned that toll and fare hikes would be severe, and good luck trying to get to work on time. For the first time in Staten Island history, a local politician voted against funding to protect our toll discounts and public transit. Malliotakis did this after spending 2020 fighting to let her own state go bankrupt due to COVID-19. Now were stuck paying the price. For a decade, local politicos have derided Malliotakis lack of legislative accomplishments. Well, now our congresswoman finally has one: She helped raise our tolls. For the sake of my wallet and yours, I hope her success ends there. (Kevin Elkins is a West Brighton resident.) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday expressed hope that global pharmaceutical industry will show "big heart" and support India's proposal in the for relaxing certain provisions in a multilateral agreement on intellectual property with a view to containing the pandemic. In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted a proposal suggesting a waiver for all (World Trade Organisation) members on the implementation, application and enforcement of certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19. The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS came into effect in January 1995. It is a multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP) rights such as copyright, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets. "I am sure the industry will show big heart across the world and support the TRIPS waiver that India has proposed at the so that the entire world can come out of the COVID-19 pandemic much faster and bring back the 'V 'shaped recovery to the entire world," Goyal said at a FICCI webinar on pharmaceuticals. He said that the developed world is under pressure as a host of WTO members including least developed countries and African nations are supporting this proposal. On one hand, the developed countries "talk about supporting each other and multilateral fight against COVID-19 pandemic, but on the other hand, they are looking at protecting the interests of a few companies," he rued. The minister said the world is fighting the pandemic which could potentially cost USD 9 trillion to the world economy and many sectors like tourism, hospitality, and travel have collapsed. He said the proposal of India and South Africa would allow more and more countries to get equitable access to medicines and other products. The waiver, proposed by the two countries, would cover obligations in four sections of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement -- Section 1 ( copyright and related rights), Section 4 (industrial designs), Section 5 (patents) and Section 7 (protection of undisclosed information). Further Goyal also said following best standards and quality norms would help boost growth of the pharma industry. Waiver is a legal instrument provided for exceptional circumstances under the WTO, which is a Geneva-based body dealing with global trade norms and adjudicating trade disputes. Since COVID-19 pandemic is an extremely exceptional crisis, the proposed limited, temporary and proportionate waiver from certain provisions of TRIPS Agreement, is within the framework of multilateral trading system. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties will again sponsor a program to help residents with their income tax returns. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program will look a little different this year. Appointments will be scheduled for people to drop off tax information and pick up the completed forms with the VITA Program, which is open to households that earned $57,000 or less in 2020. Filers can schedule an appointment by dialing 2-1-1 or 866-662-8887. They can also visit uwlc.net and book a drop-off appointment at their own convenience. Taxes will be completed by a team of IRS-certified volunteers and accounting student interns from Penn State Scranton to assist all eligible filers for this tax season. Another option available to Lackawanna and Wayne County residents is myfreetaxes.com. Using the program, taxpayer can either chose to file their return on their own or with a virtual assistant to guide them through the process. I am thrilled to be a part of Knipper and have already felt the great sense of community here with my colleagues. This is a great time to join the company as we aim for aggressive growth, in 2021 and beyond, across all business units. - J. Knipper and Company, Inc. (Knipper), a leading healthcare solutions company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, has appointed James Caruso as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Caruso started at Knipper on February 1st. Jim is a seasoned financial professional with deep expertise in the field. His impressive record of achievements as a leader in both health care and consulting organizations make him a great fit for Knipper as we grow our existing business lines and build on our newly launched third-party logistics unit, said Mike Laferrera, Knipper President and CEO. Mr. Caruso has 30 years of diverse experience in accounting, financial management, mergers and acquisitions, operations, information technology, auditing, and consulting. He most recently served as CFO of a home health care provider, where he worked as part of the leadership team to grow the organization significantly and was instrumental in the companys numerous acquisitions. Previously, Mr. Caruso was a partner at a leading accounting and consulting firm, where he led the Finance & Accounting Outsourcing group for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey markets. He has also served in key leadership roles for a CPA firm, a manufacturing company, and two Fortune 500 companies. I am thrilled to be a part of Knipper and have already felt the great sense of community here with my colleagues, said Mr. Caruso. This is a great time to join the company as we aim for aggressive growth, in 2021 and beyond, across all business units. The appointment of Mr. Caruso caps off Knippers new-look leadership team. Following a transformative year in 2020 where Knipper completed the acquisition of Eagle Pharmacy and successfully launched its 3PL unit, the companys leadership is poised to firmly place the company as the leader in end-to-end product solutions. About J. Knipper and Company For 35 years, J. Knipper and Company, Inc. has been purpose-built on a strong foundation of health care service, support, and excellence. J. Knipper and Company is the leader in the arena of sampling distribution, and provides prescriber validation, sample accountability, web ordering solutions and third-party logistics services to the Pharmaceutical and Life Science Industries. The company has locations throughout New Jersey, Indiana, Florida, and California. For more information on J. Knipper and Company, please visit http://www.knipper.com. CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Department of Health reported 217 new coronavirus deaths involving nursing home patients, though the number of active cases continues to fall, according to the states weekly update on Thursday for long-term-care facilities. The newly reported deaths bring the total to 7,462 since the onset of the virus, though the state said it remains behind in reconciling its death records with those from the Centers for Disease Control. The Ohio Department of Health recently added more than 4,000 deaths to the states total after discovering it has grossly underreported deaths beginning in the late fall - allowing about half the deaths during that period to go previously unreported. The nursing home patient deaths account for 44% of the 17,125 COVID-19 deaths reported overall. Separately, the health department reported 795 current cases involving nursing home patients and 590 involving nursing home staff across the state. Current cases are defined as those active during the seven-day period ending Tuesday. The case numbers have dropped dramatically since vaccinations began in mid-December. The patient case count was reported at 5,155 in mid-December, dropping to 3,785 by Jan. 6 and then to 992 a week ago. The reports normally are received in Wednesdays, but this weeks was a day late. The state began tracking nursing home cases by facility on April 15. There have been 48,359 patient cases and 33,960 staff cases since then. The health department each Wednesday releases updates on deaths by county and cases by facility for the long-term care centers. No information is released regarding the number of deaths by facility. This weeks report listed 7,093 deaths for cases since April 15. Separately, the department has said another 369 patient deaths pre-date the start of the more detailed tracking on April 15. Below is a list of case totals by facility. If you are having trouble viewing the list, use this link instead. Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See other data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral. Read previous stories How to check to ensure youre not overpaying for electric, natural gas; some deals have short promotional periods - Thats Rich! Gas price jump this week marks the biggest increase during a winter month in 8 years Evidence that vaccines work: targeted group of older Ohioans now make up shrinking share of COVID-19 hospitalizations This is how dramatically Greater Cleveland counties have improved in every measure in Ohios coronavirus alert system Mapping Ohios vaccinations; trends for coronavirus in Ohio: late February update 7 day print subscribers enjoy unlimited access to yakimaherald.com Enter the LAST NAME and the 7 DIGIT phone number on your print subscription account to connect your print subscription to your yakimaherald.com account. Sandyford, Ireland -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/25/2021 -- From large corporates to SMEs to independent companies, the need for IT networks and support services cannot be overemphasized for a smooth running of activities. Such services are usually provided by top IT companies who have carved a niche for themselves and are renowned for rendering top-notch services that contribute in no small way to the organisation's uplift. In the UAE, Everything IT, a Dublin-based IT company, is a top IT company offering Network and Support Services that help organizations and establishments get their network in full gear and get support for everyday functions and tasks. In response to a query about their services offered, Everything IT's spokesperson commented, "IT services have become more important as the years run by, especially as there is a constant evolving of things, due to more technological advancement, and the need for organizations to get their tasks and processes in full gear and top function. As a leading IT company offering Network and Support Services, we offer our clients the opportunity to have a network service that provides data storage, manipulation, presentation, and excellent communication across all their sectors of work. We are indeed one of the best company to help them get all of these done." Everything IT ensures that they deliver outstanding services to their clients who are across various industries and sizes. They do so with a strong team of IT professionals who have been in the industry for years. With their strong team, they can provide ICT support and services, high-end network security, and information management that is industry-defining, which also helps their clients stay afloat in a highly competitive marketplace. Companies that need to hire top IT companies in Ireland, such as Everything IT can rest assured of getting services that distinguish them from their competitors in a competitive industry. The spokesperson commented, "We provide unique network services and place into perspective the exact need of our clients, and we are ever ready to make sure that you also belong to our team, enjoying our services. We design our network services so that those support services focus not only on the maintenance of an existing business network but also on consolidating it and making it distinguished. These services include, but not limited to remote monitoring, troubleshooting, frequent updates of antivirus definitions, diagnostics, operating system management, and upgrades as well as connectivity and application patches." Companies in need of network services in Dublin to improve all of their tasks and functions can contact Everything IT for their outstanding and industry-changing services considered excellent quality. About Everything IT Everything IT is a Dublin-based IT company that offers quality IT and Data Backup services in Ireland. Organizations can get IT support services from Everything IT at affordable and reasonable costs. Contact Information: Everything IT Unit 1a, Bracken Business Park, Bracken Rd, Sandyford, Dublin, D18 H283, Ireland Phone: +353 1 524 0755 Fax: +353 1 443 0541 Web: http://everythingit.ie/ The Rocket City Trash Pandas are playing ball this season on Toyota Field. Vice President of Marketing, Lindsey Knupp, said there are a number of jobs that need to be filled ahead of the first home game. "There is a lot of opportunity to come and join our gameday staff and be here working with us during Trash Panda home games," said Knupp. You can find the full list of job offerings on the Trash Pandas' website. The job fair is being held in person so that the staff can see what positions individuals are best suited for. There will be three rounds of interviews on Saturday, Feb. 27. The job fair will begin at 10 a.m. Those looking for a position will come through the Junk Yard team store. You can fill out an application prior to the event online or wait to do so in person. During the job fair, you will select your top three job choices. "Sometimes, folks don't even know what the opportunities are, so when we get to talking to them, we can see where they seem fit," said Knupp. The Trash Pandas' home opener is on May 11, versus the Tennessee Smokies. 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 In the mid-1950s, area prospectors had visions of wealth as they crisscrossed the crags and canyons of Briscoe, Floyd and surrounding counties carrying their Geiger counters. Instead of gold and silver, the prospectors were looking for deposits of the radioactive mineral uranium. And, to a limited extent, their prospecting met with success. Giving credence to that success is a 1955 Herald photograph of the first load of ore from Briscoe County's Quarter Horse Mine. Published on Sept. 18, 1955, the photo caption notes that a truck carrying a 17-ton load of ore from the mine south of Quitique stopped at a local auto dealership while on its way to a federally-operated refinery in Grants, N.M. Shown in the photo is Plain view car dealer W.T. Cain, truck driver K.W. Horn of Roswell and Jeff Mahan of Dallas, vice president of mine operator Caprock Uranium Co. According to information provided by the Floyd County Historical Museum and other sources, there were at least three uranium mining operations in the area during the mid-1950s, encouraged by federal price supports and prospects of a booming nuclear power industry. Utilizing strip-mining methods, the Caprock operation was located on the Saul Ranch, not far from the Clarity Railroad Tunnel. Another mine was operated by the Grand National Uranium and Oil Co. And apparently there was some ore mined on land owned by Roy Mayfield. However, economic realities quickly overcame dreams of wealth. According to Mike Long of Silverton, the yield from the ore was too low to offset the costly extraction methods used during that era. And, according to Wikipedia, prices for radioactive element plummeted when the uranium boom faded after price supports were removed. However, there is renewed interest in the radioactive resource, thanks to modern extraction methods. Long said there are approximately 8,000 acres of land north and northwest of Silverton currently under lease for possible uranium extraction. The Texas Railroad Commission supports that statement, noting that Uranerz Energy Corp. holds a current Texas Exploration Permit for Briscoe County. And the extraction method used this time is the in-situ leaching recovery process. Long describes the recovery as a reverse-osmosis system, and said Briscoe County "has an ideal setup" through the use of the Santa Rosa aquifer, located well below the Ogallala aquifer. The Alliance of Texans for Uranium Research and Action describes this solution mining as "leaving the ore where it is in the ground, and recovering the minerals from it by dissolving them and pumping the pregnant solution to the surface where the minerals can be recovered. Consequently there is little surface disturbance and no tailings or waste rock generated." In addition to Briscoe County, ALTURA reports that in situ leech uranium mining activities are taking place in 15 other Texas counties, predominantly in the Coastal Bend region. They include Atascosa, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Goliad, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kelberg, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces, Starr and Zavala. As an aside to the reports of uranium mining in Briscoe County, Herald Editor Herb Hilburn in 1955 wrote about his tour of the then-popular uranium sitting pavilions in Comanche County. Hilburn marveled at the fact that believers in the medical benefits of radiation were willing to pay $2 for the privilege of sitting barefooted with their feet in the radioactive earth for two hours. "We visited one which was run by a rancher near Okra, not far from Comanche," Hilburn wrote. "He has a pavilion that is 54 x 110 feet. There are bunks, built up bed height, the box filled with uranium-bearing ore mixed with caliche and sand," and covered with a felt pad. Another sitting house visited by Hilburn was 10 miles south of Comanche. Owner and former dairy former Jesse F. Reese told Hiburn that the "Sunday before last 461 persons paid a minimum of $2 to sit an hour and a half in the 122 dirt-filled benches and bunks which crowded the cows out of the barn and the car out of storage." Hilburn outlined the "Uranium Trail" as starting west of Lake Brownwood, and continuing on through Brownwood, Rising Star and Comanche. He gave the location of 12 "sitting houses" while explaining that there were lots more. A separate story in the same edition quoted Texas Health Commissioner Henry A. Holle as saying the healing value of such facilities "isn't worth the time it takes a man to cover his aching feet." The statement was designed to debunk the notion that the alleged radioactivity in the dirt was a cure-all for assorted aches and pains. "Our industrial hygiene engineers have thoroughly checked 16 samples of supposedly radioactive dirt," Dr. Holle said. "In no case has the concentration been more than that of normal background radiation." Dr. Holle reported that in addition to paying fees of $2 to $3 per hour, patrons were required to sign a statement attesting that no healing results had been promised and their patronage had not been solicited. He said that while patrons were in no actual physical danger, their reliance on "miracle" cures from the dirt might give them temporary psychological relief from serious ailments, thus delaying a visit to a reputable physician. Admitting that no existing state laws had been violated since no advertised claims of medical cures had been made, Dr. Holle said "we will just have to depend on the native intelligence of the Texas public to recognize these places as worthless." (Contact Doug McDonough at dmcdonough@hearstnp.com or 806-296-1350. Find him on Facebook.) 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 RTHK: J&J one-shot vaccine set to be approved by the FDA The single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe Covid-19, including newer variants, according to documents released by the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. The news came as the regulator was set to convene an independent panel on Friday that will likely vote to authorise the vaccine, making it the third available in the country hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. In large clinical trials, the J&J vaccine's efficacy against severe disease was 85.9 percent in the United States, 81.7 percent in South Africa, and 87.6 percent in Brazil. Overall, among 39,321 participants across all regions, the efficacy against severe Covid-19 was 85.4 percent, but it fell to 66.1 percent when including moderate forms of the disease. Crucially, analyses of different demographic groups revealed no marked differences across age, race, or people with underlying conditions. The vaccine was generally well-tolerated, with no reports of severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), which have been seen in rare cases for the Pfizer and Moderna shots. Mild to moderate reactions, like injection-site pain, headache, fatigue and muscle pains were more likely to occur in younger participants than older. There were no reported deaths in the vaccine group, but five in the placebo group. "The analysis supported a favourable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA (emergency use authorisation)," the FDA wrote. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that if authorised, the federal government would seek to distribute three to four million doses next week. "Johnson and Johnson has announced it aims to deliver a total of 20 million doses by the end of March," he continued, adding the government was trying to speed up the delivery of the contracted 100 million doses, which the company has promised by the end of June. A third vaccine is seen as a vital means to ramp up the immunisation rate in the United States, where more than 500,000 people have lost their lives to the coronavirus. Some 65 million people in America have so far received at least one shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines - but unlike those, the J&J vaccine requires just one dose, and is stored at fridge temperatures. The trade-off is slightly less protection against mild or moderate forms of Covid-19. "The vaccine was effective in preventing Covid-19 using a less restrictive definition of the disease and for more severe disease, including Covid-19 requiring medical intervention, considering all cases starting 14 days after vaccination," the FDA wrote in its briefing document. "Although a lower efficacy overall was observed in South Africa, where there was a predominance of B.1.3.5 lineage during the time period of this study, vaccine efficacy against severe/critical Covid-19 was similarly high across the United States, South Africa, and Brazil," it added. There was a hint, based on preliminary data, that the vaccine might be effective against asymptomatic infection. But "this finding needs to be further investigated with additional data," wrote the company in a separate document made available by the FDA. The J&J vaccine uses a common-cold causing adenovirus, which has been modified so that it can't replicate, to carry the DNA for a key protein of the coronavirus into human cells. This makes those cells produce that protein, which in turn trains the human immune system should it encounter the real virus. Other adenovirus vector vaccines against Covid-19 include those made by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Russia's Sputnik V. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sacked head of the Chief of Staff of Armenian Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan. "Today I signed decision to release Onik Gasparyan from the post. I assess the statement as an attempt of military coup," Pashinyan said in live video on Facebook. Earlier today the Armed Forces of Armenia issued a statement demanding resignation of PM Nikol Pashinyan and the government. Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 21:04:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GABORONE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi met with his Namibian counterpart Hage Geingob in Windhoek on Thursday to explore the possibility of collaborating on a water project. Namibia has already begun talks with an investor who is offering desalination water from the Atlantic Ocean. Being a good neighbour and alive to Botswana's water challenges, Geingob invited him to come and meet the investor to share thoughts on the project, Masisi announced on his official social media pages. "We are happy with the prospects because we need the water. However, our ministers and technocrats have to determine what is best for us bearing in mind our governance procedures," Masisi wrote. Botswana had faced water shortage problems in the past with the latest and most severe having been experienced between 2014 and 2016 when Gaborone Dam, which supplies the city metropolis, dried up completely. Being landlocked, the country relies heavily on dam water and hydrological experts have said it has reached its capacity for major dams. This has left the cross-border schemes being the likeliest source to bring more water into the country to meet the forecast for long-term demand. Enditem The world's first 24-hour Global Venture Investor Conference, Emergence 2021, will launch on Friday 5 March 2021 The event will be hosted by Wholesale Investor, an Australian based leading private investment platform More than 100 high growth emerging companies seeking capital and strategic opportunities will participate in the event More than 10,000 delegates are expected to attend the event as it is live streamed globally Globally recognised keynote speakers will present individually and in panel discussions highlighting the latest investment trends Emergence 2021 represents a true world first, the first time globally that a venture investor conference has virtually streamed for 24 hours and 'followed the sun' for the global investment community SYDNEY, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's first 24-hour Global Venture Investor Conference, Emergence 2021, will launch on Friday 5 March 2021. Leading private investment platform Wholesale Investor will host the event, virtually showcasing emerging growth companies from around the world. Emergence 2021 will stream virtually for 24 hours starting in Sydney, Australia and following the sun, around the globe. More than 100 high growth emerging companies seeking capital and strategic opportunities will participate in the event, and more than 10,000 delegates are expected to attend the event as it is live streamed globally. Companies will present to a global network of high-net-worth, professional and family office investors and CEOs. Industry participation is represented by Governments, Corporates and Professional service firms. Emergence 2021 sessions will feature Keynotes and Panel discussions on the latest investment trends in AI, Fintech, Genomics, Life Sciences, Renewable Energy, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, ESG, STEM and Deeptech, from renowned Venture Investors. The world-first conference has been created as a response to the global pandemic over the last 12 months, forcing Founders and Investors to quickly become familiar with engaging over video conferencing platforms. This challenge has quickly become an opportunity for providing companies with global access to investors without travelling. Speakers at Emergence include angel investor Jason Calacanis, QLD Government Deputy Director-General Sarah Pearson, Leonie Hill Capital TMT Sector Head Wee Meng Thoo, Managing Partner of Vickers Ventures Jeff Chi, serial entrepreneur and high-growth CEO Rishi Khanna, UVCA Executive Director Olga Afanasyeva, and other high-profile speakers and panellists from a broad range of sectors. Emergence 2021 is proudly supported by global partners and sponsors including Kaspersky, Flanders Trade and Investment, InvestHK, Investec, BMYG, CRIISP, Queensland Government, Enterprise Singapore, NZTE, and Polish Investment and Trade Agency. Wholesale Investor CEO and Managing Director Steve Torso said: "Launching a world's first is truly a momentous challenge and achievement and we couldn't be any prouder to bring Emergence 2021 to the global investment community. Recognising the opportunity, our team has worked tirelessly to coordinate over global time zones and with presenters to coordinate the world's first global venture investment conference. Wholesale Investor's mission is to utilise platforms, partners and technology to bring together venture investors and emerging growth companies from around the world. Emergence brings together the leaders and innovators who are leading the companies of tomorrow. COVID-19 has accelerated that mission by allowing us to place a spotlight on the global innovation and investment community. In addition, the use of Brella's event software and AI matchmaking feature of the event app will facilitate networking and dealmaking. Brella utilises AI-Matchmaking to make relevant connections between Founders and Investors and CRIISP to facilitate dealmaking. Everything we have done is to remove the friction from the process of discovery, consideration and transactions." To register for attendance please visit https://www.emergence2021.com Wholesale Investor Wholesale Investor is the leading investment platform that connects innovative, emerging companies that are looking to raise capital with an active, engaged and growing ecosystem of over 29,400 high-net-worth and professional investors, fund managers, family offices, PE and VC firms, and government bodies. To learn more please visit: www.wholesaleinvestor.com.au SOURCE Wholesale Investor Related Links https://www.emergence2021.com New discoveries on the containment of COVID-19 finds travel bans are of limited value BROOKLYN, New York, Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - Travel bans have been key to efforts by many countries to control the spread of COVID-19. But new research aimed at providing a decision support system to Italian policy makers, recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggests that reducing individual activity (i.e., social distancing, closure of non-essential business, etc.) is far superior in controlling the dissemination of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The research, which has implications for the United States and other countries, found that limiting personal mobility through travel restrictions and similar tactics is effective only in the first phases of the epidemic, and reduces in proportion to the spread of infection across a population. In the study, "Modelling and predicting the effect of social distancing and travel restrictions on COVID-19 spreading" the researchers, led by Alessandro Rizzo, visiting professor in the Office of Innovation at NYU Tandon and professor at the Politecnico di Torino, and Maurizio Porfiri Institute Professor of mechanical and aerospace, biomedical and civil and urban engineering at NYU Tandon and a member of the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), detail a data modeling framework for isolating the differential efficacy of different COVID-19 intervention policies. Since their method benefits from a low computational load (it can easily run on a personal computer), it can be a valuable decision support system to policy makers, toward the implementation of combined containment actions that can protect citizens' health, while avoiding total closures, with all their economic, social, and psychological consequences. "While this project was focused specifically on Italy, the results are revelatory for virtually any country relying on travel restrictions to stem the spread of the pandemic. We look forward to using US data to tune the model and give specific answers to combat this delicate phase of the pandemic," said Porfiri. Added Rizzo, "We are particularly satisfied with this model, as it provides very detailed answers even though it relies only on aggregated sources of data - a further guarantee of people's privacy." The work includes a realistic representation of demographic data and travel patterns of both commuters and those taking long-distance trips, using only aggregated and publicly available data, without resorting to individual tracking devices. It follows upon a study on the spread of Covid-19 in New Rochelle, New York predicting the diffusion of COVID-19 in medium sized cities and provinces, published as the cover of Advanced Modeling and Simulations (Wiley), The investigators, including Francesco Parino of Politecnico di Torino and Lorenzo Zino of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, also found that selective lockdown policies, for example restriction only on the activity of the elderly, seems not to have a great effect on the overall transmission of the epidemic. Deploying their algorithmic framework to model scenarios in which restrictions are lifted, discovered that restrictions on social activity must be gradually removed to avoid a second wave, while the timing and swiftness of removal of travel restrictions seem not to have a great effect on the transmission. In view of the scarce resources and the inherent slowness of vaccination campaigns, the research group is now engaged in the use of the model to assess the effect of different vaccination policies, toward the definition of vaccination rollouts that will aim at providing an optimal outcome in spite of the limited resources in terms of vaccine doses and operators. ### The U.S. National Science Foundation (CMMI-1561134 and CMMI-2027990), Compagnia di San Paolo, MAECI ('Mac2Mic'), the European Research Council (ERC-CoG-771687), and The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-vidi-14134) provided generous support for this research. About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences as part of a global university, with close connections to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. NYU Tandon is rooted in a vibrant tradition of entrepreneurship, intellectual curiosity, and innovative solutions to humanity's most pressing global challenges. Research at Tandon focuses on vital intersections between communications/IT, cybersecurity, and data science/AI/robotics systems and tools and critical areas of society that they influence, including emerging media, health, sustainability, and urban living. We believe diversity is integral to excellence, and are creating a vibrant, inclusive, and equitable environment for all of our students, faculty and staff. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu. This story has been published on: 2021-02-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. BARAGA COUNTY, MI Six people were injured in a head-on crash in Michigans Upper Peninsula. The Baraga County Sheriffs Office says the crash occurred when the driver of a pick-up truck traveling southbound on U.S. 41 near Selkey Road in Baraga Countys Baraga Township lost control due to weather conditions at 8 a.m. on Feb. 24. The truck crossed the centerline and was struck by an SUV traveling in the opposite direction, police said. The driver and four passengers in the pickup truck were transported to Baraga County Memorial Hospital, as was the driver of the SUV. Conditions of all occupants are unknown, according to police. The crash is under investigation by the Baraga County Sheriffs Department. Deputies were assisted at the scene by the Baraga Police Department, KBIC Police Department, Michigan State Police, LAnse and Baraga Fire and 906 Towing. Foreign Affairs Minister Faisal Mekdad has accused certain countries of settling diplomatic scores in the conference on disarmament, writes SANA. Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mekdad stressed that some countries are attempting to exploit the forum of the Conference on Disarmament to settle their scores with the countries which do not share their hostile stances and policies. He pointed out that those countries havent been content with the impending return of the conference, and have worked on undermining the credibility and role of the mechanisms. Mekdad said, in his speech via video before the high-level segment of the conference, that the politicization of the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has caused it to distance itself from its tasks defined by the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which constituted a threat to its credibility and future. He indicated that the US-western pressures on the technical secretariat aim to transform the organization into a tool to target member states to serve the geopolitical interests of the US, the only party in the convention which continues to possess chemical weapons since World War II. Mekdad indicated that Syria attaches great importance to the conference since it is the only multilateral negotiating forum concerned with disarmament. He expressed Syrias commitment to cooperate with the efforts that respect professionalism, neutrality and impartiality, and the provision of procedural rules. Mekdad stressed the need to preserve the conference role, nature, and mandate. Mekdad affirmed Syrias support for negotiation in the conference as a binding, unconditioned, and irrevocable international legal instrument that provides effective guarantees against the use of nuclear weapons or the threat to use them. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 25, 2021) - Blackrock Gold Corp. (TSXV: BRC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that Daniel Vickerman is joining the Company as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. Mr. Vickerman has served as an Independent Director of the Company since August 2020, prior to transitioning into this executive role. As a result, Mr. Vickerman will step down from the Board at the Company's next annual general meeting. Mr. Vickerman is a seasoned institutional sales and corporate finance professional with 25 years of experience in the financial industry and formerly, Managing Director, Head of UK of Beacon Securities UK and former Managing Director, Head of UK for Edgecrest Capital. Prior to joining Edgecrest Capital UK, Mr. Vickerman was Managing Director, Co-Head of Canadian Equity Sales UK at Canaccord Genuity Corp. Mr. Vickerman previously worked at Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. where he served as Senior Vice President. Daniel spent over 4 years at a London based Alternative asset manager with over $400 million AUM, trading commodities and FX. Mr. Vickerman has extensive experience working with mineral exploration and development companies, having raised over $1billion in the past for private and listed companies. Mr. Vickerman holds a Bachelor of Arts, Economics from the University of Western Ontario and currently serves as an Independent Director of Discovery Metals Corp. Andrew Pollard, President & CEO, commented, "Since joining our board in August of last year, Dan has been instrumental in forging key relationships for the Company and opening many new doors. His background in investment banking coupled with the key relationships he brings to the table within the institutional investor-sphere and the mining industry at large are a perfect complement to our executive team as we ready for significant growth." The Company also announces the grant of stock options under its Stock Option Plan to purchase an aggregate of 2,510,000 common shares (the "Optioned Shares") of the Company at an exercise price of C$0.91 per share for a five-year term expiring February 25, 2026. The stock options were granted to directors, officers, and consultants of the Company. About Blackrock Gold Corp. Blackrock is a junior gold-focused exploration company that is on a quest to make an economic discovery. Anchored by a seasoned Board, the Company is focused on its Nevada portfolio of properties consisting of low-sulphidation epithermal gold & silver projects located along on the established Northern Nevada Rift in north-central Nevada, and the Walker Lane trend in western Nevada. For further information, please contact: Andrew Pollard, President & CEO Blackrock Gold Corp. Phone: 604 817-6044 Email: andrew@blackrockgoldcorp.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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/75411 At first, Waylon didnt look like much. He was one of about a dozen Suffolk lambs purchased by a Bellaire High School agriculture teacher in 1995 and was randomly assigned to Andra Collins-Johnson when she was a restless junior. A career in animal husbandry or otherwise working in agriculture had never crossed her mind, and it seemed like a foreign concept for her in Third Ward. Raising Waylon and spending long hours at Bellaires barn, however, awoke something in the now 40-year-old. The thing that stood out most to me is that I felt peace, Collins-Johnson said. There was a lot of space and pasture at the barn, even though there were freeways around it. I would stand out there and just look I would look and think about what to do with the rest of my life. It gave me structure and made me feel safe. Collins-Johnson now teaches agriculture science to teens and advises a Future Farmers of America chapter at Aldine ISDs Benjamin O. Davis High School, showing students that despite living in the middle of Houstons urban sprawl, their horizons stretch far beyond the concrete that surrounds them. Fifteen years after Collins-Johnson became the first Black woman to teach ag science in Texas at the high school level, few students of color participate in agriculture education in the Lone Star State and across the country. Nationally, only about 5.3 percent of students who were part of Future Farmers of America last school year were Black and about 15.2 percent were Hispanic, compared with about 64.3 percent of members who were white. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Out of more than 136,000 student members in Texas, about 5.7 percent are Black, nearly 30 percent are Hispanic and more than 52 percent are white. Only about 11 percent of them live in cities. Agriculture may seem like an unusual curriculum option in Houston, the fourth largest city in the country better known for its oil and gas production than for pastures and livestock. And yet, there are more than 100 FFA chapters within a 50-mile radius of downtown, with at least 19 inside Beltway 8. Aaron Alejandro, executive director of the Texas Future Farmers of America Foundation, said Harris County has more agriculture science teachers, students and FFA programs than about 25 percent of the United States combined, giving food a seat at the table here. He credits that to work the organization has done over the past 20 years to reach more students of color and students who live in urban environments. The organization split its curriculum into semesterlong classes instead of yearlong general vocation classes, allowing students to dip a toe into the field with such courses as floral arranging, small animal care and plant science. It also has partnered with Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences or MANRRS and the Latinos in Agriculture Leadership Conference. Some programs allow students to take care of a rescue animal for a year rather than buying and raising hogs or steer for auction, and one program in San Antonio gives students credit for raising fish. Those efforts have made some progress, Alejandro said, evidenced by Houstons prevalence of agriculture course offerings and FFA programs. Still, he said it remains hard to pull new students in without help from local schools or their families. What a high school counselor directs a student or parent directs a student to do falls outside our reach, Alejandro said. Our job is to make sure to make the program as attractive as we can to get people there. Then we can provide them with the most extraordinary experience they can ever have. A different path It was a guidance counselor who suggested Collins-Johnson take an agriculture science class at Bellaire High School. She was struggling to keep her grades up and find something that kept her focus, so the counselor suggested it as a left-field option. No one in her family had experience with livestock or growing food, although Collins-Johnson had spent her childhood growing beans from the pantry into sprouts under her bed and watching National Geographic shows on Saturday mornings. It was a strange adjustment. Black friends would call her Yee-Haw when she would show up to school wearing cowboy boots and Rocky Mountain jeans, and she was the only Black student in her ag class. Her mother lent her $200 to buy Waylon the lamb, but when he got a deep scrape that needed to be stitched up, she had to load him in the back of her friends 1970 Cadillac and drive through southwest Houston with Waylons head out the window to the closest vet. She learned how to speak in front of audiences and the basics of running a small business through FFA, which she says showed her I can play a role in society. It was the first time Collins-Johnson felt passion about her school work. It also felt like a turning point after all she had endured, including the death of her father when she was in 10th grade. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The barn was a place of solace, and then I became third-degree family with FFA, Collins-Johnson said. I had escaped a domestic violence situation growing up, so when I got into agriculture, it really saved my life. Within months of her graduation from Prairie View A&M University, she had an opportunity to pass that on. A teacher she had known through Houston FFA activities approached her as she was working at an extension farm in Rosenberg and asked if she had ever considered going into agriculture education. She said, If you do, youll be the first Black woman to teach agriculture in the state of Texas, she said. She enrolled at Sam Houston State University to earn a masters degree in agriculture education and made state history in 2005 when she started as an agriculture science teacher at Fort Bend ISDs Thurgood Marshall High School. The next generation Even though some of Charle Tolars family members have raised chickens and hogs, she nearly threw up while dissecting a cat in Mrs. C-Js class as a sophomore. She thought the class would just watch videos of animal autopsies, not actually perform them. Now a senior and vice president of Benjamin O. Davis High Schools FFA chapter, Tolar said she has gotten used to it, thanks to Collins-Johnsons encouragement and the energy she exudes during classes. It is not uncommon to hear music wafting from her classroom down the hall during class changes, while Collins-Johnson sings and dances along. She cracks jokes to lighten the mood when students get stressed with new concepts and experiences, and she exudes enthusiasm when she talks about animals. Even on test days, when you walk in and go, Oh my God, we have a test, she says, Youve got this, youve got this. Weve been studying. I texted you to remind you. Youve got your flash cards, youre going to do fine, Tolar said. Collins-Johnson does not gloss over harsher realities either, said Daniela Sanchez, who is completing her first year of veterinarian school at Purdue University. Like Collins-Johnson, Sanchez had no plans to pursue anything animal related after high school when she enrolled in an animal sciences class with a friend as a freshman at Davis. At first I thought she was a little harsh, I thought being a little hard on everybody, Sanchez said. But it wasnt until now that I appreciated how hard she was on everybody. She was really encouraging but really realistic. She never sugar-coated anything, and she really made every lesson applicable to life in general. Collins-Johnson ended up being a confidant to Sanchez, who would talk about her dreams and struggles in life and in school. Her time in her class impacted her so much that Sanchez decided to attend Collins-Johnsons alma mater, Prairie View A&M, after graduation and plans to be a small-animal vet when she completes veterinary school at Purdue. Collins-Johnson similarly has inspired Tolars post-graduate plans, the teen said. Instead of going into agriculture, though, Tolar wants to be a teacher. Being an African American, and an African-American female, its showing me were capable of pursing big careers, Tolar said. She shows that were able to accomplish much more than we expect much more than others expect of us. Next on Collins-Johnsons list of students to inspire: her 13-year-old son Jeremiah, who will be a freshman next year. They are not raising any livestock at their home on the semirural outskirts of Cypress just their schnauzer, Chase but she hopes Jeremiah will opt to raise a pig next year and take an ag science class. Until then, she is just happy to be among the voices pushing for more students to have exposure to agriculture. Its never been of importance to me to be the first or to get recognition, Collins-Johnson said. What is important is that there are other people who have the idea that agriculture should be taught to all kids, no matter how much money their parents make or where they live or what they look like. shelby.webb@chron.com twitter.com/shelbywebb New study suggests there are at least 10 times as many Bahama Orioles as previously believed, and offers insights that could inform future conservation efforts for the orioles and other Caribbean bird species On a low-lying island in the Caribbean, the future of the critically endangered Bahama Oriole just got a shade brighter. A new study led by researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) estimates the population of these striking black and yellow birds at somewhere between 1300 and 2800 individuals in the region they surveyed, suggesting the overall population is likely several thousand. Older studies estimated the entire population at fewer than 300, so the new results indicate there are at least 10 times as many Bahama Orioles as previously understood. The research appeared this week in Avian Conservation and Ecology. The research team is sharing its findings with Birdlife International, the organization that makes recommendations to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) about birds on its Red List of threatened species. The new findings may influence IUCN to down-list the Bahama Oriole, which only lives on Andros Island in the Bahamas, from critically endangered to endangered. The new result "is a step forward for conservation," says Michael Rowley, a 2018 UMBC alumnus and one of two co-lead authors on the study. "This makes the world a bit more informed about what we should be putting our efforts toward. There are other birds that could use attention as well." A fresh look In addition to freeing up resources to protect other threatened birds in the Caribbean, details of the study revealed new avenues for protecting the still-endangered Bahama Oriole. Earlier work had largely discounted the pine forest, which covers approximately 20 percent of the island, as important habitat for the Bahama Oriole. Instead researchers focused on human-dominated habitats such as villages and agricultural lands. However, a 2018 study led by 2017 UMBC alumnus Daniel Stonko upended that understanding of Bahama Oriole ecology. Stonko and colleagues reported the first three Bahama Oriole nests ever recorded in the pine forest. A follow-up study led by 2019 UMBC alumna Briana Yancy, published in December 2020, further detailed nest site characteristics for the orioles on Andros, finding they prefer pine forest containing thatch palms. Supporting local efforts The latest study builds on both of those projects. The research team conducted bird counts at 467 sites across 713 square kilometers in the northern 25 percent of the island. They chose sites along abandoned and previously unmapped logging roads, to strike a balance between ease of access and lack of human influence on the birds' presence. The team found the strongest predictor of oriole abundance was the presence of pine forest. Nesting habitat studies, including Yancy's, suggest that during the breeding season the birds may be most common in pine forest with plenty of thatch palms in the understory. "The orioles seem to be able to nest in quite a few different habitats, which is really good for the orioles and important to know," says Kevin Omland, professor of biological sciences at UMBC and senior author on all three studies. "It gives us really useful information on what the nesting habitat is like, so we can tell the IUCN." The new findings also supply important information for local conservation efforts led by the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), which has been a key partner to Omland's research group throughout its long-standing work in the Caribbean. "If the BNT is able to create or expand national parks, they might try to include more of the pine forest with these tall thatch palm trees in the understory," Omland says. Lasting impact The other co-lead author, Richard Stanley at the University of Florida, conducted most of the in-person bird counts for the new study, using maps developed by the Omland team. Then Rowley took the lead on a complicated statistical analysis with support from Colin Studds, professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC, and scientists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. The highly impactful findings are particularly exciting for a researcher like Rowley, who completed the research as an undergraduate and is still quite early in his scientific career. Before joining Omland's group, "I'd never been outside of the contiguous U.S.," Rowley says. "It was an incredible privilege, and it really opened me up to my current interest in conservation work." As for the findings themselves, "It's amazing. How many people get to work on a project when they're an undergrad that has such a real world impact, while also being able to do field work, and work with animals, and get involved in the community?" Rowley says. "It's really great to know that the work we've done is having such an exciting impact." ### Too Hot To Handle star Francesca Farago styled her pet Pomeranian Romeo as a service dog as she travelled with him to the UK on Wednesday night. The Canadian beauty, who landed in London on morning Thursday to move in with her girlfriend Demi Sims, took to Instagram to document her transatlantic journey with her four-legged friend, who was carried onto the plane in a Christian Dior bag. Romeo, who last month was flown by reality star Francesca over to Cancun, Mexico where she'd enjoyed an extended 'work' trip with Demi was shown wearing a black vest emblazoned with the words 'service dog' as they embarked on their journey. According to Gov.uk, only travellers arriving in the country with guide or assistance dogs are permitted to travel with them in aircraft cabins. Scroll down for video Journey: Too Hot To Handle star Francesca Farago styled her pet Pomeranian Romeo as a service dog as she travelled with him to the UK on Wednesday night The site states that British travel companies 'usually recognise guide or assistance dogs trained by organisations that are members of either: Assistance Dogs International [or] International Guide Dog Federation'. States ADI on their site: 'Assistance dogs partnered teams which are not trained by a program accredited by ADI or International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) are currently assessed on a case-by-case basis by the individual airlines.' It is not yet known if Romeo underwent the extensive training required to qualify under either banner, though Francesca did share on Instagram that she endured 'three weeks of paperwork' to bring her dog into the country. Francesca, who was left behind in Mexico by Demi as she readied herself for the big move, had previously expressed concern about being able to get Romeo into the UK. In the bag: The Canadian beauty took to Instagram to document her transatlantic journey with her four-legged friend, who was carried onto the plane in a Christian Dior bag 'Cu soon baby': The Too Hot To Handle star has reunited with her TOWIE star girlfriend Demi Sims (pictured) as she prepares to move to London However, she appeared to have had all issues ironed out by the time she was seen embarking on her journey, which saw her departing from New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport to fly to London's Heathrow Airport. MailOnline has contacted a representative for Francesca Farago for comment. Just three weeks ago, on January 30, Francesca shared footage of herself excitedly welcoming the arrival of her fluffy white pooch to Mexico after he was flown in. 'He's finally here,' Francesca wrote as she posted footage of the dog meandering around a glistening swimming pool. Friend: She was accompanied by her best friend Chris Georges, who was seen carrying Romeo Travelling in style: the Pomeranian travelled in style in premium seating on the long haul flight This was soon followed by video of the TV personality nuzzling her small pooch and calling him 'cute'. Francesca was joined by her friend Chris Georges on the journey to the UK, where the brunette beauty told her Instagram followers she will remain before jetting off to Los Angeles on receiving her US visa while she'll also spend some time in Toronto. She explained how she initially wanted to fly to England with her new flame following their romantic 'work' trip, but had to complete 'three weeks' of paperwork in order to travel with Romeo. On her journey over to the UK, Francesca took part in a Q&A with her followers on her Instagram Stories, revealing her travel plans and speaking about her romance. 'Off to London!' The TV star explained how she initially wanted to fly to England with her new flame, but had to complete 'three weeks' of paperwork in order to travel with her pet pooch Telling all: Francesca also took part in a Q&A, during which she spoke about her isolation plans Travel plans: Francesca spoke about how long she plans to remain in the UK, saying that she plans to 'live in LA for a bit' on receiving her US visa When asked if she would isolate on arrival to the UK, she said: 'Yes for 10 days, but we are able to get another Covid test after 5 days and don't have to isolate anymore :). We also needed a negative test to fly and are getting one right when we land!' Elsewhere, she was asked how she and Demi met, and responded matter-of-factly: 'She slid into my DMs.' Last month, the blonde and her TOWIE star girlfriend, 24, shocked their fans on social media as they got their names tattooed on each other's bottom and wrist, just days after going public with their relationship. The pair were among a host of reality stars who switched their 'work' trips from Dubai to Mexico amid a ban on UAE flights. Pet pooch: Late last month, Francesca excitedly welcomed the arrival of her dog in Mexico Arrival: 'He's finally here,' Francesca wrote as she posted footage of the dog meandering around a glistening swimming pool Celebrities and influencers have been flocking to Mexico's bars and beaches as it establishes itself as the latest COVID getaway destination. The couple spent time together in the country with Demi's sister Chloe, 38, while her cousin Frankie, 33, flew back home to the UK earlier in the month. Canadian Francesca first garnered attention for her role in the Netflix original series Too Hot to Handle last April, when she briefly dated her co-star Harry Jowsey. Demi has previously dated Leonie McSorley, with them last being seen out together in October, and having confirmed their romance in July. Sharing their love story: The star spoke about her romance with Demi and how it all blossomed 'Moving to London next, brb': The media personality announced her shock move on social media earlier this month, just after weeks of dating Former love: The Canadian first received attention for her role in the Netflix original series Too Hot to Handle last April, when she briefly dated her co-star Harry Jowsey (pictured in 2020) VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 25, 2021 / Silver Wolf Exploration Ltd. (TSXV:SWLF) ("Silver Wolf" or the "Company") reports that further to the Company's press release dated August 13, 2020 announcing the option agreement dated August 12, 2020 (the "Option Agreement") with Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. ("Avino"), as optionor, Silver Wolf is pleased to report that it has received conditional acceptance of the transaction from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange). Pursuant to the terms of the Option Agreement, Gray Rock was granted the exclusive right to acquire an 100% interest in the Ana Maria and El Laberinto properties in Mexico, in consideration of the issuance to Avino of share purchase warrants to acquire 300,000 common shares of the Company at an exercise price of $0.20 per share for a period of 36 months from the date of the TSX Venture Exchange's final acceptance of the Option Agreement (the "Approval Date"), and an initial payment to Avino of common shares equivalent in value to $50,000 within 10 days of the Approval Date. Further details of the Option Agreement are contained in the Company's prior press release date August 13, 2020. The El Laberinto property is not considered to be a material resource property of the Company at this time. The Option Agreement is subject to the final acceptance for filing of the Exchange. The Company also announces a non-brokered private placement of up to 5,000,000 common shares at an offering price of $0.20 per share to raise gross proceeds of up to $1,000,000 (the "Offering"). The terms of the Offering are also subject to the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange. No commissions or finder's fees are payable in connection with this financing. The securities issued by the Company in connection with this financing are subject to a 4-month "hold period" from the date of distribution, as prescribed by the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable securities laws. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used for financing the balance of the first phase of exploration work on the Ana Maria property, and the Company's general working capital requirements. "We are very pleased to receive conditional approval and we look forward to commencing exploration work on our strategic silver exploration assets in this well-known prolific carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) district" said Peter Latta, President. "Our initial focus will be the Ana Maria property, situated only a 30 minute highway drive from the international airport in the City of Torreon. We have an experienced team in Mexico to lead the work, as well as an industry-leading consulting geologist here in Canada, who are all working to build knowledge and confidence in the Ana Maria property." Ana Maria Property The initial exploration work will consist of ASTER satellite image analysis followed by drone flown lidar and hyperspectral data acquisition and analysis. Our geologists will ground-truth areas of interest and continue with geological mapping, surface sampling and general prospecting. It is expected that the initial exploration work will be completed by the end of the 2nd quarter of 2021 dependent upon COVID-19 restrictions and safety protocols, but data will be released on an ongoing basis as it becomes available. Qualified Person Mr. Garth Kirkham P. Geo, Independent Consultant for Silver Wolf, is a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release and supervised its preparation. For further information please contact Silver Wolf Exploration Ltd. at ph. (604) 682-3701 or visit our website at www.silverwolfexploration.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Peter Latta" _________________________________ Peter Latta President Cautionary Note The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on numerous assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including risks inherent in mineral exploration and development, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any projected future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such information contained herein represents management's best judgment as of the date hereof based on information currently available. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. SOURCE: Silver Wolf Exploration Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631965/Silver-Wolf-Provides-Update-On-Mexican-Silver-Property-Option-Agreement-And-Announces-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement Injury and workers compensation cases involving slips and falls on snow and ice during winter in Americas northern states, and southern states this year, continue to be a perplexing subrogation puzzle for insurance claims and subrogation professionals. During the winter months, our office sees a flood of cases involving slips and falls on ice, snow, and slush during winter conditions. It is important to understand when and how liability attaches in such cases and when it does not. Life is such that accidents happen, and they do occasionally happen because the injured victim is careless and not paying attention. The key to success in these types of cases is knowing the difference between such instances and those in which the negligence of a third party is responsible for injury. Juries know that in the winter months, plaintiffs need to tread more slowly and with more caution. Contributory negligence on plaintiffs in slip and fall cases is traditionally very high and such cases are not usually very good cases without extenuating circumstances. The reason? We all have a responsibility to watch where we are walking and this is especially true in winter, when we are all on notice of the naturally-occurring dangers and slippery conditions over which we all must traverse. While the laws of each state are somewhat different, they almost all have certain basic principles in common. We will use Wisconsin as an illustration. Wisconsin, like many states, creates a legal distinction between privately-owned property and public property. Private property owners owe a duty of reasonable care to invitees persons invited, implicitly or explicitly, upon the real property of another. Public property owners, and maintenance companies, owe a much higher duty to people on their property, than do private property owners. Wisconsin, like other states, also creates a distinction between the classes of individuals who are injured. Private property owners owe a different duty to trespassers as opposed to non-trespassers. A trespasser is someone who goes on somebodys private property without permission and without their knowledge. Private Property . Wisconsin private property owners owe different duties to trespassers as opposed to non-trespassers. In Wisconsin, a trespasser is defined as someone who goes onto someones private property without consent or an invitation. If an individual is considered to be a trespasser, then the Wisconsin private property owner cannot willfully, wantonly, or recklessly inflict injury upon the trespasser. If the owner knew or should have known of the trespassers presence on the property, then the owner cannot do anything likely to cause injury to the trespasser. As you can see, the burden of proof here essentially an intentional act will be extremely hard to prove. With regard to non-trespassers, a private property owner must only use ordinary care under the circumstances to construct, manage and maintain the premises to avoid exposing non-trespassers to an unreasonable risk of harm. Such private property owners have a duty to discover and make safe conditions on their property that would likely expose a non-trespasser to an unreasonable risk of harm. If an unreasonable risk of harm existed and the owner knew of it or should have known of it, then the owner has a duty to either fix the problem or warn of the condition. Public Property . Slips and falls on public as opposed to private property, present many different concerns. By public property we are referring to government property and property owned by businesses onto which the public is both invited and expected to traverse. The majority of Wisconsin injuries on public property involve a series of statutes known as Wisconsins Safe Place Law, which applies to public buildings and places of employment. This law requires certain public property owners and employers to keep their premises as safe as the nature of their business reasonably permits. This requirement includes the construction, maintenance, and repair of the premises. As with private property, trespassers are not covered by the Wisconsin Safe Place Law. Business and employers are not required to keep their property absolutely safe, but they are required to keep the property as free from danger to the life, health, safety, or welfare of visitors or employees as the nature of the property will reasonably permit. This requires the owner or employer to use reasonable care in inspecting the property for potential hazards and making safe any hazards which it can. Wisconsin Safe Place violations by building owners can be separated into two types: structural defects and defects associated with the structure. A structural defect is an unsafe condition on property that has been built-in in the sense that structural defects include improper building materials, improperly designed buildings, or even an improperly laid out building. Steps that do not have appropriate traction or the lack of a handrail on a stairway where one is required would be examples of structural defects. A defect associated with the structure means an unsafe condition due to disrepair or lack of adequate maintenance. The main distinction between structural defects and defects associated with the structure is that injured persons are not required to prove that the owner of the property was aware, or should have been aware, of the structural defect. Wisconsin injury victims can also pursue claims against public property owners in Wisconsin under a general negligence theory. As with all negligence claims, the plaintiff is required to show the following: Duty . The owner had a general duty to keep their premises safe. The owner had a general duty to keep their premises safe. Breach . The owner breached their duty to keep their premises safe. The owner breached their duty to keep their premises safe. Proximate Cause . The plaintiff was injured due to the owners breach of their duty. The plaintiff was injured due to the owners breach of their duty. Damages . The plaintiff was injured due to the owners breach of their duty. The two most difficult aspects of any premises liability case are (1) establishing the breach of a duty evidence that the owner of the premises knew of a defect and failed to take any action to correct it, and (2) overcoming the open and obvious defense the natural tendency of many jurors to conclude that the instrumentality on which the plaintiff slipped and fell would and should have been open and obvious to an alert person, increasing the likelihood of placing 50% or more contributory negligence on the injured plaintiff, which in many states will eliminate any recovery. The difficulty of prevailing in slip and fall cases involving snow and ice becomes evident when you consider the above-referenced two difficult areas. When nature dumps snow and ice on property, the law alters the responsibility of the landowner because such natural accumulations of snow and ice affect us all and we are all on notice of them. Some municipalities require property owners to clear the sidewalks in front of their homes and buildings (New York), and owners of stores and offices are required to clear the entrances and exits to their buildings. Slips and falls in public places such as this are more likely to result in a recovery than a similar fall in front of somebodys home. Parking lot owners, if they intend for their parking lot to be used, need to clear the snow and ice from their parking lots. Reasonableness in the law dictates that a landowner does not need to clear walkways in the middle of a snowstorm, but should do so in a reasonable time after a storm. Private homeowners have more leeway. To determine liability for slips and falls on snow and ice, states like Illinois follow what is known as the Natural Accumulation Rule. In order for there to be liability for a fall on snow or ice, the snow or ice must be an unnatural accumulation of snow or ice. If it is a natural accumulation of snow or ice, there is generally no liability. The dividing line between a natural and unnatural accumulation of snow and ice is not always very clear. Generally, the snow and ice is considered a natural accumulation if it is the result of natural weather conditions. If the snow and/or ice was not shoveled or salted, there is less likely to be liability for the property owner. Going a step further, the law still considers ice which has been formed by snow being tamped down by pedestrian or vehicular traffic to be a natural accumulation of snow and ice. It also considers puddles of water inside of buildings resulting from pedestrians tracking in snow that melted to be a natural accumulation of snow. Whether accumulation of snow or ice on a public sidewalk is artificial or natural is a question of law. Exceptions to these rules exist where there is a provision in a lease for property where the management company or landlord agrees to remove snow and ice. Prompt and thorough investigation of slip and fall cases are necessary for claims and subrogation professionals. They must look for and memorialize features or defects in the property which causes snow or ice to accumulate in a particular location or in a particular manner. A common example of this would be a down spout which dumps water onto a sidewalk where it freezes and becomes ice. Also, look for evidence of actions on the part of the property owner which cause snow or ice to accumulate in a particular location. This might include an owner piling snow in a dangerous location. Cases involving falls on snow or ice require a thorough analysis of the facts before it can be determined whether there is liability for falls on snow or ice, and this investigation must come immediately after notice of such an injury preferably the same day notice is received. Slips and falls involving a fall on snow or ice are usually not worth pursuing unless there are significant injuries such as herniated discs, fractures or other injuries which require surgery. This is because of the research and investigation which is required in order to make such cases fly. Liability carriers almost always take the position that there is no liability for a fall on snow or ice and that suit will almost always have to be filed and a hard-fought fight is almost a certainty. Therefore, a subrogated carrier must be willing to invest the time and money necessary to prove the elements needed for liability to attach. Dont rely on subrogation counsel to investigate every small slip and fall case for you. Make a decision on a case by case basis using the facts of the individual cases to discriminate between good cases and bad cases. Take lengthy statements of the victims, the property owners, and any witnesses. Take photographs and measurements of the conditions which existed at the time of the fall. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts when it comes to subrogating slips and falls on snow and ice. 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. Over-80s in Buenos Aries started receiving their COVID-19 jabs on Wednesday, amid anger over public officials getting inoculated before everyone else. Last Friday, it was revealed that a journalist, legislators and others close to the government of President Alberto Fernandez had received the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. A few hours after the scandal broke, Fernandez requested the resignation of health minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia, who was in charge of the government's COVID-19 strategy. "It's outrageous. Terribly bad-mannered people, they think we are stupid and are mocking us. Can you believe it?" asked 84-year-old Magdalena Rizzo after she was inoculated Wednesday. To get an appointment and receive the vaccine, people must register on an official website or call to a city hall phone number. Many of the elderly receiving the vaccine Wednesday had to ask for help to register, unable to maneuver unfamiliar technology. Those being immunized Wednesday were given the Covishield jab, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Nasser Banyameen speaks about his hometown of Qaraqosh in the historical heartland of Iraqi Christianity with nostalgia. Before Islamic State group fighters swept through the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq. Before the militants shattered his sense of peace. Before panicked relatives and neighbors fled, some never to return. Iraqs Christian communities in the area were dealt a severe blow when they were scattered by the ISIS onslaught in 2014, further shrinking the countrys already dwindling Christian population. Many hope their struggle to endure will get a boost from a historic visit by Pope Francis planned in March. Among the places on his itinerary is Qaraqosh, where this week Vatican and Iraqi flags fluttered from light poles, some adorned with the popes image. Francis visit, his first foreign trip since the coronavirus pandemic and the first ever by a pope to Iraq, is a sign that Youre not alone, said Monsignor Segundo Tejado Munoz, the undersecretary of the Vaticans development office. Theres someone who is thinking of you, who is with you. And these signs are so important. So important. The ISIS juggernaut and the long war to drive the militants out left ransacked homes and charred or pulverized buildings around the north. But the biggest loss perhaps has been the people. Traditionally Christian towns across the Nineveh Plains virtually emptied out and, by some of the widely varying estimates, fewer than half of the Christians who fled have returned. The Vatican and the pope have frequently insisted on the need to preserve Iraqs ancient Christian communities and create the security, economic, and social conditions for those who have left to return. Image: Hadi Mizban / AP Photo To do that, the Vatican for years has helped coordinate a network of Catholic non-governmental organizations providing help in the field in Iraq and other countries, including in education, health care, and reconstruction. The aid is non-denominationalMuslims are helped as well as Christiansand the overall hope is that the delicate interfaith balance can be preserved and strengthened. The popes March 58 visit will also have a strong interfaith component. People want to look for a better future for their families, so you cant stop them if they have the intention of going somewhere else, Tejado said. But at least we try to create the conditions they might return. That could be difficult. Many Christians who fled the ISIS advance have either stayed in Iraqs Kurdistan region or started new lives abroad. While those who have returned have been rebuilding fractured but vibrant communities with resolve, some still feel vulnerable and eye better lives elsewhere. Banyameen returned in 2019 from the Kurdish region to his house in Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida. But many family members who fled like him ended up in Australia and Germany. ISIS sleeper cells still carry out attacks in parts of Iraq, so he worries about the specter of a militant resurgence, the future of his three children, and Iraqs economic and security woes. The homeland is the family, not the house I feel very homesick, he said. When something is broken, it doesnt go back to the way it used to be. Their home has been repaired, but the sight of empty or damaged ones on their street reminds his wife, Ban Saeed, of the ISIS reign of terror. After she gave birth to the couples third child in December, she wondered if it would have been better for their daughter to have been born abroad. If we left, I am sure their future would be better abroad, not like here, she said. There would be safety and I wouldnt be scared for them when they come and go. Image: Hadi Mizban / AP Photos In nearby Bartella, Sargon Issa said he felt the towns spirit dim with so many familiar faces gone. Walking down a street, I used to salute so many people, friends, and neighbors. Now, theres hardly any of that, said Issa. Life is not like before. Theres no flavor to it. Even those Christians who have returned to Bartella say they want to leave to find stability. He, too, would like to leave if he could; his mother tells him she wants to die in Iraq. I try to change her mind and tell her, Lets travel and live without worry or fear somewhere where we wouldnt be driven out of our homes, he said. She tells me we should stay, and that God is with us. The numerical decline and waning clout of Iraqi Christians started before the Islamic States persecution of religious minorities like theirs. Christians were among groups targeted by militants amid the breakdown in security after the 2003 US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein. The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, estimated that 1 million Christians have left Iraq since 2003 and about 500,000 remained. But there are no official figures, and estimates vary: Some put the number left at fewer than 250,000. Without faith the government can provide security from potential violence, legal protections, and economic opportunities, many Christians are wary of returning. William Warda, co-founder of Hammurabi Human Rights Organization in Baghdad, said the Christian presence is under threat. To this day, they dont feel safe and secure because the state is weak, and the rule of law is weak. Some Christians lament broken trust with some Muslims in neighboring villages who they believe sympathized with ISIS or helped pillage their homes. They are also wary of the ascension of largely Shiite militias and fearful of what they say are unfavorable demographic changes in some traditionally Christian areas. Image: Hadi Mizban / AP Photos Etched in the minds of many are the memories of the flight to escape ISIS, the indignities of displacement, and the scenes of devastation that awaited those who returned, including burnt out churches and desecrated tombs. As he left under cover of darkness shortly before the militants entered his town of Karamlis in 2014, Thabet Habeb felt pain for all that he was leaving behind. The priest took little besides some manuscripts, including a Bible. It was as if we had been expelled forever from the lands of our grandfathers. More than two years would pass before Habeb could set foot in the town. The smell of smoke from burnt out structures still hung in the air. In November 2016, he held prayers at the St. Adday church, the sound of broken glass crunching beneath the feet of worshipers stunned by the damage around them. Decapitated statues of Jesus and Virgin Mary stood in the scarred church that day; one woman wept bitterly. Much reconstruction has taken place since. But so far, only about 345 of about 820 Christian families in pre-2014 Karamlis have returned, Habeb said. We need to restore our numbers to support the Christian presence and identity in the town, he said. Image: Hadi Mizban / AP Photo Those who did come back make sure an ancient heritage and a way of life endure. At St. Pauls House for Church Services in Qaraqosh, religious paintings and musical instruments were burned and a statue of Jesus hurled to the ground, said Duraid Barber, the former manager. But the houses activities, which include religious classes and teaching the Syriac language, have been revived and even expanded. We decided to return and serve this wounded and pained country to the last drop of our blood, said the priest. As Christians, we believe that we are like the salt that adds flavor to food. Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome, Hadi Mizban in Qaraqosh, and Samya Kullab in Baghdad contributed. Donald Trump is prepared to further push claims he is the true winner of the 2020 election during his CPAC speech on Sunday as he plans to use his first public appearance since leaving office to springboard himself back into the political limelight. Two people who have discussed the upcoming remarks with Trump told The Daily Beast in a Thursday report the former president will push repeated claims that the presidential election was 'stolen' and that he's the true victor. Another source familiar with Trump's Conservative Political Action Conference speech said he will look to demand that Republicans pursue enacting crackdowns and 'reforms' on elections before 2022 and 2024. In conjunction to Trump's speech on the final day of CPAC in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, the gathering will also feature four separate panel discussions on 'protecting elections', aimed at attacking the integrity and validity of the contest between Trump and now-President Joe Biden. One panel called 'Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!)' will include an appearance from Cleta Michell, a former Trump campaign attorney who resigned from her firm after they said they were 'concerned' to learn about her efforts helping the former president try to overturn the election results. Also on that panel will be Jenny Beth Martin, founder of Tea Party Patriots, a group that was listed as partner organizers for the 'Stop the Steal' rally outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6 that led to the storming. Donald Trump will use his speech Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference to push repeated claims that he is the true victor of the 2020 presidential election The conference, organized by American Conservative Union, which is chaired by Matt Schlapp (pictured), will include several panel discussions focused on election and voter fraud One panel will include an appearance from Cleta Michell (left), a former Trump campaign attorney attempting to overturn the election results. Another panel will include former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt (right), who worked on Trump's campaign and sued Nevada to overturn Biden's victory there Another panel called 'Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence' features Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, who led the charge by far-right members of Congress in objecting when Congress moved to certify the Electoral College votes last month. That discussion will also include former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who worked on Trump's campaign. He sued Nevada to overturn Biden's victory there, claiming illegal immigrants voted in the election. The other two voter fraud panels are titled 'They Told Ya So: The Signs Were Always There' and 'The Left Pulled the Strings, Covered It Up, and Even Admits It'. Chair of the American Conservative Union, the group that organizes CPAC, Matt Schlapp suggested there was validity to Trump's fraud claims and confirmed much of the programming for the gathering this year would focus on 2020 voter fraud. 'There was widespread voter fraud in the last election,' Schlapp told CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. 'Just because you fail in court doesn't mean you don't have a good case. Other panel discussion at the conference, which kicked off Thursday morning, includes talks on hot button issues for conservatives, including censorship and cancel culture. Sources say Trump's speech will be a 'coming out' for the next phase of his political career and will be a chance for him to reassert his dominance as leader of the GOP. Trump, according to his aides, will use his remarks at CPAC to send a message: I am Republicans' 'presumptive 2024 nominee.' Trump allies told Axios earlier this week that former president will display his grip and influence over the Republican Party in a 'show of force' keynote address. 'I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I'm still in charge,' a longtime adviser said of Trump's planned message, adding that payback is his main motivator right now. Also on a panel will be Jenny Beth Martin (pictured), founder of Tea Party Patriots, a group that was listed as partner organizers for the 'Stop the Steal' rally outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6 that led to the storming With Biden said during his White House run that he will seek reelection 2024, it appears Trump is ready for a rematch. 'Much like 2016, we're taking on Washington again,' a Trump source said. Trump has remained uncharacteristically quiet since leaving office, sending out a few statements from his post-presidency office and just last week breaking his media silence to do interviews with the trifecta of right-leaning news Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax. This address will be his first time directly addressing his supporters since leaving Washington via Air Force One for West Palm Beach on January 20, where he has remained since. Police have blamed 'lockdown fatigue' after figures revealed that nearly 40 per cent of all Covid-19 fines were handed out in just four weeks in January and February. Data published by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) shows a total of 68,952 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were issued by forces, including 63,201 in England and 5,751 in Wales, between March 27 last year and February 14. Some 26,277 (38 per cent) of the fines were issued in the latest four-week period between January 17 and February 14. NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt said there is 'no question' of lockdown 'fatigue' in the country, adding police stepped up enforcement action last November and deployed extra officers in areas that had seen the most serious breaches. Nearly 40 per cent of all fines issued for breaches of Covid rules were handed out in just four weeks (pictured: police officers confronting a man breaching rules at a barbershop in Kent) Some 26,277 fines were issued between January 17 and February 14 (pictured: Kent Police at an unofficial match earlier this month which saw most of the team run away) He said there had always been a 'hard core' of people who had chosen not to follow the rules, adding: 'But I think it probably is fair to say that, and I've used the phrase before, there is no question there is a fatigue in the country, among the population. 'We've been living with this for 11 months, it's really hard, it's very restrictive on people's lives. 'The numbers say there have been more people who have breached the rules and in the circumstances (they) have not taken the encouragement we've given them, we've given them a ticket, bearing in mind a lot of those tickets would've gone out in mass gathering-type events.' Mr Hewitt said officers were monitoring social media to find out when events may be taking place, describing house parties as 'particularly irritating'. And he said there had been more officers deployed in departure and arrival areas at ports and airports to ensure travellers were only making essential journeys. The NPCC report said steep rises in the number of tickets handed out following the introduction of Tier 4 restrictions before Christmas and the latest national lockdown in England on January 6 reflected a move towards quicker enforcement by police. Police pictured breaking up an illegal party in Knightsbridge on January 17. NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt blamed lockdown 'fatigue' for the recent rise in rulebreakers Data published by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) shows a total of 68,952 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were issued by forces between March 27 last year and February 14 A graph showing the number of fines issued for failing to wear a face covering when required between July last year and February this year, with the number of penalties rising in December A total of 4,752 fines were handed out in the seven days to February 11, down from 6,218 the previous week, but higher than the first lockdown's peak of 3,294 during the week of the Easter bank holiday in April. The figures show 272 10,000 fines had been handed to organisers of mass gatherings of more than 30 people, including illegal raves, parties and protests, in England, with three in Wales, while 485 800 tickets had been issued to people attending gatherings of more than 15 people. What are the rules around gatherings? Under current Covid laws, you must not leave or be outside of your home except where you have a 'reasonable excuse'. The police can take action against you if you meet in larger groups. This includes breaking up illegal gatherings and issuing fines (fixed penalty notices). You can be given a Fixed Penalty Notice of 200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of 6,400. If you hold, or are involved in holding, an illegal gathering of over 30 people, the police can issue fines of 10,000. People attending illegal house parties face 800 fines as police tighten their clampdown on rule-breaking. The fines will double for each repeat offence, up to a maximum of 6,400. Hosts of illegal parties are already liable for a 10,000 fine. Advertisement For breaches of face coverings regulations, a total of 2,344 fines were issued between June 15 and February 14 in England, including 456 on public transport and 1,888 in relevant places such as shops. Mr Hewitt said: 'We all know we must wear a face covering in a shop or on a bus and we all know we can't meet up in groups. 'We're taking a common sense approach, applying discretion and judgment when engaging with the public. 'But common sense would dictate that someone having a party is well aware what they are doing is wrong and has made an informed decision to do it anyway. 'Our extra dedicated patrols across the country will continue to support those of us making significant sacrifices in following the rules by taking enforcement action against those who are not.' The data also shows 582 FPNs had been handed to businesses for breaches of regulations that came into force in England last September, including failures to enforce face-covering regulations, unlawfully staying open, hosting large gatherings or not sticking to table service rules. Some 402 fines had been issued by forces in England and three in Wales to people failing to self-isolate after arriving from a country on the Government quarantine list up to February 14. The data does not include regulations around hotel quarantine for those entering from red countries, which came into force on February 15. It follows dozens of partygoers drawing the curtains and turning off the music when police came to break up an illegal gathering on February 17. Up to 30 people attended the rave in Islington, north-east London, before officers were called at around 11pm, Scotland Yard said. Police also stumbled upon a workshop turned into an illegal bar that was mockingly named 'The Covid Arms' on February 13. Police in Dudley Port, West Midlands, stumbled upon a workshop turned into an illegal bar that was mockingly named 'The Covid Arms' on February 13 Footage captured officers looking around a garage workshop in Dudley Port, West Midlands, before discovering a hidden bar complete with a sign on the wall. West Midlands Police said officers used their discretion to allow the dozen people in there to leave, but the owner was hit with a 1,000 fine. The force also raided a packed night club with 150 attendees illegally set up near Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter in the early hours of Valentine's Day. Dozens of partygoers fled across rooftops after officers forced their way into the site, which boasted a VIP area, DJ, and was spread across two floors. On the same day, an illegal rave was busted in Merseyside wood with drugs, music speakers and a weapon all seized. Around 20 brazen coronavirus rule breakers turned up to the secluded part with organisers using plastic sheeting for a makeshift venue and speakers at the scene. ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: XHR) ("Xenia" or the "Company") today announced that its 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. The Company's Board of Directors has established March 31, 2021, as the record date for determining stockholders entitled to vote at the 2021 Annual Stockholders Meeting. About Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is a self-advised and self-administered REIT that invests in uniquely positioned luxury and upper upscale hotels and resorts with a focus on the top 25 U.S. lodging markets as well as key leisure destinations in the United States. The Company owns 35 hotels and resorts comprising 10,011 rooms across 15 states. Xenia's hotels are in the luxury and upper upscale segments, and are operated and/or licensed by industry leaders such as Marriott, Hyatt, Kimpton, Fairmont, Loews, Hilton, and The Kessler Collection. For more information on Xenia's business, refer to the Company website at www.xeniareit.com. For additional information or to receive press releases via email, please visit our website at www.xeniareit.com SOURCE Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Related Links http://www.xeniareit.com Davangere : , Feb 25 (IANS) Taking a serious note of two blasts in quarries in a gap of a month, Karnataka has decided to conduct an audit of explosive materials in all the quarries and mines across the state, the Home minister, Basavaraj Bommai said here on Thursday. Addressing mediapersons, Bommai said that such an audit will be carried out jointly by officials of mines and geology and the home department in the state. "We are going to form special teams soon and then carry out searches of all mines and quarries across the state and audit of explosives will be carried out," he added. In response to a question, the Home minister said that the joint team will be conducting search operations of all mines including illegal ones. "That goes without saying. This operation is all about taking stock of explosives and not to protect or shield anyone," he retorted. He also quickly added that search operations used to be carried out once in three or four months, but in the wake of two blasts in a gap of month has forced the state government to relook into this duration of carrying out inspections. "At the moment, we are discussing how to carry out searches once in a month or once in a fortnight. We will soon finalise this in order to tighten the mine audit system," the home minister said and added that he had already held a round of discussion with Karnataka mines and geology minister, Murugesh R. Nirani. In the first horrific incident, six persons were killed when a truckload of explosives exploded near a quarry on January 22 on the outskirts of Shivamogga, which is the home district of Karnataka chief minister, B. S. Yediyurappa and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister, K. S. Eshwarappa. In the latest incident on February 23, six victims were killed while allegedly disposing of illegally hoarded gelatin sticks in a campfire in a quarry near Hirenagavalli hamlet in Chikballapur district. Karnataka health minister, K. Sudhakar represents Chikkaballapur constituency who is also district in-charge minister. 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. Despite the pandemic-induced disruptions, venture capital funds pumped $2.7 billion into domestic fintech companies in 2020, the second-highest fund infusion into the sector since 2019 when it had peaked at $3.5 billion, according to a report. The biggest investments were into Bengaluru-based payments firm Navi Technologies at $397.9 million from angel funds, Noida-based Pine Labs attracted $300 million from private equity players, and Razorpay received $100 million from GIC of Singapore, Sequoia and others, making it a unicorn. As against this, global fintech investments stood at a whopping $105 billion across 2,861 deals in the year, the third-highest annual total ever, as per the data collated by KPMG India. Despite pandemic challenges, domestic fintech players attracted $2.7 billion in 2020, the second-highest after the 2019 peak of $3.5 billion, the report said, adding the year also saw the creation of a unicorn in Razorpay. Payments remained the hottest area of investment, followed by tech-driven insurance firms and tech-driven wealth managers, the report said. Competition in the insurance space started to heat up as incumbent insurers enhanced their digital focus due to the pandemic and niche payments players worked to expand into insurance, it added. Sanjay Doshi of KPMG India said many domestic banks are now going down the digital path, creating a big growth area for investments as banking-as-a-service platforms. He expects the fintech investment to remain robust in 2021 given the increase in demand for digital payments, contactless payments and e-commerce platforms. Investment by corporates is expected to be particularly strong as incumbent businesses continue to work to accelerate their digital transformation efforts. In addition to payments and platform models, B2B solutions, including embedded finance and 'buy now, pay later' solutions, will likely be a hot investment area in 2021. That apart blockchain is also expected to gain traction as blockchain-based solutions and digital asset offerings become more mainstream. Also Read: Nirav Modi to be extradited to India; Arthur Road Jail fit for him, rules UK court Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Medical Robotics Market Overview Medical robotics has helped the practitioners in performing the surgical operation with precision and less invasive techniques. This field has decreased the threats involved like infections, life risks, and pains. On observing the current market trends, the global medical robotics market is anticipated to reach a 23 % annual growth rate during the survey period. Demands for high precision surgical methods, increasing usage, and technological developments are the major factors driving this market. This technology is being used in endoscopy, gynecology, open surgery, and other complicated procedures for minimally invasive operations. Get a FREE Sample with Complete TOC By Considering the COVID-19 impact on Global Market @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1311 The demands for improved medical practices and rising healthcare budgets have helped the market in gaining the desired speeds on a global scale. The authorities are emphasizing the usage of such technologies and are investing largely in developing their healthcare facilities, which has also helped the market. Companies are working towards introducing better robotics mechanisms with fewer costs to expand the market and make it accessible for underdeveloped economies as well. Apart from gaining a considerable response from the medical field, the global medical robotics market is still struggling against factors like lack of trained professionals and large installation & maintenance costs. Higher overall costs have restrained the market in several underdeveloped regions and will take time for any further improvements. Medical Robotics Market Key Players Smith & Nephew (UK), Stryker (US), Aethon (US), Intuitive Surgical (US), Mazor Robotics (Israel), InTouch Technologies, Inc. (US), Renishaw plc (UK), Medtech SA (France), Ekso Bionics (US), ReWalk Robotics (US), Medrobotics Corporation (US), and McKesson Corporation (US) are some of the key players operating in the global medical robotics market. Medical Robotics market segments The global medical robotics market is segmented into three parts mentioned below: Product types: Surgical robotic systems, non-invasive robotic systems, robotic rehabilitation systems, and other types of products are available. Uses: Medical robotics are used for cardiology, laparoscopy, neurosurgeries, pharmacy, and other procedures. End-Users: Hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and others are the major end-users of this industry. Medical Robotics Market Regional Summary The major regions observed for the global medical robotics market are America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and The Middle East & Africa The American region is the current market leader and will maintain its lead due to the projected highest growth rates during the survey period. The demands for the latest technologies, improving healthcare facilities, the presence of significant market players, high healthcare expenditures, and other factors are driving the market in this region. The North American region is the major shareholder of this market. The European region is the second biggest market due to demands for non-invasive surgical methods, high investments, and other factors. The Asia Pacific region is the next market in this tally. Huge population, rise in per capita incomes, higher budget release for healthcare, demand for latest technologies, and other factors will keep boosting the market here. The rest of the regions are growing at lower speeds due to weak economic structures and lagging healthcare structures. Medical Robotics Market Industry News The global medical robotics market is one of the latest advancements in the medical field and is receiving a healthy response from around the globe. Still, high overall costs of the equipment and lack of trained professionals is limiting the markets growth rates. The American region is the current market leader and will stay at the top, with the highest growth rates during the survey period. Table Of Contents 1. REPORT PROLOGUE 2. MARKET INTRODUCTION 2.1. Definition 2.2. Scope Of The Study 2.2.1. Research Objective 2.2.2. Assumptions 2.2.3. Limitations 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1. Overview 3.2. Primary Research 3.3. Secondary Research 3.4. Market Size Estimation 4. MARKET DYNAMICS 4.1. Overview 4.2. Drivers 4.3. Restraints 4.4. Opportunities 5. MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS TOC Continued LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SYNOPSIS, 20192025 TABLE 2 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET ESTIMATES & FORECAST, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 3 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY PRODUCT, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 4 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY APPLICATION, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 5 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY END USER, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 6 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY REGION, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 7 NORTH AMERICA: MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY PRODUCT, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 8 NORTH AMERICA: MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY APPLICATION, 20192025 (USD MILLION) TABLE 9 NORTH AMERICA: MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET, BY END USER, 20192025 (USD MILLION) .Continued LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 RESEARCH PROCESS FIGURE 2 MARKET STRUCTURE OF THE GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET FIGURE 3 MARKET DYNAMICS OF THE GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET FIGURE 4 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE, BY PRODUCT, 2018 (%) FIGURE 5 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE, BY APPLICATION, 2018 (%) FIGURE 6 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE, BY END USER, 2018 (%) FIGURE 7 GLOBAL MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE, BY REGION, 2018 (%) FIGURE 8 AMERICAS: MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE BY REGION, 2018 (%) FIGURE 9 NORTH AMERICA: MEDICAL ROBOTICS MARKET SHARE, BY COUNTRY, 2018 (%) .Continued Obtain Premium Research Report Details, Considering the impact of COVID-19 @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/medical-robotics-market-1311 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. People 95 and older, as well as First Nations people 75 and older, are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Advertisement Advertise With Us People 95 and older, as well as First Nations people 75 and older, are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. "Im personally very excited to be announcing that were expanding into general population, and Im looking forward to decrease the age of eligibility continually over time," said Dr. Joss Reimer at Wednesdays news conference. Calls for the newly eligible can be made beginning this week, with vaccines beginning next week. The vaccine call centre, at 1-844-MAN-VACC (1-844-626-8222) now has 2,000 lines, with more than 370 trained agents. The online booking self-serve tool is in its pilot phase, but will not replace the call centre. "We do know its possible the call centre will receive an overwhelming number of calls. We know Manitobans have been eager for this moment, and many of you are going to want to call right away," said Reimer. She asked that only eligible people, or the people calling for an elderly person, ensure they fit the criteria. These days, the wait time is less than a minute on the booking line, with a call-back option. If the wait time does increase, people can opt to have their call returned rather than waiting on the phone. Dr. Marcia Anderson, public health lead for the First Nation Pandemic Response Co-ordination Team, explained that in the coming weeks, people who call to make an appointment and self-identify as First Nations would be transferred to a member of a specialized team. "These specialists will have additional training and cultural safety to ensure that they support callers and facilitate access to an appointment for those who are eligible," Anderson said. At first, self-identification will be the method by which First Nations can access the vaccine. But, in the future, because some people do falsely identify as First Nations called "pretendians" the system will be tightened up over time. "This is a phenomenon that I have been aware of and had to work through in multiple different contexts, but I never imagined that one of the harmful ripple effects would be that non-registered or non-status First Nation people would face the risk of not being able to get a vaccine at a time when they rightly should be able to," said Anderson. In the future, First Nations people in Manitoba will be asked to verify their identity, she added. "We want to make sure that this is done in a way that is safe for people and does not exclude our First Nations relatives, that because of the complicated and various processes of colonization, do not have Indian status cards," she said. If a First Nations person does not have a status card under the Indian Act, there will be an escalation process to deal with the more complex cases in a trauma-informed and culturally safe way. Anderson reported that, as of last Friday, 7,023 doses of vaccine have been administered on-reserve four per cent of the eligible population received first doses, while .08 per cent are fully vaccinated. Off-reserve, 2.96 per cent of the population have received one dose and .07 per cent are fully vaccinated. Of Manitobas eligible population, 2.4 per cent are fully vaccinated. As Anderson explained, First Nations have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 making up 54 per cent of new cases in the overall Manitoba population and 70 per cent of active cases, and the virus does affect them more harshly, as demonstrated by hospitalization rates. The median age of death in Manitoba is 83, while in First Nations it is 66. Meanwhile, full two-dose vaccination at personal care homes is set to wrap up this week. "This is a tremendous accomplishment," said Reimer, adding results are already showing. "While we are seeing decreases in rates in the community overall, and we know that there are strong public health measures still taking place in personal care homes, were also seeing quite a sharp drop in the number of outbreaks happening in personal care homes." Additionally, the focused immunization teams began first doses at congregate living sites in Brandon and Winnipeg on Feb. 19, with regional health authorities scheduling high-priority congregate living sites starting this week. There are 1,400 congregate living sites in the province. A list of those sites can be found at bit.ly/2P9KaWX The vaccination task force has looked ahead in terms of doses coming to Manitoba to the end of March which Johanu Botha, co-lead for the Vaccine Implementation Task Force, said will be 15,000 Pfizer doses weekly, up slightly from the roughly 12,000 doses it is receiving currently. "These are not large quantities," said Botha, adding all Pfizer doses go to supersites due to the storage requirements. There are currently two supersites in Winnipeg and Brandon with two more scheduled to open. The plan is to open Selkirks site in early March and Morden/Winklers in mid-March. Apart from the doses received from Moderna this week, next shipments of that vaccine are unknown. "We have just over 8,000 doses on hand remaining," said Botha, who added that those are tagged to complete vaccinations at personal care homes and support the congregate living campaign. Moderna is the vaccine of choice for First Nations, due to its less stringent storage requirement. Thats concerning, said Anderson. "We certainly want to respond to the data and have everybody First Nations people living both on and off reserve vaccinated as quickly as possible, especially as we start to think about heading into flood season, fire season, and what a large-scale evacuation at the same time as were dealing with the pandemic would mean," she said. But Anderson referenced Reimers news that Pfizer is looking into changing some of its shipping and storage restrictions. That may mean Pfizer can be used at First Nations in the future. "And I would say my experience has been both our provincial and federal counterparts are very willing to have that dialogue," she said. Anderson said its hard to calculate First Nation uptake of the vaccine at this time. "In general, in 61 of the 63, the anecdotal feedback that we got was that uptake was very high among those who were eligible. In one community, some further communication was needed, and support. Then uptake improved," she said. Anderson said the experience is much more in line with H1N1, which was higher than usual vaccine uptake. "Were very encouraged by this progress." It was also revealed at the news conference that the Manitoba Metis Federation continues to be in conversation with the province for a vaccine program targeting vulnerable Metis populations. Reimer suggested Manitobans monitor the eligibility criteria website. The eligibility criteria will expand sometimes quickly by decreasing age, and can be found at bit.ly/3ssXBQb Additionally, 213 pharmacies and doctors across the province have signed up to deliver vaccines when more, with less stringent storage needs, are approved. The Wednesday technical briefing for media, which preceded the news conference, can be found at bit.ly/37LRuhP mletourneau@brandonsun.com Michele LeTourneau covers Indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism. Wednesdays covid-19 update The COVID-19 update from the province on Wednesday included one death a female in her 90s from the Winnipeg health region linked to the outbreak at Oakview Place Personal Care Home. The province reported 45 new cases. However, six cases were removed due to data corrections. This brings the net-new number of cases to 39. The new cases are as follows: three cases in the InterlakeEastern health region; 10 cases in the Northern health region; one case in the Prairie Mountain Health region; eight cases in the Southern HealthSante Sud health region; and 23 cases in the Winnipeg health region. The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was 4.6 per cent in the province, and four per cent in Winnipeg. Lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba since the beginning of the pandemic total 31,483. The province reports 1,196 active cases, and individuals who have recovered total a reported 29,507. The province also reported 81 people are in hospital with active COVID-19, as well as 126 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require care, for a total of 207 hospitalizations. Eleven people are in intensive care units with active COVID-19, as well as 18 people with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care, for a total of 29 ICU patients. In the PMH region, there are a reported 20 active cases, with 1,984 recovered. There are two active cases hospitalized, and five people hospitalized who are no longer infectious. There is one patient in ICU. The region has seen 53 deaths. Brandons active case count is nine, with 971 recovered and 22 deaths. On Tuesday, 1,805 tests were completed, for a total of 517,602 since February 2020. Source: Province of Manitoba Hyderabad, Feb 25 : Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Thursday joined hands with the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA), Telangana to ease the process of tax payment for citizens across the region. The CDMA, Telangana has unveiled a dedicated WhatsApp channel that will be free-to-use and will also function as a source for up-to-date information about tax dues. "We're delighted to partner with CDMA, Telangana and support their efforts to promote a Digital India through impactful Government to Citizen (G2C) services on WhatsApp," Shivnath Thukral, Head of Public Policy, WhatsApp India, said in a statement. People can simply send a 'Hi' to CDMA, Telangana's official WhatsApp account on +91 90002 53342, to easily access these services and pay their taxes conveniently via a debit card, credit card or internet banking. The chatbot is currently available in English and Telugu, with CDMA working to add Urdu as an additional language soon. The 'CDMA, Telangana Property Tax Module' is an automated 'chatbot' service which has allowed citizens to substitute visits to the municipal office, enabling contactless transactions during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The WhatsApp-based service is also expected to significantly boost tax collections. "We would like to thank the WhatsApp team for their help in setting up this service. We will continue to add more services on CDMA's WhatsApp chatbot to ensure these services remain resourceful to citizens," said KT Rama Rao, Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Telangana. Following an overwhelming response from citizens on the Tax Module, the CDMA, Telangana is also working towards leveraging WhatsApp to roll out services that will aid payment of water bills and other day-to-day municipality services like applying for birth and death certificates, grievances, enabling a water connection, building permissions, trade licenses and more. The WhatsApp-based channel will provide citizens with all the information they need as well as a direct link to apply online for those services. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 24, 2021 / FIRST LIGHT CAPITAL CORP. (the "Company" or "First Light") (TSXV:XYZ.P) is pleased to announce that due to changes recently announced by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") to its Capital Pool Company program and changes to the Exchange's Policy 2.4 - Capital Pool Companies, which became effective January 1, 2021 (the "New CPC Policy"), the Company intends to implement certain amendments to align certain of its policies with the New CPC Policy. The New CPC Policy permits a capital pool company formed under Exchange Policy 2.4, Capital Pool Companies as it was in effect prior to January 1, 2021 (the "Old CPC Policy") to align certain of its policies with the New CPC Policy under specified circumstances. Among these changes, capital pool companies formed under the Old CPC Policy can, among other changes: (i) amend their Stock Option Plan (the "Option Plan") to, among other things, become a "10% rolling" plan prior to the Company completing a Qualifying Transaction ("QT"); (ii) remove the consequences of failing to complete a QT within 24 months of the Company's date of listing on the Exchange (the "Listing Date"); and (iii) amend the escrow release conditions and certain other provisions of the Company's Escrow Agreement (the "Escrow Agreement"). In order to implement these changes, a capital pool company formed under the Old CPC Policy must first obtain disinterested shareholder and Exchange approval. First Light, which was listed on April 23, 2019, has received disinterested shareholder approval to the implementation of the following changes: Amendments to the Stock Option Plan. First Light intends to amend its Stock Option Plan to enable it, prior to completion of its QT, to: (i) increase the total number of common shares in its capital (the "Shares") reserved for issuance upon exercise of stock options from 10% of the number outstanding as at the closing date of the Company's initial public offering ("IPO") to such number as is equal to 10% of the Shares issued and outstanding as at the date of grant; (ii) allow the number of Shares reserved for issuance as options to any individual director or senior officer not to exceed 5% of the Shares outstanding as at the date of grant, rather than at the closing date of the IPO; (iii) allow the number of Shares reserved for issuance as options to Consultants, as defined in the Stock Option Plan, not to exceed 2% of the Shares outstanding as at the date of grant, rather than at the closing date of the IPO; and (iv) require, prior to the granting of options, that the optionee first enter into an escrow agreement agreeing to deposit the options, and the Shares acquired pursuant to the exercise of such options, into escrow as described in the escrow agreement. Remove the Consequences of Failing to Complete a QT within 24 Months of the Listing Date. Under the Old CPC Policy, there were certain consequences if a QT was not completed within 24 months of the Listing Date. These consequences include the cancellation of certain seed shares and the potential for Shares to be delisted or suspended, or, subject to the approval of the majority of the Company's shareholders, transferred to list on the NEX. The New CPC Policy permits a capital pool company formed under the Old CPC Policy to remove these consequences if disinterested shareholder and Exchange approval is obtained. Amendments to the Escrow Agreement. The Company intends to amend the Escrow Agreement to allow the Company's escrowed securities to be subject to an 18-month escrow release schedule as detailed in the New CPC Policy, rather than the current 36 month escrow release schedule in the Old CPC Policy. In addition, the Company intends to amend the Escrow Agreement such that all options granted prior to the date the Exchange issues a final bulletin for the QT ("Final QT Exchange Bulletin") and all Shares that were issued upon exercise of such options prior to the date of the Final QT Exchange Bulletin will be released from escrow on the date of the Final QT Exchange Bulletin, other than options that (a) were granted prior to the IPO with an exercise price that is less than the issue price of the Shares issued in the IPO and (b) any Shares that were issued pursuant to the exercise of such options, which will be released from escrow in accordance with the 18 month escrow release schedule as detailed in the New CPC Policy. About First Light First Light is a capital pool company pursuant to Policy 2.4 of the Exchange. Except as specifically contemplated in such policy, until the completion of its QT (as defined in the policy), the Company will not carry on business, other than the identification and evaluation of companies, businesses or assets with a view to completing a proposed QT. Investors are cautioned that trading in the securities of a capital pool company is considered highly speculative. James A. Currie CEO and Director 604-569-2209 The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: First Light Capital Corp View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/631838/First-Light-Capital-Announces-Changes-to-Align-With-New-CPC-Policy President Joe Biden would not publicly endorse the push by Amazon workers at the companys Bessemer facility to unionize despite previously telling union workers hed be the strongest labor president you have ever had, according to a report. Biden would only go as far as urging companies like Amazon not to wage anti-union campaigns or interfere with workers attempting to join unions, a White House official told Politico. The presidents position is due to him having to walk a fine line between encouraging unionization efforts while not angering Amazon, which contributed to Bidens inauguration and pledged to support his administrations efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic, Politico noted. Union leaders said Bidens public position is discouraging. If we dont have the leader of the free world speaking up and saying, Ive got these workers backs, so that they can actually freely choose their union ... Were leaving them stranded, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told Politico. I mean this is a real opportunity for the president to say, I mean what I say... when I put forward the ideals that I have in my labor platform. On Labor Day, then-presidential candidate Biden told union workers at the Pennsylvania A.F.L-C.I.O. headquarters in Harrisburg that he would be the strongest labor president you have ever had. Biden said he would work to increase wages for essential workers, pass legislation increasing bargaining rights and hold executives liable if they block workers efforts to unionize. Wall Street did not build this country, Biden said on Labor Day, according to the New York Times. You did the great American middle class. And the middle class was built by unions unions and the American people now finally get it after a long time of being convinced that unions were a problem, not the answer. The effort to join a union in Bessemer has attracted nationwide attention, and if its successful it would mark the first time Amazon employees have unionized. On Monday, actor Danny Glover rallied in support of the workers. A mail-in vote began earlier this month among more than 5,000 employees at the center to see if they want representation by the RWDSU. The votes will be counted in late March. If approved, the workers would be represented by the RWDSU. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. (CNN) Coronavirus infections across the US are still on the way down, and more Americans are getting vaccinated but variants could cause complications soon. Several experts predicted the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK is likely to fuel another surge of cases in just a matter of weeks. "It could result in more of a wave in, say, April or May than we would have expected otherwise," Trevor Bedford, of the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said during a briefing sponsored by the center on Tuesday. "But I still do suspect that things will be brought under control in the summer, and there will be very little virus circulating." The predicted surge is why many experts highlight the need to double down on safety measures such as face masks, social distancing and avoiding crowded areas. Helping to lower cases will also reduce the virus' chance to spread more and mutate, experts have said. Still, an ensemble forecast Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected 526,000 to 548,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by March 20. The previous forecast, published in February, projected up to 559,000 deaths by March 13. Vaccinating as many people as possible will also be a big help in slowing any more surges -- and the vaccine arsenal may be bolstered soon. Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has met the US Food and Drug Administration's requirements for emergency use authorization, or EUA, the agency said Wednesday in an analysis. The efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against moderate to severe/critical COVID-19 across all geographic areas was 66.9% at least 14 days after the single dose vaccination and 66.1% at least 28 days after vaccination, states the analysis for the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, independent group of FDA advisers. An analysis of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine "supported a favorable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA," according to a 62-page briefing document released by the FDA on Wednesday. The advisory committee meets Friday and will consider the documents and make a recommendation about whether Johnson & Johnson's vaccine should be authorized. Pending emergency use authorization, the Biden administration is preparing rollout plans for 3 million to 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration was "surprised" when Johnson & Johnson told them they were behind on manufacturing. CNN has reported the initial number of doses was expected to be closer to 10 million. "We're going to continue to work with them on ensuring that that can be expedited," Psaki said of Johnson & Johnson. Still, the new, infectious variants make it "difficult to prevent a fourth wave altogether," said Dr. Josh Schiffer, an infectious diseases specialist at Fred Hutchinson. To speed up vaccinations, one report suggests the US should consider skipping second doses for now of two-dose vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. People over 65 should go to the front of the line since they're by far the most vulnerable to severe disease and death, according to a recommendation from Mike Osterholm and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. The group called on the FDA and CDC vaccine advisers to be quickly convened and determine whether data supports the group's recommendations, including deferring second vaccine doses to after the coming surge. "There is a narrow and rapidly closing window of opportunity to more effectively use vaccines and potentially prevent thousands of severe cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the next weeks and months," the report said. Officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said in recent days the US is continuing to vaccinate people with both doses and close to the recommended schedules, with Fauci telling CNN earlier this week, "science points directly toward continuing with what we know about from the clinical trial." Promising news about South African variant Moderna announced that it has designed an updated version of its vaccine to help combat the South Africa coronavirus variant. Initial doses have been shipped to the US National Institutes of Health for a clinical study. The new Moderna vaccine, called mRNA-1273.351, will be evaluated as a booster shot for people who have been vaccinated and as a primary vaccine for people who haven't had the virus and have yet to be vaccinated. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson, could get the green light for its own COVID-19 vaccine from the FDA later this week. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine seems to work better against the variant first identified in South Africa than data initially suggested, according to the FDA briefing document. The vaccine showed a 64% efficacy rate in South Africa -- seven points higher than what was reported in interim company data in January, the FDA said. Since that time, Johnson & Johnson did additional sequencing and determined there were more cases that could be included in its analysis from South Africa. Early research raises concern about UK variant in California So far, more than 1,900 cases of coronavirus strains first spotted in the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been reported across the US, CDC data shows. The vast majority of those cases about 1,881 are of the B.1.1.7 variant that's concerning experts and that the CDC has previously warned could become the predominant variant by next month. Meanwhile, two studies that are due to come out soon also raise concerns about the variant's impact in California. The studies hint that the variant might not only be more contagious but may also cause more severe disease. But the research is in its very early stages, has not been published or peer-reviewed and needs more work, researchers stressed. A team at the University of California, San Francisco, tested virus samples from recent outbreaks across the state and found it was becoming far more common: while it wasn't seen in any samples from September, by the end of January it was found in half of the samples. The researchers also found some evidence suggesting the variant is more dangerous, writing in a report that they observed "increased severity of disease" associated with the variant, including "increased risk of high oxygen requirement." A second team at Unidos en Salud a volunteer-led collaboration between UC San Francisco and other groups that offers fast COVID-19 testing in San Francisco's Mission District tested more than 8,800 people in January and sequenced the virus from more than 630 positive samples. They also found a rapid increase in the variant. FDA may OK storing Pfizer vaccine at standard temps Concerned about the variants, US officials continue to work to ramp up vaccinations. The New York Times reported Tuesday the FDA plans to authorize a request from Pfizer allowing the vaccine maker to store its vaccines at regular freezer temperatures instead of the ultra-cold levels required up to now. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech submitted data to the FDA on Friday showing its vaccine can be safely stored at temperatures higher than what is currently required for long-term storage. The Times quoted two sources familiar with the companies, who requested anonymity, saying the FDA informed the companies it would OK that request. The move could greatly ease logistics for not just the companies, but the federal government, states and other groups that have been working to distribute those vaccines. That piece of news comes as Pfizer and Moderna pledged to make a combined total of 220 million doses available for shipment by the end of March. Moderna said Wednesday that approximately 55 million COVID-19 doses have been shipped to the US government. Additionally, approximately 33 million doses have been produced, filled into vials and are in the final stages of production and testing before release, according to a company statement. So far, about 44.5 million Americans have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data. More than 19.8 million have been fully vaccinated a little more than 6% of the US population. The supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses allocated to states and retail pharmacies is increasing nearly 70%, from 8.6 million doses in January to 14.5 million doses this week, Zients said Wednesday. Among one of several challenges that states are facing while getting shots in arms is racial disparities. In California, officials said it will make changes to the statewide COVID-19 vaccine-appointment system after access codes distributed to underserved communities were used by outsiders to secure vaccines. Recent data shows that Black and Latino residents collectively have received a combined 19% of the state's vaccine doses while accounting for nearly 60% of California's COVID-19 cases. In contrast, White residents have been given 32.7% of vaccine doses while making up about 20% of the state's cases. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Experts worry variant-fueled Covid-19 surge may be weeks away but cases will likely fall again by summer." Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-25 19:33:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANGKOK/YANGON, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Thai foreign ministry confirmed Thursday that Myanmar foreign minister U Wunna Maung Lwin visited Bangkok on Wednesday, the first visit abroad by a senior Myanmar official after a one-year state of emergency was declared in Myanmar. The visit was "a good opportunity for the Thai side to hear directly from the Myanmar side on the various issues that the latter attaches importance to, and for both sides to engage in a conversation about issues that are important for the peoples on both sides of the border," spokesman of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tanee Sangrat told a press conference. The two sides exchanged views on issues including public health cooperation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and cooperation on issues concerning Myanmar migrant workers, Tanee said, reiterating Thailand's firm support for continued peace and stability in Myanmar. Tanee also confirmed that a three-way meeting was held among Thai Deputy Prime Minister Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Wunna Maung Lwin and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who was also in Bangkok. The Myanmar and Thai sides exchanged views on matters pertaining to sustaining the ongoing mutually beneficial cooperation between Myanmar and Thailand, maintenance of security and stability along the border, attainment of legal status and ensuring rights of Myanmar workers in Thailand, according to a release from Myanmar's Ministry of Information on Thursday. Enditem Combining the production increase with higher crude prices, the oiler is now on track to exceed its 2019 oil revenues at the field Trillion noted that it has enjoyed oil price increases to over US$63 a barrel this year, up from a low of US$17 during April 2020 Trillion Energy International Inc ( ) (OTCMKTS:TCFF) (FRA:3P2N), the oil and gas producer, has boosted production at its Cendere oil field in Turkey thanks to two well workovers, the company said on Thursday. Combining this with higher crude prices, the oiler said it is now on track to exceed its 2019 oil revenues at the field. The company noted that re-completion of the Cendere 13 well, where the firm has a 100% working interest (WI), resulted in daily gross production increasing by 469 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to 714 bopd. As at February 1 this year, output was 654 bopd. Operational costs at the well also fell. Meanwhile, the Cendere 23 well - in which trillion also has a 100% WI - was re-completed on February 21 and resulted in an uplift of 30 bopd to 100 bopd Trillion noted that it has enjoyed oil price increases to over US$63 a barrel this year, up from a low of US$17 during April 2020. Historically, revenues from the Cendere oil field were US$2.9 million in 2019, net to Trillion at an average sale price of US$62.43, but 2020 sales dropped to US$1.7million due to the oil price crash of early 2020. "The company is now on track to exceed it 2019 oil revenues for the Cendere field due to the combined production and price increases," it told investors in a statement. Cendere is a stable, long-term, low decline oil field, which has produced 20,851,770 barrels to date and current production is 1,204 bopd (100%WI) from 14 wells. A total of 23 wells have been produced at Cendere. Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com SPRINGFIELD Illinois traffic deaths rose in 2020 despite reports of fewer people on roads across the state. Preliminary reports indicate 1,166 people died in crashes around the state last year, an increase of 16 percent from 2019. The overall fatality number hasnt been that high since back in 2007. Thats despite data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that indicates miles traveled by vehicles in the U.S. dropped by more than 14 percent in the first nine months of 2020. There were 33 traffic fatalities in Madison County last year, compared to 36 in 2019, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. Decreases also were seen in Jersey County, from seven in 2019 to four in 2020, and Greene County, fro, two in 2019 to one last year. Calhoun reported just one fatality for both years. Macoupin County reported seven fatalities last year, up from four in 2019. Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, says the organization has seen a number of contributing factors as they look at the data. Speeding, especially high speeds, drug and alcohol use when getting behind the wheel, riskier driving such as distracted driving, Chase said. People also arent buckling up like they should be. According to its website, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is an alliance of consumer, medical, public health, law enforcement, and safety groups and insurance companies and agents working together to make Americas roads safer. Chase says younger drivers have accounted for a disproportionate number of the increased deaths. More specifically, it is younger male drivers who have disproportionately been a part of the overall fatalities between April and June, Chase said. People are driving distracted. Theyre using their devices for not just texting and phone calls anymore, but watching videos and doing apps and playing games. The smarter the phone has gotten, the less smart drivers have gotten. New safety measures in passenger cars havent been enough to hold down the numbers. Chase says it doesnt help that features like blind-spot warnings, automatic braking, and lane assist arent in widespread use as of yet. These advances are trickling into the marketplace, Chase said. If there were a requirement [from the U.S. Department of Transportation] that they be standard equipment in new vehicles, then we would see much more of them being a part of the marketplace more quickly. She said that if the requirements were to be adopted across the industry, the cost would not be as steep as perhaps expected. We know that when technology is required, the cost goes down, Chase said. Its just the scale of economy. Right now, auto manufacturers can upcharge. You cant just buy one safety system because they typically come in in a luxury package to the tune of $2,000 or $3,000. If there are requirements, then we know that the price will come down. Since the novel coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan, China, in 2019, several variants have emerged across the world. Most of the attention has been focused on highly contagious variants first identified in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil, all of which have since quickly spread. But a new variant, homegrown in the US and known as B.1.427/B.1.429, which cropped up in California, has emerged as a variant of concern. New studies have suggested that infection with the variant drives up viral load about twice as high as originally circulating strains of the virus, that it spreads at least as easily as other recent variants and could be up to 11 times deadlier. DailyMail.com has broken down how the new variant compares to other well-known mutations and how lethal it may be. Researchers has been worried about the U.K variant, known as B.1.1.7, with 204 in California (above) but now fear a potential 'nightmare scenario' of two strains meeting in one person, exchanging mutations and turning into an even deadlier coronavirus variant CALIFORNIA VARIANT - B.1.427/B.1.429 The variant was first identified in May 2020 and was virtually nonexistent until October. In a recent study, which is expected to be posted to server medRxiv.org later this week, the University of California, San Francisco looked at 2,172 samples of the virus collected between September 2020 and January 2021 across California. By January, the new variant accounted for more than 50 percent of all the genetically analyzed coronavirus samples. In short order, it had become the most common strain in the sate. It could account for 90 percent of the state's infections by the end of March, scientists told the Los Angeles Times. Dr Charles Chiu, a professor of laboratory medicine and infectious diseases expert at UCSF, told the newspaper that the virus appeared to be more transmissible than prior strains by between 19 percent to 24 percent. California's homegrown variant, called B.1.427/B.1.429, currently makes up 50% of all cases in the state and is estimated to make up 90% of all cases by the end of March (above) The virus has been found in other states, such as Nevada, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado and Oregon, but it has only surged in California (above) In lab studies performed at UCSF, the researchers analyzed genetic material found on nasal swabs that were used to perform coronavirus tests. They found that B.1.427/B.1.429 produced a viral load that was twice as that triggered by other variants. That suggest the homegrown variant is better at copying itself more quickly once it gets inside the human body and hijacks its machinery. Although this hasn't been tested definitively yet, a higher viral load is a bad sign that someone infected with the variant might be especially contagious, spreading the virus more efficiently and effectively. Scientists will likely monitor this in the weeks to come. In addition, the California variant was more effective at evading antibodies produced naturally by the bodies of survivors of COVID-19 or produced by vaccines. Levels of antibodies produced in response to the California variant were two-fold lower. This means it is not as successful as other variants like the one seen in South Africa, at evading immunity, The New York Times reported There is also early evidence this variant could be deadlier. Although Chiu and his colleagues found an 11-fold higher death rate rate among who people died from B.1.427/B.1.429, there were only 12 deaths in the group. Experts told The Times this means the result could be a 'statistical fluke' and not hold up when examined in a larger population. Cases of the variant has been found in other states, such as Nevada, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado and Oregon, but it has only surged in California. UK'S 'KENT' VARIANT - B.1.1.7 The UK variant was first discovered in the county of Kent in September but was not deemed a 'Variant of Concern' (VOC) until December. Its name, B.1.1.7, derives from the location of its most significant mutations. It now accounts for at least 60 percent of all cases in Britain. Most estimates put it at about 70 percent more infectious than older 'wild-type' coronavirus variants. More moderate projections say its transmissibility is only about 56 percent higher. B 1.1.7. has been detected in 94 countries and is one of the most prevalent strains in the U.S. with 1.881 detected in 45 states. Officials in the UK says that variant may be 30 to 40 percent more deadly, and so far there have been two deaths in the U.S. linked to the variant. In a new study published earlier this month. on pre-print server medRxiv.org, a team sequenced 500,000 samples of the virus, called SARS-CoV-2, tested at Helix facilities since July 2020. A new study found that B.1.1.7 was present in 0.2% of cases in the U.S. in October, and was found to be present 3.6% at the end of January Researchers found the new variant's prevalence among positive test results is increasing, doubling every 10 days across the country (above) Beginning the week of October 18, 2020, just 0.2 percent of daily positive cases appeared to be linked to the UK variant. The first case was identified in the U.S. on December 31, showing that the variant was in the country much earlier than previously believed. However, the increase rapidly took off in January. The nationwide proportion of B 1.1.7. cases increased from 0.8 percent of all positive tests during the first week of January 2021 to 3.6 percent in the last week. Because of its more contagious nature, infections of the variant in the U.S. appear to be doubling about every 10 days. Cases involving the new variant are most prevalent in Florida and California, doubling every nine days and 12 days, respectively. The study appears to back a forecast from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which predicted the variant would become the dominant variant in the nation by March. Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said the virus may indeed be deadlier. But he and other UK officials say other variants are more concerning because they may make vaccines less effective and that all leading candidates seem to protect against the UK variant. Cases involving the new variant are most prevalent in Florida (top graph) and California (bottom graph), doubling every nine days and 12 days, respectively SOUTH AFRICAN VARIANT - B.1.351 South Africa's variant was first announced by the health department in the Eastern Cape province of the county on December 18. It has 21 mutations, including one it shares with the UK variant in a location on its genome known as N501Y. The South African variant is estimated to be about xx percent more contagious and is responsible for xx cases in the country. As of Thursday it has spread to at least 30 countries, including the U.S., where 46 cases are confirmed in 14 states. On January 24, President Joe Biden announced a travel ban on people coming from South Africa in an effort to stop importation of the new variant. The South African variant has a mutation of its spike protein (circled in yellow) that makes it more contagious, capable of reinfection and potentially more immune to vaccines Fauci says that the South African variant is the most concerning one because it might render vaccines less effective due to mutations that help it 'hide' from antibodies developed after vaccination or a previous bout of COVID-19. Preliminary findings suggest that all five of the leading vaccine candidates - Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZenca and and Novovax - offer some protection against the variants, but the degree has varied. Fauci says that the South African variant is the most concerning one because it might render vaccines less effective due to mutations that help it 'hide' from antibodies developed after vaccination or a previous bout of COVID-19. One study found that Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine offered roughly two-thirds less antibody protection against the South African variant Another separate study found Moderna's vaccine had a six-fold decrease in antibody response against the variant And in South Africa's mid-stage study of about 4,000 participants, the Novavax shot was not as protective and was found to be just 49.4% effective against its variant. BRAZIL'S VARIANT - P.1 This variant first caught international attention when four travelers arriving to Tokyo from Manaus, Brazil, tested positive on January 2. The variant has the same spike protein mutation as the highly transmissible versions found in Kent and South Africa named N501Y which makes the spike better able to bind to receptors inside the body. A recent study found the P.1 variant made up 42 percent of specimens taken from Manaus, the larger city on the Amazon. This is notable because about 75 percent of the resident had already been infected with COVID-19 by October 2020, Because the region experienced a devastating surge in cases, this suggests that P.1. is more transmissible. However, its effect on transmissibility and/or virulence is currently unknown. It is the least common variant in the US. just five cases confirmed in four states. A series of violent crimes against Asians and Asian Americans has prompted activists and experts to warn that racist rhetoric about the coronavirus pandemic may be fueling a rise in hate incidents. Police in Oakland, California, announced this week that they arrested a suspect in connection with a brutal attack of a 91-year-old man in Chinatown that was caught on camera. In less than a week, a Thai man was attacked and killed in San Francisco, a Vietnamese woman was assaulted and robbed of $1,000 in San Jose, and a Filipino man was attacked with a box cutter on the subway in New York City. It's unclear whether the crimes were racially motivated, but advocates calling for more to be done to address violence against Asian Americans say racist crimes against the community are historically underreported for a variety of reasons. Meanwhile, police departments across the country are warning residents of increased crime around Lunar New Year, in part because of the threat of robberies during the multi-day celebrations that begin Friday. Cash is a customary gift. Lunar New Year 2021: What does the ox symbolize, and how will it be celebrated during COVID-19 pandemic? Violence against Asian Americans sharply increased in March as COVID-19 began spreading across the country, and some politicians, including former President Donald Trump, blamed China for the pandemic, said Russell Jeung, who created a tool that tracks hate incidents against Asian American Pacific Islander communities called the Stop AAPI Hate tracker. "When President Trump began and insisted on using the term 'China virus,' we saw that hate speech really led to hate violence," said Jeung, chair of the Asian American studies department at San Francisco State University. "That sort of political rhetoric and that sort of anti-Asian climate has continued to this day." Three people including a 91-year-old man were attacked in Oakland's Chinatown in California Acts of racist violence lead to increased anxiety and fear in a population that already has higher rates of anxiety and depression related to COVID-19 than other racial groups, Jeung said. Story continues Stop AAPI Hate, Jeung's website, which includes a self-reporting tool for harassment, discrimination and violent attacks, recorded 2,808 incidents of anti-Asian discrimination across the U.S. from its inception on March 19 to Dec. 31, 2020. Another organization, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian American Justice Center, recorded more than 3,000 hate incidents in their self-reporting system since late April 2020 by far the highest number in the tool's four-year history. The FBI collects national hate crime data, but data for 2020 and 2021 has not yet been released. Two hundred sixteen anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2019, according to the latest data available. That number may be just a fraction of the true total given that fewer than half of the victims of a hate crime ever report it to the police, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Jeung said the increase in hate incidents is a particular concern in urban areas. In New York City, police data shows there were 24 anti-Asian hate crimes related to the coronavirus between Jan. 1 and Nov. 29, 2020, compared with just three anti-Asian hate crimes in the same period in 2019. "This increase was cultivated due to the anti-Asian rhetoric about the virus that was publicized, and individuals began to attack Asian New Yorkers, either verbal attack or physical assault," Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters in August. The spike in hate crimes led the NYPD to create an Asian Hate Crimes Task Force. 'We just want to be safe': Hate crimes, harassment of Asian Americans rise amid coronavirus pandemic Activists including Amanda Nguyen, co-founder of Rise, a sexual assault survivor advocacy organization, are raising awareness of the Oakland case and the other violent incidents involving Asian Americans. Nguyen said she created an Instagram video about the attacks, which has since gone viral, because she was angered not only by the violence but by the lack of media attention the cases received. "When I made that video I was tired of living in fear and I wanted to scream," she told USA TODAY. "Its so absurd that I have to say 'Stop killing us.' ... We are literally fearing for our lives as we walk out of our door, and your silence, your silence rings through our heads." In the Oakland assault, the district attorney's office is investigating whether there is enough evidence to support hate crime charges, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said in a statement to USA TODAY. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The suspect in the Oakland assault, Yahya Muslim, was charged with three counts of assault, inflicting great bodily injury and committing a crime against an elderly person, O'Malley announced at a news conference Monday. Police said Muslim is believed to have attacked a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman the same day of the Chinatown attack. Meanwhile, actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case and are donating that money to community organizations like Stop AAPI Hate. Dig deeper on race and identity: Subscribe to This Is America, USA TODAY's newsletter "The skyrocketing number of hate crimes against Asian Americans continues to grow, despite our repeated pleas for help," they said on Twitter. "The crimes ignored and even excused." On Jan. 28, Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked and later died in San Francisco. Eric Lawson, his son-in-law, told USA TODAY he believes the 84-year-old was targeted because he was Asian. Lawson adde that his wife, who is Thai, was verbally assaulted twice and told to "go back to China" before the attack. "Everyone is dancing around the issue, and no one's addressing it," he said. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin filed murder and elder abuse charges against Antoine Watson, but his office has "no evidence of what motivated this senseless attack," spokesperson Rachel Marshall told USA TODAY. Vicha Ratanapakdee was died in San Francisco after an attack his family said was racially motivated. In San Jose, a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman was assaulted last Wednesday and robbed of $1,000 in cash she had withdrawn for the holiday. No arrest has been made, and there is no indication the robbery was race-related, said public information officer Sgt. Christian Camarillo. That same day in New York, 61-year-old Noel Quintana, who is of reportedly Filipino descent, was slashed in the face with a box cutter on the subway. Spokesperson Detective Sophia Mason told USA TODAY police were investigating but did not answer questions about whether the incident may have been motivated by race. Christian Hall: Ben Crump to represent family of Asian American teen killed by police while having 'mental health crisis' Although it's unclear whether the particular cases are racially motivated, they are certainly "related" and "horrific," Jeung said. "What makes it worse is we see our elderly and youth also targeted," he said. "It seems like people are attacking vulnerable populations." John C. Yang, president and CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC said his organization has been tracking anti-Asian hate incidents and crimes for nearly 30 years and has received hundreds more hate incident reports in 2020 than in previous years. He said polls by IPSOS and Pew Research Center indicate that the true scope of hate Asian Americans are experiencing is probably much larger, and better data is needed. "Although these reports are clearly incomplete, clearly just the tip of the iceberg that shows us that there is this dramatic increase in hate incidents," he said, noting that it's too soon to tell if that increase is continuing in 2021. There are several reasons victims of a hate crime may not report it to the police, according to Yang. Yang said victims may not be aware of the resources available for them, and there may be language barriers to accessing those resources for older Asian Americans in particular. He said there may be cultural barriers to reporting as well, including shame around being perceived as a victim. Some victims may also be concerned about interacting with law enforcement because of their immigration status. Yang added that not all hate incidents rise to the level of crime, but they still "clearly inflict a level of mental trauma." He estimated that only about 10% of the incidents reported to his organization could be considered crimes. 'They look at me and think I'm some kind of virus': What it's like to be Asian during the coronavirus pandemic Jeung, of Stop AAPI Hate, said that in addition to crimes such as physical violence, Asian Americans have reported experiencing violations of their civil rights including being denied service by businesses or rideshares, being verbally harassed with racial slurs and facing vandalism and property damage. He said his wife was deliberately coughed on while jogging, noting the similarities to a New Jersey incident where a man was charged with making a terroristic threat after coughing on a supermarket employee and saying he had the coronavirus. "There is such a climate of hate and anger that we need to again lower the temperature and remind people to treat others with respect," he said. President Joe Biden signed a memorandum in late January denouncing xenophobia and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yang said the Biden administration's words have made a difference, but the recent violence has caused the community to "hunker down again" during a normally celebratory time. He said more needs to be done to ensure victims have support systems and to educate bystanders about safe intervention. He warned against relying too heavily on law enforcement. Despite the horrific crimes, Jeung was excited to see the Oakland community organizing efforts to reduce crime in the neighborhood. "What Im really heartened by is the Asian American community is really standing up," he said. "I want people to know were not simply victims of discrimination, but were advocating for racial justice for everyone in the United States and well continue to do so." Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID: Asian Americans see violence, hate crimes rise amid pandemic The Senate confirmed Jennifer M. Granholm to be energy secretary on Thursday, positioning the former governor of Michigan to play a key role in President Bidens plans to confront climate change. Ms. Granholm, a longtime champion of renewable energy development, was confirmed by a vote of 64 to 35, with support from both Democrats and Republicans. She will be the second woman to lead the Department of Energy, after Hazel R. OLeary, who served under President Bill Clinton. Ms. Granholm will oversee an agency that plays a leading role in researching and developing new energy technologies, such as advanced wind turbines or methods to capture carbon dioxide from industrial facilities before the gas reaches the atmosphere. Energy experts have said innovations like these could prove critical for slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. At her confirmation hearing last month, Ms. Granholm sought to allay fears by lawmakers that transitioning the United States away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy sources would devastate the nations economy. She pointed to her experience as Michigans governor during the 2009 recession, when the state invested heavily in electric vehicle technology and worker retraining programs amid efforts to rescue an ailing auto industry that had long focused on building gasoline-powered cars and trucks. Feature Article A look into the mysteries of proton structure and the dynamics of antiquarks and gluons Physics experiment explores antimatter asymmetry DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory A new paper out in Nature describes unusual results from the E-906/SeaQuest experiment, showing that distributions of antiquarks are significantly different than expected, with more abundant "down" type antimatter quarks than "up" antimatter quarks. LOS ALAMOS, N.M., February 24, 2021--A complex high-energy nuclear physics experiment, aiming to measure the contributions of antiquarks to the structure of the proton and neutron, has produced results that are the opposite of what had previously been understood about proton structure and the dynamics of strong interacting antiquarks and gluons. "The main physics result of this experiment has very significant impact on our understanding of the proton structure, and also on the dynamics of strong interacting antiquarks and gluons inside the proton," said Ming Xiong Liu, a Los Alamos National Laboratory author on the new paper, which was published in the journal Nature this week and describes results from the Fermilab E-906/SeaQuest experiment. As the research paper notes, the theoretical and experimental understanding of how these particles and their dynamics give rise to the quantum bound state of the proton and its physical properties--proton mass, spin, and electrical charge--is still incomplete. "The original quark model, in which the proton consists of two 'up' quarks and one 'down' quark, has an appealing simplicity," the authors write, "but experiments that measure the distributions of quarks as a function of the fractional momentum of the proton that they carry have revealed a rich structure with additional quarks, antimatter quarks (antiquarks), and gluons." The E-906/SeaQuest experiment is part of a series of fixed-target Drell-Yan experiments designed to measure the quark and anti-quark structure of the nucleon and the modifications to that structure. "The Drell-Yan process in hadron-hadron collisions is a reaction where a quark and an antiquark annihilate into a virtual photon and that virtual photon decays into a lepton-antilepton pair, and in this case, the researchers were using the oppositely charged muon pairs," said Liu. The researchers' work showed evidence from muon pair production measurements that these distributions of antiquarks are significantly different, with more abundant "down" type antimatter quarks than "up" antimatter quarks over a wide range of momentum fraction "x." The authors explained, "These results revive interest in several proposed mechanisms, as the origin of this antimatter asymmetry in the proton that had been disfavored by the previous results and point to the future measurements that can distinguish between these mechanisms." The Los Alamos angle Ratios in the proton (red filled circles) with their statistical (vertical bars) and systematic (yellow boxes) uncertainties extracted from the present data based on NLO calculations of the Drell-Yan cross-sections. The SeaQuest/E906 experiment was first proposed to Fermilab in 1999, and Los Alamos was among the original physics proposers. The experiment received approval in 2006. Los Alamos researchers Ivan Vitev (on theory) and Ming Liu (on the experimental effort, with Patrick McGaughey and several postdocs, Han Liu, Lei Guo, Christine Aidala and Andrew Puckett) officially joined the E906 experimental effort in 2008 and contributed a major detector system to E906 - the "Station-4 Muon Identification System" to enable the di-muon physics program, with Los Alamos LDRD funding. After the completion of the Los Alamos-funded work, the team at the Laboratory has been supported by DOE's Office of Science to continue pursuing the physics program at Fermilab, with additional researchers on the experimental effort (Kun Liu, Andy Klein, David Kleinjan, Sho Uemura and Su Wang). In addition to the hardware, they have also developed the offline analysis software being used for all E906 physics analysis, led by Kun Liu. ### The paper: "The asymmetry of antimatter in the proton," Nature, February 24, 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03282-z. The corresponding authors for this paper are P. E. Reimer and D. F. Geesaman of Argonne National Laboratory. The funding: This work was supported in part by the U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science; U. S. National Science Foundation; the DP&A and ORED at Mississippi State University; the JSPS (Japan) KAKENHI; Tokyo Tech Global COE Program, Japan; Yamada Science Foundation of Japan; and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan. Fermilab is operated by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC with the United States Department of Energy. About Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns. Judge also ordered the man to pay $6,800 towards his ex-wife's legal court costs An enraged husband took his battle for shared custody of the beloved family dog after a divorce all the way to the Federal Court. The Brisbane couple, whose identity is suppressed, were together for close to four years, and married for 18 months, and had no children. But the man's now ex-wife adopted a dog from an animal shelter before they tied the knot. He unsuccessfully argued that he should be entitled to shared custody of the pooch after 'chipping in' to pay for vet appointments, as well as food and toys. Dogs are legally considered property items, so they should not be contested in court in shared custody matters (stock image) Dr Kersti Seksel, a veterinary behaviour specialist, believes if a dog has an equal bond with both its owners, then from the pet's perspective, sharing is a feasible option (stock image) Following the pair calling it quits, the man said he suffered 'pain and separation anxiety' after his ex-partner would not allow access to the dog, according to The Australian. He requested the Federal Court impose interim orders which would have seen the six-year-old dog live with him two nights a week. The man was also willing to cough up $20 a week towards ongoing care of the hound. Federal Circuit Court judge Amanda Tonkin rejected the man's request, on the basis that shared custody issues are only reserved for children. She also pointed out legal precedent that dogs were personal property, and given the woman solely adopted the dog, it was hers to keep. The man was also ordered him to pay $6,800 towards the wife's legal costs after the matter progressed to the Federal Court. Dr Kersti Seksel, a veterinary behaviour specialist, believes if a dog has an equal bond with both its owners, then from the pet's perspective, sharing is a feasible option. 'Dogs like certain things to happen at certain times,' she said. 'The routines can be different at each residence, but they need to be predictable.' Swedish defense minister demands explanation from Denmark over spy scandal Acting Deputy PM: Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss issues within logic of "corridor" Armenia Central Electoral Commission determines numbers of political parties for elections Armenia 2nd President visits Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God in Gyumri (PHOTOS) Opposition Armenia bloc representative: We're running in elections to win Azerbaijan MFA comments on calls for release of Armenian POWs with infinite hypocrisy EC: Vaccinated citizens should be exempted from tests, quarantine when traveling within EU Armenia Ombudsman discusses rights of 6 captured Armenian servicemen with ICRC Delegation head EU ready to use all the tools at its disposal to change Turkey's behavior Yerevan court obliges to abolish violation of rights of Armenia Supreme Judicial Council ex-chairman Greek and Turkish leaders to meet in June on sidelines of NATO summit Armenia Central Electoral Commission to set up 2,008 polling stations for snap parliamentary elections Iranian companies to participate in reconstructing territories under Azerbaijan's control Opposition Armenia bloc's representative on acting PM's invitation to debate with 1st and 2nd Presidents Armenia acting FM dismissed upon presidential decree Body of brother of Armenian criminal authority "Don Pipo" found under bridge Armenia Prosecutor General holds consultation Digest on Armenian local news, EU is ready to help Armenia, Azerbaijan with border issues, 31.05.21 Relatives of missing Armenian servicemen open Heratsi Street in Yerevan Armenia acting PM to pay working visits to Paris and Brussels Armenia bloc representative on FM's resignation and National Security Service Armenia Investigative Committee: Fatal road accident, criminal case opened Armenia deputy FM submits resignation Chinese authorities allow families to have 3 children Dollar devalues in Armenia Stepanakert: Azerbaijan creates bridgeheads for pressure on Karabakh, expansion towards Armenia Sergey Lavrov says Russia is ready to disconnect SWIFT Armenia MFA spokesperson resigns Republican Party of Armenia Vice-President: Our ratings are growing, but we have greater pretensions Armenia acting PM's spokesperson responds to ex-FM Armenia parliament majority leader: Refusing to debate with acting PM is manifestation of low self-confidence Armenia State Revenue Committee, US Department of Justice sign Memorandum of Cooperation Vardevanyan: Attempts made to create false grounds for obstructing Armenia bloc election offices legal activities Lavrov says Russia is ready to resume dialogue with NATO Armenia opposition MP on FM's resignation India records lowest increase in COVID-19 cases in 50 days Bright Armenia faction in parliament: No response to acting PM's proposal to deploy observers along Azerbaijan border Ruling bloc MP: Acting premiers proposal does not limit Armenia in terms of cooperation with CSTO Acting PM is proud of Armenian servicemens heroism, says parliament majority leader Parliament majority leader: No border delimitation unless Azerbaijan army units leave Armenia territory Outgoing Armenia acting FM opens brackets: My decision of resignation was conditioned by that very reason Harutyunyan, Shoygu discuss tension on Armenia-Azerbaijan border Iranian MFA says US has not imported oil from country since Clinton era Court hearing on appeal against decision to drop March 2008 Yerevan tragedy case is rescheduled Missing soldiers relatives block Yerevan street Parliament majority leader: Armenia acting FM did not object, at Security Council meeting, to new document Armenia Police: 2,581,093 people on voters list Bright Armenia faction of parliament: No corridor through the country should be provided to Azerbaijan Analyst: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan gave self-confessed testimony Armenia national security finds about 1 kg of opium, detains Iran citizen driver and 2 others 182 hearing aids and 2 buses by benefactor Mikayel Vardanyan for students of Special Educational Complex 34 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Updated voters list is posted on Armenia central election commission website Armenia authorities provide considerable amount of subsidies ahead of snap parliamentary elections World oil prices on the rise MP explains his not being on Bright Armenia Party electoral list UK new flagship set to be named after the late Prince Philip US man who said he shot neighbor over loud music found guilty of attempted murder Lamborghini company to be sold for $11.5bn? China spacecraft docks with future space station Lawyer: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan grossly abuses administrative resources during Lori Province visit UN urges to investigate escalation of violence in Colombia Malaysia to open mega-centers for vaccination against coronavirus Police find 5 million in cash in London apartment French citizen to face trial in Iran on spaying charges Over 60 children in UK undergo surgery due to TikTok challenge Iranian Central Bank governor dismissed Armenian opposition: The one who liberated Artsakh will not go to debates with the one who sold it Iranian energy ministry: Iraq to allocate $ 125 million of frozen funds for vaccines No new COVID-19 cases reported in Artsakh Iran and Iraq to intensify cooperation and are ready for joint investment projects Armenia ex-PM says at least 2 more secret documents signed but not published yet Indonesia frees Iranian tanker 4 months later Mortar shelling in Afghanistan kills at least 10 civilians Fire breaks out at West Virginia oil refinery in US Second President of Armenia meets with residents of Ararat province Iran ready to help improve the defense capability of Syria Armenian acting PM invites ex-presidents for debates European Parliament head proposes to strengthen sanctions on Russia UK PM gets married in London Armenia reports COVID-19 new 81 cases: 4 people die EU countries invite US to issue joint statement against Russia 2 people die in Armenia road accident Nigeria: Students taken hostage a month ago are released 61 quakes recorded in Congo per day Syrian MFA: EU lost credibility due to blind obedience to US policy Armenia ex-minister of emergency situations hospitalized with heart attack Mher Grigoryan: Clarification of border points is possible only after withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia Suspicious deal: Whether there was profit from buying DNA IDs? Armenia ex-president says current authorities are trying to blame Russia for defeat in war 4 people killed in Afghanistani bus attack Robert Kocharyan: This war could not have happened, it was a consequence of the policy of the authorities Kocharyan: I have to ask people how it happened that overwhelming majority elected this leader Armen Gevorgyan presents 'Armenia' bloc program: We offer the concept of a working country Biden's administration proposed to leave unchanged amount of financial support to Armenia US Embassy in Baku calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release Armenian POWs Luxembourg MFA calls on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions Biden strongly condemns manifestations of antisemitism in US Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions One man has died and a girl is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after separate collisions in Melbournes south-east overnight. The 48-year-old man from Dandenong, who was formally identified on Friday morning, was struck by a car travelling north on a green light on Stud Road in Dandenong just after 8.30pm on Thursday. He appeared to be in a confused state on Herbert Street and was seen shuffling himself across a pedestrian crossing prior to the collision. Police release an image of this shoe worn by the pedestrian who was struck and killed by a car in Dandenong in a bid to identify him. Credit: Emergency services worked on the man, but he died at the scene. The driver of the vehicle stopped at the scene and has spoken to police. That didnt stop Justice Thomas from citing Bush v. Gore in his dissenting opinion on Monday, and he did so in a particularly shameless fashion. The language he cited wasnt even from the Bush v. Gore majority opinion, but rather from a separate concurring opinion filed in that case by only three of the majority justices, who argued that the Florida Supreme Court had violated the U.S. Constitution by substituting its will for that of the state Legislature. Justice Thomas invoked that minority portion of the decision to assert that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was constitutionally out of bounds when, citing both the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of the Postal Service as its reasons, it added three postelection days for lawful receipt of mailed ballots. He went on to warn that fraud was more prevalent with mail-in ballots, citing as evidence a 1994 Federal District Court case, an article in this newspaper from 2012 and the 2018 Republican ballot-harvesting fraud in North Carolina. Such occurrences, he said, raise the likelihood that courts will be asked to adjudicate questions that go to the heart of election confidence. This was the reason, he argued, that the Supreme Court should have taken and decided the Pennsylvania cases before the next election cycle. In his inventory of ballot fraud, Justice Thomas of course could not refer to fraud in the 2020 election, because there wasnt any. Not a problem: We are fortunate that many of the cases we have seen alleged only improper rule changes, not fraud. But that observation provides only small comfort. An election free from strong evidence of systemic fraud is not alone sufficient for election confidence. Also important is the assurance that fraud will not go undetected. In other words, Justice Thomas would have it both ways: If there was fraud, the court needed to intervene, and if there was no fraud, the court needed to intervene because the fraud might simply be undetected. Despite his disclaimer, the entire structure of his opinion, suggesting that something bad had happened even if no one could prove it, is fairly read as validating the essence of the Trump narrative. Justice Alito, in a separate dissenting opinion that Justice Gorsuch also signed, was more circumspect about the fraud issue. His emphasis was the urgency of stopping state courts from substituting their judgment for that of the legislatures. He said that even though the election was over and late ballots were too few to have made a difference in Pennsylvanias vote totals, state courts could be expected to behave in the same way in the future unless the Supreme Court used this occasion to stop them. There are several things to note about the Pennsylvania cases. The most obvious is the absence of a fourth vote. In an initial round in the Pennsylvania cases, in mid-October, Justice Brett Kavanaugh had provided Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch with a fourth vote to grant a stay of the state court decision. But a stay requires five votes rather than four. With Amy Coney Barrett not yet confirmed, the eight justices divided 4 to 4, and the stay was denied without opinions. Justice Kavanaugh withheld his vote on Monday, without explanation. Maybe he decided this was a propitious time to offer some cover for Chief Justice John Roberts, who has voted in nearly all the election cases this fall with the three remaining liberal justices.